Sign of Captain Lawrence Inn

The following article appeared in the September, 1994, issue of HISTORICAL HAPPENINGS, the official newsletter of the Lawrenceville Historical Society. It was written by Jim Wudarczyk.

Thanks to Mr. V. Russell Patience of Rochester, New York, additional light is shed upon the Sign of Captain Lawrence, an inn owned by William B. Foster. Mr. Patience has reason to suspect that the Sign of Captain Lawrence might later have been known as Two Mile Run House since the leasing of taverns was quite common.

On January 7, 1817, W. B. Foster ran an ad in the PITTSBURGH GAZETTE, "To Let...That well known tavern, Sign of Captain Lawrence on the Turnpike road two miles from Pittsburgh -- made very reasonable."

As of January 23, 1818, the Pittsburgh Gazette advertisement indicated that Benjamin South was the current occupant of the Sign of Captain Lawrence.

Between January 29, 1819, and March 23, 1819, Foster again ran an advertisement in the Pittsburgh Gazette trying to lease a brick tavern at the Two Mile Run "now occupied by John Means.

Mr. Patience became interested in the Sign of Captain of Lawrence and the Two Mile Run House when doing genealogical reasearch and he learned that Lewis Peters, father-in-law of Lieutenant Richard Pomeroy of the Allegheny Arsenal and Eliza Peters were married at the Two Mile Run House on November 9, 1820 Mr. Patience, in a letter of April 29, 1994, wrote, "We can surmise that since the ad placed in January 1819 indicated that the Two Mile Run House was lately occupied by John Means and several affidavits refer to the house as "her father's", Lewis Peters was probably the next tenant/tavern keeper."

Further in the same letter, Mr. patience wrote, "I am not certain that the Sign of Captain Lawrence Inn and the Two Mile Run House were one and the same. A letter written by Stephen Foster's sister and sent to me by Allan Becer mentions both names in connection with two different incidents."

In a letter of May 26, 1994, Mr. Patience recommends that our researchers make use of Clara Dver's four volume series of Abstracts From the PITTSBURGH GAZETTE. "I found other references in it relating to Foster's Inn, previously owned by Alexander Hill, as well as other matters concerning Lawrenceville. For the period through 1816, it's a great time saver for GAZZETTE research."

While the mystery remains unsolved at this point, Russell Patience's research on this topic is exceptionally valuable to researchers of early Lawrenceville history.