National Pike, Road of History, Romance

Monday, April 4, 1955 page 6 of The Washington Reporter, Washington, Pennsylvania by Earle R. Forrest

(Continued from Saturday)

WASHINGTON
	During the National Pike era Washington was a town of taverns and wagon 
stands. The number in operation at the height of the business is a little hard to 
determine, as there were taverns here long before the pike came through.

TAVERN SIGNS
	Beginning in the early days and all through the pike era, tavern keepers 
marked their establishments with a sign on a pole in front of or on the building, 
with the name and some appropriate picture, such as: “The Sign of General Wayne,” 
“The Sign of the Indian Queen,” “The Sign of the White Goose,” “The Sign of 
the Black Bear,” “The Sign of General Washington,” etc.
	One of the most conspicuous signs in the early days of Washington showed 
a colored boy standing in a tub of water with a white boy at his side trying to scrub 
him white. The motto above the picture was “Labor in Vain.” Another early sign 
was “The Harp, and the Crown.” Unfortunately, the locations of these taverns have 
been lost with the passing years.
	Tavern signs were designed and painted by local artists as a sideline to 
supply bread and butter while waiting for portrait business. Unfortunately, only 
two of these early tavern sign painters are known today: Isaac Steen and G. Harrison.
	In The Examiner of June 1, 1818, Isaac Steen advertised, “Portrait, 
sign and ornamental painting.”
	In the same issue of The Examiner, Harrison, miniature and portrait 
painter, advertised that he had “a few elegant Tavern Signs ready painted which 
will be sold for less than half the usual prices.”
	Another local artist who gained considerable fame during his short life was 
John Steen. His father, Isaiah Steen, manufactured chairs and spinning wheels in 
East Beau street, according to an advertisement in The Examiner of February 10, 
1819. He also advertised that he had a few signs for sale, and those where 
undoubtedly made by his son. It is interesting to note that young John Steen 
was the man who taught John J. Audubon, the great ornithologist, to paint with oils, 
Steen was a wandering artist and the two met at Hatchen, Mississippi, in 
1822. Previous to this Audubon had worked with chalk and water colors. Young 
Steen returned to Washington, and died of consumption at his father’s home on 
June 29, 1825, in his 23rd year. He is buried in the old graveyard in West 
Spruce avenue.

WILSON’S TAVERN
	James Wilson, an early settler, was Washington’s first tavern keeper; at 
least he was the first licensed, for William Huston’s log cabin was a stopping 
place over night for travelers on the old trail to the Ohio Country as early 
as 1774. At the first session of the first court held in October, 1781, 
in the newly created County of Washington, James Wilson was licensed to keep 
a public house of entertainment at Catfish Camp. This was in a two-story log 
building on the site of Smith’s Iron Hall, at the northwest corner of Main 
and West Beau streets.
	This location was a tavern during the pike days until about 1840. Wilson 
kept it until his death in 1792. His successor is not known. The next proprietor of 
whom we have a record was Michael Ochaltree, who was licensed in February 1807, with 
the mention that the building had been enlarged and the logs covered with lap 
siding. In 1812 Ocheltree was succeeded by one Rotroff, and in 1815, John Kline came 
from the cross roads (probably modern Beallsville), nine miles west of Brownsville, 
purchased the inn and changed the name to “The Sign of General Wayne.” An old 
advertisement in The Reporter states that Kline took charge on April 12, 1815. 
On April 7, 1817, he was succeeded by Captain John McCluney. Joseph Teeters 
followed McCluney, and then came Joseph Hallam. The latter ran the place until 
about 1840 when the first tavern in Washington was closed.
	Several others were licensed to keep taverns in Washington between 
1781 and 1800, but little is known of their locations. However, they are of no 
importance in the history of the National Pike.

THE SIGN OF THE WHITE GOOSE TAVERN
	The oldest site in Washington on which a hotel has been operated 
continuously is the lot on which the William Henry stands. The first building 
was of logs, erected by Charles Valentine in 1891 [1791?]. In September, he was 
licensed to keep a tavern at “The Sign of the White Goose,” and for the next 163 
years, down to the present a public house has stood on this spot.
`	In 1805 Valentine turned the business over to John Rettig, who had 
married his daughter, Elizabeth. The new proprietor did not like the name of 
“Goose,” and he changed it to “The Sign of the White Swan.” Who can blame him” 
the Valentines were connected with this hotel for so long that a brick building 
erected many years later was named the Valentine House. They were the ancestors 
of George A. Valentine, Washington’s well-known druggist.
	The original building has more than special interest, as it was in a basement 
room of Wheeling street that The Reporter was born on August 15, 1808. One day 
in the summer of that year a covered wagon loaded with a Washington hand 
press, type and other fixtures for a printing office drove in over the old 
road from Pittsburgh. On the seat of the big, lumbering Conestoga were 
William Sample and William B. Brown, two young printers on their way farther west, 
looking for a good location for a newspaper. They had no intention of 
remaining here as they drove down Market, now Main street, and stopped in front 
of “The Sign of the White Swan.”
	It was fortunate for these young pioneer printers that they had selected 
early summer for their prospective trip, for at that season the roads are dry, 
hard, and very dusty. Had it been in the spring or later in the fall, their big 
Conestoga, loaded down with the weight of the press and printing paraphernalia, 
never would have reached Washington. It would have stuck hopelessly in 
the mud very shortly after it started.
	They put up for the night at “The Sign of the White Swan,” possibly 
expecting to rest for a few days before resuming their westward journey. The 
reason for their change of plans is not definitely known; but it is a pretty good 
guess that while they were sitting on the bench in front of the tavern that 
summer evening, John Rettig, “mine host” of “The Sign of the White Swan,” 
persuaded them to remain. He knew the town and the country, and it’s easy to imagine 
the word picture he may have drawn of the possibilities for another newspaper 
in this thriving frontier community of a thousand souls.
	As early as August 17, 1795, The Western Telegraphe and Washington Advertiser
had been started here, and it was still a going concern in 1808, the organ in 
Washington County of the old Federalist political party. Rettig was probably a 
Jeffersonian Democrat, and he evidently argued very convincingly that the Democratic 
Republican party needed a mouthpiece. We can believe that he pointed out how 
Washington County with a growing population was certain to become a great 
agricultural center, for the farmers were hard workers and knew how to get all that 
the rich soil would produce. Then if the proposed National Pike came that way, 
as it was almost sure to, the town and county would see a big boom. He may have 
offered to give them a room in his tavern for their press and type.
	Of one thing we are sure: his arguments won young Sample and Brown, for 
they unloaded their printing equipment and on August 15 put out the first issue 
of The Reporter. From that day 146 years ago it has never missed an issue, 
either weekly in the beginning or daily since August 4, 1876. The old Washington 
hand press which struck off the first issue on August 15, 1808, is still preserved in 
The Reporter office, a valued relic of this newspaper’s beginning.
	The first advertisement in The Reporter, in that first issue, is well 
worth repeating. It was probably free to John Rettig: 

JOHN RETTIG
At the Sign of The Swan,
   RESPECTFULLY, informs his friends, and the public in general, that he 
continues to keep a HOUSE OF ENTERTAINMENT at the above stand, in the town 
of Washington. He has provided himself with a complete assortment of 
LIQUORS, all of which are of the best kinds. He is also provided with good 
stabling, hay and oats, for the accommodation of travellers and waggoners, 
his attention to his business will, he trusts, entitle him to a share of publick 
patronage.
August 15, 1808.
        This is one of the first hotel advertisements in Washington County.
        Julian Valentine, who succeeded Rettig in 1810, remained until in 1819. 
A long forgotten incident, but one of special interest—Washington’s 
first circus—occurred in that year. Whether you want to call it a circus or not, 
the first elephant ever seen here was exhibited at Valentine’s Tavern, as shown 
by an advertisement in The Examiner of June 28, 1819:

  “Columbus,” a male Elephant, the first and only male ever in this country, 
to be seen at Mr. Valentine’s Tavern in Washington, on Tuesday, June 29th, 
Wednesday, June 30th, and Thursday, July 1st.
	Nothing more is known of “Columbus;” but one thing is certain, this 
huge descendant of the mammoth must have created a great sensation in the 
little frontier village that was Washington.
	James Sargent, who succeeded Julian Valentine, remained only a short time, 
for in June, 1819, John Valentine had charge when “Columbus” was a “guest”. Lewis 
Valentine followed John, and in March 1825, John Hays was proprietor. He 
remained until March 1827, when Isaac Sumney took charge and changed the name 
to “The Sign of Washington Hall.” Samuel Donley and several others followed 
Sumney until about 1840.
	John, Lewis, and Daniel Valentine, who were connected, with this hotel, 
were sons of Charles Valentine, who had started the business in 1791.
	Just when the old log building of pioneer days was replaced is not 
known, but it must have been about the time the pike reached Washington. 
Daniel Valentine became the owner, and it was some time in the early 1840s 
that the third building that stood until 1899, was erected.
	An old agreement, dated May 9, 1859, shows that Daniel Valentine was 
the owner of the property and that his brother-in-law, George T. Hammond, and 
Joseph Hallam built and furnished the Valentine House. This agreement 
indicated that Valentine had purchased Hallam’s interest, and he made this agreement 
by which he was to pay Hammond.
	In the early 1840s, Hallam took charge, probably in partnership with 
Hammond. An old Pike Boy who had conducted a wagon stand at Pancake, Hallam 
was well known over the length of the road. Having been a wagoner himself, 
he knew their tastes better that most landlords, and his was a popular stand 
among the Pike Boys when they arrived in Washington. In the rear, fronting on 
Wheeling street, was a good wagon yard and stable, which was much to their 
liking and many were the good times they had in his bar room.
	According to some accounts Major George T. Hammond took charge in 1848; 
but it must have been before that date, and under his management the Valentine 
House became one of the town’s leading hotels. Major Hammond was the father of 
James B. Hammond, well remembered as a police officer in Washington for 
nearly 40 years.
	Daniel Valentine died between December 3, 1852, the date of his will, and 
December 15, 1852, the date it was probated. He had resided in the hotel, and he 
directed that his wife should live there and receive the income during her life. 
At her death the property was to go to the children of George T. Hammond, to be 
held in common until the oldest was 21. By 1822, his wife was dead, and the court 
appointed James W. Kunts Jr., as trustee to sell the property. On January 12, 
1883, the trustee sold the hotel to Moses N. Little for $11,710; and on August 31, 
1883, he sold it to William Montgomery for $12,300.
	On April 1, 1891, after Montgomery’s death, his estate sold the property, 
“formerly known as Valentine House, latterly as Bailey’s European Hotel,” to 
Jonathan Allison for $26,000. This was Charles Bailey, who had already gone to the 
old Fulton House or Hotel Main. The name was changed to Allison House, by which it 
was known until the fire, although at some “period” in the 1890s, it was 
headquarters for oil field workers and others connected with the business.
	The next owners were Simon Siegel, his brother, L. Samuel Siegel, and 
Max Federman. In 1918 Federman sold his interest to L. Samuel Siegel.
	After standing for half a century, the Allison House was partly destroyed by 
fire on January 21, 1899, started by a kettle of grease in the kitchen. For several 
months after the fire it was conducted as a rooming house, but in 1900 the new 
owners erected the present building. It was first named Hotel Siegel, and until 
the completion of the George Washington years later it divided honors with the Auld 
House as Washington’s leading hotel. When the late William Henry Lippincott took 
charge, he changed the name to William Henry. He was the father of W. Russell 
Lippincott, for many years past the efficient manager of the George Washington.
 	The old brick state and wagoner stable stood in the rear on East Wheeling 
street until about 1925.

GLOBE INN Picture
	Of all the taverns, of old Washington town, from the first down through 
the heyday of the National Pike, none ever gained greater fame than the Globe Inn, 
at the corner of South Main street and West Strawberry avenue. The lot was purchased 
August 30, 1784 by Samuel Shannon from Alexander Cunningham. The date Shannon built 
the inn is uncertain, and whether he kept a tavern there is not known. The first 
proprietor of whom we have a record was David Morris, who opened “The Sign 
of the Globe Inn” in 1798, and operated it until his death 36 years later.
	His wife was a sister of Robert Fulton of steamboat fame, and to her 
energy was due much of the tavern’s success, for she was noted from end to end 
of the pike for her excellent cooking. It was a home-like place, where the weary 
traveler always received a warm welcome and good meals.
	Leading men and women of the town gathered there for social events, 
and when distinguished persons passes through Washington they were entertained 
at the Globe Inn. Among the notables entertained here were: President James 
Monroe, May 4, 1817; General Andrew Jackson at least once, on May 18, 1825, and 
General Lafayette on May 25, 1825.
	When Chief Black Hawk and five other Indians were on their way to the 
National Capitol as prisoners they were compelled to stay over here from April 
16 to 18th 1833, because of a stage coach accident at the corner of Main and West 
Maiden streets. Henry Clay stopped there frequently during his journeys to and 
from Washington, D.C. There is an old tradition that Daniel Webster was 
entertained at dinner here when he visited Washington, but I have been unable 
to find the date. This may not be correct.
	David Morris was opposed to the construction of the National Pike, 
for he believed that travelers would be able to make such better time on an improved 
road that they would not stop at half as many hotels along the way. How wrong he 
was we well know, and he lived to see the time when he could not accommodate the many 
guests the National Pike brought to his door.
(To Be Continued)