National Pike, Road of History, Romance

(Continued From Yesterday)

     The most tragic and pathetic event in all the long history of the old 
Stone tavern at Scenery Hill was the death of Lieutenant Colonel Roger S. 
Dix, while on his way from the battlefields of the Mexican War to Washington, 
D.C., to settle his accounts as army paymaster. He then expected to join his 
wife and children in Baltimore.
     The late Dr. Homer L.  Clark, son of Dr. Byron Clark, wrote an interesting 
account of Colonel Dix�s death and burial which he published in a small book 
edition in 1905. For years before his death death in 1915. Dr. Clark was 
a member of the editorial staff of he Observer a very accurate 
writer.
     Two contemporary accounts of Colonel Dix's death and burial were published, 
in The Reporter on January 10, 1849, and in The Examiner on January 
13. The Reporter says that he had been unwell coming up the Ohio River and 
felt worse after leaving Wheeling. When he reached Washington on Saturday, 
January 6, 1849, he was unable to eat his supper with the other passengers but 
continued on when the stage left. The coach reached Hillsborough about 8 o'clock 
in the evening and when the horses had been changed he said to one of the 
passengers that he had the cholera and could not go on.  
     He was removed to the Stone Tavern, then kept by Samuel Youman and 
at the colonel's request a Justice of the Peace was summoned and drew up 
his will. The Reporter says that he was accompanied by several army 
officers, but their names were not given. However, Dr. Clark names a 
Major Anderson, and says that Drs. Joseph W. Alexander and Winston 
Rogers, of near Canonsburg, were summoned. The Reporter account mentions 
four physicians, but names are not given. They agreed that he had cholera, 
and did all that was humanly possible to save him. The Reporter account 
says that "he lingered in great agony until Sunday morning about 2 o'clock, 
when he died." He was the first victim of the cholera epidemic that swept 
Western Pennsylvania in 1849.
     Colonel Dix was buried at 7 o'clock that Sunday morning of January 7, 
in the little graveyard on the hill with brief services conducted 
by Major Anderson. Dr. Clark states that the next year his brother, 
Timothy Brown Dix, Esq., of Boston erected a plain marble slab at the grave 
with this inscription: 
Lieut. Col.
Roger S. Dix
U.S. Army
Died
Jan. 7, 1840
     His grave may still be seen in the cemetery on the hill, but the 
storms of more than a century have  weathered the headstone until the 
inscription is hard to trace. Years ago while it was still legible, the
grave was photographed, and Dr. Clark published this picture.
     One day during the past summer I searched in vain for the grave and 
at last appealed to C. E. Wonsettler, the village watchmaker who lives just 
across the road from the cemetery. He conducted me to the grave 
with its 
weathered headstone on which I could barely trace the name of Dix.
     Neither Dr. Clark nor the contemporary newspaper accounts give the 
first name of Major Anderson. However, the National Archives sent the 
information that he was Major Nathaniel Anderson of the Tennessee 
volunteers. In the Archives is the original letter written by Major Anderson, 
reporting the death. It is short, but it gives all the information:
                                 Washington City
                                     January 15th, 1849
General
     I regret to have the painful duty of announcing to the 
death of Bvt. Lt. Col. R. S. Dix, paymaster USA -- I was 
traveling with him in an Extra which left Wheeling, Va., on 
Saturday morning the 6th � We stopped in the evening about 5 or 
6 O. C.  PM at a village in Penn. On the National Road called 
Hillsborough, when he was violently attacked with cholera and 
died between 1 & 2 O. C. A. M. in the morning of 7th of 
this month � 
     I remained until I saw him buried & then came on -- His 
Clerk M. T. S. Goddard took charge of his trunks & Official 
papers which he brought to this City.
     I have the honor to be, Genl. 
                                     Very Respectfully
                                     Yr obt servt.
                                     Nathl. Anderson
                                     Major & Qr M.
                                     Brig. Genl. USA
                                     Adj. Genl. USA
                                     Washington City D.C.
     Within six weeks after the death of Colonel Dix in that year of 
1849, another noted visitor and a hero of the Mexican War, passed over 
the old pike--President Elect General Zachary Taylor on his way to his 
inauguration. General Taylor had expected to go by way of the Ohio River 
to Pittsburg, but on account of drifting ice left the boat at Wheeling 
and continued his journey over the pike. He arrived in Washington 
on February 21, in an open barouch, and after a public dinner at the Mansion 
House, continued his journey at 2 o'clock in the afternoon to Uniontown. 
While nothing is said of stopping at Hillsborough it is only reasonable 
that he did tarry for a short time at least at the Stone Tavern for a change 
of horses, and possibly for some refreshments, as it was still a long drive 
to Uniontown, which he reached at 7 o'clock that evening.
     Fresh from the battlefields of an Indian war in Illinois and Wisconsin, 
Black Hawk, the noted leader of the Sauk and Fox tribes in the Black Hawk 
War of 1832, and five of his principal chiefs passed this way as prisoners 
of war. President Jackson had ordered them taken to Washington, D.C.
     The party was composed of Black Hawk (Ma-ka-tal-mesh-she-ka-kal or 
Makatawimesheka'ka); Mesh-she-was-kuck, his son; We-pe-kie-shick, the 
Prophet; Pa-me-ho-its, the Prophet's brother; Pe-we-shick, the Prophet's son, 
and Nal-po-pe or Broth, arrived in Washington on April 16, 1833, in charge of 
Lieutenant T. L. Alexander, United States Infantry, assisted by Sergeants 
Greene and Meredith, Sixth Dragons, and a Mr. St. Vrain, interpreter. 
The coach upset at the corner of Mains and West Maiden streets, causing 
injuries to several of the passengers which necessitated a lay-over of two 
days at the Globe Inn.
     On April 18 the journey was resumed, with the exception of Sergeant 
Greene who was left behind to recuperate from a broken arm. The stage 
undoubtedly stopped at the Stone Tavern; as least to change horses, 
as this was a way station for that purpose. The old newspaper accounts 
do not state whether the party refreshed themselves with food and during, 
but they probably did.
     Henry Clay, a famous statesman thrice defeated for the Presidency,
passed over the National Pike on numerous occasions to and from his Kentucky 
home and the National Capitol. He usually stopped over night in Washington and 
went on east the next morning; and it is very probable that he took breakfast 
more than once at the Stone Tavern. At least the stage stopped there to 
change horses.
     A visit to Hill's Old Stone Tavern, now the Century Inn, should not 
be passed by, for it will live in your memory. If you found such a place in 
some other state or another section of Pennsylvania you would be entranced. 
Furnished throughout with antique furniture and ancient relics collected 
by the Harringtons, you have the feeling as you enter the hall that you have 
stepped back across the years to those fabulous, romantic days when the old 
National Pike was young. The honking of automobile horns and the noise of 
passing trucks seem to change to the rattle and clatter of stage coaches and 
Conestoga wagons; the hoarse voices of stage drivers and Pike Boys come 
drifting down through the clouds of long dead years.

Whiskey Insurrectionists' Flag
     A curious flag, 25 by 34 inches, in a frame on the wall just inside 
the entrance, will attract immediate attention. Probably the most priceless 
possession in the collection, it was presented to Mrs. Harrington by a 
member of a pioneer family. On the blue field is a white eagle, holding in its 
beak a white ribbon, edged at the bottom in light red. Across the top are 
six six-pointed stars and seven more are scattered over the blue field. The 
material is muslin; the stars are of some white material sewed on the field. 
The design is on one side only, and the flag is bound with a tiny hand-sewed 
hem.
     The origin of this flag is a mystery. According to family tradition 
told to Mrs. Harrington, it was raised over the cabin in which Whiskey 
Insurrectionists, captured on the "Dreadful Night: on November 13, 1794, 
were confined; and when the troops left the next morning they forgot the 
flag.
     I thought at first that it was the colors of some troop of cavalry 
or infantry company. General Andrew White, of New Jersey, commanded 
the troops that held these prisoners. The First City Trop of Philadelphia 
was also in this locality at that time.
     I sent a color photograph to Frank J. Nivert, of the National 
Archives, and he made an exhaustive search through both the Archives and 
Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, the Department of the Army, and 
the Daughters of the American Revolution. He reported that Mr. DuBois, of 
the Office of Army Quartermaster, a specialist on flags, was unable to 
identify it. 
     John Lowry Ruth, of the York County Historical Society, at Lancaster, 
another specialist of many years' experience, was unable to furnish a 
solution. The Pennsylvania Historical Society, at Philadelphia, was not 
able to identify it, but stated positively at was not the standard of 
the First City Troop. All agreed that it was not a Federal flag, but was of 
local origin, such as a troop flag.
     New Jersey troops were in Washington County during the Whisky 
Insurrection, and a query to the Department of defense of that state was 
made, Captain C. A. Tocco reported that, after a careful search, it was the 
consensus of opinion that this flag was not an official unit flag, and 
made this comment: "It seems inconceivable that soldiers would fight to 
the death to prevent the capture of their flag, would another occasion 
walk, off and forget to take their flag with them." None of these 
authorities raised any question of its authenticity.
     This is not only a very logical conclusion, but it gives color to 
the theory advanced by Mrs. Mary K. Sturges, of the reference library of 
the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, and concurred in by Dr. 
S. K. Stevens, Pennsylvania State Historian. Mrs. Sturges was unable to 
furnish any information as to its origin, but from its crude manufacture 
she did not believe that it was the flag of any of the "regular militia 
called from the states of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland or Virginia, 
(during the Whisky Insurrection), and had their historic flags well established 
previous to and at the time of the Revolution, and more properly made."
     In commenting further she said: "The Flag in question is more likely 
to have been the Flag of the insurgents who opposed the excise of the Federal 
government imposed March 3, 1791. The delegates meeting at Parkinson's 
Ferry (now Monongahela City), August 14, 1794, and attended by about 200 
from the western counties of both Pennsylvania and Virginia, representing an 
armed insurrection of about 7,000 men, undoubtedly had their own emblem, or, 
flag."
     Dr. Stevens is inclined to agree with this theory, and is of the 
opinion that if correct it is certainly a find. I can add that it is in 
connection with the Whisky Insurrection. No historian that I am aware of 
has ever even intimated that the insurrectionists had their own flag; but 
it could well have been.
     The front room on the west side has been changed somewhat from its 
original appearance, but general design and wall paper carry out the colonial 
effect in a most pleasing manner. In the rear of this is the dining room 
where the colonial motif dominates as in all the rooms of the building.
     The barroom in the rear of the east side is one of the most attractive 
tavern rooms between Baltimore and Wheeling. The plaster has been removed 
from the ceiling, the original hewn oak beam were finished in a most attractive 
manner, and a high wainscot was added. An attractive collection of antiques-
-old prints, several ancient caplock rifles and powder horns--adorn the 
walls.
     Mrs. Harrington told me that Colonel Dix died in this room; but Charles 
M. Ewing later declared that the Dix room was in the front of the second 
floor. After thinking this over I could not believe that colonel's 
comrades would carry a dying man, suffering from the terrible agony of 
cholera, up the stairway; and he would hardly be able to walk up in the 
condition he was in at that time--with only six hours of life left.
     I felt certain that Mrs. Gehrlein would know, and she informed me 
that many years ago Sarah (Sally) Jenkins, who lived with the Youman 
family and was present at the time, told her that Colonel Dix died on 
the floor of the first room on the right as you enter the hotel. Youman, 
no doubt, had blankets placed on the floor when he saw the colonel's 
condition and knew that he did not have long to live.
     The original mantels of that quaintly beautiful pattern in vogue around 
the beginning of the 19th century, are found throughout the house. 
There are 10 bedrooms on the second floor and a finished third
floor.
     Mr. Harrington has the original dinner bell that notified guests at 
Hill's Tavern in the long ago that it was time to ear; and in the hallway 
is the old sundial that told the time of day to travelers, stage drivers and 
Pike Boys. For a century or more it was in the garden, but was removed and 
stored under the porch where it lay forgotten until found by Mrs. Harrington. 
In her collection of antiques, Mrs. Harrington is the proud owner of two 
pieces of the rare Albert Gallatin glassware, manufactured in the works he 
established at New Geneva, Faletta County. This was the first glass factory 
west of the mountains, ante-dating Craig and O'Hara Pittsburgh plant of 
1797 by several months.

RIGGLE TAVERN. Picture
     Mrs. Gehrlein and her stepson gave me some interesting information 
on other taverns in Hillsborough during the pike era, information 
that would soon be lost. 
     On the south side of the pike, a short distance east of the Century Inn, 
is a large two-story house with a high pointed gavel in front, and joined 
to east side of the main building is a one story duplicate, each with a high 
pointed gable. Covered with stucco, it is rather showy; but it is a 
beautiful old home built in the architecture of long ago.
     Zephaniah B. Riggle kept a tavern here in early days, and Searight says 
that he enjoyed a good trade. How long he remained is not known, but probably 
during the prosperous era. After his time it became a private residence. 
Riggle had also kept a tavern at Centerville. 
     The old deeds in the Recorder's Office show that Stephen Hill sold 
four lots to Nathan Pusey, two on March 20, 1822, and two on December 29, 
1826. It is not known whether Pusey erected a house in either 1822 or 
1826, but the chances are that he did.  However, nothing has been found 
to indicate that he operated a public house, although it was not until March 
5, 1849, that he sold the four lots to Riggle for $1,500. This purchase 
price indicates that there was a house on the property, and Pusey may 
have conducted a tavern in the early days and later rented it to Riggle.
     After he ceased keeping a tavern Riggle went to Tyler County, 
Virginia, as shown by a deed from Riggle to Abraham Mowl, dated August 12, 
1858. The consideration of $800 indicates that Pusey built the house, no 
doubt for a tavern. This shows how the value of public houses fell with 
the decline of pike travel.
     Some interesting history centers around this old house. Dr. Byron Clark, 
later of Washington and the father of Dr. Homer Clark already mentioned, 
purchased this property from the heirs of Abraham Mowl on January 22, 
1862, for $1,100, and lived there until about 1880. This is the home of the 
first mail order business in patent Medicines.
     It was in this house that the same "Scenery Hill" had its origin. His 
grandson, Paul Clark, of Washington, and Mrs. Gehrlein both told me the same 
story. Dr. Clark's mail was very large, and much of it was missent to 
Millsborough, only a short distance away. This is easily understood 
for the only difference between the names of the two post offices was 
the first letter, and an "H" could easily be mistaken for an "M." This 
caused much delay and annoyance, and the doctor, asked the Post Office Department, 
to change the name of the Hillsborough office. The postal authorities 
had no objections, and he was asked to suggest another name.
     Dr. Clark asked his wife for a suggestion. Sitting in her chair looking 
out of the window she finally said: "Why not call it Scenery Hill? The view 
from here over the hills is wonderful. You can see for so many miles in every 
direction." This name was sent in and accepted, and ever since that long ago 
day the village has been Scenery Hill.
     The date Dr. Clark left Scenery is not definite, but by April 1, 
1882, he was on East Maiden street, for on that date he sold his Scenery 
Hill house. This deed shows that Dr. Clark at that time was a resident
of South Strabane Township.
     The original tavern of Zeph Riggle's time is the main building. 
Dr. Clark built the additions on each side, and added the ornate wood trimmings.
(To Be Continued)