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[169] kkk [Daily Life at Monticello] (1862) Edmund Bacon Edmund Bacon (1785–1866), a native of Albemarle County, was the overseer at Monticello from 1806 until 1822. The following year Bacon and his family moved to Kentucky, where he farmed successfully until his death four decades later. In the early 1860s, the Reverend Hamilton W. Pierson, president of Cumberland College, looked up Bacon and solicited his memories of Jefferson , which he published as Jefferson at Monticello (1862). Contemporary readers quickly recognized the value of the information it contained. Henry Flagg French concluded, “On the whole, we find our favorable impression of Jefferson, as a large-hearted, progressive, considerate, unselfish, kindly natured man, confirmed by this volume. It has nothing to do with his opinions, political or religious, but gives us an agreeable sketch of the philosopher and statesman at home, most beloved and revered by those who knew him best. There is no position where a great man appears more truly noble, than at the head of his family, on his own homestead” (New England Farmer 14 [1862]: 230). mr. jefferson was six feet two and a half inches high, well proportioned, and straight as a gunbarrel. He was like a fine horse—he had no surplus flesh. He had an iron constitution, and was very strong. He had a machine for measuring strength. There were very few men that I have seen try it, that were as strong in the arms as his son-in-law, Col. Thomas Mann Randolph ; but Mr. Jefferson was stronger than he. He always enjoyed the best of health. I don’t think he was ever really sick, until his last sickness. His skin was very clear and pure—just like he was in principle. He had blue eyes. His countenance was always mild and pleasant. You never saw it ruffled . No odds what happened, it always maintained the same expression. When I was sometimes very much fretted and disturbed, his countenance was perfectly unmoved. I remember one case in particular. We had about eleven thousand bushels of wheat in the mill, and coopers and every thing else employed. There was a big freshet—the first after the dam was fin- jefferson in his own time [170] ished. It was raining powerfully. I got up early in the morning, and went up to the dam. While I stood there, it began to break, and I stood and saw the freshet sweep it all away. I never felt worse. I did not know what we should do. I went up to see Mr. Jefferson. He had just come from breakfast. “Well, sir,” said he, “have you heard from the river?” I said, “Yes, sir; I have just come from there with very bad news. The milldam is all swept away.” “Well, sir,” said he, just as calm and quiet as though nothing had happened, “we can’t make a new dam this summer, but we will get Lewis’ ferry-boat, with our own, and get the hands from all the quarters, and boat in rock enough in place of the dam, to answer for the present and next summer . I will send to Baltimore and get ship-bolts, and we will make a dam that the freshet can’t wash away.” He then went on and explained to me in detail just how he would have the dam built. We repaired the dam as he suggested, and the next summer we made a new dam, that I reckon must be there yet. Mr. Jefferson was always an early riser—arose at daybreak, or before. The sun never found him in bed. I used sometimes to think, when I went up there very early in the morning, that I would find him in bed; but there he would be before me, walking on the terrace. He never had a servant make a fire in his room in the morning, or at any other time, when he was at home. He always had a box filled with nice dry wood in his room, and when he wanted fire he would open it and put on the wood. He would always have a good many ashes in his fireplace, and when he went out he would cover up his fire very carefully, and when he came back he would uncover the coals and make on a fire for himself. He did not use tobacco in any form. He never used a profane word or any thing...

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