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A HISTORY OF
GEORGE WASHINGTON’S RIVER FARM
River
Farm's first English family was the Brents, a Catholic
family who played an active role in the early colonial life
of Maryland. Captain Giles Brent originally landed in
Jamestown, Virginia but in 1638 returned from a trip to
England accompanied by his sisters, Margaret and Mary, to
settle in St. Mary’s County, Maryland. In 1647 the Brents
settled near Aquia in Virginia. In 1653/54, Giles Brent
obtained patents totaling 1,800 acres for his year-old son,
Giles, Jr. Giles' wife was a princess of the Piscataway
tribe of Native Americans who had been entrusted to Margaret
Brent as a child by her father, a convert to Christianity.
The grant of 1,800 acres in their child's name was named
Piscataway Neck and included the land which is now River
Farm.
Giles, Jr. was
never at ease with the local Dogue tribe, or, it seems,
anyone else. It has been stated that his encounters with the
native tribe were a precursor to Bacon's Rebellion, and at
home his treatment of his wife was so violent that she
obtained a legal separation in 1679, the first in the
Commonwealth of Virginia. Giles returned to England where he
died in September of that year. Piscataway Neck passed to a
cousin, George Brent, and through him to a brother-in-law,
William Clifton, in 1739.
Upon inheriting
title to the land, William Clifton renamed the property
Clifton's Neck. By 1757, Clifton built a brick house on the
property which, much enlarged and remodeled over the
subsequent two centuries, now serves as the headquarters of
the American Horticultural Society.
Clifton suffered business losses and as
early as 1755 advertised part of his holdings for sale.
Gentleman farmer George Washington of neighboring Mount
Vernon was desirous of buying this land but because of what
he described in his diaries as Clifton's "shuffling
behavior" it was not until 1760 that Washington obtained
clear title to the 1,800 acres for payment of £1,210 at the
equivalent of a bankruptcy sale. To be fair to Clifton, not
all the "shuffling" was his fault. At Mrs. Clifton's
insistence only a portion of the property was first offered,
the house and surrounding land to be retained for the Cliftons' use. Washington refused to buy the reduced
package. It was not until Clifton was forced to submit to a
commissioner's sale — Washington was a member of the
commission — that Washington acquired the entire property
and changed its name to River Farm.
Thus River Farm
became the northernmost of Washington's five farms, and
today's River Farm is located on the northernmost division
of that property. Although Washington had patiently pursued
the acquisition of the property, he never actually lived on
or worked this land. Instead, he preferred to rent it, first
in 1761 to tenant farmer Samuel Johnson who paid ever
increasing amounts of his tobacco crop to Washington for the
privilege. The farm was even once offered for sale in 1773,
but instead Washington held on to it and later gave its
lease as a wedding present to one Tobias Lear whose bride,
Fanny Bassett, was Martha Washington's niece and widow of
George Washington's nephew, George Augustine Washington.
Lear
had come to Virginia in 1786 on the recommendation of a
mutual friend to be secretary to Washington and tutor to
Martha's two grandchildren. He was treated as a member of
the family, taking his meals with them. He served Washington
not only as secretary but as a personal confidante at Mount
Vernon as well as in Philadelphia and New York while
Washington served as the young nation’s first President. He
was at Washington's side when he died. In his will,
Washington gave Lear use of the farm, rent free, for his
lifetime. Tobias' wife Fanny predeceased him, and he
installed his mother-in-law and children at the farm while
he preferred to reside in Georgetown. It is said he died
there, a suicide, in 1816. However, evidence of his
spiritual presence at River Farm continues to this day.
Tobias Lear had
called the property Walnut Tree Farm. Today, in the meadow below
the “ha-ha” wall, three venerable old black walnut trees
still stand, reminders of the 18th century landscape that
Lear and Washington knew. Another of River Farm’s trees with
strong associations with Washington is the Kentucky coffee
tree, so named for its native origin and its seeds use as a
coffee substitute. Washington introduced the species to
Virginia when he returned to Virginia from one of his
surveying trips in the Ohio River valley and successfully
germinated seeds he had collected there. There are several
specimens of the Kentucky coffee tree at River Farm,
descendants of those first trees grown by Washington.
The oldest tree
standing on River Farm today is the immense Osage orange. This specimen, the
largest in the country, is
located in the shade garden to the north of the main house.
It is believed to have been a gift from Thomas Jefferson to
the Washington family. It is known that Jefferson received
seedlings of the Osage orange from the Lewis and Clark
expedition of 1804-06.
After Tobias
Lear's death, the farm was occupied by two generations of
the Washington family: George Fayette Washington, a nephew,
and Charles Augustine Washington, a great-nephew. In 1859, a
century after Washington purchased the property from
Clifton, Charles Augustus sold 652 acres of River Farm to
three Quaker brothers, Stacey, Isaac, and William Snowden of
New Jersey. The Snowdens and other Quaker families came to
the Woodlawn-Mount Vernon area in 1845 for two reason: the
availability of hardwood timber to be used in New England
shipyards, and the eschewance of slave labor in the area.
The Snowdens divided the acreage, then known as Wellington,
into three sections. Isaac Snowden and his wife lived in the
house that still stands at River Farm.
In 1866, 280 acres
including the present-day River Farm were sold to three men
known as “The Syndicate.” A writer from The Washington
Sunday Star visited the estate in 1904 and referred to it as
“this broken and pathetic house.” The Wellington property
was subsequently purchased in 1912 by Miss Theresa Thompson,
a member of a prominent local family that owned and operated
Thompson’s Dairy, a business concern active in the area
until the 1960s. Miss Thompson made changes and improvements
at Wellington, but it was Malcolm Matheson, who bought
the property in 1919, who transformed it into the charming
early-20th century country estate it is today. The
evocative 18th century-style paneling in the ground floor
rooms, the welcoming foyer, and the light-filled ballroom
were all part of Mr. Matheson’s reconstruction of the house.
Out-of-doors he cleared acres of honeysuckle, briar, and
blackberry to plant boxwood, magnolia, wisteria, and other
ornamentals to create a serene park-like setting for his
family.
Wellington faced
one more upheaval. In 1971, Mr. Matheson decided to sell his
home, and the Soviet Embassy offered to buy the property for
use as a retreat or dacha for its staff. In the lingering
Cold War, many people, locally and across the country,
objected to the thought of George Washington’s farm becoming
the possession of the Soviet Union. As a result, Congress
and the Department of State asked Mr. Matheson to withdraw
the property from the market.
Among those
concerned by the potential sale was Enid Annenberg Haupt,
philanthropist, gardener, and member of the Board of
Directors of the American Horticultural Society. Through her
exceeding generosity, the Society was able to purchase the
27 acres then comprising the Wellington estate, agreeing to
keep the property open for the enjoyment of the American
people. In honor of George Washington, one of our nation’s
first great gardeners and horticulturists, the property was
again named River Farm. In 1973, AHS moved its headquarters
form the city of Alexandria to River Farm. First Lady
Patricia Nixon joined Mrs. Haupt at the dedication of the
property and together planted a ceremonial dogwood tree in
the garden.
Since then, the AHS has made River Farm a
living example of the Society’s principles and mission. Our
goal is to ensure the preservation of River Farm and its
contributions to American horticulture for generations to
come. If you would like to help support this cause,
click here.
River Farm serves as the headquarters of
the
American Horticultural Society (AHS)
Vision:
Making America a nation of gardeners, a land of
gardens
Mission Statement:
To open the eyes of all Americans to the vital
connection between people and plants, to inspire all
Americans to become responsible caretakers of the
Earth, to celebrate America's diversity through the
art and science of horticulture; and to lead this
effort by sharing the Society's unique national
resources with all Americans.
AHS is tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of
the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions to AHS are
tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law. AHS is
a registered charitable organization under Section 57-49 of
the Virginia Solicitation of Contributions Law; a financial
statement is available upon written request from the State
Division of Consumer Affairs.
7931 East Boulevard Drive - Alexandria VA 22308
(V) 703.768.5700 - Toll Free: 1.800.777.7931
(F) 703.768.8700 - Publications Fax: 703.768.7533
Copyright © 1998-2012 American Horticultural Society. All rights
reserved. Requests for permission may be submitted to
webmaster@ahs.org.
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