1794 July 20: Prosper King on July 20th petitions to the Spanish governor for permission to build a house on lot 3 of square 33 - the site where the Tavern now stands.
1796 July 21: Petition granted to Prosper King by Gayoso on July 21st of this year.
1798 January 18: Prosper King sells the property for $50.00 to his brother, Richard King on January 18th. Whether there was a building on the site at this time is unknown.
1799 August 5: The earliest association of a King with a tavern is found on August 5, 1799 in the Minutes of the Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace (Adams County Courthouse, Adams County Mississippi, p.78) where Richard King was licensed to operate a public house.
1799 August 21: Micajah Harpe (Big Harpe) murders Major William Love for snoring in his sleep, as well as Mrs. Stegall and her child by tomahawking them to death, on Wednesday, August 21, 1799. This occurs about 5 miles north of Dixon, Kentucky in Hopkins County. A few days later, he is hunted down and beheaded by Moses Stegall, the husband. Little Harp (Wiley) flees to Natchez and joins Sam Mason and his gang robbing and murdering people along the Natchez Trace. The story about Big Harpe killing an infant at King’s Tavern is totally unfounded, and evidence is very strong that Micajah never stepped foot in Mississippi. However, it is very likely that Wiley (Little Harpe) was in the Tavern often.
1804 February 8: Wiley Harpe (Little Harpe) is captured and executed by hanging on February 8, 1804, just outside of Natchez. His head is then cut off and stuck on a pole on the Trace. The actual place of execution is Gallows Field, in the community of Greenville (at the time said to be about 300 people living there), but no longer exists.
1817 Richard King dies. His son Samuel inherits the Tavern, which he sells this same year to Charles B. Green, the son-in-law of Juan Girault. Green runs into financial difficulty and is forced to mortgage the Tavern to the First Bank of Mississippi. See next entry for more details.
1817 An 1817 map of the division of Richard King's estate depicts 2 buildings on lot 3, square 33, the larger of which sits directly on the present site of King's Tavern. That one of the two buildings was operated as a public house is supported by Richard King's inventory which lists 4 waiters and one set of dining tables (Probate Box 22) and the subsequent purchase of the property by Charles B. Green, who was also a tavern keeper (1807 city tavern license, Mayor's Court Minute Book 1085-1808, Natchez City Records, Mississippi Dept of Archives and History). Green then mortgaged the property to the Bank of Mississippi and lost it a short time later to the bank which was owned by Henry Postlethwaite and Dr. Stephen Duncan.
1823 August 27: Henry Postlethwaite dies of yellow fever on August 27th of this year, his widow (Elizabeth Morgan Postlethwaite) and her 8 children move into the Tavern.
1827 February 2: King’s Tavern property deeded to Stephan Duncan by the Bank of Mississippi to help settle Henry Postlethwaite’s affairs which were tied up in the bank’s assets on February 2, 1827. Mr. Duncan then conveyed the property to Emily Postlethwaite and her sister Mary Ann Bledsoe in 1861.
1860 July 27: Elizabeth Morgan Postlethwaite passes away on July 27th at the residence.
1861 Property deeded to Emily Postlethwaite and her sister Mary Ann Bledsoe as part of their inheritance.
1874 George Wiley dies. Wiley, who came to Natchez in 1788 and died in 1874, wrote "Probably the oldest house now existing in Natchez is the one occupied by Mrs. Postlethwaite on Jefferson Street between Union and Rankin. It was at one time kept as a tavern by a man named King..."(Claiborne: Mississippi as a Province, Territory and State, page 529).
1932 Remains of 3 skeletons (1 female & 2 male) & a Spanish dagger supposedly found during remodeling of the building. The bones were reported to been buried in Potters Field of the Natchez City Cemetery. We do know that the dagger does exist, because of photographic evidence & that we have located the owner of it. As for the bones, we still have found no proof they were ever found, but we are still researching their existence at this time.
1959 December 3: Mrs. Annabel Young Maxie, a descendant of the Postlethwaite family, inherits the Tavern (see article entitled “Garden Club To Restore Historic ‘Kings Tavern,’” dated 12/3/1970 in The Natchez Democrat. She states in this article “I am pleased the Pilgrimage Garden Club plans to restore King’s Tavern to the 1823 period when the first of my family’s six-generation occupancy commenced. It was in that year, 1823, that the house was deeded to Mrs. Henry (Elizabeth) Postlethwaite, my great, great, great grandmother, a widow with eight children by Doctor Stephen Duncan, then president of the Bank of Mississippi. Mrs. Postlethwaite died at the family residence, (King’s Tavern) on Friday, July 27, 1860.”
1966 October 18: Natchez Democrat article states that a “Mrs. Jean Modessit, owner of King’s Tavern, historic old home on Jefferson street here, yesterday reported that someone has stolen a very valuable antique Dagger from the living room of the home. Mrs. Modessitt stated that she knows who took the dagger and is withholding reporting the theft to the police in the hope that it will be returned during the next few days.”
1970 December 2: Mrs. Annabel Young Maxie, a descendant of the Postlethwaite family, sells King’s Tavern to the Pilgrimage Garden Club on the 2nd of December of this year.
1971 Garden Club starts restoration of King’s Tavern.
1973 September 14: In an article in the Natchez Democrat entitled, King’s Tavern Restoration Complex, Henry W. Krotzer Jr, architect with Koch and Wilson of New Orleans describes his firm’s work and the progress at King’s Tavern at a Pilgrimage Garden Club luncheon “on Thursday.” He advised the Club that, “It has been a most complicated project.” Determinations from his firm’s study are:
1) The original building had no original paint – it was unpainted, which was unusual for Natchez.
2) Archeologists found some brick gutters under some cellar windows, indicating the original ground level of the yard (which was not indicated in this article).
3) Gallery (porches) were enclosed around 1830. The biggest decision was to NOT restore the Tavern to open porches as it was originally, but to retain the enclosed Galleries.
4) According to Krotzer, the second biggest decision concerned the chimney. After a portion of the building had been taken apart for renovations, hints pointing to a chimney in the cellar did appear. Nothing sensational has come to light to affect the progress of the work. “Unfortunately the brick floor was not saved. It broke and crumbled as it was removed.”
1974 Opens for pilgrimage tours & restaurant for a short time.
1974 February 23; in a Natchez Democrat article of this date entitled, Thomas Young recalls King’s Tavern, written by Thomas E. Young, he states: “My mother Hilda died when I was two years old and my grandmother has told me many times of the misty figure of a veiled woman in a cloak with head bowed and hands folded which stood at the foot of her bed at night after my mother’s death.” This is the first written and recorded mention of any ghost at King’s Tavern. His mother was Hilda Register Young. Young also states in the article, “at no time in my memory or to my knowledge from conversations, was there a brick floor in any part of the cellar.” Also, “the fire-place in the ‘big cellar’ was being closed up and some work being done on the chimney when the old Spanish dagger was found embedded in the mortar.”
1975 November 16: A Century Turns Back For King’s Tavern, is the title of an article in the Natchez Democrat on this date. In the article, the Tavern is now being called The Bledsoe House, and describes how the Tavern has been turned back into a working Tavern. The kitchen was built on the side connecting the Tavern to the annex located on the corner of Jefferson and Rankin Streets. So, the kitchen was added between 1973 and 1975.
1977 March 13: Democrat article with photo of Annabel Maxie holding the dagger that was allegedly found in 1932.
1977 November 15: In a special executive board meeting on this date, the Pilgrimage Garden Club closes the Tavern, apparently due to financial problems. Source is Democrat article of 1/25/1978.
1978 January 25: Garden Club leases the Tavern to Mrs. Bobby Porter and Mrs. Florence Turpin. It is a 5 year lease, with an option for an additional 5 years. In an article on this date entitled, “King’s Tavern to Reopen: Individuals Lease Historic Building,” Florence Turpin and Bobbye (spelling as article spells her name) are named as partners. The plans are to open the Tavern in February under the name The Post House Restaurant. They also have leased the building on the corner, known as the annex, and will decorate it from a gift shop to operate as a lounge. The article also mentions “at least two ghosts, Madeline and the Indian Chief, are said to roam the building…” Also, the article states, “The reference to buildings in the deed indicates that the tavern antedates the King ownership. At the time of the deed to King, the Tavern was situated on the Natchez Trace and provided a resting place for the early settlers of the Mississippi Territory.”
1987 Garden Club sells property to Mrs. Yvonne Scott.
1988 Reopens as King’s Tavern.
2005 Mrs. Yvonne Scott sells property to Tom Drinkwater and Shawyn Mars who are the current owners of King’s Tavern.
2010 October 22nd, N.A.P.S. launches an extensive, full-blown paranormal investigation into King’s Tavern – the crown jewel of Natchez’ haunted sites – with interview & historical research phases initiated.
2010 December 28nd, N.A.P.S. officially closes its first investigation into KT, with a finding of Positive: Class B (significant paranormal activity present); with reservations about some experiences claimed being possibly due to high EMF and some likely due to matrixing from the high expectations created by advertising of the haunting. However, none of that is sufficient in our minds to explain all that is happening, and our own investigation revealed plenty of data and evidence on its own (including tactile, olfactory; Class A EVP; Photo and Video; as well as EMF and motion/temperature detection data – many of it cross substantiated). Furthermore, the investigation uncovered significant errors and misinformation into the history of the Tavern, including dates, and this correction of historical data may be the greatest contribution of this particular investigation. Lastly, the investigation concludes its finding, but does recommend that the Tavern be investigated further, in the future, to answer specific questions and issues that this investigation raised – see Case File “Recommended Follow-Up Investigations.”
Sources:
Natchez Historic Foundation: Land Records, Deed & Titles
Mississippi Department of Archives & HistoryCindy Gardner, Director of Collections, Museum Division
David Abbott, Archaeologist
A Way Through the Wilderness: The Natchez Trace and the Civilization of the Southern Frontier, by Davis
A History of Muhlenberg County (Kentucky), by Rothert
The Outlaws of Cave-in-Rock, by Rothert
Natchez Under-the-Hill, by Moore
Natchez: The History and Mystery of the City on the Bluff, by Whitington
The Devil’s Backbone: The Story of the Natchez Trace, by Daniels
Natchez On the Mississippi, by Kane
Archives: Natchez Democrat
The Judge Armstrong Library
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