USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > The Cincinnati pioneer > Part 6
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The news of the battle of the 8th of January, 1815, at New Orleans, fought and won by "Old Hickory," reached our village, and what a glorification our people had! Some now present will remember the illumination, the grand procession that moved down Main Street, with a bull manacled, and appropriately decorated.
Another month or more brought news of peace, made before the great battle of the 8th was fought; and then another grand illumina- tion of our village. What a joyous time we boys had! How we equipped ourselves with paper soldier-caps, with red belts and wooden swords, and marched under command of our brave captain as far as Western Row, now Central Avenue, where we reached the woods, and, for fear of Indians, returned to our mammas, reporting on the return march to old Major-General Gano, who, after putting us through a drill, gave each boy a fip to purchase gingerbread, baked by a vener- able member, formerly President of this Association.
Following the war, inflated prices came tumbling down ; men broke in large numbers, and banks broke. For a few years, it seemed as though our town would have to go into liquidation. Before 1820, the country was flooded with the notes of irresponsible private banks. Traders and others issued their small notes of twenty-five cents and
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upward, called "shinplasters," redeemable in dry goods, groceries, or in something to drink. The little silver in circulation was converted into what was termed "cut money." A Spanish pistareen, worth seventeen or eighteen cents, was cut into six pieces, representing double the value in silver of the pistareen ; and so with quarters and half-dollars. A meal at a tavern was to be had for twenty-five cents in this cut money, and for one dollar or more in paper,
It was during this period that the credit of our merchants with the East sank lower than ever before or since. Cincinnati's want of credit was proverbial throughout the Eastern States and cities. But a better day came ; and for the past thirty or forty years the credit of the business-men of no city stood higher, if so high, as those of Cincin- nati. The merchants, manufacturers, and business men generally have passed through the panics of 1837, 1854, 1857, and 1873 with fewer failures than any other large city in our country.
In 1819 .or '20, we had our first bank-mob. A procession was formed in the upper part of town, and marched down Main Street. A large number of drays helped to form the column. On one of them was .a black coffin, on which was painted in large letters, "Miami Bank no more." ' The military were stationed in front of the bank, which was on Front Street, near Sycamore Street, fearing violence to it. The procession reached Front Street without interruption. When opposite the mayor's office, which stood on the south-east corner of Main and Front Streets, our worthy mayor, Isaac G. Burnet, on his crutches, placed himself at the head of the procession, and from the statute-book read the Riot Act. Such a sudden stampede was never before seen in our town.
Between the years 1820 and 1830, Cincinnati took a new start. The Miami Canal was commenced. This gave an impetus to all business, and real estate recovered as well as advanced. The occa- sion of digging the first spadeful of earth of the Miami Canal was one of importance to our city. Governor DeWitt Clinton came from New York to perform the ceremony, in connection with Governor Morrow, of Ohio. This was in the year 1825. Middletown was selected as the point of commencement. Our military companies, the Hussars and Cincinnati Guards, escorted the governor to the place selected. While here, he was quartered with Colonel Mack, at the old Cincinnati Hotel.
A short time previous to this, the friends of Henry Clay, in Cin- cinnati, had invited him here to see our city, and to partake of a public dinner. There were present at this dinner one or two hundred of our
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citizens, besides Mr. Clay, Governors Clinton, Brown, and Morrow. Governor. Poindexter was also in the city, but was prevented from being present. Although then an apprentice-boy of nineteen years, I managed to raise three dollars, and attended the dinner. The sight of so many distinguished characters seated at a table, which crossed the ends of three or four longer ones, was a novel one to me, and I fancied myself in the presence of giants, until after the wine was freely drank, the cloth removed, smoking commenced, and speeches and story-telling became the order. Then I thought, to use the language of Governor Vance, "Most great men look smaller the nearer you get to them."
To forward the work of internal improvement, as well as to pro- mote education in our State, Cincinnati sent to the General Assembly as representatives her able and practical Micajah T. Williams, and Nathan Guilford, the pioneer friend of common-schools. The canal and common-school laws of the State resulted from the union of the friends of each of these measures.
In the same year (1825), in the month of May, Cincinnati had a visit from General Lafayette, accompanied by his son. The occasion brought here thousands from the country. All within a circuit of a hundred miles seemed to be here. Lafayette approached our city from Lexington, Kentucky, where he had been to visit Henry Clay. He was met and welcomed at our landing by Governor Morrow and General Harrison. The whole public ground between Main Street and Broadway, and Front Street and the river, was densely crowded with men, women, and children, and the windows, balconies, and roofs of the buildings fronting the river were alive with people waving their welcome. After tarrying in our city from noon of one day to midnight of the next, he departed up the river. The day of his arrival, as well as that which followed, and his departure at midnight, will be remem- bered, by those who witnessed the scenes, as long as their memories last. All was grand; but the closing scene, at twelve o'clock at night, with the illumination on both sides of the river, the crowd of many thousands of our people on the landing, the beautiful display made by all the steamboats in port, the procession of military companies, the firing of cannon from our landing, from the boats, and from the arsenal at Newport, with the martial music, seems to me, after the lapse of fifty years, the most brilliant sight of my life.
It was not until 1830 that Cincinnati gave evidence of becoming a great city, though she had been incorporated as early as 1819. In
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1820, her population was 9,602 ; in 1826, 16,230; in 1830, 24,831. In 1825 and 1826, she was undergoing the severe ordeal of paying off " old debts." Through the branch bank established here by the United States Bank, during the years of inflation and extravagance which preceded this period, most of the large real estate owners had become almost hopelessly in debt, and large portions of their property had been taken by the United States Bank, and subsequently sold at an advance. Some few obtained the right of redemption, and, by bor- rowing money in New York and Philadelphia, succeeded in saving their estates ; but many, if not a majority of their debtors, went under. Interest ranged from ten to thirty-six per cent, and there was no legal limit. At this period the valuation of the property listed for taxation in our city was $6,848,433, not more than some half-dozen or less of our citizens combined are now worth.
The opening of the Miami Canal, in the year 1828, gave new life to all "business. Real estate again advanced, and those who had money to invest reaped a harvest. It has been said that Cincinnati never went backward. This is true as regards population, but not as to value of real estate. Once, and once only, did her real estate recede decidedly in its market or salable value. This was during the ten years preceding the opening of the Miami Canal-as, for instance, 740 feet front by 100 deep, on Seventh Street, south side, running west from Central Avenue, sold at public sale, in 1817, for $4,000, and was purchased at private sale, in 1827, for $2,100, about $3 per front foot -- now worth $300 a front foot.
Prior to the opening of the canal, the city depended on the river and mud roads for its daily provisions. Occasionally, during a mild and open Winter, the mud roads would become impassable for wagons, and the people were subjected to short allowance.
In the year 1831, our first Macadam road was built, and it was soon followed by others. It was in the year 1835 that the first rail- road was proposed. Seven years later, the pioneer Little Miami road was opened in part.
The year 1832 was the most notable in Cincinnati. First the city was visited by a great conflagration, extending from below Third Street to where the Commercial Bank now stands. Next came the flood of the Ohio River, which covered all the city below Third Street. This was accompanied with, and followed by, a partial famine. The greater portion of flour and other provisions had been kept below high-water mark. Some few, more successful than others, had suc-
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ceeded in raising their stocks of flour to upper stories. But, then, what exorbitant prices they demanded, and would have obtained but for the denunciation of an independent press ! Later in the year, and following the fire, flood, and famine, came the dreaded pestilence, the Asiatic cholera, which carried more of our population to their graves than have any of its visitations since, notwithstanding our then small population of twenty-five thousand.
One of the results of the cholera was a large number of orphans. The ladies of Cincinnati found an occasion for their efforts in caring for the unfortunates. With funds placed in their hands by the Masonic lodges, and others of the city, they founded the Cincinnati Orphan Asylum. The city gave them the use of a building on the ground now occupied for the beautiful Lincoln Park.
About the period of the opening of the Little Miami Railroad, our Whitewater Canal was put in operation ; and it was a question in our City Council which of the two was to confer the greater benefits on our city. Aid had been extended to both by the city and individuals, on the same principle that subscriptions were made to churches and school-houses, without expectation of pecuniary return.
The struggle of the officers of the Little Miami Company to carry on their work, the then young civil engineers can best record. They could tell how often, when pay-day came, how many cattle were butchered and distributed to the laborers-cattle which had been received in payment of the farmers' subscriptions to capital stock. They could also tell how the men of the "shovel and the pick" sur- rounded the house of honest William Lewis, the treasurer, demanding money from an empty treasury, calling him every kind of hard name, until he was forced in search of his president, in order to resign, saying, "These men, when I tell them I have no money, call me liar and scoundrel so often, and so earnestly, that I begin to think that I am what they call me-and I must resign."
I will not compare our early railroad building with those con- structed in the past ten or fifteen years, further than to say that once they were built for the benefit of the stockholder and the public; but . for ten or more years past, in too many cases, the officers and con- tractors have been the parties that have made their fortunes. This has led to the construction of railroads in advance of business to sup- port them, creating unhealthy competition, and rendering investments in most of them unprofitable. Nothing short of a ten-years' rest in building will bring them to paying institutions generally.
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I have spoken of the great difficulties encountered in building the Little Miami, our first railroad into Cincinnati; and it is proper I should add, that it ultimately attained a high standing among the rail- roads of the country for its usefulness, its management, and its ample returns to stockholders.
It may be expected I should say something of the second railroad built in our city-the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton, or the Great Miami Railroad.
When this road was commenced, in 1848, the question as to the superiority of railroads over canals had been settled in the public mind, and there was no such difficulty in raising funds as had been experienced by the Little Miami Company. The bonds of roads then under way-such as the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati, Cleve- land and Pittsburg, Lake-shore. and others-were negotiated in New York, so as to net from eighty to eighty-five cents on the dollar. County, town, and township subscriptions to capital stock were readily obtained, and railroads were built with comparative ease.
The Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad, however, was built without the aid of any such subscriptions. Its stock and bonds were sold at par, without the employment of New York or other brokers. Such was the faith at home in the enterprise, that within a month a cash subscription of three-fourths of a million was made by our merchants, manufacturers, and other citizens. New York capi- talists took the remaining stock and the first issue of bonds at par.
This was the first instance in which Western railroad securities had found a market in New York without making heavy sacrifices, and it took the New York City brokers by surprise at its presumption and success.
The road was placed under contract, and built in a little over a year's time. It was opened on the 19th of September, 1851, and for `twenty years or more promptly met all its obligations, and, after paying interest on bonds, made fair average dividends to its stockholders.
The third railroad built to our city was the Ohio and Mississippi ; and next follows the Indianapolis and Cincinnati, the Cincinnati and Baltimore, the Cincinnati and Louisville; and, last, the Dayton and Springfield. Covington and Lexington, or the Kentucky Central, should have been mentioned in the order of time, though its terminus · is not in our city.
As a general proposition, the roads terminating in Cincinnati are not now prosperous and dividend-paying institutions. Why this should
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be so, when their facilities are so fully taxed with business, is a question not easily solved.
Cincinnati, like all other railroad centers, has been largely bene- fited by her roads. They connect her with all portions of our coun- try -- East, West, North, and somewhat indirectly with the South. Within a short time, it is hoped by our citizens to have a more direct connection to the South. This will doubtless add greatly to our business.
I am not, however, one of those who think the future growth of our city depends on one railroad. For fifty years I have watched its progress, and during the greater part of that time have expended my means, time, and energies to promote its prosperity. I have witnessed its ups and its downs, its growth from two thousand to about three hundred thousand inhabitants, including its surroundings and depend- encies, until it has acquired a strength within itself to grow to further greatness, even though we fail to build a railroad on the most direct line to any one section of our great country.
Much injury, I believe, has been done to our city by the preva- lence of the sentiment that we must retrograde, and become compar- atively a village, without a road more directly to the South. So much has been said, written, and published to this effect in the last few years, that capitalists from abroad, desiring to make investments, have passed by our city as one that has already attained its full growth.
How different a sentiment has been encouraged in Chicago ! There the infant is taught, even before it can say its prayers, to repeat the words, "Great is Chicago!" Here our people have been taught to say, "Without the most direct route opened to the South, we are all going to destruction."
I have said Cincinnati has an internal strength that will carry her forward to greatness. That strength consists mainly in her manufac- tures, for which her location, so near to the raw material, gives her pre-eminent advantages. Her means of communication, by railroads and by rivers, with all the great markets for manufactured articles, are not behind other cities.
Forty years ago, the great statesman and orator, Henry Clay, in a speech made to the citizens of Lexington, on his return from Wash- ington, remarked, "I have always been at a loss to understand why the growth of Cincinnati should have so far exceeded that of Lexing- ton." Mr. Charles Hammond, the editor of the Gazette, in comment- ing on the speech, said if Mr. Clay would pass a week in Cincinnati,
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the why and wherefore of Cincinnati's growth would be understood by him ; that he would take him through our manufactories in the heart of the city, and into the small one-story houses of mechanics in our suburbs, where work in a small way was done, and show him that we had a people that produced far more than they consumed, and had abundance to export; in short, that Cincinnati had but few idlers. Therein lies the strong foundation of Cincinnati; and it will continue for the next century to stand and prosper upon it, long after all those present, and their children, shall have passed away.
Thus far I have spoken of the material wealth and growth of our city. I will now only refer to her institutions of learning, of art, and of science ; of her many noble church edifices ; of her medical colleges; her Mechanics' Institute, her Expositions, her benevolent institutions, her hospitals and asylums, her Children's Home, and her Widow's Home ; her relief Union, and her Union Bethel; her noble system of common-schools, and of her university; her Mercantile and Public Libraries, not surpassed by any in the country. With these various institutions and public charities, all are familiar ; and it is necessary only to allude to them.
To show, however, the advance made since 1830 in our common- schools, it may be stated that in 1830 the average number of teachers required was twenty-two, at a cost of $5,190 per annum; in 1872, five hundred and ten teachers, at a cost of $419,713 per annum.
In the years 1810, 1811, and 1812, I recollect of but three or four small schools. A Mr. Thomas H. Wright kept one in the second story of a frame building on the south-west corner of Main and Sixth Streets. The stairs to the school-room were on the outside of the house, on Sixth Street. . John Hilton had his school on the east side of Main, between Fifth and Sixth Streets, over a cabinetmaker's shop; David Cathcart, on the west side of Walnut, near Fourth Street. The scholars at each school probably averaged about forty.
There was a custom in those early days, when the boys wanted a holiday, to join in "barring out" the schoolmaster. Providing them- selves with some provisions, they would take the opportunity, when the schoolmaster was out at noon, to fasten the windows, and bolt and doubly secure the door, so as to prevent Mr. Schoolmaster from obtaining entrance.
In the years 1811 and 1812, my father lived nearly opposite the school of Mr. Wright, and I remember, on one occasion, to have seen him on his stairs, fretting, scolding, threatening the boys, and demand-
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ing entrance; but to no purpose, except on their terms ; namely, a day's holiday and a treat to apples, cider, and gingercakes. There are, probably, those present who attended this school.
There was still another custom among Western school-boys in the early days of Cincinnati. At that time every one who came from east of the mountains was called a Yankee, whether from Maryland or New England. The first appearance of the Yankee boy at school, and during intermission, was the time for the Yankee to be whipped out of him. When I first witnessed the operation, I was too small to be whipped ; but my elder brothers caught it. Not long afterward, I helped to whip the Yankee out of the Hon. Caleb B. Smith and his brothers, who came from Boston.
I will bring my recollections to a close by making a few contrasts between the
PAST AND PRESENT IN CINCINNATI.
1810 -- Latest news from Europe sixty to ninety days old.
In 1870 --- News published in the London Times at six A. M., is republished in Cincinnati dailies at same hour of same day.
1810-A journey from New York to Cincinnati, by vessel to Phila- delphia, Conestoga wagon to Pittsburg, and a keel-boat down the Ohio, made in sixty days.
In 1870-Made in less than thirty hours.
ISIo -- A journey to New Orleans by barge, keel-boat, or broad- horn, and return to Cincinnati on horseback through the Indian country, made in from three to four months.
In 1870-By steamboat from Cincinnati to New Orleans and return in fifteen days, and by railroad in four days.
1810 -- To Columbus, Ohio, in six or eight days, according to the season and depth of mud:
In 1870-Eight or nine hours to go and return. ! 1810-To Dayton, from two to four days.
In 1870-In two and a half hours.
From 1810 to 1835 -- The Ramage, Wells, and Washington presses would print two hundred and fifty sheets an hour.
In 1870-The cylinder steam-presses, fifteen thousand sheets an hour.
. In 1826-The first daily paper in all the country west of Phila- delphia was published in Cincinnati by S. S. Brooks. It ran its race in four months.
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In 1827-The second daily, the Gazette, which still prospers in its old age, although at its commencement it had but one hundred and twenty-five subscribers.
In 1836-The first power-press was brought west of the Allegha- nies for the Cincinnati Gasette. It was an "Adains press," built in Boston, and run by hand-power turning a fly-wheel. Could print seven hundred and fifty sheets an hour.
In 1843 -- The first steam-power printing-press, made by Robert Hoe, was brought to the Mississippi Valley for the Cincinnati Gazette.
1810-When fires occurred, every one able to labor was required to be on hand with his long, leather fire-bucket, and form in line to the river, to pass buckets with water to the fire. Every householder was required to keep one of these hung up, marked, and ready for instant use.
In 1870-Cincinnati, with her steam fire-engines and well-ordered fire department, excels that of any other city.
1810-Our streets, a large portion of the year, were covered with dust six inches deep, and at other times with mud much deeper, so that there were but two or three points at which Main Street could be crossed by foot-passengers.
In 1870-The foot-passenger can cross at any point without soiling his stockings, if he wear boots or high shoes.
1810-Our preachers, in some cases, gave us sermons from one and a half to two hours long, and sometimes took an intermission of fifteen minutes, and went on with their discourse.
In 1870-A sermon over half an hour in delivery not generally acceptable.
1810 -- Fashionable parties were given in the afternoon, from five . to nine o'clock.
In 1870-Between ten P. M., and two A. M.
1810 -- Cincinnati had a population of two thousand.
In 1870-Including its surroundings and dependencies, one of three hundred thousand, and growing.
1810-Public officers, contractors, councilmen, aldermen, con- gressmen, and senators were generally honest.
In 1870-For contrast, see the newspapers, of all parties, all over the country.
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RESPONSE BY MAYOR JOHNSTON.
I OBSERVED, by the public journals, that my presence was expected on this occasion, and that a gentleman, for a life-time known in the annals of this city, and who had filled some of the highest positions in commercial and in business life, was assigned the duty of my presen- tation. Upon such public notice, and from my great regard for the objects of this Society, I therefore appear before you.
I return you my profound thanks for the honor you have extended, by introducing me to the surviving representatives of those who were the founders of the city of Cincinnati, and consequently among the earliest settlers of the State of Ohio. I am aware of the fact that .this distinguished privilege is given me not from personal merit, but as the Chief Executive of the Cincinnati of to-day. And I will add, that not the least of the few pleasures which I have derived from holding a position which in general confers no delights, is the oppor- tunity to be introduced to this distinguished Society.
I am frequently called upon to. respond to "The City of Cincin- nati." In this Society such a response from me would be altogether out of place. Here are the men and women who, knowing Cincinnati as it is now, were well acquainted with it for a quarter of a century before I was born. And this is my native city. I, therefore, as a junior, and entertaining the old-time respect, appear before my seniors with humility, only desiring to take a back seat, and listen to the inter- esting reminiscenses which such a meeting as this is calculated to inspire. If I were gifted as an orator, this would not be an oppor- tunity in which to exercise the vocation. Pioneers of Ohio,-deeds speak louder than words. You have spoken by results, and the results are more eloquent than even Cicero or Demosthenes. Here is the city, here is the State, that you have founded; and a merciful Providence, singling you out from the great mass of your contempo- raries, has permitted you to live to witness its surprising and extraor- dinary development. What, in Europe, was the slow growth of centuries has been crowded into your single lives. Were there no books and no chronicles of the fact, the present generation would be incredulous if told that there were men and women here who remembered Cincin- nati when it was a straggling village, and when Ohio, long the third State of the Union, with its near three millions of people, was what Nebraska is now.
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