Thomas Jefferson to William or Reuben Mitchell, 18 December 1811
To William or Reuben Mitchell
Poplar Forest Dec. 18. 11.
Sir
I did not bring with me from home the papers respecting my wheat ground at your mill of the crop of 1810. but I have, in a letter written from home to Doctr Callaway on that subject a very exact statement made out on a view of all the papers. I recieved (according to the accounts rendered me by Gibson & Jefferson) 232. barrels of flour. most of them were superfine; the number of fine I have no note of here, but I know they were very few, and therefore I shall take no notice of them. they sold for from 9. to 9¾ D. but averaged 9¼ D. the expences of carriage, toll, Commn Etc. were 1½ Dollar a barrel, so that they netted me 7¾. D. a barrel. considering the wheat retained as flour netting this much you will be able to settle the difference between that & the half dollar a barrel due for Superfine.
I have requested mr Griffin to agree with Colo Watts & yourself on a day when our other matter may be setled either at Colo Watts’s or Lynchburg. Accept the assurances of my respect
Th: Jefferson
P.S. Dec. 19. since writing the above I have found that I was mistaken in supposing that mr Griffin had sent the overseers’ share of the wheat to another mill. that was a transaction of the last year, which I had confounded with the present. he is entitled to 81. bushels & Roberts to 49. making 130. bushels of what was delivered you. he is consequently a party interested in the question between us.
PoC (MHi); adjacent to signature: “Mr Mitchell”; endorsed by TJ.
On 19 May 1812 TJ settled his “wheat accounts for 1810. & 1811” with William & Reuben Mitchell. The overseers’ share of the wheat crop proved to be somewhat smaller than TJ had originally estimated, with Burgess Griffin receiving $47.80 for 63⅓ bushels and Thomas Roberts $28.61 for 38¹⁄₉ bushels. TJ’s “part was 699. bushels which @ 4/6 as arbitrated = $524.25” (, 2:1277).
Letters from Burgess Griffin to TJ of 8 Nov., 21 Dec. 1811, and 10 Jan. 1812, not found, are recorded in SJL as received on 22 Dec. (from Poplar Forest), 26 Dec. 1811 (from Lynchburg), and 22 Jan. 1812. SJL also records missing letters from TJ to Griffin of 17 and 30 Dec. 1811.
Although he did not mention it in his correspondence, TJ “Felt shock of an earthquake abt. 4. oclock of the 16th” (, 2:1272). This earthquake, discerned as far away as Georgia and Massachusetts, was the first of a series of tremors and aftershocks centered near New Madrid in what is now southeastern Missouri and continuing for months (James Madison to TJ, 7 Feb. 1812; Elizabeth Trist to TJ, 24 Mar. 1812; William Leigh Pierce, An Account of the Great Earthquakes, in the Western States particularly on the Mississippi River; December 16–23, 1811 [Newburyport, Mass., 1812]; Samuel L. Mitchill, “A Detailed Narrative of the Earthquakes which occurred on the 16th day of December, 1811 …,” Transactions of the Literary and Philosophical Society of New York 1 [1815]: 281–307).
Index Entries
- Callaway, George; TJ’s dispute with search
- earthquakes; near New Madrid search
- flour; price of search
- Gibson & Jefferson (Richmond firm); flour sold for TJ search
- Griffin, Burgess; letters from accounted for search
- Griffin, Burgess; letters to accounted for search
- Griffin, Burgess; Poplar Forest overseer search
- Mitchell, Reuben; and TJ’s wheat search
- Mitchell, Reuben; letters to search
- Mitchell, William; and TJ’s wheat search
- Mitchell, William; letters to search
- Mitchell, William & Reuben (Lynchburg firm); TJ’s transactions with search
- overseers; crop share of search
- Poplar Forest (TJ’s Bedford Co. estate); Overseers at; crop share of search
- Poplar Forest (TJ’s Bedford Co. estate); wheat grown at search
- Roberts, Thomas; Poplar Forest overseer search
- Watts, John; and settlement of TJ’s accounts search
- wheat; at Poplar Forest search
- wheat; TJ’s income from search