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We are currently rebuilding our database on this family along with all the others. We hope to have them back online soon. In the mean time we have provided the following biographical sketches on what we currently know about the first few generations of this family.

Extract: Susquehanna and Juniata Valley History

History of that part of the Susquehanna and Juniata Valleys, embraced in the counties of Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Union and Snyder, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 1886: Everts, Peck, and Richards, Philadelphia.

p. 875

"William Thompson, who bought the Quiggle property, was the second son of John Thompson, the ancestor... Upon coming to the property to settle... in 1790... he laid out a town on the land, and Michael Holman in this year was licensed to keep a tavern at Thompsontown... he sold a lot to John Walters, December 7 1796. He and James Murray were licensed to keep tavern in Thompsontown in January, 1794. Walter sold the lot he bought, February 28, 1799, to William Groathouse, who erected upon the lot a tavern-house. He kept tavern in this house until his death in 1805. He had several daughters, of whom Amelia became the wife of Joseph Buchanan. Rachael Jones, and later Mrs. Buchanan, kept the tavern from her father's death until 1809, when the property passed to John McGary, who married a daughter of William Groathouse, and in that year erected the present stone house that stands a tthe junction of the two roads. He kept tavern in this place until about 1840. Samuel Davis owned a lot adjoining the tavern lot, which was on the north side of the Main Street."

p. 889

(Distilleries, William Groathouse, 1794-1803, p. 888)
Inns or Taverns, from Tax lists - Groathouse, William 1799