The Sheetz family's business was located at 101 West German Street, the current home of China Kitchen restaurant. Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — For the first time since its founding in 1990, the West Virginia Association of Museum will hold its annual conference in Shepherdstown.

The conference, scheduled for June 6-8, will focus on the theme, “America at 250: West Virginia Plans for the Semiquincentennial.”

“The purpose of the conference, as I understand it, is for different parts of the state to compare notes on what they are going to do to commemorate the nation’s 250th anniversary,” said Shepherdstown resident Peter Smith on Friday.

Among the local organizations connected with the West Virginia Association of Museum, the Historic Shepherdstown Commission & Museum will be one of the most involved, as the nonprofit organization will host the conference’s opening reception at its museum, the Entler Hotel. In addition, a group of local citizens connected with the Historic Shepherdstown Commission & Museum and Jefferson County Museum will be presenting plans for Shepherdstown’s 250th commemoration of the Beeline March to Cambridge, Mass.

“On June 14 of 1775, the Continental Congress issued a resolution calling for the mustering of 10 companies of riflemen in Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland, to go aid George Washington up in Boston,” said Smith, who is one of the commemoration’s organizers. “The local legend has it that the company was raised here at land that is now private out near Morgan’s Grove Park. The legend goes that they were the first to get there. In reality, it was actually a Pennsylvania company that got there first. It is believed that the Beeline March company covered the most ground in the most days, though I don’t know if that’s true.

“History is always a kind of moving target. People forget things and they embellish things. This Beeline March, however, is quite well documented, because of Henry Bedinger’s diary,” Smith said, referring to one of the company’s members who recorded detailed records of the events surrounding the Beeline March.

Bedinger’s diary, Smith noted, was the only known record from any of the companies who joined in the march to Massachusetts. Because of this account, historians know that the Beeline March company practiced at various locations throughout Shepherdstown, including Morgan’s Spring, which is the private land near Morgan’s Grove Park. Historians also know that the company bought munitions from the Sheetz family, who manufactured rifles from the American Revolution through the Civil War. The family’s business was located at 101 West German Street, the current location of China Kitchen.

“Even though they may not have been the first company to get to Boston, this group was perhaps the most famous of any of the others, because of that documentation,” Smith said. “In Shepherdstown, these were our local heroes going off to fight. This was the start of the American Revolution in this area.”

Since the Beeline March was the major Revolutionary War event in Shepherdstown, Smith said it will be the focal point of local celebrations related to the upcoming 250th anniversary of the United States in 2026. As the march’s anniversary is actually in 2025, the series of events held in honor of the anniversary will serve as something like a prelude to all of the events that will be planned across the country for July 4, 2026.

The Beeline March 250th Anniversary Celebration will begin in fall 2024 with a ceremonial tree-planting at Morgan’s Grove Park by the Sons of the American Revolution.

In spring 2025, a series of presentations on the Beeline March and beginnings of the Revolution in the area will be made to local schools and adult audiences. From April through Oct. 2025, a new exhibit will be open in the Historic Shepherdstown Museum on the Sheetz Rifle, featuring about 10 rifles plus tools and other items provided by the Kentucky Rifle Association.

On June 7, 2025, the Pack Horse Ford Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) will dedicate a DAR 250 Patriot Marker at Morgan’s Grove Park. On June 14, 2025, a Beeline March 250th Anniversary Celebration will be held at Morgan’s Grove Park, beginning with a ceremony dedicating a new sign about the Beeline March at the park, and continuing with a series of events, including weapons demonstrations by the Sons of the American Revolution and musical performances by U.S. military band and civilian fife and drum corps.

On July 4, 2025, the town’s annual Independence Day parade will be held along German Street, featuring entries that will promote the upcoming day-long Beeline March reenactor encampment on July 19, 2025. That reenactor encampment will feature a group of Revolutionary War reenactors following the route the Beeline March company took, walking from Morgan’s Grove Park to Morgan’s Spring to German Street and ending at Pack Horse Ford along the Potomac River. The public will be welcome to meet up see the encampment arrive at Pack Horse Ford or enjoy a series of events at Morgan’s Grove Park throughout the day, including 18th century children’s games, fife and drum demonstrations by the Old Line Fife and Drum Corps, drill and flintlock use demonstrations and a possible gunsmithing display to honor the Sheetz family’s role in arming the Beeline March company.

Food trucks selling barbecue will be present at Morgan’s Grove Park on both June 14 and July 19, in recognition of the fact that the members of the Beeline March company enjoyed a barbecue together at Morgan’s Spring on June 10, 1775.

Individuals interested in attending the West Virginia Association of Museum’s conference are welcome to view the weekend of events and register at https://www.museumsofwv.org/annual-conference.