USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Dayton > History of the city of Dayton and Montgomery County, Ohio, Volume I > Part 15
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LABOR.
March 15, 1813, the mechanics of Dayton met at the tavern of Hugh Mc- Cullum for the purpose of forming a mechanics' society. Thus at this early period we have an indication of the part of the workman in building up a great manufacturing city. In 1830, the "house carpenters and joiners" printed a pamphlet of thirty-six pages giving prices for all kinds of work from framing houses to building mangers and wooden cisterns.
THE BANK.
February II, 1814, when the population of Dayton was less than five hun- dred, the Dayton Manufacturing Company was incorporated. Its chief purpose was that of a bank, and as such it had a worthy career. Its first board of direc- tors were: H. G. Phillips, Joseph Peirce, John Compton, David Reid, William Eaker, Charles R. Greene, Isaac G. Burnett, Joseph H. Crane, D. C. Lindsay, John Ewing, Maddox Fisher, David Griffin and John H. Williams. May 19, 1814, the board organized by electing H. G. Phillips president and George S.
.
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Houston cashier. . At an election held July 4th, J. N. C. Schenck, George Grove, Fielding Gosney and Benjamin Van Cleve were added to the board. The bank opened for business August 14, 1814, with a capital stock paid in of sixty-one thousand and fifty-five dollars. The president's salary was fixed at one hun- dred and fifty dollars and the cashier's at four hundred dollars, both being later increased. In November, Mr. Phillips resigned the presidency and Joseph Peirce was chosen to fill the vacancy. Mr. Peirce served till his death in 1821, and then Benjamin Van Cleve till his death a few months later in the same year. George Newcom was then elected president, serving till the next year when James Steele was elected, he serving till his death in 1841. Mr. Houston was cashier till his death in 1831. December 31, 1831, the name of the corpor- ation was changed by act of the legislature to the Dayton Bank. In 1815, the company built and began to occupy the stone building still standing north of the first alley south of the Steele high school. Notwithstanding unwise and unjust action on the part of the state and federal governments, the Dayton bank began and continued as one of the solidest financial institutions of the entire country. Its first loan was a loan of eleven thousand, one hundred and twenty-dollars to the United States government to assist in carrying on the war. In con- sequence of unfavorable laws the bank closed up its business in 1843.
LEADING MERCHANTS.
Leading merchants, not already sketched, were George W. Smith, Charles R. Greene, Alexander Grimes and William Eaker.
WILLIAM EAKER came to Dayton in 1805 from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. For a time he was in partnership with George W. Smith in conducting a store and in dealing in real estate. Later, Mr. Eaker carried on a large merchandizing busi- ness at the northeast corner of Main and Second streets. He was upright in busi- ness, benevolent, and active in promoting the public welfare. In 1817 he married Letetia Lowry, daughter of Archibald Lowry, whose brother David was with the company, making the first surveys about Dayton. Their only daughter, Mary Belle, will be remembered for her many gifts to Dayton institutions. Mr. Eaker died in 1848, his wife surviving him thirty-four years.
MR. GEORGE W. SMITH, born in England, came to Dayton from Virginia in 1804. As a merchant he was first in partnership with William Eaker, then with Robert Edgar, then with his son George W., Jr. He bought property at what is now Harries Station, laid out a town called Smithville, carried on there a large distilling business and operated various mills. In 1836 he built a brick building at the north-west corner of Main and Second streets, the first four story build- ing in the county.
CHARLES R. GREENE was born in Rhode Island December 21, 1785. He was a cousin of Joseph Peirce and like him received his training in the schools and as- sociations of the Ohio Company in the Marietta settlement. He was a brother- in-law of D. C. Cooper, with whom, on his coming to Dayton in 1806, he entered into partnership. Afterward, he was in business for himself. In 1822 he suc- ceeded George Newcom as clerk of the common pleas court, the latter the year before having succeeded in the office Benjamin Van Cleve. In 1831, he succeeded
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George S. Houston as cashier of the bank. He was a man of fine appearance and polished manners. His death in 1833 at the hands of a drunken wretch threw a gloom over the whole community and excited the utmost indignation. As one of the fire wardens he had ordered Matthew Thompson, who was looking idly on as a building was being consumed to assist in passing water in leather buckets to the little engine which was then used in addition to the buckets. He refused and Mr. Greene was compelled to use force to make him obey. The next day, on complaint of Thompson, Mr. Greene was summoned before a magistrate. While he was being questioned, Thompson struck him on the head with a club killing him almost instantly. His wife, the daughter of Henry Disbrow, and six children survived him.
ALEXANDER GRIMES was the worthy son of Colonel John Grimes, the proprie- tor of Grimes' tavern. He was born April 27, 1890, in Kentucky. For a time he was in partnership with Steele and Peirce. The partnership was dissolved in 1817. From 1821 to 1826 he was auditor of the county. In 1831 he was made cashier of the bank, in which position he continued till 1843 when he was made the agent in closing up its affairs. He and E. W. Davies served as trustees of the estate of D. Z. Cooper. Their management was not only advantageous to that important estate but also to the business and industrial interests of Dayton.
GEORGE S. HOUSTON, the brother-in-law and for a time the partner of H. G. Phillips, was an important acquisition to Dayton. He came to Dayton in 1810. His ancestors were noted for their scholarship and high character. He himself was pre- pared for any function that might be devolved on him. He was cashier of the first banking institution in Dayton from its organization to his death in 1831. He was postmaster from 1823 till the time of his death. From 1820 to 1826 he was editor of the Watchman. He was secretary of the Bachelors' society till his mar- riage and president of the Moral society. He was a prominent member of the Methodist church.
OBADIAH B. CONOVER was born in New Jersey April 12, 1788, and located in Dayton in 1812, where he carried on his trade as a blacksmith, also manufac- turing wagons and farm implements. About 1820, he opened up a general store at the southeast corner of Main and Third streets. Like other merchants he kept a stock of wine and whiskey and also kept bottles of the same on the counter where customers could help themselves. Under the influence of the temperance agitation in 1827 and 1828 he decided that he could neither sell liquor nor give it away and so drew the bungs and corks of his kegs and bottles and let the liquor run into the ground. He was prominent in public affairs, serving in the select council and on the Academy board. He was also active in church, Sunday school, temperance and other worthy enterprises. In 1814 he married Sarah Miller, daugliter of John Miller, who came to Dayton in 1799. Their descendants have held a large and worthy place in the history of Dayton. Mr. Conover died Jan- uary 6, 1835.
WILLIAM HUFFMAN was born May 24, 1769, in the same county in New Jer- sey as was Mr. Conover and likewise came to Dayton in 1812. He first resided on the north side of Third street between Jefferson and St. Clair. He afterward lived for a while up Mad river within the bounds of Clark county. Sometime after 1823, he erected a dwelling house and store room combined of stone at the
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northwest corner of Jefferson and Third streets. In the store room Mr. Huffman opened a general store, a large part of his time was given to outside business. He early invested largely and profitably in real estate. He held various public po- sitions and had much to do in the financial enterprises of the city. He and his wife were prominent Baptists and many of the first meetings of the Baptist church in Dayton were held at their house. Mrs. Huffman died in 1865, and Mr. Huffman in 1866. William P. Huffman, their only son was a large factor in business and public affairs.
TAVERNS.
Among the noted tavern keepers was John Compton. He was at first a store- keeper in partnership with Cooper and was then in business for himself at the southwest corner of Main and First streets. In 1821, he took charge of the tavern formerly conducted by Hugh McCullum at the southwest corner of Main and Second streets. He owned a large farm south of the site of Calvary cemetery. He was engaged in flatboating in 1809. He was three years president of the select council.
Taverns often named were the Sun Inn, opened in the old Newcom place in 1817, Strain's tavern, opened in 1815 where the United Brethren Publishing House now is, Gosney's Inn, where Grimes' tavern stood and the Farmers' hotel on the south side of Second street, east of Ludlow street. In 1816, Robert Gra- ham was keeping tavern at the old Newcom stand, and had a small brewery in operation there.
BREWERIES AND DISTILLERIES.
About 1820 Henry Brown built a brick brewery on the south side of Second street west of Jefferson street. In 1828 George C. Davis built a brewery on Jefferson street between First and Water streets, the brewery subsequently oper- ated by John W. Harries.
Many breweries and still houses not already named were in existence in Day- ton and vicinity. The Miami region anticipated the region about Peoria, Illi- nois, as a seat for distilling. In 1825, there were on the Miami above Franklin more than one hundred distilleries making each more than two hundred barrels of whiskey annually.
HARD TIMES.
The more prosperous times in Ohio produced by the war of 1812 gradually faded out. In Dayton, from 1820 to 1827 the financial conditions were most un- favorable. The west was drained of its gold and silver, and the paper of its little banks was worthless or taken at a ruinous discount. The flatboats carried out of the small western streams by freshets arrived so much at the same time at New Orleans as to glut the markets with their cargoes. At times pork sold for one dollar per hundred pounds, corn for twelve and a half cents per bushel, wheat for twenty-five cents per bushel, and other articles were equally cheap
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where they were produced, and there was not a demand even at these low prices for what the farmers could easily supply. In 1822 the published Dayton price list gave flour as two dollars and a half a barrel, butter five cents a pound, chick- ens fifty cents a dozen, beef one to three cents a pound, hams two or three cents a pound. No wonder that in spite of the wretched roads and long distances large droves of cattle, horses and hogs were driven across the mountains to the east- ern market.
TRANSPORTATION BY BOATS.
In 1816 a line of keel boats began carrying grain and other products up the Miami to be transferred at Loramie to boats that were taken down the Maumee. In 1819, a keel-boat over seventy feet long, loaded with twelve tons of merchan- dise belonging to H. G. Phillips and the firm of Smith and Eaker arrived at Day- ton from Cincinnati. The same year a large number of flatboats loaded at Day- ton went down the Miami on their way to New Orleans. At times people were hopeful of being able to use the Miami river as a profitable waterway. With much irregularity boats were coming and going-a number of them going to the bottom. In 1817 there was formed in Dayton an importing and exporting company. In 1824 renewed effic to - made looking toward making the Miami river more safe for the passage of boats. Failure more or less complete at- tended all of these plans.
LAND TRANSPORTATION.
More ordinary means met with greater success. Merchandise for the Day- ton stores was freighted across the mountains from Baltimore and Philadelphia to Pittsburg in long trains of conestoga wagons. The goods were transferred at Pittsburg to "broad horns," (flatboats) and floated down to Cincinnati. From there much of the freight was brought overland to Dayton in wagons or on pack- horses. Two men could manage a dozen horses or more each carrying two hunt- dred pounds. Competing lines in 1815 established the following wagon rates : trip to Cincinnati, seventy-five cents ; Cincinnati to Dayton, one dollar ; Urbana to Dayton or Dayton to Urbana, one dollar; Dayton to Piqua or Piqua to Dayton, seventy-five cents ; four-horse team per day, four dollars ; two-horse team per day, two dollars and fifty cents ; stone per perch from Cooper's or Wade's quarries, one dollar and twenty-five cents; four-horse load of wood from out-lot, seventy- five cents ; two-horse load of wood from out-lot, thirty-seven and one-half cents ; four-horse load of gravel, fifty cents ; two-horse load of gravel, twenty-five cents.
In 1817, the only pleasure carriages in Dayton were the two owned by H. G. Phillips and D. C. Cooper.
PRESIDENTS AND RECORDERS.
Beginning with 1810 and closing with 1830 the presidents and recorders of the Dayton corporation were respectively as follows : 1810-D. C. Cooper, James Steele; 1811-John Folkerth, David Reid; 1812-Joseph Peirce, David Reid;
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1813 -- Joseph Peirce, David Squier ; 1814-D. C. Cooper, John Strain; 1815- D. C. Cooper, Joseph H. Crane; 1816-D. C. Cooper, Joseph Peirce ; 1817- D. C. Cooper, Warren Munger; 1818-Aaron Baker, Warren Munger ; 1819- H. G. Phillips, George S. Houston; 1820-H. G. Phillips, George S. Houston ; 1821-Matthew Patton, George S. Houston; 1822-John Compton, Alexander Grimes ; 1823-John Compton, Joseph H. Conover ; 1824-John Compton, John W. Van Cleve; 1825-Simeon Broadwell, Warren Munger; 1826-Elisha Brabham, Robert J. Skinner ; 1827-John Steele, Robert J. Skinner; 1828-John Steele, J. W. Van Cleve.
In 1829 John Folkerth was elected mayor and David Winters recorder. In 1830 John W. Van Cleve was elected mayor and E. W. Davies, recorder. In 1814, John Strain, the recorder, resigned from the council, and William M. Smith was elected recorder in his place.
AMENDMENTS TO CHARTER.
In 1814, the state legislature amended somewhat the town charter, the chief effect of which was to change the time of elections to the first Saturday in March, and to give to the president of the select council all of the prerogatives of a magistrate. Other amendments were made in 1816 providing for the elec- tion of the president and recorder by popular vote instead of by the select council, making the title of the select council to be the common council, and further providing that all elections should be by white freeholders and householders. The extended act of 1816 carrying with it the repeal of the acts of 1805 and 1814, made practically a new charter.
February 12, 1829, the charter was amended so that the officer known as president should thereafter be "known by the name and style of mayor." It was also provided that members of the common council might be elected from wards. Still another provision was that the common council should have author- ity to grant licenses for the sale of liquors. The license fees charged under this provision were from five dollars to fifty dollars.
FIRST MARKET HOUSE.
Beginning with 1813, various propositions and plans were made as to a market house. Finally, in 1815, a frame market house, at first without floors, was erected in the middle of Second street between Main and Jefferson streets, extending west from near Jefferson street one hundred feet. From the two sides of the building there were two long lines of rails or horse-racks extending nearly to Main street. The building consisted of two rows of posts sustaining a roof extending five feet beyond these posts. The center was twenty feet wide and was used for butchers' stalls, and the sides under the projecting roof were occupied by farmers and gardeners. The market house was opened for business July 4, 1815. The market hours were from four to ten o'clock a. m. Wednesdays and Saturdays. Strict market regulations were soon introduced. Later the build- ing was extended and later still it was proposed to erect another market house at a different place to be used in connection with the first.
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NEW MARKET HOUSE.
It was decided at one time to erect the new market house in the middle of Main street between Third and Fourth streets. July 27, 1829, it was decided to place it between Main and Jefferson streets at the first alley south of Third street-where the market house now is. The locating of the market house south of Third street was decided by popular vote. Very much to the chagrin of "Dayton," "Cabin Town" polled the larger number of votes. It was necessary to obtain additional ground along the alley. A strip thirty-six feet wide on each side of the alley was secured. One or two persons donated the necessary land, and others sold to the town corporation. The entire cost for abutting land was about three thousand dollars. A building two hundred feet in length, consisting of brick pillars, sustain- ing a wide overhanging roof, was put up on the Main street side, a little in from the street line. After the building was started, council authorized the building committee to build at the west end of the market house a council house front- ing on Main street. The house was to be twenty by sixteen feet and was to be built of brick. It was to be surmounted by a cupola. For the brick work of both buildings Thomas Brown was paid five hundred and seventy-eight dollars and ninety-three cents. Thomas Morrison's bill for "house, council house and stalls" was seven hundred dollars and nineteen cents. The council house was elevated on pillars like those of the market house, the space below being used for market purposes. The market house was extended in 1839 through to Jefferson street. Martin Smith had the contract, the price named being one thousand and three hundred dollars. In the spring of 1830, the new market house was first used. The old market house was used in connection with it for a short time, but April 24, 1830, the council ordered it vacated and removed.
TOWN IMPROVEMENTS.
The fact that improvements were not being overlooked is indicated by the act of council in March, 1819, instructing Aaron Baker and James Steele, the su- . pervisor, to contract for a new "corporation plow." The next month Main street from Water to Second street was ordered turnpiked, and in August the paving was ordered to be extended south to the "forks of Main street." Little was done toward improving other streets, and in wet weather they were canals rather than streets. Sidewalks, generally of gravel, were from time to time ordered made.
THE CANAL.
The unfavorable conditions existing between 1820 and 1827 forced to the front the question as to the possibility and advantage of canals. In 18II, the first steamboat on western waters, the New Orleans, was pursuing her course down the Ohio, Robert Fulton, the inventor of navigation by steam power in charge. Henceforth transportation by water excited great expectations. Ohio early became interested in canals.
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June 29, 1821, a citizens' meeting was held at Colonel Reid's Inn, at which a committee was appointed to cooperate with similar committees in other places in raising a fund to pay for a survey of a route for a canal from the Ohio river to Mad river. The following persons were appointed to serve on the committee: H. G. Phillips, George W. Smith, Dr. John Steele, Alexander Grimes and Joseph H. Crane. The route was surveyed at different times. The Dayton Watchman makes mention of the surveyors as being in Dayton in September, 1824. The following year, the law authorizing the making of a canal from Cincinnati to Dayton passed the legislature and in the same year the building of the canal was put under contract.
July 4, 1825, Governor DeWitt Clinton of New York, the author of the canal system of that state assisted in the inaugural of the Ohio canal at Newark. Ohio had given him sympathy in his great and unequal struggle, and now as he lent his presence and influence to Ohio in her initial efforts toward a canal system, his progress through the state was everywhere hailed with delight.
Governor Clinton and Governor Morrow of Ohio were the central personages in a great meeting in Dayton July 9th, Lancaster, Columbus and Springfield hav- ing been visited since the Newark celebration. Judge Crane, later a member of congress, gave the address of welcome and Governor Clinton responded. The distinguished guests were entertained at Compton's tavern, but were honored by a public dinner at Reid's Inn. Nine regular toasts were proposed and a dozen or more voluntary toasts. Governor Clinton proposed the sentiment : "The wor- thy and hospitable inhabitants of this town peculiarly fortunate in their position- may they be equally prosperous in all their other interests." From Dayton, the large company, on horses and in carriages, proceeded to Middletown, Hamilton and Cincinnati. The cavalcade in approaching Dayton had been met at Fairfield by a number of the citizens of Dayton and a detachment of the troop of horse commanded by Captain Squier and escorted to Dayton.
The canal was completed from Cincinnati to Dayton early in 1829, at a cost of five hundred and sixty-seven thousand dollars. The first through boats from the south arrived January 25th. Work on the locks near Cincinnati was not completed till 1834. The first water let into the canal leaked out through the open gravel almost as rapidly as it came in. The banks and bottom, by pud- dling, were soon made water tight.
The original canal came up along the present course to Sixth street and then angled to the crossing of Third street and the railroad tracks, thence continuing in the same direction. From Sixth street a branch of the canal extended in the line of the present canal to Third street, at which point it widened into a basin seventy feet wide extending to First street. Still later, when the channel of Mad river was changed, the basin or canal was continued from First street till it met the original canal where the car works now are. This became the only line of the canal, the original line being later abandoned for canal purposes. The location of the basin met the fancy and the need of the people even better than an earlier proposal that the canal should be extended down Main street could have done.
In 1830, Morris Seely with certain associates formed a company to construct a basin from the intersection of the canal with Wayne avenue, first running
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parallel with Wayne avenue to Fifth street, thence a distance east on Fifth, thence south and west making many turns until it joined the main canal near the fair-ground hill. The land along this course was bought and laid out into small lots, which were to be sold for warehouses, factories and docks. An effort was made to have the state accept this route as a part of the canal. Failure marked every step of the undertaking, and the town had for its heritage a pest-breeding pond and a barrier to the regular development of the town in that direction.
Dayton was at the head of navigation till the canal was completed to Piqua in 1837. The canal was completed from the Ohio river to Lake Erie in 1845.
It was not long till seventy canal boats a month entered the basin at Dayton, some of them being exclusively passenger boats. In April, 1829, a boat using steam power began to be operated with apparent success, but later was discon- tinued.
In 1829, there were shipped from Dayton twenty-seven thousand one hundred and twenty-one barrels of flour, seven thousand three hundred and seventy-eight barrels of whiskey, three thousand four hundred and twenty-nine barrels of pork and four hundred and twenty-three barrels of oil. In 1830, fifty-six thousand three hundred and sixty-four barrels of flour were shipped. The canal brought in for Dayton an era of great prosperity.
In the period of canal agitation, the national road and roads in general were much in discussion. but success in the matter of roads came later. Some im- provements, however, were made from time to time, and new local roads were constantly being opened up.
STAGE LINES.
Before 1818, no public stage touched at Dayton. In May of that year, a Mr. Lyon began driving a passenger coach between Cincinnati and Dayton, continu- ing his trips through the summer. The Cincinnati and Dayton mail and pas- senger stage, owned by John H. Piatt, of Cincinnati, and D. C. Cooper, of Day- ton, began running between the two places June 2, 1818. It left Cincinnati on Tues- day at five in the morning, halted for the night at Hamilton and arrived at Day- ton Wednesday evening. Returning, it left Dayton Friday morning at five and reached Cincinnati Saturday evening. The fare was eight cents a mile with an allowance of fourteen pounds of baggage. In 1820, John Crowder, a Dayton colored barber and his partner, Jacob Musgrave, also a colored man, began regu- lar trips with a coach and four carrying twelve passengers between Cincinnati and Dayton. Two days were required for the trip each way. In 1822, Timothy Squier ran a stage to Cincinnati. In April, 1825, the mail route which previously lay through Chillicothe was changed, and on the 6th the first mail carried by a coach arrived by way of Columbus.
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