The James Rumsey Monument, also known as Rumsey Monument Park, is a municipal park and former West Virginia state park in Shepherdstown in the U.S. state of West Virginia. The park overlooks the Potomac River. It commemorates local inventor James Rumsey and his successful public demonstration of his steamboat invention on the Potomac in 1787. The monument consists of a column of Woodstock granite, which is capped with a globe and stands atop a tall, concrete plinth consisting of a plaza.
Interest in building a monument to Rumsey at Shepherdstown, and to the first successful public demonstration of his steamboat, began in the 19th century. In 1888, Congressman Alexander Boteler sought to raise money for a monument to Rumsey. In 1903, state senator William Campbell introduced bills to fund a monument and in 1905, the West Virginia Legislature provisioned an initial $1,750 for the monument (). The Rumseian Society was incorporated in 1906 to facilitate the monument's construction. The Society acquired land from Norfolk and Western Railway in 1907, and commenced construction in 1915 following a contract with Forbes Granite Company of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.
The monument was completed in 1916 and became a state park in 1956, when the legislature transferred its operation to the state Conservation Commission's Division of State Parks. The commission was succeeded by the Department of Natural Resources, and in 1971, the legislature authorized the department to acquire the monument from the Rumseian Society. However, negotiations between the department and the society were unsuccessful. The department ceased operating the state park in 1978, and transferred its adjacent property to the corporation of Shepherdstown for use as a public park. The society retained ownership of the monument. In 1987, the monument and the four-acre park were added as a contributing property to the Shepherdstown Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.
Geography and setting
The James Rumsey Monument and surrounding park are located off Mill Street at the end of Rumsey Monument Road, within the eastern area of the corporation of Shepherdstown in Jefferson County, West Virginia. The site consists of a granite column monument atop a plinth, and a small adjacent park. It is situated atop a promontory overlooking the Potomac River at an elevation of . The monument and park are surrounded by forested land. The platform around the monument's column provides a panoramic view of the Potomac River, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, the surrounding Potomac Valley, and the Blue Ridge Mountains.
The James Rumsey Monument is located approximately southeast of the New James Rumsey Bridge (Maryland Route 34), southeast of the confluence of Town Run with the Potomac River, southwest of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (on the Maryland side of the Potomac), and west of Shepherdstown Railroad Bridge. The monument is a contributing property to the Shepherdstown Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.
History James Rumsey
James Rumsey was born in Bohemia Manor in Cecil County, Maryland, in March 1743. He left his family's farm to operate a tavern on the Bohemia River, moved to Baltimore, and in 1782, he purchased land along Sleepy Creek near Bath, Virginia (present-day Berkeley Springs, West Virginia). Rumsey relocated to the Bath area in 1783, and built and operated a sawmill on his Sleepy Creek property. Rumsey worked in Bath as an innkeeper, general store operator, builder, and millwright.
Rumsey was also an inventor and developed innovations in iron mining, smelting, gristmill and sawmill operation, and canal construction. His most significant invention was his development of steam power technology for operating water vessels. In October 1783, he successfully demonstrated a model steam-powered vessel on Sir John's Run at its confluence with the Potomac River, near the present-day community of Sir Johns Run. In Bath in September 1784, Rumsey met George Washington, who was traveling across the Blue Ridge Mountains to assess the feasibility of transportation by road, rivers, and canal. Washington was concerned with unifying the United States through increased trade and improved transportation routes across the Appalachian Mountains, especially via canals and rivers. Rumsey demonstrated to Washington a small, wooden, model steamboat that traveled upstream in Warm Spring Run. Washington was excited by the potential of Rumsey's boat, and Rumsey requested a written statement from Washington to solicit support, and funding from investors and the state of Virginia. Afterward, Washington publicly supported Rumsey over rival inventor John Fitch.
Rumsey relocated from Bath to Shepherdstown, which was closer to the Potomac River, where he tested his model steam-powered vessels. Rumsey was hired as superintendent of the Potomac Navigation Company in July 1785. In December 1785, Rumsey tested an improved version of the pipe boiler on the Potomac in Shepherdstown. In December 1787, he successfully demonstrated the practical utility of his steamboat invention in a public trial on the river. In 1788, following successful demonstrations, a group of investors that included Benjamin Franklin, established the Rumseian Society to promote and support Rumsey's work. In 1791, Rumsey traveled to England to obtain additional support and funding for his projects, and to register patents for his inventions. While in England, Rumsey became ill and died the day before a scheduled steamboat demonstration in London. His body was buried at St Margaret's, Westminster.
Monument establishment
Interest in building a monument to Rumsey at Shepherdstown, and to the first successful public demonstration of his steamboat, began in the 19th century. Henry Bedinger, a witness of Rumsey's demonstration and an early proponent of a monument to Rumsey, wrote a letter to the United States Congress in 1836, in which Bedinger said he "would willingly contribute to the erection of a snug little monument." Congressman Alexander Boteler, another early proponent of building a monument to Rumsey, had a great interest in Rumsey and his invention, and possessed Rumsey's 1785 boiler. In October 1888, Boteler began an effort in Washington, D.C., to raise $1,000 for the construction of a Rumsey monument. In January 1903, West Virginia senator William Campbell introduced a bill to appropriate funds for a Rumsey monument. Prominent Jefferson County resident George Beltzhoover Jr. also took an interest in the movement to build a monument, and enlisted the support of the West Virginia Historical and Antiquarian Society under the leadership of W. S. Laidley.
In January 1905, Governor Albert B. White endorsed the monument in a message to the West Virginia Legislature. The following March, an extra session of legislature passed a general appropriations bill, which included a provision of $1,750 for the Rumsey monument (). The state senate had inserted $1,750 into the bill, which passed the House of Delegates unchallenged. Supporters of the Rumsey monument were disappointed with the small appropriation, which was a fraction of the $5,000 originally requested from the state legislature. By January 1907, Shepherdstown's town council passed an order to pay the society's treasurer $250 toward the monument (). In March that year, the West Virginia Legislature appropriated $2,000 for the proposed monument in the general appropriation bill for the 1907 and 1908 fiscal years (); Governor William M. O. Dawson, however, cut this appropriation along with several others before approving the bill.
The 1905 act appropriating $1,750 for the monument stipulated its construction should be facilitated by a chartered corporation for that expressed purpose. Accordingly, in February 1906, a meeting was held at Shepherd College to organize an association to facilitate the monument's construction. The meeting decided to proceed with incorporation as "The Rumseyan Society", selecting Beltzhoover as chairman, and Daniel B. Lucas, Beltzhoover, state senator Campbell, and William Price Craighill as incorporators. The meeting also agreed once the society secured a charter, the organization would elect a board of directors. In June 1906, the society was formally chartered to facilitate the monument's construction, following a meeting in Shepherdstown. The society's incorporators were elected as its board of directors with Lucas as president and Beltzhoover as vice president. Society members Lucas and Craighill were appointed to a committee to select a site for the monument. In August 1909, the society's officers prepared and exhibited a model of the proposed monument in Shepherdstown.
The Rumseian Society attempted to secure a site for the monument on a promontory along the Potomac River on property owned by the Norfolk and Western Railway. The site was known as "Crazy Rumsey's Walk" because Rumsey reportedly paced atop this location, meditating on his inventions, and it also overlooked the sites of many of Rumsey's early experiments on the river. Beginning in 1905, Lucas and the society sought to acquire a deed to the Norfolk and Western right-of-way at the promontory site. By January 1907, a Rumseian Society committee including Beltzhoover and state senator Campbell traveled to Philadelphia to meet with Joseph I. Doran, the chief counsel for Norfolk and Western. The company agreed to transfer property at the selected promontory site and a deed to the property was executed. The promontory property was subject to a mortgage with stringent conditions, requiring the company to charge the Rumseian Society for the deed. Norfolk and Western officials expressed their support for the monument project. On August 16, 1907, Beltzhoover and Lucas transferred to the Rumseian Society for the monument's construction. In April 1910, Governor William E. Glasscock visited Shepherdstown and formally designated the monument site. In 1915, the society agreed to pay property owner U. S. Martin $300 () for his alleged rights to the land purchased from the railway to avoid further delay to construction and the potential for litigation.
The monument's cost was $15,200 (). In December 1914, the society held a meeting with representatives of firms that competed to design and build the monument, and by June 1915, the Rumseian Society contracted with the Forbes Granite Company of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, which had previously built the Indiana Monument at the nearby Antietam National Battlefield, to build the monument.
Monument construction and initial use
Construction commenced on July 7, 1915; contractor William J. Britner prepared the site and carried out preliminary construction work for the concrete platform. By July 22, workers had made considerable progress toward the construction; blasting atop the bluff was nearly completed and construction of the concrete platform and the blue limestone wall surrounding the platform had begun. The Forbes Granite Company selected Woodstock granite for the monument, and contracted with the Guilford and Watersville Granite Company of Baltimore, which operated quarries in Woodstock. At that time, the monument's column was projected to weigh approximately and the granite base projected to weigh between . By August 1915, initial site work was completed and prepared for the arrival of the three railcar-loads of granite for the monument's base and shaft. In October 1915, contractor H. R. Forbes notified the society Norfolk and Western had confirmed the switch leading from the railway to the construction site would be completed that month, allowing for the transport of granite to the site. By January 1916, Forbes had completed the monument's base and pedestal to support the column.