Cincinnati, Ohio

City: Cincinnati

County: Hamilton

State: Ohio

Lat/Long: 39.1500, -84.4500

Located on the Ohio River, Cincinnati began in 1788 as a small settlement called Losantiville. In 1790, Arthur St. Clair renamed it Cincinnati in honor of the Society of Cincinnati, which itself drew its name from the Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus. The settlement grew slowly at first, with a population of 2,540 in 1800. Incorporated as a town in 1802 and a city in 1819, Cincinnati became a bustling center of trade and commerce with the introduction steamboats on the Ohio in 1811. Exporting pork products, hay, and other commodities, Cincinnati established important trading routes with St. Louis and New Orleans. It became the center of pork processing in the country. The opening of canals and railroads further expanded business opportunities, with the population growing apace. Immigrants poured into the city; by 1860, Cincinnati had a population of 161,044, forty-five percent of whom were foreign born. During a tour of Ohio in 1859, Abraham Lincoln delivered a speech before a large crowd in the city. In 1860, Cincinnati ranked third in manufacturing. During the Civil War, the city stayed loyal to the Union, despite losing its Southern trade and close proximity to Kentucky and parts of the Confederacy.

Report of Speech at Cincinnati, Ohio; Eugene H. Roseboom, "Cincinnati," Dictionary of American History, rev. ed. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1976), 2:37.