Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Cist, Charles

CIST, Charles, printer, b. in St. Petersburg, Russia, 15 Aug., 1738; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 2 Dec., 1805. He was graduated at Halle, and came to this country in 1773. He settled in Philadelphia, and, with Melchior Steiner, established a printing and publishing business. During the war they published many documents relating to current events, including Paine's “American Crisis.” In 1781 the firm was dissolved, and the business continued by Mr. Cist alone. He began the publication of “The American Herald” in 1784, and of the “Columbian Magazine” in 1786. Mr. Cist aided the Colonial government during the revolution by endorsing large amounts of continental currency, which later he was compelled to redeem. He deserves special remembrance as the first person to introduce anthracite coal into general use in the United States. In 1792 he was a member of the Lehigh coal company, and brought several wagons full to Philadelphia, where he offered to give it away, but could not dispose of it, and was threatened with mob violence for trying to impose on the people with a lot of black stones for coal. In 1793 he was secretary of the Fame fire association, and announced that the society had procured a fire-escape apparatus to save persons from burning houses by means of a bucket drawn up to the top of the building. Subsequently, during the administration of John Adams, he became public printer, and established in Washington, at great expense, an extensive printing-office and book-bindery for the purpose of publishing public documents. — His son, Charles, editor, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 24 April, 1793; d. in Cincinnati, Ohio, 8 Sept., 1868, was educated in Philadelphia, and during the war of 1812 was engaged in garrison duty in the eastern forts. After the war he settled in Pittsburg, Pa., and a few years later removed to Harmony, Pa., where he opened a store, and was for a time postmaster. During the winter of 1827-'8 he removed to Cincinnati, where he opened and superintended the first Sunday-school in Cincinnati, and continued it until it grew beyond his control, when it was divided among the churches. Mr. Cist was also one of the most earnest workers for the success of the free-school system. In 1843 he established “The Western Weekly Advertiser,” a family journal devoted to the early Indian history of the west, and to statistics relating to Cincinnati and the state of Ohio. A few years later the name became “Cist's Weekly Advertiser,” and it was continued until 1853. He prepared and published “Cincinnati in 1841,” “Cincinnati in 1851,” and “Cincinnati in 1859”; and “The Cincinnati Miscellany,” composed largely of incidents in the early settlements, with many of his own writings (2 vols., 1846). — Lewis Jacob, son of the second Charles, poet, b. in Harmony, Pa., 20 Nov., 1818; d. in Cincinnati, Ohio, 30 March, 1885. He removed to Cincinnati with his parents, and after studying in Hanover college entered the Commercial bank of Cincinnati, and later was made teller in the Ohio life and trust company. From 1850 till 1870 he resided in St. Louis, engaged in the banking business. He returned to Cincinnati and was occupied with the Zoological society, and in the government service. Mr. Cist became widely known as an enthusiastic collector of autographs and old portraits, and his collection, numbering more than 11,000 specimens, was one of the largest and most famous in the United States. It was sold in New York in 1886 and 1887. Before he attained his majority he wrote both verses and music, and afterward contributed to the “Western Monthly Magazine,” “Hesperian,” and “Cist's Weekly Advertiser.” He delivered the poems at the opening of the Spring Grove cemetery, and also at the unveiling of the Tyler-Davidson fountain. He published the “Souvenir,” the first annual of the west for several years, and “Trifles in Verse” (1845). — Another son, Henry Martyn, lawyer, b. in Cincinnati, Ohio, 20 Feb., 1839, was graduated at Farmer's (now Belmont) college in 1858, and studied law. In April, 1861, he enlisted as a private in the 6th Ohio infantry. He was promoted to second lieutenant in the 52d Ohio infantry, and then to adjutant of the 74th Ohio, and was post-adjutant of Camp Chase during the confinement of the prisoners captured at Fort Donelson. In 1862 he was in the field with his regiment, serving in middle Tennessee, in September promoted to acting assistant adjutant-general of Miller's brigade, during the Tullahoma campaign appointed acting assistant adjutant-general of the department of the Cumberland, and served on the department staff under Gens. Rosecrans and Thomas until his resignation in January, 1866. Meanwhile he had attained the rank of major and assistant adjutant-general with the brevet of brigadier-general, having served in the Chickamauga and the Eastport campaigns. Gen. Cist remained in the service after the close of hostilities, at Gen. Thomas's request, to give the necessary orders and to arrange the details providing for the mustering out and disbanding of over 100,000 troops. Subsequent to the war he returned to Cincinnati and resumed the practice of law, and in 1869 he was elected corresponding secretary of the Society of the Army of the Cumberland, to which office he has been re-elected every year since. Gen. Cist has contributed to periodicals many articles on the civil war, among which are "Cincinnati with the War Fever"; and "The Romance of Shiloh." He edited all but vols. ii. and iii. of "Reports of the Society of the Army of the Cumberland" (Cincinnati, 17 vols., 1868-'85), and is the author of “The Army of the Cumberland" (New York, 1882).