Cincinnati was founded 1837-1838 by James C. DeWitt, and was an important port until it was ravaged by the yellow fever epidemic of 1853. It was at that time almost wiped out, but later regained a portion of its importance, only to die once again as a result of the decline of steamboat traffic on the Trinity, which had brought it into being in the first place. By the year 1884 the population of the area was given at 35 and even those people gradually left, until today there are no residents at all to be found at the location of the former town, which at one time numbered 500 or 600 people, and was even larger than Huntsville in the earliest days of the two settlements. [2]
Today the visitor to the site of once busy shipping port will see very few reminders of the old town; the area is used as grazing land for a large number of cattle. There are a few scattered bricks and stones which were once part of some of the buildings there, but most of such evidence had been removed. There is an old well still to be seen, which was used by the people of the town to supply their water, but it is no longer in used. A marker was erected by the State of Texas in 1936 to indicate the town site, and to the casual visitor unfamiliar with the area, this marker would be the only thing to show that there had once been a town there. [2]
The site of the old settlement is located on a high bluff overlooking the Trinity, from which may be obtained a very picturesque view of the river. Off to one side of the town site there is an old cemetery, with only a few tombstones remaining. One lot enclosed by an iron fence, and the graves in there have been better preserved than others within the once large cemetery area. Traces of some of the old roads leading into the town may still be seen if one looks carefully. [2]
In 1837 H. M. Crabb deeded to James C. DeWitt one labor of land "...to be selected by him as his natural headright..." the area DeWitt selected had been granted to Crabb by the government of Coahuila and Texas from the allotment of the empresario, Joseph Vehein, and was located on the Trinity River. [2]
Shortly after this grant was made, DeWitt began selling lots in the surveyed area known as the town of New Cincinnati. The area was surveyed by William Charles Brookfield, who was granted 5 town lots in Cincinnati as payment for his work. The town was well laid off and was divided into 40 blocks fronting on the Trinity River. One block was set aside as a public square. The streets running to the river were Water, Brookfield, DeWitt, Hall, Commerce and Grimes streets, and the cross streets were Trinity, Jackson, Richie, Main, Fowle, Walnut, Milam and Pennsylvania. [2]
James DeWitt died in the latter part of 1838 or 1839, shortly after getting his town underway. DeWitt's wife, Sarah Ann, married Frederick Pomeroy, a leading citizen of Cincinnati, in 1839. Pomeroy later appointed Isaac Tousey as attorney to settle the estate of DeWitt. [2]
The development of Cincinnati seems to have gotten off to a rather slow start. The town was visited in April, 1839, by Adolphus Sterne, who wrote in his diary, "Mr. Clapp has built a good home for travelers, about 8 or 10 others smaller, saw only one store." When Sterne visited the place again in August 1843 he wrote, "Cincinnati has not much improved since I saw it last." Miss Melinda Rankin, a resident of Cincinnati, also writes of the slow growth of the settlement during its first few years. She seems to attribute this to a great extent to the poor moral standards of the town which she thought discouraged others from moving into the area. However, at the time she wrote, she said things seemed to be improving and that the prospects for the town were looking better. A building had been constructed which was to serve as both church and school, and this, she felt, would greatly improve the moral and intellectual standards of the community. [2]
Yellow fever struck Cincinnati in the fall of 1853. By the end of the year the town was reeling from the staggering toll of lives taken. Panic seized many of the people, most of those who were not struck down by the fever abandoned the town. In September 1853 a traveler stopped at Hunter Tavern after having become sick while returning to his home in Palestine from Galveston. Mrs. Hunter waited on him until he left on the next stage. It was later learned that he died shortly after this. No one knew just what his illness had been, but shortly after his departure, Mrs. Hunter had taken with the same disease. the people of the town still did not suspect yellow fever, and several of the women visited her before she died. Thus the fever was rapidly communicated throughout the town with the aid of the many mosquitos from the muddy riverbottom lands. [2]
The doctors of the community were kept constantly on the move, trying desperately to halt the rapid spread of the disease, but yellow fever was a relatively new disease in Texas, and very little was known about it. The Negro slaves of the community did not seem to be susceptible to the fever as did the whites, and they performed invaluable service in caring for the sick. Cincinnati had been dealt a terrible blow, and it seemed for a time that it was completely wiped out. [2]
While local myths have it that yellow fever, or the yellow jack, cause the total abandonment of the community, the reality is that the town survived for several decades after the 1853 epidemic. Those who survived lived there for many years. The Olive Branch lodge remained active until 1861, the store and saloon were kept running until the death of the proprietor in 1889, and mail service continued until the post offices was shut down in 1892. Perhaps the most significant reason for the demise of Cincinnati was, as it was for so many Texas frontier towns, the rise of the railroad and the demise of the riverboat. In 1872, when the railway connecting Houston with Dallas was completed the railroad crossed the Trinity River in the town of Riverside, just fifteen miles downstream of Cincinnati. Population at the townsite of Cincinnati continued to decline to the point where today the site of Cincinnati is owned by local Walker County family with ties to the historic town, and all that remains are the memories and some ruins from two local cemeteries that contain graves from the town's earliest days. Cincinnati became a ghost town at the hands of changing technology, changing circumstances, and changing times. [3]
Cincinnati Cemetery continues to stand vigil near the old townsite. [4]
Olive Branch Lodge – demised at a township at a ferry crossing on the Trinity River, reborn in a town at an old ferry crossing on the Brazos River.
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1. http://www.corsicanadailysun.com/archives/cincinnati-texas-not-ohio-on-the-trinity-river/article_b3b512b9-6c1e-523d-b155-284eb135fa41.html
2. http://www.studythepast.com/ghostwebsite/walkercountyghosttowns.htm
3. https://easttexashistory.org/items/show/238
2. http://www.studythepast.com/ghostwebsite/walkercountyghosttowns.htm
3. https://easttexashistory.org/items/show/238
I stumbled across this while looking for some additional information on Cincinnati. I thought I’d note that the water well mentioned above was put in by Texas Rangers in the 1940s (after the town died). The cemetery lot that’s still in good condition are my distant ancestors and relatives.
ReplyDeleteIf memory serves, I was told a one or two of those were original members of the Olive Branch lodge.
Also, one of the linked articles suggests the town was possibly named Cincinnati because the original settler was from Ohio. In fact, it was named for after the Twin Sister cannons from Cincinnati that were used in the revolution.