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& Indianapolis Railroads. The first house completed in Union City, Ind., is that now owned by Dr. Yergin, opposite the Eagle office. In this structure a saloon was kept, whose baneful influence was attested by the simultaneous discharge of seventeen employes of the railroad shortly after its doors were thrown open. Soon after this, a dry-goods and two grocery stores and a saloon were erected and opened to patronage on the Ohio side. During the years 1853-54, six stores and a number of groceries were opened on the Indiana side. Then a number of saloons were opened, and so apparent were the ill effects of these institutions that a war against them was commenced and kept up until the evil traffic was abolished. From that time until now, not a saloon has had existence on the Indiana side, but there are now (1880) thirteen on the Ohio side.

Growth continued; large mercantile and manufacturing establishments located here; banks were chartered; hotels built and thrown open to the public; telegraph and expres s offices were opened. Public interest centered on turnpikes and turned to the erection of water-works. These last were finished in 1874, and from a well of 20 feet depth 800 gallons of water are furnished per minute. and conveyed by means of two powerful engines and pipes throughout the city for domestic and manufacturing use. Add to these the potential influence of the schools, the press and the churches, and an idea of the factors of progress used in the development of this city may be realized. The first school was opened by Miss May Ensminger in her father's house on Howard street during the fall of 1853. The first public school was held in the winter of 1853-54, in a Bee-Line boarding-car. The first Methodist class here organized was in the spring of 1852. The first meeting-house was erected during 1858-59, and, in November, 1858, the Christian denomination formed a society. A church had been commenced five years earlier, but was not finished till this time. The First Presbyterian Church was organized under the direction of the Presbytery of Miami by Rev. Isaac A. Ogden, Presbyterian missionary, at the house of Martin Cox, Washington Township, on November 8, 1836. St. Mary's Catholic Church was organized in 1854. The first German Evangelical Lutheran Church was formed by Thomas Lacker in 1857. The primary meeting for the organization of the Universalist Church was held January 19, 1860.

Three Masonic, three Odd Fellows, one Rebecca, one Knights of Pythias and one Red Men's Lodges, Young Men's Christian Association, literary, musical, building and other associations, fire department, etc., are of sufficient importance to warrant notice preparatory to an historic sketch of the Ohio side; if indeed, not essential to give increased interest to the subject. Union City, Ohio, was incorporated under the laws of the State in 1853. The petition was presented to the County Commissioners and filed in the office of the Auditor of Darke County, September 4, of the year named, and it was heard and allowed December 6. It was filed for record January 5, 1854, and recorded on the 23d following. The certified copy now in the Mayor's office bears date May 13, 1854, and the following are the petitioners' names: S. P. McMillan, B. W. Evans, George W. Inman. E. H. Turpen, Josiah Mongar, David Fruits, F. M. Katsenbarger, John Mathis. James Allen, F. Stahl, N. D. Farrell, H. S. Weinland, J. I. Wolf, R. B. McKee, I. S. Woodbury, Reuben Weinland, John Haas, Z. Brownley, G. R. Dewey, William B. Fields, Courtney Hays, R. N. Stevens, I. D. Carter, J. J. Turpen, R. G. Miller, J. W. Shiveley, J. E. Paxton, A. Adair, S. C. Miller and William B. Woodbury.

The original plat was made by Josiah Mongar in 1853. Mongar owned forty acres now at the center of the corporation on both sides of the railroad. He donated ten acres to the Bee Line as grounds for shops, switches, warehouses, etc., and also erected a saw-mill about the same time, opposite where the brewery now stands, that is, on the corner of Division street and the railroad. The next addition of about ten acres, in the same year, was made by John Haas, soon after which Brownley made an addition. Then Jerry Smith and his brother Oliver, now of Indianapolis, added ten acres. The Fowler Additions, first and second,

and several others, including the recent one by Mr. Archard, completes the series up to 1880.

The following view of Union City, Ohio, written in 1876, by Alfred Lenox, then and now the oldest living resident, and published in the Times, is appropriate

here:

"This portion of the city was incorporated in 1853. The population now numbers about fifteen hundred. There is here a substantial school-building, and the Christians have a commodious frame house for worship. The manufactory of slack-barrels, staves and headings employs from twenty to thirty hands, and affords a market for a vast quantity of timber, which has heretofore been nearly valueless except for fuel. A planing-mill and manufactory, in connection with a lumber-yard, employs from twelve to fifteen hands. There is a furniture factory, with a running force of several hands (about fifteen), and a hub, spoke and chair factory, having about an equal force of employes. All of these industries employ steam to propel their machinery. Besides these, there are two steam saw-mills, a steam flouring-mill with four runs of buhrs, and a furniture manufactory, giving employment to five or six hands. There are, also, five firms engaged in making brick, doing an extensive business in that line, and there is one large tile manufactory. Besides the usual proportion of smaller mercantile and mechanical establishments, there are saloons, billiard rooms and an ale manufactory." We learn that "this portion of the city contains a number of private residences, all the principal streets are well graded and graveled, and all turnpikes leading into the city are free to the public." The history of the mechanical and mercantile interests of the Ohio side, for several years from the first and from the era of small beginnings to the later day of more extensive efforts, is briefly expressed in the following paragraphs. Only those who have attempted similar work can fully understand the labor essential to these statements.

The first blacksmith-shop was established by F. Roe, in 1853, at the south end of Division street, then in a strip of woods. In the same year, a shoe-shop was carried on by Lewis Willarime between the Bee-Line Railroad and where Elm street now is. A cooper-shop was established and run by P. R. Galloway, in 1855, for a period of eight months. It was located at the corner of Division street and the railroad. The next blacksmith-shop was carried on by Woodbury & Hulse, also on Division street. A shingle-manufacturing machine was set up by David Fruits, in the northeast part of town, during 1853, and was operated till 1855. The next project realized was a saw-mill, built near Division street, on the west side, near the railroad, by Henry Weinland, with one sash-saw. Then, S. P. McMillan and Thomas Workman set to work and erected a steam flouring-mill, having four runs of buhrs, three-stoned, and having a "hip roof." This mill is still running and does good work. The present proprietor is Thomas McFeeley; capacity is one hundred barrels in twenty-four hours. The machinery is run by double engines of forty horse-power. The initial dry goods and grocery store was that of Morgan & Carter, opposite the flouring-mill built in 1853. Messrs. Brown and Archard opened a wholesale grocery and liquor store in 1856. The next year, P. R. Galloway ran the largest hoop-pole establishment, at the time, in the State of Ohio. It was located by the switch, near the flouring-mill. Shipments for the winters of 1858 and 1859 amounted to over four hundred car loads. Joseph Turpen, in 1855, started a store on the Deerfield road, and, two years prior to this, a little bakery had been opened by Katzenbarger & Stahl, and M. B. Dickey had engaged in tailoring in a shop opposite the flouring-mill.

MANUFACTURES OF UNION CITY.

In a brief recapitulation of the business interests of the city in the past, it is well to recur in contrast to the present as illustrative of permanence and progress in these all-important auxiliaries to the prosperity of a municipality. We set out

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and go not far till we reach the grain warehouse of G. Lambert & Son, on the west side of Division street, south of the Dayton & Union Railroad. The first part of this structure was raised in 1870; it is a two-story frame, 40x24 feet, built by Henry Stoner. There were two cribs adjoining, one being 100x10 feet, the other 20x40. In the spring of 1877, Stoner sold to the present firm, by whom extensive additions have been made. The building and machinery, including a thirty-horse power engine, are estimated at $6,500. The grain handled averages about a quarter-million bushels for the year. Next, is the brick factory of Jacob Snook, together with a tile factory and neck-yoke and single-tree works-each end of Elm street. The wood-works consist of two parts-a brick engine and boiler house, and a framed structure for the lathes, etc. The former was built in the summer of 1879; the latter was completed in January, 1880. The first is 30x80 feet, and 130,000 brick were required to cemplete the walls and encase the engine and boiler house. The cost of the structure was about $6,000. The brick factory has been turning out 10,000 per day regularly. The two establishments are located upon grounds containing five acres. The tile factory has for its site five town lots, situated just west of the other works, but within the corporation. The two kilns produce about $6,000 worth of tile in a season, and have been in operation since 1872. George Haas has a large brick kiln about one-fourth of a mile east of town, which he has operated yearly for some time. The Union City Slack Barrel Stave and Heading Works were built, in 1870, by Hugh Wiggins & Son, of Dayton, Ohio. The main building is 30x60 feet. There are seven sheds, whose aggregate length is 1,200 feet, and there are two dry-houses. The cost, including machinery, was some $6,000. The works have been run irregularly for the last five or six years. Amos Wiggins, the junior partner, died in November, 1879. Latterly, the works have been repaired and put in order for running at their full capacity. They are capable of turning out 20,000 staves and 8,000 to 10,000 headings per day. E. H. Kimes has been foreman since the origin of the enterprise. In 1860, Witham & Brother erected a building for the manufacture of clamp-screws, broom handles, trunk slats, handles, and general turning. It was 40x25 feet, two stories, and stood east of State Line street and south of the Dayton & Union Railroad. This structure was destroyed by fire, and early in the spring of 1874 a new building was put up, which consists of two parts, one being 40x80 feet, with an addition 20x50 feet, and the other, 30x60 feet. This building and business belongs to S. L. Carter and George L. Carter. The former is an old resident, who lived in Mississinawa before its organization into a township; the lat ter is superintendent. The annual product of this mill is about five hundred dozen clamps, fifty thousand broom handles, over two million trunk slats, and a like number of trunk handles. A saw-mill is in active operation the year round, for their exclusive use. The lumber is dried by a new patent hot-air process. invented by the proprietors. The establishment is worth about $10,000, and the manufactured stock amounts to about $25,000 a year. An eighty-horsepower engine is now building by the Smith Brothers, Union City, to replace the one now in use, which has been found too weak to drive all the machinery. Eighteen to twenty hands are employed, and the average running time for the last two years has been fifteen hours. The furniture factory of John Koontz was built in 1876. It is 30x50 feet, two stories, with an addition. On the northwest corner of Wall and Walnut streets stands J. T. Hartzell's saw-mill, built in December, 1878. It is run constantly, the motive power being a forty-horse-power engine.

William J. and Charles S. Hook, under the firm name of Hook Bros., commenced the manufacture of butter tubs and pails at Cardington. Morrow County, in 1868. Suitable timber becoming scarce in that locality, after looking the country over, they decided to remove to Union City. Ind., and did so November, 1877. Some months later, they decided to locate their factory on the Ohio side, and, in 1879, built the present works.

The building is a frame, 68x96 feet, and has three stories. It is situated on two acres of land, belonging to the Bee Line Railroad, on Elm street. The building and structure, including, also, the stock, cost $10,000. The works are now running at full capacity, mostly day and night, and average 100.000 packages, assorted sizes, per annum. Thirty to thirty-five hands are employed. A considerable share of the stock they work up is furnished from a saw-mill owned and run by them in Versailles, Wayne Township. Their business amounts to about $30,000 a year. The power is supplied by a very neat, compact steam engine, seventy-five horse-power, made at the works of Smith Bros. Their location at this point was the happy conjunction of large quantities of suitable timber and excellent shipping facilities. When it was learned that the proprietors contemplated removal to the Ohio side, a purse of $600 was subscribed by the citizens of the west side to induce them to remain, but they declined, while they appreciated the compliment conferred. The works are a model of machinery and management, and employes are promptly paid each Saturday night.

The senior proprietor In 1867, he erected a capacity of the rooms There are eight or nine

Meanck & Son are proprietors of a furniture factory. came into Darke County in 1863, from Estell County, Ky. two-story building, 20x40 feet, and, in 1875, doubled the by an addition equal in size to the original structure. hands employed. Furniture in general is here manufactured.

McKee & Robison are engaged in the manufacture of paper bags. They established themselves at this point March 6, 1880, and have been running from five to eight hands on grocery bags, and in connection carry on a trade in old iron and rags. Their present location is in the "Orr Building."

A hardwood lumber-yard was opened by Messrs. Jones & Benner in September, 1879. January 1, 1880, Mr. Ebert became a partner. Shipments are made to various points in this and adjoining counties.

These, the active business enterprises of the day, will soon pass into the history of the past, and in future it will be an easy task to learn from a brief perusal of these pages whence and by whom the early prosperity of Union City was achieved. A city, to prosper, needs a favorable site, good communications with the outer world and citizens of wealth, intelligence and energy, and in these essentials, fully enjoyed, the rapid growth of the town has been found.

The first Justice of the Peace on the Ohio side was Silas P. McMillan. He was succeeded by David French. Mr. McMillan was also the first Mayor. Anecdotes are current of his peculiar methods of transacting official business. On one occasion he was engaged in a game at cards, when the Marshal brought in a prisoner. His Honor requested them to "be seated until the game was over," saying that "if I quit now, I will be stuck for the game," and the parties sat down and waited the conclusion of the play, when the case received requisite attention.

The Squire, as well as Mayor, on another occasion, sat in a case wherein two citizens were engaged as counsel. The prisoner had been arrested for petit larceny. The evidence was overwhelming, and his counsel taking him into an adjoining room, raised the window and counseled him to go, and he hastened to depart. The announcement of his escape was followed by prompt pursuit, but terror added wings to the fugitive's feet, and he safely crossed the State line. The "Court

was more amused than offended, and joined heartily in the laugh which followed upon the announcement of the culprit's escape.

Esquire Livergood was also one of the first Mayors and Justices of the Peace. In 1854-55, and again in 1857-58, ordinances were drafted, but lost or destroyed by interested parties, before they were adopted. Such, too, was the fate of all other records of council proceedings. Just prior to the late war, William A. Orr was elected Mayor and took the oath of office, but learning that there were no ordinances in existence to guide him in the discharge of his duties, and that there were no records of council proceedings, he refused to serve. New ordinances were drafted and under consideration, but the outburst of war prevented their

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passage, by decimating the council, so that no progress to speak of was made, beyond the mere fact of the incorporation, until 1865, when the ordinances needed were drafted, adopted and published.

The first school after the incorporation was taught in a room on the third floor of the large building on the corner of Sycamore street and the railroad. Later, a two-story frame schoolhouse was erected on the lot whereon the present brick building stands. The old schoolhouse was replaced in 1870 by the present commodious structure, which, in its turn, is becoming too small to accommodate the ever increasing attendance.

There are two small, neat frame buildings, located near each other, on Elm street-the one is used as a township house, the other as the city hall. The one which stands farther to the east, was built in 1877, by J. S. Johnson. The Township Clerk's office is in one room of this building, and the law office of O. A. Baker occupies the west end. The other building has also two rooms-one used by the Mayor and Village Clerk as their office, and the other as the office of C. J. Prickett.

The following are the present township officers: Trustees, D. W. Sigler; Jacob Beery and George Dennison; Justices of the Peace, Joseph Eichelbarger and William M. Grimes; Constables, Jacob Beery, Jr., and W. R. Gard; Assessors, James B. Creviston and James Eichelbarger; Clerk, J. McMahan, and Appraiser, Solomon Young.

We name, also, the present village officers: Mayor, William M. Grimes; Clerk, James McMahan; Treasurer, H. S. Stocksdale; Marshal, W. R. Gard, and Councilmen J. J. Norris, James Purcell, James Spanagle, J. Eldridge. Jacob Thomas and Edward Hanhman.

The two named are the only lawyers in Union City. There is one physician, a resident of three years, and there has never been a post office in Jackson Township. It would be pleasant could we have known from experience the gradual changes which evolved farm, hamlet and city, from the demands of production, commerce and manufacture, but the foregoing vividly contrasts with the savagery prevalent less than thirty years before, and illustrates the civilizing power of the railway in its course across States as well as counties, and in its bead-like stations along its route.

BROWN TOWNSHIP.

Brown Township was constituted in December, 1833, being taken from Richland, and was bounded as follows: Beginning at the northwest corner of Township 13 north, Range 2 east, thence southward to the township line; thence east to the east line of Section 35; thence north to the township line, and west to the place of beginning. Subsequently those parts of Townships 14 and 15, which lay directly north, and of equal width to this were added, but, in 1839, were laid off into a new township called Allen.

In length, Brown is six miles north and south, and in width, five miles. Much of the land was originally entered in quarter-section tracts, the law then requiring one-third down and the balance in installments. Subsequently, a "forfeiture" of eighty acres was allowed, that is, the half of the entry could be relinquished and the money that had been paid on the whole could be applied to pay for the part. A later law permitting the entry of forty acres, caused great rejoicing among the poorer classes of movers, and a rush of settlers came swarming into this part of the State.

Not all these lands were purchased directly from the Government. A grant had been made to the Miami and Erie Canal, and the company sent appraisers into this section to value the lands according to location, quality, etc., which gave the range from $1 to $2.50 per acre. Land now within the corporate limits of Dallas was sold at $1 an acre, which would bring at this day $100, and is held at $125.

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