USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Dayton > The story of Dayton > Part 7
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
GLERIE
Burning of Turner's Opera House, Volunteer Fire Department, and the Old "Independent." (Site of Victoria Thcatre.)
expert control in fire-fighting. As late as 1880 we still had an auxiliary of "call men," known as a "mixed depart- ment," and not until some years later did we own an expert fire department on a full pay basis.
From fire engines to locomotives is not so long a step. and one followed quickly upon the other, so rapidly do the
96
The Story of Dayton
needs of transportation increase. The first railroad to be projected in Ohio was the "Mad River and Lake Erie." Dayton heard of the enterprise but was not impressed. A subscription book was opened, and a few names obtained. but it was subsequently lost. The construction of the road began at Sandusky and was completed as far as Springfield when funds ran out, and the southern half of the road re- mained unbuilt. While we were reflecting on this situation, Cincinnati built a road to Xenia, and Xenia, waking up, connected with Springfield, and there was Dayton, left high and dry, fifteen miles from a railroad !
In November, 1846, this humiliating situation was under discussion in a meeting at the City Hall. Speeches were made on both sides of the question. Some ( the record does not say who, but we venture it was the citizen who had mis- laid the subscription book) did not think the situation was humiliating. It was all very well, he said, for Xenia and Springfield to want a railroad; they needed it, we didn't. We had the canal and when one could reach Cincinnati in a single day, what possible need to get around any faster than that? Another speaker reminded the meeting that loco- motives were frightful things-noisy monsters-pouring black smoke over the landscape and going at such speed as would make them run over anything that got in their way. from a pig to a stock-holder. Boilers, too, had been known to explode and kill people: in short, the less we had to do with such new-fangled contrivances, the better.
There were citizens, however, at that meeting, who had faith in the new transportation and foresaw what it would mean to Dayton. Daniel Beckel and T. J. S. Smith made strong speeches in its favor. Somebody read a character- istic letter from Charles Anderson, in which he wondered why the "Granny Rip Van Winkles" did not get out an in- junction against trespass by the railroads that were trying to get through Montgomery County. Dayton had a vested right, he went on to say, in all obsolete things and usages :
97
Municipal Improvements
other people might "go as fast, as cheaply, as noisily as they chose, without disturbing our pleasant and drowsy repose."
Whether it was the eloquence or the sarcasm that won a railroad for Dayton, we do not know, but to shorten the story, the Springfield branch of the Miami River and Lake Erie was begun within the year and finished in 1849. As it approached completion it was thought best to begin track laying at this end of the line, therefore, a work engine was run over the Little Miami tracks to Xenia, there taken apart and hauled to Dayton by wagon. It was set up on temporary tracks at Webster Street, every boy in town assisting in the supervision. Twenty-five barrels of water were carried by those enterprising youngsters to fill the tank. Fires were lighted under the boiler, steam began to hiss, and the boys backed abruptly away. Suddenly the engineer opened the valve of the whistle letting out a shrill scream, heard then for the first time in the Miami Valley. The curiosity of the boys was more than satisfied. As if pulled by the same string that worked the whistle, they van- ished down First Street and never stopped until they reached a safe refuge.
The spring of 1851 saw the road in complete working order, and in June excursions were run between Dayton and Springfield. The Dayton and Western road to Richmond was built the same year by Valentine Winters. Within three years the Cincinnati, Hamilton, and Dayton, the Greenville and Miami, and the Dayton and Union were all constructed, and we had at last achieved the dignity of a railroad center.
In 1833, there occurred a wonderful display of meteors lasting from one in the morning until three. People talked of it for the next twenty-five years, how the sky glittered with millions of stars blazing out from the black sky and then vanishing, crossing each other's paths like the bursting of a rocket, and filling the onlookers with admiration.
From 1830 to 1845, many municipal improvements were accomplished in Dayton. In 1830 Steele's dam was built
An early Railroad Train (1830).
99
Municipal Improvements
and a race run through what is now Riverdale to serve two large mills owned by Samuel Tate, on the river bank. All have now disappeared, and the new race has been converted into a boulevard. In 1836 several streets were curbed, graded, and graveled, wharves built on the canal and the channel of Mad River straightened and protected by levees.
The same year David Zeigler Cooper donated the pro- ceeds from the lease of three lots to beautify and keep in repair the public park which had been given in 1808 to the city by his father, D. C. Cooper, "to be a public walk forever." With this fund the ground bounded by Third, Second, St. Clair and the canal was filled, enclosed with an iron fence, a good top soil added, and young saplings of elm and maple set out. "A fair beginning," he wrote, "for a work which promises to be a credit as well as an ornament to the town." Was he right? When you go to the Public Library for a new book you walk under the shade of those saplings, now eighty years in growth.
In 1836, Cooper Hydraulic was constructed, a waterway fifty feet wide, running between Third and Fifth streets, and giving service to a dozen or more large mills and fac- tories on its bank. In 1841 was the beginning of Wood- land Cemetery and the new (now old) courthouse.
In 1833, the Cincinnati canal packet brought up a load of passengers that Dayton could just as well have done with- out. All were suffering from some digestive disorder, and one had died on the way. The twenty-five afflicted people were taken to one house and into one room, in complete ignorance of the first necessity in infectious diseases-segre- gation. Since there was no Board of Health to safeguard the citizens, a doctor and two nurses volunteered to care for the patients. In two days both nurses were dead of the same disease, and the doctor severely stricken. Each day saw one or two of the original party carried to the graveyard on Fifth Street, and it became quite plain that the mysterious sickness which had crept into Dayton was nothing less than the dreaded cholera. People became panic-
100
The Story of Dayton
stricken and many hurried away from town, an instance of "out of the frying pan into the fire," for the cholera was by that time everywhere. Thirty-three fatal cases was the inventory in Dayton for that summer.
In 1849, the epidemic again appeared and with greater intensity, four funerals a day being the average during June and July. Many stories were told of the dreadful sudden- ness of the illness, people quite well at breakfast time, des- perately ill at noon, and dead before the sun set. Doctor
The old Third Street Bridge.
Drake, of Cincinnati, published a letter in which he warned citizens against undue exposure to the sun and over-indul- gence in fruit. Above all, he advised them not to worry, but the well-meant attempt to restore public confidence did little good. People were frantic with terror, as well they might be with a death list of two hundred and sixteen out of a small village in one short summer.
With the characteristic point of view of that day, they laid on the Lord the blame that should have been carried by shoulders right here in Dayton. A proclamation issued
101
Municipal Improvements
by the mayor set apart a day for fasting and prayer. The opening sentence, on the first page of the "Journal" read, "Whereas, it has pleased Almighty God to afflict our beloved country by sending the pestilence among us," etc. They · had not learned that a "Clean Up Day" should proceed a "Prayer Day," and that it is irreverent to use the Almighty as a scape-goat for the sanitary sins which they were too ignorant to correct.
Nothing marks the progress of the world toward light and freedom more than the successful warfare against dis- ease. In early years, nation after nation was swept with dreadful scourges that took more lives than all the battles of history. Cholera, the plague, typhoid, and the smallpox have mowed the ranks of humanity like avenging furies and filled the graveyards. It no longer happens. Men have learned how to prevent it. They have also, perhaps, learned better how to pray.
CHAPTER XI. 1820-1850.
Public Education.
The town and the state awaken to their needs. Dayton's first schools. The Academy, the Seminary, and the High School. A procession and a graduation. Development of the Public Library. Going to market in 1822 and 1915. Our classic Courthouse.
Dayton's very first school, as we have seen, was taught by Benjamin Van Cleve, at one time in the blockhouse and another in Newcom's Tavern. His services lasted front 1796 to 1804.
The first building to be devoted exclusively to school purposes was the Dayton Academy, built in 1807 by public subscriptions on ground presented by D. C. Cooper. In- corporated under an act of legislature, with sixty-eight shareholders at five dollars each, the school was housed in a building which stood on the west side of St. Clair Street between Second and Third. The incorporators were pro- gressive men, interested in boys and books, and ambitious for high standards.
The following quaint announcement appeared in one of the papers of the year 1810:
"Pupils entered at the Academy will be taught to spell, to read deliberately and agreeably to the rules laid down in Walker's dictionary. They will be made conversant with the rules of grammar and will be required to give a com- plete analysis of the words as they proceed."
The discipline of the school extended much beyond the walls. A boy caught playing ball on Sunday or taking a walk across the river, lost all his badges of merit. The offense repeated, he was "read out of school." The Acad- emy was a boys' school and a pay school. Entirely free
102
103
Public Education
instruction was not yet even suggested, and girls did not count particularly. In several small private schools they were taught after a fashion, but in the beginning all the money, equipment, and efforts of the fathers went into the Academy. It was the pride of Dayton.
. .
€
The old Academy. 1833-1857.
The newest principle of education at that day was known as the "Lancasterian" or mutual instruction system. When it was imported into this country from England, where it was making a great stir, Dayton was one of the first centers to put it into practice. Teaching was done
104
The Story of Dayton
from cards on the wall, the pupils reciting in concert, led by a monitor, which post was bestowed as a reward for high rank and good conduct. The new method was said to arouse personal ambition and make it possible for one teacher to direct five hundred pupils. The younger children learned their alphabet by tracing it in sand on a table, with a pointed stick.
Therefore, we may see that thus early in its career, Dayton was pedagogically quite up to date. The Lancas- terian system long ago went into the museum of educational curiosities, but the spirit of self-government and the student- teacher plan still survive. In 1833, as the Academy had out- grown its quarters, ground was purchased on the southwest corner of Fourth and Wilkinson, upon which a new building was erected, and the next year the school came under the leadership of that past-master in the art of teaching, F. E. Barney.
From 1835 to 1838, throughout the country, there arose a widespread and universal interest in public education, almost as fervent as a religious revival. Conventions were held in every part of the state and interest grew and spread. The conviction that not some children, but all children, regardless of the parents' resources, deserved an education, arose at that time. It belonged among the principles of democracy, and Dayton's appreciation of that fact resulted in a convention held in 1836, to which delegates came from Cincinnati and the smaller towns, and whose leader was the man whose name on the outside of school readers after- wards became as familiar to all school children as their own-W. H. McGuffey. John Van Cleve was a warm sup- porter of the plan and a moving spirit in the convention.
One result of the interest aroused was the proposal to take advantage of the provision of the State government and inaugurate in Dayton a public school system. Three rooms were therefore opened for class instruction, and in three years' time the accommodation had to be increased to two entire buildings. When later, the High School was
105
Public Education
organized, it found its first home in the Academy building until 1850, when the Central High School was erected on Fourth and Wilkinson; that, in turn, giving away in 1893 to the Central District School, as it now appears.
Until 1842, the interests of the schools were under the control of a Board of Directors; from 1842 of the City
Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846. Cooper Female Seminary.
Council; since that time of a Board of Education. The growth of our schools has been remarkable. In 1842 there were eight hundred and twenty-seven pupils, sixteen teach- ers, and a fund of twenty-four hundred dollars. In 1895, there were eleven thousand pupils, three hundred and ten teachers, and a fund of $314,878; at the present year of 1917, there are over nineteen thousand pupils, five hundred and thirty teachers, thirty-nine school buildings, with equip- ment valued at $2,978,209.
A copy of the "Dayton Journal" sixty years old will re- produce for our benefit, Commencement Day as it was then conducted. What it described as "the most beautiful and exhilarating scene witnessed in our streets for years" was a
106
The Story of Dayton
high-school graduation procession. Forming at the corner of Third and Main streets, the end was still at that spot when the foremost marchers had reached the woods of Steele's Hill (Dayton View). At the head walked the City Council and Board of Education, followed by the graduation class in white dresses and sunbonnets, they in turn by pupils of
4
The old Central High School, southwest corner Fourth and Wilkinson.
the high school and district schools, each displaying a ban- ner, and last, a company of fathers and mothers, proud to take part in their children's celebration. Twenty-five hun- dred people and two bands of music made up that pro- cession and there, in the shady grove, across the river, they listened to essays on "Hope" and "Friendship" and "Spring." Following the exercises, a picnic dinner was en- joyed, and the Board of Education and the City Council
Public Education 107
made eloquent speeches. It was all very inspiring. There can be no doubt of it because, just forty years afterward, at a meeting of the Alumni Association in the new Steele High School, one of the girls* of that class of '54 read her graduation essay for the second time, and told us about it.
Lubiary of the Dayton Library Association which was consolidated in 1860 with the School Library to form the present Public Library. The above picture is taken from a woodcut published in the Daily Gazette, May 27. 1854, and recently presented to the Dayton Public Library by Miss Helen Pearson.
Extract from letter of Dr. J. C. Reeve, Sr., dated, October., 1854.
"The Phillips Building is a fine block; I don't think it has its equal in Cleveland. Right across the hall from our office is the Library Room. I think I shall subscribe immediately ; it is $5.00 per year and six payments entitle one to a life ticket. Some thirty-eight papers are on file, among them the Cleveland Herald and Plain Dealer, but the Cleveland mail arrives very irregular, last Tuesday's papers are just here! (This was written on Fri- day.) They have a good supply of books, among them Miss Pardoe's Court of Louis XIV."
This building was situated at the southeast corner of Main and Second streets.
No other building is more interwoven with the memo- ries of many older women in Dayton than Cooper Seminary. Having provided for the training of boys, D. C. Cooper gave thought to the needs of girls. Half a town block on the corner of First and Wilkinson streets was donated by
* Miss Joan Rench.
1
108
The Story of Dayton
him for that purpose. It was opened in 1845 under the principalship of E. E. Barney, whose success in the Acad- emy had brought him high esteem and reputation. For thirty years every parent who desired the best training for his daughter, sent her to Cooper Seminary. It gave the kind of education for which, up to that time, Eastern schools alone had provided -- literature, art, music, composition, classics, and history. The reputation of the Seminary was not diminished under subsequent leadership, and grate- ful acknowledgment is still given to the work of Mrs. Gal- loway, Miss Haight, Mrs. Bennett, Mrs. Bartlett, and Pro- fessor Robert.
Years had rolled by since Dayton people were obliged to pay a two-cent fine for a drop of tallow on a library book, but the love of reading had been growing all the time. After many vicissitudes relating to small appropriations and changes of quarters, the Dayton Library Association, formed in 1845, put things on a more substantial basis. A large room was rented in the Phillips Building, on the south- east corner of Main and Second, new books bought and periodicals subscribed for. This library, described as being "elegantly and handsomely furnished, second to none in Ohio," possessed Corinthian columns, wrought bronze book- shelves, gilt chandeliers, globes, reading tables, and chairs. W. H. Butterfield was the first librarian and Mrs. Hiley Davies his successor.
Modern library methods were, of course, unknown. There was no catalogue, no reference department, no chil- dren's room. The books were kept behind wire doors like burglar-proof basement windows; you could not see the titles well, and were allowed under no circumstances to handle them. The librarian sat at a desk behind a grating, absorbed in her knitting. When you had made an experi- mental choice from the back of a book, she came with a bunch of keys and unlocked the shelf. If what you took to be a good story turned out only a religious work, you were obliged to take it and go. No more attention for you that day. Asked whether the library contained anything
109
Public Education
on Russia, you were apt to hear, "I don't know; just look around."
This was not neglect of duty, it was all that the trustees and the public demanded, and that library, in spite of its failing to be ahead of its time, did good service to the reading public of Dayton. Many a young boy got his first love of travel and biography from these shelves in the Phil- lips Building.
In subsequent years the library occupied other homes- the United Brethren Building, the City Hall, and the Cen- tral High School. Its present quarters were taken posses- sion of in 1888. You have but to enter the doors of our library under the spreading elms in Cooper Park, to feel how far it has progressed during these years, in practical service to the community. If an interurban high-school de- bate is on and you are appointed to support the weight of argument against another city, you will find that the library has anticipated your needs and placed in an alcove the books that will help you most. The staff keeps watch of the vary- ing interests in all parts of the city, and offers readers the best that the shelves afford. Bulletins direct the student's attention to timely articles in the reviews. In one place there are segregated volumes bearing upon the war; in an- other those called for by the current program of a literary club ; in a third the information most interesting to a mis- sion study class.
In April the special shelves blossom out with books on birds and wild flowers, garden culture, and house-planning. In June, the attention of high-school graduates is directed to the claims of the different colleges with attractive views of buildings and grounds. Lists of new books on mechanics are issued at intervals to the various factories, stimulating the workingman to a better grasp of his trade. Traveling and school libraries come in, are listed, and go out on their never-ceasing journeys from one locality to another.
In these and many other ways our library serves the pub- lic, and instead of expecting the people to come to the books, tries in a thousand ways to take the books to the people. It
110
The Story of Dayton
exists, not only as a deep spring of refreshment and delight to lovers of reading, but as a tool-house for the use of workers, both manual and mental, in every rank of life. It has become a part of our great system of public education, but, unlike the school, belongs to the needs of the com- munity as a whole, children, parents, our foreign-born cit- izens, workers, research students, clubs, churches, and com- munity workers.
The memory of the men, so many there were, who have served in the interests of the public library, should be kept green. For them, it was no personal concern, but a labor of love, and filled many busy hours. Among them in the beginning were Benjamin Van Cleve, John Folkerth, Dr. John Elliott, D. C. Cooper : later Valentine Winters, Dr. John Steele, Robert W. Steele, John G. Lowe, E. Thresher, Daniel Beckel, Luther Bruen, Wilbur Conover, Lewis B. Gunckel, Henry L. Brown, Robert C. Schenck.
Whether because of the healthy appetites of Daytonians or the warm richness of Miami Valley fields-perhaps both -our markets have always been good. The movement be- gan in 1813, when a meeting was held to consider needs of housekeepers, and two years later in a building fronting on Second Street, between Jefferson and St. Clair, the first market was opened. It was twenty feet in width with a row of meat stalls on each side, the vegetables being displayed outdoors, under the shelter of the wide, overhanging eaves. To this building, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, could be seen the housekeepers from First and Second streets and North Jefferson, hurrying to fill their baskets. There was need for haste. Council had set early hours and rang a big brass bell at four o'clock to notify people that market was open. By six the best things were gone, and by seven not the least chance of getting your favorite cut of meat.
This Second Street market was used until 1829, when a new site was obtained by condemning the alley running from Main to Jefferson, between Third and Fourth, and acquiring by gift or purchase, additional land on either side. Opposition to this plan developed immediately. It seems
111
Public Education
that there were superior people in those days who felt that to go below Third Street, even for a beefsteak, was lowering. North of Third Street was "Dayton," south of it was "Cabin-town," and held in high disdain. As always in those days, party politics entered into the question and much recrimination was exchanged both in print and by word of mouth. The advanced thinkers seem to have won, for the market house was moved to its new location, bear- ing, on its journey down Main Street, a placard which read, "Bound for Cabin-town." This so incensed the opposition that they boycotted the market, preferring to deny them- selves the delights of roasting-ears and spring chickens, if they must be sought in the odious location.
To visit that market on a Saturday morning in 1822, would be a wonderful experience for a present-day house- keeper ; that is to say, after she had recovered from the ex- ertion of getting up at candle light to do it. She could fill her basket with fresh eggs at two cents a dozen, butter at four cents a pound, chickens fifty cents a dozen ( feathers and all), peaches twenty-five cents a bushel, potatoes twelve and one-half cents, apples the same. Other produce was cor- respondingly as cheap, flour $2.75 a barrel, wheat forty-five cents a bushel, pork $1.50 to $3.00 a hundred weight, oats twenty cents a bushel, venison hams fifty cents a pair, bacon three cents a pound. The valley was a land truly flowing with milk and honey, and there were no middle men to run up prices.
As for the housekeeper of 1822, if she would return- market basket on arm-to the Central or the Arcade mar- ket on a Saturday in the present year of our Lord, what would her sentiments be? With bacon costing more than she paid for Christmas turkey, apples six to a measure for a dime, and eggs, at some season indecently approaching the dollar mark, she would-go back to Woodland !
Another market was built on Sears and Webster streets, between Second and Third, on ground donated by Cooper in 1836, but its use was discontinued in 1870. The Wayne Avenue market on "Seely's ditch" was a private enterprise,
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.