Most everyone is now aware that Adams County again has winery operating within its boundaries. I say again because at one time, the Ohio Valley used to be dotted with vineyards and wine cellars and Adams County was no exception. Very little is left of this part of our county’s legacy with the exception of a hill overlooking the Ohio River that still bares the name of Vineyard Hill and a stone wine cellar located on Lower Twin Creek Road in Green Township. The stone cellar and adjacent winemaker’s log house were apparently built in 1859 for entrepreneur and philanthropist, Nicholas Longworth of Cincinnati. At one time this remarkable man owned almost five thousand acres of Adams and Scioto County hill country for the purpose of cultivating his famous Catawba and Isabella grape vines. He began purchasing this vast tract of land in the fall of 1854 and continued acquiring arrearage through the spring of 1959, just four years before his death at the age of 81.
Longworth, a native of Newark, New Jersey, had settled in the frontier village of Cincinnati in 1803 and there began the practice of law studying under Judge Jacob Burnet through the ensuing years he managed to acquire hundreds of acres of land in lieu of cash payments from his clientele. Much of this land was near the settlement and was eventually worth a fortune as Cincinnati grew in size. In 1828 Longworth quit his law practice to devote full time to the cultivation of grapes and the making of wine. He had already spent several years experimenting with various varieties of vines as a side interest.
Within a few years he had more than two hundred acres of vineyards near Cincinnati including over much of Mt. Adams, according to one Chronicler, he also purchased wine and grape juice in large quantities, to be converted by his process into the wine of commerce, As a result of his extensive wine making ventures, he had “extensive wine-vaults in the city, where the vintage of each year was stored by itself to ripen.”
Longworth owned and lived in the old Martin Baum mansion for several years. Located on Pike Street in downtown Cincinnati, it was this same home that David Sinton purchased many years later, Sinton was raised in West Union and moved to Cincinnati after having made a fortune in selling iron to the U.S. government during the Civil War. His daughter Anna married Charles P. Taft, older brother to President William Howard Taft. Charles and Anna gave the Baum mansion with their extension art and Chinese porcelain and collection to the city and is the well-known Taft Art Museum of today. It was Nicholas Longworth’s granddaughter, Maria, that founded the famous Rookwood Pottery in Cincinnati. Interestingly enough, and probably not all that coincidental, much of the clay used at the Rookwood Pottery was dug less than two miles from Longworth’s Adams County wine cellar. According to Adams County historian N. W. Evans writing in 1900, “several articles of pottery made from this clay were decorated by Mrs. Belamy Storer (Maria Longworth), and took distinguished prizes at the latest Paris exposition.”
Although 72 years old, Longworth was still a man of vision when he started buying land in Adams County. His intentions for the acreage were obvious. When he purchased a 3,600 acre tract from the Buena Vista Freestone Company in 1858, attached to the deed was the following documentation: “The undersigned surveyor employed by the Buena Vista Freestone Company to resurvey several tracts of land lately purchased of said company by N. Longworth of Cincinnati.. having viewed the large tracts are of opinion that said lands with proper culture may be plowed, planted, etc., and be suitable for vines, fruit trees, grass etc.”
The large stone structure he had erected on Lower Twin Creek Road was evidently similar if not identical to his “wine vaults” in Cincinnati. It was here the freshly squeezed nectar of the vine was allowed to age and mellow with time before being transported down the Ohio River to satisfy waiting thirsty palates of the genteel and add to the misery of the derelict. The Green Township building is still known to the local residents as “the wine Cellar.” How successful Longworth’s Adams County winemaking venture proved is unknown. Longworth died in 1863 and his heirs including his son, Joseph (father of Maria), sold the vast acreage in 1876 to William and Elizabeth Flagg.
A blight is credited for ending the viticulture of the Ohio Valley. Just when this occurred is not known but apparently the Flaggs had already converted the former vineyard into peach and apple orchards. Again, quoting Evans, in 1900, “in years gone by, extensive peach orchards grew and yielded luscious crops.. no finer peaches were ever produced..” . What exactly happened to these “extensive peach orchards is not recorded but by the turn of the century the Flagg Estate Company had turned over 5,000 acres of hillsides into apple orchards. In 1911 the acreage was sold to Ernest Flagg, who although he made his home in New York State, owned and operated the large apple orchard until his death in 1947. Flagg Orchards, Inc. then operated it until 1951. During the many years the lands were producing apples, much of the crops were made into apple cider and stored in the old Longworth wine cellar. The cellar fell into disuse after 1951 when the state of Ohio bought most of the orchard for inclusion in the sprawling Shawnee State Forest. The unique stone structure stands today, an aging relic industry that is part of the intriguing past of Old Adams.