A Little piece of Paradise… College Hill, Ohio - SELFCRAFT

Chapter 33The OaksThis property was first part of Richard Hankin’s forfeit. It passed to Isaac and Sarah Sparks,Richard’s son-in-law, to their son-in-law David and Rachel Long, in 1837 to Israel Brown, another ofRichard’s sons-in-law and thence to Thomas B. Smith, all buried in Gard Cemetery. A small school wasbuilt on the land. For the teacher to live in, a brick building was constructed behind it with a wooden leantoin the rear. Each room had a fireplace and a central hall separated the rooms, two on either side. Theone story, four room building from 1814, is the nucleus of “The Oaks.”The deed on this land is a catalogue of College Hill history - William Cary, Zadock Lewis, WilliamA. Bagley, Albert G. Arnold, Abel Canton Wilder. Albert Arnold sold the land in 1837 to the schooldirectors who were William A. Bagley and Jeremiah Steelman. William Bagley’s wife was RosalindaWitherby. The property was sold in 1863 to Maria L. Knight. Her husband was George C. Knight, a NewYork developer who built several properties in College Hill. Their son, Norris, drowned in a lake inCollege Hill about 1871. By now a fine house occupied the land. The house was sold at a sheriff’s sale toJohn Hunt, who purchased it April 30, 1869 for $18,333.34. The house was sold to Jane and PatrickKennedy, who went bankrupt. In July 1877 the house was sold by Siller A. Thompson (assignee ininsolvency) to Marie E. Emerson, wife of Lowe Emerson.Col. Lowe Emerson was a distinguished officer in the Union Army during the Civil War. Before thewar, he was a Kansas land speculator and came to Cincinnati, returning here to work in the lumber trade.He resided at The Oaks from 1877 until 1902 when the property was purchased by the Thomson family.During that time the Emerson’s expanded and modernized the house. The roof was raised and additionalheight was added, the sixteen foot ceilings were lowered to their present ten and one half feet, and threeother floors were added. A large zinc-lined tank in the attic was installed to collect rain that supplied abath and sink, which is still in place. The fireplaces were changed and more added. Mr. Emerson wasresponsible for all the Victorian refinements, such as the parquet floors on the ground level, the slidingcherry wood doors between the music room and dining room, and the open three-story stairway made ofcherry wood with inlays of oak that match the paneling in the dining room. Heating was added at thistime. The house used acetylene gas for light. This gas was supplied from a shed in the garden.Emerson was born in 1854 in Massachusetts and of the same family that included Ralph WaldoEmerson. Lowe tried many business ventures early in his life, from wholesale manufacture of shoes, toland speculator. After the Civil War he was in Cincinnati’s lumber business when he met Cincinnatian,John W. Fisher. Fisher had experience in carriage manufacture and made harness, saddle-bags,ambulances and other wagon equipment for the Federal government during the Civil War.In 1872 these two enterprising young men, Lowe Emerson and John W. Fisher, formed apartnership, The Emerson & Fisher Company, to manufacture buggies. Emerson staked his finances thatwith their business experience, contacts and Fisher’s knowledge of the carriage and leather trade that theycould succeed in changing the buggy industry. They selected two or three representative styles, andcommenced a plan of interchangeable parts and buying material in large quantities. They produced aquality vehicle at a price lower than the competition. Buggies that were retailing at $500 each from othercompanies they could make to be sold $200-$300 apiece, bringing a luxury item into the economic realmof the middle class. The carriages were durable as well as stylish. Sales soared and the market for theirbuggies increased until they were in demand throughout the country. In 1882, Cincinnati was the leadingcarriage manufacturing center in the world, producing 100,000 vehicles a year.The company incorporated in 1881 with Emerson was president and Fisher as vice-president.Emerson was on a board of several other carriage manufacturers and other businesses in which he owneda part; was vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce, and was the president of the National CarriageMakers’ Association in 1886 and for years was a trustee of College Hill’s Belmont College and later, theO.M.I.The 1896 their first and only venture into automobiles appeared, the Emerson-Fisher, the first carmade in Cincinnati.211