Page 6 - Demo

Life at Tusculum During the Nineteenth Century
The connection between Sweet Briar and Tusculum was forged in the early nineteenth century through the marriage of Elijah Fletcher, who came from a respectable but cash-poor family in Ludlow, Vermont, and Maria Antoinette Crawford, the daughter of a wealthy Amherst County lawyer and landowner who resided at Tusculum. Their marriage endured for forty years, until Maria’s death in 1853.
It was their daughter, Indiana Fletcher Williams, who founded Sweet Briar College in 1901.
Penniless to Prominent
Elijah Fletcher was one of fifteen children and the only one his parents could send to college. In return, he was expected
to support the rest of the family. After graduating from the University of Vermont, Fletcher set out on a journey that would bring him to Amherst County, though this was not his original destination. In April 1810, when he
left the family farmstead on a little bay mare with $50 in his pocket and two clean changes of linen, he was bound for North Carolina, where he had arranged a teaching position.
 LYNCH’S FERRY
Riding up to fifty miles a day, he reached Alexandria, Virginia, in late July. By that time his mare was exhausted, as were Fletcher’s funds. He wrote to his father that he was “as poor as Job’s cats,” having only $4 left and had eaten only five full meals since leaving New York. With his pockets empty, he was forced to take on a temporary tutoring position with the venerable Mason family of Northern Virginia.
While staying with the Masons through the winter, the young tutor
made an important connection. Fletcher came to the attention of David Shepherd Garland, a member of Congress who was also a lawyer, a landowner with extensive holdings, and a leading citizen of Amherst County, Virginia. Known as “King David” for his wealth and influence, Garland resided at Brick House. He convinced Fletcher to give up his plans
to go to North Carolina by offering him
a more prestigious, and presumably more lucrative, position as the president of
the New Glasgow Academy in Amherst County.
Financial security, however, remained elusive. Fletcher was in his new position for less than a month before a letter from home arrived containing a plea for $150.
Perhaps realizing that these requests would not be infrequent, Fletcher began offering lessons in French and music for young ladies to supplement his income. These lessons were held at Brick House, and one of the students was a daughter of William S. Crawford, a trustee of New Glasgow Academy who resided nearby
at Tusculum. By Christmas, Fletcher
was close enough to the Crawfords to be asked to join them for the holidays. By the following fall, he wrote to his father that “I have long been intimate with a most amiable, accomplished, sensible lady, of one of the most rich, extensive, respectable families in the state.”
This was Maria Antoinette Crawford, who grew up just down the road from Brick House at Tusculum in the company of seven sisters and three brothers. In
his letter, Fletcher went on to describe what life was like there, relating that
the Crawfords “live in a two story, upright house, painted white. They have their carpets on the floors and every
thing in the genteelest style. Mr. C. is
a man between fifty and sixty, quite
grey headed, educated at Princeton, formerly a distinguished Lawyer. Mrs.
C. is a most amiable woman, the young Ladies distinguished for their sense and
ria Antoinette Crawford and Elijah Fletcher flank their home, Tuscul
Ma
um.