CHIEF:  Alastair Ivor Gilbert Boyd 7th Baron Kilmarnock

Richard G. and Jerri Lynn Boyd

568 W. Friedrich Street

Rogers City, Mich. 49779

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 THE BLACK HORSE TAVERN

G. W. Reed

JAMES BOYD ~ BRIDGIT REED

Ireland to PA to  Tuscarawas County, Ohio

THE BLACK HORSE TAVERN - G. W. Reed 

Many curious stories are told of early roadside inns and taverns, but  one of the strangest is the story of the Black Horse Tavern located three miles east of the Twin Cities of  Uhrichsville and Dennison, on an important highway leading west from Steubenville into Tuscarawas County and central Ohio.

The thrifty Germans who migrated along this road  naturally went on and settled in the rich farm and pasture lands further west,  about Cambridge, Zanesville and Lancaster.  Their principal marketable product was livestock, whose chief market place was 500 miles away, with no practicable means of getting farm  products  to the market except by driving on  foot  flocks of pigs and herds of cattle and some sheep  and  horses.   The Scotch-Irish settlers,  on  the  other  hand,  more interested in scenery  and beauty generally  stopped  along  the road among the hills and little valleys within 50 miles or so of Steubenville.

So arose a situation and so developed an industry. The German farmers with their saddle horses and also their flocks and herds must be entertained night after night on the way.  Fat pigs going to market cannot travel far, hence  many  over- night stopping places were required. So the Irish hill settlers  built log taverns all along the way, with usually a big log barn nearby to house and rest and feed the herds and flocks.

A fairly representative  example  of that string of taverns along the road was the one east of Uhrichsville with the big log house, log barn, and other appurtenances, constructed and  operated,  it  seems, from about the beginning of the nineteenth century by James Boyd and wife, Margaret Boyd.  The latter was the sister of Jane Reed, grandmother of the writer.  It was she who passed on to me the story which she received directly from Mrs. Boyd when Jane Reed  with her husband and her parents arrived from Ireland 74 years ago and were entertained by the Boyds.

It seems that in these wayside taverns it was customary for travelers to find not only food and lodging but also frontier entertainment such as strong liquor, gambling  games and other recreations of the frontier.  Professional gamblers expected  and received lodging and facilities to entertain those regular travelers on their way to market and these local gambling entertainers often found those travelers more profitable when they were on their way back west, having in their pockets the money for which they had exchange the pigs, cattle and sheep.

One evening there arrived at the  tavern a well-dressed, fine looking fellow riding a particularly fine, big black horse. The young man gave the name of Richard  Wentworth and said he had come from eastern Virginia to investigate, locate,  and perhaps purchase a big tract of the best timber land for a rich uncle. The young man spoke repeatedly of his sweetheart back home.

The young man drank moderately at the bar but utterly refused to play the game of chance with the two smart gamblers who operated the bar and the gambling games. It was noticeable and noted by the gamblers that Wentworth had well- filled saddlebags he kept near him day and night.

Finally one day when Wentworth started out on one of his daily excursions into the forest, it was observed that shortly thereafter the two gamblers set out on horses in the same direction. Later in the day Wentworth's black horse ran rider-less to the tavern flecked with foam and trembling with fright and with a bullet wound in his neck. The two gamblers who had followed Wentworth came back later, giving no explanation of their absence and expressing surprise at Wentworth's failure to return.

Soon a letter came for Wentworth from his sweetheart in Virginia.  Boyd returned the letter to the sender giving her also information as to Wentworth's disappearance in the forest and of the fact that a searching party had been sent out when the rider-less and crippled horse had returned; that after two days' search they had found Wentworth's hat on the bank of the Tuscarawas River near New Philadelphia and in the brush and weeds nearby the saddlebags cut open, and empty, with other facts causing the necessary belief that Wentworth had been robbed and murdered.

Ten days later a graceful, slim, young man rode up to the tavern and asked for lodging. He was assigned the room next to the two robbers who had followed Wentworth into the forest. When Boyd stabled the horse he noticed that it, too, was black and a close mate to Wentworth's horse.  When the horse was placed beside Wentworth's the two black horses nuzzled each other as longtime mated horses sometimes do.

The newly arrived young man proceeded immediately to play games with the gamblers and to question and discuss with everybody the recent tragedy.  He got facts that surely proved the robbery and murder of Wentworth and  fixed the crime on the two outlaws in the room next to him. The young man got his traps together and showed Boyd a letter from Wentworth's sweetheart authorizing him to bring the murdered man's horse back with him to Virginia.  Then he gave a sealed letter to Boyd, the letter not to be opened for 48 hours after his departure, took the two black horses and rode away.  The two notorious gamblers not having appeared for breakfast nor later, Boyd became anxious, and failing to arouse them in their room, forced the door and found both of them slain.

At the expiration of 48 hours Boyd opened and read the Virginian's letter. The contents disclosed that the writer was Wentworth's sweetheart disguised as a man, that she had ridden out to Ohio to ascertain the facts as to the dis - appearance and death of Wentworth, to avenge his death, and to recover from the robbers that which belonged to her.  She stated that she had accomplished all her purposes including the execution of the two notorious robbers in the room next to hers. She said particularly that she had taken neither her money nor the murderers' lives until she had established, beyond a doubt, the guilt of the murderers.

From that time until the inn was closed about 1835 it always was known as the "Black Horse Tavern". The building remained until well within the memory of the writer. But now it has disappeared and a modern farm home has taken its place, occupied by an outstanding Scotch-Irish family, and even the public road so long, so close, and so important for east and west travel and for historic interest has been moved and straightened so as to be good many rods from the front of the historic spot.  ( G. W. Reed was a  Uhrichsville, Ohio attorney.)
 

     Query           JAMES AND BRIDGIT REED BOYD        Query

I am looking for information on my ggggreat grandparents. They came to America between the years 1804-1807. James was born in Fintona, County Tyrone Ireland in 1771. Margaret (Bridgit) was born in the same place in 1782. When they came to America they stayed with a John Boyd and Mary Fulton Boyd in Westmoreland county in PA. John and Mary came to America in the year 1772 on the General Wolfe from Articlave, Northern Ireland.  John was born between the years 1734 and 1740 in Coleraine, Londonderry, Ireland.  He married Mary (Polly ) Fulton, daughter of Abraham Fulton and Margaret Guthrie. James and Margaret lived with John and Mary till around 1810. Then they settled in Tuscarawas county Ohio. James built and ran what was known as the Black Horse Tavern in Tuscarawas county in 1819. I have gotten in touch with the people at the Tuscarawas County historical society and verified this. They also sent some copies of articles about the tavern and the double murder mystery that to this day is still talked about. James also was Justice of the peace two terms and Union Township Magistrate. He is buried in the Westminster Cemetery in Allen county.  He died in the year 1853. I am trying to trace James and Margaret back through Ireland to Scotland. I need to find out the names of James and Johns parents. I also am trying to figure out how James and John are related.  Most likely a cousin or an uncle. If anyone has any information on my gggreat grandparents or John Boyd and Mary Fulton Boyd please email or write to me.  I am adopted and have been reunited with my birth family. It has been wonderful to finally be able to learn about my history. I have been told we go directly back to the Boyds of Scotland and I have been looking into tracing the line further back.

 
 Lynn (Sharon Boyd) Steward   (Email address not current)
  Clifford Lee

NOTE: Use this data as a finding tool, just as you would any other secondary source. When you find the name of an ancestor listed, confirm the facts in original sources.

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