USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Sketches and statistics of Cincinnati in 1851 > Part 22
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C. S. Jelleff, west side Western Row, between Eighth and Kemble streets, is in the centre of a rapidly improving region of Cincinnati. He has an abundant stock of best materials for gentlemen's gar- ments on his shelves and counters. His work is of first-rate quality and fit. Youths' clothing also made here, and the usual assort- ment of fitting and furnishing for gentlemen, kept for sale.
Tanners and Curriers .- This is another of our heavy manufac- turing interests, consisting of thirty establishments, which employ three hundred and eighty hands, and manufacture to the value of nine hundred and sixty-five thousand dollars.
Richard Thornton, 9 and 310 Main street, tanner, currier and morocco manufacturer, makes every description of leather, suitable for shoemakers, saddlers, bookbinders, hatters, etc. Has tanned, during the past year, thirty-six thousand skeep skins, five thousand hides, and thirty thousand calf skins. Imports, also, English and French calf skins, roans and skivers.
Tin, Copper and Sheet-Iron workers .- Forty-two shops, which employ two hundred and forty hands, and produce a value of two hundred and fifty-eight thousand six hundred and forty dollars. Raw material, tin and sheet-iron ware, 30 per cent .; copper, 60 per cent .; average value of raw material, 48 per cent.
W. & G. W. Robson, coppersmiths, Front street, between Pike and Butler, manufacture, and have constantly on hand, a large and general assortment in their line, such as copper wash, stew, tea and glue kettles, still and hatters' do .; engine, well, cistern and liquor
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pumps, lift and force pumps, for wells and distilleries ; soda-founts and stands, Patten's generator, for making soda-water, etc. They manufacture brew-kettles, from three hundred to three thousand gallons. Engine and lard steamer work, on the shortest notice.
Robson & Moorhead, tin-plate workers, on Second street, west of Walnut, employ twelve hands, and manufacture tin ware to the value of twelve thousand dollars. They are largely in the bathing- tub, shower-bath, and tin safe line, as well as manufacturing the usual assortment of tin ware. Their business is principally wholesale.
Tobacco, Cigars, etc .- This business comprehends, first, those who in this city and in Covington manufacture tobacco in the wholesale line exclusively. Second, of those who make fine tobacco for regular customers, and third, of various factories, principally on a small scale, in which cigars and snuff are the main articles.
There are sixty-two tobacco manufacturers here. Of these, twenty- eight factories in the wholesale line, employ one thousand one hun- dred and fifty hands, principally boys ; value of product, six hundred and sixty-five thousand dollars. The residue work two hundred and sixty hands, not including boys, and manufacture to the value of two hundred and sixty-six thousand dollars ; raw material, 55 per cent.
Carpenter & Ford, 14 Front street, are largely engaged in the manufacture of Virginia, Missouri and Kentucky tobacco. Employ one hundred and fifty hands of both sexes and almost all ages ; value of product, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars; raw ma- terial, 65 per cent. They operate fifty iron presses, which are supposed to be the largest in the United States. The manufacture of tobacco conduces to the health of the work hands.
Nuilsen & Ficke, 233 Main street, manufacture cigars, at the rate of one hundred and twenty thousand per month, equal to Havana ; being made of the best quality of Spanish leaf. Snuff and smoking tobacco of all descriptions. Spanish, Ohio, and Kentucky leaf to- bacco, constantly kept for sale. They employ thirty hands, on a product, in value, of twenty-five thousand dollars.
Charles Bodmann, 45 Walnut street, sign of the Indian Queen, manufactures lump tobacco, from five to sixteen plugs to the pound. Scotch rappee, fine scented maccoboy snuff's; best chewing and smoking tobacco, and every description of domestic cigars. Fine cut chewing, of best honeydew and sweet fine cut cavendish papered and on bulk. There are ninety-one hands in his employ, with a product of eighty thousand dollars in value; raw material, 70 cents.
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This is an offshoot of the establishment of F. Bodmann, long and favorably known here, for the quality of its snuff, tobacco, and cigars.
Trunks, Valises, Carpet-Bags, etc. This is a manufacture con- nected with the saddle and harness business, to a great extent, es- pecially the finer qualities, but the principal amount is made in establishments which are devoted exclusively to the business. One of these, which makes low-priced articles principally, manufactures to the value of one hundred and five thousand dollars. Leather trunks are made in Cincinnati of every quality, from two dollars to thirty. The frames, in the low-priced articles, are of wood; of the more costly and permanent, of the best quality of gasket boards; an article more durable than wood, as well as not subject to split, and more flexible as well as lighter than iron, which it has superseded for this purpose.
There are fifteen leather trunk makers, who employ two hundred and seventy-five hands, and manufacture to the value of five hundred and six thousand dollars; raw material, 67 per cent.
Parvin & Johnson, Broadway, between Front and Second streets, manufacture leather trunks, valises, carpet-bags and satchels or tra- veling bags ; employ thirty hands ; finish, annually, twelve thousand five hundred trunks, one half of which are low-priced articles; the other half, first-rate or medium quality ; average wholesale value of trunks, forty-two thousand dollars; one thousand three hundred valises and carpet-bags, value, three thousand five hundred dollars, and six hundred satchels.
Turners. Thirty shops .- One hundred and forty-three hands ; value of product, one hundred and fifty-two thousand dollars; raw material, 20 per cent.
Warner B. Mahone, turner in general, corner of Western Row and Laurel street, executes balustrades of any and every pattern ; columns of the several orders of architecture, and mahogany, oak, cherry, walnut and maple banisters. All kinds of turning used by cabinet makers, including nulling of every pattern, furnished at the shortest notice. Shade and map-rollers, turning in ivory, done in a superior style.
Mr. Mahone employs steam power, with seven lathes and ten hands, and turns to order any article, from a column twelve inches diameter and twenty-five feet in length, to an ivory cane head.
Type Founders .- There are two type founderies here, the Cincin-
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nati Type Foundery Co., and the foundery of Guilford & Jones. Type are made of antimony, lead and tin, in certain proportions; the antimony being employed in hardening the lead; and the tin, as a means of amalgamating the other two.
The Cincinnati Type Foundery was chartered by the Ohio legis- lature, January 12, 1830. It employs one hundred hands, men, girls and boys, and affords an annual product of seventy thousand dollars ; raw material, average, 20 per cent. More than seven hundred dollars are paid out weekly, in wages. Every kind of type that can be got at the east, is cast here, and more than two thousand different fonts may be found on the shelves in this establishment.
They have recently cast fancy type by steam, under a pressure of two hundred pounds to the square inch, for the purpose of con- densing the metal and thereby hardening its face, with what effect, may be judged by the fact, that an ordinary size of duodecimo page, under this new process, weighs three additional pounds.
Guilford & Jones, 41 Second street, execute type founding in all its branches. They employ twenty-one hands ; value of product, thirty thousand dollars.
Undertakers. Fourteen establishments .- Four hands ; value of labor product, seventy-six thousand dollars.
Varnish, Copal, etc .- There are two varnish factories in Cincin- nati, both on an extensive scale-that of the " Queen City " varnish factory, of which James Calhoun is agent, and the factory of Price and Pfaff. These are both on Walnut street, the one south of Se- cond, and the other north of Pearl street. There is so little differ- ence in the character, as well as the extent of their operations, that one statement will answer for the business statistics of either.
Copal varnish is an article extensively used by cabinet, chair and coachmakers, and although made heretofore, in Cincinnati, as an ad- junct to the existing drug and apothecary business, has only for the last few years been commenced as a distinct operation, and on a large seale, commensurate with the wants of the entire west and south-west.
In one of these factories are manufactured of coach, furniture and japan varnishes, as high as eight hundred gallons per day, of which sales have thus far been effected as fast as made. In this factory is consumed daily, twelve hundred pounds gum copal, and shellac- principally the first-one hundred gallons linseed oil, and three hundred and fifty gallons spirits turpentine. The copal is melted
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at one furnace, while the oil which has already received the driers, is boiling at another, and when brought to precisely the same tem- perature, they are then mixed in a cooler. These boilers are cop- per, and of sixty gallons capacity. The cooler is twice that size. When the substances unite in the cooler, so great an amount of latent heat is disengaged, that the most active and laborious stirring is necessary to prevent running over. This is also the case when the turpentine is added, the whole mass foaming, as though placed on raging flames. The materials are thoroughly amalgamated, by being stirred to a point the exact degree of which, constitutes the great art of varnish making, and the varnish, in this stage, is passed through a cloth strainer, to divest it of impurities, into a reservoir, of which there are two in alternate use. These are large block-tin vessels hooped with iron, each of four hundred gallons capacity. In these it stands to cool, after which it is barreled off for market. The coach and furniture varnish are made of gum copal, the japan varnish, of gum shellac. They differ as much in the preparation as in the ingredients.
The first and second qualities of furniture varnish differ in the character of the copal employed. Coach varnish is made of the purest gum, carefully selected, piece by piece.
A large and increasing market is thus furnished for the linseed oil of the west, to the extent in which that ingredient is used in this manufacture.
The cost of transportation east, on our oil, and the return trans- portation of the varnish, together with the profits of the manufacture, now remains at home, as so much revenue to the west. An addi- tional advantage is also gained to purchasers. They have respon- sible persons to look to at home, for the integrity of the article, that it is what it professes to be, and are not likely to experience impo- sition, which the introduction occasionally, of rosin, in an article where the maker's name is not apparent, and the means of redress five hundred miles from home, exposes them to, at times. In ad- dition to this, varnish needs always to be bought on guarantee, since it is impossible to test its quality in any other mode than actual use.
Copal varnish made here, is disposed of not only in our city mar- ket, but throughout that extensive circle of country of which De- troit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Wheeling, Louisville, Lexington, Nash- ville, St. Louis and Galena form the edges or prominent points. Our own cabinet, chair and carriage business in Cincinnati, require also
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a large supply, especially during the spring and fall seasons of business. If, at any time, the manufacture accumulates so as to exceed the demand, it will be an advantage to both buyers and sellers, since varnish, like many other articles, improves by age.
Gum copal is found in the islands of the Indian ocean and on the coast of Africa. An inferior article is brought from South America, also. The best is gathered at Zanzibar, in the dominions of the Imaum or Sultan of Muscat. It is not a concretion gathered from the living tree, as is usually the case with gums, but is obtained in deposits, frequently many feet below the surface of the earth. How it became thus buried, can be a matter of conjecture merely. It is supposed that the accumulation of sand, which covers it, has destroyed the trees while it buried the gum exuding on their sur- face. It is gathered by the natives, and loaded in bulk in the hold of the vessels, the gum requiring no package, as water makes not the slightest impression on gum copal, which is one of the most in- soluble of gums, neither alcohol, turpentine or ether serving to dis- solve it. The agency of heat, by melting, alone serves this purpose. Most of this article is imported at Salem, Mass. On its arrival, it is washed from adhering sand, assorted in qualities and boxed for market.
As has been already stated, this description might substantially suffice for either factory, so little difference exists in their business. Four or five hands suffice for each establishment. These factories manufacture to the value of one hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars; raw material, 80 per cent.
Veneers. Two mills .- Twenty hands ; value of product, thirty- six thousand dollars ; raw material, 40 per cent.
For the benefit of multitudes who purchase the finer qualities of furniture, ignorant that the outside wood is a veneer or facing upon some other, which is either cheaper or stronger, or perhaps both, it may not be impertinent to state that most of what they buy is of this description. In this, there is, however, no deception, they being supplied with an article of furniture equally good, if not better, and much cheaper, than if made solid. The veneers brought to this market are mahogany, rose and zebra, of foreign woods, and black walnut and curled maple of domestic growth, much the larger share being of the first class. Already a reduction of 25 per cent. in prices has taken place, and we shall soon supply our own and foreign markets with native woods of unrivaled beauty in surface
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and figure. Not less than fifty thousand dollars in value of them have been annually sold or used here.
In those revolutions of manufactures which are constantly occur- ring, Cincinnati is now becoming the head-quarters to the west for the supply of this article.
There are no finer ornamental woods in the world for furniture, than those of American growth, the black walnut, cherry and curled maple, for example. Fashion has heretofore patronized those of foreign countries, on the principle which governs thousands, that nothing is valuable but what is " far sought and dearly bought." But fashion, like all despots, has her caprices, and the rose and zebra and mahogany are evidently declining in favor; and as our native growth of woods appears winning its way into use in Eng- land and France, and challenges the admiration of foreigners, it will command a preference, before long, in the domestic as well as the foreign market.
But our American woods are not only equal to any of foreign growth, but the various western articles are superior, for cabinet ware, to the corresponding kinds east of the mountains. This is no doubt owing to the greater rapidity of growth incident to our more fertile soil and milder climate.
As a specimen of the value of western timber for these purposes, it may be stated, that black walnut forks have been sent from St. Louis to the eastern cities, sawed into veneers, and sent back and sold in that shape for twelve and a-half cents per superficial foot. These veneers are so thin that it takes thirty-two to make an inch in thickness, they being not as thick as pasteboards, and the same log which furnishes boards of a given quantity, will saw into veneers fifteen fold. Specimens of black walnut, plain and curled, sawed here and worked up into chair-backs, cabinet furniture, and piano frames, which cannot be surpassed anywhere, may be seen at our various cabinet and chair factories.
The parts of trees adapted to ornamental purposes are the forks or crotches, curls, warts, and other excrescences, which, valuable as they are for this purpose, are fit for nothing else. As these have heretofore been sawed into boards, in which shape they are not one-fifteenth part as productive as in veneers, an inadequate supply only has been furnished the saw mills. But the increased supply created by their multiplication into veneers, will not only provide
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for our domestic markets, but furnish an extensive sale abroad in Europe, and our Atlantic cities.
Our domestic veneers are now sawed entirely in Cincinnati, and are from black walnut, curled maple, cherry, sugar-tree, oak, ash, and apple ; which afford, when sawed up, an infinite variety of curls, dottings, waves, streaks and other fancy figures, some being of the most graceful, and others of the most grotesque appearance. These are furnished at the mill, at a price so low as from one and a-half to four cents, according to description, per superficial foot, and of first rate specimens. They also saw for the owners of the logs, if desired, and as low as at one dollar per one hundred feet. It is easy to con- ceive the increased demand and use, which this reduction in prices must create. Nor is it less obvious that, hereafter, the entire veneer supply of the west, will be sawed in the west. Independently of its own growth of woods, which, wherever it can be done, will be cut up on the spot, the foreign woods from Hayti, Campeachy, Hon- duras, and other places can be imported at as little expense into Cincinnati or any other place in the west, of steamboat access, as into any of the Atlantic cities. The freight from New Orleans, which is the butt end of the expense, is only twenty-five cents per cwt., and must become even less as the demand enlarges.
Henry Albro, who was burnt out some months since, on Front street, has recently put up new veneer and saw-mills, for sawing mahogany, on Pearl street, west of Elm. These have been con- structed by Ferdinand Walters, who has the reputation of being one of the most ingenious machinists in the United States ; and cer- tainly there are many evidences of it on the premises, the machin- ery being greatly simplified as well as improved, one lever here serving to run the carriage back and forward ; while on most of these saw-mills, two, and even three are requisite. Nor must it be supposed, that it requires no more skill or judgment in these than in the ordinary saw mills, for eight or ten years in attending a veneer- ing saw, is preparation little enough for the employment.
The veneering saws are driven with such power and velocity as to make three hundred and fifty revolutions in a minute. Each one has the capacity to cut two thousand feet per day, but such is the severity of its service, that more than half the time is occupied in sharpening it.
One of these buildings is forty-two by twenty-two feet, and runs
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entirely upon veneering, having two seven feet, one four, and two three and a-half feet veneering saws. The other is designed for sawing black walnut and mahogany boards and plank, and prepar- ing the black walnut crotches for the veneering mill.
Smith W. Horton, Cincinnati mahogany saw-mill, north side Second, between Race and Elm streets, saws to order, scroll work, and chair tops of every material. Walnut and other veneers made to order and for sale; walnut crotches, knots and mottled woods, constantly bought. Employs ten hands, and runs three veneer saws, one each, three, five and a-half and eight feet; manufactures yearly, to the value of thirty thousand dollars. More than one hundred thousand chair tops are sawed here in twelve months.
Vermicelli, Maccaroni, etc. Three factories .- Seven hands; value of product, twenty-one thousand six hundred dollars ; raw material, 40 per cent.
Vinegar Factories .- This is a business of comparatively recent establishment. In 1837, there were not one thousand barrels made in Cincinnati ; now, there are twenty-six factories, exclusive of those who manufacture vinegar, in connection with, and incident to, other business, as R. Conkling & Co., and Conkling, Wood & Co. The entire vinegar manufacture here, reaches a value of one hundred and sixty-eight thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars, the busi- ness employing fifty-nine hands ; raw material, 40 per cent.
Many persons suppose that the vinegar made here, is entirely a mineral and unwholesome product. Such, some of it, doubtless is ; and the sales of that description to families should be severely reprehended, it being only fit for mechanical and chemical purposes. But there is a great deal of cider vinegar made, Conkling, Wood & Co., having received five hundred barrels from Marietta in a single shipment.
Sparkes & Gogreve, 62 and 64 Broadway, are largely in the vinegar manufacture. Their factory comprehends the second, third and fourth stories of the building. The upper is a loft in which the vinegar undergoes its highest degree of acidification, the sum- mer temperature of it ranging from one hundred and thirty to one hundred and sixty degrees Fahrenheit. Here are from one hun- dred and fifty to two hundred hogsheads at a time. In the third story is a mixing tub of one thousand five hundred gallons capacity, of which diluted beer, whisky, etc., form the contents ; another tub, holding two thousand five hundred gallons, is filled with diluted
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cider alone. Beside these, the third story contains thirty large vinegar stands of five hundred gallons capacity each. The yearly sales of this house, exceed nine thousand barrels.
Wadding, Glazed Cotton .- Stearns & Foster, employ eleven hands, and manufacture a value of twenty-five thousand dollars; raw ma- terial, 60 per cent.
Wagon, Cart, etc., makers. Forty-two shops .- One hundred and thirty-six hands; value of product, one hundred and thirty-two thousand dollars ; raw material, 40 per cent.
Wall Paper Stainers. Four factories .- Employ thirty-six hands ; manufacture to the value of thirty thousand dollars; raw material, 60 per cent.
Wash-Boards, Zinc. Three factories .- Employ forty hands ; value of yearly product, eighty-five thousand dollars ; raw material, 50 per cent.
There are more zinc wash-boards made here than in any one state in the Union, or any city in the world.
Orrin Rice, the original patentee of this article, north side Second, between Race and Elm streets, has just recommenced business. Made last year, for six weeks, as many as twelve hundred wash-boards per day, and averaged during the year, more than six hundred per day.
J. B. Holmes, Cincinnati zinc wash-board factory, north side of Seventh, between Sycamore street and Broadway, employs six men and eight boys; value of product, twenty-five thousand dollars annually. Lumber, five thousand ; zinc, seven thousand ; nails, eight hundred dollars, consumed in the year's business.
Whisky .- This is the great whisky mart of the world. That article is manufactured for the Cincinnati market, for several miles up and down the Ohio-along the lines of the Whitewater and Miami canal-along that of the Little Miami railroad, as far as Milford, and within the city itself, to the extent of one thousand one hundred and forty-five barrels per day. Yearly value of product, two millions eight hundred and fifty-seven thousand nine hundred dollars ; raw material, 65 per cent.
White Lead, etc. Four factories .- One hundred and twenty- three hands ; value of product, three hundred and eighty-five thou- sand dollars ; raw material, 70 per cent.
Conkling, Wood & Co., Court street, east of Broadway, manu- facture white lead, dry and in oil, red lead, litharge, colored paints,
Hawkins Dag The
Irwett & Co. Engravers W.Anderson Sr
Edgar Conkling (of the firm of Conkling Wood & Co )
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putty, whiting, cider vinegar, etc., to the value of one hundred and twenty-six thousand six hundred dollars. They import their chalk direct from England.
Wig makers. Two shops .- Five hands ; value of product, seven thousand five hundred dollars ; raw material, 20 per cent.
Window Shades, and Oil Furniture Cloth. Three factories .- Employ forty hands, on a product of fifty thousand dollars; raw material, 50 per cent.
The manufacture of oil-cloth did not exist here in 1834, except such as was afforded in a coarse article printed with wooden blocks. Dur- ing that year, Sawyer & Brackett commenced manufacturing oil- cloth, printed from copper blocks. Two or three years sufficed so to perfect their operations, that they found an extensive market in the eastern states, in which these goods were awarded premiums at several mechanics' fairs. New designs and metallic blocks were added, until a large amount had been expended in the business. They also manufactured oil-cloth in imitation of mahogany, mar- ble, etc.
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