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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: CHR-CLI |
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CINCINNATI , a city and the county-seat of Hamilton county, Ohio, U.S.A., on the Ohio river, opposite the mouth of the Licking, about too m. S.W. of Columbus, about 305 M. by rail S.E. of Chicago, and about 76o m. (by rail) W.S.W. of New York
Cincinnati is situated on the N. side of the river upon two terraces or plateausthe first about 6o ft., the second from loo to 150 ft., above low waterand upon hills which enclose these terraces on three sides in the form of an amphitheatre, rising to a height of about 400 ft. on the E. and of about 46o ft. on the W., and commanding magnificent views of the river, the valley, the numerous suburbs, and the more distant wooded hills. About half of the hill-enclosed plain lies S. of the river, and it is upon this southern half that Covington, Newport, Dayton, Ludlow and other Kentucky suburbs of Cincinnati are situated. Cincinnati has a river-frontage of about 14 m., extends back about 6 m. on the W. side in the valley of Mill Creek, and occupies a total area of about 44 sq. m. Since 1867 it has been connected with Covington by a wire suspension bridge designed by John A. Roebling, and rebuilt and enlarged in 1897. This bridge is 1057 ft. long between towers (or, including the approaches, 2252 ft. long), with a height of for ft. above low water, and has a double wagon road and two ways for pedestrians. By two bridges there is direct communication with Newport; by one, that of the Cincinnati Southern railway, with Ludlow; and by one (Chesapeake & Ohio; see vol. v., p. 109) 1 Previous census reports of the total population were as follows: (181o) 2540; (1820) 9642; (1830) 24,831; (1840) 46,338; (185o) 115,435; (186o) 161,044; (1870) 216,239; (188o) 225,139. In the territory within a radius of to m. of the United States government building there was in 1900 a population of about 480,000. with West Covington. On the terraces the streets generally intersect at right angles, but on the hills their directions are irregular. To the " bottoms " (which have suffered much from floods') between Third Street and the river the manufacturing and wholesale districts are for the most part confined, although many of these interests are now on the higher levels or in the suburbs; the principal retail houses are on the higher levels N. of Third Street, and the handsomest residences are on the picturesque hills before mentioned, in those parts of the city, formerly separate villages, known as Avondale, Mt. Auburn, Clifton, Price Hill, Walnut Hills and Mt. Lookout. The main part of the city is connected with these residential districts by electric street railways, whose routes include four inclined-plane railways, namely, Mt. Adams (268 ft. elevation
Buildings, &c.Brick, blue limestone, and a greyish buff freestone are the most common building materials, and the city has various buildings of much architectural merit. The chamber of commerce (completed '889), designed by H. H. Richardson, is one of the finest public buildings in the United States. Its walls are of undressed granite, and it occupies a ground area of too by 1 50 ft. The United States government building (designed by A. B. Mullet, and built of Maine and Missouri granite) is a fine structure in classic style, 36o ft. long and '6o ft. wide, and 41 storeys high; its outer walls are faced with sawn freestone. It was erected in 1874'885 and cost (including the land) $5,250,000. The city hall
Angel
hall
' The most destructive floods have been those of 1832, '847, 1883, 1884 and 1907; the highest stage of the water before 1904 was 71 ft. 1 in. in '884, the lowest ft. 'in. in 188'. One of the most noted pieces of monumental art in the United States is the beautiful Tyler Davidson bronze fountain in Fountain Square (Fifth Street, between Walnut and Vine streets), the business centre of the city, by which (or within one block
Parks.In '908 Cincinnati had parks covering about 540 acres; there are numerous pleasant driveways both within the city limits and in the suburban districts, and several attractive resorts are within easy reach. Eden Park, of 214 acres, on Mount Adams, about' m. E. of the business centre and near the river, is noted for its natural beauty, greatly supplemented by the landscape-gardener's skill, and for its commanding views. The ground was originally the property of Nicholas Longworth (1782'863), a wealthy citizen and well-known horticulturist, who here grew the grapes from which the Catawba wine, introduced by him in '828, was made. The park contains the art museum and the art academy. Its gateway, Elsinore, is a medieval reproduction; other prominent features are the reservoirs, which resemble natural lakes, and a high water tower, from which there is a delightful view. In Burnet Woods Park, lying to the N.E. of Eden and containing about 163 acres, are the buildings and grounds of the University of Cincinnati, and a lake for boating and skating. The zoological gardens occupy 6o acres and contain a notable collection of animals and birds. Other pleasure resorts are the Lagoon on the Kentucky side (in Ludlow, Ky.), Chester Park, about 6 m. N. of the business centre, and Coney Island, about 'o m. up the river on the Ohio side. Washington (5.6 acres), Lincoln ('o acres), Garfield and Hopkins are small parks in the city. In 1907 an extensive system of new parks, parkways and boulevards was projected. Spring Grove cemetery, about 6 m. N.W. of Fountain Square, contains 600 acres picturesquely laid out on the park plan. It contains many handsome monuments and private mausoleums, and a beautiful mortuary chapel in the Norman style. Water-Supply.A new and greatly improved water-supply system for the city was virtually completed in 1907. This provides for taking water from the Ohio river at a point on the Kentucky side opposite the village of California, Ohio, and several miles above the discharge of the city sewers; for the carrying of the water by a gravity tunnel under the river to the Ohio side, the water being thence elevated by four great pumping engines, each having a daily capacity of 30,000,000 gallons, to settling basins, being then passed through filters of the American or mechanical type, and flowing thence by a gravity tunnel more than 4 M. long to the main pumping station, on the bank of the river, within the city; and for the pumping of the water thence, a part directly into the distributing pipes and a part to the principal storage reservoir in Eden Park. Education.Cincinnati is an important educational centre. The University of Cincinnati, originally endowed by Charles M'Micken (d. '858) and opened in 1873, occupies a number of 372 handsome buildings er9cted since 1895 on a campus of 43 acres in Burnet Woods Park, has an astronomical observatory on the highest point of Mt. Lookout, and is the only strictly municipal university in the United States. The institution embraces a college of liberal arts, a college of engineering, a college of law (united in 1897 with the law school of Cincinnati College, then the only surviving department of that college, which was founded as Lancaster Seminary in 1815 and was chartered as Cincinnati College in 1819), a college of medicine (from 1819 to 1896 the Medical College of Ohio; the college occupies the site of the old M'Micken homestead), a college for teachers, a graduate school, and a technical school (founded in 1886 and transferred to the university in 1901); while closely affiliated with it are the Clinical and Pathological School of Cincinnati and the Ohio College of Dentistry. With the exception of small fees charged for incidental expenses, the university is free to all students who are residents of the city; others pay $75 a year for tuition. It is maintained in part by the city, through public taxation, and in part by the income from endowment funds given by Charles M'Micken, Matthew Thorns, David Sinton and others. The government of the university is entrusted mainly to a board of nine directors appointed by the mayor. In 1909 it had a faculty of 144 and 1364 students. Lane Theological Seminary is situated in Walnut Hills, in the north-eastern part of the city; it was endowed by Ebenezer Lane and the Kemper family; was founded in 1829 for the training of Presbyterian ministers; had for its first president (18321852) Lyman Beecher; and in 1834 was the scene of a bitter contest between abolitionists in the faculty and among the students, led by Theodore Dwight Weld, and the board of trustees, who forbade the discussion of slavery in the seminary and so caused about four-fifths of the students to leave, most of them going to Oberlin College. The city has also Saint Francis Xavier College (Roman Catholic, established in 1831 and until 1840 known as the Athenaeum); Saint Joseph College (Roman Catholic, 1873); Mount St Mary's of the West Seminary (Roman Catholic, theological, 1848, at Cedar Point, Ohio); Hebrew Union College (1875), the leading institution in the United States for educating rabbis; the largely attended Ohio Mechanics' Institute (founded 1828), a private corporation not conducted for profit, its object being the education of skilled workmen, the training of industrial leaders, and the advancement of the mechanic arts (in 1907. there were in all departments 1421 students, a large majority of whom were in the evening classes); an excellent art academy, modelled after that of South Kensington; the College of Music and the Conservatory of Music (mentioned below); the Miami Medical College (opened in 1852); the Pulte Medical College(homeopathic; coeducational; opened 1872); the Eclectic Medical Institute (chartered 1845); two women's medical colleges, two colleges of dental surgery, a college of pharmacy, and several business colleges. The public, district, and high schools of the city are excellent. The City (or public) library contained in 1906 301,380 vols. and 57,562 pamphlets; the University library (including medical, law and astronomical branches), 8o,000 vols. (including the Robert Clarke collection, rich in Americana, and the libraryabout 5000 vols.of the American Association for the Advancement of Science); the Young Men's Mercantile library, 70,000 vols.; and the Law library, 35,000 vols.; in addition, the Lloyd library and museum of botany and pharmacy, and the library of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio (1831), which contains a valuable collection of rare books, pamphlets and manuscripts, are worthy of mention. Art, &c.The large German population makes the city note-worthy for its music. The first Sangerfest was held in Cincinnati in 1849, and it met here again in 1870, when a new hall was built for its accommodation. Under the leadership of Theodore Thomas (18351905), the Cincinnati Musical Festival Association was incorporated, and the first of its biennial May festivals was held in 1873. In 18751878 was built the large Springer music hall, named in honour of Reuben R. Springer (1800-1884), its greatest benefactor, who endowed the Cincinnati College of Music (incorporated in 1878), of which Thomas was director in 18781881. Until his death Thomas was director of the May festivals also. The grounds for the music hall were given by the city and are perpetually exempt from taxation. The great organ in the music hall was dedicated at the third of the May festivals in 1878. The Sangerfest met in Cincinnati for the third time in 1879, and its jubilee was held here in 1899. By 188o the May festival chorus had become a permanent organization. The city has several other musical societiesthe Apollo and Orpheus clubs (1881 and 1893), a Liederkranz (1886), and a United Singing Society (1896) being among the more prominent; and there are two schools of musicthe Conservatory of Music and the College of Music. The city has large publishing interests, and various religious (Methodist Episcopal and Roman Catholic) and fraternal periodicals
Among the social clubs of the city are the Queen City Club, organized in 1874; the Phoenix Club, organized in 1856 and the leading Jewish club in the city; the Cuvier Club, organized in 1871 and originally an association of hunters and anglers for the preservation of game and fish; the Cincinnati Club, the Business Men's Club, the University Club, the Art Club, and the Literary Club, of the last of which many prominent men, including President Hayes, have been members. This club dates from 1849, and is said to be the oldest literary club in the country. There are various commercial and trade organizations, the oldest and most influential being the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce and Merchants' Exchange, which dates from 1839. Administration.The city is governed under the municipal code enacted by the state legislature in 1902, for the provisions of which see Ouio. Among the institutions are the City infirmary (at Hartwell, a suburb), which, besides supporting pauper inmates, affords relief to outdoor poor; the Cincinnati hospital, which is supported by taxation and treats without charge all who are unable to pay; twenty other hospitals, some of which are charitable institutions; a United States marine hospital; the Longview hospital for the insane, at Carthage, ro m. from the city, and belonging to Hamilton county, whose population consists largely of the inhabitants of Cincinnati; an insane asylum for negroes; six orphan asylumsthe Cincinnati, two Protestant, two Roman Catholic, and one for negroes; a home for incurables; a day nursery; a fresh-air home and farm for poor children; the Franciscan Brothers' Protectory for boys; a children's home; two widows' homes; two old men's homes; several homes for indigent and friendless women; a foundling asylum; the rescue mission and home for erring women; a social settlement conducted by the University of Cincinnati; the house of refuge (185o) for " the reformation and education of homeless and incorrigible children under 16 years of age "; and a workhouse for adults convicted of minor offences. Communications.Cincinnati is a railway centre of great importance and has an extensive commerce both by rail and by river. It is served by the following railways: the Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis (Pennsylvania system), the Cleve-land, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis (New York
1 The Cincinnati Southern railway is of especial interest
forming part of the so-called Queen & Crescent Route to New Orleans), the Erie, the Baltimore & Ohio South-Western (Baltimore & Ohio system), the Chesapeake & Ohio, the Norfolk & Western, the Louisville & Nashville, the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton, the Cincinnati Northern (New York Central system), the Cincinnati & Muskingum Valley (Pennsylvania system), and the Cincinnati, Lebanon & Northern (Pennsylvania system). Most of these railways use the Union Station; the Pennsylvania and the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton, have separate stations. The city's river commerce, though of less relative importance since the advent of railways, is large and brings to its wharves much bulky freight, such as coal, iron and lumber; it also helps to distribute the products of the city's factories; and the National government has done much to sustain this commerce by deepening and lighting the channel. Formerly there was considerable commerce with Lake Erie by way of the Miami & Erie Canal to Toledo; the canal was completed in 183o and has never been entirely abandoned. Industries.Although the second city in population in the state, Cincinnati ranked first in 1900 as a manufacturing centre, but lost this pre-eminence to Cleveland in 1905, when the value of Cincinnati's factory product was $166,059,050, an increase of 17.2 % over the figures for 1900. In the manufacture of vehicles, harness, leather, hardwood lumber, wood-working machinery, machine tools, printing ink, soap, pig-iron, malt liquors, whisky, shoes, clothing, cigars and tobacco, furniture, cooperage goods, iron and steel safes and vaults, and pianos, also in the packing of meat, especially pork,' it ranks very high among the cities of the Union. The well-known and beautiful Rookwood ware has been made in Cincinnati since 188o, at the Rookwood Pottery (on Mt. Adams), founded by Mrs Bellamy (Maria Longworth) Storer, named from her father's home near the city, the first American pottery to devote exclusive attention to art ware. The earlier wares were yellow, brown and red; then came deep greens and blues, followed by mat glazes and by " vellum " ware (first exhibited in 1904), a lustreless pottery, resembling old parchment, with its decoration painted or modelled or both. The clays used are exclusively American, much being obtained in Missouri. Among the more important manufactures of the city in 1905 were the following, with the value of the product for that year: clothing ($16,972,484), slaughtering and meat-packing products ($13,446,202), foundry and machine-shop products ($11,528,768), boots and shoes ($10,596,928), distilled liquors ($9,609,826), malt liquors ($7,702,693), and carriages and wagons ($6,323,8o3).2 History.Cincinnati was founded by some of the first settlers in that part of the North-West Territory which afterwards became the state of Ohio. It lies on part of the land purchased for himself and others by John Cleves Symmes (17421814) from the United States government in 1788, and the settlement was established near the close of the same year by immigrants chiefly from New Jersey
of the city's trade had always been with the Southern states, and the urgent need of better facilities for this trade than the river and existing railway lines afforded led to the building of this road by the city. The work was carried on under the direction of a board of five trustees appointed by the superior court of Cincinnati in accordance with the so-called Ferguson Act passed by the Ohio legislature in 1869, and the railway was completed to Chattanooga in February r880. For accounts of the building and the management of the railway, see J. H. Hollander, The Cincinnati Southern Railway; A Study in Municipal Activity (Baltimore, 1894), one of the Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science; and The Founding of the Cincinnati Southern Railway, with an Auto-biographical Sketch by E. A. Ferguson (Cincinnati, 1905). Before 1863 Cincinnati was the principal centre in the United States for the slaughtering of hogs and the packing of pork. The industry began as early as 1820 and rapidly increased in importance, but after 1863 Chicago took the lead. s These figures are from the U.S. census, and are of course for Cincinnati proper: some of the largest industrial establishments, however, are just outside the city limitsamong these are manufactories of soap (the Ivory Soap Works), machine tools, electrical machinery and appliances, structural and architectural iron work, and office furnishings.ville (L for Licking; os, Latin for mouth; anti, Greek for opposite; and vale, French for town), but early in the next year Symmes caused the present name to be substituted in honour of the Order of the Cincinnati, General Arthur St Clair, the governor of the North-West Territory, being then president of the Pennsylvania State Society of the Cincinnati. St Clair arrived about the time the change in name was made, immediately erected Hamilton County, and made Cincinnati its seat of government; the territorial legislature also held its sessions here from the time of its first organization in 1799 until 18or, when it removed to Chillicothe. During the early years the Indians threatened the life of the settlement, and in 1789 Fort Washington, a log building for protection against the Indians, was built in the city; General Josiah Harmar, in 1790, and General St Clair, in 1791, made unsuccessful expeditions against them, and the alarm increased until 1794, when General Wayne won a decisive victory over the savages at Maumee Rapids in the battle of Fallen Timbers, after which he secured their consent to the terms of the treaty of Greenville (1795). Cincinnati was incorporated as a village in 1802, received a second charter in 1815, was chartered as a city in 1819, and received its second city charter in 1827 and its third in 1832; since 1851 it has been governed nominally by general laws of the state, although by the state's method of classifying cities many acts for its government have been in reality special. When first incorporated its limits were confined to an area of 3 sq. m., but by annexations in 1849 and 185o this area was doubled; in 1854 another square mile was added; in 1869 and 187o large additions were made, which included the villages of Sedamsville, Price Hill, Walnut Hills, Mount Auburn, Clintonville, Corryville, Vernon, Mount Harrison, Barrsville, Fairmount, West Fairmount, St Peters, Lick Run and Clifton Heights; in 1872 Columbia, which was settled a short time before Cincinnati, was added; in 1873 Cumminsville and Woodburn; in 1895 Avondale, Riverside, Clifton, Linwood and Westwood; in 1903 Bond Hill, Winton Place, Hyde Park and Evanston; in 1904 portions of Mill Creek township, and in 1905 a small tract in Mill Creek Valley. In 1829 Mrs Frances Trollope established in Cincinnati, where she lived for a part of two years, a " Bazar," which as the principal means of carrying out her plan to benefit the town was entirely unsuccessful; a vivid but scarcely unbiassed picture of Cincinnati in the early thirties is to be found in her Domestic Manners of the Americans (1831). In 1845 began the marked influx of Germans, which lasted in large degree up to 186o; they first limited themselves to the district " Over the Rhine " (the Rhine being the Miami & Erie Canal), in the angle north-east of the junction of Canal and Sycamore streets, but gradually spread throughout the city, although this " Over the Rhine " is still most typically German. For more than ten years preceding the Civil War the city was much disturbed by slavery dissensionthe industrial interests were largely with the South, but abolitionists were numerous and active, and the city was an important station on the " Underground Railroad," of which Dr Norton S. Townshend (181595) was conductor, and one of the stations was the home of Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, who lived in Cincinnati from 1832 to 185o, and gathered there much material embodied in Uncle Tom's Cabin. In 1834 came the Lane Seminary controversies over slavery previously referred to. In 1835 James G. Birney established here his anti-slavery journal, The Philanthropist, but his printing shops were repeatedly mobbed and his presses destroyed, and in January of 1836 his bold speech before a mob gathered at the court-house was the only thing that saved him from personal violence, as the city authorities had warned him that they had not sufficient force to protect him. At the time of the Civil War the city was strongly in sympathy with the North. In September 1862 the city was threatened by a Confederate force under General Kirby Smith, who led the advance of General Bragg's army (see AMERICAN CIVIL WAR). On the 28th of March 1884 many of the citizens met at Music Hall to protest against the lax way in which the law was enforced, notably in the case of a recent murder, when the confessed criminal had been found guilty of manslaughter only. An attack was made on the gaol by the lawless element outside the hall, but was futile,the murderer having been removed by the authorities to Columbus. In its efforts to break into the gaol and court-house the mob was confronted by the militia, and bloodshed and loss of life resulted; during the rioting the court-house was fired by the mob and practically destroyed, and many valuable records were burned. Various important political conventions have met in Cincinnati, including the national Democratic convention of 1856, the national Liberal-Republican convention of 1872, the national Republican convention of 1876, and the national Democratic convention of 188o,by which, respectively, James Buchanan, Horace Greeley, R. B. Hayes and Winfield Scott Hancock were nominated for the presidency. See C. T. Greve, Centennial History of Cincinnati and Representative Citizens (Chicago, 1904), the official municipal documents, the Annual Reports of the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, &c. End of Article: CINCINNATI If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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