USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Dayton > The story of Dayton > Part 8
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The building of the Courthouse, 1854. From a daguerreotype in the possession of Miss Sophie Phillips.
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Public Education
under grant from Council in 1865, but was purchased by the city in 1870. The present Central market building was erected in 1876, and that on Wayne Avenue in 1909. In 1908 the Arcade Company was incorporated and built the fine all-the-week market which we now enjoy.
Late in the forties, a new courthouse became an im- perative necessity. The prospect aroused much interest among Daytonians who already possessed that feeling of civic pride which we are apt to believe belongs only to a more recent day. The type of building appropriate to the needs of the city was the subject of wide discussion, both in private and public. Horace Pease, an influential man with a fine library, owned a book with illustrative plates on Greek art. Among them was an engraving of the Theseum, a temple built in Athens to receive the bones of Thesius, a hero king, who lived about 460 B. C., and perished in Scyros. In style it was a type of the peripheral Doric, built of Pentelic marble, and it stood on the lower slopes of the hill below the Acropolis. This temple was said to be the most perfect surviving example of a Greek temple, and the culmination of Doric architecture.
At that time Mr. Pease was one of the County Com- missioners. He took great interest in the plans for the new courthouse, and spent hours in the endeavor to re- alize for Dayton a building of pure and beautiful design, which should be an education for the future citizens. The Theseum appealed to him and to others, among them Charles Anderson, as the embodiment of what the pro- posed building should be. The design, together with the tentative sketches for ground plans, was given to a Cin- cinnati architect, Mr. Howard Daniels, who prepared the working plans and specifications. The courthouse was begun in 1848, finished in 1850, cost one hundred thousand dollars, and stands as we now know it, a monument, not like its great Grecian prototype, to a long-forgotten, pagan ruler, but to the public spirit, careful planning, and artistic instincts of the men who built it.
CHAPTER XII. 1830-1840.
Early Politics.
Dayton's part in a Presidential campaign. "My party, right or wrong." Jackson Day amenities and a barbecue that failed. The Log Cabin candidates. "Tippecanoe and Tyler, too!" Guns, Bands; Banners; a Log Cabin; Pretty Girls; and a Wolf.
From the serene subjects of schools and markets, we will turn, for a moment, to the tempestuous one of politics. An old letter written in 1840 by a young wife to her sister, con- tains this plaintive declaration, "I'm tired to death of poly- ticks ; it goes on from morning till night."
Read a few pages, if you will, in the personal corre- spondence of our great-grandfathers, and you will under- stand. Life seemed to be in those days one long wrangle, either on religion or party politics. There were fewer subjects of public interest, and the early citizens made the most of what there were. They took their principles hard. It was "My party, right or wrong," a conviction so deep that it became to the hot patriots of the day a personal mat- ter. A man who voted the opposing ticket was, to other thinkers, everything that was base and vile. Families, neighbors, business associates came into the quarrel and did not speak when they met; even the children on two sides of a fence would not play together if one father voted for Andrew Jackson and the other for Henry Clay.
On the night before the Jackson election, the Dem- ocrats of the country hereabout, erected a tall hickory pole on the courthouse lot, that being the voting place for the whole township. "Hickory" was symbolic of the claims of the Democratic candidate, his triumph foreshad- owed by an American flag, which; from the top, flew joy- ously in the breeze. Such an insult was not to be borne.
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Early Politics
The Council, mostly Whigs, foresaw a fight if it remained. At a meeting called just at daybreak, it was decided that
LOG CABIN
NO. 7
PRICE -- 25 CENTS IN ADVANCE. DAYTON: O.
LOG CABIN.
Raterday. Jnti #1 1910.
LUG CABIN CANDIDA . ES.
WM. HEMAY NARRISEN.
JOHN TYLER,
THOMAS CORWIN,
ALW .EHIER
SATURDAY-JUNE 27.
SUCCESS TO YOU, TOM CORWIN. BI JOUN M. VAN CLEVE
4 The 10 af September ibp 4H& .
----------
Ton Cerwin, our vor hearts love you"
Cho haa na bobler pdl, In worth there's nopp phong y las
Tra Lebases for at Fačte #14 1;
---------
Un }rou ber tughèst hor of+ And then mer Sque wul proudly tom, Without a statt op o hel.
---------
a' se prople to todr Me Corwin is cu
Secreto to row, Toca Coruna"
We're wwa, with varm emouct,
-------- -- ---------
Sace reago s nu Tom Corum'
-----
We've call'd vou from Your & alred.
Te Hava & while in biber bands
Thà guaence of de mt.je.
For sow our Buctime i od, The land of our stecuide
--- ------- ---------
P igh, which terguglie at the Topprcaber The
Requires your qui nạn guai she to 544 · That hold het in mage . com
To- to you, Tom Corda! on Dearts are all mariec.
--
To free our crfuttry from marrule, And ww her honorllah el. With Harrusos fad fou We'll guns inumen glonous, Cục Causa ma quat, &Vhessa are true, Our cause shall be ticto nuRA
EnoutASoctets to you 7 m Corma, &c
"The Log Cabin"; Issue of June 27, 1840. Original at Public Library.
the pole must come down. To the courthouse they went in a body, led by the gigantic figure of John Van Cleve,
----------
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Success to You, Tom Corum +
nacdroly sparerkimi erk kid.
------------
BATTLD'OF TIPPECANOE
THE SPEISEFIELD DAINNO.
----------
AM se wil m'er forget Tiền Thị ogi nghìn hàng quảndel Our grateful hilerin ghail ps, the debe And wolh shall be rewarded. Cros.8,-Succese to you, Tom Corgi, &c.
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The Story of Dayton
axe in hand. Each member took a hand in chopping until the pole fell. But it did not, after all, prevent the election of Jackson, and the next pole that went up remained stand- ing and the Democrats had things all their own way.
The election was followed by great rejoicings and a grand rally with headquarters on the "Common" west of the canal basin. A procession opened the celebration and many patriotic speeches followed, after which the visitors, who had come from miles around, prepared to enjoy a barbe- cue. Fervent Jackson adherents had faithfully turned the spit all night, but, alas, too many cooks had spoiled the ox. The carcass was scorched outside and raw inside; more- over (and this has leaked out in the eighty years elapsed since), the animal was not in the beginning all that it should have been. Even the well-cooked portions bore a game flavor not appetizing to those Jackson stomachs. After some discouraging experiments, the banqueters declined any more and finished their repast at the National Hotel. Then the boys of the town took a hand, hitched a horse to the half-cooked carcass and dragged it up and down the streets, leaving it at last to the dogs on the river bank. It was a grand victory for Jackson.
The greatest occasion in the political history of Dayton is conceded to be the Harrison campaign of 1840. If we, in 1917, with our existent population and present hotel facil- ities, should be called upon to entertain one hundred thou- sand visitors for three whole days it would certainly tax . our resources. And yet, that is what Dayton, possessing but two small hotels and no railroad, accomplished in 1840, with a population of less than seven thousand. She did it, too, not grudgingly, but successfully and gloriously.
The story of it rests upon the politics of that day, which were not only as bitterly partisan as those we have de- scribed, but were a contest between the spirit of democracy and of aristocracy-a conflict of principles which is still and always will be contested. Moreover, the struggle was a revolt against the party long in power, a struggle which,
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Early Politics
after one defeat, was renewing itself for a final effort. Gen- eral William Henry Harrison was the Whig candidate for the presidency, and the idol of the people. Although a successful statesman, his greatest claim to popularity was when, after Hull's disgraceful surrender in 1812, he had led his soldiers to victory at the famous battle of Tippe- canoe. It was not surprising, therefore, that the whole western country combined to offer him the highest gift of the people.
Martin Van Buren, the opposition candidate, who had triumphed over Harrison in the campaign of 1836, was the aristocrat who had offended the democratic tastes of the people, by furnishing the White House with mirrors, silk curtains, and champagne glasses, and it was his party who put the sharpest weapon into the hands of the opposition by sneering at General Harrison's plain habits.
"Give him a barrel of hard cider," wrote the Baltimore "Republican," "and settle a pension of two thousand dollars on him, and our word for it, he would sit the remainder of his days contentedly in a log cabin."
No other stimulus was needed to rouse the whole west to Harrison's support, the west which had grown up in log cabins and on hard cider. A good slogan is half the success of a battle, and this one was carried to victory on a log-cabin basis. The early custom of "cabin raising" was revived. Delegates came to political rallies several days in advance of the date, raised a cabin, nailed a coon skin on the wall, collected and consumed barrels of hard cider, and hurrahed for Harrison until they were hoarse.
The following is a typical campaign announcement, printed in the June issue of "The Log Cabin," in 1840:
"To the Log Cabin Boys of Greene, Montgomery, Mi- ami, Champaign, Logan, Union, and Franklin counties.
"Be it known, that your Log Cabin brethren of Clarke County propose to raise 'Ole Tipp' a new cabin in the Springfield 'diggins' on Thursday, the eighteenth of June, and as you are the chaps that know the right way to 'carry
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The Story of Dayton
up the corners,' just come over now and give us a lift. The Harrison papers in the counties above named will please give this notice an insertion.
"(Signed) THE COMMITTEE.
"William Henry Harrison and Thomas Corwin will be on the ground to assist in the raising."
A new publication, called the "Log Cabin," appearing at this time in the interests of the Whig party, was a curi- osity of journalism. Copies are now rare. Van Cleve, al- ways the leading spirit, designed the outside page, which was cased-in with a cut resembling logs. A cabin and a barrel appeared in every issue, as well as examples of the popular campaign songs.
Not a little of the enthusiasm of the campaign was due to the fact that Tom Corwin, the "Wagon Boy" and prince of orators, was running for governor of Ohio. The poets of the Glee Club bracketed them together in songs that gripped the popular taste and made for victory.
Here are a few of them:
"The times are bad and want curing, They are getting past all enduring, Let us turn out old Martin Van Buren And put in old Tippecanoe !
"Refrain: The best thing we can do
Is to put in old Tippecanoe.
"It's a business we all can take part in, So let us give notice to Martin, That he must get ready for startin', For we'll put in old Tippecanoe."
Air, "Rosin the Bow." "Come, listen, my trusty old cronies, I'll sing you a short verse or two, And I know you will not be offended, Should I sing of old Tippecanoe.
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Early Politics
"And since for one term we're in favor, We think that this honor should do, So good-bye to you, Mr. Van Buren, And hurrah for old Tippecanoe."
"Oh, Wilbur Shannon will be given a tannin', By Tom, the Wagoner Boy."
So this was the famous "Log Cabin Campaign," unique in the political history of our country. The design was painted on banners and printed on posters. It brought out the biggest meetings of all time, and the biggest of all was at Dayton.
The invitation went out in this form. The "Log Cabin" of July 25, 1840, printed it :
LOG CABIN CANDIDATES For President WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON For Vice President JOHN TYLER For Governor of Ohio THOMAS CORWIN, The Wagon Boy
To the PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES generally and more particularly to those of the WEST, and most partic- ularly to all in the MIAMI VALLEY.
You are invited by your fellow citizens of Montgomery County, Ohio, to convene with them in a GRAND COUNCIL at Dayton on the anniversary of our gallant PERRY'S VIC- TORY on September 10, 1840, to deliberate on the best means of reviving our NATIONAL PROSPERITY and a saving from destruction and decay of our CIVIL LIBERTIES.
COME ONE! COME ALL!
The call was certainly accepted. For days preceding the event, crowds began to gather, swarming into Dayton by stage and canal, on foot, on horseback, and in carriages. Troops came from as far away as New Orleans, the dele- gations from Mississippi and Louisiana filling twelve canal
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boats. The turnpikes presented an apparently solid pro- cession of voters coming to greet their beloved candidate. Colonel John G. Lowe, at the head of a company, stationed himself at the junction of the Cincinnati Pike and Main Street, to welcome the troops and direct them to accommo- dations. Those who were not entitled to more luxurious accommodations, camped on the roadside and slept in their wagons. We are told that at night from the top of a high building, the course of the turnpikes radiating from Day- ton could be traced by the light of camp fires.
The natural question which will occur is, "How did Dayton take care of such a crowd?" That is the story.
For weeks in advance of the date, the housekeepers of Dayton had been preparing for the party. Bread was baked, hams boiled, bedticks made by hand and filled with straw. The two hotels, the National and Swaynie House, were soon filled to overflowing, and it remained for private houses to take the remainder. Notice was given that vis- iting strangers might knock at any door which displayed a flag, and receive dinner and bed. There were at that time only seven hundred houses in Dayton, but six hundred and forty-four of them displayed flags. In the largest private homes, improvised beds were placed side by side in both parlors and halls. One family is said to have entertained three hundred guests at dinner one day, and lodged a few over one hundred that night.
The hero of the day came into Dayton by way of the Springfield pike. On the night preceding the celebration he and his staff slept at the home of Jonathan Harshman, four miles from town, the troops which escorted him camping at Fairfield. The next morning, a welcoming delegation came out to meet and escort him into Dayton; three miles from town they were in turn met by the head of a welcoming procession, the whole being the most notable political dem- onstration in the history of our country. The account may be read in the "Log Cabin" of September 18, 1840. No sub-
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sequent historian may doubt that it was in all respects an inspiring occasion.
The procession was said to measure four miles in length, with carriages three abreast. It included thousands of dec- orated wagons carrying girls in white and the national col- ors; together with a series of floats designed with remark- able ingenuity. Among them was trundled an immense log cabin on wheels, drawn by six horses and with the usual accompaniments of a coon skin and a barrel of hard cider. Twenty-six little children, each carrying the banner of a State, occupied a big canoe draped with the colors. A live wolf, covered with a sheepskin ( signifying the hypocritical designs of the Democrats) was the sole occupant of one wagon. We are told that, considering it was probably the animal's first appearance in politics, he behaved remarkably well. A ball as large as a one-story house represented the States "rolling up" for Harrison. Its journey was begun at the top of the Alleghany Mountains, whence it was rolled by devoted campaigners all the way to Dayton. The legend it wore read,
"This ball we roll with heart and soul."
The arrival of the procession at the eastern edge of town (at that day just beyond the canal) was signaled by the booming of cannon and impassioned cheering. Winding through the streets, the participants passed under banners bearing patriotic emblems and inscriptions. One at Main and Second depicted a log cabin on one side, and on the other, a ship in full sail, with the inscriptions,
"Roll on the Ball" and "Perry, September 10, 1813."
At the corner of Jefferson a white silk banner with the words,
"Jefferson Street Honors Him Whom Jefferson Honored." On Third at the courthouse,
"No Standing Army," and "Resistance to Tyrants is Obedience to God."
On Estabrook's oil mill,
"Press the Seed but Not the People."
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A bale of cotton was hung at Clegg's new factory with the familiar slogan,
"The Log Cabin President and the Wagon Boy."
In the throng which surrounded General Harrison ap- peared Governor Metcalf of Kentucky, Major Galloway of Xenia, Colonel John Johnston of Piqua, Colonel Charles Anderson, Colonel John G. Lowe, Captain Bomberger, Judge Joseph Crane, James McDaniel, General Schenck and many other prominent men ; every county in Ohio was rep- resented, and every State in the Union.
General Harrison was first escorted to the National Hotel for dinner, then to the "Common" east of St. Clair Street on the spot where the troops had camped in 1812. The canal had, in the meantime, cut the expanse in two, but there was room farther out for all to gather and to hear the speakers. General Harrison, on this occasion, made one of the finest speeches in his political career, in the presence of an audience, estimated by Luther Bruen (the leading civil engineer of that time) to be not less than one hundred thousand. And it was said that his voice carried easily as far as the river.
In the evening, more impressive ceremonies. A hand- some plow constructed of timber grown on the battleground, was presented by the Tippecanoe delegation, as a reminder that he was expected to plow up the thistles and briars of the last administration. A banner made by the married ladies of Montgomery County and painted by Charles Soule (that artist who has left so many good canvases on the walls of older Dayton homes) was also bestowed, and another from the young ladies, bearing a picture of Perry's victory. Since in those days ladies, either married or single, were never expected to make speeches, the address was given in the first case by Judge Daniel Haynes, and in the second by Judge Joseph Crane.
So ended this memorable celebration. We have seen other festivities since. The commemoration of our hun- dredth anniversary in 1896 brought many thousands to our
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Early Politics
city ; so, too, did the dedication of the Soldiers' Monument in 1884, but "Harrison Day" remained the greatest day in the history of Dayton until-but what that event was must be left to another chapter.
TORE
Photograph by W. B. Werthner of excavation at Third and Main, showing logs of original "Corduroy Road."
Dayton in 1840. From a colored print in the possession of Mrs. Susan Harshman Camman
CHAPTER XIII. 1808-1890.
Journalism in Dayton.
The "Repertory" comes to town. The "Centinel," "Watch- man," "Republican," "Miami Herald," "Empire," "Ledger," "Herald and Empire," "Democrat," "Journal," "News." Sub- scriptions paid in potatoes. News three weeks old. Bitter pol- itics. Dayton firms in the advertising columns. The war ed- itors.
The common ancestor of our present four daily papers was a one-fold sheet, eight by twelve inches, bearing across its front page the title,
"THE DAYTON REPERTORY,"
which made its first appearance from a small frame building on Main Street, September 18, 1808. A glance at its pages, brown with age, sets us wondering what the readers of that day expected of a newspaper. No local items appear in it. Issued only once a week, everything of importance had been talked over long before the paper came out. Merchants had not learned to advertise. Foreign news was three months old before it reached the United States, and as much more before it got as far west as Dayton. All the citizens at that time in Dayton were good Federalists, so there was no need to get up party steam. The year this first paper was started, a Presidential campaign was on, but there is no mention of it in the "Repertory." We may conclude, therefore, that it failed to fill what the promoters call a "long-felt want," since it ceased publication in 1809.
The next news sheet to make its appearance was the "Ohio Centinel," and this, too, had a brief career of twelve months. Some little local news appeared in its columns, as witness an account of a Fourth of July celebration which first reached the public eye on the first of August. During
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The Story of Dayton
the early months of 1812, the possibility of war with Great Britain was mentioned from time to time, but when it was actually declared, the "Centinel" suddenly became silent for the very good reasons that no one was left in the office to set type, and few outside to read it, compositors and sub- scribers being all "up State" with Hull's army.
For the next year and a half Dayton existed without a newspaper. In the fall of 1814, some citizen, with praise- worthy optimism, tried the experiment once more and called
The old Union Depot.
his paper the "Republican." A perusal of this sheet will hopelessly confuse the reader both in his knowledge of pol- itics and history. Opposition to the Whig party was called "Republican" at times, and "Democratic" at other times, in fact the Republican and Democratic party seem to have been in the beginning, one and the same.
Current events grew sadly stale in the printing. Ed- itorial comment in the "Republican" called upon Dayton to rejoice over the victory of New Orleans long after the sign-
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Journalism in Dayton
ing of the treaty of Ghent had brought the war to a close ; and a belated defiance to Great Britain was hurled against her fully two weeks after we had given our national assent to peace.
Since two-thirds of the subscribers never paid anything and the rest paid in potatoes (when everybody owned his own garden), the discouraged "Republican" vanished for want of funds, and in the course of time Dayton began to read the "Watchman." It, too, was slightly behind time, going into mourning for Thomas Jefferson three weeks after he had been buried. In this paper we see the first ad- vertising cut, a picture of a copper still for the manufacture of whisky. Most farmers owned them, since moonshining laws had not been written. A notice advised the reader that they were made at a coppersmith's on the Phillips House corner. Advertising was looking up, but it had its own particular difficulties, as in July, 1820, when the editor explained the absence of several advertisements which had been sent in, saying that he had entirely forgotten to publish them owing to the celebration of the Fourth of July. They were confidently announced for the next week's issue.
The average life of the early Dayton paper we find to be a year. Among the list of news sheets which came into being and vanished during the years from 1814 to 1850, are the "Miami Herald," the "Dayton Republican Gazette," the "Democratic Herald," and, in 1826, the first organ of the Whig party, the "Journal and Advocate"-a four-page, seven-column paper, the largest in Ohio at the time, and forefather, in direct line, of the present "Daily Journal." In 1840, this paper made a brave attempt to be a daily, but only really succeeded in 1847. John Van Cleve and Peter P. Lowe were joint owners of this sheet, and W. F. Comly, whose memory among newspaper men will never die, was editor-in-chief. In 1863, Major Bickham came up from Cincinnati to become editor, and from that time to the pres- ent the "Journal" has been the breakfast table companion of all good Republicans.
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Of the Democratic papers, we note the "Empire," founded in 1844, gradually merging through several changes of name to the "Herald" in 1869, the "Herald and Empire" in 1870, the "Enquirer," the "Ledger," the "Dayton Democrat" in 1874, the "Times and News" in 1885, both of which were finally consolidated into the present "Dayton Daily News."
XSENG- PR -0
The Phillips House, built in 1850, named in honor of Horatio G. Phillips.
The "Dayton Volks-Zeitung," the organ for our numer- ous German population, was founded in 1866, and became a daily in 1876.
The "Religious Telescope," issued by the United Breth- ren Company, has had a useful and successful career since 1853.
The "Log Cabin" has already been mentioned. Designed to exist only during the last six months of the 1840 cam-
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Journalism in Dayton
paign, it did valiant political service. The account of the Harrison Rally, written probably by Van Cleve himself, is a picturesque piece of work, and the only version remaining of that part of our political history.
Sometime during the later "forties," William S. How- ells, with his son, William Dean Howells, the now eminent novelist, came up from Hamilton, where he had been pub- lishing a paper, and bought out the "Dayton Transcript." The whole Howells family, it is said, including the present dean of American letters, assisted in getting out the paper, the novelist himself dividing his time between typesetting and carrying the paper to subscribers. When the "Tran- script." like its numerous predecessors, refused to afford the editor a living, the Howells moved away and renewed the experiment elsewhere.
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