The Strange Story of Harper's Ferry, with Legends of the Surrounding Country

Soon after Mr. Wernwag's hasty passage down the river, a ludicrous mistake was near causing trouble between some of his friends. At that time there lived at Harper's Ferry two men of hasty tempers, but of generous impulses – one an Englishman and the other an Irishman. They were inseparable companions and proverbial for their attachment to one another. Both were great admirers of Mr. Wernwag and with moist eyes they both stood close together on the river bank, when their old friend was swept off to his death, as all supposed. Mr. Wernwag had an only son who was named Edward. The young man happened to be away from the place at the time, which was a great aggravation of the calamity supposed to have been consummated. The boy's acquaintances used to call him "Wernwag's Ed." and this familiar appellation was the cause of a misunderstanding, which was near ending in a fist-fight, between the friends referred to. About the time when the old man reached the "Bull Ring" the Englishman turned to his Irish friend and asked him where he thought Wernwag's Hed could be found – of course meaning the boy. As usual with his countrymen, he used the aspirate "H" before the vowel. The Irishman understanding the inquiry to refer to the poor old gentleman's cranium, and thinking that the question savored of untimely levity, replied that he supposed it would be found with the rest of the body, and he added some comments to show his opinion of his friend's heartlessness. The Briton feeling innocent of any wrong, and being a man of pluck, put in a sharp rejoinder which was met by another from the peppery Irishman. The quarrel was intensified by the laughter of the by-standers who took in the situation accurately. The interference of friends alone prevented a set-to and the belligerents were alienated from one another for many weeks after. The matter dropped when the mistake was explained and they became fully reconciled.

About 4 o'clock, p.m., on Saturday, Mr. Williams and his fellow prisoners were rescued by the same process that was used in saving the Kane and Furtney families. Great difficulty was experienced in passing to them a rope, as the distance was very great from the house of Mr. Matthew Quinn, but through the ingenuity of a Mr. Crosby, of Ashtabula county, Ohio, who was temporarily residing at the place, constructing agricultural machines, a rope was cast after many trials to Williams' house and the inmates were taken out, one by one, in a basket. Charles King, before mentioned, was very active on this occasion, as was also the Reverend Daniel Ames, who on the previous evening had distinguished himself in rescuing the Furtney family. Mr. Ames ventured across in the basket on its first trip to Williams' house, remained there encouraging the women and children and securing the passengers with ropes in their frail and unsteady carriage, and was the last to leave the tottering building. When he arrived back he was received with rounds of applause from the spectators, and the surrounding hills echoed with the cheers sent up for his brave and self-sacrificing man. Mr. Ames was a man of very mild and unassuming manners and the great courage manifested by him on this terrible occasion was a matter of surprise to many who regarded bluster as the only indication of bravery. Too much credit cannot be given to him or Mr. King for their conduct at this time. They were both New Englanders who came to reside at Harper's Ferry during the war, where their upright and courteous behavior had gained for them many friends long before this trying period, and where their heroic courage on this occasion covered them with glory. Mr. Ames, as before stated, is now dead, but Mr. King moved to New Haven, Connecticut, many years ago and his subsequent career is unknown to us.

Mrs. Fitzpatrick and family were rescued on Saturday about 9 o'clock, a.m., by some young men who floated to their house on pieces of drift and succeeded in bridging the gulf between the Fitzpatrick house and that of Mr. Matthew Quinn. They did so by stopping and securing in some way floating fragments of timber – enough to allow of walking from the one house to the other.

Early on Saturday morning a colored woman was found clinging to a tree near the site of her house on Shenandoah street. She hung by the hands to the tree, the water being too deep to allow her to touch bottom. Back and forward she swayed with the current that eddied round the ruins of her house, but she held on with a death grip. A youth named William Gallaher went in a skiff to her rescue and, with the utmost difficulty, succeeded in saving her life. At that time there was no injunction on the name of Gallaher to "let her go," and, if there had been ten thousand orders to that effect, Will was not the boy to obey any command that militated against humanity. He was one of the author's pupils in school, when the writer wielded the birch and this notice of the gallant boy is given with a great deal of pleasure by his old taskmaster. Mr. Gallaher died lately in Cumberland, Maryland. The woman told an almost incredible tale; that she had thus hung on all night; that her cabin had been washed away about 8 o'clock, p.m., and that her daughter had been drowned, but that she had caught the tree and had retained her hold till morning. It is probable that at first she got into the forks of the tree and there remained 'till within a short time of her discovery, when she fell into the water from exhaustion but, yet, retaining the instinct of self-preservation, had clutched the tree and held on with the grip of a drowning person until she was rescued.

Messrs. Child, McCreight and Hathaway, of the mill firm, as well as many others living on the island of Virginius, had not yet been heard from, when Mr. Williams and his companions were saved. These gentlemen and the Reverend Dr. Dutton of the Presbyterian congregation who, also, resided on that island, were among the very best and most respected citizens of the place. Their houses could be seen yet standing, but, as the island was entirely submerged, it was plain that each family was isolated and that no communication could easily be held from one to another in case of special emergency, and it was feared that some casualties might have occurred which, as in the case of the river front of Mr. Williams' house, could not be perceived from the shore. Each family had its own adventures and experiences to relate afterwards. All the houses on the island, except that occupied by Mr. Child, were badly injured and the lives of the inmates hung by a hair. The Reverend Dr. Dutton was severely wounded by a brick that fell on his head from a partition in his house which tumbled down suddenly while he was standing near it. He was stunned and for a while rendered entirely helpless and unconscious. He and his wife lived alone and, as there was no one to render her assistance, Mrs. Dutton, as soon as her husband had partially recovered, contrived to communicate with a neighbor who threw her a rope by means of which, strongly bound by her delicate hands around her husband, he was dragged through the water across to the neighbor's house, where his wound was dressed and his wants supplied. The venerable sufferer lay for a long time sick from the effects of his injuries and the excitement and exposure of the occasion. He recovered, however, and for some years after continued to serve his divine Master with his accustomed zeal and devotion. He with Messrs. Child, McCreight and Williams is now dead, and the survivors of their families are scattered far and wide. Soon after the flood Mr. Hathaway, connected with the firm of Child and McCreight and also a resident of the island, returned to his old home in Ohio.

About 7 o'clock on Saturday evening the water had subsided enough to allow communication by boat with the island of Virginius, and Harper's Ferry was left to present an indescribable appearance of ruin, desolation and filth. The very streets were in many places ploughed up, as it were, and chasms many feet in depth were made in the road bed. Every house on the south side of the street, from the market house to the Island of Virginius was either entirely destroyed or badly injured, except that of Mr. Matthew Quinn, which was saved by the accident of the falling of some heavily laden house-cars with the railroad trestling, into the street near it and their lodging against it, which broke and diverted the force of the current. Some seventy houses in all were either entirely demolished or rendered uninhabitable and, as before stated, in many instances, the very foundations were obliterated. All imaginable floating things were represented in the huge piles of debris heaped up at corners or wherever the torrent met a check. Trees nearly two feet in diameter were to be encountered frequently, lodged the streets and the vast amount of rails, planks and various kinds of timber gathered up for use, formed a very important item of fuel for the citizens during the severe winter that followed. Sadder than all, some forty-two lives were lost. Three families named Bateman, numbering over twenty souls, disappeared, with a large brick building at Shenandoah City – a suburb – into which they had fled from their own houses for greater protection. Of these families only one body was recovered for interment. The Batemans were humble, hard-working people, supposed to have in their veins the blood of the Indians that in former times possessed the land, tinctured with that of the African, but they were a good deal respected for their industry and unobtrusive manners. It has been related before that ten were lost on Overton's Island. Mrs. Margaret Carrol, widow of Eli Carroll, formerly proprietor of the Wager house – afterwards called Fouke's hotel – and, at one time owner of "Hannah" who saved the author's life at the Brown raid, was drowned at the boarding house of Mrs. Nancy Evans on Virginius Island. She was very old and feeble and, when the family were retreating from the house on Friday evening, they tried to induce her to accompany them, but in vain. Either not considering the flood dangerous or being from age and infirmities, apathetic about the result, she refused to leave the house and there was no time to be lost in arguing the case with her, as the other inmates had barely a few minutes in which to make their own escape. Soon after the house was swept away and with it, of course, the hapless old lady. Strangely enough, her body was found some weeks afterward about thirty miles down the Potomac, near the mouth of Seneca creek, and within a few paces of the residence of one of her relations. The corpse was recognized by means of a ring with Mrs. Carrol's name engraved on it which was on one of the fingers, and the remains were forwarded to Harper's Ferry for interment. Several persons were drowned whose names cannot be gathered now, and, indeed, it is probable that the loss of life was much more extensive than is generally supposed, as it is known that the upper islands are always occupied by stragglers and obscure people, of whom little note is taken in the neighborhood, and the chances are that many of such temporary residents were lost of whom no account was given and about whom no questions were asked.

A remarkable occurrence took place in connection with this flood which, though, of course, accidental, was a very strange coincidence. The Reverend N. C. Brackett, county superintendent of free schools, had convened the teachers' association and had secured the services of Professor Kidd, a well known itinerant lecturer on elocution, to give instruction to them on this important branch of education. On Friday evening, before any apprehension was felt from the river, he was holding forth in the public school house, on Shenandoah street. He remarked on the faulty construction of school houses in general through that region as being a serious drawback on the comfort and advancement of pupils, and he turned the attention of his audience to the building in which they were, as being about the worst-planned of any he had seen. Warming with his subject, he expressed a wish that some convulsion of the elements would take place for the special purpose of destroying this house, so that another might be erected on a better plan. This wish, thoughtlessly or playfully uttered, was, strangely enough, gratified that very night. The river rose beyond all usual bounds and before 9 o'clock, not a vestige of the obnoxious school house remained. Professor Kidd, with his own eyes, witnessed the consummation of his desires, but whether Heaven was moved by the Professor's eloquence or the thing would have happened anyway, is a question which the writer will not undertake to decide.

Another strange occurrence used to be related by the late Mr. Edmond H. Chambers, one of the oldest and most respectable citizens of the place. Mr. Chambers was a class leader in the Methodist Episcopal church, and Mrs. Overton, whose tragic death in the flood has been narrated, was a member of his class. On the Sunday before the awful visitation, she attended the class meeting and seemed to be excited to a high degree during the exercises. Her unusual demeanor was noticed by all present, and it could not be accounted for, as she was not generally very demonstrative in her devotions. She went 'round among the members of the class and shook hands with them all, bidding them farewell and saying that, in all probability, she would never again meet them on this side of the grave. Her words were prophetic for, sure enough, on Friday night of the same week, she passed "the bourne from which no traveler returns." Who can tell what message she may have received from that mysterious world towards which we are all traveling – that her weary pilgrimage on earth was nearing its end and that in a few days she would rejoin the loved ones who had gone before her. It is useless for the most practical and so called hard-headed of the world to deny that many such presentments are felt, and that events often prove their correctness. When people of nervous and susceptible natures take up the belief that they are doomed to a speedy demise, it may be said with plausibility, that their imaginations contribute to bring on some disease to fulfill the prophecy, but when the catastrophe occurs through accident or any means that did not or could not before affect the mental or bodily health of the subject, we are bound to confess the probability of some communication between the incarnate spirit and one of clearer vision and superior knowledge. But, patience! We will know more about it some day, perhaps.

On Sunday, October 2nd, a meeting of the citizens was convened to adopt measures for the relief of the sufferers and a subscription list was immediately opened. All the people of the place who could afford to do so, subscribed to the fund and, soon, meetings were held at Charlestown and other places and large contributions of money, food, raiment and fuel poured in from the neighboring country and many cities of other states, so that in a few days provision was made for the support of the destitute sufferers during the coming winter, and a committee composed of the most prominent of the citizens regulated the distribution of the funds, &c., subscribed by the charitable all over the country. Those whose houses were destroyed or badly injured were kindly entertained by their more fortunate neighbors until arrangements could be made for rebuilding or repairing their own homes, and the sympathy evinced toward those luckless people by their fellow citizens and kind hearted people in other places was creditable to our common humanity. Had not the flood been confined to the Shenandoah and, had the Potomac risen like its tributary, it is possible to imagine the amount of damage that would have been done. The rivers, it is true, would have checked one another and lessened each other's current, but the water would have covered the whole peninsula and that part at least of the beautiful Shenandoah Valley would have been for a time what antiquarians and geologists assert it formerly was – the bed of a considerable sea.

It may be well to dissipate the gloom which it is probable the reader feels after perusing this chapter of human suffering, and to give cheerful finale to a history more than sufficiently melancholy. It is, therefore, proposed that the author relate a joke on himself in connection with the great flood and tell

 
"How he was 'sold.'"
 

If his book will meet with half as successful a "sell" as he met with the writer will be perfectly satisfied. Immediately after the flood there was a great demand among newspaper men for accounts of it from eye witnesses, and the author "spread himself" as the saying is, in the columns of a "daily" in a neighboring city. The main facts given in these pages were narrated and some which the writer afterwards had good reason to believe were apocryphal. There resides in Pleasant Valley, Maryland, a jolly farmer and shrewd business man, whose name it is not necessary to mention. He is much respected for many good qualities of head and heart, and his company is much sought and enjoyed by lovers of fun, for he is always ready to give and take a good joke. Hearing that the author was collecting items for an extensive account of the inundation, our wag determined to contribute his share of experiences, and he related to the writer how, on the Saturday of the flood, he had rescued, near his place, from the river, a colored woman who had floated down stream, on the roof of a house, from Page county, Virginia, fully seventy miles. He represented her as being a very large woman, so big, indeed, that it was wonderful that the roof could float and carry her weight. He also mentioned that when rescued she was composedly smoking a short pipe. The historian who, like all men of great genius, is remarkable for a child-like simplicity and an unsuspecting nature, eagerly noted the remarkable voyage and the singular incident of the pipe smoking, and next day the newspapers above referred to whose editor, too, must have been a man of genius, came out with the report – pipe story and all – and not until a skeptical friend of the correspondent, and one who is of an investigating turn of mind, ventured to ask how the woman got fire to light her pipe, did the possibility of his being deceived occur to the writer. In defense of his narrative and of his feelings, the author suggested that she might have had matches on her person, but as the chances were overwhelmingly against the probability of there being any thing dry about her, he was obliged to "confess the corn," as the phrase goes, and admit that he had been duped. It was some consolation, however, to reflect that the shrewd newspaper man had shared the same fate at the hands of the Pleasant Valley Munchausen. The latter further related that the woman was staying at his house, recruiting after her voyage and, this getting abroad, many contributions of money and creature comforts came pouring into his care, for the relief of his protege. There is a town not far from his house, the inhabitants of which were Abolitionists before the war, and are Republicans now. On hearing of the sad condition of the mythical black woman and her miraculous escape, the citizens of that place assembled in town meeting and subscribed liberally for her benefit. They were however, and are very cautious, prudent people and they determined to send a committee to inquire into the matter before remitting. Our friend was equal to the occasion and, when the committee arrived at his house, he showed them a strapping black woman who had been for many years in his family, and pointed to her as a living witness to the truth of his story. As the committee were not acquainted with domestics, they felt perfectly satisfied and, on their return home, they reported favorably of the affair, and the funds were sent. All he received for the use of the black myth, Munchausen immediately transferred to the Harper's Ferry relief association and the money and the joke contributed to the comfort and merriment of the real sufferers.

On the 25th of November, 1877, there was a big and disastrous flood in the Potomac, caused by heavy rains in the valleys of both branches of that river. There was no corresponding rise in the Shenandoah, however, as the rains did not extend to any great degree to the regions drained by the latter. Harper's Ferry did not suffer much from this flood, except that the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, with which its interests are to some degree identified, was almost entirely demolished. That important channel of business has never fully recovered from the loss it sustained on that occasion, and, of course, the whole country bordering on it has been more or less affected by the depressed condition of that useful thoroughfare.

On the last day of May, 1889, both rivers rose to an unprecedented height, but as the currents acted as mutual checks on one another, there was comparatively little damage done to property at the place, except from the filthy deposits left by the waters. This was the day of the famous Johnstown disaster and, while the people of that place were being hurried to destruction, the author of these pages was enjoying a swim in the basement of his own house at Harper's Ferry – not "Moonshine Cottage," however – the site of which will never be inundated until the gap in the Blue Ridge is stopped up in some convulsion of Nature that will topple over the Maryland and Loudoun Heights. He and his had retreated to the upper part of the house, as soon as the lower floor was flooded, but having forgotten to secure some important papers which he usually kept in the apartment now under water, he was obliged to strip and strike out to their rescue.

Great as were the hopes excited by the sale of the government property in November, 1869, and the promise of a renewal of business activity, it soon appeared that those expectations were illusory. Captain Adams and others interested in the purchase became incorporated under the title of "The Harper's Ferry Manufacturing and Water Power Company" and the captain more than hinted that Senator Sprague and other wealthy manufacturers of the north were concerned as partners in the new firm. On one occasion, soon after the purchase, a telegraphic dispatch from Captain Adams reached the place stating that Senator Sprague would visit the town on a particular day and address the people on "The Future of Harper's Ferry." This looked like business and hand-bills were immediately struck off and circulated through the surrounding country, inviting all to assist the citizens of the place in showing honor to the great man. A committee was appointed to present him with an elaborate address, and preparations were made to receive him in a manner suitable to the occasion. On the appointed day, however, the senator was "non est" and it is said that he afterwards expressed great astonishment and indignation at the unauthorized use of his name in the business. Then, indeed, for the first time, did the people of Harper's Ferry begin to suspect a fraud of some kind and future developments went to confirm their unpleasant surmises. Though Captain Adams hired a watchman to take care of the property, and he himself continued to visit the place at intervals, it soon became apparent that his company were in no hurry to begin manufactures or the preparations for them. After the flood of 1870 some influence was brought to bear on the government to delay the collection of the first installment of the purchase money, and a bill was introduced into Congress to extend the time for payment to five years. The grounds for this stay of collection and the bill were the damage done by the high water to a considerable part of the property purchased, and the great distress caused to the whole place by that calamity. About the same time it became known that a claim was set up by Captain Adams and his firm against the Baltimore and Ohio railroad company for possession of the ground over which the road passes between Harper's Ferry and Peacher's Mill. The railroad company had, many years before, got the right of way through the armory grounds from the government on certain conditions, and no one dreamed of their being disturbed about it until the thought struck some Washington City speculators that there was something to be made off the road by the purchase of the armory property and the institution of a suit of ejectment. In this way the people of Harper's Ferry were sacrificed to the greed of a set of heartless speculators, and the injury was aggravated by the absolute certainty that if Captain Adams had not made his ill-omened appearance on the day of the sale the Baltimore and Ohio railroad company would have purchased the property and erected on it a rolling mill.

The courts were now appealed to, but a recital of the many suits and counter-suits between the government, the railroad company and the Adams company would be uninteresting and tiresome. The latter first tried to eject the railroad company and, failing in this, and finding that, as they never intended to establish manufacturing at the place, their enterprise was futile, they tried to return the property into the hands of the government on the pretense that they could not get possession of all they had bargained for. After a great deal of litigation the government, no doubt, thinking that the game was not worth the candle, as the saying is, finally cried "quits" and received back the property, without enforcing any pecuniary claim arising from the sale. All this time the people of Harper's Ferry were suffering from hope deferred and truly sick were their hearts. The magnificent water power was lying idle, as far as any general utilization of it was concerned, and so matters rested until the year 1886, when the property was purchased by Savery and Company, of Wilmington, Delaware, who, in the spring of 1887, proceeded to render the water power available for the purpose of pulp mills. These gentlemen encountered many difficulties arising from the indefinite wording of old deeds made to the government at various times and the conflicting claims of various property holders at the place. Their most serious difficulty was with the firm of Child, McCreight and Company, or rather with a new firm composed of some members of the original one and others taken from time to time into the company. In the summer of 1887 the United States Court at Parkersburg, West Virginia, decided in favor of Savery and Company, standing on the rights supposed to have been enjoyed by the government when the sale was made to these gentlemen. In the meantime, a pulp mill was erected on the Shenandoah, and, in some time after another on the Potomac. Savery and Company experienced difficulties with the Chesapeake and Ohio canal company also. The State of Maryland has always laid claim to jurisdiction over the Potomac, as far as the ordinary water mark on the Virginia shore and, as in times of drought, the volume of water in that river is but little more than is required for the supply of the canal, the State of Maryland, which owns a large interest in that work, when appealed to by the canal company, used all its power to hinder the water from being diverted to other industries than that of the canal which is under their direct patronage and protection. The author is not advised as to the result of this controversy, but both the pulp mills are in operation and that on the Potomac – the one to be affected by any victory for the canal company – is worked at present without any apparent interruption. The new firm – Savery and Company – are evidently good business men, and it would appear as if they had come to stay, and give a start to a new Harper's Ferry. It is, perhaps, a good sign of their business qualifications that they are not bothered with sentiment as is shown in their sale of John Brown's fort. Everybody at the place wishes them well and hopes that they realize a good price for this interesting relic, but many regret that they did not retain it, as age but added to its value to the owners and, indeed, to the whole town, for many a tourist has tarried a day at the place expressly to get a good sight of it, and the older it grew, the more interest was attached to it.

When the author of this book had about finished his labors, he became aware of something very interesting in connection with the site of Harper's Ferry. Had he known it when he began, he certainly would have given his readers the benefit of it at the start, for there it belongs as, if it happened at all, it occurred away back in the misty ages of history or, at least, of Christianity. It is true that he could have remodeled his manuscript and penned it over again, but, as the Fatalists say, "what is written is written" and the undoing of what has been done might bring bad luck to him by putting him in conflict with Fate, besides imposing much labor on him for nothing, perhaps. From his earliest years the writer has been familiar with the legend of Saint Brandan or Borandan, a pious though enterprising Irish monk of the 6th century, who embarked, it is said, on the Atlantic in quest of the "Isles of Paradise," as they were called. At that time and, indeed, at a much later period, there was a firm belief that there was, at least, one island of exquisite beauty in the western Ocean, which appeared at intervals, but always eluded those who tried to take possession of it. There is reason to believe that some vision of the kind, the effect of mirage was sometimes presented to the unsophisticated sailors and fishermen of the olden time and as in those days science had scarcely been born, it is no wonder that a belief in the actual existence of this land was firmly fixed in the minds of a people imaginative and poetic as the Irish, ancient or modern. Be this as it may, there is a well authenticated tradition of the voyage of Saint Brandan in quest of this evanescent land, and manuscripts of hoary antiquity preserved in monasteries until the Reformation, and, since, in old families that trace their lineage even to the times of the Druids, corroborate the oral tradition. Grave historians of late times give respectful mention to the voyage of Saint Brandan and many prefer a claim to his having been the first European discoverer of America. Some time this winter – 1901-1902 – the author saw in some newspaper a statement purporting to be from some correspondent in Great Britain or Ireland, that a manuscript had been discovered a little before, giving a circumstantial account of this voyage – of the discovery by Brandan of a land of apparently great extent and surpassing beauty – of the entrance by the voyagers into a large bay, their ascent of a wide river that emptied into it, and their final resting at the mouth of another river in a chasm of awful sublimity. The correspondent concludes that Saint Brandan had discovered America – that the bay was the Chesapeake and that the river ascended was the Potomac. If we grant all this, we may conclude, as the correspondent does, that the Saint rested at the mouth of the Shenandoah, on the site of Harper's Ferry. As before noted, there appears to be little doubt of the voyage or of the discovery of some land by Brandan, for the most cautious writers of even the present day refuse to treat the story with contempt, but whether we can confidently follow him all the way from Ireland to our very door at Harper's Ferry or not, is a matter for some consideration and future developments. There is not a man in that town who does not wish the tale to be true, for, besides the poetry of the matter, it would be a feather in the cap of Harper's Ferry that it was presumably under the protection of a saint and an Irish one at that. An Irishman, in the flesh, does not stand on trifles when the interests of his friends are at stake and, when he is translated to Heaven and invested with the dignity of a saint, he may be relied on to put in some heavy licks for any cause or person he loved while on earth. If the tale of the correspondent is true in every respect, Harper's Ferry may be regarded as Saint Brandan's own child – the heir to his fame on earth and the best entitled to all the influence which he may command in Heaven. We must not inquire too closely as to how he got past "The Great Falls" or what induced him to undertake the great labor of the portage.