USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 2 > Part 8
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Chevalier called Cincinnati "the daughter of its own works," in that it had progressed by reason of the exertions of its own inhabitants, rather than by the enterprise of other cities. Ile was particularly impressed with the type foundry and the various printing establishments and the general atmosphere of work as distin- guished from one of leisure. "The moral aspect of Cincinnati is delightful in the eyes of him who prefers work to everything else, and with whom work can take the place of everything else. But whoever has a taste for pleasure and dis- play, whoever needs occasional relaxation from business, in gaiety and amusement, would find this beautiful city, with its picturesque environs, an insupportable residence. It would be still more so for a man of leisure, desirous of de-
voting a large part of his time to the cultivation of the fine arts and the rest to pleasure. For such a man indeed it would not be possible to live here. * * There is, therefore, no such thing in Cincinnati as a class of men of leisure." (United States, pp. 190-206.)
Two other visitors were members of the Brit- ish Congregational Union, Revs.' James Mathe- son and Andrew Reed. They found a great spirit of enterprise in the town with an ardent pursuit of business, a desire for domestic com- fort and a thirst for scientific improvement not usual in such circumstances. The former men- tioned the libraries, the reading societies and lectures, as well as the scientific quarterly, monthly magazines and newspapers and was particularly struck with the atmosphere with re- gard to matters of education. (A Narration of the Visit to the American Churches. )
ELLIS.
Another account of this period is contained in a.letter written almost a half century afterwards by Jolin W. Ellis to John M. Newton, the li- brarian of the Mercantile Library. This is quoted in Ford's "History of Cincinnati":
"It must be borne in mind that Cincinnati at that period, in 1835, compared with the present Cincinnati, was a very insignificant place in re- spect to wealth, population, business, and every- thing which constituted a modern city. The pop- ulation then was less than forty thousand. Its wholesale business was done entirely by the Ohio River, and by the canal as far north as Dayton ; but for the interior trade almost entirely by wagons. For the size of the place, it had a re- spectable wholesale business, extending in a small way to the Upper and Lower Mississippi, along the Ohio from its mouth as far east as what is now West Virginia ; but a large proportion of the business with the interior in dry goods, gro- ceries, and the other numerous wants of an in- terior community was supplied by wagons, which brought in their products and carried out mer- chandise. There were no railroads whatever at that period in the West. The grocery trade was supplied entirely by steamboat from New Or- leans. Lighter goods were wagoned by the Na- tional road, over the Alleghany Mountains, to Wheeling or Pittsburgh, and thence by steam- boat down the river. When the water in the Upper Ohio was low. these goods were brought from New York by the Hudson River and Eric Canal to Buffalo, thence by lake and Ohio Canal to Portsmouth, and thence down the river. All
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these means of conveyance will seem now to the active young men of Cincinnati as very primi- tive.
"Nearly all the retail business of the city was done on Main street, from Third street to Sixth street ; the wholesale business almost entirely on the lower end of Main street and on Front street facing the river. Pearl street had just been opened, but extended no further west than Wal- nut street, and a few wholesale stores had begun on that square. Fourth, Walnut, Vine, and other streets, now filled with an active business, were then the seat of residences, nearly all built with detached houses, surrounded with shrubbery, and the streets lined with trees. Central avenue, then Western row, and the Miami Canal on the north, were the boundaries of population."
A contemporary view is contained in an article published in the Western Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal over the initials "B. D.," which Mr. Ford conjectures to represent Benjamin Drake. It speaks especially of the Southern rail- way agitation, the various new turnpikes, new residences, warehouses, schools and St. Paul's Church, as well as two new banking honses on Third street.
HARRIET MARTINEAU.
One of the most celebrated of the visitors to Cincinnati was the English authoress, Harriet Martinean, who traveled throughout the United States in the years 1834 to 1836, and subse- quently published in her works, "Society in America" and "Retrospect of Western Travel," an account of her personal experiences. She was in Cincinnati in the year 1835. Miss Mar- tineau was a trained observer and her account of the city, already the Queen City of the West, is interesting as being that of a great traveler who had seen much of the world. It is to be noted that she suggests this city as the capital of the United States and prefers it as a residence to any other large city in the country.
"There is ample room on the platform for a city as large as Philadelphia, without encroach- ing at all on the hillsides. The inhabitants are already consulting as to where the capitol shall stand whenever the nation shall decree the re- moval of the general government beyond the mountains. If it were not for the noble building at Washington, this removal would probably take place soon, perhaps after the removal of the great southern railroad. It seems rather absurd to call Senators and Representatives to Washington from Missouri and Louisiana, while
there is a place on the great rivers which would save them half the journey, and suit almost everybody else just as well, and many much bet- ter. The peril to health at Washington in the winter season is great, and the mild and equable temperature of Cincinnati is an important cir- cumstance in the case.
"From this, the Montgomery road, there is a view of the city and surrounding country which defies description. It is of that melting beauty which dims the eyes and fills the heart-that magical combination of all elements-of hill, wood, lawn, river, with a picturesque city steeped in evening sunshine, the impression of which can never be lost nor communicated. We ran up a knoll and stood under a clump of bushes to gaze; and went down, and returned again and again, with the feeling that if we lived upon the spot we could nevermore see it look so beautiful,
"We soon entered a somewhat different scene, passing the slaughter-houses on Deer creek, the place where more thousands of hogs in a year than I dare to specify are destined to breathe their last. Deer creek, pretty as its name is, is little more than the channel through which their blood rums away. The division of labor is brought to as much perfection in these slaugh- ter-houses as in the pin manufactories of Bir- mingham. So I was told. Of course I did not verify the statement by attending the process.
"A volume might presently be filled with de- scriptions of our drives about the environs of Cincinnati. There are innumerable points of view whence the city, with its masses of build- ings and its spires, may be seen shining through the limpid atmosphere, like a cloud-city in the evening sky. There are many spots where it is a relief to lose the river from the view, and to be shut in among the brilliant green hills, which are more than can be numbered. But there is one drive which 1 almost wonder the inhabitants do not take every summer day, to the Little · Miami bottoms. We continued eastward along the bank of the river for seven miles, the whole scenery of which is beautiful; but the unforgot- ten spot was the level about the mouth of the Little Miami River, the richest of plains or level valleys, studded with farm houses, enlivened with clearings, and kept primitive in appearance by the masses of dark forest which filled up all the unoccupied spaces. Upon this scene we looked down from a great height, a Niphates of the New World. On entering a little pass be- tween two grassy hills, crested with wood, we
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were desired to alight. I ran up the ascent to the right, and was startled at finding myself on the top of a precipice. Far beneath me ran the Little Miami, with a narrow, white, pebble strand, arrow-like trees springing over from the brink of the precipice, and the long evening shad- ows making the current as black as night, while the green, up to the very lips of the ravine, was of the sunniest, in the last flood of western light. For more reasons than one I should pre- fer Cincinnati as a residence to any other large city of the United States. Of these reasons, not the least would be that the 'Queen of the West' is enthroned in a region of wonderful and inex- haustible beauty."
Naturally musical entertainments cut a large figure in the social life, particularly those at which amateurs and professionals appeared to- gether. The subject of music is reserved for a special chapter but it will not be amiss to quote Miss Martineau's account of a concert which she attended, which singularly enough she thought was the first musical entertainment in the city. The performers at this entertainment were probably all local performers. One cannot avoid the suspicion that the violinist was Tosso himself.
- "Before eight o'clock in the evening the Cin- cinnati public was pouring into Mrs. Trollope's Bazaar, to the first concert ever offered to them. This Bazaar is the great deformity of the city. Happily, it is not very conspicuous, being squatted down among houses nearly as lofty as the summit of its dome. From my windows at the boarding house, however, it was only too distinctly visible. It is built of brick, and has Gothic windows, Grecian pillars, and a Turkish come; and it was originally ornamented with Egyptian devices, which have, however, disap- peared under the brush of the whitewasher.
"The concert was held in a large, plain room, where a quiet, well-mannered audience was col- lected. There was something extremely inter- esting in the spectacle of the first public intro- duction of music into this rising city. One of the best performers was an elderly man, clothed from head to foot in gray homespun. He was absorbed in his employment; so intent on liis violin that one might watch the changes of liis pleased countenance the whole performance ; through, without fear of disconcerting him. There was a young girl in a plain, white frock, with a splendid voice, a good car, and a love of warbling which carried her through very well indeed, though her own taste had obviously
been hier only teacher. If I remember right there were about five-and-twenty instrumental perforniers and six or seven vocalists, besides a long row for the closing chorus. It was a most promising beginning. The thought came across me how far we were from the musical regions of the old world, and how lately this place had been a canebrake, echoing with the bellow and growl of wild beast; and here was the spirit of Mozart swaying and inspiring a silent crowd, as if they were assembled in the chapel at Salz- burg !"
MURRAY.
Another English visitor of this year was Charles Augustus Murray, who arrived in the city on the last day of spring. He denominates it as "that precocious daughter of the West that seems to have sprung like the fabled goddess of war and wisdom into existence in the full pan- oply of manufacturing and commercial armor." Ile insists that the history of the world did not produce a parallel to Cincinnati in rapid growthi in wealth and population and that of all the cities founded by mighty sovereigns or nations with an express view of their becoming capitals of empires not one in such a short space of time could show such a mass of manufacture, enter- prise, population, wealth and social comfort.
Prof. Frederick Hall, president of Mount Hope College near Baltimore, visited the city in 1837. In his "Letters from the East and from the West," published in Baltimore in 1840, lie speaks with enthusiasm of the physical environ- ment. After a rapturous description of Genoa, the superb, he compares that city with Cincin- nati, which he thought bore no slight resem- blance to the native city of Columbus. The high- lands though less lofty, less rocky and with fewer human habitations were far richer withi vastly more variegated and more beautiful forms and he prophiesies for Cincinnati a future, not that of New York or of Glasgow, but of London itself.
CAPTAIN MARRYAT.
Another most distinguished visitor who came in 1837 was the great novelist, Captain Marryat, who in his "Diary in America" refers at some length to his visit :
"Arrived at Cincinnati. How rapid has been the advance of the Western country! In 1803 deer skins, at the value of forty cents per pound, were a legal tender; and, if offered instead of money, could not be refused-even by a lawyer. Not fifty years ago the woods which towered
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where Cincinnati is now built, resounded only to the cry of the wild animals of the forest or the rifle of the Shawnee Indian ; now Cincinnati con- tains a population of forty thousand inhabitants. It is a beautiful, well-built, clean town, remind- ing you more of Philadelphia than any other city in the Union. Situated on a hill on the banks of the Ohio, it is surrounded by a circular phalanx of other hills; so that, look up and down the streets whichever way you will, your eye re- poses upon verdure and forest trees in the dis- tance. The streets have a row of trees on each side, near the curb-stone, and most of the houses have a small frontage, filled with luxuriant flow- cring shrubs, of which the althea frutex is the most abundant. It is, properly speaking, a Yankee city, the majority of its inhabitants com- ing from the East; but they have intermarried and blended with the Kentuckians of the oppo- site shore-a circumstance which is advantageous to the character of both.
"There are, however, a large number of Dutch and German settlers here; they say ten thousand. They are not much liked by the Americans; but have great influence, as may be conceived when it is stated that, when a motion was brought for- ward in the municipal court for the city regu- lations to be printed in German as well as Eng- lish, it was lost by one vote only."
Captain Marryat mentions, as an evidence of the rapid advance in the price of land, a story that 56 years before the major part of the land upon which was the city, then worth many mil- lions, was "swapped away by the owner of it for a pony." The unfortunate hero of this alleged bargain he said was then alive and living near the city. Cincinnati hie called the pork shop of the Union and the way in which they killed pigs "to use a Yankee phrase, quite a caution." Some establishments he said killed as many as fifteen hundred a day. He too as well as Miss Marti- neau likens the division of labor in the slaughter house business to the manufacture of pins and thereupon he gives an account of the slaughter- ing of the hogs very much like those which ap- peared from time to time in the current accounts of similar proceedings in the Chicago stock yards. Ile gives his stamp of approval to the combination of pork and molasses, which he says eats uncommonly well. He could not see any reason why if English people ate currant jelly with venison the American pork, which was far superior to any other, should not be eaten in combination with molasses.
Captain Marryat also discusses Mrs. Trollope
and her Bazaar; the latter he thought preposter- ous in architecture. "They call it Trollope's Folly ; and it is remarkable how a shrewd woman like Mrs. Trollope should have committed such an error. A bazaar like an English bazaar is only to be supported in a city which has arrived at the acme of luxury ; where there are hundreds of people willing to be employed for a trifle; hundreds who will work at trifles, for want of better employment; and thousands who will spend money on trifles, merely to pass away their time. Now, in America, in the first place, there is no one who makes trifles; no one who will devote their time, as sellers of the articles, un- less well compensated; and no one who will be induced, either by fashion or idleness, to give a halfpenny more for a thing than it is worth. In consequence, nothing was sent to Mrs. Trol- lope's bazaar. She had to furnish it from the shops, and had to pay very high salaries to the young women who attended; and the people of Cincinnati, aware that the same articles were to be purchased at the stores for less money, pre- ferred going to the stores. No wonder, then, that it was a failure; it is now used as a dancing academy, and occasionally as an assembly-room.' (Diary in America, p. 150.)
As to the society of Cincinnati Captain Mar- ryat said that it was as good as any in the Union and infinitely more agreeable than in some other cities, as in it there was a mixture of the South- ern frankness of character. A Cincinnati lady told the Captain that the people of Cincinnati were not angry with Mrs. Trollope for the de- scription of the society which she saw but for the assertion that it was the best society. Mrs. Trollope had come to the city quite unknown, except that she was a married woman traveling without her husband. She took a cottage on the Hill and used to come down to the city to market and attend to the erection of her Bazaar. As this was all that was known of her, she did not receive social attentions, which was perhaps the cause of her indignation.
Captain Marryat was surprised at the refusal of a tailor, to whom he had sent to take his measure for a coat, to come to him, as such pro- ceedings were not republican ; he was obliged to go to the tailor.
The heat at the time of his visit was most intense, the thermometer standing above 100°. The Captain was astounded by a remarkable death from the drinking of ice water, a com- mon American habit. A young man drank a glass of water at the bar of the hotel and im-
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mediately fell down dead. He tells us of another scalawag, whose thirst not for water but for more fiery liquid was unquenchable. The rem- edy for illness from drinking cold water he said was brandy. This fellow would go to a pump and pretend to drink large quantities of water. He then would fall down by the pump as if seri- ously ill; "out would run people from every house, with brandy, and pour it down his throat till even he had had enough; he would then pretend gradually to recover, thank them for their kindness and walk away. When he re- quired another dose, he would perform the same farce at another pump." This spectacle of young men falling down by pumps with citizens rush- ing from every house with bottles of brandy is certainly a phase of Cincinnati life well worth recording.
Captain Marryat's stay in the city was en- livened by a dinner at Sportsman's Hall proper- ly known as Corbin's at which about 75 gen- tlemen presided over by Jacob Strader and Robert P'unshon were present. Captain Marryat responded to a toast naming him as the wizard of the sea and took occasion to discuss the charges of unfairness which had been made against some of his remarks about the country. Another toast was responded to by Capt. Josephi Pierce who had commanded a vessel which had been captured some 24 years before by an En- glish frigate on which Marryat had been a junior officer. Other toasts were responded to by General Lytle, D. T. Disney, Peyton S. Symmes and others. Their character indicated clearly the feeling that had been aroused in the discussions concerning the relation of Eng- land and . America.
Another episode of Captain Marryat's visit was a trip to a Methodist camp meeting about seven miles from the city. Here he had a sighit of one of those enormous temporary gatherings where hundreds of people lived for weeks at a time in open tents. He became acquainted with the "Anxious Seat" and was astounded at the extraordinary performances of the religious en- thusiast.
REMINISCENCES OF "OLD MAN."
The "Old Man's" gossipy reminiscences al- ready referred to are full of information more or less authentic. A well known store in the early days was that of D. I. Johnson, an auc- tioneer and grocer, who at first was at No. 175 Main street and subsequently in 1821 occupied a very large store at No. 86 Main street. Ile was a grocer and auctioneer. The first book
auctions opened in the city were in charge of Johnson and were held about once a month. In front of the store was kept a bulletin board and here other advertisers were apt to display their notices. In August, 1821, during the contro- versy about the Medical College of Ohio, at first confined to the doctors but afterwards involving all the citizens, David G. Burnet, a brother of the mayor, who led one faction, posted on Johnson's bill-board the following notice :
"TO THE PUBLIC."
"It is known to every gentleman in Cincin- nati that Dr. Jesse Smith has acquired an infa- mous celebrity by the scurrilous effusions of his pen, the favorite weapon of the poltroon, in a newspaper controversy with my brother, Mayor of this city. I have heretofore considered the Doctor's stupid calumnies as worthy only the lash of satire ; but his infamous attack in the 'Inqui- sitor' of this morning demands a more serious notice. There are reasons that would be deemed sufficient to restrain an honorable and manly mind from selecting my brother as an object on whom to exhibit a display of spirit; but the restraints natural to an honorable mind appear to act as incentives with the gallant Doctor. I therefore pronounce Dr. Jesse Smith to be an unprincipled scoundrel, a liar, a poltroon and a coward.
"DAVID G. BURNET." "CIN'TI, August 28, 1821."
Naturally this mild expression of opinion aroused some feeling and for a time pistols and duels were talked of. This tempest in the tea- pot was finally quieted and the following notice was published on the bulletin board and in the public press :
"TO THE PUBLIC."
"The undersigned have the pleasure to in- form the public that the controversy between Isaac G. Burnet, Esq., and Dr. Jesse Smith has, under their mediation, been happily adjusted to the satisfaction of all concerned. The proposi- tion for this mode of settling it was first made by the friends of Dr. Smith to Mr. Burnet, who, upon being assured that it was made with the knowledge and approbation of Mr. Smith, promptly acceded to it.
"WVM. IL. HARRISON, "MARTIN RUTER, "OLIVER M. SPENCER, "SAMUEL W. DAVIES, "NATHAN GUILFORD, "WILLIAM OLIVER."
"September 3."
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For many years the store of Platt Evens was one of the show. places of the town and the fame of its owner extended abroad. Lafayette or- dered a suit of clothes from him and so did President Zachary Taylor. Evens was very proud of the appearance of his place and par- ticularly of a handsome black walnut counter which ornamented it. At one time Gen. James Taylor, the famous land owner of Newport who was in the store, seated himself on the counter and began whittling its edge with his penknife. The indignation of Evens can be more easily imagined than described but without making any comment he slipped behind the doughty Kentuck- ian and with a pair of shears clipped off the tails of the General's coat. The feuds of modern times disappear into utter insignificance as com- pared with the explosion of wrath that thereupon ensued, the explosion which agitated the frames of two mighty men, the merchant tailor and the warrior Taylor. The latter demanded pay for his ruined coat, whereupon the former boiling with rage replied in his stuttering fashion : "Wh-wh-wh-when y-y-you p-p-pay me for my c-c-c-counter I'll p-p-pay you f-f-f-for your c-c-coat." .After some interchange of compli- ments, the matter was settled by the General ordering a new suit for which he paid a price which allowed a sufficient margin to pay for re- pairing the counter.
It is said that the famous old story of the market so popular with many of our okler gen- eration originated with Evens. He was very. fond of geese but was equally fearful of tough specimens of the bird. Once while at market he saw a countryman with a number of geese for sale. Calling the peddler aside, he said : "Y-y-y-you s-s-see my f-f-f-friend 1 k-k-keep a b-b-b-boarding house and I w-w-want the
t-t-t-toughest g-g-g-geese you have." The coun- tryman carefully selected his most antique speci- inens which he was prepared to warrant as being tough cuough for any boarding house. There- upon Evens whispered: "S-s-s-seeing it's you, 1 g-g-g-guess I'll t-t-take the others.'
Evens accumulated a fortune and finally built a beautiful home just west of the city between Spring Grove and the present Chester Park. The stories of his business life and his subse- quent tribulations about his pond would fill a . volume.
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