Walter B. Leonard and the American Barroom (Part II)

My Part I discussed an aged ex-showman in upstate New York, Walter B. Leonard, who in 1932 discussed memories of his family’s hotel and bar in a small New York town some 60 years earlier.

Leonard lived from 1860 all the way to 1949. A year before he died, an enlarged version of his 1932 article appeared in the Commercial Advertiser of Potsdam, New York, in no less than six parts.

The first part (see in link above) appeared in the last week of February 1948 and the next five, in March following.*

The series bore the evocative title, “A North Country Tavern – An Early Recounting of a Small Village Hostelry”. It is all written, like the 1932 article, in a warm, nostalgia-tinged style.

The 1948 additions give good additional information on the hotel and bar, town personalities, town businesses, churches, and social life.

In the 1870s Morley was a thriving little place of 400 inhabitants. There was a tannery, wagon-maker, boot-maker, grocer, clothier, mill, and cider-press. And one lawyer.

There were two churches: Episcopal and Methodist. An Orange fraternal organization held an march July 12 every year.

Although Morley was small the hotel had a good trade from both townspeople and localities surrounding: Canton, Potsdam, and Lisbon are mentioned.

Despite a promising start the hotel and bar ultimately foundered. Leonard does not explain why. The tenor of the writing, reflecting Leonard’s personality, was to stress the positive in life. The sadness of some stories is softened by a wistful quality, and before long Leonard resumes an upbeat note.

It was clearly his nature, and maybe one reason he lived so song.

As described by him the tavern component of the hotel comprised two-and-a-half stories and a “piazza”, or veranda. All was painted in white.

In an annex, light meals were served. These included hot biscuits, ham, cakes, “thick” pies, pickles, preserves, cole slaw, and cookies.

Beer for the bar was supplied by Greenway, a sizeable brewery in Syracuse, New York well-known before Prohibition for its ale and porter. It was established in the mid-1800s by two brothers from England.

Peppermint, wintergreen, and other flavourings for drinks were kept in bottles behind the bar, closed he said with a goose-quill cork. Clearly these were bar bitters, to flavour whiskey and cocktails.

Powdered sugar and ground nutmeg were kept as well. The bar evidently offered a range of cocktails along with whisky and beer.

Leonard describes thesocial events in the hotel such as Quadrilles, where people danced until the early hours. The odour of the mens’ hair oil and their clove-scented breath, stayed with him all his life.

He mentions the names of mostly obscure dances – or obscure to me. He writes that most in town knew how to dance them, too.

He describes in detail the mens’ and ladies’ dress style and footwear; he must have been an observant child. The mens’ boots were made from fine French calfskin, he remembered.

In general, he paints town life as prosperous and happy.

In the 1948 articles Leonard is more frank concerning men who had trouble with alcohol. Some cases are quite sad. There was the prosperous farmer who ended his days with a bottle constantly to hand.

His son accompanied him to the pub to keep him under control but ultimately ended up in liquor too. A double tragedy.

One heavy drinker was able to abstain for reasonable periods, but then would have a binge. He would need medical help to resume normal activities.

I wonder if maybe Leonard’s father had no stomach finally for the tavern business, and maybe that explains why the bar and hotel closed.

Leonard’s description of icy winter sleigh rides is captivating. The riders were swathed in buffalo robes lined with a colourful flannel, edged with cloth of a contrasting colour.

Canada was just across the St. Lawrence River from Morley, but Canada is only mentioned twice. He says when the cashbox was emptied after a Quadrille dance and supper they might find a few Canadian pennies, but if it caused any annoyance Leonard doesn’t say.

The other reference to Canada concerns an Ira Morgan, a favoured customer. He was overseer at the local tannery, and is described as coming from Canada. Leonard said he was “fond” of liquor but only “occasionally” over-indulged.

I’ll conclude with an extract from the series. The six parts together are charming in effect, with a “Walton’s”-like quality.

Around the Leonard Tavern all was hustle and bustle! Father was down in the liquor cellar tapping a fresh barrel of “Greenway Ale”. He is being assisted by his right-hand man, Oliver Hedden, who is fairly capable, and always willing to assist especially if fluid refreshments were in evidence. Father has a hammer and is driving the bung into the barrel, while Oliver stands ready to place the faucet into the hole in the head of the barrel. This requires considerable skill. As the bung is driven through, Oliver who is a trifle slow, does not locate the bunghole until a stream of highly-charged liquid shoots out and into the face of Oliver, blinding him for a minute. Father believing this delay was uncalled for grabs the faucet, places it in the bunghole hole and pushes Oliver, who falls over a keg of gin, while father, to relieve his pentup emotions, hands Oliver a rapid fire of nouns and adjectives, the recounting of which would not look well in print; therefore, I assume the liberty of eliminating them. After the faucet is properly adjusted, and my parent’s tempest had subsided, several glass decanters are filled with “White Wheat”, rye and bourbon whisky, gin, rum, brandy, and taken up into the barroom and placed in a glass case on shelves just back of the long serving counter. In this rather artistic receptacle are some small bottles with goose quills through the corks, which contain pepper-sauce, extract of peppermint, wintergreen, and some dark fluid called “stoughton”.

….

*The hyperlink in the second paragraph above actually contains links for five of the articles. The sixth one is here (March 2, 1948). All six parts, and the 1932 article I linked in Part I, are archived in NYS Historic Newspapers.

 

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