#9 - George builds a Tavern;
a Place Gets a Name: Drums
Previously we learned that the valley’s settlers, mostly
of German descent, knitted themselves into a community as strong as a family.
As the 19th Century rolled forward, the
country grew, and the valley community grew right with it. John Balliet
realized early on the need for a tavern and Philip Woodring set up the first
blacksmith shop in 1800. In 1809, Nescopeck Township was split to create Sugarloaf
Township to accommodate administering the growing population and in 1810,
Philip, now 23 years old, built the valley’s first wool processing mill. He
built it on the Little Nescopeck Creek near “Ashville”, what is known today as
Fritzingertown.[1]
More roads were built as people traveled between
population centers, selling goods and services, trading, visiting, and so
forth. New conveyances, such as improved stage coaches, were devised to help
these people make these trips and, of course, travelers would need food and
lodging at the end of the day. Realizing his land was situated on one of the
major cross-roads in the valley and on one of the major thoroughfares through
the area, a natural trading point[2], 57-year-old George built a tavern. That
crossroad soon became known as Drums Corner and the area around it simply as Drums.
Drums Methodist
Church and Valley Notes included the following passage[3]
about the building.
The first hotel was built by
George Drum in 1820. It was located in the building owned by Mr. George
Reisenweaver[4]
across from the Kermit Reisenweaver Store. Much of
the building is the original lumber employed when it was constructed. In the
basement there is a hugh (sic) fireplace which was probably used in preparation
of food. In the apartment of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Miller, Jr., the old stair
rail and spindles show the beauty of the work done in the early days.
 |
| This may be the earliest photo of the Drums Hotel in existence. It is the building on the left in this photo of the village of Drums taken in 1908. A chimney, that was later lost to a fire, can be seen on the back of the structure. One of the horse barns can be seen behind the building. On the front of the structure there appears to be a two-story porch that is now only the first floor. The building served as a hotel probably into the 1920's. It next served as a boarding house. Across the street from “our” building is the “future” location of the Kermit Reisenweaver Store that opened in 1954. I believe at the time this photo was taken the building was the location of Brighthaupt's Dry Goods Store. This postcard is posted on the St. Johns – Drums page of the “History of Freeland, PA” website. |
Today, 200 years after the tavern was built, the building that began as a
tavern and grew into a hotel, then a boarding house that evolved into an
apartment complex, has now been renovated into a single-family home by its
current owners, Kevin Kania and his wife Susan Kalada.[5]
 |
| When viewed from the rear one can see the smaller original structure that was George's tavern. As mentioned above, missing is the chimney that once served the tavern's fireplace. |
Their store is located in
the building that was built for, and once served the community for many years as,
the Drums Post Office; right next door to the building that once was called
“The Drums Hotel.”
The horse barns that once sat behind, on the right side
of, and across the street from, the structure, as well as the hitching rail
that once stood out front ready to hold tavern-visitors’ horses, are long gone;
long before Kevin and Susan came on the scene. The wonderful stair rail and
beautiful spindles that had once guided residents, hotel staff, and guests
between the first floor and the second in the “newer” 30’ x 60’ front section
that was probably built by Abraham, had to be removed; safety took precedence
as their years of service finally grew too great. However, under the modern
woodwork that make up the stairs today, still hide the original boards. The
“huge fireplace” also still stands in the basement of the 20’ x 20’ “older”
two-story section in the back that was once the tavern built by George. Much of
the stone foundation appears to be original as well.
Lumber and stones may not be all that is still “original”
in the house, however. Not that she believes, completely, in ghosts, but, on
certain days, and nights, Susan has been given reason to wonder if perhaps,
just perhaps, mind you, maybe a few of the many souls that passed through the
building across its 200-year existence just may have stayed. A curtain that
seemed to rise by itself, as if someone were looking out at the world passing
by, was cause for a brief moment of alarm. And a child’s rocking horse,
although a modern toy of the 1960’s, has given the home’s owners reason to
think it was giving another child, of an earlier time, some childish pleasure
as it appeared to begin to rock on its own. “I don’t go up in the attic
anymore, or into the cellar,” said Susan.
Soon George’s Tavern was playing a significant role in
the lives of the valley’s residents of the 1820’s. Not only was it a place for
refreshment and socialization, and perhaps warmth on a cold winter’s night, it
became the Post Office before there was a Post Office! In the early days of our
country, long-distance conversations were conducted by letter. Although there
were regular postal routes that postal riders used to carry mail from location
to location, some established long before the American Revolution[6],
much mail traveled by private carrier as well for areas without regular postal
service.
The long-established practice was that one would write a
letter and address it to the intended recipient and their town. One then tacked
the letter up in a place where travelers gathered so it could be found and
carried forward. Most taverns and similar such places had a designated location
for such letters – usually a post holding up the bar; thus, the term “posting a
letter.” Incoming letters, if not handed directly to the recipient upon arrival
in the area, were also tacked to the post for the person to whom it was
addressed to find it on his or her next visit.
Since Drums did not have regular postal service until 1832, George, of
course, had such a “post” in his tavern making his hotel the de-facto Drums
Post Office.
Here is an item of mail that is similar to those you might have found "posted" to George's post. This one wasn't. This document probably was “posted” at Easton and was sent to Wilkes-Barre so highly unlikely it ever saw Drums Tavern unless it happened to be in someone’s pocket when they stopped by for a Gill of Whiskey.
The document inside is dated July 27, 1824 and
there is a postmark-like stamp in the upper left-hand corner that appears to
say “27 July”.
Actually, this is not an envelope as we’d use today. It is the back of the same document that needed to be mailed. It was simply folded written side in, addressed, sealed shut with wax and sent, apparently for what appears to be 10 cents.
Actually, this is not an envelope as we’d use today. It is the back of the same document that needed to be mailed. It was simply folded written side in, addressed, sealed shut with wax and sent, apparently for what appears to be 10 cents.
When regular postal service finally did arrive in Drums
in 1832, the Post Office was designated as the East Sugarloaf Post Office and
was located in Henry Yost’s store at Drums Corner near Drums Hotel. Henry Yost
was named the first postmaster. In 1839, Sugarloaf Township was divided in
two with the eastern section being named Butler Township. Since the name “East
Sugarloaf” would now no longer do, the name was changed to the Drums Post
Office.[7]
Of course, George never saw the regular postal service
come to Drums, which in-essence “moved” his “Mail Post” out of his hotel; he
died in 1831. Circumstances of his death involve a tragedy for which the
details have been covered over by the sands of time. All that has come down to
us today is that George died as the result of an accidental gunshot wound[8].
He was 68 at the time of his death.
Like the lives of his grandfather and father before him, his, too, was
an intriguing and remarkable life! As a boy of 12 he outsmarted the Indians
that attacked his home. When a young man of just 20, he became a Continental
Soldier fighting for freedom in George Washington’s Army. In the 1790’s he
brought his family over Butler (Bucks) Mountain to join the growing German
community in the valley. Once there he worked with his neighbors to establish a
church, members of which still gather to worship God today. In 1811 he became a
Justice of the Peace and in 1820 he built a tavern that served as the
community’s first "Post Office". His memory lives on in the name of the village
that took him in and looked to him for guidance.
On October 22, 2018, return to the Drums of Drums, PA
and take a ride on The Stage Coach.
[1] Butler
Township History, Butler Township website, http://www.butlertownship.org/about-us/history/Print.html
accessed 6/14/2016
[2] Bradsby,
H.C., ed, History of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: S.B. Nelson
& Co., 1893). Chapter XXI (continued): Butler Township. http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/luzerne/1893hist/
accessed 6/7/2016
[3]
Drum, Nora, Miss; Mrs. R. S. Small, and Mrs. Millard Shelhamer, Drums
Methodist Church and Valley Notes (Drums, PA: St. Paul’s Methodist Church,
1953)
[4] This
statement is referring to the present (when the statement was written). George
did not put his tavern in Reisenweaver’s building, Reisenweaver eventually
purchased the building that had once been George’s tavern.
[5] Kevin
Kania and Susan Kalada interview conducted April 5, 2018
[7] Two
Hundred Years of Progress: Butler Township, 1784-1984 (Drums, PA: The Drums
Lions Club, May 1984) pp 15-16 [page 16 is numbered incorrectly as 17; the
number 16 being missed].
[8]
“Conyngham’s Grand Old Man Dead, Honorable George W. Drum is no more – was the
town’s oldest native citizen” Valley Vigilant, November 14, 1913. P 23
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