Transportation was important for the developing nation in the late-18^th and early-19^th centuries. Goods were transported to port towns and markets, citizens traveled to court, families visited, and landowners traveled to their various landholdings. This is just a sampling of the reasons for travel along America’s early roads.  Many of these roads led to ferries that were established at river crossings where the water was too deep to ford. A number of ferries could be found along the Potomac River, which separates Maryland from Virginia.

In the 1790s, Hugh Conn established a ferry across the Potomac River two miles above Great Falls. In 1790 he purchased 15 acres on the river from Joseph Porter and 50 acres, likely adjoining, from George Viall (Veal, Viley).[1] Conn later purchased Porter’s half interest in the land his wife and sister-in-law inherited from their father James Carter, who was the original land grant owner.[2] This collection of land, about 150 acres, made up what Conn referred to as his tract of land at the ferry.[3]

In October 1793, Hugh Conn, along with other Potomac River ferrymen, was required to keep travelers who may have yellow fever from entering Virginia.  The governor of Virginia wrote to the Justices of Loudoun County requiring them to adopt some safe Mode for preventing the Introduction of the Pestilential disease (which now prevails in the city of Philadelphia the Granadies and the Island of Tobago) Into this State. At this time, Conn’s ferry was within the bounds of Loudoun County. The Justices called court and recommended that the magistrates establish regulations that there be stationed at each ferry a sergeant or corporal and four men whose duty would be to examine all persons who attempt to cross the river for satisfactory proof that they did not come from Philadelphia or its vicinity. If you were suspected of traveling from an infected area, you were not allowed to cross the river into Virginia for six days. During that time, your goods and baggage were exposed to the open air on the Maryland side of the river. If after six days you did not show signs of disease, the traveler was permitted to cross the river. If you suffered from some illness, a doctor was called to determine if the disease was yellow fever, and if it was, the traveler was compelled to return home. William Stanhope was appointed to make arrangements at Conn’s Ferry for providing the provisions of the guardsmen; including access to a horse should the doctor be needed. Stanhope could contract with anyone in the area who would provide the best terms, and the governor of Virginia agreed to pay for the provisions from the treasury. There were six other Potomac River ferries in Loudoun County that were also required to quarantine travelers: Edward’s, Myer’s, Noland’s, Heator’s, Smith’s, and Beltz’s ferries.[4]

When Irishman Isaac Weld, Jr. traveled through North America and Canada in the late-18^th century he visited Great Falls, which he described in one of a series of letters that he published in 1807. Likely in the spring of 1796, Weld travelled from Montgomery Courthouse (now Rockville) to the Maryland side of Great Falls. He then proceeded upriver until he reached a ferry where he could cross the river to view the falls from the Virginia side. The ferry he took was probably Conn’s ferry. Following is his description of the area:

Conn kept both a boat and a canoe at the ferry landing to facilitate the business. He also used the land at the ferry to grow tobacco.[6] Many area farmers; however, had switched to grain cultivation at this time due to the high prices they were receiving for wheat and flour due to the European war. (See Late 18^th Century Tobacco.) While there is no known record of Conn keeping a tavern at his ferry, he was charged in court for retailing spirituous liquors without a license.[7]

Ferry rates were established by the Virginia General Assembly for each ferry. A typical rate in 1792 for a relatively easy crossing was 4 cents for each man and 4 cents for each horse. All other charges were based on the rate for horses. Coaches, chariots, and wagons, inclusive of their drivers, were charged at the same rate as six horses. Carts and four-wheeled chaises or chairs were charged at the same rate as four horses. Two-wheeled chaises or chairs were charged at the same rate as two horses. Each hogshead (large barrel) of tobacco and each head of cattle was charged the same as one horse. Smaller livestock, such as sheep, goats, lamb, and hogs, were assessed at one-fifth part of the ferriage for one horse.[8]

When Hugh Conn died in 1806, he provided in his will for the income from the ferry to support his widow, Susanna Conn, and their children. However, if she remarried before the children reached 18 years of age, she received the standard dower portion of 1/3^rd of the land.[9] She didn’t remarry during that period, and the ferry became known as Mrs. Conn’s ferry.[10] Hugh Conn’s will suggests that his family was living on other property he owned, i.e. not the tract of land at the ferry, at the time of his death. This other land was divided among his heirs, while the land at the ferry remained jointly owned by his widow and children.[11]

In 1812, Susanna Conn, Rezin Elliott, Henry Conn, and Jesse Conn, heirs of Hugh Conn, petitioned the Virginia General Assembly for a law to legally establish a ferry across the Potomac River. They acknowledged that Hugh Conn and they themselves, since Hugh Conn’s death, kept a boat for the purpose of ferrying people over the Potomac River. The ferry went from the land of Hugh Conn in Virginia to the lands belonging to the heirs of John Hawkins, deceased, in Maryland. The petitioners stated several advantages for the ferry. They asserted that it was the best and safest passage of the river between the little falls and Seneca; that it shortened the distance from Baltimore to the intersection of the Fauquier Turnpike (later known as the Warrenton Turnpike) and the Little River Turnpike from ten to fifteen miles; that several citizens have real estate on both sides of the river; and that the ferry afforded citizens a shorter and more direct commercial route to the Baltimore market.[12] The Virginia General Assembly passed an act authorizing Conn’s Ferry that same year.

Evidence suggests that Conn’s ferry landing was located at the same place that is currently used as a boat ramp at the Fairfax County Park Authority’s Riverbend Park.

The location of the ferry landing on the Conn property is known from two sources. A land dispute between Spencer Jackson and James Roberts, whose disagreement was over the land just south of the ferry, resulted in a survey being made of that property in November 1824. George Gunnell, who performed the surveyed, was taken to Mrs. Conn’s ferry, which was the starting point of his survey.[13]

The second source is an excellent survey plat prepared in 1818 when a canal was contemplated from Goose Creek in Loudoun County to Hunting Creek near Alexandria. By this time, Mrs. Conn was living in a house on the north side of the road leading to the ferry. The house was located up on a hill and had a porch and nearby kitchen.[14] Both the ferry crossing and Mrs. Conn’s house are depicted on the plat.[15] (See Survey Plat at Library of Virginia.)

Conn’s Ferry achieved its moment of fame during the War of 1812 when President Madison crossed the Potomac at Conn’s Ferry on the morning of August 26, 1814 during his flight from Washington when the British burned many public buildings there. He and his party had reached the river the night before, but were unable to cross due to bad weather. Charles Ingersoll wrote in 1849 in his Historical Sketch of the Second War between the United States of America and Great Britain that Madison spent the night in a hovel in the woods before taking the ferry the next morning.[16]

Hugh Conn was a slave owner, and likely had some of his slaves working his tobacco and corn fields. Other slaves probably raised Conn’s farm animals, primarily hogs and dungle fowl (chickens), though Conn also had some steers, geese, turkeys, and ducks.[17]

The unpleasant sight of slaves toiling in nearby tobacco fields was noted by Isaac Weld Jr. when he traveled from Frederick, Maryland to the Great Falls in 1796. Near Frederick he observed that the fields of the German immigrants were well cultivated and green with wheat. However, as he travelled through Montgomery County, Maryland and got closer to the Great Falls he saw a disappointing change in farm management.

At his death in 1806, Hugh Conn owned eleven slaves. His estate inventory, appraised in 1809, valued the slaves from $3.34 to $333.34. The slave deemed most valuable was a man named Ellick.[19] He was about 27 years old at the time. When Conn’s estate was divided among his heirs, Ellick was given to one of his daughters, though she was not yet of legal age. Therefore, her mother, Susanna Conn, had responsibility over Ellick until her daughter was old enough to manage her own affairs. In actuality, Mrs. Conn’s son Jesse is known to have taken over this responsibility.

Jesse Conn, representing his mother, hired Ellick out to James Hamilton, of Leesburg Virginia, for $80 for the year of 1817. After having worked for Hamilton for about two weeks, Ellick was arrested and convicted of breaking into the store of Mr. Joseph Beard. As punishment he was whipped and burned in the hand. The jailor released Ellick and told him to “clear yourself home you son of a bitch.” An observer to Ellick’s whipping and subsequent release asked the jailer if Jesse Conn was present, and the jailer replied that he didn’t believe he was. Ellick evidently took this opportunity to escape.

About two months later, he was seen in Leesburg in the company of two or three men who captured him. They placed him in the Leesburg jail overnight, then retrieved him in the morning and continued on to Mrs. Conn’s house at the ferry.  

Once there, a couple of hours before sunset, the men entered the house to converse with Mrs. Conn, who had been lying down at the time. Ellick had been handcuffed and was left outside at the edge of the porch. Mrs. Conn refused to take charge of Ellick since her son was not at home. She sent a servant to Great Falls to ask Jesse Conn to return and handle the matter. At one half hour before sunset, a servant boy came into the house and told the men, who had been dining at the time, that Ellick had gone over the hill. The men jumped up and asked which way they should pursue him. Mrs. Conn told them he most likely had gone towards the river.

At the ferry, the men met up with Jesse Conn and inquired if Mr. Conn had seen a black man. They explained that they brought home a slave belonging to the woman that lived in the house on the hill and that they were afraid that he had run away. The men returned to the house and remained there all night and the next morning insisted that they be paid for the expense of putting Ellick in jail and for travel expenses. Mrs. Conn refused to pay the men since Ellick escaped before Jesse Conn arrived to take charge of him. The men alleged that if they weren’t paid for these services that Ellick might even go back to where he had been taken and no person would apprehend him. Jesse Conn then allowed the men to take all of the money they found on Ellick (about $7) plus a few dollars more in additional compensation. The demand for compensation, and the threat that no one would expend effort in the future to return a slave to the Conns if the men weren’t paid, suggests that the men may have been slave hunters who were in the business of capturing and returning slaves for money.

On the second morning after Ellick escaped, Jesse Conn traveled to Shepherdstown (now West Virginia) in search of Ellick guessing that Ellick would go up the Potomac River in a boat. Upon reaching the town, Conn did not hear anything about Ellick and therefore had handbills printed offering a reward for Ellick’s return. He also placed an advertisement in the August 30, 1817 National Intelligencer and Washington Advertiser newspaper offering a reward for his return.

Ellick, overcoming great odds, was successful in his bid for freedom. The Conn’s never saw Ellick again, though there were some rumors that he had been seen in Alexandria, Virginia. [21]

Hugh Conn’s heirs sold the tract at the ferry to John Coad in November 1830.[22] He then sold a 50-acre portion of the tract with the ferry to Henry Dawes the following year.[23] It is unknown when the ferry discontinued operations.

The land changed hands several times before being purchased in 1909 by Dr. John Ladd.[24] He built several cottages, buildings, and wells with well houses for the River Bend Camp he operated there.[25]