TheCheshire Mammoth Cheese was a gift from the town ofCheshire, Massachusetts, toPresidentThomas Jefferson in 1802. The 1,235-pound (560 kg)cheese was created by combining themilk from every cow in the town, and made in a makeshiftcheese press to handle the cheese's size. The cheese bore theJeffersonian motto "Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God."[1]
The town of Cheshire was incorporated in 1793 from parts ofAdams,New Ashford,Lanesborough, andWindsor. The original settlers came fromRhode Island and created New Providence Plantation on Providence Hill, later renamed to Stafford Hill in honor of Col. Joab Stafford who originally surveyed the area in 1767 and later led local revolutionary soldiers against the British in theBattle of Bennington.[2]
Given the political landscape of the time, there was a fear that the moreRepublican Jefferson, considered an "infidel of theFrench Revolutionary school," would harm the religious interests of the citizenry, and that "the altars ofNew England would be demolished, and all their religious institutions would be swept away by an inrushing and irresistible flood of French infidelity."[3]
Onepastor in Cheshire,Elder John Leland, opposed this line of thought. A beleaguered minority in Congregationalist New England, theBaptists were perhaps the strongest advocates in the early republic of theseparation of church and state. Leland had met Jefferson during his time inVirginia and the two grew to have a friendly relationship. Leland remembered this as he served in Cheshire, and campaigned strongly for Jefferson.[3]
Leland, believing that his efforts helped Jefferson win the Presidency, encouraged his townspeople to make a unique gesture to Jefferson. He urged each member of his congregation "who owned a cow to bring every quart of milk given on a given day, or all the curd it would make, to a great cider mill..."[3] Leland also insisted that "no Federal cow" (a cow owned by a Federalist farmer) be allowed to offer any milk, "lest it should leaven the whole lump with a distasteful savour."[3] The Cheese itself was produced solely by the persons and labor offreeborn farmers of Cheshire,Berkshire County. As stated in a letter for Reverend John Leland to PresidentThomas Jefferson, the Cheese was made "without the assistance of a single slave."
The townspeople brought their milk (according toDumas Malone's biography on Jefferson, the cheese was made from the milk of 900 cows) and curd to the mill where a large hoop was placed on a cider press, resulting in a massive cheese press. The townspeople added their ingredients, sang ahymn over the press, and, after a time, the cheese was ready.[3] As more ingredients than were necessary had been presented, three smaller cheeses were created,[4] but Leland dedicated the largest cheese to Jefferson, calling the cheese "the greatest cheese ever put to press in the New World or Old."[3]
The final product weighed 1,235 pounds (560 kg), was 4 feet (1.2 m) wide, and 15 inches (380 mm) thick.[5][6][7] Due to its size, it could not safely be transported on wheels, so the town hired asleigh to bring it to abarge on theHudson River for the start of its trip toWashington, D.C. After floating down the Hudson River (North River) toNew York City, the mammoth cheese was loaded onto the sloopAstrea and taken toBaltimore,Maryland, where it was loaded onto a horse-drawn wagon for the trip to Washington. The three-week, 500-mile (800 km) journey from Cheshire to Washington became an event from town to town as word spread about the gift.[3]
The cheese was eventually presented to Jefferson on January 1, 1802. Leland considered the cheese an act of "profound respect...to the popular ratification of his election." While the cheese did serve to praise Jefferson, the town also made a political statement in its letter to Jefferson, noting that "the cheese was procured by the personal labor of freeborn farmers with the voluntary and cheerful aid of their wives and daughters, without the assistance of a single slave."[7] Although the gift would draw criticisms of Jefferson and the people of Cheshire,[8] Jefferson praised the act as "extraordinary proof of the skill with which those domestic arts...are practiced by [the citizens of Cheshire]." The President then cut a piece of the cheese to present to the town, and it was widely considered the greatest cheese presented at theWhite House.[3] Jefferson, who opposed the gift giving custom on principle, gave a $200 donation (over 50% of the actual market price)[9] to Leland'scongregation as a gesture of gratitude.[10]
The cheese remained at the White House for over two years, having been featured in a public dinner for anIndependence Day celebration in 1803,[11] eventually being replaced by the "Mammoth Loaf," a large loaf of bread made by theUnited States Navy out of a barrel full offlour.[12]
The story of the Cheshire cheese has inspired many future events. PresidentAndrew Jackson's supporters commissioned a similar cheese for consumption in 1837, as his supporters believed that "every honor which Jefferson had ever received should be paid him."[13] This event later became the inspiration for a recurring event on the White Housetelevision dramaThe West Wing, entitled "Big Block of Cheese Day."[14] The cheese inspired a critically acclaimed work of fiction,The Mammoth Cheese, bySheri Holman in 2004 and published by theGrove Press, which told the story about a small town cheesemaker convinced by her pastor to make a giant cheese for the President-elect.[15] The cheese also became the subject of a children'spicture book published byFarrar, Straus and Giroux,A Big Cheese for the White House, byCandace Fleming,[16] and was a subject of the American History comedy podcastThe Dollop.[17]Today a cast concrete cheese press stands in Cheshire. A plaque dedicated to Leland is affixed to it.[18]