DAYTON. A city and county-seat of Mont gomery County, Ohio, in the fertile valley of the Miami, on the east bank of the Great Miami River. at its junction with Mad River: 67 miles west by south of Columbus, and 60 miles north by east of Cincinnati (Map: Ohio, B 6). It is on the Miami and Erie Canal, which connects the Ohio 'River with Lake Erie, while among its railroads are the Erie: the Dayton and Union; the Dayton, Lebanon and Cincinnati; the Cin cinnati, Hamilton and Dayton: the Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago and Saint Louis; and the Cleveland, Cincinnati. Chicago and Saint Louis.
The city is regularly laid out with wide streets, is approached by numerous macadamized turnpikes. and has several notable buildings. among which are the court-house, modeled after the Parthenon, with an annex of large dimen sions. the Steele High School, the Dayton State Hospital, Deaconess Hospital, and Saint Eliza beth's hospital. Dayton has a public library, of about 37,000 volumes, and numerous educa tional institutions. both public and private. There are also a handsome soldier;' monnment, Library Park, and the Boulevard, a tine avenue and park, gained from the river. In the suburbs, two miles west of the city, is the National tary Ilome for Disabled Volunteers of the Civil War, having 640 acres of beautiful grounds. with large buildings, and accommodating about 1000 inmates.
The manufacturing industry, which is exten sive and important, is facilitated by canals, which afford abundant water-power. Manufac tured articles include cash-registers. computing scales, electrical machinery, agricultural imple ments, sewing-ma•hines, bicycles, tobacco. paper, railway-cars, stoves, cotton and woolen goods, soap, carriages, beer, oil, dour, etc. The lime stone and marble quarries of the vicinity employ a considerable number of men, the products being in demand, both in domestic markets and in other cities I if the State.
The government. is administered by a mayor, chosen biennially, and a unicameral council, with departments as follows: Tax commission and board of elections, appointed by the mayor; board of city affairs, board of health, and work house board, nominated by the mayor. with consent of the council ; fire board and board of equalization. elected by the council; infirmary board, water-works hoard. appointed by the tax commission. The annual income and expendi tures of the city amount to about $1.620,000 and $1,690.000. respectively; the main items of expense being $40.000 for the operation of the water-works, $50,000 for street $70,000 for the police department, $75,000 for the fire department. and $285.000 for schools.
Population, 1850, 10.977 : 1870, 30.473 ; 1890, 61,220; 1900, 85,332, including 10.100 per sons of foreign birth and 3400 of negro descent.
On the site of Dayton, George Rogers Clark in 1782. and Colonel Logan in 1780, fought suc cessful skirmishes with the Indians. In 1795 Colonel Ludlow and Generals Saint Clair, Dayton, and Wilkinson, bought the land of the natives, and in the following year a company of nineteen from Cincinnati made the first settlement. In 1805 Dayton (so named in honor of Gen. Jona than Dayton) was incorporated as :i town, and in 1841 was chartered as a city. There were destructive floods in 1805. 1847, 1866, 1863, 1880, and in 1S9S, and in 1849 there was a disastrous epidemic of cholera. During the llarrison cam paign of 1340 a notable meeting of Whigs was held here. Consult Steele and Houk, history of Dayton (Dayton, 1889).