History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 102

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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The Palace Varieties was a large frame structure on Vine street. The Arcade now passes over its site. It is believed to have been the first variety theatre in the city. On the ninth day of July, 1869, it too fell a prey to the flames.

The Academy of Music was an elegant little theatre on the northwest corner of Fourth and. Home streets. It was destroyed by fire December 8, 1870.

PIKE'S OPERA HOUSE.

The original opera house built by Samuel N. Pike was erected in 1859, upon the site of an ancient mound on Fourth street, between Vine and Walnut. Its stage and auditorium were larger and finer than those of the pres- ent opera house, and their relative positions were exactly reversed. After a performance of the "Midsummer Night's dream, March 22, 1866, about midnight, it was totally destroyed by fire. The present superb edifice speedily rose out of its ashes, and has since been steadily and generally successfully occupied for the purposes of the opera and the drama, and occasionally for great pub- lic meetings, the university commencements, Sunday afternoon lectures, and the like. It has a seating capac- ity of about two thousand.

THE GRAND OPERA HOUSE

is a more modern institution, occupying the fine building of the Catholic institute, on the west side of Vine street, corner of Longworth. It seats twenty-three hundred. Above it is the well-known Mozart hall.

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

OTHER PLACES OF ENTERTAINMENT.

Robinson's opera house, corner of Ninth and Plum streets, built in 1872 by John Robinson, the veteran circus manager.

Heuick's opera house, corner of Pine and Thirteenth streets ; chiefly variety entertainments.

Vine street opera house; variety.

Coliseum, Vine street, between Twelfth and Thir- teenth; variety.

Lookout opera house, adjoining the Lookout house, at the head of the Main street incline; circus and dra- matic performances.

The other hill-top resorts-The Highland, at the head of the Mount Adams incline; the Bellevue house, at the head of the Mount Auburn incline, and that on Price's hill.

The German, or Stadt theatre.

Music hall, with its various forms of entertainment, has been sufficiently described in the chapter on Music.

THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS.

At present there are but two zoological gardens in the United States, one at Philadelphia and the Cincinnati garden. The Zoological society of Cincinnati, to which alone the garden owes its existence, was organized in 1873 and is the direct outgrowth of the Acclimatization society. In the early part of 1873 Mr. Andrew Erken- brecher, then president of the last named organization, directed the secretary of that body to correspond with the celebrated naturalists, Dr. A. E. Brehm, with a view of obtaining an estimate of the probable cost of a zoo- logical garden established upon European models, requesting statistics in regard to those already established in Europe, and all other available information pertinent to the subject. The reply of the distinguished scientist, containing many valuable suggestions, and accompanied by the annual reports and statements of several European societies, was laid before a meeting of the Acclimatiza- tion society, held at the rooms of the Cincinnati board of trade, June 19, 1873. At this meeting, a resolution, offered by Mr. John Simpkinson, was adopted providing for a committee charged with the duty of digesting a plan of operations. The committee, consisting of Messrs. Andrew Erkenbrecher, John Simpkinson, and George H. Knight, subsequently called a meeting of citizens under- stood to be favorable to the proposed enterprise, for Monday, June 30, 1873, at which Dr. Lilienthal, Mr. Simpkinson, and others, delivered spirited addresses, a large sum of money was subscribed, and resolutions were adopted providing for the incorporation of a society whose capital stock should be three hundred throusand dollars. In conformity with this action, Messrs. Simp- kinson, Erkenbrecher, C Oskamp, Knight and A. Tenner, subscribed articles of incorporation under the name of the 'Zoological Society of Cincinnati, which were duly filed and recorded according to law, on the eleventh day of July, 1873. The first meeting of the newly formed society was held at the board of trade rooms, on July 28th, and the following named gentlemen elected direc- tors to manage its affairs, viz: Joseph Longworth, J.

Simpkinson, A. Erkenbrecher, A. Pfirmann, John A. Mohlenhoff, Charles P. Taft, John Shillito, George K. Schoenberger, and Julius Dexter. The board of direc- tors thus constituted immediately organized and elected the following named officers, viz: Joseph Longworth, president; John Simpkinson, vice-president; Clemens Oskamp, treasurer; Charles P. Taft, recording secretary, and Armin Tenner, corresponding secretary.

From the constitution, as adopted at the first meeting of the stockholders, we quote the following extracts :

SEC. I. The name of the society shall be "Zoological Society of Cincinnati."

SEC. II. The capital stock of the society shall be three hundred thousand dollars, divided into six thousand shares, of fifty dollars each, transferable only on the books of the society upon the surrender of the certificate.

SEC. III. The object of the society shall be the establishment and maintenance of a zoological garden at Cincinnati, and the study and dissemination of a knowledge of the nature and habits of the creatures of the animal kingdom. .

SEC. XVI. Stockholders shall be entitled to receive for each share of stock up to the number of five, twenty single tickets of admission each year, or one season ticket. All season tickets shall be issued in the name of a particular person, which shall be registered, and any season ticket presented by any other person than the one to whom it is issued shall be forfeited. The name on any season ticket may be changed at the option of the holder, upon surrender of the ticket, and a new sea- son ticket will be issued in the substituted name, which shall be good for the the balance of the year.

As will be seen from the foregoing summary of its his- tory and organization, the Zoological society is a strictly private enterprise, not in any way dependent upon mu- nicipal aid for its existence or maintenance. At present the society consists of over four hundred members, rep- resenting a subscribed capital of about two hundred and thirty thousand dollars.

The grounds upon which the garden has been estab- lished were secured from Messrs Winslow & Wilshire on perpetual lease, at the rate of seven thousand five hun- . dred dollars per annum, with privilege of purchase at the rate of two thousand dollars per acre. Ground was first broken in October, 1874, but the work on the larger shelter-houses did not commence until May, 1875. On the eighteenth of September of the same year the garden was opened to the public, and since that the society has been constantly adding to the collection of animals, and expending large sums for improving and beautifying the grounds. It is but an act of justice that we should state that the success with which this enterprise has thus far been crowned, is chiefly due to the extraordinary labor of Mr. Andrew Erkenbrecher, who properly may be named the- founder of the garden, who, however, was ably assisted in his efforts by such gentlemen as Messrs. John Simpkinson, Julius Dexter, Florence Marmet, George A. Smith, Clemens Oskamp and others.

On December 1, 1880, the collection consisted of nine hundred and eighty-three specimens divided as fol- lows:

Mammals 321

Birds. 608

Keptiles. 54

Total. 983

The present board of directors consists of Messrs. Florence Marmet, president ; S. Lesher Taylor, vice-pres-

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

ident; C. M. Erkenbrecher, treasurer; J. M. Doherty, Otto Laist, George Hafer, George Fisher, B. Roth, A. Fischer. The post of secretary to the society and super- intendent of the garden is filled by Frank J. Thompson, to whom we are indebted for this clear and succinct his- tory of the garden.

THE BURNET WOODS CONCERTS.

These are given upon a munificent pecuniary founda- tion, provided April 7, 1875, by the Hon. W. S. Groes- beck, of East Walnut Hills, and conveyed in the following note :

To the Board of Park Commissioners of Cincinnati:

I understand that the council has indefinitely postponed a proposition to treat with the owners for a surrender of the lease of Burnet Woods Park; and, in accordance with a purpose heretofore declared, I hereby donate to the city of Cincinnati fifty thousand dollars, upon the single trust that the same shall be safely invested in bonds of the city or other- wise, and forever so kept, and that the interest thereon shall be applied yearly to furnish music for the people in the above named park. As this trust is to be perpetual, I do not think it best to embarrass it with any further limitations.

Very respectfully,

W. S. GROESBECK.

Some concerts had already been given in the park by means of funds already in the hands of the Park commis- sioners, which were, however, nearly exhausted, and the gift was hailed by officials, press and people, as well- timed, in good taste, and a genuine public benefaction. The fund was invested in fifty water bonds of the city, of the denomination of one thousand dollars, bearing seven per cent. interest per annum, payable semi-annually, and thus yielding for its purpose three thousand five hundred dollars a year. Each of the bonds bears this endorse- ment :

This bond belongs to the Groesbeck endowment fund, and is held subject to the trust of the endowment, and is not negotiable by order of the Park board. E. H. Pendleton, president; S. W. Hoffman, sec- · retary.

After careful examination of the park in all parts of it, the commissioners the same year decided to locate the music stand permanently in the area where the popular concerts had previously been given. It has been fur- nished with seats, while much of the tract is still left in greensward ; a circular driveway encompasses it; and, on the pleasant afternoons of summer and early fall, twice a week, some of the most notable gatherings of citizens and visiting strangers that occur in the city are to be seen here. At first there was much competition among the bands of the city for the honor and emoluments attach- ing to their employment under the Groesbeck donation, and the music committee found no little difficulty in deciding between them. It was finally decided to em- ploy, for the time being at least, the Cincinnati orchestra for the Burnet Woods concerts, and the Germania and Currier bands for the open-air summer entertainments in the down-town parks. Since then the concerts have been quite regularly given in the warm season. One hundred and eight concerts had been given at Burnet Woods, on the Groesbeck foundation, by the close of the season of 1880.

CHAPTER XL. CEMETERIES.

THE first and only public burying-ground in Cincin- nati for many years was that upon the square bounded by Fourth and Fifth, Walnut and Main streets, given to the people by the original proprietors, in part for that pur- pose It was attached to the meeting-house of the First Presbyterian church, near the corner of Fourth and Main, and was used continuously for nearly a generation, or about twenty-seven years, when it became so crowded that another cemetery became necessary. In 1810 one of the four-acre out-lots was purchased by the Presby- terians, being the tract between Elm and Vine, Eleventh and Twelfth streets. The public generally were still per- mitted to make interments in the ground of the society at the new place.

The Methodists have also an old burying-ground back of the Wesley chapel, on Fifth street, between Broadway and Sycamore, where some ancient graves are still to be seen. The Jews have another, long since abandoned, but still kept intact, at the corner of Chestnut street and Central avenue. It is altogether concealed from the public eye by buildings on one side and a lofty brick wall on another. The site of the former Catherine street burying-ground, on Court street, between Wesley avenue and Mound, is yet marked with an inside enclosure of iron fence, containing some graves.

Many of the denominations maintain th. old idea of interments in their own consecrated "God's acre." The Roman Catholics have their Calvary cemetery, of about twelve acres, on the Madison pike, at East Walnut Hills; St. Peter's, now full and disused, upon Lick run, on the Harrison turnpike, three miles from the city; St. Ber- nard's, on the Carthage pike, about three miles; St. Jo- seph's, near the city limits on the west, south of the Warsaw pike, in the twenty-first ward, il. two separate tracts-one new, the other old, and both containing about one hundred acres; and the German Catholic, of about twelve acres, also on the Warsaw pike, in the twenty-first ward. The German Evangelical Protestants have an old cemetery on the Baltimore pike, in the twenty-fourth ward, and another on the Carthage road, north of the zoological gardens; the German Protestants, also, two cemeteries, respectively at the corner of Park avenue and Chestnut street, Walnut Hills, and on the Reading turnpike, out of the city. The Methodist Prot- estants have theirs near the old Widow's Home, at the city limits, just south of Avondale. There is a Jewish cemetery in Clifton; the congregations K. K. Sherith and Judah Torah, the latter Reformed Jews, and the K. K. Adath Israel, Polish Jews, have each a cemetery on Lick run. The United Jewish cemetery, East Walnut Hills, corner of Montgomery and Duck Creek roads, comprises an old part, dating from 1849, and a new, laid out in 1860. The remaining space in the former is now re- served for the poor and members of the society who do not own lots; while the other is platted into lots, of which there is now room for about seven hundred. The col- ored people of the city have a Union Baptist cemetery

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at Gazlay's corner, on the Warsaw turnpike, and a col- ored American or African burying-ground at Avondale, on the Lebanon pike, adjoining the German Protestant cemetery.

More famous than any other denominational cemetery about the city, in some respects, is

THE WESLEYAN CEMETERY.

This is situated upon a beautiful tract of twenty-five acres, in the northwestern part of the city, being the western part of Cumminsville, and on the east bank of the west fork of Mill creek and the Coleman pike, about five miles from Fountain square. By 1842 the old ceme- tery in the rear of Wesley chapel had become too small for the demands of the Methodist people in the city for burials, and, after casting about in the vicinity of the city for a suitable resting place for their dead, this area was purchased, laid out in burial lots, with winding walks and carriage ways, and formally dedicated to its sacred purposes. It was opened in 1843. In the centre, upon an elevation which commands a superb view, was placed the receiving vault, surrounded by a circular drive-way, from which roads diverged to every part of the grounds. A "preachers' lot," thirty-two feet square, was set apart in a beautiful location, and was fitly enclosed and adorned. An acre of the ground near the entrance was leased for a nursery, from which might be supplied trees, shrubbery, and flowering plants for the uses of the ceme- tery. A two-story brick dwelling for the sexton was erected in a pleasing rural style, on the left of the main entrance ; also a chapel on the high grounds of the ceme- tery, which was afterwards, about 1855, displaced by a new brick chapel on lower ground at the right of the nursery site, for services of the church whenever desired. Many of the early ministers and laymen of the Metho- dist Episcopal church in Cincinnati are buried here. About twenty-five thousand interments had been made in this cemetery up to 1879.

PUBLIC CEMETERIES.

Each of the principal outlying divisions of the city, formerly suburban villages, had its own cemetery for pub- lic use. The Columbia cemetery, containing some quite ancient graves, lies along the track of the Little Miami railroad, a little beyond the station. Somewhat further out, east of the railway track, is the old Baptist enclosure, upon which formerly stood the oldest Protestant meet- ing-house in the Northwest Territory, and within which some of the earliest interments in the Miami country were made. The Walnut Hills cemetery is immediately south of the German Protestant, on the west border of Woodburn.

THE "POTTER'S FIELD,"

or city cemetery, which, many years ago, occupied the tract now so beautifully improved as Lincoln Park, in the western district of the old city, is now in the valley of Lick run, three miles from Cincinnati, not far from the new branch of the city hospital, or pest house.

By far the greatest and most noted of the local bury- ing-grounds, however, is the

SPRING GROVE CEMETERY.

The people of the Queen City are truly fortunate in possessing, within easy reach of nearly all parts of the city, and upon a most eligible site, one of the finest, as it is undoubtedly the most extensive of cemeteries in the United States. Said the Hon. Lewis F. Allen, in his address at the dedication of Forest Lawn cemetery, Buf- falo: "Were I, of all cemeteries within my knowledge, to point you to one taking precedence as a model, it would be that of Spring Grove near Cincinnati. Their broad undulations of green turf, stately avenues, and tasteful monuments, intermingled with noble trees and shrubbery, meet the eye, conferring a grace and dignity which no cemetery in our country has yet equaled, thus blending the elegance of a park with the pensive beauty of a burial place."

And Mr. Parton wrote of it, in his Atlantic Monthly article : "There is very little, if any, of that hideous os- tentation, the mere expenditure of money, which renders Greenwood so melancholy a place, exciting far more com- passion for the folly of the living than sorrow for the dead who have escaped their society."

By 1844 the want of a finer and ampler cemetery than Cincinnati then possessed was seriously felt. Mt. Au- burn, Laurel Hill, and Greenwood, had been established, and their fame had gone abroad in this and other lands. It was determined to found a Gottesaker as the Germans call it-a "field of God"-which should vie with any in the New World for beauty and convenience. The next few paragraphs, describing the early movements to this end we extract, almost verbatim in places, from the in- teresting account of the cemetery, published in 1862, in an octavo volume.

On the thirteenth of April, 1844, a number of gentle- men met at the house of Robert Buchanan, to hold a con- sultation on the subject of establishing a rural cemetery in the neighborhood of Cincinnati, and for adopting measures for carrying their object into effect. Mr. Baird Loring was chairman of this meeting, and J. B. Russell secretary. It was decided, after due discussion, that this object was not only desirable, but feasible; and a committee was appointed to make the necessary exam- inations and recommend a suitable site.

After all the necessary researches and observations had been made, the Garrard farm, situated about four miles from the city, containing one hundred and sixty-six and seventy-four hundredths acres, was selected, as combin- ing more of the requisites sought for than any other, and the place being considered reasonable, its purchase was recommended by the committee which had been ap- pointed at the meeting above mentioned. This commit- tee consisted of the following gentlemen, well fitted for the duty assigned them, viz: William Neff, Melzer Flagg, T. H. Minor, David Loring, R. Buchanan, S. C. Parkhurst, and A. M. Ernst, and their recommendation was approved, and adopted. The purchase was effected the same year, from Mr. Josiah Lawrence, of whom fur- ther purchases were made in 1845 and 1847, to the amount of about twelve and a half acres. The original

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purchase price was sixteen thousand dollars, or some- thing less than one hundred dollars per acre.

A meeting was held on the fourth of May, and a com- mittee was then appointed to prepare articles of associa- tion. It consisted of Timothy Walker, G. W. Neff, Na- than Guilford, Nathaniel Wright, D. B. Lawler, Miles Greenwood, and Judge James Hall, and on the eleventh they reported thirteen articles, which were ordered to be published in the newspapers for the consideration of the citizens generally. On the nineteenth of October, these articles were referred to a committee consisting of Timo- thy Walker, S. P. Chase, James Hall, N. Guilford, N. Wright, D. B. Lawler, and E. Woodruff, with instructions to prepare a charter in conformity with them, to be pre- sented to the legislature for enactment. This was done, and Judges Burnet, Walker and Wright were, on the first of December, appointed to lay it before the legislature, and obtain its passage. It was passed, without objection or alteration, on the twenty-first of January, 1845.

Much discussion took place in regard to a suitable naine. Several were proposed, among them that of "Spring Grove," which, being preferred by a large major- ity, was accepted. It had especial appropriateness, from the flowing springs and ancient groves with which the place abounded.

The approbation of the citizens in relation to the pro- ceedings of the committee was general, and the exertions of Messrs. Peter Neff, James Pullan, and A. H. Ernst, in obtaining subscribers at one hundred dollars each, were so successful that, as soon as the lots were surveyed, enough were immediately taken up to establish the insti- tution on a firm basis.

The first meeting of the lot-holders, for the election of directors, in compliance with the requisitions of the charter, was held on the eighth of February, 1845, when the following gentlemen were elected, viz: R. Buchanan, William Neff, A. H. Ernst, R. G. Mitchell, D. Loring, N. Wright, J. C. Culbertson, Charles Stetson, and Griffin Taylor, and on the eleventh the board was organized by the appointment of R. Buchanan, president; S. C. Park- hurst, secretary, and G. Taylor, treasurer.

The original plan of the grounds was made by John Notman, of Philadelphia, the designer of the famous Laurel Hill cemetery, in that city. It has since been materially improved, important alterations having been found necessary to adapt it to the surface of the ground.

The cemetery was consecrated on the twenty-eight of August, 1845, with appropriate solemn ceremonies, in- cluding an address by the Hon. Judge McLean, a "Consecration Hymn" by Mr. William D. Gallagher, and an ode by Lewis J. Cist. Mr. Thomas Farnshaw was made chief engineer, and Mr. Howard Daniels, su- perintendent, assisted by his next successor, Dennis Delaney, all of whom did much for the embellishment of the grounds. The system of landscape gardening adopted in 1855, was mainly the work of Messrs. Adolph Strauch and Henry Earnshaw, the latter of whom was for years superintendent, and in 1856, to curtail expenses, the offices of superintendent and surveyor were united in his person. Mr. Strauch is now, and has been for a

number of years, landscape gardener and superintendent of the cemetery. He has been identified with it from the beginning. By this time a large number of the cemetery lots had been sold, and a permanent fund had been accu- mulated of twelve thousand eight hundred dollarsin stocks and bonds, besides six thousand dollars in unsold real estate, being part of a legacy left to the cemetery by Mr. Charles E. Williams. During the year 1856-7, the re- ceipts exceeded the expenditures by about ten thousand eight hundred dollars. Beautiful improvements, includ- ing many fine monuments, had been made upon the grounds. In July, 1856, the price of lots was ad- vanced from twenty to twenty-five cents per square foot - a price still below that then charged in most leading cemeteries of the land. Some of the lot-owners had contributed one thousand dollars toward making the lake, . an improvement soon afterwards effected, and adding greatly to the beauty of the cemetery. The statue of Egeria at the Fountain, executed by the sculptor, Nathaniel Baker, formerly a Cincinnatian, was presented to the cemetery by Mr. Walter Gregory, and erected on the island in the lake. One of the most beautiful and appropriate places in the cemetery was appropriated as a burial-place for soldiers of the Union, and another for a pioneers' burial-ground.

In 1857 an important addition was made by the pur- chase of sixty acres on the north line of the cemetery, running up to the Graytown road, from Mr. Platt Ewens, of whom forty acres had been bought ten years before. With these the area of the whole tract was two hundred and eighty acres. Subsequent purchases increased the amount to six hundred acres, and it is now the largest cemetery in the United States.

Among the more important of these were the pur- chase of one hundred and thirty-two and a half acres in 1866 from the heirs of G. Hill, deceased, for one hun- dred and thirty thousand dollars; twenty-five acres the next year from the Marietta & Cincinnati railroad, for six thousand two hundred dollars; a like amount in 1873, from Israel Ludlow, for fourteen thousand four hundred and fifty-four dollars, and twenty-five and seven- tenths acres, the same year, from the widow and heirs of G. W. Crary, for seventeen thousand nine hun- dred and ninety-two dollars and eighty cents. The total sum expended in the purchase of real estate for the cemetery, from 1844 to 1874, was three hundred and fifty-two thousand one hundred and eleven dollars and ninety-seven cents. The price of lots is now from thirty to seventy-five cents per square foot, according to loca- tion, those fronting on the avenues generally being fifty cents, and those in the second tier forty.

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History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 102

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