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CINCINNATI: Legacy to a Nation

By John F. Cronin, Sr. and Richard Lee Cronin

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Known as Jack Cronin by the paper’s readership of his day, my father was more than just another newspaperman. A third generation Cincinnatian, he enjoyed telling of the many extraordinary accomplishments of his native Ohio River city. In the 1950s, Dad authored “This is my Valley,” a column in which each week he delved into a different aspect of Cincinnati’s remarkable history. Letters of appreciation from across the continent are evidence today of the interest in his series, articles that told of the pioneers who settled a town of culture and ingenuity in the middle of a remote wilderness. 

Cincinnati was and still is the only American city to ever build its own railroad; at a time when every city feared devastation by fire - the revolutionary steam pump was invented at Cincinnati; Grapes for America’s Catawba wine first grew on vines at what is now Eden Park in Cincinnati; and the beginnings of today’s National Weather Bureau can be traced to Cincinnati. These are but a few examples of the heritage of my Dad’s home town, dubbed the Queen City long, long ago by poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.


After retiring, my father got out his trusty old manual typewriter and began working on a book. Legacy to a Nation was nearly complete at the time of my father's death, at age 91. And so, a proud fourth generation Cincinnatian has taken the final lap for him - turning fragile yellowing pages of a manuscript into a final draft.


Cincinnati: Legacy to a Nation was authored by John F. Cronin, Sr., and annotated by his proud son, Richard Lee Cronin.

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