Cashtown Inn
The Cashtown Inn is well over two hundred years old. And it has ghosts. There is no mistaking the notable history behind the old inn. Peter Mark built the Inn about 1800. He would only accept cash only for his goods, leading to the area being called Cashtown. But, most people are more interested in the fact that the inn appears to be home to numerous Civil War soldiers in ghostly form.
The Civil War Years
The spectral presence of Civil War era soldiers at the old in should not really be a surprise . A. P. Hill used the Inn as his headquarters during the Civil War. He and General Robert E. Lee held a meeting there on July 1, 1863. Hill sent Major General Henry Heth’s men into Gettysburg to scout out some footwear. We know what happened after that.
During the battle at Gettysburg, Jacob Mickley was the innkeeper. Later that year, Mickley advertised his Cashtown property, including the tavern, for sale, but it still remained in the family for quite awhile longer. An article from 19351Evening Sun (Hanover, Pa.), 6/26/1935, with Mr. and Mrs. John Plattenburg shown as the operators of the inn, mentions other early proprietors of the property.
The first liquor license that can be found dated 1805, cost Mr. Mark $22.50 a year. Whiskey was sold from the bar at 3 cents a drink. Names of some of the proprietors of the old tavern as recalled by John Heintzleman, whose father was one of them, are: Henry Mickley, Jacob Mickley, a Mr. McClearey, Ephraim Kittinger, Daniel Heintzleman, a Mr. Speidel and Samuel Stockslager.
Members of his family owned most of the land in the immediate area. A cousin of Jacob, Daniel S. Mickley and his wife Ruth were the owners when the Inn changed hands in 1946 and its has changed hands quite a few times since then. It has also gone through a number of name changes over its history, being known as the Willow Grove Hotel. the National Hotel, and Dr. Franklin, besides its traditional name.
Of interest to genealogists like myself is the fact that throughout most of the property’s existence, it has been in the possession of someone in the family, through the connections of the many inter-related families in the area. It wasn’t until 1987 that it was finally sold to an outside interest. What was of particular interest to me is that I have a very distant connection to the Mark family through my Cumberland county Nevin ancestors, and to make things even more entertaining, my mother-in-law is a direct line descendant of the Mark family