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1823 – 1834
The town's first businesses were kept by men the record mostly knows by a licence or a single account: William Suttenfield held one of the first tavern licences — the Barr-and-Columbia marker dates the Suttenfield Tavern 1823. Alexander Ewing received his tavern licence on 10 August 1824 and kept Washington Hall, built after the Ewing family's arrival in 1822; his sons' firm, the House of Ewing, is the Business section's. Zenas Henderson opened a general store about 1828 and afterwards kept Henderson's hotel. John B. Bourie's trading house stood across Columbia Street from Henderson's by 1830, in business as Bourie & Peltier. Absalom Holcomb and Isaac Marquis opened their tannery a year after the 1827 gristmill, the town's first leather works. David Coles's sawmill on the Maumee was in existence by 14 June 1834. None of these men holds a profile in the People sections — several of their firms carry cards there and in Business — and for most of them the founding act is nearly the whole of the documented record.
Sources:
- Businesses — the Suttenfield, Washington Hall, Henderson, Bourie & Peltier, Holcomb & Marquis and Coles entries (licence dates, the marker inscription, the 1834 mill date from Roy M. Bates's study of Allen County water-powered mills).
- Notable People — firm cards for Henderson's store, the Holcomb & Marquis tannery and the Coles mill, cross-referenced and not retold here.