George Washington Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

March 5, 1880: James River and Kanawha Canal Co. Ceases Operation

On March 5, 1880, the James River and Kanawha Canal Company ceased operations.

The original company had been formed by Virginia in 1785, at the urging of George Washington, who’d traveled through the Ohio and Kanawha valleys the previous year. Washington envisioned a navigable water route, with canals, connecting Richmond and the Ohio River.

Canal work on the lower James River started in 1820. A new road—known as the James River and Kanawha Turnpike—linked the town of Covington with the falls of the Kanawha River near Gauley Bridge and then continued to the confluence of the Ohio and Big Sandy rivers at Kenova. The canal work was completed to Buchanan, Virginia—near present Roanoke—in 1851. Workers cleared channels and dredged the Kanawha, but the Civil War halted the project.

After the war, there were tentative plans to build a grand waterway from Tidewater Virginia, through West Virginia, eventually reaching the Rocky Mountains. However, by that time, roads and railroads had become the primary means of transportation. The James River and Kanawha Company continued to operate the Virginia portion of the canal until 1880.

February 6, 1732: General Charles Lee Born in England

General Charles Lee was born in England on February 6, 1732. As a young man, he served with distinction in the British army before immigrating to America in the early 1770s. When the Revolutionary War began, he sided with the Americans and served as a major general in the Continental Army.

He made a name for himself during the early months of the war, defending Boston and Charleston, South Carolina. However, after being captured in 1776, he supplied the British with plans to defeat the Americans. Unaware of Lee’s betrayal, George Washington exchanged prisoners for him and placed him back in command.

At the time, Lee was the American army’s third-ranking officer. But he wasn’t quite the same general after his capture. His poor performance at the Battle of Monmouth in 1778 led to a court martial.

Lee left the army and moved to present-day Jefferson County, where he enlarged a pioneer home he’d bought right before the war. He died just four years later at age 50. Lee’s Jefferson County home, which he named Prato Rio, is one of the oldest structures still standing in West Virginia.

September 16, 1799: George Washington's Youngest Brother Dies in Charles Town

Charles Washington, the youngest full brother of George Washington, died in Charles Town on September 16, 1799, at age 61. Charles Washington first came to present Jefferson County in 1780 and began constructing his home, Happy Retreat, on land he’d inherited from his half-brother. In 1786, Charles Washington laid out plans for Charles Town on 80 acres. The town square, where the courthouse now stands, was deeded by Washington as a gift to the town. Charles Town was incorporated the following year, and Charles Washington is buried nearby in the family plot at Happy Retreat.

He was one of many Washingtons who owned land in present Jefferson County. George Washington acquired his first tract there in 1750, when he was 18 years old. George’s half-brother Samuel built a house known as Harewood in 1770. And Samuel’s grandson, John Augustine Washington, later built Cedar Lawn. All of these homes are still standing and are listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

One other Washington family member entered Jefferson County history in 1859, when Lewis Washington was captured at his home and taken hostage by John Brown’s raiders.

August 13, 1763: George Washington Outlines Plans for Pontiac's Rebellion Defense

On August 13, 1763, George Washington outlined his plans to defend western Virginia against Pontiac’s Rebellion. His key strategy was to station 500 Virginia militiamen on the western frontier.

Pontiac’s Rebellion was an uprising against settlers, occurring at the end of the French and Indian War. Many western tribes had aligned themselves with France during the war. Pontiac, an Ottawa leader, realized that with the English victory, settlers would pour into the West and take more lands from Indians. He helped forge a military alliance among the Ottawa, Delaware, Kickapoo, Miami, Potawatomi, Seneca, Shawnee, and Wyandotte Indians.

In Western Virginia, the deadliest attacks of Pontiac’s Rebellion occurred in the Greenbrier region, where Shawnee chief Cornstalk’s warriors killed dozens of white settlers.

Pontiac’s Rebellion was stopped at Detroit—one of the last standing British forts. Pontiac was forced to negotiate a peace in 1766. Although Britain’s King George tried to ease tensions by banning white settlement west of the Allegheny Mountains, many pioneers ignored the warnings. By the 1770s, Pontiac’s prophecy had come true, as settlers moved into western Virginia in record numbers.

June 10, 1775: Captain Hugh Stephenson Organize the Berkeley County Riflemen

On June 10, 1775, Captain Hugh Stephenson organized the Berkeley County Riflemen in response to George Washington’s call for soldiers at the start of the Revolutionary War. These were among the first soldiers from the South to volunteer following the outbreak of hostilities in Massachusetts. The men supplied their own uniforms, weapons, equipment, and food. They wore leather leggings and moccasins, deerskin caps, and homespun shirts made of a coarse cloth called linsey-woolsey.

After drilling for a month, the riflemen set out on horseback to relieve Boston. They made the 600-mile trek from Shepherdstown to Cambridge, Massachusetts, in just 24 days, a feat remembered as the “Bee Line March.” Stephenson led his company directly to George Washington, who personally shook each man’s hand. Washington even recognized some of them from the French and Indian War and his surveying work in the present Eastern Panhandle

Patriotic citizens of western Virginia would answer at least 10 calls for troops during the Revolutionary War.

In 1989, the Secretary of the Army designated Morgan’s Grove, a park located near the start of the march, as the birthplace of the United States Army.

December 3, 1787: James Rumsey Tests First Steamboat Near Shepherdstown

On December 3, 1787, spectators gathered in Shepherdstown along the banks of the Potomac River to watch history being made. Inventor James Rumsey stepped aboard a crudely built wooden boat and fired up a steam engine. The waters of the Potomac started churning up, and, suddenly, the boat headed upstream, leaving a stunned crowd in amazement.

Rumsey had tinkered with his invention for years, but he’d struggled to find financial backing. Just three years earlier, he’d been an innkeeper at Berkeley Springs. One day, he showed a model of his steam-powered boat with a frequent visitor to the springs. George Washington formally endorsed Rumsey’s plans. As a result, Rumsey was able to raise the necessary funds for his demonstration on the Potomac three years later.

After the Shepherdstown demonstration, Rumsey traveled to Philadelphia and gained support from Benjamin Franklin, who formed a society to raise money for the venture. However, Rumsey died during a trip to England in 1792 at the age of 49. In 1807, Robert Fulton introduced a more practical design of Rumsey’s idea and is now remembered as the “father of the steamboat.”