Two miles west from Cheney"s, and at the foot of Little Savage mountain, Thomas Beall kept a tavern as early as 1830. William E. Beall, superintendent of the Uniontown rolling mill, was born at this old tavern. Thomas Beall removed from this place to Missouri, but after a short absence, returned to Western Maryland, and took charge of the Franklin House in Frostburg. Thomas Johnson succeeded Thomas Beall in the management of this house. It was a noted place, and Johnson was a noted character. He was a good fiddler and a good dancer. He owned a negro named Dennis, who was also a good dancer, and night after night in the cheerful bar room of the old tavern, Dennis performed the "double shuffle," responsive to lively music furnished by his old master.
Johnson was small in stature, weighing but little over a hundred pounds.
Although he partic.i.p.ated freely in the fun of the old road, he was not unmindful or neglectful of his business. He owned the old tavern-stand mentioned and the lands adjacent, and dying, left a comfortable inheritance to his descendants. Little Savage mountain has an elevation of two thousand four hundred and eighty feet above the Atlantic, being one hundred feet lower than Big Savage.
Three miles further westward, and at the eastern approach to the Shades of Death, John Recknor kept an old wagon stand, well known, and in its day well patronized. Recknor kept this house as early as 1830, and ended his days in it. It was a log and frame structure on the north side of the road, with a commodious wagon yard attached. The thick branches of the pine trees growing on Shade Hill, hung over this old house, imparting to it a romantic, as well as an attractive perspective. The fame of Mrs. Recknor as a purveyor of hot biscuits was co-extensive with the line of the road. Now,
"The kitchen is cold and the hall is as still, As the heart of the hostess out there on the hill."
Piney Grove comes next, two miles from Recknor"s, so called from the numerous pine trees growing in the locality in the olden time. At an early day Joshua Johnson, a wealthy man of Frederic City, owned fifteen thousand acres of land, embracing Piney Grove and the Shades of Death, which he held for many years for speculative purposes. Portions of this large area, it is said, continue in the possession of Johnson"s descendants to this day. The pine trees were cut down many years ago, sawed up and shipped to market. William Frost, of Frostburg, erected the first extensive saw mill in the vicinity. At Piney Grove there was an old tavern, kept at different times by Truman Fairall, Mortimer Cade, Lemuel Cross, John Wrench and David Mahaney. All the stage lines of the road stopped at this old tavern, and wagoners in goodly numbers also congregated there. It was a large frame building on the north side of the road, and on the opposite side large stables and sheds were erected for sheltering horses and vehicles.
West of Piney Grove about one-fourth of a mile, an old wagon stand was kept by a man whose name was Wagoner, and subsequently by Isaac Bell, and later by Mortimer Cade. Cade kept this house in 1840, and died in it. His widow continued to keep it as a tavern for a number of years, and until she became the wife of William Fear, who kept a tavern on Keyser"s Ridge. A daughter of Mrs. Cade is living in Uniontown at this time.
Two miles west of Piney Grove the celebrated old Tomlinson tavern at Little Meadows is reached. This is an old stand; as old as the National Road. Here the lines of the National and the old Braddock roads coincide. Jesse Tomlinson owned the land at this point, and kept a tavern on the old Braddock road, before the National Road was made. Upon the opening of the latter he abandoned his old house and erected a new one on the new road, which he conducted as a tavern for many years.
After his death the property pa.s.sed to the hands of Jacob Sides. W. M.
F. Magraw, as before stated, married a daughter of Jacob Sides. This place is referred to as the Little Meadows in the official record of Braddock"s unfortunate march through the mountains in 1755. The region at and about Mt. Washington, further westward on the line of the road, where the conflict between Washington and the French and Indians occurred, in 1754, is designated by Washington, in his official report of that engagement, as the Great Meadows. Tomlinson"s tavern is a large stone house, on the north side of the road. After Tomlinson, it was kept by Thomas Endsley, who was succeeded by Thomas Thistle, Thomas Thistle by James Stoddard, and he, in turn, by Jesse Huddleson, Truman Fairall, Lemuel Cross and David Mahaney, all before the railroad was continued west of c.u.mberland. It was kept by George Layman after the railroad absorbed the trade. Layman was afterward sheriff of Alleghany county, Maryland. In the year 1862, while the property was under the control of Mr. Magraw, the old Tomlinson tavern was remodeled and much improved.
The contract for the improvements was undertaken by George W. Wyning, a well known carpenter of Uniontown, who superintended the work in person, and during its progress he and Magraw together, spent many a pleasant hour amid the exhilarating atmosphere of the mountains, in the society of the old pike boys. James K. Polk dined at the Tomlinson house in the spring of 1845, on his way to Washington to be inaugurated President.
Huddleson was keeping the house at that time. The occasion brought together a large concourse of mountain people, who were addressed by the President-elect.
One mile west from Tomlinson"s the widow Wooding kept a tavern as early as 1842, and for some time thereafter. Her house was a frame building, on the north side of the road, and was largely patronized by old wagoners. Mrs. Wooding growing old, and wearied by the onerous duties of tavern keeping, gave up the business, and turned her house over to her son-in-law. Peter Yeast, who conducted it for a season, and in turn surrendered it to John Wright.
One mile west of Mrs. Wooding"s old stand the traveler reaches the Little Crossings, a name given to the locality from the circ.u.mstance that here the road crosses the Castleman river; and the prefix "little"
is used because the Castleman is a smaller stream than the Youghiogheny, which is crossed a few miles further westward, and called the Big Crossings. There was no tavern at the Little Crossings previous to the year 1836. Subsequent to that date a tavern was established there by Alexander Carlisle, who entertained the traveling public in a satisfactory manner. His house was a large frame structure, on the south side of the road, subsequently kept by John and Samuel McCurdy, and later, at different times, by David Johnson, William Dawson, Elisha Brown, Jacob Conrod and David Mahaney. Although nearly twenty years elapsed from the building of the road before any old landlord at Little Crossings beckoned the weary traveler to rest and refreshment, nevertheless, thereafter, and until business ceased on the line, that locality presented many and rare attractions, as all old pike boys are ready to verify.
CHAPTER XXIX.
_Old Taverns and Tavern Keepers continued--Little Crossings to Winding Ridge--Grantsville--The Old Shultz, Steiner and Fuller Houses--The Veteran, David Mahaney--Thomas Thistle, Widow Haldeman, Death of Mrs. Recknor, Negro Mountain, Keyser"s Ridge, Log Cabin Boys of 1840, James Stoddard, Dennis Hoblitzell, The Fears, The McCurdys, Adam Yeast, David Johnson, Perry Shultz, Truman Fairall, John Woods, The Bane House, Wooing and Wedding of an Old Tavern Keeper, James Reynolds, Henry Walters._
Next after leaving the Little Crossings on the westward march, comes Grantsville, a romantic little mountain village in Garrett, formerly Alleghany, county, Maryland, named long before the hero of Appomattox was known to fame, and therefore not in his honor. In 1833 Samuel Gillis kept a tavern in the east end of Grantsville, on the south side of the road, the same house that in later years was kept by John Slicer. It was a wagon stand in the time of Gillis, and Slicer did not take charge of it until business had ceased on the road. John Lehman kept a tavern in Grantsville in 1836. He was a son-in-law, as was Peter Yeast, of the good old widow Wooding, before mentioned.
The Lehman House was subsequently kept by Henry Fuller, and after him by George Smouse. It was a frame building near the center of the village, on the south side of the street and road. In 1843 Henry Fuller demolished this old house, and erected a new one in its place. Adam Shultz kept a tavern at the east end of Grantsville back in the forties, and dying in charge, was succeeded by his son Perry, who continued it down to the year 1852, when the ancient glories of the old pike began to weaken and wane. The Shultz House was an imposing brick structure, on the south side of the road, and was kept for a while by the veteran David Mahaney, and at one time by Jesse King. Perry Shultz was subsequently elected sheriff of Alleghany county, Maryland. Solomon Steiner also kept a tavern in Grantsville during a portion of the prosperous era of the road. Grantsville seems to have been a favorite locality for tavern keepers of German names and antecedents. Steiner"s tavern was a brick building, and stood on the opposite side of the road from the old Shultz House. Steiner built it, owned it, and died in it, and his son, Archibald, conducted it for a number of years after his father"s death. It was a wagon stand. The Fuller House was kept at different times by John D. Wrench, Bazil Garletts, Barney Brown, John Slicer, William Slicer, William Beffler, John Millinger, and Nathaniel Slicer. Christian M. Livengood is the present proprietor. Archibald Steiner was succeeded in his father"s old house, first, by William Shaw, and thereafter in turn by John Millinger and Jonas E. Canagy, the present proprietor, and it is now called the Farmer"s House.
David Mahaney, whose name frequently appears in these pages, is a remarkable man. A boy when the National Road was made, he has lived on and near it all his life. His present residence is Dunbar, Fayette county, Pa., but he is a familiar figure on the streets of Uniontown. He is the father of Lloyd Mahaney, the well known enterprising owner and manager of the handsome new Mahaney house in Uniontown, and of George Mahaney, also a popular hotel man, who at one time kept the Dixon house in Greensburg, afterward a hotel in Pittsburg, and at the present time is conducting a house in Latrobe. David Mahaney was born in Washington county, Md., near Hagerstown, in 1807, and is therefore in his eighty-sixth year, while he has the appearance of a man not over sixty.
His complexion is swarthy, step elastic, and his memory but slightly impaired by the inroads of time. His father was a native of Culpeper county, Va., who met with a melancholy death by drowning in the Potomac river, on the night of the presidential election of 1856. His polling place was eight miles from his residence, in Maryland, and to reach it and vote involved the crossing of the Potomac. It was late in the evening when he left the polls to return home, and upon reaching the river, by some untoward accident fell into the water and perished. David Mahaney"s first venture in tavern keeping on his own account was at the old Shultz house in Grantsville. He was personally acquainted with Henry Clay, Thomas H. Benton, Lewis Ca.s.s, and others of the old time statesmen, and frequently entertained them.
As early as 1836 Thomas Thistle kept a tavern at the foot of Negro Mountain, two miles west of Grantsville. With a name somewhat rasping in its import, Thistle had a smooth tongue, a mild manner, and furnished excellent entertainment for the traveling public. He was one of the oldest and best known tavern keepers on the road. His house was a long, frame wooden building, on the south side of the road, at times a stage station, and throughout its entire existence a wagon stand. Here the National Road crosses the line of the old Braddock road. In 1844 William Dehaven kept the old Thistle tavern, and later it was kept by Levi Dean.
One and a half miles west from the old Thistle house, and on the eastern slope of Negro Mountain, the widow Haldeman kept a tavern as early as 1840, and like all the widows, had a large patronage. While conducting this house, Mrs. Haldeman became the wife of Daniel Smouse, who thereafter took charge of it. The house was a log building, on the south side of the road, and the s.p.a.cious grounds surrounding it were crowded, night after night, with six-horse teams and big, broad wheeled wagons, covered with canva.s.s, presenting the appearance of a military encampment. This old house was subsequently kept by George Smouse, and later by John Wright. The widow Recknor, of savory memory, before mentioned, died a boarder in this old tavern, much lamented.
[Ill.u.s.tration: DAVID MAHANY.]
Onward, westward and upward, the crest of Negro Mountain is reached.
There are several versions of the origin of the name of this mountain.
Probably the one most worthy of acceptance is that in the early collisions between the whites and the Indians, a negro appeared as an ally of the Indians in a conflict on this mountain, and was among the slain. Negro Mountain is two thousand eight hundred and twenty-five feet above the level of the Atlantic ocean, and the second highest elevation on the line of the road. The old commissioners give the height of the mountain as two thousand three hundred and twenty-eight and twelve one-hundredths feet, from their base of measurement in the Potomac, near c.u.mberland, and as before stated, make no mention of Keyser"s Ridge. In the year 1836 Dennis Hoblitzell kept a tavern near the summit of Negro Mountain, on the eastern slope. He was the father of Mrs. McClelland, of the McClelland house in Uniontown. This old tavern is a stone building, on the north side of the road, and the same that in after years became celebrated as a resort for hog drovers, under the management of William Sheets. It was kept as a tavern after Hoblitzell left it, and before the time of Sheets, by Thomas Beall.
Two miles west from Negro Mountain Keyser"s Ridge looms up in view. This was a famous locality in the prosperous days of the road. It is a bald, bleak range, not inaptly described as the back-bone of the mountains. It is two thousand eight hundred and forty-three feet above sea level, and the highest point on the road. In the olden time snow drifts often acc.u.mulated to the depth of twenty feet on Keyser"s Ridge, and stages and wagons were compelled to take to the skirting glades to avoid them.
Francis McCambridge kept a tavern here as early as 1820, and was succeeded by Robert Hunter, and he by James Stoddard, some time previous to 1840. Hunter went from this house to Petersburg. James Stoddard was the grandfather of Mrs. McClelland, of the McClelland house, Uniontown.
Stages stopped at Stoddard"s, as well as wagoners and travelers of every description. The log cabin boys of Uniontown stopped at Stoddard"s the first night out on their memorable trip to Baltimore, in 1840, to attend the great Whig ma.s.s meeting of that year in that city. They had with them, on wheels, a regular log cabin, well stored with refreshments of every kind, and the very best; and every mile of their long journey resounded with l.u.s.ty shouts for "Tippecanoe and Tyler, too." E. B.
Dawson, esq., and Lucien B. Bowie, of Uniontown, are the only survivors of that unique pilgrimage, so far as can be ascertained. The party consisted of such distinguished and well remembered Whigs, of Uniontown, as James Veech, Alfred Patterson, Rice G. Hopwood, Thomas R. Davidson, Lee Haymaker, John Harvey, William McDonald, Robert L. Barry, James Endsley, William E. Austin, E. B. Dawson and Lucien B. Bowie. There were doubtless others, but owing to the long lapse of time their names are not recalled. Redding Bunting drove the team that hauled the cabin, and Thomas A. Wiley was with the party as an employe of the Stockton stage line, which furnished four coaches for the transportation of the political pilgrims. James Endsley was of the Somerfield family of Endsleys, and died in that place in July, 1893. At Middletown, a short distance east of South Mountain, in Maryland, the log cabin boys were confronted with a petticoat suspended from a pole, which excited them to rage. A collision and a fight ensued. John Harvey, the muscular man of the log cabin boys, engaged a like representative of the other side, and it is claimed, by the friends of Harvey, that he vanquished his antagonist. It is not improbable that both sides claimed a victory. The party reached Baltimore safely and on time, and were received in that city with great enthusiasm. They were tendered a reception speech, which was delivered by "The Milford Bard," a celebrated Baltimore poet and orator of that day, and the speech responsive was made by William E.
Austin, who was a graceful orator, and his effort on this occasion was one of his best. The Stoddard House, at Keyser"s Ridge, was subsequently and successively kept by Dennis Hoblitzell, William Fear, one of the McCurdys, Adam Yeast and David Johnson, the latter the stepfather of Mrs. McClelland, of the McClelland House, Uniontown, before mentioned, who was born in this house when it was kept by her father, Dennis Hoblitzell. William Fear owned the old Stoddard House, and sold it to Perry Shultz, who conducted it as a tavern for a number of years, in addition to the parties above named. William and Daniel Fear were brothers. William, upon quitting the road, removed to Virginia, where he lived to an old age and died. Daniel exchanged the mountains for the rich valley of the Monongahela, and ended his days in Brownsville. In 1840 Truman Fairall built a house on Keyser"s Ridge, and conducted it as a tavern down to the year 1853, and a short time thereafter moved to the State of Iowa, where he spent the remainder of his life. The Stockton line of coaches stopped at Fairall"s. Fairall was a native of Old Virginia. Samuel Fairall, a son of Truman, the old tavern keeper, at one time a student in the Dunlap"s Creek Academy, near Merrittstown, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, is a law judge in one of the courts of Iowa.
About half a mile west of Keyser"s Ridge, and in the year 1850, John Woods built a house and conducted it as a tavern until the close of business on the road. He was an uncle of Henry, Thomas and Alexander Woods, of Uniontown, and an old wagoner. Sandy Connor, the old blacksmith of Keyser"s Ridge, and occasionally a stage driver, retired to an humble dwelling on the road side, opposite the Woods House, and there in the depths of the mountains took final leave of the old road and all its endearing memories.
Two miles west of Keyser"s Ridge an old wagon stand tavern was kept by Daniel Fear, before mentioned, who was the father of John G. Fear, who kept the old Workman House, in Brownsville, a few years ago, George W.
Fear, formerly a wholesale liquor merchant in the same place, and Frank Fear, who once kept the Yough House in Connellsville. The old Fear tavern referred to was also at one time kept by Harvey Bane and by William Carlisle, and later by David Johnson. It was a frame house on the north side of the road. Within the venerable walls of this old tavern, and amid the romantic walks about it, when it was kept by David Johnson, Alfred McClelland, the renowned old tavern keeper of Uniontown, wooed and won his bride, and here in 1856 was happily married to Miss Sarah E. Hoblitzell, now, and for many years, a widow, and reigning mistress of the old McClelland House, in Uniontown, one of the most famous of all the far famed hostelries of the road.
About three-fourths of a mile west from the old Fear House, in later years better known as the Bane House, James Reynolds established a tavern as early as the year 1818, and continued to preside over it and entertain the traveling public until the year 1843. It was a popular wagon stand in its day. James Reynolds, its old proprietor, was the father of William Reynolds, elsewhere mentioned as an old wagoner, tavern keeper and express agent. Daniel Fear succeeded James Reynolds in the old house mentioned, and conducted it for a term of four years. He next moved to a wooden house about three hundred yards to the westward, and kept it as a tavern for two years. This old house was built by Jacob Frederic Augustine, and known as the Augustine House. From this old house Daniel Fear moved to Sand Springs, and kept the old Hiram Sutton house at that point for a term of two years, at the end of which he moved to Brownsville, and died suddenly in Uniontown on July 7, 1854, while on a business errand to that place. John Woods succeeded Fear in the Augustine House.
Within a distance of one hundred yards westward from the old Reynolds House, and in the year 1845, Henry Walters erected a wooden building and embarked in the business of tavern keeping. After a brief experience in this line, he removed to Hopwood, where he operated a blacksmith shop.
While in Hopwood, and from the savings of tavern keeping and blacksmithing, he purchased the land on Dunbar"s Camp, occupied it a number of years, sold it at an advance to Dr. Waters, of the Soldiers"
Orphans" School, and with his added acc.u.mulations, bought the old Grier-Brown farm on Redstone creek, in Franklin township, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, founded the village of Waltersburg, and about two years ago died, leaving his family a comfortable inheritance. He is well remembered as an amiable, industrious and money acc.u.mulating citizen of German origin.
CHAPTER x.x.x.
_Old Taverns and Tavern Keepers continued--Winding Ridge to the Big Crossings--The State Line--How it is Noted--The Old Stone Tavern on Winding Ridge, John Welsh, Major Paul, The Wables, Edward C. Jones, The Augustines, Daniel Blucher, Petersburg, Gen. Ross, William Roddy, Gabriel Abrams, The Risler Family, Col. Samuel Elder, Robert Hunter, John McMullin, Alfred Newlon, Lott Watson, John Mitch.e.l.l, John Bradfield, The Temple of Juno, The Big Crossings, Endsley"s Old Tavern, John Campbell, William Imhoff--An Old Time Fourth of July Celebration._
From Baltimore to the point last mentioned in the preceding chapter, all the old taverns on the road are in the State of Maryland. The road crosses the dividing line between the States of Maryland and Pennsylvania, near the eastern foot of Winding Ridge. The crossing point is marked by a metal slab shaped like the ordinary mile post, and bears this inscription on one side: "State Line, Md. 96-3/4 to Wheeling, to Petersburg, 2-3/4." On the other side: "State Line, Penna. 34-1/4 to c.u.mberland, to Frostburg, 23-1/4."
Near the top of Winding Ridge, and in Somerset county, Pa., there is an old stone tavern which was built as early as the year 1819, and by John Welsh, who occupied it and conducted it down to the year 1821, when it pa.s.sed to the management of Samuel Dennison, who was succeeded in turn by M. J. Clark, Isaac Ochletree, Peter Yeast, Maj. William Paul, Michael Cresap, Robert Boice and William Lenhart. John Welsh, who built this house and first occupied it, was the father-in-law of Aden Clary, well known in the early history of the road. Major Paul kept this house in 1836, and for some time thereafter. He subsequently kept a tavern in Washington, Pa., on Maiden street, opposite the female seminary, and later in West Brownsville, where he died more than forty years ago. He was familiarly known from one end of the road to the other. Voluble in speech, rotund in form, and ruddy in complexion, Major Paul was a fine type of the jolly landlord of the old road. He had a daughter, the wife of Aaron Wyatt, an old tavern keeper of the road, who always enjoyed the reputation of keeping a good house, owing in all probability to the early and practical training of his wife. Mrs. Patrick at one time owned and occupied the old stone house on top of Winding Ridge. She was the mother of W. W. Patrick, now, and for many years, the intelligent head of the old reputable and successful banking house of R. Patrick & Co., of Pittsburg. About the year 1850 the stables, appurtenant to the old stone tavern, above mentioned, and when it was kept by William Lenhart, were destroyed by fire, supposed to have been the incendiary work of a disreputable woman. The loss was serious, and included two fine horses, the property of William Hall, the typical old regular wagoner, hereinbefore mentioned. Winding Ridge derives its name from the tortuous course of the old Braddock road up the mountain, at that point.
[Ill.u.s.tration: JOHN RISLER.]
At the foot of Winding Ridge, on the north side of the road, an old wagon and drove stand was kept as early as the year 1820, by John Wable.
This old tavern keeper was probably well advanced in years when he first put out his sign, and from this old house he was summoned to his last account. He had two sons, John and Jacob, who succeeded him in the management of the old tavern, as tenants in common. The sons applied themselves a.s.siduously to the business of entertaining the public, and after a brief experience, concluded that their father"s old house was too small to meet the demands of the increasing trade and travel of the road, and accordingly tore it down and erected a new and larger one in its place. The new house attracted a paying business, and remains a well known landmark of the road. In course of time the Wables left this house, and their successor was Edward C. Jones, the grandfather, on the maternal line, of Caleb and n.o.ble McCormick, of Uniontown. This was more than fifty years ago. Mr. Jones moved from this old house to Searights, where he resided for a time, and subsequently located in New Salem, where he died. The old Wable house next pa.s.sed to the hands of Jonas Augustine, who became its owner and conducted it as a tavern for many years, doing a good business. While in charge of this old tavern he was elected a member of the legislature of Pennsylvania for Somerset county, and represented his const.i.tuents with recognized fidelity. He died soon after his legislative career ended, and the old tavern was purchased by his brother, Daniel Augustine, who kept it for many years, and until tavern keeping on the road ceased to be profitable. Previous to the occupancy of Daniel Augustine, this house was kept for brief periods between 1840 and 1845, first by Michael Cresap, and after him by Joseph Whetstone. Cresap went from this house to the stone house on Winding Ridge. The widow of Jonas Augustine, well advanced in years, occupies this old house at the present time, as a private residence, and Daniel Augustine is a resident of Petersburg, and regarded as the richest man in that town.
One mile west of Augustine"s, Daniel Blucher kept a tavern as early as 1828. He was a German, and his custom consisted mainly of the patronage of old wagoners. This house dropped from the roll of taverns long before the great travel on the road ceased.
The ancient and picturesque village of Petersburg is the next point reached on the westward march. Petersburg is noted for its healthful location and the beauty of the surrounding scenery. It has always been a popular resort for summer tourists seeking exemption from the stifling heat of crowded cities. Here lives [G]Gen. Moses A. Ross, a retired merchant, who did business in the village for fifty years, and gained the confidence and enjoys the esteem of all his neighbors. A number of years ago his fellow citizens elected him to the legislature, and he served them intelligently, faithfully and honestly. He is a christian gentleman, and his long and honest business career on the road ent.i.tles him to be cla.s.sed as a pike boy, well worthy of honorable mention.
General Ross was born in Masontown, Fayette Co., Pa., in the year 1810.
Here also lived for many years, and died, William Roddy, who was at one time a superintendent of the road, and a gentleman of unquestioned integrity. The first tavern ever kept in Petersburg was by Gabriel Abrams, father of the late Judge Abrams, of Brownsville. It was a frame house, on the south side of the road, and built by Gabriel Abrams, aforesaid. This house did a large business throughout the entire career of the road, as a national highway. Subsequent to the time of Abrams it was conducted successively and successfully by John Skinner, Daniel Clary (in 1830), William Reynolds, Thomas Brownfield, James Marlow, Michael Cresap, Peter Turney, Joseph Hendrickson and Henry Magee. A frame house on the north side, erected by Henry Wentling, was conducted by him as a tavern from 1820 to 1829, when he leased it to John Risler, a celebrated old tavern keeper, who kept at various points on the road in the days of its glory. Mr. Risler was the father-in-law of the venerable Harrison Wiggins, Brown Hadden, and the late Stephen W.
Snyder, and it is the tradition of the road that wherever a kitchen and a dining room were controlled by a female member of the Risler family, there a well cooked and relishable meal was sure to be obtained. Mr.
Risler was succeeded in the old Wentling house by James Connelly, and he, in 1835, by the stalwart and popular old wagoner, Matthias Fry. Fry remained in charge until the spring of 1838, when he turned it over to John Bell, who was succeeded by his son-in-law, Col. Samuel Elder, who remained in charge until some time late in the forties, when he moved to Uniontown and took the management of the National house in that place.
In the year 1832 Robert Hunter opened a tavern in a brick house, on the south side of the road and street, in Petersburg, and conducted it for many years with marked success. Mrs. Hunter, the old and amiable hostess of this house, is remembered as well for her good qualities as a housekeeper as for her immense size. She weighed two hundred and fifty pounds. This old house was subsequently kept by John A. Walker, John McMullin, Alfred Newlon and Lott Watson, in the order given, and was always well kept. The stage coaches of one of the early lines stopped at this house, and it has been extensively patronized by summer visitors and pleasure seekers. It was one of the very best eating houses on the road, and is continued as a tavern to this day by Mr. Mitch.e.l.l, who holds a license and keeps a good house. John E. Reeside married a step-daughter of John McMullin.
[Footnote G: Died December 12, 1893.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE TEMPLE OF JUNO.]
At a very early period in the road"s history, John Mitch.e.l.l kept a tavern one mile west of Petersburg, on the north side. Besides doing a general business, this old house was a station for the first line of stages on the road. It was destroyed by fire on the 31st day of October, 1828, and supplied by a new log structure, which was kept as a tavern for many years by John Mitch.e.l.l, jr., who erected near the old site the present large and substantial brick building in which he is now living, one of the oldest men on the road. On the opposite side of the road from this house immense stabling was erected, in after years supplemented by cattle and hay scales, all of which are still standing, tending slightly towards dilapidation and decay, but in a much better state of preservation than most of the old stables of the road. There is a large and fertile farm connected with this old tavern stand, well managed, under the direction of its venerable owner, [H]John Mitch.e.l.l.
[Footnote H: Died in 1892.]