History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 17

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 citizens of Cincinnati are invited to attend the funeral of the Hon. John Cleves Symmes, at the dwelling of Gen. Harrison in Front street, to-morrow at 10 o'clock A. M., from whence a procession will be formed to the landing of Mr. Joel Williams, where the body will be embarked for North Bend, selected by the Judge as the place of his interment. Such of his friends as can make it convenient to attend his remains to that place can be accommodated on board the boat which eonveys them.

Cincinnati, February 26, 1814.

Sufficient notice of the life and public services of this remarkable man has been made in chapter V of the first division of this book. We are in addition able to present here a document of great interest, which we are assured has never before been in print:

WILL OF JOHN CLEVES SYMMES.

The last will and testament of John Cleves Symmes. In the name of God, amen. I, John Cleves Symmes, of North Bend, in the county of Hamilton and State of Ohio, being grievously afflicted with a cancer in my under lip, chin, and throat, which will undoubtedly shortly put an end to my life, while as yet 1 remain of sound mind and memory, do think it my duty to make and publish this my last will and testament, not so tuuch for the disposition of the small personal property which I shall possess at my Death, as the constitution and laws of the State of Ohio anticipates the necessity of my making will in that respect, my will being the same with the law quo ad goods, chattels, rights, and credits; but the circumstance which renders it necessary that I should make and publish this my last will and testament is to authorize my ex- ecutors hereinafter named, and the survivor of them, to sell and dis- pose of and make title to the purchasers of those few fragments of land which I have never sold, and which as yet has not been torn from me under color of law, as by the laws of the State administrators can- not dispose of the real estate of their intestate without a rule of court authorizing them so to do. Therefore I, the said John Cleves Symines, do hereby declare and appoint my worthy son-in-law William Henry Harrison, Esquire, and my beloved grandson John Cleves Short, Es- quire, and the survivor of them, my true and lawful executors to this my last will and testament, hereby giving unto them and the survivor of them full power and lawful authority to sell all or any part of my lands and real estate, wherever any part or parcel thereof may be found or discovered within the said State of Ohio, and proceeds or monies arising from such sales cqually to divide between them for their reward, in compensation for their trouble and services; first, however, paying thereout for all deficiencies in contents or number of acres that may be found wanting in the several tracts of land which I have heretofore sold and been paid for, but which on a re-survey may have been deeded by me for a greater number of acres than there really is in the tract. On the other hand, many sections, quarter sections, fractions of sections, tracts and parcels of land, by me heretofore deeded for a given number of acres, strict measure, on a re-survey will appear to be larger, and contains a surplusage of land over and above the quantity of land sold or ever paid for. It is therefore my will and desire that my executors and the survivor of them seek after and enquire out these surplus lands by the assistance of the county surveyor, and that my executors dispose

of such surplus lands at the same price with which they remunerate those whose deeds from me call for more land than is embraced within the limits or boundaries of my deeds to them, And my further will and request is, and I do hereby enjoin upon my said executors and the survivor of them, hereby investing in them and the survivors of them all lawful authority and full power for the purpose, to carry [out] all my special contracts with individual persons into full effect and final close, according to the tenor of each respective contract; provided, however, that the other party named in each several contract faithfully fulfill the conditions on their part stipulated to be performed, which conditions will appear on having recourse to their respective contracts. And my will is that my said executors have and possess, and I hereby give unto them, and the survivor of them, all further necessary and usual powers to sue for and collect all or any part of my dues and debts, whether owing to me on bond, on note, or book debt; and also to pay all such debts as I justly owe; but there are some unjust claims against me founded in the deepest conspiracy, fraud and perjuries.

I hope I necd make no apology to my children and grandchildren for not having so much property to leave to them as might have been ex- pected from the earnings of a long, industrious, frugal, and adventur- ous life, when they recollect the undue methods taken, as well by the Government of the United States as by many individual private char- acters, to make sacrifice of my hardly earned property at the shrine of their avarice. It has been my particular lot to be treated with the blackest, blackest ingratitude, by some who now laugh at my calamity, but who would at this day have been toiling in poverty, had not my en- terprise to this country, my benevolence, or the property which they have plundered from me, have made them rich. How dark and mys- terious are the ways of Heaven! I shall add nothing further save that it is my particular desire to be buried in the graveyard at North Bend, where the last twenty. five years of my life have been chiefly spent.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand to this, my last will and testament, on the thirty-first day of December, in the year eighteen hundred and thirteen.

JOHN CLEVES SYMMES. [Seal]

Subscribed and sealed in presence of

JAMES FINDLAY, GEO. P. TORRENCE, JOSEPH PERRY. THOS. SLOO, Junr,

The election for corporation officers was held this year April 4th, at John Wingate's tavern. Only one hundred and forty-one votes were cast, though the town is to have had a vote of four hundred and eleven in 1814. Samuel W. Davis was chosen president of the select council; Jacob Brown, William Corry, Samuel Stitt, Davis Em- bree, John S. Wallace, William Irwin, and Jacob Wheeler, members of the council; Griffin Yeatman, re- corder; John Mahard, assessor; Jacob Chambers, mar- shal and collector.

Brilliant auroras were observed in the sky April 19th and September 1 1th.

On the fifth of April Jeremiah Neave & Son opened a commission warehouse on Main street.

October 22d the first Bible society in the Miami coun- try is started here.

In the fall or early winter of 1814, Cincinnati lost the office of surveyor general of public lands in the north- west, by its removal to Chillicothe, under the ap- pointment of ex-Governor Tiffin as surveyor general, and the late incumbent of that office, Josiah Meigs, to Dr. Tiffin's place as commissioner of the general land office. This post had been created by act of Congress April 25, 1812, and Governor Tiffin appointed by Presi- dent Madison as the first commissioner. In the autumn of 1814 he conceived a strong desire to return to the west, and wrote to Mr. Meigs proposing an exchange of offices. He readily consenting, the matter was arranged without difficulty with the President, the Senate con-

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

firmed the new nominations, and the ex-governor came home to Chillicothe, removing the surveyor general's of- fice thither, while Mr. Meigs removed his residence tem- porarily to Washington, and assumed charge of the gen- eral land office-a post which he held for some years.

The fine old Lytle house, at No. 66 Lawrence street, East End, was erected this year by General Lytle, and has been continuously occupied by the family. It is by far the oldest building of its grade in the city. Mr. Jo- seph Jones, who worked upon it in 1814, then a full- grown man, is still living in Cincinnati.

David K. Este, a young lawyer, afterwards an eminent judge, settled in the city.

EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN.

The preparation of another book by Dr. Drake-the Natural and Statistical View, or Picture of Cincinnati and the Miami Country-was the local literary event of the year. It enables the reader to form a full and no doubt accurate conception of the now large and rapidly growing town, in nearly all respects. The preface modestly de- scribes the work as "an account of a village in the woods;" but it is a remarkable and valuable account. For the first time to a book on Cincinnati, a map is prefixed; which gives us the opportunity to introduce here Mr. Charles Cist's article, prepared thirty years afterwards and published in his Miscellany, on

EARLY MAPS OF CINCINNATI.

Streets .- West of the section line separating section twenty-four from the west of the city, there was not a street laid out at the date of 1815. That line followed a due north course from a point at the river Ohio, about half-way between Mill and Smith streets, crossing Fifth street just east of the mound which lately stood there, and Western row about two hundred yards south of the corporation line. Plum; Race, and Walnut streets extended no farther north than Seventh street, and Sycamore was not opened beyond the present line of the Miami canal. From Walnut street west as far as Western row, not a street was opened north of Seventh street north of the canal already re- ferred to. It was the same case with respect to Broadway from Fifth street to the corporation line in the same direction. Court street, west of Main, was called St. Clair street, and Ninth street, its whole length at that time, was laid out as Wayne street. Eighth street, east of Main, was called New Market street.

Public Buildings ..- Of churches there were only-the Presbyterian church which preceded the present building, on Main street ; the Meth- odist church on Fifth, where the Wesley chapel has since been built ; a Baptist church on Sixth street, west of Walnut, on the site of what is now a German church, corner of Lodge street ; aud the Friends' frame meeting-house on Fifth, below Western row. Of all these the last only remains on its original site, the Presbyterian church having been re- moved to Vine, below Fifth, where it still stands under the name of Burke's church, and the others having been since removed to make way for their successors. The site of the present Cincinnati college, on Walnut street, at that date was occupied by the Lancaster seminary. Young as was the place, it furnished business for three banks. The Bank of Cincinnati was on Main, west side, and north of Fifth street ; the Farmers' and Mechanics' bank on Main, west side, between Front and Second streets ; and the Miami Exporting company on the spot now [1844] occupied by W. G. Breese's store, facing the Public Landing. These, with the court house and jail, which stand now where they then stood, made up the public buildings for 1815. The brewery, corner of Symmes and Pike streets ; another, corner of Race and Water streets, immediately east of Deer creek; Gulick's sugar refinery on Arch street ; a glass-house at the foot of Smith street ; a steam saw-mill at the mouth of Mill street ; and the great steam mill on the river bank, half-way be- tween Ludlow street and Broadway, constituted in 1815 the entire man- ufactories of the place.

Markets .- Besides lower market, which occupied the block from Main to Sycamore, as well as that from Sycamore to Broadway, in the

street of that name, and upper market, which stood on Fifth, between Main and Walnut streets, there was ground vacated for markets, which, having been found unsuitable for the purpose, was never occupied for that use. One of these embraces the front of Sycamore street on both sides, from a short distance north of Seventh to the corner of Ninth street. Another is on McFarland street, west of Elm, forming a square of two hundred feet in the centre of the block. A slight examination of these places where the dwellings have been built back from the line of the respective streets, will point out at once the space dedicated for this purpose.

The blocks marked upon this map as fully occupied or settled at this time were those between Front, Water, and the river, Main and Plum; south of East Front, between Broadway and Ludlow; between Second and Front, from Vine to Ludlow, and Lawrence to Pike; between Second and Third, from Main to Sycamore, and Broadway to Ludlow; between Third and Fourth, Main and Sycamore, one block; between Fourth and Fifth, from Plum to Sycamore; between Fifth and Sixth, Walnut to Main only; between Sixth and Northern row, and between Northern row and New Market (Eighth street), only Sycamore to Broadway; also eleven small blocks west of Western row, on Longworth, London, Kemble, Rich- mond, and Catherine streets. The blocks adjacent to those described were mostly one-eighth to three- fourths occupied; but there were still some magnificent distances in the heart of the town, the block between Second and Third, Race and Vine, for example, being still wholly unoccupied.

Dr. Drake is now able to remark:

From Newport or Covington [then just laid out], the appearance of the town is beantiful ; and at a future period, when the streets shall be graduated from the Hill to the river shore, promises to become magnifi- cent.

Preparations were making, he says, for the paving of Main street, from the river to Fourth, and the next year it would "no doubt be followed by a general improve- ment of the town in this respect." It had become a question where the drainage from the town should be made to enter the river, and the doctor thought that probably all gutters west of Broadway would be dis- charged into a common sewer at Second street, "along which in an open channel the water now runs." It was proposed to throw up a levee along the border of the town plat, six feet high and two hundred yards long; but, says the doctor, "no measures have yet been taken to ef- fect this important object." Other improvements, pro- jected, at least, in the fertile and active brain of Dr. Drake, were a bridge across the Ohio, a steam ferry, a new and permanent bridge across the mouth of Deer creek, the restoration of the wooden bridge across Mill creek, near its confluence with the Ohio, a great road via Dayton toward the sources of the Miamis, an improved road to Columbia, and, note it for 1815, a canal, to con- nect the Great Miami with the Maumee, and a canal from Hamilton to Cincinnati, a route for which is traced upon his map, and is substantially that which the Miami canal afterwards followed. No wonder the enterprising writer was now able to register his opinion that "Cincin- nati is to be the future metropolis of the Ohio.

It is the permanent mart and trading capital of a tract whose area equals the cultivated part of New

REFERENCES.

I Steam Mill.

2 Brewery.

5 Ferries.

4 Brewery.

5 Potash Factory.

6 Presbyterian Chorob.

Court House.

8 JAIL

9 Methodist Church.

Lancaster Seminary.

Sugar Refinery.

Bank of Cincinnati.

13 Bank-Miami Exporting Co.

14 Bank -- Farmers & Mechanics.

15 Friends' Meeting House.

16 Remains of Ancient Works.

17 Presbyterian Burying Ground

Baptist Church.

W. Market.

Market.

Section Line .-

ELSDULL

ELIS beth

Staclara

Catheron

Road to Lawrensburg

Deer

Top

East Front St.

-3

2063

OHIO

hard to

Bead to Daytos

PLANCE: of

CINCINATIO 1815.

Section Line_ __

18 Site of Old Fort Washington',

Glass House. Steam Saw Mill.

Road to Lebaran

1- Sect Lon Line of the 2d. Level

13 Commons 3

RIVER

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

Hampshire, New Jersey, or Maryland; surpasses the State of Connecticut, and doubles the States of Rhode Island and Delaware taken together; with a greater quan- tity of fertile and productive soil than the whole com- bined."

The population of the town, in July of this year, was carefully estimated at six thousand-an increase of fifty per cent. in two years. The average was nearly ten per- sons to a dwelling. And, says the doctor, "no part of its unexampled progress in population and improvement can be ascribed to political aids; but the whole has resulted from such natural and commer- cial advantages as cannot easily be transformed or de- stroyed."

There were not far from one thousand and seventy houses in the place, exclusive of kitchens, smoke-houses, and stables. Over twenty were of stone, two hundred and fifty brick, about eight hundred wood. Only six hundred contained families; the rest were public or busi- ness houses. The great disproportion of frame houses was due to the demand created by rapid immigration, as they could be so speedily built. The dwellings were gen- erally two stories high, of a neat and simple style, with sloping shingle roofs, and Corinthian or Tuscan cornices. Several had lately been put up with a third story, "and exhibit, for a new town, some magnificence. A handsome frontispiece or balustrade occasionally affords an evidence of opening taste, but the higher architectural orna- ments, elegant summer-houses, porticos, and colonnades, are entirely wanting." Few frame houses were yet even painted. Three market-houses were already among the public buildings of the town. The largest and highest structure was of course the great steam-mill on the river bank. The buildings of the Cincinnati Manufacturing company, however, on the bank above Deer creek, were numerous and extensive, the main edifice being one hun- dred and fifty feet by twenty to thirty-seven feet, and two to four stories high. The Columbian garden and the great mound at the west end are mentioned as favorite resorts for promenaders.

On the tenth of January the legislature passed another act of incorporation for the village, essentially modifying that of thirteen years before. The same corporation limits were prescribed, however. The town was divided into four wards, each clecting three trustees for a term of three years. When first met, the trustees were to choose a mayor from their own number, and also elect a recorder, clerk and treasurer. The council was empowered to pass and enforce all ordinances necessary and proper for the health, safety, cleanliness, convenience, morals, and good government of the town and its inhabitants. Real estate was not to be taxed beyond one-half of one per cent. in any year, without a vote of the people authorizing it. It was the Mayor's exclusive duty to decide upon all charges for violations of ordinances, subject to appeal to the council or court of common pleas, at the option of the party aggrieved by his decision. He also exercised the principal functions of a justice of the peace, within the town limits.

About four weeks after the battle of New Orleans, Jan-

uary 8th, the news reached Cincinnati, and created much rejoicing. To quote Mr. L'Hommedieu again :

What a glorification our people had ! Some now present will remem- ber the illumination, the grand procession that moved down Main street, with a bull manacled and appropriately decorated.

Another month or more brought news of peace, made before the great battle of the eighth was fought ; and then another grand illumin- ation of our village. What a joyous time we boys had ! How we equipped ourselves with paper soldier-caps, with red belts and wooden swords, and marched under command of our brave captain as far as Western row, now Central avenue, where we reached the woods, and, for fear of Indians, returned to our mammas, reporting on the return march to old Major-General Gano, who, after putting us through a drill, gave each boy a fip to purchase gingerbread, baked by a venerable member, formerly president of this association.

On the eleventh of December came out the first num- ber of the consolidated journals, Liberty Hall and Cin- cinnati Gazette, published by Looker, Palmer and Rey- nolds. On the twenty-sixth the three banks mentioned in Mr. Cist's notes on the carly maps together suspended payment, creating great excitement and no little real dis- tress in the community.

Timothy Flint, the noted writer, came with his family during the winter of this year, took a house, and re- mained until spring. He afterwards settled here. In his volume of Recollections, published long afterwards, he records some pleasant reminiscences of the town and its people :

In no part of the old Continent that I have visited are strangers treat- cd with more attention, politeness, and respect than in Cincinnati; and where, indeed, can an Englishman forget that he is not at home, except in the United States? In most other regions he must forego many early habits, prejudices, and propensities, and accommodate himself to others, perhaps diametrically opposite ; he must disguise or conceal his religious or political opinions ; must forget his native language and acquire flu- ency in another before he can make even his wants known or his wishes understood ; but here the same language and fashion as in his own pre- vail in every State ; indeed, it is necessary for him to declare himself a foreigner, to be known as such, and I have always found this declara- tion a passport to increased attention and kindness; for every man in this land of freedom enjoys his opinions unmolested. Not having the slightest intention of stopping at any town on my way to New York, I was without any introductions; but this deficiency by no means pre- vented my receiving the usual benefit of the hospitality of the inhabi- tants, which was such as to induce us at first to remain a few days, and ultimately, probably, to end our lives with them.

Sixteen hundred miles from the sea, in half an age, this flourishing and beautiful town has emerged from the woods, and when as old as Petersburgh now is, will probably, in wealth and population, emulate the imperial city. No troops are stationcd, no public money lavished here. It is not even the State metropolis. The people build and multiply imperceptibly and in silence. Nothing is forced. This mag- nificent result is only the development of our free and noble institutions upon a fertile soil.

The banks of the Ohio are destined shortly to become almost a continued village. Eleven years have produced an astonishing change in this respect; for at that distance of time by far the greater propor- tion of the course of the Ohio was through a forest. When you saw the city apparently lifting its head from surrounding woods, you found yourself at a loss to imagine whence so many people could be furnished with supplies.

EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SIXTEEN.

February 16th William Green establishes the first iron foundry here. An order is passed by the council granting the privilege of supplying water to the people to the Cincinnati Woolen Manufacturing company. On the nineteenth somebody reports the population at six thou- sand four hundred and ninety-eight.

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

November 25th the first insurance company goes into operation-the "Cincinnati."

December 2d chronicles the building of the first brig at the Columbia shipyards. On the sixteenth the ocean- going barge Mission arrives with a cargo of dry goods from Liverpool.

The more pious ladies of Cincinnati start this year a female Bible society, auxiliary to the American Bible society.

This year comes Mr. David Thomas, writer of Travels through the Western Country, and favors Cincinnatians with this notice :

About three o'clock we descended through the hills, along a hollow way, into the valley of the Ohio, and Cincinnati appeared before us. It is a great town. Brick buildings are very numerous, and many of these are elegant ; but compactness constitutes much of the beauty of our cities, and in this it is deficient. Some of the streets may form exceptions to this remark; and we ought to remember that few towns (if any) ever rose from the forest more rapidly; that its date even now is within the memory of the young; and that its mammoth form at no distant period will be filled up and completed. By some it is suspected, however, that its present greatness is premature; but this can only apply to its mercantile concerns; for its manufactories cannot be mate- rially affected by any change in the amount of commerce. Neither need the merchants fear a rival city, unless it rises to the north.

Among the most respectable of the manufacturing establishments we notice the brewery of D. & J. Embree. The works, though in a pro- gressive state, are now sufficiently extensive to produce annually five thousand barrels of beer and porter, and the quality is excellent. A treadle-mill is attached to these buildings, similar in construction to that at Montgomery. It is turned by horses, and grinds one hundred and twenty bushels of malt a day. In the present recess of business, it is employed in the manufacture of mustard.

Works for green glass have lately gone into operation; but some of the articles produced are very imperfect. We can sympathise with the proprietors of new establishments; for we are aware of the many inconveniences and discouragements that beset them at the commence- ment; but we cannot too strongly inculcate that to attain excellence will be the first object of the patriotic manufacturer; and such virtue could scarcely fail of its reward.

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History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 17

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