The life of Jacob Fought, Carlisle tavern keeper and blacksmith, during the five years following the end of the War of 1812, serves as a microcosm of that period. It was a time of economic expansion followed by depression, of rising then plummeting cotton prices, and of a land boom that accompanied American westward migration followed by rapidly dropping real estate values. The Second Bank failed to live up to its hope, and left a tangled, circular, and ill-founded credit system that threatened tradesmen, farmers, investors, and professionals. It was also a time of increasing public entertainment, and of intersecting public and private life at vendues, and in schools, churches, markets, organizations, and taverns.
As a business proprietor, Jacob Fought was a receiver and grantor of credit, suffered greatly from the spiraling economy and devaluation of real and personal property, was involved in a case of horse stealing, and was a host of public entertainment. As an innkeeper, he was a witness to and participant in the kinds of everyday events that were typical of the time and helped shape the fabric of American society.
Jacob Fought first appeared in Cumberland County in 1798, settling in Middleton, now North Middleton, Township, about three miles northwest of Carlisle. After moving several times to various rural locations in Cumberland County, he moved to Carlisle in 1806 and began a long tenure as proprietor of the tavern, Sign of the Plough and Harrow, in 1811. He was adversely affected by the economic collapse during the War of 1812. The most serious sign of financial problems began in a lawsuit brought by John Peters, former proprietor and owner of the Sign of the Plough and Harrow. Fought had purchased the inn, constructed of logs and stone, probably in 1811, for $1000, paying $100 in cash and subject to a $900 lien held by John Peters.
1815: A Case of Horse Stealing
In April 1814, Christopher Hocker, who lived on Licking Creek in Falls Township, Muskingum County, Ohio, bought a sorrel horse from Martin Varner for $85. The horse, sixteen hands high and six years old, had a round white star on its forehead the size of a dollar coin, and a small saddle mark. Hocker also bought a light dun horse from Jacob Morris of Licking Township, Muskingum County, Ohio, also for $85, on 10 January 1815. This horse, the same size and age as the sorrel, had a bald face, white feet and hams, and black streaks on the forelegs above the knees and on its back to the tail.
Hocker hired a young man, Asher Nichols, to help take the horses to Philadelphia. Hocker agreed to pay Nichols $15 plus all expenses during the trip. They set out on the long winter trip on the same day Hocker purchased the dun, January 10. Nichols had his own horse, a sorrel, slightly smaller than Hocker’s horses and perhaps a bit older. Nichols’s horse had a bald face and spavined hind legs. It had a lofty bearing and carried its head and tail high.
Josiah Simpson accompanied them as far as Wheeling, Virginia. Their eastward trip passed through Carlisle, Pennsylvania where they arrived on the sixth or seventh of February 1815. In Carlisle, they stayed at Jacob Fought’s inn, Sign of the Plough and Harrow, located only two blocks from the town center where the courthouse, market, and two established churches were. Fought’s inn had a stable for horses and a blacksmith shop where iron parts of saddles could be repaired or manufactured, and horse shoes could be made and fitted.
Transcriptions of newspaper articles by Mark W Podvia and Joan McBride. On April 7, 1893, the Evening Sentinel reported that Frederick Douglass was making his first visit to Carlisle when he addressed the students at the Carlisle Indian School. His presence at the school was also subsequently reported in the school's publication, The Indian Helper, on April14, 1893 and April21, 1893.