Thomas Jefferson to Hugh Chisholm, 10 September 1810
To Hugh Chisholm
Monticello Sep. 10. 1810
Sir
I have just got back from Poplar Forest to which place I must return in 4. weeks. I am therefore anxious you should come immediately & do the small jobs wanting here. unless the cistern be done in time to dry, it will give way again in winter. I shall go to Poplar Forest the latter end of this month & not return till November, when it will be too late to work. I am in hopes the long notice you have had of this will have enabled you to put the President’s work into such a state as not to suffer by a short absence. in hopes to see you very soon I am Sir
Th: Jefferson
PoC (MHi); at foot of text: “Mr Hugh Chisolm”; endorsed by TJ.
Hugh Chisholm was an Irish brickmason and builder whom TJ employed intermittently at Monticello and Poplar Forest between 1796 and 1824. He worked for James Madison at Montpellier and George Divers at Farmington, and between 1817 and 1821 he laid bricks and plastered at the University of Virginia. TJ described Chisholm as “a very good humored man” with an unusual variety of skills (, esp. 2:950; , 48, 100–1; Chisholm to TJ, 17 Nov. 1807, 20 Oct. 1808 [MHi]; TJ to Madison, 5 Sept. 1808 [DLC: Madison Papers]; John Winn to TJ, 7 Feb. 1810; , Pres. Ser., 2:44, 4:592).
Index Entries
- Chisholm, Hugh; builds brick cisterns search
- Chisholm, Hugh; identified search
- Chisholm, Hugh; letters to search
- cisterns search
- Divers, George; mentioned search
- Farmington (G. Divers’s Albemarle Co. estate) search
- Monticello (TJ’s estate); cisterns at search
- Montpellier (Montpelier; J. Madison’s Orange Co. estate); work at search
- Poplar Forest (TJ’s Bedford Co. estate); TJ plans visit to search
- Virginia, University of (Charlottesville); builders at search