West Liberty History 1838-1938

Source: One Hundred Years of History
* Commemorating a Century of Progress in the West Liberty Community * WEST LIBERTY, IOWA
THE OLD TAVERN

by Margaret C. Jack

An old stage coach stop, three miles west of West Liberty, built in 1841 and owned by Mrs. C. J. Mackey, who is a direct descendant of the Nyce family, who built the first log cabin in this territory. A picture of the Nyce cabin appears on the cover of this history.

The house has always been occupied and kept in good repair. This is the location that was popular in the days of the covered wagon, and the road of today was once an Indian trail, made modern with the sharp corners rounded and the hollows filled, while the old house is much the same.

Built in 1841, on land deeded from the government, when John Tyler was president, it is located on a 160-acre farm. Mrs. Mackey came into possession in 1904, when her father Lemuel Wiggins gave it to her. She has never lived on it, but has always rented it.

Being an inn in its day, it housed many a newcomer and weary traveler, in its three stories. From the first floor to the third floor on the north side, there is an open stairway, winding from the first to the third floor. The stair rails and casing are of cherry wood.

In 1854 more than 25 men, women and children, spent the winter in this house, just as it stands today, with the exception that what is now the garage was then used as a kitchen. A large cupola with windows on its eight sides, served as a lookout, and a place to hang lanterns, in the early day, but in recent years this was removed because it was attracting too many pigeons. Many initials covered its interior.

There remain four large fireplaces in the house, two in the first and two on the second. Too, there formerly were two large chimneys.

This was the only house around, but the newcomers who wintered there in ' 54 were building other homes nearby. One was the Wiggens place, farther west. That same winter there were six deaths occurred at the inn.

The dining room, now the kitchen, took more than 50 yards of rag carpet to cover the floor, and today the owner says, "It takes a lot of wall paper to cover the walls."

Among the patrons of the inn was Egbert Smith, an eccentric from Maine, who brought a lot of gold money. He bought a large tract of land at $ 1.25 an acre, including many acres that now lie directly west of town, the John Stemm farm, formerly the Mrs. Elenora Nichols farm, was part of it. Smith stayed about eleven years, became discouraged because of slow progress, and sold his holdings for $ 2.50 an acre and went to California, taking all his money with him and buying California land. It was dry there when he died land poor. In California he settled about Stockton, and when irrigation came his children and grandchildren reaped a fortune.

Under the siding, the old inn is bricked up more than halfway. These bricks were burned about where the windmill stands on the Amos Whitacre farm, just west of the creek bridge on the highway west of town. The clay there was the best to be found. The joists, rafters and framework were all hand hewn out of timber near the home, as was also the frame for the barn on the farm. Work was done with an adz, a pioneer tool with a blade and a handle, some of which had a pick on one end. The windows, doors and siding were purchased in Cincinnati, Ohio, and sent down the Ohio river and up the Mississippi to Muscatine, (then Bloomington) and across the country by oxen.

Mr. Smith sold his land to Jacob Butler and John Junkin. In 1886 Henry Felkner bought what is now the Mackey place. The Felkners are buried here and Col. Glenn Hayes, warden at Ft. Madison penitentiary, is a grandson.

In 1891, Lemuel Wiggins bought the Felkner estate which extended west, gave this to his daughter.

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