THE WATKINS TAVERN OF KENTUCKY
By Elizabeth Watkins Barner
One of the more humorous discoveries I made while growing up was my grandfather's admission that our branch of the Watkins family had at one time owned a Tavern.
A TAVERN?
You mean, a place where alcoholic beverages had been consumed for profit? Surely not! Visions of bouncers thrusting drunks out the back door onto the streets made my mind spin. I say this tongue in cheek because the thought of a minister's father and grandfather having been associated with such an institution just seemed too far-fetched a fact for this descendant to grasp! To hear this from a man who had only allowed liquor to cross his lips but once in his lifetime was just more than I could take in with a straight face. Having been lectured on the "evils" brought on by consumption of alcohol, the thought that Henry Clay's mother and step-father having owned a tavern gave me pause to chuckle.
Of course, as time went on and the years passed, I came to learn that the taverns of those days not only had a quite respectable clientele, but were places where bouncers were rarely needed or employed! Taverns were, by definition, places for people to gather, share information, and forge friendships. They were meeting places that provided, amongst other things, food and beverages.
The Watkins Tavern, located in Versailles, KY was owned by Henry (Hal) Watkins and his wife, Elizabeth Hudson (Clay) Watkins. It was built out of stone sometime in 1792-1793, shortly after Henry and his brother John settled in Woodford County. There is an old story that Thomas Metcalfe, who supervised the building of Watkins Tavern, had concealed a jug of whiskey under the cornerstone of the inn and that when the building burned in 1886, whiskey gourmets spent months searching for the jug which was never found. Mr. Metcalfe was a Virginian who came to Kentucky and eventually became the governor of the state from 1828-1832.
Well, back to these Watkins brothers. Marrying sisters, John and Henry migrated to Kentucky from Virginia. (Convenient about marrying sisters, I thought. Only one set of in-laws!) John aspired more to the political side of settling the area, becoming one of the City of Versaille's first commissioners. Having your brother as commissioner and being the step-father and guardian of a gentleman by the name of Henry Clay must have had it's advantages in attracting very interesting people to the Tavern. Henry, (Mr. Watkins, that is) by many accounts, was instrumental in using his "influence and political connections" to help his step-son settle in the area when Henry (Mr. Clay, that is) came there.
There are no portraits or pictures of Mrs. Watkins, but she was said to have been a striking woman with radiant eyes and a kindness in her face paralleled by few. Firsthand recollections from the older generations of Woodford County claimed Mrs. Watkins to have been very social and gracious in her manner and that she and Hal made the Tavern an inviting place for politicians and statesmen to gather.
Nothing that I am writing is new, but I thought it was important to have this information included in the Watkins Family History Society for obvious reasons. Both William Railey's book on Woodford County and Woodford County-The First Two Hundred Years mention the Watkins Tavern and its importance in the community. "The Tavern was the meeting place for great lawyers and judges and the like for more than ninety years. In 1825, General Lafayette came to visit his friend, General Marquis Calmes, and was honored with a banquet dinner at the Inn after he had spoken to an assembly of the citizenry from the upper floor balcony." To understand the genral's interest in Woodford, it must be noted that the list of citizens who drew pensions for service during the revolution were many. General Woodford, for whom the county was named, was a childhood friend of LaFayette and lived in the county. LaFayette was touring the state to pay his respects for the last time in person to his old friends and comrades of the revolution. The event at the Watkins Tavern resembled that of a Grand Ball which was given by the citizens and their involvement and preparations made the occasion such a success that it would not be forgotten. Recollections are that "the grand pageantry headed by Colonel John Steele, met the distinguished visitor near Frankfort and escorted him to Versailles." LaFayette was witnessed to have wept more than once in greeting his old comrades-in-armes, Calmes, Subletts, DuPuys, Trabues, and others of French extract.
Other notable visitors of the Inn included such men as Maj. John Crittenden, Senator John Brown, Judge Caleb Wallace, Prof. Kean O'Hara (father of the great poet-journalist) as well as John Watkins (founder of the town and delegate in the Constitutional Convention at Danville in 1792), and of course Henry Clay. One can only imagine the discussions and opinions that were shared amongst these men who, in many cases, were instrumental in forging the policies and establishing the political atmosphere not just in the territory, but throughout an entire nation.
On August 23, 1985, the Woodford County Historical Society submitted the name Watkins Tavern to have a historical highway marker placed on the corner of South Main and Court Streets. On November 5, an inscription had been written for the marker.
Ok. So it WASN'T your average modernday-type "tavern". Of course, the more research I do, the more I realize this was an extraordinary time in our nation's settlement of the frontier and the people who spent time at the Watkins Tavern were most likely having very "lively discussions" about the future of our country . It was, in fact, the first "in" place in the area where influential people came to listen and be heard. Their Host and Hostess's name was Watkins.
Henry and Elizabeth Watkins left the Tavern sometime between 1815 and 1820 and settled on a farm three miles south of Versailles. It is known as the "Moss House". The Woodford Heritage News reported once that the "old Moss House" should have been called the Watkins House, as it was built for Henry and Elizabeth. Henry purchased the property in 1793 from his brother, John, who had taken up a thousand acre grant on waters of Grier's Creek. In 1820, Henry built the house and settled there. It is described as "a finely executed as well as well-proportioned brick structure in the Federal style - a two-story, four-bay house laid up in the Flemish-bond pattern".
As an anecdote it should be known that Henry and Elizabeth had four children, three boys and one daughter. John, the oldest son stayed in Woodford Co. and died there. Francis (Frank), who I am descendant from, was a minister and traveled to Missouri and died there. Nathaniel, probably the most famous of the children other than Henry Clay, became a lawyer and moved to Missouri as well. Their only daughter married Col. William Blackburn of Versailles, "whose eminence as a lawyer and in politics made his name historic. He was an uncle of Senator Joe C. S. Blackburn." Francis inherited the farm when his parents died. He eventually sold it as he removed from Kentucky to eventually settle in Missouri. Another story, another day.
Thanks to my brother Jim for recollections of his trip to Versailles, KY that prompted my remembering stories Gpa told me years ago about the Tavern.
Elizabeth Watkins Barner
4th great-grand daughter of Henry Watkins (1758-1829)
Descendants of Henry Watkins
Henry Watkins was born December 26, 1758 in Cumberland County, VA,
and died November 24, 1829 in Woodford County, KY.
