WILLIAM WHALEY.
The next station west of Hillsboro, where stage horses were changed, twelve miles distant, was Washington, where passengers also took meals. The Good Intent line stopped at the Mansion house, situate at the upper end of the town, and the “Old Line” stopped at the National, in the lower end. The next changing place west of Washington was Claysville, the next Roneys Point, and thence to Wheeling. About the year 1846 the Good Intent line stopped its coaches, or a portion of them, at the Greene house in Washington, kept by Daniel Brown, who, previous to that date, had, for a time, been a road agent of that line. Of all the good taverns on the road there were none better than Brown’s. He had his peculiarities, as most men have, but he knew how to keep a hotel. He enjoyed the occupation of entertaining guests, and glowed with good feeling while listening to the praises bestowed upon his savory spreads. This popular old landlord came to a sad and untimely end by being cut to pieces in a mill by a buzz saw, on what was once called the plank road, leading from Washington through Monongahela City, West Newton, Mt. Pleasant, Somerset and Bedford to Cumberland. Stages ran on that road, and at the time of the accident, Mr. Brown was in the service of a stage company and at the saw mill to urge forward the work of getting out plank for the road.
David Sibley, an old driver on Stockton’s line, went with the Fayette county “boys in blue” to Mexico in 1847, a member of Co. H, 2d regiment of Pennsylvania volunteers. He participated in the engagement at Cerro Gordo, emerged from that conflict unscathed, but died soon after at Pueblo from ailments incident to an inhospitable climate.
William Whaley, a soldier of the war between the States, and a son of Capt. James Whaley, a soldier of 1812, was an old stage driver. He was born in Connellsville, but spent the prime of his life in Uniontown, and on the road. He used to tell the boys that one of the horses of his team died coming down Laurel Hill, but that he held him up until he reached the McClelland house in Uniontown. Whaley drove for a time on the Morgantown route from Uniontown, and died in the latter place twenty years and more ago.
James Turner, a Somerset county man, an old stage driver, also volunteered as a soldier in the Mexican war, and started out a member of Co. H, above mentioned. In crossing the Gulf he fell down a hatchway of the vessel and was killed, and the mortal remains of the old driver were buried in the deep sea.
James Gordon, a well remembered old stage driver, went with Co. H to Mexico, and died in the capital city of that Republic. He was the father-in-law of Peter Heck, a former postmaster of Uniontown.
Samuel Sibley, probably a brother of David, before mentioned, was a well-known driver. He was small in stature, but alert in movement. It was he who drove the coach that upset on a stone pile in the main street of Uniontown with Henry Clay as a passenger, the details of which have elsewhere been given.
Ben Showalter is remembered as an old driver, who sang little songs and performed little tricks of legerdemain for the amusement of the boys. He went to the war between the States as a private in Major West’s cavalry of Uniontown, and died in the service.