(RETURN TO THE TITLE PAGE) HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO - 151 study and was ordained to the ministry by the Presbytery of Transylvania. His first pastorate was over the Bardstown and Big Spring Presbyterian churches in 1804, when he was thirty years old. In June, 1808, he took charge of the First Presbyterian church in Cincinnati and remained pastor thereof during the long term of almost thirty-eight years, or until his death March 14, 1846, in the seventy-second year of his age and the forty-second of his ministry. His remains rest in Spring Grove Cemetery, and his memory is an abiding part of the annals of religion in Cincinnati. The Hon. E. D. Mansfield, in one of his publications, bears the following testimony to the character of Dr. Wilson : The city he found a village of one thousand inhabitants, and left it, at his death, with one hundred thousand. In this period Dr. Nilson maintained throughout the same uniform character and the same inflexible firmness in principle. He was a man of ardent temperament, with great energy and decision of character. The principles he once adopted he held with indomitable courage and unyielding tenacity. He was not only a Presbyterian, but one of the strictest sect. It is not strange, therefore, that he contended with earnestness for what he thought the faith once delivered to the saints, and that in this he sometimes appeared as much of the soldier as the saint. In consequence of these characteristics, many persons supposed him a harsh or bigoted man. But this was a mistake, unless to be in earnest is harshness, and to maintain one's principles bigotry. On the contrary, Dr. Wilson was kind, charitable, and in those things he thought right, liberal. Among these was the great cause of popular education. Of this he was a most zealous advocate, but demanded that education should be founded on religion, and the Bible should be a primary element in all public education. In 1827 the church was considerably remodeled and improved. The next year was characterized by a very great and notable revival, which had the honor of a day of commemoration service a half century later, when about fifty persons converted under its influences were still living, and about half of these were present. In the sermon preached on that occasion by the Rev. Dr. S. R. Wilson, of Louisville, son of the pastor of 1808-46, who was a boy of ten years at the time of the revival, and was one of its converts, he presented the following interesting reminiscences: Let us represent to our minds some of the more striking features of the city at that time and of this place, where occurred that mighty work of the Spirit and Word of God. You must dismiss from your mind all the magnificence of to-day ; reduce its population, and imagining this beautiful plateau covered to a large extent with trees, dotted with houses and garden-plats, while the environment of hills is covered with woods that form a beautiful background. The streets were shaded, and the heat which we now feel from building and pavement was not felt then. 'Fake away this building and the surrounding buildings, and place there (to the right) a large sp ice surrounded by tombs and tombstone, among which children played till the bell called them into the church. The church building accommodated one thousand two hundred persons on the lower flour ; five hundred or six hundred more could be given r00m in the broad and long aisle, while the gallery had sittings for one thousand two hundred or one thousand five hundred. The pulpit was almost as high as the choir, and back of it was a vestry-room for prayer-meetings and Sunday school. During the winter of 1827-8 more than ordinary religious interest was manifest in the church assemblies, and at a meeting of the. Cincinnati Presbytery early in April it was unanimously resolved: First—That the member's of this Presbytery will spend a portion of time in special-prayer between sunset and dark, every evening. Second--That those who have not already engaged their people in this agreement will use their best endeavors to do so. Third—That twilight prayer shall have for its objects revivals of religion in our own hearts, in our families and churches through all this country, and throughout the whole world, that the kingdoms of this world may become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. Soon afterwards the assistance of two Tennessee clergymen—the Rev. Messrs. James Gallaher and Frederick A. Ross, who were doing successful evangelistic work in Kentucky—was obtained, and they came about the middle of June. Both were effective preachers; but one of them, as in the later days of Moody and Sankey, Whittle and Bliss, and other pairs of lay-preachers, had a power' ful auxiliary in a splendid voice for singing. What followed is best told in the words of Mr. Ross, in a letter which he wrote from Huntsville, Alabama, for the commemoration service, when he was in his eighty-second year : From Wednesday, when we began, until Monday, there was, seemingly to us, not the slightest impression made, and, being totally discouraged, we told Dr. Wilson Monday morning, after breakfast, we had made up our minds to go back to Kentucky the next day, if the meeting that night should be so thinly attended and so without life as the previous ones had been. Dr. Wilson then suggested that the "anxious seat" had never been tried in Ohio, and that he had been afraid of it. But he was now persuaded, from the prudent way we had used it, to see what effect it would have that night. Accordingly, after the sermon, he, I well remember, placed a chair in front of the pulpit, stood on it, and simply said in substance that he had told us that he had made up his mind to try the measure. Gallaher then gave one of his rousing appeals. Twenty came. The spirit was in Cincinnati. He had heard the Macedonian cry and had come over the river. The next morning there was an inquirers' meeting at nine o'clock, in Dr. Wilson's house, when it was determined that at the night service we would defer the appeal to the impenitent, and request Christians of the church to come, who felt they had backslidden or were cold in duty. Of course when the call was made the very best members were soon on the bench—Mr. Wilson the first one. The effect, as expected, was great and delightful. That huge building showed that night the interest already felt. We had to go Wednesday to Maysville, Kentucky, but engaged to lecture on the Tuesday following. We did so, and the Wednesday thereafter we began our work in Cincinnati in the moral certainty that the city was moved. That Wednesday was the Fourth of July. But God had ordered, and every soldier and all the patriotic gunpowder rejoicings went boldly out of town, and it was calmer than any other day, hardly a shop open, and every one free to hear the gospel under conditions most favorable. Suffice, the meeting, preaching, and inquiries went on with great power. The church was filled, floors and galleries, and a little court, leading from a side door into the street, was frequently so jammed 'twas hard to get in or out. On the next Sabbath one hundred and fifty were admitted to the First church, and, I think, about the same number the next Sabbath in the Second church. I can not recall, for I write entirely from memory, how many weeks we were in Cincinnati and the neighborhood, spending one series of meetings in Dayton. But 'tis my impression, when we finally took our leave, five hundred, or thereabouts, had made profession in Cincinnati alone. On Sunday, July 27th, fifteen persons had been received into the First church by letter, eighty upon the knowledge had of them as occasional communicants in the church, and three hundred and thirty-three on profession of their faith—nearly or quite all as a result of this revival. The congregations had frequently numbered three thousand, which was then one-seventh of the entire population of the city. The church had now over six hundred communicants. The church building now occupied by this society on Fourth street, a few doors west of Main, near but not upon the site of its other churches, was built in 1853, at 152 - HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO. a cost of sixty thousand dollars. Its most remarkable feature is a lofty spire, two hundred and eighty-five feet high —ten feet higher than that of Trinity church, New York—surmounted by a huge gilt hand, pointing heavenward. During 1880 the audience-room of this house was thoroughly repaired and refitted. The records of the Second Presbyterian church, of Cincinnati, begin January 29, 1816, although its organization was not completed until the next year. It was at first mainly a colony from the First church, and included in the society, then or subsequently, some of the most solid men in the city, as Judge Jacob Burnet, Martin Baum, John H. Groesbeck, Timothy S. Goodman, John T. Drake, Jonathan Bates, Nathaniel Wright, Henry Starr, and the like. Of the first eleven members, however, only four were men. The society worshipped in various places about the city, at private houses and schoolrooms, for about two years. In 1817-18 a small frame house was put up for the church near the northeast corner of Walnut and Fifth streets. Modest and inexpensive as was this building, its erection was not accomplished without trouble and anxiety. Once the work stopped for want of lumber, of which there was none in the city. At a prayer-meeting soon after, the Lord's help to forward the work was earnestly asked, and the next morning the eyes of the brethren were gladdened with the sight of a raft of lumber in the river, from which an ample supply was obtained very cheaply. The purchase of a lot of window-sash at half-price, which the contractor for the new court-house had upon his hands, also aided to get the. house up rapidly and at small cost. The society was formally incorporated on the 11th of February, 1829, and laid the corner-stone of a new church on the following 13th of May. A lot had been bought on the south side of Fourth street, between Vine and Race, from the Bank of the United States, for five thousand dollars, and the building itself cost thirty thousand dollars, which was raised with much difficulty. Indeed, much of it was not raised for years after the building was erected and occupied. Only one out of four installments for the ground had been paid when the last fell due, May r, 1831. The bank obtained judgment in ejectment, but allowed the church to remain; and in January, 1838, a deed was given by the society and note and mortgage given for the balance due, then amounting to four thousand three hundred and sixty-seven dollars. The building, however, went up with reasonable speed, was dedicated May 2o, 183o, and occupied for forty-two years, or until April 28, 1872, when, with fitting memorial services, it was abandoned for the fine edifice now used, on the southwest corner of Eighth and Elm streets. Among the earliest preachers to this church were the Revs. Samuel Robinson, William Arthur, and John Thomson, father of Rev. Dr. W. M. Thomson, the distinguished Syrian missionary and writer upon the Holy Land. The application of the church to the presbytery for a minister to supply them, included the offer of a salary of five hundred and fifty dollars a year. Rev. David Root was the first settled pastor, He was called September 4, 1819, but did not take up his work here for more than a year, remaining then continuously until the spring of 183o. He was paid, nominally, one thousand dollars per year, but is not believed to have realized more than two-thirds of that amount, at a coin valuation. Dr. Lyman Beecher, president of Lane Seminary, was the next pastor, and underwent his trial for heresy, upon the prosecution of the Rev. Dr. Wilson, in his own church building. During his pastorate of nearly eleven years, five hundred and forty persons were admitted to the church, two hundred and forty of them on profession of faith. Beecher was then in the prime of his splendid powers—"original and somewhat peculiar," says Mr. Wright in his Memorial Address, from which we abridge this narrative, "both in manner and thought. In preaching, his most striking passages seemed the inspira-. tion of the moment—when he raised his spectacles to his forehead and his sparkling eyes to the audience, and something came forth which struck us like electricity. He was deeply reverential at heart, though sometimes his strong, abrupt language seemed almost to belie it; as on one occasion I remember he said in prayer, 'O Lord, keep us from despising our rulers, and keep them from acting so that we can't help it.'" Later pastors were: The Revs. John P. Cleveland, August 2, 1843, to December, 1845; Samuel W. Fisher, April, 1847, to July, 1848, when he resigned to take the presidency of Hamilton College; M. L. P. Thompson, March, 1859, to May, 1865; James L. Robertson, May, 1867, to November, 187o; and Thomas H. Skinner, D. D., the present incumbent of the pastorate, who was called July 12, 1871, and entered upon his duties with the church in the ensuing November. The additions to the church, from its beginnings until April r, 1872, were one thousand eight hundred and seventy-six, including eight hundred and forty-seven on profession. Its benevolent contributions, for ten years ending April r, 1857, reached the large sum of seventy thousand six hundred dollars, and for ten subsequent years seventy thousand and ninety dollars. In addition over nine thousand dollars a year was raised, during part of this time, for the regular expenses of the church. The George street Presbyterian church, afterwards the Seventh street, was colonized from this church in the spring of 1843. The church on Poplar street, near Freeman, is the outgrowth of a mission school, established, with several others, by the Young Men's Home Missionary society, which originated in the Second church in 1848. Mr. William H. Neff was its first president. Its labors were then directed to the support of a missionary in Iowa; but when his work became self-supporting the society devoted its energies to the founding of mission schools in the city and other useful labors. The Ladies' City Missionary society is of this church. The Young Men's Bible society also originated with it; and the Young Men's Christian Union, as well as other religious and charitable enterprises in the city, has been greatly aided by its members. The Sunday-school of the church has been a strong arm from the beginning. It numbered about three hundred when its first report was HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO - 153 made to the Sunday-school Union fifty-three years ago (1827). A second Sabbath-school, for afternoon sessions, was organized in February, 187o. A German mission-school was established at the corner of Thirteenth and Walnut streets in 1846, and numbered among its early superintendents Messrs. E. S. Padgett and Peter R. Neff, and Dr. W. H. Mussey. Other mission-school enterprises have been successfully undertaken from time to time, independent of those under the auspices of the Young Men's Home Missionary society. The Third Presbyterian church was an offshoot from the First in the early part of 1829. The meeting of the session of the First, to grant letters to such as wished to join the new organization, was held January 22d, of that year. Two elders and about forty others from that church formed the colony which started the Third, which erected a building on Second street. The First Presbyterian Church on Walnut Hills was founded in 1819. The Rev. Peter H. Kemper, a relative of James Kemper, the pioneer preacher in Cincinnati, was the first pastor, and for many years the pastorate was held by members of the Kemper family. The Lane Seminary Presbyterian church, organized in 1831, was united with this January 6, 1879, by a committee of Presbytery consisting of the Rev. Drs. J. G. Monfort and Z. M. Humphrey, and the late Elder A. H. Hinkle. The corner stone of the new edifice for this church was laid September 13, 188o, on the northeast corner of Gilbert avenue and Locust street. The membership of the church is about three hundred. Rev. George H. Fullerton is the present pastor. In June, 1845, the general assembly of the Presbyterian church met in Cincinnati for its second meeting in the west. About two hundred ministers and delegates were present, "generally fine looking men," said Mr. Cist in his Miscellany, "with much less of the rigorous Scotch and Scotch-Irish cast of features than might be expected from the great element of their descent. METHODISM.* As we have seen above, Presbyterianism was first of all denominational religions on the ground in Cincinnati. For about thirteen years thereafter no Methodist church was organized in the village. But in 1798 one of the vigorous, rugged pioneer preachers, the Rev. John Kobler, presiding elder of a district in Kentucky, embracing the Lexington, Danville, and Cumberland circuits, and who had been sent by Bishop Asbury as a missionary to the Northwest Territory, came riding out of the wilderness, no one knew whence, to scout the field for Methodism on the site of Cincinnati. In a communication long afterwards to the Western Historical society, he wrote: I rode down the Miami river thirty-six miles to explore this region of country. I found settlements very sparse indeed, only now and then a solitary family. About four o'clock in the afternoon I came to an old garrison called Fort Washington, situated on the bank of the big river, * Our principal authority for that part of this section dealing with the beginnings of Methodism in Cincinnati, and its growth for fift years, is Finley's Sketches of Western Methodism. which bore very much the appearance of a declining, time-stricken, God-forsaken place. Here are a few log buildings extra of the fortress, and a few families residing together, with a small printing office just put in operation, and a small store opened by a gentleman named Snodgrass. This, I was told, was the great place of rendezvous of olden time for the federal troops when going to war with the Indians. Here, alas, General St. Clair made his last encampment with his troops before he met his 'lamentable defeat; here I wished very much to preach, but could find no opening or reception of any kind whatever. I left the old garrison to pursue my enterprise, with a full intention to visit it again, and make another effort with them on my next round; but this I did not do for the following reasons, namely : When I had gone a second round on my appointment, and further explored the settlements and circumstances of the country, there were some places where the opening prospects appeared much more promising than what I had seen in Fort Washington; and I was eager to take every advantage of time and things, by collecting what first was already apparent, by forming societies and building up those already formed; so that in a few rounds I had nearly lost sight of old Fort Washington, and finally concluded that it would be most proper for me, under the existing circumstances, at least for the present, to omit it altogether. Judge McLean, in his biographical sketch of the Rev. Philip Gatch, furnishes the following reminiscence of this pioneer preacher: I frequently heard him, and shall never forget his appearance and manner. My curiosity to hear him was excited by the account given of him by the son of Captain Davis, who was a few years older than I was. His time was almost wholly taken up, as represented by young Davis, in reading and praying; that, although he was kind in his manner and sociable, yet a smile was seldom seen on his face, but he was often seen to weep. I heard him often, and was always impressed much with his discourse, and especially with his prayers. He was tall and well-proportioned; his hair was black, and he wore it long, extending over the cape of his coat. His dress was neat, with a straight-breasted coat, and in every respect as became a Methodist preacher of that day. He had a most impressive countenance. It showed no ordinary intellectual development,united with sweetness of disposition, unconquerable firmness, and uncommon devotion. His preaching never failed to attract the deep attention of every hearer. . . . His manner was very deliberate at the commencement of a discourse; but as he progressed he became more animated and his words more powerful. He awakened in himself and in his Christian audience a sublimated feeling in the contemplation of Heaven, and in those who had a foreboding of future ill ur.speakable horrors. On these topics he was eloquent. Indeed, his mind was well stored with information, and in every point of view he was a most useful and excellent preacher. His aims were more at the heart than the head. The Methodist preachers of that day believed if the heart were made right, it would influence the life and conduct of the individual. The next year (1799)—traditions, not official minutes, say—came Lewis Hunt to ride the Miami circuit, which, with Scioto circuit, embraced the entire southern and western parts of the present State of Ohio. He broke down in the summer of that year, and Rev. H. Smith was sent to take his place; but, meeting him on Mad river, Smith found him so far recovered as to go on with his work, and left him for the Scioto, to form a circuit there. Hunt and another of the pioneer Methodists in this region, Rev. Elisha Bowman, are known to have preached at the fort occasionally, notwithstanding Kobler's ill success in getting even a temporary lodgment there; also Rev. William Burke, who, as presiding elder of the Ohio district, preached in the court house here in 1805, and over a year before that, soon after the Methodist society was formed in the village, preached in the dwelling of Mr. Newcome, one of the early Methodists, on Sycamore street. He was still living in Cincinnati in 1854. It is well known, at all events, that a Methodist class was formed at Fort Washington at an early day, even be- 154 - HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO. fore the eighteenth century went out; but by whom has not yet been discovered, although the inquiry has been actively pushed in various directions. Methodism in Cincinnati, however, is considered properly to date from the visit to the village, about 1803, of John Collins, a young and active farmer, residing far in the wilderness on the East fork of the Little Miami. He had been licensed in New Jersey, his old home, as a local preacher, and exercised his gifts as such frequently after his arrival in the Miami country, making his own settlement particularly a stronghold of Methodism. Visiting Cincinnati to buy salt, he found that Mr. Carter, in whose store he had called, was a Methodist; and, after a joyful greeting, it was arranged that young Collins should hold a preaching service before he departed. The upper room of Mr. Carter's house, on Front street between Walnut and Vine, was provided with benches, and as wide notice as possible given of the appointment; but when the evening came, only twelve were present, most of whom were Methodists. To this handful Collins preached, it is believed, the first Methodist sermon ever spoken in Cincinnati, outside the stockade of the fort. A small class formed "as the planting of a handful of corn on the tops of the mountains, the increasing and ever multiplying products of which were to shake with the fruitage of Lebanon." He also organized the first classes in Columbia and Dayton, was admitted to the itinerancy in 18o7, was appointed at once to the Miami circuit, then embracing nearly all the region afterwards included in the Cincinnati conference, and labored with great power, especially in the camp meetings, for more than a quarter of century in southwestern Ohio. It was at one of his revivals that John McLean, afterward one of the justices of the Federal supreme court, and his brother, Colonel McLean, were converted. Two years before he closed his effective labors he was regularly stationed in Cincinnati, his colleague then being the Rev. J. B. Finley. The writer of A Sketch of the Life of Rev. John Collins makes the following interesting reflections upon the scene attending the preaching of the first Methodist sermon in Cincinnati : Will the reader linger a moment on that remarkable congregation of twelve—not remarkable for their positions in society, but as the first assemblage of Methodists, to hear a sermon by a Methodist preacher, in a town which, in a few years, was to become noted for Methodism? In the small apartment, lighted with one or two flickering candles, sat the twelve. The preacher performed his duty most faithfully and affectionately. Many tears were shed. Some wept under a conviction of their sins, others from a joyful hope of the future. The speaker had a word for each hearer, and it took effect. There were no dry eyes nor unfeeling hearts in the congregation. How small and how feeble was this beginning; and yet who can limit the consequences which followed it? Mr. Carter took his text for this sermon from Mark xvi, 15, 16: "And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." Mr. Carter was the only one of those present who was able to entertain the preacher during his stay in the village. In 1804 the Rev. John Sale, who had been travelling the Scioto circuit, was assigned to the Miami circuit, with Rev. J. Oglesby. The Ohio district, the first in the State, had been 'organized the previous year; Rev. William Burke, presiding elder. "Sale soon visited Cincinnati, and preached to a congregation numbering thirty or forty, in a house on Main street, between Front and Second. Mr. Finley, in his Sketches, thus continues the narrative: After preaching, a proposition was made to organize a society in the usual way, and according to the discipline of the church. Accordingly, a chapter was read from the Bible; then followed singing, prayer, and the reading of the General Rules of the society. All then who felt desirous of becoming members of the society, and were willing to abide by the General Rules as they had been read, came forward and gave in their names. The number who presented themselves on that occasion was only eight, consisting of the following, namely: Mr. and Mrs. Carter, their son and daughter [the latter afterwards Mrs. Dennison, mother of Governor Dennison, and long a resident of Cincinnati], Mr. and Mrs. Gibson, and Mr. and Mrs. St. Clair. Mr. Gibson was appointed the reader. A regular church being organized, arrangements were made to have preaching regularly every two weeks by the circuit preachers. The society received an accession in the ensuing spring by the arrival in town of two Methodist families, namely, those of Messrs. Nelson and Hall, and their families. . . Meetings were held in the little old log school-house below the hill, and not far from the old fort. The location of this school-house was such as to accommodate the villagers; and as its site was somewhere not far from the intersection of Lawrence and Congress streets, it is presumed that this portion of the town was the most thickly inhabited. Sometimes the rowdies would stone the house; and on one occasion Ezekiel Hall, a zealous Methodist, and one who was always present to lead the singing, was taken by the rowdies after meeting, and carried to his home on Main street, where, after giving him three hearty cheers for his zeal and fortitude, they left him. The rioters were followed by two very strong young men, who were members of the church, and had determined at all hazards to protect their feeble brother. The young men were Benjamin Stewart, now [1854] living near Carthage, in this county, and Robert Richardson, now living on Broadway, in this city." After serving through his first appointment on the Miami circuit, and several years in the Kentucky and Ohio districts, Mr. Sale was sent to the Miami district upon its creation in 18o8, again in 1815, and finally in 1819, ending a useful life near Troy, Ohio, while on the Piqua circuit, January is, 1827. He was a worthy man to be among the founders of Methodism in the Queen City. The next year (1805) the Rev. John Meek was appointed to this circuit, in place of Mr. Sale, who was returned to the Lexington circuit in Kentucky. The first love-feast the Methodists here enjoyed was at a quarterly meeting this year, held in the court house, under the direction of the Rev. William Burke, presiding elder. Soon afterwards, in the same year, a large lot for a church edifice and a cemetery, after the custom of those times, was purchased on Fifth street, between Sycamore and Broadway, the present site of Wesley chapel. The erection of a stone church was promptly begun upon the lot; and it was finished and dedicated in 1806. Mr. Finley says: From this point the society increased rapidly, and it was not long till the native eloquence of the backwoods preachers and the zeal of the membership attracted large congregations, and the church was too small to hold the crowds that collected there to hear the word of life. The building, however, was too small, only being about twenty feet wide and forty long. To accommodate the increasing masses, who crowded to the "Old Stone," the rear end was taken out and twenty feet of brick added to it. Notwithstanding this enlargement, still there was not a sufficient room, and it was resolved to make arrange- HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO - 155 ments for other enlargements. It was concluded to take out the sides of the brick part, and extend the building out each way twenty feet, this giving the church the form of a cross. After some time this last improvement was made, and though the congregations still continued gradually to increase with the ever-increasing population, yet it was many years before any movement was contemplated to meet these wants. At length, however, it was resolved to tear down and build on the site of the "Old Stone" a mammoth church, which would not only be the parent Methodist church in Cincinnati, but which would be sufficiently large for all occasions. Colonies had already gone out from the old parent church, and had located preaching places in several parts of the city. One of these was located on the northeast corner of Plum and Fourth streets. Here the brethren erected a plain, substantial brick church, which in progress of time was called the "Old Brick," to distinguish it from the "Old Stone;" and it was also designated by a certain class as "Brimstone Corner." . . Another charge was formed in the northern portion of the city, which was called Asbury, and also one in Fulton, denominated McKendree Chapel. The time had at length come for the erection of a large central church ; and, the arrangements being made, the "Old Stone," with its brick appendages, was torn down, and from its ruins arose a mighty structure, denominated Wesley Chapel. It was dedicated in 1831 ; at that time the largest church in the place, and at the present time [1854] capable of holding a larger congregation than any building in the city. On account of its capacity, as well as its location in the heart of the city, it is selected on all great occasions. The address of the Hon. John Quincy Adams, on the occasion of laying the corner-stone of the Astronomical Observatory, was delivered here. Here the various large benevolent societies hold their anniversaries. It was here, to listening thousands, the eloquent Bascom delivered his lectures on the evidences of Christianity ; and it was in this old cradle of Methodism the logical and earnest Rice delivered his course on the subject of Romanism. The "Old Brick," of which we have already spoken, was built in 1822 ; but after several years, during which it became a place of hallowed memories, on account of the numerous conversions which had been witnessed at its altars, it was necessary to enlarge the borders of our Western Zion in this place, and hence preparations were made to erect a new church. In the meantime, however, a colony had gone out from Fourth street, and had built a fine church edifice on Ninth street. Instead of tearing down and rebuilding, it was determined to purchase a lot on Western Row, between Fourth and Fifth streets. Here the congregation built a very neat and commodious church, which was denominated Morris Chapel, in honor of our beloved Western Bishop. . . . . . But Methodist enterprise did not stop here. Asbury Chapel, in the northern part of the city, was consumed by fire ; but the zealous brotherhood erected near its ruins a new and handsome edifice. Colonies from Morris Chapel and Ninth street went out, having among their number some of the most zealous and efficient of their membership, and founded Christie Chapel and Salem, York Street and Park Street Chapels, all having now energetic and active memberships. And last, not least, in that direction, from these, in their turn, was formed Clinton Street Chapel, a young but vigorous branch of Methodism. In the meantime Bethel Chapel was founded by a colony from old Wesley and McKendree ; and the trustees are now [1854] engaged in erecting a new and beautiful church on Ellen street. Nor do we stop here ; colonies from the different charges have founded societies and erected churches on Walnut Hills, in the Mears neighborhood, and Mt. Auburn. In addition to these was the Union Chapel society, composed originally of a few members of various charges, who wished their families to sit together, instead of separating the sexes in the old way, as the discipline prescribed; and so founded the first pewed Methodist church in the city, buying for the purpose the Grace church edifice, on Seventh street, till then owned by the Episcopalians. On account of their new departure, this society was long disowned by the annual conference, and was compelled to employ local preachers and set up a pro. visional government. At length the case was submitted to the general conference, which struck out of the disci pline the old regulation—"Let the men and women sit apart, without exception, in all our churches ;" and they Union Chapel was gladly admitted to full Methodist fellowship. In 1854 it had the largest Sabbath-school in the city, and pledged itself to support a missionary to Rome, as soon as Papal toleration would permit it. About this time Dr. Finley notes the Methodist Episcopal Church South as having in Cincinnati a large and flourishing congregation; and the Protestant Methodist church, on Sixth street, as "a large, intelligent and enterprising society, supporting one or two mission churches in the city." In 1836 the Cincinnati Methodists undertook a mission to the numerous and increasing German population of the city, under the direction of Dr. William Nast, who had been a student and Professor of Greek and Oriental literature at Tubingen, in association with the celebrated skeptical biographer of Christ, Dr. Strauss: In this country he became a professor at Kenyon college ; but, being converted to Methodism, he came to Cincinnati to labor, in the face of many difficulties and much persecution, among his fellow-countrymen. He became editor of the Christliche Apologete, a German religious journal of large circulation, and otherwise engaged laboriously in the , formation of a German Methodist literature. Within twenty years the influence of the mission had spread far and wide. Says Mr. Finley, writing in 1854: "It went back to the east; and the large cities and towns, as far as Boston, had missionaries sent to them, and societies were organized all over the land, from Maine to Louisiana. From this mere handful of corn what a mighty harvest has already been gathered! In Cincinnati there are four churches, some quite large; and in almost every large town where there are Germans, churches have been erected. No mission was ever established since the days of Pentecost that has been attended with greater success." He considered this, down to that time, as "the crowning glory of Methodism in the city, if not in the entire west." Another Methodist enterprise, taking its start in 1840, was the establishment of the Wesleyan Female college. The story of this will be narrated elsewhere. The following-named Methodist preachers were among the itinerants of the early day on the Cincinnati circuit : 1811.—Rev. William Young. One of his charges was at North Bend, and while riding from Cincinnati to his appointment there one extremely cold day in December, he took a cold which resulted in consumption and terminated his very promising life at the age of twenty-five. 1812.—Revs. William Burke and John Strange. The former says in his Autobiography : At the conference held at Chillicothe in the fall of art, I was appointed to Cincinnati station, it being the first station in the State of Ohio. I organized the station, and many of the rules and regulations that I established are still [1854] in use. We had but one church in the city, and it went under the name of the Stone church. I preached three times every Sunday, and on Wednesday night; and while stationed in that house my voice failed me. The Methodists being too poor to buy a stove to warm the house in winter, and on Sunday morning it being generally crowded, their breath would condense on the walls, and the water would run down and across the floor. The next conference I did not attend, but was appointed supernumerary on the Cincinnati circuit. . . I was the first married preacher in the west who travelled after marrying. Elder Burke preached for nearly sixty years, and his is 156 - HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO. a great and venerable name in the annals of western Methodism. Mr. Strange was also an able and useful laborer, but was called away when he had attained scarcely half the years of his former colleague in Cincinnati. 1816-17.—Rev. Alexander Cummins. Rev. Russel Bigelow, who had labored with Mr. Cummins on the Miami circuit, bears testimony to "his zeal, piety, and usefulness, . . his devotion, his fervor, his diligence, his watchfulness, his anxiety, his pathetic sermons, his fervent prayers." He afterwards became a presiding elder in Kentucky, and died at his home in Cincinnati September 27, 1823, aged only thirty-six years. A remarkable incident occurred during the session of the western conference in Cincinnati, in 1813. It is thus related by Mr. Finley: There being no church on Sabbath large enough to hold the congregation, or rather the vast crowds which attended upon the ministrations of the occasion, we adjourned to the Lower Market space, on Lower Market street, between Sycamore and Broadway. The services commenced at eleven o'clock. The Rev. Learner Blackman preached from the third petition of the Lord's prayer, " Thy kingdom come." He was followed by brother Parker [presiding elder of a district embracing the whole of the present States of Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri, and a preacher of great eloquence and power] with a sermon on the fourth petition of the same prayer, "Thy will be done." After he had concluded, brother James Ward gave an exhortation, after the manner of olden time. Then followed brother John Collins [he who preached the pioneer sermon of 1803], who, from the same butcher's block whereon the preachers had stood, commenced, with a soft and silvery voice, to sell the shambles, as only John Collins could, in the market. These he made emblematic of a full salvation. without money and without price. It was not long till the vast assembly were in tears at the melting, moving strains of the eloquent preacher. On invitation a large number came forward and kneeled down for an interest in the prayers of God's people. We joined with them and other ministers who were present heartily in the work; and before the meeting closed in the market-house many souls were happily converted to God. The tragic fate of one of the participants in this memorable scene, the Rev. Learner Blackman, is also a part of the history of Cincinnati. In the fall of 1815, having been re-appointed to the Cumberland district, in Kentucky, and returning thither with his young wife, to whom he had been but a short time married, from a visit to his brother-in-law, Rev. John Collins, he took the ferry boat at Cincinnati, to cross to Covington. It is described as "a crazy craft, with sails and paddles;" and while crossing, the hoisting of the sails by the ferryman so frightened the horses attached to Mr. Blackman's vehicle that, despite all his efforts, they plunged overboard, dragging him with them. He was a good swimmer and a strong man; but must have become entangled in the harness or under the carriage, or perhaps was struck and stunned in the mad rush of the affrighted animals; for he sank at once to rise no more. He was a young preacher of uncommon energy and ability, and his loss was deeply mourned by the denomination. About 1822 Rev. John Flavel Wright was stationed in Cincinnati, with Rev. Leroy Swormstedt as his colleague. Upon his return to this station in 1827 occurred the memorable secession from the church which resulted in the organization of the Methodist Protestant church. There was much excitement in the city, and many influential families left their old societies and united with the new. "Yet," says the memoir of Dr. Wright, read at the annual conference of 188o, "so wisely and prudently did Mr. Wright administer the affairs of Methodism in Cincinnati, that, notwithstanding the large secession, he was able, at the close of his two years' pastorate, to report an increase of about two hundred members." He was elected agent of the Book Concern in Cincinnati in 1832, and filled the place ably for twelve years, when he resumed preaching in Wesley chapel, in the city. In the first year of the Rebellion he served as chaplain of the First Kentucky regiment, and was afterwards chaplain to the military hospitals in Cincinnati. September 13, 1879, in his eighty-third year, he went to his reward. The Miami circuit first appears in the minutes of the annual conference for 1800; but no preacher's name appears in connection with it, nor had the district (which is not named, like all the districts of this year, and previous to this time) any presiding elder in the minutes. The next year the Scioto and Miami circuit, of the Kentucky district, had the Rev. Henry Smith for its rider. Then, 1802, came Benjamin Young and Elisha W. Bowman to the Scioto and Miami circuit of the Kentucky district, Western conference (conferences were not before named in the lists of appointments). The last named of these preachers is mentioned alone for the Miami circuit in 1803; but John Sale and Joseph Oglesby were together thereon the next year. John Meek and Abraham Amos are colleagues on the "Miami and Mad River circuit" in 18o5. In 18̊6 the one circuit becomes two; Elder Benjamin Lakin and Joshua Riggin are sent to Miami, and John Sale becomes presiding elder of the Ohio district; the elder has John Collins for colleague the next year ; and in 1808 Samuel Parker and Hector Sandford ride the still large circuit. The succeeding year sees the division of the Ohio district into the Miami and Muskingum districts, with John Sale and James Quinn as presiding elders. " Cincinnati" is now the name of the circuit, and thenceforth it appears regularly upon the minutes. Elder William Houston and John Sinclair are the first itinerants upon it; Elder Solomon Langdon and Moses Crume the next, in 181o; and 1811 returns Benjamin Lakin, with William Young as colleague; 1812 furnishes Elder William Burke and John Strange; 1813 brought Elder Burke to Cincinnati alone, while Elder Samuel Hellums takes a new circuit, called the "Little Miami;" 1814, Elder William Lambdin to Cincinnati, Elder Burke and Ebenezer David to the Little Miami ; 1815, Elders Joseph Oglesby and John Waterman to Cincinnati and Miami combined; 1816, William Dixon to the former, and Elder Alexander Cummins and Russel Bigelow to the latter; in 1817 Brother Cummins goes to Cincinnati, and Elder Abbot Goddard and William P. Finley go to Miami; 1818 finds Mr. Cummins still in Cincinnati, the first preacher appointed for a second consecutive year, and Benjamin Lawrence at Miami; 1819, Elder Quinn comes from the Scioto district, where he has long labored, to Cincinnati, and Miami has Samuel West and Henry Mathews; and in 182o the former gets Elders Quinn and Truman Bishop, and the latter Elder HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO - 157 William Dixon and Robert Delap. The Apostolic succession thenceforth to the Queen City is as follows: 1821-2.—Elder John Collins, preacher of the first Methodist sermon in Cincinnati. His labors here during the two years were greatly blest. The next year he was at Chillicothe, in 1824 was returned to the Cincinnati district, and in 1834 was again on the Cincinnati station, soon after which he was superannuated, and died August 22, 1845. He is buried at the Bethel meeting house, near his old home. 1823.—Elders Leroy Swormstedt and John F. Wright. 1824.—Elders Russell Bigelow and Truman Bishop. 2825-6.—Elders William H. Raper and John P. Durbin. 1827.—Elders Truman Bishop and George Hatch. 1828.—Elders John F. Wright and John A. Baughman. 1829.—Elder John F. Wright and Wesley Browning. 1830.—Messrs. Wesley Browning, James B. Finley, and William B. Christie. Messrs. James B. Finley, Nathan Emery, Edmund W. Sehon, and Samuel A. Latta. 1832.—Messrs. Nathan Emery, Edmund W. Sehon, Thomas A. Morris, and William B Christie. 1833.—Messrs. Thomas A. Morris, G. W. Walker, and D. Whitcomb. 1834.—Messrs. John Collins, J. B. Finley, J. M. Trimble, Joseph M. Matthews, and T. F. Sargent, superannuated. 1835.—Wesley chapel, Messrs. Zachariah Connel, L. L. Ham-line; Fourth street chapel, Messrs. J. M. Trimble, E. Thompson; Fulton and Columbia, Mr. R. Cheney. 1836.—Wesley chapel and African church, Messrs. W. B. Christie, L. L. Hamline; Wesley charge, Messrs. A. Eddy and T. A. G. Phillips; Fulton charge, Mr. G. Moody; German missionary, Mr. W. Nast. (Mr. Nast was appointed to this post, or as editor of the Christian Apologist, thereafter). 1837.— Wesley and African, Messrs. William H. Raper and Granville Moody; Western, Messrs. E. W. Sehon and Cyrus Brooks; Fulton, Mr. William I. Ellsworth. 1838.—Eastern charge, Messrs. William H. Raper and Edward D. Roe; Western, Messrs. E. W. Sehon and David Warnock; Fulton, Mr. Cyrus Brooks. 1839.—Eastern, Messrs. John Ferree and Joseph A. Waterman; Western, Messrs. William H. Raper and Micah G. Perkizer; Fulton, Mr. Maxwell P. Gaddis. 1840.—Eastern, Messrs. E. W. Sehon and Maxwell P. Gaddis (superannuated); Western, Messrs. William H. Raper and John Miley; Asbury, Mr. John W. White; Fulton, Mr. Andrew Carroll; German missionary, Mr. Peter Schmucker. 1842.—Eastern, Messrs. E. W. Sehon, Isaac Ebbert, and Maxwell P. Gaddis (superannuated); Western, Messrs. William Herr and James L. Grover; Asbury, Mr. White; Fulton, Edward D. Roe. 1842.—Wesley chapel, Mr. James L. Grover; Fourth street, Mr. William Herr; Ninth street, Mr. George C. Crum; Asbury, Mr. William H. Lawder; New street, Mr. Jonathan F. Conrey; Fulton, Mr. Micah G. Perkiser; German missionary, Mr. Adana Miller. 1843.—Wesley, Mr. James L. Grover; Fourth street, Mr. William Young; Ninth street, Mr. George C. Crum; Asbury, Mr. William H. Lawder; New street, Mr. Oliver P. Williams; Fulton, Mr. Wesley Rowe; German missionary, Mr. Adam Miller. 1844.—Wesley and New street, Mr. George W. Walker; Fourth street, Mr. William Young; Ninth street, Mr. Randolph S. Foster; Asbury, Mr. David Reed; Fulton, Mr. Granville Moody; German, Mr. William Ahrens. 1845.—Wesley, Mr. John F. Wright; Morris chapel, Mr. George W. Walker; Ninth street, Mr. William P. Strickland; Asbury, Mr. Asbury Lowry; Fulton, Mr. Granville Moody; German, Mr. William Ahrens; city missionary, Mr. George W. Maley. 1846.—Wesley, Messrs. Joseph M. Trimble and S. A. Latta (superannuated); Bethel chapel, Mr. John W. White; Morris, Mr. George W. Walker; Ninth street, Mr. William P. Strickland; Ebenezer, Mr. Joseph A. Bruner; Asbury, Mr. Asbury Lowry; Fulton, Mr. William H. Fyffe; city missionary, Mr. George W. Maley; German, Mr. E. Riemenshneider. The progress of Methodism has now been sufficiently illustrated by the increase in the number of appointments. The yearly lists shortly become long and cumbersome; and we must close with that for 1846. The hardships which the earlier preachers of Methodism suffered here through poverty and sickness, even so lately as the middle years of Cincinnati history, are plainly printed in passages of biography like the following, which we cite from the Life of Bishop Morris, who was stationed here, it will be remembered, in 1832-3: Mr. Morris sent his household goods by wagon to Cincinnati, while he with his family took Athens in their route, to visit his son, then a student in the Ohio university. On their arrival finally at the Queen City, they were doomed to meet an unexpected defeat of their previously determined mode of living. Having no suitable outfit for housekeeping in the city, Mr. Morris had written from Columbus to one of the stewards in Cincinnati to engage a suitable boarding-place for himself and family. To this reasonable request no attention was paid ; and at the first official meeting the stewards signified that it was their wish to have the parsonage occupied by the preacher in charge. He at once moved into the old house thus designated, on Broadway, near Fifth street, and furnished it as comfortably as his means would allow. All this could have been borne cheerfully, if his allowance had been adequate to meet his expenses ; but, In addition to the house, which was poor and uncomfortable, his salary was four hundred and fifty dollars, all told. The last fifty was added, he was informed, in view of the fact that he would be expected to entertain "corners and goers "visiting brethren, lay and clerical. Having but a limited supply of beds for the "comers and goers," Mr. Morris found it necessary to buy a cot, which he carried home on his own shoulders. The first attempt to use it broke it down. He carried it back for repairs, and, when mended, bore it along Fifth street as before, for the third time. It was hard work, but saved the drayage. His wife's health was very poor, and that of his daughter scarcely better ; but to hire help without the means to pay for it was a thing not to be thought of; and so, as the next best thing, he secured a washing machine, which, together with his saw and axe, furnished him an abundance of healthy exercise. His daughter had just strength to prepare the clothes, change the water, and rinse them when clean, while he was both able and willing—under the circumstances—to turn the machine, by far the hardest part of the job. Meantime, however, the water works were destroyed by fire, and "washing" became a more serious as well as more expensive business, involving an outlay of twenty-five cents a barrel for water, hauled from the river, for laundry purposes. As for the ordinary daily supply for drinking and cooking purposes, Mr. Morris carried that in buckets from Spencer's well, a square and a half distant from the parsonage, From time to time, however, the poverty stricken and hard worked ministers had glorious compensations in the visible results of their work. The following paragraphs are also from Bishop Morris' Life: The most remarkable demonstration of the Spirit took place in Wesley chapel, at a watch-night service on New Year's eve, when hundreds were prostrate at the same time, pleading for mercy, the joyful shouts 158 - HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO. of new-born souls mingling with the earnest cries of the penitent. The house was crowded above and below, and in every part of it the cry arose, "What must I do to be saved ?" Not less than fifty were converted that evening, and fifty-six united with the church on probation. Forty-seven were added to the Fourth street church the next night, and seventeen at McKendree. From that time the revival was regarded as general in all the congregations, and continued with very little abate-, ment for months. During this great work of grace the official business of the church was not neglected. The class-meetings were held regularly, and proved to be the most powerful auxiliary to the more public services; society meetings were held often, to which none but members and penitents were admitted. Much care was taken to instruct penitents and watch over those who had been admitted on trial as seekers of salvation; and, as a result of this judicious administration, they were nearly all converted, and became living and useful members. Early in the spring the pastors held a series of meetings in the several charges, beginning on Friday and closing with a love-feast on Monday night. At these meetings they concentrated all the Methodistic forces in the city day and night, except Sabbath, and the result in every instance was glorious. At the close of such an effort in Fulton, the very foundations of wickedness seemed broken up. Wives who had long prayed for their husbands, and mothers who had wept in secret for their prodigal sons and worldly-minded daughters, saw them fall down at the foot of the cross to plead for mercy, and heard them rejoice subsequently in their glorious deliverance from the bondage of sin. The reformation of morals in that part of the city was very striking, and the church grew and multiplied. Upon the whole, this was a memorable year in the history of Methodism in Cincinnati. While hundreds were made sorrowful by the loss of dear friends, more still were permitted to rejoice over the salvation of relatives and neighbors. The whole number of applicants for membership on probation was thirteen hundred; but as some of these were transient persons, driven out of the city by want of employment, and others were swept off by the wasting epidemic, the number enrolled by the preachers, who were very careful not to admit improper persons, was but one thousand. The state of Methodism in Cincinnati, as exhibited by statistics at the annual conference of 1880, is highly prosperous. The Methodist Episcopal churches of the city then were Wesley, Trinity, Asbury, St. Paul, St. John, Christie, Finley, York street, Pearl street, M'Kendree, McLean, Fairmount, Mount Auburn, Walnut Hills, Cumminsville, Pendleton, and Columbia—seventeen in all. These reported three thousand six hundred and thirty-seven full members and one hundred and fifty-two probationers; one hundred and thirty-nine children and sixty-four adults baptized during the conference year; twenty-six local preachers; church property valued at four hundred and seventy-two thousand five hundred dollars; four parsonages, with a probable value of thirty-nine thousand dollars; and about four thousand dollars expended for building and repairs during the year. One church (St. Paul's) reported a church edifice valued at two hundred thousand dollars, and a parsonage worth twenty thousand dollars; a membership of five hundred, and seventeen probationers; paid minister two thousand and sixty-nine dollars. The east Cincinnati district, which includes a number of country churches, reported forty-five Sunday-schools, with seven hundred and eleven officers and teachers, five thousand four hundred and forty scholars, and an average attendance of three thousand six hundred and thirty-one. West Cincinnati district: forty-nine Sunday-schools; six hundred and eighty-nine officers and teachers; five thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven pupils, average attendance, four thousand three hundred and ninety-eight. The Methodist book concern and the Wesleyan Female college will receive due notice in other chapters. SWEDENBORGIANISM. The next church in Cincinnati, after the organization of the Methodists in 1804, was probably the New Jerusalem society, founded in 1811 by the Rev. Adam Hurdus, the father of Swedenborgianism in the northwest. In 1819 the society had between forty and fifty members, and was about to build a church edifice of forty by twenty-six feet. The denomination has since fairly grown and prospered, and now has a congregation of more than four hundred, worshipping in a fine building on the southwest corner of Fourth and John streets. It maintains a good library of the works of Swedenborg and other denominational writers, which is freely open to the public. THE FRIENDS had one of the earliest meeting-houses in the city—a plain wooden structure originally built for other purposes, shown upon the old maps a little west of Western row, between Fourth and Fifth streets, upon a small lot bought with the building by the "Meeting." These people were very few here before 1812, when several families came in from the interior of the Miami country, from Virginia, Nantucket, Massachusetts, and other points. The large immigration of 1804-5, from the States south of Virginia, had brought many Friends into this region, and on the thirteenth of September, 18o8, the "Miami Monthly Meeting" had been formed at Waynesville, and under its oversight a number of "indulged meetings" in care of committees had been established, of which the meeting at Cincinnati was probably one. In 1813, a "preparation meeting for discourse" was opened here, by order of the Waynesville body; and the next year the Cincinnati society was itself made a regular monthly meeting. About thirty-two families were in the meeting in 1815, and four years thereafter about forty families and one hundred and eighty individuals. There are now two societies of Friends in the city—the Orthodox congregation, meeting at the corner of Eighth and Mound; and the Hicksite congregation, on Fifth, between Central avenue and John street. THE BAPTISTS. The first Baptist church of Cincinnati was formed in 1813, by eleven members. They worshipped at first in a log house on Front street, but soon in a spacious brick building, still (188o) standing on the northeast corner of Sixth street and Lodge alley, and used as a stable. In 1816 a division occurred in the church, resulting in separation, each party claiming to be the "First Baptist church." A council convened in March to settle the differences, and adjudged the majority party to be the church, as against the minority, consisting of the pastor and six laymen. These continued an organization known as the "Enon Baptist church," but had no associational relations, and soon dissolved. The "Original and Regular First 'Baptist church," as it was officially known, also disbanded in 1831, the few remaining members going into the Sixth (now Ninth) street church. Meanwhile, January 11, 1821, a colony of twenty-nine members was sent off to form the "Enon Baptist church of Cincin- HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO - 159 nati," the other church of this name having ceased to exist. The new society was incorporated September 27, 1821, and again February 7, 1832. March 5, 1838, seven years after the dissolution of the original First, the name of this church was legally changed to the "First Baptist church of Cincinnati," by which it has since been known. September 5,1821, a lot was purchased of N. Longworth on the west side of Walnut, between Third and Fourth streets, upon which a brick church, with sittings for seven hundred, was dedicated March 16,1822. A business block, known as the "Church Building," now stands upon the site. July 25,1831, Mr. Longworth sold the society a lot in the rear of this, where another house of worship was opened the next year. The rear part of Van Antwerp, Bragg & Company's great publishing house stands upon this lot. October ro, 1841, another church edifice was dedicated on the southeast corner of Seventh and Elm streets, which was sold in 1844, through the pressure of indebtedness to the Fifth Presbyterian church, a small meeting house and lot at the corner of Ninth and Elm being received in part payment. This building, the "Bethel church," had been erected in 1829 by some Baptists who seceded from the Enon church four years before, to follow the Rev. John Boyd, who had been excluded. It disbanded in about two years after occupying this house. The First church worshipped in it for a time, and then met in the Medical college on the northwest corner of Court and Plum streets, while their present building on Court street and Wesley avenue was erecting. The corner stone of this was laid April 19, 1847; the lecture room was occupied July 25; and about August r, 7848, the church was dedicated. It has since been improved by the addition of a clock, in 185o; a baptistry, in 1852; a pipe organ, 1866; enlargement of vestry and addition of sexton's house, 187o; more rooms for sexton and Sabbath-school, 1875; and a total renovation, with the addition of reflector lights, in 1877. November r r, 1871, a dwelling adjoining the church was bought for a parsonage, for ten thousand dollars. September r, 1826, about three acres were bought for a cemetery, and used for many years. In 1848 it was offered to the Cincinnati orphan asylum, almost as a gift; but was declined. It was finally, May r, 1867, mostly leased to the Hamilton County Building association, with the privilege of purchase. Some notable revivals have occurred in the First church-among them one in 1828, under the preaching of Rev. Jeremiah Vardeman, of Kentucky, which added one hundred and sixty-nine members by baptism, so enlarging the society that a colony of one hundred and eighteen was sent off to form the Sycamore street church. This afterwards accepted the doctrines of Alexander Campbell, and became what is now the "Central Christian Church," on Ninth street. In 1835, forty-five colored members were dismissed to form the "African Union Baptist Church." In December, 1846, another colony formed the Walnut street Baptist church. In 1869, a union of the Second and First churches was effected, the name of the latter being retained. Three Baptist societies of the city had their origin entirely in this, and parts of several others. In 1849 its Sabbath-school numbered four hundred and thirty-four, and was considered the largest and most prosperous in the denom7 ination west of the Alleghanies. The following is the succession of pastors for sixty years: Samuel Eastman, November, 1821, to July 2, 1822; James Boyd, September, 1823, to March 24, 1825; James Challen, October r, 1825, to October r, 1827; James A. Ranaldson, November 3o, 1827, to April 8, 1828; George Patterson, D. D., October 28,1828, to his death, December 23,1831 ; J. B. Cook, 1834-7; William A. Brisbane, 1838-41; T. R. Cressey, 1843-4; D. Shepardson, April 4, 1845, to August 18, 1855; Nathaniel Colver, March 22, 1856, to December 10, 1860; E. G. Taylor, March 22, 1861, to January II, 1864; N. Judson Clark, December 22, 1864, to July 2, 1865; Andrew C. Hubbard, November 20, 1865, to October 3o, 1868; S. A. Collins, August 23,1869, to March 4, 1872; Rev. S. K. Leavitt, December x, 1872, to this writing. The total number received into the First church, to September, 1879, was two thousand three hundred and seventy-eight-by baptism, one thousand one hundred and sixty; by letter, one thousand one hundred and thirty-two; by experience, eighty-six. THE PIONEER GERMAN CHURCH. A German Christian (or German Lutheran and Reformed) church was started in 1814, under the Rev. Joseph Zesline, who remained in charge of it until his death in 1818. The Rev. L. H. Myer was in charge of it in x826, when it was occupying a neat brick church on the north side of Third street, between Broadway and Ludlow, not far from where the Trollopean Bazaar was afterwards built. Mr. E. D. Mansfield, in his recollections of the churches of 1825 in Cincinnati, speaks of this as a "small but earnest congregation." WESLEYAN METHODIST. This was incorporated in 1817. It was the Rev. William Burke's church, occupying for many years the old pioneer Presbyterian building, on Vine street, between Fourth and Fifth. EPISCOPACY. The first Protestant Episcopal church in Cincinnati was Christ church, so-called, probably, from the church of that name in Hartford, Connecticut, to which had ministered the Rev. Philander Chase (afterwards Bishop Chase) through whose instrumentality the church in Cincinnati organized. It was formed at the house of Dr. Daniel Drake, on East Third street (still in existence and occupied by Mr. F. Schultze), May 18, 1817. Among the original members of the parish (twenty-two in all, though it is said there were but three communicants) were General Harrison, Griffin Yeatman, Arthur St. Clair, jr., Jacob Baymiller, and other leading citizens of that day. The little congregation met at first in a large room of a cotton factory on Lodge alley, between Fifth and Sixth streets; then in the old First Presbyterian church; then, on and after March 23,1818, in the Baptist building on West Sixth street, which was afterwards 160 - HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO. bought by the church. The Rev. Samuel Johnston was called as rector about this time, when not far from fifty families were regularly attending the services. A burial ground and site for church were bought in 1818, for three thousand five hundred dollars. February 19, 1819, steps were taken to purchase the first organ, which served until the new church was built in 1835, when another was bought at an expense of one thousand seven hundred dollars. Twelve communicants were added this year, which, with eight previously had, made a total of twenty. The first Episcopal visitation was that of Bishop Chase this year, in October, when he spent two Sundays with this church. The first sale of pews in the Sixth street church occurred April 4, 182o. Fifty out of fifty-five were sold, for the total sum of eight hundred and ninety-one dollars. The female benevolent society attached to the church was organized January 24, 1820. May 17, 1821, the church was regularly incorporated, under the legal title of the "Episcopal Society of Christ Church, Cincinnati." In 1828 Rev. Mr. Johnston resigned, after a pastorate of ten years and three months, but under circumstances which prompted him to lead off a formidable secession from the society, to form the new parish of St. Paul's, of which he became rector, reporting fifty-five communicants the first year, while Christ church reported but thirty-two. The Rev. B. P. Aydelott was called to the latter from Grace church, Philadelphia, and previous to his arrival the congregation was served for a time by a Methodist clergyman, the Rev. Dr. Bishop, to whom a very cordial vote of thanks, as also pecuniary compensation, was tendered by the vestry. Mr. Aydelott began his service in early May, 1828. Building improvements were made at a cost of two thousand six hundred and twenty-seven dollars and eighty cents, and a salaried organist, Mr. During, was obtained, for the sum of one dollar per Sabbath. November 8, 1833, the lot now occupied by the church on the north side of Fourth street, between Sycamore and Broadway, one hundred feet front by one hundred and thirty feet deep, was bought for nine thousand dollars. The building committee submitted a plan of the famous old Stepney church, in London, as that of -a proposed edifice on this site, and it was adopted. While the church was building the society worshipped in the Mechanics' Institute hall. Dr. Aydelott resigned from increasing infirmities, January 2, 1835, and the Rev. J. T. Brook, of Georgetown, District of Columbia, succeeded him in the fall of the same year. In June, 1835, the diocesan convention met in the new church, which was completed at a cost of fifty-five thousand dollars. Rev. Thomas Howell, and then Rev. Alfred Blake, were employed as assistants to the rector. Mr. Brook's rectorship extended over sixteen years—the longest the church has had—and until August 15, 1847, when he accepted a professorship in the theological seminary at Gambier. Bishop Mcllvaine served as rector pro tempore about two years, and Rev. Mr. Blake for two years more, when the Rev. Dudley A. Tyng was called and remained a little over a year. Then, in 1854, came the Rev. C. M. Butler, D. D., of Washington city, who was rector five years, and was followed for three years by the Rev. Kingston Goddard, D. D., and he for four years by Rev. John McCarty, an ex-chaplain in the army. The rectors since have been Rev. W. A. Snively, 1867-7o; Rev. T. S. Yocum, 187o-6; and the present incumbent of the rectorship, the Rev. I. Newton Stanger. In 1860 the Episcopal burying-ground was sold to the city for thirty-five thousand dollars, and now forms a part of Washington park, opposite the music hall. During the sixty-one years of the existence of this church 1817-78, its aggregate contributions, for purely missionary and charitable purposes, were not less than two hundred thousand dollars. Nine persons have gone into the ministry from the congregation. The benevolent society, within the last twenty-five years, has collected and, expended nearly twenty-five thousand dollars, and probably sixty thousand dollars from its beginning in 1820. In 1878 a neat and clear Short History of Christ church was published by the rector, Rev. Mr. Stanger, from which the foregoing account has been abridged. ROMAN CATHOLICISM. The organization of churches of the Catholic faith in Cincinnati dates from 1818. The first society had about one hundred members in 1819. A frame church had been built for it in the Northern Liberties ; but no priest was yet settled over it. In 1823 Dr. Fenwick was appointed Bishop of Cincinnati, and dedicated a few months afterwards a frame church erected on Sycamore street, above Sixth, where so many Catholic buildings, for worship and education, nave since been erected. In 1826 a brick building was added, and a theological seminary and college were in contemplation. There were now a bishop and four priests in the city. Several nuns of the order of "Poor Clares " had lately arrived from Europe and opened a school with sixty pupils. Arrangements were also in progress to open a boarding school. The brick church, the old St. Peter's Cathedral, was a neat example of Gothic architecture, planned by one of the early architects here, Mr. Michael Scott. It was one hundred and ten by fifty feet upon the ground, but only thirty from the basement to the cornice. On each side were four handsome windows, fifteen feet high. It had eighty-eight pews on the first floor, with a large gallery or orchestra. The principal decoration of the church was a large painting by Verschoot, representing the investiture of a religieuse; but there were a number of other valuable paintings on the walls. The interior was handsomely furnished, and was a spacious and elegant room, seating about eight hundred persons. The Athenaeum, now St. Xavier College, was established in 1831. The original building for it still stands on Sycamore street, between Sixth and Seventh ; but is now considerably overshadowed by the splendid church and college edifices near it. The present St. Peter's Cathedral, on the southwest corner of Eighth and Plum streets, is considered to be the most elegant and interesting church edifice in the city. It was commenced in 1839, and consecrated five years afterwards. Mr. List's next volume thus speaks of it : Not a drop of ardent spirits was consumed in the erection of the HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO - 161 Cathedral, and notwithstanding the unmanageable shape and size of the materials, not an accident occurred in the whole progress of the work. Every man employed about it was paid off every Saturday night ; and, as the principal part of the labor was performed at a season of the year when working hands are not usually employed to their advantage, much of the work was executed when labor and materials were worth far less than at present. The Dayton marble alone, at current prices, would nearly treble its original cost. The heavy disbursements have proved a seasonable and sensible benefit to the laboring class. The entire cost of the building is one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. It is in size two hundred by ninety-one feet, with a remarkably graceful and symmetrical spire two hundred and twenty-one feet high, springing from a colonnade of eighteen freestone columns, thirty-three feet in height and three and a half in diameter. The tower and spire alone cost twenty-five thousand dollars. The altar is of Carrara marble, with two sculptured angels on each side, from the chisel of Hiram Powers. A fine organ, with forty-four stops and twenty-seven hundred pipes, occupies the east end. Among the numerous fine paintings, some of them by celebrated artists, which adorn it, may be seen Murillo's "St. Peter Liberated by an Angel," taken by the French from the Spaniards during the Peninsular war, and presented to Bishop Fenwick by Cardinal Fesch, uncle of the first Napoleon. St. Peter's contains the only chime of bells in the city—a set of eleven, which, with the great clock attached, was presented to the church in 185o by Mr. Reuben R. Springer, the benefactor of the Music Hall. One of the most useful of Cincinnati Catholics to the denomination, it may be here remarked, has been this venerable philanthropist, Mr. Springer, a member of St. Peter's. While the cathedral for his church was building, he gave ten thousand dollars toward it, and then five thousand dollars to finish the tower and spire, five thousand dollars for the clock and chimes, four thousand eight hundred dollars for the heating apparatus, two thousand two hundred dollars for four stained glass windows, one thousand five hundred dollars for the grand central altar, which he had made in Italy; and seven hundred dollars toward the Episcopal residence, which cost five thousand dollars. Mr. Springer thus gave nearly thirty thousand dollars. To the Refuge of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, on Bank street, he gave five thousand dollars toward the front building, and himself put up the interior building at a cost of nine thousand dollars. He afterwards gave one thousand dollars to replace a roof blown off, and for the Girl's Protectory on Baum street, managed by the same order, he gave five thousand dollars. He also gave the Sisters of Charity, for the Good Samaritan hospital, five thousand dollars; and large sums to the Seminary at Mount St. Mary's, the Orphan Asylum at Cumminsville, and other institutions, besides yearly benefactions to a very large amount. In 1832 Bishop Fenwick died of cholera, and was succeeded by Bishop (Archbishop since 185o) Purcell, who has now served his church in the Valley of the Ohio for more than half a century. He was born at Mallern, in the south of Ireland, in 1800, and came to America at the age of eighteen, entering a Methodist college at first, but completing his preliminary education at the Seminary of St. Mary's, near Emmettsburgh, Maryland. He then studied for two years at St. Sulpice, near Paris, and there received sacred orders. In 1827 he returned to America, and until 1832 was Professor of Moral Philosophy and officiating priest in the Mount St. Mary's Theological Seminary near (now in) Cincinnati. It would require a large volume to record in detail the remarkable developments of Catholicism in this city. It now claims here a Catholic population of one hundred thousand, with about forty churches and a dozen or more chapels, besides convents, colleges, academies and other schools, hospitals, and other institutions, some of which will be noticed in future. About 1851 the Archiepiscopal See of Cincinnati was created, with Archbishop Purcell as its head, and suffragans at Detroit, Cleveland, Louisville, Vincennes, Fort Wayne, the Sault Ste. Marie and Covington. The creation of the new See was justly regarded as an important event in western Catholicism. The Confraternities of the church in Cincinnati, according to Sadlier's directory, are: St. Peter's Cathedral—The Archconfraternity of the Immaculate Heart of Mary; the Confraternity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus; the Confraternity of the Scapular and Rosary; the St. Peter's, St. Patrick's and St. Joseph's Benevolent societies; the Brotherhood of St. Michael; the Young Ladies' Sodality, the Married Ladies' Sodality, the Young Men's Sodality, and the Boys' Sodality; the Conferences of St. Vincent de Paul, of the Immaculate Conception, and the Mary and Martha society; the Guild of the Blessed Virgin; St. James Total Abstinence society; Sodality of the Sacred Heart; the Children of Mary. St. Xavier's—the confraternities of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and of the Immaculate Conception; the sodalities of the Holy Maternity, the Holy Family, the Blessed Virgin, of St. Aloysius', the Living Rosary, and the Scapular, and the societies of the Holy Infancy and of the Apostleship of Prayer. St. Philomena's—De Agonia societies, St. Charles Borromeo, Helena, Christi, Sacred Heart, Laurentina, Philomena, Sodality B. V. M. St. John's—the Archconfraternity of the Immaculate Heart of Mary; the confraternity of the Scapular; Young Ladies' Sodality; St, John's, St. Elizabeth's, St. Louis's, and St. Rose's societies. St. Augustine's—St. Mary's, St. Aloysius's, and St. Augustine's societies; the confraternity of Bona Mors; the Sodality of the Children of Mary. St. Francis's—the confraternity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus; the confraternity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel; the Young Men's Sodality; St. Francis's, St. Clara's, St. Anthony's, and Immaculate Conception societies. St. Mary's—the Archconfraternity of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and the confraternity of the Rosary. St. Anthony's—St. Anthony's, St. Vincent's, St. Mary's, and St. Clara's societies. St. Joseph's—St. Joseph's, St. Aloysius's, St. Mary's and St. Clara's societies. St. Edward's—St. Edward's, St. Vincent de Paul's, and Bona Mors societies; the Sodality of the Immaculate Conception. St. Paul's—Young Ladies' Sodality; the confraternity of the Bona Mors; !the confraternity of the Scapular ; St. Paul's, St. Paula's, St. Raphael's, St. Mary's, and St. 21 162 - HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO. Vincent de Paul societies. Holy Trinity—the confraternity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus; Pius's, St. Boniface's, St. Mary's, and St. Catharine's societies. St. Patrick's—Sodalities for men, for young ladies and for boys; St. Vincent's, Rosary, and Sanctuary societies. All Saints'—Sodality of the Immaculate Conception, society of the Living Rosary, confraternity of the Sacred Heart, All Hallows' School society. Holy Angels'—the confraternity of the Scapular; the Altar society. St. Francis of Sales'—the confraternity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus; St. Francis's, and St. Mary's Altar societies. St. Bonaventura's, Fairmount—the confraternities of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary. St. Aloysius's, Cumminsville—the Sodalities of the Immaculate Conception and of the Most Blessed Sacrament; St. Patrick's R. C. Benevolent society; St. Vincent de Paul society. St. Michael's, Storrs—the confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament. St. Ann's (colored)—the confraternity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus; the B. Clavers School society. When the report was made to Sadlier's directory for 1880, of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, including the counties of Ohio south of the northern line of Mercer, Allen, and Hardin, west of the eastern line of Marion, Union, and Madison, and the Scioto river to the Ohio, there were within that jurisdiction one hundred and ninety-five churches, two churches building, eighteen chapels, sixty stations, one hundred and sixty-eight priests, one hundred and twenty students in theological seminaries, seven male and eight female religious communities, two theological seminaries, three colleges, twelve literary institutes for girls, three orphan asylums, one protectory for boys (Delhi), two hospitals, ten charitable institutions, one hundred and forty parochial schools, and a Catholic population of two hundred thousand. JUDAISM. The first Jew is said to have landed in Cincinnati in March, 1817. The people of his faith increased with the years, however, and in 1835, with some aid from others in the community, they were able to build a synagogue. In 1840 they formed three per cent. of the population; and in 1850 there were three thousand three hundred and forty-six Israelites in the city. A Jewish congregation was in existence here as far back as 1822. Four years thereafter its membership was noted as steadily increasing. A frame building west of Main, between Third and Fourth streets, was then used as a synagogue. In 1830 the Congregation of the Children of Israel, Reformed, was organized. They now occupy a building, erected in a modified Gothic style, finished at a cost of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and dedicated, August 27, 1869—the Mound street Temple, on the corner of Eighth and Mound streets. The membership of this synagogue includes over two hundred families. The congregation of Benai-Jeshurun, or the Children of Jeshurun, Reformed, dates from 1844. It is the strongest and wealthiest Jewish society in this city. It occupies one of the most elegant, unique, and costly houses of worship in the city—the Hebrew temple at the corner of Eighth and Plum streets, a synagogue of a pure Moorish order of architecture, and beautifully upholstered and decorated. It was built during the late war at a cost of two hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars, exclusive of the grounds, and was dedicated in 1866. In 1874 elegant fresco work was added to the value of nine thousand dollars. It has sittings for fifteen hundred and forty people, and its membership reaches two hundred and forty families. The celebrated rabbi, Isaac M. Wise, is in charge of this congregation, and is also president of the Hebrew Union college. The congregation of Sherith Israel was formed in 1856, and has now a membership of nearly one hundred families, worshiping on Lodge street, between Sixth and Seventh streets. The congregation of Brotherly Love is wholly German. It uses a brick synagogue on the corner of John and Melancthon streets, dedicated by Rabbi Wise in 1867. Other Jewish congregations are the K. K. Adath Israel, corner of Walnut and Seventh; and the Orthodox Polish, Eighth street and Central avenue, which professes a peculiar ancient creed. The Jewish institutions in Cincinnati also include the Hebrew Union college, of which account will be given hereafter; the Hebrew General Relief association, which disburses nearly ten thousand dollars a year in weekly pensions to the poor, particularly to widows and persons disabled from active employments, and including destitute Jews, who may be temporarily here. The Jews have also maintained a hospital since 1847. It was at first on Betts street and Central avenue, but in 1863 occupied the building now used, on the corner of Third and Baum streets. About thirty persons can be accommodated in the two wards—one for male and one for female patients—besides a number in rooms provided for pay patients. It is solely for the benefit of Jews. THE PULPIT IN 1825. About the year 1825, the churches of the city were the First Presbyterian, the First Baptist, the Enon Baptist, Christ and St. Paul's Episcopal churches, the Methodist Episcopal, the Wesleyan Methodist, the German Lutheran and Reformed, the Roman Catholic, the Jewish congregation, and an African church occupying a frame building east of Broadway and north of Sixth street. The Universalists were about to organize, and would build the next year. The Reformed Presbyterians also organized in 1826, and were to put up a church the next summer. Rev. C. B. McKee was their first pastor. Notwithstanding the churches of that day were so few, as compared with the present number, there were some notable and strong men in the pulpit. Mr. E. D. Mansfield, in his Personal Memories, after giving Dr. Joshua L. Wilson a warm eulogy, in terms similar to those we have quoted from another book of his, speaks of Bishop Fenwick as an ecclesiastic who "was much respected in his own church—a native of Maryland and member of the order of St. Dominic." Father Burke was then postmaster, but occasionally preached in his church on Vine HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO - 163 street. He was a Southern man, retaining many of the old Southern political and social prejudices. "He was," says Mr. Mansfield, "always chewing tobacco, and, being postmaster, was always a Democrat. He was a strict Methodist and an amiable Man." Dr. John P. Durbin, of the Methodist Episcopal church, he says, "was one of the very few whom I thought orators. He was not striking in either imagery or argument, and yet he carried his audience involuntarily along with him by the fervor of his thought and the grace of his manner. He would begin with a very low voice and gradually ascend and warm with his subject." The Rev. Dr. B. P. Aydelott was then the rector of Christ church, and afterwards president of Woodward college, and an author and philanthropist of repute, "in all situations adorning, by his life and worth, the profession to which he belongs." Dr. Aydelott is probably the only representative of the Cincinnati pulpit of that day who survived till 1880, he dying in Cincinnati, where he had-lived and done good works for nearly sixty years, only last year. Rev. Samuel Johnston, of St. Paul's, was a man "highly esteemed by the congregation, and whose name has since been held in grateful remembrance." Mr. Mansfield adds that "the city had more churches in proportion to its population than it has now; but I don't think the standard of religion was any higher." BY EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND THIRTY-THREE the churches of the city had greatly multiplied. There were six Presbyterian churches—one Reformed Presbyterian and one Scotch Presbyterian church—two Episcopal churches, four Methodist Episcopal, one Independent Methodist (Father Burke's), one Methodist Associate, three Baptist, one Catholic, and one each of German Lutheran Reformed, Swedenborgian, Welsh Methodist, Calvinistic, United Brethren, Unitarian, African, and Restorationist Christian, and one Jewish synagogue. The benevolent societies of the churches, or connected with the religious movements of the day, had become numerous here by the close of 1833. The following are enumerated in the directory of that year: The Female Bible society of the Methodist Episcopal church; the Female Benevolent society of the Methodist Episcopal church; the Miami District Sunday-school Union of the Methodist Episcopal church; the Female Missionary and Tract society of the Methodist Episcopal church; the Female Society of Industry and of Foreign Missions of the Enon Baptist church; the Education society, and the Sunday-school society of the First Presbyterian church; the Female Association for Foreign Missions, the Home Missionary society, the Sunday-school society, and the Female Tract society, of the Second Presbyterian church; the Baptist Young Men's Education society; the Female Burman Education .society of the Sixth street Baptist church; the Cincinnati Bible society and the French Bible Society ; the Cincinnati Branch Tract society; the Female Tract society, and the Female Missionary society, of the Third Presbyterian church; the Female Missionary society, and the Missionary society of the First Presbyterian church; the Cincinnati Sunday-school Union; the Wesleyan Sunday-school society; the Methodist -education society; the Female Indian Mission society of the Second Presbyterian church; Christ church Female Benevolent and Missionary societies; the Female Benevolent society of the Methodist church; the Female Tract society of the Third Presbyterian society; and the Young Men's Temperance society. IN EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FOUR the Cincinnati churches were visited by the Rev. Drs. Reed and Mathieson, two eastern clergymen who travelled together over a large part of the then settled parts of the country, and afterwards embodied the results of their inquiries in a book entitled A Visit to the American Churches. From this the following paragraph, by one of the authors, is extracted: Before I quit this place, let me throw a few particulars together. You may have concluded, from what I have said, that religion is in a low state here. In one sense it is; but when you consider the rapid increase of the people and the character of that increase, it is a remarkably advanced state. The population has grown at about one thousand per year, and this great influx has been nearly all of a worldly and unpromising nature. Yet there are twenty-one places of worship, and they are of good size and well attended. RELIGION HERE IN 1838. An interesting paragraph, highly complimentary to Cincinnati, appears in the Travels in North America of Mr. Buckingham, an Englishman, in 1838. After instituting a comparison between several cities of England, Scotland, and the United States, greatly to the advantage of the last, in the respect of population, churches, ministers, and communicants, he sets off Cincinnati, with its thirty thousand inhabitants, twenty-four churches, twenty-two ministers, and eight thousand five hundred and fifty-five communicants, against Nottingham, England, with fifty thousand, twenty-three, twenty-three, and four thousand eight hundred and sixty-four of these, respectively; and adds: The contest between each of these cities, taken in pairs, is most striking; but in none is it more striking than in the last two, in which it is seen that Cincinnati, a city not yet fifty years old, and the site of which was a dense forest in the memory of many of its inhabitants, has now, with little more than half the population of Nottingham, as many ministers and churches, and nearly twice the number of communicants, that are possessed by this opulent and long-established manufacturing town of England. IN EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FORTY, in the course of his extensive travels in this country, Mr. Buckingham personally visited Cincinnati, and left on record the following remarks concerting the state of religion here : Of the religious sects and their respective numbers at present in Cincinnati, the following is the nearest approximation to an actual census that I could obtain:

Roman Catholics Presbyterians  Methodists  Baptists

12,000 6,000 5,000 4,000

Episcoplians Unitarians Universalists Dunkards

2,000 1,000 500 100