Existing comment:
The Historic National Road: The Road That Built The Nation:
Miller's Tavern & Spickler's Buggy Factory: Surreys, Stagecoaches and Tin Lizzies.
The Miller Hotel was one of the most popular destinations along the National Road in Washington County. Traveler T.B. Seabright recalled in 1894, "There were large rooms adapted to dancing purposes, and young men and maidens of the vicinity frequently tripped to the notes of old time music in its spacious halls... The old Wagoners engaged in these festivities with gusto..."
National Road travelers also came to this area to upgrade their means of transportation. Nearby, the Spickler's Buggy Factory developed rubber-tired buggies, improved horse-drawn sleighs, and later was the site of the first automobile dealer in Washington County.
Lewis Spickler, inventor and entrepreneur:
"My father had a tent at the Hagerstown Fair and showed the first rubber-tired buggy in Washington County." -- Elizabeth Herbert, daughter of promoter Lewis Spickler
Lewis Spickler invested a new model horse-drawn sleigh in 1868 at his father's blacksmith shop. The filing in the U.S. Patent office explained the improvements. "The draught is less. The sleigh is less likely to overturn. The horse does not strike his heels against any portion of the sleigh... The snow from the horse's feet is thrown under the sleigh, instead of into the faces of the occupants... The sleigh is more easily drawn through snow drifts." |