Old Taverns and Tavern Keepers continued—Uniontown—The Town as it Appeared to Gen. Douglass in 1784—Its Subsequent Growth and Improvement—The First Tavern—Other Early Taverns—An Old Chief Justice and an Old Landlady wrangle over a Roasted Pig—Anecdote of George Manypenny and President Jefferson—The Swan, The McClelland, The Seaton, The National, The Clinton, The Moran, The Mahaney.
At the east end of Uniontown the road crosses Redstone creek, over a massive and extensive stone bridge, one of the best and most expensive samples of masonry on the whole line, built by Kinkead, Beck and Evans in 1818. Gen. Ephraim Douglass, the first prothonotary of Fayette county, Pennsylvania, in a letter to Gen. James Irvine, in 1784, describes Uniontown in the following vigorous and graphic style:
My Dear General—If my promise were not engaged to write to you, my inclinations are sufficiently so to embrace with alacrity any opportunity of expressing the gratitude so justly due to your valuable friendship, of declaring the friendship of mine. This Uniontown is the most obscure spot on the face of the globe. I have been here seven or eight weeks, without one opportunity of writing to the land of the living, and though considerably south of you, so cold that a person not knowing the latitude, would conclude we were placed near one of the poles. Pray have you had a severe winter below? We have been frozen up here for more than a month past, but a great many of us having been bred in another State, the eating of hominy is as natural to us as the drinking of whisky in the morning. The town and its appurtenances consist of our president and a lovely little family, a court house and school house in one, a mill and consequently a miller, four taverns, three smith shops, five retail shops, two tan yards, one of them only occupied, one saddler’s shop, two hatter’s shops, one mason, one cake woman (we had two, but one of them having committed a petit larceny is upon banishment), two widows and some reputed maids, to which may be added a distillery. The upper part of this edifice is the habitation at will of your humble servant, who, beside the smoke of his own chimney, which is intolerable enough, is fumigated by that of two stills below, exclusive of the other effluvia that arises from the dirty vessels in which they prepare the materials for the stills. The upper floor of my parlor, which is also my chamber and office, is laid with loose clap-boards, or puncheons, and the gable ends entirely open; and yet this is the best place in my power to procure, till the weather will permit me to build, and even this I am subject to be turned out of the moment the owner, who is at Kentuck, and hourly expected, returns. I can say little of the country in general, but that it is very poor in everything but its soil, which is excellent, and that part contiguous to the town is really beautiful, being level and prettily situate, accommodated with good water, and excellent meadow ground. But money we have not, nor any practicable way of making it. How taxes are collected, debts paid, or fees discharged, I know not; and yet the good people appear willing enough to run in debt and go to law. I shall be able to give you a better account of this hereafter. Col. McClean received me with a degree of generous friendship, that does honor to the goodness of his heart, and continues to show every mark of satisfaction at my appointment. He is determined to act under the commission sent him by council, and though the fees would, had he declined it, have been a considerable addition to my profits, I cannot say that I regret his keeping them. He has a numerous small family, and though of an ample fortune in lands, has no cash at command. The general curse of the country, disunion, rages in this little mud hole with as much fury, as if they had each pursuits of the utmost importance, and the most opposed to each other, when in truth, they have no pursuits at all that deserve the name, except that of obtaining food and whisky, for raiment they scarcely use any. The commissioners—trustees, I should say—having fixed on a spot in one end of the town for the public buildings, which was by far the most proper, in every point of view, exclusive of the saving of expense, the other end took the alarm and charged them with partiality, and have been ever since uttering their complaints. And at the late election for justices, two having been carried in this end of the town, and none in the other, has made them quite outrageous. This trash is not worth troubling you with, therefore I beg your pardon, and am with unfeigned esteem, dear general, your very humble servant.
“EPHRAIM DOUGLASS.”
That was a long time ago, and a great change has come over the face of things. Gen. Douglass lived to see Uniontown arise from the mud hole and become a flourishing county seat. His mortal remains lie buried within the sound of the court house bell, and could he come forth now, and see Uniontown, he would be startled. Instead of a mud hole, he would see finely paved streets, studded with handsome buildings, lighted by electricity, enlivened by electric cars, telegraphs, telephones and railroads, and where the old distilleries stood, beautiful and staunch church edifices with spires pointing to the skies, and in fact he would behold all the evidences of a flourishing city, inhabited by active, intelligent and Christian people.
The first tavern in Uniontown was kept by John Collins in 1781. It was a log house on the north side of the main street, the site of which is now covered by “Commercial Row.” This old house remained standing until 1839, when it was torn down by its owner of that date. Isaac Beeson, who erected the buildings thereafter known as “Commercial Row.” John Collins kept this old tavern down to the year 1799. It was subsequently kept at different times by Samuel Salter, Cuthbert Wiggins, William Salter, John Hoge and Andrew Byers. William Salter was an old sheriff. Byers went from this house to the old Walker House, now the “Central,” and afterward to the “Clinton House.”
Jonathan Rowland, Daniel Culp and Matthew Campbell each kept a tavern in Uniontown as early as 1783. The location of Rowland’s tavern is not accurately known, but the best evidence available, points to the lot now owned by Daniel Downer, esq., and occupied by law offices, near the court house, as the site. Jonathan Rowland subsequently became a justice of the peace, and a leader in public affairs. Culp’s old tavern was a log house on the lot now owned and occupied by Justice Willson, corner of Main street and Gallatin avenue. Matthew Campbell’s old tavern, stood on the western side of the lot now covered by the Moran House, formerly and for many years known as the “Fulton.”
Colin Campbell as early as 1785 kept a tavern in a house that stood on the lot now covered by the Bryan building, on Main street, near the center of the town. This old tavern was subsequently owned and presided over by Samuel Salter, father of William Salter, the old sheriff.
Margaret Allen kept a tavern in the east end of town, a little above and opposite the Madison College buildings, in the year 1788, and for some time thereafter. She died in 1810, at the age of ninety-one years.