Old Taverns and Tavern Keepers continued—Little Crossings to Winding Ridge—Grantsville—The Old Shultz, Steiner and Fuller Houses—The Veteran, David Mahaney—Thomas Thistle, Widow Haldeman, Death of Mrs. Recknor, Negro Mountain, Keyser’s Ridge, Log Cabin Boys of 1840, James Stoddard, Dennis Hoblitzell, The Fears, The McCurdys, Adam Yeast, David Johnson, Perry Shultz, Truman Fairall, John Woods, The Bane House, Wooing and Wedding of an Old Tavern Keeper, James Reynolds, Henry Walters.

Next after leaving the Little Crossings on the westward march, comes Grantsville, a romantic little mountain village in Garrett, formerly Alleghany, county, Maryland, named long before the hero of Appomattox was known to fame, and therefore not in his honor. In 1833 Samuel Gillis kept a tavern in the east end of Grantsville, on the south side of the road, the same house that in later years was kept by John Slicer. It was a wagon stand in the time of Gillis, and Slicer did not take charge of it until business had ceased on the road. John Lehman kept a tavern in Grantsville in 1836. He was a son-in-law, as was Peter Yeast, of the good old widow Wooding, before mentioned.

The Lehman House was subsequently kept by Henry Fuller, and after him by George Smouse. It was a frame building near the center of the village, on the south side of the street and road. In 1843 Henry Fuller demolished this old house, and erected a new one in its place. Adam Shultz kept a tavern at the east end of Grantsville back in the forties, and dying in charge, was succeeded by his son Perry, who continued it down to the year 1852, when the ancient glories of the old pike began to weaken and wane. The Shultz House was an imposing brick structure, on the south side of the road, and was kept for a while by the veteran David Mahaney, and at one time by Jesse King. Perry Shultz was subsequently elected sheriff of Alleghany county, Maryland. Solomon Steiner also kept a tavern in Grantsville during a portion of the prosperous era of the road. Grantsville seems to have been a favorite locality for tavern keepers of German names and antecedents. Steiner’s tavern was a brick building, and stood on the opposite side of the road from the old Shultz House. Steiner built it, owned it, and died in it, and his son, Archibald, conducted it for a number of years after his father’s death. It was a wagon stand. The Fuller House was kept at different times by John D. Wrench, Bazil Garletts, Barney Brown, John Slicer, William Slicer, William Beffler, John Millinger, and Nathaniel Slicer. Christian M. Livengood is the present proprietor. Archibald Steiner was succeeded in his father’s old house, first, by William Shaw, and thereafter in turn by John Millinger and Jonas E. Canagy, the present proprietor, and it is now called the Farmer’s House.

David Mahaney, whose name frequently appears in these pages, is a remarkable man. A boy when the National Road was made, he has lived on and near it all his life. His present residence is Dunbar, Fayette county, Pa., but he is a familiar figure on the streets of Uniontown. He is the father of Lloyd Mahaney, the well known enterprising owner and manager of the handsome new Mahaney house in Uniontown, and of George Mahaney, also a popular hotel man, who at one time kept the Dixon house in Greensburg, afterward a hotel in Pittsburg, and at the present time is conducting a house in Latrobe. David Mahaney was born in Washington county, Md., near Hagerstown, in 1807, and is therefore in his eighty-sixth year, while he has the appearance of a man not over sixty. His complexion is swarthy, step elastic, and his memory but slightly impaired by the inroads of time. His father was a native of Culpeper county, Va., who met with a melancholy death by drowning in the Potomac river, on the night of the presidential election of 1856. His polling place was eight miles from his residence, in Maryland, and to reach it and vote involved the crossing of the Potomac. It was late in the evening when he left the polls to return home, and upon reaching the river, by some untoward accident fell into the water and perished. David Mahaney’s first venture in tavern keeping on his own account was at the old Shultz house in Grantsville. He was personally acquainted with Henry Clay, Thomas H. Benton, Lewis Cass, and others of the old time statesmen, and frequently entertained them.

As early as 1836 Thomas Thistle kept a tavern at the foot of Negro Mountain, two miles west of Grantsville. With a name somewhat rasping in its import, Thistle had a smooth tongue, a mild manner, and furnished excellent entertainment for the traveling public. He was one of the oldest and best known tavern keepers on the road. His house was a long, frame wooden building, on the south side of the road, at times a stage station, and throughout its entire existence a wagon stand. Here the National Road crosses the line of the old Braddock road. In 1844 William Dehaven kept the old Thistle tavern, and later it was kept by Levi Dean.

One and a half miles west from the old Thistle house, and on the eastern slope of Negro Mountain, the widow Haldeman kept a tavern as early as 1840, and like all the widows, had a large patronage. While conducting this house, Mrs. Haldeman became the wife of Daniel Smouse, who thereafter took charge of it. The house was a log building, on the south side of the road, and the spacious grounds surrounding it were crowded, night after night, with six-horse teams and big, broad wheeled wagons, covered with canvass, presenting the appearance of a military encampment. This old house was subsequently kept by George Smouse, and later by John Wright. The widow Recknor, of savory memory, before mentioned, died a boarder in this old tavern, much lamented.

Onward, westward and upward, the crest of Negro Mountain is reached. There are several versions of the origin of the name of this mountain. Probably the one most worthy of acceptance is that in the early collisions between the whites and the Indians, a negro appeared as an ally of the Indians in a conflict on this mountain, and was among the slain. Negro Mountain is two thousand eight hundred and twenty-five feet above the level of the Atlantic ocean, and the second highest elevation on the line of the road. The old commissioners give the height of the mountain as two thousand three hundred and twenty-eight and twelve one-hundredths feet, from their base of measurement in the Potomac, near Cumberland, and as before stated, make no mention of Keyser’s Ridge. In the year 1836 Dennis Hoblitzell kept a tavern near the summit of Negro Mountain, on the eastern slope. He was the father of Mrs. McClelland, of the McClelland house in Uniontown. This old tavern is a stone building, on the north side of the road, and the same that in after years became celebrated as a resort for hog drovers, under the management of William Sheets. It was kept as a tavern after Hoblitzell left it, and before the time of Sheets, by Thomas Beall.

Two miles west from Negro Mountain Keyser’s Ridge looms up in view. This was a famous locality in the prosperous days of the road. It is a bald, bleak range, not inaptly described as the back-bone of the mountains. It is two thousand eight hundred and forty-three feet above sea level, and the highest point on the road. In the olden time snow drifts often accumulated to the depth of twenty feet on Keyser’s Ridge, and stages and wagons were compelled to take to the skirting glades to avoid them. Francis McCambridge kept a tavern here as early as 1820, and was succeeded by Robert Hunter, and he by James Stoddard, some time previous to 1840. Hunter went from this house to Petersburg. James Stoddard was the grandfather of Mrs. McClelland, of the McClelland house, Uniontown. Stages stopped at Stoddard’s, as well as wagoners and travelers of every description. The log cabin boys of Uniontown stopped at Stoddard’s the first night out on their memorable trip to Baltimore, in 1840, to attend the great Whig mass meeting of that year in that city. They had with them, on wheels, a regular log cabin, well stored with refreshments of every kind, and the very best; and every mile of their long journey resounded with lusty shouts for “Tippecanoe and Tyler, too.” E. B. Dawson, esq., and Lucien B. Bowie, of Uniontown, are the only survivors of that unique pilgrimage, so far as can be ascertained. The party consisted of such distinguished and well remembered Whigs, of Uniontown, as James Veech, Alfred Patterson, Rice G. Hopwood, Thomas R. Davidson, Lee Haymaker, John Harvey, William McDonald, Robert L. Barry, James Endsley, William E. Austin, E. B. Dawson and Lucien B. Bowie. There were doubtless others, but owing to the long lapse of time their names are not recalled. Redding Bunting drove the team that hauled the cabin, and Thomas A. Wiley was with the party as an employe of the Stockton stage line, which furnished four coaches for the transportation of the political pilgrims. James Endsley was of the Somerfield family of Endsleys, and died in that place in July, 1893. At Middletown, a short distance east of South Mountain, in Maryland, the log cabin boys were confronted with a petticoat suspended from a pole, which excited them to rage. A collision and a fight ensued. John Harvey, the muscular man of the log cabin boys, engaged a like representative of the other side, and it is claimed, by the friends of Harvey, that he vanquished his antagonist. It is not improbable that both sides claimed a victory. The party reached Baltimore safely and on time, and were received in that city with great enthusiasm. They were tendered a reception speech, which was delivered by “The Milford Bard,” a celebrated Baltimore poet and orator of that day, and the speech responsive was made by William E. Austin, who was a graceful orator, and his effort on this occasion was one of his best. The Stoddard House, at Keyser’s Ridge, was subsequently and successively kept by Dennis Hoblitzell, William Fear, one of the McCurdys, Adam Yeast and David Johnson, the latter the stepfather of Mrs. McClelland, of the McClelland House, Uniontown, before mentioned, who was born in this house when it was kept by her father, Dennis Hoblitzell. William Fear owned the old Stoddard House, and sold it to Perry Shultz, who conducted it as a tavern for a number of years, in addition to the parties above named. William and Daniel Fear were brothers. William, upon quitting the road, removed to Virginia, where he lived to an old age and died. Daniel exchanged the mountains for the rich valley of the Monongahela, and ended his days in Brownsville. In 1840 Truman Fairall built a house on Keyser’s Ridge, and conducted it as a tavern down to the year 1853, and a short time thereafter moved to the State of Iowa, where he spent the remainder of his life. The Stockton line of coaches stopped at Fairall’s. Fairall was a native of Old Virginia. Samuel Fairall, a son of Truman, the old tavern keeper, at one time a student in the Dunlap’s Creek Academy, near Merrittstown, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, is a law judge in one of the courts of Iowa.

About half a mile west of Keyser’s Ridge, and in the year 1850, John Woods built a house and conducted it as a tavern until the close of business on the road. He was an uncle of Henry, Thomas and Alexander Woods, of Uniontown, and an old wagoner. Sandy Connor, the old blacksmith of Keyser’s Ridge, and occasionally a stage driver, retired to an humble dwelling on the road side, opposite the Woods House, and there in the depths of the mountains took final leave of the old road and all its endearing memories.

Two miles west of Keyser’s Ridge an old wagon stand tavern was kept by Daniel Fear, before mentioned, who was the father of John G. Fear, who kept the old Workman House, in Brownsville, a few years ago, George W. Fear, formerly a wholesale liquor merchant in the same place, and Frank Fear, who once kept the Yough House in Connellsville. The old Fear tavern referred to was also at one time kept by Harvey Bane and by William Carlisle, and later by David Johnson. It was a frame house on the north side of the road. Within the venerable walls of this old tavern, and amid the romantic walks about it, when it was kept by David Johnson, Alfred McClelland, the renowned old tavern keeper of Uniontown, wooed and won his bride, and here in 1856 was happily married to Miss Sarah E. Hoblitzell, now, and for many years, a widow, and reigning mistress of the old McClelland House, in Uniontown, one of the most famous of all the far famed hostelries of the road.

About three-fourths of a mile west from the old Fear House, in later years better known as the Bane House, James Reynolds established a tavern as early as the year 1818, and continued to preside over it and entertain the traveling public until the year 1843. It was a popular wagon stand in its day. James Reynolds, its old proprietor, was the father of William Reynolds, elsewhere mentioned as an old wagoner, tavern keeper and express agent. Daniel Fear succeeded James Reynolds in the old house mentioned, and conducted it for a term of four years. He next moved to a wooden house about three hundred yards to the westward, and kept it as a tavern for two years. This old house was built by Jacob Frederic Augustine, and known as the Augustine House. From this old house Daniel Fear moved to Sand Springs, and kept the old Hiram Sutton house at that point for a term of two years, at the end of which he moved to Brownsville, and died suddenly in Uniontown on July 7, 1854, while on a business errand to that place. John Woods succeeded Fear in the Augustine House.

Within a distance of one hundred yards westward from the old Reynolds House, and in the year 1845, Henry Walters erected a wooden building and embarked in the business of tavern keeping. After a brief experience in this line, he removed to Hopwood, where he operated a blacksmith shop. While in Hopwood, and from the savings of tavern keeping and blacksmithing, he purchased the land on Dunbar’s Camp, occupied it a number of years, sold it at an advance to Dr. Waters, of the Soldiers’ Orphans’ School, and with his added accumulations, bought the old Grier-Brown farm on Redstone creek, in Franklin township, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, founded the village of Waltersburg, and about two years ago died, leaving his family a comfortable inheritance. He is well remembered as an amiable, industrious and money accumulating citizen of German origin.