USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume I > Part 74
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and bonds owned by the county was filed with the county commissioners on October 8, 1858, the grand total being listed at the par value of $92,550.
ELECTRIC LINES.
In 1918 there are two electric lines running through Greene county : One from Dayton to Xenia and thence north through Yellow Springs to Springfield; the other from Dayton to Springfield and passing through the towns of Fairfield and Osborn in Bath township in the extreme northwest corner of the county. Two other electric lines have been built in the county, but both are now a part of the past history of the transportation system of the county. One was known as the Rapid Transit, and connected Dayton and Xenia : the other was a line from Dayton through Bellbrook to Spring Valley. The former was dismantled several years ago, while the Dayton- Spring Valley line was in operation until the winter of 1917-1918.
The history of the electric lines of the county goes back to the middle of the '90s. Strange as it may seem, there were two separate companies endeav- oring to build a line from Xenia to Dayton at the same time, and both actually succeeded in getting their lines in operation. Both companies secured charters in 1895, but it was several years before they had their lines con- structed, one being the present line between the two cities, the other being north of the railroads between the two places. The Rapid Transit line went out of Xenia by way of the fair ground and then wended a circuitous route across the country to Dayton. It was very appropriately called the "scenic route."
The company which succeeded in establishing itself permanently was the Dayton, Springfield and Urbana Electric Railway Company, which company, because it took it so long to get its line in operation, was usually referred to as the "Damned, Slow and Uncertain" line. This company also obtained a franchise from the Greene county commissioners for the Dayton-Springfield line through the northwest corner of the county-the franchise bearing the date of November 4, 1895. Both lines between Xenia and Dayton were in operation by 1900, as was the line between Dayton and Spring Valley. The latter road opened for regular service on Monday, April 23, 1900. The Rapid Transit line was in operation several years, but it was seen that it was not a profitable venture and its promoters finally decided to abandon it. The same reason led to the abandonment of the line from Dayton to Spring Valley in the winter of 1917-1918.
The line from Xenia to Springfield was of later construction. The first trolley was put up on this line on January 20, 1902; the first track laid on
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April 7; the first regular cars between Springfield and Yellow Springs were started on June 17, and the first between Xenia and Yellow Springs started on August 17. While these four separate lines have been constructed within the county, there have been others projected, the most prominent being the one btween Xenia and Cedarville. A franchise was granted by the county com- missioners for this line and it was even surveyed. Then there was considerable talk of a line from Xenia east through Jamestown, but it likewise failed to materialize.
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CHAPTER XXXIX.
THE CITY OF XENIA.
The city of Xenia, the county seat of Greene county, was laid out as the seat of justice in the fall of 1803, the same year the county was organized. The facts concerned with its selection as the county seat and certain other facts connected with its early history are set forth in the chapter on the organi- zation of the county and need not be repeated here. It is interesting to note that there are three other towns of the same name in the United States- Powell county, Kentucky; Clay county, Illinois; Bourbon county, Kansas. It is certain that the Xenias of Illinois and Kansas were founded after the Ohio Xenia, but there is a probability that the Kentucky Xenia was in existence in 1803 and that some of the Kentuckians who came to Greene county knew of it.
Xenia is in latitude 39 degrees, 41 minutes north, and longtitude 83 degrees, 56 minutes west. The center of the city at Detroit and Main streets is 935.15 feet above sea level. The city as it stands today contains 2.21 square miles, or approximately 1,414 acres. There are 22.32 miles of streets within the corporate limits, and 12.12 miles of sidewalks. Of the street mileage, there are 8.4 miles paved-3.24 miles with brick and 5. 16 miles with asphalt.
The first house to be built in the town was erected in 1804 by John Marshall, his little log cabin in the midst of a dense forest being the nucleus of the present city of nine thousand. There appears to have been another log cabin raised prior to the hewed log cabin of the Rev. James Fowler, but it is not known who erected it. That the little village rapidly filled up with settlers is evidenced by the fact that in 1805 a log school house was erected. The first frame building was owned by David A. Sanders. William A. Beatty, the director of the town for several years after John Paul, the original proprietor and first director, had left for Indiana, was definitely located on East Main street in the fall of 1805. Beatty's tavern, as has been stated in another chapter, housed the first courts in Xenia, and continued to be so used until the first court house was ready for use in 1807.
XENIA IN 18II.
The order in which the first settlers arrived in the town will never be known, but there has very fortunately been preserved a vivid description of the town as it appeared in 1811, this being a reminiscent article by Samuel Wright, one of the first settlers of the town, who in 1856, then being ninety
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years of age, gave the data for an article in which he described the town as it appeared to him in 1811 and a resume of which is here reproduced from Robinson's 1902 history of Greene county :
Xenia was a stumpy, struggling village in 1811. The first house in it was built by one John Marshall on the southwest corner lot of the then corporation of Xenia, Lot No. 193. It was raised on the 27th day of April, 1804. On Main street there was at that time twenty-three structures; two of those were of brick, four of frame, the balance hewed-log houses and four log shops.
On Detroit street there were two log currying shops, seven one-story log houses, only two of them having shingle roofs and brick chimneys, and two frame houses two stories high. In 1856, the year Wright gave the data for this article, only two of these houses on Detroit street were still standing. One stood on the present site of the mill south of the upper depot, then belonging to Jonathan Wallace; the other stood on the corner of Second and Detroit streets. This house was standing in 1900 on West Main street, being at that time the first house west of John Lutz's blacksmith shop. It was bought by Major John Heaton and moved to that place.
On Main street was the Gowdy two-story frame house, afterward used as a tin-shop by James Nigh. In front of this building was the only brick pavement in the place. The streets had no gravel on them, were level from side to side, without gutters to carry off the water, and in rainy weather were a mass of mud, deep at that, from one side to the other. There were two ponds of water on Main street, one opposite, or near where Charles Trader's grocery stood in 1900; the other and larger pond was opposite the resi- dence of Dr. C. M. Galloway.
Remembrance Williams erected the first cabin near where is now the city of Xenia. He emigrated from Virginia to Kentucky in 1790, thence to what is now Greene county in 1800, crossing the Ohio at the mouth of the Licking. He entered a section of land where is now Robert's Villa, and north of that he erected his cabin and continued to live there until 1814, when he sold the largest part of that land to David Connelly and removed to near Madison, Indiana. He gave to his son, John Williams, a portion of the farm on the east side of said section. That cabin was built almost three years before Xenia was laid out, and he and his family were alone in what is now Xenia.
John Marshall had the honor of building the first cabin inside of the corporation limits of Xenia. He purchased lots Nos. 193 and 194, and the 27th day of April, 1804, his cabin was raised on what is now known on the town plat as lot No. 193. Two grand- sons of the old pioneer were living in 1900, William and James Marshall, their father, Robert T. Marshall, being born in that cabin on the 4th day of September, 1804. He was the first white child born in the town.
William A. Beatty, who had come from Georgetown, Kentucky, some time previous to 1803, was the first to keep a tavern in Xenia. He was next to follow in the line of improvements, and yet it was a matter of doubt which house would be completed first, his or the one that was being built at the same time for the Rev. James Towler, both of which were two-story log houses. But the evidence seems to be in favor of Mr. Beatty. One thing we do know that Mr. Beatty was doing all that he could to get his done first. Noah Strong was on hand with his two oxen that he had brought with him from the far away hills of Vermont, namely, "Buck and Brandy," and, more than that, the honorable court had engaged the west room upstairs in which to hold court, and they must have it by the 15th of November, 1804. The building was finished and opened as a tavern on the first day of October, 1804, on lot No. 14, opposite the public square, on the lot next to the present Xenia National Bank, the lot and building now thereon being the property of C. P. Dowling.
The Rev. Towler did not have long to wait for his new building. He had purchased
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lots Nos. 39 and 40. He was a native of Prince Edwards county, Virginia, and emigrated to Greene county in 1803. This house was better known as the Crumbaugh house, and stood on the north side of Main street. He was the first postmaster of Xenia.
Josiah Grover was the second clerk of courts of Greene county, accepting that posi- tion in 1808 after his brother-in-law, John Paul, had resigned. His first cabin was erected on lot No. 192, West Third street, on the corner opposite the home occupied in 1900 by Timothy O'Connell. He came to Xenia previous to 1803.
Benjamin Grover, a brother of Josiah, was the first school teacher of Xenia. The school house was on West Third street, and stood on the lot that was the home of Mrs. James Kyle in later years. It was a one-story log house, and was built in 1805. It was used as a school house for several years, Hugh Hamill, who came to Xenia in 1810, teaching in that house.
Col. James Collier was one of the first to come into the Northwest - Territory in the year 1796. He stopped at what was called Holes station (Miamisburg), and from there went to the Wilson settlement, thence to the farm of Capt. Nathan Lamme, and finally to Xenia in the early part of 1805. In that year he erected his cabin on lot No. 60, on Detroit street. When he built his first cabin in 1805, he set it back about twenty feet from the in-line of the sidewalk so that in 1813, when he erected his noted tavern, that was in the rear and became the kitchen. When in later years the march of improvement made way with the old to be replaced with the new, that old hewed-log cabin home, then weather-boarded, was moved to East Market street, and located on the lot immediately west of the East Market street high school. It was not torn down until 1900.
Hon. John Alexander, grandfather of the late William J. Alexander, at this time owned a whole square on West Market and Church streets. He had emigrated from South Carolina in 1804 and was the first lawyer to settle in Xenia. In 1811 his house was ap- praised at seven hundred and fifty dollars, and was still standing in 1900 on North King street, the property of C. C. Shearer, a relic of the past, and when moved to its present site was as good as when first erected.
James Bunton (or Bunting) arrived in Xenia in 1805. He was a good carpenter, and we find that he was a man of enterprise. In 1806 he purchased lots No. 124 and 130. Upon the former he erected a two-story log structure on West Second street, better known as the McWhirk property, where David Hutchison later built two brick houses.
Eli Adams came to Xenia in 1808. In 1810 he purchased of William A. Beatty, then director of the town of Xenia, lot No. 140, on the corner of Second and Collier streets. This house will be remembered by the older citizens of the city as the home of Tillbury Jones, marshal of Xenia in the early '50s.
In addition to his tavern on Main street, and which was also the early place of holding the courts of the county, Mr. Beatty was the owner of lot No. 165 on the southwest corner of Second and Collier streets, and on this lot he had built his cabin home. This home was valued for taxable purposes in 1811 at one hundred and sixty dollars.
William Gordon was the owner of lot No. 33 in the year 1807. This lot was situated on the northeast corner of Main and Whiteman streets. George Gordon, his brother, came up from Warren county with his team to assist in hauling the logs for this building, which was a two-story log structure, forty feet square, and was for many years used by William Gordon as a store room. Major George Gordon had previously moved his brother, William, from Warren county to Xenia in 1805. His brother had at that time purchased lot No. 176, situated on the corner of third and Whiteman streets. Mr. Gordon had erected on this lot a small log house, the first brewery of Xenia. This building was once owned by James Brown. The older persons can yet remember when this part of Xenia was known by the name of "Brown Town." He was killed in the gravel pit west of Xenia, June 4, 1849, aged seventy-three years. His death was caused by the caving in of the surface dirt. When dug out he was dead.
Hugh Hamill came to Xenia from Preble county in 1810, and purchased lots No.
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197, 198, 199 and 200. These lots fronted on Third street, and were situated between Barrett and Maxwell streets, running thence south to the bank of Shawnee creek. He erected his cabin near the brow of the hill, overlooking Shawnee, on the south end of lot No. 200. In the rear of his cabin on this lot extending west to Barrett street was his tanyard. He erected a brick house in 1845.
Dr. Andrew Davidson, on the IIth day of November, 1808, purchased of Henry Phenix lot No. 38, on which in 1811 he erected a two-story brick house. This lot was on Main street, and the building was on the site later occupied by John Knox's saddlery shop. Dr. Davidson came to Xenia in 1805 and was the first physician to locate in the town.
In the year 1805 James Gowdy first came to Xenia and built his store room, the first one in Xenia, on lot No. 34, first lot east of Greene street on Main, and here in 1806 he commenced selling merchandise.
The first court house for Greene county was let to William Kendall in 1806. Previous to this time the county had been paying rent, first for the house of Peter Borders, down on Beaver creek, second to William A. Beatty in Xenia. This latter house was com- pleted in 1807.
Samuel Gamble had erected a small house on lot No. 144, on the corner of Second and Monroe streets, north side, the same lot later being owned by John Kyle. Mr. Gamble, in 18II, also owned one-half of lot No. 15 on Main street.
John Gregg was, in 1811, the owner of the first lot east of the northeast corner of Second and Detroit streets. On this lot, No. 134, he raised and completed a cabin.
Capt. John Hivling, in 1811, was the owner of lot No. 13, upon which he had com- pleted a building on the corner of Main and Detroit street, on the present site of the Xenia National Bank.
Joseph Hamill was the owner, in 18II, of lot No. 14, opposite the court house, and it was here he kept his noted tavern, or what was known as Hamill's Inn. He was one of the early justices of peace of Xenia township. His building was part of what in later years was known as the Puterbaugh store, where Kinney and Steele were murdered and the fire of August 3, 1845, followed.
Abraham Larue was the owner, in 18II, of lots No. 131 and 132, comprising about one-fourth of what was later known as the J. C. McMillan corner. Mr. Larue's lots extended from the corner running west .on Second street one-half the distance of the square and from the same corner running north the same distance on Detroit street. His house was erected on lot 132. He also owned out-lots No. 7 and 8.
David Laughead, Sr., was the owner, in 1811, of lot No. 143, on East Second street, better known as the home in later years of Mrs. Newton, the mother of Chancey and Samuel Newton. Upon that lot he erected a one-story house. The ground was later occupied by the handsome LeSourd and Stewart residences.
Peter Pelham, who came from Boston, Massachusetts, in 1807, and who was the first auditor of Greene county, erected his cabin on lot No. 144, at the corner of Main and Barrett streets. The house he built was still standing in 1900.
Hezekiah Sanders came to Xenia in 1807. He was the owner of lot No. 133 and erected his house, a two-story frame, on the northwest corner of Second and Detroit streets. This corner lot later became the home of the Xenia Bank, the building which was erected for the bank now being the home of the Messenger brothers, physicians. When the bank building was erected, Maj. John Heaton bought the old Sanders building and moved it to his lot on West Main street.
John Sterritt built his cabin on lot No. 89, at the northwest corner of Market and Whitman streets. This property is better known as the old home of Col. John Duncan. Subsequently it became the home of Mrs. Elias Quinn and daughters.
James Watson, in 18II, was the owner of lot No. 7 on West Main street. He had a cabin erected where the Miami Powder Company later had their local offices.
Henry Barnes, Sr., a native of Virginia, removed to Kentucky in 1799, and came to
SAMUEL BATTEN.
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Xenia in 1807. He was the father of Henry Barnes, Jr., a former sheriff of the county, and the grandfather of Major George Barnes. He was the owner of lots No. 29 and 68. No. 29 was situated at the corner of Main and Collier streets and here he had his cabin home. Lot No. 68 was in the rear of this, fronting on Market street.
Jonathan H. Wallace was at this time the owner of lot No. 180, which was located at the southwest corner of Third and Detroit streets. He came to Xenia in 1807 and was for many years engaged in the business of making hats. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, and after removed to Clark county, Ohio, where he died at the home of Anthony Byers on April 25, 1850, aged seventy years.
Captain Robert Gowdy had a tanyard in 1811 on the corner of Third and Detroit streets. His currying shop, a long one-story log house, stood near that place. Across Detroit street east, where is now located the lumber yard of McDowell & Torrence, was another tanyard, carried on under the firm name of William Alexander and Richard Con- well. Mr. Alexander was a brother of Hon. John Alexander, a native of South Carolina, and who died on June 3, 1824, and is buried on the lot of his brother, John, in Woodland cemetery.
And thus was Xenia, as far as householders were concerned, in the year A. D. 1811.
EARLY BUSINESS MEN.
The first half of the city's history saw a large number of men engaged in a wide variety of vocations. There was in the ante-bellum days a great number of small business men, such as bakers, tailors, carpenters, cabinet- makers, candle-makers,, wheelwrights, chairmakers, tanners, tavern-keepers, grocers, hatters, etc. Scores of these remained in the town only a few years and a large number of them made so slight an impression on the public that their names have not even been preserved for future generations.
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The tanner was an essential factor of every new town in those days, and among the many tanners of Xenia in its early days are recalled the following : John Marshall, probably the first one to follow the trade in the town; Hugh Hamill, Robert Gowdy, William Alexander, Richard Conwell and James Steele. Any new town requires carpenters, even though most of the houses are log structures, and Xenia had its share. Henry Barnes, James Bunton (or Bunting), Abraham Larue, Robert Nesbit, Amos Darraugh and Thomas Gillespie were among those who came to the town during the first two decades of its history. Of tavern-keepers there have been a long list. The first man to open a "house of entertainment," an expression which was very common in those days, was William A. Beatty. Soon thereafter came James Collier, Joseph Hamill and a number of small tavern-keepers, most of their revenue being derived from the sale of liquors. Hivling, Ewing and Merrick were of a later date, all, however, coming in before the Civil War. Among several others who are given as "firsts" in their respective callings are the following : William Gordon, brewer; Jonathan H. Wallace, hatter; John Stull,, tailor; John William, blacksmith; John Mitten, wheelwright and chairmaker.
The first business man in Xenia was William Beatty, who opened his tavern on October 1, 1804. It is probable that he kept a few commodities for (45)
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sale in addition to the stock of intoxicating liquors which was to be found in every well-regulated tavern in those days. But the first real merchant of the town was James Gowdy, and the Gowdy family were the most important merchants of the village for the first quarter of a century after the town was established.
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James Gowdy was born in Pennsylvania in 1777, May 20, and died in Xenia on December 24, 1853. Some of the Gowdys later settled in Kentucky, where James and Samuel, brothers, opened a store at Mt. Sterling in the fall of 1802. Hearing of the establishment of a new county in Ohio, and of the selection of the county seat, and also the fact that the county seat was still without a store, James Gowdy paid a visit to the county seat in question to see about the advisability of establishing a store in the new town. And so came James Gowdy to Xenia in 1805. Gowdy was a keen business man, and as soon as he saw the infant village he decided that here was a good location for a store. He returned at once to Kentucky, where he and his brother divided the goods they had in stock, and in the fall of the same year he landed in Xenia and opened the first store in the town. It stood on lot No. 34, the first lot east of Greene street on Main street. His brother, Samuel, remained at Mt. Sterling until the summer of 1806, when, having closed out the business there, he came to Xenia with the remainder of his stock. And so came the second merchant into the town. The two brothers were in partnership, and also had a younger brother, Ryan, with them, the latter then being a mere youth. The Gowdys prospered from the beginning and soon had a large trade scattered over a wide stretch of territory. The partnership continued until the summer of 1814, when they dissolved by mutual consent, each taking a part of the goods and conducting separate stores. Samuel quit after about five or six years and sold his store and settled on a farm near the town. James and his brother, Ryan, continued in the store together until Ryan reached his majority, when he left the store. However, before this time James Gowdy had employed a clerk by the name of John Ewing, a relative of his first wife, and when Ryan left he hired a clerk, or apprentice, as they were then called, one William Perkins by name.
James Gowdy had a number of partners before he finally retired from the store in 1838. John R. Gowdy, the oldest son of Samuel, became his partner on July 5, 1833, and continued as such until his death in March, 1834. At that time Alexander G. Zimmerman and John A. Gowdy, a son of Robert, were taken into the firm, the title of the new firm being Gowdy, Ewing & Company. Ewing had had an interest in the store for several years before this date. John A. Gowdy disposed of his interest in the firm on August 12, 1836, and moved to Illinois. The next change in the firm was made on July 19, 1838, when James Gowdy sold out his interest in the store to John
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Ewing and Alexander G. Zimmerman. It seems that he took as part pay- ment the firm's share in a branch store which had been maintained at James- town for the previous eighteen months. James McBride had a full half interest in the Jamestown store, but the old pioneer merchant, then sixty- five years of age, took active charge of the store. The career of James Gowdy in his Jamestown store was not altogether satisfactory. In fact, he lost money, and in 1844 closed out the store. He had then been in the mercantile business since 1802, a period of forty-two years. He owned a number of lots in Xenia on which he had several buildings, and besides he was the owner of considerable land in the county. He devoted the last years of his life to the care of his extensive property interests and died in Xenia on December 24, 1853.
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