

Henry gained is early education in Shepherdstown and later was the only one of the four Douglas children to go to college (the onset of the war having to set aside such considerations for his two younger brothers John and Robert and his sister, Nannie, not having the option). Perched atop a hill, the large red house that was the centerpiece of the plantation watches over Shepherdstown from its location in Washington County, Maryland, and when Henry was a child, the plantation's location was a fortuitous one, allowing the Douglas's to essentially live in both Virginia and Maryland. Ferry Hill was (and still is) located just across the river from Shepherdstown. His stepmother was Helena Blackford, the daughter of a prosperous local landowner, and in 1848, Robert and Helena took possession of her childhood home, a stately plantation on the Potomac River, called Ferry Hill Place. When Henry was about two years old, his mother passed away and his father remarried not long after. Henry was born September 29, 1838, in Shepherdstown, Virginia (now West Virginia), to the Reverend Robert Douglas and Mary (Robertson) Douglas. so that you know the particular path I am traveling in search of him.

So, perhaps I should tell you a little bit about H.K.D.
