History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 23

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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On the last day of spring I arrived at Cincinnati, that precocious daughter of the west, that seems to have sprung, like the fabled goddess of war and wisdom, into existence in the full panoply of manufacturing and commercial armor.

I have been in company with ten or twelve of the resident families, and have not seen one single instance of rudeness. vulgarity, or incivil- ity ; while the shortness of the invitations and absence of constraint and display render the society more agreeable, in some respects, than that of more fashionable cities. If the proposition stated is merely this, "that the manners of Cincinnati are not so polished as those of the best circles of London, Paris, or Berlin ; that her business, whether culinary or dis- played in carriages, houses, or amusements, are also of a lower caste," I suppose none would be so absurd as to deny it. I hope few would be weak enough gravely to inform the world of so self-evident a truth ; but I will, without fear of contradiction, assert that the history of the world does not produce a parallel to Cincinnati in rapid growth of wealth and population. Of all the cities that have been founded by mighty sover- eigns or nations, with an express view to their becoming the capitals of empires, there is not one that, in twenty-seven [forty-seven] years from its foundation, could show such a mass of manufacture, enterprise, population, wealth, and social comfort, as that of which I have given a short and imperfect outline in the last two or three pages, and which owes its magnitude to no adscititious favor or encouragement, but to the judgment with which the situation was chosen, and to the admirable use which its inhabitants have made thereof.

EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SIX.

Population estimated at thirty-eight thousand-proba- bly somewhat too large. Votes four thousand three hun- dred and thirty-five. New buildings, three hundred and sixty-five. Commerce, eight million one hundred thou- sand dollars. The public schools, the mercantile library,

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

and the leading public charities, had well begun their or- ganic existence. A general committee upon internal im- provements was appointed at a public meeting of citizens, which proved a very useful committee. Upon it were such men as Micajah T. and John S. Williams, E. D. Mansfield, Dr. Daniel Drake, Robert Buchanan, John C. Wright, George Graham, and Alexander McGrew. Mor- tality of the year, nine hundred and twenty-eight. or about one in forty.

This, pretty nearly the middle year of Cincinnati's history, was a tolerably eventful one. On the eleventh of April a mob rose against the colored people, and set fire to a number of their houses in a locality then known as "the swamp," just below Western Row, now Central avenue, at the then foot of West Sixth street. Another and more serious emeute occurred in July, which resulted in the destruction of the Philanthropist newspaper office. This paper had been started by Mr. Birney in 1834 at New Richmond, Clermont county, where it had been repeatedly threatened, but never mobbed; and was re- moved to Cincinnati, on the encouragement of friends of the anti-slavery cause there, about three months before its destruction. A meeting was held in July, composed largely from the most respectable classes in the city, largely young men, at which resolutions were passed that no abolition paper should be published or distributed in the town. On the fourteenth of that month, the publi- cation of the Philanthropist still continuing, the printing office was violently entered by a mob, and the press and materials, which were the property of Mr A. Pugh, the printer, afterwards of the Chronicle, were defaced, "pied,' and partially destroyed. Even this did not daunt the fearless editor, and the publication went on. On the twenty-third a great meeting of citizens was held at the Lower Market, "to declare whether they will permit the publication or distribution of abolition papers in this city." A committee was appointed, which requested the executive committee of the anti-slavery society to stop the publication. They refused; when the committee published the correspondence, adding remarks which deprecated a resort to violence. Nevertheless, on Satur- day night, July 30th, a large party, composed, like the aforesaid meeting, mainly from the more respectable classes in the city and of young men, gathered on the corner of Main and Seventh streets, held a short consul- tation, then marched down to the office, only two squares distant, effected an entrance and again seized the press and materials, but this time carried them out in part, scattered the type in the street, smashed the press, and completely dismantled the office. Part of the press was dragged down Main street and thrown in the river. The mob even went to Pugh's house to find other materials supposed to be there; but found none, and offered no violence. The dwellings of Birney, Donaldson, and other prominent abolitionists were rather noisily visited, but no mischief done to them. It then returned to Main street, proposing to pile the remaining contents of the office in the street; but was dissuaded, as neighboring buildings might be fired by the blaze. Retiring up Main street, a proposition was made to mob the office of the

Gazette, whose editor, Mr. Charles Hammond, had not altogether pleased the malcontents by his course; but better counsels prevailed. An attack was made on the residences of some of the blacks in Church alley; but two guns were fired at the assailants, and they withdrew in disorder. A rally and second charge were made after a time, when the houses were found abandoned by the negroes, were entered and their contents destroyed. Some weeks after, upon the return of E. D. Mansfield from the Knoxville railroad convention, he and Mr. Hammond, Salmon P. Chase, and a few others, deter- mined to hold an afternoon meeting at the court house, to consider the outrage. It was crowded; sundry speeches were made; a large committee was appointed to report resolutions; but, after all, nothing was done except to condemn mobs in general terms, regret the recent occur- rence, and commend the plan of the American Coloniza- tion society as "the only method of getting clear of slav- ery." After the death, in September, 1880, of the Hon. William M. Corry, a tribute was paid to his memory in the Cincinnati Commercial, by ex-Governor Charles An- derson. In it occurred the following paragraph, which we take pleasure in embalming for posterity in the pages of this history:

All Cincinnati was aroused in 1836 into a wild ferocity towards the great Abolitionist, James G. Birney, esq. He was a scholar, orator, gentleman, Christian, and philanthropist, if ever these sentiments did centre in any one man. But his paper, published from the corner of Main and Fifth streets, was universally esteemed and denounced as a most pestilent nuisance to the city, the State, and the Nation. And doubtless, in the morbid and reckless state of the public feeling in the southern States, such an issue from Cincinnati did operate injuriously against the business and property of the citizens, which was based mainly upon their southern trade. A public meeting was therefore held in the court house for the denunciation, warning, and, if necessary, the expulsion of so great a culprit. Every man of influence or property in Cincinnati, save one alone, was directly or indirectly a party to this outrage upon free thought, free speech and a free press. That single nian was William M. Corry. He alone, amidst the general obloquy and indignation, bared his brave breast to this popular tempest of the combined plutocracy and mobocracy of the whole city, and ably de- fended Mr. Birney's rights. It was in vain. His office was publicly pillaged. His press was smashed into splinters. His types were sown broadcast from the market place through Main street and into the Ohio river. He was driven into exile to Buffalo.

May 30th occurred the first parade of the Cincinnati Gray's; and on the fourteenth of June a volunteer com- pany under Captain James Allen, editor of the Cincinnati Republican, departed to join General Houston's army and aid in the struggle for Texan independence. On the sixth of March the subscription books for the Little Miami railroad were opened; and on the twentieth of February the city, also Newport and Covington, were illuminated in honor of the projected Cincinnati & Charleston rail- road, which was soon temporarily defeated, by the refusal of the Kentucky legislature to grant right of way through the State.

On the thirteenth of January began the memorable de- bate between the Rev. Alexander Campbell and Bishop Purcell, which was afterwards published and extensively circulated. February 23d died Peter Williams, of Delhi, the pioneer mail carrier from Cincinnati through the wildernesses. General Jackson visited the city March 18th, and was received with great acclamation by admir-

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

ing throngs. William Barr, a very prominent old resident,

died March 21st. On the 24th of that month the city debt amounted to two hundred and forty thousand dol- lars.

EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SEVEN.

New buildings this year, three hundred and five, not- withstanding it was a year of great financial disaster, There were five thousand nine hundred and eighty-one house in the city. Mr. E. D. Mansfield wrote long sub- sequently: "Just after the convention of 1837, say up to 1848, the growth of Cincinnati continued with great ra- pidity. Strange as it may seem, the constant depression and want of money did not impede building; on the con- trary, it aided Cincinnati. For several years the city grew rapidly." The deaths this year numbered nine hundred and sixty-eight, or about one in thirty-nine.

On the third of May the first loan for local improve- ments was voted by the city, to the amount of six hun- dred thousand dollars.

January 6th, John Washburn was hanged upon a scaf- fold erected at the junction of the Walnut Hills and Reading roads, for the murder upon the same spot, for money, of an inoffensive old man named Beaver. After- wards, June 3rd, Hoover and Davis were executed for complicity in the same murder; and Byron Cooley, on the twenty-fifth of November, for killing John Rambo. It was a great year for capital punishments.

October 28th, a monument to the memory of Wiliiam M. Millan was dedicated by Nova Caesarea Harmony Lodge No. 2, upon an eminence on the farm of William M. Corry, esq., then two and a quarter miles from Cin- cinnati, near the Reading turnpike, in a graveyard de- signated by Mr. McMillan before his death. A eulogy was pronounced by Mr. Corry, which was published in pamphlet form, and widely complimented. The monu- ment was afterwards removed to Spring Grove cemetery, where it now stands. It is of grey freestone, in the psuendo-Doric order, and surmounted by a Grecian urn.

Some observations made upon Cincinnati this year by a garrulous American traveller, Professor Frederick Hall, M.D., in his Letters from the East and from the West, may fittingly be reproduced here :

Perhaps, I might give you a juster idea of the appearance of Cin- cinnati by comparison. You cannot have forgotten how Genoa ap- peared to us, as seen from the point where our steamboat anchored or from that where the American ship-of-war, the Potomac, was stationed, farther out in the bay. The view was enrapturing. Our eyes were riveted toit. We had never seen its parallel. Rightly do the Italians, thought we, style Genoa 'La Superba.' Here, we could not help imagining, Vespasian took from Nature the model of his Colosseum which he commenced at Rome. The arena of his, often saturated with human blood, uselessly, wickedly shed, represents this narrow, flat plain, overspread with marble houses and palaces and churches, and all the pomp and bustle of a populous and magnificent town. The sloping galleries of the Roman Colosseum are a miniature rep- resentation of the lofty and ragged Appenines which form the semi- circular back-grounds of the city, and on which are perched many a sumptuous mansion, many a terraced garden, many an humble cottage, and many a moss-clad ruin.

Were you here, I would conduct you across the Ohio river in the convenient steam ferry-boat, lead you to a spot half a mile from the water's edge, and there ask you to take a deliberate survey of Cincin- nati and of the country back of it. You would, I think, at once say tbat it bears no slight resemblance to the native city of Columbus. The high lands here, though in some degree similar, are less lofty, less

rocky, and exhibit fewer human habitations; but they are far richer, their forms vastly more variegated and more beautiful. You do not, it is true, here see anything like the towering light-house of Genoa, or the Cathedral of Lorenzo, or the 'palazzo ducal;' nor are you to ex - pect it. Consider the difference in the ages of the two cities. The one is an infant at the breast; the other wears bleached locks. The one is not yet fifty years old; the other is two thousand. But, old as she is, her population does not exceed eighty-five thousand. That of Cincin- nati has already attained to near half of that number; and what will it be two thousand years hence, if it continues to increase, as it has done during the last quarter of a century? Let fancy stretch away into futurity, and view her then. She will see a little world of men-not a New York-not a Glasgow -- but a London. Since the year 1812 her population has received an augmentation of more than twenty-six thousand souls. Should she continue to increase in the same ratio for two thousand years to come, what will be her numbers? What hill will not he crowded with houses? What valley will not pe crowded with them?

Another author-traveller of 1837 to the Queen City was no less a notable of that day than the great writer of sea-tales, Captain Francis Marryat. In his Diary of the American Journey, subsequently published, he thus notes matters and things here :

Arrived at Cincinnati. How rapid has been the advance of the western country! In 1803 deer-skins, at the value of forty cents per pound, were a legal tender; and, if offered instead of money, could not be refused-even by a lawyer. Not fifty years ago the woods which towered where Cincinnati is now built, resounded only to the cry of the wild animals of the forest or the rifle of the Shawnee Indian; now Cincinnati contains a population of forty thousand inhabitants. It is a beautiful, well-built, clean town, reminding you more of Philadelphia than any other city in the Union. Situated on a hill on the banks of the Ohio, it is surrounded by a circular phalanx of other hills; so that, look up and down the streets whichever way you will, your eye reposes upon verdure and forest-trees in the distance. The streets have a row of trees on each side, near the curb-stone, and most of the houses have a small frontage, filled with luxuriant flowering shrubs, of which the althea Frutix is the most abundant. It is, properly speaking, a Yan- kee city, the majority of its inhabitants coming from the east; but they have intermarried and blended with the Kentuckians of the opposite shore-a circumstance which is advantageous to the character of both.

There are, however, a large number of Dutch and German settlers here; they say ten thousand. They are not much liked by the Ameri- cans; but have great influence, as may be conceived when it is stated that, when a motion was brought forward in the municipal court for the city regulations to be printed in German as well as English, it was lost by one vote only.

EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND THIRTY-EIGHT.

New buildings, three hundred and thirty-four. Mortal- ity, one thousand three hundred and sixty-five. Votes in the city, four thousand five hundred and seventy-three.

April 25th, the mnost terrible accident recorded in the history of Cincinnati occurred at the Fulton landing, then just above the city, in the explosion of the new and beautiful steamer Moselle. An elaborate and most inter- esting account of this event has been given in the third edition of the Annals of the West, the publisher of that work having been an eye-witness of the event. We trans- cribe the narrative for these pages :

The Moselle was regarded as the very paragon of western steamboats; she was perfect in form and construction, elegant and super' in all her equipments, and enjoyed a reputation for speed which admitted of no rivalship. As an evidence that the latter was not undeserved, it need only be mentioned that her last trip from St. Louis to Cincinnati, seven hundred and fifty miles, was performed in two days and sixteen hours- the quickest trip, by several hours, that had ever been made between the two places.

On the afternoon of April 25, 1838, between four and five o'clock, the Moselle left the landing at Cincinnati, bound for St. Louis, with an un- usually large number of passengers, supposed to be not less than two hundred and eighty, or, according to some accounts, three hundred. It was a pleasant afternoon, and all on board probably anticipated a de-

1 2. Force orce

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

lightful voyage. The Moselle proceeded about a mile up the river to take on some German emigrants. At this time it was observed by an experienced engineer on board, that the steam had been raised to an unusual height, and when the boat stopped for the purpose just men- tioned, it was reported that one man who was apprehensive of danger went ashore, after protesting against the injudicious management of the steam apparatus. Yet the passengers generally were regardless of any danger that might exist, crowding the boat for the sake of her beauty and speed, and making safety a secondary consideration.

When the object for which the Moselle had landed was nearly accom- plished, and the bow of the boat just turned in preparation to move from the shore, at that instant the explosion took place. The whole of the vessel forward of the wheels was blown to splinters; every timber (as an eye-witness declares), "appeared to be twisted, as trees some- times are, when struck by lightning." As soon as the accident occurred, the boat floated down the stream for about one hundred and fifty to two hundred yards, where she sunk, leaving the upper part of the cabin out of the water and the baggage, together with many struggling hu- man beings, floating on the surface of the river.

It was remarked that the explosion was unprecedented in the history of steam. Its effect was like that of a mine of gunpowder. All the boilers, four in number, burst simultaneously; the deck was blown into the air, and the human beings who crowded it were doomed to instant destruction. It was asserted that a man, believed to be a pilot, was carried, together with the pilot-house, to the Kentcky shore, a distance of a quarter of a mile. A fragment of a boiler was carried by the explo- sion high into the air, and descending perpendicularly about fifty yards from the boat, it crushed through a strong roof and through the second floor of a building, lodging finally on the ground floor.,

Captain Perrin, master of the Moselle, at the time of the accident was standing on the deck, above the boiler, in conversation with another person. He was thrown to a considerable height on the steep embankment of the river and killed, while his companion was merely prostrated on the deck, and escaped without injury. Another person was blown a great distance into the air, and on descending he fell on a roof with such force that he partially broke through it, and his body lodged there. Some of the passengers who were in the after-part of the boat, and who were uninjured by the explosion, jumped overboard. An eye-witness says that he saw sixty or seventy in the water at one time, of whom comparatively few reached the shore. There were after- ward the mutilated remains of nineteen persons buried in one grave.

It happened, unfortunately, that the larger number of the passengers were collected on the upper deck, to which the balmy air and delicious weather seemed to invite them, in order to expose them to more certain destruction. It was understood, too, that the captain of the ill-fated steamer had expressed his determination to outstrip an opposition boat which had just started; the people on shore were cheering the Moselle, in anticipation of her success in the race, and the passengers and crew on the upper deck responded to these acclamations, which were soon changed to sounds of mourning and distress.

Intelligence of the awful calamity spread rapidly through the city; thousands rushed to the spot, and the most benevolent aid was prompt- ly extended to the sufferers, or rather to those within the reach of human assistance, for the majority had perished. The scene here was so sad and distressing that no language can depict it with fidelity. Here lay twenty or thirty mangled and still bleeding corpses, while many persons were engaged in dragging others of the dead and wounded from the wreck or the water. "But," says an eye-witness, "the survivors presented the most touching objects of distress, as their mental anguish seemed more insupportable than the most intense bod- ily suffering."

Death had torn asunder the most tender ties; but the rupture had been so sudden and violent that none knew certainly who had been taken or who had been spared. Fathers were distractedly inquiring for children, children for parents, husbands and wives for each other. One man had saved a son, but lost a wife and five children. A father, partially demented by grief, lay with a wounded child on one side, his dead daughter on the other, and his expiring wife at his fect. One gentleman sought his wife and children, who were as eagerly seeking him in the same crowd. They met and were reunited.

A female deck passenger who had been saved seemed inconsolable for the loss of her relatives. Her constant exclamations were, "Oh! my father! my mother! my sisters!" a little boy about five years old, whose head was much bruised, appeared to be regardless of his wounds, and cried continually for a lost father, while another lad, a little older, was weeping for a whole family. One venerable man wept for the loss of his wife and five children. Another was bereft of his whole family, con-

sisting of nine persons. A touching display of maternal affection was evinced by a woman, who, on being brought to the shore, clasped her hands and exclaimed, "Thank God, I am safe!" but instantly recollect- ing herself, she ejaculated in a voice of piercing agony, "Where is my child?" The infant, which had been saved, was brought to her, and she fainted at the sight of it.

Many of the passengers who entered the boat at Cincinnati had not registered their names, but the lowest estimated number of persons on board was two hundred and eighty. Of these eighty-onc were known to be killed, fifty-five were missing and thirteen badly wounded.

On the day after the accident a public meeting was called at Cincinnati, at which the mayor presided, when the facts of this melancholy occur- rence were discussed, and among other resolutions passed was one deprecating the great and increasing carelessness in the navigation of steam vessels and urging this subject upon the consideration of Con- gress.

The Moselle was built at Cincinnati, and she reflected great credit on the mechanical genius of that city, as she was truly a superior boat, and under more favorable auspices might have been the pride of the waters for several years. She was new, having been begun the previous December and finished in March, only a month before the time of her destruction.

A committee was appointed at the meeting of citizens, to report upon the causes of the disaster. Dr. Locke, Jacob Strader, Charles Fox, T. J. Matthews, and J. Penn, formed the committee. They made a prolonged and careful examination, and published a report in a pamphlet of seventy-six pages. It was mainly from the pen of Dr. Locke, and is a thoroughly scientific exposi- tion of the subject, much of which has permanent in- terest and value.

October 20th, a fire occurred on McFarland street, which destroyed two or three small buildings, and took the life of a little son of Mrs. McComas, aged eight years. The citizens subscribed one thousand two hun- dred and seventy-nine dollars and sixty-six cents the next forenoon for the relief of the sufferers. On the twenty- third there was another fire on Broadway, between Fourth and Fifth, destroying cabinet and turners' shops, and a bedstead factory.

The semi-centennial of the settlement of Cincinnati was celebrated in good style this year, Dr. Daniel Drake delivering the oration. The invited guests included many aged Ohio pioneers of 1785-7-9, and other years.

The first fair of the Ohio Mechanics' institute was held this year and was a gratifying success.

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History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 23

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