Cincinnati City

Ohio With

The reader looks forward to this, the first history of Cincinnati that has yet found itself in print. The writers look back across its half-century of chapters and the century of years embraced by its annals, and have, chiefest of all, to regret many unavoidable errors, both of omission and commission. The more important of these, it is hoped, will appear in our page of errata; but there are still many, doubtless, that have escaped the compilers' attention. In a few cases, discrepancies appear between their statements and those of an extract immediately following. In those instances they must assure the reader that the former rest upon an authority believed to be superior to the other in regard to the matter in hand; but time and space could not always be taken for the discussion and settlement of points concerning which there are variant reports. In all really important matters, they believe the history will be found quite trustworthy, especially when corrected from the page of errata.

For the biographical feature of the work, except so much of it as is embodied in the chapters before the Lth, the writers have not, in general, any responsibility.

Contents Historical

Within the decade whose annals have just been passed in review, fell the birth of Cincinnati township, to which was entrusted, for almost twelve years, the government of Cincinnati village, which it of course contained. The township was created, after Columbia, by the court of general quarter sessions of the peace, which then had jurisdiction in these matters, in 1791. To the time of the erection of these townships, the whole county, which contained but a few hundred white inhabitants, was most conveniently governed as one municipality.

The boundaries of the new township were as follows: Beginning at a point where the second meridian east of the town (Cincinnati) intersects the Ohio; thence down that stream about eleven miles to the first meridian east of Rapid Run; thence north to the Big Miami; thence up that stream to the south line of the military range; thence south to the place of beginning. It comprised nearly the whole of the present city of Cincinnati, the townships of Mill Creek and Springfield, almost the entire tract of Colerain, Green and Delhi, stopping on the north beyond the present dividing line of Hamilton and Butler counties. It was a vast township.

History Of Cincinnati, Ohio

on the Ohio river; thence north to the northwest corner of section seventeen, in fractional range two, township two; thence east nine miles; thence south to the Ohio; thence westward along the Ohio to the place of beginning. These lines enclosed more than half of Delhi township; the eastern half of Green, except the three northernmost sections; the whole of Mill creek, except the northern sections ; and the site of Cincinnati to the range line on the east.

The voters were now instructed to meet at the court house and vote for five justices of the peace. The cattle brand for the township, which the court was required to fix by order, was directed, at the time of the original formation of the township to be the letter B, A having already been assigned to Columbia, and C was assigned to the use of Miami township.

The boundaries of the original great township were of course rapidly cut down as the county filled up. Dayton and other townships in the present Butler county, then in Hamilton, were early set off north of it, beyond the northernmost possessions of the Cincinnati municipality. Colerain, Springfield, and South Bend townships were erected by or during 1795; and when Mill Creek was set off, the township, being already bounded, at the period of its formation, by Columbia township on the east, was shut in to the narrow limits of the fractional surveyed township, now bounded by Liberty street on the north; the Ohio river, which Liberty intersects a little above Washington street, near the southeast corner of Eden park, on the east and south ; and on the west by a meridian not very clearly defined, but probably the range line two miles west of Mill Creek, and now the western boundary of the city. Most of the time since, it may be said, in general terms, that the limits of the township have been nearly coterminous with those of the city in its several extensions.

The Government

of Cincinnati and Cincinnati township, from 1790 to 1792, was, as the oldest records show, under the immediate eye of the court of quarter-sessions and the supreme or territorial court, in one or the other of which sat the Honorables John Cleves Symmes, George Turner, Samuel Parsons, James Varnum, Winthrop Sargent, Governor St. Clair, and the associate judges and justices of the quarter-sessions, with special appointees from among the local prothonotaries, sheriffs, clerks, and constables. At the sitting of the supreme court in Cincinnati in 1792, the Honorable John Cleves Symmes presided, assisted by Judges William Goforth, William Wells, and William McMillan, and Justices John S. Gano, George Cullum, and Aaron Cadwell. Joseph LeSure acted as clerk pro tempore, Israel Ludlow and Samuel Swan being otherwise engaged. John Ludlow, high sheriff, was assisted by Isaac Martin, deputy; while in the call of court appeared Robert Bunten, coroner, and constables Benjamin Orcutt (the crier), Robert Wheelan, Samuel Martin and Sylvanus Revnolds. This court exercised both original and appellate jurisdiction in all things of law, equity, and fact, and that, too, with more force than formality. When convicted, a prisoner was turned over to Sheriff Brown or Ludlow, who, having no sufficient jail, could seldom keep a prisoner more than twenty-four hours. Witnesses were necessarily excused when "taken by the Indians," or "scalped." Plaintiffs and defendants frequently had their cases laid over "until they got back from the campaign;" and the honorable court often vibrated between Isaac Martin's and "the Meeting house," in order to give themselves a chance to lay aside for awhile their official dignity and get ready to appear in their turn in the role of defendants, as very few of the officials escaped from actions of every sort, from top to bottom of the calendar. During the year 1792, and for some years thereafter, Cincinnati was governed by these judicial dignitaries. In . the quarter sessions court Judge William Goforth generally presided, assisted by McMillan and Wells, associate justices, and by 'Squires Gano, Cullum and Cadwell, justices of the peace for the county. This year Samuel Swan succeeded Israel Ludlow as clerk of the court; John Ludlow became sheriff; Samuel Martin, constable; John Ludlow and David E. Wade, overseers of the poor; Isaac Martin, Jacob Reeder, and Ezekiel Sayre, overseers of highways; James Miller, Jacob Miller, and John Vance, viewers of enclosures and appraisers of damages. If to these we add the military authorities, who sometimes ordered everybody into line, it will be seen that Cincinnati was sufficiently governed, containing, as the city and township then did, less than five hundred people. The county commissioners had charge of the public improvements, attended to the taxes and their collection, watched the tax duplicates, managed collectors, and paid out the funds for wolf scalps, for building jails and court rooms, and their own bills for services. The cognomens of those who left their names and deeds on the pages of "the last and only" old worn record are here given as follows : William McMillan, Robert Wheelan, and Robert Benham, 1795-6; Joseph Prince, .,1797-8; David E. Wade, 1799; Ichabod B. Miller, 1800; William Ruffin, 1801-2; John Bailey, 1802-3; William Ludlow, 1803-4, and John R. Gaston, 1804-5. These men served,. three at a time, for a year; some were in office but a year, while others served two or three terms. The commissioners' clerks, under the territorial government, from 1790 to 1803, were Tabor Washburne, 1790 to 1798; John Kean, 1798 to 1799; Reuben Reynolds, 1799 to 1800, and Aaron Goforth, 1800 to 1803.

1 79 1. - Levi Woodward, township clerk; Samuel Martin, constable; John Thompson and James Wallace, overseers of the poor; James Gowdy, overseer of roads; Isaac Martin, Jacob Reeder, and James Cunningham, street commissioners.

1792. - Samuel Martin, constable; John Ludlow and David E. Wade, overseers of the poor; James Miller, Jacob Miller, and John Vance, viewers of enclosures and appraisers of damages; Isaac Martin, Jacob Reeder, and Ezekiel Sayre, overseers of highways.

1793. - Nathaniel Barnes and Robert Gowdy, constables; Jacob Reeder and Moses Miller, overseers of the poor; Joseph McHenry, Samuel Freeman, and Stephen Reeder, viewers of enclosures and appraisers of damages; Isaac Martin, Usual Bates, and John Schooley, overseers of highways.

1794. - Nathan Barnes, Darius C. Orcutt, and Robert Gowdy, constables; James Brady and David E. Wade, overseers of the poor; James Wallace, Levi Woodward, and James Lyon, viewers of enclosures and appraisers of damages; Isaac Martin, Jacob White, and William Powell, overseers of highways.

1795- - Nathan Barnes, Ephraim Carpenter, and Benjamin Van Hook, constables; James Brady and Samuel Freeman, overseers of the poor ; Samuel Dick and Richard Benham, viewers of enclosures and appraisers of damages; James Brady, Levi Woodward, and Samuel Freeman, overseers of highways.

Constables At Court

It may also be of interest to see here the names of all the constables who attended the courts of Hamilton county during the first thirteen years, so far as the records exhibit their names. Many of them were constables of Cincinnati township, but others were from the county at large, though the court records present no facilities for locating them in their respective townships :

The following names and dates of public officers in Cincinnati township, belonging to the later times, have also been picked up in the course of our investigations :