Bonnie Williams Speeg

ALL THOSE LIGHTS!

Approaching its 170th year; Findlay Market gives us the staff of life we can all use a little bit or a lot more of about now. See that string of bare light bulbs in the vintage Findlay Market photo?

One of my first memories of being alive was when we'd go to Findlay Market when I was about 3 from Wells St. and Glenway Avenue. My parents would take me by bus from Price Hill on Glenway down to Findlay Market on Saturday nights about 1950. My father would put me on his shoulders so I'd not get lost in the huge crowds of shoppers; as we went at night. That was even more thrilling for me, going at night.

On my father's shoulders the strung bare light bulbs above the indoor vendors were eye-level with me and I loved it. The smells of the fish and cheese stand out to this day. My folks bought smelts a lot, and goetta and head cheese. I looked down at the fish, the rows of purple beets and green cabbages, hogs heads and tails. There was so much shouting and hawking by the vendors. I felt like I was at a cross between a circus and an auction.

Hats off to the Findlay Family who still lives in Cincinnati and whose ancestors gave its citizens and city the land for the market after their favorite niece Jane Irwin Findlay Harrison Whiteman died in 1847, then Jane Findlay herself following her niece, in the early 1850's.

A research topic of mine is an 1843 handwritten journal I own. The author lived near her Aunt Jane Findlay and was related to the Wm. H. Harrison Family. Aunt Jane Findlay is written in the journal as a great hostess...and I love using that fact in presentations I sometimes give on the journal. I had the pleasure of meeting with Rick and Emily Findlay on this historic research several years ago. They have been featured in Hidden History of Cincinnati and an Enquirer article by Jeff Suess. I enjoy people finding out the long legacy of Findlay's being providers of food to our city and the rest of its history. Thanks