To bring you up to speed, we visited the Bob Evans Farm Festival in October. You can read about it and see video here for part 1, part 2, and part 3.

Finding out about the French history though was a big bonus for me, I love history! This post is about that part.

We parked along the Ohio River to take in the scenes, take pictures and check out some of the City Park which is full of history. I’ll share what I’ve learned from reading online and from talking to the tour guide of the Our House Tavern (est. 1819).

Gallipolis

Gallipolis (Gala-polees) was founded by a group known as the French 500 in 1790 . French settlers had “thought” they had bought rights to some land in another section of Ohio only to find out after traveling months from France to get here that the deeds they held were no good.

About 5 yrs later General George Washington took pity on them and helped work out a deal by which the settlers were able to buy land from the Ohio Company. This is the Gallipolis area.

Napoleon’s girlfriend?

So while touring the Our House Tavern my tour guide told me there is a story about the first marriage in Gallipolis. It was that of Napoleon’s girlfriend who came over here but fell in love with another man on the trip. She wanted to be married NOT in a territory but rather in a state and Ohio wasn’t a state at this time in the late 1700’s so she and her “new”  man married on a boat on the Ohio River (the river is behind my boys in the top picture).  If this is true it appears Napoleon got dumped.  I don’t think he was the Emperor at this time.

There are a few gifts in the Our House Tavern that are said to be from Napoleon to this woman…perhaps trying to woo her back ( again, I think all of this was before Napoleon was an Emperor).

 The last King Louis of France

Though the last Louis didn’t sleep at the Our House Tavern – they have the bed that he slept in when he visited the area. I think its so fascinating to see in-person something that a real person from hundreds of years ago actually used.

By the way, if I have my history correct, this would have been Louis XVI who married Marie Antoinette – both whom were executed. Very sad story for their family. There is an old black & white movie about it my husband found at the library.

So, am I weird because I think things like this are cool?

I mean 200+ years ago the last King of France slept in this thing. Crazy.

Check out the next picture.

Hmmm. Lets just take a moment to be thankful for our modern bathrooms and the fact that we can count on hotels and inns to have them. I wouldn’t want to have to lift a cushion, slip a chamber pot or bowl under a chair and do business like this.

By the way, I was told that back in “the day” inns like this housed multiple women in one room. Husbands and wives did not share a room.

While on this trip I received a few cookie recipes that are dated back to colonial-American times! How exciting! I had to try a couple of them. You’ll find the recipes and pictures of how they turned out for me at the links below.

1784 Colonial Day Molasses Cookies

1784 Colonial Applejacks

*Linking up at the Hip Homeschool Moms hop.