Two Rivers Turnings
  • Home
  • Selected Historic Gallery
  • Historic Places Series Home
    • Jefferson County Home >
      • Bellevue
      • Blakeley
      • "The Bower"
      • "The Crooked House"
      • Duffield Colored Cemetery
      • Elmwood
      • Elmwood Cemetery
      • Elmwood-On-The-Opequon
      • Entler Hotel
      • Fair View Farm (Middleway)
      • Falling Spring
      • Feagan's Mill
      • First Lutheran Church Graveyard
      • Fruit Hill
      • Gap View Farm
      • Glenburnie
      • Happy Retreat
      • Jefferson Orchards
      • McMurran Farm
      • Meadow Green Farm
      • Rockland
      • Rosebrake
      • Schoolhouse Farm
      • Shannondale Mountain Sentinel Series
      • Shepherd Burial Ground
      • Shepherd University Campus Elm
      • Shepherd University McMurran Hall
      • Shepherd University Popodicon
      • Shepherdstown Battlefield
      • Springdale
      • Traveller's Rest
      • Trinity Episcopal Church
      • Wayside (Unionville) PO
      • York Hill
    • Berkeley County Home >
      • Boydville
      • Yankauer Nature Preserve
    • Mount Vernon Series
    • Hood College
    • Antietam Battlefield Area >
      • Mansfield Monument Series
    • Reclaimed Wood Series
    • Memento Turning
  • Unique Gifts Under $50
  • Purchase & Events
  • Learn To Turn
  • Artistic Turning
  • Got Wood?
  • The Poetry Page
  • Links We Like
  • Contact Us

Historic Thomas Shepherd Burial Ground Series

A Stately Maple's Vigil Over A Hallowed Place Concludes, And Sparks The Solution To A Mystery

Gallery

About the Thomas Shepherd Burial Ground

The Thomas Shepherd Burial Ground is located next to Episcopal Rectory at 104 W New St., in Shepherdstown. The large, federal-style brick house house is itself historic. Constructed in 1814, it was purchased by Thomas Van Swearingen in 1815 and sold to John Baker in 1817. It has served as the rectory since 1846. The Shepherd Burial Ground, inside the adjacent stone walls, was established in 1776 upon the death of Thomas Shepherd and is said to contain his unmarked grave. Over thirty family members are interred here. On March 14, 2014, the Sugar Maple shown at left in the pictures below fell during a storm; the need to clean up and repair the damage the tree caused set off a historical and legal mystery as to who actually owns the property (see below). In the meantime, the tree was removed in May, 2014, and I was graciously allowed to harvest some of the wood for turning. The wood of the Sugar Maple (Acer sacchurum) - the West Virginia State Tree - and the cemetery itself, summoned fond memories of both my local maple sugarin' days and the time I placed an oak rain barrel in the burial ground at the behest of Shepherd University. As is my practice, the first turning in the series, "Shepherd Burial Ground No. 001," was donated to the Town as a "thank you" for allowing me access to the wood.  Another piece from this series, "Shepherd Burial Ground No. 010" was my gift to the General Adam Stephens Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution (see link), during a presentation on the Historic Series Project. Oh, and another found its way into the hands of Gay Shepherd Henderson, friend and Shepherd descendant.

In 2017, the mystery of ownership was solved after a lengthy investigation, and the Shepherd Burial Ground was ceremonially deeded to Shepherdstown by Gay, Thomas Shepherd's great, great, great, great, great, granddaughter at a ceremony I was privileged to attend. See Vanessa McGuigan's excellent article in the Shepherdstown Chronicle describing the efforts to solve the mystery of ownership and the deeding ceremony here. See also Historic Shepherdstown and take the walking tour. (Historic photo provided by and used with permission of the Jefferson County Historical Society)
Picture
Back To Historic Series Home
Picture
Web Hosting by iPage