Tavern keeping and liquor selling were of such respectability that many of the most esteemed citizens were, or had been tavern-keepers, or had sold liquors, or distilled whisky, or brewed beer. Jeremiah Sturgeon was a member of the session of the Presbyterian Church.[121] John Reed, the proprietor of the “Sign of the Waggon,” in addition to being a leading member of the Jockey Club, and the owner of the race horse “Young Messenger,”[122] was precentor in the Presbyterian Church, and on Sundays “lined out the hymns” and led the singing.[123] The pew of William Morrow is marked on the diagram of the ground-plan of the church as printed in its _Centennial Volume_.[124] The “Sign of the Cross Keys,” the emblem of Sturgeon’s tavern, was of religious origin and was much favored in England. Although used by a Presbyterian, it was the arms of the Papal See, and the emblem of St. Peter and his successors. That the way to salvation lay through the door of the tavern, would seem to have been intended to be indicated by the “Sign of the Cross Keys.” William Eichbaum, a pillar in the German church, after he left the employ of O’Hara and Craig, conducted a tavern on Front Street, near Market, at the “Sign of the Indian Queen.” The owners of the ferries kept taverns in connection with their ferries. Ephraim Jones conducted a tavern at his ferry landing on the south side of the Monongahela River; Robert Henderson had a tavern on Water Street at his ferry landing; Samuel Emmett kept a tavern at his landing on the south side of the Monongahela River; and James Robinson had a tavern on the Franklin Road at the northerly terminus of his ferry.[125] Drinking was universal among both men and women. Judge James Veech declared that whisky “was the indispensable emblem of hospitality and the accompaniment of labor in every pursuit, the stimulant in joy and the solace in grief. It was kept on the counter of every store and in the corner cupboard of every well-to-do family. The minister partook of it before going to church, and after he came back. At home and abroad, at marryings and buryings, at house raisings and log rollings, at harvestings and huskings, it was the omnipresent beverage of old and young, men and women; and he was a churl who stinted it. To deny it altogether required more grace or niggardliness than most men could command, at least for daily use.”[126] A practical joke perpetrated by the Rev. Dr. John McMillan, on the Rev. Joseph Patterson, another of the early ministers in this region, illustrates the custom of drinking among the clergy. On their way to attend a meeting of the Synod, the two men stopped at a wayside inn and called for whisky, which was set before them. Mr. Patterson asked a blessing which was rather lengthy. Dr. McMillan meanwhile drank the whisky, and to Mr. Patterson’s blank look remarked blandly, “You must watch as well as pray!”[127]