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Explore all of our posts and discover more about Berkeley County’s past, present and future! There’s always something new to learn!

Born in Martinsburg on September 26,1816, renown a

Born in Martinsburg on September 26,1816, renown artist, illustrator and journalist, David Hunter Strother served as a topographer in the Union Army. After the war, Strother was appointed by President Rutherford B. Hayes to serve as United States Consul to Mexico.
Prior to the Civil War, In 1853, Strother was commissioned by Harper and Brothers to write and illustrate an article about a sporting expedition into the Canaan wilderness area. Submitted under the pen name ‘‘Porte Crayon’’ and published in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine in December 1853, the article proved to be immensely popular. In the ensuing years Strother became a regular contributor to Harper’s Monthly and achieved considerable renown. Among the more than two dozen illustrated travelogues he penned between December 1854 and May 1861 were ‘‘A Winter in the South,’’ ‘‘The Dismal Swamp’’ and ‘‘A Summer in New England.’’ These articles transported readers, introducing them to localities and characters from Maine to Louisiana.

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#onthisday in 1924, West Virginia Gov. E.F. Morgan

#onthisday in 1924, West Virginia Gov. E.F. Morgan delivered the principal address at the dedication of the Morgan Morgan monument off U.S. 11 along Mill Creek in Bunker Hill in southern Berkeley County.
The granite monument, purchased with $5,000 from the West Virginia Legislature, recognizes Morgan Morgan, who is traditionally regarded as the first colonial settler in what is now West Virginia. Following the dedication, The Washington Star newspaper reported that the monument site was to be turned over to the State Road Commission for a "tourist camp" and that it was the only one of its kind - at the time - in West Virginia.
Earlier this year, the Berkeley County Council approved an agreement with West Virginia Division of Highways to maintain the property for recreational use. Gov. Morgan, who served as governor from 1921 to 1925 was a descendant of Morgan Morgan.

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#OnthisDay in 1872, the first annual fair or "exhi

#OnthisDay in 1872, the first annual fair or "exhibition" of the Berkeley County Agricultural and Mechanical Association opened on their "magnificent" fairgrounds in the vicinity of what is now State Circle off East Stephen Street in Martinsburg. The Association purchased the property from Philip Showers for $5,875 on August 1, 1872, after first gaining use of the site little more than a year earlier. The Agricultural and Mechanical Association's fair continued into the 1880s, when newspapers reported that an auction of the property was scheduled for October 15, 1887. Nearly two years later, on July 4, 1889, a game of "base ball between two crack clubs" at the Fairgrounds was announced. (Horse racing photos previously shared by Berkeley County Historical Society)

#onthisday in 1838, Frederick Douglass escaped fro

#onthisday in 1838, Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery and years later became a prominent leader of the abolitionist movement. On July 10, 1879, he met with "a large number of leading white citizens" of Martinsburg and Berkeley County and separately spoke for about two hours to a crowd gathered at the Fairgrounds. The Fairgrounds, at that time, were located on what is now the eastern side of Martinsburg in the vicinity of State Circle. Douglass made several visits to West Virginia, including speaking engagements in Wheeling, Parkersburg and Harpers Ferry, where he had served as a trustee of Storer College, the first historically black college in what is now West Virginia. Check out the coverage of Douglass' visit by the Martinsburg Independent newspaper!

#berkeleywv250 Harpers Ferry National Historical Park

Marlowe Consolidated School, now Marlowe Elementar

Marlowe Consolidated School, now Marlowe Elementary School, opened for students this month in 1922 under the principalship of Arnold Mish.
The eight-room, two-story brick school house served Grades 1 through 8 when it opened. The school building in Marlowe, along with Winchester Avenue Elementary and Burke Street school buildings in Martinsburg, are among the oldest school buildings that welcomed students again last month.
The following schools were listed in the 1889-1890 "Catalogue of the Public Schools" for Berkeley County (Martinsburg schools were in a separately-run school district);
ARDEN DISTRICT
Burkharts
Cambridge
Darkesville
Douglas Grove*
Green Hill
Fair Haven
Forrest Hill
New Haven
Tuscarora School
Van Meters

FALLING WATER DISTRICT
Bedington
Broad Lane
Cedar Grove
Falling Waters
Honey Wood
Maidstone
Nipetown
Walnut Grove*

GERRARDSTOWN DISTRICT
Ganotown
Gerrardstown**
Jones Spring
McCubbin
Morgans
Mountain Grove
Mt. Carmel
New Hope
Ridge
Shanghai
Smiths
Sulphur Spring
Union Corner

HEDGESVILLE DISTRICT
Dry Run
Greenwood
Hedgesville Schools (4)
Johnsontown
Little Georgetown
Locust Grove
Locust Knob*
Mingo
North Mountain
Tomahawk
Well Town

MILL CREEK DISTRICT
Bunker Hill
Darkesville*
Pine Grove
Silver Hill
Sylvan Retreat
Three Runs
Woodbine*

OPEQUON DISTRICT
Fairview
Greensberg
Holly Grove*
Mt. Pleasant
Mt Airy
Newtown
Oak Grove
Ridenour
Scrabble
Smoketown
Swan Pond*

*"Colored" School
**Two schools with same name, including one for "Colored" children.

Happy Birthday, Marlowe Elementary!

#berkeleywv250 Berkeley County Schools

"The Siren of the Shenandoah," famed Confederate s

"The Siren of the Shenandoah," famed Confederate spy Belle Boyd of Martinsburg, married Union naval officer Lt. Samuel Hardinge #onthisday in 1864 in England. Arrested six or seven times during the Civil War, Boyd on one occasion, was taken into custody by Union forces and held at the Berkeley County Courthouse in 1863. "I wonder if I'll be shot tomorrow," Boyd apparently wrote in a Berkeley County Chancery book.
Several months after her release in December 1863, Boyd volunteered to carry Confederate papers to England via ship. The ship was stopped on May 10, 1864, and Boyd eventually managed to escape, first to Canada, then to London where she married Hardinge, one of the Union naval officers who had seized the ship.
When Hardinge returned to the U.S. to answer charges that he had aided and abetted an enemy spy, he was jailed and, soon after his release, he apparently died. Boyd married two more times before she died in Kilbourn, Wisc., on June 11, 1900 while touring the U.S.

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#DidYouKnow: On March 18, 1774, less than two year

#DidYouKnow: On March 18, 1774, less than two years after Berkeley County was created, George Washington leased 125 acres in the County to William Bartlett for the planting of 100 peach trees and 100 winter apple trees in the "barens of Bullskin" in the Kabletown area, which became part of Jefferson County when it formed in 1801.
Bartlett's annual rent? Six Pounds in Virginia currency payable at Mount Vernon, Christmas Day.
The Washington-Bartlett venture is regarded as the beginnings of horticultural history of Berkeley County, and West Virginia!
Fast-forward to 1902, the West Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station based in Morgantown, W.Va., described conditions found in Berkeley County during a survey the year before:
"This county contains some very large peach orchards. The largest now in bearing are those lying some miles westward from North Mountain station, near the north end of Sleepy Creek mountains. Woods & Norris are the most extensive growers in this section with 44,000 trees."
In addition the B&O Railroad report, the pounds of peaches per railroad station carried by the Cumberland Valley Railroad in 1901 in Berkeley County were reported as follows;
Falling Waters 9,470; Inwood 1,175,395; Martinsburg 20,000; Bunker Hill 3,500; Tabler's 847,895; Ridgway, 40,000. Total - 2,095,760 pounds or nearly 105 train carloads.

What's your favorite peach variety?

#berkeleywv250 West Virginia Department of Agriculture WVU Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design

#OnThisDay in 1768: Norborne Berkeley, baron de Bo

#OnThisDay in 1768: Norborne Berkeley, baron de Botetourt, was commissioned by King George III as royal governor of Virginia. Berkeley County was named in Norborne's honor.

Read more about the beloved governor ▶️ https://bit.ly/3smCUGK

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#onthisday in 1775: Dozens of riflemen from Berkel

#onthisday in 1775: Dozens of riflemen from Berkeley County arrived in Cambridge, Massachusetts to aid General George Washington at the British siege of Boston after marching 600 miles in 25 days. The extraordinary journey of Virginians became known as the Bee Line March. It began just outside of Shepherdstown in what was then eastern Berkeley County.
Captain Hugh Stephenson. who was tapped to command and recruit one of two Virginia companies by the Berkeley County Committee of Safety, raised 98 men within a week. Later, at the disastrous Battle of Fort Washington, many of these riflemen were later imprisoned by the British, some of whom perished on prison ships in New York harbors.

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#OnThisDay in 1863, the West Virginia Legislature

#OnThisDay in 1863, the West Virginia Legislature admitted Berkeley County into the 35th state. The County vote to join West Virginia in May 1863 was disputed by claims that Union troops helped ensure pro-West Virginia voters went to the polls over pro-Virginians.

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#didyouknow: 2022 not only is the 75th year of the

#didyouknow: 2022 not only is the 75th year of the Berkeley County Youth Fair, but also marks the centennial (September 9, 1922) of the founding of the Berkeley County Fair Association, the predecessor to Berkeley County Youth Fair, Inc.
In 1922, the Berkeley County Fair, held Sept. 25-28, had more than 20,000 admissions!

What events and activities bring you out to the fair?

#bullriding #berkeleywv250

The 75th Berkeley County Youth Fair, the only coun

The 75th Berkeley County Youth Fair, the only county-level youth fair in the United States, begins tonight and continues through Aug. 6! The county’s very first Youth Fair was a one-day event with 15 exhibitors and 12 winning prizes. In the fair’s first few years, exhibits were presented in a rented tent staged in a parking lot between Martinsburg High School and Cobourn Field. The fair moved to the current fairgrounds at Harry D. Shelley Park east of Martinsburg in 1981. The first Miss Berkeley County Youth Fair contest was held in 1960. The very first Berkeley County fair was held in 1916 and a group known as the Valley Agricultural Association held annual exhibition years earlier. But these events were not strictly a youth fair

What are your favorite Fair memories?

#berkeleywv250 Berkeley County Youth Fair Association

This week in 1864: The Boydville estate in Martins

This week in 1864: The Boydville estate in Martinsburg is spared by direct order of President Lincoln. Union troops were ordered on July 17, 1864 to burn the dwelling house and outbuildings of Charles J. Faulkner, a supporter of the Confederate cause. Faulkner recalled by Lincoln from his appointment as Minister to France and imprisoned for disloyalty. Faulkner, who served on the staff of Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson, was later offered a pardon by Lincoln. The order to burn Faulkner's estate came in response to Confederate forces burning of Maryland Gov. Bradford's home in Maryland.

#berkeleywv250 #civilwarhistory

#OnThisDay: The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 bega

#OnThisDay: The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 began in Martinsburg after the B&O Railroad cut wages for the third time in a year. West Virginia Gov. Henry Mathews sent in the National Guard to restore train services, but the soldiers refused to fire. The governor then called upon President Rutherford B. Hayes for federal troops. The strike spread to Pittsburgh, Chicago and St. Louis before ending in the summer of 1877.

Fun Fact: While serving in the Union Army, Hayes is said to have laid "ill" at the Wegenast Brewery, which was along Tuscarora Creek near the railroad underpass on East Burke Street in Martinsburg.

Read more about President Hayes here https://bit.ly/3yYvqft

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#Onthisday in 1863, Gen. Robert E. Lee, in retreat

#Onthisday in 1863, Gen. Robert E. Lee, in retreat after the Battle of Gettysburg, crossed the Potomac River with Confederate troops at what is now Falling Waters, W.Va.
While waiting to cross, Union troops charged in a surprise attack from the east, and Gen. James J. Pettigrew, already wounded at Gettysburg, was mortally injured near the Daniel Donnelly house north of the road. Pettigrew later died at the home of John Boyd in Bunker Hill.
While Lee's escape into what was then still part of Virginia was his second and last visit to Berkeley County, he resurfaced in a Berkeley County Circuit Court case in October 1865, five months after the War ended. The court papers bearing Lee's signature were returned to the custody of the Berkeley County Circuit Clerk earlier this year.

#berkeleywv250 #wv #civilwar

#didyouknow: George Washington and his brother, Sa

#didyouknow: George Washington and his brother, Samuel, weren't the only prominent stakeholders in the town of Bath after it formed in 1776. Charles Carroll of Carroll, the longest-surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence, purchased lots there too.

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#onthisday in 1776, Jacob Hite, one of Berkeley Co

#onthisday in 1776, Jacob Hite, one of Berkeley County's founding fathers and rival of Martinsburg founder Adam Stephen, was killed by Cherokees in Greenville County, SC.
Hite moved south after he lost a bid to make his "Hitetown," now Leetown, the seat of Berkeley County government, instead of Martinsburg.
While the county court controversy was raging, Sheriff Adam Stephen seized 15 of Hite's slaves and 21 horses, which were to be auctioned off in settlement of an apparent judgement against Hite.
Horatio Gates, an ally of Hites, later broke into the county jail and reclaimed Hite's property. Gates served as a general in the Revolutionary War.
The feud gained in notoriety after Hite made public claims against Stephen in The Virginia Gazette, and Stephen responded to the charges via the newspaper.
Disgusted with the affair, Hite sold his property to Charles Lee, who served as as general in the Revolutionary War and moved his family to South Carolina.

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HISTORY

#onthisday in 1788, Berkeley Co. delegates William

#onthisday in 1788, Berkeley Co. delegates William Darke (pictured) and Adam Stephen (no image available) voted to ratify (89-79) the U.S. Constitution @ the Virginia Convention. Established in 1791, the village of Darkesville, south of Martinsburg (and Darke County, Ohio), is named for Darke. Stephen, who founded Martinsburg, and Darke served as officers in the American Revolutionary War.

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Happy West Virginia Day! 💙💛 #OnThisDay in 1

Happy West Virginia Day! 💙💛

#OnThisDay in 1863, West Virginia was established as 35th state of the Union. Berkeley County voted to join the new state in February 1863 and was added by West Virginia lawmakers on August 5, 1863 The county votes were challenged in a court case filed by the state of Virginia. Virginia's legal challenge contesting the transfer of Berkeley and Jefferson counties ended with a 6-3 Supreme Court decision in 1870.

See names of some of the Berkeley and Jefferson Countians who petitioned to join West Virginia ▶️ https://bit.ly/3CMYw3I

#berkeleywv250 #scotus

Plans launched in 2021 to create a new public park

Plans launched in 2021 to create a new public park in Inwood come about 130 years after the first "Inwood Park" was established along the Cumberland Valley Railroad (now Winchester & Western Railroad). Originally a campground and park established by J.R. Strong on his land, Inwood Park was incorporated in 1890 #onthisday for the creation of the recreation site.
Originally known as Strong's Grove, the park became a popular spot for picnics, tent revivals, reunions, dances and home of the Inwood Fair.
Various improvements included a clubhouse, dancing pavilion, refreshment stands, bowling alley, shooting gallery, swings and seesaws and merry-go-round.

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