Historic Shrines of America / Being the Story of One Hundred and Twenty Historic Buildings and the Pioneers Who Made Them Notable

by John T. Faris

TWO OF VIRGINIA'S OLDEST CHURCH BUILDINGS

ST. LUKE'S, IN SMITHFIELD, AND ST. PETER'S, IN
NEW KENT COUNTY

Captain Smith in 1607 wrote of his discovery of the Indian kingdom of Warrosquoyacke. Soon settlers were attracted to its fertile lands. Twenty-seven years later the more than five hundred residents were organized into Isle of Wight County.

In 1632, the ancient brick church near Smithfield was built. The tradition fixing this date was established in 1887, when the date 1632 was read in some bricks that fell from the walls.

The builder of the staunch church was Joseph Bridger, who was Counsellor of State to Charles II. He is buried not far from the church, and on his tomb is the inscription: "He dyed April 15 Anno Domini 1688 Aged 58 years. Mournfully leaving his wife, three sons and four daughters."

The oldest vestry book dates from 1727, for the first book was destroyed at the time of General Arnold's expedition made to Isle of Wight County, in the effort to capture General Parker, of the Continental Army. Fortunately, however, a few other records were saved. An entry in 1727 spoke of "The Old Brick Church"; evidently the name St. Luke's was of later origin.

The architectural beauty of the old building is described in a pleasing manner by Aymar Embury, II, the well-known New York architect, in his "Early American Churches":

"The building is an extremely picturesque brick church, reminiscent not of the Renaissance work then becoming dominant in England, but of the older Gothic; it is not at all unlike many of the small English parish churches of the sixteenth century, when the Gothic style was really extinct, although its superficial characteristics, the buttresses and the pointed arch, still obtained. The stepped gable at the chancel end of the church is an unusual feature in English architecture.... The tower is the only part of the building which shows the Renaissance influence."

When the building was some two hundred years old it began to fall into disrepair; the people preferred to attend the church in Smithfield. Bishop Meade wrote his "Old Churches and Families of Virginia" at the time when the old church was most dilapidated. He said:

"Its thick walls and high tower, like that of some English castle, are still firm, and promise to be for a long time to come. The windows, doors, and all the interior, are gone. It is said that the eastern window—twenty-five feet high—was of stained glass. This venerable building stands not far from the main road leading from Smithfield to Suffolk, in an open tract of woodland. The trees for some distance round it are large and tall and the foliage dense, so that but little of the light of the sun is thrown upon it. The pillars which strengthen the walls, and which are wide at the base, tapering toward the eaves of the house by stair-steps, have somewhat mouldered, so as to allow various shrubs and small trees to root themselves therein."

For nearly fifty years the church was closed. But in 1884 Rev. David Barr, who was in charge of a church nearby, began to raise funds for the reconstruction of the building. He persisted in spite of many discouragements. When matters looked darkest a man who signed himself "A Virginian" made the following appeal:

"There is still some plastering to be done in the tower, and the pews are to be made or bought. The church cannot be completed until the money is raised. Can no generous giver be found who will contribute the money necessary to bring the east window from London?... For sixty odd years the church has stood there silent, without a service, facing and defying storms and decay, appealing in its desolation to every sentiment of the State, of the Church and of the Nation against abandonment and desertion, and now in its half completed condition, feeling the touch of revival and restoration, it pleads more imploringly still for just enough money to complete the repairs and to enable it once more to enter upon its life of activity, and to utter again with renewed joyousness the ancient but long suppressed voice of prayer and of thanksgiving. Shall it appeal in vain?"

The appeal was not in vain. The church was completed. Twelve beautiful memorial windows were put in place. These bore the names of George Washington, Joseph Bridger, the architect of the church, Robert E. Lee, Rev. William Hubbard, the first rector, Sir Walter Raleigh, John Rolfe, Captain John Smith, Bishops Madison, Moore, Meade, and Johns, and Dr. Blair, whose connection with Bruton Church and William and Mary College is told in another chapter of this volume.

A building that is similar and yet in many respects quite different is in New Kent County, about as far above Williamsburg as Smithfield is below that university town. This is St. Peter's Church. It is thought that the parish dates from 1654, though the present building was not begun until 1701. The minute which tells of the first plan for the structure is dated August 13, 1700:

"Whereas, the Lower Church of this Parish is very much out of Repair and Standeth very inconvenient for most of the inhabitants of the said parish; Therefore ordered that as soon as conveniently may be a new Church of Brick Sixty feet long and twenty fower feet wide in the clear and fourteen feet pitch with a Gallery Sixteen feet long be built and Erected upon the Main Roade, by the School House near Thomas Jackson's; and the Clerk is ordered to give a copy of this order to Capt. Nich. Merewether who is Requested to show the same to Will Hughes and desire him to draw a Draft of said Church and to bee at the next vestry."

The cost of the new church was one hundred and forty-six thousand pounds of tobacco. This included the main building only, for the belfry was not built until 1722.

Rev. David Mossom, who was rector of the church from 1727 to 1767, was the minister who married General Washington, at the White House, as the home of his bride was called, a few miles from St. Peter's Church. The story is told of this eccentric minister that on one occasion, having quarrelled with his clerk, he rebuked him from the pulpit. The latter avenged himself by giving out to the congregation the psalm in which were these lines:

"With restless and ungovern'd rage

Why do the heathen storm?

Why in such rash attempts engage

As they can ne'er perform?"

The epitaph on the tomb of Mr. Mossom in St. Peter's churchyard states that he was the first native American admitted to the office of Presbyter in the Church of England.

LXXIII

MONTICELLO, NEAR CHARLOTTESVILLE,
VIRGINIA

THE HOME OF THOMAS JEFFERSON

"Oh, my young master, they were all burnt, but ah! we saved your fiddle!"

So the negro servant replied to Thomas Jefferson who, on returning from a trip, learning that his home at Shadwell had been burned, asked after his books. To the negro's mind the fiddle was the most important thing in the house.

Fortunately the new mansion, Monticello, near Charlotte, which he had designed, was so nearly completed that he was able to take up his residence there. Two years later he led into the new house his bride, Martha Skelton, a widow of twenty-three.

Before the marriage Jefferson, in accordance with the Virginia law, in company with Francis Eppes, entered into a license bond, of which the following is a copy:

"Know all men by these presents that we Thomas Jefferson and Francis Eppes are held and firmly bound to the sovereign lord the king his heirs and successors in the sum of fifty pounds current money of Virginia, to the paiment of which well and truly to be made we bind ourselves jointly and severally, our joint and several heirs, executors and administrators, in witness whereof we have hereto set our hands and seals this twenty-third day of December in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy one. The condition of the above obligation is such that if there be no lawful cause to obstruct a marriage intended to be had and solemnized between the above bound Thomas Jefferson and Martha Skelton of the County of Charles County, widow, for which a license is desired, then this obligation is to be null and void, otherwise the same is in full force."

Edward Bacon, who was overseer at Monticello for twenty years, described the estate in vivid words:

"Monticello is quite a high mountain, in the shape of a sugar-loaf. A winding road led up to the mansion. On the very top of the mountain the forest trees were cut down, and ten acres were cleared and levelled.... I know every room in that house. Under the house and the terrace that surrounded it, were the cisterns, ice-house, cellar, kitchen, and rooms for all sorts of purposes. His servants' rooms were on one side.... There were no negro and other out-houses around the mansion, as you generally see on plantations. The grounds around the house were beautifully ornamented with flowers and shrubbery.... Back of the house was a beautiful lawn of two or three acres, where his grandchildren used to play.

"His garden was on the side of the mountain. I had it built while he was President. It took a great deal of labor. We had to blow out the rocks for the walls for the different terraces, and then make the soil.... I used to send a servant to Washington with a great many fine things for his table, and he would send back the cart loaded with shrubbery."

Jefferson spent most of his time on his estate until his death in 1826, except when he was called away for the service of his country.

Nine years after the beginning of the happy married life in Monticello there was a panic among the servants because of the approach of the British. Because Jefferson was Governor of Virginia, it was thought that of course the mansion would be pillaged. Mrs. Jefferson was put in the carriage and sent to a place of safety, while Mr. Jefferson remained at home, collecting his most valuable papers. Later he followed his family. But when the soldiers reached the estate, the first inquiry of the leader of the party was for the master of the house. When he learned that Jefferson had escaped, he asked for the owner's private rooms, and, on being shown the door which led to them, he turned the key in the lock and ordered that nothing in the house should be touched. This, it was explained, was in strict accordance with the orders that had been given by General Tarleton; their sole duty was to seize the Governor.

A year later, when the Marquis de Chastellux, a nobleman from France, visited Monticello, he was charmed with the house of which Mr. Jefferson was the architect, and often one of the workmen. He said it was "rather elegant, and in the Italian taste, though not without fault; it consists of one large square pavilion, the entrance of which is by two porticoes, ornamented with pillars. The ground floor consists of a very large lofty saloon, which is to be decorated entirely in the antique style; above it is a library of the same size; two small wings, with only a ground floor and attic story, are joined to this pavilion, and communicate with the kitchen, offices, etc., which will form a kind of basement story, over which runs a terrace."

Another attractive picture was given by the Duc de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, after his visit to Monticello in 1796. He noted the fact that Jefferson owned five thousand acres, of which but eleven hundred were cultivated.

"I found him in the midst of the harvest," he wrote, "from which the scorching heat of the sun does not prevent his attendance.... Every article is made on his farm: his negroes are cabinet makers, carpenters, masons, bricklayers, smiths, etc. The children he employs in a nail factory, which yields already a considerable profit.... His superior mind directs the management of his domestic concerns with the same abilities, activity and regularity which he evinced in the conduct of public affairs."

Long absence from home and lavish hospitality wrecked the Jefferson fortune, and when the owner of Monticello finally returned home after his eight years as President, he was compelled to curtail his expenses. But still he made guests welcome. It is said that at times there were as many as fifty guests in the house at one time. One of those who sought the Sage of Monticello in 1817 was Lieutenant Francis Hall, who wrote of his veneration as he looked on "the man who drew up the Declaration of American Independence, who shared in the Councils by which her freedom was established, when the unbought voices of his fellow-citizens called to the exercise of a dignity from which his own moderation impelled him, when such an example was most salutary, to withdraw; and who, while he dedicates the evening of his glorious days to the pursuits of science and literature, shuns none of the humble duties of private life; but, having filled a seat higher than that of kings, succeeds with graceful dignity to that of the good neighbor, and becomes the friendly adviser, lawyer, physician, and even gardener of his vicinity."

July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, was the day of Jefferson's death. The sale of his estate was sufficient to pay all his debts. To his daughter who was thus made homeless, the legislatures of South Carolina and Virginia each voted as a gift $10,000.

On the stone placed over the grave of the Sage of Monticello was carved the inscription which he himself had asked for: "Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia."

Photo by H. P. Cook
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA.

LXXIV

THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA AT
CHARLOTTESVILLE

THE CHILD OF THOMAS JEFFERSON'S OLD AGE

When Thomas Jefferson retired from the Presidency he was surrounded at Monticello by his daughter, her husband, and eleven grandchildren. Daily association with the young people made him more anxious than ever to carry out a plan that was the growth of years. He wanted to see other children as happy as were those in his own home, and he felt that the one thing he could do to increase their happiness would be to see that the State made provision for their education.

During the remainder of his life he never lost sight of his project. While he did not live to see his system of common schools established in Virginia, it was his joy to see the University of Virginia grow under his hands from an academy to a college and then to a university. From 1817 he labored for State appropriations for the school. A friend in the State Senate assisted him nobly. The reader of the published volume of the correspondence between the two men, a volume of 528 pages, will see how untiring was the labor that had its reward when the appropriation of funds made sure the founding of the university. Three hundred thousand dollars were provided for construction, as well as $15,000 a year for maintenance.

Jefferson himself drew the plans for the buildings and superintended the construction. Sarah N. Randolph, in "The Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson," says that "the architectural plan and form of government and instruction for this institution afforded congenial occupation for his declining years.... While the buildings were being erected, his visits to them were daily; and from the northeast corner of the terrace at Monticello he frequently watched the workmen engaged on them, through a telescope which is still [1871] preserved in the library of the University."

Edmund Bacon, the overseer at Monticello, gave to Hamilton W. Pierson, the author of "Jefferson at Monticello," a humorous account of the early days of the project:

"The act of the Legislature made it the duty of the Commissioners to establish the University within one mile of the Court House at Charlottesville. They advertised for proposals for a site. Three men offered sites. The Commissioners had a meeting at Monticello, and then went and looked at all these sites. After they had made their examination, Mr. Jefferson sent me to each of them, to request them to send by me their price, which was to be sealed up. Lewis and Craven each asked $17 per acre, and Perry, $12. That was a mighty big price in those days.... 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. Afterwards Mr. Jefferson bought a large tract near it. It had a great deal of 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.... 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 ... got a ball of twine, and Dinsmore found some shingles and made some pegs.... Mr. Jefferson looked over the ground some time, and then stuck down a peg.... He carried one end of the line, and I the other, in laying off the foundation of the University. He had a little ruler 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."

This foot-rule was shown to Dr. Pierson by Mr. Bacon, who explained how he secured it:

"Mr. Jefferson and I were once going along the bank of the canal, and in crawling through some bushes and vines, it [the ruler] 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 ... could keep it.... When I die, that rule can be found locked up in that drawer.

"After the foundations were nearly completed, they had a great time laying the corner-stone. The old field was covered with carriages and people. There was an immense crowd there. Mr. Monroe laid the corner-stone. He was President at that time.... He held the instruments, and pronounced it square. I can see Mr. Jefferson's 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.... He looked after all the materials, and would not allow any poor materials to go into the building if he could help it."

A letter from Jefferson to John Adams, written on October 12, 1823, spoke of the "hoary winter of age." "Against this tedium vitae," he said, "I am fortunately mounted on a hobby, which, indeed, I should have better managed some thirty or forty years ago; but whose easy amble is still sufficient to give exercise and amusement to an octogenary rider. This is the establishment of a University, on a scale more comprehensive, and in a country more healthy and central than our old William and Mary, which these obstacles have long kept in a state of languor and inefficiency."

In designing the buildings Jefferson acknowledged his indebtedness to Palladio, who guided him in his adaptation of Roman forms. The visitor who is familiar with Rome is reminded of the baths of Diocletian, the baths of Caracalla, and the temple of Fortuna Virilis, while a reduction of the Pantheon, with a rotunda, is the central feature of the group.

The University was opened in March, 1825. Forty students were in attendance, though at the beginning of the second year the number was increased to one hundred and seventy-seven.

The central feature of the collection of buildings, the wonderful Rotunda, was badly injured in the fire of 1895 which destroyed the Annex. The Rotunda was soon rebuilt according to Jefferson's original plan, and the group of buildings is more beautiful than ever.