By Forrest Hull (Feature Writer for the Daily Mail)
Charleston Daily Mail, Charleston, West Virginia
June 8, 1952
On a day in 1824 the weekly post rider, carrying the mail from Lewisburg to Kanawha Courthouse, came down the road from Sewell mountain and drew rein before a new stone building in the wilderness. Workmen were completing the porch but left off work to listen to the shouted conversation between the owner, Francis Tyree, and the mail man.
"What's the news?"
"Gineral Jackson's still goin' strong fer President," yelled the rider. An' that French feller, LaFayette, that fit with Washington, is back in this country fer a visit. Any mail fer Kanawha?"
When Tyree assured him there was none, he used spurs and disappeared down the tree-lined trail. His cry: "Hurray fer ole Hickory," came floating back to the men at the stone house.
This stone house is still standing on the old James River and Kanawha turnpike near Clifftop in Fayette County. When Francis Tyree built it Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were still living and Andy Jackson was making a successful campaign for President. That would make the sturdy building 128 years old. Not old in old world terms but aged in the history of our country.
The builder, Francis Tyree, designed it for a tavern to accommodate the growing traffic that was pouring down the crude turnpike that led from the East to the western lands. It was a day before the stage coaches and the road was stumpy, muddy, and dangerous. But Tyree had an eye for business. He foresaw the coming of a new day.
...
Another folk tale says that an overturned stage coach put a young naval officer, M. F. Maury, in a bed at Tyree's. While mending a broken collar bone, the officer began his famous works, "Charts of Sea Winds and Currents" but this is only folklore. All we know is that Tyree's famous tavern is still standing on the old highway. But don't expect to see it as you pass over the "New" Midland Trail. Progress has pushed the ancient tavern back into the past.
A few years ago the Midland Trail was relocated and the tavern by-passed. As so often happens, one department of the state prints glowing color pictures of historical places to entice tourists to W. Va., only to find that when the pictures and maps are released, that the state road surveyors have changed the highway, leaving the old historical places miles away. The excuse given by the engineers is that they are straightening the highway, not having imagination enough to realize the graceful curves delight the visitors from flat lands.
If you want to visit the famous old Tyree Tavern you had better inquire at Clifftop or Ansted, for your road map will tell you nothing.
The Tyrees were tavern people. In the town of Ansted stands another monument to these famous bonifaces. Near the center of this historical town is a quaint and fading tavern that was operated by a relative of Francis Tyree. The Ansted Tavern was erected about 1827, by George Hunter who established the first post office there. Hunter sold out to Col. William Tyree in 1834. This building is still standing beside the present Route 60. When the town was known as New Haven and the County of Fayette was being formed with Stonewall Jackson's stepfather as county clerk, the Tyree Tavern was a mecca for hungry and tired travelers. For years a large sycamore tree grew in the yard, said to have sprung from a riding switch stuck in the ground by Col. Tyree.
During the War Between the States a small cavalry unit that gloried in the name "Chicago Dragoons," was quartered in the tavern. They belonged to Schenck's Union force of Rosecrans' army. These troopers newly enlisted from farms and factories of Ohio, felt the need to show their hatred of the rascal rebels. They hacked the mantels and the woodwork with their sabres, and one, a wood carver of talent, cut on the door lintel the words: "Chicago Dragoons." This carving of an unknown soldier can be seen to this day if anyone cares to stop and see it.
All these things are of the long, long ago. One by one the ancient landmarks are vanishing, both from the memory of man and from the pages of history.
[Web site manager's note: We think Richard F. Tyree built the Old Stone House, not his son Francis Tyree. However, Francis did later become the proprietor of the Old Stone House.]
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