Most of us drive past it wondering what it might have been.  Likely, all we know it to be is an old shell of a house, perhaps majestic in its day, but teetering on the verge of collapse today.  Sitting near to the road once traversed by the likes of Andrew Jackson, it silently offers a glimpse into the past, smothered as it is by the haphazard growth of vines that seek to hide it from our view.  If we could hear its walls talk, it would share with us a testimony to age and controversy, and celebrations and sadness. 

William Booker Foster and his wife, Jane Dee “Jennie” Wilson Foster, purchased the land just north of what would later become Aldophus in Kentucky in 1817.  The area would come to be referred to as “State Line”, appropriately so due to its close proximity to the border with Tennessee, before the advent of the name  “Aldophus” in 1886.  In the early 1830s, William Foster would build his house, the stagecoach inn, and he would acquire the nickname, “Brickhouse”, as a result.   On April 10, 1833, the State Line Post Office would be located in the area, quite likely at the stagecoach inn, and Iredell Foster, a son of the builder of the house, was named the postmaster.  The house was frequently referred to as either the Stagecoach Inn or the Foster House for much of its history.  

The two-story structure was made of brick, fired on the Foster place by the hands of the slaves owned by the family.  The structure was L-shaped and built in the Federal style of architecture with eventually a four-columned gabled porch imposingly prominent on the front facade.  Three all-brick chimneys stood tall at either end of the front part of the house and with the third rising from the “L” or wing at the rear.  Two large rooms were situated on either side of an entry hall that spanned the width of the house, with the hall containing the stairs leading to the second floor, where the layout largely mirrored that of the first floor.  The “L” extended from the rear of the building and likely contained the kitchen.  

The Fosters were slave owners.  The 1850 Slave Schedule for Allen County lists William “Brickhouse” Foster being in possession of 15 individuals held in bondage.  Just seven years later, smallpox ravaged the plantation with “Brickhouse” Foster succumbing to the dread disease on the 20th of May, 1857.  Listed in the Kentucky Death Records immediately beneath that of “Brickhouse” Foster is a slave identified only as “Edmme”, a male aged 25.  He, too, was a victim of smallpox.  The Foster family cemetery, also known as the Hinton Hill Cemetery, contains a number of graves and rests on a hill near the house.  

At some point, the house winds up in the hands of the Roark family, and its prominence in the community seemed to kindle some notoriety. The lifeless body of Bransford “Cooney” Brackin was found across the road near the railroad tracks in 1905. The Sumner County News reported in its February 18th edition:

“Bransford Bracken (sic) better known to the people in the northeastern part of the county as “Cooney” Bracken, was found dead last Saturday morning near Alexander, in Allen County. Undoubtedly, Bracken had been dead for three weeks. Bracken’s body was found about sixty feet from the C&N Railroad track at a point just opposite the “brick house”, which is the home of the Roarks, well known as violators of the liquor laws of Allen County. The find was made by a man named Shelton, who was walking along the track and discovered an old musket lying some fifteen or twenty feet from the track and on the side of the little bluff around which the railroad runs at that place. Going down to pick up the musket, Shelton noticed the body of a man in the snow just a little distance beyond the gun…”

The report went on to note that it was suspected Bracken was about 65 years old and had apparently suffered fatal injuries from falling off a bluff along the tracks. There “were no signs of violence”. Bracken was buried at New Hope Cemetery in Westmoreland. Bracken had been a bachelor and seemed to roam at will.

In February of 1913, Bethpage resident Walter Thurman travelled across the state line to Adolphus and the Stagecoach Inn, now known to most as the Roark House, to buy some whiskey. The transaction didn’t go as planned.

The melee took place in the small front yard.

Bill Roark was a larger than life character. Though his official occupation was listed in the census as “farmer”, he had other pursuits. He was a distiller of spirits – the term moonshiner had yet to be in popular use. Bill Roark did not look down on his lucrative enterprise. It provided wealth for his family and was quite popular among a varied and often hidden network of clientele, and he seems to have possessed a rather sharp business acumen. It is quite possible that, had he survived the battle in his front yard, the springs and corn on his farm would have continued to supply two necessary ingredients for corn liquor and the name of “Burley Bill” might today be equal to “Jack Daniels”, “Jim Bean”, and the like. But, alas, he chose to throw a rock at the wrong man on the afternoon of the 13th day of February, 1913.

A few days later, the Franklin Favorite had the following to say about Bill Roark:

And what of the slayer, Bethpage resident Walter Thurman? Scottsville’s Citizen-Times offered a brief introduction to him:

But, like two opposing sides watching the same ballgame, Tennessee newspapers reported the story from a different view, witness the Tennessean with greater details of the event:

Walter Thurman was transferred to the Allen County jail and his trial began on April 20th. A few days later, the jury returned a guilty verdict and Thurman was sentenced to Kentucky’s infamous Eddyville facility.

The subsequent appeal was denied, and Walter Thurman became a resident at Eddyville. In just a few days, his wife of 24 years, Maggie Carter Thurman, passed away.

William Burley Roark was laid to rest in the Pleasant Grove Cemetery in Westmoreland. Two of his sons became renowned doctors in Macon and Sumner Counties: Iredell Linville “Idle” Roark and Walter William Roark. Dr. Iredell Roark conducted extensive studies on milk poisonings in Macon County while Dr. Walter Roark was noted for his philanthropy in Sumner County, a tradition carried on by his daughter, Mary Elizabeth Roark, a local educator.

Walter Thurman served his time for manslaughter and died in unusual circumstances in 1941 and lies apparently in an unmarked grave, likely in the Bethpage Cemetery. Two of his sons went on to become lawmen, including legendary Sumner County deputy and Portland Police Chief William “Cooneberry” Thurman

Today, the battles at the Stagecoach Inn are fought within its own walls. It struggles to stand under the weight of vines, the elements, vandalism, varmints, decay and the relentless passage of time. I’ll end simply with letting “these walls talk” in a few recently taken pictures: