Cherry Point and Cowart's Wharf

Settled by Englishmen about 1640, Cherry Point was later a childhood home of Mary Ball, the mother of George Washington. In August 1814 American militia repulsed a British force there. From the early 1800s to the 1940s, steamboats plied the waters of Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries, and linked Baltimore with such Northern Neck ports of call as Cowart's Wharf. There, by the late 19th century, Slater ("Bump") Cowart had established a general store, seafood factory, and other businesses. From about 1920 to 1946, Samuel and Giles Headley built skipjacks, the preferred vessel of bay fishermen, at their nearby boatyard on Cherry Point.