USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Cincinnati, the Queen City, 1788-1912, Volume II > Part 16
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In March, 1874, the government sold its old building and the site at Fourth and Vine streets to the Chamber of Commerce for one hundred thousand dollars
The government in 1873 purchased ground at Fifth street, between Main and Walnut streets for a new government building. This ground cost six hundred and ninety-six thousand, seven hundred and odd dollars. Eleven years were
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occupied in the erection of the building, at a cost of four million, five hundred and fifty-three thousand, two hundred and eighty odd dollars.
In May, 1885, the postoffice was removed to the new Federal building, where it occupies the ground floor.
Free city delivery was established in July, 1863. The railway mail service came into use August, 1864. Special delivery service was established October I, 1885. The International parcel post, January 1, 1888. Rural free delivery, October, 1896.
The first postage stamp was sold in New York, July 1, 1847. The first stamped envelope June, 1853. The first newspaper wrapper February, 1861. The first special request envelope, 1865. The first postal card May 1, 1873.
The first registered letter at the New York postoffice was handled July I, 1855. The first letter that was returned to the writer was in 1829.
The first money order was issued November 1, 1864. The first international money order in 1867. The first permit matter was authorized April 28, 1904. The first post cards May 19, 1898. The first newspaper mail at pound rates was sent March 3, 1879.
UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT BUILDING.
This great structure, the finest, most imposing and colossal of all the public buildings in the city, is a magnificent contribution to the many architectural attractions of Cincinnati, and is justly a source of pride to its citizens. It includes the postoffice, custom house, internal revenue department, offices of the railway mail service, weather bureau, and federal courts of the United States, and occupies one-half of the square bounded by Fifth, Sixth, Walnut and Main streets, with the main front facing on Fifth street. The building is 364 feet front and 164 feet deep, four stories in height above ground, exclusive of the attics and roof stories. There is an underground basement fourteen feet high and a sub-basement ten feet, furnished with light and air from an area twelve feet wide, running entirely around the building. The exterior is designed in the Renaissance style of four superimposed orders. The principal facade. 354 feet long, is divided into center and corner pavilions, connected by receding bays, while the end facades have corner pavilions only, connected by receding bays. The pavilions are strongly marked by porticos, with full, detached columns, and the divisions rendered more effective by large dormers and prominent roof lines at the corners, while the center pavilion terminates in an attic of two stories and high towering roof 170 feet from the ground. The windows, liberal in size and simple in form, are kept entirely subordinate to the orders which form the decorative features of the facades. The lines are generally rigid and the open- ings square at head, except in the crowning story, where arched openings give a very pleasing termination. The orders are very originally treated in the first story. The pilasters and columns, placed on a high pedestal, are rusticated, and by an ingenious introduction of the triglyph into the capitals, the characteristics of the Doric order are given with a decidedly new effect. This rusticated order, with its reinforcement of piers, forms an appropriate and massive substructure on which the other and lighter orders rest. These upper orders are a modified
.
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CINCINNATI-THE QUEEN CITY
Ionic in the second story and composite in the third and fourth, the whole at a height of ninety-five feet from the ground, surmounted by a modillion cornice of ornamental detail. The exterior walls are of granite, the basement and stylobate from the red granite quarries of Middlebrook, Mo., and the super- structure from quarries at Fox Island, Maine. . The interior construction is of a strictly fireproof character, as in other first-class government buildings. with partitions of brick, and floors of iron beams and brick arches. The entire first story of this magnificent building is devoted to the postoffice department, rooms for the postmaster, cashier, money order and registry offices, vaults, etc., being located at the ends of the building, while the central portion forms one vast business room, 132x225 feet, which in addition to the usual complement of side windows, has a large portion of its ceiling of glass, making a skylight 63x220 feet. The building was commenced in 1874 and completed in 1885, the total cost, including the site ($800,000), being nearly five million dollars.
In 1826 there were 20 weekly mails carried on ten stages and ten horseback routes. In 1833 there were 64 mails per week, received and sent on thirty-six stages, ten steamboats, eleven horseback routes, and seven on steamboat and land carriage. In 1884 there were 229 dispatches by railroads, four by steamboats and four by hack, a total of 237 daily. In 1909 there were 709 mails received and dispatched daily, 331 on railroads and 278 on traction lines. In 1884 there were 104 clerks and 87 carriers and in 1910, 391 clerks and 20 substitutes, 326 carriers and 50 substitutes.
The growth of the Cincinnati postoffice may be shown by the revenues col- lected from 1800 to 1909, as follows :
1800
$ 560.35 1860
120,326.58
1805
1,319.15
1865
229,602.17
1810
1,929.13
1870 294,871.89
1875 414,603.00 1815
1820
7,021.15
1880 520,676.27
1825
7,286.50
1885
665,041.14
1830
16,557.06
1890 809,605.87
1835
30,698.05
1895
1,065,403.34
1840
49,809.54
1900
1,291,088.56
1845
59,924.15
1905
1,947,211.02
1850
77,098.59
1909
2,298,581.71
1855
$ 89,734.97
RATES OF POSTAGE.
Established by Act of Congress March 3, 1825, and the amendatory Act of March 2, 1827. On a single letter composed of one piece of paper
Miles
Cents
For any distance not exceeding
.30
6
Over 30 miles, and not exceeding
80
IO
Over 80 miles, and not exceeding
. 150
121/2
Over 150 miles, and not exceeding
400
183/4
Over 400 miles
25
5,426.93
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CINCINNATI-THE QUEEN CITY
A letter composed of two pieces of paper is charged with double those rates; of three pieces, with triple; and of four pieces, with quadruple. "One or more pieces of paper, mailed as a letter, and weighing one ounce, shall be charged with quadruple postage; and at the same rate, should the weight be greater."
NEWSPAPER POSTAGE.
For each newspaper carried not over 100 miles
Over 100 miles I1/2
But if carried to any office in the State in which it is printed, whatever the distance may be I
In 1855 the rate of postage for 3,000 miles was 3 cents if prepaid, and 5 cents if not prepaid. For any distance over 3,000 miles double the amount was charged. By Act of March 3, 1885, the rate of postage on letters was reduced from 3 cents for each half ounce, or fraction thereof, to 2 cents for each ounce, or fraction thereof.
IMPROVEMENTS.
As the business increased in volume, provision was made to take care of it. Within ten years the furniture and fixtures in the main office have undergone frequent changes and improvements to insure more accurate and rapid handling of mails. Carrier routes have been increased, improved schedules made, more frequent deliveries established in the business and manufacturing regions and new routes extended in the suburbs where the requirements of free delivery exist. Eleven rural free delivery carrier routes have been established over which mail is received and distributed from the outlying branch stations. Twenty-five years ago there were but two carriers stations, A and C, now there are twenty stations and thirty-two numbered sub-stations. Nearly all of these stations have been reestablished in new buildings with modern equipments. Since 1902, free delivery has been extended to the outlying towns and villages of Winton Place, St. Bernard, Elmwood Place, Bond Hill, Carthage, Hartwell, Lockland, Reading, Arlington Heights, Wyoming, Pleasant Ridge, Kennedy and Oakley. To meet the needs of the service, two mail cars were put in commission in 1907 making nine round trips a day, delivering mail to stations and bringing back mail to the main office. We now have a very efficient collection service with eighteen collectors bringing mail from nearly all the mail boxes in the city during the afternoon and evening, the last collection being made before midnight. There are also 10 day collectors at stations.
Among the improvements urgently pressed by this office, and which we hope will soon be established, is the pneumatic tube service between the postoffice and railway stations, with extensions to the larger free delivery stations which will insure a more rapid delivery of mail to the business and manufacturing districts.
The department has laid responsibilities upon the Cincinnati postoffice in addition to the regular postal service. This office has been made the depository
UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT BUILDING
NORTH SIDE OF FIFTH STREET BETWEEN WALNUT AND MAIN STREETS
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CINCINNATI-THE QUEEN CITY
for postal funds from 1,977 offices which, during 1909, amounted to $3,570,- 925.01. It is also the depository for 500 money order offices and $3,604,078.04 was received during the year 1909. This is also the postal card sub-agency for nine states and the value of cards distributed last year amounted to $1,123,- 958.00. The Cincinnati office is the mail bag depository and dispatches sacks and pouches to offices in eight states and during the past year the following equipment was distributed, 544,000 No. I sacks, 29,100 No. 2 sacks, and 67,390 pouches. The postmaster has been appointed the disbursing officer for the rural free delivery service in Ohio and the salaries paid for this service during 1909 amounted to $2,298,227.00.
The Cincinnati postoffice has kept pace with the commercial, industrial and social development of the northwest territory and today has a record in Wash- ington second to none in the high standard and efficiency of its employes and the quick receipt, delivery, and dispatch of mail.
COMPARATIVE STATEMENT OF WORK CINCINNATI POSTOFFICE DURING CALENDAR
YEARS ENDED DECEMBER 31, 1884-1909.
MAILING DIVISION.
1884.
1909.
Letters, postal cards and circulars dispatched.
41,599,680
150,408,520
Newspaper mail received for distribution
19,694,500
59,814,000
Total number distributed,
61,294,180
210,222,520
Pieces 3rd and 4th class permit matter.
10,582,034
Second class matter mailed by publishers, lbs
3,255,670
13,000,19I
Misdirected mail matter handled.
470,426
912,113
CITY DELIVERY DIVISION.
Letters, postal cards and circulars distributed, including drop letters, circulars, 2nd and 3rd class matter .
30,366,081
129,471,510
205,190
874,866
Total number recd. and handled by Gen. Del. Section Total number recd. and handled by Directory Section Special delivery letters received
185,996
793,029
165,504
REGISTRY DIVISION.
Letters and parcels reg. with fee prepaid.
35,336
263,591
Official letters and parcels registered free.
2,289
42,817
Registered letters and parcels recd. for deliv
114.76I
334,758
Desk deliveries of reg. letters and parcels
56,540
101,479
Carrier deliveries of reg. letters and parcels.
45,232
216,988
Reg. letters and parcels handled in transit.
137,549
562,816
Total of registry items designated Vol. II .- 9.
391,707
1,522,449
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CINCINNATI-THE QUEEN CITY
CASHIER'S DIVISION.
Postal receipts
$ 610,268.60
$2,298,581.71 3,570,925.01
Receipts from depositing postmasters
Salaries paid rural carriers, Ohio.
2,298,227.00
MONEY ORDER DIVISION.
Domestic orders issued $ 495,349.16
$ 688,329.53
International orders issued
82,201.27
162,715.40
Received from depositing postmasters.
1,950,720.58
3,604,078.04
Domestic orders paid
2,415,586.33
4,455,435.12
International orders paid
45,116.02 67,776.95
Postal Card Subagency
$1,123,958.00
ROSTER OF CINCINNATI POSTOFFICE.
Elias R. Monfort, postmaster ; William C. Johnson, assistant postmaster ; Clyde B. McGrew, superintendent of delivery ; William D. Baker, superintendent money order division; Alfred A. Tucker, cashier ; John H. Meyer, Frank N. Beatty, as- sistant superintendents delivery division ; William H. Eggleston, assistant super- intendent money order division; Septimus G. Sullivan, superintendent of mails ; George Reiter, superintendent registry division ; Edward Weimer, superintendent postal card sub-agency ; Robert P. Kelly, Fred Raine, assistant superintendents mailing division ; John Mitchell, assistant superintendent registry division; Albert E. Diederich, secretary to postmaster.
SUPERINTENDENTS OF POSTOFFICE STATIONS.
Station A :- William H. Davis.
Station B :- Henry Smith.
Station C :- William Feemster.
Station D :- Augustus E. Irwin.
Station E :- George F. Seilacker.
Station F :- Frank Birkemeyer.
Station G :- Edith S. Whiteman.
Station I :- John P. Brunst.
Station L :- John F. Graichen.
Station N :- Frank E. Brown.
Winton Place Station :- Carlton W. Paris.
Norwood Branch :- Eli B. Brown.
College Hill Branch :- Anna E. Deininger.
Madisonville Branch :- Albert E. Klein.
Elmwood Place Branch :- Alfaretta Gaskill.
Station O :- Elmer E. Chambers. Station S :- James Muller.
Station V :- Harry Schoepfel.
Lockland Branch :- Clarence H. Ashar. Pleasant Ridge Branch :- Oliver W. Wood.
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A great step forward in the postoffice arrangements is just now being made by the introduction of the mail tube system. Orders reached Postmaster Monfort some time ago directing him to invite bids for the installation of the pneumatic mail tube system and its operation for a period of four years. He acted upon his instructions. The tubes are to be at least thirty inches in diameter, affording space for the running of a car six feet long and twenty-four inches inside diameter. There is to be a double line of tubes between the postoffice and the depot. It is believed the tube transmission will be a great improvement in the rapid handling of the city's mail and the saving of time in the matter of earlier deliveries. The appropriation made by congress in 1911 for the tubes in this and other cities is $500,000. Postmaster Monfort is much pleased with the prospect, the arrange- ment being that which he and the business bodies of the city have spent much time in working for. A preliminary condition to the four-year contract is that the tubes shall be operated as an experiment for the first six months without expense to the government, satisfactory service then entitling the tube company to the four-year contract. The compensation is limited to not more than $17,000 per mile a year.
CHAPTER XI.
BENCH AND BAR.
DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY'S FIVE COURTHOUSES-FIRST COURTS AND JUDGES- -RIDING THE CIRCUIT-PIONEER LAWYERS OF GREAT ABILITY-JUDGE JACOB BURNET, BELLAMY STORER, CHARLES HAMMOND-NOTED CASES-SALMON P. CHASE-JUDGE GEORGE HOADLEY-ALFONSO TAFT-WILLIAM H. TAFT-STANLEY MATTHEWS-AARON F. PERRY-GEORGE E. PUGH-RUFUS KING-WILLIAM HAINES LYTLE-WILLIAM S. GROESBECK-GEORGE H. PENDLETON-JOSEPH B. FORAKER-JUDSON HARMON AND MANY OTHERS-THE COURTS-LAW LIBRARY- LAW SCHOOL OF CINCINNATI-BAR ASSOCIATION-THE BAR OF TODAY.
BY HIRAM D. PECK.
One difficulty connected with the writing of a history of the bar of Cincinnati, or any other place, arises out of the fact that it is an unorganized body. The bar is not a corporation and has no organic unity, nor has it officers or agents authorized to speak for it, but is simply a number of individuals engaged in the same occupation, each for himself, although all are governed by certain rules and regulations which bring them into close contact and give them something of the appearance of an organized body. These facts necessarily render the history of the bar of any particular locality mainly a series of biographies, and the changes in the body, from time to time, consist only in the alteration of its personnel.
It may be well at the outset, to describe the places where the work of the bar has been mostly done, viz., the courthouses of Hamilton county, of which five have been constructed and used for that purpose, although two or three buildings erected for other purposes were temporarily occupied as courthouses when there was no other to be had.
The first building used for the administration of justice in Hamilton county, appears to have been erected about the same year that the county was organized, viz., in 1790, on the south side of Fifth street, at or near the west side of Main. We have few accounts of that building, which was probably constructed of logs, as we are told that all of the buildings in Cincinnati at that date were of that material, but there is no doubt that there was such a building and that it was ac- companied by a whipping post placed in front of it, to the terror of evil doers, and that there were frog ponds in the vicinity from which the noise of the frogs was so loud and continuous as at times to constitute an obstruction to the ad- ministration of justice.
This building was succeeded by another in the year 1802,-which was also noted as being the year in which Cincinnati was first granted a municipal charter, -erected on the same site, and is said to have been a substantial stone structure
133
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with a wooden cupola, the top of which was some eighty feet from the ground, a matter of much pride to the inhabitants of the incipient city. This courthouse was occupied for the purpose for which it was constructed until some time dur- ing the war of 1812. While that struggle was in progress it was used as a barrack for soldiers, and a number of them were quartered in it. In the year 1814 it took fire and was completely destroyed. The fire was said to have been occasioned by the carelessness of some of the soldiers who were engaged in a game of cards in the building.
Soon after that, a public spirited citizen, Jesse Hunt, one of the ancestors of the Pendleton and other distinguished families of the city, donated a lot at the corner of Court and Main streets for the purposes of a courthouse and a jail, which were subsequently built on it. This courthouse, which was known to the last generation of lawyers as "the old courthouse," was a building of some ar- chitectural pretensions-a large, square, brick structure with a tall steeple, stand- ing in the middle of the lot and surrounded by turf, shrubs and trees. It was doubtless a. pleasant object to look at and is said to have been much admired by the citizens of Cincinnati when it was first completed, in the year 1819, and . thereafter. A single courtroom of large size, and finished with what was termed elegance by the people of those days, extended the whole length of the building and was almost thirty feet in width. There was ample room for the court, jury, lawyers and spectators. The latter were separated from the others by a bar. across the center of the room, in the rear of which were seats for witnesses and others attending court who were not members of the bar, a mode of constructing and arranging courtrooms then and perhaps still in general use throughout the country, and perhaps as good as has ever been devised, for it prevents that inter- mingling of bar, courtofficers and spectators, which necessarily happens in some of our small, modern courtrooms, to the confusion of business, and the produc- tion of disorder. At a later date, when what is known as the "old Superior Court of Cincinnati" was organized, a courtroom was finished in the second story of that courthouse, in which the superior court, then consisting of a single judge, transacted its business. At the corners of the lot separate buildings were erected on Main street, one north and the other south of the courthouse, for the county officers, such as the auditor, county commissioners, clerk, surveyor, etc. In the year 1819, when the courthouse was first erected, it was considered "out of town" because so far up Main street and there were no buildings very near it, but the business which it created in that neighborhood, and the growth of the city, soon brought about the upbuilding of Main street, and it was not long until the courthouse was fairly "in town." This courthouse existed until July, 1849, when it was completely destroyed by fire which originated in a neighboring building and was communicated to the courthouse. It is said that at the time of its destruction, the people of the city were contemplating the erection of a new building, as the old one had been found to be inadequate because of the growth of the city which had been very great during the preceding twenty years, the population having doubled itself during the decade from 1830 to 1840, and the numbers of that year were again doubled when the year 1850 was reached. More courtrooms were necessary, so that when the fire was communicated to the "old
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courthouse" very little was done to extinguish it, and the fire department and people stood about and saw it burn, intending to replace it with a new one. The principal records were saved and the erection of a new courthouse was com- menced soon after and completed about the year 1851. In the interval courts were held in a neighboring pork-house.
The fourth courthouse was a fine stone structure with a handsome row of Corinthian columns in front, of the same size as the present courthouse, the walls of which are the walls which enclosed its predecessor, except the front which was removed and the present front substituted, mainly for the sake of securing the use of the space occupied by the colonnade. Many persons do not regard the present building as an improvement in appearance upon its predecessor, but rather the reverse. The courthouse of 1851 stood and was occupied for the administration of justice until the 29th of March, 1884, on the night of which a great riot occurred in Cincinnati, growing out of the indignation of certain citizens over the irregularities of the trial of persons accused of an outrageous murder. The building was set fire to, and before the police and military, who were sum- moned, could come to its rescue, a large part of it was destroyed. As good fortune would have it, the recorder's office, containing most of the real estate records of the county, was very little injured and few of the records in it were destroyed, but the records of the clerk's office and the probate court were mainly destroyed, although the original wills on file in the probate court were all saved because they were stored in a fireproof vault, and it was only necessary to copy them to restore that portion of the records. A special act of the general assembly was passed under which the records of many of the litigated cases involving the titles to real estate were restored by proceedings had in court for that purpose.
In the interval between the burning of the courthouse and the construction of another, court was held in the Albany building, situated on the east side of Vine street between Third and Fourth streets, and now occupied by the Bell Telephone company.
The erection of a new building was promptly commence.1 under a commis- sion authorized by an act of the general assembly, and the present courthouse of Cincinnati was speedily constructed and first occupied in the year 1886. It is a substantial structure and pains were taken to make it as nearly fireproof as possible, for its three predecessors were destroyed by fire and the people of Cincinnati are not willing to lose another such building in that way.
TERRITORIAL ERA. * * * *
In the period between the first settlement at Cincinnati, in 1788-1789, and the formation of the state of Ohio in 1802-3, affairs in all departments of life were in a very crude condition. It was the earliest era of the pioneers, and during the first ten years of that period, the little settlements along the Ohio were con- tinually harassed by Indian raids and depredations. Naturally the growth of the settlement under such circumstances was slow, and the population of Cin- cinnati in the year 1800 is said to have been only seven hundred and fifty. The bar, of course, was in much the same condition as other institutions of the infant settlement. At the beginning, in 1788, there was no organized government nor any courts, and the few settlers were exposed to the depredations of rude and
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dishonest men without any means of legal redress. Judge Burnet, in his notes on the Northwest territory, makes the following statement, showing how the difficulty was dealt with. "The people assembled to consult and devise a plan for their common safety. They chose a chairman and a secretary and proceeded to business. The meeting resulted in the adoption of a code of bylaws for the government of the settlement, for which they prescribed a punishment to be in- flicted for various offenses, organized a court, established trial by jury, appointed William McMillan, judge, and John Ludlow, sheriff, and to these regulations they all agreed and each gave a solemn pledge to aid in carrying them into effect." It was not long before an offender was arrested for robbing a truck patch. He was arrested by the sheriff, tried and convicted by a jury, and sentenced to re- ceive twenty-nine lashes, which were promptly inflicted. But it appears that the officer in command of the garrison at Fort Washington did not look with favor- able eyes upon these volunteer proceedings, and a conflict arose between the citizens and the military, in the course of which the judge received serious in- juries. This state of affairs was soon terminated by the establishment of a gen- eral court of quarter sessions, and a county court of common pleas, by virtue of a law for that purpose published at Marietta upon the 23rd day of August, 1788. William McMillan was appointed presiding judge of these courts in the county of Hamilton."
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