USA > Ohio > Miami County > Piqua > The first century of Piqua, Ohio > Part 30
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31
349
BIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES
price which would scarcely furnish the amount which had been paid for making the barrels, but most of the proprietors of the cooper shops in Piqua were obliged to accept the price offered, as there was no other market available at the time, and the result was that many of them lost the entire amount they had invested in the business and besides were left in debt, and a fatal blow was given to a business which for many years had been one of the leading industries of Piqua and I, with others, was left penniless. In the spring of 1850 the rush for California overland, which had been wild in 1849, was renewed with some- what decreased excitement, but still hundreds were preparing to visit the "land of gold," and as I was entirely out of business, I decided to "follow the crowd."
My friends assisted me in procuring a home during my absence for my wife and eight-months-old baby boy, and also furnished enough money to pay one-fifth of the estimated cost of the provisions needed by a party of 5 men in crossing the plains to California. But I am a little too fast in my narrative, and I will go back a little. Early in April a man named Nelson Brown called on me at the shop where I was at work and in the pres- ence of four men he proposed to assist me to make the trip to California, as he had understood I was trying to make arrange- ments for that purpose. He said he had decided to procure the outfit necessary for the use of 5 men at Weston or some other point on the Missouri river; that he had already made arrange- ments with his brother William Peter Morehead, and a man- I forgot the name-and if I would pay one-fifth the cost of the provision and cook for the mess I could join the party-free from any other expense. Supposing Brown to be a friend, and that he made the proposition in good faith, I accepted it. Soon there- after the party proceeded to the designated point. The team and necessary outfit were purchased and in the fore part of May we started from Fort Leavenworth on our long trip. Matters moved along very smoothly for several weeks and we were mak- ing fine progress on our journey when one day as we were taking our noon rest about 700 miles from our destination-I cannot give the date as I have mislaid the diary which I kept during the entire trip-Brown addressed me in a manner more like a savage Indian than a civilized white man about as follows: "Hardy,
350
THE FIRST CENTURY OF PIQUA
isn't it about time that we fix up the business for my taking you to California ?" His words and wild appearance amazed me and I replied that the matter was settled long ago in the cooper shop at Piqua, and that I had complied strictly with the terms then agreed upon ; that I had walked every step of the way so far and had done all the cooking for the mess, as I had supposed to their entire satisfaction. He replied that the cooking was all right, but that he started to California for the purpose of mak- ing money and he intended to make it, and he didn't care a d- how he made it, and that he might as well begin with me as anybody else; that he had concluded to give me my choice of giving my note for $500, to be paid by the first money I earned in California, or tramp.
I reminded him again of the contract between us, and he replied : "I don't care anything about the contract; there is no law here and you can give me your note or go," and I replied that I would not submit to be robbed if I could protect myself. I prepared two receptacles, in one of which I placed a few pounds of rice and in the other a few pounds of packed corn with sugar ready prepared for use, which I took from the stock of provi- sions in the wagon, against the vehement protests of Mr. Brown, although considerably less than my rightful share-one-fifth- of the stock on hand. I also added a tin basin and a tablespoon to the articles named, and with these articles, two blankets and an extra shirt, I arranged a "pack" suitable to take on my bulk and started on my perilous trip. I used the tin basin for cook- ing the rice in when I could obtain the necessary fuel and water, using the packed corn and sugar when the means of cooking were not available, thus affording myself a fine change of "menu," but always confining myself to one "course" only which, under the circumstances, seemed to be somewhat necessary. After a toilsome trip I arrived at Hangtown, California, about August 20, 1850, in a very dilapidated condition both physically and financially. I stopped in Hangtown a few days with a friend, then proceeded to Auburn, the county seat of Placer county, where a former citizen of Piqua-Mr. Joseph Walkup and his partner, Mr. Wyman-were conducting a large grocery and pro- vision store, and were also the proprietors of a "cattle ranch" situated a few miles south of Auburn. I engaged to work for
351
BIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES
them at $5 a day. My time was divided between "herding" cat- tle and "clerking" in their store. I worked for them about 8 months and then engaged in business for myself about the same length of time and then returned home.
After my return from California I was engaged in various occupations : teaching school in country districts, gardening, coopering, carpenter work, etc.
About 1855 a law was passed providing for the election of city clerk by the people for a term of two years. I was elected three times by the people, when the law was repealed and city councils were again authorized to elect their clerk.
When the Civil war broke out I would have been one of the first to enlist but the condition of my family was such that I could not feel justified in doing so. My wife's health was very bad and on April 18, 1861, when the war was only one day old my youngest son, Harry, was born, and my oldest son living at that time-Frank Forrest, who died May 1, 1885-was only 8 years old, and two other sons now living -- Harvin C., of Asbury Park, N. J., and Fremont C., of Piqua-were only 6 and 5 years old respectively, so that it will be seen that my wife could not possibly pay rent and furnish food and clothing for her family with a private soldier's pay of $13 a month.
I will here state that the baby boy I left with my wife when I started to California died with cholera infantum when he was just a few days over one year old, about the date on which I reached my destination.
When the call for 300,000 volunteers was made in 1862, I was offered the position of a 2nd lieutenant in the 94th O. V. I., which offer I very gladly accepted, as the way seemed to be open for me to serve my country a second time and also to provide the necessary means for the support of my family. In a few weeks the regiment was fully recruited and after some days drilling at Camp Piqua. In the forenoon of August 28th the regiment broke camp and marched to Piqua where they took passage on board a D. and M. train of cars for Cincinnati, arriv- ing there about sundown and immediately crossed the Kentucky river to Covington and marched to the city hall and partook of a good supper, which had been provided for us by loyal citizens
352
THE FIRST CENTURY OF PIQUA
who had been notified of our coming, and then were assigned quarters in halls and public buildings for the night. The next day the regiment were supplied with uniforms and some other things necessary for the use of soldiers. On August 30, the regiment took passage on the Kentucky Central railroad for Lex- ington, where they arrived the same evening and supperless camped on the bare ground for the night near the Lexington cemetery.
Early the next morning, Sunday, August 31, we left our camping ground, marched into the city and formed on the square at the court house, where we had been told we would be provided with a breakfast by the Union citizens of Lexington. An order had been received for the regiment to proceed to the Tates Creek crossing of the Kentucky river about 16 miles southeast of Lexington, Ky. After waiting for some minutes for the prom- ised breakfast, which did not materialize, they were ordered to "fall in," and they "fell in" and having had scarcely anything to eat since their supper at Covington, Ky., they were in a very hungry condition. Their march was under a very hot sun and over a road which had been macadamized with broken limestone, which by the large amount of travel over it had been ground to a very fine dust. The regiment-except quite a large num- ber who had "fallen out" from exhaustion during the march- arrived at the Kentucky river about dusk in a very famished con- dition ; they dropped down on the sides of the road and many of them were soon in sound sleep from which they were rudely awakened by a volley fired into them by some Confederate soldiers who were concealed in a cedar thicket, killing two and wounding several, but as it was now dark and the firing was not continued. After awhile guards were stationed and the soldiers laid down on the ground with their guns in their hands, ready for use should they again be attacked. The next morning, after an almost sleepless night, it was discovered that a large Confed- erate force under Gen. Kirby Smith had arrived on the south side of the Kentucky river and the regiment made hasty prepara- tions for a retreat towards Lexington. They were followed by a large cavalry force and in a charge made on the regiment when about midway between the river and Lexington nearly 100 pri- vates and four commissioned officers-myself one of the latter
353
BIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES
-were made prisoners. No further attack was made on the regiment before they reached Lexington, and the officers and soldiers who had been made prisoners were paroled and soon on their way to Columbus, O., to report at the camp for paroled soldiers. I reported at Camp Wallace and was assigned to duty in assisting to form the paroled men-who were arriving in large numbers-into companies, so that their wants could be provided for-rations and clothing furnished, pay rolls made out, etc. At this time the Union soldiers taken prisoners were mostly paroled, but later the soldiers captured were sent to the Con- federate prisons in the south. I remained on duty at Camp Wal- lace for several months and rejoined my regiment September 26, 1863, and participated in their marches, skirmishes and battles, including Chickamauga, Lookout Mt., Mission Ridge, Resaca and Kenesaw Mt., and June 22, 1864, in the last named battle I was wounded in my left leg and sent to the officer's hospital at Nash- ville, for treatment. As soon as able for duty I was assigned to the command of the 148th company of the Veteran Reserve Corps, doing duty guarding the government quartermaster's and com- missaries stores. May 1, 1865, I was relieved from duty with the V. R. C. at Nashville, and ordered to join my regiment, then with Gen. Sherman's army and approaching Washington, D. C. I rejoined my regiment at Alexandria, Va., and May 22, 1865, I was mustered as a captain-my commission having been for- warded to the regiment some weeks previously-and I was assigned for duty to Company K. I made out the muster rolls for the company and was mustered out with the regiment at Washington, D. C., June 5, 1865, and returned to my home at Piqua, O.
I have held the following city and township offices by elec- tion or appointment : City clerk, 12 years; township clerk, 5 years ; clerk of board of cemetery trustees, 1 year; clerk of water works board, 7 years ; member of board of education, 3 years, and clerk of the board, 20 years; school enumerator, 32 years; clerk of board of public safety, 4 years; ward assessor of real estate for one-half of the city, without an assistant, for the years 1880 and 1890; member of the decennial board of equalization for the years 1870 and 1900; member of the annual city board of equali- zation, 24 years; constable, 2 years; city policeman, 1 year; justice of the peace, 28 years.
354
THE FIRST CENTURY OF PIQUA
Besides the foregoing I was deputy tax collector 8 years, and am now serving my 9th term of 3 years as notary public. I am a pension attorney appointed by the commissioner of pen- sions, also a member of the Miami County Soldiers' Relief com- mission. I served in my native town and Piqua as a fireman 51 years. Of course I sometimes held several offices at the same time, at one time holding 7 for several months. I owned a small farm of 10 acres, which I cultivated by my own labor for 22 years, prior to 1889, when I sold it and bought the property where I am now living.
JOHN KEYT HOUSE, BUILT IN 1824.
If I live till February 1912, I will have completed 80 years of continuous labor, clerical and manual. I was the oldest vet- eran present at several of the last annual reunions of the Ohio State Association of Veterans of the Mexican War. I am the oldest member and the only veteran of the Mexican War now living in the following associations: The Military Order of the Loyal Legion of Ohio; the 90th Regiment O. V. I., and Alex- ander-Mitchel Post G. A. R. of Piqua, Ohio.
I am a widower, my wife having died March 14, 1909, her funeral being held on my 90th birthday, after a married life of nearly 61 years.
355
BIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES
With work as a notary public, pension attorney, soldier's relief commissioner, working about my home and reading the daily papers, I am passing my declining years as contentedly and with as little worry as possible.
FRANK A. HARDY.
Mr. Hardy died Feb. 12, 1915, at the age of 95 years, 10 months and 25 days.
REMINISCENCES OF WM. RAYNER
Written in 1890
I was born in Sheffield, England, Aug. 14, 1817, and spent the early years of my youth in this and other small inland towns. My father was a carpenter and was at this time employed in doing the finishing work on a large castle near Redmile. In 1830 he with his family emigrated to the U. S., and in the spring of 1831 settled in Piqua.
I distinctly remember the voyage across the ocean in the sailing vessel "Edgar of London," for with contrary winds and many storms we were on the water for nearly seven weeks, and provisions became so scarce before the end of the voyage that father divided with other passengers, so our last meal before landing consisted of a few cracker crumbs and a limited supply of water.
When out about ten days from Liverpool I had the misfor- tune to get one of my legs broken, and as there was no doctor on board a brick mason volunteered to make the repairs as best he could. This he did by straightening and binding the limb and then encasing it in common plaster. The operation was a success but rather hard on the boy who was compelled to lie on his back during the rest of the voyage, and this leg was always shorter than the other until I got the other one broken in 1877, so now they are about even.
I arrived in Piqua on my 14th birthday, and for a time we lived in a rented house at the north-east corner of Sycamore and Wayne streets.
In 1832, my father with the help of brother John and my- self built a house for John Keyt, and in payment received a lot
356
THE FIRST CENTURY OF PIQUA
on Greene street, between Wayne and Downing. He also gave us a very large poplar tree which stood about where the soldier's lot is now located in Forest Hill cemetery.
This tree was so big that my father could get no one to haul it, so with the help of a man named Killian we cleared a track and rolled the logs to the river and then floated them down to Keyt's saw mill in Rossville, where some of them had to be split in order to get them under the old-fashioned up-and-down saw frame. With the lumber and shingles from this one tree we built the entire house on our lot on Greene street, so by the end of the year 1833 we had a home of our own.
WM. RAYNER
From the big spring that used to be in the river bank south of the present Lock mill all the people in that part of town got their drinking water for many years, and when we first came to Piqua it was one of my chores to carry the water for my mother. There were a number of boys, among whom were Cephas Porquett and Sam and Henry Garvey, who thought they had a prior right to the spring, and as they were native-born while I was what they called a "Britisher," we had several rather bloody encounters before my rights were finally adjusted satisfactorily.
357
BIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES
OLD HOUSE BUILT FROM ONE TREE, 1833.
-
358
THE FIRST CENTURY OF PIQUA
Very strict economy was necessary in those days in our large family, so we older boys had little time to attend school. After spending a year or two on a farm of my father's near Chickasaw, Mercer county, I returned to Piqua in September, 1836, and started to work for John Keyt, who was then the lead- ing builder in town. I received fifty cents a day, and my first job was on the new Methodist church which he was then build- ing. In the next few years I did most of the finishing work on Dr. Dorsey's large house; all the door, sash and window frame work on the Tuttle hotel, and also worked on many others of the houses that were built at that date. It was while at this work that I attended night school kept by John Vaile, and with John Gill and Moses Lee determined to go to college. When we got ready to start in the fall of 1840 Gill could not raise the money, so Lee and myself, in Lee's buggy, started for Oberlin. After leaving the national road we so nearly swamped in the mud that we decided to stop at Granville, where we attended the Theological Seminary and remained for three years, going home between terms to earn money for the next. In my six trips to this college I walked the entire distance three times, sometimes averaging more than 40 miles a day.
It was during my last term at Granville that I walked over to Newark and examined the wonderful earthworks at that place which at that time had not been disturbed.
Soon after my return from college in the spring of 1843, I had been given a license to preach by Rev. J. B. Finley, but trouble in the Methodist Episcopal church over the questions of intemperance and slavery decided me to leave this congregation and join the Wesleyan Methodists, which then had a small organization in Piqua. This division in the parent church lasted up to the period just prior to the civil war, when these questions were settled satisfactorily and the two factions were again joined together.
Soon after my marriage to Rachel Valentine in 1843 I went to work as pattern-maker for Rouzer & Clark on north Main street and continued with them at intervals until 1852.
It was here in the summer of 1846 that I made the patterns for the first stove ever cast in Piqua, and being inexperienced in
359
BIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES
this line of work I made the patterns too thick, so that the com- pleted stove weighed nearly twice as much as was neccesary.
I bought this stove for myself, and it has now been in use every winter since that date.
In the early fifties we moved into the country north-west of town, and any other items of Piqua history which I now recall are so well described in Mr. M. H. Jones' recent article in the paper, that it would only be a repetition to continue.
REMINISCENCES OF J. F. NOLAND (General Yardmaster at Broadford, O.)
Written June 24, 1907
I was born on Downing street in Piqua, Ohio, December 12th, 1845. In the fall of 1850, my parents moved from Down- ing street to Sycamore near Chestnut, same town. At that time Sycamore street was the main thoroughfare for travel through the town from points in the east to Indiana and west. Piqua was then a growing town of about 3,200 population. The rail- roads had not yet reached Piqua from either the east or south and the travel by wagon to and through the town was very heavy, and cattle and hogs and sheep were driven through the town in droves of several hundred almost daily. The Miami and Erie canal extending from the Ohio river at Cincinnati to Lake Erie at Toledo was the great channel for transportation in western Ohio, and Piqua was one of its important shipping points. Grain, flour, pork, hides, staves, hoop poles, and other products of the farm and forests were hauled to Piqua by wagon for shipment on the canal north and south, giving Piqua a busi- ness appearance that its citizens of today would hardly believe. In good wagoning weather, with something unusual going on in town, the town often became blocked with teams, consisting of from two to four horses or oxen, so that teams in the center wanting out, could not get out, and teams farther out wanting in, could not get in. Under such circumstances the town mar- shal would assume control, and commencing on the outskirts, compel teamsters to drive around through less traveled streets, and even have some teams turn around and drive back a dis-
360
THE FIRST CENTURY OF PIQUA
tance, to pass through a street much out of their way. As team- ing was then a great business, farmers and teamsters raised more colts than they raise now, and the drivers of many teams came from a distance, and could not return home the same day, allowed the colts to come along and the whinning of lost and frightened colts, and the answer of their mothers, was a con- stant sound on a down town street in certain seasons of the year. The rattle of trace and other chains in the harness on horses, when the horses would shake themselves, as tired horses often do, was another familiar sound. Many of the team owners would bring their children along, ranging in age from six to thirteen years, who were anxious and curious to see the sights of town. Many of them had never been in a town before, and the sights of Piqua, with its 3,200 population, was more to them then, than Dayton or Columbus is to the children of today. In warm weather the boys were invariably barefooted, and many were without coats, and some without hats or caps. The larger boys who wore shirts without waists supported their pantaloons with one muslin gallows made by their mothers. Those country children from a distance, many of whom were in town for the first time, and we town children gazed at each other with curious wonder. The children were, of course, always started from home with clean hands, face, and neck, but when the roads were dusty the chldren were a sight when they arrived in town, and as the mother was not along to care for them, and they had no other place to sleep than in or under the wagon, their chance to wash was not good, and some of them left on their return trip home without having washed. Those who attempted to wash, being without soap, simply rubbed the dirt into streaks, and after drying in the sun you can imagine better than I can tell how they looked. But the children had seen the town, the canal and its boats, the large warehouses and stores, and churches with high steeples. Piqua had been growing so rapidly that it was crowding into the forests which surrounded it. These forests abounded in good game and wild fruit and nuts and we children who were fond of yellow pawpaw need not go far to find them in plenty as large as an average ear of corn, nor to gather hickory nuts by the wagon load. The Miami river was full of fish of all kinds except the hated carp, which has since been imported,
361
BIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES
and as the fish were then never so contrary about biting as they are now, the fisherman, like the hunter, was happy in having his sport almost at his door. Nearly all families in town kept cows, so as to have milk in abundance, and butter of their own make. The town cows herded together by their own in- stinct and ranged in the forests surrounding the town, which were open and considered fine range. Sometimes when the cows came home in the evening they were followed by milk snakes, which were then common, and were the dread of the milk maids when they went out to milk after dark, which they sometimes did, because the flies would not then be so bad, and the cows would stand better and not lash their tails so much. The snakes were also feared by the small boys when hunting for eggs under the barn. The milk snake may have been more frequent in story than reality, but large spotted snakes were killed in town so frequent that the milk snake story went with us small boys without any suspicion that it might have been a myth. Nor was the small boy alone in his belief that the milk snake took sustenance from the cows. The maids milking after dark always feared when they reached for the cows udder they might instead grasp around the neck of a snake. The business of Piqua in those early times was not alone with the country people who came far and near, both east and west of the canal. The canal also brought Piqua profitable trade. Hundreds of boats plying its channel bought supplies of all kinds there and many boatmen made Piqua their winter quarters, where they spent their summer earnings. A boat yard in which boats were built and repaired was located there and did a large amount of work. John Zollinger and Sawyer & Co. were the leading dealers in groceries and provisions, and one living in Piqua now would hardly believe they handled so much stock as they did, nor would one believe the canal ever carried so much business as passed through Piqua on it. I remember once a sudden rise of water in Swift Run broke the tow path north of the town and let the water out of the canal, which took two days and two nights to repair. In the mean- time, northward boats collected on the levels south of town, until all of the space in which boats could lay and clear the channel for southward boats to pass, was filled for a distance
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.