Speaker Series – Beyond Storer College Campus: The Early Roots of Black Community in Harpers Ferry, September 3, Lynn Pechuekonis

Lynn Pechuekonis

Historic Shepherdstown’s Speaker Series on Wednesday, September 3, 7:00 pm, at the Shepherd University Robert C. Byrd Center in Shepherdstown, WV, will feature “Beyond the Storer College Campus:  The Early Roots of Black Community in Harpers Ferry, 1867-1917.”

 

Author and Historian Lynn Pechuekonis will talk about the impact that Storer College, which educated thousands of African American students from 1867 until 1955, had on the Black community that evolved and thrived around its campus.  Storer’s policies and approach had a strong influence on Harpers Ferry to ensure that Black residents faced fewer race-based barriers than was typical in the region at the time. Pechuekonis will discuss the roots of this evolution and highlight some of Harpers Ferry’s enterprising and accomplished Black residents.

 

Her talk will be preceded by a short Historic Shepherdstown Annual Meeting at 6:45 pm.

Bee Line Marcher at the Historic Shepherdstown Kentucky Rifles exhibit.

  • Bee Line Marcher mannequin

    The Bee Line Marcher mannequin in the museum was donated to HSC by the Contemporary American Theater Festival. It was set up by Nick Blanton.

  • The hunting frock was loaned by Wallace Gusler and made by Eve Otmar.
  • The sash was loaned by Tim Hodges and made by Eve Otmar.
  • The rifle is by an unknown contemporary maker and was loaned by the Kentucky Rifle Foundation.
  • The powder horn and shot bag were made by and loaned by Roland Cadle.
  • The knife that is in the shot bag was made by and loaned by Tyler Mazer.
  • The very worn shoes were donated by George Suiter
  • The hatchet was made by Dan Tokar and Nick Blanton.
  • The pantaloons were donated by Blaine MacDonald
  • The shirt, stock and hat were from the Rumseian Society, courtesy of Nick Blanton
  • The rope stanchions to block off the mannequin were made by Nick Blanton

35 Star Flag for West Virginia statehood.

Grant received from Benedum Foundation for Historic Shepherdstown

Historic Shepherdstown is pleased to announce that it has received a $35,000 grant from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation. The funds are designated specifically for several projects inside the Historic Shepherdstown Museum and to promote the Shepherdstown Historic District. The full press release is here – Benedum grant for Historic Shepherdstown
Westminster Abbey

The Rumsey Memorial Plaque in St Margaret’s Church, London

The Rumsey Memorial Plaque in St Margaret’s Church

Soon after incorporating to build a monument to James Rumsey in Shepherdstown, the Rumseyan Society inquired about also putting up a memorial in St Margaret’s Church, where Rumsey had been buried, near Westminster Abbey in London. On Oct 1, 1906, the Secretary, State Senator William Campbell, got a reply from Rev. H. Hensley Henson:

Dear Sir
I am now in a position to send you a definite answer to the questions relating to the proposed erection of a tablet to the memory of JAMES RUMSEY.
I shall be prepared to give consent to the erection of a suitable tablet on the walls of S. MARGARETS WESTMINSTER on the following conditions.
I) The said Tablet must not exceed in size 30 inches in length and 20 in width.
II) Its form and material must be approved by me before erection.
III) The inscription must contain no disputable proposition, and must be submitted to me and approved before being placed on the tablet
IV) A fee of fifty guineas must be paid.
The payment of a substantial fee guarantees that the desire to erect a table is genuine and general.

Henson noted that a tablet in Westminster Abbey itself would cost 200 guineas. Campbell’s reply for the Society was polite:

The fee you suggest seems, as you admit, to be a large one, and it is uncertain that we can avail ourselves of your offer, but at the next meeting of the Society the matter will receive consideration, and it is possible that we may take definite action one way or the other.

But the polite language could not disguise the sticker shock. Two months later Campbell was informed by the Norfolk & Southern that it would no longer simply donate the land for the Monument: that to satisfy the Trustees it wanted $125 to release it. Campbell wrote to the Society, “if they charge us this much it will put the proposed park out of reach”. At the 1906 rate of about $5.00 to the pound, the fee for the tablet would have been $250, or twice what Norfolk & Southern wanted for the entire Monument site. The Society turned its attention to funding their local Rumsey memorial.

However, a St. Margaret’s plaque continued to be discussed. On Dec. 3 , 1953 the Junior Rumseyan Society was organized by teacher Rachel Snyder among her eighth-grade class. Two World Wars must have increased the demand for memorial tablets. The fee had grown considerably from $250; the class worked for one year to raise the money to have the plaque made and placed. James Rumsey’s memory alone also no longer met the “genuine and general desire” for a tablet. A memorial to Elizabeth Herrick, niece of cavalier poet Robert Herrick, had disappeared in the 18th c., along with the famous poem Robert Herrick had written for it. The Junior Rumseyans were asked to fund a replacement for that, along with their memorial to Rumsey. Robert Herrick and his niece got top billing. But at least the statement that Rumsey’s steamboat had been “demonstrated privately to George Washington in 1784” escaped being considered a “disputable proposition”.

On May 18, 1955, in front of an assembled crowd of about a hundred British and Americans (including Rachel Snyder) a small American flag was pulled aside by Admiral Sir Guy H.E. Russell to reveal the memorial tablet.

One student who was part of Snyder’s fund-raising was G. Jay Hurley. He would leave town and have adventures, but always carried the thought of Rumsey in his head until he returned to start O’Hurley’s General Store. Thirty years after being a Junior Rumseyan, in 1983 he launched the effort to build a working reproduction of Rumsey’s steamboat, now on display at the Museum.

-Nicholas Blanton

Bee Line March, 1775, Speaker Series talk by Doug Perks, May 2025

The Bee Line March route

Historic Shepherdstown’s 2025 Speaker Series featured a May 14 talk by local historian and Jefferson County, WV, native Doug Perks about the history around the summer of 1775 Bee Line March.   The talk, which begins the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Bee Line March, focused on the stories around the remarkable 26 day 600 mile journey in summer 1775 of 95 Virginians known as the Bee Line March, under the command of Captain Hugh Stephenson, who set out from what is now Shepherdstown, WV to Cambridge, MA to join General George Washington.

Doug Perks – Bee Line March

Bee Line March map

The route of the Bee Line March was recently mapped by Jefferson County GIS and Addressing Department  and Historic Shepherdstown, using Henry Bedinger’s diary, as quoted by Danske Dandridge’s Historic Shepherdstown. See Bee Line March map

Speaker Series – 1775 Bee Line March, May 14, Doug Perks

Doug Perks

Historic Shepherdstown’s 2025 Speaker Series continued with a May 14 talk by local historian and Jefferson County, WV, native Doug Perks about the history around the summer of 1775 Bee Line March.   The talk, part of the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Bee Line March, took take place at the Shepherd University Robert C. Byrd Center in Shepherdstown, WV, at 7 pm on Wednesday, May 14.

This talk focused on the stories around the remarkable 26 day 600 mile journey in summer 1775 of 95 Virginians known as the Bee Line March, under the command of Captain Hugh Stephenson, who set out from what is now Shepherdstown, WV to Cambridge, MA to join General George Washington.   In June 1775, the Continental Congress had established the Continental Army, which would include a Virginia company formed in Berkeley County, WV and which gathered in Shepherdstown (then Mecklenburg) for the journey to Cambridge.

The speaker, Doug Perks, recently retired as the Historian of the Jefferson County Museum.   He serves as Historian for the Elmwood Cemetery Association and is a Director of the Jefferson County Historical Society.   In 2023, he published The Civil War Years in Jefferson County, VA.  He was named a West Virginia History Hero in 2017 and in 2022 was named the Historian Laureate of Shepherdstown.

Recording of the talk – Doug Perks – Bee Line March

 

The route of the Bee Line March was recently mapped by Jefferson County GIS and Addressing Department  and Historic Shepherdstown, using Henry Bedinger’s diary quoted by Danske Dandridge’s Historic Shepherdstown. See Bee Line March map

Speaker series: History of the Kentucky Rifles, April 2025 – Brian LaMaster and Tim Hodges

 

Speaker Series – Brian LaMaster and Tim Hodges of the Kentucky Rifle Foundation – Kentucky Rifles

A special exhibit, Longrifles by the Sheetz family and Other Gunsmiths from Jefferson and Berkeley Counties, opened at the Historic Shepherdstown Museum on Saturday, April 19. The exhibit, co-sponsored by Historic Shepherdstown and the Kentucky Rifle Foundation,  featured 15 rifles made between 1740 and 1840, including 10 signed Sheetz rifles. The Speaker Series talk History of Kentucky Rifles from the 18th to 20th century took place on Wednesday, April 16, at which master gunsmith Brian LaMaster spoke about Kentucky Rifles in general and Kentucky Rifle Foundation board member Tim Hodges spoke about the rifles in the exhibit.

The Kentucky Rifle Foundation is the educational arm of the Kentucky Rifle Association. The KRA is an organization dedicated to those people interested in collecting and preserving the art and history of antique Kentucky Rifles, pistols, horns, and accoutrements. Both LaMaster and Hodges are past presidents of the KRA.

This will be the largest display of rifles in the Historic Shepherdstown Museum in its more than 40-year history. The exhibit is the first event for Shepherdstown’s 250th Anniversary Celebration of the Bee Line March, which occurred in the summer of 1775.

Sheetz rifle exhibit in museum

Kentucky Rifle Foundation rifle display case being installed.

A special exhibit, Longrifles by the Sheetz family and Other Gunsmiths from Jefferson and Berkeley Counties, will open at the Historic Shepherdstown Museum on Saturday, April 19. The exhibit, co-sponsored by Historic Shepherdstown and the Kentucky Rifle Foundation, will feature 15 rifles made between 1740 and 1840, including 10 signed Sheetz rifles.

It will be preceded by a free Speaker Series talk History of Kentucky Rifles from the 18th to 20th century on Wednesday, April 16, at which master gunsmith Brian LaMaster will speak about Kentucky Rifles in general and Kentucky Rifle Foundation board member Tim Hodges will speak specifically about the rifles in the exhibit. The talk will be given at 7 p.m. in the auditorium of the Robert C. Byrd Center on the Shepherd College campus. The talk is free and open to the public.

The Kentucky Rifle Foundation is the educational arm of the Kentucky Rifle Association. The KRA is an organization dedicated to those people interested in collecting and preserving the art and history of antique Kentucky Rifles, pistols, horns, and accoutrements. Both LaMaster and Hodges are past presidents of the KRA.

This will be the largest display of rifles in the Historic Shepherdstown Museum in its more than 40-year history. The exhibit is the first event for Shepherdstown’s 250th Anniversary Celebration of the Bee Line March, which occurred in the summer of 1775.

The exhibit will feature rifles by several members of the Sheetz family, including a restocked Philip Sheetz, and rifles by Jacob Sheetz, Martin Sheetz, and William Miller Sheetz, all of Shepherdstown. It will also include a rifle by Frederick Sheetz, the son of Henry Sheetz, who worked in Hampshire County. There will also be rifles by Martin Rizer of Martinsburg, and Daniel Marker, who worked in Martinsburg and in towns in Maryland.

Brothers Philip and Henry Sheetz were working in Mecklenburg (now Shepherdstown) as early as 1768. By 1776, they had a contract to supply 24 guns per month to the state of Virginia for use by the militia during the Revolutionary War. Demand for military guns declined after the Revolution, and civilian arms like the Kentucky rifle became the focus. The Sheetz family remained active in Shepherdstown, and they also spread throughout the area. Henry eventually moved to Hampshire County.

While most of the rifles in the exhibit are being loaned to Historic Shepherdstown Museum by members of the Kentucky Rifle Association, the museum owns two William Miller Sheetz rifles, and an Entler fowler, which will also be on display.

One of the museum’s William Miller Sheetz rifles was commissioned by Rezin Davis Shepherd, grandson of Shepherdstown’s founder Thomas Shepherd, for his grandson Peter C. Brooks. The rifle is signed W M Sheetz Shepherds Town VA No 85” in script on the top flat of the 44-inch rifled barrel. A rectangular silver plate (added later) inlaid behind the cheekpiece is inscribed “Peter C Brooks From his Grandfather Shepherd”.

To commemorate the Bee Line March, the museum will also have on display a mannequin dressed as a Virginia militiaman, and a large map of the marchers’ route. The marcher’s outfit and the map are both based on entries in the diary of Henry Bedinger, who along with his brother George Michael Bedinger both participated in the Bee Line March. Henry served as 4th Sargeant and George Michael served as 4th Corporal for the company. Their brother Daniel also eventually served during the Revolution. The mannequin represents Adam Sheetz, a member of the Sheetz family, who also completed the march.

On June 14, 1775, the Continental Congress asked Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania to send companies of militiamen to Massachusetts to help General George Washington blockade Boston. Under the command of Captain Hugh Stephenson, one company left Shepherdstown, Virginia, on foot on July 17, 1775, and arrived in Cambridge on August 11, completing the nearly 600-mile journey in 26 days.

The Bee Line March committee is sponsoring several events this summer. A complete schedule can be found at Bee Line March 250th Anniversary

An article published in the April 2025 KRA Bulletin of the Kentucky Rifle Association tells the story of the exhibit – KRA partners with Historic Shepherdstown

The Exhibition Guide for the exhibit is available at Guide for Longrifle Exhibition – Historic Shepherdstown and Kentucky Rifle Foundation – page 1 and Guide for Longrifle Exhibition – Historic Shepherdstown and Kentucky Rifle Foundation – page 2