From Historic Houses of New Jersey by W. Jay Mills, 1902
Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2002
THE house best known in Morristown, and to all students of
history throughout the State and
country at large, is the carefully
preserved Ford Mansion, now
owned by the Washington Association of New Jersey. There
Washington and his military family lived from December, 1779, to June, 1780, as
the guests of Mrs. Theodesia Ford, a daughter of the
Rev. Timothy Johns, and widow of the gallant Colonel
Jacob Ford, Junior. During that period of time-six
months – a greater number of famous characters in the
history of the Revolution stopped under its roof than in
any other dwelling in America.
The Fords were among the wealthiest and most prominent families of early Morristown, and their home, erected
in 1774, was one of the finest dwellings in the country.
At the beginning of 1776 Colonel Jacob Ford, Junior,
made a compact with the Provincial Congress of New
Jersey " to erect a powder-mill for the making of gunpowder, an article so essentially necessary at the present time." The Congress agreed to "lend him two thousand
pounds of the public money for one year without interest,
on his giving satisfactory security for the same, to be
repaid within the time of one year in good merchantable
powder." The Ford gunpowder-mill did good service
all through the war, although its owner died in January
of 1777.
Visiting this historic spot to-day one finds no discordant modern improvements to destroy its old-time
charm. The thick planked walls of the house are
structurally the same as when first erected, and the aged
ivy, which Washington himself planted, clings to them
tenderly. Even Mrs. Washington's garden, with its
glorious view of fine ranges of hills, where the prim little
lady watched for the first daffodils and early flowers in
the spring of 1780, is preserved with somewhat of its
former Georgean quaintness. Inside the house, with the
priceless treasures of hundreds of prominent New Jersey
families, we can easily forget for a few minutes our
modem life and environment and imagine it as the headquarters of the army.
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During the early part of the first winter of Washington's stay, his family, as the childless commander
loved to call his wife and his young officers, endured
many hardships. In January we find him writing to
Quartermaster-General Green, whose duty it was to
provide for him, that there was no kitchen to cook a
dinner in, almost no room for servants, and that eighteen belonging to his family and all Mrs. Ford's were
crowded together in her kitchen, " and scarce one of
them able to speak for the colds they have." When the weather grew milder these conditions changed, and
the whole household revelled in the country, –: as much,
at least, as they dared, for Morristown was in constant
alarm over the enemy which never appeared. The
head-quarters was guarded by a life-corps of two hundred and fifty men, under the command of the hand-
some Lieutenant William Colfax, who, like his friend
Alexander Hamilton, then courting Betsey Schuyler,
married into the Schuyler family,* so prominent in New
York and New Jersey.
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Lieutenant William Colfax married Miss Hester Schuyler, the daughter of Casparus Schuyler, of Pompton, New Jersey. During General
Washington's stay at Towowa, a few miles away, he was on several
occasions a guest at the Schuyler homestead. An amusing story is related of her having made it a boast through life that she had never
combed her own hair or put on her own shoes and stockings. Her eccentricities were many and varied ; she led her handsome husband anything but
a peaceful existence. She had a violent aversion for the color black, and
would not allow a black beast or bird near her home. There is a tradition that she kept to her chamber for a space of ten years owing to
some small offence of her husband's, and when the time was up she
came forth richly gowned, and drove to church in her great coach, as if
nothing had happened, to the wonderment of the neighborhood.
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From the old letters and tales which have come down
to us we know that the ladies of the little army circle
entered into the full zest of camp life. No doubt Mrs.
Washington as the wife of the commander-in-chief of
the army, in her draughty room and high up in her four-poster, exposed to the gaze of the guards by the windows,
was happier than she was as the first President's wife in
New York writing to a friend of her loneliness and the
forms which bound her an angry prisoner of state.
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In the middle of April the household was made joyful by the arrival of the French minister, the Chevalier
de la Luzerne, and a distinguished Spanish gentleman,
Don Juan de Miralles, representing his court, bearing
tidings of aid for the colonies. The countryside was
breaking away from winter's bondage, and a white world
filled with suffering seemed to be only a memory, so
great was the influence of the cheerful news. On the
night of April 24 a ball was given for the foreign guests
at the Arnold Tavern, then kept by a son of Erin
named O'Hara.
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The Arnold Tavern is still standing somewhat modernized on the
west side of the Morristown "Green." General Washington occupied it
as his head-quarters during his first stay in Morristown in 1777. It wa
then owned by Colonel Jacob Arnold, the commander of a company of
light horse, a detachment of which was on duty as body-guard of General Livingston. |
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Hundreds of candles shone on one
of the largest companies that had assembled for amusement since the beginning of the war. The occasion
was somewhat saddened by the illness of the Spanish
envoy, who lay tossing with fever in one of the
upper chambers of the Ford Mansion. He grew
rapidly worse, and four days later he died. In the diary
of Dr. Thacher there is a description of his funeral,
which was attended with much pomp and ceremony.
It reads:
I accompanied Dr. Schuyler to head-quarters to attend the funeral
of M. de Miralles. The deceased was a gentleman of high rank in
Spain, and had been about one year a resident with our Congress from
the Spanish court. The corpse was dressed in rich state and exposed
to public view, as is customary in Europe. The coffin was most splendid and stately, lined throughout with fine cambric, and covered
on the outside with rich black velvet, and ornamented in a superb manner. The top of the coffin was removed to display the pomp and
grandeur with which the body was decorated. It was in a splendid full
dress, consisting of a scarlet suit, embroidered with rich gold lace, a
three-cornered gold-laced hat, a genteel-cued wig, white silk stockings,
large diamond shoe and knee buckles, a profusion of diamond rings decorated the fingers, and from a superb gold watch set with diamonds several rich seals were suspended. His Excellency, General Washington,
with several other general officers, and members of Congress, attended
the funeral solemnities and walked as chief mourners. The other officers of the army, and numerous respectable citizens formed a splendid
procession extending about one mile. The pall-bearers were six field-officers, and the coffin was borne on the shoulders of four officers of the
artillery in full uniform. Minute-guns were fired during the procession,
which greatly increased the solemnity of the occasion. A Spanish priest
performed service at the grave in the Roman Catholic form. The coffin
was enclosed in a box of plank, and in all the profusion of pomp and
grandeur was deposited in the silent grave, in the common burying-ground near the church at Morristown – a guard is placed at the grave
lest our soldiers should be tempted to dig for hidden treasure."
From an old diagram of the Ford Mansion we learn
that the rooms on the east of the main hall were retained
by the Widow Ford. For many weary months her
young son Timothy suffered in one of them from a
gunshot wound. We are told that every morning as
Washington left his bedroom he knocked at Timothy's door to ask how the young soldier had passed
the night. And those who saw the kind attentions
thought how beautiful they were in so great a man.
The room on the west side was used as a dining-room,
and there young Alexander Hamilton often presided at
the head of the chief's table and convulsed the company with his ready wit. The east room on the second floor
was used by General and Mrs. Washington as a bed-chamber, and the other rooms in the house served the
members of the staff in like capacity. After Washing-
ton's almost pitiful letter to General Green, a log building was erected on the east side of the house to serve
as a kitchen, adding greatly to the comfort of the
inmates.
All these quaint apartments are filled with the lares
et penates of many long-dead Jerseyites. The great
punch-bowl given to Colonel Richard Varick by Washington; rare Lowestoft plates and heavy cut glass once
forming a part of Mt. Vernon's china-closet; the silver
urn purchased by Hamilton when he had grown rich
from his legal practice; a little tea-caddy given by Lafayette to some fair maid of the long ago, seem to beckon
the passing antiquarian. In one of the rooms is a large
collection of old English pottery, including many
examples of Staffordshire and Wedgewood, and only
excelled by a few collections in America. The many
beautiful examples of the furniture of our forefathers, the
rare antique chintzes printed from copper plates, and the
collection of old prints would take almost a volume in
themselves if adequately described.
From the walls of the wide hall and some of the
rooms many brave and patriotic men and women of
colonial days gaze peacefully down on the time-worn
floor. There are redcoats, too, among them. Notably
the handsome Colonel Tarleton, who is said to have
caused a score of Tory hearts to bleed in America when
he gave his affections to the noted Mrs. Robinson in England. (Mrs. Robinson, the actress and mistress of George IV., then Prince
of Wales, is familiar to this generation in prints of her many beautiful
portraits by Lawrence, Reynolds, and others.) All the delightful traditions we have heard
of His Excellency General Washington tripping minuets
with Mrs. Knox, of Kitty Livingston's witty squabbles
with President Witherspoon of the College of New
Jersey on his visit to Morristown, and of Mrs. Washington presenting her favorite officers with hair cushions and
other articles of her handiwork would be verified, and
other interesting occurrences we have no knowledge of
told in addition, if the boards had the gift of speech.
Two oft-repeated anecdotes are related of the Washingtons when occupying the Ford Mansion. The first is of
Lady Washington. Not many weeks after she had passed
through Trenton, surrounded by her Virginians, on her
way to Morristown, the most prominent of the ladies in
Morris County resolved to visit her at the Ford Mansion
in a body. Dressed in silks and brocades, they called in
state, and found her ladyship" knitting," attired in a simple gown covered by "a speckled apron." She received
them very graciously, but after an exchange of courtesies
resumed her knitting. As they idly sat about her she
delivered her famous rebuke, which is worthy of a
place in history and has kept alive the story,-–:
American ladies should be patterns of industry to their country-women, because the separation from the mother-country will dry up the
sources whence many of our comforts have been derived. We must
become independent by our determination to do without what we cannot make ourselves. While our husbands and brothers are examples of
patriotism, we must be examples of thrift and economy.
The other is of General Washington's enjoyment of
the ludicrous. It was reported by General John Doughty,
a revered name in Morristown history. He often told
his friends that he heard of Washington laughing aloud
but once during his stay in Morristown in the years
1779 and 1780. The exception took place in the
spring of the latter year. Washington had purchased
a young mettlesome horse of great strength, but unbroken to the saddle. A townsman and boaster, who
made loud proclamation of his horsemanship, solicited
and received permission from the general to break the
horse for him. Washington and many men of the
army assembled to see the horse receive its first lesson.
The horse, capering and rearing, was taken to a field
and there the man, after many preliminary flourishes,
essayed to mount him. He finally succeeded by a leap,
but was no sooner seated than the horse made a "stiff
leap," threw down his head and up his heels, casting his
rider over his head in a sort of elliptical curve. Washington, gazing at the man sprawling in the dirt, but
unhurt, entirely lost his gravity, and laughed aloud
so heartily that the tears rolled down his cheeks.
No one visits the Ford Mansion to-day without feeling
a profound reverence for its early associations. Next
Mt. Vernon it should occupy a shrine in the heart of
every American, for there Washington hoped and suffered, and laid the plans which ultimately brought the
war to a close.
