Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 10).djvu/164

164 etc. West of Columbus the celebrated Four Mile House, which has been referred to previously, was erected in the latter half of the century. In the days of the great mail and stage lines Billy Werden's Tavern in Springfield was the leading hostelry in western Ohio. At this point the stages running to Cincinnati, with mail for the Mississippi Valley, left the Cumberland Road. Across the state line, Neal's and Clawson's Taverns offered hospitality in the extreme eastern border of Indiana. At Richmond, Starr Tavern (Tremont Hotel), Nixon's Tavern, Gilbert's two-story, pebble-coated tavern and Bayle's Sign of the Green Tree, offered entertainment worthy of the road and its great business, while Sloan's brick stagehouse accommodated the passenger traffic of the stage lines. At Indianapolis, the Palmer House, built in 1837, and Washington Hall, welcomed the public of the two great political faiths, Democrat and Whig, respectively.

At almost every mile of the road's long length, wagonhouses offered hospitality to the hundreds engaged in the great freight traffic. Here a large room with its fire-