USA > Ohio > Sketches and statistics of Cincinnati in 1859 > Part 13
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twelve miles. After the children had been taken off, the roof floated perhaps eighty rods, when it struck a drift-heap, and was carried under by the suction of the current. So narrow was the these chilidren's escape! One of the men had been sent up by land, on the Kentucky side, to relieve the apprehensions of the family, which had been taken on board of Mr. Hunt's boat. The goods were recovered at a later date.
A feather bed had floated off under the roof, which, according to the ark fashion of that day, was pitched like the roof of a house, but neither roof nor bed were ever seen afterward.
Mobs and Riots .- Although no police officers existed in Cin- cinnati during the past century, and many lawless spirits ex- isted in the community, the force of public sentiment, always strongest when the population is not so large that individuals can hide themselves in a crowd, sufficed, in the early years of Cincin- nati, promptly to suppress those popular outbreaks which, in later years, have for the moment defied the public authorities.
The first disturbance of this sort occurred on the 12th of Feb- ruary, 1792. Lieut. Thomas Pasteur, belonging to the garrison at Fort Washington, having quarreled with John Bartle, who kept a store where the Spencer Hotel, at the corner of Broadway and Front, now stands, decoyed him, on a pre ence of business, to the garrison, and, falling on him there in the presence of his myrmi- dons, beat him very severely. Bartle prosecuted him for the out- rage, and his attorney, Mr. Blanchard, exhibited the Lientenant, on the trial, in a light so contemptible as to draw on himself the indig- nation of the latter and a visit of a sergeant and thirty private sol- diers, to inflict personal chastisement on the lawyer and all who might be disposed to defend him or his cause. An affray took place on Main street, in and about McMillan's office, where Mills & Kline's store stands, between the military and some of the citizens, eighteen in number, in which McMillan, who was a magistrate, with Colonel John Riddle, were particularly active, and drove the soldiers off.
The interference of the military, naturally created great excite- ment, and General Wilkinson, then in command at Ft. Washington, reduced the Sergeant to the ranks, and would have inflicted fur- ther punishment, had it not clearly appeared that the party acted under orders. He also issued the following general order.
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HEADQUARTERS, FORT WASHINGTON, February 13, 1792. $
The riot in the town of Cincinnati yesterday, and the outrage committed, by a party of soldiers, on the person of a magistrate of this territory, is a dishonor to the military, and an indignity to the National Government, which demands that the most exemplary punishment should be inflicted on the perpetrators, although the Commandant cannot admit the idea that any gentleman in commis- sion, who wears the garb of honor, could be instrumental or acces- sory to this flagitious transaction; yet the circumstance of a Ser- geant, and twenty or thirty men from the same company, leaving the garrison in a body, as has been represented to the Command- ant, carries with it an aspect of premeditation, and may subject the officer commanding such company to undue suspicions and censures. To avert such consequences in future, and to restrain the licentious habits of the soldiery, the Commandant calls for the firm co-operation and support of his officers, and orders that all duties beyond the walls of the garrison, whether for water, wood, or provisions, must be done by detachment, under a non-commis- sioned officer, who shall be answerable for the conduct of such detachinent. No private is to pass the gateway on any other pre- tence, without a special commission from the commanding officer. The Commandant laments that he should be reduced to the neces- sity of exerting so rigid a system of police, but he considers it in- dispensably necessary, not only to the good of the service, but the honor of the corps.
By order.
JOHN WADE, Ensign, Fort Adj't.
Lieut. Pasteur was tried at the General Quarter Sessions, the succeeding year, and was sentenced to a fine of three dollars for the assault.
There was only one more disturbance here of the public peace during the past century.
In the spring of 1794, and while General Anthony Wayne was marching north to meet and chastise the hostile Indians, and erect- ing military forts in his line of advance to protect the country in his rear, a detachment of volunteers from Kentucky, accompanied by some hundred, more or less, friendly Indians from the Missis- sippi region, encamped for a few days in the vicinity of Cincinnati,
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preparatory to pushing forward to reinforce the army of the north. These Indians were encamped on Deer creek, on the spot now occupied by Sam'l Beresford. They brought with them a young woman who had been taken captive in some border incursion into ¡western Pennsylvania. It was supposed she had relatives in Cin- cinnati, which did not prove to be the case. But there were two or three individuals who knew her friends near Pittsburg, being themselves of that neighborhood; and one of them succeeded in ransoming her from the Indians by the payment of a barrel of Mo- nongabela whisky. The exchange occurred at a tavern on Broad- way, just above Bartle's store, and the Indians, who had been drinking while the barter was pending, had a thorough frolic of it when put in possession of the whisky. Next day, a large share of the liquor having been drank, they became dissatisfied with the exchange, and were for re-taking the girl by force of arms. This was resisted, of course-peaceably, but firmly-by those into whose custody she had passed, who were Irishmen, from Pennsylvania, with several of their countrymen and other individuals resident there. The girl had been secreted, so that the Indians could not discover her retreat. At this period the east side of Broadway commenced at a point about twenty or thirty feet from Bartle's corner, opposite it, widening so rapidly that at the distance of half way to Cromwell's corner, the street was wider than even at pre- sent, its east side being occupied with the various artificer shops belonging to the garrison. The Indians came down Broadway to the number of perhaps fifty, and at the narrow part of the street were met and confronted by their opponents; but after the stones, or rocks, as they were called, lying about had been picked up and thrown, the Irish contrived to gather up shillalas, and although greatly inferior in numbers, drove their enemies up Broadway clear to the hill. Isaac Anderson, a well-known citizen of that day, who had been taken captive in Laughery's defeat, and always bore a grudge against the whole race of red skins, was in the thickest of this fight. Captain Prince, who commanded the garrison at that. period, sent out a detachment of the troops to quell the disturbance, but it was all over by the time they reached the ground.
The row of log cabins on the east side, in front of which this engagement took place, received from the circumstance the name of Battle Row, which it retained until 1810, when these houses
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were pulled down to make way for the present buildings put up by John H. Piatt.
The girl was afterward restored to her friends, in Pennsylvania, and is believed to be still living.
Pioneer Religious Society .- In laying out the town of Cincin- nati, the proprietors dedicated in-lots Nos. 100, 115, 139, and 140, to church and school purposes. The succeeding year Rev. David Rice, of Kentucky, organized a religious society of the Presbyte- rian faith and order, which proceeded to occupy the premises thus sot apart, but found themselves at that day too feeble, even with such aid as they could obtain in the town, to build a church edifice; the only use therefore, for some time, made of the premises, was that of a grave yard. Meetings for worship were held at a horse mill, on Vine st., below where Third st. has since been opened, being then the foot of the hill, and also, occasionally, at private houses. John Smith, of Columbia, then a Baptist preacher, better known since as one of the early Senators, from Ohio, in the United States Senate, and implicated in Aaron Burr's memorable project, occasionally preached to the society.
In 1791, a number of the inhabitants formed themselves into a company to escort the Rev. James Kemper from beyond the Ken- tucky river to Cincinnati. They accompanied him hither, and ou his arrival, a subscription was set on foot to build a meeting-house. Before this time, the trees upon a portion of the lot, at the corner of Fourth and Main sts., had been partially cleared, and within a small circle, seated upon the logs, the people met for worship, in the open air, with their rifles by their sides. In 1792, the meet- ing-house was erected, and the whole four lots were inclosed with a post and rail fence. The timber for the building was taken from the spot upon which it was erected. The subscription-paper for the erection of the church is still in existence: It is dated January 16, 1792. It is headed as follows:
We, the subscribers, for the purpose of erecting a house of public worship, in the village of Cincinnati, to the use of the Presbyterian denomination, do severally bind ourselves and execu- tors firmly and by these presents the several sums of money and commutations in labor, respectively annexed to our names, to be paid to Jno. Ludlow, Jacob Reeder, Jas. Lyon, Moses Miller, Jno. Thorpe, and Wm. McMillan, or either of them, their heirs or admin- istrators, trustees appointed for the business of superintending the
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building aforesaid, payments to be made as follows: One third part of our several subscriptions, to be paid so soon as the timbers requisite for the aforesaid building may be collected on the ground where the said house is to be built; another third, when the said house is framed and raised; and the other third part, when the aforesaid house may be under cover and weather-boarded.
In witness whereof, we have hereunto subscribed our names, on the day affixed to our names.
Here follow the names of the subscribers, which are given that we may cherish the memory of the generous dead, and furnish an example to the living.
John Ludlow, Jacob Reeder,
James Lyon,
Moses Miller,
John Thorpe,
Wm. McMillan,
John B. Smith,
David E. Wade,
James Brady,
Joel Williams,
Levi Woodward,
Wm. Woodward,
Jeremiah Ludlow,
James Dement,
Richard Benham,
John Cutter,
Joseph Lloyd,
Nehemiah Hunt, Gabriel Cox, Benj. Fitzgerald,
Cornelius Miller,
Abram Bosten,
Samuel Pierson,
Daniel Bates,
James Kemper,
Isaac Bates,
John Adams,
Wm. Miner,
James Miller,
Seth Cutter,
S. Miller,
John Lyon,
James McKane,
William Harrison, Asa Peck,
Robert Hind,
Robert Benham,
Samuel Dick,
Joseph Shaw,
Samuel Kitchell,
Matthias Brant,
Samuel Williams,
Jabesh Wilson,
David Logan,
James Lowry,
David Long,
Alex. McCoy,
Joseph Spencer,
David Hole,
James Blackburn,
James Cunningham,
Isaac Felty,
James Wallace,
Robert Caldwell,
Jona Davies,
Thomas Ellis,
Dan'l Shoemaker,
John Blanchard, Jonas Seaman,
Benjamin Jennings,
John Gaston,
Reuben Roe,
John Cummins,
Elliott & Williams,
Thomas McGrath,
James Bury,
Thomas Gibson,
Henry Taylor,
Elias Waldron,
James Richards, HI. Wilson,
John Bartle,
Thomas Cochran, J. Mercer, James Reynolds,
Thomas Brown,
Matthew Deary,
Samuel Martin,
Francis Kennedy,
James McKnight, Daniel C. Cooper, Israel Ludlow,
John Darrah, Moses Jones,
William Miller,
Margaret Rusk,
Benjamin Valentine,
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J. Gilbroath,
James Wilkinson,
Winthrop Sargent,
Richard Allison,
Mahlon Ford, John Wade,
M. McDonough, William Peters,
J. Mentzies,
Joshua Shaylor,
James Kremer, W. M. Mills, Ezekiel Sayre,
Matthew Winton,
H. Marks, Samuel Gilman,
W. Elwes, John Dixon, Daniel- Hole.
In 1792, as stated, the first church edifice was built. This was a plain frame, about thirty by forty, roofed and weather-boarded with clapboards, but neither lathed, plastered, nor ceiled. The flour was of boat-plank, laid loosely upon sleepers. The seats were formed by rolling in the necessary number of logs, which were placed at suitable distances, and covered with boards, whip- sawed for the purpose, at proper spaces for seats. There was a breast-work of unplaned cherry boards, which served for a pulpit, behind which the clergyman stood on a plank supported by blocks. The congregation were required to attend with rifles, under pen- alty of a fine of seventy-five cents, which was actually inflicted on John S. Wallace, formerly auditor of this county, who had left his rifle at home through forgetfulness. Others, also, doubtless incur- red fines on this account.
As a specimen of the manner in which the clergymen of that day were sustained, I annex an original receipt which I have be- fore me:
RECEIVED, February the 14th, 1794, of McMillan, Esq., the sum of three dollars, it being for Mr. Kemper's salary for the year '94, as an unsubscriber.
Received by mc,
CORNELIUS VAN NUYS.
. On the 11th of June, 1794, another subscription was circulated for the purpose of further finishing the Presbyterian meeting-house in Cincinnati, and also for paling the door-yard and fencing in the burying-ground, to be paid to the same persons named as trustees.
To this paper, in addition to those who had already subscribed to build the meeting-house, and who again contributed to its com- pletion, we find the names of-
Ezra F. Freeman, David Zeigler,
C. Avery, Robert Mitchell,
Oliver Ormsby, Job Gard,
Martin Baum, G. Yeatman,
Joseph Prince,
Andrew Park,
John Brown, John Riddle,
Patrick Dickey,
A. Ifunt & Co.
Peter Kemper.
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When the property was dedicated by the proprietors, they held the equitable title only; the government held the legal estate, but had contracted with John Cleves Symmes to convey to him a large tract of land, which included the plat of Cincinnati. The proprie- tors claimed under Symmes. In 1794, the President of the United States issued a patent to Symmes, who was thus invested with the legal estate; and afterward, on the 28th of December, 1797, con- veyed the lots to Moses Miller, John Thorpe, John Ludlow, James Lyon, Wm. McMillan, David E. Wade, and Jacob Reeder, trustees for the Presbyterian congregation of Cincinnati.
The church-building was removed, in 1804, to Vine, below Fifth st., and became what was known, for many years here, as Burke's church. It was substituted by a large brick building, which stood until a few years since, and is now replaced by the splendid edifice occupied at this time by the First Presbyterian society.
Original Timber, Levels, and Surface of the City, etc .- Few persons appear familiar with the process by which a settlement enlarges to a town first, and subsequently to an important city. Those who have not grown up with it, cannot realize. the gradual and various changes it assumes, and how few of its original fea- tures are preserved in that progress. No one who casts his eye over the extensive platform of Philadelphia, for example, and sur- veys the superb site, swelling regularly but gradually from the Dela- ware to Fifth st., and exhibiting a uniform surface, would suppose, unless he had previously known the fact, that the city, in its earlier condition, abounded with ponds and gullies, and was intersected with rivulets and creeks to an extent which gave no promise that it would ever reach its present unrivaled regularity and beauty of surface. Such, also, was the original configuration of Cincinnati. From the hill which skirts the present line of Third street, to the river bluffs, lay a broad swamp, which occupied, principally, the space from Second to Lower Market sts., although, from its irregular shape, parts of it extended even further south. This was originally a thicket of beech and sugar-trees, and grape-vines, interspersed with a heavy undergrowth of spicewood and papaws. On the second table, now lying between Third street and the hills in the rear of Cincinnati, the ground was more unbroken in its surface, and heavily timbered with beech, sugar-tree, and poplar, some of them of immense size. The river bank was a high bluff, extend- ing, opposite the present public landing, about one hundred and 12
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fifty feet south of the upper line of Front st., and falling off north to the swamp rather rapidly. At Sycamore st. a large cove put in, reaching within a foot of what is now the northeast corner of Syc- amore and Front streets.' Here Griffin Yeatman kept one of our earliest public houses. It is difficult now to realize the fact, that the north line of the river at this point nearly reached that of Front street. At the corner of Ludlow was another of these cores, and another still higher up, just below the mouth of Deer creek. The first of these was called the Stone landing, and the second Dor- sey's cove. The ground fell off all the way from the banks of the Ohio to Second, then called Columbia street. The coves referred to, in early days, were the usual landing places for emigrants, as they probably had been to the various expeditions which the set- tlers, in Kentucky, from time to time, sent over to retaliate on the Shawanese Indian settlements to our north, their incursions across the Ohio. The old Indian war-path from the British garrison, at Detroit, crossed the river at this point, which was also the regular avenue by which the savages on the northern side of the Ohio ap- proached the Kentucky stations.
The late Judge Matson, of North Bend, in a letter I received from him, in 1845, says: .
In reply to your inquiry, what kind of timber first covered the site of Cincinnati, I can state my recollections, which are very dis- tinct on the subject. The bank of the river had a heavy growth of beech trees, many of them very large. At Hobson's Choice, on the river, west of Western row, the encampment of Gen. Wayne, they were cut down, and the stumps dug out, over so much of the bank as to make a parade-ground; some of the largest being left standing adjacent for purposes of shade. Where the swamp came in between the river bank and foot of the hill, was a growth of white walnut, soft maple, white elm, shellbark hickory, and white ash. On the second table of Cincinnati was spread a variety of timber, such as beech, ash, black walnut, hickory, black and red oak, generally of vigorous growth. Here and there white oak and poplar interspersed the rest .. A space of perhaps one hundred and fifty acres north and west of Barr's dwelling, down to Stonemetz's ford, on Millcreek, was filled with poplar and beech. Of the lat- ter there is, as you know, a small grove still standing, and called Loring's woods. This is the only relic of the original growth of Cincinnati, except scattered trees. An abundant range of spice
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wood was the undergrowth. They grew so thick that out at North Bend, after cutting off the bush, and digging the roots loose, I have not been able, unassisted, to lift the clump out of the ground. For three or four years prior to the year 1794, there had been a large scope of out-lots, as they were called, in a worm-fence inclo- 'sure, extending from about Sixth street north to Court street, and from Main street west to the section-line, which nearly follows the line of what is now John street. There was hardly a building on that space. I recollect but one, a small frame building on Main street, on the St. Clair square, between Seventh and Eighth. This had been put up by Thomas Gowdy, a lawyer of that period, as an office, but was not occupied as such, being found too much out of town for business purposes. In May of that year, one of the occu- pants of the inclosure, being engaged in burning brush at the west end of it, the fire accidentally spread over the whole clearing, fast- ening on the deadened timber which had been girdled, and was, by this time, as dry as timber could become. The wind was from the west, and was very high, which was what first caused the con- flagration, and the sap-wood, as it burned, peeled off in very large flakes, spreading the fire farther and farther east until it reached to Main street front. It may easily be imagined what a magnifi- cent sight was presented by more than one hundred acres of dry timber in flames. The whole population was engaged, as far as practicable, in saving the rails, of which, in fact, but few escaped. On Gowdy's office three or four men were stationed, while buckets of water were handed up to them from time to time.
As this was the first fire in Cincinnati, so it was the most exten- sive as respects the space it covered. It compelled the settlers to clear the out-lots, much sooner than they would have done, to get rid of the partially-burnt timber left standing unsafely, or lying on the ground in the way of putting in the corn crop, for which they were preparing at the time.
In the infancy of the city, there was but little communication maintained between the hill and bottom, so far as keeping roads for wheeled vehicles, and hardly more for horses. Even at a later date, wagons could stall going up Walnut street, opposite the N. W. corner of Front street. On Main, from Front to Lower Market streets, then many fect below its present grade, from Hill's store, No. 31, to Lower Market street, boat gunwales were laid as foot- ways, part of the distance, and the citizens walked, in very muddy
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weather, upon the rails of the post and rail fences, which inclosed the lots of that street. When Pearl st. was opened, some twenty- eight years ago, and the building extending from the corner to Neave & Son's store, was putting up, in digging the foundations, a number of pannels of posts and rail fence, the relics of those days, and which had been covered up for, probably, thirty years, were found and dug up absolutely sound. Causeways of logs, generally a foot in diameter, were laid in various parts of Main st., and it was but a few years since, in re-grading Main from Eighth to Ninth street, that a causeway of such logs were taken up, sound, but water-saturated, which extended from near Eighth street to a spot above Pfau's tavern, probably one hundred and twenty feet in distance.
As late as the year 1800, Broadway, opposite Columbia street, and for one hundred feet north of that point, was the centre of a pond, three or four acres in extent, to which the early settlers re- sorted to shoot plover. Another pond, of considerable size, spread on every side from the northeast corner of Fifth and Main streets, over which persons, still living, have crossed on decayed logs. A bluff gravel bank occupied the line of Third street, for two or three squares east and west of Main street. This overhung the lower ground to the south, and was frequently caving in upon it. A faint idea only of the elevation of the bluff can be formed by observing the ascent of Main street, from Lower Market to Third. The hill, at an early date, presented its front below the line of Hopple's alley, nearly thirty feet above the present level, while Lower Market must have been thirteen or fourteen feet below its present grade. A swamp extended through Lower Market street its entire distance west of Ludlow street.
One of the first brick houses put up in this city, was the well- known Hopple tobacco establishment on Lower Market street, and occupied in that line until within a few years, and now displaced by the fine large house of Siebern & Co. This building, though of brick, and three stories high also, one of those stories being cov- ered over in the repeated fillings up of Lower Market street, was built upon bout gunnels. It was put up under the superintendence of Casper Hopple, still living, and a fine specimen of the early pioneers; and a little incident in its history may be worth record- ing in illustration of the point I start with-the changes of grades and surfaces which city improvements have wrought. Fourteen
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feet above what then constituted the sill of his door, he placed the joists of the next story, and while that tier was laying, our old fellow-citizen, Jonathan Pancoast, passed by, and, after gazing at the improvement, without comprehending its design, asked of Mr. Hopple what he meant by what he was doing? Mr. H. observed, that, as accurately as he could judge, that would be the proper range of the floor, when Lower Market street would be filled to its proper level, to correspond with what he supposed would prove the final grade of Main street opposite. When the first filling of Lower Market street took place, Mr. H. was compelled to convert some five feet deep of the lower story into a cellar, to which he had access by a trap-door; and after the establishment at the pre- sent grade, of that street, the level at which he had built his joists, corresponded exactly to its purpose, giving him a sill at his door and a cellar of the ordinary depth with one, as already described, below it.
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