Taverns of Adams County

welcome and thank you for joining us for another online program from the adams county historical society my name is antigone lad and i'm proud to be a board member here i love the historical society the staff the volunteers and the amazing artifacts and documents that they have over a million items in storage here what we're trying to do is to provide our members during this time of the pandemic some online programs to continue your study of history of the adams county area and tonight we'll present an interesting side of that story from john winkelmann our speaker tonight is a licensed battlefield guide here in gettysburg john is a navy veteran he served in vietnam he was in private industry and he has traveled the world but his newfound passion is the taverns of adams county and i'm going to ask john to introduce himself by telling us how he got involved in this specialty of taverns and i'll turn it over to him yeah i get that question a lot uh actually it started out years ago during a remembrance day parade if you ever been to gettysburg on remembrance day of course you've got hundreds of reenactors in town i happen to be sitting in a works uh with a friend of mine and of course all the reenactors are in there and they're about four deep at the bar and i wondered what what the taverns would have looked like in 1863 with all these soldiers in town so my friend said well why don't you do a program on that that would be pretty interesting i said that i don't know well apparently uh before the parade my friend was telling everybody i was going to do a tavern program and by the end of the parade everybody's coming up saying what are you doing this program on taverns i want to see it so i said all right i'll do it i'll go to the adams county historical society i will get the big book on taverns pick out some stories and voila there's the program so get up to uh adams county historical society and uh i met dr gladfelter and he said what are you trying to do i said well i'm gonna do a program on the civil war taverns i'm just looking for the big tavern book and dr gladfelder said well there is no big tavern book we've got lots of information but it's scattered all over you're gonna have to try and put it together and so we started working on the big taverns uh we started going you know the civil war taverns going through the license applications uh newspaper clippings deeds damage claims things like that and finally got the uh the program i wanted i got it done and then dr gladfelter started getting involved in it too so he said well do you want to keep going so then we started you know kind of expanding on it until today we got quite a number of taverns done um unfortunately i haven't been doing much research the last few years i got kind of into some other things but that's how i got started on this thank you so much you're welcome well let's we're going to turn now to the um the story of taverns their history and the part they played in the civil war thank you john okay thank you good evening my name is john winkelmann a licensed battlefield guide here at gettysburg pennsylvania but tonight what we're going to do is explore the historic taverns and inns of adams county now today we call them bars gin mills watering holes these are some of the names we apply to taverns today however in the 18th and 19th century taverns enjoyed a much higher social standing indeed with the western expansion of settlers the need for a tavern or nin to provide food drink and lodging for travelers as well as comfort for the local settlers was second only to providing a place of worship as we'll see many of the towns in adams county grew up around the tavern taverns were considered so necessary that in 1656 the massachusetts colony court which granted tavern licenses made the towns that did not have a tavern subject to a fine now whether this was due to this measure because the simple fact people like taverns taverns flourished in 1675 the reverend cotton mather complained that every other house in boston is now an ale house new york wasn't far behind because by 1648 it was estimated 25 percent of the buildings in new york were taverns and people must have liked to drink because in 1790 the reverend john black right here in adams county tried to induce the upper marsh creek presbyterian congregation to embrace voluntarily a mild form of temperance no abstinence just moderation it was reported that only three members of the congregation joined them these early establishments went by various names taverns tavern stand public house public house of entertainment in grog shop tipping house and ordinary the term ordinary is pretty much didn't just use by the late 1600s in the northern colonies but it persisted in the south long after so if you're reading about the revolutionary war you might come across smith's ordinary well that means smith's tavern after the revolution the term hotels started coming into use as was felt that the word in was to english now these early taverns and inns also served many other purposes for the surrounding communities they would be used for political debates polling centers for voting property and land sales post offices courtrooms jails military enlistment centers and if the tavern had a large ballroom even plays could be performed at the tavern one historian even claimed that taverns were the nursery of the american revolution where the sons of liberty and patriots would meet to discuss the events of the day basically all secular activities which were not considered proper for the church were held in the tavern now because taverns and their proprietors were considered to be very influential the royal government did not want any undesirable person to run one all tavern keepers were required to have a license the prospective tavern keeper would have to send an application for a license to the county court usually a prospective tavern keeper was a well-respected member of the community and he would also include on his application a statement signed by prominent members of the community attesting to his character once the court recommended the license uh would be recommended you the license would be sent to the royal governor if approved by the royal governor the keeper was required to post a bond this bond would state the restrictions and responsibilities the keeper would be bound to buy such as not allowing drunkenness based on the amount of alcohol they served in those days that was probably very subjective uh unlawful gambling selling liquor no selling liquor to indians negros servants apprentices and miners and to truly observe the laws and orders regarding taverns and tavern keeping now curiously you only needed a license if you sold liquor by the small measure which meant by the glass if you sold it by the barrel or the keg no license was required now if you operated a tavern without a license it was said you were operating a tipling house and if you were discovered you would be served a tipling indictment and fine in some colonies these fines would be actually that were collected actually went right into the royal governor's personal account so he had quite an incentive to have his agents looking for these unlawful establishments many early tavern keepers here in adams county were caught operating a tipling house we have an example right here this is a tiply indictment that was served to sarah black in 1769. her husband robert had operated a tavern and aries would become mummisberg today he had passed away so she was running the tavern and you can see is caught and say she is running a tipling house a tipping indictment could be a serious fine usually the people that did it once only did it once if you decide you're going to try the court again you might even wind up going to jail for something like this but many of the early settlers in this county many of the early tavern keepers got caught sarah black john abbott sampson archer william mcclellan samuel geddes all tavern keepers all got caught with running a tavern without a license now after the american revolution the state governor would still issue the license but only on the recommendation of the county courts they finally realized this was kind of silly so in 1815 the state legislature just transferred the authority from the governor to the county courts themselves in an age when opportunities for women were limited being a tavern keeper was considered quite appropriate for women indeed here in adams county as you can see many of the widows took over the taverns once you know once their death of their husband and so we have a lot of the women running a tavern and it was considered perfectly appropriate now another thing taverns were required to have was a sign they'd have to have a sign out front and at night it'd have to be illuminated by all lanterns and here's a sign of the cross keys tavern um these were actually these signs are actually pictographs representing the name such as cross keys but you would have green tree indian king the sign of the eagle the washington things like that the reason they pretty much did this and kept the names fairly common was many of these people were illiterate they could not read or write and so it'd be quite easy if somebody asked where's the nearest tavern or in you could say go to the sign of the cross keys go to the sign of the indian king um books also these names could change if a different proprietor took over the inner the tavern also could change due to political events for example in 1776 if your tavern was named the king george you might want to seriously consider getting another name probably the oddest i ever heard was in new york state after the battle of saratoga general uh benedict arnold he was recovering from his wound and he stayed at this tavern recuperating well after he had left the tavern keeper had a great idea he was going to change the name of his tavern to the benedict arnold inn i'm sure several years later i hope he kept the sign because he probably had to go right back again now some of these early inns and taverns are also very class conscious at the top where the establishments that cater to the stagecoach travelers and the wealthy next were the ins used by the wagoneers and teamsters those fellows that fault freight and lastly were the places used by the drovers these were men who herded cattle and livestock to market any inn that accommodated drovers or wagoneers could possibly lose the stage trade and a lot of times if drovers and wagoneers would stay at a hotel many times they had to stay in the bar and sleep on the floor uh which probably didn't matter much to them because typically they'd sleep with they had their bed rolls and everything they're probably used to sleeping outside anyway now the stage travelers they could go upstairs and they might get a bed if you did get a bed you might have to share it with two or three other people and if they're out of beds well you're going to sleep on the floor now depending on the size of the building women might have to sleep in the same room as the men by 1800 is probably more common though they have private rooms for the for the women but you can understand it's not considered inappropriate because travelers in those days did not undress for bed the lack of privacy the need for warmth the fear of thieves and the condition of the bedding many of these people decided to sleep in their clothes now these stagecoach uh travelers had to keep to the stage owner's schedule which usually meant you would be leaving at four or five in the morning which you meant you had just enough time to splash some cold water in your face hit the privy get a fast breakfast and you were on those way on your way now travelers in those days were quick to learn one thing depending on what class you were don't drink the water wells were usually shallow and primitive outhouses and privities privies were nearby so you had all this runoff especially from livestock in the yard and this could cause all kinds of problems the taverns would sell safe drinks this would be whiskey rum brandy gin hard cider strong beer basically any concoction that was 40 proof 20 alcohol uh drinking in those days though was considered to be good for the health and by 1800 the annual per capita consumption was 5 gallons that's three times today's standard so yep they loved alcohol uh the prices that an owner could charge was set by the court and they had to be posted rum was the most popular type of alcohol at this time it was cheap it was readily available some of the drinks they served had some weird names you had nimbo that was rum and loaf sugar grog part run three parts water flip strong beer with rum or sugar added punch this would be rum water sugar and the rinds of juice lemons oranges whatever uh sling gin water and sugar that could be hurt served hot or cold uh the local drinks in this era typically though were whiskey and hard cider if you went to cities or the higher end taverns you probably had a choice of wine or brandy the growth of taverns in adams county can be directly linked to the establishment of the public roads the first public road in the county would be laid out between february and april 1747. this would be known as the blacks gap york road it would enter the county on the future site of abbotstown which would be right here it would then head westward going through the future site of new oxford hunter's town mummisburg and then through black's gap which at the time of the civil war be known as the cashtown pass later that same year a second road would be laid out this would be known as the york nichols gap road and actually split off from the first road and start heading westward to the few future sites of gettysburg fairfield and around jax mountain pretty much going into nichols gap which at the time the civil war be known as the monterey pass in 1769 a very important road will come through the air especially as gettysburg would be concerned is the baltimore shippensburg road it would come up from the south across the uh both 1747 roads and then on through uh up to shippensburg when they laid it out they actually used the tavern black's tavern and uh would become become monisberg and samuel getty's tavern and will become gettysburg as reference points so the surveyors actually used two taverns to reference uh this road right here of course when we talk about roads uh in the 1700s yes they took the trees down but many times they left the stumps the rocks no grading no bridges these are very primitive roads and a lot of times you know as the wagons are wearing ruts on both sides it was not uncommon to get hung up on these stumps if you got hung up on the stump it was said you were stumped that's where the phrase stumped comes from uh you would then probably have to we're on a stage you'd have to get out probably to lighten the load um also you might as a passenger you might be asked to push the stage up hills or over rocks or whatever and so it could be very trying there was actually a man he was on his way to bedford he wrote that the stage got hung up he got out and started walking to the next stop and he actually beat the stage to the next stop now in dry weather on flat terrain 15 to 20 miles was considered good however in bad weather the journey could drag out now there's a lady margaret van horn dwight in 1810 said she was traveling from harrisburg to bradford which today would take you maybe two hours uh it took her 12 days to give you an idea how the roads could be in those days now in the early 19th century though turnpike's gonna be laid out what's happening is people are migrating westward the new territories have opened up so people are heading out to ohio indiana you know the old northwest territory and so the old roads couldn't take the traffic so now turnpikes are being uh put in uh these turnpikes would be uh called mcatomized that's packed uh crushed stone uh there'd be no uh no stumps no rocks they would have been removed the roads were graded and they would have bridges over the streams and creeks now this would make travel much faster and more comfortable an advertisement for a stage running from harrisburg to pittsburgh said it would take less than four days so definitely improve you know the rate of travel now these new roads will also cause taverns to grow and flourish actually the early 1800s i would say the first half of the 1800s was the golden age of taverns here in adams county because with these turnpikes being established little what they called halfway houses would be established sometimes only a mile or two apart to serve all the various travelers coming through however in the mid 19th century a new form of transportation enters the scene the railroads once a railroad line is established to your city well or your town pretty much the stage lines disappear also freight and livestock can be shipped a lot faster and a lot easier with the rail lines and so you start losing the wagoneers and the drovers uh so once the railroad goes in many of these old taverns and inns disappear and uh some would pretty much the ones in that towns would survive however the ones along the turnpikes what they call the hat the way houses halfway houses they would kind of be disappear however many of the old buildings would remain for decades in tonight's episode we're going to explore some historic taverns that were here at the time the battle of gettysburg for students of the battle these names are probably very familiar cache town inn hurst tavern the black horse tavern mertz tavern and the swan inn first we're going to start with is the cash down in peter mark bought the property in 1804 from andrew miller there is a 1797 date attributed to the house but that's probably not correct because the tax record in 1798 only shows a log cabin and a log barn on the property so this structure here was probably built much later now the new turnpike running from gettysburg to cashtown will be completed in 1813 and in 1815 peter mark will be granted a tavern license is now his house will now serve as a tavern inn and it was known actually at that time as marx tavern or mark stand now at a time in the early part of the 19th century bartering was a common form of trade the shortage of cash so they would barter but not peter mark if you stayed at this end you had to have cash on the barrel head and he would not accept barter for any goods or services now this practice will eventually be known to travelers and to settlers around the area and finally give the surrounding name the name cashtown when it came time to put a post office in for this community everybody said what should we name our town well the name stuck it becomes cash town so while some taverns and inns in pennsylvania are named after or excuse me some towns in pennsylvania are named after taverns or ends or the tavern keeper cashtown gets its name because of the business practices of peter mark peter mark will run his in until 1840 and he'll own it until his death in 1845. moses smith will buy the end from marx ayers in 1847 but he will sell it to henry mikley in 1854. henry's son jacob will run the end during the civil war when it was known as nicholas hotel now this uh end will be actually visited twice by the confederates during the war uh during jeb stewart's raid into pennsylvania in october 1862 confederate cavalrymen will stop at mickles and they'll help themselves to the liquor and after the war jacob nickley will submit a damage claim stating that his born has been stripped of everything plus he lost 200 gallons of liquor and decanters the following year gets even worse because in july 1863 this inn will be the center of confederate activity in the cashtown area confederate officers will stay at the hotel and some accounts have general a.p hill using it for his headquarters generally will actually meet hill in front of the end on july the first to find out what the gunfire is off to the east and if you remember that iconic scene in the movie gettysburg martin sheehan playing generally comes down the chambersburg pike he's right in front of the in here and again if you look at it the sign says the cash down in uh that's not right it would have been michley's hotel in 1863. um after the war jacob nickley will put in another damage complaint and would actually write on that claim that the entire rebel force under generally came down the chambersburg pike passing within 20 feet of my bar room door minkley will also file for the loss of a horse a wagon a steer 50 chickens 100 young apple trees and 480 gallons of whiskey a lot of students at the battle of gettysburg today wonder where was ap hill during the battle if he had anything to do with all this missing whiskey i think we know the answer to that um there was an ad in the store and sentinel newspaper for october 20th 1863 describes the end and he listed for sale apparently jacob nickley had enough dealing with passing confederates and in uh 1864 daniel heinzel then will by the end and with his wife mary they will run it until 1890. during the 20th century the indo in will undergo various owners one time actually served as a biker bar until it's finally restored by the buckley family in the 1980s now today the old inn still survives it's on the chambersburg pike or the old route 30. however the last year or two it hasn't been open so waiting to see what's developing right there if we head a mile east towards gettysburg we will come to our next tavern and that will be hers tavern thomas sweeney will build this tavern in 1815 and he would actually write on his application that he wanted to operate a public house for travelers and strangers who required sojourn along the turnpike from gettysburg to chamber chambersburg it's the most flowery reason i ever saw in a license application to get a you know for a tavern in the mid 1820s though sweeney is having financial problems and this actually the tavern will be sold at a sheriff's sale in 1828 to frederick herr herr will then apply for a tavern license to operate a public house of entertainment an article in the gettysburg times in 1941 states that her was a scoundrel apparently there were two reasons for this first was running the tavern with a certain mr louie who is making counterfeit coins in the basement uh louis will be charged and convicted in county court but nothing happens to her apparently he had no knowledge of the activity or maybe just had a better lawyer second her did not accept the mennonite faith of his family and by them he was considered an outcast by the mid-1850s her is having financial problems and he's looking to sell the tavern an ad in the compiler in 1854 listed tavern for sale the property consists of the tavern two tenant houses a bank barn a blacksmith shop and two orchard pretty extensive piece of land there in 1854 though would be the last year that her would have a license so from 1856 to 1869 the only tavern in cumberland township would be the black horse tavern on the fairfield road which we'll be talking about shortly during the battle of gettysburg though the old tavern be right on the confederate artillery line on july the first a union artillery shell will hit the southeast corner of the building on the second floor destroying much of the outside wall her will file a damage claim in 1871 the u.s government will grant the money unfortunately uh frederick kurzairs will receive the money as frederick dies in 1869 now there is little evidence that the tavern served as a field hospital but it may have been used as a dressing station as blood stains could be seen on the upstairs floors as late as 1986 and there were six confederate burials noted on the property these men from the they were from the 11th to 26 north carolina and the 33rd virginia part of harry heath's division a visitor to the tavern in july 1863 had a horrible experience and he would write nearest was a brick tavern and in the tavern a company of soldiers put up after the battle we used the water from the tavern well but it got so ugly and smelled so bad we could hardly drink it the soldiers were sick and we were sick they thought there were dead frogs in the well so one day they pumped and pumped to clear it out and by and by here comes up a little piece of wrist with a thumb attached now they knew what was the matter and there's a lot of gagging done among them if you remember in our first segment we talked about how travelers did not drink water they always drank alcoholic drinks maybe this is another reason you shouldn't drink water in a tavern in 1869 the reynolds family will purchase the tavern and operate it as a hotel for visitors to the battlefield it will then for a number of years become private residents until 1879 when it is reopened as a tavern however in 1987 during a terrific storm the roof would actually be ripped off and the west wall on the second floor would actually collapse and fall into the first floor luckily the wolf family rather than demolishing the old tavern would rebuild it and would reopen for business a year later and today it still serves the community as a fine restaurant and tavern out on route 30. if we go about two miles south of hurst tavern we'll come to the famous black horse tavern now william mcclellan will move into this area in the 1740s and he will establish his homestead by marsh creek in 1752 he will open a tavern on this site apparently william neglect neglected to get a tavern license so also in 1752 he will be served a tipling indictment for operating a legal tavern now it appears he never got a tavern license so whether he just stopped operating a legal one or he just kept operating the illegal one without getting caught we don't really know after his death in 1755 his son william jr will inherit the property and in 1762 he'll open a legal tavern there he'll run it himself from 1762 to 1766 but then he gets into politics he will hold various offices in cumberland township from 1767 to 1786. he was also a county commissioner from 1786 to 1788. he will run his tavern one last time in 1789 and he passes away in 1796. now his son william iii we're gonna have to start assigning numbers here because there's a lot of william mcclellan's in this family he will run the tavern from 1802 to 1805. he will lease it to others while he's running other taverns now this mcclellan clan was really big into taverns in this area he would be a proprietor at the globe in 1806. he will actually buy the indian queen on the diamond from james scott and 1810 he's over the sign of the buck on chambersburg street so he's pretty active in tavern keeping and stuff in the area apparently though um apparently this is too much you'll finally actually sell both taverns and gettysburg in 1812. it was actually uh william mcclellan the third though would actually build a stone bridge over marsh creek as you can see in the picture today you can see the black horse tavern on the other side of the creek and you can see the stone bridge that william mcclellan had built also in 1813 he will build a two-story stone addition to his tavern and this is what we see right here so you can see the stone edition and to the left is the log tavern that had been there prior to that and he will run this as the black horse tavern he will run it from 1813 to 1830 but shortly before his death in 1831 he'll sell it to william mcculloch now the tavern will pass through other owners until 1846 when francis bream the former sheriff adams county buys it bream will run the tavern himself until 1874. now the black horse tavern will flourish because of its location being on the old 1747 road that went through nichols gap and onto hagerstown the tavern will be an important stop for drovers who are driving large herds of cattle up from virginia to markets in pennsylvania the drovers would pen up their cattle on the 400 acres of brain's farm and they would stay in the tavern in the 1840s the local militia units would drill on the farm and breem himself would also hold horse races and other equestrian competitions very well known and very popular people as far away as maryland and virginia would actually come to participate in those events and actually uh from 1856 to 1869 bream will only have the only tavern license in cumberland township now during the battle the area around the tavern would be occupied by confederates on the night of july the first general andrew humphries commander of the second division of the union third corps will stop at the tavern trying to find out where the union army was had taken a wrong turn when he across marsh creek and he gets up to the tavern and he meets with bream and brim will tell him that the union army has retreated south of town and now he's actually behind the confederate lines now nobody knows exactly you know what was said or what the conversation was about but humphreys later wrote that he suspected that bream had southern sympathies on july the 2nd during long streets march south um they will actually pass the tavern of course just south of the tavern they will go up onto brims hill and from that hill they notice the union signal station on little round top so while the column is stopped while general longsheet and staff are trying to figure out what to do a member of long street staff colonel john black found out there were barrels of whiskey in the tavern and not wanting any of the men to uh imbibe he would actually have those barrels of whiskey destroyed when black mentioned this to longsheet the general said i suppose you saved some for yourself and me black was a tea totaler and he said excuse me general as i do not drink i forgot to do so this probably did not help general longsheet's disposition that afternoon later on july the 2nd a confederate field hospital would be set up at the tavern from a clause division and 23-year-old dr simon baruch the father of bernard baruch would set up a field hospital there he uh pretty much attached to the third south carolina battalion of kirchhoff's brigade they had just gotten everything set up when the wounded from kershaw's brigade start arriving and dr baruch will work from the afternoon of july the second straight through to the afternoon of july the third pretty much 24 continuous hours on the early morning of the fourth ace the slightly wounded will be moved out and only those unable to travel will remain general lee will order doctors baruch pierce and not to remain with ten orderlies to attend the 222 wounded confederates who are at the tavern 70 confederates will actually be buried on the tavern grounds including colonel william de saussure of the 15th south carolina infantry he will actually initially be buried in the breme family burial ground also there would be captain fitzgerald ross an observer from the austrian army and he would write how the front yard of the tavern was a regular rendezvous for the confederate generals during the retreat and how he met general jeb stewart there after the war bream will file a damage claim for seven thousand dollars but he will receive nothing as the damage was done by the confederate army breen will die in 1884 and his son robert will own the building until 1923 but it had long ceased being used as a tavern and today the building is a private residence along the fairfield road what we're going to do now is head south down the emmitsburg road and our next tavern will be merchants tavern in 1802 mattheus waybright will obtain a license to open a tavern along the new road between gettysburg and emmitsburg this road opened in 1801 whitebright was quick to take advantage of this new business opportunity in 1811 wybrite will sell the tavern the outbuildings and 24 acres of land to nicholas mertz now that's pronounced i know it looks like moritz but it's pronounced mertz and he'll actually write on his license application that he is a stand lately occupied by m waybright and he will actually run his tavern until 1861. in 1862 nicholas's son samuel will take over the tavern and on march the 3rd 1863 nicholas mertz will pass away now for whatever reason samuel mertz did not renew his license in 1863. at the time of the battle this was not an operating tavern on june 30th 1863 the old tavern will become the headquarters for general john reynolds commander of the left wing of the armed potomac reynolds will have dinner that night at the tavern with general howard commander of the union 11th corps and there are stories that reynolds aids had to bring food in from nearby surrounding farmsteads well maybe because it was not an operating tavern at the time they didn't have enough food on hand to handle guests like this uh also it said that reynolds spent the night at the tavern sleeping on some chairs however according to uh merch's uh the mertz family uh tradition he actually slept on a bench and uh actually that bench was in possession of the mert's family for many decades afterwards of course when one of general reynolds aids came in he was returning from 20 town that morning he found that the general sleeping on the floor so maybe tried the chairs went to the bench and finally went to the most comfortable location in 1864 samuel mertz will renew his license and he will run the tavern here until 1875. in 1876 samuel will partner with joseph johnson and then they will run a store there for the next 10 years samuel's younger brother john mert served in company c of cole's calvary on december the 7th 1871 company c will have a reunion at the tavern in 1886 the building will be used by the mertz family as their and when samuel dies in 1915 half of the tavern will be inherited by john diesel and his adopted son and it will stay in the family when samuel's daughter catherine dies in 1852 the old tavern will be sold this tavern had been in the mertz family for 141 years the old tavern still stands today as a private residence but with the new route 15 behind it and commercial businesses on both sides it's hard to picture how it looked in its heyday for our last tavern on this segment we'll actually go back to the in actually into the town of gettysburg and talk about the swan inn now jacob stock a native of bavaria would open the swan inn on south washington street in 1862 this is right near where the hospital is today stock had immigrated to the united states in 1846 and in the 1860s census he was actually listed as a coach maker i guess he wanted maybe a little easier profession so in 1862 he applied for a tavern license and he would run the swan until 1869. now stock was an avid hunter in an excellent shot and what he wanted to do is have shooting competition in his bar well the idea of firing off a musket with the noise and the smoke would be a little much so we actually had air rifles that would uh kind of fire almost like these flechette darts and actually the adams county historical society has two of stocks air rifles hopefully one day they'll be put back on display again now during the battle the confederates will actually use the swan as a sniper position it's on the south end of town oh it's got a perfect view of cemetery hill so the snipers in this building were harassing union soldiers on cemetery hill especially the 73rd ohio it finally got to the point where the union ships i guess they had enough so they put a 12 pound napoleon on the uh 20 town road and they opened up with artillery now after the war stock would file a damage claim for 653 dollars he said he lost his bed stand his dresser had been destroyed of course today if you look at it you can still see the pock marks in the south wall and i was always wondering how did he lose a bed stand and a dresser and then i found this picture taken right after the battle so now you can see the damage caused by that artillery and you can understand why he probably lost his dresser and bed stand so on top you see right after the battle and today pretty much how it looks today so there's still a lot of dings and the bricks and everything but nothing how it looked in 1863 uh out of that damage claim for 653 dollars stock actually was awarded 153 dollars because it was a unit army that did the damage in 1870 stock will leave the swan and he will no open a new hotel on the southwest corner of washington high streets and so the old swan would now become a private residence however of the six taverns that were in operation in gettysburg in 1863 this is the only building still standing in town today well that includes our program for tonight i hope you enjoyed it if there's further interest what we can do is explore other taverns we didn't cover uh there's a lot of taverns that were here during the civil war we did not cover tonight we mainly did these because these buildings are still standing today you can see them and they were pretty famous taverns uh in 1863. further episodes could be following john gordon's march across adams county we could do the taverns from you know the franklin adams county line right into the borough we could do a program another segment on the um taverns in the town of gettysburg in 1863 and also we could follow john gordon on his march on june the 27th the taverns he would see in new oxford abbotstown like that so hope you enjoyed the program see you again next time thank you very much john for that unusual perspective on adams county history i hope you will drop us a line if you'd like to learn more about the adams county taverns which john has a rich catalog of information to share with us and if you'd like to continue our programs i hope you will consider hitting the donate button and any amount will be much appreciated by the adams county historical society thank you for joining us

Channel: Adams County Historical Society at Gettysburg

Views: 1,391

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Taverns, History, Adams County, Civil War

Id: Ec7cimvfGAE

Length: 40min 52sec (2452 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 08 2020