Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 128

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio
Number of Pages: 1006

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noon lectures, open to the publie at a nominal fee. These are usually given in the Grand Opera House, where are heard during the winter some of the best lecturers in the country. Through the efforts of Librarian A. W. Whelpley, they are largely attended, and have become a permanent feature in the life of the city. The Unity Club comprises both sexes and has varied objects. Its membership is very large and far reaching. Throughout the winter on Wednesday evenings a regular course of exercises is carried out. One night it is a lecture by some member on some literary subject, the next night a debate, the following an ama- teur dramatic performance, or an opera, and so on throughout the year. These lectures are so arranged that they form a connected whole on some subject, each member being assigned a particular branch of the topic under study for treatment.

The Cuvier Club was organized in 1874, for the protection of game and fish and for social purposes. It has a very fine collection of 3,000 specimens of birds and fish. The building of the Club, on Longworth street, is excellently de- signed, with a large room for a museum above, where are trophies of the chase and social rooms with a small library and periodicals. The club claims to make the best laws, to catch the best fish and game in season, and to have in its mem- bership the best whist-players of this section. The club has been of great ser- viee in keeping before the public and various legislatures the great harm that arose from the indiscriminate pursuit of game and fish ; and it has been indefa- tigable in its efforts to procure the enactment and enforcement of suitable laws.

Then there are the Ladies' Musical Club, a Press Club composed of journalists and four large purely social clubs. Two of these, the Allemania and the Phoenix, are limited entirely to those of Jewish extraction. The Queen City Club has the handsomest building, and here are gathered the men of wealth of the city. It has attached a ladies' apartment, which is enjoyed by the wives and daughters of its members. Billiard rooms and card rooms are plenty, and its table excel- lent. Within the club is another club, the Thirteen Club, with thirteen mem- bers, which seats itself and dines on the Thirteenth hour of the Thirteenth day of each month. The Ananias Club, devotes itself entirely to dining. The object of this club is good fellowship and the promotion of truth. It numbers among its members newspaper men, lawyers, doctors, artists and musicians. It has no Constitution and only one officer, whose business it is to attend only to his own. At its dinners, which are only occasional, there rests in the centre of the table the original hatchet used by G. Washington in his famous cherry tree difficulty, surmounted by the skull of Ananias, which is alike original-the identical skull which he used when living. The annual meeting is always held on Washington's birthday ; of course, his first and only one.

The Country Club has a very comfortable place near Carthage, with a con- venient club-house and large grounds, where can be had tennis, shooting, or any sports that suit the fancy. It is sufficiently far from the city for a pleasant drive for the members and their friends. The University Club is composed entirely of college graduates, and about all the principal colleges in the country are rep- resented. As with the Queen City Club a large number of its members lunch here regularly.

Two other characteristic clubs are the U. C. D. and the Literary Club. The U. C. D. is a club organized of ladies and gentlemen in 1866 on Mount Auburn, for the reading of essays, music and theatricals.

The Literary Club is the oldest of the kind in the country. At the first meet- ing were Judge Stanley Matthews and A. R. Spofford, Librarian of Congress. The club was devoted to the discussion of various topics, social, literary, theolog- ieal and political, the reading of essays and a monthly newspaper; also recita- tions. Rutherford B. Hayes was elected a member in 1859, and on March 9th of that year, acting as chairman, he decided in the negative on the merits of the question : " Has the agitation in the North on the slavery question been an ad- vantage?" On the merits of the question the club also voted in the negative.

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The same year the club discussed and decided in the negative, "Are there any causes at present existing from which we have reason to fear a dissolution of the Union ?" Among its members have been many prominent men beside those here mentioned. Buchanan Read, Salmon P. Chase, Fred. Hassaurek, O. P. Morton, James Beard, Generals Mcclellan and Pope, John W. Herron, John M. Newton, W. F. Poole, Ainsworth Spofford, Moncure D. Conway, Henry Howe, Chas. Reemelin, J. B. Stallo, Donn Piatt, E. F. Noyes, Alphonso Taft, etc. At the outbreak of the war the club organized itself into the Burnet Rifles, about 60 in number; a larger part of the members became officers in the Union army. The club is very flourishing, with an increased membership.

HISTORIC MISCELLANIES.

THE OHIO STATE FORESTRY ASSOCIATION.

When in 1881 the Von Steubens came to America to unite in the centennial celebration of the Surrender at Yorktown, in which their ancestor, General Von Steuben, had taken such an illustrious part, they visited Cincinnati. Among them was Baron Richard Von Steuben, the Royal Chief Forester of the German Empire.

In conversation with him some of the gentlemen of the city became so deeply interested on the subject of forestry, that they met in conference in January, 1882, to take measures to interest the people in the subject. They were Col. W. L. De Beck, Rev. Dr. Max Lilienthal, the Hebrew rabbi ; John B. Peaslee, School Superintendent ; Hon. John Simpkinson, the first President of the Asso- ciation ; Col. A. E. Jones and Hon. Emil Rothe. Through a committee then organized, for the next three months the press of the country laid before the people the subject of forestry in its various important aspects. The continuous history of the subject we take from a pamphlet, "Trees and Tree Planting," with exercises and directions for the celebration of Arbor Day, by John B. Peaslee, Supt. Public Schools, issued by the Ohio State Forestry Association, Cincinnati, 1884.

The work of the committee culminated in a three days' meeting at Music Hall, April 25th, 26th and 27th, at which most of the distinguished foresters of this country and Canada were present and read papers before the scientific department. The excellent programme for this meeting was principally made by Dr. John A. Warder and Prof. Adolph Leue. Governor Foster made the address of welcome.

The public schools were dismissed on the 26th and 27th, to enable the pupils and teachers to take part in the celebration of tree planting in the public parks. The 27th had been appointed as Arbor Day by proclamation of the Governor. Extensive preparations had been made for its appropriate celebration in Eden Park.

The city was in holiday attire. The soldiery and organized companies of citizens formed an immense procession under command of Col. S. A. Whitfield, and marched to the park, where the command was turned over to Col. A. E. Jones, the officer in charge. The school-children were under the charge of Superin- tendent Peaslee. Fifty thousand citizens covered the grassy slopes and crowning ridges, those assigned to the work of transplanting trees taking their respective places.

At the firing of the signal gun "Presidents' Grove," "Pioneers' Grove," "Battle Grove," "Citizens' Memorial Grove" and "Authors' Grove" were planted and dedicated with loving hands and appropriate ceremonies.

Addresses were made by ex-Gov. Noyes, Dr. Loring, Cassius M. Clay and Durbin Ward, and others. No sight more beautiful, no ceremonies more touch- ing had ever been witnessed in Cincinnati. An important lesson in forestry had indeed been brought home to the hearts of the people, and a crown of success was awarded the AMERICAN FORESTRY CONGRESS. This was the first Arbor

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Day celebration in Ohio. And thus closed the first session of the American Forestry Congress, which embraces in its scope the United States and Canada.

In 1883 the Ohio State Forestry Association, the ontgrowth of the American Forestry Congress, was organized. The organizers were Dr. John A. Warder, Prof. Adolph Leue, Col. A. E. Jones, Hon. John Simpkinson, Supt. John B. Peaslee, Gen. Durbin Ward, Hon. Emil Rothe, Hon. Leopold Burckhardt, D. D. Thompson, Prof. R. B. Warder, Prof. Adolph Strauch, Dr. A. D. Birchard, Hon. Charles Reemelin, Prof. W. H. Venable, Dr. W. W. Dawson, John H. Mc- Makin, Esq., and perhaps a few others. A convention was held in April.

By authority of a joint resolution adopted by both branches of our State Legis- lature, Governor Foster issued his proclamation, appointing the fourth Friday in April as Arbor Day, which was the last day of the convention. Accordingly, the association had made extensive preparations for its celebration in Eden Park by the citizens and by the public schools.

This second celebration of Arbor Day in Cincinnati was thus described at the time.

" The east ridge of the park was thronged with the associations planting tablets to the memories of the Presidents of the United States, the heroes of Valley Forge, and the pioneers of Cincinnati in their respective groves, while the northern projecting slope of the ridge was occupied by fully seventeen thousand school- children in honoring 'Authors' Grove.'" Viewed from the suminit of the ridge immediately west, the sight was one of the most animating ever bronght before the eyes of Cincinnatians. The entire ridge, nearly a third of a mile in length, was occupied by those persons taking part in the first-named ceremonies, while the slope designated was occupied by a dense mass of gayly dressed children in active motion over a surface of about five acres, and whose voices, wafted across the deep hollow to the western ridge, sounded like the chattering from a grove full of happy birds. The eastern slope of the west ridge was occupied by three thousand or four thousand spectators, who, reclining on the green spring sod of the grassy slopes, quietly surveyed the scene from a distance. In all there were over twenty thousand persons present. Over in the centre of the east ridge was the speakers' stand, with a tall staff bearing the national colors rising from the centre, while smaller flags marked the trees dedicated to each anthor. The grove to the honor of Cincinnati pioneers had been planted by the association, and yesterday the tablet was laid to their memory. All the tablets were of uniform size and construction, each being of sandstone, twenty-four by thirty-six inches snrface, and eleven inches depth. That for the Cincinnati pioneers contained at the npper centre a figure of the primitive log-cabin, and the following inscription, ' Planted and Dedicated to the Memory of the Pioneers of Cincinnati by the Forestry Society.' Below were cut the names of the pioneers.

"' Presidents' Grove' bore a tablet with the following inscription : 'Presidents' Grove, Planted and Dedicated to the Memory of the Presidents of the United States, by the Forestry Society, 1882, Cincinnati, April 27th.' Then followed the names of all the twenty-one Presidents, down to President Arthur.

"'Centennial Grove' was planted in 1876 by Colonel A. E. Jones, from trees brought from Valley Forge. The tablet he had laid yesterday was dedicated to the heroes who served with Washington at Valley Forge. Following is the in- scription : Eagle bearing the scroll 'Centennial Grove. Dedicated to the memory of 1776, and the patriots who suffered with Washington at Valley Forge, brought from that historic ground and planted by A. E. Jones, April 27, 1876.' Then followed the names Washington, Knox, Lafayette, Greene, Hamilton, Gates, Wayne, Pntnam, H. Lee, Steuben, Weldin, Muhlenburg, Sullivan, Stark, Warren, McIntosh, Potter, Maxwell, Woodward, Patterson, Allen, De Kalb, Kosciusko, Marion, C. Lee, Glover, Poor, Larned, Scott, Pulaski, Sumter, Lincoln, Morgan, Smallwood, Eberhardt.

"At eleven o'clock the school exercises commenced at 'Authors' Grove.' The

HAMILTON COUNTY.

trees having previously been planted, small granite tablets, about eight inches square, bearing the name of the author honored and the date of the ceremony, were sunk, in most cases uniformly with the surface of the sod, in the immediate vicinity of the tree. Thus the exercises were dedicatory only."

These were the first memorial groves ever planted in America ; the first public planting of trees in honor of the memory of authors, statesmen, soldiers, pioneers, and other distinguished citizens.

The credit for the inauguration of Arbor Day anywhere is given to Hon. J. Sterling Morton, who suggested the propriety of the day and was instrumental in effecting the first observance, while he was governor of Nebraska, in 1872. Since that date it is stated that in Nebraska have been planted six hundred millions of trees.

The two following articles upon floods and riots were written for this work, by Mr. Harry M. Millar, of the editorial corps of the Commercial Gazette.

OHIO RIVER FLOOD.

BY HARRY M. MILLAR.

The Ohio river, one of the greatest national waterways. 950 miles in length, is formed at Pittsburg by the confluence of the Allegheny and Monogahela rivers, coming from opposite directions. The Allegheny sources are numerous creeks in the mountains of New York, and is fed by hundreds of other tribu- taries that traverse Western Pennsylvania and parts of Ohio, draining an area of 13,000 square miles. The sources of the Mononga- hela are not large streams but they are numerous, especially in Maryland and West Virginia.

The Cheat river, its largest tributary, drains much mountainous country, and its sudden fluctuations are a wonder to not only visitors but the inhabitants along its banks. It is a frequent thing in the early spring or during the rainy season for this stream to rise over thirty feet within twenty-four hours. The Youghiogheny is also an important feeder of the Monongahela. The estimated drainage of the Youghiogheny and its tributaries is 2,100 square miles, the Monongahela and its tribu- taries 4,900 square miles, making the total watershed of the Monongahela 7,000 square miles, which, added to that of the Allegheny, gives a grand total area of 20.000 square miles drained by the sources of the Ohio river. From the forking of these rivers in Pennsyl- vania to its mouth at Cairo there are tribu- taries innumerable, many of which are naviga- ble and at a good boating stage the greater part of the year.

These geographical and topographical situations are important causes which lead to the frequency of floods in the Ohio river. The month of February in the Ohio valley along the course of the river in later years has been looked for with dread. The highest stages of the river, the greatest floods and the most suffering, and great property losses within the past decade have occurred at that time of the year. The melting of snows in the mountains, sudden thawing spells, added to which are the early spring rainfalls alter- nated with sleet, all combine to bring on these freshets. The encroachments upon the

bed or channel of the river have in a great measure caused a narrowing of the width of its bed. So many large cities, towns and villages are strung out along its shores that the débris from sawmills, cinders and other material by being "dumped " over its banks have confined the rush of the waters to a fastly filling-up canal bed. In fact such has the Ohio river become within the past few years. Great stone pier bridges have been erected in the river bed, dams have been built, and these things combined have had a tendency to yearly increase the danger to the lowlands along the valley.

The greatest floods in the Ohio river were on February 18, 1832 ; December 17, 1847; February 15, 1883; February 14, 1884, and March 26, 1890. In 1832 the highest stage reached was 64 feet 3 inches; 1847. 63 feet 7 inches ; 1883, 66 feet 4 inches ; 1884, 71 feet and & inch, and in 1890, 59 feet 2 inches. These heights are measured from low-water mark, which is 2 feet and 6 inches above the bed of the channel.

The flood of 1884 exceeded all the others, and at the present writing stands on record as having attained the highest stage. Beginning on the 14th day of December, 1883, it con- tinued rising until noon of February 14th, a space of two months, during which time there was much suffering among the people, loss of life and property. The meteorolog- ical causes began at the date mentioned, when the winter's first snow fell throughout the Ohio valley-a fall of a fraction less than an inch, with the stage of water in the Ohio at 10 feet 7 inches at Cincinnati, a minimum to which it did not again decline for a period of over six months.

During the month of December the total fall of snow, sleet and rain, reduced to rain- fall, was 5.61 inches, while the highest stage of the river during the month was 49} feet on the 28th, after which it began to decline.

The first two weeks in January were cold, with frequent light snows, with a heavy two days' fall on the 14th and 15th. Cold weather then set in and the river alternately rose and

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fell, varying from 15 feet 9 inches on the 29th to 31 feet 3 inches on the 31st, when the great flood of 1884 properly began.

At Cincinnati, at this time, the solidified snow previously fallen was from 18 inches to 4 feet deep, which was packed upon the hills, mountains and valleys of the Ohio river and its tributaries and the smaller streams trib- utary to the latter. A depth of 10 inches of snow fell in January, and the rainfall of the month was 1.23 inches. From the 30th of January to the 13th of February a general thaw progressed with rain day after day, all combining to affect the river accordingly.

The Ohio river continued rising_steadily and rapidly, and at Cincinnati on February 2d had reached a stage of 49 feet 11} inches, having entered the buildings at the foot of Broadway, Main and Walnut streets. The same afternoon there was a heavy fall of rain that carried much of the solidified snow into the river and local tributaries, and a rise again set in that did not cease until noon of the 14th, when it culminated in the highest stage of water at the mouth of the Licking river that had ever been seen at that point by an enlightened people. The total amount of the rainfall on the 4th was 1.35 inches ; a dense fog came over the city and in the bot- toms became so dense that artificial light was necessary in all buildings south of Third street.

The thermometer had crept up to 62°; there was a miasmatic feeling in the atmos- phere that was stifling, and the general dark- ness prevailing cast great gloom among the populace. At all river points above there was a heavy rainfall, while the Monongahela and Licking rivers had started on a second freshet and were rising several inches per hour.

Daylight the next day found all the build- ings fronting on the river between the Sus- pension Bridge and Main street, and Ludlow and Broadway, invaded by the water. The Mill creek bottoms of Cincinnati, as well as the lowlands in Pendleton and Columbia, were submerged, and later in the day the alarming news came that Lawrenceburg and Aurora were partly submerged, the river steadily rising, and grave apprehensions were felt for the security of the levees in front of those cities.

All day on the 5th a steady downpour of rain fell, measuring 1.56 inches, and more rain had fallen in eight hours on the days of the 4th and 5th than fell in four days pre- reding the same stage of water on February 8, 1883. The river was 20 feet and } inch higher than at the same time of the previous year, and there had been but nine years in which the stage of the water exceeded that at midnight of the 5th.

The Kentucky river, when it pours into the Ohio, prevents the water of the latter from passing off freely, and is thus a factor in producing high water at Cincinnati. At 1 o'clock of the morning of February 6th the levee at Lawrenceburg gave way and her cit- izens called upon the people of Cincinnati

to come to their relief. The Chamber of Commerce immediately called a meeting, and committees were appointed to adopt meas- ures of relief.

At Cincinnati the water extended above Second street on Sycamore and Broadway, and was two feet deep at Third and Wood streets, while communication with the Sus- pension Bridge was cut off except by boats. On the 8th the Cincinnati Gas Works became submerged at noon, when the stage of the river had reached 62 feet 62 inches. The next day, at 9 o'clock A. M., the stage of wa- ter was 63 feet 7 inches, the high-water mark of December 17, 1847, and by midnight cov- ered the high-water mark of February 18, 1832, 64 feet 3 inches.

Heavy rains again set in at headwaters on the 10th, and all the streams again began rising. Point Pleasant, Va., was entirely in- undated, there being four feet of water in parts of the town that had escaped the flood of 1883, while the back-water from the Ohio extended up the Kanawha fifty miles, inun- dating farm houses and villages of the valley and entirely wrecking the track of the Ohio Central Railroad. The width of the Kan- awha varied from three to five miles. Be- tween Ripley and Cincinnati, all houses on both banks of the river, that remained in their places, were invaded or entirely cov- ered by water, and some towns were nearly washed out of existence. The Ohio back- water extended up the Little Miami to Mil- ford, with the Little Miami also rising.

On the night of the 12th a wind-storm from the south rocked from their foundations many houses that had withstood the force and buoyancy of the current. Dayton and Bellevue, Ky., were invaded and the greater part of the northwest portion of Covington was covered. There were 13,000 applicants for relief at Newport-half of the city being under water.

On the 13th a decided cold wave set in throughout the Ohio valley, and this gave assurance that its climax was near. The temperature grew colder and colder at Cin- cinnati, lowering to 20°, and the great flood of 1884 reached its maximum at noon on the 14th of February, when the stage of water was 71 feet and 2 of an inch. The situation at Cincinnati at this time was that not a street in Pendleton was free from water, and the line extended up Deer creek valley to the foot of the Highland House Inclined Plane. Up the Mill creek valley it had spread eastwardly until Lincoln Park was entirely covered, and reached Baymiller street or Clark.

The water first licked the streets north of Pearl on Race, Vine, Walnut, Main and Syca- more streets, and the first floors of buildings at the north side of Lower Market were cov- ered with water to Broadway. The water from the Ohio river on the south, and from the Mill creek bottoms on the west, met and commingled at the southwest corner of Fourth and Mill streets. It extended above Long- worth street on Hoadley, and from the west

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on Sixth covered the railroad tracks that lead out of the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad passenger depot. On Eighth street the water extended eastwardly to Harriet. South of Third street and west of Rose, ex- tending northwestwardly past Clark and Bay- miller streets, all avenues were navigated by skiffs and small boats. Mill creek bottom was one bay of water so deep that the largest steamboat that navigates the Ohio river could have passed over.

The Licking and Ohio rivers met in New- port at the corner of Columbia and Madison streets ; half of the city of Newport was under water, and part of the Newport and Covington Suspension Bridge that spans the Licking river was covered by water several feet deep.

The Ohio and Mississippi Railroad estab- lished boat communications, carrying their traffic to places between Cincinnati and Aurora. There was not a railroad track en- tering Cincinnati which was not submerged, except that of the Cincinnati Northern or Toledo, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railroad. Merchants in the bottoms had at great labor and expense removed their wares to places of safety, the various stock-yards ceased doing business, the river business for steamboats was entirely suspended, and the boatmen royally and heroically gave their time and labor to the saving of property and the rescue of people and live-stock. Boats were char- tered by the Cincinnati Chamber of Com- merce Relief Committee, and carried clothing

and provisions to the destitute and suffering at points above and below Cincinnati.

Cincinnati contributed $96,680.12 for the relief of flood sufferers, this amount being realized from private subscription. The sum of $97,751.22 was contributed by persons not citizens of Cincinnati; all this money was applied, with the exception of $5,260.74, which was turned over to the Sinking Fund Commission of Cincinnati.

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Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 128

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893 Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio Number of Pages: 1006

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio
Number of Pages: 1006