[CHAPTER XXXVIII.]
Old Tavern and Tavern Keepers continued—Washington—Washington and Jefferson College—The Female Seminary—James Wilson, first Tavern Keeper in Washington—The two Dodds—Major McCormick’s—The White Goose and the Golden Swan—Hallam’s Old Wagon Stand—The Valentine—The Buck—The Gen. Andrew Jackson—The Globe—The Cross Keys—The Indian Queen—The Mermaid—The Rising Sun—The Gen. Brown—The Fountain—Billy Brown and Jimmy Brown—The Mansion—John N. Dagg—A Giant Boot Jack—The American—The Fulton—The National—Surratt’s—The Greene House.
Washington became a point on the National Road by force of a provision in the act of Assembly of Pennsylvania, approved April 9th, 1807, before recited. In a retrospective view that seems to have been a wise provision. Washington, it is true, is older than the road, but without the road it would be difficult to conjecture what the history of the town would have been from 1818 down to 1852. That the road had much to do in promoting the growth and prosperity of the town, there can be no question, and it must also be conceded that the town contributed in good round measure to the life and prosperity of the road. Washington is one of the largest and prettiest towns on the road, not as well favored by location as Uniontown. While Washington possesses many very important advantages, it has at the same time, like other towns, its disadvantages. For example, it is a dry town. It was not dry in the palmy days of the old pike. No liquor can at this time be lawfully sold in Washington as a beverage, and the town is not over abundantly supplied with good water. On the other hand, the town is justly distinguished for the superiority of its educational institutions. Washington and Jefferson college is one of the best in the land. Its graduates include many of the ablest men of the country, both of the present and the past. Everywhere, at every loading point in our widely extended Republic, the graduates of Washington and Jefferson College are pushing ahead at the front, in all the learned professions, in the judiciary, and in every line of honorable industry. It is not a dude college, as many more pretentious colleges are, but a working college, sending out workers, equipped like men, to run the race set before them. The Female Seminary is another institution of which the citizens of Washington are justly proud. It stands in the front rank of similar institutions, and for more than half a century, year after year, has sent out its graduates to cheer and brighten the world.
The writer of these lines confesses to an affection for Washington, which no vicissitude of life or time can alienate. He was educated at her college, and if he failed in obtaining a thorough education, it was not the fault of his venerable alma mater. Dr. David McConoughy, who presided over the college, when the writer was a student within its halls, deserves to be classed among the Saints. A purer man never lived. He was a Christian, who never entertained a doubt, and a scholar in the broadest sense; and it is most gratifying to the thousands of graduates and friends of the college scattered broadcast throughout the land, to know that Dr. Moffatt, the present head of the institution, is a worthy successor of that venerated president. The writer also retains the sweetest recollections of the old citizens of Washington, and cherishes with deepest feeling his associations at college with James G. Blaine, who subsequently became the most illustrious statesman of his generation, and many others who have written their names high on the scroll of fame.
There may be some readers inclined to think that the blending of stage drivers and wagoners with doctors, teachers and statesmen, is a strange commingling; but it is not. History is literature, and stage drivers and wagoners, like other classes, and occupations of men, enter into the web and woof of history.
James Wilson hung out the first tavern sign in Washington. His house was a log structure, and stood at the northwest corner of Main and Beau streets, now covered by Smith’s store. He opened up business in 1781, and was licensed by the court to dispense the ardent at “Catfish Camp.” He continued business in this house down to the year 1792. The old Supreme Judges stopped at Wilson’s tavern when they went to Washington to hold the courts of Oyer and Terminer. Whether they were fed on roast pig, as Chief Justice McKean at Salter’s old tavern in Uniontown, does not appear of record. After Wilson’s time this house was enlarged and otherwise improved, and continued as a tavern by Michael Ocheltree, who remained in charge down to the year 1812, when a man of the name of Rotroff was installed as host. Rotroff gave way to John Kline, who came up from the Cross Roads, nine miles west of Brownsville, and took charge of the house, under the sign of “Gen. Wayne.” Capt. John McCluney followed Kline, and he in turn was followed by Joseph Teeters and Joseph Hallam. Hallam kept the house until probably 1840, when he went down town to take charge of the old wagon stand on the site of the present Valentine House. When Hallam left it the old Wilson House ceased to be a tavern.
As early as 1782 John Dodd kept tavern in a log house on the east side of Main street, nearly opposite the court house, and remained its host until his death in 1795. He died while returning home from a trading trip to New Orleans. John Wilson next took charge, and conducted its affairs for many years, associated with stirring events, down to a period as late probably as 1835, when the house disappeared as a tavern. John Dodd was an ancestor of the numerous Dodds now of Washington and vicinity, most of whom have taken to the ministry and other learned professions.
Charles Dodd, a brother of John, above mentioned, kept a tavern on Main street in 1782, in a log house, recently occupied by Robert Strean’s hardware store. The first courts of Washington county were held in this old tavern, and the county jail was a log stable in the rear of the lot on which it stood. Charles Dodd kept this tavern for ten years, and sold out to Daniel Kehr, who continued it a short time, but finding it unprofitable, took down his sign and went to shoemaking.
John Adams kept a tavern from 1783 to 1789. Its location is not accurately known, and so in the case of John Colwell, a tavern keeper of 1784. In 1785 Hugh Means, Samuel Acklin and William Falconer, were tavern keepers in Washington. Acklin continued in the business until 1788, and Falconer until 1791. William Meetkirk, who was subsequently a justice of the peace for many years, kept a tavern on Main street from 1786 to 1793, in the house until recently occupied by Mrs. McFarland, and it is not unlikely that this is the house kept by Colwell and Means.
Maj. George McCormick kept a tavern in 1788, and Col. John May’s journal compliments it by this entry: “Thursday, Aug. 7, 1788, set out from the hotel at four o’clock, and at half-past eight arrived at Maj. George McCormick’s in Washington, where we breakfasted. This is an excellent house, where New England men put up.” The writer regrets his failure to ascertain the exact location of this old tavern.