The Animals on Washington's Farm

While not technically the originator of mules in America, Washington is frequently called  “The Father of the American Mule." George Washington began breeding mules at Mount Vernon after he received a stud jack from the King of Spain in 1785. In 1786, the Marquis de Lafayette sent another jack and two jennets (female donkeys) to Mount Vernon. A mule is a hybrid cross between a male donkey and a female horse.

Washington was very fond of horses, but became convinced that mules worked longer and harder than horses and required less feed. In 1785, Washington’s inventories listed 130 horses and no mules. In 1799, 58 mules lived on Mount Vernon and only 25 horses.

Mount Vernon has previously employed a team of mules that worked on the Farm site plowing and harrowing fields, hauling compost, and pulling wagons. We also have an American Mammoth donkey that represents “Royal Gift”, Washington’s present from the King of Spain.

Thomas Jefferson once referred to George Washington as one of the finest horseman of his time. As an avid horseman, Washington maintained a stable of fine, well-kept horses. They provided transportation, pulled carriages, worked in the fields and wheat treading barn, and were even used for recreation. Washington enjoyed fox hunting on the Estate and had a pack of hounds specifically for this purpose. He owned an Arabian stallion named Magnolia who raced in Alexandria. Nelson and Blueskin were two of George Washington’s favorite horses and carried him during the Revolutionary War.

Today, we have draft horses that pull wagons, plow, and harrow the fields. Four of our draft horses are Shires, a breed developed in England that is critically endangered. Our smaller horses work in the 16-sided wheat treading barn during late summer and early fall, demonstrating how wheat kernels were separated from the stalk.

There are no references to pet cats at Mount Vernon in the 18th century, but that can probably be explained by the fact that George and Martha Washington were such avid dog and bird people.

There were cats at Mount Vernon during the 18th century, probably “barn cats,” prized for their ability to keep the rodent population under control. Scientific analysis of organic materials found in the cellar of a slave quarter on the estate identified the bones of domestic cats, indicating that enslaved people may have kept felines as pets.

There were far fewer domesticated turkeys than chickens at Mount Vernon. However, they were by no means scarce. Throughout the 1760s, beginning about a year after their marriage, the Washingtons seem to have made a concerted effort to build up their turkey flock. While her husband was away for eight years during the American Revolution, Martha Washington continued to purchase and, presumably, have turkeys raised.

Wooden boxes, constructed by the plantation's carpenters, were provided as nesting places for the turkey hens in the spring. The hens might lay up to 30 eggs, which would hatch after about four weeks. The standard practice of the period would have been to keep the newborn chicks indoors where they could be safe from predators until they were strong enough to fend for themselves.

Turkey was served at both the Washingtons' table and in the slave quarters at Mount Vernon. In addition to roasting, Martha Washington's cookbook included recipes for sousing or pickling the birds "in Imitation of Sturgeon," stewing, boiling, and serving them in jelly. Turkey was also one of the principle ingredients in Yorkshire Christmas Pie, which was a focal point of Christmas dinner with the Washingtons.

View the recipe for Yorkshire Christmas Pie

A large number of turkey bones were excavated by archaeologists at the site of an original slave quarter at Mount Vernon. This suggests that the inhabitants ate turkey. Interestingly, while there are numerous references to the plantation's enslaved workers keeping chickens and ducks, there are no indications that they raised turkeys. This would suggest that the turkeys eaten in the slave quarters were acquired mainly through hunting.

While there are many references to ducks in George Washington’s papers, most of them record his love of hunting wild ducks rather than the cultivation of ducks at Mount Vernon. According to one livestock historian, ducks were probably raised less frequently than other varieties of fowl, perhaps because of the great abundance of wild ducks around the Chesapeake Bay. One visitor to Mount Vernon in 1785 wrote, “The situation is a heavenly one, upon one of the finest rivers in the world. I suppose I saw thousands of wild ducks upon it, all within gunshot.”

The Washington family enjoyed eating duck. Following his retirement from the presidency, George Washington met some friends in nearby Alexandria for dinner at the City Hotel. The proprietor, John Gadsby, mentioned that he had a good supply of canvas-back ducks in the larder, which led Washington to reply, “Very good, sir…give us some of them, with a chafing-dish, some hommony [sic], and a bottle of good Madeira, and we shall not complain.”

George Washington transformed the area just below the lawn overlooking the Potomac into an 18-acre park for tame deer. Washington was very fond of the deer, admitting in a letter of August 8, 1792, that he had given up his beloved pack of hounds because the deer were afraid of them.

Several visitors mentioned the deer, but the most charming is probably the one left by British Lieutenant John Enys from February 1788: “…before the South front is a peice [sic] of Ground kept as a Park in which th[e]re are about forty Deer, some English, some Natives of this country but among the rest one very singular one wh[i]ch he lately got as a present from the Back country called Kentucky. It is the size and shape of the American Deer and its Spots are of the same Colour [sic] but the rest of its Body is as white as the Driven Snow. They are all extreemly [sic] tame, come to be fed when they are called and will suffer you to play with them.”

Although they were beautiful, the deer could also be dangerous. Washington’s diary entry for Sunday, November 9, 1788, records that “One of the Bucks in the Paddock having much wounded the Young woman Dolshy [an enslaved spinner], Doctr. Craik was sent for who came and stayed all Night.”

While Washington was away from Mount Vernon during the presidency, the fences were neglected and his deer escaped from the park. Within just a few years, he noted that, “The old ones are now partly wild, and partly tame; their descendants are more wild, but associate with them; and seldom go beyond the limits of my own woodland.”

In the 1790s, during George Washington’s presidency, his step-granddaughter Nelly had a green parrot as a pet. She wrote to tell a friend in 1794 that she was teaching the bird to sing, with admittedly dubious results “...had the honor & glory of teaching our pretty green pet to sing Pauvre Madelon. You may guess what kind it was. A master peice [sic] of thorough Base [sic] (in music spelt [sic] Bass [sic], but I thought Base [sic] would give you a better idea of his harmonious voice) he is vastly improved I assure you…”

As the family was about to head back to Mount Vernon after George Washington’s retirement in March 1797, Washington wrote “On one side I am called upon to remember the Parrot [sic], on the other to remember the dog. For my own part I should not pine much if both were forgot.”

After her husband's death, Martha Washington kept a cockatoo for company. A guest who stopped by to see Mrs. Washington in the spring of 1802 found that she was too ill to have visitors. Touring the house anyway, the disappointed man noted that there “were several species of parrot” on the piazza, among which was a cockatoo, who was a special pet of Mrs. Washington. When the visitor’s female friend sat down for a few minutes, the cockatoo hurriedly left his cage and “endeavoured to gain her favour by a familiarity which thwarted his design. Alarmed at the hurried motions & chattering of the poor fellow, she fled & left him as destitute as before.” The doctor caring for Mrs. Washington came along about that time and helped the couple to understand that “this bird was the favourite of Lady Washington, who fed & caressed him daily & being neglected since her sickness, he seemed quite lost & dejected.”

There is an interesting clue to another type of pet in a painting done circa 1834 by Alexandria artist John Gadsby Chapman entitled The Bedchamber of Washington In Which He Died With All The Furniture As It Was At The Time.—Drawn on the spot by permission of Mrs. John Washington of Mount Vernon by Jn. G. Chapman.

In order to do this painting, Chapman interviewed several of Martha Washington’s descendants. They knew what the room had looked like in the 18th century and owned pieces of furniture which had been in the room. Chapman painted pieces of furniture which were in several houses and placed them in the setting of the Washington bedchamber, presumably in the places they had originally stood.

On Martha Washington’s desk, which is shown on the left side of the painting, is a glass bowl containing a goldfish.