650 - GREATER CINCINNATI AND ITS PEOPLE

the slave, who, according to Coffin, was utterly devoid of moral principles in that he believed that the end justified the means, and that as slaves were always stolen property he was entitled to steal boats or anything else that might help to gain their liberty. This party crossed in three large, leaky boats, which were so heavily loaded as to endanger the lives of them all ; in fact, as they approached the Ohio bank it became necessary for Fairfield to jump out of the boat, and he sank to his waist in mud and quicksand, but he was pulled out by the negroes. They finally reached the bank some miles below Cincinnati, soaking wet and many without any shoes. They were obliged to walk to the city, which they did not reach until daylight. Here they were concealed in ravines below Mill Creek while Fairfield went to Coffin's house to obtain assistance. The expedient resorted to was certainly a novel one. Two large coaches were hired from a livery stable and a number of colored people accompanied them in buggies to the place where the fugitives were concealed. The slaves climbed into the vehicles and thereupon a procession was formed in the semblance of a funeral and the whole party moved solemnly along the road to Cumminsville, to the Methodist Episcopal burying ground where was also a colored cemetery. They passed the cemetery and continued on the Colerain Pike to College Hill, where they were attended to by Rev. Jonathan Cable, a Presbyterian minister. The procession was, in fact, a funeral, for when they arrived at College Hill it was found that a young baby, which had been muffled closely to keep it warm and to keep its cries from being heard, had died on the way. The party was forwarded by Cable, whom Coffin calls a stockholder in the "Underground Railway," to West Elkton, twenty-five or more miles from College Hill, which was the first underground railroad station, where always plenty of locomotives and cars, figuratively speaking, were in readiness. After Elkton the first stop was Newport, Indiana, and from this point they were forwarded from station to station in two-horse covered wagons through Indiana and Michigan to Detroit, until at last they reached Canada.

Escape of Eliza Harris —Probably the slave whose escape became most known throughout the World was Eliza Harris, whose story was afterwards told by Mrs. Stowe in "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Mr. Coffin and his wife were the originals of the Quaker family mentioned in that book under the name of Halliday, and although the episodes of Eliza's escape happened before Coffin came to Cincinnati to live, it occurred so near this city and became so generally known as to be a part of the history of the Underground Railway operations at this point. Eliza was the property of a man who lived a few miles back of the river below Ripley. She had been treated kindly, but her master had become involved financially, and she heard that she was to be separated from her two-year-old child. This determined her to make her escape at once.

UNDERGROUND RAILWAY - 651

At nightfall she started with her child in her arms for the Ohio River, which was usually frozen over at that season of the year. When she reached its banks at daylight she found that the ice had broken up and was slowly drifting by in large cakes. She concealed herself in the neighborhood during the day, but in the evening learned that her pursuers were after her. Although the ice had become more broken and more dangerous during the day she determined to cross the river or perish in the attempt. Clasping her child in her arms she dashed to the river followed by her pursuers, who had just dismounted from their horses when they caught sight of her. Without fear of personal danger, as she was determined to drown rather than to be separated from her child, with the babe fast to her bosom, she sprang to the first cake of ice and from that to another and then to another. At times the ice would sink beneath her, when she would slide her child to another cake and pull herself on with her hands and thus continue her journey. She became completely soaked with ice water and her hands were benumbed with cold, but she made her way from one ice floe to another until she reached the Ohio side near Ripley, where she sank exhausted. Here a man standing on the bank, who had been watching her with amazement and horror, assisted her and shortly afterward she was forwarded to Coffin's house, then a few miles below Cincinnati. She afterwards reached Canada, where she lived many years.

Another story is that of a slave family of ten—a man and wife and eight children (some grown) —who lived about fifteen miles back of Covington. The old mother was a much trusted servant whose liberty had frequently been promised her, and who was permitted to go to Cincinnati from time to time with a wagon and two horses to take vegetables to market. Though often urged to escape, she had refused to do so until she learned her master intended to sell some of her children. One night her master's family had retired and she got out the horses and wagon and loaded it as if for market, putting clothes and bedding beneath the vegetables. She induced a little white boy who lived in the neighborhood to go with her, promising him the pleasant prospect of the sight of a large city. Early in the morning the party started with the father and children concealed under the clothing and vegetables and with the white boy mounted by her side. Whenever they passed any persons, she would hand the reins to the boy, which would have a tendency to mislead any spectators as to the character of the party. She crossed on the ferry in safety and drove to the house of a colored friend on North Street, where the wagon was unloaded and the family scattered to different places of concealment. She then drove to Broadway and finally told the boy that she must go to market, and that he must remain and watch the horses. Coffin by this time had been appealed to, and he planned an arrangement by which the team could be returned without affording any

652 - GREATER CINCINNATI AND ITS PEOPLE

clue to the whereabouts of the fugitive. A colored man went to a German who could speak but little English and hired him to drive the team across the ferry to Covington, where he was told that someone would take care of it. The plan worked successfully, the pursuing owner found his team with the little boy and the German in Covington. He had the latter arrested, but the German soon showed entire ignorance of any slave delivery. The police were put upon the search but failed to gain any clue to the fugitives. These last were taken out of the city in open daylight. The males were disguised as females and the females as males, and were driven in elegant carriages from the city at different points exactly at noon, when most people were at dinner. In connection with this escape Mr. Coffin tells an amusing circumstance. As he needed money to defray expenses he called at the pork house of Henry Lewis, one of the stockholders of the

"Underground Railroad." Here he found Mr. Lewis, his brother Albert and Marcellus B. Hagan, at a later time Judge Hagan, but the then Henry Lewis, bookkeeper. There were also three slave-holders sitting in the office. Mr. Coffin asked for some money to help some poor people, knowing that Lewis would understand him. Thereupon not only did Lewis, his brother and Judge Hagan contribute, but the three Kentuckians also added their mite unconscious of the fact that they were assisting slaves to escape from their masters. Some time later when some slaveholders from the same neighborhood sitting in Lewis' office were cursing the Abolitionists, Lewis informed them of the fact that some of their own neighbors had helped the Abolitionists with their money.

Another escape was that of Jack and Lucy, husband and wife, a very valuable pair of slaves living about a dozen miles from Cincinnati. Their master sold them to a Southern slave trader to be taken down the river, the greatest calamity that could happen to a slave family in those days. Hearing of this misfortune, they managed to escape during the night by tying bed clothing together and climbing from an upper window. They found a skiff in the river and rowed to Cincinnati, where they were immediately brought to Coffin's house. Here they were secreted for several weeks and from a small window in the garret they would frequently see their master pass the house, which, of course, was suspected. Coffin thereupon started out to raise money to assist in a trip to Canada. On this occasion he seems to have asked people with whose sentiments he was but slightly acquainted. His usual formula was an inquiry as to whether the person approached owned stock in the "Underground Railway" and if the answer was favorable he notified him that an assessment had been levied on the stock. The first merchant gave him a dollar and the second, who was a Jew and had never expressed any sentiments on the subject, gave him two dollars and several others gave him a dollar apiece. A prominent citizen, a wholesale grocer on Pearl Street, was

UNDERGROUND RAILWAY - 653

very indignant when approached and did not believe in helping fugitives. Coffin told him the story of the misfortunes of this particular couple, and of the great return on the investment realized by the stockholders in his undertaking in the shape of the satisfaction felt by the donor, but his arguments seemed in vain until he was about to leave the store, when the merchant surreptitiously slipped some money into his hands.

He did not hesitate to take great chances. On one occasion a pro-slavery merchant, profane of speech and violent in temperament, was bantering Coffin about stealing negroes whom he supposed were kept in the cellar. Thereupon Coffin told him there was a fugitive at his house who had escaped from Mississippi, where he had been beaten until the blood ran down his back because of his inability to do the amount of work the overseer expected of him. He had been pursued and torn by dogs, captured and put in jail and had broken from jail and finally, after much suffering, had reached Cincinnati and Coffin's house. The pro-slavery man was induced to go into the house and see him. He there heard the negro's story and also of the means adopted to assist in his escape and even went so far as to contribute a dollar to the expenses. Coffin frequently twitted him with having laid himself amenable to fine and imprisonment under the Fugitive Slave Law for assisting a slave to escape to Canada.

Another fugitive was Jane, a handsome slave girl who lived in Covington, where she was very kindly treated as a house servant. Upon the death of her old master, she became the property of his son, who was attracted by her beauty and she became the mother of a little girl who was perfectly white. When the girl was about three years old, the master concluded to sell Jane and his own child down the river. Jane was able to escape with her daughter by reason of the assistance of Coffin, and finally reached Canada, where she married and lived very happily for many years.

Another slave girl who had taken refuge at Coffin's house at the corner of Sixth and Elm was accompanied by Mrs. Coffin, who attired herself in her most fashionable clothes. The girl carried a rag baby properly dressed and covered with a veil, and as the couple passed along they presented the appearance of a fashionable lady and her nursery maid with an infant in her arms. They made their way out of the public part of the city to a house of a friend, where the girl was properly cared for.

Jackson, the property of Vice-President King of Alabama, escaped to Cincinnati, where for some years he plied his vocation as a barber. Finally a slave hunter attempted to take possession of him without procuring a writ as required by law. Accompanied by a posse of armed men, he seized Jackson one day at noon at the corner of Fifth and Walnut and dragged him down the street to the wharf where the ferry boat

654 - GREATER CINCINNATI AND ITS PEOPLE

was in readiness. As most of the people of the stores had gone to dinner at that hour, Jackson's cries for help were not heeded and he was taken across to Kentucky and finally to Alabama.

Another slave girl who escaped through Coffin's aid was so white and so absolutely free from any trace of negro blood that she remained for some time in the city and was introduced by Coffin to a large number of citizens, including Judge Storer and other members of the bar, who were utterly unable to discover either in her appearance or in her conversation any indication of her servile origin.

Among the people who assisted Mr. Coffin in his efforts to free so many from the curse of bondage were Joseph Emery (the city missionary), Henry Lewis, John J. Jolliffe, Robert Birney, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Harwood, Samuel Reynolds, John H. Coleman, and particularly the Burnet family, who lived on Fifth Street.

The Fugitive Slave Law —As is well known, the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850 and the scenes accompanying its enforcement involved greater political consequences to this country than probably any other legislative act in its history. The irrepressible conflict between freedom and slavery which had been going on for so many years was brought to a climax by this brutal law, which in its horribly minute details and in the refusal of jury trial was, in the opinion of the best authorites, both at that time and the present, not only unconstitutional but absolutely inhuman. By its provisions United States commissioners were given the powers of judges with relation to fugitive slaves. and the marshals were required to execute writs under penalty on refusal of $1,000 fine or the full value of the slave. The commissioner, upon application, was directed to give the claimant a certificate to enable him to remove his fugitive slave to the place whence he had escaped. In no case was the testimony of the fugitive to be received and the certificate of the commissioner was conclusive, thus practically suspending the writ of habeas corpus. The passage of the act gave a sudden and great impetus to the search for fugitive slaves in the North, which was accompanied by various revolting circumstances, brutality in the captors, bloodshed, and attempts at suicide. Many persons who had been residents of the North for years were suddenly seized and taken South as fugitive slaves, and these arrests and the circumstances attending them as well as the provisions of the law which made all citizens subject to be called on as slave captors served to arouse feeling against the act.

Several of the most celebrated cases under the act were tried in Cincinnati and during the few years prior to the war this city became the scene of the most revolting episodes in the long struggles against the curse of bondage.

CHAPTER XLII.

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI INSURANCE BUSINESS.

(By E. Jay Wohlgemuth).

The history of insurance in Cincinnati is tinged with the romance of pioneer days. The opening of the Ohio River traffic and the development of the greatest city of the new West brought into being the largest number of fire and marine insurance companies which have been formed in any one city with the possible exception of New York. Cincinnati has seen the organization of at least sixty stock fire and marine insurance companies since the first one was launched in 1829. Of these only one remains. Of equal consequence was the establishment of western departments or branches of large Eastern and foreign companies which assumed most of the functions of a home office ; so that Cincinnati was, for a period of perhaps fifty years, the most important insurance headquarters in the west. All of these western departments have likewise disappeared, having been either removed to Chicago or other points or discontinued. It was during this period referred to that the foundations of American fire insurance were laid, and it was in Cincinnati that many of the ideas and systems that are now standard practice in the business were originated and proved out.

The outstanding figure in Cincinnati fire underwriting was Joseph B. Bennett, who was also perhaps the leading figure in American insurance of his time. For many years after his retirement, to have graduated from the "Bennett School," that is to have served under J. B. Bennett and received the benefit of his training, was a badge of distinction in the highest ranks of company officials and managers. In 1853 he became the Western general manager of the /Etna Insurance Company of Hartford, and during the next seventeen years virtually established the American Agency System, which is the method by which most insurance is now conducted. He is today known as the "Father of the American Agency System." His resignation from the ;Etna in 187o and organization of three companies, giants for those days, the Andes, Triumph, and Amazon, which were ruined by the unique coincidence of the two great conflagrations of Chicago and Boston within less than two years, constitutes one of the tragic events of American business history. Incidentally, it perhaps lost to Cincinnati an industry which would have added greatly to its financial power.

Cincinnati has dropped out of the picture as a fire insurance center, but it is looming up as the home of several progressive and rapidly developing life insurance companies.

Insurance in Cincinnati practically began with the river trade. As

656 - GREATER CINCINNATI AND ITS PEOPLE

early as 1794 an advertisement appeared in the "Centinel of the Northwest," published in Cincinnati, which gave the first announcement with regard to river traffic between Cincinnati and Pittsburgh and contained this notice :

"An office of insurance will be kept in Cincinnati, Limestone (now Maysville, Ky.), and Pittsburg, where persons desirous of having their property insured may apply. The rates of insurance will be moderate."

Marine insurance increased rapidly with the development of traffic on the river. Until 1811, when the first steamboat appeared, the traffic was largely by canoe, keel boat, pirogue, and barge, but after that steamboats began to appear, and it was possible to ship freight and passengers up as well as down the river. In 1818 the first steamboat built in Cincinnati was launched, and after that the city became a large boat building center. By 1826 two hundred and thirty-three steamboats had been launched, and of these forty-eight were built in the city. After 1817 navigation was mainly by steamboat. The river business continued large until about the late seventies, when it commenced to break up. After the Chicago fire the fire business, like the pork trade, began to move to Chicago and the West. The Chicago fire of October 8, 9, and To, 1871, doubtless due to the amount of insurance loss sustained, seemed to fix Chicago's place in the insurance world as the future Western center.

"Cincinnati in 1826," published by Drake & Mansfield, contains the following regarding insurance :

Until recently, little attention has been paid to this subject in the West. If we except foreign agencies, the Louisville Company for a long time held a monopoly of this business.

In a few years it accumulated enormous profits and raised the value of its stock manyfold. A company was established here several years since, but it did little business, and became extinct in the subsequent commercial derangement. Of late two companies have been incorporated here, and are in successful operation.

These two companies were the Ohio Insurance Company, incorporated in January, 1826, of which T. Goodman was president and Morgan Neville, secretary. Its capital was $250,000, either paid in in cash or secured by notes and mortgages. The other early company was the Cincinnati Equitable, incorporated in January, 1827. Ezekiel Hall was its chairman, and John Jolly, secretary. This is now the oldest insurance company in the West.

"Cincinnati in 1826," gives the following list of outside companies doing business in the city :

Protection Insurance Company, Hartford, Connecticut, Ephraim Robins, agent. This company was given the most favorable notice and mention was made of the fact that a board of counsellors had been appointed by the company to assist the agent, "whose award is binding

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI INSURANCE BUSINESS - 657

upon the company ; should the party dissent, arbiters may be called, whose decision is also final, as it respects the office. This office has issued, since its establishment here, a considerable number of policies, and enjoys the confidence of the community." The Protection afterwards failed and much of its business was taken over by the AEtna. Mr. Robins was the first general agent ever appointed by a fire insurance company. His brother, Gurdon Robins, by the way, was the first agent appointed by the ;Etna Insurance Company outside of Connecticut. This was in 1820. Mr. Robins was located at Fayetteville, North Carolina.

The AEtna Insurance Company of Hartford, was established in Cincinnati in December, 1823. William Goodman became agent (succeeding his father, T. S. Goodman, formerly of Hartford, in 1826).

The Traders' Inland Navigation Insurance Company, New York, with Thomas Newell as agent.

United States Insurance Company, New York, with William Hartshorne as agent.

When it was seen that outside fire insurance companies from Kentucky and the East were making large profits, local companies were organized by the business men of the city.

The oldest local stock company to survive any length of time was the Cincinnati, which started in 1829, and which was reinsured some years ago, after a long and honorable career in the Royal of England. An earlier "Cincinnati Insurance Company," organized in 1819 to do a life business, but which did not last long was the first insurance company to be chartered in Ohio.

"Cincinnati in 1851"—"Cincinnati in 1851," by Charles Cist, probably incomplete, gives the names of fourteen fire, marine and life insurance companies of Cincinnati, besides those of a number of outside companies having agencies here, some of whose very names have been forgotten in the insurance world.

The Cincinnati was doing business at 4 Front Street, between Main and Sycamore ; the Firemen's office was at Main and Front streets ; the Washington was at 73 Main Street ; the Merchants and Manufacturers Mutual had an office upstairs at t i Front Street ; the City Insurance Company was at 8 Front Street, and the Eagle at No. 9. The Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company had a capital of $2,000,000 and did a banking business as well, being one of the important institutions of the city. It failed in 1857. The Ohio Life Insurance Company, joint stock and mutual, with $ioo,000 capital, had an office in Reeder's Building, second door east of the City Bank. The Jefferson Life of Cincinnati with a capital of $100,000 had an office in Bromwell's Building on Fourth Street, between Walnut and Vine.

Cincinnati had a live stock company at this time, the Ohio Live Stock, with a capital of $100,000. Its office was in Reeder's Building,

Cin-42

658 - GREATER CINCINNATI AND ITS PEOPLE

in the same office with the City Fire & Marine. The Ohio Mutual, with a capital of $300,000, was doing business in the second story of 9 Front Street. The Fraternal Mutual Life had an office at 79 West Third Street. The Washington Life, with a capital of $150,000, also had its office in the Reeder's Building.

A. S. Chew, with office at 15 Front Street, advertised the agency of the American Mutual Insurance Company, with a capital of $100,000, "to insure cargoes of steamboats, flatboats, canal boats, and vessels navigating the seas and lakes ; also buildings, goods, furniture, and machinery, and other property against loss or damage by fire, on reasonable terms."

The Phoenix of St. Louis, long since forgotten, with a capital of $150,000, had an office at 15 Front Street, over Shoenberger's iron store. The Firemen's & Mechanics' of Madison, Indiana, the latter still in existence at Indianapolis, and the Utica Insurance Company of Utica, New York, had offices in Cincinnati and were apparently doing a flourishing business. The /Etna of Hartford was represented by James H. Carter.

List of Local Companies —The insurance department was not established until 1867, and official reports were not available until then. There were also a considerable number of special charter companies which were not required to make reports to the State. The following is as complete a list of the local companies, omitting unimportant mutuals, as can be secured. Those showing assets are taken from the insurance department report of 1873 or in a few cases earlier. The dates of incorporation and street addresses at this time or a few years earlier are also given where possible.

CINCINNATI FIRE AND MARINE COMPANIES.

Assets in

1873 or Earlier

Adams Fire & Marine Ins. Co.; org. 1865, retired in 1869; J. C. Hollenshade, Pres.; John M. Newton, Secy

Amazon Ins. Co., 126 Vine St.; inc., 1871; reinsured in 1891; J. B. Bennett, Pres.; B. D. West, Secy

American Ins. Co.; inc. 1850 (special charter) ; retired in 1877; Stephen Morse, Pres.; A. M. Ross, Secy

Andes Ins. Co.; org. 1870, retired in 1872; paid up capital $1,000,000; J. B Bennett, Pres.; J. H. Beattie, Secy

Aurora F. & M. Ins. C0., 6 E. 4th St.; inc. 1871; reinsured in 1891; H. A Faber, Pres.; F. C. Baehrens, Secy

Boatmen's F. & M. Ins. Co.; org. 1865; retired in 1869; Benj. F. Davidson, Pres.; H. A. Glassford, Secy

Buckeye State Ins. Co.; 0rg. 1851 (special charter) ; retired in 1870; W. N. Hulbert, Pres.; Isaac C. Fallis, Secy

Burnet Ins. Co.; inc. 1866; retired in 1873; Geo. Taylor, Pres.; John S. Taylor, Jr., Secy

Central Ins. Co.; org. 1856; retired in 1869; J0s. W. Wayne, Pres.; Henry T. Morton, Secy

Cincinnati Ins. Co., 81 W. Third St.; inc. 1829 (special charter) ; Geo. W. Williams, Pres.; Wm. H. Calvert, Secy

Cincinnati Underwriters (composed 0f Eureka and Security) ; F. A. Rothier, Pres.; Adam Benus, Secy.

Canal Ins. Co.; chartered 1836; reorganized as the Western in 1854

$103,388

1,127,698

114,943

146,509

105,552

109,176

96,240

171,434

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI INSURANCE BUSINESS - 659

Citizens Ins. Co.; inc. 1851 (special charter) as Clermont Co. Fire & Marine & Life (commenced business as Citizens in 1858) ; reinsured in 1892; Thos. G. Odiorne, Pres.; J0hn B. Abernathy, Secy

City Fire & Marine Ins. Co., 8 Fr0nt St.; (1851) ; E B. Reeder, Pres.; N. Gregory, Secy.

Commercial Ins. Co.; inc. 1837 (special charter) ; M. L. Harbeson, Pres.; J. A. Townley, Secy

Crescent Ins. Co.; org. 1867; retired in 1870; J. W. Bachelor, Pres.; F. X. Reno, Secy.

Enterprise Fire & Marine Ins. Co., 82 W. Third St.; Inc. 1865; Thos. Sherlock, Pres.; John W. Hartwell, V.-P.; W. M. Richardson, Secy

Eclipse Ins. Co.; org. 1866; retired in 1871; J. J. Livingst0n, Pres.; W. A. O'Hara, Secy.

Eureka Fire & Marine Ins. C0.; inc. 1864; D. Collier, Pres.; E. E. Townley, Secy. (Now Eureka-Security Fire & Marine)

Eureka-Security Fire & Marine Ins. Co., 22 Garfield Place; F. A. Rothier, Pres.; B. G. Dawes, Vice-Pres. & Secy; Adam Benus, Treas. (Consolidation of Eureka Fire & Marine and Security Fire.) Capital, 1926, $500,000; assets.

Farmers Ins. Co., 19 W. Third St.; inc. 1866; reinsured in 1891; John M. Phillips, Pres.; Mark Hollingshead, Secy

Farmers & Mechanics Ins. Co.; Org. 1866; retired in 1870; C. J. W. Smith, Pres.; Wm. H. Moore, Secy

Fidelity Ins. Co., 76 W. Third St.; inc. 1872; retired about 1880; E. V. Brookfield, Pres.; C. E. Demarest, Secy

Fidelity Fire & Marine Ins. Co.; inc. 1884; capital $100,000; E. V. Brookfield, Pres.; Henry Emerson, Secy

Firemen's Ins. Co.; inc. 1832 (special charter) ; reinsured in 1892; Henry E. Spencer, Pres.; Geo. McLaughlin, Secy

Franklin Ins. Co., Front St.; 0rg. 1857; retired in 1871; J0hn S. Tayl0r, Pres.; C. E. Demarest, Secy

Germania Fire & Marine Ins. C0., 7 W. Third St.; inc. 1864; Jas. H. Carter, Pres.; John H. Beattie, Secy

Globe Ins. Co., 68 W. Third St.; inc. 1865; reinsured in 1893; Samuel F. Covington, V.-P.; John M. Newton, Secy

Hamilton County Fire & Marine Ins. C0.; 0rg. 1864; retired in 1869; consolidated with Tobacco F. & M.; W. F. C0lburn, V. Pres.; J. J. Hooker, Secy.

105,262

169,117

110,791

1,333,268

109,349

144,841

2,270,754

160;115,500

109,098

130,896

186,666

190,309

327,099

172,487

99,697

Home Fire & Marine Ins. Co.; retired in 1867

LaFayette Ins. Co.; org. 1863; retired in 1870; J. W. Sibley, Pres.; S. L. Corwin, Secy.

Magnolia Fire & Marine Ins. Co.; org. 1860; retired in 1869; reinsured in Buckeye State; Jas. Bugher, Pres.; C. H. Marshall, Secy

Merchants & Manufacturers Ins. C0., 71 W. Third St.; inc. 1838 (special charter) ; B. B. Whiteman, Pres.; H. C. Gassaway, Secy

Miami Valley Ins. Co., 35 W. Third St.; inc. 1838; reinsured in 1893; Jos. S. Ross, Sr., Pres.; C. S. Bradbury, Secy

Merchants Ins. Co.; 0rg. 1865; retired in 1869; J. C. Thomas, Pres.; J. W. McCord, Secy.

Ohio German Fire Ins. Co.; A. K. Murray, Pres.

National Ins. Co.; inc. 1851 (special charter) ; John Burgoyne, Pres.,; Henry C. Urner, Secy

Ohio Valley Ins. Co.; org. 1863; retired in 1871; J. A. Devou, Pres.; Chas. R. Fogler, Secy

Ohio Live Stock Ins. C0.; in 1851 in Reeder's Bldg., Third St.; inc. in 1850; capital $100,000

Ohio (Mutual Ins. C0.; in 1851 at 9 Front St.; capital $300,000

Queen City Ins. Co.; org. 1851 (special charter) ; retired in 1870; H. K. Lindsey, Pres.; Geo. D. Martin, Secy

Peoples Fire & Marine Ins. Co.; org. 1865; reinsured in the Clay of Newport in 1872; J. N. Lawder, Pres.; F. Goule, Secy

Security Fire Ins. Co.; org. 1:4:r; F. A. Rothier, Pres.; Adam Benus, Secy. (Now Eureka-Security Fire & Marine.)

Tobacco E. & M. Ins. Co.; org. 1865; retired in 1871; John G. Olden, Pres.; Sam'l L. Yourtee, Secy

115,928

56,265

277,661

129,817

142,848

148,082

124,126

91,047

115,661

213.518

660 - GREATER CINCINNATI AND ITS PEOPLE

Triumph Ins. Co.; org. 1871; reinsured in the Amazon in 1872; J. B. Bennett, Pres.

Standard Fire Ins. Co.; inc. 1883; capital $100,000; reinsured in Commercial, 1885

Union Ins. Co., 66 W. Third St.; inc. 1859; retired in 1883; E. Henry Carter, Pres.; A. C. Edwards, Secy

Washington Fire & Marine Ins. Co., 55 W. Third St.; inc. 1836 (special charter); Wm. Goodman, Pres.; John P. Whiteman, Secy

Western Ins. Co., 2 Public Landing; reinsured in 1891 in Citizens of Cincinnati; inc. 1836 (special charter) ; T. F. Eckert, Pres.; J. T. Coiling, Secy.

MUTUALS.

Cincinnati Equitable Ins. Co.; inc. 1826; F. J. Jones, Pres; E. H. Ernst, Secy.; assets, 1926

Hamilton Mutual Ins. Co.; inc. 1858 as German Mutual; J. H. Kohmescher, Pres.; F. D. Rattermann, Secy.; assets, 1926

Sun Mutual Ins. Co.; inc. 1862; Henry Hater, Pres.; John H. Tuke, Secy.; assets, 1926

133,764

124,106

150,189

1,080,872

852,886

320,254

There were 35 local fire and marine companies in Cincinnati in 1867. The presidents of these companies constituted an interesting group and did business in a way quite foreign to the practice of the present day. The President was the head and active man in the company, even though he appeared at his office only one hour a day. The secretaries were clerks who attended to the details. What business the presidents could not handle in their own companies they exchanged with one another. On this exchange business they settled twice a year, June 3o and December 31. No commissions were paid either the companies or agents. There were only three commissioned agents of outside companies of consequence: the Law Agency of the Royal, Dr. Robert Bonsall of the Delaware Mutual Safety and Owen Owens, who represented a number of fire companies and the Massachusetts Mutual Life. The local companies would not do business with agents as they said the entire business of Cincinnati belonged to them. Their stockholders were the merchants, manufacturers and lawyers of the city, and if there was a prominent man in town he was sure to be connected with the business in some way.

It is said that Captain Thomas F. Eckert, president of the Western, and his case was typical, used to come up to the Chamber of Commerce on Fourth Street daily, and was frequently handed as many as a dozen risks by his friends.

B. F. Pierce, in 1867, was inspector for the companies and made rates. His method was very simple. Each company had a book in which Pierce would enter his ratings, without alphabetical or other order, and it was a day's work to find the rate on any risk.

When a new boat would be put on the river the presidents of the various companies would get together. Suppose the boat was worth $8o,000 ; the presidents would take $6o,000, or three-fourths, dividing the total amount among their respective companies, say $5,000 each. The second year they would renew for only $3,000 each, thus giving the assured only $36,000 protection at the end of the first year. The third

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI INSURANCE BUSINESS - 661

year the renewal would be for $2,000 and after that $1,000 each or $12,000. The rate would be from four per cent to seventeen per cent, according to where the boat went. Usually the rates for navigation hazard was four per cent and for fire five per cent.

The "Crescent" and the "Canal" were two typical early companies. The directors of the Crescent in 1867 were J. W. Batchelor, Henry A. Jones, John Bailey, the cracker baker ; John Todd, of Covington, the distiller ; John C. Reno, steamboat man ; J. T. Isham, steamboat man, and A. N. LaBoiteaux, distiller. The income of the Crescent was about $5,000 a month, of which $3,000 a month was "hull" business, $1,000 "cargo" premiums and $2,000 fire insurance. C. G. Pierce was superintendent of the Mail Line Company, one of the largest steamboat owners and operators, of which Thomas Sherlock was president. It owned the steamers "United States" and "America" which burned the same night in 1869. This fire put the two companies out of business entirely and crippled others. They had $20,000 each on the boats and as each had only paid $20,000 on its capital stock, the rest being in stockholders' notes, the companies simply turned over these amounts for the loss and went out of business. The Canal was a "special charter" company organized in 1836. In 1854 the company, finding that business was not successful, closed out and another company was organized called the Western, which bought its charter and operated on the same plan as the Canal.

To show the success of some of these early companies, in 1858, the Western handed back to its directors and stockholders the $20,000 which they had paid in, and had made $100,000 profit besides in four years. From that time until the Chicago fire it paid $20,000, or 100 per cent dividend each year on the original contribution. The company had $71,000 loss in the Chicago fire and was the first to pay.

Most of the insurance, as well as much of the other business of the city centered at the Public Landing until the dropping off of the river business in the seventies.

The Crescent, which reinsured in the Western, was on the southwest corner of Sycamore and the Public Landing. Along the Landing going west was the Magnolia, then the Buckeye State. Next was the American. Then came the Union, of which "Abe" Edwards was president and Joseph Blair, secretary, Mr. Blair afterwards becoming president. Next to the Union was the Central, of which Francis Ferry, afterwards head of a well-known local agency, was president. Then came the Eureka Fire and Marine. This, by the way, was the only company which used either the word "fire" or "marine" in its title, all others being plain "insurance company" at this time. Daniel Collier was president of the Eureka, afterwards succeeded by Captain John Kyle, about 1871. Captain Kyle was an old river man.

Thomas G. Odiorne was president of the Citizens' and John Aber-

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nethy was secretary. Matthew S. Harbeson, an old river man, was president of the Commercial.

Following the Eureka was the Western, of which Captain T. F. Eckert was president and John Colling, secretary. Then came the Firemen's, one of the oldest companies in the city, at the corner of Main Street. H. M. Spencer was president and George McLaughlin, secretary. Diagonally across the corner was the National, of which Judge Burgoyne was president and H. C. Urner, who afterwards became president, secretary. Opposite the National was the Commercial, of which John Townley was secretary, his brother, Edward Townley, being secretary of the Eureka. Up Main Street, at the corner of Second, was the Boatmen's, and next to it in the same building, the Citizens' of which Andrew Erkenbrecher was president. Going up Second to Walnut Street on the corner was the Ohio Valley, of which James Devou was president ; and diagonally across Second and Walnut was the Merchants'. On the corner of Front and Vine streets was the Tobacco Insurance Company. At Third and Main was the Burnet, with George Taylor, president ; and next to it the Merchants' and Manufacturers', with B. B. Whiteman, president, and William H. Calvert, secretary. Next on Third Street was the Farmers' with Mark Hollingshead as president. When Jacob Burnet, son of Judge Burnet, retired from the presidency of the Cincinnati, Wm. Calvert was chosen to succeed him and resigned as secretary of the Burnet.

The Enterprise, a large company, was on the south side of Third Street, between Main and Walnut, and the Washington on Third Street, between Walnut and Vine. The Enterprise paid, by the way, $163,000 to erect the Enterprise Building on Third Street and, the story goes, paid $7,000 a year ground rent to David Sinton. In later years it offered Mr. Sinton the building for nothing to relieve it of the ground rent, but he said he would accept the return of the lease if a check for $5o,000 were attached. The Enterprise was a good company for a long time.

J. W. McCord was for many years secretary and Thomas Sherlock, father of John C. Sherlock, was president, having been preceded in the presidency by John W. Hartwell, after whom the town of Hartwell was named. John C. Sherlock served under his father in the Enterprise as assistant secretary for a time. The company was reinsured in the North British & Mercantile. W. Byron Carter was, for a time, assistant secretary of the Enterprise. He was a brother of A. G. W. Carter and of James H. Carter, president of the Firemen's, until he was succeeded by Fred Rauh, who established a well-known agency of Fred Rauh & Company. D. B. Meyer, still living, was secretary of the Firemen's. Next to the Enterprise was the Queen City, George W. Neare, president. Mr. Neare had been secretary of the Franklin, and resigned to organize the Queen City. About 1878 Mr. Neare organized the firm of Neare, Batchelor and Reno, as river adjusters. Batchelor afterwards became Captain

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI INSURANCE BUSINESS - 663

of the steamer "Alice Dean." Evans, Lindsay and Cassily was an agency firm at this time and Mr. Evans was elected president of the Queen City succeeding Mr. Neare. M. P. Cassily was a well-known steamboat man who came here from Pittsburgh and was vice-president of the Enterprise.

On the north side of Third Street was the Globe, of which Thompson Dean was president and S. F. Covington, vice-president. John I. Covington, well-known New York insurance man, was his son. Ben T. Clemons, who afterwards established one of the large local agencies of the city, was secretary of the Globe. Major E. V. Brookfield secured control of the Franklin, and afterwards succeeded John Whiteman as president of the Washington.

Another well known agency firm of the early times was White and Lawrence, which afterwards became White, Lawrence & Vance. Peter A. White of this firm became president of the Germania.

C. A. Farnham was assistant secretary of the Germania. Mr. Farnham afterwards established one of the larger agencies in the city. The Miami Valley was just beyond the Germania on West Third Street between Main and Walnut. John J. Hooker, afterwards of the well-known firm of Putnam, Hooker & Company was the first secretary and afterwards became president. The first president of the Miami Valley was "Uncle" Joe Ross, after whom the first steam fire engine of Cincinnati was named. The old "Joe Ross" is well remembered in local fire department circles. George W. Jones succeeded Peter A. White as president of the Miami Valley and was in turn succeeded by his brother, Walter St. John Jones, now head of the agency of Jones, Montgomery & Haas. J. W. Montgomery was secretary.

The Farmers' was started by a number of Methodist ministers and prominent laymen who had considerable to do with starting the Union Central Life. John Cochnower, at one time president of the Union Central, was also president of the Farmers. Jos. F. Larkin was an official of the Farmers and an ardent prohibitionist ; his criticism of the brewers lost the company the business of that class.

The Andes, J. B. Bennett's million dollar company, was located in the Sinton Building on Vine Street. B. D. West, later with the Michigan Inspection Bureau, was secretary. Holger DeRoode, later a prominent local agent in Chicago, and George Coker, well-known adjuster and also secretary of the Kenton of Covington, were clerks in the Andes office. DeRoode going to Chicago to take the agency at that city.

C. J. Krehbiel, the well-known printer, was president of the Aurora Fire and Marine and U. F. Moss, afterwards special agent of the National of Hartford, was secretary.

Charles E. Marshall was secretary of the Board of Underwriters, succeeding Colonel Cochran, father of J. W. Cochran, now president of the Fire Association, one of the largest eastern companies.

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Most of the early insurance companies of Ohio were organized under the act of 1856, or under special charters. This law required only twenty per cent paid up capital and some special charters did not require anything to be paid in. Then came the laws of 1867 requiring larger paid up capital stock. The insurance superintendent made an effort to bring the capital of the regular and special charter companies up with the result that the capital stock of Ohio companies was increased within a couple of years from about three to five million dollars. This also increased the premiums of the Ohio companies in proportion to the whole. The State Insurance Report of 1869 showed the premiums of Ohio companies were $2,910,647 and $1,881,363 for other State and foreign companies. The paid-up capital of Ohio companies December 31, 1870, was $5,896,753 as compared with $4,887,782 the previous year. In 1869 out of the losses paid of $2,119,258 in Ohio all but $700,000 was paid by the Ohio companies. In the early days there was much discussion whether Ohio citizens should patronize outside companies and there was more or less sentiment against eastern financial institutions. The thirty-five stock companies listed in Cincinnati in 1867 had a premium income amounting to two million dollars. With the establishment of the insurance department in 1867 the superintendent began to force the weaker companies out. Several special charter companies including the Eagle, Citizens' and Miami Valley of Cincinnati contested in the courts the right of the superintendent to supervise them.

By 1891 there were only ten fire companies left in the city, five having retired in 1890. They kept dwindling, usually through purchase by larger companies. Most of them had been profitable enterprises, but the time of large national organizations in the fire insurance business had arrived and the Cincinnati companies did not see fit to meet modern conditions.

The Cincinnati Western Departments —Having sketched the Cincinnati home companies, let us turn to general agencies or western departments of the larger eastern and foreign companies which caused Cincinnati to be regarded as the western fire insurance center for many years. The first general agency or department in Cincinnati, and quite likely in the entire country, was established in 1825 by the Protection Fire and Marine of Hartford, with Ephraim Robins as general agent, who served until his death in 1845, when he was succeeded by his son, William Burnet Robins. It was to this office that J. B. Bennett came in 1841, a stripling of sixteen in jacket and knee pants, to serve as office boy. By 1845 he had developed into a competent bookkeeper and in that year the office employed as his assistant H. M. Magill, afterwards western general agent of the Phoenix of Hartford. Other prominent insurance men in this office at the time were W. H. Wyman, general agent of the !Etna at Omaha, Nebraska, and John McGee, afterwards assistant secretary of the

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI INSURANCE BUSINESS - 665

Home of New York. Mr. Robins was a pioneer and started some of the systems and ideas which, in later years, J. B. Bennett expanded and enlarged upon. The first experience of risks by classifications was worked out in this office, by Messrs. Bennett, Magill, Wyman and McGee, who classified all the business of the Protection for the twenty-nine years from 1825 to 1854. This was one of the first experience records to be made. Fire insurance rates are, of course, based on the classification of risks and hazards. Mr. Robins also developed the agency plan, the business being written on applications submitted by sub-agents from Pittsburgh to New Orleans and the Mississippi, which was then the far west business limit. Those who are familiar with fire insurance may not realize what a step forward this was when it was first taken. Later, when Mr. Bennett was general manager of the /Etna, he expanded this sub-agency plan to what is known as the recording agency plan, now in general use, by which agents write their own policies and bind their companies on risks without first referring to the head office, although the company has the right to cancel. When the president of a large New York company, George T. Hope, of the Continental, learned that Mr. Bennett was using this plan generally throughout the West, he remarked that he would not give thirty cents a share for the AEtna Company's stock, as he believed no company could live by giving its agents such authority. However, Mr. Bennett proved out the plan and extended it generally. It is also claimed his office originated the "daily reporting system," by which agents report daily to the home office. The story is told that the AEtna had an agent at Memphis, Tennessee, who was writing "Jumbo" lines on cargoes on the Mississippi River to New Orleans and Mr. Bennett became alarmed at the risks which his Memphis agent was taking; so he devised the daily report plan and for a time it was operated for the benefit of the Memphis agency only. These comparatively simple events were of the greatest significance for the reason that they started the plan of agency operation now in effect.

Another development which came in the AEtna office under Mr. Bennett was the mapping system. He had in his office one William H. Martin, a German engineer and draftsman, who began to make surveys or drawings of the buildings which were insured, showing the hazards, so that proper rates could be made. Mr. Bennett sent Mr. Martin throughout the territory making these surveys or maps. It is related that Mr. Martin was in Humboldt, Tennessee, during the Civil War and was proceeding with his usual work when he was called upon by a committee of the trustees of the town and asked what he was doing there, the suspicion being that he was collecting information for the Union Army. One of Martin's assistants was a young man named D. A. Sanborn, who saw commercial possibilities in the idea, went to New York and established the Sanborn Map Company which now makes maps for the entire

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country. Incidentally, he offered a partnership to Mr. Martin, who declined thinking he had a better chance by remaining with the AEtna. The Sanborn Map Company is now one of the large enterprises connected with the business.

The map making system for insurance companies, by the way, originated in Germany, where it had been in vogue, it is said, for fifty years before being introduced into America by Mr. Martin, via Cincinnati. Most of our insurance practices came originally from England, but this is one that originated on the continent. The late Mr. H. A. Rattermann, secretary and founder in 1858 of the German Mutual, now the Hamilton County Mutual of Cincinnati, used to relate how he, Mr. Martin and Mr. Sanborn, used to get together and work out the details of the map system. The Hamilton County still employs the method of showing a map diagram in colors of the risk on the application for insurance and some of the very first maps of this kind ever made are still on file in the Hamilton County office. In 1855 Mr. Martin made the first insurance map of the city. It was of Cincinnati and shows every lot and house with its number in the city at that time. It was called "Map of Cincinnati for Insurance Companies and Real Estate Agents." There were sixteen different classifications of risks shown, as to type of construction, occupancy, etc., the brick buildings being inked in red, and other colors for stone, frame, etc.

Still another idea was originated in Cincinnati which became an important factor. Alexander Stoddart, who became an outstandng figure in insurance, was employed by Mr. Bennett and resigned to go to New York in 1863 and start the New York Underwriters Agency. There are now some fifty or one hundred "underwriters' agencies" doing business much the same as regular insurance companies, which are copied after this early enterprise. The second underwriters' agency to be started, by the way, was the Cincinnati Underwriters, organized by Frank A. Rothier, president of the Eureka and Security companies of Cincinnati. Mr. Rothier, still president of these combined companies, got his idea from Mr. Stoddart and conferred many times with him regarding the operation of the plan. This was simply to issue policies in the name of an "underwriters," which were guaranteed by a number of companies which made up the agency. Thus the New York Underwriters was composed of the Niagara, Germania, Hanover, and Republic companies of New York, all of which also did business separately.

But a still greater contribution which Mr. Bennett made to the business was in the training of many men who afterwards became prominent in the insurance world. He was a tireless worker, forgetful of himself in his efforts to establish the new business of insurance in the West. He was a strict disciplinarian and demanded much of his men, often more than they could accomplish ; but the result was that the "Bennett School" of underwriters became the dominant group in the business for a quarter

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of a century. It was Ephraim Robins who started the agency system and many of the ideas which go with it, and J. G. Bennett who expanded and developed them.

In the archives of the 2Etna at Hartford are no doubt still to be found the details never given out of the severance of Mr. Bennett's relations as general agent, following which he started, before the Chicago and Boston fires, three large companies in Cincinnati which, had it not been for these conflagrations would undoubtedly have resulted in Cincinnati becoming one of the permanent fire insurance centers. These companies were the Andes, Triumph and Amazon. Bennett chose to name his companies not after a volcanic mountain of Sicily but after the greatest range of mountains and the greatest river of the new world, and between these he expected to "Triumph." Undoubtedly he would have done so, given ordinary business conditions, but he had just gotten the Andes well started, with two million dollars capital and surplus, when the Chicago fire occurred and wiped out the entire amount. He promptly called for new contributions and proceeded to organize his second and third companies, the Triumph and Amazon, when the Boston fire, on November 9th of the next year, ruined the Triumph and crippled the Amazon. It is said that his stockholders of the Andes were standing back of him splendidly and that he would have survived both these catastrophes had it not been for the summary action of the Ohio Insurance Department, which refused to take into consideration the extraordinary circumstances and give the companies a little time to recover. These business difficulties, added to family troubles, were a crushing blow from which he could not recover, although he made a valiant effort and remained in Cincinnati for some time seeking to regain lost ground. In 1874 he gave up the fight, and was afterwards employed by the companies in charge of bureaus at Indianapolis and New Orleans. His beautiful estate in Clifton, of twenty-one acres, one of the show places of Cincinnati in the seventies, the house being on the site of the present home of Professor John Uri Lloyd, was transferred in 1875 to the Amazon Insurance Company for $121,000, largely in settlement of his unpaid stock in the company. Amazon Corner in Clifton was named after the company. His next door neighbor and friend, Gazzan Gano, vice-president of the Amazon, succeeded him as president of the three companies and continued the Amazon for some years, helping also to straighten out the tangles caused by the outright failure of the other two. Mr. Gano's brother, Howell Gano, retired from hardware business and devoted all his time to the receivership of the Andes and Triumph. The losses sustained in the Chicago and Boston fires by the Bennett and other Cincinnati companies made Cincinnati investors afraid of fire insurance business.

The oldest of the western departments in Cincinnati of the large companies was that of the Royal of Liverpool, which was started by Dr. John

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S. Law in 1852, and which great organization is still in the hands of members of the Law family, now located at Chicago. Dr. Law was a practicing physician who came to Cincinnati from Savannah, Georgia, it is said, because he did not wish his children to grow up in the atmosphere of slavery. The story of the establishment of this office is that a representative of the head office in Liverpool was traveling in this country with a view to establishing agencies and that while in Savannah he met a prominent shipper of cotton, a Colonel Green, who made frequent trips to Liverpool and carried insurance in the Royal. He suggested the name of Dr. Law in Cincinnati with the result that first an agency and afterwards a department was established. For a time the department was conducted in the name of John S. Law & Sons, and later by John H. Law & Brother. This was the second agency established in this country by the Royal, the first having been at Philadelphia. The Liverpool & London & Globe, another great English company, sent an Englishman, Robert Knight, to Cincinnati to open a department in the late fifties. In January, 1860, the company purchased from the Ohio Life and Trust Company the building at Third and Main streets. McKnight was succeeded in 1879 by J. M. DeCamp, who continued until his death in 1915. The department was later moved to Chicago in charge of William S. Warren, whose father, William Warren, had been associate general agent in Cincinnati, but who, after 1866, had a separate field. The first agency in Cincinnati was that of Howard Matthews, open in 1854.

Besides the Royal and Liverpool & London & Globe, three other large British companies established departments in Cincinnati. The Commercial Union, established in 1881 with C. J. Holman in charge ; the Lancashire in 1880 under H. K. Lindsey ; and the Northern about 1880 with Warren F. Goodwin as general agent. In fact, the coming in of the large foreign companies had considerable to do with forcing the smaller local companies out, as the public found that it could secure indemnity at the same cost in much larger and stronger institutions.

When J. B. Bennett retired from the western general agency of the 'Etna in 187o he was succeeded by his brother, Fred C. Bennett, and he in turn, in 1897, by Keeler and Gallagher.

On the failure of the Protection Fire and Marine in 1854, the year in which Mr. Bennett went with the /Etna, his old associate in the Protection, H. M. Magill, established an important department for the Phoenix of Hartford, which had previously been represented by his father, Rev. Matthew Magill, formerly an Episcopalian minister. Mr. Magill was succeeded some years ago by Messrs. Lovejoy and Spear, who conducted the department for several years in Cincinnati and then removed it to the home office in Hartford. The complete list of the western departments in Cincinnati, with some data as to their personnel, follows :

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI INSURANCE BUSINESS - 669

Protection Fire & Marine Insurance Company of Hartford, established 1825 by Ephraim Robins, general agent until 1845 ; succeeded by his son, William Burnet Robins, who continued in charge until September 7, 1854, when the company failed and much of the business was absorbed by the AEtna of Hartford.

Royal Insurance Company, established in 1852 by Dr. John S. Law, manager ; succeeded by John S. Law and son and later by John H. Law and Brother. Removed to Chicago in 1896.

AEtna Insurance Company, of Hartford, established in 1854 by Joseph B. Bennett, western general manager ; succeeded by his brother, F. C. Bennett, in 1870; succeeded by Keeler and Gallagher in 1897; department removed to Chicago in 1907.

Phoenix Insurance Company of Hartford, Rev. Matthew Magill, general agent ; succeeded by his son, H. M. Magill, in 1854, who was in turn succeeded by Lovejoy and Spear in 1902. Department removed to Hartford in 1913.

Liverpool & London & Globe Insurance Company, established in the '6os by Robert Knight, general agent ; succeeded in 1877 by J. M. De-Camp ; succeeded in 1915 by Frank Ritchie. Department consolidated with Chicago in 1920-21.

Lancashire Insurance Company of England, established in 1880, H. K. Lindsey general agent ; consolidated with Chicago in early '90s.

Northern Assurance Company of England, established 188o-1, Warren F. Goodwin, general agent ; consolidated with Chicago.

Union Insurance Company of Philadelphia, established January 1, 1877, J. P. Vance, general agent ; department closed on death of Mr. Vance in 1890.

Commercial Union Assurance Company of England, established 1881 ; C. J. Holman, general agent ; consolidated with Chicago department about 1894, when Holman went to Denver.

American Fire Insurance Company of Philadelphia, established in late '8os. J. W. Francis, general agent ; consolidated with Chicago department.

Western Assurance Company of Toronto, established 1874, George W. Neff, general agent.

Mutual Fire Insurance Company of New York, established 1900. A. M. L. Wasson, general agent.

California Insurance Company, established early '80s. E. L. Ireton, general agent, succeeded by W. N. Bament and E. W. Burnet in '90s.

Hamburg Bremen Fire Insurance Company of Germany, established about 1876; J. P. Vance, general agent, who remained with the company until its retirement from this country before 1890.

The Niagara Fire Insurance Company of New York, established 1874, Snider and Lindsey, general agents ; succeeded by George K. Snider in 1880-81.

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Thus closes an important chapter in Cincinnati business enterprise as well as one of considerable significance to the insurance world at large.

Life and Casualty Insurance —While Cincinnati has not, until recent years, been much of a life insurance center, it now occupies a rather important place. It has five flourishing home companies. In addition it has two casualty companies, specializing in health and accident insurance. Nevertheless, the first insurance company to be chartered in Ohio was a life company. This was the Cincinnati Insurance Company, which received its charter February 8, 1819. It probably lasted only a short time. There were various attempts to start local life companies but none of these were really successful until 1867, when the Union Central was organized. Over a period of many years this was the only regular life company located in Ohio. In 1871 it took over two moderate-sized Cincinnati companies, the Home Mutual and the Cincinnati Mutual, organized in 1866 and 1867 respectively. In 1888 the second largest life company, the Western and Southern, was organized. By 1890 all Ohio regular life companies had disappeared except these two, both of Cincinnati. In 1857 occurred the failure of the Ohio Life Insurance & Trust Company, a large concern, which also did a banking business. There were, of course, quite a number of outside companies doing business in the city and some of these agencies have existed for many years. But it is only in comparatively recent times that the city has taken on any life insurance importance as a company center. During the seventies occurred the failures of many life insurance companies all over the country and the business generally was in a rather bad way. The companies did not maintain adequate reserves, they were extravagantly managed, and many of them were actually dishonest. With the so-called Armstrong-Hughes life insurance investigation in New York in 1907 the organization of new companies began again on a large scale and many of these have been successful.

The Union Central is exceeded in size by only one other western company and it comes within the first sixteen of the great life companies of the country. The Western and Southern is the fourth largest "industrial" company in the United States and the largest on the non-participating or stock plan. It is the largest industrial company in the West. Of late years it has written considerable ordinary insurance also, through its industrial agents.

The Union Central was organized in 1867 by a small group of men from Hamilton, Ohio, closely associated with the Methodist Church. The Civil War had just been concluded and the thought of "Union" was strong in the minds of the founders. Bishop Davis W. Clark suggested that the name should be the Union Central Life and it was so voted.

John Cochnower, a prosperous coal merchant, was elected president, John T. T. Peck, a Hamilton

banker, vice-president and N. W. Harris, after-

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wards founder of the banking firm of N. W. Harris & Company of Chicago and New York, secretary and insurance manager. The first offices were established at 19 West Third Street. The company had a hard time of it in the '70s, when competition was strenuous and ruthless. It was, however, conducted on a sound and conservative basis from the start and the efforts of President Cochnower, vice-President Peck and a number of influential Methodist clergymen who gave it their backing, were successful in placing it on the road to success. Its rapid progress began with the election of John M. Pattison, vice-president and manager of insurance in 1881. He was a man of great will power, judgment and personality. He was made president in 1891 and held office until 1906, when he died at his home in Milford, a few months after he had been elected governor of Ohio.

Jesse R. Clark, son of Bishop Clark, succeeded Mr. Pattison. He was a genius at organization and just the kind of man needed to follow President Pattison, who had given his personal attention to all details. It was Mr. Clark who conceived the vision of the Union Central skyscraper, which was erected at Fourth and Vine streets in 1913 at a cost of three million dollars. This thirty-four story structure, of modern renaissance architecture, rears its towering beauty above Cincinnati's business district and is a land mark for ten miles around. In 1913 the Union Central had $321,000,000 of insurance in force and had passed in volume sixteen prominent companies which had been established prior to it.

President Clark died in 1921 and was succeeded by John D. Sage, first vice-president . Mr. Sage entered the service of the company as an editorial clerk upon his graduation from Brown University in 1899. He rose through various positions and when Mr. Clark died, was the logical man for the presidency. Under his leadership the Union Central has continued its progress and on January 1, 1926, its insurance in force totaled $1,215,000,000 and its assets had increased to $222 ,788,000. The number of clerks employed has grown to nearly 750 and at the rapid rate of increase it is estimated that the entire building will be occupied by the company in 1950. Mr. Sage and his associates therefore conceived the idea of a great annex adjoining the skyscraper and the historic Burnet House property at Third and Vine streets was purchased for the purpose. The original architects were engaged to fashion a unit of great beauty and utility. Eventually an eighteen story structure will rise. The present officers are : President John D. Sage, vice-Presidents George L. Williams, Loui Breiling and John W. Pattison ; Secretary R. Frederick Rust, Treasurer Jesse R. Clark, Jr.

The Western and Southern, whose beautiful building is located at Fourth and Broadway, had a very modest beginning, but is now growing by leaps and bounds. One of its founders, W. J. Williams, is the president. It has $438,000,000 in force and its assets amount to 56,000,000. It

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has nearly 3,000 agents at work in eight States. Perhaps no large company in the United States is growing at a more rapid rate than the Western and Southern.

The Columbia Life, the third oldest company, was organized in 1902 by its late president, Dr. Felix G. Cross, who was succeeded at his death in 1918 by his son, Sumner M. Cross. It has had a steady consistent growth and now has insurance in force of $20,000,000 with assets of over $3,000,000.

The Ohio National was organized in 1909 and has had a rapid growth. Its president, for a number of years, was Albert Bettinger, well-known attorney and advocate of Ohio River improvement. At his death he was succeeded as president by T. W. Appleby, who had previously been secretary and vice-president. It is due to Mr. Appleby's efforts that the company has made such fine progress in recent years. It now has assets of $6,869,000 and insurance in force of over sixty millions.

The youngest of the Cincinnati companies is the Federal Union Life, which occupies its own building at the corner of Ninth and Vine streets. While it has been operating only since December 15, 1915, it has built up an annual income of over a million dollars and its net admitted assets are nearly three millions. The total insurance in force exceeds twenty-five millions. The company operates in eight States and has a field force of about zoo agents. Its president is Frank M. Peters, who has had twenty-five years experience in the life insurance business.

All the Cincinnati life companies are sound, successful and on a permanent basis. They are bringing a rapidly increasing volume of premiums to the city and constitute one of its important investing factors. The Union Central is one of the pioneers as investors in farm mortgages, and has important loaning agencies in many of the agricultural States. The building up of this feature was the work of Mr. Clark, during the many years when he served as treasurer. All of the other companies also invest in farm and city mortgages. The Western and Southern alone has twenty million dollars invested in mortgages in the city of Cincinnati. Besides the large number of people to whom they give employment, these companies are adding much to the wealth and financial prestige of the city.

Cincinnati has two accident and health insurance companies, and one of these has, within recent years, entered the automobile insurance field. The Inter-Ocean Casualty has an annual premium income of over two million dollars and operates in thirty-five States. It is one of the larger companies in the accident and health field. It was moved to Cincinnati from Springfield, Illinois, in 1917, and at that time combined with another company, the Consolidated Casualty of Louisville. While at Springfield W. A. Northcott, lieutenant-governor of Illinois, and for some years head consul of the Modern Woodmen of America, was its president and

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI INSURANCE BUSINESS - 673

the chief factor in its growth. J. W. Scherr is now president and W. G. Alpaugh, vice-president and secretary.

The American Liability Company, writing accident and health and automobile insurance, was organized in 1910 under an Indiana charter, with executive offices in Cincinnati and in 1920 it took out a charter under Ohio laws. That year it also commenced to write automobile insurance. H. K. Shockley was the first president. In 1921 W. R. Sanders, who came with the company in 1910 as secretary, became president.

These two casualty companies give the city a good representation in that field.

Cin-43

CHAPTER XLIII.

TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES.

The first sea vessel plying the river from above Cincinnati passed down April 27, 1801. The record reads : "Anchored off this place Monday afternoon, the brig St. Clair, Commodore Whipple, commander, of one hundred tons burden. She was built in Marietta, and is allowed by good judges to be well built, and a handsome vessel. She is completely rigged and ready for sea—her cargo is the produce of the country—she is bound for some of the West India islands."

"On her arrival the banks were crowded with people, all eager to view this pleasing presage of the future greatness of our infant country. This is the first vessel which has descended the Ohio equipped for the sea."

In 1841 Charles Cist in his interesting volume on "Early Annals," has this to say concerning commerce and transportation in this section :

"The commerce of Cincinnati is co-extensive with the navigation of the West, and its interior trade is spread over the whole extent of country between the river Ohio and the lakes, north and south, and the Scioto and Wabash rivers, east and west. The Ohio River line of country in Kentucky, for fifty miles down, and as far up as the boundary line between that State and Virginia, makes its purchases here. Besides its sales of foreign merchandise through the region thus described, Cincinnati affords the Ohio River country and the upper and lower Mississippi States and territories, with a vast amount of manufactured products not merely made here, but with which this market is extensively supplied from the interior. For these, there are received in return sugar cotton, rice, molasses, etc., from the South. Lead, shot, furs, honey, etc., from the Missouri and Upper Mississippi region ; pork, flour, etc., from Indiana. The eastern half of the State of Indiana is the most important customer for foreign goods to this market, and the lower Mississippi country for our various manufactured articles. The products of other countries, brought to this place are purchased in New York and Philadelphia, with the exceptions of certain descriptions of groceries which are supplied by New Orleans.

"By the census of 1840, it appeared that the capital invested at Cincinnati in commercial houses in foreign trade and in commission business is $5,200,000. The capital in retail dry goods, hardware, groceries and other stores, $12,877,000. Lumber business, twenty-two yards, seventy-three hands employed, capital, $133,000 ; sales, $342,500."

Natural and Artificial Routes —In the great Ohio Valley there is no place so central, in relation to its population and resources, as Cincin-

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nati. This has had a great influence on its destiny and present prosperity. The Ohio River is nine hundred and fifty-nine miles in length—from Pittsburgh to the Mississippi. From Pittsburgh to Cincinnati is four hundred and fifty-eight miles ; and from Cincinnati to the mouth of the Ohio is five hundred and one miles ; so that Cincinnati is very nearly in the actual center of the valley. Cincinnati is also just half way between Maumee Bay and Knoxville, on the Tennessee River, a distance of four hundred miles between the two points. Taking the distance between Cincinnati and Nashville, on the Cumberland River, as a radius, and Cincinnati is nearly in the center of the circle described, which includes Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Western Pennsylvania ; a country embracing 150,000 square miles, capable of sustaining well and happily, 30,000,000 population. To this entire country Cincinnati is central by nature and central by commerce. If one draws a straight line from tidewater at Baltimore to St. Louis, on the Mississippi, Cincinnati will be on that line. It is three hundred miles from Cincinnati to St. Louis and four hundred to Baltimore. This same imaginary line, if extended on to the Pacific coast, will touch San Francisco ; so that Cincinnati is on the great line of central communication between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

As looked at by an early writer on this topic, he remarked : "In improving this position by artificial communications, the first step was to make roads into the valley of the Miamis ; after that the State canals were constructed ; one of which connects Cincinnati with the Maumee; and by the junction of the Wabash canal of the Wabash, at Evansville. Next came the railroads ; and within the next five years the progress of Cincinnati in railways, either finished, constructing, or chartered and commenced, is fully equal to any other city whatever in the same period of time."

The canal system in Ohio commenced in 1824; the first railway to enter Cincinnati was in 1835-36.

Canals —Dr. Drake, as early as 1815, vigorously' advocated a system of canals through this section of the country. The Governor took notice of such improvements in 1819, and in 1822 Micajah T. Williams prepared an exhaustive report so powerful that the Legislature passed a bill to cover the expense of a preliminary survey. In 1825 the construction of two of these great artificial waterways was authorized—the "Ohio Canal" and the "Miami Canal." Of course it was the Miami in which Cincinnati was most interested. This canal was to descend the valley from Dayton near the mouth of the Mad River, passing the villages of Miamisburg, Franklin, Middletown, and Hamilton. At this point it left the Miami and took the course of Mill Creek to the upper level in Cincinnati. It was designed to connect this level with the Ohio River by a

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system of locks and dams ; but this was never accomplished. The length of the canal between Dayton and Cincinnati was sixty-seven miles, and this link was finished in 1828. Of such great importance was this internal improvement looked upon that at the beginning of the construction work De Witt Clinton, the great canal magnate of the East, was invited to be present and dig the first spadeful of dirt when the ground was broken at Middletown. Others present were Messrs. Governor Brown, Dr. Drake, E. D. Mansfield, Micajah Williams, and others.

Rev. Charles F. Goss in his "Queen City" history of Cincinnati remarks almost pathetically : "A feeling of sadness and insecurity steals in upon the mind when reading of the sacrifices which our predecessors made to secure those instruments and vehicles of progress, the wrecks of which we are seeing along the pathway of advancing civilization ; but we must console ourselves by thinking that they served their generation, and that they have been replaced by others better suited to the present needs."

The Directory of 1829 announced the completion to Main Street of the Miami Canal and its successful opening for navigation during the year preceding. In 1831 we are told that the year previous the excavation had been commenced to continue this canal to the river, and it was extended from the head of Main Street across Deer Creek, over which it passed by a large culvert. Here it was proposed that it should stop for a time and the water power was leased along the borders of the line. In 1834 the length of the canal is given as sixty-seven miles. It contained thirty-two locks from the bottom of the canal at Main Street, to low water mark on the Ohio. The fall was 106.27 feet which with the 3.73 feet depth of water in the lower lock made the entire lockage at Cincinnati one hundred and ten feet running through a distance of seventy-three chains and eighteen links. To overcome this there were then being built ten locks of eleven feet lift, which were to be finished in the following July. The total cost of the canal was given as $881,477, and the tolls collected for the year 1833, $52,017.03, an increase of thirty-seven per cent over the previous year.

Cist, the local historian in his "Cincinnati in 1841," said : "There are 437 steamboats navigating the western waters of the following tonnage: Boats carrying from 3o to 100 tons, 78; from 100 to 200 tons, 212; from 200 to 300 tons, 105; from 300 to 400 tons, 24; from 400 to 500 tons, 8; from 500 to 600 tons, 5; from 600 to 700 tons, 4; one steamboat carried 785 tons.

Miami Canal Business in 1840 —The following statement shows the record of different kinds of produce and property arriving and clearing via the Miami Canal in the year ending November 30, 1840

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The Miami Canal was closed by ice upon an average of thirty-two days a year, the shortest period was in 1835 and the longest in 1831, when it was but eighty-seven days.

Steamboating—Old steamboat record books show that in 1829 there were four hundred and ninety-seven steamboats carrying 8,318 passengers from Cincinnati docks. Unquestionably, it was the river traffic which exerted the deepest influence upon life and afforded the greatest opportunity for business enterprise ; but there was another factor scarcely less important. This was, of course, the opening of the canals. The river steamer was indeed an innovation. New faces were seen, new customs brought hither from up and down river cities. The luxury of a journey on the steamer from Pittsburgh to New Orleans in an elegant steamboat with its good music and good meals as well as with agreeable companions for passengers brought about a new and better mode of living. Today these boat trips are not sought much, as the overland limited and Twentieth Century swift flying passenger trains, with diners and parlor and library cars have long since taken the place of steamboating, except for short excursions.

The first steamboat seen in Cincinnati, the "New Orleans," arrived here October 27, 1811, and the local newspaper the next day had this to say concerning it : "The steamboat lately built at Pittsburgh passed through this town at five o'cl0ck yesterday in the afternoon, in fine style, going at the rate of about twelve miles an hour." When one ponders over the historic fact that this event was really one of the forerunners of the great commerce to be derived from the advent of the steamboat business, they are led to wonder in amazement that any newspaper should see so little in it as to only give the above brief mention. It should be mentioned here that this boat was in charge of Nicholas J. Roosevelt; it was two days in

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running down from Pittsburgh. Levees and wharf boats were then unknown. One account of this pioneer boat and its first trip, an earlier writer has said: "Here, as at Pittsburgh, the whole town seemed to have assembled on the bank, and many of the acquaintances of the former visit came off in small boats. 'Well, you're as good as your word ; you have visited us in a steamboat,' they said ; 'But we see you for the last time. Your boat may go down the river, but, as to coming up it, the very idea is an absurd one.' This was one of those occasions on which seeing was not believing. The keel boatmen, whose shoulders had hardened as they pressed their poles for many a weary mile against the current, shook their heads, as they crowded around the strange visitor, and bandied river wit with the crew that had been selected from their own calling for the first voyage. Some flat boatmen, whose ungainly arks the steamboat had passed a short distance above the town, and who now floated by with the current, seemed to have a better opinion of the newcomer and proposed a tow in case they were again overtaken. But as to the boat returning, all agreed that could never be.

"The stay at Cincinnati was brief, only long enough to take in a supply of wood for the voyage to Louisville, which was reached on the night of the fourth day after leaving Pittsburgh."

On the return trip the vessel was greeted "with an enthusiasm that exceeded, even, what was displayed on her descent from Pittsburgh. No one doubted now." (Latrobe's "First Steamboat Voyage on the Western Waters," pp. 15-18.)

A comet was visible at this time, and the pioneers who heard the hissing sounds of the engines thought that the comet had fallen into the river. The earthquakes, too, which occurred during this trip, were by some attributed to the unusual disturbance of the waters of the great rivers by this unusual form of vessel.

The second steam vessel after the "New Orleans," to pass Cincinnati was the "Comet" built at Pittsb45-tonmetime before 1813. This was a 145-ton stern-wheeler, followed by the "Vesuvius," 390 tons, which Robert Fulton (inventor) built at Pittsburgh in November, 1813. It failed to come clear up the river and pass the falls at Louisville, but grounded. Other very ea184;teamers were named "Enterprise," 1814; "AEtna," the "Dispatch," the "Buffalo," the "James Monroe," and "Washington." The first steamer built for Cincinnati was the "Eagle," a small 70-ton vessel built in 1818. The first steamer entirely owned by Cincinnati men was the "Experiment," built in 1818, which was a 40-ton boat. Notwithstanding there had been built 32 steamboats by this time, steam transportation had by no means taken the place of other methods of conveyance. The old Kentucky boats and flat-boats were much in use during this period. Traveler Burnet says in 1817 a number of arks with emigrants and their families bound to various parts of the Western country,

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were generally near the landing. He counted seven Kentucky boats with coal, iron, and dry goods from Pittsburgh. There were four barges or keel-boats, one of at least 15o tons, with two masts, which traded up and down the rivers between Pittsburgh and New Orleans, and four large flats or scows with stone for building and salt from the Kenhawa works. Six arks were loaded with emigrants and their household furniture. The emigrants who came down the Ohio usually stopped at Cincinnati to purchase provisions and collect information. Soon after this steamboating became a common industry and boat-building here became quite active and profitable in Cincinnati. Between 1817 and 1819 nearly one-fourth of the steamboats built for the Western waters were constructed in Cincinnati. The river navigation between 1818 and 1838 was of the greatest importance of any in its history.

Steamboat building, when it was fairly started, soon began to look up briskly. Navigation changed rapidly from the keelboat to the steamboat. The first steam vessel, as already stated, was the "Vesta," built in 1816. During the next year steamboat building began to be active, and was most successfully prosecuted. Vessels were built at Cincinnati and elsewhere on the Ohio more cheaply than in any eastern city, and the preference was given to Cincinnati. Of all that were built on the entire western waters in the two seasons between 1817 and 1819, nearly one-fourth was launched here. A large number was also built here in the years 1824-26 ; in fact, it is considered doubtful whether more were constructed during that time in any city in the world. The woodwork especially was superior. Black locust, which was not found even at Pittsburgh, was considerably used for boats, and vessels thus made were more desirable than those constructed at the east from Jersey oak. Upon these waters there had been 233 steamboats by 1826. Ninety had been lost or destroyed, and there were 43 remaining, of about 24,000 aggregate tonnage. One was built in 1811, and another in 184 ; two in 1815 ; three in 1816; and in the years following successively, 7, 25, 34, 10, 5, 13, 15, 16, 27, and 56. Of these 48 were built at Cincinnati, which had half a million dollars invested in the river business. By this time the primitive craft had been almost wholly superceded by the steamers, some of which were so adapted to the river as to run through the very driest season. Thenceforth steamer building was to be exceedingly prominent among the industries of the Queen City. The number built, however, has varied greatly from year to year. Marine reports show that in 1833, for example, only eight steamers were launched from the Cincinnati shipyards, with a total tonnage of about 1,730.

In 1840 thirty-three steamboats, representing a carrying capacity of 5,361 tons, were built at Cincinnati at an aggregate cost of $592,500. The "Joan of Arc" was the largest and finest. She carried 343 tons, and cost $32,000. The "Ben Franklin," another popular boat of a later date, car-

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ried 312 tons, and cost $40,000. The passenger traffic up and down the river afforded an important item of revenue in those days. Older readers will recall the scenes of excitement attendant on the arrival at the wharf of these "magnificent floating palaces," as they were called, and the pride with which they were regarded by their owners and the people. A trip on one of them was regarded as a peculiar privilege, and marked an epoch in the life of the traveler.

By the census of 1840 it appears that the capital invested in Cincinnati houses in foreign trade and in the commission business was $5,200,000; capital employed in the retail dry goods business, and other branches of trade, $12,877,000. There were 23 lumber yards employing 73 hands. The capital invested amounted to $133,000, and the sales reached $342,500. The total manufactures for that year showed 10,667 hands employed and the value of products $17,432,670. The capital invested in manufactures is given by the authority at $4,541,842.

So rapid, however, was the development of commerce that in January, 1841, there were 88

steamboats belonging to the district of Cincinnati. These boats plied between Pittsburgh, St. Louis and New Orleans, and did a large transportation business in freight and the carrying of passengers.

In 1841-42 the value of imports to Cincinnati was $41,236,199; of exports, $33,234,898. In 1857 the value of imports had reached $74,348,758, and of exports $47,497,095. Cincinnati suffered less by the monetary panic of 1857 than any city of importance in the country. The coal consumed in 1841 amounted to 1,900,050 bushels ; in 1851 it had risen to 7,785,000 bushels.

The first year of the war, it will be observed, caused a great depression in the business. But in 1863 and 1864 the great demand for boats caused unusual activity. After peace was made there was a decline, but it revived in 1870. The range of boats plying to and from the city was 225 in 1862, to 446 in 1865.

The eleventh annual report of the Cincinnati Board of Trade says of the boat building of 1880-81, that "a good number of boats were built during the past year—the number of all crafts being 20, with a tonnage of 6,683, against 24 the preceding year, and tonnage 10,641. A heavy increase of tonnage was expected, but not in the number of boats. This was expected to be in stern-wheel boats for making short trips. Many of these had reached a carrying capacity of 3,000 tons."

For the commercial year ending August 31, 1880, the Chamber of Commerce reported that the arrivals for the year aggregated 3,163 boats, compared with 2,725 in the year immediately preceding, and the departures 3,167, in comparison with 2,730. The whole number of steamboats and barges which plied between Cincinnati and other ports in the past year was 322, with an aggregate tonnage of 83,569

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Ohio Packet Boats—The following cannot fail to be read with interest in these days of interurban cars, electric street cars, swift-flying overland limited express trains between the two coasts, and the air-mail service now being carried on with a degree of success.

The lines of barges regularly maintained by Messrs. Baum and Perry, Riddle and others of Cincinnati in the New Orleans trade, brought up cotton from Natchez, sugar, coffee, rice, hides, wines, rum and dry goods of all kinds then in demand, and carried back the produce of the Miami country. The "Navigator" for 1818 contains a paragraph noting the great advantage it was to the commerce of Cincinnati to have this line in operation, slow as it was and exceedingly limited in its capacity as compared with the magnificent facilities of the present day.

The pioneer advertisement in the long line of announcements of commercial facilities to and from the Queen City, and the pioneer enterprise in the way of transportation on the Ohio, since developed to such gigantic proportions, are set forth in the following paragraphs, which appeared in the "Centinel of the Northwest Territory," published at Cincinnati, January II, 1794. It is worth while calling attention again, as attention has often been called before in local publications, to the fact that these four little vessels, together carrying but eighty tons, were deemed sufficient for an entire month's traffic between the settlements of Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, and the whole intervening country :

"Two boats, for the present, will start from Cincinnati to Pittsburgh, and return to Cincinnati, in the following manner, viz:

"First boat will leave Cincinnati this morning, at eight o'clock, and return to Cincinnati, so as to be ready to sail again in four weeks from this date.

"Second boat will leave Cincinnati on Saturday, the 30th instant, and return to Cincinnati as above.

"And so, regularly, each boat performing the voyage to and from Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, once in every four weeks.

"Two boats, in addition to the above, will shortly be completed and regulated in such a manner that one boat of the line will set out weekly from Cincinnati to Pittsburgh, and return to Cincinnati in like manner.

"The proprietors of these boats having maturely considered the many inconveniences and dangers incident to the common method hitherto adopted of navigating the Ohio, and being influenced by a love of philanthropy and a desire of being serviceable to the public, has taken great pains to render the accommodations on board the boats as agreeable and convenient as they could possibly be made.

"No danger need be apprehended from the enemy, as every person on board will be under cover, made proof to rifle or musket balls, and convenient port-holes for firing out. Each of the boats is armed with six pieces, carrying a pound ball ; also a good number of muskets, and amply

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supplied with plenty of ammunition, strongly manned with choice hands, and the master of approved knowledge.

"A separate cabin from that designed for the men is partitioned off in each boat for accommodating ladies on their passage. Conveniences are constructed on board each boat so as to render landing unnecessary, as it might, at times, be attended with danger.

"Rules and regulations for maintaining order on board, and for the good management of the boats, and tables accurately calculated for the rates of freightage for passengers and carriage of letters to and from Cincinnati to Pittsburgh ; also a table of the arrival and departure to and from the different places on the Ohio, between Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, may be seen on board each boat, and at the printing office in Cincinnati.

"Passengers will be supplied with provisions and liquors of all kinds, of the first quality, at the most reasonable rates possible. Persons desirous of working their passage will be admitted, on finding themselves subject, however, to the same order and direction, from the master of the boats, as the rest of the working hands of the boat's crew.

"An office of insurance will be kept at Cincinnati, Limestone, and Pittsburgh, where persons desirous of having their property insured may apply. The rates of insurance will be moderate."

Shipments of 1818-19 -During this season the amount of flour inspected at Cincinnati for export reached 130,000 barrels. It was estimated that at least 50,000 tons of produce went abroad that year, out of Cincinnati and the two Miami rivers. The imports of the year were only about half a million. The balance of trade had been against Cincinnati and the local merchants were uncommonly prudent and cautious about their imports. The exports, however, from October, 1818, to March, 1819, amounted to $1,334,080 of flour alone, in amount as above noted, to value of $65o,000; pork, ro,000 barrels, worth $150,000 ; bacon and hams, $22,080; lard, $46,000; tobacco, $66,000; whiskey, $40,000; cotton cloths sold to the government, $15,000; live stock to New Orleans, $15,000; butter and cheese, $10,000; cornmeal, beans, etc., $20,000. To the Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri territories alone was exported the large value, for that time, of $300,000.

The number of boats built varied greatly from year to year. In 1833, for example, only 8 steamers were launched from the Cincinnati shipyards, with a total tonnage of but 1,730. The number of vessels, barges, and steam ferry-boats built in Cincinnati during the years 1856-79 also strikingly exhibits this variation. They were severally as follows : 1856, 33 ; 1857, 34 ; 1858, 4; 1859, r 1; 1860, 28; 1861, 11 ; 1862, 4; 1863, 43 ; 1864, 62; 1865, 44; 1866, 33; 1867, 18; 1868, 11 ; 1869, ; 1870, 52 ; 1871, 44; 1872, 52 ; 1873, 48 ; 1874, 29; 1875, 6 ; 1876, 19; 1877, 21; 1878, 30; 1879, 24. The aggregate tonnage ranged from 1,745 in 1862, to 20,838 in 1870.

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The arrivals of these years varied from 2,200 in 1863 to 3,459 in 1866. The range of boats plying to and from Cincinnati was 225 in 1862, to 446 in 1865. The second year of the Civil War was especially disastrous to river traffic on the Ohio and Mississippi.

Going back to 1832 the records show that the Commerce of Cincinnati was estimated at $4,000,000 ; for 1835 at about $6,000,000; the steamer arrivals of this year numbered 2,23o. Among the important imports were 90,000 barrels of flour and 55,000 barrels of whiskey.

For the season of 1879-8o the imports were $256,137,902 ; exports $253,827,267. In 1880 there were received at the Cincinnati port 15,463, 911 barrels of flour ; 38,000,000 bushels of wheat ; 30,000,000 bushels of oats ; 20,000,000 bushels of barley ; 7,244,000 bushels of rye ; 58,311,493 bushels of corn.

Ohio River commerce during 1923 reached a total of 8,280,520 tons of cargo of all kinds, valued at $110,022,258 according to the report of the United States engineers in 1923.

The freight was carried a distance of 708,302,798 ton miles. It is computed to have required

1,771 railroad trains of 35 cars each, carrying a net tonnage of 55 tons a bulk freight to the car to move this cargo. It is estimated that 150,555 cars were therefore released to the railroads for service by the use of the Ohio River and its tributaries in 1923.

The improvement work on the Ohio River will probably be completed by 1929. Five dams are already finished, making a total of dams of forty-two on the river to date. Cincinnati maintains no harbor master, so the writer cannot give the figures for the amount of river commerce for the city of Cincinnati at this date. It is, certain, however, that the river freightage in and out of the city was larger the last few years than for a quarter of a century before.

Other transportation reports show that most of the vast tonnage of bituminous coal directed from the Cincinnati market, comes from the mines located in the States of West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky.

From 1819 to 1839 the two great factors in progress were the introduction of the canal boat and steamboating. The building of wagon roads, bridges, and turnpikes went steadily forward. During those twenty eventful years trade extended in all directions from Cincinnati ; to the north, to the south, the east and west, while population and wealth grew as if by magic. Nothing thwarted the plans of the prime movers except the great financial panics from 182o to 1822.

Railroads —When the use of steam as a propelling power for running cars upon wooden and iron rails had become a fixed fact in the minds of capitalists in the East, the progressive men of the Middle West and West soon undertook to avail themselves of the wonderful discovery. The Little Miami Railroad was the first to be constructed to Cincinnati. Its

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proposed route lay along the Little Miami River and up the valley to Xenia, sixty miles away, and finally to Springfield, eighty-five miles distant, where it was to meet the Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad and so keep on to Sandusky on the lake.

The Cincinnati and St. Louis Railroad was chartered in 1832; the Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland Railroad chartered in 1836; the Mad River and Lake Erie Road ; the Covington and Lexington Road.

From this start at railroad building have come the numerous steam railway lines into the Cincinnati as known today. An article was published in 1904—twenty-two years ago—showing the various railroads of the city at that time, and except for some merged companies, the same holds good today :

There are fifteen railroads which can properly be classed as entering Cincinnati. These are the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway (the "Panhandle," part of the Pennsylvania system, entering the city over the Little Miami), the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern Railway (owned by the Baltimore & Ohio), the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway, the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railway, the Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific Railway (Cincinnati Southern) ; the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway (the "Big Four," a Vanderbilt line) ; the Cincinnati Northern Railroad ; the Louisville & Nashville Railroad ; the Kentucky Central Railroad (a division of the Louisville & Nashville) ; the Chicago, Cincinnati & Louisville Railroad (a Gould line) ; the Cincinnati, Georgetown & Portsmouth Railroad, the Norfolk & Western Railway ; the New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad (Erie) ; the Cincinnati, Lebanon & Northern Railway (owned by the Pennsylvania), and the Illinois Central Railroad (entering via the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern). These roads enter at six passenger depots—the Central Union, Pennsylvania, Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton ; Cincinnati, Lebanon & Northern and the Fourth Street station of the Chesapeake & Ohio and Kentucky Central and the station at Eighth Street and McLean Avenue.

Modern Steamboating at Cincinnati —In 1901 the Chamber of Commerce compiled statistics concerning steamboating here which brings the business up to the commencement of this century, and some of these facts are here quoted from their published reports and historical sketch :

On the Ohio, as on the Mississippi and other navigable streams of the country, a great change of late has come over the river trade, once the chief means of transportation in this part of the country. Traffic has been diverted from the water routes by railroads, and other causes concerning which we need not digress, have operated against the boat lines. Yet while these waters and the levee landings now lack much of their old-time life and picturesque feature, a very considerable river fleet, embracing not a few of palatial order, still survives here, and the river still bears upon its bosom an important, though much altered commerce.

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From the Chamber of Commerce report for 1899 it appears that there were twenty-nine steamers engaged in passenger and freight business that year in service between Cincinnati and other ports, representing a total tonnage of boats of 16,311, compared with twenty-five boats of 4,677 tons in 1898. Two new boats had been built and put in the trade, which fact was certainly no evidence of decline.

The arrival of boats during 1899 numbered 1,686, and the departures somewhat less. The number of arrivals was thirty-six per cent greater than the average of the five preceding years. The steamboat business, it would appear from these figures, pretty well holds its own.

The arrivals of 1899 included 25 boats from New Orleans, 61 from Pittsburgh and Wheeling, and 1600 from other points ; the departures embraced 19 for New Orleans, 66 for Pittsburgh and Wheeling, and 1,527 for other points.

The statement of receipts and shipments by river at this city shows large transportation of fruits, dried and green, and produce, wheat, coffee, sugar and staple groceries, provisions, cattle, cotton, glass and glassware, hardware, leather, oils, salt, soap, tobacco (both leaf and manufactured, more especially the former), whiskey and liquors, lumber and coal, the two last named items by tow or barge.

One of the most striking features of the transition in the river trade is the development of the towing business. By this method the bulk of some 16,620,000 square feet of lumber was received here and 15,225,000 shipped during 1899. The river arrivals of coal represent about 4,000 barges a year. Of 78,791,528 bushels of coal received here in 1899, 52,- 356,278 came by water, and this amount would have been greater but for low stages of water. The shipments of that commodity by river were nearly ten times those by rail the same year.

Rafts of timber in hundreds and coal "harbors" now extend over a vast acreage above, below and at the city. The water-front of the busi ness quarter is now mainly taken up with coal landings and elevators. This branch of the river business grows apace, and tows of extraordinary proportions are carried down stream. Herein—in the quality carried—lies the advantage the tow lines have in competition with rail. The passenger business by river is mainly for short distances, but the summer excursion flourishes, and there is considerable tourist patronage. The Ohio is a river of many scenic attractions, and the boat service, both up and down stream, is cheap as well as good.

The 1925 Government Report —This shows the latest official report for Ohio River freight tonnage at Cincinnati port copied from records Tonnage of freight handled on the Ohio River during the calendar year 1925, is given in the following table together with corresponding figures for the year 1924:

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The recorded increase in tonnage of fifty per cent does not represent an actual increase of that amount, but is partly due to a change in the method of collecting statistics. A large part of the increase is in sand and gravel which does not move out of the pool in which it is dredged.

Attention is called to the increase of more than 1,000,000 tons in the movement of coal and coke and to the very large increase in the movement of oil and gasoline.

The Ohio Valley Improvement Association in 1924-25 furnished a majority of the subjoined facts which are significant : The commerce on the Ohio River for 1924 exceeded 10,800,000 tons of cargo valued at $128,000,000. This included almost one hundred articles, the saving in transportation over and above what railroads charged was twenty per cent. The Ohio River, with the new lock and dam system between Pittsburgh and Louisville, now completed, furnishes merely a nine-foot channel for 600 miles, but vast will be the change when the river becomes a great river-canal as far as Cairo, when there is to be fifty locks and dams. Now there are only lacking eight of such dams and locks. When the Congress at Washington appropriates sufficient funds to complete this work commerce on the waters will take a new action.

In 1924 the grand total of up and down stream commerce on the Ohio River was 10,866,682 tons ; the value of this vast freight was $128,356,018. The slogan of the Ohio Valley Improvement Association, with W. C. Culkins as its worthy secretary, is "On to Cairo by 1929."

The present officers of the Ohio Valley Improvement Association are : Oscar F. Barrett, president ; W. C. Culkins, secretary ; George Puchta, treasurer.

The following paragraph is self-explanatory : "The total cargo shipped by the Ohio River in 1923 was 8,280,000 tons, which would have required 1,771 railroad trains, each consisting of 85 cars, carrying a net tonnage of 55 tons of bulk freight per car. Thus 150,555 freight cars were released to the railroads for other service.

In 1925 the approximate tonnage on the Ohio River was 16,000,000 tons.

There are also a number of interurban electric railways connecting the city with neighboring towns and cities. Chief among these are the

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Interurban Railway & Terminal Company, operating Cincinnati and Eastern Division to New Richmond, Suburban Traction Division to Bethel and Rapid Railway Division to South Lebanon ; Cincinnati, Georgetown & Portsmouth, to Georgetown ; Cincinnati, Dayton & Toledo; Mill Creek Valley Street Railway ; Cincinnati, Lawrenceburg & Aurora and the newly opened line to Milford.

The Cincinnati Traction Company operates about forty miles of electric street cars. The South Covington & Cincinnati Street Railway Company operates three divisions into Kentucky.

Historian Greve, concerning the first steam roads to enter Cincinnati, wrote as follows :

The most noteworthy event in the city life of 1846 was the opening of the first railroad, the Little Miami, to Springfield, an event that almost paralleled in importance the opening of the Miami Canal two decades before.

By 1841, thirty-five miles of the road had been graded and more under contract. The iron rails for fifteen miles had been bought and the locomotives to run on the road procured. Thirty miles of the road was opened to public traffic in 1843. At this time the rolling stock consisted of one eight-wheeled locomotive, two passenger coaches and eight freight cars, all of which had been built in Cincinnati. So primitive were the ideas of the day that it is said that a locomotive was not allowed to enter the city for fear the sparks might set fire to the houses and the cars were drawn into town by mules. On the 17th of July, 1844, the road was opened to Xenia, 68 miles, and the first train over the completed road to Springfield went through August 10, 1846. There had been expended by this time, in the construction of the road, the sum of $1,232,000 although the property of the road had to be assigned to trustees before reaching Springfield. A dividend on its capital stock had been declared in 1845. Dividends averaging ten per cent per annum were paid regularly until the time of its lease, in 187o, to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. Its dividends, of course, were not so large at first and the stock did not reach par until 1852, but it finally went to 125 before falling. Its bonded indebtedness was incurred for the purpose of rebuilding and the money raised—one and a half million dollars—was put into the road. The convertible bonds were turned into stock. The strap rail of the early road was very soon displaced by rails of more modern character and the road has been the subject of constant improvement up to the present time. It is now regarded as one of the best constructed roads in the world. The Sandusky connection was completed in 1848, giving Cincinnati the first communication with the coast by water and rail. The same year connection for Columbus was made at Xenia by the Columbus and Xenia road over which the first passenger train traveled February 20, 1850.

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A City-Owned Railroad—The Cincinnati & Southern Railway —It may not be generally known that Cincinnati owns a long line of steam railroad of its own. The facts concerning this enterprise were given clearly in a recent history of the Miami Valley, parts of which here follow :

The pet project of the Cincinnatians was the construction of the Cincinnati & Southern Railroad between this city and Chattanooga. As has been noted, this road was seen in the light of all its advantages for many years before it was finally started. Then when a beginning was finally made on this city owned road the State of Kentucky, fearing that Louisville would suffer, placed so many hindrances in the way of its construction, that the patience of the merchants of the city was well nigh exhausted and their diplomacy at an end. Finally, however, much was done to remedy the defects in the charter, and work was commenced in earnest. Two years later the contracts for three-quarters of the construction were awarded at advantageous prices, and the first train made a journey from Cincinnati to Chattanooga over the road in the year 1880.

The construction of railroads was considerably checked in 1874 and 1875 by the financial panic and suspension of the banks in the first mentioned year, and the consequent retrenchment in the next commercial year caused a rather undue caution in expenditures, and for a short time dampened the ardor of railroad promoters. This retardation was short-lived, however, and soon new roads were in process of construction with all the ardor and speed which had at first characterized the business. It was necessary to the interests of these budding enterprises that the maximum amount of freight possible should be carried by them, but it was at the same time vital that the freight rates should be high enough to insure the profits that were at first so important to the business. Therefore, while some leading railway men may have thought it was to the interests of the railroads to lower the freight rates sufficiently to crowd out river transportation, they could not at this early date force the issue with the steamboats in a rate war. First, the railroads must gather strength for a long and sustained siege of almost no profit which would come with the attempt to cripple river trade. This resulted about 188o in almost a complete lack of rate competition, and created a good deal of discontent among shippers, who were of the opinion that instead of competition becoming neutralized, the water and rail transportation should hold mutual checks upon each other. Advanced railroad men now admit that the destruction of river traffic by rate cutting was an economic blunder.

Had it not been for the Civil War this road would have been built very much earlier. The length of the road is 339 miles and it is still owned and successfully operated by the city of Cincinnati. It is now working under a lease with the Southern Railway Company. The cost

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of the line was in excess of thirty million dollars. The present fair estimate placed on this property is fixed in 1926 at $85,000,000. Cincinnati owns the only municipally owned railroad line in the world. Having given this much of an introduction to a very rare, unique railway system, the reader is now given a better account as it comes from official railway sources, particularly from reports made by the oldest executive of the corporation, Mr. Washington T. Porter, trustee, attorney, and historian, from whose writings and records we are permitted to quote the following:

The Cincinnati Southern Railway, extending from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Chattanooga, Tennessee, a distance of 335 miles, is the property of the city of Cincinnati. It was built by the "Trustees of the Cincinnati Southern Railway," under legislation of the States of Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. The original act, known as the "Ferguson act," passed by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, May 4, 1869 (66 O. L. 8o), provided :

Section I. "That whenever, in any city of the first class having a population exceeding 150,000 inhabitants, the city council thereof shall, by a resolution passed by a majority of the members elected thereto, declare it to be essential to the interest of such city that a line of railway, to be named in said resolution shall be provided between terminals designated therein, one of which shall be such city, it shall be lawful for a board of trustees appointed as herein provided, and they are hereby authorized to borrow as a fund for that purpose, not to exceed the sum of ten millions of dollars, and to issue bonds therefor in the name of said city, bearing interest at the rate not to exceed seven and three-tenths per centum per annum, payable at such times and places, and in such sums as shall be deemed best by said board.

"Said bonds shall be signed by the president of said board, and attested by the city auditor, who shall keep a register of the same, and shall be secured by a mortgage on the line of railway, and its net income, and by the pledge of the faith of the city, and a tax, which it shall be the duty of the council thereof annually to levy, sufficient, with said net income, to pay the interest and provide a sinking fund for the final redemption of said bonds ; provided that no money shall be borrowed or bonds issued until after the question of providing the line of railway specified in the resolution shall be submitted to a vote of the qualified electors of said city, at a specified election to be ordered by the city council thereof, of which not less than twenty days notice shall be given in the daily papers of the city ; and further provided, that a majority of said electors, voting at such election, shall decide in favor of said line of railway. The returns of said election shall be made to the city clerk, and be by him laid before the city council, who shall declare the result by a resolution. The bonds issued under the authority of this section shall not be disposed of for less than their par value.

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Section 2. "If a majority of the votes cast at said election shall be in favor of providing the line of railway, as specified in the first section, it shall be the duty of the solicitor forthwith to file a petition in the Superior Court of said city, or if there be no Superior Court, then in the Courts of Common Pleas of the county in which said city is situated, praying that the judges thereof will appoint five trustees, to be called the trustees of _____ railway, (the blank to be filled with the name given to the railway in the resolution), and it shall be the duty of said judges to make the appointment, and to enter the same on the minutes of the court. They shall enter into bond to the city in such sum as the court may direct, with one or more sufficient sureties, to be approved by the court, conditioned for the faithful discharge of their duties. The bond so taken shall be deposited with the treasurer of the corporation for safe keeping".

The council of the city of Cincinnati on June 4, 1869, passed the following resolution :

"Resolved, that the said City Council' hereby declares it to be essential to the interests of the said city of Cincinnati that a line of railway to be named 'The Cincinnati Southern Railway' shall be provided between said city of Cincinnati and the city of Chattanooga in the State of Tennessee."

A special election was called for Saturday, June 26, 1869, at which the question of providing said line of railway was submitted to a vote of the qualified electors of said city.

The vote at the election resulted 15,435 ballots for, to 1,500 against providing said line of railway. The result was declared by the council and thereupon the city solicitor filed in the Superior Court of Cincinnati in cause No. 24749, on June 30, 1869, a petition reciting the above stated facts, and praying for the appointment of five trustees to be called the trustees of the Cincinnati Southern Railway with all the powers given in the above recited act. On said June 30, 1869, the court appointed Richard M. Bishop, Edward A. Ferguson, Miles Greenwood, Philip Heidelbach and William Hooper trustees of the railway. At that time the court consisted of Hons. Bellamy Storer, Alphonso Taft and Marcellus B. Hagans. The appointees gave bond in $100,000 each.

It is to be noted in connection with the favorable vote to provide the line of railway, thus incurring an indebtedness for a bond issue of ten millions of dollars which eventually reached $18,300,000, that the population of the city was but 218,900 as shown by the ceusus of 1870, and that the taxable value of the property within the city limits was only $175,- 084,296, of which $119,621,886 was real estate and $55,462,410 was personalty.

The bonded indebtedness of the city was $6,101,500. Of this $1,025,000 was on account of water bonds from which water works there was a gross income of $610,960 annually, thus being self supporting. The balance of the bonded debt had been expended in hospitals, schools, infirmaries, etc.

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Construction of Railway —Under the act of the General Assembly of Ohio, passed March 25, 1870, the council of the city was authorized to advance to said trustees out of any fund of said city such sum as might be necessary, not exceeding fifty thousand dollars, for carrying the object for which they were appointed into effect, the fund to be repaid out of the trust fund provided for in said original act when raised.

On April 2, 1870, the city council passed an ordinance advancing the sum of fifty thousand dollars. This was followed by the filing in the Superior Court of Cincinnati, on the 12th of April, 1870, by J. Bryant Walker, city solicitor, of an action to test the constitutionality of the act of May 4, 1869, providing for the building of the railway, and the supplemental act providing for the advancing of the funds by council. The Superior Court held the acts constitutional (I Sup. Ct. Rep. 121) which decision was affirmed by the Supreme Court of the State (21 O. S. 4). It being necessary to secure authority to extend the railway through Kentucky and Tennessee, application was made to those States therefor. The State of Tennessee readily gave consent by act of January 20, 1870, but it was not until the third application had been made that the commonwealth of Kentucky granted authority on February 13, 1872. In the enabling act of each State the power of Eminent Domain is conferred upon the trustees. Seven hundred thousand dollars of the original ten million dollars of bonds were issued at seven per cent, the remaining nine million three hundred thousand dollars at seven and three-tenths per cent dated July 1, 1872. They ran for thirty years.

The construction of the railway was begun at Kings Mountain in Lincoln County, Kentucky, on December 23, 1873. Finding that the ten million dollar issue would not build the railway, authority was granted to the trustees by the General Assembly under the supplemental act passed February 24, 1876 (73 V. 13) to borrow six millions of dollars additional and issue bonds of the city therefor, dependent upon a favorable vote. An election was held March 4, 1876, resulting for the issue, 21,433, against 9,323.

These bonds were issued May 1, 1876, $3,200,000 at six per cent gold, $2,800,000 at seven and three-tenths per cent payable in thirty years, and the construction proceeded. The road not being completed, authority was granted by the General Assembly under the act of April 18, 1878, (75 V. 115) to the trustees to borrow $2,000,000 additional and issue bonds therefor, subject to an election. At the election held May 3, 1878, the issue failed, the vote resulting yeas 11,179, nays 11,349. Fortunately the General Assembly was still in session and another act was passed May 15, 1878, authorizing an issue of the same sum, dependent however upon the making of a contract to complete the railway to Boyce Station, a point within five miles of Chattanooga, from which point Chattanooga could be reached by the use of the Western and Atlantic Railway. Such

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a tentative contract was made with R. G. Huston & Company and thereupon the question of the issue was submitted to the electors. The vote at the election held August 4, 1878, resulted : for the issue 16,224, against 10,424.

An action was brought in the Superior Court to enjoin the issue but it failed (Thorns case, 7 A. L. R., 320; affirmed, without report). Thus a total of $18,000,000 of bonds of the city of Cincinnati was authorized and issued for the construction of the railway. In 1880, $300,000 of bonds were authorized and issued for terminals.

Operation of Railway—the Lease—Rental —During the construction, the railway was operated under two determinable licenses, first, to The Cincinnati Southern Railway Company under date of July 3, 1877, the first train passing over the road on July 23, 1877, and second, by the Cincinnati Railroad Company under date of May 19, 1879.

On October 12, 1881, the completed line, 335 miles long, was leased to The Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway Company, the present lessee, a corporation of Ohio organized under the Common Carrier Act of April 12, 1877 (74 V. 84), for a term of twenty-five years, at a rental of $800,000 for the first five years, $900,000 for the second, $1,000,000 for the third, $1,090,000 for the fourth and $1,250,000 for the last period of five years.

On March 18, 1893, on account of the overissue of stock by the secretary of the lessee company, the road was thrown into the hands of a receiver by an action in the United States Circuit Court for the Southern District of Ohio.

The road continued in the hands of the receiver until October 1, 1899, when, the debts which occasioned the receivership being paid and satisfied, the property was restored to the lessee company.

It became imperatively necessary in 1896, during the receivership, to renew and replace certain bridges upon the line of railway. The receiver made the claim that he was entitled to withhold the cost of such bridge replacements from the rent due under the lease, and thus charge the city with the cost. Under clause five of the lease, the lessee was obligated. "whenever needed, to do all repairs, replacements and renewals on the line of railway, arch the tunnels, fill the trestles and replace all wooden bridges and trestles-works with permanent structures of stone and iron."

In addition to said rental the lessee is obliged to pay $12,000 to cover the expenses of the trustees in conducting said trust, and all taxes, assignments, duties, imposts and charges whatsoever that might be levied, assessed or imposed during said term by any government or lawful authority whatsoever upon said leased premises or any possible earnings or income of the same, or by reason of the ownership thereof.

The usual mortgage of the leasehold interest and all rights therein of the lease and the entire equipment, present and future, used in the

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operation of the railway was made by the lessee company to the trustees to secure the payment of the rent and the performance of the terms, conditions and obligations of the lease on its part.

At the time of the construction of the railway, the gauge of the railroads of the South was five feet. In July of 1885 it was determined by the Southern railroads to change their gauge to the standard Northern gauge of four feet, eight and one-half inches. In accordance with the determination, the gauge of the railway which had been five feet, was changed to the standard gauge on May 30, 1886. The whole change was completed in thirteen hours at a cost of $54,403.99. This included the expenditure both on track and rolling stock.

In 1896 an attempt was made to sell the railway—really, the attempt was to buy the road. The proposition was submitted to the vote of the electors and failed, following which, in 1898, by act of April 23, (93 V. 637) legislation was secured under which, on June 7, 1902, the lease was modified and extended until October 12, 1966, the rental for the first twenty years to be $1,050,000 for the second $1,100,000 and for the last period of twenty years $1,200,000. The power of sale under previous acts was repealed by the extension act.

At the time of the extension, there remained of the original term, four years, the rental of which was so modified that the sum of $200,000 thereof per annum was extended and made payable at the rate of $40,000 per annum with three per cent interest on the remaining deferred payment until fully paid.

Terminal Facilities —The legislation, under which the lease was extended, also provided for the issuance of $2,500,000 of bonds of the city by the trustees of the railroad for terminal facilities and permanent betterments, upon the lessee agreeing to pay an additional rental equal to the annual interest thereon and one per cent per annum for a sinking fund for the final redemption of the bonds. Under this method the lessee complies with its obligations to make all improvements, renewals and replacements. The lessee so agreed and the bonds were issued at 3.5 per cent and with the proceeds the Northwestern Terminals at Western Avenue and Bank Street, and the Central Terminals on Front Street from Vine to Plum, occupying six blocks of land, were provided and the viaduct to connect the latter with the main line at Eighth Street and McLean Avenue constructed.

The said terminals not being completed, additional authority was secured from the General Assembly of Ohio, by an act passed May 17, 1911, under which act and pursuant to like contract as to the payment of additional rent executed by the lessee, the trustees borrowed $400,000 of the $500,000 therein authorized and expended same in completing the terminals undertaken under the act of 1898 aforesaid.

At the suggestion of the president, Mr. Harrison, of the lessee com-

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pany, the present splendid double-track bridge over the Ohio River was constructed at a cost of about $2,500,000 This move was sanctioned by the General Assembly April 6, 1915, and the bonds of the city were accordingly issued.

In the aggregate, bonds to the amount of $6,400,000 have been issued by the trustees for the terminal facilities and permanent betterments, the payments of which are provided for by the additional rental paid by the lessee company.

Income —At the present time, therefore, the city is receiving annually as current rental, $1,050,000; $40,000 on account of the deferred rental under the original lease, with interest at three per cent on the remaining deferred rental ; a sum equal to the annual interest charge upon the $6,400,000 terminal and betterment bonds, and one per cent thereon for sinking fund for final redemption thereof.

All net earnings and income from the railway are, under the act of April 25, 1898 (93 V. 637) paid into the treasury of the city to the credit of the general interest fund of the city.

The terminal facilities and permanent betterment bonds, while they are the direct obligations of the city, are further secured by an additional rental upon the railway for the payment of the annual interest thereon and the creation of a sinking fund for their final redemption. The city makes no tax levy for the terminal or betterment bonds.

The total amount of outstanding bonds, chargeable to construction, is but $4,932,000. The annual interest upon these bonds amounts to $535,255.

The sinking fund trustees make an annual levy for the sinking fund of said construction bonds.

The city received in 1922:

The city never lost a dollar of rental from the day the road was opened for traffic.

Cincinnati Terminal Warehouse —This warehouse is a proud achievement—and in the opinion of experts is the most up-to-date and the latest word in warehouse construction and appointment. This is saying much, but not more than justified, when it is taken into consideration that the house trackage accommodates thirty-eight cars; that the cold storage capacity is 1,000,000 cubic feet; the dry storage capacity 6,000,

696 - GREATER CINCINNATI AND ITS PEOPLE

000 cubic feet; and that the warehouse will be accessible to every railroad and freight transportation line within the city, including the Ohio River and its traffic.

Practically every modern method and appliance for receiving, storing and discharging all forms of goods and merchandise are found at this great plant, guaranteeing to storage patrons safety, expedition, and economy.

In structural composition and detachment from extraordinary exposures, the building is singularly immune from fire and other hazards. Insurance rates are exceptionally low. Insurance men are enthusiastic, and warehouse executives and patrons, universally, assert it to be the best storehouse in America.

Within the building are found abundant offices, of varying area, suitable for the use of storage patrons. Many of these are under lease.

CHAPTER XLIV.

MUNICIPAL GROWTH OF CINCINNATI.

By Frank Holmes Shaffer.

The first adventurers settled in Cincinnati in the latter part of December, 1788. The party consisted of twenty-eight men. The survey and plat of the settlement extended from the river on the south to Seventh Street, then called Northern Row, and from Broadway (Eastern Row) to Central Avenue (Western Row), divided into lots approximately one hundred front and two hundred feet deep ; the outlots of four acres each extended beyond Northern Row to what is now called Liberty Street. Selected by lottery, donation lots were conveyed to the settlers upon condition of their raising two crops successively and building within two years a house equal to twenty-five feet square on the front part of their lots.

At that time Fort Washington, located east of Broadway and south of Third Street, was in course of construction under General Harmar. This fort was finally demolished in 1808.

In 1790 General St. Clair, Governor of the territory north of the Ohio River, arrived in Cincinnati to organize the county of Hamilton. Cincinnati Township was created by the Court of Quarterly Sessions in 1791. Its officers were a township clerk, a constable, overseers of the poor and overseers of highways. Until 1802 the civil affairs of Cincinnati were administered by the township organization. Upon January of that year the town of Cincinnati received its first charter from the General Assembly of the territory northwest of the Ohio River. On the same day a charter was given to the town of Detroit. At the same session of the General Assembly the seat of government of the Northwest Territory was removed from Chillicothe to Cincinnati.

By this first charter the inhabitants of the town of Cincinnati who were freeholders or householders paying rent to the amount of $36 a year had the privilege of voting for the officers of the town. These officers consisted of a president, a recorder, seven trustees, an assessor, a collector, and a town marshal. The president, recorder, and the trustees constituted the Select Council with legislative powers. These powers were to make and publish such laws as should seem necessary and proper for the health, safety, cleanliness, and good government of said town and the inhabitants thereof ; to appoint a treasurer, administer oaths, and impose reasonable penalties upon those who offended against the laws and ordinances of the town ; to levy taxes.

The act incorporating the town also appointed as its first officers, David Ziegler, an officer in the army, as president, and Jacob Burnet as

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recorder, and seven trustees to serve until their successors were elected and sworn into office. No special provision for public schools was included in the charter. The first ordinance of a general nature passed by the Select Council on March 5, 1802, was one imposing a penalty of twelve and one-half cents upon any householder who allowed an obstruction to remain on any of the public streets for twenty-four hours. Persons building houses were allowed special permits to obstruct streets for a reasonable length of time. In 1802 the population of Cincinnati probably did not exceed 1,000 inhabitants.

By an act passed February 5, 1819, Cincinnati became a city, with a City Council composed of the president, recorder and the trustees. The mayor was deprived of his legislative function ; the recorder could not exercise any judicial function. A city court was created c0nsisting of the mayor and three aldermen selected by the City Council. The court was directed to appoint a clerk and prosecutor to serve for two years, removable at any time for breach of good conduct. The City Council was authorized to levy an assessment upon any square or section of the city on petition of not less than two-thirds of the owners thereof for the improvement of the streets, lanes, and alleys bounding or within the same. All laws and ordinances then in force should remain in full force until altered or repealed by the City Council.

Apparently suffrage was still dependent on the property qualification provided in the original charter of the town of Cincinnati.

Upon January 21, 1821, a law was passed providing that members of the City Council should be elected annually and to represent their respective wards.

When Cincinnati became a city in 1819 its population was less than 9,500.

In 1826 a privately owned water works company for Cincinnati was incorporated by special act. By a special act, passed in 1834, the city was authorized to purchase this company, and to issue bonds for the purpose. By a special act passed in the same year the city was required to levy taxes and provide for the support of the public schools. Permission was also given to have two branches of the City Council in which case ordinances were required to be passed by both branches.

Until the Constitution of 1851 went into effect all laws relating to municipalities in Ohio were special laws.

The Constitution of 1851 of Ohio forbids the conferring of corporate powers by special act. To avoid the effect of this provision of the constitution a system of classification of municipal corporations according to population was established by the Legislature and was extended to such an extent that in 1902 cities were divided into cities of the first class (Cincinnati), cities of the first class, second grade (Cleveland), cities of the second class, first, second, third, and fourth grades. Even villages were classified according to population.

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In 1902 the Supreme Court held such classification unconstitutional as in effect granting corporate power by special act. In the same year the Legislature abandoned classification and divided municipal corporations into two classes, cities and villages. All municipalities having more than 5,000 inhabitants remained cities ; those having less than 5,000 inhabitants became or remained villages.

The amendments to the Constitution which went into effect January 1, 1913, authorized cities to adopt special charters, and in this manner secure a certain amount of home rule free from interference by the Legislature. In 1917 Cincinnati adopted a special charter which went into effect upon January 1, 1918. One of its provisions retained a large council consisting of two councilmen from each ward and five councilmen-at-large.

The unwieldiness and extravagance of a large council and the difficulty of fixing responsibility for municipal action under the provisions of the charter, suggested to the people of Cincinnati a further amendment.

In 1924 an amendment of the charter was adopted, which provided for proportional representation, a small council elected at large and a business manager. This amendment went into effect upon January I, 1926. The first mayor elected thereafter was Mr. Murray Seasongood, by whose suggestion and influence in a large measure the amendment was prepared, submitted to and adopted by the citizens of Cincinnati.

A single page could contain all the powers and, restrictions granted and provided for in the first charter of the city. A thousand pages would not be sufficient for the same purpose at the present time.

Cincinnati in 1820 had no parks or park system. It had a small commons or public pasture on the river landing. It had no public free schools. No water works. No gas works. About this time John James Audubon, the ornithologist, was shooting quail in the outlying streets of Cincinnati. The conditions of the city were primitive, and its public needs simple. Other frontier cities were not better equipped for public service. But increasing wealth and increasing population gradually demanded and received the service which now seems to us natural and necessary. A great water works system with an unlimited supply of healthful, filtered water, and a consequent disappearance of typhoid fever. A fine lighting system supplying not only gas but also electricity for lighting and power. A remarkable telephone and telegraph system, connecting us with almost the entire world. A municipally owned steam railroad which crosses two neighboring States and brings to our doors the wealth of the South. This latter was the triumph of one man's vision and persevering efforts against almost insurmountable legal odds, Mr. A. E. Ferguson. A great municipal university whose benign influence is unsurpassed and whose reputation is almost worldwide. Much