USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Cincinnati, the Queen City, 1788-1912, Volume II > Part 47
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2. In similar manner, a description of the accounts kept is drawn up and submitted to the department.
3. A description of the statistical and service records is also drawn up and submitted to the department.
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4. Special investigation is then made of such portions of the department's work as may seem to require it.
5. A report is submitted to the head of the department, setting forth what has been found, both favorable and unfavorable, and presenting recommenda- tions designed to remedy the detects.
6. If the bureau's recommendations are approved and adopted, assistance is rendered in installing records or putting recommendations into operation.
7. Finally, the report, either entire or summarized, is published, showing the conditions found, the recommendations submitted, and the action taken by the department.
This procedure may of course be varied according to circumstances. Every effort is made to cooperate harmoniously with city officials and to assist them in securing the greatest possible efficiency.
CONCLUSION.
Nothing in the bureau's experience during the past year has caused it to change its belief that any open-minded official whose main purpose is to serve the people as efficiently as he knows how, will welcome such assistance as the bureau is able and ready to give. Methods tried elsewhere with success may, for the asking, he presented for examination and adapted to local conditions. Service of this character, which in commercial life commands substantial prices, is thus available without cost to city officials. The relation which the bureau strives to maintain with public officials is one of harmonious cooperation "for the good of the service." When the bureau finds itself unable to secure the cooperation of city officials in matters which it believes to be vital to the public welfare, it is then of course obliged to place the facts in full before the public.
The bureau desires at this time to express its thanks to the many officials and employes who have obligingly furnished the information and records asked for, and who by the courteous treatment accorded to the bureau's representatives have facilitated its work.
In entering upon its second year of work, the bureau urges the necessity of an active interest and support by citizens. No matter how much information the bureau may furnish in its reports this information must be taken up and vigorously used by citizens if the desired results are to be obtained. Observers and students of municipal problems have become convinced that some such institution as the bureau is a necessity, not as a temporary remedy for passing evils, but as a permanent agency to be used by the people in the business of governing themselves. To serve this end, however, the bureau must be able to rely on the active as well as the financial backing and support of a large number of citizens.
THE PACKING INDUSTRY.
Cincinnati, once known to the would-be humorous as "Porkopolis," is still an important factor in the packing-house industry, as is shown by these figures for 1909 compiled by the Chamber of Commerce :
"The slaughtering of hogs at Cincinnati for the twelve months ending Oc- tober 31, 1909, was approximately 580,000 in number. For the preceding period
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of twelve months the returns indicated a total of 718,000. This makes 138,000 decrease in this comparison-the four winter season months, indicating a de- crease of 52,000, and the summer season approximately 86,000. It may be remarked that the year preceding the past twelve months was one of an unusually large number of hogs. For the five years ending a year ago the annual average was 650,000 hogs. The high record for twelve months ending October 31, was for 1877-78, when the number was 786,000, or 206,000 more than for the past year.
"The number of cattle slaughtered in this city for the twelve months ending October 31, 1909, was about 185,000, compared with 170,000 for the preceding year, and an annual average of 175,000 for five years prior to the past year.
"The number of sheep slaughtered the past year was approximately 150,000, only once previously equaled in number. The preceding year was one of de- cided reduction from other late years, and compared with which there was an increase of about 60,000 for the past year. For the five years prior to the past year the annual average was about 120,000.
"The total slaughtering of hogs, cattle and sheep at Cincinnati for the past year, according to these exhibits, was approximately 915,000. This compares with 980,000 for the preceding year, and an annual average of 945,000 for five years.
"The total amount paid out the past year by local slaughterers for hogs, cattle and sheep was approximately $18,000,000."
Among the prominent industries of Cincinnati are the handling of grain, flour, mill feed products, hay, handling of provisions, live stock, groceries, grass seeds, butter and butterine, potatoes, cheese, eggs, dried fruit, green fruit, feathers, tallow, hides, leather, salt, starch, wool, naval stores, hops, lard oil, linseed oil, soap and candles, whiskey, beer, ale, etc., pig iron, manufactured iron and steel. coal and coke, cotton, lumber, leaf and manufactured tobacco, dry goods, petroleum, boots and shoes, clothing, furniture, office fixtures, etc., vehicle man- ufacturing, machinery, jewelry, paints, automobile manufacture and sale, storage, dry cleaning, manufacture of barrels, manufacture and sale of fountain pens, the business of insurance, building, dairying, book publishing and printing, bank- ing and brokerage, packing, handling real estate, handling of furs, architectural work, contracting.
Cincinnati has the largest soap factory in the country; the largest playing card factory in the world; the largest theatrical poster printing plant in the United States ; the largest trunk factory in the world; the largest tannery in the world; the largest compressed yeast factory in the country; the largest tube and pipe works in the country ; the largest printing ink establishment in the United States ; the largest harness and saddlery works in the country; the largest theatrical publishing house in the country ; the largest ladies' shoe factory in the land; the largest desk and office furniture factory in the United States; the largest piano factory in the middle west; the largest coal business in the United States; it is the greatest coal-distributing point in the United States, the greatest ladies' shoe manufacturing center, the greatest art and music educational center, the great-
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est wholesale city in Ohio; it is the greatest diamond cutting center in the country, the greatest pig iron market, the greatest clothing manufacturing center in the west, and the greatest hardwood market in the middle west.
Almost every railroad of importance in the country operates lines into this city, and in a number of instances these roads maintain general offices here. Eleven different companies, representing the largest trunk lines dispatch their trains into this city. The Queen City is the only city in the United States that owns a railroad of its own, namely, the Cincinnati Southern, which uses this city as its northern terminal.
In the autumn of 1910, Cincinnati annexed Delhi, population 872; College Hill, 1,179; Carthage, 3,618; Mt. Airy, 497; Sayler Park, 877; Mt. Washington, 984; Madisonville, 5,193.
Possible future annexations are Fernbank, 305; Norwood, 16,185; Oakley, 1,639 ; Hartwell, 2,823; Pleasant Ridge, 1,769; Cheviot, 1,930; St. Bernard, 5,002 ; Elwood Place, 3,423.
Other towns that are not considering annexation are Addyston 1,543; Arling- ton Heights, 468; Cleves, 1,423; Glendale, 1,741; Harrison, 1,358; Kennedy Heights, 598; Lockland, 3,439; Mt. Healthy, 1,799; Reading, 3,985; Silverton, 479; Wyoming, 1,893; North Bend, 560; Terrace Park, 440.
On the Kentucky side, neighboring towns number population 104,671
The industrial district of Cincinnati counts in total, 590,456.
CHAPTER XVII.
EDUCATIONAL.
PRIMITIVE SCHOOLS AND PEDAGOGUES-THE UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI-FAMOUS EDUCATORS-LIBRARIES-GREEK LETTER FRATERNITIES-HUGHES AND WOOD- WARD HIGH SCHOOLS OF NATIONAL REPUTE-THEIR HISTORY-COMMERCIAL COLLEGES-THE OHIO MECHANICS' INSTITUTE-KINDERGARTENS.
June 21st, 1790, a school was opened at Columbia by John Reily. Reily was a native of North Carolina and was a soldier of the Revolution, in the command of General Greene. In 1791, Reily associated with himself in his school Francis Dunlevy, a Virginian, who had seen service among the Indians and in the Revolu- tion. In their school, Reily had charge of the English and Dunlevy of the classi- cal studies. These ex-soldiers charged for their services at a due rate for the time and circumstances and sometimes took their pay in board and lodgings. This was the beginning of formal education in Hamilton county.
The tradition is that the first school in Cincinnati was opened in 1792. Doubt- less, the pioneers had from the first taught their own children in their homes. It is said this first school began with thirty pupils. The tradition is that this seat of learning was a log cabin, near Congress and Lawrence streets. This sit- uation was not far from Fort Washington, and it is assumed that the choice of site was for the protection of the children from Indians.
Judge Burnet states that in 1795 "on the north side of Fourth street, opposite where St. Paul's church now stands, there stood a frame schoolhouse, enclosed but unfinished, in which the children of the village were instructed." This was at the corner on the public square near Fourth and Walnut streets.
The First Presbyterian church was also used as a schoolhouse for a while. Later, the Rev. Dr. Kemper erected a schoolhouse on the church property. This was afterward moved to Arch street.
In April, 1794, a resolution was passed by the Presbytery of Transylvania "to appoint a grammar school of students whose genius and disposition promise usefulness in life." In each church of the presbytery, certain men were appointed to collect from every head of a family not less than two shillings and three pence. for a fund for the education of children of those unable to pay for their own children. Moses Miller was appointed for Cincinnati. This plan seems not to have matured.
Stuart Richey announced in The Centinel on December 27, 1794, that he was about to open a school for instruction in elementary education. His advertise- ment states: "The subscriber begs leave to inform the public, that he intends to open school on Monday the 22d of this inst. in the house lately occupied by David
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Williams, nearly opposite James Ferguson's store, where he proposes to educate youth in the following sciences and mathematical branches, viz : reading, writing, arithmetic, bookkeeping, trigonometry, mensuration of superficials and solids, dialing, gauging, surveying, navigation, elements of geometry and algebra.
"The parents and friends of all such as are committed to his trust may de- pend on his utmost care and best endeavors to form their tender minds to a love of learning and virtue. He likewise will employ every opportunity in grounding his pupils in the practical parts of the above."
In March, 1800, Robert Stubbs opened a classical school at, or near Newport, called the Newport Academy. He was an Englishman, and signed himself "Rev. Robert Stubbs, Philom." He was prepared to teach the ordinary branches, Greek, Latin, Geometry, plane surveying, navigation, astronomy, mensuration, logic, rhetoric, bookkeeping, &c. His charge for the elementary branches was eight dollars a year, and for the higher studies one pound per term.
Oliver Stewart advertised in 1811 as a teacher of a Latin and English school. James White, the same year, advertised a day and night school. Edward Han- nagan at the same period kept a school in Fort Washington.
A young ladies' school in Cincinnati was advertised in the Western Spy and Hamilton Gazette, July, 1802, viz: "Mrs. Williams begs leave to inform the in- habitants of Cincinnati that she intends opening a school in the house of Mr. Newman, saddler, for young ladies, on the following terms: Reading 250 cents : reading and sewing, $3; reading, sewing and writing, 350 cents per quarter."
In 1805, a boarding school was kept, in what was later Sedamsville, by a man and wife named Carpenter. The school room was a log cabin, fifteen feet square.
"In the years, 1810, 1811 and 1812," says the Hon. S. S. L'Hommedieu, "I recollect of but three or four small schools. A Mr. Thomas H. Wright kept one in the second story of a frame building on the southwest corner of Main and Sixth streets. The stairs were on the outside of the house, on Sixth street. John Hilton had his school on the east side of Main, between Fifth and Sixth streets, over a cabinet maker's shop; David Cathcart, on the west side of Walnut street, near Fourth street. The scholars at each school probably averaged about forty
"There was a custom in those early days, when the boys wanted a holiday, to join in 'barring out' the schoolmaster. Providing themselves with some pro- visions, they would take the opportunity, when the schoolmaster was out at noon, to fasten the windows and bolt and doubly secure the door, so as to prevent Mr. Schoolmaster from obtaining entrance.
"In the years 1811 and 1812, my father lived nearly opposite the school of Mr. Wright, and I remember on one occasion to have seen him on his stairs, fretting, scolding, threatening the boys and demanding entrance ; but to no pur- pose, except on their terms,-namely a day's holiday and a treat to apples, cider and ginger cakes."
A successful monitorial system, that was at the time employed in England, was destined to have some influence upon Cincinnati educational matters. This was known as the Lancaster and Bell system, and sometimes as the Lancasterian system. The method was to utilize the older scholars as monitors and in a degree as teachers. As teachers were few in this new community this system made an
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especial appeal to intelligent persons in Cincinnati who were interested in educa- tional progress.
In 1814, the Rev. Dr. Joshua L. Wilson, the minister of the First Presbyterian church, and Dr. Daniel Drake became interested in introducing this system into Cincinnati. They obtained the use of school lots on Fourth and Walnut streets as a site. The Presbyterian church made out a lease of these lots for ninety- nine years, with the reservation that its congregation could select twenty-eight poor children annually for free instruction. Isaac Stagg prepared the plans and work was begun upon the building.
February 4, 1815, the legislature passed an act incorporating Oliver M. Spencer, William Lytle, Martin Baum, John Kidd and others under the title of the Lan- caster Seminary. They were given authority to obtain and hold property to the amount of $10,000 and to employ teachers. The first trustees named were Jacob Burnet, Nicolas Longworth, Davis Embree, William Corry, Charles Marsh and Daniel Drake.
The institution was to be non-political, non-sectarian and no one party of any kind was to dominate the board. The institution was arranged in junior and senior departments. The education of young men and young women alike was to be provided for. The Lancasterian system was to obtain in the junior depart- ment. The senior department was to receive the benefit of whatever sums the junior department yielded above expenses, and this money was to be applied to obtaining books and apparatus for the advanced department. Eight dollars a year was the charge per pupil.
The school building was a two-story brick structure, with two wings, reach- ing eight feet back from Fourth street. "The wings were connected by an apart- ment for staircases, eighteen by thirty feet, out of which sprang a dome-shaped peristyle by way of observatory. The front of this middle apartment was dec- oratedi with a colonnade, forming a handsome portico thirty feet long and twelve deep, the front and each side being ornamented with a pediment and Corinthian cornices. The. aspect of the building is described as light and airy, and would have been elegant, had the doors been wider and the pediments longer, and the building divested of disfiguring chimneys. As it was, it was considered the fin- est public edifice west of the Alleghanies. One wing was for male and one for female children; and between the two there was no passage except by the por- tico. The recitation and study rooms in the lower story had sittings for nine hundred children, and the whole for fourteen hundred."
At the opening, April 17, 1815, only one of the lower rooms was ready. It was but a few days until 420 pupils were enrolled. This number was as large as could be accommodated at the time.
In 1817, Henry Bradshaw Fearon, an Englishman, wrote some sketches of America, and said in regard to this Cincinnati school: "The schoolhouse, when the whole plan is completed, will be a fine and extensive structure. In the first apartment, on the ground floor, the Lancasterian plan is already in successful operation. I counted one hundred and fifty scholars, among whom were chil- dren of the most respectable persons in the town, or, to use an American phrase, 'of the first standing.' This schoolhouse is, like most establishments in this country, a joint-stock concern. The terms of education, in the Lancasterian de-
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partment, are to shareholders eleven shillings and threepence per quarter, others thirteen shillings and sixpence. There are in the same building three other de- partments, (not Lancasterian) ; two for instruction in history, geography and the classics, and the superior department for the teaching of languages. Males and females are taught in the same room, but sit on opposite sides. The terms for the historical, &c., department are, to shareholders, twenty-two shillings and sixpence per quarter ; others twenty-seven shillings. There were present twenty-one males and nineteen females. In the department of languages the charge is, to share- holders, thirty-six shillings per quarter ; others, forty-five shillings. Teachers are paid a yearly salary by the company. These men are, I believe, New England- ers, as are the schoolmasters in the western country generally.
"I also visited a poor, half-starved, civil schoolmaster. He has two miserable rooms, for which he pays twenty-two shillings and sixpence per month ; the num- ber of scholars, both male and female, is twenty-eight; terms for all branches thirteen shillings and sixpence per quarter. He complains of great difficulty in getting paid, and also of the untameable insubordination of his scholars. The superintendent of the Lancasterian school informs me that they could not at- tempt to put in practice the greater part of the punishments as directed by the founder of that system."
There was published in London, in 1820, "A View of the United States of America," in which, among other references to Cincinnati of a pleasant kind, the writer said: "But the building in Cincinnati that most deserves the attention of strangers, and which on review must excite the best feelings of human nature, is the Lancaster schoolhouse. The edifice consists of two wings, one of which is appropriated to boys, the other to girls. In less than two weeks after the school was opened upwards of four hundred children were admitted, several of them belonging to the most respectable families in the town. The building will accommodate one thousand, one hundred scholars. To the honor of the citizens of Cincinnati upwards of twelve thousand dollars were subscribed by them towards defraying the expenses of this benevolent undertaking. Amongst the many objects that must arrest the attention and claim the admiration of the traveler, there is none that can deserve his regard more than this praiseworthy in- stitution."
In 1817, John Kidd bequeathed the sum of one thousand dollars per year, for the education of poor children. This bequest became productive in 1819. Mr. Kidd was the first citizen of Cincinnati who made a public gift to education in the city, and as such deserves a place in the city's roll of honor.
In 1815 the Lancasterian school received a charter as a college, and became Cincinnati College. In the same year a charter was given the Medical College of Ohio, to be established in Cincinnati.
The Cincinnati Female Academy was founded by Dr. John Locke in 1823. It was of high rank and popular. Mrs. Trollope, in her book on Americans, wrote : "Cincinnati contains many schools, but of their rank or merit I had little opportunity of judging. The only one I visited was kept by Dr. Locke, a gen- tleman who appears to have liberal and enlarged opinions on the subject of female education. I attended the annual exhibition of this school, and perceived, with some surprise, that the higher branches of science were among the studies of
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the pretty creatures I saw assembled there. One lovely girl of sixteen took her degree in mathematics, and another was examined in moral philosophy. They blushed so sweetly, and looked so beautifully puzzled and confounded that it might have been difficult for an abler judge than I was to decide how far they merited the diploma they received." In 1826, this school occupied a newly erected brick structure on Walnut street between Third and Fourth streets. The term of study for a degree was four years. From four to ten dollars a quarter was charged for tuition. Music and French were extra.
Albert and John W. Picket were the heads of the Cincinnati Female School. This was conducted in rooms of the south wing of the Cincinnati College. Mans- field wrote : "Albert Picket, president of the College of Teachers, was a venerable, gray-haired man, who had been for fifty years a practical teacher. He had for many years kept a select school or academy in New York, in which, I gathered from his conversation, many of the most eminent men of New York had received their early education. He removed to Cincinnati a few years before the period of which I speak, and established a select school for young ladies. He was a most thorough teacher, and a man of clear head, and filled with zeal and devotion for the profesion of teaching. He was a simple-minded man, and I can say of him that I never knew a man of more pure, disinterested zeal in the cause of education. He presided in the college with great dignity, and in all the con- troversies which arose poured oil on the troubled waters."
Many private schools existed at that time, among these being those of Kin- mont, Cathcart, Wainright, Chute, Talbot, Wing, Morecraft and others. Of Mr. Kinmont, Mr. Mansfield wrote: "Alexander Kinmont might be called an apostle of classical learning. If others considered the classics necessary to an education, he thought them the one thing needful, the pillar and foundation of solid learning. For this he contended with the zeal of martyrs for their creed; and if ever the classics received aid from the manner in which they were handled, they received it from him. He was familiar with every passage of the great Greek and Roman authors, and was eloquent in their praise. When he spoke upon the subject of classical learning, he seemed to be animated with the spirit of a mother defending her child. He spoke with heart-warm fervor, and seemed to throw the wings of his strong intellect around his subject.
"Mr. Kinmont was a Scotchman, born near Montrose, Angusshire. He very early evinced bright talents, and having but one arm, at about twelve years of age was providentially compelled to pursue the real bent of his taste and genius toward learning. In school and college he bore off the first prizes, and advanced with rapid steps in the career of knowledge. At the University of Edinburg, which he had entered while yet young, he became tainted with the skepticism then very prevalent. Removing soon after to America, he became principal of the Bedford Academy, where he shone as a superior teacher. There also he emerged from the gloom and darkness of skepticism to the faith and fervor of the 'New Church,' as the church founded on the doctrines of Swedenborg is called. His vivid imagination was well adapted to receive their doctrines and he adopted and advocated them with all the fervor of his nature.
"In 1827 he removed to Cincinnati, and established a select academy for the instruction of boys in mathematical and classical learning. The motto which
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he adopted was 'Sit gloriae Dei, et utilitate hominum,'-a motto which does honor to both his head and heart.
"In 1837-1838, he delivered a course of lectures on 'The Natural History of Man,' which was published as a posthumous work; for in the midst of its. labor of preparation he died.
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