"Don't you think you should be better off, if you had no one but yourself to provide for?" "Why no, ma'am, I don't. If I had'nt been married I should always had to work as I could, and now I can't do more than that. My children are a great comfort to me, and I look forward to the time when they'll do as much for me as I have done for them." Here was true philosophy! I learned a lesson from that poor woman which I shall not soon forget. The Miami Valley Settlements. It is hardly possible for those who are now living in Cincinnati, in the enjoyment of every comfort and luxury which money can procure, to form any notion of the privations which were suffered by the hardy settlers of the west, the pioneers of the Miami Valleys among others. Fifty-five years ago the condition of the great thoroughfares to the west of the route across the Allegheny Mountains especially-was such as to forbid taking by the emigrants any articles but those of indispensible necessity, for a six horse road wagon, at a slow gait, could not take more than what would now be considered, over a McAdamized road, a load for two horses. When the pioneer westward had reached Redstone or Wheeling, the difficulties of transportation were not much lessened, There were no wagon roads through the intermediate country, if the hostility of the implacable savage had permitted traversing the route by land in safety; and the family boats which carried the settlers down were so encumbered with wagons, horses, cows, pigs, &c., as to have little room for any thing else but a few articles of family housekeeping of the first necessity. On reaching their destination, cabins had to be erected, the land cleared and cultivated, and the crop gathered in, in the presence, as it were, of the relentless savage, who watched every opportunity of destroying the lives of the settlers, and breaking up the lodgments as fast as made. In the meantime, supplies of food not yet raised on the improvement, had to be obtained in the woods from hunting, which in most cases was a constant exposure of life to their Indian enemies. Under these circumstances some general idea may be conceived of the sufferings and privations which those endured, who formed the van guard of civilization, and prepared the way for the present generation to enjoy the fruit of past labours and sufferings. But it is not so easy, without some specifications such as I shall furnish here, to realise the nature and extent of the privations of individuals who, in many cases, abandoned comfortable homes and the enjoyment of civilized life, at the call of duty. Especially was this the case in respect to several of the pioneer mothers. A few notes from the recollections of one of the survivors, probably the only one of the party who landed with Major Stites at Columbia, a venerable lady of seventy-five, whose family have borne a conspicuous part in the civil, political, military, and religious history of the Miami Valley, will possess my readers of a more distinct idea of these sacrifices and privations, than they could otherwise acquire. My informant was born and brought up in New York, her parents being in prosperous circumstances. Her husband, who was a surveyor, had been for some time in delicate health, and concluded to accompany Major Stites to his settlement at the mouth of the Little Miami. At this place, where they landed on the 18th Nov., 1788, and to which the settlers gave the name of Columbia, two or three block houses were first erected for the protection of the women and children, and log cabins were built without delay for occupation by the several families. The boats in which they came down from Limestone being broken up, served for floors, doors, &c., to these rude buildings. Stites and his party had riven out clapboards while they were detained at Maysville, which being taken down to Columbia, enabled the settlers to cover their houses without delay. The fact that the Indians were generally gathered to Fort Harmar, at the mouth of Muskingum, for the purpose of making a treaty with the whites, contributed also to the temporary security of the new settlement. Little, however, could be done beyond supplying present sustenance for the party from the woods. Wild game was abundant, but the bread stuffs they took with them soon gave out; and supplies of corn and salt were only to be obtained at a distance, and in deficient quantities, and various roots taken from the indigenous plants, the bear grass especially, had frequently to be resorted to as articles of food. When the spring of 1789 opened, their situation promised gradually to improve. The fine bottoms on the Little Miami had been long cultivated by the savages, and were found mellow as ashheaps. The men worked in divisions, one half keeping guard with their rifles while the others worked, changing their employments morning and afternoon. My informant had brought out a looking glass boxed up, from the east, and the case being mounted on a home made pair of rockers, served for the first cradle in the settlement. It had previously been set across a barrel to do duty as a table. Individuals now living in Cincinnati were actually rocked during their infancy in sugar troughs. It was with difficulty horses could be preserved from being stolen, by all the means of protection to which the settlers could resort. In the family to which this lady belonged, the halter chains of the horses were passed through between the logs and fastened to stout hooks on the inside. But neither this precaution nor securing them with hobbles would always serve to protect horses from the savages. On one occasion a fine mare with her colt had been left in the rear of the house in a small enclosure. The mare was taken off by Indians, they having secured her by a stout buffalo tug. It appears they had not noticed the colt in the darkness of the night. As they rode her off, the colt sprang the fence after the mare, and made such a noise galloping after, that supposing themselves pursued, they let the mare go lest she should impede their escape, and the family inside of the house knew nothing of the danger to which they had been exposed until the buffalo tug told the night's adventure. On another occasion, several families who had settled on the face of the hill near where Col. Spencer afterwards resided, at a spot called Morristown, from one Morris, the principal individual in the settlement, had hung out clothes to dry. Early in the evening a party of Indians prowling around made a descent and carried off every piece of clothing left out, nor was the loss discovered until the families were about to retire for the night. Pursuit was made and the 'trail followed for several miles, when arriving at the place where the savages had encamped, it was found deserted, the enemy being panic struck, and having abandoned all to effect their escape. The plunder was recovered, but not until the Indians had raveled out the coverlets to make belts for themselves. But many of the settlers encountered more serious calamities than loss of property. James Seward had two boys massacred by the savages, and James Newell, one of the most valuable of the settlers at Columbia, shared a similar fate. Hinkle and Covalt, two of the settlers on Round Bottom, a few miles up the Miami, were shot dead in front of their own cabins, while engaged hewing logs. Stove and Grate Manufacture. A visit to W. & R. P. Resor's Foundry, on Plum street, has put me in possession of various interesting statistics, on a very important and extensive branch of Iron Castings-the manufacture of Stoves, which forms an indispensible class of foundry operations, as well as a distinct department of business in the sale of the article. There are some thirty iron foundries in Cincinnati o various grades of importance, being nearly three times the number in existence at the census of 1840. And I shall confine my remarks at present to the operations of those engaged in the stove and grate manufacture, leaving the general casting business for a future article. There are twelve foundries engaged in the manufacture exclusively, principally, or partially of these articles, two of which make grates entirely, and two others make stoves to a more or less extent, while their usual and more important business is general casting. These establishments are W. & R. P. Resor, Wolff & Brothers, Goodhue & Co., French & Winslow, Ball & Davis, Andrews, Haven & Co., Miles Greenwood, David Root, Horton & Baker, Bevan & Co., O. G. De Groff and Thomas S. Orr. Having been familiar for years with the business of Messrs. Resor, which is probably the heaviest one of the number, I shall reserve what details I have to make on the subject as applying more especially to their operations, and close these statistics with a general view of the stove casting business at large. Resors' establishment, including tenements for fifteen families, occupies a space of ground two hundred feet square. They have additional ground for depositing coke across Plum street. The blowing apparatus, with chimney and facing mills, are driven by a steam engine of eight horse power. The blowing apparatus was put up by Messrs. Holabird & Burns, and consists of a cylinder thirty inches in diameter and thirty-two inch stroke, and is capable of melting with ease three tons per hour with two cupolas, which are used, taking the melted iron from each alternately. The finishing shops and storing rooms are In November, 1789, a flood on the Ohio oc- in 3 three story brick buildings of fifty-four feet curred of such magnitude as to overflow the front by seventy feet in depth. There are now, lower part of Columbia to such a height as first and have been during the year past, employto drive the soldiers at one of the block houses ed seventy-three hands, who make on the averup into the loft and then out by the gable to their age one hundred and eighty stoves and three tons boat, by which they crossed the Ohio to the hills hollow ware weekly, or an annual aggregate of on the opposite side. One house, only, in Colum- one thousand tons or two million pounds castbia, remained out of water. The loss of prop-ings. Six to seven tons pig metal are melted erty, valuable in proportion to its scarcity and daily in the establishment, and its consumption the difficulty of replacing it, may be readily conjectured. Honour to the memories of those who at such cost, won as an inheritance for their successors the garden spot of the whole world. of coal exceeds eighteen thousand bushels. Eleven additional hands are employed over the sale rooms in trimming, blacking, packing, &c., the stoves for maket. The whole of this prodigious amount of melt--| thousand five hundred Israelites; and it is a mating is through daily in three hours. No castings ter of notoriety, that where the Jewish people are are made here but for the proprietors' own use or sales. The firm pays out about $500 in wages per week, and since the first of last January, the hands are paid off every Monday, to the mutual advantage of employed and employers. No running accounts are kept in the establishment. One statistic, not exactly in the casting line, I will add by stating that there is a child born on the premises every month in the year, for several years past. Messrs. Resor were the first to introduce the neat and light patterns of stoves and hollow well received, that nation or city becomes happy and prosperous, and vice versa, that country or people who persecute and plunder them, are punished in an exemplary manner. What has been the end of the enemies of Israel? "That they perish for ever!" I need not quote historical reminiscences! There are some singular and remarkable facts appertaining to this people in all their locations; in being good and peaceable citizens, seeking the welfare and prosperity of the country in which they reside; not anxious to spread the tenets of their religion among the na ware now so universally prevalent, and to dem-tions; but looking forward to the time when " all onstrate to others that stoves could be made in Cincinnati for the west, cheaper as well as of better materials-the pig iron of the Scioto region under the hot blast process than at any other point on the Ohio. Two thirds of the stoves made at these foundries are what are termed cooking stoves. For these there is an increasing demand, which will not slacken until every farmer in the land is supplied, economy in labour as respects providing wood, being as important to the husbandman as economy in the purchase of that article is to the city resident. There are not less than forty-five thousand stoves manufactured yearly in Ciucinnati, thirty thousand of which are regular cooking stoves of various patterns and construction. The value of these articles, including the grate operations is five hundred and twelve thousand dollars annually, a business and product heavier than any city in the United States can exhibit, unless it be Albany and perhaps Troy, the great fountains of supply in this line for New York and the New England States. There are four hundred and thirty-five hands employed in these twelve establishments, on stoves, grates and hollow ware. In a former number I promised, if it should be considered interesting to your readers, to continue an article respecting the statistics, locations, and reminiscences of "God's ancient people the Israelites," -extending the view to the whole nation dispersed throughout the world. It is well ascertained that previous to 1816, the Jewish people were not known to have located in the Mississippi Valley; and for several years subsequent, they were considered as a strange sight; -but it was necessary to the fulfilment of Prophecy, that the "dispersed of Israel" should inhabit every clime. There are supposed at this time to be in the city and its environs, about two shall know the truth." According to their numbers, less crime is committed among them than any other class of people. Drunkards and pauиpers are seldom known among them: they are cleanly and abstemious in their habits and diet. In one of the congregations of this city, composed of more than eight hundred persons of all ages, there has not been a death during the past year! Very few of the towns in the west but what have more or less of them located at this period, and increased numbers are constantly emigrating from Europe. Celebrated writers in making up statistics, have been constantly underrating the numbers of this people; and it has been generally supposed there were not more than four millions in the world; at the same time rating their numbers in the United States at only five thousand. As I proceed I shall prove to the satisfaction of your readers, that they are more numerous than in the most prosperous period of their history. In this number I shall merely allude to their settlement in America. The first settlement of Jews in the Western Hemisphere, was at the Island of Cayenne, under the protection of the Dutch, in 1559. The French captured it in 1664. The Dutch inhabitants and Jews were obliged to quit. The latter went to Surinam, where they became a thriving settlement, having the full enjoyment and free exercise of their religion, rites and customs, guarantied to them by the British Government. In 1667, Surinam was taken by the Dutch, the privileges of the Jews confined to them, with all the rights of Dutch born subjects. They are now a considerable and highly respectable portion of the inhabitants of Surinam. In 1670, Jamaica and other West India Islands were visited, and considerable settlements of Jews formed, where they are now residing, being numerous, wealthy and respectable; enjoying all the privileges of citizens under the British Government, whose Colonies consequently have flourished. In 1683 the Jews were ordered to quit the French Colonies; and in 1685, all Jews found in the French Colonies Canadas? And what has become of San Domingo? In 1641, a considerable number of Jews who were banished from Spain and Portugal, settled in the Brazils, formed plantations, and built towns and villages; and were protected from the Spaniards by the Dutch. In 1654, on the Portuguese obtaining possession of the Brazils, the Jews were ordered to quit, their plantations and houses confiscated; but they very indulgently granted them the privilege to carry away their personal property, providing a fleet of ships to carry them wherever they chose." were seized and their properties confiscated. | the Jewish nation, more especially amongst What has been the result? Who has got the those who reside in America. I have conversed It is supposed that a small portion of them landed about that time at Newport, Rhode Island, and at New Amsterdam, (now New York.) Soon after that period they erected a Synagogue in Newport, the first in the thirteen Colonies. The congregation throve for about seventy or eighty years, when New York having overcome its rival in commercial pursuits, Newport declined, and the Israelites gradually withdrew to the rising city of New York, and not one family remained to protect its lonely Synagogue and burial ground. A sufficient sum was left by a legacy of the late Mr. Touro, to keep and constantly repair them, until at some future period Israelites might congregate there. This is faithfully performed by the corporation of the city. The Israelites in New York have flourished exceedingly. They have become numerous, wealthy, and respectable; nearly numbering at this time, fifteen thousand, having eight Synagogues. In 1733, forty Jews arrived in Savannah, Georgia, from London, where they and other emigrants have congregated to this day. They are highly respectable. In 1750, a congregation was founded in Charleston, which has gradually increased and become very numerous. They are many of them wealthy and respectable, having filled some of the first offices in the City and State of South Carolina. It is well known that during the War of Independence, the Jews were very active and patriotic in their exertions for their adopted country. We may also state that the late Col. David Franks, confidential aid to General Washington, was a member of the Jewish nation and religion. Since the Revolutionary War, Jewish Congregations have been establish ed at various places in the United States and British possessions, viz: New Orleans, Mobile, Louisville, St. Louis, Little Rock, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Xenia, Albany, Troy, Buffalo, New Haven, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Richmond and Norfolk, Va.; also at Quebec and Montreal, Canada, and St. Johns, New Brunswick. There are several other locations in the U. S. not recollected. There is one important fact respecting "Who broke this pitcher?" asked the master of the house of his lady. "It is not broke, my dear, it is only cracked." Some months afterwards he found it in the closet in fragments. "Who broke this pitcher?" he again asked. "Why that pitcher was broke long ago; it has been cracked more than four months." This was a Cincinnati excuse, but, as the almanack makers say, will answer for any other meridian in our country, and in some beyond its limits. It is accordingly published for the benefit of those who have not ingenuity enough to invent excuses of their own. Cultivation of the Grape. The following communication addressed by the writer to the Cincinnati Horticultural -Society, will be found one of the most valuable articles on the subject to which it relates, that has ever appeared in print. Mr. President:.. CINCINNATI, Sept. 26, 1845. Upon referring to some memorandums of my father, I find amongst others, the following account kept of the produce of the vineyard since 1837. As a number of our members are cultiva ting the vine, I thought it would be interesting, as it is difficult to obtain a statement of the kind, kept minutely for a series of years. It shows the actual produce, and the certainty of the crop before any other fruit in this latitude, and the difference between the Catawba and Isabella, as to the yield and certainty. The Isabella having borne a first rate crop for nine successive years, the Catawba failing occasionally from rot and the attack of insects. The vineyard has a southern exposure, fronting on the Ohio River, was planted with rooted plants in 1834, and contained at that time seventeen hundred and seventy-five vines, placed in rows four feet apart and three feet distance in the row-the ground being previously trenched, and the stones taken out to the depth of two feet. This year the ends of the vines have been nipped and the suckers taken out four different times. The following estimate I have made from what it has cost this year, and is not far from the actual expense, although the labour has been done by the hands doing the other work on the farm, and in making wine extra hands were always employed. By planting cuttings, and preparing the ground by subsoil ploughing when it can be done, would lessen the expense. The price is what the wine was sold at from the press this season, and is a low estimate: In the fall of 1837 the first crop was picked as follows:-164 bushels of Grapes, from which was made 667 gallons of Wine. At this time there was 1125 Isabella and Cape vines yielding 113 bushels, making 469 gallons, and 650 Catawba yielding 51 bushels, making 198 gallons. 1838-Vintage, Sept. 10th, produce 327 gallons. By 4306 gallons Wine, at 75c., 2300 Poles, at 2c., 46.00 20.00 80.00 30.00 Two months work each year nine years, 225.00 Extra work in making wine, . Cr.,. $704.00 $3229.50 5th 440 20, Isabella 260 Catawba 45-305 galls. This year (1840) most of the Catawba rotted on the vines. From this time there were twenty☐ three hundred vines, about one half of each kind. 1841-Vintage, Sept. 15, Catawba 237 Isabella 275-512 galls. The expense of cultivation previous to the first crop is not accounted for, nor is the press, casks, &c.; but the actual expense of cultivating an acre of grapes, when persons are hired to attend to other work, would not amount to but very little, as but a short time is required to attend to clearing the vines during the season. Yours respectfully, 12, Catawba 166 Isabella 319-485 15, Catawba 250 Isabella 288-538" 12, Catawba 108 Isabella 306-414 9, Catawba 349 Isabella 283-632 66 About one-eighth of the Catawba Grapes were destroyed by bees and other insects after ripening. The quantity eaten by three families is not taken into the account. The ground has always been thoroughly hoed in the spring and kept free from weeds; never manured until last winter, when the ground was covered and dug in, in the spring; and from the result this season it would pay well, as the vines are in better condition than they ever were, after yielding a heavy crop. The vines have been trained to stakes, and the bearing wood cut out, after having borne one season, leaving two shoots, trained the same season, one to form the bearing hoop or bow, and the other cut to two eyes, to propagate wood for the next year, the vine never having but the hoop and the two eyes left for fruit, each year's growing at the same time. WM. RESOR. From the Cincinnati Herald. Medical. There is for sale at Robinson & Jones', 109 Main street, Cincinnati, a mailable publication of some hundred pages, on the subject of Consumption of the Lungs, by W. Hall, A. M. M. D., of New Orleans, who has an office in this city during the summer. As tubercular disease is estimated to destroy one in six in civilized society, a book on this subject is more or less interesting to all. The Preface is short, and explains the design of the publication. 66 The design of the following pages is to encourage such as have Consumption, or are threatened with it, to use in time those means which have saved others, and may save them. "The Author, both before and since visiting Europe, for professional purposes, has met with the most gratifying success, and hopes to place within the reach of many whom he may never see, the means of cure. "Difficult terms are avoided, that the most common reader may easily comprehend all that is important to be understood." The main points stated are that-Consumption of the Lungs is a disease which admits of a per fect and permanent cure. That it is curable in its last and worst stages" - That these opinions are, and have been advo 1 |