We the People
Kieran Adams
Tales from North River Mills

North River Mills was once a vibrant community. The main road west from Winchester, the Great Wagon Road, passed through a gap known as Parker's Gap, probably the earliest name for North River Mills. During the French and Indian War there were deadly encounters and abductions around North River Mills. Dr. James Craik, Washington's personal physician, purchased many acres in North River Mills.  Gustavus Croston, Revolutionary War veteran, lived in the village. The name, North River Mills, came into use in the 19th century. In the mid 19th century North River Mills was bypassed by the new east-west road, Route 50. North River Mills was destined to decline while communities along Route 50 would grow. During the Civil War, the presence of hostile Union and Confederate troops forced many residents to make hard choices. In addition to agriculture, over the years North River Mills had much industry. Now there are only two residents, but the town hosts an annual festival or homecoming the day before Mothers Day. 

Tales from North River Mills
We the People, Power of Place
Kieran Adams
New Germany State Park: Raising Maryland’s Alps

When Western Maryland was a mysterious and distant territory to most Americans, for German immigrants, it felt just like home. Among the villages they settled in, one in present-day Garrett County came to be known nostalgically as New Germany. Today, this village is the location of New Germany State Park. Over a century after its settlement, New Germany hosted the first ski resort south of the Mason-Dixon Line and earned the region the moniker of “Maryland’s Alps.” In between the first German settlers and the ski resort, the land was transformed and made anew. To return to its alpine reputation, New Germany has witnessed the rise and fall of timbering, the growth of scientific forestry, and the snowballing success of outdoor recreation.

New Germany State Park: Raising Maryland’s Alps
Democracy and Justice
Kieran Adams
Education and Community at Paw Paw's Black ...

After nearly 100 years since its construction, the former Paw Paw Black School continues to convey its historic association with the Town of Paw Paw's education and social history. For more than 25 years the building served to educate Black students, and as a place of social gathering for the small number of Black families in Paw Paw who lived in the vicinity of the school. The building remains largely unchanged since that time. The important role the school played in Black education and the Black community led to the building being listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2024. 

Education and Community at Paw Paw's Black School
We the People
Benjamin Duvall-Irwin
Elizabeth Dye Walker’s World of Transportation: ...

When Elizabeth Dye Walker lived in the Old Stone House of Mineral County in the beginning of the twentieth century, getting around employed a diversity of methods. It could mean a horseback ride, a horse-drawn buggy, or taking the Twin Mountain & Potomac Railroad. Where the railroad once ran, across the Northwestern Turnpike from the Stone House, now lies a trucking facility. Elizabeth Dye Walker’s childhood in the Stone House was colored by these various modes for motion, the resilient horse-drawn buggy and sled, a fruitless fruit-filled train, and a peculiar horseless carriage.

Elizabeth Dye Walker’s World of Transportation: Getting Around Before the Automobile
Power of Place
Benjamin Duvall-Irwin
Traveller’s Rest: Travel in the Stagecoach Age

If you’re driving down Route 50 through Mineral County, blink and you might miss a curious stone structure on the side of the road. If you were a stagecoach passenger peering out from your horse-drawn carriage this L-shaped building would be a cause for celebration. In the age of horse-drawn wagons and carriages, travel was no small feat and the people who relied on Traveller’s Rest viewed the process of getting around fundamentally different from today. For them, the landscape of the Appalachian Forest could be wild and unpredictable and the journey itself was always far from mundane.

Traveller’s Rest: Travel in the Stagecoach Age

Democracy and Justice

Jane Gates: An African-American Trailblazer of Allegany County

Jane Gates: An African-American Trailblazer of Allegany County

Six years after the end of the Civil War, and three years after the Fourteenth Amendment declared that formerly enslaved people held rights as American citizens, Jane Gates purchased a house in Cumberland, Maryland. Jane Gates was born into slavery and denied the opportunity to learn how to read or write. Despite her illiteracy, oral history tells that she was the first black woman in Allegany County to have a bank account; she is known to have signed her name on legal documents with an X. With these achievements lies a great mystery. How did Jane, illiterate and listed in census records as a nurse and a laundress afford a house so soon after gaining her freedom? This question was pondered by her descendants, Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. and John Gates, when they dove into their ancestry. What they found was an inspiring, but incomplete history of their great-great-grandmother.


Education and Community at Paw Paw's Black School

Education and Community at Paw Paw's Black School

After nearly 100 years since its construction, the former Paw Paw Black School continues to convey its historic association with the Town of Paw Paw's education and social history. For more than 25 years the building served to educate Black students, and as a place of social gathering for the small number of Black families in Paw Paw who lived in the vicinity of the school. The building remains largely unchanged since that time. The important role the school played in Black education and the Black community led to the building being listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2024. 

J.R. Clifford: A Pioneer of Equality and Democracy in Appalachia

John Robert (J.R.) Clifford was a trailblazing African American lawyer, educator, and activist whose work continues to inspire the fight for justice. Clifford's landmark legal battles, including the landmark ruling on November 16, 1898 in Williams v. Board of Education of Fairfax District, highlight his profound impact on civil rights and democracy.

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A Timeless Road to Freedom—Cumberland and Emmanuel Parish

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A Timeless Road to Freedom—Cumberland and Emmanuel Parish

Situated at the top of the hill in the center of Cumberland, Emmanuel Parish stands for all to see. Visitors are drawn to the church on the hill with the steeple. Once inside, Emmanuel tells the story of our country from its earliest times to today. Situated at the crossroads of Native American trails and natural waterways, Cumberland and Emmanuel were known roads of freedom.  It is believed that the original foundations underneath the church were used as a stop on the Underground Railroad.

Loss of Bomber No. 5 and Its Labor History

Loss of Bomber No. 5 and Its Labor History

Following the Battle of Blair Mountain, a U.S. Army Air Service Martin NBS-MB-1*—Bomber No. 5—crashed near Drennen, Nicholas County, West Virginia. Its role in suppression of the largest armed uprising since the Civil War was thereby etched into the hills of West Virginia and into the labor history of our Nation.

J.R. Clifford & Carrie Williams: Civil Rights Pioneers

J.R. Clifford & Carrie Williams: Civil Rights Pioneers

J.R. Clifford was a lawyer, teacher, newspaper editor, and soldier. He was the first black lawyer to practice law before the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. In the case Carrie Williams v. The Board of Education Fairfax District, he successfully argued that "discrimination against people because of color alone as to privileges, immunities and equal protection of the law is unconstitutional" more than 50 years before Brown v. Board of Education.

 

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