USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > The Cincinnati miscellany, or, Antiquities of the West, and pioneer history and general and local statistics. Volume II > Part 4
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The expenses of inspection, transportation, &c., you will please to charge the State of Ohio and I will cause payment to be made.
If Maj. Martin will not deliver them subject to inspection, you will receive them in boxes as they are. New arms have lately gone to the Arsenal-if better than the old ones take them --- get the best you can ..
Address me at Chillicothe.
With esteem and friendship yours,
R. J. MEIGS, of Ohio.
June 30th, 1812, received on this letter fif- teen hundred stands of arms without inspection, and four hundred cartridge boxes. Capt. Jenkin- son, Capt. Carpenter and Lt. Ramsey, present.
Chillicothe, Aug. 16th, 1812.
GEN. GANO:
You have before this seen Capt. Sutton, from the Army. Muskets and bayonets are pre- ferred in the army to rifles, even against Indi- ans. Many ofthe muskets want great repairs, and I have not enough for the present requisi- tion. I wish you to send without delay, as many boxes of muskets and cartouch boxes, and tents, and camp kettles as will be enough for 500 men to Urbana. I do not wish in supplying the new requisition, to take the arms &c., which you have for your division, and I enclose an or- der for what I want. I am putting you to some trouble, but it cannot be helped. Please keep an account of postage, expenses, &c. &c. I will adjust this after the Piqua council is over. 1 should have spent a few days with you, but the new call prevents me.
I should be pleased to see you at Piqua -- if you do not come, write to me there. I am afraid Hull is too slow. The terror the army im- pressed on its first arrival in Canada, is greatly diminished.
One waggon will carry all the arms &c. which I require.
I am sir,
Your ob't. serv't. R. J. MEIGS.
URBANA, Aug. 25th, 1812. Gen. GANO.
Or the commandant of the militia of Oliio in the town of Cincinnati :
SIR :
You will without any delay, send by a two horse light wagon, the six-pounder piece of
artillery at Cincinnati to this place by day and night.
You will also send me one large and full wag- on load ot six-pounder balls, and powder, for which purpose I send an order on the United States Military Storekeeper at Newport.
Your ob't. serv't.
R. J. MEIGS, Gov. of Ohio.
300 balls and 500 lbs. powder sent on the within to Urbana.
Pioneer Libraries.
The records of the past in the great west are always interesting waymarks of its progress .-- Beyond this, they frequently serve to shew our obligations to the noble race of men who have subdued it for our use.
I trust my readers will find the following no- tices of the first Library formed in Athens coun- ty in our State, and its happy results, as interes- ting as it appears to me. I condense it from the proceedings of the Washington county school as. sociation, published in the Marietta Intelligen- cer of the 22d ult. A discussion arising in that body on the establishment of libraries in each township of the county, Judge Cutler made the following statement.
"A settlement was commenced in Athens County about the year 1799 in the midst of a broad wilderness. But few families commen- ced it, and they were twenty miles removed from all intercourse with the settlement in this coun- ty. They were alone. They were at first only three families. In a little time another settle- ment was formed on Sunday creek. One settler, Squire True, came to the Eastern settlement to consult about making a road from one settle- ment to the other. All collected; and some one after describing their solitary condition, and stating that there was but one newspaper taken, coming only once in two months, and but very few books, suggested the plan of procuring a li- brary. All were agreed. The next question was, how shall we get it? We have no money. Esq. Brown was at that time on a visit, prepar- ing to move to Sunday creek. Esq. True said that he could show them how a library could be obtained. They could do it by catching Coons, if Esq. Brown would agree to take and sell them and lay out the money for books .- The plan was resolved on; the coons were abun- dant; the boys could catch 8 or 10 apiece. The skins were taken to Boston and sold for fifty dol- lars. Two eminent men were asked to selec' the books. Their choice was excellent. And now for the history of that library, It was in- creased. The settlement increased; the chil- dren increased. All had access to that library.
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Some fifty young men, now scattered about over the West, gained information from that li- brary. Some aro distinguished lawyers, some wealthy merchants, some professors in colleges, some Judges of. court, and one became Thomas Ewing. Another settlement, containing about the same number of young men, without these advantages, presented in the result a very dif- ferent aspect. Only a ridge separated the two settlements. Of the latter only a few rose even to mediocrity of circumstances. Their history has been stained by crime. Murder and rob- bery have been committed among them. Of late the library has been divided between the settlements on Federal creek and Sunday creek. The Federal creek division contains about 400. From the commencement, the library has been a good one. There has also been a library at Belpre, called the Putnam Library, which affor- ded vast benefit to the young men of Belpre, and as a consequence, a most respectable settle- ment has been built up there. We should com- mence with the mind while it is tender. Chil- dren, if not engaged in something beneficial, will be in mischief. There should be a good foundation laid in season.
Mr. Wm. P. Cutler gave his experience and recollections, which were that books were ex- ceedingly uninteresting to him, until he drew a book from the coon-skin library, which gave him a taste for reading. Sabbath School books carry forward children in the work of educa- tion, and sometimes quite as much as the in- struction of the day school. Was of the opin .. ion that diffusing libraries was a cheaper as well as more efficient mode of educating those who had once learned to read, than schools. On this point he gave facts and statistics for which I have not space in my columns.
Judge Cutler resumed .- In 1800 a family from Vermont came into this State very poor. The father was intemperate, but industrious. He was a shareholder in the coen-skin library. The family never had any opportunities for educa- tion, but the boys were excellent at catching coons, and caught a fine parcel, took a share in the library and got books. One boy was found to possess a mathematical mind superior to al- most any in this country. He went to Athens and proved himself very remarkable as a math- ematical scholar. He is now dead. He left a property estimated at $500,000, and a high character. The young persons who drew from that coon-skin library, acquired millions which they probably would not have obtained without the instruction derived therefrom.
Mr. Slocumb, a teacher testifies as follows .- His opportunities for instruction were very lim-
ited. At 15 or 16 could write his name and read, when the tall words did not happen too often .--- For a few months in the winter season we had such schools as we could get. Was accustom- ed to see boys go on the ice to skate; got him a pair, put them on and started off. His feet outstripped his head which fell on the ice .- Before getting up, he pulled off his akates-and that was his last skating. Resolved to employ his evenings in reading. The first book hap- pened to be very interesting. After labor done in the day time he spent his evenings and ear- ly mornings in reading. Whatever proficiency he had made in teaching was the effect of that fall on the ice. When teaching school in Har- mar, two lads come under his instruction about the same time, with equal capacities. One boy was allowed to run abroad on the Sabbath; the other was kept. Many years after, within five days, the first was hanged, and the second, or- dained as a Presbyterian preacher. The latter having his Sabbaths to spend at home, acquired a taste for reading. The latter when in school was the more mischievous of the two.
Cake and Candy Factories.
One of the wonders suggested by many de- scriptions of our city business is, how can most of these persons pay such extravagant rents as they do out of such picayune operations as they appear to carry on? This difficulty has presell- ted itself to me frequently, as I suppose it has also to others. 'l'aking the census of 1840, and many of my statistical examinations since; have set me right on this score, and made it apparent that individuals were piling away three, five and even ten thousand dollars per annum, out of a business which did not appear to me likely to pay expenses.
One of these businesses thus underrated by me was that of cake and candy manufacturing .- I supposed in the eight or ten establishments o f this sort, there might be perhaps as many thou- sand dollars worth of products sold. On this it must be obvious, nothing more in the shape of profit could be made than to support the fami- lies of those engaged in them. Yet many of them paid high rents, and had other expenses to meet.
When I took the census, I found that there were twelve persons engaged in this business, and the yearly value made by themselves and hands amounted to 54,000 dollars. The value produced at this time in the general pre- duction of prices, is but 40,000 dollars, and the quantity made, & nett profits are about the same as five years since. 24 hands are em- ployed as assistants.
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I take the case of Mr. E. HARWOOD on Fift street to illustrate this business. His differs from the rest in this respect, that while individ- uals produce more than he does in particular branches of Confectionary and fancy baking, he manufactures a more general assortment than any of the others. Besides the almost infinite variety of cakes and candies usually made, he makes lozenges of every description, Jujube paste of various flavors; wedding cake orna- ments, and fancy work of all sorts.
One interesting feature of this business is the supply of wedding cake &c. for wedding occa- sions. These are furnished to an extent of which I was not aware. One bill, the highest supplied this season amounting to as much as one hundred and sixty-three dollars. Another, one of our longest established cabinet makers ordered to the value of one hundred, as did one of our arbiters of fashion in a different line, to the same value. It is well that these expenses are not ordinarily incurred oftener than once in a lifetime, a few such drafts on his purse, suffi. cing to strip a man of ordinary resources.
I have the testimony of eastern men, that they have nothing in New York, Boston, or Philadel- phia, to surpass in taste, elegance or quality, the finer specimens supplied wedding parties by either Harwood or Burnett.
Strawberry Statistics.
This is almost the only article which, between the action of drought and cold weather, has not failed in our market supplies this spring .
It has been repeatedly stated that 4000 quarts per day are sold during the season of strawber- ries in our markets. As I have understood, this is considered abroad incredible. I examined the strawberry stands at Lower Market street last Saturday, and found one hundred and six- teen cases, averaging thirty-five boxes of one quart each to the case, being a total of four thousand and sixty quarts, The quantity offer- ed at Canal Market, and at various stands through the city, would easily increase the ag- gregate to 5000 quarts. These are sold at pres- ent from 5 to 6 cents per quart,. according to quality, the price of the article averaging 8 cts: throughout their entire period of sale .
A four-horse waggon drove up on Friday last to Fifth street market with two tons strawberries! Most of this delicious fruit is cultivated in adja- cent Kentucky, where patches of from five to ten acres are frequent. Two of the Strawberry gar- dens are eighteen and twenty acres, and one of them reaches to thirty acres in extent, there be- ing at least one hundred and forty acres devo- ted to the culture of this article.
Poisons and their Antidotes.
I notice in one of my exchanges a case of loss of life, by a mistake of Sal petre for Epsom Salts. The following table serves to show what abundant means are supplied as antidotes to poison in mistakes of the sort. It is indeed re- markable how many of them may be handed from the tables or cupboards of almost every family in the land. It seems providential, that remedies so simple, and at the same time so readily obtained at the instant of need should be found almost every where, Pearlash, vinegar, sweet oil, green tea, whites of eggs, sugar, milk, molasses, tobacco, chalk, lime, and salt, consti- tuting the great mass.
POISONS. ACIDS : Vitriol, Aqua Fortis,
TREATMENT.
Potash or Pearlash, dissolved in water : or magnesia; copi- ous draughts of warm water or flax seed tea.
ALKALIES. Pot- ash, Soda, &c.
Vinegar,-large quantities of Sweet Oil.
ANTIMONY :- Tartar Emetic.
Strong decoction of green tea, or of Peruvian bark, or red oak bark. Abundance of warm water, or flax seed tea to promote vomiting.
ARSENIC.
Hydrated per-oxide of Iron ; otherwise thirty grains white Vitriol, as emetic; great quantities white of eggs with milk, tobacco smoked large- ly in a pipe.
Solution of Epsom Salts, or of Glauber Salts.
COPPER : Blue Vitriol.
Brown Sugar; white of egg with milk ; molasses .
LAUDANUM :
Stomach pump : otherwise 30 grains white vitriol ; promote vomiting.
SUGAR OF LEAD.
Epsom or Glau ber Salts; oth- erwise thirty grains white vitriol.
MERCURY : Corro- sive Sublimate.
Very large quantities of white of eggs, or Flour mix- ed with water and milk.
SAL PETRE.
Produce vomiting with large draughts of warm water and Flax seed tea.
ESSENTIAL SALT OF LEMONS .
Chalk and water, or lime in water. No drinks to produce vomiting ; mind this last.
LUNAR CAUSTIC . Strong salt and water in large quantities; much flax- seed tea, or milk and water. WHITE VITRIOL. Large quantities of milk ;
JIEMLOCK, STRA- MONIUM, &c.
white of eggs; warm drinks. 30 grains white vitriol as emetic; use stomach pump; after these, coffee, lemonade or vinegar and water.
The dose of white vitriol named is for an a- dult. The stomach pump must be used by a physician.
Send for a physician instantly ; in the mean- time use the remedies directed as they may be accessible. Use them most promptly.
Hamilton and Burr.
Our thanks are due, and cordially tendered to the correspondent from whom we derive the subjoined interesting communication : "I send you," he writes, "an original anecdote of Gen. Hamilton and Colonel Burr, which you may re- ly upon as authentic. It was related to a party of gentlemen, of whom I was one, by the late Judge Rowan, of Kentucky, in his life time at different periods,a distinguished member of both houses of Congress, from that state; and cele- brated in the western country as the first crim- inal lawyer of his day -- not even excepting Mr. Clay himself. At the time of the relation, in the winter of 1840, he had passed his eightieth year, but he had retained his eminent colloqui- al faculties unimpaired; and he told the story with an emphasis and manner peculiarly his own. He remarked that he retained in his mem- ory the exact words of the parties, and that he was the only living recipient of them. But four persons, up to that moment, had ever had cogni- zance of the circumstance; these were, General Hamilton, Colonel Burr, their mutual friend General D **** , and himself. He had his infor- mation from General D **** , and he was pledg- ed to secrecy during his life time. The injunc- tion of secrecy was now removed, by the recent death of his friend, and he felt at liberty to speak. He had been silent for forty years; he was a young man when he heard the anecdote; he was an old man now , when proposing to relate it for the first time, "Gentlemen," said he "this one circumstance filled up, in my mind, the out- lines of the character of these two celebrated men ; I want no other history of them. You may write ponderous tomes, eulogistic of the one and denunciatory of the other; but I have a fact in my head, and it is the centre of my opinion. Col- onel Burr, when arraigned for his trial, did me the very great honor to invite me to become his counsel and advocate, but I remembered the fact, and refused .
"It was at that period in our history when the Confederation, having cast off the iron hoop of war, seemed to have no other bond of strength. Men's minds were unsettled ; there was no grav- itation of principle; no unity of purpose; no centre of motion : Patriotism had expended its enthusiasm , liberty had lost its vitality, and for- bearance its subordination. Burr believed that the staggering elements would fall in confusion, writhe for a season in anarchy- and emerge in monarchy. He believed that the fermentation, if allowed to take its course, would froth and effer- vesce, and rectify, by crystalizing the desire to put Washington on the throne. He thought how-
ever, that there was a shorter way to 'stability' by intrigue ; by the conjunction of adverse in- fluences; a way less sinuous to his own ad- vancement. He believed that there was no man without his price, while his acute discernment told him that Hamilton's was a character which even his own partizans would turn to in despair, and prefer it to his, in testing an experiment or trying a theory. He had a proposition to make to General Hamilton ; it was patriotic or it was traitorous; it was full of meaning, overreaching the words, balancing thie ambiguity nicely, but searching enough to find the weakness, had it existed. He knew he would be understood without being committed; answered without being betrayed. There was treason in it; but it was in the occasion, the manner, the words, if you please, and yet it was no where, if he chose to disclaim it! He had a proposition to make, but he would not write it down! Mark the man : he could not be prevailed on to put it upon paper. He gave his friend the words, and the emphasis, & made him repeat botlı, until they told right to his own ear. These were the exact terms :
" 'Colonel Burr presents his compliments to General Hamilton: Will General H. seize the present opportunity to give a stable government to his country, and provide for his friends ?'
"'General Hamilton did not hesitate a mo- ment : this was his answer :-
" 'General Hamilton presents in return, his compliments to Colonel Burr : Colonel B. thinks General H. ambitions : he is right ; General H. is one of the most ambitious of men, but his whole ambition is to deserve well of his country.'
"There is an answer," continued the narrator, "which would have deified a Roman ; there is the first of the offences which lie expiated at Wee- hawken.
CORRESPONDENCE.
One of the Cincinnati Pioneers. Butler Co., State of Ohio, May 31, 1845. MR. CHARLES CIST :
Dear Sir-In your paper of the 7th inst. I see a list of the names of the early pioneers of the city of Cincinnati-among them I see four as far back as 1790; that is John Rid- dle, James Ferguson, Mrs. Wallace and Mrs. Gano. When I was about 17 years of age Mr. James Burnes and myself from Washington co., Pennsylvania, landed at Cincinnati, between the 1st and 10th of April, 1789. We continued there until the second week in June. Mr. Burnes purchased one in and out lot-he cleared one acre of ground, and planted it in corn and mov- ed there the next spring. There was but four families there when welanded. Mr. McHen- ry had a large family, two sons and two deugh- ters, young men and voung women. I expect some of them live in Hamilton county. They lived a number of years where the Hamilton road crossed Mill creek, perhaps 4 or 5 miles from the city. A Mr. Kennedy had a small family. A Mr. Dement had a small family. A Mr. Ross had a small.family. Mr. McMillin, John Vance, David Logan, Mr. Reeves, Hardes- ty, Van Eaton, and McConnell, all lived in one shanty, being perhaps the first that was ever I put up in the place, as nearly all of them had
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been out with the surveyors, surveying Symmes' purchase, and were iliere when the town was laid out, and all had lots in it. I returned then as a volunteer in September 1790 on Harmar's cam- paign. Harmar's army marched from there the last week in September for the Indian towns, near where Fort Wayne was afterwards built. I served through that campaign, returued with the troops to Cincinnati, and tarried there that winter, and until December, 1791. I was a vol- unteer in St. Clair's defeat on the 4th of Novem- ber 1791. That winter after Harmar's campaign that I was at Cincinnati, I recollect Mr . Riddle was there-Mr. Ferguson I think was there-if it is the same, he married a Miiss Reeder-Mrs. Wallace was there -- her maiden name was Sayre-Col. Wallace and she were married in 92 or 93. I do not recollect any of the name of Gano -- there are of that name who lived at Co- lumbia.
l expect if live to be in the city in the course of a month, when I expect to give you a call . THOMAS IRWIN.
Professional Ideas and Feelings.
It is inconceivable how thoroughly habit im- bues men with a professional spirit. A few in- stances will suffice to establish this point.
Brindley, the celebrated Engineer, on an ex- amination before the House of Commons, made a remark which implied his very low estimate of river navigation. A member of the commit- tee which was taking his testimony became quite restive, aud at last exclaimed. Mr. Brindley, for what purpose do you suppose rivers were made ? To feed canals, was the characteristic reply.
An auctioneer in New Orleans, had five chil- dren which he named Ibid. Ditto, A lot, One More and The Last. The man was obviously insensible of the ridiculous character of such patronymics, and decided on them with the same motive, that he would strike off an in- voice of goods under the hammer, the whole choice springing from business association of ideas.
An instance of professional feeling of a dif- ferent kind is the following.
A brave veteran officer during the war of 1812 reconnoitering a battery considered impregna- ble and which it was necessary to storm, an- swered the engineers who were dissuading him from the attempt : "Gentlemen, you may think what you please ; all I know is that the Ameri- can flag must be hoisted on the ramparts to-mor- row morning, for I havethe orders in my pocket!"' In this case the simple feeling uppermost was "I must obey orders." It never seemed to en- ter liis mind that the attempt might prove im- practicable.
Here is one case sui generis.
Favart, a French author wrote to a friend in London : "Buffon, the great naturalist, has just "What strikes an American upon visiting this lost his wife. He would be inconsolable at the ' country, is the solidity with which every thing
event were it not for the pleasure he anticipates in dissecting her.
Horne Tooke, on his death bed, was asked by one of his friends. How do you do. Do! said the grammarian, tortured probably more by the bad English than by his own pains, I don't do at all -- Ie suffer.
Some of my readers have seen a grammar of the Latin language, by James Ross, of Philadel- phia. Never was a man more wrapt up in his studies than Ross. A man who did not under- stand Greek or Latin, and that critically, was in his eyes, of no use in society. Business call- ed him once to Harrisburg, and to occupy a few minutes while waiting for the individual he came to see, he strolled into the court house. A mur- der case was before the jury, the evidence was all through, and the prosecuting attorney had closed his speech, in which he had happened to observe that such and such was the general rule of law on a particular point then in issue. The counsel for prisoner adverting to this remark ad- mitted the rule, but added, It is well known there is no general rule without an exception .--- This was too much for Ross. He had stood un- moved, the most pathetic appeals to public sym- pathy, but that a proposition like this should be asserted in open court was absolutely shocking. "Begging the counsel's pardon," said he "that is not true, all Greek nouns ending in, os are of the masculine gender. There is one univer- sal rule and admits of no exception." The sur- prise of the court, and the irrepressible laugh- ter of the auditory may be more readily imagin- ed than described.
Perhaps the most striking example of the kind, is an anecdote recorded of an Oxfordshire jailor, who accosted a prisoner condemned to thie gallows, thus -- my good friend I have a lit- tle favor to ask, which, from your obliging dispo- sition, I think you will hardly refuse. You are ordered for execution on Friday a week . I have a particular engagement on that day ; if it makes no difference to you, suppose we say next Fri- day instead !!!
Things in England.
In the Davenport Gazette of the 5th ult., I observe an interesting letter to the editor front his brother , J. Milton Sanders, now in Europe on tlie "Magnetic Light"' business. It is too long to transcribe for my columns. I subjoin however, one or two brief extracts whichi will in- terest us of Cincinnati. His own observations of the destitutions and sufferings of the poor in England, are not at all in accordance with the notions on that subject, in the United States .
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