Near the top of Laurel Hill on the eastern slope, once lived a noted character named Benjamin Price. His house, a log structure, was built near the roadside, but below its surface, so that the upper story was about on a level with the road. He kept a cake shop, was an acting justice of the peace, and a strict Methodist, and was in the habit of annoying wagoners and hog drovers by fining them for swearing, and they in turn annoyed him by throwing billets of wood and disabled hogs down his chimney. Price is long since dead, and the last vestige of his old house has disappeared. The stable nearby it remained longer, but it has gone, too. A few apple trees planted by the hands of the ’Squire, now encroached upon by the mountain undergrowth, are all that remain to indicate the spot where the old house stood.
STONE HOUSE, DARLINGTON’S.
We next reach the “Summit House.” This is not a wagon stand, nor strictly an old tavern, but rather a fashionable and popular summer resort. It is on the apex of Laurel Hill, and has the advantage of pure air, and an extensive and charming view of the surrounding and underlying country. At this point large finger boards were erected, indicating distances and routes to the Washington Springs, Dulaney’s Cave and Jumonville’s Grave, which are landmarks indelibly impressed upon the memories of surviving wagoners and stage drivers. The property here belongs to [V]Col. Samuel Evans, a wealthy and well known citizen of Fayette county. [W]Ephraim McClean kept the house here for many years, and made it famous by the excellence and style of his entertainment. His flannel cakes and spring chickens have passed into history, as unrivalled productions of culinary art and tempters of the appetite. There is a large spring and bath house here. This has ever been a favorite resort of parties in pursuit of pleasure. Here the youth, beauty and fashion of Uniontown were wont to come to while away an evening in eating, dancing and other diversions. The rooms were small, but the pleasure was unbounded. Here also the yeomanry of the county came to make a harvest home, or celebrate an anniversary. The drive, up and down the mountain, is delightful, and formed no small share of the pleasure incident to the old time parties at this popular place of resort.
Ephraim McClean left this house many years ago and settled in Illinois. He was succeeded by Henry Clay Rush, who maintained the reputation of the house during his occupancy, but left it in 1856 to go to Searights. Brown Hadden came in after Rush, and after Hadden the house was successively kept by Stephen W. Snyder, John Snyder, William Boyd and Webb Barnet, the present occupant. Anterior to the erection of the present buildings, and many years ago, one Molly Calhoun kept a small cake shop at this point, and displayed upon her sign-board the following quaint legend:
“Out of this rock, runs water clear,
’Tis soon changed into good beer,
Stop, traveler, stop, if you see fit,
And quench your thirst for a fippennybit.”