USA > Ohio > Miami County > Piqua > The first century of Piqua, Ohio > Part 31
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THE FIRST CENTURY OF PIQUA
of more than three miles, and the stores in Piqua were filled with boatmen taking advantage of the waiting to come to town to purchase needed supplies. After the break was repaired and the southward boats commenced moving, men, women and children lined the high bank of the canal from the point where the Huntersville bridge now is to Wiley's tan yard in which dis- tance there were no building, to watch the boats pass, which were moving so close to each other as a good supply of water could pass them through the lock. The boys of Piqua were for- tunate in having good places for their natural sports, swimming in summer and skating in winter, and the Piqua boy who could not swim and skate was a rare exception. Both the river and canal gave us our swimming holes and skating levels. The boys east of the canal had several holes in the river, the most pop- ular being in the bend under the high bluff east thereof. The south end boys had their popular hole in the canal south of Wiley's tan yard, known as the "Greens." The north end boys had several places in the canal and river north of the Rossville bridge, the most popular being at the aqueduct not far from Jones' tan yard. Nearly all of the small boys living in the south central part of town learned to swim in what was then known to them as Harrison's Creek. It was a small stream that ran down from the plateau west of town and turned south at the foot of the hill where it is crossed by the Covington pike. It then carried a full volume of fresh clean, water the year around, and in its pools "goggle eyes" were found large enough for a good fry. I have no doubt there are a number of men yet living in Piqua who, when boys, learned to swim and caught "goggle eyes" in those clear pools. In those early times there was not much in Piqua for boys to do except chores around home, until he had grown to such size that he could do nearly a man's work, and in the summer time he was in or about the swimming holes most of the day, except Sunday, which later day parents always then insisted should be regarded with strict religious deference. The boys would at times become tired of their own favorite hole and in a group visit the hole of another section of town. This visiting group were at first received with due courtesy, but in a short time the host would become tricky and later something would occur that made more visits to that place unpleasant, if
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BIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES
not unsafe. The east side boys stole roasting ears from the fields near the "Bend," and told the owners the boys from the "Greens" did it. The owner laid for the rascals from the "Greens," as he called us, and some of us had to swim the river with our clothes on to escape his wrath. Our experience at the aque- duct was yet more unfair. What little courtesy we received there we had to fight for and we did not, therefore, visit that place often. Not all of the north end boys, however, were mean. Many of them were the finest boys I ever met, and it is a great pleasure to recall their manly manners, though more than fifty years have since passed. I remember well what show day meant to Piqua in those early times. The entire popula- tion awaited the day with interest, but many with dreadful interest because of what might happen. Many felt that a crisis had passed when the next morning the show had left. A great crowd of people came to town show day from the country near and far, and in that crowd came also the neighborhood bully from all the neighborhoods tributary to the town. Old- fashioned straight whiskey, full of fight, noise and devils, was made in abundance in the very edge of town, and was sold at all of the groceries at from eighteen to twenty cents a gallon. Many people who thought they were respectable kept it in their homes and drank it morning, noon and night. The bullies and their chums came in early, and soon after their arrival took on their load of whiskey and proceeded to paint the town and show. As the show usually carried a squad of trained sluggers the bullies did not always complete their job of painting. In- stead the showmen often decorated the bullies in their own blood. In the meantime the best citizens, who were regardful of the good name of the town, were fearful that something more disgraceful might happen. Whiskey, then as now, was the greatest evil in any community. It did not have the blends nor the sparkling clearness it bears today, but the devils were in it just the same. It did not then, however, produce the besotted- ness it does now and did not so soon destroy everything manly there is in man. Piqua did not have saloons in the early fifties. They came after the railroads came. They grew rapidly in num- ber and favor at first, out of respect for the German citizens, it being the opinion that the saloon was a German institution,
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THE FIRST CENTURY OF PIQUA
but if it was, it has since changed, for the best and leading Germans now disclaim it. It appears Piqua has not so many saloons as 25 years ago and, judging from their outward appear- ance, are more carefully kept. The saloon men seem to have more diffidence to the growing sentiment in Piqua against the saloon. But I had been writing of my boyhood, and as the old- fashioned whiskey and the later saloon was not in it, I will go back to say, there was no place under the sun where, under the conditions of those early times, a boy could be more happy than in grand old Piqua, yet his life was not always happy. The awful malaria of that time deprived the boys of much hap- piness he would have often otherwise enjoyed. The malaria of today is mild and equitable compared with the malaria of that time, and one would not have the least suspicion it descends from the old-time type. The feature of it that was so awfully dreaded was the icy chill and the fearful shake. This chill would strike us so suddenly while out at play, or doing chores, that we were often hardly able to get home and our good moth- ers could not get the old cook stove sufficiently hot, with the wood fuel we then used, to prevent the chill from shaking us out of our clothes. One would not now believe how awful the shake would make our teeth chatter, nor how close it would cause us to get to a hot stove. Those shakes were the most awful experience of those good old times, but since we survived them we may console ourselves with the thought that provi- dence may have so shook us for some future good. The physi- cians appeared unable to help a patient in the fight against the dreadful malady. One simply had to out-grow it. But so far as the physicians of Piqua were concerned, it could not have been their fault. They were able and faithful, and looking back on them through knowledge that came to me since, I am confi- dent there was not a better class of physicians in the state. Those times were hey-days for quacks and the vendor of quack nostrums. Patients would grasp at any absurd promise, so anxious were they to be released from the grip of the shakes.
The schools in Piqua in the early fifties, I am sure, were as good as in other like towns. A number of men were then teaching, particularly at the Wayne street school, where there were always a number of obstinate boys who required a teacher
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BIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES
of strong and exacting control, who could, and would at the proper time, decorate their backs with an artful finish.
Such teachers were James Hanan and W. W. V. Buchan- nan. The first named did not teach long after I commenced school, but the last named was yet teaching in the sixties, and I have no doubt there are many men and women in Piqua, past middle age, who were his scholars and love to remember him as teacher and man. His discipline was strict, but to his obedient pupils he was considerate, even gentle and affectionate. It was only the obstinate and unruly that felt the warmth of his switch. The first high school building in Piqua was on the same lot as the present. It was opened, as I remember, in 1855. I am unable to recall the names of the teachers, but a Mr. Ewing taught the class of boys I was in the only year I went there. It appears I was not ready for the class, as I was near the foot, and as I disliked arithmetic and grammar I could not get ahead. As for grammar I could not see any use for it at all. But it did not worry me long, for soon the panic of 1857 came and I left school to work, that being necessary as I was the oldest boy in a family of twelve children, and all could not go to school when times were hard. Mr. Ewing was a fine teacher and in his class were a number of bright boys that he must have been proud to teach. I watched the class through graduation and some of the boys in their start in the battle of life, but all are now lost to my view, and I presume none of them remember me. When the old high school was built the west side of the lot on which it stood was bounded by a forest that extended back over the hill for nearly a mile. The forest was known as "Cald- well's Woods." There was then only one house west of the school in a distance of a mile and it was a one-story log on a small patch of charred ground about one thousand feet west of the school house. High street was graveled out to the school house, but west thereof it was a mud road, useful only in dry weather.
More than one-half of the lots on High street between Broadway and College street were vacant, and one could walk from the corner of Chestnut and Sycamore streets to the school house on open ground, most of which was low and in wet weather much of it was under water, and I remember having
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THE FIRST CENTURY OF PIQUA
skated most of the distance from Chestnut and Sycamore to school. After the location of the high school where it now is the town grew rapidly westward. That was a very prosperous time for Piqua.
Gold was discovered in California in 1849 and the exag- gerated reports of the immense richness of the field gave the entire country great business confidence and started it on a wild boom in which Piqua was at the very height. But in due time it was found that California was not all gold and the bubble of confidence bursted, and the panic of 1857 was on. Banks closed and business ceased and the rich and poor became poor alike. The new lands in the Miami valley were immensely pro- ductive and crops of all kinds were abundant. In fact this was a land of milk and honey and plenty, but yet in business dis- tress. There were no markets, no prices, and no real money. There was plenty of private bank paper and the people were trying to circulate it, but it was more or less discounted and people did not want it. Farmers preferred to trade their pro- duce rather than sell it for money, and mechanics and laborers when settling for what little work they could get to do insisted on having an order on Zollinger or Sawyer's groceries rather than money. All business men kept what was called a detector on their counters in which were listed all the banks in the country and showed present value of their paper. This detector in appearance was much like the almanac of today, but thicker. It was issued monthly, but the people did not have confidence in it, for since its issue the money of some banks may have be- come worthless. The two railroads had come to town and gave stimulation to the town's boom and the town actually had a car factory in operation on west Water street which the panic closed. I remember well seeing cars built in Piqua.
Well-to-do people had begun to buy ingrain carpets, sheet iron heating stoves and cane bottomed chairs for their homes, and some few people considered wealthy had brussels carpets and upholstered furniture, and the people began to feel that the old town was no longer in the backwoods class. The panic, how- ever, brought the entire country to a standstill, and poor old Piqua who had loaded down with flush times debts was awfully smitten. From that time until the beginning of the war the
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BIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES
men folks had plenty of leisure to loiter at the stoves, whittle goods boxes, talk of the former good times, and future prospects and politics, which later were becoming of intense interest. In this situation I will cease writing of Piqua, for soon after I left to join the army and did not return there to live. I look at the old town, its old citizens, their descendants and the peo- ple who have since moved in and have done so much to make it what it now is, with affectionate regard. I love Piqua not only for the memory of my boyhood, but also for its patriotic ardor through the entire war, and for the noble impulses of its citizens, which I have seen from the time of my boyhood until now. I may, however, have something to say in my next letter of Piqua's glorious part in the war which ought never to be for- gotten.
FRANK NOLAND.
The following poem, founded on an old legend with the river bank at north Downing street as the setting of the scene described, was written by Mrs. W. C. Rogers, and has been selected as a fitting close to this, our history of the old Indian town-Piqua :
TALAWANDA-A LEGEND OF THE MIAMI
On the banks of the Miami, (Gently flowing, lovely water) Lived there once an Indian maiden, Of a chief the cherished daughter; Like she was unto her father, Far-famed chieftain of the Shawnees,
Famed for mighty deeds of valor In his conquests with the Maumees.
Lovely was the Indian maiden, Noted for her grace and beauty, And her skill in basket weaving. And her deeds of loving duty; And when swift she flew to meet him, Glad the chief was in his daughter, And he called her Talawanda,- Talawanda-Winding Water.
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THE FIRST CENTURY OF PIQUA
And her eyes like mighty arrows Smote each young brave's heart, and wounded, And with one accord they loved her, Far and near her praises sounded; But the heart of Talawanda Was as stone was to their arrows- All their love thrusts darted backward, Tortured them like toothed harrows.
Then there came unto the waters, All their mystic charm beholding, Soldiers skilled in mighty warfare, Peacefully their tents unfolding; And they traded with the Indians, Traded for their skins and horses, And the red men met them kindly- Welcomed all the neighboring forces.
But among the pale faced warriors, One there was of kingly graces, Noble brow, and eyes like sunshine,- Handsomest of all pale faces, And the heart of Talawanda Melted 'neath those eyes of sunshine, And the brave pale face to her was As the tree is to the woodbine.
As the clay is to the potter, So her heart was to her lover, Whom he vowed his faith eternal By the sun and moon above her, And the eyes of Talawanda Shone like stars as to his pleading She g& .. uu promised truly She would follow at his leading.
But one morning, Talawanda Woke to find their camp forsaken; All the neighboring pale faced warriors In the night their flight had taken.
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BIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES
And the heart of Talawanda Broke, and knew no more consoling; Ne'er was heard her merry laughter, And her grief knew no controlling.
Then uprose the tribe of Shawnees, By her chieftain father headed, Vowing vengeance on the soldiers For the maiden left unwedded ; And they massacred the white men, Left not one of all their number, Left them lying where they'd fallen, Wrapped in death's long, heavy slumber.
But ere they the deed accomplished, Talawanda, Winding Water, Loveliest of all the maidens, Still the chieftain's cherished daughter, Rose and sought the smooth Miami, Paddled o'er its surface shining, And she plunged into its bosom, Buried there her grief and pining.
Then arose her chieftain father, When returning on the morrow, Gathered many squaws around him Wailing forth the tale of sorrow, And with hand out-stretched in warning, And with eyes and nostrils swelling, "Cursed," he cried, "be every pale face Who shall on these banks find dwelling."
Thus the lego. - Gently flowing, lovely river- Thus the tale its bosom carries, Where the sun and moonbeams quiver ; Thus the old chief called for vengeance In the death of his lovely daughter, Thus the tale of Talawanda, Talawanda-Winding Water.
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THE FIRST CENTURY OF PIQUA
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
John H. Patterson, of Dayton . Frontispiece
Jamison and Rayner surveying wall at Upper Piqua. .6
Indian Relics from Upper and Lower Piqua 7 and 9
Indian Village Site on Maley Farm
8
Wayne Monument at Greenville . 13
Map of Piqua and Upper Piqua, 1807.
19
George Buchanan, Capt. of Volunteers, 1812.
22
Incorporation Papers of Piqua, 1823.
44, 45 and 46
Old Town Hall
63
Old Market House
80
Map of Piqua, 1853.
89
Plaza Corner, 1890.
91
Plaza Corner, 1891.
99
John Cheever
97
Henry Kitchen .
99
Piqua Light Guard, 1855.
105
Wycoff Centennial Guards, 1881.
107
Soldiers Monument at Camp Piqua
113
Old Washington Fire Engine.
115
Old Fire Department on Wayne Street
12
Group of Piqua Police, 1901. 130
Scene on Canal below Piqua.
13
Last Canal Boat, and Adam Conover
149
Scenes on Piqua Hydraulic
147
Old Middle Bridge, 1838.
15%
Pennsylvania Railroad Station, 1907.
157 166
First Piqua High School, 1855.
17]
Wm. Betz, Contractor.
17
Public Library
175
Y. M. C. A. Building
177 178
Old Baptist Church .
189
Ball Memorial Hospital 185
D. A. R. Monument at Upper Piqua . 18"
Col. John Johnston Monument at Upper Piqua 19°
Billy Manning 197
Frank Redman 200
"Jimmy Jeems" 208
Old Piqua Gazette, 1821.
M. E. Church.
371
ILLUSTRATIONS
Capt. Downs carrying Court House
212
William Scott .
Grandfather Rayner. 213
Grandmother Rayner
217
Piqua Flood Pictures, 1898.
240-241-242-243
Col. John Johnston . 245
Col. Johnston Home at Upper Piqua, 1846.
248
George C. Johnston. 251
Geo. Johnston's Powder Horn and Indian Note-book. 252
Charles T. Wiltheiss. 258
Capt. W. J. Downs. . 260
Hon. J. F. Mckinney
266
Major Stephen Johnston
272
Old Tuttle Hotel 278
Joseph Hilliard . 288
M. H. Jones . 318
Uncle Billy Patterson 324
Col. Thomas B. VanHorne 338
Capt. Frank A. Hardy 345
John Keyt House 354
William Rayner. 356
Old House Built from One Tree 357
PAGE
216
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THE FIRST CENTURY OF PIQUA
CONTENTS
PAGE
Chapter I Mound-builders and Indians. 5
Chapter II First settlement by White Men 15
Chapter III Piqua in the war of 1812. 23
Chapter IV Beginning of Township History 36
Chapter V First Incorporation of the Town 43
Chapter VI Civil History 58
Chapter VII Incorporation of Piqua as a City, and Civil History . 69
Chapter VIII
Military History, Fire Department, and Police Depart-
ment.
102
Chapter IX Miami and Erie Canal, Piqua Hydraulic, and Bridges .. . 135
Chapter X Railroads, Electric Lines, Piqua Streets, and Newspapers. 156
Chapter XI Schools, Churches, Y. M. C. A., Public Library, Hospital, Organizations and Lodges, Senators and Representa- tives, Free Mail Delivery, etc. 171
Chapter XII Old-time Entertainments, Minstrel Companies, Billy Manning, Base Ball, Shooting Matches, Haunted House, The Crusade, Underground Railway, Randolph Slaves, and Odd Characters. 19:
Chapter XIII Court House War, Fair Grounds, Banks, Express Com- panies, Artists, Photographers, Lawyers, Doctors, Den- tists, Veterinary Surgeons, Halls, Opera Houses,Taverns, Inns, Hotels, Stores, etc. 2
Chapter XIV Biography and Reminiscences 2.
2043
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