OCR Text |
Show 1 Automobile Is Reviving Romance of Old Tavern Days I IarHE recent razing of the old N Ensign Tavern at ' Medill, in In Clark county removes a picturesque landmark of tho ' stagecoach stage-coach days in Missouri. The Ensign was on the Alexandria and Blooming-ton Blooming-ton road, located at a distance where it -was calculated passengers travelling travel-ling out of the former town would be hungry and the horses needing a rest. It. was a wellbuilt, roomy structure, and had every comfort for travelers and teams. With its passage but few of tho really old-time taverns are left save in tho memory of the white-haired white-haired people who enjoyed the luxury of tlieir entertainment. I At the other end of the line-Bloom- ington Squire Absalom Lewis was mino host in a one-story structure ' that attracted much favorable attention atten-tion because it was the first house in those parts to be built with the chimneys chim-neys inside. When court was running at Bloom-ington Bloom-ington the stage coaches from- Alexandria, Alex-andria, were crowded going to and . coming from the Mississippi river. The Lewis Tavern was built. in 1840. During a busy term of -court it was necessary lo squeeze ten" or twelvq ) guests in a room, and sometimes to i give them blankets to sleep in tho.hall-: tho.hall-: t way or tap-room. : The judge, however, as the most dis tinguished guest, was always accord-: accord-: ed a bed all to himself. Landlord Lewis naturally became much interested in court' procedui'e, ' liu. from hJs I)cr0Q,lc contact with the m" judge and lawyers, and Anally ran for t justice of the peace and was elected. Two noted lawyers once tried a case in Squire Lewis' Court, which was held in the main robm of his tavern, and it was noticed that he was absolutely abso-lutely impartial in his rulings. As the objections were made to the evidence he would decide first in favor fa-vor of the plaintiff and next time in favor of the defendant. He held to that system all through the trial.' To--ward the close of. thecaso a decision had been for tho plaintiff, arid tho defendant de-fendant felt sure, according to -the rule, the next and final decision would be his. But to the surprise of all it was for the plaintiff! "But see hero,-squire,". remonstrated remonstrat-ed the defendant's attorney; "you 'decided 'de-cided for -the other, side last time, and this was our turn." "I know what I done." returned his' honor; "in order to be fair to you fellows; fel-lows; I gave half the pints to the plain-v tiff and half to the defendant, and I never put in one single pint for myself my-self till the close of tho case, rind then you kick! .Seems to me you don't appreciate ap-preciate fair treatment!" Isaiah Lewis, son of Squire Absalom Lewis, came with his parents from Randolph county in 1835, and they located lo-cated near the center of the section which was afterwards organized as ?lacon county. Though only a child of -2 at the time of the journey, Isaiah Lewis declares he. remembers distinctly distinct-ly his father let him fall off the horso and was roundly scolded by. his mother moth-er for his carelessness. Isaiah b yet living, and enjoys tho distinction of having resided in Macon county long- er thaniany othe'r person. - - twee uvea .jM&k ;'?mlmm 'ma , From all accounts, there was no systematic sys-tematic work on the stage roads. Of course tho early day people realized the need of good highways the samo as do thoir grandsons today, but the best thing that occurred to them was to organize campanies and build plank roads. There were several such roads in Missouri, but they only extended ex-tended a short distance, from ten to twenty-five miles. Some of the greatest statesmen of the period had to rough it at these crowded backwoods taverns and over miry country roads, but they thrived on it. Thos. H. Benton, James S. Green, James S. Rollins. Hamilton R. Gamblo (afterwards governor of Missouri), Mis-souri), John B. Clark,, Claiborn F. Jackson and Lllburn W. Boggs, also governors of the Btate, and many others oth-ers of like note were familiar figures on these old state roads "h the taprooms tap-rooms of .the taverns in campaign years. "When Benton made his final fight for the suffrage of the people in 1S56 he spoko to an immense crowd at Bloomington, and, although they cheered the old gladiator of tho Senate Sen-ate until the woods resounded, a merchant-there, making a bid for popular larlty.-put this sign over his establishment, establish-ment, "Anti-Benton Store." One of the most famous road taverns tav-erns of its timo was at Fayette, the Howard county seat It was a large, three-story structure and. had an im-menso im-menso barn back of the courtyard. The travel from the Missouri river up through Fayette was so largo that there would often be twenty or twenty-five horses cared for in tho barn overnight. It required almost as big a force of negro hostlers for the barn as was required to run the tavern. Although the service was excellent, the price wa3 but 50 cents per, damper dam-per traveler, and. tho same modest sum was charged to look after your horse. If the wayfarer tipped the nc- gro a nickel for bringing out his horso and hunting up his saddlebags, the servitor felt royally paid. There were many women who traveled horseback, horse-back, and in front of tho inn was a block to assist them on and off thoir mounts. Tho pioneer tavern was located to meet the exigency of a day's stage journey from, some other point. It often happened that it was built in an isolated field or clearing, with no other house in sight. But later towns grew up around the tavern, just as they do where a railroad depot is put up in a vacancy today. The town of Medill, in northeast Missouri, was developed at the Ensign En-sign tavern, and- Jonesburg, now a thriving place on the Wabash Railroad, Rail-road, came into existence after Jones' tavern had been put up there for tho accommodation of travelers. The tavern keeper and tho mlllor wore the leading citizens of the settlements, settle-ments, which afterwards became towns. They came hard on tho heels of tho path blazers and wcro tho advance ad-vance guards of civilization. Tho tavern keeper made it possible for men and women to travel with fair comfort. com-fort. Tho miller transformed the product of tho soil into foodstuff. "With these two in a community its importance was assured till the railroad rail-road came and passed them by. But there is one old tavern that was helped by the .railroad and . the auto and is doing for them today the serv- ice it did for tho stage coach and the ,11 horseman in the first half of the last 'M Tho Arrow Rock tavern, on a high bluff on the Missouri river, was built in 1S30 of bricks burned by slaves. jfl Tho interior construction is in con-formity con-formity with tho Idea of the oldtime roadway inn large fireplaces and windows, a commodious reception room with a high mantel, big antlers above, the woodwork throughout be-ing be-ing of solid walnut One interesting feature shown guests of this old stopping place, is f Daniel Boone's fiddle, which was giv-en giv-en him by tho black man who was -with him during the final hunting trips JJ of the noted pioneer. The tavern is on the Santa Fe trail, and is a popular ' place for crossstatc auto tourists. I In his younger days Gov. Claiborne F. Jackson was postmaster of Arrow jH Rock at a salary of ?50 a year. One can hardly go anywhere about this quaint old town without bumping into interesting history. , If the old taverns had "stayed" as fl did tho ono at Arrqw Rock, glory would have come back to thorn. Tho auto and good roads have restored tho old system of travel, and the demand for good inland houses of entertain- 'JH mcnt is even more insistent than in IH the stage-coach era. The novelty of IH stopping at a place where the hardy wayfarer stopped seventy-five or eighty years ago will appeal to tho tourist of today with more fo'ree than the most modern equipment in a largo M |