James Madison’s Montpelier

A Tale of Two Tales

In addition to reading the the Madisons’ personal correspondence, Montpelier’s documentary researchers read memoirs and reminiscences written by contemporaries and Madison family members. There are two particularly interesting sources which survive for the life of Dolley Madison, written by members of her family. Dolley’s niece, Mary Estelle Elizabeth Cutts, wrote a set of memoirs of the life of her famous aunt, to whom she had been very close, titled Memoir I and Memoir II. In turn, Mary’s niece Lucia adapted those memoirs into a compact and readable book titled Memoirs and Letters of Dolley Madison.

Lucia presented a romantic ideal of Dolley Madison by changing names, dates and the text of actual letters. Although Mary’s admiration of Dolley is apparent from her Memoirs, Lucia changed actual scenes of Dolley’s life and those changes are reflected in her editing of Mary’s Memoirs and her own published work. Together, these works and their creators make an interesting puzzle for documentary researchers at Montpelier. Continue Reading…

Christmas at Montpelier

Today when we think of Christmas, we think of Christmas trees in houses and town squares, carolers in the snow, and houses decorated with lights and bows. The season of Christmas is a visual feast everywhere you look. At this time of year, visitors often ask our guides how Montpelier would have looked during the Christmas season two centuries ago. The answer is a bit surprising.

Christmas, both the day and the season, was celebrated differently in the Madisons’ time. Many of the Christmas customs we know today did not become popular until the end of the 19th century or beginning of the 20th; other Christmas traditions were introduced when the Madisons were in retirement. Santa Claus comes from German and Dutch traditions, and St. Nick made his first appearance on a wider stage in America in Washington Irving’s History of New York, published in 1809. The first record we have of a Christmas tree in Virginia isn’t until 1842, in a house in Williamsburg. What, then, was Christmas like for the Madisons?

Christmas in the late 18th and early 19th centuries was a time for visiting family and friends, hosting or attending large parties, balls, and dinners. In early December 1834, Dolley wrote to her niece Mary with news about what the family members at Montpelier were doing: “Anna & her sisters have gone to a dancing part at Newman’s – they are to keep the Christmas from this time to New Years day.” [note: Dolley Payne Todd Madison to Mary Estelle Elizabeth Cutts, December 11, 1834, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.] Little more than a year later, a friend writing from Richmond told Dolley that everyone there was still “feasting, dancing & making merry,” despite the cholera epidemic in the city.¹ Continue Reading…

What Was in That desk?

As part of the Presidential Detective Story, Montpelier’s research team examines correspondence and other records from family members who inherited or purchased objects with a Madison provenance.  Once such sale that we have been studying to better understand the dispersal of Madison objects is the 1852 sale of the contents of Toddsberthe, the home of John Payne Todd, Dolley’s son.

John Payne Todd only outlived his mother by two and a half years. He died in Washington in January 1852. In the last decade of his life, he began to construct a series of dwellings which he named Toddsberthe, on land near Montpelier. Our research indicates he hoped his mother would spend her final years with him at Toddsberthe.  He spent extravagant amounts of money to construct this home, despite his heavy debt.  Todd’s outlandish design included a ballroom,  rotunda, and several other rooms that suggest grandiose intentions which were never fully carried out. Some of the buildings were unfinished and t at least one was damaged by fire when he died.

Following Todd’s death, Toddsberthe  and its contents were sold to satisfy his many creditors. The November 1852 sale liquidated much of Montpelier’s furniture and artwork that  Dolley did not take to Washington in 1844. Family members, including Dolley’s niece  Annie Payne Causten, arranged to purchase some of Dolley’s belongings at the  sale. Causten, was Dolley’s caretaker and companion during the former First Lady’s final years.

At the time of the sale, Annie lived in Washington. Shortly after Dolley Madison’s 1849 death, Annie had married Dr. James H. Causten, Jr., a prominent Washington physician. Surviving letters suggest that her health declined. She died only a few days before Toddsberthe’s sale. Shortly before the sale, she and her husband drafted a memorandum to her father-in-law, James Causten, Sr., to suggest objects to purchase at  Toddsberthe sale. Continue Reading…