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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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,
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.
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.
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-
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
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;
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-
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.
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
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.