Dogue Run Farm
Dennis J. Pogue, PhD in Anthropology with an emphasis in historical archaeology, tells us that: in 1799, Mount Vernon consisted of 8,000 acres divided into 5 farms: Mansion House, Dogue Run, Muddy Hole, River, & Union, plus a gristmill & distillery. Dogue Run Farm was assembled over time through numerous purchases of smaller tracts.
References in George Washington's diaries as early as 1762 to "Doeg Run Quarter," which was likely composed of at least the western portion of a 500-acre tract purchased from Sampson Darrell in 1757. This holding was enlarged by several smaller parcels acquired in the early 1760s.
Early references to "Doeg Run" describe it as a "Quarter," a term generally used in the region to designate a remote section of a large farm or plantation. During the colonial 18C, the phrase usually denoted a portion of the farm that functioned separately with an overseer & a basic complement of enslaved workers, buildings, & stock, & probably developed because of the fragmented pattern of larger landholdings common in the colonial Chesapeake.
This early quarter was significantly enlarged by the 3 purchases that became the central core of the resurveyed & renamed Dogue Run Farm. The key acquisitions were: 75 acres from Valinda Wade in 1770, 400 acres from Thomas Marshall in 1779, & 118 acres from William Barry in 1783. By 1786 Washington reconfigured these holdings & embarked on a plan to bring order to Dogue Run.
Washington, however, faced inherent obstacles: field systems based on disparate ownership, as well as buildings that were scattered across the newly imagined farm but constructed for outmoded needs. Among the buildings that can be identified on the new farm in the late 1780s were at least 2 dwelling complexes, "Wade's houses" located near "the old dam" on Dogue Run, & "Barry's houses," positioned in reasonably close proximity to Wade's. These dwelling houses were occupied by prior owners, & each complex included a typical array of domestic & agricultural buildings associated with a small tobacco farm.
There was also at least one tobacco house built by Washington at Doeg Run Quarter in the 1760s, as well as a hay barracks, a corn house, & huts for the enslaved people who worked the Washimgton's fields. With the new field system in place, a dwelling available for his overseer & housing for the enslaved workers, Washington turned his attention to improving the agricultural buildings at Dogue Run. In 1786 there were 39 enslaved men, women, & children living on the farm. The number of people grew to 45 in 1799.
These physical improvements were modest at first. The tobacco house was adopted for other crop storage needs & work crews spent available time in the fall of 1788, cutting & hauling rails for enclosing the new fields & preparing stack yards for wheat, oats, & rye.
A simple fodder house was built as well as farm pens & a cellar to store potatoes. Construction work was still at full bore on the Ferry barn in the spring of 1789, when George Washington turned his attention to the need for more substantial improvements at Dogue Run, anticipating a new, solidly built barn on that farm.
The construction of the Ferry barn complex had another 2 years to run to reach completion. However, the bricks for the Ferry complex had been completed the previous fall, & the enslaved bricklayers' duties were nearly complete there as well. Washington seemed intent on shifting to his next project, one that had already been discussed in at least conceptual terms. But no further record of significant building activity can be linked to Dogue Run Farm until 1791. In June of that year, Washington prepared a memorandum of carpentry work to be done throughout the Mount Vernon plantation under the supervision of farm manager Anthony Whiting.
Other needs at Dogue Run took precedence, & by September the Washington's carpenters were at work on a new overseer's house for the farm. The old house of Valinda Wade was incompatible with the new field system & had become a distracting & inconvenient intrusion. It was replaced by a new frame house located in close proximity to the middle meadow.
In the fall of 1792, Washington was prepared to make a major commitment to a new agricultural complex at Dogue Run. By October 28, Washington completed a framing plan & a structural section for a uniquely innovative barn designed specifically to tread wheat.
Washington had several types of wheat planted by enslaved workers in an attempt to find the perfect fit for his fields, including summer wheat, red-straw wheat, lamas wheat, double-headed wheat, yellow-bearded wheat, early wheat, & Russian wheat. He finally settled on a variety known simply as white wheat.
