Letter from George Washington, stored away for 110 years, returned to Middletown

Historical artifacts, including a letter from George Washington to a Middletown man, that were hidden away for more than 100 years at the Wadsworth Atheneum were returned to their rightful place Monday. Soon they’ll be on view for the public.

The letter dates to September 1782, when George Washington took a few moments from his duties as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army to write to William H. Van Deursen of Middletown. In the letter, Washington thanked Van Deursen for loaning him a book.

On Monday, the Middlesex County Historical Society took possession of that letter. The society has owned it since 1913, but it’s been stored at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford for 110 years.

“Van Deursen was a prominent merchant and Revolutionary War captain from Middletown. Any items associated with him have historical value, and of course anything associated with George Washington, even more so,” said Jesse Nasta, executive director of the historical society.

“We have other Van Deursen items, his portrait, a sea chest, other letters and documents. We are happy that we now have these to add to the collection,” he said.

Van Deursen (1752-1824) treasured that letter, written by Washington in his own hand from Verplanck’s Point, New York. Verplanck’s Point was used frequently as an encampment for the Continental Army. During the period when Washington wrote the letter, he had assembled his troops at that spot in honor of the Comte de Rochambeau.

Van Deursen’s children and grandchildren treasured it, too. His granddaughter, Margaret Van Deursen, bequeathed it, and two gold pocket watches owned by Van Deursen, to the historical society. She died in 1913.

Mystery

Historical society staff say it’s a bit of a mystery why the letter and the watches were at the Atheneum for more than a century and not in the place that owned them.

Margaret’s will stipulated that the items should belong to a historical society in Middletown, as soon as one was founded. Until that happened, a well-established Connecticut institution should hold onto the items for safekeeping.

Middlesex County Historical Society was founded in 1901, 12 years before Margaret died. The items went to the Atheneum anyway.

Historian Jack Bolles, a society board member, said his best guess is that Margaret wrote her will before the society existed and did not update it. Still, he said, it didn’t make sense that in 1913, with the society established, the items went to the Atheneum.

More than 100 years passed. The items sat in storage, safe but unseen. Every year that went by, they became a more distant memory to everyone, except Atheneum Registrar Edd Russo.

Russo, a Middletown native, contacted Bolles in 2019. The men started working to bring the items to Middletown.

“It was a three-year odyssey. We were working with the curator at the Atheneum, Brandy Culp, we scheduled appointments, they were delayed, then Edd died, then the pandemic happened, then Brandy left and they got a new curator, and it all got drawn out,” Bolles said. “Finally it all came into place.”

Atheneum Director Matthew Hargraves presided over the handover on Monday.

“It’s certainly unusual that we’ve had them for more than 100 years,” Hargraves said. “We have many items on long-term loan at the museum, but it’s a rare circumstance for items to be temporarily stewarded by us.”

The letter and watches will be on exhibit at the 151 Main St. museum starting in mid-May, Nasta said. The museum is open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and by appointment.

They will complement other artifacts linked to the life of Van Deursen, who is the subject of the exhibit “A Vanished Port: Middletown and the Caribbean 1750-1824.”

That exhibit tells of how Middletown became a major port until the rise of steamships, at which time the town shifted from a maritime economy to an industrial economy.

Slave trade

Van Deursen was at the center of the activity. He and other traders sent food and horses to Caribbean islands and in return got sugar, rum, molasses and salt.

Nasta said that until Connecticut ended the importation of enslaved people in 1774, when Van Deursen was 22, he also brought enslaved people to the American colonies. After that, Van Deursen traded enslaved people from one Caribbean island to another.

“We have a letter from 1798. Ship owners from Middletown tell Van Deursen to sail to Martinique to buy enslaved people and then sail to Cuba to sell them,” said Nasta, who also is an assistant professor in the Center for African American Studies at Wesleyan University in Middletown. “Merchants from New England like Van Deursen were buying and selling enslaved people in the Caribbean well into the 1800s.”

Find the Middlesex Historical Society at mchsctorg.wordpress.com.

Susan Dunne can be reached at sdunne@courant.com.