USA > Pennsylvania > Welsh settlement of Pennsylvania > Part 31
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The commercial value of this roadway, or "public util- ity," was not fully appreciated, or recognized till the end of the century. In the fall and winter, 1786-7, the Assembly minutes record consideration of the improvement of the road, and the diary of Jacob Hiltzheimer, 6 Dec. 1786, says :- "the order of the day was brought forward con- cerning the new road to be made from the middle ferry on Schuylkill to Lancaster. All the speakers in the House debated upon it for some time." And 31 March, 1792, the
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Assembly "finished with the bill for the turnpike between Philadelphia and Lancaster," and the Governor appointed as the Lancaster Turnpike commissioners, Messrs. Adam Reigert, Gen. Hand, Andre.v Graff, Jacob Graff, A. Witmer, and Thomas Boude, of Lancaster, and Philip Wager and Capt. Faulkner, of Philadelphia, and entertained them ~+ dinner on 19 Oct. 1792. But on 10 April, 1791, its right of way and roadbed had been granted and confirmed to some Philadelphia capitalists and promotors, who organ- ized a stock company to improve and operate it by charter, granted 9 April, 1792, the corporation being called the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike Road Company. The company's shares were readily sold, and there was "money a plo ty," yet little was laid out on the old road to improve it, and it still went straight to given points without regard to hills and valleys. Mr. Hiltzheimer say that on 7 Aug. 1793, he "drove ten miles up the Lancaster road to the widow Miller's, to see the new turnpike, about a mile of which is laid." But the revenue of the road was con- scientiously attended to, for in the 62 miles between Phila- delphia and Lancaster there were nine tollgates when the road was opened in 1795. Gate No. 1, was two miles west from the Schuylkill, and collected for three miles; gate No. 2, was five miles west from the river, and collected for five miles; gate No. 3, was ten miles west from the river, and collected for seven miles. Mr. Hiltzheimer was appointed to inspect the new road, and Nov. 1795, he records that in driving over it, he frequently measured it, and found it full 21 feet wide, coming from Lancaster to the 14 Mile Stone.
As this road was still "paved with mud," the "Rules of the Road" are quite as primitive. "No waggon, or other carriage with wheels, the breadth of whose wheels shall not be four inches, shall be driven along said Road between December 1st and May 1st following, with a greater weight thereon than two and a half tons, or with more than three tons during the rest of the year." If loads were over three
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tons, the wheel tires must be proportionately wider. The old English "law of the road" still obtained, and drivers "kept to the left," up to the taking-over of the road by the stock company, when by general understanding and consent the teamsters reversed the rule, for it appeared to them, as well as all Americans,
"The law of the road is a paradox quite, In riding or driving along, If you go to the left you are sure to go right, If you go to the right you go wrong."
This road, incorporated, now became the passenger and freight route of great importance, not only to Pensylvania shippers, and New York and New England merchants, but to the development of "the old Welsh Tract." The traffic in each of these industries was at first controlled and oper- ated by alleged subsidiary concerns of the corporation, but as there shortly seemed to arise great rivalry between "lines" travelling the road, it is presumed the original scheme of close monopoly was abandoned, or was lost con- trol of, or the carriers became independent. But what was known as the Line Wagon Company, owned by directors of the corporation, was long the monopoly freighter over the pike. It had warehouses and repair shops along the route, with extra wagons, horses, drivers, harness, &c. The Pike Stage Company, carrying passengers, the mail, and the newspapers, was the sister monopoly, also owned by the directors, "on the side." It maintained relays of teams, and extras, at such taverns along the road, and where meals were taken which gave the company the best percentage on travellers' fees. Through bad example of these monopo- lists, it is tradition not without foundation, that after they lost their control, the old stage drivers and the teamsters, working independently, practised "graft" to perfection, on the proprietors of road inns, the "wagon houses" and the stage taverns, distinct concerns, when also it was not un- usual for teamsters to hold up the public stages by block-
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ing the narrow road, and demand payment from the driver, who collected the "fee" from the passengers, and kept a "rake-off," to "go on and turn out." This method of "high- way robbery" was also practised by teams, and even stages, on individuals in private vehicles. This state of affairs was the forerunner of another "controlling interest" on the pike. It was not long before old stage drivers and boss teamsters combined, and persecuted and drove from the road, or levied blackmail and tribute on any invaders of the pike, and stopped opposition and rivalry, and ended "rate cutting," and monopolized to themselves the traffic of the pike, charging exorbitantly. Nowadays we hear much about the chivalrous, "gentlemanly, though rough," stage drivers of ye olden time!
In its best days as the great thoroughfare to Lancaster and the West, the "Merion Street" of the Welsh Friends, when teams of four or six horses dragged heavily loaded Conestoga wagons over it, there were mile stones to regulate their journeys, as well as the amount of toll to pay. These reckoned the distance from the old court house at High and Second Streets, Philadelphia. At the 5 Mile Stone, in Mer- ion, just across the Philadelphia county line, was the first important stopping and watering place for stages and teams coming from the city, Stadelman's Black Horse Tavern. Here also wagoners tarried to fix up their loads before entering the city. Near it, behind his great stone barn, was his starch factory, on the west side of the pike, near a "never failing spring." This was a long established inn, and was indicated on Scull's map of 1749-50. Pownall mentions it in his extant Journal, kept on a trip, in 1754, from Philadelphia to the Susquehanna :- "To Shadling's, the Black Horse, 41/4 miles." Thence "To Meeting House [Merion], 114 miles." "To Richard Hughes', The Three Tuns, 21% miles, To Ann Miller's, the Buck, one mile. To Richard Bury's, the Plow, 234 miles. To G. Ashton's, the Vernon [Warren?], 31/1 miles. To White Horse (Ham- bright's), 234 miles. To the Ship (Thomas Park's), 814
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miles," &c. Stadelman's was a fair road-house, and had good custom till about 1798, when Col. Edward Heston built a tavern for his son, Abraham, on the pike in Block- ley, east of Meeting House Lane (which is now 52d Street), which he named Columbus Inn. On the pike, opposite the 4 Mile Stone, was another good inn, called White Lamb. It is also still standing, back from the road, near Wynnefield Ave. Near it is a little stone blacksmith shop that was patronized by travellers long before the "settled road" be- came a turnpike. Near this inn, Thomas Wynne conducted a rope-walk, and at the edge of the woods was the snuff- mill of John Adams, a son-in-law of Thomas Wynne, 3d. At the 7 Mile Stone, on the pike, the old Columbia railway crossed the pike, at Bowman's Bridge. The 8 Mile Stone stood on Price's land, about a hundred perches beyond the Merion Meeting House. Other road houses in Merion were the General Wayne, the Red Lion, and the Eagle, and beyond was the Spread Eagle, the Paoli, and the Sorrel Horse, all popular in stage coach days, and all still operated. In all, between the Schuylkill and Lancaster, there were sixty inns of importance along the turnpike.
The "Turnpike Road," greatly improved, prospered as a tollroad till the canal and the railroad took away its busi- ness, when it became a disreputable affair,-a broken-down plankroad along its eastern end, and its western worse. The eastern end was then known as the West Philadelphia Plank Road, long ago only a memory, yet while it lasted may have been a reputable institution, but it was "too good to last," for its life was only between 1855 and 1858.
About 1876-7, the old Lancaster road became a menace to the paralleling Pensylvania Railroad, for the management of the latter corporation feared that street-car lines might be extended from the city out the old road i .. to the. grow- ing suburbs, and cut into its local passenger business. There- fore, to protect itself from opposition the railroad bought the pike through a subsidiary company, in April, 1880, from 52d Street to Paoli, about seventeen miles, for $20,000,
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and got a charter, under the name Lancaster Avenue Im- provement Company. A. J. Cassatt, president, to operate it as a tollroad. Subsequently, this company sold and aband- oned that part of the road that would not be likely to menace the railroad, west of Bryn Mawr,'and retained the eastern portion, in Montgomery Co., re-naming it Montgomery Ave., and continuing to operate it as a tollroad, through a re-organized corporation called the Philadelphia, Bale, and Bryn Mawr Turnpike Company. However, this as the "old Lancaster Road" will always be "the first and most interesting macadamized road in the United States."
Of the aforementioned inns along the old Lancaster Road in the Welsh Tract, the General Wayne deserves particu- lar mention here, as it is still a noted landmark in Merion. The inducement for changing what was a little stone dwell- ing into an inn, was that it stood on the great highway near two well-used side roads and a long established blacksmith's shop. That it was located so close to the Merion meeting house, was undesirable from Friends' viewpoint, yet they could, at several times, have purchased the lot on which it stands, surrounded on three sides by the meeting house land. This location of the tavern endorses the statement of De Foe:
"Where ever God erects a house of prayer, The Devil always builds a chapel there."
This inn, about which there is misconception as to its age, as there scems to be about its nearest neighbor, the Mer- ion meeting house, was originally, as may be seen, a small stone house, which was erected by Robert Jones, a son of John ap Thomas, sometime after 1709, the year in which he became the owner of the lot on which it stands, and was not "established" as an inn, as its sign now states, "in 1704," and did not so beco e till about 1776, as will appear from extracts below from deeds concerning the property, but for many years was only the home of the smith whose
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shop was across the road. It also may be noted that Pownall, travelling this way, in 1754, did not mention an inn, or tavern here, though he noticed the Meeting House.
It has already been stated that Edward ap Rees (or Price) had 7615 acres, of the Thomas and Jones tract, in 1682, located back of William ap Edward, with Hugh Roberts on the north, Dr. Jones on the south, and Thomas Lloyd on the west; and that in 5mo. 1691, he bought 125 acres of land from said Lloyd on the west end of his first land, and in the same year bought "two acres" of the back end of Dr. Jones's first land, and that these several parcels of land were resurveyed and patented to him, in 1701, amount- ing in total 190 acres. And that Dr. Jones bought 761/ acres, adjoining his first land on the southwest, and along the Merion and Haverford road; and that he sold the r: r end of his original land, and in 1704, bought 188 acres so, th of his last purchase, and then had about 340 acres on both sides of what was afterwards Lancaster pike, and both sides of the road from here to Haverford meeting house.
Edward ap Rees, by a tri-party deed, dated 7 Aug. 1708, conveyed to Robert Jones (son of John Thomas), and "David Meredith" (or Meredith Davis), of Plymouth (father-in-law of Rees Press, whose first wife, Sarah, was the only daughter of Meredith), of the second part, and his son Rees Prees (Price), of the third part, two tracts of land, the above 190 acres, and 220 acres he had bought of Robert Roberts, a part of Hugh Roberts' estate. The two tracts adjoined, but would now be separated by the "Road to the Ford," and were surveyed together, but only the first part of the survey concerns the land of interest here namely, "beginning at a corner in Edward Jones's land, and by the same E. 15°, N. 156 per., N. 16°, W. 28 per. by Jones's land, to a stake in Jones's land, 1. 18°, N. 64 per. to a stake, ... 14°, W. 24 per. by land of Robert Jones, and thence by the Meeting House ground, W. 13º, S. 51/4 per.,
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then N. 14°, W. 7 (73/1) per., then by land Edward ap Rees bought of Robert Roberts, and by lands of Evan Owen, Evan Harry, and William Cuarton."
The "two acres" which Edward Rees had bought of Dr. Jones, as above, went to make up the 190 acres, but Rees had promised them, half to the Merion Meeting, as will appear, and half as follows:
By deed, 23 April, 1709, he conveyed to Robert Jones, aforesaid, "one acre" (where the tavern stands), for twenty shillings Pensylvania money. Described :- "beginning at the southeast corner of the Meeting House stable, thence to a settled road" (Lancaster pike) ; thence S. S. E. 241/1 per. to a stake by the road to Haverford, in the line of Edward Jones ; thence by s. id Jones' land and line, W. S. W. 53/4 per. to a stake; then by "line dividing it from said Edward Rees's land" (the lot on which the meeting house stands, which was still in Rees's name), N. N. W. about 241/1 per., to a chestnut tree; thence "by the Grave Yard belonging to the meeting aforesaid," E. N. E. 534. per. to the beginning. On this lot, as appears in a subsequent deed, Robert Jones "built a house, and made other improve- ments."
The above tri-party deed is quoted in another tri-party deed, dated 31 May, 1753, between Garret (or Garred) Jones (eldest son of said Robert Jones), of the first part, Rees Prees, of the second part, and John Prees (a son of Rees Prees), of third part, concerning the above 190 acres. Described :- begining at Edward Jones' corner, E. 15°, N. 146 per. to a post; thence N. 16°, W. by Edward Jones 28 per., thence by Edw. rd Jones E. 18°, N. 64144 per., thence N. 14°, W. by Robert Jones 2414, per., "thence by Meeting House ground," W. 13°, S. 51/1. per., thence N. 14°, W. 734 per. by same; thence by land bought by the said Edward Rees of Robert Roberts,* W. 13º, S. 206 per., &c., by Evan Owen, Evan Harry, and William Cuarton.
*This land was conveyed, "for $300 silver," to Edward Rees, 16. 8mo. 1707, and deed acknowledged 17. 2mo. 1708, by Robert Roberts,
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Robert Jones died, and by will dated 21. 7mo. 1746, devised "my house and lot of ground near the Merion Meet- ing Ilouse, with all its appurtenances," to his grandson, Silas Jones, of Darby, grazier, who by deed, dated 25 March, 1768,; sold and conveyed this house and lot to Benjamin
of Cal ert Co., Maryland. It was a tract of 200 laid out to Hugh Roberts, which on re-survey amounted to 220 acres, and was bounded by lands of Jonathan Jones, Thomas Jones, Owen Roberts, and Edward Jones, and the ten acre meadow, called "Clean John."
The 125 acre lot, in t' 190 acre tract Edward Rees bought of Thomas Lloyd, by deed o: 3. 5mo. 1691, (witnessed by Robert Owen and David Lloyd), was bounded on W. S. W. by Richard Cuarton; on N. N. W. by Evan Harry, (or Harries), on E. N. E. by Robert Owen, and on S. S. E. by Rce's land.
*By his will, signed in the presence of Jonathan Jones, Jr., Edward Price, and Sydney Roberts, proved 17 Oct., 1746, he gave his son Gerrad Jones the plantation where he lives, 223 acres, bounded south by Day : Evans, his own home-farm, and cousin Evan Jones's land; west b. his son Robert's plantation; north by some of his (Robert, Sr.) own land; east by Schuylkill river. To son Robert Jones, Jr., the plantation where he lives, 325 acres, bounded south and west by land of cousin Evan Jones; north by land of the late William Sharlow; east and south by son Gerrad's land; east and north by his own farm. To daughter Elizabeth Jones the plantation called "Mt. Ararat," which he bought from David Hugh, 165 acres, and an adjoining tract of 66 acres, bounded by son Robert's land, and on the east by the plantation called "Glenrason." This "Glen- rason" farm, 189 acres, bounded north by "Mt. Ararat" (formerly Sharlow's land) ; west by Elizabeth's land and Robert's land; south by Gerrad's other land; east by the Schuylkill, he devised to son Gerrad. Besides the "tavern lot," he gave to grandson Silas Jones ten acres "where the hempmill stood." He gave his lands in Goshen tp., 426 aeres, to son Robert, to sell and remit the price to daughter Ann and her husband, James Paul. To granddaughters Sarah and Katherine Evans £50; to granddaughters Ellen and Ann Jones, £10 each. To daughter Elizabeth his "large Bible," and £20. Trustees Con. ins Robert Roberts and Evan Jone and friend Edward William.
¡It is presumed that during the interval between 1746 and 1768, Anthony Tunis also bought Jand adjoining in 1741, rented the prop- erty and kept "open house," as the place was about this time, and down into the time of the Revolutionary War, called "Tunis' Ordinary."
.
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Jones, of Philadelphia, blacksmith. This deed recites Penn's confirmation to Edward Rees of the 190 acres, in which was included this acre, in 1704 (this is the only excuse for advertising that this tavern was "established in 1704"), and Edward Rees' decd, 1709, to Robert Jones, and again describes the bounds of the one acre, as "begin- ning at the southeast corner of the Meeting House stable. thence to a settled road, S. S. E., about 241/1. perches," &c., and that "Robert Jones here built a house, and made other improvements, and by will devised the same to his grar !- son, Silas Jones," &c., Deed recorded at Norristown C. H. 25 Sep. 1883.
Benjamin Jones, blacksmith, then of Coventry tp., in Chester Co., and wife, Tacy, by deed, dated 1 April, 1775, for £115, Pensylvania money, acknowledged 3 Aug. 1776, recorded with above deed, conveyed this "house and one acre lot" to Abraham Streeper (and Streaper), blacksmith. He built an addition to the old stone house, and made other improvements, and is the first occupant of record who con- ducted the place as a stage house and tavern, and this was throughout the Revolution and till his deccase, in 179.1. He was tax collector of Lower Merion, in 1779. He died intestate, and much in debt, and the court appointed his daughter, Mary Streaper, spinster, and Joseph Price, to administer, and sell his property and pay his debts. By order of the Orphans Court, the tavern and lot were sold at public sale, 4 April, 1795, and deed given for the property by Joseph and Mary, on 20 April, to Edward Price, who "bought it in" for £405 Pensylvania money. This decd to the lot describes it :- "beginning at the southeast corner of the Merion Meeting House Grave Yard Wall (supposed to be the corner of the said Meeting House stable)"; thence along John Dickinson's land, and the land of Robert Hol- land, S. 16°, E. 30 per. to a stone in said Holland's land and line; thence along the same S. 67º, W. 534, per to a stone; thence along John Price's land, and the land of the Meet- ing, N. 16", W. 30 per. to said Grave Yard wall; thence
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along the same, N. 67º, E. 53/1, per. to beginning. By decd dated next day, 21 April, 1795, Edward Price conveyed the tavern and lot to Mary Streaper. These deeds recorded at Norristown, 8 Nov. 1802. Mary leased the property first to a Mr. Taylor, and in 1806, to Major William Methey, who was the landlord till about 1821, when he was suc- ceeded by Jacob Castner, who also had a store in connection with the tavern. Mary Streaper married Titus Yerkes, and by deed, dated 23 Sep. 1854, they conveyed the tavern property to their daughter, Mary, wife of Joel Cook, of Philadelphia, grandfather of the late Congressman, Jocl Cook. By deed, dated 25 Sep. 1854, Joel and Mary con- veyed the tavern and lot in fee to David Young, innkeeper, who died, and by will, dated 21 Sep. 1858, gave the property to his wife; and her heirs, Rees Young, farrier, and Matilda and Harriet Young, sold the tavern and lot to James Baird, of Haverford, steward, by deed of 8 Scp. 1883, which describes the property :- as "a lot with a two and half, and three story stone hotel, stone stable," &c., and the lot :- "beginning at the S. E. cor. of Merion meet- ing house grave yard wall, supposed to be the corner of the said meeting house stable"; thence along land now, or formerly, of John Dickinson, and land now, or formerly, of Robert Holland, S. 16°, E. 20 per. to a stone in the last mentioned land; thence along the same S. 67º, W. 5344, per. to a stone; thence along land now, or formerly, of John Price, and the said meeting house land, N. 16°. W. 30 per. to the said grave yard wall, &c. Baird also bought from same party, two lots on the opposite side of the pike, about 82 sq. per., "beginning at a point in the middle of the Blockley and Merion plank road. The General Wayne Inn next passed, in 1891, to Edward Odell, as owner.
It is tradition that at one time this tavern was called the William Penn Inn, and at another, Wayside Inn, during the Revolution, and was alternately occupied by officers of each army. When Gen. Wayne was a popular hero, and returned triumphant from his expedition against the Ohio
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Indians, th he was named for him. He was received at the inn, on 6th Feb. 1796, by three troops of Philadelphia Light Horse, and escorted to a greater reception in the city. When Castner was the host, it is an unverified tradi- tion that Gen. Lafayette was entertained at the inn, while travelling through the country as the Nation's guest, in 1824-5. When Mr. Young bought the inn, he fitted it up as a summer hotel for rich Philadelphians, and it was well patronized for many years. When it became the lo 'ion of the first postoffice in Merion, David Oram Young carried the mailbag to Paschall's Landing, or Gen. Wayne station, on the railroad, subsequently called Elm station, and now Narberth. In 1876, the inn was enlarged by the addition of its frame portion, and was a popular summer boarding house, but of late years it has degenerated into simply a "barroom."
In so fertile a country as the Welsh Tract, lying between the contending armies during the Revolutionary War, its prosperous Quaker farmers did not escape the forced levies of both the Americans and the British, and each side helped itself freely and liberally to Quakers' property, for it was thought if they would not fight they should contribute of their stores. It has been said that the British were more welcome to what they could find in their raids, because if they paid at all, they always paid in gold for whatever they took. On the other hand, the Americans paying, gave only due-bills, or promissory notes, or orders on their migratory treasurer, so their visits were considered depredations. When the Americans lay through that terrible winter of 1777-8, at Valley Forge, just without the Welsh Tract, and pro- longed their existence with the little that could be found in the neighborhood, there are several severe, sharp orders extant, issued by Gen. Washington, aimed directly at all non-combatants, and suspected tory farmers in his vicinity, for there were not a few of these in the region "seventy miles of my headquarters," as Washington described it in an order about them, dated at Valley Forge.
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Either there must have been a misrepresentation con- cerning the British liberality, or the "cash" story was im- ported from elsewhere, for there is evidence that the Welsh Tract farmers complained bitterly about the British while they held Philadelphia. . After their departure from the city, they reported the ir total losses to both armies, through the assessors appointed by the Americans to rate damages, amounted to £3212, the several Friends' Meetings in the Welsh Tract having kept alleged accurate accounts of their losses. There was taken fre n the members all kinds of live stock, and all sorts of household goods, but mixed with these claims were, as may be seen, the money value of other gricvances.
In the Radnor Mo. Mtg. (Men's Meeting) records there are preserved several schedules of losses, as "An account of Effects taken from sundry friends of the Haverford pre- paratory meeting by the contending armies, Taxes, &c."
"Taken rom Isaac Davis of Haverford, by a Detachment of the British army, commanded by Earl of Cornwallis, the 12mo. 12, 1777, £284, 10. 2. From the same by the army under George Washington, £5. 17. 0."
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