Cool Spring Farm (Gerrardstown, West Virginia)

Cool Spring Farm — also known as Rockdale Spring Farm and Torytown — was a wilderness estate settled by Colonel Morgan Morgan (1688-1766), long celebrated as the first permanent European settler in what would become West Virginia. The Welsh-born Morgan was granted 1,000 acres (4.0 km²) here in 1735, but he is believed to have first settled there in 1731. Recent research indicates that Morgan's settlement was not the first, but was preceded by a German settlement at what became "New Mecklinberg", possibly as early as 1726.

Cool Spring Farm
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
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Location	Berkeley County, West Virginia, USA
Nearest city	Gerrardstown, West Virginia
Coordinates	39°19′53″N 78°6′23″W
Built	1761
Architectural style	Federal
NRHP reference No.	94001292
Added to NRHP	November 21, 1994[1]

Morgan Morgan's seventh son, Zackquill Morgan (1735-1795), built the house in 1761, but sold the farm in 1765 and moved west to Monongalia County, Virginia, now West Virginia, to establish his namesake settlement of Morgantown in 1781.

After changing hands several times, the property was purchased by John McKown, Jr. in 1827. His son Edmund renamed the farm "Rockdale Spring Farm". The sons of John McKown owned considerable lands in the area of Gerrardstown during the late 19th century.^[2]

See also

• Cool Spring Farm (Charles Town, West Virginia)