TAVERNS AND TAVERN LIFE
So distinctive was the character of the Cumberland Road that all which
pertained to it was highly characteristic. Next to the race of men which
grew up beside its swinging stretches, nothing had a more distinctive
tone than the taverns which offered cheer and hospitality to its surging
population.
The origin of taverns in the East was very dissimilar from their history
in the West. The first taverns in the West were those which did service
on the old Braddock's Road. Unlike the taverns of New England, which
were primarily drinking places, sometimes closing at nine in the
evening, and not professing, originally, to afford lodging, the tavern
in the West arose amid the forest to answer all the needs of travelers.
It may be said that every cabin in all the western wilderness was a
tavern, where, if there was a lack of "bear and cyder" there was an
abundance of dried deer meat and Indian meal and a warm fireplace before
which to spread one's blankets.[69]
The first cabins on the old route from the Potomac to the Ohio were at
the Wills Creek settlement (Cumberland) and Gist's clearing, where
Washington stopped on his Le Boeuf trip on the buffalo trace not far
from the summit of Laurel Hill. After Braddock's Road was built, and the
first roads were opened between Uniontown and Brownsville, Washington
and Wheeling, during the Revolutionary period, a score of taverns sprang
up--the first of the kind west of the Allegheny Mountains.
The oldest tavern on Braddock's Road was Tomlinson's Tavern near "Little
Meadows," eight miles west of the present village of Frostburg,
Maryland.
At this point the lines of Braddock's Road and the Cumberland Road
coincide. On land owned by him along the old military road Jesse
Tomlinson erected a tavern. When the Cumberland Road was built, his
first tavern was deserted and a new one built near the old site. Another
tavern, erected by one Fenniken, stood on both the line of the military
road and the Cumberland Road, two miles west of Smithfield ("Big
Crossings") where the two courses were identical.
The first taverns erected upon the road which followed the portage path
from Uniontown to Brownsville were Collin's Log Tavern and Rollin's
Tavern, erected in Uniontown in 1781 and 1783, respectively. These
taverns offered primitive forms of hospitality to the growing stream of
sojourners over the rough mountain path to the Youghiogheny at
Brownsville, where boats could be taken for the growing metropolis of
Pittsburg. Another tavern in the West was located on this road ten miles
west of Uniontown. As the old century neared its close a score of
taverns sprang up on the road from Uniontown to Brownsville and on the
road from Brownsville to Wheeling. At least three old taverns are still
remembered at West Brownsville. Hill's stone tavern was erected at
Hillsboro in 1794. "Catfish Camp," James Wilson's tavern at Washington,
the first tavern in that historic town, was built in 1781 and operated
eleven years for the benefit of the growing tide of pioneers who chose
to embark on the Ohio at Wheeling rather than on the Monongahela at
Brownsville. Other taverns at Washington before 1800 were McCormack's
(1788), Sign of the White Goose (1791), Buck Tavern (1796), Sign of the
Spread Eagle, and Globe Inn (1797). The Gregg Tavern and the famous old
Workman House at Uniontown were both erected in the last years of the
old century, 1797-1799. Two miles west of Rankintown, Smith's Stone
Tavern stood on the road to Wheeling, and the Sign of the American Eagle
(1796) offered lodging at West Alexander, several years before the old
century closed. West of the Ohio River, on Zane's rough blazed track
through the scattered Ohio settlements toward Kentucky, travelers found,
as has been elsewhere noted, entertainment at Zane's clearings, at the
fords of the Muskingum and Scioto, and at the little settlement at
Cincinnati. Before the quarter of a century elapsed ere the Cumberland
Road crossed the Ohio River, a number of taverns were erected on the
line of the road which was built over the course of Zane's Trace. On
this first wagon-road west of the Ohio River the earliest taverns were
at St. Clairsville and Zanesville. At this latter point the road turned
southwest, following Zane's Trace to Lancaster, Chillicothe, and
Maysville, Kentucky. The first tavern on this road was opened at
Zanesville during the last year of the old century, McIntire's Hotel. In
the winter of the same year, 1799, Green's Tavern was built, in which,
it is recorded, the Fourth of July celebration in the following year was
held. Cordery's Tavern followed, and David Harvey built a tavern in
1800. The first license for a tavern in St. Clairsville was issued to
Jacob Haltz, February 23, 1802. Two other licenses were issued that year
to John Thompson and Bazil Israel. Barnes's Tavern was opened in 1803.
William Gibson, Michael Groves, Sterling Johnson, Andrew Moore, and
Andrew Marshall kept tavern in the first half decade of this century.
As elsewhere noted, there was no earlier road between Zanesville and
Columbus which the Cumberland Road followed. West of Zanesville but one
tavern was opened in the first decade of this century. Griffith Foos's
tavern at Springfield, which was doing business in 1801, prospered until
1814. The other taverns of the West, at Zanesville, Columbus,
Springfield, Richmond (Indiana), and Indianapolis, are of another era
and will be mentioned later.
The first taverns of the West were built mostly of logs, though a few,
as noted, were of stone. They were ordinary wilderness cabins, rendered
professionally hospitable by stress of circumstance. They were more
often of but one or two rooms, where, before the fireplace, guests were
glad to sleep together upon the puncheon floor. The fare afforded was
such as hunters had--game from the surrounding forest and neighboring
streams and the product of the little clearing, potatoes, and the common
cereals.
At the beginning of the new century a large number of substantial
taverns arose beside the first western roads--even before the Cumberland
Road was under way. The best known of these were built at Washington,
The Sign of the Cross Keys (1801), the McClellan (1802); and at
Uniontown the National and Walker Houses. At Washington arose The Sign
of the Golden Swan (1806), Sign of the Green Tree (1808), Gen. Andrew
Jackson (1813), and Sign of the Indian Queen (1815). These were built in
the age of sawmills and some of them came well down through the century.
It is remarkable how many buildings are to be seen on the Cumberland
Road which tell by their architectural form the story of their fortunes.
Many a tavern, outgrowing the day of small things, was found to be
wholly inadequate to the greater business of the new era. Additions were
made as circumstances demanded, and in some cases the result is very
interesting. The Seaton House in Uniontown was built in sections, as was
the old Fulton House (now Moran House) also of Uniontown. A fine old
stone tavern at Malden, Pennsylvania was erected in 1822 and an addition
made in 1830. A stone slab in the second section bears the date "1830,"
also the word "Liberty," and a rude drawing of a plow and sheaf of
wheat. Though of more recent date, the well-known Four Mile House west
of Columbus, Ohio displays, by a series of additions, the record of its
prosperous days, when the neighboring Camp Chase held its population of
Confederate prisoners.
Among the more important taverns which became the notable hostelries of
the Cumberland Road should be mentioned the Black, American, Mountain
Spring, and Pennsylvania Houses at Cumberland; Plumer Tavern and Six
Mile House west of Cumberland; Franklin and Highland Hall Houses of
Frostburg; Lehman and Shulty Houses at Grantsville; Thistle Tavern at
the eastern foot of Negro Mountain, and Hablitzell's stone tavern at the
summit; The Stoddard House on the summit of Keyser's Ridge; the stone
tavern near the summit of Winding Ridge, and the Wable stand on the
western slope; the Wentling and Hunter Houses at Petersburg; the Temple
of Juno two miles westward; the Endsley House and Camel Tavern at
Smithfield (Big Crossings); a tavern on Mt. Augusta; the Rush, Inks, and
John Rush Houses, Sampey's Tavern at Great Meadows; the Braddock Run
House; Downer Tavern; Snyder's Tavern at eastern foot of Laurel Hill,
and the Summit House at the top; Shipley and Monroe Houses and Norris
Tavern east of Uniontown, and Searight's Tavern six miles west;
Johnson-Hatfield House; the Brashear, Marshall, Clark and Monongahela
Houses at Brownsville; Adam's Tavern; Key's and Greenfield's Taverns at
Beallsville; Gall's House; Hastings and the Upland House at the foot of
Egg Nogg Hill; Ringland's Tavern at Pancake; the Fulton House,
Philadelphia, and Kentucky Inn and Travellers Inn at Washington; Rankin
and Smith Taverns; Caldwell's Tavern; Brown's and Watkin's Taverns at
Claysville; Beck's Tavern at West Alexander; the Stone Tavern at Roney's
Point and the United States Hotel and Monroe House at Wheeling.
West of the Ohio were Rhode's and McMahon's Taverns at Bridgeport;
Hoover's Tavern near St. Clairsville; Chamberlain's Tavern; Christopher
Hoover's Tavern, one mile west of Morristown; Taylor's Tavern; Gleave's
Tavern and Stage Office; Bradshaw's Hotel at Fairview; Drake's Tavern at
Middleton; Sign of the Black Bear at Washington; Carran's, McDonald's,
McKinney's and Wilson's Taverns in Guernsey County and the Ten Mile
House at Norwich, ten miles east of Zanesville. In Zanesville, Robert
Taylor opened a tavern in 1805, and in 1807 moved to the present site of
the Clarendon Hotel, situated on the Cumberland Road and hung out the
Sign of the Orange Tree. Perhaps no tavern in the land can claim the
honor of holding a state legislature within its doors, except the Sign
of the Orange Tree, where, in 1810-12, when Zanesville was the temporary
capital of Ohio, the legislature made its headquarters.[70] The Sign of
the Rising Sun was another Zanesville tavern, opened in 1806, the name
being changed by a later proprietor, without damage to its brilliancy,
perhaps, to the Sign of the Red Lion. The National Hotel was opened in
1818 and became a famous hostelry. Roger's Hotel is mentioned in many
old advertisements for bids for making and repairing the Cumberland
Road. In 1811 William Burnham opened the Sign of the Merino Lamb in a
frame building owned by General Isaac Van Horne. The Sign of the Green
Tree was opened by John S. Dugan in 1817, this being remembered for
entertaining President Monroe, and General Lewis Cass at a later date.
West of Zanesville, on the new route opened straight westward to
Columbus, the famous monumental pile of stone, the Five Mile House long
served its useful purpose beside the road and is one of the most
impressive of its monuments, today. Edward Smith and Usal Headley were
early tavern-keepers at this point. Henry Winegamer built a tavern three
miles west of the Five Mile House. Henry Hursey built and opened the
first tavern at Gratiot. These public houses west of Zanesville were
erected in the year preceding the opening of the Cumberland Road, which
was built through the forest in the year 1831.[71] The stages which
were soon running from Zanesville to Columbus, left the uncompleted,
line of the Cumberland Road at Jacksontown and struck across to Newark
and followed the old road thence to Columbus. The first tavern built in
Columbus was opened in 1813, which, in 1816, bore the sign "The Lion and
the Eagle." After 1817 it was known as "The Globe." The Columbus Inn and
White Horse Tavern were early Columbus hotels; Pike's Tavern was opened
in 1822, and a tavern bearing the sign of the Golden Lamb was opened in
1825. The Neil House was opened in the twenties, a transfer of it to new
owners appearing in local papers in 1832. It was the headquarters of the
Neil, Moore, and Company line of stages and the best known early tavern
in the old coaching days in Ohio. Many forgotten taverns in Columbus can
be found mentioned in old documents and papers, including the famous
American House, Buckeye Hotel, on the present site of the Board of Trade
building, etc. West of Columbus the celebrated Four Mile House, which
has been referred to previously, was erected in the latter half of the
century. In the days of the great mail and stage lines Billy Werden's
Tavern in Springfield was the leading hostelry in western Ohio. At this
point the stages running to Cincinnati, with mail for the Mississippi
Valley, left the Cumberland Road. Across the state line, Neal's and
Clawson's Taverns offered hospitality in the extreme eastern border of
Indiana. At Richmond, Starr Tavern (Tremont Hotel), Nixon's Tavern,
Gilbert's two-story, pebble-coated tavern and Bayle's Sign of the Green
Tree, offered entertainment worthy of the road and its great business,
while Sloan's brick stagehouse accommodated the passenger traffic of the
stage lines. At Indianapolis, the Palmer House, built in 1837, and
Washington Hall, welcomed the public of the two great political faiths,
Democrat and Whig, respectively.
At almost every mile of the road's long length, wagonhouses offered
hospitality to the hundreds engaged in the great freight traffic. Here a
large room with its fireplace could be found before which to lay
blankets on a winter's night. The most successful wagonhouses were
situated at the outskirts of the larger towns, where, at more reasonable
prices and in more congenial surroundings than in a crowded city inn,
the rough sturdy men upon whom the whole West depended for over a
generation for its merchandise, found hospitable entertainment for
themselves and their rugged horses. These houses were usually
unpretentious frame buildings surrounded by a commodious yard, and
generous watering-troughs and barns. A hundred tired horses have been
heard munching their corn in a single wagonhouse yard at the end of a
long day's work.
In both tavern and wagonhouse the fireplace and the bar were always
present, whatever else might be missing. The fireplaces in the first
western taverns were notably generous, as the rigorous winters of the
Alleghenies required. Many of these fireplaces were seven feet in length
and nearly as high, capable of holding, had it been necessary, a
wagonload of wood. With a great fireplace at the end of the room,
lighting up its darkest corners as no candle could, the taverns along
the Cumberland Road where the stages stopped for the night, saw merrier
scenes than any of their modern counterparts witness. And over all their
merry gatherings the flames from the great fires threw a softened light,
in which those who remember them best seem to bask as they tell us of
them. The taverns near some of the larger villages, Wheeling,
Washington, or Uniontown, often entertained for a winter's evening, a
sleighing party from town, to whom the great room and its fireplace were
surrendered for the nonce, where soon lisping footsteps and the soft
swirl of old-fashioned skirts told that the dance was on.
Beside the old fireplace hung two important articles, the flip-iron and
the poker. The poker used in the old road taverns was of a size
commensurate with the fireplace, often being seven or eight feet long.
Each landlord was Keeper-of-the-Poker in his own tavern, and many were
particular that none but themselves should touch the great fire, which
was one of the main features of their hospitality, after the quality of
the food and drink. Eccentric old "Boss" Rush in his famous tavern near
Smithfield (Big Crossings) even kept his poker under lock and key.
The tavern signs so common in New England were known only in the earlier
days of the Cumberland Road as many of the tavern names show. The
majority of the great taverns bore on their signs only the name of their
proprietor, the earliest landlord's name often being used for several
generations. The advancing of the century can be noticed in the origin
of such names as the National House, the United States Hotel, the
American House, etc. The evolution in nomenclature is, plainly, from the
sign or symbol to the landlord's name, then to a fanciful name. Another
sign of later days was the building of verandas. The oldest taverns now
standing are plain ones or the two story buildings rising abruptly from
the pavement and opening directly upon it. Of this type is the
Brownfield House at Uniontown and numerous half-forgotten houses which
were early taverns in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
The kitchen of the old inn was an important feature, especially as many
of the taverns were little more than restaurants where stage-passengers
hastily dined. The food provided was of a plain and nourishing
character, including the famous home-cured hams, which Andrew Jackson
preferred, and the buckwheat cakes, which Henry Clay highly extolled. In
this connection it should be said that the women of the old West were
most successful in operating the old-time taverns, and many of the best
"stands" were conducted by them. The provision made in a license to a
woman in early New England, that "she provide a fit man that is godly to
manage the business," was never suggested in the West, where hundreds of
brave women carried on the business of their husbands after their
decease. And their heroism was appreciated and remembered by the gallant
aristocracy of the road.
The old Revolutionary soldiers who, quite generally, became the
landlords of New England, did not keep tavern in the West. But one
Revolutionary veteran was landlord on the Cumberland Road. The road bred
and brought up its own landlords to a large extent. The early landlords
were fit men to rule in the early taverns, and provided from forest and
stream the larger portion of food for the travelers over the first rough
roads. It is said that these objected to the building of the Cumberland
Road, through fear that more accelerated means of locomotion would
eventually cheat them out of the business which then fell to their
share.
But, like the New England landlord, the western tavern-keeper was a
many-sided man. Had the Cumberland Road taverns been located always
within villages, their proprietors might have become what New England
landlords are reputed to have been, town representatives, councilmen,
selectmen, tapsters, and heads of the "Train Band"--in fact, next to the
town clerk in importance. As it was, the western landlord often filled
as important a position on the frontier as his eastern counterpart did
in New England. This was due, in part, to the place which the western
tavern occupied in society. Taverns were, both in the East and in the
West, places of meeting for almost any business. This was particularly
true in the West, where the public house was almost the only available
place for any gathering whatever between the scattered villages. But
while in the East the landlord was most frequently busy with official
duties, the western landlord was mostly engaged in collateral
professions, which rendered him of no less value to his community. The
jovial host at the Cumberland Road tavern often worked a large farm,
upon which his tavern stood. Some of the more prosperous on the eastern
half of the road, owned slaves who carried on the work of the farm and
hotel. He sometimes ran a store in connection with his tavern, and
almost without exception, officiated at his bar, where he "sold strong
waters to relieve the inhabitants." Whiskey, two drinks for a "fippenny
bit," called "fip" for short (value six and a quarter cents) was the
principal "strong water" in demand. It was the pure article, neither
diluted nor adulterated. In the larger towns of course any beverage of
the day was kept at the taverns--sherry toddy, mulled wine, madeira, and
cider.
As has been said, the road bred its own landlords. Youths, whose lives
began simultaneously with that of the great road, worked upon its curved
bed in their teens, became teamsters and contractors in middle life, and
spent the autumn of their lives as landlords of its taverns, purchased
with the money earned in working upon it. Several well-known landlords
were prominent contractors, many of whom owned their share of the great
six- and eight-horse teams which hauled freight to the western rivers.
The old taverns were the hearts of the Cumberland Road, and the tavern
life was the best gauge to measure the current of business that ebbed
and flowed. As the great road became superseded by the railways, the
taverns were the first to succumb to the shock. In a very interesting
article, a recent writer on "The Rise of the Tide of Life to New England
Hilltops,"[72] speaks of the early hill life of New England, and the
memorials there left "of the deep and sweeping streams of human
history." The author would have found the Cumberland Road and its
predecessors an interesting western example of the social phenomena with
which he dealt. In New England, as in the Central West, the first
traveled courses were on the summits of the watersheds. These routes of
the brute were the first ways of men. The tide of life has ebbed from
New England hilltops since the beginning. Sufficient is it for the
present subject that the Cumberland Road was the most important "stream
of human history" from Atlantic tide-water to the headwaters of the
streams of the Mississippi. Its old taverns are, after the remnants of
the historic roadbed and ponderous bridges, the most interesting "shells
and fossils" cast up by this stream. This old route, chosen first by the
buffalo and followed by red men and white men, will ever be the course
of travel across the mountains. From this rugged path made by the once
famous Cumberland Road, the tide of life cannot ebb. Here, a thousand
years hence, may course a magnificent boulevard, the American Appian
Way, to the commercial, as well as military, key of the eastern slopes
of the Mississippi Basin at the junction of the Allegheny and
Monongahela Rivers. It is important that each fact of history concerning
this ancient highway be put on lasting record.