On December 28, 1788, 11 families and 24 men led by Colonel Robert Patterson arrived at a site of 747 acres located directly opposite the Licking River. This second settlement was first named Losantiville and renamed Cincinnati on January 4, 1790 by Arthur St. Clair, the first Governor of the Northwest Territory. In January 1789, John Cleves Symmes and his family settled east of the mouth of the Great Miami River and called this settlement North Bend. How did Cincinnati come to be known as the Queen City? During the first forty years after its founding, Cincinnati experienced spectacular growth.