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 14
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 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39
"General Harrison desires to add to his troops any number of volun- teers from the State of Ohio, who will serve on the expedition, not exceeding thirty days.
" All those who will embrace this favorable opportunity of distin- guishing themselves under an able commander, and of rendering to the State of Ohio a valuable service, will, in their equipment and movements, follow the directions of General Harrison hereto subjoined.
"R. J. MEIGS, Governor of Ohio."
" VOLUNTEERS WANTED.
" Any number of volunteers, mounted and prepared for active service, to continue for twenty-five or thirty days, will be accepted to rendezvous at the town of Dayton, on the Big Miami, on the 15th inst.
"It is expected that the volunteers will provide themselves with salted provisions and a portion of biscuits; those who are unable to
119
WAR OF 1812.
procure them will be furnished if possible. Those brave men who may give their country their services on this occasion may be assured that an opportunity of distinguishing themselves will be offered.
"I shall command the expedition in person, and the number of troops employed will be adequate to the object proposed.
" I will also hire a number of substantial horses; fifty cents a day will be allowed for each horse provided with saddle and bridle.
" Those patriotic citizens, who are unable to afford personal assistance, will render essential service to their country by furnishing the horses, which must be delivered in Dayton on the 14th inst., to a person who will be authorized to receive and receipt for them.
" WILLIAM H. HARRISON.
"Headquarters, Piqua, September 2, 1812."
" HEADQUARTERS, PIQUA, "September 5, 1812, 4 A. M. S 1 " Mounted Volunteers :
"I requested you in my last address to rendezvous' at Dayton on the 15th inst. I have now a more pressing call for your services! The British and Indians have invaded our country and are now besieging (perhaps have taken ) Fort Wayne. Every friend to his country, who is able to do so, will join me as soon as possible, well mounted, with a good rifle and twenty or thirty days' provisions. Ammunition will be furnished at Cincinnati and Dayton, and the volunteers will draw provisions (to save their salted meat) at all the public deposits. The quartermasters and commissaries will see that this order is executed.
" WILLIAM H. HARRISON."
The brigade of Kentuckians, under command of General Payne, who, after a short stay in Dayton, had proceeded to Piqua, were ordered to St. Mary's on Sunday, the 6th, and a thousand men also marched to the same place from Urbana.
Three hundred mounted infantry from Kentucky, commanded by Major Richard M. Johnson, arrived here on Sunday. They proceeded to Piqua on Monday, but bivouacked Sunday night on Main Street.
On Monday, September 7th, General Harrison left Piqua for St. Mary's to take command of the troops, which he had been concentrating there for the expedition to Fort Wayne. Just before he left for his army he issued an address to the people of Ohio, calling for about eight hun- dred horses, each provided with a saddle and bridle, as he wanted to mount at least one of his regiments of infantry on horseback. The terms were fifty cents a day for each horse and equipments, to be paid for by
----
- -- - ....
120
HISTORY OF DAYTON.
the United States should they be lost, or should the horses die any other than a natural death. Jesse Hunt and Peyton Short were authorized to engage the horses, and they issued the following notice:
" HEADQUARTERS, PIQUA, September 8, 1812.
"The subscribers will attend in Dayton, at the house of Major David Reid, on the 15th and 16th of this month to receive and receipt for horses.
" JESSE HUNT, " PEYTON SHORT."
The army collected at St. Mary's numbered four thousand, and General Harrison marched for Fort Wayne on September 9th. The distance was fifty-five miles, and he arrived on the 12th. The enemy, without awaiting the chances of a battle, fled before him in all directions. He destroyed the Indian villages, and then returned to St. Mary's. Major Adams' battalion, from this county, was discharged, and returned home, where their prompt patriotism shown in volunteering for the defense of the frontier, without an instant's delay, was highly appreciated.
There was no regularly organized hospital here, but many sick and wounded soldiers received medical and surgical care and nursing in Dayton from our physicians and patriotic women. Dr. John Steele, who settled here in 1812, devoted himself to this work, as did other doctors, who, dying early or removing soon after to other places, are not so well known to our community.
In September General Harrison was commissioned major-general in the United States Army and commander-in-chief of the troops in the Northwest Territory, and ordered to take Detroit. The courier, who passed through Dayton to St. Mary's with this good news, received a warm welcome.
Brigadier-General Winchester and staff dined in Dayton on Sunday, the 13th. They were on their way to join General Harrison, who, declin- ing to serve as second in command under Winchester, had been made commander-in-chief. Winchester was another old Revolutionary relic of the Hull stamp. The unfortunate Hull was court-martialed, found guilty of cowardice and unsoldier-like conduct, and sentenced to be shot, but was pardoned by the president.
September 16, 1812, a regiment of Kentucky volunteers, under command of Colonel Pogue, and several companies of Indiana militia were encamped at Camp Meigs, awaiting General Harrison's orders. On the 17th, General Harrison having received his commission, began to prepare for his campaign against Canada. Ilis troops were neither drilled nor supplied with sufficient ammunition, provisions, and other
.
.
1)
121
WAR OF 1812.
necessaries. Ordinance and commissary supplies were immediately obtained from the government, but he was obliged to request contribu- tions of warm clothing and blankets from the citizens of Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky. Captain Steele's company, which had volunteered for short service, was now returning home, and by them he sent this appeal to the ladies of Dayton:
" HEADQUARTERS, ST. MARY'S, September 29, 1812.
"General Harrison presents his compliments to the ladies of Dayton and its vicinity, and solicits their assistance in making shirts for their brave defenders, who compose his army, many of whom are almost destitute of that article, so necessary to their health and comfort. The materials will be furnished by the quartermaster; and the general confi- dently expects that this opportunity for the display of female patriotism and industry will be eagerly embraced by his fair country-women.
" WILLIAM H. HARRISON.
"P. S .- Captain James Steele will deliver the articles for making the suits on application."
The shirts were made of materials furnished by the Indian depart- ment, and which had been prepared for annuities for the tribes in arms against the government, but withheld in consequence of their hostile attitude.
The ladies of Dayton and this neighborhood, "with a zeal and promptitude honorable to themselves and the State," and without com- pensation, immediately set to work, and by October 14th had eighteen hundred shirts ready for the use of the army. A large quantity of clothing was afterwards sent to the Kentucky troops, via Dayton, from Paris, Kentucky.
Early in October Major Adams raised a company of mounted rifle- men who expected to march at once to Fort Defiance, but as the Indians from the Mississinewa River region were becoming very troublesome to the inhabitants of Proble and Greene counties, the new Dayton company was ordered to Fort Greenville. The Indians murdered any of the people of those counties whom they found outside of the block houses and stole many horses and cattle. Two little girls were killed on the 2nd of October within half a mile of Greenville. The savages did not make their way to Dayton, but they approached near enough to alarm the people, who did not feel assured that their turn to take refuge in block houses would not come. General Winchester on the 4th of October arrived at Fort Defiance from Fort Wayne with his command and rebuilt the fort. His force consisted of three Kentucky regiments, four com- 9
122
HISTORY OF DAYTON.
panies of soldiers of the United States Army, a troop of horse, and Captain Ballard's company of spies. Owners of horses, saddles, and bridles, taken at Dayton for the army, were notified that they would be retained as government property and paid for agreeably to the valuations. An agent was sent here to receive the army horses, of which the valley was full, and which had strayed from the camps and battle-fields.
General Harrison was maturing his plans for the campaign, in the latter part of October, and had arranged for the advance of his army in three columns by different routes to the Maumec Rapids, and thence in a body to Detroit. But the country was inundated by the heavy rains which fell in November, and as the roads were impassable, he was obliged to defer all military movements till spring. He established his head- quarters at Franklinton, Franklin County. The Pennsylvania and Virginia troops were stationed at Upper Sandusky. The Ohio, Indiana, and some Virginia volunteers were at Urbana, under command of Gen- eral Tupper. As long as the rivers continued in good boating condition, supplies were to be forwarded in boats up the Miami to St. Mary's, across the portage, then down the Auglaize and Maumee, across the lake and up to Detroit. When cold or dry weather rendered the roads passable, sup- plies were to be sent through Urbana and Fort Findlay, but during the war all stores or reinforcement by whatever route, by land or water, they proceeded, went via Dayton.
.In the fall the deputy commissary general notified the people that the public stores must be forwarded at all risks by water, and issued the following order:
" It has become necessary to run boats from the mouth of the Great Miami to Laramie loaded with public property, and it is expected that those who own dams will immediately make arrangements for letting the boats pass with expedition and safety; otherwise their dams will be in- jured. The public boats must pass at all risks."
The line of communication was guarded against the Mississinewa Indians by detachments of the militia of this valley stationed at Dayton, Greenville, St. Mary's, and Urbana. The ladies of Dayton, though not formally organized into a soldier's relief society, were constantly engaged in making or collecting clothes and supplies for Montgomery County volunteers in the field or in the hospitals. War was no new thing to many of them, as their relatives had served in the Revolution or under St. Clair and Wayne, and former experience enabled them to prepare speedily and in the best manner the articles that were most needed.
Though the muddy roads to Urbana were almost impassable, supplies were constantly forwarded by army agents stationed at Dayton till the
-----
123
WAR OF 1812.
fall of 1813. They bought up all the salt meat, grain, flour, horses, cattle, tow linen, and similar articles that farmers or merchants and traders would sell. It was a difficult matter to transport supplies through the almost bottomless mud of the roads and over the swollen unbridged streams which were crossed by rope ferries. Traveling was not quite so difficult when the ground was frozen. Colonel Robert Patterson, the forage-master, advertised for fifty ox-sleds and fifty horse-sleds, which it was hoped the farmers would hire or sell to the government. Country boys, too young to volunteer as soldiers, were employed as teamsters. The farmers furnished horses, oxen, and sleds on condition that they should not be taken further than Urbana or St. Mary's. Supplies purchased here were delivered to Colonel Robert Patterson, forage-master, at the government store-house, on the west side of Main Street, between Monu- ment Avenue and First Street. He paid three dollars a day for sleds that would haul six barrels of flour. Eight dollars a barrel was paid by the government for flour delivered at Piqua or Urbana, and ten dollars if delivered at St. Mary's. Seventy-five cents a gallon was received for whisky delivered at the latter place.
On the 1st of December a detachment of soldiers, under command of Lieutenant-Colonel John B. Campbell, of the Nineteenth United States Infantry, arrived in Dayton, where, as they were only partially mounted, they remained until the 11th to procure horses. They also, while here, , drew ten days' rations and forage. On the 11th, leaving their heavy baggage here, they left Dayton for an expedition against the Indians in the Miami villages, near Muncietown, on the Mississinewa, a branch of the Wabash. Colonel Campbell's force was about seven hundred strong, and consisted of Colonel Sunrall's regiment, Captain Garrard and Captain Hopkins' companies of cavalry, from Kentucky; Captain Elliot's com- pany of infantry, recruited in this State; Captain Marrigell's company of cavalry, and Captain Butler's and Captain Alexander's company of infantry, from Pennsylvania. The utmost secrecy as to the object of the expedition and great caution to prevent surprise by the Indians was observed during the march. A third of the command was on guard every night. The weather was bitterly cold and the ground covered with snow during the latter part of their march. Early on the morning of the 17th of December, having marched all night, they surprised and de- stroyed the first of the Indian villages. Three others were taken and destroyed the same day. The next day, shortly after sunrise, the savages attacked our troops and were routed. Thirty Indians were killed during this expedition, fully sixty wounded, and forty-three taken prisoners. Our loss was eight killed and forty-eight wounded. Nearly half the
124
HISTORY OF DAYTON.
horses were killed or lost. The soldiers who had been killed were interred, and stretchers made for those, of whom there were forty, who were too badly wounded to ride. Late in the afternoon the army began their return, and after proceeding three miles, encamped for the night. The next day they marched fourteen miles and camped. One half the men were placed on guard, while the others erected breast works. The men had exhausted their supply of provisions and forage; snow and ice rendered the roads almost impassable; the wounded were suffering from cold and exposure and from lack of surgical attention and nursing, and the hands, feet, and ears of nearly every man in the force were frosted. On the 22d, Major Adams arrived from Greenville with ninety-five men, and immediately supplied the almost starving soldiers with a half ration each. The next day Colonel Holt also came to their assistance with provisions, so that they were able to march to Greenville, which they reached on the 24th. While in camp twelve miles this side of Greenville, a resolution of thanks to Colonel Holt and Major Adams and their men for the prompt and efficient relief they had afforded them, was voted by Colonel Campbell's command.
They arrived at Dayton on Sunday, the 27th, where they rested for several days before proceeding to their headquarters at Franklinton. Only two hundred and three of the men were fit for duty; two of the wounded had died on the road. The Centinal says that "their solemn procession into town with the wounded extended on litters, excited emotions which the philanthropic bosom may easily conceive, but it is not in our power to describe them." Sympathy did not exhaust itself in words; the soldiers were taken into the houses, scarcely a family taking less than four or five, and Sunday was devoted by the ladies of Dayton to the care of the wounded and the refreshment of their weary comrades. This work of mercy prevented the usual Sunday services at the churches. Religious services for the troops were appointed for the next Wednesday, and the following order was issued by Colonel Campbell :
1
" DETACHMENT ORDER, DAYTON, OHIO, December 28, 1812.
" The troops will attend divine service on Wednesday, the 30th inst., in camp, at 12 o'clock. When we consider the wonderful interposition of Divine Providence in our favor during the last fatiguing, dangerous, and distressing expedition, gratitude for these favors requires our united and sincere thanksgiving for our deliverance. I hope the troops, whom I had the honor to command in time of peril ' that tried men's souls,' will attend
125
WAR OF 1812.
with suitable decency and join in devoutly expressing our obligations to that Being whose protection we have all felt and witnessed.
" JOHN B. CAMPBELL, "Lieutenant-Colonel Commanding."
After remaining here a few days, Colonel Campbell's force went on to Franklinton, but many of their wounded were left in Dayton and re- mained for some time. They were carefully nursed by our people. Several of them died and were buried here.
One thousand Indians of the Miami and Delaware tribes, which had been reduced to a starving condition by Campbell's expedition, came to Piqua to place themselves under the care of the Indian agent employed by the government.
Heavy rains began carly in January, 1813, which again made the roads difficult to travel, and soldiers, artillery, wagons, and pack horses moved slowly, yet they were kept in motion, and Dayton continued the thoroughfare for everything passing to the frontier.
A company was organized here in January, 1813, by Captain A. Edwards and marched immediately. Captain Edwards, who was a Dayton physician, had served as a surgeon in the army in 1812.
About the middle of January an engagement at the River Raisin, for which General Winchester was responsible, resulted in defeat and the loss of thirty-two officers and four hundred and seventy-four non-com- ' missioned officers and privates, who were killed, wounded, or missing. General Harrison fortunately soon arrived and checked the disaster. A deep snow had fallen in the north and lay long on the ground, which made the continual motion of the troops this winter hard and disagreeable to them. The soldiers, many of them having no means of obtaining new shoes when their old ones wore out, made themselves moccasins this winter of undressed hides.
Ohio and Kentucky troops, whose term of enlistment had expired, returned home through Dayton in February and usually spent a night on Main Street. The river was high, and stores in large quantities were sent by boat from Cincinnati, and also through the swamps from Laramie Creek to the Auglaize and thence to Fort Defiance.
Reinforcements were required in the spring, and two new Ohio regiments were to be raised. General Harrison, by his personal efforts and visits to Urbana, Franklinton, Chillicothe, Cincinnati, and Dayton, succeeded in obtaining the desired recruits, who were soon on the march in small bodies for the north.
In April General Green Clay's brigade of Kentuckians passed
--
126
HISTORY OF DAYTON.
through here, spending the night in the rain on Main Street, which was nothing but a mudroad, and was deep in mire at that time. Slow and difficult as marching through the almost bottomless mud was, they arrived at headquarters in time for the opening of the campaign at. Fort Meigs, on the rapids of the Maumee. The British and Indians besieged it in the latter part of April, but soon retreated and retired to Canada.
On the 12th of May between twenty and thirty Indians arrived in Dayton as hostages from the Miami tribe.
On the 19th of May James Flinn, second lieutenant of the Second Company of United States Rangers, opened a recruiting office here to enlist thirty or forty good rangers for one year ( unless sooner disbanded ); pay, one dollar a day. He had recruited his company here in 1812.
This year occurred Perry's victory on Lake Erie, Harrison's repulse of Proctor, and the defeat of the British at the battle of the Thames, which ended the war in the West. Returning Ohio and Kentucky soldiers were now constantly on the march from the north through Dayton, and the town was full of people from different parts of the country who had come to meet relatives serving in the various .companies. Sometimes the volunteers encamped in the mud on Main Street became a little noisy and troublesome.
The Dayton companies received an enthusiastic welcome home. Streets and houses were decorated, and a flag was kept flying from the pole erected on Main Street. A cannon was also placed there, which was fired whenever a company or regiment arrived. The people at the signal gathered to welcome the soldiers, whom they were expecting, and for whom a dinner on tables set out of doors was prepared, and the rest of the day was given up to feasting, speeches, and general rejoicings. Our companies had all returned by the first of December, but as they had been in constant and active duty since their departure for the front, a number of brave men had fallen on the battlefield, and others came home in enfeebled health or suffering from wounds which shortened their lives, so that many families in this neighborhood had more cause for sorrow than for joy when the troops gayly marched into town.
The war, though virtually over in the West, had not quite ended along the lower end of Lake Erie, and a few of the Ohio militia did not return home till 1814, and others during 1814 and 1815 were called out for short periods for duty at St. Mary's, Fort Wayne, Fort Defiance, and Greenville.
The Americans and British had a number of skirmishes at Detroit in 1814, but the former held their own. In 1815 peace was declared.
CHAPTER IX.
First Mechanics' Society-Thanksgiving on May 5th-Dayton Bank-Alexander Grimes- Stone Jail-Mr. Forrer's Account of Dayton in 1814-Colonel David Reid-J. W. Van Cleve's Description of Flood of 1814-Proclamation of Peace-Female Charitable and Bible Society-First Market House-Dayton Merchants in 1815-H. G. Phillips-G. W. Smith -- William Eaker-Obadiah B. Conover-William Huffman- Moral Society -- Associated Bachelors-Bridge Over Mad River-First Sabbath Schools-Bridge Street Bridge-Stage Coaches 1818-1828-Camp Meetings-Menageries-Cooper's Mills Burned -First Fire Company-George A. Houston-Wolf Scalp Certificates-Cut Money- Fever Prevails -- Joseph Peirce- Dayton in 1821-Charles R. Greene --- Cheapness of Provisions-The Gridiron-First Musical Society-Colored People Emigrate to Hayti- First Fire Engine-Execution of McAfee.
S SATURDAY, March 15, 1813, at four o'clock in the afternoon, the mechanics of Dayton met at the tavern of Hugh MeCullum for the purpose of forming a mechanics' society. This was the first work- ingmen's association organized in Dayton.
The 5th of May was this year set apart by the governor of Ohio for a day of Thanksgiving. In Ohio in early times Thanksgiving was not always observed by the people, and when the governor issued his procla- mation for the festival, he was as likely to select Christmas or Mayday as the last Thursday in November. General Arthur St. Clair, governor of the Northwest Territory, in the first proclamation of this kind issued within what is now the State of Ohio, set apart December 25, 1788, as a day of Thanksgiving and prayer, and recommended the cessation of all servile labor on that day.
On the 19th of May appeared the last number of the Ohio Centinal, and for a year and five months no newspaper was published in Dayton. As a consequence the history of the town during this period is not as full as could be desired.
The first Dayton bank, called the Dayton Manufacturing Company, was chartered in 1813. No one in Dayton was more thoroughly identified with this bank than Alexander Grimes. IIe was elected director of the bank in 1819. From 1831 to 1843 he was cashier, and on the first of January, 1843, he, as agent, closed up the affairs of the bank.
Alexander Grimes was the son of Colonel John Grimes, who is frequently mentioned in this history in connection with the noted tavern on the east side of Main, near First Street. At an early day Mr. Grimes was in partnership with Steele & Peirce, under the name of Alexander
127
128
HISTORY OF DAYTON.
Grimes & Company. The firm was dissolved in 1817. Afterwards he was auditor of Montgomery County and commissioner of insolvents. Ile, in conjunction with Edward W. Davies, was trustee of the estate of David Zeigler Cooper. Their wise and generous management of this property rapidly increased its value, and was also of great advantage to Dayton. Mr. Grimes was twice married; first to Miss Gordon, who left one son, Burnet Grimes. His second wife was Miss Maria Greene, of Dayton. They had two children; Charles Greene, who married Isabel, daughter of Daniel Keifer, of Dayton, and Susan Eliza, who married Marcus Eells. -
The contract for building a new jail was sold to James Thompson July 27, 1811, at public auction at the court house for two thousand, one hundred and forty seven dollars and ninety-one cents. The jail was eighteen by thirty-two feet and built of rubble stone: A rented house was used for a jail till the new building was finished. It was not com- pleted till December, 1813. The jail stood on Third Street in the rear of the court house and close to the pavement. It was two stories high with gable shingle roof, running parallel with the street; a hall ran through the center of the house from the Third Street entrance; the prison occupied the east half of the building and the sheriff's residence the west half. There were three cells in each story. Those in the second story were more comfortable than the others, and were used for women and for persons imprisoned for minor offenses. One of the cells was for debtors, imprisonment for debt being still legal at that period. Often men im- prisoned for debt were released by the court on "prison bounds" or " limits" upon their giving bond for double the amount of the debt. They were then permitted to live at home, support their families and 1 endeavor to pay their indebtedness, but were not allowed to go beyond the corporation limits. This jail was not considered a safe place of confinement for criminals, as persons on the sidewalk could look through the barred windows, which were about two feet square, into the lower front cell, and pass small articles between the bars. Though the cells were double lined with heavy oak plank, driven full of nails, one night four prisoners escaped by cutting a hole in the floor and tunneling under the wall and up through the sidewalk.
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.