John Augustine Washington Farm Book, 1814-1846

This manuscript is made up of several sections. Approximately the first 100 pages include inventories of the Mount Vernon estate's contents (silver, dishes, beds, linens, and so on). That set of inventories was begun during Bushrod Washington's tenure as owner of Mount Vernon. Much of the text appears to be in his handwriting. The middle 200 pages are made up of the manuscript contain the daily diary of John A. Washington III for the years 1842-1845, while he owned Mount Vernon. The final 50 or so pages contain John A. Washington's record of work done by various individuals on the Mount Vernon property for several months at the end of 1842 to the beginning of 1843; a variety of other miscellaneous records and accounts are included in these final pages, all of which appear "upside down" in relation to the inventories and diary because they were written with the blank book flipped over so that the original back cover became the front cover. The inventories include two lists of slaves: one is dated 20 July 1815 (during the Bushrod Washington years); and the other with birthdates to April 1845 (during the John A. Washington III years).