William Ruddick and his son-in-law, Samuel Burks, are believed to have built a 2-story log structure around 1833 as a private residence. In 1848, Sylvanus Blackburn built a sawmill on War Eagle Creek making sawed lumber available; Ruddick finished his building with plank boards.
Jesse Cox purchased the building from Samuel Burks in 1858 and the Cox's,
Jesse and his wife Polly Parker Cox, operated the tavern. Considered to be fairly wealthy, the Cox’s owned land both in Kansas and Arkansas. Jesse, born in 1802, and his wife, born in 1803, were both from Kentucky. They had 7 children.
A neighbor gave the Cox family the Elk horns that were hung from the roof's ridgepole; the building was nicknamed the Elkhorn Tavern. The Elk horns were supposedly taken by Federal Col Eugene Carr sometime after the battle. Through the efforts of the journalist and artist Hunt P. Wilson, the Elk horns were given back to the Cox family sometime after the war.
Due to the proximity to the Wire Road, Huntsville Road and Ford Road, the tavern was operated as a post office, trading post, voting center, a meeting place for the local Baptist Society group, and a rest stop. The Butterfield Overland Stage Coach stopped at the tavern on its twice-weekly trip to and from San Francisco, CA and Tipton, MO to allow horses and passengers to rest and eat. This stagecoach made the trip from 1858 until the beginning of the Civil War in 1861.
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| ROAD TO ELKHORN TAVERN |
Other stage coaches also passed by this site coming and going on the many roads in this area, bringing news, people, and mail. Other travelers on the Telegraph-Wire Road coming and going from Arkansas used the Elkhorn
The Cox’s owned 5 slaves who helped them run the tavern and work their land these were described as one older man, two younger men, known as William and Samuel, and two women. After the Civil War, William and Samuel took on the Cox surname and their families were established on nearby plots of land.
Knowing that trouble was brewing in northwest Arkansas, Jesse Cox moved his cattle and horses to his property in Kansas.
During the battle, the tavern was used as headquarters by Major Eli Weston, Provost Marshall to Curtis’ Union army, as headquarters by Confederate Major General Earl Van Dorn, as a hospital by both sides and as a staging ground for the battle. The fighting around the Elkhorn Tavern between the Federals, led by Colonel Eugene Carr, and the coalition of Missouri State Guard troops led by Major General Sterling Price and Confederates led by Major General Earl Van Dorn would be known for the fiercest fighting of the battle.
At the time of the Battle of Pea Ridge, 5 of the Cox children were married, 4 having homes elsewhere. Seventeen year old Joseph and his wife Lucinda lived with his parents at the tavern and were present on the day of the battle. Polly Cox, her 2 youngest sons, and her married son Joseph and his wife took refuge in the cellar during the fighting. According to family tradition, they recalled blood seeping through the floorboards from the wounded soldiers being sheltered above when the tavern was used as a field hospital.
After the battle, Joseph and Lucinda moved in with her father. The Federals allowed the Cox family to take whatever items they could carry from the Tavern when they were forced to leave. Polly Cox and the 2 youngest children are believed to have gone to Kansas for the remainder of the war to stay with Jesse on their land near Troy.
Confederate guerrillas burned down the tavern in Jan 1863 after the Union Army moved telegraph operations back to Missouri. Joseph and Lucinda rebuilt it in 1865. Jesse and Polly Cox remained in Kansas for the rest of their lives. Descendants of Joseph and Lucinda lived in the tavern until the State of Arkansas bought the property in 1959. Elkhorn Tavern was donated to the United States Government in 1960 as part of Pea Ridge National Military Park.
Over the years, the Cox family descendents living in the Tavern made multiple improvements and renovations. The Park Service rebuilt the tavern in the 1960s based on sketches and pictures of the tavern as it was in the 1880s. This reconstruction is believed to be very similar to the structure of the tavern at the time of the Battle of Pea Ridge. One important structural difference is that at the time of the battle, the tavern is believed to have had a "dogtrot" or breezeway in the center of the building, separating the 2 rooms on the first floor.
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