Did Dickens or didn't he?

McCUTCHENVILLE — Did he or didn't he? One of the stories involving the Overland Inn in McCutchenville is whether Charles Dickens ate bad beef there in 1842, resulting in a bad dream and supposedly inspiring at least part of "A Christmas Carol." To date, Sarah Hunt, curator of the museum, said she has not found any documentation to support this claim. "We do have rumors that William Henry Harrison came through and Charles Dickens, but that's all we have," she said. According to his book "American Notes," Dickens never stayed at the inn. He did rent a private coach in Columbus bound for Sandusky, where he could board a steamship. As they traveled north, it became too dark to continue, so he and his companions spent the night at a tavern/inn at "Upper Sandusky, an Indian village." After breakfast they departed for Tiffin, arriving about noon. They abandoned the coach for a train at 2 p.m. By his own account, Dickens never stayed at the Wyandot Reserve/Crawford County long enough to spend the night in McCutchenville or the Overland Inn, she said. He also never had the opportunity to stop for a meal based on his own timeline, so the idea of him eating bad beef at the inn could not possibly be true. According to the Overland Inn Facebook page, part of the confusion lies in the fact that the tavern in Upper Sandusky has been referred to by various names over the years including the Garrett Tavern, Walker Tavern and as an "overland inn." Dickens reportedly signed the guest register, said Hunt. "We know that they signed the ledger, but the ledger has been lost," she said. "So while we're trying to locate it, we haven't been able to." Instead, his writings seem to indicate that they rode straight on from Upper Sandusky to Tiffin and then boarded a train. Wolf: 419-427-8419