Description
"Mystery Haunts Feudal House Where Slaves Were Auctioned - Legend Tells of Gay Parties, Heavy Wines and Negro Servants in Half Way House's Early Days - Occurrences Now at Abandoned Place, in Weston Community, Baffle Even the Unsuperstitious" - - When the moon casts long shadows, and the winds sweep over Platte County's fields and hills, ghosts of the past walk at Halfway House.
Phantom coaches-and-four rattle up to the long, colonnaded veranda that is no more, phantom voices call out greetings, merry quips are passed back and forth, and carried away by the wind.
The old mansion, mid-way between Platte City and Weston on the old pike road, again is warm with hospitality. Its great front doors are back in place, big logs crackle again in its huge fireplaces, its windows are not just the gaping holes the sunlight finds but bright rectangles of light.
The appetites of portly guests and their wives are sharpened as goblets are filled brimming with sparkling wines from the cellar. Black servants carry in huge skewers of steaming meats, but the wind veers, and all is black and shadowy.
The wraiths of murdered men cry out with the flapping of loose boards and the moaning of the wind, through the awry skeleton of the rambling old place. Irons clank as fettered slaves turn in the basement keep.
But no ono has lived there since 1851, when violence typical of those colorful, more rugged days was done, and a pioneer planter’s mansion closed its story as a notorious tavern.
Unsolved Mysteries. A ghostly pageantry is all that is left it. Strange things since have occurred there, the story goes. Doors securely fastened and braced in the evening have been found open and swaying in the wind in the morning, and mysterious noises have emanated from it at night. History and tradition stalk each other in its gloomy recesses and corners.
No one seems to know when Half Way House was built, nor by whom. But its line of owners extends back through the years from Walter S. Davis, who grows tobacco and conducts a farm not far away, to one John Floersch.
Floersch was landlord of the tavern for some time, and, according to tradition, it was a place of unsavory reputation. Floersch's career as a tavernkeeper ended October 20, 1851, when, accompanied by his three sons and another man, probably a farm laborer, by the name of Loom, he went to the home of Hall E. Wilkerson, his neighbor, to release, by force, some livestock that had been impounded for trespass. Floersch was armed with a rifle, and the visit culminated in the killing of Wilkerson by Floersch.
Mr. Wilkerson, who was the first Clerk of Platte County, had represented his district in the legislature in 1848, was a Major in the state militia, a man highly respected in the community.
Floersch was tried In Clay County by change of venue, was convicted promptly and sentenced to the penitentiary for a term of 25 years. He died after one year of imprisonment and the property was sold to satisfy the claim of attorneys who had defended him and to whom he had given a deed of trust to secure their fees.
Built of Walnut Lumber. From that time until now, except for a few months many years ago when a new owner lived in the house while directing some farm improvements, the old building has been slowly going to pieces until now it Is uninhabitable.
The building stands on high basement walls of stone on a sloping hillside north of the highway. Walnut joists of immense size and beautiful grain support the upper structure, the lumber in which is all hand hewn, even the laths that hold the platter in position having been split by hand.
There is a large central ball, with two commodious rooms on each side. Above these rooms, and reached by a narrow stairway ascending from a small rear hall, is a low attic room, probably used for sleeping quarters by those who could not afford to pay for the better accommodations on the lower floor.
A large porch formerly extended along the entire south front of the building, facing the highway, and it is said that there was an auction block, for the sale of slaves.
A large room used for both kitchen and dining room was in the basement, ample light being admitted through windows piercing the foundation wall on the East, or lower, side. The large fireplace that served this room long ago has fallen into ruins, now serves a good purpose, the stones of which it was build having been used in the construction of the fireplace and chimney of a Boy Scout cabin at Weston.
A Dungeon for Slaves: There is a strange and mysterious compartment in the northwest corner of the basement, perfect material for the writer of modern detective mystery thrillers.
Here is a separate room, or ceil, 25 feet long and 20 feet wide, with thick stone walls and an arched railing of the same material. In the side walls and ceiling large iron rings are set, rusty now, but still moving readily in their hangings.
Some say slaves brought to the tavern for sale were chained in this room for safekeeping; others declare the slaves of the owner of the place were confined there for punishment; others, more practical perhaps, are sure the room was a wine cellar and the rings were of use in moving heavy casks of wine made from the grapes grown in the large vineyard north of the house.
In November 1861 was forged another link in the chain that binds the neighborhood to the historic past. Near the bridge that spans Bee Creek, just east of Half Way House, occurred one of those bloody skirmishes that featured border warfare during the Civil War.
One story of the battle of Bee Creek is that Confederate soldiers, hearing that Union men were on their way to St. Joseph, planned to waylay them at the tavern. The two forces met just below the tavern and fought furiously for a short time. Although the battle was not a decisive one, and, according to one old veteran, “Neither side won; both of 'em run," it adds another bit of glamour.
On Old Toll Highway. The highway between Platte City and Weston, adjacent to which the Half Way House was erected, was originally built and operated as a toll road or pike, used for hauling heavy traffic inland from the river landing at Weston and for the transport of supplies to the army post at Leavenworth. The toll gate was located about a mile west of the tavern, near what is now known as the Siler farm.
The gate was tended and the tolls collected by Mrs. Peyton Randolph Waggener with the assistance of her son, the late Honorable Balie P. Waggener, who many years afterward became prominent in legal and political affairs in the state of Kansas.
With the progress of railroad building and the cessation of traffic on the Missouri River, the revenues from the toll road ceased and the highway was thrown open to public use free of tolls.
The Half Way House is about 35 miles from St. Joseph over concrete pavement with the exception of 3 miles of unimproved road from Highway 71 just north of Platte City.Date(s) of Creation
12/7/1930
