(Signed) "Thomas Jefferson."
The wedding accounts give the names of fifty distinguished Americans who came to pay their respects to Ellenora and her husband. Every distinguished foreigner came in person; besides these, there came many of the men who had known and loved Jefferson during all his years of service. Imagine all the horses that had to be fed, all the gigs and coaches and all the Negro servants who had to be quartered. No one is surprised that what the man had accumulated was fast disappearing with so much hospitality.
But Ellenora had her troubles upon arriving in Boston. Her presents and other possessions had been sent by boat and it had sunk! Her letter tells of her great distress at losing the trinkets associated with her happy girlhood. But most of all, she expressed her grief upon losing a writing desk which Grandfather Jefferson had had made for her by his master carpenter, a Negro servant. This was a very talented carver who had faithfully carried out each detailed design which his master had given him. Now he was old and had grown blind and he could no longer make one. This is Jefferson's letter to his granddaughter—and explains how a most historic desk went a-travelling:
"It has occurred to me that perhaps I can replace it (desk) not indeed to you, but to Mr. Coolidge, by a substitute, not claiming the same value from its decorations but the part it has bourne in our history, and the event with which it has been associated.... Now I happen to possess the writing box on which the Declaration of Independence was written. It was made from a drawing of my own, by Ben Randall, a cabinetmaker in whose house I took lodging on my first arrival in Philadelphia, in May, 1776, and I have had it ever since. It claims no merit of particular beauty. It is plain, neat and convenient and taking no more room on a writing table than a modern quarto volume it displays itself sufficient for any writing. Mr. Coolidge must do me the favor of accepting this. Its imaginary value will increase with the years. If he lives till my age, he may see it carried in the procession of our nation's birthday."
So this is how the famous desk went to New England and was finally sent to the State Department in Washington by the Coolidges in 1876.
When Thomas Jefferson was an old man, he began to carry out his dream, one which he had had for a long time, to build a university. All his life he had loved to draw plans and he carefully made his own blueprints. He drew plans for lovely Monticello when he was twenty-eight years old. His friends came from far and near to get him to draw plans for their homes. Ashlawn, Montpelier and others are monuments to this master builder. He had his own ideas about educating the young men of Virginia. He wanted to see them fitted to be fine citizens by having a good education, for he knew it was through good citizens that a good government would be realized. But first he had to educate his friends along this line. Many of them still thought a tutor in the family was the best way. Many did not believe in "mass education." For ten long years he worked to get a bill through the Legislature which called for the establishment of the University of Virginia. At last, in 1825 the school was opened. But many years passed before Jefferson could get the buildings he had dreamed of and had planned. Then when he was eighty-two, his dream came true.
—Courtesy Virginia State Chamber of Commerce
Rotunda of University of Virginia
Today one may see his university, set on a sloping hill. The buildings are models of architecture and Jefferson himself superintended the construction of them. It is told that he often watched the carpenters from Monticello through a telescope. Jefferson also planned those early courses of study and helped in the selection of the faculty. The spirit of Jefferson is still felt there today and each generation of students has been enriched by it and the noble traditions of the school.