History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 12

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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Rev. William Burke and Mr. William Saunders were also arrivals of this year. In the fall no less a personage dropped down upon the young Cincinnati than the cele- brated French infidel philosopher, Volney, then on a tour of travel and research in this country, the results of which were embodied in his famous "View." He had made his way through Kentucky on foot, with his wardrobe in an oil-cloth under his arm, crossed the river here, and took lodgings at Yeatman's. He awakened much curiosity, as his fame had preceded him hither, and Governor St. Clair, Judge Burnet, and others, tried to ascertain the object of his visit, but in vain; he was impenetrable. He seems to have made no published record of his visit here, except, perhaps, such undistinguishable remarks as may have found their way into his "View" in conse- quence.

On the twenty-fifth of November, however, arrived a man of different stamp-the Hon. Andrew Ellicott, com- missioner on behalf of the United States for determining the boundary between the Federal domains and those of "his most Catholic Majesty in America," with a large party. One of their boats had been ruined, in the low water then prevailing, by dragging over rocks and shoals ; and another was procured here. They staid in Cincin- nati four days. Mr. Ellicott recorded in his journal:

Cincinnati was at that time the capital of the Northwestern Territory ; it is situated on a fine high bank, and for the time it has been building it is a very respectable place. The latitude, by a mean of three good observations, is 39° 5' 54" north. During our stay we were politely treated by Mr. Winthrop Sargent, Sceretary of the Government, and Captain Harrison, who commanded at Fort Washington.

Another newspaper was started this year-Freeman's Journal, by Edmund Freeman; which was maintained until 1800.

In the early part of March Cincinnati was visited by a young Englishman who afterwards attained much dis- tinction, writing himself at last "F. R. S., President of the Royal Astronomical society." He was Francis Baily, whose life was written by Sir John Herschel, and pub- lished in 1856, with Baily's Journal of a Tour in the Un-

settled Parts of North America in 1796 and 1797. We extract the following paragraph :

Cincinnati may contain about three or four hundred houses, mostly frame-built. The inhabitants are chiefly employed in some way of bus- iness, of which there is a great deal here transacted, the town being (if you may so call it) the metropolis of the Northwestern Territory. This is the grand depot for the stores which come down for the forts estab- lished on the frontiers, and here is also the seat of government for the Territory, being the residence of the Attorney-General, Judges, etc., appointed by the President of the United States, for the administration of justice. On the second bank there is a block put up with two rave- lins; and between the fort and the river, and immediately upon the borders of the latter, is the Artificers' Yard, where a number of men are kept con- tinually employed in furnishing the army with mechanical necessaries, such as tubs, kegs, firearms, etc., etc. On the second bank, not far from the fort, there are the remains of an old fortification, with some mounds not far from it. It is of a circular form, and by walking over it I found the mean diameter to be three hundred and twelve paces, or seven hun- dred and eighty feet, which makes the circumference very near half a mile. There are on the ramparts of it the stumps of some oak trees lately cut down, which measured two feet eight inches diameter, at three feet from the ground. The mounds, which were at but a short distance from it, were of the same construction as those I have de- scribed at Grave creek.

The Fourth of July was observed by a dinner at Yeat- man's tavern, and a Federal salute from the guns of the fort. The observance of Independence day was marked by the first of a long series of local casualties occurring in this connection. Mrs. Israel Ludlow, in one of her graceful letters to her father, thus mentions it:

Our brilliant Fourth of July celebration was terminated by a sad acci- dent. Theparty opposed to the governor, glowing with all the heroism of "Seventy-six," mounted a blunderbuss on the bank of the river, and with a few hearts of steel made its shores resound, rivalling in their imagina- tion the ordnance of the garrison! Delighted with their success, the load was increased in proportion to their enthusiasm; and when the "Western Territory" was toasted, the gun summoned every power within it, carried its thunder through the Kentucky hills, and burst in pieces ! Major Zeigler, on taking a view of the field reports as follows: Wounded, four men-killed, one gun !

About the same time the Rev. William Kemper offered to sell his place on the Walnut hills, one hundred and fifty-four acres, upon which Lane seminary and many other valuable buildings now stand, for seven dollars per acre.

John Mahard came this year. A boy named John McLean, of only twelve years, also landed here, but pushed his way through the woods on foot, with blanket and provisions on his back, to Warren county, where he made his home the rest of his life, coming finally and for many years to sign himself a justice of the supreme court of the United States.

SEVENTEEN HUNDRED AND NINETY-EIGHT.

The territorial legislature met in Cincinnati this year for its first session. Winthrop Sargent, secretary of the territory, who had become a well known citizen here, was appointed governor of Mississippi Territory, and Captain William H. Harrison became secretary in his stead.

July 4th there was a muster of Captain Smith's and other militia, with Daniel Symmes out as lieutenant col- onel commanding the battalion.

John M. Wright, an Irishman from the District of Columbia, arrived and became a trader here. He was a soldier in the War of 1812-15. Other arrivals of the year were Hugh Moore, Samuel Newell, Ebenezer Pru-

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

den, David Kantz, William Legg, and the young lawyer, Nicholas Longworth.

The simplicity of trade, and perhaps the occasional scarcity of provisions in the town at this time, are illus- trated by an incident related in McBride's Pioneer Biog- raphy, of a young man from Massachusetts, named Jere- miah Butterfield, who took a voyage in the spring and in a flat-boat down the Ohio, and visited Cincinnati, "which was then but an inconsiderable village, composed mostly of log cabins, with few good brick or frame buildings, containing not more than one thousand inhabitants. It contained one bakery, at which Mr. Butterfield applied for bread to supply the boat's crew ; but without success, the baker having but three loaves on hand, and these engaged by other persons." It seems to have been necessary then to engage bread in advance, in order to make sure of it.

SEVENTEEN HUNDRED AND NINETY-NINE.

On the twenty-ninth of May a third newspaper, the Western Spy and Hamilton Gazette, was started by James Carpenter. In it Griffin Yeatman inserted the following unique advertisement:

Observe this Notice. I have expended too many expenses attending my pump, and any FAMILY wishing to receive the benefits thereof for the future may get the same by sending me 25 cents each Monday morning.

It is said that this was paralleled June 2, 1801, when two advertisements appeared in the local papers, offering well-water at four dollars per annum to subscribers, pay- able quarterly in advance.

Advertisements also appeared in the Spy of hair pow- der and fair-top boots. July 23d, Robert McGennis advertises a runaway apprentice, and offers for his recov- ery a sixpence worth of cucumbers the next December. The times were hard, and dunning advertisements appear in many forms, some of them very comical in their terms, and some regretting that the English language is not strong enough to express the demands of their authors.

On the eighteenth of June there are rumors of Indian hostilities, and considerable alarm is excited for some days. On the twenty-fifth of August the governor ad- dresses the legislature of the territory, assembled for its first session.

Business was now done mainly on Main street below Second, on Front street near the Landing, and on Syca- more within a short distance of Front. Robert Park, the first hatter in the place, was at the corner of Main and Second. In May he advertises hats to exchange for country produce; also that he buys furs, and wants an apprentice on good terms, preferring one from the coun- try.

In June the Spy notes the heat on the twentieth as 103° above, which was higher than had been known here since thermometers came in. On the twenty-first the figure was 100°, an the twenty-second 95°, twenty-third 100°, again, twenty-fourth, 101°. It was'a genuine "heated term."

On the Fourth of July there was a fine celebration. Fort Washington thundered forth the customary salute.' The First battalion of the Hamilton county militia paraded at

their usual mustering place, and went through their evolu- tions, loading and firing, etc., in a style to elicit the com- pliments of the governor in his subsequent general orders. St. Clair, the garrison and militia officers, and many "re- spectable citizens" dined under a bower prepared for the purpose. Captain Miller's artillery and the martial music of the militia furnished ringing responses to the toasts, which are said to have been in good spirit and taste. Then, says the primitive account, "the gentlemen joined a brilliant assembly of ladies at Yeatman's in town."

The Spy for July 23d contained the following note con- cerning a well-known citizen of the county:

Captain E. Kibby, who sometime since, undertook to cut a road from Fort Vincennes to this place, returned on Monday reduced to a perfect skeleton. He had cut the road seventy miles, when by some means he was separated from his men. After hunting them several days without success, he steered his course this way. He has undergone great hard- ships, and was obliged to subsist on roots, etc., which he picked up in the woods. Thus far report.

The next number contains the obituary of the Rev. Peter Wilson, the first minister who settled in the com- munity.

Levi McLean appears before the public from time to time this year in the multiform capacity of jailer, consta- ble, hotel-keeper, butcher, and teacher of vocal music.

The only name we are able to record, as that of an arrival for the year, is that of Aaron Lane, from New Jer- sey. He ultimately removed to Springfield township, where he died in 1845.

CHAPTER VIII. CINCINNATI TOWNSHIP.

WITHIN the decade whose annals have just been passed in review, fell the birth of Cincinnati township, to which was entrusted, for almost twelve years, the government of Cincinnati village, which it of course contained. The township was created, after Columbia, by the court of general quarter sessions of the peace, which then had jurisdiction in these matters, in 1791. To the time of the erection of these townships, the whole county, which contained but a few hundred white inhabitants, was most conveniently governed as one municipality.

The boundaries of the new township were as follows: Beginning at a point where the second meridian east of the town (Cincinnati) intersects the Ohio; thence down that stream about eleven miles to the first meridian east of Rapid Run; thence north to the Big Miami; thence up that stream to the south line of the military range; thence south to the place of beginning. It comprised nearly the whole of the present city of Cincinnati, the townships of Mill Creek and Springfield, almost the en- tire tract of Colerain, Green and Delhi, stopping on the north beyond the present dividing line of Hamilton and Butler counties. It was a vast township.

In 1803 the boundaries were changed as follows: Commencing at the southeast corner of Miami township,

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

on the Ohio river; thence north to the northwest corner of section seventeen, in fractional range two, township two; thence east nine miles; thence south to the Ohio; thence westward along the Ohio to the place of begin- ning. These lines enclosed more than half of Delhi township; the eastern half of Green, except the three northernmost sections; the whole of Mill creek, except the northern sections; and the site of Cincinnati to the range line on the east.

The voters were now instructed to meet at the court house and vote for five justices of the peace. The cat- tle brand for the township, which the court was required to fix by order, was directed, at the time of the original formation of the township to be the letter B, A having already been assigned to Columbia, and C was assigned to the use of Miami township.

The boundaries of the original great township were of course rapidly cut down as the county filled up. Dayton and other townships in the present Butler county, then in Hamilton, were early set off north of it, beyond the northernmost possessions of the Cincinnati municipality. Colerain, Springfield, and South Bend townships were erected by or during 1795; and when Mill Creek was set off, the township, being already bounded, at the period of its formation, by Columbia township on the east, was shut in to the narrow limits of the fractional surveyed township, now bounded by Liberty street on the north; the Ohio river, which Liberty intersects a little above Washington street, near the southeast corner of Eden park, on the east and south; and on the west by a merid- ian not very clearly defined, but probably the range line two miles west of Mill Creek, and now the western boundary of the city. Most of the time since, it may be said, in general terms, that the limits of the township have been nearly coterminous with those of the city in its several extensions.

THE GOVERNMENT

of Cincinnati and Cincinnati township, from 1790 to 1792, was, as the oldest records show, under the immedi- ate eye of the court of quarter-sessions and the supreme or territorial court, in one or the other of which sat the Honorables John Cleves Symmes, George Turner, Sam- uel Parsons, James Varnum, Winthrop Sargent, Govern- or St. Clair, and the associate judges and justices of the quarter-sessions, with special appointees from among the local prothonotaries, sheriffs, clerks, and constables. At the sitting of the supreme court in Cincinnati in 1792, the Honorable John Cleves Symmes presided, assisted by Judges William Goforth, William Wells, and William McMillan, and Justices John S. Gano, George Cullum, · and Aaron Cadwell. Joseph LeSure acted as clerk pro tempore, Israel Ludlow and Samuel Swan being otherwise engaged. John Ludlow, high sheriff, was assisted by Isaac Martin, deputy ; while in the call of court appeared Robert Bunten, coroner, and constables Benjamin Orcutt (the crier), Robert Wheelan, Samuel Martin and Sylvanus Reynolds. This court exercised both original and ap- pellate jurisdiction in all things of law, equity, and fact, and that, too, with more force than formality. When

convicted, a prisoner was turned over to Sheriff Brown or Ludlow, who, having no sufficient jail, could seldom keep a prisoner more than twenty-four hours. Witnesses were necessarily excused when "taken by the Indians," or "scalped." Plaintiffs and defendants frequently had their cases laid over "until they got back from the cam- paign;" and the honorable court often vibrated between Isaac Martin's and "the Meeting house," in order to give themselves a chance to lay aside for awhile their official dignity and get ready to appear in their turn in the role of defendants, as very few of the officials escaped from actions of every sort, from top to bottom of the calendar.

During the year 1792, and for some years thereafter, Cincinnati was governed by these judicial dignitaries. In the quarter sessions court Judge William Goforth generally presided, assisted by McMillan and Wells, asso- ciate justices, and by 'Squires Gano, Cullum and Cadwell, justices of the peace for the county. This year Samuel Swan succeeded Israel Ludlow as clerk of the court; John Ludlow became sheriff; Samuel Martin, constable; John Ludlow and David E. Wade, overseers of the poor; Isaac Martin, Jacob Reeder, and Ezekiel Sayre, over- seers of highways; James Miller, Jacob Miller, and John Vance, viewers of enclosures and appraisers of damages. If to these we add the military authorities, who some- times ordered everybody into line, it will be seen that Cincinnati was sufficiently governed, containing, as the city and township then did, less than five hundred peo- ple. The county commissioners had charge of the pub- lic improvements, attended to the taxes and their collec- tion, watched the tax duplicates, managed collectors, and paid out the funds for wolf scalps, for building jails and court rooms, and their own bills for services. The cog- nomens of those who left their names and deeds on the pages of "the last and only" old worn record are here given as follows: William McMillan, Robert Wheelan, and Robert Benham, 1795-6; Joseph Prince, 1797-8; David E. Wade, 1799; Ichabod B. Miller, 1800; William Ruffin, 1801-2; John Bailey, 1802-3; William Ludlow, 1803-4, and John R. Gaston, 1804-5. These men served, three at a time, for a year ; some were in office but a year, while others served two or three terms. The commissioners' clerks, under the territorial government, from 1790 to 1803, were Tabor Washburne, 1790 to :798; John Kean, 1798 to 1799; Reuben Reynolds, 1799 to 1800, and Aaron Goforth, 1800 to 1803.

TOWNSHIP CIVIL LIST.

The following-named gentlemen were the earliest offi- cers in Cincinnati township:

1791 .- Levi Woodward, township clerk ; Samuel Mar- tin, constable; John Thompson and James Wallace, overseers of the poor; James Gowdy, overseer of roads; Isaac Martin, Jacob Reeder, and James Cunningham, street commissioners.

1792 .- Samuel Martin, constable; John Ludlow and David E. Wade, overseers of the poor; James Miller, Jacob Miller, and John Vance, viewers of enclosures and appraisers of damages; Isaac Martin, Jacob Reeder, and Ezekiel Sayre, overseers of highways.

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

1793 .- Nathaniel Barnes and Robert Gowdy, consta- bles; Jacob Reeder and Moses Miller, overseers of the poor; Joseph McHenry, Samuel Freeman, and Stephen Reeder, viewers of enclosures and appraisers of dam- ages; Isaac Martin, Usual Bates, and John Schooley, overseers of highways.

1794 .- Nathan Barnes, Darius C. Orcutt, and Robert Gowdy, constables; James Brady and David E. Wade, overseers of the poor; James Wallace, Levi Woodward, and James Lyon, viewers of enclosures and appraisers of damages; Isaac Martin, Jacob White, and William Pow- ell, overseers of highways.

1795 .- Nathan Barnes, Ephraim Carpenter, and Ben- jamin Van Hook, constables; James Brady and Samuel Freeman, overseers of the poor; Samuel Dick and Rich- ard Benham, viewers of enclosures and appraisers of damages; James Brady, Levi Woodward, and Samuel Freeman, overseers of highways.

CONSTABLES AT COURT.

It may also be of interest to see here the names of all the constables who attended the courts of Hamilton county during the first thirteen years, so far as the rec- ords exhibit their names. Many of them were consta- bles of Cincinnati township, but others were from the county at large, though the court records present no fa- cilities for locating them in their respective townships:

1790-William Paul, Joseph Gerard, Daniel Griffin, Robert Wheelan; Levi Woodward, crier; 1791-Isaac Martin, Joseph Jeuet, Gerard; Woodward and John Mor- ris, criers; 1792-Wheelan, Martin, Morris, Gerard, Syl- vanus Reynolds; Benjamin Orcutt, crier; 1793-Wheelan, Reynolds, Martin, Nathan Barnes; 1794-Same, with Samuel Edwards, Robert Gowdy, B. and D. Orcutt, and Samuel Campbell; Barnes, crier; 1795-Wheelan, B. Or- cutt, Edwards, Campbell, Gowdy, Ephraim Carpenter, B. Vanhook; 1797-Woodward, Josiah Crossly, Parvin Dunn; Abraham Cary, crier; 1798-Darius C. Orcutt; Cary, crier; 1799-Crossly; Cary, crier; 1800-Robert Terry, John Wilkinson, Samuel Armstrong, William Sayres, Isaac Mills, Thomas Morris, Enos Potter, David Kelly; John Daily, crier; 1801-Thomas Larrison, John Robinson, Joseph Case, Terry, Kelly, Orcutt; Cary, crier; 1802-Armstrong, Kelly, Isaac Dunn, Jacob Allen, Josiah Decker; Cary, crier; 1803-Samuel and James Armstrong, David J. Poor, Jerome Holt, Jacob R. Compton.

The following names and dates of public officers in Cincinnati township, belonging to the later times, have also been picked up in the course of our investigations :

Justices of the peace, 1819-Ethan Stone, John Mahard; 1824-Trustees: Benjamin Mason, Benjamin Hopkins, William Mills; clerk, Thomas Tucker; con- stables: David Jackson, jr., Richard Mulford, Zebulon Byington; justices: Elisha Hotchkiss, Beza E. Bliss, James Foster; 1829-Trustees: Benjamin Hopkins, William Mills, George Lee; clerk, John Gibson; con- stables: James McLean, jr., James Glenn, William B. Sheldon; trustees and visitors of common schools: A. M. Spencer, N. G. Guilford, J. Buckley, D. Root, Calvin

Fletcher; magistrates: James Foster, Elisha Hotchkiss, Richard Mulford; 1831-Trustees: John Rice, William Mills, Richard Ayres ; clerk, John T. Jones ; magistrates : James Foster, Richard Mulford, Isaiah Wing, James Glenn, James McLean; constables: Ebenezer Harrison, Josiah Fobes, William B. Sheldon, Ephraim D. Williams, James Saffin, Livius Hazen, J. A. Wiseman; 1834- Trustees: Richard Ayres, Isaac Pioneer, William Bor- land; clerk, John Jones; justices: Isaac Wing, Richard Mulford, Josiah Fobes, James Glenn, A. W. Sweeney; constables: Ebenezer Harrison, Ephraim D. Williams, James Saffin, J. A. Wiseman, Livius Hazen, Thomas Wright, Benjamin Smith; 1836-Trustees: William Crossman, D. A. King, Josiah Fobes; clerk, Samuel Steer; justices: Richard Mulford, John A. Wiseman, Ebenezer Harrison, William Doty, Livius Hazen, Rancil A. Madison; 1839-40-Trustees: William Crossman, Josiah Fobes, Thatcher Lewis ; clerk, David Churchill; 1841-Justices : James Glenn, Richard Mulford, William Doty, John A. Wiseman, R. A. Madison, Ebenezer Har- rison ; 1844-Justices: R. A. Madison, Richard Mulford, Ebenezer Harrison, John A. Wiseman, E. V. Brooks, Samuel Perry, E. Singer; constables: Robert P. Black, P. Davidson, A. Delzell, Even Ewan, Thomas Frazer, Thomas Hurst, Jesse O'Neill, James L. Ruffin, Rode- camp; trustees: John Wood, William Crossman, John Hudson; clerk, David Churchill; 1846-Trustees: Wil- liam Crossman, John Wood, J. B. Bowlin; clerk, David Churchill; justices: Mark P. Taylor, Samuel Perry, Eri V. Brooks, Ebenezer Harrison, David T. Snellbaker, Erwin Singer, John Young; 1850-Trustees: William Crossman, James Hudson, Jesse B. Bowman; 1851 -- Trustees : Messrs. Crossman and Hudson, and John Hauck ; clerk, John Minshall ; justices: John W. Reilly, David T. Snellbaker, F. H. Rowekamp, Jacob Getzen- danner, Elias H. Pugh, Joseph Burgoyne, Wick Roll; 1852-Same trustees.

CHAPTER IX. CINCINNATI'S SECOND DECADE.

EIGHTEEN HUNDRED.

The first census of the town and county was taken this year, and exhibited for Cincinnati (township probably) but seven hundred and fifty inhabitants, an increase of but two hundred and fifty in about five years. This, however, was fifty per cent. of growth, and, relatively con- sidered, was by no means to be despised.

Many valuable citizens were added to the community during this opening year of the decade. Dr. William Go- forth, of whom more will be related in our chapter on medicine in Cincinnati, came in the spring, and his pu- pil, to become yet more distinguished, Dr. Daniel Drake, came in December. Stephen Wheeler; Mr. Pierson, from New Jersey, the father of William Pierson, long a resident

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

of Springfield township; Charles Cone, probably ; John B. Enness, Edward Dodson, Charles Faran, A. Valentine, John Wood, Caleb Williams, Rev. Dr. Joshua L. Wilson, pastor of the Presbyterian church, and others who added character and possibly capital to the young city, were among the new comers of 1800.

Probably this year, but perhaps earlier, according to a note in chapter VIII, came one of the most enterprising, able, and successful of the pioneer Germans-Martin Baum. He engaged in merchandizing, and was for about thirty years in active business here, being connected also with the Miami Exporting company's operations, the old sugar refinery, and many other large enterprises of this day, carrying throughout, notwithstanding reverses as well as successes, the highest reputation for financial ability and personal integrity. He was one of the pro- prietors of the site of Toledo when it was laid out for a town. Late in life he built the elegant mansion on Pike street afterwards occupied by Nicholas Longworth, and now by the millionaire philanthropist, David Sinton. Like many other early business men in the city, he be- came involved in debt to the United States bank, and hon- estly surrendered to it in payment his residence and grounds. He still has a reputation as one of the most honorable and public spirited Cincinnatians of his day. Further notice will be given him in our chapter on the Teutonic element in Cincinnati.

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History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 12

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