Cincinnati Overview Cincinnati, a city in southwestern Ohio on the banks of the Ohio River, is the seat of Hamilton County. With a population of 364,040 (1990 census), Cincinnati is one of Ohio's largest cities. The metropolitan area, made up of areas in Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio, had 1,744,124 residents in 1990. Cincinnati rises from the Ohio River to a valley, known as the Basin, which is surrounded by hills. The city has about 1,578 ha (3,900 acres) of park land. The climate is moderate continental, and temperatures range from - 3 degrees C (26 degrees F) as a daily minimum in January to 31 degrees C (87 degrees F) as a daily maximum in July. Cincinnati is the most important industrial city in southern Ohio, with the population employed in the manufacture of soaps and detergents, machine tools, and playing cards, as well as brewing and meat-packing. The port of Cincinnati is busy. Much of the cargo it ships is bituminous (soft) coal. Cincinnati was founded in 1788 as Losantiville. In 1790, Losantiville was renamed Cincinnati by Gen. Arthur St. Clair, governor of the Northwest Territory, in honor of the Revolutionary War officers' Society of the Cincinnati. The town grew rapidly after Gen. Anthony Wayne's victory over the Indians at Fallen Timbers in 1794 and became a thriving river port in the 1800s, supplying produce and goods to the South via the Ohio-Mississippi River system. With the influx of German immigrants beginning about 1840, the city became a center of grape culture and a wine market. A major underground railroad station, the city remained loyal to the Union during the Civil War. It was long one of the largest and most influential cities west of the Alleghenies and was nicknamed "Queen City of the West." More than four Ohioans in 10 report German ancestry and Ohio has the third largest number of people claiming German ancestry, according to the 1980 U.S. Census. But a higher percentage can be found in Cincinnati. It, along with Milwaukee and St. Louis, formed what became known as the "German Triangle." Cincinnati's German heritage dates back to 1788 with the arrival of Major Benjamin Steitz (Stites) and Matthias Denmann. German immigration has continued, most recently the Danube Swabian immigration of the 1950s. Back to Cincinnati City Guide

Source: Grolier