Cincinnati, Ohio

“ Cincinnati is handsomely situated on a first and second bank of the Ohio, opposite Licking river. It is a flourishing town, has a rich, level, and well settled country around it. It contains about four hundred dwellings, an elegant court house, jail, three market houses, a land office for the sale of Congress lands, two printing offices, issuing weekly Gazettes, thirty mercantile stores, and the various branches of mechanism are carried on with spirit. Industry of every kind being duly encouraged by the citizens, Cincinnati is likely to become a considerable manufacturing place. ”

“ A strong head wind, meeting this surging tide, is lashing it into a white-capped fury. But lying to with paddle and oars, and dodging ferries and towing-tugs as best we may, Pilgrim bears us swiftly past the long line of steamers at the wharf, past Newport and Covington, and the insignificant Licking,A and out under great railway bridges which cobweb the sky. Soon Cincinnati, shrouded in smoke, has disappeared around the bend, and we are in the fast-thinning suburbs—homes of beer-gardens and excursion barges, havens for freight-flats, and villas of low and high degree. ”

“ While growing into greatness, Cincinnati did not forget, in the critical times of the Civil War, its honorable history as the former outpost of the Republic. Its trade was largely with the South, but sternly its citizens decided that arguments in favor of trade interests smacked of treason, and with stoic heroism closed the city to rebellion. And when Lew Wallace, fortifying Cincinnati to anticipate attack, called for volunteers, the whole community responded, and from the Ohio valleys came the sharp-shooting "squirrel hunters" in procession seemingly endless to defend the city. ”

“ Cincinnati even then laid claim to the title of Queen City of the West, and seemed to me to deserve it. It had already over two hundred thousand inhabitants. It occupied as fine a natural site as could well be found, rising gradually from the river to the hills that picturesquely enclosed it like an amphitheatre. It was regularly laid out in streets running parallel with and at right angles to the river. The streets adjoining the Ohio were solidly built up with business edifices, and those farther away with private residences. ”

“ It is superfluous to say that Cincinnati is situated on a "bend" of the Ohio, since the Ohio is nothing but bends, and anything that is situated upon it must be upon a bend. This river employs itself continually in writing the letter S upon the surface of the earth. At Cincinnati, the hills recede from the shore on each side of the river about a mile and a half, leaving space enough for a large town, but not for the great city of two hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants to which it has grown. ”

“ Cincinnati, the largest town in Ohio, is handsomely built, and surrounded by a range of fine wooded hills, which command a beautiful prospect. The plain on which it is situated occupies about four square miles; the height of the rising ground above the alluvial plain is about fifty feet. The population is much mixed, being composed of emigrants from all parts of the union, and most of the countries of Europe. Its progressive increase has been most wonderful. In 1813, Cincinnati numbered about four thousand inhabitants ”

“ The trade, especially the exports, formed a very large element of the business of Cincinnati. Birkbeck, writing in 1818, says, "Cincinnati is, however, a most thriving place, and backed as it is already by a great population and a most fruitful country, bids fair to be one of the first cities of the West. We are told, and we cannot doubt the fact, that the chief of what we see is the work of four years. The hundreds of commodious, well furnished brick houses; the spacious and busy markets; the substantial public buildings; the thousands of prosperous well dressed, industrious inhabitants ”

“ Cincinnati, the moral tone of which, the Ohio people say, is not fairly represented by its newspapers, is famous the world over for its cultivation in music and its progress in the fine and industrial arts. It would be possible for a State to have and be all this and yet rise in the general scale of civilization only to a splendid mediocrity, without the higher institutions of pure learning, and without a very high standard of public morality. ”

“ There are seven mayors about Cincinnati for the reasons following. On the southern bank of the Ohio, opposite the city, many large manufactories have found convenient sites, and thus the city of Covington has grown up, divided into two towns by the river Licking. ”

“ Situated on a north bend of the Ohio where commerce breaks bulk, Cincinnati rapidly developed, attracting both foreigners and Americans, among whom were not a few Negroes. Exactly how many persons of color were in this city during the first decade of the nineteenth century is not yet known. ”

“ The city of Cincinnati occupies a remarkable site, within a fine basin of hills, on the Ohio river, which had for its older occupants the remarkable people now referred to. But the growth of the modern city has swept away every vestige of their old earthworks ”

“ At midnight, at a signal given by the Vevay artillery, we took our leave of the citizens of Cincinnati, and embarked in the Herald to continue our journey. The general could hardly force himself away from the circle of his friends, nor could he cease from expressing his admiration at the prosperity of Cincinnati, and the state of Ohio, which he denominated the eighth wonder of the world. One cannot, in fact, avoid being struck with astonishment at the sight of such prodigious creations of liberty and industry, of which this state offers so many examples. ”

“ Towards ten o’clock in the morning we reached Cincinnati, four hundred and forty-nine miles from Pittsburgh, one hundred and thirty-one from Louisville, and fourteen hundred and eighty from New Orleans. It is situated on the right shore of the Ohio, and built at the foot of a hill, which is surrounded by a half circle of higher hills covered with forests. This city presents a very fine aspect. The hills on the opposite side likewise form a half circle, and in this manner the hill on which Cincinnati is built, lies as it were in a basin. On the left shore, the Licking river flows into the Ohio. ”

“ Cincinnati stands in the front rank of the manufacturing cities of America, and the secret of her financial success is that she has made what the people of Ohio and other States needed and were sure to buy. Receiving their products in return, and turning these to account, her merchants have made a double profit. ”

“ The educational institutions are of the highest order. They include the University of Cincinnati, which has associated with it the Cincinnati Hospital and the Cincinnati Observatory, the Ohio and Miami Medical Colleges, St. Joseph’s and St. Xavier’s Jesuit Colleges, the Law Theological Seminary, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and the Ohio Mechanics’ Institute.
Cincinnati is a center of musical and art culture, and its decorative pottery and wood-carving have a national reputation. It has a large river and canal traffic, and many railways converge here. ”

“ Clean hearts abound in Cincinnati, but not clean hands. The smoke deposits upon all surfaces a fine soot, especially upon men's woollen clothes, so that a man cannot touch his own coat without blackening his fingers. The stranger, for a day or two, keeps up a continual washing of his hands, but he soon sees the folly of it, and abandons them to their fate. A letter written at Cincinnati on a damp day, when the Stygian pall lies low upon the town, carries with it the odor of bituminous smoke to cheer the homesick son of Ohio at Calcutta or Canton. ”

“ Naturally the river town that was the most accessible to the agricultural areas became the shipping port. Cincinnati was the earliest clearing house for products that Ohio had to sell. Buying and selling are correlative transactions. A ready market stimulated a desire for things that were counted luxuries in the primitive days, consequently Cincinnati became a manufacturing town, and ever since it has been the leading manufacturing city of Ohio. ”

“ A town exists by supplying to the country about it the commodities which the country cannot procure for itself. In the infancy of the Ohio settlements, when it was still to be determined which of them would take the lead, the commodity most in request and hardest to be obtained was safety; and it was Cincinnati that was soonest able to supply this most universal object of desire. In December, 1788, fifteen or twenty men floated down the Ohio among the masses of moving ice, and, landing upon the site of Cincinnati, built cabins, and marked out a town. ”

“ Ohio were enough to fill the full quota of seventy-five thousand men allotted to the entire country.
The people of Ohio, and especially some in Cincinnati, became indignant at the muddle in which Kentucky had placed herself, causing Cincinnati to occupy an extra-hazardous position. The Governors of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois foresaw the tempting prize Cincinnati would be to the Confederates, and early urged the policy of seizing Louisville, Paducah, Columbus, Covington, Newport and the railroads. ”

“ CINCINNATI, a city and the county-seat of Hamilton county, Ohio, U.S.A., on the Ohio river, opposite the mouth of the Licking, about 100 m. S.W. of Columbus, about 305 m. by rail S.E. of Chicago, and about 760 m. (by rail) W.S.W. of New York. Through the city flows Mill Creek, which empties into the Ohio. Pop. (1890 [1] ) 296,908; (1900) 325,902, of whom 197,896 were of foreign parentage (i.e. either their fathers or mothers or both were foreign-born) , 57,961 were foreign-born, and 14,482 were negroes; (1910) 363,591. The German is by far the most important of the foreign elements. ”

“ The manufacturing industry contributed largely to the growth of this town. In 1814 the 'Register' speaks of Cincinnati as being "the busiest town in Ohio, and except Pittsburg, and Lexington, the greatest place of manufacturing in the western country." [544] In 1826 the manufacturing industry of this city amounted to $1,800,000, not more than fifteen steam engines being employed in manufactures. [545] In 1830 the 'Register' speaks of this city as follows: "Cincinnati, 'the queen of the West' goes on rapidly to increase in population and wealth. ”

“ Adams incline, but the five girls managed to keep from being separated. Arrived at the top of the hill, they stopped to breathe in the fresh air and admire the beautiful landscape—the Kentucky hills far away in the distance, with the beautiful Ohio flowing placidly at their feet; Cincinnati, in its hill-encircled cup, making, with Covington and Newport and the various smaller villages, part of one great whole, linked by the bridges across the Ohio and the Licking. ”

“ The offer of free lots to original settlers did not give Cincinnati pre-eminence, for similar lures were held out by other aspiring communities along the Ohio; nor will it be seriously contended that the location there of Fort Washington, although this made the spot the headquarters of the American army in the Northwest, gave Cincinnati a superior start, for the sense of security expected because of the presence of the United States garrison was not abiding. ”

“ The Kentucky side, to-day, from Covington out, has been thoroughly rustic, seldom broken by settlement; while Ohio has given us a succession of suburban towns all the way out to North Bend (482 miles) , which is a small manufacturing place, lying on a narrow bottom at the base of a convolution of gentle, wooded hills. One sees that Cincinnati has a better and a broader base; North Bend was handicapped by nature, in its early race. ”

“ As heavily as the blow has fallen upon many of his flock, the only blame they impute to the dead prelate is that of most faulty judgment and general incapacity in financial affairs. The most singular part of it all was that the difficulties should have remained so long undiscovered, until such an immense amount of property was involved.
Cincinnati's commerce is very extended, and so are her manufacturing interests. Steamboats from all points on the Mississippi and the Ohio lay up at her levee, which extends five or six miles around the bank of the river in front of the city. ”

“ The Negroes of Cincinnati Prior to the Civil War
The study of the history of the Negroes of Cincinnati is unusually important for the reason that from no other annals do we get such striking evidence that the colored people generally thrive when encouraged by their white neighbors. This story is otherwise significant when we consider the fact that about a fourth of the persons of color settling in the State of Ohio during the first half of the last century made their homes in this city. ”

“ The efficiency of these departments is promoted by extensive fire-alarm and police telegraphic lines. The city is supplied with water obtained by pumping from the Ohio river by means of three immense reservoirs, two of which, with a capacity of 100,000,000 gallons each, are in Eden Park. Beside the usual municipal and county courts, the United States circuit and district courts for the southern district of Ohio are held in the city.
Cincinnati has a large number and variety of well-organized charitable institutions. ”

“ Commerce will thus be more equally divided, and Cincinnati cannot always expect to continue as it has hitherto been, the staple of the trade to the southward of the Ohio. The merchant possessed of a moderate capital, if he consult his interest, will not establish himself at Cincinnati, but at one of the intermediate places of the above-mentioned three canals. The farmer has eligible spots in the Tuscarora valleys, about New Lancaster, Columbus, Franklintown, Pickaway, Chilicathe, and especially in the Sandusky counties on lake Erie. ”