Eli Bruce

A Most ODD History at the Tavern

Eli Bruce first arrived at the Forsyth Tavern (then Warren's Tavern) in 1816. He had ridden in on the stagecoach line along with the brother to the Corners' first Physician, Calvin Baker. 

 With no family to stay with and no money to afford a bed, Eli found himself working at the Tavern where he reportedly corded wood for Mr. Warren. 

Then he turns up again in 1823, a schoolteacher and tax collector for the Village of Lewiston. He received word that Mr. Eliakam Hammond had discovered something most gruesome on his farm on upper mountain road just south of the Tavern back in Cambria. This of course was the infamous PIT.

If you don't know, the pit lying between upper and lower mountain roads was what was left of the 14th century native American civilization that once resided there. They were a colossal nation atop the hill, consisting of thousands of men, woman and children reduced to a pit of skeletons. It was a massacre of profound depth.

… and of course, Mr. Hammond and Mr. Bruce opened the farm up as a tourist attraction for 10cents a piece. It is said that some 150 people a day visited the site and left with a bone souvenir each.  For this reason, the site has vanished; leaving only the mansion which Mr. Hammond built with his fine earnings. Today we who know of it call it the BONE HOUSE. 

Eli also became quite wealthy and also quite popular. So much in fact that he was soon elected Sheriff by his townspeople.

Morgan was arrested for supposedly not paying a Tavern bill and later, his jailer removed, he himself taken into a stagecoach, Morgan was driven to Fort Niagara. He never returned from that coach ride. 

Charged as one of the abductors of Morgan was Eli Bruce. This would lose him his title as Sheriff and cost him 28 months in jail.

Eli Bruce died shortly after that; a victim of the Cholera Epidemic in 1832.