and pianos, and whisky distilleries. In the city is the Speers Memorial hospital. Dayton was settled and incorporated in 1849.
DAYTON, a city and the county-seat of Montgomery county,
Ohio, U.S.A., at the confluence of Wolf Creek, Stillwater river
and Mad river with the Great Miami, 57 m. N.N.E. of Cincinnati
and about 70 m. W.S.W. of Columbus. Pop. (1890) 61,220;
(1900) 85,333; (1910) 116,577. In 1900 there were 10,053
foreign-born and 3387 negroes; of the foreign-born 6820 were
Germans and 1253 Irish. Dayton is served by the Erie,
the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis, the Pittsburg,
Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis, the Cincinnati, Hamilton &
Dayton, and the Dayton & Union railways, by ten interurban
electric railways, centring here, and by the Miami & Erie Canal.
The city extends more than 5 m. from E. to W., and 312 m. from
N. to S., lies for the most part on level ground at an elevation of
about 740 ft. above sea-level, and numerous good, hard gravel
roads radiate from it in all directions through the surrounding
country, a fertile farming region which abounds in limestone, used
in the construction of public and private buildings. Among the
more prominent buildings are the court-house—the portion first
erected being designed after the Parthenon—the Steele high
school, St Mary’s college, Notre Dame academy, the Memorial
Building, the Arcade Building, Reibold Building, the Algonquin
Hotel, the post office, the public library (containing about 75,000
volumes), the Young Men’s Christian Association building and
several churches. At Dayton are the Union Biblical seminary,
a theological school of the United Brethren in Christ, and the
publishing house of the same denomination. By an agreement
made in 1907 the school of theology of Ursinus College (Collegeville,
Pennsylvania; the theological school since 1898 had been
in Philadelphia) and the Heidelberg Theological seminary
(Tiffin, Ohio) united to form the Central Theological seminary of
the German Reformed Church, which was established in Dayton
in 1908. The boulevard and park along the river add attractiveness
to the city. Among the charitable institutions are the Dayton
state hospital (for the insane), the Miami Valley and the St
Elizabeth hospitals, the Christian Deaconess, the Widows’ and the
Children’s homes, and the Door of Hope (for homeless girls);
and 1 m. W. of the city is the central branch of the National
Home for disabled volunteer soldiers, with its beautifully
ornamented grounds, about 1 sq. m. in extent. The Mad river is
made to furnish good water-power by means of a hydraulic canal
which takes its water through the city, and Dayton’s manufactures
are extensive and varied, the establishments of the
National Cash Register Company employing in 1907 about 4000
wage-earners. This company is widely known for its “welfare
work” on behalf of its operatives. Baths, lunch-rooms, rest-rooms,
clubs, lectures, schools and kindergartens have been
supplied, and the company has also cultivated domestic pride
by offering prizes for the best-kept gardens, &c. From April
to July 1901 there was a strike in the already thoroughly unionized
factories; complaint was made of the hectoring of union
men by a certain foreman, the use in toilet-rooms of towels
laundered in non-union shops (the company replied by allowing
the men to supply towels themselves), the use on doors of springs
not union-made (these were removed by the company), and
especially the discharge of four men whom the company refused
to reinstate. The company was victorious in the strike, and the
factory became an “open shop.” In addition to cash registers,
the city’s manufactured products include agricultural implements,
clay-working machinery, cotton-seed and linseed oil machinery,
filters, turbines, railway cars (the large Barney-Smith car works
employed 1800 men in 1905), carriages and wagons, sewing-machines
(the Davis Sewing Machine Co.), automobiles, clothing,
flour, malt liquors, paper, furniture, tobacco and soap. The total
value of the manufactured product, under the “factory system,”
was $31,015,293 in 1900 and $39,596,773 in 1905. Dayton’s
site was purchased in 1795 from John Cleves Symmes by a party
of Revolutionary soldiers, and it was laid out as a town in 1796
by Israel Ludlow (one of the owners), by whom it was named in
honour of Jonathan Dayton (1760–1824), a soldier in the War of
Independence, a member of Congress from New Jersey in 1791–1799,
and a United States senator in 1799–1805. It was made
the county-seat in 1803, was incorporated as a town in 1805,
grew rapidly after the opening of the canal in 1828, and in 1841
was chartered as a city.
DEACON (Gr. διάκονος, minister, servant), the name given to a particular minister or officer of the Christian Church. The
status and functions of the office have varied in different ages and in different branches of Christendom.
(a) The Ancient Church.—The office of deacon is almost as old as Christianity itself, though it is impossible to fix the moment at which it came into existence. Tradition connects its origin with the appointment of “the Seven” recorded in Acts vi. This connexion, however, is questioned by a large and increasing number of modern scholars, on the ground that “the Seven” are not called deacons in the New Testament and do not seem to have been identified with them till the time of Irenaeus (A.D. 180). The first definite reference to the diaconate occurs in St Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians (i. 1), where the officers of the Church are described as “bishops and deacons”—though it is not unlikely that earlier allusions are to be found in 1 Cor. xii. 28 and Romans xii. 7. In the pastoral epistles the office seems to have become a permanent institution of the Church, and special qualifications are laid down for those who hold it (1 Tim. iii. 8). By the time of Ignatius (A.D. 110) the “three orders” of the ministry were definitely established, the deacon being the lowest of the three and subordinate to the bishop and the presbyters. The inclusion of deacons in the “three orders” which were regarded as essential to the existence of a true Church sharply distinguished them from the lower ranks of the ministry, and gave them a status and position of importance in the ancient Church.
The functions attaching to the office varied at different times. In the apostolic age the duties of deacons were naturally vague and undefined. They were “helpers” or “servants” of the Church in a general way and served in any capacity that was required of them. With the growth of the episcopate, however, the deacons became the immediate ministers of the bishop. Their duties included the supervision of Church property, the management of Church finances, the visitation of the sick, the distribution of alms and the care of widows and orphans. They were also required to watch over the souls of the flock and report to the bishop the cases of those who had sinned or were in need of spiritual help. “You deacons,” says the Apostolical Constitutions (4th century), “ought to keep watch over all who need watching or are in distress, and let the bishop know.” With the growth of hospitals and other charitable institutions, however, the functions of deacons became considerably curtailed. The social work of the Church was transferred to others, and little by little the deacons sank in importance until at last they came to be regarded merely as subordinate officers of public worship, a position which they hold in the Roman Church to-day, where their duties are confined to such acts as the following:—censing the officiating priest and the choir, laying the corporal on the altar, handing the paten or cup to the priest, receiving from him the pyx and giving it to the subdeacon, putting the mitre on the archbishop’s head (when he is present) and laying his pall upon the altar.
(b) The Church of England.—The traditionary position of the diaconate as one of the “three orders” is here maintained. Deacons may conduct any of the ordinary services in the church, but are not permitted to pronounce the absolution or consecrate the elements for the Eucharist. In practice the office has become a stepping-stone to the priesthood, the deacon corresponding to the licentiate in the Presbyterian Church. Candidates for the office must have attained the age of twenty-three and must satisfy the bishop with regard to their intellectual, moral and spiritual fitness. The functions of the office are defined in the Ordinal—“to assist the priest in divine service and specially when he ministereth the Holy Communion, to read Holy Scriptures and Homilies in the church, to instruct the youth in the catechism, to baptize in the absence of the priest, to preach if he be admitted thereto by the bishop, and furthermore to search
