History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio; their past and present, Part 48

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

USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio; their past and present > Part 48

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

311

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

1832. Although the wind continued to come from the northeast, the mercury rose from 36 to 43 degrees at Cincinnati, culminating in fourteen-hundredths of an inch of rainfall during the evening. At 12:45 P. M. of the 11th the stage of water at Cincinnati was 66 feet 4 inches, which was the maximum reached by the flood at 4 A. M. on February 15, 1883.

The up-river conditions still continued to be alarming. Nearly all the imme- diate tributaries were rising. Rain fell twenty-four hours up the Licking river. In Newport the Licking was on Thirteenth and Richie streets, and other streets were partly under water. The pumping engines that supplied that city with water were stopped in the afternoon. The stage of the Ohio at New Albany was 68 feet 8 inches; in 1832 it was 69, and in 1883 it was 72 feet.

NEARING THE CULMINATION.

On the 12th the range of the mercury at Cincinnati was from 48 to 66 degrees; a light rain fell in the afternoon, the snow continued to melt in the street, and some of the tributaries continued to rise. A windstorm from the south at midnight rocked from their foundations many houses in the water that had withstood the force and buoyancy of the current. Dayton and Bellevue were invaded, and the greater part of the northwest portion of Covington was covered, the water from Willow run being a foot deep on the Lexington pike, and a foot deep also on the Independent pike, one mile from Latonia Springs. There were 13,000 applicants for relief in Newport, half of the city being under water. The condition of the Little Miami river caused the Ohio to be relatively six inches higher at New Richmond than at Cincinnati. At Ripley it was rising slowly and was 5 feet 4 inches higher than in 1883.

At Ashland it was 5 feet higher than in 1883. At Ironton it was 7 feet higher than in 1883, and two-thirds of the territory occupied by the town was under water.

If the almost hourly varying conditions had heretofore rendered the future of the flood in some degree uncertain at times, there appeared natural causes on the 13th which gave assurance that its climax was near. The tributaries above Cin- cinnati were falling. These conditions all favored an early check to the rise here, but they were supplemented by another that was destined to exert more force in that direction than all combined, and to overcome the effect of unfavorable conditions yet to be named. During the day there was a rainfall of 1.18 inches at Cincinnati, but the mercury fell from 55 to 42 degrees, the forerunner of a cold wave that was coming from the northwest. After a knowledge of this fact no alarm was excited by the intelligence that the Allegheny was again rising at Oil City. The stage of the river at Ripley, where a light rain was falling, was 71 feet 9 inches, which was 2} feet higher than in 1883.

The temperature grew colder and colder at Cincinnati, the highest on the 14th being 28 degrees, which lowered during the day to 20 degrees, and the great flood of 1884 reached its maximum at noon. The bulletins were eagerly watched by hundreds, whose hearts throbbed alternately with hope and fear, while the water lingered at 71 feet and & of an inch for the next ninety minutes, at the end of which time the announcement that it had declined one-quarter of an inch was received with emphatic demonstrations of joy, that were participated in to some extent by a whole nation of people, who had assisted to feed, clothe and shelter fully one hun- dred thousand of their countrymen. Five hours the water again lingered at one stage, while a fierce contest was raging between cold weather on one side and con- stantly arriving floods from upper tributaries on the other, and then a steady decline set in at the rate of one-quarter of an inch per hour, which satisfied waiting millions that the flood was actually abating, and that the water was seeking its natural bed, after having been recorded as the highest ever known of the Ohio river-a record that millions of people hope may never be made again.

312

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

OFFICIAL MARKS.

While the water was on a stand at its highest stage the authorities of the ~ Chamber of Commerce had agents employed to indicate high-water marks at various convenient points of observation near the public landing, that were reached by the use of skiffs, where permanent marks were afterward established, in some places being located immediately above the permanent high-water marks of previous floods. By these it was ascertained that the height of the flood above that of February 15, 1883, was 4 feet 82 inches; above that of February 18, 1832, 6 feet 92 inches; and above that of 1847, 7 feet 52 inches. The snow and rain which directly produced this greatest of floods, when reduced to rainfall, amounted to 7.03 inches, of which 6.82 inches fell in February before the 14th. The total rainfall during the remainder of the month of February was 2.05 inches, including a level of ten inches of melted snow that fell on the 19th.

With the mercury between 19 and 29 degrees, the receding water left a fringe of ice, by which the limit of the flood was easily traced at all points, where this sudden cold temperature had checked its upward progress at Cincinnati and in the vicinity. Not a street in Pendleton was free from water, and the line extended up the Deer creek valley to the foot of the " Highland House" inclined plane. Up the Mill creek valley it had spread eastwardly until Lincoln Park was entirely covered, and reached Baymiller street on Clark. It was four feet deep on the Colerain pike at Hamiltown. The fringe of ice was left north of Pearl street at Race, Vine, Walnut, Main and Sycamore streets, and the first floors of buildings at the north side of Lower Market were covered with water to Broadway. The water from the Ohio river, on the south, and from the Mill creek bottoms, on the west, met and com- mingled at the southwest corner of Fourth and Mill streets. It extended above Longworth street on Hoadly, and, from the west, on Sixth street, it covered some of the railroad tracks that lead out of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton railroad pass- enger station. On Eighth street the water extended eastwardly to Harriet. The usual avenues of promenade, traffic and trade, south of Third street, and west of a diagonal line from Third and Rose, and extending north westwardly past Clark and Baymiller streets, were navigated by small boats, of which thousands had come into existence as if by magic. The Mill creek bottom was a great bay of water, so deep that the largest steamboat that navigates the Ohio river could have passed over Eighth street; and had there been no telegraph wires and other artificial obstructions, the valley could have been navigable to Cumminsville by Ohio river vessels of any class. The Licking and Ohio rivers met in Newport at the corner of Columbia and Madison streets; half of the city of Newport was under water, and part of the New- port and Covington suspension bridge that spans the Licking river was covered by water several feet deep. The Ohio backed up the Great Miami to Miamitown, and at Madison was two feet higher than in 1883.

At half past six o'clock P. M., on the 17th, the river had declined to 65 feet, 5} inches, and the Shields engine at the water-works resumed pumping, and railroad trains commenced to depart from their own stations. The next day the Ohio was falling at all points, except Marietta and Cairo; the mercury ranged from 25 to 36 degrees at Cincinnati, and the sky was clear. At noon on the anniversary of the birth of Washington, when the stage of the river at Cincinnati was 50 feet, the headquarters of the Relief Committee of the Chamber of Commerce and Common Council of Cincinnati were closed. After sixteen days Newport was again out of water, but the water did not leave all buildings in Cincinnati until noon on the next day, when it had come to a stand at Paducah, at 54 feet, 2 inches. During the six- teen previous days State boundary lines were so far obliterated that Ohio towns were sometimes nearest the West Virginia or Kentucky shore, and some Kentucky and West Virginia towns seemed to have passed within the territorial boundary of Ohio.

313

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

There were yet other towns whose locality could only be determined by two or three houses that remained, all others having been washed away. In some places water extended over low lands forty miles from the bed of the river.

The facts relating to this remarkable flood have been given very fully, for the simple reason that as long as it remains the highest on record, frequent reference will be made to the figures, and, for the benefit of history, it is important that they should be placed on permanent record. All residents of the city and Ohio Valley will devoutly pray that it may never be exceeded, nor even approached, in height. Another flood a few feet higher would be productive of appalling results. May it and the Johnstown calamity stand alone in history.

CHAPTER XX.

MANUFACTURES.

STATISTICS AND FACTS BEARING ON THE PRODUCTIVE INDUSTRIES OF CINCINNATI-ELIGIBLE LOCATION FOR MANUFACTURING-MILLIONS OF DOLLARS INVESTED AND THOUSANDS OF HANDS EMPLOYED-ENORMOUS EXTENT OF THE BREWING BUSINESS-CAPITAL EMPLOYED.

O WING to her peculiarly eligible location, Cincinnati has always been a manu- facturing centre, and her industries are destined to increase as the years roll on. Her advantages for transportation by rail and water are exceptionally good. It has been shown that twenty railroads, either by direct lines of their own, or traffic arrangements, converge within her borders. The Ohio and other rivers afford the means for the movement of certain kinds of heavy freights at cheap rates, and in supplying the manufacturers with abundance of bituminous coal from the mines of Pennsylvania, West Virginia and eastern Ohio, they can not be surpassed as vehicles of communication. The Board of Trade and Transportation has taken special pains to gather facts and statistics bearing on the subject of manufactures, and these facts have been admirably grouped by W. J. Shaw, assistant secretary, for the quick com- prehension of those who may be interested in this matter. Great industries are the true sources of trade, commerce and wealth; they build up cities and develop popu- lation. Cincinnati and Hamilton county possess some of the largest, most costly and valuable manufacturing plants on the continent. Nearly one-third of the population consists of producers. Commercially speaking, Cincinnati had a population of about 450,000 in 1890, notwithstanding the census of that year gave her but 296,908. This arose from the fact that she did not receive credit for her numerous suburban villages. Sixty-three suburban towns connected by electric and other rail lines at commuter's rates, aggregating from directory estimates 55,630 population, and num- bers of other villages and thickly settled neighborhoods estimated at 20,000, were omitted, which would have swollen the number to 372,538 north of the Ohio. Then on the south side of the river are Covington, 37,371; Newport, 24,918; and Bellevue, Dayton, West Covington, Ludlow and other villages with street car and railroad commuter rate connection, aggregating a closely estimated population of 20,000. This gives a population south of the river of 82,289, and a total legitimate popula- tion for the city of 449,827, in 1890. These Kentucky corporations are practically a part of Cincinnati, because their inhabitants largely do business in the city, but as they are located in another State, she never can have credit for them. Her contigu- ous suburban villages on the north side of the river, however, will be annexed in a short time, and the census of 1900 will show her population vastly increased.

314

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT.

The number of industrial establishments given as within the limits of Cincinnati by the United States census of 1890, is 7,664. A local report by the Board of Trade gives 1,292 in the suburbs north of the river, making a total, to which the city is practically entitled, of 8,956. The true number at the present time will not fall much below 10,000. Those on the Kentucky side can not be included, although Cincinnati is the distributing center. The report made by the census department is not only very incomplete but misleading, and can not be depended on as a correct exhibit of the industries, and capital employed, by the manufacturers of Cincinnati.

The Board of Trade local report gives $106, 599,037 as capital invested, while the United States report is only $89,886,796. To further show the unreliability of the United States report, among the classified industries given, it may be mentioned that under the head of "liquors distilled and malt," Cincinnati is credited with twenty- five establishments, having an invested capital of $8,747,282, and a total product of $16,796,890. " An actual count," says Mr. Shaw, " of the concerns gave, in 1890, of liquors distilled, nine, and malt thirty-nine concerns, a total of forty-eight, with a capital of $17,609,090 invested, and a product of $18,774,648. That the showing for Cincinnati in this industrial line may appear small, the rectifying houses are excluded entirely, and these numbered fifty-eight, with a product of $9, 427, 480 more, making $28, 202, 128 represented by this interest." In a word, the whiskey trade of Cincinnati is immense; in fact she is the only great market for standard brands on the continent. There are sixty-seven firms engaged in distilling, rectifying and wholesaling, and the product for 1890 was $18,852,241. The product of the Ken- tucky distilleries for 1892-93 was 34,843,362 gallons. The withdrawals from bond during the year were 30,266,869 gallons, and the quantity remaining in bond was 90,171,968 gallons. It is apparent that the conditions are permanent and peculiar, and that Cincinnati must continue to hold her dominant status as a whiskey market; and therefore remain the great whiskey mart of the continent.

Reference, with like results, may be made to another important industry, that of soaps and candles. The census "allows" Cincinnati 16 establishments with an employed capital of $1,938,000, employing 727 hands, and a product of $3,826,480. The facts, according to the Board of Trade, are that there were, in 1890, 36 estab- lishments, with an invested capital of $8,195,000, and a product of $10,616,000. "And," adds Mr. Shaw, "everybody knows that on a reorganization lately, one concern was capitalized at more than the whole capital 'allowed' to Cincinnati for that industry.'

In the manufacture of clothing the census credited Cincinnati with 459 establish- ments, with an invested capital of $14,841,040, a product of $17,982,123, and hands employed, males, 2,197; females, 2,772; children, 30, and piece makers, 10,234; making 15,233 all told. The facts are the city had at that time 502 establishments, a capital invested of $19,815,764, a product of $23,713.000, and 22,325 hands employed. A material difference indeed.

Many more glaring inaccuracies might be cited. In fact hardly a leading indus- try is an exception. But it is useless to expatiate further on these industrial topics. The fact has been frequently referred to, that in no city in the world does so large a portion of employees occupy their own homes; and in no city in the world are so many building associations or peoples' banks-360 in number-the chief medium through which the money has been saved and those homes built. These results are directly traceable to low rents and a cheap provision market. Cincinnati, in the cost of labor, therefore, has an advantage over other western cities. Manufactured products of equal grades are produced and sold cheaper here than in any other com- peting city.

315

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

As a great iron market, Cincinnati stands at the head of the list. Along the southern slopes of the Cumberland lies the great iron-producing section of the country, and in close proximity, along the northern slopes, are unlimited supplies of coal. The supply of pig iron, therefore, is only limited to demand and practically inexhaustible. Coupled with cheap water transportation, her advantage in this line of trade is apparent.

Another of the exceptional and exclusive resources of the Queen City, in a man- ufacturing and commercial line, is White Burley tobacco. This is a superior quality that is raised only in the counties of Kentucky and Ohio immediately surrounding the city, which is its exclusive market, and from which the manufacturers everywhere are supplied. In 1891-92 the shipments amounted to 130,861 hogsheads of leaf, 21,068 cases and bales, and 247,905 manufactured packages. There are eight great warehouse companies, six of which are incorporated. Here the tobacco is received in hogsheads from the producers, inspected and sold at public sale. It is often very lively on the market. Sometimes, when the bidding is spirited, the auctioneers average the sale of a hogshead a minute. According to the report of Tabb & Blades, inspectors, the sales in 1892 amounted to 83, 073 hogsheads, for which $9, 954,350.92 was received. The sales for 1893 amounted to 57,703 hogsheads, which footed up the handsome sum of $8,235,880.31. These figures will give the reader a clear idea of the immensity of the business.

It is a notable fact the water and water-power of the Miami valley have peculiarly adapted it to the manufacture of paper, and by its mills are produced the great bulk of the paper of all kinds used in the West. A hundred years ago the manu- facture of paper was commenced on the Little Miami. And while Cincinnati is not the exclusive market for all these paper manufacturers, yet they are directly tribu- tary to her. The value of the paper product is seen in the large number of papers and magazines that have existed here during the last century. Its cheapness was an inducement for their appearance. And to-day the city continues to lead in the paper traffic, and is recognized as the lowest paper market in the West.

In the manufacture of cigar boxes Cincinnati takes the lead, poplar being most extensively used. It was here, too, that originated the great wood-working mach- inery plants, whose product now exceeds probably that of all other such concerns in the United States, and finds a market in all quarters of the civilized world. Her wood-working machines are used in arsenals, fortifications and factories in all parts of the globe; and one firm alone ships more wood-working machines to Europe than all the rest of the United States. In the manufacture of machine tools she is also a leading city, and among her establishments of that kind is one of the largest on the continent. And this country as well as Europe has been largely indebted to the genius of her mechanics for the invention and supply of laundry machinery, and her cigar-making machines supply the government factories of Spain, Italy and other countries of Europe.

SOME LEADING MANUFACTORIES.

Within the scope of a work of this kind it is impossible to notice in detail the ten thousand industrial establishments found in Cincinnati and Hamilton county; we therefore close the chapter on manufactures by referring individually to a few firms representing the various lines of goods manufactured:

George Striebley, head of the firm of Striebley & Co., is the pioneer in the manu- facture of boots and shoes by the aid of machinery. As early as 1849 he began the manufacture of shoes in quantities by cutting out and distributing them among shoemakers to be made by hand. He introduced the machine for cutting uppers in 1852 and 1853, which greatly facilitated the work. In 1862 or 1863 he introduced the first McKay machine for sewing soles, which revolutionized the business. The trade now amounts to about ten millions of dollars per annum in volume, and is

316

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

constantly growing. There are more than thirty firms, and the average number of hands employed will reach four thousand.

Printers' Supplies .- The Cincinnati Type Foundry is one of the industries of the city deserving of special notice. It was established in 1817, and was the first type foundry west of the Alleghanies. Its growth was slow at first, as it had to await the development of the printing business in the West and South. To-day everything used in a printing office, except wood type, is produced by the foundry. The com- pany make all their machines for casting type, and manufacture presses. They made the famous press for the Russell-Morgan Printing Company, which prints 72 entire decks of cards in four colors in one minute, feeding two hundred feet of paper in the same time. As a complete piece of mechanism it is in reality a wonder. In this establishment was made the first cylinder press west of the Alleghany Mountains. By an automatic type-casting machine the letters drop in a box finished and ready to be put up in packages. In a word, the liquid metal comes out finished type.

Books, Music, etc .- The oldest, most extensive and best-known publishing house in the West is that of Robert Clarke & Company, West Fourth street, Cincinnati. It was originally founded in 1857. The business of the firm is that of publishers, booksellers, stationers, importers, printers and binders. Their immense stock of books embraces both home and foreign literature. All new American books, period- icals, pamphlets, etc., are promptly received on the day of publication. The Amer- icana department is exceedingly rich in rare publications relating to the history of this country, and attracts the attention of historians and literary people from all parts of the country. Mr. Clarke is a ripe scholar, and as he has given many years to the study of early history in the Ohio Valley, he stands at the head of the list of local historians. Much of his time has been given to editing the works of others and preparing them for publication. He has republished many local works which had gone out of print, and therefore could not be obtained; notably among them may be mentioned "The Olden Time," in two volumes, first published by Neville B. Craig, of Pittsburgh, as a monthly, in 1846 and 1847. Recently the house published a " Bibliotheca America," prepared by Mr. Clarke, which covers 274 pages, giving 7,488 titles of American books arranged by States, with an appendix of 56 pages of publications issued by Robert Clarke & Company. It is an exceedingly valuable catalogue, and indispensable to all librarians, historians and collectors of rare Amer- ican books pertaining to history, biography, science and literature. Connected with the house is a law book publishing department, which is very extensive, upward of two hundred law books having been issued. The most costly law books ever published by the house were six volumes of the celebrated Fisher's Patent Cases, at twenty- five dollars a volume!

The firm is constituted as follows: Robert Clarke, Roderick D. Barney, John W. Dale, Howard Barney, and Alexander Hill. The firm also maintains a London office.

In the manufacture of schoolbooks, Cincinnati has one of the largest schoolbook publishing houses in the United States, where a finished book is turned out, to use the emphatic phrase of a local writer, "with every swing of the pendulum of a clock." The American Book Company, incorporated, own the large schoolbook publishing business lately the property of Van Antwerp, Bragg & Company, which was established in 1832 by Truman & Smith, afterward, successively, W. B. Smith & Company; Sargent, Wilson & Hinkle; Wilson, Hinkle & Company, and Van Ant- werp, Bragg & Company. The original schoolbook list of the Cincinnati house of the American Book Company was the Eclectic Educational Series, comprising Mc- Guffey's Readers and Spellers, Ray's Arithmetic, Pinneo's Grammars, and a few others prepared by well-known western educators. These books attained a wide- spread popularity, and other texts were from time to time added to the list, until in 1890, when the transfer was made to the American Book Company. At the time of the transfer the house of Van Antwerp, Bragg & Company was the largest schoolbook

317

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

publishing concern in the world. Since the dissolution of the old firm the manu- facturing facilities of the company at Cincinnati have been greatly increased, perhaps. one-third, making the total manufacture of schoolbooks, in the printing offices and binderies here, about seven million volumes per annum, or nearly twenty-five thousand for each working day in the year. The business is conducted in four large buildings,. ranging in height from five to eight stories. The plant is admirably equipped with the best machinery and appliances for turning out work well and rapidly. The presses, twenty-eight in number, are of the best manufacture. This busy hive of industry gives employment to 500 hands. Before the dissolution of the old firm of Van Antwerp, Bragg & Company, Mr. L. Van Antwerp had retired; the other mem- bers of the firm, C. S. Bragg, H. H. Vail, A. H. Hinkle, and H. T. Ambrose, are members of the board of directors of the American Book Company. Mr. Ambrose is treasurer, W. B. Thalheimer manager, with S. H. Dustin, Frank R. Ellis and George A. Howard, as assistant managers.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio; their past and present, Part 48

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