During the American Civil War, Brigadier General George Armstrong Custer set up temporary headquarters at the house where he remained for three days.

[1] In 1735, Nicholas Meriwether obtained patents from King George III to approximately 19,000 acres in Albemarle County east of Charlottesville.

After the death of Nicholas Meriwether, his grandfather, in 1744, Lewis inherited The Farm, 1,020 acres on both sides of the Rivanna River east of Charlottesville.

The estate was the headquarters of British Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton, who occupied Charlottesville for a day in 1781 to pursue Jefferson and the rest of the Virginian legislators.

Nicholas Lewis was buried on his property in a cemetery on a hilltop overlooking the river where his gravestone says January 19, 1734 to December 8, 1808.