History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio; their past and present, Part 30

Author: Nelson, S.B., Cincinnati
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Cincinnati : S. B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1592

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Nicholas Longworth was judge of the Court of Common Pleas of this county from 1876 until 1881, when he was elected judge of the Supreme Court. He gradu- ated at Harvard in 1866 with high honors, and was admitted to the Cincinnati Bar in 1869. He retired from the Supreme Bench in 1883. He was a man of brilliant abilities and accomplished in many directions. He was a classical scholar. and his translation of Electra, while it preserves the pith of the original, makes

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Greek poetry readable, even in the English language. His love of poetry was a passion, and the standard authors he seemed to know by heart. He was a skilled mechanic, had cultivated music with success. At the Bar, besides being a well- equipped lawyer, he had that aggressive audacity that made him a formidable antagonist, even as against older and more experienced men. In social life he was a charming companion, always generous to a fault. He died in 1890 at the early age of forty-six.

The Hamilton County Bar, during the trying times of the Civil war, were true to their duties as American citizens. The lawyers did not hesitate to answer the call that summoned them to the field. Of these were Col. N. C. McLean, of the Ninety-fifth O. V. I .; E. Basset Langdon, lieutenant-colonel of the First O. V. I .; Col. Donn Piatt; Theophlus Gaines, Fifth O. V. I. ; Col. F. W. Moore, now judge of the Superior Court of Cincinnati; Capt. John F. Hoy; Lieut. Edgar M. Johnson, and Everett S. Thomas. Charles Loomis and Channing Richards were members of the Sixth Ohio. Richards was afterward captain of the Twenty-second Ohio, of which C. J. Wright was colonel.

Col. Fred L. Jones was first appointed lieutenant-colonel of the Thirty-first O. V. I., and subsequently was transferred to the Twenty-fourth. He was in Buell's advance upon the fateful field of Shiloh. They were ferried over the river under the lead of the impetuous Nelson as the first day's fight was nearing its disastrous close, and stayed the rush of the exultant Rebels. Col. Jones was soon after pro- moted for gallantry on the field. At the battle of Stone River, in a charge upon the enemy, he was fatally shot, and died December 31, 1862. Those who knew him well remember what a bright, gallant, dashing young fellow he was.

James Warnock was captain in the Second Ohio. He entered the service in Cincinnati, was promoted, and followed the fortunes of Buell's army. He was wounded in Chattanooga, in Hooker's battle above the clouds. He was in the ser- vice until October, 1864, when he was mustered out.

Henry B. Banning entered the service April 20, 1861, as captain in the Fourth Ohio, three-months' men. On June 6 he became captain for three years, and June 25, 1862, was appointed colonel of the Eighty-first Ohio. Afterward he was made lieutenant-colonel of the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Regiment, and transferred to the One Hundred and Twenty-first, as colonel. He was made brevet brigadier- general for gallant services during the Atlanta campaign. After the war he was a member of the State Legislature, and then member of Congress from this county.

Robert L. McCook went into the war as colonel of the Ninth Ohio, a German regiment from Cincinnati. He was with Buell in Kentucky; at Pittsburgh Landing, Corinth, and throughout Tennessee. He rose to the rank of brigadier-general. The tragedy of his death in August, 1862, is familiar. His energy and ability were such that, had he lived through the war, he would doubtless have added lustre to a family name already distinguished for zeal in the Nation's cause.

Stephen J. McGroarty and William M. Ward were members of the Tenth, or Lytle, Regiment. McGroarty was afterward colonel of the Sixty-first. Elthan Courtland Williams enlisted in the gunboat service upon the Western waters, while still a minor, but served during the war. John Coffee and John W. Warrington were privates. Irwin B. Wright was captain. Col. James F. Meline had retired from active practice before the war broke out. He served during the war as aid to to Major-Gen. John Pope. Was in the Western campaigns of that distinguished officer, and at the battle of Second Bull Run.

Rutherford B. Hayes entered the service as major of the Twenty-third Ohio. It can not be necessary to speak here in detail of the life of a President of the United States. There is no American who is not familiar with it. There were also Oliver P. Brown, captain in the Thirty-ninth; Peter J. Sullivan, colonel of the Forty- eighth; William H. Baldwin, lieutenant-colonel of the Eighty-third; Benton Hal-

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stead, colonel of the One Hundred and Ninety-seventh; Samuel S. Fisher, colonel of the One Hundred and Thirty-eighth.

Joseph B. Foraker, Thomas T. Heath, William Disney, L. H. Pummill, Gusta- vus Tafel and Thomas L. Young, Gen. Henry M. Cist, Col. Nathan Lord, Sixth Vermont, all members of the Cincinnati Bar, were in the service, in various capaci- ties, and it has never been said that the legal fraternity failed in the duties they were called upon to perform. It is quite possible that the names of all those who were in the army have not been here preserved, but such records as were available have been examined with the purpose of making the list complete, and if omissions have occurred, it is not because labor has been spared.

CHAPTER X.

CHURCHES.

[BY REV. DUDLEY WARD RHODES, D.D.]

INTRODUCTORY-PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH -- PRESBYTERIAN REFORMED-METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH-OTHER METHODIST CHURCHES-NEW JERUSALEM CHURCH-THE FRIENDS- BAPTIST CHURCH-PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCHI-CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES-UNI- TARIAN CHURCH-JUDAISM-LUTHERAN CHURCHES-DISCIPLES OF CHRIST-GERMAN EVAN- GELICAL PROTESTANT CHURCH-ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH-MISCELLANEOUS CHURCHIES -STATISTICS.

N O branch of historical research presents more difficulties than that of the relig- ious development of a community. The external signs of growth or decay are easily marked. The comparison of churches, colleges, schools, hospitals at dif- ferent epochs is not difficult. The amount of money given, and of members regis- tered, may be accurately noted, but the real history of religion is the history of the spirit which animates and energizes these forms and institutions; and the careful historian may often indicate to his readers that the epochs which seem most barren, and where there seems to be a steady loss of power, are the very ones where religion is found to be doing its most powerful work. Never was Protestant religion so much of a power in the Netherlands as in the days of Philip II, when, to the mere statis- tician, churches were everywhere decreasing and church membership falling steadily year by year, and never was Latin Christianity more aggressive than in the middle of the sixteenth century, when she had been shorn of half her equipments.

But in addition to this difficulty of portraying adequately the spiritual power of religion, of depicting the hidden influences which make for honesty, integrity, purity, good citizenship, faith and patriotism, there is another difficulty which oppresses the historian of religion in a community like Hamilton county. At whatever epoch he directs his attention, he sees a steady efflux of Christian workers toward western communities. He sees the churches of every denomination painfully gathering and educating and Christianizing men, who disappear from his gaze at the next epoch, not by death, not by lapse into irreligion, but by emigration. They are lost from the ranks of the local bodies, and the records make the loss apparent and disheart- ening, but they are still answering to the roll call of the great army, and are the fruit of faithful work done here, fruit which has "its seed in itself." Many pow- erful churches by the Missouri, or the Platte, or still farther west "where the Oregon raves ceaselessly," are the developments of the seed sown by Lyman Beecher, or Bishop McIlvaine, or Bishop Fenwick, or the fervent Methodist meeting of four-score years ago. That process of "swarming," as it may be called, which is plainly marked at all times in the history of Cincinnati, is even more pronounced

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in the closing decade of the century. Every local church is drained of its strength,. and is constantly dismissing to other places its best and most energetic members. Some, having acquired wealth, are moving east, into the older cities, to enjoy it. More are feeling the pressure of competition in crowded cities and moving far west, to make their fortunes, their homes and their graves. This enormous loss, by no means offset by gains of the same nature, must be taken into account in any rational view of the religious progress of a hundred years. But it must not be thought that these preliminary words are made necessary because of the failure of the churches to keep pace with the progress of the city and county.

The subsequent pages will show how remarkable has been the continually expanding growth of organized religion, far in excess of other branches of civil cul- ture and refinement. To that growth, when it has been fully described and under- stood, the reflecting reader will add a large percentage which justly belongs to it but is necessarily listed in other communities.

Such a chapter as this can deal only with the organizations which have risen and fallen, those bodies through which the Spirit of Religion has breathed. The great and small churches of Protestant Christianity, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Jewish Synagogue have all been active, and must all be studied for a comprehensive and accurate knowledge of their subject. The reader may not find it uninteresting, and will not find it unprofitable, to take these denominations in their order and follow their development in a rapid, but accurate survey.

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

While the first church organized in Hamilton county seems to have been a Bap- tist Church at Columbia, there can be no doubt that the great mass of the early settlers were desirous of worshiping God after the form of the Presbyterian Church, and the early history of religious life is the history of Presbyterianism. Indeed, it has been this church that has furnished the striking incidents of religious history during the century. The controversies of Dr. Rice, the brilliant career of the Stowes, the trial of Lyman Beecher, the revivals under Joshua Wilson, the founda- tion and growth of Lane Seminary, and the trial of Prof. Henry Preserved Smith, are the causes celebres of our ecclesiastical history. That precedence she had here in time, which was but an accident, the great Presbyterian Church has crowned by a precedence in activity and zeal. · The fierceness of her debates has not been greater than the volume of her liberality, and the wonderful multiplication of her missions and churches at the present time is enough to convince the world that great intel- lectual ferment and doctrinal disturbance, however painful they may be, are only possible in organizations in which there is an intense earnestness and power of con- viction.

The lofty spire of the First Presbyterian church rises over the ground first set apart in Cincinnati for religious uses. The south half of the square, between Fourth and Fifth and between Walnut and Main streets, was dedicated in the plat and survey of the village for a religious house, a burial ground and a school, and there, after the lapse of a century, are still found the First church and the Cincinnati College (now the Law School), while the quiet resting place in which the forefathers of the hamlet slept has been covered with great buildings and made noisy with myriad-voiced trade. On this ground, so set apart, Rev. James Kemper, still hon- ored by those who bear his name in Cincinnati, began his labors as the first settled pastor in 1791. The church was still unorganized because of the scarcity of male members, but eight individuals formed the nucleus of the body. In September, 1793, there being nineteen adult male members, an organization was effected by the election of five ruling elders and two deacons. In the meantime preparations had been made for a church building, and subscriptions had been secured. In the long list of those who contributed to this pioneer church may be found the name of nearly

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every male settler in the village, and of many of the officers of the garrison. With the $400 contributed, and the labor and material which were given instead of money, the modest little frame building rose, facing Main street about a hundred feet north of Fourth street, and of course not immediately upon the site of the present church. This little nursery of the churches was abont thirty feet by forty, being of one story and of one room, and when occupied in October, 1792, it had neither lath nor plaster, nor ceiling nor floor. The bare earth was beneath the worshipers. Judge Burnet describes the house, and says in addition that the "seats were constructed of boat- plank supported by blocks of wood. They were, of course, without backs, and here our forefather pioneers worshiped with their trusty rifles between their knees. On one side of the house a breastwork of unplaned cherry boards was constructed, which was styled the pulpit, behind which the preacher stood on a piece of boat-plank sup- ported by two blocks of wood."

In the very month of the completion of this building, it witnessed three remark- able events: The first trial and conviction for murder, the first installation of a pastor, and the first meeting of a Presbytery were within its walls. It was the court- house, the assembly room, the church of the community. As quietness came to the settlement, and Wayne's victory decreased the fears of Indian outbreaks, advances toward a better and more comfortable building were made. Floor and ceiling and fence were provided, and in the list of subscribers for this additional expense many new names appear which still adorn the roll of Cincinnati's best families. From the organization of this First church in 1793 until the installation of Rev. Joshua L. Wilson in 1SOS, there were three pastors, and several intervals, one as long as three years, when there was no pastor. When Mr. Wilson came, he came to stay, and his long and eventful ininistry will never be forgotten among thie formative ele- ments of our civic life. When he was laid to rest in Spring Grove in 1846, he had been for thirty-eight years a powerful and positive force in the community. When we read the story of his life it seems impossible that only half a century separates him from us. He had the ruggedness and severity of doctrinal conviction that impress while they dismay us in Hawthorne's pictures of Puritan New England. He prosecuted the trial of Lyman Beecher, his brother pastor, and pressed it to the conclusion, animated by the same spirit that was in Prym and Prynne, in Mather and Eliot. The voice of Nicaea was not more binding upon Athanasius and Leo, than was the truth as he had been taught it upon Dr. Wilson, and no man ever spoke with less uncertain sound upon the principles of the faith. His long career deserves a more extended notice, but of the man himself we must be content with the eulogy of his friend E. D. Mansfield, who knew him throughout his pastorate.

The city he found a village of one thousand inhabitants, and left it at his death with one hundred thousand. In this period Dr. Wilson maintained, throughout, the same uniform character and the same inflexible firmness in principle. He was a man of ardent temperament, with great energy and decision of character. The prin- ciples he once adopted he held with indomitable courage and unyielding tenacity. He was not only a Presbyterian, but one of the strictest sect. It is not strange, therefore, that he contended with earnestness for what he thought the faith once delivered to the saints, and that in this he sometimes appeared as much of the soldier as the saint. In consequence of these characteristics many persons supposed him a harsh or bigoted man. But this was a mistake, unless to be in earnest is harshness, and to maintain one's principles bigotry. On the contrary Dr. Wilson was kind, charitable, and, in those things he thought right, liberal. During his pastorate, the little frame church gave place to the "two-horned" church, so called from its two cupolas. This was in 1815, when the number of communicants had risen to 160. The large subscription to this building ($16, 745) indicates the increasing wealth and prosperity of the community, and the capacity of the structure, which accommodated over two thousand people, shows the large increase in the community itself. The

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third building, which is the present one, was erected in 1853. Rev. Hugh Gilchrist is the pastor, and among his predecessors were Rev. George Beecher and Rev. Frank Monfort. The spacious rooms in the basement of this church are the meeting place for the Evangelical Alliance, and in the church itself took place the trial of Dr. H. P. Smith in November, 1892, and here the General Assembly of 1888 held its session.

The Second Presbyterian Church was an off-shoot from the pioneer church, whose history we have followed with more detail than will be possible with the history of others.

The record of the Second church begins in 1816, and the church edifice was first occupied in 1818. This was a small building on the northeast corner of Fifth and Walnut streets, where the great government building now stands. In 1829 the Society was incorporated, and soon after moved into a larger and better building on Fourth street, where the McAlpin Company are now doing business; from thence they moved in 1872 to the present handsome church on Eighth and Elm streets. The most distinguished pastorate of this church was that of Lyman Beecher from 1831 to 1842. Both as president of Lane Seminary and pastor of the Second church he exerted a vast influence upon the entire country, and is the largest figure in the first century of the religious life of Cincinnati. Gradually the Second church began to take a leading position, and is still the most powerful and wealthy congregation of the Presbyterians in the city. Among the prominent pastors have been Dr. M. L. P. Thompson; Dr. Thomas H. Skinner; Dr. George P. Hays, and Dr. Eells. At this time Dr. W. S. Plumer Bryan is the pastor. The missionary activity of the Church has been phenomenal. From it directly or indirectly have come the means and energy to establish the Seventh Street church, the Poplar Street church, the Mohawk Mission, the fine church on Price Hill with the Westminster school, over which active work Dr. Harley J. Stewart is pastor, and it has also sent the largest part of the early colonists to the most flourishing churches in the suburbs. The Sunday-school, which has been the favorite work of Peter Rudolph Neff, has been an enormous power, not equaled by any other in the Ohio Valley.

The great organization on Walnut Hills, known popularly as the Lane Seminary Church, was organized in 1831, and in 1879 an earlier organization, known as the First Presbyterian Church of Walnut Hills, was united with it and gave its name to the single church. Here there are at present time 800 communicants under the pas- toral charge of Rev. Dr. William Mckibben. The lay work of Hon. Thomas Mc- Dougall has been very effective, and in addition to his other labors of teaching and acting as an elder he has recently built and given a beautiful chapel on Shillito street for a new congregation.

The new Mt. Auburn Church was organized in 1867, and after a prosperous career of twenty-five years has just entered into a magnificent new church, erected at a cost of $100,000. What Mr. McDougall has been on Walnut Hills, Mr. Matthew Addy has been to this church. A most efficient Bible teacher for many years, he has recently built a beautiful chapel in memory of his son, called Clifford Chapel, for a mission congregation in Corryville. Dr. Henry Melville Curtis is pastor of this church, and has over four hundred and fifty communicants, and a Sunday-school of nearly seven hundred under his administration.

Space will not permit more than the mention of the strong Avondale church over which Dr. Lowe has been pastor for the last four years, of Wyoming and College Hill, where Dr. Taylor and Dr. Walker are settled, of the Seventh church on Walnut Hills, over which Dr. A. B. Riggs presides, and of many others scattered through the county and doing most efficient work. If a disproportionate amount of space in this article is given to the Presbyterian Church, the faithful historian can only say that considering its priority of organization, its brilliant and varied career, where sparks are constantly thrown off from its energetic wheels, and its present activity in missionary work, it can not be adequately described in smaller space.

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The Second Presbyterian Church, on Eighth street, was organized on July 10, 1817, with eleven members, and has enrolled over 2,500 members.

The Third Presbyterian Church, on Seventh street, was organized January 22, 1829, with fifty-nine members, and has enrolled over 5,000 members.

The Fifth Presbyterian Church, on John and Clark streets, was organized May 29, 1831, with ten members, and has enrolled over 1,800 members.

Central Presbyterian Church, on Mound and Barr streets, was organized April 23, 1844, with thirty-three members, and has enrolled over 1, 797 members.

Seventh Presbyterian Church, on Madisonville avenue, was organized December 8, 1849, with ninety-seven members, and has enrolled over 1, 200 members.

Pitgrim Chapel, on Ida street, Mt. Adams, was organized May 5, 1890, with seventy-three members.

Sixth Presbyterian Church, on Eastern avenue, was organized December 18, 1842, with twenty-two members, and has enrolled over 643 members.

Poplar Street Presbyterian Church, Poplar street, was organized January 2, 1859, with fifteen members, and has enrolled over 613 members.

Westminster Presbyterian Church, on Grand avenue, was organized November 1, 1883, with twenty-two members, and has enrolled over 291 members.

Calvary Presbyterian Church, Linwood, was organized April, 1887, with forty- seven members, and has enrolled over 125 members.

First Presbyterian Church, Walnut Hills, was organized October 7, 1818, with fifteen members, and has enrolled over 2,500 members.

Cumminsville Presbyterian Church was organized October 18, 1855, with fifteen members, and has enrolled over 800 members.

Fourth Presbyterian Church, Orchard street, was organized November 18, 1856, with fifteen members, and has enrolled over 524 members.

Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church was organized October 13, 1868, with sixty- nine members, and has enrolled over 667 members.

Avondale Presbyterian Church, Rockdale avenue, was organized April 21, 1868, with thirty members, and has enrolled over 500 members.

Clifton Presbyterian Church (Emanuel) was organized April 19, 1882, with twenty-seven members, and has enrolled over 150 members.

First German Presbyterian Church, Linn street, was organized in 1850 with twenty-five members, and has enrolled over 200 members.

Second German Presbyterian Church, Liberty street, was organized in 1866 with twenty-five members, and has enrolled over 400 members.

Other Presbyterian Church Organizations .- Bethany Presbyterian Chapel, Max- well place; Bethany Chapel Mission, Walnut Hills; Clifford chapel, Vine street; Fairmount German Presbyterian Church, Liddell and Baltimore avenues; Mohawk Presbyterian chapel, Ravine street; Shillito Street Mission; Corryville Mission; Olivet Mission; Erwin Mission, Sixth street.

PRESBYTERIAN REFORMED.

The First Reformed Presbyterian Church, located on Plum street between Eighth and Ninth, with Rev. David McKinney as pastor, is in a flourishing condition. The present magnificent church edifice was erected in 1867. The Second Reformed Presbyterian Church (Covenanter) is located on Clinton street. The First United Presbyterian Church is located at the northwest corner of Seventh and Walnut streets, and the congregation is in a prosperous condition.

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. *

Methodism came riding into Cincinnati on horseback in the person of Rev. John Kobler in 1798, and Mr. Kobler has this to say of his visit: "About four o'clock

* Rev. D. J. Starr, of the East Pearl Street Methodist Episcopal Church, furnished most of this article and statistics for the individual churches in this sketch of Metliodism .- D. W. R.

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in the afternoon I came to an old garrison called Fort Washington, which bore very much the appearance of a declining, time-stricken, God-forsaken place. Here I wished very much to preach, but could find no opening or reception of any kind whatever." The next Methodist preachers who came to Cincinnati were Revs. Lewis Hunt and Elisha Bowman, who preached occasionally and went their way. Meanwhile Rev. Francis McCormick, who is regarded as the founder of Methodism in Ohio, had preached and organized a Society near Columbia in 1801. In 1804 Rev. John Collins came to the town to buy provisions, and finding the storekeeper, Mr. Carter, a Methodist, was so overjoyed that he fell on his neck and wept. That night Mr. Collins preached to twelve persons in an "upper room" in Mr. Carter's house. Soon Rev. John Sale, the regular minister of Miami circuit, preached in the house on Main street, between First and Second streets, to a congregation of thirty-five persons, and formed the first Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Cincinnati. There were eight members, consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Carter, their son and daughter; Mr. and Mrs. Gibson and Mr. and Mrs. St. Clair. The families of Mr. Richardson, Mr. Lyons and Mr. Nelson and Mr. Hall were soon added, and the meetings wese held in the "schoolhouse below the hill and near the Fort." From this beginning Methodism entered upon its career of great prosperity.

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History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio; their past and present, Part 30

Author: Nelson, S.B., Cincinnati Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Cincinnati : S. B. Nelson Number of Pages: 1592

Author: Nelson, S.B., Cincinnati
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Cincinnati : S. B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1592