CHRONOLOGICAL RECORD.
1749-French Major Celoron de Bienville ascended the La Roche or Big Miami River.
1751-Gist visited the Twightwee or Miami villages.
1780-General George Rogers Clark led an expedition against the Indians of the Miami region, one of his officers being Colonel Robert Patterson.
1782-November 9, A skirmish between American soldiers under General Clark and the Indians on the site of Dayton, in which the Americans were victorious.
1786-Americans under Colonel Logan again defeated the Indians on the site of Dayton, one of the brigades being commanded by Colonel Robert Patterson.
1789-Plans formed for a town named Venice on the site of Dayton.
1795-August 3, A treaty of peace made with the Indians at Greenville, Ohio, by General Wayne – August 20, The site of Dayton purchased by Generals St. Clair, Dayton, and Wilkinson, and Colonel Ludlow – November, The town laid out by Colonel Israel Ludlow.
1796-April 1, Arrival of first settlers, by the Miami River, landing at the head of St. Clair Street; two other parties coming a few days later by land – Newcom’s first log cabin built.
1798-First sermon preached in Dayton by Rev. John Kobler, of the Methodist Episcopal Church – First Methodist Episcopal class, now Grace Church, organized with eight members – Newcom’s Tavern built – Taxes paid, $29.74.
1799-First Presbyterian Church organized – blockhouse built – First school opened – First industries established, consisting of distillery, sawmill, and corn-cracker mill – First lime made – First flatboat left for New Orleans – Dayton three years old and contained nine cabins – Only two houses on Main Street – D. C. Cooper appointed justice of the peace.
1800-Presbyterian meeting-house, eighteen by twenty feet in size, built of logs, on northeast corner of Main and Third streets – August 28, First Wedding in Dayton, that of Benjamin Van Cleve and Mary Whitten – April 14, First child born in Dayton, Jane Newcom – First store opened, in Newcom’s Tavern.
1801-First male child born in Dayton, John W. Van Cleve.
1803-D. C. Cooper resuscitated the town – Montgomery County organized – Dayton made the county-seat – First court held in Dayton – Newcom’s Tavern used as court-house, jail, church, and country store.
1804-Postoffice and mail-route established – Benjamin Van Cleve, first postmaster – Mail every two weeks, between Cincinnati and Detroit, via Dayton – Letter postage twenty to twenty-five cents – Log jail built on Court-house lot – First grist mill erected – taxes for the year $458.40.
1805-The town of Dayton incorporated – First town election held – Presbyterian log meeting-house sold for twenty-two dollars and services continued in log tavern – Dayton Social Library Society incorporated – First brick building erected – First disastrous flood.
1806-First Court-house built, of brick, on present Court-house lot – Two brick stores erected – First newspaper published.
1807-Dayton Academy incorporated.
1808-First brick residence built – 196 votes cast – Repertory first published.
1809-Freight line of keel-boats established between Dayton, Laramie, and St. Mary’s – Fourth of July celebrated with a procession – First drug-store opened – First political convention in the county.
1810-Population, 383 – New sidewalks ordered by Select Council – Ohio Centinel first published.
1811-Nine flatboats left for New Orleans, with products of the surrounding country – A comet visible, and severe earthquake shocks felt.
1812-A company enlisted for the War of 1812 – Ohio militia encamped in Dayton.
1813-First society of mechanics organized – First Dayton bank chartered – August 13, Present Grand Opera House lot, on southeast corner of Main and First streets, purchased by James Steele and Joseph Peirce for twenty dollars.
1814-First Methodist church completed – Ferry began to operate at Ludlow Street – Ohio Republican first published – First Dayton bank opened for business – A flood.
1815-Dayton Female Charitable and Bible Society organized – First market-house opened – About one hundred dwellings in Dayton, chiefly log cabins – Moral Society of Associated Bachelors formed – First school for girls opened.
1816-First theater held in Dayton – Ohio Watchman first published.
1817-New Court-house finished – Presbyterian erected a brick church – St. Thomas Episcopal Parish organized – Bridge across Mad River built – Bridge Street Company incorporated – First Sabbath-School Association organized – Only two carriages owned in Dayton.
1818-Stage-coach line began to run between Dayton and Cincinnati.
1819-A keel-boat arrived from Cincinnati – St. Thomas Episcopal Church organized – An African lion exhibited at Reid’s Inn – Bridge at Bridge Street completed.
1820-Cooper’s Mills burned – Population, 1,000.
1822-Montgomery County Bible Society organized – Lancasterian method of instruction introduced – The Gridiron published – Seven flatboats and one keel-boat left for New Orleans
1823-Miami Republican and Dayton Advertiser first published.
1824-First Baptist Church organized – First cotton factory erected, by Thomas Clegg.
1825-Law passed authorizing the construction of a canal from Dayton to Cincinnati – Stage-line established between Columbus, Dayton, and Cincinnati – 497 passengers by stage passed through Dayton during the year.
1826-The Watchman and Miami Republican consolidated, and named the Ohio National Journal and Montgomery and Dayton Advertiser, afterward becoming the Dayton Journal.
1827-First volunteer fire company organized – Baptist society built a church.
1828-Water first turned into the canal – First canal-boat launched – Twenty stage-coaches arrived every week – First iron foundry established, now the Globe iron Works – A flood.
1829-First arrived of canal-boats from Cincinnati – First temperance society formed – A new market-house built – Last factory established, now Crawford, McGregor & Canby’s Dayton Last Works – Steele’s dam constructed – A majority of the First Baptist Church established a Campbellite church, now the Church of Christ.
1830-Population, 2,954 – Dayton Republican first published.
1831-First public school opened – Christ Church Parish organized – First Catholic family arrived in Dayton – R. C. Schenck began practice of law in Dayton.
1832-A fugitive slave captured in Dayton – First Board of Health appointed – Fifty-one brick and sixty-two wooden houses built – A silk manufactory established – Dayton Lyceum organized – First parochial school opened – A flood – Mad River & Lake Erie Railroad Company incorporated.
1833-First Reformed Church organized – Mechanics’ Institute organized – Population, 4,000 – Thirty-three deaths from cholera.
1834-Democratic Herald first published – Police Department organized.
1835-Firemen’s Insurance Company chartered.
1836-Main Street bridge opened for travel – First book published.
1837-Emmanuel Catholic Church dedicated.
1838-The “public square,” now Cooper Park, prepared for and planted with trees –Convention held in the interest of free schools – Dayton and Springfield turnpike constructed – Montgomery County Agricultural Society organized – Erection of publish school-houses ordered.
1839-Dayton Township first divided into election precincts – First county agricultural fair held – Dayton Silk Company organized, with capital of $100,000 – First English Lutheran Church organized.
1840-Harrison campaign – General Harrison visited Dayton – Dayton Journal began to issue first daily paper – Emmanuel Church of the Evangelical Association organized – Population, 6,067 – Paper-mill established – Montgomery County Mutual Fire Insurance Company organized.
1841-Dayton incorporated as a city – The works of W. P. Callahan & Company established.
1842-Western Empire, now Dayton Times, established.
1843-Woodland Cemetery opened – John Quincy Adams entertained – Bank of Dayton chartered by the State Legislature.
1844-St. Henry’s Cemetery opened.
1845-Bank of Dayton (a State bank), now the Dayton National Bank, organized – Dayton Bank, to which the Winters National Bank traces its origin, organized.
1846-Dayton furnished soldiers for the Mexican War.
1847-Distasterous flood – Dayton Library Association organized – First United Brethren Church organized – First telegraph message received.
1849-Two hundred and twenty-five deaths from cholera – The Barney & Smith Car Works established – Dayton lighted by gas – St. Mary’s Institute founded – W. C. Howells purchased the Dayton Transcript.
1850-Central High School established – Present old Court-house completed – City Bank and Farmer’s Bank opened – D. L. Rike, now Rike Dry Goods Company, began business – First Hebrew Congregation organized – Population, 10,976.
1851-First railroad, from Dayton to Springfield completed – Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railway completed to Dayton – First passenger station located at northeast corner of Jefferson and Sixth streets – Miami Valley Bank established 0 Dayton Insurance Company organized – Hebrew cemetery opened.
1852-Probate Court of Montgomery County first opened – Southern Ohio Insane Asylum located at Dayton – Exchange Bank, successor of the Dayton Bank, opened – Dayton & Union Railroad opened for traffic.
1853-United Brethren Publishing House, established in 1834 at Circleville, Ohio, removed to Dayton – Dayton & Western Railroad opened.
1854-First Orthodox Congregational Society organized.
1855-Public Library established – The works of Pinneo & Daniels established.
1856-Union Passenger Station erected.
1857-Old Central High School building erected.
1859-Stomps-Burkhardt chair factory established.
1860-Mimai Commercial College established – Population, 20,081.
1861-65-Dayton furnished to the United States service 2,699 soldiers; under special calls of the State, 965; grand total of Dayton men in the service, 3,664.
1862-Lowe Brothers’ paint factory founded.
1863-First National Bank, now the City National Bank, established – Second National Bank chartered – Miami Valley Insurance Company organized – First steam fire-engine purchased – Vallandigham arrested – Journal office burned – Dayton & Michigan Railroad opened.
1864-Empire office mobbed – The Brownell Company began business.
1865-Miami Valley Boiler Works established – Teutonia Insurance Company organized – Ohio Insurance Company began business – Atlantic & Great Western Railroad, now the New York, Pennsylvania & Ohio, formed by the consolidation of several roads.
1866-Great destruction by flood – National Soldiers’ Home located near Dayton – Stilwell & Bierce Manufacturing Company began business – Volks-Zeitung established – Christian Publishing Association, established in 1843, reincorporated and located in Dayton.
1867-Central Branch National Military Home established near Dayton – Dayton Building Association No. 1 organized – Montgomery County Children’s Home founded – Cooper Insurance Company incorporated.
1868-McHose & Lyon Architectural Iron Works established – John Dodds began to manufacture agricultural implements.
1869-First street-railway constructed, on Third Street – Normal School opened – Dayton Malleable Iron Company incorporated – Thresher & Company began to manufacture varnish – Sunday, May 16, 1 A.M., Turner’s Opera House and adjoining buildings burned; loss, $5000,000; insurance, $128,000.
1870-Holly Water-Works established – Young Men’s Christian Association organized – Woman’s Christian Association organized – Population, 30,473 – Cincinnati “Short Line” Railroad, now a part of the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad, incorporated.
1871-Union Biblical Seminary opened – Merchants National Bank incorporated – Wayne and Fifth Street Railway and Dayton View Street Railway chartered.
1872-Calvary Cemetery opened.
1873-Metropolitan police force organized – Mutual Home and Savings Association organized.
1874-Philharmonic Society organized – New jail completed – Smith & Vaile Company began business.
1875-J. W. Stoddard & Company began business.
1877-Free night schools established – Crume & Sefton Manufacturing Company established – Dayton & Southern Railroad, now the Cincinnati, Dayton, & Ironton, opened.
1878-St. Elizabeth Hospital founded – Woodhull’s carriage and buggy works established.
1879-Dayton Daily Herald first published.
1880-Fifty Street Railway Company incorporated – Population, 38,378.
1881-St. Elizabeth Hospital erected.
1882-Third National Bank chartered – Columbia Insurance Company organized – Reformed Publishing Company organized.
1883-Serious flood – Montgomery County Bar Association organized – Electric light introduced – Dayton Manufacturing Company incorporated – Historical Publishing Company incorporated.
1884-Noew Court-house completed – National Cash Register Company organized – Montgomery County Soldiers’ Monument dedicated – Ohio Rake Company incorporated.
1886-A destructive flood, damaging West Dayton.
1887-White Line Street-Railway, the first operated by electricity, constructed – Union Safe Deposit and Trust Company incorporated – Pasteur-Chamberland Filter Company incorporated – Board of Trade organized.
1888-New Public Library building occupied – Fourth National Bank incorporated – Davis Sewing-Machine Company removed to Dayton – First street paving laid, on East Fifth Street.
1889-Woman’s Literary Club organized – Natural gas introduced – Teutonia National Bank chartered.
1890-Protestant Deaconess Society organized – First sanitary sewers laid – Lorenz & Company, music publishers, began business – Population, 61,220.
1891-Dayton Computing Scale Company incorporated – Dayton Under-writers’ Association incorporated – Deaconess Society opened a temporary hospital – Dayton Press established.
1892-Columbian Centennial celebrated – Seybold Machine Company incorporated.
1893-New High School building completed – Thresher Electrical Company began business.
1894-Deaconess Hospital completed and dedicated – Police matron appointed.
1895-All street railways except one operated by electricity – Dayton Traction Company began to operate its line – Present Day Club organized – Young Women’s League organized.
1896-Manual-training school opened – Population, about 80,000 – Sixty-four passenger trains daily – April 1, Centennial celebration begun.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
BLACK, ALEXANDER. Story of Ohio. Boston. 1888.
BROWN, ASHLEY, History of Dayton in the History of Montgomery County, Ohio. Chicago. 1882.
CURWEN, MASKELL E. A Sketch of the History of Dayton. 1850.
HOWE, HENRY. Historical Collections of Ohio. 1847. – The Same. Revised and enlarged. 2 vols. Columbus. 1889.
KING, RUFUS. History of Ohio. Boston. 1888.
STEELE, ROBERT W. Historical Sketch of the Dayton Schools. - Historical Sketch of the Woodland Cemetery Association. 1875.
STEELE, ROBERT W., AND STEELE, MARY DAVIES. Early Dayton. 300 pp., 12mo. Dayton, Ohio: W. J. Shuey, United Brethren Publishing House. 1896.
STEELE, ROBERT W., WOOLRIDGE J., AND OTHERS. History of Dayton, Ohio. 728 pp., quarto. Dayton, Ohio: W. J. Shuey, United Brethren Publishing House. 1889.
VAN CLEVE, BENJAMIN. Memoranda. MS.
VAN CLEVE, JOHN W. Brief History of the Settlement of the Town of Dayton. Published in Journal of Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio, page 73.
Note.-For a more complete bibliography see Catalogue of the Dayton Public Library.
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