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 12
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Governor Meigs arrived on the 6th of May to give orders and inspect troops. The event was announced by the citizens by a salute of eighteen guns. He reviewed the militia in the after- noon, and the next day sent out an appeal from headquarters, McCullum's Tavern, southwest corner of Main and Second streets, to the citizens of Ohio, to men, mothers, sisters, and wives, for blankets for the soldiers. Each family was requested to "furnish one or more blankets," the appeal read, "and the requisite num- ber will be completed. It is not requested as a boon ; the moment your blankets are delivered, you shall receive their full value in money ; they are not to be had at the stores. The season of the year is approaching when each family may, without inconveni- ence, part with one."
Soon after the Governor's arrival, he ordered General Munger and a small number of Dayton troops to make "a tour to Green- ville, to inquire into the situation of the frontier settlements." On May 14 there were about one thousand four hundred troops here, the majority of whom were volunteers. Six or seven hundred of them were under the command of General Gano and General Cass. Six other companies arrived in a few days. Three regiments of infantry,-the First, Second, and Third,-num- bering one thousand five hundred men, were formed on the 2Ist. These were the first regiments organized by the State of Ohio. After the companies were assigned to these regiments, and officers were elected, better military discipline was maintained than had been hitherto possible. The First Regiment encamped south of town, and the other two at Cooper Park.
Ohio's quota of troops having now been raised, Captain Wil- liam Van Cleve's newly formed company of riflemen of this
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county was employed in guarding supply-trains on the road to St. Mary's. Captain William Van Cleve, brother of Benjamin, was born near Monmouth, New Jersey, in 1777. He was one of the original settlers of Dayton. Instead of coming on the keel- boat or pirogue with his family, he accompanied the Newcom party through the woods for the purpose of driving the cow of his stepfather, Mr. Thompson. He was married twice, and by his first wife, Effie Westfall, had several children. From the close of the war till his death in 1828 he kept a tavern at the junction of Warren and Jefferson streets.
In the latter part of May General Hull arrived at McCullum's Tavern, which he made his headquarters. The usually quiet village of Dayton was now all animation and noise, as officers, quartermasters, and commissaries were preparing for the depart- ure of the regiments for Detroit. The broad and generally deserted streets, ungraveled, often knee-deep in mud, were alive with bustling citizens and country people, gazing with curiosity at the brilliant uniforms and equipments of the passing sol- diers, and the stores were full of customers ; companies were drilling ; mounted officers and couriers galloping in different directions ; lines of wagons and packhorses, laden with provi- sions and ammunition and camp equipage, coming in from Cincinnati or the neighboring places, and Montgomery County farmers and business men, even when they were enrolled among the volunteers, were many of them reaping a golden harvest. On the morning of the 25th General Meigs and General Hull, to whom the Governor had surrendered the command, reviewed and made addresses to the soldiers camped south of town. After dinner at noon at McCullum's, they reviewed and addressed the regiments at Cooper Park. Early the next morning the three regiments, with Hull and his staff at their head, crossing Mad River at a ford opposite the head of Webster Street, marched to a new camp,-which they called for Governor Meigs,-situated on a prairie three miles from town, on the west bank of Mad River. They raised the American flag, and, forming a hollow. square around it, greeted it with cheers, and expressed their determination not to surrender it except with their lives.
On the Ist of June the First, Second, and Third regiments of Ohio militia and a body of cavalry, followed by a wagon-train and a brigade of pack-mules, left Dayton for Detroit. The Governor and his staff and strangers from Cincinnati and Ken-
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tucky, besides a crowd of people from the town and neighboring country, were collected to see the troops begin their march. They marched out the old Troy pike. A large number of men followed them for a day or two, some of them sleeping in camp one night. General Munger's command of militia was ordered here to garrison the town, protect stores and public property, and keep open a line of communication with the army at the front. This was service of importance, as quartermaster's ord- nance and commissary's supplies were forwarded by way of Dayton.
The news of the surrender of Hull's army reached Dayton at noon on Saturday, August 22, and this terrible disaster occa- sioned much alarm. A handbill was at once sent out into the country from the Centinel office, containing the startling infor- mation just received, and urging every able-bodied man who could furnish a firelock to come to Dayton Sunday prepared to march immediately for the defense of the frontier, guard the public stores at Piqua, and watch the Indians in that region. So many poured into town, and so immediate was the response to the appeal, that the Centinel headed an editorial relating the occurrences of the next day or two, "Prompt Patriotism," and challenged "the annals of our country to produce an example of greater promptitude or patriotism." Though the news came Saturday noon, a company of seventy men, commanded by Captain James Steele, was by seven o'clock Sunday morning raised, organized, and completely equipped, and marched a little later in the morning to Piqua. All the men and women in town devoted themselves to the work of getting the soldiers ready, and few went to bed Saturday night. Five companies of drafted men from Montgomery and Warren counties arrived on Sunday. Monday and Tuesday troops were constantly departing and arriving. Two companies were left here at Camp Meigs. The Governor of Ohio, as soon as the bad news came, ordered forty thousand dollars' worth of public stores to be removed from Piqua to Dayton, and General Munger and his brigade soon accomplished this work. Captain Steele's company, no longer needed at Piqua, was ordered to St. Mary's,-the most advanced frontier post,-and the Captain was placed in command of tlie post. Joseph H. Crane was made sergeant-major. The Dayton company built blockhouses for the defense of St. Mary's. The pay-roll of Captain Steele's company was preserved, and its
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publication in a Dayton paper many years later enabled widows and children of the men whose names appear on it to obtain land- warrants from the Government. This pay-roll contained but fifty-two names, though seventy were enrolled on August 23, so that part of the men were probably engaged at this time in scouting or other duty. Perhaps some did not go farther than Piqua.
General Harrison spent the Ist of September, 1812, in Dayton, and a salute of eighteen guns was fired in his honor. While the citizens were receiving General Harrison in front of the Court- house, Brigadier-General Payne arrived with three Kentucky regiments, comprising one thousand eight hundred men, and, marching past the Court-house, halted at Second Street. The soldiers were also honored with a salute. Early in September General Harrison sent out a call for volunteers, to be com- manded by himself, ordering them to "rendezvous at the town of Dayton on the Big Miami." He also issued a call for eight hundred horses provided with saddles and bridles, agreeing to pay fifty cents a day for them. The horses were to be received at Reid's Inn in Dayton. It is easy to imagine what a stirring place Dayton had now become. Some of the regiments which stopped over night camped, we are told, "in the mud on Main Street."
The troops at the front were in great need of blankets and warm clothes. The following appeal was sent to the ladies of Dayton from headquarters, St. Mary's, September 20, 1812:
"General Harrison presents his compliments to the ladies of Dayton and its vicinity, and solicits their assistance in making shirts for their brave defenders who compose his army, many of whom are almost destitute of that article-so necessary to their health and comfort. The material will be furnished by the quartermaster, and the General confidently expects that this opportunity for the display of female patriotism and industry will be largely embraced by his fair country-women.
"P. S .- Captain James Steele will deliver the articles for mak- ing the shirts on application."
Captain Steele's company, which had volunteered for short service, was returning home when this letter was written. The material for the shirts was obtained from the Indian Department, and had been prepared for annuities to tribes supposed to be friendly, but now in arms against the Government, and with- held in consequence of their present hostile attitude. "With
From a photograph by Gross.
FLOOD OF 1866, AS SEEN FROM THE HEAD OF MAIN STREET.
abiện
From a photograph by W. B. Werthner.
REMAINS OF THE OLD CORDUROY ROAD, THIRD STREET, CROSSING MAIN, OCTOBER 9, 1891.
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a zeal and promptitude honorable to them and the State," and, of course, without compensation, the ladies of Dayton immediately went to work, and by October 14 one thousand eight hundred shirts were ready to send to the army-a good deal of sewing to accomplish without the aid of a machine in less than four weeks by the women of a village of less than one hundred houses.
On the IIth of December seven hundred men of the Nineteenth United States Infantry, who had remained in Dayton for ten days to procure horses, left under command of Lieutenant- Colonel John B. Campbell on an expedition against the Miami villages near Muncietown. The Indians were routed, but eight of our men were killed and forty-eight wounded, and nearly half the horses were killed or lost. Late in the afternoon of the day of the battle the army began its return march, carrying forty of the wounded, who were unable to ride, on stretchers. The mien suffered all sorts of hardships, and nearly perished from cold, fatigue, and lack of food. On the 22d and 24th of Deceni- ber Major Adams, stationed at Greenville, and Colonel Jerome Holt, engaged in building blockhouses and protecting the frontier, came to their assistance and enabled them to continue their march. They reached Dayton on Sunday, the 27th, after traveling ten days. The Centinel says that "their solemn pro- cession into town, with the wounded extended on litters, excited emotions which the philanthropic bosom may easily conceive, but it is not in our power to describe them."
The small military hospital on the Court-house corner, in charge of Dr. John Steele and assistant physicians, has already been mentioned. Some of Colonel Campbell's men were no doubt received at the hospital, but the soldiers were also taken into private houses, scarcely a family receiving less than four or five. The usual Sunday services were omitted, and the ladies of Dayton spent the day nursing the wounded and ministering to the needs of their worn-out comrades. Colonel Campbell's force marched to Franklinton in a few days, but those unable to accompany them were left here, and tenderly cared for by citi- zens. The ladies of Dayton, though not formally organized into a soldiers' relief society, were continually engaged in making or collecting clothes and supplies for Montgomery County volun- teers in the field or in the hospitals. Both private and public supplies, though mud rendered the roads almost impassable, were
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constantly forwarded by army agents from Dayton. Supplies purchased here were delivered to Colonel Robert Patterson, for- age-master at the Government storehouse, on the west side of Main Street, between Monument Avenue and First Street.
Jerome Holt, mentioned above, was a brother-in-law of Benja- min Van Cleve, and came to Dayton in the summer of 1796. They had been partners in Cincinnati. After John Van Cleve had been killed by the Indians, he assisted Benjamin in his first efforts to provide for the family. His wife, Anne Van Cleve, was born in Monmouth County, New Jersey, in 1775, and died in 1858 in Van Buren Township, where the Holts settled in 1797. He was appointed constable of Dayton Township in 1800, and elected sheriff of Montgomery County in 1809. Fron1 1810 to 1812 he was colonel of the Fifth Regiment of militia. Three great-granddaughters, named Gusten, live in Dayton, and a descendant -Mrs. Lindsay -lives on the old Holt farm four miles north of Dayton. Jerome Holt died in Wayne Township in 1841, and was buried in Dayton with military and Masonic honors.
A new company was formed here in January, 1813, by Captain A. Edwards, and marched immediately. Captain Edwards, who was a Dayton physician, had served as a surgeon in the army in 1812.
In the fall of 1813 Perry's victory on Lake Erie, Harrison's defeat of Proctor, and the repulse of the British at the battle of the Thames, brought the war in the West to a close. Returning Ohio and Kentucky soldiers were now constantly on the march from the north through Dayton, and the town was full of people from different parts of the country, who had come to meet relatives serving in the various companies. Sometimes the volunteers, camped in the mire on Main Street, became a little noisy and troublesome. The Dayton companies received an enthusiastic welcome home. Streets and houses were decorated, and a flag was kept flying from the pole erected on Main Street. A cannon was also placed there, which was fired whenever a company or regiment arrived. The people, at the signal, gath- ered to welcome the soldiers, whom they were expecting, and for whom a dinner, on tables set out-of-doors, was prepared, and the rest of the day was given up to feasting, speech-making, and general rejoicing. Our Montgomery County companies had all returned by the Ist of December; but as they had been in
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constant and active duty since their departure for the front, a number of brave men had fallen on the battlefield, and others came home in enfeebled health, or suffering from wounds which shortened their lives, so that many in this neighborhood had as much cause for sorrow as for joy when the troops gaily marched into town.
It is impossible for the present generation to realize the horrors and sufferings occasioned by the War of 1812. King says, in his history of Ohio, that an eye-witness described the country as "depopulated of men, and the farmer women, weak and sickly as they often were, and surrounded by their helpless little chil- dren, were obliged, for want of bread, to till their fields, until frequently they fell exhausted and dying under the toil to which they were unequal." There is slight record of the trials and labors of the people of Dayton during this period, but they no doubt had their full share.
The treaty of peace was not signed till 1815. When the news reached Dayton in February, the following article, headed "Peace," appeared in the Republican: "With hearts full of gratitude to the great Arbiter of nations, we announce this joy- ous intelligence to our readers. Every heart that feels but a single patriotic emotion will hail the return of peace, on terms which are certainly not dishonorable, as one of the most auspi- cious events we were ever called upon to celebrate. The citizens of Dayton have agreed to illuminate this evening. The people from the country are invited to come in and partake of the gen- eral joy." March 31 was appointed by the Governor of Ohio as a day of thanksgiving for the declaration of peace.
The mechanics of Dayton met at four o'clock in the afternoon of Saturday, March 15, 1813, at McCullum's Tavern, to form a mechanics' society. This was the first workingmen's association organized in Dayton. Workingmen and mechanics, as well as merchants and manufacturers, were prospering at the close of the war, and able to buy themselves homes. There was much suc- cessful speculating in real estate, and business was on the top wave for the next six or seven years.
The 5th of May of this year was set apart by the Governor of Ohio for a day of thanksgiving. In Ohio in early times thanks- giving was not always observed, and when the Governor issued a proclamation for the festival he was as likely to select Christ- mas or May-day as the last Thursday in November. The first
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proclamation of this kind in Ohio was issued by Governor St. Clair, December 25, 1788.
The first Dayton bank, called the "Dayton Manufacturing Company," was chartered in 1813. The following gentlemen constituted the first board of directors: H. G. Phillips, Joseph Peirce, John Compton, David Reid, William Eaker, Charles R. Greene, Isaac G. Burnet, Joseph H. Crane, D. C. Lindsay, John Ewing, Maddox Fisher, David Griffin, John H. Williams, Benja- min Van Cleve, George Grove, Fielding Gosney, and J. N. C. Schenck. The amount of stock issued was $61,055. The first loan was one of $11, 120 to the United States Government to assist in carrying on the war. Banking hours were from IO A.M. to I P.M. The president received a salary of one hundred and fifty dollars per annum, and the cashier four hundred dollars. H. G. Phillips was elected president in 1814, but resigned in a few weeks, and was succeeded by Joseph Peirce. On the latter's death, in 1821, Benjamin Van Cleve was elected; but he died in two months, and was succeeded by George Newcom. In the following year James Steele, who served till his death in 1841, became president, and George S. Houston cashier. After 1831 the bank was known as the "Dayton Bank." The bank closed up its affairs in 1843.
On the 19th of May, 1813, the last number of the Ohio Centinel appeared, and for a year and five months no newspaper was pub- lished in Dayton. As a consequence there is little material during this period for the history of the town.
The contract for building a new jail was sold to James Thompson, July 27, 18II, at public auction at the Court- house, for $2,147.91. The jail was eighteen by thirty-two feet, and built of rubble-stone. A rented house was used for a jail till the new building was finished. It was not com- pleted till December, 1813. The jail stood on Third Street in the rear of the Court-house, close to the pavement. It was two stories high, with gable shingle roof, running parallel with the street; a hall ran through the center of the house from the Third Street entrance. The prison occupied the east half of the building and the sheriff's residence the west half. There were three cells in each story. Those in the second story were more comfortable than the others, and were used for women and for persons imprisoned for minor offenses. One of the cells was for debtors, imprisonment for debt being still legal at that period. Often men imprisoned for debt were released by the court on
From a photograph by Wolfe.
NORTHWEST CORNER OF MAIN AND FOURTH STREETS IN 1882,-PRESENT SITE OF THE KUHNS BUILDING,-THE CORNER BUILDING, ERECTED IN 1813, BEING THE OLDEST HOUSE SOUTH OF THIRD STREET.
From a photograph by Mary Sherborn Reeve.
THIRD STREET RIVER BRIDGE, ERECTED IN 1839.
From a photograph by Mary Sherborn Reeve.
THE OLD JEFFERSON STREET CANAL BRIDGE.
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"prison bounds " or "limits," upon their giving bond for double the amount of the debt. They were then permitted to live at home, support their families, and endeavor to pay their indebted- ness, but were not allowed to go beyond the corporation limits. This jail was not considered a safe place of confinement for criminals, as persons on the sidewalk could look through the barred windows, which were about two feet square, into the lower" front cell, and pass small articles between the bars. Though the cells were double-lined with heavy oak plank, driven full of nails, one night four prisoners escaped by cutting a hole in the floor, and tunneling under the wall and up through the sidewalk. About 1834 or 1835 a one-story building of heavy cut stone was erected in the rear of the jail. It contained four cells with stone floors and arched brick ceilings. This was the county jail until the fall of 1845, when a stone jail was built at the corner of Main and Sixth streets, the present workhouse.
Mr. Samuel Forrer, who visited Dayton in the fall of 1814, gives us, in his reminiscences, a glimpse of the town at that date . "At that early day there was a house and a well in an oak clearing on Main Street, near Fifth, surrounded by a hazel thicket. It was a noted halting-place for strangers traveling northward and eastward, in order to procure a drink of water and inquire the distance to Dayton." He describes the embryo city as still confined principally "to the bank of the Miami River between Ludlow and Mill streets, and the business-store-keep- ing, blacksmithing, milling, distilling, etc .- was concentrated about the head of Main Street."
In 1814 the first Methodist church was completed and occupied. It was a one-story frame building thirty by forty feet in size, and stood on a lot contributed by D. C. Cooper, on the south side of Third Street and a little east of Main Street. Previous to the building ofthis "meeting-house" Methodist serviceshad been held in the open air, the Presbyterian log cabin, or the Court-liouse. As early as 1797 a Methodist class had been forined by William Hamer, a local preacher, which met in his house three miles up Mad River. Rev. John Kobler, sent out by Bishop Asbury to organize the Miami Circuit, preached in Dayton, as already mentioned, in August, 1798, and January, 1799. In April of the latter year class-meetings began to be held in the village at the house of Aaron Baker. Bishop Asbury preached here on the 22d of September, 1811, in the Court-house, to a thousand
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persons. Soon after, Rev. John Collins, who had preached here a few Sundays, persuaded the people to erect a church, and in a short time $457.55 had been subscribed for a building fund. The frame church was succeeded by two brick buildings on its site -the first, built in 1828, forty by fifty feet in size and twenty- four feet in height, and the second, built in 1849, fifty-five by eighty-two feet in size, and with a tower in front. In 1870 the congregation removed to the stone structure-Grace Methodist Episcopal Church-on the southeast corner of Fourth and Ludlow streets.
William Hamer, the first Methodist local preacher to hold serv- ices in this neighborhood, was one of the pioneers of 1796. He settled on a farm three miles up Mad River, and his place was known as "Hamer's Hill." His wife died in 1825. He died in 1827, aged seventy-five. Their son Dayton, born at Hamer's Hill in 1796, was the first child born after the original settlers arrived at the mouth of Mad River.
The name of Aaron Baker, the first Methodist class-leader in Dayton, often occurs in the early history of the town. He was born in Essex County, New Jersey, in 1773, visited Dayton in 1804, 1805, and 1806, and settled here with his family in 1807. He built McCullum's Tavern and the old brick Court-house.
In December, 1814, Charles Zull began to work a ferry across the Miami at the head of Ludlow Street. Farmers, leaving their horses and wagons hitched on the north side of the river, brought their produce over in the boat to trade at the stores.
The Ohio Republican appeared October 3, 1814, published by Isaac G. Burnet- who had published the Centinel, which it suc- ceeded- and James Lodge. It was similar in appearance to the Centinel, and printed from the type used for that paper ; price, two dollars per annum if paid in advance, two dollars and fifty cents if paid within the year, and three dollars if paid at the end of the year. Under the title was printed the motto : "Willing to praise, but not afraid to blame." It was devoted principally to literature and foreign events, little attention being given in news- papers of that era to home news. Mr. Burnet, who was elected to the Legislature a month after the paper first appeared, sold his interest to Mr. Lodge, who, as two-thirds of his subscribers did not pay for their paper, was obliged to cease publishing it Octo- ber 9, 1816. In November of the same year Robert J. Skinner began to issue the Ohio Watchman at the former office of the Ohio
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Republican, having purchased the material and good-will of the latter paper. Its first motto was, "Truth, equality, and literary knowledge are the grand pillars of republican liberty." For this was substituted in 1819, " A free press is the palladium of liberty." It was originally a four-column folio paper, enlarged in 1818 to five colunins, pages twelve by twenty inches in size. The editor announced in 1816 that the paper should be genuinely Republican in principles, "that he was partial to the administra- tion then in power [James Madison was President ], but that he did not intend to permit party prejudice to blind his eyes or to make his ears deaf to the principles of truth. The price was the same as that charged for the Republican. In 1820 the name of the paper was changed, and it was henceforth known as the Day- ton Watchman and Farmers' and Mechanics' Journal. It was now published by George S. Houston and R. J. Skinner, the lat- ter retiring in 1822. The office was on the west side of Main Street, between First and Second, a few doors south of David Reid's inn. The publishers offered to receive in payment for their paper flour, whisky, good hay, wood, wheat, rye, corn, oats, sugar, tallow, beeswax, honey, butter, chickens, eggs, wool, flax, feathers, country linen, and cotton rags. In January, 1826, A. T. Hays and E. Lindsley purchased the paper, but it ceased to appear in November, 1826. From 1824 it bore the motto, "De- mocracy, literature, agriculture, manufactories, and internal im- provements, the pillars of our independence." It was opposed to "mending" the Constitution, and in favor of the tariff of 1824. The three journals whose histories have just been given -really one paper under different names-were published once a week.
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