Steamboat Era Museum Welcomes Margery Nea and Skip Woodson

The Steamboat Era Museum, as part of its 2025 Annual Second Saturday Speaker Series, presents Margery Woodson Nea and Chip Woodson as they speak about “The Weems Wharf and Old Home” on Saturday, April 12th, 2025. The presentation will be not at the Museum but held in Weems. (Please note that Mr. Richard W. Covington was originally scheduled but cancelled due to illness.) “In 1888, our grandfather, James Oscar Dameron, and his brother Walton left their home in Kinsale in search of a suitable place to take advantage of the rise in steamboat commerce on the Chesapeake Bay. After sailing the Potomac River, around the Chesapeake Bay, and into the Rappahannock, they found a general store and wharf at the mouth of Carters Creek. The brothers bought the store, obtained a steamboat stop for the Weems Line, and businesses grew up around the wharf, a canning factory, crab and oyster houses. The steamboat business operated until 1937.

The two brothers built houses across from each other on Weems Road. Our grandfather met Margaret Bolling Jones, a teacher at Chesapeake Academy, and they married in 1902. Their old Victorian home has recently been renovated. We invite you to come and visit the property, the site of the wharf and the old home, and hear the history and stories of our family during the Steamboat Era Days.”  This event will be held at Margery’s and Chip’s their grandfather’s renovated Victorian home! Spaces are limited so please purchase your tickets, which are $5, soon. Call the museum at 804-438-6888 to reserve your ticket(s) or go to https://shop.steamboateramuseum.org/search/speaker/. Once your tickets have been purchased, you will receive directions to their historic home in Weems.

The Steamboat Era Museum, an award-winning museum, is focused on preserving and sharing the history of the Steamboat Era and boasts an immersive exhibit of the pilothouse of the Steamboat Potomac, the largest remaining artifact from a Chesapeake Bay Steamboat. Please visit the museum’s website for more information, directions, hours, and entrance fees at www.steamboateramuseum.org or call 804-438-6888. Welcome aboard!