DAYTON: "THE CITY OF A THOUSAND FACTORIES"
SURVIVOR OF SIX FLOODS--ESTABLISHED BY REVOLUTIONARY
SOLDIERS--PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS--OTHER OF DAYTON'S FEATURES OF
INTEREST--A CITY OF CIVIC PRIDE--"A THOUSAND FACTORIES"--ITS
SUCCESS.
Dayton has stood in the shadow of disaster from flood ever since its
foundation. No less than six times previous to the present inundation
have the rivers which flow through it left their accustomed courses and
brought death and destruction of property upon the town. The first of
these floods occurred in 1805, the very year that Dayton was
incorporated as a town. The sixth was in 1898 and the others in the
years 1847, 1863, 1866 and 1886.
The site of the present city was purchased in 1795 by a group of
Revolutionary soldiers and laid out as a town in the following year by
one of them, who named it after Jonathan Dayton, a Jerseyman who had
fought in the Revolution and who later served in Congress and the United
States Senate. It became the county seat of Montgomery County in 1803
and received its city charter in 1841, something more than a score of
years after the opening of the Miami Canal gave a boom to its growth and
prosperity.
[Illustration: Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.
Crowds at the end of one of the streets which was turned into a racing
river. Many persons floating down on the debris were rescued by willing
hands as they neared this point]
[Illustration: Copyright by George Grantham Bain.
Even before the flood reached its height, the wood-working department of
the National Cash Register Factory was busily putting together
improvised boats that were afterwards of great value in rescuing
marooned residents from their flooded homes]
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Within the city limits the waters of Wolf Creek, Stillwater and Mad
Rivers unite with those of the great Miami. The latter stream flows
through the city from north to south. As it reaches the corporation
limits at the north it sweeps to the westward and is joined by
Stillwater River a mile and a half from the court house. Then it takes
an easterly course for half a mile and is joined by the Mad River at a
point about half a mile from the court house.
The river then bends again to the west for more than half a mile and is
joined by Wolf Creek. Its course lies thereafter to the southeast. Great
bridges, some of them of great architectural beauty, cross all of these
streams. The Miami Canal takes water from the Mad River about two miles
northeast of the court house, runs parallel with the Mad River to its
confluence with the Miami and then runs southward to the city limits.
The city is regularly laid out, the street and house number plan being
arranged with arithmetical exactness. Main Street is the center of this
system and the house numbers begin from it or the point nearest it on
the streets that run east or west. For the streets running north and
south the house numbers begin on Third Street or the point nearest Third
Street. Main and Third Streets are respectively the dividing lines of
all streets crossing them.
SPLENDID PUBLIC BUILDINGS
The court house stands at Main and West Third Streets. Distances are
measured from it, and it is at the center of the scheme according to
which streets are laid out. Its original portion was modeled after the
Greek Parthenon and is built of rough white marble taken from quarries
in the vicinity. It is only one of the many buildings of which the city
is proud. Among others are the Steele High School, St. Mary's College,
Notre Dame Academy, Memorial Building, Arcade Building, Reibold
Building, post office, Algonquin Hotel, public library and the Y. M. C.
A. building.
There is also the Union Biblical Seminary and a publishing house
connected therewith. The Central Theological Seminary was established in
1908. Among charitable institutions are the Dayton State Hospital for
the Insane, Miami Valley and St. Elizabeth hospitals, the Christian
Deaconess', Widows' and Children's homes and the Door of Hope, a home
for girls. Just outside the city is the central branch of the National
Home for Disabled Soldiers. In addition to these buildings there are a
number of very handsome churches.
OTHER OF DAYTON'S FEATURES OF INTEREST
Dayton is on the Erie, the Dayton and Union and the Pittsburgh,
Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroads. There are one hundred and
twenty-five trains entering the city daily. The Union Station was opened
to the public in July, 1900, and cost, including tracks, $900,000. The
city has an area of ten and three-quarter square miles.
The Mayor, Treasurer, Auditor, Solicitor, and Board of Public Service,
of three members, are elected by popular election. The Board of Public
Safety, of two members, and the Board of Health, are appointed by the
Mayor and confirmed by Council. The City Council, composed of thirteen
members from ten wards, is elected by popular vote, for two years, each
member receiving an annual salary of $250. It is a legislative body
only.
The supply of water for the city is almost inexhaustible in quantity and
of absolute purity. In 1904 there were one hundred and thirty-three
miles of street mains, 1,300 fire hydrants and 15,503 service taps. The
Fire Department has a force of ninety men, fourteen engine-houses, fifty
horses maintained at a cost of $86,728.48, and with property worth
$375,000. A complete system of surface and underground sewerage, both
storm and sanitary, is provided. In 1904 there were sixty-seven and
nine-tenths miles of storm sewerage.
There are seven National Banks and two Savings and Trust Companies.
Dayton takes rank as foremost in building associations of any city of
its size in the country. A large number of the 20,000 or more homes in
the city have been built with the aid of these associations.
A potent force in the development of the city has been the electric
traction lines, of which Dayton has more than any other city in Ohio.
There are nine lines, with a total mileage of three hundred and
eighty-five miles, which radiate in all directions through the populous
and rich country of which Dayton forms the center. The city railway
lines, three in number, have a total mileage of nearly one hundred miles
and render excellent service.
The Dayton public school system has for many years enjoyed the
reputation of being one of the best school systems in the West.
Dayton had the first library incorporated in the state, one having been
established in 1805. The Public Library was opened in 1855 and is
supported by public taxation, having an income of $18,000 per annum.
There are five daily newspapers, each with weekly editions, besides
seventeen church and other publications. There are also three large
church publication houses.
The city hospitals include the St. Elizabeth Hospital, the Miami Valley
Hospital, and the Protestant Hospital, which has a large central
building known as the Frank Patterson Memorial of Operative Surgery, one
of the most complete buildings for its purpose in the United States. The
Dayton State Hospital for the Insane is maintained by the state. The
Hospital of the National Military Home which adjoins the city is the
largest military hospital in the world and has an average of 600
patients, all of whom are veteran volunteer soldiers of the Civil and
Cuban Wars.
A CITY OF CIVIC PRIDE
Dayton was early imbued with the spirit of civic pride and the results
are seen in a system of drives and parks. The streets are well built and
numerous good hard gravel roads radiate into the surrounding country, a
fertile farming region which abounds in limestone. The levee along the
Miami is made of hard gravel and is wide enough at the top to form a
foundation for a drive.
"A THOUSAND FACTORIES"
Dayton is sometimes known as "the City of a Thousand Factories," and
some of its varied industries are known throughout the world. Leading
these is, of course, the National Cash Register Company, which employs
something more than 7,000 men.
In addition to cash registers there are manufactured agricultural
machinery, clay-working machinery, cottonseed and linseed oil machinery,
railway cars, carriages and wagons, automobiles, flying machines, sewing
machines, paper, furniture, soap and tobacco. Almost every industrial
product finds a maker in this town. Barnum & Smith are the well known
manufacturers of street cars. There is the Davis Sewing Machine Company,
the Speedwell Automobile Company and many others. Water-power in
abundance is supplied from the Mad River.
Dayton is the fifth largest city in Ohio. The final abstract of the
Federal census for 1910 placed the population at 116,577, as compared
with 85,333 in 1900 and 61,220 in 1890.
With its industries so diversified, its banks and building associations
so strong and uniformly successful, and with its people so well
educated, it is one of the richest and most prosperous communities in
the Union.