In Cherryville you can see a big house, in the northeast corner at the crossing of your road by Quakertown to Young Mills. That is "Dogtown Tavern". In the early days it was one of the oldest buildings in the village. No one knew it's age. It was an old inn. The earliest known keeper was Reuben McPherson. He owned a farm for many years, until the tragic death on January 16, 1831. A family tradition explains it. He went to the farm to do the feeding. He failed to return. They said "He must have fallen on a chain saw, and was lying dead on the floor."

After the accident, his wife Sarah McPherson moved along with one of her friends, Jacob .G. Barton, and his wife. They moved with their three daughters Mary, Charity and Elizabeth, and one son, John who was the oldest,15.

Then Jacob had another son named after his friend, because of the fatal incident. A woman laughed after Reuben's wife's serious comment saying" I wonder if this is the third Reuben to die?" Already two men named Reuben died. One was shot at war, the other one no one knows about. He was just lying dead on the floor.

I chose to do this project, because when I was browsing through a book and saw the word murder and I like murder and history together. I learned a lot.

I live on the north east corner of the intersection of Cherryville Road and Quakertown Road in the village of Cherryville. Our property was at one time where the "DOGTOWN TAVERN" once stood. It is told that the tavern was the oldest building in the village of Cherryville. Nobody knows exactly when it was built. In the front of our yard, we have a stone planter wall and the corner stone has the date 1737 carved into it. The initials MHH are also carved into the stone. We were told that this stone was once part of the Tavern's foundation walls.

The earlist known keeper of this Tavern was Ruben Mcpherson. He was killed on January 16, 1831. When he went to the barn to do the morning feeding, he failed to return. When they searched for him he was found lying dead on the floor. He had fallen down the hatchway from the mow and was killed. Two other men were killed by accident in the village with the same name (Ruben Mcpherson). After the death of Ruben Mcpherson, the tavern laid empty until 1838. The courts offered the tavern for public sale. It was sold to John T. Marshall for $2,450.00.

Nobody knows about the later keepers of the Tavern. The last keeper known was Milton Schomp. He was the keeper for only a couple of years. then the Tavern closed down permantently. the tavern finally burned down at an unknown date. In 1955, our house was built on the site of the "DOGTOWN TAVERN."

In the 1800's, a keeper by the name of One Fonner died and superstitious people believe he haunted the place. Maybe that is why we hear noises in our house that we cannot explain. Is Mr. Fonner haunting our house? Nobody knows.

Marla
Spring, 1999