Ohio History Journal

MARTIN BAUM

By GEORGE A. KATZENBERGER The nucleus of the material hereinafter collected is taken from an article1 by the eminent German-American historian, Henry A. Ratterman, who from 1868 to 1887, published Der Deutsche Pionier, in Cincinnati. The historian will note that of all the great nations of west- ern Europe, during the centuries immediately following the dis- covery of America, Germany alone took no official part in the colonization of the newly discovered hemisphere. This was un- doubtedly due to the demoralized condition of Germany in con- sequence of the terrible civil and religious wars that again and again swept over that country. Besides, Germany was not a maritime nation, nor were the Germans by nature inclined to conquest and colonization. With the recovery of Germany after the religious wars which had reduced the population, the Ger- mans, in view of their economic condition, started an enormous movement of emigration to America, and especially to Pennsyl- vania, at the beginning of the last century. Previous to the American Revolution it is estimated that over one hundred thousand Germans and Swiss settled in Pennsylvania alone. The subject of this sketch was a member of one of those families that sought greater opportunities in the new world. Mar- tin Baum, a descendant of an Alsatian family, was born July 15, 1765, according to Tournier, in Hagenau, Alsace. In various brief biographies heretofore included in histories of Cincinnati, it is stated that his father came from Straszburg, Alsace, and settled at Hagerstown, Maryland, where young Martin was born June 14, 1756. This is a pronounced variance in time and place,   1 In Der Deutsche Pionier, X (1878), 42-48. (204)

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MARTIN BAUM                     205

but it is immaterial where he was born, and it is certain that his youth was spent with his parents in Hagerstown, Maryland. During the Revolutionary War, young Baum was active in the business affairs of his father and came in frequent touch with soldiers, which awoke in him an inclination toward a sol- dier's life. This statement, of course, does not agree with an- other version which states that his father died when he was but two years old leaving two children, Jacob, aged four, and Martin. He was sent to Baltimore to study medicine, but did not study long enough to become a practicing physician. However, he improved his knowledge of German, French, and English, besides having some training in Greek and Latin, and some un- derstanding of chemistry. Baum was in charge of the medical supplies and served as field apothecary in the army of General Anthony Wayne in his victorious campaign against the Indians in 1794, was at Fort Greene Ville, and also at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. Various dates are given as to the year when Martin Baum settled in Cincinnati, but there is little doubt that it was after the signing of the Treaty at Greene Ville in August, 1795. Some accounts say that he had been a surveyor in New Jersey, and is supposed to have come west with a surveying party where, by his great tact and judgment in selecting the finest localities in western Ohio, it would seem that he had profited by the knowl- edge thus acquired. Witness his selection of Yellow Springs Greene County, where he once owned three or four sections; also lands near Miamisburg, and again property five or six miles above Hamilton in Butler County. Baum was possessed with great initiative, and had a decided talent for business. Soon after his arrival in Cincinnati, a young settlement at that time, he had erected a two-story, frame build- ing at the northwest corner of Front and Sycamore Streets, where he opened a general store and grew rapidly rich. In 1802, Cincinnati had fifty-six houses, a church, and 315 inhabitants. Baum took an active part in all civic affairs, being interested in building up the settlement. Prior to 1804 he had induced David

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Kautz, Adam Valentine, Kasper Hopel, and other Germans to

settle in Cincinnati.

On the fifteenth day of April, 1803, a month and a half

after the admission of Ohio into the Union, the Legislature

granted a charter running forty years to the Miami Exporting

Company of Cincinnati. The credit for the inception of this

company is due to Jesse Hunt, a merchant, and the primary

object was to build up an organization in the trade with New

Orleans which would afford the advantages of improved trans-

portation and lower rates. Hunt enlisted the interest of repre-

sentative members of the business community and farmers, ef-

fecting a permanent organization on March 4, 1803, at a general

citizens meeting at Grummion's Tavern, with Major William

Ruffin acting as president and Samuel C. Vance as secretary.

After the procurement of the legislative charter, directors

were elected, June 10, as follows: Daniel Symmes, Samuel C.

Vance, Christian Waldsmith, William C. Schenck, Matthew

Hueston, Daniel Mayo, William Lytle, John Bigger, Israel Lud-

low, Hunt, and Baum. That the enterprise was fundamentally

for cooperative purposes is strikingly shown by the limitation

of cash subscriptions to 5%, the balance being payable in produce

or manufactures such as the president and directors might be

willing to receive.

The company purchased the unfinished boat of Samuel

Heighway and John Poole, and the boat, fitted as "a broadhorn,"

was sent to New Orleans. The operations of the company were

not especially remunerative, and about 1807 the Miami Exporting

Company of Cincinnati, by taking advantage of the banking fea-

ture of its charter, became the first authorized banking institution

in Ohio. The capital stock was increased in 1807 to $500,000

shares being $100 each--a great amount for those times. It was

also the first chartered bank of issue, and its notes, of about

the size of those used in the present day, were printed on plain

linen paper. They were redeemed by the notes of other banks

and were current in Cincinnati for about forty years. The

banking house was located on the Front Street wharf about one

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MARTIN BAUM                     207

 

hundred feet west of Sycamore Street, Baum being president and

Oliver Spencer cashier. This concern went out of existence by

failure on the tenth day of January, 1842.

Baum married in November, 1804, Miss Anne Somerville

Wallace, sister-in-law of Judge Jacob Burnet, in whose home, a

new brick house where subsequently the Burnet Hotel stood, the

wedding took place. About that time, Baum built a brick house on

Front Street next to his place of business, which was a log house,

weather boarded, and situated on the corner. His garden ran

back about two hundred feet to the residence of his brother-in-

law, Samuel Perry.

In navigation and shipping the Germans have contributed

a large share and on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers they were

the pioneer skippers in flat boats, sail boats, and finally steam

boats. Always a promoter, Baum, as president of the Miami

Exporting Company, opened the first regular service between

his city and New Orleans by means of sailing vessels, with Cap-

tain Heinrich Bechtle, formerly a skipper on the Rhine, in charge

of a boat about 1805. The speedy sailing barques of this com-

pany made the round trip twice annually, bringing back from

the South sugar, coffee, tea, and other groceries. These boats

increased the sum total of commerce on the river until steam

boats eventually took their places.

Baum was a philanthropist, giving generously to his fellow

men. Many Germans who came to America needing aid were

given good advice and timely help. When Johannes Staubler

came to America, not knowing what to do, he went to Baum and

asked for work. Baum, who was artistically inclined, replied,

"Take this land, and make a garden of it." With Baum's ap-

proval, he designed the tract, arranging a beautiful art garden,

planting grapes and building arbors, and soon Baum's farm was

the show place of the vicinity of Cincinnati. It was located

on the east shores of Deer Creek, since filled up and now passing

Eden Park. This was the first art garden and vineyard in the

Northwest Territory, including what is now Ohio, Indiana, and

Illinois.

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In 1806, Joel Williams laid claim by "squatter's rights" to

the public landing place of the city between Main and Broadway,

building a board fence around the site and starting to erect a

brick structure thereon. It was Baum who vigorously protested

and defended the rights of the city in the courts of the day.

When the records of the business and commercial develop-

ments in the first decade of the history of Cincinnati are examined

closely, it will be found that in a large measure they are the his-

tory of Baum's own business life. For a time Baum had a

partner, probably his brother-in-law, because the Western Spy

carried this advertisement: "Storekeepers and Printers may be

supplied with all kinds of paper at the store of Baum & Perry,

Cincinnati, or at the mills."

He enjoyed the confidence of his fellow citizens and was

elected president of the select council in 1807. He was succeeded

by Symmes and James Findlay, each serving two years, and then

Baum was reelected in 1812. At that time the position was

equivalent to the office of mayor. That same year he was pro-

posed as a candidate for Congress, but he declined to run because

of the pressure of civic and personal duties. Rev. Charles F.

Goss in Cincinnati, the Queen City (Cincinnati, 1912), says:

From 1802 to 1815 the meetings of the council were held in the private

residences or in one of the many taverns--Columbia Inn, Yeatman's, Mc-

Henry's, Wingate's, and the "Green Tree." There was plenty of business

to be attended to by the men upon whose shoulders rested the responsibility

of bringing order out of the confusion of the loose-ended life of the little

village, and they and their successors wrestled bravely with their problems.

There is a primitive note in reading the accounts of their meetings, pro-

ceedings, and enactments, and the little world of that distant day rises

before us in vivid and life-like reality as we hear the vigorous discussion

of those serious-minded men over questions whose solutions resulted in

the ordinances (of not so small importance as they seem to us in our

large world):

To prevent swine from running at large on the streets.

To compell citizens to remove logs and other obstacles from the roads.

To authorize them to plant Lombard poplars or black locusts in front

of lots.

To establish a market and see that the goods were sold at full weight.

To tax any theatrical or puppet show.

To prevent chickens from trespassing.

To compell doctors to fill out certificates.

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MARTIN BAUM                     209

 

In 1810, when the city had grown to 2540 inhabitants, Baum

built the first iron foundry in the West, and also the first sugar

refinery in the city, situated in a large brick building north of

Third Street, between Ludlow and Broadway, equipped with

the best machinery of the times. Statements in various sources

indicate that this factory refined from 180,000 to 200,000 pounds

of sugar annually, a quantity no doubt sufficient for all of the

settlements in this territory.

One of the early preachers of the village was Jacob Gulich,

who, born in Hamburg, arrived in Baltimore in 1807, becoming

a foreman in a sugar refinery. On a visit to Baltimore, Baum

employed him to come to his refinery in Cincinnati, where he

was of considerable value. After his arrival in Cincinnati, the

local church of the United Brethren in Christ lost the German

minister, Dreher, and Gulich was inducted into the position about

1819. At that time the congregation was not only poor, but also

very mixed in character, having representatives from all the

principalities and states, which then made up what is now a united

Germany. There were members of the most widely divergent

views and Gulich worked with little success to combine the dis-

cordant elements. At that time there were seventy or eighty

members, among them several Catholics. From the beginning,

the congregation was disrupted by unholy quarrels between those

from the Kingdom of Wurtemberg, and those who were not

"Schwaben." The quarrels reached a crisis concerning the pro-

ject of building a new church. One beautiful Sunday, the ruction

attained such intensity that the floor broke under the energetic

manifestation, and the wrangling pioneer fathers and mothers

found themselves in the cellar. Soon thereafter Gulich resigned

and in 1820, was succeeded by Rev. Ludwig Heinrich Meier,

under whose regime the first German church was built on Third

Street between Broadway and Ludlow Streets.

Since Baum was reckoned the richest and one of the most

respected men in town, it must be clear that he was a source

of great aid to the German element of the city. In Balti-

more and Philadelphia he sought good German workmen to

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whom he gave employment in his various industrial enterprises,

diverting the stream of German immigration to the West. Many

of the established German families of Cincinnati may recognize

the fact that it was through the initiative of Baum that their

ancestors settled there. Among these may be included Oehler,

Kahn, Hoeffer, Link, Voegle, Boebinger, Mundhenk, Vogt,

Knoop, Faubler, Gruner, and Bieninger.

The Germans have ever been fond of expressing themselves

in song, and Baum was president of the first "Gesangverein" in

Cincinnati. He was also one of the founders, in 1818, of the

Cincinnati Literary Society which still exists, and of the Apol-

lonian Society as well. This society met at the homes of Ruetter

and Ott, who on Baum's estate at Deer Creek established a park,

the Apollonian Gardens, which was at that time the chief resort

of the pleasure seeking population of the "Queen of the West."

This society had as its interest vocal and instrumental music. In

this he cooperated with his brother-in-law, Burnet, and the phy-

sicians, Daniel Drake, Sellmann, and Busch, in their efforts to

give Cincinnati a start in matters of art and literature.

In 1813, with the cooperation of Burnet, he participated in

the founding of the Lancastrian School in order to give the more

needy classes of Cincinnati education free of cost. By the Lan-

castrian system of instruction, pupils in each class were pro-

moted to the position of monitor on the ground of good scholar-

ship and conduct. Thus a single teacher acting as general super-

visor might control and instruct five hundred students, saving

great expense. Baum was for many years on the Board of

Directors, and was the first vice-president. From this school

developed Cincinnati College, chartered at the legislative session

of 1818-1819, and granted full university powers with the excep-

tion that no sectarian doctrines should be taught. Its funds were

furnished in large part by private means. A building was soon

erected and the institution began operating as a regular college.

Many persons were graduated who became prominent, but for

some cause, not clearly known, the school languished. In 1885

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MARTIN BAUM                       211

 

to 1886, however, the college was revived under the presidency

of William H. McGuffey.

Being interested in institutions of instruction, Baum helped

to found the Western Museum in 1817. Frederick Gerstaecker,

whose book, The Wanderings and Fortunes of a Number of

German Immigrants, translated by David Black, and printed in

Cincinnati, 1856, says the Museum of Natural History contained

cupboards full of stuffed birds and hideous beasts, also mammoth's bones,

Indian weapons; a cuirass picked up after the Battle of Waterloo, a piece

of a steam boiler that had burst; snakes in spirits of wine, a horrible

roomful of relics of criminals; knives and axes with which deeds of mur-

der had been done; wax figures, also a kind of machine, put together with

iron and brass wheels: It is true it was immovable, but below it was a

label pasted on it, whereon, "Perpetuum mobile" was written.

Baum was one of the original stimulators and founders of

the first public library in the West. Leonard in his Greater Cin-

cinnati and Its People states that the first public library to be

established in the Northwest Territory was established in 1802.

It was on February 13 of that year that a meeting was held at

Yeatman's Tavern to discuss the need of establishing such an

institution, and a committee, consisting of Louis Kerr, Burnet

and Baum, was appointed.

Besides being one of the founders of the First German

Protestant Church in 1817, Baum    donated large sums for the

building of the Second Presbyterian Church. The first church

edifice for the Presbyterian denomination was built in 1792. This

was a plain frame, about thirty by forty feet, roofed and weather-

boarded with clapboards, but neither lathed, plastered, nor ceiled.

The floor was of board plank, laid loosely upon sleepers. The

seats were formed by rolling in a number of logs, placed at

suitable distances, covered with boards, and whipsawed at proper

spaces for seats. The congregation was required to attend with

rifles under penalty of a seventy-five cent fine, which was actually

inflicted on John S. Wallace, once auditor of Hamilton County,

"who had left his rifle at home through forgetfulness." On the

eleventh of June, 1794, a subscription was circulated for the

purpose of finishing the church, paling the dooryard and fencing

in the burying ground. Among those who contributed and signed

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this subscription list were David Ziegler and Baum. Then in

1818, a new building was erected on the east side of Walnut and

a little above Fifth Street. This was the historic "Second

Church" in the organization of which Burnet, Baum, John H.

Grosbeck, Nathaniel Wright, and Henry Starr were prominent.

Baum continued his successful business enterprises, estab-

lishing in addition the first woolen factory, the first steam flour

mill (located at the foot of Broadway) and other industries so

much needed by the people. Through these enterprises, many

people found work and profit who otherwise would have found

the struggle for existence much harder. When Baum could not

find enough good and skilled workmen in the new country, he

would enlist in Baltimore and Philadelphia newly arrived Ger-

man immigrants. Among these immigrants in the East, he se-

cured a number of redemptioners whom he in no wise treated

as slaves, but as friends, and, after release from their obligations,

they retained for their former master an attachment and friend-

ship.

Baum was president of the company that selected and bought

at the Land Office in Wooster in 1817, the lands on which Fre-

mont, Maumee City, and Toledo, are now located. With the

Piatt heirs, he was land owner and projector of the city of

Toledo, known in 1817 as Port Lawrence, which he recognized

as the terminus of the line of communication from Cincinnati

through the Miami district to the lakes. It is claimed that he

made the first proposition to connect the Ohio River with Lake

Erie by means of a canal between the cities of Cincinnati and

Toledo.

In 1819, he was interested, together with his brother-in-law,

Burnet, Drake, and others, in the formation of the Cincinnati

Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, Manufactures, and

Domestic Economy. This being about the time of the panic, they

declared that they would not purchase nor suffer to be used by

their families any imported liquors, fruits, nuts, preserves, or

goods of any kind unless they should be required in case of sick-

ness, giving preference to articles which are of the growth and

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MARTIN BAUM                          213

 

manufacture of the country. They also were convinced that the

practice prevailing of wearing suits of black as testimony of

respect for the memory of the deceased was altogether useless,

improper, and attended with heavy expense. They further agreed

not to purchase any articles either of food or dress at prices that

are considered extravagant or that the citizens cannot afford to

pay. They believed that the prosperity of the country depended

in a great degree on a general and faithful observance of the

above declarations and, therefore, promised to adhere to them,

recommending that others do likewise.

In 1818 Baum was one of the projectors and stockholders in

a canal company for a canal around the Falls of the Ohio at

Louisville. The Jefferson, Ohio, Canal Company was created

by an act of the Kentucky Legislature and Bechtle, representing

the interests of Baum, together with Burnet and other prominent

Cincinnatians, was elected one of the directors.

Edward D. Mansfield, in Memoirs of the Life and Services

of Daniel Drake, M. D. (Cincinnati, 1855), referring to the panic

years of 1819 to 1822, at which time the richest men of Cin-

cinnati, who had been interested in the Miami Exporting Com-

pany, lost their wealth, says of Baum, "For thirty years he was

active in mercantile affairs, during the entire time enjoying the

reputation of honesty and efficiency."

In Cincinnati, the Queen City, Goss describes the panic

vividly:

The story of that financial panic in the early twenties of the last

century can depress the mind of the reader even at this far-off day, for

it fell like a pall over the bright prospects of the growing city and faded

the fortunes of its noblest and most unselfish citizens. The story of the

panic possesses not only a dramatic interest, but an educational value. It

is an impressive experience to read of a delusion as mad as our own in

the brains of shrewd old merchants of one hundred years ago, and we

need to be taught that most difficult of lessons, that in all speculative

periods there is an universal madness.

In accordance with plans involved in the establishment of a National

Bank, two branches had been opened in Ohio; one at Chillicothe, and the

other at Cincinnati. By the arrangement between the Federal and branch

banks, the latter had sent to the former, as cash, a vast amount of what

proved to be depreciated paper, and when it became evident that this was

not a dependable asset, about $900,000 of this "trash," as Judge Burnet

called it, was sent to Cincinnati to be collected from the various banks

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that had issued it. This sudden cashing up, and the violent manner in

which it was carried into effect, proved fatal. The wealth of the leading

men of the city consisted largely in real estate which, under the circum-

stances, could be neither quickly nor advantageously sold. When, there-

fore, they were pushed for the hard cash with which to redeem their notes,

a terrible panic followed.

When the crash came, the citizens involved in the wild speculation

which had preceeded it, began to scatter like rats from a sinking ship.

Sheriff Heckwilder complains that, "his friends had taken a sudden notion

to travel at the very time he most wanted them." It soon became im-

possible to get money anywhere. Building was entirely stopped. All busi-

ness was brought to a sudden end. The mechanics, lately so blithe and

cheerful, had gone in different directions to search for work at any price

to keep themselves, and families from starving. Public meetings were

held to consider what must be done. At one of these, Mr. Blake, an attor-

ney, had expressed a fear that "our wives and children would starve!"

Mr. Gazley, the next speaker (also an attorney) humorously replied: "Well,

if Blake is afraid our families will starve, I have but one child and don't

fear it will starve. Brother Blake has none, and it won't starve." The

disaster was wide spread, and so terrible was the suffering of the people,

that public demonstrations were not infrequent.

Baum's home was always open to his friends, and his hos-

pitality generous. All intellectually great men were especially

welcomed. Julius Ferdinand von Salis, cousin of the great Ger-

man lyric poet, Count Johann von Salis, lived with Baum about

the year 1817. He had traveled through the Orient, and says

Emil Klauprecht, "wrote here, in the retirement of this western

market town, his experiences and impressions of the cradle of

mankind, for a German publisher, when, in the year 1819, death

took the pen out of his hand."

Another reference to Baum's hospitality is the following

sentence: "And still another, a Mr. Gaston, gave a gorgeous

exhibition of fireworks on Martin Baum's lot at the corner of

Broadway and Fourth, at which time, also, there was an ascen-

sion of a balloon eighty feet in circumference!"

About 1820, when the population of Cincinnati had increased

to 9602 inhabitants, Baum started to build a large house on the

east side of Pike Street. The house is an excellent example of

American architecture of the first quarter of the nineteenth cen-

tury. Writers have dated the house variously from 1815 to 1825.

In the Cincinnati directory for 1819 Baum is listed as living at

the corner of Pike and Congress Streets, and in the next direc-

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MARTIN BAUM                           215

 

tory appearing in 1825 he is recorded as living at the corner of

Pike and Symmes, the present location of the Taft Museum.

Tradition exists in Cincinnati that the house was built by the

architect of the White House.

It is probable that Baum lived in this beautiful home only

a short time, as a large part of his fortune was swept away in

the depression. There is on record the following letter:

 

CINCINNATI, August 23, 1820.

MR. BAUM.

SIR:

I will assume for you at bank $62,000 for the following property,

to wit, Front and Sycamore Streets property, Market and Broadway Streets

property, New House and materials with the nine acres on which it stands,

with Deer Creek and Hill property. . . . And will close the thing with you

tomorrow and relieve you from all your bank debts to that amt. If

any person will make you a better offer, close with them without calling

to consult me.

Respectfully your friend,

(Signed) W. LYTLE2

In 1826 the house was deeded to the United States Bank in

payment of bank debts, and in 1829, was purchased by Nicholas

Longworth, who lived there until his death in 1863. His son,

Joseph, lived in the house until 1869, when it was sold to David

Sinton. More recent residents of Cincinnati remember the place

as the home of Charles P. Taft, the son-in-law of David Sinton.

Pitts Burke describes the house as:

Later colonial, or rather of a transition period, from the square house

without the door porch to the pseudo-classic, when the facade was in evo-

lution, before the stucco Greek temple was used to mark an ordinary two

storied dwelling, square windows, balconies, and all. That is, between the

rare T. D. Carneal house in Ludlow and the Williamson house in Third

Street. The special changes are readily noted. The main portion, or

center, has grown half a story, lighted by two oval openings on each side

of the facade, and the roof has lost some of its pitch. It has pushed out

two long, low wings on the front line, usually to be found reaching to

the rear. Then the whole house has risen from the ground somewhat,

disclosing windows. The cellar has become a basement. The approach

has widened by the force of the door porch, which is led up to by nine

stone steps. Two wooden columns, close together on each side of the

corners, support the pediment which crowns the portico. The door, where

the character of the house is so strongly told, has suffered a base altera-

tion and no longer hold the half-wheeled transomes that once must have

2 From a copy in the Cincinnati Public Library.

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216     OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

been the greatest ornament of the house. This change belongs to a late

period. Otherwise, in the main, the house is intact. The length of the

body, with the two fine arms it stretches out, is one hundred twenty feet,

and height in good proportion. The building is made of wood, put on

smooth and painted white. The pose and dignity are its best feature and

effect. An air hangs about the broad foundation and wide halls of rest

and recreation and beauty of fitness.

Mansfield tells of a party given at Baum's house on Pike

Street one summer afternoon in 1825, the only one he gave there.

Another party that he attended in the same house was a very

large one given a few years later by Longworth. At that time,

he says, there was not in Cincinnati the means to make a party

as rich and ornamental as at present.

Even oysters were not seen at a party until 1827. Nor could the

beautiful array of cut flowers be exhibited then as they are now. There

was an excess of good things to eat and drink and with them a large

share of good humor and good conversation. There was no distinction

of old and young, fashionable or unfashionable, married or unmarried;

but while the party like a family was mixed in different proportions, it

was always composed of the well-to-do, the respectable and the intellectual

The distinctive marks of pioneer hospitality had not yet wholly departed.

The frank manners, the warm reception, the bon ami, and the recognition

of the pioneer favorites had not yet gone.

I remember one party, which was a fair type of parties in general at

this time. It was at the house of Col. C., on Third Street, near Main

Street, where many good families then lived, and a large square house,

the best rooms of which were on the second floor, and the whole suite

were thrown open for the reception and supper rooms. Col. C. had been

rather profuse in his invitations. I think there were more than two hun-

dred persons present, and the house crowded. In the front room the ladies

and gentlemen were engaged in conversation, as usual, and the gentlemen

paying no more attention to young than to old ladies, but mingling in

general conversation, and all making themselves agreeable. There was no

regular set supper-table. But, as was customary at that day, there were

in the back rooms tables for gentlemen, covered with the most solid dishes

of meat and game, while the waiters carried to the ladies the best of cakes

and confections, with whatever else they desired. With them remained

the young gentlemen, who had then even more gallantry than they have

now in commending themselves to the graces of the ladies. But with the

old, sedate, and unfashionable gentlemen the back room was the charm.

There stood the tables, with ham and beef, and venison, turkey, and quails,

with bottles of brandy and wine, and there were cards for those who wanted

to kill time. Nevertheless, in those rooms were many a charming woman

and many an intellectual man.

Cincinnati in the '30's, as stated in Memento of Ancestors

and Ancestral Homes, written by Margaret Rives King, "was

a much more marked city than now, then deservedly bearing the

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MARTIN BAUM                       217

 

name of "Queen City of the West."      No other city, however,

claimed a rivalship. Chicago was but an insignificant settlement

for far-seeing speculators, commercially, in those ante-railroad

days, whereas Cincinnati was an important outlet, situated on a

great water thorough-fare, commanding a western and southern

trade which now is borne away in many directions.

The social culture of Cincinnati at that time was remarkable; a tone

of intellect and taste prevailed which gave good character to the place

as a center of intellect and art.

On the east side of Gilbert Avenue, now Eden Park, were the fine

vineyards of Mr. Nicholas Longworth, the source from which flowed the

noted catawba wine, once Cincinnati's Pride.

The elder Longworth interested himself in the beautiful

Apollonian Garden, which occupied ground between Third Street

and the river, and from Pike Street to the valley, taking in

Deer Creek. Thus the elder Longworth was able to enjoy keenly

what had been started by the worthy Baum. The same house, of

ample size and beautiful arrangement stands, but the grounds,

though still large and well kept, are not what once they were

when the gardens and green-houses spread out over the entire

square.

Notwithstanding the reverses that seem to follow even the

shrewdest after the age of sixty, Baum recovered from his re-

verses and lived nine years longer to foster the commerce of the

West, though he was not able to support great and daring enter-

prises with a capital as large as formerly. In his later years, his

initiative did not fail him. In 1825, with Major William Oliver,

he established the first steam mill. Also with Oliver, he con-

ducted, until his death, an extended wholesale flour business. One

of his last undertakings on a large scale was the establishment in

1829 of a cotton trade with Liverpool. What Burnet was to the

legal profession and Drake to that of medicine, Baum was to the

business of the community in the early days of Cincinnati's de-

velopment.

The census of 1830, the year before Baum's death, showed

the population of Cincinnati had increased to 24,831 and, as the

German-American historian, Klauprecht, stated, "The enterprising

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218   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

Baum was at the head of those citizens whose patriotic and general

activities made possible the spectacular growth of Cincinnati" --

and this was really the case. Baum died in Cincinnati, December

14, 1831, during an epidemic of influenza which carried off a

number of citizens, having, according to Mansfield, saved from

the despised and weed covered Deer Creek Valley enough for a

handsome estate. He left a widow and six children, four sons

and two daughters. One of the latter was Mrs. Mary E. Ewing,

widow of Alexander H. Ewing, and the other was Mrs. Eleanor

Hartshorn, widow of Charles Hartshorn.

He was first buried, like Ziegler, in what is now Washington

Park at Twelfth and Race Streets. His remains now rest in

beautiful Spring Grove Cemetery, marked by a large granite

monument which was designed and erected by James B. Batter-

son. The monument of the Baum family is one of the most con-

spicuous in the cemetery, attracting attention by its height, which

is thirty feet, the base being five feet square. The material of

which it is formed, being the Quincy granite of New England,

carries the idea of strength and durability, and its severe sim-

plicity, makes it peculiarly suitable to perpetuate the memory of

that worthy pioneer.

From Mansfield's Personal Memoirs, published in Cincinnati

in 1879, containing sketches of many noted people of 1803 to

1843, is taken this short personal description of Baum as fol-

lows: "He was dark and swarthy in complection; but of pleasant

countenance." Likewise Ziegler used to speak of Burnet and

Baum as his "two black brothers."

Closely connected with the life of Baum, is the story of

Whitehall Farm just outside of Yellow Springs, Greene County.

A pamphlet by Mrs. S. V. Cox, in the Library of Antioch Col-

lege, relates that Baum, General Benjamin Whiteman and Lewis

Davis, at one time owned the tract containing the site of the

present village of Yellow Springs, the Bryan State Farm of

today, and many of the small farms adjoining these tracts.

Whitehall is of brick, modeled after the White House, at

Washington. It contains twelve rooms, each twenty by twenty

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MARTIN BAUM                         219

 

feet, and each having a fireplace and mantel. The big parlor has

a marble mantel piece, and in all other rooms the mantel pieces

are of walnut, as is all the woodwork in the house. The hall,

twelve by twenty feet, from which open several doorways, con-

tains a beautiful stairway.

Through all of his business deals in Miami township, Greene

County, Baum seemed to be rounding out two estates, a large one

for his son, David Chambers, and a smaller one for his daughter,

Mary E. Ewing and her family. At his death, a tract of eighteen

hundred acres, known as Whitehall, became the property of his

son, a typical "youngblood" of the time, a weak and dissipated

youth, having occasional need for recuperation. Perhaps the

father hoped that here his son would carve a home and a character

at the same time.

After a period of dissipation, young Baum became seriously

ill, and Miss Amanda Sroufe, a waitress at a hotel cared for

him until his complete recovery. Like many of the romances

of the period, Baum married her after first sending her to school

for a few terms. Imagine the horror of members of the sophisti-

cated Baum family, host to visiting celebrities in Cincinnati, when

the son brought his bride, a slip of a country girl, a waitress,

to call on them. Young Baum declining to give up his bride,

took her back to Yellow Springs, where following in the foot-

steps of his pioneer father, he undertook the operation of a small

store.

At the early death of David Chambers Baum, young Aaron

Harlan, then practicing law in Xenia, defended the widow's title

to the land, and nine years later, when the case was decided,

married her.

The life of Martin Baum illustrates the oath taken by the

Athenian youths centuries ago:

We will never bring disgrace to this, our city, by any act of dishonesty

or cowardice, nor ever desert our suffering comrades in the ranks; we will

fight for the ideals and sacred things of the city, both alone and with many;

we will revere and obey the city's laws and do our best to incite a like

respect and reverence in those above us who are prone to annul or to set

them at naught; we will strive unceasingly to quicken the public's sense of

civic duty; thus, in all these ways, we will transmit this city not only not

less, but greater, better, and more beautiful than it was transmitted to us.

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