/ rhUEERTY of library^ DIVISION OF CULTURa T RESOURCES, NARO mv/i. o/£ c ^ 6 / 0 ^ o & à j Ç ' iCof/ZiS'OS Report on the information found in the Papers of Martin Van 3uren, collected at the Cgontz, Campus of the Pennsylvania State University, regarding Lindenwald, through the years 1839 to 1864 ft ¡rc h i7T Cr- i 0 , 9 7 7 * * ; ; ^ By Lorraine M. Poll S, INTRODUCTION This report summarizes all the information on the Lindenwald estate, in Kinderhook, New York, which is to be found in the papers of Martin Van Buren, as collected at the Pennsylvania State University Ogontz campus. Unfortunately, there was little in this artificial collection (gathered together from over ^60 repositories) in the way of specific details of Lindenwald, its furnishings, its outbuildings, and its grounds. The collected correspondence is, however, very revealing as to Martin Van Buren's positive feelings for his country I estate. Repeatedly, his letters speak in praise of his renovated house and boast of his success in farming. Taken together, they give positive proof of the importance of Lindenwald to Martin Van Buren (hereafter referred to as MVB). Therefore, I have appended to this report, copies of portions of letters containing descriptions of, and comments on, Lindenwald by MVB, his family and his friends. Also appended ( but not in­ cluded in this report because of my time limit) are financial ac­ counts for various years after 1841 and the 1 April 1839 deed for Lindenwald from the Pauldings to MVB. Not part of this report nor its appendices, are those letters already in possession of the National Park Service ( including the Upjohn Correspondence which is the best source there is for specific references to the improve“ ments undertaken by Smith Thompson Van Buren, beginning in 1849). The fact that I found ver y little specific information about Lindenwald in my search through the Van Buren papers collected at Penn State (Ogontz), does not necessarily mean that this is the end of the trail. The Ogontz Collection - and the ultimate microfilm publication of the Papers of Martin Van Buren - concentrates on letters to and from MVB, and it contains very few third party letters. Family, friends, and political associates continually lived with and visited MVB &t Lindenwald after his retirement. Women visitors in particular- friends such as Mrs. Butler, Mrs. Martin, Mrs. Gilpin and Mrs. Blair, and relatives such as Angelica Van Buren and Chris­ tina, Cantine - were articulate individuals whose exchanges with MVB, etc., exhibit a remarkable warmth and ability to observe their sur­ roundings. It is certainly possible that somewhere there exist third party letters which mention details about Lindenwald not found in the materials collected at Ogontz. The odds are not high, given the sparsity of concrete information in the Ogontz Collection but the following collections might be searchf^'to advantage for third party letters: Henry D. Gilpin Papers - Poinsett Section, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania j ChrisSdma M. Cantine Papers - Cornell University Throop-Martin Papers - Princeton University : Butler Family Papers - Princeton University f | Blair - Lee Papers - Princeton University j Benjamin Franklin Butler Papers - New York State Library ! Francis P. B&air Papers - Library of Congress | Levi Woodbury Papers - Library of Congress I i FI lì DI KG3 Upon the purehase of the Old Van Ness property in 1839, MVB entered into a succession of improvements to transform Linden- wald into a beautiful estate. The first alterations between 1839 and 1841, were apparently extensive. AS MVB wrote,"... nothing but the House and the trees are where they were, and having a most substantial foundation to go upon, I have found the work of improve­ ment easy."l Living with improvements in progress, however, did not seem to be as "easy". By December 1841, MVB wrote, "My improve­ ments, as I believe is always the case have constantly grown on my hands, and it was not until this very morning that the carpenters took their leave of me." Overall, MVB was very proud of Lindenwald and of the improvements he had made. As he wrote to Levi Woodbury in July 1841, "...I am happy to be able to inform you that my suc­ cess in improving my place has far exceeded my most sanguine anti- 3 cipations." "I can freely say," wrote MVB, "that I have spent my time more agreeable since I have been at Lindenwald, than ever before, and I am happy to add that my place is improving hand over 4 hand." Elizabeth Vanderpoel reported to MVB that, according to John Van Buren, "...nothing short of utter ruin to this republic could rjiust now wean you from your cabbages, chairs, and kettles. "The President," noted Gideon Welles in his journal, "showed us / with much interest the whole ground, priding himself not only in the/ improvements he has himself made, but in what has been done by his I predecessors." 6 |f The grounds were described in an article in the 19 November |y 1841, Washington Globe as follows: II A large garden has been laid out, with a greenhou 1 and a long wall for espahers and for the pro- tections of fruit trees, a copious spring has f f been made to supply a succession of fish ponds P " - ~ : [from which MVB caught his fish for breakfast7] and the process of making into good meadow the moist lands covered with useless buJfes is going on with great activity. „8 The lawn was spacious and beautiful, "crowded with trees, mostly locusts, but also many evergreens and others. „9 As for outbuildings, there was a hothouse in addition to the fad ( ¡/\-e A‘ greenhouse mentioned earlier. 10 In 1844, MVB wrote to Joel R. Poinsett that he had paid between two and three thousand dollars for outbuildings.^^ He had a cottage built for his farmer "under the chestnut trees on the brow of the hill", and a large haybarn ¿ndhaypress erected in the meadows 12 He also expected to build a henhouse, hoping that would finish his improvements on the farm. 13 The [2 August 1862 - May 1863] Estate Record Book for the Estate of MVB identifies a few buildings on the grounds of Lindenwald such as "the carriaae-house .an'^stables. greenhouse and Lodges and other 14 outbuildings.-1 It is my recollection that when I visited Linden­ wald, two carriage houses were mentioned. The Estate Record Book implies there was only one. __ In 1846 and 1847, MVB again had carpenters, masons, "plummers", 15 etc., working at his estate. He wrote to Francis Preston Blair, " "If I have to tell you half the improvements I have made since you were here and am still engaged upon it would make you stare. Paulding says I am stark mad and will soon be bankrupt."'*'^ Later MVB discussed the cost of "a series of improvements, indoors and 2 'out which have cost me between $1500 and 2,00"and with the good taste and convenience of which you and Mrs. Blair will I am sure be very strongly impressed. " 17 Doubtless, one of the conveniences was a bath which he had "had put up" and wbout which he wrote to Gorham A. Worth. Then in 1849, MVB, who was not anxious to have his quiet and comfortable establishment disrupted again, agreed to allow his son Smith, "the heir apparent of Lindenwald", to make improvements on the house to suit his needs. 19 Of this, MVB wrote to Blair, "I was perfectly satisfied with things as they were and equally so with what is proposed. The idea of seeing in life, the change which my heir would be sure to make after I am gone amuses me'.'20 “ The alterations were to be significant. The Smith Thompson Van Buren/Upjohn correspondence and the Upjohn drawings, all in the hands of the National Park Service, and the spectacle of Lin­ denwald as it is today, suffice to make this clear. But there is at least one detail regarding the renovations, found in the Ogontz Collection, which should be of particular interest. MVB, for example, wrote Blair that "to accomplish the object [of renovation] satisfactorily gradual changes will become necessary - such as the taking down the present stabLQ-JW.ings _and _erecting _ To&ar.s.. in their 21 places. " The implications in this sta. tement are that the stâîÿle wings were attached to the house. There is additional evidence that, this was so. Gideon Welles noted in his journal, following his October 1843 visit, that "There are two wings to the house placed near the rear". 22 It seems to me that the answer to Bill Jackson's query regarding the identity of the 2 [buildings] which appear at the left and the right of the main house in:--the [ca. 1847?] picture of Lindenwald found in Richardson's Messages of the President, can be found in the above quotations. In April 1549, MV3 invited Worth to "...come up on Saturday next v and see the Old House before the work of destruction commences."23 MV3 had hired a house in the village to live in through the summer and fall while the improvements were in progress, but decided at the last minute to remain at Llndenwald. 3y December 1549, KV3 was hopeful as he wrote to Blair, that the work was nearly done, "V’e have nearly finished our improvements except painting and Mr. Upjohn has been immenently successful in his plan. The work has also been well done but the expenses enormous - 10,000 will hardly clean our skirts."25 But in April 1850, MV3,Jr. wrote to Blair, "Lindenwald is yet assaulted by masons and carpenters the latter of whom I've been during this mild winter endeavoring to drive to a finish, but they appear to have an unusually strong ten­ acity for these premises.