About

I never thought we'd end up in West Virginia. Yet, here we are and what a wonderful place to be. We moved to West Virginia in the early 1990's and settled in Jefferson county. Our home is a few miles south of Charles Town near a small community called Kabletown. My children went to school in Charles Town and graduated from Jefferson high school. They then went on to complete their college education at Shepherd University.

When you live somewhere long enough, you can't help but pick up a little about its history. You pick up tidbits in the newspaper, from conversations with friends and co-workers, just walking around town, and from passing glimpses at historical highway markers. In my case, I eventually decided I wanted to know more and actually began to do some research into the county's history - both for myself and to share with family and friends.

Times have changed. In the past, one usually went right to the library to find out about something. Today, one goes to the Internet. I looked at all the web sites I could find on the web in response to my queries about the history of Jefferson county, Charles Town, Harpers Ferry, Shepherdstown, etc. I cut and pasted a lot of material into this web site along with links to the source material when possible. Unfortunately, there wasn't as much out there as I thought there would be. So, eventually I did end up walking into the Shepherd University and Charles Town libraries to get more information about the county.

I checked out a fair number of books from the library related to the history of Jefferson county. I took a lot of notes and have included many facts and excerpts from these various sources and woven them into this web site. I have tried to make sure I gave credit where it was due and have made note of the references I used, although this was never intended to be a formal historical research effort, simply a way to simply share what I found with others so they don't have to spend a lot of time searching for information on the history of Jefferson county.

One personal observation from working on this history relates to the church and Jefferson county. I don't go into a lot of detail on the subject, but from day one it is clear that the people who settled here came from a wide variety of religious denominations and were committed to placing God at the center of community life. As the people struggled through the centuries from the days of the early settlers, through the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the Industrial Revolution, the World Wars, and on into modern times, you can see the religious beliefs and members of our local churches helping to guide the way, shaping community values, and making Jefferson county a place where people want to come and live.

As I said before, I never thought our family would end up in West Virginia. Yet, here we are and what a wonderful place to be - Jefferson County, West Virginia.

Peter J. Groen

Charles Town, WV