John Freeman built a home-tavern here in 1804 on a Revolutionary War land grant. The tavern stood beside the historic Wilderness Road, a wagon road built by Kentucky between Cumberland Gap and Crab Orchard in 1796. As a principal highway, it promoted settlement of Kentucky and the West, and it operated as a toll road for about 80 years. The inn burned in 1962, and Freeman, who lived from 1761 to 1841, is buried nearby.