Miles Greenwood was born on March 19, 1807 in Jersey City, New Jersey. His father, Miles Greenwood of Salem, Massachusetts, was descended from Miles Greenwood, a lieutenant and chaplain in Cromwell’s army, through his son Samuel, who settled in Boston, Massachusetts, about 1665 and in 1678 was one of the assistants in charge of the Boston fire-engine. His mother was a Demarest of Jersey City, of Dutch and French Huguenot descent.
In 1808 the family moved to New York and later, in 1817, to Cincinnati, Ohio. During the next eight years the boy struggled to support himself and his invalid father by working as a bootblack and bill-poster, by cutting cord wood, and by running a small merchandise store.
Education
Miles was trying to educate himself. In 1825 he moved with his father to New Harmony, Indiana, where he remained four years, working in the community and attending school, first for six months in Illinois, and later in the school started at New Harmony by Robert Owen.
Career
In 1827 he went to Pittsburgh, where he obtained work in an iron foundry. The following year he took charge of a factory at New Harmony, but the failure of the New Harmony experiment caused him to return to Cincinnati, where, in 1829, he entered the iron foundry of John and Thomas Bevan. Three years later, in partnership with Joseph Webb, he established on the Miami Canal, the Eagle Iron Works, which in time became the largest iron-manufacturing concern in the old West. The partners commenced operations on borrowed capital and employed ten hands. Later Greenwood bought out the interest of his partner and began to expand the plant.
By 1851 the Eagle Iron Works employed 350 hands and manufactured annually goods valued at $360, 000. Greenwood’s factories made hydraulic presses, steam-engines, iron fronts for buildings, heating apparatus, and an innumerable assortment of small hardwood articles. The expansion of his business did not deter Greenwood from taking an active interest in civic affairs. As a member of the City Council in 1840 he labored diligently to cut down unnecessary expenses while introducing various improvements in the different departments. As an active member of the Volunteer Fire Department, he recognized the inefficiency of the system and the fact that it was a nursery “where the youth of the city were trained in vice, vulgarity, and debauchery”.
He therefore became an earnest advocate of a paid steam fire department for the city, and undaunted by the opposition which the project encountered both in the City Council and from the volunteer firemen, was active in bringing about its establishment. The first steam-engine, the “Uncle Joe Ross, ” was constructed at his iron works by Messrs. Shawk and Latta. This was the first steam fire-engine in the United States. It was first called into use in May 1852, when it was driven by Greenwood himself and the steam fire-engine company had a fight with the old volunteers.
On April 1, 1853, a paid steam fire department was organized in Cincinnati, and Greenwood became chief engineer. When he was questioned by a deputation from Baltimore regarding the merits of the new fire engine over the old system he characteristically replied: “First, it never gets drunk; second, it never throws brickbats; its only drawback is that it cannot vote”. He constructed the building for the Ohio Mechanics’ Institute and took an active interest in its work. He was also a director of the House of Refuge.
During the Civil War, Greenwood turned his establishment over to the government for war purposes, and in it more than 2, 000 bronze cannon, scores of gun-carriages and caissons, and several sea monitors of the first class were made, and 40, 000 Springfield muskets were improved by percussioning and rifling. His factories were burned three times by Southern sympathizers and he suffered large financial losses through mistakes made by government engineers in drawing up the plans for the monitors. After the war, in 1867, he performed the duties of county treasurer gratuitously in order that the widowed family of the treasurer, who had died in office, might receive the pay.
In 1869 he was appointed by the superior court one of the directors of the Cincinnati Southern Railway and was chosen president of the board. Three years before he died a number of prominent merchants presented him with a thousand dollars in gold as a mark of their esteem.
Achievements
Greenwood established the Eagle Ironworks on the banks of the Miami and Erie Canal near Cincinnati. The foundry quickly became the largest in the Midwest.
Greenwood spent the remainder of his life involved in the iron business.
Personality
Greenwood was a man of fine physique, able to perform an enormous amount of work.
Connections
Miles was twice married: in 1832 to Miss Howard W. Hills, and in 1836 to Phoebe J. Hopson.
