CHAPTER TWO (II) - A Retelling

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"My earliest recollections are of my grandmother Elizabeth Hemings at Monticello. I was about three years old. She was sick and upon her death bed. I was eating a piece of bread and asked if she would have some. She replied sweetly, "No child, granny don't want bread any more." She smiled, breathed her last and her head rolled to her chest. I have only a faint recollection of her. She was beautiful and kind."

"What of your father."

"He was a private man. I knew more of his domestic than his public life in his life time. It is only since his death that I have learned much of the latter, I have read his works and of his achievements in public office, including that of President. I was almost twenty one and a half years of age when my father died on the fourth of July, 1826."

"Was he strict with his children or involve himself in the plantation?"

"At home he was the quietest of men. He was hardly ever known to get angry, though sometimes he was irritated when matters went wrong, but even then he hardly ever allowed himself to be made unhappy any great length of time. Unlike Washington he had but little taste or care for agricultural pursuits. He left matters pertaining to his plantations mostly with his stewards and overseers. He always had Mechanics at work for him, such as carpenters, blacksmiths, shoemakers, coopers, etc."

"Was there anything he was passionate about?"

"Engineering. He seemed mostly to direct the Mechanics and operations with great interest. Almost every day of his later years he might have been seen among them. He occupied much of the time in his home office engaged in correspondence and reading and writing. His general temperament was smooth and even."

Jefferson's private cabinet provided a place for reading, contemplation, and experimentation.

Jefferson's private cabinet provided a place for reading, contemplation, and experimentation

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"What about with his children?"

"He was undemonstrative. He was however, uniformly kind to all about him. He was not in the habit of showing partiality or fatherly affection to us children. We were the only children out of wedlock to my knowledge."

"What about his grandchildren?"

"He was affectionate toward his white grandchildren, of whom he had fourteen, twelve of whom lived to manhood and womanhood. His daughter Martha or Patsy married Thomas Mann Randolph by whom she had thirteen children. Two died in infancy. The names of the living were Ann, Thomas Jefferson, Ellen, Cornelia, Virginia, Mary, James, Benj. Franklin, Lewis Madison, Septemia and Geo. Wythe. Thos. Jefferson Randolph was Chairman of the Democratic National Convention in Baltimore last spring which nominated Horace Greeley for the Presidency, and Geo. Wythe Randolph was Jeff. Davis' first Secretary of War. Maria married John Epps, and raised one son, Francis."

"Was Thomas Jefferson in good health?"

"He generally enjoyed excellent health. I never knew him to have but one spell of sickness, and that was caused by a visit to the Warm Springs in 1818. Till within three weeks of his death he was hale and hearty, and at the age of eighty three years, walked erect and with a stately tread. I am now sixty eight, and I well remember that he was a much stronger man physically, even at that age, than I am."

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