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 Autobiographical Outlines 
 
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 & I<or^ I<ife. 
 
 
 With an Appendix. 
 
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 ROBT MOORE. 
 
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 <s^ Dedicated to ^oste^ity. ^ 
 
 SEPTEMBER, 1886. 
 
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 CINCINNATI 
 PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR. £ * 
 
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 Copyright 
 BY ROB'T MOORE. 
 
 1887. 
 
OLD LANDMARKS 
 
 AND 
 
 Memories of Seventy Years. 
 
 On the south side of Water Street, 
 between Walnut Street and the ap- 
 proach to the Suspension Bridge, there 
 is yet standing (September, 1886) the 
 veritable two-story brick dwelling-house 
 occupied by Sheriff Heckwelder in the 
 year 1817, who was then, or had been, 
 the sheriff of Hamilton County, Ohio. 
 
 The discovery of this old landmark, 
 after a period of sixty-nine years, re- 
 vived a flood of youthful memories ; 
 and it was this discovery and these 
 early memories that inspired the writer 
 to prepare this little volume. 
 
4 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINES. 
 
 My parents were natives of Scot- 
 land. The old town of Lanark, and 
 the region between said town and Glas- 
 gow, near the river Clyde, were the 
 nativities and the earliest homes of my 
 parents. 
 
 My grandfather More was a miller, 
 who owned the site and the plant. 
 
 My father was the oldest son, and 
 was, therefore, according to the laws of 
 the land, entitled to the succession; 
 but this he abandoned for the benefit 
 of others. 
 
 Father early became expert in all 
 manner of interior wood-work, and he 
 also for a time followed the weaving of 
 what was called lappet or figured shawls. 
 
 My mother's maiden name was 
 Agnes Fleming. She was the daughter 
 of a large farmer, who died in the me- 
 ridian of life, which event broke up the 
 family. Agnes then learned tambour- 
 
MEMORIES OF SEVENTY YEARS. 5 
 
 ing, and wrought at it so diligently as 
 to earn about one hundred and fifty 
 pounds sterling before her marriage. 
 
 Many names of persons and places 
 round about her early home did she 
 relate to us children. Only a few of 
 them do I now remember. Of the 
 former there were the Marshalls, Ren- 
 wicks, Crawfords, Cummings, Flemings, 
 Gibsons, Turnbulls, Clendenings, Bal- 
 fours, and many others. Of places, 
 there were Glasgow, Kilmarnock, Ir- 
 vine, Dumbarton, Hamilton, Paisley, 
 Glasford, Renfrew, Whitebum, and 
 others. 
 
 The writer regrets that he did not 
 keep a diary or record of all that early 
 knowledge, that he might transmit it 
 as it came from mother's lips. How 
 interesting it would now be to me and 
 my posterity ! 
 
 My parents were married in the 
 
6 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINES. 
 
 year 1798, and they emigrated to the 
 western world in the year 1802, and 
 were storm-tossed on shipboard for six 
 weeks before reaching the port of New 
 York. Head- winds at times so pre- 
 vailed that vessels — the most of them 
 slow-going — were ocean-bound from 
 two to three months in making the 
 western crossing. Therefore six weeks 
 was counted a reasonable time. 
 
 Those threatening long voyages de- 
 terred many from attempting to cross 
 the stormy sea, which caused so much 
 suffering and many deaths ; therefore 
 the early emigrants, before the era of 
 steamships, were generally composed 
 of the most courageous and determined 
 class of men and women, as they did 
 so migrate with a full knowledge of all 
 the probabilities. 
 
 The writer was born on the Hud- 
 son side of Manhattan Island, a few 
 
MEMORIES OF SEVENTY YEARS. 7 
 
 squares above the Battery, on the 19th 
 day of December, 1805, and at a very 
 early age became acquainted with the 
 down-town streets and docks; and espe- 
 cially does he remember the wooden 
 bridge (from which he caught fish) that 
 led from the Battery to the old fort that 
 stood out in the Bay; and if memory 
 serves, two other and similar forts stood 
 out further up the Hudson. 
 
 A mile or tw T o above the Battery 
 was the old State Prison; and in this 
 region, and lower down, was the landing 
 place for the great rafts of pine and 
 other logs that were brought down the 
 Hudson River. Numerous saw-pits 
 lined the shore, to utilize and work up 
 these logs. Steam saw-mills were then 
 very rare (if any). Therefore, the most 
 of this rafted timber was cut by hand 
 with the whip-saw. 
 
 This region was also the boys' swim- 
 
8 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINES. 
 
 ming ground, and I well remember how 
 easy it was to swim on my first attempt 
 to do so. Of course this was owing 
 to the superior sustaining power of the 
 briny water. 
 
 When I was but two or three years 
 of age, and yet in petticoats, my parents 
 removed to Brooklyn. My Dither had 
 engaged to execute some, interior work 
 in a dwelling-house then in process of 
 completion at the Navy-yard, for the 
 use of the resident officers, and the 
 removal was to prevent the great loss 
 of time that would necessarily accrue 
 by the frequertt crossings of the East 
 River, subject as it was to fogs, to the 
 shifting tides, and Winter storms. 
 
 There were no steam ferries at that 
 early period. The writer does, how- 
 ever, remember a horse ferry-boat, that 
 was generally so much out of breath 
 as to be unable to stem the tides. 
 
MEMORIES OF SEVENTY YEARS. 9 
 
 My father here became well ac- 
 quainted with Commodore Rogers, of 
 the frigate President, who was then, I be- 
 lieve, in charge of the plant, and who, 
 when I had strayed from home, found 
 and returned me to mother, explaining 
 when and where he found her little 
 girl. 
 
 (The writer is informed that this 
 officer was the father of the late Com- 
 modore Rogers, conspicuous in the late 
 civil conflict, and who, I believe, died 
 with the rank of Admiral, and who 
 early in the war was sent to this city 
 to superintend the alterations of the 
 steamers Conestoga, Lexington, A. 0. 
 Tyler, and other vessels, so as to fit 
 them for the naval service in the West ; 
 and in these alterations and fittings 
 the writer largely assisted.) 
 
 During the war of 1812 with Great 
 Britain my parents resided in New 
 
10 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINES. 
 
 York City, when it was rumored and 
 expected that (he British, as they were 
 called, would come in by the way of 
 Long Island Sound, to bombard the city. 
 Therefore great preparations were made 
 to fortify Brooklyn Heights. Volun- 
 teers were called for, and my father 
 was one to respond, to assist in making 
 platforms for the cannon. I was per- 
 mitted to accompany him, and felt 
 highly elated in being allowed to carry 
 his hand-saw — held by me at shoulder, 
 like a sword — when on the march to 
 the ferry. 
 
 The writer was also at the launch- 
 ing of the steam frigate Fulton, at 
 Brown's ship-yard, on the East River. 
 This vessel was so constructed and 
 fitted (it was said) as to be able to 
 throw a deluge of hot water on the 
 enemy. But peace came about before 
 her completion. 
 
MEMORIES OF SEVENTY YEARS. 11 
 
 The writer will now speak of the 
 lint-stocks (I believe that was the 
 name), or the manner of touching off 
 cannon at that early period. At a 
 military celebration wherein cannon 
 were used on the Battery, six guns, 
 more or less, were placed in position 
 for a salute. When the word was 
 given, one person with a lint-stock or 
 a lighted match, perhaps two or three 
 feet in length, commenced at the head 
 of the line, touching off the first gun, 
 then running to the second, and so on 
 to the end; so by the time he returned 
 to the head of the line the first gun 
 was reloaded and ready for him, and 
 a repetition went on until the end was * 
 accomplished. 
 
 At eight years of age I was put to 
 school; and yet possess some of the 
 school-books of that day— notedly 
 Morse's School Geography, published in 
 
12 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINES. 
 
 1812, and which then combined the ele- 
 ments of astronomy. These branches 
 are so interwoven that one can not be 
 studied to advantage without the aid 
 of the other. 
 
 The writer will now describe a can- 
 vas painting (illuminated at night) on 
 the east side of Broadway, north of 
 Wall Street, illustrating the marine 
 carrying trade when France and Eng- 
 land were at war. The figures were 
 less than half-size, and represented a 
 cow, with three human figures repre- 
 senting France, England, and the 
 United States. One of the figures 
 appeared to be pulling the cow by the 
 horns, another was pulling at the tail, 
 while the third figure, representing the 
 United States, was sitting on a stool 
 milking away for dear life. 
 
 The writer will here digress chro- 
 nologically, and go forward to the year 
 
MEMORIES OF SEVENTY YEARS. 13 
 
 1820, or thereabout, and describe a 
 painting in this city, on the north side 
 of Lower Market Street, a few doors 
 east of Main Street. This painting, or 
 sign, was attached to a tobacco-store, 
 (Hopple's, I think,) and represented 
 three human figures (small size) in the 
 various attitudes of using the weed, 
 with the following lines underneath : 
 
 4 'We three agree the weed to use, 
 One smokes, one snuffs, and the other chews." 
 
 An elderly gentleman, whose name 
 I have forgotten, maintained that the 
 lines ran thus : 
 
 " We three unite in one cause, 
 One smokes, one snuffs, and the other chaws" 
 
 We know that poets are allowed 
 greater liberties than prose writers, 
 therefore the reader can take his 
 choice. Perhaps the latter was more 
 in keeping with that day, as the 
 
14 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINES. 
 
 border Kentuckians, the river men, and 
 the lower elements of the city, often 
 met in rough-and-tumble encounters, 
 wherein gouging and chawing, as they 
 pronounced it, were the main features. 
 We will now return to New York, 
 and to the year 1817, when the tide of 
 emigration set in strongly toward the 
 boundless West. My parents caught 
 the infection, so that in the Spring of 
 that year they packed some of their 
 household goods, and with six children 
 (two boys and four girls) they set out 
 for Philadelphia; thence over the 
 mountains to Pittsburg, which was the 
 highway to the great West; thence 
 by flatboat to Cincinnati, where they 
 arrived early in June, and landed a 
 little below Broadway, and soon after 
 removed into a dwelling just west of 
 the Heckwelder residence, before men- 
 tioned, and exactly where the north 
 
MEMORIES OF SEVENTY YEARS. 15 
 
 abutment, or rather the anchorage, of 
 the Suspension Bridge now rests. 
 
 My parents were here induced by 
 the representations of some farmer im- 
 migrants from the region of New York, 
 then on their way to a settlement in 
 Dearborn County, Indiana, to take an 
 interest in the same, by entering 320 
 acres of land in that region. Before 
 doing so, however, my father took 
 me with him on a prospecting visit to 
 that locality. We left on foot, and 
 followed the Ohio River road to Law- 
 rencebnrg; thence thirteen or fourteen 
 miles north-west the same day, making 
 a forced march of well-nigh forty miles. 
 The distance is only thirty-one or thirty- 
 two miles by the more modern roads, 
 but the divergence by the way of Law- 
 renceburg and the sinuosities of the 
 primitive roads greatly increased the 
 distance. 
 
16 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINES. 
 
 With the aid of some of the old 
 hunters of that region, who understood 
 the government surveys, father located 
 one-half section, or 320 acres of wood- 
 land. 
 
 Before I had fully recovered from 
 the outward trip, we set out on our 
 return to Cincinnati; and in doing so 
 we were advised to pass through Eliz- 
 abethtown, situated near the State line, 
 as the shortest route. Here we were 
 further advised (to avoid the delay and 
 uncertainty of fording or crossing two 
 rivers). to incline southward through a 
 long stretch of woods, so as to strike 
 the Miami River below 7 the mouth of 
 Whitewater, where a ferry was kept. 
 In passing through this wood we were 
 beset by a drove of swine that ap- 
 peared to be wild, and who pursued us 
 with apparent evil intent. We became 
 much alarmed, and were about taking to 
 
MEMORIES OF SEVENTY YEARS. 17 
 
 a tree to avoid them, when the brutes 
 gave up the chase, and we arrived at 
 the ferry well-nigh exhausted by run- 
 ning. The ferry-house was located on 
 the east bank of the river. To hail 
 the house, father seized a tin horn, sus- 
 pended from a tree for that purpose, 
 and blew a blast that brought out the 
 good woman of the house, who informed 
 us that her man had gone up the river 
 for a load of corn, but would soon re- 
 turn. 
 
 Well-nigh two hours were we de- 
 tained. Father became anxious lest 
 the swine might again come upon us ; 
 and the more anxious were we, as a 
 thunder-storm was then brewing. 
 
 After crossing, and wending our 
 way, the storm broke upon us with 
 great violence. There was no shelter, 
 and, of course, we were drenched to 
 the skin. So sudden and so great was 
 
18 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINES. 
 
 this rain-fall, of less than one-half hour, 
 that it caused a small creek we were 
 approaching to become impassable. 
 Here we were detained, waiting for the 
 water to subside, chilled to the bone 
 in our wet clothing. We reached the 
 Ohio River road before darkness set 
 in, and soon after put up at a tavern 
 for the night. So sick had I become 
 by the events of the day as to be com- 
 pelled to retire to bed supperless. But 
 never did a boy sleep sounder, and 
 arise in the morning more refreshed, 
 and with a better appetite for break- 
 fast. 
 
 In relating our experiences, mother, 
 who expected it to be a mere pleasure 
 jaunt for me, was much affected, and 
 regretted giving permission to make 
 the trip. She declared it to be cruel 
 for a boy of twelve years to foot forty 
 miles in one day, and then return in a 
 
MEMORIES OF SEVENTY YEARS. 19 
 
 weakened condition ; and then to suffer 
 such a scare with wild swine ! and then 
 get drenched to the skin in a violent 
 storm, and remain so long in wet cloth- 
 ing, which brought on a sudden sick- 
 ness from exhaustion and excitement! 
 The Government Land-office was 
 then held in Cincinnati, on Front Street, 
 between Broadway and Sycamore, and 
 the writer thinks that Morgaa Neville 
 was the receiver. The Register's office 
 was situated on the north side of what 
 is now called Pearl Street, just east of 
 Lawrence Street. Peyton S. Symmes 
 was then the Register, and resided in 
 a stone house on the south side of the 
 street, opposite to the office. It was a 
 superior house in its day; and it re- 
 mained to. be one of the old East End 
 landmarks until about the year 1883, 
 when it was demolished. I well remem- 
 ber going with my father to the Regis- 
 
20 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINES. 
 
 ter's office in the Summer of 1817, and 
 therefore observed some of the near 
 surroundings. 
 
 Another East End landmark is jet 
 standing. The late Joseph Coppin, who 
 was reputed to be equal to an index, 
 and a directory to property and per- 
 sons of the East End, informed the 
 writer that he erected for James Whit- 
 aker, in the year 1817, a dwelling- 
 house; "and," said he, "it was built 
 away outside of the corporation, on 
 the road to Columbia, and your father 
 built the spiral stairs, and the carved 
 and fluted mantels therein, just sixty- 
 eight years ago, and they were sup- 
 posed to be the first of the kind erected 
 in the West." 
 
 The house is a two-story brick, with 
 a central hall. It stands on the north 
 side of Front Street, about three or 
 four hundred feet west of Collard 
 
MEMORIES OF SEVENTY YEARS. 21 
 
 Street, and sits well up and back from 
 the street, with a stone wall in front. 
 
 But another, an earlier, and a more 
 interesting landmark observed by the 
 writer, was the Fifth Street Mound, 
 at the north-west corner of Fifth and 
 Mound Streets. The period of its 
 erection is unknown, as the builders 
 existed prior to all written or tradi- 
 tional history. The writer stood upon 
 its summit in the Summer of 1817, 
 when it was nearly in its integrity. 
 But to the regret of very many it was 
 soon after defaced, and finally removed 
 about or before the year 1840. 
 
 In the Spring of 1818 the family was 
 removed to the land so entered, into a 
 log-house built for us by Peter Bonte, 
 an elder brother of the late John Bonte, 
 who was the father of John Bonte's 
 Sons, of this city, the enterprising man- 
 ufacturers and business men of to-day. 
 
22 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINES. 
 
 After getting all possible informa- 
 tion in regard to the requirements of 
 a new and wooded country, my father 
 provided every then known tool and 
 appliance suitable for the work be- 
 fore him, and brother and I were sup- 
 plied with light- w T eight axes to learn 
 chopping. Brother did not survive 
 long after this removal; and after the 
 first year father and I did the most of 
 the log-rolling with the cant-hooks, 
 sawed the plank for the upper floor of 
 the house with the whip-saw, to replace 
 the clapboard floor; butted all the logs 
 for fence-rails with the crosscut-saw. 
 
 Father was disposed to be mathe- 
 matically correct in the making of fence- 
 rails. He would, therefore, have none 
 of the common standard (eleven feet) 
 with chopped and rough ends, and of 
 irregular lengths. Ten feet precisely 
 was the length, butted at both ends. 
 
MEMORIES OF SEVENTY YEARS. 23 
 
 This, of course, made the neatest fence, 
 if it were not for the incongruity of neat- 
 ness being applied to any worm-fence. 
 
 I believe it is pretty well known 
 that in a heavily wooded country it re- 
 quires four or five years constant hard 
 work before the productions of the farm 
 will' justify much disposal of the prod- 
 ucts; therefore father had to be absent 
 about two-thirds of the time, to earn 
 money to meet the land payments. Con- 
 sequently the most of the farm labor 
 devolved on the rest of us. Fortu- 
 nately mother had a, partial farm train- 
 ing. She was, therefore, never at a 
 loss to do and direct. 
 
 Among other productions of the soil 
 my parents were partial to flax. This 
 the writer would break after it was 
 rotted, and then scutch and heckle the 
 same. Cotton was bought in Law- 
 renceburg, which my mother would 
 
24 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINES. 
 
 card by hand, and then spin the cotton 
 and flax on a spinning-wheel, made by 
 father when at home. He also con- 
 structed a loom with a fly-shuttle, be- 
 lieved to be the first fly-shuttle in all 
 that region; and did his own weaving, 
 while mother did the dyeing, and then 
 cut and made all the garments after a 
 fashion. 
 
 In the first years we often suffered 
 for the want of some of the essentials 
 of life. Such products as could be 
 spared were sometimes taken to Law- 
 renceburg, and bartered for something 
 the most pressing. There was little 
 or no money in circulation, except some 
 cut money for making change, say, 
 quarter silver pieces cut into four 
 equal parts. About this period the 
 writer did, on one occasion, sell chickens 
 in Lawrenceburg for six and one-fourth 
 cents apiece, for this quartered money. 
 
MEMORIES OF SEVENTY YEARS. 25 
 
 At that early period, and in that 
 region notedly, there were no facilities 
 for educating the young, but with our 
 Eastern school-books and other useful 
 works, we were enabled to make some 
 progress in various educational branches. 
 
 It was a great comfort and a delight 
 in the long Winter nights to be able to 
 read aloud to the rest of the family, 
 by the light of the log-fire, the shell- 
 bark of the hickory, or the dimmer 
 light of a lard-lamp; and I verily be- 
 lieve that the impressions so received, 
 and the remembrances born in the soli- 
 tude of the woods, sink deeper and are 
 more enduring than when acquired in 
 a great, noisy city, with its many dis- 
 tracting and diverting influences. 
 
 My father's religious convictions 
 strictly forbade all kinds of labor on the 
 Sabbath-day, and especially did he for- 
 bid hunting or shooting on that day. 
 
26 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINES. 
 
 No reading was allowed except the 
 Bible and the Shorter Catechism; no 
 idle talk, laughing, whistling, or singing, 
 except the Psalms of David, on that 
 day. 
 
 On one of those pressing occasions 
 for fresh meat, a flock of turkeys made 
 their appearance near the stables on a 
 Sunday morning. I reported immedi- 
 ately, and begged permission for a shot. 
 Mother was willing; father was not. 
 Mother and I finally prevailed, on the 
 condition that I was pretty sure to hit 
 the mark. This I succeeded in doing, 
 which caused father to smile audibly. 
 There was great rejoicing in that log- 
 house, and the shooting was voted a 
 clear case of necessity and mercy. 
 
 The splendid woods at that early 
 period were filled with wild flowers in 
 their season. Every thing went lovely 
 the first Summer, followed by the 
 
MEMORIES OF SEVENTY YEARS. 27 
 
 serene and mellow autumnal weather, or 
 Indian Summer. 
 
 It had been announced that cattle 
 could find their own living in the woods 
 until near Christmas, and that the Win- 
 ters were mild and short. 
 
 My parents soon found this to be a 
 delusion, and suffered greatly before 
 the log-house could be made comfortable. 
 There was no want of ventilation in that 
 house, as a blowing snow-storm would 
 sift through the joints of the clapboards 
 of the roof, and cover the bed where I 
 slept in the loft as with a sheet. 
 
 On one occasion, on my return from 
 Lawrenceburg on horseback, and being 
 but thinly clad, a freezing rain, or storm 
 of sleet, set in, which completely en- 
 folded me with a sheet of ice. So rigid 
 was this, and so chilled was I as to be- 
 come completely helpless, and had to 
 be lifted from the saddle. 
 
28 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINES. 
 
 During the first three or four years 
 the writer experienced some very rough 
 living, and hard work in helping to 
 clear the land and plow among the 
 roots, many of which had a penchant 
 for springing back with force enough to 
 break an ankle. Then, in the Winter 
 season, in the absence of father, it was 
 not at all pleasant, in the dead of night, 
 to hear the howl of the wolf, and the 
 sounds produced by the panther and 
 other wild beasts. This was of fre- 
 quent occurrence. At such times the 
 door was well barred at night, the fowl- 
 ing-piece was double-shotted, the rifle 
 charged with buckshot in addition to 
 the ball, the flints w T ere picked, the 
 priming renewed, and every precaution 
 taken before night to w T ell secure the 
 younger animals. 
 
 At certain seasons deer and turkey 
 could be seen daily, and almost hourly, 
 
ME3I0RIES OF SEVENTY YEARS. 29 
 
 crossing our path. The rifle was often 
 utilized with effect ; and nothing will, 
 I believe, make a boy feel prouder than 
 when he brings down his first deer. 
 
 With becoming modesty the writer 
 would like to say that he did, on one 
 occasion, drop twenty squirrels in suc- 
 cession, out of twenty-one discharges 
 of the rifle; but this was done with a 
 rest, and not off-hand. 
 
 On one occasion when the ground 
 was covered with snow, and we were 
 sorely in want of meat, I set out with 
 the rifle, and succeeded in fatally 
 wounding a deer in the dusk of the 
 evening; but darkness coming on, I 
 could no longer follow the blood-stained 
 track. Being now two miles from 
 home, and certain of securing the game 
 in the morning, I retraced my steps. 
 
 On the following morning, bright 
 and early, and with a light heart in 
 
30 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINES. 
 
 anticipation of a supply of flesh so 
 much needed, I repaired to the locality 
 left the night before; and but a few 
 rods in advance of the previous night, 
 scattered about in the snow, were the 
 bones of the deer, the flesh having been 
 devoured by a pack of wolves. My 
 disappointment was great; and it is a 
 serious question with me to this day 
 whether I did not make a narrow es- 
 cape from the ferocious brutes the night 
 before. 
 
 On one other occasion the writer was 
 in great peril. Foot-sore, and faint for 
 the want of sustenance, after a journey 
 of thirty miles in the early Winter, and 
 when within a mile or two of home, 
 darkness set in on entering a dense 
 wood, through which ran an imperfect 
 roadway, difficult to follow, when the 
 howl of the wolf saluted my ears. I 
 found that the brutes were following, 
 
MEMORIES OF SEVENTY YEARS. 31 
 
 and flanking me but a few rods distant. 
 This was evident to me, as the crack- 
 ling of the dead underbrush and other 
 signs indicated. Without any defen- 
 sive weapon whatever, my only course 
 was to continue on, without looking to 
 the right or left, for fear of missing the 
 way, or stumbling and falling over the 
 many obstructions, which would have 
 been the signal of attack by the brutes ; 
 but fortunately the clearing was reached 
 in safety. 
 
 You may be sure I was intensely 
 excited. The great mental and phys- 
 ical strain endured on that trying occa- 
 sion completely prostrated me for a 
 time, until nursed back to life. 
 
 In the first years panthers were 
 about. The body of a missing swine 
 was found within the clearing com- 
 pletely disemboweled, and the choicest 
 pieces devoured. We were unable to 
 
32 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINES. 
 
 account for the destroyer until the old 
 hunters of that day informed us that 
 was the way the panther did its 
 work. 
 
 During this life in the woods the 
 writer paid frequent visits to Cincin- 
 nati. In doing so, there were two riv- 
 ers and a number of creeks to cross. 
 The streams were then destitute of 
 bridges or ferries, except an occasional 
 ferry at the Great Miami River; there- 
 fore the traveler was at times put to 
 great inconvenience. 
 
 On my return from one of these 
 visits in the Winter season, when the 
 streams were partially frozen, on reach- 
 ing Whitewater on foot, no promise 
 of an immediate lift to the other side 
 whs visible; therefore I had to de- 
 cide between waiting in the cold or 
 wading the icy stream. I chose the lat- 
 ter; but no estimate had been made of 
 
MEMORIES OF SEVENTY YEARS. 33 
 
 the difficulty of replacing stockings and 
 shoes on wounded, wet, and swollen 
 feet. This detained me at least one- 
 half hour; and it was this very deten- 
 tion that caused the belatement that 
 led to my last encounter with wolves 
 in the night. 
 
 After seven years of toil, sacrifices, 
 and suffering, without any productive 
 or promising results, my parents he- 
 came somewhat discouraged, and con- 
 cluded that it w T ould require a life-time 
 to acquire a competency in that local- 
 ity, inasmuch as the land was not very 
 productive, and the roads to market 
 were inferior; and that it was almost 
 impossible to keep a good horse, on ac- 
 count of the many horse-thieves then 
 roaming the country; and they further 
 concluded that it would he decidedly 
 to my interest to learn some mechan- 
 ical branch of business ; either house or 
 
34 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINES. 
 
 marine architecture, or, rather, the con- 
 struction of steam machinery. 
 
 Father recommended carpentry and 
 joinery, as being one of the most healthy, 
 useful, and cleanly of all the branches, 
 and suggested that, to secure employ- 
 ment in most other mechanical pur- 
 suits, the applicant was obliged to seek 
 the manufacturing towns, or special 
 localities. Not so with a carpenter, 
 joiner, or a good wood-worker. These 
 were in constant demand anywhere 
 on this broad continent, city or coun- 
 try, and, as producers of the per- 
 manent values of the country, were 
 among the most useful and deserving 
 citizens, and therefore as worthy of 
 recognition and respect, in every sense, 
 as a wow-producer of such values; and 
 such mechanical knowledge could not 
 be lost to the possessor, but would 
 prove a good investment always ; 
 
MEMORIES OF SEVENTY YEARS. 35 
 
 whereas, a trader, merchant, or other 
 business man, is much more subject to 
 disaster in trade, and will generally 
 suffer more when the end comes. To 
 prove this, statistics were quoted, show- 
 ing that in some Eastern city (Boston, 
 I think) nineteen-twentieths of all 
 those engaged in merchandising died 
 insolvent. Therefore, in accordance 
 with the parental views, in the Spring 
 of 1825 a situation was obtained for 
 me with the late Joseph Jones, con- 
 tractor and builder, who resided on the 
 south-west corner of Pike and Fifth 
 Streets, with whom I resided, and 
 wrought for a season to learn the use- 
 ful calling of carpentry and joinery: 
 my parents soon after this renting the 
 farm and removing to the city. 
 
 In the Summer of 1828 I was em- 
 ployed by the late Anthony Harkness, 
 to assist in erecting his first building, 
 
36 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINES. 
 
 on the north side of Front Street, just 
 east of Lawrence Street, for the manu- 
 facture of steamboat machinery and 
 sugar-mills. I then engaged perma- 
 nently with the said Harkness, to as- 
 sist in making patterns and drawings 
 for such machinery. This suited me 
 better than my former employment, 
 and I made great progress therein, as 
 draughtsman, foreman, and as assist- 
 ant superintendent, so that, finally, 
 after a continuous service in this line 
 of twenty-five years, I assumed a con- 
 trolling interest in the works, and, 
 in conjunction with John G. Richard- 
 son (who for a time held an interest in 
 the concern), a lease for twenty years 
 was obtained of the grounds and the 
 buildings, Mr. Harkness retiring with a 
 fortune. Other and outside productive 
 interests had he; but in so far as the 
 estate was accumulated by or through 
 
MEMORIES OF SEVENTY YEARS. 37 
 
 said works, the writer claims to have 
 been largely instrumental, having de- 
 voted the best twenty-five years of his 
 young life entirely to the interests of 
 the said Harkness. 
 
 About or before the year 1846 the 
 works under Mr. Harkness, my prede- 
 cessor, had drifted, in a limited degree, 
 into the construction of locomotive en- 
 gines, in addition to the standard pro- 
 ductions. But, unfortunately, at the 
 time w 7 e assumed the control of the 
 works, many of the products were for 
 the Southern market. Long credits 
 were sometimes given, which, after a 
 time and in many cases, w 7 ere extended 
 into the commencement of the Civil 
 War, and therefore the claims could. not 
 be collected when due, and were either 
 repudiated or confiscated. 
 
 About the year 1863, or later, the 
 demand for locomotives by the govern- 
 
38 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINES. 
 
 ment, to convey troops and supplies 
 south, taxed our limited capacity in 
 that line to the utmost. But for the 
 want of the means we were unable to 
 increase our facilities for locomotive 
 production; whereas the Eastern con- 
 structors of locomotives made it a spe- 
 cialty, and were all connected with bank- 
 ers or other moneyed parties. They, 
 therefore, greatly enlarged or doubled 
 their capacit}' for such production; con- 
 sequently, when the war terminated 
 and business returned in some degree 
 into the usual channels, those Eastern 
 houses Avere determined to continue to 
 run to their capacity, and as an induce- 
 ment to that end they began to give 
 time — to take bonds, stocks, and other 
 securities for their productions, which 
 we w T ere unable to do; therefore our 
 income from that source declined. We 
 did other government work also, but 
 
MEMORIES OF SEVENTY YEARS. 39 
 
 mostly indirectly, by assisting the con- 
 tractors in the construction of four 
 monitors for the government. 
 
 For the two low- water monitors — 
 Klamath and Yuma — w T e did furnish 
 labor and supplies to the amount of 
 $261,267. The balance due at the end 
 was $61,700. This claim was disputed 
 by the contractors, and it went to arbi- 
 tration at their own request; but they 
 repudiated the award, and possessing 
 the greater means they defied us. 
 
 The claim was then put into the 
 hands of a law firm for collection ; when 
 this firm, after only two or three days' 
 service, so compromised the claim that, 
 after paying the charges ($2,000) we 
 only realized $21,675 — a reduction 
 altogether or a clear loss of $40,000. 
 Almost a confiscation. 
 
 We submitted to this rather than 
 enter into an expensive and tedious 
 
40 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINES. 
 
 lawsuit, that, in all human probability, 
 would have eaten up the entire claim. 
 
 At the close of the war we essayed 
 to establish a branch house or agency 
 in New Orleans, for the sale of our 
 goods. In this endeavor we experi- 
 enced a further loss of well-nigh 
 $20,000. 
 
 Our yearly expenses in keeping up 
 the organization of the works — that is, 
 paying rents, taxes, assessments of 
 every nature, interest money, and the 
 salaries of several foremen — summed 
 up to $32,000 yearly. This expendi- 
 ture was constant, and existed inde- 
 pendent of the cost of material and the 
 labor pay-rolls, which latter at times 
 footed up to more than $5,000 
 weekly. 
 
 During this period of sixteen 
 years — that is, from the year 1852 to 
 1868 — we paid to, and on account of, 
 
MEMORIES OF SEVENTY YEARS. 41 
 
 the Harkness estate the sum of 
 $225,000. 
 
 In the struggle to recuperate and 
 regain our former footing, we further 
 receded, or weakened an additional 
 $60,000 before the firm of Robert 
 Moore & Sons made the assignment 
 in March, 1868. 
 
 It will be seen that the events of 
 the Civil War eventually brought ruin 
 to our business, besides the loss of 
 much of the writer's life-long earnings. 
 When our memory now reverts to 
 that period, the wonder is how the 
 works were sustained so long (sixteen 
 years) under such heavy expenses, and 
 the many other adverse circumstances. 
 But the writer was then in the vigor 
 of manhood, hopeful and energetic. 
 
 In the Spring of 1869, friends of 
 the writer came forward in the hour 
 of need, and unsolicited, nominated, 
 
42 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINES. 
 
 and the people elected him to the 
 office of City Treasurer, which po- 
 sition he held without opposition for 
 three consecutive terms (six years), 
 for which he felt very grateful, and 
 especially does he feel grateful to 
 those friends who so willingly came 
 forward, and became responsible for 
 his faithful execution of the public 
 trust. 
 
 Thousands of details have been 
 omitted that were of thrilling interest 
 to the writer, and would be so to 
 others were they only embellished 
 with the imagery of the novelist. 
 
 It is now fitting that the writer re- 
 turn to the 17th day of January, 1828, 
 when he was married, in Dearborn 
 County, Indiana, to Helen M. Gedney, 
 who was born at Yonkers, New York, 
 on the 31st day of March, 1808, and 
 
MEMORIES OF SEVENTY YEARS. 43 
 
 who for years trusted and waited, until 
 the conditions justified us in assuming 
 the new relation. 
 
 Many happy days were in the 
 earlier years when working for a lov- 
 ing wife and interesting children; but 
 not for the wealth of a Vanderbilt 
 would the writer return, if he could, 
 and accept a repetition of all the past. 
 
 We have now maintained an 
 earthly home for the long period of 
 fifty-eight years, and are nearing the 
 end, waiting and looking every day to 
 be called away to our Father's House 
 in the immortal life, where earthly 
 pains and sorrows can not enter to 
 disturb the home of the spirit. 
 
 September, 1886. 
 
APPENDIX, 
 
 ENUMERATING 
 
 THE EARLY STEAM-ENGINE BUILDERS OF THE 
 
 OLD THIRD WARD, AND THE SHIP OR 
 
 STEAMBOAT BUILDERS OF FULTON, 
 
 ADJOINING ON THE EAST ; 
 
 ALSO 
 
 THE CAUSES THAT LED TO THE HIGH TIDE IN THE 
 OHIO RIVER IN THE YEARS 1883 AND 1884. 
 
 The Early Steam-Engine Builders. 
 
 It was as early as, or before, the year 
 1825, and it was the old Third Ward, 
 and Fulton adjoining on the east, that 
 then, and for many years thereafter, 
 constituted one great workshop in the 
 production of river steamers, sugar- 
 mills, and miscellaneous machinery for 
 land purposes. 
 
 Cincinnati then, and for a long pe- 
 riod, supplied the surrounding country 
 
46 APPENDIX. 
 
 for more than fifty miles with land 
 engines and mill-work. 
 
 Great four-horse wagons, loaded 
 with the products of the mills and 
 the fields from that distance, would fre- 
 quently return laden with land engines 
 and mill machinery. 
 
 The writer has known work of this 
 nature to be conveyed by river to this 
 city for repairs some three hundred 
 miles. 
 
 This demand continued for many 
 years, but now every county in every 
 Northern State sustains at least one 
 machine-shop and foundry. 
 
 The writer does not think the 
 proper credit was ever accorded these 
 early industries that gave Cincinnati 
 her first great boom that sent her on the 
 road to prosperity. 
 
 The many work-hands that were 
 necessarily employed in these indus- 
 
EARL Y STEM-ENGINE B UILDERS. 47 
 
 tries, and the many families that were 
 fed and clothed by them, were more 
 than one thousand times the force re- 
 quired to equip the merchant or the 
 middle-men. 
 
 Middle-men are very useful to a 
 degree, and absolutly essential, but 
 when they run into speculation and 
 gambling in the essentials of life, they 
 become a curse, as many of them take 
 from or rob both the producer and 
 consumer; but they eventually reap 
 their reward, for it is a recorded fact 
 that more than nineteen-twentieths of 
 all so engaged die insolvent. 
 
 It was about the year 1828 when 
 the first sugar-mills were here manu- 
 factured for the Louisiana coast, or 
 the lower country, as it was called. 
 
 I well remember when some French- 
 men arrived from Louisiana, and brought 
 with them some cedar-made cog-wheel 
 
48 APPENDIX. 
 
 patterns for the ends of the sugar- 
 rollers as models, and requested Mr. 
 Harkness (my employer) to construct 
 a number of mills, with the engines to 
 drive them. 
 
 This was a large undertaking at 
 that day in the new and incomplete 
 facilities of the establishment for such 
 work. 
 
 Mr. Harkness agreed to build the 
 mills, providing a certain bank w^ould 
 assist him pecuniarily. The bank 
 granted this assistance, and thereafter 
 a large amount of work of this nature 
 w r as produced by the firm of Hark- 
 ness, Voorhese & Co., for the lower 
 country. 
 
 At an early day (1825), on the 
 south-west corner of Broadway and 
 Fifth Streets, stood the machine-shop 
 of Graham & Drennan, who were 
 soon succeeded by Yeatman, Wilson 
 
EARL Y STEAM-ENGINE B UILDERS. 49 
 
 & Shield, and it was here that the 
 Shield brothers, George and Edward, 
 obtained their mechanical education. 
 
 On the north-east corner of Broad- 
 way and Pearl Streets stood a 
 machine-shop, and the upper story 
 thereof was utilized for carding and 
 spinning cotton or wool. These two 
 branches were managed by Goodloe 
 & Harkness, two men so much alike 
 that they could not agree, and separated 
 in the year 1827, Mr. Harkness building 
 and removing to the north side of Front 
 Street, just east of Lawrence Street; 
 the writer assisting in the erection, of 
 this, his first building, and then con- 
 tinuing in, and growing up with the 
 plant, and succeeding to a controlling 
 interest therein in the year 1852. 
 
 Mr. Goodloe erected a foundry on 
 the north side of Pearl Street, between 
 Broadway and Ludlow Streets, and 
 
 4 
 
50 APPENDIX. 
 
 built many engines in conjunction with 
 his brother, Joseph Goodloe. 
 
 Among the earliest steamboat 
 engine builders were the brothers 
 Robert and Caleb Green. The former 
 afterward became a broker on the 
 north-west corner of Main and Third 
 Streets. These brothers had, as early 
 as 1825 or 1826, an engine-shop on 
 Front Street, between Butler Street 
 and Deer Creek bridge, and the writer 
 remembers that they built a low-pres- 
 sure engine for a vessel called the 
 Clinton, and that she was commanded 
 for a time by one Joel Green, who, 
 for a long period thereafter, followed 
 the river as a first-class steamboat 
 engineer. 
 
 Jabez Reynolds, about or before 
 the year 1825, built and operated for 
 a time an engine-shop on the north- 
 west corner of Front and Pike Streets. 
 
EARL Y STEA 31- ENGINE B UILDRS. 5 1 
 
 Wilder, Lyons & Co., at a very 
 early day, probably before the year 
 1825, had an engine-shop on Front 
 Street, just east of Butler Street, and 
 the rear thereof was connected with 
 Butler Street; and, if the writer is not 
 much mistaken, they were succeeded 
 by David Powell, on Butler Street, 
 who built a. foundry of stone on said 
 street, and it was always called Pow- 
 ell's Stone Foundry. 
 
 Bake well & King, on the west 
 side of Butler Street, north of Front 
 Street, built many engines as far back 
 as 1829 or 1830. About this period 
 Yeatman & George Shield succeeded 
 Jabez Reynolds on the north-west 
 corner of Front and Pike Streets. 
 
 Anthony Harkness, about the year 
 1845, added this corner to his increas- 
 ing necessities for locomotive pro- 
 duction; Yeatman & George Shield 
 
52 APPENDIX. 
 
 building, and removing to the north side 
 of Front Street, between Deer Creek 
 bridge and Kilgour Street. This firm 
 here built the machinery for the 
 steamer Duke of Orleans, which vessel 
 made the quickest trip on record from 
 New Orleans to Cincinnati, and her 
 time has never been approached. The 
 firm was, however, soon compelled to 
 yield this location for railroad pur- 
 poses, and removed to the south- 
 west corner of Pearl and Kilgour 
 Streets. 
 
 William Tift, on the south-west 
 corner of Ludlow and Second Streets, 
 was a prominent manufacturer of ma- 
 chinery in the year 1828 or 1829, and 
 he built many sugar- mills for the 
 South. 
 
 Hanks & Niles, or the Mies Broth- 
 ers, who had a foundry and a machine- 
 shop on Main Street, several squares 
 
EARL Y STEAM-ENGINE B UILDERS. 53 
 
 north of the canal, bought out William 
 Tift and his good-will in the sugar- 
 mill line, and built a large establish- 
 ment on Front Street, just west of 
 Deer Creek bridge, to prosecute this 
 work; Mr. Tift for a time acting as 
 agent down South for the Niles 
 Brothers. 
 
 Martin Anschutz, at an early day, 
 had an engine-shop and foundry on the 
 south side of Front Street, between 
 Lawrence and Ludlow Streets, and 
 was succeeded by C. T. Dumont, who 
 conducted it to a late period. 
 
 Edward Shield was for a time an 
 engine-builder on the south side of 
 Front, a few doors west of Lawrence 
 Street. 
 
 Lyons & Bell had a machine-shop 
 on the north side of Front, between 
 Ludlow and Lawrence Streets. 
 
 David Griffey, on the south side of 
 
54 APPENDIX. 
 
 Pearl, just west of Lawrence Street, 
 and running through to Second or Co- 
 lumbia Street, maintained for a time 
 an engine-shop and foundry. 
 
 Warden & McLellan, after their 
 predecessors, have maintained, and con- 
 tinue to maintain and conduct, an en- 
 gine-shop on the west side of Broadway, 
 between Second and Front Streets. 
 
 I. & E. Greenwald, on the north 
 side of Pearl, just west of Deer Creek, 
 did for many years furnish, and con- 
 tinue to furnish, a large amount of mill 
 work and land engines mainly. 
 
 Kilgour foundry and machine-shop, 
 on the corner of Third and Lock Streets, 
 managed by Joseph Bell. 
 
 All these enumerated engine-shops 
 and foundries were located in the old 
 Third Ward; but the earliest of them 
 seemed to cluster about the foot of But- 
 ler Street. There were, however, other 
 
EARL Y STEAM-ENGINE B UILDERS. 55 
 
 important plants of that nature scat- 
 tered north and west. 
 
 Miles Greenwood, or Webb & Green- 
 wood, on the canal, west of Main Street, 
 did a large business in machinery pro- 
 duction. 
 
 James Todd, on the south-west cor- 
 ner of Seventh and Smith Streets, 
 where now stands St. Paul Church, 
 operated for many years an engine- 
 shop and foundry. 
 
 Mr. Bevin had a foundry on the 
 south-west corner of Vine and Sixth 
 Streets, where now stands the Me- 
 chanics' Institute. 
 
 Lane&Bodley, on Water Street, near 
 the foot of Western Row, have for many 
 years conducted a very important en- 
 gine-shop and foundry in the production 
 of all kinds of machinery, with the ex- 
 ception possibly of steamboat engines ; 
 and if the writer is not greatly mis- 
 
56 APPENDIX. 
 
 taken these works succeeded the firm 
 of Reynolds, Kite & Tatem, who first 
 started the plant. 
 
 Holiberd, west of these works, on 
 the river bank, maintained for a time 
 an engine-shop and foundry. 
 
 No doubt there were other plants 
 of like nature that have been omitted, 
 and that the writer can not now call 
 to mind. 
 
 Alexander Latta, although men- 
 tioned last, was not the least of engine- 
 builders. The writer believes that he 
 was born — or, at least, that he spent 
 his youthful days — in the old Third 
 Ward, where he was always noted for 
 his mechanical ingenuity. For a time 
 he built stationary engines and other 
 machinery, but he finally drifted to and 
 located on the west side of Race Street, 
 adjoining the district school-house, be- 
 tween Fourth and Fifth Streets, and 
 
EARL Y STEAM-ENGINE B UJLDERS. hi 
 
 here be succeeded by degrees in devel- 
 oping the steam fire-engine into useful- 
 ness, against many discouragements. 
 He had to submit for a time to obloquy, 
 sneers, and ridicule from those who did 
 not want to see the new fire department 
 a success. But he was assisted pecun- 
 iarily and encouraged with kind words 
 by such noble men as the late Griffin 
 Taylor and a few others; and, in grat- 
 itude for this support and sympathy, 
 the writer is under the impression that 
 he named a son Griffin Taylor Latta. 
 
 It was thus with a few firm friends, 
 and with the energy and ability dis- 
 played by Miles Greenwood, that iron 
 man, who appears to have been made 
 expressly for the occasion, that the 
 new steam fire department fought its 
 way to success against the element 
 that was opposed to it. 
 
 The writer knew Mr. Latta well, 
 
58 APPENDIX. 
 
 and is pretty certain that he shortened 
 his earthly career by his close and per- 
 sistent devotion to his pet theories. He 
 informed the writer that he slept but 
 little, and would lie awake the most of 
 the night trying to solve some mechan- 
 ical problem. 
 
 When Mr. Latta built the steam 
 fire-engine called the Citizens Gift, the 
 writer, who was then in the locomotive 
 and marine-engine building line, was 
 one of one hundred persons or firms 
 that subscribed one hundred dollars 
 each to the purchase. 
 
 Mr. Latta was a great public bene- 
 factor, and his life was a self-sacrificing 
 one, for he was never adequately re- 
 warded for the good he did to and for 
 the city of Cincinnati. 
 
FOUNDRIES. . 59 
 
 FOUNDRIES 
 Wherein Castings alone were Produced. 
 
 One of the first to come under the 
 observation of the writer was in the 
 year 1826, and it was called the T-item 
 foundry, and it was situated on the 
 west side of Plum Street, just below 
 Third Street. The frame dwellings 
 built for the occupancy of the work- 
 hands are yet standing (December, 
 1886) on the south side of Third Street, 
 running west from the corner of Plum 
 Street, This plant was managed by the 
 father and several sons. The youngest 
 son, whose name was Henry L. Tatem, 
 was the book-keeper, and was at a later 
 period for a time superintendent of the 
 city water-works, and he was also the 
 father of H. H. Tatem, the well-known 
 
60 APPENDIX. 
 
 auditor and secretary of the Southern 
 Railroad Company. 
 
 Bakewell & Cartwright, about the 
 year 1829, had a foundry on Front 
 Street, just west of Butler Street. 
 
 Hugh White, about or before the 
 year 1828, conducted a foundry on the 
 novih side of Second or Columbia Street, 
 between Lawrence and Ludlow Streets. 
 
 John Nash, at a later day, owned 
 and managed a foundry on the south 
 side of Pearl Street, a little east of 
 Deer Creek. 
 
 There were other small foundries 
 that made castings a specialty, but the 
 writer can not now call them to mind. 
 
 In the earlier years the most of the 
 engine-shops in the old Third Ward 
 purchased their castings of those foun- 
 dries that made such work a specialty; 
 but the larger shops soon found it de- 
 cidedly to their interest to produce 
 
SHIP- YARDS IN F UL TON. 6 1 
 
 their own castings, wherein lay the 
 profit, as the greatest values were pro- 
 duced in the shortest period with the 
 least outlay for labor. 
 
 SHIR- YARDS IN FULTON 
 
 The writer was only partially ac- 
 quainted in Fulton preceding the year 
 1826 ; therefore he can not speak know- 
 ingly of any ship-yards that were in 
 existence prior to the above date, but 
 he has been credibly informed that 
 William Parsons was the earliest and 
 most prominent builder of steamboat 
 
 hulls. 
 
 The Weeks ship-yard was the first 
 personally known to the writer in the 
 year 1826. It was located on Front 
 Street, or, as it was then called, the road 
 
62 APPENDIX. 
 
 to Columbia, some five hundred feet 
 east of the intersection of Front and 
 Pearl Streets, and nearly opposite to 
 the old Litherbury residence, which 
 may be recognized by a dilapidated 
 brick wall in front. 
 
 The writer well remembers the 
 father, who was the head of the firm, 
 and whose name, I believe, w T as Ste- 
 phen Weeks, and the four sons as fol- 
 lows : Harry, John, Thomas, and Syl- 
 vester Weeks. All are deceased, except 
 the latter, and the youngest, who is now 
 a resident of the Old Man's Home, on 
 Walnut Hills. 
 
 Thomas Weeks appeared to the 
 writer as being the leading spirit in 
 the ship-yard. 
 
 Two dwelling-houses were erected 
 on the north side of the road, a few 
 doors east of the Litherbury residence, 
 one for the father and the other for 
 
SHIP- YARDS IN FULTON. 63 
 
 Thomas Weeks ; find the writer wrought 
 at the interior finish of both dwellings. 
 The former is yet standing, but the 
 latter has been displaced. 
 
 Mr. Litberbury married a daughter 
 of Stephen Weeks. He was, therefore, 
 a brother-in-law of the brothers; and 
 he was, also, in conjunction with one 
 Lockwood, engaged in ship-building in 
 that region, and Mr. Litherbury con- 
 tinued so to build until about the year 
 1855 or 1860. 
 
 Then there were the Gordons — 
 William Gordon, Archibald Gordon — 
 Burton Hazen, and others, all of whom 
 served their apprenticeship with Will- 
 iam Parsons, and afterward conducted 
 ship yards of their own. 
 
 Joseph Coppin, who came to Cincin- 
 nati in the year 1805, and who learned 
 carpentry and joinery, was for a time 
 engaged in the building of steamboat 
 
64 APPENDIX. 
 
 hulls and cabins, and his ship-yard was 
 located just west of the old Schultz 
 brewery, and near the ground lately 
 occupied by the Goodhue stone-yard. 
 
 Saunders Hartshorn at one time 
 conducted a ship-yard away up where 
 now stands the ship-yard and saw-mill 
 of James Mack, who is now, and has 
 been for many years, a builder of steam- 
 boat hulls. 
 
 Samuel Hambleton was for many 
 years an enterprising builder of steam- 
 boat hulls. 
 
 There were others engaged in steam- 
 boat building, but the writer can not 
 now call them to mind. 
 
 It will be seen that the bank of the 
 river in Fulton was at one time lined 
 for miles with ship-yards. 
 
t 
 
 THE HIGH TIDES. 65 
 
 The High Tides of 1883 and 1884. 
 
 In the preface to Flint's Geography 
 of the Mississippi Valley, published in 
 1833, Morgan Neville gives an inter- 
 esting description of the flood of 1832, 
 and makes some mention of the severe 
 Winter weather just precedent thereto. 
 This the writer has not seen in any 
 late newspaper description of the sev- 
 eral floods. 
 
 Mr. Neville was raised on the 
 banks of the Ohio River, at the town 
 of Neville. He was a man of intelli- 
 gence and close observation, and it will 
 be seen from his communication that 
 he had no knowledge of any previous 
 tide leaching that of 1832, and he says 
 nothing of a traditional flood. 
 
 During this flood the writer was re- 
 siding at the foot of Lawrence Street, 
 
66 APPENDIX. 
 
 near that old landmark situated on the 
 south-east corner of Pearl and Law- 
 rence Streets, and only removed in the 
 year 1883, the stone residence of the 
 late Peyton S. Symmes, Esq., and he 
 has therefore a most vivid recollection 
 of the waters being six or seven feet 
 deep in front of his residence. 
 
 Mr. Neville was requested to write 
 a description of this flood for insertion 
 in Flint's Geography, then in course of 
 publication. This he did during the 
 existence and subsidence of the 
 waters, when every thing pertaining 
 thereto was fresh in his mind. 
 
 It is very evident to the writer 
 that the bed of the Ohio River at this 
 place and the lower level of the city, 
 will not now pnss as much water at 
 high tide as it did in the year 1832, 
 without a higher overflow. 
 
 It is within the memory of some 
 
THE HIGH TIDES. 67 
 
 yet living, that for mercenary reasons, 
 numerous fills of two hundred feet or 
 more have been pushed out into the 
 river, and many riparian structures 
 have been erected on both sides since 
 the above date. Then there are the 
 large ripraps at the base of the many 
 bridge-piers, displacing the water-way. 
 Then again, the lower level of the city 
 is more solidly built up, largely so. 
 since the year 1832, causing a further 
 displacement. 
 
 The writer is confident, therefore, 
 that the capacity of the water-way has 
 been by these encroachments reduced 
 at least one-fourth since the year 1832. 
 
 The river at Portsmouth, one hun- 
 dred miles above, was not as high in 
 1883 as it was in 1847. The real, and 
 apparent extra water that came in 1884 
 was due in most part to the above- 
 mentioned obstructions, and in part to 
 
6% APPENDIX. 
 
 the Little Miami, the Licking, and the 
 many smaller streams coming out si- 
 multaneously the second time at flood- 
 height right on the top of the high 
 tide in the Ohio, and re-enforced to some 
 extent by the Great Miami, then un- 
 usually high, backing up as it were, 
 and retarding the current of the Ohio. 
 Mr. Neville describes the current 
 of the Ohio at Cincinnati in 1832 at 
 six and one-quarter miles per hour, 
 whereas it was less than five mile's per 
 hour in 1884, showing most conclu- 
 sively that the retardation of the cur- 
 rent, and the piling-up of the waters, 
 was mainly due to the many ob- 
 structions. 
 
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