USA > Ohio > Preble County > History of Preble County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches > Part 27
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Alfred Ayers came about 1836 and remained a short time, practicing in partnership with Dr. Paramore. He removed to Greenville and, retiring while there from practice, went to Butler county, where he ended his days.
William H. H. B. Minor came to Eaton in 1835, and commenced practice with Dr. Paramore, with whom he had previously read in 1838. When Paramore moved out on his farm Dr. Minor formed a partnership with Dr. Crume, which was continued three years. He re- tired from practice in 1851, and went into the dry goods business, which, after a short time, he abandoned for the drug business, at which he felt more at home. In this branch of trade he remained for many years. Dr. Minor was born in Warren county, Ohio, October 5, 1812. He attended Drake's college in Cincinnati. His wife, still living, and to whom he was married in 1839, was Miss Lovina C. Holaday.
Dr. Parker came in 1833, and removed to Michigan in 1835.
David Baker, of Pennsylvania, began practice in Eaton about 1840, having previously been located for a short time in Alexandria. He secured a considerable practice, and during his twelve years residence was quite uniformly successful. He removed to Cincinnati.
Albert Huber, a young man from Pennsylvania, was a partner of Baker's from 1842 to 1848. He moved to Hamilton, where he is still living.
Dr. Anderson, from Indiana, practiced two or three years in the 'forties,' and then went to Lebanon, where he died.
J. C. Helm commenced practice in 1844 or 1845, having read with Dr. Crume. He was for some time a partner of the old doctor, and then practiced alone. He finally removed to Peru, Indiana, and was suc- ceeded by Dr. Welsh.
Dr. James B. Welsh was born in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, July 30, 1821. When he was eight years old his father died, and at the age of fifteen he removed with his mother to Indiana. Soon after he obtained his majority he commenced, in an irregular way, the study of medicine, being at the same time engaged in school teaching. He attended his first course of lectures in the winter of 1848-9, at the Ohio Medical college at Cincinnati, and subsequently practiced, but did not graduate until the spring of 1858. He immediately afterward located in Eaton. Dr. Welsh was united in marriage to Miss Eva J. Garver, May 16, 1841. His wife died February 22, 1878, and September 11, 1879, he was married to Catharine Oaks.
Dr. P. M. Small was born in Montgomery county, Ohio, May 5, 1834. He grew to maturity there, and
desiring to take up the study of medicine, attended the Electic Medical college of Cincinnati, from which he graduated in 1859. He then began practice in Eaton, and has ever since been a resident of the town, except while attending lectures in Cincinnati. He entered the Miami Medical college, and graduated from it in 1872. He was married in 1859 to Martha Austin.
Dr. A. H. Stephens, although not so long a practitioner in Eaton as some others, has probably practiced in the county more years than any physician now living. He was the son of Isaac Stephens and Elizabeth McCollie, who settled here in 1804. The doctor was born Sep- tember 26, 1818, and was reared in this village. He attended the Ohio Medical college, of Cincinnati, and graduated from that institution in 1846. Beginning practice in Cincinnati, he remained there one year and then removed to Iowa, where he was located for a few months. In 1848 he moved to Camden, Preble county, where he was in practice thirteen years, in partnership with Dr. L. Dunham. At the expiration of that period, in 1861, he went into the army as regimental surgeon, being attached to the Sixth Ohio volunteer infantry, a Cincinnati regiment, and originally known as the Guthrie Grays. He was in the service three years, and on leaving located in Eaton, where he has ever since resided and been in the active pursuit of his profession.
Dr. W. F. Thomas is a native of Maine, born January 18, 1829. He began reading medicine in Boston and finished in Cincinnati, where he graduated from the Eclectic college in 1854. He practiced some eight or nine years in Cincinnati, when he removed to Nashville, Tennessee. He received a diploma from a medical col- lege of the regular school in that city, and practiced there until the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion. In 1862 he came north and settled in Springfield, Ohio, where he remained in practice some four years. He then spent some time in the west, after which he came, in 1868, to Eaton. Dr. Thomas was married October 18, 1864, to Amanda 'Hedrick, of Clarke county, Ohio.
Dr. John H. Bruce was born in Eaton, October 4, 1840. He served in the war of the Rebellion as private in company F, Fifth Ohio cavalry, for something over three years. Early in the year 1866 he commenced the study of medicine under his brother, Dr. George W. Bruce, of Winchester, Indiana, but completed his reading with Dr. James B. Welsh, of Eaton. He graduated from the Ohio Medical college, Cincinnati, in the spring of 1870, and entered upon the practice of his profession at Camden, this county, and eighteen months afterward removed to Eaton, where he has since been engaged in practice.
Dr. James L. Quinn is a native of this county, having been born in Twin township September 21, 1841. He began in the spring of 1866 the study of medicine under Dr. Welsh, of Eaton, and in the fall of 1867 began a course of lectures at the Miami Medical college, Cin- cinnati, where he graduated in March, 1869. Upon his graduation he was appointed, after a competitive examin- ation, resident physician of Cincinnati hospital by its board of trustees, which position he held one year. He
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then opened an office in Cincinnati and practiced for some eight months, when he removed to Muncie, In- diana. A few months afterwards he came to this county, and in May, 1872, engaged in his profession at Eaton. May 6, 1873, Dr. Quinn was married to Elizabeth Quinn.
Dr. Alfred A. Lovett, born August 14, 1849, in Hamil- ton county, Ohio ; commenced the study of medicine under Dr. E. L. Hill, of Oxford, Ohio, an allopathist, and subsequently had for his preceptor Dr. H. M. Logee, of the same place. He graduated at the Hahnemann Medical college, Philadelphia, having previously taken a collegiate course at Miami university, Oxford, Ohio. After a practice of something over two years in Shippens- burg, Pennsylvania, he came in 1878 to Eaton. Dr. Lovett was united in marriage, April 26, 1880, to Miss Nettie, daughter of Dr. W. H. H. B. Minor, of Eaton.
Dr. Frank M. Michael was born in Winchester, this county, December 27, 1849. He began the reading of medicine under Dr. Bruce in 1874, and at the session of 1876 and 1877 and 1877 and 1878 was a student of Ohio Medical college, Cincinnati. He subsequently, in February, 1879, graduated at Bellevue Hospital Medical college, New York city, and soon afterwards entered upon the practice of his profession here. March 1, 1880, he was appointed physician to the infirmary, which position he now holds.
Dr. William A. Campbell began the practice here in the spring of 1880. He graduated at the Ohio Medical college, Cincinnati, in March of the same year, having read with Dr. Stevens, of this city.
EARLY AND LATE MANUFACTURING ENTERPRISES.
The first mechanical industrial pursuit entered upon in Eaton was milling. William Bruce built his first grist- mill in the summer of 1806. It was a very primitive af- fair, indeed, a small structure of logs, within which a pair of stones shaped by long and patient labor from natural boulders, did in a rough way the duty of buhrs. Noth- ing but corn was ground in this mill, and not very much of that, although all that was necessary for a few years for the supply of the settlement.
In 1810 Mr. Bruce erected his second mill, the build- ing now standing upon Seven Mile creek, and from which the sound of the wheels still goes forth. It is related that when the raising took place, not a single man in the large assemblage dared to climb up on the frame to take up the timbers, the structure being so much higher than those to which they had been accustomed. Finally the wife of Jacob Roman, the millwright, climbed to the top, and with a bottle of whiskey in each hand, walked entirely around the building, stepping upon the plates. This banter and from a woman was too much, and the men should by the example set them, were soon swarm- ing upon the frame, and in a short time had completed the laying of the rafters. When the building was com- pleted, Ferguson Mitchell won a wager of three gallons of whiskey by standing upon his head at the extreme end of the comb of the roof.
Not long after the building of this mill, a small dis- tillery was established in the settlement, and there were
several other establishments set up by enterprising trades- men; among them a tannery by Richard Leeson, but the next manufacturing interests of any importance which claim mention, were two woollen carding establishments. This was in the year 1815. At this time an old Scotch- man, commonly called "Billy" Watts, came to the vil- lage, and began wool carding by horse-power machinery. His shop was located on the south side of Main street, on what is now known as the Anderson Jones property. About the same time William Bruce also started a woollen carding and fulling mill.
By this period in the history of Eaton there were several small manufactories, or more properly, shops in the village, beside those of which we have written. Among the most useful was a pottery established in 1813, by one Joseph Harman, a Hessian and a Tory, who had just located in the village. This much needed institu- tion was situated at the northwest corner of Maple and Wadsworth streets. Harman's Tory sentiments did not win him the kindly feeling of the people, and after a time he left. The business of making pottery was, how- ever, continued at the same place, by James Crockett, after whom the lot was for many years called the Crockett property.
John Harbison had also located in the village in 1811, and was its first wagon-maker. His shop was located where William Kline now lives, on the corner of Main and Maple streets.
The tannery heretofore mentioned as having been es- tablished by Richard Leeson, was the first in town. He sold out after a few years, to Judge Nesbit, of Alexandria, and he, in 1824, to Judge Curry, who run it for twenty years.
From about 1815 until 1838 there seems to have been but little progress in manufacturing worthy of notice- but few new enterprises. In the year last mentioned, however, a man named Enochs began the business of wool carding and spinning near the Presbyterian church.
Van Ausdal & Sturr started in 1835, in a building on the east bank of Seven Mile creek, a grist-mill and dis- tillery which they carried on with fair success for five or six years.
Eli Thompson also had a mill in the old brewery building, south of the Main street bridge, a few years later. This building was erected in 1848 or 1849, by Wise, Miller & Houston.
The present brewery was built by several Germans from Dayton, among whom, and taking the leading part, were Messrs. Fasnacht and Rau, who are now residents of Eaton.
During the fifties there were several attempts made to build up manufacturing interests. In 1859 a foundry was established near the depot, but the company, not finding business very remunerative, sold out after a short experience and removed to Cincinnati. Judge George W. Gans was prominent in the management of this en- terprise. Not long after the above mentioned business was discontinued, Josiah Campbell and E. W. McGuire started a plow factory in the same locality, but after running one season, their business became so involved
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that they were obliged to suspend operations. A hominy mill and two or three other enterprises of ephemeral ex- istence succeeded this venture, and successively passed
away.
It remained for the Brooke Brothers, Charles F., J. C. and William and Mr. Joseph Walters, all active, enter- prising men, to inaugurate, in 1873, a huge enterprise, and to begin operating a manufactory which, had it been maintained to the present time, would have ma- terially advanced the town in wealth and business ac- tivity. The gentlemen named were the principal stock- holders in the Excelsior School Seat Manufacturing company. This company had the only heavy manu- facturing business ever carried on in Eaton. They em- ployed a capital of about seventy-five thousand dollars, and gave work to from one hundred to one hundred and fifty men. As the name of the company would imply, its manufactures consisted of school furniture. Orders came in very fast, and the company had all that it could do to meet them, even while employing a hundred and fifty men. Goods were sold in all parts of the United States, and even shipped to South America. The sales amounted to two hundred thousand dollars or three hundred thousand dollars per year. A large foundry was run in connection with the manufactory, in which were made the necessary castings, and in this depart- ment alone the force of men employed was from fifty to seventy-five. The manufactory of the Excelsior School Seat company occupied several large buildings near the depot, some of which have since been destroyed, and some of which have, since the removal of the com- pany's works, been devoted to other purposes. The suspension of work in this factory, which was a great blow to Eaton as well as the. men directly interested, was caused namely by the hard times which followed the panic, and which ruined so many other fine enter- prises throughout the country. The company, as reor- ganized, is still carrying on the business, but has its manufactories located in Richmond, Indiana, and at Cincinnati.
About 1864 J. L. Chambers, Dr. Welch, N. B. Stephens and Charles Larsh, established a manufactory for making agricultural implements. They used the building which is now known as the Robinson planing- mill, for about three years, when the company was dis- solved.
Robinson & Company are the proprietors of an exten- sive planing-mill, which was the first manufactory of the kind in the county. It was started in 1867. They oc- cupied the building on Maple street, near the railroad track, which had been previously used by the company making agricultural implements. Until 1876 the firm consisted of J. J. Robinson and J. S. Chambers, but the latter sold out in that year, and in the year following J. J. Robinson took his son into partnership, under the firm name of Robinson & Company.
L. Gable & Company are carrying on the planing- mill business on a large scale, near the railroad station, and have facilities for turning out all kinds of building material, such as doors, sash, blinds, mouldings, and
planed lumber. They have the latest improved machin- ery for making sash and blinds-the same as is used in the Lake Superior country. The building was erected by L. and J. Gable in 1870, and the business has been carried on by them continuously since that time.
Wagon making was first carried on in Eaton in the year 1811, by John Harbison who has already been al- luded to. The next wagon makers were Jacob and Wil- liam Kline, both of whom manufactured wagons for a great many years. William Kline came to Eaton in 1813, and Jacob in 1816. The former remained here until 1844, when he removed to Logansport, Indiana, and the latter lived in Eaton until his death in 1875, car- rying on business until 1858.
Carriage making is carried on in Eaton by three houses, of which John S. Orth's is the oldest. He began mak- ing wagons and carriages in the village in 1839, and in 1840 built the large shop which he at present occupies and in which he has carried on business uninterruptedly for forty years.
Henry Kister started in business early in the seventies, and Huggins & Weaver in the winter of 1876-77.
Besides these establishments, there are the two wagon making shops of Smith & Coe.
There are three saw-mills in the village-John P. Ac- ton's the oldest, being started thirty years ago or more. Bruce Vandoren's at a considerably later period and Wheeler Frum's in 1874.
Flax manufacturing was commenced in Eaton as early as 1856. Cotton & Bell began spinning and weaving the flax fibre into ropes and sacking, and continued in the business for a number of years, but sold out finally to D. M. Morrow. He in turn sold to Foster & Morgan, and this firm to the present owners, J. S. Gary. The spin- ning and weaving was abandoned in 1863, after the mill had been burned, and when the business was again re- sumed it was simply that which is at present carried on- the separation of the fibre from the woody part of the stock. Mr. Gary purchased the mill in 1879, and since that time has had it in active operation all of the time, and shipped away very considerable quantities of fibre, which has been used elsewhere for upholstering purposes, and the manufacture of paper, sacking, etc.
The steam grist-mill, at present owned by Josiah Camp- bell, was built by Kinzie & Reynolds in 1870. They re- ceived material assistance from some of the people of Eaton, who were anxious to encourage manufacturing, and who foresaw that any considerable development in this line would aid in building up the town. The mill property, although paying well upon the money invested in it, disappointed the hopes of those who were most san- guine. Bell & Stephens purchased the mill of its orig- inal owners, and Bell dying not long after, the property was placed under the management of an assignee, and by him finally sold to Mr. Campbell in October, 1879. The mill has four "runs" of buhrs, does all kinds of grinding, and at present has a large western patronage.
Cigar manufacturing is one of the most important in- dustries in Eaton, and gives constant employment to about one hundred persons. Theodore Harbaugh was
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probably the first man who made cigars in the town. He had a little shop as early as 1845. Numerous other individuals carried on the manufacture on a very small scale after that, but the business never assumed magni- tude which made it worthy of especial remark until J. S. Quinn began manufacturing. His business was at first as insignificant as that of any of his predecessors, but it was slowly developed, until about thirty hands were em- ployed in rolling of the fragrant weed. Mr. Quinn be- gan manufacturing in 1863, and retired in 1870. A Mr. Klinger, who was in partnership with him toward the last, removed to Alexandria, and there carried on the business.
The next men who engaged in the business on a large scale were M. F. Ayres and F. P. Filbert. They began manufacturing in 1872, under the firm name of Ayres & Filbert, and continued for a year or so, when they sepa- rated, and each followed cigar manufacturing alone. They employed when together, at one period, as many as fifty men, and now each one of them employs about twenty-five. There is another firm at the business, which carries on about an equally large concern-the house of Coovert & Jones, which has been in existence since 1878. Charles W. Acton has a smaller shop. Each one of the three larger shops has the capability of manu- facturing a million and a half cigars per annum, and this amount of production has been actually reached by two of them at least.
Nearly all the tobacco used is of home growth. It may be of interest to some readers to know something of the history of this branch of agriculture in this vicin- ity, and it is certainly not inappropriate to speak of it in this connection.
The tobacco crop of Preble county now amounts to more than a million and a half pounds every season. It is believed that the first tobacco raised in the county was grown in 1838 by an old German named John Gent- ner. He had a small quantity, perhaps an acre, and after it had grown, he hardly knew what to do with it. By accident, however, he secured a buyer, and realized more money from that one acre of tobacco than from any ten acres of his ordinary farm products. From this time on it was raised in small quantities by other farmers, but not systematically grown or in considerable quantity until by J. L. Quinn, in 1850. Their general attention was given to the production of tobacco, and the amount put in became larger each year, until it was entitled to rank as one of the staple crops of the county.
Mr. Quinn began buying tobacco in 1863, and was the first who engaged regularly in the business. He used as a store-house the old brick building, near the rail- road station, which is now the ware-house occupied by John Glick, as the agent of C. W. St. John, a Dayton tobacco buyer. Mr. Quinn has never been entirely out of the business, although he devotes but little attention to it at present. Christopher Musselman, John Glick, and Kingbush, the latter from Cincinnati, each handle large quantities of Preble county leaf in this place, and the local manufacturers also buy large quantities.
MERCANTILE HISTORY.
The first store was opened in Eaton by Cornelius Van Ausdal in 1808, and it is a noteworthy fact that alone or in partnership he conducted business in the town until 1863, a period of fifty-five years, and the greater part of this time at one stand-that which still bears his name and at which his son continues the business. The pio- neer store was, however, situated where the Reichel house now stands. It was a small building, but in it was be- gun a business which ultimately reached huge propor- tions. After a short time Mr. Van Ausdal erected a house on the ground just west of commercial row, and now included in the county property. Here he resided and had his store until 1824, when he erected the build- ing on the northwest corner of Main and Preble streets, which he occupied until his retirement, in 1863. Mr. Van Ausdal had the natural qualifications necessary to make him a successful merchant, but it is probable that although confident of a fair degree of success, he never anticipated the wide popularity which he attained. His store was not only known in early days throughout the county of Preble, but its reputation spread through thinly settled western Ohio and eastern Indiana, and he drew custom to Eaton from almost as wide a field as now does Cincinnati. Indians and whites came from great dis- tances to purchase goods at Eaton, and the former brought in for exchange or sale great quantities of furs, while the latter class made the store the market for what little surplus produce they had. It is a fact significant as showing the importance of this pioneer trading post, that the early merchants of Richmond, Indiana, pro- cured from it the goods which they retailed. Among the Indians who were often at the store, and with whom the proprietor was well acquainted, was the great chief Tecumseh, his brother the Prophet, and others almost equally famous. As the country was developed and other stores were established at various points in southern Ohio the trade became more purely local than it had been, but Mr. Van Ausdal's reputation was too well es- tablished to allow of a dropping off in the patronage of the people living within a convenient distance, and he still did an immense business, and one which after the first period of decline grew apace with the settlement of the town and surrounding country. During a period of five years, 1828 to 1833, Mr. Van Ausdal was interested in the wholesale dry goods business in Cincinnati, and for a portion of the time resided in New York, and did the purchasing for both the Cincinnati and Eaton stores.
Begea u & Lanier (Alexander C.) went into business about 1810, and continued for three or four years.
Job Pugh, a Quaker, had a store in Eaton at the close of the War of 1812.
Early in the village life of Eaton, a Mr. Brown had a small dry goods store and grocery where Oscar Van Daren now lives.
James Butler came into the infant settlement and opened a store which had a small share of patronage for a few years. He left about 1818.
Dr. Walter Buell sold goods for a time corner of Beech and Preble streets, where General Marsh afterwards lived.
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About 1816 or 1817, Isaac Banta kept a stock of goods in a one-story house where the Reichel house now is. Henry Monfort bought the goods about 1819, and after conducting a merchantile business for a short time took John G. Jameson in as a partner. In 1832, Levin T. McCabe bought out Jameson, and the business was carried on by Monfort & McCabe until several years later the firm name was changed to McCabe, Vandoren & Co. McCabe sold out in 1841 to Monfort, and the business was conducted until 1843, by Monfort & Van- doren. Mr. McCabe again went into business in 1847, selling groceries for one year by himself. He then took as a partner David Graft, but bought out the interest again, and, in 1849, took as a partner John L. Bruce. They carried on the retail and wholesale business. In 1853 the firm became Bruce, Houk & Co., and did an extensive wholesale business. Houk died, and McCabe, who had been the "Company" in the firm, sold out to Wilson & Lannis. Mr. McCabe built a warehouse in 1852 and went into the business of buying and shipping grain, being the first in Eaton to engage in that line. He shipped the first goods that were brought to Eaton by rail, and sold the first fresh fish in the village. His grain and produce business was very large, and in one season he bought twenty-one thousand bushels of flax seed. He continued in business until 1855.
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