Shepherdstown

Jefferson County · W. Va. 45 and W. Va. 48 · location approximate

James Rumsey, inventor of the steamboat, lived here, 1785 to 1788, and in 1787 demonstrated his boat on the Potomac at this point. Here was born Colonel James Strode Swearingen, who commanded the men who founded the City of Chicago in 1803.

1937 text, presented as a historical document. It uses the period's terms for Native and Black people, and tells frontier history from the settler's side.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

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Marker data: State Road Commission of West Virginia, West Virginia Historic and Scenic Highway Markers (1937), text by Ross B. Johnston

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