History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 112

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

USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 112

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Sometimes two desperate fellows, intent on whipping each other, would be made to strip, and a couple of constables standing over with good switches, would compel them to fight to their hearts' content. In some cases judicial ducking in the canal would rid the neighborhood of an old loafer. Sometimes at nightfall a drunken fellow would be brought in to be tried for a general row. The order would be given to the constable to put him in the bastile till morning, when, sobered off, he would be dismissed with his breakfast and an admonition not to be caught that way again. Instances like these might be indefinitely mul- tiplied.

It is astonishing that in his long career some cases were not appealed to a higher court, or the 'squire mnulcted in damages for preventing it. Often would some disappointed litigant demand a transcript of his docket, in order to take the case up by appeal on error; but the unvary- ing reply of the 'squire has been that he didn't keep any books, but al- ways settled up as he went along. In fact, the entire entries made in his docket during his official life wouldn't amount to a dozen pages. The law requires each magistrate to make an annual report to the county auditor of the number of criminal cases tried before him during the year, the amount of fines and costs assessed; and an appropriation from the county treasury is made to cover the costs. But his report of every case was ended with the remark, "No costs."

The bastile referred to in this amusing account was the circular front room of the wine-cellar dug by the 'squire in the side of a large mound. It was secured with strong iron doors and an immense padlock, and over the arches at the front the word "bastile" was painted, with the designs of a sword and pistols about it. This unique prison, with its legend still upon it, may be seen to this day, near the gate to the left of the path leading up to the old mansion.

Another good story told of him is the following:

His neighborhood had been afflicted with ehicken thieves, and many were the complaints of his neighbors to him. He had always had a faithful constable-that is, always faithful to him in his office-and he sent this constable out, ever and anon, to look up and catch the chicken thieves. At last the constable caught a notorious one, and brought him before the 'squire. The 'squire put him to trial immediately, and the evidence plainly convicted the man. "Now," said the 'squire, "you chicken thief, I am going to banish you to Kentucky, and the

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

sentence of the court is that you be immediately banished to the State of Kentucky, and the court itself will see the sentence carried out in full." Whereupon the 'squire ordered the constable to bring the man along; and his own residence and office being on the bank of the Ohio river, he went down to the river, put the man into a skiff, and ordered the constable to get in and row the man over the river to the shores of Kentucky, telling the man that it would be certain death to him if he ever came back. The constable rowed him over, and that man never did come back.

Squire Sedam was a noted loyalist during the great Rebellion; and during the siege of Cincinnati, in the fall of 1862, he was appointed provost marshal for the town- ship of Storrs. Our excellent authority says:

He was active and vigilant in the performance of his duties, and par- ticularly in seeing that every man turned out, his motto being that when our homes are threatened no man ought to be exempt. His proclama- tion, issued then, allowed only five hours for business, closed up all places where liquor was sold, and declared that all persons in the coun- try five years and claiming to be exempt as aliens should be put south out of the township lines into Kentucky; and it would have been en- forced to the letter in several instances if the parties had not withdrawn their claim and marched into camp and done duty as good soldiers.

The old residence, just opposite the Sedamsville sta- tion, is still occupied by the Sedam descendants.

SEDAMSVILLE,

that part of the former Storrs township lying between the bluffs and the Ohio, three and one-half miles from Fountain square, was never a populous village, but contained a number of large distilleries and mills. It is now a part of the Twenty-first ward of the city. The Catholic church of St. Vincent de Paul is located here, in charge of Rev. T. Byrne. The Storrs Congregational church is at the cor- ner of the river and Mount Hope roads. It was founded in 1872, and its pastorate has long and honorably been associated with the services of the veteran missionary and minister, Rev. Horace Bushnell. The Sedamsville post office, after about ten years interval, was reestablished here August 1, 1880, under the designation of station G, with Mr. John J. Untersinger as postmaster.

CAMP WASHINGTON

is the locality in the Mill Creek valley on both sides of the Colerain pike, between the old Brighton house site and Cumminsville, upon which the First and Second Ohio regiments rendezvoused and encamped after the outbreak of the Mexican war in 1846. The tract was then mostly covered by woods, but is now wholly cleared and mostly covered with buildings, among which are the house of refuge and the workhouse, and many great packing-houses and factories. Upon the turnpike, near the present grounds of the workhouse, in the olden time stood a famous willow tree, which is said to have been the ancestor of all the yellow willows in southwestern Ohio. Switches cut from it by travellers and thrust in the ground after use, proved the beginnings of great trees, many of which are still green and flourishing. More than sixty years ago the Rev. Alexander Porter, riding from Cincinnati to his home in Israel township, Preble county, cut a switch from it, which his daughter planted in the ground near a spring on the premises. It is now the largest tree in the county, still vigorous and strong, measuring twenty-five feet in circumference just below the branches, and having one branch sixty feet long.

The decaying stump of the parent tree may be seen to this day on the west side of the turnpike, a little south of the entrance to the workhouse enclosure.

Camp Washington with the adjoining precinct of Lick run, which included a small village of the name a little west of Fairmount, was merged in the city November 12, 1869. This annexation brought in the minor localities on the west known as Fairmount, Mount Harrison, Barrs- ville, Forbesville, Spring Garden, and St. Peter's and Clif- ton heights on the north. The village of St. Peter's was regularly laid out in 1849, by John V. Biegler, west of Fairmount.

AN ANNEXATION STOPPED.

The next spring a very comprehensive scheme of ter- ritorial aggrandizement was proposed, which, if consum- mated, would have brought in over twenty-seven miles of additional territory and more than doubled the pres- ent surface of the city. An act of the legislature was procured April 16, 1870, authorizing an election May 16th, next following, to determine the question of annex- ing Clifton, Avondale, Woodburn, Columbia, Cummins- ville, Spring Grove, Winton Place, St. Bernard, River- side, and some other suburbs. The vote of these was close-one thousand one hundred and twenty-five to one thousand and eighty-two-and the matter had to be set- tled in the courts, which declared the enabling act un- constitutional, as being a special act conferring corporate powers. Most of these villages have therefore remained outside the city; but several, as we shall see, have since been annexed ..

WALNUT HILLS.

This interesting locality, until recently suburban, was settled in the second year of Cincinnati, so called, 1791, by Rev. James Kemper, first pastor of the First Presby- terian church of Cincinnati, who owned and occupied a large farm here-mainly, it is probable, for the benefit of his large family, some of whom were grown sons. Kem- per avenue, Kemper lane, Kemper hall, and the like, aid to perpetuate the memory of the pioneer. Here he built a block-house for defence, which was situated at the old Kemper home, on the east side of Kemper lane, where the street has been graded much below the original level. In those days the region abounded in walnut trees, from which it took its name. In 1818 was dedicated the first church building there-the First Presbyterian-in which Mr. Kemper preached most of the time until his death in August, 1834. In that year, June 29th, the plat of the village of Walnut Hills was recorded. It was never incorporated, except for road purposes. Some years be- fore this Lane seminary had been founded upon land given by Mr. Kemper, as is more fully noticed in chap- ter XXI of this volume. Some reminiscences will here be given of the most noted family then connected with the seminary the famous third part of humanity, as some have reckoned it- the Beechers, the rest being divided into saints and sinners. 'This family occupied the residence now the home of Rev. Dr. J. G. Montfort, of the Herald and Presbyter, at the northeast corner of Gilbert avenue and Chestnut street. We have the fol- lowing from the Biography of Dr. Lyman Beecher, writ-

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ten by one of his children, and which published after his death :

Dr. Beecher's residence on Walnut Hills was in many respects peculiarly pleasant. It was a two-story brick edifice of moderate dimensions, fronting the west, with a long L running back into the pri- meval forest, or grove, as it was familiarly called, which here came up to the very door. Immense trees-becch, black-oak, and others -- spread their arms over the back yard, affording in summer an almost impenetrable shade.

An airy veranda was built in the angle formed by the L along the entire inner surface of the house, from which, during the fierce gales of autumn and winter, we used to watch the tossing of the spectral branches, and listen to the roaring of the wind through the forest. Two or three large beeches and elms had been with difficulty saved from the inexorable woodman's axe by the intercessions of the doctor's daughter Catharine, on the visit already described, and, though often menaced as endangering the safety of the house from their great height, they still flourish in beauty.

Through that beautiful grove the doctor and two of his sons, during the three years 1834-7 passed daily to and from the seminary buildings. A rustic gate was hung between the back yard and the grove, and the path crossed a run or gully, where, for a season, an old carpenter's bench supplied the place of bridge.

In this old grove were some immense tulip-trees, so large, in some instances, that two men could scarcely clasp hands around the trunk. How often has that grove echoed to the morning and evening song of the children or the students! We can hear yet, in imagination, the fine soprano of James, then a boy, executing with the precision of an instrument solfeggios and favorite melodies till the forest rang again. In that grove, too, was a delightful resort of the young people from the city of Dr. Beecher's flock, who often came out to spend a social hour or enjoy a picnic in the woods.

The doctor's study was decidely the best room in the house-no longer, as at Litchfield, in the attic, but on the ground floor, and the first entrance to which you came on arriving from the city. Here, from its cheerful outlook its convenience of access, and other inviting prop- erties, soon was established the general rendezvous. Here came the" students for consultation with the president; here faculty meetings were held, and here friends from the city spent many a social hour.

On one side of the room the windows looked westward on an extensive landscape; on the opposite side a double window, coming down to the floor, opened upon the veranda, serving in summer the double purpose of window and door; between these, on the back side, were the book- cases and sundry boxes and receptacles of MSS; while opposite was the fireplace, with the door on the left and a window on the right. From said door you looked forth across the carriage-drive into a garden situated between the road and the grove, where the doctor extracted stumps and solved knotty problems in divinity at the same time, and whence the table was supplied with excellent vegetables. A little barn was ensconced in the back part of the yard, just beyond the end of the L, under the shade of the big beech-trees, in which Charley (a most im- portant member of the doctor's establishment) had his stable.

The family was large, comprising, including servants, thirteen in all, besides occasional visitors. The house was full. There was a constant high-tide of life and commotion. The old carryall was perpetually vibrating between home and the city, and the excitement of going and coming rendered anything like stagnation an impossibility. And if we take into account the constant occurrence of matters for consultation respecting the seminary and the students, or respecting the church and the congregation in the city, or respecting presbytery, synod and gen- eral assembly, as well as the numberless details of shopping, marketing and mending which must be done in the city, it will be seen that at no period of his life was Dr. Beecher's mind more constantly on the stretch, exerted to the utmost tension of every fibre, and never, to use an ex- pressive figure of Professor Stowe, did he wheel a greater number of heavily-laden wheel-barrows at one and the same time. Had he hus- banded his energies and turned them in a single channel, the mental fire might have burned steadily on till long after three score years and ten. But this was an impossibility. Circumstances and his own con- stitutional temperament united to spur him on, and for more than twenty of his best years he worked under a high pressure, to use his favorite expression, to the ne plus-that is, to the utmost limit of phys- ical and moral endurance. It was an exuberant and glorious life while it lasted. The atmosphere of his household was replete with moral oxygen-full charged with intellectual electricity. Nowhere else have we felt anything else resembling or equaling it.

The following most interesting and touching narrative is from the same work:

Long before Edward came out here the doctor tried to have a family meeting, but did not succeed. The children were too scattered. Two were in Connecticut, some in Massachusetts, and some in Rhode Island. That, I believe, was five years ago. But-now, just think of it !-- there has been a family meeting in Ohio! When Edward returned, he brought on Mary from Hartford ; William came down from Putnam, Ohio; George, from Batavia, Ohio; Catharine and Harriet were here already, Henry and Charles, too, besides Isabella, Thomas and James. These eleven-the first time they all ever met together ! Mary had never seen James, and she had seen Thomas but once.

Such a time as they had ! The old doctor was almost transported with joy. The affair had been under negotiation for some time. He returned from Dayton late one Saturday evening. The next morning they, for the first time, assembled in the parlor. There were more tears than words. The doctor attempted to pray, but could scarcely speak. His full heart poured itself out in a flood of weeping. He could not go on. Edward continued, and each one, in his turn, uttered some sentences of thanksgiving. They then began at the head and related their fortunes. After special prayer, all joined hands and sang Old Hundred in these words:

" From all who dwell below the skies."

Edward preached in his father's pulpit in the morning, William in the afternoon, and George in the evening. The family occupied three front pews on the broad aisle. Monday morning they assembled, and, after reading and prayer, in which all joined, they formed a circle. The doctor stood in the middle and gave them a thrilling speech. He then went round and gave them each a kiss. They had a happy dinner.

Presents flowed in from all quarters. During the afternoon the house was filled with company, each bringing an offering. When left alone at evening, they had a general examination of all their characters. The shafts of wit flew amain, the doctor being struck in several places. He was, however, expert enough to hit most of them in turn. From the uproar of the general battle, all must have been wounded. Tuesday morning saw them together again, drawn up in a straight line for the inspection of the king of happy men. After receiving particular in- structions, they formed into a circle. The doctor made a long and affecting, speech. He felt that he stood for the last time in the midst of all his children, and each word fell with the weight of a patriarch's. He embraced them once more in all the tenderness of his big heart. Each took of all a farewell kiss. With joined hands they joined in a hymn. A prayer was offered, and finally the parting blessing was spoken. Thus ended a meeting which can only be rivaled in that blessed home where the ransomed of the Lord, after weary pilgrimage, shall join in the praise of the Lanib.

Dr. Beecher resigned his connection with the seminary in the summer of 1850, and the next May went to Bos- ton. He was then seventy-six years old.

Besides the Presbyterian church, Walnut Hills has the Catholic church of the Presentation, in the west part of the district; a Methodist Episcopal church, on Kemper lane, and the Protestant Episcopal church of the Ad- . vent, on the same thoroughfare. There are also congre- gations of colored Methodists and Baptists. The new Cincinnati Northern (narrow gauge) railway will traverse Walnut Hills, through a tunnel at Crown street, and a branch is expected to run from some point on these heights to Avondale, the zoological gardens, Chester park, and Spring Grove cemetery.

Walnut Hills came into the city, with Vernon village, Mount Auburn, and Corryville, March 5, 1870, under an ordinance of September 10, 1869, and a vote of October 12th, the same year.

EAST WALNUT HILLS

was not an incorporated village, but rather a thickly set- tled rural district, beautifully situated. Its improvement as a suburb dates from about 1830. Until about 1866

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

. it included territory up to the village of Walnut Hills, but the village of Woodburn then came between. Gen- eral John H. Bates was mayor of this place from 1867 to 1873, and Alexander Todd, in 1876. The Catholic church of St. Francis de Sales, with a parochial school at- tached, is located here, at the corner of Woodburn ave- nue and the Madison turnpike. September 6, 1872, the ordinance looking to its annexation to the city was passed ; a favorable vote was had in both corporations in October; and the agreement was completed by the ac- ceptance of the terms of annexation March 29, 1873. It was the last of the annexations. East Walnut Hills had come in about the same time as Camp Washington and Lick Run. At its northwestern corner is the hamlet of O'Bryanville, which was included in the annexation, and at its northeastern corner, Mount Lookout, which is mostly out of the city. Here, in a superb, commanding situation, beyond the city limits, is the Cincinnati ob- servatory.

COLUMBIA.

This famous old place, the first settled in the Miami country, lies south of Woodburn, and became a part of Cincinnati December 13, 1872, under an ordinance of February 10, 1871, and a favorable vote in the following April. It forms a part of the first ward, as does also Pendleton, an old, narrow village lying between it and Fulton. Tusculum and Delta were formerly clusters of dwellings in this vicinity, on the line of the Little Miami railroad, which still has stations called by their names. They were subsequently merged into Pendleton, where the locomotive works, car-shops, and round-house of this railroad are situated. This line has also stations for Woodburn and the Torrence road.

The history of Columbia has been very fully related in our chapter on the history of Spencer township, in the first volume.

CUMMINSVILLE.

The history of this interesting old place has also been largely written in this work, but not in a connected way. The scattered notices of it, however, in our chapters, obviate the necessity of any full treatment here. To this locality, in the first year of Cincinnati proper (1790), came Colonel Israel Ludlow, one of the founders of Lo- santiville, and built Ludlow station. The block-house stood at the present intersection of Knowlton street and the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton railroad. It was five miles from Fort Washington, and a dense forest lay between the two defensive works. The primitive Lud- low residence stood where the latter one still stands, into which a part of the old dwelling is built. This was for some years the outpost in the Mill Creek valley. Here St. Clair's army encamped in 1791, about on the line of what is now Mad Anthony street, on its way to thie fatal field near the Maumee. Here also Wayne's army en- camped, according to Mr. Ludlow's journal, on its way to victory. Its camp was in the orchard, with two rows of tents pitched parallel to each other from a spring in the orchard to a spring at Colonel Ludlow's door. Mrs. Ludlow was the Charlotte Chambers wlio forms the sub- ject of a beautiful biography by one of her grandsons, as

mentioned in our chapter on Literature. She was so winning in her ways, so amiable and pious, that the In- dians called her "Athapasca,"-the good white woman. She was finely educated and highly accomplished. After the death of her husband in 1804, Mrs. Ludlow removed to Cincinnati, and the dwelling at the station was occu- pied by General Jared Mansfield. Upon her re-marriage, however, in 1810, Mrs. Ludlow, now Mrs. David Riske, returned to the station. Her husband was an Irish clergyman, in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian con- nection, a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, and a gentleman of good presence and accomplishments. He had at this time three congregations in charge, in as many townships, and filled his days with active and use- ful labors. Mrs. Ludlow organized a Bible society at the station in May, 1815. No one but herself attended at the first meeting; but, to her glad surprise, thirty women came to the next meeting, and the society was formed. The next year, she notes in her journal, "with joy," the formation of a Ladies' association in Cincinnati, auxiliary to the American Bible society, then lately instituted in New York. In October, 1818, she lost her second hus- band by death. After residing again for some time in Cincinnati she paid her last visit to Ludlow station in 1820, and spent the remainder of her days among near relations in Franklin mission, where she died in peace May 20, 1821.

Sara Belle, daughter of the Ludlows, became mother of General Garrard, of Kentucky, and other children of note, and was afterwards wife of Justice John McLean, of the supreme court of the United States. Lewis H. Garrard, of this family, is author of the memoir before mentioned.

The village which gradually grew up in this vicinity was named from David Cummins, son of a Cincinnati pioneer, and born in a house on Third street, opposite the Burnet house. He is by some supposed to have been the first white child born in Cincinnati. In 1844 a post office was established here, with Ephraim Knowl- ton as first postmaster. November 29, 1865, the village was incorporated. Mr. A. De Serisy was mayor in 1868, J. F. Lakeman in 1869-71, and Gabriel Dirr in 1872. The annexation to Cincinnati was effected under an or- dinance of September 6, 1872, a popular vote of the two municipalities in October, and acceptance of the con- ditions of annexation March 12, 1873.

In 1832 the Christian people of this region were still worshipping in a log school-house. A building for educa- tional and religious purposes was put up that year at the expense of James C. Ludlow, son of the pioneer. The Methodist Episcopal church was built here about 1833. The Presbyterian church was erected twenty years after- wards, and a regular organization of the society was effected in it by a committee of the Cincinnati Presby- tery October 16, 1855. St. Boniface's Catholic church, with a school of two divisions, also St. Patrick's, with a school of three departments; and the St. Peter's and St. Joseph's orphan asylum, in care of the Sisters of Charity, are located here ; also a church of the Christian or Dis- ciple faith, to which Mrs. Justice McLean gave the land

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upon which its building stands. A weekly paper called the Suburban Resident, formerly the Cincinnati Trans- cript, is published here, with an edition for Lockland, Carthage, and other places.

MOUNT AUBURN

was long almost the sole Cincinnati suburb. It was known as Key's Hill, from the residence of an old settler at the later McMiken place on its slope, until about 1837. Long before this, by 1826, indeed-a number of the leading citizens of Cincinnati had residences upon its height-as General James Findlay, Gorham A. Worth, and others. Until 1870 only about half of it was in the city, but it was finally all annexed.

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History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 112

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