History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 60

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 Lincoln club, incorporated February 12, 1879, is a society of members of the Republican party, formed for political and social purposes. It occupies the fine building on the southwest corner of Race and Eighth streets, formerly a private residence, and has about five hundred members.

The leading clubs more purely social in their charac- ter are the famous Queen City, an organization of August, 1874, owning the splendid club-house on the corner of Seventh and Elm streets, built expressly for its

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

purposes at a cost of one hundred and seventy thousand dollars, and occupied in August, 1876; the Elm-street, organized in 1877 by brewers and those associated with them, but later made up largely of local politicians; the Phoenix, a large and fashionable Hebrew club, with its building since March, 1874, on the corner of Court street and Central avenue; and the Allemania, also with a Jewish membership, formed in December, 1849, and occupying a beautiful freestone club-house opposite the Grand hotel, on Fourth street and Central avenue, built at a cost of one hundred thousand dollars.

TRADES UNIONS.

These began to be formed at a very early day. No doubt there were such guilds before 1819, when we find the Master Carpenters and Joiners' society, with Richard 1. Coleman president, Isaac Poinier vice-president, John Tuttle secretary, John Wood treasurer, Edward Dodson and William Crossnian trustees, and Peter Britt, John Tuttle, John Stout, and R. L. Coleman, measurers of work. Also the Mutual Relief society of Journeymen Hatters; James Smith president, William Nikerson secre- tary. Also the Society of Master Taylors (sic), organized 1818; William Lynes, sen., president ; James Comly vice- president, Thomas Tueder secretary, Israel Byers treasurer. Also the Union Benevolent society of Journeymen Tay- lors; James Masten president, Nehemiah Russel vice- president, William Atkin secretary. And the Journey- men Cabinet-makers' society; John Fuller president, James McLean vice-president, George G. Rosette treasurer.

The strength of these societies at a very early day may be inferred from the fact that, at the Fourth of July cel- ebration of 1821, no less than thirty-one associations of mechanics, besides the college societies, were in the pro- cession. There was also a procession of mechanics' guilds in Cincinnati the year before, but we are not told of their number. Fourteen years afterwards, in the pro- cession of 1834, there were forty-five of these societies.

The Franklin Typographical society in Cincinnati was formed in 1829. The Brotherhood of Locomotive En- gineers, which has a numerous branch in Cincinnati, was organized in 1855. The Expressman's Aid society, a co- operative life insurance association, dates its existence from March, 1874. The Butchers' Melting association, which is commercial in its character, buys the surplusage of fat from the butchers' stalls, and renders it into lard and tallow, and also buys and utilizes the bones and scraps. There is also a Pilots' association, with an office at the northwest corner of Sycamore and the Public land- ing, where contracts for river-service are made and infor- mation exchanged concerning the channels in the western rivers and other matters of professional interest. It has also offices in St. Louis and New Orleans.

The Trades' assembly is the central organization of a small part, about fifteen, of the many trades unions of the city. It holds semi-monthly meetings, composed of three delegates from each of the unions in its member- ship.

The other trades unions of the city, or a considerable number of them, make up the Combined Trades Unions,

a compact and powerful organization. The societies comprising it are the stove manufacturers', the machin- ists' and blacksmiths', the moulders' (Nos. 3 and 4 of Cincinnati and 4 of Covington), the printers', painters', carpenters', shoemakers', furniture workers', cigar mak- ers', cigar workers', tinsmiths', bristle counters', hair spinners', butchers', bricklayers', pastry cooks', masons', plasterers', brewers', tailors', and N. A. M. C. and P. C. unions, and perhaps others. The officers of the com- bined unions are :

W. B. Wilson, president; Mr. Clemmer, vice presi- dent ; W. B. Root, recording secretary ; Joseph N. Glenn, corresponding secretary; James Roach, treasurer; Ed- ward Phelan, sergeant-at-arms.

A monster ball was given by the unions on the night of the thirteenth of December, 1880, for which six of the largest halls in the city were occupied, and which we believed to have been attended by not less than ten thou- sand people.

May 1, 1880, a movement was started for a company or society to organize a co-operative store on the Roch- dale plan, and two hundred and fifty subscribers to its capital stock were obtained.

BUILDING ASSOCIATIONS.

These constitute a remarkable feature of real estate operations in and about Cincinnati; and some hundreds of them must exist in various parts of Hamilton county -- mostly, of course, in Cincinnati. Seventeen in this city filed their certificates of incorporation in 1871; fourteen the next year ; thirty-six in 1875 ; and the num- ber has rapidly increased since. The names of many of them savor strongly of nationalities ; as the Irish build- ing association, the Bismarck, etc. Some of these so- cieties furnish their subscribers with a home at once, on which weekly payments are to be made till all is paid; others supply the means, at a small premium, by which members may purchase a home ; and still others consti- tute savings banks, in which weekly deposits are made and draw interest, and the whole is repaid, with interest and earnings of the capital, at a time stipulated when the association is formed. It is affirmed that many neat homes in the environs of the city have been built by the aid of these organizations.

CHAPTER XXIV.

SCIENCE.

In no city in this country is a more hearty and healthy interest taken in scientific matters than in Cincinnati. The peculiarities of the rock formations in this part of the Valley of the Ohio, and their richness in fossils, have greatly stimulated the practical study of geology and palæontology ; and specialists of high attainments in other branches have not been wanting, as well as many care- ful general students in science, in both its facts and prin-

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ciples. It is said that in no other city in the land are there so many private collections in mineralogy and con- chology as here; and the collections made by the Society of Natural History, the university, and other schools of learning, although not yet long in making, are already very respectable, and bid fair to reach great extent and excellence in the fullness of time. The good-will of the community toward scientific enterprises has been mani- fest in many ways; but in none more, probably, than in the founding of the Cincinnati observatory, and in the bequest more recently made by Mr. Charles Bodman, of fifty thousand dollars to the Society of Natural History.

The beginnings of scientific observation and study in the Miami country and of popular sympathy with them were very early, dating back at least to the decade from 1800 to 1810-that is, from the time when young Daniel Drake canie to the village, a boy of fifteen, to study medicine with Dr. Goforth, to the year when Dr. Daniel Drake published his first book, Notices concern- ing Cincinnati, in which many results of his youthful enthusiasm for and ability in the study of science appeared. Even before his day, Colonel Winthrop Sar- gent, secretary of the territory, had made observations in meteorology and archeology, some of which have proved permanently useful.

THE MUSEUM.

In the opening of the Western museum, in 1820, Dr. Drake took a cordial interest, and delivered an address upon the occasion, in which he gave utterance to the hope of scientific benefits to be derived from its existence :

The plan of our establishment embraces nearly the whole of those parts of the great circle of knowledge which require material objects, either natural or artificial, for their illustration. It has, of course, a variety of subdivisions, and in its execution will call for very different architects, as its consummation will afford instruction and delight to persons of very opposite tastes. Already, indeed, in possession of many specimens in zoology, mineralogy, antiquities, and the fine and useful arts, we venture to indulge the hope that even at this time we can afford something to interest the naturalist, the antiquary and the mechanician.

To establish in this new region a scientific cabinet, on a plan so varied and extensive, may be considered by some as premature and impracticable. It is not difficult to show, however, that this objection is rather specious than solid. For an obvious reason, it is a new coun- try in which such a multifarious assemblage is most proper. Ancient communities, only, exhibit a perfect separation of kindred tiades and occupations, and a divorcement of the extraneous branches of science from the learned professions, to which in young societies we find them closely united. Old communities, tlicrefore, are the only ones which can successfully establish cabinets and museums for particular · classes of objects, and destined for the benefit and amusement of partic- ular orders of men. Let no one, then, charge our society with te- merity for aiming at a general collection, nor regard as an evidence of vain glory and undisciplined ambition what, in reality, is both the effect and indication of our recent settlement in a new region.

THE ACADEMY.

The Western Academy of Natural Sciences was organ- ganized in Cincinnati in April, 1835, and incorporated in 1838. Within a very few years, by 1841, it had col- lected two hundred specimens in mineralogy and fossils, three hundred shells and two hundred plants. About fifty persons, mainly leading citizens, were members, and the young society had also many correspondents. Mr. Robert Buchanan was president, and made important ad- ditions to a catalogue of the flowering plants and ferns

found in the vicinity of Cincinnati, which was prepared by Joseph Clarke and published by the society. @ For some years the society held out the hope of a prosperous career. Its earlier meetings were in the college building, but it soon went to the Trollopean Bazaar, where con- venient rooms were furnished it by the Mechanics' insti- tute, then occupying the building, free of expense. One of the fire companies, No. 4, upon its disbandment, gave its furniture to the academy, and offered it also the per- petual and free use of its hall; but the city council held that the company had exceeded its powers in making this offer, and the hall was not occupied. In 1855 we find the academy back in the college building. During these years of wandering its collections and library increased but slowly; yet some valuable private cabinets were formed, and the general influence of the organization upon the community was stimulating. Mr. Anthony published a monograph during its existence upon the Melesina, which contained the description of many new species. The academy had the high honor of a warm compliment from Professor Agassiz, at the close of the session of the American association for the advancement of science, in Cincinnati; but it was nevertheless on the wane, and its life by and by went out altogether.

PROMOTING USEFUL KNOWLEDGE.

The society for the promotion of useful knowledge was originally the educational society of Hamilton county, in- tended to be auxiliary to the Western Literary Institute and College of Teachers. The plan was subsequently changed, and in March, 1840, a constitution was adopted giving the name to the new society, and electing a corps of officers. At this meeting an eloquent address was de- livered by Dr. Lyman Beecher, and a general discussion of the plans and purposes of the society also lent interest to the occasion. It was not purely a scientific-society ; but as natural, political, and mental science were promi- nent in its organization and transactions, a notice of it finds fitting place here. The sections contemplated in its scheme were organized as follows: Practical teaching; exact and mixed sciences ; natural science ; the practical arts; the fine arts; medicine; law ; political economy and political science; moral and intellectual philosophy; his- tory ; langnage; commerce and agriculture ; polite litera- ture; statistics. Every member was expected to attach himself to as many of these sections as he could attend. Each section operated in its own way and under its own officers, and reported its transactions to the general so- ciety, to which it was expected to supply lecturers in its own department. These gave their services without fee, and their lectures were freely open to all who chose to attend. The comprehensive plan of the society also looked to a public library, a scientific museum, an art gallery, and the publication of useful works. An en- couraging report was made at the close of its first year; but the society was complex and cumbersome in its organization, and lacked pecuniary endowment; so it soon went to join the innumerable caravan. Its first officers were: Jolin P. Foote, president; Elam P. Lang- don, vice-president; Milo G. Williams, recording secre-

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tary; E. D. Mansfield, corresponding secretary; James H. Perkins, treasurer; N. Holley, librarian.

THE OHIO MECHANICS' INSTITUTE.

Dr. John M. Craig, a citizen of Cincinnati, at the close of a course of lectures on natural and experimental phi- losophy delivered by him in 1828, suggested to the class the desirability and propriety of a permanent organiza- tion for the mental and social improvement of the me- chanics of the city. A number of influential residents seconded his suggestion, and a meeting was held Octo- ber 25th of that year, convened under a public notice issued by W. Disney, Luman Watson, John P. Foote, and Professor John Locke, at which it was formally re- solved "that it is expedient for a Mechanics' institute to be formed in this city; that the gentlemen making the call, with the addition of Mr. J. Bonsall, should be a committee to report a plan for the institute; and that Dr. Craig should be requested to address the next meeting, November 20, 1828, on the general subject of mechan- ics' institutes." He did so; the constitution reported by the committee was adopted, with some amendments; and the Ohio mechanics' institute, of Cincinnati, was ushered into being. A charter was obtained February 9, 1829, which was renewed and amended with the grant of enlarged powers, by the legislature of 1846-7. The founders of the institute are named in these instruments as John D. Craig, John P. Foote, Thomas Riley, Luman Watson, William C. Anderson, David T. Disney, George Graham, jr., Calvin Fletcher, Clement Dare, William Disney, William Greene, Tunis Brewer, Jeffrey Seymour, Israel Schooley, and Elisha Bingham, "with their asso- ciates." Their institution was characterized as "for ad- vancing the best interests of the mechanics, manufactur- ers, and artisans, by the inore general diffusion of useful knowledge in those important classes of the community."

The institute began operations at once after complet- ing organization. Classes were formed for instruction in chemistry under Dr. Cleveland, geometry by Professor Locke, and arithmetic by Mr. John L. Talbot. They were well attended, and gave excellent satisfaction. Mr. Talbot taught in his own school room, without charge, and the lectures on chemistry were delivered in College hall, and partly in the old city council chamber, on Fourth street, between Walnut and Main. The institute was encouraged to purchase the Enon Baptist church property, on Walnut, between Third and Fourth streets, at four thousand dollars, in easy payments. The ground floor was partitioned off to afford a library room, reading- room, and class-room.

In 1831 the valuable mathematical and philosophical apparatus of Dr. Craig was bought from him by Mr. Jephtha D. Garrard, and presented to the institute. Dur- ing the winter of 1833-4 an effort was made, but with- out success, to unite the interests of the Cincinnati col- lege and the institute. The latter had been unable to meet its payments upon the building purchased, which had only been kept for use by the appointment of four members as trustees, who made the first payment from their own funds and took a title-deed in their own names.

An effort to raise a stock subscription of sixteen thou- sand dollars, in shares of twenty-five dollars each, also failed; and the institute got deeper into debt every year. So great was its pecuniary embarrassment and discour- agement in that year of financial disaster, 1837, that a proposal to dissolve the organization was seriously enter- tained.

In November, 1835, its building was necessarily aban- doned to the trustees, and the hall and some front rooms of the college building were hired at a rent of one hun- dred dollars per annum. Dr. Craig took charge as actu- ary, librarian, and general factotum of the institute. This temporary home had also to be abandoned after one year's occupancy, when a building was rented on the south side of Fifth street, first door east of Vine. The lectures before the institute were still delivered in college hall. In February, 1839, the Trollopean Bazaar, on Third street, was purchased of Messrs. Blachly & Long- worth for ten thousand dollars, of which about two thou- sand five hundred dollars were paid in cash and the rest secured by mortgage. The amount of the first payment was raised by a citizens' ball at the National theatre; but no more could be paid, and in May, 1843, the building on Walnut street, opposite the college, afterwards occu- pied by U. P. James' bookstore, was leased at three hundred and fifty dollars per year, while the Bazaar, still nominally in the possession of the institute, was rented to Dr. Curtiss for five hundred dollars. The removal was much to the advantage of the society, owing to the then remote situation of the Bazaar building from the business and social centres and possibly a limited attrac- tion at what was then known as "Trollope's Folly." Re- maining on Walnut street about two years and a half, the peripatetic institute, in November, 1845, took up its quarters in the old post office building on Third street, between Walnut and Vine. At the same time a lot on the west side of Walnut, between Third and Fourth, was taken on perpetual lease from the trustees of Lane Semi- nary, at four hundred dollars a year, conditioned that a five thousand dollar building should be erected thereon within eighteen months. After costing the institute near five hundred dollars, the lot was re-conveyed to the sem- inary, and, about November, 1848, the society moved further up Walnut street, to a location between Fifth and Sixth. Meanwhile, in February, 1847, the Blachly & Longworth mortgage had been foreclosed, and the Bazaar forever lost to the institute, after costing it about four thousand five hundred dollars. A subscription was soon afterwards set on foot for erecting a building for the in- stitute. The amounts pledged for a building on Walnut street presently reached three thousand five hundred dollars, and those for one somewhere else amounted to five thousand dollars. The trustees-Messrs. Miles Greenwood, Charles Sellers, and Daniel F. Meader, who had been appointed September 7, 1847, to raise funds, buy a lot, and erect a building-but principally Mr. Greenwood, raised the subscriptions by their personal exertions to near eighteen thousand dollars. The lot on the corner of Sixth and Vine streets, now occupied by the institute, was bought for fifteen thousand dollars, on

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whatever time might be asked by the trustees, the amount bearing interest at seven per cent., and secured by mortgage. It looked now as though the much-wan- dering institute would get at last a permanent home.

The history of the efforts of the members of the insti- tute for intellectual improvement during its first quarter- century includes an unsuccessful attempt made in the winter of 1833-4 to organize a course of lectures on the History of Letters, by Professor C. E. Stowe, of Lane Seminary; two lectures per week by Dr. Craig during most of 1835, one course of which was delivered to ladies; and lectures from time to time by Dr. John Locke. No regular course was delivered for several years, owing to the limited interest taken in them and the pecuniary embarrassments of the institute, and the want of a proper hall; but in the winter of 1844-5 a profitable course was pronounced in the college hall by Mr. U. T. Howe and Mr. C. P. Cranch. Various other lectures was delivered, and sundry classes formed; but it would be tedious to follow their history in detail.

Early in 1838 arrangements were actively made for the first exhibition of manufactured articles, under the auspices of the institute. In February a grand mechan- ics' and citizens' ball was given at the National Theatre in aid of the enterprise, which netted for it about two thousand four hundred dollars. The fair was held May 30 and 31, and June 1, 1838, in the Bazaar building, and proved a worthy pioneer in the long line of Cincin- nati industrial expositions. About four hundred articles were shown, the products of western artizans, crowding all available space in the building. A pleasing incident of the occasion is thus related by one of the older writers:

The hall of the institute [the Trollopean Bazaar] occupies the site on which Fort Washington was built in 1789, to defend the first settlers of this country against the Indians. General Solomon Van Rensselaer, who had been stationed at that fort in 1792, being in this city on a visit to his former commander and early friend, General Harrison, was, with him, invited to attend the exhibition of the fair. The directors were desirous to improve the opportunity which this exhibition afforded of displaying the proofs of the rapid progress of the arts in the west to those whose youthful energies were devoted to the rescue of these fer- tile regions from the dominion of those savage barbarians whose occu- pation of them was incompatible with any improvement in the social condition of their inhabitants or of the introduction of the arts which benefit or the sciences which enlighten mankind. They were aware that the best reward the patriot soldier can receive is that of witnessing the blessings which his labors, privations and sufferings have contrib- uted, through the blessings of Providence, to procure for his country. General Van Rensselaer expressed the highest gratification in being enabled, after an absence of so large a portion of his life from the scenes of the toils and dangers of his early years, to witness the marks of rapid progress of civilization and refinement in the country which he remembered as the hunting-ground of the savage. It was a pleasing circumstance, in the decline of life, to be recognized as one of the early benefactors of this fair and fertile land.

An address was delivered during the fair by Mr. J. C. Vaughan, a prominent editor of the city, and Mr. E. D. Mansfield closed it with remarks on "the mechanic arts as an essential element in the continual happiness and progressive elevation of the human mind." Exhibitions of art and industry were held annually thereafter by the institute, with occasional interruptions, the first twelve of them yielding considerable revenue to the society for those days, the yearly profits therefrom being six hun- dred to twenty-five hundred dollars. The exhibition in

1843, after the lease of the Bazaar to Dr. Curtiss, was held in College hall, where music was furnished gratuitously by the Amateur Musical society.

March 8, 1847, following the grant of the amended charter by the legislature, the institute adopted a new constitution, substantially the same as now governs the society, and published it with the new charter.

The corner stone of the building now occupied by the institute was laid on Independence day, 1848, with fit- ting ceremony, under the direction of Nova Cæsarea Harmony Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons. A heavy debt was soon incurred. The subscriptions of the citizens were quickly exhausted; cholera was prevalent, and more could not be had, and the trustees were com- pelled to assume debts and borrow money on their per- sonal credit, or let the work stand still. They perse- vered, however, and finished the building within a reasonable time. By the opening of 1854 the debt of the institute amounted to forty-nine thousand three hun- dred and ninety-one dollars. Two of the principal cred- itors, members and trustees of the institute, Miles Greenwood and Marston Allen, offered to cancel the debts due them-twelve thousand four hundred and seventy-six dollars and seventy-three cents to the former, and five thousand three hundred and forty-nine dollars and fifty-five cents to the latter-if about thirty thousand dollars were raised to pay the debts against them as trus- tees. An attempt was made to secure the sum within the specified period, by an appeal to the mechanics of Cincinnati; but it met with little response, and, but for an extension of time by Greenwood and Allen, their munificent gifts must have been lost. A more general effort was now made, reaching the mercantile, profes- sional, and other classes of the community, from whom a subscription of twenty-six thousand two hundred and fifty-eight dollars was soon obtained. But a financial crisis came upon the city, one of the worst in its history, and many of the subscriptions proved uncollectable. Still more time was given by Greenwood and Allen, and from the subscription sixteen thousand four hundred and ninety dollars and eighty-six cents were realized, mak- ing the total reduction of the debt thirty-four thousand three hundred and seventeen dollars and fourteen cents.

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History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 60

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