PIONEER COSHOCTON, FROM "KING CHARLEY'S" TAVERN WHERE LOUIS PHILIPPE OF FRANCE CLASHED WITH AMERICAN SOVEREIGNTY, DOWN TO THE FORTIES..

     In the evening of the Indian life in this region the horseman riding over the lone trail through the woods watched with gun in hand to guard against attack from wild beast or lurking savage skulking behind trees; for Indians were slow to go when new traders and settlers and travelers began arriving.  Some natives with human heart and human emotion could not bring themselves to leave forever the graves of those they mourned.  Others simply were not yet disposed to abandon their old hunting ground.
     In this contact with savagery the vanguard of civilization had need for men of forceful character of daring and resolution, with a dash of adventure.  This frontier, with all its wealth of timbered soil, still had its perils; a frontier life near hostile Indians; a hardy, well-scarred, pioneer life under stern conditions; not, however, without its fascination of forest haunt and rough cabin, and dread of savage attack.
    Dr. Joseph Doddridge vividly pictured it.  Speaking of "Indian summer," for instance, he assigned to those beautiful days in autumn a terrible significance instead of the romantic suggestion conveyed by the term.  The frontier settles, explained the doctor, had no peace from Indian alarms and attacks except in winter.  During spring and summer their was constant need for watching.  It was only with winter's approach that relief came.  But after the first days of cold there came warm, smoky, hazy weather to tempt the Indians to renewed incursions on the frontier - an "Indian summer" for blood and mischief.
     Foremost among the frontiersmen and recorded as the first white

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     "I don't care what devilish trash you are," and the knuckles of his fist whitened.  "I'll not be attacked by every stinkin' upstart that comes to our country!"
     The onlookers were expectant.  The stranger rested his contemptuous gaze on the landlord, then shifted it to the guests as he announced coolly:
     "I am Louis Philippe - the heir to the French throne."
     Whatever of surprise the exiled prince of singular vicissitudes may have expected to follow his announcement there was one hearer who refused to be nonplussed or impressed.
     "King of France - what of it?"" Williams retorted.  "We're all kings here!  And I'll show you."
     With that he threw open the door.  There was no mistaking the hint.  The royal visitor from France saw there wa sno alternative.  With another shrug he passed out of the tavern.  It is even said, in the brief chronicle from which this account has been somewhat embellished, that the royal exit was assisted by the toe of "King Charley's" boot, while the sovereigns looking on cheered.
     There has been some skepticism over the visit of Louis Philippe to Coshocton.  It is known that the prince sailed from New York for England just before 1800 the year which some have recorded as the date of Charley Williams' arrival in this region.  However, accepting the earlier date of 1799 as the year of "King Charley's" coming, it requires no stretch of the imagination to view his tavern in full blast on the banks of the Muskingum at the time of the titled Frenchman's travels through the American Wilderness.
     Whether or not the prince's Coshocton experience with democratic sovereignty instilled any of those ideas of advanced political liberalism which he afterward took with him to the throne is perhaps open to speculation.  But that the king cherished some resentment toward the keeper of a tavern at the forks was told in after years by George W. Silliman, one-time lawyer of Coshocton, who went abroad as the bearer of dispatches when hsi grandfather, Major Cass, was in the diplomatic service.  Silliman said that, in conversation with Louis Philippe, the king recalled that he had been "shabbily treated" at the tavern which from the description given was believed to be Williams' inn at Coshocton.

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PIONEERS OF COSHOCTON COUNTY
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THE COLONISTS OF THE EARLIEST DECADES IN THE COUNTY'S FIRST CENTURY, INCLUDING THOSE WHO CUT THE PATH FOR CIVILIZATION THROUGH THE WILDERNESS, WHO HEARD THE HISS OF THE SNAKE ON THE CABIN FLOOR, AND THE HOWL OF THE WOLF AT THE DOOR; THEIR'S WAS THE COURAGE, THE STRENGTH, THE FAITH, AND THE WILL THAT FILLED HEARTS IN THE MAKING OF THE COUNTRY.

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