Fatland
Fatland, also known as Fatland Farm, Vaux Hall, Fatland Ford, and most recently, Vaux Hill, is a Greek Revival mansion and estate in Audubon, Pennsylvania. Located on the north side of the Schuylkill River, opposite Valley Forge, the property was part of the Continental Army's 1777–78 winter encampment. On consecutive days in September 1777, its stone farmhouse served as headquarters for General George Washington and British General Sir William Howe.
The farmhouse was demolished about 1843, and the mansion built on its site was completed about 1845. The Wetherill Family owned the property for 121 years—1825 to 1946. A private cemetery contains the graves of some of Fatland's owners, and of Free Quakers who supported the Revolutionary War.
Fatland Farm
The Perkiomen Creek empties in to the Schuylkill River just north of Valley Forge. The river curves in an oxbow and forms a peninsula with the creek. Early settlers called the area the "Fatlands of Egypt" because of its frequent flooding and rich alluvial soil.James Morgan dammed the creek and built a grist mill and miller's house on the north side of the Perkiomen Peninsula in 1749. He built the country seat "Mill Grove" in 1762. In a February 28, 1771 advertisement in The Pennsylvania Gazette, he announced the upcoming auction of two adjacent properties, Fatland Farm and Mill Grove Farm:
To be sold at public venue on the 4th day of March, upon the premises, if not sold before at private sale, by the subscriber, in Providence township, Philadelphia county, two valuable plantations, one of which consisting of 300 acres, bounding near a mile on the Schuylkill river, whereas a good shad fishery; it also bounds the lands of Henry Pawling, Esq., and extends along the same to the Perkiomen; there are about 150 acres cleared, 20 whereof are good watered meadow and a great quantity more may be made; the woodland well timbered and the whole well watered, with the conveniency of watering every field on the plantation; there is a good stone dwelling house, brew house, with a large frame barn, three good bearing apple orchards, with a large peach orchard bearing plentifully. The other contains 250 acres ..."
This auction took place, but neither property sold. Instead, James Vaux purchased Fatland Farm by private sale more than a year later, on June 18, 1772.
Vaux Hall
Vaux renamed the property "Vaux Hall." The 300-acre farm spanned the middle of the peninsula. Part of its western boundary, shared with Henry Pawling's farm, was the road south to Fatland Ford, a shallow crossing of the Schuylkill River, opposite Valley Forge.Vaux was an English farmer and Quaker, who emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1771. He expanded the existing stone farmhouse in 1776, and constructed its stone barn. The following year he married Susanna Warder of Philadelphia, also a Quaker.
Vaux took no side in the Revolutionary War. On September 21, 1777, General George Washington, accompanied by a detachment of his life guard and aide-de-camp Tench Tilghman, surveilled British troops at Valley Forge from the north side of the river. The river was swollen, which prevented the British from crossing. At Washington's direction, his aide urgently wrote to General Alexander McDougall—"... the River has fallen and is fordable at almost any place, the Enemy can have no Reason to delay passing much longer. He would have wrote you personally, but is employed in viewing the ground and making disposition of the Army which arrived yesterday." Vaux invited Washington to dine and stay the night—the life guard secured Fatland Ford overnight. Washington and his troops departed early the following morning.
That same morning, British Captain John Montroser recorded in his journal: " 22nd. — At 5 this morning... the Light Infantry and Grenadiers passed over the Schuylkill at Fatland Ford without a single shot and took post." Early that evening, General Howe crossed the ford and made Vaux Hall his headquarters. Vaux dined with Howe, who asked about the rebel officer who had been spotted the previous day. When informed that it had been Washington himself, Howe reportedly replied: "Oh, I wish I had known that. I would have tried to catch him!" The opposing commanders-in-chief probably slept in the same bed on consecutive nights. As Howe slept, the British Army began a night crossing from Valley Forge. Montroser: " 23rd. — Just after 12 o'clock this night the whole army moved to the opposite side, on the north side of the river Schuylkill by the way of Fatland Ford, and by 10 a. m. the whole baggage and all had happily passed it. After the principal body had got on the north side of the Schuylkill about one mile the army halted to dry themselves and rest."
General Washington and the Continental Army returned to the area in December 1777, and began the six month Valley Forge encampment. Most of the troops were quartered south of the river, but Vaux's farm was the site of troop encampments and support facilities. General John Sullivan supervised construction of a floating-log bridge slightly downstream from Fatland Ford. This bridge provided a river crossing in times of high water, and an escape route should British attack from the south. The floating bridge was destroyed by ice in 1779.
The British army, in September, 1777, passed from Valley Forge to the left bank of the Schuylkill by the Fatland Ford; not many months later , when the American forces evacuated Valley Forge, they crossed at the same place, as just mentioned. Both armies swarmed over the Vaux Hill plantation like devastating clouds of locusts. Tearing down fences, destroying trees and doing thousands of pounds' worth of damage in various ways, they wrought such havoc that Mr. Vaux's estate was seriously embarrassed in consequence.
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania paid Vaux £1,000 in compensation for damage done to his property during the war. "In the 1785 assessment of Providence township, James Vaux is recorded as a farmer, owning a farm of 300 acres of land, dwelling, four horses, six cows, one servant, and one riding chair." He later served in the Pennsylvania Legislature. Vaux sold Vaux Hall to John Echline Allen, about 1794.
There are no known images of the "good stone dwelling house" described in 1771, or of the house as expanded by Vaux.
Fatland Ford
By 1803, the farm was owned by James S. Ewing, who advertised it for sale in September. He listed its buildings: "... a dwelling-house 45x35 feet, built of stone,... Smith's house and Shop, Ice house, spring house, poultry house, smoke house, large stone barn with stables for 40 head of horses and cows..."Ewing sold the property to Englishman William Woodhouse Bakewell who, with his wife, 4 daughters and 2 sons, occupied it in January 1804. Bakewell's wife, Lucy Green Bakewell, died during their first year living there. Their eldest daughter, also named Lucy, took on the duties of hostess.
Bakewell renamed the property "Fatland Ford," and operated it as a gentleman's farm. Robert Sutcliff, a relative of Bakewell's estate manager, visited in August 1804:
This plantation, consists of 300 acres of good land, 200 of which are cleared, and 100 covered with wood. On the estate is a well finished square stone house, about 15 yards in length, with a wide boarded floor piazza, both in back and front. These afford excellent accommodation during the summer season... Besides the dwelling house, there is an excellent kitchen, and offices adjoining; with a large barn, and stables sufficient to accommodate 40 horses and cows; all well built of stone. The estate extends the whole breadth betwixt the Schuylkill and Perkiomen. On the former river there is a Shad Fishery which is of considerable value... This estate, with all its appendages, cost about 3600£ sterling, which is but 12£ per acre, the buildings included. The house is so situated that it commands one of the finest prospects in Pennsylvania, and, being on a rising ground, is dry and healthy. The whole together forms one of the most beautiful spots I have seen in the United States.
Audubon
Sutcliff also visited Mill Grove, then owned by Jean Audubon, a retired French sea captain living in Nantes, France. Lead deposits had been discovered on the farm, and Captain Audubon formed a partnership with French businessman Francis Dacosta to mine the ore. Sutcliff wrote: "In the plantation adjoining to my relation's, we visited a lead mine on the banks of the Perkiomin, which was then worked by a Frenchman. He invited us to go down into it, where, at the depth of about 12 feet, I saw a vein of lead ore 18 inches in thickness; and as it is wrought at a very easy expense, there was a great probability of its being a very valuable acquisition."The "Frenchman" Sutcliff met may have been Dacosta, or it may have been the captain's 19-year-old son John James Audubon—they had arrived in America together the year before. Audubon and 17-year-old Lucy Bakewell fell in love, although her father thought both of them too young to marry. Informed by letter of his son's intentions, Captain Audubon initially opposed the marriage. With money borrowed from the Bakewells, Audubon sailed for France in January 1805 to sort out what to do about Mill Grove and the lead mine, and to obtain his father's permission to marry. He returned to the United States in May 1806 having attained his majority and his father's blessing. Bakewell also consented to the engagement. Audubon sold Mill Grove and his father's interest in the lead mine to Dacosta in September 1806, and moved to New York City to work as a clerk in the counting house of Bakewell's brother. In August 1807, he and a partner opened a pioneer store in Louisville, Kentucky. On April 8, 1808, John James Audubon and Lucy Bakewell were married at "Fatland Ford." The next morning, the newlyweds departed for Louisville, where Audubon continued his short-lived career as a merchant.
When Bakewell advertised Fatland Ford for sale in 1813, he listed "a threshing-mill, which threshes 12 bushels of barley in an hour," and livestock of "200 Sheep of the English Morena breeds, span of oxen and other cattle, 4 asses, 7 horses,... 30 pigs of the English Berkshire breed." The sale was not successful; Bakewell was still the owner of the property when he died there in 1821.
Lucy Green Bakewell had been buried at "Fatland Ford" in 1804. Bakewell remarried, and was initially buried in Philadelphia. His descendants later had him reinterred beside his first wife.