USA > Ohio > Butler County > Hamilton in Butler County > The centennial anniversary of the city of Hamilton, Ohio, September 17-19, 1891 > Part 1
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M. Le
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
GEN
L
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02279 2755
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016
https://archive.org/details/centennialannive00mccl 0
٢
SOUTH
NORTH
-
GRAVE YARD
SOUTH PART WAS
& STORE ROOMS
11 STABLES 1. ARTIFICERS SHOPS 13 WELL. 14 GREAT MIAMI RIVER
VOI BUTLERS STARES 2 BLOCK HOUSES IN WHICH WAS A CANNON N'a MAGAZINE BLOCK HOUSES S. MENS QUARTERS
7 OFFICERS MEES ROOM 'S QUARTERS OFFICERS KITCHEN ID ENTRANCE GATE
NORTH PAMI WAS ERECRE BY GEN ANTHONY WAYNE IN 1793
FORT HAMILTON
TY91 & 93
APPEARED IN
1791
1891
THE
CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY
OF THE CITY OF
HAMILTON, OHIO.
SEPTEMBER 17-19, 1891.
EDITED BY COL D. W. MOCLUNG.
UNDER DIRECTION OF
ISRAEL WILLLIAMS,
REV. E. W. ABBEY,
JOHN F. NEILAN, PUBLISHING COMMITTEE.
977.102 H18m
1892 HAMILTON, OHIO.
Press of The Lawrence Printing and Publishing Co., 117, 119 and 121 W. Fifth Street, Cincinnati, Ohio.
PREFACE.
1146121
T HIS volume is issued in response to a very general desire of the resi- dents of Hamilton who witnessed, and many of whom participated in the exercises of the Centennial Celebration.
Considerable delay has been experienced owing to failure on the part of some persons to prepare the papers they had engaged to write, and also on account of changes made necessary in the method of preparing the artistic Owork.
50 -
1
In addition to the anniversary exercises in connection with the Centen- nial Settlement of Hamilton, the volume contains a full and complete de- scription of all the leading Manufactories, School Houses, Churches and Pub- lic Buildings, and also much interesting and valuable information concerning the early history of the Northwestern Territory and of the habits of the pioneers of the Great Miami Valley. The Committee in charge of the pub- lication acknowledges itself indebted to the several gentlemen who delivered addresses on the occasion for copies thereof, kindly furnished the Committee, also to the persons who prepared papers on the topics assigned them; and as well to the many other persons who have in various ways generously rendered important aid in the preparation of this volume.
It is thought that the many illustrations will, in a measure, aid to make the volume attractive to our people.
While literary excellence is not claimed for it, the hope is entertained that its perusal will serve to pleasantly while away an occasional hour ; and that it may be of some value to the future historian, for the facts collected and presented, and which, but for this publication might be lost to memory.
THI NONPAREIL ENG. CO.
BIRDS EVE VIEW OF HAMILTON
Errata === Explanatory.
T HE firm with which the Committee contracted for the printing and bind- ing of this volume became financially embarrassed, and passed into the hands of an assignee after a considerable part of the work had been done. The assignee undertook to complete the book according to the contract, but was wholly unacquainted with the book-printing business. After he had mutilated and incorrectly printed the main portion of it, the Com- mittee took the whole matter from him and placed it in the hands of BROWN & WHITAKER, printers and binders, of Hamilton, for completion, four pages in front and the last sixteen pages and the binding being their work. To rectify the many errors would require complete reprinting and stereo- typing at an expense beyond our reach.
This statement, the Committee trusts, will be accepted by the reader as a sufficient excuse for the many errors in the book, and for what- ever differences may be observable in its make-up. Greatly regretting that the volume must be sent out in its present form, the Committee never- theless hope that it will fulfill the object of its publication, as an inter- esting and valuable Souvenir of the city of Hamilton.
DALIATT, CAMDENO
DICKINSON PHOTO
COL. D. W. McCLUNG.
Contents.
PAGE.
Introduction-Historical-J. F. NEILAN 13
Centennial Committee Organization 23
The Carr & Brown Co. 261
Township Auxiliary Committees 27
The Mosler Safe & Lock Co 262
Thursday, September 17th, program 27
Friday, 66 18th, 66
29
Saturday, I9th, 66
29
Fire Works-program of display 39
Opening Address-THOMAS MILLIKIN 77
Hamilton 1791-1891-Address, L. M. LARSH .
85
The Miami Valley 1791-1891-Address, SAMUEL F. HUNT.
87
The State of Ohio 1791 -- 1891-Address, JAMES E. CAMPBELL. 99
The United States 1791- 1891-Address, W. O. THOMPSON 103
The World 1791-1891-Address, SAM'L F. CARY ..... III
The Future-Address, E. W. ABBEY. 123
Oration of the Day-JOSEPH COx. I35
Hamilton-Its Municipality-Paper, L. M. LARSH. 165
Hamilton-Its Churches-Paper, CYRUS FALCONER I71
Hamilton-Its Schools. 195
Miami University . . 201
Hamilton -- Its Courts 207
66 -In Literature. 217
66 - In the Wars-H. L. MOREY 221
66 -Statesmanship. 229
66 -Its Communications 233
66 -Business Other than Manu- -
Schlosser & Co. 299
Gwinner, Dowrey & Co 300
Anderson & Shaffer. 300
Semler & Co. 301
The Hamilton Tile Works Co 302
Krauth & Benninghofen 303
Frank Schantz. 304
J. Jacob Bronnert . 305
Letter of Alfred J. Anderson, Esq . 317
6. George I .. Andrew, Esq. 319
Judge Byron K. Elliott 315
66 John S. Hittell, Esq. 320
66 Theodore H. Hittell, Esq 322
W. D. Howells, Esq. 318
The J. A. Sommers Manf. Co. 256
Berk Kingery & Co .. 256
The Hamilton Corliss Engine Works. 257
Col. D. W. McClung 6
Hon. Mark C. McMaken 50
Gen'l Samuel F. Cary 20 & IIO
Hon. John Wm Sohn. 312
Judge Joseph Cox . I34
General Arthur St. Clair. 14 Dr. Cyrus Falconer 308
Rev. W. O. Thompson D. D. 102
Judge Samuel F. Hunt 86
General F. VanDerveer 18.
Hon. Clark Lane 48
General Anthony Wayne 16.
Hon. James Mc Bride.
24 Ilon. John Woods 22
PORTRAITS.
Governor James E. Campbell 90
Col. Lewis D. Campbell. 26
Black & Clawson Co 246 L. Deinzer & Son. 248
The Niles Tool Works Co 249
P. Burns & Co .. 252
Joseph Schumaker & Co 253
National Car Seal Co 253
J. H. Stephan & Son. 254 N. L. Dorris . 254
The Sortman & Blum Co .. 255
66 Mrs. Mary Ann Keck. 314
66 Rev. J. G. Monfort 317
66 Mrs. Laura B. Palmer 307
The Cincinnati Brewing Co. 267
H. P. Deuscher & Co. 268
John Donges & Co. 269 The Hamilton Buggy Co. 269
The Sohn & Rentschler Co 270 The Bentel & Margedant Co 272
The Beckett Paper Co. 275
The Columbia Carriage Co. 276
The H. P. Deuscher Co .. 277
George F. Hutchinson & Co 278
The Fisher Ice Tool Co. 279
D. M. Stevenson 279
Shuler & Benninghofen. 281
The Hughes Manufacturing Co 283
The Bess Machine Co. 284
The Long & Allstatter Co .. 287
The Albert Fischer Manf. Co 289
The Sohngen & Brown Co 289
The Hamilton Foundry & Machine Co .. 291
The Advance Manf. Co. 291 The Gordon Steam Pump Co. 292
The Macneale & Urban Safe & Lock Co. 293
The Phenix Caster Co. 296
The Hamilton Autographic Reg. Co. 297
The Louis Snider Sons Co. . 298
The Sohngen Malting Co 299
factures-P. G. BERRY ... 235
66 -Its Manufactures - JAMES W. SEE
241
Water Power.
245
F. & L. Kahn & Bros 259
PAGE.
The Ritchie & Dyer Co .. 265
The Hamilton Malting Co 265
Contents .- Con.
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE.
PAGE·
Fort Hamilton, facing title page.
Birds' Eye View of Hamilton II
Circus parade 73
Scene in Centennial Parade 66 80
78
Third
198
Fourth
66
200
First County Building 82
88
Western Female College. 203
Scene on Reservoir .
90
Street Scene at Centennial Parade.
Reily Block 94
View from top of Court House. 96
Main Street looking east
100
County Infirmary 104
High Street looking west. 106
Lake and Reflection, Greenwood Cem't'y 108
City View from Court House Tower. II2
Sectional View Fair Ground. II4
View in Greenwood Cemetery 220
Miami University Library 228
Oxford Female College 230
C. H. & D. R. R. Station . 234
P. C. C. & St. L. R. R. Station 236
Entrance Greenwood Cemetery I26
Scene on the Miami and Erie Canal. 238
Black & Clawson Co.'s Shops 246
The Niles Tool Works 66
250
Children's Home I32
Scene Greenwood Cemetery I36
Entrance to Fair Ground I38
City View from Court House Top 140
Lane Free Library . I44
Present Site of Old Fort Hamilton 148
Ross Street looking West. 152
G. A. R. Lot, Greenwood Cemetery 164
St. Mary's Church and School 172
St. Joseph's Church. I76
St. Stephen's Church 316
Church of Christ. 177
Presbyterian Church 180
·Old church Subscription List 66
183
184
66
185
66
186
St. John's Church
192
CENTENNIAL COMMITTEE.
Rev. E. W. Abbey I22
Capt. Wm. C. Margedant. 62
Prof. F. C. Mayer 60
Dr. Samuel L. Beeler 32
Robert C. Mckinney 56
Capt. F. D. Bristley 64
Thomas Millikin 76
W. B. Carr. 28
John F. Neilan. 12
Henry P. Deuscher 52
Christian Pabst. 36
Robert M. Elliott.
44
Joseph J. Pater 58
George T. Reiss 70
Max Reutti
72
Thomas V. Howell 68
George W. Stace
30
Lazard Kahn. 66
Peter Schwab 38
Charles I. Keely
54
James W. See 240
Dr. W. Z. Kumler 42
Rev. Francis F. Varelman 74
L. M. Larsh 84 Israel Williams 232
The Sortman & Blum Co. Shops 255
F. & L. Kahn & Bros. 259
The Carr & Brown Co.'s Mills. 261
The Mosler Safe & Lock Co.'s Shops 262
The Ritchie & Dyer Co.'s Shops. 264
The Cincinnati Brewing Co.'s Brewery . . 266
H. P. Deuscher & Co.'s Malt House ... 268
The Bentel & Margedant Co.'s Shops 272
The Beckett Paper Co.'s Mills. 274
The H. P. Deuscher Co.'s Shops 277
Shuler & Benninghofen's Woolen Mills .. 280 The Hughes Manufacturing Co.'s Shops 282 The Long & Allstatter Co.'s 286
The Hamilton Foundry & Mach. Co.'s " 290
The Macneale & Urban Safe & Lock Co.'s shops. 294
Semler & Co.'s Mills 301
Lake and Ice House 213
Daily News Building . 214
Daily Democrat Building 216
Miami University, new building 219
Campbell Avenue Park .. II6
Dayton Street looking east 118
Sutherland Park. I 20
Suspension Bridge looking west I24
92
Fifth Ward School. 204
Central High School 205
New Court House 206
Former Court House and officers 208
Miami University Dormitory 210
Miami University 202
Old Torrence Tavern
Avenue Greenwood Cemetery 193 First Ward School 194
Second
196
William C. Frechtling. 46
Henry C. Gray
34
Robert Allstatter 40
City Water and Gas Works Buildings I28
Ludlow Park. 130
PART I.
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
-
-AND-
Description of Centennial Celebration.
HAMILTON, OHIO.
JOHN F. NEILAN.
3 1833 02279 2755
Historical Introduction.
BY JOHN F. NEILAN.
HE defeat of the Indians by General Wayne in 1794, may truth- fully be said to be one of the most important battles ever fought on American soil. Had he suffered such a defeat as did General St. Clair three years before, the consequences might, and doubtless would, have changed the map and the entire subsequent history of this country. All that magnifi- cent territory, now embraced in the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan would, probably be now a portion of the Dominion of Canada, and the United States would be confined to the Atlantic seaboard and south of the Ohio river.
Such a result of that battle, following the crushing defeat of St. Clair, so short a time before, would have united all the Indian tribes from the Lakes to the Gulf, would have rendered their English advisers and aiders more open and arrogant in their encroachments upon American rights, and would, finally have resulted in placing the Indians and this whole territory under the protection of the English government.
Such were the plans and the hopes of those persons in the pay of Great Britain, who were inciting the Indians to their deeds of savage warfare. Had these plans succeeded, there would have been no city of Hamilton, no Centennial Celebration and this introduction to the Souvenir Volume, which commemorates one of the most gorgeous, patriotic and successful civic and industrial displays ever presented to the American people, would not have been written.
The events that lead to the building of Fort Hamilton by General St. Clair in September 1791, his subsequent defeat that year, and the great victory of General Wayne three years later, are of sufficient historic interest to bear repeating here. They can not be too often told, nor too firmly im- pressed upon the minds and hearts of we, their descendants.
To understand them fully it is necessary to review the condition of the country prior to, and during the war of Independence.
While France maintained her power in North America, the Indians were divided in their allegiance between that country and England, or the British
GEN. ARTHUR ST. CLAIR.
15
THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O.
Colonies, which represented her in this country.
The fall of Quebec forever extinguished French power and influence in Canada, and left the British authorities free to control and influence the In- dians. How well they succeeded is told in the awful burnings, scalpings and massacres of the Revolutionary war. It is a record that shocked the civilized world, made the horrors of war more barbarous and cruel than was ever be- fore known to the civilized nations, and drew from Lord Chatham that fierce and eloquent denunciation, in the British House of Lords, famed where- ever the English language is spoken.
The treaty of peace in 1783 by which our independence was secured and acknowledged by Great Britain, and the nations of Continental Europe, left the country exhausted and impoverished by the long and unequal struggle. Good faith on the part of England demanded that her garrisons, occupying the various posts on American soil, should surrender them to our government. But with that duplicity and utter disregard for treaty rights and treaty stipulations which has frequently characterized Europ an states- manship, she refused to give up many of those forts until years afterwards, and until General Wayne forever destroyed the Indian, and I may add, English power in the Northwest Territory, by his decisive victory, Prior to that time our government was too weak to enforce its rights as secured by that treaty, and compel the removal of these British garrisons from American territory.
Among the most important of those garrisons, and the one from which all the British emissaries received their supplies and orders for the Indians, was Detroit, which was not surrendered to our government unti: 1795, twelve years after the treaty of peace which terminated the Revolutionary struggle. Many others of lesser importance stretched along the Great Lakes to Machinac Island the fort on which commanded the entrance to Lake Superior and all the vast regions adjoining it.
From these garrisons went forth British traders and emissaries in the pay of the government, furnished with all kinds of Indian supplies to tempt Indian cupidity and excite Indian cruelty and savagery upon American frontiersmen and their families, and resist the authority of our government, in direct violation of the treaty of peace between our country and theirs. These agents left nothing undone to excite the savages to murder and slaughter; and even when the savages themselves seemed about to tire of their merciless deviltry, they were urged to continue by these, worse than Indian barbarians.
Inflamatory speeches and lying statements were made to the Indians to excite them against the Americans, and they were particularly urged to in- sist upon the Ohio river as the south boundary line of what they called the "Indian country." They were urged to claim all that territory now embraced in the four great states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan, and to
-
-
GEN. ANTHONY WAYNE.
17
THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O.
place themselves and that country under the protection of the king of Eng- land, their Great Father, whom they were taught to look to as their friend and the only one who was capable of protecting them and doing them jus- tice.
It may be remarked here that the loss of the American colonies was the greatest, the severest blow to British power it ever received, and one which it hoped to retrieve. The treaty which made the United States a free and independent nation was signed by king George III, with the greatest reluc- tance ; and English statesmen secretly cherished the hope that it would be but a short time until they could find an excuse to renew the conflict and finally triumph over the young Republic. This will explain to a great de- gree, the conduct of the British government and its representatives in this country.
But the sweeping victory of Wayne in the presence of some of those same officers and English agents, many of whom it is said, participated in that battle, showed them that the young and vigorous Nation was not to be trifled with ; and whatever hope they may have entertained of the unity and further resistance of the Indian tribes, was shattered to pieces by this victory.
Our government was very reluctant to engage in this war, owing to its impoverished financial condition, resulting from the war of the Revolution, from which it had not yet recovered. It sought by every honorable means to avoid it, and the Secretary of War writes to Colonel Harmer to that effect in 1786. He says : "An Indian war, disagreeable at all times, would be peculiarly distressing in the present embarassed state of the public finances, and to avoid it if possible.
In the same letter he writes: "The emissaries who are stimulated by British officers or agents, will be industrious to urge the Indians to open hostilities ; it will be your duty to counteract them."
Our government sought by every honorable means to avoid a war with the indians. It called a council in the fall of 1785 to meet at the mouth of the Great Miami River, near where Lawrenceburg, Indiana now stands, and appointed commissioners to meet and treat with the Indians. The English agents called a council of Indians to meet at the same time near the present town of Bellefontaine, in Logan County, Ohio, to prevent their attendance at the council appointed by our government ; and so powerful were the in- fluences of the British agents, backed by vast presents to the Indians, that but one tribe, the Shawanese, subscribed to the treaty, and through the same influence, this tribe went on the warpath against the Americans within six months after they had agreed to the treaty with the United States commis- sioners at the mouth of the Great Miami.
In the fall of 1783, shortly after the treaty of peace with Great Britain was signed and with a full knowledge of that treaty, Sir John Johnson, British Superintendent, General of Indian affairs, assembled all the western
GEN. F. VANDEVEER.
19
THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O.
tribes in council at Sandusky; when he made a powerful appeal to them to stand up for their rights against the Americans ; urged them to take up the hatchet again rather than yield to the Americans.
In June 1785 he called another general council of all Indians he could prevail upon to attend at Niagara, for the same purpose, and to prevent them attending the council at the mouth of the Great Miami which had been called by our government. The council held at Bellefontaine was after the Niagara council and was called, no doubt, with the full concurrence of Sir John Johnson.
Through these influences, as before stated, but one tribe consented to the treaty of Fort Finney, as it is known in history ; while the Delawares, Wyandots, Mingoes, Cherokees, Pottowottamies, Kickapoos and fox nations were kept away. The most active agents in all these councils on the part of Britain were Captain Mc'Kee, deputy Indian commissioner; Major Elliott, an officer in the British army and the notorious renegade, Simon Girty. These men traveled from tribe to tribe, exciting the Indians to frenzy by their infamous lying statements, and securing the favorable attention of those poor creatures, by their lavish presents of war material and promises of aid and assistance.
Such was the continuous state of affairs, almost without interruption, from 1783 until the defeat of St. Clair. It may well be imagined how that fearful disaster inflamed the Indians and encouraged their English allies. During all this time the pioneers of this vast and magnificent territory, were slowly but surely pressing westward, to be met at every advance by the savage Indians and their bloody tomahawk and scalping knife, encouraged to their deeds of murder, burnings and rapine by their no less inhuman abet- tors. Various raids were made by the Indians on the white settlements along the Ohio, both in Virginia and Kentucky. In 1791 a band of about three hundred Indians under the lead of Simon Girty passed down the Great Miami river and attacked Dunlap's Station which was erected on the east side of the river, a short distance south of the covered bridge, near the present village of Venice, in Butler County. Four men had been out exploring land on the west side of the river, in what is now Ross township, Butler County.
They were attacked by the Indians ; one was captured, one killed, the other two escaped, one badly wounded. The attack on the Station was re- pulsed, after a siege of nearly two days and after re-enforcements arrived from Fort Washington. Poor Abner Hunt, the captured man, was tied to a sapling about which the Indians built a fire and roasted him to death, in full view and hearing of the garrison who were unable to render him any assist- ance. It was one of the most cruel of the many cruel acts of the savage In- dians, and, with other similar acts of the Indians finally aroused the govern- ment to the necessity of punishing these perpetrators of such savagery.
The territory embraced within the present state of Ohio was regarded
GEN. SAMUEL F. CARY.
I
21
THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O.
by the Indians as the most beautiful and bountiful land they possessed, par ticularly all that portion drained by the Great Miami river and its tributaries. At the site of the present city of Piqua was a large and populous Indian vil- lage, called Picklawinny ; while surrounding it in every direction, along the Sciota, the Maumee, the Muskingum and other streams, was a dense Indian population, extending to and along the Wabash, St. Joseph and other streams in the present state of Indiana. All this was the paradsie of the Indian hunter ; to the villages in this territory he returned from his hunting expidi- tions and forays on the white settlements. To these villages many a poor white prisoner was carried to be tortured at the stake for the gratification of his savage captors. The Great Miami river was one of the most usually adopted highways for the Indian raids into Kentucky and the settlements along its banks.
At this date, 1791, Ohio was a vast wilderness. There was a settlement at Marietta on the Ohio river ; one at Columbia, above Fort Washington which stood where Cincinnati now is built and which was the seat of the Federal army in the Northwest Territory; Dunlap's Station on the Great Miami river, about seventeen miles above the Fort and Covalt's Station about twelve miles up the Little Miami river.
After the attack upon Dunlap's Station, the government determined to punish the Indians for this and other savage raids upon the border settle- ments. General Arthur St. Clair was directed to command the expedition, and the army was ordered to concentrate at Fort Washington.
The spring and summer were occupied in preparation, which was at- tended with all the delays incident to the natural obstacles of the country, through which the army was to operate, and, to the financial embarassment of the government ; so that it was not until September that the command was ready to take up its line of march toward the Indian villages about the headwaters of the Great Miami river. About the 16th of that month the army reached the site of the present city of Hamilton.
There it was determined to erect a fort to be used as a base of operations nearer the scene of the expected conflict. The fort was laid out and building began upon it on the 17th, and it was finished on or about the last day of September, or the first day of October.
It was named Fort Hamilton, after Alexander Hamilton, then Secretary of the Treasury of the United States.
Such was the beginning, and such were the events that lead to the founding of the city of Hamilton, on the banks of the Great Miami.
From that beginning it has grown until now it is a city of over 20,000 people, as enlightened prosperous and intellectual as can be found on the globe. It contains as many of the elements of progress and enlightened civilization, with all that tends to embellish and refine human existence as any city in the United States. It has splendid public buildings, first-class
HON. JOHN WOODS.
23
THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O.
educational facilities and public improvements ; varied and extensive manu- factures second to none anywhere ; splendid churches of various denomina- tions, the members of each of which concede to all others what they ask for themselves, namely ; freedom to worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience. This people are not unmindful of the struggle of their forefathers to establish the free government under which we live and the freedom we enjoy. To honor their memory, to educate our children to do likewise and to renew the patriotism and love of country which is the sacred duty of all good citizens, it was determined to celebrate the centennial anniversary of the founding of the city of Hamilton, in a manner worthy of its founders, of the pioneers who reclaimed this country from the wilderness and the savage, and worthy of the great Republic of the West, an important part of which is the Great Miami valley which was the scene of the principal events that lead to the founding of our beautiful city.
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