Pictured is the Nixon House as it was photographed about 1890 by photographer David Gardner. Also shown is its builder, David Nixon (1842-1926). Photos courtesy of Mrs. Harold Purdy, granddaughter to David Nixon.
(By Stephen Kelley from the Peoples Defender, 1981)
The Village of Peebles is celebrating its Centennial anniversary this year. It was in the Fall of 1881 that landowner Isaiah Custer founded the new settlement. Custer’s town was platted with 70 lots on his farm where the right of way for the Cincinnati and Eastern Railroad crossed old Zane’s Trace. Named after the John G. Peebles, prominent businessman of Portsmouth, Ohio the town was a success from the beginning. It grew considerably in 1882 with the coming of the railroad and several homes and places of business started rising from the former rolling farmland.
The first hotel built in Peebles was erected by David Nixon and his wife, the former Many Ann Eakins, Nixon was a local farmer, being born and raised just a few miles south to the new village. He was a veteran of the Civil War, serving in the 70th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. David was a member of Company E which was originally led by Captain John T. Wilson of Tranquility. The Nixons new hotel was officially dubbed the Nixon House but was more commonly known at the Nixon Property or Nixon Hotel. It was a two story frame structure sporting Victorian trim and bay windows and was ready for business quite probably by the summer of 1883. David and Mary Ann knew how to treat their customers with “down home” hospitality and plenty of good food. As a result, the Nixon house soon became a favorite stop for visitors, drummers and others traveling the rails through Adams County.
The Nixons kept their hotel for 18 years before selling to Francis M. and Alice J. Stultz for the goodly sum of $3,500. The Stultzes were also excellent hotel managers and continued to operate the hotel to the satisfaction of their many patrons. As probably did the Nixons, the Stultzes maintain a “sample house” behind the hotel especially for the visiting drummers. There the smooth tongues salesmen displayed their wares for the local merchants’ consideration. Also, during the Stulzes management, hotel customers were occasionally entertained by the singing of the Stultz children. The children, no doubt hoping to receive a gratuity in the form of a coin or two. Despite the death of Alice Stultz in 1913, Francis continued to operate the hotel until his death in 1917. The Stultz children sold the property in September of that same year to the Bank of Peebles. The bank immediately set about the task of dismantling the 34-year-old hotel building and erected a substantial two-story brick building on the site which stands yet today on the northwest corner of Walnut and Main Streets.
