Shepherdstown Information Network James Rumsey
1743-1792

Born in Cecil County, Maryland, at the head of the Bohemia River in 1743, James Rumsey did not receive a great deal of formal education, though he was considered to be quite adept at the natural and physical sciences. In addition, he was a skilled cabinet-maker, blacksmith and millwright.

 
Little is known about Rumsey until he was living in Bath, Virginia (now Berkeley Springs, West Virginia) in 1782. There he became a partner in a mercantile business, and with another partner was running a boarding house and tavern called the "Sign of the Liberty Pole and Flag." He was also a builder of houses, and in September of 1784, when George Washington was staying at the inn, Washington contracted with Rumsey to build a house and stable for him on property he owned there at Bath.

It was during this same stay that Rumsey showed Washington a model of a mechanical boat which he had designed. This was a boat which could propel itself upstream by means of grapples on the bottom. Washington must have liked what he saw, for he wrote a certificate of commendation for Rumsey, that Rumsey would then be able to use when trying to get some financial backing for his endeavors.

In July 1785, recommended by both Washington, and Revolutionary War hero General Horatio Gates of Shepherdstown, Rumsey was appointed the superintendent of the newly formed Patowmack Company. This company, a precursor of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, had as its goal making the Potomac River navigable. However, Rumsey requested release from the position after a year. He had had nothing but difficulties getting proper supplies, securing the pay for the workers, and trying to keep the workers under control.

No longer working as Patowmack Company superintendent, Rumsey was then able to devote his time to his dream of steam navigation which he had been thinking about since 1783. Work on a hull for a steamboat had begun in 1785 in Bath by Joseph Barnes, brother-in-law of Rumsey. The boat was brought that fall to Shepherdstown where Rumsey was living at the time. Machinery which had been made in Baltimore and Frederick was installed that December, and the boat was taken downriver to Shenandoah Falls for a test. However, bad weather postponed testing until the following spring.

When Rumsey finally tested the boat in April 1786, it proved very unsatisfactory. He continued experiments with a second boiler. On December 3, 1787, the boat finally made a very successful public demonstration on the Potomac at Shepherdstown.

Constantly plagued by money problems, he left Shepherdstown in March of 1788 in order to seek funding for his projects, little knowing that he would never return. A couple of months later in Philadelphia the Rumseian Society was formed by men who hoped to publicize what he was doing. One if its members was Ben Franklin. They decided he should go to England to secure patents for his inventions and seek further financial backing.

He spent four years there, and on December 20, 1792, on the eve of the demonstration of his new steamboat, the Columbia Maid, he had just finished delivering a lecture to the Society of Mechanic Arts. Suddenly he was stricken with a severe pain in his head and died the next morning. At the time, his death was attributed to overstraining his brain. He was buried there in London at Saint Margaret's Church.

In 1906 a second Rumseyan Society was formed in Shepherdstown and though its efforts, a monument to Rumsey was constructed in a park overlooking the Potomac. Another Rumseian Society was formed in Shepherdstown in the 1980's in order to construct a replica of the successful Rumsey steamboat and celebrate the boat's bicentennial in 1787. Construction of the boat took place in the machine and blacksmith shop in the back of O'Hurley's Store. The replica is currently housed in a small building behind the Entler Hotel. For a time, there was an annual regatta Shepherdstown in early October in honor of Rumsey.

In addition, the bridge across the Potomac to Maryland is name in honor of Rumsey, as is the James Rumsey Technical Institute in Hedgesville, WV.

    Other Sources

  • Letter from Rumsey to Jefferson, 6 June 1789
  • Search page for the American Memory Project of the Library of Congress. Search on the terms: james rumsey and you will be able to see letters of Thomas Jefferson as well as Washington and also mentions of Rumsey in the Journal of the House of Representatives .

To get to the monument, go one block past the Yellow Brick Bank on German Street, and turn left onto Mill Street. Mill Street will take you to the monument.

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This page online as of July 10, 2000.