Cherry Point and Cowart’s Wharf
Settled by Englishmen about 1640, Cherry Point
was later a childhood home of Mary Ball, the
mother of George Washington. In August 1814
American militia repulsed a British force there.
From the early 1800s to the 1940s, steamboats
plied the waters of Chesapeake Bay and its
tributaries, and linked Baltimore with such
Northern Neck ports of call as Cowart’s Wharf.
There, by the late 19th century, Slater (“Bump”)
Cowart had established a general store, seafood
factory, and other businesses. From about 1920
to 1946, Samuel and Giles Headley built skipjacks,
the preferred vessel of bay fisherman, at their
nearby boatyard on Cherry Point.
Marker is at the intersection of Northumberland Highway (U.S. 360) and Lewisetta Road (County Route 624), on the left when traveling east on Northumberland Highway.
Courtesy hmdb.org
