USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 92
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ners' apparatus, tanners' and curriers' tools, tanners' materials, taps, tar, taxidermists, teamsters, teas, telegraph companies, telegraph sup- plies, telephone exchanges, tent makers, terra cotta building material, theatrical agency, theatrical goods, linen and cotton thread, threshing machines, tile manufacturers, timber bending company, timber dealers, tinware, tin boxes, tin cans, tinners' tools and machines, tin plate, tin- ners' stock, tobacco, tobacco leaf, tobacco manufacturers, tobacco box manufacturers, tobacco machinery, tobacco pail manufacturers, toilet powders, tools, towboats, tower clock manufacturers, toys, tract socie- ties, transfer companies, transfer ornaments, travelling bags, tress hoops and trimmings, truck manufacturers, trunks, trusses and crutch- es, tubewell supplies, turners, twine, type foundries, umbrellas and umbrella repairer, undertakers, undertakers' supplies, upholsterers' ma- terials, upholsterers, variety goods, varnish, varnish manufacturers, vases, vault cleaners, velocipedes, veneer, venetian blinds, vermicelli manufacturers, vermin exterminator manufacturers, veterinary surgeons, vinegar manufacturers, violin strings, vocal school, wagon makers, wagon makers' supplies, walking canes, warm air furnaces, washboard manufacturers, washine, washing blue, washing compound, washing machines, watch case manufacturers, watch chain makers, watch move- ments, watchmakers' tools and materials, watches, jewelry, etc., water- closet manufacturers, water columns, waterproof and oil finish leather belting, waterworks supplies, waterworks machinery, wax art empo- rium, weather strip manufacturers, well drivers, wheel manufacturers, wheel and carriage machinery, whip manufacturers, whiskey, white lead, window curtain balances, window glass, window shades, window shade fixtures, wines, wire manufacturers, wire goods manufacturers, wire rope, wood dealers, woodworking machinery, wooden and willow- ware, wool dealers, woolen machinery, woolen mills, woolen mill sup- plies, yarns, yawl builders, yeast manufacturers, oxide of zinc.
THE LATEST STATISTICS.
The United States Industrial Census, taken in 1880, exhibits three thousand six hundred and fifty two manu- facturing establishments in the city. Among them were three hundred and sixty-three boot and shoe shops and factories, two hundred and thirty-four bakeries, two hundred and forty-seven cigar-factories, two hundred and forty-six clothing-establishments, one hundred and twenty- five slaughterers and butchers, one hundred and twenty- six boat-builders and block, tackle and spar-makers, one hundred and eighteen tin and copper-workers and metal- roofers, one hundred and twenty boss-carpenters and builders, one hundred and seventeen furniture and cabinet factories and repair shops. The average number of hands employed in all kinds of manufactures num- bered forty-three thousand seven hundred and seventy- two males and eleven thousand four hundred and ninety- eight females over sixteen years of age, and four thou- sand five hundred and thirty-five children and youth-in all fifty-nine thousand eight hundred and five. The greatest number employed at any one time was sixty-eight thousand eight hundred and forty-six. The total amount of wages paid during the year ending May 31, 1879, was $21,348,796. The capital, real and personal, in- vested in the business was $61,139,841; the value of material, including mill supplies and fuel, $81,021,672; of the gross product, $138,526,463. The number of boilers used for steam-power was eight hundred and twenty-eight; of engines, seven hundred and eight; of horse-power therein, twenty-one thousand and fifty-nine. Establishments renting their power, two hundred and twenty-nine; employing no hands, three hundred and eighteen.
Besides these, a number of manufactories in the coun- try, which are owned and conducted by Cincinnati pro- prietors, may properly be included in the returns of
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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
local manufactures. They are in the villages or town- ships of Lockland, Delhi, Avondale, Colerain, Columbia, Harrison, Millcreek, Miami, Riverside and Whitewater, and their principal statistics are as follows: Number of establishments, one hundred and fifteen ; capital invested, $2,647,000 ; greatest number of hands employed, one thousand one hundred and sixty; wages paid, $990,700; material, $5,760,000; gross product, $8,320,000. Also, reckoned as belonging virtually to the Cincinnati manu- facturing centre are the establishments in the Ken- tucky towns of Covington, Newport, Bellevue, Dayton, West Covington and Ludlow. Their returns are estim- ated as follows: Number of establishments, four hundred and seventy-nine; capital employed, $9,017,000; greatest number of hands employed, seven thousand nine hundred and sixty ; wages paid, $3,981,000; material, $18,741,000; product, $27,622,600. There is thus figured up for Cin- cinnati and its belongings the following magnificent totals: Number of establishments, four thousand two hundred and forty-six ; capital invested, $72,803,841 ; number of hands employed, seventy-seven thousand nine hundred and sixty-six ; wages paid, $26,320,496 ; material used, $165,522,672; gross product, $174,469,063. With these we may proudly close the statistical portion of our nar- rative, and conclude these outlines with the eloquent re- marks of Colonel Maxwell, closing his well-known lec- ture before the Women's Art Museum association some years ago, on the manufactures of Cincinnati :
I am fond of contemplating the future of this city. Already she oc- cupies a proud position among the cities of this great country. She has made progress which may well encourage pride in the hearts of her whole people. Her foundations are singularly strong. No city in the country has so successfully passed through the financial convulsions which at times have shaken the country to its centre. The credit of her business men is second to no class in the Union. Business has been and is now conducted, to an unusual degree, on the capital of those conducting it. The number of real estate owners is singularly large, and in general they are not at the mercy of mortgagees. Her public schools are laying broad and deep the foundations of popular education. Her university, with its well-established professorships, its Astronomical Observatory and its School of Design, which has received such honorable recognition at home and abroad, has an assured exist- ence. Her law, medical, theological, and literary institutions have well- earned reputations. Her Mechanics' Institute has been and is laboring earnestly in the field of mechanic arts. Her public libraries are richly stored, and are making steady acquisitions to their means of bringing the circles of science, history, philosophy, and literature within the reach of all. Her dramatic culture is well known. Her musical re- sources place her at the head of all American cities. Thanks to the splendid liberality of one of our most beloved citizens, a Music Hall, having no equal on this continent, is soon to be dedicated to the divine art. The exhibitions of her varied industries have made the city famous and have indicated to other cities the possibility of similar displays. She, in this regard, has been a public educator. Her Zoological Gar- den is well provided with the denizens of the land and the air. Her private picture galleries possess rich treasures. Her suburbs challenge the admiration of travelers from all lands. Her benevolent and re- formatory institutions have a reputation as wide as the country. Her topographical position as a city is peerless. Her population, no longer content with living amid manufactories and stores and shops, have scaled the battlements of these surrounding hills. Science and me- chanical skill have lifted our population to a higher plane of domestic comfort. Four inclined railways are daily engaged in carrying our busi- ness men, mechanics, and laborers from the highlands to the busy scenes of this mighty workshop and back again, after the labors of the day, to homes made triply comfortable by freedom from soot and noise, and by air akin to mountain freshness and purity. Her hill top resorts have, in a single season, obtained a national reputation. They have shown our people how easy it is to remain at home in the sultry days
of midsummer. They have impressed into our service the best orches- tras of the country. They have invited the people of other districts, and have literally made that part of the year when the population of other cities flee from the scorching rays of August suns, the gayest of the year.
But these enjoyments and advantages have not come by chance, neither do they perpetuate themselves. . Beneath them all, largely, are the industrial and commercial interests of the city. The economical administration, the fair dealing, the sagacity, public spirit, and enter- prise of our business nien of all classes have laid broad the foundations of what we now enjoy. These qualities of the fathers, exercised by the sons, will continue the superstructure. Our commercial relations will strengthen. The scope of our manufactures will widen. The world, for our products, will become our customer. Our position will invite capital and our enterprise and necessities will secure to us, from other localities and countries, steady additions to our army of skilled artisans. Then these hills will be peopled by hundreds of thousands. These slopes will be thickly studded with homes of comfort. These crests will be richly fringed with splendid residences, tasteful dwellings, and cosy cottages. In a comparatively short time every available place, that now overlooks one of the most splendid panoramas in our country, will be occupied. Thousands upon thousands, now here, will have fled with their families, not before the avenging wrath of an offended deity, but before the steady march of our manufacturing industries. The singular healthfulness of the city will more and more invite persons from other localities. Our sources of amusement will multiply. Our permanent industrial exhibitions will become great show-windows for the exhibition of the results of our mechanical and artistic skill-a school for the education of the people-a constant furnace from which the young minds will be fired with an ambition to become themselves producers. To our schools will be added schools; to our libraries, books ; and to our other institutions, a museum, having for its object the cultivation of the masses, by bringing within their reach the best facilities for encouragement to larger effort in the field of mechanics and the arts, for the prosecution of study, for the formation of a correct taste, and for the promotion of all that ennobles and refines.
It is no ideal picture which has been drawn. It is no revelation of prophetic vision. It is the natural sequence of fostered, diversified, economically, and skillfully conducted industries, that are steadily crea- ting wealth, increasing power, enlarging usefulness, and fitting the peo- ple for wider influence as well as for deeper enjoyment. Let us see to it that in all our relations we do all we can to augment the splendors of the day, of which the morning already gives such abundant promise.
The Cincinnati Board of Trade was organized in 1869, and the Board of Transportation in 1876, with special reference to united effort in dealing with questions re- lating to the movement of freights to and from the city. The directors' report, published in the Eleventh Annual Report of the Board of Trade and Transportation, says:
"In the summer of 1878 the subject of a union of the two Boards was broached, and a formal request for the appointment of a joint committee for the consideration of the project was passed by the Board of Trade August 17, 1878. The similarity of the objects of the two or- ganizations seemed to indicate that this was the natural and proper course to take. The Board of Trade has always taken a deep interest in matters relating to trans- portation, and one of the most important labors it had achieved was the breaking of the freight blockade at Louisville, a work that was only effected by means of a considerable outlay of money and the establishment of a special agency at that point, which was of the greatest importance to Cincinnati shippers. A formal consolidation of the two Boards was effected on April 7, 1879, under the title of the 'Cincinnati Board of Trade and Transportation.'"
The objects of the present Board are defined by the secretary of the Board, in his report for 1879-80, as "to collect, preserve, and circulate valuable and useful infor-
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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
mation relating to the business of Cincinnati, and es pecially the facts relating to its manufacturing interests; to encourage wise and needful legislation, and to oppose the enactment of laws likely to be prejudicial to the manufacturing and commercial interests; to study the workings of our system of transportation, upon which our commercial prosperity so much depends, and endeavor to remedy by all proper means the defects and abuses existing therein; to secure fair and equitable rates of freight to and from the city; the discontinuance of vexa- tious and unjust overcharges and prompt settlement of damages on goods shipped; to facilitate the adjustment of differences, controversies, and misunderstandings be- tween its members and others; and to strive in all ways to promote the manufacturing, commercial, and other industrial interests of the city."
The presidents of the board have been: 1869-70, Miles Greenwood; 1870-1, P. P. Lane; 1871-2, Josiah Kirby; 1872-3, Robert Mitchell; 1873-4, Joseph Kin- sey; 1874-5, Thomas G. Smith; 1875-6, William T. Bishop; 1876-7, Clement Olhaber; 1877-8, Gazzam Gano; 1878-9, Samuel F. Covington; 1879-80, John Simpkinson.
The secretaries during the same period have been: 1869-74, Harry H. Tatem; 1874-81, Julius F. Black- burn.
The Pork-packers' Association of Cincinnati was or- ganized October 30, 1872. Its design is to promote the interests of the provision trade by securing concert of action and a free interchange of opinion, and by submit- ting rules for the government of the trade to the cham- ber of commerce for its deliberation and decision. Un- der its auspices five exhibitions of hog products were made at the Vienna exposition and the home Industrial exhibitions. It is said to have, as it should, a conspicuous influence in the councils of the National Pork-packers' association.
There are numerous other manufacturers' associations and trade-guilds in the city, some of which are noticed in our chapter on benevolent and other societies.
SOME TRADE HISTORIES IN BRIEF.
The following notes relate partly to the older manu- facturing and partly to historic mercantile and commer- cial establishments. For convenience' sake they are all grouped together here. For nearly every item we are indebted to the industry of Mr. Daniel J. Kenny, who collected the dates and facts for the second edition of his Illustrated Cincinnati, published in 1879.
Established in 1805 .- William Wilson McGrew, jew- elry, 152 West Fourth. Except one brief interval, this house has been continuously in existence.
1817 .- F. H. Lawson & Company, metals, 188-90 Main; E. Myers & Company, wholesale candy, 40 Main.
1819 .- Bromwell Manufacturing Company, wire goods and brushes, 181 Walnut; William Resor & Company, stoves, corner Front and Smith. Mr. Resor and the senior Lawson are accounted the oldest business men in the city.
1824 .- George Fox, Lockland Starch manufacturer, 87 West Second.
1826 .- John H. McGowan & Company, machinery, 134-6 West Second.
1827 .- George C. Miller & Son, carriages, 19 and 21 West Seventh.
1828 .- B. Bruce & Company, carriages, 161-3 West Second and 57-61 Elm.
1830 .- P. Wilson & Sons, leather, etc., 136-8 Main ; A. W. Frank, wholesale grocer, corner Race and Sixth.
1831 .- John Shillito & Company, dry goods.
1832 .- M. Werk & Company, soaps and candles, John and Poplar; Sellew & Company, tin-plate, iron, copper, etc., 244-8 Main. The latter is said to be the oldest establishment in the city retaining its firm name. H. A. Kinsey, jeweler, Vine and Fifth; Thomas Gibson & Company, plumbing and brass foundry, 200-2 Vine.
1835 .- J. & L. Seasongood & Company (originally Heidelbach, Seasongood & Company), wholesale cloth- ing, Third and Vine: C. S. Rankin & Company, Arch Iron works, Plum, near Pearl; William R. Teasdale, dye-house, 265 Walnut; Proctor & Gamble, soaps and candles, 736-62 Central avenue.
1836 .- Duhme & Company, jewelers, Fourth and Walnut; the Robert Mitchell Furniture company.
1837 .- Knost Brothers & Company, 137 West Fourth, formerly Charles & Henry Storch, first importers of toys and fancy goods west of the Alleghanies. Van- duzen & Tift, Buckeye bell foundry, 102-4 East Sec- ond; H. B. Mudge, furniture, 91-9 West Second; James Bradford & Company, mills and millstones, 57 Walnut.
1838 .- J. M. Mccullough, seed and agricultural ware- house, 136 Walnut; George Meldrum, glass and paints, 23 West Fourth.
1840 .- J. and A. Simpkinson & Company, wholesale boots and shoes, 89 West Pearl; William H. Thayer & Company, mill and steamer goods, 147-9 West Fourth.
1841 .- J. A. Fay & Company, wood working tools, John and Front.
1842 .- J. T. Warren & Company, foreign fruits and groceries, 64-6 West Pearl; John Holland, gold pens, 19 West Fourth.
1843 .- Parker, Harrison & Company, Pioneer spice and mustard mills, 90 West Second; George D. Win- chell, tin and sheet-iron ware, 112-14 West Second; E. J. Wilson & Company, mustard, spice and coffee- mills, 116-18 West Second; H. Closterman, chairs, 219-23 West Second.
1844 .- Clemens Oskamp, jewelry, 175 Vine; William Glenn & Sons, wholesale groceries, 68-72 Vine; Charles H. Wolff & Company, wholesale dry goods, 131-3 Race ; O. and J. Trounstine, cloth importers, Third and Vine; Lockwood, Nichols & Tice, wholesale hats and caps, 95 West Third; Howell Gano & Company, hardware, 138 Walnut; A. D. Smith & Company, clocks, 184-6 Main.
1845. - Stern, Mayer & Company, clothiers, Third and Vine; William F. Thome & Company, boots and shoes, 79 West Pearl; Hall Safe and Lock company, Pearl and Plum.
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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.
1846 .- William Powell & Company, brass foundry, 245-9 West Fifth; William Kirkup & Sons, brass foun- dry, 119-23 East Pearl.
1847 .- P. Eckert & Company, candy, 64 Walnut, suc- cessors to Robert Hodge; Devon & Company, mill, 137 Race; Dunn & Witt, galvanized iron cornices, 144 West Third; Phipps, O'Connell & Company, boots and shoes, 107 West Pearl.
1848 .- Andrew Erkenbrecher, St. Bernard starch works, 12 West Second; Favorite stove works, Third, John, Smith, and Webb,
1849 .- J. and A. Moore, frame mouldings, etc., 276-80 Broadway; Knost Brothers & Company, fancy goods, 70-2 Main (formerly H. Schrader & Company) ; F. Schultze & Company, china and glassware, 72-4 West Fourth.
1850 .- Gest & Atkinson (formerly Smith & Window), oils; Mowry car and wheel works; Lane & Bodley, en- gines, mills, etc .; Camargo Manufacturing company, wall- paper and window-shades, 57 West Fourth; Jeffras, See- ley & Company, dry goods, 99 West Fourth; Franklin type foundry, 168 Vine; Pelte Biedinger, paper, 62 Wal- nut; Tolle, Holton & Company, dry goods, 124 Vine.
J. S. Burdsal & Company, on the northwest corner of Main and Front, are the oldest drug house in the city. The tradition goes that there has been a drug store on that corner ever since Cincinnati was founded.
CHAPTER XXXIV. THE INDUSTRIAL EXPOSITIONS.
As an important sequal to the history of manufactur- ing in Cincinnati, we may well give some account of the great Industrial Expositions held in this city year by year-among the most remarkable displays of their kind now made anywhere in the world. Nothing in the won- derful "new departures" which the Queen City has taken so rapidly and numerously of late years, has contributed to give her wider reputation than these. They attract exhibitors and visitors from far distant regions of the land; and many foreigners have attended them with admiring satisfaction. They annually furnish the pro- ducers of Cincinnati, in both fine and industrial art, the' opportunity for a grand object lesson to the nation of her capabilities and attainments in the production of wares for the markets of the world-an opportunity that is seized to an extent and in a style that annually excite the curiosity and wonder of many thousands. They have a history of their own, which we shall now proceed to narrate. *
THE EXPOSITION OF TEXTILE FABRICS,
January 15, 1868, an organization was effected, entitled The Woollen Manufacturers' Association of the Northwest. May 25th next ensuing, it was resolved to hold an Exposi- tion of Wool and Woollen Fabrics in Chicago, August 4th, 5th and 6th, of the same year, under the auspices of the association. It was held with pronounced success, for a first effort, bringing together as it did very many samples of raw materials and manufactured goods. The associa- tion had then to determine the place for holding a simi- lar Exposition the next year; and a committee of Cincin- nati merchants-Messrs. George W. Jones, James H. Laws, James M. Clark, and George W. McAlpin- appointed by a meeting called at the instance of Mr. Laws, visited Chicago and made a successful effort to induce the association to make its next display in this city. An order was also passed extending the scope of the exhibition so as to embrace wool-growers as exhibi- tors, and inviting them to send representative specimens of wool from their flocks, to the fair of the next year in Cincinnati. The executive committee appointed to take charge of the second exposition was composed almost wholly of citizens of that place; all members of the com- mittee above named were upon it, together with Messrs. Louis Seasongood, Henry Lewis and William R. Pearce, and Mr. A. M. Garland, of Chatham, Illinois. They submitted a report to a meeting of Queen City merchants and manufacturers on the 6th of April, 1869, which was accepted, and the committee continued in service. A permanent organization for the purposes of preparing and holding the fair was made, with Mr. John Shillito as chairman, James M. Clarke secretary, George W. Jones treasurer, and strong committees on general arrange- ments, invitation, reception, transportation, premiums, and finance. Co-operative committees were presently appointed by the city council, the chamber of commerce, and the board of trade, headed respectively, by Messrs. A. T. Goshorn, T. R. Biggs and Robert Buchanan.
August 2d, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th, of the year last designated, were fixed upon for holding the Exposition, and a resolution was passed for invitations to manufac- turers of cotton, wool, flax, hemp, and silk, and to both cotton and wool growers, to send in their exhibits for this week's display. It was also decided to have a trade sale when the fair was over.
The members of the committees found their positions no sinecures. With characteristic energy the Cincinnati- ans set to .work, raised money enough to guaranty the payment of all expenses and for the offer of liberal pre- miums, and made arrangements on the most generous scale for the Exposition. An address was issued to the wool growers of the country by Mr. Garland, chairman of the wool committee, which was well adapted to arouse their attention and secure their displays. Personal invi- tations were sent to manufacturers and other prominent men in the North, Southwest, and South; and Mr. James A. Chappell, of the city, as special agent of the Exposi-
* The materials for the sketch concerning the Exposition of Textile Fabrics are drawn from the history of that event, prepared at the request of the general committee of the Exposition, by Colonel Sidney D. Maxwell, now superintendent of the Chamber of Commerce. The admirable historical sketch prefixed to the Report of the General Com- mittee of the First Industrial Exposition held in Cincinnati (1870) is
also known to be from the hand of Colonel Maxwell, though published anonymously ; and we acknowledge indebtedness to it for the facts embraced in the initial history of the series of Expositions.
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tion, made a tour of the Gulf States and other parts of the South, to enlist the interest of their leading manufac- turers in the project. Arrangements were made with many of the railroads and with the great express companies, to carry free of charge freights destined for the Exposition, and twenty-three railways also agreed to carry passengers bound to it at half fare. A handsome bronze medal was ordered from the Government mint at Philadelphia, for presentation to each exhibitor, without reference to his success or failure in obtaining premiums; and fitting cer- tificates were engraved and printed for the awards to suc- cessful competitors. Mr. David Sinton, the well-known philanthropic and public spirited capitalist, early obviated any difficulty the committee of general arrangements might experience in finding a suitable place for the fair, by the offer of his spacious four-story building, then re- cently erected on the east side of Vine street, between Third and Fourth streets. It proved to be excellently adapted to the purpose. Says Colonel Maxwell :
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