It Happened Here -- The Big Cheeses

US 11, north of Pulaski

One of the grand stories of the Jacksonian era that is told to illustrate a sea change in American democracy is the story of the "Big Cheese." Though the American revolution had been fought by people of all social strata, the democracy that emerged out of the conflict was one that had a distinct upper middle class and aristocratic bias. State constitutions were written by community leaders that sought to insure that only people with considerable land holdings or other wealth would have the right to vote. One result was that the first six presidents all came from the Virginian planter aristocracy or the Boston mercantile elite.  With peace came the opening of the frontiers in many areas and the growth of small independent farmers and tradesmen who demanded a voice in their government. By the time Andrew Jackson ran for president property qualifications had been reduced or swept aside in the states and Jackson was able to ride into office on a tide of a new tradesman/ farmer/ workingman electorate.

In upstate New York, one of those successful independent farmers was Thomas Meacham.  Meacham was actually a Whig and had voted for Jackson's opponent, but once Jackson was in office he and other farmers from Oswego County decided to send him a present. Years before, farmers from Cheshire Massachusetts had sent President Jefferson a large cheese but now Meacham felt he could really outdo them!  For one thing, the logistics of moving a such large gift had become much easier, since inland canals and waterways now virtually linked his farm with the White House.  A short wagon ride would bring his cheese to the Oswego River Canal where it would go by canal boat to Syracuse and then via the Erie Canal to Albany. At Albany it would go by schooner to New York, down the coast and up the Potomac, almost to the President's front door.

Building a hoop, nearly four foot in diameter and over two foot high, he constructed a special over-sized cheese press.  From his 154 cow herd he produced milk curd, and over a five day period the hoop was filled and the cheese pressed. A decorative belt was created to surround the cheese and keep its wrapper in place. On it was a bust of the president and a chain of the twenty four states, and Jackson's patriotic toast, "The Union-It Must be Preserved."


                                                                                    Enthusiasm for Jackson was evidenced elsewhere
                                                                                                     in the State including at this bridge over the Hudson
                                                                                                                                     at Schuylerville
 

Along with the great cheese, ten other smaller cheeses were made, for Vice President Van Buren, Governor William L. Marcy, Senator Daniel Webster, the Congress and the New York Legislature, and the cities of Rochester, Utica, Troy, Albany and New York. As the cheeses made their way through New York State they became the center of patriotic celebrations and were paraded  through towns on flag bedecked wagons. At a large celebration at New York's Masonic Hall Senator Daniel Webster accepted his cheese. On January 1st 1836 President Jackson was presented with his mammoth cheese, as it was deposited in the vestibule of the White  House¹

Jackson made a valiant effort to distribute the cheese to staff, friends, visiting dignitaries, political supporters and perhaps even political opponents with whom Jackson was on speaking terms, but after several months of giving away large hunks of the stuff, the bulk of it was still there, aromatically aging in the warm Washington climate. In 1837 Jackson was in the last months of the second term of his Presidency and faced with the likelihood of having to haul perhaps a half ton of cheese back to Tennessee or leaving it for President-elect Van Buren (who still had his own 700 lb. Oswego cheese.that he would eventually sell in a charity auction.)

When Jackson had first come into power he had held an open house for all his supporters and the White House had been besieged by thousands of visitors.  The carpets, draperies, furniture and woodwork had suffered as the crush of well-wishers had forced the President to make an escape out of a back door (some said window.) The actual damage and unruliness of the crowd may have been overstated by a conservative press anxious to illustrate the dangers of giving political power to the common man. Since then, Jackson had had several better managed and controlled public receptions allowing people to express their opinions, but on this last open house, on Washington's birthday he invited the people of the Federal City in simply to eat cheese.  Thousands attended and in two hours it was all gone--all gone that is, except for the essence.  President Jackson's successor, Martin Van Buren, was forced that spring to wash the carpets and draperies and to paint and white-wash to get rid of the last traces of a cheese that  occupied the White House for a longer tenure than several presidents!

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In the 18th century wheat was the major crop of New York farmers, with the Mohawk, Schoharie and Cherry Valleys becoming known as the "bread baskets of the Revolution."  By the first decades of the 19th century this was beginning to change. Larger wheat farms came into being in the states that were established  in the old Northwest Territory. The Erie Canal provided access to markets for these farms.  New York farmers began to diversify, raising more livestock and vegetables. The dairy industry began as feeder canals, turnpikes and plank roads brought urban markets within a day or two from most farms. More durable dairy products could be produced on a large scale. In Prattsville, Zaddock Pratt encouraged dairying on the lumbered-over hills surrounding his former tannery town. He favored commercial butter-making for the New York City market.  Oswego county farmers and  farmers in the Tug Hill Plateau region favored cheese making operations, and a "Cheese Factory" was begun in Berne, in the Albany County "hilltowns".

Albany Co. Rte 156, Berne

1At some point, it was probably moved to the East Room, for a drawing of the East Room exists with the cheese prominently displayed near its center.