Days of Yore

Brewhouse

as recounted by Bill Day

Gazing at the 16 x 29 foot brick structure which originally had one floor (the second story was added later), one sees something that is unchanged since the early settlers looked at it over 250 years ago.  Usually some degree of refurbishing has been done to historical buildings, but this unused old brew house has never been changed.

It was in it hat Elizabeth Haddon learned form John Estaugh, her husband, how to extract from plants and herbs the concoction to relieve the colds, fevers and other ailments of the townsfolk and of the neighboring Indians.  If some degree of alcohol resulted in the brewing it was used only for medicinal purposes.

Remember the legend of the tunnel that was under east Main street that ran from the Indian King to the Guard House across the street?  Every kid knew the story and of the indentation under the sidewalk side of the Inn’s cellar that remained after the tunnel was filled in during the revolution, the Guard House had bee used to imprison person suspected of aiding the British cause.  The legend also was that General Washington hid in the tunnel while the British troops were going through town in 1777.

Behind the Midlantic Bank and alongside the walkway that extends from the parking lot to east Kings highway is a small one room building.  It was moved there when the highway area at the Tanner street traffic light was modernized.  For years, it had been the office of the Willits Coal and Lumber yard.  It is a relic still remaining of Haddonfield’s past.  Many remember paying for a winter’s supply of coal to Miss Geismer in that little office.

Remember J. David Stern, III, Tommy Stern who was the publisher of the evening Courier which now is the Courier Post?  Tommy during World War II wrote a book entitled “Francis’” that was later produced into a popular motion picture called “Francis, the Talking Mule”.  Tommy was raised here and was graduated from Haddonfield High in 1928.

On sale at the lobby of the visitor center headquarters and museum at Fredricksburg, VA and the Spotsylvania National Military Park is a National Historical Publication entitled “The Concise Illustrated History of the Civil War.”  On the back cover of the paperback history is a print of a poster promoting enlistments into the Union Army before a draft was imposed in September of 1863.  The encampment was to be at Beverly.  It stated that enlistments could go to the recruiting station which was in the Odd Fellows Hall in Haddonfield.  The officer in charge was William C. Shinn.  Captain Shinn, the recruiting officer had been dispatched to secure one hundred enlistments from Camden County.  He was the great-grandfather of Betty Lenhart