USA > Connecticut > New London County > A modern history of New London County, Connecticut, Volume II > Part 14
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"Long ago at the end of the route, The stage pulled up and the folks stepped out."
As the Indians, the aboriginals of this country, wandered here and there from one hunting ground to another, or from tribe to tribe as messengers or visitors, they made faint trails on the most used ways. Their moccasined feet passed lightly over the grassy plains and through the forests, for their instinct of direction was unerring. When the white men came to this country, they found these faint trails leading in various directions, as also trails made by wild watering places. The settlers utilized these trails, and soon deepened and enlarged them with their heavy shoes. At first everybody walked, even the governors; domestic cattle, called the best of pathmakers, were soon introduced, and aided in the work with their heavy, leisurely tread; it was not long before the trails became "trodden paths," worn narrow lanes, scarcely two feet wide, in which it was necessary to walk Indian file.
In 1635, horses were imported, small and poor, it is true, but soon replaced by better ones; then little walking was done, and the narrow trodden paths became a scarcely wider bridle path for horses, while blazed trees served as guide posts. As new settlements were made and communication established with the older ones, paths slowly grew to rough, uncertain roads and cart- ways. Many of these roads followed, and still follow, the old trails, and some of our best and most used highways are simply an improvement and elaboration of some old Indian trail or early "trodden path" of the white settler.
The earliest path mentioned in the records is the old Plymouth or Coast path, connecting Plymouth and Boston, and passing through Braintree, now the regular thoroughfare. This path was established by order of the General Court of Massachusetts in 1635. The Old Connecticut path started at Cam- bridge and continued through Marlborough, Grafton, Oxford, on to Spring- field and Albany; the New Connecticut path, also starting at Cambridge, went through Grafton, Worcester and Brookfield to Albany. The Providence path led from Boston to Providence and the Narragansett Plantations. Per- haps the most familiar to us of this part of New England is the famous "Pequot path," later called the Post road, leading from Providence through Wickford, Charlestown, and Westerly, Rhode Island, to New London, or "Pequit," Connecticut. This old path is frequently mentioned in land deeds and in the court records of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut; it is practically identical with the favorite automobile road of the present day, and is also closely followed by the Shore Line railroad.
The longest and best-known path in Massachusetts was the Bay path, passing through the Province of Massachusetts Bay, as it was formerly called ; this path, starting at Cambridge, left the old Connecticut path at Wayland, then went through Marlborough, Worcester, Oxford, Charlton to Brookfield ; here the Hadley path branched off to Ware, Belchertown and Hadley, while the Bay path joined the old Connecticut path and so on to Springfield and Albany. This Bay path is made familiar to us by J. G. Holland's story of that name.
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As the number of settlements increased, travel increased in proportion ; then came the demand made by travelers overtaken by storm or darkness for a place of shelter, food and lodging. Few homes of that period were prepared to entertain strangers at any and all hours, and as the dignitaries themselves had to travel frequently on business for the colonies, they immediately took action in the matter.
In 1644, as shown by the Colonial Records of Connecticut, the General Court ordered "one sufficient inhabitant" in each town to keep an "ordinary," since "strangers were straitened for lack of entertainment." In 1656, the General Court of Massachusetts made the towns liable to a fine for not sus- taining an ordinary.
These houses of public entertainment were at first called "ordinaries," probably ordinary, in the sense of common, and established by law. The ordinary was under the supervision of the General Court and later of the town officers, and was hedged about with so many regulations and restrictions that the landlord of the present day would give up in despair. The ordinary was usually a large house with great fireplaces, and many rooms, and ample stable accommodations :
"Across the road the barns display Their lines of stalls, their mows of hay."
The better class had a parlor which was used as a sitting room for ladies, or was engaged by some dignitary for himself or family. The most interesting as well as the most used room of the house was the taproom; its enormous fireplace, bare, sanded floor, and ample settles and chairs, with a constant flow of visitors, combined to make a cheerful spot. A tall, rudely made writing desk served as a place for the landlord to cast up his accounts, and for the accommodation of the few guests who desired to write. The bar itself was usually made with a sort of portcullis gate, which could be closed if desired. While the bars remained until very recently in some of these places, the old portcullis gate is rarely seen. At Howe's Tavern in Sudbury, Massachusetts, more familiar to us as the scene of Longfellow's "Tales of a Wayside Inn," this gate remained, as also at the Wadsworth Inn, built in 1828; this house stands on the Albany turnpike, about three miles from Hartford, Connecticut, and was one of the twenty-one inns within twenty miles on that road.
By the end of the Seventeenth Century the designation "ordinary" had passed into disuse, and "tavern" was the name by which the ordinary was known. It was singular that the word "inn," used in England, was not common in America; "inn" was a word of Anglo-Saxon origin, meaning house ; while tavern was in France taverne, in Spain and Italy, taverna, while the Latin form, taberna, was also used-all derived from the Latin root, tab, hence, tabula, a table. One wonders what influenced the colonists at that early day to use this form rather than the customary English one. In later days. the word tavern has fallen into disrepute, but formerly it denoted a highly respectable place, kept by a most worthy landlord.
As to the entertainment of these places, opinions differed. In 1637, Lord Ley declined Governor Winthrop's invitation to make his home at the
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Governor's house, on the plea that he was so comfortably situated at the ordinary. Hempstead, in his journey to Maryland in 1749, writes of being "handsomely entertained"; while Madam Sarah Knight, on her trip to New York, found the accommodations little to her liking, as she has fully in- formed us.
Each tavern was known by name, and some of these names are most interesting-the Blue Anchor, the Great House, the King's Arms, the King's Head, the Thistle and Crown, Rose and Thistle, Duke of Cumberland, St. George and the Dragon, the Red Lion, the Green Dragon, Dog's Head in the Manger, the Fighting Cocks, the Black Horse, the Three Cranes, Bunch of Grapes, Plow and Harrow (one of the places where Hempstead stopped), are some of the names adopted. The corruption of some names gave amusing signs-the Bag o' Nails, from the "Bacchanalians"; this was a favorite name; the Cat and Wheel, from St. Catharine's Wheel ; the Goat and Compass, from "God Encompasseth Us"; Pig and Carrot, from the French pique et carreau; an English one was the Bull and Mouth, from the Boulogne Mouth or Harbour.
Like the inns of Shakespeare's day, some of the large taverns had names for each room. The King's Arms in Boston, Mass., one of the earliest, stood at the head of Dock street, and in 1651 was sold for f600; an inventory of the goods and furnishings of the house showed that some of the chambers were the Star Chamber, the Court Room, the Nursery, etc. The Blue Anchor, another Boston ordinary, had among its rooms the Rose and Sun Low, the Cross Keys, the Anchor and Castle, the Green Dragon-which are more interesting than our Pink Room, Blue Room, Red Room, and the like.
Before it became customary to name the streets and number the houses, at a time when comparatively few people were able to read or write, sign boards were a necessity, for the sign language is universal. Not only inn- keepers, but men of all trades and callings, made use of them. The signs were widely varied ; some were painted or carved boards; and images-some carved from stone ; modeled in terracotta or plaster ; painted on tiles ; wrought of various metals ; and even stuffed animals were utilized. Some of these old signs are still in existence; occasionally such a sign is noticed at some inn, whose landlord has recognized its value and drawing power in these days of antique hunting. Such, for example, is "Ye Golden Spur," on the East Lyme trolley line; and the signboard bearing the Lion and the Unicorn, at the Windham Inn, on Windham Green. More, however, are carefully pre- served among the treasures of the historical societies.
In Salem, Massachusetts, in 1645, the law granted the landlord a license provided "there be sett up some inoffensive sign obvious for direction to strangers." The Rhode Island court in 1655 ordered that all persons appointed to keep an ordinary should "cause to be sett out a convenient Signe at ye most perspicuous place of ye said house, thereby to give notice to strangers yt it is a house of public entertainment, and this is to be done with all con- venient speed." The signs were attached to wooden or iron arms extending from the tavern, or from a post or a nearby tree, or from a frame supported
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by two poles. The Buck's Horn Tavern in New York City had a pair of buck's horns over the door. Of the "Wayside Inn" Longfellow wrote that
"Half effaced by rain and shine, The Red Horse prances on the sign."
In the library at Windham Green is preserved an image of Bacchus, carved from a piece of pine by British prisoners confined at Windham during the Revolutionary War, and bequeathed by them to Widow Cary, who kept a tavern on the Green. Miss Larned says: "The comical Bacchus, with his dimpled checks and luscious fruits, was straightway hoisted above the tavern for a sign and figure-head, to the intense admiration and delight of all be- holders."
In the custody of the Connecticut Historical Society at Hartford is a signboard showing on one side the British coat-of-arms, and on the other side a full-rigged ship under full sail, flying the Union Jack; it has the letters "U A H," and the date 1766. This sign belonged to Uriah and Ann Hayden, who kept a tavern near the Connecticut river, in Essex, then the Pettapaug parish of Saybrook.
Bissell's Tavern, at Bissell's Ferry in East Windsor, Connecticut, had an elaborate sign depicting thirteen interlacing rings, and in the center of each was a tree or plant peculiar to the State designated, the whole sur- rounding a portrait of Washington. It may be mentioned here that during and after the War of the Revolution scarcely a town but had its Washington tavern, with varied Washington signboards; all names or signs relating to the King or to the British Kingdom were discarded, and as the Golden Lion changed into the Yellow Cat, so the other names underwent a similar change.
Not only are these old signs interesting in themselves, but they have a still greater value for the reason that many noted painters, even great artists, have frequently been compelled to make use of the signboard as a temporary means of livelihood. Hogarth, Richard Wilson, Gerome, Cox, Harlow, Millais, Holbein, Corregio and Watteau are among those thus accredited ; while Paul Potter's famous "Young Bull" is said to have been painted for a butcher's sign . Benjamin West is said to have painted many of the tavern signs in Philadelphia, and the "Bill of O. Cromwell's Head" was designed by Paul Revere.
As has been said, the ordinaries were established by order of the General Courts at first, and later by the town authorities, who considered them as town offices, the appointment one of honor, and were therefore very particular to whom a license was granted. A landlord was one of the best-known men in town, influential, and possessed of considerable estate. The first house of entertainment in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was kept by a deacon of the church who was afterward made steward of Harvard College. The first license to sell strong drink in that town was granted to Nicholas Danforth, a selectman and representative to the General Court.
In New London, Connecticut, on June 2, 1654, "Goodman Harries is chosen by the Towne ordinary keeper." The good man died the following November, and on the sixth of that month "John Elderkin was chosen Ordi-
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nary Keeper." "Widow Harris was granted by voat also to keep an ordinary if she will." On Foxen's Hill, at the other end of the town, Humphrey Clay and his wife Catharine kept an ordinary till 1664. In this same town, "At a General Town meeting September 1, 1656, George Tongue is chosen to keep an ordinary in the town of Pequot for the space of five years, who is to allow all inhabitants that live abroad the same privilege that strangers have, and all other inhabitants the like privilege except lodging. He is also to kecp good order and sufficient accommodation according to Court Order being not to lay it down under six months warning, unto which I hereunto set my hand. (Signed) George Tonge."
George Tongue bought a house and lot on the Bank, between the present Pearl and Tilley streets, and opened the house of entertainment which he kept during his lifetime and which, being continued by his family, was the most noted inn of the town, for sixty years. His daughter married Governor Winthrop, and after the Governor's death his widow went to live in this house on the Bank, which she inherited from her parents.
In Norwich, on December 11, 1675, "Agreed and voted by ye town yt Sergent Thomas Waterman is desired to keepe the ordynary. And for his encouragement he is granted four ackers of paster land where he can con- veniently find it ny about the valley going from his house into the woods." He was succeeded in 1690 by Deacon Simon Huntington. Under date of December 18, 1694, "The towne makes choise of calib abell to keep ordinari or a house of entertaynement for this yeare or till another be chosen." In 1700, Thomas Leffingwell received a license, and this is supposed to have been the commencement of the famous Leffingwell Tavern, situated at the east corner of the town plot, and continued for more than a hundred years. In 1706, Simon Huntington, Junr., and in 1709, Joseph Reynolds, were licensed. On December 1, 1713, "Sergeant William Hide is chosen Taverner." Here is shown the change of name from "ordinary" to "tavern."
Women sometimes kept the ordinary and tavern, as quoted in the case of Widow Harris and Widow Cary; some of the taverns kept by them became quite noted. In 1714, Boston, with about ten thousand inhabitants, had thirty-four ordinaries, of which twelve were kept by women; four com- mon victuallers, of whom one was a woman ; forty-one retailers of liquors, seventeen of these being women; thus proving that women were accorded some rights and privileges in the early days.
The taverns were not used entirely as a convenience to travelers; the Puritans had no special reverence for a church except as a literal meeting house ; often until a church edifice could be erected, services were held in barns, as in Deacon Park's barn in New London; oftener, their meetings were held in the large room of a tavern. The Great House at Charlestown, Massa- chusetts, the official residence of Governor Winthrop, became a meeting house in 1633, and later a tavern. The "Three Cranes," kept by Robert Leary and his descendants for many years, had the same experience, the building being destroyed in June, 1775, in the burning of the town.
In New London North Parish, Samuel Allen, from Massachusetts, built a large house on the Governor's road leading from New London through
.
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Colchester to Hartford ; he was licensed to keep a tavern, and was one of the seven men who organized the church in the North Parish ; before the meeting house was built, services were held in the great east chamber of his tavern, and here the Rev. James Hillhouse preached his first sermons and received his call to become their pastor. This house stood on or near the present site of the Montville town farm.
The relations of the town and meeting house did not end here, but con- tinued on the most friendly terms. The church officials looked sharply after the conduct of these houses of sojourn. Usually ordinary and meeting house kept close company, the license generally specifying that condition; in the intervals between sermons, the congregation frequently repaired to the tavern, which must, however, be cleared during the hours of worship. Besides serv- ing as a place to hold religious services, if needful, the tavern was an impor- tant factor in the social and political life of the early settlers. Here they met to exchange news and views, to discuss town affairs, talk over the horrors of Indian warfare, and, incidentally, to sample the solacing liquors on tap.
At Brookfield, then Quambaug, Massachusetts, the only ordinary was kept by Captain Ayers, who was the captain of the trainband of the place, and this tavern was the garrison house of the settlement. Its interesting story has been often told.
The taverns also served as recruiting stations for the French and Indian wars; the trainbands met and drilled there ; here were held "Book Auctions," "Consorts" of music ; entertainments, dramatic and otherwise ; the agents for various lines of business made the tavern their headquarters; the first insur- ance agencies were there, so that the tavern may well be called the original business exchange ; lodges of Freemasons organized and held their meetings, as did the medical societies. At the tavern was frequently to be found the only newspaper in the town.
The story of the War of Independence cannot be dissociated from that of the old taverns, and those which still remain are counted among our most interesting relics, and pilgrimages are made to them. The meetings of those who were among the first to rebel against injustice were held at the taverns, and Paul Revere has left a record of the conferences of the band of which he was a member, their meetings being held at the Green Dragon in 1774 and 1775. On that night when Revere stood "impatient to ride," watching for the signal, at the Wright Tavern in Concord was lodged Major Pitcairn, the British commander, and in the parlor of this tavern, on the morning before the battle of Concord, he stirred his glass of brandy with his bloody finger, saying that thus he would stir the rebels' blood before night. The Buckman Tavern at Lexington was the headquarters of Captain John Parker, on that night of April 18, 1775, and the rallying place of the minute-men ; the tavern contains many a bullet hole made by the shots of the British soldiers. Lord Percy made his headquarters at the Monroe Tavern at Lexington, on that April 19th. After the battle of Lexington, the American men reassem- bled at the Wayside Inn at Sudbury and the Black Horse Tavern at Win- chester. Cooper's Tavern and Russell Tavern, both at Arlington, were the scenes of great activity during this war.
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In the village of Bennington, Vermont, the most noted tavern was that built before 1770, by Captain Stephen Fay. The north and south road passed through the village and became the thoroughfare for much travel between Connecticut and western Massachusetts to the new lands to the northward. Many people went from eastern Connecticut to Bennington. Gradually the thoroughfare became a route from Boston to Albany. The tavern was a great resort for travelers and emigrants, and was widely known as the headquarters of the settlers in the contest over the lands claimed by New York. On the top of a high signpost before the front door was placed the stuffed skin of a catamount, "grinning defiance at the State of New York"; hence Landlord Fay's house was more generally known as "Catamount Tavern." One of the rooms was used for meetings on town affairs, and in the marble mantel over one of the fireplaces was cut in deep letters the words "Council Room." Before the fireplace in this council chamber sat Ethan Allen the night before he sent forth his summons for the Green Moun- tain Boys to muster for the capture of Fort Ticonderoga, on May 10, 1775: here sat the Vermont Council of Safety during that trying campaign of 1777; and here Stark and Warner planned their famous attack which won the victory at Bennington, August 16, 1777. Five sons of Captain Fay partici- pated in this battle, one of them being killed. In 1778, David Redding, a traitor and spy, was tried here and condemned. Afterwards the tavern was used as a private dwelling house, and was burned to the ground, March 30, 1871. The site of the old place is now marked by a finely modeled bronze catamount mounted on an immense block of black marble.
The tavern at Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, was kept by Major John Farrer, who became an officer of the Revolution; there was great rejoicing at this house when Washington visited it in his triumphal journey through the country. This same place was later known as the Pease Tavern, and was kept by Levi Pease, who has been called the "Father of the Turnpike."
At Wickford, Rhode Island, the Phillips farmhouse, still standing, was used as a tavern ; the two immense chimneys are over twenty feet square and take up so much room that there is no central staircase, but little winding stairs ascend at three corners of the house; on each chimney piece are hooks to hang firearms, and at one side are set curious little drawers for pipes and tobacco. Landlord Phillips was a major in the Revolution.
Time is lacking for mention of the many taverns, large and small, noted or obscure, of even our own State or section. Our valued historians in the "History of Norwich, Connecticut," and in the "Old Houses of the Antient Town of Norwich," have named some of them-the Leffingwell Tavern, Peck's and Jesse Brown's taverns, all still standing; the latter became the home of Mr. Moses Pierce, and is now the Rock Nook Home; the Lathrop Tavern, destroyed by fire soon after 1821 ; on the site was erected by the Union Hotel Company the brick building now known as the Johnson Home, belong- ing to the King's Daughters of the city.
At various times, at Bean Hill, Major Durkee Webster and Jacob Witter kept a public house ; Morgan at East Great Plain ; at the Landing, Ebenezer Fitch and Jeremiah Harris. Between Norwich and New London were at
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least three-Raymond's, Bradford's and Haughton's. Haughton's tavern was near Haughton's Cove in Montville, and during the war of 1812, when the warships were anchored in the river, the officers of the ships often visited this tavern for social recreation. Much of the business of the town was transacted there, and the trainband met for its annual drill. A large room was fitted up for dances, parties and entertainments.
With the advent of stage and mail coaches, travel, and consequently the number of taverns, increased. The milestones themselves could tell a story of those days. Benjamin Franklin, the postmaster general, undertook the work of setting up milestones on the post roads. The Pequot path, later the King's highway and then the Post road, was one of those so marked, and it is said that one of these milestones still stands at New London and another at Stratford. One of the advertisements of tavern and stage coach lines stated that "This Elegant road is fully Set with well cut milestones."
Judge Peleg Arnold, one of the most ardent patriots of the Revolution, kept a tavern in the northern part of Rhode Island, where is now Union Vil- lage (a suburb of Woonsocket), on the Great Road from Smithfield to Men- don, Massachusetts. In 1666 this road was a footpath, which by 1773 had grown into a cart-path. Judge Arnold was one of a committee appointed to re-lay the old road, and near the northern boundary of his farm he set up the milestone with the inscription, "14 miles to Providence ; Peleg Arnold's stone, 1774."
The first turnpike of the United States is claimed by Miss Caulkins to have been established in 1792, between Norwich and New London. Turn- pikes meant better roads and more travel, and tavern and stage coach reached the height of their popularity together. At Windham Green, for example, as late as 1840, four-horse stage coaches passed through daily, going north. south, east and west, with smaller stage lines for mail service from Windham to Woodstock, Middletown and other points. Similar conditions prevailed everywhere.
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