The Sunday Germanna Reunion was interrupted by a visitor. Thomas Jefferson was traveling from Washington City to his Aerie near Charlottesville, but he had stopped at Zimmerman's Inn in Stevensburg. Hearing that we were meeting, he came over to say, "Hello." He was especially interested in meeting the Germans, as he had given a legal opinion concerning the will of Adam Wayland. Incidentally, his opinion was on the "winning" side, though it is not clear how much his views influenced the judges.
Unfortunately, Mr. Jefferson thought that the year was 1805 and he seemed to know nothing of what happened after that date. He did have opinions about the future of these United States in which he was hopeful. He took some note with pride of the success that had been achieved in this new nation where the voice of the people was to be heard. He introduced some new customs in Washington City such as having his guests shake hands and not bow.
He was aware of the petition submitted by the German Congregation of the County of Culpepper, in October of 1776, to the President and Delegates of the Convention of the Commonwealth of Virginia. In this petition we asked for relief from the tithes to support the State Church in addition to our own Church. Relief was not forthcoming immediately and Mr. Jefferson told us some of the reasons. He favored the complete separation of the Church from the affairs of the state but his views did not win acceptance immediately.
He was proud of the fact that when he began as President the number of Federal employees was 75 but that he had reduced that number to 68. There was no doubt that we were listening to President Thomas Jefferson as he looked exactly like all of the pictures that I have seen of him. And his mannerisms accorded with the published accounts. There was no reason to doubt that we were listening to our third President.
Mr. Jefferson is reincarnated today at Williamsburg where he may be visited. Helping him is Bill Barker, who fell into the job of assisting him when someone commented that he looked like Thomas Jefferson and asked him to impersonate Jefferson. Since Mr. Barker had trained as an actor, he succeeded very well in this role, and by his studies of Jefferson's time he became well acquainted with the questions being raised, and by the people who were proposing and opposing the ideas. So he is in an excellent position to answer questions from the populace. His routine is not entirely fixed.
If you visit Williamsburg, do drop in for a visit with Thomas Jefferson, who sometimes is in a different year and a different role.
(19 Jul 05)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.