Charlatans and Presbyterians

Charlotte and Waldemar leave Gallipolis in 1795 and settle in the northern Kentucky village of Washington, raising vegetables for sale. In the summer of 1798 they move to Lexington, giving classes in dancing and French. They enter into an agreement with Transylvania Seminary to house and board students. When Presbyterians take over the school, they lose their connection to it, a member of the board of trustees saying of Waldemar: "We must get rid of this man for he is a Frenchman, and of course a Deist at least." The Mentelles rent a farm outside Lexington and begin to board horses. Waldemar takes up horseshoeing and equine medicine. In letters to Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours, they will offer their candid view of Lexington: "Here one has to be a charlatan or a Presbyterian (more or less the same thing) to succeed and I cannot imagine becoming either one."