The work of these schools was substantially supplemented by that of the colored churches.  They directed their attention not only to moral and religious welfare of the colored people but also to their mental development.  Through their well-attended Sunday-schools these institutions furnished many Negroes of all classes the facilities of elementary education.  Such opportunities were offered at the Baker Street Baptist Church, the Third Street Baptist Church, the Colored Christian Church, the New Street Methodist Church, and the African Methodist Church.  Among the preachers then promoting this cause were John Warren, Rufus Conrad, Henry Simpson, and Wallace Shelton.  Many of the old citizens of Cincinnati often refer with pride to the valuable services rendered by these leaders.

In things economic the Negroes were exceptionally prosperous after the forties.  Cincinnati had then become a noted pork-packing and manufacturing center.  The increasing canal and river traffic and finally the rise of the railroad system tended to make it thrive more than ever.  Many colored men grew up with the city.  A Negro had in the East End on Calvert Street a large cooperage establishment which made barrels for the packers.  Knight and Bell were successful contractors noted for their skill and integrity and employed by the best white people of the city.  Robert Harlan made considerable money buying and selling race horses.  Thompson Cooley had a successful pickling establishment.  On Broadway A. V. Thompson, a colored tailor, conducted a thriving business.  J. Pressley and Thomas Ball were the well-known photographers of the city, established in a handsomely furnished modern gallery which was patronized by some of the wealthiest people.  Samuel T. Wilcox, who owed his success to his position as a steward on an Ohio River line, thereafter went into the grocery business and built up such a large trade among the aristocratic families that he accumulated $59,000 worth of property by 1859.[60]

A more useful Negro had for years been toiling upward in this city.  This man was Henry Boyd, a Kentucky freedman, who had helped to overcome the prejudice against colored mechanics in that city by exhibiting the highest efficiency.  He patented a corded bed which became very popular, especially in the Southwest.  With this article he built up a creditable manufacturing business, employing from 18 to 25 white and colored men.[61] He was, therefore, known as one of the desirable men of the city.  Two things, however, seemingly interfered with his business.  In the first place, certain white men, who became jealous of his success, burned him out and the insurance companies refused to carry him any longer.  Moreover, having to do chiefly with white men he was charged by his people with favoring the miscegenation of races.  Whether or not this was well founded is not yet known, but his children and grandchildren did marry whites and were lost in the so-called superior race.