USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Cincinnati, the Queen City, 1788-1912, Volume II > Part 10
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The work in the dispensary during 1909 was in keeping with the triple pur- pose of modern tuberculosis-therapy. Endeavor was made to teach patients cor-
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rect principles of personal hygiene in keeping with the indication offered by the disease and by the exigencies of sanitation arising from the infectious character of tuberculosis. In addition, clinical work was done such as was required by the patients attending the dispensary, suitable cases being sent to the branch hospital, and other cases being cared for by visiting nurses. Special care is given to the children who come to the dispensary, not only because the prospects in these cases are usually better, but also because children are apt to propagate the modern teaching in regard to tuberculosis more than any other class of patients.
The nurses of the Bureau of School Hygiene visited nine schools, and two kindergartens. They made 984 visits, saw 3,216 new cases, and 7,392 old cases. They discharged 2,437 cases, took to the dispensary 343, obtained glasses for 212, had 137 operated on, and held with parents 246 consultations.
They looked after cases of pediculosis 936, scabies 125, ringworm 154, mis- cellaneous skin diseases 281, defective vision 506, other eye conditions 36, adenoids and enlarged tonsils 463, ear conditions 106, wounds 57, contagious diseases 69, non-contagious diseases 449, miscellaneaus 507.
Treatment for 105 was given at home, and for 445 at school. Visits were made at home 1,688, at dispensary 332, and at operations 40.
Recommendations were made to family physician 557, to childrens' clinic 423, to other dispensary 664, and to charitable institutions 76.
Investigation of the Odontological Society in examinations of the mouths of children of the Sixth District School were made on 920; there were only 85 without defect; only 414 were accustomed to clean their teeth. The condition of the mouth of 238 was good; of 481 fair, and of 200 bad. 606 had no family dentist. 76 had irregular teeth, and 112 had permanent teeth missing.
Dr. Frank H. Lamb, chemist and bacteriologist, made a total of examinations in the laboratory 7,483, an increase of 1;582 over the previous year. The diph- theria examinations numbered 1,181. Sputum samples numbered 1,400. Widal examinations were 364.
There were 2,57I samples of milk examined. Part of these samples were from shippers, and out of 707 only 119 were below legal standard. In 1908 the per cent of milk shipped into Cincinnati below legal standard was 46.2 per cent, while during 1909 it was only 16.9 per cent. Most of this adulteration was by water. The milk shipped into Cincinnati still, (1911) shows a very large per cent of adulteration, but there has been a marked improvement. This improvement is due to the active campaign made by the government against shippers who live in other states and ship milk into Cincinnati, and over whom the local department has no jurisdiction. There are a number of producers who live in Ohio and are reached through a cooperation of the state and city authorities. When the state authorities take this matter up and prosecute offenders within the state the per- cent of adulterated milk shipped into Cincinnati will fall much lower than it is at present.
There were 1,672 wagon samples examined, and of these 526 were below legal standard. The percentage below standard in 1908 was 59.3 per cent and in 1909 was 40.4 per cent, though about three times as many samples were examined in the latter year as in the former.
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Most of the milk sold in Cincinnati is distributed by large corporations who separate the milk and decombine it in proportion required by law, and do not give any excess of fat or total solids to the consumer. These samples run slightly below legal standard by the Babcock method in use, but by chemical analysis would be at legal standard or above. But these are classified as adulterated and below legal standard.
Of 1,672 samples examined, 34 were found below legal standard by chemical examination. This is but two per cent, and shows the marked improvement that has taken place in our milk supply.
The ordinance requiring milk to be delivered in bottles has eradicated one of our greatest milk evils; that is the store with the open jar of milk, cooled with a lump of ice. It has also saved the department considerable expense, as con- victions of store keepers for selling adultered milk was almost impossible under our laws.
The Bureau of Sanitary Inspection reported 14,893 nuisances and abated them all. It inspected 4,412 houses.
The Bureau of Meat and Live Stock Inspection inspected and condemned $25,967 worth of live and dead stock, hogs, cattle, sheep and calves. Carcasses inspected at time of slaughter, passed for human food and branded, and meat stores, etc., inspected, totals 39,703.
The Bureau of Fruit and Vegetables Inspection condemned $8,993 worth of fruits and vegetables. There was a total of inspections of commission houses, auction houses, stores, licensed venders, vessels, railroads, market stands, mar- kets, ice houses, of 47,103.
THE WATERWORKS.
This is one of the best watered portions of the world. Rainfalls are regular and abundant. Wells and cisterns can be readily formed anywhere in this region. The city stands on the bank of a river, and other rivers are in the immediate vi- cinity.
Nevertheless the pioneers had some difficulties as to suitable water supply, and the city has had great problems to solve as to pure and wholesome water.
The early settlers had no difficulties as to water supply except for drinking purposes, as the river provided abundantly. For drinking uses there were several natural springs, but these were neither large nor constant, and the river was util- ized to some extent even for this purpose.
"Kilgour's Spring" was one of the largest, and it was used by many in the neighborhood. It was on the spot where stands the Little Miami depot. Tan- yards seem to have been speedily planted near the several important springs. One was Deacon Wade's on Congress street, between Pike and Butler streets; another was in the valley of Deer Creek at the end of Harrison street ; Hunt's was just above Court street.
Robert Shaw, known as the "water witch," whose business was well digging, dug the first well an the spot where Cincinnati now stands. This was in 1791. Shaw wrote and illustrated his own life in a crude way, and a copy of this book is in the Cincinnati Public Library. Shaw says this well was at Fort Washington,
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"where I dug the first well that ever was in Cincinnati, and by my directions the well in the garrison was finished, besides a number of other wells which I laid off, and which have been finished since my leaving there, which is a clear demonstra- tion of the infallibility of the forked rod. For I do maintain that there is no danger of failing in procuring water, provided a man digs to the depths prescribed by the man who carries the rod, and understands the efficiency of it."
In 1793 a Scotchman named David McCash came here from Kentucky. During that year, McCash's oldest son invented a method of conveying water to the houses of such citizens as needed a supply. His cart was a barrel on two poles. A cross-piece midway on the poles held them together, while pegs kept the barrel in position. The front portion of the poles served as shafts for a horse.
Cist in "Cincinnati in 1851" reverts to the early water supply, and says: "The first settlers of Cincinnati drank from the springs in the hillside, along and below the present line of Third street, and did their washing in the Ohio river. As the population increased individuals for their greater private convenience sank private wells. Still a large portion of the inhabitants obtained their supply from the river and there are many still living who associate toting water by hoop and bucket with their reminiscenes of a washing day.
"The summer of 1802 was very dry, and most of the springs failed. Among the rest was the one which supplied Deacon Wade's tan-yard. Without water the business could not go on-not a dray in the settlement-what was to be done? An inventive genius, James McMahan, came to their relief ; with an axe and augur he repaired to the adjoining fields, cut a couple of saplings, pinned cross-pieces, and upon them secured a cask. To this dray, by aid of a yoke, or wooden collar, he geared his bull, and with this "fixin'" the water was furnished, and the busi- ness of the yard kept in operation.
"In 1806 when the citizens numbered seventeen hundred, the first move for supplying them with water was made by William, better known as "Bill," Gibson, rigging a cask upon wheels, and undertaking the furnishing of water as a part of his business. The facility this water cart afforded was as great a desideratum and as marked an epoch in the history of the progress of the comforts of the town as any subsequent improvement for furnishing the city with water.
"In 1817 Jesse Reeder built a tank on the bank of the river near Ludlow street. By means of elevators worked by horse power he lifted the water into this tank and thence sold it to water carts.
"In 1816 the town council of Cincinnati granted the Cincinnati Woolen Manu- facturing company the exclusive privilege of laying pipe through the streets, lanes and alleys of the town for the purpose of supplying the citizens thereof with water, conditioned "that on or before the fourth day of July, 1819, the pipe should be laid and water conveyed to that part of the town lying south of Third street, commonly called the 'Bottom,' and to that part of the town called the 'Hill,' so that it may be delivered three feet above the first floor of James Furgeson's kitchen, on or before the second day of July, 1823.
"In 1818 the Woolen Manufacturing Company, with the assent of the town council, transferred all their right, interest and privilege of supplying the inhabit- ants of the town of Cincinnati with water to. S. W. Davies, and the legislature granted said Davies and his associates an act of incorporation by the name of the
Vol. II-6
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Cincinnati Water Company, with the privilege of creating a capital not exceeding seventy-five thousand dollars. Mr. Davies purchased the property now occupied by the engine house and reservoir, and commenced preparing for furnishing the city with water. A reservoir forty by thirty, and six feet deep, bottom and sides planked, was excavated on the hillside, a little south and west of the present site. Two frame buildings were erected on the bank, one on the north and the other on the south side of Front street. A lifting pump, placed in the building south of Front street, lifted the water from the river into a tank in the building on the north side of Front street. From this tank the water was forced up the hill into the reservoir. The pipes, pumps and machinery were of wood, and worked by horse power.
"In 1820, there being at the time no improvements between Broadway and the reservoir, the wooden pipes leading into the town were laid along the hillside, through Martin Baum's orchard, down to Deer Creek; on the west side of the creek, through what at the time was Baum's fields, now Longwood's garden, and other lots to Broadway; thence along Fifth street to Sycamore, and down Syca- more to Lower Market. Here the first fire-plug-a wooden pent-stock-was placed, and from it the first water lifted by machinery, from the Ohio river, and passed through pipes for the use of citizens, flowed on the third day of July, 1821.
"In 1824, Mr. Davies purchased the engine and boiler of the steamboat Vesta ; and Mr. Joseph Dickinson, after having repaired and fitted the engine up in the frame building south of Front street, attached by means of crank and lever two lifting pumps, of six-inch cylinder, and two force pumps of seven inch cylinder and four-feet stroke. With these the water was lifted from the river into a tank in the same building, and forced from this tank, up the hill, four hundred feet through five inch iron pipe, and three hundred and fifty feet of gumwood pipe into the reservoir. The trees for these pipes were cut in Deacon Wade's woods, near the corner of Western row and Everett streets.
"In 1827, Mr. Davies sold his interest in the waterworks to Messrs. Ware, Foote, Greene and others when, in accordance with the act of incorporation, a company organization took place. At this time there were about seventeen thousand feet of wooden pipe, five hundred and thirty hydrants, and less than five thousand dollars income.
"In 1828, the engine was repaired and the entire pumping apparatus re- modeled by Anthony Harkness. After this the water was thrown through a twelve inch iron pipe into a new stone reservoir, one hundred feet by fifty, and twelve feet deep. This reservoir was enlarged from time to time, until its dimensions equalled three hundred and fifty feet in length by fifty feet in width, and twelve feet deep, containing one million, two hundred thousand gallons of water. This reservoir, having served its day, has now given way to make room for a new one, enlarged to meet the present demand.
"In 1833, Mr. Harkness made and put up a new engine and pumping appara- tus, which is now in use (1851)." .
To go back to the earlier period : it is said that a man named Port, who had been a Hessian soldier in the Revolution, followed for some time the occupation of supplying water to the citizens of this town.
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An advertisement in the Spy of June, 1801, inserted by Avery and Fithian, stated "they have completed their well of excellent water, at a heavy expense, and that four dollars per year will be expected from every person or family using the water. The well will have to be kept in order, and supplied with buckets, rope and windlass, and cleaned out at least once a year,"-hence the charges.
In addition there were other privately owned wells from which water could be procured at a regular charge.
There were also publicly owned wells at Lower Market street, between Main and Sycamore streets, one on Main street, and one near the bank of the Miami Exporting Company ; these were maintained by assessments.
In 1815, Dr. Drake, states there were some not very satisfactory springs on the edges of the town; also that others were on the sides of the hills. But none of these were adequate to supply the town. Several wells had been digged. He notes that those east of Broadway were from thirty to fifty feet in depth ; some on the northwest parts of the hill twenty to forty feet ; those in the Bottom from forty to sixty feet. West of Broadway, between Third and Sixth streets it was necessary to go from seventy to one hundred feet for water.
Cisterns were common. But a large part of the water used was brought from the river in barrels, and often this had to be allowed to settle because of the im- purities. Housekeepers preferred it for all uses except drinking.
According to the grant of 1816 to the Cincinnati Woolen Manufacturing Com- pany, that Company had for ninety-nine years the exclusive privilege of supplying the city for a yearly payment of one hundred dollars; they had also the right to free water at fires. The company was obliged to put a fire plug in each block where the water was introduced and to fill public cisterns or reservoirs without charge.
In a biography of Samuel E. Foote, the writer, John P. Foote, says in regard to the Cincinnati waterworks: "At an early period in the history of Cincinnati, when its future growth and prosperity appeared to be fully established, the need of a regular supply of water was seen to be necessary, not only for family pur- poses but for supplying the wants of manufacturing establishments, which were beginning to be requisite for the supply especially of those heavy fabrics, the transportation of which from the seaboard imposed taxes too heavy to be borne by the early emigrants to our western towns and farms. This want, a most ener- getic and accomplished man of business, Colonel Samuel W. Davies, undertook to supply. He raised a substantial building of stone and brick, at a low water mark of the river, for the accommodation of the lifting and forcing pumps, necessary to convey the water of the river to a reservoir, on a hill immediately north of the building. This reservoir was about three hundred feet above low water mark, and was near the eastern boundary of the city, and higher than its highest levels. He laid wooden pipes for carrying the water through the principal streets of the city, but its rapid increase soon showed that such pipes were insufficient to supply even a small portion of its requirements. The growth and extension of the city being chiefly to the westward, iron pipes, and those of larger calibre than would have been necessary had the growth of the city been upwards on the river, as had ever been the course of our river towns, were needed.
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"Colonel Davies, when he had devoted all his means-his capital and his credit-to the work, found that he had but made a commencement and there was a necessity for a much larger amount of capital than any individual in the west, at that time, could furnish. He, therefore, proposed to put the works into the hands of a joint stock company, and obtained a charter for the formation of such a company, which he endeavored with his characteristic energy, to organize. He found, however, the vis inertia of the citizens in regard to public improve- ments, proportionate to their efforts for the increase of their individual fortunes. As in the case of the canal stock, there was found a sufficient number of citizens who considered it a public duty of others to carry out Colonel Davies' undertak- ing, which was the extent of their public spirit in this case. The prevalence of this opinion, however, did not produce the desired practical result, and the plan was on the point of being abandoned for the want of funds. Under these circumstances the following named gentlemen undertook to unite with Colonel Davies and carry on the works; these were David B. Lawler, William Greene, Samuel E. and J. P. Foote, and N. A. Ware, who, however, soon sold his share in the establishment to George Graham and William S. Johnston. These gentlemen constituted the "Cincinnati Water Company." Samuel E. Foote was appointed its secretary, and served in that office during its existence, without compensation. In this office he brought into exercise that knowledge and capacity for business by which he was always distinguished. All his accounts and plans are models of correctness and adaptation to the interests of the institution. The company made extensive im- provements, substituting iron for wooden pipes, in those streets that required the largest mains, establishing improved pumps, enlarging the reservoirs, and gener- ally adapting the progress of the works to that of the city. They, however, became weary of well doing in the cause of the public, for which their returns in money were not enough, and in reproaches and abuse for demanding payment rents, too much, for the comfort of their lives. They, therefore, made an offer of the estab- lishment to the city, for a sum which,-judging from the cost of subsequent im- provements,-was less than half what it would have cost to begin and carry for- ward the works to that state in which they were. The offer was submitted to a vote of the citizens, and accepted, though similar, and, perhaps, more favorable, offers had been previously rejected. The water rents have been increased fifty to one hundred per cent since the sale, but they are perhaps not now too high, though as long as they were much lower, and collected by a private company, they were intolerably oppressive."
When the Woolen Manufacturing company sold out their rights in the water privilege to Davies, he paid them the amount of their expenditure on the works. In July, 1820, the requirements of the ordinance had been fulfilled as to supply- ing water in the Bottom and on the Hill. As Mr. Davies received little response from citizens in the way of interest in his plans, he offered to sell out to the city at less than cost. The vote was adverse. Then the water company was formed, as stated above.
In 1832 the works were again offered to the city but rejected by vote. Im- provements by the owners continued, and in 1834 the company had six thousand, eight hundred feet of iron piping and about twenty-five miles of wooden piping. In 1836 it had two miles of iron piping.
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The company, finding itself losing steadily, offered in 1839 to sell to the city at half the cost. A vote was taken and the offer was accepted. The city paid $300,000 for the system, and issued bonds for the debt. At the time the system had twenty thousand, four hundred and twenty-three feet of iron piping, and one hundred and seventeen thousand, eight hundred and forty-three feet of wooden piping. The diameter of the iron piping was three or four inches and of the wooden, two and one-half inches. In 1833 a new engine and pumping apparatus had been placed by Mr. Anthony Harkness, and these lasted for many years.
Five times the vote had been taken on city ownership of the waterworks. In 1824 only twenty-five men voted for the purchase while two hundred and ninety-four declared against it. Three hundred and three voted for and seven hundred and seventeen voted against the change in 1832. In 1836, nine hun- dred and fifty-six for and one thousand, two hundred and seventy-four against. In 1839 the vote was seven hundred and twenty-eight for and five hundred and fifty-three against.
This bonded debt for the waterworks became due January 15, 1865, and was then redeemed.
The original hydraulic water works were in the upper part of the city. The walls of the building were on rock foundation, about ten feet above low water mark of the river. The walls were eight feet thick at the bottom and five feet at the top, thirty-five feet above the foundation rock.
A brick building, of three stories stood on this. The total height from the rock was ninety feet. There was a well in the rock for water that ran in through the canal from the main channel at the lowest river stage. Water from this well was pumped by two pumps into a cistern above high water mark. The water from this was forced through the main pipe to a reservoir on the hill. This was one hundred and fifty-eight feet above low water mark. It was about thirty feet above the highest part of the city, except the hills.
This water was then carried from the reservoir by means of two series of wooden pipes to the main part of the city. About five or six hundred families and several manufacturing establishments were supplied.
During the first year of the city's ownership of the water works it received only thirty-nine thousand, four hundred dollars. The expenses for thirteen years were greater than the income.
The city took possession of the waterworks June 25, 1839. The officers of the old organization continued to operate the plant until September 15th. The directors held a meeting in the council room September 7, 1839, Edward Wood- ruff, president and E. Hinman, Oliver Lovell, A. H. Ewing, N. S. Hubbell and Jonah Martin being the members. Isaac Eveleth was chosen secretary and Samuel H. Davies engineer, with salaries of one thousand dollars a year each, and an office at Fourth and Walnut streets with rent paid. The rates for water per family were from ten to sixteen dollars a year. The charge for a bath room was three dollars and for each hose one dollar.
S. L. Tatem was elected engineer of the water works in April 1842, accord- ing to an act of the legislature submitting the choice of this official to popular vote. The management in 1846 was placed in the hands of three members of
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the council, but another change was soon made and control was given in charge of a board consisting of J. G. Rust, Nicholas W. Thomas, D. F. Meader, Griffin Taylor and A. Sawyer.
In 1847, by act of the legislature the control was put in the hands of a board to be elected annually. The first board was composed of Griffin Taylor, James C. Hall and Nicholas W. Thomas.
In 1846 T. R. Scowden became engineer.
Isaac Eveleth was secretary 1839-40. J. F. Irwin filled this position 1840-41. John F. Keys became secretary in the spring of 1841 and served until 1850.
In 1847 E. Hinman was chosen superintendent, and held this position until 1852. In 1852 Lewis Warden became superintendent; and in 1853 be was chosen as engineer, and so remained until 1857.
James Cooper became superintendent in 1854 and held this position until 1857, when Warden succeeded him in that position.
S. W. Irwin became superintendent in the latter part of 1857 and Americus Warden engineer.
In 1859 R. C. Phillips succeeded as superintendent and George Shield as ein- gineer. Phillips held his position until 1861, when John Earnshaw took his place. George Shield continued as engineer until 1867.
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