Newspaper Report of Central College Board of Visitors Meeting
| [5 May 1817] |
On the 5th. of this month, three men were seen together at Charlottesville (county of Albemarle) each of whom alone is calculated to attract the eager gaze of their Fellow-Citizens—We mean, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe, two of them, ex-presidents, and the last the present President of the U. States. They have been friends for years, and are as sincere friends at this moment.—Messrs. Madison and Monroe had attended Mr. J. on horseback, from Monticello to Charlottesville; to assist in fixing a scite for a “Central College”—under the Act of the General Assembly.* The appearance of three such men together at a village where the citizens of the county had met to attend their court, is an event, which for its singularity, deserves the notice of a passing paragraph.
*The Trustees are the three gentlemen already named, Gen. Cocke (who attended.) and Messrs. Cabell and Watson. On this day, the scite of the College was fixed upon, and the ground purchased.