This article appeared in the Glen Ellyn Sun, April 20, 2007
(c) 2007 Glen Ellyn Historical Society
No luxury suites in frontier times
by Marilyn Hoffman
Stacy’s Tavern Museum has several bedrooms like this one which, on a busy night, might have had as many as 15 or more people sharing the two beds and the mattress on the floor. The bed on the left measures less than four feet in width and is barely six feet long. Ropes were used in place of springs beneath the thin mattress. Over time the ropes became slack and would have to be tightened. From this practice comes the expression, “sleep tight.”
When we visit Stacy's Tavern Museum today, restored to its status as a stagecoach inn of the late 1840’s, we see a fairly orderly, even charming, inn. But consider how it may have looked and functioned with fifty guests!
Perhaps the most common complaint in travelers’ narrations from that era was the lack of privacy, particularly in regard to sleeping arrangements.
A woman from the East Coast, new to Illinois, recorded her first encounter with frontier lodging. "We have reached Hamilton's Diggings. Each cabin has a single room, and there is but one other woman in the place, the wife of one of the miners. There are two uncurtained beds standing against the wall. This woman removed her petticoats and threw them over a cord she stretched between the two beds. As for me, I wrapped my cloak around me and, without undressing, I lay down with my face to the wall." She continued, "The next night I found myself sleeping in a room with not only my husband, but with six other men. But at least each bed was furnished with a set of curtains."
William Cullen Bryant, the great orator, recorded this description. "In general, the beds were altogether without sheets; and blankets had probably since their manufacture never experienced the renovating effects of a good washing. Sometimes, indeed, there would be one sheet, and occasionally two; but cleanliness in this particular case, I had almost despaired of.”
The food served in pioneer taverns was abundant, but pro-vided very little variety and the service left much to be desired. Records show that the staple bill of fare of the typical tavern was bread, butter, potatoes and fried pork - with some seasonal variations.
Manners among travelers at mealtimes were most generally nonexistent. A visitor from Edinburgh, Scotland wrote this account, "At breakfast, there were a very large party who occupied two tables, and exhibited the usual American celerity of eating and drinking. No change of knife or fork, or plate, no spoon for the sugar basin, no ceremony whatever observed, every man for himself, and none for his neighbors; hurrying, snatching and gulping, like famished wildcats; vittles disappearing like magic."
In the 1840’s the term “tavern” had a different meaning from what we think of today. It wasn’t necessarily an establishment that served spirituous beverages. It was an inn that provided food and shelter for the traveler as well as for the horses or oxen that travelers used to get from point to point. Typically it also was a gathering place for the community. Many public events such as religious services, theatrical
productions, court proceedings and dances were commonplace at Midwestern inns.
These rather descriptive accounts give us some insight into what Stacy's Tavern was like more than 150 years ago. As you walk through this appealing museum today, try to imagine it in its hay day as an inn.
Marilyn Hoffman, an active member of the Glen Ellyn Historical Society for many years, now resides in Arizona when she’s not in summer residence in the former home of Glen Ellyn historian Ada Douglas Harmon.
Glen Ellyn Remembered is based on information from the Society's archives. Photo courtesy of
