History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 106

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 vote here mentioned was the second taken by the electors of the city, and long after the first. In June, 1839, the company owning the water-works had fallen into such financial straits as to make it neces- sary to part with the property. If not bought by the city, it seemed likely to pass into the hands of strangers, without other interest in the place. A popular vote was taken upon the question of purchase by the city, and the council was thereby instructed to procure whatever legis- lation might be necessary to authorize the purchase. This was secured without difficulty, and, in the month above designated, the city became the purchaser of the water-works, and all its franchise and privileges, for the sum of three hundred thousand dollars, which became a bonded debt, due January 15, 1865, when it was promptly redeemed. It may be here mentioned that bonds be- came frequently necessary during the years 1847-53, for improvements and extensions, and long-time issues, be- coming due in 1895 and 1900, were made as follows : For improvements, $56,000, March 1, 1847; $50,000, April 1, 1847; $94,000, May 15, 1847; $100,000, April 15, 1849. For extension of the works, July 1, 1851, $100,000; June 15, 1853, $25,000; July 5, 1853, $50,- 000; making a total, with the original issue, of $875,000 water-works indebtedness. September 8, 1868, $150,000

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

in seven-thirty bonds were issued for the construction of additional works and the purchase of grounds therefor. Bonded issues since have been: For the Eden Park reser- voir, 1869, $150,000; for extension and improvement of the works, $150,000 ; for "water-works purposes," $300,- ooo; and $300,000, August 2, 1875, to complete the new reservoirs, and for laying water-pipes and purchasing new engine. The total water-works bonded indebtedness of the city in 1880 was $

When the purchase of the works was made by the city, in 1839, the facilities for water distribution consisted of twenty thousand four hundred and twenty-three feet of iron pipe, chiefly three and four irch pipe, and one hun- dred and seventeen thousand eight hundred and forty- three feet of wooden pipe-mere logs with a two-and-a- half inch bore. The city received from the works during the first year of its ownership but thirty-nine thousand four hundred dollars, and for thirteen years the revenue from this source was insufficient to meet the expenses of the department. Meanwhile, however, many of the old and useless log pipes had been removed, the water ser- vice had been greatly extended, and additional pumping power had been introduced. But little of this improve- ment was made down to June, 1846, when the manage- ment of the works was placed under the control of three trustees. A contract was now made with Messrs. Yeat- man & Shield, of the city, for building the combination engine, which displaced the old and now much dilap- idated machinery. The revenue for water rents was as yet but forty-four thousand two hundred and fifty dollars. In 1850 greater pumping power became necessary, and Messrs. Harkness & Company contracted to build a con- densing engine to meet the deficiency. Two years after- wards, the superintendent and engineer of the works made an earnest appeal to the board of trustees for a reserve engine, to fall back upon in case of the sudden disability of either or both of the other engines, and a contract was accordingly made with Messrs. Powell & Company for another condensing engine, which was presently added to the facilities possessed by the works.

Very large additions were made in 1854-5 to the dis- tributing pipes and the hydrants-sixty-three miles of the former and nine thousand of the latter being in use when the water-works board reported at the beginning of 1856. The works were, no great while after, estimated by the board to be worth two millions of dollars, and, in 1860, Superintendent Phillips increased this estimate by a quarter of a million. From that time to and including 1866, there were expended for main and supply pipe, $453,889.35; for the new engine, $208,239.16; new building, $143,970; stand-pipe and improvement at reservoir, $21,871.42; and the new Eden Park reservoir, $60,094.70; total, $888,064.63. A net gain was shown as having accrued to the city since the purchase ot the works, deducting eight hundred and seventy-five thou- sand dollars of appropriations by the council, of two million two hundred and sixty-three thousand and sixty-four dollars and sixty-three cents, which had been derived from lower water-rates than the general average charged in other cities supplied by engine-pumping power.

So long ago as 1854, the water-works board urged upon the council the importance of securing enough ground for additional reservoir capacity, at an increased elevation over that in use, and the building of two Corn- ish engines. The recommendation resulted in no def- inite action until 1860, when, upon the report of Mr. Shield, now engineer of the works, submitting plans, drawings, and estimate of cost (eighty-seven thousand, seven hundred and. seventy-nine dollars and fifty-five cents), he was instructed to proceed with the work of building a single monster engine on the Cornish plan. It was nearly five years in building, and, as we have seen above, cost a great deal more than the original estimate. The castings for it were the largest in dimensions and weight that had been brought for any purpose into the city, and the largest, indeed, then ever cast in the coun- try. During the excavation made for the building which was to contain it, two old log roads were found, which had been used in hauling the stone quarried for the old water-works building.

In 1861 the average daily supply of water from the works was four million eight hundred and fifty-five thou- sand, five hundred and eight gallons, which was forty-six thousand four hundred and seventy-eight gallons more than the average daily supply of the two previous years combined. A considerable length of twenty-inch mains. had been put down this year. The next year the total supply was two billion, sixty-two million, sixteen thousand, nine hundred and ten gallons, or two hundred and eighty- nine million, seven hundred and fifty-six thousand, two hundred and sixty-six more than in 1861. A new aque- duct had been extended to the river channel, supposed to be out of the reach of impurities, and a stand-pipe and main had been constructed at the reservoir. The former fact brings to mind

AN INTERESTING QUESTION.

In 1852, the board of trustees of the water works em- ployed Dr. John Locke, sr., an eminent professor of chemistry and a very competent man for the purpose, to make analyses of samples of water taken from the Ohio river at various points between Cincinnati and the mouth of the Big Sandy, above the city, also from sundry places on the Great and Little Miamis, from the Whitewater and Mad rivers, and from a spring on Sycamore street hill, near the city. Careful tests, calculations, and compari- sons with each other, and with the Croton water of New York city, were made; and it was satisfactorily proved that the Ohio river water was superior to any of the other, and that it contained but seventy-six thousandths of a grain more solid matter in a gallon than the Croton water. The use of the water from that stream was therefore ap- proved and continued. In 1864, however, it was deemed advisable by the city council to appoint "Water Supply Commission," consisting of Mayor Harris, Colonel Gil- bert, the city civil engineer, with the trustees of the water-works and Messrs. Weasner, Moore, Wiltsee, and Davis, of the council, to report further in regard to the attainment of a supply of pure water for the city. They secured the services of Mr. James P. Kirkwood, of New

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

York, one of the most eminent hydraulic engineers in the country, who made a thorough inspection of the country surrounding Cincinnati, including an examination of its rivers, creeks, and springs, and the character of its rocks and soil with a view to the supply of the city by surface drainage. After all his searches and wanderings, he finally returned to the water of the amber stream, la belle riviere, as the best available for the purpose, and reported emphatically in its favor. He also submitted a plan for new water-works, the water to be taken from the Ohio at Pendleton, and for greater reservoir capacity. This did not receive the favor of the majority of the commissioners; but a minority report from them, favor- ing the Ohio river water, and discharging it with the existing pumps into a new reservoir, or the old one, at an additional elevation, was almost unanimously adopted by the city council, and instructions given to negotiate with Mr. Joseph Longworth, heir of the late Nicholas Long- worth, for the purchase of the property known as the "Garden of Eden" (now part of Eden Park), for the proposed extension. It was a specially favorable locality for a reservoir, being a natural basin, two hundred and thirty-eight feet above low-water in the Ohio and sixty- eight above the overflow pipe of the old reservoir. Stone of excellent quality for all purposes of building the structure was found upon the site, much of which would be necessarily quarried in making the excavation for a reservoir of the desired capacity-one hundred millions of gallons. The negotiations with Mr. Longworth were successful, the necessary papers being executed January 9, 1866, and the great work was begun as soon as the requisite legal authority could be obtained. In the latter part of February the survey of the ground was commenced and early in May plans were submitted for building the main on southward, and for sewers for draining the ground. The work was pushed briskly, and by the last day of the year sixty-nine thousand and ninety-four dol- lars and seventy cents had been expended upon the improvement.

The question of purity of the water was still naturally much agitated by the people of the city-an agitation materially increased by an amusing but mortifying in- cident occuring in the autumn of 1866, which demon- strated a fact long in dispute that the filthy waters of Deer creek, detained for a time near its mouth by a movement of the current of the Ohio that came to be called the "Deer Creek eddy," were brought within the area of waters entering the aqeduct of the water works, and were pumped into the reservoir for the supply of the city's drinking water. By the burning of a distillery somewhere along the course of the creek, a quantity of whisky was lost and mingled with its waters. The same alcohol element being shorty afterwards detected in the water from the reservoir, the close relation of Deer creek and the city water supply was shown beyond a cavil; and steps were promptly taken by the water board to break the connection by constructing a wall into the river from the upper bank of the creek, so as to prevent the eddy. About eighteen months afterwards, Mayor Wilstach expressed the opinion, in which Mr. Joseph P.

Mayer, superintendent of the water-works, concurred that the city would "never be supplied with a really pure article of water until the works are located at some point above the mouth of the Little Miami river," on account of the increasing population on both sides of the Ohio below that point adding to the drainage and consequent impurity of the water supply. This view received further confirmation the next year, in the report of the board of health, that the waters of the Little Miami were also a source of contamination, since, as Professor Locke re- ported: "By the analyses the waters of either of the Miamis is shown to be too highly charged with mineral matter to answer well for domestic use."

This feeling ultimately led to the purchase by the cor- poration of the Markley farm above the city, on the river, about ten miles above the present pumping-house, for the purposes of inproved water-works. It cost not far from one hundred thousand dollars, and has not yet been util- ized for the ends of its purchase.

THE NEW ENGINE

at the works was not ready for testing until the fifteenth of November, 1865, when the piston-head burst, and there was further delay. Many troubles with the great machine followed, and it was not of much service until 1867, when, with the final insertion of new pump-valves, the engine worked satisfactorily, and has been since con- tinued in use.

It may be remarked that in 1847 the combined en- gines at the works were first put in operation. About 1851 the engine of Harkness & Sons was started, and in 1854 the Powell & Sons' engine. There was no increase in power then until in 1860, when the new engine on the Cornish plan was ordered. The ultimate cost of this improvement, three hundred and two thousand seven hundred and sixty-six dollars and seventy-six cents, ex- cited a great deal of hostility among the citizens, although the extension of mains to the amount of one hundred and seventy-eight thousand dollars, between 1854 and 1860, and two hundred and four thousand dollars from 1860 to 1864, created no general murmur from the peo- ple.

In 1868-9 works for the supply of Mount Auburn, Walnut Hills, and other elevated localities, were con- structed, and in 1879-80 similar works for the supply of the heights in the western part of the city. Here the great tank, holding two million seven hundred thousand gallons, on the "Considine place," a tract of three acres, on Glenway avenue, a spot so elevated as to afford a sup- ply for the loftiest building on the hills, and to give a pressure that will throw a jet above the tallest edifice in the city below. The flow-line of the tank is five hundred and eleven feet above low water in the river.

OTHER RESERVOIRS.

Two boiler iron tanks previously constructed for the supply of the hills are in a favorable locality at the in- tersection of Auburn avenue and Vine street, on Mount Auburn. The pumping-works which supply these are in the valley below, at the corner of Hunt and Effluentpipe streets, which draw on the great reservoirs in Eden park.

William If Cooks

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

They supply the Tyler Davidson fountain, also a line of fire-plugs by a ten inch pipe down Vine street to Fourth, upon which is a pressure of two hundred pounds to the square inch.

The old Third street reservoir is in the so-called Water- works park, at the foot of Mount Adams, and is con- structed of solid masonry. It is very much smaller than the immense basins in Eden park, but by constant pump- ing into it is made sufficient for the supply of the district south of Third street and a part of the west end.

The two reservoirs around the hills above, in Eden park, will together hold about one hundred million gal- lons. The natural hollows of that region favored their construction, and a building of a huge wall of strong and solid masonry across the mouth of one of these ravines was sufficient to create the great artificial lakes or reservoirs. The ground was first broken for these reser- voirs, which are in effect one, on the ninth of April, 1866, and the work was continued with little interrup- tion, except from an injunction obtained in April, 1875, which stopped the work for four and a half months. It was prosecuted, however, at great cost, the total expense for them reaching about four and a half millions. In 1874 the northwest division, containing fifty-eight mil- lion sixty-one thousand six hundred and twenty-six gal- lons, was completed, and water was pumped into it Oc- tober 9th of that year. The entire work, as finished, alone provides a supply for the city for about six days, which time could be prolonged by economy of consump- tion, in case of any sudden and dangerous contingency. It is a work of gigantic proportions, whose construction involved important new problems in hydraulic engineer- ing, all of which are believed to have been successfully solved. It supplies the extensive and densely populated districts between Third street and the hills.

THE LATEST STATISTICS.

The daily average consumption of water by the city of Cincinnati in 1880 was 19,476,732 gallons, against 17,322,412 in 1879, being an increase of 12.44 per cent. The largest consumption for one day was on the seventeeth of July, being 27,951,395 gallons. The total consumption of the year was 7, 128,484,020 gallons, or 805,803,468 more than the year next before. The num- ber of miles of main pipe in use was 188.7, of which 4.64, or 24,505 feet, were laid in 1880, of which 3,319 were 46-inch pump mains, and 12,689 in small lines for petitioners. Pipe was relaid to the amount of 3,350 feet. The total disbursements of the department for the year were $521,311.79, and receipts $523,087.09, of which $504,490. 16 were from water rents, and $300 from rents of the Markley farm, etc. There was a net increase of receipts for the year, as against 1879, of $57,253.89, and decrease of expenditures $23,000.83, making a net increase of profit and loss for 1880 of $80,254. 72-the largest since the water-works were created, and larger than any other three years together, excluding 1864. The ratio of expense to receipts, exclusive of the inter- est account, was but 37 per cent., against 47 in 1879, when the rents were reduced 5 per cent., and $1 the previous year.

CHAPTER XLIV.

PENAL INSTITUTIONS.

A SMALL prison was erected for municipal purposes quite early in the history of Cincinnati; but at what date or under what circumstances or auspices we have been unable to learn .* It was not only small and inconven- ient, but in time became exceedingly noisome and un- healthful, and in March, 1818, the condition of the prison used by the town was so bad as to call out an emphatic protest from an association of Christian women, embracing some of the first ladies in the place. A com- munication to the mayor and town council, signed by Mrs. Riske, formerly wife of Colonel Ludlow, as cor- responding secretary of the society, contained the fol- lowing:

Amidst proofs of public munificence that distinguish Cincinnati and give it a dignified position among the cities of the United States, the neglected condition of its prison will, to the eye of any philanthropic traveller, impart counterbalancing degradation. The prison is at pres- ent in a state of decay, and its dilapidated walls, which bear many marks of the ingenuity and perseverance of men driven to despair, are inadequate to withstand attempts at escape; so that the only alternative is the additional cruelty of loading culprits with irons. When the ladies of this association last visited it, one room of about twenty feet square contained twenty-two prisoners. Debtors, house-breakers, malefactors, male and female, were crowded promiscuously together, like animals in a pen for slaughter!

This state of things was measurably relieved in due course of time, and the prison accommodations of the place were enlarged with the growth of the city and of its crime record; but in 1859 the report made of an official investigation into the condition and management of the city prison, then on Ninth street, again excited much compassion and indignation. As one result of the stir made, the female prisoners were removed for confine- ment in a school-house on East Front street, which was put in charge of Mother Mary Stanislaus Cusack, a religieuse of the Catholic order of the Good Shepherd, who for several years administered its affairs admirably as matron. The Ninth Street prison, however, again became insufferably crowded, about forty men and three women being incarcerated therein daily. At length abundant relief was found in the superseding of the old den on Ninth street by the present superb

CITY WORKHOUSE.

On the twenty-first of July, 1865, Councilman William P. Wiltsee, of the committee of council on police, city prison, and workhouse, offered the following measure:

Resolved, That the committee on police, city prison and workhouse are hereby authorized to select a site and have plans and estimates made for the ercction of a city prison and workhouse, and report the same to council as soon as practicable, with all necessary action requir- ed, on the part of the legislature of the State, for carrying out the objects of this resolution, viz: 'The crection of a city prison and work- house.

The resolution was adopted, and the latter part of it took ultimate effect in the passage by the legislature, at its next session, March 9, 1866, of an act supplementary to the act of May 3, 1852, to provide for the organiza- tion of cities and incorporated villages, by which the city

*In 1826 the county jail was the only place in the city for the con- finement of prisoners.

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

was empowered to erect and maintain a workhouse; to issue bonds to the amount of one hundred thousand dollars, bearing interest at not more than six per cent. per annum, for such institution, and to levy a tax not exceeding one-half of one mill on the dollar for its main- tenance. Its direction and control were vested in a board of five directors, serving without compensation. Originally these were to be appointed for the term of four years-one by the judges of the superior court, one by the judges of the court of common pleas, two by the city council, and the mayor was to be the fifth, and ex officio chairman of the board. By a later act all are ap- pointed by the mayor, with the consent of the council, and hold for term of five years.

On the ninth of March, 4866, Councilman Joseph Kirkup, from the same committee as before, offered the following :

WHEREAS, The committee on police, city prison and workhouse, acting under the instructions of the city council, have selected a site on which to erect a city prison and workhouse, and,

WHEREAS, The general assembly of the State of Ohio has author- ized the city of Cincinnati to issue bonds, and levy a tax, for the pur- pose of erecting a city prison and workhouse,

Therefore, be it Resolved, That the committee on police, city prison and workhouse, in connection with the city auditor and city solicitor, be, and they are hereby empowered to purchase the lot of land lying adjacent to, and adjoining the house of refuge, said lot containing twenty-six acres, more or less, for the sum of fifty thousand dollars, payable in city bonds. Adopted.

Resolved, That the finance committee be requested to prepare an or- dinance, authorizing the issue of bonds, for the purpose herein set forth.

The preamble and resolutions were adopted, and sub- sequently, April 20, 1866, the following submitted by Councilman Robert Allison, of the same committee:

Resolved, That the committee on police, city prison and workhouse be and are hereby authorized to procure plans and specifications for a workhouse, to be erected on the property purchased for the purpose of erecting a city prison and workhouse,

Also, That the committee on police, city prison and workhouse be, and they are hereby instructed to take immediate measures for erection of a temporary house for a prison, on the property purchased for the purpose of erecting a permanent workhouse.

The property purchased was a tract on the old Camp Washington, used for the rendezvous of Ohio troops during the Mexican war, in the Mill Creek valley, one- third of a mile east of the stream, and near the base of Clifton Heights. It is on the Colerain avenue or turn- pike, three and one-half miles from Fountain square, and now within the limits of the city. Ground was presently broken, under the direction of Mr. Allison, who was made chairman of the building committee, and the immense building now occupied put up the next year, after plans prepared by Messrs. Adams and Hanna- ford, architects. The following description of it is com- prised in the annual reports of the institution :

The buildings present a beautiful and imposing structure, with a frontage on the west of five hundred and ten feet in length, and con- sists of a main building fifty-four feet in width, and fifty-four feet in depth, and five stories in height. In this building are contained the offices, reception and ante-rooms, superintendents' and officers dormi- tories. In connection, and extending north and south of the main building, are two wings, each wing being two hundred and twenty-eight feet long by sixty feet deep. The wings are one story of sixty feet in height, exclusive of the turrets at the extreme ends of the wings. In the south, or main wings of the structure, are contained three hundred

and fifty-six cells for male prisoners; all are built in one single block of six tiers, with a hall or passage-way around the same, two hundred and twenty-four feet long and sixteen feet wide. The north wing (fe- male department) contains two hundred and forty cells, built in one solid block, and a hall or passage-way extending around the same, one hundred and sixty-two feet in length and sixteen feet in width. At the extreme end of this wing are the female workrooms, five in number, sixty feet in length and twenty-five feet in width. The rooms are occu- pied during the day by females exclusively, employed in the manufac- ture of clothing, etc. ; here also wearing apparel, both male and female, for prison use, is manufactured and repaired; in connection with this suite of rooms is the female hospital, sixty by twenty-five feet. Imme- diately in rear and centre of main structure are the domestic depart- ments; first, the prisoners' kitchen, where food for all prisoners is pre- pared, and at the proper hours passed by means of endless belts to the prisoners on their entrance to the prisons, the food having been already divided into proper rations; the labor in this department being per- formed by female prisoners under the supervision of a lady guard. Connected with the domestic apartments, in the basement story, is the boiler and engine-room, fifty by sixty feet, and containing four large double-flued boilers, twenty feet long by forty-two inches diameter, and set in two separate batteries of two boilers each, furnishing a sufficiency of steam for heating of buildings, cooking, laundry, and all other pur- poses. A doctor engine, for supplying the boilers with water, is also in its proper position, which, together with low-water detectors, steam gauge, etc., has been added to insure safety. A ten- by twenty-inch cylinder horizontal engine is provided for furnishing the necessary power for driving the laundry machinery. A large boiler-iron tank, fifty-two inches diameter, and twelve feet long, with an interior heating surface, supplies the institution with an abundance of hot water.

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History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 106

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