Otto Onken: His Cincinnati Scenes

Transcription

1 Fall 1991 Otto Onken 21 Otto Onken: His Cincinnati Scenes Laura L. Chace In 1991 the Cincinnati Historical Society's collections were enriched by the addition of eight handcolored, nineteenth century lithographic views of the city through the courtesy of Chilton Thomson. Printed by the lithographic firm of Oscar Onken, these views faithfully depict Cincinnati's major business districts of the early 1850's: the Public Landing, Third Street, Fifth Street, Main Street, and Broadway. By the mid-nineteenth century, Cincinnati was a boom town and the dominant commercial center in the western United States. The influx of people from the eastern states and western Europe, especially Germany and Ireland, caused the city's population to increase faster than that of any other American city. By 1850 the Queen City was the second largest industrial center in the country. 1 Geography influenced Cincinnati's diverse economy and rise to commercial leadership. Her proximity to vast agricultural regions, her position at the terminus of Ohio and Indiana canal systems that brought goods from the interior, her location on a major waterway, the Ohio River, and, above all, the development of the steamboat made her great. "In 1852 over 8,000 steamboats arrived at and departed from Cincinnati's Public Landing." 2 The publishing and printing industry flourished in Cincinnati and by 1856 the city ranked fourth among United States publishing centers. 3 Publications printed in the city during the first half of the century were illustrated with engravings or imported woodcuts; lithographs were not used until 1840 when Emil Klauprecht and Adolphus Menzel established their plant. Lithographer and publisher Otto Onken probably arrived in His family is listed in the 1850 census of Ohio: Otto, age thirty-five, lithographer, born in Germany; Dorothea age twenty-two, born in Germany; William, age two, born in Ohio; and Harriet Kramer, age eleven, born in Germany. 4 The 1849 Cincinnati city directory included Onken's business at the southeast corner of Walnut and Fifth streets. The next year the directory gave his occupation as lithographer and book dealer with an office at 214 Walnut Street. Much of Onken's work was done in 1851 when he published Western Scenery by William Wells which "contains some of the finest examples of stone lithography of the day....," s and the illustrations for the Sequel to Riley's Narrative: Being a Sketch of Interesting Incidents in the Life, Voyages and Travels of Cap. James Riley. (Columbus, 1851). Apparently during his years in Cincinnati, most of the lithographers in the city worked for Onken or supplied him with their work for publication. 6 He published maps such as "Flood of View of Cincinnati and the Ohio River, taken from Mrs. W.W. Southgates's in Covington, Dec. 17, 1847" which was drawn on stone by J.B. Rowse. Four illustrations in Charles Cist's Sketches and Statistics of Cincinnati in 1851 are his work. 7 Competition for printing jobs must have been great. Archibald McBrair and John Sherer also supplied lithographic images in George Gibson and Company, forerunner of the Gibson Art Company, now Gibson Greetings, Inc., and Walter Anderson opened businesses the next year, and in 1853 the lithographic establishments included Onken, George Gibson & Company, Klauprecht & Menzel, Archibald McBrair, Middleton & Wallace, and Gustavus Mosler. Onken is not listed in the directories again until 1859 and 1860, when his occupation is given, respectively, as engraver and lithographer. Onken interrupted his career as a lithographic printer in 1860 when he moved to Kentucky. In June of that year he and his family were listed in the Kentucky census as residing in or near Lockport, Henry County, where he was a merchant. 8 On September 17, a son, Alfred, was born in Gestville, Hancock County, Kentucky. 9 Onken was in Indiana in the late 1860's but had returned to Kentucky by the mid- 1870's. The 1880 Ohio census lists a son, Robert, age eleven, born in Indiana and a daughter, Norma, age seven born in Kentucky. 10 Onken had returned to Cincinnati by 1875 and once again was employed as a lithographer. By 1878 Onken and his wife, Dorothea, may have been separated or divorced. His residence is given in the directory as 64 Dayton Street and she is listed as a "widow" residing at 56 Dayton Street. His career ended shortly thereafter. In 1883 he was a clerk at the Keber House at 89 and 91 Sycamore Street; by 1886 he worked as a picture frame maker and fitter at Onken and Vance, his son Oscar's partnership with Ephraim Vance, "manufacturers of mouldings, frames, mirrors, and dealers in etchings, engravings and art goods." 11 The family moved from Dayton Street to Chapel Street, Walnut Hills, in 1883 and to East Laura L. Chace, Library Director for the Cincinnati Historical Society, has a master's degree in library science from the University of Michigan.

2 ,.... ',.. '. ' "., -. : Queen City Heritage Ridgeway Avenue, Avondale, by Onken died on May 10, 1897, and is buried in the family lot in the Walnut Hills Cemetery of Cincinnati Daniel Hurley, Cincinnati: The Queen City (Cincinnati, 1982), p Iola Hessler Silberstein, Cincinnati Then and Now, (Cincinnati, 1982), p Ibid., p. 59. Walter Sutton, The Western Book Trade: Cincinnati as a Nineteenth-century Publishing and Book-trade Center (Columbus, 1961), p Seventh Census of the United States, Ohio. City of Cincinnati, ward 4, p Young & Klein, Lithography in Cincinnati (Cincinnati, 1975), p Young and Klein, Lithography in Cincinnati (Cincinnati, 1975), p Peters, Harry Twyford, American on Stone. Reprint. (New York, 1976), p Eighth Census of the United States, Kentucky. Henry County, p Information supplied to the Cincinnati Historical Society by Margaret Fulford, September 7,1977, and filed in the library's newspaper clippings. 10. Tenth Census of the United States, Ohio. City of Cincinnati, Enumeration District 158 (ward 14), pp Williams^ Cincinnati Directory, References to addresses and occupations are taken from the Williams'Cincinnati Directory, to Burial Records of the Walnut Hills Cemetery of Cincinnati. VIEW OF CINCINNATI The 279-ton side-wheel packet, U.S. Thomas Jefferson, owned by Clifford B. Wayne and piloted by Capt. C.B. Sedam, ran from Cincinnati to New Orleans. Built in 1846, it sank at Waterloo, Louisiana, on November 8, Built in Cincinnati in 1847, the General Scott, a 293-ton side-wheel packet, burned at New Madrid, Missouri, on May 13, The United States was built in Cincinnati in Clifford B. Wayne bought this 332-ton side-wheel packet in 1853 for the Cincinnati-Memphis trade but the boat was dismantled in 1854.

3 Fall 1991 Otto Onken 23 PUBLIC LANDING In 1850 Cincinnati was the center of commerce in the West. Onken's lithograph shows some of the businesses located on the Public Landing: Bishop, Wells & Company, commission and forwarding merchants. South Front Street; Traber & Aubery, wholesale grocers and commission merchants, 7 Front Street; City Insurance Company of Cincinnati, 8 Front Street between Main and Sycamore; G. & J.H. Shoenberger, iron and nail dealers and manufacturers, 15 Front Street; and Ross & Ricker, wholesale grocers and commission merchants, 14 West Front Street.

4 24 Queen City Heritage THIRD STREET BETW. MAIN &VINE Charles Cist printed The Advertiser weekly from October 30, 1844 to June 24, 1846, and daily from March 15, 1847 to April 15, A.J. Wheeler, exchange broker, had his office at 99 Main Street at the corner of Third. John A. Robinson opened his printing company in 1843.

5 Fall 1991 Otto Onken 25 BURNET HOUSE Abraham Lincoln, Jenny Lind, Sarah Bernhardt, and Hungarian patriot, Louis Kossuth, were among the guests of the prestigious Burnet House. Located at the northwest corner of Third and Vine streets, the hotel opened on May 3, 1850, and remained in business until 1926.

6 26 Queen City Heritage FIFTH STREET MARKET The Tyler Davidson Fountain replaced the Fifth Street Market in This market opened in 1829 and was the center for meat packing in Cincinnati until 1870 when the site was selected for the fountain, given to the city by Henry Probasco in memory of this brother-in-law. Over the violent objections of the butchers and after considerable litigation, city workers demolished the market on Februarys John Gundry's Cincinnati Commercial College was in the Apollo Building at the northwest corner of Fifth and Walnut streets.

7 Fall 1991 Otto Onken 27 BROADWAY In 1849, St. John's College occupied a building on the east side of Broadway between Congress and Third streets.

8 28 Queen City Heritage MAIN STREET BETW. SECOND & FIFTH Businesses located in this section of Main Street included the W.B. Smith & Co. bookstore at Main Street; Fechheimer, Goldsmith, & Elsas, dealers in wholesale dry goods, boots, shoes, and clothing, at 70 and 72 Main; and the Smith and Hilton book bindery, was in the Gazette Building at 120 Main.

9 MAIN STREET BETW. FOURTH & FIFTH In 1846 the Henry F. Davis Company, hatters, occupied the building at the southeast corner of Main and Fifth streets. By 1850, the firm had become Sherwood and Chase and specialized in hats, caps, and furs. The Dennison House Hotel stood on the south side of Fifth Street between Main and Sycamore streets.