Posted February 3, 200817 yr Manufacturing started early in Dayton, but it started small. This will look at some of the very early mill development, mostly prior to the canal era. We know that the re-founder of Dayton, Daniel Cooper, was from New Jersey. What’s more relevant was that he and some later settlers recruited by him, were from the Passaic Valley. If one is familiar with US industrial history one knows that an early attempt at water-powered manufacturing was at the Great Falls of the Passaic, by the Society for Useful Manufactures (SUM). Were Cooper and his fellow Jersey pioneers aware of the doings of SUM at the Great Falls? And did this inspire a tendency to look to manufacturing as a possibility for the young Dayton settlement? Absent correspondence and diaries we will never know. We do know that Cooper and his estate and heirs retained water rights within the original preemption grant, the original town of Dayton, and retaining these rights when selling property. And there was that toast “…to manufactures, may our exports be greater than our imports” at an early holiday festival. Seems this was on the mind of the early settlers. This thread will take a look at the early attempts and manufacturing, and then the evolution of this early mill district to today. Dayton and Trade on Western Waters First, a series of diagrams showing Dayton’s relationship to the outside world in the early days. Inspired by the diagrams in Meinigs’ “The Shaping of America”, they show how Dayton trade connections and hinterland and outside world evolved during the frontier era, particularly trade on the “western waters”, the US inland river system. The early frontier era. The later frontier era. Trade connections are being established between Cincinnati and its hinterland, which includes Dayton. Dayton establishes itself as a node in a “downstream” bulk trade system connected to New Orleans, and as an administrative center for an early Ohio county. The canal results in Cincinnati displacing New Orleans as the terminal point for bulk trade, but Dayton’s role as a sub-node is also reinforced. Extension of trade relationships deeper inland via freighter wagon line to Fort Wayne. Competition results in improved frequency and speed in travel between Cincinnati and Dayton Canal extension to Lake Erie: two-way trading system, but Dayton has established a trade hinterland, and has started to manufacture for the Cincinnati market as well as for ag hinterland This keelboat/flatboat/freighter wagon era was also the era of the commissioning and forwarding business, with Dayton merchants acting as middlemen between local farmers and the outside economy, with trading connections to Philadelphia and apparently New Orleans. The outbound bulk trade was seasonal, with goods stored in Dayton (in a warehouse at Wilkinson and the river) until the spring rise. Then a small fleet of boats and rafts would go downstream to New Orleans. This business continued during the canal era. But manufacturing- at a small scale- started during this era too. Perhaps some of the capital for these first starts came from the mercantile/middleman business? Evolution of the Canal/Waterpower System Next a set of diagrammatic maps showing the original natural setting (as much as I can tell), the town plat, and then the arrival and extension of the canal, with the concurrent evolution of the hydraulics, finishing with a flow diagram of the canals and hydraulics as a system.. The natural and aboriginal setting The hydrology of flooding impacts Dayton’s floodplain geography, with relevance to future canal and waterpower siting (note this diagram reflects a mid-sized flood) The original plat (later replatted) takes advantage of the “high ground” in the floodplain. Trade routes and mills develop Canal follows the floodway/slough to the east of the town Canal extended north Early waterpower developed off the canal Later waterpower, relocation of the Mad River, and extension of the canal to form a loop. The last waterpower A diagram of the waterpower system and the canal flow in the city. The Mills of Daniel Cooper The first mill in Dayton was a tub mill from the 1790s (Patterson & Monument). This was replaced by a mill built by Daniel Cooper in the very early 1800s. Cooper used the fast-flowing waters of the Mad River for the first mill in Dayton, roughly at the head of Patterson Boulevard & Monument. This mill burned in 1820 and was rebuilt. A fulling and carding mill were also built, then a saw mill near the mill pond. The result was a cluster of mills and a system of mill races and a mill pond to supply water. We’ll call this complex “Cooper’s Race” for convenience. A legal case describes the machinery of these early mills, before the canal was built: “ .a.merchant mill with three runs of stones, a waste wheel to drive two to four grindstones, a fulling mill with two water wheels driving two sets of fulling hammers, a carding machine , with one water wheel, driving two carding machines and one wool picker. A cotton factory, number of spindles not known, and a saw mill with two saws”. Incidentally, a fulling hammer works like this…it required a cam wheel to convert circular to up-and-down motion. Also, a pix of an old carding machine (don’t know if this is what they used in Dayton) During the War of 1812 Cooper used soldiers camped at Dayton to dig a mill race along a slight rise to a new sawmill at what is now 5th and Wyandotte. After running the waterwheel the water was discharged into a natural depression, either a slough, gully, or floodway, to flow into the Great Miami near Fairground Hill. The original saw mill on Cooper’s Race was converted into a “chopping mill”, also called “turning lathes”. Incidentally, since Dayton was a military rendezvous point for the Canadian campaign local merchants made quite a bit of money provisioning the troops. In the period prior to the canal a nail factory was set up on the Cooper’s Race. Presumably iron stock was brought up via keelboat or freighter wagon and cut into nails via some sort of water powered machinery. Here is a maps of the mill complex in the 1820s In 1824 “Washington Cotton Factory” was established, which apparently included a machine shop A foundry was established on Coopers Race around 1828. Accounts say that this was established primarily to provide castings for cotton machinery, but one can assume job work too. These were not the only industry to come to Dayton prior to the canal. Little workshops are mentioned scattered about the town. Canal Era The Miami & Erie canal was routed into Dayton following the natural low spot just east of the original town plat. This route was already being used as the tailrace for the Cooper sawmill on 5th. The canal terminated at a basin opposite the common between 3rd & 2nd, and was extended by a private company up to 1st Street. The area between 3rd and 1st became the port of Dayton, drawing business houses and inns eastward from Main. This is why 3rd and 2nd had rows of old stores and such, why “downtown” was oriented more to the east in the 19th century. After the basin was extended additional industry developed. One was the Miami Cotton Factory(1830), which was located on a race running from the Cooper millrace to the canal basin (hence Race Street, the alley behind Canal Street Tavern and Southern Belle). This mill had around 1,000 spindles, employed 20 hands, expanding to 60 later in the 1830. Production started started at 60,000 lbs/year of yarn but expanded to 175,000 lbs /year. About half was exported to Cincinnati during the first year. The mill also and also had a machine shop attached, which apparently produced goods for export (one year it exported $8,000 worth of parts to S America)($150K in today’s money). The shop employed 30-45 hands, and had an annual sales of $40K to $50K. In the early days of textile manufacturing machine shops were attached to the plants to make mill machines and spare parts. In New England these became independent operations, like the Sacco-Lowell Shops. Ultimately there were 4 cotton mills in Dayton. One wonders if the pre-canal trade relationships with New Orleans (access to cotton) played a roll in this industry coming to Dayton, or if they were just copying New England. Note that the first cotton mill here, in 1824, was built during the era of trade connections to the South, predating the canal. Early accounts also mention a brass foundry in this vicinity. So one is starting to see some facility in metalworking and machinery, even if it s at a small scale. Though the cotton mills closed, perhaps the machine shop workers stayed and were available for other work, forming the “human capital” for subsequent early metalworking industry? With the construction of the canal the Washington Cotton Mill relocated to the site of the lock on 5th Street (1833), though early maps still show a “Machine Shop” on the Cooper Race in 1839 . This new mill employed 16 hands, had about 500 spindles and produced 1500 lbs of yarn per week. The machine shop associated with this mill employed 10 hands, and diversified into ag implements (threshing machines, horse-powers). Cooper’s Race around 1838-39 Apparently the water supply at Cooper’s Race declined in reliability due to the canal tapping the Mad River as a water source. The canal was a more reliable source and the fall at Lock 21 would provide the energy, so races and a hydraulic canal was located at this site around 1837. Cooper’s Race eventually was abandoned. The area between 3rd and 6th Streets became the new concentration of waterpower industry The Start of Webster Station The Cooper Estate apparently owned the land east of the canal and north of 3rd. The estate did some early platting in the 1830s. These would be some of the first plats beyond the original town plat In the 1840s the Estate initiated a large scale land development scheme. The old Cooper Race was filled in and the Mad River relocated northward. The “Basin Extension Canal” was built, looping around and extending east to join the main stem of the Miami & Erie Canal. A levee was built along the Miami and Mad rivers. This rearranged landscape was then subdivided, known today as Webster Station. Note how this extension uses pretty much the same block pattern of the 1830s plats. This plat also included a market square between Sears and Taylor streets. A late view of the Basin Extension Canal, filled with weeds (bridge is Taylor Street. Location is at Tech Town). Considering that this was all done by hand, an impressive feat. The remnant of the old mill race and pond are traced in the plat books and gave us “Pond Street”, though there is nothing else surviving. Its also fascinating to think that there is this ghost landscape under the streets and blocks of Webster Station. The headrace to the sawmill at 5th & Wyandotte can also traced as a break in lot lines in the plat books. This area remained somewhat industrial as the first railroad into Dayton (1850) entered along a lane just north of 2nd, with the first station probably at the Canal. The railroad also built a round house in this area The right of way and station is now the entry to 5th/3rd Field. Subsequent rail lines from the east and north entered the city in this area, and located their freight houses here. Exploring the Head of the Basin Looking at some early imagery, the Wharton view from the 1830s is one of the very earliest depictions of Dayton. showing the end of the canal in the 1830s. Correlating the Wharton view with the Van Cleve map of 1838-9 On can see some of the locations of the early mills, including the ones on the Cooper Race in the background. And the Miami Cotton Mill and perhaps and early foundry. What’s interesting is one of the early Cooper mills is visible in the background, either the flour or the fulling mill. The gambrel shaped roof building directly in front of the canal might be this one from an early city directory, which gives the location (and note the castings in front). An enlargement, and some sketches (from another source) of early cupola furnaces. The one on the bottom was already known in the US by the very early 1800s. So perhaps this foundry used this type of furnace” This gambrel roof building appears on a late 19th century photograph of the site, correlated to a Sanborn map (image courtesy of Dayton History) Apparently a survivor from the early days of Dayton, I am not able to positively ID it in the early days, though it was used a soda & ginger ale plant and later as a patent medicine factory in the later 19th century.. Perhaps it was yet another foundry, given the directory image. The head of the basin in the 19th century The head of the basin today The block on Canal Street has changed quite a bit. What’s here now is not what was here in the 1830s. The Canal Street Tavern and Southern Belle buildings. Probably built during the 1870s, replacing antebellum structures. Originally a tobacco warehouse (CST) and cigar factory. (Southern Belle). Two of the older buildings left in the center city. The oldest on Canal is the Chambers Warehouse of the 1850s. This is a most historic building as it’s the last survivor of the canal trade in Dayton. Chambers was a commission and forwarding merchant, a middleman between farmers and outside markets. He apparently owned some canal boats, too. The building was roughly on the site of the old Miami Cotton Factory. (image courtesy of David Neuhardt) A close up. One can see foundry castings and barrels, perhaps hogsheads of tobacco for the cigar works down the street? Yet another view. What’s neat here is one can see a very early canal era building, circled at the far left. The head of the basin in 1866, after a flood, looking south. As one can see the Chambers Warehouse is the only structure in this scene surviving into our time. This building should be land marked. Metalworking comes to the Head of the Basin Investigating the possible location of the first foundry. One would assume Foundry Street would tell the tale, and based on various accounts the foundry was in this vicinity. Also early accounts and memoirs talk of a foundry (maybe two) in this general vicinity. An old Sanborn also notes a building incorporated into the Brownell Boiler Works complex as the “old foundry”. Old city histories that feature Brownell note that the works incorporated a building from the first foundry. Comparing the Sanborn, Foundry Street, and the vicinity of mentions of a foundry. One wonders if the foundry used water power, perhaps to drive bellows for the cupola furnace or for a trip hammer? Here is a larger diagram of a cupola furnace, essentially a small blast furnace. It would have required some air blast. A brief look at the Brownell works and their products (1870s) as an example of later industrial development in this area. They made early “land locomotives” as well as stationary engines. . Brownell was founded 1855, starting in a building at Foundry & Cooper, and expanded at that location. Their later plant (1880s) on Finley Street is still standing. This was not the first metalworking plant in the vicinity as Pritz was on 1st near here in the 1840s and 50s, before relocating to the Cooper Hydraulic. Pritz located here to be close to a source of castings. There was also a pump factory here in the 1850s/40s. So already one sees some industrial clustering. Some Brownell products from the mid 1870s. The complex in the 1870s. The site today. Before 5th/3rd Field, and after Brownell relocated to Finley Street, Delco had a big loft factory at this location. Across the street old accounts mention the Swaynie House and its wagon yard. This was an inn favored by farmers when they brought produce and livestock into Dayton to trade and ship via canal. The Fort Wayne freighter wagon drivers also preferred this inn. Trails end. The Swaynie House was furnished with carpets woven in Dayton by an early carpet mill. There was a large wagon yard next door, which eventually became an industrial site for the Pinneo and Daniels wagon wheel plant. Here is the Swaynie House, Pinneo and Daniels to the left (built in the 1880s). The site today. Pinneo & Daniels and Swaynie House replaced by the Delco plant around WWI. An ariel of the head of the basin sometime in the 1920s, showing the basin extension canal. The birthplace of industrial Dayton looking appropriately dense & gritty. This image reminds me of the Ewan McCall song “Dirty Old Town”. The big industrial complex was the gasworks, which had a rare (for the US) brick gasometer on site, as well as the usual metal ones. (to the north was a chair factory, I think) The retorts were housed in this shed building, making gas from coal. The site today. The gasworks was razed to construct an art-moderne Sears store in the 1930s. Sears closed in the very early 1990s, was demolished, and replaced by this office building and parking garage Finally, this old machine works, facing Cooper Park. One can see the Chambers warehouse in the background. The site today. By the 1930s the canal was gone and Delco was expanding around the head of the basin. Delco located here in 1912, and kept expanding, taking over old industrial sites, and usually tearing them down (one can just see the old Pineo & Daniels plant in the pix) This was the first GM plant in Dayton to sign a union contract. Delco also owned Canal Street Tavern, Chambers Warehouse, and Southern Belle. Fortunately these were not demolished! So, next time you are at Canal Street Tavern or 5th3rd Field or the streets around, you’re at ground zero of the dawn of industrial and commercial development in Dayton. A site rich in historic significance, and one that still has some of the visual cues that say “industrial Midwest”. Playing around with the concept of this locale as a specific “District”, “Head of the Basin”, “Canal District”, “Delco District”, whatever. Conceiving of a dance/music event/Commfest-politix thing as an urban- gritty block party in the compact Race Street and adjoining parking, with an aftershow at nearby bars. (I'll be following up with threads on waterpower at the Cooper Hydraulic/Oregon Race & Front Street, plus a few plant-specific things from the "age of steam")
February 3, 200817 yr Fantastic thread, as usual. "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
February 3, 200817 yr very nice history of dayton's high potential neighborhood. seems like it's morphing yet again toward residential live/work.
February 3, 200817 yr This one took quite a bit of time..it was tedious to research. I was really interested in the manufacuring linkages and this precocious interest in spinning cotton, leading to the spinoffs in foundries and machine shops.
February 3, 200817 yr Wonderful tour through time! It would have been fascinating to have lived during the canal era; all that infrastructure and manufacturing technology would have been amazing to see.
February 4, 200817 yr Thanks Rob...it looks like some of the very first machine shops in the city were here, which makes one wonder what kind of machine tools they had. I see thay had 'turning laths' at one site, but perhaps to turn wood. And what would an early water-powered nail cutter look like? Lots of industrial archeology questions! And also some environmental history questions too, as to the orginal topography. Even with a mill pond and headraces there doesn't seem to have been much fall, so one wonders what wheels they used..perhaps undershot? I also have to say, of the last pix, that old Delco plant was just massive! The last part of it, built in 1946, could well have been the last multistory loft factory in Dayton.
February 4, 200817 yr Jeffrey, Metal-turning lathes would have to go back to the early nineteenth century, and possibly before. I've never looked into that. In order to build any sort of sophisticated machines from castings and forgings, like steam engines and the machines that worked in large grist and flour mills and textile mills, lathes would have been essential. In the 1960s I worked in a small machine shop in Bluffton, Indiana, that did mostly sub-contract work for local manufacturers. Our machinery was whatever the cheapskate boss could scrounge up, and some of it was worn out or in poor condition. Next door was an ancient shop dating to the 1800s that had once included a foundry. It was a half-block-long timber-framed building with a lantern roof, no heat, and a dirt floor in it. The steam engine that once drove all the machinery via overhead line shafts still sat in a room off to one side, unused for many years, but many of the machines, dating to the 1800s, were still driven from the shaft that had been divided into sections driven by old-old electric motors. I think the man who owned the place was almost as old as the building and equipment. Sometimes we'd get a piece of work too big to handle on our machines, and we'd take it next door and use Abe's facilities. I recall one very large casting that I took over there to work it down to where we could handle it in our shop. There was this beast of a lathe that still ran from the overhead shaft. On modern machines the lead screw that's used for thread-cutting is driven by gears that can be changed to cut screw threads of varying pitches, most often with a lever or two and a change-gear box. This relic had pulleys and flat leather belts to drive the lead screw, and instead of change gears there was a stack of different-sized pulleys that could be swapped out. I scraped around in the hundred-year accumulation of grease and dirt on the frame and uncovered a brass plate that said, "Pond Machinery Co. Pat'd 1860." Even as a twenty-something, I was a technology history geek who wished for time travel. That day was about as good as it gets. I doubt if undershot wheels provided very much power unless the flow velocity was pretty high. Another possibility would be breast wheels, where the water strikes the wheel partway up the face; breast wheels are configured with a bucket-like periphery much like overshot wheels, except that they face the opposite direction. Turbines came into use around the Civil War, or possibly as early as the 1850s. They were popular in areas that didn't have the cascading water needed for overshot wheels, and could work with as little as three feet of head. They produced several times more power from a given flow of water than a wheel could.
February 4, 200817 yr The wheel at Metamora, Indiana is an undershot wheel and probably dates to the 1860's, when the Whitewater Canal towpath was made into a railroad grade. The railroad continued to sell water power and the wheel was installed directly in a lock. The wheel continues to operate as a tourist attraction.
February 5, 200817 yr The wheel at Metamora, Indiana is an undershot wheel and probably dates to the 1860's, when the Whitewater Canal towpath was made into a railroad grade. The railroad continued to sell water power and the wheel was installed directly in a lock. The wheel continues to operate as a tourist attraction. It could be an undershot wheel, I guess, but in this photo (1977) it looks more like a breast wheel. From the spillover behind the wheel it looks like the water strikes it just about the axle or a little below. I'd guess that if the gate were fully opened, the water would strike the wheel just about axle level or slightly above. The present grist mill was built in 1930 to replaced an earlier flour mill that burned. The flour mill used turbines with eight feet of fall. That would have produced a pretty ferocious amount of power for its time. The appearance of the milling equipment gives away the comparatively recent date of construction for a stone grist mill. I haven't been back to Metamora since 1979. That might make a nice Sunday drive this summer; it's only about two or three hours away.
February 8, 200817 yr Great job, will send you maps from Island Park Bridge down to Washington Street Bridge, 1916. With any luck, they may prove of some use for you and us. Thanks for the read...
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