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. Hugh Wilson (son of James) kept a tavern in Washington in 1789, and John McMichael in 1790, the locations of which are not now ascertainable.