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 18
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Council appointed the following fire wardens in 1827: James Steele, Abram Darst, Dr. J. Haines, and Matthew Patton. The fire engine, which had been ordered from Philadelphia in 1825 at a cost of two hun- dred and twenty-six dollars, did not reach here till 1827. It was a small affair, and the water was thrown by turning a crank in the side of the engine. Not much care seems to have been taken of the engine, for at a fire in 1831 it could not be used, as it was filled with ice, the water not having been taken out after a fire which occurred several weeks before.
Householders, who, as before mentioned, had not themselves procured them, were provided by the town with long black leather buckets with their names painted in large white letters on the outside, which were used to fill the engine. The fire wardens were' notified by council to meet at the engine house at two P. M. on May 2d for the purpose of distributing fire buckets. Freeholders wishing buckets were requested to attend. One hundred and twelve dollars and fifty cents had been expended by council in 1827 for eighty-eight buckets, half of which were to be distributed among the citizens and the rest kept at the engine house. The engine house was a frame building, which stood on the court house lot, on Main Street, near the alley. The buckets kept by the citizens were for twenty years inspected every April by the wardens.
An alarm of fire brought out the whole population of the town, and the greatest excitement and confusion prevailed. Double lines were formed to the nearest pump, one line passing down the full buckets and the other returning the empty ones. Women were often efficient workers in these lines. The water in a well would soon be exhausted, and a move had to be made to one more remote. It was hopeless to contend with a fire of any magnitude and efforts in such cases were only made to prevent the spreading of the fire.
In January, 1828, all three rivers were higher than they had been since the great flood of 1814. The Third Street canal bridge and all the bridges over the mill races near town were washed away, and the bridge over the canal at Jefferson Street was damaged. Fencing and buildings near the river banks were much injured. Among the landmarks swept off' by the high water this year was the red warehouse, used by flatboat- men and owned by Silas Broadwell, which stood on the Wilkinson Street
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bank of the Miami River. The State dam, which was built in 1827, was much damaged by this flood.
The following fire wardens were appointed in 1828: James Steele, George W. Smith, Alexander Grimes, Matthew Patton, and Warren Munger; engineer, J. W. Van Cleve.
The population of Dayton in 1828 was sixteen hundred and ninety- seven. Twenty stage coaches arrived weekly.
This summer the Dayton Guards, a uniformed military company of boys, was organized. At ten o'clock Fourth of July morning the "young heroes paraded in front of the court house and shortly afterwards marched to the residence of the widow of Joseph Peirce, Esq., where were assembled a considerable number of the heads of the most respectable families and all the beauty and fashion of our flourishing town." A flag was presented to the company by the young ladies of Dayton. One of the young ladies made a lengthy presentation speech, which was replied to by a member of the Guards.
Thirty-six brick buildings and thirty-four of wood were erected in town during 1828. In January, 1829, there were one hundred and twenty-five brick buildings in Dayton; six of stone, and two hundred and thirty-nine of wood. There were two hundred and thirty-five dwelling houses, and Presbyterian, Methodist, and Christian brick meeting-houses.
This year Timothy Squier opened the National Hotel in the building on Third Street, adjoining the Beckel House. ยท
The executors of the Cooper estate on May 9, 1829, sold a block of five lots at the head of the basin, containing a little over one third of an acre, for two thousand, nine hundred and twenty dollars, which was considered a high price and mentioned in the newspaper as an indication of the rise of property in Dayton since the opening of the canal.
Another improvement was in the increased regularity and speed with which the mail was received. Papers were received in 1829 from Washington and Baltimore in six days; from Philadelphia in seven; from New York in eight; from Boston in nine or ten.
The white population of Daytou in 1829 was two thousand, two hundred and seventy-two; blacks eighty-six. There had been an increase of six hundred and sixty-one in the population during the past fourteen months. The amount of merchants' capital returned by the assessor of Montgomery County for 1829 was one hundred and twenty-nine thou- sand, eight hundred and eleven dollars. Under a new law passed by the legislature the free white male freeholders over the age of twenty-one, who had resided in the corporation one year, voted for a mayor instead of a president of council, and one recorder and five trustees.
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Morris Seely was elected State senator this year and John Turner representative.
In spite of the growth and improvement of Dayton, customs were still somewhat primitive in 1829. The Journal complains, in a humorous article, that the people were in the habit of taking their dogs to church, and that, during the service, they were either growling, barking, or jumping about the house, to the no small annoyance of the congregation, and suggests that it might be well to have an apartment allotted for their reception, so that they might amuse themselves without disturbing the congregation.
At a meeting held in 1829, the first Dayton Temperance Society was formed. William King was moderator and Dr. Job Haines secretary of the meeting. The following persons , were appointed to prepare a con- stitution and an address to the public: A. Baker, Daniel Ashton, D. Winters, D. L. Burnet, John Steele, Job Haines, H. Jewett, William M. Smith, and Henry Bacon. For some time the Dayton newspapers were full of arguments for and against temperance societies.
July 27, 1829, it was decided that the new market house, which the city was about to build, should be located in the alley running from Jefferson to Main Street, between Third and Fourth streets. For the purpose of widening the market space, property costing one thousand, one hundred and ninety-six dollars was purchased by council. A small building was put up on Main Street, which was extended to Jefferson Street in 1836. All the space east of the market house of 1829 to Jefferson Street was given up to market wagons. The old market house on Second Street was abandoned April 24, 1830.
A bitter rivalry existed between the parts of the town divided by Third Street. People living north of Third Street appropriated the name of Dayton to themselves, and in derision called that part of the town lying south of that street Cabintown. When it was proposed to remove the market from Second Street to the present location, violent opposition was made and every measure resorted to to defeat it. Two tickets were nominated for city officers, politics were forgotten, and this was made the sole issue. Cabintown proved numerically the stronger and the fate of the market house was sealed. When the market house was moved, Thomas Morrison, who had it in charge, placed a large placard on it, " Bound for Cabintown," which was read with the deepest chagrin by the people on Market, now Second Street. So bitter was the feeling that for a long while, many persons refused to attend market at the new location. William Clark was appointed clerk and marshal of the market by council in 1830. Ilis salary was seventy-five dollars per annum.
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In 1830 a company was formed to construct a basin connecting the canal at its intersection with Wayne Street and a point at the southern extremity of the city. Morris Seely was the main mover in this project, and great expectations were entertained in regard to it. The supreme court had decided that the water power within the city limits, and furnished by the canal, belonged to the State of Ohio, a decision which was afterwards reversed, and the water power given to the Cooper estate. It was believed that this water power could be leased and utilized along the proposed basin. Land was bought at what was then au extravagant price, and lots laid out. These lots were small in size, and arranged for factories, warchouses, and docks, such as would be required in a large city, but were unsuited to a place with the pretensions of Dayton.
The scheme proved an utter failure, and left consequences that were an annoyance to the city for years afterwards. The lots were unsalable, and the method of platting a serious detriment to that part of the town. The canal, or ditch as it was afterwards called, bred disease, and. the city authorities were called upon to fill it up. Before the controversy was finally settled, the excitement ran so high that the saw mill of Mr. E. Thresher, located on the canal at Wayne Street, which used the ditch as a tail-race, was burned. A large part of the ditch is now filled up, and the lower end used as a city drain.
In connection with the basin and on its bank a pleasure garden was opened by A. M. Peasley on Warren Street. A small pleasure boat " was run from Third Street on summer afternoons to the garden, where refreshments were provided, and it was expected that large numbers of pleasure seekers would resort there. Like the basin, the garden was ahead of the times, and after a trial of two or three years was abandoned.
In 1830 Alexander Grimes and William M. Smith, both Whigs, were elected to the legislature. General Smith died, and was succeeded December 7th by Henry Stoddard, also a Whig.
In 1830 Stevenson ran the first locomotive in England over the Man- chester and Liverpool railroad. The same year a miniature locomotive and cars were exhibited in Dayton in the. Methodist Church. The fact that the city council by resolution exempted the exhibition. from a license fee, and that the Methodist Church was used for this purpose illustrates the deep interest felt by the public in the then new and almost untried scheme to transport freight and passengers by steam over roads con- structed for the purpose. A track was run around the interior of the church, and for a small fee parties were carried in the car. A large part of the then citizens of Dayton took their first railroad ride in this way.
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In July, 1831, a second exhibition of a miniature locomotive and car occurred, and the following advertisement, headed "Important Exhibi- tion," appeared in the Journal: "A locomotive or steam carriage drawing a car on a miniature railroad will be exhibited at Machir & Hardcastle's warehouse, near the basin, on Friday and Saturday, July 1st and 2nd. The exhibition will be a rich treat to the friends of State or National improvement. The locomotive works with great celerity and precision, drawing a splendid miniature car in which two persons may ride at the same time. Both locomotive and car are constructed on the most improved principles by Mr. A. Bruen, of Lexington, Kentucky, and the workmanship may be safely pronounced of the first order. The novelty of this machine has never failed to excite the admiration and curiosity of all who have seen it. Ladies and gentlemen are respectfully invited to call and ride. Admittance twenty-five cents; children half price."
The population of Dayton in 1830 was two thousand, nine hundred and fifty-four, a gain of one thousand, two hundred and thirty-seven in little more than two years. This year eighty-one houses were built. In 1831 fifty brick buildings and seventy-two of frame were erected. The population was three thousand, two hundred and fifty-eight. Six thou- sand, two hundred and nineteen passengers by coach passed through town this year.
David Cathcart was appointed postmaster to succeed George S. Houston.
In October Christ's Episcopal Church was organized by Rev. Ethan Allen.
Robert Young was elected State senator, and Henry Sheideler and G. S. Swain members of the assembly in 1831. Mr. Sheideler was a Democrat and Mr. Swain a Whig.
In November about two hundred and fifty Sencca Indians, men, women, and children, on their way to the reservation west of the Missis- sippi River, encamped at the big spring on the north side of Mad River. They were here three days and excited great curiosity by their singular, rude, and uncivilized habits and appearance. One of the gaping crowd, who was watching them at dinner, moved off in some confusion, when an Indian, at whom he was staring, looked up and said: "Indian eats just like white man; he puts the victuals in his mouth."
Just below the mouth of Stillwater the Miami makes a bend in the form of a horseshoe, inclosing in it that part of Dayton known as McPherson. By cutting a race across the bend, a valuable water power is obtained. About 1829 James Steele, who owned the land, completed a dam across the Miami and the race. In 1830 he erected a saw mill
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and afterwards a grist mill. This water power is now known as the Dayton View Hydraulic, and the large establishments of Stillwell & Bierce, A. Simonds, and the Dayton Electric Light Company use the power to propel their machinery. In digging the race, an immense tooth of a mastodon was unearthed, which was deposited as a curiosity in the Cincinnati Museum. As no other part of the skeleton was found in the vicinity, it is supposed that the tooth was brought here with the drift from some other region.
General Robert C. Schenck began the practice of law in Dayton in 1831. Ile was a public-spirited citizen, taking.an active interest in all efforts for the improvement of the town, and impressing himself upon this community long before he attained a national reputation. He devoted much time and labor to the Dayton Lyceum, Mechanics' Institute, Public Library, Woodland Cemetery, city park, the hydraulic, turnpikes, rail- roads, and public schools, and frequently gave gratuitous lectures at the invitation of his townsmen.
In 1832 a fugitive slave was captured in Dayton, and carried off by his master, who lived in Kentucky. The occurrence produced the greatest excitement and indignation in the community. All that was necessary to prove the detestable character of the fugitive slave law was an attempt to enforce it. The following account, from the Dayton Journal, of the affair by an eye-witness, who was not an Abolitionist, though his sympathies were all with the negro, is worthy of insertion in the history of Dayton:
" A short time ago a negro man, who had lived in this place two or three years under the name of Thomas Mitchell, was arrested by some men from Kentucky and taken before a justice under a charge of being a slave who had escaped from his master. The magistrate, on hearing the evidence, discharged the black man, not being satisfied with the proof brought by the claimants of their rights to him. A few weeks after- wards some men armed, employed by the master, seized the negro in our Main Street, and were hurrying him towards the outskirts of the town, where they had a sleigh in waiting to carry him off. The negro's cries brought a number of citizens into the street, who interfered and prevented the men from taking him away without having legally proved their right to do so. The claimants of the negro went before the justice again, and after a long examination of the case on some new evidence being produced, he was decided to be the slave of the person claiming him as such. In the meantime a good deal of excitement had been produced among the people of the place and their sympathies for the poor black fellow were so much awakened that a proposition was made to buy his
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freedom. The agent of the master agreed to sell him under the supposi- tion that the master would sell him his liberty, and a considerable sum was subscribed, to which, out of his own savings, the negro contributed upwards of fifty dollars himself. The master, however, when his agent returned to Kentucky, refused to agree to the arrangement, and came himself the week before last to take the negro away. Their first meeting was in the upper story of a house, and Tom, on seeing those who were about to take him, rushed to a window and endeavored, but without success, to dash himself through it, although had he succeeded, he would have fallen on a stone pavement from a height not less than fifteen feet. He was prevented, however, and the master took him away with him and got him as far as Cincinnati. The following letter received by a gentle- man in this place gives the concluding account of the matter:
""""POOR TOM IS FREE.
"'CINCINNATI, January 24, 1832.
"'DEAR SIR :-- In compliance with a request of Mr. J. Deinkard, of Kentucky, I take my pen to inform you of the death of his black man Ben, whom he took in your place a few days ago. The circumstances are as follows: On the evening of the 22d inst. Mr. D. and company, with Ben, arrived in this city on their way to Kentucky, and put up at the Main Street Hotel, where a room on the uppermost story ( fourth ) of the building was provided for Ben and his guard. All being safe, as they thought, about one o'clock, when they were in a sound sleep, poor Ben stimulated with even the faint prospect of escape or perhaps predeter- mined on liberty or death, threw himself from the window which is upwards of forty feet from the pavement. He was, as you may well suppose, severely injured, and the poor fellow died this morning about 4 o'clock. Mr. D. left this morning with the dead body of his slave, to which he told me he would give decent burial in his own churchyard. Please tell Ben's wife of these circumstances. Your unknown corres- pondent,
Respectfully, ""'R. P. SIMMONS.'
"Tom, or as he is called in the letter, Ben, was an industrious, steady, saving little fellow, and had laid up a small sum of money, all of which he gave to his wife and child when his master took him away. A poor and humble being, of an unfortunate and degraded race-the same feeling which animated the signers of the Declaration of Independence to pledge life, fortune, and honor for liberty, determined him to be free or die."
Early in 1832 the Journal suggests the building of a railroad from Dayton to Cincinnati, giving as one urgent reason for the undertaking
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the fact that part of every year the canal was frozen over, and, as there was then no sufficient connection with the Cincinnati market, Dayton products fell to a ruinously low price. The same winter the legislature incorporated the Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad Company.
In February, 1832, there was a freshet which equaled that which had caused so much destruction of property four years before. The Journal of February 14th makes the following allusion to the high water: "The late rains produced a great flood in the Miami. On Sunday night a serious apprehension was felt for the safety of the levees, which protect the basin and canal from the river; but they stood firmly and were suffi- ciently high for the present emergency, and we think low enough to show the necessity of their being raised and strengthened. The flood reached exactly to the one on the 8th of January, 1828, which was the highest one since 1814."
This year there was much destruction of property and great distress caused by the unprecedented height of the Ohio at Cincinnati. As soon as the news reached here that the homes of many poor people at Cin- cinnati had been washed away, a call for a meeting at the court house to raise funds for the flood sufferers was published in the Dayton news- papers. At the meeting two hundred and two dollars were raised by subscription and sent by J. W. Van Cleve, mayor of Dayton, to the mayor of Cincinnati, "to aid in relieving the distressed people of that city."
Henry Sheideler and William Sawyer, both Democrats, were elected members of the legislature in 1832.
The Fourth of July celebration in 1832 was a grand affair. Edward W. Davies read the Declaration of Independence, and Robert A. Thruston delivered an oration. Adam Houk was marshal of the procession, and G. C. Davis, Robert C. Schenck, Jefferson Patterson, Peter P. Lowe, and George Engle served as assistant marshals. The following gentlemen were the committee of arrangements: Thomas Clegg, Charles G. Swain, David C. Baker, Charles R. Greene, George Grove, William Eaker, Peter Baer, Johnson V. Perrine, William Roth, John Engel, David Davis, Thomas Morrison, F. F. Carrell, Samuel Foley, and Thomas Brown.
At no time in the history of Dayton, except during the civil war, has there been as exciting a political campaign as that of 1832, preceding the second election of General Jackson as president of the United States. So bitter was the feeling on both sides in this contest, that Whigs and Demo- crats, though neighbors and old friends, ceased speaking to each other on the streets. Previous to Madison's administration the people of Dayton seem to have been nearly all of one mind on the subject of politics, or at
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any rate not intense partisans. But for a number of years after that date an election rarely passed without several fights between the members of the two parties, usually on the corner of Main and Third streets, for the court house was the polling place for the whole township, in which the territory now assigned to Harrison, Mad River, and Van Buren townships was then included.
Late on the night before the presidential election in 1832, a tall hickory pole was erected on the outer edge of the pavement in front of the court house, and from it floated the American flag. Great was the surprise and indignation of the Whigs when this pole greeted their eyes the next morning, and great the triumph of the party which had erected it. Crowds of Whigs gathered on the corners, muttering angry impreca- tions. It was evident that they would not permit the hickory tree to remain standing at the polls, and as certain that the Democrats would violently resist any effort which the other party might make to remove it, and that a pitched battle would ensue if the authorities did not inter- fere. A meeting of council was held early in the morning, and presently those of the citizens who had not gone home to breakfast, saw the council, headed by the marshal, John Dodson, followed by John W. Van Cleve, the mayor, axe in hand, and Dr. John Steele and F. F. Carrell, march to the hickory tree and form a circle around it. The mayor notified the marshal of the order of council, just passed, to "cut down the pole and drag it out as a nuisance." It was the duty of the marshal to perform this perilous act. An account of this occurrence published in the Journal in 1889 called out two communications on the subject from eye witnesses.
One of them says: "In the face and in defiance of an outraged and infuriated collection (not mob) of red-hot Jackson Democrats-and what that meant could hardly be appreciated by one of this cold-blooded, law- abiding generation-the worthy marshal hesitated, as well he might. A man of lofty mien and determined purpose in every movement, stepped to the front, seized the axe, and wielding it as only a stalwart Kentuckian could wield it, with a few well-served strokes, brought the offensive emblem to the ground. When it fell there was a pause, not a cheer was heard from the Whigs, and only muttered curses from the Democrats. The audacity of this brave act of Dr. John Steele, a man universally known and respected, no doubt prevented a bloody riot." Another correspondent states that the pole was cut down by Herbert S. Williams. Probably both accounts were correct, as from the size of the pole it would require a good many strokes of the axe to fell it, and more than one hand may have been employed on it.
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'A canal boat arrived in Dayton December 17, 1832, with twenty- five German emigrants on board, all of whom were ill with cholera, or something resembling it. One of them had died the day before the boat reached here. They all crowded into a small room together when they landed. Seven of them died. One of the doctors and the two men employed by the town to nurse the Germans were taken sick. Both the nurses died. Cholera did not become epidemie here at this time, and the nine deaths just mentioned were all that occurred. A board of health had been appointed by council in the summer, so that all sanitary precautions were taken to prevent the spread of the disease, which was prevailing in other parts of the United States. . The board of health consisted of a member of council and two other citizens from cach ward. The following persons were appointed: First Ward, Aaron Baker and George C. Davis; Second Ward, James Steele and William Bomberger; Third Ward, HI. G. Phillips and Stephen Whicher; Fourth Ward, Dr. Haines and E. W. Davies; Fifth Ward, James Mitchell and William Patterson.
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