USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 107
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Next in order is the officers' kitchen, where all food for officers and employes is prepared, and by means of a dumb waiter passed to the officers' dining-room, immediately over the prisoners' kitchen. On the north or left is the laundry, where all the clothing for the prison is regu- larly renovated. In connection with these apartments is the store-room, twenty by twenty feet, bakcry eighteen by twenty feet, with bread-room attached; these departments being all under one roof, and separated by a hall and passage-ways. East and in the rear of the domestic apart- ments is the chapel, a beautiful hall, sixty-five by sixty-eight fcet, thirty feet in height, and capable of seating five hundred to six hundred per- sons. On the south, and disconnected from the chapel, is the male bath-house, eighty-seven by twenty-five feet, and two stories high, the first story having a spacious pool for bathing, with ante-room attached; the second story of this building is set apart for the male hospital, drug-stores, bath-room, etc. On the north of the chapel (and also dis- connected) is the female bath-house, seventy by twenty-five feet, one story high, containing a large bath-room and ante-rooms. East and in the rear of the chapel is the stable and carriage house, with accommo- dations for twelve horses. East and in the rear of the chapel and out buildings, are the male workshops, extending north and south, and fronting on the west, two hundred and eighty-four feet long by sixty- two feet in depth, and two sixteen-foot stories in height, divided in the centre by boiler and engine-house and small packing rooms. The main building, chapel, shops, and outbuildings are all substantial brick structures, with freestone finish.
During the year 1873 a large and commodious work-shop, two hun- dred feet long by sixty feet wide, was added to the improvements, affording ample room for the employment of any number of prisoners, equal to the capacity of the prison. During the year 1876 a new and commodious guard-house, sixty by sixteen feet, a brick structure, with freestone finish, two stories in height, containing eight iron cells, for the confinement of refractory cases, was erected.
Also, connected with this building, is a room for keeping the clothing of prisoners, fifty-eight by fourteen feet; together with a roomn, pro- vided with a fumigating apparatus, for the purpose of exterminating vermin in the prisoners' clothing. Commencing at the extreme end of the north wing of the main building, and running due east six hundred feet, then south five hundred and seventy-five feet, then due west six . hundred feet to the south end of the main building, is a solid stone wall fifteen feet in height, and enclosing the entire back part of the main structure, as well as all out-buildings-the entrance to which is made through three large portals or gateways.
The grounds on which these several structures are built comprise a strip of land fronting on Colerain Avenue five hundred and seventy-five feet, and running due east to the Miami canal, containing in all twenty- six acres. A beautiful lawn five hundred and seventy-eight feet in length, and two hundred and eighty-thrce feet in depth, is laid out in
395
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
front of the premises, with a lake and sparkling fountain in the centre, while the whole is dotted with a profusion of shade-trees and shrubbery. Inclosing these improvements is a substantial white paling fence, with gateways, etc. The building and grounds are lighted with gas, furnished by the Cincinnati Gas-light and Coke company. Pure water, for all purposes, is obtained from the city water-works, through the medium of a four-inch main pipe leading through the grounds.
The building was occupied in the late fall of 1869, while still in an incomplete condition as to its heating and cooking apparatus, laundry machinery, and general ·furnishing. The temporary workhouse upon the grounds then contained seventy-three male and ten female pris- oners, who were transferred to the new edifice; and on the ninth of December forty-two more women were re- ceived from the female city prison, making one hundred and twenty-five inmates of the workhouse at its opening. Mr. Ira Wood, first superintendent, said in his initial re- port to the board of directors:
All of them were thrust into the new city workhouse before we were properly prepared to receive them, from which we suffered no little em- barrassment; and our charge was attended with many inconveniences, which but few could appreciate, except those who were directly con- nected with the institution. The inclement season of the year, and the destitute condition of the male portion of the prisoners, particularly in the way of clothing, prevented our making their labor available in any great degree.
About the first of February your contract with J. D. Hearne & Co. was made for the labor of any number of our male prisoners, not ex- ceeding seventy-five. Since the ninth of February a portion of our male prisoners have been constantly employed in the shops, temporari- ly prepared for that purpose, at making shoes for the above named contractors, and some part of the time, the full number, viz: seventy- five men have been employed, from which a slight income is now being received. While the full number of men is being furnished as per con- tract in the shoe-shops, we have still a large number engaged in other pursuits, such as grading and improving the grounds around and adja- cent to the workhouse; from which, although no immediate income is derived, I trust the future will show is by no means labor lost.
When this report was made, about the close of the first year, the cost of buildings and permanent improve- ments for the workhouse aggregated four hundred and seventy thousand eight hundred and thirty-two dollars.
THE HOUSE OF REFUGE.
The necessity of a special place of confinement for youthful offenders, as well as preventive measures of reform for the ill-disposed youths of the city, as the "Fly Market Rangers," and the "Swamp Boys," had long been apparent to the more thoughtful citizens of Cincinnati. In 1839 Mr., afterwards the Rev. James H. Perkins, made a report on his own account, which set out forcibly the imperative need of institutions like the present House of Refuge. Twenty years afterwards, a public meeting was held to consider the matter, at which a considerable sum was subscribed for a house of refuge for bad children, and a committee appointed to solicit further subscriptions. Subsequently another committee was nominated to visit the eastern cities and inspect sim- ilar institutions. The city finally, in 1850, took hold of the matter, bought from Joseph R. Riddle, for seven thousand eight hundred and ninety-six dollars, a tract of about ten acres on the Colerain turnpike, just north of that occupied later by the city workhouse, and upon it erected a splendid building, in the collegiate Gothic style, of which the following is the official description:
The Cincinnati House of Refuge was opened for the reception of in
mates October 7, 1850, and is situated in Mill Creek valley, but now within city limits, about four miles from the city post office in a north- westerly direction, on Colerain avenue. The grounds belonging to the institution contain nine and seven-eighth acres, five and three-fourths of which are inclosed by a stone wall, twenty feet high, within which stand all the buildings except the stable. The main building which faces the west is a castellated edifice of rough blue limestone, with win- dows, cornices, casings, and portico of white Dayton stone, and pre- sents an imposing front of two hundred and seventy-seven feet, and is composed of a centre building eighty-five by fifty-five feet, four stories in height, with towers at the extremities projecting two feet in front, and which are five stories high, besides the basement. The north wing (boys' department) contains one hundred and twelve dormitories, and the basement a bath, fifty by twelve feet, broad and deep enough for swimming, and twenty-six dressing rooms. The south wing (girls' de- partment) contains seventy-two dormitories, two sewing-rooms, one school-roomn, one store-room, and girls' hospital. In the basement are wash-rooms, bath-room, and play-ground. In the rear of the main building, and connected with it by covered passage-ways, is the school and chapel building, containing on the first floor the bakery, kitchen, three dining-rooms, and four store-rooms; and on the second floor, the chapel, fifty-six by sixty feet, and two school-rooms. East, and to the rear of the chapel, is a shop building, forty-four by eighty, containing on ground floor two covered play-grounds, two wash-rooms, closets, etc., for boys. Second floor-Shop-room, forty-four by eighty. Third floor-School for small boys, twenty by eighty, and dormitory for same, twenty-four by eighty, and two bedrooms for officers. Connect- ing with this is the principal shop building, thirty-seven by one hun- dred and forty-two, containing engine and fuel rooms, covered play- grounds, and wash-rooms, etc., on first floor, and on second and third floors, five work-shops and school-room, also dormitory containing forty-six rooms for third division boys. To the south of the shop buildings stands a substantial brick structure for laundry purposes, and containing all the necessary machinery to make it complete. Con- nected with the shop-building are the boiler-room, thirty-eight by thirty; gas-house, twenty-one by twenty; printing office, sixty-nine by twenty-six; all one story in height and covered with metalic roofing. None of the buildings are detached. They will accommodate three hundred and fifty inmates and the requisite officers. The boys are di- vided into three, and the girls into two divisions or families. Each of the five families have separate schools, dining and wash-rooms, open and covered play-grounds, work-shops, and dormitories. The build- ings are heated throughout by steam and lighted with gas, made upon the premises. The whole number of rooms in the building is two hun- dred and seventy-seven. Water for drinking and culinary purposes is furnished from six large cisterns, supplied with filtered rain water. For fountains and cleansing purposes, an abundant supply is obtained from the city and Miami canal.
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The building and fixtures, in the original cost repre- sented about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. They were pronounced by competent judges at the time the best constructed and most convenient for the purpose in the United States.
The House of Refuge was provided for April 25, 1850, and was already in operation in October of the same year. The number of children since inmates, year by year, of the respective sexes, and the total number, are shown in the following table :
YEARS.
BOYS. GIRLS.
TOTAL.
YEARS.
BOYS. GIRLS. TOTAL.
1851
I21
41
162
1866
211
37
2.48
1852
169
52
221
1867
193
27
220
1853
I36
31
167
1868
160
34 19.4
1854
137
35
172
1869
145
54 199
1855
181
40
221
1870
182
34
225
1856
203
36
239
1871
173
215
1857
195
38
233
1872
175
51
226
1858
187
47
2344
1873
149
45
19.4
1859
218
38
256
1874
181
48
229
1860
181
30
211
1875
200
40
2.40
1861
172
21
193
1876
214
of
254
1862
179
31
210
1877
197
53
250
1863
239
39
278
1878
154
46
200
1864
2.48
54
302
1879
172
48
221
1805
248
48
296
396
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
The number of children in 1879 was precisely the same as in 1852, twenty-seven years before, and the proportion of sexes was about the same. No colored children were in the institution the latter year, but they have since been liberally represented there.
The following is a list of directors of the House of Ref- uge since the opening of the institution: Elam P. Lang- don, 1848-52 ; James H. Perkins, 1848-49; Miles Green- wood, 1848-53, 1858-63; Hudson B. Curtis, 1848-55; William Neff, 1847-51; Thomas J. Biggs, 1848-51, 1855-62; William McCammon, 1848-52 ; Charles Thom- as, 1849-55, 1856-58, 1860; Charles L. Telford, 1849- 49; Bellamy Storer, 1849-50; John D. Jones, 1850-50; Alphonso Taft, 1850-52; William Burnet, 1850-52; George Grawford, 1851-54; Joseph Ray, 1851-55; Wil- liam P. Stratton, 1852-54; Washington McLean, 1852- 53; Harvey DeCamp, 1852-58; A. S. Sullivan, 1852-55; James Wise, 1852-52; N. W. Thomas, 1853-60; John H. Ewing, 1855-58; James D. Taylor, 1854-56; Benja- min T. Dale, 1854-54; A. M. Taylor, 1854-66; Na- thaniel Harris, 1855-56; George F. Stedman, 1855-58; George Keck, 1855-59; George F. Davis, 1855-58; John B. Warren, 1858-62; Charles Ross, 1859-59; G. H. Ketchum, 1858-58; A. E. Chamberlain, 1858 -- 78; F. H. Oehlman, 1858-59, 1861-63; Charles Rule, 1859 -- 64; T. H. Weasner, 1859-60; John C. Thorp, 1859-61; Gassaway Brashears, 1860 -- 61; Stephen Bonner, 1861 -- 73; C. F. Wilstach, 1862 -- 70; L. H. Sargent, 1863 -- 68, 1873-76; Joseph C. Butler, 1863 -- 72; R. H. Holden, 1863; H. Thane Miller, 1864; James M. Johnston, 1866, 1879; John D. Minor, 1868 -- 79; James L. Haven, 1870 -- 74; Murray Shipley, 1871-74; W. M. Ramsey, 1872 -- 79; J. Webb, jr., 1874; David Baker, 1876; F. H. Rowe- kamp, 1876; James Dalton, 1879; A. B. Champion, 1879.
The following is a list of superintendents of the House, with their several dates of appointment : Rufus Hubbard, May 18, 1850; Aaron P. Rickoff, February 12, 1853; H. D. Perry, August 15, 1854 ; Henry M. Jones, June 26, 1856; Abijah Watson, July 27, 1865; * Henry A. Monfort, April 26, 1866; John D. Minor, February 27, 1879; * Henry Oliver, June 24, 1880.
CHAPTER XLV. THE POLICE-BOARD OF HEALTH.
DECEMBER 1I, 1805, in the fourth year of Cincinnati village, an ordinance was passed by the select council for the establishment of a night-watch-a volunteer affair, probably-which was to serve without pay. For a quarter of a century after the character of the village, the sheriff and his deputies, the town marshal, the con- stables and minor officers of the local courts, answered almost exclusively the purposes of a police force. As the
authors of Cincinnati in 1826 put it, they were "found sufficient to preserve peace and good order in a city- whose population, though heterogeneous in character and pursuits, is yet remarkable for its good morals and regular conduct."
THE FIRST POLICE FORCE.
During the latter part of 1826 or the early part of 1827, a city watch was organized. It consisted at first simply of two captains and eighteen men, and cost about three thousand dollars a year.
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Even so lately as 1853-4, when New York had one policeman for every five hundred and sixty-three inhabit- ants, Boston one in five hundred and thirty-four, and New Orleans one in three hundred and three, Cincin- nati needed-or, at all events, had-but one in every one thousand two hundred and ninety of populatiion. She paid but six hundred and thirty-nine dollars average salary, while Boston paid one thousand eight hundred dollars, and Philadelphia and New Orleans two thousand dollars.
In 1864 the city had but about one-half the police force of any other of its class in the United States, yet the public peace was well kept. Chief of Police Ruffin remarked in his report that "this city, comparing its size with others, can show a record cleaner of crime, during the past year, than any other in the country.
The force has since grown with the growth of the city, to its present large proportion. It has suffered of late years much from the reorganization measures of political parties in the general assembly. There were, for vari- ous reason, six changes in the board of police commis- sioners in the single year 1877. It was at this time changed by the State legislature with the management of the county infirmary, which proved an onerous burden. In December, 1874, the same authority had abolished the police board, and vested control of the force in the mayor. This board had been in power under an act of April 18, 1873, and consisted of five commissioners elected by the people, with the mayor as a member ex- officio. After an interval of abolishment, it was restored by an act of March, 1876, but the commissioners were this time to be appointed by the governor of the State. The city disputed the validity of the act, but the decis- ion of the supreme court was against the corporation, and the commissioners were reappointed. The board was now constituted as follows: S. F. Covington, presi- dent; Charles Jacob, jr., George W. Zeigler, Charles Brown and Enoch T. Carson; B. F. Tait, secretary.
February 27, 1880, still another law of the general assembly destroyed the "Metropolitian system," and restored the control of the police to the hands of the mayor.
During the administration of Mayor Bishop, a thor- ough-going drill was introduced into the police organiza- tion by Captain Wilson, the mayor declaring that it was "almost indispensable in dispersing a crowd or quelling riot."
THE POLICE RELIEF ASSOCIATION
was organized in 1876. It is managed by a board of directors elected by the force, distributes pecuniary relief
* Promoted from assistant superintendent.
397
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
to sick or disabled members, and pays insurance benefits to the friends of the deceased. An annual festival is given for the benefit of its treasury, that of September, 1877, netting it two thousand six hundred dollars. The receipts of the relief fund during 1880 were nine thou- sand five hundred and seventeen dollars and twenty- seven cents; disbursements, two thousand seven hundred and seventy-four dollars and ninety cents, including one thousand five hundred dollars, funeral benefits on five deaths in the force, and one thousand one hundred and thirty-three dollars and seventy-five cents for the relief of the sick. No salaries are paid except to the secretary fifty dollars.
HEALTHFULNESS.
By a table prepared by Mayor Moore, and set forth in his annual message of 1878 to the common council, it appears that Cincinnati is one of the healthiest places in the world, as well as one of the pleasantest for residence. A comparison of the bills of mortality of the principal cities of the United States in the years 1876 and 1877, made, in part at least, by Dr. T. H. Reamey, the health officer of the city at that time, exhibited in each the fol- lowing death-rate per thousand inhabitants in the year last given: New Orleans, 32.79; Savannah, 31.22; Nash- ville, 27.73; Washington city, 25.64; Memphis, 25; New York, 24.5; Mobile, 23.37; Pittsburgh, 23.05; Baltimore, also Reading, 22.01; Brooklyn, 21.52; Richmond, 21.27; Boston, 20.15; New Haven, 19.07; Philadelphia, also Providence, 18.81; San Francisco, 18.33; Chicago, 18 .- 24; Cleveland, 17.92; Milwaukee, 16.93; Indianapolis, 16. 19; and Cincinnati, 15.81. Only five cities, of twenty- eight in the list, exhibited a lower death-rate than this last; and they are all, with one exception, towns in the interior, away from special contaminations.
The healthfulness of Cincinnati was in this report made more striking by comparison with cities of the Old World, whose death-rate per thousand inhabitants in 1876 was as follows: Madras, 101.3; Calcutta, 44.9; Buda-Pesth, 43.3; Bombay, 39.9; Munich, 34; St. Peters- burgh, 33.8; Turin, 29.7; Vienna, 28.3; Amsterdam, 27.7; Naples, 27.5; Venice, 27.2; Paris, 26.7; Roterdam, 26.2; Hamburgh (the State of), 25.6; Stockholm, 25. 1. Berlin, 24.6; Brussels, 24.5; Dresden, 22.3; Rome, 21.5; Co- penhagen, 21.4; Geneva, 16.9; The Hague, 16.5; Chris- tiana, 14.5 ;- the last-named being the only one in the list healthier than Cincinnati in 1877.
The bills of mortality for many of the years of Cin- cinnati's history, with an occasional statement of the ratio of the death-rate to population, will be found in our chapters of annals. In 1826 the place was noted by Messrs. Drake and Mansfield, in their book, as "re- markably good for a city in the latitude of thirty-nine degrees, situated on the banks of a large river." Every summer and fall, however, as in other new places, bilious fevers and other ailments prevailed. It was a period of transition, in the opening of streets from the upper to the lower plain, by which water and filth that would otherwise flow off were dammed up, and sickness thus produced.
The city had already a health officer, who was remark-
ed as "doing his duty well," though the streets about the markets were not cleaned promptly after market days.
The mortality report for 1880 showed total deaths for the year 5, 152-2,231 from local, and 1, 332 from zymotic diseases. Under one year of age, 1,332; one to five years, 853; five to ten, 184; ten to twenty, 228; twenty to forty, 993; forty to sixty, 832; sixty to eighty, 618; over eighty, 121. Single persons, 3, 176; married, 1,494; widowers, 160; widows, 321. Natives of Cincinnati, 2,867; elsewhere in the United States, 777; of Ger- many, 956; Ireland, 408; other foreign countries, 144. Males, 2,781; females, 2,371; white, 4,853; colored, 299.
THE BOARD OF HEALTH
is of quite recent organization, its creation by the com- mon council dating from 1865. Dr. Clendenin, then health officer, prepared a bill to be sent to the legislature for strengthening the hands of the board; but it failed of passage, being considered of too much power, although less stringent than the laws prevailing in most eastern cities.
The first annual report of the board of health was made March 1, 1868. It was now in office under an ordinance of the council passed in accordance with an act of the as- sembly March 29, 1867, and consisted of the following named gentlemen: Charles F. Wilstach, mayor, and ex- officio president of the board; Hugh McBriney, S. S. Davis, L. C. Hopkins, J. C. Baum, Daniel Morton, and John Hauck. Dr. William Clendenin was elected health officer by the board, and Mr. George M. Howels, clerk; and a code of rules and regulations was adopted. Its first orders were issued April 24, 1867, and within little more than ten months after that date thirteen thousand six hundred and twenty-four orders were issued by the board and served by the sanitary police. The number of nuisances reported to the health office that year was seventeen thousand three hundred and fourteen, nearly all of them being reported by the sanitary police. Most were promptly abated upon receipt of notices from the board, but in one hundred and thirty-six cases suits were brought by the board and fines were assessed and col- lected in seventy-two cases. Thus vigorously did the board begin its work.
The law creating the board transferred the power of granting medical relief to the poor of the city from the infirmary board to the new organization. Unusual de- mands from this source were made upon it its first year by reason of the rapid growth of the city, and the finan- cial panic late in the year, which threw many persons out of employment. At first a physician was appointed to attend the sick poor in each ward of the city; but, as the health of the people was good this year, the number of ward physicians was presently reduced to thirteen. The total number of sick poor treated this year was four thou- sand four hundred and thirty-one; the number of pro- fessional visits made to them was twenty thousand eight hundred and seventy-four.
An act had been passed the preceding legislature, after much discussion in public and private, to regulate the social evil in cities of the first class of the State, under which the chief of police returned to the board of health
398
HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
of Cincinnati, the location and number of brothels and houses of assignation in the city, and the ward physicians, under the supervision of the health officer, ascertained the number of inmates therein, but with only appoximate accuracy to be four hundred and seventy-one in the entire city. No further steps were taken under the law this year.
In the work of 1868 the board was accredited by the mayor, in his next annual message, with the good deed of ridding the city markets of unwholesome meats and vegetables, preventing the sale of diseased cattle, and guarding the milk supply against adulteration. It also, he said, prevented the spread of the terrible scourge known as the "Texas cattle-fever." The death rate for the year ending February 28, 1869, was only eighteen and five-hundredths in one thousand, which was consid- ered a remarkably low mortality for a great city.
In this year the board caused to be made a notable analysis of the street-sweepings of the city, which demonstrated their high value for purposes of fertilization. The next year, under its auspices, one hundred and forty- four houses of ill-fame were visited, and statistics col- lected of the nativity, personal history, health, etc., of the inmates.
In 1870 the council ordered the erection of public urinals, the care of which was committed to the board, by whom a man was kept constantly employed and paid from the sanitary fund.
In 1872, during the prevalence of small-pox in the city, with great mortality, the board of education formally requested the board of health to cause an inspection of the children in the public schools, to be made, as a re- sult of which seven thousand and sixty-four of them were vaccinated at the public expense. The same year eleven thousand seven hundred and twenty nuisances were abated-one thousand seven hundred and eighty- two more than the year before-and medical attendance was given to seven thousand seven hundred and fifty- seven of the poor. The return of cholera being antici- pated, a thorough house-to-house inspection was made by the board, and twenty-five thousand "cries of warning" were distributed to housekeepers and landlords. The labors of the board were very active and well-directed during the next year, which was, as feared, a cholera year. The schools received another examination in 1876.
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