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 11
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the corner of the alley between First and Second streets. In a square frame on a post, which stood on the edge of the sidewalk, swung his sign on which at a later date than this was painted the portrait of Commodore Lawrence and a scroll with his last words, "Don't give up the ship." Below hung the small sigu, Reid's Inn.
Grimes' tavern was a log building, one and a half stories high, with a log barn and feed yard on the alley back of it. It stood on the south corner of the first alley on Main Street, south of Monument Avenue. Several frame additions were built to the tavern some years later, and the large dining-room of the house became the popular place for dances and balls.
Dayton had now become an enterprising little town. The taverns, stores, pack-horses, and flatboats were doing a good business. Roads were opened to the surrounding settlements. There were three doctors, a minister, a school teacher, and a lawyer, Joseph HI. Crane, living in town. A biography of Joseph II. Crane appears in the chapter on the "Benchi and Bar." The west side of Main Street, as far as the alley north of the court house, and a square or two on First Street, east and west of Main, were occupied by residences. The streets were not graveled, and no pains were taken to keep the sidewalks in order. The fences were usually stake-and-rider, though a few were post and rail.
The Dayton physicians in 1808 and 1809 were Rev. James Welsh, M. D .; Dr. John Elliott, Dr. William Murphy, and Dr. P. Wood. Dr. Welsh had practiced medicine here and kept a supply of drugs since his settle- ment in Dayton, in 1804, as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church. December 7, 1809, he opened a drug store. He advertised a long list of fresh drugs and medicines. Over his signature in the Repertory, February 20, 1809, he prints the following spicy address to delinquent patients. We wonder whether his parishioners were as dilatory in paying for his spiritual as for his medical ministrations:
"TAKE NOTICE!
"I must pay my debts. To do this is impracticable unless those who are indebted to me pay me what they owe. All such are once more and for the last time called on to come forward and make payment before the 25th of March next, or, disagreeable as it is, compulsory measures may be certainly expected."
Dr. William Murphy, who had practiced medicine here for two or three years, died March 1, 1809.
Dr. John Elliott also died this year. He had been a surgeon in the
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United States Army during the Revolution, and also in the West under St. Clair aud Wayne, and was mustered out with his regiment in 1802. Dr. Drake, a distinguished Cincinnati physician, says of Dr. Elliott, in an " Address on Pioneer Physicians," delivered in Cincinnati: "In the summer of 1801 I saw him in Dayton, a highly accomplished gentleman in a purple silk coat, which contrasted strangely with the surrounding thickets of brush and high bushes." The "purple silk coat" appears rather bizarre when contrasted with the subdued colors now worn by gentlemen; but high colors were the fashion in the time of the Revolution and for some time afterward.
Dr. Elliott practiced medicine here for several years, and was highly esteemed. He died March 26, 1809, and was buried with martial honors. His remains were accompanied to the burying ground by Captain Steele's troop of horse, and Captain Butler's company of infantry, together with the clergy of the neighborhood and a large concourse of people from town and country, and of the latter to some considerable distance. An appropriate address was delivered at the grave by one of the ministers. The Repertory contains a long eulogistic obituary of Dr. Elliott. He was a great loss, socially and professionally, to the community. His wife died before he came to Dayton. He had two daughters; Julia, who married Joseph H. Crane, and Harriet, who married Joseph Peirce. They were prominent and useful pioneer ladies.
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April 9, 1809, the Repertory contains the advertisement of Dr. P. Wood. He opened in Reid's inn an office and a drug store for the sale of "medicine in the small," which was the first apothecary's shop 'established here.
One of the earliest settlers was Abram Darst, who was born in Franklin County, Virginia, July 25, 1782; came to Dayton in 1805, and was at the date we have now reached, and for many years afterwards engaged in business here. He was a man of sterling integrity, highly esteemed by the community, and occupied many positions of trust and importance. His wife was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, April 2, 1787, and came to Dayton in 1807. Mr. Darst died February 9, 1865. His wife lived to be ninety-five years old, dying December 12, 1882. Mrs. Darst was a typical pioneer woman, full of energy and gifted with the faculty of taking care of a large household and at the same time assisting her husband in his business, as was the custom in Dayton at that day. Many a lesson of cheerfulness, patience, industry, and thrift might be learned from the laborious but contented lives of the wives of the founders of Dayton, could their biographies be given at length. One of our old merchants attributed his success largely to the assistance of his wife, and
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what was true of her was true of many others. Mr. and Mrs. Darst had ten children: Julia, Christina, Mary, Sarah, Phebe, Martha, Napoleon B., John W., Samuel B., and Alfred Britain. The daughters all married prominent business men. Julia married James Perrine; Christina married W. B. Dix; Mary married Jacob Wilt; Sarah married W. C. Davis; Martha married George M. Dixon. Napoleon B. Darst married Susanna, daughter of Valentine Winters.
In 1809 Mr. Cooper made a revised plat of the town which conformed to deeds and patents, and to the plat made by St. Clair and his associates in 1795. The present town plat is essentially that of. 1809, though large additions have been made.
On the 4th of July, 1809, the people had a grand celebration. There was a procession of militia and citizens from the town and vicinity which formed on the river bank at the head of Main Street and marched to the court house, where they listened to appropriate singing and an oration. At the close of the exercises the procession reformed and marched to the house of Henry Disbrow, where an elegant dinner was served, tickets costing fifty cents. A number of patriotic toasts were drunk. Salutes were fired by the Dayton company of infantry, commanded by Captain Paul D. Butler, and by Captain James Steele's troop of Light Dragoons. Benjamin Van Cleve, Owen Davis, and William M. Smith were the committee of arrangements. They had various sports and games in the afternoon and a dance in the evening.
This year an ordinance of the select council ordered all males of twenty-one years old and upwards, resident within the corporation, and who had lived in the State three months, and were not a township charge, and not physically incapable, to work for two days every year on the streets and roads under the direction of a supervisor, the penalty of disobedience to the order being a fine of one dollar.
September 6, 1809, the first Montgomery County political convention was held at the court house. David Reid was moderator; Benjamin Van Cleve, clerk. The nominations were as follows: For representatives in State legislature, Joseph H. Crane, Montgomery County; David Purvi- ance, Preble County; for sheriff, Jerome Holt; coroner, David Squier; commissioner, John Folkerth. Six hundred votes were cast at the election and the whole of this ticket was elected. On the 9th a second convention had been held, and opposition candidates for sheriff and commissioner nominated. David Purviance, in a letter to William McClure, dated Chillicothe, December 29, 1809, makes the following allusion to his colleague: "Mr. Crane is the only lawyer who is a member of the house of representatives. He conducts with prudence, and is in good repute as
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a member." Isaac G. Burnet was president of the select council this year, and John Folkerth, recorder.
The Great Miami was navigable, both above and below Dayton, during the greater part of the year for kecl-boats, which were built like canal boats, only slighter and sharper, as well as for flatboats till about 1820, when the numerous mill dams, that had by that time been erected, obstructed the channel. From that date till 1829, when the canal was opened, freighting south by water, except what was done in flatboats during floods, was almost abandoned. That some conception of the extent and value of the boating interest during this period may be formed, all the facts in regard to it that have been collected will be given in this place, though the account will extend to a date several years in advance of the other events related in this chapter.
The boats were often loaded with produce, taken in exchange for goods, work, or even for lots and houses, for business men, instead of having money to deposit in bank or to invest, were frequently obliged to send cargoes of articles received in place of cash, south or north for sale. Cherry and walnut logs and lumber were brought down the river by rafts. The flatboatmen sold their boats when they arrived at New Orleans, and buying a horse, returned home by land. Flatboats were "made of green oak plank fastened by wooden pins to a frame of timber, and caulked with tow or any other pliant substance that could be pro- cured," and were inclosed and roofed with boards. They were only used in descending streams, and floated with the current. Long, sweeping oars fastened at both ends of the boat, worked by men standing on the deck, were employed to keep it in the channel, and in navigating difficult and dangerous places in the river.
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The Dayton Repertory for May 24, 1809, contains the first notice of a Dayton flatboat published here. It says: "A flat-bottomed boat, owned by Mr. John Compton, of this place, descended the Miami yesterday. She was loaded with pork, flour, bacon, and whisky, and destined for Fort Adams." Mr. Compton's boat got safely through to the Ohio, though, on account of low water and changes in the channel of the river, at Hamilton navigation was considered dangerous. Other flatboats also made the trip this year, but it took them two or three weeks to reach the mouth of the Miami. The Repertory, noticing the safe passage of Mr. Compton's boat, says: "Notwithstanding the representations made of the danger in 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."
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During this year and the next there was much complaint that the
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Miami, Mad River, and Stillwater had become so obstructed with brush dams and fish baskets as to impede navigation, and a petition was presented to the legislature praying that Mad River might be declared a public highway, and that the channel of the Great Miami so far as the mouth of Stony Creek, be declared a state road, and that a part of the three per cent fund set apart by government for the improvement of highways, be appropriated to the opening thereof. An effort was also made to have the channel of Stillwater declared a public highway.
Fish baskets, of which frequent mention is made in the newspapers of the day, were made by building a dam on the riffles so as to concentrate the water at the middle of the river, where an opening was made into a box constructed of slats and placed at a lower level than the dam. Into this box the fish ran, but were unable to return. A basket of this kind remained on the riffle at the foot of First Street as late as 1830.
Paul D. Butler, on the 21st of August, 1809, gives notice in the Repertory of his intention to navigate the Great Miami from Dayton to the mouth of Stony Creek as soon as the season will permit, and fore- warns all persons obstructing the navigation by erecting fish baskets or any other obstructions that he is determined to prosecute those who erect them. He and Henry Disbrow soon after proceeded to build two keel- boats. They were built during the winter of 1809-1810 in the street in front of the court house, and when finished were moved on rollers up Main Street to the river and launched. They ascended the Miami to the Laramie portage, which was as far as they could go. Then one of their boats was taken out of the river and drawn across to the St. Mary's. For some time this boat made regular trips on the Maumee and the other on the Miami, the portage between them being about twelve miles across. A freight line, which did a good business, was thus established between Dayton and Lake Erie by way of the Miami, Auglaize, and Maumee rivers.
The flatboating business yearly increased till 1829. Nine flatboats left the Water Street landing on May 13 and 14, 1811, for New Orleans. They were loaded with flour, grain, salt, pork, whisky, and pelts. All the boats arrived safely at their destination except one which was wrecked at a point twelve miles down the river. A private letter dated Dayton March 28, 1812, says: "We had a snow storm 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 boats out." Boats usually started when the spring freshet had raised the Miami.
Shipments were generally made from Broadwell's old red warehouse, at the head of Wilkinson Street, which was a busy, bustling place when
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the boatmen were hurrying their cargoes on board, in order to get away while the flood was at its height. The red warehouse itself was floated off in the freshet of 1828.1; Boats built up the river landed and tied up at Dayton to join those built here, and they all proceeded south in a fleet. The trip to the Ohio usually occupied about a week, and it often took six or ten weeks more for the remainder of the voyage to New Orleans. Sometimes groceries were brought by river from New Orleans to Cincin- nati, and then in wagons to Dayton. Some of the difficulties and delays of the upward trip are described in the following letter, addressed to Steele & Peirce by Baum & Perry, Cincinnati, December 29, 1812:
"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, and after she got 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 arriving sooner. Knowing that sugar is much wanting at your place, have thought it advisable 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 & Burnet; 432 pounds, Isaac Spining; 480 pounds, Robert Wilson; 510 pounds, Steele & Peirce; 430 pounds, Major Churchill."
The sugar was twenty cents a pound by the single box, and eighteen and three quarters cents per pound, if three boxes were taken by one person. The freightage by wagon was one dollar per hundred weight.
In 1815 people began to congratulate themselves that the success of steamboats on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers was assured, and that they would enhance the value of property in the western country. Men of enterprise and capital on the Ohio River were making arrangements to import goods from Europe, by way of New Orleans, on ocean steamers and river steamboats. The citizens of Dayton wished to share the advantage of this direct importation from Europe; otherwise they thought their Cincinnati contemporaries would grow rich, while the vast sums of money sent from along the Miami beyond the mountains to buy goods must leave them poor. The farmer could not wagon his produce to the Ohio with advantage. The Miami .was'a publie highway, and an individual had the same right to fence off one of the public roads as to impede the navigation of that stream; yet fish traps and mill dams had almost ruined the navigation of the river.
A writer in the Republican for September 4, 1815, whom we have
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already quoted, says that "the wealth and increased population of the waters of the Great Miami demand immediate attention to the navigation of that stream, without which the country loses half of its value." "Will the people tamely submit to suffer a few men so essentially to injure the country ? The obstructions in the river must be removed. All are interested in an object so important, and it is hoped the settlers on the waters of the Great Miami will immediately turn their attention to improving its navigation."
As a result of all this agitation of the subject, a navigation board seems to have been appointed, which met for the first time at the house of John C. Tenney, in Franklin, on the fourth Monday of May, 1816. The board consisted of the following gentlemen: William C. Schenck and William Sayre, of Warren County; James Thomson and James Steele, of Montgomery; Andrew Reed and John Cox, of Greene; Jonah Baldwin and Samuel Tibbs, of Champaign; Fielding Loury and John Rogers, of Miami County. All the members were urged to attend the meeting, which was evidently considered of much importance.
December 30, 1817, a number of citizens of Dayton and this vicinity met at Colonel Reid's inn and formed an importing and exporting com- pany. It was thought that such an association would be productive of much good to this neighborhood, as the navigation of the Great Miami would soon be opened and our farmers find a market for their produce just at their doors.
In March and April, 1818, seventeen hundred barrels of flour for the New Orleans market were put on board boats at Dayton and at points a few miles higher up the river.
During the last week of March, 1819, eight flatboats and one handsome keel-boat loaded here, shoved off from the landing for the markets below, and several flatboats loaded with flour, pork, and whisky also passed down the Miami. This year a second line of keel-boats was established for carrying grain and produce up the Miami. At Laramie it was transferred, after a portage across the land intervening between the two rivers, to other boats and transported down the Maumee to the rapids, which was the point of transfer from river boats to lake vessels. At the rapids there was a large warehouse for storage of cargoes.
In May Daytonians were gratified to see a large keel-boat, upwards of seventy feet in length and with twelve tons of merchandise on board, belonging to H. G. Phillips, and Messrs. Smith and Eaker, arrive here from Cincinnati. She was the only keel-boat that had for a number of years been brought this far up the Miami, as the river between here and its mouth had been much obstructed. The Watchman, after announcing
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this arrival, says that the time is not far distant when it will not be considered a novel sight to see keel-boats and barges arrive from below, but impresses upon its readers the fact that if this anticipation is to be realized, the work of removing mill dams and other obstructions from the river, which had been begun, must be energetically continued. till completed.
This year an exporting and importing association, called the "Com- pany of Miami Farmers," was organized by citizens of Montgomery County. Among the corporators were B. Van Cleve, John H. Williams, David Huston, Jerome Holt, and David Hoover.
For several days previous to the 21st of April, 1821, the Miami was very high, and a number of boats with fine cargoes of the produce of the country passed down the river.
The Watchman, in the spring of this year, contained an article expatiating on the value of the Miami River: " Another advantage which this country possesses is the ease with which its produce may be trans- ported to New York by the improvement of the navigation of the Miami and the St. Mary's rivers. This improvement may be made at a very trifling expense. . . . The markets of New York and New Orleans would be accessible to our produce. The spectacle will some day be presented here of water craft in a canal that shall unite the waters of Lake Erie with those of the Ohio. The scene of navigation the Miami now presents to Dayton will be then changed to the canal. It is very pleasing to anticipate the time when we shall have boats almost at our doors ready to carry us to the Gulf of Mexico, or the city of New York, and when we shall have stages passing on the National road through Dayton from the remote State of Maine to Missouri." What would the readers of the Watchman have thought had the writer of this communication added to his other prophecies the building of our innumerable lines of railways, an improvement which probably did not suggest itself to the imagination of the most sanguine Daytonian!
In 1822 for the first time the Dayton paper expresses a doubt of the possibility of navigating the Miami. It says that such is the composition of the bed of the river, and so liable is it to change, that every freshet would make it necessary to repeat the work of improvement, and the expense would be very great.
Seven flat-bottom boats and one keel-boat left here on the 16th of March, 1822, for New Orleans. It was thought that they ran great risk in starting, and that the Miami was not high enough to carry them over the mill dams. All the boats did not get safely through.
As the people of the Miami valley had so far failed in securing a
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canal, movements were renewed in 1824 for the navigation of the river. They now hoped that the channel could be so much improved that steamboats might be run between Dayton and Cincinnati. A large and enthusiastic meeting was held at Reid's inn, "at carly candle light," Saturday, April 24th, for the formation of a central navigation company, with branch companies throughout the Miami country. James Steele was chairman, George S. Houston secretary of the meeting. Various committees were appointed, composed of the following gentlemen : Joseph H. Crane, Alexander Grimes, George W. Smith, H. G. Phillips; William Griffin, C. R. Greene, and G. S. Houston. It was suggested that locks might easily be placed in the side of the dams that now obstructed the river, and the channel cleared and deepened, work in which the farmers would no doubt be willing to assist personally, if they could not contribute money to pay laborers.
It was estimated that a boat capable of carrying a cargo of about -two hundred and fifty barrels, and drawing, when loaded, nearly three feet of water, would cost five thousand, four hundred dollars, and could. pass from Dayton to Cincinnati and back during three months of the year. The remainder of the year it could be run, with profit, between Cincinnati and Pittsburg. The profits for the three months were reck- oned at six thousand, four hundred and fifteen dollars, and fifty cents for freight, and nine hundred and ninety dollars for passengers. The fare would be four dollars down and five dollars up the river; deck passengers, two dollars. It was thought there would be about six passengers each trip. It was proposed to make five trips per month, each trip requiring five or six days. But the navigation company was a failure, and the little steamboat was not purchased.
The last week in April, 1824, three flat-bottomed boats left for the New Orleans market, and another passed here from sixteen miles further north. All got through safely. One of the boats contained four hundred barrels of flour, forty of whisky, and one thousand pounds of bacon.
Saturday and Sunday, March 26 and 27, 1825, were unusually exciting days in Dayton among boatmen, millers, distillers, farmers, merchants, and teamsters, as a fleet of thirty or more boats that had been embargoed here by low water left their moorings bound for New Orleans. Rain had begun to fall on Wednesday and continued till Friday, when the river rose. "The people," says the Watchman, " 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. Several arrived during the day from the north. On Sunday morning others came down,
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the water began to fall, and the boats carrying about forty thousand dollars worth of the produce of the country got under way." The whole value of the cargoes that left the Miami above and below Dayton during this freshet was estimated as at least one hundred thousand dollars. Some of the boats were stove and the flour damaged, but most of them passed safely to their destination.
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