Welcome to the Mon-Yough Chapter Journal

 

Best wishes to everyone for good health and a bright and issue-free 2025!

     I am pleased to announce the debut of the Mon-Yough Chapter’s blog, The Mon Yough Journal. The purpose of the blog is to share with the public and the archaeology community the activities of the Mon-Yough Chapter and topics of archaeological interest. The Journal will be bimonthly and will be written by chapter members and invited guest contributors. The blog will focus on artifacts, archaeological sites, gender, dietary information, topics of archaeological and historical interest, state and national policies that impact archaeological research and how findings are disseminated to the public through publications and displays.

     The Mon-Yough Chapter #3 of the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology was chartered in 1973 at California State College by students and faculty. Geographically, the chapter covers Greene, Washington, and Fayette counties in southwestern Pennsylvania. Membership is open to all individuals who have an interest in learning about the history and prehistory of the region. For information about membership, please consult the chapter’s website: myarcheology.org. Information about meeting, lab and field work opportunities, and lectures can also be found on the webpage. Also follow us on Facebook:

     This initial story focuses upon the topic of taverns that once dotted the landscape along roadways such as the National Pike (US 40). The purpose of the National Road was to facilitate the movement of people and goods between towns and settlements along the Ohio River and points farther east, such as Cumberland, Maryland, and Philadelphia. The Mon-Yough chapter has conducted excavations at one such tavern site along the National Road in Fayette County since the summer of 2019 (Coley et. al.2022). 

     In the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries, taverns were the equivalent of the present-day rest stops and travel centers such as the Loves seen along many of the roadways today. There were not regulations governing the food, accommodations, and overall hygiene. Taverns could be a family’s home, or a structure built specifically to serve the needs of those traveling the roadways.

     At this point in the conversation, a distinction between the types of taverns is necessary. The first example is the homes. Private residences were located at cross-roads, as well as scattered along the length of a roadway. These were opportunistic enterprises that catered to the dietary needs of individuals, families, and their livestock. While 19^th century pictures of private residence taverns exist, little archaeological research has been conducted on such sites.

     These modest log structures can be contrasted with the family owned, two-story stone structures built by Peter Colley (c.1801) and William Searight (1821) located along US 40 or the National Road. Archaeological excavations at these two sites by California State College in the 1970s (Michael 1971, 1973; Michael and Carlisle 1976) revealed artifact assemblages consistent with a domestic household. This should not be surprising considering both were home first, and businesses second. 

Searight’s Tavern, Fayette County (post-1900 image)

 

 

     The archaeological assemblage at a tavern site such as the Compass Inn would be very different from those from the Colley and Searight tavern sites for the simple fact that families lived at the latter two sites, while the Compass Inn was predominately an inn for guests. while site and special classes of material remains such as stemware and higher value ceramics are absent.

     There were also a class of tavern above the small home and taverns, such as Searight’s Tavern in Fayette County located along the National Road. The wagon stand catered to waggoneers (sometimes called freighters), and drovers. Waggoneers were professional drivers for hire who hauled goods – the truck drivers of their time, and they were the most common traveler on the National Road at that time. “In the days when the national road was at the height of its supremacy, these wagon stands were located at every mile of the road’s length. They were unpretentious frame buildings often with spacious yards for wagons, livestock, and a large watering trough and barns for the horses (Coley et. al.2022). 

     There were no beds for the wagoner in these stands. At night the barroom became the sleeping quarters for the teamsters who slept on the floor, before the fire, rolled up in their blankets. In the summer waggoneers usually slept in the commodious yard with their teams. These large yards were a principal feature of the wagon stand. The barns to were large, capable of stabling as many as 50 horses” (McSwigan (1940:12). Although they carried their own whisky jug for refreshment between stops, they were good patrons at the bar. They often brought their own horse feed with them but frequently found it necessary to supplement with forage supplied by owner (as cited in Yoder (1969:71). The wagoner would not have been the best-off customer, but they would have been a frequent patron of the same tavern stand since they retraced the same delivery routes over and over (Coley et. al.2022). 

      Drovers would have also been a frequent guest at these wagon stands. Casandra Vivian describes them as “. . . among the most colorful of travelers were the drovers with their herds of sheep, geese, turkeys, hogs, or cattle. They ambled along blocking the road especially at toll houses, where they had to be counted…off they would go 5,000 turkeys gobbling and screaming down the road. It took weeks, sometimes months to reach their destination” (Vivian 2004: 26).

      Unscaled taverns and Inns, such as the Compass Inn in Westmoreland County and the Century Inn in Washington County, were known to cater to stagecoach passengers who would have been wealthier, more affluent travelers. This clientele traveled in the “painted and ornamented stagecoaches with plush interiors and cushioned seats” (Vivian (2004:28). These upper-class travelers would have expected more refined accommodations. The better class of inns “had a parlor used as a sitting room for women travelers, or might be hired for exclusive use of wealthy people or family” (Earle (1969:41). The parlor 

Compass Inn, Westmoreland County

Century Inn, then known as Hill’s Tavern, Washington County

was a place for women to engage in polite conversation away from the usually rowdy barroom.  Inns were largen than most taverns and wagon stands and most likely had second floor bedrooms, along with a ballroom on the upper floor where community dances may have taken place. They would have had a large barroom that was the center of activity with a separate dining room. They also offered more services, and often included a post office, a store, and a blacksmith forge. The village that developed around Searights tavern featured several services for travelers.

     While distinguishing between Inns, taverns, and wagon stands can be difficult, something they all had in common is they all served food and drinks to their patrons. Smaller taverns and wagon stands would have served simpler meals, while unscaled taverns and inns may have also served simple meals, but balanced with more elaborate meals, like those found in hotels in major cities of the time. The culinary encounters experienced at small taverns can only be imagined. The menu at the small family operated taverns would tend to be what the family itself would consume.     In any case, food at taverns and inns varied with the seasons. Consumables came from local farms, rivers or streams, and the surrounding wilderness. Fresh fruits and vegetables were only available at harvest times. Some vegetables were preserved by pickling and during the winter months, dried, salted, smoked, and preserved food was served. Meat was the main food served at these meals. Sometimes individuals were fed within the home at the family table, but often a separate room was built onto to house to maintain the separation of the private from the public space (Coley et. al.2022). 

     Several different meats may have been served at once. Fowls, especially chicken were standard at the tavern meal. They were easier to keep fresh since they could be slaughtered and cooked much faster, and with much more ease than beef or pork. Other meats offered at the tavern table included venison, turtle, squirrel, beef, and pork, including bacon. Fish and oysters would have also been served. Common vegetables consumed in this area included cabbage, corn, peas, onions, carrots, and potatoes.

     Other offerings available at the tavern table may have included cheese, crackers, jellies, preserves, and different kinds of cakes and pies. Non-alcoholic drinks served with meals included milk, buttermilk, coffee, tea, and iced water. An example of a meal that may have been had at an inn According to an early traveler, “ . . . Mrs. Houstoun’s supper in Brownsville, Pennsylvania in the early 1840’s was probably better than average. Among other things she served several kinds of corn and wheat breads, all delicious, johnny cakes with fresh butter and molasses, strawberry, apricot, and peach preserves, and rich cream and excellent tea.” Of a supper in the same region, Mrs. Trollope says, “. . . we were regaled luxuriously on wild turkey and mountain venison…the vegetables were also extremely fine” (Yoder (1969:142). Most likely this was a supper that you might find at an inn that catered to stagecoach passengers.

Painting of a 19^th century tavern showing the simple dining area and the hearth used of cooking. Source unknown.

At a private home and wagon stand you might be more likely to find a simpler meal. Charles Fenno Hoffman describes such a meal he had in a tavern, ‘The fare consisted of hot rolls, tea, large pieces of pork swimming in its gravy , and a plate of noble potatoes, that pulverized when you touched them” (Braden & Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village.(1988:15).

      Another thing that ties these establishments together is the barroom. “The 19^th century barroom was like a men’s community center – air was filled with smoke, spittoons with tobacco juice, and patrons with whiskey. They talked about crops, weather, argued about politics, played cards, quarreled over insults, learned about distant goings-on from out-of-town visitors.

     There may have been a slight difference between drinks served at these different establishments. “Cock-tails” were thought to be more refined and thus were more likely served at an inn rather than a tavern or wagon stand. As Peter H. Cousins tells us, “Generally, sweet, mixed drinks known by names such as cock-tails, juleps, smashes, slings, cobblers, sangarees, punches, stone walls, stone fences, etc., were popular in city hotel barrooms and were thought to be more "refined" and thus more suitable for gentlemen (and ladies) than straight whiskey” (Cousins 2021).

Barroom at the Upscale Eagle Tavern [Photograph]. http://passionforthepast.blogspot.com/

     To conclude, taverns and inns played a vital function along the 18th and 19^th century roadways in Pennsylvania and elsewhere in the mid-Atlantic region. Given the number of these that once existed, it is surprising so few from Pennsylvania have been archaeologically examined outside of urban areas. It is hoped that the Mon-Yough Chapter’s excavation at the Greene Tree Tavern Stand in Fayette County will help further illuminate this segment of America’s historic past.

John Nass, Jr. and Laura Coley

Sources Cited

Braden, D.R. and Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. 1988  Eagle Tavern Cookbook. Henry 

Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, Dearborn, Michigan

Cole, H. E., & Kellogg, L. P.  1930  Stage coach and tavern tales of the Old Northwest. Cleveland,

The Arthur H. Clark company.

 

Coley, Laura, John Nass, Jr.., Douglas Corwin, Beverly Santella and Dwayne Santella

2022   The Original Travel Plaza: 19th Century Taverns Along the National Road, a Perspective from

 Fayette County, Pennsylvania. Paper presented at the 92nd Annual Meeting of the Society for

 Pennsylvania Archaeology, Ligonier, Pennsylvania. 

Cousins, P. H.  2021  Drinking at Eagle Tavern.   Retrieved from https://www.thehenryford.org/explore/blog/drinking-at-eagle-tavern

 

Earle, A. M.  1969  Stage-coach and tavern days. New York,: B. Bloom.

 

McSwigan, G.  1940  Early Inns and Taverns in Western Pennsylvania, 1750-1830. (Master of Arts),

University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA.  

 

Michael, Ronald L.  1971 The Searight Tavern on the National Road: an Archaeological 

Study. Pennsylvania Folklife 21:26-35.

           

1973a  The Searight Tavern. Archaeological Information Leaflet No. 5, Center for                       

Prehistoric and Historic Site Archaeology, California State College, California,

Pennsylvania. 

      

1973b  Ceramics from a 29^th Century Southwestern Pennsylvania Tavern. Pennsylvania

Archaeologist 43(1):1-13.

 

Michael, Ronald L. and Ronald C. Carlisle  1976  Peter Colley Tavern: 19^th Century Wagon Tavern. 

Pennsylvania Archaeologist 46(1-2).

            

Sincock, J. M.  1992  America's Early Taverns: Food, Drink, Lodging and Hospitality Along the

 Nation's Early Roadways. Lebanon, Pennsylvania: Applied Arts Publishers.

 

Vivian, C.  2004  The National Road in Pennsylvania. Charleston, SC: Arcadia.

 

Yoder, P.  1969  Taverns and Travelers; Inns of the Early Midwest. Bloomington,: Indiana University 

Press.