About one mile west of Frostburg, and at the foot of Big Savage mountain, is Sand Springs, so called from the gurgling water in the sand at that point. In 1836 the widow Ward kept a wagon stand tavern at Sand Springs. Her house was a favorite resort for old wagoners. On the night of October 3, 1836, snow fell to the depth of a foot at Sand Springs, breaking down the timber all through the surrounding mountains. Mrs. Ward’s wagon yard was crowded with teams and wagons that night, and the snow was so deep the next day that the wagoners deemed it inexpedient to turn out, and remained at Mrs. Ward’s until the following morning. John Snider was among the wagoners at Mrs. Ward’s on the occasion mentioned, and is authority for the occurrence of the October snow storm. The tavern at Sand Springs was subsequently kept by John Welsh, an old stage driver, Hiram Sutton and Jacob Conrod, in the order named. Hiram Sutton was a son-in-law of Jared Clary. He kept the Sand Springs tavern down to the year 1852, when he moved to Parkersburg, West Virginia, and may be living there yet. Philip Spiker, the old blacksmith at Sand Springs, it is said could shoe more horses in a given time than any other blacksmith on the road. He had a rival, however, in A. Brice Devan, now of Dunbar, who, in the palmy days of the road, carried on a shop in Hopwood, and shod horses for old wagoners all night long on many occasions. Devan’s backers will not concede that Spiker was a speedier shoer than he.
A short distance west of Sand Springs, on the side of Big Savage mountain, an old wagon stand was kept by one Cheney, afterward by Jacob Conrod. It is a stone house, on the south side of the road. In Cheney’s time at this house, Henry Clay Bush, who was an old wagoner, says that metallic mugs were used for drinking purposes, instead of glasses. He further states that the mugs were clean, and probably used through deference to the pure whisky of that day. Big Savage mountain is two thousand five hundred and eighty feet above the Atlantic.
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 participated 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 passed 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 Cumberland. 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.