USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume I > Part 75
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Ryan Gowdy, the younger brother of James Gowdy, was even a more prominent business man and of more value to the young town than his elder brother. It has been mentioned that he started in as a clerk with his brother in 1805. He was then only about eleven years of age, and he remained with his brother until he reached his majority. He then commenced business for himself. His first contribution to the town in the way of a building was made in 1827, in which year he erected a large brick business building on the southwest corner of Main and Detroit streets, for years known as the Nunnemaker corner, and now occupied by the Allen building. He next erected a building on the southwest corner of Detroit and Market streets, where he opened a store. His third move took him on Main street, where he purchased a large brick house opposite the court house, it being the one which was burned on the night of August 3, 1845. It was this so-called Puterbaugh fire which followed the murder of two young men in the build- ing, James Kinney, a brother of the poet, Coates Kinney, and William Steele, a son of Thomas Steele, the old schoolmaster. In this building Ryan Gowdy was in business for several years prior to its destruction by fire. After the loss of the store and building by fire he went to Missouri, but he was soon back in Xenia. He now opened his fourth store, a grocery at the corner of Main and Whiteman streets, where he continued in business until 1848. In that year he sold his store, disposed of much of his other property, and set out for the unknown West. He was gone four years, during which time he traveled up and down the Pacific coast prospecting for gold, but added nothing to his worldly possessions. He returned to Xenia in 1852, became a school teacher, and for the next ten years was constantly employed in the school room, teaching up to within three years of his death, his last teaching being done in Richland county, Ohio. He died near Francona, Ohio, on June 6, 1863, at the age of sixty-eight. He was treasurer of the county during 1819 and 1820, and served as county commissioner from 1833
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to 1836, being on the board when the brick jail and a large two-story brick market house were erected on the public square.
Another of the prominent merchants of the first half of the last century was John Hivling. Born in Pennsylvania on July 14, 1779, he came to Greene county in 1809, bought the old Paul mill and operated it a couple of y'ears and then settled in Xenia, where he lived until his death in 1851, for forty years identified with the business life of the town. He first bought the southeast corner lot on Main and Detroit streets, the site of the present Xenia National Bank. There was a log building then on the corner and in it he kept hotel for two years. He then bought a thousand-acre tract adjoin- ing the town, but never pretended to be a farmer. In 1815 he bought the lot, building and a stock of goods from one Davis, a small storekeeper, the lot later being known as the Forsman lot, situated on Main street. He had been elected sheriff of the county in the fall of 1811 and it was undoubtedly this fact that induced him to dispose of his mill and locate in Xenia. He took the office in the spring of 1812 and held it for two terms-four years. He has the unique honor of publicly whipping the last man in accordance with an order of the court, October 30, 1812. Hivling held no public office after quitting the office of sheriff. He built the first hotel of any size in the town and for years the Hivling House was the leading hotel of the town. He was active in the construction of the Little Miami railroad and was largely instrumental in having it pass down Detroit street. He was a member of the first board of directors of the railroad and remained on the board until 1840 when he refused re-election. When the Xenia Bank was organized he became its first president, and when it became one of the branches of the State Bank of Ohio he was one of the largest stockholders in the new bank. He was a member of the state board of control of the State Bank from 1845 until his death. He died on November 4, 1851, in Xenia. His funeral was in charge of the Masons, of which fraternal organization he was one of the charter members in Xenia. Michael Nunnemaker, son-in-law of Hivling, was born in Maryland on August 3, 1790, and settled in Xenia in 1816, shortly afterward entering the employ of Hivling, and for several years was his bookkeeper and principal salesman. He married Mary Hivling, the daugh- ter of his employer, on October 28, 1821. They had one daughter, Sarah A., who became the wife of John B. Allen, another of the prominent busi- ness men and one of the first bankers of the town. Nunnemaker eventually acquired a store of his own and continued in the mercantile business until his death, February 27, 1866.
If there was one particular trade that was important to a town in the early days it was that of the edge-tool maker. In the days when all edge tools were made by hand the man who could make an ax which would
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keep an edge was always sure of all the work he could do. Such a man was Russell Rice, who came to Xenia in 1815 and lived here until his death, December 3, 1879. He came from Connecticut to Dayton with his parents in 18II, served in the War of 1812 and located in Xenia in 1815. He was probably the finest edge-tool maker the town has ever had, to which accom- plishment he added that of fife playing. When only thirteen years of age he enlisted in a company organized at Dayton and went to the Canadian frontier as a fife player, his brother, Silas, being a drummer. For years after he settled in Xenia his fife was heard on militia muster days, and to the end of his life he was regarded as a skillful performer on the instru- ment. But he made his living by making edge tools, and in his little shop which stood where the Grand Hotel now stands, he turned out hundreds and thousands of edge tools of every description. His tools were responsible for the felling of more trees in the county than the tools manufacturer by any other man in the county. He died in his eighty-first year at the home of his daughter, Mrs. M. J. Sheley.
INCORPORATION OF XENIA.
It took two separate acts of the General Assembly of the state to get the town of Xenia incorporated. From the date of its platting in the fall of 1803 to 1817 it had no government of its own, being an integral part of Xenia township up to the latter year. When Jacob Smith was in the Legislature in 1813 he introduced and secured the passage of a bill to incor- porate the town. . It is not possible at this late day to ascertain why the citizens of the town did not take advantage of this act, since certainly they were behind the movement to incorporate the town or they' would not have had the bill introduced. Whatever may have happened, the facts are that nothing was done. It was in the midst of the War of 1812 and this fact may have been the reason why nothing was done at that time.
The second attempt to incorporate the town was made following the passage of a second act in the session of 1817. The bill was introduced again by Smith, then in the state senate, while Joseph Tatman represented the county in the lower house. Following this act a petition was presented to the court of common pleas, a copy of which follows:
To the Honorable Court of Common Pleas for the County of Greene :
The representation and petition of the subscribing inhabitants and householders of Xenia town respectfully showeth that the town of Xenia contains eighty-eight house- holders, and that the town of Xenia is the county seat of Greene county, and is situated on the north side of Shawnee run, about three miles from its juncture with the Little Miami river. It was laid out by Joseph C. Vance, Esq., late director of said town, in the year 1803, by order of the court of common pleas for the county of Greene.
That the plat of said town was duly recorded in the recorder's office of said county
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in 1804, and is bounded and described as follows, to-wit: Beginning at a stake standing on the northwest corner of Back street, N. 78 degrees, E. 302 poles, to a stake in Rememberance Williams' land, thence S. 83 degrees, E. 61 poles, to the northeast corner of the out-lots of said town; thence S. 12 degrees, E. 83 poles, to the corner of lot 27; thence S. 7 degrees, W. 30 poles, to a stake on the bank of Shawnee run; thence down said run with the meanders thereof to the south end of West street; thence with the west side of said street, N. 12 degrees, W. 127 poles, to the beginning, including all the in-lots and fractional in-lots and all the out-lots numbered and marked on the town plat of said town, as recorded in the office of the recorder of said county, containing two hundred and seventy acres, be the same more or less; being comprised in one plat as aforesaid, and being a part of a survey for one thousand acres, No. 2243, entered and surveyed for Warren and Addison Lewis, patented to Robert Pollard.
That, on account of the late act for incorporating the said town having become inoperative, many inconveniences have been experienced by reason of disorders, nuisances, which have been openly and secretly created by ignorant or malicious persons, to the great detriment and annoyance of the peaceably disposed citizens, and that so long as the present state of things continues no appropriation can be made of the money collected by taxes for two years, during which the aforesaid law was inoperative, for the benefit of the town, by erecting a market house, improving the streets, or any other public or useful purpose by any existing authority competent thereto.
We therefore pray that the said town of Xenia may be incorporated according to law, and that the honorable court will take all due measures for the accomplishment of this desirable object, and your petitioners as in duty bound will ever pray.
William Kendall
James Gill
Andrew W. Davidson
Francis Kendall
John Gowdy
James Edwards
James Watson
Warren Madden
Henry Barnes, Sr.
Enoch Hixon
Ryan Gowdy
George Townsley
Robert Gillespie
Benjamin Newkirk
James Jacoby
William Currie
Robert Mckenzie
John Deary
John Hivling
Samuel M. Good
Pleasant Moorman
Jonathan H. Wallace
J. Herdleson
Andrew Moorman
Eli Harlan
James Galloway, Jr.
George Townsley
James L. Johnson John Davis
Thomas Gillespie
William Donnell
William Richards
Joseph Hamill
Elijah Ferguson
Joseph Culbertson
Samuel Shaw
William Ellsberry
Samuel Gowdy
Jonathan Owens
John Stull
John Flowers
Moses Collier
Lemuel John
James Popenoe
Robert True
William John
William Johnson
Robert Casbold
David Douglass
Henry McBride
John Milton
John Van Eaton
Abraham Corson
Miles Edwards
George M. Smith
David Stewart
Josiah Talbott
John Howard
Joseph Barker
James Gowdy
Stephen Howard
Joseph Johnson
David Connelly
John Williams
This petition with its sixty-six signers was filed with the court on March 24, 1817. It will be noticed that the petitioners claim only eighty-eight householders for the town, but this does not necessarily mean that there were that many voters. Some of the householders may have been women. A number of the residents were young men and had not yet had the time to accumulate a numerous progeny, so that the most extravagant estimate
John Dorsey
Josiah Davidson
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would indicate that the population did not much exceed four hundred. Although this petition was filed in March, 1817, there was evidently no definite action taken on it for several months thereafter. Just what was taking place in the summer and fall of 1817 is not known, but it is certain that the question of incorporation was held in abeyance until the latter part of October. This is proven conclusively from the following records :
THE STATE OF OHIO, GREENE COUNTY.
To the Sheriff of Said County, Greeting :
We command you that you summon Moses Collier, David Douglas and Elijah Fergu- son to be and appear before the Court of Common Pleas, at the Court House in Xenia, on Monday, the 27th instant, to testify and the truth to say concerning such matters as shall be then and there inquired of them respecting the petition for the incorporation of said Towa of Xenia; and this they shall in no wise omit under the penalty which may fall thereon. Hereof fail not at your peril and have you them there this writ.
Witness: The Honorable Orris Perish, presiding judge of our said Court, at Xenia, this 22nd day of October, Anno Domini 1817.
JOSIAH GROVER, CIk.
Unfortunately, the village records are missing for the entire period of its existence as a village. In fact there are no official records of the town until 1834, when the village became a city. This indicates that there are at least seventeen years of the town's early history with no official records. It is not even known when the incorporation of the village took place, but it is evident that it must have taken place before the close of 1817.
XENIA, 1834-1845.
The history of Xenia from 1834 to 1845 was uneventful. The town grew gradually; better dwellings arose; business enterprises were started; churches were established; and in other ways the town began to assume something of the appearance which it has to-day. Many of the brick build- ings erected during this period are still standing, some of them around the public square.
But the year 1845 marks a turning point in the history of the town, for in that year the first railroad, the Little Miami, reached the town. It is not difficult to imagine the enthusiasm of the people which followed the coming of the first train into the town. Business immediately became better, not only in the county seat, but over the entire county. The farmers now had a direct outlet for their grain and livestock, and no longer would they have to drive their livestock on foot to Cincinnati or Toledo. It also meant that manufacturing enterprises could find an outlet for their output, and manu- factured goods bearing the stamp of Xenia began to find their way to outside markets. From 1845, therefore, Xenia has been in close communication with the outside world. About half a dozen years later the town had railroad con-
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nection with Columbus on the east and Dayton on the west, the '50s seeing a railroad across Ohio from east to west through Xenia.
XENIA, 1845-1880.
It is difficult to select another distinctive date in the history of the town; that is, a date which marks an epoch in its history. A cursory view of the city's history for the past seventy years would indicate, however, that the year 1880 might be taken as the beginning of another epoch in its his- tory. The period from 1845 to 1880 is marked by a few outstanding events which may first be noticed.
There are few people now living who can recall the horrors of the year 1848. That was the year of the terrible cholera scourge in the county, a year in which more people died here than in any other year of the county's history. In Xenia and the immediate vicinity alone there were no fewer than eighty-five deaths in a short time, and there were as many if not more in the remainder of the county who succumbed to the dread disease. The rail- road between Xenia and Columbus was being graded that year and a large number of the Irish laborers employed on the construction crew were vic- tims of the disease. They were buried by the score along the line of the railroad, and to this day there is a ridge along the railroad between Xenia and Cedarville where it is said that a large number of them found a last resting place. It was about this time that it was decided to abandon all of the cemeteries in Xenia and establish a new one outside the city's limits, and thus came about the present beautiful Woodland cemetery adjoining the county seat.
This same period from 1845 to 1880 saw the rise of the modern system of private, state and national banks. The Civil War period witnessed the beginning of the national bank system, while the General Assembly pro- vided for a system of state banks, as well as placing such restrictions around private banks as would make them responsible institutions. The present city building made its appearance in the latter part of the '6os, although it was completely remodeled in 1880, since which year it has undergone few changes. The court house erected in the '40s received a substantial addi- tion in the 'zos, but continued in use until torn down in 1900 to make way for the present building. The present jail dates from the '6os, the work- house not being opened until the fall of 1883. The '70s brought the twine industry to the city. The Central school building was erected in 1880, although the East Main street school building was erected several years prior to that year. All the other school buildings have appeared since 1880. Xenia College, Xenia Theological Seminary and a number of private schools arose during this period, all of which have disappeared except the theologi-
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cal school. The public school system was introduced in the '50s, although it was about a decade later before the high school was established. The first public library was opened in 1878.
XENIA, 1880-1918.
The decade following 1880 saw the introduction of the first public utilities in the city and the beginning of all the modern city improvements which are to be found in the city in 1918. It is true that artificial gas had been introduced into the city before the Civil War, but its cost was so exces- sive that it was not extensively used. For several years it was sold at four dollars a thousand cubic feet, which, when compared with the thirty-five cent gas of 1918, will be seen to be a little too expensive for universal use. The natural gas which the city now enjoys did not reach the city until the spring of 1905.
The telephone and electric light were introduced into the city by Lewis H. Whiteman at the beginning of this decade, the telephone arriving in 1879 and electricity in 1881. The year 1886 marks the beginning of the present waterworks system, that year seeing the issuance of a franchise to John P. Martin for the installation of a waterworks plant. While Martin soon disposed of his plant, the following year saw a foreign company in the field and part of the present plant was soon in operation. The beginning of the waterworks plant also brought in the modern fire department and relegated the old "steamers" to oblivion. The sewerage system had its beginning in 1900, and the eighteen years which have since elapsed have seen the city well covered with a sewerage system and the installation of a modern sewage-disposal plant, the latter being completed in the spring of 1918. Following shortly after the beginning of the sewerage system came the first paved streets, parts of Main and Detroit streets, and there has hardly been a year since then that some paving has not been done, the year 1918 starting off with about eight and a half miles of paved streets out of a total street mileage of twenty-two.
The following paragraphs take up in some detail the more important of the public utilities of the city. In some cases it has been impossible to get exact data for the reason that the utility was a private enterprise and no public records were available to make a study of it. In such cases the historian has been compelled to rely on newspaper accounts and interviews. with those who had more or less definite information concerning them.
ARTIFICIAL GAS.
Artificial gas was introduced into Xenia in the middle of the '40s and continued to be manufactured until about a year after the Ohio Fuel Supply Company brought natural gas into the city in 1905, a period of about sixty
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years. During these many years there were many persons connected at one time or another with the local artificial gas business, but all of the original owners have long since passed away. The moving spirit of the first gas company was James Allison, the father of M. C. Allison, the son being the chief owner of the local plant for many years. For several years the prin- cipal owners included M. C. Allison, W. B. Fairchild, Judge James J. Winans and a Mrs. William Morris, but of this group M. C. Allison was the most important. After this group retired another set of owners came in, the second group including Eli Millan, Jacob Harbine, Frank McGervey and a few others, the first two named being the chief stockholders. It was this group which sold the local plant to a Chicago company, which, after a few years, went into bankruptcy, after which local capitalists took over the plant and operated it until it was discontinued in 1905, when natural gas was introduced into the city.
THE OHIO FUEL SUPPLY COMPANY.
The first natural gas in Xenia was brought in by the Ohio Fuel Supply Company in 1905 and it was only a short time until the manufacture of artificial gas was discontinued. The natural-gas company secured a fran- chise from the city on March 10, 1905, and has since operated under the franchise granted that year. According to the original agreement between the city and the company, the city was to have gas for the first three years at thirty-five cents a thousand feet, with ten cents off if paid within ten days after the beginning of the month. For the next seven years the rate was fixed at thirty-five cents, with five cents off. In 1916 the rate was fixed at forty cents, with five cents off, and this is the rate at the present time.
When the company came into the city it installed new mains and con- nections throughout the city, not making use of any of the property of the old artificial-gas company. The mains have been extended from year to year until now practically the entire city is covered with piping. The report of the local manager on March 1, 1918, shows that the company had 2,17I consumers in the city. The same company also supplies Wilberforce and Cedarville, having fifty-one consumers at the former place and two hundred sixty-five at the latter.
The gas is largely derived from the natural-gas fields of Ohio, although there is some gas piped from West Virginia. The pipe passing through Greene county is eighteen inches in diameter, and this insures the consumers an ample supply of gas. The present manager, R. W. Erwin, has been with the company as local manager since August 10, 1905, which indicates that his service has been entirely satisfactory.
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ELECTRICITY IN XENIA.
The first man to introduce electric lighting in the city of Xenia was L. H. Whiteman, who was also the first man to introduce the telephone to the citizens of the city. After Whiteman had made such a success of his telephone, he decided to install an electric-light plant. If he had not taken the initial step for the introduction of electricity in the city, it is doubtful whether the city would have ventured into the same field as early as it did.
An interesting light on the electric-light situation, as well as the gas situation, as it appeared in 1881, is furnished by the following extract from the Democrat News, of Xenia, dated April 23, 1881 :
Xenia would have had the Brush electric light long before Akron if we had a few more Lew Whitemans in town. The cost of lighting this city should not be over $1,000 per year, and that, too, from one end of the corporation to the other, and every alley will be as light as day. Our gasoline lamps alone cost far more than that. It is simply an infernal outrage to pay out so much money for gas, and be in darkness one-third of the time. Who is the committee on light? We would like to have you show your hand.
The electric light situation in the city is inextricably mixed up with the artificial gas situation. The gas people did not want to see electricity introduced into the city and fought it as long as they could. The gas crowd controlled the city council and it was for this reason that the initial ven- ture of Whiteman into the electric-light field did not meet with the success which attended his telephone business. But be that as it may, in the early spring of 1881 Whiteman decided to show the people of Xenia what electric light really was. They had read about it; some of them had seen it; many doubted. Accordingly Capt. Whiteman made preparations in the spring of 1881 to install his plant. He bought what was known as a Brush dynamo and equipment and strung a wire the full length of Main street. He installed his dynamo in the old mill of John T. Harbine on West Main street, the mill furnishing the power. His lights were the old-fashioned carbon, sput- tering lights, but they lighted up the street as it had never been lighted before. But his efforts to introduce electricity into the city were frowned upon by the powers that ruled the city's affairs, and he was forced to aban- don his enterprise after exactly, one month of operation. In the meantime the city had decided, or, to be exact, the gas people had decided for the city, that it would install a plant for the purpose of lighting the streets of the city, there being no intention of putting' in a plant large enough to furnish current for private consumers. This action on the part of the city of course put an end to the effort of Whiteman to go ahead with his venture into the same field.
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