USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume I > Part 40
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CHAPTER XXV.
THE CITY OF JAMESTOWN.
Jamestown is now in the second century of its career as a town and is now the second largest city in Greene county. Any effort to follow its career during the past hundred years involves the historian in difficulty because of the fact that no records are available to trace its development year by year. There are certain outstanding facts that are well established, while there are other so-called facts which have been associated with the town that may or may not be true. The same may be said of every town. As the years pass by there collects a large fund of incidents which may have originally been based on actual occurrences, but in the course of time they become so distorted that they bear little resemblance to the original incident from which they started. And so it is with Jamestown. No effort is made in this history of the city to write a romance, but rather to state simply and concisely the salient facts concerned with the city's growth from May 31, 1816, when the first official notice of the place finds a record in the archives of the court house at Xenia.
The original plat of Jamestown is on file in the county recorder's office, a time-worn document showing forty-eight in-lots and nine out-lots, and bearing the date of May 31, 1816. Accompanying this century-old plat is the following statement, which, being the first authentic historical docu- ment of the now flourishing city, is here reproduced verbatim':
State of Ohio
Greene County
Before me the subscriber, a justice of peace for the said county, personally appeared Thomas Browder who did acknowledge that he did voluntarily lay off and appropriate all the lots, Streets and Alleys in Jamestown to the north of the street leading from Xenia to Washington situated in Silver Creek Township, county and state aforesaid for the use of said town, accept outlot No. 5, which he says never was intended by him to be laid out or sold as a town lot. Also personally appeared before me, Martin Mendenhall, who did acknowledge that he had laid off and appropriated all the lots, streets and alleys on the south side of the Street leading from Xenia to Washington through Jamestown in Silver Creek Township, county and state aforesaid, accept the outlot No. 9 which he says never was intended to be laid off or sold as a town lot. Given under my hand and seal the first day of June, 1816.
JOHN WATSON, J. P.
I hereby certify that the outlots No. 5 and 9 on the plan of Jamestown were never laid down by consent of the proprietors for no other purpose than to compleat the form and not intended for any public use. May 31, 1816.
JOSIAH GROVER, Recorder G. C.
388
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
The above record gives the names of the two proprietors, Thomas Browder and Martin Mendenhall, but is evidently not the first record of the town. It is known that it was surveyed by Thomas P. Moorman and a man by the name of Thomas, then surveyor of Clinton county, but it is not certain just when they did the work. It is probable that it was done in 1815, although no documentary evidence of the fact has been seen.
The name given to the new town was the suggestion of Browder, who had been born in Jamestown, Virginia. It will be noticed that the two pro- prietors contributed about equally to the townsite-one hundred and fifty acres each-Browder being the owner of the north side of the street and Mendenhall of the south side. The original plat shows Silver creek cutting across out-lot No. 9, and Middle Fork, a branch of Caesars creek, cutting across out-lots Nos. 4 and 5, the plat being laid out between the two streams. Whether these streams had anything to do with the origin of the above quoted records is not known, but it is altogether possible that they did.
ADDITIONS TO THE TOWN SINCE 1816.
Since the original plat of 1816 was placed on record, there have been . a number of additions made to it, a summary of which are set forth in the following table :
Proprietor
Lots
Year
James Hibben
8
July 30, 1839
John Dawson
8
Sept. 26, 1871
Christopher Boop & Co.
1
52
Sept. II, 1873
James Spencer
33
Jan. 26, 1879
Davis & Clemens
9
Feb. 13, 1883
J. G. Clemens
. 9
June 29, 1896
G. W. Bishop et al.
20 Aug. 14, 1903
G. W. Bishop
II
Sept. 26, 1903
Homestead Land Co.
104
Spring, 1909
I
THE TOWN IN EARLY DAYS.
The best source of information concerning the early history of James- town is found in the reminiscences of Sylvester Strong, which are given in full in the history of Silvercreek township. Another source of interesting data, covering the town as it appeared in the '30s, was compiled in 1880 from data furnished by Mrs. Eliza McDowney at that time, Mrs. McDowney having been a continuous resident of the town from 1831. The best informed man on the history of the town now living is W. A. Paxon, an attorney of the place, who has been a resident for more than forty years. Other sources
ARIVAL
CLARK
SALE
" HEIGHT
BERT
NG
ACUICULTU
VEHICLES,
axtas
Limestone Street, Looking North. Catholic Church.
VIEWS IN JJAMESTOWN.
Main Street, Looking West. Main Street, Looking East.
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GREENE COUNTY, OHIO 389
of information are the official records, the files of the newspapers and numer- ous genealogical records which have been preserved.
As far as known there was no building on the site when it was platted, and it is impossible to determine the year in which Thomas Watson built the log cabin on the site which became the first tavern. The late historian of the county, George F. Robinson, states that Watson located in Silver- creek township in 1807 and that he opened his tavern on the site of James- town in 1815. He died in 1888 and is buried at Xenia. His tavern later became known as the Parker House, and was the first of a long series of taverns, inns, caravansaries and hotels which have come and gone during the past hundred years. It does not appear that either of the two proprietors of the townsite, Browder or Mendenhall, built a house in their town.
The site did not apparently appeal to the incoming settlers. and it was several years before the second house made its appearance. The best author- ity states that the second resident of the infant village was Dr. Mathias Winans and that he arrived on the site in 1820. He proceeded to build a house which served the triple function of a dwelling, a doctor shop and a store. Doctor Winans also bought a farm in the township, but he devoted his time to his large medical practice and for years was one of the leading physicians of the county. He died in Cincinnati, where he was located temporarily, on July 7, 1849, and is buried at Jamestown. It can truthfully be stated that he was probably the town's most influential resident in the years that he lived in it.
The third resident of whom any definite record has been preserved was Zina B. Adams, who arrived in 1824 and took charge of the tavern which had been started by Watson. The Adams family became prominent factors in the town and their descendants are still living in the city. Zina B. Adams, the first of the family to locate in the town, died in Jamestown on May 22, 1844, having been connected with the tavern during practically all of his years of residence in the place. After his death his widow married James McDowney, March 20, 1849, and the Adams tavern continued to remain under the same management, the family being connected with it for about forty years. Zina B. and Elia (Sharpe) Adams had four sons: Morgan O., Samuel, John Q. and Thomas H. Samuel died on February 8, 1854, but the other sons lived to rear families and become leaders in the town. John and Morgan were merchants. John had a store from 1860 to 1876 and then sold his business to his brother, Morgan, who sold to Thomas H. and his son, John Q. Thomas H. Adams & Son built the present Masonic building. They later sold the store to William Cole, who is still in business.
The village grew slowly during the '20s and by the end of the decade
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GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
numbered probably about ten families. Sylvester Strong states that the village early had a hatter by the name of Cultice and a tailor, one Ephraim Munthaw, but when they arrived, how long they remained, or what became of either is not known. The year 1831 forms a turning point in the history of the town as far as definite information as to what it contained at that time. As previously stated, Mrs. Eliza McDowney assisted in preparing a sketch of the town in 1880 as it appeared to her when she first saw it on her arrival in the place on February 5, 1831. Mrs. McDowney was fortunately possessed of a wonderfully retentive memory and although half a century had elapsed since she first saw the town, yet she was able to recall distinctly the names of the various families living in the place in 1831, their location in the town, and the occupations of the chief men of affairs in the place. Her description of the Jamestown of 1831 was prepared for the history of the county which appeared in 1881, and is here reproduced as it was there published :
JAMESTOWN IN 183I.
The town proper was composed of two roads or streets, one extending east and west from Washington C. H. to Xenia, called the Chillicothe Road; the other running north and south from Maysville to Urbana, and called the Limestone Road. At the crossing of these roads, on the southeast corner, and where a store is now kept by Charles Dingess [it must be borne in mind that Mrs. McDowney was describing this in 1880], was located the old Baker tavern, with a stable a short distance to the rear. Going south of the left-hand side of the street, lived Fielder Pendulum-the site is now owned by John G. Adams. Still further south, on the same side of the street, was a tan-yard, owned by one John Dawson, Sr., who owned a tract of land in the vicinity; his residence was located about half way between the Pendulum residence and the tannery.
Returning to the crossing of the roads, on the opposite side, we come to a small cabin owned by William Blake-located on the land just opposite to the present Adams residence. The next house, near the present location of Mrs. McDowney's residence, was owned by "Grandma" Griffy. The site where is now located Jenkins' building, corner of Main and Limestone streets, was occupied by one Adair, who conducted a wheel- wright shop; his residence stood where now stands the St. Cloud Hotel. The next build- ing on the south side of West Main street was the so-called Parker Hotel property, which still stands [1880], and is fulfilling the purpose for which it was built-a country tavern. Proceeding a short distance westward, we arrive at a small building on the corner of a cornfield, owned by Dearduff. At or near where is now the residence of Dr. C. H. Spahr, lived Martin Mendenhall, the original owner of all the above located lands.
We have now arrived at the western limits of Jamestown, and will return on the opposite side of the strect. About half way between the limits and the public square lived Dr. Winans; the site of his residence is now the property of Mrs. Peter Harness. On the northwest corner was a small store kept by a man by the name of Thorp. On the west side of North Limestone street, one square from the corner, was the abode of Samuel Zortman, Sr. At some distance still further north was located the Nathaniel Hodges dwelling. North of him, on the Browder lands, a carding-machine did good service; west of this lived James Browder, the original proprietor of the north side of the town.
We again return to the place of beginning, corner of Main and Limestone streets. After proceeding a short distance, we arrive at a tan-yard on a lot owned by Samuel T. Baker. South of this, and at some distance east of the road, was located the house
391
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
of Rev. Benjamin Tressenrider, a noted Methodist preacher. Where is now located the Adams building was an unpretending little structure containing three rooms, about seven- teen by twenty-two feet each. The north room 'was used as a dwelling by one Bently, who kept a store in the middle room. The south room was occupied by a man by the name of Hollingsworth as a store.
Upon arriving at the corner now occupied by the Wickersham Hotel, we find a vacant lot wherein a well has been dug, which is used by the general public, and the weary trav- eler, who, perchance may pass through Jamestown. We stop to partake of its cool and refreshing waters, and taking an eastward course, we proceed a short distance, when we reach the house of Joseph Davis, a double-frame, and the only habitation on this side of the road.
Returning on the opposite side, we reach the Adams Hotel, located on the site of the present residence of L. L. Syphers, and thus we have seen Jamestown as it was in 1831, the day Mrs. McDowney came to the youthful village as a young bride.
Summing up the town as it appeared to the young bride on that event- ful day in February, 1831, when she first saw it, the following residents are enumerated as then living in or immediately adjoining it: John Dawson, Sr., Fielder Pendulum, William Baker, Zina B. Baker (the first husband of Mrs. Downey), - Adair, Martin Mendenhall, Dr. Mathias Winans, Samuel Zortman, Sr., Nathaniel Hodges, Thomas Browder, Samuel T. Baker, Benjamin Fessenrider, - - Bently, Israel Hollingsworth and John Davis. William Baker was a nephew of Doctor Winans, and had located in James- town in 1830 or 1831 and opened a harness shop.
SUMMARY OF BUSINESS INTERESTS.
A number of the earliest business men of Jamestown have already been mentioned. No effort has been made in this connection to list every man who has had a business connection with the city, but to indicate some of the more prominent of the men who have contributed in some way to the growth of the city. The 'Adams brothers have been mentioned, as have all those who were in the village up to the '30s. The firm of Thorp & Ballard is said to have had the first store on the northwest corner of Limestone and Main streets. They were followed in the same room by James Hibben, who, in turn was succeeded in business in the same place by Thorp. The ownership of the store on this corner was evidently not conducive to the rapid accumu- lation of wealth if rapid changes in proprietorship may mean anything. Thorp gave way to Edward Wickersham, who soon moved out in favor of the firm of Syfers & Butler. Butler retired from the firm and Syfers took his son into partnership, and the new firm of Syfers & Son removed the old build- ing and erected a substantial brick building on the corner.
REMINISCENCES OF W. A. PAXON.
Continuing the history of the business men of Jamestown, W. A. Paxon gives in his interesting way some additional facts: "It would seem that the Syfers concluded that the corner was hoodooed and they were going to
392
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
remove the hoodoo by building a new building, which it would appear, com- pletely allayed the hoodoo. Here the Syfers began to lay the foundation of two fortunes, which have since then exceeded those of any persons who ever lived in Jamestown. L. L. Syfers quit business in 1867 to start the Farmers and Traders Bank, and was its president until the day of his death. His son, Rufus K. Syfers, went to Indianapolis and acquired a fortune esti- mated at near a million dollars. Thus the Syfers demonstrated that there is really no such thing as a hoodoo. The building was purchased from the Syfers by one Henry Dean, who started a grocery which afterward devel- oped into a groggery, and again invited the return of the hoodoo, for about that time the people began to wake up to the enormity of the crime and dis- grace of having the best corner of the town occupied by a rum shop. Dean was prosecuted under the newly enacted laws and ordinances until he was compelled to sell out and quit business. The old law of "quick changes" again took hold of the corner and within the space of a few years it was owned by John J. Davis, Dan Zartman, Stinson, Davis & Carpenter, and finally it became the property of G. O. Carpenter, some twenty-five years or more ago, who has occupied the store as a drug store with a good degree of success.
"The first mill in the town of Jamestown was erected some time between 1835 and 1840, and, queer as it may seem, it was a sort of a combined saw- mill and distillery. It is not recorded whether or not the proprietor used the sawdust in the manufacture of his whiskey, but sawdust has been used in later years in the making of alcohol. The mill was built and operated by the firm of Merrick & McBride, and was the first mill in the township to be operated by steam. After running it several years, the original owners dis- posed of it to a man. by the name of Kendall, who proceeded to convert it into a flour-mill. It passed into the hands of J. W. McMillen about the time of the opening of the Civil War and he continued to operate it until in the '8os. McMillen put in extensive improvements and made it one of the best mills in the county at that time.
"The McMillens, John W. and son, William F., continued the operation of the mill for several years, and then organized a corporation which con- ducted the business for several years under the name of the Jamestown Mill- ing Company. The mill was finally sold to John Jenks, who dismantled the property entirely and removed it to the present location on the south side of the railroad where it is now operated by George & Ervin Brothers. The large brick smokestack on the old mill site was an object of much interest. It stood for years, over one hundred feet high and was the tallest smoke stack in central Ohio. It could be seen for miles in every direction from Jamestown. When the mill was destroyed, the smoke stack began to decay
FRIENDS CHURCH, JAMESTOWN.
M. E. CHURCH, JAMESTOWN.
393
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
and crumble at the bottom, and was considered a menace to children and was ordered destroyed. When it was finally undermined and thrown down by a charge of dynamite the noise of its fall was distinctly heard in Xenia. The McMillens never operated the saw-mill, but sold that part of the machin- ery to Thomas H. Adams, who operated it in connection with a flax- or tow- mill for a few years, and sold the saw-mill part to James L. Ginn, who removed it to the north side of town, where he did quite a business sawing out ties and bridge timber for the narrow-gauge railroad. Ginn then removed his saw-mill, which was a portable mill, over to the lot south of the railroad and kept on improving and adding to its equipment until he had one of the best outfits in the county, to which he added a planing-mill and soft lumber. Ginn sold out to Adams & Thuma, being John Q. Adams, the son of Thomas H. Adams, and John Thuma, who is engaged in the lumber business at the present time at the same old stand south of the railroad. Timber became so scarce, in this locality that Adams & Thuma sold the saw-mill, and now there is no saw-mill at Jamestown. When Ginn first started the saw-mill he used large bulls for oxen and had quite a number of that kind of ox- teams on the roads hauling logs and lumber every day, and hauled some immense loads with them. He bought large tracts of timber, and cut and sawed it up. When he first started, Jamestown was surrounded by a num- ber of fine forests; but the prices Ginn offered the farmers seemed so alluring that they sold them off. In 1884 some people said that that was what caused the cyclone to visit the village, because all the timber had been cut off and some still think that was the cause of its appearance in the community."
CYCLONE OF APRIL 27, 1884.
The most destructive cyclone that ever passed over Greene county occurred on Sunday afternoon, April 27, 1884. It also struck the southern portion of Montgomery county, but most of its vengeance was spent on the town of Jamestown. It also struck Bellbrook, but only unroofed about fif- teen houses, no persons being killed. From Bellbrook it veered slightly to the north in its eastward path and approached Jamestown down the Xenia pike. It struck the town about five o'clock in the afternoon and in a very few minutes had killed five persons, injured many others and had done nearly a quarter of a million of dollars worth of damage. It first hit the grounds of the Union Agricultural Society at the west edge of the town, and there completely demolished every building except a few small stalls. The cyclone then struck the town proper and leveled a path approximately one hundred yards wide through the town. There was scarcely a building that was not more or less damaged, while about half of the houses were completely demol- . ished. Not a single one of the churches escaped damage, the buildings of
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394
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
the Methodists, Presbyterians, Christians, and Colored Methodists being practically destroyed. Nearly one hundred families were left homeless, five people were killed outright and about forty suffered more or less serious injuries. The fury of the cyclone was practically spent on Jamestown, there being little damage done by it as it passed on east into Fayette county. As may well be imagined the day marks a turning point in the history of the town, and for many years yet to come that fateful day will be recalled as the biggest single event in the history of the city. The population of the . town at that time was about nine hundred, the census of 1880 giving it a population of eight hundred and seventy-seven. Those who lost their lives in the cyclone were Mrs. Ellen Carpenter, Mrs. T. H. Adams, Katherine Boteler, Homer Paul and Lela Jenkins. The latter two were children, aged two and seven years, respectively, the other three being adults.
DESTRUCTIVE FIRES OF JAMESTOWN.
Jamestown has had three events in the course of its century of existence that may best be described as catastrophic. One of these was the cyclone of 1884; the other two were the destructive fires of 1878 and 1879. The three unfortunate events fell within a period of six years.
The fire which broke out at two o'clock on the morning of June 18, 1878, started in the hardware store of Stephenson & Smith on Limestone street. It was soon beyond control and by six o'clock in the morning the Adams block, J. F. Johnson's dwelling and the adjoining hotel building were burned to the ground. The total loss approximated eighteen thousand dollars, with about half that amount of insurance on the various buildings and their contents.
The second fire occurred ten months later, April 17, 1879. It broke out on the morning of that day in the store of James H. Glass, which, at the time, was used as a bakery and grocery store by Jonathan Bargdell. From this building, which was soon burned to the ground, the fire swept to the adjoining residence of Mrs. George Clark, then occupied by David McLain and his family, and Doctor Torrence. This house was a combined dwelling house, grocery and doctor's office. Most of the contents of both buildings were saved, the total loss being about four thousand dollars on the buildings. These buildings were in the same block with those destroyed ten months before, the second fire leaving nothing in the block but a blacksmith shop.
THE POSTOFFICE.
There is as much difference between the postoffice of Jamestown in the .'20s, when it was established, and the same institution today as there is between the ox-team of that day and the modern automobile. It was not until the days of the Civil War that mail was received daily, and the town
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GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
395
was' on a star route until the railroad reached the town in the middle of the '70s.
Shortly after Dr. Mathias Winans located in the town in 1820 he cir- culated a petition for the establishment of a postoffice and secured a sufficient number of prospective patrons of the proposed office to induce the postoffice department to place the town on a star route. But before the good old doctor had been commissioned postmaster he had assumed charge of such mail for the people of that vicinity as might be brought by a carrier from Xenia twice a week, his store serving as a distributing center for a radius of several miles. Xenia was eleven miles distant, but it was the nearest office to the town. When Doctor Winans was finally commissioned postmaster, the mail continued to be brought from Xenia semi-weekly, but later it came from Day- ton, the town being placed on a star route running between Dayton and Chilli- cothe, the mail then being received but once a week.
In the latter part of the '40s the route was again changed, the star route running from Washington Court House to Bellbrook by way of Jamestown. Under this arrangement Jamestown received mail three times each week. In 1861 the town began receiving mail from Xenia daily and this arrangement · obtained until the Dayton & Southeastern railroad reached the town in the middle of the 'zos, since which time the town has received mail daily from each direction. The local office now receives five mails daily, four by way of the railroad and one by rural carriers from Sabina and Bowersville.
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