USA > Ohio > Miami County > Troy > Centennial history. Troy, Piqua and Miami county, Ohio > Part 8
USA > Ohio > Miami County > Piqua > Centennial history. Troy, Piqua and Miami county, Ohio > Part 8
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"I remember when the only road from my father's house to Troy was the old Indian trail. We lived south of where the Peters' nursery now is, about two miles south of Troy. When I was about ten years old I recol- lect seeing the men surveying the route for the road now called the Northcutt or Westlake Pike. It was then made a corduroy road, laid with brush and rails to give us a better road to Troy than the old Indian trail, which was only a path running through the woods. This path led from my father's house along the route of the present pike till it reached the point where Henry Wil- son's house stands, then it struck off through the bottom lands now owned by John and Henry Wilson, coming into Troy about the south end of Market Street. Woods all the way, no canal to cross, no hoisting bridges and no locomotive whistles to frighten our ponies. About the only noise we heard along the old corduroy road was the barking of the squirrel, the drumming of the pheas- ant on an old log, or the boot of an owl."
6S
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HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY
The early road leading from Troy to Covington was mud almost all the way. Mr. Thomas says that frequently, when traveling between these two places on horseback, he was compelled to dismount and lead the horse for fear the animal would swamp and tumble him off. He would have to go out in the woods and get on the old logs to keep out of the water. Not infrequently a misstep would throw him into the water, where he would be treated to a first-class ducking. After the first Troy-Covington Road had been given a trial, a few Trojans concluded to build a better one. They constructed a plank-road, but alas! the plank soon rotted in the swampy ground, and gravel was next tried in road building. The last ex- periment proved a success. It was prob- ably the first gravel road in the county. The lack of good roads was a detriment to the settlement of the county. True, neighbors were few and far between those days, but milling had to be done, and this necessity, to some extent, brought about the construction of better roads than the primitive ones. Intercourse between the towns was another inducement to road building, but many years elapsed before the first rude county roads gave way to the magnificent turnpikes which now reach in every direction.
As early as 1806, however, Congress took a hand in road building in Ohio. In that year it passed an act "To regulate the laying out and making a road from Cumberland, in the State of Maryland, to the State of Ohio," and it was this act which enabled Thomas Jefferson to be- come the official father of the National Road. It is interesting to note that this famous thoroughfare passes through a
portion of Miami County. The old Na- tional Road enters Bethel Township at its southeast corner, and after crossing the township in a southeasterly direction, passing through Brandt and Phoneton, crosses the Miami at Tadmor and de- bouches into Montgomery County. This road was to the early West what the Ap- pian Way was to Rome. It was the first great highway from the East to the West, and maintained its prominence until the canal and the steam roads came into vogue.
Since the National Road did much to open up the Miami Valley and its adjacent territory, let us briefly consider some of its history and characteristics. It was conceived in the brain of Albert Gallatin, a Swiss, who came to this country in 1780 and afterward became secretary of the treasury under Jefferson. Gallatin broached his project of a great National highway to many distinguished people, and in 1806 President Jefferson appointed a commission to look into the matter. The National Road, as originally designed, was to cost $7,000,000 and was to reach from the Potomac to the Mississippi. It passed through the states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana aud Illinois and was "one of the most important steps in that movement of National expansion which followed the conquest of the West." Undoubtedly its construction was one of the influences which secured and held the West to the Union, for the population which by the opening of this highway rushed into the Ohio Valley saved the embryonic western states from threatened perils and hastened their settlement and subsequent pros- perity.
Everybody-pioneers, traders, adven-
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HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY
turers-hailed the National Road with de- light. Before the building of the road west the rontes of travel followed the zig- zagging buffalo trails or the winding path- ways of the Indian. These, of course, were not satisfactory. It has been said that the course of the buffalo through Mary- land and Pennsylvania is the most historic route in America, and one of the most fa- mous in the world. The old Braddock Road may be called the genesis of the Na- tional Turnpike. The blazed trees which marked this route for many years pointed out the trail of the unfortunate British general to the battlefield of the Mononga- hela. Washington, however, previous to Braddock's expedition, had blazed a way to the Ohio Valley, and this route, strange to say, afterwards became the marching ground of the British army.
For seventy-five years Braddock's Road answered all the imperative needs of mod- ern travel, though the journey over it at most seasons was a rough experience. Dur- ing the winter the road was practically im- passible. All that was needed to turn the current of innmigration towards the Ohio was a good thoroughfare. Many times was the question asked, "When will it be built?" Not until the nineteenth century was the question answered. It may be said that the creation of Ohio is directly responsible for the building of the Na- tional Road.
On December 30, 1806, the commission- ers appointed by Jefferson to lay out the National Road made their first report. These commissioners were Thomas Moore, of Maryland; Joseph Kerr, of Ohio, and Eli Williams, also of Maryland. After the first report came another, in 1808, and in this it was announced that the contracts
had been made for clearing the surveyed road of brush and trees. Contracts for the first ten miles west of Cumberland were signed in April and May, 1811, and the following year they were completed. In 1817 the road was brought to Union- town, and not long thereafter United States mail coaches were run from Wash- ington, D. C., to Wheeling. The next year it was proposed to open the road to the Ohio River. The cost of the eastern divi- sion of the road staggered many. It ex- ceeded the estimate by $3,000 per mile.
No sooner had the first division of the National Road been completed than travel across the Alleghany Mountains into the Ohio basin began. Hundreds, aye, thou- sands of people, faced westward, looking for homes, and the new highway presented an animated scene. It was not until 1825 that Congress authorized the extension of this great road into the State of Ohio, and this act was greeted with immense enthu- siasm by the western people. Nearer and nearer the National Road was creeping towards Miami County. In 1837 Lieuten- ant Dutton, of the United States Engi- neers, with headquarters at Springfield, ad- vertised for proposals for road building in which he said:
"Notice is hereby given to the proprietors of the land on that part of the National Road lying between Spring- field and the Miami River to remove all fences and other barriers now across the line, a reasonable time being allowed them to secure that portion of their present crops which may lie upon the location of the road."'
As this highway stretched westward, travel over it became tremendous. In a short space of time vehicles of every de- scription from the smallest wagons to the creaking "mountain ships" crowded the new thoroughfare. It was almost blocked with herds of cattle and gaily-painted four
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and six-horse coaches rumbled over its broad bed. Rude taverns sprung into be- ing every few miles, withi gaudily painted signs denoting entertainment for man and beast, and, in short, everywhere along the road the scenes were lively and unceasing.
The National Road was a toll one from the first. The toll takers were appointed by the governor and there were some lively scrambles for the places. All persons "go- ing or returning from worship, muster, common place of business, on farm or woodland, funeral, mill or place of elec- tion, common place of trading within the county in which they resided," were per- mitted to travel free. School children and elergymen were also on the free list. Peo- ple who made lengthy trips over the road had the privilege of paying toll the entire distance and receiving a certificate guar- anteeing free passage to their destination. The gate keepers usually received a salary of $30 per month.
The opening of the National Road, which was the first linking of the West to the East, gave rise to many stage lines which competed with one another for the traffic. These cumbersome vehicles, which disappeared long ago, were marvelous things in their day and were "fearfully and wonderfully made." Many were dec- orated and richly painted, the linings be- ing often silk plush. They usually had three seats inside and could comfortably carry nine passengers. Some were long, unsightly affairs, without springs or braces, and the harness was heavy and un- couth. There were fifteen-inch baekbands, and hipbands of ten inches, and the traces were little less than loads of chains.
Nor were the old stages the only veli- cles that rattled over the National Road
through this county. There were greater ones called "freighters." These were "broad treads," with four-inch tires, and some of the loads they carried were little short of marvelous. One of these freight- ers crossed the mountains in 1835, carry- ing eleven hogsheads of tobacco, or a net weight of ten thousand pounds. As to speed over the new roads, ten miles an hour was considered ordinary. The old way-bills which the drivers received were often inscribed, "Make this time or we will find someone who will." Competition in stage line travel was always at fever heat and the rival drivers had their amuse- ments. They were a jolly set of drivers on the "Old National Road," great lum- bering fellows, yet active as panthers. They "jollied" one another with all sorts of pleasantries, and even the advertisements of the competing lines dropped into humor. Couplets were often conjured up contain- ing some brief story of defeat with a cut- ting sting for the vanquished driver :
"If you take a seat in Stockton 's line You're sure to be passed by Pete Bodine. "
"Said Billy Willis to Pete Bodine: You'd better wait for the oyster line."
These witticisms were always taken in good spirits and were often posted in the taverns, where they caused all manner of amusement.
Fares in the old passenger coaches were not considered extortionate. Two dollars were charged from Columbus to Spring- field, and intermediate points five cents per mile. Mails were carried over the National Road. It took three days and sixteen hours to get the mail from Washington to Columbus, which fact provokes a smile nowadays when the "mail flyers" annihi-
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HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY
late distance and deliver a letter at our doors almost before the ink is dry.
The first old taverns that dotted the road were built of logs, but these, later, gave way to more pretentious ones of wood and stone, with commodious wagon yards and sheds for horses and cattle. They had the most pretentious names, such as "Temple of Juno," "The Sign of the Green Tree," "The Lion and the Eagle," and so on. The signs that swung at the doors creaked in the wind and were often elaborately decorated by the backwoods artist.
"Billy Werden's Tavern," in Spring- field, was well known to the early settlers of this county. There were hilarious times in the celebrated taverns of the National Road, buildings which long ago crumbled away as the traffic of the thoroughfare sought other channels. Whiskey cost a "Flippenny bit" at the old bars and there was no adulteration, as nowadays. In some of the best taverns mulled wine, toddy and cider were dispensed.
Such, in outline, was this famous thor- oughfare of early times. First came the buffalo trail, then the Indian paths, to be followed by the National Road, and later by our splendid system of turnpikes, steam and electric lines. Over the National Road passed some of the most distinguished men our country has ever produced-Jackson, Monroe, Polk, Harrison, Tyler, Clay, Ben- ton and Lafayette. The old stages are. things of the past, and such practiced drivers at Jim Reynolds, Billy Armour, and Davy Gordon have been gathered to their fathers, but the famous pike, though shorn of its pristine glory, still exists, and to-day the farmers of Miami County haul their grain to market over the same thor-
oughfare which in its day was considered, as indeed it was, one of the wonders of the United States. The forests and sparse clearings that fringed its line have become fertile farms or teeming cities. In many places its eighty feet of road bed has been encroached upon by property owners.
An act passed by the Ohio Legislature in 1870 cites that "the proper limits of the road are hereby defined to be a space of eighty feet in width, forty feet on each side of the center of the graded roadway." Notwithstanding this, in some places ten feet of the ground of the National Road has been included within the fences, but since the State does not, or can not, show quit claim deeds for the land, the present holders are not molested.
For years prior to the opening of the National Road, freighting on the Miami was a source of considerable income to many of our people, and became quite an industry. The river was navigable both above and below Dayton during the great- er 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. These 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, or invest, were frequently obliged to send cargoes received in place of cash south or north for sale. Cherry and walnut logs were frequently sent down the Miami on flat boats. The trip to New Orleans was frequently made and the boat was sold in that city, its owner returning on horseback.
As early as 1819, Fielding Loury con- ceived the idea of opening up a river trade with the southern cities. Loury was one
1
WEAVER
TIN-WARE
LOOKING NORTH ON HIGH STREET, COVINGTON
MIAMI RIVER, TROY
M. E. CHURCH AND PARSONAGE, COVINGTON
GREENVILLE CREEK FALLS, NEAR COVINGTON
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of the first settlers of the county. Eager of a region comparatively unknown and to put his plans into effect, he loaded three amid strangers, the little Loury girls were bereft of a good mother and were obliged to see her buried in a rude coffin on the bank of the great river. Loury's trading adventure proved disastrous, for not only had it cost him his wife, but the cargo was spoiled by the aceident in the Miami and he found himself practically a bankrupt. For six months he did not learn of the death of his wife. boats with desirable cargoes for the times. One of these boats was commanded by Capt. Gahagan, a well known citizen of early Troy. It was then a long and peril- ous voyage to New Orleans. There were dangers by river and not a few by land. Some distance below Troy was a place called the "Ninety-nine Islands" where the flat boats were likely to ground. Ill luck would have it that Capt. Gahagan's The late G. Volney Dorsey, of Piqua, has left on record some interesting notes of flat-boating on the Miami, from which I make a few extracts : boat should meet with just such a fate at this spot. When Gahagan was in these straits, the second boat, commanded by Capt. Hunter (it was great to be a boat captain those days), came along, and in trying to avoid the first boat, ran into her, inflieting such damage that she sank quick- ly, with all her cargo. One can imagine the exciting seene thus witnessed by the two captains. Capt. Hamlet's boat, the third one, safely landed. The screams of the women on the first boat and the em- phatie language of the men made up a per- feet Bedlam, but all were rescued, though much of the cargo was lost. It took three days to save that part of the loads taken out, and the whole, thoroughly drenched, had to be spread out on the floors of neigh- boring barns to dry.
Captain Gahagan's unlucky boat was re- paired, after which the voyage was re- sumed. On one of the boats was Mrs. Loury, wife of the owner of the cargoes, with her two young daughters. The voy- age was painfully slow. When the little Miami fleet floated into the broad waters of the Mississippi, Mrs. Loury was taken sick and, despite the care of her com- panions, died. The scene was an unusu- ally sad one. Far from home, in the midst
"After the development of the country about Piqua," says Dr. Dorsey, "when exportation became a necessity in order to get the sight of a little money, flat boats were constructed and loaded with flour, bacon, corn in the ear, cherry lumber, fur- niture and other products. The boats were built at Piqua on the bank of the Miami River, with two parallel gunwales, from sixty to seventy feet in length, and the boat about twelve feet wide. They were built bottom side up, the plank in the bot- tom running crosswise and spiked to the gunwales, with the ends imbedded in a rabbet, cut to the gunwales deeper than the thickness of the boards, so as to se- cure the bottom from catching when float- ing over shoal places.
"Some of the men engaged in this river commerce were Joseph Bennett, a cabinet maker, and one Tinkham, of the same trade, who would ship by this means bed- steads in large quantities, and coast along the Mississippi, retailing out to people along the river whatever was in demand. The risk in navigating the Miami required great skill and presence of mind, espe-
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HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY
cially in passing over mill dams and fol- lowing the channel of the river through the 'Ninety-nine Islands,' as they were called, located a few miles below Troy. The pilot of notoriety was Robert Logan, a very large man, and when in com- mand of one of these boats about to start on its journey, and standing upon the deck disciplining his boatmen to use the oars, lie was looked upon with as much consideration as the greatest admiral who ever commanded a fleet. To see one of these boats pass through the channel of the river at these islands was indeed a most thrilling sight and it required the most consummate skill and quickness of action to wind the unwieldy craft through its tortnous route to a safe passage. After passing into the Ohio, the pilot and other men not wanted to coast were discharged.
"Along the banks of the Mississippi are frequently found eddies, or whirlpools, into which the boat is liable to be drawn, and when once fairly in the circuit it was difficult to cross the circuit and reach the straight current. An anecdote is told of one of these early eddies in the Missis- sippi. On one occasion a green hand was called to watch in the darkness of the night, and shortly after taking his posi- tion on deck the boat, without his observa- tion, was drawn into one of these eddies, opposite to which, on the bank of the river stood a brick church, and the boat con- tinued making a circuit during the whole of his watch. When his turn was up he awoke the man to take his place on deck, and npon being asked how he got along, replied, 'First rate, but it is the darndest place for brick churches I ever saw in my life.'
"In connection with this history of flat- boating," our narrator continues, "it was common for boatmen returning from New Orleans to walk all the way home, passing through the wilderness north of that place and through what was called the Indian Nations, Chactaws and Chickasaws. Jacob Landis and David Hunter, both of whom died at Piqua after a long residence, made this journey on foot. Another fact in con- nection with this primitive commerce was the building of a large kecl-boat by John Chatham on the public square in Piqua, directly west of Orr & Leonard's ware- honse. This boat was built (the hull) and hauled to St. Mary's, the bow resting on the wheels of a wagon, and the stern on sled runners, with eight horses, two teams belonging to James Johnston and John Campbell. It was launched in the St. Mary's River and was used on that stream to freight to Fort Wayne and on the Maumee River. It was about eight feet wide by fifty-five or sixty feet in length."
Flat-boating on the Miami continued for some years. It was attended with a good many risks, but there were those who were willing to take them for the profits prom- ised by the ventures. The journey to New Orleans was considered a long one, as in- deed it was, and the return trip often- times afoot was not without its perils. As the county opened up and other methods of transportation came into vogue, flat- boating was abandoned and eventually dis- appeared. It was superseded by the canal. It is not generally known that George Washington was among the first to advo- cate canal building. He conceived the idea of linking the Ohio with the Potomac by a canal, and for this he received the thanks of the Virginia House of Burgesses.
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The famous Erie Canal, upon which the initiatory work was begun in 1819, was the predecessor of the canal which runs through Miami County. It was opened through to the lake in 1825. During the period of set- tlement in the Northwest, roads, such as we know them now, were quite as little known to the widely separated communi- ties in Ohio as were railroads. With very few exceptions the roads were only widened bridle paths, improved in swampy places by patches of corduroy construc- tion, but well nigh impassable in the spring and fall. Thus, in the absence of roads, overland transportation for trade was im- practicable and productions of any kind were of no value so long as they could not be shipped cheaply to the consumer by water. The need of cheaper communica- tion was keenly realized from the time of the first settlements west of the great bar- rier, the Alleghanies, and most keenly by those situated some distance from any river or stream, and thus cut off from the usual modes of transportation by canoe, flatboat. "keel-boat," or "ark."
The beginning of canal agitation in Ohio, which culminated in the building of the artificial waterway through the coun- ty, was contemporaneous with that in New York state. In 1817 the first resolution relating to Ohio canals was introduced into the State Assembly, and the friends of the project entered actively into the fall cam- paign to elect men pledged to vote for in- ternal improvements, and not without suc- cess. Governor Brown in 1818 referred in his inaugural address to the necessity of providing cheaper ways to the market for the Ohio farmers.
As the years went by interest in the canals increased. In 1830 the question was
debated in Congress when that body was asked to grant goverment lands in Ohio for canal purposes. Not all the states could view this internal improvement in Ohio as one of national interest. In the "great debate" of that year the Senate discussed the value of a canal in Ohio to the nation. Webster in his famous reply to Hayne declared "this very question, What interest has South Carolina in a canal in Ohio ? is full of significance." This discussion took place nineteen months after Congress had granted the lands to aid the Ohio and Indiana canals, a fact which shows the continued interest of the nation.
In 1831 the Miami and Erie Canal was completed to Dayton, which place remained as the head of navigation six years, when the canal was completed to Piqua. This afforded cheap transportation to Cincin- nati. It was found to be the very thing the people needed and they were not slow to take advantage of it. The cost of the Miami and Erie Canal-250 miles, and 32 miles of feeders-was $6,762,458.00-a large sum-but the benefits arising from this waterway have been incalculable.
It was not until after the completion of the reservoirs or feeders that the canal entered upon the era of its greatest pros- perity. For many years it was the means of transportation and travel. At every loek there was always a string of boats above and below, patiently waiting their turns to reach the other level. The sono- rons and far reaching blast of the boat horns and the "Lo-o-ow bridge" calls echoed continually from the river to the lake. Hundreds of sixty- and eighty-ton boats plied up and down between all points, while regular passenger packets, accom-
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HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY
modating forty to sixty passengers, con- nected with the stage and steamboat lines. Not being affected by the bad roads, bad weather or breakdowns of the old stage, nor by the wind, high or low water of the steamboats, the canal packets were seldom delayed.
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