Shown is a view of the Jackman Tavern..
(By Stephen Kelley from the Peoples Defender, 1986)
Although it may not sound as exciting as sky-diving, automobile racing or watching the Super Bowl, historical research does tend to stimulate and invigorate the senses in those of us who enjoy unraveling the many secrets of the past. While investigating the history of the landmark home pictured this week, we became excited to learn that it was once used as a wayside inn and tavern on old Zane’s Trace. Heretofore, no mention of this important site has been found in any sources on Adams County history. Located less than a mile north of Dunkinsville on present-day Ohio 41, this old log house has seen owned by Mr. and Mrs. Austin Campbell for the past quarter-century. As is the case with so many properties in Adams County, this homestead has remained in the same family for several generations. The land on which the Campbell home now stands was originally surveyed in June of 1795 by Nathanial Massie. Sometime prior to July of 1797, it was purchased from Massie by William Jackman of Washington County, Pennsylvania. Jackman apparently never moved to Adams County but instead divided this Lick Fork acreage between his children upon his death. The one hundred twenty-five-acre tract lying at the mouth of Lick Fork was willed to his daughter Elizabeth. She was the wife of Samuel Jackman who was probably a cousin. It was Elizabeth and Samuel who moved to the wilderness of Adams County and erected a two-story log house beside Zane’s Trace just a few hundred yards from where Lick Ford enters Ohio Brush Creek. The construction of the log house with its substantial stone chimney probably occurred about 1810. The Zane Trace had become a stagecoach route as early as 1807 and was rapidly becoming the main thoroughfare through the old Northwest Territory. The Jackmans evidently decided to capitalize on the location of their home site and opened their home as a tavern. Although the Jackman Tavern is not mentioned in any historical references, when Elizabeth and Samuel transferred ownership of the home to their son Simeon in later years the deed refers to the “old Tavern stand”. Even though it never became well known in local history as did the Treber, Leedom, Platter, Ellison and Mershon taverns and inns the Jackman Tavern rightly deserves mention as one of the earliest wayside inns on Zane’s Trace in southern Ohio.
Furthermore, the same deed that reveals this old home as a former tavern also mentions that the Jackmans operated a ferry across Ohio Brush Creek at the mouth of Lick Fork. The original Zane Trace kept to the left bank of Lick Fork and then continued northward along the west bank of Ohio Brush Creek. However, in 1807, the state rebuilt the old trace, widening the former horse trail and changing its path in several places. For reasons unknown today, this new state road was laid out to cross Ohio Brush Creek at the Shoemaker (Sproull) Crossing and to proceed on the course now taken by Hoop Ridge Road. Although the Shoemaker Crossing was generally shallow and could be forded most of the year, a ferry could have been necessary during high water.
