Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1915-09-23
The OLD TaVernS
OF Sank County

Gently issued the 1914 Proceedings
and one of the most interesting arti-
cles IN the volumes is 1.-The Taverns
and Stages of Early Wisconsin. - by j.
II. A. t.acher of Waukesha. Concern
the taverns of Sank county the writer
says:
Sank county was tavern territory un-
til late date, for the Chicago & North
western Railway did not cross it till
1872. The American house, at Bara
boo, was conducted by A. @. Adams
in 1855, P. Van Wendell in 1856, and
w. c. Warner in 1859; the Baraboo
House, by Lyman Clark in 1866, and
Hiram 7. Mason in 1857. The Western
! Hotel, at the northeast corner of the
public square, built and formerly mana
ged by Col. E. Summer, was kept by
w. Wallace in 1868; the Exchange
House by V0lney Moore in 1888. At
Reedsburg the Mansion House, built in
1866 by DR.. Mackey, was conducted
from 1856 to 1859 by J. and A. Smith,
who also owned the stage line in Bara-
boo. The Alba House, built in 1856 by
Alba A. Smith, was bought in 1857 by
Reuben Green, who also had the stage
| line to Kilbourn. At the Baxter House,
Prairie du Sac, D. K. Baxter in 1857
and for years thereafter maintained
the good name established by Stein
metz and Fife. o. Elmer ran the
Cottage Inn at Delton, and @ j. adams,
previously of Baraboo, the Dell Creek
House at Newport
From w. w. Warner
w. w. Warner of Madison, a resi-
dent of Baraboo in his youth, sends the
following:
w. C. Warner, my father, kept the
American House in Baraboo in 1859
While am not sure, it is my recollec-
ton. that mentioned this fact in my
"reminiscences of Baraboo days some
time ago and which was indulgently
published by you in the News. | think
| did not give the date, however, in
fact, was not quite certain as to that.
In $50 was just nine years of age and
naturally had vivid recollection of i'm
portant events at about that time when
they make such lasting impress on
ones memory. The writer of the ex-
cellent article in the Proceeding"
might have mentioned a large hote
that was conducted by some one whose
name [ cannot recall on the south side
of the river, not far from the old Red
Bridge which was comfortably covered,
by the way, and good lettering place
for boys. This hotel stood on the pres
ent site of brewery at the northwest
corner of Walnut and Lynn streets.
There was still another hotel which
very many>of the older residents of
Baraboo will still remember as the Wis
consin House or Tobler's Hotel,
and which surely as far back
as Sc was conducted by the Frenchman
particularly known as French Pete. If
memory serves me correctly, Mr.. Tob
Ter succeeded to the business after the
death of the Frenchman. Still later,
believe, one Mueller, a German, con-
Quoted the hotel. There was also along
IN the fifties and late sixties, for that
matter, well patronized hotel, or tav-
ern, at Lyons. Right we'll remember
that it had very considerable run of
business before the advent of the rail
road at Baraboo. The word 'hotel'', at
least at the present time, refers to
something quite unlike it's veteran pre-
decessor, the tavern, which good old
English word was quite good enough
and expressive enough for the taverns
or inns in the villages and smaller cities
and along the various country highways
of relatively ancient days in the United
States, and for centuries, of course, IN
England, or rather let me correct my
self by adding that inn" is the more
correct English word, as all know from
frequent allusion to the popu-
lar tarrying places mentioned by
Shakespeare, e. g., the Tabard
Inn. The word inn has its
exact counterpart in the Germa n
"Hof" or "Gasthof' Hof meaning lit
orally courtyard or enclosure. and goes
back naturally to the time when trav-
elers, whether horseback or by animal
drawn vehicle, literally corralled their
animals and conveyances in the ''hof''
OF course tavern comes from the
French, taverene, and from the older
Latin word, taberna, which means a hut,
booth or tavern. The Latin word,
taberna, a word or sign which proba
bly, referred to the enseigne or engign
or board containing the sign of boar's
head, perhaps, or something else calcu-
lated to stimulate the gastronomic i'm
agination of the passer-by.
But am straying far away from my