History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 104

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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1826, $4,735.08; 1827, $5,538.45; 1828, $5,607.19; 1829, $22,257.46; 1830, $22, 526.31; 1831, $25, 334.26; 1832, $37,630.50; 1833, $41, 167.42; 1834, $51,654.39; 1835, $69,721.20; 1836, $69,599.52; 1837, $70,056.90; 1838, $80,771.88; 1839, $98, 352.05; 1841, $98,352.05; 1842, $148,453 .- 04; 1843, $146, 201.50; 1844, $149, 323.54; 1845, $155,300.68.

Official statements bring the statistics down to the pres- ent day :

1846, $286, 388.06; 1847, $362,747.93; 1848, $394,363.64; 1849, $547,- 936.18; 1850, $728,666.37; 1851, $665,742.35; 1852, $910,307.70; 1853, $1,236,561.87; 1854, $1,496,090.70; 1855, $1,262,897.02; 1856, $1,366,- 625.09; 1857, $1, 296,676.36; 1858, $1, 590, 118.23; 1859, $1, 525,841.20; 1860, $1,721,811.39; 1861, $1,920,865.32; 1862, $1,709,889.88; 1863, $1,878,847.45; 1864, $2,783,609.44; 1865, $3,050,000.00; 1866, $3,383,- 970.45; 1867, $4, 304,677.92; 1868, $3,723,056.62; 1869, $4, 119,413.79; 1870, $4,362, 197. 17; 1871, $4,061,658.86; 1872, $3.589,855.39; 1873, $4, 348, 625.72; 1874, $4, 346,263. 30; 1875, $4, 670, 186.67; 1876, $5, 113, - 737.31; 1877, $5,419,613.29; 1878, $4,933,825.90.

The tax levy for 1880 was three and one tenth per cent., upon a grand duplicate of about one hundred and sixty-seven million dollars. That of 1879 was two and eight hundred and eight-thousandths upon a valuation of one hundred and sixty-nine million three hundred and five thousand six hundred and thirty-nine dollars. In 1809 the tax levy in the village of Cincinnati was one- half of one per cent .; in 1810, two-fifths of one per cent .; and in 1811, thirty-five cents on the hundred dollars.

THE RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES

of the last year of the city government (1880), were, re- ceipts four million eight hundred and eighty-seven thou- sand seven hundred dollars and sixty six cents, including seven hundred and sixty thousand five hundred and thirty

dollars and eight cents balance on hand at the beginning of the year, and disbursements, four million eight hun- dred and seventy-seven thousand seven hundred dollars and sixty-six cents, including one hundred and six thou- sand two hundred and forty-five dollars and eighty-one cents. Of disbursements by far the largest particular, more than twice the amount of any other, was for interest on the city debt, one million six hundred and sixteen thousand seven dollars and twenty-four cents.

PUBLIC INDEBTEDNESS.

About half a century ago (1830), the city owed eighty- two thousand two hundred and thirty-nine dollars and thirty-two cents, and had owing to it eight thousand seven hundred and eighty-six dollars and ninety-six cents. The legislature had just authorized the corporation to borrow one hundred thousand dollars. In April, 1869, its bonded indebtedness was four million five hundred and seven thousand dollars, and the value of its public prop- erty was eleven million three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. January 1, 1880, of twenty-six million one hun- dred and six thousand dollars bonded indebtedness issued, two million two hundred and two thousand five hundred dollars had been redeemed, and twenty-three million nine hundred and three thousand five hundred dollars were still outstanding. This indebtedness has been chiefly -to the amount of eight million dollars-incurred by the construction of the Southern railroad.

THE CITY BUILDINGS,

in the square bounded by Eighth, Ninth, and Plum streets, and Central avenue, were built in 1853. In 1860 about thirty thousand dollars were expended in improving and making additions to them.

The city's charitable institutions have been noticed in our chapter on public charities. Its penal institutions will form the subject of the next chapter, and other branches of the city government will receive attention in chapters that follow.

CHAPTER XLII.

THE FIRE DEPARTMENT.

WE follow the foregoing account of the city govern- ment with some brief chapters recording memoranda of history concerning the chief departments of the public service controlled by the city.

Just as the last century was going out, in December, 1800, the good people of Cincinnati began to be much troubled with incendiary fires. Their arrangements for the quenching of fire were as yet, in a town of less than eight hundred inhabitants, and far in the wilderness west, of the most primitive character; and when, a year there- after, several other conflagrations occurred, the purchase of a fire engine began to be seriously mooted. A meet- ing was held to consider the matter; but nothing came of the discussion, as there were yet no village authorities

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

to give the movement municipal authority. But when, the next year, Cincinnati received its first village charter, a meeting of citizens was held July 14th, in the new court-house, at the southeast corner of Walnut and Fifth streets, to pass upon the expenditure of forty-six dollars by the select council, of which twelve dollars were to be appropriated for six fire-ladders, and a like sum for as many fire-hooks. With these public equipments the villagers had to be contented until 1808, when the coun- cil bought

THE FIRST FIRE ENGINE.

Another account, which we have embodied in the annals of the Second Decade, says that the engines were purchased by the council on the third of September, 1807-one to be used on the bottom, the other on the hill; but the former statement is the more probable. The engine procured was a very poor one, and must have been wholly inefficient by 1810, since it receives no mention in the recollections of that year by Mr. S. S. L'Hommedieu, as given in his Pioneer Address. He says that then, whenever a fire occurred, "every one able to labor was required to be on hand with his long leather fire-bucket, and form in line to the river, to pass buckets with water to the fire. Every householder was required to keep one of these hung up, marked, and ready for instant use." In the address from which this extract is made, Mr. L'Hommedieu expressed the opin- ion that in 1870 Cincinnati, in her steam fire-engines and well ordered fire department, excelled any other city.

The Union Fire company, comprising nearly all the men and well grown boys in the village, was organized the same year the engine was bought. Its organization proved to be about as inefficient as that of its engine. For two years before 1815, says the Picture of Cincin- nati that year, it had held no meeting. A second com- pany was formed about 1815. A second engine had been provided for by public taxation imposed by the se- lect council two years ago, but it had not yet been pur- chased. The village ordinances, now required, as in the days of which Mr. L'Hommedieu speaks, that each house should be furnished with a fire-bucket, and that all male citizens of fifteen to fifty years should attend upon an alarm of fire, and that upon the occurrence of each con- flagration every drayman in town should provide at least two barrels of water. Bonfires and all other burnings on the streets or in-lots were "expressly but not success- fully forbidden," says Dr. Drake, who also notes that the first, at least, of the foregoing provisions was disregarded by the majority of the inhabitants.

A WEAK DEPARTMENT.

The Directory of the year 1819, the year when the city proper had its birth, contains the following not over- flattering notice of the department of that day:

There are two engines owned by the corporation, but, strange as it may appear, neither of them are kept in proper repair. A most un- pardonable apathy on this subject pervades our citizens generally. Al- most destitute of ladders, fire-hooks, buckets (or even water in most parts of the city), should the fiery element assail us in a dry and windy season, the denouement of the awful tragedy would be a general devas- tation of our now flourishing city. The most practicable means ought immediately to be taken for creating a supply of water, the number of

engines increased and put in working condition, and every other appar- atus procured which can be of service in restricting the ravages of this powerful destroyer. Otherwise the "good easy man," who retires to his couch meditating on the competency of his fortune, may stalk forth a beggar in the morning.

AN IMPROVEMENT.

The Directory of 1825 gives a little better account of the department. It now "consists of four engine companies, one hose company, one hook and ladder company, a protection company and a protection society." Thomas Tucker was chief engineer and Jeremiah Kier- sted assistant. "There are one hundred and fifty-five firemen and sixteen fire wardens. The utensils of the fire department are in first rate repair, and the companies well organized and ready on the first no- tice to do their duty."

This was something like a department. Each of the engine companies numbered about twenty-five, whose foreman was then called captain. The hose company also numbered twenty-five, and had in charge eighteen hundred feet of hose; the hook and ladder company, thirty, with a pretty good equipment for that day. The bucket company was specially charged with the preserva- tion of the fire-buckets. The protection company num- bered about fifty, and included many of the leading men in the place. The firemen were said by the authors of Cincinnati in 1826 to "keep the engines in excellent or- der, and in cases of fire are prompt, active, and persever- ing. The city council had just seconded their efforts nobly by constructing five substantial brick cisterns in different parts of the city, holding five thousand gal- lons each, and kept constantly filled through the pipes from the primitive water-works of the period. There was already a popular call, however, for an increase to thrice the number.

In 1829 nine organized companies composed the fire department of Cincinnati-Fire Warden Company, No. I; John L. Avery, president; Moses Brooks, secretary ; twenty members. Fire Engine Company, No. 1; Hugh Gilbreath, foreman; S. R. Teal, assistant ; thirty-five members. Fire Engine Company, No. 2; A. G. Dodd, foreman; J. S. Ross, assistant; thirty-five members. Fire Engine Company, No. 3; William Brown, foreman; thirty-five members. Fire Engine Company, No. 4; Thomas Baruise, foreman; John Morris, assistant; thirty- five members. Hook and Ladder Company, No. 1; E. D. Williams, foreman; S. Carrington, assistant; thirty- five members. Hose Company, No. 1 ; thirty-five mem- bers. Protection society, for the protection of exposed property during an alarm of fire ; Joseph Gest, president; William Mills, vice-president; David Churchill, secretary; Stephen Burrows, treasurer; seven directors; fifty mem- bers, with privilege of one hundred; composed princi- pally of respectable, substantial householders. Fire Bucket company, A. M. Ferguson, foreman; Nathaniel Reeder, assistant. Seven brick cisterns had been con- structed in eligible situations, each to contain five thou- sand gallons of water. They were connected with the pipes of the water-works, and so were easily replenished when empty. Two of these-at the intersection of Main and Eighth, and the junction of Fourth and Syca-

Lewis Voight

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

more streets, had been made only the year before. Zebu- lon Byington was chief engineer, Moses Coffin, assistant.

A STRONG DEPARTMENT.

In 1831 the city had ten public cisterns, and ten more were projected. The Water company had put in fifty fire-plugs, and kept them in repair and furnished with water. The department consisted of eight companies, the same as in 1829, except the hose company, in place of which the Cincinnati Independent Fire Engine and Hose company had been organized, under a charter granted February 22, 1830. The city council, the insur- ance companies, and the citizens generally had subscribed liberally in aid of the company, and it had apparatus valued at four thousand dollars-an eight-inch double- chamber engine of thirty-four men-power, discharging four and five-fifths gallons per stroke, in two streams; a suction engine, with double seven-inch chambers, of thirty men-power, discharging four gallons at each stroke. Both engines were finished in the best style of the time. The company also had one thousand five hundred feet of the best eight and one-half-inch hose, carried on a double hose-reel. A new engine-house had been con- tracted for, to go up on Fourth street, near Broadway. George W. Neff was president of the company; Joseph Pierce, vice-president; Charles D. Dana, secretary; Kirk- bride Yardley, treasurer.

THE FIRE BRIGADES.

In 1836 the department was organized into eight brig- ades, each brigade consisting of two engines and a hose company, together manned by one hundred and fifty firemen. A chief or director was appointed for each brigade with one or more assistants, a secretary and treasurer. The brigades were designated, respectively, as Washington Fire Engine Company No. I, manning the Pat Lyon and Ohio engines and the Ranger hose car- riage; Relief Fire Engine No. 2, with the Relief and Cincinnati engines and Reliance hose carriage; Indepen- dence Fire Company No. 3, Constitution and Liberty engines and veteran hose; Franklin Fire Company No. 4, Neptune and Atlantic Engines and Nymph hose; Brigade Fire Company No. 5, Fame engine and Canal hose; Cincinnati Indendence Fire Company No. I, Waterwitch and Pilot engines and Red Rover hose; Cin- cinnati Independent Fire Company No. 2, Cataract and Deluge engines and Pioneer hose; Independent No. 3, Buckeye, with Buckeye and Niagara engines and Diligent hose. There were also the Fire Warden Company No. I, composed of six members from each ward; the Cin- cinnati Fire Guards No. 1; Protection Society No. 1, whose object is defined above; and Hook and Ladder Company No. 1; besides the Cincinnati Fire association, composed of persons from the different fire companies, for the mutual benefit of the department. The fire cis- terns now numbered twenty-seven, all supplied from the water-works, as also fifty-five cast-iron plugs.

In 1834 it was noted by the Directory that "much at- tention has been bestowed by the city council upon this important department. There are belonging to it fifteen engines and ten thousand one hundred and fifty feet of

hose. It is divided into brigades, each of which has two engines, a hose company, and one hundred and fifty members in it. There are belonging to this department fifteen engines, seven hose-reels, one hundred and eighty-six buckets, and seven brigades, besides one engine belonging to the boys." The last-named feature, with which we have not met before in these in- quiries, was the Vigilant Fire Engine and Bucket com- pany, of seventy-five members, mostly youths. Benja- min Brice was president; Henry Pierce, vice-president ; James Gilbreath, secretary; William Coppin, treasurer; Samuel James, foreman and engineer; Miller Ayres, fore- man of the bucket company. William Headly was chief en- gineer of the department in special charge of the cisterns and fire-plugs. An eminently respectable feature was the Cincinnati Fire Engine and Hose Company No. 2, of which Belamy Storer was president, and several lead- ing citizens in other offices. The company had been in- corporated by act of legislature January 15, 1833.

FORTY YEARS AGO.

In 1840-1, the department consisted of eleven com- panies. They were: Washington No. I, with two engines and one hundred and four members, including the hose company; Relief, ninety-six members; Independence, eighty-eight; Franklin, seventy-four; Fame, seventy- four; Fulton; Independent, one hundred and twenty- nine; Fire Engine and Hose and Independent No. 2, eighty-one; Cincinnati Fire Guards, sixty-six; and the Hook and Ladder company, forty-two. The Protection society numbered four hundred and seventy-one, and the company of Fire Wardens No. I had thirty-two members. Each of the engine companies had two engines and a hose cart in charge. The public cisterns numbered thirty-four, with thirty-five fire plugs. The Cincinnati Fire association was organized in the latter year, of seven men from each company and five fire wardens. Its objects were to regulate the department, settle disputes arising between the companies, and provide benefits for sick and disabled members. Josiah J. Stratton was president, Teuton Lawson, treasurer, and John D. Lovell, secretary.

A TRANSITION PERIOD.

The volunteer department in Cincinnati, as in other cities, was subject to many abuses, which need not be detailed here, as they are well known to all who have given any thought or inquiry to the subject. The time at length arrived when a change seemed absolutely nec- essary to the peace and safety of the city at times of fire, or even of fire alarm. A few leading citizens, prominent among them Messrs. Miles Greenwood and James H. Walker, then a councilman from the Fifth ward, early in the seventh decade of the city, began to move for a reform in the department. Most fortunately for their purposes, about this time came in the era of

THE STEAM FIRE ENGINE.

One of the earliest of these engines built in this coun- try, and the first that was practicable for ready use, was constructed in Cincinnati. It has been somewhat de- scribed on page 328 of this volume, in our chapter on manufacturing. An engraving issued by way of frontis-

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

piece to the First Annual Report of the chief engineer of the department, April 1, 1854, represents this primi- tive steam fire engine, the Uncle Joe Ross, the first in use in Cincinnati, and, except one for a short time in New York, anywhere in America. It was of the con- struction of Messrs. Shawk & Latta, of this city, and had then been in the service of the department for more than sixteen months, stationed on the north side of Eighth street, between Plum and Central avenue. It appears rude and clumsy in comparison with the elegant ma- chines of the present day, and was heavy and difficult to move; but was strong and serviceable, doing its work well. The chief engineer reported this year: "If any doubt remained of the practicability of this invention for protecting property from destruction by fire, it must now be removed. The triumphant success of this inven- tion has so completely satisfied every one that has seen it in operation, not only as a means of greater security to property, but in point of economy far beyond any- thing now in use."

So much confidence had the new device inspired, that a sum had been raised by the citizens and insurance companies, sufficient to pay for another steamer, which was then almost ready for service. The contract for still another had been authorized by the council, but it was thought best not to order it until the new one had been tested, so that the next steamer might be built with such improvements as the performance of the other suggested. He thought that when the engine nearly ready was placed in service, four or five of the existing hand engine com- panies in the heart of the city might be safely dispensed with, as was presently done.

In 1880 a present citizen of Iowa, an old-time visitor to Cincinnati, recalled some memories of this engine in reply to an inquiry, which, with some abatement for er- rors not necessary to indicate, well justifies its reproduc- tion here.

"Yes, sir," was the response, "I drove the team that hauled the first steam fire engine ever built to the first fire on which streams were played by steam power. I'll tell you how it was: My brother worked in Miles Greenwood's foundry in Cincinnati-and I lived at Island Pond, Vermont -- and in May, 1852, I believe, I went to Cincinnati to see him, arriving there Saturday evening. We were on our way to church Sun day morning, when the fire bells struck, and my brother said : 'Now we'll see what they will do with the steam machine,' and we started for Miles Greenwood's shop, where the steam fire engine was. It was built by Greenwood-the first ever on wheels. There the engine stood, steam up, four large gray horses hitched to it, a crowd looking at it, and Greenwood mad as the devil because he couldn't get a man to drive the horses. You see all the firemen were opposed to this new in- vention because they believed it would spoil their fun, and nobody wanted to be stoned by them, and then the horses were kicking about so that everybody was afraid on that account. My brother says : 'Larry, you can drive those horses, I know!' And Greenwood said : 'If you can, I wish you would-I'll pay you for it!' My business was teaming, you see. And just as I was, with my Sunday clothes on, I jumped on the back of a wheel horse, seized the rein, spoke to the horses, and out we went kiting. Miles Greenwood went ahead, telling the people to get out of the way-the streets were full of people. The horses went on a fast run nearly the whole way, and when we got to the fire we took suction from the canal, and played two streams on the building, a large frame house, and put the fire out. That was the biggest crowd I ever saw in my life, and the people yelled and shouted while some of the firemen who stood around the piano machines (hand fire engines) jeered and groaned. After the fire was out Greenwood put on two more streams, and four were played. Then the city hired

me to drive the four horse team with the steamer, paying me seventy- five dollars a month. It was a great long, wide affair, with a tall heavy boiler-it was bigger than this room-and run on three wheels, two be- hind and one in front to guide it by. After a few weeks a fellow offered to do my work for fifty dollars a month, and they turned me off and hired him. The second fire he drove to he was run over and killed."

In the same report cited Chief Greenwood recom- mended the purchase of the lot, then vacant, on the south side of Sixth street, between Vine and Race, for the use of the department, arguing its convenience to the lookout and alarm bell about to be placed upon the ad- joining Mechanics' Institute building, and other impor- tant considerations. The same thing had been under advisement by the authorities, and, before the chief engineer's report appeared in print, the purchase had been authorized by the city council. The handsome and convenient building subsequently erected upon it is the one now occupied as the headquarters of the department, and also by gift, steam engine company, No. 3, Phoenix hook and ladder company, No. 1, and the fire alarm telegraph.

The cost of the department for the year reported (1853-4) was seventy-eight thousand four hundred and forty-four dollars and four cents, of which twelve thousand two hundred and seventy-three dollars and sixty-three cents was attributable to the change from the volunteer to the paid system. Besides the steam fire-engine, four- teen hand-engine companies were still in service, two hook and ladder companies, and one hose company. The salary list of officers and men for the year was fifty- three thousand six hundred and thirty-nine dollars and one cent. The fires of the year numbered one hundred and sixty, with an estimated loss of six hundred and eighty thousand nine hundred and six dollars, of which three hundred and thirty thousand and eighty-nine dollars was covered by insurance. It was a notable period of trans- ition in the organization of one of the finest fire depart- ments in the world.

MILES GREENWOOD.

Mr. Greenwood had accepted service under the ordi- nance passed March 9, 1853, reorganizing the department and providing, in a limited way, for a paid department. Each member of a company employed by the city (none to be under twenty-one years of age) was to receive the munificent sum of sixty dollars per annum; each lieuten- ant, one hundred dollars; captains, one hundred and fifty dollars ; pipemen and drivers, three hundred and sixty-five dollars ; assistant engineers (four), three hun- dred dollars, and the chief engineer one thousand dollars a year. Mr. Greenwood, however, was practically serving without pay, while employing another person at a good salary to attend to his regular business. A writer in the Biographical Cyclopædia and Portrait Gallery of Dis- tinguished Men thus refers to his eminent service in this difficult work :

Mr. Greenwood became connected with the fire department in 1829, when there was but one hose company in the city, and was president of the association several times. In 1853 the first steam fire engine was brought out to a fire by a number of picked men under the command of Mr. Greenwood. It was well understood that the buildings had been fired by the members of the volunteer company, who were bitterly opposed to the introduction of steam engines, for the purpose of hav-

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ing an opportunity to smash it. Mr. Greenwood was soon surrounded by three liundred of these men, who were loud in their threats of ven- geance. But his cool courage and resolute will daunted the rioters, so that everything dwindled into a threat that he would never get an office after that. Two other fires occurred the same night. It will be re- membered that the city council took little or no interest in the great change in the fire department which the exigency of the times called for; and being determined to accomplish the work he had undertaken, he furnished fifteen thousand dollars of his own money, and obtained fifteen thousand dollars more from private citizens and insurance com- panies, who had confidence in the final success of the change. It was not until the change had been made that the council sanctioned it by paying the expenses attending it. Mr. Greenwood, however, had fully informed himself in regard to the will of the better class of citizens, and was determined to succeed with the moral support which they ren- dered him. He removed his family from the city to Avondale, previ- ous to the struggle, and for the first eighteen months only slept at home six nights; and from his house on the corner of Race and Ninth streets answered every tap of the aların bell. The council paid him one thousand dollars to attend to their business, and he paid one thousand five hundred dollars for a person to take his place in his own business; and to show that he was not actuated by mercenary motives, donated the one thousand dollars to the Mechanics' Institute. After the steam fire engine became a fixed fact in the Cincinnati fire department, a dep- utation from the city of Baltimore came on to examine its workings and compare the paid and volunteer systems. On being questioned as to the points of difference, Mr. Greenwood's answer was characteristic, and as follows: "Ist, it never gets drunk; 2nd, it never throws brick- bats, and the only drawback connected with it is, that it can't vote."

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History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 104

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