Harpers Ferry is one of the few towns that the Appalachian Trail passes directly through.

History

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.

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 lead 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, Col. Lewis Washington, was held hostage during John Brown's raid in 1859.

The United States Armory and Arsenal was established at Harpers Ferry in 1799; this was one of only two such facilities in the US, and between them they produced most of the weapons for the US Army. The town was transformed into an industrial center; Between 1801 and its destruction 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.

On October 16, 1859, the radical abolitionist John Brown led a small group of followers in a raid on the Arsenal. 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 fire house adjacent to the arsenal. On October 18, U.S. Marines were sent via train to Harpers Ferry.^* Under the command of 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 executed. The failed raid was a major catalyst in accelerating the slide to Civil War. Brown was successfully prosecuted by Andrew Hunter, who would later appear on the same stage in Harpers Ferry with Frederick Douglass.

The Civil War was disastrous for Harpers Ferry, which changed hands eight times between 1861 and 1865. Due to 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.http://www.nps.gov/hafe/jackson.htm 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, west of town on Bolivar Heights. The magnitude of the surrender of U.S. troops(approximately 12,500--about 1,500 calvary escaped during the night and rode north towards Hagerstown) was not matched until the Battle of Corregidor during World War II. 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. The arsenal was destroyed and arms production never returned to Harpers Ferry.

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 former Storer College, an African-American school, was in Harpers Ferry.

Geography

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

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

Maps and satellite imagery

Notes