Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1922-11-16

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walls still standing.
| have already mentioned the Oldest
house in Jefferson county, possibly in
West Virginia, and the many, many
others of historic note form a history
II themselves.
If the walls of Hardwood, near
Charles Town, the home of Samuel
Washington, brother of George Wash
ington, could reproduce, as a Victor
record can, the many conversations of
note which were enacted there, "what
a really, truly fairy tale" we would
have! The house was partly planned
/ by George Washington. Some of its
beautiful interior woodwork was i'm
ported from England, and a mantel of
black marble was the gift of Lafayette.
Within its portals Dolly Payne Todd
became the bride Of James Madison.
Old portraits still adorn its walls. II
IS still in the Washington family.
On the outskirts of Charles Town
stands Mordington, the home of
Charles Washington and for whom
Charles Town is named. 1t is built of
stone, but later brick addition was
made. Blakely is another old Wash.
ington family home.
Piedmont, the old Briscoe home, is
very old, and well preserved. A wall
paper upon the drawing room is of a
very rare and handsome scenic de.
sign, and, am told, wonderfully pre-.
served
Travellers Rest, the Horatio Gates
home, and the old General Darkc
home, at Dufields, or Darke, as it is
now called, are of peculiar interest to
us all. General Charles Lees home at
Leetown, after whom Leetown was
named, is of rather amusing interest
TO me. We have all heard the various
stories of his eccentricites and of his
clashes with General Washington and
Congress, until his final discharge
| His home had no partitions in it, but
lines that were drawn with some white
substance marked off his rooms. His
cats, dogs and slaves seemed to have
been his congenial companions. Legend
(or is it fact-who can say?) tells
of proposed visit from Washington
to his home one day. His ire and
Feasibility must have surmounted his
hospitality, for upon Washington's ar
rival, he found written upon the door,
mo bacon cooked at my house today"
the door fastened, and the host alb
sent.
A small tenant house, on the old
Morgan homestead near Shepherds
town, now owned by DR.. Crawford,
was the old home of General Morgan
of Revolutionary fame.
James Rumsey's home still stands
in Shepherdstown, but its interior and
exterior appearance has been so
changed since his day that | doubt if
his ghost would recognize the place.
Yet am told, the original walls still
stand, but weather-boarded and the
house enlarged and modernized.
Claymont Court, while not so old as
many houses of the county, is one of
the most imposing. 1t was once burn
ed, and was rebuilt later as it stands
today
Rockland, Rion Hall, Rose Brake,
Glenburnie, Haven Hurst, and scores
of others of old stone, and stone and
log houses, named and unnamed, of
early settlers-the story of each one
would read just as fairy story TODAY
are to be found dotted all over the
county.
The subject of the historic churches
OF the county am going to leave ex-
cIusively to the pen of another, who
VIII do 1t ample justice later on, men,
tioning only the ruins Of ST. GEORGES
Chapel, near Charles Town. 1t is be-
yond doubt the first church built in
the Valley, and its true age and his
tory seem shrouded in mystery.
Other notable ruins are the old &C.
ment mill along the Potomac, the
armory and arsenal at Harper's Ferry,
Bedford and Fountain Rock, two ex
ampieS, not many miles apart, dis
playing the barbarity of General Hunt
er during the Civil War.
During the pioneer days, and really
extending down through the years I'M
til after the Civil War, every church
and nearly every homestead had its
own ourying ground. Former legis-
lators, wise and Questionable enough