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 12
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Twelve boats left here for New Orleans in February, 1827, from Montgomery and Miami counties, chiefly loaded with flour, pork, and whisky. Their cargoes were worth about twenty thousand dollars. The river had been high and in fine boating condition for some days. A number of boats also left on the 29th of April. Two of them struck on a rock in going over the Broad Ripple and one immediately sunk. The other, belonging to Phillips and Perrine, and chiefly loaded with flour, was able to proceed, though considerably injured. The editor of the Dayton paper closes his notice of this accident by saying that he believed that the loss on the river during his recollection equaled the amount required to make one sixth of the Miami canal, and that for this as well as other reasons all would rejoice to see the completion of this all im- portant improvement.
In February, 1828, the last boat, loaded with produce for New Orleans, left here by the Miami. The next year freight began to be shipped south by canal. As late as 1836, and perhaps a year later, when the canal was opened to Piqua, the line of boats on the river to the north was continued.
April 23rd a conference of ministers and laymen, which met at the house of Colonel Robert Patterson, near Dayton, requested Rev. John Thomson, in conjunction with David Purviance, Samuel Westerfield, William Snodgrass, and William McClure, to collect and arrange the hymns, and prepare for the press a book, to be called the Christian Hymn Book, containing two hundred and fifty hymns. The price was not to exceed seventy five cents a copy; it was to be printed with good type on good paper, and to be well bound. It was published at the Centinal office, Dayton, as according to a letter written by John Thomson to William McClure on May 10th, they could not "get the work done anywhere on better terms than at Mr. Burnet's." William McClure, of Dayton, received subscriptions. This was the first work printed or published in Dayton.
In the summer of 1810, the Indians were encamped at Greenville. There were twenty-four hundred of them living in Ohio, though many had emigrated to the West. Five hundred and fifty-nine of them lived at Wapakoneta. Tecumseh and his brother, the Prophet, were uniting the Indians in the West and South in a league against the whites, and their movements were watched by Dayton people with much anxiety.
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DAYTON INCORPORATED.
In 1810 D. C. Cooper was elected president of the select council and James Steele recorder.
The population of Dayton was three hundred and eighty-three; the population of the county was seven thousand, seven hundred and twenty- two. The revenue of the county for 1809-1810 was one thousand, six hundred and forty-four dollars, and fifteen cents. Curwen exultingly contrasts the small income of the county in 1810 with the ninety thousand dollars raised by taxation in 1850, which seems a small amount when contrasted with 1888, when the amount levied was one million, twenty-one thousand, four hundred and eighty dollars.
In 1810 the county commissioners paid thirty dollars for wolf scalps. The next year they paid twenty-two dollars.
An ordinance, passed by council in 1810, indicates the size of the town at that date. The ordinance provided for the improvement of the sidewalks along Monument Avenue, then called Water Street, from Main to Mill Street; along First, from Ludlow to St. Clair, except the south side of First, between Jefferson and St. Clair; and on Main Street, from Monument Avenue to Third Street. The walks were ordered to be "laid with stone or brick, or to be completely graveled, and a ditch dug along the outer edge of the walks," and people were forbidden to drive over the walks, except when absolutely necessary. Fines imposed for the infringement of this ordinance were to be expended in making walks across the streets. The Ohio Centinal, which had appeared on. May 10th, when Dayton had been five months without a newspaper, says, in an editorial, that there will be general rejoicing among. citizens and visitors from the country on account of the passage of this law.
The Centinal succeeded the Repertory, and was eleven by nine inches in size, and published weekly by Isaac G. Burnet til! 1813, when it was discontinued. The editorials are remarkably interesting and well written, for the editor was a man of talent and education. Editors in those days labored under many difficulties. In consequence of the high water in July, 1810, the eastern mail, due two or three days before, had not arrived here on the 26th, when the Centinal appeared. The same month, on account of the illness of the private post rider employed by Mr. Burnet and the impossibility of procuring another at the busy season of the year, subscribers out of town were obliged to do without their paper for two weeks.
The Fourth of July was celebrated as last year by a procession from the river to the court house, where the programme was as follows: Sing- ing of an ode; prayer by Rev. Dr. Welsh; reading of the Declaration of Independence by Benjamin Van Cleve, and an oration by Joseph II.
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IJISTORY OF DAYTON.
Crane. The "oration was eloquent and well adapted to the occasion." The exercises were followed by a dinner under a bower. Seventeen toasts were drunk, and during the drinking of the toasts national salutes were fired.
Though Dayton had grown steadily since its incorporation, it was still too insignificant in 1810 to appear on the maps of the United States in school books; but the people might have consoled themselves by remem- bering that Cincinnati was also ignored by the map-makers. In 1810 a work called "A New System of Modern Geography," by Elijah Parish, D. D., Minister of Byfield, was published at Newburyport, Massachusetts. In this curious book, which professes to be very com- plete, but is full of amusing blunders and omissions, Xenia is spelled Xenica, and Dayton and the Great Miami River are not mentioned. Marietta, which was founded by New Englanders, has more space devoted to it than that given to all the other towns put together. "No considerable towns are yet reared in this vast wilderness," says Dr. Parish, in the chapter on Ohio; "Xenica, the seat of justice for the county of Greene, lies on the Little Miami, six miles from the celebrated medicinal springs, near which is a mine of copper or gold. Cincinnati is the largest town of Ohio, containing four hundred houses. The public buildings are a court house, prison, and two places of public worship. It is four hundred and ninety-three miles from Pittsburg."
On the 17th of September Colonel Jerome Holt assembled the Fifth regiment of militia at Dayton for training purposes. Militia trainings were gala occasions. Business was suspended, and crowds flocked into town to witness the drill and parade. The Dayton troop of Light Dragoons were notified in orders, signed by Henry Marquardt, second sergeant, to assemble equipped, as the law requires, at MeCullum's tavern to join the regiment.
In 1811 a colony of Shakers lived in Dayton, and in May of that year they were mobbed and warned several times in insulting placards, placed on their gate-posts, to leave town or suffer the consequences. They seem to have offered no resistance to these attacks of armed men, but made a moderate and sensible reply to their assailants in the Repertory, and declined to leave Dayton. Soon after they bought a fertile tract of land a few miles southeast of town on which they built a village, where the society still lives. It is hard to believe that these inoffensive people were ever hated or feared and mobbed by their neighbors.
This year the 4th of July was celebrated with more than the usual spirit. The general committee of arrangements was composed of Dr. N. Edwards, Joseph II. Crane, and Joseph Peirce.
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DAYTON INCORPORATED.
A sermon was preached at an early hour in the day by Rev. Dr. Welsh. After divine service the usual procession to the court house formed on the Main Street bank of the river. The Declaration of Independence was read by Joseph H. Crane, and an oration was delivered by Benjamin Van Cleve.
For many years there was little political excitement or animosity in Dayton. Members of both parties were sometimes nominated on the same ticket. But in 1811 the opposition of the two parties to each other had become so bitter and extreme that they were unwilling to dine to- gether on the Fourth of July as in former years, and drink patriotic toasts prepared by a committee appointed at a town meeting. Two public dinners were prepared under bowers erected for the occasion, one by Mr. Strain and the other by Mr. Graham. Each company drank seventeen toasts, expressing their political opinions, accompanied at Mr. Graham's by a discharge of small arms and ending with an eighteenth volunteer toast, which was in the spirit of those preceding it, and was as follows: " Thomas Jefferson, late President of the United States." The party at Mr. Strain's drank their toasts "under a discharge of cannon and loud and repeated cheers." The final volunteer toast, which was as follows, indicates their attitude towards the Democratic party: "May our young Americans have firmness enough to defend their rights without joining any Tammany club or society." In the afternoon the Rifle Company and the Dragoons paraded, and there was a dance in the evening.
Mills, barns, still houses, and all outbuildings, other than dwellings, were in 1811 exempted from taxation. The commissioners ordered a standard half bushel. James Wilson was appointed keeper of the measures, and announces in the Centinal that he will be at his house in Dayton every Saturday to measure and seal half bushels.
This fall croup, or some other throat disease called by that name, seems to have been epidemie in Dayton, and a large number of children died from it. The disease was attributed to " the sudden changes of this moist and variable climate," and the people were warned that if they would save the lives of their children, they must carefully guard them against exposure.
A comet was visible in 1811, and this, together with the series of earthquakes throughout the Ohio valley, which occurred during that and the succeeding year, and neither of which had been experienced before since the settlement of the western country, were regarded with terror by the superstitious, who considered them evil portents, and ominous of private or public misfortune.
The Centinal contains graphic accounts of the earthquakes, from
السيرة
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which we shall borrow largely in our description of this terrible visit- ation. On Monday and Tuesday, the 16th and 17th of December, 1811, the inhabitants of Dayton were kept in continual alarm by repeated shocks. The first and by far the severest shock was felt between two and three o'clock on Monday morning. It was so severe as to rouse almost every person in the village from his slumbers. Some left their houses in affright, and all were terrified at the unusual phenomenon. The horses and cattle were equally alarnicd, and the fowls left their roosts in great consternation. It was not preceded by the usual token of a rumbling noise. The earth must have been in a constant tremor on Monday and Tuesday. A surveyor went out on Monday for the purpose of surveying a road in the neighborhood, but being unable to get the needle to settle, he was obliged to desist. He tried it again on Tuesday, with the same effect.
Between eight and nine o'clock on Thursday morning, January 23, 1812, occurred another shock of earthquake more severe, it was generally supposed, than any of those which had preceded it. It was equally alarming at Cincinnati and other adjacent towns. Several considerable shocks followed, the most severe occurring on the morning of the 27th. It agitated the houses considerably, and articles suspended in stores were kept in motion about one minute.
About a quarter before four o'clock Friday morning, February 13th, the people were again alarmed by this awful visitor. Two shocks in quick succession were felt. The rumbling noise, which is the usual precursor and attendant of earthquakes, was distinctly heard to precede and accompany both the shocks. Those who were not awake at the commencement were sensible of but one shock; but there were certainly two, though the intermission was but momentary. There was an inter- mission both in the noise and the agitation of the earth; not a total one, but a perceptible degree of abatement in both. The noise appeared for a few moments to be subsiding, but recommenced with increasing loudness, and continued till the second shock was nearly or quite at its height. It was by far the most awful, both in its severity and the length of its duration, of any that had been felt in Dayton, and left an impression upon the minds of the people which many years did not erase. Persons who experienced it in youth spoke of it in old age with a shudder of horror. The motion on February 13th was from the southwest, and many thought there was also a vertical motion, and that the undulatory motion was shorter and quicker than usual. The air was cold and . remarkably clear, but became hazy shortly after. Many of the inhab- itants left their houses; the fowls left their roosts, and cattle and horses
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DAYTON INCORPORATED.
manifested the same consciousness of danger. In the evening of the same day two other shocks were felt-the first about a quarter to cight o'clock, and the other about half past ten. It snowed, and the night was cloudy and extremely dark. A dim light in the southwest was seen by several for some time prior to the first shock in the evening, and disap- peared immediately after it.
The number of the Centinal, which describes the shocks on February 13th, contains a frightful account of the earthquake which destroyed New Madrid, on the Mississippi, and the people of Dayton, no doubt, read it with awe and dread, it being not impossible that a similar fate awaited them. All winter the newspapers were full of startling earthquake news. On the 27th of June the most violent tornado ever previously known in Ohio passed through Montgomery County about eight miles from Dayton. The physicians practicing in Dayton in 1812 were Dr. Edwards, Rev. Dr. Welsh, Dr. Charles Este, and Dr. John Steele.
This year Joseph IL. Crane was elected member of congress; George Newcom was elected State senator, and Joseph Peirce representative in the legislature.
The revenue of the county for 1811-1812 was one thousand, seven hun- dred and forty-eight dollars, and eiglity-seven cents, and the expenditures, one thousand, nine hundred and sixty-eight dollars, and sixty-six cents.
In January the government had begun to raise troops for the war with Great Britain. While the Ohio militia were encamped at Dayton, ' D. C. Cooper employed them in digging a race from his old saw mill to Sixth Street, at the intersection of which street with the present line of the basin he erected a saw mill which remained there till 1848.
A letter written from Dayton in 1812 by a prominent merchant to his partner, who had gone east to buy goods, reports " business quite as good as could be expected. Groceries, especially coffee, are scarce in town. I think eight or ten barrels would not be too much for us if they can be purchased cheap. A good assortment of muslins to sell at twenty-five, thirty-three, thirty-seven and a half, forty-five, and fifty cents would be desirable, and if L. Paseson can furnish you with them as cheap at four months as for cash, I would purchase pretty largely." Soon after the same merchant wrote to a relative that he had been so overwhelmed with business since the arrival of the troops that he had not had time to attend to his correspondence.
Dayton prospered during the war of 1812. A great deal of money was made in regular trade and in real estate speculations. Working men and mechanics began to buy homes in the spring of 1818, and " land was platted and sold in lots up Mad River as far as the Staunton Road ford."
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CHAPTER VIII.
War of 1812-Aggressions of Great Britain-Tecumseh and the Prophet-Ohio Militia Ordered to Report at Dayton-General Munger Orders a Draft-Militia Bivouac Without Tents at Library Park-Governor Meigs Arrives-Issues a Call to Citizens for Blankets --- Block Houses Built in Montgomery County -- Colonel Johnston Holds Council of Shawnees-Generals Gano and Cass Arrive-Three Regiments of Infantry Formed- First Troops Organized by Ohio-General Hull and Staff Arrive-Governor Meigs Sur- renders Command to Hull-The Governor and General Review Troops-The Three Regiments March Across Mad River to Camp Meigs-Leave Camp Meigs for Detroit- Difficult March-Arrive at Detroit in Good Spirits-Munger's Brigade Disbanded- Army Contractors Make Purchases at Dayton-Hall's Surrender-Consternation of the People-Hand Bill Issued at Dayton, Calling for Volunteers-Captain Steele's Company -Suffering of Families of Soldiers - Kentucky Troops Arrive-Harrison Calls for Volunteers and Horses -- Dayton Ladies Make 1,800 Shirts for Soldiers-Expedition Against Indians Near Muncietown -- War Ended-Returning Troops Encamped on Main Street-Dayton Companies Welcomed Home.
T' THE years of 1812 and 1813 were eventful years in the history of the town, as Dayton was the rendezvous of the Ohio and Kentucky militia called out for service in the war against Great Britain. It might perhaps be correctly said that the treaty of peace signed in 1783 was succeeded by a merely nominal cessation of hostilities between the English and the Americans. The people of the United States had from the close of the Revolution been exasperated by the aggressions of Great Britain upon the neutral rights of this country, and still more by her encouragement of the barbarities of the savages, who, it was well known, had received not only sympathy, but guns, ammunition, and officers from the forts which she unrightfully held to assist them in their battles with our troops.
The threatening movements of Tecumseh and the Prophet had led to a debate in Congress in December, 1811, on the propriety or necessity of invading and seizing Canada early in the spring of 1812, and by this means securing the western frontier before the savages had begun hostilities. But though Governor Hull, of Michigan, who from his residence on the border was informed of the plans of the Indians and their sympathizers, and aware of the extent of the danger that threatened, repeatedly urged the necessity of offensive and defensive measures upon congress, no heed was given to his wise suggestions. A private letter from Colonel Armstrong to the secretary of war, received in January, 1812, at last roused the apprehensions of the government, and, moved probably by the colonel's representations of the state of affairs, early in
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the spring an order was issued for raising troops in Ohio to join the army at Detroit.
In April, 1812, President Madison issued orders, calling out a force of twelve hundred Ohio militia for one year's service. In obedience to this order, Governor Return J. Meigs ordered the major-generals of the West- ern and Middle divisions of militia to report, with their respective quotas of men, at Dayton on the 29th of April. General Munger was ordered to raise a company in Dayton. No companies were raised in Preble and Miami counties, which were expressly exempted because that quarter was threatened by Indians, and it was not thought advisable to draw men from there.
The commissioned and non-commissioned officers of the First Bat- talion, First Regiment, Fifth Brigade, First Division of Ohio Militia, were ordered by Major David Reid, commanding the First Battalion to . meet at Dayton at the usual parade ground, by ten o'clock, second Tues- day of April, armed and equipped as the law requires, for the purpose of a battalion muster. April 11th, the Centinal announces that Governor Meigs is expected in Dayton on the 20th to inspect the company of rangers that was being raised in this neighborhood, and to give them the necessary orders; and, also, that General Munger has received orders [mentioned above ] for raising a company in his brigade to be marched to Detroit.
In its next issue it states that at the battalion muster, Tuesday, April 14th, advertised on the 11th, the orders were read and also the volunteer bill passed by congress, February 20th. "It was expected that a sufficient number would volunteer to obviate the necessity of a draft, but only twenty stepped forth at the call of their country." This was the only time that the Centinal had occasion to reprove the people for lack of patriotism. Hostilities were now just beginning, and the citizens were not fully roused; soon the war excitement rose to fever heat in Dayton.
In consequence of the lack of volunteers, the battalion was ordered to assemble on the 16th at Adams' Prairie, near the mouth of Hole's Creek, five miles from Dayton. Major Adams was also ordered to report with his battalion at that place "to have a draft if necessary." General Munger was determined to raise the new company, which was to be commanded by Captain Perry, wholly from these two battalions. The law authorized officers to call out all or a part of the militia under their command. In case of long service, if there were not enough volunteers, it became their duty to draft a sufficient number of men to fill the quota from the remainder of the militia. This was what they proposed to do on the present occasion.
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April 23d, Captain Perry's company of rangers was ordered to march immediately to Laramie.
The coats of the soldiers in the army of 1812 were blue, with scarlet collar and cuffs, and they wore cocked hats, decorated with a cockade and white feather.
April 29th, a man was killed and scalped near Greenville, and three murdered men were found in the woods near Fort Defiance. This news produced much excitement.
The governor had appointed April 30th as a day of fasting and prayer. Religious services were held at the Dayton court house.
On the first of May, Major Charles Wolverton, of Miami County, who had been ordered to march with Captain Reuben Westfall's com- pany, of that county, from Piqua to Greenville, and kill every Indian they saw, killed two Pottawatomies, wounded one of that nation, and captured two squaws and an Indian boy.
The order making Dayton the rendezvous of the militia had been issued by Governor Meigs early in April, but when on May 1st the first companies arrived, no preparations for their accommodation had been made. They bivouacked on the common, now Library Park, without tents or other camp equipage till the middle of the month. Many of them were without even blankets. By the 7th of the month twelve companies had arrived, and eight or ten more were expected in a few days. There was not room for all these companies, which contained eight hundred men in all, within the town, and some of them encamped just south of Dayton.
Governor Meigs arrived in town to inspect the troops and give orders on the 6th of May. His arrival was announced by a salute of eighteen guns by the citizens. In the afternoon he reviewed the militia. On the 7th he issued the following appeal from his headquarters, at McCullum's tavern, to the men and women of the State:
"A CALL ON THE PATRIOTISM OF THE CITIZENS OF OHIO.
"The situation of our country has compelled the government to resort to precautionary measures of defense. In obedience to this call, eight hundred men have abandoned the comforts of domestic life, and are here assembled in camp at the distance of some hundred miles from home, prepared to protect our frontier from the awful effects of savage and of civilized warfare. But the unprecedented celerity with which they have moved, precluded the possibility of properly equipping them. Many, very many, of them are destitute of blankets, and without these indis- pensable articles, it will be impossible for them to move to their point of destination.
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"CITIZENS OF OHIO! This appeal is made to You. Let each family furnish one or more BLANKETS, and the requisite number will be com- pleted. 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 inconvenience, part with one.
" MOTHERS! SISTERS! WIVES! Recollect that the men, in whose favor this appeal is made, have connections as near and dear as any that bind you to life. These they have voluntarily abandoned, trusting that the integrity and patriotism of their fellow-citizens will supply every requisite for themselves and their families; and trusting that the same spirit which enabled their fathers to achieve their independence, will enable their sons to defend it.
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