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Barker’s Hotel (1819-1835)

Eliakam Spooner sold The Village Hotel in 1819 to Robert Barker. Robert Barker (b. Feb. 1, 1790-d. Jan. 25,
1870) originally came from Bedford, Massachusetts and came to Vermont when he was sixteen years old. He
came to live with the family of Dudley Chase in Randolph. He found work in 1806 driving the stagecoach which
ran from Randolph to Windsor. According to Henry Swan Dana in his book on the history of Woodstock, he
rose at three in the morning to waken his passengers. While they were getting ready, he would harness and hitch
up the horses to be ready for the trip to Woodstock. Barker stopped at the Village Hotel so that passengers could
have breakfast and he could change horses. From there, he drove to Windsor where he met the stages from Bos-
ton and New York. He would make his way back to Randolph that night. He supposedly followed this routine
twice a week in the summer and winter for more than four years. By 1810, the United States Postal Service
awarded the government contract to Barker to carry the mail on the coach.

Barker married Eliakam Spooner’s granddaughter, Frances Julia Spooner, in March 1819 and they had four chil-
dren. Robert Barker, who owned and operated the hotel from 1819-1835, made the most changes by adding a
second story to the wing on Elm Street, a third story dancing hall (about 1830) to the main building and double
decker porches facing both Elm and Central. “Everybody knew Barker and everybody drank at his bar, where
Rat Spooner shoved the decanter.”

In November 1820, Barker was approached by a 16-year-old Alvin Adams for a job. Supposedly Barker told Ad-
ams that “I have no place for you at this time.” Adams explained that he was an orphan and Barker, who had
had time to verify his background, hired him for four years. He moved on to Boston where he found work at the
Marlboro House. “This was a major hotel [Marlboro House] and staging point at the time. Others tell about his
way with horses and how he fancied he would like to be a stage driver, perhaps even to own a stage line. The
association with horses lasted throughout his life and a trademark of Adams express wagon was its well-chosen
team of horses. A friendly, outgoing man with sparkling grey eyes, a singularly pleasant face and frank, manly air,
Adams spent his leisure time talking with stage drivers and trying to decide his future. He was advised to seek a
career in a mercantile profession.” After several years in the grocery and provisions trade and ultimately failing
in the produce business, Adams founded an express company which would become one of the largest express
companies in the United States. Robert Barker’s hiring of the young Adams certainly made a lasting impact.

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