Ohio History Journal

THREE ASPECTS OF THE ECONOMIC LIFE OF

CINCINNATI FROM 1815 TO 1840

 

By MAURICE F. NEUFELD

 

In contemporary America, when the principles of capitalism

are being challenged negatively by prolonged unemployment, and

positively through the social-planning projects of Russia, the ex-

perience of an American metropolis during the early maturity of

capitalism in the United States has peculiar significance to the

historian. Although the life of the United States centers so com-

pletely around the metropolis, comparatively little research has

been done on the economic development of focal cities in Ameri-

can expansion. The development of the industrial and agricul-

tural frontiers of Russia should revitalize the study of the Ameri-

can frontier and make plain the need for sustained investigation

of urban development during the past century. The Russian ex-

perience has already forced attention upon two problems: the

evolution of cities in a potentially rich country; and the function

of cities in a growing industrial society. Against the background

of the growing and vigorous Russian activity, reminiscent of the

American past, the various aspects of economic organization in

Cincinnati during the most rapid period of her growth take on

new meaning. The survey of three phases of the economic life

of Cincinnati--population trends, commerce, and manufacturing

--is in reality the story of Cincinnati's unofficial Twenty-five Year

Plan.

The Lenin of Cincinnati was Daniel Drake; and the best ex-

pression of Cincinnati's "Plan" in embryo is contained in a letter

written by a group of Memorialists to the Director of the United

States Bank in 1816.1 The letter praises the bounty of the past

and visualizes the hopes of the future with the enthusiasm so

characteristic of Cincinnati. The Memorialists found a happy ex-

 

1 The letter of September 21, 1816, Daniel Drake MSS. (in Wisconsin Historical

Society), II, 135.

(65)

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66     OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

pression for the key to Cincinnati's economic dominance: "A

navigable river on one side, and a rich, level and populous coun-

try on the other... ." The surplus products of the Miami region

were beginning to accumulate after a generation of pioneer farm-

ing, and the need of an emporium was felt. In addition, the Ohio

was the chief route of transportation to the West and the newly-

invented steamboat accentuated the convenience of this water-

course. Until the fifties Cincinnati was the "Queen City" of the

American frontier. Only when the northern canals and railroads

appeared was the position of Cincinnati questioned.

The business of the Memorialists was to obtain a charter for

a Branch Bank. Obviously, they sought to relate the growth of

population, commerce, and manufacturing in detail and in the

most vivid colors. As late as 1802 Cincinnati had been a rude

frontier village. The entire Miami region had been an uninter-

reputed wilderness. In 1816, the twelve or fourteen counties

which comprised this area had a population of at least 130,000

persons. In 1810, the General Census had recorded 2300 people

living in Cincinnati; in 1813 the Select Council found that the

number exceeded 4000; and in the autumn of 1815, they obtained

6,500 as a result of their enumeration.

No very correct statement can however be made even of the exports

and imports of the town, much less of the adjacent country, which in ex-

porting, is in fact, independent of the town; as considerable quantities of

produce, owned chiefly by our citizens, are freighted from the Miami rivers.

However, the Memorialists add that in 1816 the imports from

Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New York were much greater than

those from New Orleans.  In less than a year these gentlemen

were to become the enthusiastic supporters of the proposed Erie

Canal and similar projects in Ohio. The East and the West were

already linking. By 1816, in Cincinnati alone, there were a hun-

dred stores selling European goods, several of which were "en-

gaged in a wholesale business with the merchants of the adjoining

country in Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio." In the Miami country,

excluding Cincinnati, there were as many stores.

To supply these 200 shops, merchandise to the amount of at least 2,-

000,000 dollars are annually imported from the Atlantic cities.² If to the

2 This figure is exaggerated. The total imports could hardly have exceeded

$691,075.

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ECONOMIC LIFE OF CINCINNATI, 1815-1840            67

 

capital thus employed we add that appropriated to the Louisiana trade, and

to the importation of medicines, books, salt, iron, peltry and lead, amount-

ing beyond all doubt to 500,000 dollars, we have two million and a half as

the commercial capital of this quarter.

The Memorialists have little to say about the exports of Cin-

cinnati except that "a great amount of flour, manufactured at

about 60 mills in the district, is transported to Cincinnati for em-

barkation, with corresponding quantities of pork, whisky, potash,

and other agricultural products." Importation and exportation

was carried on by means of flat-bottomed boats or barges. The

barges returned with cargoes of sugar, cotton, coffee, and products

of the lower Mississippi. One half of these barges and boats run-

ning on the Mississippi and Ohio, and all those which belonged to

Ohio, were owned by citizens of Cincinnati.

The manufacturing wealth of the Miami region was esti-

mated by the Memorialists at $3,000,000--"3/5 are perhaps in the

town, which has commenced a very considerable number of per-

manent and valuable manufactures." The Cincinnati Steam Mill

was scheduled to grind "¹⁰⁰ barrels of flour per day; besides af-

fording power for several useful manufactures, some of which

are already in successful operation." The steam saw mill, a cloth

manufactory, an iron foundry, two breweries, manufactories of

white lead, pot and pearl ashes, glass, a brass foundry, a sugar re-

finery, several ropewalks, "with all the ordinary trades and manu-

factures which have hitherto been introduced into the western

country" completed the list of the manufacturing wealth during

these early days. The single purpose of advancing and extending

manufacture accounted for the letter of September, 1816.

"...And your Memorialists have no hesitation in declaring that

in their opinion 500,000 dollars of additional banking capital

might be very profitably devoted. ..."

The Memorialists concluded their petition with a prophetic

gesture.

Lastly, the inspection of maps which we have recommended, will ex-

hibit to you the practicability of connecting the waters of the great Miami

with those of the Maumee, and the former with the Ohio at Cincinnati,

thereby establishing a commercial intercourse between this town and the

Lakes--an enterprise that will sleep no longer than the intervening country

remains in the possession of the Indians.

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68     OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

The economic development and organization of Cincinnati for

the next twenty-five years was outlined in brief detail by the Me-

morialists of 1816. Three aspects of this development, population

trends, commerce, and manufacturing, are set forth in the Sep-

tember letter, and the trends of their evolution foreshadowed. The

study of this prophecy and plan will yield a picture of the eco-

nomic organization of an American metropolis during the days of

rising capitalism in the West.

The following table of figures recording the growth of the

population in Cincinnati from 1795 to 1840 is based on the census

returns of the United States for 1810, 1820, 1830 and 1840. The

figures for earlier and intervening years are based on newspaper

records when available, and upon directories and histories. The

directories most consulted were those for 1819, 1825, 1829, and

1840. Drake's work covering 1815, Benjamin Drake and Edward

Mansfield's Cincinnati in 1826 (Cincinnati, 1827), and Charles

Cist's Cincinnati in 1841 (Cincinnati, 1841) are invaluable.

1795 .........                  500                      1829 ......... 22,148

1800  .........                 750                      1830  .........  24,831

1805 .........                  960                      1831 ......... 26,071

1810 .........                  2,320                   1832 ......... 28,014

1813  .........                 4,000                   1833  .........  27,6453

181₅ .........                  6,000                   1835 ......... 29,000

1820 .........                  9,602        1839 ......... 42,500

1824  .........                 12,016      1840  .........  46,338

1826 ......... 15,540

In the Official City Plan of Cincinnati, Ohio, adopted by the

City Planning Commission in 1925, the population curve traced

out from 1800 to 1920 reveals that Cincinnati passed her period

or maximum rate of growth in 1850.4 From 1810 to 1820, the

population of Cincinnati increased four-fold. In the third decade

the increase was two and a half. The fourth decade, one and

eight-tenths. The fifth decade revealed an increase of two and a

half owing to the large influx of Germans during this period. The

increase, however, from 1850 to 1860 was only one and three-

3 The cholera epidemic which swept the West accounts for this decrease.

4 The Official City Plan of Cincinnati, Ohio, 1925, 17.

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ECONOMIC LIFE OF CINCINNATI, 1815-1840             69

 

tenths, settling back to the normal rate of decline. The trend of

this population curve points to Cincinnati's unquestionable com-

mercial dominance before 1850. During the forties, despite the

German influx, the shift of commerce and transportation was al-

ready toward the Lakes and the Mississippi. Cincinnati was soon

outstripped by Chicago in the meat-packing trade, by Pittsburgh

in the production of ironware, in the clothing industry by Chicago

and New York, while Boston and Philadelphia marched ahead in

the shoe industry.⁵

Comparative population figures of increase yield some knowl-

edge of the relation of Cincinnati to Ohio and the Miami region.⁶

Ohio           Miami Region Cincinnati

1810-1820     ..........      2                 1.8       4

1820-1830     ........                           1.6                                       1.5          2.5

1830-1840 ..........                              1.6                                      1.3           1.8

Comparative figures of the population of Pittsburgh, Cincin-

nati, Louisville, and New Orleans from 1800 to 1840 show that

Cincinnati's curve was unrivalled in steepness of ascent except by

that of New Orleans.

Cincinnati   Louisville   Pittsburgh New Orleans

1800 ....                 750                600                    1,565                  9,650

1810 ....             2,320                 1,350                  4,768                  17,242

1820 ....              9,602              4,012                  7,248                  27,176

1830 ....              24,831               10,306                                           12,568     46,310

1840 ....                          46,338                         21,2147                                                                21,115           102,294

No evidence exists for any conclusive statement regarding the

elements which made up the population of Cincinnati from 1815

to 1840. From the accounts of travelers, the studies by scholars,

and from general information, the results indicate that the Middle

Atlantic states supplied the largest percentage of settlers in Ohio

and Cincinnati, with the Southern states close behind, and the New

 

5 N. S. B. Gras, An Introduction to Economic History (New York, 1922), 239.

6 The Miami region included Butler, Champaign, Clermont, Clinton, Darke,

Greene, Hamilton, Miami, Montgomery, Preble, and Warren Counties.

7 This figure included suburbs. The population for Pittsburgh for 1830 and 1840,

including suburbs, would be 21,412 and 36,478. The suburbs of Cincinnati and New

Orleans are omitted.

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70     OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

England group last. Frederick J. Turner's study⁸ of the birth-

places of members of the Ohio Legislature for 1822 corroborates

this conclusion. The evidence is also strengthened by examining

the birthplaces of the people who signed a memorial obtained by

John D. Jones on the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Founding of

Cincinnati.⁹

Middle States.................. 19

Southern  .....................                                  11

New England .................                                4

Foreigners .................... 3

Cist in 1840 listed the birthplaces of the native born male

population and the evidence is again strengthened.

Middle    States................ 3304

Southern  ................... 1048

New England ................ 990

Middle West ................ 1192

Of the Memorialists who wrote the letter of 1816, three

were from New Jersey and one from Germany.

The only available statistics for the foreign elements in Cin-

cinnati are those quoted by Cist. In 1840 the Germans com-

prised 28%  of the entire population; the British, 16%; and

other nationalities, 2%. According to Ralph Rusk in his Liter-

ature of the Middle Western Frontier (New York, 1925), there

were 100,000 Germans in Ohio before 1840, or 7% of the popu-

lation. Captain Frederick Marryat, traveling in 1838, speaks

of the large numbers of Germans in Cincinnati. As early as

181₅, a manuscript letter in the Drake MSS. from Joseph Fes-

line to Drake reveals that there were ten German families in

the Lutheran society. In 1930, Cincinnati had a native-born

population of 89%, and in proportion to population, possessed

the smallest percentage of foreigners of any metropolitan city

in the United States.

In 1815, 200 negroes lived in Cincinnati, or 5%  of the

8 Frederick J. Turner, "Colonization of the West," in American Historical Review

(New York, 1835-), XI (1905), 308.

9 These signatures are contained in Edward Mansfield, Memoirs of the Life and

Services of Daniel Drake, M. D. (Cincinnati, 1855).

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ECONOMIC LIFE OF CINCINNATI, 1815-1840               71

 

population, in 1820, 4%; in 1826, 4.2%, and in 1830 and 1840,

4.3%  and 4.5%.

Occupational statistics for the earliest period of this study

are only partially available, and the percentages based upon these

figures seem unable to account for a large part of the male

population. In 1820, with a population of 9642, only twelve of

every 100 were primarily occupied with getting a living.¹⁰ The

age distribution table makes the small percentage even more

puzzling, and statistical research in occupational statistics of

other cities similarly situated in time and economic development

reveals the same low percentage.

The age distribution for Cincinnati in 1820 was:

Under 10 .................... 29%

100-16 ....................... 13

Men, 16-45................. 27

Women 16-45................ 20

Over 45, men and women.....                     7

Negroes ...................                                  4

About 15% of the men from sixteen to forty-five are unac-

counted for in the occupational statistics group.

Statistics from the 1819 directory are available to check

against the 1820 returns. Sixteen and eight-tenths percent of

the population was earning the living of the community.11 Males

over twelve numbered 35.2% of the total population. Eighteen

and four-tenths percent of the males are not accounted for in

the occupational statistics. This can safely be reduced to 10%

or 12%   for some of the younger men from twelve to eighteen

and some of the men over forty-five can be excluded from fig-

ures of those who possibly earned the living of the community.

In    1820, 15%    were unaccounted for, and in 1819, 10% or

12%                                                                                      by conjecture are unaccounted for.l²

10 In the census of 1820, 1165 were listed as engaged in agriculture, commerce, or

manufacture.

11 Population given as 9120; 1238 manufactures, seventy-seven professional, 248

in trade, navigation not listed.

12 These figures cannot be dismissed on the ground that the statistics were in-

adequate or carelessly gathered. The officials in charge of the census of 1820 were

conscious of the difficulties. From the Circular to the Marshal of the District of

-----, in the 1820 census report: ". . . No inconsiderable portion of the popu-

lation will probably be found, the individuals of which being asked, to which of

these classes (agriculture, commerce, and manufactures) they belong, will answer,

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72      OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

In 1826, 27%    were gainfully employed. The occupational

percentage approaches the male group over twenty-one which

numbered 25%    of the population in 1826.13  In 1830 occupational

statistics are not available. In 1840, the population was 46,338;

14,544 were gainfully employed, or 31% of the population. Men

from   fifteen to fifty totalled 32%  of the population. In 1870,

36%    were gainfully employed.

The increase in occupational percentage can be explained

either by the obvious remark that earlier figures were inadequate,

or by finding the cause for this increase in the growing complexity

of the life of the city and the steadily rising pressure on work in

order to exist in the concentrated economic set-up of later Cincin-

nati. The group of figures revealing the relation of the business

group to the working group will illustrate the transition in the

Queen City from 1815 to 1840. During this period Cincinnati was

bending from her commercial course toward manufacturing, and

not until the era of increased services which are listed under the

business group, does the ratio shift back again. The ratio of

business to working class was:

1820    .................                       26          :  74

1826    .................                       20.4:      79.6

1840    .................                       16.6:      83.4

1925 ................. 34.6: 65.414

That a truer interpretation of the occupational figures is to

be found in the explanation that the diversity of occupations at

a later date led to the necessity of definite and continuous work,

and consequently, to the higher percentage is verified by the sta-

tistics concerning Louisville and Pittsburgh which never went

through Cincinnati's economic development until a later period.

In 1820 only 17.9%   of the population earned the living of Louis-

ville, 13.4% of Pittsburgh. In 1840, using the same census re-

turns which gave Cincinnati's increased percentage, 13.7%   earned

to all three. Yet, it is . . . not the intention of the Legislature that any one in-

dividual should be included in more than one of them. . . ." In cases of doubt

they were classified by the work they preeminently were engaged in.

¹³ Population, 15,540; professionals, ninety-seven; trade, 800; navigation, 500;

manufacturers, 3,000.

14 These figures are based on the occupational group statistics. Those engaged in

manufactures, listed under working class; those in trade and the professions, under

business class. The distinction was made between those who applied themselves pri-

marily to persons and those who applied themselves primarily to things.

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ECONOMIC LIFE OF CINCINNATI, 1815-1840        73

 

the living of Louisville, and 15.7% that of Pittsburgh which was

rising as a manufacturing center. Not until 1870 when 34.6%

of the people in Pittsburgh were engaged in useful occupations

did the percentage approach that of Cincinnati in 1840. In 1840,

with a population only twice that of Pittsburgh or Louisville, Cin-

cinnati was employing 10,287 men in trades and manufactures,

Louisville 1606 and Pittsburgh 2345; in commerce, 2044 against

641 and 589; navigation, 1756 against 490 and 257; professions,

377 against 142 and 133.

No adequate statistics are available on women in industry.

The wage paid to domestic servants was $1.50 a week. Mrs.

Frances Trollope about 1828 found that the prejudice against

domestic work led "Hundreds of half-naked girls . . . in the

paper mills, or in any other manufactory, for less than half the

wages they would receive in service."¹⁵ Cist in 1840 recorded

that eighty-six clothing shops in Cincinnati employed 4000 women.

In other words, three women in ten took clothing work into

their homes. In 1844 the Cincinnati Miscellany reprinted an

article which stated that the Fulton Bagging Company employed

fifty-five girls and forty-five men. A girl in the Bagging Company

quit, having received $6 for less than a week's work.16 In Lowell

wages were $1.75 a week, exclusive of room and board, while in

Ware factories the girls received $4 a week, with $1.25 taken

out for board.

In 1820 the proportion of white men over forty-five to the

total population was 4%; the proportion of men from sixteen to

forty-five, 14%. In 1830 the form of tabulation was changed. The

age divisions came at fifteen and fifty. In 1830 the proportion

of men above fifty to the population was 2.5%; of men from

fifteen to fifty, 8%. In 1840, the figures were 2.4% and 7%.

In Pittsburgh for the same periods the proportions were, 1820,

5.1% and 21.6%; 1830, 2.6%, 9.1%; 1840, 2.3%, 8.4%. In St.

Louis they were, 1820, 5%, 17.8%; 1830, 2.1%, 8.1%; 1840,

1.9% and 5.7%. While the decrease may be partly explained

from 1820 to 1830 through the age grouping shifts, this no longer

 

15 Frances Trollope, Domestic Manners of the Americans (London, 1832), I, 73.

16 Cincinnati Miscellany  (Cincinnati, 1845), I, 92-93.

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74     OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

holds true for the apparent decrease from 1830 to 1840. These

findings seem to challenge the generally accepted hypothesis that

young men went to the frontier and the old stayed home. These

figures are not definitive but do point out the need for further

study along population trends in transitional urban cultures.

 

While Drake and his friends continued their Unofficial Plan

for Cincinnati by mapping the routes of proposed canals and rail-

roads, and by establishing vast projects for medical schools and

magazines; while Philadelphia, New York, and Boston elaborated

methods to gain the trade of the West, Cincinnati exported her

pork and imported lead, cloth, and pots. The improved steam-

boat on the Ohio, and the canals and turnpikes in the interior fa-

cilitated the development of trade and manufactures, the very life

of Cincinnati. But the history of steamboats, canals, roads, and

turnpikes is another aspect of the economic life of Cincinnati

and must be omitted, if the events of commerce and manufacture

are to be related.

The imports of Cincinnati in 1816, despite the glowing figures

of the Memorialists, amounted to $691,075. In 1815 there were

seventy shops in Cincinnati: sixty sold drygoods, hardware, glass-

ware, liquors, and groceries; the rest sold shoes, drugs, and iron-

ware. In 1817 and 1818 the imports from New Orleans alone

amounted to $1,442,226 and $1,619,030. Wines, cotton, and paints

composed the bulk of the cargoes. Henry B. Fearon, traveling

in 1819, saw shops in Cincinnati which sold everything, keeping

a stock of from $20,000 to $30,000 worth of goods. The annual

returns he estimated at $50,000, and upon half of this amount,

six to eighteen months credit was given. Most of the goods came,

he thought, from Philadelphia and England. The journey to

and from the East took three months, and goods averaged fifty

days in arriving. A house in Pittsburgh advanced money in pay-

ment of carriage and attended to the receipt of the goods by

wagon and their shipment on the Ohio. For this service, the

Cincinnati dealer paid a commission of 5%. Credit at Philadel-

phia extended from six to seven months. If bills were not settled

within this time, 7% had to be paid. Fearon noticed that shop-

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ECONOMIC LIFE OF CINCINNATI, 1815-1840        75

 

keeping had been profitable, but that it had been overdone. Drake

in 1815 had written, "Were the enterprise and capital of some

of our merchants embarked . . ." in manufacturing ". . . pur-

suits, they would profit by the exchange." In 1826, the imports

had risen to $2,528,590. In 1841, $5,200,000 were invested in

commercial houses, foreign trade, and commission houses, while

$12,877,000 were invested in retail drygoods, hardware, and gro-

cery stores.

James Flint, in May, 1819, described the wharf at Cincin-

nati. Three steamboats were anchored at the docks, two more

were on the Kentucky side, and a large ferry boat was seen,

worked by horses. The beach was lined with keel boats, large

arks for carrying produce, family boats, and rafts for timber. On

the shores drays carried imported salt, iron, and timber up to the

town, and brought down pork, flour, and whiskey.

Fearon had visited the markets before sunrise. The whole

town presented a scene of life and activity. By 1826 there were

three markets, at least one open every day. William Bullock has

perpetuated the scene he saw in 1827. Several hundred wagons

with white canvas, each drawn by three or four horses with a

pole, were backed against the pavement, and the tailboard of the

wagons were turned down to form a counter, and inside sat the

owner. The whole picture had the appearance of an encampment.

Even the hypercritical Mrs. Trollope declared that the markets

of Cincinnati were the best in the world. She had never been to

Baltimore, as yet.

The leading exports in 1815 were flour, pork, bacon, and

lard. Whiskey, peach brandy, beer, porter, pot and pearl ashes,

soap and candles, walnut, cherry, and white ash boards were

among the secondary products of export. From October, 1818, to

March, 1819, the exports amounted to $1,334,060. In 1826, they

amounted to $1,063,560. An estimate of $6,000,000 for 1835 is

found in the Western Monthly Magazine (Cincinnati, 1836), V,

28. In that year 90,000 barrels of flour and 55,000 barrels of

whiskey were received into Cincinnati to go out again as exports.

The goods which cleared the Miami Canal to go into the interior

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76     OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

in 1839 included salt, pork, pig-iron, castings, machinery, hides,

and skins.

Meanwhile the foundations of a great pork-packing industry

were being laid. Until 1812 hogs had been driven to Baltimore

or into Kentucky. With the coming of the steamboat came a

great change. By 1826 Benjamin Drake stated that Cincinnati's

pork-packing industry was equal in volume to that of Baltimore.

From November, 1826, to February, 1827, 40,000 hogs were

packed. From 1829 onward, the pork, bacon, and beef-packing

industries underwent successive improvements. The introduction

of rock salt effected this change. In 1832-1833, 85,000 hogs were

slaughtered in Cincinnati; 1833-1834, 123,000; 1834-1835, 162,-

000. The heavy disbursements necessary for cash payments could

be met only in a large city where capital was concentrated. Cincin-

nati served this purpose for the Miami country. In addition, an

extensive supply of salt had to be available, and a population was

needed, diverse enough to make possible the consumption of spare

ribs and other surplus products which otherwise had to be thrown

away. In 1838, two hands in less than thirteen hours could

cut up 150 hogs. In 1835, 123,000 hogs were packed;

1836 ..................... 103,000

1837  .....................  182,000

1838 ..................... 190,000

1839   .....................                           195,000

1840   .....................                           160,000

By 1843, 43% of Ohio packing was done in Cincinnati. In

1839 alone, 199,025 hogs were cut up. From the comparative

figures of the Cincinnati Miscellany for 1845, it was shown that

234,000 hogs were sold in Cincinnati as against 43,060 in Boston,

22,480 in Philadelphia, and 24,000 in Baltimore. Nor was Cin-

cinnati behind in the numbers of sheep, cattle, and cows sold in

her markets.

The Memorialists of 1816 had asked for $500,000 to invest

in manufactures, and at the time of their petition, the industrial

activities of Cincinnati were just getting under way. In 1809

John Melish had listed seventeen different activities in Cincinnati;

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ECONOMIC LIFE OF CINCINNATI, 1815-1840        77

 

in 1815 an incomplete list mentions at least thirty; while in 1826

seventy-five were listed. In 1841, 130 different pursuits were

making the Queen of the West the biggest city west of the Alle-

ghanies. While in 1815 there were only three banks with a

total capital of $750,000, by 1841 there were nine banks with a

capital of $5,800,000, the capital of three not being listed. Insur-

ance companies forged ahead and advertisements underwent con-

siderable change.

In 1818 Flint remarked that the manufacturers of Cincinnati

were more diversified than extensive. The journeymen mechanics

earned from 75?? to $2 a day in 1818. Their board cost them

$3 a week; most of them dressed well and kept horses. In 1828,

the wage of mechanics in Cincinnati was higher than that of a

mechanic in England. The average laborer in 1828 got $1 a day,

or if given lodging, board, and laundry, $10 a month. In 1828

the Mechanics' Institute was formed, sponsored by the wealthy

men of the city with the intention of instructing the young workers

in the essentials of science. A library and reading room were

also provided. By 1829 there was an Apprentices' Library, and

by 1836 a Young Men's Mercantile Association. These groups

are institutional symbols of the concentration and differentiation

which had taken place in the economic organization of Cincinnati.

The first effort to encourage manufacturing in Cincinnati

was near the end of the War of 1812. In that year the Cincinnati

Steam Mill was established. It manufactured cotton, flour,

woolen goods, and flaxseed oil. By 1814 Cincinnati possessed

four cotton mills, ninety-one carding machines, a steam sawmill,

and a sugar refinery.

In 1815 Cincinnati had no iron foundry, but the blacksmiths

were efficient and even took the place of whitesmiths. An im-

portant rifle, pistol, and gunlock industry was beginning. Stills,

kettles, and copper vessels were made in abundance. In 1815,

in the machine factory, cotton spinning mules, throstles carding

over 3000 spindles, roving and drawing heads, and cotton and

woolen carding machines were made. Swords, clocks, glass,

jewelry, silverware, bureaus, and cabinet furniture of native wood

and imported mahogany graced the list of Cincinnati's manu-

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78     OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

factured goods. Tanning yards, ropewalks, tobacco factories,

breweries completed the manufacturing achievements of a com-

munity hardly twenty-seven years old.

By 1819 the variety of industries had considerably increased.

Tinware factories, nail, furniture, and coach factories, along

with those already established, produced $1,059,459 worth of

goods and employed 1238 men.

By 1826,

the region of country, which extended and successful manufacturing

establishments will make tributary to our city, like the amount of manu-

factured goods required by its wants, is almost unbounded. Our steam-

boats may already be found upon all navigable streams of the Mississippi

valley: and our Steam Engines, Castings, Cabinet Furniture, Chairs, Hats,

&c. &c. are sent to Kentucky, Alabama, Louisiana, Illinois, and Indi-

ana....17

The value of goods produced in 1826 by twenty-three re-

corded factories was $1,850,000.

The capital invested in manufacturing was $14,541,842 in

1840. The value of products produced was $17,432,670. These

industries employed 10,647 men. The values of the foodstuffs

produced was $5,269,627. Breweries, distilleries, hat factories,

button factories, and clothing factories employed 1733 men and

produced $3,208,790.

In the years from 1815 to 1840, owing to the nature of the

services which these manufactures rendered, Cincinnati was estab-

lishing industries which had a chance of survival in a later period.

In 1883, A. N. Marquis and Company of Cincinnati published

The Industries of Cincinnati. Three hundred forty-nine repre-

sentative houses were listed: hotels, banks, factories, stores, agen-

cies, commercial houses. Thirty-six houses existing in 1883 date

in their origin from 1815 to 1840; four from 181₅ to 1820; eight

from 1820 to 1830; twenty-four from 1830 to 1840. The survival

rate of the second decade over the first was two-fold, while the

population tripled in this same period; the survival of the third

decade over the second was three-fold, although the population

merely doubled. The economic organization during the later period

 

17 Benjamin Drake and Edward Mansfield, Cincinnati in 1826 (Cincinnati, 1827),

59.

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ECONOMIC LIFE OF CINCINNATI, 1815-1840        79

 

was assuming a pattern which lasted well into the last decades of

the century.

A brief survey of the bibliography used for this study will

illustrate that Cincinnati's Unofficial Plan, although different in

fundamental principle from the famous Russian Plan of today,

is similar enough in organizational technique to make the prob-

lems and their particular solutions comparable. Today the world

stares at the spectacle of vast power plants and factories rising

among the skin tents of the nomads of the Russian steppes. In

the first four decades of the nineteenth century, the East and

Europe were startled by a great metropolis rising from the Indian

wilderness along the Ohio. The problem of the Communists is

the transplantation of an industrial civilization upon a barren land

wholly unused to the ways of modern life. The problems which

faced Cincinnati was the transplantation of a commercial civili-

zation upon the forests of the beautiful river where white men

had only recently settled. The Russian Government today acts

from a central administrating office and has the power to say

yes and no. In Cincinnati no such dictatorial efficiency existed,

and yet the growth of Cincinnati was not planless. It had been

thought out in the minds of business men and the progress of

that city along the three aspects discussed in this study was

watched carefully and predicted as accurately as an awareness of

contemporary trends and conditions could assure. Nor was the

city unaffected by their advice and guidance.

Daniel Drake's Picture of Cincinnati (Cincinnati, 1815),

Benjamin Drake and Edward Mansfield's Cincinnati in

1826, and Charles Cist's Cincinnati in 1841 not only served as

sources of information to the people of the Queen City and to

immigrants, easterners, and Europeans, but also served to stir

the citizens of Cincinnati on to greater economic and civic activity.

In a much more thorough way, yet in a manner remarkably similar,

the state-controlled publicity departments of Russia not only

inform the world of Russia's achievements, but books like M.

Ilin's New Russia's Primer (Cambridge, 1931₎ serve as a stim-

ulus to further activity. The magazines and newspapers of Cincin-

Vol. XLIV--6

• 15
 

80     OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

nati filled pages with the wonder of the town and helped to create

the atmosphere of stir and activity which visitors from Fearon

to Harriet Martineau remarked. The posters and newspapers of

Russia are published in the same spirit and the atmosphere in

the larger cities of Russia seems to possess that same eagerness

and purpose which Cincinnati had early in the past century. The

element of time has intervened. Cincinnati used these methods

during the early period of mature capitalism in the United States

to establish a commercial civilization; Russia uses these methods

to establish a successful communistic state. The worker in Cin-

cinnati received ostensibly marked respect and deference through

newspaper appeals, verses written for his encouragement, schools

established for his technical education, and libraries founded for

his enjoyment. He was openly acknowledged to be the rock of

the civilization. Manufacturing could never exist without him.

The details of Cincinnati's economic life have been culled

from numerous sources, but especially from the three main books

quoted in the bibliographical account. While no official pressure

could be brought to bear toward effecting definite economic

changes, the trends pointed out by Drake, Cist, and numerous

business men and civic leaders, influenced the citizens of Cincin-

nati and the Ohio Legislature. This unofficial pressure acted in

much the same way that the official pressure of the Russian Plan

works today, nor was the knowledge of the facts acted upon, less

accurate than Russia's when the entire state of knowledge of

economic factors at the time are considered.

The observation narrows down. The basic principles under-

lying activity were different in Cincinnati from the principles

motivating Russia today. But the methods of presaging future

trends and acting upon those trends through psychological and

social pressures are similar enough in both cases to maintain that

the problems of these two frontiers are enough alike, despite

many obvious and important differences, to make the study of

comparative frontier history, with special emphasis on urban de-

velopment on the frontier, highly necessary and illuminating.

• 16