The Potomac River and the Rumsey Monument in Shepherdstown, WV, James Rumsey built, launched, and navigated at Shepherdstown, on Dec. 3, 1787, the first successful steam-propelled boat. He obtained a patent on his boat in 1790 but was deprived of success and fame by his untimely death in England. In 1915 the Rumsey State Park was created at Shepherds town, and a granite column 75 feet tall was erected in the park by the state of West Virginia, on a rocky bluff overlooking the Potomac, at the point where Rumsey launched his steamboat.