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Home : Quarterly Archives : Volume 25 |
Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society |
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Source: July 1987 Volume 25 Number 3, Pages 112–114 "An Act of Humanity and a Kindness" At the beginning of the French and Indian War, Conrad Young was the innkeeper at the "Halfway House", a tavern later known as the "Blue Ball". It was the first licensed tavern in either Tredyffrin or Easttown townships, and Young was preceded as the innkeeper there by Thomas McKean, an uncle of the Thomas McKean who later became governor of Pennsylvania. The tavern was located on the old Conestoga Road, south of the present Lancaster Pike, and was the predecessor of the better-known new "Blue Ball" that opened on the new Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike in 1794. Young came to the inn in 1753 and remained there for four years. In early 1757, while he was still the innkeeper, an incident concerning a soldier in the French and Indian War occurred. Young later described it in a petition, reproduced on the opposite page, that he addressed "to the Worshipfuls his Majesties Justices of the Court of Quarter Sessions on February 28, 1758." It reads:
To the Worshipfulls his Majesties Justices of the Court of Quarter Sessions now Met at Chester
Petition of Conrad Young : Chester County Archives That on the 6th of January 1757 John Lasom a Soldier in ye 2d Batallion of the Royal American Regiment, Came Sick to my house on his march, and from an inclination to Promote his Attys Interest as well as in Compassion to the Sufferings of a Fellow Subject, I permitted him ye Said John Lasom to remain at my house (Tho he had been Refused the Like Kindness at other Taverns before he came To me) Untill the 24th Do. on which he Died, I was Obliged to Burry him All at my own Expenses, at a Radnor Church Yard in a Christian like manner And the Charges of his Sickness his Nursing &c his Dying in my house his Coffin Sheet, & Digging his Grave amount at verry moderate and low computation to 4.18.8 a Considerable part of which I have paid out of my Pocket No part of which I have Ever yet Recovered nor have any Expectation of getting unless your Worships will be pleased to order Some Method for my relief It is cruel and Unnatural in any Christian Country to Refuse a Soldier on ye Point of Death admittance into a house, & it is something hard on either hand That a man must bear all the Burthen & Expense for an Act of Humanity And a Kindness, which had been Denied by others. But your Petitioner relying on ye Worships Condescending to take the Affair under Consideration and Relieving him as far as May be from Bearing the whole weight of those Expenses Shall always Esteem it as Particular Favour Done to him and with Gratitude as duty bound, Shall Ever Pray -- Conrad Young [N. B. The petition was marked "not answered".]
The "Halfway House", later the "Blue Ball" : drawing by Caroline Logan |
