Gold In Them Hills

We live in Shepherdstown, West Virginia… A lot of people have never heard of Shepherdstown and when we tell them it’s just down the road from Harpers Ferry, they almost always say, “Oh, yea.” Most people know of Harpers Ferry because of its historical significance.

Robert Harper, an architect and millwright from Philadelphia arrived at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers in 1747. In 1747, that location was known as “The Hole.” At the time, this point of land was under the control of a squatter — Peter Stephens. Stephens operated a ferry from the land belonging to Lord Fairfax.
Harper was so impressed by the wild beauty of the area and the potential water power its rivers promised, he purchased the ferry and Stephen’s squatter rights. He later received a one hundred and twenty-five acre plat from Fairfax.
When Harper’s wife, Rachel, arrived she apparently cried for days and begged Robert to return to civilization and abandon “The Hole.” But Harper built a mill and improved the ferry service across the rivers.

The Harper’s original cabin along the Shenandoah was lost to a flood, so the Harpers built a new and grander home high above the flood plane. The Harper House still stands today and is the oldest surviving structure in Harper Ferry. Robert Harper died before the house was completed. After his death, Rachel continued to work finishing the house but fell from a ladder and was killed.
Since the Harpers had no children, their property was inherited by a niece, Sarah Wagner. She in turn left the Harpers Ferry property to her son and it was his three children who settled in the town — and became its leading citizens.

That’s a little about how Harpers Ferry got its name… but not really where I was going when I started this. When Robert Harper’s health started to fail, he became fearful of the roaming bands of renegades and plunders that sprang up during the war, so he instructed Rachel to bury all of their gold and tell no one where it was hidden. When Mrs. Harper fell from the ladder and was killed, she apparently carried the secret of the buried gold to her grave.
As far an anyone knows, the Harper treasure has never been discovered, but local residents swear that they periodically see an old woman dressed in 18th century fashions, peering from the windows of the Harper House. Many think she is still guarding the family gold.
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