USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Dayton > Early Dayton; with important facts and incidents from the founding of the city of Dayton, Ohio, to the hundredth anniversary, 1796-1896, > Part 10
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sign which, after the War of 1812, hung in a square frame from a tall post on the edge of the sidewalk, was painted a portrait of Commodore Lawrence, and a scroll bearing the words, "Don't give up the ship." The original small sign of the tavern, "Reid's Inn," hung below the larger one. Mr. Samuel Forrer, who staid at the inn in 1818, when he spent some time here, not then having become a permanent resident, "enjoying the hospitalities of the place, and the pleasures derived from the manly sports of those times," describes Colonel Reid as " a good man and excel- lent landlord." To Colonel Reid's very competent and energetic wife was, of course, due the bountiful, well-cooked meals and comfortable beds of Reid's Inn.
On the 18th of September, 1808, William McClure and George Smith began to edit and publish the second Dayton newspaper, the Repertory. It contained four pages of two columns each, was eight by twelve and one-half inches in size, and printed with old-fashioned type on a second-hand press. When five numbers had appeared, it was suspended till 1809, when Henry Disbrow and William McClure revived it as a twelve-by-twenty-inch sheet. It was published on Second Street, between Main and Jefferson streets, till 1810, when it ceased to exist. It was principally filled with foreign news several months old, but some local items can be gleaned from the file in the Public Library. Paul D. Butler advertises his "large and commodious house for sale ; will answer for almost any business; good well and pump at the door, frame stable." Henry Disbrow offers a house and two lots, agreeing to take in payment "such produce as will suit the Orleans market," instead of cash, describing the property as "an elegant two-story frame house [not all the houses were log at this date ], forty-five feet front and twenty-four feet back ; a good kitchen adjoining ; good well of water at the door ; good nail factory and stable ; situation good for either tavern or store; post-and-rail fence." Advertisements are inserted by John Compton, H. G. Phillips, and Steele & Peirce, merchants ; John Dodson, carpenter ; John Hanna, weaving establishment, south end of Main Street; John Strain & Co., nail factory ; James Beck, blue-dying establishment; David Steele, cooper-shop, First Street, near St. Clair ; Thomas Nutt, tailor; Matthew Patton, cabinet-maker. The advertisement of Mr. Patton is found in every number of the paper, showing that he had something of the modern enterprise in this respect. He served as first corporal
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in Captain Steele's company in 1812. He lived to an old age in Dayton and was highly respected and esteemed. He was the father of Captain William Patton, and has several grandchildren.
One of the earliest settlers and business men was Abram Darst, who came here from Virginia in 1805. "He was a man of sterling integrity, highly esteemed by the community, and occupied many positions of trust and usefulness. Mr. Darst died in 1865, aged eighty-three. His wife lived to be ninety-five, dying in 1882. She was a remarkable character, a typical pioneer woman, full of energy, and gifted with the faculty of taking excellent care of a large household, and at the same time assist- ing her husband in his business, as was the almost universal custom in that day." Life here was very much what it is at the present day among educated people in many a far Western set- tlement, who have gone west to make their fortunes. American women, when there is need of special effort, always prove that their sex in America has not degenerated during the past one hundred years. Many a lesson of cheerfulness, patience, indus- try, and thrift might be learned from the laborious, but contented, and, in the end, prosperous lives of the wives of the founders of Dayton. One of our wealthiest old merchants attributed his success largely to the assistance of his wife, brought up in a fashionable circle in an Eastern city. What was true of her was true of many others. When Robert Edgar was absent in the army during the War of 1812, his wife remained alone with her family in her lonely cabin, on the site of the Water Works, not only doing all the work of her household herself, but taking charge of the farm, so that when her husband returned things were not much less prosperous with them than when he left. But think of the burden of responsibility, labor, and anxiety that Mrs. Edgar and other wives of soldiers of 1812 bore in that dark era. Mr. and Mrs. Darst had ten children, of whom Miss Phebe and Mr. John W. Darst alone survive. Julia married James Perrine ; Christina, W. B. Dix; Mary, Jacob Wilt; Sarah, W. C. Davis ; Martha, George M. Dixon; and Napoleon B., Susannah, daughter of Valentine Winters, so that Abram Darst has many descendants in Dayton. We can only mention A. D. Wilt, Charles W., Fred T., Johnson P., Samuel B., and Rolla Darst, Mrs. Edward Fuller, Mrs. Joseph E. Bimm, Miss Fanny and Miss Mary Dixon, Mrs. George W. Shaw, Mrs. E. E. Barney, Miss Martha Perrine, who are grandchildren.
CHAPTER VI
1809-1812
WILLIAM EAKER-George W. Smith-Roads-Journeys to the East-Goods Brought by Conestoga Wagons and Broadhorns to Ohio -Packhorses Moving Up Main Street-Groceries from New Orleans by Keel-Boats-A Voyage from New Orleans Described -Country Stores-Drinking Customs - Flatboating South-Excitement When the Fleets of Boats Left Dayton - Arrival of a Large Keel-Boat-Fourth of July from 1809 to 1840-The First Drug-Store-Indians and Wild Animals Both Troublesome-Re- wards for Wolf-Scalps-New Sidewalks and Ditches or Gutters-Ohio Centinel-Earthquakes- William Huffman -Ohio Militia Encamped at Dayton-Business Beginning of 1812-Horatio G. Phillips-J. D. Phillips -Obadiah B. Conover.
No Two Daytonians were ever more useful and prominent than William Eaker and George W. Smith. For a time they were in partnership. Mr. Eaker came here from Carlisle, Pennsylvania, at a very early day. He opened a store on Main Street in 18II, removing later to old Market or Second Street, where he continued in business till his death in 1848, making a large fortune. He was a stockholder and director in the first Dayton bank, founded in 1813, and remained a director till the bank ceased business in 1843. His store was very popular with cus- tomers, and he was indeed a general favorite in business and social circles, and noted for kind deeds. Probity, integrity, and goodness of heart were traits of character continually manifested by him during the course of his long residence here, and gained him the esteem and confidence of all. He was a stanch friend to all young men just entering business, as at the time of his death many prominent merchants and manufacturers were ready to testify. He was always a generous supporter of efforts to improve the town. He gave liberally to churches and charitable institutions. "At the outbreak of the Mexican War, he was one of the committee of citizens who pledged themselves to look after the families of volunteers, and to care for them in case the soldiers did not return. In every case these pledges were sacredly kept." In 1817 he married Letitia Lowry, who survived him
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thirty-four years. She was born in what is now a part of Spring- field, Ohio, in 1799. Her father, Archibald Lowry, was the son of David Lowry, of Donnel's Creek, who came to the site of Dayton with the surveying party in 1795. He is mentioned in an earlier chapter as the first to send a flatboat south from Day- ton, in 1799. Mr. and Mrs. Eaker are represented in Dayton by their only daughter, Miss Belle Eaker. The three sons-Frank, Charles, and William Eaker-are deceased.
George W. Smith, a native of England, came to Dayton from Virginia in 1804, and lived here till his death in 1841, at the age of fifty-seven. After dissolving partnership with Mr. Eaker, he was in business with Robert A. Edgar, and later with his son George. As he was a merchant, he was of course engaged in flatboating to the south. He built, near what is now known as Harries Station, extensive flouring-mills, a distillery, and houses for his workmen, calling the place Smithville. He was a man of wealth, and left a large estate. His first wife was a Miss Todd. Their two children died young. He married, second, Eliza Manning, and they had five children: James Manning,- lately deceased, leaving one daughter, Miss Lida Smith,-married Miss Caroline Shoup; George W .; Sophia, married Isaac H. Kiersteid; Louisa, married Captain Fletcher, U. S. A .; Ann, deceased, married W. G. Sheeley.
Roads, narrow, muddy, or cut up into deep ruts, were now opened to Piqua, New Lexington, Salem, Greenville, Xenia, Germantown, Lebanon, Franklin, and Miamisburg. Two years later a bridle-path was cut to Vincennes, two hundred miles distant. The State Road, known as the "Old Corduroy Road," which ran east and west through town, was built the same year. This was a road only in name, being almost impassable in wet weather. Mud-holes and low places were filled with poles, which floated, and through which the horses' feet would sink. Travelers were delayed for hours by such mishaps. In 1812 three roads used by the army were kept in tolerable condition. With this exception, till 1839 roads were either so muddy or so rough that it was difficult to drive or ride over them. Roads were poor even in more thickly settled regions. The journeys of our Dayton merchants to Philadelphia to buy goods, and of their wives to the old homes in the East, were made on horse- back, with clothes packed in saddlebags, and babies carried in a net swung around the father's neck, and resting on the pommel
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of his saddle. The bridgeless streams had to be forded. "Is he a good swimmer?" was a common question, when a man was trying to sell a horse to a customer. It was necessary to carry arms, as the road for miles passed through unsettled forests, along an unbroken track, marked only by blazed trees and where Indians and wild beasts lurked. Travelers usually camped for the night, and ate and slept on the ground. The journey east could be made from Cincinnati to Pittsburg in a flatboat, but public conveyances of any kind were unknown.
Goods for Dayton merchants were brought as far as Pittsburg from Philadelphia, then the center of trade, in Conestoga wagons, and from Pittsburg to Cincinnati by river in "broadhorns"; thence they were either poled up the Miami, or brought here on packhorses. It was a common sight to see long line-teams, -often a dozen horses tied together,-in single file, the leader wearing a bell, and each horse carrying two hundred pounds, moving up Main Street. A train of this length was accompanied by three or four men, equipped with rifle, ammunition, ax, and blankets. Game in the woods supplied them with food. Men were stationed at each end, to take care of the leader and hind horse, keep the train in motion, and watch over the goods. Some- times the train was composed of loose horses, taught to follow each other without being fastened together. Bells were attached at night to all the horses, and then they were turned out to graze.
Occasionally Dayton merchants purchased groceries brought up from New Orleans to Cincinnati in keel-boats or barges, and hauled here, about 1812,-when the army kept the road in toler- able condition,-in wagons.
The difficulties of an up-stream voyage are described in the following letter, written from Cincinnati, December 29, 1812, by Baum & Perry to Steele & Peirce, and found among the papers of the latter firm nearly eighty years after they received it: "We have just had the arrival of our barge from New Orleans. She was delayed at the falls for nearly two weeks before she could get over, detained five or six days waiting for the loading to be hauled from the lower landing to the upper, and finally had to come away with part of her cargo only, there being no wagons to be had, and ever since she left that place has been obliged to force her way for two weeks past through the ice. These are the circumstances which prevented her coming sooner. Knowing that sugar is much wanting at your place, have thought it advis-
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able to load Mr. Enoch's wagon, and let it proceed to your town with that article, to wit, with six boxes, weighing as follows : 438 pounds for Mr. Henry Brown ; 448 pounds, Cooper & Bur- net ; 432 pounds, Isaac Spining ; 480 pounds, Robert Wilson ; 510 pounds, Steele & Peirce ; 430 pounds, Major Churchill." Freight- age by wagon was one dollar per hundredweight. If a single box of sugar were taken, the price was twenty cents a pound, and eighteen and three-quarter cents per pound was charged if three boxes were bought.
Dayton merchants kept genuine country stores, and sold a very miscellaneous variety of articles. In front, close to the street, hitching-posts and feed-boxes were provided. Bottles of various kinds of liquor, principally whisky,-regarded in those days, according to Curwen, as "the elixir and solace of life," even by ministers and their most conscientious parishioners,- were displayed, flanked by glasses, on the counter, customers being expected to help themselves. Purchases were usually paid for in wheat, rye, corn, beeswax, tallow, corn-fed pork, and similar products that would sell at New Orleans; but cash was demanded if the grain, pork, etc., could not be delivered in time for the annual spring trip south by flatboat.
Flatboating south was a necessity, for there was no sale in Ohio for the articles received in exchange for goods by our mer- chants. The Great Miami was down on the map as a navigable stream, and towards the close of the flatboating era, and later, there were many attempts to introduce steamboats. Until 1828 our merchants depended principally upon keel-boats, built some- what like canal-boats, and on flatboats for their connection with New Orleans, the only market for Western produce. Flatboat- men sold their boats- only used in descending streams, and kept in the channel by long, sweeping oars, fastened at both ends of the boat -when they arrived at New Orleans, purchased a horse, and rode home. The boats were inclosed and roofed with boards. On account of changes or obstructions in the channel or low water, it sometimes took a Dayton boat three weeks to reach Cincinnati.
May 24, 1809, the Repertory contains the first notice of a Dayton flatboat published here. It says: "A flat-bottomed boat, owned by Mr. Compton, of this place, descended the Great Miami yesterday. She was loaded with pork, flour, bacon, and whisky, and destined for Fort Adams." Later it is stated that "Mr. Compton's boat got safely through to the Ohio. Notwith-
Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846.
A VIEW IN DAYTON IN 1846, FROM NEAR THE CORNER OF FIRST AND LUDLOW STREETS, LOOKING SOUTH.
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Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846.
COOPER FEMALE SEMINARY.
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standing the representations made of the dangers of navigating the Great Miami, we are well convinced that nothing is wanting but care and attention to take our boats with safety from this place." Among the dangers encountered were dams and fish- baskets, or traps, which often wrecked the boats. Sometimes boatmen destroyed, or tried to destroy, these obstructions, the owners defending their property, and serious or fatal injuries resulting on both sides.
Between 1809 and 1810 Paul Butler and Henry Disbrow estab- lished a freight line of keel-boats between Dayton, Laramie, and St. Mary's, connecting our town with Lake Erie by way of the Miami, Auglaize, and Maumee rivers. They built the two keel- boats used for this line in the middle of Main Street, in front of the Court-house. When finished, they were moved on rollers up Main Street to the river and launched. Nine flatboats left on the 13th or 14th of May, 1811, for New Orleans. A private letter dated Dayton, March 28, 1812, says : "We had a snowstorm on Sunday last, eight inches deep, but, as it went off immediately, it did not swell the river sufficiently to let Phillips and Smith's boat out." It was customary for boats to wait for a freshet before starting. At the head of Wilkinson Street stood for many years Broadwell's old red warehouse, where shipments were made, and which was the scene in the spring of much hurry, bustle, and business. It was swept down stream itself in the flood of 1828. Boats built up the river used to come here, tie up, and wait for a freshet, when all the boats bound for New Orleans would set off together in a fleet. The departure of the fleet was an exciting event to farmers, distillers, millers, merchants, teamsters, boat- men, and the people generally, as the following description from the Dayton Watchman of May 26, 1825, indicates : "Rain had fallen on Wednesday, and continued till Friday, when the river rose. The people flocked to the banks, returning with cheerful countenances, saying, 'The boats will get off.' On Saturday all was the busy hum of a seaport ; wagons were conveying flour, pork, whisky, etc., to the different boats strung along the river. Sev- eral arrived during the day from the north. On Sunday morning others came down, the water began to fall, and the boats, carrying about forty thousand dollars' worth of the produce of the coun- try, got under way." In May, 1819, the Watchman announces, as a matter of public rejoicing, the arrival of a keel-boat front Cin- cinnati belonging to H. G. Phillips and Messrs. Smith & Eaker.
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It was the first keel-boat that had for a number of years, on ac- count of obstructions, ascended the Miami. The boat was over seventy feet long, and carried twelve tons of merchandise.
The Fourth of July was a grand occasion in Dayton in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. A public meeting was held beforehand, at which a committee of arrangements was appointed. Benjamin Van Cleve, Owen Davis, and William M. Smith served in 1809. The militia and the people from town and country, forming on the river bank at the head of Main Street, marched in procession to the Court-house. Here they heard an oration and patriotic songs ; after which, reforming, they marched to the house of Henry Disbrow, where an elegant dinner was served, tickets costing fifty cents. Toasts were drunk and salutes were fired by the military companies, commanded by Captain Butler and Captain Steele. The afternoon was spent in sports and games, and there was a dance in the evening. In 1810 there was also a procession from the river to the Court-house, where the following exercises were listened to : Singing of an ode, prayer by Dr. Welsh, reading of the Declaration of Independence by Benjamin Van Cleve, and an oration by Joseph H. Crane. "The oration was eloquent and well adapted to the occasion." At noon there was a public dinner served under a bower, where seventeen toasts were drunk, a salute being fired as each toast was given.
In 1811 Dr. N. Edwards, Joseph H. Crane, and Joseph Peirce were the committee of arrangements. The procession was preceded by a sermon from Dr. Welsh, and followed at the Court-house by the usual exercises, Joseph H. Crane reading the Declaration, and Benjamin Van Cleve delivering the oration. This year political animosity, hitherto unknown in Dayton, had become so bitter that members of the two parties declined to dine together, as had been the custom on the Fourth of July, and unite in drinking toasts prepared by the committee of arrangements. There were two dinners, each under a bower prepared for the occasion ; one at Mr. Strain's and the other at . Mr. Graham's, formerly Newcom's. Each company drank seventeen patriotic toasts, and then an eighteenth toast, express- ing their political opinions. Mr. Graham's guests drank to the accompaniment of a discharge of small arms the "Health of Thomas Jefferson, Late President of the United States." At Mr. Strain's the final toast was, "May our young Americans
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have firmness enough to defend their rights without joining any Tammany club or society." And it was drunk "under a discharge of cannon and loud and repeated cheerings." There was the usual military parade in the afternoon and a dance in the evening. Military companies were popular and militia trainings gala occasions. Business was suspended and crowds flocked into town to witness the drill and parade, when, as on September 17, 1810, Colonel Jerome Holt assembled the Fifth Regiment for training purposes.
In 1815 the young ladies of Dayton were invited to join the Fourth-of-July procession, assembling at Colonel Grimes's tavern. After the speeches, etc., at the Court-house, the procession marched to Republican Spring, where ladies and gentlemen dined together, as had not been the custom before on the national holiday. In 1816 the public meeting to make preparations for the Fourth of July was held at Reid's Inn. Dr. John Steele acted as chairman, and Benjamin Van Cleve as secretary, and Captain James Steele, Dr. Charles Este, George W. Smith, Fielding Gos- ney, James Lodge, Colonel John Anderson, and David Griffin were appointed a committee of arrangements. After the proces- sion on the Fourth, Dr. Charles Este read the Declaration of Independence, and Benjamin Van Cleve Washington's farewell address. One hundred persons dined together at the house of Captain J. Rhea. Isaac Spining presided, and William George and Dr. Este were chosen vice-presidents of the occasion. Nineteen patriotic toasts were drunk with great hilarity. At four o'clock in the afternoon the ladies and gentlemen of the town and coun- try "partook of a magnificent repast, furnished by the ladies, in the shade of the adjacent woods." In the evening there was a concert of vocal music at Mr. Bomberger's residence and a ball at Colonel Reid's inn.
In 1822 new features were introduced. Church bells were rung and cannons fired at daybreak and a flag run up on the town flag- staff. The exercises were held at the First Presbyterian Church. The procession was headed by the newly raised light infantry companies and riflemen. Captain Grimes's company wore a yel- low roundabout coat, green collar and cuffs, white pantaloons, and red leggings. Captain Dodds's company were dressed in white roundabout, trimmed with black cord, pantaloons the same, and a citizen's hat with red feather. Captain Dixon's riflemen wore blue cloth roundabouts, trimmed with white cord,
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and white pantaloons. Captain Windbrenner's men were dressed in gray cloth coatees, trimmed with black cord, and pantaloons to correspond. After the militia came four Revolutionary veter- ans-Colonel Robert Patterson, Simeon Broadwell, Richard Bacon, and Isaac Spining, guarding the American flag and lib- erty cap. Judge Crane read the Declaration, and Stephen Fales "delivered a highly interesting and animating oration." The music "would have done honor to any place, and reflected great credit on the singers." The gentlemen dined at Mr. Squier's tavern, Judge Crane being elected president of the day, and Judge Steele and H. G. Phillips vice-presidents. After the reg- ular toasts, the following volunteer toasts were given : By Judge Crane, "De Witt Clinton, the Able and Persevering Supporter of Internal Improvements"; by Judge Steele, "The Contemplated Canal from the Waters of Mad River to Those of the Ohio" ; by Stephen Fales, "The Memory of General Wayne, the Deliverer of Ohio"; by Colonel Stebbins, officer of the day, "The Presi- dent of the Day - a Descendant of a Revolutionary Officer, one of the first settlers in this place, and who has borne the heat and burden of the day with us: as distinguished for his modesty as his worth, his is the popularity that follows, not that which is pursued "; by Judge Spining, "May the cause that first inspired the heroes of '76 to shake off the chains of slavery be very dear, and supported by all true Americans"; by the four Revolution- ary veterans, "The Heroes of the Revolution, that fell to secure the blessings of this day to us : may their children so maintain them that America may be a republic of Christians on the last day of time."
The first "jubilee of the United States," commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, was celebrated July 4, 1826, by a procession from the Court-house, services at the brick church,-First Presbyterian,-a dinner at Mr. Rollman's tavern,-formerly Newcom's, - and a picnic at the medical spring near the present buildings of St. Mary's Institute on Brown Street. The Declaration was read by J W. Van Cleve, and an oration was delivered by Peter P. Lowe. In 1832 Edward W. Davies read the Declaration, and Robert A. Thruston delivered an oration. Adam Houk was marshal of the procession, and G. C. Davis, Robert C. Schenck, Jefferson Patterson, Peter P. Lowe, and George Engle assistant marshals. The following gentlemen were the committee of arrangements : Thomas Clegg,
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Charles G. Swain, David C. Baker, Charles R. Greene, George Grove, William Eaker, Peter Baer, Johnson V. Perrine, William Roth, John Engel, David Davis, Thomas Morrison, F. F. Carrell, Samuel Foley, and Thomas Brown. In 1840 the Declaration, "prefaced by some happy remarks," was read by John G. Lowe, and Peter Odlin was the orator of the day. The exercises were held at the Third Street Presbyterian Church. The Dayton Grays and the Washington Artillery, a new military company, paraded.
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