Lyman Langdon's Tavern to Alva Laverge's Pony Farm - Part 2

Continuing from the Crescent-News, January 25, 1960:

"(LaVergne) also raised colts and sold them from $150 to $200 each.  'Finally the price went so high,' Alva stated, 'that a good merit pony would sell for about $550 to $600.'

Since Mr. LaVergne's wife, the former Ona Haver, born in 1872, died April 23, 1958, he has lived at the River Rest Convalescent Home and has turned responsibilities over to his sons.  However, he is still interested in the place and is proud for having owned it.

Alva was born April 23, 1874, a son of a French-Canadian father, Joseph LaVergne, and a Pennsylvania German mother, Mary Snider.  His ancestry has given him the adventurous spirit of the French, plus the steady working characteristics of his mother's people.

Lyman Langdon has related much of his story in his own words in the History of Defiance County, 1883...  

(This can be read for free online at Internet Archive or a copy is in all the Defiance Public Libraries.)

'When he died in 1900,' Alva Lavergne said, 'he left his estate to six very beautiful daughters.'

In the Defiance Crescent- News, an extensive article about Alva Lavergne's pony farm, once the Lyman Langdon farm, appeared on May 13, 1950...

Susan C.an all white pony,had just been born on the farm  Susan was the third all white pony born on the Lavergne pony farm.

Every Sunday, people flocked to the farm, sometimes in the hundreds for free pony rides.  Alva said, "If I were younger, I would have a thousand ponies."  At that time, Alva was 76, and his wife was 77; they had lived at the 'Langdon Tavern" for the last 35 years.

He also noted that the tavern would be 100 years old that summer.

Alva loved to harness six ponies to a wagon and walk in parades.  He has been all over the area, wearing his high silk hat and showing off his ponies.

Alva was also known throughout the area as an auctioneer, his highest pay being $2,000 in commissions.  "His saddest sale was a 1918 auction near Mulligan's Bluff on State Route 18, where a widow was disposing of her chattels after the death of her husband and five children from influenza."

Alva also sold Fords for R. C. Albertus for eighteen years.

"He was born four miles west of his present home.  He worked in the oil fields in Wood county for eight years, then went to Chicago for two years as conductor on an interurban line. 

On Christmas Eve, 1894,he married Iona Haver after meeting her that year in Sherwood. "And I made no mistake," said Alva.  "As for Oney, you'll have to ask her if it's been a waste of time."  The LaVergnes have two sons who operate beauty colleges - Paul in Ft. Wayne and Basil in Toledo.

"Iona is the daughter of Mose and Mary Haver who ran a hotel in Sherwood; Alva is the son of Joseph and Mary LaVergne of Delaware Tp.  Alva's father beame a foreman in the oak shipping business in 1861.   Alva has a twin sister, Mrs. Alice Sisco, who lives on a farm in Delaware tp.  His brother, Lee, retired ten years ago as a B & O engineer and now lives in Garrett.  His sister, Mae, who died in 1914, was the wife of Dan M. Kintner of Defiance.  Sister Florence died in a typhoid epidemic in 1888; brother William was killed in a mine accident in Boulder, Colo. in 1912."

Defiance Crescent-News, August 8, 1958

All articles may be found on Newspaper Archives, available free at any Defiance Public Library with your library card.

Lyman Langdon's Tavern to Alva Laverge's Pony Farm - Part 1

 In 2020, we published a post on early pioneer, Lyman Langdon and his doings in the county, along with an account of his fiftieth wedding anniversary with wife, Fanny Sanford.  But little was noted of the famous Langdon Tavern, which has since been moved from its home at the intersection of Buckskin Road and State Route 15 and renovated.

From the Crescent-News, January 25, 1960, p. 5:

"Once this house was a famous tavern.  Called the Lyman Langdon Tavern, it was known in Indiana and Northwest Ohio as a respectable place where one might secure lodging and food  It was named for its proprietor.  Lyman Langdon was known for miles around the country for his friendly hospitality.  He had previously kept a hotel in Defiance."

From the History of Defiance County, 1883:

"About 1827 or 1828, Payne C. Parker built at the corner of Front and Clinton Sts., where the furniture store of Hoffman and Geiger now stands for a store and a hotel, in which he carried on business for several years.  Then he rented it to Blackman and Stoddard in 1834 an 1835.  John W. Moore kept it one year.  Lyman Langdon next occupied it in 1836...and ran it for five or six years, and under his administration, it took the name of 'Exchange.' "

From the Crescent-News, 1960, continued:

"This building was destroyed by fire in 1852.  The Exchange had become very popular as a hotel and tavern.  Here had room an boarded engineers, who planned the construction of the Miami and Erie Canal, judges holding court in the vicinity, and Fort Wayne merchants enroute east to secure goods.

While in Defiance, Langdon was elected a trustee of the township and served on the council in 1838.  He was also appointed county judge in the place of Bishop Adams, who had moved to Henry County  Lyman Langdon who had previously owned a farm near Farmer, sold his business to Samuel Rohn and C. I. Trude.  He then bought the farm and the site of his new tavern in 1849 from Addison Goodyear, and moved to the farm.

Noble Township  1890 plat map

In 1849, he formed a partnership in merchandising with Brice Hilton at Brunersburg, and after purchasing an acre of ground on the Ralston place, 'built a house and moved in.'  Later he sold the house to Ralston and his share of the store to Hilton and moved back to his farm, where he built the large home combined with a tavern.

The Lyman Langdon Tavern, built in 1852 at the base of the forks of two popular highways, the Buckskin Road and the Bellefontaine Pike, offered a haven to travelers by foot, horseback, or by stage coach.  Here stopped the mail stage, carrying news, the homeseeker, the peddler, and the business man - either for refreshments or lodging.

1870 quarter, made of  90% silver and can be quite

valuable today.

According to Alva LaVergne, Mr. Langdon charged but 25 cents a night for a bed, the same for a meal, and 35 cents for a man's horse and its two feedings.  It is said that soldiers home on furlough from the Civil War were entertained with dances in the large ballroom on the third floor.  Mr. LaVernge said the house had 23 rooms.  After Mr. Langdon's death in 1900, the place was not used as a hotel, but Alva stated after he purchased it that he sometimes kept roomers.

In 1917, after thinking for many years, 'I'd like to own a place like that,' Mr. Lavergne purchased the 220 acres of the Langdon farm for $25,000.  

'I had always loved the place,' he said, 'even when I was a child  It was then one of the best buildings in the county  Soon after he bought the place he built a large barn and decided to become an auctioneer.  He studied at the Jones School of Auctioneering, Chicago.  After completing the course he tried sales in Northwest Ohio and Northeast Indiana, and became well-known."

He and his younger son, Paul, who was at home at that time, decided to start a pony ranch.  They bought about 40 ponies and trained them to be ridden.  Then on Sundays, they invited children from the surrounding country to ride free of charge. This they continued for about eight years...

TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 2