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Early Inns and Taverns
Visualizing early 19th century inns and taverns in Worthington is like trying to imagine a little of a modern bed and breakfast, a bit of a boarding house, and a touch of an English pub all rolled together. Bypassed by the National Road with its bustling stagecoach routes, Worthington in the late 1820s did receive an occasional visitor via the irregular stagecoaches to Delaware and Sandusky. For the most part, however, it was a peaceful village where early travelers arrived on foot or horseback to conduct business, and found lodging in private hones which doubled as inns and taverns.
From its construction late in 1804, James Kilbourne's large brick home southwest of the public square provided temporary lodging for new arrivals and business travelers. By 1813 Calvin Case was managing its burgeoning business and advertising for "five or six barrels of whiskey" and a "sprightly young lad to attend to the business of a Tavern." The use of taverns as community social centers is illustrated by an 1819 advertisement regarding an African lion, "the largest in America," which was to be "exhibited at Col. J. Kilbourne's from nine to five on Friday and Saturday next. Admittance 25 cents - children half price." The Kilbourne family continued their tavern business for years. An 1831 letter from Harriet Buttles to her sister Orrel referred to their brother Lincoln tending bar. When family members were transferring property assets among themselves in 1842, the hotel furnishings included sixteen beds, nine dozen chairs, five settees, eighteen tables, two bureaus, six wash stands, as well as bar and table furniture. An 1845 advertisement by James Kilbourne referred to his remodeled inn facilities as the "Sign of the Sun." As late as 1850, widow Cynthia Kilbourne's household contained several boarders including a black barber named William A. Yard.
The best known of Worthington's early taverns was the Griswold Tavern, the large brick building erected on the northeast corner of the public square in 1811 when the village was actively competing for the state capital. Ezra Griswold had a tavern license as early as 1807 and had undoubtedly been accommodating travelers in his home. An $11.02 1/2 bill for James Allen's stay from May 30th to June 13th 1815, while he was in town on business, charged $4 for two weeks board, $4 for keeping his horse, and the remainder itemized charges for gin, wine, whiskey or brandy sold by the glass or gill. Much has been written about the gala community activities in the large room on the upper floor of the Griswold Inn. An 1822 bill for Roswell Wilcox for "Supper for self & Wilkeson 50 cents, 2 Horses fed 25 cents, 2 qts cider 25 cents" suggests it was also used by local persons for what would now be called business entertaining.
The influx of businessmen to the Worthington Manufacturing Company evidently encouraged construction of other homes large enough to accommodate boarders and taverns. By 1817 Worthington was described as a thriving place with four taverns serving "plain fare." In addition to Kilbourne's and Griswold's this probably included Benjamin Graves, a licensed tavern keeper who evidently built the frame house on the west side of the public square which is now 721 High Street. He sold it for $1700 in 1818 to Demas Adams, Kilbourne's son-in-law, who soon obtained a license and operated a tavern during the depression of the early 1820s. William Bishop purchased this residence in 1830 and for the next twenty-five years apparently operated it as a boarding house with proximity to the Worthington Academy, the Medical College and the business district.
Two early frame taverns were on diagonal corners of present day Stafford and High Streets. In the northwest corner was a building owned by John Goodrich, valued at $720 when the first village tax assessment was made in 1826. Goodrich had a tavern license as early as 1820 and owned this site until 1840, but it became known locally as the "Brundige Tavern" for the man who ran it in the early 1850s, primarily as a boarding house for workmen such as blacksmiths and wagon makers.
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| Hor House/Beers Tavern Built c. 1818-1819 by Isaac Hor on the southeast corner at Stafford and High, this elegant frame tavern was operated by the Beers family for much of the 19th century |
On the southeast corner of this intersection was the elegant "Hor House" with its three story entry hall. Built prior to 1819, this commodious dwelling had several owners but is remembered locally as the "Beers Tavern," operated by various members of this family from 1838 until after the Civil War. Architecturally, it was the most distinctive building in the village with its three story central section and elegantly crafted Adams style entry and windows. It is unfortunate that its carpenter builders are unknown and cannot be credited for their craftsmanship.
The only antebellum inn which is still operated as such is the present Worthington Inn, whose original portion first appeared on the village tax list in 1835 as the $1770 Rensselaer Cowles home. No advertisement has been found identifying it as an inn during his ownership, and it seems unlikely that general store proprietor Cowles would have been competing directly with his father-in-law, James Kilbourne's establishment a few doors north. The inventory of Cowles' estate in 1842 included eight bedsteads and several sets of dishes, suggesting the family may have been prepared to accommodate boarders. His $180 carriage was certainly a larger or more elaborate vehicle than any other Worthington family is known to have owned at that time. Perhaps the Cowles family boarded some students from the nearby Female Seminary, which included R.W. Cowles on its board and his daughters among its students. The Cowles heirs sold this brick building in 1852 after they had moved to Columbus. It was extensively remodeled by Theodore Fuller who sold it in 1854 to William Bishop, who operated it for the next decade as the "Bishop House," a landmark inn of the Civil War era.
Today, only the Worthington Inn can trace its heritage to the first half of the 19th century when inns and taverns were centers of village social and business interaction.
SOURCES:
Calvin Case's advertisement for the tavern in Kilbourne's hotel appeared in the Western Intelligencer, 9 June 1813. The advertisement for the lion's exhibition appeared in the Columbus Gazette, 8 April 1819. Harriet Kilbourn Butties' letter 5 January 1831 to Orrel Kilbourn is in the Buttles Family Papers, MSS 951, Ohio Historical Society. Franklin County Deed Record 29, p. 387 itemizes the Kilbourne's hotel furnishings included in the property transfer 19 April 1842. Kilbourne's advertisement for the "Sign of the Sun" is in the Ohio State Journal, 17 December 1845. Cynthia Kilbourne's household is #191 in the 1850 Sharon Township, Franklin County, Ohio census.
An incomplete list of licensed tavern keepers in Sharon Township, 1803-1847 is transcribed in Ohio Source Records From the Ohio Genealogical Quarterly (Baltimore, 1986) p. 553. James Alien's 1815 bill and Wilcox's 1822 bill at Griswold's tavern are in the Griswold Family Papers, MSS 193, Box 5, Folder 2 and Box 4, Folder 2, Ohio Historical Society.
Four taverns are mentioned but not named in Richard G. Salmon's description of Worthington in 1817 in "St. John's Parish, Worthington," Ohio Historical Quarterly, Vol. 64 (Jan. 1955) pp. 55-76. Early deeds relating to lot 82 are Franklin County Deed Record 2, p. 92 Graves to Adams, 1818; Vol. 9, p. 50 Adams to Bishop, 1830; Vol. 58, p. 422 Bishop to Heath, 1855 includes names of three tenants living in the house.
Deeds relating to lot 37 are Vol. D, p. 21 (Goodrich acquisition burned); Vol. 24, p. 78 Goodrich heirs to Comstock 1840; Vol. 43, p. 556 Comstock to Brundige 1850; Vol. 56, p. 134 Brundige to Hunt 1853. James Brundige, 1164 in the 1850 census, Sharon Township, Franklin County, Ohio is listed as a landlord with five apparently unrelated persons in his household.
Early deed records for lot 45 burned, but a mortgage deed 1 April 1819 from Leonard Smith and Isaac Hard (Hor) to Edward Mallory is in the Buttles Family Papers, MSS 951, Ohio Historical Society. Buttles secured Smith's mortgage and was forced to sell his own brick house directly opposite on lot 36 when Smith defaulted and left town. The three massive chimneys in this tavern were probably built by Buttles. During the early 1820s the Franklin Chronicle referred to public events at the "Hor House" and carried an advertisement from Isaac Hor 12 March 1821, "large house for sale or let - very commodious for tavern or other public business -sell furniture to furnish house if required." It was sold to Columbus attorney Orris Parrish and later to the Beers family, whose ownership of this property from 1838 to 1887 is recorded in Franklin County Deed Records Vol. 24, p. 192 and Vol. 188, p. 598.
The R.B. Cowles estate appraisal 16 July 1842 is microfilm GR 3368, pp. 202-205, Ohio Historical Society. Key deed records relating to lot 109 are Vol. 47, p. 541; Vol. 54, p. 323; Vol. 80, p. 100. The "Bishop House, William Bishop, Prop." was advertised in George R. Hawes, Ohio State Gazetteer, 1859-60, p. 546. William Bishop's household, #183 in the 1860 census, Sharon Township, Franklin County, Ohio identifies him as an innkeeper and lists five family members, three related children, four boarders, and three employees.
This article is one of a series of 31 articles originally published in the Worthington News and then in the book "Probing Worthington's Heritage" copyright by Robert and Jennie McCormick. The 1990 book is out of print, but copies are available at the libraries of the Worthington Historical Society and the Old Worthington Library. Much of this content was later included in the book "New Englanders on the Ohio Frontier" which can be purchased at our Gift Shop.
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