USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Cincinnati in 1841 : its early annals and future prospects > Part 14
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" Lexington, August 11, 1801 .- On Thursday last, Mr. Edward West exhibited, to the citizens of this place, a speci- men of a boat worked by steam, applied to oars ; the applica- tion is simple, and, from the opinion of good judges, will be of great benefit in navigating the Mississipi and Ohio rivers. Mr. West intends to apply for a patent for this discovery."
We have, September 9th, in an advertisement, some further light on Cincinnati prices of 1801 :- Salt, $2 per bushel; salt- petre, 372 cents per pound ; powder, 75 cents ; lard, 12} cts. ; tar, per gallon, 50 cts. For READY MONEY only.
I notice two remarkable and characteristic sayings of gene- ral Washington, well worthy of being on more durable re- cord, than in the pages either of the Spy, or " Cincinnati in 1841."
" To be just, one must sometimes refuse to be generous."
" To dive deep into a merchant's ledger, is a sure sign of a failing fortune, or a callous conscience."
September 30 .- A town meeting called, " to take into con- sideration the propriety of having the town incorporated, at Mr. Yeatman's tavern, this evening."
The Cincinnati theatre, and Cincinnati races, appear for the first time, and both at one date .- September 30, 1801. A well-matched pair.
A Dun. " To subscribers .- Wanted immediately, A QUAN- TITY OF CASH, for which receipts will be given, and credits entered at the highest price. Enquire of Carpenter & Find- lay, Spy office. October 10, 1801."
" Infallible cure for films on the eyes, and blood-shot eyes. -Drop in each eye of the patient, on his going to bed, two
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or three head-lice. They will not occasion more pain than an eye-stone, but will so gorge themselves with the film, or blood-shots, that, in the morning, they will be discharged dead from the eye. Let this be repeated a few times, and the cure will be perfected. Despise not this LOUSY remedy. It is invaluable to those that need it."
It is remarkable, with how much sang froid it seems taken for granted, in this recipe, that the lice may be readily found, when wanted.
" Emigration of squirrels. For a week or ten days past, there has been an astonishing emigration of squirrels from the Kentucky side to this territory. So great is the number, that between this and Columbia, as many as five hundred a day have been killed of those crossing the river, and it is pre- sumed that not more than one in every four that crosses is caught. It is probable they came a considerable distance. A correspondent suggests, from their moving northward, that this portends a very mild winter, as the squirrels would prob- ably go south, if they expected a hard one."
Sept. 23 .- " A silver mine, situated at a convenient distance from the Ohio, has been lately discovered, and purchased by a society of gentlemen of this town, which greatly exceeds in riches any hitherto known, the quantity of silver in the ore being nearly one-sixteenth."
" Account of the mammoth cheese sent by the ladies of Cheshire, Massachusetts, through the Rev. John Leland, to president Jefferson, weighing fourteen hundred pounds. The milk of seven hundred cows at one milking contributed to make this cheese, which bore the motto " Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God." This article measured thirteen feet in circumference, was eighteen inches thick, and commanded an offer of five hundred dollars for it when it reached New York, on its way to Washington.
Levi McLean advertises his singing school, one dollar for thirteen nights, or two dollars per quarter ; subscribers to find their own wood and candles.
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Prices current at Natchez, September 28th, published No- vember 14th, as the latest advices. "Cotton, cwt. 21 dollars ; salt pork, bbl. 13 dollars; flour, bbl. 8 dollars ; whiskey per gallon 75 cts. ; corn, bushel 1 dollar ; lime, bushel 75 cts. ; ba- con, lb. 12} cts; nails, lb. 25 cts .; bar-iron, cwt. $14.50 ; castings, lb. 12 cts."
Proposals made to kill beef cattle, the butcher to receive for his share the " fifth quarter." For the information of those who do not know of more than four quarters to a bullock, it may be well to state, that the fifth and most valuable quarter is the hide and tallow.
EXPORTS down the Mississipi agreeably to the custom-house books, Loftus' Heights, from January 1, to June 30, in four hundred and fifty flat boats, twenty-six keel boats, and seven large canoes :
Flour . . 93,033 bbls.
Tobacco 882 hhds.
Peltry 45 packs.
Do. . 1,980 lbs.
Bear-skins . 657
Deer-skins . 5347
Do. . . . 25,000 lbs.
Pig-lead · 56,900 lbs.
Hemp · 30 bales.
Do. · 22,746 lbs.
Bacon 57,692 lbs.
Pork
680 bbls.
Beef .
43 bbls.
Apples 2,340 bbls.
Cordage · · 196,000 lbs.
Whiskey . . · 565 bbls.
Peach-brandy . . 29 bbls.
Cider
30 bbls.
Beer
71 bbls.
Iron .
1,770 lbs.
Nails
112 bbls.
Lard
94 bbls.
Butter
44 kegs. .
Cotton ·
4,154 bales.
Window-glass .
· 22 boxes.
Onions
. 30 bbls.
Soap .
. 26 boxes.
Mill-stones .
10 pair.
Two schooners and one brig built on the Ohio. Custom
House, Loftus' Heights, July 1, 1801.
Governor St. Clair makes his speech to the territorial leg- islature, convened at Chillicothe, November 26, 1801. I re- gret the difficulty of giving any idea of it by extract, so as to show with what high handed authority he reigned over the territory of Ohio. In the document he tells the members very plainly, that they denied him time last session, to examine the
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bills presented for his signature; and that this time, however anxious they may be for adjournment, until he has leisure to examine and consider their acts, they must be content to re- main in session, and wait his readiness. The legislature to whom he thus speaks, were among the first men of that day in Ohio; of whom I notice as survivors, governor Morrow and judge Burnet.
December 19 .- The legislature passes a bill to remove the seat of government from Chillicothe to Cincinnati .- Yeas 12, nays 8.
The theatre being in pecuniary difficulties, two measures are adopted to relieve it, to wit: to call on all the subscribers to advance twenty-five cents on each ticket-season tickets I suppose-and sacrifice on a few by selling them, for that night only, at fifty cents each.
George Fithian notifies his debtors, that " those who do not pay him within thirty days will be sued without respect to in- timate friends, for CHARITY begins at HOME."
David J. Poor, who has already figured in my extracts, ad- dresses the public in the following notice. " A warning to women .- Whereas I have this day caught WILLIAM GRIFFIN and RACHEL my wife in the very act of ADULTRY, I there- fore forewarn all persons of trusting or harboring her, as I will pay no debts of her contracting after this date."
Little Turtle, the Indian chief commanding in the battles with generals Harmar, St. Clair and Wayne, passes through Pitts- burg, accompanied by other chiefs, December 3rd, on their way to visit the president. He is pronounced "to be a man of much discernment and intelligence, judging by his looks."
Several fires having lately occurred, a public meeting is called to take measures for procuring a fire engine.
Joseph M'Henry, the first flour inspector here, is appoint- ed to that office.
" Analyses, from the National Intelligencer, of Mr. Jeffer- son's temporary appointments, during the recess of congress, and now proposed as permanent appointments.
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" Seventeen cases of resignation, declining to accept promo- tion, or of death.
" Two of expiration of their commission, not re-appointed.
" Twenty-one of vacancies left unfilled by the former ad- ministration, mostly consulships, &c.
"Twenty-one of midnight appointments, to wit: made in the last days of Mr. Adams' being in office.
" Six of restorations to office which they had held before.
" Twelve of removals for misconduct or revolutionary to- ryism.
" Four of district attorneys and marshals removed, and re- publicans substituted, as a protection for republican citizens against the federalism of the courts.
" Five of removals, to give to those who have been syste- matically excluded, some share in the administration of the government.
" Two of removals on grounds of special propriety. In all ninety."
The Spy alternates frequently, about this time, between a medium and a demy sheet, as the regular supply of printing paper gives way or holds out ; the paper on which it is print- ed, being no larger than the penny papers of this city, and of a color which defies simile.
March 6, 1802 .- Samuel C. Vance lays out the town of Lawrenceburg ; a few lots are set apart as donatives to indus- trious mechanics, &c.
A town library company formed, Lewis Kerr, librarian.
Joseph Blew advertises his wife-" Hannah Blew off for the second time, without any provocation, in any possible shape whatever."
March 13 .- The earliest insurance company in the west, established at Lexington, Kentucky.
Natchez prices current of February 8th .- " Corn, 75 cts. per bushel. Cordage, 20 cts. per lb. Flour, 8 dollars per bbl. Whiskey, dull, 75 cts."
Address of " Little Turtle," the Indian chief, to president
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Jefferson, on being presented to him. It should have been extracted here but for its great length. Every line manifests that his genius as a statesman, was as remarkable as his mil- itary talent and conduct. He tells the president distinctly, that nothing can be done for the Indians, until the sale of whisky is prohibited among them by the whites ; " that his people are not wanting in industry, but that the introduction of this fatal poison keeps them poor," &c.
Electioneering makes its appearance, the charter election being at hand. Levi M'Lean is a candidate for constable, and addresses " the free and candid electors of the town of Cin- cinnati."
" Prices current at New Orleans, January 26, 1802 .- Cot- ton, 27 to 28 dollars per cwt., expected to fall. Sugar, 7 to 8 cts. per lb. Indigo, 175 cts. per lb. Flour, 4 dollars per bbl. Castings and Hardware, assorted, no sales at present. Ginghams, a very great drug. Fine blue, black, brown and mixed cloths, 150 cts. to 2$ per yard, not too stout. Sheet- iron, scarce. Russia Iron, saleable. Cheese, a great drug. London Porter, much in demand. Claret, very abundant,- large quantities from Bordeaux, selling at 30 dollars per cask."
Election, on the first Monday in April, of town officers. Samuel Stitt, and Isaac Anderson, two of the town trustees, are the only survivors at this time.
April 17 .- An Indian killed on the Ohio, below the Great Miami, near Isaac Mills's residence
" A MAMMOTH EGG EATER .- Some days since, William M'Coy, one of the sovereign people, upon a wager, swallowed forty-two EGGS, together with the SHELLS, in ten min- utes. Query. At how many swallows could he make way with the mammoth cheese" ?
A match .- In the year 1808, John Moss, now one of the richest merchants in Philadelphia, on a wager, after making his regular supper, ate three dozen hard-boiled eggs.
Town of Jefferson, eight miles above the mouth of White- water, laid out.
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Act, to enable the people of the eastern division of the north-west territory to form a constitution and state govern- ment, and for the admission of such state-Ohio-into the Union, on an equal footing with the original states,-passed.
James Wilson posts a military officer in the following terms :- " The treatment that I received on the 6th inst., from captain Cornelius Lyman, of the 2nd United States regiment of infantry, together with the subsequent conduct, authorise me thus publicly to declare him, a RASCAL, a LYAR and a COWARD."
Obituary of Mrs. Martha Washington. She died, May 22d, 1802, after seventeen days' illness. One half-column of the SPY, containing the details, shrouded in mourning.
Andrew Jackson-Old Hickory-advertises his negro slave, George, as having eloped from his plantation on Cumberland river-Fifty dollars reward. April 26th, 1802.
The brig Eliza Green, arrives at Louisville from Marietta, and the ship Muskingum, of the same place, expected to ar- rive there the same evening. "From the low state of the water at present, we are sorry to say, it is impossible for ei- ther vessel to pass the falls."
"Died, July 6th, general DANIEL MORGAN, at his house in Winchester, Virginia, at an advanced age."
The earliest school for young ladies :- " Mrs. Williams begs leave to inform the inhabitants of Cincinnati, that she intends opening a school in the house of Mr. Newman, sad- dler, for young ladies, on the following terms : reading, 250 cents ; reading and sewing, $3; reading, sewing, and writing, 350 cents per quarter."
No callisthenics, or working chenille, or Poonah painting in those days.
" Propositions to be submitted to the inhabitants of the town of Cincinnati, when met at the court-house, or place of holding the court, on Saturday, the 14th instant, at 2 o'clock, P. M. for the purpose of voting money for the use of the town :-
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1. For 6 ladders 12 dollars.
2. For 6 fire-hooks 12 do.
3. For seal for corporation 5 do.
4. For a blank-book to record ordinances 8 do.
5. For a blank-book to record minutes in . 5 do.
6. For paper, quills, inkpowder, &c. 4 do.
Total . 46 dolls."
The milling business appears to have taken a start. "From the 16th of February to the 16th of May-three months- Major McHenry inspected 4,457 barrels of flour," all export- ed hence.
Illustration of the value of cash in those days : "For sale- The Laws of the Territory ; one dollar and fifty cents cash, two dollars if charged."
" Dissolution .- The partnership between the subscriber and his wife Alice has been dissolved by mutual consent. All per- sons, &c. ANDREW BRANNON."
Next week, we have-
" The other side of the story .- Whereas, Andrew Brannon has advertised the public not to credit me on his account, it becomes my duty to state, that I have never yet stood in need of his credit. When I married him, it was in hopes of a home for my old age, which is fast approaching; but how have I been disappointed ! "He has lived off my means, re- fused to contribute to my expenses, and treated me with great unkindness. I leave this fellow to his own reflections, confi- dent, if he is not lost to every sense of feeling, they will be a sufficient punishment for his conduct to me.
ALICE GLEN."
Here are peaches, to read of which, alone, is enough, even at this lapse of time, to make the mouth water :-
Sept. 11,-" Uncommon-There is in the garden of colonel John Armstrong, in Columbia, a peach tree on which there is fruit nearly as big as a half-bushel, and would weigh, it is supposed, from twenty to twenty-five pounds."
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My extracts close with the third volume of the Spy. That press continued to exist, under various enlargements and im- provements, until it assumed, in 1814, the name of the Cin- cinnati Republican, which title it still bears.
Joseph Carpenter, the publisher and editor of the Spy, was from Massachusetts ; he came here at an early period, and at various intervals afterwards, held offices of honor and profit, in the gift, both of the people, and the public authorities. He - commanded a company during the last war with Great Bri- tain, and served in the campaign of 1813, under general Har- rison. He died under the severe privations and sufferings en- dured in a forced march to Fort St. Mary's, in mid-winter, and was buried in this city, with whose early history his name .must ever be connected, with appropriate military honors, and an unprecedented attendance of the citizens at the grave.
The generation, whose brief and simple annals have been recorded in the last forty pages, with the exception of a few individuals scattered here and there, some forty or fifty in Cincinnati, and perhaps as many more dispersed still further west, have passed away from the memory, or the knowledge of those who now figure on the busy stage of life, and must, in due season, vacate also their places in society. But Cin- cinnati-then a humble village of a few hundred inhabitants- still remains ; and, like some petty rivulet whose progress we follow until we perceive it swelling and deepening into a large stream, which gives promise, in its further course, to become a mighty and magnificent river, we behold it already a city of fifty thousand inhabitants-more people than, forty years ago, were found in the whole state of Ohio-every year be- coming more central to the mass of population of the United States, and destined to become one of the largest and most important cities, if not the metropolis, of this great republic.
PIONEER SKETCHES.
THE following narrative, from the pen of John Cleves Symmes, the original patentee of the Miami purchase, written within six months of the landing of the Cincinnati pioneers, and now published for the first time, will, in no ordinary de- gree, gratify the curiosity its title serves to excite. Such graphic sketches, from one who may be justly termed the patriarch of the Miami wilderness, written at the time, and on the spot, to which the events of the narrative refer, are singularly interesting. The whole epistle, in its various inci- dents, forms a synopsis of western pioneer toils, privations, sufferings, dangers, and adventures. Judge Symmes wrote this letter to one of his partners-colonel Jonathan Dayton, of New Jersey-and it is just such a communication as might be expected, from an intelligent man to his correspondent. Some of his anticipations-such as the value of the Miami river, for purposes of commerce, and the consequent impor- tance of his town of Northbend-have failed ; but it must be remembered, that no one, at that period, could have contem- plated that mighty change, under the influence of steam navi- gation, which has contributed to build up every point of con- sequence in the west. Nor could any one in those days have looked forward to the system of canals, and McAdam roads, which brings the produce of the valley of the great Miami more cheaply, speedily, and regularly to the Ohio river by land, than it could ever have been taken by water. But con- template him in his intercourse with the Indians ; he appears the WILLIAM PENN of the west, disposed to conciliate their
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favor, by doing them justice on all occasions, and incurring the displeasure of a portion of our own community, because he preferred living with them as friends than as enemies. Contemplate him as the COLUMBUS of the woods, exploring a new world in the wilderness, and controlling all the difficulties of his situation, surrounded as he was by intractable and dis- contented spirits, and without any resources but his own in- domitable energies. All these men had enemies in the indo- lent, the unprincipled, and the corrupt, with whom they were surrounded ; but later generations have rendered due honors to their memory : and John Cleves Symmes may safely trust his reputation with posterity to receive the same measure of retributive justice.
North Bend, May 18, 19 and 20, 1789.
DEAR SIR-I am sure that you begin to be impatient to hear from Miami. I shall, therefore, give you a short history " of my efforts to carry into effect what I had promised before I left New Jersey, in the settling of this purchase. In doing this, I have not succeeded fully to my expectation ; but I am very far from despairing. Whether I was premature and rash in the attempt of so considerable a purchase and settlement, or have not made my calculations on well-founded principles, or whether it is, that I have those who endeavor to defeat my views, either from interested or envious motives, I know not; but certain it is, that I have had the mortification to conflict not only with those from whose malevolent disposition I had no right to expect any thing better, but from those in office and power, unexpected obstructions have been thrown in my way. And though I have not been actually hindered from a settlement by the United States troops, yet very small has been the sup- port which I have hitherto received. At Muskingum, I be- lieve, from two to three hundred men are stationed, though that post is not to be named, in point of danger, with the · Miami settlement. On the other hand, one ensign, (Luce,) and seventeen rank and file, are all the guards that are al-
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lowed me at present, for the protection and defence of this slaughter-house, as some in this country, (Kentucky,) are pleased to term the Miami purchase, on which are three set- tlements, now becoming somewhat considerable, and would have been important beyond my former most sanguine expec- tations, had I been properly aided, as promised, with troops of the United States, last summer; and permitted to have made my lodgement in September last, when I first explored the purchase. Those with you, certainly, must have a predi- lection in favor of the Ohio company's settlement, or they surely would order a more equal chance on the score of de- fence. At the city of Marietta, they had more than a year the start of the Miami settlers ; of course they are much more able to repel an attack, not only from their superior numbers, but from their mode of settlement, on the New England plan of connected towns or villages ; the settlers with them being restrained by their directors, who will not allow them land whereon to settle at pleasure. The different method adopted for settling Miami, puts it in the power of every purchaser to choose his ground, and convert the same into a station, vil- lage, or town, at pleasure; and nothing controls him but the fear of Indians. Therefore, whenever ten or twelve men will agree to form a station, it is certainly done. This desultory way of settling will soon carry many through the purchase, if the savages do not frustrate them. Encouragements are given, at every man's will, to settlers, and they bid on each other, in order to make their own post the more secure. The treaty at Muskingum, being procrastinated in the manner it was to mid-winter, defeated my intentions of settling so soon as I had proposed. However, I ordered a few surveyors to proceed from Limestone to Miami, in order to traverse the two Miamis as high as they could. Mr. Stites came down with the few surveyors to the Little Miami, being the nearest post of the purchase; and Stites having a great desire to plant himself down there, two or three block-houses were erected, in November last, at that place, which Stites now
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calls Columbia. I tarried myself still at Limestone, where I had provided a tolerable house of my own, in which I sup- posed the coming spring would find me; as I could get no encouragement from governor St. Clair of a favorable con- clusion . of the treaty, nor from general Harmer of any assist- ance of troops. But, on the 12th of December, if I rightly recollect, captain Kearsey arrived at Limestone, with forty- five rank and file. He was ordered down the Ohio, to pro- tect Mr. Ludlow in surveying that river to Scioto. From Scioto general Harmer directed him to go to Miami, if a set- tlement was there begun, and protect the settlement with his company of soldiers through the winter. I now had a few troops at Limestone, where they were, of much more detri- ment than use, as captain Kearsey had left Muskingum with only a supply of provisions sufficient while Mr. Ludlow might be meandering the river, and barely bring him from Scioto to Miami, or at farthest to the falls of the Ohio. Mr. Williams, one of the contractors, was at the falls at the time Kearsey was detached, and general Harmer expected that he would soon be coming up the river; wherefore the general wrote a letter and committed it to my care, directing Mr. Williams to take the necessary measures for supplying Kearsey's company at Miami, where the general expected him to winter. But, un- fortunately, Mr. Williams had passed Limestone, on his way up the Ohio, some days before the general's letter reached me. No alternative was now left me, but to let captain Kear- sey pass on down to the garrison at the falls of Ohio, or to be at the expense, in the first instance, of furnishing his company with provisions through the winter.
I did then hope that, on Mr. Williams' arrival at Muskin- gum, and reporting to the general that he had not received his orders at Limestone, to provide Kearsey with provisions, that general Harmer would have despatched immediate supplies to . Kearsey, especially as I wrote by Mr. Williams to the general, that the settlement of Miami certainly would be carried into effect on the arrival of troops ; and that I had already directed
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the surveyors to proceed to business. These hopes induced me to detain Kearsey, and take upon myself the burthen of supplying his company, a task almost impracticable at that season of the year, when the roads, (bad at the best,) were scarcely any more passable from Lexington to Limestone, about seventy miles ; and the amazing emigration into Ken- tucky had stripped all the country round Limestone of every kind of provisions in such a manner that nothing could be bought in that neighborhood, under three times the Lexington price for the same article. "As to flour, it is chiefly brought down the Ohio from the Monongahela, and other rivers in the country round Pittsburg. And this prospect was very small, as the ice was now running very considerably in the Ohio. I had provided about three thousand weight of flour, and one thousand five hundred weight of pork, for my own family, and to assist the surveyors occasionally, when they could not otherwise provide for themselves. These stores I was obliged to open to Kearsey. At my instance, a sergeant with eighteen men were detached to the assistance of captain Stites and the surveyors, in order to support the station. These were fur- nished at once with fifty days' rations. About two weeks after, some settlers coming down the river, desirous of plant- ing themselves at the old fort at Miami, I prevailed with cap- tain Kearsey to send another sergeant with twelve men as an escort for them. These took off the residue of my stores; nor had I enough for their rations any length of time. But one of the men who came down as a settler assured me, that the soldiers who went with him should not want; he being well supplied with flour and corn, which he had in his boat. As for meat, I knew no place where that article of the wild kind, could be procured with more ease and plenty than at Miami. This detachment did not succeed like the former. Soon after they sailed from Limestone, the weather grew amazingly cold, and the Ohio froze to that degree, that I fear- ed that the party would get froze fast in the river before they reached Miami. They, however, gained Columbia, where
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