Mary's got the scoop on the city located along the Ohio River's coast—Cincinnati. From its odd chili dish to its early days as a trade location, this is one unique spot in our state!
Class Discussion Questions:
1) What challenges were faced by the early settlers of Cincinnati?
2) Governor St. Clair did not like the original name of Cincinnati. If you had to rename your town or city, what would you name it, and why?
Read the Script:
Way before there were the Reds, the Bengals, riverboats, and that special chili that some of us love and the rest of us love to hate, Cincinnati was just a prime piece of real estate inhabited by Native American tribes in the southwest corner of what is now Ohio. Located on the northern banks of the Ohio River between the Great Miami and the Little Miami Rivers, this territory was abundant in water, which made it a hot commodity for pioneers in that time. So, it's no wonder that in 1788, a group of three men banded together to buy up 800 acres of land, at what I think is a pretty fair price: $500.
John Filson, Matthias Denman, and Robert Patterson teamed up to make a city on the spot. Matthias was the money man who put down the cash, Robert found people willing to move there, and John mapped out the territory. Unfortunately, while he was out surveying the land, John disappeared. Some believe he may have been killed by Shawnee Indians. Still, the men pushed forward to build their city on the Ohio River.
Israel Ludlow replaced John and divided the land into suitable lots. To each of the first 30 settlers, they gave a couple free lots. The men named the town Losantiville, which is a mess of different words meaning 'town across from the mouth of the Licking River.' Now, I have a mouth and you have a mouth, but the mouth of a river is a bit different. It's the part of the river that flows into a lake, reservoir, or ocean. In this case, it's where the Licking River flows into the Ohio River.
In 1789, Fort Washington was built just west of Losantiville to protect settlers in the area from Native Americans who lived and traveled through there. This was the Wild West of the time. Without a very established government in the town, things could get a bit crazy, and often the militia from the fort had to keep peace in the town. One day, the governor of the Northwest Territory — which Losantiville was a part of — Arthur St. Clair came to visit the city in 1790. One thing he didn't like: the name Losantiville. Instead, he declared that the city would be renamed Cincinnati, after the ancient Roman statesman Cincinnatus.
Soon, Cincinnati grew in size as more people traveled west to settle new territory. Many people saw the city as the perfect spot to sell supplies to those traveling even farther west along the Ohio River. Warehouses were built to hold these goods, and even though Fort Washington closed, the city carried on. It became the spot for hotels and businesses. Farmers would bring their crops there to sell down the river. By 1803, the year when Ohio became a state, there were about 1,000 people living in Cincinnati. Today, it's the third-largest city in Ohio.