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Historical Collections of Ohio

By Henry Howe

Vol. II

© 1888

 

MONTGOMERY COUNTY

 

Page 270

 

 

MONTGOMERY COUNTY was named from Gen. Richard Montgomery, of the American Revolutionary army; he was born in Ireland, in 1737, and was killed in the assault upon Quebec, Dec. 31, 1775. This county was created May 1, 1803, from Hamilton and Ross, and the temporary seat of justice appointed at the house of George NEWCOM, in Dayton. About one-half of the county is rolling and the rest level; the soil of an excellent quality, clay predominating. East of the Miami are many excellent limestone quarries, of a greyish-white hue. Large quantities are exported to Cincinnati, where it is used in constructing the most elegant edifices; nearly all the canal locks from Cincinnati to Toledo are built with it. This is a great manufacturing county, and abundance of water power is furnished by its various streams, and it is very wealthy, with a dense agricultural population. The principal products are corn, wheat, rye, oats, barley, flaxseed, potatoes; pork, wool and tobacco.

 

Area about 470 square miles In 1887 the acres cultivated were 167,779; in pasture, 18,402; woodland, 34,134; lying waste, 9,624; produced in wheat, 639,886 bushels; rye, 4,655; buckwheat, 171 ; oats, 415,084; barley, 55,960; corn, 1,523,796; broom-corn, 67,759 lbs, brush; meadow bay, 15,104 tons; clover hay, 8,628; flax, 176,477 lbs. fibre; potatoes, 85,200 bushels; tobacco, 4,717,558 lbs. (largest in the State); butter, 827,943; cheese, 2,715 sorghum, 5,872 gallons; maple syrup, 13,934; honey, 4,018 lbs.; eggs, 635,473 dozen; grapes, 132,780 lbs.; wine, 6,301 gallons; sweet potatoes, 3,648 bushels; apples, 563; peaches, 15 pears, 1,725; wool, 15,747 lbs.; milch cows owned, 10,497. Ohio Mining Statistics, 1888: Limestone, 5,062 tons burned for lime; 195,537 cubic feet of dimension stone; 33,977 cubic yards of building stone; 422,558 square feet of flagging; 9,750 square feet of paving; 48,586 lineal feet of curbing; 1,352 cubic yards of ballast or macadam. School census, 1888, 26,797; teachers, 402. Miles of railroad track, 165.

 

 

Population of Montgomery in 1820 was 16,061; 1830,24,374; 1840,31,879; 1860, 52,230; 1880, 78,550; of whom 54,396 were born in Ohio; 4,059 Pennsylvania; 1,197 Indiana; 1,114 New York; 1,037 Virginia; 813 Kentucky; 7,894 German Empire; 2,574 Ireland; 664 England and Wales; 270 France; 207 British America; 159 Scotland, and 11 Norway and Sweden.

 

Census, 1890, 100,852.

 

 

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Clark, in his expedition against the Shawnees, on the Little Miami and Mad river; was second in command to Col. Boone, August 19, 1782, at the battle of the Lower Blue Licks; was colonel on the second expedition of Gen. Clarke, in the following September, into the Miami country; held the same office in 1786, under Col. Logan, in his expedition against the Shawnees. He died, August 5, 1827. His early life was full of incidents, one of the most remarkable of which we give in his own language, as originally published in the Ohio National Journal:

 

Canoe Jonrney up the Ohio.—In the fall of 1776 I started from McClellan’s station (now Georgetown, Ky.) in company with Jos. McNutt, David Perry, James Wernock, James Templeton, Edward Mitchell and Isaac Greer, to go to Pittsburg. We procured provision for our journey at the Blue Licks, from the well-known stone house, the Buffalo. At Limestone we procured a canoe, and started up the Ohio river by water. Nothing material transpired during several of the first days of our journey. We landed at Point Pleasant, where was a fort commanded by Capt. Arbuckle. After remaining there a short time, and receiving dispatches from Capt. Arbuckle to the commandant at Wheeling, we again proceeded. Aware that Indians were lurking along the bank of the river we travelled with the utmost caution. We usually landed an hour before sunset, cooked and eat our supper, and went on until after dark. At night we lay without fire, as convenient to our canoe as possible, and started again in the morning at daybreak. We had all agreed that if any disaster should befall us by day or by night that we should stand by each other, as long as any help could be afforded.

 

Attacked by Indians—At length the memorable 12th of October arrived. During the day we passed several new improvement, which occasioned us to be less watchful and careful than we had been before. Late in the evening we landed opposite the island [on the Ohio side of the river, in what is now Athens county], then called the Hockhocking, and were beginning to flatter ourselves that we should reach some inhabitants the next day. Having eaten nothing that day, contrary to our usual practice, we kindled a fire and cooked supper. After we had eaten, and made the last of our flour into a loaf of bread, and put it into an old brass kettle to bake; so that we might be ready to start again in the morning at daybreak, we lay down to rest, keeping the same clothes on at night that we wore during the day. For the want of a better, I had on a hunting-shirt and britch clout (so called), and flannel leggins. I had my powder-horn and shot-pouch on my side, and placed the butt of my gun under my head. Five of our company lay on, the east side of the fire, and James Templeton and myself on the west; we were lying on our left aides, myself in front, with my right hand hold of my gun. Templeton was close behind me. This was our position, and asleep, when we were fired upon by a party of Indians. Immediately after the fire they rushed upon us with tomahawks, as if determined to finish the work of death they had begun. It appeared that one Indian had shot on my side of the fire. I saw the flash of the gun and felt the ball pass through me, but where I could not tell, nor was it at first painful. I sprang to take up my gun, but my right shoulder came to the ground. I made another effort, and was half bent in getting up, when an Indian sprang past the fire with savage fierceness, and struck me with his tomahawk. From the position I was in, it went between two ribs, just behind the backbone, a little below the kidney, and penetrated the cavity of the body. He then immediately turned to Templeton (who by this time had got to his feet with his gun in hand), and seized his gun. A desperate scuffle ensued, but Templeton held on, and finally bore off the gun.

 

A Forlorn Condition.—In the meantime I made from the light, and in my attempt to get out of sight, I was delayed for a moment by getting my right arm fast between a tree and a sapling, but having got clear and away from the light of the fire, and finding that I had lost the use of my right arm, I made a shift to keep it up by drawing it through the straps, of my shot-pouch. I could see the crowd about the fire, but the firing had ceased and the strife seemed to be over. I had reason to believe that the others were all shot and tomahawked. Hearing no one coming towards me, I resolved to go to the river and, if possible, to get into the canoe and float down, thinking by that means I might possibly reach Point Pleasant, supposed to be about 100 miles distant. Just as I got on the beach a little below the canoe an Indian in the canoe gave a whoop which gave me to understand that it was best to withdraw. I did so; and with much difficulty got to an old log, and being very thirsty, faint and exhausted, I was glad to sit down. I felt the blood running, and heard it dropping on the leaves all around me. Presently I heard the Indians board the canoe and float past. All was now silent, and I felt myself in a moat forlorn condition. I could not see the fire, but determined to find it and see if any of my comrades were alive. I steered the course which I supposed the fire to be, and having reached it, I found Templeton alive, but wounded in nearly the same manner that was James Wernock was also dangerously wounded, two balls having passed through his body; Jos. McNutt was dead and scalped; D. Perry was wounded, but not badly, and Isaac Greer was missing. The miseries of that hour cannot well be described.

 

 

Page 272

 

appeared we held a council, and concluded that inasmuch as one gun and some ammunition was saved, Perry would furnish us with meat, and we would proceed up the river by slow marches to the nearest settlements, supposed to be one hundred miles. A small quantity of provisions which was found scattered around the fire was picked up and distributed among us, and a piece of blanket, which was saved from the fire, was given to me to cover a wound on my back. On examination, it was found that two balls had passed through my right arm, and that the one was broken; to dress this, splinters were taken from a tree near the fire that had been shivered by lightning, and placed on the outside of my hunting-shirt and bound with a string. And now, being in readiness to move, Perry took the gun and ammunition, and we all got to our feet except Wernock, who, on attempting to get up fell back to the ground. He refused to try again, said that he could not live, and at the same time desired us to do the best we could for ourselves. Perry then took hold of his arm and told him if he would get up he would carry him; upon this he made another effort to get up, but falling back as before, he begged us m the most solemn manner to leave him. At his request, the old kettle was filled with water and placed at his aide, which he said was the last and only favor required of us, and then conjured us to leave him and try to save ourselves, assuring us that should he live to see us again, he would cast no reflections of unkindness upon us. Thus we left him. When we had got a little distance I looked back, and distressed and hopeless as Wernock’s condition really was, I felt to envy it. After going about 100 poles, we were obliged to stop and rest, and found ourselves too sick and weak to proceed. Another consultation being held, it was agreed that Templeton and myself should remain there with Edward Mitchell, and Perry should take the gun and go to the nearest settlement and seek relief. Perry promised that if he could not procure assistance he would be back in four days. He then returned to the camp and found Wernock in the same state of mind as when we left, perfectly rational and sensible of his condition, replenished his kettle, with water, brought us some fire and started for the settlement.

 

Wernock’s Death,—Alike unable to go back or forward, and being very thirsty, we set about getting water from a small stream that happened to be near us, our only drinking vessel an old wool hat, which was so broken that it was with great difficulty made to hold water; but by stuffing leaves in it, we made it hold so that each one could drink from once filling it. Nothing could have been a greater luxury to us than a drink of water from the old hat Just at night Mitchell returned to see if Wernock was still living, intending, if he was dead, to get the kettle for us, he arrived just in time to see him expire; but not choosing to leave him until he should be certain that he was dead, he stayed with him until darkness came on, and when he attempted to return to us, he got lost and lay from us all night. We suffered much that night for the want of fire, and through fear that he was either killed or that he had ran of; but happily for us our fears were groundless, for next morning at sunrise he found his way to our camp. That day we moved about 200 yards farther up a deep ravine, and farther from the river. The weather, which had been cold and frosty, now became a little warmer, and commenced raining. Those that were with me could set up, but I had no alternative but to lie on my back on the ground with my right arm over my body. The rain continuing neat day, Mitchell took an excursion to examine the hills, and not far distant he found a rock projecting from the cliff sufficient to shelter us from the rain, to which place we very gladly removed. He also gathered pawpaws for us, which were our only food, except perhaps a few grapes.

 

Rescuers Arrive.—Time moved slowly on until Saturday. In the meantime we talked over the danger to which Perry was exposed, the distance he had to go and the improbability of his returning. When the time had expired which he had allowed himself, we concluded that we would, if alive, wait for him until Monday; and if he did not come then, and no relief should be afforded, we would attempt to travel to Point Pleasant. The third day after our defeat my arm became very painful. The splinters and leaves and my shirt were cemented together with blood, and stuck so fast to my arm that it required the application of warm water for nearly a whole day to loosen them so that they could be taken off; when this was done, I had my arm dressed with white oak leaves, which had a very good effect. On Saturday, about twelve o’clock, Mitchell came with his bosom full of pawpaws, and placed them convenient to us, and returned to his station on the river. He had been gone about an hour, when to our great joy we beheld him coming with a company of men. When they approached us, we found that our trusty friend and companion, David Perry, had returned to our assistance with Captain John Walls, his officers and most of his company. Our feelings of gratitude may possibly be conceived, but words can never describe them. Suffice to say that these eyes flowed down plenteously with tears, and I was so completely overwhelmed with joy that I fell to the ground. On my recovery, we were taken to the river and refreshed plentifully with provisions, which the captain had brought, and had our wounds dressed by an experienced man, who came for that purpose. We were afterwards described by the captain to be in a most forlorn and pitiable condition, more like corpses beginning to petrify than living beings.

 

 

Page 273

bodies of our much-lamented friends, McNutt and Wernock. While we were refreshing ourselves at the river, and having our wounds dressed, Captain Walls went with some of his men to the place of our defeat, and collected the bones of our late companions, and buried them with the utmost expedition and care. We were then conducted by water to Captain Wall’s station, at Grave creek.

 

HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE MISCELLANIES.

 

The following series are from the pen of Mr. Robert W. Steele as originally communicated to the “History of Dayton,” a large octavo of seven hundred and twenty-seven pages, published in 1889 by Harvey W. Crew. Mr. Steele is a Christian gentleman, who has devoted a large part of a long life to the highest interests of the public. He was born in Dayton, July 3, 1819, of an honored parentage, his ancestry having been of that Scoth-Irish Presbyterian stock that settled in the Valley of Virginia. He graduated in 1840 at the Miami University; was for thirty years member of the Dayton Board of Education and long its president; has been connected with the Dayton Public Library from the beginning; is a member of the State Board of Charities and of the State Board Several of the other articles which follow are also contributed by him as the account of the great Harrison Convention of 1840. Sketches of Daniel Cooper, the Van Cleves, etc.

 

NATURAL ADVANTAGES.

FERTILE SOIL. TIMBER.

 

Long before any permanent settlement was made in the Miami Valley, its beauty and fertility were known to the inhabitants of Kentucky and the people beyond the Alleghanies, and repeated efforts were made to get possession of it. These efforts led to retaliation on the part of the Indians, who resented the attempt to dispossess them of their lands, and the continuous raids back and forth across the Ohio River to gain or keep control of this beautiful valley, caused it to be called, until the close of the eighteenth century, the “Miami Slaughter-house.” The report of the French Major Celoron de Bienville, who, in August, 1749, ascended the La Roche or Big Miami River in bateaux to visit the Twightwee villages at Piqua, has been preserved, but Gist, the agent of the Virginians, who formed the Ohio Land Company, was probably the first person who wrote a description in English of the region surrounding Dayton. Gist visited the Twightwee or Miami villages in 1751. He was delighted with the fertile and well watered land, with its large oak, walnut, maple, ash, wild cherry and other trees. “The country,” he says, “abounded with turkey, deer, elk and most sorts of game, particularly buffaloes, thirty or forty of which are frequently seen feeding in one meadow; in short, it wants nothing but cultivation to make it a most delightful country. The land upon the Great Miami River is very rich, level and well timbered, some of the finest meadows that can be. The grass here grows to a great height on the clear fields, of which there are a great number, and the bottoms are full of white clover, wild rye and blue grass.” it is stated by pioneer writers that the buffalo and elk disappeared from Ohio about the year 1795.

 

The development of the Miami Valley has shown that the glowing accounts of the early explorers as to the fertility of the soil were not too highly colored. Beautiful and fertile as the Miami Valley is, no part of it surpasses, if it equals, the region immediately surrounding Dayton. The “MAD RIVER COUNTRY,” as this region was called by the first pioneers, was the synonym for all that was desirable in farming lands.

 

RIVERS.

 

 

Page 273

 

of great beauty and fertility, and these valleys produce large and profitable crops of every variety. As reported in the United States census report of 1880, the total value of farm products in Montgomery County in 1879 was three million two hundred and eighty-eight thousand four hundred and forty-nine dollars, a greater amount than was produced by any other county in Ohio. An incidental advantage resulting from the four river valleys is the facilities they afford for the construction of railroads, which, through them, may reach Dayton on easy grades, and at comparatively small cost. No doubt to this cause may be partly attributed the fact that, with Dayton as a centre, ten railroads radiate in every direction.

 

BUILDING STONE AND GRAVEL.

 

One of nature’s chief gifts to Dayton is the building atone that underlies a large part of Montgomery County, Of especial value is the Niagara, or, as it is commonly called, the Dayton stone. So extensive are the beds of this stone that Professor Orton, the State geologist, pronounces it inexhaustible.

 

Another article, which at first thought may be considered of little value, is of the greatest importance. Gravel is so abundant and so cheap that we seldom reflect what an important part it has played in the development of the country. Professor Orton says: “It is not easy to set a proper estimate upon the beds of sand and gravel of Montgomery County until a comparison is instituted between a region well suppied with such accumulations and another that is destitute of them. The gravel knolls and ridges with which in the southern and eastern portions of the county, almost every farm abounds, afford very desirable building sites, and are generally selected for such purposes. Land of the best quality for mortar, cement and brick-making is everywhere within easy access.

 

TURNPIKES.

 

An inexhaustible supply of excellent materials for road-making—what is frequently designated the lime-stone gravel, though in reality largely composed of granitic pebbles—is found in the drift deposits, from which hundreds of miles of turnpikes have been already constructed in the country, thus affording free communication between farm and market at all seasons of the year. The smaller boulders of Canadian origin are selected from the gravel-banks for paving-stones, transsported to the neighboring cities. In regions where stone suitable for macadamized pikes can be obtained, good roads can be had, even though gravel is wanting but at largely increased expense above that of gravel turnpikes. The districts which are supplied with neither can certainly never compete in desirability with these gravel-strewn regions.”

 

Benj. VAN CLEVE, one of the original settlers of Dayton, gives in his journal an interesting account of the survey, in the autumn of 1795, of the purchase made by Gov. ST. CLAIR, Generals DAYTON and WILKINSON and Col. LUDLOW from Judge SYMMES.

 

Two parties set out, one under Daniel C. COOPER, to survey and mark a road, and the other, under Capt. John DUNLAP, to run the boundaries of the purchase. Mr. VAN CLEVE says: “On the 4th of November Israel LUDLOW laid out the town at the mouth of Mad river and called it Dayton, after one of the proprietors. A lottery was held, and I drew lots for myself and several others, and engaged to become a settler in the ensuing spring.”

 

JOURNEY BY LAND TO DAYTON.

 

In March, 1796, three parties left Cincinnati, led by William George HARNER, George NEWCOME and Samuel THOMPSON. Harner’s party was the first to start; the other two companies left on Monday, March 21, one by land and the other by water. Harrier’s party came in a two-horse wagon over the road begun, but only partially cut through the woods by COOPER, in the fall of 1795. The other party that travelled by land walked. They were two weeks on the road. Their furniture, stoves, clothes, provisions, cooking utensils, and agricultural implements and other property, as well as children too small to walk were carried on horses, in creels made of hickory withes, and suspended from each side of pack-saddles. It was a difficult matter to ford the creeks without getting the freight and the women and children wet. Trees were cut down to build foot-bridges across the smaller streams. Rafts were constructed to carry the contents of the creels and the women and children over large creeks, while the horses and cattle swam. Their rifles furnished them with plenty of game, and their cows with milk, at meals.

 

Thompson’s party came in a large pirogue down the Ohio to the Miami, and up that stream to the mouth of Mad river.

 

VOYAGE UP THE MIAMI TO DAYTON.

 

 

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was cooked after this fashion: Meat was fastened on a sharpened stick, stuck in the ground before the fire, and frequently turned. Dough for wheat bread was sometimes wound around a stick and baked in the same way. Corn bread was baked under the hot ashes. “Sweeter roast meat,” exclaims an enthusiastic pioneer writer, “than such as is prepared in this manner no epicure of Europe ever tasted. Scarce any one who has not tried it can imagine the sweetness and gusto of such a meal, in such a place, at such a time.”

 

ARRIVAL AT DAYTON.

 

The passage from Cincinnati to Dayton occupied ten days. Mrs. THOMPSON was the first to step ashore, and the first white woman, except, perhaps, the captive Mrs. McFALL, rescued by Kentuckians in 1782, to set her foot on Dayton soil. Two small camps of Indians were here when the pirogue touched the Miami bank, but they proved friendly, and were persuaded to leave in a day or two. The pirogue landed at the head of St. Clair street, Friday, April 1. The following brief entry is the only allusion Benjamin Van VAN CLEVE makes in his “Journal” to this important event in the history of Dayton: “April 1, 1796. Landed at Dayton, after a passage of ten days, William GAHAGAN and myself having come with THOMPSON’S and McCLURE’S families in a large pirogue.”

 

We can easily imagine the loneliness and dreariness of the uninhabited wilderness which confronted these homeless families. There were three women and four children—one an infant in the party. “The unbroken forest was all that welcomed them and the awful stillness of night had no refrain but the howling of the wolves and the wailing of the whippoorwill.”

 

DAYTON BLOCK HOUSE.

 

During the summer of 1799 an Indian war was apprehended, and a large block house was built for defensive purposes. It stood on the Main street bank of the Miami. The threatened attack did not come, and it was never used as a fort, but was converted into a school-house where Benj. VAN CLEVE, the first Dayton schoolmaster, taught the pioneer children.

 

EARLY POSTAL FACILITIES.

 

December 13, 1803, Benjamin VAN CLEVE was appointed postmaster. Probably in the spring of 1804 he opened the office in his cabin on the southeast corner of First and St. Clair streets. He served till his death in 1821. Previous to 1804 the only post-office in the Miami valley, and as far north as Lake Erie, was at Cincinnati, and from 1804 till about 1806 the people to the north of Dayton, as far as Fort Wayne, were obliged to come to our office for their mail. In 1804 Dayton was on the mail route from Cincinnati to Detroit, and the mail was carried by a post-rider, who arrived and left here once in two weeks. But soon after Mr. VAN CLEVE opened the post-office a weekly mail was established. Only one mail a week was received for several years, the route of which was from Cincinnati through Lebanon, Xenia, and Springfield to Urbana; thence to Piqua; thence down the Miami to Dayton, Franklin, Middletown, Hamilton and Cincinnati. A letter from Dayton to Franklin, or any other town on the route, was sent first to Cincinnati and then back and around the circuit to its destination. No stamps were used, but the amount of postage due was written on the outside of the letter. Postage was sometimes prepaid, but oftener collected on delivery. Mr. VAN CELVE frequently inserted notices similar to the following in the newspapers: “The postmaster having been in the habit of giving unlimited credit heretofore, finds it his duty to adhere strictly to the instructions of the postmaster-general. He hopes, therefore, that his friends will not take it amiss when he assures them that no distinction will be made. No letters will be delivered in future without pay, nor papers without the postage being paid quarterly in advance.” Now that postage for all distances is equal and very low, we can hardly realize the burden and inconvenience the high and uncertain postage rates imposed upon the pioneers. Money was very scarce and difficult to obtain; and to pay twenty-five cents in cash for a letter was no easy matter.

 

In 1816 the rates of postage were fixed as follows: Thirty-six miles, six cents; eighty miles, ten cents; over one hundred and fifty miles, eighteen and three-fourth cents; over four hundred miles twenty-five cents. Newspapers anywhere within the State where printed, one cent. Elsewhere, not over one hundred miles, one cent and a half. Magazines at one cent a sheet for fifty miles; one cent and a half for one hundred miles; two cents for over one hundred miles. Pamphlets and magazines were not forwarded when the mail was very large, nor when carried with great expedition on horseback. For a good many years the Eastern mail was brought to Wheeling by post-riders, and thence down the river to Cincinnati in government mail-boats, built like whaling craft, each manned with four oarsmen and a cox-swain, who were often armed. The voyage from Wheeling to Cincinnati occupied six days, and the return trip up stream twelve days.

 

A PIONEER LIBRARY.

 

 

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in 1808 the Dayton Academy was incorporated.

 

NAVIGATION OF THE MIAMI.

 

The Great Miami was navigable both above and below Dayton during the great part of the year for keel boats, which were built like canal boats, only slighter and sharper, as well as for flat boats, till about 1820, when the numerous mill-dams that had by that time been erected, obstructed the channel. From that date till 1829, when the canal was opened, freighting south by water, except what was done in flat boats during floods, was almost abandoned. The boats were often loaded with produce taken in exchange for goods, work, or even for lots and houses, for busi­ness men, instead of having money to deposit in bank or to invest, were frequently obliged to send cargoes of articles received in place of cash South or North for sale. Cherry and walnut logs were sometimes brought down the river on the flat boats. The flat boat-men sold their boats when they arrived at New Orleans, and, buying a horse, returned home by land. The foundations of many fortunes were laid in this way. Flat boats were made of “green oak plank, fastened by wooden pins to a frame of timber, and caulked with tow or any other pliant substance that could be procured,” and were inclosed and roofed with boards. They were only used in descending, streams, and floated with the current. Long, sweeping oars fastened at both ends of the boat, worked by men standing on the deck, were employed to keep it in the channel, and in navigating difficult and dangerous places in the river. The first flat boat was launched in the winter of 1799 near McDonald’s Creek, by David LOWRY. It was loaded in Dayton with grain, pelts and five hundred venison hams, and when the spring freshet raised the river started on the two months’ trip to New Orleans. The voyage was safely accomplished.

 

FISH BASKETS.

 

Fish baskets, of which there is frequent mention in the newspapers of the day, were made by building a dam on the riffles so as to concentrate the water at the middle of the river, where an opening was made into a bog constructed of slats and placed at a lower level than the dam. Into this bog the fish ran, but were unable to return. A basket of this kind remained on the riffle at the foot of First street as late as 1830.

 

Paul D. BUTLER, on the, 21st of August, 1809, gives notice in the Repertory of his intention to navigate the Miami from Dayton to the mouth of Stony Creek as soon as the season will permit, and forewarns all persons obstructing the navigation by erecting fish baskets or any other obstructions, that he is determined to prosecute those who erect them. He and Henry DESBROW soon after proceeded to build two keel boats.

 

They were built during the winter of 1809-1810 in the street in front of the court-house, and when finished were moved on rollers up Main street to the river and launched. They ascended the Miami to the Laramie portage (see Shelby County), which was as far as they could go. Then one of the boats was taken out of the river, and drawn across to the St. Mary’s. For some time this boat made regular trips on the Maumee, and the other on the Miami, the portage between them being about twelve miles across. A freight line which did good business was thus established between Dayton and Lake Erie by way of the Miami, Auglaize and Maumee rivers.

 

During the last week of March, 1819, eight flat boats and one handsome keel boat loaded here, shoved off for the landing for the markets below, and several flat boats loaded with flour, pork and whiskey also passed down the Miami. This year a second line of keel boats was established for carrying grain and produce up the Miami. At Laramie it was transferred, after a portage across the land intervening between the two rivers, to other boats, and transported down the Maumee to the rapids, which was the point of transfer from river boats to lake vessels. At the rapids there was a large warehouse for storage of cargoes.

 

In May, 1819 Daytonians were gratified to see a large keel boat, upwards of seventy feet in length and with twelve tons of merchandise on board, belonging to H. G. PHILLIPS and Messrs. SMITH and EAKER, arrive here from Cincinnati. She was the only keel boat that had for a number of years been brought this far up the Miami, as the river between here and its mouth had been much obstructed. Saturday and Sunday, March 26 and 27, 1825, were unusually exciting days in Dayton among boatmen, millers, distillers, farmers, merchants and teamsters, as a fleet of thirty or more boats that had been embargoed here by b low water left their moorings bound for New Orleans. Rain had begun to fall on Wednesday, and continued till Friday, when the river rose. “The people,” says the Watchman, “flocked to the banks, returning with cheerful countenances, saying, ‘The, boats will get off.’

 

 

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here by the Miami. The neat year freight began to be shipped south by canal. As late as 1836, and perhaps a year later, when the canal was opened to Piqua the line of boats to the north was continued.

 

EARTHQUAKES.

 

A comet was visible in 1811, and this, together with the series of earthquakes throughout the Ohio Valley, which occurred during that and the succeeding year, and neither of which had been experienced before since the settlement of the western country, were regarded with terror by the superstitious, who considered them evil portents, and ominous of private or public misfortune.

 

The first earthquake shocks occurred on the 16th and 17th of December, 1811, and the inhabitants of Dayton were kept in continual alarm by repeated shocks. The first and by far the severest was felt between two and three o’clock in the morning.

 

Other shocks occurred January 23, 1812, again on the 27th, and the last on February 13th, when the motion of the earth was from the southwest.

 

Although no material damage was done by these earthquakes, the people, and animals and fowls as well, were very much alarmed. Persons who experienced it in youth, spoke of it in old age with a shudder of horror.

 

ARRIVAL OF THE FIRST CANAL BOATS.

 

In January 1829, the citizens of Dayton were gratified with the sight, so long desired, of the arrival of canal boats from Cincinnati. At daybreak, Sunday, January 25th, the packet, Governor Brown, the first boat to arrive here from the Ohio, reached the head of the basin. This packet was appropriately named, for since 1819 Governor Brown had been engaged in urging the connection of the two towns by means of a canal. In the afternoon the Forrer arrived, followed at dark by the General Marion, and during the night by the General Pike. Each boat was welcomed by the firing of cannon and the enthusiastic cheers of a crowd of citizens assembled on the margin of the basin.

 

The Governor Brown was henceforth to make regular trips twice a week between Dayton and Cincinnati. It was the only packet fitted up exclusively for passengers, and was very handsomely and conveniently furnished. The master, Captain ARCHIBALD, was very popular and accommodating. The Alpha, which also made regular passages, was commanded by M. F. JONES, of Dayton. A part of the Alpha was prepared for passengers. A fleet of canal boats, the Governor Brown, Forrer, General Marion General Pike, accompanied by the Alpha, with a Dayton party, were to have made the first return trip to Cincinnati in company, but their departure was prevented by a break in the canal at Alexandersville.

 

MINIATURE RAILROAD.

 

In 1830 Stevenson ran the first locomotive in England over the Manchester and Liverpool railroad. The same year a miniature locomotive and cars were exhibited in Dayton in the Methodist church. The fact that council, by resolution, exempted the exhibition from a license fee, and that the Methodist church was used for this purpose illustrates the deep interest felt by the public in the then new and almost untried scheme to transport freight and passengers by steam over roads constructed for the purpose. A track was run n around the interior of the church, and for a small fee parties were carried in the car. A large part of the then citizens of Dayton took their first railroad ride in this way.

 

THE CAPTURE AND SUICIDE OF A FUGITIVE SLAVE.

 

In 1832 a fugitive slave was captured in Dayton and carried off by his master, who lived in Kentucky. The occurrence produced the greatest excitement and indignation in the community. All that was necessary to prove the detestable character of the fugitive slave law was an attempt to enforce it. The following account, from the Dayton Journal, of the affair, by an eye-witness who was not an Abolitionist, though his sympathies were all with this negro, is worthy of insertion in the history of Dayton:

 

 

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nation of the case on some new evidence being produced, he was decided to be the slave of the person claiming him as such. In the meantime a good deal of excitement had been produced among the people of the place, and their sympathies for the poor black fellow were so much awakened that a proposition was made to buy his freedom. The agent of the master agreed to sell him, under the supposition that the master would sell him his liberty, and a considerable sum was subscribed, to which, out of his own savings, the negro contributed upwards of fifty dollars himself. The master, however, when his agent returned to Kentucky, refused to agree to the arrangement, and came himself the week before last to take the negro away. Their first meeting was in the upper story of a house, and Tom, on seeing those who were about to take him, rushed to the window and endeavored, but without success, to dash himself through it, although, had he succeeded, he would have fallen on a stone pavement from a height not less than fifteen feet. He was prevented, however, and the master took him away with him and got him as far as Cincinnati. The following letter, received by a gentleman in this city, gives the concluding account of the matter:

 

POOR TOM IS FREE.

 

CINCINNATI, Jan. 24, 1832.

DEAR SIR:—In compliance with a request of Mr. J. DEINKARD, of Kentucky, I take my pen to inform you of the death of his black man Ben, whom he took in your place a few days ago. The circumstances are as follows: On the evening of the 22d inst., Mr. D. and company, with Ben, arrived in this city on their way to Kentucky, and put up at the Main Street Hotel, where a room on the uppermost story (fourth) of the building was provided for Ben and his guard. All being safe, as they thought, about one o’clock, when they were in a sound sleep, poor Ben, stimulated with even the faint prospect of escape, or perhaps pre-determined on liberty or death, threw himself from the window, which is upwards of fifty feet from the pavement. He was, as you may well suppose severely injured, and the poor fellow died this morning about four o’clock. Mr. D. left this morning with the dead body of his slave, to which he told me he would give decent burial in his own graveyard. Please tell Ben’s wife of these circumstances.

 

Your unknown correspondent,

Respectfully,

R. P. SIMMONS.

 

Tom, or, as he is called in the letter, Ben, was an industrious, steady, saving little fellow, and had laid up a small sum of money; all of which he gave to his wife and child when his master took him away. A poor and humble being, of an unfortunate and degraded race, the same feeling which animated the signers of the Declaration of Independence to pledge life, fortune and honor for liberty, determined him to be free or die.”

 

THE “MORUS MULTICAULIS” MANIA.

 

In 1839 the Dayton Silk Company was incorporated, with a capital of $100,000. The company advertised that they had on hand one hundred and fifty thousand eggs for self distribution to all who would sell to them the cocoons raised from the eggs. They published fifteen thousand copies of a circular, giving all requisite information on the subject silk culture, which were freely distributed. It was proposed to introduce the cultivation of, the variety of white mulberry known as Morus Multicaulis. The leaves of the Morus Multicaulis, unlike those of the other variety, could be used the first year in the rearing of silk-worms. Farmers were advised to turn their attention to this valuable crop, and many of them did so; and the raising of silk-worms became the fashion. The trees sold in the East for from seventy five cents to one dollar and fifty cents apiece, and the demand for them was increasing. The people were assured that one acre had been known to produce as high as seventy-five pounds of silk the first year from the cuttings, and it was believed that fifty pounds could be produced the first year without injury to the trees. This silk company, likea former one, proved a failure.

 

 

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DESCRIPTION OF DAYTON IN 1846.

 

The following sketch of Dayton, in 1846, was supplied for our first edition by Mr. John W. VAN CLEVE, the first-born child of the settlers. A sketch of his life will be found on a few, pages beyond.

 

The thriving city of Dayton is in this county. This is a beautiful town. It is regularly laid out, the streets are of an unusual width, and much taste is displayed in the private residences—many of them are large and are ornamented by fine gardens and shrubbery. The following sketch is from a resident:

 

 

Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846.

VIEW IN DAYTON.

 

[The above view was taken near the corner of First and Ludlow streets. In front is shown the elegant residence of J. D. PHILLIPS, Esq., and the First Presbyterian church; on the left, the cuplola of the new court-hours and the spires of the German Reformed and Second Presybterian churches appear.]

 

 

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Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846.

 

VIEW IN DAYTON.

 

 

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Morris, William NEWCOM and George NEWCOM, the last of whom is still a resident of the place and the only survivor of the whole number.

 

Judge SYMMES was unable to complete his payments for all the lands he had agreed to purchase of the government, and those lying about Dayton reverted to the United States, by which the settlers were left without titles to their lots. Congress, however, passed a pre-emption law, under which those who had contracted for lands with SYMMES and his associates had a right to enter the same lots or lands at government price. Some of the settlers entered their lots, and obtained titles directly from the United States; and others made an arrangement with Daniel C. COOPER to receive their deeds from him, and he entered the residue of the town lands. He had been a surveyor and agent for the first company of proprietors, and they assigned him certain of their rights of pre-emption, by which he became the titular proprietor of the town.

 

Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846.

 

THE COOPER FEMALE ACADEMY.

 

[The Cooper Female Academy in Dayton is a highly flourishing institution in excellent repute, Mr. E. E. BARNEY is the principal, under who are seven assistances and 174 pupils.]

 

 

He died in 1818, leaving two sons, who have both since died without children.

 

In 1803, on the organization of the State government, Montgomery county was established. Dayton was made the seat of justice, at which time only five families resided in the town, the other settlers having gone on to farms in the vicinity or removed to other parts of the country. The increase of the town was gradual until the war of 1812, which made a thoroughfare for the troops and stores on their way to the frontier. Its progress was then more rapid until 1820, when the depression of business put an almost total check to its increase. The commencement of the Miami canal in 1827 renewed its prosperity, and its increase has been steady and rapid ever since. By the assessment of 1846 it is the second city in the State in the amount of taxable property, as the county also stands second. The first canal boat from Cincinnati arrived at Dayton on the 25th of January, 1829, and the first one from Lake Erie on the 24th of June, 1845. In 1825 a weekly line of mail stages was established through Dayton from Cincinnati to Columbus. Two days were occupied in coming from Cincinnati to this place. There are now three daily lines between the two places, and the trip only takes an afternoon.

 

 

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The population of Dayton was 383 in 1810; 1139 in 1820; 2954 in 1830; 6067 in 1840, and 9792 in 1845. There are fifteen churches, of which the Presbyterians, Methodists and Lutherans each have two, and the Episcopalians, Catholics, Baptists, Disciples, Newlights, German Reformed, Albrights, Dunkers and African Baptists have each one. There is a large water power within the bounds of the city, besides a great deal more in the immediate vicinity. A portion of that introduced in the city by a new hydraulic canal is not yet in use, but there are now in operation within the corporate limits two flouring mills, four saw mills, two oil mills, three cotton mills, two woollen factories, two paper mills, five machine shops, one scythe factory, two flooring machines, one last and peg factory, one gun-barrel factory and three iron founderies The public buildings are two market houses, one of which has a city hall over it, an academy, a female academy, three common-school houses and a jail of stone. There are two banks. A court-house is now building of cut stone, the estimated cost of which is $63,000. The architect by whom it was designed is Mr.: Henry DANIELS, now of Cincinnati and the one superintending its construction is Mr. Daniel WAYMIRE. There are nine turnpike roads leading out of Dayton, and connecting it with the country around in every direction. The Miami canal, from Cincinnati to Lake Erie, runs through it.—Old Edition.

 

 

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James A. MARTIN, cashier; Dayton Savings', Louis H. POOCK, president, Ziba CRAWFORD, cashier; Merchants' National, D. E. MEAD, president, A. S. ESTABROOK, cashier; Third National, William P. HUFFMAN, president, Charles E. DRURY, cashier; Winters' National, J. H. WINTERS, president, James C. REBER, cashier.

 

 

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machinery, 167; S. N. Brown & Co., carriage wheels, etc., 20; Hanna Brothers, cigars, 92; F. Cappel, upholstering, 9; A. Cappel, umbrellas, etc., 22; J. G. Doren, printing, 34; The Volks-Zeitung, printing, 16; A. Bretch, tin and sheet-iron work, 10; The Brownell & Co., steam boilers, 120; Terry & Shroyer Tobacco, Co., tobaccos, 27; The Bryce Furnace Co., furnaces, 25; Robert Barnes, cigar boxes, 5; B. L. Bates & Bro., machine job work, 10; Charles Winchet, cornice, etc., 25; Mull & Underwood, candy, 8; Johnson & Watson, blank books, etc., 25; printing Reynolds & Reynolds, printing, 90; Monitor Publishing Co.; newspaper printing, 19; The Grenewig Printing Co., job printing, etc., 30; Turner & Knerr, laundrying, 27; The Herald Publishing Co., daily newspaper, 26; Cotterill, Fenner & Co., tobaccos, 65; G. W. Heathman & Co., crackers, etc., 20; John Klee & Son, ginger ale, etc., 7 ; Beaver & Co., soap, 10; Adam Eckhart, brooms, 10 ; J. W. Johnson, job printing, 16 ; G. Weipert, beer kegs, casks, etc., 12; A. L. Bauman & Bro., crackers, etc., 31; J. L. Baker, carriages, 35; L. 8 M. Woodhull, carriages, 95; The Columbia Bridge Co., iron bridges, 60.—State Report, 1888.

 

Population in 1880, 38,678. School census, 1888, 15,466. W. J. WHITE, school superintendent. Capital invested in industrial establishments, $5,144,450. Value of annual product, $9,520,782.Census, 1890, 61,220.

 

Among the public buildings may be mentioned the Public Library, the Young Men's Christian Association Building, the Court House and Jail, Government Post-office, Firemen's Insurance Building, Odd Fellows' Temple, Widows' Home, Children's Home, St. Elizabeth Hospital, sixteen public school-houses, several of them large, new and embracing every convenience that experience has suggested, and numerous churches, many of them unsurpassed for size and beauty by those of any city of equal population.

 

The PUBLIC LIBRARY and the YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION are worthy of special notice. The library building is located in Cooper Park, which secures abundant light and freedom from noise. As the park is near the centre of the city, access to the library is convenient. In general style of architecture the building is a free treatment of the Southern French gothic or romanesque, built of Dayton limestone, laid in random range work, with Marquette red sandstone trimmings freely used, giving a very rich contrast, assisted largely by red slate for the roof. The building is fire-proof. PETERS & BURNS, of Dayton, are the architects of this fine building. The plan of the interior was obtained from Dr. William F. Poole, of Chicago, who has no superior in the knowledge of library construction and management. The building was erected by the city, and the library is sustained by taxation. All the people of Dayton over ten years of age may have free use of the library, subject only to such restrictions as are necessary for the care and safe keeping of the books. The library numbers 29,310 volumes and 1,188 pamphlets.

 

The Y. M. C. A. building is complete in all its appointments. Beautiful externally, in its interior arrangements every want of such an association seems to be provided for. It is supplied with a reading-room, where the leading papers and magazines may be found, with elegant parlors for social entertainments; with school-rooms where night schools are taught, and where instruction is given in free-hand drawing and modelling; with a large and completely appointed gymnasium; with baths, shower, tub and swimming, and a beautiful hall, seated in opera house style, for meetings and lectures. The large amount of money necessary to accomplish these objects has been promptly and freely given by public-spirited citizens of Dayton.

 

 

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Top Picture

Appleton, Photo., 1891

DAYTON PUBLIC LIBRARY.

 

Bottom Picture

Appleton, Photo., 1891.

 

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