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 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23
Ohio was a new and unknown country at the beginning of the
58
EARLY DAYTON
nineteenth century, and travelers and land prospectors were un- able to obtain from books or newspapers the facts they desired in regard to soil, climate, population, and business. It was, there- fore, greatly to the advantage of a recently settled town and county to have within their borders one like Mr. Van Cleve, who was not only a good talker, but a perfect mine of infornia- tion (he had, while surveying, traveled over nearly every foot of ground in this neighborhood ), and also willing to take the tinie and trouble to instruct inquiring visitors, who, if properly approached, might be induced to become permanent settlers. He understood farming, and cultivated his quarter-section, one hun- dred and sixty acres, now within the corporation, in the eastern part of town, and a valuable inheritance for his descendants.
Benjamin and Mary W. Van Cleve had five children : John Whitten, born June 27, 1801, died, unmarried, September 6, 1858, as remarkable a man and as useful a citizen as his father. William James, born 1803, died 1808. Henrietta Maria, born Noveniber 16, 1805, married Samuel B. Dover, September 21, 1824, surviv- ing him ; she married Joseph Bond November 4, 1858, and died May 18, 1879. Her descendants now living are two daughters, Mrs. Sophia Simpson, of Dayton, and Mrs. Mary A. Dill, of Union City, Indiana; William Simpson, of Dayton, Dr. Moses Simp- son, Freehold, New Jersey,-children of Mrs. Sophia Simpson,- and the sons and daughters of Thomas Dover, deceased,-Fay and Samuel, of Dayton; John, living in California ; Mrs. Anna McKnight, of Dayton. Her third daughter, Phebe, married Emery Belden, and her daughter lives in Dayton. The fourth daughter is dead, but has a son and daughter living in the city. The fourth child of Benjamin Van Cleve was Mary Cornelia, born December 2, 1807; married James Andrews, November 20, 1827, and died February 19, 1878; children, Miss America Andrews and Mrs. Laura Poling, of Dayton, and I. W. Andrews, of Kansas City; grandchildren, Mrs. Edith Allison, Dayton ; Dr. J. Andrews, Mansfield ; Mrs. Alice Yoke, Lewisburg; Harry C. Andrews, Grace and Clifford Andrews, Dayton; Earl and Charley Andrews, Cambridge City. The youngest child of Benjamin Van Cleve, Sarah Sophia, was born November, 1809; married David C. Baker, February II, 1830, and died October 18, 1839. Her children live in Indiana or Kansas. Mr. Van Cleve's first wife died in 1810. In 1812 he married Mary Tamp- lin. They had no children. She died in 1825.
.
From a photograph in possession of Mrs. Josiah Gebbart. MRS. JANE NEWCOM WILSON.
From a photograph in possession of Mrs. Josiah Gebhart. NATHANIEL WILSON.
59
PIONEER LIFE
W. C. Howells (who, by the way, lived in Dayton and edited the Transcript in 1850) says of pioneer times: "Particularly remarkable was the general equality and the general dependence of all upon the neighboring kindness and good offices of others. The houses and barns were built of logs, and were raised by the collection of many neighbors together on one day, whose united strength was necessary to the handling of the logs. This kind of mutual help by the neighbors was extended to many kinds of work, such as rolling up and burning the logs in a clearing, grubbing out the underbrush, splitting rails, cutting logs for a house, and the like. When a gathering of mien for such a pur- pose took place, there was commonly some sort of mutual job laid out for women, such as quilting (patchwork was the art embroidery of that era ), sewing, or spinning up a lot of thread for some poor neighbor." Corn-huskings and maple-sugar camps were also jolly resorts in their seasons. An abundant supper, which the women who were guests helped prepare, was served on such festive occasions, and dancing and kissing games finished the evening. Singing- and grammar- or spelling-schools were also pioneer amusements of men and women of all ages. A favor- ite sport of the settlers was fire-hunting, which Curwen thus describes : "The deer came down to the river to drink in the evening, and sheltered themselves for the night under the bushes which grew along the shore. As soon as they were quiet, the hunters in pirogues paddled slowly up the stream, the steersman holding aloft a burning torch of dried hickory bark, by the light of which the deer was discovered and fired on. If the shot was successful, the party landed, skinned the animal, hung the car- cass to a tree, to be brought home in the morning, and then proceeded to hunt more game." Fire-hunting must have been a beautiful spectacle to the women and children watching it from the Monument Avenue bank of the Miami.
Women helped their husbands and brothers in all possible ways in those days, even when used to town life in the East. If extra work out-of-doors was needed, the wife or daugliter would be called on to aid, and sometimes they would assist in planting and hoeing the corn and raking the grain or hay in harvest. All was country in Dayton ninety-five years ago, in spite of four or five cabins on the town plat. W. D. Howells, speaking of his father's sympathetic account of pioneer life, says " He did not deceive himself concerning the past. He knew that it was often
60
EARLY DAYTON
rude and hard and coarse ; but under the rough and sordid aspect he was aware of the warm heart of humanity in which, quite as much as in the brain, all civility lies." In 1804-1810, when one-roomed log cabins began to give way to neat dwellings of several rooms, and new settlers built brick buildings for country stores, their educated and well-bred wives used to aid them by molding candles and making ginger cakes, rolls, root-beer, and other articles for sale.
In the earlier years of our history settlers' families were often dependent upon the father's gun for a breakfast or dinner, and hunting was oftener an occupation than an amusement. Deer and bears were killed in large numbers for both their pelts and flesh, and the bears also for their oil. Deerskin was made into men's clothes and moccasins, and bearskins were used as rugs and coverlets. The meat, and also that of wild birds, was salted and eaten as we eat dried beef. Racoon skins were in demand for winter caps. Pelts of various kinds were used instead of money.
There was little money in circulation, and business in the Northwest Territory was chiefly conducted by barter of articles that were easily transported on packhorses, such as ginseng, peltries, and beeswax, which had fixed values. A muskrat skin passed for twenty-five cents ; a buckskin for one dollar ; a doe- skin for one dollar and fifty cents ; a bearskin for from three to five dollars ; a pair of cotton stockings cost a buckskin; a yard of calico cost two muskrat skins ; a set of knives and forks, a bear- skin ; a yard of shirting, a doeskin ; a pair of moccasins, a coon- skin, or thirty-seven and a half cents. The want of small change led the pioneers of the Ohio Valley to invent what was called cut- money, or sharp shins. They cut small coins, chiefly Spanish, into quarters, and circulated them as readily as money that had not been tampered with. American merchants had not yet learned to use the United States currency, and their charges were in pounds, shillings, and pence. In 1799 Hyson tea was sixteen shillings tenpence per pound ; loaf sugar, four shillings ; flour, eighteen shillings tenpence per one hundred pounds; pork, eighteen shillings ninepence; beef, twenty-two shillings six- pence ; work, groceries, and dry goods were often paid for in corn or pork.
The habits and surroundings of the people were very primi- tive. Wildcats and panthers strong enough to carry off a live
61
PIONEER LIFE
hog prowled in the surrounding woods, and wolves, which destroyed stock, poultry, and young vegetables, were shot by moonlight through the chinks of the cabins. The wolves howled from dusk till dawn like innumerable dogs, as any one who has visited prairie countries can understand.
An event in the lives of the people of this region was the build- ing, by Daniel C. Cooper, the greatest benefactor of early Dayton, on Rubicon Creek, which ran through his farm, now the site of the Cash Register Works, of a tub-mill or " corn-cracker," run by water, which began to be used in the winter of 1799-1800. No flour could be obtained, and previous to this date meal was ground in hand-mills, three or four hours of tiresome work being neces- sary to grind enough to last one small family a single day. This tub-mill was a rough affair, and the sides were not inclosed, but settlers brought their corn to it from nearly the whole of the Miami Valley, and from up Mad River as far as Springfield. Curwen, our first historian, says that Mr. Cooper "obtained all the custom of town, and took toll from the Trojans and Pequods."
In the spring of 1800 the people of Dayton and the surrounding country got out logs and built the first Presbyterian meeting- house on the corner of Main and Third streets, where Callahan's block now stands, D. C. Cooper having given two lots for a church and graveyard. Before this the Presbyterians had held services in Newcom's Tavern or the blockhouse. The log-cabin meeting-house was eighteen by twenty feet in size, seven logs high, and raised two feet from the ground by pieces of log placed upright under each corner. The seats and doorsteps were logs, and it had a puncheon floor and a clapboard roof, secured by weight poles. It had no windows, but sufficient air and light entered by the door and between the logs, the chinks being unfilled. Hazel bushes and small trees entirely hid it from view of passers up or down Main Street. It was approached by a narrow path, which wound through the uncleared graveyard.
Dayton was originally in Hamilton County, which included the counties now known as Montgomery, Greene, Clark, Cham- paign, Logan, and Shelby, and other territory, and was governed by county commissioners and township assessors. Dayton had no other government till 1799, when Daniel C. Cooper was ap- pointed justice of the peace. He served three years and seven months and tried one hundred and eighteen cases. Eighteen of them were certified as settled and the rest as "satisfied."
62
EARLY DAYTON
The Territorial law permitted the marriage "of male persons of the age of eighteen and female persons of the age of fourteen, and not nearer of kin than first cousins." But it was necessary that notice should be given, either in writing posted at some con- spicuous place within the township where the woman resided, or publicly declared on two days of public worship. Sometimes a notice written on a piece of paper, and signed "D. C. Cooper, Justice of the Peace," was tacked to the trunk of a large forest tree close to a road. Early marriages were so much the custom that respectable parents saw with approbation young daughters who at the present day would still be in the school-room married to men who were mere boys in age. A girl of fifteen was as much a young lady in 1800 as a girl of twenty at the present day.
The county expenses for 1797 were as follows: Assessor, James Brady, $5.20, paid by the treasurer out of the first money that came into his hands; Cyrus Osborn, constable of Dayton, $1.90, "for his trouble and attention in executing the commis- sioners' warrant for ascertaining taxable property." He also received "fifty cents for one quire of paper used in the aforesaid business." The commissioners each received $7.50, and $14.34 was expended by the county for stationery. The officers of Dayton Township in 1798 were James Thompson, constable ; Daniel C. Cooper, assessor; George Newcom, collector. Mr.
Cooper's fees were $7.20. Twenty-two taxpayers lived in Dayton in 1798, and the taxes amounted to $29.74. In 1801 Benjamin Van Cleve was appointed to make a list of free male inhabitants twenty-one years old and over. The danger of attacks from Indians, as well as the need of men to clear lands, rendered it as necessary to ascertain how many men in the township were able to bear arms or wield an ax as to learn the names of taxpayers and the value of their property. Mr. Van Cleve says, "The number of free males over twenty-one years old, between the two Miamis, from the south line of the township to the head of Mad River and the Great Miami, was. three hundred and eighty-two; east of the Little Miami, less than twenty."
The high hopes with which the little bands of settlers had made their way through the woods and by river to Dayton seemed at first doomed to disappointment, as the following quotation from a petition of the settlers to Congress, probably written by Benjamin Van Cleve about 1802 or 1803, shows :
$2
34
4 7
-
.
42
42
38
11
32
-
28
24
25
26
17
-
21
17
8
9
20
13
12
5
1
4
3
1
1
192
09
30$
307
3.01
3.0
190
3 06
305
: 45
98
, 43
95
20
94
3
.
--
-
--
-
--
-
.
-
-
-
LLC
100
-
main
RLA
ser
701
2
36
19
62
83
60%
120
,29
.
127
$17
VUALOW
65
200
HEEE
20
St
167
312
St
32)
314
23
24
15
72
335
74
366
350
351
50
342
326
- -
2 7
321
St
West
miami
33
343
3.48
35.
56
359
360
351
199
250
33
54
2
192
90
55
42
56
-
Jefferson
05
135
:34
129
OFT
LE
TE
6 3
92.
101
100
3rd
Great
-
Water
LDE
$ 5
152
137
188
135
92
9€
265
147
100
41
143
93
5%
Sc CLair
5Th
294
95
-
40
D 34
33
4 o
A
.
3 )
49|
375
13. 5
319
75
12.5
1 77
.5_
70
17
74
73
12
Cherry
14
165
St
123
70
169
20
122
74
.
PLAN OF DAYTON MADE BY D. C. COOPER AND RECORDED IN MONTGOMERY COUNTY RECORDS, 1805.
4
-
مـ
267
99
39
139
10
305
35
1223
300
46
,
lot
out
lot
out
Out lot
Ground
221
173
164
125
116
76
68
29
20
321
320
372
257
224
209
/76
161
113
7.9
65
32
17
318
Ludlow
St
273
256
225
2 05
177
160
129
12
80
64
3 3
Ist
34
15
3/6 /
276
275
254
253
228
227
206
205
150
179
158
157
132
,31
103
8 4
8 3
62
61
36
3 5
/ 4
water
3.51
St
-
1
278
277
252
25.1
230
229
204
2.03
1821-
181
156
1 5.5|
St
/34
/33
108
107
86
8 5
60
59
38
37
12
St
279
250
23/
202
200
249
232
201
184
153
/36
1
Jefferson
St
-
233
2.00
/85
151
737'
1 04
89
56
40
8
-
234
116
138
10.3
90
55
42
7
-
235
198
187
1 39
102
91
54
43
6
236
197
188
49
140
101
92
53
14
5
St Clair
-
141
100
93
52
45
4
-
192
9 9
94
51
46
3
/A3
98
95
50
47
2
1
199
97
96
49
48
to the original record.
Out lots to remain agreeable
16
3:1
174
255
5th
226
207
4 th
178
159
130
W
154
135
106
9 7
53
39
O
88
57
4 0
9
St.
-
out lot
Wilkinson
St
122
211
179
163
126
115
77
67
30
19
223
210
$ 75
/62
127
114
78
66
18
319
South
3 rd
239
8 :
63
St
St.
St.
St
199
151
St
-
--
D. C. Cooper
PLAN OF DAYTON MADE BY D. C. COOPER AND RECORDED IN MONTGOMERY COUNTY RECORDS, 1809.
Burying
212
main
13
150
63
PIONEER LIFE
"On the 5th of November, 1795, forty-six persons engaged to become settlers at Dayton, but from the many difficulties in forniing a new settlement so far in the wilderness country, only fifteen of these came forward, and four others, making nineteen in all. These settlements were formed by your petitioners a few months after the treaty of Greenville, when we had no faith in the friendship of the savages. Our settlement was immediately on their hunting-grounds. We were not able to keep a horse amongst us during the first season by reason of their stealing. The scarcity of provisions had raised flour to nine dollars a barrel, and other articles in proportion, which we had to trans- port fifty miles through a wilderness, clearing roads, etc. Under all these and many more difficulties we labored, in hopes of obtaining our lands at a low rate, and the small gratuity offered. Several of your petitioners have not been able to procure any land ; others laid their claims before the commissioners agreeably to the late law, and purchased at two dollars per acre. We beg leave to state to your honorable body that the proprietors have been at vast expense, labor, and difficulty in forniing the said settlement, and have received no recompense nor privilege other than subsequent settlers; that they first opened a way in conse- quence of which the country has become populous, and the United States has received a handsome revenue from the sale of the lands ; that the town of Dayton is purchased by a subsequent settler. We pray that Congress will make us such gratuity in lands, or deduction for payments for lands, or grant such other relief as our case merits."
Synmes and St. Clair and his associates had paid two-thirds of a dollar per acre for land, and sold at a small advance. But the Government raised the price, and Benjamin Van Cleve says in his diary : "Mr. Ludlow, who was one of the proprietors and agent for them, informed me that they relinquished their claim on account of the rising price ; that they could not afford to pay two dollars."
It was at this time that Daniel C. Cooper became titular pro- prietor of the town by purchase of preemption rights and agree- ments with the settlers. Each of the original settlers received a donation of an inlot and an outlot, which he or his representative drew at the lottery held at the mouth of Mad River November 4, 1795. When the original proprietors failed and retired, settlers were obliged to pay two dollars an acre, one dollar for a town lot, and did it willingly, at the Cincinnati land office to secure these "donations." The town nearly died out between 1802 and 1803. Four cabins were vacant and only five families lived here-those of George Newco111, Samuel Thompson, Jolin Welsh, Paul D. Butler, and George Westfall. The Van Cleve brothers
64
EARLY DAYTON
and William Newcom and John Williams were farming. The McClures and Arnett had moved away. But Mr. Cooper brought the town to life again, and secured satisfactory titles by patent or deed. Mr. Cooper made several plats of the town ; that of 1805 provided for a little park at the intersection of Main and Third streets, with a court-house in the center. In 1809 he made a revised plat to conform to deeds and patents, and to the plat made by the original proprietors in 1795, and to this plat all subsequent additions have been made. Prior to the record of this plat of 1809, property was seldom transferred by deed ; the county commissioners established a rule that that party would be recognized as the owner of a lot whose name appeared on the plat opposite any lot number; thus, to pass the title of a piece of property from one person to another, all that was necessary was a verbal request of the owner to have the pur- chaser's name placed in the list instead of his own. Of these transactions, be they few or many, no record has been preserved, but instead of such record a perfect list of lot owners at the time the plat of 1809 was recorded, forms the basis of title to all the original three hundred and twenty-one lots of Dayton.
At first, county and township officers were appointed by the Territorial governor and courts. In 1802 Ohio became a State, and Montgomery was separated from Hamilton County. Popu- lation had now increased till it was thought best to authorize an election by the people of additional officers. Jerome Holt, sheriff of the county, was directed to give notice to the inhabitants of Dayton Township to convene at the house of George Newcom and proceed to elect by ballot a chairman, town clerk, three or more trustees or managers, two or more overseers of the poor, three fence-viewers, two appraisers of houses, a lister of taxable property, a sufficient number of supervisors of roads, and one or more constables. The first county court was opened in an upper room at Newcom's July 27 of this year. In March, 1803, the first State Legislature, at Chillicothe, recommended Dayton for the county-seat, and the selection was confirmed in April by the com- missioners appointed to designate county-seats. The half-deserted backwoods village of Dayton seemed an unpromising place for a county-seat. But it was the nucleus of a number of farming settlements, and was the principal hamlet in the township. The growth and improvement of Dayton was marked after it became the county-seat. The taxes for 1804 amounted to $458.40. Main
65
PIONEER LIFE
Street was cleared to Warren Street in 1804, and the gully at the Main and Third Street crossing filled with walnut logs cut in the woods where Cathcart's livery-stable now stands.
This year Mr. Cooper built a sawmill on First Street and a grist-mill at the head of Mill Street, to which in 1809 he added a carding-machine. He built a levee for the protection of his - Mill Street property. At an early date Mr. Cooper employed Silas Broadwell to build a levee to protect the western part of the town, agreeing to give him certain lots in its vicinity in payment for making it and keeping it in repair. The levee began at Wilkinson Street, and ran west a considerable distance with the meanderings of the Miami.
When Mr. Cooper gave lots on the east side of Main Street, opposite the Court-house, for a church and graveyard, they were considered so far out of the way that it was not supposed that the town would extend much beyond them; but by 1805 property in that neighborhood was wanted for residences or business. The log-cabin meeting-house was sold for twenty-two dollars, which became the nucleus of a building-fund for a new church, and the graveyard was platted and sold at auction at the Court-house. Mr. Cooper gave a new graveyard of four acres at the south side of Fifth Street, between Ludlow and Wilkinson streets, equal shares being given to the First Presbyterian and the Methodist churches and the town of Dayton. The new Presbyterian church, on Second and Ludlow streets, was not built till 1817. Two structures have succeeded it-one of brick, built in 1839, and the present stone church, built in 1867. Till the church of 1817 was completed, the congregation held services at Newcom's, or at McCullum's new brick tavern, southwest corner of Main and Second streets, removing in 1806 to the new Court-house.
Mr. Cooper was deeply interested in the new Presbyterian church. When the bell for the church arrived at his store, south- east corner of Main and First streets, in 1818, he placed it on a wheelbarrow, and himself wheeled it to the corner of Second and Ludlow streets. He over-exerted himself, and burst a blood- vessel, which caused his death. He left two sons, who both died young and without children. Mr. Cooper won the respect and affection of all his fellow-citizens. To no one does the present generation owe a larger debt of gratitude. When he died, luis affairs were somewhat involved ; but by prudent management 5
66
EARLY DAYTON
his executors, James Steele and H. G. Phillips, relieved the estate from embarrassment, and it henceforth steadily increased in value. Every improvement of this large property benefited the city.
A jail was built of round logs in the fall of 1804 on the end of the Third Street side of the Court-house lot. It was thirty feet long, sixteen wide, and twelve high, and contained two disconnected cells, floored and ceiled with logs. There were but three small windows in the building, secured by two-inch plank shutters and iron bars, and but two doors, also of two-inch plank, spiked and hung on iron hinges. The doors and shutters were locked on the outside, and the keys kept by Sheriff Newcom at his tavern, three squares off. During the sessions of court at the tavern a doorkeeper was appointed to conduct prisoners to and from the jail. This log fortress, which was built for $299 by David Squier, in two months, was stronger than the blockhouses which did such good service during the Indian wars, and answered every purpose till it became necessary that the sheriff should live at the jail, when one of stone was erected.
CHAPTER IV
1800-1805
JOHN W. VAN CLEVE-First White Male Child Born in Dayton -Friendship for R. W. Steele-Biographies of Van Cleve by R. W. Steele-Minutes Kept and Societies Founded by Van Cleve-His Exquisite Handwriting -His Versatility and Thoroughness-Proficiency in Ancient and Modern Languages-Teaches Latin at College Before Graduation-Talent for Mathematics -Translations- Water-Color Pictures of Wild Flowers-A True Book-Lover-Studies Law-Edits the Dayton Journal-In the Drug Business - Devotes Himself to Labors for the Public Good - A Civil Engi- neer- An Engraver-Talent for Painting-Plays Several Musical Instru- ments- A Botanist and Geologist-To Him We Owe Woodland Cemetery -Love of Plants and Trees-Plants the Levees with Trees-Surrounds the Court-House with Elms-Fondness for Children -Delightful Picnics -His Great Size-Interest in Schools and Libraries-Founder and Supporter of Dayton Library Association-Free Lectures on Scientific, Historical, or Literary Subjects -Affection and Pride with Which He was Regarded-Devotion to His Kindred-Friendship Between Him and His Father-Public Offices in Town that He Held-His Map of Dayton- Writes Songs and Designs and Engraves Illustrations for the Log Cabin-The Whig Glee Club Trained by Professor Turpin -Mr. Van Cleve and Others Accompany the Club to the Columbus Convention- His Death -His Unbending Integrity and Scrupulous Honesty -Council Passes Resolutions of Respect-Dr. T. E. Thomas's Funeral Oration - Isaac Spining- William King-The Osborns-John H. Williams-The First Postoffice in Dayton -Mail-Routes-Post-Rider to Urbana-Trials of Benjamin Van Cleve, First Postmaster-His Successor, George S. Houston -Joseph Peirce-Joseph H. Crane-Colonel Robert Patterson -Schools - Dayton Incorporated-McCullum's Tavern-Social Library Society.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.