Caldwell County MO Archives History .....THE OLD MIRABILE TAVERN 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com August 30, 2008, 4:13 pm

THE OLD MIRABILE TAVERN
	Narrator:  Mrs. Ella Clark of Mirabile, Missouri

     Sometime between 1850-1855 (people assign various dates) Isaac Stout 
built a brick tavern at the new village of Mirabile.  Mirabile then was not 
very old; it had its beginning in 1849 when Wm. E. Marquam of Indiana moved a 
log store and a stock of goods from Far West (then almost abandoned) to 
Mirabile.  This new trading point was called "Marquam's Store" for some time 
till Marquam himself named it Mirabile.  The new town lay on the old pioneer 
road which ran through Caldwell County to Lexington and Richmond and the stage 
coaches carried men who were looking around for new homes and needed a place 
to sleep and eat while on the way.  Some travelers too were still on the way 
to California so the Mirabile tavern was a good idea.  The tavern those days 
not only gave lodging and meals but sold whiskey in the front room - the tap 
room.  The building stands on what is now South Main; and in those days of the 
fifties, John Burroughs brick store was east of it.
     The tavern was well built with iron supporting rods inside and outside; 
its general shape was and is like that of the well known Arrow Rock tavern.  
It has needed little repair or change in the eighty years since it was built 
and is now used as a residence.
     A history of its activities is of interest.  During the Civil War, the 
old tavern was a center of Union loyalty.  Union drums in Caldwell county were 
first beaten at Mirabile probably right in front of this building, for the 
Home Guards were organized here under E.S. Johnson and stationed here till 
ordered south.
     It has been used for a hotel, residence and cheese factory.  In the 
spring of 1883, Mamie Vanderpool and Anna Klepper used one room for a 
millinery shop.  In the fall of 1884, Isaac Sackman opened its doors again as 
a hotel which continued till the fall of 1890.  In 1895 H.K. Hartpence bought 
it and he and his wife Kate ran it till his death 1930.  She now uses it as a 
residence.
     In the horse and buggy days thirty to thirty five years ago people would 
drive in buggies and spring wagons for miles to trade with John L. Clark at 
Mirabile and then eat at the Mirabile Hotel because the meals were so good for 
the price.  Mrs. Hartpence is an excellent cook especially pastry.  People 
from Hamilton would engage Sunday dinners.


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