USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 1 > Part 73
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"Wool and cotton carding and spinning can be increased to a great extent ; and a well organ- ized manufactory of glass bottles would succeed. Porter brewing could be augmented, but it would first be necessary to have bottles, as the people here prefer malt liquors in the bottled state. A manufactory of wool hats would probably suc- ceed, and that of stockings would do remark- ably well, provided frame smith work were es- tablished along with it -- not else. As the people are becoming wealthy and polished in their man- ners, probably a manufactory of piano-fortes would do upon a small scale.
"There are ample materials for manufactures. Cotton is brought from Cumberland River, for
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from two, to three cents. Wool is becoming plenty in the country and now sells at fifty cents per pound, and all the materials for glass-making are abundant; coal has not been found in the immediate neighborhood, but can be laid down here at a pretty reasonable rate ; and it is probable the enterprising citizens will soon introduce the steam engine in manufactures. Wood is brought to the town at a very low rate. There is a very considerable trade between New Orleans and this place, and several barges were in the river when we visited it. One had recently sailed upwards over the falls."
CINCINNATI IN 1812.
Cutler's "Topographical Description," already referred to, contains an account of Cincinnati in 1812 taken from the "Ohio Navigator."-"Cin- cinnati is handsomely situated on a first and second bank of the Ohio, opposite Licking River. It is a flourishing town, has a rich, level, and well settled country around it. It contains about four hundred dwellings, an elegant court house, jail, three market houses, a land office for the sale of Congress lands, two printing offices, issu- ing weekly Gazettes, thirty mercantile stores, and the various branches of mechanism are car- ried on with spirit. Industry of every. kind be- ing duly encouraged by the citizens, Cincinnati is likely to become a considerable manufacturing place. * It has a bank issuing notes * under the authority of the State, called the Miami Exporting Company. The healthiness and salu- brity of the climate; the levelness and luxuriance of the soil; the purity and excellence of the waters, added to the blessings attendant on the judicious administration of mild and equitable laws; the great security in the land titles; all seem to centre in a favorable point of expecta- tion,-that Cincinnati and the country around it must one day become rich and very populous, equal perhaps, if not superior to any other place of an interior in the United States. The site of Fort Washington is near the centre of the town. It was a principal frontier post ; it is now laid out in town lots.
"A considerable trade is carried on between Cincinnati and New Orleans in keel-boats, which return laden with foreign goods. The passage of a boat of forty tons down to New Orleans is computed at about twenty-five, and its return to Cincinnati at about sixty-five days." (Cutler's Topographical Description of the State of Ohio, P. 43; quoting from Cramer's Navigator, edi- tion of 1808, p. 65.)
Mansfield, speaking of 1812, says that there was little of Cincinnati west of Main street at that time. Just before he left the city during that year, he was at Dr. Drake's house on Syca- more just below Fourth where he witnessed the great tornado. It was impressed upon his mind at that time that there were no houses above Fourth street, east of Sycamore, except the Sar- gent house in the center of the square bounded by Fourth and Broadway. Looking southeast he could see as far as Front and Lawrence with here and there a house intervening. The Bottom be- low Third and above Front was even then wet and swampy and in winter was frozen over and furnished skating for the boys. (Mansfield's Memories, p. 153.)
STREETS IN 1814.
By ordinance of February 12, 1814, the Coun- cil made provision to remedy the confusion and difficulty which had already arisen from the fact that the streets and alleys of the town were called by different names. It gave to the streets in the part laid out by Israel Ludlow the following names : Beginning with the river, Water, Front, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh, and to those runing north and south in the Lud- low tract, beginning with Eastern row (which was changed to Broadway), Sycamore, Main, Walnut, Vine, Race, Elm, Plumb and Western row. In the tract laid out by the government of the United States, the streets beginning with the river were to be called East Front street, Second street, Congress street, Third street, School alley and Fourth street and the eastern boundary of the tract, Ludlow street. In that part of the town immediately west of Deer creek laid out by Symmes, the streets beginning with the river were called East Front street, Congress street and Symmes street. The streets on the east were named Butler street, next west Pike and next Lawrence. This ordinance giving all the names of the streets then in the town is pertinent here as showing what was regarded as its. extreme limits.
DRAKE'S "CINCINNATI IN 1815."
The most important work printed concerning the carly period of the city's history appeared in the year 1816. It is the book entitled "Nat- ural and Statistical View or Picture of Cincin- nati and the Miami Country by Daniel Drake." It is commonly referred to as "Cincinnati in 1815" or "Picture of Cincinnati." The book is made up of seven chapters and an appendix. It contains two maps, one of which, the plan of
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Cincinnati, is the first engraved map of the city that we have. The other map is a map of the Miami country extending northward and west- ward to the Indian boundary and eastward into the Virginia Military Reservation, including parts of Adams, Highland and Fayette coun- ties:
The city as indicated on the plan was made up of section 17, the fractional section 18 and a small part of fractional section 12 which had been laid out by Symmes in 1790. There was not a 'street west of the west section line of the original location. That line, it will be remem- bered, ran due north to a point on the river about half way between Smith and Mill streets near where the gas works are now located and crossed Fifth street just east of Mound or West- ern row (now Central avenue) about two hun- dred yards west of the present line of Liberty street. Fifth street seemed to extend west be- yond the city limits. Northern row (the present Seventh street) at a point where is now the head of Smith street turned sharply to the north- west and joined London street (the present Eighth street), which continued westward as the road to Lawrenceburg. North of London street was Kemble, extending from Western row "to the west corporation line about two blocks, then Richmond, Catherine, Elizabeth and Chest- nut streets. Plum, Race and Walnut streets ex- tended no farther north than Seventh street and Sycamore street no farther north than the line of the present canal. Broadway extended beyond the north corporation line into the road to Ham- ilton. Elm street and Western row extended to the north corporation line, -the present Liberty street. Court street west of Main to a point where now is Walnut street was called St. Clair street. Ninth street which extended . from the present line of Walnut to Broadway was called Wayne street and the eastern end of Eighth street extending from Main to Broadway was known as New Market street. East of Broad- way, Fifth street continued one block; Fourth and Third streets the same distance. Second street continued two blocks until it joined East Front street at the foot of Lawrence. Lawrence and Ludlow were located as at present. East 'Third street was known as Symmes street and East Pearl as Congress street. Pike and Butler streets ran to Symmes street, the present line of Third street ; Butler was the extreme eastern street indicated on the map.
The references marked on the map included the
following buildings. The steam mill was on the river bank between Broadway and Ludlow just east of the Broadway Ferries. This mill was "erected in the years 1812-13 and 14 un- der the direction of William Green an ingenious mason and stone cutter on a plan furnished by George Evans one of the proprietors. It is built on the river beach upon a bed of horizontal lime stone rocks and in high floods is for its whole length exposed to the current. The foundation is 62 by 87 feet and 10 feet thick. Its height is I10 feet, and the number of stories nine, including two above the eaves. To the height of 40 feet, the wall is battered, or drawn in; above, it is perpendicular. The cornice is of brick, and the roof of wood, in the common style. It has 24 doors and go windows. The lime stone with which it was built were quarried at various places in the bed of the river, and measure in the wall 6,620 perches. Besides this, it swallowed up 90,000 brick, 14,800 bushels of lime, and 81,200 cubic feet of timber. Its weight is estimated at 15,655 tons. Through the build- ing there is a wall dividing each story into two unequal apartments-the one designed for manu- facturing flour ; the other for receiving wool and cotton machinery, a flax seed oil mill, fulling mill, and several other machines.
"It is equally creditable to the prudence of the superintendent and the temperance of the laborers, that during the erection of this house, not one serious accident occurred." ( Picture of Cincinnati, p. 137.)
This building the most "capacious, elevated and permanent building" is further described in the Directory of 1819 as containing "four pair of six feet millstones and machinery for card- ing, fulling and dressing cloth-all driven by a steam engine of 70 horsepower. It is capable of manufacturing annually 1,200 barrels of flour, besides carding and dressing cloth to the amount . of three or four thousand dollars. It employs in the whole about twenty hands and consumes yearly about 12,000 bushels of mineral coal." (Directory of 1819, p. 36.)
The sad story of this structure is told in the Directory of 1825 : "This once noble and sublime piece of 'architecture is now a pile of ruins, the combustible part of which was consumed by fire on the third day of November, 1823. Arrange- ments have been made and materials collected. for rebuilding it and probably in the course of the present year it will again resume its former appearance." ( Directory of 1825, p. 113.)
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The following year the announcement is made of the rebuilding of this structure which was once again in complete operation. The descrip- tion is practically the same as that already given except that as rebuilt it seems to have been but eight stories high although still measuring 1IO feet from the base to the top of the roof. This building was finally taken down in 1835 to make way for a steam ferry landing.
Two breweries are indicated on Drake's map, -one at the corner of Pike and Congress streets and one on the river front at the foot of Elm street. These breweries employed twenty work- men and made annually 31,000 barrels of porter and 1,340 barrels of beer, the total value' of which was fifty thousand dollars.
Ferries are indicated all along the river front, -one at the foot of Lawrence, another near the foot of Ludlow, another near the foot of Broad- way and one at the foot of Main street.
The Presbyterian Church at Fourth and Main, the Court House on Court street, the jail, the Methodist Church on the northwest corner of Fifth and Broadway, the Lancaster Seminary on Fourth and Walnut streets, the Bank of Cin- cinnati on the west side of Main above Fifth, the bank of the Miami Exporting Company on Front in the middle of the square between Main and Sycamore and the Farmers' & Mechanics' Bank on the west side of Main between Front and Second streets, the Friends' Meeting House on Fifth street west of Western row and the Baptist Church at the northwest corner of Sixth and Walnut are the other public buildings marked. The remains of the ancient works in various parts of the city are also indicated. The Presbyterian burying ground is on Elm street among the out-lots. It was in faet upon the site of the present Washington Park. The site of old Fort Washington is indicated in the midst of the subdivision of lots made by Jared Mans- field. On the river bank west of Western row were the glass house and the steam sawmill. The sugar refinery was on Arch street almost at the point where the northeast blockhouse of Fort Washington had stood. On Front street beyond the mouth of Deer creek was the potash factory. The markets were shown at the site of the present Pearl street market and where is now the Government square. Another mar- ket was on Sycamore on both sides a short dis- tance north of Seventh. Still another was on MeFarland street west of Elm in the center of the block.
Dr. Drake's "Picture of Cincinnati" contains a geographical and historical introduction and chapters on the physical topography, civil topog- raphy, political topography, medical topography, antiquities and a conclusion covering the pro- jected improvements and future consequence of the city. In the appendix are discussed the earthquakes, aurora borealis and the southwest winds.
The chapter on the civil topography has been quoted in several parts of this work. The plan of the city is described and the prices of lots at different times are given. An important dif- ference between the city levels at that time and at present is indicated by the discussion on drainage which is as follows:
"One part of the town being elevated from 40 to 60 feet above the other, it has long been an interesting question, whether the streets running from the river should be graduated to a steep or gentle ascent. The latter method has at length been adopted, and Main street rises by degrees from Second to Fifth street. The earth and gravel at the intersection of Third street on the brow of the Hill, and beyond it, as far as Fifth street, being hauled and washed down to raise the surface below. The angle of ascent varies, by estimation, from 5 to 10 degrees. Broadway, Sycamore and Walnut streets, are partly completed on the same plan. To the con- stant change of level which the streets have un- dergone for many years, from the descent of gravel into the Bottom, is to be aseribed the want of pavements and sidewalks, which the town so strikingly exhibits. Preparations are making for the pavement of Main street, from the river to Fourth street, the ensuing year; which will no doubt be followed by a general improvement of the town in this respect.
"Concerning the points at which the water falling on the town plat should be discharged into the river, there are two opinions. The first and most natural is, that it should be conducted down Second street, and emptied into the river below the town, through the same ravine which formerly carried it off. The other opinion is, that each street running to the river should be so graduated as to convey its own water. But the obvious injury which the banks, the beach and the water would sustain, from the discharge of these sluices of filth immediately opposite the town, together with the enormous expense at- tending it, seem to be procuring for the other method a general preference; and it is probable
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that all the gutters west of Broadway will be discharged into a common sewer in Second street, along which in an open canal the water now indeed runs.
"It has been already stated, that the north- west part of the Bottom is occasionally inundated by great floods of the Ohio. To prevent this, it has been proposed to throw up a levee along the western border of the town plat. The cost of this could not be very great, as it would not have an average height of more than six feet, nor exceed two hundred yards in length; and having no current to stem, it need not be very strong. No measures, however, have yet been taken to effect this important object." (p. 132.)
We are informed that the materials for build- ing were easy to obtain. Limestone was taken from the beds of the Licking and Ohio and marble from the cliffs of the Kentucky River and freestone from the Big Sandy and Scioto. The clay pf the lower part of the town made excellent brick of which about five millions were annually used. Timber of all kinds was brought to market from the neighborhood, although the Alleghany Mountains necessarily furnished the most abundant supply. There were at that time in the city nearly eleven hundred houses exclu- sive of kitchens, smoke houses and stables. Of these twenty were all stone, two hundred and fifty all brick and about eight hundred of wood. Six hundred and sixty contained families and the remainder were public buildings, shops, warehouses and offices. The dwelling houses were generally two stories high, of neat and simple style with sloping, shingled roofs and Tus- can or Corinthian cornices. Several had recently been erected with an additional story and ex- hibited for a new town some magnificence. A handsome frontispiece or balustrade occasionally afforded an evidence of opening taste; but the higher architectural ornaments-elegant summer houses, porticos and colonnades, were entirely wanting. Very few of the frame houses were painted ; this is the more remarkable as the tim- ber was perishable. (p. 134.)
The public buildings are described in detail. The first Court House, which was erected in 1802 on the eastern end of the public ground at Fifth and Main streets, had burned down early in 1814 while being used by a company of sol- diers as a barrack. This had been built of lime- stone on a plan furnished by Judge Turner, in the form of a parallelogram, 42 feet in front by 55 in depth; the height of the walls, includ-
ing a parapet, being 42 feet. It had a wooden cupola with four projecting faces arched and balustraded, 20 feet high, terminated by a donie, and resting on a basement 20 feet square. From the ground to the top of the cupola was 84 fect. A pair of fireproof, two-story wings for public offices which formed part of the original design had never been added.
After the burning of the building, the com- missioners of the county had sold on perpetual leases the whole of the public ground and ac- cepted ( from Jesse Hunt) a lot near the inter- section of Court and Main streets. In the cen- ter of this they were then engaged in the erection of a second Court House, with fireproof apart- mients, to be 56 by 62 feet.
The new Presbyterian Church was a very spacious brick edifice of "low and heavy" aspect. The Baptist Church on Sixth street was a hand- some and commodious brick edifice, 40 by 55 feet. well furnished with doors and windows, orna- mented with a balustrade, and finished inside with taste.
The Methodist Church on Fifth street was a capacious stone building one story high.
The Friends' Meeting House near the west- ern end of the same street was a temporary wood- en building.
The Cincinnati Lancaster Seminary on Fourth street in the rear of the Presbyterian Church is described as an extensive, two-story brick edifice built with some alterations on a plan furnished by Isaac Stagge. It consisted of two oblong wings extending from Fourth street 88 feet deep. These were connected near the front by an apartment for staircases 18 by 30 feet. Out of this arose a dome-capped peristyle de- signed for an observatory. The front of this intermediate apartment was to be decorated with a colonnade forming a handsome portico 12 feet deep and 30 feet long. The front and each side were ornamented with a pediment and Corin- thian cornice. "The aspect of the building is light, airy, and might be considered elegant, were the doors wider, the pediments longer, and di- vested of the chimnies, which at present dis- figure them. One wing of this edifice was de- signed for male and the other for female chil- dren and between the two wings there was a connecting passage except through the portico." The lower stories at that time were finished en- tire and large enough to accommodate goo chil- dren. Each upper story was to be divided into three apartments, two in the ends 30 feet square
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and one in the center 25 feet with a skylight and the appurtenances of a philosophical hall. When completed, the whole building was expected to receive 1,100 scholars.
The buildings of the Cincinnati Manufactur- ing Company on the bank above Deer creek are described as numerous and extensive with a main edifice 150 feet long and 20 to 37 feet wide and from two to four stories high.
Dr. Drake regarded the means of preserva- tion from fire as few and inefficient and there- fore discussed the subject not for imitation but for admonition. According to the ordinances of the corporation, each house was obliged to be furnished with a fire bucket. This provision was generally disregarded. Every male citizen .be- tween 15 and 50 years was required to attend on the cry of fire "a provision finely calculated, if enforced, to augment the rabble which infest such places." A more important requisition was that each drayman should furnish at every fire at least two barrels of water. All bonfires were expressly but not successfully forbidden.
The water supply was not very efficient. There were a few indifferent springs on the borders of the town plat and a number of wells of vari- ous depths. The water from some of these was impregnated with iron. Cisterns were common and afforded good water. A large proportion though of the water was drawn in barrels from the river which being impure required time to settle but was preferable to well water. The proprietors of the steam mill contemplated dis- tributing water from the river over the whole town "a plan so interesting, that its execution will constitute an important era in our public improvements."
Wood was a cheap article of fuel, a large part of which was rafted down the Ohio and Licking rivers ; but little coal was used except by the manufacturers. This was brought from Pitts- burg and sold at about 10 to 15 cents a bushel.
There were four market days in each week, two mornings at the small market house between Main and Sycamore and two afternoons at the market on Fifth street. Fresh meats could be had except in the midst of winter on every day in the week but the Sabbath. The mutton was of superior excellence and the beef generally good though said to be inferior to that of the maritime States. The poultry was fine. Fish though abundant in the Ohio were not in great supply. Those most esteemed were perch, pike, cel, yellow cat and sword fish. The soft-shelled
turtle was considered a great delicacy. Venison in proper season was brought from the woods and bear meat now and then offered. Butter and cheese were scarce in quantity and inferior in quality. Fruits and vegetables were abundant and good. The grapes were brought either from the vineyard of General Taylor in Newport or the Swiss plantation in Vevay, Indiana.
Some progress had been made in manufactures. There was no iron foundry but many black- smiths. Cut and wrought nails, stills, tea-kettles and copper vessels, tinware, rifles, fowling pieces, pistols, dirks and gun-locks and most articles usually made by blacksmiths were manufactured in abundance. Cotton and woolen machinery was manufactured as well as saddlery and car- riage mountings of all kinds. Clocks were made and watches repaired. Common pottery of a good quality was made in sufficient quantity for home consumption. Sills, chimney pieces, monuments and all the varieties of stone cutting were executed. The manufactures of green win- dow glass and hollow ware and white flint glass were just opening up.
Among the manufactures in wood were side- boards, secretaries, bureaus and cabinet furniture in general. Fancy chairs and settees elegantly gilt and varnished wagons, carts and drays, coaches, phaetons, gigs and other pleasure car- riages were also made.
One William Baily of Kentucky had obtained
. a patent in 1811 which enabled a man and a boy with the assistance of one or two horses to dress and joint the staves necessary for 100 bar- rels, hogsheads or pipes in 12 hours. This could be also used in shaving and jointing shingles.
The steam sawmill on the river bank with its buildings, 70 by 56 feet, three stories high, as well as the plants of the Steam Mill Company and the Cincinnati Manufacturing Company. were in active operation. There were four cot- ton spinning establishments containing upwards of twelve hundred spindles moved by horses and a woolen manufactory was contemplated.
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