(RETURN TO THE TITLE PAGE) 150 - GREATER CINCINNATI AND ITS PEOPLE Norwood; The Ohio Theatre, 126 West Fifth ; Olympic Theatre, Ho East Seventh ; Orpheum Theatre, 945 E. McMillan ; Palace Theatre, 16 East Sixth; Park Hall Theatre, 3065 Madison ; Park Theatre, 4157 Hamilton ; Pekin Theatre, 534 West Fifth Street ; Pendrola Theatre ; Plaza Theatre, 463o Main, Norwood ; Roosevelt Theatre, 425 Canal Avenue ; Royal Theatre, 709 Vine ; Strand Theatre, 531 Walnut Street ; Strand Theatre, Newport ; Temple Theatre, Newport ; United Theatre Company, Walnut Street ; Victor Theatre, 1112 Harrison Avenue; Walnut Theatre, 620 Walnut Street. Amateur theatricals commenced to develop in Cincinnati about 1801. This was brought about by the officers of the little garrison or fort. For years after the fort had been abandoned by the troops, it was known that Messrs. Thomas H. Sill, Benjamin Drake, Dr. Stall, Lieutenant Totten and others of the locality were members of the band who loved the stage dearly. Their rendezvous at this time was the loft of the stable on General Findlay's premises, back of where later stood the Spencer House. Among their plays was "The Poor Gentleman." This was offered in a stone stable. General Findlay delivered an address at the opening of the entertainment and Major Ziegler, who was then president of the pioneer village, made a splendid figure as d00r-keeper, in knee-breeches, with cocked hat and sword, in the good old time manner. The Cincinnati Theatre, which was situated on the south side of Columbia (now Second Street) between Main and Sycamore, erected, in 1819 by a company of thirty or forty persons on leased ground, was sold in 1825 at public sale. "Since our citizens have recovered from their various embarrassments the theatre has been more liberally attended ; and the managers will doubtless soon be able to count upon sufficient patronage to justify them in frequently alluring to the West the most distinguished actors of the seaboard." The lot was 50 by 100 feet in size, bounded by an alley over which a west wing was to be added for a saloon. The central portion was 40 by 100 feet with a 10-foot projecting wing in the rear and an Ionic portico 12 by 40 feet in front. The interior, which was tastefully finished, was equally divided between the performers and the audience. It included a pit, two tiers of boxes and a gallery with commodious lobbies, punch room, etc., and was capable of accommodating B00 persons. (This theatre was burned to the ground April 4, 1834.) In 1814 a circus enclosure, on the west side of Main Street, below Fourth, was used by the Thespians above mentioned, as their "Shell-bark Theatre." The first real theatre building of the place was in 1814, when a cheap frame structure was erected on the south side of Second Street, between Main and Sycamore, on the identical spot where later stood the famous old Columbia Street Theatre. Rev. Wilson, of the Presbyterian Church, CINCINNATI AS A CITY - 151 vigorously opposed this theatre custom in Cincinnati. At a Fourth-ofJuly celebration at that time, the following toast was offered : "The Cincinnati Theatre—May it not, like the walls of Jericho, fall at the sound of Joshua's horn." But after all opposition by the church the play-house enterprise triumphed in Cincinnati. Of the old Columbia Street Theatre a former local writer has this : "The building was finished in the spring of the following year. It contained a pit, two tiers of boxes and a gallery and could accommodate almost 800 people. From the pit there was a door that opened to the alley running from Second to Front streets, which was on the west side of the theatre. A proscenium arch was on each side and a panel door, from which the actor or the manager could, if he desired, address the audience. The stage itself was of good size and was furnished with footlights lighted by sperm oil. In the auditorium was a chandelier of lamps and there were lamps running around the balustrade of the second tier of boxes. The theatre had for its motto, placed over the green curtain : `To Hold, As 'Twere, The Mirror Up To Nature.' "This building was regarded as the best structure of the kind in the West and from the descriptions that have been handed down it must have been quite attractive in appearance and well adapted for its purpose. It seems to have gone by the name of the Columbia Street Theatre, although at other times it was called the Globe Theatre. The management of the theatre was under the control, as stated, of Messrs. Collins and Jones, who owned half of the stock. Several years after its erection a drop curtain containing a view of Cincinnati from Covington was painted by a man of the latter town named Lucas. This was regarded as a work of great beauty and added materially to the attractiveness of the little playhouse." Mansfield's Memoirs tell us that the theatre was of a better character than many others. Here he heard Booth, the elder, in "Richard III," and there particularly was he delighted by Alex. Drake, who with his wife, a superior woman, was famous in the Western country. "I had seen 'Old Barnes,' as he was called, in New York, and many years after, Burton. Aleck Drake, totally unlike either, was, in the spirit of comedy, equal to them. He was superior to Barnes, but not equal to Burton, in gentlemanly bearing. In the power to make fun, without coarseness, Drake was unrivaled. His wife was superior to him—not so much on the stage as in mind and character. I once saw a little incident showing what an energetic, spirited woman she was. "A fire broke out on Main Street, and at that time there were no fire engines, and the only mode of carrying water was by fire buckets, filled at the river, and handed from hand to hand. So a line was formed from the fire to the river. In that line, among the men, was Mrs. Aleck Drake, handling buckets vigorously. She was a person of mind and character, 152 - GREATER CINCINNATI AND ITS PEOPLE and always a great favorite with the public. I saw her once in the character of 'Meg Merrilies,' which she looked and acted as thoroughly as Meg herself must have done in her wild freaks among the gypsies. "Drake died while she was yet in her prime, and she married Captain Cutter, the poet. He was author of the 'Song of Steam,' a noted piece in its day. Cutter was very intemperate, and great efforts were made by his friends to save him, but in vain. This marriage was an unhappy one. They were separated, and in a few years both were dead." The Third Street Theatre was built after the burning of the pioneer Columbia Theatre in 1831. It was erected by James H. Caldwell, who had playhouses in many Southern cities. It was built on the south side of Third Street, between Sycamore and Broadway. A portion, owing to the topography of the ground at that point, was five stories high, while the main building was only two high stories. It was beautifully adorned. It was opened July 4, 1832, and was burned within a period of two years—October 25, 1836. A stage carpenter lost his life in the fire. The Lippincott Amphitheatre was a huge building at the corner of Sycamore and Second streets, intended mainly for exhibitions of the horse drama, or circus. It was built in 1833 by Mr. Lippincott, a horse dealer of much means. Its first entertainment was put on for January 31, 1834, but two nights before that time the building burned, causing the loss of many beautiful and highly trained horses. The owner went insane over the calamity and hanged himself in an outhouse. Shires' Theatre —At the corner of Third and Vine streets there was erected a theatre by William Shires. This theatre, under the energetic management of fellow-citizen Shires, proved for several years of the forties a great success, and it may be said that perhaps Cincinnati never saw better playing and acting than on the boards of Shires' Theatre. I could mention from memory a great number of the greatest legitimate stars of the country who from time to time performed there, and a still greater number of the best legitimate plays performed there. "London Assurance" was enacted there with better arrangements and stronger cast than ever elsewhere in our city, and a thousand other good plays. This theatre, too, was burned January 8, 1848, in the evening, during a great snow fall, whose flakes were most brilliantly and beautifully illuminated by the surging flames. This fire, thus clearing the ground, although the Burnet mansion was saved, was one of the elements in the projecting and building of the magnificent Burnet House soon afterwards. The National Theatre —This playhouse was commenced in 1837. A stock company was formed and a considerable block of subscriptions made. The times were perilous, however, and presently the stockholders faltered and fluctuated in the enterprise. Then came to the front Mr. CINCINNATI AS A CITY - 153 John Bates, a banker who had changed to banking from the wholesale grocery business only the year before, and single-handed built the famous "Old Drury," on the east side of Sycamore Street, between Third and Fourth. It was commenced May 10, 1837, and pushed so rapidly that, although a large and elegant building for that time, it was opened for entertainments on the ensuing third of July. It had been leased to Messrs. Scott and Thorne, the latter then a famous actor ; and the opening pieces were "The Honeymoon," and "Raising the Wind," in both of which Thorne appeared. A prize address, by F. W. Thomas, was also recited by Miss Mason. The National was built upon a lot of 100 feet front and 206 feet deep, and had an uncommonly spacious stage, exceeding in size that of Drury Lane, London, from which it finally received the affectionate title of "Old Drury" from the venerable theatre goers of Cincinnati. It is said to have been one of the most convenient and excellently arranged theatres in the country. It had a long season of prosperity, until the opening of Pike's Opera House, when its star waned, but waxed again when Pike's burned in 1866. It experienced many vicissitudes thereafter, being occupied sometimes by the variety, sometimes by the legitimate drama, until the last star performance was given there under Macauley's management in 1871, when Edwin Booth appeared in Shakespearian plays. After a long period of comparative abandonment, the "Old Drury" was finally sold, in June, 188o, for $17,500, to be converted into a tobacco warehouse. Historian Greve, in his "Centennial History of Cincinnati," treats other extinct theatres as follows, his work being dated 1904: The People's theatre was built some time in the '4os, on the southeast corner of Sixth and Vine streets, and was burned June 13, 1856. Upon the same site afterwards rose Wood's theatre (not the museum and theatre), where the last performance was given March 23, 1878, after which it was demolished to make way for the new Gazette Building. The Trivoli Theatre is thought by Judge Carter to have been the first German institution of the kind in Cincinnati. It occupied, he says, the third story of the large brick building now standing on the corner of Syracuse and Canal streets, and was well fitted up in German order and style for lager beer and dramatic performances, and had quite a career for the entertainment of our German fellow citizens and their American friends. The theatre—that is, the upper stories of this building—was burned out August 13, 1860. The Palace Varieties was a large frame structure on Vine Street. The Arcade now passes over its site. It is believed to have been the first variety theatre in the city. On the ninth day of July, 1869, it too fell a prey to the flames. The Academy of Music was an elegant little theatre on the northwest corner of Fourth and Home streets. It was destroyed by fire December 8, 187o. 154 - GREATER CINCINNATI AND ITS PEOPLE Pike's Opera House —The original opera house built by Samuel N. Pike was erected in 1859, upon the site of an ancient mound on Fourth Street, between Vine and Walnut. Its stage and auditorium were larger and finer than those of the present opera house, and their relative positions were exactly reversed. After a performance of the "Midsummer Night's Dream," March 22, 1866, about midnight, it was totally destroyed by fire. The present superb edifice speedily rose out of its ashes, and has since been steadily and generally successfully occupied for the purposes of the opera and he drama, and occasionally for great public meetings, the university commencements, Sunday afternoon lectures, and the like. It has a seating capacity of about two thousand. The Grand Opera House —This is more of a modern institution, occupying the fine building of the Catholic Institute, on the west side of Vine Street, corner of Longworth. It seats 2,300. The Mozart Hall is above it. Public and Denominational Cemeteries —Within the incorporate limits of Cincinnati there have been many "Cities of the Dead." From the date of platting on for many years the only public burying ground in Cincinnati was that upon the square bounded by Fourth and Fifth streets and Walnut and Main streets donated to the people by the original townsite owners. It was attached to the meeting-house of the First Presbyterian Church near the corner of Fourth and Main and was in general use for twenty-seven years until it had to yield to larger area, as it became too congested. The next cemetery was the land purchased by the Presbyterians—a four acre out-lot—between Elm and Vine streets and Eleventh and Twelfth streets. This was in 1810 and the church allowed the public to use this place for burial purposes. Another very old burial place was that in the rear of the Wesley Chapel of the Methodist denomination on Fifth between Broadway and Sycamore streets. As time went on this tract was altogether too small and the Methodist people of the growing city, in 1842-43, purchased a beautiful tract of twenty-five acres five miles from the city's center on the east bank of the west fork of Mill Creek and the Coleman Pike. On an elevated spot within these sacred grounds was erected a receiving vault, surrounded by a circular driveway. Many laymen and early ministers were there laid to rest. Up to 1879 the records show that 25,000 interments had been made within these grounds. Suburban Cemeteries —Each of the principal outlying divisions of the city, formerly suburban villages, had its own cemetery for public use. The Columbia cemetery, containing some quite ancient graves, lies along the track of the Little Miami Railroad, a little beyond the station. Somewhat further out, east of the railway track, is the old Baptist enclosure, upon which formerly stood the oldest Protestant meeting house in the CINCINNATI AS A CITY - 155 Northwest Territory, and within which some of the earliest interments in the Miami country were made. The Walnut Hills cemetery is immediately south of the German Protestant, on the west border of Woodburn. The "Potter's Field" or city cemetery, which, many years ago, occupied the tract now known as beautiful Lincoln Park, in the western part of the old city, is now in the valley of Lick Run, three miles from Cincinnati. Spring Grove Cemetery —April 14, 1844, a number of men met at the residence of Robert Buchanan for the purpose of discussing the establishment of a rural cemetery more in keeping with the beautiful parks such as are used for this purpose in the eastern country. There were present at this meeting, besides Mr. Buchanan, George W. Neff, William Neff, James Hall, Griffin Taylor, Salmon P. Chase, A. H. Ernst, S. C. Parkhurst, Dr. J. A. Warder, T. H. Minor, Dr. M. Flagg, David Loring, J. B. Russell and Peter Neff. After some discussion as to the requisites for a proper site, a committee consisting of William Neff, Flagg, Minor, Loring, Buchanan, Parkhurst and Ernst was appointed to determine upon a location. Curiously enough, in addition to the requirements of proximity to the city, pleasant location and proper soil, there seemed to be a sentiment against placing the bodies of the departed in any place where there should be close companionship with fossil remains. Finally the Gerard farm, about four miles from the city, containing 166 acres, was selected and on the 4th of May, a committee consisting of Timothy Walker, George W. Neff, Nathan Guilford, Nathaniel Wright, Davis B. Lawlor, Miles Greenwood and Judge James Hall was appointed to prepare articles of association which were finally reported and published in the newspapers. A little later Salmon P. Chase, Judges Walker and Hall and Messrs. Wright, Guilford, Lawler and E. Woodruff were instructed to prepare a charter to present to the Legislature. The charter was passed on January 21, 1845, and on the 8th of the following February the first board of directors, consisting of Messrs. Buchanan, Loring, Ernst, Wright, Taylor, William Neff, Charles Stetson, J. C. Culbertson and R. G. Mitchell, was elected. Robert Buchanan became president, Griffin Taylor, treasurer and S. C. Parkhurst, secretary. The grounds were consecrated on August 28, 1845, with appropriate ceremonies—a prayer by Rev. J. T. Brooke, an address by Justice John McLean, a hymn by W. D. Gallagher and an ode by Lewis J. Cist. The buildings, in Norman Gothic style of architecture, were erected between 1863 and 1867 from designs of James K. Wilson. The original plan of improving the grounds was made by John Not-man, of Philadelphia, the designer of Laurel Hill Cemetery. It was partly carried out by the first superintendent, Howard Daniels, and his successor, Dennis Delany, under the charge of Thomas Earnshaw, chief engineer. The adoption of the system of landscape gardening was sug- 156 - GREATER CINCINNATI AND ITS PEOPLE gested in 1855 by Adolph Strauch and carried out largely by him and his assistant, Henry Earnshaw. From time to time additional tracts of land were purchased until at present the cemetery has an area of about 600 acres.—"Centennial History"-1904. Other well known cemeteries of Cincinnati and environments are the Cathedral Cemetery (Rapid Run), the St. Mary's German Catholic and St. John's German Catholic in St. Bernard, St. Joseph's cemeteries, including one for German Catholics in the west part of Price Hill, St. Martin's Evangelical Protestant on Saffin Avenue, Calvary Catholic Cemetery on Duck Creek Road, the United Jewish Cemetery on Montgomery Pike at Walnut Hills, also the Jewish Cemetery on Ludlow Avenue, Clifton, known as Ahabath Achim, and that on Lick Run Pike known as Judah Torah ; the Columbia Baptist, German Evangelical Protestant in Clifton, German Evangelical Protestant in North Fairmount, and the German Protestant Cemetery of Walnut Hills, the Colored American Cemetery on Duck Creek Road and the Cemetery of the United Baptist Church (colored) on Cleve's Pike. The Odd Fellow's cemetery is in Spring Grove Cemetery. The Cincinnati Crematory, on Dixmyth Avenue, near Burnet Woods, was constructed in 1893 and contains a chapel and modern furnace room. Returning to comment again on the beauties of Cincinnati's largest and most attractive burial place—Spring Grove—the writer will be content by quoting what was spoken in 188o by Hon. Lewis F. Allen, in his dedicatory remarks at the opening of a Buffalo (N. Y.) cemetery, touching on the Cincinnati cemetery : "Were I, of all cemeteries within my knowledge, to point you to one taking precedence as a model, it would be that of Spring Grove, near Cincinnati. Their broad undulations of green turf, stately avenues, and tasteful monuments, intermingled with noble trees and shrubbery, meet the eye, conferring a grace and dignity which no cemetery in our country has yet equaled, thus blending the elegance of a park with the pensive beauty of a burial place." The Business Men's Club —The subjoined paragraph was compiled and published several years ago with the approval of the club of which it treats, hence with additional matter, bringing it up to the present time, will inform the reader concerning its origin and usefulness : In 1892 a number of young men organized themselves together for the purpose of informing themselves with relation to matters of public interest to citizens of Cincinnati and for the discussion of the municipal conditions. The plan involved a series of banquets at which were present prominent speakers of the city representing the business, literary and artistic interests of the community. The organization was successful for a time but afterwards languished. In 1896 it was reincorporated under the name of "The Young Men's Business Club of Cincinnati" and its purpose as given in its articles of incorporation was "to promote the best interest of Cincinnati." Subsequently a change CINCINNATI AS A CITY - 157 of name was decided upon and by proceedings had in 1899 it became "The Business Men's Club of Cincinnati." This organization after several changes of location finally established itself in the Chamber of Commerce Building and is governed by a code of regulations adopted May 18, 1903. The club is largely social in its character and is fully equipped with dining rooms, billiard rooms and reading and lounging rooms. Its special purpose, however, is best shown by a list of its committees. These cover the subject of canals, Ohio River improvement, Ohio State Board of Commerce, taxation, park improvements, manual training, Ohio Mechanics' Institute, street improvement and cleaning, smoke prevention, fair grounds, transportation, terminal facilities, quarantine laws, legislation, street railways, conventions, processions and art. Its president is James C. Hobart, and Irwin M. Krohn is secretary. From recent literature it is learned that twenty-four years ago The Cincinnati Club came into being. As the Business Men's Club (it was but recently renamed the Cincinnati Club) it has been a factor in the social, economic and civic life of the city. Its present magnificent home is only two years old. In the rear of the stately, high and imposing structure is housed the athletic and recreational activities. Here in these new quarters for the club one finds a three thousand volume library in which rooms one may while away many a pleasant, profitable hour. Bright and cheerful is the Ladies' Dining Room, styled the Gold Room because of its art motif. The Men's Grill is a distinctive club feature all men admire. This affords not only a place to sleep, but also a home in which to live, where there are two hundred modern sleeping rooms available to members and those they send to the club as their guests. In this building one finds today 64 rooms at $2.50 per day ; 12 rooms at $3.00; 48 rooms at $3.50 ; 4 rooms at $4.50; 24 rooms at $5.00; 4 rooms at $5.50; 4 rooms at $6.00. Each room has a private toilet and bath. The cost of this building was two million dollars. The present membership of the club is 3,500, of which S00 are non-residents. These are all cared for in a home thirteen stories high, go by 200 feet in size. Its location is central, being on West Eighth Street. The officers (also members of the Board of Directors) for 1926 are : President, Frederick W. Hinkle, attorney-atlaw ; first vice-president, Lawrence B. Herschede ; treasurer, C. H. Deppe ; second vice-president, Charles W. Dupuis ; secretary, John G. Kidd ; assistant secretary, Frank A. McGee. The Queen City Club —This, the most important social club in Cincinnati, was organized in October, 1874. Its building on the southwest corner of Seventh and Elm streets was built at that time, but greatly enlarged since to make it equipped for a larger service than originally intended. Here have been held many large public gatherings of citizens to discuss big topics for the interest and welfare of Cincinnati. From 188o on for many years the Commercial Club met here regularly, but now possess a fine large structure of their own on Eighth Street, of which mention is made elsewhere. The Queen City Club has outgrown its present quarters on Seventh and Elm streets and has purchased a large 158 - GREATER CINCINNATI AND ITS PEOPLE tract of valuable land at the corner of Fourth Street and Broadway on which the numerous large buildings are now being razed with the view of erecting a mammoth club house. The club now has a membership of 468, of which 78 are non-residents and three are of the Army or Navy, and one—Hon. William Howard Taft, is an honorary member. The only surviving charter member in April, 1926, was Walter J. Mitchell. The 1926 "Roll of Governors" is as follows : Bolton S. Armstrong, Alfred C. Cassatt, Edward B. Danson, Harry Hake, Alfred J. Jupp, Richard K. Le Blond, Charles Lewis, John Omwake, James P. Orr (president), John W. Peck, Maurice E. Pollak, George Puchta (treasurer), Frank H. Simpson, Morison R. White (secretary), and John Dee Wareham. The Woman's Club --It certainly cannot be a mere coincidence that the Woman's Club came into existence so nearly at the same time as the Business Men's, but must rather be another evidence of the universal stirrings of the new life, in the soul of the city. The latter was organized in 1892; the former in 1894 at the suggestion of Mrs. T. P. Mallon, Miss Annie Laws, Mrs. J. J. Gest, Mrs. H. C. Ferguson, Mrs. H. B. Moorehead, Mrs. Fayette Smith and Miss Clara C. Newton. Miss Laws was elected president and the full limit of membership (15o) was speedily attained. The meetings were held at first in the rooms of the Society of Natural History, then in the Perin Building; afterwards in the Mercantile Library and now in a beautiful building on Oak Street, the property of the club. The origin and growth of the club are a part of that great upward movement in the evolution of womanhood which set in during the last century and is still proceeding with ever increasing momentum. It has already been pointed out that in our own city its agitations were early felt, and revealed themselves, primarily, in artistic efforts. Undoubtedly the Woman's Club was a phase of this same unfolding life. The consciousness of a new place in the world and a new value to society was certain, sooner or later, to crystallize into a desire for organization. When the critical moment arrived, the organization was quickly and easily effected. From the first meeting, almost, the club became a potent factor in the struggle for civic betterment. These serious minded women threw themselves whole heartedly into every movement which contemplated a cleaner, better, nobler city. One of their earliest efforts was to secure playgrounds for children and the enthusiasm with which they swept away all obstacles and carried out their purposes, foretold the zeal and success which were to attend their efforts in a hundred other fields of endeavor. They have kept out of politics ; but in every other domain, almost, have struck the most fearless, telling blows for righteousness. Nor has their influence been confined to the club itself, for innumerable other organizations of a similar character have either sprung from the CINCINNATI AS A CITY - 159 parent stem or found their inspiration and moral support from it. In fact, the present social life of our city consists, to a great degree, of these organizations among women for literary, artistic, religious, or social purposes. What this fermentation will result in when the whole lump is leavened by the yeast of this new movement, no one is wise enough to foretell. The right to vote in the election for the school board was secured by the energy of the more aggressive advocates of woman's rights. Whatever this tendency of women to enter into all the various spheres of human activity may lead to in the future, up to the present moment its influence has been wholly good. The life of this city has been purified and uplifted by what they have hoped and planned and achieved, and it is to the Woman's Club that much, if not most, of the recent accomplishments must be traced. For a single example, the establishment of Kindergartens in our city schools is directly and almost solely attributed to the influence of its members. There is something astonishing (to one who has been poring in vain over the pages of past history to discover woman's influence upon public life) in stumbling upon this sudden and prodigious output of energy. An institution like this Woman's Club in the thirties or forties, would have been as anomalous as Mrs. Trollope's bazaar. And yet today it has taken its place in the scheme of things as quietly and seems as much at home in the modern world as a tree in a landscape.—From the "Queen City." (1912.) "Community Chest" and Social Agencies —From the published accounts of the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Community Chest and Council of Social Agencies, giving the origin of the movement here with its first decade of history-1914-1924—the following has been extracted for this work : The community was and has been more alive to the financial and practical than to the social aspects of current activities. About seventeen years ago, through the work of the Associated Charities there was organized the Business Men's Benevolent Advisory Association which inquired into the merits of appeals for funds' with a view to protecting the public from solicitation by unworthy agencies and individuals. Among the first manifestations of a real desire to put social work itself on a more effective basis were the discussions in the Monday Evening Club, composed of those participating in the work. This organization changed its name to the Social Workers' Club in 1909, and that year compiled the first directory of social workers, showing 104 organizations of all kinds and of all creeds active then, some of which have now passed out of existence and none of which were bound together by an organization more substantial than the Social Workers' Club itself. In the meetings of this organization were held many interesting discussions and often the long- 160 - GREATER CINCINNATI AND ITS PEOPLE ing was expressed for some closer association such as came into being a few years later. In the spring of 1911 a conference on the coordination of the charities of Cincinnati was held and an organization was formed. A committee of sixteen, of which Rev. Samuel Tyler was chairman, was appointed to formulate a plan of organization and to bring in nominations. This committee reported on the evening of April 28, 191r, at Christ Church Parish House. The plan submitted was for an organization to be known as the Conference of Charities and Philanthropies, and its objects were to promote efficiency, cooperation and economy. The membership was to consist of delegates from such charitable and benevolent institutions as were approved. A plan was included to bring all such institutions into closer practical relations. The birth of the new day in social service in this community occurred April 4, 1913. There had been a great flood throughout the Miami Valley, with heavy loss of life and property. With characteristic energy we had organized for flood relief and had perfected a strong, aggressive organization to handle the serious problems which confronted us. Its work done and its obligations discharged, and more than all, its vision broadened by what it had seen and accomplished, the Citizens' Flood Relief Committee availed itself of a great opportunity which came to it. Those who saw farthest, and whose understanding of the problems of the city was keenest, presented a plan, the scope and importance of which held a prophecy. This was the beginning of the organization later to be known as the Community Chest and Council of Social Agencies and of the new era in constructive social service in Cincinnati. The use in the above resolution of the name "Council of Social Agencies" was anticipatory of the actual creation of such an organization on the following day, for on April 5, 1913, the executive committee of the Conference of Charities and Philanthropies accepted the responsibilities placed upon it by the Citizens' Flood Relief Committee and assumed the task of continuing our social reconstruction. Mr. Fred A. Geier, who had been president of the Conference of Charities and Philanthropies, was chosen to be president of the new organization, which was in later years to wield such a constructive influence. F. R. Leach was elected vice-president and W. J. Norton, secretary. A managing committee was appointed, consisting of Fred A. Geier, F. R. Leach, W. J. Norton, Chas. A. Hinsch, W. A. Draper, Boris D. Bogen, J. 0. White, T. J. Edmunds, Otto Armleder and Richard Crane. The steps mentioned above and those following were taken according to a program which had been arranged by the men who had sensed both CINCINNATI AS A CITY - 161 the opportunities for greater service to humanity and the need for it. Having now created an organization, secured the necessary permanent offices in the Neave Building, Fourth and Race streets, and a secretarial organization, the Council of Social Agencies set itself to perform the task immediately in hand, namely, the rehabilitation of the families left destitute or broken by the great flood. It is not necessary here to go into details, except to say that the experience gained in this first venture in community cooperative work, and the results obtained through it, strengthened the conviction which was already well crystallized, that in coordination and cooperation lay golden opportunities. Reasons for this belief were further strengthened by the experience of the United Jewish Social Agencies which a number of years before had coordinated the work of all the Jewish social service organizations and had reached a high standard of efficiency under the federated plan. Formally Incorporated —On May 21, 1913, the Council of Social Agencies was incorporated by Fred A. Geier, F. R. Leach, Boris D. Bogen, W. J. Norton and C. A. Hinsch, and on the same day the draft of a proposed constitution was gone over and approved by a committee. It is this constitution which has turned out to be the Magna Charta of social service in this community. On June 13, 1913, representatives of fifty-two social service, civic, philanthropic, charitable and benevolent organizations met for the purpose of adopting the Constitution. This document contained elastic provisions which permitted federated social service in Cincinnati and Hamilton County constantly to avail itself of the best and most progressive thought available. There was a provision for the ultimate centralization of funds, uniform accounting and for the unification of solicitation for funds in one general campaign. Membership was made inclusive of all organizations whose service reached a definite standard. The organization was made thoroughly democratic, and the agencies, the organization itself and the public were given voice in the affairs of social endeavor. Safeguards were raised against waste and extravagance. It was at this meeting that the first executive board was elected. The members were : Maurice Freiberg, J. N. Gamble, M. C. Dow, L. A. Ault, C. J. Livingood, Walter A. Knight, Dr. J. H. Landis, Walter A. Draper, H. T. Atkins, W. P. Rogers, J. 0. White, Richard Crane, Rev. Samuel Tyler, T. J. Edmunds, Otto P. Geier, Boris D. Bogen, David Dunham, Wm. H. Parker, A. G. Bookwalter, Henry T. Hunt and Miss Annie Laws. On September 27, 1920, the name Community Council was changed to Community Chest. Because of local conditions it seemed best to continue two organizations, the Community Chest to handle the finances and the Council of Social Agencies to supervise and develop the social work. Cin.-11 162 - GREATER CINCINNATI AND ITS PEOPLE The boards overlapped and C. M. Bookman served both as secretary. By December, 1921, conditions had changed and a constitution for the consolidation of the two organizations was submitted. The two organizations united in January, 1922, under the name of the Community Chest and Council of Social Agencies of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. A five-year lease for the building at 25 East Ninth Street was negotiated and headquarters established there. The gifts in all campaigns for funds for social service, ten in number, have reached the enormous total of a little less than $10,500,000, not including the War Chest, while the total number of gifts is close to $370,- 000. These figures tell the story without the need of further words, of the growth of the public's sense of social responsibility in this community. In 1924 approximately 6,000 families received service, but of these only seventeen per cent required material relief, the remaining eighty-three per cent having been brought to a condition of self-support and self-reliance which rendered material relief unnecessary. They had been given, instead, education in the household arts, instruction in disease prevention and health preservation, medical care, employment and other forms of service which lifted them out of the class of dependents. The present headquarters offices of this institution are located at No. 25 East Ninth Street, Cincinnati. The executive staff includes : C. M. Bookman, executive secretary ; Otto W. Davis, assistant secretary ; Lewis Hillhouse, secretary educational publicity; W. J. Shroder, chairman of the Executive Budget Committee. This organization was founded in 1915, and then styled the "Council of Social Agencies." It started the movement to bring the charitable and social service agencies together into one army, organized to fight the common enemy, with one commissary department. In 1914 there were not more than 4,000 regular contributors to these agencies. The gifts were totally inadequate to do the needed work and it cost the agencies an average of fifteen cents on every dollar secured to raise the money. Last year (1925) there were 6o,000 individual subscribers and about 15,000 group subscriptions, or a total of 75,000 subscriptions to the Community Chest and its sixty-three cooperating agencies. The auditor's report to the Board of Directors on the financial operations of the Community Chest for a five year period, closing December 31, 1925, shows that the total receipts to the Chest during that period were $10,114,536, and that nearly ninety-eight per-cent of every dollar paid over into the agencies became available—the other two cents on a dollar going as the expense connected with the raising of the vast sum. This year the Community Chest campaign began May 1, 1926, the number of agencies is eighty-six and they are asking the public for a budget for the coming year to the amount of $1,873,473. Their total budget for the coming year is $4,573,381. The balance of this sum comes CINCINNATI AS A CITY - 163 from the interest on endowment, from earnings and from the various ways developed by these agencies to become self-supporting. The above report also says : "They have introduced the policy of asking each person helped to pay for the service when he can afford it. If he cannot pay anything, nothing of course is expected. These agencies believe that most men want a chance to help themselves—they do not want a 'handout.' " Take for example the four hospitals that receive funds through the Community Chest. They gave last year 30,964 days of free treatment to sick persons who could not afford to pay anything for their service. In addition they gave 95,301 days of treatment to patients who could pay something, but could not afford to pay the full cost. Nearly $200,000 was collected last year by one agency from deserting parents and turned over to their families. $75,000 was received by another agency from relatives of those in distress and paid to those in need. In 1910 there were 1,025 deaths from tuberculosis. Five hundred and sixty-seven human lives actually saved yearly through this one piece of work. Deaths of infants under one year decreased from 124 per thousand births in 1910 to 77 per thousand births in 1925. The Community Chest is as broad as humanity's needs. It recognizes all creeds, all races, all types and conditions of mankind. Its only requirement for membership is a willingness to do good to those in distress. In the present "drive" being made to raise the annual funds, it was reported this week that one of the largest gifts was a $7,500 subscription by B. H. Kroger, general chairman of the campaign, and another of the same amount from the Kroger Grocery and Baking Company, of which he is president, making a total of $15,000 by the Kroger interests. The 1926 drive brought in even greater returns than those yielded in 1925. The Cincinnati Automobile Club —This is the largest civic organization in the Ohio Valley, having a membership of 14,000. It is affiliated with the American Automobile Association and the Ohio State Automobile Association and the handsome club house, at the corner of Eighth and Race streets, Cincinnati, is the haven for all tourists. The club house is the new home of the Automobile Club. The lobby occupies the first floor. On the second floor are the executive offices, touring and license departments and the headquarters for the free emergency road service given to all members. On the third floor is the great lounge and the legal department. The Auto Club strives to develop the entire great Ohio Valley and lends its active support to both the Dixie and the Atlantic-Pacific highways. The tourists camp maintained by this club on Victory Boulevard is the mecca for hundreds of tourists. During 1925 a legal department was added to this club. Here one 164 - GREATER CINCINNATI AND ITS PEOPLE finds a competent attorney, prepared to advise auto-club members as regards violations of traffic, or other laws pertaining to motorists. The emergency road service is given without cost to the members and special 24-hour service is maintained throughout the year. The club rooms are open every day in the whole year. A complete chain of "Official Garages" are found in the towns along roads leading through Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia and Tennessee, in addition to the Ohio Service Stations. This Automobile Club has been active in bettering street traffic, and civic conditions in Cincinnati, always with the purpose of helping Cincinnati to become a bigger and better city to live in. Cincinnati and Hamilton County Red Cross —The activities of this great order in 1923-24 was summed up as follows by one of their officers : "The outstanding difference between the Red Cross and some other charities, is that it draws no line of color, race or creed. The world is its field and the physically distressed everywhere, are the subjects of its beneficence. "In spite of the length of time since the Armistice former service men still have many problems. Red Cross Home Service handling only those men with disability incurred in line of duty, in 1924 served 4,851 men and their families, assisting them in the numerous problems connected with the securing of medical treatment and compensation from the govern-: ment, assisting financially where necessary, visiting hospital patients at Cincinnati General Hospital, Longview, Rock Hill and Branch, and furnishing requested histories to hospitals to aid government doctors in their treatment of patients. "Veterans were assisted during the year in filing applications for bonus paid by nineteen States. For the Federal Bonus the American Legion and Red Cross maintained for five weeks a joint bureau where more than 20,000 Hamilton County veterans were given assistance in filing applications. "The Chapter, always ready to serve another community in disaster, sent a worker to Lorain for two months following the tornado of July, to assist in the work of rehabilitation. "The local disaster relief warehouse stands ready to meet every emergency. "To meet disasters, 1,000 special-made kimonas were shipped to Japan ; clothing sent to Porto Rico; layettes to Hungary ; and clothing to St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. "There were conducted 38 classes in home hygiene and care of the sick, with 906 in attendance, and classes in the city high schools and county high schools ; also a class in food selection and five classes in first aid, and passed 315 beginners and swimmers, 25 juniors and 12 seniors in life saving; fully equipped life saving corps ; established Cin- CINCINNATI AS A CITY - 165 cinnati Gym Boat Club, and volunteer Life Saving Corps at Covington Y. M. C. A. Camp, Little Miami River ; North Cincinnati Gym and Camp Edgar Friedlander. At Cincinnati Fall Festival the Chapter equipped two emergency hospitals, four nurses and two doctors on duty at all times, also two ambulances supplied. "The Red Cross, in combination with the County Board of Health, held 201 clinics and with an attendance of 2,171; examined 2,140 school children and made 3,231 home visits ; 550 dental inspections, no extractions, 90 fillings, 23 treatments and 32 prophylaxis. Two full-time public nurses are employed by the Red Cross and one physician and one dentist. "The nursing service awarded ten scholarships in schools of nursing and five post-graduate Public Health Nursing Scholarships. "The Junior Red Cross made 2,500 garments for local distribution and 2,239 toys were made and distributed to local charities. The Chapter made a $500 contribution to the National Children's Fund ; filled one thousand Christmas boxes for shipment abroad ; made Christmas bags for our soldiers in Canal Zone ; 355 pieces of furniture were made by Juniors and sent to Government hospitals. Cincinnati Business Women's Club —Among the legion of clubs for both men and women in Cincinnati one very important one is the one named in the head of this article. It was organized in 1917; it has in operation a definite program for carrying out the slogan of the National Federation : "Better Business Women for a Better Business World." Scholarships have been established which enable girls of sixteen, who are unable to finish their high school education, to do so. A speakers' bureau has been established ; this is made up of some of the members experienced along educational lines, sends out speakers to mothers' clubs and other organizations, to tell them of the advantages a girl may have when she starts on a business career, if she has a foundation of a good business education. This creates interest in the home and, prepares the mother for a time when her daughter may become legally an earning member of the family. This club also has an educational program for its own membership. Lectures in business education on such subjects as "Marketing Analysis," the "Budget an Aid to Management," etc. An innovation that has proved very interesting and educational was that of the noonday luncheons held at the club-house every Thursday. A speaker is selected from the membership who gives a ten-minute talk on a subject of interest. This function brings together interested groups. This club has so cooperated with the University of Cincinnati in that it has employed in its Tea Room service two young ladies taking the cooperative classes of Nutrition in the College of Applied Arts. An interesting monthly publication is printed and mailed to each member 166 - GREATER CINCINNATI AND ITS PEOPLE of the club. This organization has taken a definite and useful place in the community and through its activities along lines of business education, is a power in the growth of Cincinnati as a municipality. Clovernook Home For The Blind —The childhood home of the well-known Cary Sisters—Alice and Phoebe—not far from the city proper, now known as "Clovernook," is utilized as a Home for the Blind. Concerning its founding Rev. Charles F. Goss, in his "Queen City," published in 1912, gives the following account of the institution down to that date about a dozen years ago : Miss Georgia Trader possessed the beauty of sight until she was eleven years old. Then she lost it and she and her sisters, surrounded by affection and material advantages, developed a vast sympathy for the blind who were poor. In the summer of 1899 Miss Georgia was reading the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. The book made her wonder, first about the blind who have no books to read, and, second, about Franklin's ingenuity, perseverance and pluck. She consulted with her sisters and, after going to Mr. Hodges, Mr. Goss, and Dr. Robert Sattler for advice, they put a notice in the paper asking for the names and addresses of blind people in Cincinnati. Soon they had a list of one hundred and eighty-one names ; then they advertised, by another notice in the paper, for people to come to read to the blind at the public library. As the library is for the benefit of the majority and the blind are so small a minority, Mr. Hodges, the librarian, cannot buy books for them, but Misses Georgia and Florence Trader started a library which has been amassed into 13,031 volumes. It is not the largest library for the blind in the world but it is perhaps the best, for it contains many modern books and few duplicates. By an act of Congress, which permits these books to be circulated through the mails free of charge, the Traders send them all over the country, only four States in the Union having so far not availed themselves of the opportunity of borrowing. The Traders started classes to teach blind children the elementary branches of education ; at last they persuaded the school board to take up the subject, though they themselves raised the money for its support. Now there is a regular department for blind children supported by the city through the school board ; it is held in the Third Intermediate School building. There are two teachers, and twenty blind pupils recite their lessons with the normal children. Through the good offices of these two young women, the Traders, much work is carried on at the public library, and Mr. Hodges gives a room and bears all the expense of caring for the books. Here there are five regular readings a week and one entertainment a month. Every Friday the Traders have a large class, teaching the blind to read, write, crochet, knit, make bead baskets and rafia work. CINCINNATI AS A CITY - 167 When Clovernook, the home of Alice and Phoebe Cary, was for sale, Georgia Trader longed in her heart for it as a home for the blind. The sisters applied to Mr. Procter, but he refused them because, he said, it would be so enormous a care to them. Then they went out to see it one dripping day in spring. Clovernook stood there quietly and quaintly by the roadside, with its soft hillslopes behind. It was too altogether desirable and they went again to Mr. Procter. They were crazy for it, they told him. He turned to his real-estate man. "These little girls think they want Clovernook," he said, "so I wish you to go out and buy it for them." In May, 1903, Clovernook Home for the Blind was opened. Since then ten women and one man have lived there, though the man has recently married and moved to Mount Healthy, from where he comes every day to make the famous Clovernook brooms. The weaving shop was started through the gifts of Professor P. V. N. Myers and Mrs. Mary M. Emery. This and the broom shop are self-supporting, the home is not and never will be, says Miss Georgia Trader cheerfully. She and her sister Florence support this home and all other enterprises for the blind through the subscriptions they solicit. Sometimes things seem to happen altogether properly. It is a thing beautifully fitting that Clovernook should now be the home for the blind conducted by these ardent-souled sisters. It would seem that Alice and Phoebe Cary, with their deep spirituality must know and smile quietly over the present use of their beloved home. CHAPTER XII. SUBURBS AND SURROUNDING VILLAGES The suburbs of Cincinnati are its crowning glory. But few, if indeed any, city in the Republic can boast of more beautiful environments than Cincinnati. Foreigners noted this feature of the place scores of years ago. The eligible locations are almost innumerable and their capacity for development unlimited. Beginning at the brow of the hills and extending back over all of Hamilton County, is really one spacious suburb—a continuous landscape of charming beauty, once seen ever remains in the memory a vision of glory forever. Before the more recent annexations to the city proper, these surrounding villages might have been summed up by naming such places as Linwood, Westwood, Riverside, Lick Run, Pendleton, Sharonville, Newtown, California, Sedamsville, Ludlow Grove, Rensselaer, Maplewood, Park Place, Hyde Park, Fairview Heights, Mt. Airy, Fairmount, Chevoit, etc. The proposal to annex the village of Fulton to Cincinnati was submitted to vote October, 1854, and was carried. It was erected into the seventeenth ward in January, 1855. In 1854 the area of the city was three square miles, but had increased by 1860 to seven square miles. Storrs Township was annexed to the city in 1869, all except what was within Riverside. This became the twenty-first ward of the city. Walnut Hills, Mount Auburn, and Clintonville special road districts were annexed. This formed the twenty-second ward to the east and the twenty-third to the west of Burnet Avenue. Camp Washington and Lick Run were annexed in November, 1869. In the same month and year a large part of Spencer Township was annexed and in May, 187o, this was added to the twenty-fourth ward. In 1871, Columbia was annexed and was added to the first ward. Cumminsville became a part of Cincinnati in 1873, and also the same year Woodburn was annexed thereto. In 1893 Avondale, Riverside, Clifton, Linwood, and Westwood were added. January 18, 1898, Braggs' subdivision and Rose Hill were added to the city. Delhi Township came into Cincinnati in 1902 when all of section 6 and the east half of section 12 were added. In 1903 Winton Place, Evanston, Bond Hill, and Hyde Park were incorporated as a part of the city. A portion of Mill Creek Township was annexed March 17, 1904, while in the year 1911 many were the tracts added by annexation, including Oakley, Norwood, Pleasant Ridge, Hartwell, Elmwood, St. Bernard, Chevoit and Fernbank. In June the same year were added College Hill, Mount Washington, and Saylor Park. In July, 1911, Madisonville, Mount Airy and Carthage were made a part of Cincinnati. SUBURBS AND SURROUNDING VILLAGES - 169 Greater Cincinnati Territory —What of recent years has come to be styled "Greater Cincinnati" embraces not only lands in Hamilton County, Ohio, but also portions of the territory over the Ohio River in Kentucky, including the cities of Covington and Newport. A goodly number of people who do business in Cincinnati live across the river. Since the easy access by means of bridges and street car systems these places have been looked upon as almost a legal part of Cincinnati ; however, they are not such, only in a social and business relation. Covington is the largest of these cities and the second largest is in Kentucky. It is the county seat of Kenton County. The splendid suspension bridge over the Ohio River between Cincinnati and Covington was erected in 1865-67. Another Kentucky town closely allied with Cincinnati, Ohio, is Newport. It is the seat of justice of Campbell County, Kentucky. Its first settlement was effected in 1791 and it was incorporated in 1795 and became a city in 1850. Other Kentucky towns within the scope of this work are Bellevue, Dayton and Fort Thomas. Norwood, another beauty spot in Hamilton County, and which place had, in 1910, a population of 20,000, but is much larger today, was incorporated as a village in 1888, and as a city in 1902. It takes in portions of Columbia and Mill Creek townships. Many immense industries have, in recent years, located at Norwood. It is divided, as shown in 1911, into South, East, West, and Central Norwood, Norwood Heights, Norwood View and Elsmere. Its churches, public schools, public library, etc, are among the most important of any suburban place of Greater Cincinnati. As the city expanded, there arose villages lying at a distance from corporate limits. A score and more such places all had their distinct history, but with passing years is has been merged with the general history of what has come to be known as "Greater Cincinnati." Some of these communities shall here be named and briefly described : Avondale became a village in 1866 and in 1893 was annexed to the city. It is a hill-top suburb ; it is to the east of Clinton, and is among the handsomest of all the many suburbs, and has magnificent homes, charming lawns and a park-like appearance. Clifton, to the northward of Burnet Woods, was named for the old Clifton farm, of 1200 acres of hill and dales. It was annexed to Cincinnati in 1903 and a dozen years since had in excess of twenty-five miles of avenues. College Hill has a settlement dating back to 1855, when people from Cincinnati commenced to seek homes there. In 1866 it was incorporated. It is eight miles north from Fountain Square. Back in 1848 the Ohio Female College was located at this point. In later years this institution was changed into a sanitarium. But way back of the college was the "Carey's Academy and Farmers College" started in 1832 and subse- 170 - GREATER CINCINNATI AND ITS PEOPLE quently became Belmont College, then became the Ohio Military Institute. In 1911 College Hill was annexed to Cincinnati. Hartwell was platted in 1868 by the Hamilton County Building Association and derived its name from John W. Hartwell, vice-president of the railroad when the first station was located there. The Catholic institutions, St. Clara's Convent and the Provincial House and Novitiate of the Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis are located there. Episcopal, Methodist and Presbyterian churches each have flourishing societies at that point. Carthage, eight miles from Fountain Square, has about 5,000 population. It is the seat of Longview Insane Hospital, as well as city and county infirmaries. It was annexed to Cincinnati in the fall of 1910. Wyoming is in one of the loveliest parts of Mill Creek Valley. As early as 1805 the Pendery family located there. It has long since been noted as being a residence suburb, with wide, well kept streets and many fine homes. Lockland, twelve miles from the center of Cincinnati, is an old town noted for its manufacturing interests ; it lies east of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railway tracks. Columbia —This famous old place, first to be settled in the Miami country, lies south of Woodburn, and became a part of Cincinnati December 13, 1872, under an ordinance of February 10, 1871. It belongs now to Ward No. 1, as does also Pendleton. Here the locomotive works and car shops were located for the Little Miami Railroad. Today the great power company, elsewhere treated in this work, has its wonderful electric plant. Cumminsville —In 1790 Colonel Israel Ludlow, one of the founders of Losantiville, built Ludlow Station. The block-house stood at the present intersection of Knowlton Street and the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railway. It was five miles from Fort Washington, and in the midst of a dense forest. This for years was the outpost in the Mill Creek Valley. Here St. Clair's army encamped in 1791. Here also General Anthony Wayne's army encamped. Its camp was in the orchard, with two rows of tents pitched parallel to each other, from a spring in the orchard to a spring at Colonel Ludlow's door. Mrs. Ludlow was instrumental in founding the Cincinnati Auxiliary of the American Bible Society in 1815. The village, which gradually grew up in this vicinity, was named from David Cummins, son of a Cincinnati pioneer, and born in a house on Third Street, opposite the Burnet House. He is, by some, supposed to have been the first white child born in Cincinnati. In 1844 a postoffice was established here, with Ephraim Knowlton as first postmaster. November 29, 1865, the village was incorporated. Mr. A. De Serisy was mayor in 1868, J. F. Lakeman in 1869-71, and Gabriel Dirr in 1872. The SUBURBS AND SURROUNDING VILLAGES - 171 annexation to Cincinnati was effected under an ordinance of September, 6, 1872, a popular vote of the two municipalities in October, and acceptance of the conditions of annexation March 12, 1873. In 1832 the Christian people of this region were still worshipping in a log school-house. A building for educational and religious purposes was put up that year at the expense of James C. Ludlow, son of the pioneer. The Methodist Episcopal Church was built here about 1833. The Presbyterian Church was erected twenty years afterwards, and a regular organization of the society was effected in it by a committee of the Cincinnati Presbytery October 16, 1855. St. Boniface's Catholic Church, with a school of two divisions, also St. Patrick's, with a school of three departments ; and the St. Peter's and St. Joseph's orphan asylum, in care of the Sisters of Charity, are located here. Walnut Hills —This locality, once an independent settlement from Cincinnati proper, was first settled in 1791, by Rev. James Kemper, first pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Cincinnati, who owned and occupied a large farm here—mainly, it is probable, for the benefit of his large family, some of whom were grown sons. Kemper Avenue, Kemper Lane, Kemper Hall, and the like, aid to perpetuate his memory. Here he built a blockhouse for defense, which was situated at the old Kemper home, on the east side of Kemper Lane, where the street has since been graded below the level. In those days the trees of the walnut variety were numerous and very beautiful to behold—hence the naming of this particular locality. The village of Walnut Hills was platted in June, 1834. It never was incorporated except for road purposes. Some years before, Lane Seminary had been located upon land given by Mr. Kemper. Some reminiscences will here be inserted concerning the most noted family of the settlement—the Beecher family, of which Rev. Dr. Lyman Beecher was the head. This family occupied the residence still standing in fine condition, at the northeast corner of Gilbert Avenue and Chestnut Street. From one of Dr. Beecher's interesting biographies has been gleaned, from the writings of one of Beecher's children, the following, published sometime after his death : "Dr. Beecher's residence on Walnut Hills was in many respects peculiarly pleasant. It was a two-story brick edifice of moderate dimensions, fronting the west, with a long L running back into the primeval forest, or grove, as it was familiarly called, which here came up to the very door. Immense trees—beech, black oak, and others—spread their arms over the back yard, affording, in summer, an almost impenetrable shade. "An airy veranda was built in the angle formed by the L along the entire inner surface of the house, from which, during the fierce gales of autumn and winter, we used to watch the tossing of the spectral branches, and listen to the roaring of the wind through the forest. Two or three 172 - GREATER CINCINNATI AND ITS PEOPLE large beeches and elms had been, with difficulty, saved from the inexorable woodman's axe by the intercessions of the doctor's daughter Catharine, on the visit already described, and, though often menaced as endangering the safety of the house from their great height, they still flourish in beauty. "Through that beautiful grove the doctor and two of his sons, during the three years, 1834-7, passed daily to and from the seminary buildings. A rustic gate was hung between the back yard and the grove, and the path crossed a run or gully, where, for a season, an old carpenter's bench supplied the place of bridge. "In this old grove were some immense tulip trees, so large, in some instances, that two men could scarcely clasp hands around the trunk. How often has that grove echoed to the morning and evening song of the children or the students ! We can hear yet, in imagination, the fine soprano of James, then a boy, executing with the precision of an instrument solfeggios and favorite melodies till the forest rang again. In that grove, too, was a delightful resort of the young people from the city of Dr. Beecher's flock, who often came out to spend a social hour or enjoy a picnic in the woods. "The doctor's study was decidedly the best room in the house—no longer, as at Litchfield, in the attic, but on the ground floor, and the first entrance to which you came on arriving from the city. Here, from its cheerful outlook, its convenience of access, and other inviting properties, soon was established the general rendezvous. Here came the students for consultation with the president ; here faculty meetings were held, and here friends from the city spent many a social hour. "On one side of the room the windows looked westward on an extensive landscape ; on the opposite side a double window, coming down to the floor, opened upon the veranda, serving in summer the double purpose of window and door ; between these, on the back side, were the bookcases and sundry boxes and receptacles of MSS ; while opposite was the fireplace, with the door on the left and a window on the right. From said door you looked forth across the carriage drive into a garden situated between the road and the grove, where the doctor extracted stumps and solved knotty problems in divinity at the same time, and whence the table was supplied with excellent vegetables. A little barn was ensconced in the back part of the yard, just beyond the end of the L., under the shade of the big beech trees, in which Charley (a most important member of the doctor's establishment) had his stable. "The family was large, comprising, including servants, thirteen in all, besides occasional visitors. The house was full. There was a constant high-tide of life and commotion. The old carryall was perpetually vibrating between home and the city, and the excitement of going and coming rendered anything like stagnation an impossibility. And if we take into SUBURBS AND SURROUNDING VILLAGES - 173 account the constant occurrence of matters for consultation respecting the seminary and the students, or respecting the church and the congregation in the city, or respecting presbytery, synod and general assembly as well as the numberless details of shopping, marketing and mending, which must be done in the city, it will be seen that at no period of his life was Dr. Beecher's mind more constantly on the stretch, exerted to the utmost tension of every fibre, and never, to use an expressive figure of Professor Stowe, did he wheel a greater number of heavily-laden wheelbarrows at one and the same time. Had he husbanded his energies and turned them in a single channel, the mental fire might have burned steadily on till long after three score years and ten. But this was an impossibility. Circumstances and his own constitutional temperament united to spur him on, and for more than twenty of his best years he worked under a high pressure, to use his favorite expression, to the ne plus—that is, to the utmost limit of physical and moral endurance. It was an exuberant and glorious life while it lasted. The atmosphere of his household was replete with moral oxygen—full charged with intellectual electricity. Nowhere else have we felt anything else resembling or equaling it." A local historian, in 1911, wrote of this part of Cincinnati as follows : "It now has 75,000 population, fine hotels and club houses with its active business centers. Walnut Hills is the seat of the noted Lane Theological Seminary. This suburb was the home of Dr. Lyman Beecher and his family and the place where Harriet Beecher Stowe lived while she was gathering materials for "Uncle Tom's Cabin." This handsome and flourishing community became a part of the city in 1869. East Walnut Hills and Woodburn sprang from the community of Walnut Hills proper." Mt. Auburn, for many years, was the only real suburb to Cincinnati. It was at first styled Keys' Hill, after an old settler, but in 1837 its name was changed. In 1826 there were a number of prominent citizens residing at this point. About one-half of its territory was annexed to the city prior to 1870. It is two miles north from Fountain Square. The German Protestant Orphan Asylum, Christ's Hospital, Bodmann Widows' Home and the German Deaconess Home are all situated in Mt. Auburn. Bond Hill was founded and chartered by men desiring suburban homes without paying fancy prices for land. It was started in 1870 as the "Cooperative Land and Building Association No. 1, of Hamilton County." The homes were added one to another with great rapidity until it became a fine flourishing village. Pleasant Ridge was first settled by James C. Wood, in 1809. It became a post-town in 1832, and was the mustering place and drill grounds during the War with Mexico in 1846-47. In 1910 it had a population of 1,800. It was annexed to the city November 12, 1912. 174 - GREATER CINCINNATI AND ITS PEOPLE Oakley, five miles from the Hamilton County Courthouse, on Madisonville Road, lies in the center of the amphitheatre formed by surrounding hills. As late as 1870 this territory was within a farming district and had crops growing there annually. Madisonville was founded in 1866, when the railroad was built through. It was first known as Madison, named for President Madison, but changed for postal reasons, when the first office was established there. The date of establishing the postoffice was 1826. Town lots were first platted there in 1810 and in 1910 it was annexed to Cincinnati. It has upwards of six thousand inhabitants and is noted mostly for its residential features, for it is here many having commercial interests in the city proper, desire to rear their families and reside in this charming suburb. From a history of Hamilton County published in 1894, by Nelson & Co., the subjoined well written account of Madisonville of that date the author of this volume quotes as follows : "Madisonville is the oldest village in the township, and was, until the phenomenal expansion of Norwood, the largest. With respect to the territory of the township, its location is almost central. It is situated upon a school section ; school lands did not become available until the passage of the act of January 27, 1809, and within a short time thereafter the inhabitants of Columbia took measures for the survey and disposition of Section 16, upon which the village is located. The survey was made March 30, 1809, by William Darling, assisted by Jeremiah Brand and Joseph Ward as chain carriers, and Nathaniel Ross as topographer. "From Mr. Nelson's work on 'Suburban Homes' the following interesting extracts regarding the history of Madisonville have been taken : `Madison was at one time noted for the number of its distilleries, which used to attract large gatherings from the surrounding country, and be the occasion of much jollity and dissipation. Men would spend their time in gaming, and with outdoor, manly and unmanly sports, until the assembly would break up in a general Donnybrook Fair. Traces of the distilleries seems to have disappeared, which was accounted for on the ground that as soon as transportation for grain and pork was opened up the corn that had been shipped in the compact form of whiskey brought higher prices in bulk and in pork. Vestiges of the tanning business remain, one of which we noticed on a piece of ground recently purchased by Col. White. " 'Madison was also the home of several men who became distinguished members of the body politic. Among them we may mention Dr. Alexander Duncan, a well-known member of Congress, who disappointed his Democratic friends by stepping over to free soil. One who made his mark and his money in the insurance business, when there was money in it, was Louis W. Clason, who was well known in Cincinnati. Madison SUBURBS AND SURROUNDING VILLAGES - 175 was also the early home of James Whitcomb, who was afterwards Governor of Indiana. "For many years the growth of Madisonville was exceedingly slow. It was merely a country village limited to the immediate contiguous territory for the patronage of its industries and places of business. It had 285 inhabitants in 1830, and was credited with four hundred by the State Gazette of 1841. With the opening of the Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad (now the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern) an era of rapid and permanent expansion began. Few localities in the vicinity of Cincinnati possess equal advantages of accessibility, salubrity and beauty of natural scenery. The population in 188o was 1,274; in 1890, 2,214; and during the past three years it is estimated that there has been an increase to 3,000. "Madisonville was incorporated in 1876, and the first election resulted as follows : Mayor, L. W. Clason ; clerk, John H. Cougar ; marshal, George Settle ; council. W. W. Peabody, T. Maphet, D. Mathis, M. Buckle, William Settle, L. Cornuelle. The succession of mayors has been as follows : 1876-82, L. W. Clason ; 1882-84, J. 0. Marsh ; 1884-86, L. W. Clason ; 1886-88, J. 0. Marsh ; 1888-92, James Julien ; 1892—, W. G. Hier. There is a volunteer fire department. The town hall, at the corner of Central Avenue and Julien Street, is a commodious and substantial structure, combining public hall, municipal offices, free reading room, and a large storeroom. The water works system was dedicated October 15, 1892, and represents a bonded indebtedness of $30,343.49." Montgomery is one of the oldest settlements in Hamilton County—almost as old as Columbia. A log tavern was the first building in the community. Here rested many of the pioneer teamsters and travelers. At that day all taverns kept liquors for sale and in this instance the business must have been excellent, for it is recorded that in 1809 fifty barrels of whiskey was not sufficient to supply the demand. It was in 1806-07 that a number of Montgomery County, New York, families located here. A classical school, known as an academy, was founded here and flourished many years. Madeira is eighteen miles from the courthouse on the Madisonville road. A part of the village was platted in 1871. Before that the place was known only as a post-town, and was called for John Madeira, a large land-owner of the country. Madeira is three miles from Madisonville. Loveland lies on the Little Miami River and is situated on land owned in 1848 by Colonel William Ramsey. One of its first settlers was Thomas Paxton, who settled in 1794. His son, Samuel Paxton, made numerous trips to New Orleans, sometimes bringing back his flat-boat. One trip he cleared a profit of $7,000. A number of immigrants came here from New Jersey in 1806, and built homes for themselves in the "green glad solitude." 176 - GREATER CINCINNATI AND ITS PEOPLE North Bend is fifteen miles west of Cincinnati. It was the home of General William Henry Harrison, whose remains still repose there. This village had a population of 550 in 1910 which has probably not increased since that time. Glendale, fifteen miles out from the heart of Cincinnati, has been looked upon as "one of the most delightful suburban villages in the United States." It is the seat of Glendale Woman's College. For years it was the home of Robert Clarke, Samuel J. Thompson and other men of note in their day and generation. Here may be found the Presbyterian, Catholic, Swedenborgian, Methodist and Episcopal denominations. Corryville, named for the Corry heirs, is on lands once owned by Jacob Burnet and William McMillen. William Corry was the first to hold the office of mayor of Cincinnati. Cleves, sixteen miles from the city, has long since been a prosperous community. Springdale, in 1820, was the most wealthy and important village in Hamilton County. The Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad, built in 1851, about two miles distant, drew trade and travel to other villages. The result of the railroad going "so near and yet so far" killed its commercial chances. It is surrounded by a rich agricultural section and Springdale was the birthplace of several celebrated men, including the Hon. Oliver P. Morton, Captain John Brownson, U. S. A., Caleb Crane, and Dr. John R. Hunt. A Presbyterian Church was organized there in 1796. What was originally called Delhi, was annexed to Cincinnati in 1910. The files of the "Times Star," June 20, 1910, said of this place : "Delhi, the pretty suburban village just annexed to Cincinnati, came very close to being a city of celebrity. It was in the territory now divided into Delhi, Sayler Park, Fernbank and Addyston, that John Cleves Symmes, in 1789, projected the city of South Bend and predicted a glorious future for the infant hamlet. It flourished for a few years and then Uncle Sam selected Cincinnati as a better site for a military post, and South Bend relapsed into "innocuous desuetude." Later, the name was given to what is now that sprightly city of South Bend, Indiana. Delhi was platted in 1866 by Peter Zinn, and was incorporated as a hamlet July 29, 1885, James S. Wise being elected as its first president. It had its first village government in 1890 when John Wentzel became mayor. The first to locate at Brighton was Colonel John Riddle, a New Jersey immigrant. Early in 1790 he secured employment shoeing horses in the garrison at old Fort Washington. Later that year he bought of Judge Symmes a section of land two miles northwest of the village. In 1793 Riddle erected a house on what came to be known later as Alfred Street. Brighton proper was located at the intersection of Colerain and Harrison avenues. In the early forties was the beginning, in a crude SUBURBS AND SURROUNDING VILLAGES - 177 manner, what later developed into the great pork packing industry that thrived in this locality. Brighton gave the name to Cincinnati "porkopolis." It was really the little Clearwater Creek that gave opportunity for this section to become famous as the greatest hog and cattle killing industry in all the country up to the time when western packing houses were located at Chicago, Kansas City and Omaha. It was here at Brighton that Cincinnati's first waterwork system was installed. Another important historic feature of this locality was the activity of the religious sect known as Millerites, who in the forties declared the world was to come to its final destruction. About 1850 Brighton had four of the largest distilleries in the United States. Most of the corn used in these distilleries was shipped by canal boat. The "Brighton stock-yards" were established in 1855. All has changed since then and today industry flourishes in the place. Village of Harrison —This place is situated in both Ohio and Indiana, State Street being the dividing line between the two States. The founder of the village was Jonas Crane, the first plat being surveyed in 1810. That part of the town situated in Indiana was laid off by William Hand and a Mr. Allen, and antedated Crane's plat. Crane was a farmer, and resided half a mile south of the town site, which, at the time of the survey, was covered with forest. The first improvements were rude log cabins, built for temporary occupancy by frontiersmen who vacated them and removed further west when civilization began to encroach upon this region. The oldest house now standing is on the northwest corner of State and Broadway ; it was originally erected in 1812 and is partially incorporated in the present structure upon this site. The first frame building on the Ohio side was built by Thomas Breckenridge and William Pursel in 1816 as a hotel. These gentlemen were proprietors of a sawmill on Whitewater, the first in this locality. The first hotel keeper at this place was Isaac Morgan, who, in 1818, built a brick house diagonally opposite (at the site of Tebb's store) and opened therein a dry-goods store, one of the first in the village. Mr. Morgan was father-in-law to Hendricks, vice-Presidential candidate with Tilden. Other early residents were James Wilson, who resided in a frame house on State Street and was in the mercantile business prior to 1818 ; Jones, a gentleman of means, well advanced in years when he located here, whose principal business was buying and selling real estate, and whose residence was frame building on State Street ; Henry Lincoln, a farmer, who lived in Broadway ; John D. Moore, a merchant on Market Street, at the frame house still standing, in which Tunis' Bank was conducted in 182o-21, and where Uwehlan Fuller opened the first drug store in the village ; Fritz Juerles, a baker on Broadway, where he occupied a brick house ; William Hale, a saddler on Broadway ; Joseph Cin.-12 178 - GREATER CINCINNATI AND ITS PEOPLE Barben, a blacksmith opposite Juerles ; ____ Lockwood, who lived in a frame house adjoining the town-hall ; William Keene, a shoemaker on Market Street ; Joseph Goff, a hatter on State Street ; John Moore, wagon-maker ; Richard Penny, undertaker on State Street ; Jesse Dochterman. cigar-maker ; Washington Ferris, farmer on Market Street ; George Waldorf, hotel and store keeper, site of "Central Hotel" ; Harrison Seften, wagonmaker and subsequently sawmiller ; Henry Wiles, hotel keeper on State Street, now the corner of Water, at a frame building that was one of the first in the village ; David Jarrett, a successor of Morgan at the Breckenridge and Pursel Hotel ; Hamilton Ashby, merchant on State Street ; Dr. Cruikshank, the first resident physician. The growth of Harrison in population and business importance has been parallel with the agricultural development of the surrounding region and the opening of trade and transportation facilities. The turnpike from Harrison to Cincinnati was opened in 1836. This well-known thoroughfare passes through Miamitown and Cheviot, and is one of the most important in the county. The Whitewater Canal was constructed in 1836-40. This was originally an Indiana enterprise ; it was found impossible, however, to reach the Ohio River without entering the territory of Ohio, and the Legislature of that State granted this privilege only upon condition that permission be granted to tap the canal and construct a branch to Cincinnati. This was reluctantly granted ; its effect was to deflect traffic to Cincinnati almost to the utter exclusion of Lawrenceburg, the Indiana terminus. The canal was opened to Lawrenceburg in 1840 and to Cincinnati in 1842. A daily omnibus line to Cincinnati, and to North Bend, on the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad, were among the conveniences of the place prior to the opening of the Whitewater Valley Railroad, which occurred January 1, 1864. A third of a century ago Harrison had churches as follows : Methodist Episcopal, St. John's Roman Catholic, German United Brethren, Christian and Presbyterian. Its churches today (1926) are : The Methodist, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, Evangelical Lutheran, United Brethren, Christian, Christian Alliance, Christian Science. The present estimated population of the village is 1,891. The corporation owns a good two-story brick town hall, in which the public library and postoffice are kept. The Harrison town hall has an interesting history. The site was reserved for this purpose by Jabez C. Tunis, by whom this part of, the town was platted in 1817, but the deed was never recorded. Joseph Barben subsequently purchased it and obtained a deed. The ownership now depended upon priority in having the deed recorded. Frank Looker was commissioned to take the deed to the village of Cincinnati and have it recorded, while Barben intrusted his deed to Daniel H. Hartpence for a similar purpose. Looker and Hartpence left Harrison on the same night, SUBURBS AND SURROUNDING VILLAGES - 179 but the latter had the best horse and reached Cincinnati at 3 A. M., roused the recorder, and had the deed entered, thus securing Barben in his title. When this intelligence reached Harrison a meeting of citizens was at once called, and after a thorough discussion of the matter it was decided to reimburse Barben for the amount of his purchase, which was accordingly done. This occurred in 1841. The erection of a market house was agitated at different times, but no effort to erect a town hall was made until 1849, when Uwehlan Fuller, George Keene, Sr., James Campbell and Allison Looker took the matter in hand, secured subscriptions, and began the erection of the building. It was a frame structure, supported by pillars, the ground floor subserving the purposes of a market place. Considerable difficulty was experienced in effecting its completion, however, and this led to the incorporation of the village in 185o. In 1877 this structure was replaced by the present substantial brick building, which contains a public hall, public reading room, municipal and township offices, and offices of the building association and school board. A tragic event occurred here March 8, 1878, when several persons were killed, and others severely injured, by a gas explosion. There are now two local newspapers at Harrison—the "News," and the "Press." The first local paper at Harrison was the "Advocate," established in 187o by James Fairchild. Walter and William R. Hartpence founded the "News" in 1871 ; the latter withdrew several years later, and the paper has since been conducted by the former. It is a seven-column folio, independent in politics, and enjoys an extensive local circulation. The first issue of the "Harrison Democrat" appeared August 21, 1891. D. B. Sherwood is editor and proprietor. This journal supports the political principles indicated by its title, and has already attained a large measure of prosperity. Since 1899 the public library has been a branch of the Cincinnati Public Library and weekly delivery of books are made from the main library in the city for the use of the people around Harrison. They now have about three thousand books of their own on hand. The present efficient librarian, Nellie Curran, has served since 1892, and is the only person holding the position. Of the present schools (on the Ohio side of the village) it may be said that there are the centralized high school of the township, the grade school and a Roman Catholic parochial school. The banking interests are well cared for by the First National Bank and the Citizens' Bank of Harrison. The business interests include the old pioneer pottery, a flour and feed mill (on the Indiana side of the place), also a large foundry. The present village has for its mayor Thomas P. Pierce. The marshal is now Ferdinand Doerman. 180 - GREATER CINCINNATI AND ITS PEOPLE The following lodges are here represented successfully : Free Masons, in various degrees, including an Eastern Star Chapter ; Odd Fellows Lodge, with auxiliary Rebekah Lodge, which orders own a fine large brick hall, a portion being leased for business uses. There is also a lodge of Daughters of Isabella, Daughters of the Revolution and Modern Woodman lodges. The Morgan Raid —The great event in the brief history of this, the youngest township of Hamilton County, was the John Morgan raid, which occurred ten years after the creation of the township, or in July, 1863. The invading force crossed it on the main roads, but entered it on but one—that through Harrison Village. The advent of Morgan and his horde at that place was a thorough surprise. It was known by the people that he was somewhere to the westward in Indiana ; but his direction of march was unknown, and there was no special reason to expect him at Harrison. Morgan's forces were, indeed, considerably scattered in southeastern Indiana, on the 12th of July, and it was exceedingly difficult to divine the leader's intentions ; but on that day and the forepart of the next they moved rapidly by converging roads upon Harrison, at which one point they struck Ohio. About one o'clock in the afternoon of the thirteenth the advance of the rebel command was seen streaming down the hillsides on the west side of the valley, and the alarm was at once given in the streets of Harrison. Citizens hastened at once to secrete valuables and run off their horses ; but in a very few moments the enemy was swarming all over the town. The raiders generally behaved pretty well, however, offering few insults to the people, and maltreating no women or other person. They secured what horses they could, and thronged the stores, taking whatever they fancied. The eccentric character of the stealing, as described by Colonel Duke in our chapter on the Morgan Raid through Ohio, was manifest here. One gentleman who kept a drug and notion store was despoiled of nothing but soap and perfumery. He had a large stock of albums, which were popular then, and expected to see them go rapidly; but not one was taken. Similar incidents are related of other shops in the village ; and from one and another a large amount of goods in the aggregate was taken. But there was no robbery from house to house, or from the person ; and after a very few hours stay, having refreshed themselves and their horses, and gained all desired information, the head of the column began to file out of the village in the direction of Cincinnati, on the Harrison Turnpike. Reaching the junction of the New Haven Road, a third of a mile out, part of the force took to that thoroughfare, and proceeded eastward through Crosby township, crossing the Great Miami at New Baltimore. The remainder kept down the Harrison Pike, through Whitewater Township, crossing the river at Miamitown. Their passage on both roads was attended by no special incident, and was of course entirely unopposed. SUBURBS AND SURROUNDING VILLAGES - 181 That same night found the invading force abreast of Cincinnati, and the next day out of the county, after a tremendous midsummer march of thirty hours. But the thrilling story has been related elsewhere, and need not be further dwelt upon here. Mariemont Village —This is among the more recent plattings of suburban villages for Cincinnati. It is the result of the operations of a company headed by Mrs. Mary M. Emery, a life-time resident of the "Queen City," and it will ever stand as a beautiful monument to her good taste and business sagacity, as well as a blessing to future generations who shall improve and enjoy its beauty. It stands on the grounds formerly occupied by the Indian tribes, but just what tribe is not certain. It was a famous Indian burying ground and hundreds of skeletons have been taken from the place and placed in various museums. Geographically it is situated in Columbia Township, Hamilton County, Ohio, just outside the Cincinnati' city lines, and to the north of Madisonville. At this point General Washington located a claim of 10,000 acres, which in his will he instructed his executors not to sell in a hurry, "as it will doubtless be the site of a city of greatness." Mariemont was primarily selected for the new suburb on account of its rare beauty, near a great city, yet out far enough to be away from the noise and dirt of factories. It was designed by its founders as a place for handsome residences. Through her personal representative, Mr. Charles J. Livingood, Mrs. Emery has wrought out a great work for posterity. With the start already made in this beauty spot, it will not be many years before the scenes in that vicinity will have wonderfully changed and the owner of property will indeed be fortunate in his possessions. CHAPTER XIII. COURTS AND LAWYERS. First Courts of Justice—On January 5, 1790, the Governor issued a proclamation directing that "the justices of the peace hold their Courts of General Quarter Session of the Peace at the town of Cincinnati, on the first Tuesdays in February, May, August, and November ; and the judges of the Court of Common Pleas hold their courts at the same place on the first Thursdays of May and November." After having established the county, named the city and appointed the officials to administer the affairs of the place, Governor St. Clair left on the 5th for the Illinois country not to return to the Symmes purchase for some months. The first session of the Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace seems to have been held on the ensuing 2d of February. There attended at this court the three judges presided over by William McMillan ; Justice Jacob Tapping (Topping) ; Sheriff John Brown, Levi Woodward and Robert Wheelan, constables. At this session Justice Jacob Tapping complained of Josiah White, saying that he had slandered him. White offered his excuses and apologies and was released. The grand jury failed to bring in any bills and was discharged. This was very fortunate as it appeared by a protest of the sheriff that there was as yet no jail and for that reason he did not wish to be held responsible for prisoners. At the May term the session was more exciting. The matter of discharging firearms seems to have disturbed the community a great deal and a number of cases are with reference to this offense. We find in William McMillan's original docket preserved in the files of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio that Abraham Garrison was arrested on April 9th for discharging firearms on Saturday night, the 7th, but as he was able to show that the discharge was an unavoidable accident he was discharged. Three weeks later Uriah Gates celebrated Saturday night by discharging firearms twice. Each shot cost him two and a half dollars. The first civil case tried by the County Court consisting of Judges William Goforth and William McMillan, assisted by Justices John S. Gano, Benjamin Stites and Jacob Tapping, with John Brown as sheriff and Israel Ludlow, clerk, is that of Henry Reed against Joseph White. It was for a debt of three dollars which was settled by mutual consent, as White had already been in jail for a month and agreed to work for Reed for another term. A later case is that of Peter Clark against Mary Simpson. Mary had been Clark's servant and owed him three dollars but concluded to get married without paying her debt. She finally agreed to COURTS AND LAWYERS - 183 go to jail until her husband could make enough money to pay her prenuptial debt. The first criminal jury included John Scott, Isaac Bates, Jonathan Fitts, James Dement, John Van Cleff, Scott Traverse, Ziba Stebbins, Henry McLaughlin, Asa Peck, Thaddeus Bruen, Daniel Seward and Cornelius Miller. They found Catherine Fortie guilty of stealing an iron kettle. She was ordered to receive twenty-five lashes on her bare back, but as her husband had been a soldier and she had served as a nurse during the entire Continental War and for other reasons the punishment was modified to ten lashes. On the back of the writ was the return : "Agreeably to the order of the court the within mentioned Catherine Fortie was taken and tied to a public whipping post, her back bared and ten stripes well administered with a stout hickory gad." At this term of court Thomas Goudy was admitted to practice, the first admitted in the county. Ensign William Henry Harrison (later President Harrison), took it upon himself to chastise one Daniel Rian, a recently discharged soldier. Rian had a warrant sworn out for Harrison but the sheriff was not permitted by the commandant, Gen., James Wilkinson, to serve the same ; thereupon Judge Goforth instructed the officers of the court to arrest Harrison whenever they found him outside of the fort. This a young deputy sheriff attempted to do and Harrison knocked him down with a walking stick. He subsequently delivered himself up to the court, received a lecture and was discharged. The court records disclose such items as the following from 1793 on to 1798: James Ferguson sued John LeCount for a debt of one dollar and a half for beer and cakes. On the trial LeCount spoke disrespectfully to the court and consequently received twenty-five lashes at the public whipping post. Mary Thomas, wife of Casper Thomas, was prosecuted as a common scold and on May 2, 1796, having been convicted on testimony of her husband, she received twenty-one stripes on her bare back and was sent to jail for thirty days. A discharged soldier, Peter Kerrigan, married Mary Murphy without publishing the banns ; thereupon William Maxwell, the owner of the "Spy," who felt that he was entitled to the advertisement, caused him to be arrested and Peter received ten stripes on the bare back and stood four hours in the public pillory and went to jail for three months. In those days the protective tariff was thoroughly enforced and no foreign competition was permitted. James Ferguson, a well-known merchant, sold an English-made penknife for which he was obliged to pay a fine of $100. Harvey James ferried a neighbor across the river for a pound of tobacco. As this competed with the regular ferryman, James 184 - GREATER CINCINNATI AND ITS PEOPLE was arrested for ferrying without license. His tobacco cost him ten stripes on the back and $20. The collector called upon Ebenezer Ayres for taxes, whereupon Ayres kicked him out of his shop. This little exploit cost him $100 and a week in jail. Another well known merchant, Capt. Hugh Moore, of the "Brick House," sold an old flint-lock French musket, forgetting its foreign origin. Fined $100. Another veteran, Capt. John Mercer, started a billiard saloon without complying with the law and paid several fines of $25 each before he concluded to give up the business. Rev. Joab Monters concluded that he was a Savior and so announced himself on the street corners. After being incarcerated in jail, he delivered his addresses from the window each morning at ten o'clock and on the trial offered to prove his divine character by performing miracles. This undoubtedly insane man received fifty lashes. He subsequently traveled throughout the country in the same character and was finally killed while endeavoring to carry his religious doctrines to the savages. Judge Burnet wrote as follows : "The General Court consisted of three judges, appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate ; each of whom received a salary of eight hundred dollars from the Treasury of the United States. It had power to revise and reverse the decisions of all other tribunals in the Territory ; yet its own proceedings could not be reversed or set aside, even by the Supreme Court of the United States. It was held at Cincinnati in March ; at Marietta in October ; at Detroit and in the western counties at such time in each year as the judges saw proper to designate. "A reference to the map of the Territory, showing the relative position of the seats of justice of the different counties, as they were at that time, separated from each other by extensive tracts of uninhabited wilderness, stretching from a hundred and fifty to two hundred miles, without roads, bridges or ferries, would lead to the opinion that the legal business of each county was done exclusively by the professional men who resided at its seat of justice. That, however, was not the case. From the year 1796 till the formation of the State Government in 1803, the bar of Hamilton County occasionally attended the General Court at Marietta, and at Detroit, and during the whole of that time Mr. St. Clair, Mr. Symmes and Mr. Burnet never missed a term in either of those counties." "The journeys of the Court and Bar to those remote places, through a country in its primitive state, were unavoidably attended with fatigue and exposure. They generally traveled with five or six in a company, and with a pack-horse to transport such necessaries as their own horses could not conveniently carry because no dependence could be placed on obtaining supplies on the route ; although they frequently passed through Indian camps and villages, it was not safe to rely on them for assistance. COURTS AND LAWYERS - 185 "In passing from one county seat to another they were generally from six to eight. and sometimes ten days in the wilderness ; and at all seasons of the year were compelled to swim every water course in their way, which was too deep to be forded. . . . That fact made it common, when purchasing a horse, to ask if he was a good swimmer." William McMillan, the first presiding judge in Hamilton County, was of the Denman party which stepped ashore at Yeatman's Cove, near the foot of what is now Sycamore Street, in December, 1788. He is one of the outstanding figures in the early days of the Hamilton County bench and bar. Born in Virginia, he was educated at William and Mary College. His qualities of determination and fearlessness were well adapted for the pioneer life which he chose. In 1799 he was the leader of the first delegation from Hamilton County to the Territorial Legislature, and later was a representative in Congress. The beautiful thoroughfare, skirting the top of the hill overlooking the business district of Cincinnati and named in his honor, "McMillan Street," is a just tribute to the memory of the first presiding judge of the county. All too few Hamilton County residents realize how neglected is the memory of the County's first occupant of the White House—William Henry Harrison. Few citizens of the County have been more closely identified with its growth, as well as of the State, than William Henry Harrison before he was called to the Nation's Capital. He was a son-in-law of John Cleves Symmes. The late Judge Hiram D. Peck, in a review of the accomplishments of the bench and bar of this county, says of the former President : "The still more important figure (than Judge McMillan) to make its appearance in that era is a slender, erect, dark-eyed, military figure, which appeared as commandant at Fort Washington after the conclusion of General Wayne's campaign in the Northwest. It was then that Captain William Henry Harrison was put in command of the forces at Fort Washington, where he remained for some time, and from that time forward played a great part in the history of Cincinnati, the Northwest Territory, and the State of Ohio. A few years afterward he became Secretary of the Northwest Territory. He was a member of the General Assembly, a representative in Congress, a member of the Senate of the United States from Ohio, Commanding General of the troops of the Northwest Territory and finally conqueror of the Indians, and had the honor and glory of forever putting an end to the Indian raids and disturbances which had been going on in the territory for nearly a generation." It was when he returned to comparative private life, and after he had been appointed and was serving as clerk of the courts of this county, that he was elected President of the United States. When the first courthouse, on the site of the present new structure. 186 - GREATER CINCINNATI AND ITS PEOPLE was erected in 1819, the bar of the county numbered twenty-seven members, including these whose name and fame have survived until this day : Jacob Burnet, William Henry Harrison, William Corry, Nathaniel Wright, Nicholas Longworth and Nathaniel G. Pendleton. By 1825 the bar had increased to thirty-nine members, and to fifty-seven in 1831, including such men as Salmon P. Chase, finally chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States ; Bachel Worthington, a Kentuckian who settled in Cincinnati in 1824, renowned in legal history of the city for his legal attainments and for his tutoring of youths who later were to distinguish themselves at this bar, such as William S. Gres-beck, Stanley Matthews, and Samuel S. S. Cox ; and Timothy Walker, a distinguished lawyer, but more commonly known as one of the founders of the Cincinnati Law School, in 1833, and for years the sole instructor in the entire institution. George Hoadly was the last incumbent of the old single-judge bench in Superior Court. He was elected Governor of Ohio in 1883, his term including the unfortunate year of 1884, when the mob of rioters fired the courthouse building. He is credited with calling out the State Militia promptly, and saving the city from possibly a greater disgrace. He removed to New York City and practiced there until his death in 1902. Judge Alphonso Taft, one time judge of the Superior Court, diplomatic representative of the United States in two European capitals, and attorney general under U. S. Grant, should best be known in Cincinnati as savior of the Cincinnati University, then the McMicken University. There was a question as to the validity of the bequest of a large amount of property by Charles McMicken to the city of Cincinnati for educational purposes. Judge Taft, arguing the case finally in the Supreme Court of the United States, won his contention and laid the foundation of the institution which has given Cincinnati a world-wide name as not only the first city in America to own a railroad, but probably the first to provide free education for its youth from the kindergarten on through a university. His sons, Charles P. Taft and William H. Taft, were associated with him in the practice of the law, later adding luster to the family name and to the name of Cincinnati. William H. Taft is Cincinnati's most recent but not her least addition to the list of her sons to occupy the White House. Of Judge Stanley Matthews, whose distinguished career is familiar to all Cincinnati lawyers, Judge Peck made this estimate : "Of all the men of the Cincinnati Bar of ante-bellum era, perhaps the man who produced the most profound impression as a lawyer was Stanley Matthews. He had a logical power which enabled him to follow out a chain of reasoning with perfect accuracy to its conclusion, and at the same time, a breadth of imagination which enabled him to delineate and place in relation all of the facts and personages connected with the case, each of its true per- COURTS AND LAWYERS - 187 spective. He was Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, from 1881 to his death in 1889. "The first State Legislature in 1803 provided for a Supreme Court and for courts of Common Pleas—one session of the former and three sessions of the latter to be held in each county every year. The State was divided into three circuits of which Hamilton, Clermont, Butler, Montgomery, Greene and Warren counties constituted the first. The Supreme Court judges were elected on joint ballot by the General Assembly and held their offices for terms of seven years. The Common Pleas Court was composed of one presiding and three associate judges, the latter chosen by the people at large, presumably for their general good sense, but were not lawyers." By the constitution of 1852 Hamilton County was made one judicial circuit, with its own judges of Court of Common Pleas. This provided for three judges of the Common Pleas Court in this county, which number has since been increased by Legislative act to nine at present. The old court appointed its own clerk, the public prosecutor and commissioner of insolvents, the commissioner of chancery, and the county surveyor. The associate judges appointed the recorder, and in the event of the death or removal of a county commissioner, named his successor. It sat three times each year. The Circuit courts of Ohio were created by an act of the General Assembly, passed October 9, 1883. The first judges took their seats February 9, 1885. This county was in the first circuit, which included also Clermont, Butler, Warren and Clinton counties. The designation of this court was changed to the Court of Appeals on January I, 1913. The following judges sat in these courts since their organization: Joseph Cox, of Cincinnati, 1885-99 ; James M. Smith, of Lebanon, 1885-1901 ; Peter F. Swing, of Batavia, 1885-1915 ; William S. Giffin, of Cincinnati, 1899-1905 ; Ferdinand Jelke, Jr., of Cincinnati, 1901-07 ; Samuel W. Smith, Jr., 1907-13; Edward H. Jones, 1911-17; Frank M. Gorman, 1915-18; Oliver B. Jones, 1913-19; Gideon C. Wilson, 1918; Francis M. Hamilton, Wade Cushing, Walter M. Shohl, presiding judge ; R. Z. Buch- walter, 1921. The judges of the Common Pleas Court in Hamilton County since the 1851 constitution, arranged alphabetically, with their terms of office, have been as follows : William L. Avery, 1871 to 1884; Clement Bates, 1888 to 1898; James H. Bromwell, 1907 to 1913; M. L. Buchwalter, 1882 to 1897; Robert Z. Buchwalter, 1916-21 ; Jacob B. Burnet, 1871 to 1882; John A. Caldwell, 1902 to 1922 ; A. G. W. Carter, 1852 to 1862 ; Isaac Collins, 1859 to 1862 ; John S. Connor, 1882 to 1887; Otway J. Cosgrove, 1913 to 1921; Joseph Cox, 1867 to 1882; Nelson Cross, May to October, 1854; Wade Cushing, 1909 to 1919; Thomas H. Darby, 1919 (presiding 1921) ; David Davis, 188 - GREATER CINCINNATI AND ITS PEOPLE 1897 to 1902; William L. Dickson, 1907 to 1914; Edward T. Dixon, 1919 incumbant—reelected ; Charles Evans, 1887 to 1897; Manning M. Force, 1867 to 1877; Frank M. Gorman, 1908 to 1915; Wm. A. Geoghegan, 1913 to 1919; Judson Harmon, 1877; Nicholas Headington, 1862 to 1867; Charles W. Hoffman, 1915-1922 ; Frederick L. Hoffman, 1913-22 ; Howard C. Hollister, 1893 to 1903; Charles J. Hunt, 1905 to 1912; Alexander B. Huston, 1884 to 1887; Ferdinand Jelke, Jr., 1897 to 1901; Robert A. Johnston, 1876 to 1886; Phil H. Kumler, 1887 to 1897; Robert A. La Blond, 1921 to 1927; William Littleford, 1901 to 1907; Nicholas Long-worth, 1877 to 1882; Patrick Mallon, 1857; Stanley R. Matthews, 1884; Stanley Matthews, 1852, 1883, 1888; Stanley Matthews, 1919-22; Samuel N. Maxwell, 1882 to 1892; Max B. May, 1913 to 1919; Fred W. Moore, 1878 to 1883; Charles C. Murdock, 1862 to 1877; John P. Murphy, 1897 to 1907; Alfred K. Nippert, 1913 to 1919; John G. O'Connell, 1907 to 1913-1920; Melanchton W. Oliver, 1857 to 1862; Miller Outcalt, 1888 to 1893 ; James Parker, 1854; Otto Pfleger, 1898 to 1909; Donn Piatt, April to October, 1853; C. D. Robertson, 1883 to 1888; Stanley C. Roettinger, 1921 to 1927; John R. Sayler, 1892 to 1897; Jacob Schroder, 1887 to 1892; Fayette Smith, 1878 to 1883 ; Samuel Smith, Jr., 1897 to 1907 ; Fred S. Spiegel, 1896 to 1906; Stanley Struble, 1919 elected ; John B. Stallo, 1852 to 1854; James B. Swing, 1903 to 1912; Washington Van Horn, 1854; Robert B. Warden, February to April, 1852; Moses F. Wilson, 1892 to 1897; D. D. Woodmansee, 1907 to 1913; Edward Woodruff, 1852 to 1854; D. Thew Wright, Jr., 1893 to 1898. Superior Court of Cincinnati —The Superior Court of Cincinnati was created in 1838, and continued as a single judge court until the adoption of the Ohio Constitution in 1851. Its judges, in order, were : David K. Este, Charles D. Coffin, William Johnston, Charles P. James, and George Hoadly. The present Superior Court was not instituted until 1854, with its territorial jurisdiction limited to the city of Cincinnati boundaries and limited as to subject matter so that neither criminal, divorce nor appellate cases could be heard by it. It was intended to be especially designed to give speedy trials in the important business litigation which grew out of the city's commanding position as a pork-packing center. The first judges elected (May, 1854) were William Y. Gholson, Oliver M. Spencer and Bellamy Storer, for five, four and three years respectively, the term lengths being drawn by lot. The complete list of incumbents of that bench from 1854 to 1922 is as follows : William Y. Gholson, 1854-1859; George Hoadly, 1859-1864; Alphonso Taft, 1864-1872; J. Walker Bryant, 1872; Alfred Yaple, 1872-1879; Joseph B. Foraker, 1879-1882; William Worthington, 1882-1883; Hiram D. Peck, 1883-1889; Edward F. Noyes, 1889-1890; John R. Sayler, 1890-1891 ; COURTS AND LAWYERS - 189 Rufus B. Smith, 1891-1904; Harry M. Hoffheimer, 1904-1912; Benton S. Oppenheimer, 1912-1916; Frank R. Gusweiler. Oliver M. Spencer, 1854-1861; Charles D. Coffin, 1861-1862; Stanley Matthews, 1862-1863 ; Charles Fox, 1863-1868 ; Marcellus B. Hagans, 1868-1873 ; Myron H. Tilden, 1873-1878; Judson Harmon, 1878-1887 ; William H. Taft, 1887-1890; Samuel F. Hunt, 1890-1898; Edward J. Dempsey, 1898-1903; Lewis M. Hosea, 1903-1908; Alberto C. Shattuck, 1908-1912; Prescott Smith, January 1, 1912-April 1, 1918 ; Robert C. Pugh, April 15, 1912-January I, 1918; Smith Hickenlooper, 1918. Bellamy Storer, 1854-1872 ; John L. Miner, 1872 ; Timothy A. O'Connor, 1872-1877 ; Manning F. Force, 1877-1887 ; Frederick W. Moore, 1887-1897; William H. Jackson, 1897-1902; Frederick S. Spiegel, 1902-September I, 1913 ; Stanley W. Merrell, September 1, 1913-November 1, 1913; Dudley V. Sutphin, November I, 1913-January I, 1914; Stanley W. Merrell, January 1, 1914; Robert S. Marx, still in office in 1922. The Probate Court of Hamilton County was established and the first judge, J. B. Warren, took office February 9, 1852. He has had fourteen successors in office in this important tribunal. William H. Lueders incumbent in 1922. Prior to the establishment of this court, matters since handled there were under the jurisdiction of the Court of Common Pleas. In the intervening years this court has grown in size and importance with the country until now, without question, the probate judge is the busiest judge in the county. While the number of judges in the Common Pleas Court has been increased to nine, as at present, the increasing work in the Probate Court has been handled by one judge, who also is the ex-officio clerk of his court. The complete list of judges of the Probate Court, with their terms of service, follows : J. B. Warren, February 9, 1852 to February 13, 1855 ; John Burgoyne, February 13, 1855, to February 9, 1858; George H. Hilton, February 9, 1858, to February 9, 1861; Alex. Paddock, February 9, 1861, to February 9, 1864; Edw. Woodruff, February 9, 1864, to February 9, 1867; Edw. F. Noyes, February 9, 1867, to February 9, 1870; Geo. F. Hoeffer, February 9, 187o, to February 9, 1873 ; Wm. Tilden, February 9, 1873, to August 20, 1873; Albert Paddack, August 20, 1873, to November 1, 1873 ; Isaac B. Matson, November I, 1873, to February 9, 1885 ; Herman Goebel, February 9, 1885, to February 9, 1891 ; Howard Ferris, February 9, 1891, to May 9, 1902; Carl L. Nippert, May 9, 1902, to September 5, 1904; Aaron McNeill, September 5, 1904, to September 19, 1904; Chas. F. Malsbary, September 19, 1904, to February 8, 1909; Wm. H. Lueders, February 9, 1909, incumbent, in 1922. The Court of Insolvency was established by the Legislature in 1895 and was a favorite court in divorce cases and alimony proceedings until 190 - GREATER CINCINNATI AND ITS PEOPLE that jurisdiction was taken entirely from it on the establishment of the Domestic Relations Division of the Court of Common Pleas in 1915. The judges who served from the first in the Court of Insolvency were : Aaron A. McNeill, 1895 to 1905 ; Frederick C. Ampt, 1905 to 1910; A. M. Warner, 1910 to 1915 ; Joseph B. Kelley, from 1915 to the present. Among the well-known, highly appreciated judges of the "Domestic Relations" court, handling divorce, alimony and juvenile court matters, may be named Judges Charles W. Hoffman and John A. Caldwell. At the present date (1926) the various courts of Hamilton County are presided over by the following judges : Common Pleas Court : Charles W. Hoffman (domestic relations) ; Fred L. Hoffman, John A. Caldwell, R. A. Le Blond, Stanley. Struble, Stanley C. Roettinger, Thomas H. Darbey, Dennis Ryan, Edward M. Hurley. Judges of Court of Appeals : Robert Z. Buchwalter, Frank M. Hamilton, Wade Cushing. Judge of Probate : William Lueders. What was known as the Commercial Court was organized in February, 1848. It was held by a single judge, the court having concurrent jurisdiction with the Court of Common Pleas of all civil cases at law, founded contract and of all cases in chancery. Judge D. Thew Wright in giving reminiscences on the bench and bar of Hamilton County, gives the following: "This court, during the period of its existence, was presided over by Judge Thomas M. Key, an eccentric but able man. He was a Kentuckian by birth, but came to this State early in life. During the Rebellion he was judge advocate on the staff of that military 'puss in boots,' George B. McClellan. In the latter part of 1861 the writer visited the city of Washington as it was all "quiet on the Potomac." At that time, it will be remembered, Mr. Lincoln was President. But there was a greater than Lincoln, and his name was McClellan, and when we happened to encounter the judge advocate, it occurred to us, that now was the opportunity of discovering how the problem of war was to be solved, and we, therefore, ventured a leading question as to the existing status. Those who knew Key will remember how solemn and portentous his manner always was. But now his manner was more solemn and more portentous than ever. In the profoundest depths of a melancholy confidence, and speaking unutterable thoughts in a terrible whisper, he said : `If you have no business imperatively detaining you here, I advise you to get out of this town as fast as you can. Beauregard is lying over the river with 125,000 men, and he can walk into this city whenever he chooses.' The awful gravity of the statement, enhanced as it was by the blood-curdling way of putting it was overwhelming. After events disclosed the fact that the rebel army consisted of some twenty or thirty thousand ragged cavalry. COURTS AND LAWYERS - 191 They were, however, backed up by a supply of Quaker guns, and the young Napoleon was terrified in his heart. "Key was the reputed author of the celebrated Harrison's Landing, letter, in which McClellan undertakes to instruct Mr. Lincoln as to his military and civil rights, duties and obligations. As a specimen of pure unadulterated impudence, there never was anything like it in the world, and Key had an ability of impudence, which was a talent amounting to genius, and if he did not write the paper in question, he was quite equal to doing it. "Early in 1861 McClellan sent Key to interview Gen. W. T. Sherman, to see if Sherman really was crazy, it having been authoritatively stated that such was the fact. Key performed his mission and reported to the effect that there was a screw loose somewhere and that, in his judgment, General Sherman was not fit to be entrusted with the command of a large army. The keenness of this witticism can only be discovered as the light of history falls upon the army of the West moving from Chattanooga by way of Atlanta, Georgia, and the sea, to the downfall of the Rebellion and the final triumph of the Flag." Court Houses and Jails —Hamilton County's magnificent present courthouse is the fifth erected for holding courts in the county. The first structure was a log affair, erected by volunteers, and cost practically nothing. It was built in 1790 on what is now Government Square, and facing the north where the postoffice building now stands. It really occupied land dotted and encircled by swamps and frog ponds. In front of this courthouse, which was thirty feet wide by forty deep, stood the public whipping post, then used as a method of meeting out justice to petty offenders, and a return to which many persons advocate even now, for certain offenses. The building was surrounded by a four-rail fence and was provided with a large fire-place and huge outside chimney, and not far away stood the old-fashioned well-sweep and well, wherein hung "The Old Oaken Bucket," long before it had passed into poetry. The second courthouse was built in 1802 upon the site of the first, and its cost was $3,000. This building had a cupola eighty feet high and balustrades across in front. During the war of 1812 it was used as a barracks, and was destroyed by fire in 1813. The fire was supposed to have been started by soldiers. The third courthouse was built where stands the present Temple of Justice, facing Main Street. It was built in 1819 at a cost of $15,000. The land for the site of the new building was donated to the county by Jesse Hunt, grandfather of Attorney Elliott Hunt Pendleton. This building was burned in 1849. A new structure was immediately started and, during its construction, court was held in a large pork-packing establishment on Court Street. This, the county's fourth courthouse, was com- 192 - GREATER CINCINNATI AND ITS PEOPLE pleted in 1853 at a total cost of $695,253. It was this building which was swept by fire during the 1884 mob, as a result of the populace becoming excited over the trial of a negro named Palmer, and a white man named Berner, charged with murdering an aged man. During the rioting many persons were killed. The militia, under command of Captain John J. Desmond, a prominent young lawyer, finally dispersed the mob, but the captain lost his life, some believe, by being shot accidentally by one of his own men. Practically the entire structure was destroyed, although its well-built walls withstood the intense heat. But almost all of the invaluable records of Hamilton County, Ohio, were burned in this fire. It cost the county many thousands of dollars to try to replace or restore the public records, but only a small proportion could be replaced, as there were hundreds and thousands of documents and valuable papers lost forever. The State Legislature passed a bill creating a board of trustees, to be appointed by the governor, to rebuild the courthouse, and Governor George Hoadly appointed Henry C. Urner, John L. Stettinius, Wesley M. Cameron and William Worthington as trustees. The building was completed January 15, 1887, and the Hamilton County Bar gave a banquet in honor of the trustees who had generously served without compensation. As time went on the courthouse again became inadequate for the demands of the county, and the old jail was a disgrace to the people and considered by other parts of the commonwealth as a joke. With the first years of this century it was decided the county ought, by right, to provide an addition to the old courthouse and rebuild the jail. The people voted bonds amounting to $25o,000, with which it was intended to add one or more stories upon the old structure. But better judgment obtained and the project of patching up a court building fell through. Inconvenience was endured until October 2, 1908, when the Board of County Commissioners took action and passed a resolution providing for the erection of a new jail, and for levying a tax to take care of a bond issue for that purpose. The commission appointed to oversee the construction of the new jail was as follows : John E. Bruce and Michael Devanney, Democrats, and William Griffith and George Schott, Republicans. Their appointment was made January 13, 1911, and immediately they began looking over plans and specifications. On this same date, however, Judge Stanley Struble, then a member of the board of county commissioners, introduced a resolution calling for a greater and wiser proposition of not only building a new jail but also a new courthouse, or at least the enlargement of the old one. One account of the situation reads as follows : "It was not wholly the congested conditions in the old courthouse which called forth the proposition to erect a new courthouse. At this time the abandonment of the canal as a waterway, and the acquiring of its right- COURTS AND LAWYERS - 193 of-way by the city for a boulevard was assuming concrete form, and it was desired to have the new jail and courthouse conform to the ideas being set forward for the 'canal parkway.' To this end the resolution was offered by commissioner Struble provided for acquiring the property between North Court Street and the canal and between an alley east of Main Street and Sycamore Street, a frontage of about four hundred feet on each street being thereby provided. The abandonment of North Court Street and of the alley going through to Canal Street, also was provided for by the resolution." On September 6, 1911, a meeting was held at which Glen Brown represented the Business Men's Club ; H. F. Woods, the Municipal Art League ; Harry Hake, the Chamber of Commerce, and William A. Hopkins, the Federated Improvement Association of Hamilton County. All advocated the acquiring of the additional property and the erection of a new courthouse and jail combined. September 26, 1911, the county commissioners passed a resolution to submit the issuance of $2,500,000 bonds for a new courthouse and jail, to the voters at the November election. The project carried, and it was then decided that the former commission, having been appointed to build a new jail only, could not act under its appointment for the new project, and on February 21, 1912, the Common Pleas Court, in joint session, named a new commission to act in conjunction with the county commissioners by appointing James Albert Green, Thomas W. Allen, George F. Dieterle and Braxton W. Campbell. April 1, 1915, the contract for the work was signed up with the Charles McCaul Company, a Pittsburgh corporation, and work was begun the same day, ground being broken for the basement, on the site between North Court Street and Canal Street, where the old buildings had been razed. In 1919 the present magnificent courthouse was finished and first occupied for its intended uses. The First Jail —The first jail in the county was built in 1793. It was a mere log cabin, one and a half stories high and only sixteen feet square. The ground in its neighborhood was cleared out and it was distinctly visible from the river. Most of its occupants were debtors and were not treated with great strictness. The erection of the jail was a matter of some considerable discussion as is shown by a letter from Symmes to McMillan, written December 8, 1792. From this we learn that the jail had been begun and was going on briskly but that the people of Cincinnati were voting on the question whether the jail should be built on the first or second bottom bank. Symmes wanted it built on the second bank where the soil was much more dry, and where at no time would the prisoners be drowned like pigs in a sty and great expense would be saved in carting the timber, and this was already more in the center of the town. Water could there be had by digging a well, which ought to be within the Cin.-13 194 - GREATER CINCINNATI AND ITS PEOPLE liberties of the prison and if it stood on the bank of the Ohio a well would be necessary that privileged prisoners for debt might draw for themselves. In time the increase in population resulted in an increase of prisoners and a new jail of hewn logs with a lapped shingled roof two stories high and much larger than its predecessor was erected within two years, at the southeast corner of Sixth and Walnut streets. Its size was fifteen by twenty feet. Late in 1795 this building was moved by the public teams of eight yoked oxen in charge of Captain John Thorpe, the quartermaster, who was aided by John Richardson, to the lot at the corner of Church Alley (now Church Place )and Walnut Street. But let the reader remember that the first jail in Cincinnati was on Water Street, west of Main Street. There the debtors and criminals were all shut up together ; but in daylight the jailer allowed them the liberty of the neighborhood, they taking care, whenever the sheriff was about, to make tracks to the jail as rats do to their holes. There was a whipping post, one hundred feet west of Main, and fifty feet south of Fifth Street. The jailer did the whipping. One writer of those times speaks of seeing a woman whipped for stealing. The same man writes of jailer McClean getting drunk and amusing himself by whipping, with a cowhide, the prisoners in jail, all round debtors, as well as criminals. A new brick jail was built at the head of Sycamore Street, where later years was the canal district. It contained seven rooms for criminals and debtors and about the same number for the use of the jailer. It was in and around this jail building that occurred the terrible riot of 1884, mentioned elsewhere in this publication. The present jail is situated on the sixth floor of the new courthouse. The Cincinnati Bar Association —This organization was formed on January 24, 1872, and at later meetings perfected. The first meeting was held in the old College Building ; John W. Herron was made temporary chairman, and it was decided to have a meeting called as soon as seventy-five lawyers had signed the charter membership roll, which was but a short time thereafter. February 27, 1872, the association held its first regular meeting and adopted its constitution and by-laws. The committee's report on these was presented by Judge Nicholas Longworth, father of the present speaker of the United States House of Representatives. At this meeting the cost of membership in the Bar Association was fixed at ten dollars. The late Alphonso Taft, father of ex-President William Howard Taft, was elected the first president of the association. Rufus King, George Hoadly, John W. Herron, George R. Sage, and Thomas B. Paxton were chosen vice-presidents ; Israel Ludlow, recording secretary ; S. Dana Horton, corresponding secretary, and Lewis E. Mills, treasurer. This Bar Association is one of the strongest in the entire United States and has had numbered on its roll some of the Nation's foremost COURTS AND LAWYERS - 195 citizens. As a parent legal organization it mothered every county judge elected to the Cincinnati courts, besides scores of Federal judges, and many of the United States Senators and Representatives in Congress. In addition, one President of the United States, the Hon. William Howard Taft, was and is still a member of the Cincinnati Bar Association. Among the hardest workers in this Association have been George Hoadly, for a number of years president, and Ben B. Nelson, recording secretary. The report of the membership in 1919-20 showed resident members, 413; non-resident members, 20; honorary members, 9; total membership, 442. Law Library Association —The Cincinnati Law Library Association was incorporated June 5, 1847, its object being, as shown by its constitution, "the improvement of its members, the cultivation of the Science of the Law, and the foundation of a law library." For many years in the history of the county, the bar had needed the use and benefit of a good law library in the courthouse. At an early day few lawyers had much of a collection of law books and standard law reports by States, and their offices were far apart and away from the courthouse. Often trials were delayed while a messenger was sent to a Third Street office after a book, and many were the altercations between counsel and effect of authorities cited but not produced. As early as 1834 a special charter was obtained from the Legislature for the incorporation of the "Cincinnati Law Library." No organization, however, was perfected. In 1846 the matter was revived and headed by leading members of the bar, and at a date when the city had a population of 85,000, with not less than 125 members of the bar. A subscription paper was circulated for raising funds and in the end it was seen that 105 names had been secured. At that date the bar was made up of many strong attorneys including such men as George E. Pugh, Aiphonso Taft, Salmon P. Chase, W. S. Groesbeck, George H. Pendleton, Stanley Matthews, William Y. Gholson, Bellamy Storer, Timothy Walker, and others of their stamp of ability. Within three months after the organization of the association $1,500 worth of well selected law books had been secured, and in the transaction they had run in debt $725, for which they gave their personal notes. In the spring of 1847 the association was incorporated, and its earliest meeting under its charter was held June 5, 1847. Despite its excellent beginning, the library suffered in common with other such institutions in their infancy. The amount received as dues dropped from $1,150 in 1848 to only $420 in 1852, and only 34 had paid in to the treasury their full dues. But in addition to paying current expenses, $3,200 had been expended for books, and the number of volumes on the shelf in the autumn of 1852 was 1830. In 1855 Rufus King was elected president and 196 - GREATER CINCINNATI AND ITS PEOPLE continued to hold the office more than thirty-six years. To him, more than to any other one man, was due the success of the old library but also of the new library which rose phoenix-like from its ashes. In his lifetime Mr. King gave liberally to its support and before death made provisions for an endowment of $20,000 to the library. In June, 1874, the library contained 9,151 volumes, and at the time of the destruction of the courthouse, ten years later, this number had been increased to 17,000, and represented a cash outlay of $45,000, now not so large a sum as it was considered at that date. On its walls hung the portraits of early and distinguished jurists of Ohio, as well as many another highly prized article associated with the State. The courthouse was destroyed on the night of March 29, 1884, and with it perished the law library and all of its contents. Only three badly charred volumes, of little or no interest or value in themselves, and treasured now only as relics of the old library, were preserved. But be it said that while the hard-earned books were destroyed, the spirit that had once fostered and maintained the collection of law books was not in the least impaired. Two days after the conflagration the board of trustees, composed of Rufus King, George Hoadly, Thornton M. Hinkle, John C. Healy and Isaac M. Jordan, met to consider the situation and plan for a new law library. The insurance companies had taken advantage of the riot clause in their policies and no insurance was paid the association. They also owed almost $4,000 which had be to met soon. But all went to work and on the morning of April 3d the association opened up its library while the smoke was still rising from the ruins of the building. The new library then contained only nine volumes. April 4th the association held a large meeting at College Hall. There the following resolutions were offered : "Whereas, in the loss to its members and the Bench and Bar of this county, by the destruction of our library, which cannot be overstated, this Association recognizes that the greatness of the disaster is commensurate with the complete success which had crowned the zeal, intelligence and energy of its management, and is confident, so long as the same qualities are employed in the restoration of what is lost, no misfortune can be irreparable. "Resolved, that the support and cooperation of every member is hereby pledged to the officers of this Association in every attempt and step to replace what we have lost as speedily as possible." The loyal membership voted an assessment of one hundred dollars against each stockholder, while many members of the bar—not content with doing only this—made large additional donations. The largest of these gifts was that assumed by Mr. King, who paid the entire indebtedness on the old library, amounting to over $3,800. The services of M. W. Myers, librarian at that date, were also beyond estimate. Within ten years after the fire the number of books contained in the new library COURTS AND LAWYERS - 197 was fully as many as the number destroyed, and at the time of Mr. Myers' death in 1899—fifteen years after the fire—the total number of volumes was in excess of 20,000. The presidents of the Library Association have been as follows : William R. Morris, 1847-51 ; A. E. Gwynne, 1851-52 ; George Hoadly, 185253 ; Rufus King, 1855-1891 ; and Judson Harmon, who succeeded Mr. King in 1891 was still in office in 1921. The librarians have been as follows: Bernard Bradley, 1847-48; Amzi A. Pruden, 1848-49; Joseph McDougall, 1849-52; John Bradley, 1852-61 ; M. W. Myers, 1861-1899; Edwin Gholson, appointed in 1899, still serving in 1921. The list of worthy trustees holding in 1921 were these : Thornton M. Hinkle, appointed in 1876; John C. Healy, 1878; Judson Harmon, 1885; William Worthington, 1887; John W. Warrington, 1897; Simeon M. Johnson, 1913 ; John R. Schindel, 1915 ; Oscar Stoehr, clerk. Pioneer Lawyers —The first lawyer to locate in what is now Cincinnati was a passenger on the first boat load of voyagers who landed at Losantiville, on the "twenty-eighth day of December, 1788," the most prominent lawyer and magistrate of Cincinnati during its first decade—William McMillan—was a native of Virginia, of Irish stock, a graduate of William and Mary College, removed with the pioneer band to the Miami Purchase country, dividing his time between intellectual and agricultural pursuits. He was the first justice of the "court of general quarter sessions of the peace," commissioned by Governor St. Clair for Hamilton County, in 1790, and was active in his good citizenship from the start. In 1799 he was elected territorial representative and was chosen delegate of the Territory in Congress after the resignation of General Harrison. He died at Cincinnati in May, 1804. He had been a most zealous worker in the Free and Accepted Masonic Lodge, Harmony, No. 2, and a quarter of a century later, October 28, 1837, his lodge dedicated a monument to his memory. The front rank of the law, then, as much as now, was inaccessible to the weak or the idle, and offices of gift went to the descry ing, instead of the dishonest. The first man to tack up his sign announcing to the public that he had opened a law office in Cincinnati was Thomas Goudy, who arrived in the late autumn of 1789, becoming one of the first settlers who formed Ludlow Station, now North Cumminsville. Originally he had his law office on the corner of an out-lot, between Seventh and Eighth streets, but it was too far removed from the business portion of the place. The lots on which it was built were surrounded by a Virginia "worm" fence. At about the same time as just mentioned above, came the third attorney to Cincinnati. He was Ezra Fitz Freeman, of whom Judge Carter wrote a third of a century ago : "He was an intelligent man and 198 - GREATER CINCINNATI AND ITS PEOPLE a good lawyer ; but he became fonder of politics than law and engaged in them most earnestly and successfully ; he was sent to Congress from the Hamilton district one or more terms in the twenties. He was a first rate man in every sense. He had, even as a youth, the mien and manners of a finished gentleman." Daniel Symmes, another early member of the Hamilton County bar, was a nephew of Judge Symmes. His father was Tymothy Symmes, only full brother of the hero of the Miami Purchase, with himself judge of the inferior court of common pleas in Sussex County, New Jersey, but came West and became a pioneer at South Bend, where he died in 1797. Daniel was born at the old homestead, graduated at Princeton College and came West with his father ; was made clerk of the Territorial Court ; studied law and practiced some years ; after Ohio was admitted as a State, was Senator from Hamilton County and speaker of the Senate; was made judge of the Supreme bench in 1804, and later made registrar of the Cincinnati Land Office, dying May Jo, 1817. Jacob Burnet was born in 1770, a son of Dr. Burnet, of New Jersey, who distinguished himself in the Revolutionary War. Young Burnet followed his brother, Dr. William Burnet, to the then wilderness hamlet opposite the mouth of the Licking where he made his start as lawyer and magistrate. After two years he was at the head of the legislative council of the Northwest territory, although not yet twenty-nine years of age. His long and eventful, useful career ended by his death in 1853, having retired from active practice in 1825. When the helpless Blennerhasset was to be tried as accessory to the high treason of Aaron Burr, he was advised by the latter to retain as his attorneys, Judge Burnet and Richard Baldwin, of Chillicothe, and on this event he wrote his wife : "I have retained Burnet and Baldwin. The former will be a host with the decent part of the citizens of Ohio, and the latter a giant of influence with the rabble, whom he properly styles 'blood hounds'." In his "Pioneer Biography" James McBride, noted the Cincinnati lawyers who are wont to attend the Butler County courts during those years as these : Judge Burnet, Arthur St. Clair, Jr., (son of General St. Clair), Ethan Stone, Nicholas Stone, Nicholas Longworth, George P. Torrence and Elias Glover. He adds : "The bar was a very able one, and important cases were advocated in an elaborate manner and masterly fashion." St. Clair and Harrison —Arthur St. Clair, Jr., nephew of the General, was a man of some ability, who came within two votes of defeating General Harrison at his first election, by the Territorial Legislature, of a delegate to Congress. Harrison was also a lawyer, as well as doctor, farmer, soldier, and public officer, and sometimes appeared in a law case. He won no distinction, however, as a lawyer at the bar. He was simply clerk COURTS AND LAWYERS - 199 of the Hamilton County courts of Common Pleas, from which position he was elected at one bound to the Presidency of the United States. Harrison was, it should be noted, one of the very few temperate lawyers and public men of his time. Judge Burnet recorded in his notes many years afterwards that, of the nine lawyers that were contemporaries with him in his earlier days in Cincinnati, all but one went to drunkard's graves. It was an age, as we have seen elsewhere, of high conviviality and destructive good fellowship. Harrison's own son, it is said—the junior William Henry Harrison, a young lawyer of brilliant talents, eloquent and witty—fell an early victim to intoxicants. Apropos of the morality of the bar in the olden day, there is a tradition that two of the lawyers, named Clark and Glover, made full preparations to fight a duel over some personal or professional difference. The affair was settled without bloodshed, but not until one of them had pulled off his shoes, to fight the more conveniently in his stocking feet. In an address given by Hon. A. H. Dunlevy, before the Cincinnati Pioneer Society, April, 1875, he gave the following on the bench and bar of 1804-05 : "Among these early judges, besides my father, then the presiding judge, were Luke Foster, James Silver, I think, and Dr. Stephen Wood. Judge Goforth was also on the bench, but lived in the city. Here, too, I frequently met Judge John Cleves Symmes. In the early part of court he was always thronged with purchasers of his lands, and I have seen him while supping his tea, of which he was excessively fond, writing deeds or contracts, and talking with his friends and those who had business with him, all at the same time. Other Early Lawyers —John S. Will, a native of Virginia, born in 1773, and admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-one years, in 1798 went to Chillicothe and attended the first session of the common pleas court of the Territory there. He was not an eminently successful attorney, but frequently appeared in cases for debt in which he would rather be the defendant. He died in 1829. Moses Brooks came to Cincinnati in 1811, was at first an inn-keeper, but studied law and was admitted to practice. He left the profession in 1830 from ill health, and became a successful merchant. Nicholas Longworth came from New Jersey and soon became a Cincinnati lawyer, but more for wealth than fame, and did not remain permanently at the bar. It was written of him by Judge Carter in 1881 : "He came to Cincinnati from Jersey in very early times and commenced operations as a shoemaker, and afterwards studied law and was admitted to practice law at the earliest bar, but he did not practice law very much, though he was very capable and possessed an acute and astute