december 16, 2011 (mon.)

Around 4 o'clock this morning Mr. Jefferson awoke to the shaking of an earthquake. But it wasn't a local quake, as the one in 1774 had been. This one was from 700 miles west, just across the Mississippi River.

2011 note: This was the first major shock of the New Madrid series of earthquakes.

november 22, 2011 (fri.)

Growing old is such a bother. The simplest things become inconvenient and complicated. Eyesight dims, spectacles become necessary for reading, but they're so easily misplaced. Fortunately, Martin, a house servant, has found them. Mr. Jefferson gave him 45 cents in gratitude.

nov. 15, 1811 (fri.)

In October, Melatiah Nash, a teacher, librarian, and grocer in New York, wrote concerning a book he is writing, to be called The Columbian Ephemeris and Astronomical Diary. The work is to be a sort of combination of a common and a nautical almanac, as well as a simple introductory textbook of astronomy.

This morning Mr. Jefferson replied, giving his encouragement and some advice, including a method by which readers in places other than where the book is published can calculate their own local time of sunrise "with scarcely more trouble than taking it from an Almanac" --

"add the Log. tangent of the [sun's] declination:

taking 10, from the Index, the remainder is the Sine of an arch which, turned into time and added to VI. Hours

gives Sunrise for the Winter half

and Sunset for the Summer half of the year."

2011 note: There appears to be no free, publicly-accessible, online copy of The Columbian Ephemeris and Astronomical Diary, for the Year 1812, but several university libraries have a print copy.

sept. 25, 1811 (wed.)

Time to look over the accounts and tally up what is owed to David Higginbottom & Co. in Milton. (Well, perhaps a bit past time. These are the outstanding debts from August of last year to August of this year.)

A plantation like Monticello is largely self-sufficient, but of course it's necessary to import iron and salt, and tropical products such as coffee, tea, sugar, and molasses. And some things such as candles, whiskey, and cloth for the slaves' clothing are more convenient to buy than make in the quantities needed.

september 19, 1811 (thurs.)

An annular solar eclipse was visible at Monticello a couple of days ago, on Tuesday, the 17th, the annulus (the bright ring of the sun around visible behind the moon) showing from 1:53 to about half minute past 1:59 in the afternoon, by Mr. Jefferson's slightly slow clock. Of course Mr. Jefferson went out to see it and of course he observed it carefully and took meticulous notes.

september 11, 1811 (wed.)

The Rev. Charles Wingfield, a neighbor who is a Presbyterian minister, held a simple funeral -- a few short words and prayers -- for Mrs. Carr today at the cemetery at Monticello, just down the hill from the house.

This summer has been a rough one. In addition to Mrs. Carr's illness and death, Mrs. Randolph, who had spent three months at Edgehill, had been quite ill for awhile in July, then lost the baby she was carrying, and all of her children had been sick, too. Here at Monticello, Mr. Jefferson's rheumatism was so bad that he was nearly bedridden, and had to postpone what should have been an early July trip to Poplar Forest until mid August.

Let us hope that we have seen the last of these troubles for awhile.

september 5, 1811 (thurs.)

Martha Jefferson Carr was buried today in the family graveyard here at Monticello, just down the hill from the house, beside Dabney Carr, her husband, and good friend of her brother, Thomas. In fact, Mr. Carr was the first person to have been buried in that cemetery, back in 1773. Mrs. Carr's funeral will be at noon this coming Wednesday, the 11th, at the graveside.