Dayton City (part 3 of 50)

Benjamin Van Cleve, though self-educated, was a man of much information and became a prominent and influential citizen. In the winter of 1799-1800 he taught in the block house, the first school opened in Dayton. From the orgamization of Montgomery County in 1808 till his death in 1821 he was clerk of the court: Jle was the first postmaster of Dayton and served from 1804 till 1821. In 1805 he was one of the incorporators of the Dayton Library. In 1809 he was appointed by the legislature a member of the first board of trustees of Miami University. Ife was an active member of the First Presbyterian Church.

Benjamin Van Cleve's valuable and interesting journal, only a small part of which has been printed, contains almost ali the early documentary history of Dayton that is now in existence. The files of Dayton newspapers 1808-1821, fortunately, preserved by him and presented to the Public Library by his son, John W. Van Cleve, furnish the largest part of the material for that period in the history of the town now obtainable.

'+ Mr. Van Cleve's graphic description in his journal of St. Clair's defeat. is considered the best account of that terrible rout and massacre ever written and has been published many times. [is manuseript journal, written for the "instruction and entertainment of his children," is now in the possession of his great grandson, Mr. R. Hay Dover, of Dayton. It is written in a beautiful hand, as legible as copper-plate, and is adorned with a neatly executed plan of Fort Defiance, drawn and colored by the author. Jle had five children, one of whom died young. John Whitten Van Cleve, his eldest child, was born June 27, 1501, and died at Dayton, September 6, 1858. Jle had three daughters. Henrietta. Maria married first Samuel B. Dover, and after his death Joseph Bond. Mary Cornelia married James Andrews. Sarah Sophia married David C. Baker. Mary Van Cleve, their mother, died December 28, 1810. Benjamin Van Cleve died November 29, 1821. :

Captain William Van Cleve, brother of Benjamin, was born near Monmouth, New Jersey, in 1777. He was married twice, and by his first wife, Effie Westfall, had several children.

At the first call for troops in 1812, he raised a company of riflemen in Dayton, which was ordered to the front in June. From the close of the war until his death, in 1828, he kept a tavern at the junction of Warren and Jefferson streets. Mary Van Cleve, the sister of Benjamin and William, lived in Dayton from her eleventh year till her death, March 8, 1882, at the age of ninety-five years. Many valuable facts in regard to early times were obtained from her in 1882 by Captain Ashley Brown, from whose gleanings all later historians of Dayton are obliged to borrow. She described the trip on the pirogue from Cincinnati, remeinbered, in 1799 and 1800, attending the school taught by her brother in the block house on the Main Street bank of the Miami, and was familiar with events happening in every stage in the progress of the town during the first eighty-five years of its history. She was married twice - in 1804

Wilham Gahagan was a native of Pennsylvania, but of Inish parentage. He was a soldier in Wayne's legion, and came West in 1793, serving with the army till the peace in 1795. Benjamin Van Cleve and he were friends and comrades, and in the summer of 1794 made a trip together to Fort Massac, with contractors' goods. They were also both of the party who went, under the command of Captain Dunlap, to survey the Mad River lands. He removed in 1804 or 1805 to a tract of land south of Troy, called Gahagan's Prairic, which he owned. Were his wife died, and he married Mrs. Tennery. He died about 1845 in Troy.

The McClures, after living in Dayton four or five years, removed to Honey Creek, Miami County. Of Solomon Goss, Thomas Davis, William Chenowith, James Morris, and Daniel Ferrel! little is known,

Settlement Of Dayton

Abraham Grassmire was a German and unmarricd. He was a very useful member of the little community, helping to make the first looms owned in Dayton, and showing much ingenuity in contriving conveniences not easily obtained by pioneer housekeepers. ©

Colonel George Neweom was born in Ireland, but emigrated to Delaware with his father and mother in 1775. He moved to Cincinnati about 1794, and, as before stated, to Dayton in 1796. Jane, daughter of George and Mary Newcom, was born at Dayton April 14, 1800, at her father's tavern, on the corner of Main Street and Monument Avenue. She was married in 1819 to Nathaniel Wilson. Colonel Newcom, as he was usually called, served as a soldier in Wayne's campaign against the Indians, and alsoin the war of 1812. He was sheriff of the county, State senator, member of the assembly, and was highly esteemed by the whole community. His first wife died in 1834, and in 1836 he married Elizabeth Bowen, who died in 1850. Colonel Newcom died February 20, 1855. | :

Wilham Newcom, younger brother of George, was born about 1776. Tle died at Dayton from the effects of hardships and exposure during the war of 1812, in which he served as a soldier.

William Hamer was a native of Maryland, and was born about 1750. Mr. Hamer was a Methodist local preacher. He was the first minister who preached in the settlement, and as soon as his cabin was finished, began to hold services there.

As Jerome Holt, D. C. Cooper, and Robert Edgar arrived in the summer of 1796, they may be properly numbered among the original settlers of Dayton.

Jerome, Holt was a brother-in-law of Benjamin Van Cleve, and they had been partners in Cincinnati. When John Van Cleve was killed, be assisted Benjamin in his first efforts to provide for the family. His wife, Ann Van Cleve, was born in Monmouth County, New Jersey, July 30, 1775, and died in 1858, in Van Buren Township, where the Holts settled in 1797. Ue was appointed constable of Dayton Township in 1800, and was elected sheriff of Montgomery County in 1809. From 1810-1812 he was Colonel of the Fifth Regiment. of militia. The following order was issued in 1812 by R. J. Meigs, governor of Ohio: |

"Captain Van Cleve's company of riflemen will march to the frontier of the State west of the Miami under the direction and charge of Colonel Holt. Colonel Molt will assist the frontier inhabitants in erecting block houses in suitable places and adopt any mode he may think best for the protection of the frontier and the continu:nnece of the settlements." The men were encamped at Adams' prairie, near Hole's Creek. Daniel C. Cooper was born in Morris County, New Jersey, November 20,1773. WWeand one brother constituted the whole family. Mr. Cooper eame to Cincinnati about 1793, as agent for Jonathan Dayton, of New - ; i Py; 2) Jersey, Who was interested in the Symmes purchase. He obtained employment as asurveyor, and his business gave him an opportunity to : eae S J examine lands and select valuable tracts for himself. Little is known of his history for the first year or two after he came to Ohio. In 1794 and 1795 he accompanied the surveying parties led by Colonel Israel Ludiow through the Miami valley. Asa preparation for : oO e/ i , in September, 1795, marked out a road from Fort Hamilton to the mouth of a > 3 Mad River, cutting a narrow track -through the brush, so that horses and wagons could pass overit. During the fall and winter he located one thousand acres of fine Jand near and m Dayton. In the summer of 1796 he settled here, building a cabin at' the southeast corner of Monument Avenue and Jefferson Street. ere 3 "About 1798 he moved out to his eabin, on his farm sonth of Dayton.

_ He married about 1803 Mrs. Sophia Greene Burnet, a young and very beautiful woman. She was born in Rhode Island in 1780. Iter father, Charles Greene, was a member of the Ohio Company, and emigrated with his family to Marietta in 1788. G. W. Burnet, Mrs. Cooper's first husband, was a young Cincinnati lawyer, a brother of Judge Jacob Burnet, who died suddenly in 1801 by the roadside, of consumption, while traveling on horseback to Marietta, with his wife and Thomas Ewing, afterwards United States Senator and Secretary of the Treasury. Mr.and Mrs. D. C.Cooper had several children, but all died young, except David Zeigler, born November 8, 1812. Ie died December 4, 1836, leaving a widow, but no children.

inability to complete his purchase from the United States, and the high price charged by the government for land, were obliged to relinquish their Mad Juver purchase. Soon after the original proprictors retired, Mr. Cooper purchased préemption rights, and made satisfactory arrangements with land owners. Many interests were involved, and the transfer was a work,of time. Ife was intelligent and publie spirited, and to his enlarged views, generosity, mtegrity, and business capacity much of the present prosperity of the city is due. Ife induced settlers to come to Dayton by. donations of lots, gave lots and money to schools and churches, provided ground for county buildings, graveyard, and a public common, now known as Library Park, and built the only mills erected in Dayton during the first ten years of its history. ;

He sold his mills and farm south of town to Colonel Robert Patterson in 1804, and from that date till his death lived in his "elegant mansion of hewn logs," on the southwest corner of First and Ludlow strects.

Mr. Cooper was a very prominent and influential man in the State. In 1804, and again in 1807 and 1815, he was elected a member of the lower house of the legislature. In 1808, 1809, 1815, and 1816, he was elected State senator. ,

He was appointed justice of the peace for Dayton Township October 4, 1799, and served till May 1, 1803, the date of the formation of the county. In 1810 and 1812 he was president of the select council of | Dayton. After he sold his farny and mills to Colonel Patterson, he built, in 1805, a saw mill on First Street, near Sears, and flour and fulling mulls at the head of Mill Street in 1805 and 1809. In 1812 he built a saw mill on Fifth Street, which stood till 1847. In 1806 he built one of the first two brick stores erected in Dayton, and opened a stock of goods there in partnership with John Compton.

When he died his affairs were somewhat involved, but by prudent and conscientious management of his property, the executors, IL. G. Philhps and James Steele, relieved the estate from embarrassment, and it henceforth steadily increased in value. Every improvement of this large property benefited the city.

~ Mr. Cooper died July 18, 1818. His death is said to have been the result of an accident. A large bell, ordered for the Presbyterian Church on the corner of Second and Ludlow streets, in which he was much interested, having arrived at his store, on the corner of Main and First streets, he put it ina barrow and wheeled it himself to the newly-erected building. The exertion was too much for his strength, and he ruptured a blood vessel.

A. few years after Mr. Cooper's death, his widow married General Fielding Loury, of Dayton. They had one son, named for his father, who served as a major in the army during the rebellion and was afterwards postmaster of Dayton. Mrs. General Loury dicd May 17, 1826.

Robert Edgar was born at Staunton, Augusta County, Virginia, February 8,1770.. He settled in Dayton in 1796, a few wecks after the founders of the town arrived. September 17, 1798, he married Mrs. Margaret Gillespie Kirkwood. She was a native of Philadelphia and was born April 6, 1772.

corner of Mad River township. Part of it is now within the corporation, at the south end of Wayne Street. Ite went to housekeeping in a cabin on the southwest corner of Monument Avenue and Mill Street, but after a year or two moved on his farm. Though he engaged in farming, as he had a good deal of mechanical ingenuity he often obtained profitable employment at the Cooper and Robinson mills. In 1805 he moved to town and built a grist mill for D. C. Cooper at the head of Mill Street. He ran it for a few months, but returned to his farm at the close of the winter of 1806.

In 1812 Robert Edgar served as a soldier in a Montgomery County company of mounted rangers. His sword, now in the possession of his son, John I'. Edgar, is an interesting relic of the war. During his absence, the whole burden and responsibilty of the management of the farm and their four children rested on his wife, who had the industry, resolution, and hopeful courage of the typical pioneer woman. Mr. and Mrs. Edgar were, from its inauguration in 1800, which he was active in promoting, members of the First Presbyterian Church.

He had a large family, but only five hved beyond childhood. Jane Kilen Edgar married Augustus George; Robert Andrew married Catharine Iddings; Samuel D. marred Minerva Jones; John I'. married Effie

Chapter Iv

The Pioneer's Faculty of Adapting Himsclf to Unacevstomed Surroundings - Temporary Protection - Log Cabins - Trees Cut Down- - Scanty Furniture - Pioneer Housekeeping - Iilness from Exposure - Scarcity of Cooking Utensils - Wooden, Pewter and Horn Dishes and Spoons - No Lamps - Light and Heat from the Open Fire - Cheerful Winter

_ Evyenings - Searcity of Food - Venison, Game, Wild Birds' Eggs and Wild Honey - Corn the Principal Article of Food - -Varieties of Corn Bread - Difliculty cf Making Meal - Substitutes for Mills - Dearness of Provisions Brought froin Cincinnati - Flour Fourteen Dollars Per Barre] - Clothes, Moccasins and Harness Made of Deer Skin - Caps of Raccoon and Rabbit Skin - Settlers Often Made Their Own Leather - The Pionecer's Dress - Home-made Linen, Flannel and Linseys - -The ' Faculty" of the Pioneer Women - Pioneers Wholly Dependent on Wach Other for Society and Assistance - Ths Latch-String Always Out - Sports, House Raisings, Corn Shuckings, and Log Rollings - Quiltings - Weddings - -Early Marriages - The Axe and Rifle Mqually Indispensable - Wolves - Hunting, Trapping and Fishing - Settlers on the Town Plat - Names of Streets - Boundaries of the Town - Gullies and Ravines - Hazel Thickets Spread Over Nearly All the Town- - The Country Thickly Wooded - Three Cabins on Monument Avenue Constituted Dayton in 1796 - Houses Built Near the River Because It Was Supposed to be Navigable - People Usually Drank River Water - Prairics Within the Town - The Communal Corn Field West of Wilkinson Street - First Winter Mild and Pleasant - Out of Door Work - Dayton the Rallying Place in Case of Danger from IJndians - Jerome Holt, D. C. Cooper, and Robert Edgar Arrive - A Good Crop Gathered in 1797 - The Growth of New Vegetables Eagerly Watched - Contented with Their Situation, Poor as lt Was,

"HE pioneers had the happy faculty of quickly and cheerfully adapting dj themselves to new and uncomfortable surroundings. They were skilled in the occupations peculiar to each sex, and soon supplied themselves with dwellings and with the bare necessaries of life, though they had few tools and little material to work with.

As a temporary protection from the weather, the men, as soon as they arrived at the mouth of Mad River, built with poles against a log or bank, three-sided huts or shanties, roofed with skins or bark and open towards the fire, which was made outside. Then they began at once to fell timber for their log cabins, which were usually a story and a half high and contained one room and a loft. A ladder led to the loft, which was floored with loose clap-boards. They had clap-board roofs, held down by weight-poles, swinging doors on wooden hinges, and wooden latches, which were rarely fastened. .

The chimneys were made of sticks and mud. Wooden pins took the place of nails or spikes, which could not be obtained. Often there was no floor but the ground, but sometimes puncheons were put down. A piece of greased paper, fastened over an opening cut between the logs, served as a window, for they had no glass. The chinks between the Jogs and the interior of the chimneys, to prevent their catching fire, were daubed with clay; a few wooden pegs and shelves were put up, and the house was finished. 'The paper windows were not fastened in, nor the eabins daubed and chinked till winter. Sometimes the eabins remained doorless, and windowless, and without being chinked the year round, and yet the inmates survived and were healthy. |

After or before the cabin was built, the trees for some distance around were girdled and left to die a slow death, as they interfered with the cultivation of the soil and also concealed skulking Indians. Then a few acres were grubbed for a corn and potato patch,

The cabins were seantily furnished with tables, shelves, benches, and three-legged stools made of spht slabs, supported by round legs, and usually manufactured by the master of the house. The editor of the American Pioneer says that "it was absolutely necessary to have threelegged stools, as four legs of anything could not all touch the floor at the same time.' Punecheons were not as level and smooth as modern hard wood floors. Buckeye-and beechwood were often used for furniture and other household articles. In eight or ten years these huts, as they would be called at the present day, gave place to comfortable frame or brick houses.

The pioneer women endured many hardships, but the housekeeping, sewing, and washing and ironing must have been light. Their wardrobes were scanty, and there were no carpets to sweep, no books or ornaments to dust, no paint or windows to wash in the small cabin with its one room and loft. But they suffered from lack of what we regard as the necessaries wd comforts of life, and exposure and miasma, caused by the cultivation of the rich, new soil, produced the dreaded ague, which made many of them old before their time. But a majority of the pioncers lived to an advanced age in the enjoyment of good health.

Often there were but one or two cooking utensils in the house, but these were sufficient to cook the meat and corn bread, and occasional dish of fresh vegetables which constituted their meals. Doddridge, in his "Notes on Virginia," gives the following enumeration of a pioneer's table or trenchers, or gourds and hard shelled squashes. A few pewter spoons much battered about the edges were to be seen at some tables. The rest were made of horn. If knives were searce, the deficiency was made up by the scalping knives, which were carried in sheathes suspended from the belt of the hunting shirt."

Aer Secs Sat Ein Ste

Bear skins spread on the floor were comfortable substitutes in the western cabins for rugs, mattresses and blankets. They had no lamps, but the hickory log fires lhehted, as well as comfortably warmed, the small cabins. 'lhe open wood fire, with its huge back log, front log and central mass of lighter and more combustible fuel, was a work of art, which only skillful and experienced hands. could properly construct.

~The family made a pleasant picture gathered around the glowing fire-place in the long winter evenings. The women occupied themselves with sewing, knitting, spinning, preparing fruit for drying or cooking, and platting straw for hats. An early Dayton paper commends the straw bonnets made by a neighboring farmer's wife. The men busied themselves, we are told by pioneers who wrote of these carly trmes in Ohio, stemming or twisting tobacco, shelling corn for the hand-mills, making or mending articles for the house or farm, and cleaning guns and running bullets. They had plenty of nuts gathered from neighboring trees to regale themselves with when they rested from their work. No doubt Benjamin Van Cleve and other intelligent Dayton settlers, as is recorded of Mr. Williams, of Belmont County, or Mr. Dunham, the Ames pioneer, when so fortunate as to obtain a "nourishing book," read aloud far into the night to their industrious famuilhes, the fingers flying all the faster because the mind was pleasantly oceapied and entertained, |

The frontiersman often tired of his steady, though varied diet of venison, bear's meat, rabbits, squirrels, wild turkeys, ducks, geese, quails and pheasants, the dainties of the city epicure, but it was a difficult matter to procure anything else to eat. Sometimes, when too busy in their ficlds and gardens to hunt, they had a hmited supply of even game. They had in the season all the wild turkey, goose and duck eggs, gathered from nests in the woods, that they needed, and wild honey was found in hollow trunks of trees or in the ground at their roots.

Corn was the priucipal article of food and from it many delicious dishes and varieties of bread now seldom scen were made. The making of hoe-cake, ash-cake, johnny-cake, dodgers and pone is a lost art since the open fire-place gave way to the cooking stove and range, and many another wild, woodland flavor vanished with it. Mush eaten with gravy, or with bear's oil, or with maple molasses, or mush and milk, was one of the regular articles of diet. Benjamin Van Cleve speaks of the relish with which the big pot of mush and milk was eaten, which was all the surveyors of Dayton found at Cunningham's on their arrival there, after thirty-four hours of fasting, traveling and surveying.

It was not easy to get the corn ground into meal in a country where no mills had been built. Probably the Daytonians, hke the Marietta peoieee ee ¥ 7 8 : ae seat aadeor ple, sometimes parched it and ground it in large coffee mills. But it was usually pounded in a hominy block and then sifted through a sieve. The coarse portion was used for hominy and the finer as meal. Sometimes it was grated by hand; or it was pounded by a stone pestle attached to a spring pole in a stump mortar, which was made by burning a round hole in the top of astump. A welcome invention was the hand mill made of two stones, twenty inches in diameter. It was worked by a pole in a socket, one end of the pole being attached to the floor overhead and the other to the edge of the upper stone. One person turned the stone, while another fed'ecorn into the "eye." It took four or five hours to grind , enough meal to supply a small family for one day. afterwards arranged to run by horse power, and wheat was sometimes ground in them. The next improvement was small water mills.

Provisions were dear at Cincinnati, and when settlers could afford to purchase them, there was much delay in bringing them up to Dayton, so that the supply here was often nearly exhausted. Flour cost $14.00 per barrel by the time it reached here, but it was seldom used except in sickness or on special occasions. 'The fine crop, which the settlers raised the first year, rendered them less dependent on the Cincinnati market. They brought horses and cattle with them, and mill was an important part of their food. . .

Clothes, moccasins, and harness were often made of deerskin, and caps of the furs of raccoons and rabbits, killed and dressed by the wearers. They frequently made their own leather, which, though coarse, was durable. Tan bark was easily obtained and. pounded for the tanning trough which nearly every family had sunk in the ground on their lot.

The pioneer's dress, according to a writer in the American Pioneer, usually consisted first of a tow linen shirt and pantaloons manufactured by the women of his family. Over this he wore a suit of buckskin, consisting of a hunting coat and leggins. The coat was ornamented with buckskin fringe down the sleeves, round the collar, cape, belt, and tail, and sometimes on all the seams. The leggins, which protected him from rattlesnakes, briars, and nettles, and kept out snow and mud, reached a little above the knee, and were cut the size and shape of the leg. The seams, which as in the coat were two inches and a half wide and sewed up on the outside, were cut into fringe. They were buttoned to the pantalcons by a strap reaching from the knee to the hip and tied into the moccasins at the ankle. The deerskin moccasins neatly fitted the feet. Dried oak leaves usually took the place of socks or stockings. A large scalping knife in a scabbard was gencrally worn suspended from the belt.

Pioneer Life

eapable wives and daughters, who had as much faculty as the typical New HEneland woman, spun and wove into tow linen, woolens or mixed flannels, linseys, and jeans for clothes and household use. They seldom bought dress goods. Every cabin had its spinning wheel and loom. Abraham Grassmire, the ingenious Dayton pioneer weaver, assisted the settlers to build looms the first or second year after their arrival. The women made dye stutis themselves at first, no doubt, from the hulls of walnuts and butternuts and from a wild root of a bright yellow color. A little later the hunting shirts were probably dyed with indigo or madder brought from Cincinnati.

Isolated from the other settlements by miles of unbroken forests, the only road a trail marked by blazed trees or a narrow bridle path, with treacherous Indians and wild beasts prowling through the tangled undergrowth on either side, the inhabitants of frontier places like Dayton were dependent on each other for society and for assistance in sickuess and in work.. They shared everything. The latch-string was always out. Hildreth says of Marietta that the various households in the little community were like the nearly related branches of one family, and probably this was true of the log cabin hamlet of Dayton.

The principal amusements of the men were hunting, trapping, shooting matches, and the quarter race. Then there were log rollings and burnings, house raisings, corn shuckings, and frolies at the sugar camps, in which both sexes participated, and which occupied so much of their time that their life cannot be deseribed without mentioning them.

Sometimes nearly the whole winter was spent in rolling logs, and when a number of large heaps were made, the men gathered to kindle and the women to tend the fires. They often worked half the night,

The line between town and country could not be drawn during the earlier years of the history of Dayton. Woods and corn fields spread over what are now city streets.

embroidery of their granddaughters. Still more dehghtful than the gossipings around the quilting frame and the supper afterwards, to which the men were invited, were the wedding festivities, which, according to Mr. King, among well-to-do Ohio pioneers, lasted three days. The first day the enests amused themselves with sports of various kinds. The second day the marriage ceremony was performed, which was followed by the wedding feast, the table groaning under a bountiful supply of backwoods dainties. Then came the dance, which lasted till morning. The third day was devoted to the infare or house-warming. The bride was escorted on horseback to her new home, and "the ride was not unlike to that of Canterbury in style.' The day ended with another merry dance. Rough practical jokes were played and there was much boisterous talking and laughing. The fun was fast and furious, and unrestrained by the ceremonious and punctilious manners of fashionable society.

and not nearer of kin than first cousins." But it was necessary that notice should be 'given either in writing posted at some conspicuous place within the township where the woman resided, or publicly declared on two days of pubhe worship. Sometimes a manuscript notice, signed D. C. Cooper, Justice of the Peace, for the territory, was tacked to the trunk of a prominent forest tree near the road. Early marriages were so much the custom that respectable parents saw with approbation young daughters who at the present day would be still in the schoolroom

Lhe axe and the rifle were equally indispensable to the pioneer, for wolves, panthers, and wild cats, as well as Indians, were often troublesome. Packs of wolves sometimes came into the settlement in the day time, and they made night hideous with their howls, destroyed stock and sometimes shot after dark through the cracks in the cabins. Large bounties were paid for scalps. The settler's rifle was never long out of his sight. When in the house, gun, powder horn, and shot pouch hung within reach on buck horns fastened on the wall, and were beside being useful, about the only decorative articles a cabin contained.

' Doddridge says that hunting "was an important part of the employment of the early settlers of this country. For some years the woods supplied them with the greater amount of their subsistence, and with regard to some families and certain times, the whole of it; for it was no uncommon thing for families to hve several months without a mouthful of bread.' At such times children were taught to call the "Jean venison and the breast of the wild turkeys bread, and the flesh of the bear was denominated meat." But the artifice did not succeed very well with those who had been brought up in the east, where beef was plenty.

Pionfer Life

e ATiey aio in this way for some time, we Hecate sickly; the a iete seemed to be always empty and tormented with a sense of hunger." "It frequently happened that there was no breakfast till it was obtained from the woods. Fur and peltry were the people's money. They had nothing else to give in exchange for rifles, salt and iron, on the other side of the mountains." :

Buffaloes and elk disappeared from the Miami Valley before 1795, but the woods in 1797 were still full of deer, bears, wild turkeys, geese, ducks, pheasants, aud numerous other edible animals, beside many that were both useless and troublesome. Harmless gartersnakes abounded and rattlesnakes were oceasionally seen. Large and small animals and turkeys were frequently taken in traps for the sake both of the pelts and the flesh. The rivers were full of bass, catfish, pickerel, pike, eels and. sunfish, which were caught by hook and line and in snares, traps, and nets.

"Tiunting," says Doddridge, "was not a mere-ramble in pursuit of game, in Which there was ane of skill and calculation." . " The whole business of the hunter consisted of a succession of intrigues. From morning to night he was on the alert to ,gain the wind of his game, and approach them without being discovered." Bear hunting required much daring and courage, as well as skill, but was constantly engaged in for the sake of obtaining the valuable skins, meat, and oil.

A. favorite amusement with the first settlers of Dayton was "fire hunting, which Curwen thus deseribed:" "The deer came down to the river to drink in the evening and sheltered themselves for the night under the bushes which grew along the shore. As soon as they were quiet, the hunters, in pirogues, paddled slowly up the streain, the steersman holding aloft a burning torch of dried hickory ,bark, by the light of which the deer was discovered and fired on. If the shot was successful, the party landed, skinned the animal, hung the carcass upon a tree, to be brought home in the morning, and then proceeded to hunt more game." The settlers did not bring swine with them, and it was several years before "hog and hominy" were substituted for venison.

The Thompsons, Van Cleves, McClures, George Newcom, his wife and brother William, and Abraham Grassmire settled on the town plat and the other colonists on neighboring farms. The farming lands for two or three miles around the mouth of Mad River were included in the Dayton settlement. William Van Cleve moved to his farm south of Dayton in two or three years, and Abraham Grassmire left here before 1803.

A Oci Ag Ce Apa

There were also fifty-four ten-acre out-lots east of the present canal basin. The town and three of the streets were named for the original proprictors, General Dayton, General St. Clair, General Ludlow, and General Wilkinson, who were Federalists, and as a compromise one of the streets was ealled Jefferson.

The town was bounded on the north by Water Street, now Monument Avenue; east by Mill Street to Third; thence west to St. Clair Strect; thence south to Fifth Street; thence west to Jefferson; thence south to South, now Sixth Street; thence along Sixth Street to Ludlow; thence north to Fifth; thence eR to Wilkinson, and thence north ', Water Street. Water, First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and South strects were to run east and west, and cross at right angles Mill, St. Clair, and south. Water Street, now Monunient Avenue, was immediately cleared of trees and brush to the river brink; but over nearly all the rest of the town plat spread for several years a dense thicket of hazel bushes interspersed with occasional clumps of haw, wild plum, cherry, thorn, scrub oak and forest trees.

A gully about five feet deep extended from near the corner of First and Wilkinson streets, crossing Main diagonally at Third Street, to the prairie near the corner of Fifth and Brown streets. It was bordered and hidden from view by a thick hazel copse. Main Street, which was merely a narrow, rough wagon road cut out of the bush from Cincinnati to Dayton, must have disappeared at the Third Street crossing in the bottom of this gully, coming up and out again on the other side of it. The gully was sometimes full of water and difficult to cross, as it served as a natural drain for the ground on which Dayton is built; but during the greater part of the year it was dry. The First and Wilkinson Street end of the gully was not filled up till 1883

A. deep ravine extended from the head of Mill Street down the course of the canal to the river below the foot of Ludlow Street. This was counected near Library Park with another ravine, which ran across the town from the river at the head of Jefferson Street.

Forests with a thick undergrowth of vines and bushes, and full of wild animals, covered most of the country to the east and southwest and the hills to their summits on the south. North of the Miami, the woods extended to the river bank, The rich bottom land beyond old Mad River was, as in 1795, hidden under a tangled maze of weeds and vines. Opposite the Main Street shore of the Miami there was a large island and there were three others in Mad River just above its mouth.

Avenue; Samuel Thompson's on Monument Avenue, half way between Jefferson and St. Clair streets, and Mrs. McClure's at the corner of Monument Avenue and Mill Street. They built their dwellings on Water Street lots close to the Miami, because the river was then believed to be navigable. They thought that in future years, when they hoped that boats laden with produce from their own neighborhood and supplies from abroad would be constantly passing up and down the stream, property would be more valuable near the Janding than elsewhere. The settlers, as a rule, drank river water, though there was a spring 1n a grove near the corner of First and Wilkinson streets.

A prairie extending from First Street to fifth, and from Perry Street to the river, was enclosed and cultivated in common by the Daytonians. This communal farm, long known as the commons, and where in later times cows had free pasturage, excited the imagination of Curwen, whose sketch of Dayton is a model of skillful condensation of facts and grace of style. " West of Wilkinson Street," he says, "was a huge-corn field within one common enclosure, where, as in that golden age of the world when men Jodged under trees and fed upon acorns, every man was at liberty to tii as much of the soil as he chose." 7

Between this large enclosure and the three cabins was a small prairie which served as a vegetable garden for the hamlet, though most of it was also planted with corn. A number of prairies, usually less than half an acre in size, lay north of First and west of Willkinson Street, and there were five east of St. Clair and south of First Street, separated by small tracts of timber.

The first winter proved mild and pleasant, and beth men and women accomplished a good deal of out door work, burning brush, rolling logs and clearing ground for cultivation in the spring. During the year the settlement was strengthened by a constant stream of emigrants, though only two or three settled on the town plat. But dread of Indians, who wandered about the country in small bands, prevented any of them from locating far from here, for Dayton was the rallying place incase of danger.

he probably oceupied about two years, at the southeast corner of Monument Avenue and Jefferson Street. The spring of 1791 was favorable for making maple sugar and molasses, and the settlers had also a good crop this year of corn, tobacco, hemp, flax, beans, turnips, pumpkins, and cabbage, while plenty of wild grass and fodder were gathered for their stock. The following description of the eagerness with which settlers welcomed the new vegetables after the deprivations of the long hard winter is probably applicable to Dayton: "I remember how narrowly the children watched the growth of the potato tops, pumpkin and squash vines, hoping from day to day to get something to answer in the place of bread. How delicious was the taste of the young potatoes when we got them! What a jubilee when we were permitted to pull the young corn for roasting ears, still more so, when it had acquired sufficient hardness to be made into Johnny cake by the aid-of a tin grater. We then became healthy, vigorous, and contented with our situation, poor as it was."

Dayton Township - Small Fees Received by Officials - Taxes in 1798 - D. C. Cooper, Justice of the Peace from 1799-1803 - Newcom's Tavern - The Tavern Used as the First Court House and Jail - First Store - Newcom's Corner, the Business Center of Dayton - A Typical Frontier Tavern - Dayton Contained Nine Dwellings in 1799 - Several Roads Oponed - Monument Avenue Cleared - Main Street a Narrow Wagon Road - Settlements Few and lar Between - Hardships of Pioncser Life - Indiah War Apprehended - Block House Built - School Opened in the Block House - First Distillery Started - Cooper's Saw Mill - Corn Cracker - Hogs Introduced - Feed on Mast - Attacked by Wild Animals - First Fiat Boat Launched - Sheep Introduced - Cost of Groceries at Cincinnati - Little Money in Circulation - Business Conducted by Barter--Value of Different Kinds of Skins - Cut Money - McDougal's Store - Trade with the Indians - First Child Born in Dayton - Taxation in 1800 - lirst Wedding - Census in 1801 - First Minister - Methodists - Presbyterians - Log Meeting House- - - First Grave Yard - Jobn W. Van Cleye's Description of Dayton in 1805 - Presbyterians Worship in Newcom's and McCullum's Taverns - Worship in tne Court House--lirst Brick Presbyterian Church - Rev. James Welsh, First Pastor - William King - John H, 'Williams.

Y\AYTON was originally in Hamilton County, out of which several \) other counties were afterward carved. Dayton Township was formed in the winter of 1796-1797. It was of great size, and included the whole of what are now Wayne, Mad River and Van Buren townships, and parts of Washington and Miami townships; and also other territory at present in Montgomery, Greene, Clarke, Champaign, Logan and Shelby counties.

The county commissioners and township assessors jointly controlled the expenditures of the township, but made regular reports to the county court and met yearly as a court of appeals to hear objections against assessments.

Until the appointment of a justice of the peace in 1799, Dayton had no government but that administered by these county and township officers, whose chief duty was assessing and collecting taxes.

The fees of the township officials were not extravagant. An order of the county commissioners which has been preserved, directed the treasurer of Hannlton County to pay James Brady five dollars and twenty cents out of the first moneys that came into his hands, "the same being his perquisites in full as assessor for the township of Dayton in the yen L197. received one dollar and ninety cents, to which by law he was entitled,

"for his trouble and attention in executing the commissioners' warrant for ascertaining the taxable property." Ile also received "fifty cents for one quire of paper used in the aforesaid business." The commissioners each received seven dollars and fifty. cents in 1797, and the county expended for stationery fourteen dollars and thirty-four cents.

The officers appointed in Dayton Township in 1798 were James Thompson, constable; Daniel C. Cooper, assessor; George Newcom, collector. Mr. Cooper's fees were seven dollars and twenty-one cents.

The rates of valuation for taxes for 1798 were fixed by the cominissioners. Jt would seem that in the valuation of property for taxation no regard was paid to the quality of the article or animal; a good or poor house, a fine or indifferent horse, and so on, paid the same tax. |

Single men, with no property, were taxed one dollar; cleared land (valuation for taxation) per acre at twenty dollars; cattle per head, sixteen dollars; horses, seventy-five dollars; cabins, twenty dollars; houses, six hundred dollars; grist mills and saw mulls, each six hundred dollars; boats, two hundred dollars; ferries, one thousand dollars. There were one hundred and thirty eight tax-payers in the township, and the total amount raised for the year was one hundred and eighty-six dollars, sixty-six and a half cents.

Twenty-two tax-payers lived in the village and its immediate vicinity in 1798, and the total amount of taxes paid by them was twenty-nine dollars and seventy-four cents.

In 1799 Samuel Thompson was made constable; John McGrew, assessor; John Ewing, collector, in Dayton Township. The assessments amounted to two hundred and thirty-three dollars and seventy-two cents, and two hundred and twenty-four dollars were collected.

Mr. Cooper was made justice of the peace for the township. He tried his first case October 4,1799. It was a suit for eight dollars brought by Abram Richardson against George Kirkendall. The total costs were thirty-three cents; entering judgment, ten cents; summons, ten cents; subpena, thirteen cents. " Defendant stayed collection with John Casey on the bond." The next case was a suit for six dollars and seventy-cight cents, brought by John Casey, Kirkendall's bondsman, against Matthew Bohn. The squire's decision was as follows: 'From the circumstances in the case, it appears that there is really no cause for action, and plaintitl

Another smut for seven dollars and sixty-six cents due for fur was brought by Winetowah, a Shawnee Indian, against Ephraim Lawrence. Lawrence was ordered to pay. Winetowah one dollar and twenty-one cents and costs. The squire's last record was made May 1, 1803. Mr. Cooper tried one hundred and eighteen cases during this period of three

Neweonns, tavern the first im, the, Miomi..valley, north of, ort Hamilton, was built in the winter of 1798-1799. It stood on the southwest corner of Main Street and Monument Avenue; was two stories high and built of hewn logs, and was the largest and best house in the hamlet and in all the country for miles around. This building, now covered with weather boards, though the logs are as sound as when cut ninety years ago, still stands on the site where it was originally placed, and is oecupied asa grocery and dwelling. Lime was probably made for the first time this year from stones gathered from the bed of the river and piled on a huge log fire which took the place of.a kiln. _ Newcom's tavern. was, it is supposed, the first house in Dayton that was chinked and plastered with lime mortar. A wondering country boy, on his return from the village, reported to his astonished family that "Colonel Newcom was plastering his house inside with flour." |

The southwest corner of Main Strect and Monument Avenue was the business centre of Dayton Township for five or six years. At Newcom's tavern was opened the first store, and it was also the first court house and jail, and at one time the Presbyterians held their Sunday 'services there. It was a typical frontier tavern, the host and hostess doing with their own hands the work of the house and of the Jog stable at the back end of the lot; taking travelers into their family and making literal guests of them. All travelers on horseback, on foot or in wagons; prospectors hunting for lands, emigrants, and farmers and their famihes in town for the day, stopped at Newcom's to eat and sleep; to shop; attend to law business; get a drink from the only well in the township or a glass of whisky, or to rest and gossip round the roaring !og fire, where the villagers loved to gather. If a crowd was possible in so small a hamlet, if assembled on the southwest corner of Main Street and Monument Avenue, perhaps when court was in session, as in 1803; or when there was a mecting to organize for defense against the Indians or to attend to religious or political business.

The extreme and long continued cold and deep snows of February, 1799, caused much suffering in the scttlement to animals and increased the labors and anxicties of the people.

On the first of April, 1799, when Dayton was three years old, the town contained nine cabins - six on Monument Avenue, one of them Newcom's tavern; two on First Street and one on the corner of Fifth and Main streets. Beside the four built in 1796, there was George Westfall's cabin on the southeast corner of Main and the alley between J irst and Monument Avenue, and Paul D. Butler's on Monument Avenue, near Main Street. John Wilhams, who was a farmer, had a cabin on the southeast corner of Monument Avenue and Willsinson Street. Thomas Arnett, a shoemaker, hved on the northwest corner of First and Ludlow streets, and John Welsh, a substantial farmer, on the southeast corner of Fifth and Main streets, a long distanee through the woods and brush from the others. Daniel C. Cooper's cabin on the southeast corner of Monument Avenue and Jeflerson Street was empty. For a time General Brown, who greatly distinguished himself in the War of 1812, had kept bachelor's hall there, but he no longer lived in Dayton.

Monument Avenue was now open to its present width. A narrow wagon road Jed out of Main Street through Franklin and Uamilton to Cincinnati. Another beginning at the eastern end of Monument Avenue, namely at Mill Street, extended up Mad River by Hamer's farm to Demint's and Merecer's Stations, now Fairfield and Springfield. Into this road a little beyond the east line of town came a road running from what is now the northwest corner of First and Ludlow streets, along where First Strect now is. Another road erdssing Mad River at its old channel nearly opposite Webster Street, led to Livingston, Staunton, and Piqua. At. first the only routes through the woods were trails marked by blazed trees. These were followed by narrow bridle paths worn by frequent passing, which were afterwards widened so that a single wagon could pass over them.

The nearest settlements to the northeast of Dayton in 1799 were Chribb's Station, settled three years before in the forks of Mad River; Merecer's and Demint's stations and MePherson's Station, near Urbana. There were two or three families at Livingston at the mouth of Toney Creek in Miami County. Staunton was asmall place near Troy. A few people lived at Piqua aud at, Lorimie's store, sixteen miles northwest of Sidney, which was the frontier settlement in that direction. Cincinnati, Hamilton and Franklin were very small villages. |

At the corner of Warren-and Main streets was a sign board, which read, "One half mile to Dayton." People living here reported that "the country was thickly settled and emigration to it rapid," yet there was no blacksmith living within twenty miles of Dayton. There was no clearing between Thomas Davis' cabin on the Bluffs and Ilole's Station, now Miamisburg, where near the old block house and stockade there was one solitary cabin. The good home missionary, Kobler, preached at. this "old fortress" in 1798 "to a small congregation, consisting chiefly of the few families that lived at the fort.' On inquiry he found "that this fortress was on the frontier and no settlement around or near them."

Mr. Kkobler was ee "te shortly iifcean ards, and he wrote: "To travel and preach was impossible; and to he sick at any of the houses in these parts would be choosing death; as it is next to impossible for a well man to get food or sustenance, much more for one prostrate on a bed of sickness." He traveled fifty miles before he reached a place where an invahd could stay with any degree of comfort, a statement which- may help 'us' to realize the hardships: of pioneer hfe. «; An invalid.-traveler would have fared badly in a cabin of one room and a loft, occupied by a large family, hospitable and unselfish as the pioneers usually were.

During the summer of 1799, an Indian war was apprehended. Benjamin Van Cleve makes the following allusion to the threatened hostilities in his journal: "In July and August the Indians were counciling and evinced an unfriendly disposition. The British traders and French among them had made them dissatisfied with the cession of their lands and with the boundaries, and block houses were built at Dayton and -all through the country, and the people became considerably alarmed."

The Dayton block house was large, built of round logs and with a projecting upper story, so constructed that the occupants might guard against the lower part of the building being set on fire by the savages It stood on the Main Street bank of the Miami. The threatened sittacle did not come, but the men were all armed and ready to take refuge with their farniles in the block house in case of an alarm.

It was never used as a fort, but was converted into a school house where Benjamin Van Cleve, the first Dayton school-master, taught the pioneer children reading, spelling, writing, and arithmetic. The lower rough cabin homes, very primitive. Books were scarce and it is said that the alphabet and spelling were taught from large charts prepared by the master. If so; they were beautifully executed, for Benjamin Van Cleve's penmanship was a model of neatness and elegance.

my corn and kept school until the last of October." Je got in his corn, of which he had an excellent crop, the first week in November. Je then went to Cincinnati to assist the clerk of the house of representatives of the first Territorial legislature, so that vacation lasted several weeks after the corn was safely housed. The assembly adjourned a few weeks before Christmas, and he returned to Dayton - "kept school about three months longer." people in 1799, was very expensive rales rowel here from Cineinnati. In August, Daniel C. Cooper advertised in the Western Spy, published at Cincinnati, for an experienced distiller, "offering Jim good encouragement." In, the, fall, he, started..a idistillery;,and'soon afterwards built a paddle-wheel. saw mill) and ja tub) mill} or corm 'cracker, run by water power on a ercek called Rubicon, which runs through the Patterson farm, just outside the present city limits. The cabin in which he hved till 1804 stood near his mills. | |

The "corn cracker" is thus described in the Ilistory of Montgomery County. "Jour posts were set in the ground, about four feet apart, two on each side of the creek, forming a square; the posts stood four feet above ground, and on top of them was a puncheon floor, and on that a small pair of buhrs were set. To the perpendicular shaft the 'runner' was attached; the shaft passed through the bedstone, and at the lower end was the horizontal tub wheel. Four forks were planted to hold the poles on which were Jaid the clap-board roof to keep the rain ont of the hopper. The sides of the mill were not inclosed."" Rude and primitive as this mill was, settlers came to it from nearly the whole of the Miami Valley and from up Mad River as far as Springheld. He "obtained all the custom of town, and tools toll from the Trojans and Pequods."

About 1800 a small overshot mill was built in Mad River Township, on MeConnell's Creek. After this date, mills improved and increased in number. Taaneeroie or granite boulders furnished material for bubrs, and millers generally made their own.

This. year (1799) Mr. Cooper began to raise hogs on his farm. They had not before been imtroduced. They fattened rapidly in the woods on the great quantity of acorns and beech nuts, which they found there. The nuts that furnished nutritious food for the hogs were not a blessing without alloy. The unusual amount of mast which ripened in 1801 and 1802 attracted immense flocks of wild turkeys to the settlement. They did not confine themselves to the forest, bat alighted in fiélds and gardens, destroying the growing corn and eating such quantities as it matured, that, to save the crop, it was necessary to gather it very early.

The hogs were hunted in the fall and shot swith rifles, for they became very wild and savage, and went in droves. Experience taught them to defend themselves from the wolves, and to protect their pigs by making a circle around them. They sometimes tore a wolf to pieces with their tusks. When pigs were kept in pens, they were roofed with heavy logs to exclude the wolves. Woildeats and panthers also attacked hogs. Panthers were so strong that they could carry a hog for 'a long distance, through deep snow, into the woods. One day a man heard a aietinvarics among his hogs, which he kept on the north side of the river, opposite Ludiow Street, and crossed over in a canoe to see what was the matter. While looking about, he heard something fall to the ground under a leaning tree, which proved to be a dead hog dropped by a without attacking the man. The first flatboat was launched iu the winter of 1799, near McDonnell's Creek by David Lowry. It was loaded'in Dayton with grain, pelts, river, started on the two months' trip to New Orleans. The voyage was safely accomplished. Lowry sold his cargo and boat and retur: 1ed home on horseback. Many Ohio men laid the foundations of their fortunes by taking a flat boat load of provisions south.

In 1800 sheep were introduced. They were difficult to raise, as they were unable to protect themselves against wolves. It was necessary to shut them up securely at might and to keep constant guard over them when pasturing. NG

J'or the first three or four years the settlers had purchased all their flour, groceries, dry goods, hardware, and whisky, and most of their eorn meal in Cincinnati. They were usually brought on pack horses. It was a long journey of nearly a week over a rough road, or of ten days if the traveler came by boat.

The charge for transportation was two dollars and fifty cents per hundred weight. Flour was nine dollars a barrel, and it cost five dollars to bring a barrel to Dayton. Corn was one dollar per bushel. The following list of Cincinnati prices in 1799 bas been nresenyed, American merchants had 1ot yet learned to use the United States curreney, and their charges were in pounds, shillings, and pence. Imperial tea, tw ent - two shillings six pence per pound; Ilyson, sixteen shillings ten pence loaf sugar, four shillings; flour, cighteen shillings ten pence per one hundred pounds; pork, eighteen shillings nine pence; beef, twenty-two shillings six pence; wheat, five shillings; rye, three shillings; corn, one shilling ten pence per one hundred pounds.

There was' little money in cirenlation, and bieesad in the Northwest Territory was chiefly conducted by the barter of articles that were easily transported on pack horses, such as ginseng, peltries, and bees-wax, which had fixed values. A muskrat skin passed for twenty-five cents; a buckskin, for a dollar; a doe skin, for one dollar and fifty cents; a bear skin, from three to five dollars. The price of a pair of cotton stockings was a buckskin; a yard of calico cost two muskrat skins; a set of knives and

Go History Of Dayton

The want of small change led the pioneers of the Olio valley to invent what was called cut money or sharp shins. They eut small coins, chiefly Spanish, into quarters and circulated them as readily as money that had not been tampered with.

The first four years Dayton traders found difficulty in disposing of their peltries, as there was no store nearer than Cincinnati or Hamilton, where Henry Brown had opened a trading house in 1795.

In*the fall. of 1800 the first: store was 'opened 'in Dayton by Mr. McDougal, of Detroit, in a room in the second story of Newecom's tavern. This store was a great convenience to the settlement and to the people for forty miles around. The Indians came in the spring in small parties, five or six in each, to trade with McDougal, exchanging their furs, skins, fish, game, wild honey, and maple sugar for his powder, blankets, whisky, dry goods, and trinkets.

The Indians were, as a rule, drunken, worthless, and dishonest, and were often noisy and troublesome. They had a-great deal of curiosity and the disagreeable habit of unceremoniously walking in and about the cabins, peering into chests and cupboards, and, if not watched, they appropriated any article they fancied.

April 14, 1800, occurred an event of some importance to the villagers, the birth at her father's tavern of Jane Newecom, said to have been the first child born in' Dayton, though others have claimed that honor; as for instance, Dayton Hamer, born December 9, 1796, on his father's farm, three miles from Dayton; and Jane Edgar, who married Augustus George, and who was born November 24, 1800, on her father's farm, part of which is now within the corporation. Jane Newcom married Nathaniel Wilson. She died at the residence of her daughter, Mrs. Josiah Gebhart, April 5, 1874.

dollars and fifty cents. The taxation this year was at the rate of forty cents on cach one hundred dollars valuation for houses, mills and other buildings; forty cents for each horse; ten cents for cattle; fifty cents to two dollars: for young or single men; one dollar each for bond. servants.

The first wedding in the Dayton settlement occurred August 28, 1800. Benjamin Van Cleve was married on that day to Mary Whitten at her father's house, on his farm near Dayton. In Mr. Van Cleve's journal oceurs this quaint record of the event: "This year I raised a crop of corn and determined on settling myself and having a'-home. I accordingly, on the 28th of August, Married Mary Whitten, daughter of John Whitten, near Dayton. She was young, lively, industrious, and ingenuous. My property was a horse creature and a few farming utensils, and her father gave her a few household or kitchen utensils, so that we could make shift to cook our provisions; a bed, a cow and heifer, a ewe and two lambs, a sow and pigs, and a saddle and spinning wheel. I had corn and vegetables growing, so that if we were not rich, we had sufficient for our immediate wants and we were contented and happy."

In 1801 Benjamin Van Cleve was appointed county surveyor. He was also lister for Dayton Township. Tle reccived nineteen dollars and fifty cents for his work, of which he made the following record in his diary: which was all the Miami country.from the fourth range upwards. The number of free males over twenty-one years old, between the two Miamis from the south line of the township to the heads of Mad River and the Great Miann, was three hundred and eighty-two, east of the Little Miami less than twenty." The danger of attacks from Indians as well as the need of men to clear lands made it as desirable to know the number of men in the township capable of bearing arms or wielding an'axe as to learn the names and the value of the property of tax-payers. VThe township taxes for this year amounted to five hundred and fifty-six dollars and sixty-two and a half cents, which was an increase of three hundred and twenty dollars and ninety cents since 1799.

The first minister who preached in the settlement, was Rev. John Kobler, of the Methodist Church. Me delivered four sermons in Dayton, which he deseribes in his journal for 1798 as "a little village by that name on the bank of the Big Miami," containing a few log houses and eight or ten families. He held his first service here on Sunday, August 12th, and several of the little company assembled to hear him, were much affected by his exhortations. He organized a class of eight members, of which he made William Ifamer leader. Mr. Hamer was a Methodist local preacher, and had held Sunday services at his cabin, three miles up Mad River or in the woods surrounding it, ever since his arrival in 1796. During 1797 a class had met regularly at his house.

Mr. Kobler's second sermon at Dayton was preached on Sunday, August 26th, "to all the people which town and country could afford, which were but few at best." January 1, 1799, he " preached at Dayton to a mixed company of traders from Detroit, some Indians, French, and English," from the appropriate text, "In every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness.is accepted of him." Le spoke so forcibly on stood aghast as if they would take to their heels." April 2d he preached in Dayton for the last time to all the people of the village and surrounding farms. Ile considered the township a promising missionary field.

In 1805 the Methodists, for the first time, had regular preaching. At that date, Abraham Amos and John Meck were assigned to preach here alternately. Before this, they had occasional services in the log meeting-house or elsewhere, when some minister of their denomination visited the village. The first class-meeting held in town met at the house of Aaron Baker. - No protracted or camp-meetings were held bere earlier than 1817. :

In the fall of 1799, and during the following winter, the Presbyterians held their meetings in the block house, at the head of Main Street. Previously, they occasionally met for public worship at each other's eabins. Rev. John Thomson, of Kentucky, preached here several times in 1800, and oceasionally for several years afterward. Rev. James Kemper also preached in Dayton once in 1800.

In the spring of 1800 the people' of the Dayton settlement, both in and out of town, united in getting out logs and building a cabin for a Presbyterian meeting-house at the corner of Main and Third streets. Lots numbers 133 and 134 had been given by Mr. Cooper to the Presbyterian Church, and as was customary at that day the ground surrounding the church was used as a burial ground.

- The log cabin meeting-house was eighteen by twenty fect in size, seven logs high, and raised two feet from the ground by pieces of log placed upright under each corner of the floor. It was neither chinked with chips nor daubed with yellow clay, and had no windows. The cracks between the logs admitted more than enough air and probably sufficient light. The seats and door-steps were logs, and the floor was made of rough puncheons. The clapboard roof was secured by weight poles. It was hidden from the view of passers-by on Main Street by thick copse of hazel bushes and small trees, among which wound the narrow path through the graveyard, by which it was approached.

The Presbyterian Society was organized by Presbytery in 1800-1801. Rev. William Robinson, who lived three miles up Mad River and owned a mill there by which he supported himself, supphed the Dayton and

3eulah congregations, the latter at Beavertown, as frequently as possible. These societies were really one church, andthe Beavertown branch soon ceased to have a separate existence.

year a graveyard, donated by Mr. Cooper, containing four acres of ground, was opened further from the center of town, on the south side of Sixth Street, between Ludlow and Wilkinson. The graveyard was divided into three parts - equal portions being given to the Presbyterian church, the Methodist church, and the town of Dayton. In September, 1815, the graveyard on the corner of Main and Third streets was platted

The remains of the pioneers were not removed from their first resting place, and there under the banks and stores crected on that busy square, "the bones of such of 'the forefathers. of the hamlet' as escaped the exhuming spade of cellar diggers, repose." i

John W. Van Cleve, who had seen Dayton change from a wilderness to a thriving town of 4,000 inhabitants, in a lecture delivered in 1833, gives the following description of his native place in 1800-1805: " While the inhabitants all, lived on the river bank, it was no uncommon thing for strangers, on coming into the place after threading their way through the brush until they had passed through the whole town plat from one extremity to the other, and arrived at the first few of the cabins that constituted the settlement, to inquire how far it was to Dayton. They were of course informed that they had just passed through it and arrived in the suburbs. The fact seemed rather ridiculous, and it was. very natural for them to think that the projectors of the town had calculated much too largely in laying it out upon so extensive a scale. The inhabitants themselves indeed partook of the same opinion. The lots on the east side of Main Street, opposite the court house, were considered so far out of the way that it was not thought probable that the town would extend much beyond them, and they were accordingly appropriated for a graveyard, and remained so till 1805, when the present burying ground fon Sixth Strect ] was selected, which has been used by the town and country ever since." | |

The part of the Sixth Street graveyard belonging to the Presbyterians was not improved till September, 1816, when it was cleared, fenced, sown with grass seed, and the lots offered for sale for burial purposes at the court house, the Main Street lots being sold by the trustees of the church at the same time and place for residences or business houses. :

For the next year or two after the log mecting-house was sold, the Presbyterians held their services at Newcom's log tavern, or at McCullum's new brick tavern, at the southwest corner of Main and Second streets, removing in 1806 to the new court house, on the corner of Main and Third streets. Here they remained until they had completed their first the county commissioners four tiuaaned and twelve dolly on panaition that they should be permitted to worship in the court house. The new church was a two-story building, forty-two by fifty feet, with a gallery on three sides of the room. The lot on which it was built cost five hundred dollars. The pews were sold October 4, 1817, bringing a total amount of two thousand, nine hundred and eighty dollars. Their first settled minister was Rev. James Welsh, M. D., who came in 1805 and remained till 1817. During the period treated of in this chapter, two important accessions were made to the settlement. William King and John H. Williams entered and settled on land just west of the Miami River, parts of which are now included in that portion of Dayton known as Miami City. Wilham Ising, dissatisied with IXentucky on account of slavery, emigrated from that state to this vicinity in 1801. Tle was a remarkable man, distinguished for his strong convictions and his conscientious determination to carry them out at whatever cost. He was for many years an and Covenanter in his composition. He lived to a great old age, lacking at his death but three months of being one humered years old. . His family consisted of three sons and two daughters. is two elder sons, John and Victor, removed to Madison, Indiana, where they held positions of honor and isenath ae Samuel married Mary C., the daughter of John H. Wilhams, and both he and his wife were for many years hgehly esteemed and useful. Jane married David Osborn.

John Ii. Wilhams came in 1802, and was during his residence here an honored and highly esteemed citizen. His descendants are numerous and have held prominent positions in the community. The children by his' urst. wite. were: James 'Gockard; Mary *Carothers, married Samuel King; Sarah, married William Boal; Lucinda, married Scott Douglas; Herbert S.; Susan, married Ilenry Stoddard; Anna, married first Jeptha Regans, married second James R. Wallace; Samuel; Hlizabeth, married James Wallace. Eliza Jane, daughter by his sy wife, married Charles Sherman. Frances Taylor, daughter by his third

Chapter Vi

Growth and Improvement - John Cleves Syinmes Unable to Fulfill His Engagements - - Settlers in Danger of Losing Lands- - New Settlers Decline to Come - Unsatisfactory Preemption Law - Law of 1801- - -Settlers Enter Lands - Land Office Opened - Original Proprietors Relinguish Their Claims - D. C. Cooper Titular Proprietor of Dayton - Petition Presented to Convress by Settlers- - Satisfactory Titles Secured - Cooper's New Town Plat - Donations of Lots for Public Use- - Only Five Families in Town - First lilection of Dayton Township- - -Formation of Montgomery County- - Dayton the County Seat - Virst County Court - Opening of Court Attracts s Large Crowd - -Cases Tried - Unusual Fines - Punishment by the Lash - -Prisoners Confined in an Old Well in Newcom's Tavern Yard - Indian Prisoners - Virst Election in Dayton for Member of Congress - First County Commissioners Elected - Main Street Cleared to Warren Street - Gully, Corner of Main and Third, Filled with Logs - Mr. Cooper's Elegant Mansion of Hewn Logs - Henry Brown's Frame Store - Only Store in 1804 - Henry Brown - His Sons - Col], Charles Anderson - Cooper's Saw and Grist Mills - Cooper's Carding Machine - First Jail Built of Round Logs - Benjamin Van Cleve First Postmaster - Post-oftice in 1505-1821 - Post Riders - Postage.

the lands purchased from him by St. Clair, Wilkinson, Dayton, and Ludlow reverted to the government. The settlers had expected to receive their titles through St. Clair and his associates, the assignees of Symmes, and his failure to fulfill his contract occasioned them much anxiety and annoyance. They were in danger of losing the labor of months as well as their land and improvements. For the sake of providing homes for their families, they had expended the little money they had, and encountered the many difficulties, privations, and dangers of life in a frontier settlement, and now it seemed probable that they would lose what they had ventured into the wilderness to gain. Nothing seemed in store for them but loss and disappoimtment. The prospect was very gloomy. New settlers could not be induced to come, while affairs were in this discouraging and unsettled state, and many of the old settlers became disheartened and removed to other places. Those who came from 1801 to 1804 were glad to take possession of their abandoned clearings and thus save much time and work.

After matters had remained in this state for some time, a law, on the petition of the settlers, was passed by congress March 2, 1799, for their relief. It gave to any person having a contract in writing with John Cleves Symmes previous to the Ist of April, 1797, for the purchase of lands between the Miami rivers, not included in his patent, the privilege

12 . HISTORY OF DAYTON. of purchasing lands from the United States at two dollars per acre, the money to be paid in three annual installments. The law did not afford sufficient relief, and only three or four persons entered: land under it. Symmes' patent included the lands he was able to pay for, and the government took back the rest of his purchase between the Miamis.

A new preémption law was passed March 8, 1801. All persons who had made payments of money for Jands, or had contracts with Symmes or his associates, were granted the privilege of purchasing from the goverument at two dollars an acre, and longer time was given for substantiating claims and making payments. The claimants were obliged to pay surveyor's fees and some other incidental expenses. Both Symmes and St. Clair and his associates had paid two thirds of a dollar per acre for land, and the settlers of Dayton had bought at a small advance on that sum. But probably none of them had paid as much as two dollars per acre, and while, as they could not otherwise secure a title to their land, they were glad to avail themselves of the provisions of the preémption law, they would have been in a better position if the terms of their contract with the original proprietors of Dayton could have been fulfilled. They were obliged to pay two dollars per acre to the government for the lots and in-lots received as donations on November 4, 1795.

As soon as the law of 1801 was passed a land ofiice was opened at Cincinnati, and commissioners were appointed to examine claims and issue certificates. Now that these difficulties were in a fair way towards settlement, the prosperity of the town was assured. |

The original proprietors of Dayton had become disheartened and determined, instead of entering their land, to relinquish their claims to the seventh and eighth ranges. Benjamin Van Cleve, in his journal for 1801, says: "Mr. Ludlow, who was one of the proprietors and agent for them, informed me that they relinquished their claim on account of the rising price; that they could not afford to give two dollars per acre,

It was at this time that Danicl C. Cooper became titular proprietor of the town by purchase of preémption rights, agreement with settlers, and by friendly congressional legislation. The negotiations required much patience on both sides, and many months elapsed before the arrangements for the transfer were completed.

Probably about 1803 the following paper was drawn up, which is interesting reading, because it gives a graphie account of the many difficulties which the petitioners encountered in making a new settlement

«The petition of the first settlers at Dayton and Mercer's Station, in Montgomery and Greene counties, Ohio, respectfully sheweth: That the TYonorable Judge Symines having made a relinquishment of bis claim to a certain tract of lands lying between the Miami rivers, to Governor St. Clair, General Wilkinson, Jonathan Dayton, and Israel Ludlow, Hsquires, the said lands being all the seventh and ciglith ranges of townships cast of Mad liver; in order to form settlements on the same and augment its value, the proprietors offered certain gratuities and privileges to such as might engage to become first settlers, which are contained in the articles accompanying the petition.

"On the 5th of November, 1795, forty-six persons engaged to become settlers at Dayton, but from the many difficulties in forming a new settlement so far in a wilderness country, only fifteen of these came forward, with four others, making nineteen in all. -From the threats formed by your petitioners a few months after the treaty of Greenville, when we had not faith in the friendship of the savages. Our settlement was immediately on their hunting grounds. We were not able to keep a horse amongst us during the first season by reason of their stealing. The scarcity of provisions had raised flour to nine dollars a barrel, and n wilderness, clearing roads, ete. Under all these and many.more difficulties we labored, 1n hopes of obtaining our lands at alow rate and the small gratuity: offered. Several of your petitioners have not been able to procure any land; others have laid their claims before the commissioners agreeably to the late law, and purchased at two dollars per acre. We beg leave to state to your honorable body that the proprictors have not received the expected advantages from the forming of these settlements; that your petitioners have been at vast expense, labor, and difficulty in forming the said settlements, and hiave received no recompense nor privilege other than subsequent settlers; that they first opened a way, the town of Dayton is purchased by a subsequent settler, and we pray that Congress will make us such gratuity in lands, or deduction for payments for lands, or grant such other relief as our case merits.

"Your petitioners further pray, in behalf of Rev. Wilham Ilamer, a settler at Dayton, who, having settled on the Section 29, in the second township and seventh range before the lines were run, with an expectation of holding it, agreeable to the terms set forth in Article A, and has since continued to cultivate and improve it, as it was supposed to be appropriated for religious purposes, he being a preacher of the gospel and having. the approbation of Mr. Ludlow, one of the proprictors, as appears by the Article C. Now, as the said section is to be sold as other lands, the said Hamer is willing to pay two dollars per acre for it, in installinents, agreeable to the late laws for the disposal of United States lands. We pray your honorable body may grant him a preémption and the indulgence he wishes; and your petitioners shall, ete. Wilham, Gahagan, Samuel Thompson, Benjamin Van Cleve, William Van Cleve, Thomas Davis, James McClure, Daniel Ferrell, John McClure, Thomas Ilamer, Abraham Grassmire, William Uamer, Solomon Hamer, William Chenowith, George Newcom, and James Morris; Thomas Davis, representative of John Davis, deceased; William Hamer, representative of Solomon Goss; B. Van Cleve and William Gahagan, representatives of John Dorough; Jonathan' Mercer, for himself and others of Mercer's Station on Mad River:'

The settlers, or their representatives, finally secured satisfactory titles by patent or deeds from D.C. Cooper to lands or in-lots, or to both, but on account of difficulties in proving their clauns, ond cther delays, some of the patents were not issued till 1808 or later. They were obliged first to obtain certificates from the commissioners at Cincinnati, and then on the payment of the stipulated two dollars an acre to the United States, which, with the fees, made the cost of town lots one dollar, they received patents for their lands. One of the terms of Mz. Cooper's agreement with the settlers was that he should make a new plat of the town on which the location of each lot-owner's property was marked. This plat diftered somewhat from the original one. It was divided into three hundred and eighty-one in-lots, ninety-nine feet wide and one hundred and ninety-nine feet deep, and cast of Sears Street there were fifty-six out-lots. The streets were ninety-nine feet wide, except Main and Main Cross, now Third Street, which were one hundred and thirty-two feet wide. Lots were adnan by Mr. Booed The plat was pridonted by D. 0, Cooper and Israel Ludlow, agent of the original proprietors, April 26, 1802, and recorded the next day at Cincinnati in the records of Trion County.

Asa result of the difiiculties just deseribed, we find that there were four vacant cabins in Dayton in the winter of 1802-1803. But five families lived here, those of George Neweom, Samuel Thompson, John Welsh, Paul D. Butler, and George Westfall. All but two of the original settlers had abandoned the village and moved on farms beyond the clearings. Benjamin and William Van Cleve, and William Newcom, were farming near town; the MceClures had removed to Miami County; John Williams had settled on Wolf Creck, and Thomas Arnett had also moved auwiy. One third of the people who were here in 1799 had left,

At first county and township officers, whose principal duty was collecting and expending the taxes, had been appointed by the territerial governor and courts. But population increased rapidly, and in 1802 it was considered necessary to authorize an election by the people of additional officers. Jerome Molt, sheriff of the county, was directed to give notice to the inhabitants of Dayton 'Township to convene at the house of George Neweon on the Ist of April, and then and there proceed to elect by ballot a chairman, a town clerk, three or more trustees or managers, two or more overseers of the poor, three fence-viewers, two appraisers of houses, a lister of taxable property, a suflicient number of supervisors of roads, and one or more constables

In 1802 Ohio became a state. A law for the formation of Montgomery County and several others out of Hamilton County was passed by the first State legislature at Chillicothe, March, 1803. Dayton was made the temporary county seat, and this olaeior was confirmed by the commissioners appointed in April to designate courty seats. The half deserted backwoods village of Dayton, with its streets overgrown with hazel bushes and surrounded by forests filled with howling wolves, seems an unpronising place to sclect for the capital_of a county. But it was the nucleus of a number of farming settlements, and was the principal hamlet in the township.

and John mavide of Washington Township. The other officers were Benjamin Van Cleve, clerk pro tem. Daniel Symmes, of Cincinnati, prosecutor pro fem.; George Neweom, sheril, and James Miller, coroner. The law fixing the county seat, which went iuto force in May, 1803, also

The court opened on the morning of July 27, 1803, but as there was no business to transact, adjourned on the evening of the same day. Nearly the whole male mete teh of Montgomery County assembled at Newcom's, on the 27th of July. A frolic was made of the first: opening of court, and the occasion furnished unwonted excitement and amusement. The judges and lawyers all slept that night in one room in the tavern, and rode off the next morning to open court at Xenia. Tuesday, November 22, 1803, the second session of the court was held here under a tree, back of the tavern, and the aid of the sheriff was necessary to

_The ,first,case was tried, on November 22d. Hater Sunderland was indicted for assault and pane on Benjamin Scott, "then being in the peace of God and our State." He pleaded certes and was fined six doHars and costs. Two other criminal cases and four civil suits, which were tried, were discontinued. The next day the court adjourned. Owing to the scarcity of money, persons convicted by the court were often fined a number of deer or other skins, or a certain amount of corn or pork. One man's fine was a barrow pig. Nearly all minor offenders were scutenced to pumshment by the lash, to from one to thirty-nine lashes, on the bare back, "well laidjon.' The sentence was generally executed at once by the sheriff. During 1808 the tavern served as a jail, as well as a court house. :

Sheriff Newcom was in the habit of confining white prisoners in an old unwalled well on his lot. "The pit was empty, and there was no water in it," and, as Curwen says, following the example of Old Testament jailers, "he let down those who broke the peace of the State, and there they remained till brought up for trial.

sometimes bound them and confined them in his corn crib, as they did not consider bonds a degradation and submitted without resistance. It was difficult, till a jail was built, to confine prisoners, and the community was always gratified when they escaped and left the neighborhood.

June 21, 1803, the first election for member of Congress was )eld in Montgomery County, and Jeremiah Morrow was chosen. The returns were signed, Isaac Spinning and John Ewing, Associate Judges; Benjamin Van Clev e, Clerk. The second Tuesday in October, George ae Wcom was elected sheriff and James Miller coustable. Anil 20, 1804, the following commissioners were elected: Wilham Brown, three years; Edmund Munger, two; and John Devor, one year. They themselves decided by lot the length of time each should serve. The first board of commissioners met at Newcom's tavern June 11, 1804. August 4th, the commissioners ordered that a tax be laid on all the items of taxation in Dayton, Washington, and German townships as high as the law allows, amounting to four hundred and fifty-eight dollars and forty cents.

The growth and improvement of the village was marlxed after it became the county seat. In 1804 Main Street was cleared of. trees, stumps, and undergrowth to its junction with Warren Street. Previously it had only been 'cleared' to Tinird Street. The gully at'the Main and Third Street crossing was filled with logs and covered with earth. These logs are sometimes taken out now when it is necessary to dig trenches in the street, as sound as when they were buried eighty-five years ago. |

In 1804 Mr. Cooper built on the southwest corner of Ludlow and First strects his "elegant mansion of hewn logs lined inside, instead of plastering, with cherry boards." Another improvement was the frame store-room built on the east side of Main Strect, near Monument Avenue, by Henry Brown, who since Wayne's treaty had been engaged in trading with the Indians at Fort Hamilton and Laramie, and had now removed his stock of goods to Dayton. This was the only store in Dayton in 1804, and there were but two other shingle-roof houses here - - Mr. Cooper's and Newcom's, both considered great ornaments to the town. Until 1812, when the firm was dissolved, Mr. Brown and his partner traded through agents with the Indians at Greenville, fort Wayne, and Wapakoneta towns.

Henry Brown was born about the year 1770, near Lexington, Virginia, and was of Scotch-Irish ancestry. He came to the Northwest Territory in 1793 as military secretary to Colonel Preston, who commanded regiment in Wayne's legion. Afterwards he was engaged in forwarding supplies to the army. In 1795 he entered into a partnership with John Sutherland for trading with. the Indians, which continued seventeen years After the settlement of the firm in Dayton in addition to their Indian trade by means of agents and pack horses, they shipped produce by flat boats to New Orleans, and purchased cattle which were driven to Detroit for sale to the government, Indians, and farmers in that region. In .1812 he was appointed assistant Indian agent under Colonel Johnston. He was actively engaged in business until shortly before his death in 1825,

The sons were both of them men of the highest character, and prominent and influential citizens. Robert Patterson, the eldest .son, married Miss Sarah Galloway, of Xenia; Henry L. married Miss Sarah Belle Browning, of Indianapolis. Uenry L. Brown was. noted for his of Dayton, now of Kuttawa, Iventucky, a lawyer famous for his eloquence and conversational gifts, and active during his residence here in all efforts for the improvement and prosperity of the town. Ile commanded the Ninety-third Ohio Regiment during the Civil War, and was afterwards governor of Ohio.

A. second valuable improvement in 1804 was Mr. Cooper's new mills. He built a saw mill on First Street and soon after erected a grist mill at the head of Mill Street, to which in 1809 he added a carding machine.

A jail was built of round logs in the fall of this year on the Third Street. end of the court house lot. It was thirty feet long, sixteen wide and twelve high, and contained two disconnected cells, floored and eciled with logs and plank. There were but three smal! windows im the building, secured by two-inch plank shutters and iron bars, and but two doors, also of two-inch plank, spiked and hung on iron hinges. The doors and shutters were locked on the ontside, and the keys kept by Sheriff Neweom at his tavern three squares off. During the sessions of court at the tavern, a doorkeeper was appointed to conduct prisoners to and from the jail. This log fortress, which was bmilt for two hundred and ninety-nine dollars by David Squier and in two months, was stronger than the block houses which did such good service during the Indian wars, and answered every purpose till it became necessary that the sheriff should Jive at the jail, when it was abandoned and another of stone erected.

December 13, 1803, Benjamin Van Cleve was appointed postmaster, but did not receive his commission till January, 1804. Probably in the spring of that year he opened the postoffice in his cabin on the southeast corner of First and St. Clair streets. He served till his death in 1821. Previous to 1804 the only postoflice in the Miami valley, and as far north as Lake Eric, was at Cincinnati, and from 180-4 till about 1806 the people to the north of Dayton, as far as Fort Wayne, were obliged to come to this oflice for their mail. In 1804 Dayton was on the mail route from Cincinnati to Detroit, and the mail was carried by a post-rider who arrived and left here once in two weeks. But soon after Mr. Van Cleve opened the postoftice a weekly mail was established. Only one mail a week was received for several years, the route of which was from Cineinnati through Lebanon, Xenia, and Springfield to Urbana; thence to Piqua; thence down the Miami to Dayton, Frankhn, Middletown, Wamilton, and Cincinnati. <A letter from Dayton to Franklin or any other town on the route was sent first to Cincinnati and then back again around the circuit to its destination. The second mail route opened was from Zanesville, via Franklinton and Urbana, to Dayton. The next improvement was a mail to and from the East by way of Chillicothe, which arrived and departed Sunday evening. | ;

The following agreement between William George, William McClure, and Joseph Peirce, committee, and George F. Tennery, mail carrier between Dayton and Urbana in 1808, and which was found in 1888 among the papers of Wilham McClure, editor of the first Dayton newspaper, is of some intcrest:

" AGREEMENT, made and concluded this seventh day of December 1808, between William George, William MeClure, and Joseph Peirce, committee, in behalf of the undertakers for carrying the 'mail from

'WitnessetTH, That the said George, on his part, binds himself, his heirs, etc., to carry the mail from Dayton to Urbana once a week and back to Dayton for the term that has been contracted for between Daniel C. Cooper and the postmaster general, to commence on Friday, the ninth instant (to-wit): leave Dayton every Friday morning at six o'clock; leave Urbana Saturday morning and arrive at Dayton Saturday evening, the undertakers reserving the rght of altering the time of the starting and returning with the mail, allowing the said George two days to perform the trip, the post-rider to be employed by the said George to be approved by the undertakers. They also reserve to themselves the right of sending way letters and papers on said route, and the said George binds himself to pay for every failure in the requisitions of this agreement on his part the sum equal to that required by the postmaster general in hke failures.

"The said committee on their part agree to furnish the said George with a suitable horse, furnish the person carrying the mail and the horse with sufficient victuals, lodging, and feed, and one dollar for each and every trip, to be paid every three months. In witness whereof the parties have hereunto set their hands the day and year above mentioned.

So History Of Dayton

SO HISTORY OF DAYTON. nee 1, 1808, a call was publis ce in the Dayton Repertory for a meeting at a court. house of the people of Dayton and adjoining townships to. cndeavor to secure a post route: direct. to Dayton, New Lexington, and Eaton, by which they would have intelligence at least one week earlier from the Hast than they were then receiving. 'This route was also considered desirable because it would promote intercourse with citizens of other states, through the northern counties of ours, and inerease the value of property... It was necessary that those interested in the proposed route should raise a fund to defray the expense,«but the postmaster ceneral agreed to allow toward the expense all the emoluments arising from the several new offices that might be established.

Later more direct commumeation with the Kast was opened, via Columbus, the mail coming in Sunday evening and leaving Thursday noon. The western mail went by the way of Salisbury; arrived Tuesday evening and departed Sunday evening. No further progress had been made in 1821, when Mr. Van Cleve retired from office.

No stamps were used, but the amount of postage due was written on the outside of the: | collected on delivery. Mr. Van Cleve fr equently inserted notices similar habit of giving unlimited credit heretofore, finds it his duty to adhere strictly to the instructions of the postmaster general. He hopes, therefore, that his friends will not take 1t amiss w hen he assures them that no distinction will be made. No letters delivered in future without pay, nor

Now that postage for all distances 1s equal and very low we can hardly realize the burden and inconvemence the high and uncertain postage rates imposed on the pionecrs. Money was very scarce and difficult to obtain and to pay twenty-five cents in cash for a letter was no easy matter.. The following postage rates are copied from old letters addressed to parties in Dayton: 1800, Washington, twenty cents; 1804- 1818, Cincinnati and Chillicothe, twenty-five cents; 1804-1841, New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, twenty-five cents; 1812, Philadelphia (with one hundred and thirty dollars inclosed), forty cents; 1818, Gallipolis, eighteen and three fourths cents; 1824, Greensburg, Kentucky, twenty-five postage were fixed as follows: Thirty miles, six cents; eighty miles, ten cents; over one hundred and fifty miles, eighteen and three fourths cents; over four hundred 'miles, twenty-five cents. Newspapers anywhere within the state where printed, one cent. Hlsewhere not over one hundred miles, one cent; over one hundred miles, one cent and a halt.

Pamphlets and magazines were not forwarded when the mail was very large, nor when it was carried with great expedition or on horseback. For a good many years the eastern mail was brought to Wheeling by post-riders, and thence down the river to Cincinnati in government mail boats, each manned with four oarsmen and a coxwain, and built like whaling craft. The voyage from Wheeling to Cincinnati oecupied six days and the return trip up stream twelve days. |