Some Great Caching Around the Shepherdstown, WV & Sharpsburg , MD Area 5/15/2008

We left this morning with a bunch of great caches located around the Martinsburg and Shepherdstown West Virginia area. This also was a first for us as we cached in two different states in the same day.
Our first cache was located at the Marlott Cemetery in Bedington, WV. It was a very small cemetery and some of the grave markers dated back to the early 1800's.
Then it was on into Martinsburg and a cache located at a statue of the Berkley Patriot Rifelmen which took us about 15 minutes to locate as it was a great hide. In 1775, General George Washingon issued a call for "Virginia Volunteer Riflemen." Captain Hugh Stephenson filled the ranks of his company in Shepherdstown and it has been heralded as the first unit of the United States Army. It departed from "Morgan's Spring," about one-half mile south of the town limits on July 16, 1775. In a "bee line" from Morgan's Spring, they marched 600 miles in 28 days. Thirty-eight Revolutionary veterans are buried there.
Next cache was located in the Providence Quaker Cemetery where there is only 1 grave site. One of the large, land-owning Quaker families to come into the present Berkeley County was Richard Beeson, born in 1684, who had married Charity Grubb in 1706. George Robinson and John Poteate had received a king’s patent from the Lt. Gov. Gooch for 1,650 acres of land laying on both sides of the Tuscarora Creek on Nov. 12, 1737. They sold this tract of land to Beeson for 70 pounds on Sept. 28, 1737. This tract of land was of excellent quality and ran on both sides of the present Tuscarora Creek from Martinsburg to just west of Nollville. It was on what became son Richard Beeson’s land that another meeting house called “Providence” was established by 1738. There were 249 acres there that were sold by Richard Beeson and his wife, Charity, to Richard Beeson Jr. on December 1745, when the meeting house and cemetery had been established. This early cemetery, one of the oldest known in the state, now belongs to the Berkeley County Historic Landmarks Commission. The only person buried in this cemetery was Aaron Keefer who obviously must have been a Quaker.
Then it was off through Martinsburg to the Van Metre Ford Bridge for a cache on the guardrail. This three-span, stone-arch bridge was built in 1832 by Silas Harry under contract with the Berkeley County Court. It was constructed in order to eliminate the fording of Opequon Creek when traveling on the Warm Springs Road.The bridge is 165 feet long and is built of uncoursed ashlar limestone masonry. Each of the three segmental arches, delineated with smooth-surfaced, but irregular width, voussoirs, springs from low, round-ended piers that have cone-shaped buttresses carried into the solid masonry spandrels. The center arch spans 32 feet while each of the end arches spans 29.6 feet.Parapet walls appear to have had cement capping added at some later time. Low pylons, also capped with cement, termite the parapet walls at the approaches to the bridge. In plan, the structure is wider at the ends (22 feet) then at the center (16 feet). The stone work in the piers and buttresses as well as in the voussoirs is especially precise. Mortar erosion over the years has revealed closely fit joints.The only changes to the bridge have been resurfacing of the road and repair to the walls above the road line where automobile accidents have caused destruction. Although worn, the stonework has held up superbly to the stresses of load and forces of the elements.
We drove into Shepherdtown which has a lot of history and is a town in Jefferson County, West Virginia, USA. Shepherdstown claims to be the oldest town in the state. In 1734, Thomas Shepherd was granted 222 acres (0.9 km²), on the south side of the "Potomack" river. From that tract, he selected fifty acres and laid out a town. He named his town Mecklenburg and petitioned the Virginia Assembly for a charter. It was officially chartered in 1762 by the Virginia General Assembly. Thomas Shepherd was the sole trustee. He owned the town and had the responsibility to conduct its government. In 1798 it was renamed Shepherds Town, which was shortened to Shepherdstown after the Civil War. The town's population was 1208 as of 2002. The town is also home to Shepherd University.
Our first cache there was a cache placed at Christmas time in 2005 and it was located in front of the beautiful Trinity Episcopal Church founded in 1745. Trinity Church on German Street was under construction for five years being consecrated by Bishop Johns on April 5, 1859. However, the church's history actually began in 1745 when the original "Old English Church," a log chapel, was erected by old Frederick Parish. When Shepherdstown (Mecklenburg) was incorporated in 1762, Church Street was named for the building. The log chapel was replaced by a stone building in 1769. Known as "Mecklenburg Chapel," the building fell into neglect caused by the Revolution and disestablishment of the Church in Virginia. In 1815 the church was rebuilt by the first vestry of the newly created St. Andrew's Parish. Enlargement of the structure took place in 1840-42.Because the 1842 church was soon deemed too small, the Rev. Dr. C.W. Andrews led a movement to build the new church on German Street. It was built at a cost of about $10,000. A substantial amount was given by Rezin D. Shepherd, who later threatened to involve the vestry in a legal battle with the town over his wish to move the church clock to the town hall (McMurran Hall). The matter was settled and the clock removed and stored, pending completion of the town hall. A few months later, John Brown's raid took place.
Our next cache was a 12 part virtual multi-cache in Shepherdstown. The 1st coords was at a building that was belonged to Shepherd College and was bought and donated to the College by actress Mary Tyler Moore. The 2nd coords were at a building built in 1800 that was formerly the market house in town and is now Scarborough Library. The 3rd coords took us to a location that had a miniature house and barn in the yard. The smallest house and barn in Shepherdstown. This supersized doll house and barn was a Shepherd College project. Completed in 1929, the two-story "house" has five rooms and measures 10 feet high by 9-1/2 feet wide, with 5 1/2 foot ceilings. It was built so student teachers could observe children playing in the "Laboratory setting." The 4th coords took us to Shepherd College and a location that until a few years ago was a tennis court but was now a flower garden. The 5th coords were also at the College as there was a center which was a new building named for a long time WV Senator and it was attached to an older building which was what we had to name. The 6th coords took us to O'Hurley's General Store to get 3 Gaelic words from above the front door. The 7th coords took us to an area and we had to find out what was in the area of the coords and it was a playground and tennis court in a town park. The 8th set of coords took us to the Shepherdstown Train Depot which we had to name. The 9th set of coords took us to the the remains of the Shepherd Grist Mill, first built sometime between 1734 and 1739, and operated for two centuries, mark the industry of the State's earliest incorporated settlement, originally known as Mecklenburg;?, the first settlers arriving probably as early as 1719. The mill stands near the Pack Horse Ford crossing of the Potomac. The Indian trail to Pack Horse Ford became the Philadelphia Wagon Road into the Valley of Virginia, and on this. road, named High Street, the grist mill was erected. There seems to be little doubt of the continuous operation of a mill on this spot. It is presumed that the stone building still standing is more than two centuries old. The large, 40-foot iron wheel was once located 100 yards farther down stream, but the date of its installation is beyond the memory of local inhabitants who can remember the mill as it was at the beginning of the century. We had to identify the wheel that drove the mill. The 10th coords took us to another park in the town which we had to identify what age group would use this. The 11th set of coords took us to a monument for James Rumsey and we had to find out how many people were in a boat on a plaque on the monument. The 12th and last set of coords took us to an old stone building that use to be used for a tobacco storage warehouse and we had to find out what was operating next to this building now. It was an extremely interesting cache and we learned quite a bit about the history of Shepherdstown but there was so so much more to learn also.
Our next cache was located at the James Rumsey Bridge. Born in Cecil County, Maryland, at the head of the Bohemia River in 1743, James Rumsey did not receive a great deal of formal education, though he was considered to be quite adept at the natural and physical sciences. In addition, he was a skilled cabinet-maker, blacksmith and millwright. Little is known about Rumsey until he was living in Bath, Virginia (now Berkeley Springs, West Virginia) in 1782. There he became a partner in a mercantile business, and with another partner was running a boarding house and tavern called the "Sign of the Liberty Pole and Flag." He was also a builder of houses, and in September of 1784, when George Washington was staying at the inn, Washington contracted with Rumsey to build a house and stable for him on property he owned there. It was during this same stay that Rumsey showed Washington a model of a mechanical boat which he had designed. This was a boat which could propel itself upstream by means of grapples on the bottom. Washington must have liked what he saw, for he wrote a certificate of commendation for Rumsey, that Rumsey would then be able to use when trying to get some financial backing for his endeavors. In July 1785, recommended by both Washington, and Revolutionary War hero General Horatio Gates of Shepherdstown, Rumsey was appointed the superintendent of the newly formed Patowmack Company. This company, a precursor of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, had as its goal making the Potomac River navigable. However, Rumsey requested release from the position after a year. He had had nothing but difficulties getting proper supplies, securing the pay for the workers, and trying to keep the workers under control. No longer working as Patowmack Company superintendent, Rumsey was then able to devote his time to his dream of steam navigation which he had been thinking about since 1783. Work on a hull for a steamboat had begun in 1785 in Bath by Joseph Barnes, brother-in-law of Rumsey. The boat was brought that fall to Shepherdstown where Rumsey was living at the time. Machinery which had been made in Baltimore and Frederick was installed that December, and the boat was taken downriver to Shenandoah Falls for a test. However, bad weather postponed testing until the following spring. When Rumsey finally tested the boat in April 1786, it proved very unsatisfactory. He continued experiments with a second boiler. On December 3, 1787, the boat finally made a very successful public demonstration on the Potomac at Shepherdstown. Constantly plagued by money problems, he left Shepherdstown in March of 1788 in order to seek funding for his projects, little knowing that he would never return. A couple of months later in Philadelphia the Rumseian Society was formed by men who hoped to publicize what he was doing. One if its members was Ben Franklin. They decided he should go to England to secure patents for his inventions and seek further financial backing. He spent four years there, and on December 20, 1792, on the eve of the demonstration of his new steamboat, the Columbia Maid, he had just finished delivering a lecture to the Society of Mechanic Arts. Suddenly he was stricken with a severe pain in his head and died the next morning. At the time, his death was attributed to overstraining his brain. He was buried there in London at Saint Margaret's Church. In 1906 a second Rumseyan Society was formed in Shepherdstown and though its efforts, a monument to Rumsey was constructed in a park overlooking the Potomac. Another Rumseian Society was formed in Shepherdstown in the 1980's in order to construct a replica of the successful Rumsey steamboat and celebrate the boat's bicentennial in 1787. Construction of the boat took place in the machine and blacksmith shop in the back of O'Hurley's Store.
The next cache was located back in the woods at the building that use to be the tobacco warehouse. Then the next cache again was a 2 stage multi-cache located back at the monument for James Rumsey where we had to get 3 different years off one of the plaques and figure out the coords to the final cache, which was in the woods behind the monument.
We then drove to Sharpsburg, MD and a cache located in front of the library under one of the benches there. We also had to get some information off 3 different monuments commemorating soldiers lost in the wars. Our next cache was also in Sharpsburg on one of the street corners. It was at the Old Slave Auction Block, from 1800 to 1865, which was the site of slave auctions in Sharpsburg. It has retained its original position for over 150 years and is a famous landmark.
Our next cache was at Hitt Bridge outside of Keedysville, MD. The Hitt Bridge was built in 1830 by Silas Harry, who was an associate of John Weaver and later built the nearby Burnside Bridge. The Hitt Bridge is a three arch span that crosses Antietam Creek on Maryland Highway 63 just a few miles from the Antietam National Military Park and Sharpsburg, Maryland. The bridge crosses Antietam Creek at the ford used by General Braddock and his army in 1755. The bridge is named for Samuel Hitt, who owned and operated a mill adjacent to the bridge.
Next we had a cache in an old cemetery near the Antietam Battlefield which was supposed to be haunted with ghosts of all the fallen soldiers from the battle. One last cache on our way back to the RV and that was at a Civil War marker of James Johnston Pettigrew (July 4, 1828 – July 17, 1863) who was an author, lawyer, linguist, diplomat, and a Confederate general in the American Civil War. He was a major leader in the disastrous Pickett's Charge and was killed a few days after the Battle of Gettysburg during the Confederate retreat to Virginia. Then it was on back to the RV and we had lunch and Mom did our cache logs and I started the blog for Thursday and tried to finally get the pictures from Tuesday's blog online. Then it was time for dinner and I finally did get all the pictures loaded and I left the rest of this blog for Friday. Well time to say until tomorrow and we love you all.


Picture List:1-St Paul's Episcopal Church Sharpsburg, 2-Shepherd's Grist Mill Circa 1739, 3-Shepherdstown Train Depot, 4-Old Slave Block Sharpsburg, 5-Lloyd's barber Shop Shepherdstown, 6-Christ Reformed Church, Sharpsburg, 7,8,9,10-Providence Quaker Cemetery, 11-General Edward Braddock Historic Marker, 12-Old unused church in Shepherdstown that was being remodeled, 13,14,15,16-Bedington Cemetery, 17,18-Pry's Mill Bridge, 17-Sharpsburg Bluebirds Plaque, 18,19,20-Trinity Episcopal Church Circa 1747 Shepherdstown, 21,22-Old Tobacco Warehouse, 23,24,25,26-Some of the older homes in Sharpsburg, 27,28-Christ Church in Shepherdstown, 29,30-Reformed Graveyard Circa 1774 at the Christ Church, 31-Martinsburg Historic Marker, 32-James Rumsey Bridge Historic Marker, 33,34-Hitt Bridge, 35-Old stone farmhouse along the road, 36-Sharpsburg Town Clock, 37-Gettysburg Campaign Historic Marker, 38,39-Berkley Riflemen Monument & Marker, 40-Shepherdstown Courthouse, 41-Steam near the tobacco warehouse that runs into the Potomac River which is just down the hill from where the picture was taken, 42,43-Van Metre Ford Bridge, 44-Old barn along the road, 45-O'Hurley's General Store Shepherdstown, 46-Pack House Ford Chapter D.A.R. Circa 1800, 47-World War 1 Monument (note on the bottom of the plaque they differentiate between colored and white), 48-Miniature House, 49-Miniature Barn.