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 20
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In the end Mr. Morrison redeemed in full all the "shin plasters" he issued. Mr. Morrison came to Dayton at an early day, and was for many years the leading contractor and builder of the town. His son, David H. Morrison, a skillful civil engineer, and founder of the Columbia Bridge Works, married Harriet, the daughter of Robert J. Skinner, the pioneer newspaper publisher and editor. Mary Morrison married Dr. M. Garst, and Maria, Daniel Garst.
Charles Anderson delivered the Fourth of July oration this year;
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Edward W. Davies read the Declaration of Independence; C. G. Swain read Washington's address, and Rev. David Winters was chaplain.
The Cincinnati Grays visited Dayton on the 29th of August as the guests of the Montgomery County Blues and the Dayton Grays, arriving on the canal packet Clarion. The three companies had a grand parade and a dinner at the Franklin House on Tuesday, the Cincinnati Grays returning home by canal on Wednesday. This parade and dinner were quite a notable event in the early history of the town, and much is made of it in the Journal.
A number of citizens assembled on the 16th of September at the court house for the purpose of establishing a zoological museum. A committee, consisting of John W. Van Cleve, Dr. John Steele, William Jennison, and Thomas Brown, was appointed to ascertain whether a suitable room could be obtained and funds for paying for it secured. A room was procured at the head of the basin, but the place was unsuitable and not attractive.
The idea of establishing a public museum would not have suggested itself to the citizens of Dayton at that early date, but for the presence here of a very accomplished naturalist, Mr. William Jeunison, who had been for a number of years engaged in such work in Germany, and being connected with foreign societies of naturalists, would be able to procure from abroad almost any specimens desired, merely by applying for them and paying the cost of transportation.
He had a number of birds prepared by himself in the best manner and handsomely arranged in glass cases, and also hundreds of insects classified and arranged in scientific order, and affording by the variety of size and color a most beautiful sight, though "the poor fellows were impaled with pins." All these he offered to place in a public museum and to devote part of his time to the work of increasing the collection.
But the project was soon abandoned, and he removed his birds and butterflies to his residence, then a short distance out of town, but now on Linden Avenue, within the corporation, where he had a garden and green house, in which he raised fine flowers for sale. He was an object of curiosity to the people when he went out, net in hand, to collect butter- flies for his cabinet and natural history specimens to exchange with his learned friends across the Atlantic.
Mr. Jennison was an elegant and accomplished man, with the courtly manner of a gentleman of the old regime. He spoke English perfectly, which was probably due to the fact that his mother was an Englishwoman of rank, whom his father, Count Jennison, of Heidelberg, had married while minister from the Kingdom of Wurtemberg to the Court of St.
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James. Washington Irving, in a letter published in the second volume of his biography, gives an interesting account of a visit which he paid in 1822 to Count Jennison and his amiable and agreeable family. He describes the Count as an elegant and hospitable and highly cultivated man, who spoke English as perfectly as an Englishman.
A meeting was held on the evening of the 18th of November, 1837, at the court house for the purpose of exciting an interest in the Mad River & Lake Erie Railroad, incorporated in 1832, and organized, as already stated, in 1834. Since the election of officers of the company, nothing further had been done. Jonathan Harshman, Robert C. Schenck, and Peter Odlin took a prominent part in the meeting, and resolutions were passed urging the raising of stock and the speedy commencement of the road. The law affording State aid to railroads had recently been passed by the Ohio legislature.
During 1837 there were seventeen million, seven hundred and seven thousand, seven hundred and fifteen pounds of merchandise received in Dayton by canal, and ten million, seven hundred and eighty-seven thou- sand, six hundred and fifty pounds of produce were shipped from here; twenty-nine thousand, three hundred and fifty pounds of machinery made a part of the amount exported. Large quantities of machinery of excellent quality were manufactured here at this period.
The era of turnpikes has now been reached, and as they were an important factor in the progress and prosperity of the town, a full account of them will be given. As early as March, 1817, the Cincinnati and Dayton Turnpike Company was formed, and in the summer of 1819 it was incorporated. William C. Schenck, father of General R. C. Schenck, who was secretary of the company, announced in the Watchman in June, 1819, that subscription books would be opened on the second Monday in July at Steele & Peirce's store, under the direction of H. G. Phillips and Joseph Peirce. It was the intention to make the road sixty feet wide, but the turnpike was not built.
An act was passed on the 24th of March, 1836, by the legislature " to authorize a loan of credit by the State of Ohio to railroad companies, and to authorize subscriptions by the State to the capital stock of turnpike, canal and slack water navigation companies." Dayton was one of the first towns to avail itself of the provisions of the act guaranteeing the aid of the State to works of this description, and before the repeal of the , law in 1840 it had been the means of putting in the course of construc- tion five turnpikes, the aggregate length of the five roads being one hundred and forty miles, and other turnpikes were in contemplation. To the abundance of gravel, which made the construction of turnpikes cheap
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and easy, is due our excellent turnpikes leading in every direction to the neighboring towns.
Three of the companies-the Dayton & Covington; Dayton, Centre- ville & Lebanon, and the Dayton & Springfield-had been incorporated in 1833, but the contracts for building the roads were not let till after the passage of the law insuring State aid.
In April, 1837, the subscription books of the Dayton, Centreville & Lebanon turnpike were opened at the law office of Peter Odlin and R. C. Schenck. The other Dayton members of this company werc . Horace Pease, H. G. Phillips, Joseph Barnett, Thomas Brown, Thomas Dover, and F. H. Carrell.
In the fall of 1837 books for subscription to the stock of two turn- pike routes, proposing to connect Dayton with Cincinnati, were opened. Mr. J. W. Van Cleve, believing that a correct and satisfactory estimate of the expense of any work, for which stock subscriptions are solicited, is a most important item in securing the investment of money to effect the object, published the following characteristic proposal in the Dayton Journal on the 31st of October: "I will pay one hundredth part of the expense of making one mile of graveled road, commencing at the hill near Seely's, and measuring one mile towards Springfield; the road to be graded in the first place and then graveled thirty feet wide in the same manner with our streets. I will perform the leveling also without charge, and if any citizens will subscribe for the making of a mile of similar road or any other roads leading from town, commencing at the outer boundary of the building lots, I will also perform the leveling without charge." Mr. Van Cleve thought that the cost of making one mile of graveled road would not exceed two thousand, five hundred dollars, and that his plan, if carried into effect, would at least show whether his judgment was correct and enable estimates of the cost of the contemplated roads to be made with much accuracy and in a most economical manner. The Journal does not inform us whether Mr. Van Cleve's proposition was accepted, but we are told that when the contracts were let the cost per mile proved to be about four thousand dollars.
The subscription books of the Dayton & Springfield Company were opened January 19, 1838, and the contract made on the 12th of May. This turnpike, to induce travel through Dayton, was built in the same style as the National road, especially at its junction with the latter, and with similar bridges, stone culverts, toll gates, and mile stones. Com- fortable brick taverns were erected a few miles apart along the pike. It was a great disappointment to the people of Dayton that the National road did not pass through here. Strenuous efforts were made to induce
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congress to locate the road through Dayton, and having failed, equally strenuous efforts were made to have the route changed. A meeting of council was held, at which the following resolution was passed: "Resolved, That the mayor of this town forward to Joseph H. Crane, Esq., our representative in congress, whatever statistical information can be obtained with regard to the advantages possessed by this place, and other facts which it may be thought necessary to submit to the considera- tion of congress; to induce them to order a change in the route of the National road, so that it may pass from Springfield through Dayton and Eaton to Richmond, Indiana." But this effort to secure the road also failed. .
The following gentlemen constituted the board of directors of the Springfield Turnpike Company: Jonathan Harshman, Joseph Barnett, Jolin Kneisly, Charles Hagenbaugh, V. Winters, and Peter Aughinbaugh. President, J. Harshman; treasurer, V. Winters; secretary, J. Barnett.
Subscription books for stock in the Dayton & Covington Company were opened March 30, 1838, and the contract was let the next summer. The distance to be built was twenty-six miles, and the estimated cost ninety-three thousand dollars. It was. proposed in June, 1839, to put twenty miles under contract immediately at an estimate of seventy-three thousand dollars, to be raised by individual subscriptions with the addition of the aid from the State. Five thousand dollars additional subscriptions from citizens were all that were now needed to insure the immediate commencement and final completion of the road. The follow- ing gentlemen were elected directors of the company: N. Hart, Abram Darst, George Burtner, John Sikes, William Sheets, D. W. Thayer, Seth Riley, A. Minwich, D. Z. Peirce. N. Hart was president of the board; Abram Darst, treasurer; David Z. Peirce, secretary.
The Great Miami Turnpike Company was chartered in March, 1837, and commenced in the summer of 1838.
The Dayton & Western Pike Company was organized in May, 1839, and the contracts were let on the 8th of July.
On the 6th of August, 1839, ten miles of the Dayton & Greenville turnpike were let at an average of three thousand two hundred dollars per mile, which was a lower price than the cost of any pike in this neighborhood. The Journal announces August 6, 1839, that the Dayton & Springfield pike is nearly finished.
In 1839 Mr. Samuel Forrer, at the earnest solicitation of the directors, consented to take charge of the turnpikes as engineer and general super- intendent. The roads placed under his supervision were the Dayton & Lebanon, Dayton & Springfield, and the Great Miami turnpikes. The Ohio legislature, for partisan reasons, had just excluded Mr. Forrer from
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the canal board, thus depriving the State of a faithful and competent officer. But as Dayton could now secure the constant aid of his in- valuable talents and experience in the various public improvements in which the citizens were interested, and which, although of a local character, deeply concerned a large proportion of the people, there were some among us, the Journal says, selfish enough not to regret the change. The Shakertown pike was chartered in March, 1841. The pike from Dayton to Troy was built in 1842. The Valley pike was built in 1843; Dayton & Germantown in 1847; Wolf Creek in 1849; Dayton & Xenia, 1849; Dayton & Wilmington, 1849; Salem, 1850; Brandt, 1850.
For some years the county commissioners have had the supervision of the turnpikes. The toll gates, which used to be encountered at every few miles along the road, have been abolished by a law, permitting the purchase of the pikes by the county from the companies.
Samuel Forrer was reappointed in the spring of 1837 by the board of public works, principal engineer on the lines of the Wabash and Eric and Miami canals. This appointment, as the proper administration of the . canal involved the prosperity of Dayton, was a matter of rejoicing here. A number of Dayton young men went out with Mr. Forrer to learn civil engineering. Howe's "Historical Collections of Ohio" contains, in the chapter on "Pioneer Engineers of Ohio," by Colonel Charles Whittlesey, the following interesting biographical sketch of Mr. Forrer:
"No engineer in Ohio spent as many years in the service of the State . as did Mr. Forrer. He came from Pennsylvania in 1818, and in 1819 was deputy surveyor of Hamilton County, Ohio. In 1820 Mr. William Steele, a very enterprising citizen of Cincinnati, Ohio, employed Mr. Forrer at his own expense to ascertain the elevation of the Sandusky and Scioto summit above Lake Erie. His report was sent to the legislature by Governor Brown. This was the favorite route [for the Eric canal ], the shortest, lowest summit, and passed through a very rich country.
"The great question was a supply of water. It would have been located, and in fact was in part, when in the fall and summer of 1823 it was found by Judge D. Bates to be wholly inadequate. Of twenty-three engineers and assistants eight died of local diseases within six years. Mr. Forrer was the only one able to keep the field permanently and use the instruments in 1823. .
" When Judge Bates needed their only level, Mr. Forrer invented and constructed one that would now be a curiosity among engineers. Ile named it the Pioneer. It was in the form of a round bar of wrought iron, with a cross like a capital T. The top of the letter was a Hat bar welded at right angles, to which a telescope was made fast by solder, on
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which was a spirit level. There was a projection drawn out from the cross- bar at right angles to it, which rested upon a circular plate of the tripod. By means of thumb-screws and reversals, the round bar acting as a pendulum, a rude horizontal plane was obtained which was of value at short range.
"Mr. Forrer was not quite medium height, but well formed and very active. He was a pleasant and cheerful companion. Judge Bates and the canal commissioners relied upon his skill under their instructions to test the water question in 1823. He ran a line for a feeder from the Sandusky summit westerly and north of the water shed, taking up the waters of the Auglaize and heads of the Miami. Even with this addition the supply was inadequate. Until his death in 1874 he was nearly all the time in the employ of the State as engineer, canal commis- sioner, or member of the board of public works. He was not only popular, but scrupulously honest and industrious. His life-long friends regarded his death as a personal loss greater than that of a faithful public officer. He was too unobstrusive to make personal enemies, not neglect- ing his duties, as a citizen zealous but just. He died at Dayton, Ohio, at ten A. M., March 25, 1874, from the exhaustion of his physical powers, without pain. Like his life he passed away in peace, at the age of eighty, his mind clear and conscious of the approaching end."
In the winter of 1838 the experiment was tried of having market on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons and in the early morning on the other three days. But the people soon returned to what Curwen calls "our midnight markets," the bell ringing at four o'clock in the depth of winter, and the people hurrying at the first tap to the market house, as a short delay would deprive them of their favorite cut of meat or first choice of vegetables and force them to fill their baskets with rejected articles. As in New York two hundred years ago, "such was the strife among the thrifty townsfolk to be on hand at the opening of the market, and thereby get the pick of the goods that long before noon the bulk of the business was done." This custom of market before daybreak, in spite of its discomfort, continued for many years. -
This year the Third Street Bridge Company, of which Jacob D. Lowe was president, and Peter Aughinbaugh, H. Van Tuyl, I. Wanderlich, and Valentine Winters were directors, was formed.
The Montgomery County Agricultural Society was organized on the 11th of September, 1838. Colonel Henry Protzman was elected president, and Charles Anderson secretary.
In spite of the hard times Dayton was very prosperous in 1838. The Journal enumerates the following improvements which were made that
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year: Council expended about six thousand dollars in improving and beautifying the town. The streets and pavements were graveled, gut- tered, and macadamized for the first time, though the work had been begun three years before. Eighty-nine buildings, fifty-six of brick and thirty-three of frame, were erected, and more would have been put up if it had been possible to obtain sufficient brick and timber. The principal buildings erected were two brick district school houses, the first that were built in Dayton, and the Third Street Presbyterian Church. This was also of brick seventy-two by fifty-two feet in size, "of approved architec- tural beauty," and cost fifteen thousand dollars. The dwellings in town were all occupied to their fullest capacity, and there were none for rent or for sale.
A great drought occurred in the summer of 1838, which almost prevented milling, yet the flour shipped by canal from Dayton this year nearly doubled the amount shipped in 1837.
The tolls for 1838 show an increase of eight thousand dollars over 1837. There were eight thousand, nine hundred and three passengers by canal during 1838, and merchandise to the amount of twelve million, eight hundred and eight thousand and seventy pounds was received. The amount of tolls paid was twenty-seven thousand, five hundred and ninety dollars and seventy-nine cents. Yet the canal was closed by ice or for repairs during over five months this year. The population of Dayton in 1838 was eight thousand.
The most valuable improvement made this year was the Cooper hydraulic, constructed by Edward W. Davies and Alexander Grimes, agents of Mrs. L. C. Cooper. "It is an enterprise," said the Journal, "for the projection and completion of which all who have the prosperity of Dayton at heart will cheerfully accord to the gentlemen above named due credit for their public spirit."
In 1838 Edwin Smith and Peter P. Lowe, both Democrats, represented Montgomery County in the legislature.
On the 30th of December, 1838, the carpenter shop of D. A. Ware- ham, on St. Clair Street, with all its contents, and the livery stable of Kiefe & Ainsworth, were burned and other buildings considerably dam- aged. "All the fire companies were on the ground early with their apparatus," says the Journal, whose account we quote, as it mentions all the engines. "The Enterprise came first, and while supplied with water was very efficient. The Independence and Safety were stationed at the basin and threw water on the fire through their five hundred feet of hose. The Safety, however, was not in order, and could not be made to operate till the fire was checked and the neighboring buildings out of danger.
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HISTORY OF DAYTON.
But the Independence being in the best possible trim had water upon the fire almost as soon as her hose was laid, and continued in active operation till the fire was extinguished and the companies exhausted by hard work, it being impossible, with all the efforts of the fire wardens, to entice men enough from comfortable quarters near the fire, where they could see the fun and keep their toes warm, to relieve. the worn-out firemen at the brakes of the engines."
March 12, 1839, Dayton Township was divided by the legislature into two election precincts, the first precinct voting at the court house, and the second at Houk's tavern, on Market Street. The first precinct comprised all the territory north of the Eaton road, Third Street, and the Springfield pike; and the second precinct all south of the boundary line of the first.
An anti-slavery society, with forty members, was organized in Dayton in March, 1839. Luther Bruen was elected president, Paul R. Wambaugh vice-president, James Knapp treasurer, and James A. Shedd secretary of the society. Side by side in the Journal with the account of the organization of the Abolition, society appears an advertisement, offering a reward of four hundred dollars for the return of a runaway Kentucky slave, supposed to be in this neighborhood. The advertisement is headed with one of those intensely black little vignettes, representing a bare-headed colored man, with a bundle hung on a stick, and negro quarters in the back ground, making all speed for the North, which so often at this date appeared in the Dayton newspapers. The poor fellow is described as "likely and pleasant when spoken to, and easily alarmed," and calling himself Washington, though that was not his real name.
This year John W. Van Cleve prepared a map of Dayton, from a survey made by himself, which he had lithographed in Philadelphia, and sold, according to the style of mounting, at a dollar or five dollars cach.
In 1839 the Dayton Silk Company was incorporated with a capital of one hundred thousand dollars. The company advertised that they had on hand one hundred and fifty thousand eggs for gratuitous distribution to all who would sell to them the cocoons raised from the eggs. They published fifteen thousand copies of a circular, giving all requisite in- formation on the subject of silk culture, which were freely distributed. It was proposed to introduce the cultivation of the variety of white mulberry, known as Morus Multicaulis. The leaves of the Morus Multicaulis, unlike those of the other variety, could be used the first year in the rearing of silk worms. Farmers were advised to turn their attention to this valuable crop, and many of them did so, and the raising of silk worms became the fashion. The trees sold in the East for from
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seventy-five cents to one dollar and fifty cents a piece, and the demand for them was increasing. The people were assured that one acre had been known to produce as high as seventy-five pounds of silk the first year from the cuttings, and it was believed that fifty pounds could be produced the first year without injury to the trees. This silk company, like the former one, proved a failure.
The first Montgomery County Agricultural Fair was held in Dayton at Swaynie's hotel, at the head of the basin, October 17 and 18, 1839. At eleven in the morning on the 17th a procession of about three hundred persons interested in the society marched, headed by a band of music, through the principal streets to the hotel, where the anniversary address was delivered by D. A. Haynes. The display of horses, cattle, and farm products was fine. The Committee on Silk -- Daniel Roe, C. S. Bryant, John Edgar, Peter Aughinbaugh, Charles G. Swain, W. B. Stone, and R. N. Comly-awarded a premium, a silver cup worth ten dollars, for the greatest amount of silk produced from the smallest number of Multicaulis leaves. Other valuable premiums were awarded by the society, but the cup was offered by members of the Silk Company.
The mention of the Morus Multicaulis tree recalls to memory one of those strange manias that occasionally sweep over the country. The tree had recently been introduced from China, was of rapid growth and furnished abundant food for silk worms. It was believed that the culti- vation of this tree and the use of its leaves to feed silk worms, would make the United States the great silk-producing country of the world. The most extravagant price was paid for young trees and thousands of acres planted. Wide-spread ruin was the result, and hundreds of persons lost their all in this wild speculation.
Swaynie's Hotel, where the first Montgomery County Agricultural Fair was held, was finished in April, 1839. It was considered a first-class house and regarded with pride by the people of Dayton. All the carpets in the hotel were manufactured by the Dayton Carpet Company, and were of such superior texture, designs and colors, that guests of the' house could with difficulty be convinced that they were made west of the Alleghany mountains. The Dayton carpets were sold in the stores at Cincinnati and other western towns as imported carpets, and pur- chasers did not discover the deception.
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