Queen City of the West

Cincinnati Ohio

Cincinnati was one of the earliest communities founded in what would later become Ohio. The community was actually 3 different settlements, Columbia, North Bend, and Losantiville which was located about midway between the other two. All three of these settlements were located along the Ohio River and the Little and Great Miami Rivers and opposite the Licking River. These rivers would be a major reason Cincinnati became a town of commerce.

Above photo is a detail from a series of photographs taken from the Kentucky side of the river. The twin steeples at the top is the Christ Church located on the north side of Fourth Street and Broadway (about 1/4 mile north of home plate at the Great American Ball Field.

In 1840 Cincinnati had a population of just over 46,000. Ten years later that population had jumped to over 115,000 and by 1900 it had almost tripled in size. Industry, commerce and location played an important role. Initially the rivers were the main travel routes on the frontier. Then came the canals and then the railroads. The railroads were dramatically responsible for much of the town's growth that began in the 1850s.

Origin of the town's name

The name Cincinnati we know today was not the original name of the settlement founded in 1788. Losantiville was the original name. But two years later, Arthur St. Clair changed that name to Cincinnati in honor of a new society that had been formed on the east coast called the Society of the Cincinnati. That society was established to  preserve the fellowship and ideals of the both the Continental Army and the French military that had joined forces during the American Revolutionary War to defeat Great Britain and Arthur St. Clair was the president of that society. 

The reason for making the change was the big influx of military personnel that were assembling here for a new campaign of terror against the Native Americans that had been murdering and capturing settlers from Kentucky for a number of years. A year after Losantiville had been formed, General Josiah Harmar arrived here on orders from the President to build a fort near the village of Losantiville which was named Fort Washington. From here he would lead a large military force north to try and destroy as many Native American villages, crops and people as possible with the goal of forcing them further north.

Harmar's campaign was a complete failure. The following year Arthur St. Clair decided that as governor of the Northwest Territory, it was his responsibility to lead a new expedition authorized by Congress to complete Harmar's mission. It was St. Clair, while he was organizing the expedition at Fort Washington, that the name of the little settlement be changed to Cincinnati. His expedition was an even bigger failure than Harmar's.

Above is a sketch made by Major Jonathan Hart in 1791. Hart was stationed at the fort.

Cincinnati's First Investors

In 1784 John Filson who was living in the Louisville, Kentucky area published a book that is little known today, but when it was published, it became a big international hit. The title of this 1784 book was called The Discovery, Settlement and Present State of Kentucke. The only reason this is mentioned here is because in the appendix of this book, he wrote a section on the adventures of Daniel Boone which made so popularized the Boone, that he became part of our national heritage.

But success for John Filson was fleeting. He spent several years teaching school in Louisville, he unsuccessfully tried to start a seminary school, and he also worked as a surveyor. Filson also had legal and financial difficulties. At the height of these problems, perhaps looking to escape these difficulties, he purchased some land north of the Ohio River along with 2 other investors. Together, they purchased 800 acres of land on the north side of the Ohio River where the Licking River coming out of Kentucky enters the Ohio. Being an educated man, he gave the area the unlikely name of Losantiville which was a combination of a lot of words from 3 different languages (Latin, Greek, French) that no one really understood except for John. That was in 1788.

Filson immediately set out surveying the trio's purchase. Filson's survey and plan of the town survives today in the layout of modern downtown Cincinnati. Later that year, John Filson disappeared when Shawnee warriors attacked his surveying party on an expedition to survey the land near the Great Miami River. His 2 partners, Colonel Robert Patterson and Mathias Denman (Denman represented a group of east coast speculators) transferred Filson's 1/3 ownership over to another surveyor, Israel Ludlow.

Ludlow continued the surveying process and laid out the new town on a grid system based on a north/south and east/west configuration. This looked great on paper, but in practice, the plan completely ignored the topography of the area. Ludlow also ignored future consideration of the city by not including any parks or public space, except for some land along the river.

In the same year that Filson was laying out Losantiville, 2 other communities were being created. Columbia was located just west of the Little Miami River and North Bend to the west. Both Columbia and North Bend had geographic problems in their location: the Ohio River was prone to frequent flooding which became more apparent as more settlers arrived. In a very short period of time, the Losantiville location became the star attraction of the triple crown of southeastern Ohio.

Because of conflicts between Native Americans living north of the Ohio River, it was decided a fort was needed to protect those early settlers. In 1789 a fort was built on a the flood plain overlooking the river where today is located E. Fourth Street. Just south is a small marker on Arch St. designating the location of Fort Washington.

In 1790, General St. Clair assumed command of Fort Washington and using his military powers promptly changed the name of the nearby village to Cincinnati, to honor the Society of Cincinnati which he was a member. The Society of Cincinnati was an organized group of military officers from the Revolutionary War.

During the first 40 years after its founding, Cincinnati experienced spectacular growth. By 1820, citizens, extremely proud of their city, were referring to it as The Queen City or The Queen of the West. On May 4, 1819, B. Cooke wrote in the Inquisitor and Cincinnati Advertiser, "The City is, indeed, justly styled the fair Queen of the West: distinguished for order, enterprise, public spirit, and liberality, she stands the wonder of an admiring world."

With the introduction of the steam boat, Cincinnati really took off. Not only did the steam boat enable local farmers to get their crops to other markets along the Ohio River, Cincinnati became a builder of steam powered boats. In fact, at the high point of river steam boats, more than 1/4 of all of them were produced in Cincinnati.

In 1829, the Miami Canal was built connecting Cincinnati with Dayton. Later the canal would be extended to lake Erie and became the Miami Erie Canal.

With easy access from the Ohio and the canal, Cincinnati was a boom town and a magnate for immigrants coming from the east coast, particularly German immigrants.

Cincinnati's prime industries were metalworking, wood products, and pork packing. By 1835, Cincinnati was the nation's pork packing center. It was even given the nickname Porkopolis. Hundreds of pigs would move through the downtown streets on their way to the slaughterhouse. One of the side industries resulting from so much pork processing, was the manufacturing of candles and soap. One of those industries was Procter and Gamble which started in 1837.

So much success resulted in Cincinnati's meat packing industry that city leaders failed to realize that their success had to be insured for the future. When railroads first started appearing across the state, Cincinnati failed to fully implement this new technology into their development. In short time, the railroads overtook river traffic and Cincinnati soon lost its place as the meat packing center, being replaced by Chicago and St. Louis.

With the large influx in German immigrants, Cincinnati like Columbus, became known for their quality beer brewing. From 1840 to 1850 the German population had more than doubled. German was taught in the local schools. The city had 4 German language newspapers. This strong German influence continued through until World War I when anti-German sentiments resulted in the end of an era.

So when did Cincinnati become known as the Queen City? Some say it was in 1854, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote his poem, Catawba Wine, to memorialize the city's vineyards, especially those of Nicholas Longworth. The last stanza of the poem reads:

"And this Song of the Vine,
This greeting of mine,
The winds and the birds shall deliver,
To the Queen of the West,
In her garlands dressed,
On the banks of the Beautiful River."