THE GUARDIAN Newsletter of the Jefferson County WV Historical Society WINTER 2015 VOLUME XIII NUMBER Part 1 of a New Series on the Craft Heritage of Jefferson County Contributions of Early German Immigrants to Shepherdstown’s History by Eric S. Hendricks Jenkins When a work lifts your spirits and inspires bold and noble thoughts in you, do not look for any other standard from which to judge it: the work is good, the product of a master craftsman. Jean de la Bruyere No better sentiment could be said for those master craftspeople who called Shepherdstown home. Those early artisans, who turned mounds of red clay into graceful urns, sheets of copper into steaming kettles, chunks of iron into locks to safeguard treasures and richly figured wood into time-keeping heirlooms, certainly deserve a place, not just on our museum shelves, but in our conscious mind, there laying the framework for future artistic endeavors of regional artists and craftspeople. The Shepherdstown of today, with its trendy tourist shops, filled with West Virginia crafts of many handmade varieties as well as the artistic flair of Shepherd University students, may very well owe much to those early artisans who called the bluffs above the Potomac home over two centuries ago. The Shepherdstown of the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-centuries, situated along the busy Philadelphia Wagon Road, was a bustling layover for those driving cattle, hogs and loaded wagons of grain to northern markets from the “bread basket” of the Shenandoah Valley. This region was one of the last more heavily populated points in early days for those entering the largely uninhabited frontier of the back country. It offered a last chance to stock up on basic necessities: a trusty, wellmade rifle, copper pots and kettles and all important storage crocks for preserving foods in the days before refrigeration. Shepherdstown, Eric Jenkins with an Entler rifle and Kraft Clock from his personal collection. UPCOMING EVENTS SPONSORED BY JCHS • Sunday, March 8, 2015, 2 – 5 PM SCAN YOUR HISTORIC PHOTOS Community Room at the Charles Town Library. The Jefferson County Historical Society (JCHS) will sponsor a photo scanning workshop. The community is invited to bring their photographs of people, places and events which relate to the history of Jefferson County and have them scanned into the WV GeoExplorer History Database. For more information, contact Doug Perks at: [email protected]. Sunday, April 12, 2015, 2 PM SPRING MEMBERSHIP MEETING Opera House, Charles Town. Board Member Betsy Wells will speak on Early Ferries Crossing the Shenandoah River. Monday, April 16, 2015, 7 – 9 PM HOW TO USE THE WEST VIRGINIA GEOEXPLORER HISTORY DATABASE Perry Room, Charles Town Library. The free, two-hour session will provide an introductory overview of the GeoExplorer’s content and search features as well as a hands-on experience using the participant’s laptop. To register, email Doug Perks at: [email protected]. 2 unlike many surrounding towns, appears to have fit that bill, a onestop shop in a world that predated Walmart. The sights, smells and sounds that filled the Shepherdstown streets in those early days truly must have marveled the senses. The smoke emanating from the various metal forges, the rhythmic clinking of hammers on anvils and the rasping draw of wood planes forming walnut, cherry, oak and mahogany furniture--all spilling onto the streets, must have been a strong enticement for the frontier homesteaders. Jefferson County, in the eighteenth century called Frederick County and later Berkeley County (both in Virginia), was very much a melting pot of cultures and traditions in those early days. Sons and daughters of Tidewater planters and farmers who could not hope to inherit property, or those searching for richer, vaster lands which hadn’t been depleted by the poor farming practices associated with the cultivating of the cash crop tobacco in the preagricultural revolution period, poured through the passes in the Blue Ridge Mountains in places such as Snicker’s Gap, Vestals Gap, Ashby’s Gap and Harpers Ferry. These settlers set up homesteads and estates in the model of their English roots. A second large immigrant contingent also poured into this Eden-like valley and set up farms and businesses in the northern and western portions of the county. This new group was of German origins. In today’s America, with its challenging issues on immigration, it is hard to fathom a time in which people were actively recruiting new citizens in distant lands. That was, however, just the case in the colony of Pennsylvania. Immigrants in Pennsylvania were very much a mix of people who were being both pushed and pulled there. War and unrest in the German provinces, in particular, the Alsace-Lorraine region, created a situation ripe for William Penn’s great advertising effort to populate his land grant in America. Penn succeeded in bringing over vast numbers of German immigrants. Farley Grubb in German Immigration and Servitude in America, 1709-1920 states, From 1730 to 1760 German immigrants represented 20 to 30 percent of the population growth in the middle colonies. Pennsylvanians of German ancestry accounted for 50 to 60 percent of Pennsylvania’s population in 1760. They were a potent force in shaping the social, economic and political life of the Mid-Atlantic region.1 John Wayland in The German Element of the Shenandoah Valley surmises that the period of “1702 to 1727 was epoch making: between 40,000 and 50,000 came to the Quaker colony.”2 Within a few generations, this wave of settlement overtaxed the available land resources, and many new arrivals or younger heirs felt squeezed out into more distant and promising lands to the west and south, in places such as the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Daniel Boone expressed a similar sentiment when he stated that “if he could see the smoke from his neighbor’s chimney, then it was time to move.” One such welcoming and commercially viable spot was on the south bank of the Potomac River, accessible by Pack Horse Ford. Crossing such a ford was entirely incumbent on cooperating weather, and some travelers found themselves waiting days to cross flooded waters. The very act of crossing was a tiring and difficult ordeal, Jefferson County History For All The Guardian is published quarterly (Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall) by the Jefferson County Historical Society, P.O. Box 485, Charles Town, WV 25414. Founded in 2003, the newsletter serves as the organization’s primary means of informing members and the public of recent and upcoming events. It also prints pertinent articles related to the history of the county. Contributions and comments are welcomed. Contact the editor, Donna Northouse, at [email protected]. The newsletters are available on-line (http://jeffersonhistoricalwv. org/thenewsletter.html) as Adobe Acrobat files. Correction: Our apologies to Ann Christy, owner of the “crooked house” on Washington St. in Shepherdstown, for not including her name under the picture on p. 2 of the Fall issue of The Guardian. which would leave travelers looking for a rest. As Shepherdstown’s own Danske Dandridge describes the situation, A constant stream of coaches, Conestoga wagons, herds of sheep, cattle, horses and hogs, beside horsemen and foot passengers, passed daily through the town. No wonder there are so many old tavern stands in the village, for it was the main route between south and west. Old residents of Shepherdstown have told me that their fathers remembered the time when long lines of vehicles extended from the river as far out as what is now Elmwood Cemetery, waiting to be ferried across the Potomac.3 It was perhaps this delay for travelers which enterprising entrepreneurs seized upon. It may very well be that this is what early craftsman saw as a ready market ripe for the picking, not to mention the abundant natural resources lying in vast quantities in the surrounding area from which to fashion their goods. While the middle Shenandoah Valley in the region of Woodstock was the epicenter of German settlement in the Valley, “Jefferson County can claim roughly 20 percent of its settlement was of German disbursement.”4 It is this German element which formed the backbone of Shepherdstown’s artisan class. Samuel Kercheval in A History of the Valley of Virginia notes that Mecklenburg (Shepherdstown’s original name) is almost entirely settled by “German mechanics” or in today’s language, “craftspeople.” While English names such as Cameron and Posey do find their place in the crafters rollcall, they are far outweighed by names such as Weis, Craft (originally spelled Kraft), Entler (also spelled Andler or Endler), Link, Schindler, Rickard, Sheetz and Woltz. Many of these families moved into the valley after prior settlements outside Philadelphia in the counties of Berks, Chester, Delaware, Lancaster and York. To understand this movement, one must simply review a topographic map to appreciate the natural progression west and south into the Shenandoah Valley. To our modern modes of transportation, the heights of the Blue Ridge Mountains prove little obstacle, but to our forefathers they were, in fact, as imposing as China’s Great Wall was to the Mongol horde. Hauling Conestoga wagons, buckboards and pack mules, loaded down with household goods, building supplies and grain for spring plantings, was not a task for the faint of heart. Boulders, stumps, crags and fallen timbers--all could play havoc with wagon wheels and axels, which when broken would www.jeffersonhistoricalwv.org 3 require great effort to fix in the field. Despite the strength of mules, oxen and other beasts of burden, the great weight of loaded wagons (which at times could reach six tons) was a true hindrance to the westward movement of Tidewater families. In comparison, there Credit: Conestoga River Crossing by Gary Halvorso, Oregon State Archives was a natural trough which extended northeastward, which from time immemorial had been used as a trail by Native Americans. This natural passage stretched from the port of Philadelphia to the towns of Lancaster and York in Pennsylvania, to fords at Mecklenburg and Martinsburg, and south to Winchester, Staunton and Roanoke. This comparably easier route encouraged trade with the northern port city of Philadelphia, thus setting up a lasting connection to the heavily German cultures which existed there. This connection persisted until the 1830s with the establishments of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and the soon to follow Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which reached Harpers Ferry in 1836. With the development of this human-made trade route, old ties dwindled and stronger connections were fostered in which heavy trade was established with the port city of Baltimore. Food, shelter, water and clothing, these are the basic necessities of life. Eighteenth-century pioneer settlement of the region of Shepherdstown required brave and hearty spirits who could tackle the never-ending harsh challenges of weather, inadequate healthcare, substandard housing, poor hygiene, a general feeling of lack of wherewithal, and the ever-lingering threat of Indian attacks. Life in the eighteenth century for settlers was crude and basic. The furniture, homes and clothing created in these challenging times were crafted through necessity by amateurs with basic tools, giving these objects a primitive look. As time progressed and the wilderness was tamed and harnessed into a manageable state, the difficulties of life for the pioneer eased, allowing for moments of respite. In these moments, families began to look at the aesthetic aspects of life and longed for objects where finer attention to detail had been paid. This demand for skilled labor allowed for the development of the artisan classes, and a higher standard was set in the valley for finished products. At the turn of the eighteenth century, with the specialization of artisan craftsman in the region and the demand set by a ready market, the door began to close on homemade primitive handicrafts on the former frontier, setting the stage for Shepherdstown’s role as a trade Jefferson County History For All center. Artistic sharing and collaboration between artisans have always been an important aspect of the crafting world. Students of particular crafts often engaged in years of apprenticeship, paying to learn the required skills of the trade from the master. While Shepherdstown stopped short of having a defined guild, there was, however, another bond uniting many of the crafting families in the area. The bond of marriage played a strong role for many of Shepherdstown’s early artisans. Examples of this can be seen in the marriage of Henry Sheetz, gunsmith, to Anne Barbara Woltz, aunt of John Bernard Woltz, silversmith and clock maker. Other marriages include that of Conrad Schindler’s daughter to Michael Rickard, a whitesmith and inventor of the local screw lock. Mary Elizabeth Rickard, daughter of Michael and Elizabeth Schindler Rickard, married Joseph Entler, son of Philip Adam Jr and Catherine Welsh Entler. The Entlers were involved in hotel ownership as well as various other trades, including carpentry and gun manufacturing. Anna Maria Craft, daughter of Jacob Craft, clockmaker and silversmith, married Philip Entler (b. 1765), the son of Johan Michael Entler, who was born in York, Pennsylvania before moving to Shepherdstown. Both Johan Michael and Philip worked as blacksmiths and aided James Rumsey in the construction of his steamboat. In 1833, Maria Christiana Humrickhouse, daughter of Albert Humrickhouse (owner of the Boonsboro, Maryland to Winchester, Virginia mail/coach line) and Elizabeth Weis, of the family of potters, married Smith Hunsicker, a Shepherdstown silversmith. These are but a few of the examples of marital ties between crafting families in Shepherdstown. Many factors may have accounted for these intermarriages. Attachments were most likely formed due to the reality of people living in a small town with limited spouse and traveling options and shared religion, language and class. There may also have been a more conscious effort for these families to unite and develop links with those also engaged in business. In any case, there is no doubt that ninetenth-century Shepherdstown witnessed a lively artisan community that owes much to its early German settlers. In future installments, we will take a closer look at individual contributions. Endnotes Farley Grubb, German Immigration and Servitudes in America (New York: Routledge, 2011), 89. 1 2 John Wayland, The German Element of the Shenandoah Valley (Bridgewater: C.J. Carrier, 1964), 27. 3 Danske Dandridge, Historic Shepherdstown (Shepherdstown: Historic Shepherdstown Commission, 1985), 262-3. 4 Wayland, 95. Samuel Kercheval, A History of the Valley of Virginia (Harrisonburg: C.J. Carrier), 177. 5 Eric S. Hendricks Jenkins, a twelfth-generation resident of Jefferson County, serves on the JC Historic Landmarks Commission, teaches history at Wildwood Middle School, & avidly collects JC treasures. www.jeffersonhistoricalwv.org 4 Preserving Our History: No. 3 in a series of articles on historic organizations and museums in Jefferson County The Historic Shepherdstown Commission: An Overview by Victoria Smith, HSC Board Member &Secretary The Historic Shepherdstown Commission (HSC) is a community organization that aims to preserve Shepherdstown’s unique historical and architectural character and to tell the story of its people and institutions. These goals are accomplished through acquisition, preservation and display of Shepherdstown objects and documents in the Shepherdstown Museum and Archive at the historic Entler Hotel, through public programs, and through community-based preservation efforts. A board of volunteers headed by President Eleanor Finn governs HSC. Administrator Teresa McLaughlin runs day-to-day operations. Current Activities and Future Plans year. The Speakers Series, often offered in tandem with the Jefferson County Historical Society, has featured a variety of experts. Upcoming speakers include Dr. Karen Gray on Boteler’s Mill; Matthew Webster, Colonial Willamsburg’s Director of Architectural Preservation, on Early Crafts in Shepherdstown and Jefferson County; a panel on local landmarks; and two sessions with Shepherd’s Dr. Keith Alexander and his students, one on the Shepherd cemetery and one on the Red Sox oral history project. Dates and locations will be announced in the local papers. Since 2011, HSC and JCHS have cooperated on annual workshops on Jefferson County in the Civil War. In addition, museum docents offer special tours to student groups, especially from Shepherdstown Elementary School, and other organizations. HSC is working with the Corporation of Shepherdstown to restore the Shepherd In 2015, HSC and the Rumseian Family Cemetery on New Society, builders and owners of the halfStreet. Shepherd family scale model of James Rumsey’s steamboat members have maintained located in the Entler Hotel’s garden, plan it for years, but wall to give the steamboat an institutional restoration is beyond home with HSC. The Rumseians will their resources. The goal transfer the steamboat to HSC ownership is to make the cemetery a but will continue to be involved in Eleanor Finn, Teresa McLaughlin & the Historic Jefferson County RFD Mail place where townspeople maintaining and explaining it. Cart, one of the first in the USA and visitors can enjoy a peaceful setting and experience a piece of Shepherdstown's earliest history reflected in the stories of the Membership and Volunteers town's founding family. The Shepherds played important roles Volunteers created HSC with their time, talents and financial in the town for multiple generations. In addition to organizing support. HSC continues to depend almost entirely on members’ a cleanup involving considerable hard work and effort from financial support to maintain and upgrade the museum and HSC and other community members, HSC has applied for and present programs. Minimum dues are $25/person. The HSC received grants from the Henry and Louise Willard Fund and the administrator manages the building and the finances, but Two Rivers Giving Circle, both under the auspices of the Eastern volunteers make the programs and museum activities happen. West Virginia Community Foundation, and from the Shepherd HSC recruits from both Shepherdstown itself and the wider Family Foundation. Also, funds from a bequest from the estate community. Volunteer opportunities abound for people who of Elizabeth Shepherd Scott and gifts in her name have been want to help preserve an old building, create museum exhibits, reserved for cemetery work. With these funds, one of the seriously welcome museum visitors, maintain order in the archive, and deteriorating cemetery walls has already been restored. More work in many other areas. New members and volunteers are restoration is planned for this spring. always needed and welcome. Anyone who wants to join or In addition to the cemetery project, HSC is working with volunteer may e-mail or call Teresa McLaughlin at info@ Shepherd University’s Professor Keith Alexander on an oral historicshepherdstown.com/304-876-0910., who is in the office history project on the Shepherdstown Red Sox, the local African- on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. American baseball team from the 1930s through the 1960s. That project will provide the underpinning for a future museum exhibit on the Red Sox. Also in the works is an exhibit describing the Shepherd family’s contributions to the town’s history, though considerable work is still to be done on that, too. HSC provides a rich series of free public programs each Jefferson County History For All How It All Began HSC was founded in 1961 but really hit its stride when it embarked on saving and restoring the historic Entler Hotel in the 1970s and 1980s. Shepherdstown citizens came together to support this project by lobbying the West Virginia legislature and governor to deed the building to the Corporation of www.jeffersonhistoricalwv.org 5 Shepherdstown. The Corporation then leased the building to HSC, which commenced a multi-year project to restore the badly deteriorated building. With many, many hours of volunteer labor, HSC made the building usable and created the Historic Shepherdstown Museum. Care of a building as old as the Entler never ends. In the 1990s and in 2010-2012, major restoration efforts were undertaken. The Corporation of Shepherdstown generously underwrote the 2010-2012 restoration. Office and reception room rentals help support building maintenance. visitors from all over the world. The museum is open weekends from April to October and by appointment. The archive, which contains photos, document collections, and genealogical material, is also available by appointment. Publications HSC has preserved some precious Shepherdstown books, reprinting Danske Dandridge’s Historic (l to r) Washington High student Holly Kidwiler, art teacher Shepherdstown as well as Clifford Jessica Ring, students Tyler Kisner & Marin Chew, & art Musser’s History of Shepherdstown, teacher Laura Borkholder with student-made quilt based on Aunt Sally’s Baltimore quilt (both hang in HSC museum) and printing the first, second, and third editions of See Shepherdstown. To create the museum, community With HSC support, volunteers have created a free walking members generously donated many priceless local items. tour booklet, most recently updated in 2014 and also available Volunteers spent countless hours cataloguing and organizing online. It includes an excellent brief history of the town. Most those items and running the museum like professionals. The task recently, HSC arranged for production of a DVD of Jim is ongoing. In 2007-2008, the museum displays were updated, and Price’s 2014 Speakers Series talk, Strange As It Seems: Actual new displays are upcoming. Over the more than thirty years since Happenings in Shepherdstown. The books and the DVD may the museum opened in 1983, volunteer docents of all ages—from be ordered from HSC’s website, www.historicshepherdstown. 17 to 90+—have told the fascinating stories of Shepherdstown’s com, and are available in the museum when it is open. history and of the Entler Hotel to local children, townspeople and Out and About... Society Represented at the Museum of the the Shenandoah Valley Festival Saturday, January 31st, the sun finally came out full blast, after hiding behind clouds for days. Besides seeing the sun, those attending the annual Heritage Festival at the spacious Museum of the Shenandoah Valley were treated to exposure to over a dozen historical associations located in the valley. The only outsider (and an important one at that) was the National Archives, which sent three representatives to distribute information about what the archives holds, what it considers for donation, and how to navigate its vast geneological holdings. Board Members Doug Perks, Curt Mason, Jim Glymph and Donna Northouse represented JCHS. One visitor to the booth was Robert Frye, vice-president of the Shenandoah County Historical Association. Robert, Doug and Jim talked on end about all the friends and acquaintances they have in common(see picture). Robert himself has close ties with Jefferson County since his ancestors, the Henkle family, have roots here. Collaboration with WV GeoExplorer Project JCHS recently contributed $500 to be used to match other grants to digitize back issues of local newspapers like the Spirit of Jefferson, Virginia Free Press, and the Shepherdstown Register. The newspapers will be added to the GeoExplorer database in the near future. Jefferson County History For All by Donna Northouse Robert Frye, v-p of the Shenandoah County Historic Ass., D. Perks & J. Glymph Back Issues of the Magazine Available JCHS is in the process of digitizing its Magazine of The Jefferson County Historical Society. These volumes are now available for purchase: 1940, 1952 and 1991 through 2014. The society is using Google Books Partner Program and Google Play (Books) to sell them. To purchase a digital copy of the Magazine, go to the Google web link, https://play.google.com/store/books, or go to http://jeffersonhistoricalwv.org/magazinearchives.html where you may download instructions. As more volumes of the Magazine are digitized, announcements will be made in The Guardian. Many thanks go to Board Member Donald Watts for the many, many hours he has dedicated to this project. www.jeffersonhistoricalwv.org 6 MR. JEFFERSON’S COUNTY By Doug Perks A Road for All Seasons Several weeks ago, I sat in White Church (the Middleway Community Center) listening to David Bullock talk about old roads in the vicinity of Middleway. His presentation triggered memories of the many country roads which we have here in Mr. Jefferson’s County. For me, these old roads are a constant source of pleasure. These old byways are much more than just a means to get quickly from point A to point B. One of my favorite pastimes is driving back roads. After I spend time looking at both old photographs of streetscapes and viewscapes of Mr. Jefferson’s County and old maps, particularly S. Howell Brown’s 1852 Map of Jefferson County, Virginia, I often drive on one of these old roads, and it becomes a tangible connection to the past. The trip is somewhat like working a puzzle: matching a piece from the present to its counterpart from the past, locating old buildings, determining the camera’s angle, and finding clues which might tell when the photograph was taken. As I continue my exploration of Mr. Jefferson’s County, these old roads are as important to me as books, maps and photographs. Nothing can replace walking, or driving, in the footsteps of history. Just as today, our first roads were purposeful. Using well-worn, established access points across both the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers, the Virginia General Assembly authorized the construction and maintenance of several “public roads.” The intent of these roads was first and foremost to facilitate early commerce. It was most important to “make it easy” for early farmers to bring their grain to commercial mills for processing. Not less important was to create roads which connected new Shenandoah Valley settlers to their seat of government at Frederick Town, now Winchester. By example, our first roads connected Pack Horse Ford to Thomas Shepherd’s mill on Falling Spring Branch. A road left Shenandoah Falls at Robert Harper’s Ferry and proceeded up the Valley to Worthington’s mill and Captain Cherry’s tavern. As the Lower Valley became more densely populated, these and other roads meandered north and south, east and west across the county, connecting this rich farmland to markets in Alexandria and Baltimore. Along the way, churches, stores and taverns sprouted, each providing services necessary for a civilized society, all taking advantage of the access provided by these early roads. My favorite of these early roads appears on the 1751 Map of the most Inhabited Part of Virginia,1 prepared by Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson (Thomas Jefferson’s father). Originating in Alexandria, the road ventured west through then Fairfax County to the Blue Ridge of Mountains, crossing the mountains at Vestal’s Jefferson County History For All Gap. From John Vestal’s ferry on the Shenandoah River, the road worked its way southwest to Frederick Town, or Winchester. This is the route that then Lieutenant Colonel George Washington followed in the spring of 1754, as he led the Virginia Regiment “towards the Ohio, there to help Captain Trent to build Forts, and to defend the Possessions of his Majesty against the Attempts and Hostilities of the French.”2 When Washington submitted his expenses incurred on the expedition, he noted, “8 April – To Bacon for [the regiment of ] John Vestal at Shanandoah [sic] & Ferriages over 1.9.0.”3 The regiment left Vestal’s and marched to Frederick Town, after its safe passage across the Shenandoah, and from thence to the Ohio country and its encounter with the French. At the turn of the nineteenth century, evidence of continued growth in the Lower Valley is very apparent when you look at Charles Varle’s Map of Frederick, Berkeley, and Jefferson Counties in the State of Virginia, executed in 1809. The new county of Jefferson was described for the first time. Its seat of government Charleston [sic]4 was now at the hub of a network of roads and surrounded by a growing number of towns and villages. Soon after ferrying Washington and his regiment across the Shenandoah, John Vestal sold his ferry operation to Gersham Keyes. Keyes and his family continued the ferry operation for several decades. In 1809, the road from Alexandria crossed the gap in the Blue Ridge, now named for the Keyes family. At this time its journey led it farther west, connecting Martinsburg with Alexandria, and even farther west to the Warm Springs at the foot of Spring Ridge. Thus was born the Alexandria and Warm Springs Road. The 1820 John Woods map of Jefferson County shows the unlabeled Alexandria and Warm Springs Road heading almost due west, connecting Key’s (Keye’s) Ferry to the western boundary of Jefferson County. Along the way, the road passed by farms owned by John Yates and the Baylor family, as well as Traveler’s Rest, the home of Revolutionary War General Horatio Gates. At its intersection with the Shepherdstown to Smithfield Turnpike (Kearneysville Pike), two buildings are noted – one of which was a tavern operated by Casper Walper. By mid-century, when S. Howell Brown’s 1852 map of Jefferson County was printed, the Alexandria and Warm Springs Road followed pretty much the route that we know today. On the 1852 S. Howell Brown map, when the road heads west from Keye’s Ferry, it forks approximately one mile west of the ferry. The south fork, leading to Charles Town (what is today CR 26 Keyes Ferry Road) is, I think, mislabeled Alexandria and Warm Springs Road. I think that the north fork, which continues west, is the correct Alexandria and Warm Springs Road. If you follow that road, it leads to the boundary of Jefferson and Berkeley Counties, where the road is correctly labeled Alexandria and Warm Springs Road. www.jeffersonhistoricalwv.org 7 As a result of our twenty-first-century society, only a small segment of the Alexandria and Warm Springs Road officially exists today. In 2001, Jefferson County began a re-addressing project, and many roads, including the Alexandria and Warm Springs Road, were renamed. The project was completed in 2008. Today only three and a half miles of the old road which originally stretched from the port city of Alexandria, Virginia, to the healing waters at Bath, now Berkeley Springs, bears any semblance of its old name. Now it is simply called Warm Springs Road, officially CR 48/2. vehicle. Although the posted speed limit is an optimistic 35 miles per hour, keep in mind that this road was laid out for carts and carriages, and only a wagon with a runaway team approached that speed. This road follows the contour of the land as it angles around the boundaries of neighboring farms. just east of T. A. Lowery Elementary School and the Kearneysville Pike at Walper’s Crossroad. Not only is the name pretty much the same, but the road twists and turns much as it did on S. Howell Brown’s 1852 map. This is an old wagon road. 2Donald Jackson, Editor. The Diaries of George Washington. Volume I, 1748-65 (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1976), 174. Center lines and fog lines are absent on this road, and there is sometimes a long interval between necessary road repairs. Along its path, there are places where you feel the need to slow and move to the right when you are approached by an oncoming 4Ironic that Charles Town is misspelled Charleston on Varle’s map. This is not the first time or will not be the last time for this error. Byways like Warm Springs Road provide us the opportunity to connect with the past. When possible, drive with your windows down. You’ll be rewarded with the sights, smells and sounds of Mr. Jefferson’s County from yesteryear. In the spring, as Although the old route you pass newly tilled fields, of the Alexandria and Warm you will be rewarded with the Springs Road is roughly still in aroma of the warming earth. place, a change of name is not As the spring advances, you the only modification which it get to see the first blush of has endured. If you start today green as the seeds begin to at Keye’s Ferry, you’ll find your germinate and grow. There are way obstructed by the Millville still a few working farms along Quarry which now sits astride Warm Springs Road, and in the old road. You’ll discover summer you haven’t lived intersection of Warm Springs Rd (formerly the old Alexandria & Warm Spring Rd) what was once the Alexandria The until you smell the bouquet of and Luther Jones Rd and Warm Springs Road at the new mown hay. The farming intersection of Keyes Ferry Road and Marlow Road, with Marlow sounds are everywhere – the chug of a tractor’s engine, neighing Road, which continues onto the Harper’s Ferry – Charlestown horses, and mooing cattle. Fall brings its own gifts – the smoke – Smithfield Turnpike, now called Route 340. This is the route and smell of burning leaves and the buzz of a chainsaw as someone of the old road. Where Marlow Road intersects with Route 340, prepares for the upcoming cold. In winter, with windows up, you gone is old Schaeffer’s Crossroads and its familiar windmill. occasionally hear the crunch that tires make as they plow through the snow. Almost everywhere is the familiar fragrance of wood After crossing over Route 340, the old road becomes, first, smoke. Old Country Club Road on the east of Flowing Springs Road and Daniel’s Road on the west. At the time of his death in 1852, John This and others like it are roads for all seasons, roads to Yates owned much of the land south of Old Country Club and experience. To really get to know Mr. Jefferson’s County, take a Daniel’s Roads. His home was Walnut Grove, no longer standing. leisurely Sunday drive on Warm Springs Road. Just remember, if His holdings were divided among his children, each with a farm. you get behind a silver Toyota with West Virginia license HISTRY, Media, one of the farms, still remains today and is bracketed by 25 mph is tops, and it will slow down for each and every hill and Flowing Springs and Daniel’s Roads. At last, when Daniel’s Road curve. Enjoy the drive! intersects the Shenandoah Junction Road, we finally get to Warm Endnotes Springs Road. 1 Each of the maps referenced in this article are available on Nowadays, Warm Springs Road, formerly the Alexandria and the WV GeoExplorer webpage, http://www.wvgeohistory.org/ Warm Springs Road, is framed by the Shenandoah Junction Road Jefferson County History For All Jackson. The Diaries of George Washington, 175-176. 3 www.jeffersonhistoricalwv.org THE GUARDIAN Non Profit Org. U.S. Postage Jefferson County Historical Society P.O. Box 485 Charles Town, WV 25414 PAID Charles Town, WV Permit No. 10 SPRING ME MBER SHIP MEETING Sunday, April 12, 2 p.m. Opera House, Charles Town Presentation by Board Member Betsy Wells Ferries Crossing the Shenandoah River Before the Building of the Original Route 9 Bridge JOIN THE JEFFERSON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY TODAY!!! Name Address City State Email Address Annual Membership: $20 Life Membership: $400 Mail check to: Membership Secretary, JCHS PO Box 485 Charles Town, WV 25414 Or pay online using PayPal at: http://jeffersonhistoricalwv.org/thestore.html Zip Code
© Copyright 2024