The story always told about Boydville, Martinsburg’s grandest house, concerns its near destruction by Uniontroops during the Civil War. One often hears how some pretty Southern belle pleaded with roughshod Federals to spare her family manse, but in the case of Boydville, the tale is documented. Mary Fauikner, of the clan that has resided in Boydville for 150 years, wired Abraham Lincoln, whose decision to let Boydville stand arrived just before Northerners lit the torch.
A later Faulkner served as U.S. senator, commuting to the nation’s capital by train (just as present owner La Rue Frye does today). When the six o’clock train from the District hooted over nearby Bull’s Eye Bridge, the Boydville servants began crushing ice for the senator’s mint ju’ep. And when he arrived on the wide front porch and reclined in a green rocker (the very one there today), his drink was waiting.
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