USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Dayton > History of the city of Dayton and Montgomery County, Ohio, Volume I > Part 18
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The Dayton and Michigan Railroad was operated as far as Troy in 1853, and the Dayton and Xenia Railroad went into operation in 1854. Thus within three years after the entering of the first railroad in 1851, Dayton became the center
OLD DEPOT
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for six different railroads. The Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton depot was at the intersection of Sixth and Jefferson streets, from which point a track connection was at the first established with the Mad River Railroad. Other railroad com- panies had their own terminal arrangements. In 1856, the union passenger station was erected at Sixth and Ludlow streets. This building, at first a source of pride, stood till it became the ground of shame and bitter complaint.
It deserves mention that in 1839, a wooden railroad three or four miles in length was constructed by a Mr. Gilmore from the stone quarries in Van Buren township to a point on the canal where it intersects East Third street. At almost all points there was a descent in the tracks, and one horse could haul a well-loaded car throughout the entire course. Immense quantities of stone, largely for build- ing locks, were shipped both north and south. The railroad was in use till the Dayton and Xenia Railroad was built.
THE TELEGRAPH.
The telegraph, now so closely connected with all railroad operations, came later than the railroads. In Dayton, however, the telegraph came before the rail- roads, the first message being received September 17, 1847. In 1856, there were four independent lines. Later these were consolidated.
A CITY CHARTER.
Imperative needs growing out of more complex conditions and the expanding proportions of Dayton together with the desire of the people to have the town in which they lived to rank as a city prompted the following act of the common council adopted December 29, 1840: "Resolved, that W. I. Mckinney and E. W. Davies be a committee on part of the council to draft a charter to be laid before the legislature to incorporate the town of Dayton with city privileges." The charter was granted by the legislature March 8, 1841, but was subject to ap- proval by the people. May 3d, when the vote was taken, three hundred and eighty- two votes were cast in approval of the charter and three hundred and seventy- eight in disapproval, a majority of four votes for the charter. When Dayton became a city, she had a population of a little over six thousand. The census of 1840 showed a population of six thousand and sixty-seven.
The boundaries indicated in the charter were the same as those named in the charter of 1805, except that the western boundary was made to run along the west bank instead of the east bank of the Miami river. The council was to elect a president from its own body and a recorder or clerk from outside of its own number. The charter made Dayton township to be the same as the cor- porate limits of the city. It declared that the council should select one prudent person from each ward to make up a body of managers of common schools. Ample powers for all city purposes were conferred. The authority to license the selling of spirituous liquor was not given to the city. The first election was to be within ten days after the approval of the charter and the second the last Friday of December, 1841.
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CHARTER OF 1852.
The new constitution of Ohio, adopted June 17, 1851, declared that cities should be governed by general laws. It devolved on the state legislature to frame regulations for cities. This was done in an elaborate act of July 3, 1852, with many amendments following later. Dayton at once took her position under her new "charter." Cities having twenty thousand or more inhabitants were declared to be cities of the first class, and cities having less than twenty thousand inhabi- tants of the second class. Dayton thus stood as a city of the second class. Cities of this class were to have their annual election on the first Monday of April, the mayor and members of council were to hold their offices two years, half of the members of council to go out each year. The voters were also to elect a marshal and a treasurer, each to continue in office one year, and a clerk and a solicitor, each to continue in office two years. Specific regulations were given as to how cities might extend their boundaries. Provisions were made whereby a chief of police might be appointed and a city prison established. Provisions for schools were by general acts of the legislature outside of what is called the "charter," a board of education thereby being provided for.
MUNICIPAL HISTORY.
The thread of municipal history claims out attention. John Folkerth, the first official of Dayton to bear the title of "mayor," under the modified charter of the town, was elected March 6, 1829. Reverend David Winters was elected recorder. November 24, 1829, the town was divided into five wards, one trustee to be elected from each ward. In 1848, a sixth ward was added.
After 1829, the persons elected mayor, with their terms of office were as fol- lows : 1830-32, John W. Van Cleve ; 1833, Dr. Job Haines ; 1834, Henry Stod- dard; 1835, John Anderson ; 1836-38. D. W. Wheelock; 1839-1840, William J. Mckinney ; 1841, Morris Seely, who resigned April 12th, Charles Anderson being appointed to fill the vacancy and serving until the officers elected under the new charter took their places May 22, 1841, and reelected December, 1841-1846, William J. Mckinney ; 1847, George W. Bomberger, after whose death June 28, 1848, John Howard was chosen for the remainder of the two-year period; 1849- 1855. John Howard, George M. Young; 1856-59. D. W. Iddings; 1860-1863, W. H. Gillespie.
In general the successive terms began and ended in March or April. The terms, however. after the charter of 1841 took effect to 1852, really began the first Monday in January following the election in December. The dates given in all cases have reference to the time of election, The shortest terms were those of Morris Seely and Charles Anderson in 1841, each for one month. In the same year, the term of William J. Mckinney was from May till the end of the year. After that the members of council were to be chosen annually, and the mayor every two years.
PUBLIC BUILDINGS.
In this period public buldings were subject to frequent changes. In 1845, the Main street end of the market-house and the council were torn down. Stronger
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pillars were supplied and the market-house was brought out fully to Main street, and a second story one hundred feet long and thirty-eight feet wide was added to furnish a city hall and some adjoining rooms. Public meetings as well as meet- ings of the council were held in the hall. The council had tired of the original council-house, and in 1841, had obtained a room over the "safety engine house" for its meetings.
The jail erected in 1818, at the rear of the court house and facing Third street was declared inadequate and unsafe in 1834. It was necessary to crowd several prisoners into one cell, and at one time when several prisoners were thus con- fined, they had worked a hole through the wall and were on the point of escaping when timely discovery frustrated the attempt. The contract for a new jail was let to Timothy Squier for three thousand dollars. The specifications which were filed have been lost. but from different sources, it is learned that the jail was a one-story structure of large closely-fitted stone with arched brick ceilings and stone floors. It contained four cells. At the time it was called the "new jail." It must have been at the rear of the earlier jail near the Main street alley as the sheriff was allowed twenty dollars for injury to his garden. Both jails continued to be used as appears from the fact that in 1840 the state legislature ordered that the city should be allowed the use of "one of the jails" when not needed by the county free of expense.
Soon the building of a new court house required the clearing off of a number of buildings that had been clustered together on the court house lot.
In order that a new jail might be ready before the old jails should be torn down, a new site was bought September 3, 1844, at the northwest corner of Main and Sixth streets at a cost of two thousand dollars. The jail was completed in 1845 at a cost of eight thousand dollars, plus a considerable sum for extras. It was at first regarded as a fine structure, but serious defects were soon discov- ered and as early as 1859 the county commissioners declared the jail unsafe and their desire to turn it over to the city, a desire not to be fulfilled till 1875, the year after the completing of the new Third street jail when its use was accorded to the city. As the city workhouse its character is well known.
NEW COURT HOUSE.
Already in 1844, John W. Van Cleve, Samuel Forrer and Horace Pease were made special commissioners to secure plans for the new court house. A premium of two hundred dollars was awarded to Howard Daniels for the best plans sub- mitted for the proposed court house. These seem to have been followed in the main, though the dimensions were enlarged. Some changes were made looking to greater security against fire. In addition to the two hundred-dollar premium awarded, Mr. Howard received about four hundred dollars for his services as architect. Horace Pease was made architect but soon resigned. Then Daniel Waymire was made architect and superintendent at a salary of one thousand dol- lars per year.
August 23, 1845, the contract between the commissioners and John W. Cary for the building of the court house was duly signed. It was estimated that, aside from some parts that the commissioners were to supply, the cost would be about
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sixty-three thousand dollars. There were soon, however, misunderstandings, at- tempts at arbitration and finally long-drawn-out lawsuits ; the total cost, as finally determined, being in excess of one hundred thousand dollars. To lessen the cost a cupola that had at first been planned was left out. The commissioners bought of David Cathcart his building for two thousand dollars, arranged with other lessees, and advertised an auction for the sale of the Cathcart building, the court house and the jail on October 4, 1845. The Cathcart building brought one hun- dred and eighty dollars, Thomas Morrison being the purchaser. John W. Cary bought the old jail for three hundred and sixty dollars, and the old court house for three hundred dollars. The county offices building, and the jail on the north part of the grounds, as being out of the way, were allowed to stand and served for the time a good purpose. The city council was ordered to remove a two-story brick fire-engine house, erected in 1833, fronting to Third street, and the Dayton Artillery Company was ordered to remove its cannon house. In 1814 the town council had sought to have the market-house placed on this "public ground." How ample this ground was supposed to be may be inferred from the fact that when the new court house was contracted for in 1845, it was proposed to sell a strip fifty feet wide off the north side of the grounds.
Among the articles reserved when the court house was sold were the judge's bench, clerk's desk, chairs, etc. These were to be placed in the city hall which had been secured as a place for the holding of the courts. In 1846, the materials were gathered and fashioned for their purposes. In 1847, the foundation was laid, and the walls were well started. In 1850, Dayton's new temple of justice was finished, and proud was everyone of it. At the time, it was best in the state. M. E. Curwen, Dayton's first historian, who wrote when the court house was just completed and ready for occupancy, thus describes this classsical structure : "The entrance into the main hall, which is thirty-eight feet long and eleven wide, is by two massy, ornamented doors of iron, each of which is more than two thou- sand pounds in weight. On the right of the hall, are three rooms, with groined ceilings, which are used as the clerk's office-the middle one being the principal business room. On the left, are the sheriff's and recorder's offices. The hall leads to the rotunda, twenty feet in diameter and forty-two feet high, ornamented by a dome, the eye of which lights the hall below. Around this rotunda, a circular flight of geometrical stone stairs leads to the gallery of the court room, on one side, and to the offices of the treasurer and auditor of the county, on the other. "Immediately in front of the principal entrance, at the west of the rotunda, is the court room. * * The room is in an elliptical form, the shorter diameter being forty-two, and the longer fifty-two feet in length. A light gallery of iron, at the height of sixteen feet from the floor, supported by brackets and surmounted by an iron railing, surrounds the room. The whole is lighted by a handsome dome, the eye of which is forty-three feet from the floor."
CITY PRISON.
November 17, 1858, the city began to use as a city prison a part of the engine house on the east side of Main street between Fifth and Sixth streets which had been transformed for the purpose. Though the city had earlier the free use of the
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county jail, that privilege had been withdrawn. The city paid for the services of the sheriff and the boarding of prisoners much beyond what the cost later became in maintaining a separate prison. In 1845, the city had been allowed the use of a room in the basement of the new jail as a lock-up. After the use of the engine house on Main street as a prison, the city prison was located at the Oregon engine house at the corner of Sixth and Tecumseh streets, and later in the church build- ing purchased and converted into a prison.
ANOTHER MARKET-HOUSE.
A market house for the northeastern part of the city was erected between Third and Second streets and Sears and Webster streets by a stock company consisting of I. Meriam, Alexander Swaynie, Dr. J. A. Walters and William Trebein. The land had been dedicated by D. Z. Cooper in 1836 for market pur- poses. The building was erected in 1844, and was sold in 1848 to the city, and the market there was controlled as other markets, but was never well patronized. The building, after standing empty for a number of years, was transformed into a militia armory. A fire engine house was later placed on the east front of the land.
CEMETERIES.
As the city was building about the Fifth street cemetery, and it was apparent that the grounds would soon be inadequate, steps were taken in 1840, particularly by John W. Van Cleve, which resulted in the securing in 1841 of the first land in what is now the beautiful Woodland cemetery.
In 1844, to the south of what then was the city, was located St. Henry's ceme- tery, the first Catholic cemetery connected with the city. The Hebrew congrega- tion established a cemetery on Brown street in 1851. Both of these cemeteries have been given up and lands south of the city secured in their place.
ERA OF IMPROVEMENTS.
Many public improvements, beginning more especially in 1836, were under- taken. Wharfs were made, streets were curbed, graded and graveled, additional provisions were made for protection against fire and Cooper park was put in order. D. Z. Cooper gave up reversionary rights to the three lots north of Second street with a view to their being leased and the money thus secured being applied to the improvement and maintenance of what is now Cooper park. Through a number of years improvements were made on the adjacent streets. The depres- sions in the park grounds were filled, proper soil was placed on the surface, trees planted and the grounds enclosed. The park was put in good condition by 1839.
D. W. Wheelock, the mayor for three years, was himself a contractor of ex- perience. In 1838, during his term as mayor, he was also made superintendent of the improvements on the "streets and commons." In 1840, Samuel Forrer, one of the most experienced engineers in the west, was made corporation sur- veyor and engineer. The following year he was reelected to the same position.
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LEVEES.
In 1832, there was a destructive flood, which called anew attention to the necessity of more extensive and stronger levees. In 1836, when certain agree- ments were made with D. Z. Cooper, and at the time when the channel of Mad river was straightened, the long line of the levee on the south bank of Mad river was rebuilt or built from the first. In 1847, the high water swept away the old outer levee and the freshly-made inner levee at Wilkinson street and also the levee at Mill street, and flooded all of the city on the west, east and south. Soon after this, the levees were strongly rebuilt and extended.
EPIDEMICS.
The cholera visitations in 1832 and 1849, and the small pox epidemic in 1835, will be noticed in another chapter. A necessary result of such calamities was the compulsory draining of the different ponds about the city and the laying the foun- dation for permanently improved conditions.
POLITICAL DIFFERENCES.
Political excitement ran high at the time of the Jackson campaigns. Late on the night before the presidential election in 1832 a tall hickory pole was erected in front of the court house and from it floated the American flag. As the whigs beheld it the next morning they began to utter angry threats. The town in senti- ment was prevailingly whig. A meeting of council was called and it was decided that the pole must come down. John Dodson, the marshal, followed by John W. Van Cleve, the mayor, ax in hand, Dr. John Steele and F. F. Carrell marched to the pole and formed a circle around it. The mayor ordered the marshal to cut down the pole as a nuisance. Probably Dr. John Steele and Herbert S. Williams assisted in the operation. Emboldened, doubtless, by their success in electing their candidate, the democrats in celebrating their victory at a barbecue January 8, 1833, erected unmolested a larger hickory pole than the one that had before been cut down.
HARRISON AND CLAY CONVENTIONS.
Perhaps the most remarkable meeting that Dayton has known was the Harri- son convention of 1840, every man, woman and child a delegate. The convention was held September 10, the anniversary of Perry's victory. The procession came in on the Springfield pike to the high ground on Third street east of the railroad crossing, where enthusiastic speeches were delivered. We are told that those not there cannot imagine the scene or the tumult of feeling. Let one who was there give the description. "No one that witnessed it," said Colonel Todd, "can convey to the mind of another even a faint semblance of the things he there beheld. The bright and glorious day; the beautiful and hospitable city; the green-clad and heaven-blessed valley; the thousand flags, fluttering in every breeze and waving from every window ; the ten thousand badges and banners, with their appropriate devices and patriotic inscriptions ; and, more than all, the hundred thousand hu-
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man hearts beating in that dense and seething mass of people-are things which those alone can properly feel and appreciate, who beheld this grandest spectacle of time."
Perhaps the best description of the Clay convention of 1842 is that it was like the Harrison convention with perhaps twenty thousand more people present. Only pioneer hospitality could entertain such throngs. The public exercises were held in the grove on the fairground hill on south Main street. The following is Mr. Clay's letter accepting the invitation to come to Dayton :
"ASHLAND, September 1, 1842.
"Gentlemen :-
"I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your friendly invitation to a barbecue at Dayton on the 29th instant given to the whigs of Kentucky. I accept it with great pleasure and will attend unless prevented by sickness. I could not have derived more gratification in attending a barbecue at any other place in the state of Ohio. For nowhere else have I warmer, more steadfast or more faithful friends. With many thanks for the sentiments of esteem and regard which ac- company your invitation,
"I remain faithfully, "Your friend and obedient servant, "H. CLAY."
"Messrs. Joseph H. Crane, Samuel Forrer, H. G. Phillips, Richard Greene, Daniel A. Haynes, Charles Anderson."
We may pass from noticing these distinguished visitors to noticing a few other public men who have visited Dayton.
DISTINGUISHED VISITORS.
June 8, 1842, Martin Van Buren, ex-president of the United States, made Dayton a visit. It was the aim of the democratic party leaders to have an en- thusiastic meeting. Mr. Van Buren made a short address, speaking from horse- back. Enthusism did not rise very high. About sixty persons sat down to a dollar dinner.
In 1843, John Quincy Adams, ex-president of the United States, passed through Dayton on his way to dedicate the observatory at Cincinnati. November 6, council met and adopted the following: "Information having been received that John Quincy Adams will reach Dayton this evening : Resolved, that the mem- bers of the council proceed to the corporation line and escort Mr. Adams to the city." An address of welcome was tendered Mr. Adams and he responded briefly from the balcony of the National hotel where entertainment had been provided for him.
Abraham Lincoln, on his way to deliver a speech at Cincinnati, stopped off at Dayton, September 17, 1859, and delivered a speech from a store box in front of the court house dealing with the subjects dealt with in his debates with Doug- las. The democrats admired his diction and logic. The republicans accepted his premises and entire argument and himself as well. At this meeting General
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Schenck nominated him for president, the first outside of Mr. Lincoln's own state publicly thus to name him. Mr. Lincoln and Mrs. Lincoln, who accom- panied him on this trip, lodged at the Phillips House.
General Grant visited Dayton in October, 1870, the point of attraction to him being specially the Soldiers' Home.
Ohio's great men and many from other parts of this country and other parts of the world have honored Dayton with their presence, many of them again and again.
THE COLORED PEOPLE.
The colored people have had in Dayton their friends and their foes, their his- tory among themselves and a history in relation to the whites. The first negro in Dayton was in the community in 1798, and in the listing of taxpayers is in- cluded in the description "William Maxwell (including his negro)." The colored giri that lived at Cooper's was therefore not the first but the second colored person at Dayton. In 1804, there were at least seventeen colored persons, some of them children, in Dayton. Some of these came as servants. A few free negroes came from other places on their own account. In 1825, there were thirty-four colored people in Dayton. In 1833 and 1834, the Dayton colony received considerable accessions from Virginia and North Carolina. The colored cooks and barbers on the canal packets and in the hotels received much attention. George Mitchell, at Chambersburg, was a "doctor" and an active agent of the underground rail- road. Two colored men have been noticed as the proprietors of a stage route. The members of the colony had their gentry, their diversions, their churches and had much sympathy from the larger proportion of their white neigh- bors. Yet, in many respects, conditions were unfavorable to them. Twenty- four of the seventy-three colored people of Montgomery county left Dayton for Hayti in 1824. On the night of January 26, 1841, the "Paul Pry," a disreputable colored resort in the southwestern part of the city, was mobbed by white people, one of the attacking party being stabbed and killed. The city council did all that it could to protect the colored people, but on the night of February 3d a number of houses occupied by negroes were burned. Many colored people fled and others later sold their goods, some of them their homes, and moved away. Some colored people here were claimed as slaves and were carried off under the fugitive slave law. In 1832, "Black Ben" was seized in Dayton and torn from his wife. At Cincinnati, he was locked for the night in a fourth story room. In desperation he flung himself to the pavement dying two days later. Much trouble was caused by arrests of persons claimed as slaves. Slaves who had escaped across the Ohio river were assisted on their reaching Dayton in their efforts to reach Canada. Yet out and out abolitionism was a minority sentiment in Dayton. Leading abo- litionists in Dayton were Luther Bruen and Dr. Jewett. The place of meeting for the opponents of slavery was the Union or New Light meeting-house on the west side of Main street between Fourth and Fifth streets. At this place, Dr. Birney and Rev. John Rankin were mobbed in 1836. Here also Salmon P. Chase was egged for delivering an anti-slavery address. An anti-slavery society with forty members was formed in March, 1839.
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