In 1844 and subsequent to that date, Alpheus Murphy, a wagon-maker, lived and operated a shop near the old Rankin tavern. He gained a local notoriety for proclaiming in a loud voice in season and out of season, his sentiments on current topics, and especially political issues. He was a man of great physical strength, and a skillful workman. He had no scruples against taking an occasional glass of the pure whisky that abounded on the road in his day, and was a frequent visitor to Washington. Prompted possibly by the influence of the active element mentioned, he was accustomed to ascend the cupola of the Washington court house and from the balustrade near its summit give vent to his feelings, mainly of a Democratic tendency, in stentorian tones that startled the whole community. Notwithstanding the boisterous fits that marked and may have marred his life, he passed quietly away from the scenes of earth, and will be long and kindly remembered by those who knew him.
Two miles west of Rankintown Robert Smith kept a tavern as early as the year 1818. At this point the National Road crossed an ancient roadway leading from Washington to Wheeling, and Robert Smith kept a tavern here on the old road. It was a frame house on the south side of the road, and in after years became the homestead and private residence of Jacob Weirich, who died its possessor.
Less than a mile west of Smith’s John Coulson kept a tavern as early as 1820, and probably before that date. His house was a frame building, on the south side of the road. The old building was torn down many years ago, and a brick structure erected in its place. Coulson, the old proprietor, has been dead fifty years, and at his death his tavern was closed, and not again re-opened as a public house. The old wagoners and stage drivers who were familiar with Coulson’s tavern long since passed to other scenes, along with its old proprietor.
About one mile west of the old Coulson House the well remembered and popular wagon stand of John Miller is reached. Miller moved to this point in 1836 from a stand two miles west of Pratt’s Hollow, and east of Cumberland, as before stated. The Miller house here is a large brick building, with all the necessary outbuildings for a tavern, and a good wagon yard. It is situate on the north side of the road. To gain the wagon yard going west, old wagoners ascended a steep grade, but on the other side the way was level. Miller had a good custom at his tavern east of Cumberland, and his old friends followed him to his new location. He had long experience as a tavern keeper, and furnished satisfactory entertainment to the traveling public. Previous to 1836 Levi Wilson kept this house, and entertained the first crop of wagoners on the road, and tradition attributes to him a good fame as a tavern keeper. Miller died in this house. A son of Levi Wilson married a daughter of John Miller, and since the death of the latter has been occupying this old tavern-stand as a private residence.
THE JOHN MILLER HOUSE.
At the foot of the hill west of Miller’s, and on the north side of the road, is the old Bedillion tavern. This house was kept as early as 1830 by one Scott, and as late as 1848 by Christly Wolf, and later by George Boyd, but owing to a usage, in some instances difficult to account for, it is better known as Bedillion’s, especially among old wagoners, than by any other name. Bedillion was a German, and his first name was Abraham, and he probably possessed German traits and practices which made an impression on old wagoners not to be forgotten. He kept this house in 1836. Wolf also was of German origin, but his manners and methods were of the American type. He was a man of prominence in his neighborhood, and wielded considerable local influence, and was likewise a member of the firm of Buck, Lyon and Wolf, contractors, before mentioned. The old Bedillion tavern is a large frame building, with a high porch in front. George Boyd took charge of this house in the early fifties. He exchanged the shoe business in Washington for what he no doubt considered the more profitable pursuit of tavern keeping on the old pike. In this he seems to have been disappointed. His career as a tavern keeper was not successful, and there were two reasons for it. First, he began too late, and second, he was not a pike boy, and therefore not familiar with the wants and ways of the road.
On the north side of the road, about one mile wrest of the S Bridge, and as far back in the past as seventy years, one Andrew Caldwell (not a relative of James, hereinafter mentioned), kept a small wooden tavern and entertained primitive travelers and neighborhood callers in primitive style. An old blacksmith, bearing the surname McSwiggin, was found dead near this old tavern, and there was an undercurrent of suspicion in the neighborhood that Andrew Caldwell, aforesaid, had, in some manner and for some purpose, taken the old blacksmith’s life. However, no prosecution was instituted, and, in fact, no legal investigation made as to the cause of the mysterious death; and it is to be hoped, for the reputation of the early pike boys, that the suspicions whispered against the old tavern keeper were groundless.