Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Dayton

DAYTON, a city of the United States, the capital of Montgomery county, Ohio, situated on the east bank of the Great Miami, which is there joined by the Mad, 46 miles north of Cincinnati, and 135 miles south of Toledo. The Miami canal, which connects the Ohio river with Lake Erie, passes by the town; and this means of communication, along with that of the railroads which converge here from different points, has contributed greatly to the prosperity of the place. The city is very regularly laid out, and the houses and public edifices are better than in many other western cities, partly owing to the comparatively moderate price of the white limestone, or marble, which abounds in its neighbourhood. The principal public buildings are the county court-house designed after the Parthenon at Athens, and erected at a cost of about £30,000 and the market-house, containing within its walls a city hall and the council chamber. There are, besides numerous churches, a high school, and the Cooper Academy, belonging to the Presbyterian body, for the instruction of females. Of charitable institutions the orphan asylum, the alms-house, and a lunatic asylum may be mentioned; and in the vicinity there is the Central National Soldiers Home. A considerable manufacturing industry is carried on, which is facilitated by a copious supply of water conveyed from the Mad. There are several machine shops, arid works for the manufacture of agricultural implements, railway carriages, paper, cotton, &c. The place, which was first settled in 1796, was incorporated as a town in 1805, and as a city in 1841. Population in 1850, 10,977; in 1860, 20,081; and in 1870,30,473.