USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Dayton > History of Dayton, Ohio. With portraits and biographical sketches of some of its pioneer and prominent citizens Vol. 1 > Part 10
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GROWTH AND IMPROVEMENT.
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Magazines, at one cent a sheet for fifty miles; one cent and a half for one hundred miles; two cents for over one hundred miles.
Pamphlets and magazines were not forwarded when the mail was very large, nor when it was carried with great expedition or on horseback. For a good many years the eastern mail was brought to Wheeling by post-riders, and thence down the river to Cincinnati in government mail boats, each manned with four oarsmen and a coxwain, and built like whaling craft. The voyage from Wheeling to Cincinnati occupied six days and the return trip up stream twelve days.
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CHAPTER VII.
Dayton Incorporated-Form of Government-Taxation to Pay Town Expenses Voted Down -- New Settlers-Colonel Robert Patterson-McCullum's Tavern First Brick Building- Used as a Court House-Dayton Library Society-First Great Flood-Levees-Jonathan Harshman-Licenses-Ferries-Cooper's New Plat of Dayton - Public Square in the Center of Third and Main Street Crossing-Brick Court House-First Brick Stores- Four General Merchandise Stores-Country Produce Taken Instead of Cash-Difficulty of the Trip East for Goods-Trouble in Collecting Debts-Mode of Bringing Merchan- dise to Dayton - Trains of Pack Horses-Dayton Academy -- John Folkerth - New Roads Opened-Miserable Condition of Roads-First Brick Private Residence-Adver- tisements of Business Men in the Repertory-Troop of Light Dragoons-Taverns-Dr. Welsh-Dr. Elliott-First Drug Store-Abram Darst-Revised Town Plat-Fourth of July, 1809-First Political Convention-Navigation of the Miami, IS09-1828-Keelboats Between Dayton and Lake Erie-Flatboating to New Orleans-First Book Published in Dayton-Fourth of July, 1810-Oration by Joseph H. Crane-Militia Drill -- Shakers Mobbed - Political Animosity -Two Public Dinners, July 4, 1811 - Earthquakes- Prosperity of Town, 1812-1813.
F EBRUARY 12, 1805, the legislature incorporated the town of Dayton. The town government consisted of seven trustees, a collector, super- visor, and marshal, clected by free-holders, who had lived in Dayton six months. A president, who acted as mayor, and a recorder were to be chosen by the trustees from their own number, and they were also to elect a treasurer who need not be a member of their board. The board of trustees was called "the select council of the town of Dayton." The first clection under the act of incorporation occurred on the first Monday in May, 1805.
Expenditures were authorized and voted at meetings of the free- holders and householders of the town till 1812-1814, when this section of the law was repealed. For ten years meetings of council were held at the houses of members. A fine of twenty-five cents was imposed on a councilman for being thirty minutes late. The act incorporating Dayton provided, "that such part of the township of Dayton, in the county of Montgomery, as is included within the following limits, that is to say, beginning on the banks of the Miami, where the sectional line between the second and third sections, fifth township and seventh range intersects the same, thence east with said line to the middle of Section 33, second township, seventh range; thence north two miles, thence west to the Miami; thence down the same to the place of beginning, shall be, and the same is hereby, creeted into a town corporate, which shall henceforth be known and distinguished by the name and town of Dayton."
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DAYTON INCORPORATED.
In 1805 the expenses of the town were seventy-two dollars, and the council proposed raising the amount by taxation. But at the meeting of voters called to decide the question, the proposition was defeated, thirteen voting in favor of taxation and seventeen against it. An ordinance was passed forbidding the running of hogs and other animals at large on the streets of the town, in September, 1806, but was not enforced till the spring of 1807. A measure so far in advance of the times would not have been adopted but for the fact that few farms or town lots were . fenced, and horses, cattle, and hogs wandered about without restraint of any kind.
A large number of valuable citizens, principally from New Jersey, Kentucky, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and the Ohio company's settlements in Washington County, were added to the population in from 1804-1808. In 1804, Colonel Robert Patterson, famous as an Indian fighter, and as one of the founders of Cincinnati and Lexington, arrived from Kentucky. His biography will be given elsewhere in this history.
In 1805 McCullum's tavern, which was the first brick building erected in Dayton, was built on the southwest corner of Main and Second streets. It was two stories high, and was the best house in the village. A bell in the belfry, on the Second Street side of the roof, called regular and transient boarders to meals. Breakfast was served before daylight. On the sign, after 1812, was painted a picture of the capture of the British frigate Guerriere by the American frigate Constitution. A highly colored engraving of this naval battle was a favorite ornament for Ohio parlors at that date.
About 1870 the house ceased to be used as a tavern, but by lowering the floors and other changes, the rooms were adapted for business. It was used as a business block till 1880, when it was torn down, and the Farmer's Insurance Building erected on the site.
The county court, for the fall term of 1805, was held at McCullum's tavern instead of, as formerly, at Newcom's, the commissioners having contracted with MeCullum for the use of as much of his house, when completed, as would be needed for holding the courts. They paid him twenty-five dollars per annum.
In the spring of 1805, the Dayton Library Society was incorporated by the legislature.
March, 1805, is noted as the date of the first great flood that occurred here after the settlement of the town. John W. Van Cleve gave the following interesting account of this flood in an address on the "Settle- ment and Progress of Dayton," delivered before the Dayton Lyceum August 27, 1833, and published in the Journal:
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" In the spring of 1805 Dayton was inundated by an extraordinary rise of the river. In all ordinary freshets, the water used to pass through the prairie at the east side of the town, where the basin now is, but the flood of 1805 covered a great portion of the town itself. There were only two spots of dry land within the whole place. The water came out of the river at the head of Jefferson Street, and ran down to the common at the east end of Old Market Street, in a stream which a horse could not cross without swimming, leaving an island between it and the mill. A canoe could be floated at the intersection of First Street with St. Clair, and the first dry land was west of that point. The western extremity of that island was near the crossing of Main and First streets, from whence it bore down in a southern direction towards where the saw mill now stands, leaving a dry strip from a point on the south side of Main Cross Street, between Jefferson Street and the prairie, to the river bank at the head of Main Street. Almost the whole of the land was under water, with the exception of those two islands, from the river to the hill which circles round south and cast of town, from Mad River to the Miami. The water was probably eight fect deep in Main Street, at the court house, where the ground has since been raised several feet.
"In consequence of the flood, a considerable portion of the inhab- itants became strongly disposed to abandon the present site of the town, and the proposition was made and urged very strenuously that lots should be laid off upon the plain upon the second rise on the southeast of the town, through which the Waynesville road passes, and that the inhab- itants should take lots there in exchange for those which they owned upon the present plat, and thus remove the town to a higher and more secure situation. The project, however, was defeated by the unyielding opposition of some of the citizens, and it was no doubt for the advantage and prosperity of the place that it was.
"Sometime afterwards a levee was raised across the low ground at the grist mill, to prevent the passage of the water through the prairie in freshets; but not being built with sufficient strength and elevation, the floods rose over it and washed it away several times, until at length it was made high and strong enough to resist the greatest rises of water that have occurred since 1805, although one like the one of that year would still pass over it. The last time it was washed away was in August, 1814."
At an early day a levee was built by Silas Broadwell to protect the western part of the town from the overflow of the annual freshets. The levee began at Wilkinson Street, and ran west a considerable distance
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with the meanderings of the Miami. Mr. D. C. Cooper agreed to give Silas Broadwell certain lots in the vicinity of the levee in payment for building and keeping it in repair.
In the summer of 1805, Jonathan Harshman, one of the earliest settlers of Montgomery County, arrived in Dayton from Frederick County, Maryland, and purchased a farm five miles from town. He was for many years profitably engaged in farming, milling, and distilling, and made a large fortune. He also had a store in Dayton, in partnership with John Rench. They traded for country produce, which they sent down the river to Cincinnati and New Orleans. In 1825 he was elected a member of the Ohio legislature. In 1845 he was elected president of the Dayton bank and served till his death, March 31, 1850.
February 18, 1808, he married Susannah Rench, daughter of John Rench. His wife died December 5, 1839. They had eight children, all of whom married and settled in this neighborhood. Elizabeth married Israel Huston; Catharine married Valentine Winters; Jonathan mar- ried Abigail Hivling; Mary married George Gorman; Joseph married Caroline Protzman; George W. married Ann Virginia Rohrer; Susannah married Daniel Beckel; Reuben married Mary Protzman. The sons were largely engaged in business, and the husbands of the daughters became wealthy and prominent citizens.
John Rench, the brother-in-law and partner of Jonathan Harshman, was for many years one of the most active and enterprising business men of Dayton, and did much to promote the prosperity of the town. His descendants are numerous in Dayton and highly respected.
Ferry rates were fixed by the county commissioners in June, 1805, as follows: For each loaded wagon and team, seventy-five cents; for each empty wagon and team, fifty cents; for cach two-wheel carriage, thirty- seven and a half cents; for each man and horse, twelve and a half cents; for each foot person, six and a quarter cents.
Doctors and lawyers were required to pay a license fee of three dollars each; taverns, nine dollars. The next year ferry rates were advanced and licenses were increased one dollar. There were two ferries over the Miami at Dayton; one at the foot of First Street, at the old ford on the road to Salem, and another at the foot of Fourth Street, on the road to Germantown. The First Street Ferry was used till 1819, when a bridge was built.
In 1804 Mr. D. C. Cooper made a larger plat of Dayton than that of 1802; but though submitted for record on September 9th, it was not recorded until November 20, 1805. The plat of 1805 provided for a public square at the crossing at Main and Third streets. The center of
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HISTORY OF DAYTON.
the crossing was fixed as the center of the square, and at that point a court house was to be built.
June, 1805, the county commissioners advertised in Cincinnati and Lexington, Kentucky, papers for proposals for building a brick court house at. Dayton, forty-two by thirty-eight feet in size, and two stories high. February 3, 1806, the contract was let. Though not finished, it was occupied in the winter of 1807. It stood on the present court house lot instead of, as had been contemplated in Mr. Cooper's plat, in the center of the Main and Third Street crossing. It contained jury rooms in the second story and a court room on the first floor. In 1815 a cupola was added, in which in 1816 a bell was hung. Curwen says that the building, as first completed, was but of one story. It was removed about the year 1847.
In 1806 D. C. Cooper built a brick store room on the northeast corner of Main and First streets, and entering into partnership with John Comp- ton, opened a stock of goods there. The same year James Steele, who since November 12, 1805, had been in partnership in Dayton with William McClure, built a brick store of two stories on the southeast corner of Main and First streets. November 30, 1807, McClure and Steele dissolved partnership. Mr. Steele, on the 2d of December, 1807, entered into partnership with Joseph Peirce, and they continued the business of general merchandising together in "his new brick house, opposite John Compton's store," till Mr. Peirce's death, in 1822. This building remained without alteration till 1865, when it was removed, and Turner's opera house, which was burned in 1869, erected on the site. The building of Cooper's and Steele's stores drew business from the river bank towards the center of town. Brown & Sutherland, and H. G. Phillips also had stores on Main Street.
The Dayton merchants kept a miscellaneous stock of articles, selling dry goods, groceries, medicines, stationery; almanacs, which were in great demand, books, queensware, glass, hardware, iron, nails, and cast- ings. When cash payments could not be obtained, wheat, rye, corn-fed pork, corn, or other merchantable produce, "suitable for the Orleans market," was taken in payment, if delivered in time for the spring trip south by flatboat. Mechanies were willing to receive similar articles in payment for their labor, if delivered before the work was taken away from the shop. Until as late as 1840 all merchants kept bottles of wine and whisky on their counters, from which customers were expected to help themselves. Hitching posts and feed boxes were always provided in front of the stores. 1
Every spring the merchants went to Philadelphia to buy goods. The
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journey was usually made on horseback over rough, unimproved roads and occupied a month. The streams were not bridged, and were diffi- cult especially during high water, to cross. "'Is he a good swimmer?' was a common question when a man was trying to sell a customer a horse." The way occasionally lay for miles through uninhabited woods with no protection for horse or traveler in bad weather but the overhang- ing branches of a tree, in which the rider, having secured his animal, sometimes climbed for the night, 'or perhaps he took refuge under a fallen tree top. All travelers carried arms. Women and children, who emigrated to Ohio, or who visited the East at this period, usually traveled on horseback. Babies were sometimes "carried in a net swung round the father's neck and rested on the pommel of the saddle." A led horse sometimes carried the clothes of the traveler, but they were generally packed in saddle bags, which were swung across the back of his horse. Often the unbeaten bridle path at the western end of the journey was difficult to follow, as it was merely a narrow track marked by blazed trees. They frequently camped in the woods, often, fearing otherwise to . lose their bearings, close to the path. To keep off wild animals, fires were built at night, but what was a protection against one savage foe sometimes attracted the attention of roving bands of Indians, who were even more dangerous to encounter than panthers or wolves. Often the trip between Pittsburg and Cincinnati was made in a flatboat, and part of the journey was sometimes by wagon, but there were no public conveyances.
Such appeals as the following, from merchants preparing to make the annual trip across the mountains, frequently appear in the Dayton Repertory: "- expects to start to Philadelphia in a very few weeks, and will be very much in want of cash. Any persons in his debt are called upon to make payment before the last day of March. He will receive in payment fur, beeswax, or tallow." Merchandise for Dayton stores was brought across the Alleghany mountains from Philadelphia to Pittsburg in huge Conestoga wagons drawn by horses, wearing red yokes hung with jingling bells to warn travelers through the narrow mountain passes of their approach. At Pittsburg the goods were loaded on flat- boats, popularly known as broad horns, and floated down to Cincinnati, from whence they were usually poled up the Miami to Dayton in keel boats. They were often brought ou pack horses, which was a quicker mode of transit than by water. It was a common sight to see these long " line teams," often of a dozen horses tied together in single file, the leader wearing a bell and each animal carrying two hundred pounds, moving up Main Street to unload at one of the four stores. A train of this length was accompanied by three or four men equipped with rifle,
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HISTORY OF DAYTON.
ammunition, axe, and blanket. The game in the woods supplied them with food. Men were stationed at each end of the file to take care of the leader and hind horse, keep the train going and watch over the goods. Sometimes the train was made up of loose horses taught by long experi- ence and service to follow each other without being fastened together. At night during the journey up the valley, bells were attached to the necks of all the horses, and they were turned loose to graze till morning.
In July, 1806, Mr. Crane, of Lebanon, endeavored to establish a newspaper here. After issuing a few numbers, he was attacked with ague, and, in consequence of this illness, abandoned his project and returned to Lebanon. No file of the paper has been preserved, and even its name is forgotten.
In 1807 the Dayton Academy was incorporated by the legislature. The corporators were James Welsh, Daniel C. Cooper, William McClure, George F. Tennery, John Folkerth, and James Hamer. William M. Smith was the first teacher. In 1808 a brick school house was built by subscription on the west side of St. Clair, near Third Street. Mr. D. C. Cooper presented the bell and two lots. During the winter of 1807 and 1808 a debating club was formed. Its meetings and also spelling matches, which were very popular entertainments, were held in the school house for several winters.
John Folkerth, who was one of the incorporators of the academy, came here from Baltimore among the earliest settlers. Soon after his arrival, he was elected magistrate, which position he held for more than forty years. In 1829, under the amended town charter, he was elected first mayor of Dayton. He was a man of sterling integrity, and a great reader of good books. He was one of the founders of the Dayton Library Association, the first library incorporated by the Ohio legislature. In the early history of the town, much the largest part of the deeds were drawn by him, and no doubt his distinct but peculiar chirography is familiar to many of our citizens. Quiet and unobtrusive in his manner, he was held in the highest esteem by those who knew him best. Four of his children are living in Dayton: Russell, who is engaged in business at the advanced age of eighty-three years; Mrs. William Atkin, and Rebecca and Margaret.
March 1, 1807, by the formation of Miami County, Montgomery County was reduced to the territory now within both Montgomery and Preble counties.
This year roads were opened from Dayton to Piqua, New Lexing- ton, Salem, Greenville, Xenia, Germantown, Lebanon, Franklin, and Miamisburg. Most of these roads were very narrow and cut up into
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deep wagon ruts, and were not much improved till 1839. A bridle path was, in the winter of 1810-1811, contracted for and cut through from Dayton to Vincennes, a distance of two hundred miles. The same winter the State Road, known as the "old corduroy road," which was almost impassable in winter or bad weather, was built, and ran cast and west through the town. Mud holes and low places were filled with poles, which floated, and through which horses' feet would sink. Travelers were often delayed for hours by such accidents to their horses. All roads were neglected till 1812, when those from Franklin to Staunton through Dayton, the road south to Lebanon, and the river road from the foot of Fourth Street, Dayton to Alexandersville, which were military roads, were kept in tolerable repair by the quartermaster's department of the army.
At the fall election of 1808 one hundred and ninety-six votes were : cast at the Dayton court house.
This year Henry Brown erected a two-story brick dwelling on the west side of Main Street, on the alley between Second and Third streets. This was the first brick private residence built in Dayton. It was occupied till 1863 as a dwelling, and from then till it was torn down as the Journal office.
The first number of the Dayton Repertory, a weekly four-page news- paper, was issued September 18, 1808, by William McClure and George Smith. It was printed with old style type on a second-hand press, brought here from the East, and on paper eight by twelve and one half inches in size, two columns on a page. October 21st, when five numbers had been issued, the paper was suspended till February 1, 1809, when it was reissued as a twelve by twenty sheet, Henry Disbrow, and William MeClure editors. During the suspension, the office was removed to the south side of Second, between Main and Jefferson streets. The price of the paper was two dollars per year. About the first of January, 1810, it was discontinued. It contained very few local items, but was principally occupied with European news several months old. The advertisements and a few marriage or death notices constitute its chief interest for us. A file is preserved in the Dayton Public Library.
As the advertising columns of a newspaper usually furnish a vivid picture of a town or city, a sketch of the advertisements found in the Repertory of 1808 may give us a glimpse of Dayton at that date.
It contains the advertisements of John Compton, II. G. Phillips, and Steele & Peirce, merchants; John Dodson, carpenter; John Hanna, weav- ing establishment, south end of Main Street; John and Archibald Burns, sickle factory; John Strain & Company, nail factory, southwest side of 7
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HISTORY OF DAYTON.
Main, between Monument Avenue and First Street; James Beck, blue dying establishment-cotton dyed at seventy-five cents per pound, linen or woolen at sixty-two and a half cents. David Steele had a cooper shop on First Street, near St. Clair. Thomas Nutt carried on the tailoring business in all its branches, doing work " on the most reasonable terms and at the shortest notice."
In each number of the Repertory is found the advertisement of Matthew Patton, cabinet-maker, showing that he had something of the modern enterprise in this respect. He lived to old age in Dayton, always bearing an excellent reputation. His son, Captain William Patton, has filled the offices of sheriff of Montgomery County, and captain of the Dayton police.
Paul D. Butler advertises his house for sale in 1808, which he describes " as large and commodious, and will answer for almost any business; good well and pump at the door; frame stable." In May, 1809, Henry Dis- brow, now one of the editors of the Repertory, advertises two lots and "an elegant two-story frame house, 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." He offers to take in pay instead of cash, "such produce as will suit the Orleans market."
March 20th the troop of Light Dragoons are requested through the Repertory " to meet at Colonel Grimes' tavern on Saturday, the 1st of April, at 10 o'clock A. M., in complete uniform; George Grove, first sergeant." D. C. Cooper informs the farmers that he is prepared to card wool. The publishers of the Repertory advertise for sale at their office for cash or clean rags, stationery and school books, Kentucky Preceptors, Webster's spelling books, Murray's first book for children, and primers.
Apprentices, with reputable connections and of good moral character, are several times advertised for by business men. They did not always prove submissive to their masters. On December 10, 1810, H. D. Disbrow offers through the columns of the Centinal the reward of one cent to any person who will return his runaway apprentice lad.
The only accident reported in the Repertory is the drowning of an unknown man in Mad River, June 30, 1809. There were three taverns in Dayton in 1808-MeCullum's, Grimes', and Reid's, though the latter was called Reid's inn. Colonel Reid gave notice in the Repertory that, though he should no longer keep a tavern at his house on Main Street, he would open a house of entertainment there. The change was made to avoid paying the tavern license of ten dollars. Reid's inn was a two-story frame building with a belfry and stood on the west side of Main Street, at
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