Nicholas Longworth (January 16, 1783 – February 10, 1863) was an American real estate speculator and

winemaker A winemaker or vintner is a person engaged in winemaking. They are generally employed by wineries or wine companies, where their work includes: *Cooperating with viticulturists *Monitoring the maturity of grapes to ensure their quality and to deter ...

as well as the founder of the

Longworth family The Longworth family is most closely associated with Cincinnati, Ohio, and was one of Cincinnati's better-known families during the 19th and 20th centuries. The founder of the Ohio family, Nicholas Longworth (16 January 1783 - 10 February 1863), c ...

in Ohio. Longworth was an influential figure in the early history of American wine, producing sparkling

Catawba Catawba may refer to: *Catawba people, a Native American tribe in the Carolinas *Catawba language, a language in the Catawban languages family *Catawban languages Botany * Catalpa, a genus of trees, based on the name used by the Catawba and other ...

wine from grapes grown in his

Ohio River Valley The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illinoi ...

vineyard. He also made significant contributions supporting the arts, impacting the careers of

Robert S. Duncanson Robert Seldon Duncanson (1821 – December 21, 1872) was a 19th-century American landscape painting, landscapist of European and African ancestry. Inspired by famous American landscape artists like Thomas Cole, Duncanson created renowned landsca ...

Hiram Powers Hiram Powers (July 29, 1805 – June 27, 1873) was an American neoclassical sculptor. He was one of the first 19th-century American artists to gain an international reputation, largely based on his famous marble sculpture ''The Greek Slave''. ...

, and others.

Personal life

Longworth was born in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.Cincinnati, Ohio 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 ...

in 1804 and married Susanna Howell, three years his junior, daughter of Silas and Hannah (Vaughan) Howell, on Christmas Eve, 1807. She was already a widow as her first husband had died from hazardous frontier life. Nicholas pursued the study of law under

Jacob Burnet Jacob Burnet (sometimes spelled Burnett) (February 22, 1770May 10, 1853) was an American jurist and statesman from Ohio. He served as a U.S. Senator. Early life Burnet was born in Newark, New Jersey, the son of Dr. William Burnet. He graduated ...

, one of Cincinnati's first millionaires. Early in his career he accepted plots of land as payment, which increased in value as Cincinnati grew, and by 1818 he quit being a lawyer to manage his real estate holdings. He was an abolitionist and his aid to a runaway slave was claimed to be inspiration for

Uncle Tom's Cabin ''Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly'' is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in two volumes in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the U. ...

. Longworth was very invested in the arts. He made contact with every artist in Cincinnati between 1829-1858. He offered financial aid, letters of introduction, critique, and commissions. He hired

to paint eight large landscape murals in his home, which formally launched Duncanson's career. His

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

villa, then on the eastern edge of Cincinnati, is now the

Taft Museum of Art The Taft Museum of Art is a fine art collection in Cincinnati, Ohio. It occupies the 200-year-old historic house at 316 Pike Street. The house – the oldest domestic wooden structure in downtown Cincinnati – was built about 1820 and housed ...

in Cincinnati.

Winemaking

Believing Cincinnati to be an ideal location for

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years ago, ...

cultivation, he established

viticulture Viticulture (from the Latin word for ''vine'') or winegrowing (wine growing) is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, ran ...

as a successful venture on the hills adjoining the city. He planted a vineyard of

on the Mount Adams hillside and began making a

sparkling wine Sparkling wine is a wine with significant levels of carbon dioxide in it, making it fizzy. While the phrase commonly refers to champagne, European Union countries legally reserve that term for products exclusively produced in the Champagne regi ...

from the grapes using the

traditional method The traditional method is the process used in the Champagne region of France to produce Champagne. It is also the method used in various French regions to produce sparkling wines (not called “Champagne”), in Spain to produce Cava, in Portu ...

used in

Champagne Champagne (, ) is a sparkling wine originated and produced in the Champagne wine region of France under the rules of the appellation, that demand specific vineyard practices, sourcing of grapes exclusively from designated places within it, spe ...

. From the 1830s through the 1850s, Longworth's still and sparkling Catawba were being distributed from

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

where it received numerous press accolades. In the 1850s, a journalist from ''

The Illustrated London News ''The Illustrated London News'' appeared first on Saturday 14 May 1842, as the world's first illustrated weekly news magazine. Founded by Herbert Ingram, it appeared weekly until 1971, then less frequently thereafter, and ceased publication in ...

'' noted that the still white Catawba compared favorably to the

hock wine Hock is a British term for German white wine. It sometimes refers to white wine from the Rhine region (specifically Riesling) and sometimes to all German white wine. The word ''hock'' is short for the obsolete word ''hockamore'', an alteration of ...

s of the

Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , so ...

and the sparkling Catawba ''"transcends the Champagnes of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

"''.B. Ramey ''The Great Wine Grapes'' Catawaba entry (no page numbers in book) University of California-Davis, 1977 ASIN B0006CZP4S The wines were also well received at home in the United States where

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include "Paul Revere's Ride", ''The Song of Hiawatha'', and ''Evangeline''. He was the first American to completely transl ...

published a

poem Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in ...

dedicated to Nicholas Longworth titled ''Ode to Catawba Wine''. The popularity of Longworth's wine encouraged a flurry of plantings along the

and up north to

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...

and

Finger Lakes The Finger Lakes are a group of eleven long, narrow, roughly north–south lakes located south of Lake Ontario in an area called the ''Finger Lakes region'' in New York, in the United States. This region straddles the northern and transitional ...

region of

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. So successful was he that he has been called the Father of American Grape Culture. The growing tide of German immigrants coming down the Ohio Valley to Cincinnati liked his wine. Longworth had found a lucrative market: the new German immigrants wanted an affordable, drinkable table wine to continue with the traditions of their homeland, and he enjoyed a virtual monopoly. With his success in wine making, Longworth participated in charitable giving throughout Cincinnati, including a noteworthy donation to the land which the Cincinnati Observatory is built on.The Philanthropy Hall of Fame
Nicholas Longworth
/ref> Besides being a pioneer and leading horticultural expert in his section, he was recognized as an authority in national horticultural matters. His writings, though individually short and now out of date, exercised a wide influence in his day. His former vineyard is now

Eden Park Eden Park is New Zealand's largest sports stadium, with a capacity of 50,000. Located in central Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, it is three kilometres southwest of the CBD, on the boundary between the suburbs of Mount Eden and King ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Longworth, Nicholas American horticulturists American viticulturists 1783 births 1863 deaths Businesspeople from Newark, New Jersey Businesspeople from Cincinnati 19th-century American businesspeople Burials at Spring Grove Cemetery Longworth family

Personal life

Winemaking

See also

References

External links