The OHIO
HISTORICAL Quarterly
VOLUME 70 ?? NUMBER 2 ?? APRIL 1961
Samuel Watts Davies and
The Industrial Revolution in
Cincinnati
By HARRY R. STEVENS*
IN AN AGE PREOCCUPIED with case studies
it is refreshing
to discover a man as distinctive and
individual as Samuel
Watts Davies. Although he seems on
first acquaintance to be
merely a typical, aggressive, frontier
business enterpriser, the
appearance of similarity is deceptive.
The resemblance exists,
but not because Davies himself was
typical. A forceful per-
sonality exemplified many times in
later businessmen creates
the illusion of a type. Davies was an
original.
Davies was elected mayor of Cincinnati
five times in suc-
cession, serving from 1833 to 1843, and
was remembered
sixty years later as having been
"practically the political
dictator of the town."1 On
his death the city council by reso-
lution praised "his integrity and
impartiality and his just and
energetic administration of the
laws." A memorial of the bar
association described his life as
"abounding in energy and
good works, full of honor and
usefulness." An obituary noted
that he was zealous in both religion
and politics (he was a
Whig and an Episcopalian, although he
joined the church only
two or three years before his death), a
man "full of generous
* Harry
R. Stevens is an associate professor of history at Ohio University. A
previous article of his, "Recent
Writings on Midwestern Economic History," was
published in the January 1960 issue of
the Quarterly.
1 Otto Juettner, Daniel Drake and His
Followers, 1785-1909 (Cincinnati, 1909)
131.
96 THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
feeling and enlarged patriotism, who in
his day did good
service to the city and country"
and "was marked for energy
and enterprise." Another recalled
that he became "the chief
if not the only founder of the City
Water Works on which he
bestowed a great deal of time, labor,
and thought, with great
ultimate advantage to the city but
none, except honor, to him-
self." It added, "He was a
man of inflexible integrity, both in
private and public affairs," and
"engaged in many public
employments," in all of which he
was "active, useful, and
honorable." A eulogy presented by
the lawyer Salmon P.
Chase represented him in similar terms.2
All served to conceal
the turbulent and dramatic events of
the first forty-five years
of his life. It is with those years
that this sketch is concerned.
Six feet in height, Davies was a tall
man among his con-
temporaries. His portrait shows him
with regular, strongly
marked features, a firm, square jaw, broad
face, high fore-
head, and deep-set eyes. He is
described as dignified and
severe in appearance.3 According
to a hostile writer he had a
Moorish complexion, a lantern jaw, and
an "eternal segar"
clamped in his teeth. Long after the
fashion had passed, he
wore his hair gathered in a queue. He
seems to have had a
clear, strong voice.4
The son of John Davies, a Welshman, and
Mary (Watts)
Davies, an Englishwoman, Samuel Watts
Davies was born
in London in 1776. He had two brothers
and two sisters. The
family lived at 9 Bishopsgate, London,
just east of St. Paul's
Cathedral in the crowded eastern side
of the city.5
2 Cincinnati Daily Chronicle, December 23, 1843; Cincinnati Daily Gazette,
December 23, 1843. All newspapers cited
in the following notes were published in
Cincinnati unless otherwise indicated.
3 A charcoal drawing of Davies by Flo
Luce is in the collections of the His-
torical and Philosophical Society of
Ohio at Cincinnati. See also S. B. Nelson,
pub., History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County,
Ohio: Their Past and Present
(Cincinnati, 1894), 244.
4 Independent Press, September 5, 12, 1822.
5 Cincinnati Daily Gazette, August 19, 1829; Robert L. Black Manuscripts and
Mrs. Harrison Daniels Manuscripts, Dayton Public
Library. All information
from the Black and Daniels manuscripts has most kindly
been supplied by Miss
Helen Santmyer of the Dayton Public
Library. Davies had a brother John who
came to America from Wales, settled in
Bennington, Vermont, became a Presby-
SAMUEL WATTS DAVIES 97
In the latter part of the eighteenth
century (probably in
1799) the family emigrated to the
United States.6 In 1800
Samuel W. Davies was a grocer at 62
Beekman Street, New
York City. The next year he was a
merchant at 38 Gold
Street.7
About 1800 Davies married Mary Ann
(Stall) Thomas, a
daughter of John Stall of Philadelphia.
Her family was well
to do and socially prominent. Her
father may have been a
merchant in the China trade. Her
mother, formerly Frances
Hiley, is said to have entertained
General Washington and
to have danced with the Marquis de
Lafayette. Mary Ann had
married Robert Thomas of Philadelphia,
who died in the yel-
low fever epidemic leaving her a widow
with three children.8
Samuel Davies' first son, Edward Watts
Davies, was born
January 16, 1802, in New York. Three other children fol-
lowed, a second son, Samuel Hiley, and
two daughters, Agnes
and Mary.9
Mrs. Davies' sister Eliza Stall had
married General Wil-
liam Lytle in Philadelphia on February
28, 1798, and moved
first to Lexington, Kentucky, where her
son John S. Lytle
was born in 1800, and soon afterward to
Williamsburg, in
Clermont County, Ohio. The town had
been founded by Wil-
liam Lytle and his brother John in
1797. She wrote such de-
lightful accounts of her life at
"Harmony Hill" to her father
that he came to visit the West with
another daughter, Fran-
ces. At Williamsburg on January 30,
1802, Frances married
terian minister, married Rhoda
Willington, and later moved with his family to
Cincinnati when he was called to be
fifth pastor of the First Presbyterian Church.
He had another brother, whose name is
unknown; a sister Anne, who married
George Blagden, an Englishman, and lived
in Washington, D.C.; and a sister
Mary, who remained single. All emigrated
to the United States. See also Davies
Family, a manuscript at the Historical
and Philosophical Society of Ohio.
6 Daniels Manuscripts.
7 Longworth, Directory of New York for
1801 and 1802.
8 Robert L. Black, The Cincinnati
Orphan Asylum (Cincinnati, 1952), 70-72;
Biddle, Philadelphia Directory for
1791; Black Manuscripts; Vital Records Index,
a manuscript card file at the Historical
and Philosophical Society of Ohio.
9 John F. Edgar, Pioneer Life in
Dayton and Vicinity, 1796-1840 (Dayton, 1896),
211-212; Charlotte Reeve Conover, Some
Dayton Saints and Prophets (Dayton,
1907), 257-263 (information from this
volume supplied by Miss Helen Santmyer);
Black Manuscripts.
98
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Arthur St. Clair, Jr., a son of
the governor of the Northwest
Territory. Samuel Davies moved with his
family to Williams-
burg about the same time.10
In the new rural village in
southwestern Ohio, Samuel
Davies took a position of leadership.
He bought a farm of
1,300 acres along the East Fork of the
Little Miami River.
He served as a member of the first
grand jury empaneled in
Clermont County under the new state
government of Ohio in
December 1803. He was twice a candidate
for state represent-
ative, and although defeated, he had
large and increasing sup-
port.11 He provided bond for
the county tax collector. About
1804 he built a large stone house on
Front Street. According
to local tradition it served as headquarters
for military gather-
ings, and at such times the main room
was set aside for the
use of courts martial.12 Probably
he began his own career in
the state militia at this time. Later
he was commonly known
as "Colonel" Davies. He also
kept a store in Williamsburg;
but it must have been quite different
from his stores in New
York. He probably carried a small stock
of general mer-
chandise and farm implements brought
from Cincinnati, and
took in payment the grain, flour, and
hides his neighbors had
to use for money. From January 1, 1805,
he began to buy
land as an investment, and his land
purchases were numerous
in subsequent years.13 He is
said to have been "busy" at the
land office in Cincinnati (his
brother-in-law, William Lytle,
10 Byron Williams, History of
Clermont and Brown Counties, Ohio (Milford,
Ohio, 1913), I, 279, 300-301; Thirey
and Mitchell's Encyclopedic Directory and
History of Clermont County, Ohio (n. p., 1902), 101; Clyde W. Park, Williams-
burg and Its Founder (Williamsburg, Ohio, 1947); obituary of John S. Lytle,
Cincinnati Daily Chronicle, December 17. 1839; Black Manuscripts.
11 Western Spy, June 8,
15, 1811; Williams, Clermont and Brown Counties,
I, 323-324; Louis H. Everts. pub., 1795:
History of Clermont County, Ohio
(Philadelphia, 1880), 75, 107, 123;
indenture of Thomas Carneal and Wil-
liam Lytle to William Short, December
20, 1803, Short Family Papers, Library
of Congress.
12 Everts,
History of Clermont County, 297.
13 Records of the Cincinnati Agency, Bank of the United States, 1821-1826,
pp.
188-193, in Timothy Kirby Manuscripts,
Historical and Philosophical Society of
Ohio. Additional evidence of Davies'
land purchases exists in the Records of the
United States Public Land Office at
Cincinnati now in the state archives at the
Ohio Archives Building, Columbus.
SAMUEL WATTS DAVIES 99
was a government surveyor), but no
evidence has been found
that he was employed there.14 He
became postmaster of Wil-
liamsburg after General Lytle resigned
in his favor on July
8, 1806, and held the responsibilities
of the job as long as he
lived in the town.15
During his first thirty-five years
Davies had lived as a boy
in the crowded city of London, as a
young grocer and mer-
chant in New York, and as a
storekeeper, land speculator,
militia officer, and postmaster in
rural Clermont County. De-
tails of his life in Williamsburg are
few; it may be supposed
that he lived as a frontier country
gentleman, serving his
neighbors in official work and willing
to serve in other ways
for which he was recommended although
not chosen. Nothing
gives any hint of the great energy he
was soon to show.
About 1809 General Lytle moved to
Cincinnati and built a
large brick home for his family. Davies
also moved about the
same time. The first evidence of the
move appeared in June
1811, when he offered to sell his farm
on the East Fork and
invited prospective buyers to apply to
Nicholas Sinks in Wil-
liamsburg or to himself in
Cincinnati.16
Three months after the first mention of
his residence in
Cincinnati, Davies actively entered
local political life. On Sep-
tember 9, 1811, he was chosen secretary
of a meeting of
Republican delegates from the townships
of Hamilton County.
The meeting nominated candidates to be
supported in the
coming election. A rival ticket was
proposed. At the election
in October, Davies' friends had the
support of the majority of
voters.17 In April 1813 Davies himself
was elected town re-
corder. After a year in that office he
was elected in April 1814
to be president of the town council. He
attended the meetings
14 A
Biographical Cyclopaedia and Portrait Gallery . . . of the State of Ohio
(Cincinnati, 1880). I, 173-174;
"Robert Todd Lytle," in Biographical Directory
of the American Congress, 1774-1949 (Washington, 1950); Thircy and Mitchell's
History of Clermont County, 101; obituary of William Lytle, Cincinnati Com-
mercial, reprinted in Ohio State Journal (Columbus),
May 5, 1831.
15 Williams, (Clermont and Brown Counties. I, 365.
16 Liberty Hall, August 30, 1809;
Ohio State Journal, May 5, 1831; Western Spy,
June 8, 15, 1811.
17 Western Spy, September
14, 1811; Liberty Hall, October 9, 1811.
100
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
of the council at the Columbian Inn and
at the rooms of John
Wingate's and Stephen McFarland's
taverns in which they
gathered, presiding, serving on
committees, and becoming
acquainted with the many problems of
governing in his ra-
pidly growing town. In September 1814
he was secretary of a
meeting held at the Columbian Inn to
obtain a new charter for
the town which would give the council
power to regulate stag-
nant water, drains, nuisances, and the
removal of filth. The
meeting recommended voting for Jacob
Burnet for state rep-
resentative. An opposition, led by
members of the Tammany
Society, endorsed Joseph Warner. In the
election, Burnet was
successful by a narrow margin, and
Davies became publicly
identified with a political group
including Burnet, the Rev.
William Burke, William Ruffin,
and Nicholas Longworth.
In November, Davies served as secretary
to a large meeting
of citizens protesting the inadequacy
of the mail service, and
was appointed, with Burnet, Ruffin,
Jesse Hunt, George P.
Torrence, and others, to a committee to
make their protest
effective. In April 1815, under the new
town charter that had
been enacted, Davies was again elected
to the town council, as
one of three trustees from the first
ward. He was reelected in
1816 for a two-year term; records of
town elections in 1818
are incomplete, but he was probably
chosen again; and under
the new city charter he was once more
elected to the council in
April 1819.18 His political
career was not only long but ex-
tensive and, in city affairs,
influential. He was regarded by his
enemies as the "leading
character" in getting the town council
to adopt an ordinance in 1817 for the
creation of a public
water supply.19
In civic affairs Davies was equally
active. He was admitted
to the Nova Caesarea Harmony Lodge No.
2 of the Masonic
18 Western Spy, April 11, 1812, April 10, 1813, April 9, July 30,
August 2,
October 1, 22, 1814, March 18, April 8,
1815, March 21, April 25, 1818; Liberty
Hall, April 8, 1816; Charles T. Greve, Centennial History
of Cincinnati and Rep-
resentative Citizens (Chicago, 1904), I, 438, 440-442, 445-446, 476;
transcripts of
Cincinnati town records, John Day
Caldwell Manuscripts, Historical and Philo-
sophical Society of Ohio.
19 Independent Press, July 3, 1823.
SAMUEL WATTS DAVIES 101
Order on April 1, 1812, and inducted on
May 8. Eight months
later, on December 2, he was elected
senior warden of the
lodge for a six months term. He was
reelected to that office in
June and December 1813. In June 1814 he
was elected worthy
master; and although he seems not to
have held office in his
lodge thereafter, he remained a member
until May 7, 1838.20
In 1812 he was also one of those who
subscribed for the build-
ing of a new Presbyterian church.
Although not a church
member until almost the end of his
life, he was remembered as
having been zealous in religion. No
public event surpassed the
celebration of independence in
patriotic fervor, and it was a
mark of high esteem when on July 4,
1816, Colonel Davies, an
Englishman by birth, was chosen to read
the Declaration of
Independence in the civic ceremony.21
His interest in education
was evident in his long service as
secretary of the Cincinnati
Lancaster Seminary from its origin in
1815 until it was trans-
formed into the Cincinnati College on
January 22, 1819, and
his service thereafter as one of the
first college trustees. His
annual reports, covering the plans,
problems, and achieve-
ments of the seminary, provide a
graphic account of the ef-
forts to educate the boys and girls and
young men of the town.
He was influential in hiring Moses
Dawson to teach in the
seminary when the Irish revolutionary
and propagandist ar-
rived virtually penniless in the New
World, and in employing
as another seminary teacher the Rev.
Elijah Slack, formerly
vice president of Princeton, when the
clergyman fled from
New Jersey following gross indignity at
the hands of his stu-
dents.22 When conflicts
between townspeople and the seventy
20 Transcripts of records of Nova
Caesarea Harmony Lodge No. 2. John Day
Caldwell Manuscripts.
21 Charles Cist, ed., Cincinnati Miscellany, or, Antiquities of the West
(Cincin-
nati, 1844-46), II, 169-170; Henry A.
Ford and Kate B. Ford, History of Cincin-
nati, Ohio (Cleveland, 1881), 149-150; Western Spy, July
12, 1816; Daniels Manu-
scripts.
22 Western Spy, August
2, 1816, April 4, 1818; Liberty Hall, April 14, 1817;
John P. Foote, The Schools of
Cincinnati and Its Vicinity (Cincinnati, 1855), 5;
Edward D. Mansfield, Memoirs of the
Life and Services of Daniel Drake (Cin-
cinnati, 1855), 106, 275; Greve, Centennial
History of Cincinnati, I, 426-427, 486,
607.
102
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
soldiers of the Third United States
Infantry stationed in Cin-
cinnati were complicated by charges of
nightly depredations
and, at last, a stubborn and impetuous
soldier of the guard
assaulted William Ruffin and Stephen
McFarland with his
bayonet, it was Colonel Davies who was
asked (with Major
Francis Carr) to talk with Captain
George H. Grosvenor and
Lieutenant John B. Clarke to work out a
solution to the prob-
lem.23 An immigrant Welsh
family arrived in Cincinnati one
summer destitute and ill. Davies took
them into his home,
looked after them until their health
was restored, and set
them once more on the way to an
estimable life.24
Of Davies' family life little is known.
His father-in-law,
John Stall, died on October 23, 1813,
and about five months
later, on March 2, 1814, his wife Mary
Ann died, leaving him
a widower with seven children. A little
over a year later, on
March 6, 1815, he married Clarissa H.
Pierson of Morris-
town, New Jersey. Her father, David
Pierson, had served in
the Continental Army during the
Revolution, and moved to
Milton's Farms, southeast of Dayton,
early in 1815. The
second Mrs. Davies was remembered for
the sweet dignity of
her presence and her unaffected
modesty. Gentle and meek, yet
exact and punctual in the performance
of duty, she would not
stop to rest, "because," as
she would say, "the time is short."
She was small and slender; her face had
beauty; the set of
her lips was austere, but her dark brown
eyes showed compas-
sion as well as boundless energy.25
The family home on East
Fourth Street between Sycamore and
Broadway included (ac-
cording to a report in 1820) fifteen
white members besides
two free persons of color. No doubt
Davies traveled by horse,
as everyone else did. The caricature
previously mentioned sug-
gests a picture of him riding in a
carriage, grim, arrogant,
determined, with his cigar clamped in
his teeth, at an hour
23 Western Spy, April
25, 1818.
24 Western Spy, September 5, 1817; Ford, History of Cincinnati, 436;
Citizens
Memorial Association, In Memoriam;
Cincinnati 1881 (Cincinnati, 1881), 140-141.
25 Western Spy, March
5, 1814, March 11, 1815; Juettner, Daniel Drake and
His Followers, 96, 128-131; Dayton Weekly Journal, March 10, 1863;
Daniels
Manuscripts.
SAMUEL WATTS DAVIES 103
when he was beset by clamoring
creditors. But his person-
ality is most clearly shown by the
record of his achievements
between 1811 and 1820 in banking and
manufacturing.
After his early experience as a
storekeeper and his grad-
ual but rapidly growing interest in
land speculation, Davies
reached a turning point in his career
in 1812, when he became
a banker. The people of Ohio were from
the beginning em-
barrassed by a shortage of money. Apart
from the little they
could bring with them from the East,
their two chief sources
were the sale of land to eastern
investors and the sale of
farm produce to merchants in New
Orleans. To remedy the
situation, merchants of Cincinnati in
1803 created the Miami
Exporting Company, which acted as a
bank until 1807 but
thereafter restricted its activities to
merchandising. In October
1811 another group of men organized the
Farmers' and
Mechanics' Bank of Cincinnati.
Prominent among them were
William Ruffin, the town postmaster to
1814 and afterwards
a merchant; John H. Piatt, David
Kilgour, John S. Wallace,
John W. Sloane, Ezekiel Hall, and James
Ferguson, all mer-
chants; Isaac Anderson, tavern keeper
and later a farmer;
Andrew Dunseath. tinware manufacturer
and merchant; Ste-
phen McFarland, hat manufacturer; John
W. Browne, clergy-
man and printer; and Nicholas
Longworth, a lawyer. Presi-
dent of the bank from the beginning and
throughout its ex-
istence was William Irwin, a merchant
and miller.26
Articles of incorporation of the bank
were based on the
Bank of the United States, the Bank of
Philadelphia, the
Bank of Pennsylvania, and the
Merchants' Bank of New
York. Stock had a par value of $50 per
share. Within two
weeks of the first meeting more than
500 shares, representing
a potential capital of $25,000, had
been subscribed. By March
16, 1812, Davies had been chosen
cashier. He published the
notices to stockholders of the annual
meetings for the election
26 Western Spy, October
12, 19, 26, November 9, 1811, March 28, 1812; Liberty
Hall, October 23, November 20. 26, 1811, April 8, 1812; Harry
R. Stevens, "Bank
Enterprisers in a Western Town,
1815-1822," Business History Review, XXIX
(1955), 139-156.
104
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
of directors (held on the first Monday
in April) and the no-
tices to subscribers when payment
should be made of the
installments due on their stock.
Payments of $5 per share
were to be made quarterly, beginning in
October 1811.
Twenty-five shares of stock were owned
by Richard Marsh,
a chair maker, and some stock was owned
by other mechanics,
such as Andrew Dunseath, but most of it
was undoubtedly
held by merchants, such as Jeremiah
Neave & Son, who
owned twenty-eight shares, or by
landowners, such as Cave
Johnson of Boone County, Kentucky, John
S. Wallace, far-
mer, merchant, and sheriff, and Jacob
White, the farmer,
warehouseman, and "practical
lawyer" who once pleaded be-
fore the United States Supreme Court.27
The new bank was chartered by the state
legislature of
Ohio on February 5, 1813, and was
authorized to conduct
business for five years with a capital
of $200,000. By March
1 the officers of the bank began to
issue the paper money that
was needed for local business. The
notes probably were printed
in Philadelphia, and issued in
denominations of $3, $5, $10,
$20, $50, and $100.28 In the earlier
activities of the bank,
small denominations were the more
numerous, and the circu-
lation of notes was not extensive.
Davies chose as his assistant a young
man from Boston,
Thomas Burley, twenty-two years old,
who had recently
moved to Cincinnati with his widowed
mother. Burley re-
mained assistant cashier during the
entire existence of the
27 Western Spy, July 25, August 22, 1812, February 13, 1813, August
6, October
29, 1814, January 6, 1817; Liberty
Hall, December 1, 1817.
28 Laws of Ohio, XI, 79, 81, cited in Charles C. Huntington, "A
History of
Banking and Currency in Ohio Before the
Civil War," Ohio Archaeological and
Historical Quarterly, XXIV (1915), 264; John J. Rowe, "Money and Banks
in
Cincinnati: Pre-Civil War," in
Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio,
Bulletin, VI
(1948), 76-77; Western Spy, August 6, 1814.
The earliest known surviving note of the
bank, now in the collection of the
Dayton Public Library, reads: "The
President . . . Directors and Company of
the Farmers & Mechanics Bank of
Cincinnati promise to pay out of the Joint
Funds thereof according to the Articles
of Association to P. A. Sprigman [the
name is written in a blank] or bearer on
demand FIVE dollars. Cincinnati, I
March. 1813." The note is signed by
Samuel W. Davies, cashier, and William
Irwin, president, and bears a serial
number, No. 128. A note for $20 dated August
17, 1813, is designated No. 82 and is
evidently numbered in another series.
SAMUEL WATTS DAVIES 105
bank.29 By July 1815 the
bank was housed in a building on the
west side of Main Street between Front
and Second.
On June 29, 1812, after the Farmers'
and Mechanics' Bank
was organized but before it began to do
business, word reached
Cincinnati of the declaration of war
against Great Britain.
The necessities of war at once began to
affect the local
economy, and the bankers soon responded
to its needs. Of
major importance was the problem of
obtaining supplies for
the troops fighting on the northwestern
frontier. While the
federal government issued orders and
instructions and author-
ized contracts, the practical job of
persuading farmers to sell
their cattle and hogs, salt, grain,
bacon, wagons, and gear to
the army had to be met in a practical
way with money rather
than promises. Government contractors
in the West were in
an especially difficult position, and
the bankers were brought
under great pressure to issue notes on
the basis of bills drawn
on the secretary of war, requisitions
from territorial gover-
nors, letters from field commanders
begging for supplies, and
even more nebulous assurances. In
December 1813 Davies met
a draft of $40,000 from one army agent,
Hugh Glenn, based
on a requisition from Governor Lewis
Cass to General John
Armstrong for the delivery of flour to
Detroit. Glenn cited as
authority a letter of October 8, 1813,
from John H. Piatt.30
The next year Piatt drew bills on the
secretary of war in
favor of Samuel Davies for $25,000 on
July 30, for $35,000
on September 7, and for $40,000 on
October 21, 1814. In
spite of the great risks, Davies took
the responsibility for
accepting and paying. He was allowed a
"premium" of
$3,750 on the total of $100,000
(apparently 3 3/4%), and the
need was met. Within a few weeks they
were all under pro-
test for want of funds in the United
States Treasury to pay
them, since British troops had captured
Washington and the
29 Farnsworth,
Cincinnati Directory for 1819 and Cincinnati directories for 1829,
1834, 1836-37; Liberty Hall, January
18, 1820; manuscript card index of inter-
ments, Spring Grove Cemetery
Association, Cincinnati. Thomas Burley was born
in 1790 and died September 24, 1866.
30 Hugh Glenn to General John Armstrong,
December 28, 1813. John H. Piatt
Letter Book, Ewing Manuscripts, Library
of Congress.
106 THE OHIO HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
treasury was practically nonexistent.
Davies was risking his
own reputation as well as the credit of
his bank to help keep
the army in the field and to defend the
frontier of his adopted
country.31
With the fall of the national capital
to the enemy the
financial crisis plunged forward
swiftly to disaster. Banks
all over the East, except in New
England, suspended specie
payment. Rumor spread in Ohio that
agents were sent out
from the East with western bank notes,
asking for their
redemption in specie, and hard cash
almost disappeared dur-
ing the fall. It was widely believed
that the specie being
drained off to the East was passing
into the hands of the
enemy. When the shortage became
intolerable, the bankers
of Cincinnati, on December 26, 1814,
decided by common
agreement to suspend specie payment.
Davies, as cashier of
the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank (the
others in the town
were the Miami Bank and the more
recently formed Bank of
Cincinnati) had to face the farmers and
merchants who had
placed their trust in his signature,
and the situation must
have been unpleasant. In the following
month the distress
was so acute that many of the prominent
leaders of the town
met to consider the problem.
Fortunately for Davies they sus-
tained the bankers in the decision to
suspend payment. Within
a few weeks, word came of the end of
the war, and men had
an opportunity to turn to more
productive work. Davies was
again among the foremost in imagination
and energy.32
Even more than in banking Davies made
his contribution to
the economic development of Cincinnati
in manufacturing.
Shortly before the outbreak of the war,
Andrew Mack, a
handsome man from Connecticut who had
traveled around the
world as a ship's captain, brought from
New England a flock
of sixty Merino sheep. Within a year he
and his associates,
31 Report to the Committee of Claims . .
. John H. Piatt, House Documents,
31 cong., 1 sess., No. 325, p. 11; American
State Papers: Documents, Legislative
and Executive (Washington, 1832-61), Claims, 734-735.
32 Western Spy, December
31, 1814, February 4, 1815; John B. McMaster, A
History of the People of the United
States (New York, 1883-1913), IV,
296-297;
Huntington, "Banking and Currency
in Ohio," 267-268, 279-280.
SAMUEL WATTS DAFIES 107
including William Barr, William Lytle,
Jacob Burnet, James
Findlay, and Isaac Bates, formed the
"Merino Sheep Com-
pany," or "Miami Sheep
Company," to rent or sell rams and
ewes to Ohio farmers for the purpose of increasing the
pro-
duction and quality of wool. With raw
wool available,
another group of men took the next step
a few months later.
On November 22, 1813, they incorporated
the "Wool and
Cotton Manufacturing Company."
Eleven men subscribed
thirty-two shares of stock at $1,000
per share. The four
principal stockholders were two
lawyers, Jacob Burnet and
Ethan Stone, and Davies' two
brothers-in-law, William Lytle
and Arthur St. Clair, Jr., who
subscribed six shares each.
Samuel Davies himself subscribed one
share. His importance
in the venture becomes apparent first
as a link between the
manufacturing company and the bank, and
second in his selec-
tion, with Stone and Jacob Wheeler, as
one of the three
"trustees" of the company.
The trustees began to collect
payment on the stock at the rate of
$250 per share quarterly
beginning February 1, 1814. Stone was
soon replaced by
William C. Anderson; Davies and Wheeler seem to have
been the active directors.33
When the first stock payments had been
made, Davies
announced to farmers of the Miami
Valley that the company
would pay cash for wool. Up to this
time no woolen factory
existed in Cincinnati. The census of
1810 showed a total
of 31 looms and 230 spinning wheels in
the town, all, it may
be supposed, in home use. The total
production of cloth for the
year was 2,967 yards of cotton, 2,093
of linen, 735 of wool,
and 685 mixed. The requirements of
nearby consumers were
greatly augmented by the demands of the
army, and the
scarcity of cloth was no less serious a
problem than that of
money. During 1814 Davies began
construction of a woolen
factory, known as the Cincinnati
Manufacturing Company.
33 Western Spy, August 15, 1812, July 23, August 13, 1814; transcripts
of records
of Nova Caesarea Harmony Lodge No. 2,
John Day Caldwell Manuscripts; Wil-
liam S. Wabnitz, ed., "The Bates
Papers and Early Cincinnati," in Historical and
Philosophical Society of Ohio, Bulletin,
XI (1953), 13-36, 112-127.
108 THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
It seems to have been silmply another
name for the Wool and
Cotton Manufacturing Company. By the
summer of 1815
the buildings, constructed on a bank
above Deer Creek, were
said to be "numerous and
extensive." They consisted of a
central structure 37 feet deep, with
one or two wings 20 feet
deep, extending to a total length of
150 feet, the whole two
stories high, with a central cupola
rising to four stories. In
addition there were two or more smaller
buildings, perhaps a
receiving and weighing shed, a small
warehouse, an office,
and outbuildings. Production of some sort had already
begun, probably first of yarn, with
woolen cloth added later.34
The first cotton factory in Cincinnati
was started in
1809 by Baum, Long and Hurdus on
Sycamore Street. The
partnership was well suited to the
venture. Martin Baum,
export merchant and banker, had access
to markets and
financial resources. Harmon Long, a
nail manufacturer, was
able to build the machinery required.
The technique of fac-
tory production and the design of the
machines must have
been contributions of Adam Hurdus, a
fifty-year-old English-
man with an adventure-filled
background. He had been a
spinner and weaver in one of the first
factories in Man-
chester; and proposals for the factory
specified that it was
to be operated on the Manchester
system. Hurdus arrived
in Cincinnati in 1806. In later years
he was an organ builder
and distinguished in other ways for his
craftsmanship. In
1810 the factory had 576 spindles;
within the next two years,
three mules, two carding engines, and
other machines were
added, and the factory was able to
produce from eighty to a
hundred skeins a day.35
The demand for yarn was so great, especially
after the
beginning of the war with Great
Britain, that four other
34 Daniel Drake, Natural and
Statistical View, or Picture of Cincinnati and the
Miami Country (Cincinnati, 1815), 143-146; Farnsworth, Cincinnati
Directory for
1819, p. 32; Western Spy, November
3, 1810; Liberty Hall, November 7, 1810,
January 1, 1811; Ford, History of
Cincinnati, 325 ff.
35 Western Spy, May 18, 1811, April 16, 1814; Ophia D. Smith,
"Adam Hurdus
and the Swedenborgians in Early Cincinnati," Ohio
State Archaeological and
Historical Quarterly, LIII (1944), 106-134.
SAMUEL WATTS DAVIES 109
factories were soon established. In
March 1814 Jonathan
Pancoast, a master bricklayer from New
Jersey, opened the
"Mechanics' Cotton Manufacturing
Company of Cincinnati"
in a brick building in Lodge Alley,
between Main, Walnut,
Fifth, and Sixth Streets.36 A
year later, in April 1815, John
Long and Abraham Ebersole set up a
cotton factory in the
new Cincinnati Steam Mill, and in July
1815 Dudley and
Burnet also had a small cotton factory.
Raw cotton was
imported by barge and keelboat from the
lower Mississippi
in the spring and summer of 1815.37
By that time Davies,
too, had put his cotton factory into
production.
In the summer of 1815 three small
cotton factories and
one large one, with a total of 1,200
spindles, were reported
in operation. Since Baum, Long and
Hurdus had advertised
all of their machinery for sale in
April 1814, and Pancoast
had already opened his factory before
they closed, it seems
likely that Davies obtained his
equipment from the first fac-
tory, perhaps with the services of Adam
Hurdus as well, and
that, starting in 1814, he had the
largest of the four factories
in the town.
The years immediately after the close
of the War of 1812
comprised one of the most phenomenal
periods of expansion in
the economic history of the Ohio
Valley. Land speculation and
settlement, commerce, civic
development, industry, and bank-
ing all formed important elements, and
in the last three Davies
was one of the foremost enterprisers.
At the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank,
while the member-
ship of the board of directors varied
from year to year,
Davies remained as cashier through one
term after another
and became more clearly as well as more
prominently identi-
fied as the man who determined its
policies. The bank, like
the two others in the town, was open
from ten o'clock until
one, daily except Sunday. The directors
were generally
36 Liberty Hall, April 5, 1814; Western Spy, August 1, December
12, 1817, Janu-
ary 1, 1820.
37 Liberty Hall, April 15, 1815; Western Spy, June 2, July 7, 21,
1815, March
14, 18, August 8, 1818; American
State Papers, Finance, II, 788-789.
110
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
senior citizens, in their fifties, with
comparatively long local
residence; they were a lawyer, a
tanner, two millers, a cabinet
maker, a physician, and substantial
landowners and mer-
chants. Most of them came from
Pennsylvania, New Jersey,
and Virginia. Three of the directors,
Hugh Glenn, Nicholas
Longworth, and John H. Piatt, in their
early thirties or
younger, may well have provided a
greater energy and imagi-
nation than their elders. Davies,
midway between them at
forty, helped them all work together.
In February 1816 the state legislature
passed an act re-
quiring banks to set off a number of
their shares to be vested
in the state, and to submit to the
state auditor's office a
certificate of them and other reports.
On August 27 Davies
and his directors agreed to these terms
and received a new
charter. In May a swindling scheme was
suspected of at-
tempting to victimize the Ohio
Exporting and Importing
Company. Davies was appointed to a
committee of bankers
to investigate, and he joined in the
preparation of a report
exposing the fraud with full details.38
In October a third
problem required attention. The absence
of small coins (the
copper cent was practically unknown)
led to the custom of
cutting "round money into little
bits." It opened the way to
innumerable deceptions. Silver dollars
were cut into five parts
to pass as quarters, and twenty-cent
pieces into four parts for
six and a quarter cents each. Davies
worked out an arrange-
ment with the local firm of Kilgour and
Taylor to issue
notes for six and a quarter, twelve and
a half, twenty-five,
and fifty cents on that house, payable
on demand at the Farm-
ers' and Mechanics' Bank in current
bank bills.39 Such jobs
were of minor importance, however,
beside the revolutionary
banking change of 1816-17.
Congress decided in April 1816 to
create a second Bank of
the United States. As preparations for
it advanced, the sec-
38 Western Spy, March 4, May 10, 17, 1816, January 29, 1820;
Huntington,
"Banking and Currency in
Ohio." 274-275.
39 Liberty Hall, October 21, 1816; Western Spy, January 31,
February 21, March
17, 1817.
retary of the treasury issued a
circular letter on July 22
asking state banks about the prospects
for a resumption of
specie payments. In response, Davies
met with delegates
from twelve other Ohio banks at
Chillicothe, September 6-11,
to reach a common understanding. They
resolved that it
would not be safe or prudent for the
Ohio banks to resume
until the payment of specie on demand
became general at the
banks of the Atlantic cities. Davies'
memory of the disaster
less than two years before was too
sharp and painful to per-
mit him to fall into a similar trap.
Specie payment clearly had
not yet been resumed on any extensive
scale, and caution was
still a guiding principle.40
The bank began operations on January 1,
1817, in Phila-
delphia. By a resolution adopted
January 9, it offered to
enter into agreements with state banks
which would contract
to pay specie for their notes, holding
out the inducement that
the treasury would accept their notes
equally with notes of
the Bank of the United States itself in
payment on govern-
ment accounts, such as direct taxes,
internal revenue, and the
sale of public lands. The secretary of
the treasury believed
such a policy not merely expedient but
necessary. The induce-
ment was so strong that Davies and
other bank officials in
Cincinnati acceded to it by February 1,
and thus a contractual
basis for the resumption
of specie payment was established.41
During the same winter the directors of
the bank in Phila-
delphia decided to create a branch
office of discount and
deposit in Cincinnati. They elected its
directors on January
27, 1817. The news reached Cincinnati by February 7. Their
new cashier from the East reached the
town on April 12. The
branch Bank of the United States opened
for business on
April 21. On the same day Davies and
other local bank
cashiers resumed specie payment in
fact, and the revolution
passed from planning into reality.42
At the same time, to re-
40 Huntington, "Banking and
Currency in Ohio," 282-283.
41 Western Spy, September 20, 1816; Huntington, "Banking
and Currency in
Ohio," 284.
42 Huntington,
"Banking and Currency in Ohio," 283-287.
112
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
place the host of individual bills that
were being compared to
the locusts of Egypt, the cashiers
received a supply of small
engraved bills.
The Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank
flourished. Its credit
was restored. Ohio bank notes that were
quoted in Phila-
delphia at twelve to fifteen percent
discount on January 6,
1817, rose to only six percent by April
7. Notes of the
Cincinnati banks were accepted by the
branch Bank of the
United States; and as almost no United
States Bank notes
reached the West, they became "the
current circulation."
Davies found more stock purchasers, and
by the summer of
1818 more than three thousand shares
had been sold. Capital
stock paid in amounted to $154,776.
Against his bank stood
an account of $9,000 in deposits, and
notes in circulation
amounting to $87,000. Assets were made
up of real estate
valued at $20,000, specie at $26,000,
notes of other Ohio
banks at $3,650, and bills discounted,
$518,048.43
But Davies discovered quite soon that
pressures had come
into existence far beyond his control.
Notes issued by the
branch Bank of the United States were
sent to the East,
disappearing as fast as they were
issued. The "vacuum"
thus created was filled by the state
banks, which issued more
state bank notes. The $518,000 in bills
discounted shows
quite clearly that the chief activity
of the bank was the
extension of credit to merchants, both
individuals and part-
nerships, on the basis of their
expectations of profit. In ex-
tending them credit, giving bank notes
in exchange for their
bills, Davies and his directors had
issued a large quantity of
notes that passed from the merchants to
the Cincinnati
branch of the Bank of the United
States. Davies' policies
were conservative in comparison with
those of the Bank of
Cincinnati, but his position was
dangerous. As long as his
credit was good and the Bank of the
United States made no
demand for specie payment, such
transactions could continue,
but a heavy demand for the redemption
of Farmers' and Me-
43 Western Spy, February ,13, 1819; Liberty Hall, February 16,
1819; Inquisitor
and Cincinnati Advertiser, February 9, 16, March 2, 1819.
SAMUEL WATTS DAVIES 113
chanics' Bank notes could seriously
threaten his position. At
the beginning of August 1817 the debt
was probably no more
than $70,000. It tripled within the
next twelve months,
reaching $221,495.
While Davies was active in the
extension of bank credit,
he was equally conspicuous in a
corresponding industrial
expansion. At the Cincinnati
Manufacturing Company he
added a factory in the winter of
1816-17 to produce sixty
yards of woolen broadcloth a day. Some
features of the
business are illustrated by the leases
which the Miami Sheep
Company granted to farmers in Indiana
and southwestern
Ohio. Typically a farmer accepted one
full-blooded Merino
ewe and two full-blooded Merino
"bucks," which he agreed
to feed and care for. After five years
the resultant flock was
to be divided equally between the
farmer and the sheep com-
pany. The wool was to be divided each
year. The farmer
was responsible for having the sheep
and their increase
sheared at the proper season and the
fleece washed and freed
from filth and burrs. He was required
to deliver "the com-
pany's half of the wool" at
Cincinnati in good merchantable
order to "the Woolen Factory of
the Sheep Company" and
to the "Cincinnati Manufacturing
Company." Davies paid
thirty-seven and a half cents a pound
for the wool at his
factory.44 By the summer of
1817 the enterprise was too
large for his immediate supervision,
and he employed Elijah
Bemiss, first as a clerk, then agent,
and presently superintend-
ent. Elijah Bemiss, Jr., kept an inn at
the junction of Western
Row and Hamilton Road, two miles from
Cincinnati; his
father, in addition to being a careful
businessman, must have
known many of the sheep farmers
personally.45
By the end of 1817, with the expanding
importation of
textiles from Europe and the East,
cotton was no longer
profitable. Pancoast's factory closed
forever by July 1818,
44 Western Spy, August 15, 1812, August 2, 30,
1816, August
8, 1817; Wabnitz,
"Bates Papers," 118-121; Ford,
History of Cincinnati, 325.
45 Western Spy, August
8, 1817, June 13, 1818; Wabnitz, "Bates Papers."
120-122.
114
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Long and Ebersole's by August, and
Dudley and Burnet's had
long since disappeared. Davies had
already got out of the
business. Instead he sought and
obtained a contract from the
war department for the manufacture of
woolen and flannel
cloth. During 1818 he put his factory
entirely at work for
the United States government. The
contract specified four
types of cloth to be delivered to the
army at Newport, Ken-
tucky:
4,403 yards of flannel@50¢ a yard
2,744 yards of 6/4 grey cloth@$2.00 a
yard
4,600 yards of 3/4 grey kersey@85¢ a
yard
300 yards of 3/4 grey kersey@90¢ a
yard
The value of the product according to
the figures given was
$11,869.50.46
Cloth was only one of Davies' products.
Soon after the
end of the war he built a plant for the
manufacture of white
lead, said to have been the third such
factory started between
the Alleghenies and the Mississippi. He
made use of an
"Evans patent steam engine,"
one of the first steam engines
used industrially in the town. By 1817
he obtained the serv-
ices of a young man from Newark, New
Jersey, Moses
Meeker, who knew a good bit about lead
manufacturing. He
put Meeker in charge, adding a building
for red lead, and was
soon turning out six or seven tons of
red and white lead a
week.47 The vinegar
necessary for its production (at a rate
of two and a half barrels a day for six
tons) was no doubt
produced locally. The lead was probably
brought from Mis-
souri or the newly opened galena
deposits in northern Illinois.
By May 1818 the lead works were
reported to be "in complete
operation." Before the end of the
year the "Cincinnati Wool-
len and White Lead Manufactory"
was employing thirty-five
workmen. It was the second largest
industrial plant (the
46 American State Papers, Military
Affairs, I, 857.
47 Western Spy, August 29, 1818; Liberty
Hall, January 4, 1820. On Moses
Meeker, see Wisconsin Historical
Collections, II, 13, III, 16, IV, 31, VI, 67, 271-
296, VIII, 46, X, 266, XIII, 290-291,
XIV, 303.
SAMUEL WATTS DAVIES 115
first was William Green's Bell, Brass
and Iron Foundry)
and the largest factory in the town. An
industrial revolution
through steam power, an incorporated
stock company, and
factory production had already begun in
Cincinnati, and
Davies was one of its foremost
architects.48
But the Cincinnati Manufacturing
Company was now only
one of Davies' many interests. His
energy and enterprise
seemed inexhaustible. Since 1814 he had
been buying and
selling real estate extensively.49
By the spring of 1818 he had
given credit of $82,000 to his friend
Hugh Glenn to help him
meet his army contract for supplying
provisions to the mili-
tary outposts of the western frontier
from Arkansas to Min-
nesota.50 In the spring of
1818 he gave his active support to
the improvement of river
transportation, serving on a com-
mittee to solicit stock subscriptions
for the Jeffersonville Ohio
Canal Company, to build a canal around
the falls of the Ohio
River.51
Early in 1817 he seized upon an even
greater opportunity,
and one that was to prove an
embarrassment to him for many
years. The water supply of the town was
extremely simple.
People got water from private wells and
cisterns, from a few
springs, and from the river. The chief
improvement in the
system came when Jesse Reeder built a
tank near the river
at the foot of Ludlow Street. By means
of horse power
operating an elevator system he raised water from the river
into the tank and sold it to the water
carters, William Gibson
and Samuel Arthur, who carted it around
the town.52 Late in
the winter Colonel Davies and General
James Findlay, as
agents of the Cincinnati Manufacturing
Company, offered a
plan to supply water through pipes.
They proposed to build
48 Inquisitor and Cincinnati Advertiser, February 23, 1819.
49 Bank of the United States (Cincinnati
Office) Records and Records of the
Cincinnati Agency, 1821-1826. Timothy
Kirby Manuscripts. Abundant material
concerning Davies in these records has
not been explored in detail.
50 Statement of Charges Against Hugh
Glenn, Account No. 4712, Auditors' Re-
ports, 3d Auditor's Office, Treasury
Records, National Archives.
51 Liberty Hall, May 20, 1818.
52 Greve, Centennial History of
Cincinnati, I, 459.
116
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
a reservoir on high ground east of Deer
Creek, near the fac-
tory, and to construct wooden conduits
through the streets,
lanes, and alleys on the lower level of
the town. The town
council appointed a committee on March
24 to hold a con-
ference with them on the subject. A week later the commit-
tee reported, proposing an ordinance,
which the council
adopted. Under its terms the company was
vested with the
exclusive privilege of laying pipe in
the streets on condition
that the pipe should be laid to
"the bottom" on or before July
4, 1819, so that water might be
delivered on or before July
2, 1823.53
About the same time, an immigrant from
Germany arrived
in the town and in April took lodgings
in Columbia Street
near Broadway. Albert Stein, a young man
of twenty-five,
had already been in the United States
for some months. He
knew a good bit about steam engines and
hydraulics. He had
arrived with his skill, but he was
unknown. Like Moses
Meeker, the factory superintendent, as
well as Moses Dawson,
Elijah Slack, and Elijah Bemiss, he was
a man whose talents
could be usefully employed if he could
find someone to engage
him. Like them, he found his patron in
Colonel Davies.54
During the next eight months nothing
further was heard
of the waterworks proposal; but in the
winter of 1817-18
Stein was back in the East looking over
steam engines in
Philadelphia. At the end of January he
wrote a letter to Cin-
53 Liberty Hall, April 7, 1817; Independent Press, July 3,
1823; Charles Cist,
Cincinnati in 1851, 103-105. The most complete and accurate account is
Thomas J.
Bell, "Appendix Containing the
History of the Cincinnati Water Works," in
Forty-First Annual Report of the Water
Department of the City of Cincinnati,
for the Year Ending December 31, 1880,
which was published in Annual Reports
of the City of Cincinnati, for the
Fiscal Year Ending December 31, 1881 (Cincin-
nati 1881), 463-519. Other secondary
accounts are too abridged or obscure to be
of much value.
54 Western Spy, May 2, 1817, March 11, May 11, June 22, 1820; Ford, History
of Cincinnati, 128; Charles F. Goss, Cincinnati, the Queen City,
1788-1912 (Chi-
cago, 1912), II, 12. Stein (1792-1876)
later built waterworks in Philadelphia,
Lynchburg and Petersburg, Virginia, New
Orleans, Nashville, and Mobile, Ala-
bama. Charles G. Summersell, Mobile:
History of a Seaport Town (University,
Ala., 1949), 35; Rosa F. Yancey, Lynchburg
and Its Neighbors (Richmond, Va.,
1935), 33-34.
SAMUEL WATTS DAVIES 117
cinnati about them.55 Another delay
followed. Perhaps the ex-
planation was, as a critic charged a
few years later, that
Davies had no money to invest in the
project. Not until almost
the end of 1818 did he take the next
step in this direction.
Meanwhile, during the early months of
1818 Cincinnati
was enjoying a greater prosperity,
industrially, commercially,
and financially, than at any time since
the founding of the
town thirty years earlier. Its basis
was the vast migration
of settlers into the Ohio and Missouri
valleys, and the un-
restricted flow of credit to western
merchants through the
Bank of the United States.
A slight warning of impending trouble
came at the end of
January 1818 in a letter from the
secretary of the treasury.
He instructed the receivers of public
moneys at the public
land offices in Steubenville, Ohio, and
Vincennes, Indiana, to
take no state bank notes in payment for
public lands sold in
their districts. Before the middle of
February he reversed
the ruling.56 The vacillation created
uncertainty about the
value of western state bank notes.
More serious trouble came during the
summer. Directors
of the Bank of the United States in
Philadelphia were fright-
ened by reports from the branch office
in Baltimore. To cover
or conceal enormous losses that had
occurred, they decided
in July to collect everything they
could from western branches.
On July 20 they directed the Cincinnati
branch to collect
everything due to it from the state
banks at the rate of twenty
percent a month for five months. Early
in August the cashier
of the Cincinnati branch received the
order, gave it to the
directors who were in town, and
notified Davies and other
officers of the state banks.
Davies and the other state bank
officials met to study the
demand made on them. On August 20 they
drew up a remon-
strance to the Philadelphia board. In a
long review of western
banking, they explained the nature of
their work and their
55 Western Spy, February 7, 1818.
56 Western Spy, March
28, April 4, 1818.
118
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
situation. They reported their alarm
and astonishment at
the decision, and sent the document to
Philadelphia.
Further correspondence was exchanged,
most of it consist-
ing of additional restrictive orders
from Philadelphia.57 Pro-
longed uncertainty was creating an ever
growing fear. Doubt
was resolved on Tuesday evening,
November 3, when the mail
stage brought news for both the cashier
of the branch Bank
of the United States and General
Findlay at the public land
office. The cashier was instructed
forthwith to refuse to
receive as cash, either on deposit or
in payment, the notes of
the state banks and to require the
immediate payment in hard
money or United States notes of the
whole amount due from
the state banks in Cincinnati to the
Bank of the United States.
The five-month extension was cancelled.
The secretary of the
treasury similarly ordered General
Findlay to accept nothing
but United States paper or specie.58
The news spread quickly. Davies opened
the Farmers' and
Mechanics' Bank as usual at ten o'clock
Wednesday morning.
Before noon men of every character were
calling at his
door with his personally signed bank
notes, asking to have
them redeemed in silver or gold. Until
one o'clock his teller
paid, when the bank closed for the day.
The same things
happened at the other town banks. The
next day, without
having come to any common agreement,
the banks stopped
redeeming their notes in cash. That
night and the next day
some of the responsible men of the town
decided to hold a
public meeting on the problem, and they
gathered at the hotel
on Front Street on Saturday night. In
the decisions taken
there and at a second meeting on
November 12 Davies seems
to have had no part, and
representatives of his bank were not
in evidence.59
One of the problems Davies had to
handle during this crisis
is shown in the correspondence of a
young farmer, John
57 American State Papers, Finance, IV. 859-862; Western Spy January 23, 1819.
58 Western Spy, November
7, 1818.
59 American Stale Papers,
Finance, IV, 864; Liberty Hall, November
10, 17,
1818.
SAMUEL WATTS DAVIES 119
Cleves Short. Managing the western real
estate of his wealthy
uncle in Philadelphia, Short sold 320
acres of "Mad River
lands" early in November. He took
in payment $1,000 in
paper of the Farmers' and Mechanics'
Bank and a promise
from the buyer either to take the bank
notes back in three
months or pay in other money if the
bank difficulties con-
tinued. A few days later Short and the
buyer went to Cin-
cinnati to see what they could do with
the paper. Calling on
Davies on November 23, they found him
willing to accept
the money. He gave in return a
certificate that the money
had been deposited with him, and that
Short was entitled to
$1,000 in Philadelphia within ninety
days. He charged Short
two percent on the transaction, which
was paid by the buyer
of the lands with a note for $20. On
December 20 the buyer
was supposed to make a payment of $500
in specie. Short
wrote to his uncle that he supposed
Davies would give him
a draft on one of the state banks in
Philadelphia rather than
on the United States Bank. He hoped
that, since the sum
was not large, his uncle would have no
objection.60
While he was faced with many problems
of the same sort,
Davies was at the same time returning
to his interest in the
water system for the town. A ter
the delay of almost twenty
months. the town council on November 27
amended the water
ordinance, postponing the deadline for having the first
pipe
laid from July 1819 to July 1820.
Before the end of the year,
the woolen manufacturing company, with
the assent of the
council, transferred all its right.
interest. and privilege of
supplying the town with water to
Davies. He and his asso-
ciates obtained a charter of
incorporation under the name of
the "Cincinnati Water
Company." The new company was
authorized to create a capital not
exceeding $75,000.61 Shortly
afterward Davies purchased some
property and began active
preparations. His chief associate in
the work was Jacob
60 John Cleves Short to William Short, November 25, 1818. Short Family
Papers, Library of Congress.
61 Western Spy, December 5, 1818; Cist, Cincinnati in 1851, 103-105;
Bell, "His-
tory of the Cincinnati Water
Works."
120
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Wheeler, who was also a director of the
Farmers' and Me-
chanics' Bank and a member of the town
council. As a coun-
cilman Wheeler had been chosen town
treasurer for two years,
beginning in April 1817; and his
sureties were Abraham Fer-
ris, General William Lytle, and Colonel
Samuel Davies.62
Wheeler and Davies were now associated
in three enterprises,
a utility, a bank, and a factory, as
well as in the town govern-
ment. In a short time Wheeler was to
become known as
Davies' "factotum."
The urgency of the banking crisis did
not permit Davies to
delay. He saw three possibilities for
rescuing his bank from
the precarious situation, and acted on
all of them. First was
repayment from Hugh Glenn of the money
advanced to him
for the fulfillment of his army
contract. The federal govern-
ment had not yet paid Glenn for his
services. As soon as that
could be done, Davies would be relieved
of one of his heaviest
burdens. Second was the possibility of
obtaining authoriza-
tion from the secretary of the treasury
to have the bank
designated as a depository of public
moneys. Third was a new
investment that could be secured by a
government contract,
an investment in steamboat
construction.
Secretary of War Calhoun had long been
interested in
pushing the military frontier of the
country a thousand miles
to the west. His plan was to establish
a major outpost in the
northwest on the Yellowstone River. He
hoped the troops
could subsist on local produce and thus
save the war depart-
ment a great deal of money. He began
active preparations
for the Yellowstone expedition in March
1818. On December
2 the army signed a contract with James
Johnson of Kentucky
for the construction of five steamboats
to carry the expedition
from the Ohio to the Mississippi and up
the Missouri to its
destination. Johnson's brother, Colonel
Richard M. Johnson,
was chairman of the house military
affairs committee, and he
pushed the plan enthusiastically. The
Johnsons had a guaran-
tee from the government against loss.
Their problem was to
62 Inquisitor and Cincinnati
Advertiser, October 8, 1822.
SAMUEL WATTS DAVIES 121
find enough private capital in the West
to finance the steam-
boats' construction.63 Their uncle,
Cave Johnson, was a di-
rector of the Farmers' and Mechanics'
Bank.64
Shortly before January 2, 1819, Davies
left Cincinnati for
Philadelphia, carrying funds of some
description with him.
His immediate object was to make
arrangements for liquidat-
ing the $300,000 debt of his bank to
the Bank of the United
States, and to make arrangements with
eastern banks to
receive their drafts.65
By the middle of the month he reached
the financial metropolis, where he took
a room in Anson
Judd's new hotel at 27 South Third
Street. The city was
covered with snow. The grim weather
emphasized the grim-
ness of his work.
The conditions Davies found in
Philadelphia were shocking.
The president of the Bank of the United
States was one of
the chief speculators in bank stock. He
had connived with
others in the greatest improprieties.
On January 19 the re-
sults of an investigation were
published as the Spencer Report,
and enough was known to induce the
president to resign
within forty-eight hours. Davies was
not able to get answers
to his questions. He fell ill. He
planned to return to Cincin-
nati, and then could not move from his
room. When he was
at last able to travel, after the
middle of February, he turned
south toward Washington.66
At the national capital Davies talked
with his congressman,
General William Henry Harrison. He
prepared a plan offer-
63 Cardinal
Goodwin, "A Larger View of the Yellowstone Expedition, 1819-
1820," Mississippi Valley
Historical Review, IV (1917), 299-313; American His-
torical Association, Annual Report
for 1899 (Washington, 1900), II, 134-136;
Wisconsin Historical Collections, V, 205-211, VI, 188-219; American State Papers,
Finance, IV, 735-736.
64 Liberty Hall, November 20,
1811; American State Papers, Finance, IV, 661;
Farnsworth, Cincinnati Directory for
1819, 46; Cincinnati Daily Gazette, February
2, 3, 1848; letters and photostats from
R. C. Crisler (Cincinnati, Ohio) to the
author, November 8, December 4, 1957.
65 Huntington,
"Banking and Currency in Ohio," 303-304; American State
Papers, Finance, III, 718-721, 731-733, IV, 728-729.
66 "Report of Ohio General Assembly
Bank Committee," in Western Spy, Janu-
ary 30, 1819; John Cleves Short to
William Short, January 2, February 2-3,
February 15-17, 1819, and William Irwin
to John Cleves Short, March 8, 1819,
Short Family Papers.
122 THE OHIO HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
ing the services of his bank as an
agent for receiving, holding,
and paying out government funds if in
return the bank should
be designated as a depository of public
moneys, and on Feb-
ruary 27 submitted it in writing
to Secretary of the Treasury
Crawford. General Harrison came to his
assistance. On
March 5 Secretary Crawford replied, and
on March 11 made
a further reply, suggesting some
changes in the plan and
extending a definite offer.67
Davies returned to Philadelphia with
this offer to see what
action might be taken by the Bank of
the United States. On
March 6 a new president had been
appointed, giving the
administration a more regular
character. Evidently Davies
was able to conclude his business there
with some satisfaction.
He left Philadelphia within two or
three weeks, and returned
to Cincinnati between March 25 and
April 8.68
Negotiations with Secretary Crawford
continued during
the spring. On April 10 Davies wrote to
Crawford; the sec-
retary replied on April 30; and on May
15 the directors of
the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank made
their decision accept-
ing Crawford's terms. The arrangement
was carried into
effect at once. The public was
notified; and by May 19
Davies was redeeming the notes of the
bank in specie. His
bank was allowed to hold a permanent
deposit of $100,000 in
government funds, and actually received
$33,613.82 at the
outset and more later.69
During the winter and spring of 1819
Davies was also
making loans to the Johnsons for the
building of steamboats.
Within a few months they had borrowed
$170,000 from the
Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank.70 But
for various reasons the
67 Independent Press, March 13, 1823; Scioto Gazette (Chillicothe),
March 19,
1819.
68 American State Papers, Finance, III, 720-721, 731; John Cleves Short to
William Short, March 17, April 9, 22,
1819, Short Family Papers.
69 American State Papers, Finance, III, 720,
732-733, IV, 303-321; Independent
Press, March 13, 1823. See John C. Calhoun to William Turner,
September 1,
1819, Letter Book D, Bureau of Indian
Affairs, National Archives.
70 James Houston to Langdon Cheves, November 30, 1819. Bank of the United
States (Cincinnati Office)
Correspondence Book, 1819-1822, Timothy Kirby Manu-
scripts.
SAMUEL
WATTS DAVIES 123
construction
of the boats was not reaching completion. Late
in the spring
James Johnson wrote desperately that he needed
another
$50,000 before June 1 to save him from bankruptcy.
The financial
pressure was becoming more severe as the
months went
by. After Davies resumed specie payment, the
notes of his
bank were sought "with avidity" at fifteen and
twenty
percent advance, and pressed for payment as fast as
they could be
collected.71 In May or June delegates from the
Farmers' and
Mechanics' Bank and other banks met at
Frankfort,
Kentucky, to consider the distressed state of the
country and
find a remedy. Before they parted they agreed
not to
suspend specie payment, and to render all the aid in
their power
to individuals by extending loans.72 On May 27,
Nicholas
Longworth, as agent for the bank, applied to the
Bank of
Hamilton for a loan of $10,000 in specie. The di-
rectors of
the Hamilton Bank lent them the amount in silver,
and it was
paid on June 15.73
On June 15,
1819, Davies prepared a report on the bank
that showed a
further sale of stock and a reduction by
$80,000 of
the debt due to the Bank of the United States but
concealed the
loans to the Johnson brothers:
Credit Debit
Notes
discounted ......$419,190 Stock
..............$184,776.00
Bills of
exchange ....... 50,000 Notes
issued ........ 77,550.00
Advances to
contractors . 40,000 Debt due B.U.S .....
220,000.00
Notes to
other banks .... 27,843 Deposits
............ 30,000.00
Real estate
............ 20,000 Due
Treasurer of U.S. 17,182.43
Specie
................ 19,430 Bills on Philadelphia . 25,000.00
-------- -----------
$576,463 $554,508.43
The
circulation of notes had been reduced about ten percent;
the amount of
stock paid up had increased about twenty per-
71 Liberty Hall, May 18, July 30, 1819; Inquisitor and Cincinnati
Advertiser,
May 18, 1819.
72 McMaster, History
of the People of the United States, IV, 507, citing Aurora
(Philadelphia),
June 17, 1819.
73 A
History and Biographical Cyclopaedia of Butler County, Ohio (Cincinnati,
1882), 301.
124
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
cent; but the specie held by the bank
apparently had dwindled
by twenty-five percent.74 Davies'
enemies said afterward
that when notes were presented for
redemption, the president
and cashier of the bank examined them
personally before
deciding on payment, and it was
suspected that much de-
pended on the person who presented them
whether they were
declared to be forgeries. At the end of
July, Davies wrote
that he had not been able to go to the
bank for five weeks,
being confined to his room with
illness.75
Hugh Glenn continued to hope that the
United States
Treasury would pay his claim of $44,800
for supplies he had
furnished to western army posts under
his contract with the
war department. Davies kept on hoping
that Glenn would be
able to pay the bank the $40,000 credit
extended to him. But
on April 3 the war department suspended
Glenn's claim for
want of vouchers. During the latter
part of April and May,
Glenn tried to gather the evidence
demanded.76
Davies felt the pressure from another
direction. He had
undertaken to pay $20,000 in
Philadelphia on July 15, and
another $20,000 on August 1. He turned
to Glenn again, and
Glenn promised that he would pay the
$40,000 to Davies'
credit in the Bank of Washington. But
Davies, as he wrote,
"having no confidence in his
statements . . . [was] afraid of
a disappointment." At that point,
on June 8, he wrote to the
secretary of the treasury asking about
the state of Glenn's
account at the war department.77
Davies' letter reached Washington,
Inquiry was made, and
on June 24 a reply was sent off. While
it was on the road
west, Davies got Glenn to write a draft
on the secretary of
war: "Thirty days after date pay
to the order of Samuel
74 American State Papers, Finance, III, 772; Liberty Hall, February
16, 1819;
Inquisitor and Cincinnati Advertiser,
February 9, 16, March 2, 1819; Independent
Press, March 13, 1823.
75 American State Papers, Finance, III, 731-733; Independent Press, September
5, 12, 1822.
76 American State Papers, Finance, IV,
731.
77 Ibid., IV, 728-729.
SAMUEL WATTS DAVIES 125
W. Davies, Cashier, thirty thousand
dollars, which charge
to the account of, for value received.
H. Glenn."78
The reply from Washington informed
Davies that if the
suspended items in Glenn's account
should be allowed, the
balance due him would be $10,000. That
sum fell far short
of the $40,000 Glenn said he was
expecting, the amount he
owed at the bank. The letter must have
been a shock.79
Davies held on a few days longer, and
then on July 29 the
Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank closed for
the second time.80
Davies kept on trying to meet the
obligations. He sent Glenn's
draft for $30,000 to the secretary of
the treasury on August 3.
By the middle of the month, the
secretary had presented it to
the war department for payment, and it
was refused. Davies
sent one more letter to Secretary
Crawford: "I have been
most shamefully and cruelly treated by
Mr. Glenn, who has
amused me, from time to time, with
promises of payment, and
yet states that the sum of $30,000 is
due to him from the
Department of War."81
One after another of Davies' great
projects broke in dis-
aster. In the fall he hired workmen to
begin construction of
the waterworks. They dug a hole forty
feet long, thirty feet
wide, and six feet deep. He advertised
for a thousand logs
of sound timber, either white pine or
white oak, to use in the
project.82 Suddenly Jacob
Wheeler, city treasurer and pay-
master at the waterworks, announced
that the city treasury,
which he kept in a basket under his
bed, had been stolen. It
was rumored that the funds had been
used to pay men at
the waterworks. Members of city council
demanded Wheeler's
resignation and he resigned.83 Court
action was brought
against him, and a judgment given for
over $10,000. When
78 Ibid., IV,
730.
79 Ibid., IV,
623.
80 Ibid., III, 731-733, IV, 362-364, 656; Liberty Hall, July 30, 1819; Inquisitor
and Cincinnati Advertiser, August 3, 1819; Independent Press, September 5,
12,
1822.
81 American
State Papers, Finance, IV, 731.
82 Liberty
Hall, January 11, 1820.
83 Independent Press, July 3, 1823.
126
THE 0HIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
it turned out that Wheeler had no
resources, action was
begun against Colonel Davies, who was
his surety.84
At the woolen factory, Superintendent
Elijah Bemiss sub-
mitted an elaborate plan for expansion
of both wool and
lead production. It would make a profit
of $85,500 a year.
It was imaginative, comprehensive,
daring, and unworkable.85
The plant closed. Bemiss disappeared.
Moses Meeker, in
charge of the lead plant, organized a
group of men and took
them off to found a settlement in the
wilderness of Wisconsin.
The Johnson brothers failed
spectacularly with their steam-
boat construction. Congress began an
investigation of the
Yellowstone expedition in the winter of
1819-20. The secretary
of the treasury asked the bank to
credit Colonel Richard M.
Johnson, James Johnson, or any firm
representing them, with
the sum of $30,583.24, for which the
bank would receive a
credit in its account with the
government, but the only result
for Davies was the total loss of
$170,000 already advanced
to the Kentucky ship contractors.86
By December 3, 1819,
Davies was no longer cashier of the
Farmers' and Mechanics'
Bank. He was replaced by Nicholas
Longworth.87
During a new bank crisis on February 5,
1820, Davies
wrote a letter of advice to the
governor of the state.88 His
advice was rejected. In the upheaval
that followed. Davies
and all his associates were turned out
of city council in April,
and his political career came
to an end. In June he was re-
ported to be speculating in the stock
of another bank.89 Fi-
nally, on November 6, 1820, the
stockholders of the Cincinnati
84 Inquisitor
and Cincinnati Advertiser, September
17, 24, October 8, 1822, Feb-
ruary 21, 1824; Independent Press, August
22, September 5, 1822; Liberty Hall,
February 24, 1824; National
Republican, March 2, 1824.
85 Wabnitz, "Bates Papers,"
120, 122-123.
86 American State Papers, Finance, IV, 267, 364, 661.
87 American
State Papers, Finance, IV, 650, 656; Liberty
Hall, March 17, 1820;
James Houston to Nicholas Longworth,
December 3, 20, 1819, Bank of the United
States (Cincinnati Office)
Correspondence Book, 1819-1822, Timothy Kirby Manu-
scripts.
88 Davies to E. A. Brown, February 5,
1820. Ethan Allen Brown Manuscripts,
Ohio Historical Society.
89
Western Spy, July 27, 1820.
SAMUEL WATTS DAVIES 127
Manufacturing Company held a meeting,
with Samuel Mc-
Henry as chairman and William Corry as
secretary.90 The
company dissolved, and no more was ever
heard of it.
In twenty-four disastrous months during
the panic for
which many of his own actions had
prepared the setting,
Davies lost almost everything that he
had created. His politi-
cal reputation vanished along with his
political power. His
bank, his manufacturing company, even a
canal company he
helped promote, were destroyed. Only
his connection with the
waterworks remained, and his control of
that property was
extremely uncertain. Yet he retained
his tough determination
and his energy. Those qualities were
symbolized by the angle
of his chin and the tilt of his cigar.
They were the pattern
for those later men of whom he seems at
first so typical.
They brought him, after another ten
years, to even greater
leadership in his community.
90 Liberty Hall, November 8, 1820. For additional detail on Davies'
financial
difficulties, see Bank of United States
v. Ethan Stone, William Lytle, Samuel
Davies, and Andrew Mack, U. S. District
Court, District of Ohio, Record of
Pleas for Terms September 1821-September
1822, formerly in Recorder's Office,
U. S. District Court, Cincinnati, now
reportedly transferred to Federal Records
Center, General Services Administration,
Bedford Park, Chicago. See also Bank
of the United States Records, Timothy
Kirby Manuscripts; and Docket, May 3,
1819-December 1821, Cincinnati City
Court, Historical and Philosophical Society
of Ohio.