History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 100

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co.
Number of Pages: 666

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adds additional comment on the doings of that day, by saying that they made great havoc on hogs, dogs, grasshoppers and boys; and, as their colonel had desired, were stopped in their course of destruction by a post-and-rail fence; and remarks that if the fence had not been there, they would have been charging still !

The comical musters of that day easily gave "Horace in Cincinnati" a tempting field for the exercise of his tal- ents; and among the satires contributed by Mr. Pierce to the Independent Press was the following. Most of the characters named will be recognized by the readers of this history :

MILITIA MUSTER-1822.

BY HORACE.

"All the cobblers, tinkers, and tailors of the city had mounted the nodding plume."

"See, Will," said Jack (they had went out With curious eyes and hearts right stout, To view the gallant, joyous rout, Drawn up for deeds of chivalry),

"See, first comes Findlay, doughty knight, Arrayed in casque and goose-plume white, Cloth coat, buff vest, and breeches tight, Commander of the field;

"Jim Wallace on his left elbow, A man who fears not pigmy foe; And on his right Sir Dan Gano, Who well a pen can wield."

They take their post by spreading tree, That they may view and better see The movements of the host; And see ride up fierce Colonel Carr, The foremost always in a war Gainst pancakes, steak, and toast;

"With Ferris clad in tough bull-hide, Bold Scott upon his larboard side, Who can a brandy buffet 'bide, As well as stalwart blows.

"There's Churchill, who will break a lance, Give him but fair and knightly chance, With any foe that dare advance Against his fiery nose.

"Sce brave M'Farland lead the van, Chief of a cruel, butchering clan, Dabsters among calves and shecp; And just hehind, Sir Charley Halcs, Chivalric knight at auction sales, In physic wondrous deep.

"And here's the youthful Whittemore, Well skilled in merchant's mystic lore; Tho' young, he's heard the cat-gut's roar And kens a yardstick's strength.

"There's valiant Doughtrough in his rear, Who's thrown aside cakes, bread, and beer, And now is buckled to a spcar Of thirty inches length.

"Behold stout Nutting strut, The knight of the capacious gut, His height just five feet three; And, last of all - but hok !! hark!

Is that the war-dog's surly bark? For Mars' sake, look and see!"

Said Will, "It is the slogan yell, That on the air does loudly swell- Look! they have broke their line!

See how they run !- see how they fly, Shouting loud their battle-cry, 'By Jing, it's dinner time!'

"Voracious Carr is at their head, Doughtrough's hard by, he'll ne'er be led In foray 'gainst a loaf of bread --- By the powers of mud, not he!

"'Charge, Doughtrough, charge! Ye head of gourd!' Was Colonel Carr's last fighting word."

THE MILITIA OF EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIX,

in the Fourth of July parade of that year, were noted as the Cincinnati Hussars, Captain Norsell; the Washing- ton Artillery, Captain Brinkerhoff ; the Lafayette Grays, Captain Harrison; and the Cincinnati Guards, Captain Emerson. None of these companies have survived to the present time.

A NOTABLE COMPANY.

The most famous military organization which the city ever had, is said to have been the Rover Guards. The daily Commercial of October 31, 1880, gives the follow- ing outline history of this command:

Prior to 1852, when the present paid fire department of our city was organized, the force afforded protection from fire was a volunteer one with hand engines. A noted company of firemen was that of the Rovers, located on East Fourth street, near Broadway. Their engines were of the best make and the most elaborate finish, and named the Red Rover, the Pilot, and the Water Witch. The company was com- posed of the elite of the city. When the volunteer fire department was disbanded in 1852, the company resolved to perpetuate their name by forming a military company, to be known as the Rover Guards. The uniform of the company, as niany will remember, was the most brilliant and showy that taste could devise and money purchase. It was made of scarlet cloth, faced and trimmed with buff and gold, with black bear skin shako of the grenadier pattern. In a few years their name was a familiar one all over the country. Before the war of the Rebellion was inaugurated, a disagreement in the company was followed by a withdrawal of many members, who formed another com- pany, the noted Guthrie Greys.

When news of the firing on Fort Sumter was received, in April, 1861, President Lincoln, by proclamation, called for seventy-five thou- sand volunteers for defence of the National capital. The very first to volunteer were the famous Rover Guards, who left Cincinnati for the war the very day after the proclamation came by telegraph. The mem- bers left their offices, their work-shops, their counting-houses, and their families, and volunteered en masse. Under the command of Captain George M. Finch, they became company A, of the Second regiment of Ohio volunteers, and served in the Army of the Potomac. Other members organized a second company the day following, which, under the command of the late Captain H. E. Symmes, became com- pany C, of the Fifth Ohio volunteers.

Still later in the war, the company name was perpetuated by a third organization, under command of Captain M. S. Lord, who served as company D, of the One Hundred and Thirty-seventh Ohio volunteers. Many men who gained their first knowledge of military tactics, and acquired their high ambition for military glory and renown while serv- ing in the ranks of the Rover Guards, became officers in different regi- ments of the service until it might be said that thousands and thousands of patriotic soldiers were organized and commanded during the war by members of this historic company.

An effort was made, in the fall of 1880, by the few re- maining members of the guards yet left in Cincinnati, to form a life association of the veterans.

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

LATER ORGANIZATIONS.

In 1857-8, all the regularly organized volunteer troops in and near Cincinnati were comprised in the Third bri- gade, Frst division, Ohio volunteer militia, under the command of Brigadier General Charles H. Sargent. His staff was composed of Brigade Major W. C. Thorp, Brigade Quartermaster Captain E. P. Jones; and Cap- tain C. B. Williams, aid-de-camp. "Rover Regiment A" had for field officers and regimental staff Colonel John Kennett, Lieutenant Colonel Vanaken Wonder, and Ma- jor T. W. Haskell; Lieutenant J. B. Stockton, adjutant; H. G. Kennett, quartermaster; William Niswell, pay- master. Its companies were: Young American artillery, Captain A. G. Kennett; Fulton artillery, Captain J. T. Cushing; Cincinnati Rover dragoons, Captain H. W. Burdsell: Cincinnati Rover guards, General C. H. Sar- gent commanding; Fulton guards of Liberty, Captain A. E. Jones; Texas guards of Liberty, Captain L. Wilson; Crockett rangers, Captain J. J. Dennis; Washington Rifles, Captain Little; Invincible Rifles, Captain William Craven. The First Independent regiment had F. Linch for colonel, Frank Smith, lieutenant colonel, and Charles Snyder, major; but seems to have been, for a time at least, without staff officers. The companies were: the Washington dragoons, Captain Frank Smith; Lafayette guards, Captain P. Mueller; Jackson guards, Captain Joseph Kuhule; German sharpshooters, Captain C. Sol- omons; German Liberty guards, Captain Frank Miller; German Yagers, Captain John Schram; Steuben guards, Captain C. Amis; Cincinnati cadets, Captain J. A. Kel- ler. The Cincinnati Independent battalion, attached to the brigade, had Major James Reynolds for commander and Lieutenant John O'Dowd, adjutant. Its five com- panies were the Sarsfield artillery, Captain Tiernon; Sars- field guards, Captain Levy; Shield's guards, Lieutenant Thomas Lavender commanding; Republican guards, Captain McGroarty; and the Queen City cadets, Cap- tain J. W. Burke. The Independent Guthrie Grays, Cap- tain William K. Bosley, was not attached. It afterwards formed the nucleus of one of the earliest and finest regi- ments raised for the war of the Rebellion in Cincinnati. The remainder of the list is noticeable for the number of the names it contains of those who distinguished them- selves in that great struggle.

The number of militia companies formed in and about Cincinnati during and since the war thickens too rapidly for us to follow their history. The Ohio National guard, as is well known, was formed in the course of the con- flict, the order for its formation being received in the city April 4, 1863, and responded to with all desirable promptness. The First battalion of the guards is a Hamilton command. Company B is called the Lytle guards, from General W. H. Lytle, who fell at Chicka- mauga. It was formed in August, 1868. Company C was formed in 1868 as a company for a Zouave battalion, and reorganized in 1872 as the Cincinnati Light guard. Company D was recruited in 1874 as the Queen City guards. Company E, the Harrison Light guard, belongs to Harrison, in the northwest part of the county, where it has its armory. July 4, 1876, the First regiment, Ohio

National guard, went into camp at Oakley, near the city, where it remained for instruction and dicipline three days.

The Sniton cadets, named from a well known citizen, were organized in the spring of 1875.

The Cincinnati Jaeger company (German) was formed the same year; also the Camp Washington dragoons. Several private volunteer German companies are known as the Turnverein cadets.

In addition to the companies of the National guard in the city, the police force is regularly drilled in the manual of arms, to serve upon occasion. A Gatling gun, purchased during the disturbances by the railway em- ployes in 1877, is also the property of the city, and is kept in readiness for use.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

AMUSEMENTS.

THE colonists of Losantiville, battling with the wilder- ness and the Indians, struggling against the forces of na- ture in their effort to found a home in the forest by the shore, had little time or opportunity, if they had inclina- tion, for public amusements. The recreations character- istic of the backwoods and the frontier were of course theirs; and, with the growth of the years and the plant- ing of settlements more thickly along the Ohio valley, so that concert troupes and other caterers to the popular tastes could make something like "a tour" in the new country, the era of public entertainments set in. The first reliance, however, was naturally upon home resources and talent. The officers at the fort were a gay and ver- satile party, and often gave dramatic performances, or cooperated with such of the villagers as had set amateur theatricals on foot. The tedium of garrison and back- woods life was greatly relieved by their aid.

THE THESPIANS.

In 1801 we begin to hear more definitely of amateur theatricals in the little town, and the formation-at any rate, the existence-that year, of a home company of Thespians. It was probably composed, in good part, of officers of the garrison, since the place of meeting and performance at this time was in the artificers' yard of the fort. Four years afterward, when the troops had evacu- ated the fort, we learn of Messrs. Thomas H. Sill, Ben- jamin Drake, Dr. Stall, Lieutenant Totten, and others, as members of the band. Their rendezvous at this time was the loft of the stable on General Findlay's premises, back of the present site of the Spencer house. The next year they gave a performance of "The Poor Gen- tleman" in a stone stable, very likely the same. Yeat- man's tavern was not far distant, and a noteworthy allu- sion was made to his famous sign, in the following couplet from the prologue:

To call in customers we need to raise no rumpus;

You can't mistake the sign; 'tis Yeatman's square and compass.

MOSS ENG

m. M. Eatons

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

General Findlay delivered an address at the opening of the entertainment; and Major Zeigler, who was then president of the village, made a splendid figure as door- keeper, in knee-breeches, with cocked hat and sword, in the good old-time manner.

THE CINCINNATI THEATRE.

A performance at the "Cincinnati Theatre" was regu- larly announced in the Western Spy and Hamilton Ga- zette for September 30, 1801, at the same time the "Cin- cinnati races" were to occur. The embryo institution fell into financial difficulties soon after, and on the twelfth of December an appeal was made through the same me- dium to all subscribers to the theatre to advance the sum of twenty-five cents upon each ticket-probably season tickets-and to sell single tickets for fifty cents each, for the benefit of the enterprise.

About 1806 amateur histrionic performances in Cin- cinnati were regularly organized. Mr. E. D. Mansfield, in one of his entertaining books, gives the following rem- iniscences of them:

In the perforniers was Dr. Drake, with Totten, Mansfield, Sill, and other young men. The corps being entirely deficient in females, the young men had to assume both the parts and dress of the female char- acters. The performance took place in a large barn, and is said to have gone off with great eclat. If the actors had not the advantage of mu- sic and paraphernalia which attended the performances of Talma and Garrick, they were quite as successful in exciting the laughter and pro- moting the amusement of their audiences; and as this village playing was unattended with any of the stimulants to vice and dissipation so disgraceful to modern theatres, it may be placed to the account of what Johnson called the common stock of harmless amusements.

June 27, 1808, a special performance was given by the Thespians, for the benefit of the single fire company of the village.

AMUSEMENT SOCIETIES.

Very early in the century two local organizations were formed to provide for the popular amusement-the Thespian corps and the Harmonical society. We have already learned something of the work undertaken by the former. The later was composed of amateur musicians, who formed a brass band and furnished the orchestra at all the entertainments given by the Thespians. The per- formances were commonly in the stone stable already referred to, in rear of Yeatman's tavern. Among the actors are remembered Ethan A. Brown, afterwards gov- ernor of the State ; General Findlay and Mr. Sill, both subsequently members of Congress; Rawlings and Wade, who became famous lawyers; Nicholas Longworth, Colonel Cutler, Captain Mansfield, and others of note then or afterwards. The proceeds of a series of perform- ances were designed at first for a public library, but were ultimately turned into a fund for the building of the Lower market.

In 1814 a circus enclosure, on the west side of Main street, below Fourth, was used by the Thespians as their "Shell-bark 'Theatre." Among the actors at this time were Griffin Taylor, E. Webb, Joseph Thomas, William Douglass, Calvin Fletcher, John F. Stall, Thomas Hen- derson, Nathaniel Sloe, Abijah Ferguson, Junius and John H. James, Samuel Findlay, the two Hinduses, the Bensons, and Mr. Hepburn. Music was furnished by

Caszelles and Doane, with Zumma at the bassoon; C. Thomas, clarionet; Samuel Best, violin; Joseph and Samuel Harrison, bass drum. Joseph Hindus was the scenic artist as well as low comedian.

THE FIRST THEATRE BUILDING.

The same year a vigorous movement was made in the direction of a permanent and worthy place of public amusement. December 13, 1814, the following an- nouncement, probably emanating from the Thespian corps, or some member or members of it, appeared in the Liberty Hall newspaper:

"THEATRICAL NOTICE

" All persons who are favorable to the establishment of a theater in this place are requested to meet at the Columbian Inn on Thursday evening next, the fifteenth instant, at seven o'clock. The menibers of the Cincinnati Thespian Society are also particularly requested to at- tend."

The result of this agitation was the erection of a play- house, but of a cheap and temporary character-a small frame, on the south side of Columbia or Second street, between Main and Sycamore, on the identical site where the famous old Columbia Street theatre was afterwards built. The Thespians had still to be mainly responsible for its erection, and wholly so for a year or two for the entertainments within it. They attempted to disarm op- position by offering to give the proceeds of the perform- ances to charitable purposes, but a very vigorous antag- onism was nevertheless developed, under the lead of the Rev. Dr. Wilson, pastor of the Presbyterian church. He held, as many excellent people would probably still hold, that the new theatre threatened serious injury to the morals of the town. The Thespians, some of whom were quite as much concerned for the morals of Cincin- nati as the reverend doctor, accepted the gage of battle, and maintained.stout controversy with him through the newspapers and otherwise. The Fourth of July celebra- tion of one year was made the opportunity, by some ardent advocate of the new institution, of a humorous fling at the doctor. The following toast was offered: "The Cincinnati Theatre-May it not, like the walls of Jericho, fall at the sound of Joshua's horn."

The columns of Liberty Hall and the Spy for some months teemed with fulminations from one side or the other of this question. Dr. Wilson, after the classic style of that day, wrote over the name "Philanthropos;" his principal opponent appeared in print as "Theatricus," and the terms in which they assailed each other's posi- tions, were similarly ponderous. The following, from the communications of Theatricus to Liberty Hall of March 4, 1815, is a good sample extract :

One word upon music and for the present 1 have donc. You have denounced in pretty round terms the use of that enchanting science in all cases but for devotion. Can you forget 'tis music which alternately inspires the soldier with nerve and ardor for the conflict, and thrilis with extacy [sic ] or wraps with enthusiasm the most peaceful bosom of taste and sensibility-that pity, and terror, and hope, and gladness are the concomitant attributes of its power, and that aided by popular sentiment and poetry it forms no trifling link in the political chain which encircles us !

The theatre, in charge of the Thespians, was main- tained against all opposition this year; but not with dis-

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tinguished financial success. A circus was already ex- hibiting in the place, and drew more of the public patronage. It is doubtful if the theatre more than paid expenses this year, though its managers, even before its debts were paid, put fifty dollars into the charity fund. The next year a regular troupe of travelling players, the "Pittsburgh Company of Comedians," managed by the well-remembered Drake, took Cincinnati in their route from Pittsburgh to Frankfort, Kentucky, and gave a series of performances here.

THE COLUMBIA STREET THEATRE.

Mr. Drake was so well pleased with the patronage ac- corded his company during this and ensuing season, and the prospects of popular amusement in Cincinnati, that in April, 1819, he announced to the people of the newly- fledged city that he was ready to listen to any proposition from them looking to the construction of a more permanent place of entertainment. The controversy of 1815, between "Philanthropos" and his opponents, again broke out, and with greater virulence than ever; but Drake and his project were strongly backed, and moved steadily forward. May IIth, a meeting of citizens favorable to a new theatre was held at the reading-room, a company of thirty to forty stockholders formed, and a subscription paper drawn up, in which Mr. Drake solemnly pledged himself "to preserve the purity and morality of the stage." The paper was successfully circulated, and the necessary funds secured without much difficulty; so the construc- tion of the edifice was begun in September, and finished early the next spring. It stood on the site of the tem- porary affair built four years before, at the corner of a narrow alley running from Second to Front streets, on the west side of the theatre, and between Main and Sycamore streets. It was a brick building, forty feet front, ninety-two feet deep, with a wing ten feet in depth, projecting from the rear. A portico, twelve by forty feet, adorned the Second street side, with a pediment supported by Ionic pillars, half of which were embedded in the wall, and a neat flight of steps to the door of en- trance, which all together made an attractive front. Its sittings comprised two tiers of boxes, a "pit," after the fashion of that day, and a gallery, and were sufficient for six to eight hundred people. The door of the pit opened on the alley. The stage was commodious for a theatre of the size, and was screened by the traditional green curtain. It was furnished with sperm-oil footlights, and the auditorium was lighted by a chandelier and lamps upon the balustrade of the second tier of boxes. An ornamental arch and two flattened columns on either side constituted the proscenium, and between each pair of columns was a panelled door, out of which an actor could conveniently step when called before the curtain. Through one of these, too, the manager or one of the actors would appear every evening between the plays- of which there were pretty sure to be two or more every evening-to make formal announcement of the perform- ances for the next night. Just below the arch and over the curtain, in letters of stone color, was the Shakespearian line:

"TO HOLD, AS 'T WERE, THE MIRROR UP TO NATURE."

Judge Carter, in a chapter of reminiscences contribu- ted to the Daily Enquirer for November 28, 1880, upon which we have drawn freely for the purposes of this article, says: "This was an excellent motto for that old- day theatre, for if ever the mirror was held up to nature by actors and actresses it was done by those excellent ones of the old Columbia Street theatre."

The little new theatre, when finished, was thought to be something quite superb. The Literary Cadet of March 16, 1820, about the time it was completed, said: "The building, we believe, is the best structure of the kind in the western country this side of New Orleans." In May, 1823, a Covington painter named Lucas painted a view of Cincinnati from the Kentucky side for a drop curtain, which added further to the attractions of this theatre. It was specially notable as the first art work which Covington-then a village for only about eight years-had produced, and one which, says a Kentucky historian, "attracted a great deal of attention for its beauty and uniqueness."

The management of the new theatre was undertaken by Messrs. Collins and Jones, who had taken one-half the stock in the new enterprise, "both of whom," said Theatricus in one of his newspaper articles, "are favora- bly known to our citizens for their dramatic talent and gentlemanly deportment, and both of whom are deter- mined upon fixing their residence here; thereby not only insuring their best exertions for rendering the establish- ment both popular and respectable (and they have already offers of assistance from some of the best per- formers of the seaboard); but what will be of greater importance to some, they will avoid the odium attached to the light heeled gentry of the circus of carrying off its thousands to scatter in other climes, instead of returning them in invigorating currents to the various classes from which they are drained."

For fourteen years the Columbia Street flourished in honor and tolerable pecuniary success. In 1825, how. ever, some debts had accumulated against it, and it was sold at public vendue by the company to two persons. Finally it fell a prey to the devouring flames late in the night of April 4, 1834.

SOME NOTES.

In 1813 a travelling museum, with wax works, trans- parencies of Washington, by Mr. and Mrs. Manly, and other irresistible attractions, was shown by Messrs. Je- rome and Clark at Harlow's tavern.

Already, before the opening of the new theatre, Cincin- natians had had an occasional taste of the higher order of dramatic performance. On the night of the Fourth of July, 1819, there was a notable rendition of the part of "Isabella," by Mrs. Belinda Groshorn, an English ac- tress, who spent her last days and died here, and has a monument in Spring Grove cemetery.

In 1823 an institution called the "Vauxhall Garden" was kept at the old orchard of General Gano, on the east side of Main street, above Fifth, by two Frenchmen, one named Charles and the other known as Vincent Dumilleiz.

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

By this time the place of amusement on Columbus street seems to have been designated as the Globe the- atre; and it was at this, upon the evening of July 4, 1823, that a memorable performance was given-memorable chiefly because in the little company of actors playing "Venice Preserved," was a youth of sixteen, undertaking the part of "Jaffier," whose name was Edwin Forrest. He was the son of poor parents, among the pioneer fam- ilies of Butler county, in whose dense woods he had been brought up. He exhibited much histrionic talent while still a boy at school, and was incessantly practicing imi- tations and grimaces and taking part in simple dramas in barns and elsewhere. In Cincinnati he got his start thus early with a strolling theatrical corps, with whom he went to New Orleans, arriving there too shabbily dressed to make a decent appearance on the streets of the southern metropolis. His evident merits as an actor, however, soon attracted the attention of some of the wealthiest people in the city, who bought him a good suit of clothes and otherwise favored him, so that he was soon fully launched upon his long and remarkably successful career. The occasion of Forrest's first appearance was the benefit of Cargill, one of the troupe, who was assisted by his new made bride, herself an actress of no small note at the time-Amelia Seymour. Everdale was conductor of the orchestra, and the new drop scene representing Cincin- nati as seen from the opposite shore, was another element in the attractions of the evening.

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History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 100

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co. Number of Pages: 666

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co.
Number of Pages: 666