The Historic Weakley Tavern

02/24/2026

It's been a minute since I last posted on this page, but AI wasn't around when it was created. Here's what AI has to say about the Taverns Historic place in George Washingtons maneuver to quell the Whiskey Rebellion.
🍽️ Washington’s Travel Habits
Washington was a creature of habit:

He rarely skipped meals, especially midday dinner.

He preferred taverns for rest and refreshment during travel.

He did not eat in the saddle unless forced by urgency.

His military and presidential journeys often included stops at roadside inns.

So unless there was a compelling reason to push through, he would have stopped for lunch.

11/15/2024

Congrats to the team!!!

03/01/2024

I went to auction today, “surprise, surprise”, as Gomer Pyle would say. One of the two old books I was dead set on buying was this one and I payed dearly for it. James Weakley, son of Samuel who adds onto a structure that became the Weakley Tavern. Sam is my 6th great uncle. James his son, born in Cumminstown at the site of the original Walnut Bottom in 1787. As a child he attended the Big Spring Presbeterian church with his parents, Samuel and Hestor (Lusk) Weakley. It’s a 7 mile ride by horse and cart to church and they do not miss many services. It’s at this church that he meets the daughter of Newville’s only Doctor, Dr. John Geddes and her name is Eliza. The book is dated June 10th 1810 and Miss Eliza is 15 years old. James, 9 years older than her knows her. But it’s still going to be another 25 years until they marry and have a son, James jr. The inscription inside the cover in pencil, is James Weakley. James is multi generational name starting here in the states when James, his grandfather, migrated about 1734 or sooner and is listed in the Blunston Records. So is this pencil signed by Sr or Jr, we don’t know.
Now the second book, we know for certain is Jr. James Geddes Weakley and he sits in Pew #4 at Dickinson Presbyterian Church. J.G. Was born in 1837 and this book is dated 1862, so he’s apprenticing as a carpenter in Huntsdale and helping out at the family Mill when this book is signed. 3 years after signing this book, his life will change forever and he will start a spiritual and eventually he will became known as the Black Sheep of the Weakley family.
You can read about it here. enjoy reading about our local outlaw who would go to rub elbows with the likes of Doc Holliday and such and resided at Deadwood when it was Indian territory. Sorry, but you have to copy and paste to read the whole article.

https://gardnerlibrary.org/sites/default/files/vol19n2.pdf =5

07/27/2023

11 years ago, right after buying the Tavern, I was shown this post card. My very good friend, BG William Davies made a copy of it and gave it to us as a housewarming present. 11 years of searching. Imagine my surprise when one came up at auction today. There is a Penn State page dedicated to Laughlin photos. This one is on that page. And now one is officially in the Tavern, as it should be. Patience does pay off.

03/31/2023

This is too cool! The earliest land indenture that I know of to exist or have ever seen, is now at home in the The Historic Weakley Tavern. 1737 and Cumberland County isn’t even formed yet. 300 acres where the Letort meets the Conedoguenet. Owned by Edward Smeed and an original Thomas Penn signature! These are known as the Blunston records.

03/03/2023

I’ve come to a crossroads with collecting local history. My heart was and still is with early Carlisle history, and so have a passionate connection with the Cumberland County Historical Society. BUT! Being the President of the Newville Historical Society has me putting geographical boundaries on collecting. Hence this 1814 Carlisle note. The condition is fantastic, but I think what everyone missed at this action, which allowed me/ the Tavern to secure this note at a very reasonable price, was the Jacob Hendel signature. So when I say I’m at a crossroad, here it is. At last nights Newville Historical Societies monthly meeting, I took the note in. Stated to the large group that it was an early Carlisle note and signed by Hendel. Nobody knew who Hendel was…. Sigh. Jacob, Bernard and George Hendel were very instrumental in colonial Carlisle times.
On the same note, and something we will be posting about later, a recent Newville Foundry bell came up at auction and sold for a very high price.
At that meeting last night, the group seemed excited about the bell that will be eventually displayed at the Society. Go into Carlisle, the mention of the Foundry and you would draw silence in most circles. Even though 10 miles separates the two entities, Newville is part of Cumberland County and the Newville area Directly connects Carlisle.
The new Executive Director of the Cumberland County Historical Society is Shawn Gladden, a dynamic individual who is reaching across those boundaries in a cooperative effort to include all the smaller HS’s. Something that has really never been done to the extent he’s doing it.
So in the meantime, here I am, so happy to add this signature to my other Hendel signatures, feeling like I’m a secret double agent. Enjoy the note. And if you don’t know about Jacob Hendel, take a quick trip in and visit the CCHS and take note of the signatures on some of their tall clocks.

02/13/2023

Took the horses for a walk today and found this in the field. Imagine it’s slag, but I’ve never seen this color before?

12/03/2022

Extremely humbled!

The Cumberland County Historical Society is honored to present Randy Heishman with the Annual Foshag Preservation Award for his dedicated work on restoring The Historic Heishman's Mill. Randy is also the newly elected President of the Newville Historical Society. Randy is a treasure in our community and this award is well deserved.

11/03/2021

The other day we received an envelope in the mail from Pat Fisher. Inside were these pictures and a typed note:
Randy Heishman
My name is Pat Fisher. My mother, Marie Eckenrode was born in your house on Dec 4, 1930. My Grandparents, Earl and Cula Steven’s rented the Shank house for a couple of years, roughly 1930 to 1932.”
There is some more very dear and sweet personal notes.
I can’t tell you how much this means to me!

This also provides me one startling fact. I always thought the Moran’s were the ones who changed the porch and door configurations to include the side lights in 65. I called that porch, “The porch to nowhere” because you walked down to grass. That was one of the first outside things to go when we started to remodeled. Seems like it wasn’t that old in 1930, so probably the Shank’s did it? The shutters are off the bottom windows at this point. I’d like to know what happened to them.

11/01/2021

I think they turned out phenomenal!