Transcription contributed by Martie Callihan 12 December 2004

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Of the industries of Lebanon during the first few years of its existence, when it was a little village in the woods, little is known. They could not have been numerous or important. Isaiah Morris, of Wilmington, Ohio, is authority for the statement that John Huston was the first merchant of the town. In the spring of 1803, Huston descended the Ohio with a small stock of goods in a flat-boat, and landed at Columbia, where he opened a small store. After remaining there a few months, he came to the new town of Lebanon and opened a store in a room of the tavern known as the Black Horse, kept by Ephraim Hathaway. Isaiah Morris was a nephew of Huston, and the clerk in this the first store in Lebanon. He had descended the Ohio in company with his uncle. Mr. Morris afterward, in 1811, moved from Lebanon to Wilmington, cutting a road through the woods, and, in connection with William Ferguson, established the first store in Wilmington. The store of Huston in Lebanon was not long continued, as the proprietor died soon after its establishment, leaving his clerk in destitute circumstances.

There is no record of any licenses granted to merchants in Lebanon until 1805. In that year, we find that licenses were granted to Lawson & Taylor, Daniel F. Reeder and William Ferguson. Among the other names which appear on the license record prior to 1810 are Joseph James, William Lowry,

In 1810, the following business establishments were advertised in the oldest copies of a Lebanon newspaper in existence:

Robert B. Coles and Silas Hurin, under the firm name of Coles & Co., manufacturers of boots and shoes. This partnership was dissolved in 1815, and the business was carried on by Coles.
Jacob Clark, manufacturer of mill-wheels, chairs, brushes, washing machines, etc.
William Lowry & Co., dealers in groceries, notions, etc.
Moore & Wilds, cabinet-makers.
James & Joseph Moore, dealers in goods and whisky.
William Ferguson, groceries, etc.
Daniel Cushing, manufacturer of black salts, advertised that he would pay the highest price, in salts, cotton or cash, for good ashes.
Lebanon Manufacturing Company, carding, spinning of wool, weaving the same, and manufacture of broadcloth.
Dr. Joseph Canby, new apothecary shop.
B. & Alexander Crawford, general store.
Barzilla Clark, cabinet-maker.

The miscellaneous, character of the early stores will appear from the following advertisement in the Western Star in 1810:

NEW STORE.

The subscribers have just opened a new store in the town of Lebanon, in the house formerly occupied by Daniel Roe, Esq. Their assortment is extensive and complete, consisting in part of the following :
Dry Goods, Groceries, Ironmongery, Cutlery, Stationery, Medicines, Queen's and Glasswares, Tin-ware Assorted, Dorsey's Iron, Castings assorted, Paints and Oils, American Blister Steel, German Crowley, do. Salt, Cotton, etc.
All the above goods will be sold on very reasonable terms for cash or good merchantable wheat, at fifty cents per bushel.
Also good rye whisky will be taken in exchange for goods at forty cents per gallon.

EBENEZER VOWELL & Co.

After the war of 1812, the business of the town began to increase. Manufactories of various kinds were established, and the town floated buoyantly on the waves of prosperity. She could boast of woolen-mills, a cotton factory, nail factories, cabinet factories, copper manufactory, printing-press manufactory, tobacco manufactory, and other smaller but important branches of manufactures.

William Russell's woolen-mill was an important feature of the manufacturing interests of the town. There were a number of tanneries in the town and vicinity.

On the 4th of July, 1823, Nathaniel McLean, in an oration delivered at a celebration in Lebanon, referred to the recently established home manufactories. In addressing "the Daughters of Columbia," he said: "We witness every day the evidences of our independence in the workmanship of your hands. How many manufactories have recently been established, and produce a sufficient supply of articles for home consumption, for which, a few years ago, we were indebted to an Eastern market Let your town be a witness on this subject" An explanatory note by the editor of the Lebanon Star, in which the address was printed, is as follows: "For, the information of our distant readers, we would remark that the orator here alludes to the number of straw bonnet and hat manufactories recently established in this place, some of which manufacture those articles of a superior quality, and in sufficient quantities to supply the market There are exceeding thirty females engaged in that business in this town."