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History/Charles Town-Harper’s Ferry |
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Written by Sarah Becker ©
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Charles Washington, the sixth son of Augustine Washington and fourth son of Augustine’s wife Mary Ball, is the founder of Charles Town, West Virginia [then Virginia]; the 1786 land donor for whom the town is named. He was born in 1738 at Augustine’s Little Hunting Creek Plantation, later known as Mount Vernon. Charles spent his formative years in Fredericksburg, Virginia, the fortunate beneficiary of family largesse.
Six years younger than his brother George, Charles Washington was only five years old when their father Augustine died in 1743. At his death Charles received a substantial amount of land including some slaves. He was the last child to leave the Washington’s Ferry Farm.
Anxious to marry, at age 22 at his bride’s family’s request, Charles Washington built a Fredericksburg home. The Caroline Street house now is known as the historic Rising Sun Tavern.
In 1780, the Revolution almost over, Charles relocated to Jefferson County, West Virginia. He settled on land once owned by his deceased half-brother Lawrence. Charles constructed his family’s Happy Retreat not far from what would become Charles Town’s public square.
George Washington, like his brother Charles, was also a Jefferson County land owner. In March 1748, in a life-changing endeavor, George joined half-brother Lawrence’s in-law George William Fairfax on a frontier expedition to survey the sparsely settled area. In his journal he wrote of Indian war dances, lice and fleas, and rich land.
A land speculator, George Washington listed his 1799 Jefferson County holdings in his will: South Fork of Bullskin [1600 acres], Head of Evans’s M [453 acres], and On Wormeley’s line [183 acres].
General Washington was economically committed to the region he called home, determined to develop the Potomac River Valley. George hosted the Mount Vernon Conference, encouraged construction of the Potomac and James Rivers canals, and suggested drainage of southeast Virginia’s Great Dismal Swamp. For this and other foreign policy reasons, President Washington signed an armory bill into law.
The 1794 law read: “That for safe keeping of the military stores, there shall be established under the direction of the President of the United States, three or four arsenals with magazines [and] at each of the aforesaid arsenals, a national armory.”
Against the advice of two Secretaries of War, President Washington authorized construction of a southern armory at Harper’s Ferry, Jefferson County, West Virginia. The Potomac River location was consistent with Washington’s economic interests including the newly sanctioned Federal City. Businessmen like family loyalist Tobias Lear and Alexandria’s George Gilpin also supported the measure.
Writing from Charles Town in 1796 Lear, President of The Potomac [navigation] Company, informed Washington – the Company’s first President – the arsenal deal was done. The Potomac Company, anticipating increased river revenues for raw materials shipments, monitored the manufacturing project for the next six years. President Washington back channeled communication with John Adams’ Cabinet to ensure his successor’s cooperation.
In the summer of 1859 abolitionist John Brown arrived in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, to map his attack on the Harper’s Ferry armory. His goal: to steal enough government weapons to equip an army of slaves. John Brown’s raid was the opening battle cry of the American Civil War.
“Brown was a controversial figure who divided the nation,” said Harper’s Ferry Chief Historian Dennis Frye. “No single person did more to guide the country into [civil] war.”
John Brown, the son of Ruth Mills and Owen Brown, was born in Torrington, Connecticut on May 9, 1800. They were simple people well-schooled in religion. It was Brown’s father “who taught him to view the enslavement of Negroes as a sin against God.”
“Sunday night, October 16, [1859], fixed for the foray, Brown and his companions…kidnapped [Charles Town resident] Colonel Lewis W. Washington [George Washington’s great-grand nephew] and his Negroes,” The Washington Post wrote in 1883. “In capturing Colonel Washington they also seized the historic dress sword which had been given by Frederick the Great to George Washington.” Brown transported his hostages to Harper’s Ferry by carriage.
Coincidentally in the fall of 1859 army Colonel Robert E. Lee – George Washington Parke Custis’ son-in-law – took leave and returned to his family’s Virginia home. Lee was engaged in home repairs at Arlington House when, on the morning of October 17, 1859, Lt. J.E.B. Stuart arrived with a government note. The President of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad had shared news of a rebellion at Harper’s Ferry.
On October 18, 1859, Colonel Robert E. Lee’s troops surrounded the Harper’s Ferry armory and demanded surrender. It was, according to historian Douglas Southall Freeman, “a long parley.” Once captured, John Brown was placed in the joint custody of the US marshal and the Jefferson County sheriff. He was then “removed by train” to Charles Town, the county seat, for trial. Colonel Lewis W. Washington was among the prosecution witnesses.
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, an intrepid member of Brown’s Secret [financial] Six, offered to raise money for Brown’s defense. Since the legal outcome was hopeless, Brown chose martyrdom instead.
“I am yet too young to understand that God is any respecter of persons,” Brown said at his Charles Town trial. “I believe that to have interfered as I have done – as I have always freely admitted I have done – in behalf of His despised poor was not wrong, but right. Now if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice…I submit; so let it be done!” John Brown was hanged for murder and treason on December 2, 1859.
“Upon the decease of my wife, it is my Will & desire that all the Slaves which I hold in my own right, shall receive their freedom,” George Washington concluded in 1799.
If Washington defined economic development as progress, changes in production methods, institutions, and society: if George’s family valued western exploration and he championed commerce, how unfortunate others only partially followed his lead. |
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