The history of Montgomery county, Ohio, containing a history of the county, Part 60

Author: W.H. Beers & Co
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago, W. H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 1214

USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > The history of Montgomery county, Ohio, containing a history of the county > Part 60

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The birth of Jane Newcom, at her father's tavern, at the head of Mai street, April 14, in the year 1800, was an event that caused some little excito ment in the hamlet, for, with her birth came the distinction of being the fir child born in Dayton. She married Nathaniel Wilson and lived all of he life on Main street in this city, dying in her seventy-fifth year, at the north east corner of Main and Fifth streets.

CABIN MEETING HOUSE AND BURYING-GROUND.

The organization of the First Presbyterian Church of Dayton, probabl occurred in the year 1800, at least, it was the first church organization in Day ton, but the little hamlet of logs and mud was not a point of very great in portance at that time.

The Beulah congregation (Presbyterians and New-Lights at Beavertown were organized prior to that ; the Presbyterians, New-Lights and a society ( Anabaptists had built a log meeting house on the grounds of the Ewery grave yard near Beavertown, where they worshiped on alternate Sundays. The Re William Robinson who lived at and ran the mills on Mad River three mile from Dayton, preached for the Presbyterians of the Beulah congregation, an also at Dayton. In the year 1800, a log meeting house was put up on Lo No. 134 by the people of the town, aided by others living in the vicinity The cabin meeting house stood just east of the corner of Main and Main Cros (Third) streets, back from the road way, hid from view by clumps of haze bushes, and undergrowth, and was reached by a winding path that led throug the little pioneer burying-ground on the church lot. This cabin meeting hous was eighteen by twenty feet, seven logs high, and was not chinked or daubed it had a clapboard roof held down by weight poles, rough puncheon floo log seated, and was without windows.

The Rev. John Thompson, a Presbyterian preacher of Kentucky, preache in the Dayton log cabin meeting house, several times, in the year 1800, an filled occasional appointments here for several years afterward.

The coffins used in the early days were of the simplest construction, bein a roll of bark cut the right length, and the ends closed with pieces of clay board ; others were made of slabs, fastened together with wooden pins. Afte placing the body inside, the coffin was covered with a bedspread, placed on th bier, and carried by the pall-bearers to the burying-ground, the friends foi lowing two by two in procession, from the house to the grave, where after sing ing and prayer, the coffin would be lowered into the grave and then covere with earth.

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CITY OF DAYTON.

When this pioneer burying-ground was first located, the property so far out fim the settlement, as that at the corner of Main and Main Cross streets, was n held at higher value than the farming lands around.

In 1805, when the town had been incorporated, the court house built, and th gully across Main street filled up; property in that neighborhood became m'e desirable, and it was then determined to change the burying ground to tl lots on the south side of Fifth street, between the first alley west of Lud- Ic and the first alley west of Wilkinson streets, containing about four ares.

Mrs. Hannah Hanna, who died in August, 1804, was the first person bried in the Fifth Street Graveyard; her remains were removed to Woodland Chetery September 20, 1853.

Owing to the uncertainty of titles, and the delay in transfers of property, tł old burying-ground, as well as the new, wasused for interments until after 183 ; through the war of 1812, soldiers who died here, were buried, some in "} old burying-ground, others in the new graveyard. Many of the bodies we afteward removed to the Fifth Street graveyard ; but as late as 1822 a n'aber of grave stones and boards were standing undisturbed in the pioneer buying-ground; and the bones of pioneers still lie where they were first buried, . phe rear of the business blocks at the northeast corner of Main and Third stets.

The pioneer Methodists had settled up Mad River in the neighborhood of h Hamer farm. William Hamer was a local Methodist preacher, and from h first had held services at his cabin ; by and by there were regular gather- rs there for worship, and could the old trees of Mad River speak, they would e of interesting scenes in the worship of early Methodists as they gathered in'he grove at the foot of the hill near the spring that is still there at the road sie ; the joyful songs of faith, the eager listening to the faithful preaching of he Gospel by that earnest pioneer elder of the church. Under his leader- abo the early Methodists for years held their services in the groves of Mad Rer, he helped to organize their first churches in this county, and in Miami, Jrk and Champaign, and was afterward influential in establishing the church LI Dayton.

FLAT-BOATING AND TRADE.

David Lowry, in the winter of 1799-1800, built and launched a flat-boat, u Mad River, near Donnel's Creek, and brought her to Dayton to load. Her ti bers were heavy, hewed oak plank, fastened with wooden pins to the frame. 3, was ready for the spring freshet with a load of grain, pelts, and 500 ven- is) hams, and after a trip of two months, reached New Orleans in safety. Aer selling boat and cargo, Lowry returned overland on horseback to his nne.

Trade down the river by flat-boats increased in importance each year, u il the canal was opened in 1829. Shipments were usually made from the ). red warehouse that stood on the river bank, at the head of Wilkinson stret. Boats were built in the winter and launched with the spring freshets, a'l loaded with pork, flour, grain, pelts and whisky. The trip to the Ohio tok nearly a week's time, and six to ten weeks were counted on for a trip to Nw Orleans. Boats from above would land at Dayton, then, when the water ws right, the whole fleet would start for the trip South. It was a busy time to g| the cargoes aboard and get away with the high water. Whatever of supplies we brought to the settlements, were transported overland on pack-horses or u the river in dug-outs. It was nearly a week's trip from Cincinnati by pack- hrse, and ten days by river. Flour cost $5 a hundred weight, and $2.50 to bing it here. Groceries, dry goods, and supplies of all kinds had to be

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

brought in that way; and there being no store here it was troublesome for t. pioneers to dispose of pelts, as the nearest trading stores were at Hamilt and Cincinnati. In 1799, Henry Brown was at Loramie with a stock of good in the fall of 1800, a Mr. McDougal, of Detroit, opened the first store Dayton. in the second story of Newcom's tavern. The opening of this fir store met the needs of the time, and proved not only the greatest conver ience to the people of the neighborhood, but brought trade from the sott] ments for thirty or forty miles up the Miami and Mad River Valleys. Pt ties of Indians from their villages to the north and west came, spring ar fall, to trade furs, skins, fish, game honey, and "tree-sugar," for powde lead, blankets, whisky, dry goods and trinkets. Many camps of them we: sometimes located at the springs or along the river from Stillwater as f

down as Twin Creek. Their camps at Dayton were usually located at the b spring, on the north side of Mad River, near the Miami; or in the woo across the Miami. from the head of Wilkinson street.

Money was not needed on the frontier; the "skin currency" served eve purpose for barter and trade; 25 cents was the standard price for a muskr skin, the price-list rating in this way:

Muskrat skin, 25 cents; coon skin, one and a half muskrat skin doe skin, two muskrat skins; buck skin, four muskrat skins; bear skin, frc twelve to twenty muskrat skins; and upon this table all trading was done b tween men and at the stores. A customer would ask the store-keeper, "Wh is the price of whisky?" The answer would be, "Five doe skins;" " ty buck skins for a shirt;" "two muskrat skins for a yard of calico; " "a be skin for a bridle-bit;" "four buck skins and two coon skins for a chip shawl; " "three dozen shirt buttons for a coon skin; " " four pounds of sug for two doe skins and one muskrat skin; " "a half-pint flask, or a half-pound pepper, or a half-pound of tobacco, or a half-ounce of camphor, or a che handkerchief, or twelve skeins of thread, or one ounce of aloes, or a yard ribbon, or a half-pound of coffee, for one muskrat skin." It took three bu skins to buy a pound of Young Hyson tea; a doe skin to buy a bed cord; good bear skin was the price of a Dutch oven, and two bear skins was cher for a set of cups and saucers. A sickle cost a buck skin; a pair of cotto stockings cost two buck skins; a doe skin would buy a yard of shirting ; a ri ding comb cost a muskrat skin; a pair of moccasins cost a coon skin; a pour of lead for bullets was worth a muskrat skin; a bear skin would buy a set forks and knives; factory cotton cost a doe skin to the pound; a gallon brandy sold for five buck skins; one buck skin and one doe skin was the pri of a pound of powder.

INDIAN TRADING.

Trading with the Indians at the stores was usually carried on in this wa, Whether the Indian would come over alone or in a party, the bucks or all w! brought their furs, jerked meat, bear's oil, etc., to trade, entered the store silence and took seats on the benches. The merchant always presented ea with a small quantity of tobacco. After filling their pipes they put what t bacco was left into their mink-skin pouches. After smoking awhile, talking each other and glancing over the store to see the display of goods, they we ready for trade. One of them at a time left his seat and went to the counte pointing with a stick to the article he desired, would ask, "How much? The Indians never tried to beat down the price, but if dissatisfied, wou quietly turn to some other article. If satisfied with the price, he would p: it in skins, according to the table given above, or if in meat or other stuff, a rate mutually understood by Indians and traders, paying for each article as } went along. The others looked on without interrupting until the first India

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CITY OF DAYTON.

ws through trading; then another took his place, and so on in rotation until a had traded. Each one carefully reserved enough to trade for whisky. Aer all their purchases were made, then came their drunken carouse at their cops. The squaws would often be sent over for whisky, sometimes keeping u the spree for weeks before starting back to the North.

Although not hostile. yet, being entirely unused to the ways of civilized li, they were often troublesome, and a great annoyance to the villagers; beks and squaws would walk through the cabins. prying into chests and boards, and, if not watched, would carry off anything that pleased them.

TITLES AND CHANGES OF PLAT.

The clearing at the quiet little hamlet on the Miami had been extended meet the necessities of new-comers to the settlement. Property had not ad- "¿ced in value at all; the difficulty about titles prevented the transfers of real ette, and was additional reason for settlers to go upon the farming lands und. Titles of the original purchasers of lots and lands were clouded by failure of Symmes to complete his purchase of the Government. Their "Its, however, were respected. St. Clair. Wilkinson, Dayton and Ludlow alndoned to the Government their claim and right to purchase, and assisted I settlers who had purchased of them, in getting their lands. Through Dan- eC. Cooper, who by pre-emption right, the consent of the settlers and friend- yegislation of Congress, became proprietor of the town plat all of the origi- 18 settlers, or their representatives, procured patents for their lands, and in- 10, paying the Government at the rate of $2 per acre, which with the fees, le the lots in town cost about $1 each.

As a part of the arrangement by which Mr. Cooper became titular proprie- ofof the town plat, a new plat was made, showing the location of each man's perty. A very large number of lots were te be given free, for churches, m ket space, county buildings, burying-grounds and a park. The plat was "e" materially changed; there were to be 381 inlots, each six poles wide by "wive poles long; and fifty-six outlots east of what is now Sears street. The tets were to be four poles wide, except Main and Main Cross streets, which Te to be six poles wide: the alleys were to be one pole wide. This plat was seuted by D. C. Cooper and Israel Ludlow, April 26, 1802, and the next day T duly recorded in the Hamilton County records at Cincinnati. At that i.e there was a large island in the river at the head of Main street, and three sinds in Mad River just above its mouth.

There was a spring in a grove near the corner of First and Wilkinson tets, but most of the families used river water. George Newcom sunk the II well at his tavern, and that old well-sweep was the first to swing in the d'ey.

THE OLD TAVERN.

Newcom's tavern was a place of note. Men who came up the valley to o; for lands stopped there for rest, as well as to inquire the way to the set- loents; families and movers all passed that corner. The tavern was a favor- teblace for the men to gather; all paths led there; and it was the one place v re the men could, in the winter, sit around the big log fire, smoke their ups, take their toddies and talk or listen to the tales of hunting adventures, rf the more thrilling events of experience in the Indian wars. They could I tell stories from experience, rich in incidents of pioneer times, With sc cely an exception, they told of friends or relatives who had been victims ofsavage barbarity and massacre. The whole period of their early history Wa crowded with the most daring adventures; their stories were the facts of

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

the times, and these men were the pioneer fathers of Dayton, whose descen( ants are now active and influential in the affairs of the city. Not a man ( them could be classed as an adventurer, laboring merely to provide for imm! diate wants; all were aiming to establish homes for their families, to accum late property, and were the influential men of the community.

Newcom, the landlord, was his own hostler, barkeeper, gardener and faro er; his log barn, with its racks and troughs, stood back from the road. Th was the fully equipped log tavern, almost in the wilderness, and there the pi neers gathered to talk over prospects and surroundings.

POPULATION REDUCED.

At the close of the winter of 1802-03, there were but five families jivir in the settlement; those of George Newcom, Samuel Thompson, John Wels Paul D. Butler and George Westfall.

William Newcom and William Van Cleve were farming; John Williams ha moved with his family on land that he had entered up Wolf Creek. The M Clures had gone to Miami County, and Thomas Arnett had moved away wit his family. One-third of the population of the town had abandoned their ca ins and had gone into the woods for permanent homes, leaving four vaca! cabins in Dayton.

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CITY OF DAYTON.

CHAPTER IL.

TE VILLAGE-INCORPORATED-CHANGES-FLOOD OF 1805-INDIAN GRAVES- FIRST NEWSPAPER-THE ACADEMY-FIRST BRICK RESIDENCE-BUSINESS IN 1808-THE DOCTORS-PUBLIC VENDUE-MAIL ROUTES-DIVORCE-TOWN ELEC- TION -- MANUFACTURES-FERRIES-THE TOWN PLATS-UNITED STATES PAT- ENTS TO COOPER-FOURTH OF JULY, 1809-ST. JOHN'S LODGE-BOATING UP THE MIAMI-A TRIP EAST-TEAMING-THE TOWN IN 1810-1811-MOB-CELE- BRATIONS-WAR OF 1812-MECHANICAL SOCIETY-REAL ESTATE.

" \HE cluster of cabins at Dayton, was but the center of a cluster of settle- ments ; the little hamlet in the backwoods could not present many points rurecommend it as the best location for the county seat.

One-half of the cabins were empty. Except on Water street, the whole pt was covered with bushes, weeds and vines, scrub oaks, wild cherry trees a l plum thickets. North of the river the dense forest reached to the river bik ; on the east the forest extended from the present location of the Hydrau- liaround to near the corner of Fifth and Wayne streets, and on down to the hls south of town.

Wild game was abundant. Wolves howled at night and panthers were vasionally killed.

| For many years there was no dwelling or clearing east of Mill street, except 0, a log cabin in the woods on the north side of where Third street now lies, b ween Beckel and Front streets.

THE VILLAGE.

The honor conferred upon the village in its selection as the county seat of t. newly formed county of Montgomery, was the opportunity to shake off its pmitive crossroad ways and assume the proper dignity, by making improve- unts to accommodate the court, its high officials and attending lawyers.

Benjamin Van Cleve's commission as Postmaster was issued in Washing- t, December 13, 1803, but was not received here until the next month, Jan- ury, 1804, so that it is probable that the post office was opened in the spring of 1)4.

The post office was opened at Mr. Van Cleve's cabin, at the southeast c ner of First and St. Clair streets, and Mr. Van Cleve was continued as Post- n ster until his death in 1821.

For some years the only mail received in Dayton was one that was carried post-rider, leaving Cincinnati once a week ; the route was up the Little Mami, through Lebanon and Xenia, up to Urbana, and then down through Iqua, Dayton and Hamilton to Cincinnati again. Thus a letter from Cincin- ri to Dayton went the round via Lebanon, Xenia, Urbana and Piqua before r ching here ; and a letter from Dayton to Piqua or Xenia, or one from Fanklin to Dayton. had to first go to Cincinnati and come around the circuit, rquiring a week to reach its destination.

The next mail route established was a weekly mail from Zanesville and t> east via Franklinton, Urbana and Piqua to Dayton. The next line was to al from the east via Chillicothe, and it was the principal channel of commu- Iration east for many years, and until a more direct route was established trough Columbus.

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Improvement began at once ; Main street was cleared of undergrowth and stumps nearly the entire length, the lower end being at the present junction with Warren street ; the gully crossing Main at Main Cross street, was filled with logs and covered with earth ; First street was partially graded from Lud low street, east to St. Clair.

The village school was opened in the fall by George Westfall, at his cabir on Main street ; the log jail was built that year.

Henry Brown and John Sutherland shortly after Wayne's treaty at Green ville became partners in business as "Indian traders," at Fort Hamilton where they kept a large stock of goods ; doing business under the firm. Dam of Brown & Sutherland. In the winter of 1798-99, Brown, with a portion of the goods, opened a branch store at Loramie, where he remained in charge until in 1804, when he built a frame storeroom in Dayton, on the east side of Main stree near Water street. It was the only store here at the time ; and there were bu two other shingle roofed houses in the village-Mr. Cooper's residence, south west corner First and Ludlow streets, and Newcom's tavern. The firm traded largely with the Indians, sending agents with goods to the Greenville, For Wayne and Wapakonetta towns. The firm was dissolved in June, 1812; Mr Brown continuing the business at his residence on Main street near the cour house until his death in 1823.

DAYTON INCORPORATED.

The town of Dayton was incorporated by act of the Legislature on th 12th day of February, 1805.

The act provided "that such part of the township of Dayton, in the count: of Montgomery, as is included within the following limits, that is to say : Be ginning on the bank of the Miami where the sectional line between the second and third sections, fifth township and seventh range intersects the same; thenc east with said line to the middle of section thirty-three, second township seventh range ; thence north two miles ; thence west to the Miami ; thenc down the same to the place of beginning, shall be, and the same is hereb. erected into a town, corporate, which shall henceforth be known and distin guished by the name of the town of Dayton." Seven Trustees, a Collector, Supervisor and a Town Marshal, were to be elected by the freeholders who had lived in the town six months. The Trustees so elected were to choose from thei own number, a President and Recorder, they were also to elect a Treasurer, wh was not required to be one of the Trustees.

The board thus organized was to be known as " The Select Council of th town of Dayton."

The first election under this act occurred on the first Monday of May, 1805

The terms of three of the Trustees were to expire in one year and thei place filled by election ; and elections were to be held annually after that.

Expenditures were to be authorized and voted at meetings of the free. holders and house-holders of the town. This section of the law was repealed in 1813-14.

The President of the "Select Council " was Mayor of the town. Meet ings of Council, for ten years, were held at the houses of the different mem bers; a fine of 25 cents was imposed upon members for being thirty min utes late.

The expenses of the town for the first year were $72, and the Council de termined to raise the money by taxation. A meeting of the voters was calle to settle the question; the vote stood thirteen for, and seventeen against ; th proposition was defeated. Streets were being cleared and opened up, and a but little fencing had been done on the farms around the town, and still les

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CITY OF DAYTON.

nhe town, all stock was running at large and became such a nuisance that in Setember, 1806, an ordinance was passed forbidding "the running of hogs ar other animals at large on the streets of the town." The operation of the or nance was afterward suspended until the spring of 1807.

CHANGES.

The first brick building erected in Dayton was "McCollum's tavern;" the cw-story brick built by Hugh McCollum, on the southwest corner of Second ar Main streets, in 1805. The County Commissioners contracted with him to the use of as much of his house, when completed, as would be needed for cling the courts. Under this arrangement, the place for holding the courts w changed from Newcom's tavern to McCollum's, for the fall term of 1805. T's building was used as a tavern until about 1870, when the floor was low- rl and other changes made to adapt the rooms to business. In 1880, tb building was torn down to give place to the new Firemen's Insurance B ck.

In March, 1805, the first great flood that had occurred since the settlement f he town, rushed like a mighty torrent down the Miami bottoms from the icth. The water rose rapidly, and swept over nearly the entire town plat, st 'ing for several days at flood height. Water covered the floors of houses I the west side of Main street, from First to Second. The people were patly alarmed; so much so that Mr. Cooper proposed to vacate the town plat, a lay out a new town upon the same plan on the high ground to the east- w d, pledging to every property holder a lot of the same size and in the same eltive situation as he then owned.

Owing to the opposition of two prominent citizens, who were unwilling to Undon their improvements, the plan was not adopted.

In 1806, D. C. Cooper and John Compton entered into partnership, built a he-story brick and began business on the northeast corner of First and Main „thets.

The same year, James Steele and Joseph Peirce built a two-story brick, ar began business on the southeast corner of the same street. The opening oithese stores brought business away from the river to the new trade center; edences were built down the west side of Main street as far as the alley n th of the court house, and for a square or two on First street, east and west oj Main.

Mr. Cooper had put up the " old saw-mill," on First street, near Sears, a soon afterward he erected a grist-mill at the head of Mill street. IJuly, 1809, he added a carding-machine to the latter establishment. These r ls on Mill street were burned in July, 1820, and were rebuilt by Mr. Coop- als executors.

When word was sent out that "meeting " was to be held, men and women wild come in ten miles or more, on horseback, to participate, and in sum- mr, the young people walked five or six miles to "meeting," carrying their sles - and stockings, if they had any -in their hands, going and coming, stoping a short distance from the " meeting " to put them on and primp up.

Skeletons of buried Indians have, at different times, been found in many pits of the town; around the corner of Water and Mill streets, at First al Beckel streets, over Mad River, near the forks of the old Troy road, in tj Fair Ground hill, in a knoll in Woodland Cemetery, at the north end of Edge street bridge, and at the west end of Third street bridge.

In cutting through a mound, at the east end of First street, in February, 1.1, to open the street to the Springfield pike, a skeleton was found, around t neck of which was a string of 170 copper beads, and in the grave were ao a number of very fine arrow and spear heads.

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The history of Montgomery county, Ohio, containing a history of the county, Part 60

Author: W.H. Beers & Co Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Chicago, W. H. Beers & co. Number of Pages: 1214

Author: W.H. Beers & Co
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago, W. H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 1214