Springfield Township.

In 1748, Benjamin Haddock again presented his petition, in which he states that he "has built a new house at cross roads, and Joshua Thomas being about to decline on one of the roads," he renewed his application for leave to keep a house of public entertainment. What was done with the petition I have not learned, but I think it received the favorable notice of the court. We know that in 1761 Isaac Glease was granted license, and in 1762 and 1763 Richard Mall was also accorded that privilege, to be followed in 1764 and 1765 by John Wayten, in 1766, by Joseph Gibbons, Jr., and the license was granted until 1835, when it was discontinued. The old inn, now removed, stood in the front yard of the present Gibbons mansion. The night of the battle of Brandywine, a straggling party of fleeing Americans, "accompanied by a wagon-load of the wounded, with a surgeon, reached Gibbons' tavern in Springfield about ten o'clock in the night of the battle. Here their wounds were dressed and their wants supplied with everything the house could afford. They left early in the morning for fear of being overtaken by the enemy."¹

The Lamb Tavern. - The difficulties Emmor Eachus had at the Blue Ball Inn caused him to make a change in the house, for which he asked license, and in 1808 he appears to have removed to a dwelling a short distance above the Springfield meeting-house. To the new house he gave the name of the "Three Tuns." It was at this house that Capt. Morgan's company of drafted men assembled in October, 1814, previous to taking up the line of march for Marcus Hook. The license was continued to Emmor Eachus until 1820, when he was succeeded as landlord by John Jones, and five years thereafter John Fawkes kept the house for a brief season, for, dying in less than a year, his widow, Susan Fawkes, applied for license in 1826. The sage opinion of the late Tony Weller has convinced the world that there is a peculiar attraction about a widow that is fatal to the liberty of single gentlemen, but when the disconsolate relict has the additional recommendation of being the landlady of a public-house, she becomes absolutely irresistible. Hence, when Mr. Wayne Litzenberg saw Mrs. Fawkes, he was not exempt from the general fascination of the pleasing widow, and I was not surprised to find that in the application for license for the "Three Tuns," in 1829, Wayne Litzenberg figures as the petitioner, and informs the court that he has intermarried with Susan Fawkes.

In 1830, John Black followed as the landlord, to be succeeded in 1835 by Isaac Johnson, when, the old Lamb Tavern kept by Gibbons having ceased to be a licensed house, Johnson substituted for his tavern the name "The Lamb," instead of the "Three Tuns," by which it had formerly been known. The latter was greatly interested in military matters, and frequently the militia under the old law assembled at his house for review and to be instructed in the art of war. In 1837, John Ford was mine host of the Lamb, and in 1847, Forrester Hoopes was the landlord, his first license being had under the first local option law, when he was granted leave by the court to keep a temperance house, which was not the sort of privilege he desired. Here he continued, receiving full license after the law which interdicted the sale of liquor in that township had been declared by the Supreme Court unconstitutional, until 1853, when the owner of the property, George Worrall, kept the house. The latter in 1858 was followed by Joseph H. Black, who in the succeeding year retired, to be followed by George Worrall. In 1863, Peter H. Hill had license for the house, which he afterwards had transferred to Worrall. The next year, 1864, William F. Woodward kept the tavern, and remained there until 1868, when Malachi W. Sloan became the proprietor. He in 1869 gave place to Benjamin Rodgers, to be followed in 1873 by Mr. Sloan. In 1875 Leedom Kirk was the landlord, and James A. Serverson in 1878.

Malachi W. Sloan died Aug. 16, 1881, and in his will directed, "It is my will and desire that the 'Lamb Tavern property,' in said will named, shall, after the expiration of the present lease, be no longer used for the purpose of a hotel." The Lamb Tavern, under this provision, is no longer a licensed house.

The Springfield House. - In 1834, the year Gibbons retired from tavern-keeping, Morris W. Heston applied for a license for a house located on the Delaware County turnpike. In 1836 George Lotzenburg was the landlord, and in 1838 Isaac Johnson, in 1839 Thomas Gibson, and in 1841 John E. Levis was its last landlord. He kept the Springfield House as a temperance inn. In August, 1842, John Larkin, Jr., the then sheriff, sold the property on an execution against Levis.

In 1882, Lewis F. Belts was licensed to keep the Farriday Park Hotel at Morton, conditioned that he would supply liquor only to guests of the house at dinner-table and in their rooms; and that "no bar, sideboard, or semblance thereof, or other place where persons can stand and purchase drinks, shall be permitted to be kept or maintained upon any part of the premises." In 1883, Benjamin N. Morton had the license granted to him at the same house, under like restrictions.

In 1876 Nathaniel Chandler was an inmate of the House of Employment. About 1830 he resided in a small house, now owned by Richard Young, at the junction of the roads leading from Providence and Springfield to Darby, in which he sold cakes and beer. His sign read thus:

This sign and its inscription, it was said, was procured by some of his neighbors, who used often to congregate at his "pow," as the establishment was