President James Buchanan

“The incorruptible statesman whose walk was upon the mountain ranges of the law.”

Life long friend Jermiah S. Black

U.S. Attorney General 1857-1860, U.S. Secretary of State 1860-1861

This park commemorates the birthplace of James Buchanan, the 15th President of the ...

Hampshire County Courthouse

Secession and Occupation

On May 23, 1861, Virginians voted in a statewide referendum to approve or disapprove the Ordinance of Secession that the convention in Richmond had passed on April 17. Here at the Hampshire County Courthouse, 1,188 out of 2,635 ...

Stony Batter       Birthplace of a President

Imagine stepping back in time to April 23, 1791. Packhorses and wagons were pulling into a bustling trading post owned by Scotch-Irish immigrant James Buchanan. There was probably a spring chill to the air. Perhaps the sun shone brightly overhead, ...

Romney In The Civil War

Strategic Location on the Turnpike

Romney experienced many troop movements and skirmishes during the course of the war because of its location on the vitally important North Western Turnpike The road linked Winchester, near the northern end of Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, ...

James Buchanan       The Early Years

“It is a rugged but romantic spot, and the mountain and mountain stream under the scenery captivating. I have warm attachments for it . . . ”James Buchanan on Stony Batter

The Buchanans enjoyed living on the edge of the ...

Grapeshot Among the Pines

"Somehow they found out we were in the woods east of town. They took two cannon up the pike to where the Toll House now stands and fired several rounds of grapeshot among the pines." John Starnes Memoir

The road passing ...

Unity Academy

Near this site in 1823 Reverend Aaron Williams established the Unity Academy. The first public school in what would later become the town of Hickory Grove. Williams conducted this school on a grade and high school level. Teaching Mathematics, Grammar, ...

Captain George W. Stump

"Stump's Battery"

This is Hickory Grove, the home of Adam and Mary Stump and their son Capt. George W. Stump, who led a company of the 18th Virginia Cavalry during the war. Capt. Stump was always heavily armed with a carbine ...

A Quest for Honor

“To secure for the purpose of a site for a monument . . . an acre or more of ground at Stony Batter, near Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, the birth place of my uncle James Buchanan, and thereon to erect a ...

The Guns Of Jacob Sheetz

Hunting of a Different Sort

The shop of Jacob Sheetz, a Hampshire County gunsmith, once stood ahead of you in the yard to the right of the house. In 1861, Sheetz found himself unusually busy converting ancient flintlock rifles to the ...