(RETURN TO THE TITLE PAGE) 200 - HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO. Governor Tod took some time to examine the case, and on the first of August responded : I find the facts substantially as follows: a private citizen of New Lisbon, by the name of Brubeck, went out with some fifteen or sixteen others to meet your forces, in advance of an organized military body from the same 'place, under the command of Captain Curry. Said Brubeck is not, and never was, a militia officer in the service of this State. He was captured by you, and travelled with you some distance before your surrender. Upon his discovering the regular military forces of the United States to be in your advance in line of battle, you surrendered to said Brubeck, then your prisoner. Whether you supposed him to be a captain in the militia service or not, is entirely immaterial. The officers of Morgan's command—not so much, perhaps, because of the lack of other secure accommodations, as through a desire to gratify the popular feeling that they be treated rather as h0rse-thieves than as soldiers, and with a wish also to retaliate in kind for the close confinement to which the officers of Colonel Streight's raiding party were then subjected to in rebel prisons—were immured in the cells of the Ohio penitentiary. They afterwards made bitter complaints of this indignity, as well as of the treatment there received, thereby only illustrating the different feelings with which men regard Andersonvilles and Salisburies from those with which they themselves regard from the inside places much less objectionable. After some months of confinement, Morgan himself and six other prisoners made their escape, on the night of the twenty-seventh of November, by cutting through the floors of their cells with knives carried off from the prison table, till they reached the air-chamber below; tunneling from that under the walls of the building into the outer yard, and climbing the wall that surrounds the grounds by the aid of ropes made from their bed-clothes. The State authorities were very much mortified at the escape, and ordered an investigation. It was thus disclosed that the neglect which enabled the prisoners to prosecute the tedious task of cutting through the stone floors undiscovered had its origin in the coarse-minded suggestion of one of the directors of the penitentiary that the daily sweeping of the cells be omited, and the "d—d rebles made sweep out their own cells." This poor effort to treat the prisoners of war worse than he treated the convicts enabled them to cover up their work and conceal it from any inspection of cells that was made. It was officially reported that misunderstandings between the military authorities at Columbus and the civil authorities of the penitentiary led to the escape. Morgan quietly took the Little Miami train for Cincinnati on the night of his escape, leaped off it a little outside the city, made his way across the river, and was straightway concealed and forwarded toward the confederate lines by his Kentucky friends. He lived to lead one more raid into the heart of his favorite "Blue Grass," to witness the decline of his popularity, to be harassed by officers in Richmond who did not understand him and by difficulties in his command, and finally to fall while fleeing through a kitchen garden in a morning skirmish in an obscure little village in East Tennessee. He left a name second only to those of Forest and Stuart among the cavalry men of the confederacy, and a character which, amid much to be condemned, was not without traces of a noble nature. Of the fifty thousand militia stated in round numbers as the total number taking the field in this State during the Morgan raid, Hamilton county was reported by the adjutant general to have furnished fifteen companies, with an agregate of one thousand, four hundred and sixty-one men on duty, to whom were paid by the State the sum of eight thousand and one dollars. The military committees of the different counties through which Morgan passed, including Hamilton county, were called on by the governor to furnish full statements of the losses, both public and private, from the raid, and the names of the sufferers. In 1864 the legislature ordered the appointment of a board of commissioners to pass upon these claimes.— Messrs., Albert McVeigh, George W. Barker, and Henry S. Babbitt were appointed, passed over the track of Morgan, and had public hearings for the examination of claims. In Hamilton county four hundred and thirty-six claims were presented—for damages done by the rebels, sixty-two thousand six hundred and twenty-two dollars and thirty-seven cents; for damages by Union forces commanded by Federal officers, twenty-five thousand two hundred and twenty-three dollars and fourteen cents; for damages by Union forces not under such command, one hundred and twenty-seven dollars and fifty cents;—total sum claimed, eighty-seven thousand, nine hundred and seventy-three dollars, and one cent. The commission allowed—for rebel damage, fifty-three th0usand, six hundred and forty-six dollars; damage by Union troops commanded by United States officers, twenty thousand, five hundred and twenty-nine dollars; damage by Union troops not so commanded, one hundred dollars; —total allowed, seventy-four thousand, two hundred and seventy-five dollars. Property to the amount of four thousand four hundred and forty-five dollars taken from Hamilton county was traced into possession of the Federal forces, and was duly accounted and paid for. The total expense of the raid to the State as estimated by the governor, inclusive of the pay proper of the militia, but exclusive of the heavy expense of subsisting and transporting them, was eight hundred and ninety-seven thousand dollars. CHAPTER XIII. THE COUNTY INSTITUTIONS. "In faith and hope the world will disagree, But all mankind 's concerned in charity ; All must be false that thwart this one great end, And all of God that bless mankind or mend." ALEXANDER POPE, "Essay on Man." THE LONGVIEW ASYLUM. For many years an embarrassing and increasing number of incurable lunatics had been confined in the old Commercial hospital in Cincinnati. By midsummer of 1853, one hundred and forty-seven inmates were confined in the lunatic department of that institution, and HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO - 201 it was considered injudicious and even dangerous to receive any more. A communication setting forth these facts was made by the board of directors of the city infirmary to the board of ' commissioners for Hamilton county, and on the twenty-fourth of August, of the same year, the commissioners appointed Messrs. J. J. Quinn, David Judkins, and A. S. Dandridge, all M. D.'s, as a committee of examination and report upon the condition.. and demands of the unfortunates. These gentlemen did prompt, faithful and intelligent duty, and soon reported ably and at length, setting forth the absolute necessity of further provision for the insane of Cincinnati and Hamilton county. They were then authorized to ascertain where a temporary asylum could be located; and their next report recommended the lease of the mansion and grounds of Mr. Ames, on Lick run, near the city, at eight hundred dollars per year. The report was accepted by the commissioners, and September 1, 1853, only three weeks and two days after the original complaint of the infirmary directors was made, the arrangement with Mr. Ames was effected and a commencement made of preparations for the reception of lunatic patients in his building. On the third of the following October, Dr. Quinn, of the committee, was appointed superintendent of the new asylum. The better conditions of situation, living, attendance, etc., greatly ameliorated the physical and mental state of the afflicted ones, and the reputation of the new asylum soon brought large additions to its numbers, two hundred and ninety-six patients, or more than double the number before mentioned as confined in the old Commercial hospital at the time of the change, being inmates at the period of their removal to the institution at Carthage in the spring of 1860. -During the time (nearly seven years) the Lick Run asylum was maintained, its cost to the county was but one hundred and eighty thousand, four hundred and eighty-three dollars and seventy-seven cents, or an average of about twenty-six thousand dollars a year. This includes the expense of refitting and furnishing it at the beginning of its occupation, and at the close putting it again in order for its owner's, as a residence. Preparations were not long delayed for the construction of a more permanent retreat for the insane of the county. The Lick Run asylum had scarcely been secured, and the lunatic patients transferred from the Commercial hospital, when the board of commissioners moved for the erection of a more spacious and permanent institution. On the twenty-fifth of October, 1853, they ordered advertisement to be made "to the proprietors of lands in Hamilton county," that they desired to "purchase an entire tract of land of fifty or sixty acres within twelve miles of the city of Cincinnati, for the purpose of a county poor house and lunatic asylum. Sealed proposals of the terms of sale, with a correct surveyed description of said tracts of land, with its natural and artificial advantages, will be received from proprietors until the eighth day of November, 1853, at the auditor's office." Many land owners in various parts of the county sent in offers of sale by way of response, and on the eighteenth day of January ensuing, after full and impartial examination of the several properties and sites offered, the board of county commissioners determined upon the purchase, from several land owners in Mill Creek township, near Carthage, of one hundred and nine-tenths acres, at rates varying from two hundred dollars to five hundred dollars per acre. The next year, March 19, 1855, the largest and most eligible of these lots, one of thirty-eight acres, bought of R. W. Lee and James Wilson, for five hundred dollars per acre, was formally set aside for the purposes of the asylum, leaving the remainder to the county infirmary. This was done, in the words of the order, "that the purchase of the grounds and the erection of a lunatic asylum sufficiently large to accommodate the wants of said county, may be separate and distinct from the county infirmary, and for that purpose we make the above order." Meanwhile plans and specifications had been procured for an asylum building; Mr. Joseph Talbert had been appointed superintendent of the work, on behalf of the commissioners; the excavation of a cellar and basement had been commenced, and a considerable amount of work done. Thus far materials were purchased and labor paid, at the order of the commissioners, as the work went on, but presently, on the twenty-first of March, 1855, contracts were made for the erection of the asylum as follows: For the stone work, with Jesse Timanus; for the brick work, with John Hawkins; for the plumbing, with Messrs. Hugh McCollum & Company; and for the tin roofing and copper gutters, with William Dunn. The board was not unanimous in the award of these contracts, and the third member of it, Commissioner Ruiner, protested in writing against all the contracts, mainly on the ground that advertisement of their letting had not been made, and that none except the successful bidders had had the opportunity to make offers for the work. The matter was taken into the courts; and, a month or two afterwards, Judge Bellamy Storer, of the superior court of Cincinnati, rendered a decision holding that Jesse Timanus and others, contractors aforesaid, were not acting in compliance with law. The board of commissioners was therefore enjoined from proceeding with the work under these contracts. They were vacated, the work stopped, and the commissioners, under direction of the court pending future operations, placed it in a condition of safety against damage from weather and depredations. The sum of one hundred and two thousand six hundred and forty-nine dollars and eighty-seven cents had already been expended upon the building and grounds. Before proceeding to incur further expense, it was deemed advisable to submit the whole matter of the erection of a lunatic asylum at Carthage to the voters of the county for their decision. The vote was taken at the October election, 1856, and resulted in a majority for the asylum. The commissioners accordingly, on the twenty-third day of the next March, ordered the work to be recommenced and the foundation walls carried up to a level with the first floor. The construction of the remainder of the building was to be done under contract; and in July the board directed the county auditor to ad- 26 202 - HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO. vertise for proposals, and again, in September, the bids under the former advertisement having exceeded the appropriations made, he was directed to call for further proposals, but not for the construction of one wing of the asylum. Numerous bids were submitted accordingly, and on the fifth of October the board concluded a contract with Mr. Wesley M. Cameron for the completion of the asylum entire, with the exception of the north wing, according to plans and specifications, for the total sum of one hundred and forty-three thousand four hundred and thirty-six dollars and ninety-three cents; also for the delivery of three million brick, at six dollars and twenty-five cents per thousand, or an aggregate of eighteen thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars. An act had been passed by the legislature, at the session of 1856, to "authorize the commissioners of Hamilton county to sell certain real estate in said county, and to provide for the erection of a county infirmary and lunatic asylum therein." This act was amended March 8, 1858, enlarging the powers of the commissioners; and an issue of bonds was made in pursuance thereof, to the amount of one hundred thousand dollars. The securities were placed without difficulty— twenty-five thousand dollars at eight per cent. interest, and a like amount at nine per cent. in Cincinnati, at par; and fifty thousand dollars at eight per cent. and a premium of one-fourth of one per cent., in Philadelphia. The whole thus realized to the county one hundred thousand one hundred and twenty-five dollars. The county auditor was now authorized to advertise for proposals for the erection of the north wing and gas-house, and Mr. Cameron, in the face of many favorable bids, received the contract on his entire bid, as the lowest in the aggregate, for the sum of seventy-nine thousand four hundred and eighty-five dollars and thirty-one cents. The work proceeded rapidly and satisfactorily under his contracts, and in a little more than two years after the signing of the first obligation the whole was completed. November 25, 1859, Mr. Isaiah Rogers, architect of the asylum, gave the board of commissioners formal notice that Mr. Cameron had fulfilled his obligations. There was, however, still a great deal to be done upon out-buildings, water-works, and the grading and preparation of the grounds—much of which, indeed, was not effected until the building had been occupied arid was under the control of the directors of the asylum. To add to the delays and cost, the asylum building, on the twenty-first of May, 1860, shared in the destruction wrought by the tornado which swept through this region on that day, losing six roofs and sustaining serious damage to two others. Again an arrangement was made with Mr. Cameron, who speedily replaced the roofs. The entire expense of grounds and buildings, as provided for by the county commissioners, from 1854 to 1861, was five hundred and eighteen thousand six hundred and fifty-two dollars and twenty-five cents, of which two hundred and seventy-nine thousand six hundred and eighty-eight dollars and sixty-five cents were raised in the years 1855, 1858, 1859 and 1860, and the balance was received from the sale of bonds and other sources, including one hundred and forty thousand one hundred and fifty dollars in transfers from the county fund at various times. The house-furnishing complete, stock, and farm implements, in July, 1874, acc0rding to an inventory then taken, were valued at fifty-six thousand nine hundred and forty-four dollars and forty-eight cents. The entire cost of the asylum to November, 1877, was seven hundred and ninety-six thousand eight hundred and twenty-six dollars and twenty-three cents, including all out-buildings and the grounds belonging to the institution, which am0unt to about one hundred and twenty-five acres. An act was passed by the legislature May 13, 1868, which authorized the commissioners to procure additional lands for the use of the asylum, in accordance with which the board, at the request of the directors of Longview, retained the county infirmary farm of sixty-three acres, and passed twenty-five th0usand dollars from the asylum fund to the credit of the infirmary fund, in compensation therefor. There were also purchased the lands and lots south of Centre street and west of the canal, for twenty-four thousand and eighty dollars and fifty-five cents. The directors, in the course of their management, from the date of the organization of their board, July 13, 1859, to the ~rrd of .their fiscal year, November 1, 1877, also made many improvements on the grounds and buildings, putting in machinery and otherwise adding to its facilities and conveniences, to the amount of one hundred and thirty-two thousand two hundred and twenty-eight dollars and ninety-five cents. These, with the value of the house-furnishing, etc., as before stated, and the cost of maintenance and care of inmates during that period (one million six hundred and sixty-eight thousand and forty-one dollars and fifty-six cents), made their total expenditures, during a little more than eighteen years, one million eight hundred and eighty-two thousand and sixty-five dollars and fifty-four cents. There had been received to that time for State Central district patients (1869 to 1874, inclusive), $105,221.34; for colored patients from the State at large (1869 to 1877), $44,737.70; and for pay patients (after 1861) under a system introduced by a resolution of the directors March 5, 1860, authorizing their reception and fixing the rates for their accommodation, $138,687.36; and from sales of produce, etc., at Longview, $9,640.28. Taxes for the support of the asylum had been collected by the county to the amount of $608,729.43, ranging from $1,000 in 1877 to $81,439.98 in 1868. The amount of taxation for this purpose in some other years was very light, and during the years 1874, 1875, and 1876, none seems to have been collected. The State appropriation during the eighteen years amounted to $1,109,925.94. The total receipts of these years from all sources were $2,016,642.o5; the disbursements, as before given, $1,882,065.54. Two years thereafter the total sum expended had amounted to $2,063,026.26—$90,127.64 for 1878, and $100,836.68 for the next year. Before the act of April 28, 1873, the State paid as much for the support of Longview as was raised annually in the county by taxation for general appropriations to lunatic asylums in the State. After that act an apportionment of expenditures was made upon a basis of population. HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO - 203 The first board of directors of Longview asylum was appointed jointly by the governor of the State and the commissioners of the county, and consisted of Messrs. John L. Vattier, John Burgoyne, and T. F. Eckert. They were appointed in pursuance of an act of the legislature of April 5, 1859, and took the oath of office on the thirteenth of July following, when the hoard was organized by the election of Dr. Vattier, president, and Mr. W. I,. De Beck, secretary. November 10, 1859, the board appointed Dr. 0. M. Langdon, of Cincinnati, superintendent; B. C. Ludlow, M.D., assistant physician; Mr. R. '1'. Thorburn, steward, and Mrs. Mary A. Sharp, matron. The present officers of the asylum are: C. A. Miller, M.D., superintendent, succeeding Dr. W. H. Bunker in 1878; Drs. J. M. Ratliff and F. F. Hellmann, assistant physicians; A. V. Stewart, steward. The directors are: H. D. Peck, president; James F. Chalfant, secretary; A. J. Mullane, B. Roth, Dr. C. S. Muscroft. Liberal appropriations have been made by the State, as just indicated, for the support of Longview asylum. The smallest appropriation was made tie first year—seven thousand dollars; the largest in 1874—one hundred and eighty-three thousand eight hundred and eighty-four dollars and fifty-eight cents--these granted in pursuance of an act passed March J0, 1857, entitled "An act to constitute the county of Hamilton a separate district for lunatic asylum purposes, and to provide for the erection and government of an asylum therein," and of amendatory and supplementary acts subsequently passed. A joint resolution of the general assembly, November 25, 1868, provided for the support and care of patients sent to Longview from the central district of the State. The jurisdiction of the State and county authorities is thus concurrent, and during some part of its history has been harmoniously exercised, and for the best interests of the institution. The Secretary of the Board of State Charities, Dr. A. G. Byers, in his last published report, after some notice of the troubles brought upon the asylum through political "re-organization," says : "The present status of the institution is, so far as known, one of quiet and harmony. Recently, after a season of suspension, the trustees, who had so often and so openly denounced the superintendent as incapable, inefficient, and every way unfitted for such position, and who had been chiefly instrumental in bringing about the various and multitudinous investigati0ns, seem to have found out that after all they were mistaken, and so voted to reinstate and retain the superintendent in charge of the asylum." At the session of 1878 a joint committee of the senate and house of representatives was appointed by the general assembly, to confer with the authorities of Hamilton county, with reference to ascertaining "how and upon what terms the Longview asylum for lunatics can be acquired by or transferred to the State." This movement was prompted by the State board of charities, the members of which believed that all the insane of the State should be under the care of the State, by a uniform system applicable to all the asylums. A careful statement of the cost of Longview to the county was made by Mr. W. S. Cappeller, county auditor, and some negotiation was had looking toward the total transfer of the institution; but the desired result has not yet been accomplished. As we write these lines (Thanksgiving day, 1880), another and similar negotiation is in progress between the county authorities and a committee of the State legislature. The new asylum building began to be occupied by patients from the Lick Run asylum March 26, 1860, and the removals continued until May 3d, when two hundred and ninety-six had been transferred. The first patient consigned to the asylum by order of the probate court was received March 31st. May 9th of the same year, all patients in the State insane asylum at Dayton belonging to Hamilton county, were also transferred to Longview. At the close of the twentieth year of its history, in November, 1879, four thousand one hundred and thirty-one cases had been received and treated, of whom three thousand four hundred and forty-eight had been discharged—one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine males and one thousand six hundred and fifty-nine females—one thousand eight hundred and seventy reecovered, five hundred and ten improved, one hundred and eighty-two unimproved, twenty-three escaped, eight hundred and forty-one deceased, and twenty-two as not insane. Six hundred and sixty inmates were remaining —about two hundred more than the institution can properly accommodate; one hundred and seventy-eight were admitted during the last preceding year. Of the total number, all but fifteen—fourteen State colored patients and one pay patient—were dependent on Hamilton county. The number of inmates of the asylum pretty steadily increased from three hundred and thirty-three in 1860, when it was opened, to a daily average of six hundred and seventy-three in 1879. The average cost of maintenance of each patient has varied from one hundred and thirty-two dollars and six cents in 1862 to three hundred and twenty-five dollars and twenty-nine cents in 1867. In 1878 it was one hundred and thirty-six dollars and fifty-six cents; in 1879, one hundred and forty-nine dollars and eighty-three cents. In 1866 the "Avenue House," a portion of the purchase before mentioned as made south of Centre street, and west of the canal, was fitted up, as allowed by a State law, passed April 5, 1860, as an asylum for the reception of colored insane persons from the county. It has since been occupied for this purpose, with additional use, since the passage of an act of assembly April 3o, 1869, as an asylum for the colored insane of the State at large. The building is old and dilapidated, however, and the State board of charities urgently rec0mmend some better provision for the care of this class of the insane. They say: "There are no apparent grounds of complaint as to the management of this department of Longview or the general treatment of colored patients; but the building precludes the idea of general comfort, while it suggests many fears for the safety of the inmates." The number of patients in this branch of the institution has always been limited; it was only sixteen November 1, 204 - HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO. 1877, and two years afterwards the State colored patients therein numbered but fourteen, equally divided as to the sexes. There are about ninety officers and employes connected with the institution, which, with the patients, make about seven hundred and fifty to be accommodated in the present buildings. THE COUNTY INFIRMARY. The history of this institution, so far as the original purchase 0f grounds for it near Carthage is concerned, has already been given in the preceding account of the Longview asylum. In 187o the county commissioners, under the advice of the directors of the infirmary, purchased the property known as the "Green farm," in Mill Creek township, east of Carthage and north of the asylum. It occupies an elevation commanding a wide and pleasing view, taking in the fine scenery of the Mill Creek valley as far south as Spring Grove and Clifton, and extending northward to Hartwell, Wyoming, Lockland, Reading, and Glendale. The tract consists of one hundred and nineteen and thirty-eight-hundredths acres, and was obtained for four hundred dollars per acre. The present infirmary building was completed and opened for the reception of inmates, on the twentieth of February, 1873. It is three stories high, with a north wing for the male department, a south wing for the female and nursery departments, and a central or main building for offices, living rooms for the officers, the kitchen and bakery, dining rooms, etc. It is accounted a model building for the purpose in all its departments. The superstructure is of brick, faced with sandstone trimmings, roofed with slate, and well arranged on the pavilion and corridor system. The cost of the edifice was about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The farm is partly devoted to ornamental and playgrounds for children and the inmates, that part of it being well shaded with forest trees. Another part is utilized to advantage as a garden, and the remainder is kept in a high state of cultivation, and yields a considerable quantity of farm products. In 1879 twenty-four acres were planted with corn, twelve with rye, seven with potatoes, seven with oats, two with sweet potatoes, two with turnips, three with garden vegetables, and twenty acres were given to hay. Farm products, etc., were sold during the six months ending August 31st of that year, to the amount of two hundred and fourteen dollars and ninety-four cents. The number of inmates of the infirmary averages about two hundred, which is only two-thirds of the capacity of the institution. About sixty are received and discharged each half year. During the financial year 1878-9, the average cost of maintenance of each inmate was ninety-five dollars, or twenty-six cents per day, a very favorable exhibit for the economy exercised in the management of the infirmary. The total cost of the year was nineteen thousand nine hundred and seventy dollars and fifty-five cents. Inmates are received from all parts of the county except the city of Cincinnati, which has its own infirmary, located at Hartwell. One inmate, September I, 1879, had been in the institution since 1855, two since 1857, and two since 1858. A school is maintained at the public expense, for instruction in the elementary branches, and has a daily average attendance of about forty. The infirmary is managed by a board of three directors, one of whom is chosen each year by the electors of the townships of Hamilton county. They not only have full charge of the proper relief of paupers admitted to the infirmary, but also of the necessary out-door relief to be granted on the application of the township trustees. The principal officers of the institution at present are: Colonel Thomas H. Hunt, superintendent; Mrs. T. H. Hunt, matron; T. S. Potter, M. D., physician; Miss Mary A. Harris, teacher. Its administration is quite warmly commended by the secretary of the State board of charities. In the third annual report of the board, published 1879, he says: "The infirmary buildings are quite commodious and well arranged, and; as observed during the year, as in former years, seemed under careful management." CHAPTER XIV. THE COUNTY ASSOCIATIONS. NOTWITHSTANDING the populous character of Hamilton county, the enterprising spirit of its people, and their diversity of material interests, there has not been, in the county at large, a very great amount of associated effort —hardly so much, indeed, as might have been expected. But the inclusion of Cincinnati within the limits of the county, and the absorption of so much of the latter by the former, have naturally thrown nearly everything in the way of general organization into the city. Hence we shall find the county associations, though, one or two of them, strong and useful, yet quite few and far between. THE COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. The original agricultural society in this county was, nominally at least, a Cincinnati institution. It was organized in that city in the early part of 1819, under the name and title of "The Cincinnati Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, Manufactures, and Domestic Economy." Its officers were simply a president, four vice-presidents, a secretary, a treasurer and an executive committee. The first officers were: General W. H. Harrison, president; Andrew Mack, first vice-president; Ethan Stone, second vice-president; Zaccheus Biggs, third vice-president; Stephen Wood, fourth vice-president; Jesse Embree, secretary; James Findlay, treasurer ; James Taylor, Ephraim Brown, Daniel Drake, Jacob Burnet, William Corry, Gorham A. Worth, Isaac H. Jackson, James C. Morris, Jacob Broadwell, executive committee. The membership fee was two dollars, and a like sum was payable annually for dues, with forfeiture of membership if not paid within one year after it became due. The annual meeting was to be held on the last Tuesday of September, and other stated meetings on the last Tuesdays, respectively, of December, March and June. HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO - 205 The following declaration of principles and policy was also adopted by the society at the period of its organization: Being convinced that a retrenchment in the expense of living will be an important means in alleviating the difficulties and pecuniary embarrassments which exist in every section of the county, we concur in adopting the following declaration, viz.: First. We will not purchase, nor suffer to be used in our families, any imported liquors, fruits, nuts, or preserves of any kind, unless they shall be required in cases of sickness. Second. Being convinced that the practice which generally prevails of wearing suits of black as testimonials of respect for the memory of deceased friends is altogether useless, if not improper, while it is attended with a heavy expense, we will not sanction it hereafter in our families or encourage it in others. Third. We will not purchase for ourselves or our families, such articles of dress as are expensive and are generally considered as ornamental rather than useful. Fourth. We will abstain from the use of imported goods of every description as far as may be practicable, and we will give a preference to articles that are of the growth and manufacture of our own country, when the latter can be procured. Fifth. We will not purchase any articles, either of food or dress, at prices that are considered extravagant, or that the citizens generally cannot afford to pay; but will rather abstain from the use of such articles until they can be obtained at reasonable prices. Sixth. We will observe a rigid economy in every branch of our expenditures, and will, in all our purchases, be influenced by necessity rather than convenience, and by utility rather than ornament. Seventh. We believe that the prosperity of the country depends in a great degree on a general and faithful observance of the foregoing declaration; we therefore promise that we will adhere to it ourselves, and that we will recommend it to others. The formation of a library was contemplated by the constitution of this society, also the publication of memoirs, and other measures of public utility. The society, as may be seen from its list of officers, included some of the most prominent and valued residents of the city and vicinity, and appears to have been strongly and well organized. It was deemed advisable after a time, however, to give the agricultural organization more distinctively a county character, and the Hamilton county agricultural society was formed. Of this General Harrison was president; Major Daniel Gano and the Hon. John Matson, vice presidents; Colonel H. S. Barnum, librarian; D. C. Wallace, secretary; J. P. Foote, corresponding secretary. In place of an executive committee there was a considerable number of curators forming a board of agriculture: Messrs. William Carey, James C. Ludlow, Israel Brown, S. J. Brown, Charles C. Clarkson, Charles Sellman, Joseph J. Haskins, J. D. Garrard, H. B. Funk, N. Crookshank, John Ferris, James Hey, Oliver Jones, Samuel Ready, Duncan Cameron, Ethan Stone, James Seward, James Whallon, Thomas Smith, Peter Voorhees, Isaac Beconnet, Willard A. Place, Henry Wilde, Adam Moore, Alfred Sandford, William Burnet, Clayton Welch, Hugh Moore. A very interesting and curious old premium list of the society, bearing these names and giving much other information, still exists among the collections of the Ohio Historical and Philosophical society in Cincinnati. It is printed on one side of a single small sheet, which was an extra issue of the Farmer's Reporter; but in what year there is no means of ascertaining from the document itself. It is evidently, however, very old, probably dating back some time in the '20's. From it may be learned that there were then three hundred and fifty-six regular members of the society, some of them residing in the other counties of southern Ohio, and some in the neighboring counties of Kentucky. There were also seventeen honorary members, whose residences were scattered all the way from Kentucky to England, but were largely in the eastern states. The marshals of the fair of that year were Colonels S. Scott and H. S. Barnum; orator, F. A. Thomas, esq.; auctioneer, A. B. Roff. The premium list proper does not occupy one-tenth of the space of a modern list of the kind for a Hamilton county fair. No cash premium greater than five dollars was offered. The Farmer's Reporter and Western Agriculturist figures conspicuously and numerously among the premiums. For exhibitions of stock the inducements were mostly in the shape of certificates and diplomas. No racing "sweepstakes" or other premiums for speed were offered; but there were moderate cash inducements for the presentation of the ordinary useful animals. Committees of judgment were appointed only for manufactured goods, silk, implements of husbandry, agricultural products in tolerable variety, fermented liquors, butter and cheese, horticulture, horses, asses and mules, neat cattle, swine, sheep and wool, plowing, domestic clothing, cooperage, hats, edged tools, manufactured tobacco, and mechanical implements. In 1853 there was a new organization of the society "for the improvement of agriculture within the county of Hamilton." Its president was now John K. Green; vice-president, General George Sneider; secretary, F. W. Stokes; treasurer, Peter Melendy; managers, Joseph Cooper, Elmore Cunningham, Clinton Ewing, Henry Debolt, Isaac B. Bruce. Competitors for premiums must be members, and members must be residents of Hamilton county, and pay one dollar annually into the treasury of the society. The list of articles for which premiums were to be awarded were ordered to be published in a newspaper or by handbills at least one month before the day of exhibition. The annual fairs must be held some time between the first day of September and the. first of November, at such place as the directors should appoint. A resolution was passed by the new society "most earnestly inviting the farmers of the county, and all others friendly to the cause of agriculture, the arts, and the sciences, to unite with us in our efforts in the great cause of agricultural improvement." The first fair under these auspices was held at Carthage, on the twenty-eighth, twenty-ninth, and thirtieth days of September, 1853. Besides the premiums usually offered at that day at such exhibitions, others were offered, as a diploma and ten dollars for the best essay on the character, composition, and improvement of the soil in Hamilton county, and a similar premium (second best, five dollars), for the best arranged and best managed farm in the county. The remainder of the premium list embraced inducements for the exhibition of cattle, horses, sheep, swine, dogs (shepherd, Newfoundland, and rat-terrier), poultry, plows, farm implements, manufactured wares (a very short list by comparison with the lists of the present day), a plowing match, farm, dairy, and other products, 206 - HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO silk and domestic manufactures, needle, shell, and waxwork, paintings and drawings, designs, stoves, articles manufactured chiefly or wholly of metal, also of wood, iron and wood, and of stone, fire engines, chemicals and miscellaneous articles, field crops, and various displays in the horticultural department. There were no offers as yet for "trials of speed." The constitution of the society has received many modifications since its original passage, including the opening of competition in the various departments to all the world. At the third annual fair held from the fourth to the seventh of September, 1855, all premiums were to he paid, as per announcement in the premium list, in silver plate. There were now eighteen managers of the society, and the address to members and visitors, on one day of the fair, had become a regular feature of the yearly meeting. The fair grounds were permanently established on the site near Carthage, where they have since remained. The opening of the great Exposition attractions in Cincinnati, of late years, however, and the occurrence of its displays at the same time with the fair of the county society, drew the crowds away from the latter, and they began to be, financially and otherwise, failures. A site nearer Cincinnati was consequently sought, and a special act of the legislature was obtained at the session of 1871, authorizing the society to purchase the property occupied by the Buckeye race-course, about two miles from the then city limits. A vigorous and faithful attempt was made to take the benefit bf this measure, but the negotiations ultimately failed, through the inability or unwillingness of the county commissioners to comply with the requisite conditions of the purchase. The fair grounds, therefore, remain at the old place, and within the past year extensive and valuable improvements in the facilities for accommodating exhibits, costing about fifteen thousand dollars, have been made upon them. It is gratifying to add that the fair of last year (1880) was, in its benefits to the treasury of the society, and in every other way, a grand success. The fair of the year designated a few lines above (1871) was but the seventeenth held by the present society, two fairs having been omitted during the bloody years, the tremendous excitement and dangers of the war period. At this exhibition special and very liberal premiums, amounting to five hundred dollars, were offered by the pork-packers and slaughterers of Cincinnati for the exhibition of hogs. Sad to say, the total of the premiums was never collected from those pledging it, although most of the amount was finally in hand; and what was raised was distributed pro rata among those entitled to the awards. In 1849, also, there was a failure to hold the fair by the older society, in consequence of the prevalence of cholera that year and the occurrence of the State fair during the same week. THE COUNTY SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION. This was organized as the Hamilton county Sunday-school association in April, 1862, "to promote the interest of the Sunday-school work, to encourage a spirit of harmony and Christian fellowship among its laborers; to gather them together at suitable seasons, and, by comparing the statistics of their labors, to show forth to the world the blessings of the institution ; also to act as auxiliary to the State Sunday-school union." It is said to be the first county organization of the kind in the State, and the first steps for its formation were taken before the State union itself was formed. April 8, 1862, in pursuance of consultations and a meeting held on the fifth of that month by a number of the leading workers in the Cincinnati Sabbath-schools, a call was issued to the officers of such schools throughout the county, for a convention of their superintendents and other delegates from the city and county, to meet in the Central Presbyterian church, Cincinnati, at ten o'clock, A. M., on Thursday, the seventeenth of April, with the following objects in view: "1. The formation of a county Sunday-school association, through which we may secure the statistics of the schools of the city and county from year to year. 2. That we may awaken a deeper and wider interest in the cause of Sunday-schools in the county, and keep this interest alive by this instrumentality." Detailed reports of the schools were called for, to be brought to the convention or mailed previous to its session to Mr. L. H. Sargent, 31 Walnut street, Cincinnati. The call closed with this stirring appeal: "Brethren, come! Come in the spirit of the Master, and pray that He may direct the convention and bless our cause." It was signed by Messrs. L. H. Sargent, H. W. Brown, and George H. Wolf, all of Cincinnati, and members of the committee appointed for the purpose. The convention met upon the designated day. The response to the call was not large, probably in part from the shortness of the call, as well as from the newness of the movement and the absorption of the public mind largely in the events of the civil war then raging. Sixty-six delegates were present, however, representing thirty-four schools; and after an amicable conference and some interesting discussions the desired organization was effected. A. M. Searles was chairman of the meeting, and B. Frankland was secretary. The officers-elect of the association were: George F. Davis, president; W. T. Perkins, secretary; vice-presidents—first district of Cincinnati, S. H. Burton; second district, S. S. Fisher; third, L. H. Sargent; fourth, George H. Wolf. The appointment of vice-presidents for districts outside the city was left to the executive committee. The new society took hold of its work with great energy. After the formation of the State union, a State Sunday-school agent was employed, to organize county associations or unions throughout Ohio, and was paid a salary of two thousand five hundred dollars, principally by three or four gentlemen of Cincinnati, connected with or interested in the work of the Hamilton county organization. When his successor, Colonel Cowdin, of Galion, was appointed, this association assumed the entire expense of his support. During its first year, eighteen mass meetings of the children, officers, and friends of the Sabbath-schools were held in Mill Creek township HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO - 207 alone, with results, as the report of them at the next annual meeting declared, "even better than could have been hoped." Several reports from other districts, most of them equatly gratifying, were received at the first regular annual meeting. Soon after the annual meeting of 1863 an agent was employed to canvass the county, hold meetings, stir up the workers to livelier interest and more intelligent procedure in the work, and endeavor to obtain full statistics of the Sunday-schools of the county, with the aid of the vice-presidents in the several townships. The results were eminently satisfactory. The following remark was made in one of the subsequent reports concerning the statistics: "They present a complete tabular view of the present condition of this important work, and are worthy 0f the earnest study of all who are interested in the moral and religious training of the young." A series of successful meetings to aid the work was held in the townships—Sunday being chosen whenever practicable. Thirty of such assemblies were had between May and October, inclusive of 1863, at which appeared a long list of distinguished and zealous speakers from the city and elsewhere. They were largely attended, and were believed to have accomplished their objects in a very hopeful degree. In nearly every case where a meeting was .held in a village or county neighborhood, the association was invited to repeat the visit. The following are the principal items in the returns of 1863 to the society: Number of children of school age in Hamilton county, 101,839, of whom about- twenty-nine per cent., or 28,895, were in the Sunday-schools; in the city of Cincinnati, 81,839, of whom 20,700, or twenty-five per cent., were members of Sabbath-schools. Of the 20,000 children in the townships, 8,195, or forty-one per cent., were in such schools. Some townships reputed as high as seventy-five per cent of their children connected with the Sabbath-school work, but one township reported an attendance as low as eleven per cent. The convention of April, 1864, was held in the Melodeon hall, Cincinnati, and was large, enthusiastic, and every way profitable. Three hundred and ninety-nine delegates were present. The number of Sunday-schools in the county at this time was reported at about two hundred. The statistics of 1876-7, prepared and published under the auspices of the association, showed the number of schools held on the Sabbath in the county to be 213, of which Cincinnati had 99; children in county between five and twenty-one years old, 125,314; Cincinnati, 100,762; enrolled in Sunday-schools, 37,162; the city, 26,457, average attendance, 25,098; officers and teachers 3,624, with average attendance of 2,873; made profession of religion during the year, 1,237; amount of collections, $19,761; volumes in libraries, 61,345; taking Sunday-school papers, 180 schools; holding teachers' meetings, 99. The treasurer of the society, Mr. William E. Davis, reported the receipts of the year-$179.95, of which $140.20 were from the township schools. His disbursements amounted to $421, leaving due to him the SUM of $241.05. The name of the society had been changed from "Association," to "Union." It continued a career of active usefulness during most of the time until 1872, when it became quiescent and gave but occasional signs of existence until October, 1878, when it was reorganized and the following named officers elected, who are those now in service: William George Doering, recording secretary; Dr. James Taft, corresponding secretary; Louis Manss, treasurer; Rev. A. N. Gilbert, Rev. S. Weeks, Rev. C. H. Daniels, H. W. Sage, H. W. Brown, executive committee. Presidents of township Unions : A. W. Williamson, Anderson; Dr. E. G. Dalton, Columbia; Dr. J. M. Mc-Kinzie, Delhi; James M. Gamble, Green; M. Aurelius Francis, Harrison; Smith Stimmel, Mill Creek; Walter Howel, Miami; Rev. William James, Springfield; William Graham, Sycamore; Rev. B. W. Chidlaw, White-water. Vice-presidents were not appointed at this time for Colerain, Crosby, Spencer, and Symmes townships. Cincinnati.—Eastern division of, east of Main, Rev. Sylvester Weeks; central division, between Main an Central avenue, Rev. C. H. Daniels; western division, west of Central avenue, Rev. A. N. Gilbert. L. H. Sargent, president; George B. Nichols, John W. Dale, W. T. M. Gordon, vice-presidents. The official preface to the new constitution and bylaws, published shortly afterwards, says of the union: Now it begins to show signs of new vigor and promise of work, indicating returns that must yield large dividends for the Master. Our field of souls is much larger than when this union began its work. With age we have gained new experience and somewhat changed tactics. Formerly mass meetings once a year at central places and the best talent for oratory were the chief instrumentalities. Now hard work and thorough organization mean everything. Not that we love popular assemblies and the enthusiasm kindled by good speakers any less, but we have greater faith in God's blessing on good work done in the Master's name and for His cause. Notwithstanding this apparently vigorous and hopeful reorganization, the Union has not since manifested much activity nor held its annual meetings with regularity. The beautiful and interesting celebration of the Robert Raikes Centennial, in the Music Hall of Cincinnati, on the nineteenth day of June, 1880, was, however, held under its direction, and was a pronounced success. THE COUNTY TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. In 1864 Professor U. T. Curran, now of Sandusky, then principal of the public schools in Glendale, made an earnest effort to enlist others, especially the principals of the district schools in Cincinnati, in the formation of a county teachers' association; but without present success. On the twenty-ninth of August, 1867, however, a number of teachers of the county, mainly from the country, met at the hall of the Hughes' high school, on Fifth street, to organize "an association to promote the progress of education and mental discussion." Mr. Curran had by this time removed to the city, and was in charge of a private academy; but was still the prime mover in this organization. A teachers' institute was in session, and he, on the day named, handed a notice to Professor Lyman Harding, then superintendent of the city schools, to read to the members, inviting them to a meeting, on 208 - HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO. the adjournment of the institute, at noon, to form a county association. Mr. Curran, who has kindly furnished most of the facts for this preliminary sketch, writes: "I then spoke to 'a number of teachers and asked them to stay at the close of the meeting. Of those importuned Mr. G. W. Oyler, Mr. G. A. Clause, Mr. G. Welsh, Mr. George Woollard, Miss Kate Wool-lard, and myself remained, and the four or five hundred other persons present left, looking curiously over their shoulders at the few who were to form the society. We six met, organized, appointed a committee on constitution, etc., were very harmonious, enthusiastic, and full of hope, and were so reported in the papers. We called a meeting at Curran & Kuhn's academy, which was well attended. Very few teachers would take part in the meeting, because they were each afraid the other was some wise professor from the city. The writer was elected president, with the privilege of selecting his own executive committee of three. I think I selected Clause, M. S. Turrill, and A. B. Johnson—I am sure of Johnson. "Dr. Curtis and John Talbot, a friend and a teacher of fifty years' experience, lent us their help. Dr. Mayo and other eminent men were called upon to address us, until we became accustomed to public speaking and had studied the subject matter of our profession so well that men within the ranks of the profession were ready to occupy with profit all the time at our disposal. For three years the society met at my school-room. I improvised seats by placing plank upon chairs. But at length it became evident that we needed a better place, and the city council generously allowed us the use of a room in their building. "In the meanwhile we organized the first county institute ever held in the county. This was held at Glendale, at the Glendale Ladies' seminary. The second meeting was held at the same place; the third, if my memory serves me right, at College Hill. "I do not know that the society failed in holding a meeting at the appointed time, viz., the second Saturday of every month. It certainly did not during my time. The amount of good accomplished is inestimable. The professional spirit engendered is very great. And the end is not yet." From the records of the association it may be learned that G. W. Oyler was chairman at the first meeting and W. B. Welsh secretary. Messrs. N. '1'. Curran, G. A. Clause, of Cleves, and G. W. Oyler, of Storrs, were named a committee to prepare constitution and by-laws. The preamble to the constitution afterwards reported reads: "We, the undersigned• teachers and others interested in the cause of education, in order to promote the progress of sound learning and mental discipline, do hereby ordain and adopt the following constitution and by-laws." A vice-president is appointed for every township in the county, who must be a resident of the township. Any person of good character may join the society. Among its members are a number of teachers very well known in the profession; as Richard Nelson, president of the Cincinnati business college; Florien Giaque, the lawyer and law-writer and compiler; G.A. Carnahan, A. B. Johnson, E. C. Ellis, M. S. Turrill, and others. The annual county institute is still, we believe, in charge of the association, and has been held regularly. The thirteenth session was held at Mount Washington the last week in August, 1880, with an enrollment of two hundred and twenty-two, and a distinguished corps of instructors, including Professor Curran, Superintendent John Hancock, and others of note. The officers of the association, so far as we find them recorded upon the defective minute-book of the secretary, have been as follows. The year of election only is given : President-1867, U. T. Curran; 1872, G. W. Oyler; 1873, Florien Giaque; 1874, W. H. Nelson; 1875, C. J. Fay; 1876, D. B. Moak; 1877, William Brickley; 1878, J. Perlee Cummins; 1879, J. C. Heywood; 1880, E. C. Ellis. Recording Secretary-1872–'3, A. J. Disque; 1874, Miss A. Soules; 1875–'6, J. P. Cummins; 1877, A. J. McGrew; 1878, John Logan; 1879, W. A. Doran; 1880, J. H. Locke. Corresponding Secretary-1872, George W. Warner; 1873, C. S. Fay; 1875–'6, Horace Hearn. Treasurer-1872, F. C. Wilson; 1873–'4–'5, L. A. Knight; 1876, William Brickley; 1877, J. P. Cummins; 1878–'9–'80, A. B. Johnson. The number of members of the association is about one hundred and twenty-five. Its meetings are monthly during the ordinary school months of the year. SUNDRY SOCIETIES. In 1833 was organized the Hamilton county temperance society, auxiliary to the Ohio State temperance society. Bellamy Storer was president; Isaac G. Burnet, vice-president; Thomas Brainard, corresponding secretary ; Rufus Hodges, recording secretary; William T. Truman, auditor; Daniel W. Fairbank, treasurer; Stephen Burrows, John T. Shotwell and T. D. Mitchell, directors. A Hamilton county association of physicians has also left some faint footprints on the sands of time. Dr. Mount was president; Dr. Landon C. Rives, vice-president; Dr. William Wood, orator; Dr. M. Flagg, treasurer; and Dr. L. L. Pinkerton, secretary. One of the organizations of the Patrons of Husbandry—the Pomona Grange—embraces the entire county in its membership and field of operations. CHAPTER XV. RAILROADS. Whizzing through the mountain, Buzzing o'er the vale ;- Bless me! This is pleasant— Riding on a rail. JOHN G. SAXE, "Rhyme of the Rail." IT was but a single year after the successful experiments of George Stephenson at Gadshill, England, had HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO - 209 established the practicability of steam locomotion on railways, that the first legislative movement was made toward their establishment in Ohio. February 23, 1830, Representative William B. Hubbard, of Columbus, submitted to the general assembly "an act to incorporate the Ohio canal and the Steubenville railway company." In this conglomerate act was the germ of the magnificent railway system of Ohio, to which Cincinnati and Hamilton county owe so much of their material greatness. New charters were thereafter applied for in large numbers and rarely failed to he granted by the pliant legislature. Among the early charters may be mentioned that granted in 1832 to the Mad River and Lake Erie railroad company, and another in 1835, to the Monroeville & Sandusky City railroad. The year 1836 was somewhat prolific in charters—among those granted being the organic acts of the Mansfield & New Haven, the Cleveland & Pitsburgh and the Little Miami railway companies. But down to the close of that year very little had been done toward the realization, in wood and iron and earthwork, of any of the projects, owing to the financial depression that prevailed during the latter half of that decade. The next year a law which obtained the popular (or unpopular) name of "the plunder act," was passed "to authorize a loan of credit by the State of Ohio to railroad companies and to authorize subscriptions by the State to the capital stock of turnpike, canal, and slack-water navigation companies." The act was repealed in 1840; though not until under it the incipient railway enterprises secured seven hundred and seventeen thousand five hundred and seventy-five dollars in loans; but they did not build ard equip as much as thirty miles of road with the entire sum. This was accomplished by the close of 1840, when these thirty miles were in use; and for some years the progress of railways in the State was slow, but three hundred and fifty miles having been constructed by 1846. Since then, however, the growth of the system has been something marvelous; and by the opening of the year 1880 the total length of the steam railway lines in Ohio was five thousand five hundred and twenty-one and twenty-seven hundredths miles, while the companies operating them numbered eighty-five. The total valuation of their property within the State, as fixed by the State board of equalization for 1879, was seventy-five million five hundred and seventy-three thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine dollars and thirteen cents. We now proceed to give an outline history of those railways which actually traverse Hamilton county, or some part of it, without detailed reference to the entry into Cincinnati of trains from other lines upon the tracks of these roads. THE LITTLE MIAMI. This was the pioneer railroad constructed into or from Cincinnati. It received its charter from the State March 1t, 1836. The agitation in behalf of it took its rise in Cincinnati from a pressing sense of the need of a railway connection with the north and east through a route to Sandusky, connecting with the lake navigation, -and thus affording a more ready and convenient outlet for the yearly increasing product of the Miami valley than the river supplied. The route proposed lay altogether in the valley of the Little Miami to Xenia, sixty-six miles from the city, and thence to Springfield, eighty-four miles in all. This was the whole length of the road, as originally surveyed and chartered. At Springfield it was to meet the Lake Erie and Mad River railroad, forming with it a continuous line to Sandusky. Here also it intersected the National road, upon or near which a railway was sure to be built soon to Columbus and thence eastward. For the work of survey the services of a young scientist, then of but twenty-six years, struggling with pecuniary difficulties in the maintenance of his family and the establishment of the Cincinnati observatory, were secured as engineer. He afterwards became renowned as the astronomer, popular lecturer, author, and army commander, professor, and general, Ormsby M. Mitchel. Young Mitchel threw himself into the enterprise with all the energy which secured to the city of his adoption the observatory and its great telescope, in the face of tremendous difficulties. He became not merely a hired servant, but an active promoter, of the enterprise. He survey the route, made his estimates, and then aided in the push for pecuniary aid. In conjunction with Mr. George W. Neff, a prominent and influential citizen of Cincinnati, he pressed the merits of the project upon the attention of the city council, and finally secured a loan of the public credit of the city to the amount of two hundred thousand dollars. He then went to eastern cities, and did what he could, under the depressing circumstances of the financial panic of those years, to secure further pecuniary aid for the company. Under the legislative act of March 24, 1837, the road secured a loan of State credit amounting to one hundred and fifteen thousand dollars. Gradually but surely, as means became available in those "tight times," the construction of the road was pushed, and finally, in August, 1846, more than a decade after the obtainment of its charter, the promoters of the project had the satisfaction of witnessing its completion to Springfield. It was a gala time for Cincinnati—the consummation of the first of its since numerous railway enterprises. The difficulties with which this pioneer railroad battled in its earlier years were at times almost insurmountable. They were admirably depicted, from personal recollections, in the address of Hon. S. S. L'Hommedieu, delivered at a celebration by the Cincinnati Pioneer association, April 7, 1874: The struggle of the officers of the Little Miami company to carry on their work, the then young civil engineers can best record. They could tell how often, when pay-day came, how many cattle were butchered and distributed to the laborers—cattle which had been received in payment of the farmers' subscriptions to capital stock. They could also tell how the men of the "shovel and the pick" surrounded the house of honest William Lewis, the treasurer, demanding money from an empty treasury, calling him every kind of hard name, until he was forced in search of his president, in order to resign, saying, "These men, when I tell them I have no money, call me liar and scoundrel so often and so earnestly that I begin to think that I am what they call me, and I must resign. " Thirty miles of the road were nevertheless opened to 27 210 - HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO. public traffic in 1843. The total rolling stock of the company was then one eight-wheeled locomotive, two passenger coaches and eight freight cars—all, even the locomotive, made in Cincinnati. On the seventeenth of July, 1845, it was opened to Xenia, sixty-eight miles distant, and the first train over the completed track to Springfield was run August 10, 1846. The cost of the road to this time had been one million two hundred and twenty-two thousand dollars; when afterwards leased to the Pennsylvania company it represented a value of about five millions. The property of the road had to be assigned to trustees before reaching Springfield ; yet a dividend upon the capital stock was already cleared by it in 1845, and thereafter, to the time of its lease, dividends were quite regularly declared to an average amount of ten per cent. per annum ; and it still, under the lease, pays a very handsome revenue to its owners. It has been, financially, one of the most successful railways in the world. Its early dividends, however, were smaller, and the stock of the road first came to par in 1852, after that of the Cleveland & Columbus, then reaching one hundred and twenty-five before experiencing a fall. Its convertible bonds were rapidly turned into stock, which is still largely held by the original parties or their heirs. The only bonded indebtedness of the road was created, to the amount of one and a half millions, to meet the expense of rebuilding and other improvements. The original sfrap rail used on the road was displaced by T rail, curves were straightened, grades reduced, and other useful changes made. It now, for twenty-eight miles out of Cincinnati, has a double-track. The connection for Sandusky was not completed till the latter part of 1848, when the Little Miami and the Mad River railroads gave Cincinnati her first rail and water communication with the Atlantic coast. A large passenger and freight business was at once commanded; the leading stage lines upon or near the route soon were disused, and a great impetus was given to railway construction. The connection for Columbus was made at Xenia by the Columbus & Xenia railroad, which was, however, not constructed until 1848-9, the first passenger train traversing it February 20, 1850. Soon afterwards the members of the general assembly made an excursion over this and the Little Miami roads to Cincinnati. November 30, 1853, the two companies operating each its own road entered into an arrangement by which both were operated as a single line. January 1, 1865, they came into possession, by lease, of the Dayton & Western and the Richmond & Miami railways, and, later in the same year, by purchase, of the division of the Dayton, Xenia & Belpre road between the two places first named. The partnership arrangement of 1853 was dissolved November 30, 1868, when the Little Miami company took a lease for ninety-nine years of the Columbus & Xenia road, and all the rights and interests of that corporation in the Dayton & Western, Xenia & Belpre, and Richmond & Miami roads. Just one year and one day thereafter the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis (Pan-Handle) railroad company leased of the Little Miami company its own road, the branch owned by it from Xenia to Dayton, and all its rights in the Columbus & Xenia and other roads. The lease is for ninety years, renewable forever, and brings an annual rental of eight per cent. to the Little Miami company on its capital stock, besides interest on the funded debt, five thousand dollars yearly for expenses of organization, and the fulfillment of lease obligations to its own leased lines. The road is operated by the Pennsylvania company, which was a party to the contract, and by whom its faithful performance was guaranteed. The total length of its lines is one hundred and nine-five and nine-tenths miles—eighty-four on the main line, Cincinnati to Springfield; sixteen on its branch, Xenia to Dayton; fifty-four and seventy-four hundredths on its leased line from Xenia to Columbus ; thirty-seven on that from Dayton to the Indiana State line (Dayton & Western), and four and sixteen-hundredths thence to Richmond, Indiana (Richmond & Miami). It is one of the most profitable roads in the United States, its earnings per mile in 1879 being six thousand eight hundred and one dollars and ninety-two cents, and its expenses but four thousand four hundred and fifty-eight dollars and fifty-three cents per mile. A spacious and costly new depot is building for it on the southeast corner of Pearl and Butler streets, Cincinnati, erected, of course, by the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & Sit Louis railroad company. CINCINNATI, HAMILTON, AND DAYTON. This was the second railroad to get into Cincinnati. Its company was chartered March 2, 1846, under the name of the "Cincinnati & Hamilton Railroad company." An act passed March 15, 1849, to amend the several acts relating to the company, gave it its present corporate name. It is an interesting and noteworthy fact, considering the period of its construction, that the road was built without the aid of township subscriptions to its capital stock, and that its stocks and bonds sold at par, without cost of brokerage, in New York or elsewhere. In Cincinnati so sublime yet practical a faith was reposed in the enterprise, that in less than a month three-quarters of a million dollars, in cash subscriptions, were placed at its service; while the capitalists of New York city were to take the rest of the stock and the first issue of the bonds of the road at par. It was the first case of the kind, as to the fact last mentioned, and it is said to have surprised the brokers of Gotham very thoroughly. Western railroad securities had not theretofore been placed in that city without suffering large discounts, selling for but eighty to eighty-five cents on the dollar. The road was pushed rapidly, and was opened for business within a little more than a year—on the nineteenth of September, 1851. For a long time it paid fair dividends to its stockholders, and promptly met all its obligations. On the eighteenth of February, 1869, the Cincinnati, Richmond & Chicago railroad company leased its road and property, in perpetuity, to the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton railroad company, and assigned to that company also its lease of the Richmond & Miami railway. Previous to this, May r, 1863, the railway from Dayton HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO - 211 to Toledo, belonging to the Dayton & Michigan railroad company, had been similarly leased, and a modification of said lease being made in the early part of 1870, the entire line under operation has reached a total of two hundred and forty-four miles. In addition to their track of four feet ten inches guage, the company has a track of six feet guage between Dayton and Cincinnati, over which the cars of the New York, Pennsylvania & Ohio and the Erie railway companies are transported. In November, 1872, the company purchased the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Indianapolis railroad. THE OHIO AND MISSISSIPPI. This was the third of the Queen City's successful railroad enterprises, in order of time. The road reaches from Cincinnati to East St. Louis, on the Mississippi river, opposite St. Louis, a distance of three hundred and forty miles, only nineteen and one-half miles being in the State of Ohio. The road was built by two corporations, completed in 1857, and since operated under a sole management—the portion from Cincinnati to the Illinois State line as the eastern division, and that in Illinois as the western division. Originally it had a gauge of six feet, and in connection with the Atlantic & Great Western (now the New York, Pennsylvania & Ohio) and the Erie lines, made a through broad-gauge route between St. Louis and New York. The western division was sold under foreclosure in June, 1862, and reorganized as the Ohio & Mississippi railway company, February 5, 1863. The eastern division was sold January 9, 1867, to the owners of the western division, and the entire line consolidated November 21, 1867, with its present title. In addition to the main line above given, a branch road has lately been opened from the main line at North Vernon, Indiana, to Jeffersonville, in the same State, and Louisville, fifty-three miles in length, called the Louisville Division of the Ohio & Mississippi railway company. This was constructed on the old, abandoned line of the Fort Wayne & Southern railroad of Indiana. The Springfield division was purchased January r, 1875. It is the old Springfield & Illinois Southeastern, sold under foreclosure in 1874, purchased by the bondholders, and transferred to the Ohio & Mississippi company, March r, 1875. The principal office is in St. Louis, and The fiscal and transfer agency is in New York city. Professor and General 0. M. Mitchel did much of the early surveying on this road to eke out a poor income derived from his scientific and pedagogic labors. THE MARIETTA AND CINCINNATI. The original company was chartered as the Belpre & Cincinnati railroad company, March 8, 1845. In 1851, by the consolidation of the Belpre & Cincinnati and the Franklin & Ohio River railroad companies, its title was changed, to the present one, and by the same act the company was authorized to build a railroad from a point on the Ohio river opposite Parkersburgh, Virginia, or from Harmar, opposite Marietta, to the city of Cincinnati. The main line was finished to the Little Miami at Loveland, April 20, 1857. A reorganization occurred August 15, 1860, through bankruptcy. Soon after this the Union railroad was purchased, extending nine miles, from Scott's Landing to Belpre; also the Hillsborough & Cincinnati railroad. The latter extended from Hillsborough to Loveland, sixteen miles of which, from Loveland to Blanchester, constituted a part of the main line, and the remaining twenty-one miles are now known as the Hillsborough branch. January 26, 1864, the reorganized company purchased that part of the Scioto & Hocking Valley railroad extending from Portsmouth to the present track of the Cincinnati & Muskingum Valley railroad in Perry county, a distance of over ninety miles, but having only fifty-six miles of road in operation. The extension from Loveland to the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton railroad - was completed February 17, 1866. The Cincinnati & Baltimore railroad, reaching from Cincinnati to Cincinnati and Baltimore Junction, continues the line five and eight-tenths miles into Cincinnati, and was opened June 1, 1872, to furnish the Marietta & Cincinnati a track into the city under its own control as a leased line. The Baltimore Short Line railway, thirty and three-tenths miles, was opened November 15, 1874, and is leased by this company. The total length of lines now in use by the Marietta & Cincinnati is three hundred and twelve miles. Its own road is one hundred and nineteen and one-tenth miles long. CLEVELAND, COLUMBUS, CINCINNATI AND INDIANAPOLIS— ("BEE LINE.") This railway was chartered March 12, 1845, and the entire road of the original line, one hundred and thirty-eight miles, was completed February 22, 1851. In 1861 the company purchased that portion of the Springfield, Mount Vernon & Pittsburgh railway which lies between Delaware and Springfield. The Cincinnati and Springfield company was organized September 9, 1870, and its road opened July r, 1872. It was built as an extension into Cincinnati of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, & Indianopolis railroad, and was leased in perpetuity to that company on completion, the lessor operating the road, and paying any balance over operating expenses, after interest on bonds is paid, to the lessees. At the end of the year 1879 the total length of its lines was four hundred and seventy-one and sixty-five hundreths miles ; it owns three hundred and ninety-one and two-tenths miles. This route is popularly known as the "Bee Line," and the Cincinnati and Springfield end of it as the "Dayton Short Line." THE CINCINNATI, INDIANAPOLIS, ST. LOUIS, AND CHICAGO. This road extends from Cincinnati to the Indiana State line, a distance of twenty and one-half miles. Here connection is made with the original line of the Cincinnati and St. Louis railroad company. This company was incorporated April 18, 1861. The Harrison branch, extending from a point in Whitewater township known as the Valley junction, to a point on the boundary line between Ohio and Indiana, in Harrison village, a distance of six and two-thirds miles, all within Hamilton county, was constructed under the general law of May r, 1852, and amendments. On the first of May, 1866, the road of this company, including the Harrison blanch. was leased 212 - HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO. in perpetuity to the Indianapolis and Cincinnati (later calledt he Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Lafayette) railroad company. This company is also joint owner with the Little Miami company, of the Cincinnati Connection railway, a short line in the city, connecting tracks and depots of the two roads, each partner guaranteeing one-half of the bonds used in its construction. The Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Lafayette railroad property was sold to a committee of first line bondholders February 2, 1880, and a new organization formed March 6th following, under the name of the Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis, and Chicago railroad company, to whom the road was formally transferred. It is since known in railroad circles as "the Big Four." THE CINCINNATI EASTERN. This is a narrow-guage line, running from Little Miami Junction, a mile northwest of Newtown, Anderson township, to Winchester, a distance of fifty-three and twenty-five hundreths miles. A branch of five miles reaches between Richmond Junction and Tobasco, making a total of fifty-eight and one-fourth miles belonging to the road. The company was organized January 11, 1876, and the road opened to the present terminus in 1877. It is also proposed to build an extension to Portsmouth, completing a line of one hundred and eighty miles. At the western end the tracks extend across the Little Miami railroad and the south part of Columbia township, north of and near the city; but it has not yet been able to enter the city on its own rails, and this part of the line is consequently disused. THE CINCINNATI AND PORTSMOUTH. This railway, also narrow-guage, at this writing (December, 1880) is laid between Columbia, where it joins the Little Miami road, and Amelia, in Clermont county, a distance of twenty and four-tenths miles. It is graded and tied to Hammersville, sixteen miles further. The company was organized January 15, 1873, and the first division of the line was opened October 15, 1877. THE CINCINNATI AND FAYETTEVILLE. Another narrow-guage road, to extend one hundred and fifty miles, from Cincinnati to Nelson. The company was organized in 1878. About twenty miles of the road bed have been graded for some time, and a contract was let in October, 1880, which requires its completion by August 1, 1881. It is at present to connect with the Cincinnati & Eastern at South Milford. THE MIAMI VALLEY. Still another narrow-guage, incorporated November 9, 1874, and begun in 1876, to run, by way of Mason and Lebanon to Waynesville, forty-one miles, there meeting a narrow-guage road thence to Jeffersonville, on a coal road building eastwardly from Dayton. Its progress was stopped by litigation with owners of city property along its route up Deer creek, when it was graded from Norwood to Waynesville, but it is now in the hands of a new company called the Cincinnati Northern, of which General John M. Corse, the hero of Altoona, is president, and which is pushing the enterprise with great activity. THE COLLEGE HILL. The line of this narrow-guage reaches from Cincinnati, at Cumminsville, near Spring Grove cemetery, to Mount Pleasant, a distance of a little beyond six and one-half miles, and entirely within the county. The company was organized in 1875, and the road opened to College Hill in May, 1876, and to its present terminus in 1877. THE CINCINNATI AND WESTWOOD. Another little narrow-guage road, built to accommodate the suburban residents, from its junction with the Cincinnati, Hamilton, & Dayton railroad at Ernst Sta tion, near Spring Garden in the city, to Robb's or Westwood, about five miles. It was opened for business in March, 1876. THE RAILWAY TUNNEL. February 6, 1847, an act passed the general assembly for the incorporation of the Dayton, Lebanon, & Deerfield railroad company, which was to construct a railway between these points, intersecting the Little Miami railroad at or near the last-named place, and so giving Dayton another route to Cincinnati. One year thereafter the scheme had changed form, from either necessity or choice, and an amendatory act accordingly changed the name of the corporation to the Dayton, Springborough, Lebanon, & Cincinnati railroad company, at the same time granting it powers to construct a railroad from Dayton to Cincinnati—no part of which, however, was to be built in the valley of the Little Miami below Gainesborough, Warren county. Still another act, a year after that, changed the name to the Dayton & Cincinnati railroad company, and gave it power to consolidate its interests with and take the name of any other railway company. The first report of the president and directors of this company appeared in 1852. They had selected the terminal points in the two cities named, and directed their engineer, Mr. Erasmus Gest, to survey, as nearly as possible, a practicable air-line route between them. This necessarily involved the construction of a tunnel through the ridge dividing the basin of Cincinnati from the broad valley at the northward. Mr. Gest in due time reported a line starting from the designated terminus in Cincinnati at the intersection of Pendleton street and the Lebanon turnpike, along the west side of that road for half a mile, crossing it by a bridge, and Deer creek, a little beyond, by a culvert, three-quarters of a mile further crossing the Walnut Hills turnpike, just below the former residence of Prestly Kemper, where it would enter the hill, pass it by a tunnel, and thence proceed near Bloody and Ross runs and the Lebanon turnpike to Reading and Sharonville, and so on to Dayton, which it would reach in fifty-two and one-half miles from Cincinnati, against the sixty and three-tenths covered already by the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton railroad. It was, in fact, the inception of the present "Dayton Short Line." Mr. Gest's first report names a tunnel through the Walnut hills of fifty-five hundred feet in length, on a rising grade of thirty-nine and six-tenths feet per mile. The route and measurements were afterwards modified, in consequence of a change in the Cin- HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO - 213 cinnati terminal point to Broadway, between Court and Hunt streets, which involved the establishment of the tunnel upon a level thirty-five feet lower than the original survey c0ntemplated. By the new route it was to enter the hill on the east line of the Walnut Hills turnpike, near the former residence of Herman Witte, and rise to the surface on the lands of S. Beresford, in a branch of Ross run, northwest of Lane seminary; and thus the work was finally prosecuted for a tunnel of ten thousand and eleven feet, or nearly two miles. The "tunnel proper," however, was to be but seven thousand nine hundred and three feet long. It was to be for a double track, arched with brick, resting upon stone side-walls, with allowance for arching with stone the approaches for an aggregate distance of two thousand two hundred feet, in addition to that of the tunnel proper. The width of the tunnel, inside of the arch, was to be nearly twenty-six feet, and the height in crown twenty feet. The width would allow double tracks, if necessary, of both the "Ohio" and "Indiana," or the broad and standard guages, as now designated, by laying four lines of rails on each set of ties. The work of excavating the tunnel was reported as comparatively easy, the indurated blue marl and limestone composing the hill being easily drilled and blasted, and making a roof impervious to water and so firm that excavation might proceed a considerable time and distance ahead of the arching, as was afterwards done. The original estimate of cost was eight th0usand seven hundred dollars for right of way, including approaches and ground at the shafts, and four hundred and twelve thousand one hundred and seventy-eight dollars for the con struction of the tunnel. This, added to Ile remaining cost of the road, about two million dollars in all, was a formidable sum in those days; but means were secured, at first almost wholly by subscription, to make a hopeful beginning of the work. A contract for building the entire line, including the tunnel, was let to Messrs. Ferrel & Dunham, December 10, 1852, and six days thereafter the work was begun. The next year they abandoned their contract for the work north of the tunnel, which was re-let to Mr. Daniel Beckel. By the first of March, 1854, two thousand eight hundred lineal feet of the tunnel and approaches had been excavated, and seven hunedred and fifty feet entirely completed, with arches and side-walls. About two-sevenths of the work had been done. Eight points were made for operating—one at each end, and one each way at each of three shafts sunk from the surface of the hill. The work was thus in shape to be prosecuted very rapidly, had the means been forthcoming. It had been begun on shaft No. 2 December 16, 1852; on shaft No. r and the north approach four days afterwards; on shaft No. 3 February 15, 1853; and on the south approach April l0th, of the same year. Little difficulty was experienced from the influx of water, and none from noxious vapors. There was, however, about the usual percentage of casualties in such works, from blasting and other causes, by which several persons lost their lives. By March 1, 1855, the tunnel for three thousand three hundred and thirty-six feet, or one-third its length, had been completed, except the arching for one thousand eight hundred and twenty-two feet and the walling for five hundred and seventy-seven feet. The rest of the tunnel had been drifted or perforated for one thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight lineal feet. The work had been, however, light for this year on the tunnel, and very little had been done on other parts of the line—nothing between the tunnel and the Cincinnati terminus. It had finally to be abandoned, for lack of means, after four hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars had been expended upon it; and the "Short Line" eventually found its way out of the city, to its route north of the dividing ridge, by the valley of Mill creek, thus losing some of the most important advantages which the tunnel would have secured for it. The "Dayton & Cincinnati Short Line," legally so designated, was the reorganized old Dayton, Lebanon & Deerfield company. The change was made in 1871. The former was itself subsequently reorganized, January 21, 1872, as the Cincinnati Railway Tunnel company, to complete the old tunnel and run a road through it from the city north to Sharon, in Sycamore township, twelve and a half miles, where it will connect with the Cincinnati & Springfield, otherwise the "Dayton Short Line," or the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati & Indianapolis. It has done nothing to speak of, however. In that year there was a decided revival of interest in the project, and it was then understood to be in the hands of projectors able and determined to prosecute it successfully. Said Mayor Davis, in his annual message, summarizing the transactions and plans of the year: It is the purpose of the present managers of this scheme to make a new railroad entrance into this city that shall be controlled for the benefit of all railroad companies who may seek it, upon such fair and equitable principles as shall benefit all and give the control to none, and at the same time to afford the most favorable means for quick and cheap transit from our overcrowded city to that beautiful section of country that lies back of Walnut Hills. At that time it was included in the plans of construction of the Kentucky & Great Eastern railway company, to run from Newport along the Ohio to Catlettsburgh, so that its line should cross from Newport to Cincinnati by the railroad bridge then just completed, and go out of the city, to intersect the routes leading north, northeast, and northwest, by a track through the Walnut Hills tunnel. Some work was accordingly done upon the bore in 1873-'4, but it had presently to be again abandoned, and the scheme has since been held in quiet abeyance. That it will one day be pushed to completion, to the great advantage of the railways that may use it, is among the reasonable certainties of the future. A CONNECTION RAILROAD. In 1875-'6 a short line of road was built along Eggleseton avenue to connect the railways entering the city with the canal, elevator manufactures, and other places of business in the eastern part of the city, thus effecting a great reduction in the cost of terminal charges, as from drayage. A great railroad warehouse was also put up, from which regular warehouse receipts were issued. 214 - HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO. THE UNITED RAILROADS STOCK-YARD company was incorporated in 1871, with a capital of half a million. Its yards are in the valley of Mill creek, in the Twenty-fifth ward, and are considered among the finest in the world, costing about seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and affording accommodations at one time for twenty-five thousand hogs, ten thousand sheep, and five thousand cattle. The receipts per year average about one million hogs, three hundred thousand sheep, one hundred and sixty thousand cattle, and ten thousand calves. Almost all the railroads entering the city have connections with the yards. Many of the great pork-packing houses are erected near. THE KENTUCKY ROADS. Besides the railways which actually traverse Hamilton county, there are others upon the soil of Kentucky, but entering Cincinnati, or ending at Covington and Newport, which may properly be considered as belonging to the Cincinnati system. It is the existence of this city which determined their building in this direction ; it was the wealth and enterprise of the city, mainly, which built them ; and by Cincinnati they are chiefly maintained. Foremost in interest among these is that which, by the public subsidies voted it and the personal supervision given it, by the long agitation in behalf of its construction and the great local rejoicing at its completion, as well as the immeasurable benefits to be derived from its operation, is undoubtedly THE CINCINNATI SOUTHERN. The conception of this road, although the road itself is a realization of very recent years, is almost half a century old—nearly as old, indeed, as the steam railway in any country. The idea of some such connection with the South Atlantic had often occurred to the minds of foresighted citizens of Cincinnati; 'tit it is not known to have been publicly presented until the summer of 1835, when it was broached by the well-known Dr. Daniel Drake, to a meeting of business men held at the Commercial Exchange, on Front street, to promote simply the construction of a railway from Cincinnati to Paris, Kentucky. He moved at that meeting the appointment of a committee of three, to inquire into the practicability and advantages of a railroad connecting the city with the seaboard at some point in South Carolina. (The project of a Cincinnati & Charleston railroad is presented with much force and enthusiasm in Mr. Cist's decennial volume on Cincinnati in 1841). The resolution was carried, and Dr. Drake, Thomas W. Bakewell and John S. Williams were nominated as the committee. They gathered material and digested it at leisure, and submitted an able report to another meeting, held in the city on the fifteenth of August, of the same year. It was supported in speeches by Mr. Williams and Mr. E. D. Mansfield. A standing committee of inquiry and correspondence was now appointed, consisting of General William H. Harrison, Dr. Drake, Mr. Mansfield and Judge James Hall, of Cincinnati; General James Taylor, of Newport ; Dr. John W. King, of Covington; and George A. Dunn, of Lawrenceburgh. Mr. Mansfield was made secretary of the committee. He prepared a pamphlet, entitled "Railroad from the banks of the Ohio to the tidewaters of the Carolinas and Georgia," accompanying it with a suitable map. An extensive correspondence was undertaken, information was widely spread, and the project was greatly prompted by the intelligent action of the committee. In August, 1836, Mr. Mansfield (to whose Personal Memories we are indebted for nearly all the material of this paragraph, published an article in the Western Monthly Magazine, a Cincinnati publication, advocating a railway from Cincinnati to Knoxville, Tennessee, and thence through East Tennessee and Alabama to Mobile. Meetings to similar intent were held about the same time in Cincinnati and in Paris, Kentucky; and on the fourth of that month a great "Southwestern Convention" was held at Knoxville. It was attended by delegates from nine States—Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama—among whom Messrs. Mansfield and Drake, Governor Vance, Alexander McGrew, and Crafts J. Wright represented Ohio; and General Taylor, M. M. Benton and J. G. Arnold were present from Newport and Covington. Much controversy occurred at this meeting as to the proper termini in Ohio and the south—which was happily settled long after, as all the world knows, by Cincinnati herself at the north, and in the other direction by the convergence of lines upon Chattanooga—which was scarcely thought of in the earlier day, being then merely " Ross's Landing of the Cherokees," so called from its neighborhood to the headquarters of the Cherokee chief, John Ross, in a village still called Rossville, which acquired peculiar renown in connection with the ill-starred battle of Chickamauga. Mr. Mansfield wrote an elaborate report of the Knoxville meeting for the next number of the Western Monthly; and there the project rested, substantially, for many years. The present road was built solely by the city of Cincinnati, in charge of a board of trustees, created under an act of the legislature May 19, 1869. By successive acts the city was authorized to issue its bonds to the total amount of eighteen million dollars, of which the whole amount has actually been voted, and estimates for the completion of the road remain, amounting to nearly three million dollars. In 1872 ten million dollars were voted, of which seven million dollars bear seven per cent. interest, the rest seven-thirty; in 1876 six million dollars—three million, one hundred and forty thousand two hundred dollars gold six per cents, and two million, eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars seven-thirties; in 1878 two million dollars seven per cents; and, as noted above, there is a prospect of further call upon the city for a large sum. Some of the grants were not obtained without great difficulty; and one vote, in 1876, for two million dollars, was defeated, though by the meagre majority of two hundred or less. Under another act of the legislature, more hopeful and satisfactory in its terms, it secured a favorable vote the same year, by two thousand majority. The law had to be tested in the courts, however, and was sustained. HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO - 215 The construction of the road was begun December, 1873, and two-thirds of the heavy work was done by the close of 1875. July 23, 1877, it was open to Somerset, Kentucky, one hundred and fifty-eight and three-tenths miles, for passenger trains, and September 13th to freight trains, and was run to that point, under a license from the trustees, by an organization of citizens called the Cincinnati Southern railroad company. The rest of the line was opened December 9, 1879, to Bogie's Station, six miles from Chattanooga, whence it at present enjoys the facilities of another road for entering its virtual southern terminus at the latter place. May 23, 1879, the license of the other company having terminated; the line was leased to a private corporation known as the Cincinnati railroad company, by which it has since been operated. The length of the route from Cincinnati to Chattanooga is three hundred and thirty-six miles, with seventeen and four-tenths miles of sidings. Much of it is laid with steel rails, and it is accounted in all respects one of the best constructed of American railways. Some of the finest triumphs of engineering achieved in any country are apparent upon its route. It passes forty-seven wrought iron bridges and viaducts, thirteen wooden bridges, twenty-seven tunnels, one of them four thousand seven hundred feet through, besides many deep cuts in the rock. Its completion after so many struggles, and at so much cost, furnished an occasion of great rejoicing to the people at both ends of and all along the line. The inaugural excursion of southern visitors, and the banquet, with its brilliant oratory and abounding good fellowship, formally celebrated the event in Cincinnati, March 18, 1880. The contract for the Southern railway bridge, which stretches from the foot of Horne street to the Kentucky shore near Ludlow, west of Covington, was let in 1875. It was not completed, however, until after important divisions of the road were opened; and the Cincinnati travellers and shippers experienced great inconvenience for want of it. High water in the Ohio delayed its construction, and once swept away the trestle-work of the longest span ; but in 1877 the bridge was completed and occupied. It is used solely for railroad business. There are also important bridges over the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers. It is an interestin1866cident in the history of this enterprise866t in 1r866 Mr. David Sinton, the Cincinnati millionaire, offered to undertake the construction of a railroad from the city to Chattanooga, if six million dollars were given to him as a bonus. The offer was not accepted, and an attempt was made to raise a stock subscription for the road. It reached eight hundred thousand dollars, and there paused, as did the project. However, out of the rough surveys made by interested parties about or soon after this time, and the consequent estimates that the road could be built for ten million dollars, grew the pressure upon the legislature for authority to vote aid to the road, and the subsequent votes which have saddled such an enormous debt upon the city. THE KENTUCKY CENTRAL The main line of this road extends from Covington to Lexington, ninety-nine miles, a branch road from Paris to Maysville bringing up the total to one hundred and forty-eight and one-half miles. The Covington & Lexington railroad company was chartered in 1849, and the road opened in 1856. The section between Paris and Lexington was built by the Maysville & Lexington railroad company, and opened in 1859. These roads were sold under foreclosure in 1865, and the purchasing bondholders organized under the title of the Kentucky Central association. The Kentucky Central railroad company, their successors, was chartered March 20, 1875, and took possession May 1, 1875. The Maysville & Lexington railway was transferred to this company November 17, 1876. THE LOUISVILLE, CINCINNATI AND LEXINGTON. The total length of lines owned, leased, and operated by this company is two hundred and thirty-two and nine-hundredths miles. The main road stretches between Louisville and Lexington, and between the junction there and Newport. The company owning this road was the result of a consolidation, September 11, 1869, of the Louisville & Frankfort railroad company, charteed March 11, 1847, completed September 3, 1851, and the Lexington & Frankfort railroad company, chartered February 28, 1848, and finished March 19, 1849. For ten years before consolidation they were operated under the .same management, dividing the net earnings in proportion to length of time. The Cincinnati Short Line railroad was built by the two companies jointly. They assumed the title of Louisville, Cincinnati & Lexington railroad company, and issued joint mortgage bonds secured on all these properties. The line was opned July r1, 1869. The leased lines are the Louisville Railway Transfer, the Elizabethtown, Lexington & Big Sandy railroad, and the Shelby railroad. The Newport and Cincinnati bridge is used under the joint guarantee of this company, and the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis railway company. The company became involved in financial difficulties, and the property was sol October r1, 1877, to its present owners. THE COVINGTON, FLEMINGSBURGH AND POUND GAP. The line of this road lies between Covington, Kentucky, and Pound Gap, Virginia, a distance of two hundred and fifty miles. It was opened to Flemingsburgh in 1877, and to Hillsborough, eighteen miles from Johnson, in 1878. This short line from Johnson to Hillsborough is all that was recently in operation. In 1879 the name was changed to Licking Valley railroad. Its construction is still in progress. FOREIGN ROADS. A number of important railways traverse the city and county with their trains of cars, and enter the city of Cincinnati, but upon the tracks of other roads, which they have leased or otherwise secured the right to use. Among these are the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati & Indianapolis, to which we have given some special notice; the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis; the Cincinnati & 216 - HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO. Muskingum Valley; the Baltimore & Ohio; the Cincinnati, Wabash & Michigan; the Cleveland, Mount Vernon & Columbus; the New York, Pennsylvania & Ohio (lately the Atlantic & Great Western); the Cincinnati, Hamilton& Indianapolis ; the Whitewater valley; the Fort Wayne, Muncie &Cincinnati; the Cincinnati, Richmond & Chicago; the Grand Rapids & Indiana; two lines popularly known as "the Dayton Short Line & Columbus," and "the Dayton Short Line & Sandusky," and the Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis & Chicago. These roads are important to the city and to Hamilton county; but as neither gave origin to these lines or furnished anything but the occasion for their coming hither, their history is not, in general, considered as legitimately belonging to this narrative. A number of foreign roads, whose track or whose trains, in some instances, have small chance of ever reaching Cincinnati, have borrowed its imposing name to incorporate with their titles, by reason of the prestige they would receive from it, or because, at the time of the organization of their companies, there was some hope that they would actually enter the Queen City. Such are the Cincinnati, Lafayette & Chicago; the Cincinnati, Rockport & Southwestern; the Cincinnati, Richmond & Fort Wayne; the Cincinnati, Sandusky & Cleveland; the Columbus, Springfield & Cincinnati; the Chicago, Cincinnati & Louisville: the East Alabama & Cincinnati; and the Cincinnati, Cumberland Gap & Charleston railroads. The last two are quite remarkable instances. Both are mere local roads, the one operating but forty miles, and those in Tennessee, the other but twenty-seven and a half, and in Alabama. Both are hopelessly bankrupt, and struggling almost from the beginning to maintain an existence. Neither has the smallest likelihood, in all probability, of making Cincinnati a terminus—if, indeed, such hope was ever entertained by their projectors. Added to these may be a number of railroads now dead and gone, so far as the old names are concerned, their corporate existence having been lost, merged in that of other companies. There is a pretty long list of these, showing how desirable the name of Cincinnati has been thought to be by the railway managers and builders. Such were the Cincinnati & Indianapolis Junction; the Cincinnati & Chicago Air Line; the Cincinnati & Martinsville; the Cincinnati & Southwestern; the Cincinnati & Zanesville; the Cincinnati, Batavia & Williamsburgh; the Cincinnati, Dayton & Eastern; the Cincinnati, Lexington & East Tennessee; the Cincinnati, Logansport & Chicago; the Cincinnati, Pennsylvania & Chicago; the Cincinnati, Huron & Fort Wayne; the Cincinnati & Whitewater Valley; the Cincinnati, Wilmington & Zanesville; the Dayton & Cincinnati; the Pittsburgh, Columbus & Cincinnati; the Hillsborough & Cincinnati; the Indianapolis & Cincinnati; the Jackson, Fort Wayne & Cincinnati; the Louisville, Cincinnati & Charleston; the Sandusky & Cincinnati; and the Sandusky, Dayton & Cincinnati. Requiescat in pace. RAILROADS TO COME. Some of the Hamilton county railroads incorporated of late years are: The Cincinnati & Blanchester North eastern, termini at Cincinnati and Columbus, capital stock five hundred thousand dollars, date of filing certificate in secretary of State's office, January 30, 1878; the Cincinnati & Hamilton Narrow Guage, capital stock five hundred thousand dollars, date of filing certificate May 21, 1878; Cincinnati Surburban Steam railway, wholly in Hamilton county, termini at Cincinnati and Madisonville, capital stock three hundred thousand dollars—June 22, 1878; Cincinnati & Walnut Hills railway, further terminus at Mason, Warren county, capital stock one hundred and fifty thousand dollars—October 31, 1878; Cincinnati, Portsmouth & Eastern narrow-guage, further terminus at a point opposite Huntington, West Virginia, capital stock five hundred thousand dollars—February 24, 1879 ; Cincinnati & New Richmond, capital stock one hundred thousand dollars—October 20, 1879; and the Cincinnati, Walnut Hills, Avondale & Union Village, capital stock one hundred thousand dollars—July, 1880. CITY RAILROAD INDEBTEDNESS. The Little Miami railroad received aid from the city, as a municipality, to the amount of one hundred thousand dollars, in 1844, to defray in part the expense of its extension. The Ohio & Mississippi had six hundred and sixty thousand dollars from the same source—half the sum in 1842 and the remainder in 1853. Under an ordinance of the city council, of date July 3, 1850, bonds were issued April I, 1851, to the amount of one hundred thousand dollars; to aid the construction of the Cincinnati & Hillsborough railroad. In 1850-1 the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in bonded indebtedness was voted to the Eaton & Hamilton railroad; in 1851, one hundred thousand dollars to the Covington & Lexington road; in 1854, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to the Marietta & Cincinnati; and, at sundry times during the past few years, the enormous aggregate sum of eighteen million dollars to the Cincinnati Southern. One and a half millions were voted under the Boesel railroad law to aid a line projected eastwardly along the Ohio, but the act was declared unconstitutional by the superior court of the State; and the bonds, after some further litigation, were recovered from the State office in which they had been deposited. The rest of the Cincinnati railroads, we believe, have been built without corporate aid from the city. HISTORY OF HAMILTON, COUNTY, OHIO - 217 CHAPTER XVI. CANALS. Full free o'er the waters our bonny boat glides, Nor wait we for fair winds nor stay we for tides; Through fair fields and meadows—through country and town, All gaily and gladly our course we hold on. From the lake to the river, from river to lake, Full freighted or light, we still leave a wake; From the West bearing all that a rich country yields, To the labor which makes the morn glad in the fields. Returning again from the river's bright breast, Bear the products of climes far off to the West, And add to the backwoodsman's comfort and ease All that commerce can give by its spoils of the seas. —Old Canal-boat Song. THE MIAMI CANAL This enterprise was a part of the canal policy of the State from the beginning. As early as 1815, Dr. Drake, of Cincinnati, had suggested the desirability and practicability of a canal from that place to Hamilton, on the Great Miami, and in his book, the Picture of Cincinnati, clearly foreshadowed and intelligently discussed the enterprise which took form in the next decade. Governor Ethan Allen Brown, a citizen of Hamilton county, was the first of Ohio governors in his annual messages to press upon the legislature the necessity of an internal improvement system. December 14, 1819, in his inaugural address, he said: "If we would raise the character of our State by increasing industry and our resources, it seems necessary to improve the communications, and open a cheaper way to market for the surplus produce of a large portion of our fertile country." Thereafter, in his messages to the general assembly, Governor Brown regularly and faithfully called the attention of that body to the inauguration and maintenance of a system of canals within the State, and the adoption of preliminary measures to that end; and in a special communication of January 20, 1820, to the house of representatives, in answer to a resolution of that branch, he presented elaborate, clear, and well-informed statements concerning the practicability of connecting the Ohio river with Lake Erie by canals. In this message Governor Brown treated at some length, and with evident favor, the project of a canal through the Miami country. He thought that in the valleys of the Mad river little more than excavation and a few locks of slight lift would be required. Down that river to Dayton and thence down the Great Miami, no very serious obstruction would occur until the hills below Franklin were reached. Near Middletown, as the governor sagaciously observed, the choice of two routes could be had, either down the river to its mouth, or "to turn the canal south into the valley of Mill creek, towards Cincinnati—the line ultimately adopted. A resolution had already been moved at the previous session for the appointment of a joint committee of the House and Senate, to consider the subject of a canal between the two waters, and the expediency of employing engineers to ascertain the most eligible routes therefor, and a resolution passed in committee of the whole, of the House, at the same session, for the appointment of such engineer or engineers—but final action on it had been postponed. The next meeting of the law-making power, however, brought not a mere resolution, but a formal ace, dated February 23, 182o, providing for the appointment of three commissioners to locate a route between Lake Erie and the Ohio, and the employment of a competent engineer and all necessary assistants. The action of the commissioners was made contingent upon the consent of Congress to make a sale of public lands within the State to the State, for the purposes of this enterprise; and that provision caused the temporary failure of the movement, since a measure looking to such sale, although it passed the Senate of the United States, remained among the unfinished business of the lower branch at the next session of Congress, and did not become a law. A new act was passed by the general assembly, January 31, 1822, "authorizing an examination into the practicability of connecting Lake Erie. with the Ohio river by a canal." It named—and herein is the germ of the Miami canal in legislation—among the routes to be surveyed, one "from the Maumee river to the Ohio river." The governor was authorized to employ "an approved practical engineer" to make the surveys and estimates upon this and three other routes named in the act—all between the lake and the river—with a view to ascertain the practicability of uniting those waters by a navigable canal." Messrs. Benjamin Tappan, Alfred Kelly, Thomas Worthington, Ethan A. Brown, Jeremiah Morrow, Isaac Minor, and Ebenezer Buckingham, jr.. were appointed commissioners by the act, to cause the necessary examinations, surveys, and estimates to be made. By a supplementary act of January 27, 1823, Micajah T. Williams, another distinguished citizen of Hamilton county, was appointed a commissioner, vice Jeremiah Morrow, resigned. Most of the other commissioners remained in service until the canals were constructed, and did eminently faithful, self-sacrificing, and useful duty. Mr. James Geddes (afterwards Judge Geddes), of New York, was employed as engineer, on the recommendation of the governor and canal commissioners of that State. He retired within the year and was succeeded in September, 1814, by Mr. David S. Bates—also of New York, and also subsequently "Judge"—who remained in the canal service of Ohio as principal engineer until March, 1829. Mr. Samuel Forrer, one of the resident engineers, "whose industry, skill, and general information," say the commissioners in their second annual report, "promise him a high standing for usefulness and respectability as a civil engineer," was the officer in charge of the preliminary and subsequent work upon the Miami canal from the first, and, after the completion of the same to Dayton, was superintending engineer of the line from Cincinnati to that place. The law providing for the surveys required the examination of a route "from the Maumee river to the Ohio river." The commissioners, however, in their first annual report (January, 1823), set forth among others, but much more briefly than the others, a "route by the 28 218 - HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO. sources of the Maumee and the Great Miami rivers." They say: The summit bed of these rivers is ascertained to he about three hundred and ninety-nine feet above Lake Eric, and by estimation five hundred and fifty feet above the surface of the Ohio river at low-water at Cincinnati. This summit must be supplied with water by a feeder from the Great Miami, at or near the mouth of Indian creek. From this source the engineer has strong hopes that a sufficient supply can he obtained, but if it should fail, he represents that a copious supply can be drawn through a feeder from Mad river. This canal will be longer than either of the others, and the amount of lockage much greater. From this summit level the engineer states there is no obstacle to prevent a canal from being carried over into the valley of the Auglaize river, which will be much shorter than following the valley of the St. Mary's river. The appended report of Mr. Geddes, the engineer, locates this summit, or the separation of the Maumee and Miami waters, "near the road, about three miles north of Fort Loramie's," and adds: "Supposing the summit cut down to three hundred and eighty-three feet above Like Erie level, and the descent to the Ohio at Cincinnati estimated at four hundred and thirty-four feet, it would make nine hundred and seventeen feet lockage." In the second annual report of the commissioners, January, 1824, the Maumee and Miami line receives further, though still, in comparison with the other routes, brief discussion. It is remarked: The unhealthiness of the season, and other causes which have operated to retard the prosecution of the surveys and-examinations, have prevented the location of a ling of canal on the western or Miami route. The canal line south from the summit would probably cross Mad river near its mouth, thence pursuing the valley of the Great Miami to a point where it may be thrown into the valley of Mill creek, thence along that valley to Cincinnati. The waters of Mad river may be thrown into this line near Dayton, and those of the Great Miami below, and, hieing conducted in sufficient quantities to the termination of the canal at Cincinnati, would afford power for extensive and valuable hydraulic works, which are there much needed. This line of canal would pass through a section of country inferior to none in America in the fertility of its soil or the quantity of surplus productions it is capable of sending to market. That part of the canal between Dayton and Cincinnati may be with great ease supplied with water, could probably lie constructed for a moderate expense, and would become a source of immediate and extensive profit. In May and the summer of 1824, a locating party, under the direction of the commissioners, ran a line for the proposed "western or Miami route," from the Loramie's and St. Mary's summit to Ohio, by way of Cynthiana, the immediate valley of Loramie's creek to its junction with the Great Miami, thence by the valley of the latter stream and the adjacent upland country to Jackson's creek, at a point seventeen miles above Dayton, to that place by the valley of Mad river, and to Cincinnati by Middletown and the Mill Creek valley. "From Dayton to Cincinnati this line, sixty-six miles seventy-one chains in length, assumes generally a favorable aspect. Two distinct lines were run into the city—one line to the upper plain, keeping up the level and entering without locks until near the point of discharge into the Ohio at the mouth of Deer creek; the other locking down the valley of Mill creek past the western part of the upper plain to the lower plain of the city." By December, 1825, however, when the commissioners made their fourth annual report, a decision was made in favor of the present line, on the high level, notwithstanding an estimated difference of forty-five thousand dollars in cost in favor of the lower line. The commissioners say: Upon a full investigation of the question of the proper point to terminate the canal, which was made in August last, it was deemed advisable, with reference to all the interests connected with the canal, notwithstanding the estimated difference of cost, to adopt the line upon the high level and terminate the canal at the mouth of Deer creek. The superior value of the hydraulic privileges afforded by the high level; the favorable position which the mouth of Deer creek affords, when compared with the other point of termination, for a safe harbor for steam and canal boats, both in high and low waters; the great facility it affords over any other, for the construction of dry and wet clocks, which the increasing commerce of the Ohio river and the interests of the public will soon imperiously require; and the prominent and mutual advantage, both to the surrounding country and the city, which the level uninterrupted by locks for a distance of ten miles back into the country will afford; all conspired to produce the conviction upon the minds of the commissioners that the adoption of that line was required by the general interests connected with the work. It will lie recollected that, in the last report of the board, calculations were made upon the extent and value of the supplies of water which it was believed could be drawn from the Miami river to this point. With a view to this object, the capacity of the upper end of this section of the canal is enlarged for the purpose of receiving and passing forward a greater supply of water. The first ten miles from the river are constructing, with an increase of one foot in depth, and three feet and a half in the width of the top water line; and the next fifteen miles, with an increase of half a foot in depth, and one foot end three-fourths in the width of the top water line. The increase of the capacity of the canal must proportionally enhance its cost, and is another reason for the apparent disparity between the savings on this line, at contract prices, compared with original estimates, and the other lines tinder contract. It is, however, believed that the cost of this increase of the capacity of a part of the line will be more than reimbursed to the State in the value of the surplus water which is anticipated from it. Propositions have already been made by responsible individuals to contract for the use of the whole amount of surplus water which can be delivered at Cincinnati at the price placed upon it in the last report of the board---twenty thousand dollars. The latter part of this passage implies that the great work of internal improvement had been commenced by the State in the more material portions of it. This was the case with both the Ohio & Erie and the Miami canals. On the second of February, 1825, an act of the legislature had been approved "to provide for the internal improvement of the State of Ohio, by navigable canals." It passed the senate by a vote of thirty-four to two, and the house of representatives by fifty-eight to thirteen. It authorized and empowered the canal commissioners to commence and prosecute the construction of a canal on the Muskingum and Scioto route, so called, from the mouth of the Scioto to Lake Erie, by way of the Licking summit and the Muskingum river, "and likewise a navigable canal on so much of the Maumee and Miami line as lies between Cincinnati and Mad river, at or near Dayton." This was in pursuance of the next preceding report of the commissioners, which, after full discussion of the several routes proposed, declared it practicable to make canals upon those routes, "both of which," they say, "are of unquestionable importance, and ought to be made by the State, as soon as the necessary funds can be obtained and the wants of the people require them. They therefore recommended a law for the entire construction of the Ohio & Erie, and for that part of the Miami stretching from Cincinnati to Dayton—" leaving to succeeding legislatures to determine when it will be HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO - 219 expedient to complete the western line to the foot of the Maumee rapids." In making recommendation of the line from Cincinnati to Dayton, "the board had been influenced by a consideration of its cheapness, when corn-pared with the summit level or northern part of the route—the ease and certainty with which it can be supplied with water—the population and products of the country through which it passes--the present accommodations which it will give—and the certainty which it promises of profit to the State immediately after its completion." The total length of the line, as surveyed from Cincinnati to the foot of the Maumee rapids, was now reported at two hundred and sixty-five miles, forty-two chains, with a lockage of eight hundred and eighty-nine and four-tenths feet, and estimated cost of two million fire hundred and two thousand four hundred and ninety-four dollars. The estimated revenue from this division recommended to be constructed, for the first year after completion, was twenty thousand dollars from tolls, and a like sum from the rents of water-power. Contracts for a number of sections of the authorized lines were promptly made. The first ground broken on the Miami route was at Middletown, in 1825. Mr. S. S. L'Hommedieu, in his pioneer address; April 7, 1874, says that Governor Dewitt Clinton came from New York to perform the ceremony, and that with him was the Hon. Jeremiah Morrow, then governor of Ohio. They were escorted to the place selected for throwing up the first spadeful of earth by the Cincinnati Guards and the Hussars. The ceremony was duly performed, amid loud acclamations. The people felt that the canal was really begun, and would soon be a practical and useful reality. In the city, where real estate had much declined, it speedily recovered its prices, and then advanced, and an impetus was given to all kinds of business. The work went briskly forward. By the middle of December, 1825, thirty-one thousand nine hundred and ninety-four dollars had been expended upon the line. Within a year from that time, thirty-one of the forty-three miles under contract were completed, and the twelve miles remaining, mostly heavy work at the lower end of the canal, were in such a state of forwardness as to promise completion by the first of the ensuing July. The finished work included nine locks, five aqueducts, twenty stone culverts of three to twenty feet chord, with numerous paved waste weirs, road bridges, etc. There were some delays in the further prosecution of the work; but before the close of 1827, this first division of the canal, extending from the head of Main street in Cincinnati to the mouth of the Miami feeder, then reported as a distance of forty-four miles, was completed. The commissioners say, in their sixth annual report: On the twenty-eighth of November, three fine boats, crowded with citizens, delighted with the novelty and interest of the occasion, left the basin six miles north of Cincinnati, and proceeded to 'Middletown with the most perfect success. The progress of the boats was equal to about three miles an hour, through the course of the whole line, including the detention at the locks and all other causes of delay, which are * The boats were obliged to start from this point on account of the accidental breach in one of the aqueducts, which prevented for a little longer time navigation between the basin and the city. numerous in a first attempt to navigate a new canal, when masters, hands, and horses are inexperienced. and often the canal itself is in imperfect order. The boats returned to the basin with equal success, and it is understood have made several trips since, carrying passengers and freight. On the fourth of July next previous, the first boat navigating the Ohio & Erie canal had descended triumphantly from Akron to Cleveland, thirty-eight miles, and was received, in its passage and its entry into the city, with great acclamation. The entire line of the Miami canal, so far as authorized, was now under contract, and to be completed by the first of Tune, 182S. By the seventeenth of March damages caused by floods and the effects of the winter upon the lower part of the route had been repaired so as to admit of the passage of boats through from Middletown to Cincinnati. The work elsewhere was unavoidably retarded, to the disappointment of the commissioners; and it was not until the month of November that the en. tire division from Cincinnati to Dayton was finished. Even then the dam over Mad river, for the feeder from that stream, was incomplete, from injuries received in the floods of January preceding. A feeder from the Miami, a short distance above Middletown, had also been made, and a short side-cut to connect the canal with Hamilton had been constructed at a cost of six to seven thousand dollars, of which all but two thousand was contributed by the citizens of Hamilton and Rossville. The length of the division was sixty-five miles, twenty chains, and thirty-four links, with nearly three miles of side-cut and feeders. It had cost seven hundred and forty-six thousand eight hundred and fifty-two dollars and seventy cents, averaging per mile ten thousand nine hundred and eighty-three dollars and twelve cents—an excess above the estimates, when 'the cost of connecting the canal with the Ohio river is added, of about one hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars. The tolls collected on the lower division of the canal, to the first of December, 1828, amounted to eight thousand and forty-two dollars and seventy cents. The tolls received during the next year, the first after the completion of the division, were twenty thousand nine hundred and forty-one dollars and thirty-six cents—a remarkably close approximation to the estimate of the commissioners some years before. The canal board now reports, among other matters: "Navigation has been successfully maintained throughout the season on the canal, with the exception of the interruptions caused by two successive failures in one of the heavy embankments on Mill creek, by which it was suspended in the aggregate considerably upwards of a month. . . . . . Contracts have been made for the extension of this canal from the head of Main street in the city of Cincinnati, to the termination of the level at the head of Broadway, and for the construction of a section crossing the immediate valley of Deer creek. It is proposed to put the remainder of the line to the river under contract in the ensuing spring." While the work was in progress, in August, 1828, the Western Pioneer, published at Cincinnati, thus made a note of it: The Ohio & Miami canals are advancing steadily. The latter is ex- 220 - HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO. pected to be completed and in operation this fail. This grand enterprise has thus far equaled, if not exceeded, the best expectations of its most sanguine friends, whether in regard of the expense of construction, the utility of the improvement itself, or the amount of revenue arising from it. Forty-two miles only of the Miami canal are in operation, and on that part of the line, too, where, from its contiguity to market, it is best needed, and of course least used. But on this part of the line, we were told by the collector of tolls at Cincinnati a few days ago, that the amount received for the quarter ending on the seventeenth ultimo, for tolls, was about three thousand dollars. It should also be taken into the account that this quarter occupies that part of the year when least produce is taken to market, and when of course the smallest amount of revenue would arise from it. In 1824, as before indicated, the remainder of the route, the division running northwardly from Dayton to the Maumee at Fort Defiance, and thence northeastward along that river to its mouth at the western extremity of Lake Erie, had been located in good part, and the next year it was regularly surveyed. This extension was not in the canal policy of the State, as determined by the original law for the construction of the canals; but happily, by the generous action of the General Government, it was able in a very few years to provide for the completion of the work. In response to a memorial from the State legislature, backed by pressing solicitations of some of the most eminent citizens of Ohio, Congress, in the session of 1827-8, made a grant of a quantity of public land equal to one-half of five sections in width, on each side of the route proposed for the canal extension, between Dayton and the Maumee, so far as the same should be. located through the Congress lands. In return it was simply provided that all persons or property of the United States should forever pass over said canals free of tolls. The amount of this grant, as afterwards ascertained, was three hundred and eighty-four thousand acres. Estimating its value by the minimum price put by the act of Congress upon the reserved alternate sections (two dollars and fiity cents per acre), the market value of the grant at that time was very nearly a million of dollars (nine hundred and sixty thousand dollars). The same act granted the State half a million acres more, in aid of its canals. This grant was conditioned upon the completion within five years of the canals already begun at the time of the passage of the act, and the grant for the Miami extension upon the commencement of the work within five and its completion within twenty years, on penalty of payment by the State to the Federal Government of the value of the lands. The legislature accepted the former, but declined the latter grant, as it was feared that it might be impossible to fulfil the conditions. The Solons of the State were not over-anxious to pledge it to the excavation of a costly work through a long stretch of country, most of which was still a howling wilderness. In this exigency, by great good fortune, Judge Jacob Burnet, of Cincinnati, in the session of 1829-30, took his seat in the Senate of the United States, as successor of General Harrison, at once manifested a lively interest in the subject, and presently secured the passage of an act repealing the twenty-year and forfeiture clauses, and making the grant equivalent to five sections for every mile of canal located on land previously sold, as well as that unsold, by the General Government. In pursuance of that measure, the land was located under direction of the governor, and by it, undoubtedly, the extension was effected. The Miami Canal, in its earlier years at least, was a financial success. In 1838, the net tolls, beyond repairs and expense of collection, etc., were two hundred and nine thousand seven hundred and seventy-three dollars, or a little more than four and a half per cent. on the cost of construction. In the year 1840, the tolls paid over six per cent. on original cost. The canal is still used to advantage, but the extreme lower end of it, in the city of Cincinnati, was abandoned some years ago, and turned into Eggleston avenue sewer. As these pages are closed a measure is being pressed upon the legislature to allow the abandonment of the canal below the basin near Cumminsville, and give up the berme-bank of the six miles thus vacated for railroad purposes, letting the College Hill narrow-guage, and very likely other railroads, into the city on their own tracks. A MIAMI SHIP CANAL. For many years, and especially during those immediately following the late war, the project was mooted of deepening and widening the Miami canal, so as to permit the passage of lake-going vessels to and from the Ohio river. At last Congress, during the session of 1879—'80, took cognizance of the movement as of national importance, and made a grant from the treasury sufficient to secure a preliminary survey of the line with a view to its conversion into a ship canal. Captain W. S. Williams, of Canton, in this State, a gentleman of long experience in engineering on Ohio canals, began the survey during the warm season of 1880 from Cincinnati to Paulding Junction, one hundred and eighty miles, whence the work was done to the other terminus by Mr. Ward, a Newark engineer. They report informally that it will be necessary to widen the canal to nearly double its present width, deepen it twelve to fourteen feet, strengthen its banks and solidify its bed, and change its course slightly at some points in Cincinnati, probably abandoning the present canal bed from some point near Cumminsville, and there turning the new canal into Mill creek. The last suggestion is considered specially important in the city, as enabling its people to carry out the plans so frequently discussed there and by the State board of public works, of abandoning the present canal bed in the city limits, using it for railroad purposes, and converting Mill creek bottom into a great basin where coal could be shipped without transfer direct from the river to the north, and where an immense amount of water power could be obtained without risk on the part of the State or city. Final action in the matter has not yet been taken, as these pages go through the press. THE WHITEWATER CANAL. This extended to Cincinnati from the village of Harrison, on the Whitewater river and Indiana State line, reaching the city by way of the Whitewater, Great Miami and Ohio valleys, entering the latter between Cleves and North Bend, through a tunnel of one thousand and nine hundred feet length, upon the old farm HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO - 221 of General Harrison, near his tomb. The Dry Fork of Whitewater and the Little Miami Were crossed by aqueducts; Mill Creek by a stone arch. The work was twenty-five miles long, and at Harrison joined the Whitewater canal of Indiana, which extended fifty-five miles further, to the National road at Cambridge, in that State. By this connection it made tributary to Cincinnati a rich and fertile district in Indiana, with an area of nearly three thousand square miles, and was justly considered in its day an important improvement. It also brought a large amount of water-power to the city, estimated as sufficient to turn ninety runs of millstones. The means for its construction, about eight hundred thousand dollars, were furnished as follows: Fifty thousand dollars by the State of Ohio, forty thousand dollars by the city of Cincinnati, ninety thousand by citizens, in stock subscriptions for shares of one hundred dollars each; and the remainder was raised upon bonds and certificates. A great freshet in December, 1846, swept off the feeder, darn, and a mile of the canal south of Harrison; and in order to make the necessary repairs, the city was again called upon to lend its credit to the amount of thirty thousand dollars to the canal; which was accordingly repaired the next summer and fall. During the latter season the entrance to the canal at Harrison was destroyed by high water, which compelled a relocation on higher ground the next year, which the city's financial aid enabled the company to make. The second disaster is rather difficult to account for, if the tradition be true that the enterprise was in view so long before its consummation as 1832, when Mr. E. D. Mansfield and others of its intelligent friends at Cincinnati availed themselves of the great flood of that year to get the high water mark at Harrison for a point of beginning, and thence make their calculations for the descent to the city. The canal was not finished until more than ten years afterwards, the first boat upon it reaching the city in November, 1843. It was used for a number of years, but in 1863, having been abandoned, its bed within the city limits and the Pearl street market place were leased to the Cincinnati & Indianapolis railroad company, for their tracks and depot, for the sum of six thousand dollars per annum for the first five years. The Plum street depot stands at or near the old terminus, and the remainder of the canal bed or tow-path to Harrison is partly used by the railroad. THE LOUISVILLE SHIP CANAL. An enterprise in which shippers and merchants in the Miami country have always felt a healthy interest is the canal around the falls of the Ohio, at Louisville. In 1818 the Jeffersonville canal company, for the purpose of constructing such canal, was incorporated by the Indiana legislature, and Jacob Burnet, Henry Bechtle, and other prominent Cincinnatian3, were named in the act as among the directors. The charter was not to expire until 1899, but the canal was to be finished under it by the close of 1824. It was to be two and three-fourths miles long, with an average depth of forty-five feet, a width at the bottom of fifty feet, and at the top of one hundred. The capital stock was one million of dollars, in twenty thousand fifty dollar shares. The privilege of a lottery, with prizes amounting to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, was also granted, and was faithfully used. The lottery was drawn in April, 1819, and the work seems to have been waiting for it, since it was begun almost at once, during the next month. The subsequent history of the canal does not specially concern this chapter. CHAPTER XVII. ROADS. THE ROAD is that physical sign or smybol by which you will best understand any age or people. If they have no roads they are savages; for the road is a creation of man and a type of civilized society. . . . If you inquire after commerce, look at the roads, for roads are the ducts of trade. If you wish to know whether society is stagnant, learning scholastic, religion a dead formality, you may learn something by going into universities and libraries—something also by the work that is doing on cathedrals and churches, or in them; but quite as much by looking at the roads. For if there is any motion in society, the road, which is the symbol of motion, will indicate the fact. Where there is activity, or enlargement, or a liberalizing spirit of any kind, then there is intercourse and travel; and these require roads. So if there is any kind of advancement going on, if new ideas are abroad and new hopes rising, then you will see it by the roads that are building. Nothing makes an inroad without making a road. All creative action, whether in government, industry, thought, or religion, creates roads. REV. HORACE BUSHNELL, D. D., "The Day of Roads." THE PIONEER ROADS. It is interesting to note that the very first publication, in any relation to the founding of Cincinnati, brings in the mention of a road. September 6, 1788, when Messrs. Denman & Filson put forth through the Kentucky Gazette a prospectus for the laying-off a town "upon that excellent situation" opposite the mouth of the Licking, "on the northwest side of the Ohio," they accompanied it with this announcement: "The fifteenth day of September is appointed for a large company to meet in Lexington and make a road from there to the mouth of the Licking, provided Judge Symmes arrives, being daily expected." The judge did not go to Lexington at that time; but the party was nevertheless formed without his presence, and executed its purpose within a week, Judge Symmes meeting it when he "landed at Miami" (the site of Cincinnati) on the twenty-second of the same month, and enjoying its company and protection as an escort during his explorations to the northward, until their discontent at his unwillingness to let them destroy a small Indian camp, with its wretched inhabitants, sent them home. But, however well marked or "blazed" was their road through the wilderness, it was little used at first by the Losantiville people or their occasional visitors. The common way from the Miami settlements to Lexington continued to be by Limestone Point (Maysville), going thither by boat, keeping carefully on "the Virginia (Kentucky) side," through fear of the lurking savage, and 222 - HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO. thence sixty-four miles to the metropolis of the infant State, all the way through almost pathless and uninhabited woods, except at the Blue Licks, where a man named Lyons had established a station and was engaged in salt-making. At Lexington, if a person wished to go to the east, it was customary to post written notices upon the trees that at such a date a party would be made up at Crab Orchard to traverse the wild country beyond that; and when a sufficient company had assembled to give reasonable promise of successful defence against any ordinary war-party of Indians, it would take its departure from that point, bearing all needed supplies with them. Occasionally travellers would go to Limestone and pole, paddle, or pull their way up to Wheeling; but the other is said to have been the way usually preferred. After the organization of Hamilton county, the public officers who lived at Columbia commonly came down to Cincinnati in canoes or crossed and walked down "on the Virginia side," crossing again When they reached the mouth of the Licking. Even the canoe journey was not always safe, as an incident related in chapter VIII of this work shows. As for the densely wooded road or trail along the north bank between the two places, it was long unsafe, as the bloodthirsty savage still haunted the hillsides and thickets. The first road out of Losantiville in this direction ran nearly upon the subsequent line of the turnpike—as it needs must, from the narrowness of the strip much of the way between the hills and the river. It was, of course, not far from the river bank, and was but wide enough for the movement of a single wagon. Approaching the town above Deer creek, near the foot of Mount Adams, it descended westwardly about four hundred feet, crossed the creek, trended off in a southerly direction along its west bank with an ascending grade, which led up to the line of the present Symmes street, thence running directly toward and past Fort Washington, diverging east of it, at the intersection of Lawrence, going on both sides of the fort, and so entering the village. To the north and northwest of the town, the valley of Mill creek offered the only routes over which a road could reach the city without climbing steep hills and descending sharp declivities. Out this way, accordingly, the old "Hamilton road" gradually pushed—at first to Ludlow's station, and then, under military auspices, to Fort Hamilton, and so on through the chain of military posts to the Maumee. In its use for the march of the legions of the United States this road, for some years in the last decade of the last century, deserved almost the fame of the great Roman ways by which the conquering eagles were carried to the very borders of the empire. For many years it furnished the only convenient avenue of access to the back country; and in 1841 it is noted by Mr. Cist as, what it may still be considered, being the most important wagon road out of Cincinnati. About that time a turnpike of twenty-five miles length was constructed upon its line. One of the early wagon roads of greatest importance to Cincinnati was the "Anderson State road," connecting it with Chillicothe. It was a common road, cut through the woods at the expense of the State (about eighteen dollars a mile, exclusive of bridges), by Colonel Richard C. Anderson, of Chillicothe. It was made about forty feet wide, and was long the great thoroughfare between Cincinnati and the east. The "Milford pike" runs near its line for a large part of the distance. ROAD LEGISLATION. One of the first acts of the territorial legislature, sitting in Cincinnati in the fall of 1799, was for the maintenance of a road from Marietta to that place, and to provide generally for the opening of roads and highways. Almost ten years before this, at the very first assembling of the general court of quarter sessions of the peace for Hamilton county, created by Governor St. Clair, and meeting a month afterwards (February 2, 1790) in Cincinnati, prompt attention had been given to similar matters. A "road or path" was ordered to he opened from the village to "the city Miami," by way of Ludlow's trace and Stone lick, and down the west side of Mill creek and along the south foot of the Ohio river hills to the said "city Miami,"—Symmes' prospective city, now occupied in part by the villages of North Bend and Cleves. The citizens of the eastern terminus were to be called out to open and finish the road to the west border of Cincinnati township; and Mr. Darius Curtis Orcutt was appointed commissioner of highways to rally for a similar purpose, at their end of the line, the good people of Miami township. The whole was to be finished within two months. On the petition of citizens of Columbia, another road was ordered to be opened—one from Fort Miami to "the south corner of Captain Mercer's lots," thence to the Little Miami, and along that stream to William Flinn's house, and thence by Turkey bottom to the most convenient ford to Wickersham's mill. This was to be completed in one month. The overseer of roads for Miami township reported a road as completed from North Bend to South Bend. Now came the tug of war. Then, as later, there was vigorous shirking of road duty. At the next session of the court came James Goudy, overseer of highways for Cincinnati township, and reported that he had duly notified the citizens within his bailiwick to turn out for the construction of the road to South Bend, but that " the greatest majority refused to attend on his notification, and in consequence the road remains unfinished." Whereupon the court promptly mulcted the recusant Cincinnati township in the sum of one hundred "Spanish milled dollars." By the same authority, under a jurisdiction which would be considered quite unique in these days, certain streets were directed to be opened through Columbia and the adjoining lands. Luke Foster, Ephraim Kibby, and Joseph Reeder were appointed commissioners to "regulate the streets" in that village, and similarly Isaac Martin, Jacob Reeder, and James Cunningham were appointed to open and clear out the streets of Cincinnati. At a session of the court in 1792, the opening of a road, petitioned for by the Cincinnatians, was ordered to be made nearly on a direct line on Mill creek, by " Lud- HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO - 223 low's station, White's improvement, Cunningham's section of land, and as far as Runyan's improvement." FURTHER FROM THE RECORDS. The following items, never before published, have been carefully abstracted from the most authentic records and traditions, and are alike instructive and interesting, inasmuch as they inform the reader at once of the first roads in the Symmes purchase. In connection are found the old army traces, location of first stations, and names of pioneer surveyors, and their assistants. Where names are given in clusters of two or three, the name of the principal surveyor comes first; and herein many readers will find, for the first time, perhaps, their grandfather's, or great-grandfather's, name in print: 1790. Load laid out from Cincinnati, northwest along Ludlow's trace to Mill creek, two miles above its mouth, thence towards the Ohio and on to the city Miami. Surveyor, Darius Orcutt. 1790. Road from Fort Miami, by Captain Mercer's to Little Miami river, by William Flinn's house, along 'Turkey bottom to Wickersham's mill. 1790. Road reported completed from North to South Bend. 1790. Streets improved in Columbia. Ephraim Kibby; Joseph Reeder, James Matthews, assistants. 1790. Road out through western Cincinnati. Supervisor, James Goudy. 1790-1. Cincinnati streets cleared and improved. Isaac Martin; Jacob Reeder, James Cunningham, assistants. 1792. Road from Cincinnati up Mill creek, by Ludlow's station (now the north part of Cumminsville) thence to White's station at the third crossing of Mill creek (upper Carthage now), and on to Cunning-ham's, and thence to Runyan's improvement. John Wallace; John Vance, Daniel Griffin, assistants. [This track has been marched over by parts of four armies-Clark's in 1780; Harmar's left wing, 1790; St. Clair's main body in 1791, and Wayne's center and left wing in 1793.] 1792. Road from Wickersham's mill to Mercershurgh (Newtown). Ichabod B. Miller; James Flinn, Captain Benjamin Davis, assistants. 1792. Road from Cincinnati to the mouth of the Little Miami river. John S. Gano; Hon. William McMillan, John Ludlow, assistants. 1792. Road from Nine Mile run, on St. Clair's trace, to Fort Hamilton, by Dunlap's station. John Dunlap; John Shaw, Mr. Barrett, assistants. 1792. John Wallace's time extended on the road to Runyan's, till February, 1793. 1792. Improvement of the road from Columbia by Crane's tan-yard, by K ibby's saw-mill, in the direction of White's trace to Mill creek, and along St. Clair's trace to Fort Hamilton. Ephraim Kibby; Daniel Griffin, Jacob White, assistants. 1793. Survey of a road from near John Ludlow's and Samuel Robertson's, in Cincinnati, up Front street to the Little Miami. John S. Gano; William McMillan, John Ludlow, assistants. 1793. Streets cleared in Cincinnati towards Gordon's inn and James Wallace's place, in the western part of the town. 1793. Road ordered from Libby's draw-well, in Columbia, to Crawfish creek, thence to Duck creek, thence to a run in Samuel Bonnell's section, thence to the "great road" (now Lockland avenue, Carthage) thence northeast to White's ford, a distance of six miles Born Columbia to White's station. John Reily; William Brown, Aaron Mercer, assistants. 1793. Road laid out from "the Garrison," at Mercersburgh (Newtown), to Dry run, thence by Broadwell's clearing to the Little Miami, three miles and thirty-six poles. Ichabod Miller; Moses Broadwell, Isaac Morris, assistants. 1793. Road improved front the mouth of Mill creek west to North Bend. James Goody; David E. Wade, Samuel Dick, assistants. 1793. Road corrected and improved from Cincinnati up to Columbia. Ephraim Libby; Francis Dunlavy, William Brown, assistants. 1793. Road surveyed and reported, "beginning at the meetinghouse in Cincinnati," thence towards Mill creek, thence to the fifth mile tree at Ludlow's station, thence northeast to Mill creek (second cross- ing), thence to the seventh mile tree, to the eighth mile tree, thence to White's ford, thence to the tenth, eleventh, twelfth; thirteenth, and fourteenth mile trees at Runyan's. John Wallace, John Vance, 1793. Survey of road from Cincinnati to the mouth of the Big Miami. Aaron Caldwell; John Brasher, Ephraim Brown, assistants. 1793. Road from Cincinnati by 'Miller's tan-yard to Deer creek. Levi Woodward; Jacob Reeder, Samuel Martin, assistants. 1793. Cincinnati streets ordered cleared from Front street, near McMillan's and Freeman's, to the hill tops, near Winthrop Sargent's house. 1794. Road laid out from John Ludlow's place in Mount Pleasant, eastward to Griffin's station, on Mill creek (now the western part of Carthage), thence to Tucker's station, thence to the great road leading to Hamilton. John Wallace; John Vance, Henry Tucker, assistants. 1794. Road laid out from near Gano's and Stites's houses, in Columbia, to Round Bottom. Ira Dunlavy, John Gerrard. 1794. Fourteen miles of road improved between White's ford and Fort Hamilton. John Wallace ; Jacob White, John Winans, assistants. 1794. Road granted from Covalt's station, on the Little Miami, to White's station, on Mill creek. Abraham Highly; John Dunlap, Jacob White, assistants. 1795. Road laid out from Main street, Cincinnati, northeast nearly on Harmar's trace (six miles,) "to the road connecting Columbia and White's station." [General Harrison went out over this trace in 1793, with the right wing of Wayne's army.] 1795. Road established and improved from Captain Benham's lot, in Cincinnati, eastward by Hunt's tan-yard, five miles to Columbia. Levi Woodward; George Gordon, James Cox, assistants. 1795. Road laid out from mouth of Little Miami three miles, to Wickersham's mill. Ichabod Miller; Ignatius Ross, Richard Hall, assistants. 1795. Streets cleared for village of Manchester (now in Adams county). Nathaniel Massie; William Ludsom, George Edginton, assistants. 1795. Road surveyed from Cincinnati, by Freeman's station, on Mill creek, to the Big Miami. 1795. Road from Fairfield, seven miles, to Colerain. Ephraim Libby; Benjamin Davis, Charles Bruce, assistants. 1796. Road laid out from the mouth of the Little Miami, up the Ohio river, thirty-two miles. Ichabod Miller; John Whetstone, Ignatius Ross, assistants. 1796. Road from "Wallace's run on Fort Hamilton road," nine miles, to Morrill's station. Henry Weaver; Joseph Williams, James Cunningham, assistants. MORE STATE LEGISLATION. The attention given to roads in this county in the early day and as the county filled up, is further shown by the fact that, of. the eighteen acts passed by the State legislature relating to Hamilton county, between the years 1803 and 1846, seven concern the opening or maintenance of wagon roads. The act of February 11, 1829, authorized the county commissioners to levy any sum not exceeding one and one-third mills upon the dollar, on the grand levy, for road purposes, for the permanent improvement of roads leading from the city of Cincinnati; "provided, the taxes levied in said county for road and county purposes shall not in any one year exceed three mills upon the dollar, on the grand levy or tax duplicate." Another act, approved February 6, 1832, further authorizes the commissioners to levy road taxes, but modified the act of 1829 so as not to allow the tax to be discharged by labor upon the roads. (There was evidently some shirking more than a generation after Overseer Goudy made his report.) Another, of March 2, 1840, provides that such part of the road taxes as are collected in Cincinnati shall be paid into the treasury of the city, and be expended for the construction and repair of bridges therein 224 - HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO. and the clearing of market spaces; and for no oher purpose. March 7, 1842, was approved an act authorizing the commissioners to make a graded road from the town of Carthage to the head of Vine street, Cincinnati—the famous "Carthage road," furnishing perhaps the most pleasant drive out of Cincinnati and one of the most useful of wagon-ways for other purposes. The same day another act permitted the taking of stone, gravel and other materials, to make and repair roads in Hamilton county, from any neighboring uncultivated lands, or to make drains and ditches through such lands for the improvement of the roads; the owner or occupant of the lands to designate the place whence the materials were to be taken, or the commissioner, if he refused or failed to do so; a fair compensation in money was to be paid; and if the parties could not agree upon the same, the amount was to be determined by three disinterested freeholders, mutually chosen by the parties. The same day, too—which seems to have been prolific in benefits to Hamilton county highways—the county commissioners were authorized by the legislature to contract with the Cincinnati & Harrison Turnpike company to allow the citizens of the western part of the county to use the three miles of their road next the city free of toll, in consideration of the transfer to said company of any or all stock in it held by the city. A similar act, January 10, 1843, allowed the sale to the county of two miles of said turnpike, nearest the city, for six thousand dollars in the stock of the corn• pany and the payment of not exceeding two thousand dollars into the bridge fund. February 15, 1844, the commissioners were enabled to make and advertise the public of rules and regulations to prevent the "tight locking" of any wagon carrying wood or stone into Cincinnati, over any of the macadamized roads, if the loads exceeded fifteen hundred pounds; a violator of the law to pay a fine not exceeding one dollar for the first offence or two dollars for subsequent offences. They might also adopt any rules and regulations for the protection of bridges, not conflicting with the Federal and State constitutions—which seems a rather superfluous provision. But enough, perhaps, of legislation in behalf of local roads. CINCINNATI ROADS IN 1819. The Cincinnati directory for this year supplies some valuable hints as to the wagon roads tributary' to the place just then made a city, by its table of distances—from Cincinnati to Detroit, Vincennes, Pittsburgh, New Orleans via Lexington, Nashville, and Natchez, Greenville .via Dayton, Chillicothe via Lebanon, and the same place via Williamsburgh. It notes of the bridge accommodations in and about the city, that within two or three years two bridges had been built within the limits of Cincinnati—one three hundred and forty feet long, at the confluence 0f Deer creek with the Ohio, the other a few squares north. One had also been constructed over the mouth of Mill creek, near the west end of the city, by Ethan Stone. It was a toll bridge, and considered one of the finest in the State. Further notice will be given it, together with mention of other early bridges, in the third division of this book. TURNPIKES. About 1830 the era of turnpikes, or macadamized and toll roads, set in. Several years previously, however, in 1823, a charter had been granted to the Columbus & Sandusky turnpike company, which, although aided by a Congressional land-grant in 1827, took seven years to build its road; and then it was little better than a common clay or mud road, and was almost impassable at some seasons. So loud were the complaints of the peo ple concerning it that the legislature unconditionally repealed its charter in 1843. In 1826 only one turnpike road was in operation in the State, though several companies had obtained charters. This was the road from the mouth of Ashtabula creek, on Lake Erie, near which is the present city of, Ashtabula, to Warren. Another was building from Cleveland, through Medina, to Wooster; and still another from Cleveland via Ravenna and New Lisbon, to the Ohio. Three per cent. of the proceeds of sales of public lands in Ohio were paid in those days by the general government into the State treasury, to aid in the constriction of roads. In February, 1828, the Cincinnati, Columbus & Wooster turnpike company was chartered, with a capital of two hundred thousand dollars, in shares of fifty dollars; and five years thereafter companies were chartered to build macadamized or turnpike roads from Cincinnati to Lebanon and Springfield, and from Cincinnati to Harrison. By 1836 the great Cumberland or National road, built on a straight line, with stone set on edge, and culverts of cut stone, at a cost of fifteen thousand dollars per mile, -had reached Columbus, and was thereafter rapidly pushed westward to Indianapolis. It intersected several leading roads from Cincinnati, and a great impetus was given by it to turnpike building. Already, by the close of 1835, Cincinnati had the Milford turnpike, by which connection was had with Chillicothe; the Harrison pike, running from the city twenty miles to the State line at Harrison, was in progress, to be finished the next year, and was to be carried on to Brookville, Indiana; and there were also the Cincinnati, Columbus & Wooster, and the Cincinnati, Lebanon & Springfield turnpike companies, not very active, it is true, but still holding in abeyance their rights to build roads. Covington had also now its turnpike road to Georgetown and Lexington. By 1841 the Harrison turnpike had been completed via Miamitown, and likewise the Hamilton pike; the turnpike to Lebanon and Springfield was in operation, running due north to Waynesville, and intersecting the National road at Springfield, so making a continuous macadamized and paved road to Columbus. The Cincinnati and Wooster pike was finished to Goshen, Clermont county, about twenty miles out. Several connecting turnpikes also brought tribute to the city. MR. CIST ON ROADS. In his volume representing Cincinnati in 1857, Mr. Charles Cist has the following notes on the roads of Hamilton county: Until about 1835, the roads around Cincinnati were of that primitive character which is peculiar to all new countries. Many of them led MR. AND MRS. CHARLES SIMONSON. Barney Simonson came from New Jersey to Crosby (now Harrison) township in 1818, and settled upon an unimproved tract (except for a small cabin upon it), the same in part as that owned and occupied by his son Charles. Here he spent the remainder of his life, and died here upon the seventy-third anniversary of his birth. He was born in September, 1774, and departed this life the same day of September, 1847. His wife was Catharine Freeman, also a native of New Jersey. She was of English and Holland stock; her husband of Holland and French extraction. Their children are ,consequently of mixed Dutch, British, and Gaelic blood, with the first predominating. They had eleven children, six daughters and five sons, viz: Nancy, Catharine, Lavina, Eliza, Sarah, Julia Ann, Jesse, Aaron, Barney, William, and Charles. Only Eliza (now Mrs. Joseph Atherton, of Stark county, Illinois), Sarah (Mrs. Milton Atherton, of Kewanee, Illinois), Julia. Ann (now Mrs. James Rinice, residing near Indianapolis), Barney (a farmer in Indiana near Harrison), Jesse (a farmer and formerly a local Methodist preacher near Eaton, Preble county), and Charles are now living; and the last named, the youngest, is in his sixty-fifth year. He was born at the ancestral home in Essex township, Essex county, New Jersey, October 13..1816, and was consequently scarcely two years old when brought by his parents to this county. He received his formal education altogether in the schools of the neighborhood, and shared the labors of the farm with his father until the death of the latter, when he came into possession of the home farm, to which he has since made large additions by purchase, his place now comprising four hundred and forty acres of fine woodland and cleared fields. The elegant mansion he now occupies was built in part by his father, over half a century ago, to which handsome improvements were effected by him about 1866, making of it a spacious, comfortable, and very sightly residence. All the buildings upon the premises, including two large barns, a carriage-house, and other conveniences, are painted white, making the group a conspicuous object in the landscape for a long distance in nearly every direction, even from New Haven village, in Crosby township. The residence and part of the outbuildings appear to advantage in the illustration accompanying this sketch. Mr. Simonson has served as township trustee two or three terms, but has not been much in public life, confining his attention almost exclusively to the legitimate business of a farmer. He takes no very active part in politics, but aims always to vote, especially at elections of importance. He has been a Republican ever since the party had a being, and was a Whig before that. His first vote for President was cast for General Harrison, in 1840. He is not a member of any religious or secret organization, except the Patrons of Husbandry, which has a society in the neighborhood, called Sand Hill Grange, No. 700. He lives the quiet life of a prosperous farmer, in tranquillity and ease, much respected by his fellow citizens, and bidding every way fair to leave an honorable record behind him. Mr. Simonson was married to Miss Liscetta Baughman, of the same neighborhood, October 4, 1844. The children by this marriage are two —Jennie, now the wife of Mr. Harry Bowles, a farmer in Whitewater township, married to him May 2, 1866; and William H., married Sally Wright, November 19, 1868, and residing upon his farm, formerly a part of his father's estate, in a dwelling a short distance south of the old home. Mr. Simonson lost his first wife by death December 3, 1849, and was remarried June 25, 1863, to Miss Sarah Jane Gard, of an old Preble county family, her father having immigrated thither in 1812. She is the second daughter of Littlejohn and Nancy (Wright) Gard, born at the old home in Preble county, February 28, I830. She was trained in the home schools of that day, and remained with her parents upon a farm at Sugar Valley, between Eaton and Camden, Preble county, until her marriage with Mr. Simonson, as before noted. She is of a family of school-teachers, and doubtless owes much of her intelligence and quickness of mind to this fact, but she herself never taught school. She is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church at Harrison. Since her marriage, which has proved childless, her history has been, of course, identified with that of her husband, in the peaceful life of the farm and homestead.