The Shafer Farm

The Shafer Farm. South Mountain Battlefield. , What is today known as the Shafer Farm was part of a 298-parcel of land known as "The Forest of Needwood" in the late 18th century. The house was built by John Garrott III in the early 1830s. In addition to several generations of the Garrott family, the property was occupied by over a dozen enslaved African Americans who worked in the home and fields. By the 1850s, the Garrotts rented the property to Martin Shafer who lived in the house and ran the farmstead., During the Civil War, the Shafer Farm served as Union General William B. Franklin's headquarters. Soon after they set camp, General Franklin ordered his troops west to defend South Mountain., After the Civil War, the Shafers continued to live on the property where they operated a wagon shop and blacksmith shop along Gapland Road leading into Burkittsville. They finally purchased the parcel in 1889, four decades after moving onto the land. The Schafer family owned the property until 2016, when it was given to the Burkittsville Preservation Association, Inc. Today, the Shafer Farm includes the original home, a detached kitchen/workshop, smokehouse, well, shed, and barn., Metal Detecting Prohibited, (caption) Maryland Department of Transportation archaeologists surveyed the farm and found artifacts reflecting 19th-century farm life as well as occupation by Union troops. Some of the artifacts found included Minie balls (pictured here) a harness buckle, and horseshoes.