A Few Travels Back East: Where our forefathers have trod

Today we left Alexandria and headed for Charlottesville, VA and the estate of Monticello. The former home of Thomas Jefferson. Besides the fact that Jefferson is important in American history over all as he wrote the Declaration of Independence, and was our 3rd President, he was also a close personal friend of William Few. It was fun to tour the estate and once again to walk the halls where William may have visited from time to time when he was a US Senator. We weren't allowed to take interior pictures, but it was set up much like Mount Vernon. Had a foyer, guest rooms, and personal quarters with a study. Jefferson was quite intelligent, and even more of an experimenter than George Washington. He even succeeded in creating a micro climate on part of his estate and increased the growing season there by two months! A couple of other things I found interesting.

Jefferson had a type of copy machine that used two pens that would copy what the writer would write.
The house was one of the first US residential structures to employ skylights, and also double paned doors and windows. Something that we have today.
Jefferson would share and exchange seeds from all over the world and see what would grow on his estate. He even had a greenhouse off of his personal study. Even the guys house garden was the length of three football fields!

Side note, he would only share and exchange seeds with his closest family and friends. More on that a bit later.

West Lawn side of the mansion.

I can see why he chose a "Little Mountain" to put his house on.

This fish pond was used to preserve fish that were caught elsewhere for future use.

The following shows the first building on the property, and where Jefferson, his wife, and at least one of their children lived while the main house was being built. It was one room with a bed and a kitchen in the basement. Probably not much bigger than a dorm room.

View from the outside.

Beds for adults and one child, and a fireplace was all there was.

The kitchen in the basement.

The garden tour was probably the most interesting for me. I'm not much of a green-thumb, but seeing how things were things were set up to not only be useful, but good to look at as well. The tour guide mentioned that Jefferson loved his salads (he grew over thirty varieties of lettuce). In fact he enjoyed olive oil on his salads, but it was expensive to import, so he started growing benne plants (a close cousin to sesame) for their seeds to be pressed into oil. Its probably not well known, but I happen to know the guy that introduced that idea to Jefferson, ad his name is William Few! You see, in my research I found a series of letters written between Thomas Jefferson and William Few - they had nothing to do with politics. In fact, it was all about this wonder seed called Bene that, when processed, was almost the same as olive oil. I will leave the transcribed letters below.

Letter dated Sept. 26th, 1807 - From William Few to Thomas Jefferson:

"Sir,

I take the liberty of sending to you by Mr. Gallatin a little of salad oil. The first perhaps that has survived in the United States. It was purified from the seed of a plant which grows in the Southern States and is known there by the name of Bene (Benne) and is cultivated in those states by the negroes only for their own use. The pod which contains the seed before it is matured, I am told is the part which they use.
I have not learned the Botanic term of the plant nor under what clase (class) or order it is arranged.
The seed was sent to me from Georgia by Mr. (John) Milledge of the Senate of the United States whose Agricultural and scientific researches have rendered important services (end of 1st page) to that state.
Six bushels of the feed produces about six gallons of cold drawn oil, of the quality I send, and about twelve gallons of warm drawn oil that is not quite so pure and well tasted, but it may be used as salad oil or for painting and lamps.

I am sir with sincere respect,
Your most ob. Servant,
William Few"

Letter dated Jan. 3rd, 1808 - From Thomas Jefferson to William Few

"Sir,

I thank you for the specimen of Benni oil which you were so kind as to send me. I did not believe before that there existed so perfect a substitute for olive oil. I tried it at table with many companies & their guesses between two dishes of sallad dressed, the one with olive oil, the other with that of Beni, shewed the equality of the latter, in favor of which the greater number guessed. certainly I would prefer to have it always fresh from my own fields to the other brought across the Atlantic and exposed in hot warehouses. I am therefore determined to go into the culture of it for domestic use, and would be thankful to you for the process of expressing the oil from the seed in which you appear to have succeeded so perfectly. all the minutiae in new processes give aid towards perfecting them. Dr. Mitchell supposes the Benni is a sesamum.

Accept my salutations and assurances of great esteem and respect.

Th: Jefferson"

Letter dated Jan. 11th, 1808 - From William Few to Thomas Jefferson:

"Sir,

I have had the pleasure of viewing your letter of the 3d inst. relative to the process of expressing the oil from the Bene (Benne) seed. There is very little difficulty in the operation. The common flaxseed mill is the machine I used: great care must be taken to have it well cleansed. The method I pursued was in the first instance was to put the Bene (Benne) seed under press in its crude state without grinding or heating, and after pressing from it all the oil it would yield which appeared to be one third part of the oil the seed contained.
The seed was then taken from the press and ground and heated and pressed again, but the oil of it produced was not quite too fine and pure. It tasted a little of the flaxseed but it may be used for the table. It does well for the lamp and would probably do in painting.

If I was to make another experiment and had a new mill or machine that was not impregnated with the flaxseed oil: I would first grind the seed and press it without heating and then grind it again and heat it and press it again. By this process I should expect to get more than two thirds of the oil from the seed then the first operation of pressing which would be pure and good salad oil.

(Page 2)

The second pressing after heating would produce inferior oil and perhaps in quantity about one third.

I have lately seen an extract from the transactions of the Bath Agricultural Society in England from which it appears that the poppy has been cultivated in France, Flanders, and Hollond for the purpose of making salad oil for table use, and it has been fully proved that the oil made from the seed of poppy is sweet, wholesome & nutritious and it does not in the least partake of the narcotic property of the plant. The whole poppy is preferred, but the blue guilds most seed and the oil is quite as good.

It is said that the oil is often mixed with the olive oil, and it is probable that a great proportion of the oil use in this country that mixed kind.

I am sir with sincere respect,

Your most ob. Servant,
William Few"

From what the tour guides said, Jefferson would only engage in this type of exchange with close personal friends. The fact that the letter from Jefferson states that he shared the sample with his guests seems to corroborate this. It is unclear if the letters continued or if there are others. The three mentioned above are in the library of Congress and appear to be the only surviving copies between the two. It is also fun to note that William Few appeared to be an experimenter himself, as he was figuring out, by trial and error, how to extract the oil to get the best quantity and quality.

Here are some pictures of the planting areas.