[CHAPTER XL.]
Old Taverns and Tavern Keepers continued—West Alexander to Wheeling—A Modern Gretna Green—Dr. McCluskey—Crossing Another State Line—Abram Carr—The Widow Beck, with whom Abram Lincoln boarded, and at whose house Robert T. Lincoln was born—The Widow Rhodes and Abram Beagle—John White, Isaac Jones, Roney’s Point, Ninian Bell, John Bentley, James Kimberly, Triadelphia, John D. Foster, Col. Thompson, the Widow Gooding—The Clay Monument—Col. Moses Shepherd and his wife, Lydia—Samuel Carter—Michael Blackburn—Steenrods—Wheeling—John McCortney, and others.
Crumrine’s history of Washington county states that West Alexander was first laid out in 1796 by Robert Humphreys, that most of the lots were subsequently acquired by Charles D. Hass, who in the year 1817 sold them by public outcry; that the National Road at the last mentioned date was in process of construction, and had been actually opened for travel from Cumberland to the Big Crossings, and it was believed that all the towns upon its route would become places of prosperity and importance; that the town of West Alexander was destroyed by fire on May 4, 1831, but slowly recovered from the disaster, and in the succeeding twenty years became a thriving village, by reason of the prosperity of the great thoroughfare on which it was located. A house called the “American Eagle” was the first tavern in West Alexander, established by Duncan Morrison in 1796, and kept by him for a number of years. Subsequent tavern keepers in West Alexander were Charles Mayes, Zebulon Warner, John Gooding, John Woodburn, William McCall, Solomon Cook, James Sargent, Charles Hallam, Mary Warner, James Bell, Silver Gilfillan, Samuel Beamer, James Matthers, John Irons, Moses Thornburg, Samuel Doak, Joseph Lawson, Joseph Dowdal, William F. Gordon, William McCutcheon, and perhaps others. Joseph Lawson was probably the best known of all these old tavern keepers. He kept a wagon stand for a long time during the prosperous era of the road, and was extensively patronized. He had been an old wagoner himself, and knew the secret of agreeably entertaining old wagoners. He is mentioned in a previous chapter as a “fancy wagoner” of the road. His tavern in West Alexander was a large and commodious frame building at the western end of the town, on the south side of the road, with a large and well arranged wagon yard attached. He owned the property, and died in possession. Beside being a successful wagoner and tavern keeper, Joseph Lawson was a staunch citizen, a man of influence and highly esteemed. He was at one time, for a brief period, Superintendent of the road from Brownsville to the Virginia line.
JOSEPH F. MAYES. (OLD JUSTICE OF THE PEACE.)
There was, during the prosperous era of the road, an academy at West Alexander under the management of the Rev. Dr. John McCluskey, where many boys were trained for entrance to Washington college. Dr. McCluskey was an eminent scholar, an able preacher, a successful educator and a worthy man in all the walks of life. He devoted a long and laborious life here, to gain a better one hereafter, and let us hope he is now realizing its enjoyment. West Alexander is also noted as a rival of the celebrated Gretna Green, of Scotland, by reason of the many clandestine marriages which have taken place there. Joseph F. Mayes, an old justice of the peace of the place, married nineteen hundred and eighteen couples from 1862 to 1881, more than nine-tenths of whom were elopers. It is estimated that from 1835 to 1885, the date of the enactment of the Pennsylvania marriage license law, over five thousand eloping couples were married in West Alexander.
One mile distant from West Alexander on the north side of the road, Abram Carr kept a tavern as early as 1836. It was a frame building, and a wagon stand. After Carr this old tavern was kept by Silver Gilfillan, before mentioned in the list of tavern keepers at West Alexander. Carr and Gilfillan well knew the ways of the road, and were competent men in their line. Old wagoners were accustomed to lay aside their coin, to pay bills at Gilfillan’s tavern, under a belief that he coveted silver because of his Christian name. This was the first tavern located in Old Virginia on the westward march, being less than a mile from the Pennsylvania State line.
Two miles further west a large frame tavern on the north side of the road, was kept by Mrs. Sarah Beck as early as 1832. It was a station for the Stockton line of coaches. Mrs. Beck was succeeded in this house by Samuel Node, who retained the good will and patronage extended to his predecessor. Mrs. Beck was the widow of James Beck, of the old bridge building firm of Kinkead, Beck & Evans, frequently mentioned in these pages. Her son, William G. Beck, still living in Fairfield, Iowa, was the hero of the exciting race between two coaches from Cumberland to Piney Grove, mentioned in a previous chapter. James Beck, the husband of Sarah Beck, died in Wheeling in 1829, while keeping a tavern in that place. His widow was of a heroic mold, and resolved to carry on the battle of life on her own account, and continued in the business of tavern keeping. She kept tavern at various points, and finally about the year 1847 bade a last adieu to the scenes of the road, amid which she had been reared, and emigrated to the then far west. Leasing a house in Springfield, Illinois, she resumed the business of tavern keeping. While a member of the Illinois Legislature, Abraham Lincoln was a boarder in Mrs. Beck’s house, and Robert T. Lincoln, the late United States minister at London, was born under her roof. Thus an old tavern keeper of the National Road was closely associated with, and enjoyed the confidence of, one of the most illustrious personages of his time or of any time.