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Gc 977.102 C49cnc 1634274
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REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02481 0886
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016
https://archive.org/details/sketchesstatisti00cist_0
CINCINNATI.
ـمالصـ
1
-
SKETCHES AND STATISTICS
OF
CINCINNATI IN 1859
BY CHARLES CIST.
مشامكـ
3.
1634274
PREFACE.
Ix examining the present volume, it will not escape notice that many subjects comprehended in the preceding issues of 1841 and 1851 are either only briefly referred to, or entirely left out. My reasons for this, I trust, will be as satisfactory to my readers as they were conclusive on myself. I shall state them in as few words as possible.
In all publications of this nature, containing so wide a range and great amount of subjects and details, there will always be a de- mand for greater space than exists in the limits of an ordinary vol- ume. The difficulty is not in gathering, but in excluding materi- als. In this instance, the amount to be shut out was greater than usual, because I had decided to embody in the volume a narrative of the carly history of Cincinnati, extending through the first six years of its existence. A large share of the facts and incidents it embraces were drifting into oblivion, and i knew no other, cer- tainly no readier, mode of placing them on record in permanent form than this. As one hundred and fifty pages have been taken up with this department alone, it is natural to suppose it has been done at the expense of crowding out other, perhaps equally appro- priate subjects. To remedy as far as possible such neglect, I have added forty-eight pages to the volume, without increasing its price.
Another motive for excluding certain subjects was to be found in the fact, that many of them had already been given to the pub- lic, and I was unwilling, except for special reasons, to dwell a sec- ond time on the same theme. Especially was this the case in the departments of a permanent or unchanging character, such as magnetism, medical topography, geology and meteorology, which had been fully presented in my previous issues. Nor was it ne- Cessary to travel over the entire educational and commercial inter- ests of Cincinnati, when the first has so recently, as well as com- prehensively, been given to the public by John P. Foote, in his ". S. hools of Cincinnati," a work which has left me nothing to sup- ply ; and the second periodically and fully illustrated by William
( iii )
1V
PREFACE.
Smith, with ability and fidelity, in his " Cincinnati Price Current." It would surely have been unjust to tax my readers anew for in- formation to be obtained from these and other sources, including my former volumes, which at the same time were casy of access to recent settlers here, the only class of readers likely to need the information they supply. :
Besides my indebtedness to individuals, acknowledged in the articles themselves, I owe to the manufacturing columns of the Cincinnati Gazette many interesting facts and notices, of which in the appropriate department I have availed myself. These extracts have been made, in most instances, at the request of the individu- als whose business operations they relate to.
The opinions I have held for thirty-five years past, and repeatedly expressed, that Cincinnati is destined to become one of the most important cities in the United States, in business, population and wealth, are not now considered so visionary as numbers once deemed them to be. In the light of the vast improvements in growth of manufactures and of buildings, for the past five years, we may read what the ensuing twenty will do for this city, The author of nature has done more for this city than for any other in the Republic. If man does his share, Cincinnati will have no rival surpassing her anywhere. If this prediction fails, it will be my first that has not come to pass, even in my lifetime.
CINCINNATI, June 1, 1859.
TABLE OF SUBJECTS.
I. EARLY ANNALS 9
II. PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS -- Site-Climate-Time Table .... 159
III. PERSONAL STATISTICS-Population-Nativities 161
IV. PUBLIC AUTHORITIES-Courts of Judicature -- Legislative and Ex- ecutive Departments. 167
V. EDUCATION-Primary Schools -- Funds-Organization -- Buildings --- Course of Studies -- High and Intermediate Schools --- Statistics of Teach- ers and Scholars-Parochial Schools -- Frivate Schools and Acadervies --- Wesleyan Female College-Cincinnati Female Seminary-Mt. Aubrin. Young Ladies' Institute --- Herron's Seminary --- Cincinnati English and Classical School-Cincinnati College-Law Department-St. Xavier's College-Medical College of Ohio-Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery --- Eclectic Medical Institute-Newton's Clinical Institute -Eclectic College of Medicine -. Physio-Medical College of Ohio -- Ohio College of Dental Surgery-Bartlett's Commercial College. .... 172
VI. SOCIAL STATISTICS-Churches and Religious Societies-Sabbath Schools-Dwelling Houses and Stores. 192
VII. THE FINE ARTS-Painters-Sculptors-Picture Gallery. 200
VIII. SCIENCE AND LITERATURE-Cincinnati Observatory-Cincinnati Horticultural Society-Young Men's Mercantile Library Association- Ohio Mechanics' Institute-Periodicals 206
IX. MONETARY-Fire, Marine and Life Insurance Foreign Agencies -- and Bankers-Savings Banks -- General Agency, Emigrant and Remit- tance Office 216
X. TRANSPORTATION AND TRAVEL, NATURAL AND ARTI- FICIAL ROUTES-Little Miami Railroad-Ohio and Mississippi Railroad-Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad. 250
XI. SUBURBS-College Hill-Glendale. 23
( ٧ )
vi
TABLE OF SUBJECTS.
XII. MANUFACTURES AND INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS -- Table of Value and Hands Employed, per centage of Raw Material. 240
XIII. COMMERCE-Trade with the Country-Dry Goods, Groceries, Crock- ery, Boots and Shoes, Hardware-Wool 346
XIV. PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS .- Cincinnati Water Works-Spring Grove Cemetery-Public Buildings-Gas Light and Coke Co .- Fire De- partment -- Protestant University-American Patent Co. 349
XV. MISCELLANEOUS. -- Recent and Prospective City Improvements --- Grape Culture in Vineyards-Salt -- Sewing Machines -- Hotels-Oys- ters-Coal 358
10
EARLY ANNALS.
unite in the enterprise, relying probably on his official influence to effect the purchase. Mr. Symmes decided on seeing the country before entering into any contract, and on his return completed the arrangement in his own name. The tract thus purchased was sup- posed to contain one million acres of land upon the Ohio, and ly- ing between the Miamis. On actual survey, however, this extent was reduced to less than six hundred thousand acres. Of this pur- chase ten thousand acres at the mouth of the Little Miami were shortly after sold by the patentee to Mr. Stites, and in January, 1788, Matthias Denman, of Springfield, Essex county, New Jersey, pur- chased of John Cleves Symmes, among other tracts of land in the Miami region, the entire section No. 18, and the fractional section No. 17, which connects it with the river Ohio. These belonged to the fourth fractional townships of the first fractional range on the Ohio river. As the Miami country had not yet been surveyed, the description of the tract purchased simply specified, that it should be located as nearly as possible opposite the mouth of the Licking river, and when the surveys had been completed, section 18 and fractional section 17 were accepted as the contents and boundaries contemplated by the conveyance.
On actual survey, the tract was found to comprehend seven hun- dred and forty acres ; and constitutes that part of the present city which lies north and south between Liberty street and the river Ohio, and east and west, between a line from a point where the Leb- anon road intersects Liberty street to the Ohio river, one hundred feet below Broadway, and a parallel line from the intersection of Liberty street with Western Row, which strikes the river just below Smith street landing. This territory will square 1, miles, and comprehends less than one sixth of the present area of Cincinnati. It has been repeatedly asserted in print that the purchase cost forty-nine dollars, only, but the sum actually paid for it was almost five hundred dollars ; the price being five shillings -- sixty-six and two-third cts. per acre.
Denman's design, in making this purchase, was to form a station, lay out a town opposite the mouth of Licking river, and establish a ferry at this point. This last object, undoubtedly, was the most important of the three, although the fact would be incomprehensi- ble to the present inhabitants of Cincinnati.
The old Indian war-path from the British garrison, at Detroit, crossed the Ohio at this point, which was also the usual avenue by
L
11
EARLY ANNALS.
which the savages on the northern side of the Ohio, approached the Kentucky stations.
In the course of the ensuing summer, Col. Robert Patterson, a gallant soldier in the Indian wars of that period, and John Filson, both of Lexington, Kentucky, became associated with Denman in the enterprise. Filson, who was a school-master and surveyor by profession, was needed in the latter capacity, to survey and lay off the proposed town into in and out-lots ; and the high personal chat - acter of Col. Patterson would naturally give popularity to the project.
Filson proposed as the name of the future Cincinnati, Losanti- ville, a pedantic compound of Greek, Latin and French, intended to signify " the town opposite the mouth " of Licking.
The proprietors of the new enterprise, just before starting out, issued the following, which was published in the Kentucky Ga- zette, of that date :
NOTICE-The subscribers being proprietors of a tract of land opposite the mouth of Licking river, on the northwest of the Ohio, have determined to lay off a town upon that excellent situation. The local and natural advantages speak its future prosperity; being equal if not superior to any on the bank of the Ohio river, between the Miamis. The in-lots to be each half an acre, and the out-lots four acres. Thirty of each to be given settlers, upon paying one dollar and fifty cents for survey and deed of each lot. The 15th day of September is appointed for a large company to meet at Lexington, and make out a road from there to the mouth of Lick. ing, provided Judge Symmes arrives, being daily expected. When the town is laid off, lots will be given to such as may become resi- dents, before the first of April next.
: Lexington, Ky., Sept. 6, 1788.
MATTHIAS DENMAN, ROBERT PATTERSON, JOHN FILSON.
In September, 1788, a large party, embracing Symmes, Stites, Denman, Patterson, Filson, Ludlow, with others, left Maysville --- then Limestone -- to visit the new Miami purchase. This company, consisting of nearly sixty men, landed at the mouth of the Great Miami, and explored the country for some distance back from that , point and North Bend. Symmes decided from the examination to locate himself and adherents at North Bend ; and the party return-
12
EARLY ANNALS.
ing measured the distance between the two Miamis, following the meanders of the Ohio, and then returned to Maysville. On this trip Filson became separated from his party while in the rear of North Bend, and was never more heard of, having, doubtless, been killed by the Indians, a fate of which he always seemed to have entertained a presentiment. Israel Ludlow, who had intended to act as surveyor to Symmes, now accepted Filson's interest, and assumed his duties in laying out the proposed town.
On the 17th of November, 1788, Benjamin Stites left Maysville with a party of twenty-six persons, mostly emigrants, from Browns- ville-then Redstone-Pennsylvania, and landing on the 18th, not far below the mouth of the Little Miami, where he had made a purchase of ten thousand acres of land from Symmes, commenced the settlement of a town which was named Columbia. Patterson, with a party of twenty-six persons, who had agreed to assemble at Maysville, followed on the 24th of December, the river Ohio being filled with drift ice, from shore to shore. No record has been kept of the day of their landing, although the 26th had been ouce or twice traditionally kept as its anniversary, upon no other grounds, apparently, than that two days ought to take a flat-boat down the Ohio sixty-five miles. But in the existing condition of the river, covered with drift ice, it must be obvious, that rothing reliable can be de- duced from such data.
In the trial of the chancery case, in 1807-City of Cincinnati vs. Joel Williams-the date of the landing was variously given. One of the witnesses says it was late in December, 1788. Patter- son and Ludlow state it to have been in January, 1789; while Wm. M'Millan is the only witness who gives the precise day. He testi- fies "that he was one of those who formed the settlement of Cincin- nati, on the 28th day of December, 1788." Mr. M'Millan was an in- telligent lawyer, and magistrate here for many years ; a man of scrupulously exact habits of business. I have no doubt that he has given us the proper date. Judge Burnet, whose professional business as a lawyer prompted him to ascertain the fact, assured me that he never entertained a doubt that this was the correct date. I have other evidence, which, while it does not determine the pre- cise day, abundantly satisfies me that December, 1788, was the true month and year in issue.
It is not a little remarkable, in this connection, that the date of the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, is involved in the same
13
EARLY ANNALS.
condition of conflicting testimony ; and Sherman, in his history of the United States, speaking of the Pilgrims, says, "On the tenth of November, they floated into a commodious bay, where they af- terward landed, and planted there a settlement and called it Ply- mouth, that being the name of the port from which they sailed in England, having touched there, in their voyage from Holland.". He then in a note adds, " Historians differ so as to the day in which they landed, that I have not named it in my text. Some say it was on the 17th of November ; others, on the 22d of December ; and others on the 31st of December. It is generally supposed to have been on the 22d of December." Of the precise spot where our Cincinnati founders landed, there is no such doubt. They fastened their boat in Yeatman's cove, being an inlet opposite Sycamore st., and named so from the late Griffin Yeatman, who resided for many years where that street intersects the public-landing.
The names of those who thus landed as settlers, were, beside those of Patterson and Ludlow, the proprietors, William M'Millan, Robert Caldwell, Thaddeus Bruen, William Connell, Francis Har- desty, Matthew Fowler, Isaac Tuttle, - Henry, Evan Shelby, Luther Kitchell, Elijah Martin, James Carpenter, John Vance, Sylvester White, Matthew Campbell, Samuel Mooney, Henry Lind- say, Joseph Thornton, Noah Badgely, Thomas Gissel, Joel Williams, Samuel Blackburn, Scott Traverse, and John Porter; in all twenty- six persons. Of these, the last fifteen named remained and drew lots among the thirty original grantees, to whom I shall presently . refer; of the residue, some preferred other employments to clear- ing and cultivating the soil. Tuttle, Henry, and, perhaps others, attached themselves to Symmes, in the enterprise at North Bend, which commenced a few weeks later.
The article of agreement entered into between the proprietors and the original settlers is in these terms:
"The conditions for settling the town of Losantiburg are as fol- lows, viz: that the first thirty in and out-lots of said town to as many of the most early adventurers shall be given by the proprie- tary, Messrs. Denman, Ludlow and Patterson, who for their part. do agree to make a deed or foe simple, clear of all charge and in- cumbrance, except the expense of surveying and deeding the same, so soon as Judge Symmes can obtain a deed from congress.
" The lot-holders, for their part, do agree to become actual set- tiers on the premises. They shall plant and attend two crops suc-
14
EARLY ANNALS.
cessively, and not less than an acre shall be cultivated for each crop. And within two years from the date hereof, each person who receives a donation lot or lots shall build a house equal to twenty-five feet square, one and a half stories high, with brick, stone or clay chimney-which house shall stand on the front of their respective lots, and shall be put in tenable repair, all within the term of two years.
"These requisitions shall be minutely complied with, on the pen- alty of forfeiture, unless it be found impracticable on account of savage depredations.
"The following is a list of in and out donation lots, as drawn at Losantiville, by lottery, January 7, 1789:"
Settlers.
No. of In-Lot. Out-Lot.
Samuel Blackburn
1 29
Sylvester White.
2 15
Joseph Thornton
3 28
Joho Vance
4
24
James Dumont
5
11
- Fulton
6 23
Elijah Martin
7 26
Isaac Vanmeter
8 18
Thomas Gissel.
9
17
David M'Clever.
26
6
Davidson
27
19
Matthew Campbell
28
8
James Monson.
29
14
James McConnell
30
5
Noah Badgely.
.31
22
James Carpenter
32
1
Samuel Mooney 33
14
James Campbell.
34
21
Isaac Freeman
51
29
Scott Traverse.
52
9
Benjamin Dumont
:53
25
Jesse Stewart
54
30
Henry Bechtle.
5€
16
Richard Stewart
57
12
Luther Kitchell
58
13
Ephraim Kibby
59
1
Henry Lindsay
76
7
John Porter. 77
2
Daniel Shoemaker
78
27
Joel Williams 79
3
15
EARLY ANNALS.
This agreement and list are taken from a memorandum made at the time and found among Colonel Patterson's papers by his heirs.
I have already given portions of this list as those who accompa- nied Colonel Patterson and Ludlow in the first landing at the place of settlement. Of the residue, Kibby and Shoemaker will be found among those who made the first settlement at Columbia with Stites' party, and the names, doubtless, of stragglers, who followed the first settlers, will complete the list.
The open space now constituting the public wharf, extending from Eastern Row, now Broadway, to Main street, was made a common or public ground forever, reserving the privilege to the proprietors of a ferry, within those limits.
The thirty in-lots embrace the entire blocks between Front and Second, from Main to Broadway; the block from Second to Third, between Broadway and Sycamore; and the eastern half of the block between Second and Third, and Main and Sycamore, except- ing the lot No. 55 on the town plat, at the N. W. corner of Second and Sycamore, which was injured in value by a portion of it being embraced in a swamp, which for years intersected Sycamore and Second, then Columbia street. These lots, facing or being contig- uous to the public landing, were naturally the most desirable lots, being then as much so for convenience as they now are for busi- ness purposes.
It may serve to show how slowly city property rose in value, that one-half of lot No. 76 was sold to J. & A. Hunt, on the 30th of September, 1796, at four dollars. This is the property on Front near Main street, now occupied by Luther F. Potter, and Traber & Aubery, which, if even stripped of its present improvements, would now sell for more than one thousand dollars per front foot, or fifty thousand dollars for the half lot.
I have not been able to learn the price at which the proprietors originally held the in and out-lots not comprehended in the thirty of each thus made a gratuity to the first thirty settlers. That it must have been a low figure may be readily inferred from the fact, that in payment of a balance, less than one hundred dollars, due by the proprietors to Ludlow for surveying fees, he preferred taking one hundred and twenty acres, seven miles from town, to four out-lots and an entire square, of which Pearl street is now 'the centre, worth now, as naked ground, more than two million dollars.
16
EARLY ANNALS.
The following diagram of one block, will serve to give an ides of the shape, size, and locality of the whole :
JOEL WILLIAMS. 79
JESSE STEWART. 54
D. SHOEMAKER. 78
BENJ. DUMONT. 53
MAIN.
SYCAMORE.
198
PORTER.
77
LINDSEY.
76
S. TRAVERSE.
52
I. FREEMAN.
51
.
99 ft.
99
LANDING.
The naked ground of the block thus made a gratuity to actual settlers, is now worth at least one and a-half million dollars, by which, I mean, that any portion of twenty-five feet front, by one hundred deep, if divested of its improvements, would sell for cash, at sheriff's sale, for an amount bearing the full proportion to that sum, which the ground in space bears to the entire square. The out-lots, each of which formed one of our present squares, all lay north of Seventh street.
There has been considerable dispute as to the fact, whether the town, as laid out by Ludlow, was actually called Losantiville. The article of agreement of the proprietors and settlers would seem to re- cognize another name than that of Cincinnati; but, on the other hand,. the absence of date and of other formalities in the paper, and the · entire ignorance in which to this day we remain as to the writer of
17
EARLY ANNALS.
the document, the carelessness which employs the name Losanti- burg in one place and Losantiville in another, forbid laying any great stress on what that agreement is supposed thus to prove. It is probable that the name, as a practical question, did not come up at this period-January 7, 1789, and that it was not until it became necessary to make out a regular plat of the whole town for record, that the name was affixed or decided on at all.
A letter in my possession from Dr. Daniel Drake has a stronger bearing on the question. It is as follows:
CINCINNATI, January 2, 1841.
DEAR SIR -- My brother informs me that you called last evening to inquire of me whether I have seen any authentic evidence that Cincinnati was originally named Losantiville. As I shall embark in the mail-packet this morning, at ten o'clock, for Louisville, you cannot have an opportunity of seeing me, and I, therefore, drop you a line, to say that I have in my possession more than twenty documentary evidences that such was the fact.
The name was invented by John Filson, one of the original pro- prietors, who intended to express by it, the town opposite the mouth of Licking river. He resided in Lexington, Ky., where the plan of the projected village was formed, and the name imposed in the month of August, 1788.
The settlement did not, however, commence till the 26th of the following December. From that time till the od of January, 1790-this day fifty-one years-the place bore the name of Losan- tiville and no other. It was then changed to Cincinnati by Gov- ernor St. Clair.
Your friend and servant,
CHARLES CIST.
DAN. DRAKE.
I must be permitted to remark that, while I consider Dr. Drake's statement of the "more than twenty documentary ovidences" explicit and reliable, I do not regard it as conclusive, because the writer evidently had not time or motive to examine it in the light of the difficulty I had presented to him, and which he had perhaps never heard of before. Ile probably had letters, for I have seen such of the early dates of Cincinnati addressed to Losantiville, but it is obvious that such proof would not determine the fact. The name first designed having originated at Lexington would be widely known there, and letters thence would naturally bear the intended name of the place; and, indeed, where a name is once given, ofii-
18
EARLY ANNALS.
cially or by custom, it is apt to adhere, long after it has become changed by law or otherwise. Thus Maysville and Brownsville were known as Limestone and Redstone, and called nothing else, long after they had borne their present names in print. Washing- ton, Pennsylvania, was called Catfishtown for many years, although only a sobriquet or nickname, and it will be many years before our north-western section of Cincinnati ceases to be known by any other title than Texas, although a mere flash name.
To these testimonies and to the popular notion that the place was given its present name by General St. Clair, on the 2d January, 1790, I have to oppose the testimony, among others, of Jacob Fow- ler and Samuel Newell, highly intelligent men and old settlers --- Fowler having supplied the garrison at Fort Washington with buf- falo meat, from its establishment up to St. Clair's arrival and after- ward. They both aver that from their carliest knowledge of it they never heard it called Losantiville; and Fowler, who was as clear- headed in his recollections of the past as any man I have ever known, stated to me explicitly that he never heard it called by any other name than that of Cincinnati.
The communication of Judge Burnet, which follows, in my judg- ment, is testimony which cannot be disputed and argument which must be conclusive :
CINCINNATI, October 5, 1844.
DEAR SIR-At the close of a conversation which passed between us a few weeks since, respecting the original plan and name of the place, which is now familiarly called the Queen City of the West, you requested me to furnish you with such reminiscences in relation to that subject as my early residence in the West might enable me to give.
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