Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

Harpers Ferry redirects here. For other uses, see Harpers Ferry (disambiguation).

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Harpers Ferry, West Virginia 1865, looking east (downstream)

Harpers Ferry, a town in Jefferson County, West Virginia (formerly in Virginia; see Civil War below), is situated on the banks of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers where the U.S. states of Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia meet. Located at the bottom of the ravine created by the two rivers, it is thus nestled within the surrounding mountains. Historically, Harpers Ferry is best known for John Brown's raid on the Armory in 1859. As of the 2000 census, the town had a population of 307.

Harpers Ferry is located within Harpers Ferry National Historical Park and is also one of the few towns the Appalachian Trail directly passes through.

National Park Service map of Harpers Ferry showing the Appalachian Trail, and (1) the scene of John Brown's raid [1]

History

Harpers Ferry seen from Maryland side of Potomac river (2005)

Establishment

In 1751, Robert Harper was given a patent on 125 acres (0.5 km²) at the present location of the town. In 1761, Harper established a ferry across the Potomac making the town a starting point for settlers moving into the Shenandoah Valley and further west. In 1763, the Virginia General Assembly established the town of "Shenandoah Falls at Mr. Harper's Ferry."

On October 25, 1783, Thomas Jefferson visited Harpers Ferry. He viewed "the passage of the Patowmac though the Blue Ridge" from a rock which is now named for him. Jefferson was actually on his way to Philadelphia and passed through Harpers Ferry with his daughter Patsy. Jefferson called the site "perhaps one of the most stupendous scenes in nature.”

Harpers Ferry, today

George Washington as president of the Patowmack Company (which was formed to complete river improvements on the Potomac and its tributaries) traveled to Harpers Ferry during the summer of 1785 to determine the need for bypass canals. In 1794, Washington's familiarity with the area led him to propose the site as the location for a new federal armory and arsenal. Some of Washington's family moved to the area; his great-great nephew, Colonel Lewis Washington, was held hostage during John Brown's raid in 1859.

In 1796, the United States government purchased a 125-acre (0.5 km²) parcel of land from the heirs of Robert Harper and, in 1799, construction began on the United States Armory and Arsenal at Harpers Ferry. This was one of only two such facilities in the US, the other being Springfield, Massachusetts, and between them they produced most of the small arms for the US Army. The town was transformed into an industrial center; Between 1801 and its destruction in 1861 to prevent its capture during the Civil War, the Armory produced more than 600,000 muskets, rifles, and pistols. The inventor Captain John H. Hall pioneered the use of interchangeable parts in firearms manufactured at his Rifle Works at the Armory between 1820 and 1840; his M1819 Hall rifle was the first breech loading weapon adopted by the US Army.

This industrialization continued in 1833 when the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal reached Harpers Ferry linking it with Washington, D.C. A year later, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad began train service through Harpers Ferry.

John Brown's raid

On October 16, 1859, the radical abolitionist John Brown led a small group of 22 men in a raid on the Arsenal. Five were black: three free blacks, one a freed slave, and one a fugitive slave. During this time assisting fugitive slaves was both illegal and unacceptable to most white communities. Brown attacked and captured several buildings; he hoped to use the captured weapons to initiate a slave uprising throughout the South. However, he and his men were quickly pinned down by local citizens and militia, and forced to take refuge in the engine house adjacent to the armory.

On October 18, United States Marines were sent via train to Harpers Ferry. Under the temporary command of U.S. Army Colonel Robert E. Lee, they stormed the fire house and killed or captured most of the raiders. Brown was tried for treason by the State of Virginia, convicted, and hanged in nearby Charles Town. Following the prosecution (by Andrew Hunter), "John Brown captured the attention of the nation like no other abolitionist or slave owner before or since." The failed raid was a catalyst for the American Civil War.

Civil War

The Civil War was disastrous for Harpers Ferry, which changed hands eight times between 1861 and 1865. Because of the town's strategic location on the railroad and at the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley, both Union and Confederate troops moved through Harpers Ferry frequently. The town's garrison of 14,000 Federal troops played a key role in the Confederate invasion of Maryland in September 1862. General Robert E. Lee did not want to continue on to Pennsylvania without capturing the town, which was on his supply line and would control one of his possible routes of retreat if the invasion did not go well. Dividing his army of approximately 40,000 into four sections, he used the cover of the mountains and sent three columns under Stonewall Jackson to surround and capture the town. The Battle of Harpers Ferry started with light fighting September 13 to capture the Maryland Heights to the northeast while John Walker moved back over the Potomac to capture Loudon Heights south of town. After an artillery bombardment on September 14 and September 15, the Federal garrison surrendered. Lee, because of the delay and the movement of Federal forces west, was forced to regroup at the town of Sharpsburg, leading two days later to the fateful Battle of Antietam, and the bloodiest single day in American military history. When Virginia seceded in April of 1861 the US garrison attempted to burn the arsenal and destroy the machinery. Locals saved the equipment, which was later transferred to a more secure location in Richmond. Arms production never returned to Harpers Ferry.

Shortly after the end of the Civil War, Harpers Ferry, along with all of both Berkeley and Jefferson Counties, was separated from Virginia and incorporated into West Virginia. The inhabitants of the counties as well as the Virginia legislature protested, but the federal government went ahead anyway, forming the West Virginia "panhandle" of today. Without the help of Harpers Ferry the North might have never won the war.

20th Century

1912 panorama, looking west

On August 15, 1906, the Niagara Movement, led by author and scholar W.E.B. DuBois, held its first meeting on American soil on the campus of Storer College, now part of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. The three-day gathering, held to discuss how to secure civil rights for African Americans, was later described by DuBois as "one of the greatest meetings that American Negroes ever held." Attendees of the 1906 meeting walked from Storer College to the nearby farm of the Murphy family, then the site of the historic fort where John Brown's quest to free four million enslaved African Americans reached its bloody climax.

In 1944 most of the town became part of the National Park Service and it is now maintained as the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. The majority of the existing homes in Harpers Ferry (including Charmadoah) are very old, and some of these are registered in the National Register of Historic Places.

Rail transportation

See also: Harpers Ferry (Amtrak station)

Amtrak, the national passenger rail system, provides service to Harpers Ferry two times a day (once in each direction). It is also served by the MARC commuter rail service, on its Brunswick line. The city's passenger rail station is located at the West Virginia end of the railroad bridge across the Potomac River. In addition about forty or fifty CSX freight trains daily pass through Harpers Ferry and over the bridge spanning the Potomac River.

Geography

Harpers Ferry is located at 39°19′31″N 77°44′37″W (39.325398, -77.743599)Template:GR.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 1.6 km² (0.6 mi²). 1.5 km² (0.6 mi²) of it is land and 0.2 km² (0.1 mi²) of it (9.68%) is water.

Demographics

As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there were 307 people, 153 households, and 89 families residing in the town. The population density was 211.7/km² (552.2/mi²). There were 189 housing units at an average density of 130.3/km² (339.9/mi²). The racial makeup of the town was 89.90% White, 9.12% African American, 0.33% Native American, and 0.65% from two or more races. 0.65% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 153 households out of which 17.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.1% were married couples living together, 11.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 41.8% were non-families. 36.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.01 and the average family size was 2.56.

In the town the population was 17.3% under the age of 18, 2.0% from 18 to 24, 28.0% from 25 to 44, 30.9% from 45 to 64, and 21.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 47 years. For every 100 females there were 90.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.4 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $52,344, and the median income for a family was $70,313. Males had a median income of $45,417 versus $22,708 for females. The per capita income for the town was $29,638. About 3.2% of families and 2.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 2.8% of those under the age of eighteen and none of those sixty five or over.

External links

• Corporation of Harpers Ferry Website
• HarpersFerryWV.net
• Harpers Ferry National Historical Park
• Harpers Ferry Main Street InfoCenter
• Amtrak Station Stop, Harpers Ferry