Editor: Linda Greenberg
Spring II
2014
George Washing ton’s Rural Village:
Mount Vernon’s Plantation Economy and the Town
by
Luke J. Pecoraro, Assistant Director for Archaeological Research
George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate, Museum and Gardens
not only Washington’s plantation needs, but those of the
surrounding community as well, with his smith’s activities ranging from shoeing horses and making horseshoes
to repairing guns and making keys. From 1770 through
1783, the shop attracted repeat customers who resided
from between five to ten miles away, and made the estate
a considerable sum of money. Still, by 1798 the smith’s
activities were scaled down because maintenance costs
outstripped production costs and overall profits. Washington also was dissatisfied with the work of his laborers.
In 1797, Washington -- looking for other moneymaking activities -- authorized his plantation manager
James Anderson to begin whiskey distillation near his
gristmill on his Dogue Run Farm tract. Anderson set up
two stills, and over the course of one year produced 600
gallons of whiskey, turning a profit of £83 (Pogue and
White 2005: 46). Convinced that a larger operation would
mean a larger profit margin, Anderson pressed Washington to build a distilling house. It was built and fully functional by March of 1798. The increase in liquor
production meant that Washington’s farms could not produce enough grain to meet the distillery’s manufacturing
demands, forcing Washington to purchase it from other
sources. To that end, the distillery became dependant on
external grain, and, in a letter to his nephew, Washington
voiced his solution to his dilemma : “if you should want
The relationships between plantations and urban centers in the 18th-century Chesapeake are often considered in separate contexts, with each developing
economies independent of one another and having limited interaction. This paper will consider archaeological and historical evidence from Mount Vernon’s
blacksmith shop and the whiskey distillery complex operated by Washington in the later-18th century, both of
which had a local distribution to neighboring landowners, plantations across the Potomac in Maryland, as
well as the towns of Richmond and Alexandria. These
“plantation industries” will be used as a case study to
begin to explore the role of town merchants and their
interactions with plantation owners and the flow of
plantation-produced items into towns. Proximities of
archaeological sites to known transportation routes
will also be discussed and illustrated through the use of
GIS at Mount Vernon and its hinterland.
On October 16, 1768 George Washington
recorded in his journal, “finished my Smith’s Shop – that
is the Carpenter’s work of it.” The construction of a
blacksmith’s shop at Mount Vernon preceded a larger
building campaign lasting from 1770 – 1776, adding a
Spinning House, Store House, Wash House, Smoke
House, and Coach House, to his growing, ordered plantation. During this period, the blacksmith shop serviced
1
more,(whiskey) or any of your neighbors want any, it
would be convenient and always proper, to supply you –
and for grain, wheat, Rye or Indian Corn in exchange
(Anderson 2002: 65).” The supply of whiskey made at
Mount Vernon was purchased and consumed by planters
in the Mount Vernon neighborhood and also by residents
and merchants in the nearby town of Alexandria. Operating for about 10 years, the distillery was somewhat
complex in comparison to Washington’s other pursuits;
it was a distribution point for plantation-produced goods
to go to a larger market, and also an entry point for items
going into the plantation.
While we may discuss Washington’s Blacksmith
Shop and Distillery in the context of the plantation structure and simply as a “cottage industry,” it can also be a
way to understand the centrality of large plantations in
rural economies, and also how plantations functioned in
relationship to the town. Historian Christopher Hendricks remarks, “in the colonial South there was an integral relationship between the town and the surrounding
countryside which so camouflaged the southern urban experience that it confounded attempts of contemporary and
(occasionally) modern observers to recognize it (Hendricks 2006: xxii; Rutman and Rutman 1994: 233).” A
description of Mount Vernon in 1786 by Connecticut native Jedidiah Morse asserted that “the whole assemblage…bears a resemblance to a rural village (Morse
[1970] 1789: 479).” The scale on which the plantations
operated provided the base for regional infrastructure to
develop, because it was “the focus of manufacturing activity…it had access to capital for investment, especially
in costly ventures such as mills, [and] because it had access to avenues of credit to support independent craftsmen, such as carpenters and blacksmiths (Farmer 1993:
90).” Despite this, some felt that established plantations
hampered growth and trade, especially in the Tidewater.
Thomas Jefferson lamented the system for the movement
of goods in and out of Virginia, in 1785: “Our country
being much intersected with navigable waters, and trade
brought generally to our doors, instead of our being
obliged to go in quest of it, has probably been one of the
causes why we have no towns of any consequence
(quoted in Stilgoe 1982: 185).”
This notion that the plantation, and especially tobacco monoculture, severely limited town growth in the
Chesapeake is often accepted, but understated is how the
owners of plantations may have fueled interest in town
growth and ways in which the movement of goods regionally influenced town and plantation commerce. We
acknowledge the extent to which the tobacco economy
propelled or stymied regional economic growth, leading
to the identification of sub-regions within the colonial
Chesapeake (Walsh 1999: 57–58), but the sub-regional
context should be applied to studies of Chesapeake towns
as well. If tobacco production was falling, economic diversification took place and changed the scope of how
local economies functioned. In the case of the region
around Mount Vernon, wheat cultivation and settlement
expansion westward supported town establishment, but
could not have occurred without the support of the plantation. This makes comparing town layouts on a one-toone basis difficult, but we may perhaps apply an
approach to studying the town building comparisons that
are “connected by traceable material and/or historical
links (Ryzewski 2010: 8).” While a great deal has been
done in terms of historical research on individual
planters, perhaps under represented is where they fit in
the town/hinterland landscape—nearest neighbors, access to roads and navigable waterways, and community
infrastructure. Understanding the spatial relationships
provides a starting point, and visualizing this through GIS
(Geographic Information Systems) — a powerful, mapdriven spatial data analysis tool — is an ideal platform
to do so. Most maps in this presentation were created
using GIS, adding a spatial component to the historical
record.
Figure 1: Locations of Alexandria and Colchester
in southern Fairfax County, c. 1753.
Map by author.
Washington’s Blacksmith Shop and Distillery
provide a lens to explore the interaction between plantations and towns from a temporal and spatial perspective.
2
In operation between 1768 to 1808, the blacksmith shop
and distillery were built after the founding of two neighboring Fairfax County towns — Alexandria (1749) and
Colchester (1753) — with the pursuits of both plantation
industries fluctuating in accordance to town growth (Figure 1). The two towns were both locations where the
presence of tobacco warehouses precipitated town founding. There were also nearby support features in place,
such as taverns, smithies, and ferries, and those individuals planning the towns took these factors into consideration.
In the case of the founding of Alexandria, eleven
trustees were tasked with laying out the town and making
decisions about lot sizes, street names, and other civic
matters. Of these trustees, all owned large plantations
outside of the proposed town limits, but eight also committed to purchasing lots in the new town, indicating a
belief that such a purchase would be lucrative when the
town grew. Furthermore, three of the trustees were members of the Ohio Company, a charter group of 13 Virginia
planters founded in 1748 who hoped that Alexandria
would become an entrepôt to the resource-rich Ohio Valley to the west (Howland 1893: 197) (Table 1). Four other
Ohio Company members (Augustine Washington,
George Washington, George Mason, and George Mercer)
purchased lots in Alexandria as well. With the merchant
connections of several of the trustees and the Ohio Company membership of at least seven lot owners, corporate
backing had a great deal to do with town growth.
Colchester’s founding was markedly different;
of the five trustees, only one, Peter Wagener, purchased
a town lot (Sprouse 1975: 20). Despite George Mason’s
later investment in affairs in Colchester, the town did not
attract the diverse merchants and investors who developed Alexandria. Though the strategic placement of the
town on the Occoquan River and influential planters in
southern Fairfax County, population growth lagged following the sale of the first lots. It took several years for
all lots within the town boundary to sell, and town infrastructure developed slowly (Sprouse 1975).
In this period of town formation, the region underwent significant population growth, as did Washington’s Mount Vernon plantation. Three important features
came out of this development that preceded town establishment—the construction of roads, mills, and ordinaries. The main north-south road in Fairfax County, known
as the Potomac Path, probably derived from earlier Indian
trails, and was in use by the region’s earliest European
settlers connecting farms to waterways and adjacent plantations. (The Potomac Path is believed to generally follow the Back Road as shown in Figure 2. It was also
called The Colchester-Alexandria Road and Cameron
Road.) Other roads subsequently were cut, linking plantations to tobacco inspection warehouses, and it should
come as no surprise that the townsites of both Alexandria
and Colchester were near existing warehouse locations
(Mitchell 1987: 83) (Figure 2).
With a road system connecting plantations to
crop distribution points, other agricultural- based production facilities were constructed; by the early 1740s, regionally, some planters shifted from tobacco to wheat
cultivation (Gill 1978: 382). Mills were needed to process
wheat into flour before shipment locally, or to Europe
and the West Indies. An estimate of the milling pursuits
in Fairfax County suggests that by 1760, at least 14 mills
were running (Mitchell 1987: 96-97) (Figure 3). Washington’s estate included a mill on Dogue Run, which was
Figure 2: Primary roads in southern Fairfax County, c.
1753 and secondary roads through Washington’s holdings on the Mt. Vernon Neck. Map by author.
conveniently located on the Colchester–Alexandria road;
the mill had been in operation since c. 1743, but Washington made significant improvements to the mill around
1771, increasing its production capability (White and
Leeson 1999: 11). The gristmill facility became a vital
part of the community, and also sustained a cooperage,
and livestock rearing for butchery. In addition to the services the mill provided, it was also an entry point for goods
3
Archaeological Evidence
Mount Vernon’s commitment to an archaeological research program began in 1986, with an investigation
of the blacksmith shop. From 1987–88 the structural remains of the shop and forge were uncovered, as were
wasters and unfinished products of the smiths. An exploration of the accounts and ledger books for the shop were
re-examined in conjunction with the archaeological work,
and between the years 1770 and 1779, most of the smith’s
time was spent servicing the needs of local plantation
owners. The clients included neighbors who controlled
larger plantations like George Mason of Gunston Hall
and George William Fairfax of Belvoir, and despite a
smith shop at Gunston, Mason was a regular customer at
the shop at Mount Vernon. Thirty-one other customers
can be attributed to known locations in Fairfax County,
with 22 of them living in no more than a five mile radius
of Mount Vernon. The road system into the estate likely
correlated to neighborhood business for the shop, rather
than into towns like Colchester and Alexandria.
The parceling off of large farms into smaller
tracts as a result of depleted soils led to a changing landscape around Mount Vernon in the 1770s and 1780s.
Figure 3: Locations of mills in southern Fairfax County,
c. 1760. Known mill sites are represented by squares.
Map by author.
to come into the plantation.
With roads providing the important links between the plantations and towns, ordinaries were established, and along similar developmental paths to mills,
became gathering places for community business transactions. Prior to the establishment of Alexandria, a town
further west at the mouth of Hunting Creek called
Cameron was proposed in 1745. The justification for this
proposal was that an ordinary was established there,
which supported a blacksmith shop, gristmill, and several
residences. A bulk of Fairfax County’s ordinaries were
on the Colchester to Alexandria Road (Mitchell 2003: x),
and were carrying on a brisk business; between 1759 and
1761, 34 were in existence in the county (Mitchell 1987:
98) (Figure 4). One of the closest ordinaries to Washington’s gristmill complex was operated by Robert Boggess
Sr. and Jr., established in 1758, at the point where the
road branched towards the river and to the county’s interior. Boggess’ Ordinary was also the site of a race track,
in addition to hosting the closest stage coach stop to
Mount Vernon. Washington often sent servants to meet
the stage and escort visitors who were departing the estate.
Thus by 1797, there was an established neighborhood infrastructure around Mount Vernon that had the
capabilities of supporting towns with products to ship to
an overseas market.
*
*
*
Figure 4: Locations of licensed ordinaries in southern
Fairfax County, c. 1760. Map by author.
Washington purchased property from at least eight of his
neighbors, who also made up the blacksmith’s shop clientele. An increase in Washington’s holdings meant more
4
internal work for his smiths, and competition from blacksmiths in Alexandria who could produce more farm-necessary items gradually supplanted the plantation industry.
From 1790–1799, 17 blacksmiths operated in Alexandria
in addition to a large nailery, employing 16 craftsmen
(Miller 1991: 296 v. 1). An increase in smaller roads that
made the town more accessible is evident from the
county road orders, which also led to an increase in services once afforded by only the large plantations. John
Ward, a former Mount Vernon blacksmith shop customer
and tenant of George Mason, opened his own mill about
three miles south of Washington’s mill complex off of the
main road (Figure 5). Ward’s mill on Hooe’s Road became a social reference point, accumulating enough traffic to be included in a proposition to construct a road
adjacent to it in 1787 (Mitchell 2003: 251). Ward himself
advocated for the new road, which would link his mill
with a thoroughfare from Colchester to Alexandria. The
milling of grain was one service Ward provided, but another source of his revenue came from his production of
“Spiritous liquors,” which Washington also saw as a
commodity that diversified his plantations economy.
Archaeological excavations of Washington’s distillery were carried out by Mount Vernon archaeologists
from 1999 to 2005. Oriented north-south approximately
150 feet from the gristmill, the foundations of the stone
still house had a structure measuring 75 by 30 feet. The
building was divided into distinct spaces which included
a distilling room outfitted with five copper pot stills, a
storage cellar for whiskey, and an office. Documentary
evidence suggests that a loft space for grain, and quarters
for the distillery manager and his assistant occupied the
floor above (Pogue and White 2005: 59). Artifacts recovered from the distillery excavation included both domestic and industrial finds; several buttons, teacup and
drinking glass fragments, and a slate pencil were found
beneath the living space. Very few finds that related to
the distilling process remained, and it is likely that most
of the equipment was removed around c. 1808, prior to
the building’s destruction in 1814.
Spatial arrangements inside the still house indicated the placements of four of the five stills, and the system of underground drains associated with their use. The
number of stills further suggests that this industry operated on a much larger scale than ones in neighboring
areas. At least three of the copper stills themselves were
made by George McMunn of Alexandria, and the first
two stills and boiler were “setup” by Alexandria bricklayer James Keating (Pogue and White 2005: 61; Mount
Vernon Plantation Ledger 1 1797-1798; Miller 1991:
246, v.1). Keating also returned in January of 1797 to “fix
the stills” for which he was paid in cash and whiskey
Figure 5: Sites of John Ward’s gristmill and George
Washington’s gristmill. Map by author.
(Mount Vernon Plantation Ledger 1 1797-1798). Based
on a survey of distilleries in the Upper Chesapeake during 1798-1799, Washington’s not only was the largest in
terms of structural size, but had more stills operating as
well (Anderson 2002: 67; White 2001). In comparison,
the other distilleries made a few hundred gallons of
whiskey with one still, and usually produced a batch once
a year (Pogue and White 2005: 53).
With the archaeological and historical records indicating that the distillery was a major operation, how the
distillery products were distributed and to whom are important to this discussion. From March 1797 to March
1800, the distillery yielded 15,424 gallons of alcohol; the
mill turned out about 275,000 pounds of wheat and
178,000 pounds of corn (Anderson 2002: 85; Pogue and
White 2005: 39). One ledger book kept from the same
period related to the business transactions of the distillery
lists 57 individuals or businesses who kept accounts at
Mount Vernon; of this number, 25 resided or conducted
business in Alexandria (Anderson 2002: 91; Mount Vernon Plantation Ledger 2 1798–1800). Not all of these
customers paid for alcohol in cash; some bartered, traded
grain, or even exchanged merchant goods from stores that
may have made their way to Washington’s home at Mansion House Farm. Three examples of distillery customers
illustrate the business conducted at the site, and how the
product linked them in the town/hinterland community.
The individual who purchased most of Washing5
ton’s whiskey was Alexandria merchant George Gilpin.
Gilpin was a successful town merchant who operated a
warehouse and wharf, as well as a store. Though he sold
the whiskey in his shop, Gilpin also distributed it to a
larger market; at least two shipments of whiskey are
known to have been sent to Richmond, and it is likely
that Gilpin was responsible for getting the whiskey that
far afield. In some cases, Gilpin paid in cash for the
whiskey, but he “also paid for his purchases with a variety of goods required by the plantation, ranging from butter to oysters, …candles, tar, and salt (Mount Vernon
Plantation Ledger 1 1798-1799; Anderson 2002: 97).”
Gilpin’s Alexandria Wharf supported a store run by John
M’Clenachan, who trafficked in West Indian and New
England rum, Portuguese wines, and china and Queen’s
Ware. Interested in commerce and trade, Gilpin also
served the county as a Commissioner of Roads in 1786,
and was appointed to be the Commissioner of Turnpikes
in 1790, duties which included establishing roads linking
Alexandria to points further west (Miller 1991: 298).
In addition to selling spirits the distillery sold animals intended for slaughter. Lawrence Hoof, identified
as a cartwright and butcher in Alexandria, purchased
whiskey as well as cattle—presumably both the
butchered beef and alcohol would be offered for sale in
town (Anderson 2002: 93). Slightly further from the
towns but closer to Mount Vernon, Robert Boggess, Jr.
was an account holder at the mill and purchased flour and
cattle twice in 1797, and also sold some of his corn.
Boggess Jr. operated an ordinary on the ColchesterAlexandria Road, owned a mill on Pohick Run, and it
might be possible that he ran a small still, and found it
no longer profitable to operate. On March 9 1798, he was
paid in cash at the distillery for a “mash tub and covers”.
Like Gilpin, Boggess Jr. was a road commissioner, and
surveyor for the county, holding the post until his death
in 1817 (Mount Vernon Plantation Ledger 1 1798-1799).
seven miles south of the mill and distillery is absent from
the Mount Vernon Farm ledgers. It is known that Washington purchased items from merchants in Colchester, as
well as taverns and ordinaries being present in town, and
it is likely this correlates to population and town demise.
In terms of what the hinterland landscape and a
comparative archaeological approach can offer to the discussion of the growth of Chesapeake urbanism, in the archaeological record, there are 97 known 18th century
sites in the Colchester-Mount Vernon-Alexandria corridor. To date there is no syntheses of how these sites are
related, but the interaction with the local towns and individuals provide a context for beginning such a project.
By understanding how plantations diversified economically, and shifting from cottage industry to a larger scale,
is one aspect that can be attributed to town growth. In the
Chesapeake, these two entities are inextricably linked,
but more can be done to explore how these relationships
functioned.
Bibliography
Anderson, Anna Catherine Borden. A Study in Transition Plantation Economy: George Washington’s
Whiskey Distillery, 1799. Unpublished Master’s Thesis,
Department of Anthropology. The College of William
and Mary, Wlliamsburg, VA, 2002.
Farmer, Charles J. In the Absence of Towns: Settlement
and Country Trade in Southeastern Virginia, 17301800. Lanham, MD: Rowan and Littlefield, 1993.
Gill, Harold B. “Wheat Culture in Colonial Virginia,”
Agricultural History (52): 3, 380–393, 1978.
Hendricks, Christopher. The Backcountry Towns of
Colonial Virginia. Knoxville: University of Tennessee
Press, 2006.
Conclusion
Though the whiskey distillery was one of Washington’s last economic pursuits, in its brief existence it
was one of his most profitable. The distillery’s location
on a major East coast road linking towns to plantations,
and centralized location within easy travel distance to two
Fairfax County towns was important to the distillery’s
success. A ready market for the whiskey and distillery
products existed at the time of its construction, with a diverse clientele of neighboring planters, tavernkeepers,
and town merchants and grocers. While more research
on the relationships between individuals who purchased
Washington’s products remains to be explored, so do the
destinations of the whiskey. Colchester, approximately
Howland, Kate. “The Ohio Company,” The William
and Mary Quarterly (1): 4, 197–203, 1893.
Miller, Michael T. Artisans and Merchants of Alexandria, Virginia 1780–1820. 2 vols. Bowie, MD: Heritage
Books, Inc., 1891.
Mitchell, Beth. “Fairfax County Road Orders, 1749–
1800.” Report for the Fairfax Country History Commission, Fairfax, VA, 2003.
6
Fairfax County, Virginia in 1760: An Interpretive Historical Map. Fairfax: Office of Comprehensive Plan-
Luke J. Pecoraro
ning, 1978.
Luke is a historical archaeologist and is currently employed as the Assistant Director for Archaeological Research at George Washington’s Mount Vernon. He holds
a Bachelor’s degree in history (Virginia Commonwealth
University, 2006) a Master’s in archaeology (Boston University, 2010) and is a PhD candidate at Boston University. Luke has worked in cultural resource management
archaeology in the mid-Atlantic, the Chesapeake and
New England on a variety of prehistoric and historic
sites, and for several years as a staff archaeologist on the
Jamestown Rediscovery project. Research interests include intercolonial migration and trade in the 17th century Chesapeake, relationships between English
plantations in Ireland and Virginia, and the settlement of
the English Caribbean. Luke is also a project archaeologist for the First Colony Foundation, searching for the
16th century “Lost Colony” on Roanoke Island, and a
team member of the Survey and Landscape Archaeology
on Montserrat (SLAM) project in the British West Indies.
Moore, Gay M. Seaport in Virginia: George Washington’s Alexandria. Richmond: Garrett and Massie Inc,
1949.
Morse, Jedidiah. The American Geography: a reprint
of the 1789 edition. New York: Arno, Inc., 1970.
Mount Vernon Plantation Ledgers. Mount Vernon
Ledgers 1 and 2. Mount Vernon, VA: Mount Vernon
Ladies’ Association, 1797-1801.
Pogue, Dennis J. and Esther C. White. George Washington’s Gristmill at Mount Vernon. Mount Vernon, VA:
Mount Vernon Ladies Association, 2005.
Rutman, Darrett B., and Anita Rutman. Small worlds,
large questions: explorations in early American social
history, 1600-1850. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1994.
B.A., History, Virginia Commonwealth University; M.A.,
Archaeology, Boston University; ABD, Archaeology,
Boston University.
Ryzewski, Krysta. “Multiply Situated Strategies?
Multi-Sited Ethnography and Archeology,” Journal of
Archaeological Method and Theory. Published online,
09 April 2011. Springer Science and Business Media,
LLC., 2001.
Sprouse, Edith. Colchester: Colonial Port on the Potomac. Fairfax, VA: Office of Comprehensive Planning,
1975.
Stilgoe, John R. Common Landscape of America,
1580–1845. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982.
Walsh, Lorena. “Summing the Parts: Implications for
Estimating Chesapeake Output and Income Subregionally,” William and Mary Quarterly, 56:1: 54-94, 1999.
White, Esther C. and Christy E. Leeson. Results of
Phase I and Phase II Archaeological Investigations at
Washington’s Mill Historical State Park (44FX2262).
Mount Vernon Archaeology File Report No. 6. Mount
Vernon, VA: Mount Vernon Ladies Association, 1999.
7
Editor: Linda Greenberg
In this issue of the Alexandria
Chronicle, Luke J. Pecoraro, Assistant Director for Archaeological Research at George
Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate, Museum and Gardens, examines the archaeological and historical evidence of two
“plantation industries” at Mount Vernon.
These industries -- the blacksmith shop and
the whiskey distillery complex -- affected
nearby town merchants and plantation owners in specific ways. In turn, these merchants
and towns affected the industries at Mount
Vernon.
The fall 2014 Alexandria Chronicle
will continue Jack Sullivan’s story of John
Zimmerman, the Confederate soldier, who,
in a daily diary, chronicles his life as a soldier
and astute observer of the Civil War. Zimmerman wasa member of Company A of the
17th Virginia Volunteer Regiment.
Spring II
2014
The mission of the Alexandria Historical Society is to promote an active interest in American history and particularly the history of
Alexandria and Virginia. For information
about society lectures and awards presentations and for past issues of the Newsletter and
Alexandria Chronicle please visit the society’s web site: www.alexandriahistorical.org.
The Chronicle is published through the support of the J. Patten Abshire Memorial Fund.
*
*
*
*
Alexandria Historical Society Officers
President: Bill Dickinson
Vice President: Debra Ackerman
Secretary: Ted Pulliam
Treasurer: Lisa Adamo