USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cumminsville > History of Cumminsville, Ohio, 1792-1914 > Part 2
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There was a clause in Hutchinson's deed to Cummins, "that no part of these four aeres should. for ten years, be sold. leased or used by him or any one else as a tavern or a place of publie entertainment."
After Cummins had fully installed his tannery he found he
souvenir "History of Cumminsville'
needed more water, so Hutchinson leased him as much water as would flow through a box trough having eight three-quarter-inch auger holes. This was sufficient for a while, but one very hot summer the flow of water slackened. Mrs. Hutchinson, who kept a dairy. found her cows going dry. In order to have enough milk for the hotel and her mar- ket customers she had the auger holes plugged up. Then the trouble commenced. The tanner boys came np that night and knocked out the plugs. Again they were closed, and there was rough language, and a war was on. There were all kinds of threats, and one morning the tannery vats were found filled with logs and stone, supposed to have been done by some of Hutchinson's stable boys.
Hutchinson's orchard trees were badly girdled, horses were ham- strung, and the tan vats destroyed. Outrages became so frequent that the town then got the name of Hell Town. Then came the contests in the court, lawsuits, trials, appeals, lawyers' fees, heavy costs; and both contestants, hitherto finely prospering, became poor. The trials were attended each day by large crowds, but the end finally came. The parties mortgaged all their lands to the U. S. Bank, which had a branch in Cincinnati. Cummins borrowed and spent five thousand dollars; Hutchinson, nine thousand dollars. They both became very poor, and then mortgages foreclosed, and that finally ended the con- troversy.
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VIEW OF CUMMINSVILLE FROM BADGELY AVENUE
Loaned by H. W. Felter, M. D.
HISTORY OF CUMMINSVILLE, 1811 -- 1873 By H. W. Felter, M. D.
Topography and Landscape .- The old, old glacier-scooped basin in which Cumminsville is situated lies like a jewel clasped in by the surrounding hills, and is traversed by Millcreek-the Maketewah of the Indian. The nucleus of the old village was a little northwest of the stream, with its pivotal center at the junction of two military roads; and access to the town of Cincinnati was had by MeHenry's Ford. Millcreek, the most pieturesque water course to the north of the great city, is a stream of great natural beauty, and, though now polluted, unsightly and unhealthful, formed a very conspicuous part of the landscape about the early settlement, and served in many ways the needs of the settler. Early accounts picture it as a clear stream flow- ing over a pebbly bottom-a description one could most devoutly wish might apply today. Before the days of roads and bridges it was forded at a point near the settlement of Millereek Station (Ludlow's Station), "at the second ford of the Millcreek"-a rock-ledged bottom in which teams never mired-known also as MeHenry's Ford. Sloping back from the stream the ground breaks naturally into three plateaus, the chief altitudes of which are 500, 600, and 800 feet respectively. It was upon the lower plateau that the village had its origin. In the early days the ground now covered by Cumminsville was a densely wooded traet of rare beauty, and between it and the military village of Cin- cinnati stretched one vast unbroken forest. When Dr. Richard Allison came out on horseback from Fort Washington to attend Mrs. Charlotte Chambers Ludlow, the settlement could only be reached by a bridle- path -- one of the old Indian trails from Ohio into Kentucky. The early elironieler, Dr. Daniel Drake, alluded to the picturesque territory as "a sugar-tree wood with groves of pawpaw and spicewood bushes." Many springs of sweet and wholesome water abounded, and the settlers took advantage of these natural resources by building their pioneer homes by the sides of these cool, flowing fountains.
The Hamlet .- Though Ludlow had built a block house for pro- tection against Indian incursion about 1792, and established his home here as early as 1795, it was many years before anything like a village sprang up in this beautiful valley. Practically deserted after the defeat of St. Clair, and not reoceupied until after the treaty of Green- ville in 1795, and though the treaty was faithfully kept and the "stations" were abandoned as military ontposts. it was nearly three deeades before much progress was made toward a permanent settle-
ment at Millcreek Station. Finally, time lending a sense of security, families began to come in. Log and frame houses sprang up here and there, and the ever-present smoke curling from the chimneys bespoke the settled condition of the station. Some thirty years. therefore, elapsed before we have a record of a hamlet comprised of "a tavern. grocery, tanyard, and a few scattered houses.'
After the first settlement by Ludlow in 1792, and the tavern kept by Ezekiel Hutchinson, who bought ground in 1811 and quartered the Ohio militia at his hostelry in 1812. came David Cummins in 1817. who began activities as a tanner. In 1822 came the Fergus and Lang- lands families, erecting in that year the brick mansion still to be seen on the knoll at the corner of the present Bhie Rock and Fergus Streets. Then came Ephraim Knowlton about 1825, commissioned to build a mile of the Miami Canal, and about the same time the Blue Goose Tavern was built-a combined lunch room and inn, which harbored
"MAKETEWAH'S MARSHY MARGE" Photo by H. W. Felter
Souvenir "History of Cumminsville"
the laborers digging the canal. Knowlton then built a residence and store at the apex of the triangle between St. Clair's and Wayne's Trails, which, being destroyed by fire some years later, was replaced by the present stone building at Knowlton's Corner in 1847. Some time in the 30's-probably in 1834-Dr. William Mount built a handsome home on the hillside sloping northward from Wayne's Trail (the Hamilton or Carthage Road), and Jacob Hoffner, having purchased the Hutch- inson's Tavern in 1834, remodeled if and occupied it in 1836. The famous roadhouse, the "Old Millcreek House," was built by Knowlton about 1835. and in 1847, as before stated, Knowlton's stone store, with a pork-packing establishment near by which he had erected in 1834. These buildings, with Cummins' Tannery and a few residences, may be said to constitute the bulk of the village of Cumminsville up to the middle of the last century.
SPRING GROVE AVENUE (WINTER) Photo by Fred Salway.
Roads .- Perhaps the most important factors in the growth of the settlement were those "arteries of commerce," the roads. Two became historically and commercially important. These followed the well- beaten paths of the Indians, who made frequent excursions into Ken- tucky by way of the trough-like Millcreek basin, ostensibly for the purpose of hunting and obtaining salt at the "Licks," but too often
for rapine and plunder. With our well-paved streets and easy access to the city's center, we of the present generation can scarcely appre- ciate that even the commonest kind of a mud road was a prime neces- sity to the early settler and a most important element in the process of development. Supplies must be had from the military town of Cin- cinnati, such as salt, flour, and lead for bullets, and other necessities, while an open market was thus afforded for the exchange of pelts and other trophies of the chase, and the products of the soil. The only means of transportation and travel was by pack-horses upon the deer- paths which ran plentifully in all directions and toward the salt-licks, and the Indian trails were the first to be utilized in the development of travel and traffic. The Indian trails in our valley, known also as the "war paths," ran mostly north and south, terminating at the mouth of the Lieking River. Over these trails came the first military expeditions from Kentucky against the marauding savages, who every now and then swooped down upon the Kentucky settlements, committed murder and pillage, and then escaped back into the Ohio country. First of military and strategic importance, the settlers, as peace came to them, began at a very early period, perhaps in 1792, to improve these already marked traces and make of them the mud roads so common in the early days of America's historic and geographic development.
The roads of the pioneers, and such as were made in early Cum- minsville, were constructed by cutting away the timber and underbrush along routes previously surveyed, making traces ten (10) feet wide. These traces were afterwards widened or improved as needed. Where the ground was marshy, "corduroys" were constructed by laying small timbers or trees, cut from twelve (12) to fourteen (14) feet long, across the road-bed. "In many places," says Olden, "these canseways ex- tended a half-mile or more, and with a few log culverts and bridges over the small streams and a very small amount of grading and ditch- ing, constituted the road making of early times." These mud roads were the only thoroughfares in use up to the year 1833. The process of turn-piking began here about 1841, when the Cincinnati and Hamil- ton Turnpike (chartered in 1817) was built nearly on the course of the "Old Hamilton Road." The present Hamilton Avenne was the first macadamized street in Cumminsville.
The courses through Cumminsville of the two early military roads, which have become historic and form the bases of travel and traffic routes of the present day, are of interest. One, the most westerly of three well-defined trails, was traversed by St. Clair's army when it left Ludlow's Station on its way to the ill-fated fields of the east branch of the Wabash (1791). The expedition moved along the hills to the west of Millcreek Valley almost exactly on what was afterward made into the "Mount Pleasant and Hamilton Turnpike," and where are now a large part of Cumminsville, College Hill and the village of Mount
Souvenir "History of Cumminsville"
Healthy, thence to the Miami River, where St. Clair built Fort Hamil- ton. The portion of this road passing through Cumminsville will at once be recognized as the present Hamilton Avenue. This road is fre- quently referred to in local history as "St. Clair's Trace" or "St. Clair's Trail."
The second road, and the one of greatest importance in the growth of the town, was that taken by "Mad Anthony" Wayne in 1793. It followed the general course of an old trace running along the Mill- creek Valley, which had but recently (1792) opened as the "great road" from Cincinnati to White's Station (now Carthage). This was later known as the "Carthage Road," and occupied almost identically the course of our present Spring Grove Avenue. This is frequently alluded to as "Wayne's Trace" or "Wayne's Trail."
Both St. Clair's and Wayne's Traces met at what is now Knowl- ton's Corner, and continued as a single road into the town of Cin- cinnati (town in 1802, city after 1819) by way of McHenry's Ford across Millcreek, following practically the course of the present Mc- Micken Avenue "to the northeast corner of the meeting house in Cin- cinnati."
In 1822 the old covered bridge was built over Millcreek at the present crossing of Colerain Avenue, and access was had to the city
Loaned by William Geringer. OLD SPRING GROVE AVENUE BRIDGE-1860-1902
Photo by H. W. Felter, M. D MILL CREEK BRIDGE AT SPRING GROVE AVENUE IN 1901
without the resort of fording the creek. This bridge was torn down September 14, 1889, and replaced in 1890 by the present iron structure. At a still later period (1860) a second covered wooden bridge was built spanning the stream where Spring Grove Avenue crosses the water- way. This bridge-the one most familiar to the memory of the living- was demolished in 1901 to make way for a steel archway (in 1902) suited to modern purposes.
The Naming of Cumminsville .- Like all places in the evolution of growth, Cumminsville has not lacked a variety of names. The earliest is that officially given it by the first proprietor of the Miami purchase- Symmes-when he called it "Millcreek Station." From the fact that the pioneer surveyor, Israel Ludlow, had built his block house and home here, it became better known as "Ludlow's Station." Later. as the industry of leather tanning was established. it was often alluded to as the "Tannery." and still later, as the tannery stood in a triangle between roads, it was sometimes spoken of as the "Tanyard Gridiron." Located, as it was, in the heart of the Miami country, the Kentnekians, who had felt the sting of the Indian arrow, called all the valley the "Slaughter House of the Miamis," notwithstanding the fact that this
Souvenir "History of Cumminsville"
particular locality had escaped the depredations of the savages who had played havoc with so many of the neighboring stations. When some of the villages became involved in land and water quarrels, and sporting civilians from the city came outside the city limits and gave themselves up to riotous living, it acquired the name, ironically bestowed. of "Happy Valley," and by some the not unbecoming name of "Hell Town"-a name that long scented the extreme western portion of the village. It is needless to say, however, that none of these names, ex- cept the first two, were official titles; and in justice to the well-behaved of the pioneers, we quote from Maxwell's "Suburbs of Cincinnati:" "The village grew by steady accessions. It having for a long time been the end of a drive favorable for the test of fast horses, and a sort of an outpost of Cincinnati without the benefits of her police, the place did not in other years enjoy the reputation for peace that others have,
EPHRAIM KNOWLTON
ERASTUS M. BURGOYNE
Photos loaned by Sidney Knowlton.
but this was certainly far more attributable to the visitation it was compelled to bear from the lawless of other places than the character of its own population, among which have been numbered some of the most sterling families of Cincinnati's surroundings."
When David Cummins, the owner of the tannery and keeper of the tavern, disposed of his property, seventy odd acres were acquired by Ephraim Knowlton, who was by all odds the most conspicuous man of the village. A postoffice being established here in 1838, Knowlton, whose commission bears the date of June 4 of that year, was made post- master. It was then, in honor of his tanner friend and pioneer, that he gave to the hamlet, for the first time, the name of Cumminsville. Barring a brief interval, years afterward, when it was sought to sub- stitute the name "Ludlow," the name has remained Cumminsville.
Local Names .- From time to time various sections of the present territory of Cumminsville have received local names. North of the C. H. & D. R. R. is "Northside"; below and to the west of the tracks is "Southside" or "South Cumminsville." To the southwest of the lat- ter is "Oklahoma." The section east of Hamilton Avenue and north of the railroad was long known as the "Presbyterian Flats," and to the east of the flats lay "Sand Hill." Along Dane Street, north of the Hunnewell grounds, tablets in the Spring Grove Cemetery wall show the locations of "Oak Stump Station" and "Mulberry Tree Station." To the north is "Thomson Heights," from which a fine view of Cin- cinnati and the lower Millcreek Valley may be had, as may also be
Photo by H. W. Felter
EDGE OF BANNING'S HILL, NOW PITTS AVENUE
seen from the northwest hills, known as "Miller's Quarry." Nearer to Cumminsville than Thomson Heights was "Valley View." The old portion along West Fork was long known as "Hameltown" and sometimes as "Hen Peck," while the eastern strip along Millcreek was "Clopper's Ford" and "Goose Town." "Garryowen" centers around Vandalia Avenue and Apple Street. The present Kirby Ave- nue, with slight deviation, was the old Badgely Road, and later known as "Kirby Way." Overlooking Cumminsville from the southeast is "Mount Storm," once the grounds of R. B. Bowler, but now a city park, from which a magnificent view may be
Souvenir "History of Cumminsville"
had embracing the whole of Cumminsville and its surrounding hills. (Up to the early 80's a large and beautiful body of water, fed by springs, cold, deep and picturesque, and of several acres in extent, lay at the east foot of Banning's Hill. This water, known as Kirby's Pond, lay to the north of the present Chase Street and crossed it at the east margin of Pitts Avenue, continuing down to Hanfield Street. It was long a favorite resort for fishing and swimming, and owing to its coidness and depth brought mourning into the homes of several who perished in its waters. The topographical map in the City En- gineer's office shows this pond to have been forty (40) feet deep below the water line, the latter being eleven (11) feet below the present level of Chase Avenue.
The First Subdivision .- In 1845 Ephraim Knowlton laid out a part of his farm in lots. This, the first subdivision of Cumminsville, extended from Millcreek to the west of Colerain Pike, and from the street south of the Millcreek House to Hoffner Street. In 1850 Jacob Hoffner followed suit, laying out about twenty acres of his farm in lots, extending from Hoffner Street to Blue Rock Street. Subsequently Timothy Kirby, who had purchased a large tract from the United States Bank, for which he was agent, for about $4,000, laid out a small
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Loaned by n. B. Banning. OLD KIRBY PASTURE, LOOKING TOWARD HAMELTOWN
-
THE MIAMI CANAL
traet to the northwest. and Janet Langlands another small tract to the north. The executors of the estate of James C. Indlow, who died in 1841, subdivided east of the Hoffner and Langlands subdivisions. and the representatives of Elmore Williams did likewise south of the Knowl- ton division.
The Miami Canal .- The opening of the Miami Canal was an event of great importance to our city and to Cumminsville in par- ticular. It was chartered in 1824 and construction begun at Middle- town in July. 1825, with imposing ceremonies, De Witt Clinton, of New York, then regarded by some as the greatest living American statesman and the "father of canals," delivered the address, and Governor Jeremiah Morrow and Ex-Governor Brown, who, in 1819. had publicly urged the enterprise, together turned the first spadefuls of earth. The section from Middletown to Cincinnati was completed in 1827, and Ephraim Knowlton dug the mile which passes through Cumminsville northward. In May of 1827 two boats passed from "Howell's Basin" (near Clifton Avenne), six miles from Cincinnati, amid the enthusiastic jollification of sightseers and passengers of all ranks and stations. Subsequently, when further completed to Dayton in 1828, the event was celebrated by elaborate ceremonies and festivi-
Souvenir "History of Cumminsville"
Photo by Walter Webster.
THE MIAMI CANAL
ties. The first boat plying locally was the "Hannibal of Carthage," owned by Ephraim and Sidney Knowlton. The great waterway relieved the drudgery of transport by mud roads and was of incalcu- lable benefit to the people, facilitating commerce and raising the valuation of adjacent lands. It was the custom in early days to organize "canal-boat pleasure parties" similar to "trolley parties" of today.
Stage and Omnibus .- Before the days of railroads and street railways, the only means of carrying passengers to town was by way of the canal, and most generally by means of stages and omnibuses. The first conveyance of the latter character was the omnibus driven from Cumminsville to the Galt House in Cincinnati by Andrew Hamel, a man noted for his ardent religious zeal and a pillar of the Methodist Church. This was prior to 1849. Hamel's stone stables stood at Cooper Street and Spring Grove Avenue, and his vehicles were of the covered type in which the passengers sat inside, not on the top. In later days he had a rival in Samuel Miller. Their routes were along Hamilton Pike and Blue Rock Street and through Jo Williams Street and Colerain Avenue, one going in one direction and
. C. nati-College Hill Omnibus, 1873-
Souvenir "Ilistory of Cumminsville"
had This olden-du- If they virtually x 2:10
ofer" "Reader commodation" h.
Rod by "Bu, Henry" b" the ho sters imbout ins-
one the other, and vying strongly with each other as to which could make the best time. Both met at McMakin's Exchange Hotel, the terminus of their routes. The fare was ten cents one way.
At a later period three lines of omnibuses ran through Cum- minsville to Cincinnati. All were originally owned and operated by Lansing Grant. One line ran from Mt. Pleasant to Cincinnati, one from College Hill to Cincinnati, and the third from Hamilton to Cincinnati, all of them going to the Walnut Street House. These were afterward sold by Grant, the Hamilton outfit being purchased by David Carnahan, the Mt. Pleasant busses by Isaac Curry, and the College Hill conveyances by Asa Robbins. The fare one way was: from Hamilton, $1; from Mt. Pleasant, 50 cents; from College Hill, 35 eents; from Cumminsville to the city, 15 cents. The Hamilton stage made one round trip (fifty miles) a day, the Mt. Healthy bus one trip, while from College Hill two round trips were accom- plished each day. The omnibuses "respected the Sabbath," not running on that day, and once a month went to the city at night to accommodate those who wished to attend the theater. Those run from Mt. Pleasant were driven by Edward H. Sayre-now living in College Hill-from 1861 to Mareh 10, 1876, when Robert Simpson's railroad to College Hill and Mt. Pleasant was opened, there being
COLLEGE HILL OMNIBUS IN 1873
Loaned by E. D. Sayre.
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ABOUT SAME SIZE
then no further need for omnibuses. These primitive outfits consisted of one two-horse and one four-horse omnibus, the vehicles being warmed by a three-inch iron tube filled with hot water and imbedded in straw. The larger bus could accommodate fifty passengers.
Railroads .- CINCINNATI, HAMILTON & DAYTON .- On September 19, 1851, (according to S. S. L'Hommedieu, president of the road; 1850 according to Greve) the second railroad into Cincinnati was opened for traffic. It was chartered in 1846, and construction begun in 1849. It was the Cincinnati & Hamilton Railroad, or the "Great Miami," afterwards so well known as the C. H. & D., or Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton. Located then, as now, it passed directly through Cum- minsville and gave a great impetus to the growth and progress of the village, quick and easy access to the city, and redoubled many times the transportation of freight. The old passenger station is at the northwest corner of Apple Street and Vandalia Avenue, and is now used as a freight depot.
MARIETTA & CINCINNATI (BALTIMORE & OHIO SOUTHWESTERN) .- The second railroad to pass through Cumminsville was the Marietta & Cincinnati, which ran cars through the village on the C. H. & D. tracks. In the spring of 1872 the road began building its own tracks
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FLY SCREE DOOR >" TREE BOX NAILS>
ROTHE
Photo by Wmn. Koss C. Il. & D. R. R. STATION AT SOUTH CUMMINSVILLE
Reading Road Forme ' 2 or if St 1 Mail Route
From Kramer's "Picturesque Cincinnati." SPRING GROVE AVENUE (SUMMER)
from Ivorydale Junction to Cincinnati, and opened the road for traffic upon its own local line in June of 1872. This road. then officially known as the "Cumberland & Baltimore." also added to the already growing facilities for transportation and commerce. This road is now the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern.
Street Cars .- The first street railways in Cincinnati were operated in 1859, this being the first concerted movement for carrying pas- sengers about the city except by stage and omnibus. In 1860 Spring Grove Avenue was built as a private road by Joshua Bates ( father of L. R. Bates) for Ephraim S. Bates and Richard Hopple. It coursed from "Frenchman's Corner" on Harrison Avenue to the "Millcreek House." Tracks were laid in 1861 for a horse-car line along the side, and cars were drawn by a single mule, each car being operated by a man who was both driver and conductor. The fare was ten cents. Robert Brasher, a life-long resident and now a coin teller in the U. S. Subtreasury, was the first driver on the Spring Grove Avenue line, running from the Dorman House to Spring Grove Cemetery, in 1862. The company owning this pioneer convenience was composed of Ephraim Bates, Richard Hopple. Matthew Hopple. John Ross and Thomas Eckert, an old steamboat captain. Spring Grove
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Souvenir "History of Cumminsville"
Avenue was well constructed and became one of the most noted thoroughfares of the suburbs of Cincinnati. Overhead this most beauti- ful of highways arched silver poplars, touching branch to branch and
thoroughly shading the splendid thoroughfare. It was long used most exclusively by sporting horsemen for testing the speed of their steeds, and for gay parties seeking recreation at the renowned Mill Creek House.
DRY GOODS & MILLINERY.
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