History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 118

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co.
Number of Pages: 814

USA > Ohio > History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I > Part 118

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).

November 17, 1875, a fire occurred in the City Hall, which damaged the beautiful tower to the amount of $7,100. Insurance to the full amount was collected, and early the next year the tower and the building were restored to their former elegance.

BOARD OF HEALTH.

The Louisville Board of Health was estab- lished in February, 1866, under an ordinance of September, 1865, in order to the official and proper direction of sanitary matters in the city. In January the board had been authorized to appoint sanitary inspectors. Four such officers were employed, with Dr. Alexander Penny as health officer, and Dr. Samuel Manly as secretary. The excellent health conditions introduced by the operations of the board and its employes were soon manifest in lighter bills of mortality. During the summer of 1867 the city was re- visited by the Asiatic cholera; but, as once be- fore, during the fateful year of 1832, it escaped easily, while other cities were terribly scourged. But thirteen cases occurred here, of which four were brought in from other points, leaving but nine as originating here. This result was justly ascribed, in a great degree, to the admirable san-

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

itary measures that had been adopted. Locali- ties before most prolific of disease were now comparatively healthful. The mortality for the summer months of 1867 was one hundred and forty-two less than in the same season of the previous year.

In December, 1869, Dr. Penny resigned his position as Health Officer, being about to remove from the city. A very complimentary resolution was passed by the Board upon his retirement. Dr. Samuel Manly was appointed in his stead. A number of the old ponds upon the city site were filled and drained this year, among them the pond on Water street, between Fifth and Bullitt, which had been a prolific source of dis- ease. The Eastern and Western Dispensaries, organized under ordinance of Council July 19th, for the benefit of the sick poor, were in highly successful operation about five months of this year. Dr. J. Wood Crawford was in charge of the former; Dr. W. Walling of the latter. The sanitary condition of the city grew better, and the bills of mortality smaller, from year to year. In 1874 the number of deaths in the city from all causes was 2,773, a decrcase of 1,400 as against 1873, and of 427 against 1872. It was estimated that the deaths averaged but r to every 55 inhabitants, or 17 on the thousand-a very good showing of health, indeed.

In 1874 the death-rate had been decreased about one per cent., and deaths numbered I to every 6012 inhabitants. The total number was 2,476. The death-rate was now lower than that of any other city in the country. The rate per 1,000 inhabitants was 16.5, against 19 in St. Louis, 20.29 in Philadelphia, 22.84 in Cincin- nati, 24.96 in Baltimore, 27.96 in New York, and 37.02 in New Orleans.

The next year the death rate was slightly in- creased, being 17.2 in every 1,000, the number of deaths being 2,580, 329 of them being from consumption. Scarlet fever (93 deaths) and small-pox (15) largely accounted for the increase. Still, the health of the city compared very favor- ably with that of any other in the land.

There was a still larger death rate-rate (18.75) in 1876, or a total mortality of 2,775, or one death to every 54.15 inhabitants. Yet the city exhibited a smaller death-rate for the year than any other in the Union, of more than 100,000 population, with a single exception.

August 22d of this year, under ordinance of the Council, the Board reorganized, with Dr. L. P. Yandell as President; Drs. W. T. Leachman, John A. Brady, and W. B. Dougherty, as mem- bers; and Mayor Jacob, Drs. E. O. Brown and W. Walling, physicians for the Eastern and West- ern Districts, respectively, Chief-of-Police Ed- wards, and City Engineer Scowden, as members ex officio; Dr. M. K. Allen, Health Officer; Drs. Val Riley andT. L. McDermott, Health Wardens for the Eastern and Western Districts; and Dr. C. B. Blackburn, Secretary of the Board.

May 26, 1877, under another city ordinance, the board was again reorganized. By the urgent recommendation of the mayor, the separate office of health officer was abolished, and the chief of police was made such officer ex officio. All salaried members of the board were also dis- pensed with. Mr. F. M. Barbour was made sec- retary of the board. Its sole report for the year was the mortality list, which amounted to 1,989 -one in every 75 inhabitants, on a basis of 150,000 population, or 12.22 per 1,000. Small- pox prevailed in the city a part of the year, to an unusual extent, there being thirty-five cases at once the latter part of May. In June, Septem- ber, and October, physicians were employed to vaccinate at public expense. Their total vacci- nations were 5,078, which, with reasonable esti- mates for private practitioners, brought the whole number for the year up to 13,078. At the close of the year the disease had almost entirely dis- appeared.

The year 1878 was a year of yellow fever in many parts of the South, where it wrought fear- ful devastation. The Board of Health met August 2d, to consider its approach, and unan- imously resolved, with almost unexampled good judgment and humanity, that "any attempt at quarantine would not only be galling and detri- mental to social and commercial interests, but would also be inhuman in the extreme, and that, as the agents and representatives of a Christian community, nothing is left us but to provide proper and ample hospital accommodations for such unfortunate sick as may come into our city." It was ordered that the main building on the grounds of St. John's Eruptive Hospital should be carefully cleaned, fumigated, and pre- pared for the reception of any yellow fever patients that might arrive before the new hos-

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

pital which the Board resolved to erect for them should be completed. Before it was half done sufferers began to arrive, and were placed in the old building. In a single week, however, it was rushed up-a temporary structure 50x34 feet and one story high, with eight rooms 12X12, and a hall ten feet wide running its entire length-on the grounds of the Eruptive Hospital, and in a few days both buildings were filled with refugees stricken with the disease. Dr. J. M. Kellar was made Consulting Physician to the new hospital, and a corps of nurses was organized with much difficulty, on account of general inexperience in dealing with this form of disease. Dr. G. W. Griffiths was presently added as Consulting Phy- sician, and still another temporary building or "pavilion," but containing only ten rooms, was erected on the same tract. Dr. J. B. Marvin consented to serve as Resident Physician, and Dr. J. W. Heartt as druggist and head nurse. All cases did not come in from abroad. Fifty or more originated in an infected district of the city, beginning at Eleventh and Maple, running up the west side of Eleventh to the north side of Broadway and west to Twelfth, thence to Maple and back to Eleventh. Twenty-eight of these died; four of them in the hospital. It is supposed that the district became infected by the baggage from the South stored in the baggage- room of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, at the corner of Eleventh and Maple. In all eighty-nine cases were treated, of whom thirty died, and fifty-nine, or sixty-six per cent. of the whole, were saved. It was a great triumph for the skill and care of the Board of Health and the official humanity of the city. The hospital was finally closed on the 22d of October, 1878. Notwithstanding the fever the death-rate of the year was only 13.88 in the 1,000. The deaths numbered 2,22 1.

March 17,1879, the Board was created anew, under ordinance approved that day. Dr. R. H. Gale was elected President of the Board, and Dr. E. R. Montgomery, Health Officer. July 17th, quarantine was declared against the city of Memphis, as infected with yellow fever. Eight cases had reached the city before, and were treated at St. John's Eruptive Hospital, only two of them dying ; but none came afterward. The city was free from epidemics, and the bill of mortality for the year exhibited but 2,410 deaths,

or a death rate of 13.77 per 1,000 inhabitants. It was now held that "Louisville is justly en- titled to the claim of being the healthiest city on this continent, and probably the healthiest of its size in the world." There were no deaths from small-pox, against 27 from this cause in 1878. The city had never been so free from it.

During 1880 the city was again free from epidemics, and the general health was good. The mortuary record showed 2,590 deaths, or a death-rate of 18.5 per 1,000, on a population of 140,000. The low rate of the previous year had been made up on an estimated population of 170,000. More (400) died from consumption than from any other cause; and pneumonia (kill- ing 274 this year) comes next; 2,080 nuisances were abated by order of the Board. The wells and ponds were considered a prolific source of disease, and the slaughter houses were badly complained of.

SINKING FUND COMMISSIONERS.

The Board of Commissioners of the Sinking Fund were appointed in the spring of 1867, in obedience to the requirement of the tenth section of the act to amend the charter of the city of Louisville, passed by the Legislature March 9, of that year. Messrs. J. S. Lithgow, John W. Barr, Esq., and J. H. Ropke, all wealthy citizens, serv- ing without pecuniary compensation, were made commissioners by election of the General Council on joint-ballot, with Mayor Tomppert and Joseph W. Bunce, president of the board of aldermen, as commissioners ex officio. The sum of $767,- 575.47 passed through the hands of the board, during its first year. In 1868, 232 bonds of the city, of $1,000 each, were bought by the commis- sion, at an average price of about 80 cents on the dollar.

In 1869 the sinking fund was charged, by act of Legislature, with the payment of the entire bonded debt of the city, except the million in bonds issued in aid of the Elizabethtown and Paducah Railroad company. The act provided for a tax of forty cents on each $100 worth of taxable property, to meet this additional charge; and the tax was levied the same year. The bonded debt of the city, exclusive of bonds en- dorsed by it, was $4,720,000. During this year (1869) the commissioners purchased 165 bonds of $1,000 each.

In 1870 the board retired $279,500 of the

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

city's bonded indebtedness, using in the purchase $123,255.06 accumulated dividends collected in February of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad company, and theretofore withheld by the com- pany.

The next year $254,000 in bonds were pur- chased, and also $25,000 in canal bonds, and $29,000 in city bonds as an investment on behalf of the fund. All these purchases, aggregating $299,000, were made at a cost of $260, 145.14, or $38,854.86 below par.

New city bonds were sold during the year as follow: For the City Hall, $250,000; change of railway guage, $107,000; sewers, $300,000; old liabilities, $200,000. And there were also issued $500,000 in aid of the St. Louis Aır Line Rail- way company, and $15,000 wharf bonds of 1868, making, with others, the total issue for the year $1,497,000. The debt of the city was now $6,153,000, or ten per cent of the assessed value of the real estate and improvements, and rela- tively one of the largest municipal funded debts in the country.

In 1872 were purchased and destroyed $268,- ooo in city bonds by the board of commissioners, less $21,000 redeemed by the board of education, the remainder costing $208,446.40. Canal bonds to the amount of $184,000 were also bought as an investment, at a cost of $167,238.52. The bonded debt of the city increased $278,000 during the year, of which $200,000 were issued for building the new Work, Alms, and Pest Houses. The bonded debt of the city Decem- ber 31, 1872, was $6,431,500. The commis- sioners exchanged $75,000 of the stock of the Jeffersonville Railroad company held by them for seventy-five 6% bonds of the city, which were canceled and burned.

During 1873 $106,000 in city bonds were re- tired and burned, at a cost of $97,644.38, and $37,000 in the same were bought as an invest- ment, costing $32,353.80. The 75 remaining of the 200 city bonds of $1,000 each, exchanged by the Jeffersonville Railroad for the 2,000 shares of stock in that road held by the city, were received and also burned. The bonded debt of the city was increased $1,840,000 during the year- $997,000 to the Elizabethtown & Paducah Rail- road, $600,000 reconstruction bonds, $200,000 each for the City Hall and the Short Line road- bed, and $76,000 water bonds; and the total

bonded debt of this city January 1, 1874, was $8,271,500. In that year $167,500 of the city's bonds were redeemed and burned, and one city bond of $1,000 was bought as an investment. The bonded issue for the year was the lightest for several years-only $400,000, and that for old indebtedness. Outstanding bonds at the close of 1874 amounted to $8,504,000. Ten thou- sand dollars were derived this year from a new source, licenses on street cars.

The reduction of the bonded debt accom- plished in 1875 was $169,000, bought for $158,- 904.28. Four city six per cent. bonds, and five city seven per cents. were bought for investment for $8,640. The bonded debt was left at the close of the year at $8,330,000, of which $3,812,- ooo were charges on the sinking fund, and $4,- 518,000 to special taxation. There was no new issue of bonds this year.

In 1876, as the resources of the sinking fund for several years had proved quite equal to the demands made upon them, the Commissioners resolved to carry the interest for the city proper upon $2,025,000 of its seven per cent. bonds for the one year; which was done successfully, the revenue of the year amounting to very little less than had been estimated, notwithstanding the great stagnation, locally, as elsewhere through the country, in all departments of manufactures and commerce. The bonds of the city, how- ever, had so risen in the stock markets that it was not thought advisable to purchase more than $72,000 worth of them for cancellation and destruction. An additional amount of $47,000, having longer time to run, was bought as an in- vestment. The former cost $69,887.25 ; the latter $29,125. The bonded debt stood at $8,- 258,000.

In 1877 bonds of the city to the amount of $76,000 were retired at a cost of $75,180, very nearly par value, it will be noticed. Only wharf bonds of 1884, school bonds of 1885-86, and water bonds of 1887-89 were bought at a dis- count, and all these at a very small rate below their face. Bonds to the sum of $84,000 were bought and held as an investment, at a cost of $83,576.25. In May, 1878, the bonds of the city were worth 106 to 107, with accrued inter- est. Less than five years before, during the panic of 1873, they had brought but 80 cents; and previous to that year they had never com-

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

manded more than 90.65 cents on the dollar. The fund still carried interest on the $2,025,000 in 7 per cent. bonds, noted in the preceding paragraph. The bonded debt of the city was now $8,182,000. No new issues had been made since 1874, although an appeal was once made to the people for an issue with which to build new school-houses; but it was refused by an overwhelming majority.

In 1878 $103,000 in the city's bonds were re- tired and $67,000 bought for investment-the former at a cost of $103,917.64, the latter $66,- 360.10. Bonded debt, $8,079,000.

The reduction of the debt accomplished in 1879 was very slight, the bonds outstanding at the close of the year aggregating $8,072,000. No bonds matured during the year and there were very few offers for sale at satisfactory rates, the $7,000 bought costing $7,142.50. The usual surplus of the fund was used to purchase $120,000 in bonds for investment-$113,100 in United States securities, bought at par, and $7,000 in city bonds, bought for $7, 179.

The comparatively large sum of $260,000 in bonds of the city was retired in 1880, and $185,- ooo due that year by redeeming and burning; $71,000 burned, which had been held as an in- vestment ; and only $4,000 bought and retired, at a cost of $4,200.90; $20,000 were purchased as an investment, costing $20,791. Under Legislative authority a new issue of $1,000,000 was made to pay off the floating debt existing at the end of 1878. They bear five per cent. inter- est and to run forty years, with privilege of redemption in ten or twenty years. They were promptly sold by the commissioners at par and interest (the fund itself taking $400,000), and with the proceeds $963,669.57 of the floating debt were paid off at once. The bonded debt of the city was now $8,812,000, with an old con- tingent liability on Louisville & Nashville rail- road bonds of $1,408,000, making a total of $10,220,000. The fund was paying an annual interest of $569,300. It received from all sources in 1880 $2,375,587.47, disbursed $2,293,- 325.38, and had cash on hand December 31st, $286,644.63. Its assets, including this, were $4,- 783,922.98. The taxable property of the city for this and the three preceding years was: 1877, $68,522,947; 1878, $73, 194,487; 1879, $64,018,- 242; 1880, $66,209,440. The value of the city's

property was $3,063,091.73. The estimate of receipts for 1881 was $736,951.42; expenses same, with $155,467.96 to purchase bonds.

The estimate of receipts for 1881 was more than justified, the handsome sum of $989,062. 19 being realized from all sources -$245,596.65 from licenses alone. Fifty-three thousand dol- lars in bonds were bought and burnt, $156,000 bought as an investment. It was reported by the Commissioners at the close of the year that the present resources of the fund, including Louisville & Nashville railroad stock, would probably pay all interest on the funded debt and leave a surplus of about $50,000 per annum to apply to the principal, "which in due time will be extinguished if the system is not disturbed." The assets of the Fund December 31, 1881, in- cluding $307,040.30 cash on hand, were $6,296,- 466.50. The funded debt of the city then was $8,759,000,-$129,000 of which was due in 1882, $453,000 in 1883, $102,000 in 1884, $42,000 in 1885, $42,000 in 1886, $575,000 in 1887, $1,006,000 in 1888, $349,000 in 1889, $735,000 in 1891, $206,000 in 1892, $10,000 in 1893, $394,000 in 1894, $100,000 in 1896, $588,000 in 1897, $338,000 in 1898, $692,000 in 1901, $1,998,000 in 1903, $1,000,000 in 1920, besides the contingent bonded debt for the Louisville & Nashville railroad, of $1,408,000, payable in 1886-87-93. One million is in five per cent. bonds, $2,708,000 in six per cent. bonds, $5,051,000 in seven per cent. bonds. The total amount of annual interest is $566,- 050. The debt is made up of bounty bonds, $7,000; school bonds, $157,000; old liability bonds, $1,590,000; bonds for railroads, $3,310,- ooo; sewer bonds, 504,000; water bonds, $1,344,- ooo; wharf bonds, $266,000; street improvement bonds, $798,000; bonds for public buildings, $783,000. It was estimated that $767,965 would be received in 1882, of which $188,579.68 would be available for the purchase of bonds.

POLICE.

In 1866 the force was increased to 100 men. Up to April 1, 1870, the men were appointed and controlled by the Board of Metropolitan Police Commissioners, under whom George C. Shadburne was the last Chief of Police. In this year, a new city charter was passed by the Legislature, under the provisions of which the entire force was elected annually by the Board

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

of Police Commissioners, consisting of the Mayor, the Presidents of the two Boards of the General Council, and the Chairman of the Police Committee of each Board. Under this act and an ordinance of Council March 23, 1870, the force was re-organized and began duty April 2d. Mr. W. Jenkins was appointed Chief of Police. By ordinance of May 28th, two more Second Lieutenants of Police were appointed, without increasing the aggregate strength of the force. There were two First Lieutenants-John A. Weatherford, in charge of the Eastern Division, and John Shelly, of the Western-the city being divided on Fifth street. Five districts were mapped out for patrol duty, each in charge of two Second Lieutenants; and these were further subdivided into twelve beats for each, except the Third or Central District, which has thirteen, making sixty-one beats in all. The force now consisted of a Chief, two First Lieutenants, ten Second Lieutenants, one hundred and thirty-six policemen, and twelve supernumeraries-thirteen officers and one hundred and forty-eight men. Of the policemen, but one hundred and twenty-two were on patrol duty, sixty-one at a time, four of the others being de- tectives, seven station keepers, two at ' police headquarters, and one on court detail and general duty. The discipline of the force was favorably reported. Its expense, for the nine months of 1870 after re-organization, was $106,- 024.83. Arrests for the year, 5,014.

In 1871 the city charter was so amended as to require the election of the entire force, except the Chief and Lieutenants, every three years, in- stead of every year. It was rightly esteemed that this would aid the efficiency of the force, and prevent certain dangerous abuses. The great Chicago fire occurred this year, and $300 were raised by the force for the relief of their breth- ren in that city who had suffered. One-third of this sum was given by the Police Benevolent Association, which was now in existence. Dur- ing the year, by ordinance of Council, thirty men were added to the force-two First Lieuten- ants, two Second Lieutenants, and twenty-six policemen, three of whom were to be detectives. There was now an effective force of one hundred and seventy-nine men.

On the 18th of January, 1874, Colonel Albert W. Johnson became Chief of Police, succeeding

Colonel Walworth Jenkins. In 1876 he was in turn superseded by Colonel J. W. Edwards. Seventeen members of the force were dismissed by the Mayor this year. In 1877, upon the re- organization of the Board of Health, the Chief of Police was made Health Officer ex-oficio. J. A. Weatherford became Chief January 18, 1879. The force was reduced January 22d from one hundred and seventy-seven to one hundred and forty-eight. January 24th the system was changed to all-day service, with fifty-eight officers, and all-night, with seventy-eight officers. Eight mounted policemen were put on duty. The Department cost $94,780.84 this year. More premises were inspected, more nuisances re- ported, and more abatement of nuisances made, than in any previous year. In 1880 the force made 4,712 arrests, and cost the city $92, 239.27. "Its discipline and efficiency," says the Chief in his report, "surpass any previous year." John Brophy, a patrolman, was killed December 8, 1880, by a drunken fellow-officer. He had served on the force faithfully for eight years. One officer was dismissed during the year, and fourteen resigned.

During the twenty-five years ending 1882, ninety-six members of the police, including five chiets, had died, fifteen of them by violence- seven while on duty, and two by the hands of fellow-officers. A reporter for the Evening Post of March 2, 1882, from which we derive these facts, adds the following incidents :

Among the list of departed officers is the name of Charles Glass, who at the time of his death had been on the force for a number of years. Charlie, before coming lo Louisville, had been an old sailor, and he had rendered assistance at more than one hanging to the sheriff. It was he who pre- pared the rope neckties for Dave Caution, William Kriel, Thomas Smith, and others. In fact, he was the dependence of the sheriffs in these little tickling matters. He was often heard to remark that he could tie the best knot in America, and that his knot never failed. Charlie was one of the old stand-bys, and had been a station-house-keeper for some time before his death.

Wash Ragan, who was on the force for some time, went to California, where he became first a miner, and then a minis- ter, dying while following the latter profession. At the time of his death he was reported to be worth a considerable amount.

Dominick Carrigan fell one morning, while returning home from duly, on the icy pavement, and fractured the cap of his knee, from which injury he never recovered.

George Herrick had been on the force for a number of years, and had filled the positions of patrolman, lieutenant, and detective, which latter position he filled at the time of his death. He had spoken a few words in regard to a case

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

he was working up, and stepping into the water-closet he fell and died in a few moments. The cause of his death was heart disease.

The death of Aleck Gilmore was probably one of the most sad of any of the members of the force. He had gone to Cave Hill Cemetery to waler the grave of a beloved daugh- ter, and while filling the watering-pot from a small run that passes through the grounds, he, from apoplexy, fell face downward into the shallow water and was suffocated, and there his body was found. Mr. Gilmore was one of the old officers of the city, and in addition to having served on the force, had been marshal of the City Court, and was, under Mayor Tomppert, chief of police, making one of the best the force has ever had.

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History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 118

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co. Number of Pages: 814

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co.
Number of Pages: 814