In 1775, when news of the Battle of Lexington reached Shepherdstown, many local men answered the Continental Congress's call for Virginia riflemen, and Captain Hugh Stephenson filled the ranks of one company there before it began the famous Bee Line March from Morgan's Spring on July 16, 1775, to Cambridge, Massachusetts, arriving on August 11 after covering 600 miles in 24 days; the company was heralded as the first unit of the United States Army, and George Washington later proposed Shepherdstown as a possible Potomac River site for the nation's capital. During much of the 19th century, the site was owned by Alexander Robinson Boteler and his family, and Boteler was an innovative farmer, author, artist, Whig politician, U.S. Congressman, Confederate Congressman, volunteer aide and courier for Stonewall Jackson, supporter of the Shenandoah Valley Railroad, telegraph lines, the C and O Canal, and a founder of Shepherd University; the family mansion, Fountain Rock, stood here until Union forces under General David Hunter destroyed it in 1864. Morgan's Grove Fair then became a major annual gathering that drew visitors from across the United States, moving to the park in 1889 and continuing until 1931, with large crowds, railroad excursions, notable speeches, agricultural and household exhibits, amusements, picnics, and a popular Baby Show. In the modern era, the Shepherdstown Men's Club purchased the park in 1961, the pavilion was built on Fountain Rock's remaining foundation, the springhouse remained from the estate, the spring was named Boteler Spring in 2003, and the park became part of the Morgan's Grove Historic District and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.
