The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1949-07-07

preserve any unusually lHSe baldlSS
between the quality Of their fare
and the scale Of their charges; on
the contrary | rather suspected
them of diminishing the Que ana
exalting the other BY way of recon-
pense for the loss Of their profit on
the sale of spirituous liquors. After
all, perhaps, the plainest course for
persons Of such tender consciences
would be a total abstinence from
tavern keeping"
The Dickens party rested ut the
old inn for a few hours, while the
horses were being changed and more
axle grease applied to the new mail
stage, then still with a burning
thirst and a dark brown, morning
after taste, went on to Dayton,
where liquor flowed more freely.
Their arrival and departure caused
little more furry in sleepy Lebanon
than would that of runner" sell
ing the newest brand of fertilizer.
Lebanon that early, was blase to
hero worship. 1t already had a few
of it's very own.
7 Hours to go 81 Miles
The Dickens party came into
Lebanon on one of Sellers Lebanon
| and Cincinnati coaches, making trips
every other day. The journey took
seven hours and the one-way fare
was s1.25. Incidentally, the dist
ance is still 81 miles and today's
buses make it in an hour but with
little difference in the fare. Sellers
started his coach line in 1883.
The Dickens party left Lebanon
for Dayton on one of Abner Ross
Concord stages. Ross, incidentally,
was the stage coach king of the
Ohio and Miami valleys. In the late
1840's he had stage lines running
between Cincinnati and Indianapolis,
Cleveland, Toledo, Columbus and
eastern points. Ross also owned
and operated many hundreds of
miles of mail lines and was quite a
hotel man in his own right. His
first hotel was the big Ross House,
across the street from the old Brad
ley House, where the Dickenses fail
ed to ct a drink. 1t burned in 1878
Abner Leonard Ross was born to
the hotel business. His father rar
the old Bulls Head Tavern, Lebanon
where Abner was born Christmas
Day,-a few minutes after midnight
I-1832. With the baby's first yell
the landlord-father rang the bell il
the hotel cupola and woke up the
town. Citizens thought it was fire
| Big Hotel Man
Ross became a hotel manager il
DAYTON, then went West. He was
manager of the Palmer House
Chicago, and later owned a large
chain of hotels in San Francisco, Lo'
Angeles and many other Californi;
cities. Later he added hotels II
Denver, Omaha, Chicago and else
where until his chain was immense
Despite all his successes, Abne
Ross returned to Lebanon in 185.
and bought the old Bradley House
then called the Lebanon House ant
owned by Mat Koogle. He ran i
until April, 1863, when his wife dice
there, then sold out. Abner Ross
died in 1885.
1t was in the Ross Hotel, then The
Ferguson House, that Eliza Clay, II
daughter of Henry and Lucretis
Clay, died from typhoid August II
1925, when the family were enroute
from Lexington, kentucky, to Wash
ington, d. C. The child for decades
was in an old Lebanon cemetery but
later was removed to Lexington.
'The Golden Lamb
Behind the tavern where Dickens
could not get a drink, turks strange
tradition. 1t has had many name:
but toda.r, remodeled and still open
It is "The Golden Lamb" named
back al 1927 by Henry Share-"tht
sign of the Golden Lamb" Rober'
| (Bob) Jones, present owner, acquired
the old tavern in 1926.
| Among notables whose names art
on the old tavern's faded register!
were William Henry Harrison, 1925
| Martin Van Buren, 1912; John Quin
! cy Adams, 1845; Rutherford B. Hay
es, 1867; James A. Garfield, 1871
William Mckinley, 1889; William
Howard Taft, 1898; Warren G
Harding, 1914, and both U. S. Gran
and Benjamin Harrison in 1883.
Others We're the Dickenses il
1912; Henry Clay, 1914; Henr.
Ward Beecher, Harriet Beeche
Stowe and James Whitcomb Riley
1888; and Clement L. Vallanding
ham, who shot himself in one of it
rooms in 1871.
Such registrations We're of NOR
recent date. Before them were man
of the old days when few coul
write and fewer could read their ow
quill-scratches after they wrot
them. Earlier taverns did not kee
registers-no use, because nobod
could or would write in them.