University of Virginia Library

III. Early Social Life

The social and economic history of the first settlement of Albemarle county was an exact continuation of that transit of population and civilization in Virginia which had been noted from the foundation of Jamestown. Not only was this original movement westward to the mountains more halting, but it was less crude in spirit than the flood which, in our own times, has carried the American frontier across an entire continent. It was not a migration of petty farmers and rough adventurers of all sorts. Among the names of the early patentees of Albemarle, we find numerous representatives of the oldest and most influential families in the Colony: Garters, Randolphs, Lewises, Nicholases, Meriwethers, Walkers, Henrys, Carrs, Hopkinses, Terrells, Eppeses, and others of the like social eminence. While spacious areas of ground were, at first, taken up by these families with a nominal residence only, as we have seen, nevertheless it was not many years before their younger scions began to lay the corner-stones of their homes in this forest wilderness. At no stage of its growth was it a scattered community of wild hunters and trappers alone; on the contrary, from the second decade at least, it was a community whose principal citizens had brought up from Eastern Virginia all the subservience to law, refinement of manners, and high civic spirit, that had distinguished the plantation homes in the older shires during many generations. The Meriwethers and Lewises, and the long stream of gentle families who followed them, had possessed,

from their first settlement in Virginia, all the social advantages which the Colony had to bestow; and when they made their way up from the open country, through the dark woods, and built their houses along the slopes of the Southwest Mountains, and in the eastern shadow of the Blue Ridge, they simply transferred to those green and quiet sites all the points of view, all the moral convictions, all the domestic habits, all the personal demeanor, which had given such a distinct flavor to the social life on the banks of the tidal rivers below. So soon as the children of these first settlers had arrived at maturity, and inherited the parental estates, there was no substantial difference to be discerned between the homes in which they dwelt and the original homes of their fathers still standing in the counties lying towards the sea.

It would hardly be correct to accept Thomas Jefferson as an average representative of this second generation born in the valley of the Rivanna, for he stood high above the multitude of his fellow Americans even in the oldest communities; but in mere social culture and domestic refinement, apart from native talents and acquired knowledge, he was not one whit superior to the representatives of those families who had patented the virgin lands contemporaneously with his father.

If any one now living could have taken his stand on the portico of Monticello, in 1825, on the day that the University threw open its doors to students, and gazed down upon the broad map of the country below towards the west, south, north, and northeast, his eyes would have caught sight of many residences that were already celebrated in the social history of the State, not only for the culture and refinement of their atmosphere, but for the high distinction of many of the citizens who owned them. First, would be discerned, on the banks of the Rivanna,

the site of Shadwell, the birthplace of Jefferson himself, now marked by a group of sycamores, as the original house had been consumed by fire. Beyond, on a height that suggested its name, would be visible the walls of Pantops erected in 1815, and occupied by James Leitch, who married the granddaughter of Nicholas Lewis, one of the original settlers. Close by was Lego, the home of a second Lewis, whose wife was the daughter of the explorer Dr. Thomas Walker. Not far towards the northeast stood Edgehill, the home of the Randolphs, who had so named it in honor of the battle in which their cavalier ancestor had fought so bravely yet so unavailingly. Beyond Edgehill was to be seen Belmont, the home of Dr. Charles Everett, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, and the private secretary of President Monroe; next, Cismont and Cloverfields, with the graveyard in which the older members of the Meriwether family were buried; Belvoir, the home of the Nelsons, who had acquired it by a fortunate marriage; Castle Hill, the home of the Walkers, and afterwards of the Riveses, through a similar intermarriage; and Keswick, the home of the Pages.

Looking in turn towards the west, north and south, there rose, within the scope of the eye, the homes of the Monroes, the Maurys, the Gilmers, the Coleses, the Nicholases, the Barbours, the Madisons, the Lewises, the Woodses, the Minors, the Terrells, the Carrs, and numerous other families identified with that region, in most instances, from the earliest years of the community. Either then, or a short time after the University was founded, there resided in houses in sight from the same eminence, Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, and third President of the United States; James Madison, the Father of the Constitution

and fourth President; James Monroe, the fifth President and author of the celebrated Doctrine which bears his name; Andrew Stevenson, Speaker of the House of Representatives and Minister to the Court of St. James; Thomas Walker Gilmer, Governor of the State and Secretary of the Navy; Edward Coles, Governor of Illinois; William C. Nicholas, Governor of Virginia and United States Senator; Thomas Mann Randolph, member of Congress and Governor of Virginia; James Barbour, Governor of the State, United States Senator, and Minister to Great Britain; Philip P. Barbour, Speaker of the House of Representatives and Justice of the Supreme Court; George Rogers Clark, the conqueror of the Northwest Territory; Meriwether Lewis, the explorer of the Missouri and Columbia Rivers; William C. Rives, United States Senator and twice Minister to the Court of Versailles; Hugh Nelson, member of Congress and Minister to Spain; William Short, Minister to the Hague; and William F. Gordon, member of Congress and author of the sub-treasury scheme. In this list of distinguished citizens, there are to be found three Presidents of the United States, seven Governors of Commonwealths, seven envoys to foreign countries, two Speakers of the Lower House of Congress, one justice of the Supreme Court, one Secretary of the Navy, two Secretaries of State, one Secretary of War, three United States Senators, one noted soldier, and an equally noted explorer. In no commensurate area of the Republic, at that time, could there have been descried so many men, either already celebrated, or destined, within a few years, to win fame in political life. A region of country that had been occupied only one hundred years surpassed the oldest parts of Virginia and the other States alike, in the acknowledged eminence of its principal residents, on account of their splendid public services.

The social life of the county was, at all seasons, enlivened by constant personal intercourse between neighbors, and at times by a succession of gaieties. Isaac Coles, writing to Cabell from his home in Albemarle, in 1811, mentions that his hours were mainly "given up to visits, Christmas dinners and Christmas balls!" Judge Dabney Carr, describing a recent sojourn in the county in 1821, remarks, by way of apology for failing to reply to Cabell, " I was in such a constant round of company, dining to-day here, and to-morrow there, that I could not find a moment for a letter." "From a long and intimate knowledge of Albemarle county," Gilmer wrote to George Long, in 1824, "I assure you, I know no place in America where there is a more liberal, intelligent, hospitable, and agreeable society, nor where respectable strangers could receive a kinder welcome." Jefferson, who had passed so much of his life in the most polished coteries of the Old and the New World, held a similar view: "The society in Albemarle," he stated to a European correspondent in March, 1815, " is much better than is common in country situations. Perhaps, there is not a better country society in the United States. But do not imagine this a Parisian or an academical society. It consists of plain, honest, and rational neighbors, -some of them well informed, and men of reading, all superintending their farms, hospitable and friendly, and speaking nothing but English."

Charlottesville, situated on a gentle eminence that sloped to the Rivanna, was a small collection of houses built around the court-house square. It hardly possessed the consequence of a village from the point of view of

population alone, but as the seat of justice, the site of several general stores and the foremost lawyers' offices, and the scene of popular assemblages when the court was in session, or a political rally was holding, it formed the central point in the civic life of the community. Apart from the court-house itself, the two principal houses in the little town were the Swann and the Old Stone taverns. It was here that the promiscuous concourse of citizens dined on court days; it was here that travellers, passing through to the Valley or the West, stopped to bait their horses or to spend a night; and it was here also that the rather liberal taste for strong waters prevailing in those times could always find indulgence. The lawyers probably met some of their clients here; and here certainly many important conferences of all kinds were held. The most animated spot within the limits of the village out side of the court-house square itself was, on court days at least, the porch of the Old Stone tavern, for this ordinary was kept by one of the most popular citizens of the county, Triplett Estes, the condition of whose affairs, as we shall soon see, threatened, at one time, to have some connection with the origin of the University of Virginia.

Albemarle county, before the Revolution, was divided between Fredericksville and St. Anne's parishes; and of the two, Fredericksville, which had been extended from Louisa county, was laid off first. St. Anne's was formed in 1762 by drawing its eastern boundary line along the Rivanna to a point opposite Charlottesville; and thence the line ran through the town westward to the Blue Ridge. The parish itself was situated south of this line. The history of these parishes is pertinent to our subject, for the clergymen who filled their pulpits were, in several instances, well known teachers before and after the Revolution, and the sales of the glebes, when the

Church was disestablished, created an important fund for the promotion of public education. The glebe of Fredericksville, which seems to have embraced four hundred acres, was purchased for four hundred pounds in colonial currency. On the other hand, the glebe of St. Anne's, which lay not far from the Green Mountains, was, perhaps, not so extensive or so profitable.