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 15
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Mr. Samuel Forrer visited Dayton in the fall of 1814, and his reminiscences, published in the Dayton Journal in 1863, give us a glimpse of the town at that date: "At that early day there was a house and a well in an oak clearing on Main Street, near Fifth, surrounded by a hazel thicket. It was a noted halting place for strangers traveling northward and castward, in order to procure a drink of water and inquire the
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distance to Dayton! The embryo city was then confined to the bank of the Miami River, between Ludlow and Mill streets, and the business -- store-keeping, blacksmithing, milling, distilling, etc .- was concentrated about the head of Main Street."
The next visit of Mr. Forrer was in 1818, when he took lodgings at the principal hotel, then and long afterwards kept by Colonel Reid, " a good man and excellent landlord." The site of that old-time traveler's home is now occupied by the Baptist Church on the west side of Main, between First and Second streets. Here Mr. Forrer remained for some time "enjoying the hospitalities of the place and the pleasures derived from the manly sports of those times."
Colonel David Reid settled in Dayton about the time the town was incorporated, and was in business until his death in 1837. Reid's inn was a noted house of entertainment before 1807. For years the menageries and shows, which found their way to Dayton once a year, had their exhibitions in the barn yard of Reid's inn. The inn parlor was the favorite place for town meetings of all kinds. At the beginning of the year 1812 Colonel Reid was in command of the first battalion of the First regiment of militia and was afterwards elected colonel.
In 1814 the Miami River overflowed its banks, and destroyed the levee. John W. Van Cleve gave the following description of this flood in his lecture on "The Settlement and Progress of Dayton:" "The water was deep enough to swim a horse where the warehouses stand, at the head of the basin, and a ferry was kept there for several days. The water also at that time passed through with a considerable current from the head of Jefferson to the east end of Market Street, and through the hollows in the western part of the town; and the plain through which the feeder passes, east of the mill race, was nearly all under water."
In 1814 the first Methodist church was finished and occupied.
October 3, 1814, the first number of the Ohio Republican appeared. ..
Before 1812 one blacksmith had been able to do all the shocing of horses and repairing of wagons and agricultural implements in the town and neighborhood. But after the war four blacksmiths, John Burns, Jacob Kuhns, James Davis, and O. B. Conover, did a profitable busi- ness here.
Charles Tull began to work a ferry across the Miami, at the head of Ludlow Street, in December, 1814. Farmers brought their produce over in the boat to trade at the stores, leaving their horses and wagons hitched on the north side of the river.
In the winter of 1815, some excitement was occasioned by the appearance of counterfeit notes of the Dayton Manufacturing Company.
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One and two dollar bills were fraudulently raised to twenty and one hundred dollar notes. The counterfeit bills were originally issued as post notes, but in consequence of a mistake made by the engraver in repeating the letters "tu" in the word "manufacturing," the directors did not think fit to make use of them as post notes; but as small bills. were very much wanted, they cut off the words "post notes," which were engraved at the ends of the bills, and issued them as one and two dollar bills.
In February, 1815, came the glorious news that a treaty of peace had been signed between the United States and Great Britain. The Repub- lican made the following announcement of a proposed illumination of the town in celebration of the event:
" PEACE.
"With hearts full of gratitude to the great Arbiter of nations, we announce this joyous intelligence to our readers. Every heart that feels but a single patriotic emotion will hail the return of peace on terms which are certainly not dishonorable, as one of the most auspicious events. we were ever called upon to celebrate.
"The citizens of Dayton have agreed to illuminate this evening. The people from the country are invited to come in and partake of the general joy."
The governor of Ohio, in view of the declaration of peace, appointed . March 31st as a day of Thanksgiving.
Wednesday April 12, 1815, the ladies of Dayton and vicinity met at the house of Mrs. Henry Brown, at three o'clock in the afternoon, to organize the Dayton Female Charitable and Bible Society. Each mem- ber was to contribute one dollar a year for the purpose of purchasing Bibles, and also to make a quarterly contribution of twenty-five cents for the charitable fund. The society was organized for the purpose of gratuitously distributing the Holy Scriptures and secking the sick, the afflicted, and needy, particularly of their own sex, relieving their wants and administering to their comfort and giving consolation to them in their distress as far as was in their power. The officers of the society were the following ladies: President, Mrs. Robert Patterson; vice-presi- dent, Mrs. Thomas Cottom; Mrs. Dr. James Welsh, corresponding secretary; Mrs. Joseph II. Crane, recording secretary; Mrs. Joseph Peirce, treasurer; managers, Mrs. William King, Mrs. David Reid, Mrs. James Hanna, Mrs. James Steele, and Mrs. Isaac Spining. This was the first society of this kind organized in Dayton, though the ladies who formed it were previously and during the remainder of their lives noted
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for their benevolence and good works. A charity sermon for the benefit of the society was preached by Rev. J. L. Wilson, in the Methodist- meeting-house, on Sunday, June 25th.
In May, Robert Strain opened a travelers' inn in his large brick building on the corner of Main and Fourth streets, the site of the United . Brethren Publishing House. June 26th Ann Yamer opened a millinery shop on Main Street, south of Second Street. She announced, beside attractive goods for ladies, a full stock of plumes and other decorations for military gentlemen, and that she was in need of a supply of goose feathers.
July 4, 1815, the first market-house was opened, and Wednesdays and Saturdays, from four to ten A. M., appointed as the times for the markets to be held. It was a frame building, one hundred feet long, on Second Street, between Main and Jefferson, with butchers' stalls on cither side of the interior of the building, and stands for farmers and gardeners on the outside, under the wide projecting eaves. From the building along Second, or Market Street, as that part of Second Street was then called, nearly to Main, extended two long horse racks or rails. The ordinance to regulate the market took effect April 1, 1816, and forebade the sale of butter, cheese, eggs, poultry, vegetables of any kind, fresh fish, or meat of any kind, with some exceptions, within the corporation on any other than market day. Fresh meat and fish might be sold before eight A. M. on any day, and beef by the quarter, or fifty pounds of pork, could be sold at all times.
The market prices were as follows: Flour, five dollars per barrel; wheat, seventy-five cents a bushel; beef per one hundred weight, three to three dollars and fifty cents; pork per one hundred weight, four dollars; corn, twenty-five to thirty-three cents; oats, twenty to twenty-five cents; butter, twelve and a half cents; eggs, eight cents; pair venison hams, fifty cents; pound bacon ham, ten cents. January 1, 1817, flour was six dollars, and wheat, one dollar a bushel. October, 1819, flax seed was eiglity-seven and a half cents, and wheat had fallen to sixty-two and a half cents. There were very large crops throughout the Miami valley in 1821, though the preceding winter was long and cold and the spring late. Wheat fell to twenty cents per bushel and flour sold in the fall at three dollars and seventy-five cents per barrel. The market prices in Dayton in March, 1822, were: Flour, per barrel two dollars and fifty cents; whisky, per gallon twelve and a half cents; wheat, twenty cents per bushel; rye, twenty-five cents; corn, twelve cents; fresh beef, one to three cents per pound; bacon hams, two to three cents per pound; butter, five to eight cents; eggs, three to five cents; chickens, fifty to seventy-five cents per dozen.
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HISTORY OF DAYTON.
After the war of 1812, in spite of the miserable roads and the lack of forage, immense numbers of cattle, horses, and hogs were driven to the eastern market from this region. The Rev. Timothy Flint says in his "Letters or Recollections of the Last Ten Years in the Mississippi Valley," that on his journey west in November, 1815, he met a drove of one thousand cattle and hogs on the Alleghany mountains, which were "of an unnatural shagginess and roughness like wolves, and the drovers from Mad River were as untamed and wild in their looks as Crusoe's man Friday."
There were about one hundred dwelling houses in Dayton in 1815, but the majority of them were log cabins. The revenue of the county from 1814-1815 was three thousand two hundred and eighty dollars and fifty-one cents, an increase in one year of one thousand four hundred and thirty-one dollars and sixty-four cents.
The merchants doing business in Dayton in 1815, whose descendants still live here, were George W. Smith, Horatio G. Phillips, Charles R. Greene, Steele & Peirce, Alexander Grimes, and William Eaker. Henry Brown opened a leather store this year. The license for a store was fifteen dollars, and the clerk's fee was fifty cents.
George W. Smith was born in Kent, England, and emigrated when a youth to the United States, settling first in Staunton, Virginia. After some years he removed to Nashville, Tennessee, and finally located, about the year 1804, in Dayton, where he lived till his death, May 14, 1841, aged about fifty-seven years. Mr. Smith was actively engaged in business during his residence here. His first partner was William Eaker, and after they dissolved he began business by himself. He soon formed a partnership with Robert A. Edgar, which continued till 1831. During the last years of his life he was in partnership with his son George. In common with many other Dayton merchants, he was engaged in the transportation of produce ( usually taken in exchange for merchandise) for which there was no sale at the North, from Ohio on flatboats to New Orleans. At an early day he established extensive flour mills and a distillery on Mad River, three miles cast of Dayton, laying out a village called Smithville, now known as Harries Station. Mr. Smith was married . twice. His first wife was Miss Todd. They had two children; George W., who married Lucy Weston, and died in early life, and Mary Jane, who married William F. Irwin, of Cincinnati. Mr. Smith's second wife was Eliza Manning. They had five children, James Manning, Sophia, Louise, George W., and Ann. James Manning Smith married Caroline, daughter of Samuel Shoup, a prominent merchant of Dayton; Sophia married Isaac H. Keirsteid; Louise married Captain Fletcher, of the
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United States Army; Aun married William G. Sheeley, of Covington, Kentucky.
Horatio Gates Phillips was the son of Captain Jonathan and Mary Forman Phillips, and was born at Lawrenceville, New Jersey, December 16, 1744. His father was a captain in the Revolutionary Army from 1775 to the close of the war. Mr. Phillips settled in Dayton in the winter of 1804 or the spring of 1805. In the winter of 1806, he went east to buy goods, visiting his old home in New Jersey, where, on the 10th of April, 1805, he was married to Eliza Smith Houston, daughter of William C. Houston. Mr. and Mrs. Phillips made their bridal trip on horseback and in a flatboat to Cincinnati, and thence in a wagon to Dayton. Mr. Phillips' first store and also his residence were in a two-storied log house on the southwest corner of First and Jefferson streets. In 1812 he built a two-storied brick store on the southeast corner of Main and Second streets, and a residence on Main Street adjoining it.
During the War of 1812, Mr. Phillips accumulated large quantities of pork, whisky, flour, and grain, taken in exchange for goods at Dayton and Troy, and this produce he sold at a good price to army contractors and government agents who were buying supplies for the army. He was largely engaged in transporting produce by flatboats to New Orleans. Mr. Phillips was in partnership at various times with James Perrine, John Green, and his son, J. D. Phillips.
Mrs. Phillips, who was noted for her hospitality and her activity in benevolent and religious work, died December 3, 1831, leaving a son and two daughters.
On the 16th of December, 1836, Mr. Phillips married Mrs. Catherine P. Irwin, daughter of Colonel Robert Patterson, who survived her husband. Mrs. Phillips' children by her first husband, Henry Brown, have already been mentioned. Her youngest child, A. Barr Irwin, by her second husband, Andrew Irwin, married Jane F., daughter of Rear-Admiral James F. Schenck. He now lives in Kentucky.
Mr. H. G. Phillips' eldest daughter, Elizabeth Smith, married John G. Worthington, of Cincinnati; his youngest daughter, Marianna Louisa, married first Robert A. Thruston, and second John G. Lowe, both of Dayton, and men of talent and high character. His only son, Jonathan Dickenson Phillips, was a generous and public spirited man. He married Lucianna Zeigler, daughter of Charles R. Greene.
William Eaker came to Dayton from Carlisle, Pennsylvania. From an early period Mr. Eaker was extensively engaged here in the business of merchandising and flatboating to New Orleans. His store was very
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popular with country people, and he amassed a large fortune. He married Lucretia Lowrie, of Springfield, Ohio, who survived him many years. They had four children -- William, Charles, Franklin, and Mary Belle.
Two prominent citizens belong to this period, Obadiah B. Conover and William Huffman.
Obadiah B. Conover came to Dayton from New Jersey in 1812. He was active in city and educational affairs, but was especially noted for religious and Sunday-school work. He married Sarah, daughter of John Miller, who came to Dayton in 1799, and was an elder in the First Pres- byterian Church. Their sons, Harvey, Wilbur, and Obadiah, all received liberal educations and became prominent citizens, the first two in Dayton and the last in Madison, Wisconsin. They had two daughters: Sarah, who married Collins Wight, and Harriet, who married Colonel Hiram Strong who was wounded while gallantly leading the Ninety-third regiment at the battle of Chickamauga and died in Nashville October 7, 1863.
William Huffman arrived from New Jersey in 1812. He was long engaged in business, and purchased a large amount of real estate which became very valuable. He built the first stone house in Dayton, in which he lived and kept his store. This stone house was long one of the land- marks of Dayton and stood on the site of the Beckel House. He had one son and four daughters. His son, William P. Huffman, was an enterprising citizen and did much towards the building up of the town. His daughters married as follows: Mary Ann to Rev. David Winters; Catharine to Morris Seely; Eliza J. to Alexander Simms; Lydia A. first to William H. Merriam, second to John Harries.
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In the course of the history short biographical sketches are given of some of the settlers who came as early as 1812. The names of others are frequently mentioned in connection with the business in which they were engaged and the positions of trust they held. As the town grew in size, it would be manifestly impossible to continue these sketches, for prominent and highly esteemed citizens are too numerous.
On the Fourth of July the usual program was carried out, with the exception that the young ladies were invited to meet at the tavern of Colonel John Grimes, at the head of Main Street, and join the procession. At the conclusion of the exercises the procession reformed and marched to Republican Spring for dinner.
In July the Moral Society was organized, whose object was to sup- press vice and promote order, morality, and religion, and more particularly to countenance, support, and assist magistrates in the faithful discharge of their important duties and in enforcing the laws against Sabbath breaking,
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profane swearing, and other unlawful practices. The society is careful in its constitution to state that it is not its intention to exercise a censorious or inquisitorial authority over the private transactions or concerns of indi- viduals. James Hanna was elected chairman; George S. Houston, secretary; managers, William King, Henry Robertson, Matthew Patton, John Patterson, and Aaron Baker. Quarterly meetings of the Moral Society were held on the first Saturday in October, January, April, and July. A special meeting of the society was held on the 12th of August at two o'clock in the afternoon in the Methodist meeting-house to listen to a sermon by the Rev. Mr. Findley.
In July, 1815, was also organized the Society of Associated Bachelors by convivial gentlemen of Dayton. Their usual place of meeting was Strain's bar-room. George S. Houston, secretary of the Moral Society, was at the same time president of the Associated Bachelors; so that the characters of the two organizations were not as dissimilar as their names would imply. To the great satisfaction of the Moral Society, on the 24th of September Mr. Houston was married to "the amiable Miss Mary Forman." Soon after Joseph John, secretary of the Associated Bach- elors, was married to Miss Jane Waugh, of Washington Township. The Republican made merry over the fact that both the president and secretary of the Bachelors' Association were married. Their successors, who were immediately elected, were Dr. John Steele president, and Alexander Grimes secretary.
October 7, 1815, the grist mill, and fulling mill, and two carding machines belonging to Colonel Robert Patterson, two miles from town, were destroyed by fire, supposed to have originated from the stove pipe in the carding room. The fire was a calamity to many poor families as well as to the proprietor, as there was a considerable quantity of cloth and wool belonging to a number of customers in the mills. They were soon rebuilt.
D. C. Cooper was president and J. H. Crane recorder of the select council this year. D. C. Cooper was elected State senator, and George Grove and George Newcom representatives in the legislature. Aaron Baker, who had no opponent, was elected coroner.
January 27, 1816, a meeting was held at Colonel Grimes' tavern to take measures for building a free bridge over Mad River, which, unlike the . Miami, could not be conveniently crossed by a ferry. D. C. Cooper, Aaron Baker, Samuel Dilly, David Lock, John D. Campbell, David Griffin, and William M. Smith were appointed a standing committee to superintend building the bridge, and to circulate subscription papers. Subscriptions in work, material, trade, or cash were to be solicited. This
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HISTORY OF DAYTON.
plan was, however, abandoned, and the bridge was built the next year by the county. The contract was sold May 21st to William Farmun at fourteen hundred dollars, and though not completed, it was opened to travel in the fall. In December it was finished at an expense of one hundred and fifty dollars. It was built at Taylor Street, just south of Monument Avenue; was a high uncovered bridge with a span of one hundred and sixty feet, so that the roadway over the middle of the river was several feet higher above the water than at the abutments. It was painted red. A new floor was laid and additional braces put up in 1824. The bridge fell into the river in May, 1828, and was rebuilt during the summer by John Hale.
In 1816 Daniel C. Cooper was member of the legislature. He was. also president of the town council; recorder, Joseph Peirce; trustees, Aaron Baker, II. G. Phillips, Ralph Wilson, O. B. Conover, George Grove.
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In 1816 Rev. Dr. James Welsh laid out an opposition town, which he named North Dayton, on the west side of the Miami, on the site of the suburb called Dayton View, which he thought would take the trade from the county seat, because beside being free from overflowing by water at all times, the situation was more convenient for purposes of trade. "Two thirds of the weight and influence of Montgomery County, with a very extensive and fertile back country," he says in his advertisement deserib- ing the town plat, and offering very liberal premiums to settlers, "are" now constrained to cross the Miami, whenever they have business with stores, or mechanies, or wish to sell their produce." In 1821 he applied to the court for permission to vacate the town.
The first theater was held in Dayton at the dwelling of William Huffman, on St. Clair Street, on the evening of April 22, 1816. The lovers of the drama were respectfully informed in the advertisement that the much-admired, elegant comedy, called, "Matrimony; or, The Prisoners," would be presented, and that between the play and farce would be given, recitation, "Scolding Wife Reclaimed;" recitation, "Monsieur Tonson;" fancy dance; comic song, "Bag of Nails;" to which would be added the celebrated comie farce, called, "The Village Lawyer." Tickets, fifty cents; doors open at seven o'clock; curtain to rise at half past seven precisely. Gentlemen are requested not to smoke cigars in the theater.
At a meeting held at Reid's inn June 21st, and of which Dr. John Steele was chairman and Benjamin Van Cleve secretary, the following gentlemen were appointed a committee to make arrangements for the celebration of the Fourth of July: Captain James Steele, Dr. Charles
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Este, George W. Smith, Fielding Gosney, James Lodge, Colonel John Anderson, and David Griffin.
They had the customary procession and exercises. Dr. Charles Este read the Declaration of Independence, and Washington's farewell address was read by Benjamin Van Cleve. About one hundred persons after- wards sat down to an excellent dinner prepared by Captain J. Rhea. Nineteen patriotic toasts were drunk with great hilarity. Isaac Spining, Esq., acted as president of the day, and William George, Esq., and Dr. Charles Este as vice-presidents. About four o'clock the ladies and gentlemen of the town and vicinity assembled in the shade of the adjacent woods and "partook of a magnificent repast furnished by the ladies." The celebration was concluded by a ball at Colonel Reid's inn and a concert of vocal music at Mr. Bomberger's.
The name of Judge Isaac Spining constantly occurs in connection with public affairs. He emigrated from New Jersey to the West in 1796 and a few years later located on a farm three miles east of Dayton. His sons, Pierson, Charles II., and George B., were all citizens of note, the first in Springfield and the latter two in Dayton.
By the summer of 1816 county business had increased so largely that it could not be properly administered in the small court house, and July 29th the commissioners sold the contract for a building for county offices to James Wilson for one thousand two hundred and forty-nine dollars. The building was erected on the site of the present new court house; was a brick, two stories high, forty-six feet front and twenty feet deep, and was finished in the spring of 1817. The upper story was rented to the Watchman in 1818 "at fifty dollars per year and free publication of the annual report of the treasurer and election notices." For some time after 1820 both stories were used for county offices; then the upper story was rented for lawyers' offices. The north room on the first floor was the clerk's office; the south room was occupied by the recorder. This floor was paved with brick. The treasurer's and auditor's rooms were on the north and south sides of the second story.
In 1817 George Newcom was elected State senator, and William George and George Grove members of the lower house of the legislature. D. C. Cooper was president of the town council, W. Munger recorder, and John Patterson corporation treasurer.
This spring the advertisement of Dr. Haines, long esteemed in the community for his professional skill and benevolence, appears in the Watchman for the first time. The advertisements of D. Stout, saddler; J. Stutsman, coppersmith, and Moses Hatfield, chairmaker, also appear.
The Sabbath-school Association, the first organization of that kind 10
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in Dayton, was formed in March, 1817. The society owed its origin to the exertions of the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Rev. Backus Wilbur, for whom a number of prominent citizens of Dayton were named. Mr. Wilbur died in Dayton, September 29, 1818. The inscrip- tion on his monument was written by Rev. Dr. Archibald Alexander, of Princeton. A long biography of Mr. Wilbur was published in the Watchman, February 18, 1819.
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