A town in Massachusetts makes a giant cheese ball for Thomas Jefferson - July 20th, 1801

On this day in 1801, the town of Cheshire, Massachusetts, made a 1,235-pound cheese wheel as a gift for President Thomas Jefferson.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class,
a show that discovers something new about history every day
of the week. I'm Gabe Lousier, and in this episode,

(00:21):
we're looking at how a cheesy gift from a small
New England town made its way to the White House
dinner table and became a part of US history. The
day was July eighteen o one. The town of Cheshire, Massachusetts,

(00:44):
made a one thousand, two hundred and thirty five pound
cheese wheel as a gift for President Thomas Jefferson. It
would take a great deal of effort to deliver the
cheese to its recipient and Washington d C. But the
newly elected Jefferson was held in high regard in western Massachusetts,
so the task was considered well worth the trouble. The

(01:06):
town's esteem for Jefferson seems strange at first, after all,
he had won the position by defeating John Adams, a
Massachusetts native. But Cheshire was a community of Republican Baptists,
an outlier in a state largely populated by Federalist Puritans.
The people of Cheshire were rural farmers and didn't share

(01:27):
Adam's desire for a stronger central government or the effect
it might have on their local economy. They had also
been subjected to religious discrimination in their home state, and
in Thomas Jefferson they saw a champion of religious liberty,
someone who would strengthen the divide between church and state
and prevent their future abuse. One Cheshire resident, in particular,

(01:50):
town elder and preacher John Leland, was especially fired up
about the country's new president. In the summer of eighteen
o one, he convinced his congregation to pitch in for
a lavish gift to honor the only politician who had
their back. Leland didn't ask for money, though. Instead he
asked that every Republican in town donate a day's worth

(02:14):
of milk from each of their cows. Once collected, the
milk would be delivered to Elijah Brown's cider mill, where
especially modified press would transform the curd into a massive
chunk of cheddar cheese fit for a president. Leland underscored
the idea that milk from Federalist cows should not be
included in the project, lest it spoil the political purity

(02:38):
of their gift. The idea drew wide support and July
twenty was chosen as the date for the town wide undertaking.
On that day, the cream from an estimated nine hundred
cows was handed off to the most skilled dairy women
in town. They then placed the curd inside an oversized
cheese hoop and slowly lowered a giant screw the hoop

(03:00):
to press the cheese. This process took all day, but
ultimately it yielded a ball of cheese more than four
feet in diameter, thirteen feet in circumference, and seventeen inches
in height. Once it was dried, the side of the
cheese was reportedly inscribed with Thomas Jefferson's favorite motto, Rebellion
to tyrants is obedience to God. Elder Leland then led

(03:24):
the town in a hymn, gave a blessing, and dismissed
the crowd after a long day's work. As for the cheese,
it was allowed to age until late November while Leland
made arrangements for its transportation to Washington. It was decided
that he should deliver the gift himself, along with Darius Brown,
the local engineer who had adapted the cider press into

(03:46):
a giant cheese press. With their colossal cargo in place,
the two men set out through the hills of Berkshire
County in a wagon drawn by six horses. A sign
on the side of the wagon identified its contents as
quote the greatest cheese in America for the greatest man
in America. When they reached the Hudson River, the cheese

(04:08):
was transferred to a boat and taken to Baltimore. From there,
it was placed back in a wagon and driven the
rest of the way to Washington, where it arrived on
December twenty nine, eighteen o one. The giant ball of
cheese had garnered plenty of attention during its journey. Crowds
gathered wherever it passed, and newspapers either praised or mocked

(04:29):
the endeavor, depending on which side of the political aisle
they were on. One paper with a Republican bent touted
the gigantic dairy product as the quote ultra Democratic, anti
Federalist cheese of Cheshire. It was also nicknamed the Mammoth Cheese,
marking the first use of the word mammoth as an adjective.

(04:50):
That word was already on people's minds, as bones of
prehistoric mammoths had recently been discovered in the us. On
the morning of New Year's Day eighteen know too, Leland
and Brown ceremoniously presented the mammoth cheese to Thomas Jefferson
at the White House. Leland explained that the cheese was
a token of appreciation from his supporters and Cheshire, and

(05:12):
that it had been produced quote by the personal labor
of freedom farmers, with the voluntary and cheerful aid of
their wives and daughters, without the assistance of a single slave.
It's unclear how much Jefferson cared about that last part,
as he was himself an enslaver. Nonetheless, he accepted the gift,

(05:33):
calling it quote extraordinary proof of the skill with which
those domestic arts which contribute so much to our daily
comfort are practiced by them. He also ensured the cheese
is long legacy, saying quote, I shall cause this auspicious
event to be placed upon the archives of the nation,
while I shall ever esteem this occasion as one of

(05:55):
the happiest in my history. After those remarks, a White
House steward began cutting up the giant cheese and dishing
it out in large slices with bread. It said that
the President, his cabinet, and various other officials partook of
the mammoth cheese, with Jefferson insisting that Leland takes some
home with him as well so that the town could

(06:16):
enjoy it too. Despite his gracious acceptance, the President wasn't
entirely thrilled with his present. Although presidential gifts weren't uncommon
at the time, Jefferson had a strict policy to refuse
them so that he couldn't be accused of impropriety. He
seemed to make an exception for the mammoth cheese, but

(06:37):
then three days later he paid Leland two hundred dollars,
making it a purchase, not a gift. As for the
fate of the Cheshire cheese, it continued to be displayed
and served at the executive mansion for anywhere from six
months to three years. Some sources claim the cheese was
still present as late as March of eighteen o four,

(06:58):
at which point it's condition is said to be quote
very far from being good. No one can say for
certain how long the mammoth cheese was kept or when
it was ultimately thrown out. Some accounts suggest it was
last served at a presidential reception in eighteen o five,
and that the remainder was subsequently tossed into the Potomac River,

(07:19):
but most historians doubt that actually happened. Today, you can
relive all the excitement yourself by visiting a life size
replica of the Mammoth Cheese that sits next to the
Ashoe Wiltakook rail trail in Cheshire. Just bear in mind
that the sculpture is made of fiberglass insulation painteds who
look like cheese. So if you're planning to go b

(07:42):
y O C, I'm gave Lucier and hopefully you now
know a little more about history today than you did yesterday.
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(08:03):
to send them my way at this day at I
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for producing the show, and thanks to you for listening.
I'll see you back here again tomorrow for another day
in History class.