Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 1, Part 2

Author: Greve, Charles Theodore, b. 1863. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1020

USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 1 > Part 2

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OFFICIALS. APPENDIX A.

1039 Elections for Mayor -- Officers of the Town and of the City-Some Federal Officials-City Officers in 1904.

APPENDIX B.

WEATHER BUREAU (S. S. Bassler). 1044

Climatological Data -- Ready Reference Sheet.

3 1833 0240 1 VOT

Centennial History of Cincinnati

CHAPTER I.

CINCINNATI.

DESCRIPTION-ANNEXATIONS-THE GEOLOGY AND TOPOGRAPHY OF CINCINNATI.

DESCRIPTION.

Cincinnati, the chief city of the Ohio Valley, is situated on the north bank of the river Ohio in Hamilton County which is the extreme south- western county of the State of Ohio. The city extends along the banks of the river covering about the middle third of the distance between the east and west limits of the county. It is midway by river between the cities of Pitts- burg and Cairo, being approximately four hun- (red and eighty miles from the former and five hundred and fifty miles from the latter. It lies in latitude 39° 6' 30" north and in longitude 84° 24' west.

With relation to other large cities, it may be said that it is approximately seven hundred and forty-four miles from New York, six hun- dred and ten miles from Washington and about three hundred miles from Chicago and St. Louis. In its own State the nearest large cities are Columbus about one hundred and ten miles north and Cleveland two hundred and fifty miles north.

The city lies almost directly opposite the mouth of the Licking River, which fact was apparently the determining point as to its original location. It is the center of a region, extending about two hundred miles in every direction, which for fer- tility and natural beauty of the simpler type is unsurpassed in the world. The Miami Valley of which it is the central point has been com-

pared in fertility to the basin of the Nile and the accounts of the early settlers indicate that they believed that they had at last reached the land of promise.

The city proper, by which is meant that por- tion mainly occupied for business purposes, lies on two narrow plateaus which are surrounded on the northeast, north and northiwest by high hills easy however of access by modern methods of transportation. On these hills are built the beautiful suburbs which have made the naine of Cincinnati famous as a residential city throughout the world. The altitude above sea level of the business portion of the city averages about five hundred feet and the highest hills about are almost four hundred feet higher. The low water mark in the Ohio River is 432 feet above the sea and the altitude of Mount Harrison just north of Price Hill is 460 feet higher. The alti- tude of Mount Auburn at the corner of Welling- ton place and Auburn avenue, which is about mid- way between the eastern and western limits of the city and in the lower third of the line be- tween the northern and southern limits of the city at that meridian point, is 459 feet above low water.

At the time of the settlement, the country was traversed by many small streams which found their way .directly into the Ohio or into its two principal tributaries Mill creek and Deer creek

CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF CINCINNATI

at the west and east end of the city respectively. These two last named streams are spoken of as possessing great beauty and to the former was given the poetic name of "Mahketewah." The beauty that inspired the immortal pen of Will- iam D. Gallagher to write the " Spotted Fawn," whose scene is " On Mahketewah's flowery marge," has long since disappeared, at least with- in the city limits, and the sentiments felt by the present observer are more properly .expressed by Lewis Cist's "The Spotted Frog," in which the same scene is mentioned as " On muddy Millcreek's marshy marge." Here until 1870 were the western limits of the city.

Deer creek on whose banks occurred so much of the carly life of the settlement has almost entirely disappeared forever and now through the Eggleston avenue sewer the waters which for- merly purled through grassv banks are emptied into the Ohio.

At the time of the first settlement, Deer creek was the practical eastern limit of the community although this was outside the first location. The description given by Dr. Drake in the first work of any consequence relating to the city-"No- tices concerning Cincinnati," which, published in 1810, is the rarest book in existence relating to the city,-applies in the main as well to-day as at the time it was written. Speaking of the original city he says :

" Its site is not equally elevated. A strip of land called the BorroM (most of which is in- undated by extraordinary freshes, though the whole is elevated several feet above the ordinary high-water mark ), commences at Deer creek, the eastern boundary of the town, and stretches down to the river, gradually becoming wider and lower. It slopes northwardly to the aver- age distance of eight hundred feet, where it is terminated by a bank or glacis, denominated the Ilu, which is generally of steep ascent, and from thirty to fifty feet in height. In addition to this there is a gentle acclivity for six or seven hundred feet further back, which is succeeded by a slight inclination of surface northwardly, for something more than half a mile, when the hills or real uplands commence.

" These benches of land extend northwest- wardly (the upper one constantly widening) nearly two miles, and are lost in the intervale ground of Mill creek. The whole form an arca of between two and three square miles-which, however, comprehends but little more than a moiety of the expansion which the valley of the Ohio has at this point. For on the southern

side, both above and below the mouth. of the Licking river, are extended, elevated bottoms. " The hills surrounding this alluvial tract form an imperfectly rhomboidal figure. They are be- tween three and four hundred feet high; but the angle under which they are seen, from a central situation, is only a few degrees. Those to the southwest and northwest, at such a sta- tion, make the greatest and nearly an equal angle; those to the southeast and southwest also make angles nearly equal. The Ohio enters at the castern angle of this figure, and, after bending considerably to the south, passes out at the western. The Licking river enters through the southern, and Mill creek through the north- ern angle. Deer creek, an inconsiderable stream, enters through the northern side. The Ohio, both up and down, affords a limited view, and its valley forms no considerable inlet to the cast and west winds. The valley of the Licking af- fords an entrance to the south wind, that of Mill creek to the north wind, and that of Deer creek (a partial one) to the northeast. The other winds blow over the hills that lie in their respective courses. The Ohio is five hundred and thirty-five yards wide from bank to bank, but at low-water is much narrower. No exten- sive bars exist, however, near the town. Lick- ing river, which joins the Ohio opposite the town, is about eighty yards wide at its mouth. Mill creek is large enough for mills, and has wide alluvions, which, near its junction with the Ohio, are aunnally overflown. Its general course is from northeast to northwest, and it joms the Ohio at a right angle. Ascending from these valleys the aspects and characteris- tics of the surrounding country are various. * * * No barrens, prairies, or pine lands are to be found near the town."

The two plateaus as noted above were in the carly days known by the names of Hill and Bottom. The Bottom lands at about the mouth of Deer creek were very narrow. This plateau lay at the top of an abrupt rise from fifty to sixty-five feet above the river as it stretched westwardly widening and lowering. Its aver- age width is not over eight hundred feet. The 1lill is from fifty to one hundred feet higher and runs back in all directions to the base of the surrounding hills on the north and cast and sloping towards the west to the Mill creek bot- toms which are annually subject to overflow.

In the early days of the town much contro- versy existed as to the manner of treating the descent from the Hill to the Bottoms, many

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

favoring a distinct terrace and others a gradual slope. The latter plan has been adopted so that to-day the city rises gradually in an easy incline from the river to about Third street and from there by a slightly more precipitate ascent to Fourth street. From Fourth street north the level is fairly maintained with a slight rise until the base of the hills are reached at the north and cast. On the west the ground slopes gently toward the river. On the early maps this ridge of the second plateau was well defined. It began in out-lot 20 a little northeast of Hunt and Sycamore. It ran in a southeasterly direc- tion to about where the Little Miami depot now stands and then southwestwardly, crossing Broadway about Pearl street and along the southern side of Third street as far west as Elm where it divided; the lower bank ran down in a. southwesterly direction toward the river and the upper ridge ran almost west to a point a little beyond, where the present Cincinnati, Ham- ilton & Dayton depot is located by which time the Bottoms were reached. By the gradual grad- ing of the streets in all directions these precipi- tate banks have disappeared altogether and are indicated by slight changes in the grades of as- cent.

The principal business section of the city is still within the original lines of the settlement although the enormous manufacturing interests of Cincinnati are located in many instances at points many miles remote from this. In the heart of the city representing the original settlement, the , streets are formed in accordance with the original plan which was modeled after that of the city of Philadelphia. They are at right angles to each other; the streets running from the river to the hills take the general direction from southeast to northwest ; those crossing them run from southwest to northeast. The variation from the north, south, east and west lines is about sixteen degrees. All other parts of the city, excepting those parts which lie on the river banks or on Mill creek or which are affected by the slopes of the hills or the contour of the vicinity, are in the main cut by streets running with the points of the compass north and south and east and west.

Along the entire southern portion of the city runs the river Ohio in a very tortnous course, so much so that its most northerly point in the neighborhood of Pendleton is almost four miles north of its most southerly point at Riverside and over a mile north of the eastern boundary . of the city at Columbia just cast of Pendleton.

So twisting is the river in its course that the line of vision extending from an eye of an ob- server, in the southwestern part of the city, in a northeasterly direction will cross the river four times. The frontage along the river ex- tends for over ten miles. The average width is about two miles although at the western end at Riverside the north corporation line ap- proaches within less than twelve hundred feet of the river and the north line of Cumminsville is over five miles from the river. The principal beauty of the situation is given by the hills which begin with Price Hill at the southwest near the river a little west of Mill creek and thence run in a northeasterly direction and then in an cast- erly direction until they almost reach the river again at Mount Adams. As a result of these hills, no other large city in the United States can afford such a variety of position and scenery. At the cast they border the river at a distance of five hundred yards for four and one-half miles and then receding form an amphitheater about the original plateau, returning by the bold promontory to the river about three miles below, from which point they follow the windings of the river less than one thousand feet from the shore until they pass beyond the western cor- poration lines. The beauty of these hills at- tracted the attention of writers about the city from its very carliest days. In Drake's and Mansfield's " Cincinnati in 1826" they are spoken of as presenting "to the eye of the be- holder one continued ridge, irregularly elevated, and of diversified configurations-always beauti- ful and picturesque," with their gentle and vary- ing slopes covered in the main with native for- . est trees. The so-called improvements of re- cent years swept away the forest trees and cut into the banks of the hills so that from the city they show in many points rough surfaces of stone and clay but the view there described is open to any observer to-day.

" One of the views most worthy, perhaps, of attention, may be had at an carly hour on one of the foggy mornings of August, or Sep- tember. A spectator, under such circumstances, placed upon one of these hills, will find himself elevated quite above the dense vapours of the river : he will behold the sun rising free from all obsenrity, while the plain below him is lost in one mmbroken sheet of fog, presenting the appearance of an unruffled lake. As soon, how- ever, as the rays of the sun fall less obliquely upon this expanse of vapour, it becomes rarefied,' and assuming the appearance of fleecy clouds,

CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF CINCINNATI

passes away to rarer regions, gradually disclos- ing the city, the river, the villages, the numer- ous steamboats, and all the countless objects of the valley." (Cincinnati in 1826, 26.)

The panorama thus disclosed including the river, the bridge, the Kentucky hills and the nestling. villages at their foot and the city of Cincinnati itself cannot be surpassed by any view of the character on the continent. From the hills to the north an almost equally beauti- ful view can be had, lacking of course the river, but .rich in the charm of fertile hill and valley. The view to the west from the northern edge of Clifton and up through the Mill creek valley is another that once seen will never be forgot- ten.

The river itself, flowing with gentle current about three miles an hour, is at this point (Cin- cinnati), about six hundred yards wide. At points below and beyond the city it is also of great beauty. This is particularly truc of the upper Ohio. While it possesses no such scenery as that of the Palisades of the Hudson, its stretch from Wheeling to Cincinnati far sur- passes in beauty the much more praised New York river.

It is subject to great variation in the stages of water. The highest recorded stage was that of February 14, 1844, when it reached the height of seventy-one feet and three-fourths of an inch above low-water mark. The stage of the river September 18, 1881, was one foot and eleven inclies.

[The boundaries of Cincinnati are very ir- regular ; this is by reason of the many annexa- tions at different times explained hereafter. Its total arca is 37.09 square miles. The boundary line begins on the river a little west of the sec- tion line between sections ten and sixteen of the third township of the first fractional range being the western line of the village of River- side. It runs in an irregular line northeastward- ly along the Anderson's Ferry road to the sec- tion line about two-thirds of a mile north of the river. The line then runs southeast, south and cast and then northeast in a very. broken course along the northern line of Riverside until it reaches the line running along the cast tier of sections of the township at the southeast corner of section six. It then runs north to the south line of the sixth section; thence west along the section line to the middle of the south line of section twelve, thence north to the north line of section twelve, the north line of the township; thence east to the southeast corner of the second

township in the second fractional range or Green township; thence north along the cast line of section one to its northeast corner ; thence west along the section line to the middle of the north- ern line of the section; thence south to Lick Run pike; thence by an irregular course in a general northwestwardly direction along Lick Run pike to Ross road and Werk road to about the central point of section fourteen; thence north to the north line of section fourteen ; thence cast along the section line to the corner of the section; thence in the north- castwardly and northerly direction skirting the line of Westwood to the north section line of section nine a little west of Wardall avenue. The line from this point runs cast along the section line to the northeast corner of section three of Green township; thence south along the section line to the north- east corner of the second section, then cast along the section line to Mill creek north of Fairmount ; thence in a general northwestwardly direction along Mill creek and the west fork thereof past the Wesleyan Cemetery to the sec- tion line between sections twenty-eight and thirty-four of the third township; thence north along the section line past Badgeley road to a point about the middle of the eastern boundary of section thirty-five; thence cast to the sec- tion line between sections twenty-nine and twenty-three and south on that section line to the southeast corner of section twenty-nine and thence east along the section line to the western boundary of Spring Grove. The line then runs in a southeasterly direction between Cummins- ville and Spring Grove to the Cincinnati, Ham- ilton & Dayton road and then runs northeast a little distance along the line of that road and then southeastwardly crossing Mill creek to the canal. It then follows the canal in the nortli- eastwardly direction to about the central point of section sixteen to the southwest corner of St. John's Catholic Cemetery in St. Bernard. It skirts the southern line of this cemetery to Carthage pike and runs south along that pike to the section line between sections fifteen and sixteen being the northern boundary of Avondale. The line then turns cast and runs along the sec- tion line to Reading road, forming the north- ern boundary of Avondale. It then by a curious loop runs northeastwardly along Reading road and Hopkins avenue to Woodburn avenue, and thence to Williams avenue and the section line. From this point it turns west and runs along the section line to the northeast corner of section

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

nine; thence south along the section line to Red- way avenue, east on Redway avenue to Glen Lyon avenue and south a short distance thence east, south again and finally west until it reaches the section line at a point where Glenwood ave- nue continued would strike it. From this point it turns south to the southeast corner of section nine at the boundary between Avondale and Walnut Hills and south of Idlewild. Here the line turns east and runs along the section line straight to the Little Miami River bank at Red Bank, hav- ing on its south, Walnut Hills, Mount Lookout and Linwood and on its north Idlewild, Evan- ston, Hyde Park and Red Bank. The line runs along the west bank of the Little Miami River south to its junction with the south section line of section thirteen in the fourth township of the second fractional range. It turns then to the west, running along the section line to a point a little west of the southwest corner of sec- tion thirteen and then takes a turn directly north- westwardly to the Turkey Bottom road; thence it runs in the southwestwardly direction along Turkey Bottom road to Davis Lane at which point it turns and runs northwestwardly for a short distance then southwestwardly; thence northwestwardly and . thence southwestwardly until it strikes the river at a point almost due west of the place where Turkey Bottom road struck Davis Lane. From this point to the be- ginning the Ohio River forms the boundary. (1902.) ]

This extraordinary irregularity of outline is as has been stated caused by the different an- nexations as a result of the growing population of the neighborhood. After the settlement be- came assured the growth of population developed along certain well defined lines. The settlement spread along the Ohio River eastward until con- nection had been made by way of Pendleton with Columbia and westward along the base of the hills until Sedamsville at Bold Face creek and Riverside just beyond became important points. The line of Mill creek was another line of set- tlement and here at Ludlow's Station; afterwards Cumminsville, and Camp Washington and Fair- mount gradually developed a large population. Another linie of settlement was along the im- portant roads leading between the hills out to- wards other communities. One of the most con- spicuous of these was the Lebanon turnpike, now the Reading road, along which settlers chose land sites which developed into such settlements as that of Avondale. The Montgomery road known for a great part of its course as Gilbert

avenue attracted many settlers and formed a nu- cleus of Walnut Hills and in recent years Idle- wild, Evanston, Ivanhoe, Elsmere, Norwood and Pleasant Ridge, all of which will probably be incorporated in the city in a very short time.

At the head of Main street above Liberty there branched to the northwest the road to Hamilton which is at present known as Mc- Micken avenue. Subsequently along the line of the road running to Carthage was established the settlement of Corryville, beyond Mount Auburn, the first hill suburb.

In this way without going into details it is apparent that the city first formed itself along the lines of least resistance, that is along the valleys and the roads. Afterwards the hills were settled, the principal ones of them being Price Hill, Fairmount, Clifton, Corryville, Mount Au- burn, Avondale, Walnut Hills and Mount Adams. and on the east Tusculum and Mount Lookout. . Many of these suburban hills are occupied by residences of very great beauty, placed in the midst of large grounds improved to the highest degree of landscape art. The tendency to re- move the residence portion of the city to the hills seems to be growing each year and as a re- sult the basin or original plateau has been al- most entirely surrendered to business uses and residences of the cheaper class. Many of the superb old mansions that were the glory of the carly days in the history of the city still re- main in the East and West ends but they have been given over to offices, hospitals, hotels and private institutions of all sorts. The central point of the business life of the city is in the neighborhood of Government square, Fountain square and Fourth street from Main to Race. All the traction lines from the surrounding parts of the country including those from Kentucky pass through this section. The principal struc- tures are in this general neighborhood and it is here that the activity of the city it most casily observed. The appearances in this respect are somewhat deceptive however, for the immense manufacturing establishments which constitute so much of the wealth and importance of the city are scattered in all directions along the river, in the East and West ends, through the Mill creek valley and even upon the neighboring hills and in the suburbs beyond them not yet in- corporated in the city. It is true of Cincinnati. as of course it is of all large cities that one who has been a resident of it for a lifetime may pass years of his life in active business in the city and be utterly unconscious of many

CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF CINCINNATI

of the principal streams of activity going on about him. It is only when an observer makes an effort to get a comprehensive view of the life of such a city that he begins to realize even in a small way the breadth of that life and its mul- tifariousness. In Cincinnati almost every de- partment of human activity is represented and well represented. Its professional life will com- pare favorably with that of any city. It has contributed in the past and contributes to-day some of the leading men of authority to the pro- fessions of law, medicine and of the church. Its educational system including the public schools and private institutions, the high schools and the university afford opportunities to the poorest of its inhabitants which make it unnecessary for any to seek elsewhere for an education of the highest type, nor are these opportunities confined to a general education alone but they extend to specialization in law, medicine and theology. The artistic and musical side are no less rep- resented. Cincinnati's musical festivals and her schools and colleges of music have given her a position preeminent among the countries of Am- erica in things pertaining to music. Her art school and art museum afford opportunities for development in this line unsurpassed on the con- tinent.

The business life of the community is no less a matter of proper civic pride. Cincinnati has ever maintained the highest degree of credit in the business world and her merchants stand among those of the highest repute for business integrity and enterprise within the bounds of rea- sonable conservatism. She has had her business failures but throughout the whole period of her life the general tendency has been towards a higher and broader development in the line of material prosperity. Her manufacturing and commercial interests are enormous to a degree far in excess of the average in cities of the same size. The Queen City of the West on the banks of the beautiful river in her garlands dressed is a bee-hive of industry in which there are few drones. From the point of view of other large cities both in this country and in Europe, Cincinnati has no poor ; it is not meant to imply by this that there is not a great demand for charitable work and a great response to that demand. In every city of a half-million inhabi- tants the operation of the law of the survival of the fittest is easily observed and many fall by the wayside but there is no considerable propor- tion of the idle or pauper class to be found in Cincinnati and there never has been.

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Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 1, Part 2

Author: Greve, Charles Theodore, b. 1863. cn Publication date: 1904 Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1020

Author: Greve, Charles Theodore, b. 1863. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1020