Chapter 



Toward 



The Industrial Millennium 



By 1830, before any railroads were built west of the Allegheny 

 Mountains, Cincinnati had developed into a prosperous industrial 

 center. The city, founded in 1 788, is located on the Ohio River 

 where the Licking and the Miami and Little Miami Rivers join the 

 Ohio. Taking full advantage of its river connections with the sur- 

 rounding country, especially to the south along the Ohio River, 

 Cincinnati had by 1810 become a center of commerce. Nine years 

 later, with two foundries and the beginnings of what was to become 

 a major industry — steamboat building — this city of nearly 10,000 

 persons was producing annually several million dollars worth of in- 

 dustrial products. The settlement of the stn-rounding country and 

 the continued development of southern trade stimulated the com- 

 mercial growth of Cincinnati to boom proportions. The city's popu- 

 lation doubled each decade between 1820 and i860. By the middle 

 of the century, Cincinnati had become the largest city west of the 

 Alleghenies and was rivaling Philadelphia's claim of having the 

 third greatest population in the nation. It was the workshop for 

 the South and assumed the title of Queen City, Gateway to the West. 

 By the time of the Civil War, Cincinnati, grown to one-cjuarter mil- 

 lion population, possessed a burgeoning industrial establishment 

 which annually produced 90-million dollars worth of manufactured 

 goods. 



The industrial arts were further stimulated in 1828 by the found- 

 ing of the Ohio Mechanics Listitute, intended to train young men 



