Cincinnati

CINCINNATI

CINCINNATI was founded in 1788 and named for the Society of Cincinnati, an organization of revolutionary war officers. When incorporated in 1802, it had only about 750 residents. However, the town went on to become the largest city in Ohio throughout most of the nineteenth century and the largest city in the Midwest before the Civil War. In 1850, Cincinnati boasted 115,436 inhabitants. As the chief port on the Ohio River, it could claim the title of Queen City of the West. Although it produced a wide range of manufactures for the western market, Cincinnati became famous as a meatpacking center, winning the nickname Porkopolis. The city's prosperity attracted thousands of European immigrants, especially Germans, whose breweries, singing societies, and beer gardens became features of Cincinnati life.

With the advent of the railroad age, Cincinnati's location on the Ohio River no longer ensured its preeminence as a commercial center, and other midwestern cities surged ahead of it. Between 1890 and 1900, Cincinnati fell to second rank among Ohio cities as Cleveland surpassed it in population. In 1869, however, Cincinnati won distinction by fielding the nation's first all-professional baseball team. Moreover, through their biennial music festival, Cincinnatians attempted to establish their city as the cultural capital of the Midwest.

During the first half of the twentieth century, Cincinnati continued to grow moderately, consolidating its reputation as a city of stability rather than dynamic change. In the 1920s, good-government reformers secured adoption of a city manager charter, and in succeeding decades Cincinnati won a name for having honest, efficient government. Yet, unable to annex additional territory following World War II, the city's population gradually declined from a high of 503,998 in 1950 to 331,285 in 2000. During the 1940s and 1950s, southern blacks and whites migrated to the city, transforming the once-Germanic Over-the-Rhine neighborhood into a "hillbilly ghetto" and boosting the African American share of the city's population from 12.2 percent in 1940 to 33.8 percent in 1980. Although not a model of dynamism, Cincinnati could boast of a diversified economy that made it relatively recession proof compared with other midwestern cities dependent on motor vehicle and heavy machinery manufacturing. The city prospered as the headquarters of Procter and Gamble, and also was headquarters of the Kroger supermarket chain, Federated Department Stores, and banana giant Chiquita Brands.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Giglierano, Geoffrey J., and Deborah A. Overmyer. The Bicentennial Guide to Greater Cincinnati: A Portrait of Two Hundred Years. Cincinnati: Cincinnati Historical Society, 1988.

Silberstein, Iola. Cincinnati Then and Now. Cincinnati: Voters Service Educational Fund of the League of Women Voters of the Cincinnati Area, 1982.

Jon C. Teaford

See also City Manager Plan ; German Americans ; Miami Purchase ; Midwest ; Ohio ; Ohio River .