The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1885-01-30
LONGWORTH'S LUCK.
THE PECULIAR HISTORY OF THE
CINCINNATI MILLIONAIRE.
The Man Who Made Cincinnati-The Pc
cuiiar Circumstance Which Sent
Him to the Future Porkopolis
His Later Life.
t''Halston" In New York Times.l

t''Halston" In New York Times.l
Coming over from Newark the other day
met a descendant Of the late Nicholas Long
worth, the man who made Cincinnati. The
young man told me the story of how the
spilling OF a few casks of wine by irate
Pkiladelphians pushed an Insignificant Ohio
village into consequence as q western city.
Old Nicholas Longworth who, by the way
was the father-in-law Of the late Governor
Ward, OF New Jersey, was SO queer that
many people thought him crazy, but with all
his cranky notions he was smart enough to
amass an estate valued at $4,000, 600. At
the time OF his death, In 1868, he was one Of
the richest men in America. He was born
In Newark in l7S2, and the old homestead
which sheltered his youth still stands at the
corner Of High street and the thoroughfare
bearing his name and intersecting the home
lot Of the Longworth farm. In early life he
ran away from home and hired out
to an Ohio farmer. But he soon tired
OF the existence on Buckeye farm
Agriculture in Ohio reminded him toe
much OF the New Jersey scenes he had quit
ted He therefore took summary leave Of
his patron When next heard from he was
making wine from wild grapes. His business
soon increased SO that in a few years he was
recognized as the leading wine manufacturer
Of the country. He was the first man to put
Ohio wines on the market.
On one Of his speculative trips he had no
ticed the little village laid out by Col. Lud
low in 1850 This miniature Cincinnati
Ludlow had fondly hoped would loom up as
a rivaleto staid Philadelphia Eventually il
did loom, but its first start was the result of
peculiar circumstance. In an excess Of
fanaticism a Quaker city mob seized cargo
Of Longsworth's wine, broke open the cask
heads and allowed the ruby burden to flood
the cutters. Nicholas Longworth wasn't
the man to stand such an affront His heart
was In the magnificent industry he had
reared as anxiousy as q parent watches
child. He determined to have his revenge
With population Of 200 souls at that
time, it Offered about as much inducement tc
investors as the average New England ccun-
try town Of to-day. Nicholas, as have said,
was q strong-minded, crochetty old chap He
had noticed the fine position Of the Ohio
town. Without further ado carried COM
pletely away by his desire TO "get square,
with Philadelphia, he purchased zoo acres
within the boundaries Of the future Cincin-
natl. This area he cut up into streets and
lots, built houses, and improved his purchase
In all possible ways. With Nicholas went
his Philadelphia wine stock He erected
warehouses in the western town and calmly
turned over to its authorities half Of the
e2O, 900 remaining to him for the purpose of
establishing a court house and otherwise en-
bellishing the center Of mushroom Porkopolis.
In less than twelve years Cincinnati had 60, ,ON
people around Longworth's warehouses
Real estate ran up to enormous figures for
those days Nicholas Longworths invest
nent Of SlOO 900 had swollen tn colossal pro-
portions Before he reached his 50th year
he was one of the twenty millionaires Of the
land, a the old Philadelphia score was
wiped out In his latter days old Nicholas
became careless and his slovenly habits
were famed all over the country. | a a told
a rather good story about him at this stage
OF his life. The old Astor was his favorite
New York hotel One day, after partaking
OF one Of the meals for which the hostelery
was even then famous, the millionaire
perched himself out on the stone steps in the
sunshine. After mopping his brow with a
big red bandanna, he carelessly placed the
handkerchief in his dilapidated old hat lying
beside him, and then calmly went to sleep.
Passing out of the hotel, a gentleman noticed
what he took for tired-out beggar, one
Of the'fraternity frequenting every public
place. He charitably dropped a coin into
the old fellows hat and others followed the
example Nicholas, in waking up, discov-
cred the pennies A grim smile stole over
his features, and he quietly picked up the
hat with its burden OF pence and walked In
to the clerks desk. "Oh, hol" quoth he, sc
they took me for one of your beggarI Well,
as this contribution was intended for leg.
gars, beggars shall have it." So saying, he
dragged the astonished clerk out Of the hot.l
ami up Broadway. At every turn almost
some unfortunate was met, and as long as
his coins lasted he wrapped them up one by
one In dollar bills ani distributed them But
that wasn't much for the owner Of half Of
Cincinnati, was iti