The Harpers

    In 1747, Robert Harper, an architect and millwright from Philadelphia, crossed the Potomac River at the place where it is joined by the beautiful Shenandoah. Known then as "The Hole," this point of land was then under the control of a squatter, Peter Stephens, who was operating a ferry from land belonging to Lord Fairfax.
        So impressed with the wild beauty of the area and the potential water power the rivers promised, Harper purchased the Ferry and Stephen's squatter rights. Harper later received a 125 acre plat from Fairfax.
        Arriving at this untamed wilderness from Philadelphia sometime later, Rachael Harper was said to have cried for days and begged her husband to return to civilization and abandon "The Hole" he chose for their new home. Instead, Harper built a Mill, and improved the Ferry service across the rivers.
        After losing their cabin along the Shenandoah to flood, the Harpers later built a new and grander home high above the flood plain. The Harper House stands today as the oldest surviving structure in Harpers Ferry.
        During the revolution laborers were hard to find and the aging Harper was forced to do much of the work himself with the result that his health began to fail, and fearing the roaming bands of renegades and plunderers, Harper instructed Rachael to bury all of their gold and tell no living soul of its whereabouts.
        Wartime construction was slowed and Harper Died before the house was completed. Trying to finish the building herself, Mrs. Harper, Falling from a ladder, was killed instantly - carrying the secret of the buried gold to her grave.
        During the 1800's it was widely believed that this building was haunted and was greatly feared by many local residents.
        It is not uncommon today that visitors to Harpers Ferry claim that when passing under the walls of this old building, they have seen an old woman dressed in 18th century fashions, peering from an upper-most window. Her gaze seems fixed on the old Harper Garden.
        It is reasonable to believe that the Harper Treasure was discovered long ago by some enterprising town resident, but Rachael Harper, ever true to her trust, seems to be guarding the gold steadfastly.

Dangerfield Newby

        One of the John Brown Raiders killed was a black man named Dangerfield Newby. He was freed by his white father, but his wife and seven children were still enslaved near Warrenton, VA. His Wife's master told Dangerfield that for the sum of $1500.00 he would sell him his wife and youngest child who was just learning to walk. When Newby raised the sum to purchase them, the master raised the price. Disillusioned and desperate he then joined John Brown, hoping to free his wife and children.
        The citizens armed themselves against the raiders in the early hours of the 17th. There were a lot of guns in town since they were manufactured here, but there was very little ammunition, and the townspeople were firing anything that would fit into a gun barrel. One man was shooting six inch spikes. It was one of these that hit Dangerfield Newby in the throat, killing him instantly. He became the first Raider to die. The then narrow minds of the townspeople remembered the Nat Turner Slave Rebellion of thirty years before in South Hampton and they became so enraged that they took their fear ignorance and frustration out on Newby's body. It was mutilated and dragged to a nearby alley where it was left to the hogs.
        To this day that alley bears the name of "Hog Alley". Some night as you walk the streets of Harpers Ferry, should you happen to meet a black man about 45 years old, wearing baggy pants, and old slouch hat, and bearing a terrible scar across his throat, you will know that you have met Dangerfield Newby, still trying to free his wife and children.