To George Washington from Jean-Jacques Dufour, 19 December 1796
From Jean-Jacques Dufour
Pittsburgh le 19. Décembre 1796.
Monsieur
Dans la Gazette de Philadelphie du 1r Fevrier 1796. qui m’est tombée par hazard dernierement dans les mains,j’ai vu que vous offriez quantite de terre a Vendre sur les rivieres de l’Ohio et du Kenhawa.1 Dans le cas que vous ne les ayez pas encore toutes vendues et que vous soyez encore intentionnez de les vendre;2 je prends respectueusement la liberte de vous prier par celle ci de vouloir bien si vos grandes occupations vous le permettent me faire l’honneur de me marquer les prix que vous mettez a chacune de vos pieces de terres, afin que s’il me convientje puissent les visiter au retour d’un voyage que je me propose de faire dans le Kentuky; Alors je prendrois la liberté d’aller chez vous pour convenir definitivement.
Votre Amour reconnu pour la prosperité de ces contrées fait que j’ose esperer que vous daignerez m’honnorer d’une reponce favorable, que je vous prie d’adresser à Poste restante a Limestown dans le Kentuky;3 Car je ne pretend point grossir la foule des agioteurs de terres qui entravent si terriblement les progres de l’agriculture, mais je cherche un terrein propre a recev⟨oir⟩ une grande famille de bons laboureurs Suisses instruits particul⟨ierement⟩ dans la culture des Arbres, des Bestieaux et de la Vigne, qui sur la renommée dont jouis ce pays m’ont envoyé pour leur choisir une place ou ils puissent exercer leur industrie.4
Daignez recevoir l’expression des Sentiments d’estime et de respe⟨ct⟩ dont est pénétré pour Votre Excellence cellui qui en faisant les voeux les plus sinceres pour votre constante prospérité ose se dire De Votre Excellence Le Très humble et Obeïss⟨ant⟩ Serviteur
Jean Jacques D⟨ufour⟩
ALS, DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters. No reply to Dufour from GW has been found.
Filed with this letter is a summary translation that reads: “Jean Jacques Dufour writes to Pres’t Washington under date of Pittsburgh, December 19th, 1796, saying that he has seen that the U. S. Gov’t has land for sale on the Ohio and Kenhawa rivers. He requests the President to let him know at what price this land will be sold, as it is his intention to establish a colony of Swiss agriculturists in the U. S.” Dufour actually inquired not into government lands, but into the sale of GW’s western lands on the Ohio and Kanawha rivers (see n.1 below). In his letter, Dufour also mentions his proposal to inspect GW’s tracts during his return from a planned trip to Kentucky, and he offers to pay a visit to GW to make a final decision. Dufour makes these queries to assist a family of Swiss agriculturists knowledgeable in the culture of trees, livestock, and wine-growing, and who plan to settle in the United States.
Born in Montreux, in the Vaud canton in Switzerland, Jean-Jacques Dufour (1763–1827) came from a family of wine-growers. He studied viticulture before emigrating in 1796 to the United States, where he was known by the name John James Dufour. Soon after his arrival, Dufour investigated viticulture in various states. Over the next two years, he inspected vineyards in the vicinity of New York and Philadelphia. Dissatisfied with his findings, he traveled west and eventually organized the Kentucky Vineyard Society. In 1798, Dufour purchased for that society over 600 acres on the banks of the Kentucky River, twenty-five miles west of Lexington. He planted vines on a section of the land, called “First Vineyard,” but disease damaged them, and the society came to an end in 1804. In the early-nineteenth century, several of Dufour’s relatives and friends came to the United States and established a vineyard on the Ohio River (see n.3 below). Dufour later spent several years in Europe, but returned to America and published The American Vine-Dresser’s Guide in 1826.
1. For GW’s advertised sale of his lands on the Ohio and Kanawha rivers, see Advertisement, 1 Feb. 1796. The notice appeared in several newspapers, including Claypoole’s American Daily Advertiser (Philadelphia) for 17 February.
2. GW’s western lands still remained unsold; on 19 Feb. 1797, GW informed New York merchant Joseph Fay that his “lands on the Ohio & great Kanhawa Rivers are not yet disposed of” (Fay to GW, 30 March 1797, n.1, in 1:56–57; see also GW to Unknown, 25 Feb. 1797).
3. Situated at the confluence of Limestone Creek and the Ohio River, Limestone, Ky., was renamed Maysville in 1787, after John May, a delegate of the Kentucky district. However, the local post office opened under the name of Limestone in 1794, and was not officially changed to Maysville until around 1799.
4. The Commercial Advertiser (New York) for 29 July 1801 printed the following report: “Several families immediately from Switzerland have lately arrived in Kentucky; they are principally Vine-dressers, and have brought with them several boxes of vines and choice fruit trees of that country, as well as the seeds, stones, &c. of those fruits. Among those emigrants are three brothers and three sisters of Mr. John James Dufour, the present manager of the Kentucky Vineyard, who have migrated to this country in consequence of the flattering accounts given by their brother, of the success of the vine in Kentucky; they expect to be followed by at least 200 of their countrymen, as soon as they can be informed of their arrival and friendly reception, &c.” Many of the Swiss who settled in Kentucky, including Dufour’s relatives, came from Blonay and Montreux, Switzerland. On 1 May 1802, Congress passed the “Act to empower John James Dufour, and his associates, to purchase certain lands,” which authorized Dufour to buy and occupy land inside the present-day boundary of Indiana, and allowed him twelve years to pay off the tracts ( 47–48). Several Swiss immigrants planted vineyards on these tracts, which they called New Switzerland (present-day Vevay in Switzerland County, Ind.).