And Adventure Whit is off again! This time I’m staying more
local and just going away for a three-day weekend with a friend. My “Gal Val”
and her husband got a Living Social Deal to the Greene Mountain Inn in the
Shenandoah Valley a few months ago, but they had a bad experience while the
owner was out of town, so she gave them a negative review on Yelp. So the guy
called her and asked them to come back for a free stay! Her husband, Michael,
is out of town right now, so she asked me to go with her in his place—woohoo!
=)
We left earlier today and made a special point to stop at
Montpelier, James Madison’s home, since it’s on the way. We have an historical
interpreter named John Douglas Hall at Gadsby’s Tavern, where I work part-time,
and he plays President James Madison a few nights a week. Anyway, Val and I had
really been looking forward to spending the day there!
I honestly never realized James Madison was such an amazing
person! He was incredibly smart; extremely small (5’4” and 100 lbs.); he loved,
lost, and loved again; and the man studied 2000 years’ worth of world politics
over the course of one winter (1786-1787) just so all Americans (“We the
People”) could have a sustainable, successful government.
But we’ll start at the beginning. The land (which was once
26,000 acres!) was actually given to Ambrose Madison by King George in 1653.
The Madison family was English and had political ties with the king, and he
wanted to grant land to certain people so that people would hopefully explore
and settle the “West,” which at that point was anything west of the Blue Ridge
Mountains—the edge of Virginia! The Madisons did very well for themselves as
far as farming and trading. They dabbled in tobacco, corn, wheat, foundry,
barley, rye, various animals, blacksmithing, etc. But aside from that, the
Madisons apparently valued education and knowledge. More on that in a moment!
The house itself was quite large, but it’s not all that
ornate or elaborate on the outside. Certain presidents’ homes are pretty
recognizable, but this one looks like a typical Southern plantation house to
me, which I actually really liked. =) It’s Georgian style (symmetrical), and
the original part of the house has been around since 1765. We got to walk
through the original front door! James Madison was born in March of 1751, so
his family actually moved here when he was about 13 or 14.
A lot of the furnishings are original to James and Dolley
Madison, which I think is pretty amazing! There are even 10 beautiful red and
white chairs there that were bought by Madison from Alexandria’s own… George
Washington! The inside of the house is quite bright and elegant downstairs.
Yellow was Dolley’s favorite color (mine and Val’s, too!), but she also liked
red and green, all of which are prominent colors in her house. The upstairs was
really plain, though, which surprised me a little bit.
Another interesting thing about the colors of the house—and
actually about Dolley in general—is the fact that Dolley grew up a Quaker. She
was used to having very plain things—living plainly, dressing plainly, no
jewelry, no make up, no fancy dresses, and no bright colors! When she married
Madison, since he was Anglican (Episcopal) and not Quaker, she had to be
“read-out” from the Quaker church, which is basically excommunication or
disfellowshiping. So when she was “set free” from those restrictions, she went
to town! She became the most fashionable first lady (she’s credited with
“defining” the role), hosted 100-person barbecues and parties, and lived a full
life with all due exuberance. She took changes of life in stride! She was also
quite the opposite of James Madison. He was quiet, introverted, reserved, and shy;
she was outgoing and warm! They were quite the compliment to each other, even
though he was generally sickly and 17 years older than she.
All her life Dolley had been interested (and dabbling) in
the “worldly” ways. She liked bright colors, and her Aunt Anna Fleming,
actually, was Anglican and was an influence on her. She would give Dolley
jewelry on occasion. Dolley would have to hide it, but she kept it all in a
little bag. When James asked her to marry him, she did not seize the
opportunity immediately, however. As a Quaker, she had a lot to consider marrying
an older, politically influential, Anglican man. She quite conflicted between
keeping in her faith and her desire to be part of the world.
Martha Washington actually summoned Dolley from Philadelphia
to Mount Vernon when she heard James asked Dolley to marry him. Martha was a
classy, considerate woman, so when she spoke with Dolley, she spoke in Dolley’s
Quaker dialect. She said, “Does it be true that you be engaged to James
Madison?” She did this out of respect for Dolley. She also said that both she
and George Washington approved. Martha and Dolley were alike in many ways. Both
had been previously married, had at least one child from that marriage, and
were pulled into the political realm with their husbands no matter what—a
commitment to either man meant a commitment to this new country. Ultimately,
they did get married in September of 1794!
So that’s scratching the surface of Dolley, but there’s so
much more to know about her! She was a truly remarkable woman. And James
Madison did well marrying her! He was actually engaged 10 years earlier. At 33,
he asked a 15 year old daughter of his friend to marry him. She agreed, but
just a few months later she fell in love with a 19 year old medical student and
broke her engagement to Madison. Being a shy, reserved man, this had quite the
effect on him. He was not, to our knowledge, involved with any other women
until he met Dolley.
But he was quite the interesting man himself. He was the
first of 12 children in his family, 7 of whom lived to adulthood. Madison was
sickly most of his life, but he lived to be 85. As a young boy, he read a LOT.
He’d already read all the books in his father’s library by the time he was 11.
He was sent to boarding school between the ages of 11-16 and studied under a
Scotsman. When he moved back to his father’s home he studied under another
Scotsman, this time an Enlightenment scholar. In just two years, he studied
four years’ worth of material in just TWO years at the College of New Jersey at
Princeton (now Princeton University). He even requested to stay at the college
an extra year as a graduate student. That was not the norm then that it is
today—he had to ask permission to continue studying!
In all, he studied over a decade with at least three
Scottish scholars. It’s important to note that Madison went to NJ for school
instead of William & Mary, which at this point was better-known and closer
to home. W&M was declining in the education department and had developed a
reputation as a “party school” (can you imagine the REAL old-school Colonial
parties?); it was also further south and in what was considered a more tropical
climate—which was thought to be bad for Madison’s already poor health. All
these factors literally changed the course of Madison’s life, and ultimately
changed the course of American history! You see, studying under instructors
with a more Calvinistic/Enlightenment influence opened Madison’s mind to a
broader spectrum of possibilities, as opposed to only the traditional way of
thinking.
Studying under these men and in these situations helped him
in his later studies of other cultural politics and world issues when he was
preparing to write the Virginia Plan and the U.S. Constitution. He spoke
English and French fluently, but he could also read at least five more
languages! While studying to write our Constitution, he read over 400 books in seven
different languages: English, French, Italian, Spanish, Latin, Greek, and
HEBREW! James Madison was a scholarly STUD MUFFIN! =)
Madison actually lived out his last years at Montpelier in
his study. He had such terrible rheumatoid arthritis that he could no longer go
up the stairs to his and Dolley’s bed chamber, so he needed to move to the
ground floor. He read, ate, slept, studied, and accepted visitors all in this
room. The servant attending him was his good friend and personal servant, Paul
Jennings. Paul became a servant at age 10—and his first assignment for Madison
was in the White House! Paul is the one credited with helping Dolley save the
portrait of George Washington from the White House fire in 1812. He was a
personal servant to James and Dolley at least until James died in 1836.
The house was entirely torn apart and rebuilt with the same
materials in the early 2000s. You can tell that the glass windows are original
because they’re spun glass—they’re wavy. =) The floorboards are pine, and
there’s a room called the “refurbishment” room or something to that effect. You
can actually see the insides of the walls to the original construction from the
1750s! They found things in the walls, painted plaster from the original walls,
etc. There are rooms like that in other historic homes in the area, but theirs
was probably the coolest.
We looked in the cellar on our own, found the hands-on tool
tent, and—our favorite—we got to see some folks cooking using the same recipes
and methods the Madisons servants would have used! We even got to try some
fresh made pink pancakes. Can anyone guess what they were made with to make
them pink? See the picture. =)
And then we went for a lovely hike and got lightly sprinkled
on, which was actually quite nice! And then it was time to drive through some
storms and find out way to… the Greene Mountain Inn! More to come…
See the pictures HERE!
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