were no longer bought in large quantities with cash, but on long 

 credits and with in some cases precarious securities. This kind of 

 pay rendered it impossible for any but houses of ample capital 

 or of established reputation to succeed.'" ^'^ The Niles brothers 

 did not have the capital, nor were they willing or able to accept 

 large quantities of railroad securities any more readily than when 

 they found that credits extended to customers in the southern 

 sugar-mill trade were not always honored. By June 1857 it was 

 reported that Niles, finding the construction of riverboat engines 

 more attractive, was no longer interested in promoting locomotive 

 work."^" Although no definite reasons for the closing of the Niles 

 shops have been discovered, enough data exist to determine the 

 date with reasonable accuracy. The last advertisement for Niles & 

 Company that appeared in the Railroad Record (June 25, 1857) 

 indicated a lack of interest in soliciting new orders for locomotives. 

 The plant apparently remained open, for the Cincinnati Commercial, 

 discussing a court case in its issue of May 1 1, 1858,"''* said that the 

 business was controlled by two proprietors, J. S. and J. M. Niles 

 Sometime between this date and June 1859 the Niles brothers 

 retired, withdrawing from active management of both foundry 

 properties. The Congress Street shop was taken over by the 

 I. & E. Greenwald Company as an addition to its machinery 

 business. i'^9 The shop on East Front Street continued to operate, 

 retaining the name of Niles Works, with H. A. Jones as president.'"" 

 Under the management of George Gray, James Gaff, and Alexander 

 Gordon, Niles Works gradually entered the field of machine tools, 

 and within a few years this became its major line of work. In 

 about 1872 the plant moved to Hamilton, Ohio, but continued to 

 use Niles as the corporation title. Today a division of the Baldwin- 

 Lima-Hamilton Corporation builds machine tools under the name 

 Niles, in respect to the founders of the long defunct Niles & Company. 

 The Niles brothers left Cincinnati sometime in 1859 (they are 



^^'^ (June 6, 1857), vol. 4, p. 4. 

 '6' Ibid. 



^^^ The article itself, concerned with a suit between the city and Niles & Company 

 over the collapse of a portion of the Deer Creek Culvert, is not otherwise relevant. 

 '^^ Charles Cist, Sketches and Statistics of Cincinnati in iSjg, p. 285. 

 I'OIbid., p. 289. 



115 



