Manitfactures in the Miami Coiintry "j-jt, 1815, " amidst the anxious gaze of curiosity " on the part of Cincin- natians. A local paper announced that its performance equalled the most sanguine expectations, and it was hoped that it would prove essentially beneficial to the town and country, besides amply rewarding the proprietors for their public-spirited enterprise. ' The announcement of the completion of a sugar refinery early in 1816 furnished an opportunity for the editor of Liberty Hall to sum up the manufacturing situation in the following somewhat florid editorial : Thus we go. One improvement is only the harbinger of another. Scarcely have we got our steam mills into operation and our glass works in blast, when new enterprises are on foot. Surely it is a high gratifi- cation to see the comforts of life thus daily accumulating around us. We have now the pleasure of stating that the sugar refinery of Messrs. Burnet, Baum and Company is in successful operation, having com- menced the process of refining Xew Orleans sugar in the course of the last month. . . . Thus within twelve months we have witnessed not only the general improvements of the town in the gradation of the streets, and the raising of many large, commodious, handsome brick dwelling- houses and stores, . . . but the erection also of the steam sawmill, . . . a fulling mill and brass foundry as adjuncts to the steam flour-mill, a large glass works, an additional and extensive soap and candle factory, and lastly a sugar refinery calculated to work up five barrels of sugar a week. Give us but a few towing steamboats to aid this spirit of enter- prise, and " How ere long, our town shall rise With turrets sparkling to the skies : And shine in backwoods splendor dressed. The Great Emporium of the West." '"' Through the influence of this spread of manufactures, William Green, in the next }ear, established the Cincinnati Bell, Brass and Iron Foundry. A year later he took into partnership William Henry Harrison, Jacob Burnet, James Findley and John H. Piatt, all men of the highest standing in the Miami Country. The works were soon greatly extended, and in a short time were in a position to do a large share of the manufacturing that the coming of the steamboat brought to Cincinnati. Other parts of the Miami Country were also active in establish- ing manufactures. On the Little Miami alone there were nearly forty mills, including two paper-mills.^ Most of these were flour- mills or distilleries, for these two industries were frequently carried on together. As early as 1816, the Springfield Domestic Manufac- ' Liberty Hall, July 10, 1S15. '■Ibid., Feb. 19, 1816. ^Cincinnati Directory for 1819, p. 48. < E. Dana, Geographical Sketches of the Western Country, p. 48.
