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 entitles him to be classed 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. Mitchell, who holds a license and keeps a good house. John E. Reeside married a step-daughter of John McMullin.
THE TEMPLE OF JUNO.
At a very early period in the road’s history, John Mitchell 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 Mitchell, 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 Mitchell.
A short distance west from Mitchell’s, a large brick house on the north side of the road, was kept as a tavern by John Bradfield in 1840, and later. The locality was known as Newbury. John Bradfield was the general agent of the first heavy freight line put on the road, moved by six horse teams, stationed at intervals of fifteen miles. He was an old wagoner, and a good business man, and before going to Newbury kept a tavern in Wheeling and in Washington, Pennsylvania. After Bradfield’s retirement the Newbury house was continued as a tavern by Moses Jennings.
Less than a mile west of Newbury, on the north side of the road, an old building once used as a tavern, attracts special attention by reason of the singular style of its architecture. It is a wooden structure, commonly called a frame, with an unusually high portico in front, supported by four round and tall wooden columns, tapering upward and downward from the centers. It reminds one of the old pictures of the temple of Juno, and possibly the designer had that ancient temple in view when he planned this old tavern. He is said to have been a native of the vicinity, not likely versed in the classic orders of architecture, but the style he adopted in this instance might reasonably be regarded as the Monogynous. Two immense stables appurtenant to this old tavern, one log, the other frame, both still standing, weather beaten, empty, and useless, bear silent, but impressive testimony to the thrift of other days, and impart a tinge of melancholy to the memories of the old pike. Daniel Show was the original owner of the quaint old building above described, and its first occupant. He sold it to Samuel Easter, who conducted it for a brief period, and was succeeded by Peter Lenhart, mentioned hereinafter as “Shellbark.” Samuel Thompson succeeded Lenhart, and he in 1846 was succeeded by Mrs. Metzgar, who subsequently became the wife of John Olwine.
