USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Dayton > History of the city of Dayton and Montgomery County, Ohio, Volume I > Part 17
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offices, and Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist and New Light meeting houses. The jail is of stone, the rest are brick. In sight of the town are a gristmill, a fulling mill, a carding house, a cotton factory, a double sawmill, a single saw- mili, a shingle and lath factory, a cornmill and an iron foundry. There are in Dayton five taverns, sixteen dry goods stores, four drug stores, thirty groceries, twelve carpenters, eight masons, three millwrights, three tan yards, two brewer- ies, two sickle factories, four hat factories, five saddler shops, nine shoemaker shops, five cabinetmakers, four chairmakers, three painters, three coopers, four wagonmakers, one coachmaker, five blacksmith shops, four watchmakers, one tinner, one coppersmith, ten tailor shops, one ropewalk, two tobacco factories, two stone cutters, one gunsmith, seven doctors, thirteen lawyers, two printing offices, with many other items too tedious to mention."
To make the showing complete it is necessary only to state that in 1830, the population of Dayton was two thousand, nine hundred and fifty-four, a gain in a little more than two years of one thousand two hundred and thirty-seven.
1
CHAPTER IV.
PERIOD FROM 1830 TO 1860.
WATER POWER-NEW CHANNEL FOR MAD RIVER-LANDMARKS-ERA OF TURN- PIKES-MAIN STREET BRIDGE-THIRD STREET BRIDGE-NEW ENTERPRISES-THE GAS COMPANY-BANKS-PERIODS OF DEPRESSION-INSURANCE COMPANIES- THE RAILROADS-THE TELEGRAPH-A CITY CHARTER-"CHARTER" OF 1852- MUNICIPAL HISTORY-PUBLIC BUILDINGS-NEW COURT HOUSE-CITY PRISON- ANOTHER MARKET HOUSE-CEMETERIES-ERA OF IMPROVEMENTS-LEVEES- EPIDEMICS-POLITICAL DIFFERENCES-HARRISON AND CLAY CONVENTIONS- DISTINGUISHED VISITORS-THE COLORED PEOPLE-WAR-MATERIAL AND SPIR- ITUAL PROGRESS-BEGINNING OF THE Y. M. C. A .- THE PRESS-SKETCHES OF PROMINENT MEN.
1830-1860
For Dayton, we have now reached the period of assured growth. Having now a population of approximately three thousand, her future progress will be marked by thousands instead of by tens or hundreds. While her early success was due to local advantages, her greater success will more and more be founded upon the wider area from which she draws her support. It will be found, how- ever, that her freer communication with the world will bring along with ad- vantages some disadvantages. Many manufactured articles that were sure of a home market in the earlier period were later displaced by articles more cheaply manufactured in older parts of the country. Cist, in his "Early Annals of Cin- cinnati," says that ninety-nine per cent of the articles manufactured in that city in 1840 were sold in Cincinnati itself. What the western towns and cities lost at home it was necessary that they gain in a wider territory. The beginning and progress of Dayton were due largely to her water courses. Water for drinking and for use in cooking was at first taken mostly from the rivers. Tempted by the streams, game came within easy reach. Transportation on the rivers and the canals has already been noticed, as also the numerous seats for mills. We now come to notice the larger use of the adjacent rivers for power purposes.
WVATER POWER.
In 1830, a dam was placed by James Steele across the Miami river a little below the mouth of the Stillwater, and a race cut across the horse-shoe bend made
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by the Miami river, a strong water power thereby being secured. The power was first used for a sawmill, later also for a gristmill. In 1834, Samuel Steele, a brother of James Steele, became half owner of the mills and adjacent lands. He was accidently killed in the mill in 1839. The mills passed into the hands of a stock company in 1867, and the water power was greatly increased.
The water power of Dayton was greatly enlarged in 1838 by the construction of the Cooper hydraulic seven hundred feet long and fifty feet wide between Third and Fifth streets, running west of Wyandotte street and parallel to the canal. It was supplied with water from the canal, the state receiving an annual rental therefor. The Cooper hydraulic, which was constructed by E. W. Davies and Alexander Grimes, trustees of the estate of D. Z. Cooper, later passed into the hands of an incorporated company.
Water was also taken from the left bank of the canal by which mills south of Fifth street were driven. Also water taken from the canal supplied power for a sawmill at the intersection of the canal with Wayne avenue, Seely's ditch being used as a tail race. The value of the mill was destroyed as a result of feeling excited by the conditions brought about by said ditch. The canal also supplied water power for mills at the foot of Ludlow street.
The most ambitious undertaking was the tapping of Mad river three miles above Dayton and the construction of a race to Front street running east from Third, thus supplying power to a number of mills. From the mills the water passed to the canal to be used again through the Cooper hydraulic. The "upper hydraulic" was built in 1845 by the Dayton Hydraulic Company, consisting of H. G. Phillips, Daniel Beckel, J. D. Phillips, Samuel Edgar, and J. D. Lowe.
The Steele ( Dayton View) Hydraulic had a fall of fourteen feet, the Cooper Hydraulic a fall of twelve feet, and the Dayton Hydraulic a fall of fourteen feet, the three hydraulics furnishing sufficient water power to propel one hundred and seventy run of stone. 'A run of stone was equal to eight horsepower.
NEW CHANNEL FOR MAD RIVER.
In 1840, E. W. Davies and Alexander Grimes, as trustees of the estate of D. Z. Cooper, caused a survey to be made for the new channel of Mad river from the canal aqueduct over Mad river straight to the Miami river. The work of excavating the new channel was begun the next spring and completed in the fall of 1842, at a cost of five thousand dollars. A bayou north of the river made easier the constructing of the channel. In 1840, while the constructing of the new channel was in progress, the county commissioners advertised for bids for building abutments for a new bridge at the Troy road ford. The bridge itself was completed in 1843.
The straightening of the channel of Mad river and the building of a levee by the town and the Cooper estate on the south bank of the new channel, made it possible to extend the canal from the head of the basin at First street, first north to Water street, and then east to a junction with the original canal near the present car works. This extension was completed in 1845, and later became the exclusive channel for canal purposes.
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LANDMARKS.
On November 18, 1848, the following ordinance was adopted by the city council establishing landmarks : .
"Whereas, The face of the eastern wall of the court house, and the original face of the eastern wall of the old tavern on in-lot Number 13, has been de- termined by general agreement of surveyors and by judicial proceedings to be on the true western line of Main street; therefore,
"Resolved, That three stones be set by the surveyor of Montgomery county and the city engineer, the stones to be four feet long, eighteen inches on one face, and nine inches on the other. One of said stones to be set in Main street, the top level with the curbstone, sixteen and one half feet from the perpen- dicular line of the brick work of the east wall of the courthouse; one in Main street, facing east which face shall be sixteen and one half feet from the per- pendicular line of the east face of the original log wall of the old tavern, on the corner of Main and Water streets, and the northern face in range with the north face of said tavern ; one of said stones to be set in Water street, the north- ern face sixteen and one half feet from the Water street front of the dwelling, corner of Water and Mill streets, and the eastern edge in exact range with the Mill street front of the same house."
It is said by an old surveyor that the monument at the corner of Main and Third streets is six-tenths of an inch too far south as compared with the position of the other monuments. Notwithstanding the efforts made to prevent buildings from encroaching on the streets, in many places they do encroach, in some cases on the principal streets to the extent of five or six feet. In 1807, the first effort was made to mark permanently street lines. The street side of more than a dozen houses in different parts of the town were designated as street lines. Among the face walls named were the north wall of the Newcom tavern and the east and south walls of the brick court house.
ERA OF TURNPIKES.
March 24, 1836, an act was passed by the legislature "to authorize a loan of credit by the state of Ohio to railroad companies and to authorize subscrip- tions by the state to the capital stock of turnpike, canal and slack-water naviga- tion companies." In 1833, the Dayton and Covington, Dayton, Centerville and Lebanon, and Dayton and Springfield turnpike companies had been incorporated, but no work had yet been begun. Even in 1817, the Cincinnati and Dayton Turn- pike Company had been incorporated but nothing further was realized. Dayton was one of the first towns to avail itself of the benefits of the law proffering state aid, and, before its repeal in 1840, five turnpikes were already completed or in an advanced stage of construction ; namely, the Dayton, Centerville and Lebanon, the Dayton and Covington, the Great Miami, extending to Sharon in Hamilton county, the Dayton and Springfield, and the Dayton and Western, extending to Eaton and Richmond. The last two named were designed to make up what Dayton had lost by the passing of the National road from Springfield through Brandt and Vandalia to Richmond, leaving Dayton eight miles to the south.
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Though the preliminary surveys and reports were not favorable to locating the National road through Dayton, repeated efforts were made to secure a decision in Dayton's favor. In 1830, and again in 1832, the common council provided for presenting Dayton's claims to congress through Joseph H. Crane, representing the Dayton district. Hope of changing the attitude of congress was entertained as late as 1835. After that Dayton began to look directly after her own interests by securing turnpikes locally promoted and managed. The turnpikes constructed a little later than those before named were the Xenia, Troy, Mad River, Valley, Germantown, Wolf Creek, Wilmington, Salem and Brandt turnpikes. All of the early turnpikes were toll-roads, but later were bought up by the counties through which they passed and made free. The first pikes about Dayton were made with gravel. Later the roads were regularly macadamized.
MAIN STREET BRIDGE.
As early as 1834, citizens were seeking to secure a free bridge over the Miami at Main street. The county commissioners on June 4, 1835, agreed to appropriate six hundred dollars for this purpose. The rest was obtained by private subscrip- tions. The bridge was opened for travel in 1836, and was, of course, a free bridge.
THIRD STREET BRIDGE.
In 1838, a company was incorporated to build a bridge across the Miami at Third street. Before this, a bridge to span the Miami between Fourth and Fifth streets had been planned to furnish connection with the Germantown and old Eaton roads. It was now felt that competition with the National road required a more direct course westward. The Third street bridge was built by Peter Stoneberger, and while mainly built in 1839 was not ready for traffic till in November, 1840. In connection with the building of the bridge was the locating of a road in direct continuation of Third street to the intersection of the same with the old Eaton road at the west line of the Soldiers' Home grounds. This road determined the course of streets west of the river.
Various zigzags or angling ways to the Eaton road were first proposed. But finally the turnpike company arranged with landholders to build the road where it now is. There were no writings as to right-of-way or width of roadway, though the assumed width has always been sixty-six feet.
For years the question of bridges over the canal and basin was a most complex one, the county, Dayton township and the town grappling with the same. The first cheap wooden bridges were swept away in freshets or were in need of con- stant repair and always were unsightly. Stone arch bridges were erected at Main, Second, Third and Fifth streets.
NEW ENTERPRISES.
After 1830, mills and factories multiplied rapidly. In 1832 a silk factory was established by Daniel Roe and fifty silk handkerchiefs were exhibited to show what the factory could do. He had two thousand Italian mulberry trees ready
MER'S SONS DO, FURNITURE VARAKES
OLD COVERED BRIDGE, WEST THIRD STREET
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to pluck and offered to furnish silkworm eggs to those who would supply cocoons, on shares. In 1839, the Dayton Silk Company was incorporated with a capital of one hundred thousand dollars. A white mulberry tree introduced from China excited great expectations. The company advertised silkworm eggs for gratu- itous distribution. Both efforts at silk production proved failures as did similar efforts in other parts of the country.
Cotton and woolen mills, i ... .. u.n.lries, paper mills, flour mills, and a wide variety of factories were ve ...
i n. furnished the basis of Dayton's industrial growth.
In 1831, S. Frembly established a hat factory.
Peter Lehman was also engaged in making wagons. He and D. L. Boogher, the same year, began to manufacture combs.
In 1832, A. Casad and Daniel M. Curtis commenced to make all kinds of satinets and jeans. At the same time, Lewis A. Hildreth and William Parker carried on cabinet-making. Nelson Holland was engaged in making wagons. Strickler, Wilt and Co. were making gun-barrels. E. Stansifer established a look- ing-glass factory. In 1834, a stove factory was established by Greer and King, who employed about one hundred men. In 1851, Wyatt and Nickum introduced a steam engine and established the first steam bakery in Dayton, if not in Ohio.
The Dayton Carpet factory in 1837 began operations by turning out one hun- dred and fifty to two hundred yards of carpet a day. Joseph Kratochwill com- menced the manufacture of flour in 1854. A. and A. C. Alexander and Co. estab- lished their paper mill in 1837. The clock factory of Marsh, Williams, Hayden . and Co. began operations in 1833, and in 1837 was making two thousand five hun- dred clocks per annum.
Kepler, Markle and Karr, in 1838, commenced the manufacture of portable threshing machines, which was a great curiosity at that time.
In 1838, Cook and Ennis established a rifle factory and promised to make as good a gun as could be found in the United States.
In 1839, William Bourne advertised that he would continue the manufacture of pianofortes as good as came from Cincinnati, or as are imported from the east.
E. Thresher and Company, with a capital of twelve thousand dollars, began in 1849 the building of railroad cars. There were then no railroads entering Day- ton, First four cars and then two more were sold to the Cincinnati and Hamilton Railroad Company in 1851, the cars being hauled across the town by horses to the railroad terminus. The growth and changes following this beginning in the man- ufacturing of cars will be given in another connection.
UNITED STATES ARMORY.
In 1841 and 1842, an earnest though unsuccessful effort was made by the city council and the people of Dayton to secure for Dayton the United States armory which it was proposed to establish at some place in the west. The govern- ment desired from four hundred to six hundred acres of land, water power and various facilities. Dayton attempted to show the advantages of a site on the high ground east of Dayton and the water power to be derived from Mad river. The council drew up a statement of the advantages of Dayton for the purposes in view,
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and published in pamphlet form seven hundred copies of the same. Some of the attractive features presented are given in the following table of industries ; five cot- ton-spinning factories, two carpet-weaving factories, two carding, dressing and weaving factories, one hat-body factory, five flouring mills, three chopping mills, five sawmills, one gun barrel factory, two oil mills, two paper mills, one last and peg factory, two turning lathes, four foundries and machine shops, four soap and candle factories, one clock factory, four distilleries, two breweries, one hundred and forty-two other establishments manufacturing in thirty different lines.
THE GAS COMPANY.
February 4, 1848, a company was chartered for furnishing lights for streets and buildings. The incorporators were Daniel Beckel, Peter Voorhees, Daniel Stout, I. F. Howells, David Winters, J. D. Loomis, J. D. Phillips, Valentine Win- ters, John Mills and Daniel W. Wheelock. June 2d, the council granted the com- pany a franchise, one of the provisions of which was that the price of gas should not be higher than the price then and thereafter charged in Cincinnati. The gas first supplied was made from grease and was called "Crutchett's solar gas." Gas was first lighted in the city February 6, 1849. The gas made a very rich, full light. The price to consumers was six dollars per one thousand feet, but in September was advanced to ten dollars, a rate said to have been about equal to coal gas at three dollars. Property owners generally were opposed to lighting the streets at the expense of the abutting property, but after an experiment in lighting Third street, from Jefferson to Ludlow, and Main street from Second to Fourth, there was a general demand for lights on the streets. Progress was checked by the difficulty in securing grease. The secretary's time was taken up first in collecting money, and then finding grease, often being compelled to buy tallow.
It became necessary to increase the stock of the company and establish a plant for manufacturing coal gas. September 15, 1851, coal gas was first supplied. The event was celebrated on the evening of that day by a supper at the Swaynie House. The price of gas was at first four dollars per thousand.
BANKS.
From the time of the closing up of that solid institution, the Dayton Bank, January 1, 1843, to June, 1845, there was no bank in Dayton. The gap was par- tially filled by a kind of banking business carried on by D. Edwards, a broker. The Dayton State Bank was chartered February 27, 1843, but did not begin business till July 7, 1845. Meanwhile, an "independent bank," under the name the Dayton Bank, was formed, going into operation in June, 1845. Jonathan Harshman was president and Valentine Winters, cashier. It claimed to be the successor of the earlier Dayton Bank and the fact that the specie used as its basis was the slumbering specie of the earlier bank would seem to justify the claim. Both of the banks going into business in 1845 were strong and reliable. In the spring of 1852, the Dayton Bank discontinued business and some of its leading capitalists became stockholders in the Exchange Bank, beginning business April 5, 1852, Valentine Winters being president. Already three other banks had been
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started-the City Bank and the Farmers' Bank in 1850, and the Miami Valley Bank in 1851. The three last named did not continue long in the field, but the closing involved no loss to patrons. In 1860, Reuben Harshman and John H. Gorman started a private bank which ran till the disastrous "Black Friday." Speculation led to its downfall. It was the only failure in the history of Day- ton banks.
PERIODS OF DEPRESSION.
Prior to 1837, there was a period of inflation and speculation followed in that year by a general panic. President Jackson's order withdrawing government deposits from the United States Bank was a leading factor in contracting the currency. In 1843 flour sold in Dayton at three dollars and seventy-five cents per barrel and whiskey at ten cents per gallon.
In 1857, following another period of inflation, occurred another panic bringing a severe test to financial institutions, and bringing great hardships to the people.
INSURANCE COMPANIES.
The original local fire insurance companies were the Firemen's, chartered and beginning business in 1835, the Montgomery County Mutual Fire Insurance Com- pany, organized in 1844, and the Dayton Insurance Company chartered by special act of the legislature in 1851. In the earlier period, agents for eastern fire insur- ance companies, the first of whom was James Perrine, in 1826, had conducted business in Dayton.
THE RAILROADS.
Scarcely had the people of Dayton become accustomed to the canal before rail- road agitation began. Stephenson's locomotive came into use in 1829, and by 1830, there were twenty-three miles of railroad completed in the United States. Before 1830, a half dozen of the historic railroads were projected.
The first railroad company in Ohio was the Mad River and Lake Erie, char- tered January 5, 1832, for the purpose of building a railroad from Dayton through Springfield and Urbana to Sandusky. The first road in actual operation was a road from Toledo to Adrian, Michigan, operated by horse power in 1836 and by steam power in 1837. Books were early opened in Dayton for subscriptions to the stock of the Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad. In 1839, sixteen miles of the northern end of the road went into use, and later the road was completed to Springfield, where it was met by the Little Miami road connecting Cincinnati and Columbus. Thus Dayton was left out in the cold. It is said that Dayton could have had the Cincinnati and Columbus road, but that many citizens of Day- ton were opposed to the building of a road through Dayton and that a delegation was sent from Dayton to Columbus opposing the route through Dayton. That some were opposed to a railroad under any circumstances is shown by the follow- ing timid editorial note announcing a railroad meeting in the Dayton Transcript of December 6, 1845: "It cannot be denied that much diversity of opinion exists in regard to this matter. Many are very much in favor of a railroad to Dayton, while others are utterly opposed to it. We refrain from expressing an opinion
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as to the propriety or impropriety of the measure, and leave the subject to be dis- cussed by those who are more interested in the affair than we are and who are better able to judge of its effect on the commercial prosperity and general welfare of the city."
The opposition came largely from the proprietors of the stage lines and hotels, and from some dealers and manufacturers. The larger and more solid proportion of the people were eager and determined in their favor of railroads. Springfield and Xenia by being in advance in the possession of railroad facilities were given an advantage to which it was felt they were not entitled. When it came to supplying the connection between Springfield and Dayton, Springfield was author- ized by the legislature to subscribe twenty thousand dollars to the stock of the railroad company, and the citizens of Dayton and vicinity with one person living at Springfield subscribed one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in stock. For use on the Dayton end of the line, the first locomotive seen in Dayton, the "Seneca," was run from Sandusky to Xenia, there taken apart and wagoned to Dayton and set up at the crossing of Webster street. The railroad was completed January 25, 1851 ; two days later an excursion came from Springfield to Dayton and the next day trains began running regularly. The terminus of the road was east of the canal near Water street on a seven acre tract of land donated by the estate of Daniel Z. Cooper.
The Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad was the second railroad to complete its line to Dayton. The road might be said to have come into practical operation with the bringing of a large excursion party from Cincinnati September 18, 1851. Two trains with platform cars had come up from Cincinnati and Ham- ilton September 13th. September 22d, an accommodation train began regular trips, and the next month another train was added. It required four locomotives and fifty cars to bring the excursionists from Cincinnati and Hamilton on Septem- ber the 18th. Two tables, each two hundred feet long, were required in order to give a dinner to the visitors. The tables were placed in a temporary building twenty-five by two hundred and twenty-five feet, erected at the corner of Fifth and Ludlow streets.
In 1852, the Dayton and Western Railroad Company completed traek-laying as far as Dodson, and the Greenville and Miami Railroad Company, using this track and extending its own line, began in June, 1852, running regular trains through to Greenville, and in December of that year, regular trains were running to Union City, the name of the railroad being changed to the Dayton and Union Railroad. In 1853, the Dayton and Western Company established train service to Richmond. In 1854, the Dayton and Union Company laid its own track from Dayton to Dodson, and in 1863, took up these tracks and leased for its purposes the tracks of the Dayton and Western to the junction at Dodson. The interest of Dayton in these roads was manifested in the issuing of bonds by the eity or the purchase of bonds by citizens to the extent of fifty thousand dollars for the benefit of the Dayton and Western Railroad and thirty thousand dollars for the benefit of the Dayton and Union Railroad.
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