I wanted to share some information I received about the county in which I grew up, Sullivan County, New York…my hometown was Livingston Manor, named after Edward Livingston, relative of Richard Livingston who helped draft the Constitution…the county seat is Monticello, and there is also a small town named Jeffersonville…it just occurred to me (after 60 years), that this was an interesting coincidence…that there was a town named for Thomas Jefferson, and another town name for his plantation…I asked a friend of mine, the local historian, and this is what he said:
“The naming of Monticello and Jeffersonville are related only in the sense that they were both named…nearly fifty years apart…by great admirers of Thomas Jefferson for his role in crafting the Declaration of Independence and as President. When the Jones brothers founded Monticello in 1804, Jefferson was President and very popular…as born out by the fact that he defeated Charles Pinckney in the Presidential election of 1804 by some 45 percentage points in the popular vote. When Charles Langhorn named his hotel the Jefferson House around 1840, the country had changed considerably, but the Jeffersonian ideals were still revered by some, and Langhorn was one. Jeffersonville took its name from his hotel. And Livingston Manor was named for Edward Livingston, a relative of Robert (Robert was a member, along with Jefferson, of the Committee of Five which drafted the Declaration of Independence and the man who administered the Presidential oath of office to George Washington) who lived in the area then known as Purvis and was so highly regarded by his neighbors that they renamed their community for him after his death. I hope this helps clarify things.”
As an aside, the county is named for General John Sullivan, a hero of the Revolutionary war
I had no idea that there was this link between Jeffersonville and Thomas Jefferson.