Clio Logo

John Evans House

Introduction

Text-to-speech Audio

The John Evans House is significant as one of the earliest houses erected in the area which came to be the city of Martinsburg, West Virginia. In 1730, the Governing Council of the Virginia colony issued a directive ordering this area of the colony, then a portion of the existing Spotsylvania County, be settled. As settlers move into the area, in 1734 the county of Frederick was established, from which West Virginia’s current Berkeley County is derived. The Evans House predates the establishment of Berkeley County by nearly two decades.

Images

House, Home, Property, Building

Backstory and Context

Text-to-speech Audio

In 1752, John Evans received a land grant of 500 acres, containing the tract on which the Evans House currently rests, and an area known as the “Big Spring”, a natural water source well-known by the Native American populations of the area. During the late Colonial Era, battles from the French and Indian War boarded the section of Frederick County which was to become Berkeley County – for this war, John Evans built a stockade on his property which bore his name. Fort Evans supposedly was attacked by Native American forces in 1756. 

 

John Evans erected a stone house for his family, with the house’s completion occurring in 1756. The Evans House anchored the farm on which John and his family worked before the settlement of Martinsburg some twenty years following the construction of the house. John Evans sold the property in 1789 to his son, Isaac, who lived there for a time before moving away to Chillicothe, Ohio.  

 

John McCoy, a man from Chillicothe, acquired the property and held it until 1823, when he sold it to William Snodgrass. By this time, the tract had accumulated to 429 acres. By the time William Snodgrass passed away in 1830, the property came to be known as the Snodgrass Big Spring Farm. During the Civil War, Captain John Nadenbousch and his company, the Berkeley Border Guards, made camp for the night on the property after being ordered by General Stonewall Jackson to fall back and await reinforcements. 

 

The property was partitioned in 1870, leaving Isaac Brethed Snodgrass with Lot No. 3, which contained the house and 155 acres. The property changed hands multiple times throughout the following years including to F. S. Emmert in 1908, James H. Fulk in 1912, Bernard F. Fulk in 1917, and Ernest l. Payne in 1923.  

 

The Evans House distinctly reflects the pattern of exploration and settlement in Berkeley County during the middle decades of the eighteenth century. The property represents the architectural patterns present in Berkeley County during the time of its erection.  

Sources

John Evans House, National Register of Historic Places. Accessed November 23rd 2020. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/86534755.

Cox, Art. John Evans House third in the series on ‘House & Garden Tour’, The Journal. April 6th 2017. Accessed January 21st 2021. https://www.journal-news.net/life/home-and-garden/john-evans-house-third-in-the-series-on-house-garden-tour/article_e5dbc1fd-fa18-582e-a753-8b690f038b44.html.

Additional Information