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The Story of Dayton

CHARLOTTE REEVE CONOVER

Published by

THE GREATER DAYTON ASSOCIATION

(Dayton's Civic Commercial Organization)

Dayton. Ohio, 1917

THE OTTERBEIN PRESS
Dayton, Ohio

The Greater Dayton Association

Dayton, Ohio

513609

COMMITTEE OF THE GREATER DAYTON ASSOCIATION

Having in charge the preparation of
"The Story of Dayton."

A. A. THr)MAS. Chairman (deceased), replaced by

WILLIAM B. WERTHXER, Steele High School.

E. J. BROWX (deceased), replaced by

FR.-\NK W. MILLER, Superintendent Public
Schools.

ELECTRA C. DOREX, Public Library.

CHARLOTTE REEVE COXOVER.

FREDERICK H. RIKE, Ex-President The Greater
Dayton Association (ex-officio).

J. M. GUILD, Executive Secretary The Greater
Dayton Association.

AUTHORITIES CONSULTED

Diary of Benjamin Van Cleve.

Mary Steele's "Early Dayton."

Edgar's "Pioneer Life in Dayton and \'icinity."

Drury's "History of Dayton."

Howe's "Ohio."

Dayton Newspapers from 1808 to 1916, on file in the Public Librar

Old letters wherever available.

®o tijp

(EttiE^nfi of iaytnn

And all who take an interest in our city, but especially to the
Boys and Girls who are to carry on its history,

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

It will be well to emphasize in the beginning that this
is not a history but a story of Dayton.

A history contains many facts and dates; a story at-
tempts to give an impression of times as they used to be.
A history narrates occurrences in strict chronological se-
quence ; a story paints pictures of life. A history records
the names and services of notable citizens ; the pages of this
book are necessarily too few to hold half of them.

The idea of The Greater Dayton Association has been,
not to add a mass of facts to those in the voluminous his-
tories already published, but to so present the material in
hand as to give to present and future generations a clear
idea of the tendencies and events of the century iu which
their forbears lived. Therefore, the audience kept con-
stantly in the mental view of the writer, has been an audi-
ence of school children, whose minds, impatient of detail,
are captured by picturesque narrative.

One difficulty in the compilation of this book, which will
be readily appreciated in Dayton at least, is the loss of
invaluable historical material through the ravages of the
flood. Old books, letters, daguerreotypes, and family relics
which might have added to the historical atmosphere or been
made the subject of illustration, have disappeared forever.
Bound volumes of Dayton newspapers, of which there was
in the Public Library a reasonably complete collection since
1808, have lost whole decades from the shelves. Those re-
maining are encrusted with mud and only available for pur-
poses of research through the laborious efforts of the
Library staff.

Another difficulty has been to select with impartiality the
names of those who have in the past rendered service to

the city. Because this book started out to be a small one,
only the most conspicuous could be included. Also, for
obvious reasons and except in rare instances, the names of
living citizens have been omitted. Their work for Dayton
is well known to all and must be left to a later historian to
record.

The writer begs to express her indebtedness to a patient,
helpful, and zealous committee, who, by wise suggestion,
have one and all materially lessened the difficulties of her
task.

Outside of the committee, the following persons have
given help and suggestions: Hon. John A. McMahon, Mr.
J. H. Patterson, Mr. Charles Wuichet, Dr. F. R. Henry, Dr.
E. M. Huston, Mr. Lee Warren James, Mr. Eugene Parrott,
Mr. William Wolf ("Billy Wolf"), Miss Leila Ada Thomas,
Mr. George B. Smith, Mr. Orville Wright, Miss Katherine
Wright, Miss Helen Pearson, Mr. E. C. Hurley of Cincin-
nati, Mr. Harvey Conover of Chicago, Mrs. John B. Greene,
Miss Martha K. Schauer, and Mr. Frank Hermes.

Acknowledgments are also due to the Photographing
and Advertising Departments of the National Cash Register
Company for drawings and photographs.

C. R. C, Dayton, June, 1916.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I.— DAYTON PAST

CHAPTER I.

THE PURCHASE OF THE MIAMI LANDS. 1776-1790.
The men who bought and began Dayton. Four Generals
and a Governor. A map without boundary- lines. What
the rest of the world was doing. The road to Ohio 1

CHAPTER II.

THE CONQUEST OF THE MIAMI LANDS. 17.50-1790.
How the Indians made war. The "Miami Slaughter
House." Who first saw the site of Dayton and what he
thought of it. Later visitors and their adventures. Peace
at last through Wayne's victor^-. Dayton is located and
surveyed 12

CHAPTER III.

THE REAL SETTLEMENT. 1796.

The Dayton Settlers start from Cincinnati. The Land
party and its adventures. The Water party and its diffi-
culties. Ten days of travel and the destination reached.
Dayton comes on the map 21

CHAPTER IV.

A PIONEER FAMILY. 1793-1800.

If you were an early Dayton boy. The fireside and the
dinner table. Wild turkey, corn-dodgers, hominy and
sorghum, venison. How mother made things comfortable.
The road to a loaf of bread 29

CHAPTER V.

HARDSHIPS AND PROGRESS. 1795-1800.
Dayton's first experience with hard times. Titles to land
wanted and won. Newcom's Tavern becomes the hub of
the Miami universe. Dayton builds a church. Ohio at
last a State and Montgomery a county 38

CHAPTER VI.

OUR COMMERCIAL BEGINNINGS. 1805-1811.
The Wood-path and the river as avenues of commerce.
Dayton a thriving business center. Early stores and
their customers. A Public Library. Mud and drops of
tallow. Earthquakes and squirrels 47

CHAPTER VII.

SOME OF THE MEN WHO MADE DAYTON. 1S07.
Our debt to the early citizens. Daniel C. Cooper, the
surveyor. Benjamin Van Cleve, the diarist. Robert
Patterson, soldier and citizen. Other good names which
deserve our appreciation 55

CHAPTER VIII.

THE WAR OF 1812.

Sleepy Dayton wakes up. New troubles with old enemies.
Preparations for war. Three regiments and half a Com-
mander. The gay departure and the sorry return. Da\ton
breaks the Sabbath and goes to help. Icicles and blood !. . 69

CHAPTER IX.

EARLY TRANSPORTATION. 1818-1832.
A stage route to Cincinnati. Good roads and their
benefits. How Dayton celebrated the Fourth of July.
Rapid transit at last — the Canal. A fugitive slave on
Main Street 79

CHAPTER X.

MUNICIPAL IMPROVEMENTS. 1820-1849.
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 improve-
ments 91

CHAPTER XI.

PUBLIC EDUCATION. 1820-1850.

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 102

CHAPTER XII.

EARLY POLITICS. 1830-1840.

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 114

CHAPTER XIII.

JOURNALISM IN DAYTON. 1808-1890..
The "Repertory" comes to town. The Centinel, Watch-
man, Republican, Miami Herald, Empire, Ledger, Herald
and Empire, Democrat, Journal, News. Subscriptions
paid in potatoes. News three weeks old. Bitter politics.
Dayton firms in the advertising columns. The war edi-
tors 125

CHAPTER XIV.

MORE MEN WHO HAVE MADE DAYTON. 1830-1870.
John W. Van Cleve, engineer, musician, botanist, artist,
nature-lover, teacher, geologist. Robert W. Steele, edu-
cator, writer, scholar, director, trustee. E. E. Barney,
principal of two schools, horticulturist, inspirer, captain
of industry. Others we like to remember 139

CHAPTER XV.

WHAT THE CIVIL WAR MEANT TO DAYTON.

1861-1865.
The response to Lincoln's call for troops. "Three cheers
for the Red, White and Blue!" The Dayton boys march
out. Neighbor against neighbor. "Killed and missing."
A telegram and cheers. A telegram and tears. Peace and
Union at last l->3

CHAPTER XVI.

OUR HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY. 1865-1896.
After the war. Reconstruction and reconciliation. Keep-
ing memories alive. "On the virtues of its citizens."
Dayton reaches her centenary. Newcom's Tavern finds a
new site. Work of the Historical Society 171

CHAPTER XVII.

THE HOME OF AVIATION. 1896-1915.
A boy's workshop. A kite on the seashore. A shed on
Huffman's Prairie. "On wings like eagles." Dayton
incredulous. "Hail to the Chiefs!" 183

CHAPTER XVIII.

DAYTON'S UNFORGETABLE WEEK. 1913.
Flood, Fire, Frost, Starvation, Mud! A hundred thousand
hands held out for help! The Federal Government to
the rescue. The river resumes its channel. Spades,
brooms, shovels, sunshine and handshakes. "Remember
the promises made in the attic." Two millions for Flood
Prevention. "A bigger and a safer Dayton." 196

PART II.— DAYTON PRESENT

CHAPTER XIX.

COMMERCIAL DAYTON. 1810-1915.
Dayton products and world markets. Shifting of business
centers. Change in the nature of industries. Present
variety of products. Meeting new demands. Our annual
output. "If it's up to Dayton, it's up to date." 206

CHAPTER XX.

OUR NEW CITY GOVERNMENT. 1915.

Lessons learned from the flood. The old way and the new.

City Government the larger housekeeping. The New

'Charter. The budget. Buying health and happiness. Will

we work it out? 223

CHAPTER XXI.

THE GREATER DAYTON ASSOCIATION.

1915-1917.
A sense ot personal responsibility aroused among the
citizens. Organization on non-party lines to support
new government. "The Soul of a City." The first year's
record 242

CHAPTER I.

1776-1790.

The Purchase of the Miami Lands.

The men who bought and began Dayton. Four Generals and
a Governor. A map without boundary hnes. What the rest of
the world was doing. The road to Ohio.

To the Boys and Girls of Dayton:

You want me to tell you the story of Dayton, when our
city began and how, its growth and development into the
home of which we are so proud? It will be a long story
and an interesting one, for many exciting things happened
on this spot of ground. Many brave men bore hardships to
bring our city into being, and many fine men and women
since then have spent their best years to carry it on.

More than a hundred years ago our Dayton began
as a mere squatter settlement of rough log cabins, them-
selves the successors of an Indian camp of wigwams;
after which we grew into a straggling village up and down
each side of Main Street; later to a busy countrified town,
and now we are a prosperous city possessing much to make
life valuable and pleasant. What Dayton is to become in
the future depends upon what her citizens are willing to do
for the home which they have inherited.

If you ask for the beginnings of Dayton, they will be
found in the names of the principal streets. Ludlow,
Wayne, Wilkinson, St. Clair represent to the reader of
United States history some of the best blood in the young
republic. These four names, together with that of Jona-
than Dayton, are written in the proceedings of the First
Continental Congress and the Federal Courts, in the move-
ments of the Revolutionary army and the records of our
Western States. Finally they are written up at the corners
1

2 The Slory of Dayloii

of our own streets to remind us that as a city we began
well.

General Jonathan Dayton, i\LW Jcisl-v, 17G0-1824, signer of the
Constitution of the United States. From a niiniatinx owned Iiy
Miss Mary B. Spencer, Elizabeth, N. J.

General Jonathan Dayton, whose namesake our city is,
was a distinguished lawyer, senator, and soldier of New
Jersey, equally good at all three professions. As states-
man, he helped draw up the Constitution of tlie United

1 he Purchase of the Miami Lands

States ; as Speaker of the House and counselor in important
litigation, he proved himself a master jurist ; as officer under
Lafayette, a brave and distinguished soldier.

The errand which brought Colonel Israel Ludlow to the
far frontier was the fixing of boundary lines on a govern-
ment survey in the Northwestern Territory, and this experi-
ence brought out his practical efficiency and made him a
valuable colleague. Deeply interested in the possibilities
of the great West, he made a study of its characteristics.
Xo one so well as Ludlow knew the varieties of soil and
timber, the direction of streams,
Indian trails, and the "lay of the
land" in general. It was he who
utilized the natural advantages
of the site of Dayton and gave
us our first city plan.

A remarkably able and bril-
liant member of this group was
General Arthur St. Clair ; too
able a man and too brave a sol-
dier to have his name forever
coupled with a dreadful military
mistake which was more his mis-
fortune than his fault. If it had
been otherwise he would not have
been appointed by President
\\ ashington as Governor of the whole Northwestern Terri-
tory.

When we reach the name of Wilkinson, there is a dif-
ferent story to tell. General James Wilkinson came, it is
true, of fine family stock ; he was a patrician and a soldier ;
serving under Washington in the East, and under Wayne
in the West. In fact, no more prominent man than General
Wilkinson had a share in our early history. His talents
took him, in the course of time, to the governorship of
Louisiana and the command of the whole army. Yet, had
certain letters come to light ten years earlier than they did,

M%^

^P^^

General Arthur St. Clair.

The Story of Dayton

Wilkinson Street would have had some other name. For,
without a shadow of a doubt, Wilkinson, while apparently
diligent in the service of his country, was really playing into
the hands of Spain in a most treacherous way.

General Anthony Wayne had no direct connection with
the founding of Dayton except that his splendid and de-
cisive victory over the Indians in 1794 made the settlement
here safe and possible. Wayne Avenue is named after him
to keep green the memory of one who contributed even
indirectly to our city.

If we would understand the
entire transaction governing the
purchase of the Dayton land, we
must unmake, temporarily, the
map of the United States. In the
latter years of the eighteenth
century, there were no bound-
aries west of the thirteen original
States ; no Ohio, Indiana, Illi-
nois, Michigan, nor Wisconsin.
That whole area was called, from
its situation in relation to the
Ohio River, the "Northwest
Territory."

In order to develop these five
million acres and open up sites
for homes, the Ohio Land Company was formed in the sum-
mer of 1786. Active in the management of this enterprise,
was a prominent lawyer of New Jersey, named John Cleves
Symmes, who foresaw clearly that in order to make the
United States prosperous, the West, as well as the sea-
board, should be developed. People were pushing toward
the setting sun in search of new homes, and their
demand should be met. Two things were imperative — to
offer the land at a low price and to make it safe from the
depredations of Indians. Therefore, while Generals St.

General Anthony Wayi

The Purchase of the Miami Lands

Clair, Harmar, George Rogers Clarke, and Anthony Wayne
were conducting military operations, with more or less suc-
cess, against the savages, Symmes was planning a vast real
estate transaction which promised to open up and populate
the region west of the Alleghanies.

His first move was to petition the United States Govern-
ment for a grant of two million acres of land, to be paid
for at the rate of sixty-six and two-thirds cents an acre.
His second and unfortunate move was to begin selling por-
tions of this land before it was surveyed, a mistake which
led to endless dififiiculties and kept
the courts busy in the years
which followed. That Symmes
w:is not as good a land specula-
tor as he thought himself to be is
lie worst that can be laid at
his door. As time passed his
obligation to the Government
could not be met. and this failure
afl'ected Dayton's property titles
most unfortunately. His claim,
or a part of it, reverted by de-
fault to the United States, leav-
ing two hundred and forty-eight
thousand acres of the original

John Cleves Svmmes. . ■,-,• • i ■

two million in his possession.

Xaturally, purchasers were wanted. Symmes and Gen-
eral Dayton were friends, and they drew \Mlkinson and
St. Clair into a plan to share between them the territory
in question and to develop it to meet the needs of home-
steaders. Ludlow was added to the company as the prac-
tical man familiar with the country. These four men
agreed to pay ^Symmes eighty-three cents an acre for that
part of his pyirchase known as the "Aliami Lands," and to
make a settlement at the mouth of Alad River.

Once more a glance at the map, this time the map of
Ohio, where you will find, down in the southwest corner a

6 The Story of Dayton

long tract of land lying between the Little Miami on the
east, and the Great Miami on the west, and the Ohio on the
south. The two rivers are thirty miles apart at their mouths,
but at the northern end, they approach to within a few miles.
These boundaries enclosed, in surveyors' terms, the seventh
and eighth ranges, or, as the pioneers called them, the
"Miami Lands," all of which, comprising sixty thousand
acres, became the property of Generals Dayton, St. Clair,

and Wilkinson, and Col-
onel Israel Ludlow.

But Dayton was not
yet on the map. It had
to wait until the Indians
got ofif. That is a longer
story and belongs in the
next chapter. Until we
come to it we shall find
interest in looking over
the field of history to see
what was going on at
that early day in other
parts of the world.

In England, George
the Third occupied the
throne, using its prestige
to his own selfish ends,
not unlike a political
"trickster" of a later
day. He had been mak-

An Indian Treaty, following Wayne's Victory. j^^^^ ^^ y^^^ kuOW, all the

trouble possible for the little colony over sea, until what with
stamp taxes and tea taxes and no Americans allowed in
Parliament, the colonists rebelled and settled it once for all,
in the Declaration of Independence, that they were hereafter
to be a separate nation known as the United States of
America.

The Purchase of the Miauii Lands 7

France, across the channel, had been seeing bloody times.
The French Revolution was just at an end. Having be-
headed their king and queen in order to rid themselves of
tyrants, the French nation was coming under the spell of
a military instead of an hereditary despot. Napoleon was
carrying things before him in that series of wars which
rocked all Europe.

In the meantime the eyes of these older nations were
upon us, the youngest and weakest of them all, great only

Clcv(^lancL

ap"of the John Cleves Symmes Purchase, 17S8

in the extraordinary experiment we were attempting to
carry out, the experiment of a practical democracy. We
were very small, very poor, with an empty treasury and no
credit, not much of a government, and no army to speak of.
We were, however, rich in men. George Washington was
our President, and John Adams, our Vice-President. They
and the other patriots of that day made the great future of

8 The Story of Dayton

the United States possible by holding to the highest ideals
and giving all their efforts to attain them.

The thirteen original States of the Union were spread
irregularly along the Atlantic seaboard. Boston, a small,
countrified town, consisted of a series of crooked streets
running at all angles around the "Common." New York
was not much hrger. Where now tall skyscrapers huddle
together in central Manhattan, there were, in 1795, stretches
of green pasture crossed by cow paths. Philadelphia, the
seat of the new government, had a population of only thirty
thousand. Aside from these large towns with scattered
villages between, there was small promise of the nation we
have since become.

So much for the East. Westward for three thousand
miles stretched an unbroken willerness of forest and moun-
tain. Fort Pitt, at the junction of the three rivers marked
the beginning of Pittsburgh, and Fort Washington the be-
ginning of Cincinnati. Detroit was a mere stockade owned
by the British, while at distant points in the Mississippi
\'alley the French had established trading posts. But these
scattered settlements were needles in the haystack of the
vast, unbounded West.

When you left New Jersey on horseback or in wagon,
as you must if you would reach the unknown Ohio territory,
you plunged into the woods, and in the woods you kept,
following a bridle-path or the deep wheel tracks cut by
wagons of other travelers — day after day, week after week,
sometimes into months, through the Pennsylvania wilder-
ness, until you came in sight of the yellow Ohio River, at
once the gateway and the highway to all that lay beyond.

All who came out to Ohio in those early days were
obliged to take that journey. M'hen woods were green and
days mild, the long wagon trip was full of interest and de-
light. Old people whose tombstones you will find in Wood-
land Cemetery, and who, when they were alive, used to love
to talk of the early days, have left testimony to the charm
of those woodland journeys. They told how the father,

10 The Story of Dayton

carrying his gun, walked at the head of the horses, while
the mother and younger children rode in the wagon, al-
ready loaded with all their home possessions. The older
brother drove the cow, the family dog trotting on ahead,
nosing out woodchucks and squirrels. At night they camped,
and whatever game had been brought down that day by the
fathers gun, was roasted over the coals, an appetizing and
sufficient meal.

These descriptions of the forest, with close-growing
trees, with birds and deer and strange, new flowers; the
soft woods-road on which the horses' hoofs fell silently,
the odor of broiled game and the pungent smoke of a wood
fire, the appetites sharpened by hard work and fresh air —
all this makes us feel that we have missed something fine
out of life.

The approach of frost, however, made a different story.
How they longed to reach a roof and shelter ! How the chil-
dren suffered with stiff fingers and chilblains! And they
were never sure that Indians were not following them, step
by step, ready to attack.

Pausing at Fort Pitt to lay in supplies, the pioneers
built or rented a "pirogue" for the down-river journey.
Upon this craft, a sort of rude flatboat with low sides and
a covered space at the back for the women and children,
the emigrant father embarked his family, his cattle, and his
household goods. Then began the long water trip, perhaps
more dangerous than the land journey. Day after day they
floated with the sullen current, keeping well to midstream
to avoid the arrows of hidden savages. If they dared, the
party landed at night and built a fire, but if warned of the
presence of red-skins, they kept right on.

Some of these river parties were bound for Marietta,
the first settlement in Ohio ; others stopped at Maysville, on
the Kentucky side. Those in which we are most interested,
came on to Fort Washington, now Cincinnati, in those days
the farthest and most important frontier post. In the sev-
enteen seventies and eighties Cincinnati consisted of a

The Purchase of the Miami Lands 1 1

stockade fort and several parallel streets running north-
ward from the river, the whole settlement sheltering not
more than seven hundred inhabitants. The chief interests in
their lives were real estate and Indians. It was becom-
ing quite plain that the first could not be secured until the
second were disposed of.

The story of how a handful of white settlers conquered
this whole State, taking it away from ten tribes of jealous
and warlike savages, making it a safe place to live in for
us, their future descendants, will be more interesting than
the transactions of land speculators, as you shall presently
see.

CHAPTER II.

1750—1790.

The Conquest of the Miami Lands.

How Indians made war. The "Miami Slaughter House."
Who first saw the site of Dayton, and what he thought of it.
Later visitors and their adventures. Peace at last through
Wayne's victory. Daj^ton is located and surveyed.

The real reason for the founding of IDayton, the reason
back of the contract and purchase, was nothing more or
less than the rich, black earth that crops out along the ]\Iiami
River channel. Because of this fertile soil, the grass was
tliicker here than elsewhere and the shrubs greener; because
of this rich pasturage, large herds of buffaloes and elk
roamed and grazed; because of the presence of this game,
Indians came to hunt it. Good hunting for the red-skins
was good hunting for the white man. Both wanted it ; both
fought to keep it.

The tribes which frequented this part of Ohio were
named Twightwees, or Miamis, a group including many oth-
ers, namely, Shawnees, Pottawatomies, VVyandots, Dela-
wares, Chippewas, and Kickapoos. The Indians declared
this rich and blooming territory of the Miami lands to be
their own possessions. East of the Ohio River the white
man might perhaps be allowed to settle ; west of it they
were determined he should never come. Settlers from the
sand patches of New Jersey or the stony hillsides of Con-
necticut saw in the lovely reaches of these valleys the farms
that would make them rich. Thev had come, manv of them

The Conquest of the Miami Lands

on foot, six or seven hundred miles, and here they pro-
posed to stay.

This varying point of view between the whites and the
Indians led, in time, to the valleys of the two Aliamis being
known, with only too great appropriateness, as the "Miami
Slaughter House." In battle after battle, in skirmish after
skirmish, the soil of southwestern Ohio was drenched with
blood. Every surveyor who left the fort at Cincinnati for
the trip up the valley, knew that in so doing he took his life
in his hands.

Little Turtle.

We are told that for every Indian killed, three white
men lost their lives. The cause' of this appalling destruction
was the manner in which the savage made war. Original
settlers, those who had grown up in the woods, understood
primitive war tactics, but only when it was too late did the
regular troops learn. An Indian never stood out frankly
to be shot at, never charged in the mass as the whites did.
He concealed himself behind a stump and shot from am-
bush. Every waving bush might, therefore, shelter a feath-

14 The Slory of Dayton

ered warrior; every call of a blackbird or whistle of a quail
might be a secret signal.

Following an attack, the settlers were accustoined to
pursue the flying foe down the trail, expecting to find massed
warriors blocking the way. But the summer woods were
peaceful and still, no sounds but of birds and the singing
brooks. Suddenly from behind, as well as in front and
from both sides, came a hail of arrows and blood-curdling
yells. So swift and terrifying was such an onset that the
defenders had no time to reload their muskets. Ten In-
dians behind trees were more than a match for twenty
whites in the open. Having killed or wounded part of their
foes and* put to rout the rest, the savages came out, tore ofif
what scalps they could^ — as often from the living as from
the dead — and again disappeared. This, in brief, was the
way Harmar's forces were defeated, how St. Clair's army
was cut to pieces and left with six hundred bare and bloody
skulls on the field of battle.

Although told in a general way, as the story of the
w^hole western country, this was in reality the record of our
own particular part of it. No ground was more often
camped upon by Indians than that near the mouth of Mad
River — no grass more frequently tramped down by the feet
of soldiers in pursuit. Not seldom, a twentieth century
schoolboy, in his Saturday tramps up the river, will see
sticking out of the brown loam, one of those wonderfully
chiseled flint arrow-heads, proof positive of the former
activities of the Indians. Then he will realize, much clearer
than any book can tell him, just what has happened on that
spot of ground.

All this bloody skirmishing was really a part of the
Revolutionary War. In 1776 the Eastern States, it is true,
had stated their position to the British in the Declaration

Tlic Conquest of the Miami Lands 15

of Independence, but this vast western country was too big,
— too far ofif, — to come into the bargain. The Kickapoos
had never heard that w^e were born "free and equal, and en-
titled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," and
would not have understood it if they had. Constitutions
amounted to little unless protected by a good rifle. It was
one thing to say you owned a country and quite another to
hold on to it. The Indians were not the only enemies. De-
troit belonged to Great Britain ; Kaskaskia and Cahokia, in
Illinois, to the French. Thus, two foreign nations, both
giving arms and ammunition to the savages, waged a cease-
less warfare.

Probably the first white man to set foot on the soil of
our Main Street was a French major named Celoron de
Bienville, who ascended the Great jNIiami in 1751, and
described the sight of thirty or forty bufifaloes grazing
at one time, knee deep in the tall grass on the river
l)ottoms. Tlie secretary of the Ohio Land Company, Gist,
who also came here at that time, gave an account of the
charms of this fertile valley, the spreading trees, thick, wav-
ing grass, and unafraid wild animals, an account of which
will remind you of Roosevelt's glowing recital of the in-
terior of South America. Indeed, the earlier explorer in
liis travels was not farther from civilization in his day than
the later.

The site of the settlement to be located at the mouth of
Mad River was frequently under discussion among the in-
habitants at Fort Washington. People had been gathering
there from various points in the East, waiting for a chance
to procure good farming land. In 1787, Benjamin Stites, of
Cincinnati, in pursuit of Indians who had stolen horses,
penetrated the woods as far as the present site of Xenia.
Coming back down the banks of the Great Miami, he

16 The Story of Dayton

brought the report to his friend, John Cleves Symmes, that
the confluence of the three rivers, the Miami, Stillwater,
and Mad rivers, was, in his opinion, an ideal location for a
city. Later Symmes himself went up the river and added
his favorable report to that of Stites. Robert Patterson, the
founder of Lexington, Kentucky, and one of the original
owners of Cincinnati, who camped at the mouth of Mad
River on his return from the Logan and Clarke raid against
the Indians in 1788, testified, in his turn, that this locality
seemed to him the most beautiful spot on earth, and that
he hoped to have a home here, which he eventually did
have in 1804.

The fact that three navigable streams converged at this
point was a factor in all of these favorable verdicts. Rivers
meant water power for mills, and before roads existed, were
the only avenues of travel. The first settlers always came
by water. At the present time the Miami River contributes
not the slightest aid to the industrial life of Dayton ; still
less does Mad River or Stillwater. Hindrances, rather, if
the truth be told, with, at one season no water to speak of
in the channel and at another quite too much. Alad River
was described by Gist as "a rapidly flowing, deep, majestic
stream, shadowed by the overhanging forest." In 1795, all
three streams were navigable, having at some seasons suf-
ficient waterway for keeled boats drawing four feet. The
destruction of the forests has reduced them to their present
insignificance. During the first twenty years of Dayton's
history a large amount of river commerce was carried on,
upstream as far as St. Marys, and downstream to New
Orleans. Therefore, in every record of that far-off time
we find mention of these two characteristics, the rich earth
and the three rivers, promising between them, abundant
crops and a waterway to the markets of the world.

The Conquest of the Miami Lands 1/

As to the presence of Indians on the site of Davton, and
of skirmishes with them, ahundant testimony exists. \\ e
read that they came in fleets of canoes down the rivers from
their villages near the present site of Springtield, and.
pitching camp at the mouth of Mad River, proceeded to lay
in a winter's supply of venison and huffalo meat. In 1780,
George Rogers Clarke led a company of Kentuckv rangers
t:]) the Miami \ 'alley against the Shawnees in revenge for
bloody work done by them south of the Ohio River. Two
years later, he came again with one hundred picked men.
The encounter in which they came oft' victors took place at
the mouth of Alad River, the very site of Dayton. In 1787
occurred the terrible battle of Blue Licks. Kentuckv, in
which two-thirds of the fighting force of that State perished.
In desperation, the settlers gathered their remnants together
and under Clarke. Logan, and Patterson, came up the vallev
once more and held near Piqua. the severest engagement
of the war. Their triumphant return, following an over-
whelming victor}-, was right across the course of our present
streets, the camp being pitched on the south l)ank of the
river, near the spot where the gas works now stand.

Many famous warriors took part in this batde : Red
Jacket, Big Corn, and Little Turtle. ( )ne was taken pris-
oner. Their villages were wiped out. For a few years the
Indians, busy in hunting and raising new crops, kept a par-
tial peace: but not for long. Benjamin Logan was the next
leader to distinguish himself with the efficient help of
Robert Patterson, who, in one skirmish, received a severe
wound. Their expedition led straight up our valley. Com-
ing back by way of Mad River, they found, on arriving at
the mouth, a camp of Indians, which was routed and
driven out of reach— this being the second skirmish on the
site of Dayton. Indians had no false pride about running

18 The Story of Dayton

away. Each time that they melted into the shadow of the
woods or disappeared up the river, it was only to get fresh
"wind" and weapons and begin all over again.

With such constant warfare, lasting from 1780 to 1795,
there could be no thought of permanent settlements at Mad
River or anywhere else. The deliverer from this state of
affairs proved to be General Anthony Wayne, who, in June,
1794, met the largest force of Indians ever assembled for
battle, and gained a decisive victory. The battle took place
about one hundred miles north of us, and was the turning-
point in the whole history of western civilization. So sweep-
ing and destructive was it that the Indians, recognizing at
once the end of their cause, sued for peace. Both sides
met at Greenville the next year and declared the war at an
end. The Indians, by agreement, "retired north of the Shelby
County line, and Ohio was at last comparatively safe.

The Dayton plan had been waiting only upon permanent
peace and that now being assured, steps were taken toward
the actual settlement. A treaty was signed on July 30, 1795,
and on August 6, just seven days later, and as soon as the
news could travel to New Jersey, the contract between
Symmes on the one part, and Dayton, Ludlow, Wilkinson,
and St. Clair on the other, was duly subscribed to.

In September, two surveyors, named Cooper and Dun-
lap, started from Cincinnati to break ground in the new
town. Cooper was to cut away brush and make a trail up
which the wagons could come. Dunlap was to run the
boundaries of the purchase. On arriving at the mouth of
Mad River, they found, as so many had before them, a camp
of Indians, but the treaty was in force, and after the ex-
change of a few presents, these remnants of the once power-
ful tribes wandered harmlessly away. The Dunlap party
remained a week, during which time it rained relentlessly,
soaking all their possessions, so that the field notes had to

The Conquest of the Miami Lands 19

be kept by scratching- ^vith a jackknife on a flat slab of
wood. In November, Israel Ludiow came up and laid out
the streets, naming one after himself, the others after his
colleagues, adding Jefferson Street, to the east, because they
were all good Federalists, and the town itself he called
DAYTON.

Then, it being cold weather, all further arrangements
for the settlement were suspended until spring.

CHAPTER III.

1790.

The Real Settlement.

The Dayton settlers start from Cincinnati. The Land party
and its adventures. The Water part}- and its difficulties. Ten
days of travel and tlie destination reached. Dayton comes on
the map.

In the last chapter we heard of the men who hought the
land where otir city now stands, and of the other men who
protected it from the Indians. In this we shall know some-
thing- of the first real Daytonians. how they happened to
come here, and how they prospered. I shall ask yon to use
your imaginations, becatise history must be read with a
vision. All the trtith cannot be \n\t down in books.

Throughout the winter of 1795-96, preparations had
been going on at Cincinnati for the new settlement. The
promoters made good use of the waiting time by describing
with enthusiasm the advantages of a home in Dayton.
Tempting inducements were offered. Each householder
was to have the gift of an "inlot" and an "outlot." meaning
a town site for his home and ten acres outside the bounda-
ries, for purposes of ctiltivation. He was also to be granted
the privileges of buying one hundred and sixty acres in ad-
dition, for the sum of a dollar and thirteen cents an acre,
which plan has been since followed by the Federal Gov-
ernment for the l)enefit of homesteaders. The contract
obliged the settler to clear his land and build a cabin.

In November a lottery had been held by the surveying
party, acting for others as well as for themselves, to divide
the ground fairly. Forty-six men were found to have drawn
lots. By spring however, this ntimber had dwindled tuitil
in March onlv nineteen were reallv readv to make the start.

22 TJic Story uf Dayton

Counting wives and children, there were just thirty-six souls
who became, in 1796, the actual settlers of Dayton.

Necessity divided the group into three parties, tw^o to go
by land and one by water. The first party consisted of ten
persons, led by John Hamar, who made the journey in a
two-horse wagon over the road cut by Cooper the fall be-
fore. This is now the Cincinnati pike. In the other
land party were George Newcom, his wife, and six other
couples. A rather important member of this cavalcade, if
we may credit the frequent mention of her in all the old
histories, was a family cow belonging to Samuel Thompson,
himself a member of the boat party. William Van Cleve
drove the cow, and she paid her way in milk for the chil-
dren night and morning.

The stores for the land parties were carried in creels,
or baskets made of hickory withes, and swung on each side
of the pack horses. In these receptacles were loaded the
household treasures for the new home ; bedding, skillets,
tools, seed corn, provisions, a chair or two, clothing, and
sometimes one might see, peeping out over the edge, the
laughing face of the littlest child, put there to save the
tired arms of the mother. The crossing of tributary creeks
proved a problem met with not a few times between Cincin-
nati and Dayton. If it were a small stream which obstructed
the way, the men hewed down a large tree so that the trunk
would fall across the current, and on this footbridge the
women and children crossed dry shod. If, however, the
stream were larger, a raft was made by cutting saplings,
binding them together and poling the party across.

Owing to three armies which had passed over it and
trodden down the earth, the road from Cincinnati to Fort
Hamilton was found in fair condition ; beyond Hamilton,
however, there was not a wheel track, only the blazed trees
and the clearing made by Cooper. Their first camp was
made seven miles above Cincinnati, the second at Dunlap's
Station, and the third at Hamilton. Every night the set-
tlers built a fire of dry wood and cooked a wild goose for

The Real Settlement

supper. Large flocks of ducks and geese were continually
flying overhead and nests were found full of eggs in the
rushes.

During this time the water party progressed slowly,
experiencing, on the whole, a most laborious journey.
The pirogue had been built on the river bank at the foot
of Sycamore Street, Cincinnati. It started on March 21
with the Thompson's, the McClure's, Benjamin Van Cleve,
and a dozen others on board. The first stage of the journey
was in the manner of that so often taken by the immigrants

Coming up fioni Cuicinuati in ITOG.

from Pittsburgh, a mere floating with the current, as far at
least as the mouth of the Miami River. This stage of the
journey occupied the whole of the first day. Where the
two rivers meet, a long peninsula was found to extend into
the Ohio. Here the women and children went ashore and
walked across, meeting the boat as it rounded the point.

Beyond the mouth of the river, it was no longer a
question of letting the current do the work, but a forcing
of the heavily-laden boat upstream by sheer muscular

24 The Story of Dayton

strength. A running board extended the length of the
pirogue, and upon this stood the men who worked the boat.
While one steered, another shoved a stout pole into the bank
or bottom of the stream, then, holding the other end to his
shoulder, w^alked slowly from the prow to the stern, forcing
the craft slowly against the current. A\'ithdrawing the pole,
he went back to the prow for a new "set," repeating this
duty, hour after hour, while the l)oat crept at a snail's pace
up the river. A\'hen shallows were met in the channel,
a rope was attached to a tree on the bank, upstream, and
all on board would take hold and pull, until the craft was
e\en with the tree. Another tree being selected farther on,
another loop of the rope was effected and another pull,
bright miles a day was a good run. Think of it the next
time you come up from Cincinnati in an hour and twenty
minutes on the Big Foiu' train.

That sixty-mile journey required just ten days to cover,
inch I))- inch, mile by mile. And did they enjoy it, we won-
der? Was the river beautiful, with glassy reflections, as it
is now, in calm reaches far from the city? Were pussy-
willows just feathering out? Were thickets pink with red-
bud and white with dogwood? We do not know, for the
only account of the journey, that given by Benjamin A'an
Cleve, is chiefly concerned with the effort to reach their
destination. 15ut it was .\pril, and that alone must have
filled their hearts with hope and courage for whatever was
before them.

The boat ]3arty was the first to arrive. Rounding the
curve in the river, where for so many years since then it
has been flowing under the Dayton X'iew bridge, the pio-
neers ])erceive(l before their eyes the swift current of Alad
River em])tying itself into the main channel, just as it had
been described, and saying to each other (so we may
imagine), "Yes, this must lie the place." they tied the
pirogue to a tree at the head oi St. Clair Street and led
by Mrs. Thompson, all clambered ashore.

.\t that moment DAYTOX came on the map I

The Real Settlciiieut 2?

It certainly bore small resemblance to tbe DAYTOX we
know, this forest wilderness of vines and shrubs, these
groves of oak and beech and walnut, the rows of stately
sycamores sweeping with their branches the surface of the
water, and in the midst of it all, a handful of simple, pio-
n.eer people looking gravely about. And what would the
Thompson's and Xewcom's have thought if. looking ahead
a century and more, the}- could have seen the ])resent vista
of Alain Street, the britlges. the cars, and Steele Iligli
School ?

Whatever we niav surmise about the doings of these
first Daytonians. a shelter of some kind we may be sure was
their first concern. \'an Cleve tells us that they broke up
the pirogue and with the lumber built a three-sided shack,
open to the camp fire. This formed a partial shelter against
wild animals and spring storms, from both of which there
was instant need of jirotection. A day or so later, creeping
u]) from the south, and threading the grassy clearing full
of stumi^s and gullies which was one day to be Alain Street.
came the two wagon parties. Imagine how glad they all
were to meet again : how the wagon people told the boat
]:)eople about the creeks and the wild geese, how the boat
people told the wagon people about the hard pull o\er the
"riffles" at Franklin.

Then, of course, thev all went to work. Xot enough
hours between dawn and sunset for all there was to do.
Each day several big oaks or maples fell with a crash and
were cut into lengths for cabin walls. The men worked to-
gether, putting up each house in turn.

Round logs were fitted at the corners, enclosing one large
room with a loft above, reached by means of pegs driven
in the chinks. Xot a nail was used, for the good reason
that they had none. A\'ooden pins kept the door and v»in-
dow^ frames in place. Floors were made by splitting logs
lengthwise and laying the flat side up — puncheon floors,
they were called. An opening six or eight feet square was
left on one wall, and against this the chimnev was built of

:|r

^
1

The Real Settlement 27

flat stones from the river bottom, daubed with mud or clay.
Houses made in this way were not handsome, but proved
to be both warm in winter and cool in summer, much su-
perior to the later dwellings built of clapboards.

With a roof over their heads, the next move of the pio-
neers was towards a garden. As each man cleared hih
ground of trees and brush he sowed it with potatoes, corn,
and beans. By midsummer of 1796, the clearing west of
Wilkinson Street had been converted into a wide cornfield,
cultivated by all the village, each family taking its share of
the crops. The remainder of the cleared ground followed
the present course of Monument Avenue along the river
bank, the one row of cabins so placed that the owners would
be able to see the boats passing up and down stream.

The boundaries of Dayton at that time were Monument
Avenue on the north as far as the present course of the
canal ; on St. Clair south to Fifth, thence west to Jefferson,
south to Sixth, west to Ludlow, north to Fifth, then to Wil-
kinson and the river once more. But of all this, the meager
group of cabins on the river bank constituted the only vis-
ible proof that a town existed. Small wonder that strangers
stopping at Newcom's Tavern to inquire how much farther
it was to Dayton, had to be told that they had just passed
through it !

Three gullies, running from north to south through the
town site, added to the difficulty of making streets. In
1891, while digging for a sewer at Third and Main, the
workmen uncovered, six or eight feet beneath the surface,
a number of logs placed there in the early years of the last
century to keep horses from sinking into the mud. Mud
there was, you may be sure, and plenty of it — mud and
stumps, tall weeds and pawpaw thickets, tangles of wild
grapes, and five log cabins with blue smoke curling from
their chimnevs — that was Davton in her birthdav vear of
1796.

CHAPTER IV.

1793_1800.

A Pioneer Family.

If you were an early Dayton boy. The fireside and the din-
ner talde. Wild turkey, corn dodgers, hominy and sorghum,
venison. How mother made things comfortable. The road to
a loaf of bread.

A glance inside the old Xewcom Tavern, now standing
on the river bank at \'an Cleve P'ark. will tell the story of
how our pioneer ancestors lived. A big open fireplace,
the feattire of ever}- pioneer home, was the gathering place
of the family. It held on winter days a roaring fire of
hickory logs, cleverly built so as to furnish light as well as
heat. The family cooking was done over this fire, and
back-breaking, face-scorching work it must liave been
for the mother. Fortunately, not as many viands were re-
quired then as now. A bowl of mush and milk or one of
hominy and sorghtim made a full meal foi; a hungrv, pioneer
boy. Dipped hot from a big iron kettle on a crane, such as
hangs in the cabin to-day, it was a dish fit for an emperor.

Meat was roasted by the direct heat of the fire, turned
from one side to the other, a job for the smallest child, sit-
ting on a low stool with a string in his fingers. Among the
Xewcom utensils you will see an iron '■s])ider'" on three
legs, into which the batter for the cornbread was put, and
where, between the coals below and those on the cover, it
acquired a crisp brown. A broom was made bv shaving
the end of a hickory stick into withes, which were then bent
back and tied in a tight brush. The first candles were home-
made wicks dipped into a kettle of melted grease, as many
times as were needed for the required size. — "tallow dips'"
thev were called, — thick at one end anfl thin at the other,

TJic Story of Dayton

which smoked and sputtered in their own dim light. Little
use had the early settlers for artificial light! Such tree-
chopping, stump-grubbing, log-rolling days as they spent
left small necessity for evening lamps.

The furniture of a pioneer home was mainly the product
of the ax and the jackknife. Three-legged stools were a
necessity, the floor being so uneven that four legs would
never all touch at once. A bed in the corner was built of
strips held up by poles resting in a forked stick and inserted

A Pioneer Interior.

between the logs of the wall, the surface being covered with
dried grass and bear skins. Above the fireplace hung the
implement most frequently needed and most hurriedly
reached for, the rifle. With it were the powder horn and
shot pouch. When an Indian yell split the night air, or a
noise at the pigpen said "W^olves," the gun must be where
one sweep of the arm would get it. Dried ears of corn,
strings of garlic, peppers, pumpkins, and coon skins hung

A Pioneer Family 31

thick from the rafters. Shelves supported the few pewter
plates and cups wdiich had been brought from Cincinnati.
Shallow bowls hollowed out of hard wood or whittled from
a crook-necked gourd, served as vegetable dishes. The
spoons were few and made of horn. If a visitor came, he
took his hunting knife from its sheath and used that.

Each cabin held a spinning wheel, and some of them a
hand loom. Without these useful machines little girls
would have lacked the necessary petticoats and their father
his shirts. The flax and wool out of which they were made
had to be raised on the place ; this we know because of f re-
c|uent mention of snakes in the flax patch and wolves in the
sheep pen. Each industry met its own problems. The
yarn, when spun and carded, was dyed with butternut hulls
or madder root, and woven on the hand loom. The cloth
was then made up by hand into garments, not by any means
as fashionable as those to be found in the department stores
now standing on the same spot. If the pioneers had been
ambitious about the cut of their clothes, we never should
have had Dayton — of that you may be sure. If the wom-
en's rough dresses were warm and held at the seams it was
all that was necessary. A man's hunting shirt of deerskin
w^ith leggins of the same, must have lasted half a lifetime,
and a coon-skin cap, such as "Natty Bimipo" wore, never
went out of style.

You will be curious to know what, aside from the mush-
and-milk which was everywhere the staple food, those early
Dayton boys and girls had to eat. The surprising fact was
that they had plenty of the luxuries which are now very ex-
pensive, but almost none of the plainer things that the poor-
est now enjoy. Wild game, venison, and grouse they ate
every day; bread — nice, common bread, they waited years
for.

How often it happens during the present Dayton days
that the bread for dinner has been forgotten. "Go to the
grocery, son, and buy me a loaf," says the mother. Brought
home, it takes its place on the table as the least important

A Pioneer Family o3

thing, good to hold gravy and to fill up on, but by no means
a delicacy. Ah, but if you had to do without it ! Let me
tell you what a long road it was that led to a loaf of bread
in the years of 1796-97.

Corn could be raised in one season, and it was always
hoped to get a crop the first summer. Therefore, johnny-
cake was the first bread aimed at. But for a wheat loaf, the
seed wheat must be brought in pack saddles from Cin-
cinnati ; it was expensive and they almost counted the grains
to see that none were lost. In order to sow it, mellow, even
ground must be prepared, therefore, the first step on the
long road to a loaf of bread was to cut down perhaps
twenty big trees and dig out the roots — two seasons' work
at the very least. Plow there was none, so father searched
out a three-pronged hickory branch, "ironed" one end of it
and held to the other while the horse dragged it around the
clearing. Not scientific plowing by any means, but it got
things stirred up after a fashion, ready for the wheat to
be sown in. Later if the crows were not too industrious
and the following winter not too severe; if the rain came
when it should and not when it shouldn't ; if the Miami did
not burst its banks and spoil the furrows, — the grain at
last came up and headed out.

When ripe, there was no harvester to be driven around
the field, cutting and binding at one stroke. Father did it
with a sickle, and you helped. Also, of course, no steam
threshing machine to sift the grain from the straw. Again
the work was done by father's hands and yours, and two
flails. The grain gleaned, threshed, and loaded into sacks,
much indeed had been done, but you were still pretty far
from a loaf of bread. Bread required yeast, and yeast
means the planting of vines, — another season's work, — then
hops to be picked and soaked and strained.

At last the loaf of raised dough, which must be baked,
and how, without pans or a cook-stove? The forehanded
among the Dayton householders had built brick ovens in
their yards. (A long branch road here, to find a clay bank,

The Story of Dayton

make bricks, and do a mason's work with mortar and
trowel, father always, and you, too, looking on and handing
him tools.) With a big fire kindled in the oven, the bricks
made hot, the bread, nicely risen, was pushed in on a long-
handled shovel and left to the heat of the bricks and ashes.
What came out an hour later was worth talking about ! All
this at the very least, a two years' job!

Do you wonder that the children watched the growth of
the wheat stalks from day to day, knowing that each sun-

Hand made sausage filler, Newcom Cabin.

rise brought them nearer to a loaf of bread? And are you
not thankful that machines and modern kitchens have short-
ened the road?

As to meat, there was no scarcity of that, as we have
seen. When hungry, you took your gun and went over the
river to where the Bellevue apartments now stand, and if
in twenty minutes, you did not bring down a fat gobbler,
you must certainly have been a bad shot. Van Cleve tells
us that often there was no breakfast until it was brought

513609

A Pioneer Family 35

in from the woods, which emphasized the difference be-
tween hunting for fun and hunting as a deadly necessity.

Deer shooting was done at night on the river with a
lighted torch fastened to the prow of the boat. The an-
imals coming down to drink were transfixed with curiosity
or terror, and stood quite still — an easy mark. When the
hunt was successful, it was not only a week's supply of
food that was brought in, but a fine pelt out of which to
make caps and leggings.

Our ancestors made use of everything the woods offered,
which was, after all, everything they needed, except that it
meant hard work to get it. If a table were lacking, the
father felled an oak tree, split a section of the log length-
wise, smoothed the flat side with a broad-ax, fastened four
straight legs into auger holes on the bark side and said (so
we may imagine), "There, mother! There's your table."

If protection was needed under foot on cold mornings,
father shot a bear — the rug made from the hide was warm,
and the flank steaks juicy. Every flock of migrating birds,
flapping their way southward in November, meant at the
same time roast duck or goose for dinner and a new set of
pillows.

The river literally teemed with fish. We read that
two full wagon loads were hauled up at one time in a seine
net, let down in mid-channel at the head of Main Street.
The woods were a tangle of blackberry and wild grape vines,
blueberries, hazel nuts, and wild strawberries abounded m
season. The maple trees yielded sap and sugar, the shag-
barks dropped hickory nuts, the nests of wild birds were
full of eggs, and in the hollows of dead trees honey in the
comb lay hidden.

It was a "fruitful wilderness" indeed, and no chance for
any boy to go hungry. We may be sure that they did tire
of wild fruits and venison, and longed wildly for roast
pork and apples, or a slice of bread and butter. It was
many a day before these luxuries appeared ; four years un-

The Story of Dayton

til Daniel Cooper brought the first drove of hogs from Cin-
cinnati, and longer before the orchards were in bearing.

At a log-rolling or a wedding, the entire pioneer menu
would be set out. Wild turkey, goose, bear steaks, venison,
corn-dodgers, rabbit stew, hominy fried in bear's grease,
grape preserves and honey, all served on one plate. If the
children passed their plates even to the third time, it was
because they had earned the right,
having worked as hard, at least for
their small strength, as the grown
people.

Since the father must cut timber,
shoot game, plow, and build houses,
little of his time was left in which
to pound corn, dig potatoes, or take
the cow to pasture, therefore, these
duties were left to the boy. Since
the mother must spin and weave
and cook, make candles and soap,
cure meat and do tailoring for the
family, it is evident that the baby-
tending, pumpkin-scraping, bean-
shelling, and weeding had to be
done by somebody, and that some-
body was the boy's sister. Girls of
ten and twelve took up from neces-
sity tasks for which their mothers
had no time. Work that now seems
too heavy for a boy of seventeen
was then done by one of eight. Results showed that they
were never the worse for it. No school for the making of
self-reliant men and women like the early Dayton days !

Busy hours brought good appetites and a sound night's
rest. Sitting after supper on a stool before the fire, what
wonder one grew sleepy and had to be helped up the ladder
to the bearskin bed in the loft! Stars peeped through be-
tween chinks in the logs, and an owl hooted mournfully in

Hand hominy mill; original
in Log Cabin.

A Pioneer Family 37

a tree. From the woods across the river one could some-
times hear a panther scream — a horrid sound, Hke a big cat
or a baby ! Wolves, too, prowled around in cold weather
and sniffed at the cracks. Reasons enough to cover up one's
head in the warm, safe bed and to be glad father had barred
the door with the heavy wooden latch.

CHAPTER V.

1795—1800.

Hardships and Progress.

Dayton's first experience with hard times. Titles to land
wanted and won. Newcom's Tavern becomes the hub of the
Miami universe. Dayton builds a church. Ohio at last a .State,
and Montgomery a county.

A city, it seems, cannot be a real city without an ex-
perience of hard times, and Dayton, on its way to cityhood,
must needs have its share. The successful beginning and
the prosperity of the subsequent two years came to an end
in 1798 when the homesteaders discovered, to their dismay,
that titles to their land were lacking. Moreover, it seemed
as though such security was not to be had. Symmes had
failed to meet his obligations to the Government, and owned
no patent. What he did not possess he could not pass on.
The four purchasers, — Ludlow, Wilkinson, St. Clair, and
Dayton, — could do no better. It was a discouraging situ-
ation. The brunt of the misfortune came, of course, upon
the hard-working and patient men who had parted with
homes in the East and come out to the wilderness at the
risk of their lives. Do you wonder that the question on
every one's lips was, "Why break roads, build cabins, and
plow fields, if they are to be taken from us?"

Under such unsettled conditions the Dayton settlers were
restless and unhappy. New people could not be persuaded
to take up land, and if they did not come, Dayton could
never be Dayton. Several families moved away, leaving
empty cabins, which added to the general depression. Not
only property rights, but living conditions were under a
cloud. Food was scarce. Flour (if they bought it) cost
fourteen dollars a barrel, and all merchandise, hauled
through the heavy mud from Cincinnati, was high in pro-

Hardships and Progress 39

portion. Indian troubles were not as entirely at an end
as the treaties indicated. Bears invaded the pigpens, and
everybody had the ague. Early writers assure us that there
was at least one compensation connected with the last af-
fliction, inasmuch as "chill day" for half the town was
"well day" for the other half. Therefore, in 1799, when
five Dayton citizens wrapped themselves in blankets, shiv-
ered and drank boneset tea, the other four shouldered their
axes and went to work.

In 1799, Congress attempted to help out this property
puzzle by the passage of a bill allowing increased time for
payments, and offering, on payment of two dollars an acre,
clear title to settlers on the Symmes grant. This, you may
imagine, was not wholly satisfactory. Symmes paid, or
was to have paid, sixty-six cents an acre ; the four subse-
quent purchasers, eighty-three cents. To double the orig-
inal price was, for most of the settlers, bankruptcy, and
a hundred years was a long time to wait for the rise in real
estate values on Main Street. The homesteaders maintained,
and no one would deny, that between Indians and wolves,
ague and mud, hard work and scant living, they earned the
land by merely staying on it.

At this juncture Daniel C. Cooper came to the support
of his friends' claims and his own. He had joined the Day-
ton colony in 1797, pre-empting a large farm south of town.
Convinced that Dayton property could not fail to increase
in value, he purchased land rights from his fellow citizens
until he practically owned the larger part of the town.
Through his influence with Government officials, a state-
ment was presented to Congress, praying that since "the
petitioners had, at vast expense, labor, and difficulty, suc-
ceeded in founding a settlement at the mouth of Mad River,
they most respectfully submitted that they had not received
the benefits and advantages for which they had hoped."

The result of this petition was the opening of a land
office at Cincinnati, through which each homesteader finally
received a duly registered certificate, tangible proof of his

40 The Story of Dayton

ownership. Those who had held out did, however, have to
pay a dollar for their town lots and two dollars an acre
for land which had been offered them free in the beginning.
Nevertheless things went better. More people came in,
some glad to find vacant homes ready to occupy. Others
built on Main Street lots.

During the winter of 1797, it became necessary to recog-
nize definite boundary lines to this region, therefore, Day-
ton Township was created. It included six of our present
counties, a large and sparsely settled area, of which Dayton
was the geographical and business center. At that time
wagon parties were continually coming up from Cincinnati
to find new homes, settlers driving down from the north to
trade, and in spite of the lack of good roads, people went
about more or less, made friendships, and transacted busi-
ness. All the "trails" centered at Dayton, and Newcom's
Tavern, which then stood on the southwest corner of Main
and Water streets (now Monument Avenue), was the hub
of the Miami universe. One might almost say it was the
most important building from here to Detroit. You may
see it now, in its hale old age, with logs apparently as sound
as when felled more than a century ago, and preserving its
character as the type of a pioneer dwelling.

In its youth it represented advanced ideas in city build-
ing. Up to this time cabins had been constructed of round
logs daubed with clay; Newcom's house was of hewn logs
chinked with mortar. People from "up country" went
home and told admiring neighbors about Newcom's. The
plan consisted of two large rooms on the first floor with a
half-story above. In front of the living-room fireplace sat,
in that far-off time, many a backwoodsman, many a soldier
or settler, sometimes a government surveyor, or a visiting
judge, exchanging news of the day. For, in addition to
serving as a dwelHng and a tavern, Newcom's was the first
store ; it housed the first class of school children ; court sat
in the side room, and church services were held there on
Sunday. Legend also calls it the first jail because an ob-

Hardships and Progress 41

streperous Indian was once said to have been confined in
the corncrib. Whether or not all the stories be true, New-
com's was, you may be sure, the place where everybody met
everybody else and discussed the news of the day; who had
chills that week, and what they did for them; whether big
game had been shot, or new people had come to town.
There, muskrat skins could be exchanged for a pound of
sugar, or wild beeswax for powder and shot; there preach-
ing might be heard on Sunday, and perhaps a lawsuit, if
court happened to be sitting.

In the spring of 1799 warnings reached Dayton to the
effect that hostile Indians were gathering into bands, evi-
dently for no good purpose. For necessary protection, a
log stockade was hastily constructed at the head of Main
Street, just where the Soldiers' Monument now stands.
It was a building large enough to hold all the villagers in an
emergency, and with an overhanging second story from
which attacking savages could be fired upon. Whether the
Indians really meditated attack at this time never transpired,
but even in peace they were an unmitigated nuisance. Com-
ing in groups to sell maple sugar or skins, they prowled
around the settlement in search of what they might carry
away, entered doors without knocking, called people by
their first names, got drunk and frightened the children.

As it happened, the block-house was never used for de-
fense, but as a store-house for grain and as a school-room
for Benjamin Van Cleve and his first class of pupils.

An old lady named Mrs. Swaynie, who died many years
ago, used to tell a story of her girlhood experiences in Day-
ton. Her maiden name was Mary Van Cleve. She lived
with her fatlier and mother in the Thompson cabin on the
river bank between Jefferson and St. Clair streets. One
early wintry night, a band of roving Indians, full of bad
whisky and race hatred, surrounded the cabin, and with
fierce yells demanded admittance. Not daring to open to
them, the parents took Mary out of bed, put her through a
hole in the foundation by raising a board from the floor.

Hardships and Progress 43

While the Indians were raging at the front of the house,
the little girl ran through the darkness to Newcom's Tavern
for help. In her path was a steep gully, filled with stones
and briars; it was cold and dark, and the fearful yells of
the savages made her heart come up in her throat. Crying
and breathless she reached the welcome shelter where they
took her in by the big fire. Mr. Newcom carried her home
on his shoulder and the rest of the men drove the Indians
away. Do you wonder that the distance she ran that night
seemed to Mary "a whole mile," although it was less than
two city blocks?

Possessing, at the beginning of the year 1800, a school,
a store, and occasionally a court. Dayton began to think
about building a church. Daniel C. Cooper had donated for
this purpose, two lots on the corner of Third and Main
streets, a location apparently too distant from the center
of town ever to be needed for business purposes. In mid-
summer, after the crops were in, the citizens assembled and
together constructed the First Presbyterian Church.

We have no exact record of the way it was accomplished,
but we must use our imaginations, prompted by the old rec-
ords. The importance of this event lay in the fact that no
other church existed north of Cincinnati. People came to
Dayton from miles around to hear "preaching." A "cabin
raising" was a great event in the pioneer world. It brought
men from far and near, and furnished a chance for their
wives to exchange gossip and cook a good dinner. How
much more would this be the case in the building of the only
church in an area many miles in extent !

We can picture, mentally, the crowd assembled on Main
Street — pioneers in leather breeches and peltry caps, women
in homespun, children to fetch and carry. Two days were
occupied in the work ; one in which to get the timber out of
the woods, the second for the actual construction of the
cabin. Busy wielders of axes felled the trees and cut them
into lengths, teamsters hauled the logs to the site, the work-
ers together trimmed the ends and fitted them together at

44 The Story of Dayton

the comers. Larger trees, from three to four feet in diam-
eter, out of which to make boards for the roof, were split
into four feet lengths and used without planing or shaving.
Puncheons for the floor were hewed with a broad ax and
laid flat side up. This finished one day's work. The next
morning the "raising" took place. A man at each of the
four corners notched the peeled hickory logs and fitted them
together. When the walls had grown to about eight feet
high, the gable was formed by making the end logs shorter,
supporting at the apex a single log, the comb of the roof.
Upon this basis the clapboards were fitted, the ends resting
upon the walls. When night fell, the building was com-
plete except, perhaps, for a door-stone or a latch. After a
hearty supper, the people separated to assemble the next
Sunday for "preaching."

When, a few years later, it was disclosed that the corner
of Third and Main streets was really growing in demand
for business purposes, the log church was sold and torn
down. The twenty-two dollars received for it formed a
nucleus for a building fund, which, in 1817, landed the con-
gregation in a fine new church on the corner of Second and
Ludlow streets. A. third and finer church, which succeeded
it, now stands pointing its tall steeple to the sky.

On the thirtieth of April, 1802, Congress passed an act
authorizing the inhabitants of this part of the Northwest
Territory to form a State government. No time was wasted
by the pioneers in availing themselves of the new oppor-
tunity. On the first of November of the same year, a con-
vention assembled at Chillicothe and framed a constitution ;
on the twenty-ninth adopted it, and February, 1803, wit-
nessed Ohio formally admitted by Congress to the sister-
hood of States.

A year later, Montgomery County was established, not
as we know it, but including fourteen of our present coun-
ties. The sixth section of the same act, providing that
"the temporary seat of justice shall be held at the house of
George Newcom, in the town of Dayton," established Day-

Hardships and Progress

ton not merely as a geographical, but as a judicial center
in the great west.

First Presbyterian Church, 1841-1SG7

CHAPTER VI.

1805—1811.

Our Commercial Beginnings.

The wood-path and the river as avenues of commerce. Day-
ton becomes a thriving business center. Early stores and their
customers. A public library. Mud and drops of tallow. Earth-
quakes and squirrels.

In the year 1805, land complications being virtually
settled and the Indian and rattlesnake having, it was hoped,
departed for good, Dayton began to grow. Main Street
had by this time been cleared and leveled as far as the junc-
tion with Warren Street, and the gully at Third Street filled
with walnut logs. Cabins were being replaced by neat
frame buildings. The landing place on the river was still
occupied by Newcom's Tavern, the block-house, and the five
original cabins, but the settlement was spreading to the
south. The corner of First and Main had become a busy
center, with one large general store, operated by D. C.
Cooper, and another by James Steele. H. G. Phillips con-
ducted a thriving trade at the corner of First and Jefferson
streets.

It was literally "trade," because Httle or no currency
changed hands. Real money was a rare commodity. The
products of the region were the universal medium of ex-
change, and they came to have a standard value. If a bride
bought a muslin dress for a wedding gown, she paid a doe-
skin a yard for it, the equivalent of a dollar and a half. A
yard of calico, or "print," cost two muskrat skins ; stock-
ings, one buckskin a pair. A set of dishes was purchased
with six bear skins worth five dollars each. The pioneer's
dollar bill came from the back of a deer, his "quarter" from
a muskrat. A coon skin passed as currency for thirty-
seven and a half cents.

48 The Story of Dayton

The goods with which these first stores were stocked
came in Conestoga wagons from Philadelphia over the
mountains to Pittsburgh, from there down the Ohio River
to Cincinnati on rafts, called "broadhorns" ; thence up the
Miami or on pack-horses through the woods to Day-
ton. When a pack train arrived, swinging up Main Street
with jingling bells and shouts from the drivers, on its way
to unload at Phillips' or Cooper's or Steele's, it was an
event of great interest. Sometimes a dozen horses, tied
together, each carrying an average of two hundred pounds,
and escorted by four or five men, filled the roadway. The
trip occupied at least five days, the drivers having supplied
themselves, by means of their rifles, with food on the way.

When merchants purchased stock it was not, as in these
days, through the ofifices of a traveling salesman, those con-
venient persons being then quite unknown. What was not
to be procured by means of correspondence must be pur-
chased at the eastern market in person, necessitating one
trip to Philadelphia a year for the leading Dayton mer-
chants. This undertaking meant for the buyer at least
three weeks in the saddle, through the woods of Ohio and
Pennsylvania. When selecting a horse for this purpose, the
purchaser was careful to ask, "Is he a good swimmer?"
there being many unfordable streams in the long journey
between here and Philadelphia. One family still living in
Dayton, boasts a great-grandmother who made that trip in
order to bear her husband company, their three-months-old
baby in her arms, partly resting on the saddle bow.

Such merchandise as did not come from Philadelphia,
through Cincinnati, was brought from New Orleans in
barges. Flour, sugar, rice came up ; wheat, rye, corn, tal-
low went down. The pack train was not the only excite-
ment on Main Street in those days. Just as interesting was
a fleet of keel boats arriving from the north and taking on
cargo for the down-stream journey from the big red ware-
house at the head of Wilkinson Street. In 1810, a line of
freight boats was established, connecting Dayton directly

Our Commercial Beginnings 49

with Lake Erie by way of the Aliami, Auglaize, and Mau-
mee rivers. Whole fleets would sometimes be seen tied up
along the bank, waiting for high water. The Watchman
prints an account of nine flat-boats loaded with grain, sad-
dles of venison, salt pork, pelts, and whisky, which left the
landing for the South in one day. During March and
April, 1818, seventeen hundred barrels of flour were ship-
ped from Dayton to New Orleans.

Occasionally people built rafts and undertook the jour-
ney to New Orleans as a private speculation. Two such
boats were constructed in the middle of Main Street at
Third, and when finished, were moved on rollers to the
river and launched. The usual plan was to sell both boat
and cargo at the destination, the owner returning by stage
and saddle. One local item announced the arrival of a keel
boat over seventy feet long, and carrying twelve tons of
merchandise, which had been consigned to H. G. Phillips.
Spring shopping was governed largely by the stage of water
prevailing in the Miami River. If you wanted a new bon-
net, the beeswax or coon-skins, with which to pay for it,
must be brought to the store in ample time to catch the
next down-river boat or they were not accepted as payment.

Although so much business activity was evident in Day-
ton at that day, the country at large still remained virtually
a wilderness. The roads of that day were worse than poor
— they were impassable. It was twenty years later than the
period described before the era of turnpikes arrived, mean-
while during the winter season, farmers were practically
shut off from civilization. One such, coming in from the
Mad River district, became imbedded hub deep on Monu-
ment Avenue near the present gas works, and was forced
to ask for help to pry his wheels from the mire.

A typical journey was that of Benjamin Van Cleve, on
his way home from Chillicothe, where he had been serving
as clerk in the legislature, and thus described in his journal :
"In the latter part of January, I returned from Chillicothe
by way of Lebanon. There had been a deep fall of snow.

50 The Story of Dayton

which was beginning to dissolve with heavy rains before I
got to Williamsburg, and made traveling very bad. After
I left there the flats were covered with water, sometimes to
the saddle-skirts. The creeks were bank full, and I, having
been confined to a close room with neither air nor exercise
during the whole winter, caught a violent cold. Owing to
my habit of leaning against the table while writing, I had
developed a pain in my side in which the cold seemed to
settle. The gait of the horse caused me great pain, all food
threw me into a violent dyspepsia, which, up to this time,
1820, still returns in cold weather."

In 1805, this little community of plain frontier folk who
had scarcely emerged from the coon-skin-cap-and-moccasin
period of ten years before, decided to possess a library.
Through the initiation of D. C. Cooper, then a member of
the legislature, the "Dayton Social Library Society'' was
organized, with Benjamin Van Cleve as librarian. The
few books which composed the collection were kept in his
home, which also served as the village postoffice. Little
has come down to us of the selection of books or the tastes
of the readers, but one thing only is plain, that libraries
were then as careful as now to make the public respect
books. "Rules for borrowers," as found in the old records,
imposed a fine of two cents for each drop of tallow that
the reader was personally responsible for.

The spring of 1805 brought a terrific week of high
water, the river breaking over its banks at Mill Street, and
pouring across the town. The flood measured eight feet
in depth at Third and Main, and much property was de-
stroyed. With a promptness imitated on a later and greater
occasion, Dayton hastened to assure the world at large that
beyond a severe wetting it was not so much the worse for
the disaster.

During this same year, the first courthouse was erected
on ground contributed by D. C. Cooper, the site now oc-
cupied by its successor. Constructed of brick, two stories
high, the walls were flush with the sidewalk, and the rear

Our Cotnmercial Beginnings 51

of the lot was occupied as at the present day by a jail. The
sheriff, who boarded at Newcom's, kept the key in his
pocket.

On the next corner north of the courthouse, stood Mc-
Cullom's Tavern, which was beginning to supercede New-
corn's as a place of popular resort. Logs had, by this time,
gone out of style as building material and the new hotel
with its fine brick walls, the first in Dayton, was pointed out
with pride to visiting strangers. The guests were sum-
moned to five o'clock breakfast by a bell on the roof, and a
tall pole at the entrance door bore a swinging sign on which
was painted the capture of the British frigate '"Guerriere"
by the Amerigan frigate "Constitution." This cosmopolitan
touch quite captured the traveling public and AlcCullum's
became the gayest place in Montgomery County. It was
occupied for hotel purposes until 1870, after which it be-
came a business house and so remained until 1880, when it
was destroyed to make room for the Fireman's Insurance
Building.

Sometime during this first decade of Dayton's existence
it became advisable to encourage traffic from beyond the
river. Therefore, a ferry was established at the head of First
Street, meeting the road from Salem, another at the end
of Wilkinson Street, and a third farther south to connect
with the road to Germantown. Mere rope arrangements,
they were, these primitive ferries, across which the boatmen
propelled their raft by pulling, hand over hand, from bank
to bank, slow, but not a little better than swimming. Con-
sidering the scarcity of money in those times the fares
seem high, — seventy-five cents for a loaded wagon and
team, fifty cents for an empty wagon and team, thirty-seven
and one-half cents for a two-wheeled carriage, twelve and
one-half cents for a man on horseback, six -and one-quarter
cents for a man on foot.

Another important advance toward convenient living
was when, in 1804, mail began to come in every week, and a
new postoffice was opened to accommodate the increase.

52 The Story of Dayton

Every Monday, a post-rider on a tired and mud-stained
horse, brought a sack of letters up from Cincinnati, the only
mail ofifice west of the Alleghanies, and went on his way to
Detroit. If you wished to communicate with a friend at
Franklin, the letter had first to go to Cincinnati and be
brought back to its destination on the return trip. From
1804 to 1806, people living as far north as Fort Wayne
were obliged to come to Dayton for their mail. When,
therefore, the new route was opened, enabling letters to be
exchanged every week, it was a most welcome arrangement.

Postage stamps had not at that time been invented ;
twenty-five cents, the amount generally due on a letter,
being marked on the envelope and collected from the person
to whom it was written. Often, however, the recipient, a
"land poor" pioneer, did not possess the necessary twenty-
five cents. He might have owned a whole block on Main
Street, and not been able to more than look at the outside
of his letter through the door of the box.

Garden or other products were not accepted by the
Government in exchange for mail, and upon that decree
hung many a real hardship. The relatives and friends from
whom one was hungering for news, might be distant the
whole length of Pennsylvania and letters a week in coming.
To pay twenty-five cents in silver for a missive three months
old was surely not the least of the pioneer troubles. When
Benjamin Van Cleve was postmaster, a fellow feeling for
his neighbors, who rarely saw a dollar, so moved him that
he frequently allowed unpaid-for-mail to go out of the
office, to which charitable plan the Postmaster-General
strongly objected. Peremptory instructions against such
running up of bills on the United States Government came
from Philadelphia and put an end to the practice.

The fall election of 1807 showed the casting of one hun-
dred and ninety-six votes, from which one may estimate
the probable population of Dayton at that time to have been
upward of a thousand souls. Many new dwellings had been
built, and the population included two editors, one minister,

Our Commercial Beginnings

one lawyer, one school teacher, and three doctors. Five
stores, three taverns, and a dozen dwellings composed Main
Street of that day.

In 1811, there occurred what was probably the severest
and most prolonged earthquake in history. Owing to the
fact that the country was sparsely settled, with little inter-
communication among the widely separated centers, almost
nothing was recorded of the catastrophe. Also, there were
no massed products of civilization for it to destroy. But no
diary of the time leaves it unmentioned. All agree that the

The first brick house in Dayton built by Henry Brown for his bride, Kitty

Patterson. It stood on Main Street just north of the alley leading to

Ludlow Street. For many years used by the Dayton Journal.

first shock occurred in December, several in January, and
that during February the vibrations were almost continuous.
What geographical changes it wrought will never be known.
Ohio and Mississippi River boatmen described how whole
areas of land sank out of sight, islands appeared in new
places, and the course of the shores altered for miles.

The personal narrative of a Dayton man who was on a
flatboat on the way down the Miami River, describes this
catastrophe. He was awakened at three o'clock one morn-

54 The Story of Dayton

ing by waves rocking the boat. As waves are of unusual
occurrence in the Miami River, the voyager sprang up to
investigate. By the dim Hght of dawn he saw the river
banks rising and falHng, trees along the water's edge swept
as if by a hurricane and old water-logged trunks from the
bottom of the stream hurled up-standing. During the long
journey to New Orleans the same thing occurred at inter-
vals, and the trip was continued only because the water
seemed safer than the land. Many times during those
months Dayton people were said to have fled from their
homes in terror. It was spring before the shocks entirely
ceased.

One of these early years witnessed a cruel frost on the
seventh of June, which killed the young corn, knee high in
the river bottoms, and blackened all vegetation. No roast-
ing ears graced Dayton tables that season.

A strange migration of squirrels is also mentioned in
early diaries. They seemed to be searching for mast, and
crossed the river in such swarms that the surface of the
water was brown, and the boys, in protection to the growing
crops, gathered on the bank and clubbed the swarming
animals to death. An item in the "Centinel" records that a
thousand squirrel scalps had been brought to the office in
one dav.

CHAPTER VII.

1807.

Some of the Men Who Made Dayton.

Our debt to the early citizens. Daniel C. Cooper, the sur-
veyor. Benjamin Van Cleve, the diarist. Robert Patterson,
soldier and citizen. Other good names which deserve our ap-
preciation.

The history of any locality is really the history of the
men who lived in it and worked for it. Therefore, the
story of Dayton should not proceed farther without a few
words about the men who gave our city the stability which
insures future growth.

During the earliest years of our history, two names
stand out with prominence, those of Daniel C. Cooper and
Benjamin Van Cleve. The first you have already met, cut-
ting his way through the woods from Cincinnati, that others
might follow, and you have read how the second guided the
pirogue up the current of the Miami and helped build the
first houses. Both deserve our lasting gratitude.

A surveyor from New Jersey, Daniel C. Cooper, came
west, as so many young men did, to find a new home. He
acquired, as you know, much of the central area of Dayton,
and this he proceeded to use, not for his own benefit, but
for that of the city in whose future he had such faith.
Cooper's first valuable service was the fine city plat he
drew, improving upon that of Israel Ludlow by straighten-
ing boundary lines and widening the streets.

With an eye to immediate needs, Cooper built two mills
on his town land, and two on the farm south of town. Be-
sides being a good investment, this enterprise marked
Cooper as a public benefactor, since it put an end to the
grinding of corn in a hand-mill, until then one of the
severest tasks in the pioneer household.

56 The Story of Dayton

Cooper's first home occupied the present site of the
National Cash Register factory, on ground which later be-
came the property of Colonel Robert Patterson. His sec-
ond home was what a social item in the weekly paper called
"an elegant log mansion lined with cherry boards." This
mansion stood on the southeast corner of First and Wil-
kinson streets.

Daniel C. Cooper, Engineer, who laid out tbe
streets of Dayton and contributed much
. . ground for public uses.

Knowing that the first need of a community is ground
for public buildings. Cooper donated one lot for a market-
house, one for a courthouse, half a block for a girls' school
on First Street (Cooper Seminary), a lot for a boys' school
on the west side of St. Clair Street near Third, four acres
for a graveyard on Fifth Street between Ludlow and Wil-

Sonic of the Men ivho Made Dayton 57

kinson, and a Main Street site for the First Presbyterian
Church. Cooper Park, in which the Public Library now
stands, was left, in his will, "to be a public walk forever."
Cooper served his city from year to year in various
official capacities — as justice of the peace, trustee of the
library and academy, president of the Council, and, as Mary
Steele says,* "in every way in his power labored for the

The Old Stone Mill.
Col. Robert Patterson

Formerly .Stood on South Brown Street. Built by
in 1810 and then known as the Rubicon Factory.

prosperity of the town." To his enlarged view, foresight,
broad plans, liberality and business capacity much of the
present advancement of our city is due.

And yet there is no "Cooper Avenue"! At all events
"Cooper Park" it must certainly be, now and hereafter.

If, by chance, you go to that strip of river bank upon
which the log cabin is situated and where Benjamin Van
Cleve spent so much time during his own and Dayton's ear-

"Early Dayton."

TJic Story of Dayton

liest years, you must pay tribute to a remarkable man whose
chief claim to our esteem is that he has revealed to us so
much of our early history. Benjamin Van Cleve under-
stood, among other valuable things, the value of a diary.
In a blank book, still in the possession of his descendants,
there was entered from day to day for twenty-six con-
secutive years, an account of things occurring under his
own observation. To appreciate this undertaking you need
perhaps to be reminded that the outfit of a pioneer house-
hold seldom included writing materials, and never the pri-
vacy in which to use them.
This record, the only one ex-
istent, was probably written
by the light of a brush fire or
a tallow dip, on a table that
limped, or wanting even that,
on his own knees, among per-
haps a dozen hunters or sut-
veyors, all talking (or snor-
ing) at once.

From the closely written
pages of this faded, yellow
book we learn how the father,
John Van Cleve, was shot and
scalped in his own cornfield
near Cincinnati, in sight of
his son, who went bravely
to his assistance. How Ben-
jamin, then a boy of seventeen, took upon himself the care
of the family, paid his father's debts, and served in the army
at fifteen dollars a month. We read his personal account, a
thrilling story, of the defeat of St. Clair's army, of his
trip to Philadelphia bearing confidential dispatches to the
War Department, and of his adventures at Fort Massac.

It was when he was barely twenty-three, that, landing
from the pirogue at the head of St. Clair Street, Van Cleve

Benjamin Van Cleve, Diarist and
Historian, Librarian, first Teacher,
first Postmaster, member First
Legislature.

Some of the Men who Made Dayton 59

became a fellow citizen of yours and mine. He described
himself at that time as dressed in hunting shirt, breech-
cloth and moccasins, and carrying a gun, tomahawk, and
knife eighteen inches long, suspended from his belt. A
primitive backwoodsman this, like scores of others, but with
various distinguishing characteristics which led him in time
to he accounted one of Dayton's most useful citizens.

In 1803, Van Cleve was appointed postmaster. In sum-
mer he farmed, in winter he taught school, first at New-
corn's Tavern, and afterward at the blockhouse. He was
the first clerk of the court, an incorporator of the Dayton
Library, and member of the Board of Trustees both of
Miami University and of the First Presbyterian Church.
Married in 1804 to Mary W'hitten, who lived seven miles
from the settlement, his worldly prospects at the time were
thus described in his journal:

"I had a horse creature and a few farming utensils, and
her father gave her a few kitchen utensils, so we could
make shift to cook our provisions. We also had a bed, a
cow, a heifer, two lambs and a ewe, a sow and pigs, a saddle
and spinning wheel. I had corn and vegetables growing, so
that if we were not rich we had sufficient for our imme-
diate wants, and were contented and happy."'

The wedding, to which all the young folks in Dayton
and the surrounding country were invited, did not much
resemble a modern social function. A bountiful dinner was
spread out of doors on a table loaded with pioneer lux-
uries, to the enjoyment of which guests came on horseback
through the woods. After the ceremony, which was per-
formed by a traveling preacher, the whole cavalcade accom-
panied the bride and groom to the new home, a commo-
dious log house on the corner of Jefferson and First streets.
It was not long before this household began to be known
as a center of frontier hospitality. Van Cleve was a good
talker, he knew the Aliami country by heart and loved it.
Strangers went to him for information, they found a hos-

60 The Story of Dayton

pitable wife and open fire, books and good cheer, a home
that was officially both library and postoffice, and socially
a gathering place for friends.

One record in Van Cleve's diary is a significant one.
"My main object," he writes, "has been to be useful in the
sphere in which my Creator has placed me. I ought, there-
fore, never to procrastinate anything until to-morrow that
can be done to-day." His political creed as contained in
the following entry, reflects modern principles : "All public
officers are public servants who should be supported, but
the people ought ever to be watchful of their rights, and
oppose the encroachments of power. I have never sup-
ported either men or measures because they were of this
or that party, believing that strictly party measures are de-
structive of the general good." Cooper here forestalls the
famous sentiment so popular during the Cleveland cam-
paign, that "a public office is a public trust."

In short, Benjamin Van Cleve shines forth among the
plain people of that day as a man who kept certain things
alive — books, for instance, and the love of learning gener-
ally.

It was a great day for Dayton when Colonel Robert Pat-
terson, with his wife, five sons, and six daughters, came up
from Kentucky to occupy their new home on the land
just south of town which had been purchased from D. C.
Cooper. The Colonel was a famous Indian fighter and car-
ried wounds from ten engagements, one of which never
healed, and was at last, the cause of his death. When a boy
of seventeen, he had journeyed from his father's home in
Pennsylvania to the unbroken wilderness of Kentucky,
where his life was so full of adventure that no other, except
that of Daniel Boone, would make a better story. As the
supply of ammunition at the fort where he lived threatened
to become exhausted, Patterson, with five young fellows of
his own age, left the shelter of the stockade at Royal Spring
and traveled to Pittsburgh, a journey of two hundred miles
against the current of the Ohio. When encamped for the

Some of the Men zvho Made Dayton 61

night, the party suffered an attack at the hands of the sav-
ages, one of them with a lunge of his tomahawk cutting a
deep gash in Robert's side. In pain and terror the boys
scattered in the darkness, one to die alone, and two to suf-
fer the pangs of pain and thirst. Sitting on a log in the

Colonel Robert Patterson, from a portrait in
the possession of Colonel E. T. Durrett, of
Louisville, Kentucky.

darkness, the young pioneer heard his own blood dripping
on the dry leaves, and wondered whether he was ever to
reach shelter alive. He was rescued after indescribable suf-
fering, and lived many years to tell of his adventure. Later,
Patterson founded Lexington, Kentucky, and was one of
the three original owners of Cincinnati.

62 The Story Oj Dayton

Robert Patterson's military career was remarkable. He
fought in every important engagement which took place be-
tween the whites and the Indians in two States from 1777
to 1812, including the battle of Blue Licks, where he barely
escaped with his life, George Rogers Qarke's Illinois cam-
paign, where he led the advance, and St. Clair's defeat,
where he protected the rear.

As a citizen, his service was no less worthy. He was
first to send for a schoolmaster to teach the boys and girls
in the log fort at Lexington, first to solicit subscriptions for
library, first to organize a Sunday school and teach in it ;
if not first, then a close second, to establish Transylvania
University in Kentucky. He planted vineyards and trees,
improved the streets, built good roads, was a stock raiser
and breeder of fine horses, and, finally, a member of the
first Kentucky legislature.

Financial difficulties and the fact that Kentucky was a
slave State, were the reasons which finally brought the Pat-
tersons to Dayton. In October, 1804, the family arrived
and moved into the new log house which stood south of
town in the triangle of ground now bounded by the canal.
Main Street, and the hills of Oakwood. Then there was
no Main Street and no canal. The road that passed be-
tween the Patterson house and the river, followed the pres-
ent course of the canal and entered town at Ludlow Street.
Brown Street was the road to Cincinnati.

Social life felt a new impetus when this gay family was
added to Dayton's population. Weddings occurred in the
course of time, the sisters marrying and settling, some in
Dayton and some in the country. In 1820, Colonel Patter-
son built a fine brick house to the east of the old one. It
is still standing. This became a center for family gather-

Sonic of the Men who Made Daylon

ings, as the children's children came from time to time un-
der the old roof-tree. The mills which Cooper had built
were in operation, and supplied lumber and flour to the
people for miles around. Every day during the summer

TdtiC) miUs belou> Dayton.

THE Subscriber*, inform their
friends an4 tbe public, (hat. their
Caraing and Sp<iii)ing iimchfes
sre t\ow In compl^ie operBtwo,
/>AVirtg f>>l8 seaupn niaoc consi'derntjlc im-
provement In their Factory— they are
prcp»r«i lu Card aod Spin wool in the
b^&i manner.

Tot Carding common wool 6 1-4 cts. per lb
*« Spinning chain per dor. 18 3-4 ccnia,
" do- fi'lling per d© 15 do.
" Cfttding, Splniiiog »i)il T

WciTing Uoili irt iOO J. 31 1-4 do.
. Kce<J^ >

« " do. all ibove 500 inproporliort,
•• do Caioeii, do.

•' do. Saifnett, 3? 1-2 els.

Every atieution shall be paid lo work
tfootmiued lo tbeni, tUat it dhall be done
in tbe bebi manner and to tbe satififaclion
of »l>o(»e employ mg ibcm.

Produce wUl, be received, in |>arl pay-
meot, at int market price.

«. PATTERSON,
H.HYATT.
May 12 tb, 1823. 73 if

Seventeenth Century Advf-tising
Dayton Papers

farm wagons were driven to the old stone mill, the owners
and their families spending the day picnicking under the
trees while waiting for the grist to go through.

The Story of Dayton

Other men there were, besides these we have been con-
sidering, who contributed to Dayton's growth and standing.
In the years between 1805 and 1815, Van Cleve and Cooper,
together, were instrumental in inducing a class of men to
join them who were of superior attainments, and this had
its distinct value to the town. Libraries and gifts of land
are well, but much finer is it that the first inhabitants be
m.en of sterling character.

Among these the names
of Henry Brown, Horatio G.
PhilHps, Dr. John Steele,
Joseph Pierce, Joseph H.
Crane, Jonathan Harshman,
Robert Edgar, and Jerome
Holt stand out prominently.
Henry Brown married the
clever Kitty Patterson, and
with her became the ances-
tors of the large family of
Browns. The first brick
dwelling built in Dayton oc-
cupied the lot just north of
the courthouse, the date,
1808, appearing on the south
gable. To this home, the
most pretentious in Dayton
at that day, Henry Brown
took his bride. The wedding festivities which called out all
the society folk of the community, lasted several days. He
became, in time, a prominent merchant, owning large stores
in several towns to the north, and during the War of 1812,
assisted his father-in-law in the Commissary Department.

Horatio Phillips was another merchant who did much
to build up the commercial life of Dayton. The southeast

Kitty Patterson, fourth daughtei
of Colonel Robert Patterson, after
wards Mrs. Henry Brown.

Some of the Men zvho Made Dayton 65

comer of Main and Second was occupied with his store and
dwelling, both being a result of his prosperity following
the war when the demand for all commodities was great.
One of his trips east to buy goods was taken entirely alone
on horseback. To Mr. Phillips' business sagacity we owe
the foundation of the first bank in Dayton. The Phillips
House, built in 1850, was named in his honor.

It was through Colonel Patterson's influence, with whom
he was connected by marriage, that Dr. John Steele, a grad-
uate of Transylvania University, came to Dayton in 1812,
in company with his brother. Judge James Steele. We
know of the former chiefly through his prompt and efficient
care of the wounded soldiers after the battle of Mississi-
newa, in the first hospital Dayton ever maintained. For
years he was the dean of Dayton doctors, and noted for his
dry wit and deep religious feeling. James Steele was an
eminent judge and identified with most of the progressive
interests of the town.

Joseph Pierce and Joseph H. Crane were two of our
early citizens who left their mark on the history of Dayton.
Mr. Pierce was president of the first bank and a promoter
of the canal, a member of the legislature during the mem-
orable years of 1812-13, and responsible for the passage of
several bills for the relief of the army.

Judge Crane was one of the really intellectual men
among our citizens in the early part of the nineteenth cen-
tury. His letters give a charming impression of familiarity
with the classics and love of good literature. A man of
wide information, he was influential in the selection of
books for the public library and in the promotion of edu-
cational concerns. He served in the War of 1812, and for
eight years represented his district in Congress.

Samuel Forrer came to Dayton in 1818, and it was said
of him that no engineer in Ohio spent as much time in the

66 The Story of Dayton

service of the state. For thirty years he was a member of
the Board of Public Works for Ohio, and Canal Commis-
sioner. It was through his administration in the latter ca-
pacity that Dayton chiefly benefited. Without his efforts
we would have waited years for that enterprise which gave
such an impetus to our commerce. His report on the
elevation of the Sandusky and Scioto rivers was the basis
upon which was fixed the route of the Erie Canal. As
Superintendent of Turnpikes, his services were invaluable.
Many stories are told of Mr. Forrer's cleverness and adapt-
ability. At one time the only '"level" that the city outfit
possessed being used elsewhere, he immediately constructed
one which served its purpose admirably and is still pre-
served, a curiosity among local engineers.

Jonathan Harshman was one of the solid business men
who, although he built up the banking interests of Dayton,
was not so exclusively interested in money that he forgot
wider claims. Farms, mills, distilleries, and banks made a
fortune for him, but his name he made for himself through
service in the legislature and promoter of many local in-
dustries. Not a few of Dayton's present solid families can
call Jonathan Harshman great-grandfather.

Robert Edgar and Jerome Holt came with D. C. Cooper
to Dayton in 1796, "charter members" indeed. The first
named owned and lived on his farm which comprised much
of the area that is now a thickly populated region east of
Wayne Avenue. He was both a farmer and a practical me-
chanic.

Jerome Holt began as town constable in 1797, was
elected sheriff, became colonel of the Fifth Militia, and
commanded a company on the frontier in 1812. Active
among those who, after Hull's surrender, defended Govern-
ment stores at Greenville, he received a resolution of thanks
from the commanding major. Colonel Holt married Ben-
jamin Van Cleve's sister, and when he died, in 1841, was
buried with military and Masonic honors in the old grave-
yard on Fifth Street.

So>iic of the Men who Made Dayton

The names of those honored pioneer citizens repeat
themselves in those of to-day. The J. H.'s, J. D.'s, A. B.'s,
with whatever other surname, trace their ancestry to the
group of men whom we have just had the honor of meeting.
In addition to their signal services to Dayton, not a few of
them left sons who carried on the prestige of the family
name to the service of the citv.

Tato's Mill — formerly stood at Junction of Forest Avenue and
Lehman Street.

CHAPTER VIII.

1812.

The War of 1812.

Sleepy Dayton wakes up. New trouble with old enemies.
Preparations for war. Appeal to the women. Three regiments
and half a commander. The gay departure and the sorry re-
turn. Dayton breaks the Sabbath and goes to help. Icicles
and blood.

In the fifteen years since the beginning of the settle-
ment at the mouth of Mad River, Dayton had been jogging
along in its quiet way with few distractions. The popula-
tion in 1810 was put down at three hundred and eighty-
three, which did not entitle us to a place on the map in the
school geographies. Neither for that matter, was Cincin-
nati yet so honored. In June of that year we find an im-
portant ordinance printed in the "Centinel" relating to the
improvement of the sidewalks. Lot owners were in-
structed to lay them with gravel and dig a ditch on the out-
side. It further forbade people to drive over sidewalks
"except when absolutely necessary." But there was no
traffic policeman, and the phrase "absolutely necessary" was
left to the individual to define.

Bounties were still being paid for wolf scalps, fifty dol-
lars' worth in one year proving that Montgomery County
was by no means free from wild animals. Main Street
presented a wide and grassy expanse in which were rarely
seen three vehicles to a block. Aside from an occasional
wedding or Fourth of July celebration, life went on pretty
much the same from season to season, with the exception,
perhaps, of worrisome hints regarding the Indians.

During the winter of 1811-12, travelers coming in from
the counties north of us, — from Piqua, Urbana, and Troy, —
reported men shot and scalped by savage bands, women
carried ofif as prisoners, and people crowding into the towns

70 The Story of Dayton

for protection. The Greenville treaty of 1795 was being
continually broken and the British in Detroit continued to
aid our enemies with both arms and encouragement. But
Detroit was far distant on the map and nothing could
be done.

Suddenly, one April morning in 1812, things began to
happen. Word passed from lip to lip that the President had
called out troops and that the governor of Ohio had ordered
twelve hundred militia to be raised for a year's term of
service. Moreover, Dayton was to be headquarters for re-
cruiting and provisioning. This piece of news brought
everybody to Mr. Brown's store to ask questions or make
suggestions. If you had been a boy in that spring of 1812,
you would have had your hands full seeing all that was
going on. Main Street was crowded, really crowded, all
day long, with soldiers drilling in squads, and mounted of-
ficers galloping up and down, long pack-trains being un-
loaded, carriers coming and going with orders and camp
equipage, the stores full of customers, and the sidewalks
lined with people.

For war had been declared ! — the event that turns a
world upside down, and Dayton was seeing her small share
of it. News now became more definite. The two thou-
sand Indians remaining in Ohio were gathering, it was said,
under the chief "Prophet" and marching on the counties
north of us. The official call for troops as printed in the
"Centinel" reads :

"The commissioned and non-commissioned officers of the
First Division of Ohio Militia are ordered to meet at Day-
ton "on the usual parade ground, armed and equipped as
the law requires."

A wide common extending from First Street to Third,
east of St. Clair — Cooper Park, in fact — was the "usual
parade ground," but "equipped as the law requires," was a
sad mockery, these poor, hurried soldier-boys being pos-
sessed of nothing more than the clothes they ordinarily
wore. Twelve companies arrived in Dayton before any

The War of 1812 71

preparation had been made, and slept on the bare common
with few tents and no blankets. Eight more companies fol-
lowed, and, there being no more room in town, camp was
made on Colonel Patterson's farm, south of town.

The First Ohio spent those five or six weeks of prepara-
tion on the ground now occupied by the National Cash
Register factory and the fair grounds. It was a cold, back-
ward spring, rain poured steadily and the river rose.
Governor Aleigs must have been impressed with the woeful
situation, for when he came to Dayton on May sixth, in
order to review the troops, a call for blankets was immedi-
ately issued. All the bold-faced type that the fonts of the
"Centinel" possessed were used to implore

"MOTHERS, SISTERS, WIVES,"

to come to the help of the country and bring to head-
quarters at McCullom's Tavern, any blankets they might
be able to spare.

Colonel Patterson, too advanced in years for active serv-
ice, had volunteered his services as quartermaster, and,
acting with his son-in-law, Henry Brown, immediately be-
gan to collect supplies. A displayed advertisement for three
thousand pounds of flour, six hundred head of cattle, four
hundred horses ; for whisky, vinegar, salt, and bacon ; also
for fifty ox-carts, to be paid for at the rate of three dollars
a day, appears in the columns of the "Centinel" over his
name.

Reinforcements were constantly arriving from various
points in the country, — Major Adams' Battalion, Perry's
Rangers, the Pittsburgh Blues marching in through a gap
in Hills and Dales and down on Brown Street. Dayton
contributed two companies, one commanded by William
Van Cleve and the other by General Munger. The whole
force which was mobilized at Dayton amounted to fourteen
hundred men. Its official designation was the "Northwest-
ern Army," and was commanded by General Hull, of whom,
as a militarv leader, the less said the better.

72 The Story of Dayton

While the common was filled with recruits with time
hanging heavy on their hands, Daniel Cooper conceived the
idea of keeping them busy on public improvements. A
levee was needed to protect the town from floods, therefore
a corps of men was put to work with picks and shovels,
raising an embankment, following the bend of the river
and surrounding the town. A race was necessary to serve
his mills and another squad was occupied digging a water-
way which passed through the center of the town. The ex-
pense for all this enterprise was borne entirely by Cooper
himself.

On May 2, Governor Meigs came to Dayton and, in
the presence of the entire army, which w^as drawn up to
receive him, transferred his command to General Hull. A
few days later the First Regiment broke camp, and, joining
the other two at Cooper Park, marched with flags flying and
band playing, up Monument Avenue, fording Mad River
(where now is Webster Street), and three miles up the
bank to a new camp named in honor of the governor. Here
the troops formed into a hollow square, and, saluting the
flag, voiced a solemn promise (a promise they were never
allowed to perform) to protect with their own lives the
beloved emblem.

On June fifth the start was made for the north. Crowds
went out from Dayton to see the departure. Tents were
struck early in the morning, and to the martial strains of
bugles and the throb of drums, the Northwestern Army
went out to conquer the British and the Indians.

For four or five miles up the Troy pike they were fol-
lowed by an escort of small boys filled with patriotism and
longing to be grown up. It was a fine looking body of
men, if we may believe some who watched them go.
Mounted officers were encased in bright blue uniforms with
scarlet collars and cuft's, wore cocked hats with plumes, and
carried a sabre at the side and huge horse pistols in
holsters. The private soldiers were dressed in tan linen
hunting shirts and breeches, low-crowned hats with a cock-

The War of 1812 7Z

ade, and carried flintlock muskets with bayonets and pistols
fully twenty inches in length. A tomahawk stuck in the
belt and a butcher knife in its sheath completed the soldier's
equipment. Each man's rations consisted of flour or meal,
bacon, parched corn, salt, and whisky.

During the week following this exodus, except for the
constant receiving and guarding of supplies, Dayton re-
mained quiet. News traveled slowly, and in those days no
telegrams kept the public informed of the progress of the
war. People were forced to wait in what patience they
could command.

July passed and a part of August ; the wives and mothers
left at home longed to know how Hull and his brave soldiers
were whipping the British.

On the twenty-second of August, twelve weeks after the
proud departure of the army, a tired and dusty horseman
rode down Main Street from the north and dismounted at
McCullough's Tavern. The story which came from his lips
brought every soul in Dayton out to hear it.

The army had marched, he said, to Urbana and then
to Fort Findlay, where a terrific storm broke upon them
and the men toiled in deep mud and icy water. Thirteen
wagons of supplies were abandoned, sunk to their hubs in
the mire. At the shoals of the Maumee they came up with
the enemy, consisting of some British and many Indians,
all under the command of General Brock. Then and
there, for no explainable reason, and without firing a
single gun, General Hull had ordered the white flag to be
displayed, and surrendered everything — his forces, amount-
ing to twenty-five hundred men. thirty-eight guns, ammuni-
tion, provisions, cattle, horses — all to an enemy of less than
half their number !

The news was cruel, astounding, unbelievable ! Anger
was uppermost in every man's mind, and not only anger,
but alarm. This disgraceful act of a cowardly commander
left the whole Ohio country open to further attack. The
Indians, emboldened by such evidence of weakness, might

74 The Story of Dayton

at any minute swarm down upon Dayton and not a life
would be safe. People were aroused as never before. It was
on a Saturday at noon when the news arrived, and immedi-
ately hand-bills were gotten out at the "Centinel" office and
dispatched by mounted men to the country districts — north,
south, east, and west. They voiced a call to every able
bodied man to report instantly for service with any kind
of a weapon. The whole night was occupied by prepara-
tions, and early Sunday morning seventy men under Cap-
tain James Steele set out for Piqua to protect Government
stores and prevent further advance of the enemy. An ed-
itorial headed "Prompt Patriotism" challenged the annals of
the world to produce a greater example.

Five companies of men from Montgomery and Warren
counties came in on Sunday and followed the Dayton troops
to the north. Forty thousand dollars' worth of stores were
conveyed by these united forces from Piqua to the safer pre-
cincts of Dayton. Captain Steele's company then marched
immediately to the front and others followed. General
Harrison was placed in command of the entire army,
prompting the remark from one citizen that our men were
"no longer, thank God, commanded by an old woman."
Hull, by the way, was afterwards court-martialed and sen-
tenced to be shot. He was eventually pardoned and lived
in obscurity the rest of his days. Perhaps before the end
came, he wished the sentence had been carried out. Life
is a poor benefit to a man who meets only hatred and scorn
from his associates.

General Harrison, looked upon as the savior of the for-
tunes of Ohio, was greeted upon his arrival in Dayton with
wild rejoicing. Three regiments from Kentucky answered
his call to arms, and with other divisions came marching up
Main Street past the courthouse, where he stood to review
them. In the current number of the "Centinel" you will find
this appeal:

"General Harrison presents his compliments to the la-
dies of Dayton, and solicits their assistance in making shirts

The War of 1812 75

for the brave defenders who compose his army, many of
whom are quite destitute of this article. The material will
be furnished by the quartermaster, and the general confi-
dently expects that this opportunity for the display of fe-
male patriotism will be largely embraced by his fair coun-
trywomen."

Embrace it they certainly did. Mrs. Robert Patterson
issued a prompt call for workers to meet at Mrs. Henry
Brown's home, next north of the court house. The "female
patriotism" in question resulted after some weeks in a total
of eighteen hundred shirts, all made by hand, and turned
over to General Harrison for the use of his soldiers. When
it is remembered that there were no sewing machines at that
time, and less than one hundred families in all Dayton, the
appreciation of the magnitude of this achievement will
grow. Nothing that women in Dayton have done collec-
tively since that day can ever take away the glory of those
eighteen hundred shirts.

Compared to Harrison's war appeal and the preparation
following it, all that had gone before seemed child's play.
Not many bugles and cockades in this second army, but
much grim determination to get at the Indians as soon as
possible and make the homes of Ohio safe. It was on Sep-
tember twelfth that the hurriedly equipped troops marched
grimly from Dayton. At Fort Wayne, the foe approached
and vanished in a panic, leaving an empty village. The
month of October was spent in maturing plans for the at-
tack on Detroit, but even at that early date, the streams
were half frozen and the mud was axle deep. In December,
seven hundred more men from Da3^ton left to join the
army, and, meeting a band of Indians, cut them to pieces.
The next day more Indians reinforced the defeated tribe
and attempted a surprise. This was the battle of Missin-
newa, an engagement resulting in a deadly victory for our
forces. Of the Dayton troops, eight were killed and forty-
eight wounded. Couriers passed the word that the wounded
were being brought home. They also told of the surrender

76 The Story of Dayton

of Detroit, of the lack of provisions and forage, the bitter
cold, and the sufferings of the able as well as the disabled
men.

Victory had its price. Three miles a day was the utmost
progress made by that gallant remnant toward food and
shelter. On Sunday, the twenty-seventh, the sorrowful
cavalcade arrived in Dayton, crossing the ford at Mad River
and coming in on Water Street, now Monument Avenue.
The "Centinel" says,

"Their solemn procession into town excited emotions
which the philanthropic bosom may easily conceive, but is
not our power to describe."

Under the wagons filled with wounded hung icicles of
blood six inches long. No church services were held that
morning, the worshipers preferring to unite in giving im-
mediate care to the sufferers. Out of the seven hundred
soldiers who had marched forth, only two hundred returned
fit for duty. Hands, feet, and ears of nearly every man on
the force were frost-bitten ; Dayton was turned into a hos-
pital camp. Every home that had a spare bed was opened,
and many were cared for by Doctor Steele in the camp hos-
pital on the courthouse lot.

Thus ended Dayton's share in the War of 1812. Other
engagements were taking place elsewhere in Ohio, always to
the success of the American arms. Troops still passed
through Dayton on their way to the front and the warehouse
on Main Street was still the base of supplies. You who
have read your United States history, know how the War
of 1812 ended — the various battles on sea and on land, and
the British occupation of Washington.

The three events which actually decided the issue of the
war were the battle of the Thames on September 5, 1813,
when Tecumseh, the great chief, was killed; the subsequent
death of General Howe, the British commander, and Perry's
glorious victory on Lake Erie. At the last-named event the
whole country rang with enthusiasm and Perry was the
hero of the day. Dayton's share in adding to his lustre was

The War of 1812 ' 77

to name for him a new thoroughfare just opened west of
Wilkinson Street. It was to be sure, rather an empty
lionor, for Perry Street then possessed only one cabin, amid
thickets of hazel bushes, but we hoped for more in the
future.

In December, 1814, the treaty of peace between the
United States and Great Britain was signed at Ghent. For
one hundred years they have honorably respected our boun-
daries, and we theirs. Not a fort stands on the three thou-
sand-mile boundary line between the United States and
Canada, and for many more hundreds of years to come,
may there be, — please God, — peace between us and our
Canadian cousins.

CHAPTER IX.

1818—1832

Early Transportation,

A stage route to Cincinnati. Good roads and their benefits.
How Dayton celebrated the Fourth of July. Rapid transit at
last — the canal. A fugitive slave on Main Street.

Until 1818, no one made the long journey to Cincinnati
except in his own vehicle or on his own feet. Many sturdy
Daytonians of that day took the latter means of convey-
ance and thought it no particular hardship. When Dayton
families visited their friends in Chillicothe, Springfield, or
Cleveland, it was done by private carriage.

A weekly mail stage service was first established during
the summer of 1818, connecting Dayton with Franklin, Mid-
dletown, Hamilton, and Cincinnati. Those who introduced
this improvement were assured by the "croakers'' (ancestors
of the same family in our day), that the effort was worse
than foolish. Not a large enough number of people would
ever, they were sure, be traveling from Dayton to Cincinnati
in one week to pay the up-keep of a stage coach. But in
spite of these warnings, the experiment proved a success,
and in a year the w^eekly trip was doubled, and soon there
was a coach leaving for and arriving from the south every
day. Stage lines eventually connected us with Columbus,
Sandusky, and Cleveland, and in 1828 twenty coaches made
daily trips in both directions.

The Cincinnati trip required the whole of the first day to
reach Hamilton, where the night was passed, the arrival in
the Queen City was made late the next afternoon. Eight
cents a mile was the fare charged, and fourteen pounds of
baggage were allowed each passenger. Twelve persons could
be accommodated in a coach, three on the back seat, three
on the front, three on the smaller seats between, and two

The Story of Dayton

beside the driver. The coach was drawn by four horses,
which were changed at intervals of fifteen miles. What
with muddy roads, springless seats, the cramped position
and long hours, the trip to Cincinnati was, according to the
testimony of personal letters of that day, an exhausting
experience. One traveler owns up to having fainted away
on arriving at her journey's end. Yet the relief from the

LOOKING OUT OF THE ^\I^DO\^i

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" hu-J 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

Early Transportation 81

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.

Bv 1838 Da_\tonians were al)le to travel in fourteen dif-
ferent directions without having to be pried out of the mud.
John W. \'an 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 \n\h\\c though no longer
bv means of stage coaches.

Davton 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 an*!
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.

82 The Story of Dayton

These covered bridges were a welcome protection from
the weather, but they had certain disadvantages. A Hghting
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,

Early Trafisportation 83

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

W In tins place, on Suuday'Iasi, at the age of 82 years, Mrs. Catharine
ra TuoMPsoN, formerly Mrs. Catharine Van Cleve, mother of the lati
Q jamin and Wilham Van Cleve. She was the first lemale resident of |
^1 this town and county, to which place she came on the 1st of April, 1796.
O She was also, one of the earhest inhabitants of Cincinnati, having come to
M that place before its name was changed from Losantiville, when ,lwo
Q small bewed-log houses and a few log cabins constituted the whole town,
W Her first husband, John Van Cleve, to whom she was was married by the
M Rev. William Tennant, of Mohmouth county, N. J. was killed by the In-
Q dians, on the first day of June 1791, within the present corporate limits of j
^^ Cincinnati. Her second husband, Samuel Thompson, was drowned in
>^ Mad River near ihis place, about twenty years since. She was the niolh-
Q er of thirteen children and her grand children have numbered eighty-
V seven, and her great grand children upwards of ninety. She was a wor-
^ ihy member of the Methodist church for the last twenty years of her
Q, life and died in Christian resignation. S

W Dayton, August 8, 1837. W

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

The Story of Dayton

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 tlie breeze. The militia rejoiced in gay, new

it«^^^^

JUMP 1 jutsr :

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

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 peo|)le. old and young, the ideals

Fun on a Flat Boat.

upon which our nation is founded, is surely more patriotic
than to shoot oft' one's thumb with a toy pistol. Boys of
that da}' 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

86 The Story of Dayton

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 stafifs, and the Canal Commissioners. At
Compton's Tavern, on the corner of Main and Second

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.

I Oayton,Fcb. 17, 1629.

TH F, fub<;cnbcr very respect In lly iuform?the
ciltzeniof Uaytou ana the surrounoing country,
that he still continues to carry or the COACH
MAKING biivincsf inallils vanoiu branches on
Main Cro«? "trcct 6nc door vvcst of liic jail. Ho
will loaiic Coaches Rnrouches Gi^s, and Dear-
borDSofthc newest Irtsbion or acxording to or-
der on reasonable teriDS; tho-c wKouiay favor
with their ciistem may depend on having then-
work according to their order.

SAMUEL DOLLEY.
Dayton, July 4, 1828.

N. B. Stage contractors can be Bccommoda-
ted with I'osi Coaches ade of the best maten-
f aU and io the newest fa nion.
[ If any person ehovild want further information
{ they can inquire of Timothy Squicr, stage ow>-
} et i»Dd contractor in Dnjton.

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

88 The Story of Dayton

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 named 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 e\ery man, woman, and child in Dayton
liad 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 journe\- 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

Early Transportation 89

arrived. They carried, together, nine hundred and eighty-
six passengers. The "Journal" stated in 1832, that not les?
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 b)-. Sitting on deck in the moonlight
was wonderful, the horses' bells tinkling in the darkness
far ahead, (iay 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 .\ 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 ])ork and othe^' 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! ^^lerchandise 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. Xo 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 :

90 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 diff'erences 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 fare 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

92 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 tire 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 liose. 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.

Alen who are now living recall those experiences of
fire-fighting, and never tire talking of the time Vvhen 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, tw^enty 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

Municipal Iiiiproreniriifs

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 dweUings made a better engine imperative, and
in 1833. the 'Tnde]ien(lent" was purchased, the old "Safety"'

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

94 The Stury 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

Municipal Improvents

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

Burning of Turner's Opera House, Volunteer Fire Department, and

the Old "Independent."

(Site of Victoria Theatre.)

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 tirst 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 Xovember, 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 l)ook ) 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 Count}'. Dayton had a vested
right, he went on to say, in all obsolete things and usages :

Municipal Improvements 97

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 Aliami tracks to Xenia, there taken
apart and hauled to Dayton by wagon. It was set up on
temporary tracks at ^^■ebster 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 ^^liami A^alley.
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 A^alentine Winters. Within
three years the Cincinnati, Hamilton, and Dayton, the
Greenville and ^liami, 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

Municipal Improvements 99

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." W'itli 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

^ ^

^l^^^;;-rM,|yj

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

Municipal Improvements 101

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 histor\\ 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 Xewcom's Tavern. His services lasted from
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
ofifense repeated, he was "read out of school." The Acad-
emy was a boys' school and a pay school. Entirely free

102

Public Education

103

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 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, E. 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

Public Education

105

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

Cooper F

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 $2,978,20^.

A copy of the "Dayton Journal" sixty years old will re-
produce for our benefit, Commencement D^y 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

The old Central High School, southwest corner Fourth and \\'ilkinson.

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 essav for tlie second time, and told u? about it.

i-.uiaiy oi tne Dayton Liurary Association which was consolidated ni 18(30
with the School Library to form the present PubHc Library. The above
picture is taken from a woodcut published in the Daily Gazette, May 27,
18.54, and recently presented to the Dayton Public Library by Miss Helen
Pearson.

Extract from letter of Dr. J. C. Reeve, Sr.. dated, October,, 1851.

"The Phillips Building is a fine block ; I don't think it has its equal in
Cleveland. Rig^ht 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.) The^- have a good supply of books, among them Miss Pardoe's Court
of Louis XlV."

This building was situated at the southeast corner of Main and Second

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.

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
thrif: day. Asked whether the library contained anything

Public Education 109

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

no 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
lias become a part of our great system of public education,
l)ut, 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, chiu'ches. 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 w^as 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 X'alley 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
lirass 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 w-as used until 1829, when a
new site was obtained by condemning the alley running
from Alain to Jeft'erson, between Third and Fourth, and
acquiring by gift or purchase, additional land on either side.
Opposition to this plan developed immediately. It seems

Public Education 111

that there were superior people in those days who felt
tliat 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? ^^'ith 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,

^^^^^^^■p^^^^^^^W^^^^^^lo|ti4ii!? ■ ■'■

^^ f ■ /■^^^^^■■■■d^^t^^uOll

4 •■■^B^^^^^^^n^i^^^a^^n^^M^r^^^^^ '• '^^HS

' "'^^^^Sffl

^^1^

Public Education 113

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 Air. 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 xA.nderson, 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, riglil
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.

Early Politics

113

The Council, mostly Whigs, foresaw a fight if it remained.
At a meeting called just at daybreak, it was decided that

LOC^CABIN

'The i-og Cabin

1S40. Original at Public Liurary.

the pole must come down. To the courthouse they went
in a body, led by the gigantic figure of John Van Cleve,

116 The Storv 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,

Early Politics 117

after one defeat, was renewing itself for a final eflFort. 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

118 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.
"WilHam 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.

Early Politics 119

"And since for one term we're in favor,
We think that this honor should do,
So good-bye to you, ]\Ir. Van Buren,
And hurrah for old Tippecanoe."

"Oh, Wilbur Shannon will be given a tannin',
By Tom. tlie \\'agoner Boy.''

So this was the famous 'T.og 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 particularlj' to those of the WEST, and most partic-
ularly to all in the MIAMI VALLEY.

You are invited by j-our fellow citizens of Montgomerj^
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 delib'erate on the best means
of reviving our NATIONAL PROSPERITY and a saving from
destruction and decay of our CIVIL LIBERTIES.
COME ONE! COAIE 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

120 The Story of Dayton

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 stafif 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-

Early Politics 121

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 wath 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. \\'e 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,

"TJtis ball zve roll with heart and soul."

The arrival of the procession at the eastern edge of town
fat 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 ]\Iain
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 IVhoiii Jefferson Honored."

On Third at the courthouse,

"A^o Standing Army" and "Resistance to Tyrants is
Obedience to God."

On Estabrook's oil mill,

"Press the Seed but Not the People."

122 The Story of Dayton

A bale of cotton was hung at Clegg's new factory with
the familiar slogan,

"The Log Cabin President and the IVagon 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 anniversarv in 1896 brought manv thousands to our

Earlv Politics

123

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.

Photograph by W. B. Werthner of excavation at Third and Main,
showing logs of original "Corduroy Road."

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,
brow^n 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 FederaHsts, 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

126

The Story of Dayton

the early months of 1812, the possibiHty 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-

Jonrnalisiu in Dayton 127

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. Alost 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 difificulties, 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 );ears from 1814 to 1850,
are the "Aliami 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.

128

The Story of Dayton

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."

>m: -iSt-Ji&SsS.

rt—

SSK.

-Tif

Thr Phillips Hoube, built in 1830, luii

The "Dayton Volks-Zeituns

in honor of Horatio G. Phillips.

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-

Joiiruansm in Dayton 129

paign. it did valiant political service. The account of the
Harrison Rall\-, written probably by \'an 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.

The tone of the early papers is a revelation of social and
commercial manners. As in the exchange of personal inter-
course, they exhibited a spirit of hortative arrogance. To
be on opposing sides of a political question fifty years ago
made ruthless enemies. For this situation the papers were
largely to blame. The bitterness of the Jackson and Qay
campaigns reverberated for years. The Civil War revived
and made it worse. IMen who in private life and in their
own homes prided themselves on the possession of all the
Christian virtues, were wont to indulge in printed opinions
that were best left unread.

The advertisements in the old newspapers reveal the
flavor of old times, with their queer punctiliousness in
trifles, their limited outlook, and their antiquated point of
view. Social history speaks between the lines. In those
days there were no business men wearing sack coats, but
"gentlemen" in top hats and frock coats.

Here are some instances :

JAMES McDANIEL
Officers uniforms, suits, belts, &c to Gentlemen.

Journalism in Dayton 131

PHILLIPS HOUSE BARBER HOUSE,
by Alf Jackson
I am now refitting my establishment in tasteful style and
will employ none but competent workmen to wait upon the
gentlemen who visit my shop.

What they thought was a "mammoth" newspaper is re-
vealed in this announcement in 1862:

BUY THE DAYTON JOURNAL WAR WEEKLY

News of the WAR up to the Hour!

MAMMOTH DOUBLE SHEET! QUARTO FORM! EIGHT

PAGES! FORTY-EIGHT COLUMNS!

This martial notice has in it the sentiment of the sixties :

MEN OF OHIO!
Finish your harvest and then to the rescue of the Govern-
ment which has shielded and protected your homes.
FIFTY ABLE BODIED MEN WANTED
for three years.
ENLIST IN THE 79th, COL. CHAS. ANDERSON Command.
Recruiting office N. W. Corner Main and Fourth.

The girls that saw the Anderson Guards march out to
join the Army of the Potomac, had one eye on the soldiers
and one on the spring styles. Their costumes were planned
according to what RIKE AND PRUGH had to offer. In
April, 1863, it was,

PRINTS, LAWNS, DELAINES, BAREGES, MOZAM-

BIQUES, best in town for cash. NEW HOOPSKIRTS,

LACE MANTILLAS.

319 THIRD STREET.

SOMETHING NEW!
SPOOL SEWING SILK
Over fifty different colors. Much better than skein silk. All
trouble of winding saved. Daniels Millinery Rooms. 47 Main
Street.

132 The Story of Dayton

Some advertisers had a sense of humor, even in shoes.
THE LAST WORDS of Marion to Chester was to CHARGE!
Under the circumstances it was perhaps good advice, but the
subscribers at 81 Jefferson Street

DON'T CHARGE and those who buy from him get

GOOD SHOES CHEAP

Gentlemen's fine sewed and pegged boots to order.

"ALLAN JEFFERS."

They played tricks, too, on the unsuspicious reader, as
witness :

WAR WITH MEXICO!
It is now no longer doubted that Mexico has commenced
hostilities against the United States. If they had used the same
remedies to avoid the difficulty that they will have to in order
to be made sensible of their mistake, they never would have
taken the steps they have, but would have had their
SIGHT BRIGHTENED, and their
EYES OPENED, their
UNDERSTANDING RAISED
By the use of two remedies,
LIGHT'S EYE WATER, and
LIGHT'S QUICK YEAST.
For sale by all druggists

FASHIONABLE DANCING.
Mr. Yeo, Professor of Dancing, begs to inform the Ladies
and Gentlemen that he has taken the National Hotel Ball Room
to give lessons in the following new and fashionable Dances:
QUADRILLES, WALTZES, all the different forms,
GALLO FADES, MAZOURKAS, LA POLKA.
Gentlemen's class from 8 to 10, $6 per quarter. Ladies $5.

WRITING ACADEMY
S. Easton
Has just commenced giving lessons in PENMANSHIP at the
Academy, near the Lancasterian Seminary. He teaches the
SWIFT ANGULAR RUNNING HAND, the ROUND RUN-
NING HAND, the WAVING HAND, the ORNAMENTAL
ITALIAN HAND. He also instructs in making pens. Ladies
attend at 4 o'clock P. M. Gentlemen at 8 in the evening. At
those hours, the bell will be rung. Scholars furnish stationery.
A considerable number of Ladies and Gentlemen have already
subscribed.

Specimens of scholars' improvement may be seen at the
Academy.

Joiimalisni in Dayton

133

Dayton, July 22d, 1823.

Here is a small event that casts an important shadow.
Tt is dated the "Journal and Advertiser,"' Tulv, 1831.
GRAND EXHIBITION!'

A locomotive or steam carriage drawing a car on a miniature
railroad will be exhibited at Machir and Hardcastle's warehouse
near the basin on July 1st and 2nd. The exhibition works witli
great celerity and precision, drawing a miniature car in which
two persons can ride at the same time. The novelty of this
machine has never failed to excite the admiration of all who
have seen it.

Ladies and gentlemen are respectfully invited to call and
ride.

Admittance twenty-five cents. Children half price.

THE MARVEL OF THE AGE

GENERAL TOM THUMB AND MRS. THUMB

Also COMMODORE NUTT and his wife, will be exhibited at

Huston Hall. All are invited.

The subjoined notice is a small bit of the financial his-
tory of 1837. Wild speculation all over the country had
brought an alarming depression of business, resulting in the
failure of many small banks. Silver was consequently

Oi" ce:>ts.
SIX & A QUARTER CENTS

1838.

I HOEII150M'9 sail

scarce, and as a substitute for small coin, "shin-plasters,"
as they were called, were issued by merchants. These were
small paper bills proclaiming a "promise to pay," and were
accepted in good faith by every one throtighout the business

134 The Storv of Dayton

world. The time came when a law was passed prohibiting
the further use of shin-plasters, and with it the golden op-
portunity for a man to repudiate his debts if he so pleased.
Thomas Morrison, a well-known builder, and a local
character in his way, had issued a quantity of shin-plasters
on the basis of his large holdings of real estate. When the
law went into effect, he was obliged to be away from town,
and fearing that his honesty might be questioned if he
stayed too long, issued this reassuring declaration.

PUBLIC NOTICE! SHIN-PLASTERS IN DANGER!

Fellow Citizens:

I am compelled to leave town to build a mill at Greenville.
I leave Dayton with regret because the law prohibiting the
circulation of shin-plasters is soon to take effect. I wish to
satisfy my fellow citizens that I am not the man under any
circumstances to take advantage of a law by which the State
allows me to act the rascal. I intend to redeem every note I
have put in circulation, and that as soon as I return, and will
do it with pleasure and satisfaction.

I desire my fellow citizens and all who have confidence m
my word of honor not to refuse to take them until my return,
when every cent shall be paid with the addition of six per cent,
interest.

On my return I will give public notice so that holders of
my notes may call.

Thomas Morrison. June 26th, 1838.

Since the days of those early newspapers what mar-
velous accomplishments has the journalistic profession
achieved ! If a Rip Van Winkle editor of the early fifties
could enter a modern newspaper office, he would understand
nothing that met his eyes. With its four-decker Hoe
presses, its linotype machines, Associated Press service, its
pneumatic tubes, typewriters, adding machines; its army
of pressmen, compositors, and news-gatherers, the up-to-
date newspaper is one of the modern Seven Wonders.

But perfection of equipment and official efficiency do
not tell the whole story. In the old days before the syndi-
cating of newspapers, when the owner, publisher, and ed-
itor were one and the same man, when he was personally
responsible to the public and his party leaders, when he

Journalism in Dayton

135

asked favors of no man and gave none, journalism was not
without a fine flavor of adventure.

An early predecessor of the "Journal''* bore this device
on its first page.

"principles and not men when principles dem.xnd the
sacrifice."

The sentiment was printed in deadly earnest. Abso-
lute fearlessness was the order of the day. An editor said
what he thought and said it hard if he risked all he owned
in the saying, and if it hurt where it hit, so much the worse
for those who stood in the way. During the Civil War

Main Street in 1855.

Reproduced from an
History of unio.

Dd cut in Howe'

when party feeling ran high, an editor was not sure when
he started for his office in the morning if he would reach
there alive. One editor never did ; he was shot down as he
passed along the street, a victim to fearlessness in the ex-
pression of personal opinion.

During those four years the "Journal" said what it
pleased, with bitterness it is true, but with consummate
bravery, until a mob surrounded the building and burned it

*"The Ohio National Journal and Montgomery County-
Dayton Advertiser" (Whig) 1826.

136

The Story of Dayton

out ; the next week it moved its presses, or what was left
of them, into the middle of the next block north, and went
on saying what it pleased, just as bitterly and just as
bravely. That was when \\\ F. Comly was editor and
manager. He, with W. D. Rickham and John G. Doren,
were the three war editors, men utterly unlike and at oppo-
site poles of political opinions, but each left his individual
imprint ui)on the thought of the day. The first was editor
of the "Journar" from 1863 to
1894, and of him it was said,**
'Tn his management of the
'Journal' he exhibited a breadth
of view, public spirit, and thor-
ough disinterestedness of which
only the noblest class of men are
capable."'

The years of his administra-
tion covered the most thrilling
years of our national history, the
years preceding and those of the
war itself. That such a tribute
could have been offered to the
memory of a man who worked
during the clashing bitterness of
such conflicting interests is
praise indeed.

—"Major Bickham," as he was
known to all — came to Dayton in 1863 on a special errand.
He was selected by President Lincoln to keep public opinion
inflamed against Vallandigham and force his retirement
from Dayton. It was a dangerous task and was accepted
with only one proviso. 'T have young children," said the
major; "will they be safe from violence?'' The President

'Dayton Journal"
from 1863 to 1S94.

William D. Bickham-

= *Mary D. Steele, "Early Dayton.

Joiirnalisni in Dayton

137

assured him that the United States Government would en-
sure the protection of his family, and so that post was ac-
cepted and the duties entered upon with such fearlessness
as few editors either then or now would undertake.

Bickham was, as a writer, both caustic and witty. His
words bit through. "A prince of paragraphers" he was
called. There was no pressure on earth to stop him. A
bullet might, but it did not happen to.

The war at an end, much remained to be done in the
reconstruction of the news service of the day. Eastern

papers held a monopoly of
control and the small west-
ern papers took what news
they could get, and when,
— an irksome situation to
an ambitious editor. Major
Bickham was one of the
earliest promoters of the
Western Associated Press
Service, as it was then
known, and with seven
other directors, pulled the
monopoly out of the hands
of the eastern press and
brought the news of the
world promptly to our
doors.

When, in 1869, John G.
Doren, an unknown and
unheralded stranger, came
to Dayton and undertook to edit and publish a Democratic
paper, it was about as unpromising a venture as could be
imagined. The war of gunpowder was over, but not the
war of prejudice and unfair competition. His party was in
a hopeless minority. The "Daily Democrat" was a target
for sharp firing on all sides ; from his political opponents,

William F. Comly.
'Journal" from 1834 to 1S02.

138

The Story of Dayton

from conflicting business interests, and from the leaders in
the opening struggle between capital and labor.

Mr. Doren pleased nobody except a few kindred think-
ers ; he made no concessions and consequently no money,
but he kept right on. His paper won standing and influence,
and under his steady leadership the feeble Democratic mi-
nority grew to a triumphant majority. And for more than
party success did Mr. Doren
fight. His was a fervent nature,
always fighting at white heat
against intrenched wrong. Never
was such a foe to "bossism" in
or out of politics, nor such a
stalwart defender of the work-
ing man in or out of the
"union." For him there was
no compromise, no personal
aims, no considerations of policy.
He carried the banners during
twenty years of unflinching work
for civic righteousness and edu-
cational progress, and was not
only in the front line, but in ad-
vance of his time as proved later by the realization of proj-
ects which he was first to advocate.

John Gates Doren,

Editor "Davton Democrat"

from 1870 to 1889.

CHAPTER XIV.

1830-1870.

More Men Who Have Made Dayton.

John W. Van Cleve, engineer, musician, botanist, artist, na-
ture-lover, teacher, geologist. Robert W. Steele, educator,
writer, scholar, director, trustee. E. E. Barney, principal of
two schools, horticulturist, inspirer, captain of industry. Others
we like to remember.

In a former chapter, we wrote that some of the early
citizens left sons who took up their fathers' work and im-
proved it. In every community there are sons who do not
care, and sons who do. The first are born, make a living
and die, no one but their immediate family being the better
for it. Their names are never mentioned in connection with
the city in which they have lived. The second also come
into the world, surrounded with responsibilities more or less
exacting, but to them the prosperity of Dayton has been
a personal and constant concern. When they are gone,
people wonder how the city is to get on without them.

It was written, recently, that what this country needed
more than anything else was "Inspired Millionaires," mean-
ing men of leisure and wealth whose enthusiasm could be
depended upon to promote things otherwise neglected. Such
a man was John Van Cleve, son of Benjamin Van Cleve, of
whom so much has already been chronicled. He was not
by any means a millionaire, — far from it, — but the leisure
which an assured income bestowed was used for the benefit
of Dayton.

You must know John Van Cleve if for nothing more
than that he loved our city so deeply. A bachelor with few
relatives, Dayton was home, family, and fireside to him.
Note-book in hand, he walked the streets, putting down
ideas that suggested themselves to him as desirable im-

140 The Story of Dayton

provements. His ambition was to see Dayton resemble the
elm-shaded town in New England, therefore he planted trees
throughout the length of Main Street and on both sides of
the levee. These branching elms which now shade the boule-
vard are his monuments. To know how beautiful the
classic facade of our courthouse looked, when seen be-

Tlie Courthouse in 1860, surrounded by the elms which \'an Cleve planted.

tween the arched greenery of branching trees, you must be
at least sixty years old ; for the elms are gone, — long ago, —
destroyed by a careless public sentiment. Shrubs and vines
are still growing in old gardens in Dayton, whose roots Van

More Men Who Have Made Dayton

141

Cleve brought in from his country walks and planted in
his friends' enclosures.

\\"oodland Cemetery belongs to his memory infinitely
more than to the other thousands buried there. For that
hill appealed to him as the place to be consecrated to Day-

John Van Cleve's grave at Woodland Cemetery.

ton's dead — overlooking the scenes of their earthly labors.
Against all kind of opposition, he saw that the work was
planned and accomplished, he being one of those who see
ahead. Not only are the curving driveways, the grouping

142 The Story of Dayton

of shrubbery, and the variety of forest trees in Woodland
due to Van Cleve's loving provision, but the actual sur-
veying, the platting and clerical work, were all done by him
without remuneration, — a labor of love.

Van Cleve loved study and he also loved to work.
With these two habits passionately pursued, one can get
almost anywhere. Proficiency in the classics made him a
teacher of Latin and Greek, even before his graduation
from the Ohio University at Athens. It was said that he
went through Colburn's Mental Arithmetic at one sitting,
so charmed was he with the combination of mathematics
and philosophy. An absorbing love for nature led to a
study of the rocks underlying our soil, and made him a prac-
tical geologist ; through his admiration for flowers he be-
came an authority on botany. He prepared a classified col-
lection of fossils and an admirable herbarium, both of which
were presented to Dayton institutions, but have now quite
disappeared.

It was Van Cleve's love of music that made him first
president of the Pleyel Society, the forerunner of all our
musical clubs. For years Christ Church choir sang to his
organ accompaniment and leadership. His enthusiasm for
books led to the founding, in 1847, of the Dayton Library
Association. His private library was extensive and well
selected. If he loaned, he loaned only to book-lovers like
himself, duly entering the transaction in a ledger kept for
the purpose. The periodicals of the day not seldom bore his
signature to articles of special interest. For everything of
interest appearing in this book, it is to the memory of Van
Cleve, rather than to the writer, that thanks are due, because
it was his wise care which saved files of newspapers, reports
of societies, minutes of meetings, and placed them in the
keeping of the Public Library for future reference.

Personally, John Van Geve was a lovable though eccen-
tric man. Sensitive on account of his immense physical
girth, he refused to sit for a picture, and we are therefore
now the poorer. His friends were many and admiring.

?s;5u=os

lifill4i^PiLpli|il!liiil

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144

The Story of Dayton

The children who at his invitation accompanied him on ex-
cursions to the woods, looked upon these occasions as the
most delightful of their lives. He knew so much ; he made
things so interesting ; he had such a sense of humor. Hav-
ing no home or children of his own. he borrowed both, re-
paying with compound interest.

When this lover of art and human nature lay dying at
the Phillips House, a younger man came to the sick room to
take his last messages. To this friend were instructed the
plans for Dayton, toward which Van Cleve had worked and
which he now felt must be given up.

Robert W. Steele, the son of
Judge James Steele, was the
friend to whom this task was be-
queathed. It was nobly fulfilled.
For half a century the work
which \^an Cleve laid down,
Robert Steele carried on ; the
same interest in education, to
which the name of the great high
school is the best proof ; the
same pride and care for Wood-
land Cemetery, as the books of
the association still testify; the
same interest in horticulture, as
the members of the society will
bear witness ; the same devotion
to books and readers, as his constant and intelligent service
to the library is remembered.

As member of the Board of Education for thirty years
and president for twelve, Robert Steele's service was not
merely official, but intimate and practical. No other member
of the board frequented the schools more regularly than he.
As a visitor to the debates in the Philomathean Society at
the high school, or the girls' composition class at Cooper
Seminary, Mr. Steele was always welcome.

Robert W. Steele.

The Conover Building, for sixty years a landmark on the corner of
Third and ^lain.

146 The Story of Dayton

We should also chronicle Robert Steele's services to Day-
ton as trustee of the Young Men's Christian Association,
of the Children's Home, of the Board of Cooper Seminary
and as President of the Sanitary Commission during the
Civil War.

While not withdrawn from his neighbors, and in full
sympathy with their pursuits, he found his chief delight
among his books. He read the great writers and translated
their messages into terms of modern thought. He kept
abreast of the best thinkers and applied the knowledge prac-
tically for the benefit of his fellow men. Hundreds of men
and women in Dayton, whose memory of their school days
is yet young, owe to the quiet, wise intelligence of Robert
Steele more than can be expressed in words.

It is fortunately not only to good sons of good fathers
that Dayton owes gratitude. There have been and will be
in the future, we hope, importations of citizenship whose
loyalty to their adopted home has been a gracious thing.
Such a one was E. E. Barney, who came from New York
in 1831, and put the stamp of his individuality upon more
than one interest in our community. He was born in
a log house, the eldest of eleven children, educated out of
the family pittance by a self-sacrificing father, and inspired
to use it to noble ends by a loving mother. The suit of
clothes he wore when starting to college was spun, woven,
dyed, and made by his mother and sisters.

It was a happy accident that brought E. E. Barney to
Dayton and made him principal of the Academy on Fourth
and W'ilkinson. A teacher by passion and instinct, he was,
as an instructor, fully fifty years ahead of his time. He
not only made his pupils learn, but he made them in love
with learning. During his first term at the Academy, nine
students were enrolled ; in the second, eighty-five. Thirteen
years after his association with the Academy, Mr. Barney
was invited to become principal of Cooper Seminary for
girls, just then incorporated.

These facts would seem to point to teaching as the
supreme work of his life, therefore it will be a surprise to

More Men Who Have Made Dayton

147

learn that the business world of Da}1:on owed as much, if
not more, than the educational field, to his intelligent stim-
ulus. In 1851, the railroad touched our circle, and brought
with it a demand for cars. Mr. Barney knew much less
about manufacturing than he did about algebraic equations,
nevertheless the demand for cars was undertaken promptly
and scientifically. Beginning with a capital of ten thousand
dollars and a single building, the plant gradually increased to
its extent of twenty-eight acres. Carrying an instinct for
imparting knowledge into his relations with the employees,
Mr. Barney instituted a salesman's school in order to instruct
his representatives in the prin-
ciples of marketing the com-
pany's products, A constant
watch for promising material
among his employees and the en-
couraging of them to greater
self-improvement, bore wonder-
ful fruit in the spirit of the fac-
tory operatives.

It is as a national, rather than
a local personage, that we ap-
p r o a c h General Robert C.
Schenck. Long before his repu-
tation was gained in military and
diplomatic circles, he was a prac-
ticing lawyer, here in Dayton,
first with Judge Crane, after-
wards with Wilbur Conover. Oxford was his Alma Mater
and he studied under Thomas Corwin at Lebanon. In
Dayton he first came into notice, politically, during the
Harrison campaign, when his eloquent stump speaking ap-
pealed greatly to the public. His wit, fearlessness, and legal
ability took Mr. Schenck first to the Ohio legislature, then
to Congress, then, in 1851, as the representative of the
United States at Brazil. When the Civil War broke out, he
offered his services to the country, easily stepped into the
rank of general, and won distinction for gallantry in action.

E. E. Barney,

148

The Story of Dayton

>»f-i%

j€%

Wounded at the battle of Bull Run, and forced retirement
necessary, Congress again was the goal, and it was said that
a "history of the course of Robert C. Schenck in the thirty-
ninth and fortieth Congresses would be a complete history
of the legislation of our country during the most eventful
year of the war."

For five years General Schenck represented our interests
at the Court of St. James with dignity, ability, and tact. To
him as member of the Joint High Commission, at the
Geneva Conference, America is
indebted for the resulting peace-
ful solution.

This, briefly, is the story of
Dayton's most distinguished citi-
zen during the nineteenth cen-
'%/' ^^ tury. His fame and honor were

•"^4^1^^ °^'^^' '^^cause he belonged here.

JL^ l^j^M^^ j_lg loved Dayton and worked

^|d^^^^Hi^H^|||k for her interests while he lived,
^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^B now sleeps with others

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^1 his day on the green slopes
nJI^^^^^^^^^^^^H ^^'oodland Cemetery.
^^I^^^K^^^K^Km -^^^ ^^'^^ banking interests of

that dav centered around the

General Robert C. Schenck. j^.^,^^g ^{ A'alentine WiutcrS, who

in his youth worked in a brick yard at Germantown at ten
cents a day, came on foot to Dayton with his belongings in
his hand, obtained a clerkship at the remarkable salary of
fifty dollars a year, became cashier and then controlling
member of the biggest bank in Dayton, promoted large busi-
ness interests, built railroads, equipped a company of troops
for the Civil War, supported whole families of soldiers,
loaned the State of Ohio large sums with which to carry on
the war, and died at last full of honors, after celebrating his
golden anniversary with wife, nine children, and twenty-
three grandchildren.

No story of Dayton could possibly be written that did
not meet the name and vivid personality of Dr. Thomas E.

150 The Story of Dayton

Thomas coming into its pages constantly during the thirteen
years in which he lived here. As minister of the First Pres-
byterian Church, he preached throughout the most passion-
ate period of our history. His was the most scholarly mind
that ever occupied a Dayton pulpit. With vast Biblical
knowledge, a fund of pathos and irony, absolute fearlessness
in attacking wrong, Doctor Thomas' preaching greatly out-
lived his own generation and is
remembered with appreciation
now, more than forty years after
his death. During the great
slavery contest, those bitter times
of riot and hate, of fugitive
slaves in one's cellars, of public
speakers rotten-egged on the
platform, of resistance to gov-
ernment, his voice was alwa\'s
heard against injustice, whether
the question was one of slavery
or the Mexican War. As a boy
of six, when landing from a ship
Dr. Thomas E. Thomas at Baltimore, the first sight that

Pastor First Presbyterian Church. ^^^^ ^j^^ ^^.^^ ^f ThomaS E.

Thomas was the public whipping of a slave. The experi-
ence brought out a fiery indignation and made him, before
the word had been invented, an abolitionist. In utter disre-
gard of warnings against his life, Doctor Thomas came to
Dayton and spoke fearlessly against slavery from the steps
of the courthouse. So he preached and fought, with pen
and tongue, against what he knew was our greatest national
sin, until emancipation was an accomplished fact.

To some thoughtful people, of the type not interested in
railroads, cash registers, or aeroplanes, Dayton will always
be known as the birthplace of one of the sweetest lyric sing-
ers in our language, Paul Laurence Dunbar, the negro poet.
His verses, published in the pages of the "Century Alagazine,
took instant literary rank, before the editor of that magazine

More Men JVho Have Made Dayton

151

discovered that his contributor was a colored man. When,
under cover of this prestige, Dunbar went to New York,
he found a warm welcome from such men as William Dean
Ho wells, Brander Matthews, James A. Heme, and George
W. Cable. ]\fajor Pond took him to London, where he re-
cited his poems, before many notables, at the home of Col.
John Hay, our then ambassador. This was a far cry from
the poet's first experiences in the Dayton High School and
his later ones, as elevator boy in the Callahan Building.
Robert Burns has been cele-
brated as the ''Plough Boy Poet,"
but no one has sung the praises
of the "Elevator Boy Poet." He
has done it for himself in the
songs which have sung them-
selves into human hearts — white
no less than black. In "The Poet

K'^m—- ;«^p m and His Song," "When Malindy

j|P W Sings," "A Drowsy Day," and

^L fx "Ere Sleep Comes Down to

^^^^ Sooth the \\'eary Eyes," there is

^^Hjl^^^^ an elevated tone which never has
JUJj^^mil been surpassed. It should be a
matter of pride to us all, to re-
member that right here in Day-
ton, among our absorbmg commercial interests, we have
produced a real poet, whose work will never die.

William Dean Hov/ells wrote, in 1915: "He is the chief
citizen of your city, avid one of the chief citizens of our
nation. His poetry will live on as long as delicate humor,
genuine feeling, and the music of lyric numbers unite to
charm and keep the lovers of instinctively beautiful verse;
while the pathos of his lot will peculiarly endear his memory
to all who love their fellow men."

Laurence Dunbar.

our absorbing:

Ihe cfmon:--It m-ust and slmlll5e l^eserved.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY

OHIO UNiON

PRESIDENTIAL

TICKET.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN,

For Vi(-e Pretsideiit,

ANDREW JOHNSON,

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Presidenlial Ticket in the Lincoln-Douglas Campaign — Origmal
at Newcom Cabin.

CHAPTER XV.

1861 — 1865.

What the Civil War Meant to Dayton.

The response to Lincoln'^ call for troops. "Three cheers
for the Red. White, and Blue!" The Dayton boys march out.
Neighbor against neighbor. "Killed and missing." A telegram
and cheers. A telegram and tears. Peace and union at last.

Dayton in war times. What does that not mean to those
who lived through them? If yon ask the older men in. our
city, they will tell you that never were days so interesting
or so full of dread ; never a time when hearts beat so high
or ached so deeply. Tliey will tell you that for months be-
fore the war broke out. the words on every one's lips were
"States' Rights." "Secession." the "Fugitive Slave Law," and
"Abolition" : that the national colors blazed from store win-
dows and private houses, from ribbons and notepaper ; that
the girls wore red, white, and blue rosettes, the boys played
soldier, and little children sat on gate posts and shouted,
"Hurrah for the Red, White, and Blue."

\Mth all this enthusiasm, you will be told, went much
bitterness, because all the people in Dayton did not feel the
same about the war. As the North and the South had con-
flicted on the great issues of slavery and States" Rights,
so each side of the question was represented by sympathiz-
ers right here in Dayton. The Republicans loved their
country so much that they wanted her kept strong and
imited. The Democrats loved their countr}- so much that
they could not bear to see her torn to pieces with civil war.
The South claimed its rights to perpetuate slavery if it
had to break up the Union to do it. To the Xorth there
was but one watchword, "The Union must and shall be pre-
served." Those who were for peace expressed themselves
in anything but a peaceful way, and in return were called

154

T]ic Story of Dayton

'"Traitors," "Secesh," "Copperheads," and "Butternuts'' —
the last because of their sympathy with the South, whose sol-
diers wore home-made uniforms dyed with butternut juice.
Men's tempers got the better of them. Hot talk was not

.%^^%;

The Elms that Van Clevc planted. The Levee in 1860.

confined to the elders, but spread to the schools, where fist
fights between the sons of opposing sympathizers took place
nearly every day. Stones were thrown, and names, too,
that hurt as much. Children whose parents were on the

IVhat the Civil War Meant to Dayton 155

unpopular side, underwent real martyrdom at the hands of
their companions. Neighbors who had been lifelong friends
no longer spoke on the street.

All this was because of what happened on April 14, 1861,
when Fort Sumter was fired on by Southern guns. If that
shot had hit our courthouse it could scarcely have caused
more consternation in our midst. The whole North was
ablaze, and we with it. Newsboys yelled it on the street;
m€n shook their fists when they talked of it ; crowds filled
the "Journal" ofiice, waiting for word. The South was de-
fiant; she had rushed into history, and the North was de-
termined she should be punished. When, four days later,
came Lincoln's call for seventy-five thousand men, Dayton
was quick to response.

All winter the militia had been drilling, and five com-
panies held themselves in readiness for service. The first
to answer the call were the Dayton Light Guards, com-
manded by Captain Walter Pease. On the evening of the
same day, just at dusk, they prepared to march to the train.
The armory was on Third Street, east of Main, and there,
in. the middle of the street, facing the west, the ranks of
soldiers formed. Surrounding the young recruits was a
solid throng of parents and friends. The last man to join
the ranks was the color bearer. Down the armory stairway
he slowly stepped, and at the foot paused while he un-
wrapped the folds of the Stars and Stripes and flung them
out before the eyes of the waiting crowd. So wild was
the cheering that nobody heard the horns and drums blar-
ing out the national anthem. It was Dayton's first gift to
the nation, and those who saw it will never forget.

As the train pulled out of the "Union Depot" (as it used
to be called) some tears were shed; (the soldiers were
mere boys), but there were more smiles and cheers. Three
months at most, it was thought, would see them all back in
Dayton and the war over. Not a soul foresaw the long,
tragic struggle of the next four years — civil war — "brother
against brother."

Dailn Din(tiiii,9miriii!l.

aiv.x, iiusuA'. ,i;-i.v ^r, i<.,:i

First issue of thu "Journal" after the attack by the mob. Original copy in th
possession of Mr. John H. Patterson.

IVhat the Civil War Meant to Dayton 157

Within the next few weeks, company after company
went out : the Anderson Guards from the Beckel Hall
Armory, where the girls presented a banner, and Doctor
Thomas made one of his touching prayers; then the Day-
ton Zouaves, the Montgomery Riflemen, the Lafayette
Yagers — always with the same cheers and prayers : mothers
giving Bibles, small brothers keeping step, and girl friends
in curls and hoopskirts waving goodbyes from the sidewalk.
It went on all summer ; Dayton a beehive of activity with
tlag raisings, banner presentations and patriotic speeches.

Then presently, with the father and the father's salary
gone, the soldiers' families had to be thought of. ]\Ir.
Gunckel tersely expressed the obligation when he said,
"\\'e must either fight or pay." To this end, the Sanitary
Commission was organized among the men, and various aid
societies among the women. Five hundred dollars, to pro-
vide for the families of enlisted soldiers, were promptly sub-
scribed among these several organizations, and the City
Council voted ten thousand. The women's societies
met daily and rolled bandages, scraped lint, and packed
boxes. Every day's occupations were for the war ; the
music was war music; the colors were war colors; the
words on all lips were war, war, war, nothing else was of
any moment.

You must not think the school boys of Dayton were idle.
Their share of war service was to keep the wood-boxes of
the soldiers' wives full to overflowing. This idea originated
with S. D. Edgar, who suggested the formation of the
"First Ohio Regiment of Woodsawyers," a humorous allu-
sion to the fact that most of the Dayton recruits were in
the famous "First Ohio." It was entered into with true
military spirit, and from ward to ward the idea spread until
every boy in town had joined either the "Oregon Bucks"
or the "Red Rovers" or the "West Enders" as the occasion
might be. If you had lived in war time you would have
forgotten how you hated your own woodpile and done your
share gallantly with the rest.

158 The Story of Dayton

Montgomery County farmers sent files of loaded wagons
into town from all directions. Thirty came in from Beaver-
town, forty from Harrison Township, others from the west,
all meeting at the courthouse, where they were joined by a
deputation of citizens with speeches and a brass band. The
procession, nearly one hundred and fifty teams strong, led
by the prize wagon drawn by six horses, with Mr. Edgar,
flag in hand, on top of the load, wended its way toward the
canal basin, at that time used as a public woodyard.

The loads of wood were there deposited, ready for the
"First Regiment" to do its work, and all the farmers re-
ceived a dinner ticket and many thanks for their patriotism.
One of the inducements to men to enlist was the assurance
that their families would be well cared for.

All through the summer and fall of 1861, Dayton fairly
hummed with recruiting, political speeches, and sewing for
the soldiers. All these meetings and marchings, these drill-
ings and flag raisings were vastly exciting, but they were
not war. It was more than a year before Dayton really felt
what war was. Not at Lincoln's call, not when the troops
marched away singing,

"IVe arc coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thou-
sand strong,"

but when, on April 8, 1862, the "Journal" printed inconspic-
uously a private dispatch from a member of Grant's stafif
which had been copied from a Chicago paper and was then
two days old. It was dated Pittsburg Landing, and read,

"We have fought and zvon the hardest battle ever zvaged
on this continent."

That was all, but it was enough. The Dayton companies
were in that division. Every heart that heard the news
stood still.

You may grasp the nervous suspense that the town was
under if you read the daily papers of that spring. They are
in the files at the Public Library, dim with the dust of
1862, and brown with the flood mud of 1913, but still giving

IVhat the Civil War Meant to Dayton

159

out the spirit of those dreadful days. Looking for details
of that bloody battle you search in vain through the issues
of the week that followed. Xot until April fifteenth do you
find the first account of the battle of Pittsburg Landing,
and not until the seventeenth the list of killed and wounded.
Eleven long days to wait for news which meant so much
to fathers and mothers in Dayton !

Then, if you had been a boy, you could have seen a side
of war that had nothing to do with flag raisings and martial
music. You would have gone from high school at noon
with a heavy heart, to see the
^^g|^ bulletin at the ''Journal" ofiice,

^^^H|™^ afraid to look lest you find the

i S name of a dear elder brother and

• fSf^ IPJ^ p liave to take the news home.

Even with no personal concern
it was a horrifying experience to
scan that list, for it more than
once held the names of boys on
your street or of young business
men — fathers of families — drop-
ped out of a busy, happy life,

Colonel Hiram Strong. j^g^.gj. ^q rctum.

From that time forth the story was constantly repeated —
^Missionary Ridge, Antietam, Gettysburg, A'icksburg, Chick-
amauga, — always the war lists, alw^ays the wounded soldiers
being brought home, always the funerals winding slowly out
Brown Street, with muffled drums and a flag draped over
the coffin. Then, perhaps, some girl in your class came to
school in a black dress and with a different look in her eyes.
All this is more than fifty years in the past, yet there are
women still living who can never hear a war song or a
funeral march without a choking at the throat and a dim-
ness in the eye.

160

The Story of Dayton

Two gallant young officers, with young families, gave up
their lives that year — Luther Bruen and Hiram Strong.
The latter was colonel of the Ninety-third Regiment. In
his death the town sustained a personal loss, and his funeral
wore a dramatic aspect even in those dramatic times. The
crowd which followed the body to the cemetery filled the
streets from curb to curb with a sombre and silent throng.
As the flag-draped coffin was lowered into the earth. Doc-
tor Thomas uttered these impressive words,

"Treason dug this grave and
Patriotism has filled it."

Is it any wonder that a plain-
live note crept into the war
songs? and that while in 1861
we were singing

"The Union forever, Hurrah,
boys, hurrah!" in 1863 we sang,
"Just before the battle, mother,
I am t Junking most of you,"
or,

"In the prison cell I sit,
Thinking, mother dear, of you."

They were doggerel, most of them, and set to mere
jingles, but what the music lacked, human sentiment made
up, and they still grip the heart.

When the First Ohio camped on Tate's Hill on the
Springfield Pike, every boy who walked the three miles
found something interesting to see when he got there ; the
clean, white tents in rows, the bright uniforms and prancing
horses, the daily drills and manoeuvers. A thousand fine
young soldiers went from that hill down the road to Dayton
and ofif to the South, some to win and wear laurels and
some to a distant grave.

Luther Bruen.

What the Civil JVar Meant to Dayton 161

The contrast to this scene came in 1864, when after
the appalling defeat of our forces at Chancellorsville, the
Eleventh and Twelfth Army Corps passed through Dayton
on its way to rest and reorganize. Train load after train load
of flat cars crowded close with soldier boys rolled into the
old depot. Xo bright uniforms here, but hundreds of tired,
dusty, and ragged heroes. wear_\- from forced marches and
severe fighting, and pale from a diet of half-cooked beans
and hardtack. How the women of Dayton hurried to their
aid I How they brought armfuls of clothing, fruit, white
bread, and jellies to those half -starved boys. Wives, moth-
ers, sisters practically lived at the depot during the three
days that the transfer lasted. Here again school boys did
their share, running along the sides of the cars with drinking
water and newspapers, mailing letters, and doing errands
for the soldiers.

In 1863 during the Christmas holidays, in the unfinished
second story of the Beckel House, a great bazaar was held,
an occasion which brought ever\- one into service. The
cantata of "Esther" was presented, under the direction of
James Turpin ; eighteen booths representing different coun-
tries lined the walls : there were drapings of red, white, and
blue, pretty girls, uniforms, and more gayety than one would
think possible in war time. All this activity netted twelve
thousand dollars for the benefit of soldiers' families — a
good, round sum for those days. During the bazaar week,
one certain evening will always be remembered for a re-
markable fall of temperature. It had been raining and was
unseasonably mild until seven o'clock, when the mercury
l^egan to fall, and, by midnight registered thirty degrees be-
low zero. It is said that sentries froze at their posts as far
south as Georgia.

We shall need to refer to the histories to make some
things plain in political situation during these years m
Dayton. We had, as our Representative in Congress from
this district, Clement L. \"allandigham, a man of powerful
personality, forcible eloquence, but of the anti-war, Demo-

What the Civil War Meant to Dayton 163

crat camp. From first to last he was opposed to the war.
On every occasion his voice was raised in protest to the
Government, against the levying of taxes for equipment.
In a speech in Congress he proclaimed that his vote would
be "No, No, No," on any resolution favoring war. This
persistent opposition to the Government, at a time when
it became necessary to ofifer bounties to induce men to en-
list, became insupportable, and led to a plan to get rid of
him. General Burnside was stationed at Cincinnati, and he
was offered a company to arrest Vallandigham.

In the middle of the night of May 5, 1863, the tramp
of troops was heard coming up Ludlow Street and turning
in at First. The house they sought was on the north side
near Wilkinson.* A demand for admittance brought no
response. Then the neighbors alert for every sound, heard
the blows of an axe on the heavy oak doors, then a crash,
then silence. The soldiers had penetrated to Mr. Vallan-
digham's bedroom and arrested him in the name of the
United States Government. He was tried at Cincinnati
some days later and sent south of the Confederate lines.

The arrest and trial have since been termed both unjust
and unconstitutional. Heated and bitter as were his utter-
ances, they were undoubtedly those of a conscientious man.
On the other hand, Lincoln said it was not in his heart to
order a soldier boy shot for desertion when the voice which
had weakened his faith in the government was allowed to go
on unchecked. But can you imagine the anger of the friends
of Vallandigham here in Dayton, at what seemed to them
a brutal violation of the right of free speech ?

As soon as the news of the arrest spread, they gathered
around the "Journal" ofifice, ready for violence. The "Jour-
nal" had made itself most obnoxious to those who opposed
war. The "Empire" had supported Vallandigham. Both
papers excelled in abuse and fanned the flames of party exas-
peration. The crowd that hooted at the "Journal" ofifice that

*On the site of present residence of H. G. Carnell.

164 The Story of Dayton

night was in desperate earnest. In vain Mayor Gillespie
called out the fire department and an extra police force ; in
vain he bravely mounted the steps, faced the mob, and
ordered them to disperse. Some hands cut the fire hose,
others passed a torch, and in a few moments the building
was ablaze from roof to foundation. Then the rioters went
home, and the next day Dayton found herself under martial
law.

Worse came later. The editor of the Democratic paper,
on returning from market on Second Street in the early
morning, was shot down by a bullet from the gun of a
heated partisan, who was immediately jailed. The mob
spirit uppermost always drew an excited crowd to the spot,
demanding that the assailant be given up to them, for what
purpose could be easily guessed. Again Mayor Gillespie
stood before the mob, and declared that only across his own
body could that prisoner be taken. He was not taken. The
mob dispersed. Xot only on the field of battle were all the
heroes of the Civil War. Such an act as this brought not
only the war spirit, but its bloodshed to our very doors.

You will not wonder at these scenes of violence if you
read the daily newspapers during the war. They found the
people bitter and they made them worse. The "Empire" de-
clared editorially that if we did not have so weak, futile, and
cowardly a President as Abraham Lincoln at Washington,
individual liberty would not be abused, whereupon it was al-
luded to by its rival as the "Daily \^ampire." Public opin-
ion had so shifted its position on the slavery question that
the anti-abolitionists who had mobbed Doctor Jewett's
house in 1848, now, in 1863, found they were themselves
threatened with violence. Professional men of good stand-
ing were called "vile traitors," "beasts," and their homes
alluded to as "hell-holes." Their wives could not go on the
street without having mud thrown upon them. Multiply
these instances by hundreds, consider the "Journal" mobbing
as perhaps only the beginning of more of the same, and you

Jf'liat the Ci-c'il JJ\ir Meant to Dayton

165

will see what a pleasant place Dayton must have been to
live in, in the Sixties.

Worse even than fires and niolis was the excitement over
the threatened raid of John Morgan. It was rumored that
with twenty-five hundred free-booters he was coming
straight to Dayton. Me was indeed within the borders of
Ohio, riding like mad, confiscating horses, and taking pris-
oners. Word was sliouted over country roads and pub-

Northwest corner Fourth and ^lain
center during the Civ

1 ISfiO.
\\"ar

A recruiting

lished in city "extras." People hid their valuables and pre-
pared to defend their homes. In response to an imperative
telegram, the bank at Eaton loaded its funds into a two-
horse wagon, like so much corn, and sent it to Dayton,
where it was added to the gold in our banks, and in charge
of armed clerks, sent in a freight car to Toledo. During
these thrilling occurrences, the boys of the town were di-
vided in their minds as to whether to run and hide, or stay
out and see the most famous cavalrv leader of the Southern

166 The Story of Dayton

army. It made no difference which they did, for Morgan
never got as far as Dayton. He merely crossed the line of
Butler County and then turned and rode in another direc-
tion. Our horses and teaspoons were safe !

The last call for troops was answered mainly by boys in
the high school. They were destined for garrison duty at
Washington, and were called the "Hundred Days Men."
The fair grounds was selected for a provisional camp, and
thence the young recruits went, and were met by the hard-
ships of war before they got their first buttons. No quar-
ters had been provided except the horse stalls, no tents, not
even cots and blankets. The boys kept up their spirits with
jokes and songs, called each other "General" and their quar-
ters the "Burnet House," which in those days stood for the
acme of luxury.

Toward midnight, however, it was no longer so
funny. The cold bit in and they longed for a bed. Then,
four of the more enterprising boys wrenched a board from
the fence on the Main Street side and crawled out. Up the
road they went to the gate of the Patterson farm, where
they meant to find in the hay mow the comfort that the
"Burnett House" lacked. But Mrs. Patterson heard of it,
and brought them to the house where, in her good feather
beds, they slept until morning. It was deserting, of course,
but they didn't know it, and the United States Government
never found it out. At daybreak the party returned, crawled
through the hole in the fence, and once more answered their
country's call.

In the limited space of a single chapter it will be impos-
sible to give the names of those Dayton men who either
"fought or paid." Gallant work was done in the field and
generous giving at home. The roll of both is in existence
and can be consulted. Here, we may only note the sweep
of events as they affected Dayton.

On the ninth of April, 1865, citizens were wakened from
their sleep about two o'clock in the morning by a violent
ringing of their door-bells. Putting their heads out of

168 The Story of Dayton

upper windows they heard the shout, "Lee has surrendered !"
Down First and Second streets went the messengers, from
door to door, until every man of voting age, and some
younger, had come out. One ran to the Engine House, and
soon the bells were calling out. "Lee has surrendered!" The
church bells joined in ; cannon boomed from the landing,
men laughed and nearly cried as they repeated to each
other, "Lee has surrendered!" It seemed too good to be
true that the war was over and that life could go on quietly
once more.

The fourteenth was appointed by the governor as a day
of thanksgiving. It was celebrated by church services with
full congregations, a salute of guns, and much private re-
joicing. Led by the veterans of the First and the Ninety-
third, the two regiments in which most of the Dayton men
had served, passed in review down Main Street carrying
their tattered flags which, four years before, had gone out
so clean and new. Following came the wounded and infirm
soldiers in carriages, not old men and bent, as we know
them now, but in the prime of life. Wild cheers went up as
they passed — the real heroes of the Civil War !

In the evening, what the papers called a "brilliant illumi-
nation" took place, and our memory says it was all of that,
in spite of the fact that it consisted merely of candles and
kerosene lamps behind colored tissue paper on the window
panes. Can you see it all ? The lights and cheers and
Hags, and the Third Regiment band ringing forth "Mine
eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."

Little did they guess how a short twenty-four hours was
to change the cheers to tears. The fifteenth of April was a
"day off" for everybody. Xo papers had come out the night
before, and none the next morning. Printers and telegraph
o])erators were resting. Suddenly and ominously the wires
spoke and the one man left in charge of the office listened.

"President Lincoln assassinated" is what the message
said. Mr. Richard Lane took the message from the wire,
and since, of course, there was no telephone, he ran the

170 The Story of Dayton

block between the telegraph office and the "Journal," holding
high above his head the fatal message. The. "Journal" office
was empty, so down to the end of Second Street went
Mr. Lane to Major Bickham's residence, and in an hour an
extra was issued and people knew the whole, dreadful
tragedy.

Can you imagine the contrast which twenty-four hours
wrought in the soul of a city? The streets just as full as
the day before, but with what an altered emphasis! The
feeling was one of acute, personal loss, for by this time Lin-
coln had made himself President of all the people. Business
was suspended, the bells rang again, one solemn stroke to a
minute. Down came the tissue paper lanterns and streamers
of red, white, and blue, and in their place hung drapings of
dead black. Again the bands played — no longer in quick-
step time, but with a dull roll of drums and the horns in a
minor key.

You heard it all. You saw your father's face graver
than ever before. You felt that now, neighbors could be
friends once more, for "The Union forever" was no longer
a battle-cry or a street song, but a part of the life of Day-
ton and your own.

For the first time you felt what it was to be an American !

170 The Story of Dayton

For the first time you felt what it was to be an American !

CHAPTER XVI.

1865—1896.

Our Hundredth Anniversary.

After the war. Reconstruction and reconciliation. Keeping
memories alive. "On the virtues of its citizens." Dayton
reaches her centenary. Newcom's Tavern finds a new site.
Work of the Historical Society.

Our Dayton, while we ponder on thy past

And laud the virtues of our sires gone,
Prophetic vision onward, too, we cast

As the new century's birth we gaze upon.

May all the sturdy spirit of thy sons

\\'hose names to-night we garland with our praise,
Descend upon us that there may be done

Such noble work as theirs, in coming days !

May all our pride in thee bear fruit in deeds.

In action for our city's highest good ;
May we but seek to meet thy future needs

In service as one common brotherhood.

In 1865, the war at an end, Dayton entered upon an
era of reconstruction and reconciliation. Years passed, it
is true, before the feelings engendered by the tragic issues
of the Sixties died out, but there was much good work done
by quiet personal influence, to bridge the chasm. The sol-
dier boys had come home, business was improving.

One of the first duties was to care for the men who had
sacrificed their health in the service of the nation. To this
end, the Forty-third Congress passed a bill establishing
three National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers.
The idea of bringing the Central Branch to Dayton origi-

17;

TJic Sfary of Ihiyfoii

nated with Lewis B. Gunckel, then our Representative from
this district, supported by the Dayton "Journal," under
W. D. Bickham, both of whom used personal influence and
indefatigable industry to bring it to pass. When we walk
among the winding avenues or over the broad, greensward
of the Soldiers' Home, it will not be amiss to remember
our debt for the acquisition of such a beautiful, dignified,
and patriotic resort. .\s resident manager. ]vlr. Gunckel

Main St
M c Pheisont

took a personal pride in directing the improvements in
grounds and buildings and in arranging for the comfort and
recreation of the men. The Soldiers' Home is his monu-
ment in the same sense as Woodland Cemetery is John Van
Cleve's. Both bear constant witness to the foresight and
efficient public service of their founders. The Soldiers'
Home cared for the living soldiers ; who was to keep green
the memor}- of those who had gone? It was General

From an etching b;

174 The Story of Dayton

Schenck who first suggested the idea of a Soldiers' Monu-
ment to be erected, not at Woodland, where few would
see it, but right in the midst of our city life and traffic.
There was as yet neither money nor legal authority for the
plan, nevertheless some enthusiasts went to work to get both.
A bill was passed legalizing a county tax for this purpose,
and which was endorsed by both political parties at the next
election. Finally assistance was given by the Old Guard
Association, organized for this purpose, of men who had
served in the war. Local talent presented a play called "The
Drummer Boy of Shiloh," at Turner's Opera House, in
which all the thrilling events of the war were set forth.
Only two hundred dollars resulted from this enterprise, but
it was a beginning, and more came slowly in. During the
twenty years between the first suggestion and the dedication
of the monument, many citizens gave it their warm support;
among them, Doctor Thomas, Governor Charles Anderson,
P2dward W. Davies, John G. Lowe, Valentine Winters, E.
A. Parrott, Samuel Craighead, L. B. Gunckel, E. M. Wood,
J. H. Pierce.

In 1874 bids for the monument were called for and the
contract awarded. Granite for the pedestal was brought
from the quarries in Maine ; George Fair posed for the
statue of the soldier, which was made in Carrara, Italy. It
was landed in New York, June 20, 1884, and the ceremonies
surrounding its dedication comprised one of the notable
events in Dayton history. It was made the occasion of a
national reunion of all the participants in the war. Invi-
tations were sent broadcast, and royally were they honored.
Not since the Harrison Rally of 1840 was Dayton so full of
humanity or so moved by a common impulse. Stripped of
all the pageantry of this stirring occasion, the thought back
of it was the one engraved on the east side of the granite
base, which it is hoped, no boy who stood on the outskirts
of that crowd would ever forget.

"THE REPUBLIC RESTS UPON THE VIRTUE, J
INTELLIGENCE, AND PATRIOTISM OF ITS" — 1

Our Hundredth Anniversary

175

what? Its rulers? Its leaders? Its representatives? No!
Of its "CITIZENS."

In the winter of 1895-96 we were reminded that on
April first, a century before, a band of settlers had come up
the river, landed from their pirogue at the head of Main
Street, and founded Dayton. So important an occasion as
this could not be overlooked. The idea took hold of pop-
ular imagination. Many had a hand in the enterprise, but

The Newcom Cabin in its disguise of clapboards, as it stood for 100 years on the
corner of Main and Monument Avenue.

all will grant that the primary suggestion came from a
sick-room.

Mary Davies Steele, daughter of Robert W. Steele, was
what might be called an "applied reader." She put what
she read into practice. The idea of arousing local loyalty
by having a civic birthday party appealed to her, and she
in turn appealed to the community. Eastern cities, she de-

176

Tlic Story of Dayton

dared, kept anniversaries, put up tablets, and saved relics.
Why should not Dayton ? By word of mouth to visitors at
her bedside and through tlie columns of the daily papers,
]\liss Steele pleaded for a centennial celebration. Slow at
first in growing, the idea was helped Ijy the threatened de-
struction of the old Xewcom Tavern, which for one hun-
dred years had been mas(|uera(h'ng under a coat of clap-
l)oards as "Shafor's (Irocerv." ^^'e were reminded by her

1 he Xewcom Cal)in on its modern site, showing tlie nioutli of Mad River.

of the history which liad gcnie on within those log walls
when Dayton was but a handful of the same kind of dwell-
ings and Montgomery County a wilderness. One after an-
other public-spirited citizen responded with contributions to
preserve the cabin. It was purchased, stripped of its boards,
moved to the river bank above the bridge, and there en-
sconced, an object lesson in pioneer history and an illumi-
nating contrast to the fine, new high school.

Our Hundredth Anniversary 17/

Our school authorities saw in the proposed celebration,
an occasion to stimulate interest in local history. Under
the direction of Miss Steele, who knew Dayton families by
heart and was determined that every interest in our midst
should have representation, committees were appointed.
Business and professional men, club women and mothers of
families, old and young, black and white, in school or out,
Protestant, Catholic, Jew — all united on that never-to-be-
forgotten occasion, to act or sing their thankfulness in being
Daytonians.

The celebration began on April first, with salvos of guns
and ringing of bells. Every school in the city held exercises
during which the story of the settlement of Dayton was told
and retold. A boy pupil at the Central District School re-
cited the following poem, entitled,

MR. THOMPSON'S COW.*
Just one hundred years ago, so the story's told,
Up the winding river came a band of spirits bold
Through the forest dark and dense, seeking for a spot
Where each gallant pioneer might own a corner lot.
When they reached the Main Street Bridge, Samuel Thompson

cries,
"Here is Early Dayton,"' in tones of glad surprise.
Then they tied their clumsy craft close against the shore
Just below the Gas Works which they'd never seen before.

Joined them soon another brave and hardy band

Which from Cincinnati tramped, sixty miles by land,

Looking out for Injuns, catamount and bear,

Dodging toll gates, too, because they had no change to spare;

Full of grit and courage, free from doubts and fears.

Bound for Early Dayton were these pioneers.

Time has dimmed their names, yet one of them, I trow.

Will deserve our gratitude — Mr. Thompson's cow.

In the page of history, never word is said

Whether Mr. Thompson's cow brindled was or red.

Whether Alderney by birth or of Jersey blood,

Tracing back her ancestry far as Noah's flood.

We but know she came along, patient and serene.

Wondering what the journey meant, in her thoughts bovine.

Not the least important one, we must all allow

In that pilgrim party, was the Thompson cow.

*Written by Frank Conover.

Our Hundredth Anniversary 179

Through the weary journey, when the children cried,

Thompson's cow most gladly all their wants supplied;

Filled their stomachs full of milk and their hearts of joy,

Friend in need to every hungry girl or boy.

Early in the morning and again at night,

When they gathered 'round her, 'twas a pleasant sight

As the picture came to us we imagine how

All those baby pioneers loved the Thompson cow.

When at last the journey o'er. I have heard it said.

That those grateful pioneers built the cow a shed,

And she dwelt in peace with them, 'neath the lofty trees,

While they looked to her for milk, buttermilk, and cheese.

But they could not take it all, for at least half

Had to go to nourish Thompson's cow's young calf.

In our dairies we can find her descendants now.

And we owe our morning cream to the Thompson cow.

When we build a monument to those settlers brave.

When upon a marble shaft their names we shall engrave.

When the roll of honor's called, surely must appear

Just a word regarding that humble pioneer.

When we write McClure and Thompson, Newconi, Goss, Van

Cleve,
Underneath these precious names a little space we'll leave
There to tell posterity, in simple language, how
Much our Early Dayton owes to Samuel Thompson's cow.

The afternoon of the first of April and the whole of
the second were given up to the most genuine family party
Dayton ever enjoyed. Never before had there been an anni-
versary that seemed to belong equally to parents and chil-
dren. The boys and girls having said their say in the school-
rooms, the parents took possession of the Victoria Theatre,
and to a full house expressed their debt to the past and
their hopes for the future.

The civic authorities arranged a great procession which
started at the cabin and came back to it, and included every
activity and interest in the city from school children, ten
thousand of them, to fire engines. While this was in prog-
ress, a row of locomotive bells on the south side of the
courthouse kept up an inspiring but deafening racket. Can-
non and giant crackers, whistles and drums added their
share. Such an effervescence of civic pride did us all good.

180 The Story of Dayton

Not a boy in knee trousers but was proud of having been
born in Dayton.

At the exercises at the Victoria Theatre on the evening
of April second, one speaker voiced the emotions of those
who had initiated this celebration in these words :

"We can do nothing better to stimulate the best sentiments
of patriotism and pul)lic spirit in our children, than to open to
them the study of the history of our own city. Its records are
filled with the names of good men, good citizens, men of brain
and character and high purpose. The roll is a proud one.
There are lessons not for the children alone, but for their
fathers, too, in the unselfishness and devotion to public good,
integrit3% broad vision, and courageous living of those men of
early Dayton. If the citizens who meet to celebrate the second
centennial of this city find reason to speak of us and of our
sons and daughters as we can truly speak to-night of the pio-
neers of the century just closed, we shall not have lived in vain."

To keep alive this newly-born spirit of home loyalty, the
Dayton Historical Society was presently organized. Re-
quests for pioneer data and relics, to be kept at the New-
corn Tavern and to form a museum of the early years, re-
sulted in a general search, and many unsuspected treasures
were brought to light. A chair, the property of Benjamin
Van Cleve, was replaced, after one hundred years, in the
room where he sat to teach his pupils. The first postofifice,
an ancient cupboard, unearthed by some old resident who
could vouch for its history, was restored to its former local-
ity if not to its original functions. Four-post bedsteads,
spinning-wheels, low-hooded cradles, candlesticks, candle-
molds, dutch-ovens, and settles were contributed by people
inspired with a desire to bring the interesting pioneer days
back to our modern consciousness.

There is nothing elsewhere, we believe, just like the
Newcom Cabin. Under those age-blackened rafters which
sheltered the first makers of our life as a community, there
may still be found witnesses of their personal existence.
By the side of that fireplace, you may re-create in im-
agination the interests and activities of our Dayton fore-
fathers; vigorous, arduous, yet glorious, as all plain things

-"f^A

iliii

\\\n J-lOl'^

JBSSL

Steele High School. Built 1S9S. Named in honor of Robert W. Steele.

182

The Story of Dayton

are if done with conscience. Even the hand corn-cracker
preaches its sermon. The chairs, the cooking utensils, the
iron crane in the chimney jamb, all tell a story of an histor-
ical epoch, past and completed. We have no ruins of
castles in Dayton, no cathedrals to represent medieval as-
pirations, but we have a log cabin, just as eloquent of
spiritual interest and human worth. The flood spared it.
Tearing out, stone by stone, the massive masonry of the
high-school tower just opposite, the relentless Miami, in its
unbridled career during March, 1913, left the old cabin
standing in its own place, where we hope it will still be
found, when Dayton celebrates her bi-centenary, on April
first, nineteen hundred and ninety-six.

View in the National Military Home.

CHAPTER XVII.

1896—1915.

The Home of Aviation.

A boy's workshop. A kite on the seashore. A shed on Huff-
man's Prairie. "On wings like eagles." Dayton incredulous.
"Hail to the Chiefs!"

Two brothers in a little shop on West Third Street, some
len^h of wire, several pieces of wood and metal, a wheel
or two — these were the small beginnings of great things to
Dayton and to the world. The affair was started in the
first place by a toy brought home by a father to his sons,
when they were still school-boys. This plaything, when
thrown into the air, did not immediately fall to the ground,
but fluttered and balanced for some seconds before touching
the floor.

Being clever with tools the boys (whom you know as
the Wrights) made one like it; then a bigger one which also
flew ; then a still bigger one which did not go at all. In
increasing the size of the toy they had lost the necessary
proportion between power and weight. In doubling the size
of their machine they should have quadrupled the power,
a principle they had not yet discovered. The mystery of
it started questions and experiments. Kite flying was a
favorite sport with the brothers, and this new diversion was,
so far, but a branch of it. The toy (the first one) stayed
in the air ; the kite flew under wind pressure ; why could
not a machine be constructed which would do both? A kite
lifted its own weight ; why not, if made larger and stronger,
that of a man?

Curiosity prompted these questions and the play in-
stinct drove the experimenters on. As the tests proceeded
they became absorbing; from play the enterprise developed

^^::

'':-J^'>

Medal Presented to the Wright Brothers by the United States
Government, "In Recognition of Their Ability, Courage, and
Success in Navigating the Air."

The Home of Aviation 185

into "sport." and from sport into intense pursuit of a new
scientific principle hitherto undeveloped.

Much current writing on the subject of the Wright
brothers has been incorrect. People have believed that the
aeroplane was developed by a lucky accident, perhaps after
the fashion of the little man in the ballad who,

"Took four spools

And an old tin can,
Called it a Jitney

And the blamed thing ran."

If you hear the Wright aeroplane, the most wonderful
achievement in all history, ascribed to the chance happening
of two untrained minds, please take pains to deny it on the
?pot. The exact opposite is the truth. Nothing really good
is done without study; nothing truly scientific without lab-
oratory experiment. The Wright brothers were, from first
to last, omnivorous readers, painstaking students. To these
characteristics they added a colossal capacity for work. No
effort was too long or hard if by it they learned the least
new principle. The truth was what they were continually
in pursuit of, even if it upset their pet theories.

The reason for this misapprehension on the part of mag-
azine writers and the press in general, is that the Wrights
never posed. They never assumed scientific nor pedantic
airs. To the general view, they were two ordinary men
in ordinary clothes, with sometimes soiled hands, who
fussed unendingly with complicated machinery and talked
to nobody but each other. But behind every step of advance
there lay interminable calculations, precise estimates, and
years of research.

Think of the enterprise in all its bearings, that they had
embarked upon ! It was as if a sea captain, in order to cross
the ocean, must work out the science of navigation from
the beginning, build his own ship, invent a compass and
sextant, and make out tables of latitude and longitude.
Christopher Columbus indeed ! We had two of him right
here in Davton !

186

The Story of Dayton

To give a technical account of the mechanics of the aero-
plane is out of the question in a small book. "Stabilizers,"
"wind tunnels," "dynamic efficiency" are mere words to the
ordinary reader. What we, as fellow citizens of the Wrights
should know, is the story of what they meant to do and how
they attacked the problem. What they did do needs no tell-
ing anywhere under the sun.

From 1890 to 1900 was the period of greatest activity in
aeronautics. Over in France, Santos Dumont was sailing

The shop on West Third Street where the Wright Brothers began experiments.

in a gas-supported balloon. Here in Dayton, the Wrights
watched every move and kept up with the changing theories.
What they had in mind was not ballooning, but the construc-
tion of a heavier-than-air machine that would fly. Four
years of study preceded their first experiments. They took
no one into their confidence, "Darius Green" and the author
of "perpetual motion" being a crowd they did not care to be
associated with in the public mind. Some locality had to be

The Home of Aviation 187

found in which to make mistakes unseen. Also, since wind
was the motive power, they needed a wind-swept plain.
Consuhing the Weather Bureau at Washington resulted in
the information that the region near Cape Hatteras on the
North Carolina coast was as windy and lonesome a place
as could be found on the map. At Kitty Hawk, then, on a
strip of sandy shore, a shop was set up and in the fall of
1900, experiments began.

At this time the idea aimed at was to construct a machine
to be flown as a kite, in winds with a velocity of from fifteen
to twenty miles an hour, to be operated by levers through
cords from the ground. Undertaken in the same spirit as
golfing or ice-sailing, it was important play, no more. Start-
ing at the top of a long hill, with somebody to push ; coast-
ing down hill on the air, — it was vastly interesting, the one
great difficulty being the balance. It was not merely a
question of constructing a machine with the right kind of
wings, but the calculating of wind pressures; not merely to
stay up, but to keep level and alight without wrecking.

Always success evaded them. At last the conclusion was
reached that the trouble lay, not with faulty mechanism, but
with the mathematics of the air. Up to this time the broth-
ers had adhered faithfully and placed implicit confidence in
the tables worked out by Lilienthal. It was presently seen
that those calculations did not go far enough. The brothers
decided to work entirely from original calculations. A con-
trivance called a "wind tunnel" was constructed to measure
the force of wind currents. It was discovered that the
pressure of wind at a certain velocity varies as it strikes
upon different shaped surfaces — one certain pressure on a
square plane, another on a three-cornered one ; that it varies
moreover according to the thickness of a plane, the curve
of the wing, the shape of the edge ; no variation was too
insignificant to have an influence on the lifting power of
the mechanism.

Having succeeded in building a machine that would
carry itself in a gliding flight, a man was put on board to

188 The Story of Dayton

do the guiding, and the ground ropes dispensed with. At
first the aviator lay flat on his face as he worked the levers.
It was three years before the lift was established and the
steering controlled ; it remained only to supply the power to
keep it going. But imagine the endless experiments, the
many discouraging failures, the few bewildering successes,
the endless arguments between the brothers, before the aero-
plane, as we know it, was an accomplished fact.

December 17, 1903, was the day on which IT actually
happened. A gasoline engine of their own make had been
installed in the machine and three successful flights were
made, each lasting a little longer than the one before it. At
the fourth flight, the aeroplane, with engine and man, weigh-
ing altogether seven hundred and fifty pounds, rose on the
wind, steadied itself under control, stayed up for fifty-nine
seconds and landed without wrecking. It is not too much
to say that it was an epoch in the history of the world. And
right at that point was where the whole thing stopped being
play and became to the brothers the one soul-absorbing ob-
ject in life. That single minute in the air made the dififer-
ence between an attractive hypothesis and an amazing pos-
sibility.

In 1904, the workers and the workship came back to
Dayton. Through the generosity of Torrence Huffman,
they were allowed to use, for their experiments in flying,
a flat expanse of ground some eight miles east of the city.
Arrangements having been perfected for their first flights,
an invitation was extended to the daily papers to send repre-
sentatives. About ten reporters accepted, and exhibited a
luke-warm interest. No one seemed to comprehend the dif-
ference between flying in a gas balloon and flying with a
heavier-than-air machine. The indifference of the specta-
tors will not be found astonishing when it is learned that
that invitation day was the exact time the engine took for
misbehaving. The aeroplane followed willingly enough the
length of its track, then ran off into the grass and sulked.
Again it was started, but refused to rise. The visitors went

The Home of Aviation

189

back to town not much disappointed ; they had seen all they
expected to.

Another invitation was sent out, and that time a spring
broke and spoiled the show. Each time, the faulty piece of
mechanism had to be duplicated in the shop, which, of
course, took time, during which delay what little interest
there was in the experiments, evaporated. The reporters
were pleasant about it for they liked the Wrights (deluded
dreamers though thev undoubtedly were), and in their ac-

_i. iAA

_::v^\w*', ^'

--•X ' -;f\.v.-

li tiilMJIiliMit

'^^^i^Mm'^m

^L^m^*h'.'!S^'

^0^

^^^m
'^-^^'

^:^^^

^:-^,

Chorus of school children, Wright Day, June 17, 1909.

count of the flying, let the inventors down as gently as
possible. Later invitations were ignored. Hufifman Prairie
was a good way out, it was windy, and there was no fun
watching a flying machine that did not fly.

It should be understood that Dayton people were not,
on the whole, so much duller than others. It has transpired
since then, that when flights had been going on quite long
enough to prove their genuineness, a representative of one
of the leading New York dailies came out to Dayton to

190

The Story of Dayton

have some fun for his paper at the expense of those two
young pretenders. He was to go to the aviation field and
give the whole thing a "roast." He came and he departed.
What he saw at Huffman's prairie took all the wind out
of his sails. The combination of impressions, personal, me-
chanical, scientific, so filled him with amazement that at the
risk of losing his salary he refused to write anything except
in unbounded praise of the Wrights.

There came a day, however, when the story the reporters
might have written would have been dififerent. You per-

"She stirs, she moves, she seems to feel the thrill of life along her keel."
Huffman's prairie, 1900.

haps, were one who never lost faith in the possibiHties
locked up in that shed on Huffman prairie, and every day
when it was possible, you took the Springfield traction out
to the aviation grounds and hung over the fence with your
eyes glued on to the proceedings on the other side. On that
certain day, as on so many others, the doors of the shed
were pushed open by some unimportant looking individuals

i 1

192 The Story of Dayton

in working clothes, who wheeled this strange contrivance
into view, — two canvas planes, a mysterious mass of wires,
steering gear, and rudders. Then another man climbed
into the seat, seized the levers and started the en-
gine, which began to buzz and whirr, as, pushed by two
assistants at the side, it gradually got under headway. Like
a long-winged bird, striking the ground by short running
steps to get its lift for flight, you saw it gaining impetus.
Then, into your mind came Longfellow's lines on the launch-
ing of the ship,

"She stirs, she moves, she seems to feel the thrill of life
along her keel" —

only, instead of a keel, it was the spreading wings that were
feeling the stir of life. Responding to the lift of the wind
and the propulsion of the engine, slowly they began to rise.
The wheels were actually leaving the surface of the ground.
Across the field, beneath the mechanism of the aeroplane,
you could see the line of trees on the far side. Like a huge,
stately bird it left the earth and climbed in diminishing cir-
cles, steadily and surely, towards the white clouds in the
summer sky. Then, if you had any imagination, if you
comprehended the least part of what had just taken place,
you came mighty near to having hysterics, and so did all
the rest.

Here in Dayton, where we had always lived — in plain
old Dayton- — Stephenson, Fulton, Morse were all outdone!
That flight of a machine weighing one thousand pounds,
will go down in history as one of the marvelous accomplish-
ments of human ingenuity.

After it was over, no fuss, no boasting, no airs. Neither
on the boggy soil of Huffman prairie with a group of school-
boys and mechanics looking on, nor on the aviation fields
of Italy, France, or Germany, with kings and emperors
waiting for a word with them, did the Wright brothers in-
dulge in any self-glorification. The seemingly impossible
had been accomplished, which was all they worked for, all
they wanted. Not the least of the triumph was the small

194 The Story of Dayton

amount of money expended. It is stated that Sir Hiram
Maxim spent two hundred thousand dollars in his experi-
ments; Langley, one hundred thousand — half of it govern-
ment money; Ader, the French aviator, the same. The
Wrights spent just five thousand, and — succeeded.

As to Dayton, it did after awhile, take notice of what
was going on at Huffman prairie, and there came a time
when experiments had to be discontinued on account of
curious and admiring crowds. What reception the Wrights
met when they escaped the disadvantage of their surround-
ings and went to Europe, does not belong to our story.
They returned to us in time bearing honors from every
country and every ruler, and then we, too, waked up to
express pride in our "Bird-men." You will recall, perhaps,
sitting in your father's office window and watching the
procession on "WVight Day." A pageant of transportation
it was, and most inspiring. The birch-bark canoe was un-
doubtedly the first means of transportation that the Miami
Valley ever knew ; then came the pirogue, like the one which
brought our first settlers; then the Conestoga wagon, big
enough for an emigrant family and its possessions ; a stage-
coach, marvelous advance in speed and comfort ; the first
steamboat ; Fulton's locomotive ; the modern farm wagon ;
the carriage and buggv ; the automobile ; the dirigible bal-
loon; the AIRPLANE.

THIS was the day when Dayton entertained a larger
crowd than during the Harrison rally in 1840. Have you
ever seen the streets so full of an enthusiastic populace?
How proud we were of our fellow citizens, the Wright
brothers, who acted as if that kind of thing happened to
them every day. So quiet they were on the platform at the
fair grounds where medals from the United States Govern-
ment, the State of Ohio, and from the Republic of France
were presented to them ! So quiet, when speeches were
made and compliments bestowed, that we suddenly knew
we were learning new standards of personal dignity and
self-control.

The Home of Aviation 195

It was inspiring to rise when the crowd rose, and sing
"Long may it wave," led by the five thousand school chil-
dren who, in red, white, and blue dresses, formed that big
flag on the platform.

In the years since that celebration the Wright Com-
pany (alas, no longer the Wright Brothers), has gone on
improving the aeroplanes which are now manufactured for
the trade. They have met the requirements of their con-

A Wright Glider.

tract with the United States Government, to furnish a flyer
that will carry two men and fuel for a flight of one hun-
dred and twenty-five miles at a speed of forty miles an hour.
The question of stability has been definitely settled by
the invention of an automatic stabilizer which will enable
the machine to "fly itself.'' Scores of young aviators have
been taught the principles of aviation on the field at HuflF-
man's prairie. The air has been conquered, and it was
done in Dayton.

CHAPTER XVIII.

1913.

Dayton's Unforgetable Week.

Flood, Fire, Frost, Starvation, Mud! One hundred thousand
hands held out for help. The Federal Government to the rescue.
The river resumes its channel. Spades, brooms, shovels, sun-
shine, and handshakes. "Remember the promises made in the
attic." Tw^o millions for flood prevention. '"A bigger and a
safer Dayton."

The last occurrence in the Story of Dayton is that of the
Flood of March, 1913. Much has been written about it, but
the whole story can never be told ! How, on that fateful
morning, the bells rang and the whistles blew, utterly failing
to rouse people to a sense of their danger; how back-
water stood in the streets nearest the river and we said,
"Ah, high water again," and went about our business ; how
housekeepers answered the frightened questions of their
help by saying, "Nonsense, the Miami River has never come
into my house yet, and it never will" ; how on the very word
of denial a brown wave of water, six feet high, rolled its
foaming crest westward on the streets and meeting at each
corner a similar wave from the north, piled the water into
a raging torrent which filled the streets with foam and
wreckage, drove people to their second stories or to the
roof ; how the noise of the city traffic suddenly changed to
a deathly silence broken only by the angry roar of a cur-
rent like Niagara itself ; how night fell, and with it utter
black darkness, only lifted later by the ominous glare of
flames ; how the imprisoned citizens waited in their fireless,
foodless homes for help that could not reach them; how
horses swam pitifully about the streets trying to find foot-
holds; how people escaped from tottering houses into trees
and trolley poles, whence some were rescued and some sank

CHAPTER XVIII.

1913.

Dayton's Unforgetable Week.

Flood, Fire, Frost, Starvation, Mud! One hundred thousand
hands held out for help. The Federal Government to the rescue.
The river resumes its channel. Spades, brooms, shovels, sun-
shine, and handshakes. "Remember the promises made in the
attic." Tvifo millions for flood prevention. '"A bigger and a
safer Dayton."

The last occurrence in the Story of Dayton is that of the
Flood of March, 1913. Much has been written about it, but
the whole story can never be told ! How, on that fateful
morning, the bells rang and the whistles blew, utterly failing
to rouse people to a sense of their danger; how back-
water stood in the streets nearest the river and we said,
"Ah, high water again," and went about our business; how
housekeepers answered the frightened questions of their
help by saying, "Nonsense, the Miami River has never come
into my house yet, and it never will" ; how on the very word
of denial a brown wave of water, six feet high, rolled its
foaming crest westward on the streets and meeting at each
corner a similar wave from the north, piled the water into
a raging torrent which filled the streets with foam and
wreckage, drove people to their second stories or to the
roof ; how the noise of the city traffic suddenly changed to
a deathly silence broken only by the angry roar of a cur-
rent like Niagara itself ; how night fell, and with it utter
black darkness, only lifted later by the ominous glare of
flames ; how the imprisoned citizens waited in their fireless,
foodless homes for help that could not reach them; how
horses swam pitifully about the streets trying to find foot-
holds; how people escaped from tottering houses into trees
and trolley poles, whence some were rescued and some sank

Dayton's Unforgetable Week 197

to death ; how friends outside haunted the telegraph offices
for news and got only silence ; how on the third day, when
the river receded^ it left Dayton a mere disfigured ghost of
her usual self, with heaps of debris piled, in some places,
as high as the houses themselves, with charred ruins in-
stead of business blocks, with asphalt pavement rolled up
like huge bales of carpet, with vacant foundations whose
houses had vanished Cincinnati-wards, with broken water
mains, wrecked street cars — Ruins! Waste! Desolation!
No, it certainly never can be adequately told !

The frightfulness of it put Dayton on the map in a new
and most unwelcome way. The silver lining of that black
and awful cloud, the story of how we righted ourselves, has
not, however, been sufficiently recorded. It is a matter for
which we have every right to feel proud. The measure of a
man is the way he meets disaster, and of a city, no less.

When, on that morning of March twenty-third, suburban
business men were turned back from their accustomed jour-
ney to town, by the flood which converted Dayton into a
three-mile sea, their grasp of the situation was prompt.
Even with the lack of telephone service it needed only a
few hours in some sections, to bring people together and set
them to work. School houses were utilized as relief stations
to which the dwellers in the ward brought cots, blankets,
milk and bread, ready for the half-drowned refugees who,
by early afternoon, were being rescued from their sub-
merged homes.

In Dayton View, the notice was put up at ten o'clock,
the committee came together at one, at half-past they were
all at work and by six the rooms and halls of the school
house were packed with distracted and suffering people.
Five hundred were fed there three times a day for two
weeks; fifteen thousand were taken into private houses in
that one suburb, and five thousand were reached by boats
and fed in their own homes.

In all the unsubmerged parts of town the same thing
was going on. Housing committees were appointed to find

198

The Story of Dayton

accommodations for the homeless, transportation commit-
tees to look up wagons, boats, and automobiles ; supply com-
mittees to levy contributions from grocers and farmers.
There was the emergency department, manned by doctors
and nurses. Long before the United States Government
took charge and put us under martial law, everybody had
been made to work, whether he chose or not; few did not.
Our largest factory changed its output from cash reg-
isters to flat boats, one of which was turned out every eight
minutes, and launched to the rescue of people clinging to

The Flood at the corner of Fourth and Ludlow, Grace Church.

roofs and trees. The president of the factory stood hip
deep in water for hours, directing the work of the boatmen.
Boys who owned canoes did valiant service in taking people
from upper windows to places of safety. Girls stood for
hours giving out supplies. Women who had sipped their
breakfast coffee in serene ignorance that anything more
momentous than ironing day was ahead of them, found
themselves a few hours later, feeding half-drowned babies
or identifying bodies brought in by the rescue corps. For
four whole days, men worked in mud-soaked garments, for-
getting their own discomfort in relieving the sufferings of

Dayton's Unforgetable Week 199

others ; not a few of these obscure heroes died later from
exposure.

In those days of primitive necessity, Dayton people ac-
quired a new point of view. During that dreadful week
they discovered the difference between essentials and non-
essentials. Women whose souls had never been above
housekeeping, watched the yellow flood sweep over their
best-loved possessions without a pang because what they
most cared for just then was to know of the safety of the
husband who had left the breakfast table two hours before.
Men saw the savings of a lifetime swept away without com-
plaint, so thankful were they that wife and children were
above high water, ^^'omen worked side by side with peo-
ple they never would have met socially, and found out how
nice they were. ]\Iillionaires stood in the bread line and
made a joke of it.

\\'hen the water went down, what work for city au-
thorities and for housekeepers ! The torrent which had
poured through our streets was of the consistency of pea
soup. It was composed of the washings of barnyards and
pigpens from up the river, mixed with the refuse of city
alleys, sewers and cess-pools, the contents of paint and
varnish factories, vats of glue and acid, of oil mills and
garages. This detestable soup, boiled and mixed by the
violence of the current, was spread over the Oriental rugs
and parquet floors of fine houses, over cushions in the
churches, shelves of the public library, the displayed stock
in department stores, and into the well-kept homes of work-
ing people. If left untouched for a week or two, the de-
posit hardened into a sort of concrete which resisted every
implement but a pickaxe.

It was an emergency that had to be met frankly and
bravely. ]\Ien, and w^omen, too, who had scarcely in their
lives ever held a tool, went to ditch-excavating in their own
parlors. Everybody was dirty, for there was no water to
wash in, and precious little to drink. Everybody was ap-
pallingly tired and went to sleep wherever he dropped.

200

The Story of Dayton

Everybody was thankful for butterless bread and canned
beans, brought by the Red Cross Society.

First with boats, and later with supplies, the Federal
Government came to our relief. Dayton was put under
martial law, and for the first time since 1863, armed sentries

By Order of Gov. James M. Cox

The City of Dayton, Ohio

Has been placed under

Martial Law

By his orders I hereby assume
command of Troops on duty

The citizens of this city are requested to be of service to the
National Guard by remaining in their homes, or if out on bus-
iness, remain as far away from the flooded district as possible.
No sight seers or excursionists will be allowed to disembark in
Dayton. The various railroads are requested to assist in the
enforcement of this measure by refusing the sale of tickets to
others than those having the most urgent business in the City
of Dayton.

The strictest sanitary regulations will be enforced and citi-
zens are requested to do their utmost to assist in this regard.

Violators of these orders will be promptly arrested and con-
fined until such time as they can be tried by the proper Military
Tribunal. Thieves, Looters, and Robbers will be dealt with
summarily.

By Order of

Official Chas. X. Zimmerman

John W. Pattison Colonel Fifth Infantry

Chief of Staff Commanding Officer

patrolled her streets. Little by little the thoroughfares
were cleared of grand pianos, drowned horses, chicken-
coops, and oil paintings — the varied donations of the Miami
to our precincts — and we began once more to know our-
selves. Military orders emptied cellars of refuse that had

202 The Story of Dayton

lain untouched for years. Never was there a more drastic
city clean-up, the result being a pointed lesson in sanita-
tion, for, instead of the Dayton death rate going up as a
result of the flood, it went down ; and instead of the spirits
of our citizens going down as a result of the flood, they
went up. The fatigue and depression of the first week over,
hopefulness and helpfulness animated all alike. While the
world abroad was pitying us, we were never for one minute
sorry for ourselves. The work was too pressing — we were
too interested — and, in fact, too tired.

Under the stimulus of the feeling aroused by the dis-
aster, and some three months later, the Flood Prevention
Fund took shape. The conviction uppermost, universal,
was that such a calamity must never strike Dayton again.
At a meeting held May seventeenth, three hundred men
were appointed to secure pledges. Two million dollars was
the sum set by the committee as necessary for the future
safety of the city. Two millions from a people just robbed
of over a hundred million — was it not an amazing propo-
sition? However, every day's progress proved that the
new spirit of solidarity was not a myth, but a practical fact.
One of the dailies printed a cut of a man and his family,
grouped shudderingly in the darkness under a roof, watch-
ing the rise of the waters around their home. It rehearsed
the thoughts in his mind as to his personal duty to save the
city from a repetition of such disaster. The title of the
picture became the slogan of the campaign,

"Remember the promises made in the attic!"

A card offered for signatures to contributors read :

"FOR THE LOVE OF DAYTON and as a Testimonial
of my Devotion and Patriotism, I hereby subscribe the sum
of," etc., etc.

Hour by hour the donations poured in. Some small
amounts were larger, as reckoned by the recording angel,
than the large ones, so significant were they of self-sacrifice.

204 The Story of Dayton

May 25 was the day set on which to close the subscrip-
tion lists. The pillared facade of the courthouse, that has
looked down on so much Dayton history in its day, bore
high above the street, a giant cash register on which to
record the subscriptions. And down on the street, just such
a crowd as in 1840 had cheered Harrison's election, as in
1896 had rejoiced over our centennial, and in 1909 greeted
the Wright Brothers, gathered to watch the figures grow.
By six o'clock the total had reached one million, two hun-
dred dollars, and not a watcher felt he could afford to go
home to supper. Breathless they counted the dollars click-
ing into view and the mounting total.

It is not annals of the past which we are writing, but
comparatively present history ; therefore, no need to record
the names of those whose generosity finally saved Dayton.
We all know and will never forget. At eight o'clock the
cash register displayed the final aggregate — two million, one
hundred and fifty thousand dollars!

The enthusiasm then broke loose and spread to the far-
thest ends of town. Coming on top of such scenes of terror,
despair, and loss which we had just been through, its moral
value to the spirits of our citizens cannot be measured.

That night a telegram was sent by the Citizens' Relief
Committee to Governor Cox at Columbus. It read :

"We have forgotten that we" lost one hundred millions in
property, and are remembering only what we have saved. We
are building a bigger and a safer Dayton."

Stillwater River. Photographed by John Kabel.

CHAPTER XIX.

1810—1915.

Commercial Dayton.

Dayton products and world markets. Shifting of business
centers. Change in the nature of industries. Present variety of
products. Meeting new demands. Our annual output. "The
Center of Precision." "If it's up to Dayton, it's up-to-date."

Dayton set out nearly a century and a quarter ago to be
a manufacturing center, and so she still continues to be,
although under such changed conditions as the early mer-
chants would hardly have comprehended. The story of the
development of a city's business interests might be consid-
ered a dull chapter except to those profiting from them. It
should not be so. Finding out what the world is most in
need of and supplying it, is a big game. Out of it comes
more than money, if undertaken in the right spirit and for
legitimate profit only.

The key to distribution is transportation, and transpor-
tation is, of course, the key to city development. As each
improvement came about, bringing more direct and rapid
communication with the outer world, Dayton's growth re-
sponded. As early as 1817 there was formed in our city an
importing and exporting company. Trade was carried on
up and down the river. Boats going north transferred their
cargoes overland to boats on the Maumee.

When the river was the means of communication and
large shipments were being transferred by raft or flat-boat,
then the head of Wilkinson Street was the theatre of all the
activity in Dayton, and the corner of First and Main the
retail business center.

When, in 1829, the canal was opened and twenty big
boats a day anchored in the "Basin," it was East Second
Street, at the landing, that became the scene of freight traf-

208 The Story of Dayton

fie, and general trade moved in that direction. From 1830
to 1845, the center of retail business in Dayton was situ-
ated at the corner of Second and Jefferson. The firm of
Perrine, Lytle, and Shaw occupied one corner, Henry Per-
rine another, and James Perrine a third. Now both the
river bank and the canal basin are deserted, and only in the
railroad freight houses can shifting merchandise be found.

It was the railroad that drew business to the south. Un-
til the old "depot" was built on Ludlow Street, Fifth and
Fourth were lined with small frame houses; Main Street
was, for a long time, the principal residence section, the
block below Fourth being occupied as late as the Eighties
with large private homes. As business invaded Fifth Street
and moved north, it also advanced from Second southward,
making Third and Main the permanent commercial center
of Dayton.

As interesting as the shifting of localities is to note the
change in commodities, manufactured or handled. One of
the earliest undertakings in Dayton was the manufacture
of silk. Alulberry trees were planted in large quantities
and silk worms imported to feed upon them, but in spite
of enthusiasm, the enterprise never prospered. A nail fac-
tory, long since abandoned, was in active operation in 1818.
Carpet making early proved a profitable industry. When
the Swaynie House, on East Second Street, was opened in
1837, the proprietor pointed with pride to the fact that every
yard of carpet on its floors had been made in Dayton.

Cooper's cotton factory is said to have produced three
thousand yards of cotton goods per day from its thirty
looms. Other articles of former manufacture were bar-
rels, tubs, buckets, linen, satinet, hats, rifles, gun-barrels,
clocks, pianos, trunks, stoves, agricultural implements, canal
boats, threshing machines, and burr mill-stones.

Most of these industries have been abandoned. In 1850,
there were five stoVe foundries where now there is but one ;
five oil mills, producing a total output of three hundred and
forty thousand barrels of oil a year, now none; fifteen agri-

210 The Story of Dayton

cultural implement manufacturies, and at present but two;
twenty-five cooper shops, now two ; three mills for the mak-
ing of burr mill-stones, now none. Two flour mills in 1916
are all that are left of the fifteen existing fifty years ago in
Dayton, not including those in various places in the country.
In 1850, every little village within ten miles was a hive of
industry, with its grist mill, its distillery, its blacksmith
shop and cooper shop. Little York, Harries Station, Union,
Harshman, Salem, Harrisburg, each had its own commercial
life. The twenty or more distilleries in Montgomery County
have all disappeared. The villages themselves have little
present business life except that of the local stores.

Dayton used to be called the "Hartford of the West"
from the numerous insurance companies organized and in
operation here. The former twelve fire insurance com-
panies are now represented by two. Insuring is done almost
exclusively through agencies.

Moreover, the county itself has ceased to produce the
commodities it once did. Where are the sugar camps and
the sorghum mills of the Sixties? Why must Dayton get its
maple syrup from Vermont, its bacon from Chicago, and
its apples from Oregon?

The questions remain unanswered but the situation gives
no cause for depression. Dayton has been called the "City
of a Thousand Factories," and those chimneys pointing sky-
ward give proof of a commercial vitality undreamed of
in the past. We have changed, and through change we have
advanced.

The centralization of certain industries, the change in
public demand, and the passing of new laws are some of
the causes of the altered conditions. Under modern man-
agement it has been found more economical and efficient to
grind corn, press oil, extract syrups in large factories, in
the cities. Barrels, tubs, and buckets are turned out by ma-
chinery in double the quantity and half the time required
by the hand worker. Fifty years ago whisky was the ordi-

212

The Story of Dayton

nary beverage of most men, now the lessened demand has
driven out many distilleries.

We have, at present, in Dayton, manufacturing plants
whose output consists of articles undreamed of half a cen-
tury ago. Cash registers, computing scales, aeroplanes,
automobiles, automatic starters, suction sweepers, recording
machines make a list that would fill the early manufacturer
with amazement. At that time a factory built on fifty feet
of frontage and which boasted three stories was looked upon

Assembly Room, National Cash Register Works.

as an extraordinary large plant. Now we have The Barney
and Smith Car Company extending nearly a mile and one-
half from east to west, the National Cash Register Com-
pany's buildings containing thirty acres of floor space, and
others that nearly approach them.

Among our greatest assets is the manufacture of tools
and tool machinery. Dayton is the recognized home of
automatic machinery. The automatically operated electric
signs which emblazon the evening hours in the streets of

Commercial Dayton

213

many cities, winking their messages to the world, are prod-
ucts of Dayton firms. The electric advertising bulletins,
from which election returns are flashed from the tops of
buildings, were originally produced and shown in Dayton.
It is the first instance of a sign operated from a keyboard,
like that of a typewriter, permitting the wording to be
changed as often and as rapidly as possible.

In commercial circles Dayton is spoken of as the "Cen-
ter of Precision,"' a term which refers to the fine mechan-

^ "« IB m 1

i^ iil m 11 -

The Domestic Engineering Company building at night.

ism, close measurement, and minute calculation involved in
the manufacture of much of its intricate enginery. In the
mechanism of the cash register, the fare register, the com-
puting scale, and the various contrivances put out by the
Dayton Engineering Laboratory Company and the Domestic
Engineering Company a variation of one-half of one-thou-
sandth of an inch makes the difference between perfection
and imperfection in the article produced.

A brief description of but a few among the present in-
dustries in Dayton will establish our manufacturing su-
premacy. The National Cash Register Company has a cap-

214

The Story of Dayton

ital of nine million dollars of common stock, and one mil-
lion of preferred stock ; a making and selling force number-
ing 7,534, and with American sales alone amounting in 1914
to $12,438,000. The Barney and Smith Car Company em-
ploys four thousand workers with an annual output of
seven hundred and twenty high grade pullmans and diners,
and twelve thousand freight cars, the equivalent of a train

Dogwood blossoms at Hills and Dales.
Photographed by Wm. B. Werthner.

one hundred miles long. The Davis Sewing Machine Com-
pany has a daily capacity of six hundred and fifty bicycles,
six hundred sewing machines, twenty motorcycles — more
than enough to supply every man, woman, and child in Day-
ton with a sewing machine and a bicycle each year.

Commercial Dayton 215

The Ohio Rake Company produces every day an average
of fifty hay rakes, fifty loaders, and seventy-five to one hun-
dred disc harrows. The Dayton Malleable Iron Works em-
ploys fifteen hundred men, who handle thirty thousand tons
of ore a year, a mass which, if placed in one pile, would
weigh three times as much as all the inhabitants in Dayton.
The Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company, familiarly
known as the "Delco," manufactures one hundred and
twenty-five thousand electric lighting and starting systems
during the year, which go to the equipment of as many
automobiles in other cities.

These products are to be found in all parts of the world.
Cash registers have been sold as far north as Hammerfest,
Norway, and as far south as the uttermost end of Chili.
No wonder people say that the sun never sets on Dayton-
made products.

We may imagine taking an extended trip through the
country. In our travels we ride in a beautifully-fitted-up
coach or sleeper made in Dayton. In the first city reached
we discover in a Dayton-made street car, a Dayton-made
heater and a Dayton-made fare register. At the hotel we
are served by waiters in white duck garments made in Day-
ton, and they bring us crackers baked in Dayton ovens. In
every store of any city will be found cash registers and price-
ticket machines for the accurate handling of money, and on
their shelves familiar packages such as paints, varnish, cof-
fee, spices, soaps, toys, books, music, chewing gum, cigars,
extracts, and hardware — all originating in Dayton. In their
display rooms we find Dayton-made sewing machines,
sweepers, electrical fixtures, automobile accessories, chairs,
office furniture, furnaces, and water heaters.

In another city, we ride from the station in a Dayton
automobile, passing on the way, trucks equipped with tires
from home, ornamental street lamps, bicycles and signs from
Dayton. Children eat ice cream from cones that are made
at the rate of a million a^day in our factories.

'. i. tSp-' ',^. .''••■

^mk £■

Commercial Dayton 217

In the next city, busy printing shops use our book-
binding machinery and paper cutters ; boilers and steam and
gas engines bear familiar name plates, while workmen are
busy lifting a building with Dayton jacks.

On Sunday we are likely to listen to music composed and
published here, and on Monday we play golf with sticks
made by a Dayton firm. Shoe factories in New England
towns would close down if it were not for lasts made in
Dayton. Eight millions of stamped envelopes of Dayton-
made paper are used every day in our States and the island
possessions.

There are not a few reasons why Dayton finds it easy
to supply so many commodities used by the world at large.
In the first place, we are near the coal and iron supply.
]\Ioreover, we have cheap gas and electric current, unex-
celled railroad facilities, abundance of skilled labor, good
climate, inventive geniuses, ready capital, and a well-earned
reputation behind us.

We should also know something of the extent of our
industrial interests. Last year we shipped over ninety-two
million dollars' worth of our products, and our factory pay-
rolls amounted to thirty-two million dollars.

In 1916, our postoffice receipts totaled $762,464, while
our customs receipts reached sixty-three thousand dollars.
Taxes are paid on property valued at $166,831,200, which
yields over two and one-quarter millions of dollars annually.

Few cities have so varied an assortment from their fac-
tories. Our skilled mechanics are capable of turning out a
wonderful variety of articles requiring accuracy, finish, and
quality of construction ; thus we are not dependent upon a
restricted line which may temporarily become a drug on
the market, throwing workmen out of employment.

While Dayton is called a manufacturing city, its com-
mercial prosperity is not due to that alone. It is the pubH-
cation center of several religious denominations; here are
located the State and National headquarters of various
church and fraternal organizations, while its railroad and

218

The Story of Dayton

hotel facilities make it a popular point for conventions,
bringing thousands of people here annually.

Our products, our industrial leaders, our attractive homes
and streets, our valleys and hills and curving river, our
ability to overcome quickly the effects of a great calamity,
and last, our successful municipal government, have adver-
tised us to the world as few cities of any size have been.

A Drive in Hills and Dales.

All this is not "luck." Success seldom comes by chances.
Dayton's present standing did not come by either. "Booms''
have not contributed to it. There has been a steady, whole-
some growth, fostered always by the far-seeing instincts of

Commercial Dayton 219

our plain business men who have, through these long- years,
led our city out of perplexities of pioneer hardship into a
permanent place in the nation.

Such has been the service to Dayton of the men who,
not by any means always sure of returns, have risked their
money in railroads and other transportation facilities, have
inspired civic improvements, and who have combined in a
legitimate way the promotion of public utilities and the
making of an honest living.

It must be remembered that every man who stands for
city or State improvements has a little war of his own on
his hands. Dayton is not the only city in which progress has
been combatted at one time or another by lack of imagina-
tion and foresight on the part of some of its citizens. The
people, who, in 1815, were sure we would never need a
stage route between Dayton and Cincinnati, were followed
by the people in 1825 who considered the canal to be a ruin-
ous extravagance, and they, in turn, by those in 1830 who
inquired why in the world Dayton needed a railroad. In
1870 there were others of the same ilk who exclaimed, "No
use saddling the tax-payers with fancy things like sewers
and street paving." And there are perhaps, alas, boys in
the school-rooms of this very day who, when they are men,
will get off the time-honored saw, "What was good enough
for my father is good enough for me."

So, all honor to the makers of Dayton, both past and
present, who have accomplished their task in spite of, not
only natural difficulties, but the opposition of ignorance
and apathy.

Those who are in a position to know, predict for our city
a future industrial development which will surpass all that
has gone before. They point to recent inventions in me-
chanics, to new applications of electricity, to the building of
larger factories and the importation of expert workers. Be
that as it may, the most promising element of our civic
future lies, in the opinion of the writer, not in banks, rail-
roads, or factories, not in scientific efficiency, but in the

220

The Story of Dayton

plain fact that we possess in Dayton so many business men
with a vision.

There have been times when some of us were afraid
of our own prosperity, have felt that a manufacturing

Dayton View Bridge.

city was only too apt to fall into a crass commercialism,
and found ourselves, in consequence, envying the high ideal-
ism which flourishes in college centers. But we need give
ourselves small uneasiness. There is an idealism which

Commercial Dayton 221

never reaches farther than professors' desks, and an idealism
which finds its best expression chiefly in the hands of men of
aft'airs. This kind we believe we have in Dayton. There
are manufacturers in our midst to whom the welfare of
their w^orkers is of equal concern with the products from
their machines ; merchants whose dream of Dayton's future
might belong to a poet ; capitalists who, while they acquire
wealth with one hand, generously distribute with the other.

The saying that "an employer owes more to his em-
ployes than mere wages,'' originated with the president* of
the National Cash Register Company, — a pioneer in indus-
trial welfare w^ork. The widespread movement toward fac-
tory rest and recreation rooms, noon lunches, baths, outing
parks, and educational classes began right here, in Dayton
in the big factory south of town. And wherever vacant lot
gardens are instituted, reference is always made to those
fruitful and blooming acres surrounding the factory build-
ings— the first neighborhood gardens in the United States —
which are cultivated by the boys of South Park and en-
couraged and promoted by the man who himself began life
on a farm.

And when, in the vigorous attempts of this valley to
recover itself after the disaster of 1913, and the conservancy
plans against future floods were formulated, it was another
business man, the presidentt of the "Delco," who voluntarily
assumed a leadership no one else wanted. As chairman of
both the Flood Prevention Committee and of the State Con-
servancy Board he met the attacks of the obstructionists
who carried their concerted opposition from one court to
another, appealing always to the self-interest of their con-
stituents and maintained as his goal the ultimate safety of
the whole district. He spent days and weeks of unremuner-
ated time, thousands of dollars, tramped miles in the mud
of the Miami Valley to assure himself at first hand of the
efificacy of the proposed engineering methods. And when
final success is assured and the Miami River and its tribu-
taries forever kept within proper bounds, the credit will be-

*.Tohn H. Patterson,
f Edward A. Deeds.

222

The Story of Dayton

long, not only to the engineering force who did the actual
work, but also to the man whose faith and energy kept the
plan alive.

A hopeful indication of our future is that we are
conscious of so many things yet to be done. Like St. Paul.

The Conservancy Building, presented to the Conservancy District
l5y E. A. Deeds.

we have not "attained," but are still "pressing on." And in-
dustrial development may go on and bring no alarm to the
idealist if, with the improvement of electrical devices we
simplify life; if the acreage of boys' gardens keeps up with
the acreage of factory sites; if schools and churches mul-
tiply in the proper ratio to our alien population, and if
branch libraries, milk stations, and playgrounds follow the
rapid extension of our streets.

CHAPTER XX.

1915.

Our New City Government.

Lessons learned from the flood. The old way and the new.
City government the larger housekeeping. The new charter.
The budget. Buying health and happiness. Will we work it out?

If the story of Dayton in the past is an interesting one,
that of Dayton in the present should prove doubly so ; for,
while the narrative of events, which happened many years
ago concerns us indirectly, that which belongs to the present
is a matter of vital importance to all.

What we succeed in making of our individual selves
depends, not only upon the homes in which we are brought
up, but no less upon the city conditions which surround us,
and city conditions depend primarily upon city government.

During the last ten or twenty years, public opinion every-
where in the United States has been waking up to the fact
that because the greater part of our people now Hve in
cities instead of, as formerly, in the country, new problems
have arisen such as proper housing, sanitation, transporta-
tion, and recreation. And moreover, many of the problems
are just those which present themselves in the care of a fam-
ily of children. A home, it is universally agreed, should be
carried on for the good, not of one or two of the family
merely, but of all. A good home is one in which every
member has the best chance to grow up well and happy, and
able to bear a useful part in the world's work. What is
true of the family home is true of the city home.

This subject of good city government has been for some
years under discussion in many of our great universities as
well as among leaders in all political parties, teachers,
preachers, social workers, and good men and women every-

223

224

The Story of Dayton

where. One of the foremost students and authorities* on
municipal progress has pointed out the fact of the wide-
spread dissatisfaction with the management of our cities
and the reason for it. The fathers, he tells us, made no
provision for city government; their plans were designed
for the Nation. They did not perceive that the Federal
System, with its State representation, its two bodies of Con-

Union Station.

gress, and the checking power of the President's veto, while
an efficient working basis for the control of national affairs,
was quite unsuitable for a city.

Under such management, it came about that the city
business was carried on, not on a basis of efficiency, but as
a matter of political reward. The adage, "To the victors
belong the spoils" was the rule of public life. The dom-
inant party held the offices and when an election brought the

Zueblin, "American Municipal Progress,'' p. 376.

Our New City Government

225

opposing party into power, the former officials, no matter
how efficient, were removed to make place for members of
the victorious party. These things were done by both
Democrats and Republicans, in all cities, and have be-
come matters of common knowledge. Bryce wrote in
1888, "There is no use denying that the government of cities
is the one conspicuous failure in the United States."*

IlEH

-ffft

lii

Stivers High School.

Now no one employs a doctor because he is of the same
political faith as his patient, but because he understands
medicine; no one takes milk of a milkman because he is a
Republican or a Democrat, but because he sells pure milk;
no manufacturer puts a general manager at the head of his
works according to party principles, but because he pos-
sesses the ability to get results. At the primaries, in the
old days, it was never asked of a candidate, "Does he know

'American Commonwealth,

226

The Story of Dayton

how to be a good mayor?" or, "Has he made a study of
street paving or cleaning?" or "Will he give us the worth of
the taxes we pay?" but only, "Has he always been a good
party man?"

The defects of city government in the past were not only
those of spirit, but of organization. A City Council, under
the former plan, offered only too much opportunity for the
manifestation of inefficiency and self-interest. Each ward
elected its own Councilman and in turn that Councilman
was expected to look after the good of his own district, if
even at the expense of the rest of the city. An official with
the best intentions of serving the community as a whole,
found himself caught in a maze of red-tapery where busi-

Government Building. Postoffice and Custom House.

ness was buried in committees, where votes were traded,
and where, worst of all, there was no recognition on the
part of the public for work well done. Such a Councilman
early recognized that his only resource was to accept and
become a part of the system, as he found it, cumbersome,
inefficient, and extravagant as it was.

Another vital defect of the old system was that the sal-
aries paid never commanded expert service. The head of
a great corporation knows that if he wants returns on his
investment he must employ only men who are thoroughly

Our New City Government 227

trained in his particular business, and such men cannot be
had for nothing. But the city offered its servants so little
that it could command only three kinds of men: (1) Those
who were clever and public-spirited and rich enough to
work for the love of it (and such men are rare in any com-
munity) ; (2) those who would accept the small salary,
sure that they could increase it by accepting gifts from those
interested in getting bills passed for private gain; or, (3)
men who were honest and meant well, but whose capacities
were as low as the salary.

Under these circumstances there was constant tempta-
tion before public officials to use their offices for selfish
instead of public ends; to allow contractors to make more
money out of public works than they were entitled to ; to
vote for measures not because they were necessary, but to
please some friend who had done them a good turn; in
short, to serve themselves or their party first, and the city
last. The Federal plan, as a city institution, was a failure.
It remained to fall back upon the principle which governs a
family, namely, the affection and loyalty of its members to
the home and to each other.

The conditions above described were not peculiar to
Dayton, but prevailed everywhere in the United States, and
in some cities have not yet disappeared. When public opin-
ion, however, was really aroused, the cry for relief was uni-
versal. Attempts for betterment from many different angles
of the question have arisen, starting movements such as the
nation-wide civil service propaganda, the municipal re-
search bureaus, the various forms of commission govern-
mient, and the civic improvement societies.

This wave of aroused public sentiment at last, as a mat-
ter of course, reached Dayton. Our local patriotism, pricked
into activity, voiced a cry for a change, backed by a very
sincere purpose to get it.

The first imperative step was to change the law control-
ling the government of cities, and on September 3, 1912, an
amendment to the State Constitution was adopted, providing

Our Nezv City Government 229

for what is known as "Home Rule for Cities." This amend-
ment allowed any city, upon demand of its citizens, a special
election to provide itself with a charter.

Upon the adoption of this amendment, the Dayton Bu-
reau of ^Municipal Research and the Dayton Chamber of
Commerce took the first step toward establishing the pro-
visions of the new law, the last-named organization appoint-
ing a committee of five leading business men to investigate
the various forms of city rule operating in the United
States, especially that called "Government by Commission."
After months of careful investigation sufficient information
had been gathered to make a report in which it was recom-
mended that the City Council be asked to set a date for a
special election to choose a Charter Commission.

This election was therefore held on May 20, 1913, and
fifteen representative business men selected as candidates by
the Citizens' Committee. Moreover, the committee stood
for, not the Commission Plan, as practiced in several hun-
dred progressive cities of the United States, but for an im-
provement upon it, known as the "Commission-Manager
Plan," or, as it has since been called, "The Dayton Plan."
P>ecause of its novel features and its advantage over the
commission plan as well as over the old political regime, the
election which was to decide it was awaited with interest
all over the country.

Of course, there was opposition right here at home.
Those called "conservatives" who never want to see changes
in anything, were active with all sorts of objections. Ac-
customed to the old way, they were doubtful of such a
radical departure. Especially were the professional poli-
ticians against a form of government which would forever
put an end to their particular kind of activities. Opposing
candidates were nominated and we found ourselves with
two issues on our hands, one for the Commission-Manager
plan and the other for the old order of things.

Then something happened which neither side foresaw,
and which, suddenly and eflfectually, changed the situation.

230

The Story of Dayton

When, on March 23, 1913, that raging, yellow torrent swept
over our streets, reducing life to its primitive necessities,
and especially after it was over, and Dayton, under martial
law, was weakly lifting her head to the future, her citizens
saw clearly that the one thing which counted, whether in
routine or in emergencies, was business efficiency, the "know

how.

A Comparison

The Factory The City

ILLUSTRATION

. o/

Dayton

Commission

Manager

Form

Government

Never was better proof offered of the superiority of the
trained and organized worker than the way in which our

Our A^ew City Government 231

city was helped on to its feet after that appalHiig catas-
trophe. Aloreover, the experience gave men and women
new visions of civic needs and their own personal responsi-
bilities. Possibilities opened up, prejudices were forgotten,
and the people as a whole began to talk and plan for what
seemed best for Dayton. During the strenuous days under
martial law the people saw things done promptly, effectively,
and efficiently ; those who had never thought about it be-
fore, saw in a flash that the way in which things were man-
aged right after the flood was the way it ought to be man-
aged all the time.

Is it any wonder that the question was repeatedly asked,
"Why not turn this new experience into a lasting blessing
to Dayton?''

As a result of this crystallized public opinion, the orig-
inal committee of five called to their assistance other public-
spirited men until the number reached three hundred and
fifty, all pledged to promote the new plan. Election day ar-
rived, and with it a victory for the citizens' ticket. The
Charter Commissioners proceeded at once to prepare the
best charter ever proposed for a city. Weeks of careful
study were spent upon its features, and when August
twelfth saw it placed before the people, it was approved by
a vote of nearly two to one.

The charter provided for the election of five commis-
sioners at large on a non-partisan ticket, these men to serve
in the same capacity as the directors of a large industrial
concern. They were to be selected solely on the grounds
of fitness for the office, regardless of the party to which
they belonged. These provisions were carried out at an elec-
tion held November 4, 1913, and that commissioner having
the largest number of votes became, according to the terms
of the charter, the mayor.

On Januars' 1, 1914, the new charter went into operation
and the first act of the commissioners was to appoint
Henry M. Waite as the first city manager. The plan of the
charter provides that while all administrative duties shall be

Our Nexv City Government 233

carried out by officers responsible to the manager, the man-
ager himself is responsible to the commissioners.

Thus the citizens of Dayton correspond to the sharehold-
ers of a corporation, the commissioners to the Board of
Directors, and the city manager to the general manager.

Under the city manager are four administrative depart-
ments : LAW, PUBLIC SERVICE, FINANCE, and PUB-
LIC \\'ELFARE, with a director at the head of each, ap-
pointed by the city manager and confirmed by the commis-
sioners. No account is taken of politics and no one knows
how any man votes. If the appointee is not competent he
is discharged the same as if he was in the employ of a big
business, as indeed he is.

The Department of Lazv advises on all matters of law,
draws up ordinances, prosecutes all suits brought by the
city, defends the city in all suits brought against it, and in
every wav acts as a counsel does for a corporation or an
individual. It settles many questions without taking them
into court, such as family troubles, neighborhood quarrels,
and disputes about rent. It conducts a campaign against
loan sharks, fraudulent advertising, and mail-order frauds.

The Department of Pithlic Service has supervision over
all lands and buildings belonging to the city, of its streets,
bridges, sewers, levees, street lighting, water supply, garbage
removal, ash and rubbish removal, the dog pound, city motor
vehicles, and the city garage. All the engineering work of
the city is under the control of this department.

The Department of Safety embraces the Police and Fire
departments, inspects buildings, polices the rivers, and man-
ages the life-saving apparatus. It enforces the building
code, supervises construction, and insures general protection
of life and health in the city of Dayton. The City Sealer
is attached to this department.

The Department of Finance is the bookkeeping part of
our city government, and is as important as the same de-
partment in any large business. It is responsible for the
city's money. It keeps account of all the property owned by

On)' Nezv City Government 235

the city, makes out the yearly budget, receives the taxes,
enforces the ordinances by which peddlers, junk dealers,
bill posters, and others must pay a license, maintains a bal-
ance in the bank from which to purchase city supplies, and
keeps the city expenditures down to as low a figure as pos-
sible consistent with good results. With the help of the
Research Bureau, a fine accounting system has been in-
stalled, which insures the utmost order and efiiciency in the
handling of funds with an open balance sheet, revealing
the city's assets and liabilities at any given time.

The Department of Public Welfare looks after the health
recreation, and general welfare of the city. It enforces or-
dinances against unsanitary dwellings, requires owners to
clean up back yards, alleys and vacant lots, to cut weeds,
trim trees, and keep sanitarv^ premises. It maintains a sys-
tem of public recreation centers equipped with swings, pools,
baseball diamonds and tennis courts, where children and
young people may play, exercise, bathe, wade, dance, and
swim. Municipal neighborhood centers have been estab-
lished where properly guided social gatherings may be held.
The use of vacant city lots for gardening is encouraged.
Twenty-eight playgrounds are in operation, in which thou-
sands of children enjoy themselves each week.

It furnishes through a free legal aid bureau, advice to
those who cannot afiford to employ an attorney.

It includes the Department of Health, with a director in
charge, who maintains a service of food inspection for
dairies, bakeries, markets, and slaughter-houses.

It provides for the first time in Dayton's history, for a
full-time health officer, conducts three baby clinics and one
general clinic each week, and a baby-saving campaign dur-
ing the summer months. It maintains a pure milk service.
A corps of fifteen district nurses is kept to attend families
of limited means where there is illness, instructing them
how to care for their sick, and how to keep well. It has
established a municipal lodging-house to give a night's
shelter to those without a roof. In these and other ways,

236

The Story of Dayton

the Department of Health looks after the comfort and wel-
fare of the people of Dayton.

This, in brief, is the system under which Dayton is
governed at the present time.

How and why is it better than the old?

There are two fundamental differences which make the
new form of city management better than the old, and also
better than the plain commission form, which has lately

Swimming Pool at Bomberger Park.

been adopted by about three hundred cities in the United
States.

Under the old city government, each Councilman looked
after the good of his own ward, even if at the expense of
the rest of the city. Under the present form, all the voters
at an election vote for all the commissioners, therefore each
is expected to have at heart the interests of all the people.
The same fault is to be found with the "Commission Form"
in that each commissioner having charge of a department of

Our New City Government

237

the city works, may be tempted to fight for the interests of
his own department, and forget the importance of the others.
But in Dayton we have, not the "Commission Plan," but
the "Commission-^NIanager Plan," which places the adminis-
tration of all the departments in the hands of one man —
the City Manager. He is solely and entirely responsible,
and complainants no longer find necessary measures buried
in committees or abuses referred to one man after another
until lost in a maze of divided responsibility.

Boys" Gardens on Hunter Avenue.

Another advantage in the new form of government is
that the makers of the laws do not administer them. The
law-making department and the administrative department
are separate and distinct; one tends to hold in check the
other.

As to the improvement in detail of the present govern-
ment over the past, a few instances will impress the truth
of the claim.

238 The Story of Dayton

Much has been done for the pubHc health. A mother
may bring her sick baby to the pnbhc chnic, where it will
have scientific attention and she herself advised about the
care of it. From time to time it may be weighed and ex-
amined, not at all as a matter of charity, but because the
baby belongs to Dayton and the authorities hope to see
it grow up strong and well. One of the highest duties of
a city government is the care of human hfe, and it will be
interesting to note the advance in the public health rate in
Dayton in the last three years. One disease which is the
despair of mothers is called gastro-enteritis, or summer
complaint. In 1913, 103 babies less than a year old died
of this complaint; in 1914, 68, and in 1915, only 30. That
is what care in food inspection by the authorities and obey-
ing the doctors' orders by the mothers, will do.

In 1913, 124 out of every 1,000 babies born, died under
one year. In 1914, only 95, and in 1915, only 87.6. These
figures constitute what the health authorities call the "infant
mortality rate." The highest baby death rate in the United
States is in a New Jersey town, where 193 babies out of
every thousand die before they are a year old. The lowest
is in a Wisconsin town, where the rate is only 30.6. Day-
ton is, as may be seen, very much better than some cities,
but not yet as good as she might be. And the difference
between the present infant mortality rate of 87 and a pos-
sible one of 30.6 troubles nobody so acutely as it does the
authorities in the Health Department.

By such methods as these, the whole death rate in Day-
ton has been lowered nearly four per cent, in one year —
in other words, there are two hundred and seventy-five peo-
ple now living that might have died.

The fight against contagious diseases goes on all the
time. The Health Department prepares maps where each
case of typhoid fever, diphtheria, or scarlet fever is marked
with a pin. When a number of these pins appear in one
part of the map, the doctors and nurses descend upon it
like a lot of soldiers. They look into the condition of eel-

240 The Story of Dayton

lars and drains, put up a sign to keep other people away,
disinfect the premises, and teach the people how to keep the
disease from spreading. The proper remedies are then ap-
plied, and every means taken to help the patient recover.
Much good is done in cases of incipient tuberculosis. It
used to be believed that a patient sufifering from that malady
could not possibly recover. Now it is known that fresh air,
good food, and scientific care will cure all but the most ad-
vanced cases.

Under the old system of city government, no consider-
ation was given to the conditions under which children play.
Now it is very much the city's business, and that it is both
needed and appreciated is proved by the thousands of chil-
dren enjoying the playgrounds every week during the sum-
mer.

Under the old system, there were none but men police-
men. Now women officers deal with women offenders in
a sympathetic and kindly way.

In no greater way is the success of our city proved than
in its economy. Every year the city manager issues a
budget compiled from information obtained from the dif-
ferent departments, and this budget is published, that all
tax-payers may know just how much money is required to
conduct each department. The manager then makes out
his appropriations on this basis and each department is
required to keep inside its estimate or state the reason why.
No supplies can be purchased except by the signature of
the head of the department, the head of the division, and
the head of the bureau, with final authority from the city
manager.

By reason of these careful provisions, Dayton is now,
for the first time in eight years, living within its income.
More, it has paid off fifty thousand dollars of a debt of one
hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars left by the past
system of government. The city finances are open to con-
stant inspection. Every tax-payer may know exactly where
his money goes. The city's business is his business. If he

Our New City Government 241

is not satisfied he may apply to the complaint department,
where he will be courteously received, and his inquiries
answered.

This, in brief, is the story of Dayton's City Government,
a plan which is being widely discussed throughout the coun-
try, carefully watched in its progress, and in some cases,
imitated in other cities. No government, city or national,
will stand unless there is a degree of loyal support for it
in the ranks of the people. This support, in the old days,
was given to the government by the political party which
elected it. There being no political party back of the pres-
ent government of Dayton, this necessity was met in an-
other way which will be told in the next chapter.

CHAPTER XXI.

The Greater Dayton Association.

"There is no influence in anj- community more potent and
powerful for the accomplishment of good than that of the busi-
ness and professional men unselfishly banded together for the
purpose of promoting the general welfare of the entire citizen-
ship."— James Bryce, in "The American Commonwealth."

The above quotation calls our attention to the fact that
the new system of government v^ill not work any better
than the old unless there is a proud and watchful public
spirit behind it. The poet Holland wrote:

"A time like this demands
Strong minds, great hearts, true faith, and ready hands,
Men whom the lust of office does not kill,
Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy;
Men who possess opinions and a will,
Men who have honor, men who will not lie."

With this thought in their hearts, a group of men called
together all who believed in unselfishly promoting the wel-
fare of Dayton by supporting the new government, and
by encouraging the best development of the commercial and
civic interests of the city, and organized what is known as
"The Greater Dayton Association." It is an exemplifica-
tion of what Mr. Bryce meant by "business and professional
men unselfishly banded together to promote the welfare of
the entire citizenry." It is not political; the members are
not elected ; all are welcome who have the interests of Day-
ton at heart and pay the annual dues. No one gets any
profit, for its president and committees work without pay.
It has nothing to do with the city government except to
form a background of public loyalty and support. Every
city needs such an organization separate and apart from its
government. That this is true is indicated by the number
of questions that come in daily from other cities in regard

The Greater Dayton Association 243

to The Greater Dayton Association, While Dayton has had
its Commercial Club, its Chamber of Commerce, and other
bodies of a similar nature, it was not until after the flood
had shown us the weakness of the old way, and after the
new government was established, that this new spirit of
organized citizenship took form.

In the "G. D. A.," as it is known, nearly ten thousand
men and women have pledged themselves to the support of
the present city government in every way in their power.
Its value is evident. If voters grow careless and allow un-
worthy or unprincipled men to be placed in position of pub-
lic trust, no manner of government will save us from the
disasters of the past. The duty of the average voter does
not end at the polls ; it should keep him vigilant and appre-
ciative of the work of public servants. If they do well,
he should tell them so; if ill, remove them. Dayton can
become an example of high-minded and efficient public
service if there is a community spirit which declares : "This
is my city and my home. I shall see to it that none but
men who have been tested shall take part in its government.
It shall be my conscientious concern to keep myself in-
formed upon all public matters that I may vote intelligently,
and I will do my constant best to make it the cleanest,
wisest, happiest city in the world."

It was in such a spirit that the citizens of Dayton organ-
ized The Greater Dayton Association. The first annual re-
port issued in 1914 w^as a document so new in purpose and
so different in design from those issued by other commu-
nities that it has been patterned after by scores of other
cities. It is tabulated in this book for the benefit of those
who are asking "What does the G. D. A. do ?" In this brief
form is a graphic presentation of the wide range of its
activities, its public spirit, and its democracy. It must be
remembered, too, that this report is of the first year's work
only. Since that experimental period, the record of splen-
did activities has multiplied that of the first year. In trade
extension, traffic control, public service, city publicity, edu-

244 The Story of Dayton

cational features, promotion of charities, and welfare work,
The Greater Dayton Association is serving the city better
than it did four years ago. To tell the story complete, up
to the present date, would require another book as large as
the present one. It is working towards what James Scher-
merhorn calls "The Soul of a City."

"To make city life secure and comfortable for all average
folk, the reduction of the rate of infant mortality, ample pro-
vision of schools, parks, playgrounds, the protection of life and
limb, the safeguarding of homes and streets at night, the sup-
plying of water, light, and transportation at cost, good hos-
pitals, protection of the young from organized vice, the prompt
depression of lawlessness; it is these fine and self-forgetful
things done in the spirit of brotherhood and civic zeal, that
belong to the SOUL OF A CITY."

In all of these public duties, the boys and girls of Day-
ton, when they have arrived at a suitable age, will bear a
share. To perform them well will bring many returns, both
in the gratification that comes of work conscientiously done,
and in a personal pride at promoting the welfare of our city.

There will never be a dearth of things to do. With
every decade of our community life, new conditions and
problems will arise which must be faithfully and bravely
met. Twenty years from now there may be principles to
instill, laws to enforce, precautions to be taken, of which
we, at the present time, know nothing.

That the citizens of the coming generation will take up
their duties whenever the city calls, promote its interests,
share in the community spirit, be never satisfied with present
standards, but keep an eye to the future, and that in so
doing they may earn their love for Dayton and their pride
in her, is the most earnest wish of

The Author.

246 First Annual Report

Forty-one (41) per cent of the work of The Greater
Of this the lull one hundred (100)

Civ

For the Benefit of ALL

Accomplished in

1 Fought injurious tax

amendment

2 Influenced reduction

in the price of Ice

3 Receives and handles

complaints

4 Is encyclopedia of

information

5 Co-operates with city

administration

6 Is medium between

city and public

7 Helped revise plum-

bers' ordinance

8 Acts as official host

to visitors

9 Stopped wholesale

purchase of fire
equipment at exor-
bitant prices

1 Supporting flood pre-

vention measures

2 Investigating public

utilities

3 Worliing for exten-

sions of gas mains

4 Comparing telephone

rates and service

5 Investigating electric

light rates and

1 Conducted Arbor

Day celebration

2 Co-operates with

improvement as-
sociations

3 Started revision of

building code

4 Stopped bill-posting

on fences and
buildings

5 Secured enforcement

of hand-bill oi-
dinance

6 Brought about new

hand-bill o r d i -

7 Secured appoint-

ment of city plan
board

8 Placed ban on ban-

ners across streets

9 Conducted window

flower-box cam-
paign

10 Secured removal of

river obstructions

11 Helped defeat elec-

tric light bonds

1 Working for smoke

abatement

2 Protects trees and

birds

3 After bill-board nui-

sance

4 Urging snow removal

from walks

5 Organizing movement

for more parks

6 Wants street signs

i Stopped "jay-walk-
ing"

2 Conducted "safety-

first" campaign
through schools

3 Endorsed "safe and

sane Fourth"

4 Reports accidents

and causes

5 Helped on new traf-

fic ordinance

6 Reports bad fire

risks

7 Investigates and re-

ports fires and
causes

Activities

1 Conducting fire pre-

vention campaign

2 Suggesting new fire

limits

3 Working for salvage

corps

4 Advocating autom-

atic sprinklers, etc.

5 Campaigning for

greater public safe-
ty

6 Advocating citizen

traffic officers

7 After greater protec-

tion at grade cross-
ings

8 Working for grade

crossing elimina-
tion

9 Urged removal of
multiple trolley wires

Of seventy-nine (79) CIVIC ACTIVITIES fifty-one

The Greater Dayton Association

Dayton Association covers "CIVIC ACTIVITIES."
per cent is tor ALL the people.

247

the People of Dayton

Whole or in Part

Conducts discussions

1 Went after cleaner

Federated ten lead-

of local affairs

streets— first thing

ing charities

Brings national

2 Stopped sweeping

Instigated legal aid

speakers

street cars en-

bureau

Furnlslies places for

route

Raised fund for so-

meetings

3 Participated in clean-

cial survey

Worked up flood

up day

Financed delinq-

history and ex-

4 Co-operates with

uency survey

hibit

Civic Workers'

Financed audit of

Conducting educa-

Association

charitable bodies

tional campaign on

5 Conducted fly-swat-

Solicited charity

city affairs

ting campaign

funds

6 Helped place city

Promoted "Good

boys on farms

Will Week" for

7 Investigated Improve-

charities

ment In public

Furnished munici-

markets

pal Christmas tree
In 1913
Conducted clearing

house for Christ-

mas baskets

10 Promoted and han-

died 1914 "Com-

munity Christ-

Backing Civic Music

League

12 Helping the Boy

Scouts

Under Way

1 Planning improve-

ment In hospital
service

2 Watching garbage

disposal

3 Favors public com-

fort stations

4 Considering "more

daylight" m o v e-
ment

1 Organizing remedial

loan agency

2 Endorses worthy

charities

3 Making survey of

charitable work

(65%) have been accomplished in whole or in part.

248

First Annual Report

Seventeen (17) per cent ot the work of The Greater Dayton
Association is "COMMERCIAL." Of this 48^% is for ALL
the people and 51 H% for the business man.

Commercial

For ALL
the People

For the
Business Man

Accomplished in

Whole or in Part

1 Secured Improvements In mail service

1 Organized retail merchants' bureau

2 Prosecutes unworthy soliciting schemes

2 Censors advertising mediums

3 Protects public against fraudulent ad-

3 Compiles business statistics

vertising

4 Prosecutes transient merchants

5 Canvassed mid-week half-holiday

4 Conducted spring and fall "openings"

5 Works for manufacturers through a

manufacturers' committee

6 Conducted early Christmas buying cam-
paigns

6 Co-operates with Montgomery County
farmers' organization

7 Secured improvement in messenger serv-

7 Worked for County experimental farm

ice
8 IMaintains exchange of courtesies with
other cities

8 Analyses and reports on new law

9 Maintains library of information
10 Opposed resale price legislation

Through referenda conducted by the
Chamber of Commerce of the U. S.
Influenced drafting of:

II Federal Trade Commission Law

12 Anti-trust bills

13 Currency legislation

Activities 1

Under Way

1 Seeking extension of state loan to

building associations

2 Trying to bring In outside money

3 Working for exemption of municipal

bonds from taxation

4 Rewriting transient merchant ordinance

1 Developing greater Interurban trade

2 Supporting bulk sales law

3 Wants all Imports "cleared" at Dayton

4 Helping form state organization of

commercial bodies

5 Considering penny letter postage

6 Supporting good road movement

7 Opposing greater armaments

8 Working for world peace

Of thirty-three (33) COMMERCIAL ACTIVITIES twenty-one
(64%) have been accomplished in whole or in part.

The Greater Dayton Association

249

Eleven (11) per cent of the work of The Greater Dayton
Association is "INDUSTRIAL." Of this 66^% is tor ALL
the people and 3332% for the business man.

Industrial

For the
Business Man

Accomplished in Whole or in Part

In trouble or

2 Working for new Industries

3 Fights to retain eld industries

4 Induces Dayton capital to Invest at

home

5 Assists business concerns to find lo-

cations

6 Champions home patronage

7 Compiled directory of Dayton made

goods

8 Encouraged Dayton exhibits at Pana-

ma-Pacific Exposition

9 Tabulated unemployment statistics

10 Advertises Dayton labor as asset for

new Industries

1 Lists industrial property

2 Advertises Dayton's "world leaders"

3 G. D. A. staff visits Industrial plants

4 Furnishes reliable statistics

5 Helped adjust Insurance disagreements

Activities Under Way

2 Working for extension of foreign trade

3 Fathering permanent local exhibit of

Dayton made goods

4 Encouraging vocational education

1 Working up Dayton trade-mark

2 Helping on Federal census of manu-

factures

Of twenty-one (21) INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITIES fifteen (71%)
have been accomplished in whole or in part.

250

First Annual Report

Thirteen" (13) per cent of the work of The Greater Dayton
Association is "PUBLICITY WORK." Of this 44% is tor
ALL the people and 56% for the business man.

Publicity

For ALL
the People

For the
Business Man

Accomplished in Whole or in Part

Assists local conventions
Advertises "Dayton plan" of

4 Through weekly bulletin dissemir

good advertising

5 Answers thousands of inquiries

6 Put up "Dayton" signs in station

1 Secures and handles conventions

2 Issued Dayton poster-stamps

3 Induces publicity through factory signs

4 Publishes booklets and folders

5 Scatters Dayton directories broadcast

6 Prepares magazine articles

7 Secures favorable press Items

8 Issues comprehensive annual statistics

9 Entertains visitors

10 Directs slogans on correspondence

11 Reports business conditions

12 Removed flood marks in station

Activities Under Way

1 Conducting "Know Dayton" campaign

2 Planning sign-boards along railroad

tracks

3 Preparing information cards for public

places

4 Planning Panama-Pacific Exposition

excursion

5 Showing moving pictures of Dayton at

Panama-Pacific Exposition

2 Arranging "seeing Dayton" trips

Of twenty-five (25) items of PUBLICITY WORK eighteen
(72%) have been accomplished in whole or in part.

The Greater Dayton Association

251

Eighteen (18) per cent of the work of The Greater Dayton
Association is "TRAFFIC WORK." Of this 33^% is for
ALL the people and 6619% for the business man.

Traffic

For ALL

For the

^/^ the People >v

y^ Business Man ^v.

Accomplished in

Wliole or in Part

1 Secured Information bureau at station

1 Ouotes rates

2 Got bulletin board In station re-located

2 Checks expense bills

3 Defeated effort to raise milk freight

3 Prosecutes claims

4 Collects overcharges for shippers

4 Helped secure traction station at Ft.
IVIcKlnley

($11,500 recovered in 1914)
5 Watches and reports tariff changes

5 Secured promise of extension of White
Line

6 Secures rate changes

7 Routes shipments

6 Has brouoht about Improvements In

8 Watches and secures classification

cluanges

9 Interprets laws, rules, etc.
10 Reports court decisions

traction accommodations

7 Gives traffic Information to anybody

II Improves freight service

12 Handles switching arrangements

13 Arbitrates demurrage disputes

14 Prevents rate and service discrimina-

tion

15 Seeking Improvement In freight ter-

minals

16 Organized Traffic Club

17 Represents Dayton In traffic confer-

ences

18 Is authority on import duties

19 Maintains library on transportation

matters

Activities

Under Way

1 Working for better railroad passenger

1 Working for D. L. & C. track connec-

service

tion

2 Keeping tab on traction service

2 Wields Influence In National affairs

3 Agitating better street car service

3 Influences state traffic matters

4 Working for adequate traction terminal

4 Assisting In revision of state transpor-

5 Working on rerouting of street car lines

tation laws

5 Working for better Pullman service

Of thirty-six items of TRAFFIC WORK twenty-six (72%)
have been accomplished in whole or in part.

2599

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