Samuel Stalnaker (1682 or 1715 – 1769) was an explorer, trapper, guide and one of the first settlers on the Virginia frontier. He established a trading post, hotel and tavern in 1752 near what is now Chilhowie, Virginia. He was held captive by Shawnee Indians at Lower Shawneetown in Kentucky for almost a year, before escaping and traveling over 460 miles to Williamsburg, Virginia, to report on French preparations to attack English settlements in Virginia and Pennsylvania. He later served as a guide under George Washington during the French and Indian War."Captain Samuel Stalnaker, Colonial Soldier and Early Pioneer," excerpted from Leo Stalnaker, Captain Samuel Stalnaker, Colonial Soldier and Early Pioneer and Some of His Descendents, 1938.
Birth and arrival in Virginia Samuel Stalnaker was probably born about 1715, although some sources give a birthdate of 1682. He was born either in the Palatinate of southwestern Germany,M. Lisa deGruyter, "A History of Early Stalnakers," Stalnaker Family Association, June 29, 2006 or in Westphalia,Samuel Stalnaker (EST 1715 - AFT 1769) or possibly in western New York or Pennsylvania. George and Adam, who accompanied or followed him to southwestern Virginia, were probably his brothers. Some sources report his arrival in Virginia as early as 1732.Knight Wees, "The Stalnaker Family," from the Randolph Enterprise, Thursday, August 25th, 1932Lyman Chalkley, Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish settlement in Virginia, extracted from the original court records of Augusta County, 1745-1800, Rosslyn, VA: Mary S. Lockwood, The Commonwealth Printing Co. 1912-13 In December 1742, he first appears in the records (as "Samuel Stolenacre"), in the estate settlement of Matthias Harmon in Hanover Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. By 1745, Samuel Stalnaker was living on the New River in southwestern Virginia, which was the far frontier and populated mainly by Scots-Irish and German immigrants, as well as English settlers from farther east in Virginia. He and his wife Susanna had a daughter, Maria Barbara, in 1743, who was not christened until November 1755. In October 1745, Samuel bought land granted to the Wood's River Company. He paid John Buchanan, agent for the company, £3 for 100 acres opposite the Buffalo Pound (later Bingamon's and then Pepper's Ferry) near what is now Radford, Virginia.
First homestead on the Holston River Dr. Thomas Walker writes in his journal that in April 1748, he met Stalnaker, then on his way to visit the Cherokees between the Reedy Creek settlement and the Holston River. Stalnaker had established a trading post and traded with the Indians of southern Ohio, Kentucky, and the Carolinas, and was already an experienced trader and hunter. In November 1749 he and his wife Susanna had a son, Samuel, and then moved even further west to the Holston River, (near present-day Chilhowie, Virginia), referred to in James Patton's will as a "tract of land of about 5,000 acres on which Samuel Stalnaker lived."* Scan of a copy of James Patton's will, from the Augusta County Chancery Court (pages 34–37)
On 23 March 1750, Dr. Walker and his associates again met Stalnaker on the middle fork of the Holston River, on the north side, just a few miles above its junction with the South Fork, and helped him to build a cabin there. Walker himself states in his journal:Wilson, Goodridge. Smyth County History and Traditions. Published in connection with the Centennial Celebration of Smyth County, Virginia. Kingsport Press, Incorporated, 1932. "March 23rd, we kept down the Holston River about four miles and camped; then Mr. Ambrose Powell and I went to look for Samuel Stalnaker, who I had been informed was just moved out to settle. We found his camp, and returned to our own in the evening. Mar. 24th, we went to Stalnaker's, helped him to raise his house and camped about a quarter of a mile below him."Branch, Edward Douglas, Wakefield, Lucina Smith. Westward; the Romance of the American Frontier. United Kingdom: Appleton, 1930.
Stalnaker was Virginia's westernmost colonial settler. His route to the Cherokees, with whom he was trading for skins and furs at the time, was a passage through the mountains later to be named the Cumberland Gap by Walker, in honor of Prince William, Duke of Cumberland, son of King George II of Great Britain.Stalnaker acted as a guide and Indian liaison to Walker and his crew leading them through the treacherous path to the lands west so that they could chart the then unknown territory. In May 1750, Stalnaker was listed as "Saml. Stanlick" as part of a team to build roads from Ezekiel Calhoun's to Wood's River and then to the South Fork of the Roanoke. This road opened up traffic and commerce, inviting an influx of settlers from other parts of colonial Virginia, and Stalnaker decided to open a tavern and hotel alongside his trading post to take advantage of the growing activity.
On 21 November 1752, Samuel qualified as a captain of foot in the Virginia militia, then under the command of the newly commissioned Major George Washington.
Stalnaker's tavern On 7 November 1752, he posted a large bond, in the amount of ten thousand pounds of tobacco, with Alexander Sayers, for an ordinary (tavern-keeper's) license:Cecil Edward Stalnaker, A Chronology of the Stalnaker Family in America, Martin L. Yokum, ed. Gateway Press, 1982. "Know all men by these presents that we, Saml. Stalnaker and Alexander Sayers are held and firmly bound to our sovereign Lord, George the Second, in the sum of ten thousand pounds of tobacco to which the payment well and truly to be made we bind ourselves and every of us and every of our heirs, executors, administrators, jointly and severally, firmly by these presents sealed with our seals and dated this 7th day of Nov. 1752. THE CONDITION of this obligation is such that whereas the above bound Saml. Stalnaker hath obtained a license to keep an ordinary in this county; if therefore, the said Stalnaker doth constantly find and provide in his ordinary good, wholesome and cleanly lodgings and diet for travelers and stablage and fodder and provender, or pasturage and provender as the season shall require for horses, for and during the term of one year from this seven day of Nov. and shall not suffer or permit any unlawful gaming in this house on the Sabbath day or suffer or permit any to tipple or drink more than is necessary; then this obligation to be void and of none effect or else to remain in full force and virtue." Samuel Stalnaker signed this bond with his initials "S. S."
Records indicate that Stalnaker used the structure he had originally built as a fort in 1748 and renovated it as a tavern.George C. Davis Photography, "Davis2 8.22 Town House in Chilhowie," Roanoke Public Library, Virginia Room Digital Collection accessed December 8, 2022"Town House landmark, Chilhowie, VA," Stalnaker Family Association
By 1752 there was apparently a large encampment of Cherokees near Samuel's trading post on the Holston. The Cherokees came to trade at Stalnaker's and settled there more or less permanently, and Stalnaker provided them with corn and other supplies. When Stalnaker asked the Governor Robert Dinwiddie to pay for their keep, the Governor refused until they finished a road they had agreed to build, and Samuel started charging them for their provisions. In January 1753, a Cherokee leader known as "The Emperor" (possibly either Amouskositte or Moytoy of Citico) petitioned Governor Dinwiddie for the removal of Stalnaker from his farm on the Holston River because Stalnaker was allegedly overcharging the Cherokees for goods at his trading post. This charge was supported by Erwin Patterson, Stalnaker's neighbor. The Governor agreed to order Stalnaker to charge fair prices.Milo Quaife, ed. "The Preston and Virginia Papers of the Draper Collection of Manuscripts," in Wisconsin Historical Publications Calendar Series, Volume l, Publications of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, 1915 An investigation proved that Stalnaker's prices were reasonable and that the Cherokees were satisfied. On 24 November 1753, the governor ordered a road built from Stalnaker's settlement to that of James Davis, trusting Samuel Stalnaker to oversee the work. His three sons George, Adam and Jacob were among the crew. At the same time, existing roads were extended as far as Roanoke, Virginia, allowing for additional traffic, improved communications and new commercial opportunities.
Stalnaker's tavern became known as "The Town House."J. J. Prats, "Town House Historical Marker, Chilhowie, Smyth County, Virginia," Historical Marker Database, February 18, 2022 In negotiating the Catawaba and Cherokee Treaty of March 1756, the Indians requested that the treaty be held at Stalnaker's tavern, as it was near the home of Conocotocko, the Cherokee chieftain who wanted to participate,"A Treaty: Between Virginia and the Catawbas and Cherokees, 1756." The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 13, no. 3 (1906): 225-64. Accessed May 9, 2021"A treaty held with the Catawba and Cherokee Indians, at the Catawba-Town and Broad-River, in the months of February and March 1756: By virtue of a commission granted by the Honorable Robert Dinwiddie, Esquire, His Majesty's lieutenant-governor, and commander in chief of the colony and dominion of Virginia, to the Honorable Peter Randolph and William Byrd, Esquires, members of His Majesty's Council of the said colony." Published by order of the governor, 1756 Mar. 17. Samuel Stalnaker himself had been captured by the Indians and was believed dead. The tavern eventually became a stagecoach stop under the name Chillhowie Springs by 1815.Wilson, Goodridge. Smyth County, Virginia History and Traditions. Heritage Books, 2019.
In 1938 Leo Stalnaker reported that the remains of Samuel Stalnaker's tavern were still standing just outside Chilhowie, Virginia, and described it as "very likely the original log cabin of Samuel Stalnaker which later had been weather-boarded and enlarged into an Inn...[It is] a two-story, rambling building obviously used as a tavern. Numbers are still on the doors upstairs [and]...logs of a cabin are visible behind rotting weatherboarding."Photo of the Town House, August 3, 1937
Capture and escape On 18 June 1755, Shawnee Indians attacked Samuel Stalnaker's settlement, capturing Stalnaker, his wife and son Adam, along with Samuel Hydon, Matthias Counce, and an unnamed male servant."The Indian treaty of 1756," in The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 8, no. 3. Richmond: Virginia Historical Society, June 1906 They executed all except Stalnaker and Hydon.Joseph A. Waddell, "Indian Wars in Augusta County, Virginia," The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 2, No. 4, Apr. 1895, pp. 397-404. Published by: Virginia Historical Society Stalnaker's mother and four children were in another building when the Indians rushed the house, and got away by hiding in a "rye patch."Pennsylvania Gazette, No. 1387, July 24, 1755 Stalnaker and Hydon were taken through Glinch Valley along the Sandy Creek by the Indians on their way to Ohio.Kegley, Frederick Bittle. Kegley's Virginia Frontier: The Beginning of the Southwest; the Roanoke of Colonial Days, 1740-1783. Southwest Virginia Historical Society, 1938.
The Pennsylvania Gazette reported: