Three Letters dated February and July, 1810 Concerning the Settlement of the Mill Grove Mining Company, located in Audubon, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, to John G. Wachsmuth, Philadelphia, a shareholder

Garesché, V.[ital] M.,

About this Item

Quarto, three letters, three pages, in good, clean, legible condition.

Garesché writes Wachsmuth concerning his shares, and to notify him of shareholder?s meetings to be held in the ?Mansion House?, i.e. Mill Grove, in July and August 1810, to discuss the feasibility or profitability of continuing operations.
Mill Grove is a historic house and estate in Audubon, Pennsylvania. Built in the 1760s, it is notable as the first American home of painter and naturalist John James Audubon (1785-1851), for whom the community is named.
The house was built about 1762 by James Morgan, who also operated a mill and lead mine on the property. He built the addition in 1764 or 1765 to most likely serve as guest rooms and a new larger kitchen. Due to its proximity to Valley Forge, it was looted during the American Revolutionary War, although the house was spared from significant damage. The property was then purchased in 1789 by Jean Audubon a French sea captain who owned a sugar plantation in St. Domingue, the family lived near Nantes, an important port in the transatlantic slave trade, in which Jean was involved. In 1803 he sent his 18-year-old son Jean (who soon anglicized his name John James Audubon) to Mill Grove to oversee further development of the mine.
Audubon was briefly a partner with Ferdinand Rozier, son of a friend of his father?s, in managing Mill Grove and the mining of lead deposits on the property. The two young men found it increasingly difficult to work with Francis DaCosta, a Nantes born Frenchman, whom the senior Audubon hired as his son?s guardian. DaCosta eventually succeeded Miers Fisher as Jean Audubon?s agent, and becoming enthusiastic over the mine was anxious to exploit it. Also acting upon the senior Audubon?s request, he assumed a sort of guardianship over his son. DaCosta began to dig for ore and news of the enterprise spread quickly, and in February 1804 DaCosta purchased half interest in Mill Grove. The Mill Grove Mining Company was established in 1808 as a joint stock company, but trouble selling the ore forced the company to cease operations in 1810.Vital M. Garesché, a refugee from St. Domingue, served as the treasurer of the Mill Grove Mining Company, and it is he who wrote the letters to Mr. Wachsmuth, a Philadelphia merchant, and shareholder in the company.
Meanwhile, the younger Audubon, instead of assisting his father in the management of the property and accompanying mine, became enamored with the natural beauty of the area. Young Audubon lived in the area for a little more than two years, he taught himself methods of tracking birds by banding, the first such ever done, and how to set specimens for drawings. He also became engaged to Lucy Bakewell. Francis DaCosta objected to the younger Audubon?s projected marriage, but the son returned to France and obtained his father?s permission. He returned to Mill Grove in 1808 for the wedding. Back in Pennsylvania Audubon and Rozier, frustrated at every turn by da Costa in the management of Mill Grove, sold their half interest to him and briefly went into business. Audubon in New York City, Rozier with a French importing firm in Philadelphia. In 1807 both men left their jobs to begin a general store in Louisville, Kentucky. Rozier did most of the work while Audubon sketched birds and tramped about the surrounding countryside.
In 1813 Mill Grove was bought by Samuel Wetherill, who hoped to extract lead to make paint. The operations were commercially unsuccessful and ceased operations in the 1850s. The property remained in the Wetherill family until 1951 when it was turned over to Montgomery County, which has managed it as a wildlife preserve and nature center, and is known as John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove.
John G. Wachsmuth is listed in the 1810 Philadelphia Directory as a merchant, at 150 Chestnut Street. Garesché is listed in the same directory as a merchant located at 26 Sansom Street.

Seller Inventory # 031113

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Three Letters dated February and July, 1810 Concerning the Settlement of the Mill Grove Mining Company, located in Audubon, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, to John G. Wachsmuth, Philadelphia, a shareholder
• Language: English
• Condition: Very Good