Clovernook Farm was the family home of poets Alice and

Phoebe Cary Phoebe Cary (September 4, 1824 – July 31, 1871) was an American poet, and the younger sister of poet Alice Cary (1820–1871).She was a great poet who composed a Legend of Northland which is a very beautiful poem. The sisters co-published poe ...

in what is now North College Hill, Ohio. The farm was once part of a 1 million acre (4,000 km²) tract of Springfield Township that was purchased in 1787 by

John Cleves Symmes John Cleves Symmes (July 21, 1742February 26, 1814) was a delegate to the Continental Congress from New Jersey, and later a pioneer in the Northwest Territory. He was also the father-in-law of President William Henry Harrison and, thereby, th ...

, a

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

delegate to the Continental Congress and a pioneer in the Northwest Territory. The first member of the Cary family in southwestern Ohio was Revolutionary War veteran Christopher Cary, who emigrated to Ohio in 1803 to claim the land grant he was awarded by the Federal government for his military service. His son Robert worked on the family farm before leaving home to fight in the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...

. In 1813–14, Christopher's brother William Cary built a log cabin in the “wilderness” north of

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

and moved his family to the area, which was then known as Mill Creek Township. Soon after, William purchased an additional north of North Bend Road adjacent to his original tract and sold part of this land to his brother's son Robert. who called the Clovernook Farm. After returning home from the war, Robert erected a small three-room frame house for his family in 1814; this home was the birthplace of Alice and Phoebe. Robert also laid out the first community in the area, on the east side of Hamilton Avenue (now also known as

U.S. Route 127 U.S. Route 127 (US 127) is a north–south U.S. Highway in the eastern half of the United States. The southern terminus of the route is at US 27 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The northern terminus is at Interstate 75 (I-75) near G ...

), and called it Clovernook as well. The white brick house now known as Cary Cottage, which stands on the campus of the Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired at 7000 Hamilton Avenue, was built in 1832. It was a more substantial structure with a frame porch. As their family grew, Robert and his wife Elizabeth divided their nine children among the two homes. Late in life, Alice Cary told a friend about her family's home in Ohio: "In the autumn of 1832, by persevering industry and frugal living, the farm was at last paid for, and a new and more commodius dwelling erected for the reception of the family. This new dwelling, which is still standing, is no more than the plainest of farm-houses, yet it represents a degree of comfort only attained after a long struggle." The house contains original wooden floors, a narrow winding staircase, a kitchen fireplace and bake oven, and a working outdoor well. The bricks used in its construction were fired on the property. Restoration and furnishing of the house—begun after it was added to the National Register of Historic Places—were aided by a number of descriptive passages in Alice and Phoebe's poems. In 1903, Cary Cottage became the first home for blind women in Ohio through the work of the Trader sisters,

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

and

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

(who was blind).History - Clovernook Center for Blind and Visually Impaired
The Cary house and the land surrounding it were purchased by William A. Procter, grandson of the Procter & Gamble co-founder, in order to give them in trust to the Traders. As many as thirteen blind and visually impaired women (and one man) lived in the house as the Trader sisters used the land and the home to provide them employment as a source of dignity and direction. This mission became the work of the Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and it now offers instruction, employment, community living and low vision services for men and women. The center runs three manufacturing departments and is one of the country's largest volume producers of Braille publications.

References

* Cincinnati, a Guide to the Queen City and Its Neighbors, American Guide Series, The Weisen-Hart Press, May 1943, page 500

External links

Cary Sisters
Accessed 6/19/2011. {{authority control Houses completed in 1832 National Register of Historic Places in Cincinnati Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio Houses in Cincinnati Farms on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio