USA > Ohio > Miami County > Piqua > The first century of Piqua, Ohio > Part 28
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In the year 1840, the idea of silk manufacture was much talked of, and John Vaile, an educated man but somewhat vis- ionary, planted the lots where the ball park now is and the lots on River street, between 'Main and Wayne, with a species of Mulberry plant, or "Morus Multicaulis." The leaves of this plant he used to feed his silk worms, which were kept in the sec- ond and third stories of Ashton's drug-store, where we went to see them feed. The enterprise was much talked of, but proved a failure, and "Morus Multicaulis" fell into disrepute. Another subject of public discussion was the "Black Laws" of Ohio, by the provisions of which a negro could not gain a legal residence in any township in the state. The two matters, Morus Multi- caulis and the Black Laws, were very much discussed by the public, and such discussions became noted for their vigor. Two of the old residents of the town, Col. B. and Col. D., great per- sonal and political friends, both convivially inclined, would often meet and soon the old subject would come up for discus- sion. Col. B. would say, "Col. D., Morus Multicaulis is a d-d humbug." To which Col. D., after thinking a short time, and looking his friend squarely in the eye, with great solemnity would reply, "Col. B., I have examined the Bound Volume, and you can't throw a nigger on the township." And so the discus- sion would go on, never varying in tone, manner or language, greatly to the amusement of the bystanders.
Another enterprise of Mr. Vaile was to light the Greene street church with a gas, the patent for which he had bought about the time of the silk-worm craze. Previous to this the churches had been principally lighted with tallow candles stuck in tin reflectors on the walls, and sometimes a lamp or two hung
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in the center from the ceiling. No gas or coal-oil was known. Mr. Vaile got the privilege of erecting his gas plant in the small wooden bell-tower which stood just east of the church where the study now is.
He piped the pulpit and around the walls and the gallery which then ran around the sides of the church, and when all the preparations were complete he invited the town to come and see the church magnificently illuminated.
We all went, and at a signal the gas was lighted and the pressure put on to its greatest extent and gradually the light began to appear, and when it had reached its greatest pressure we could dimly see across the church the dark forms of others beside ourselves. It was a magnificent failure, and this enter- prise and Morus Multicaulis went out together, to the great loss of Mr. Vaile. He was a very successful teacher, however, but died soon after the failure of his experiments, in the house now occupied by P. A. Williamson.
Many memories cluster around the Greene street church. It seems to us that there was then more spirituality in all the churches than now. "Be yet not conformed to the world" had more significance then than now. There was a deeper tone of piety and reverence for sacred things, and less frivolity and dis- play and less worship of the "almighty dollar."
How well do we remember the choir of old Greene street, whose meetings for practice were held in the old gallery by the light of tallow candles. How they sang with "the spirit of un- derstanding," and made the old church ring with the notes of "Easter Anthem" and other good old melodies sung by Samnel and William Wood, and accompanied by the deep tones of the bass viol played by John W. Keyt or Jos. C. Horton. It has been related to us that at some of the practice meetings that W. W. Woods, while joining in the deep and profound bass, was also appointed by the leader to be "candle-snuffer" for the tallow dips, and discharged the duties of his office between tunes.
In Greene street church there was a strong corps of local preachers who aided and supplemented the regular pastors. We can now recall six or seven. And while they were 'earnest, sin- cere workers, they sometimes, unawares perhaps, said some amusing things. On one occasion when the pulpit was filled by one of the local brethren, after he had preached his sermon, which was about as good as we hear now, he called on another
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"local" brother to close with prayer who, after getting through with the usual petition, prayed that the sermon might be blessed to their edification, "although it had come to them through a ram's horn." Whether the preacher felt complimented or other- wise I never knew. Several of these old brothers were English- men. One, an English sailor of the Royal navy, once told me that his ship chased a U. S. vessel for battle, but she escaped. On another occasion one of them notified the congregation that it was doubtful whether there would be preaching the next Sun- day, but wound up the notice by announcing that "if the preach- er comes the door will be hopen and the bell will be'rung; but if the preacher does not come the door will be shut and the bell hunrung."
Good old souls, they are all gone. After life's fitful fever they sleep well.
At the head of Spring street there was quite an island in the river connected by a foot-bridge with the main land. It was higher and larger than the present island. On it Marshal & Knowles, two Englishmen, had a saleratus factory where they made large quantities of the article and shipped it to different points. They had quite a good grocery store in one-half of the two-story brick now occupied by John Reedy, at the head of Main street.
David Scott, a canal contractor, occupied the other half with a dry goods store. On the opposite side was the grocery of J. M. Cheevers, and on the Reiter corner was J. W. Gordon's store, and the post-office. The printing office of W. R. Barring- ton was in the north part of the house of A. W. Alexander, the Alexander family at time owning and living in the adjoining house now occupied by Thomas Morton. On the south-west cor- ner was Tuttle's hotel. On the square below on the east side was the grocery of Jacob Schmidtlapp, and on the corner the cabinet shop of J. Bennett. On the west side between Dr. O'Ferrall's and Geo. C. Johnston's stood the book-store of John Ells, and next south of Johnston's were Jos. Sage's and Dr. Ash- ton's residences.
On the next square below on the west side were the dwell- ing and tailor shop of Jas. Druet, now' the Young corner; the stores of D. P. Conrad, J. P. Williamson, Adams & Brownell, the hardware store of John Morrow & Co., the millinery store of Mrs. Caldwell, and Wm. Scott's store and dwelling. On the east
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side the stores of N. Greenham, John Vaile, Dr. Daniel Ash- ton, P. A. Williamson, Samuel Gordon, D. Jordan, Wade & Booth, Fred. Geyer, Jacob Landis' saddlery shop, Sawyer & Co., and Kirk & Sterrett. On the square below on the east side were the tan-yard of Jas. Carson, the residence of his father, some small frame shops, C. S. Grigg's hat store, and a two-story frame on the corner occupied by H. W. Hughes for dry goods. On the west side were the hat shop of John Brown on the corner of the square, and the stores of Thomas Bellas, Robert Young & Sons, and the National hotel.
The town hall was not built until about 1844.
On the square below on the east side were Martin Simp- son's residence where the opera house now stands, Tamplin's tavern, and the Piqua House then building on the corner, and on the west side a few small shops, the drug-store of Mitchell & Frye, Judge Mitchell's residence, the tin-store of Foreman & Hughes, and the iron-store of Geo. Brown on the corner. On the next square, east side, were the store-room and dwelling of J. G. & A. C. Furrow, where now are saloons, and which then were about the best buildings on the street, the frame dwellings below them and the old frame lock mill, with John Garvey's residence on the corner. On the west side a tan-yard, a blacksmith shop, the brick now occupied by A. Thoma, the Holtzerman dwelling and a store on the corner, and on the square below Swartz's tavern and a dwelling or two.
A few buildings I may have overlooked, but the above de- scription is substantially correct. I have perhaps omitted to name some dwellings, as I have aimed to mention more particu- larly the business houses.
Of all the persons in business on Main street in the fall of 1840 there only remain five living, as far as I can recollect, namely : John Wade, W. B. Newman, August Thoma, and Rob- ert Smith, who was then the only barber in town and whose family, with one other family, comprised the entire colored pop- ulation of Piqua. The physicians then in practice were Drs. John O'Ferrall, Geo. W. Worrall, Geo. Weed, G. V. Dorsey, and David Jordan. They all rode on horseback in visiting their patients, with their pill-bags on their saddles and their limbs encased in leggings to protect them from the mud. Each store had its hitching-rack and horse-block in front from which the ladies mounted and dismounted from their horses.
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The opening of the canal. and clearing up of the country produced a large amount of sickness and the doctors were kept busy. They would not allow us to drink cold water when we were burning up with fever, but forced hot teas and boiled water on us, and dosed us up freely with calomel and other noxious drugs. I recollect when parched with fever, begging for cold water and being refused. I lay and thought that if I ever got up I would go over on cedar hill, on the bluff bank of the river, east of town, and lie down by a large and cool spring there and drink to my satisfaction. The spring was destroyed by the rail- road, and the doctors have seen the errors of their ways and changed their practice. Closely allied to the physicians were the undertakers; Jos. Bennett & Sons buried about all the people, and when a person died his measure was taken and the cabinet- maker went to his board pile, selected his lumber, sawed and planed it, nailed it together, lined and varnished it, and kept at it day and night, Sunday and week-day, until finished. A ready-made coffin was unheard of. When all was ready the pro- cession of friends was formed and the corpse was placed on a bier and covered with a pall, the bearers raised the bier on their shoulders and the procession moved to the old Wayne street cem- etery and deposited the coffin in the ground.
The price of a coffin was from twelve to twenty dollars; then a poor person could afford to die, now he cannot. And they who were thus buried in their plain coffins slept as quietly and well as they who are put away in their last resting places with all the modern improvements.
Piqua then, strange to say, had no lawyer to vex the unwill- ing ears of courts and juries with his quibbles, his demurrers and exceptions. One by the name of Hinman had been there, but ere this "folded his tent and stole away."
It was related of him that no matter what his case might be, he would in every speech he made, whether to court or jury, quote to them the legal maxim "qui facet per alium, facet per se," thinking seemingly that there was in these words an occult force which would draw a verdict from an unwilling jury. This re- minds us that one of our present legal brethren while counsel- ing a client captivated him by quoting to him the Latin phrase, "Sine qua non," and he, in great triumph, informed the opposite side that he was sure to win his case because it had a "sine qua
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non." Not long after Mr. Hinman came H. S. Worrall and Samuel Stover, and then Jas. H. Hart and S. S. Mckinney.
In those days Piqua had no bank and money was very scarce, and there was not sufficient in circulation to do business with, so a great deal of trading and exchanging of commodities took place. Groceries were considered cash, but dry goods, farm produce and other things were bought by trading other articles for them. Then coopering was the leading industry for the town. All along the canal from north to south were located the cooper shops, and more than a hundred hands were em- ployed in them and they were the most industrious people in the place. We recollect at one election the coopers turned out in procession, marched to the polls, and turned the election just as they wished. There was no boodle then. Large quantities of pork barrels were made and shipped to Cincinnati, and became here a great medium of exchange in purchase of goods and some- times in real estate transactions.
The principal men in this business at that time were Sam- uel, Calvin and William Wood; Hiram Bolser, Jas. Colburn, and later William, Daniel and Jonathan Place; T. D. Wood, Daniel Hardy, and others. In those early days of the place town lots were cheap and procurable on easy terms of payment. Away from the central portions of the town the lots were laid out and platted by Matthew Caldwell on the west, Bates & Caldwell on the north-west, and Mitchell and Wood on the south. They all sold lots on liberal terms, and they were generally bought by the mechanics of the town who were a very liberal and enterpris- ing set of men who built and owned generally their homesteads, and to them Piqua owes much of its prosperity. Such men as Rankin Walkup, Wm. T. Humphreville, Jas. H. Rea, Stephen Winans, Cummings Scudder, and other mechanics associated with them in a great measure made the town. And in those days a large employment was given to boys and young men in learning the various mechanical trades, and the town was filled with ap- prentices whose busy employment is now mostly superseded by machinery. They were generally a very healthy, lively and moral set, full of innocent sports, and not within the influence and temptations of saloons, of which we happily had none.
We had then no public schools of any importance. The boys and girls were generally educated in private schools, of which we had several that were very good indeed. Daniel Horton taught in a small brick which stood a little north of Central hall,
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about where the street is now, there being no street south of the park then. Bristow and Anderson taught in the old Baptist church across the canal, and had a very fine and prosperous school.
I recollect among their pupils, Dr. John O'Ferrall, Dr. John Kitchen, Dr. John Gordon, H. C. Landis, S. S. Mckinney, W. F. Ross, Ezra and Lawrence Furrow, and others. Mr. John Vaile also had a large and flourishing school for'boys, and Miss Bancroft one for girls. A little later came Miss Kate Baldwin, afterward Mrs. James, who had a large and excellent school for girls in the second story of Cheever's store-room at the upper end of Main street, which was very popular. Then came good old Nathan H. Dow, a graduate of Brown University, who gen- erally went to sleep when we recited our Latin to him, having full confidence in us that we would translate correctly. Good old soul, he calmly sleeps in Tennessee soil, his memory loved and honored by all his pupils. Still a little later came Robert McMurdy who, with his accomplished wife and sister, Miss Maria Russell, opened a select academy in the basement of the Second Presbyterian church, where all the English branches, Greek, Latin and French were taught. This was the largest and best school that Piqua ever had. There a large number of boys and young ladies were fitted for life, and here the writer of these sketches graduated with a large class of boys and girls, the exer- cises being held in the Town Hall, then a new, and as we thought, rather a grand building. He had orations in English, Greek, Latin, Italian and French, and everything went off in great style.
Among those who took part in the exercises we remember Rev. David A. Dryden, Dr. Volney D. Brownell, Ben. D. Furrow, Dr. I. N. Caldwell, Miss Elnora Lindsay (now Mrs. Dr. Match- ett), Miss Sarah Rayner, (now Mrs. D. A. Dryden), Miss Sallie Wood, (late wife of Rev. J. R. Andrews), Miss Russell and others.
Mr. McMurdy still lives, but his scholarly wife and sister have long since passed away. We had quite a number of other teachers and schools, but these were the most prominent.
The first newspaper here was the Piqua Gazette, published by J. A. Dooley, who had bought it from W. R. Barrington. He was soon succeeded by John and Jonathan Vaile, the latter being the principal editor, and the name was changed to The Piqua Intelligencer. The editor in his salutatory stated that
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he would write his editorials with "neatness, perspicuity, ele- gance and ease," a practice which we would commend to all modern editors. Vaile, however, soon tired of that style of writ- ing and sold out to Defrees and Taylor, who published for a year or two an entertaining and vigorous paper.
An amusing story was told by the boys in the office of the cause of the dissolution of the firm. One day an inventor of a new "grease" lamp came into the office and presented to the firm one of the lamps and a request that it might be tried and a local notice given of the results, the inventor claiming that it would give more light than two'candles. Taylor, who never wrote edi- torials, went to the case and set up a notice in which he said after trial he found it would give more light than three tallow candles. Defrees, looking over the proof, saw the article and had three taken out and two inserted. When about to put the paper to press Taylor saw the alteration and again inserted three, and the paper was so printed. This coming again to De- frees' notice a dissolution followed. Taylor went to Greenville and published a paper there until he was appointed Indian agent in the west, where he died some years ago.
John W. Defrees published the paper many years, but finally was elected county auditor, and after his term of office expired remained in Troy and published the Miami Union until his death in 1882. He was a vigorous writer, a true friend, and an honest man.
And now in looking back over this half century we are amazed at the changes which have taken place. Whole families have been blotted out by death, others of comparative wealth have been reduced to poverty. Friends have been scattered far and wide, "Some at the bridal, and some at the tomb." Hosts of vanished faces pass in review before me, bringing up a flood of varied recollections of the former life of Piqua. How few remain of all those who walked these streets fifty years ago! They are mostly gone to join the "silent majority," and we seek their companionship only in the silent houses of the dead. A few of 'us only survive, and to us the pathos of Barry Cornwall's song becomes the more striking, and we invoke for ourselves its feeling prayer :
"Touch us gently, Time: Let us glide down thy stream
Gently-as we sometimes glide through a quiet dream.
Humble voyagers are we, o'er life's dim, unsounded sea,
Seeking only some calm clime: Touch us gently, gentle Time."
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THE BATTLE OF BROADFORD
BY M. H. JONES
Written June 19, 1888
I propose in this paper to rescue from oblivion a bit of local history which, in consequence of the passing away of most of the actors therein, is liable to be lost to the future historian of Miami county and the coming generations.
I do this more cheerfully because it illustrates in a striking manner the kindly care we have always exercised toward our weak and feeble 'neighbors of Troy, and to notably show that but for the generous and gallant efforts of the brave and chival- rous Piquads related herein, ilium fuit might have been all that history or tradition would transmit to posterity 'in regard to our aforesaid neighbor. The history which I am about to relate is somewhat obscured by the lapse of time, and the infirmity of memory of the few surviving heroes of that war. The war itself has been denominated "The Battle of Broadford," and also "The Broadford War." There was but a single campaign, and but one battle, which indeed was not fought-but might have been. The war was brought on in this wise: Somewhere about the year 1842, when Major Johnston was high sheriff of the county and Tom Corwin was governor of Ohio and John Tyler was acting President of the U. S., two distinguished citizens of our weak and feeble neighbors, the aforesaid Trojans, went into the rural districts bordering the village of Troy preaching the Gospel of Temperance and trying to convince the rural aborigines of the wild forests about Troy that it was far better for them to drink cold water as a beverage and not to drink fire-water pressed from the grains of golden corn raised in those parts. The said aborigines did not see it in that light and, vainly striv- ing to convince the orators of the folly of their course, further combatted 'them with a shower of ancient eggs. This shower of eggs being offense to the olfactories of said orators and de- structive to their clothing, they withdrew from the slyvian scene and their missionary labors and invoked the strong arm of the law to punish the audacious and ill-mannered fellows who gathered up and used so effectively said ancient eggs.
The result of this appeal to law was, that several of the mis- creants, who had used the aforesaid eggs were incarcerated in
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the Troy bastile, otherwise called the county jail. Said jail was located in the rear of the residence now occupied by our distin- guished townsman S. N. Todd, Esq., county treasurer, now briefly sojourning in our quiet and cheerless neighboring village.
After resting in jail for a few days and nights, the aboriginal neighbors of said prisoners entered into a huge compact and con- spiracy to storm the aforesaid bastile, raze it "from turret to foundation stone," release the prisoners, punish the Trojans, and perhaps blot out of existence the village and sow salt in the foun- dations of its dwellings. A large mob gathered for this purpose and were marching on all converging roads to lay siege to Troy. But they reckoned badly if they thought that the pride and chiv- alry of Piqua would permit their weak and helpless neighbors to be thus ravaged when the day of their threatened doom arrived. Major Johnston, high sheriff of Troy, was equal to the emergency and he called on the military of the county to help him as a "posse comitatus," in preserving the public peace, and especially his beloved Troy.
Ancient Troy had no braver Hector, but the besieging forces had no Achilles, no Ajax, or Agememnou, or the result might have been different. The tocsin was sounded and at the midnight hour the streets of our city resounded with war's stern summons, as the commanders of our military marched, with martial music and gathered their clans. Captain Adams and Lieutenant Car- son with the light infantry readily responded, and Captain E. G. Barney and Col. Clarke with their squadron of dragoons gath- ered together with the bugle's sound.
There was mounting in hot haste, brief and tearful farewells were exchanged by husband and wife, lovers and friends, and the clangor of sabers and horse's hoofs, the bugle's notes, and the fife and drum drowned all other sounds as our proud warriors rushed to relieve the siege of Troy. Then Butsch's speech, locally celebrated as the finest effort of his life, would have been more appropriate that when delivered at the opening of the Mexican war : "I am proud that I am a citizen of Piqua." How the heart of Piqua swelled as her gallant warriors marched to the relief of feeble and defenseless Troy; and as the flutter of gay pennons faded and was lost in the distant marching of our braves, the lines of Campbell came to us at once : "Wave Munich, all thy ban- ners wave, and charge with all thy chivalry." When the soldiers arrived at Troy they were met by the affrighted citizens and a
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hearty welcome extended to their protectors. There they found the Lafayette Blues, of Troy, Captain Henry S. Mayo command- ing, under arms and patrolling the village, but our warriors stopped hardly long enough to exchange civilities but marched hastily to the Broad Ford of the Miami river where the foe was reported to be in force, with a view of forcing a passage of the turbulent stream and storming the defenses of Troy. Here the warriors encamped, and after throwing out pickets and hastily throwing up defenses to guard against sudden attack, rested for a brief season. But no attack came, though rumors of over- whelming forces, night attacks, and midnight assaults were fre- quent.
Detachments were sent out to find and "feel" the enemy; the bastile was guarded by a triple line of defenses, and many precautions taken to resist attack and repel the foe. And right gallantly would our braves have shed their last drop of blood to protect and defend our helpless neighbors, our beloved Trojan friends. But after waiting, marching and counter-marching for days, the foe came not, but made default, withdrew and ske- daddled.
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