New London County CT Archives News.....Stonington's Old Taverns (Part 2) February 1907
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ct/ctfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Barbara W. Brown buwbrown@comcast.net October 31, 2009, 7:23 pm

Clipping From Unidentified Stonington-area Newspaper February 1907
   The inn at Pawcatuck was built about the middle of 1700 by Samuel Brand, 
Jr.. who was the keeper there for many years.  It is now called the Martha 
Noyes house, situated near the bridge, at the west end on the north side of the 
street and almost concealed by numerous small stores which have recently been 
built in front of it.
   After Me. Brand came Capt. Samuel and wife Abigail Thompson.  He was the 
hospitable keeper for a long time, and it is told of him that he was a great 
athlete and that he would place nine large empty hogsheads in a row and then 
jump from one into the other until he had reached the ninth.  After his death 
his wife, Mrs. Abigail, still kept the business and presided, and many 
distinguished guests were sheltered there, among them a Mr. Fowl who was 
midshipman on the Frigate Constitution lying at New London in 1811.  He came to 
Westerly and fought a duel, near Quarry Hill, and was desperately wounded by 
his opponent.  He was taken in Mrs. Thompson's tavern where he was taken care 
of for about three weeks when he died and was buried at Fort Griswold cemetery 
in Groton.  Mrs. Thompson's daughter Martha married Joseph Noyes and together 
they kept the old business for a number of years, and it still bears the name 
of the Martha Noyes house.
   The tavern at the Road stood nearly opposite the present church and was 
sometimes called the roadside tavern.  It was built about the middle of 1700 by 
Daniel Collins, and was a large, double wood-colored house with roof sloping 
nearly to the ground in the rear.  At the west corner, in plain view of the 
road, hung a swinging sign ornamented with the figure of an Indian and the word 
tavern.  Before the front door lay a large unwrought, flat stone of irregular 
shape deeply imbedded in the ground.  A few feet from the door and nearly in 
front, stood a horse block consisting of three large stones with a rough post 
at either side where the ladies mounted, dismounted and hung their horses.  A 
little to the east of this was the old well with its long sweep and pole, its 
backload of stone to help sink the bucket, its ancient brown board curb, while 
on one side was a long watering trough.  At the west end of the house was a 
large shed furnished with pegs, rings and hooks for hitching the horses and a 
deep manger where the hungry animals for want of something better to eat had 
gnawed it into points, squares and scallops.
   At the right as you entered the front door was the great east room, where 
the people used to meet before the Sunday services begun, and between services 
both pastor and people would meet there to talk with each other, discuss the 
doctrinal points of the sermon and regale themselves from the jugs and 
decanters kept here in the bar room at the left in which there was a fire place 
on the east side and the counter on the north, backof which was kept numerous 
kinds of liquors, tea, sugar and West India rum.  This tavern was kept for a 
long time by  Lieut. Daniel Collins, who was in the Revolutionary War, later by 
Dean Gallup, who was a great wit and story teller, also by Mr, Rowse, a tailor, 
and even as late as 1835, Mr. Nathan Noyes kept travelers and the barn was 
sustained.  I remember the old house and used to go in there on Sunday mornings 
if anything was needed at the church.  Later it was used as a barn by my uncle, 
Chas. S. Noyes, who had bought the place, and it was finally taken down in 1892.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ct/newlondn/newspapers/stoningt4nnw.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/ctfiles/

File size: 4.1 Kb