bob, you almost have Beck's style down!
I've never heard of this area before. Where can I find out more about it?
Do a search for the word Arab on this site and you'll come to a thread that fills you in. Here is a snippet from Borderwalker's thread of the time:
"The letter was from Dr. John Torrey, a botanist from Philly, to his collegue Zaccheus Collins in Philly, who was probably no direct relation to the Collins family in the area:
"Some places called Taverns that we put up at were not fit for an Arab. At a place called the Ten-Mile Hollow, or Hell Hollow, we expected to sleep in the woods, for it was with difficulty that we persuaded them to take us in. This was the most miserable place we ever saw, they were too poor to use candles. No butter, no sugar, etc. A little soup stuff which I believe they called rye bread, but which was half sawdust, and a little warm water and molasses were all we had for breakfast. For supper I could no see what we had for we ate in the dark."
This was referring to the Charleytown tavern in the area. The reference to "Hell Hollow" was an insult originating with Torrey--I haven't found it documented anywhere else. Apparantly, the botanist didn't know the difference between a jug tavern and an actual tavern and thought the former was used to house guests.
Concerning the cellar holes, there are three of them in a clearing off of what was once part of Old Dover Road. There's a bit of debate whether or not they really are cellar holes. We still need to run a detector on them to settle the matter."
