USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 2 > Part 40
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LAST MAN SOCIETY.
In this year was held the last meeting (at- tended by but one person) of a curious organiza- tion founded on Sunday, September 30, 1832, in the studio of Joseph R. Mason, a portrait painter, at the southwest corner of Fourth and Main, known as the Last Man Society. The conversation turned on the dreadful scourge of the cholera which was raging in the villages about, but had not yet reached the corporate limits of the city and the uncertainty of life in view of such a scourge. A solemn compact of friend- ship was entered into, each vowing to aid the other and arranging for meetings at regular in- tervals. The first meeting was held on October 6, 1832, and it was determined that that day and month should be celebrated cach recurring year so long as there should be a survivor. A casket in the shape of an obelisk about 10 inches high and on a base seven inches square was made and in it placed a bottle of wine which was to be opened and drank by the last survivor at the
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first meeting after the death of the other six members. In the base of the receptacle, which now stands in the rooms of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Olio, is a little drawer in which were placed slips of oil paper contain- ing the names, ages, places of birth, residence and occupation of the members in their own handwriting. The obelisk was built of solid mahogany and passed in succession to each of the seven and was retained by him one year. At each supper seven plates were provided and if any were absent the place remained vacant. The first meeting was the only meeting at which all were present, although it was some years be- fore death entered their ranks. The members of the organization in order of their death were as follows : Dr. James Mason 1798-1837; Will- iam Stansbury 1805-1839; Joseph R. Mason, por- trait painter, 1808-1842; William Disney, Jr., druggist, 1807-1849; Fenton Lawson, 1808-1853; Henry H. Tatem, 18 --- 1853; and Dr. Jolin L. Vattier. On the 6th day of October, 1853, Dr. Vattier for the first time sat alone. He broke the bottle and drank its contents in memory of those who had gone before. The papers in the base of the obelisk give an account of each of the meetings of this club closing with that of October 6, 1859. For a number of years Dr. Vattier celebrated the anniversary alone.
THE STREET RAILROADS.
Prior to 1859 there seems to have been no concerted system of carrying citizens to their homes. In those days there were a number of omnibus and stage coach lines but no street railroads. The first street railroads in Cincin- nati were authorized by an ordinance bearing date of July 1, 1859, which described the terms and conditions under which they could be op- erated. By this ordinance it was provided that the consent of the City Council must be ob- tained to lay down rails along any of the streets of the city and that the street railroad company was to purchase any omnibus line with which the street railroad might come in competition. at a price to be ascertained by arbitration. The cars with all modern improvements were to be run as often as the public convenience might require under the direction and regulation of the Coun- cil. Tickets were to be sold in packages of 25 and no fare was to be more than five cents. The cars were not to be run at a greater speed than six miles an hour and when turning a corner not faster than a walk. Cars driven in the same direction were not permitted to ap-
proach each other nearer than 300 feet. A num- ber of other regulations were with reference to the ordinary details of passenger traffic. The pro- vision requiring the purchase of the omnibus and stage lines is said to have resulted in bankrupting all the original street railroad companies. At that time the rates of fare prevailing on the dif- ferent omnibus lines varied considerably. On the Brighton-Cumminsville line the fare was five cents to the corporation line on Liberty street and 10 cents to Cumminsville. By the Sedams- ville line, to Walker Mill road it was five cents and to Sedamsville 10 cents. The fare to Lib- erty and Sycamore streets on the Mount Auburn and Clifton line was five cents, to Mount Auburn 10 cents and to Clifton 25 cents, afterwards re- duced to 15 cents. The fare to Avondale was 15 cents. On the Pendleton line, to Front and Washington streets it was five cents, to Pen- (lleton 10 cents, to Columbia 15 cents. An omni- bus left for East Walnut Hills and Madisonville every day at three in the afternoon. The start- ing point for Walnut Hills was Fifth and Syca- more. Here too started the 'bus for Mount Au- burn, the Four Mile House on Reading road, and that to Storrs, Sylvan, Symmes Pavilion and Buckeye House and Delhi. The omnibus for the Brighton House, at that time a very important landmark, started from Fourth and Main. That to Spring Grove and Cumminsville started a block farther up on Main at Sixth street. The coaches on the line to Fulton, Sportsman's Hall, Pendleton and Columbia left the southeast corner of Broadway and Lower Market every 10 min- utes. Here too started the lines for Batavia, New- town and way points every day at two o'clock. The Mount Washington and Montgomery line left this same point every day at three. The omnibus to Cleves, Lawrenceburg and Napoleon started three times a week from the Ross House at the southeast corner of Court and Walnut. Omnibuses ran regularly from the Miami Canal packets to all parts of the city, starting at Main and Canal and also from the Little Miami and other depots and from the boats at the Public Landing, where as well as at Second and Broad- way there was a regular omnibus and hack stand, similar to those that were common in the city down to the "eighties."
At a meeting of the City Council held on July 13, 1859, six street car routes were determined 110011. . Route No. I was afterwards granted to Rufus King, John C. Thorpe, James C. Moores, S. M. Ely and William Keck, under the name and title of the City Passenger Street Railroad
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Company. The cars of this line were painted red and displayed a red signal at night. This ex- tended from Fourth and Main to Fifth and Western row to the Brighton House, returning on Baymiller to Findlay to John and to the place of beginning. The direction of the route was subsequently reversed; this was the well known John street line. Tickets were sold at the rate of 25 for $1. Route No. 2 was afterwards grant- ed to the Cincinnati Street Railroad Company and started at Fourth and Walnut and ran up Walnut to' Ninth to Baymiller to Maple to Free- man to Western row, returning on Freeman to Seventh to Vine to Fourth to the place of be- ginning. This was the so-called Seventh or dark blue line. The direction was subsequently re- versed. Route No. 3 extended from Fourth and Sycamore to Liberty to Broadway and back and also from Hunt and Sycamore to Lebanon road. This was never constructed. Route No. 4 was afterwards granted to J. P. Kilbreath, N. Head- ington, J. W. Donahue, Samuel N. Pike and Thomas G. Gaylord under the name of "The Passenger Railroad Company of Cincinnati." This commenced at. Third and Lawrence and ran to Fifth and Freeman and back. These -were the yellow cars and the line is that known as the Third street line. Route No. 5 was after- wards granted to John J. Hooker, Solomon L. Green, A. E. Jones, A. M. Scudder, O. P. Thorpe and Charles Rule under the name of "The Pen- dleton and Fifth Street Market Space Street Pas- senger Railroad Company," the so-called "Demo- cratic Company." This as modified ran from Fifth and Main to Front and Washington streets. Route No. 6 established at the same time, which was never constructed, was to run from Fifth and Main to Vine and Hamilton road. Almost immediately after these routes were laid out, a number of ordinances were passed providing for alterations and extensions but the lines mentioned as altered were practically all that were in use at the beginning of the war.
Route No. 7 was established on July 25, 1860, providing for a line on Front street from Wash- ington to the cast line of the city and this route finally passed to the Pendleton line and was con- nected with Route No. 5.
In the spring of 1859 the agitation in favor of street railroads began and five companies made application for the privilege of laying tracks in the streets of the city. They were the Cincin- nati Street Railroad Company, the City Passen- ger Street Railroad Company, Queen City, Buck- eye and the Metropolitan. These were quickly
followed by a number of other companies and routes were projected in all directions, including those to Walnut Hills, out Vine street to Clifton and to Cumminsville. At meetings held on July 28 and 29, 1859, routes Nos. 1, 2, 4 and 5 were awarded. Long before this time efforts to lay tracks had been made by various companies and a number of conflicts between the authorities and the various street railroad companies had taken place.
On Wednesday morning, September 14, 1859. the first street car in the city of Cincinnati ran over the route of the Cincinnati Street Railroad Company from the corner of Fourth and Walnut streets to the city buildings on Ninth street. A large crowd gathered at the starting point to see the car start. It was drawn by four beautiful gray horses and carried the officers of the com- pany, the mayor and a number of councilmen and members of the press. At the corner of Ninth and Walnut the car was thrown off the track, one of the rails being sunk too low ; there- upon the passengers jumped out and put their shoulders to the car and put it once more on the track. As the car passed the Ninth District School the children joined in the procession which numbered several thousand. Opposite the residence of Dr. J. L. Vattier, who was the presi- dlent of the company which was on Ninth street, the car stopped and cheers were given for the company and for the Doctor and in the language of the chronicler "he gave them that which cheers." At the corner of Ninth and Plum a small negro boy about 14 years of age, who had been hanging to the platform, fell from the car which passed over his left leg making necessary its amputation. Throughout the day the car continued to make free trips and was packed with passengers anxious to have the pleasure of rid- ing in the first street railroad car that ever ran in the city. .
THE FOURTH STREET PROTEST.
The fact that all the routes ran for a short distance on Fourth street brought about con- flicts as soon as an attempt was made to lay a track at this point. The Cincinnati Street Rail- road Company began to locate its line on Fourth between Vine and Walnut at midnight on Wed- nesday evening, September 28th, but was stopped by the authorities. The following morning the City Passenger Street Railroad Company took possession of the street, took up the boulders and proceeded to lay their tracks. They were stopped by an injunction of Judge Storer grant- ed upon the application of George Carlisle, Will-
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iam Hooper, S. N. Pike, L. B. Harrison, W. H. Harrison, Robert Mitchell and others. As a re- sult Fourth street was impassable for some time. Each of the three companies whose routes passed over this square claimed the right to lay their own tracks, which naturally aroused great oppo- sition. A meeting of the owners and occupants of property on Fourth street was held on Satur- day evening, October Ist, at Pike's Opera House. William Hooper occupied the chair. A commit- tee appointed at a previous meeting reported that the various railroad managers had refused to compromise by building and using one track and that in the middle of the street; thereupon a committee was appointed to draft resolutions ex- pressive of the sense of the meeting with refer- ence to the occupancy of Fourth street by street railroad companies. This committee consisted of Winthrop B. Smith, D. W. Corwin, John Shil- lito, Robert Mitchell, Charles Stetson, W. H. Harrison, S. B. Keys, Wilson K. Nixon, John Carlisle and J. LeBoutillier. This committee re- ported resolutions reciting that the owners of property on Fourth street were opposed to the laying down of tracks on said street, "believing that same will be of serious detriment to our property and business by obstructing the thor- oughfare, preventing the free receipt and deliv- ery of goods and by driving off the carriage travel which constitutes to so great an extent the pe- culiar business of that street. Fourth street be- ing the best adapted has concentrated into it the principal retail light goods and fancy trade of the city and it has become the most frequent- ed thoroughfare in Cincinnati; and after Broad- way in New York the most crowded by private vehicles of any in this country. The extent of this traffic has given value to the property abut- ting on the street. Its owners have at a great cost erected buildings which have made the street a credit to Cincinnati. Whatever tends to limit or drive off the vehicles or travel from the street would diminish business upon it and in that de- gree would reduce rents and impair the value of the property. We therefore feel it to be a great wrong and grievance that the City Council re- garding the demands of mere speculators from distant cities above the rights and interests of their fellow citizens should give authority to said corporations, whose only purpose is specu- lation, to cover the whole street with railroad tracks under the pretense of serving the public convenience." The resolutions protested against the power of the Council to give any corporation the exclusive right to the streets and appointed
a committee of seven to take steps to defend the rights of all. This committee consisted of George Carlisle, S. N. Pike, W. H. Harrison, W. B. Smith, W. Hooper, J. W. Baker and Will- iam Phillips.
In a short time sentiment changed and double tracks became quite frequent.
SOUTHERN LEGISLATORS IN CINCINNATI.
An interesting event of the year 1860 was the visit of the Legislatures of the four States of Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio in cele- bration of the completion of the Louisville. & Nashville road. This took place on Friday, Jan- uary 27, 1860. The party coming from Colum- bus and Dayton reached Cincinnati in the after- noon where it was greeted by an immense con- course of people. The military were under the command of Maj .- Gen. William H. Lytle com- manding the first division O. V. M. and Maj. W. K. Bosley commanding the Guthrie Greys battalion. The grand marshal of the procession was Miles Greenwood and he was assisted by Enoch T. Carson, Benjamin Jenifer, C. J. W. Smith and Jeremiah Kiersted. In the procession were a number of military companies so soon to take part in actual warfare such as the Washı- ington Dragoons, Lafayette, Rover Shields and Sarsfield Guards and German Yagers. In the carriages were Governors Magoffin of Kentucky, Newman of Tennessee, and Dennison of Ohio as well as Mayor R. M. Bishop. It took 36 carriages and 27 omnibuses to carry the invited guests. The procession moved up Sixth street and by a circuitous course to the Opera House where the exercises were to take place. The building was crowded with enthusiastic citizens who applauded vigorously the various speakers. Mayor Bishop presided and welcomed the guests. The principal orator for Cincinnati was Judge Storer who took occasion to insist that there could be no dissolution of the ties that bound the various sections of the Union together. The first respondent was Governor Magoffin and in view of subsequent events his speech is especially interesting. He insisted that Kentucky and Ohio stood together in their loyalty to the Union. He also insisted upon the right of cach State to regu- late its own domestic institutions. While his speech was most complimentary, it reflected clear- ly the bitter disputes of the time. Other speak- ers were Governor Newman of Tennessee, Gor- don Tanner of Indiana and Governor Dennison who insisted that the difficulties between the North and South would be adjusted within the
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limits and by the power of the Union. In the evening there was a banquet at the Burnet House in which took part Soo guests. The principal inscription on the walls read "The States of the Union,-distinct as the billows, one as the sea." Arrangements were in charge of Hon. Benjamin Eggleston and at the dinner the mayor presided. The bill of fare was appallingly elaborate. The guests were required to choose for instance be- tween four kinds of fish, oysters prepared in 12 ways, about 15 salads and cold dishes, 20 entrees while the more solid dishes such as roast and game were about 20 in number. The toasts were significant of the times. The first which was drank in silence and responded to by Judge Johnson amidst such an uproar as to make it almost impossible for him to be heard was as follows: "The fame of Washington,-a legacy too great and too glorious to belong to anything less than the whole Continent; it shall never be divided." The toast of welcome proclaimed the era of good feeling and Senator Fisk of Ken- tucky in responding to it designated the talk of dissolving the Union as idle nonsense. Other speakers were the visiting Governors, Lieutenant- Governor of the State Robert C. Kirk and the Speaker R. C. Parsons, the mayor of Nashville, Mr. Eggleston, Jolin Young Brown of Ken- tucky, and a number of visitors. A glee club furnished a number of songs and the banquet which began at half-past seven terminated at two in the morning. On the following day the vis- itors were entertained by Nicholas Longworth who assisted by Joseph Longworth and William J. Flagg as well as by his wife dispensed among other things sparkling catawba of his own vint- age. The guests were also taken through Mr. Longworth's wine cellars on Sixth street between Broadway and Culvert. In the afternoon of Saturday the party departed on the "Jacob Stra- der" for Louisville, via the Covington & Lex- ington Railroad to Frankfort on a special train provided by Robert B. Bowler. The decorations of the city during this excursion are said to have been the most elaborate in the memory of those then residing here. The public buiklings, business houses and a large number of private residences in all parts of the city were decorated with flags, banners, transparencies and mottoes. The Carlisle Building at Fourth and Walnut was voted the most successful in this particular. The feature of the entertainment was the fire display on Saturday morning which terminated in a call to an actual fire on Sixth street west of the Cin- cinnati, Ilamilton & Dayton depot.
On the ist of March, 1860, a very serious ac- cident happened on the site of the New St. Francis Xavier Church on Sycamore street be- tween Sixth and Seventh. The church had been undergoing demolition preparatory to the erec- tion of the new and more commodious one and was about half torn away. Some 30 or 40 labor- ers were employed in the work and upon 13 of these, who at the time were arranging to tumble down the north wall, without a moment's warn- ing fell the entire wall. Within a few minutes many hundreds of people were at work endeavor- ing to exhume the bodies of the men. Every one was killed and in many cases the bodies were so disfigured as to make identification diffi- cult. The calamity excited universal sympathy and a large fund was raised for the families of the survivors. Almost all were married men and the total of the surviving members of the families exceeded 60 in number.
On March 25th, the corner-stone of the new St. Francis Xavier Church was laid by Archbishop Purcell in the presence of a large gathering, in- cluding various Catholic societies as well as many other citizens. Bishop Purcell delivered an ad- dress relating the history of the old structure whose corner-stone laid 35 years before was used again on this occasion. He told several stories with relation to the old frame cabin which two miles outside of the city served as a place of worship for the early Catholics. This cabin was afterwards brought on rollers to the site now occupied by the St. Francis Xavier Church.
In April of this year (April 18, 1860) the Young Men's Mercantile Library Association celebrated its "Silver Festival" in honor of the completion of its first quarter century. The celebration was held at the Opera House and was in charge of Theodore Cook. The speaker of the evening was William Hooper, who gave a brief history of the association which was fol- lowed by a number of readings by the distin- guished tragedian James E. Murdoch which were .interspersed with selections by Menter's Band. After the literary entertainment followed a ban- quet and the celebration concluded with dancing.
A citizens' meeting held at the Burnet House on April 25, 1860, was for the purpose of arous- ing interest in the Arctic expedition of C. F. Hall, who expected to sail from New London in a few weeks. This meeting was presided over by Mayor Bishop and was addressed by Mr. Hall, Judge Force, Professor Christy and Cap- tain Frazer who had accompanied . Sir John Franklin on his first expedition. A committee
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consisting of Miles Greenwood, John D. Jones, John W. Ellis, George H. Hill and George Domi- nick was appointed to raise funds for the expe- dition.
THIE TORNADO OF 1860.
On Monday afternoon, May 21, 1860, Cincin- nati had her most serious experience with a tor- nado. The air grew suddenly dark and the heavy clouds to the southwest were repeatedly torn with brilliant flashes of lightning and as the storm advanced the city was almost engulfed by the rain. In a few minutes immense damage was done. Steeples were prostrated, dwellings over- thrown, roofs whirled on high, shade trees up- rooted, signs torn from their fastenings, chim- neys beaten down, windows burst in and car- riages driving along the streets were overturned and persons hurled from their feet. The roof of the new office building of the Commercial at the northeast corner of Fourth and Race streets, into which the staff of the paper had just moved, was torn off and large sections of it carried into different parts of the town. The most serious accident was at the 14th District School where the roof was torn from the building and swept to the oposite side of the street to the cor- ner of Dayton and Baymiller. This exposed the infant department to the full fury of the storm and several children were badly injured, one having both legs broken. The roof of the Tabernacle Church at the corner of John and Clark was also torn off and the same fate befell a dwelling house at Liberty and John, a soap factory on Poplar near John, a factory at West -. ern row and Poplar street, a carriage factory on Western row near Bank, Lane & Bodley's ma- chine shop and many other buildings. The cu- pola was blown off the Brighton House and a frame beer saloon at the head of Dunlap street disappeared from the face of the earth. The heavy brick wall at the west side of Reuben R. Springer's residence at Seventh and Plum was blown to the ground. A three-story briek build- ing in process of erection on Fifth near Wood was blown to the ground and two workmen mashed into an unrecognizable mass. Another man was killed in a brick-yard at Eighth and Freeman. The roofs of the Mechanics' Insti- tute and also the United States Marine Hospital were blown off and the dome of the Little Miami depot floated away as if of feather weight. The minor casualties filled several columns of the papers.
THE PRINCE OF WALES.
Among the events of the year 1860 was the visit of the Prince. of Wales, at that time mak- ing a tour throughout the United States under the incognito of Lord Renfrew. The members of the party were given by the mayor a special invitation to visit the city and were elaborately entertained during their stay.
The Prince arrived in the city on Saturday, September 29th. Rooms had been engaged at the Burnet House to which he was immediately taken. The great crowd of people who sur- rounded the hotel made necessary special police protection ; even the passage ways of the hotel were so crowded that it was impossible for the guests to make their way to their apartments. When the Prince and his party went out to drive in the morning the streets were so blocked as to make it almost impossible for them to get away from the hotel. In the carriage with him sat Mayor Bishop, the Duke of Newcastle and the Earl of Germaine and in the carriages following were Lord Lyons, Major-General Bruce, Major Teasdale, Captain Gray, Dr. Ackland, President J. W. Sibley of the Chamber of Commerce, Pres- ident John F. Torrence of the City Council, Judge Bellamy Storer and Rufus King. The party drove rapidly through the principal thor- oughfares and finally went out to Clifton where it was entertained at "Mount Storm," the beau- tiful residence of Robert B. Bowler. Here an elaborate banquet was served and Menter and his band discoursed various selections including of course the national airs. The party was here joined by Bishop Mellvaine. In the evening a magnificent ball was tendered the Prince at Pike's Opera House. "There was present at the Opera House a large and brilliant assemblage. A more select company never convened to worship at Terpsichore's shrine. As the ladies accompanied by their devoted attendants entered the auditor- ium they ranged themselves in the lower tier of boxes. Never did the Opera House present a gayer appearance from proscenium to proscenium and at the rear and on either side of the stage were living exotics that rendered the house red- olent with their grateful perfume. At the head of the grand stairway were draped together on the wall in peaceful confraternity the banners of England and the United States. The Prince and suite made their entry at twenty minutes before ten o'clock accompanied on the right by the Duke of Newcastle and on the left by Mayor Bishop. He walked down the center aisle to the parquette.
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