Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 2, Part 68

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

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E. D. Mansfield in his "Personal Memories" has given us an account of the first Cincinnati Observatory. After the appointment of his father Jared Mansfield as surveyor general of the United States, it was found that the object of the appointment, the establishment of merid- ian lines as the basis of public surveys, could not be accomplished without suitable astronom- ical instruments. General . Mansfield notified President Jefferson that these instruments could not be had in the United States. Congress had made no appropriation for any such purpose but the means were found to procure the instruments from England. The Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Gallatin, wrote to Troughton, the mathe- matical instrument maker at London, and pro- cured from him a three-foot long, reflecting tele- scope, a 30-inch portable transit instrument, an astronomical pendulum clock and some astro- nomical books at a cost of $1,054. The instru- ments were ordered in 1803 but did not arrive until 1806 at which time they were set up in a room of Mansfield's house at Ludlow's Station. They were used in making many astronomical observations and calculations, among others those

concerning the orbit of the great comet of 1807. The instruments which were very excellent of their kind were afterwards deposited in the phil- osophical department at West Point where they remain as memorials of the first observatory of the United States.

In 1842 was founded the Cincinnati Astro- nomical Society to which we are indebted for our present Observatory. The credit of this organization must be given to one man, Ormsby M. Mitchel at that time serving as professor of mathematics and natural philosophy and as- tronomy in the Cincinnati College. He found his instructions hampered by the lack of proper equipment and apparatus. He finally conceived the idea of an astronomical observatory which should include a fine telescope and other neces- sary instruments. His first steps took the di- rection of exciting popular interest in astron- omy. He began in the spring of 1842 by a series of public lectures. The first lecture was in the presence of an audience of 16 persons; the last is said to have been listened to by two thousand. Hle finally organized the Cincinnati Astronomical Society with 300 shares at $25 each and on June 16th he sailed for Europe in search of a proper refracting telescope which should be sufficiently large and properly mounted for his purpose. It is said that there were not more than a half dozen glasses such as he desired in existence at that time but in the cabinet of the Frauenhofer Institute in Munich, at that time in charge of Maertz and Mayer, Mitchel came across an unl- finished glass of 12 inches in size which after thorough testing he found was just what he wished. The price of this was $10,000, but despite the fact that Mitchel had nothing like such a

Stim he closed a contract for the glass . and was home again in a little over three months, having visited a number of great observatories abroad and made acquaintance among foreign astronomers. The glass as mounted was the largest telescope in America with the diameter of its object glass 12 inches and its focal length 1714 feet and it was with great enthusiasm that Mitchel de- scribed his adventures to the members of the association who gathered to welcome him on his return home. Nicholas Longworth offered to the society any four acres out of 25 of his property on what was afterwards known as Mount Adams. Here on November 9, 1843, at the very peak of Mount Adams where after- wards stood the monastery of the Passionist Fathers, ex-President Jolm Quincy Adams then

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over 77 years of age laid the corner-stone of the Observatory. In the presence of a vast mul- titude, Mr. Adams delivered an oration such as but few men of the time were capable of. He was introduced by Judge Burnet who had been instrumental in securing the attendance of the distinguished statesman. His address and more than that the dignity of his person made such an impression upon the community that the hill upon which the Observatory was erected re- ceived from that time the name "Mount Adams," which it holds to-day. At the time of the lay- ing of the corner-stone, Mitchel had been able to collect but $3,000 which was the amount to be paid upon signing the contract. It became necessary therefore to raise the additional amount of $6,500 in time to meet the pay- ment of the balance due when the great refract- or should be shipped to the United States in June, 1844. The amounts that had been sub- scribed by reason of the commercial conditions were hard to collect. Mitchel took this duty upon himself and he made a most systematic at- tempt to get together the necessary funds. He kept a regular journal of each day's work, not- ing the persons visited, the sums collected, prom- ises to pay and the day when told to call again. Although the postponements at times were as much as four months, promptly at the hour he presented himself for his money. At the end of 40 days he was able to pay over to the treas- urer $3,000 collected from the old subscribers and nearly $2,000 in due-bills payable in carpen- ter work, painting, dry goods, boots and shoes, hats and caps, plastering and bricklaying, black- smith work, paints and oils, groceries, pork bar- rels, flour, bacon and lard, hardware, iron, nails, etc., in short in every variety of trade materials and workmanship. From these due-bills there was raised within the next thirty days about $500 in cash, leaving $3,000 still to be collected. Mitchel made out a list of the prominent and wealthy citizens and opposite the names of eight he marked $200 and opposite ten, $100 and op- posite the names of others $50 cach. Every man called upon with one exception responded with the amount placed opposite his name. The necessary funds were finally turned over for the instrument but this left nothing for building. Several thousand dollars had been subscribed payable in work and materials. As Mitchel could get no one to take the contract for the building he concluded to hire workmen by the day and superintend the erection of the building himself. The price of hanling brick to the summit of

Mount Adams was so great that it was found necessary to build it of limestone taken from the ground. In June, 1844, he engaged two masons and a tender and proceeded with the erection of the Observatory. As exorbitant charges were made for delivering lime, he built a lime-kiln and made his own lime. He finally opened a sand pit in the neighborhood and pur- chased horses to do the hauling. In many in- stances he filled the carts with his own hands and drove them to the top of the hill, demon- strating how much work could be done in a day. For the purpose of obtaining water, he built a dam in the ravine on the top of the hill. By the end of the first week he had raised suffi- cient money to pay his hands and to employ two more masons and a tender as well as workmen in the quarry, in the lime-kiln, and sand pit. These were paid half in cash and half in trade. During all this time Mitchel was discharging his duties as professor of mathematics and phil- osophy in the Cincinnati College, teaching five hours a day from eight until one. Before be- .ginning his lectures at this early hour in the morning, he visited his workmen and arranged the work for the day and by two o'clock he was once more with them or occupied in raising funds. By the third week he was able to double his hands and during the fourth week to double them again, finally having over 50 day laborers engaged in the work. Each Saturday exhausted his funds and he began each week with the whole wages for the ensuing week to collect. With his various due-bills he was able to get certain work done in town and he at one time had as many as 100 hands engaged on the prosecution of his work,-half on the hills and half in the work shops. The doors were made by one carpenter, the window frames by another, the sashes by a third. The painter took them to a joiner, who in turn delivered them to a glazier. The car- penter paid up his stock-subscription by hanging them with weights purchased by stock and with cords obtained in the same way. In some in- stances the joists for the same floor came from two or three different mills.

The great telescope arrived in February, 1845, and was placed in position during the next month. The structure was completed by June, 1845, the time within which Mr. Longworth had insisted it should be done and Mitchel was in- stalled as director, residing with his family in the building. lle devised a number of ingenions and delicate instruments, received and instructed students and continued to make astronomical ob-

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CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF CINCINNATI

servations with much success. There was no endowment and he received no salary or other compensation or any assistance outside of that of his family. He was obliged to support himself by engineering on the route of the Ohio & Mis- sissippi Railroad and by lecturing, but despite these drawbacks he earned for himself and liis institution a world-wide reputation. The burning of the College Building stopped all in- come from that source but it gave him more time to devote to his work. During the years 1854 to 1859 he practically revolutionized the system of catalogning the stars and made nearly 50,000 observations of faint stars. Up to the outbreak of the war, the Observatory remained the best equipped in the United States and Mitchel himself stood among the first astron- omers of the world.

At the outbreak of the Rebellion, he became an enthusiastic supporter of the North. A grad- uate of West Point in the same class as Robert - E. Lee and Joseph E. Johnston and afterwards instructor in that institution, and as Adjutant- General of Ohio in 1847-48, he felt that it was his duty to take an active part in the war. He had been called in 1859 to the charge of Dudley Observatory in Albany and remained there until 1861, retaining his connection with our own Ob- servatory. He was in New York at the time of the fall of Sumter and at the great Union meeting brought about by this event he was the most effective speaker. It will be remembered that at all times during his life he had regarded oratory as an essential study for a man of science who desired to give the world the benefit of his labors. His eloquence on this occasion carried the multitude by storm and before he had completed his oration many men and women in the audience were violently weeping, while it was almost impossible for him to be heard because of the repeated cheering. He was made brigadier-general of volunteers of Ohio and reported to General Mcclellan. At the request of the citizens of Cincinnati, he was transferred to this city and placed in charge of fortifying the city and preparing recruits for the field. He served in the Tennessee and Ala- bama campaigns of the winter of 1861-62. The so-called "locomotive chase," one of the most famous raids of the war, and his conspicu- ous service gained for him the rank of major- general in April, 1862. In September he was in command of the Department of the South at 1 Hilton Head in South Carolina. There he was stricken with yellow fever and died. He was

known throughout the army as "Old Stars" and his death was deplored as a public calamity and he was mourned as a great general.

Mitchel was succeeded as director of the Ob- servatory by Henry Twitchel who served in 1861. During the war the Observatory lan- guished but afterwards interest in it revived, particularly after the establishment of the Uni- versity of Cincinnati. Cleveland Abbe was di- rector from 1868 to 1870, during which time he established the Weather Bureau .. In 1872 the growth of manufacturing and other interests in the neighborhood .of Mount Adams made the place an unsuitable one for the Observatory. Thereupon the heirs of Mr. Longworth agreed with the Cincinnati Astronomical Society to sur- render the ground occupied to the city upon the specific trust that it should be leased or sold and the proceeds applied towards endowing the School of Art and Design, established in connec- tion with the University. The city agreed to sus- tain an observatory to be connected with the Uni- versity. For this observatory John Kilgour gave four acres of land and the sum of $10,000 and the Cincinnati Astronomical Society surrendered all the apparatus belonging to the Observatory. The new bnikling on Mount Lookout was begun in 1873 and the corner-stone of the old build- ing was relaid in the new structure. The old Mount Adams property was leased to the Pas- sionist Fathers who have used it as a monastery and school at a ground rent. Julius Dexter added a gift of $1,000 to the Observatory in 1874 and the building was completed without delay and finally opened in 1875 with Prof. Ormond Stone in charge. The old glass purchased by Mitchel was subsequently reground and reduced slightly in size so that it is now II inches. On March 24, 1902, the University of Cincinnati con- cluded to purchase a 16-inch telescope and the contract for that purchase has been made with the celebrated Clarke establishment of Cam- bridgeport. The price of this. glass is to be $9,500, the same as the price of the original. Its present director, Jermain G. Porter, has served since 1884.

THE OHIO MECHANICS' INSTITUTE.

In the year 1828 Dr. Jolin D. Craig delivered a course of lectures on natural and experimental philosophy which attracted much attention. At the close of his lectures he suggested the pro- priety of establishing a Mechanics' Institute. On the evening of October 25. 1828, in pursuance of a public notice signed by W. Disney, Luman

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Watson, John P. Foote and John Locke, it was determined that such an institution should be formed in this city and the four gentlemen named as well as J. Bonsall were, appointed a committee to report a plan of action. At a meeting a month later, November 20, 1828, Rev. Elijah Slack in the chair, Dr. Craig delivered a dis- course on the subject of "Mechanics' Institutes" and Mr. Foote read the report of the committee. As a result of this step, a charter was obtained from the Legislature on February 20, 1829, for the organization of an institution for advancing the best interests of the mechanics, manufactur- ers and art designers by the more general dif- fusion of useful knowledge in those important classes of the community. The founders of the Institute included Messrs. Foote, Craig, Watson and Disney already mentioned and also Thomas Riley, William C. Anderson, David T. Disney, George Graham, Jr., Calvin Fletcher, Clement Dare, William Greene, Tunis Brewer, Jeffrey Seymour, Israel Schooley and Elisha Brigham. Classes were formed for instruction in chemistry, geometry and arithmetic under Drs. Cleaveland and Locke and John 1 .. Talbot. Lectures in chemistry were delivered partly in College Hall and partly in the council chamber on Fourth street between Main and Walnut. Other lec- tures were delivered at Mr. Talbot's school. A little later the Enon Baptist Church on Walnut between Third and Fourth was purchased and arranged for the purpose of the Institute. On the ground floor were the library, reading room and the class room. In 1831 Jeptha D. Gar- rard bought from Dr. Craig his valuable math- cmatical and philosophical apparatus and pre- sented it to the Institute. In the hall of the Institute were given the introductory lectures of the Medical College of Ohio and some attempt was made to combine the Cincinnati College and the Institute. When the first payment of the $4,000 purchase money came due, the Institute was unable to meet it; thereupon the property was conveyed to Messrs. Foote, Graham, Fletcher and Bonsall as trustees to raise the necessary funds. At the same time stock was issued in the sum of $16,000 divided into $25 shares ; with this it was expected to erect a building to include stores and school rooms as well as a public hall and other necessary rooms but the public did not subscribe and the time passed within which the trustees were to have received their money. At this time ( 1833-34) the sng- gestion was made by the Cincinnati College to relinquish to the Institute the college edifice on

condition that the Institute should comply with the terms of the college lease in relation to the tuition of the 28 free scholars, the use of the building and the preservation of the partition walls but for some strange reason the board of directors declined to accept the offer. During this winter Professor Stowe of Lane Seminary gave an introductory lecture on the history of letters followed by Hon. James Hall on the im- portance of establishing a library in Cincinnati. The audiences were so small and the interest manifested so slight that the course was aban- doned. In May, 1835, Dr. John D. Craig was appointed librarian and general superintendent but in November of that year as a result of the un- satisfactory financial condition of the institution the building was abandoned and the large hall of the College Building and the front rooms above were procured (at a rent of $100 per an- num) to be used as a lecture and library rooms. After a year another move was made to the building on the south side of Fifth street just cast of Vine. The Western Academy of Natural Sciences had a room in the third floor while the lectures were delivered in College Hall. Here Dr. Craig gave two lectures a week, one course of which was to a class of ladies. In 1838 it was determined to attempt to raise funds by giving a grand "Mechanics' and Citizens' Ball" at the National Theatre. The ball was held on Febru- ary 26th and was a great success. Seven hun- dred tickets at $5 cach were sold and the In- stitute received about $2,400 from this source. This was followed by a fair held in the Trol- lopean Bazaar on May 30, 31 and June 1, 1838. This building was crowded with the various products of Western artisans and the fair was quite a success. J C. Vaughan delivered an address during its continuance and it was closed by an address by E. D. Mansfeld. The affairs of the Institute were in better shape and as a result in February, 1839, the Bazaar was pur- chased from Blackly and Longworth for $10,- 000, one-fourth down and the rest in five annual payments. Another ball was given in the Na- tional Theatre where the pit was floored over to a level with the stage, forming; an arca capable of accommodating one hundred sets of cotillions. Over two thousand persons were present and the profit to the Institute was. about $2,500.

Dr. John Locke than was employed as lec- turer of the Institute, delivering two lectures a week. The building however was found to be too far from the central portion of the city. In 1841 a committee was appointed to consider the

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sale of the property and the erection of a hall elsewhere. The sites considered were what was known as the "Garden" lot at Sixth and Vine streets, the Odd Fellows' lot at Third and Wal- nut and the park on Eighth street.

Pending negotiations in May, 1843, the build- ing on Walnut opposite College Hall, afterwards occupied by U. P. James' book store, was leased. Another fair was held this year in College Hall to which the music was contributed without cost by the Amateur Musical Society. Lectures were suspended until the winter of 1844, when a course was delivered by Alessrs. Cranch and U. T. Howe. In November of the following year a lot on the west side of Walnut between Third and Fourth belonging to Lane Seminary was taken on a perpetual lease on condition that a building worth $5,000 should be erected within 18 months and rooms were rented in the old Post Office building on Third between Walnut and Vine. A possible sale of the Bazaar was frustrated by Mr. Longworth's refusal to close the sale unless he received compound interest on the balance due and in February, 1847, the mortgage was foreclosed and "Trollope's Folly" with $4,500 which the Institute had put into it was lost. Finally after the adoption of a new constitution and the obtaining of a new charter in 1847, public interest was sufficiently aroused as to enable the raising of between $17,000 and $18,000 for the purpose of erecting a proper building. This money was raised principally by the exertions of Miles Greenwood. With it was purchased the lot at Sixth and Vine for the sun of $15,000 and the corner-stone of the building was laid July 4, 1848, by the Nova Caesarea Harmony Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons. The money subscribed was soon ex- hausted and the cholera made further subscrip- ,tions unobtainable but the trustees were able by the use of their own personal credit to com- plete the building and in 1850 the tenth annual fair was held in it. This netted $2,400, the first contribution of the Institute towards its own building.

In 1854 the indebtedness of the Institute was about $50,000 of which about $i8,000 was owing to Miles Greenwood and Marston Allen, two of the trustees. These gentlemen offered to sur- render their claims to the Institute upon the condition that sufficient money be raised to pay the rest of the indebtedness. An effort was first made to obtain subscriptions averaging 75 cents cach from the four thousand mechanics of the city for whom the Institute was particularly de-

signed but this failed. A call upon the merchants was more successful and finally the debt was re- duced to $15,000. During this time Dr. Locke delivered lectures and there were a number of others including one by P. T. Barnum on "Ilumbug." The annual exhibitions were also continued and were uniformly successful. Dur- ing the following years, classes were given in- struction in bookkeeping, penmanship, Ger- man, chemistry, physics; geology and nat- ural history. . Strangely enough at 110

time were receipts from admission

fees, about two cents per lecture, suffi- cient to pay more than one-third of the lec- turers' expenses although their services were given gratuitously. Finally in the year 1857 an arrangement was entered into by which the Public and School Library took charge of part of the building, relieving the Institute from the maintenance thereof, in consideration of which enough money was advanced to pay the debts of the Institute. The debt was entirely paid and the Institute became the undisputed owners of the property. In acknowledgment of their ser- vices. Messrs. Greenwood and Allen and after- wards John P. Foote were elected as a board of emeritus trustees and advisory directors for life.

During the year 1856 the establishment of a mechanical museum was considered but the en- terprise was dropped. The School of Art and Design however was established in the fall of the year and has been most successfully main- tained ever since. The 15th exhibition held from September 10 to October 8, 1857, was the most important one that had yet been held. A special building with . a framework of gas pipes and- roof of sheet iron was erected at a cost of $8,000. This unusual outlay resulted in a loss but the success of the exhibition warranted the expendi- ture. Lectures were delivered during the year by Professors J. C. Zachos, Ward, Allen, War- riner and Dr. Samuel Silsbee, as well as by Prof. Daniel Vaughn, William M. Davis and J. R. Hamilton. During the war much of the work of the Institute was suspended. The School of Design however was continned and removed from Greenwood Hall to the Institute building. After the war was over, lectures were given from time to time by Rev. A. D. Mayo, I. W. Wiley and Prof. Daniel Vaughn and regular classes were conducted by William M. Davis and J. F. Wisnewski. In 1869 there was held in this city the exposition of the Woolen Manufacturers' Association of the Northwest. This was so suc- cessful as to lead to the holding of a grand in-

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dustrial exhibition during the fall of the follow- ing year. This was the first of Cincinnati's in- dustrial expositions, all of which were held under the joint management of the Chamber of Com- merce, Board of Trade and the Mechanics' Insti- tute, and was so great a success as to lead to the establishment of the series of expositions which have made Cincinnati famous in this particular.

The history of the Institute from this time has been one of constant progress. It is now one of the most important educational factors in the city. It has at present a faculty of over 30 members and provides instruction in every phase of mechanical and scientific education, in- cluding mechanics, steam engineering, architec- ture, free-hand drawing and designing, mathe- matics, chemistry, physics, applied electricity, wood working, wood carving, metal work, clay modeling, languages ( English, German, French and Spanish ), history and economics, and music. There is a summer school and both day and night sessions. The enrollment for the year is about 1,500 in number. The director for some years has been Jolm L. Shearer.

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Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 2, Part 68

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