The Kline Family of Tavern and Hotel Keepers

Cumberland County taverns and hotels were often operated by men who leased them from year to year, creating a constantly shifting network of proprietors of hotels and taverns. Among those involved in this trade were members of the Kline family and their relatives. William Washington Kline, his sons Benjamin M. and William R. Kline, William W. Kline’s brother-in-law John B. Floyd, and Benjamin’s wife’s uncle, Milton K. Brubaker, kept taverns and hotels in Shephardstown, New Cumberland, Bridgeport (Lemoyne), Churchtown, Hogestown, and Carlisle.

William Washington Kline was born in York County on June 17, 1829, the son of York county millwright William Kline. In 1854 Willliam W. married Sarah Dougherty also from York County. The following year William received a license to keep a tavern at “Sheffer’s old place” in the village of Shepherdstown in Upper Allen Township.¹ Shepherdstown is situated along the Gettysburg Pike (now Old Route 15) and Sheffer’s tavern stood on the west side of the road. In that era, taverns served not only travelers and local residents but were also important civic centers. Upper Allen Township elections had been held at Sheffer’s tavern since the 1840s, and they continued to be held there during Kline’s tenure.

In 1859, William and his family moved to Carlisle where he leased the American House on North Hanover Street; a hotel also referred to in newspapers as Kline’s Hotel. When William left Shepherdstown, his brother-in-law, John B. Floyd, leased the tavern. The 1860 U. S. Census of Carlisle records William W. Kline’s household, and his occupation as a hotel keeper. He was thirty years old, his wife Sarah was 32, their daughter Mary was aged 5, son Benjamin’s age was not listed, as well as a 7-month-old baby boy whose name was not listed.

William Washington Kline in his uniform taken between 1862-1864.

William’s wife Sarah Dougherty Kline, and daughter Ella May taken by Bates & Flickinger, Mechanicsburg, PA.

On November 29, 1862, William was mustered in at Camp Franklin as a private in Co. G. of the 166th Pennsylvania Regiment; a nine-months man. He was promoted from Corporal to Sergeant on May 10, 1863, and was mustered out in July 1863. He spent time with his family, but on May 7, 1864, he enlisted with Co. H of the 7th Regiment of the Pennsylvania Reserves as a substitute for another soldier. He was thirty five years old when he was transferred to Co. A, 190th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry on March 4, 1864. He only had eight months to live. He was taken prisoner by the Confederates on August 19, 1864. He was briefly held at Belle Isle Prison outside Richmond, Virginia and was then transferred to Salisbury Prison in North Carolina. He was moved to the hospital and died there of dysentery on November 30, 1864. William W. Kline is buried in the prisoner-of-war section in the Salisbury National Cemetery.

William W.’s son, Benjamin Musser Kline, was born on May 18, 1857, in Shepherdstown. Benjamin was only seven years old when his father died. In the difficult years that followed, Benjamin and one of his sisters received an education at the Soldiers’ Orphan School at White Hall in Camp Hill.

Benjamin M. Kline, aged 14, taken by Lerue Lemer, Harrisburg, PA.

Benjamin M. Kline, aged 20, taken by John Daily, Altoona, PA.

After his schooling, Benjamin went to Altoona, PA and worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad. Returning to Cumberland County he had various jobs. In 1877, he was keeping a dry goods store in New Cumberland,² and in 1880 he was clerking in his uncle Floyd’s hotel in Bridgeport.³ The hotel trade seemed to suit Benjamin and by 1885 he was operating the Hogestown Hotel.⁴ On March 29, 1885, he married Ella Brubaker of New Cumberland, the niece of New Cumberland hotel keeper Milton K. Brubaker.⁵

Shooting matches were popular events at country taverns and hotels, and Benjamin held one at his hotel in Hogestown on Thanksgiving Day in 1886. Contestants shot at pine blocks from a distance of thirty five yards using No. 6 shot. The prize was a fine Chester White barrow seventeen months old and weighing 800 pounds.⁶ Benjamin left Hogestown in 1888. He took over Milton K. Brubaker’s hotel in New Cumberland and continued to build his reputation in the trade.

Thudium House, Southwest corner of North Hanover and Bedford Streets, Carlisle, taken by A. A. Line #01153D.

On April 1, 1890, at the age of thirty-two Benjamin transferred to the well-known Thudium House in Carlisle. His arrival was greeted warmly, and the Empire Fire Company Band serenaded him in welcome. Sadly, Benjamin would be dead in a month. He had reportedly been suffering for several months with stomach trouble, though he had been well enough to be about during the week before his death. When he died on May 1, 1890, a newspaper account spoke of him in affectionate and respectful terms describing him as “of fine personal appearance and gentlemanly in his speech and manner,” adding that “he was in every sense a model landlord and his death will be regretted by many.”⁷ He left behind his wife Ella and several children. He was buried in Westminster Cemetery near Carlisle.

In April 1887 Benjamin had taken part in a shooting match in Bridgeport where he won a Lefever hammerless shotgun.⁸ Six months after his death a shooting match was held in New Kingston for the shotgun he had won. The proceeds were intended for the benefit of his orphaned sons.⁹

William Ross Kline, Benjamin’s brother, was born in Carlisle in 1861. Like his brother, his father, and his uncle, he would also become a hotel keeper. William was living in Mechanicsburg when he applied for a license in 1894 to keep the Garber House. In October of that year he married Miss Lillian Elizabeth Kline, also of Mechanicsburg, and the couple would spend many years at the Garber House. William died in Boiling Springs, PA in March 1932.

View looking north on Bedford Street from East High Street. A portion of the Cumberland County Prison is seen on the left corner of Bedford Street, and the Garber House stands on the right corner. Taken by A. A. Line #00688C.

The Garber House stood on the northeast corner of East High and Bedford Streets. The building had served as a hotel since the 1840s, known as the Cumberland Valley Hotel. William R. Kline’s uncle, John B. Floyd, kept the hotel in 1868 and again from 1882-1886 after it’s name had been changed to the Garber House. William R. Kline leased the hotel in 1894 for several years before purchasing it, and in June 1897, he renamed it the Hotel Cumberland. He owned it until 1918 when he sold it at a public sale.¹⁰

John Barkley Floyd (1828-1889) was Benjamin and William R.’s uncle. He took over their father’s tavern in Shepherdstown in 1860 when William W. went to Carlisle to run the American House. By 1868 Floyd was running the Cumberland Valley Hotel in Carlisle, later named the Garber House. From 1878 to 1880 Floyd ran a hotel in Churchtown, in 1880 and 1881 in Bridgeport, and from 1882-1886 he was back in Carlisle at the Garber House. In eight years, his nephew William R. Kline would begin his turn as the keeper of the hotel.

Milton K. Brubaker (1841-1910) was originally a tanner by trade. He moved to New Cumberland in 1875 and became a hotel proprietor. He retired in 1889, but when his niece’s husband, Benjamin M. Kline, died in 1890, he took possession of the Thudium House in Carlisle and ran it until 1905.¹¹

For sixty years the Kline’s and their relatives operated taverns and hotels from Carlisle to New Cumberland. When William W. Kline and his son Benjamin died in their thirties, their relatives John B. Floyd and Milton K. Brubaker stepped in to help out the family.

Thanks to William Washington Kline’s descendant, William Kline Roney, for making his collection of family records, ephemera, and photographs available to enable us to put faces to the stories of these men.