The Old Pike: A History of the National Road, with Incidents, Accidents, and Anecdotes ThereonSearight, Thomas B. (Thomas Brownfield)
History
The Old Pike: A History of the National Road, with Incidents, Accidents, and Anecdotes Thereon
Searight, Thomas B. (Thomas Brownfield)
Cumberland Road; Pennsylvania -- Biography
About one mile west of the Abel Colley house there is an old stone
tavern on the north side of the road, known in early days as Johnson's,
later as Hatfield's. This house was built in 1817 by Randolph Dearth for
Robert Johnson, who kept it as a tavern down to the year 1841, when he
retired to a farm in Franklin township, Fayette county, Pennsylvania,
where he died, leaving behind him a good name, which is better than
great riches, of which latter he had a goodly share. He was the
father-in-law of Thomas Brownfield, who, in 1862, was Sheriff of Fayette
county, Pennsylvania, and previously a tavern keeper on the road. Henry
L. Murphy, a well known and thrifty farmer of Jefferson township,
Fayette county, Pennsylvania, likewise married a daughter of Robert
Johnson. This tavern, under the guidance of Robert Johnson, did a large
business, and the old proprietor made money by conducting it. The
successor of Robert Johnson in the management of this house was Arthur
Wallace, who remained in it for a single year. He was a brother of John
Wallace, who once kept the Wilse Clement house in Hopwood, and
subsequently removed to Morgantown, Virginia, and an uncle of James
Wallace, present proprietor of the Wallace House in Morgantown. Peter
Frasher, the old wagoner and tavern keeper before mentioned, married a
daughter of Arthur Wallace. Charles Guttery succeeded Arthur Wallace in
the Johnson House. [Y]Guttery was an old wagoner, and is now keeping a
tavern in Beallsville, Washington county, Pennsylvania, and probably the
oldest man in the business. He was at the Johnson House in 1844, and a
wagoner many years before that date. From 1849 to 1851 John Foster kept
the Johnson House. He was a brother of the first wife of Robert Hogsett.
Foster was succeeded by Hiram Holmes, who kept the house one year. In
1852 William Hatfield, who had previously bought the property, went into
the house and kept it as a tavern until the year 1855, when he closed it
as a public house, but continued to occupy it as a private residence
until his melancholy death. Before engaging in tavern keeping, William
Hatfield served many years as a Justice of the Peace, and subsequent to
1855 served a term as Associate Judge. He was a blacksmith by trade, and
made the old iron gates of the road. He was industrious and honest, and
likewise noted for his kindness to his fellow men. It was while engaged
in doing a favor for an old neighbor, in the year 1871, that he lost his
life. His neighbor, John C. Craft, had purchased a patent pump, and
called on Judge Hatfield to assist him in placing it in his well. The
Judge, as was his habit, promptly responded, and, going down to the
bottom of the well, called to his neighbor, who stood at the surface, to
send him down a saw or an ax. The needed tool was placed in a heavy
iron-bound tub and started down, but, through neglect, the cable
slipped, and the tub was precipitated a great depth upon Judge
Hatfield's head, fatally injuring him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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