Taverns, Swap Days, Drovers and Livery Stables

The Sterling Center Hotel, known as the Cayuga House, upper left.
Below, another view of the hotel.
 Sterling Town Historian

By Raymond T. Sant

[Fair Haven Register, April 8, 1971]

    All of the above were intertwined. The early taverns had a livery stable and were placed where men congregated to eat, drink and talk. Their importance is indicated by the fact that all taverns were licensed and it was the responsibility of the Sterling town government to issue the license. Taverns were required by law to serve refreshments to travelers and drovers. This included food, ,drink and lodging. The bar room was usually separate from the dining facilities, and if not, ladies were seated apart in a separate alcove. The taverns were usually stage stops and the tavern barons were change stations for the horses.

    Drovers were commonplace and their needs had to be cared for both in passing and for overnight. All livestock was moved “on the hoof” and drovers herded cattle along the road sometimes with fifteen to twenty in a herd. Provision was made for holding the cattle, horses, sheep, pigs and turkeys in overnight enclosures. At Fair Haven in 1859 this was done at two hotels, the Wilcox House and Hunt’s Hotel, both located near the present West End Gas Station.  Hunt’s Point was cleared as a pasture and the bay served as a barrier in lieu of fences.

    Drovers continued on the roads until about 1914 when trucks were available. Nick Barrus and Mid Russell were partners in the cattle business about 1900 and Frank Longley and George Sturge of Sterling were buying livestock. These men were also meat cutters and ran butcher shops. Little fresh meat was sold in the general stores. Andrew J. Burgdorf of Martville, later our assemblyman, bought cattle in Canada and his men drove them to Martville. He also had local buyers bringing in calves each week. These were loaded on cattle cars and shipped to New York around 1920. 

    There were usually two livery stables in each small village. Just before the Civil War at Fair Haven, both the Wilcox House and Hunt’s Hotel maintained liveries. These were later run by T. Harsha as the Fair Haven Hotel and by R. Patty as the Ontario Hotel, both located on Hunt’s Point. These owners were succeeded by Giles  Barrus and Mrs. Jane Hitchcock.

    Salesmen came to these hotels by stagecoach, later by train, and they would hire a rig to take the to the merchants. Loaded with many sample cases, a salesman’s route in one day might be to the stores at Sterling Center, then to the Valley and Hannibal, perhaps to Martville and return. The tavern keepers were genial hosts, sometimes called inn-keepers, or hostels, and the men who cared for the horses in the liveries were hostlers. The most active and probably the last of the old-time livery stables was at Sterling Center. There the old Cayuga House had been a stop for stage coaches for a century. John McEachron kept twelve horses for hire until the first World War (1916). He was the last of the old-time innkeepers who maintained a livery.

    One uncommon local phenomenon was the annual fall Swap Day. The word went out and men assembled from miles around to buy, sell or swap horses that had defects so no one was “bested.” Horse traders were all egotist and each believed he had a superior knowledge of horseflesh. Most of the participants had lost their amateur standing. On the appointed day the stable and yards would be filled to overflowing with all kinds or rigs and horses.  These swap days were sometimes called Jockey Day and they were continued until after the first decade of the twentieth century. Mid Russell, Lester Pople and Stuart Lang were all spectators at these swap days



             National Hotel at Martville
Sterling Town Historian

    The hotels at Hannibal, Martville and Cato were regular swap centers. These three villages remained cattle sales and shipping centers until after World War II. Ben and Dan DiBello are still holding sales at Hannibal. A. D.  Burdorf, Martville and Harold Smith, Cato, were among the last of the livestock dealers.

    At Swap Day a good time was had by all as the men wise to the ways of horseflesh and crafty swappers all with a little larceny in their parts, met at the all-day sessions. Great cafe was exercised as these experts groomed their horses, doctored, dyed and doped them. It is related that sometimes a man influenced by hard side and excitement would swap horse three times and end up with the same horse!  Talk in the back rooms by stable hands mentioned stimulants, opiates, dampening hay, kerosene mist over feed, sponges int nostrils and shoe polish on eyebrows,

    Later bands of gypsies traveled through Sterling with long strings of swapping horses and they might camp for three days. At other times the law officers escorted them out of town as the merchants hastily locked their stores fearing thievery. 

    At farm auctions usually help in the spring about moving time the auctioneer had his individual “patter” that might go something like this: “Gentleman, this horse stands fifteen hands high, weighs 1,300 pounds, is going on eight years old - she is a good looker, a high stepper, kind and gentle and hasn’t a blemish on her. She is sold free from ring bone, spavin, heaves, and is sound as a dollar in wind and limb - works in any harness, single or double. How much am I offered?” These auctions were responsible people and would mention it if a horse was a kicker, etc. Some words denoting the color of horses would mean little today - sorrel, chestnut, bay and roan, both strawberry and blue.

    G. G. Young married a Waldren girl and they had a sheep and cattle ranch in Nebraska about 1890. Mr. Going would assemble about twenty-five horses, mostly culls and bring them to Fair Haven. He pastured them in a field near the present Charles Burgdorf home. These horses were sold and were the type that became swappers. Sterling farmers needed one good team of horses. Many times an extra or third horse could be used on the horse fork rope, a single cultivator or o a three-horse hitch with the binder. It was this extra horse that was traded.

    At a Swap day, the professional horse traders had a specialized vocabulary full of legal escape words. These might be used as David Harum stated that the horse he traded would “stand without hitching,” it proved to be balky. The remark, “If you buy this cow you don’t need to keep her.” If it was returned that meant you could kill it or sell it. “This horse doesn’t look good” could mean it had only one eye. “A lady can drive it as well as a man” - yes, it would kick or run away from anyone. The age of a horse to the enlightened could be told by looking at the teeth. The meaning of the cliche, “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth,” is obvious.

   The aged, the kickers, run-aways, cribbers, and those with physical defects went to Swap days. Great sources for injured and galled horses were the Erie Canal and stagecoach lines. Some of the local blacksmiths had as principal customers the express and forwarding companies. There were a great many of these lines hauling mail and freight in upstate New York. Wells and Fargo,  from Port Byron and Weedsport and Butterfield of Wolcott eventually consolidated them into the great companies into the great companies such as Wells-Fargo and the American Express Company.

    At Fair Haven many horses were used on the dump wagons and scrapers used in grading the Southern Central and Lake Ontario Shore railroads, and later hauling iron ore from the Sterling mines. John McElveney lived in the old Hunt Hotel and from the livery barns supplied horses for these operations. His horses were purchased in Ohio and driven east.

    The last pictures of teamsters plying their trade in Sterling was taken about 1914 as the roads were graded and hard-surfaced. The sub-base of stone came from the piles of and stone fences that abounded on the nearby farms. The sub-base covered with local gravel was delivered by horsedrawn dump wagons. The last job between Fair Haven and Fred Creek saw Billy Trainor and Ira Caster, both driving their own excellent teams. William Bailey furnished the teams for the last operation of the ore bed. 

    The Town of Sterling was a link in the state road program. Road Commissioner Fred Thompson of Martville purchased a stone crusher that was first used to surface the Wilde hill. The power used was the first steam roller operated by Roy Rasbeck. The town owned there Eagle dump wagons, made in Auburn, and the horses were hired for local farmers or the livery stable. Fred Taber and Mott Wilde were the town teamsters. Sometimes the Henry Demas  steam threshing machine was used for power.

    The town annually appropriated a lump sum for road building and repair. When the money was used up all road work stopped until the next tax period. New roads were pledged well in advance as votes were solicited at election time. This, however, was a great improvement over the old Pathmaster system when farmers were “warned out” to work out their road road tax.

    Responsibility for snow removal came slowly to the towns. Sterling took over in a small way about 1914. Teams drew a plow in back or tied to the side of a front bob of a sleigh. The snow in this narrow furrow was packed by drawing a great iron  scalding kettle through it. At other times a log four feet long was used. A horse shoe was driven in one end by which it was fastened by a rope to the sleigh. Commissioner Fred Thompson and his crew designed and built  a pointed wooden plow that, weighted with stone, was pulled by two teams. This made a wider track and so began our town responsibility for snow removal.



Old Cato Hotel - stagecoach stop of yesteryear, still stands.

     John and Thomas Hunter owned a large number of dump wagons, stump pullers, shovels, wheelbarrows, and pick axes used in their railroad and canal contracts, These between jobs and the winter filled a field above the Hunter barn at the Valley. The Hunters built the first railroad bridge across the river at Oswego, and dug the railroad tunnel on the east side. Clarence Crockett and the Hunters were associated in construction contracts such as the Porcupine Gold Mining Company in Alaska. They also worked on the Welland and Panama Canals.

    Good teamsters were knowledgeable about the ways of horses. The work was not considered among the elite occupations as it required no formal education. The men were tough, rough and hard to handle. They did, however, like their work, took good care of their horses and became attached to them. Every farm boy while learning to work with horses, when he was critical of their responses, was told, “Remember, boy, if you wish to be a teamster you must know more than  the horses!” Much of their vocabulary is now lost, but to have a “brush” meant a race to “bait” a horse meant it cropped grass by the roadside.

    Little needs to be said about the convivial aspects of the annual swap day. The tavern keeper did a good business. Many of the participants at swap day would in low voices mention the location old the next cock fight. These were, ,of course, illegal. This was all part of the rural scene at the turn of the century and continued until World War I. Vestiges remain in the occasional horse pull, the ‘coon chases and the livestock auctions.

    The importance of the livery stables, auctions and jockey days have been neglected.  Boys learned great lessons at these, about mostly all the wrong things.  

    The hand-forged tie rings, the tie rails, stalls and box stalls, tack rooms with hooks loaded with harness draw, hay, grain bins, horse collars, forks, shovels, lap robes, horse blankets, and the manure piles, provided a never-forgotten aroma and setting.

    It is recalled that Will Bennett (1890) was one of Fair Haven’s livery stable proprietors. He was also the originator of the Fair Haven Register and organized our first band.

    The nonpareil hotel proprietor, William Allen, rented the last livery stable to Floyd Vine. The old hotel barn originated with the original Barruss House was closed when automobiles took over about 1915. The last of the livery stables was moved to Main Street and became Roy Maynard’s Fair Haven Garage. The old hotel, known in its last yeas as the Maplewood Inn, when operated by Harley Mosher, catered only to the motor trade.