John Griffin was a Representative and a Senator from Kentucky; born in Campbell (now Kenton) County, Ky., September 5, 1834; attended the common schools; taught school in Covington and elsewhere for five years; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1858 and commenced practice in Covington, Ky.; member, State house of representatives 1859-1861; member, State senate 1866-1871; lieutenant governor of Kentucky 1871-1875; editor of the Louisville Daily Ledger in 1872; elected as a Democrat to the Forty-fifth and to the six succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1877, to May 26, 1890, when he resigned, having been elected Senator; Speaker of the House of Representatives (Forty-eighth, Forty-ninth, and Fiftieth Congresses); chairman, Committee on Rules (Forty-eighth through Fiftieth Congresses); elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of James B. Beck, and served from May 26, 1890, until February 4, 1893, when he resigned to accept a Cabinet position; Secretary of the Treasury in the Cabinet of President Grover Cleveland 1893-1897; moved to New York City and resumed the practice of law; died in New York City July 31, 1910; interment in Linden Grove Cemetery, Covington, Ky.

Bio from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

Pliny Bliss was born 16 November 1776 in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, the son of Oliver Bliss and Catherine Brewer Bliss. Pliny married Rhoda Jennison, daughter of Jonathan and Rhoda Ashley Jennison, in Walpole, New Hampshire on 4 June 1812. The couple moved to Cincinnati in 1815. In 1817, the couple moved to Newport, Kentucky where Pliny built a horse ferry-boat – which was said to be the first of its kind on western waters. In 1818, the couple moved to Covington and resided in a house at the corner of Front and Kennedy Streets. It was here that Pliny put his ferry-boat in operation between Cincinnati, Covington, and Newport. In 1820, Pliny and Daniel French of Hamilton County, Ohio applied for a patent described as “propelling boats, horse power.” Pliny later built a steam ferry which was used up until the time the Roebling Suspension Bridge was completed. Research also indicates that Pliny was the first captain of the steamer “General Pike”, built in 1818, which ran between Maysville and Louisville. He is also noted as running a steam ferry-boat across the Tennessee River at Florence Alabama.

Pliny Bliss’s home in Covington must have been a respectable abode, as in July 1834, the Covington city commission formed a committee to report as to the cost of erecting a fence around the public square “similar to that before the door of Pliny Bliss.”

Pliny and Rhoda had three children. Their daughter Harriet Louisa Bliss was born in 1813 in Wilbraham. She was married three times, first in 1836 to Bowling S. Leathers, son of John Leathers and Jane Starke. Bowling Leathers died in 1842 in Havana, Cuba. Harriet then married John Williams of Cincinnati in 1844. Mr. Williams died in 1847. Harriet’s third husband was John G. Glenn, whom she married in 1848. Harriet died in Quincy, Illinois of pneumonia in January 1881.

Pliny and Rhoda’s other two children were twins Oliver Hayes and Catherine Brewer Bliss. They were born 7 January 1821 in Covington. Oliver Bliss married Caroline Douglass. The couple also had twins, two girls, but unfortunately both children died in infancy. Oliver and his wife moved to California before 1860. Oliver had a reputation for growing local fruits and native plants. For several years Oliver served on the Los Angeles city council.

Oliver eventually moved to Santa Cruz, where he died 20 June 1902.

Catherine Bliss married John Brown, a native of Scotland, and had three children. Pliny Bliss lived with the Catherine and her family in Covington according to the 1850 federal census.

Rhoda Jennison Bliss died in Cincinnati in May 1849 of cholera. Pliny died 4 March 1854. A local obituary for Pliny has yet to be found.

Sources: Genealogy of the Bliss family in America, from about the year 1550-1880 by John Homer Bliss (1881); List of Patents for Inventions and Designs, Issued by the United States, from 1790 to 1847: With the Patent Laws and Notes of Decisions of the Courts of the United States for the Same Period (1847).

Margaret Rittenhouse was born in in Pennsylvania in 1782 and emigrated with her family to what would become Kenton County in the 1790s. The family settled on the west bank of the Licking River. Here she met Captain William Martin, son of John Martin. In 1797 the couple became arguably the first to be married within Kenton County lines. The Martins had their first son, Isaac Martin, one year later in 1798 when there were only two houses in what is now Covington. Isaac is also said to be the first white male born in Kenton County. Margaret and William went on to have many children, including at least nine boys. 

Margaret was a Methodist, but attended a Baptist Church until the organization of a class in Newport and eventual church in Covington. Margaret was one of the first settled Methodist Society in Covington, which was formed in 1827 and later became the Scott Street M.E Church. Her son, Hiram, taught at the Methodist Sabbath-school organized in 1831.

Margaret’s husband William died in 1828. By 1831 Margaret had remarried to John Tennis, himself a widower with children from his first wife Elizabeth Hayden. Captain John Tennis was born in Pennsylvania and moved with his family to Mason County, Kentucky in 1789. He and his wife Elizabeth came to Covington in 1818. John Tennis was also initiated into the Masonic institution in Covington Lodge is 1819. His wife died in 1830. Tennis was a Baptist, becoming a deacon in the Dry Creek Baptist Church. Margaret, however, remained with the Methodist Church even after their marriage in 1831. 

John Tennis died in 1867. Margaret followed a year later, dying of pneumonia in her son William’s house. Her will, written three years prior during an illness, left her small estate to her sons Isaac, William, Hiram, Freeman, and the last portion to be divided between granddaughters. The will left off with a note explaining that her “dutiful” son John did not receive a share because he was “well off and has no children.” 

Margaret is buried in Linden Grove Cemetery beside her first husband, Captain William Martin.

This biography was researched and created by Liv Dohn, Library Associate at the Kenton County Public Library.

Download the information PDF packet about the Adopt-A-Plot program here.

Peter N. Jonte (1801-1873)

Peter N. Jonte was born in 1801 in Belfort France. He immigrated to the United States where he met Susan Christy, who became his wife at some time in the late 1820s. Although their early history is unclear, Peter N. Jonte begins to show up in Cincinnati Directories in 1825. He was first a grocer, then transitioning into the cooper business. He opened the Covington Lager Brewing Company on Scott St in 1837 and is briefly listed in the City Directories of that time as “brewer” before selling the company in 1845 and returning to his cooper business on Race St. 

Peter and Susan had six children together, including one named William who lived only four years and is also buried in Linden Grove. Their other children, Alfred, Robert, Mary Elizabeth, Peter, and Kate, all stayed in the Cincinnati area. Alfred and Robert also became coopers, opening a business together in Cincinnati on Poplar St about a mile away from their parents on Race. Their son Peter became a surveyor and engineer, Mary Elizabeth married and kept house, and Kate was a school teacher and later a dressmaker.

Peter N. Jonte passed away in 1873. In the late 1870s Susan, now a widow, moved to Dayton KY before buying a house in Bellevue on Prospect St around 1883. She lived there until her death in 1899. Her will left her estate to be divided between her surviving children. Her house was left to her one unmarried daughter Kate. However, Kate only remained in the house until around 1910 when she moved in with her sister Mary Elizabeth Copen in Cincinnati.

Peter N. Jonte, Susan, and William are buried in Linden Grove Cemetery. The rest of the Jonte children were buried in Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati.

Covington Lager Beer Brewery

The Covington Lager Beer Brewery, located at 621-625 Scott St, was run by Peter N. Jonte from 1837 through 1845 when he sold it to Charles Geisbauer. It went by the “Covington Brewery” under Mr. Geisbauer until its sale to John Brenner and John Seiler in 1881. John Brenner took sole control of the brewery in 1884 and it became “The John Brenner Brewing Co.” The brewery was modernized and made larger in the late 1800s, appearing to be quite successful. In 1917 it changed hands and names once more, taking on the name of the new owner and becoming the Phillipp Jung Brewing Company. In 1918, just one year later, the brewery closed its doors permanently.

A Note: During the early-mid 1800s there were actually two individuals named Peter Jonte living in Cincinnati. The other Peter Jonte was also in the brewing business and also from France. He operated a brewery in Cincinnati on the corner of Sycamore and Abigail (now 12th St) before retiring back to France.

Sources: The Cincinnati City Directory for 1825, 1829, 1834; Shaffer’s Advertising Directory for 1839-40 [Cincinnati, Covington, and Newport]; Williams’ Cincinnati Directory [1855]and [1858]; U.S. Federal Census of 1830, 1840, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920; Ohio Wills & Probate Records 1786-1998; Various Newspapers