Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 2, Part 65

Author: Greve, Charles Theodore, b. 1863. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1048

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The death of Father William Taylor, which occurred in January, 1875, aroused once more the discussion as to the first male child born in Cincinnati. He was said to have been born in the settlement of Cincinnati on March 20, 1791. Hle left the city in 1812 joining the army as a private and at the end of the war he settled in Hamilton. The discussion at the time of his

death brought out other claimants in addiiton to those already mentioned in this work, notably Daniel Baker, said to have been born in Cin- cinnati, March 6, 1791. Another early birth is that of Daniel Gideon Howell, which took place at North Bend, August 3, 1790. Other noteworthy deaths of the year were those of S. S. L'Hommedieu, Judge Bellamy Storer, Judge Robert Moore, Dr. Thomas E. Thomas of Lane Seminary, Rev. C. II. Taylor of the Third Pres- byterian Church, Dr. Irwin House, Benjamin Pine the pioncer and Charles Avery, a centen- arian.

THIE JAMBOREE.

The centennial year 1876 was ushered in at the stroke of 12 on New Year's eve by Mayor Johnson's celebrated "Jamboree." After a few hours every bell in the city rang, every whistle on the steamboats, fire engines and the manu- factories screeched, every musical instrument gave forth unmusical sounds and every small boy and many' not small screamed themselves hoarse to vindicate their appreciation of the spirit of independence. All restrictions were thrown aside and it is doubtful if this city or any other city has ever witnessed such an ex- traordinary scene. As a matter of fact, however, the unbridled license of the community resulted in little or no serious damage, except in the murdering of sleep. On Washington's Birthday came another celebration and the Continental costume reception. On the 28th of February, Mardi Gras was celebrated by a street parade of a very elaborate character which unfortu- nately was accompanied by the death of a well known citizen, Mrs Mary A. Thornton, whose benefactions caused her name to be revered by many charitable organizations of the city. Among other public celebrations were the one in honor of Dom Pedro the Emperor of Brazil who visited the city in May and that by the Catholic societies in honor of Archbishop Pur- cell, whose 50th anniversary of service in the priesthood was celebrated in the same month. The Fourth of July, the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, was also celebrated with great enthusiasm.

THE CINCINNATI TABLET VINDICATED.

In 1876 Robert Clarke succeeded in closing beyond dispute a controversy which had waged for some years around the authenticity of the so-called "Cincinnati Tablet." In a pamphlet published at that time he for the first time pre- sented the statements of the persons who found

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this remarkable relic in 1841. The story of this occurrence properly belongs to that year but as it was not made public until 35 years later, the omission in the narrative of that time can be supplied as of the time of the publication of these statements with relation to the discovery. The mound on Fifth and Mound streets has been frequently referred to and was, although par- tially cut away on the southern side at the open- ing of Fifth street, plainly visible until the fall of 1841 when Mound street and the alley run- ning west from it were opened. At this time was found this' tablet which afterwards became the subject of controversy. An engraved repre- sentation of the stone appeared in the Gasette of December 12, 1842, and it was frequently described by authorities on mound relics. In 1872 however Col. Charles Whittlescy, a well known archacologist and historian, published a pamphlet in which he denominated the tablet as a forgery and a fraud. To support his state- ment he quoted certain comments of Dr. Jared P. Kirtland. This attack upon the authenticity of one of the most important relies of prehistoric man . that had been discovered in this country brought Mr. Clarke to the front and in his pam- phlet in vindication of the tablet he published the statement of Joseph L. Wayne, than whom no man has been better known in Cincinnati and whose credibility as a witness has always been beyond question. Mr. Wayne states that as a boy he was interested in what were commonly called Indian relics and that therefore at the time of the opening of the mound, as he hap- pened to be present, he watched the proceedings of the workmen with great interest. IIc stood among the workmen when the cavity or grave was broken into and says that it showed no . signs of having been tampered with and that it would have been impossible to introduce anything in the grave without disturbing the earth and breaking the crust. As soon as the opening was made and before the crust fell, his hand was groping among the charred materials. He first picked up a skull which was taken away from him by the workmen who procceded to examine it. "They gathered round the skull and I then inserted my hand into the place left vacant by it and beneath where the back part had been, as if the skull rested on it, I found a carved or engraved stone." This was the celebrated "Cin- cinnati Tablet" now in the Art Museum. It im- mediately passed into the possession of Erasmus Gest, the owner of the lot on which it was found, much to the disgust of the finder. Mr. Clarke

calls to his support also Erasmus Gest, Robert Buchanan, S. T. Carlcy and George Graham, whose statements so completely refuted those made by Colonel Whittlescy that the latter after- wards acknowledged that he was convinced that he had been in error.

HAYES NOMINATED FOR THE' PRESIDENCY.

In 1876 the National Republican Convention was held at Cincinnati. It met on the 14th of June and lasted three days. It was generally supposed that James G. Blaine of Maine would receive the nomination of the convention but the opposition to him was most earnest and stub- born and although at the outset it is claimed that Blaine was the favorite of the majority of the delegates this opposition aided by the circum- stance of Blaine's illness was able to defeat him. It is claimed that there was not an hour during the continuance of the convention when a ma- jority of the delegates did not desire to nominate him. This is probably true but the instructions under which many had been clected made this impossible. He received at various times the votes of the majority of all the delegates in the convention but unfortunately for him this never happened on any one ballot. The permanent chairman of the convention was Edward Mc- Pherson of Pennsylvania. An interesting feat- ure of this occasion was the nominating specches, particularly that of Col. Robert G. Ingersoll placing the name of Blaine in nomination. This speech, one of the most eloqnent and effective ever heard on the floors of a convention, gave to its maker a world-wide reputation as an orator and to Blaine a title, that of "Plumed Knight," . which his friends were proud to apply to him for the rest of his days. The other candidates before the convention were Levi P. Morton of New York, Benjamin H. Bristow of Kentucky, Roscoe Conkling of New York, Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio, and Governors Ilartranft and Jewell who received on the first ballot respec- tively the following number of votes: 285, 125, 113, 99. 61, 58 and II. There were three scat- tering .. Blaine's vote increased on the second ballot and to the end never fell below that of the first. His nomination was confidently ex- pected on each ballot and was finally prevented by the political acumen of Secretary Cameron, who headed the Pennsylvania delegation. Ac- cording to the story generally accepted and told by Colonel MeClure as well as by Mr. Blaine himself, when Cameron feared that he had to give up the fight, he was able to make a compact

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which resulted in his ultimate victory. The important point was to hold the Pennsylvania delegation to their instructions for Hartranft. The proposition was made and agreed to by Blaine's friends that the Pennsylvania delega- tion should continue to vote for Hartranft so long as his vote increased and that whenever. he dropped in the race the delegation should then vote as a unit as the majority directed. It was thought by the Blaine advocates that Hartranft's votes would soon begin to fall away from him and as a result that the whole delegation would then be theirs. Cameron's lientenants arranged things contrary to their expectations. They had a number of delegates from the Southern States who would vote as they were instructed. These at first were scattered among other candidates but on each of the carly ballots a few of these men were instructed to vote for Hartranft so that he gained constantly for the first four bal- lots. His vote on the first ballot was 58, 63 on the second, 68 on the third and 71 on the fourth. By this time the forces had been brought to bear which resulted in a greatly increased vote for Mr. Flayes as a compromise candidate. Ilayes had received 61 votes on the first ballot but had not increased beyond 68 which was his ballot on the fourth. On the fifth his vote in- creased to 104 and as a result a stampede fol- lowed, which brought about his nomination on the seventh ballot. On this ballot Hayes re- ceived 374, Blaine 351, and Bristow 21. William A. Wheeler of New York was nominated by ac- clamation for the vice-presidency.

This convention was one of the most exciting . ever held in this country and during its contin- uance the city was in a continuous turmoil of excitement. Naturally the residents were inter- ested in the success of their former fellow towns- man, Governor Hayes, and undoubtedly brought what influence they had to bear upon the dele- gates. This gave rise to many stories, one of which gained general currency. It has been re- peatedly stated that at a critical time when Blaine's nomination seemed imminent the local adherents of Hayes in order to stop the proceed- ings of the convention and gain time cut off the lights at Music Hall which necessitated an adjournment. That there was an accident is undoubtedly true but that it was for the pur- pose of any such effect upon the convention has . been repeatedly denied and the story no longer receives credit.

During this year on the 5th of February oc- curred the terrible panic at the newly erected

Robinson's Opera House. A false alarm of fire startled the auditors who were witnessing a per- formance by the children of the city known as "The Great Republic." As a result a number of persons were killed and the opera house for some years suffered seriously because of this inisfor- tune. Among the new organizations of this years were the National Bank of Commerce with which three years later the Lafayette Bank con- solidated, the Cincinnati & Eastern Railroad Company ( later the Cincinnati, Portsmouth & Virginia), the Cincinnati & Westwood Railroad Company, the Mercantile Mutual Fire Insurance Company and the Western German Bank. The College Hill Railroad which had been incorpor- ated the year before was completed to Mount Pleasant in May of this year. Among the deaths of the year were those of Judge William B. Caldwell, Judge David K. Este. John Gerke and Dr. Stephen Bonner. The Bellevue Inclined Plane at the head of Elm street was built this year. , Its length is about 980 feet and it ascends to an elevation of 300 feet. The Mount Adamis Inclined Plane was built a year later in 1877. Its length is 945 feet and elevation, 268 feet.

The year 1877 was the year of labor strikes which for a time menaced seriously the business interests and peace of the city. One strike lasted IO days. A citizens' committee was formed which purchased a Gatling gun which they pre- sented to the police force. One hundred picked citizens were appointed special policemen and served throughout the strike. Fortunately the troubles were settled without any great loss of life or property other than the interruption of business. Ex-President Grant visited the city: and was tendered a reception on March 20th at the Queen City Club, whose club house had been opened with a reception a few months be- fore. Another public event of somewhat similar character was the banquet tendered on April 4th to Alfred T. Goshorn in honor of his brilliant executive career as director general of the Cen- tennial Exhibition at Philadelphia. Another vis- itor to the city in September was President Hayes. Francis Murphy, the great temperance leader, started the temperance movement here in May. Cincinnati continued its record as a convention city by entertaining this year the Ohio Archaeological Association, the National Anthropological Association and the Ohio Col- lege Association. The first passenger train passed over the entire length of the Cincinnati Southern Railway on April 20th. Four days later the corner-stone of the new Government

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Building on Fifth street was laid with appro- priate ceremonies. In July the corner-stone of the new Children's Home was laid and in Au- gust the Robert L. McCook Monument was un- veiled in Washington Park. In this year came the organization of the Manufacturers' Mutual Insurance Company and the banking institution of Seasongood Sons & Company successor to Seasongood, Netter & Company. The Cincin- nati & Eastern (narrow-gauge) Railroad was opened for travel as far as Winchester in June. The Caledonian Society celebrated its 50th anni- versary on November 30th. Among the calami- ties of the year was the sinking in January of two steamers, the "Calumet" and the "Andes," which were crushed in front of the city by the breaking of the ice. The necrology of the year includes Mr. and Alrs. Vachel Worthington and Mrs. Deborah Sayre.

THE YELLOW FEVER YEAR.

The year 1878 was the yellow fever year. Prior to September, 1871, a case of yellow fever seems to have been unknown in the city. At this time a white man from Mississippi died at a private house in Cincinnati. Again

in 1873 three persons died of the disease in the city. The summer of 1878 was a very hot one. Over 300 persons were over- come by the intense heat and a large num- ber of deaths from sunstroke were reported. In the latter part of July a well known cotton merchant of New Orleans named William Himes arrived at the Grand Hotel accompanied by his wife. A couple of days later he was ill and Dr. Thaddeus A. Reamy, the physician in attend- ance, suspected yellow fever. The suspicion was concurred in by Dr. T. C. Minor, the health of- ficer, and the patient finally was treated for that disease by Dr. Eichberg, the house physician at the Cincinnati Hospital to which he was re- moved; he fortunately recovered. A day or so later another case, that of a colored deckhand on a New Orleans steamboat, was reported. This man died at the hospital. The first non- imported case was that of a young girl who lived in the quarters frequented by boatmen along Water street. This was a fatal case. In August two cases were traced to the steamer "John Porter" which had left New Orleans bound for Pittsburg on July 18th, six days before the dis- case had declared itself in the former city. This led to the establishment of a quarantine on Au- gust 17th against all steamers arriving from the

South, which were required to remain 500 feet below Keck's Landing until inspected by the quarantine physician and sanitary inspectors. In all 35 cases of which 17 were fatal occurred dur- ing the year ; but two of the cases were those of residents. The last case was October 9th. The steamer "John Porter" whose name was "synony- mous with all that was terrible" seems to have been a floating pest house and was responsible for the introduction of the yellow fever at Hick- man ( Kentucky ). Gallipolis and elsewhere. Complete reports of her voyages made by Dr. Lawrence C. Carr and others who were on duty on board of her, representing the Cincinnati Health Department, appear in the report of that department for the year. In the autumn of this year diphtheria and scarlet fever also prevailed with 58 fatalities from the former and 181 from the latter. It is safe to say that during no year of the city's history has the efficacy of the health department of the city been more thoroughly es- tablished. .

Notable events of this year were the organiza- tion of the Builders' Exchange, the opening of the Children's Home, of the Music Hall, of the College of Music, the Women's Loan Exhibition, the first commencement exercises of the Uni- versity of Cincinnati, the meeting of the Amer- ican Social Science Association, the State Re- publican Convention, the unveiling of the monu- ment of William Woodward, the completion of the' $100,000 subscription for Exposition build- ings, the suspension of the Miami Valley Sav- ings Bank and the assignment of the Catholic Institute. Another noteworthy event was the opening of the new store of John Shillito & Company. The $2,000,000 proposed loan to the Cincinnati Southern Railway was defeated in May of this year. A national narrow-gauge railroad convention was held at the Highland House in July. Among the new narrow-gauge railroads projected during the year were the Cincinnati & Fayetteville, Cincinnati & Blan- chester Northeastern, Cincinnati & Hamilton, Cincinnati Suburban and Cincinnati & Walnut Hills railroads. The necrology of the year in- cluded the names of Larz Anderson, Mrs. Mary A. Slough, Dr. O. M. Langdon, Mrs. Nancy W. Miller, the pioneer Mrs. Elizabeth Yeatman, Thomas H. Yeatman and Prof. Arthur For- briger the superintendent of drawing in the schools.

The year 1879 opened with a notable spell of cold weather, the Ohio freezing over at Cincin-

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nati on the last day of January. A week pre- vious to this there was a fall of 20 inches of snow and the thermometer fell to 20° below zero. In March the Chamber of Commerce offered $100,000 for the site of the old Custom House at the southwest corner of Fourth and Vine, where it was proposed to ereet a new Chamber of Commerce. This offer was accepted by the commissioners appointed by the President,-Al- phonso Taft, J. W. Stevenson. William Denni- son, William S. Groesbeck and Christian Moer- lein. A movement was started to remove the old building, which was regarded as one of the most beautiful structures in the city, to Eden Park and David Sinton and others offered to bear the expense of removal and reerection. The scheme however was found to be impracticable. An echo of slavery times came in February when Hen- rietta Wood, a colored woman who had been kidnapped 26 years before by Zebulon Ward, was awarded $2,500 damages against Ward. The failure of Archbishop Purcell occurred dur- ing this year and the Cathedral and other church property were seized upon attachment in March. On January 16th following, Bishop Elder was appointed coadjutor to the Archbishop and attended to the business of the archdiocese until the death four years later of Archbishop Purcell, whom he succeeded. A socialist ban- quet was held in May as a result of a lecture by Henry Ward Beecher delivered in the city on the toth of that month. The newsboy John King earned everlasting fame by presenting in June his library, consisting of 2,500 well chosen vol- umes, to the Public Library. Another yellow fever scare led to the establishment of a quaran- tine against Memphis on July 21st. At the open- ing of the Seventh Industrial Exposition, Pres- ident Hayes and many distinguished guests took part in the exercises. Several conventions were held during the year, including those of the music teachers and railroad master mechanics. A Sunday closing; agitation in December re- sulted in the temporary closing of the theatres Sunday. The newly erected Lincoln Club build- ing at Eighth and Race was formally opened this year on the 27th of May. In November came the funeral of Gen. Joseph Hooker, which was a very imposing ceremony. The announcement of the completion of the Cincinnati Southern Railway was made towards the close of this year. Among the notable deaths were those of James W. Gaff, Edmund Dexter, John Shillito, Peter Neff, J. U. Windisch and W. P. Noble the artist.

THE BALDWIN CASE.

One of the celebrated cases in the annals of Cincinnati crime is the Baldwin case which re- mains until this day a mystery. On Sunday morning, March 16, 1879, about a quarter of one, two patrolmen of the city who were stand- ing at the corner of Court and Elm streets heard a pistol shot from the direction of Ninth street. Hurrying to the point from which the shot proceeded they found two private watchmen holding a young man, in whose hand was a pistol. The man turned out to be a prominent young brewer of the city who explained that he was celebrating his birthday and had fired off his pistol as a result of a dare made to him by a well known woman of the town who resided at that point. Fortunately for him one of the police- men examined the pistol and found that it was of 32-calibre. As he pleaded that the arrest would result in unnecessary . notoriety which would be of no benefit to any one, he was al- lowed to go with his friends and his pistol was returned to him. About an hour later the two officers once more passed the same point on Elm street. This time they recognized the two private watchmen dragging a third man along the pavement on the opposite side of the street from the house of the woman referred to. He was a large well dressed man who from the fact that he was unconscious and that his clothing was very much disarranged they supposed was in- toxicated. On his temple was a little scratch from which a little blood had flowed. He was taken to the Central Police Station and locked up for safekeeping. There subsequently he was recognized as Harry Baldwin, a member of one of the prominent families of the city. llis rela- tives were communicated with but as he was found to be in a sort of stupor he was sent to the hospital. Here as soon as a physician came to examine him he ascertained that he was dead and that he had died as a result of a bullet wound in the temple. Of course this discovery created great excitement and the first thought of the officers was that of the shot fired by the young brewer. He was taken in charge but subsequent- ly as the bullet found in Baldwin's brain was of 22-calibre it was appareift that there was no con- nection between the chance shot of the loitering birthday celebrators and the dead man. Every effort was made at the time to discover the perpetrator of the crime but without success and to-day an unsolved mystery in the history of the city is the case of Harry Baldwin.

CHAPTER XLVI.

THE EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS SINCE THE WAR.

THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS -- THE COLORED SCHOOLS-THE HIGH SCHOOLS-SPECIAL DEPARTMENTS-PRI-

VATE SCHOOLS -- SECTARIAN SCHOOLS-OTHER EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS-THE TECHNICAL SCHOOL-THE UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI-THE CINCINNATI OBSERVATORY-THE OHIO ME- CHANICS' INSTITUTE -- THE CINCINNATI SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY-THE CUVIER CLUB -- THE HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF OHIO-THE PUBLIC LIBRARY AND ITS PRE- CURSORS-THE CINCINNATI LAW LIBRARY-OTHER LIBRARIES. -

THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

Superintendent Isaac J. Allen continued in charge of the public schools until 1861 when he resigned to represent the United States at Ilong Kong.

Lyman Harding became superintendent of the public schools at the end of Dr. Allen's term, and remained in that position for seven years to September, 1867. In July of that year Mr. Rickoff was reelected to his old position but he declined the appointment to accept in preference the superintendency of the schools of the city of Cleveland. As a result John Hancock was elected to superintend the local schools in September, 1867. During the year 1868 he was given a. leave of absence and an appropriation to visit the Eastern schools and report as to their suc- cess. As a result of this visit, his report of 1868 gives a very complete discussion of the schools of Cleveland ( then under charge of Mr. Rickoff ), Oswego, Boston and other points. Among the new branches to be taught in the schools he announced drawing, a subject which had not been taught in other cities of the, conn- try. The City Normal School was opened in 1868.

Mr. Hancock's administration has ahvays been regarded as a very successful one. He strng-

gled vigorously against the memory system and the excessive use of percentages in examination and the too great dependence on text-books. Ile strongly favored the encouragement of good reading and moral education in the schools and although perhaps not completely successful he did much to relieve the work of its dryness and dulness.

A feature of Mr. Hancock's administration was the Bible discussion, which reached a critical point in the spring of 1869, when on September 6th a resolution was introduced in the Board of Education reciting the desire on the part of various members of the Catholic Church to unite certain schools under the control of the church with the public schools and appointing a com- mittee of five to arrange a basis of consolidation. Thereupon Samuel A. Miller offered an amend- ment to the effect that religions instruction and the reading of religious books including the Bible be prohibited in the common schools so that the children of all sects and opinions might be permitted to enjoy the schools. This precipitated a violent discussion and many publie meetings were held. The resolutions were adopted on November Ist by a vote of 22 to 16; 10 of those voting in the affirmative were Catholics and this was used to support a claim that this seet had

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Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 2, Part 65

Author: Greve, Charles Theodore, b. 1863. cn Publication date: 1904 Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1048

Author: Greve, Charles Theodore, b. 1863. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1048