Thomas Jefferson Papers
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From Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 7 January 1805

To Martha Jefferson Randolph

Washington Jan. 7. 05.

My dearest Martha

A letter from mr Randolph to mr Coles informs him he shall bring you here, but does not say if with or without the family. I shall rejoice my dear to receive you here, and them, or as many of them as you can bring. I feel much for what you will suffer on the road for such a spell of severe weather we have not known for years. the thermometer has been down, of mornings at 14. 12. 10. and once as low as 4°. the rivers are all solid. it will be absolutely necessary to provide yourselves with the most abundant covering for the road. I am sorry mr Randolph did not take my pelisse: as nothing can be more dangerous for you than to be exposed to a great degree of long continued cold. on this subject let me beseech you to make ample provision of covering.

I sent you a book of gardening, which I believe has merit. it has at least that of being accomodated to our seasons.

We have but few strangers in town. fewer ladies than I have ever known. the gentlemen complain that the place is very dull. but it is the more comfortable. we shall expect you at the beginning of the next week. my affections to mr Randolph, kisses to the children & tenderest love to yourself.

Th: Jefferson

RC (NNPM); at foot of text: “Mrs. Randolph.” PoC (MHi); endorsed by TJ.

The severe weather, a combination of colder than normal temperatures and heavy snowfall totals, was felt through January up and down the coast and as far inland as Kentucky and the Mississippi Valley. Rivers froze, turbulent seas caused shipwrecks, and cold-related deaths were reported on sea and land. New York City suffered a fuel shortage that drove up prices and left many people without heat. TJ took note of weather reports from around the country, including temperatures of –5° Fahrenheit in Boston on 4 and 5 Jan.; –16° at Hartford, Connecticut, a week after that; and, later in the month, –17° at Poughkeepsie, New York, and –2° at Lexington, Kentucky. The Washington Federalist reported on 16 Jan. that “at no period has the rigor of winter been more severely felt.” Providence, Rhode Island, recorded its 19th snow storm late in January, with reports that “the present winter probably exceeds all that this place has experienced since its settlement” (Norfolk Gazette and Publick Ledger, 31 Dec. 1804; Norwich Connecticut Centinel, 29 Jan. 1805; Providence Rhode-Island Farmer, 31 Jan.; Albany Register, 26 Feb.; David M. Ludlum, Early American Winters, 1604-1820 [Boston, 1966], 170-4; MS weather record, 1802-16, in MHi; Pierre Chouteau to TJ, 12 Feb.).

book of gardening: possibly John Gardiner and David Hepburn, The American Gardener, Containing Ample Directions for Working a Kitchen Garden, Every Month in the Year, printed by Samuel Harrison Smith in Washington in 1804, for which TJ had subscribed for three copies (Sowerby, description begins E. Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, Washington, D.C., 1952-59, 5 vols. description ends No. 809).

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