University of Virginia Library

Appendix W
Interview with Edmund Bacon [1862]

. . . As we approached our destination, I remarked to Captain Roach that as it was so late in
the afternoon we should have but a short time to stay, and I was anxious to spend as little
time as possible in general conversation, so that we might hear as much as possible of Mr.
Jefferson from one who had been with him so many years and must have known him so
well.

"Give yourself no uneasiness about that," said he. "Captain Bacon is enthusiastic and
entirely at home on two subjects, and he never tires of talking about either. One is Thomas
Jefferson, and the other is fine horses; and he easily passes from one to the other. We shall
not be in the house many minutes before you will be certain to hear something of Mr.
Jefferson."

We entered the house and were introduced to Captain Bacon as connected with the college
at Princeton. The form of our introduction was most fortunate. It was pivotal. To Captain
Bacon's mind the mention of a college must naturally suggested the University of Virginia,
and Mr. Jefferson's labors and solicitude in its behalf. he began at once to give the early
history of the institution, and we soon found not only that he could talk about Mr. Jefferson,
but that he was an uncommonly interesting talker, as the reader shall have occasion to see,
for my pencil was soon in requisition.

"You know," said he, "that Mr. Jefferson was the founder of the University of Virginia. Let
me see if I can remember all the Commissioners. There were Mr. Jefferson, Mr. madison,
Mr. Monroe, Chapman Johnson, John H. Cocke, and some others. They are all that I now
remember. The act of the Legislature, if I mistake not, made it their duty to establish the
University within a mile of the courthouse at Charlottesville. They advertised for proposals
for a site. Three men offered sites, Nicholas Lewis, John H. Craven, and John M. Perry. The
Commissioners had a meeting at Monticello and then went and looked at all these sites.
After they had made this examination, Mr. Jefferson sent me to each of them, to request
them to send by me their price, which was to be sealed up."

"Do you remember the different prices?" said I.

"I think I do. Lewis and Craven each asked $17 per acre, and Perry $12. That was a mighty
big price in those days. I went to Craven and Lewis first. When I went to Perry, he inquired
of me if I knew what price the others had asked. I told him I did, but I did not think it would
be right for me to tell him. They had both talked the matter over with me, and told me what
they were a-going to ask. But I told Perry that if he asked about $10 or $12 per acre, I
thought he would be mighty apt to succeed. They took Perry's forty acres, at $12 per acre. It
was a poor old turned-out field, though it was finely situated. Mr. Jefferson wrote the deed
himself, and I carried it to Mr. Perry, and he signed it. Afterwards Mr. Jefferson bought a
large tract near it from a man named Avery. It had a great deal of fine timber and rock on it,
which was used in building the University.

"My next instruction was to get ten able-bodied hands to commence the work. I soon got
them, and Mr. Jefferson started from Monticello to lay off the foundation and see the work
commenced. An Irishman named Dinsmore and I went along with him. As we passed
through Charlottesville, I went to old Davy Isaacs' store and got a ball of twine, and
Dinsmore found some shingles and made some pegs, and we all went on to the old field
together. Mr. Jefferson looked over the ground some time and then stuck down a peg. He
struck the very first peg in that building, and then directed me where to carry the line, and I
stuck the second. He carried one end of the line, and I the other,in laying off the foundation
of the University. He had a little rule in his pocket that he always carried with him, and with
this he measured off the ground and laid off the entire foundation, and then set the men at
work. I have that rule now, and here it is," said Captain Bacon, taking it from a drawer in his
secretary that he unlocked, to show it to us. It was a small twelve-inch rule, so made as to be
but three inches long when folded up. "Mr. Jefferson and I were once going along the bank
of the canal," said he, "and in crawling through some bushes and vines, it fell out of his
pocket and slid down the bank into the river. Some time after that, when the water had
fallen, I went and found it and carried it to Mr. Jefferson. he told me I had had a great deal
of trouble to get it, and as he had provided himself with another, I could keep it. I intend to
keep it as long as I live; and when I die, that rule can be found locked up in that drawer.

After the foundation was nearly completed, they had a great time laying the cornerstone.
The old field was covered with carriages and people. There was an immense crowd there.
Mr. Monroe laid the cornerstone. He was President at that time. He held the instruments and
pronounced it square. He only made a few remarks, and Chapman Johnson and several
others made speeches. Mr. Jefferson--poor old man!--I can see his white head just as he
stood there and looked on.

"After this he rode there from Monticello every day while the University was building,
unless the weather was very stormy. I don't think he ever missed a day unless the weather
was very bad. Company never made any difference. When he could not go on account of the
weather, he would send me, if there was anything he wanted to know. He looked after all the
materials and would not allow any poor materials to go into the building if he could help it.
He took as much pains in seeing that everything was done right as if it had been his own
house."

After answering a great many questions in regard to Mr. Jefferson, Captain Bacon said he
had a great many of his letters and proposed to show us a specimen of his handwriting. . . .

Printed, Pierson, Rev. Hamilton Wilcox, Jefferson at Monticello: The Private Life of
Thomas Jefferson, from Entirely New Materials, 1862, 19-22.