USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Dayton > The story of Dayton > Part 6
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LOOKING OUT OF THE WINDOWS.
At Home on a Canal Boat.
saddle could not fail to be appreciated. An item from the "Centinel" announced the important fact that a "certain gentleman" had just arrived in Dayton from Philadelphia by way of Cincinnati, making the trip by boat and stage in only eight days. What further proof could have been needed by our co-citizens of the Thirties that Dayton was rapidly becoming cosmopolitan ?
The history of transportation shows that the vehicle precedes and is the cause of improved highways. In our
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Early Transportation
day it is the automobile which has wrought the astonishing transformation on state and county roads. In a greater degree (because of the greater necessity) did the stage coach, one hundred years ago, improve the thoroughfares. The logical step toward this end was taken in 1836, under an act passed by the legislature, authorizing state funds to be used for that purpose. The permission did not last long, being repealed in 1840, but during this interval Dayton had begun to build several fine turnpikes. The gravel under- lying the soil of our valley increased the facility of the project.
By 1838 Daytonians were able to travel in fourteen dif- ferent directions without having to be pried out of the mud. John W. Van Cleve ( the son of Benjamin) estimated that the cost of a graveled road would amount to $2,500 a mile and offered to pay twenty-five dollars on the first mile to- wards Cincinnati if other citizens would do the same. Early journalism did not keep up remarkably well with the prog- ress of local matters, therefore, all we know is that the road was built and still serves the public though no longer by means of stage coaches.
Dayton being encircled on three sides by the river, good bridges at once became a necessary element in the question of transportation. All transit north, west, and southwest had to be ferried, a method both cumbersome and expensive. Soon after the War of 1812, agitation for bridges began. and in 1819 the first wooden toll bridge was constructed to span the Miami at Bridge Street ( now Stratford Avenue ). A leaning pole like a well-sweep, blocked the entrance, at
which stood the keeper in charge. For a loaded wagon and a team he demanded twelve and one-half cents; for an empty wagon, six and one-quarter cents; for a man on horseback, three cents. In 1835, Dayton made connection with the north bank, then called McPhersontown, by a sim- ilar bridge, the lumber for which had been brought from Pittsburgh. The old Third Street bridge was completed and opened in 1840.
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These covered bridges were a welcome protection from the weather, but they had certain disadvantages. A lighting system was not deemed necessary, therefore, even on moon- light nights, the interior was as black as Erebus. Driving in from the white expanse of road, it was like entering an impenetrable hole in which one feared more than anything else to hear the tramp of another horse. At the approach of this unseen fellow traveler, each driver called out, "Keep to the right," as loudly as he could, to be heard above the noise of eight, or perhaps sixteen, hoofs on the board floor. The sides of these old bridges were always deeply scarred with the wheel marks of drivers trying to keep out of each other's way.
As time passed, the care of the toll bridges was assumed by the country ; later the bridges themselves were replaced by steel truss structures, and they in turn by the concrete arches which now span the current of the Miami.
As we read old letters and newspapers, we are impressed with the fact that Dayton, in the first half of the century, was nothing more than a big, sociable family. Much visit- ing was kept up between the large town and the surrounding villages. Horseback parties were made up to go to Xenia, Troy, Bear's Creek or Middletown ; in return came country friends to see the improvements in Dayton and to be royally entertained while doing so.
Almost any occasion served as a merry-making. The Fourth of July was a good one, uniting as it did, patriotism, neighborliness and fun. The celebration was always in the hands of a committee who seemed able to bring into the program everybody of any importance in Dayton. People came in from all directions prepared to spend several days. If the date came on or near Sunday, a sermon by Doctor Welsh, of the First Presbyterian Church, opened the com- memoration. By this time Dayton had become the proud possessor of a militia company and a brass band, without which no Fourth can be properly celebrated, and they, head- ing the procession, marched the length of Main Street,
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Early Transportation
pausing at the courthouse lot where, we are told, there was a bower under which the exercises were held. It was the custom to select one prominent citizen to read the Declaration of Independence, at that time a comparatively modern document; another to make the oration of the day. The latter was sure to be full of striking phrases about our
DIED,
In tins place, on Sunday'last, at the age of 82 years, Mrs. CATHARINE THOMPSON, formerly Mrs. Catharine Van Cleve, mother of the late Ben- jamin and William Van Cleve. She was the first female resident of this town and county, to which place she came on the 1st of April, 1796. She was also, one of the earliest inhabitants of Cincinnati, having come to that place before its name was changed from Losantiville, when two small hewed-log houses and a few log cabins constituted the whole town, Her first husband, John Van Cleve, to whom she was was married by the Rev. William Tennant, of Mohmouth county, N. J. was killed by the In-' dians, on the first day of June 1791, within the present corporate limits of Cincinnati. Her second husband, Samuel Thompson, was drowned in Mad River near this place, about twenty years since. She was the moth- er of thirteen children and her grand children have numbered eighty- seven, and her great grand children upwards of ninety. She was a wor- thy member of the Methodist church for the last twenty years of her life and died in Christian resignation.
Dayton, August 8, 1837.
Death Notice of Mrs. Catherine Thompson. Original in the possession of her great, great granddaughter, Mrs. Mabel Brown Martin.
duty to our country, and upon its conclusion all sat down to an open air banquet. At the 1815 celebration, the young ladies of Dayton were, for the first time, invited to join in the procession and the dinner which followed. One hun- dred people were seated at the long table. Washington's farewell address was read by Benjamin Van Cleve, and the day ended with a dance at McCullom's Tavern.
One year, during a particularly heated Presidential cam- paign, party feeling ran so high that the citizens found it
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impossible to express their patriotism unitedly, but held two dinners under two bowers, with two bands of music and with toasts particularly designed to flout the opposite camp. In 1822, new features were introduced to honor "the day we celebrate." Sunrise was welcomed in by the booming of a cannon on the river bank, church bells were rung, homes decorated, and from the tall pole at the courthouse, a noble flag rippled in the breeze. The militia rejoiced in gay, new
JUMP! JUMP !
uniforms consisting of yellow coats with green collars and cuffs, white trousers, and red leggings. The rifle men wore blue coats trimmed with white cord, and white trousers. This gay escort preceded the carriages in which rode four honored Revolutionary soldiers, Robert Patterson, Simeon Broadwell, Richard Bacon, and Isaac Spining. At the dinner which followed, the old gentlemen answered the toast, "To the heroes of the Revolution, who fell to secure
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Early Transportation
the blessings of the day to us. May their children so main- tain them that America may be a republic of Christians to the last day."
Comparing this dignified and touching celebration with those that came later (pandemoniums of racking noise and deadly explosives) it seems both sane and sensible. To keep before the minds of the people, old and young, the ideals
Fun on a Flat Boat.
upon which our nation is founded, is surely more patriotic than to shoot off one's thumb with a toy pistol. Boys of that day grew up learning anew every summer, the prin- ciples which make the United States different from all other nations, also, moreover, learning from the very enthusiasm of their fathers, what their own share in local and national responsibility was bound to be.
At this same 1822 celebration, we find a notable toast offered by Judge Steele, "The contemplated canal, from the waters of Mad River to those of the Ohio." This appears
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to be the first public mention of that famous waterway which bore so large a part in the development of south- western Ohio. The previous year a meeting in which Judge Crane was the moving figure, had been held at Reid's tavern to consider ways and means in favor of a canal to connect Dayton with Cincinnati. Other towns were having meetings to the same purpose, and Dayton was not accus- tomed to lag behind. Transportation of freight by river was becoming ruinously difficult by reason of mill dams, fish weirs, and the uneven stages of the water. Less and less could merchants count on the upstream cargo. It was calculated that enough merchandise was lost every year in the river to pay one-sixth of the cost of a canal. To have a whole boat load of merchandise wrecked in the rapids, dis- couraged profits. Hauling by wagon increased the cost pro- hibitively. What was needed was a waterway, safe from freshets as from low water, and in which there were no obstructions.
The last keel-boat disappeared from the Miami in 1828; the spring flood of that year obligingly removed the un- sightly and then useless warehouse from the head of Wil- kinson Street, and water traffic on the Miami River came to an end.
At that time our canal still lingered in the paper stage, Newark was already celebrating the completion of hers between Cleveland and Pittsburgh. Among the prominent people invited to do honor to the new enterprise was Gov- ernor Dewitt Clinton, of New York, who had been a per- sistent canal agitator for many years. His presence in Ohio seemed a good opportunity to advance a similar project in Dayton, therefore a committee of our citizens, led by Judge Steele, waited upon the governor at Newark and invited him to be the guest of the community. He accepted and was met about five miles out on the Springfield pike and escorted to town. Accompanying him were Governor Morrow of Ohio, both official staffs, and the Canal Commissioners. At Compton's Tavern, on the corner of Main and Second
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Early Transportation
streets, Judge Crane made an address of welcome, and all dined. That night, from the porch of Judge Steele's home (First and Main), Governor Clinton told Daytonians what might be expected of a canal in the interests of commerce. His oratory was so convincing that all doubts vanished and the canal became a certainty.
ste terms. Dayton, Feb. 17, 1829.
COACH MAKING.
'THE subscriber very respectfully suforma the citizens of Daytou and the surrounding country, that he still continues to carry on the COACH MAKING business in allits various branches on Main Cross street one door west of the jail. Ho will make Coaches; Barouches, Gigs, and Dear- horas, of the newest fashion or according to or- der on reasonable terios ; those who may favor with their cuatem may depend on having their work according to their order. SAMUEL DOLLEY. Dayton, July 4, 1828. N. B. Stage contractors can be accommoda. ted with Post Coaches ade of the best maten- als and in the newest fa nion.
Ifany person should want further information they can inquire of Timothy Squier, stage own- er aod contractor in Dayton.
Nineteenth Century advertising in Dayton Papers.
It was commenced in 1825, finished in 1829, and cost five hundred and seventy thousand dollars. With the open- ing of the canal, trade instantly answered to the oppor- tunity ; freight increased, passenger lists filled rapidly, and more people came to Dayton than ever before. It was a glorious chance to say "I told you so" to the doubting
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Thomases who had called the plan "a ruinous and useless expenditure."
This increase in commerce made it necessary to con- struct at Second Street, a canal basin capable of accommo- dating a number of freight boats while loading and unload- ing cargoes. The building of the first canal boat proved an event of great importance. It was nanied the "Alpha" and was launched on August 26, 1829, near Fifth Street. Al- though at that time the canal lacked completion, a dam was erected at the Bluffs, the section between there and town was filled from the mill race, and trial trips made each day until every man, woman, and child in Dayton had enjoyed a ride.
January, 1829, saw the first boat, which was named the "Governor Brown," arrive from Cincinnati and tie up at the head of the Basin. Later in the day the "Forrer," the "General Martin," and the "General Pike" followed, and came to a pause by her side. Crowds had assembled at the landing place and greeted the arrival of each boat with cheers and the firing of cannon. Captain Archibald of the "Governor Brown" invited the sightseers aboard, proud to exhibit the handsomely equipped boat of which he was mas- ter. In the evening the new area of prosperity for Dayton was celebrated by a banquet at the National Hotel, and speeches were made which were more sincere than such efforts generally are.
It was indeed a notable advance in our history. If for nothing else, the privilege of spending only twenty-four hours on the journey to Cincinnati was worth a speech or two. It was a great thing for a Dayton boy to remember. being put to bed on one of the shelves along the side of the long saloon, to feel the boat move from the wharf at the Second Street bridge, to wake up the next morning at Ham- ilton, and the day after at Cincinnati.
The busy gayety of canal traffic will hardly be believed .. An old diary tells us that during the month of April, 1830, seventy boats left the wharves at Dayton, and seventy-one
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Early Transportation
arrived. They carried, together, nine hundred and eighty- six passengers. The "Journal" stated in 1832, that not less than a thousand persons a week traveled on the canal.
Canal travel has been described, and we may well be- lieve it, as a pleasant means of conveyance. The sides of the boat were open, and while eating dinner one could watch the green banks slip by. Sitting on deck in the moonlight was wonderful, the horses' bells tinkling in the darkness far ahead. Gay times, too, at every landing, when crowds came to see the boat tie up and unload. In these fine, clean vessels, drawn by ribbon-trimmed horses, each commanded by a popular and cordial captain, travelers thought they had reached the last degree of rapid transit.
The commercial advantages of the canal will be seen at a glance. More than fifty grist mills lined the banks of the Miami between Dayton and Franklin, each with a yearly output of two thousand barrels of flour, as well as one hun- dred distilleries sending out hundreds of kegs of whisky each. Thousands of pounds of pork and other produce were sent to market. no longer in two-horse wagons, but in the spacious holds of canal boats.
And how much nearer Dayton was to the East after the opening of the canal! Merchandise sent from New York by the Erie Canal came thence by lake to Cleveland, down the Ohio Canal to Cincinnati, then by Ohio River and Mi- ami Canal to Dayton, a distance of eleven hundred and fifty-two miles, covered in twenty days at a cost of only seventeen dollars a ton. No more need for Dayton ladies to wait six months for spring styles! Godey's Ladies' Book, the leading fashion magazine of the day, came out to Ohio not more than six weeks after publication.
If, with your present knowledge of United States history, you could be transported back to Dayton in 1832, you would notice certain things, not unusual then, but mighty signif- icant in their relation to what came after. There appeared frequently in the daily papers of that day a cut of a negro with a bundle under his arm and some such caption as this :
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The Story of Dayton
"FIFTY DOLLARS REWARD." "A likely nigger named Joe, five feet high, weighs 130 pounds. Return to," etc., etc.
Such an advertisement was seen too frequently to cause much comment, but when, one day, armed men came to town and arrested on Main Street an inoffensive colored man known as "Black Ben," who had lived here two years, quietly earning his living and minding his own business, the meaning of the Fugitive Slave Law broke upon the pub- lic mind. It was as if Dayton had suddenly put on glasses and saw what it had been blind to before.
Effort was made to buy Ben from his owner, but the offer was refused. He was taken to Cincinnati, and during the night, in distraction and despair, he leaped from a fourth-story window and was killed. Then and there the spirit of Abolitionism, in Dayton at least, was born. Agita- tors spoke on street corners. Fervent sermons were preached in behalf of human rights, but to some minds, and a good many of them, the question was merely one of property rights, and bitter differences of opinion arose. Dayton's "underground station" was situated on Jefferson Street between Third and Second, which meant that Doctor Jewett allowed poor, hunted negroes to hide in his barn, and gave them help to go farther north; a direct violation of the law which required a man to assist officers in the arrest of runaway slaves. That in pursuing this merciful course Doctor Jewett perhaps risked his life was proven some years later when, for so small an offense against pub- lic opinion as the entertainment as guest, of a lecturer on abolition, his house was invaded, windows broken, and furniture smeared with mud and rotten eggs.
Newspaper advertisements sometimes reveal more than is realized, as, for example, notice of reward for a runaway slave appeared in the adjoining column to one containing a notice of the first meeting of the Dayton Abolition Society. It was assembled by the president, Luther Bruen, and met at the home of Peter P. Lowe on South Main Street.
CHAPTER X. 1820-1849.
Municipal Improvements.
Concerning engines in general. The first Fire Department. "Start her lively, boys!" A railroad misses Dayton and then comes to stay. Other things of interest, not improvements.
The same year which saw the establishment of the canal brought about the organization of a Fire Depart- ment. The first serious warning Dayton received on the subject of fire risk was in June, 1820, when Cooper's mills burned to the ground, consuming two thousand pounds of wool and four thousand bushels of wheat. As a result of this public calamity, Council ordered that each citizen should provide two long leather buckets with his name painted on them, the same to be kept in an accessible place on his own premises. Ladders purchased by public funds were hung in the market house on Second Street. An alarm of fire brought out every householder, buckets in hand, who posted in hot haste to the conflagration. Women worked, too, and boys. Double lines of hands were formed from the nearest pump to the burning building, one line passing on the full buckets, the other passing back the empty ones.
The method was not as efficient as it might have been, for, in 1824, when two stores on Main Street were destroyed with a stock worth fully a thousand dollars, the ladders could not be found, and the delay was disastrous. After this lesson, Council imposed a penalty of ten dollars for removing the ladders from their places, and then decided to have a fire engine. One was immediately ordered from Philadelphia, to cost two hundred and twenty-six dollars, but it was two years before it arrived in Dayton, and in the meantime fires went on unchecked. When at last the
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The Story of Dayton
"Safety" was installed, with its "suction hose," "gallery brakes." and all the latest improvements. it was a proud possession to Dayton.
Upon the arrival and installation of the fire engine, the first volunteer Fire Company was organized with a hook- and ladder company and a Board of Fire Wardens, the lat- ter to see that the buckets were kept in good order, and that the boys did not carry off the ladders. At the same time eighty-eight new buckets were provided, together with five hundred feet of hose. It was a great advance in efficiency, when, instead of filling buckets at the pump and throwing the water directly on the fire, it was poured into the reser- voir of the engine. and from there forced through the hose by turning a crank. If, as once happened, the volunteers forgot to empty the tank after a fire, the next conflagration found the engine frozen solid and no hope for the property.
Men who are now living recall those experiences of fire-fighting, and never tire talking of the time when they "ran with the engine." Nothing except the Civil War sets their tongues to wagging so delightedly. Church bells were rung, they tell us, to call people to the fire, and the sexton first heard from got a dollar. Wakened in the mid- dle of the night by the bell of the First Presbyterian Church, there was no use pretending you did not hear and trying to go to sleep again. If you belonged to a fire brigade, your place was not in bed, but at the engine rope, and you knew it. Hurry you must, dress with stiff fingers by the light of a candle, and dash down the street to meet other volunteers on their way to the engine house.
Once there, what hurry and excitement! The big doors were thrown open, twenty willing hands grasped the rope, and with a "Start her lively, boys," the engine went rolling off toward the burning house. At the scene of disaster, the workers were divided into squads, some filling the engine, others working on the brakes. Then, if no buckets had been lost, if the ladders had been left where they belonged, and
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Municipal Improvements
the tank not frozen, the fire company extinguished the fire or at least succeeded in protecting the neighbors' houses.
The time came, and soon, too, when the increasing num- ber of frame dwellings made a better engine imperative, and in 1833, the "Independent" was purchased, the old "Safety"
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"Start Her Lively, Boys."
being relegated to the scrap-heap. The new machine was a hand engine also, steam engines being as yet unthought of. It carried two sets of handles, which, when manned by the volunteers, twenty to a side, both on the upper and lower row, threw quite a forcible stream of water. It was the
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The Story of Dayton
"Independent" which did such good service at the Turner Opera House fire in 1869, a disaster which resulted in a reorganization of fire fighting in Dayton. The old way of depending on the town pump or the canal was also aban- doned and generous cisterns constructed at First and Main, Third and Main, and Fifth and Main streets.
The rolls of the early fire companies included most of the leading citizens. It resembled, in a way, military serv- ice; each member had his place and a number at the en- gine, involving his prompt appearance when the alarm rang. On the roster of one company we find the names of Val- entine Winters, James Perrine, Thomas Brown, William P. Huffman, J. D. Loomis, Jacob Wilt-all leading and influ- ential citizens, and never more so than when, shoulder to shoulder, with up-stretched arms one minute and down- bended back the next, they worked to protect their neigh- bors' homes and their own from loss.
As Dayton grew in extent, other engines were bought and new companies organized. Improved types came in. The "Independent" was called a "double-decker," in allu- sion to the two banks of brakes; the "Vigilance," the "Del- uge," and the "Neptune" were of the "haywagon" type.
Sometime during the fifties the companies changed in personnel. The solid citizens took to lying abed and letting the boys about town fight fires, with the result that demoral- ization set in which put an end to the volunteer system. It was competition which ruined them. Not satisfied with try- ing by fair means to be first at a fire, the companies put in all their efforts to keep their rivals away. Obstructions were placed in front of the engines, stones thrown, ropes and hose cut. Democrats were careful to all enroll in the same company, and Whigs in an opposite one, which in- sured neither efficiency nor pleasant relations. Free-for-all fights took place frequently, and at every fire either a vol- unteer or a bystander got a black eye, casualties which had nothing to do with the fire. It will not be found surprising that in time there came to be something that Daytonians
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dreaded worse than a fire, and that was the Fire Depart- ment.
In 1863, the first steam fire engine was purchased and used with the "Independent" until time and money justified a complete change. A "part-pay system" replaced the in- tolerable tricks of the volunteers, and was the beginning of
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