University of Virginia Library

Yet More Proposals

The month of March, so pregnant with possibilities, finally ended, but not before one more
undertaker set down to write out a proposal to undertake work at the university. Abraham
Woglome of Philadelphia, 20 years as a "master Employer," offered to bring five or six
bricklayers to Virginia and to "Superintend the Mason & brick work."[225] After this the
flood of incoming proposals began to abate, albeit slowly. In fact, April opened with three of
the local carpenters resubmitting their bids. James Dinsmore and John M. Perry, learning of
the proctor's advertisement and expecting fierce competition for the award of contracts,
withdrew their previous proposals and together handed in a new one accepting the "Book
mentioned as the Standard Counting a Dollar there [Pennsylvania] Equal, to a Dollar
here."[226] James Oldham followed suit two days later, "very desireous of getting to worke if
on Turms onely that will cover my daly expenses," offering a proposal that was accepted a
few days later.[227] Thus three of Jefferson's favored workmen from the Monticello
reconstruction of a few years earlier were given employment. The fourth, master craftsman
and architect John Neilson, sent a letter from Upper Bremo, the plantation on the James
River in Fluvanna County where Neilson was constructing a Palladian mansion for John
Hartwell Cocke, turning down employment for the present season.[228] Richard M. Burke
offered to make window "Sashes frames Doors &c" in his Richmond shop.[229] Daniel
Flournoy of "Chester-field" offered to make 5 or 600,000 bricks "this season."[230] In
mid-April David Cobbs wrote "for the perpus of of nowing wheather I Could undertak the
Jobs of piping the warter to the bildings: my price is ten sentes pr foot. the Dich augr the
Loges Hold & the Borer furneses. I will Compled. it in 2 month."[231] Cobb's proposal was
the last to arrive until mid-June, when Albemarle County resident William Wood offered to
provide scantling and "every kind of plank, well seasoned" after the first of October.[232]
Although a couple more proposals trickled in during the course of the summer, by the end of
the first week in April the matter of undertaking for the building had been effectively settled
for the coming season.[233]

The one important matter left to be taken care as the season for work opened up was that of
hiring a replacement for Nelson Barksdale to keep track of the progress of the work and the
workers, a task increasingly requiring energies beyond those possessed by the still agile but
aged Jefferson.[234] The hiring of Arthur Spicer Brockenbrough as the new proctor in
mid-April was a godsend which came none too soon, but before the new proctor could leave
Richmond in mid-summer, a creditable beginning had been made by those undertakers
fortunate enough to land a contract. By the end of the year the pace of construction had been
established at the building site, although Jefferson habitually complained that the work
"have gone on miserably slow."[235]