Interior of Yates Tavern, May 2025

Imagine the vast wild rolling hills of Pittsylvania County over two hundred years ago, before Gretna and its surrounding settlements had yet been established. Travelers going along the old Pigg River Road through the northern section of the county would come into view of Yates Tavern, likely followed by the tempting smells of fried salt pork and biscuits emanating from its old stone chimney. Running a tavern was no simple affair, so keeper Samuel Yates would have been rehearsed in a range of services and useful knowledge when it comes to providing for his guests, ensuring that they continue upon their journeys rested and refreshed. After Samuel’s death in 1836, an inventory was taken of all his belongings. This surviving resource allows interested historians to gather a vivid idea of how the tavern and land appeared during the 1820s and 1830s. 

From the surrounding fields the Yates family gathered fifty bushels of wheat, straw, and chaff each of the same amount. In addition to sweet potatoes and cabbage grown in patches, they kept three stacks of oats and a crop of corn as fodder for the animals. In a constant chorus of sounds and smells, the surrounding pastures were home to nearly forty animals owned by Samuel Yates. The inventory notes sixteen sheep valued at $9 each and eleven hogs worth about $2 apiece. He kept about nine heads of cattle including milk cows, a bull, and calves ranging in value from $5 to $12, with a more valuable yoke of oxen for farm labor worth $50. In the stables he had three horses valued between $50 to $60: one roan mare, one bay mare, and one bay colt. For them he had a man’s saddle and a woman’s saddle, bridles, and a pair of saddlebags. 

Samuel had tools for all aspects of farm life, including blacksmith tools, grindstone, cross saws, coopering tools, planes, augers, scythes, three pairs of plowing gear, shovels, hoes, froes, cutting blades, three pole axes, and a woodwork wagon. Many items were produced at the tavern as seen by the presence of candle molds as well as a cotton wheel, a flax wheel, and a loom for making fabrics. They also raised bees in hollowed out logs called bee gums, of which they had seven full of bees and an additional eight empty gums. The presence of two stills and worms (coiled copper pipes) indicates that Samuel distilled spirits on site. The inventory also listed “eight oak mobby stands” which were used in fermentation. A “mauby” is a Caribbean style beverage typically made from fermented tree bark, but mauby could also be made using sweet potato mash. The house was stocked with thirty gallons of brandy with five jugs, eight tight casks, and one small runlet to store spirits. To accompany the drinks he had one box of tobacco worth $2.75. For kitchen and dinnerware, the inventory listed a brass kettle, one kitchen table, eight split bottom chairs, two coffee mills, baskets, a churn, one bread tray, a sifter, one set of knives and forks, one lot of pewter, three butter pots, and an assortment of meal bags and tubs. They owned two pairs of steelyards to weigh objects or possibly to use as money scales. 

Scattered around the house were seven additional chairs worth 73 cents each, one pine table, a cupboard, a pair of fire dogs (andirons), a lantern, two candlesticks, a desk, an ink stand, a parcel of books, a shot gun, and a clock with its case. There was one nice feather bedstead worth $10 and two simpler beds worth $7.50 each. It also mentions two “boxes bed steads” which may be small trundle beds that slide out from beneath the bigger beds. Rooms were furnished by one small chest, a blue chest, a folding table, and two looking glasses (mirrors). In total, his personal inventory was valued at $964.25, which is comparable to roughly $33,000 today. This invaluable inventory written by the hand of county clerk William H. Tunstall will hopefully be used to improve the accuracy of historical interpretation efforts at Yates Tavern.

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1836 Inventory of Samuel Yates – Transcription

TOTAL: $964.25

Comparable to a value of about $33,150 as of 2025