The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1937-08-19

he called the "Red House." probably
the first inn or tavern in our county.
In 1777 Joseph Tomlinson decided
Good Will" to his son Jesse, gin con-
sideration of natural love and affec-
ton and 300 pounds" retaining, how
ever, the use of the property for him
self during "his natural life" Jesse
Tomlinson, about ITS, had married
Elizabeth Basil, daughter of a set
tier going west who stopped at the
Red House Inn, and there lost his
daughter to the innkeeper's son. 1t
appears that the Tomlinson family
"held the fort" at Little Meadows
during the Revolutionary War and
were not molested by the Indians.
Jesse Tomlinson owned the Red
House Inn of the Braddock Road and
its successor, the Stone House Inn, of
National Road fame, for sixty-two
years. He was one of the wealthiest
and most influential men of the upper
end of Allegany county in his day.
When the Cumberland or National
Road was built across the mountains
1906 to 1818-it almost joined the old
Braddock Road at Little Meadows, so
Tomlinson, in order to take care of his
increasing business built the present
Stone House Inn just a few yards
below the old Red House, completing
it about 1918. The Stone House was
then the finest inn on the road, and it
is today the best example and the best
preserved of all the old stone buildings
in these mountains.
Jesse Tomlinson, after operating the
new Stone House Inn only about one
year, turned it over to his son-in-law,
Jacob Sides. When the Sides family
went to Ohio Thomas Endsley took
charge and it was in 1922 that the
first postofficc was opened there,
called "Tomlinson's", with Endsley as
postmaster. After Captain Endsley,
the Stone House Inn was kept in rather
rapid succession by Thomas Thistle,
James Stoddard, Jesse Huddleston,
Truman Fairall, Lemuel Cross, David
Mahaney and George L. Layman. It
was during Layman's management in
1853 that the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad was completed west to the
Ohio. Passenger and freight traffic
was diverted from the stage coaches
and wagons on the National Road to
the new railroad; the old road was
neglected, it's inn business and inn
keepers vanished. The Stone House
remains, but only as substantial
farm house, belonging to the wife Of
D. F. Kuykendal, who inherited it
from her father, Senator John S.
Combs.
With the coming of the automobile
the National Road again buzzes with
traffic, but Little Meadows is in a val
ley and the high powered cars rush
down one mountain gathering speed
to carry them up the opposite slope
sin high, as if the ghosts of departed
Indians, long-dead soldiers and weary
pioneers pursued them.
The Tomlinson graveyard is on the
east side of the Meadow. Here lie the
remains of the pioneer settlers, as
well as many travellers who died at
! the Inn or at their camps at the Little
Meadows. Hereabouts also were laid
to rest many deceased soldiers of
Braddock's Army. The graveyard, now
fenced by stone wall, is near the site
of the stockade which Braddock' s
, Army built.
The name Little Meadows" refers
primarily to several small treeless
glades or meadows" drained toward
the north by Meadow Branch into
Meadow Run. But there was "Lit-
tie Meadows" land tract of 101 acres
surveyed for that noted Indian fighter,
Captain Evan Shelby, and patented
. to him in 1878. This tract included
"the upper meadow" quarter of a
mile south of "Good Will"-the Inn
site. In 1889 John Shelby sold the
Little Meadows" tract to Jesse Tom
linson for 81 pounds, II shillings and
. 6 pence. Jesse gave it to his daughter
Rachel, wife Of George Bruce, and
after the Bruces it was the home of
Isaiah Boucher.
The Story of the Little Meadows
Its Indians; traders; camps and march
ing armies; pioneers; Red House Tav-
ern; Stone House Inn; stage coaches;
wagon trains; famous guests of long
ago-a story too long for newspaper
to print, but, with the bits here given
in mind, stop your car at the foot of
Meadow Mountain near the old Stone
House, and let the spirits of the past
tell you all-or all you can imagine.