The Remarkable Rise of Eliza Jumel (12 page)

The house that stood amidst the woods and fields would become Eliza's pride and joy. Although in need of repair when the Jumels purchased it, the mansion would have looked graceful and welcoming, much as it was described in a 1792 advertisement (and still appears today):

It has … a large hall thro' the center; a spacious dining room on the right, with an alcove, closets, and a convenient pantry and storeroom adjoining, and beyond these, a light, easy mahogany staircase. On the left is a handsome parlour, and a large back room,
particularly adapted and fitted for a nursery. A passage from the rear of the hall leads to an oblong octagon room, about 32 feet by 22, with six sash windows, marble chimney pieces, and a lofty airy ceiling. On the second floor are eleven bed chambers, four with fireplaces and marble hearths; and a large hall communicating with a gallery under the portico, and from which there is a most inviting prospect. On the upper floor are five lodging rooms, three of which have fireplaces; and at the top of the house is affixed an electrical conductor. Underneath the building are a large commodious kitchen and laundry, a wine cellar, storeroom, kitchen pantry, sleeping apartments for servants, and the most complete dairy room, the floor a solid flat rock, and which, with common attention to cleanliness, cannot fail to render the place constantly cool and sweet.
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Outbuildings included “a large barn, and most excellent coach house and stables.” Spectacular views stretched from the New Jersey Palisades to the Long Island Sound and from Westchester to Staten Island. All in all, the property was, as advertised, “an eligible retreat for a gentleman fond of rural amusements and employments … who wishes to pass the summer months with pleasure and comfort.”
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Working from this promising raw material, Eliza and Stephen turned the estate into a showpiece.
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A handful of purchases that seem to relate to the property appear in Stephen's receipt books: 1,500 asparagus roots, purchased in January 1813; 350 boards to be delivered by the ferry boat to Manhattanville (in today's Harlem) in November 1813; a flock of merino sheep, purchased in November as well.
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The Jumels planted a vineyard of French grapes and improved the ornamental gardens around the house.
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They enjoyed homegrown fruit—peaches, pears, apricots, cherries, and plums—and savored oysters, clams, and fish from the Harlem River.
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An advertisement for a brindle cow gone astray in October 1810 suggests that fresh milk and butter appeared on their table as well.
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Walking their lands, Eliza and Stephen could admire a thriving expanse of timber, including chestnut, hickory, cedar, and oak. Fields of clover nourished sheep and soil. By 1814, the property produced
fifty tons of hay per year. A smokehouse and ice house made it possible to preserve food grown or raised on the property.
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Eliza renamed this arcadia Mount Stephen, in honor of her husband.

12

T
here was no greater contrast to the rural tranquility of Harlem Heights than the bustle of Broadway in lower Manhattan. For more than two miles, the avenue was lined with retail stores and booksellers, which occupied “the lower stories of most of the houses.” Large display windows overflowed “with china and glassware, plate, millinery, fruit, confectionary; in short, everything.” Even more astounding were the crowds that filled the thoroughfare: “the throng resemble[d] the dense multitude issuing from the door of a church.” Broadway was the lounge of “the fashionable, the gay, and the idle”—especially women distinguished by the “richness and variety” of their dress. The “superb buildings with their marble fronts [were] completely eclipsed by the teeming fair ones, from morning till ten o'clock at night.”
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In 1812 Eliza and Stephen secured a foothold on this fashionable avenue. Their acquisition, a parcel at the northeast corner of Broadway and Liberty Street, was twenty-six feet wide on the valuable Broadway frontage and extended one hundred and ten feet down Liberty Street. Stephen purchased the property, located three blocks north of Wall Street, for $14,700 at auction.
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Generating generous
rents for years to come, it would be his and Eliza's most valuable possession.

They began maximizing the value of the land immediately. By May 150 Broadway was under construction.
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The three-story brick building had a storefront on the Broadway façade and a separate entrance to living spaces above.
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Storage vaults extended beneath the Liberty Street frontage. A three-story brick house at 69½ Liberty Street (later renumbered 71), was either built or upgraded concurrently.
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James B. Durand, a dry-goods merchant and close associate of Stephen's, would lodge in the 150 building for many years.
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He rented the storefront more briefly, until 1817; the location was “one of the best in this city for business.”
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As for the Liberty Street house, Stephen, Eliza, and Mary may have occupied it, but only for a short time.
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In April 1814, on the opposite side of the Atlantic, Napoleon was overthrown and banished to Elba. By fall the Jumels had decided to relocate to France.
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Eliza's opinions about the move are not recorded. But the books she read during a period of several months preceding their departure are revealing. Documented in a rare, surviving circulation ledger from the New York Society Library, an institution she joined in 1807, her selections—many written in French—hint at an eagerness to embark on life in a foreign country.
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Of equal interest, her reading patterns reveal that this child of an illiterate mother had become a woman of considerable intellectual attainments. She polished off complex titles—in a second language, no less—in as little as three or four days.

On November 28, 1814, Eliza checked out the first volume of a collection of plays in French—by whom is not recorded. On returning it two days later, she borrowed an English translation of
Alf von Dülmen
, a Gothic novel by the German writer Benedikte Naubert.
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The two-volume work of historical fiction, featuring a secret tribunal
and crumbling castle, represented a rare excursion into light reading for Eliza.
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After returning it, she read four volumes of Molière plays—some, if not all, in the original language—between December 3 and December 19. Then, as Christmas approached, she went home with yet another foreign-language title, a French translation of Pliny the Elder's
Natural History
. This tome she returned the same day, possibly having confused the author with Pliny the Younger, whose letters, in English, she borrowed instead. She spent two weeks studying the translation from the Latin by John Boyle, fifth earl of Orrery and Cork; then exchanged it for William Melmoth's equally fine translation, which occupied her for another seven days.
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Biography, history, and the writings of ancient Greek and Roman authors were favored at this time period, so Eliza's choice of Pliny was not atypical for her era.
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But the number of plays she read and, above all, the quantity of books in French, were striking. In the new year, she polished off a volume of plays by Racine—again in the original language—between January 14 and January 17.
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Also that month she read one of the most popular French novels of the eighteenth century, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre's
Paul et Virginie
. The timing of the latter selection is suggestive. The Park Theatre had performed an English-language adaptation of
Paul et Virginie
on New Year's Eve, as part of a triple bill that included a comedy and a melodrama.
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It is tempting to speculate that Eliza attended the performance with her husband and daughter, prompting her to read the novel.

She ended the month with an excursion into religious matters, checking out an English edition of
The Christian's Defense Against the Fears of Death
, the best-known work of the French Protestant theologian Charles Drelincourt.
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Although on February 8 she exchanged it for the first volume of a popular French miscellany—filled with fables, bon mots, and anecdotes about famous men—Drelincourt's words must have spoken to her.
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She borrowed the
Christian's Defense
a second time between February 13 and February 24. Years later a relative said that she found attending funerals difficult; she may have struggled to accept the finality of death.
¹⁹

The last book Eliza took home in February was a dense volume of theology: George Anderson's
An Estimate of the Profit and Loss of Religion
.
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Far more than her reading of the accessible Drelincourt, her choice of Anderson's polemic reveals her as a woman willing to grapple with the rigors of religious philosophy. But once she had returned the volume on March 3, the cycle of checkouts and returns ended. Probably the weather had warmed enough to lure her into the countryside, and she had gone to spend the spring at Mount Stephen. Where she obtained books while in rural seclusion is unknown.

Stephen wound up his commercial affairs as he, Eliza, and Mary prepared for departure. He and Benjamin Desobry had dissolved their partnership at the beginning of 1811 in the increasingly difficult trading environment, but Stephen had stayed in business independently.
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He would remain active as a merchant in France, selecting goods for shipment to New York and Havana (the gateway to the South American market).
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Although he would supply Desobry with carefully chosen French fabrics and accessories, he would no longer own ships and would not form another partnership.
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Before the Jumels left New York, Stephen set up a trust for Eliza. If he predeceased his wife, she would receive a life interest in the mansion at Mount Stephen and the thirty-six-acre homestead lot. The property would revert to his heirs after her death.
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This precaution ensured that if Stephen died during the voyage, Eliza would have a permanent home. For the time being, the mansion and its acreage would be leased.
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The couple's other properties were offered for sale but failed to attract buyers, so they were retained and left to the care of an agent.
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