Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1875-08-07

D@HARrER' s FERRY.-A correspondent
of the Cincinnati Commercial has reviv-
ed old and interesting "reminiscences of
this quite celebrated locality. He
writes:
Well, to impart information to all who
are DESTROYS, aud save them from asking
fOrty-five questions minute, when they
pass the Ferry, l will 60 back to the
time when this romantic spot was
bowling wilderness, the silence OF the
eternal hills broken only by the rumble
of the Potomac and Shenandoah, as they
rush to each others embrace, and roll TO
the ocean.
Robert Harper was carpenter ana
house builder, living one hundred ana
fifty years ago in Philadelphia. In l14I
he was employed to build church by the
early settlers in the neighborhood OF
what Is now Winchester, Virginia. Max
ing his way to that point, through the
almost trackless country, he was at Fred
rick, Maryland, told that he could save
distance by taking route through place
called '"rhe Hole" where the two rivers
met. And that was the first that Robert
Harper saw of Harper's Ferry. Could he
have looked down the vista Of time CEN
tuary and quarter, what emotions would
have filled his kindly Quaker heart. Per
haps he would have declined to establish
ferry there, and link his name with u
spot that was to drink up so much human
blood.
At "The Hole" Harper found one solita-
~ person, man named Stevens, who had
squatted OH this corner Of the almost linz
itless Fairfax estate. Harper was so de-
lighted with the scenery and the prospect
of fair business returned by establishing
a ferry and directing travel this way.
that he bought out Stevens for fifty pound
sterling, got quit claim deed from Lord
Fairfax, who did not seem to have high
opinion of that section Of the wilderness,
and settled down to the ferry business,
having first built the church at Winches-
ter.
And this was the origin of Harper's Fer
nv. When then single small boat, bare
ly large enough to hold horse and wag-
on, did the business, now hundred trains
day thunder past.
Harper conducted the ferry until 1872,
when he died and was buried. A small
settlement Of rather rude people had
grown up around him, and he must have
thought that the place would have some
considered population, for he donated TO
the village ten acres for cemetery, anu
was himself buried in the center OF it.
looked for his grave, but could not
find it. The scOurge Of war has populated
the little Enclosure until graves have been
dug on graves, the rude little headstOnes
knocked over and whole sections closed as
unknown.
1.-The splendid water power, some say
the finest OH the continent, is still here,
but it runs to waste. The government
has sold all its interest here to a Washing
ton company for something over two
hundred thousands dollars but the COM
pany' has neither paid any of the pur-
chase money nor expended dollar Ill
improvement. The ruins of the armory
still stand rs they did ten years ago. De
cay, blight and ruin seem to have settled
over everything here and melancholy
has claimed Harper's Ferry for her own.
1t is thought that the company at Wash
ington who bid in the property and have
never paid cent of the purchase money,
did it merely to pinch Il round SUM out OF
the Baltimore aud Ohio railroad, which
runs over some Of the grounds the e0fnpa-
nv 'purchased.' AL the money they can
get out of Garrett in this way they can
put i'm their eye. The railroad company
have had the right of way over the ground
here for TWEEN ty years, and they hold
it by valid grant, and what Is more
they paid for it, which is more than the
Washington spectators have done III
their so called purchase. The govern
ment will likely have to take back the
property and put it up again. If Uncle
Sam was as sharp as he should be he
would demand twenty-five per cent down:
This would give the proceedings an air OF
business at the start, and prevent bidding
by those who have no bottom"