PART I
CHAPTER XIII
NOTE: I will pick things out of
this chapter for now and detail it later. ~ SW
EARLY TAVERNS AND
OLD INNS
p. 124
The First Tavern at
Manchester -
Pioneer Tavern Keepers -
A Wayside Inn -
Observations of a Traveler.
There were no
settlements made outside the stockade at the Three
Islands in the territory from which Adams County was
formed before the autumn of 1795. But early in the
year following the tide of emigration set in so strong
that cabins were erected and clearings were made along
all the principal streams in the interior. The
mouth of the Scioto, the vicinity of Brush Creek Island,
Manchester, Ellis' Ferry, opposite Maysville and Logan's
Gap, near the mouth of Eagle Creek, were the principal
gateways through which the pioneers entered this portion
of the Territory. Of these, Manchester at the
Three Islands, and Alexandria at the mouth of the Scioto
were the principal entranceways. And at these
towns were opened the first taverns of the county.
They were rude log structures not arranged with the view
of contributing to the comfort of guests, but only for
the purpose of furnishing shelter from the elements, and
a simple fare to appease hunger. At most of these
early taverns whiskey was sold, and many of them became
the resort of the idlers and rowdies in the vicinity.
George Sample, who settled on Ohio Brush Creek at
the mouth of Soldier's Run, in writing to the Western
Pioneer in 1842, with reference to his first visit
to Adams County in 1797, among other things concerning
Manchester, says:
The First Tavern at
Manchester.
"There were
fifteen to twenty cabins at Manchester, one of which was
called a tavern. It was at least a grogshop.
There were about a dozen visitors at the tavern, and as
the landlord was a heyday, well-met tippler with the
rest, they appointed me to assist the landlady in making
eggnog. I was inexperienced in the art, but I made
out to suit them very well. I put about a dozen
eggs in a large bowl, and after beating, or rather
stirring the eggs up a little, I added about a pound of
sugar and a little milk to this mass; I then filled the
bowl up with whiskey, and set it on the table; and they
sat about the table and sipped it with spoons.
Tumblers or glasses of any sort had not then come in
fashion." This tavern was conducted by John
Magate, an Irishman, who with his good wife Katy
were noted characters in the pioneer days of Manchester.
The early Court records tell the story of many broils
and fisticuffs at McGate's in which the landlord
and landlady were participants. One James
Dunbar, school-master, seems to have given much time
to the "manly art," in and about this resort form the
number of "mills" reported to the Court in which he is
alleged to have taken a principal part. In fact
the grand jury report of that day would be incomplete
without the familiar return: "We do present
James Dunbar and William Hannah for beating
and abusing John McGate and wife." Or, "We
do find a bill against Catherine McGate for a
breach of the peace on the body of
James Dunbar.
Pioneer Tavern
Keepers.
At the sitting
of the first Court of Quarter Sessions at Manchester in
1797, Samuel Stoops, John McGate and Job
Denning each petitioned the Court for a
recommendation to the Governor for a tavern license, and
their petitions were granted, "to keep tavern in the
town of Manchester." At the same time John
Pollock was given a recommendation for a tavern
license in the town of Alexandria at the mouth of the
Scioto. In June, 1798, William Keggs and
Benjamin Goodin, and in September of that year,
Peter Mowry, were each license to keep tavern at
Manchester. These and Daniel Robbins
(residence not known) were the first licensed tavern
keepers in Adams County. As the settlements began
to dot the valleys in the interior, and traces were
blazed and roads cut through the forests to them, "the
wayside inns" were opened for the accommodation of the
traveling public. The earliest of these was kept
by James January on the Limestone and Chillicothe
road (Zane's Trace) in the valley just to the west of
where West Union now stands, on what is known as the
Swearingen farm. This house was opened in
1798, and license early in 1800. In the latter
part of the year, 1798, John Hessler opened in
1798, and licensed early in 1800. In the latter
part of the year, 1798, John Hessler opened a
tavern at Alexandria, and William Faulkner began
to entertain travelers at the mouth of Brush Creek.
The next tavern in the interior was that opened by
John Trebar in the latter part of 1798 or early in
the year 1799. When George Sample was his
first trip over Zane's Trace in 1797, he noted the fact
that but two houses were on the trace from the vicinity
of where West Union now stands to Chillicothe -
Trebar's on Lick Fork, and one at the Sinking
Spring, Wilcoxon's. But neither of these was at
that time places of public entertainment. In 1800,
David Bradford was licensed to keep a tavern at
the town of Washington, the new county seat; and about
the same date Noble Grimes opened a place of
public entertainment there. In this year George
Edgington, father-in-law of William Leedom,
who for many years conducted the house, opened a tavern
near Bentonville. This afterwards became one of
the noted old inns of the county. It is a large
two-story, hewed log structure, now weatherboarded, and
in a very good state of preservation. It is
pleasantly situated among great spreading elms and
locusts, just to the south of Bentonville on the old
Limestone road, and is at present the private residence
of Henry Gaffin who married a granddaughter of
William Leedom.
In 1801 a petition was presented to the Court
recommending Peter Wickerham as a "civil citizen
and very worthy of the character of innkeeper,
and that "he lives on such a part of the road as requires some person to
officiate in that capacity. "Granted at four
dollars a year." This was the old tavern so long
kept by Mr. Wickerham at Palestine between Locust
Grove and Peebles on the Limestone road, or Zane's Trace
as it was first known. The old brick tavern, the
first of the kind in the county, is still standing and
is the residence of Jacob Wickerham.
In this year, also, Richard Harrison, at the
town of Waterford near the mouth of Lick Fork, and
Joseph Van Meter, at Zane's crossing of Brush Creek,
petitioned for and were granted license to keep houses
of public entertainment at their respective residences.
There was great rivalry among these tavern keepers in
the new towns like Manchester, Alexandria, Washington,
Killinstown and Waterford where two or more taverns were
kept, and the landlords each manifested much bitterness
of spirit toward his rivals in business. As one of
many instances illustrative of this fact, the following
is cited:
"To the Honorable Court of Adams County: Whereas,
a certain Christian Bottleman, of Alexandria, has for
almost two yeas followed the practice of selling
spiritous liquors by the quart and pint, and of late by
the half pint, I had it in contemplation to inform on
said Bottleman last court but was unable by sickness,
and am so that this time, but I thought it not improper
to make this kind of information; and if the Court think
proper to bring the offender to justice, the fact can be
proved by calling on Joshua Parrish who will be
at court, etc. I think it hard that the said
Bottleman should take away the privilege that I
purchased at the rate of seventeen and a half dollars
per year." From your humble servant,
William Russell.
"Alexandria, December 5, 1801."
About this date
John Scott was keeping tavern also at Alexandria,
and John Killin
was licensed as a tavern keeper at Adamsburg, better
known as Killinstown. A few years later the
Bradford Hotel at West Union, The Stone House on Lick
Fork, Horn's Hotel at Locust Grove, and
Ammen's near the county line on the "old trace,"
Sample's on Brush Creek, Allen's (old stone
house) and Treber's on Lick Fork, became noted
stopping places for travelers over the old stage rout
from Maysville to Chillicothe. These and some
others will be further noticed in the township
histories.
A
Wayside Inn.
"As ancient is this hostelry
As any in the land may be,
Built in the old Colonial day
When men lived in a grander way,
With ample hospitality;
A kind of old Hobgoblin Hall
Now somewhat fallen to decay
With weather stains upon the wall,
And stairways worn, and crazy doors,
And creaking and uneven floors
And Chimneys huge and tiled and tall."
"A region of repose it
seems,
A place of slumber and of dreams
Remote among the wooden hills!
For there no noisy railway speeds
Its torch-race scattering smoke and gleeds,
But noon and night the panting teams,
Stop under the great oaks, that throw
Tangles of Shade and light below
On roofs and doors, and window sills" |
THE TREBER'S TAVERN
The above
view of the old Treber Inn built by John
Treber Inn built by John Treber, in 1798,
was recently made for this volume. It stands
on the left bank of Lick Fork, fronting the Old
Limestone road, about five miles to the northeast of
West Union. The main building is constructed
of hewed logs weatherboarded, while the large
kitchen and dining room to the rear is of stone
quarried in the immediate vicinity. With the
exception of Bradford's in West Union, this is the
most celebrated of the "old inns" yet standing.
Soon after the erection of this building, there was
swung form a huge post near the highway, the
inviting sign - "Traveler's Entertainment" - which
swayed to and fro at the caprice of the winds for
more than half a century. This old inn
sheltered many distinguished guests in the days of
the old stage line form Maysville to Wheeling.
Here General Jackson and party warmed and
refreshed themselves when he was on his way to be
inaugurated President after his election in 1828.
Here Thomas H. Benton, Henry Clay and scores
of prominent characters from the southwest have
sipped and praised "Mother Treber's
most excellent coffee" while eating the "finest
biscuits ever baked." *"Mother
Treber" as she was familiarly known, was very
proud of the reputation she had acquired of making
the "best coffee" and "finest biscuits" anywhere to
be had. On one occasion some noted guests were
present at table, and had purposely refrained fro
praising the coffee and biscuits to annoy Mother
Treber who had bestowed extra care in the
preparation of that portion of the meal. After
waiting for the accustomed word of praise and not
having received it, she ventured to remark that the
meal was not to her liking and offered some apology.
A guest more daring than the others replied that the
meal was very satisfactory with the exception of the
coffee and biscuits; whereupon came the impetuous
retort "you never tasted finer coffee nor eat better
biscuits, for I prepared them myself."
A few rods to the southeast of this old inn, at the
roadside, stands an elm tree near which it is said
Asahel Edgington was killed by the Indians in
1793, a full account of which occurrence appears
elsewhere under the chapter devoted to "Adventures
and Conflicts with the Indians."
Some fifty or sixty rods to the northeast of the house,
in a field near the roadside, is a grave of
Zachariah Moon, a member of a Kentucky regiment
in the war of 1812, who died here and was buried by
his comrades when returning home after the close of
the war.
In 1825 John Treber removed to a farm in the
vicinity, and his son Jacob Treber took
charge of the old tavern and conducted it until
about the time of the Civil War. William
Treber, his son, now resides here.
Observations of a Traveler.
In
August, 1807, D. F. Cumming, while touring
the western country, traveled afoot across Adams
County along the old state line from Ellis' Ferry
(Aberdeen) to the Sinking Springs; and thence to
Chillicothe. The following interesting notes
are taken from his "Sketches of a Tour:|
"Thursday, Friday and Saturday, I was employed in
rambling about the woods, exploring and examining a
tract of land, of a thou
-------------------------
* Wife of Jacob Treber, son of
John Treber, the pioneer.
Page 128 -
sand acres, in the State of Ohio, which I had purchased
when in Europe last year, and which had been the
principal cause of my present tour. As it was only
six miles from Maysville, I crossed the Ohio and went to
it on foot. I had expected to find a mere
wilderness, as soon as I should quit the high road, but
to my agreeable surprise, I found my land surrounded on
every side by fine farms, some of them ten years
settled, and the land itself, both in quality and
situation, not exceeded by any in this fine country.
The population was also astonishing for the time of the
settlement, which a muster of the militia, while I was
there, gave me an opportunity of knowing - there being
reviewed a battalion of upwards of five hundred
effective men, most expert in the use of the rifle,
belonging to the district of ten miles square.
"And now I experienced amongst these honest and
friendly farmers real hospitality, for they vied with
each other in lodging meat their houses, and in giving
me a hearty and generous welcome to their best fare.
Robert Simpson, from New Hampshire, and
Daniel Kerr and Thomas Gibson, from
Pennsylvania, shall ever be entitled to my grateful
remembrance. I had no letters of introduction to
them, I had no claims on their hospitality, other than
what any other stranger ought to have; but they were
farmers, and had not acquired those contracted habits,
which I have observed to prevail very generally amongst
the traders in this part of the world.
"On Saturday, I returned to Ellis' Ferry, opposite
Maysville, to give directions for my baggage being sent
after me by stage to Chillicothe.
"On the bank of the Ohio, I found Squire Ellis
seated on a bench under the shade of two locust trees,
with a table, pen and ink, and several papers, holding a
Justice's Court, which he does every Saturday.
Seven or eight men were sitting on the bench with him,
awaiting his awards in their several cases. When
he had finished, which was soon after I had taken a seat
under the same shade, one of the men invited the Squire
to drink with them, which he consenting to, some whiskey
was provided from Landlord Powers', in which all parties
made a libation to peace and justice. There was
something in the scene to primitive and so simple, that
I could not help enjoying it with much satisfaction.
"I took up my quarters for the night at Powers' who is
an Irishman from Ballibay in the county of Monaghan.
He pays Squire Ellis eight hundred dollars per
annum for his tavern, fine farm and ferry. He and
his wife were very civil, attentive, and reasonable in
their charges, and he insisted much on lending me a
horse to carry me the first six miles over a hilly part
of the road to Robinson's tavern, but I declined
his kindness, and on Sunday morning, the ninth of
August, after taking a delightful bath in the Ohio, I
quitted its banks. I walked on towards the
northeast along the main post and state road seventeen
miles to West Union, - the country becoming gradually
more level as I receded from the river, but not quite so
rich in soil and timber.
"The road was generally well settled, and the woods
between the settlements were alive with squirrels, and
all the variety of woodpeckers with their beautiful
plumage, which in one species is little inferior to that
of the bird of Paradise, so much admired in the East
Indies.
Page 129 -
"I stopped at tavern miles at the house of Squire
Leedom, an intelligent and agreeable man, who keeps
a tavern, and is a justice of the peace. I chose
bread and butter, eggs and milk for breakfast, for which
I tendered a quarter of a dollar, the customary price,
but he would receive only the half of that sum, saying,
that even that amount was too much. such instances
of modest and just honesty rarely occur.
"West Union is three years old since it was laid out
for the county town of Adams County. The lots of
one-third of an acre in size, then sold for about
seventy dollars each. There were upwards of one
hundred lots, which brought the proprietor above three
thousand dollars. It is a healthy situation, on an
elevated plain, and contains twenty dwelling houses,
including two taverns and three stores. It has
also a court house and a jail, in the former of which
divine services was performing when I arrived, to a
numerous Presbyterian congregation. One of the
houses is well built with stone; one of the taverns is a
large frame house, and all the rest are formed of square
logs, some of which are two stories high and very good.
"Having to get a deed recorded at the clerk's office of
the county, which could not be done till Monday morning,
I stopped Sunday afternoon and night at West Union,
where my accommodation in either eating or sleeping,
could not boast of anything beyond mediocrity.
"Monday the tenth of August, having finished my
business and breakfasted. I resumed my journey
through a country but indifferently inhabited, and at
four miles and a half from West Union I stopped for a
few minutes at Allen's tavern, at the request of
a traveler on horseback, who had overtaken and
accompanied me for the last three miles. He was an
elderly man named Alexander, a cotton planter in
the southwest extremity of North Carolina, where he owns
sixty-four negro slaves besides his plantations - all
acquired by industry - he having emigrated from Larne in
Ireland in early life with no property. He was not
going to visit a brother-in-law at Chillicothe. He
had traveled upwards of five hundred miles within the
last three weeks on the same mare. He had crossed
the Saluda Mountains, and the States of Tennessee and
Kentucky and had found houses of accommodation at
convenient distances all along that remote road, but
provender so dear, that he had to pay in many places a
dollar for a half bushel of oats.
"Allen's is a handsome, roomy, well finished
stone house, for which, with twenty acres of cleared
land, he pays a yearly rent of one hundred and ten
dollars, to Andrew Ellison, near Manchester.
He himself is four years from Tanderagee, in the County
Armagh, Ireland, from whence he came with his family to
inherit some property left him by a brother who had
resided in Washington, Kentucky; but two hundred acres
of land adjoining my tract near Maysville, was all he
had been able to obtain possession of, although his
brother had been reputed wealthy. I have met many
Europeans in the United States, who have exeprienced
similar disappointments.
"My equestrian companion finding that I did not walk
fast enough to keep up with him, parted from me soon
after we left Allen's. At two miles from
thence I came to Brush Creek (at Sproull's), a beautiful
river about sixty yards wide. A new State road
crosses the river here, but
Page 130 -
as I had been informed that there was no house on it for
ten miles. I preferred keeping up the bank of the
river on the stage road, which led through a beautiful
but narrow unsettled bottom, with Brush Creek on the
right, and a steep, craggy precipice on the left, for a
mile and a half. I then ascended and descended a
steep and barren ridge for a mile, when I forded the
creek to Jacob Platter's finely situated tavern
and farm on the opposite bank.
"Having rested and taken some refreshment the growling
of distant thunder warned me to hasten my journey, as I
had five miles through the woods to the habitation.
The road was fine and level - the gust approached with
terrific warning - one flash of lightning succeeding
another in most rapid succession, so that the woods
frequently appeared as in a flame, and several trees
were struck in every direction around me, one being
shattered within fifty paces on my right, while the
thunder without intermission of an instant was heard in
every variety of sound, from the deafening burst,
shaking the whole atmosphere, to the long solemn cadence
always interrupted by a new and more heavy peal before
it had reached its pause. This elemental war would
have been sublimely awful to me, had I been in an open
country, but the frequent crash of the falling bolts on
the surrounding trees, gave me such incessant warnings
of danger, that the sublimity was lost in the awe.
I had been accustomed to thunder storms in every
climate, and I had heard the roar of sixty ships in the
line of battle, but I never before was witness to so
tremendous an elemental uproar. I suppose the
heaviest part of the electric cloud was impelled upon
the very spot I was passing.
"I walked the five miles within an hour, but my speed
did not avail me to escape a torrent of rain which fell
during the last mile, so that long before I arrived at
the hospitable dwelling of the Pennsylvania hunter who
occupied the next cabin, I was drenched and soaked
most completely. I might have sheltered myself
from some of the storm under the lee side of a tree, had
not the wind, which blew a hurricane, varied every
instant, but independent of that, I preferred moving
along the road to prevent a sudden chill; besides every
tree being a conductor, there is greater danger near the
trunk of one, than in keeping in a road, however,
narrow, which has been marked by the trees being cut
down.
"My host and his family had come here from the back
part of Pennsylvania last May, and he had already a fine
field of corn and a good deal of hay. He had
hitherto been more used to the chase than to farming,
and he boasted much of his rifle. He recommended
his Pennsylvania whiskey as an antidote against the
effects of my ducking, and I took him at his word,
though he was much surprised to see me use more of it
externally than internally which I did from experience
that bathing the feet, hands and head with spiritous
liquor of any sort, has a much better effect in
preventing chill and fever, either after being wet or
after violent perspiration from exercise, than taking
any quantity into the stomach, which on the contrary
rarely fails to bring on, or to add to inflammatory
symptoms. A little internally, however, I have
found to be a good aid to the external application.
"I found at my friendly Pennsylvanian's, a little old
man named Lashley, who had taken shelter at the
beginning of the gust, which be-
Page 131 -
ing now over, he buckled on his knapsack, and we
proceeded together. He had traveled on foot from
Tennessee River, through a part of the State of
Tennessee quite across Kentucky, and so far in Ohio in
nine days, at the rate of thirty-six miles a day.
He had assisted in navigating a boat from Indian
Wheeling, where he lived, to Tennessee, for which he got
thirty dollars, ten of which he had already expended on
his journey so far back, though using the utmost
economy. He remarked to me, that although he was
upwards of sixty yeas of age, and apparently very poor,
he had not gotten gratuitously a single meal of victuals
in all that route. Are not hospitality and charity
more nominal than real virtues?
"The country for the next five miles is tolerably well
improved, and there is a good brick house which is a
*tavern owned by one Wickerham at the first mile,
and a mile further is Horn's tavern, where the
stage sleeps on its route to the northeast to
Chillicothe.
"Old Lashley complaining of fatigue, we stopped
at Marshon's farm house, ten miles from Brush
Creek, where finding that we could be accommodated for
the night, we agreed to stay, and were regaled with
boiled corn, wheaten griddle cakes, butter and milk for
supper, which our exercise through the day gave us a
good appetite for, but I did not enjoy my bed so much as
my supper, notwithstanding it was the second best in the
house, for besides it was not remarkable for its
cleanliness, I was obliged to share it with my old
companion; fatigue, however, soon reconciled me to it,
and I slept as well as if I had lain down between lawn
sheets.
"Marshon is from the Jerseys, he has a numerous
family grown up, and is now building a large log house
in which he means to keep a tavern. Three of his
sons play the violin by ear - they had two shocking bad
violins, one of which was of their own manufacture, on
which they scraped away without mercy to entertain us,
which I would have most gladly excused, though I
attempted to seem pleased and believe I succeeded in
making them think I was so.
The land here is the worst I had seen since I had left
the banks of the Ohio; it had been gradually worse from
about two miles behind Squire Leedom's, and for
the last two miles before we came to Marshon's it
had degenerated into natural prairies or savannas, with
very little wood, and none deserving the name of timber,
but well clothed with brush and low coarse vegetation.
"On Tuesday morning the eleventh of August, we arose
with the dawn, and notwithstanding thee was a steady
small rain, we pursued our journey having first paid
Marshon fully as much for our simple and coarse
accommodations, as the bet on the road would have cost,
but our host I suppose thought his stories and his son's
music were equivalent for all other deficiencies.
"The land was poor, and no house on the road until we
arrived at Heistand's tavern, four miles from
Marshon's, where we met the Lexington stage.
Heistand is a Pennsylvania German, and has a good
and plentiful house, in a pleasant situation, called the
Sinking Springs, from
-------------------------
* This house is yet standing at Palestine, and is the
present residence of Jacob Wicherham, a grandson
of Jacob Wicherham who erected it in 1800.
It was the first plastered building in Adams County.
Page 132 -
a great natural curiosity near it. On the side of
a low hill now in cultivation, are three large holes,
each about twenty feet deep and twenty feet in diameter,
about sixty paces apart, with a subterranean
communication by which the water is conveyed from one to
the other, and issues in a fine rivulet at a fourth operting
near the house, where Heistand's milk house is
placed very judiciously. The spring is copious and
the water very fine."
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