Region celebrating bicentennial of Lafayette’s ‘farewell tour’ through area
Famed Revolutionary War general visited Washington, Fayette counties in May 1825
For more than a year, the Marquis de Lafayette was received like a “rock star” in every town he visited in America during the famed Revolutionary War general’s farewell tour from France two centuries ago.
From town to town in 1824 and 1825, Lafayette was greeted as a hero as people crowded in the streets to get a glimpse of the man who fought under George Washington during the war for independence, including in Washington and Fayette counties, where he visited 200 years ago this week.
“Every town he went to did something. It had to be a strange journey,” said Clay Kilgore, who is the director of the Washington County Historical Society. “It’s a spectacle everywhere he goes. It took a long time. They threw a party for him everywhere he goes.”
The 66-year-old Frenchman arrived in New York City in August 1824 as part of his farewell tour to commemorate his role as a Revolutionary War hero, along with the upcoming 50th anniversary of the nation’s independence. From there, he traveled to Boston and then snaked his way throughout what is now the eastern United States before arriving in this area in May 1825.
He visited Wheeling, which was then part of Virginia, on May 24 and then traveled along the National Road into Pennsylvania, being greeted in West Alexander by a special committee convened for his visit on May 25. He received a metal box filled with food as he passed by Kelly’s S-Bridge Tavern near Taylorstown and eventually made it to Washington, where he dined at the Globe Inn.
Kilgore said riders had to push people back from his processional on their way along the National Road since the mob was so eager to see him. Kilgore doubts even George Washington would have received such a “rock star” reception considering the former president’s ties to the whiskey excise tax and subsequent insurrection.
Since the Globe Inn did not have a fancy enough place setting for a dignitary of Lafayette’s status, the family of the late Col. George Morgan supplied a fine China set for the meal, which he used while visiting the tavern and inn that was located at South Main and Strawberry Avenue in Washington. That set was donated by the Morgan family to the Washington County Historical Society about 80 years ago, and still sits in the museum located at the LeMoyne House in the city.
So, too, does that metal box from Kelly’s S-Bridge Tavern, along with a chair that Lafayette sat in while visiting Uniontown later that week.
What Kilgore later realized was that these artifacts the history society now has – along with a white dress one of 13 maidens wore while dancing for him in Washington – aren’t really Lafayette’s possessions. Instead, they were family heirlooms touched by Lafayette for only a moment during his visit and then kept aside and revered as they were passed down to the next generation. The cups and dishes Lafayette used at the Globe Inn were immediately segregated from the rest of the China set and viewed with pride by the Morgan family.
“All of these were passed down,” Kilgore said. “It struck me what a big deal his visit was. ‘He sat on this chair, he kept this tin, he ate off this plate. Let’s keep that separate.’ It was like a mythical character coming to town.”
Lafayette also spent some time in Washington visiting with Dr. Francis Julius LeMoyne in the house that has since been converted into a museum, even holding the doctor’s young daughter, Charlotte, in the front parlor. Kilgore is unsure of their connection – the French lineage probably didn’t hurt – but he suspects Lafayette just enjoyed the quiet time when he wasn’t being mobbed by crowds of people.
“He didn’t have to be Lafayette,” Kilgore said of his private visit with LeMoyne. “He can just be another guy, talking to LeMoyne.”
From Washington, Lafayette continued down the National Road stopping the morning of May 26 for breakfast at Hill’s Tavern in what is now the village of Scenery Hill. He left there and eventually crossed the Monongahela River to enter the town of Brownsville, where he once again received a hero’s welcome with two dozen maidens dressed in white dancing for his appearance.
His trip into Fayette County was an obvious destination since he made it a priority to visit any town or county bearing his name.
But the trek was slowed so much by the jubilation along the way that he arrived later than expected in Uniontown, leaving dignitaries in the greeting party waiting for hours at the county courthouse. One of those people waiting for him was his good friend Albert Gallatin, who invited him to his estate at Friendship Hill near New Geneva for a luncheon on May 27.
“People came from all around to see him,” said Mary Tickner, who is a volunteer with the Fayette County Historical Society. “He was so well-received.”
The lunch at Friendship Hill was expected to draw a couple dozen people, but hundreds showed up, and the party went on for hours.
“People from miles and miles away came,” Tickner said. “The yard was packed.”
From there, Lafayette returned to Uniontown on May 28 and 29 before making his way to Pittsburgh.
The bicentennial of his visit is being marked with numerous events in the region, starting Saturday, May 24 with a special memorial service for former Brownsville mayor Norma Ryan, who died in April 2024. The ceremony honoring Ryan’s life will be held from 1 to 2:30 p.m. at the Lafayette Trail historical marker, which she was instrumental in having placed at Market and Browns streets in 2022. Similar historical markers citing the “Lafayette Trail” mark other places he visited, including Wheeling and Uniontown.
On Friday, May 30, a processional with a Lafayette re-enactor will make its way down Route 40 and past the Fayette County Historical Society’s Abel Colley Tavern & Museum, which will be open for visitors to see the special Lafayette exhibit. Tickner, along with historical society board member Connie Kikta and volunteer Connie Sagosky, spent a recent Thursday decorating the upstairs floor of the museum in Menallen Township with life-sized replicas of Lafayette and other information explaining his life, role in the war and visit to the region.
The processional, which is organized by the Fayette Chamber of Commerce, will continue into Uniontown with a large public celebration at the Fayette County Courthouse starting at 2:30 p.m. Friday. The “Summer Kick-Off at the Park” celebration will be held later that day at Washington Run Park in Perryopolis at 5 p.m., with live music starting at 7 p.m.
Friendship Hill is holding its own celebration Sunday, June 1, with live music starting at 9 a.m., along with Lafayette and Gallatin impersonators putting on a special program at 11 a.m.
Lafayette left the United States in September 1825 and died less than a decade later at age 76. Kilgore isn’t surprised that Lafayette’s visit made such an impact on people at the time, nor that it’s still remembered fondly two centuries later.
“It was a grand tour,” Kilgore said.