History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 98

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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THIRTY YEARS AGO.

In 1851 there were but six incorporated banks in the city : The Ohio Life Insurance and Trust company, still at the southwest corner of Main and Third streets, of which Charles Stetson was president and George S. Coe cashier. The Commercial bank, 132 Main street; Jacob Strader, president; James Hall, cashier. The Franklin Branch bank, north side of Third, between Walnut and Main street ; J. H. Groesbeck, president; T. M. Jackson, cashier. Lafayette bank, near the Franklin Branch; George Carlisle, president; W. G. W. Gano, cashier. Mechanics' & Traders' Branch bank, 100 Main street ; T. W. Bakewell, president; Stanhope S. Rowe, cashier. City bank, south side of Third, between Walnut and Vine; E. M. Gregory, president ; J. P. Reznor, cashier.

The aggregate of capital allowed for banking in the city of Cincinnati was so limited by the general assembly that the business of private banking had been greatly stimulated. A large number of banking-houses and brokers' offices had been opened, among the more prom- inent of which were the following: Ellis & Morton's, cor- ner of Third and Walnut; Burnet, Shoup & Company, northwest corner Third and Walnut; Phoenix Bank of Cincinnati, and George Milne & Company, on Third, between Main and Walnut; Merchants' Bank of Cincin- nati, first door from Third, on Walnut; S. O. Almy, on Third, near Walnut; T. S. Goodman & Company, Main, just above Third; Citizens' bank (W. Smead & Compa- ny), Main, between Third and Fourth; Gilmore & Broth- erton, Main street, below Columbia; Langdon & Hatch, corner of Main and Court; B. F. Sanford & Company, corner of Fourth and Walnut; and the Western bank of Scott & M'Kenzie, at the northwest corner of Western Row and Fifth street. This last seems to have been a long way out of the general centre of the banking busi- ness, which, it is worth while to notice, was concentrated

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almost exclusively within two or three squares on Third, Walnut, and Main streets.

One of the bankers of 1855, still in active business in the city, contributed the following to the historical num- ber of the Daily Gazette, April 26, 1879:

Referring to your note of this morning, regarding the bankers of 1855, I called to my aid Mr. James Espy, to have my memory refreshed, and find the following list to comprise those now in the business who were here at that date:

H. W. Hughes, then Smead, Collord & Hughes, now H. W. Hughes & Co.

James Espy, then Kinney, Espy & Co., now Espy, Heidelbach & Co. J. D. Fallis, then Fallis, Brown & Co., now president of the Mer- chants' National bank.

W. A. Goodman, then T. S. Goodman & Co., now president of the National Bank of Commerce.

Henry Peachey, then teller Ohio Life & Trust Company, now presi- dent Lafayette bank.

W. J. Dunlap, then Wood, Dunlap & Co., now cashier Lafayette bank.

S. S. Rowe, then casher of the Mechanics' and Traders' bank, now cashier Second National bank.

S. S. Davis, now S. S. Dayis & Co.

Mr. James Gilmore is another of the old bankers, of a standing of forty years or more, who retired from busi- ness so lately as the latter part of the year 1880.

By 1857 the City bank had been added, with its loca- tion at No. 8 West Third street.

Cincinnati is recorded as having suffered less by the monetary crisis which shortly set in than any other city of importance in the country. Only one wholesale estab- lishment and a few retail houses succumbed to the pres- sure. The sales to country merchants in 1857 aggregated twenty-five millions, which betokened a fairly healthy state of things in Cincinnati and its tributary region.

THE NATIONAL BANKS.

The capitalists of Cincinnati availed themselves with reasonable promptness of the advantages of the National Bank act. By the first of December, 1863, there were fully organized and in operation, the First National, with a capital of $1,000,000; the Second, with $100,000; the Third, with $300,000; and the Fourth, with $125,000 cap- ital. The private banks the same year numbered twenty- seven, with a total capital of $723,599.

The next year there were twenty-five private banks, with an aggregate capital of $1,566,510.

In 1866, only three national banks were reported, with a capital of $900,000.

In 1867, there were eight national banks, with $4,628,- 353 capital, and seventeen private banks, with capital to the aggregate amount of $807,554.

In 1868, report was made of only six national institu- tions, but with $3,910,000 capital; nineteen private insti- tions, capital $2,841,400. The United States bonds and other securities exempted from taxation in Hamilton county this year, amounted to $4,875,000, being nearly one-fourth of the total amount exempted in the State of Ohio.

In 1869, the national banks were still six, whose capi- tal had grown to $4,015,000. Twenty-one private banks were reported, with $3,089,410 capital.

In 1870, one national bank had dropped out of the re- ports, and the five remaining had a capital of $3,500,000.

There were nineteen private banks, with $2,798,750 cap- ital. This status was maintained in 1871.

In 1872, the five national banks had $4,100,000 capi- tal; in 1873, $4,000,000; in 1874, $4, 185,014; and in 1875, $4,265,560.19. The number of private banking institutions reported for these years, respectively, was seventeen, with $2,235,510 capital; nineteen, with $2, 150,380; nineteen, with $2,295,747; and nineteen again, with. $2,341,000. In the report of 1873 was included one savings bank, organized under the act of February 26, 1873, with $50,000 capital; and in the report of the next year one organized under the act of February 24, 1845, with a capital of $182,518.

In the year 1876-7, nine national banks were reported to the State authorities, with a capital of four million, seven hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, or an average of more than half a million apiece; seventeen private banks, capital two million and seven thousand dollars; two savings institutions, fifteen thousand four hundred dollars; total, twenty-eight, with an aggregate capital of six million, seven hundred and forty-seven thousand and four hundred dollars.

1877-8 .- Nine national banks, four million five hun- dred thousand dollars; one savings, thirty thousand dol- lars; sixteen private, one million, six hundred and eigh- teen thousand one hundred dollars. Total, twenty-six ; capital, six million, three hundred and ninety-eight thou- sand, one hundred dollars.

1878-9-Nine national, four million four hundred and fifty thousand dollars; four savings, under act of February 24, 1845; nine private, six hundred and twen- ty-five thousand and sixty-seven dollars. Total, twenty- two banks, with capital five million eight hundred and twenty-two thousand six hundred and fifty-six dollars.

The figures given in the report of the board of trade and transportation, for the banking capital of Cincinnati at the close of the years 1877, 1878 and 1879, vary somewhat from those given above. They are:

1877.

Total national banks. $4,400,000

Total private banks and bankers 2,428,000

1878. $4,300,000 2, 168,000

I879. $4,100,000 1,465,000

Grand totals. $6,828,000

$6,468,000 $5,565,000

October 14, 1880, the Citizen's National bank was or- ganized, with a capital of one million dollars, shared by ninety-four stockholders. Briggs S. Cunningham was elected president; G. P. Griffith, vice-president, and George W. Forbes, cashier.

November 22d, of the same year, Gilmore's bank was consolidated with the National Bank of Commerce, upon which occasion Mr. James Gilmore, then the oldest banker still in existence in Cincinnati, retired from active service in the fields of finance.

A MEMORABLE EVENT

in the history of finance in this city is thus related in Kenney's Cincinnati Illustrated:

"On the eighteenth of September, 1873, the well known failure of Jay Cooke & Company brought about the great panic of the year. On the twenty-fifth of the same month, the clearing-house association resolved, for the protection of the bankers, that payment of currency

G. K. Luckworth.

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on checks, except for small sums, should be temporarily suspended, and that bankers should certify checks drawn on balances, payable through the clearing-house only. On the thirteenth of October following, there was a general resumption, and within thirty days all the clearing-house certificates, amounting to over four hundred thousand dollars, which had thus been issued to facilitate business, were withdrawn and cancelled. Among the city bankers, so firm was their standing, and so ample their means, that there was not a disaster to mark the track of the commercial storm that passed through the country."

THE CLEARING-HOUSE.

The Cincinnati clearing-house association was organ- ized in 1866, with objects in the facilitation of banking business corresponding to those of clearing-houses in other cities. Mr. George P. Bassett has been its man- ager from the beginning. Its rooms are in the third story of the building No. 70 West Third street. In the financial year ending April 1, 1877, the aggregate clear- ings through this agency were $629,876,985, ranging from $45,255,742 in August, to $65,786,893 in Decem- ber. In the year 1877-8 the clearings were $587,019,- 030; 1878-9, $514,977,000, and in 1879-80, $614,275,- 807

The following named banks and bankers representing the present leading monetary institutions of Cincinnati, except the Bank of Cincinnati, which was merged with the new Citizens' National bank December 17, 1880- were members of the Clearing-house association Sep- tember 1, 1880: First National benk, capital $1,200,- 000; Second National, $200,000; Third National, $800,000; Fourth National, $500,000; Merchants' Na- tional, $1,000,000; National Lafayette and Bank of Commerce, $400,000; Commercial, 200,000; Franklin, $300,000; Bank of Cincinnati, $100,000; Western Ger- man, $100,000; German Banking company, $250,000 ; Espy, Heidelbach & Co., $140,000; Seasongood, Sons & Co., $120,000; Joseph F. Larkin & Co., $115,000; H. W. Hughes & Co., $100,000; S. Kuhn & Sons, $50,000. Total capital of banks and bankers then in the Clearing House, $5,575,000. The totals for the five years next previous were: 1878-9, $5,565,000; 1877-8, $6,468,000; 1876-7, $6,828,000; 1875-6, $6,785,000; 1874-5, $6,740,000.

THE SAFE DEPOSIT COMPANY.

This useful institution is situated in the Lafayette Bank building. It was founded in 1866, after the plan of the first deposit company in this country, established shortly before by Mr. Francis H. Jenks, of New York city. Mr. Samuel P'. Bishop, as representative of a strong body of Cincinnati capitalists, spent a fortnight in Mr. Jenks' in- stitution in New York, and became fully possessed of the details of the scheme in every particular. Upon his return the Safe Deposit company was organized, the nec- essary legislation for such institutions secured, and Mr. Joseph C. Butler elected president and Mr. Bishop sec- retary. Mr. Bishop is still secretary. One-half of the Lafayette bank fire-proof building, forty-two feet front by one hundred feet deep, was secured by perpetual

lease, and the plan of safe adopted. The latter, thirty- five feet long, seven feet high, and twelve and one-half feet wide (with the centre supported by iron), composed of five alternate layers of steel and iron, so put together that no screw or nut should penetrate through more than three layers, was undertaken to be constructed by Miles Greenwood. With all the appliances of his establish- ment, and with work much of the time night and day, so difficult was the system adopted of interlacing the elastic steel with the iron, that nearly eighteen months elapsed before the work was completed, and at a cost of nearly fifty thousand dollars for the safe alone. With four combination locks of James L. Hall & Company, and Dodds, Macneale & Urban, the company have sup- plied to the public what they undertook to do, although at greater expense than was anticipated.

INSURANCE NOTES.

The first local insurance company was started Novem- ber 25, 1816-the Cincinnati-with a capital of half a million. William Barr was president, and John Jolley secretary.

After this, little attention was paid to the formation of local insurance companies until about 1825. With the exception of the foreign agencies, the Louisville com- pany had practically the monopoly of the Cincinnati business, and hence its profits were enormous, and its stock became very valuable. A local company was formed about 1820, but it secured little business, and did not survive the subsequent commercial depression. The Ohio Insurance company was incorporated in Jan- uary, 1826, with a capital of two hundred and fifty thou- sand dollars, and the privilege of increasing it to five hundred thousand dollars. Two thousand and ten shares of fifty dollars each were promptly subscribed and paid in or secured. T. Goodman was made president, and Morgan Neville secretary. The new institution rap- idly acquired the confidence of the community, and built up a large business, with consequent appreciation of its stock.

In January, 1827, the Cincinnati Equitable Insurance company was chartered, on the mutual insurance plan. Ezekiel Hall was its chairman or president; John Jolley secretary. Agencies were established in the Queen City. In 1825 the Etna Fire Insurance company, of Hartford, got in here with William Goodman for agent; and by 1827 the Protection, of Hartford, the 'Traders' Inland Navigation Insurance company, of New York ('Thomas Newell, agent), and the United States Insurance com. pany (William Hartshorn, agent), had agencies in Cin- cinnati.

In 1829, a later Cincinnati Insurance company was in- corporated, with two hundred and fifty thousand dollars capital, and power to double it; in 1832 the Firemen's ; in 1836 the Washington, the Fire Department's and the Canal; in 1837 the Miami Valley : and in 1838 the Mer- chants' and Manufacturers' Insurance company, and the Commercial, were incorporated. The Cincinnati still survives, and celebrated its semi-centennial in April, 1879, being then the oldest joint stock general fire and

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marine insurance company west of the Alleghanies ; also the Firemen's, which has had but three presidents in its long career, and has always been a strong company ; and likewise the Washington, the two companies of 1838, and the Miami Valley, which is fourth in age of all Ohio in- surance companies.

The Eagle Insurance company, fire and marine, dates from 1850; the Citizens', from 1851, as the Clermont County Fire, Marine and Life Insurance company, and 1858 under its present title; the National, also from 1851; the Western, from 1854, although a perpetual charter had been granted for it in 1836; the Union, from 1855, as the Mercantile Insurance company of Coving- ton, and in 1859 in its present name and place; the Ger- mania Fire and Marine, from 1864; the Enterprize and the Globe, from 1865; the Union Central Life, from 1867, owning the fire building at the corner of Fourth street and Central avenue; the Aurora and the Amazon, from 1871; the Fidelity, from 1872; the Mutual Fire, from 1874.

The Cincinnati Insurance company, of Cincinnati, is the oldest joint-stock general fire and marine insurance company organized west of the Alleghany mountains. The company celebrated its semi-centennial anniversary in April, 1879. In the office of the company, at No. 81 West Third street, hangs an original copy of the Cincin- nati Commercial Daily Advertiser, containing the official announcement that the requisite amount of stock had been subscribed, and therefore the company was ready for business. The company has had a most remarkable career of success. For fifty years its dividends averaged thirteen per cent. ; in some years they reached thirty-two per cent. The total premiums received have been three million one hundred and three thousand and nineteen dollars and fifty-seven cents. The losses have been one million six hundred and fifty-four thousand five hundred and forty-three dollars and fifty-eight cents. The total dividends, one million four thousand five hundred and thirty seven dollars and twenty-three cents. The presi- dent, Jacob Burnet, jr., has held the office for the past ten years.

The board of directors for 1829, under which the company was organized, was as follows: Josiah Law- rence, Joseph K. Smith, Lewis Whiteman, Benjamin Urner, William D. Jones, Thomas Reily, Elisha Brigham, William Neff, John T. Martin, William S. Hatch, Robert Buchanan, John W. Mason, David Kiljour, Michael P. Cassilly, William R. Foster. Elisha Brigham, president; William Oliver, secretary.

The board for 1882 is as follows: A. H. Andrews, George W. McAlpin, Gardner Phipps, Matthew Addy, Joseph H. Rogers, John Kauffman, Jacob Burnet, jr., Edmund G. Webster, William Resor, jr., Briggs Swift, William H. Harrison, Charles Schmidlapp, Nathaniel Newburgh, George I. King, Peter Rudolph Neff. Jacob Burnet, jr., president ; Charles A. Farnham, secretary.

CHAPTER XXXVII. THE POST OFFICE.

"DO NOT send your packets by the mail as the ex- pense is heavy. The letter said to be forwarded by Major Willis was by him, or some other person, thrown into the post office, and I was obliged to pay six shillings and eight pence in specie for it." So wrote Jonathan Dayton, a prominent and wealthy citizen of New Jersey, and a member of Congress, September 8, 1789, to John Cleves Symmes, of the Miami Purchase. Postage was a pretty serious matter in those days, and the denizens of Losantiville and Cincinnati were not in haste to pay the charges levied for postal facilties. It was not until 1793, and one account definitely says the fourth of July, 1794, that the post office was established in the infant Cincinnati. Abner Dunn was the first postmaster. The hatfull of letters and occasional newspaper constituting the office were kept in his cabin, on the corner of But- ler street and the Columbia road, now Second street, be- yond Fort Washington and the Artificers' yard. The next year M. T. Green, of Marietta, contracted to carry the mails between Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, in a piroque or large canoe, propelled by poles and paddles. When going down the stream he carried also a little freight, and occasionally, for a small consideration, a passenger. When post offices were also founded in the interior of the Miami country they were supplied on horseback by William Olim, a son-in-law of the Cincinnati post- master.

DUNN'S SUCCESSORS.

Mr. Dunn died July 18, 1794, and was buried upon the lot where the office was kept.

The next postmaster was William Maxwell, the well known editor, founder of the first newspaper established in Cincinnati, or the Northwest Territory, and publisher of the Territorial Laws. He was succeeded by Daniel Mayo, and then Major William Ruffin received the ap- pointment, and removed the post office to his dwelling, a red two-story frame house, at the corner of Lawrence street and the Columbia, which stood long after on Columbia and Plum street, a familiar object to the old settlers of Cincinnati, and a generation or two of their descend- ants. Major Ruffin was the first postmaster in this cen- tury-an urbane, gentlemanly, accommodating man, who made a popular officer. Some remarks of Dr. Drake concerning him, as the boy Drake saw him in 1800, are comprised in our annals of the second dec- ade. The mail was then brought by the river from Limestone (Maysville), in a pair of saddle-bags. The gallant major held the office for a number of years- much longer than any of his predecessors-at least until 1812, and probably far beyond that, to the incoming of his successor, the Rev. William Burke.

SOME REMINISCENCES.

May 17, 1799, a notice appeared in the Western Spy and Hamilton Gazette to the following effect:

POST OFFICE .- Notice is hereby given that a post office is estab- lished at CHELICOTHA. The persons, therefore, having business in

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that part of the country may have speedy and safe conveyance by post for letters, packets, etc.

The mail was then carried to "Chelicotha" from Cin- cinnati on horseback, by an Indian trail through the woods.

· The Spy and Gazette was also enabled to announce, March 12, 1800, that a post-route had been established between Louisville and Kaskaskia, to ride once every four weeks-also that one had been opened between Nash- ville and Natchez. "This," said the pleased Spy, "will open an easy channel of communication with those re- mote places, which has heretofore been extremely diffi- cult, particularly from the Atlantic States."

Mr. James McBride, in his Pioneer Biography, gives a brief sketch of the early mail serivce between the · Miamis, which is well worth quoting. He says:

There was at that time [1804, when the post office at Hamilton was opened], and for many years afterward, only one mail route established through the interior of the Miami country. The mail was carried on horseback, once a week. Leaving Cincinnati, it passed through Ham- ilton, Franklin, Dayton, and as far north as Stanton (a town on the east bank of the Miami, opposite the site of the present town of Troy), thence through Urbana, Yellow Springs, and Lebanon, back to Cincin- nati. Afterward it was reversed, starting by way of Lebanon, and returning by Hamilton, but touching at the same points. There was then no post office west of the Miami river."

A reporter for the Cincinnati Daily Commercial, late in December, 1874, collected and contributed to his paper some interesting reminiscences, gleaned from a de- scendant of the gentleman named in the following para- graph :

In 1808-9 Peter Williams had contracts for carrying the mails be tween Louisville and Cincinnati, Cincinnati and Lexington, Cincinnati and Chillicothe, and Cincinnati and Greenville, in Darke county. All these contraets were performed with pack-horses through the dense for- ests and along the "blazed" tracks or paths which, in those days, were ealled roads. The trip from Cincinnati to Louisville was generally performed in about two weeks time. The provender for the horses had frequently to be carried along, it being impossible to procure any on the way. So of the other routes to the difierent places named-every- where through the grand, dense forests, filled with wild games of all kinds. Our informant recollects many rude incidents which occurred on many trips he, as a boy, made with his father, and afterwards by him- self, as he became older, to Chillicothe, Greenville, Louisville, etc. Mr. Williams retained these mail contracts up to 1821, using pack-horses during the whole time, and only releasing them on the advent of the stage-coach, owners of which could afford to carry the mails at about one-half the price he was getting. In those early days the pack-horse was the only way in which supplies of every kind could be transported any distance; and Mr. Williams distinctly remembers that his father possessed the only wagon in the country around Cincinnati, and that, being of no use, was suffered to rot down in the barn.

Among Mr. Williams' young mail-carriers was one who afterwards attained no small distinction-Mr. Samuel Lewis, of Cincinnati. The following paragraphs are ex- tracted from the life of Mr. Lewis by his son:

After working a short time upon the farm, he was employed in carry .. ing the United States mail-for which Mr. Williams had a contract at that time. His route was at first from Cincinnati to Williams- burgh, and afterward from the latter point to Chillicothe. This work often required seven days and two nights in the week, making the labor very severe. In addition to this, the creeks and small rivers along the route were to be forded, bridges at that period being out of the ques- tion. This was all donc on horseback. The routes covered most of the country east of Cincinnati to the Scioto river at Chillicothe, and southward of this to the Ohio river, including Maysville, Kentucky.

Over some of these streams, during high water, it was necessary to swim the horse; while often the attempt was accompanied with much danger. At one time, being compelled to swim his horse, he had se-

cured the mail-bag, as he supposed, and commenced crossing the stream, swimming himself and leading the horse. When nearly over, the mail-bag, from some cause, became unloosed and floated off. His horse was first to be secured, and then the mail. Its recovery and the renewal of his journey would have been speedy, but he was struck by a floating log in the water, and severely injured. Making his way with extreme difficulty to the shore, he succeeded in mounting his horse, and continuing his journey to the next town, which he reached completely drenched and exhausted, and where he remained for some days before he was able to renew his round. The accident unfitted him for his em- ployment for the time, and when he returned to Cincinnati, he was oc- cupied with other labor.

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History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 98

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