An overseer at Dogue Run Farm, Joseph Cash worked at Mount Vernon from 1796 until 1797. Farm manager James Anderson informed George Washington on February 14, 1797, that Cash was an effective overseer. Several months later, Cash demanded higher wages. However, Washington refused, a decision that former farm manager William Pearce agreed with. Pearce wrote Washington that "I should have thought Viliott and Cash ought to have Been Satisfied with the wages they Receve, if you would keep them at the same, without wanting them Raised. for they are as high as they ought to expect."1
In December of 1796, Joseph Cash was paid forty pounds as "his wages in full for being overseer on Dogue Run farm." Cash's salary for 1797 included fifty pounds in cash, 1,000 herrings, 100 shad, five barrels of corn, 200 pounds of flour, 500 pounds of beef and pork, the right to keep his horse, and the right to keep two cows.2 By 1798, Cash was paid sixty-five pounds in cash plus 400 pounds of pork, 100 pounds of beef, five barrels of corn, 200 pounds of flour, the milk of two cows, 1000 herrings, 100 shad, and the right to keep a horse. Against his account that year was a charge for five gallons of whiskey.3
Notes
1. "George Washington to William Pearce, 17 July 1797,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/06-01-02-0216.
2. See account for "Joseph Cash," Mount Vernon Farm Ledger, 1797-1798 (Mount Vernon: Mount Vernon Ladies' Association) 25, 26.
3. See account for "Joseph Cash," Mount Vernon Farm Ledger, 1797-1798 (Mount Vernon: Mount Vernon Ladies' Association), 107 & 108.
