Catawba
vine in the country around Cincinnati," to know that a man of Mr.
Longworth's means stood ready to pay cash, at the rate of from a dollar
to a dollar and a quarter a gallon, for all the grape-juice that might
be brought to him, without reference to the quantity. It was in this
way, and by urgent popular appeals through the columns of the
newspapers, that he succeeded, after many failures, and against the
depressing influence of much doubt and indifference, in bringing the
enterprise up to its present high and stable position. When he took the
matter in hand there was much to discourage any one not possessed of the
traits of constancy of purpose and perseverance peculiar to Mr.
Longworth. Many had tried the manufacture of wine, and had failed to
give it any economical or commercial importance. It was not believed,
until Mr. Longworth practically demonstrated it, that a native grape
was the only one upon which any hope could be placed, and that the
Catawba offered the most assured promise of success, and was the one
upon which all vine-growers might with confidence depend. It took years
of unremitted care, multiplied and wide-spread investigations, and the
expenditure of large sums of money, to establish this fact, and bring
the agricultural community to accept it and act under its guidance. The
success attained by Mr. Longworth soon induced other gentlemen resident
in the vicinity of Cincinnati, and favorably situated for the purpose,
to undertake the culture of the Catawba, and several of them are now
regularly and extensively engaged in the manufacture of wine. The
impetus and encouragement thus given to the business soon led the German
citizens of Hamilton County to perceive its advantages, and, under their
thrifty management, thousands of acres, stretching up from the banks of
the Ohio, are now covered with luxuriant and profitable vineyards,
rivaling in profusion and beauty the vine-clad hills of Italy and
France. The oldest vineyard in the county of Hamilton is of Mr.
Longworth's planting.

Mr. Longworth subsequently increased the size of his vineyard to two
hundred acres, and toward the close of his life his wine houses annually
produced one hundred and fifty thousand bottles of wine. His vaults
usually contained a stock of three hundred thousand bottles in course of
thorough ripening.

His cellars were situated on the declivity of East Sixth Street, on the
road to Observatory Hill. They occupied a space