From Thomas Jefferson to Stephen Cathalan, Jr., 22 March 1804
To Stephen Cathalan, Jr.
Washington Mar. 22. 04
Dear Sir
You remember how anxious I was, when with you at Marseilles, to get the admirable olive of your canton transferred to my own country, and how much trouble you were so kind as to take to effect it. it did not happen that any one of those among whom the plants were distributed took up the plan with the enthusiasm necessary to give it success, and it has failed. Mr. John Couper of St. Simon’s island in Georgia now proposes to undertake it; & being led to it by inclination, and a gentleman of property, in the most favorable situation, he will give the culture a fair trial, and I trust it’s favorable issue is beyond a doubt. he has been informed of the superior excellence of the olive of Marseilles, and knowing your friendly dispositions to our country I have taken the liberty of advising him to address himself to you to put his commission into faithful & careful hands. I ask the favor of you to give such aid to his operations as you can with convenience, and will deem it a great personal obligation rendered myself. Accept for yourself & your respectable family my friendly salutations and assurances of great esteem and consideration.
Th: Jefferson
RC (Mrs. Thomas Dunham, Miami Beach, Florida, 1946); addressed: “M. Cathalan, fils Consul des E. U. d’Amerique à Marseilles.” PoC (DLC); endorsed by TJ.
TJ had shown interest in the admirable olive since Philip Mazzei’s attempts in 1773 to introduce the crop to Virginia. In 1787, while in Paris, he contacted William Drayton, chairman of a committee promoting South Carolina’s agriculture, about shipping olive trees to that state for the purpose of introducing commercial production. After multiple delays, in 1792, “40. young olive trees of the best species” were delivered to South Carolina. Thirty years later, TJ reported that, although a few of the trees still survived, neither South Carolina nor Georgia showed interest in growing olives commercially. It was a circumstance TJ lamented, because he was convinced that olives could be as lucrative as cotton, yet less dependent on slave labor and less taxing on workers (Robert J. Taylor and others, eds., Papers of John Adams, 18 vols. to date [Cambridge, Mass., 1977- ], 9:483n; , 1:710n; Vol. 11:648-50; Vol. 20:332-3; Vol. 24:344-5; TJ to Nicholas Herbemont, 3 Nov. 1822).
john couper of Cannon’s Point gave olive production its fair trial, although not immediately. In 1825, he purchased 200 olive trees from Provence. A severe frost in 1835 “destroyed those trees leaving nothing but stumps and wrecks.” Although the grove recovered, it never produced enough olives for anything but private use by the Coupers (Southern Agriculturist and Register of Rural Affairs [1828], 304-5; The Farmers’ Register, 3 [1836], 246; Macon Weekly Telegraph, 9 Oct. 1868; see also T. Reed Ferguson, The John Couper Family at Cannon’s Point [Macon, Ga., 1994]).