The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1912-11-28

This salon is, indeed. room Of wonders. Mod
eled after the state apartment Of Louis XIV it
differs from that only in color scheme, for JEFF
ferson chose red for the basic tone in preference
TO the original green.
Much has been written Of the simplicity of
Jefferson. To many Monticello signifies only a
fine example of Colonial America roomness and
comfort. In fact, Jefferson furnished his mansion
not with crude manufactures Of the Colonies, but
fitted his home with all the ornate richness Of
the finest palaces of continental Europe. And,
as in the decorating and furnishing of the build
ing, he equally esthetic in his care for the
creature comfort of his guests.
Most of the things that in Jeiferson's
study have been lost track Of but Mr.. Levy still
has a few, and on one corner of the floor there
remain thousands of ink stains made by Jeffer
sons Tipping off the superhuous ink from his
quill.
Of the original articles there remain fiat
writing table made by Jefferson upon which it is
said he made the first draft Of the Declaration Of
Independence.
When Jefferson died his relatives and heirs de-
cided they could not afford the great expense of
keeping open the house it then stood. Much
of the furniture and furnishings distributed
by WILL gift purchase. Mrs Martha Jefer
Randolph, daughter of the statesman and
executrx of his WILL decided to continue her
home at Edge Hill. the Randolph estate and
anxious to dispose of Monticello. The place
sold to James r. Barclay, missionary, who
ii
sale
Commodore Urah Phillips Levy, then lieu
tenant in the navy, drove from New York city to
Monticello to inspect the property and concluded
a deal by which he acquired from Barclay the
Jefferson mansion and 21S acres of the original
estate. 1t Was run down from lack of attention
and there little the original inside fur
nishings left Sentimental reasons prompted the
commodore to get back the things that had be-
longed to the man who built the wonderful house,
and for years he sought to regain the articles
that had been scattered about the country.
Then came the of the states, and the COM
modore, continuing his allegiance to the Union
was declared "alien enemy" by the Confed
eracy, the estate confscated and the contents
advertised for sale at public auction Again the
mansion was partly stripped of It's furnishings
and many pieces OF furniture were sold at the
confscaton sale to families residing in the neigh
borhood Sofa of the articles were returned
after the war.
After the war, however. when legal adjust
ment of the estate of Commodore Levy was had
and Jefferson NJ. Levy inherited the property. Mr.
Levy continued the labors Of the commodore in
restoring the home as Jefferson had planned and
left It,
majority of the articles were recovered but
those pieces that had been taken from the coun.
try were beyond reach and few Of them were traced
With this as his nucleus. however, Jefferson M
Levy made thorough search of family records and
documents, as we'll getting information from
living friends and relatives who had known the
home when Jefferson lived. and from that list
he has since attempted to get in his many trips
abroad exact duplicates of the works of art
furniture and ornaments originally brought from
France by Jefferson. In this Mr. Levy has sue
ceeded with considerable accuracy, fitting up
Monticello exactly as 1t was originally that
Thomas Jefferson might step into the home in
spirit and find 1t familiar with objects intimate
with his eerthl- residence