294 - CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS CHAPTER IX (RETURN TO THE TITLE PAGE) BANKS, BANKERS, FINANCIAL MATTERS, RAILWAYS. Columbus, like all other centers of population, has had its ups and downs in the financial field. but its failures have been few and trivial compared with other cities both in the east and in the west. A Pioneer Bank. The Franklin Bank of Columbus was incorporated by an act of the legislature on the 23d of February, 1816, and on the first Monday of September in the same year, the first election for directors was held, when the following gentlemen were elected, to-wit: Lucas Sullivant, James Kilbourne. John Kerr, Alexander Morrison, Abram I. McDowell, Joel Buttles. Robert Massie, Samuel Barr. Samuel Parsons, John Cutler. Robert W. McCoy. Joseph Miller and Henry Brown. The following are the names of the successive presidents and cashiers, with their times of appointment: Presidents-18h. Lucas Sullivant; 1818, Benjamin Gardiner: 1819. John Kerr: 1823. Gustavus Swan. Cashiers-1816, A. .I. Williams: 1818. William Neil: 1826. Jonah M. Espy. The charter of this institution expired on the 1st of January, 1843. CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS - 295 Bank vs. The Legislature. The establishment of branches of the bank of the United States of Ohio, near the close of the second decade of the last century and the attempt of the legislature to subject them to taxation, on a par with the other banks and financial institutions of the state, led to a bitter conflict. The legislature by law subjected the United States banks to the same rate of taxation as was imposed upon the banks organized under the state laws. The officers of the United States Bank refused to recognize the authority of the legislature to levy and collect taxes from them. setting up that they were foreign corporations and were chartered under the laws of the United States, and therefore not subject to state excise or control. Trouble Anticipated. In 1819-20 at the opening of the legislative session. Governor Ethan Allen Brown. in his message to the legislative body, dealt largely with the existing financial conditions. and he charged the financial depression prevalent, both to the United States bank and to the reckless and injudicious use of credit by the incorporated banks of the state, then twenty-two in number. He recommended the whole subject to the careful consideration of the legislature. As was probably anticipated, the United States bank resisted the collection of the one hundred thousand dollars annual tax assessed against it by the act of the previous year. The bank, by its attorneys, Creighton & Bond. went into the United States court and enjoined the state authorities. Governor Brown, in his state papers, stood by the enactment and there was intense excitement. both in the legislature and the courts, over the subject, pending the final determination of the rights of the state in the premises. As was expected. the United States bank refused to pay the taxes assessed against it. and Treasurer Samuel Sullivan and Auditor Ralph Osborn, proceeding under the provisions of the law, entered the bank and forcibly levied upon one hundred thousand dollars and carried it off to satisfy the taxes and penalties demanded by the state. under the statute. State Officers Imprisoned. For this the state officers were arrested upon a writ taken out of the United States district court, which sustained the condition of the bank, that it wis independent of the state and the legislation. and ordered Sullivan and Osborn to return the money with a penalty to the bank. They refused to obey the order and were imprisoned for contempt. Subsequently they returned the money and were released. The legislature assembled in 1820-21 ready and anxious to deal with the hank of the United States. A Rank Outlawed. The question was referred to a special joint committee, at the head of Which was William Henry Harrison. afterward elected president, who drew 296 - CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS the report. The two houses carried out the recommendations of a joint committee of the two houses, the legislature placed the bank of the United States outside the pale of Ohio's laws, and enacted 1. No sheriff or jailer was permitted to receive into his custody any person arrested on mesne process, or taken or charged in execution at the suit of the bank or its officers, or any person committed for or on account of any offense charged to have been committed upon the property. rights, interests or corporate franchises of the bank. 2. It was declared unlawful for any judge or justice of the peace to take legal cognizance of the bank, by entertaining suits against debtors. taking acknowledgments or proof thereof, of deeds. mortgages and conveyances, and the county recorders were forbidden to enter them of record. 3. Notaries public were forbidden to protest any promissory notes due and payable to the bank, or give notice thereof. 4. Any sheriff violating the act was held responsible on his bond for two hundred dollars for each offense, to be recovered in an action at law by the party aggrieved. Any judge or justice of the peace violating the law was deemed guilty of a misdemeanor in office and liable to a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars at the discretion of the Court for each offense. Notaries violating the law were removable from office. 5. If the bank should withdraw its suits against the State of Ohio and its officers and notify the governor and agree to pay a tax of four per cent upon its dividends, or would agree to withdraw from doing business in the state, leaving only its agents to wind up its affairs, the governor by proclamation, was authorized to suspend the operation of the law. As the statute put the bank beyond the pale of the law, its managers availed themselves of the fifth section and withdrew from the state. An attempt was mooted to carry this law into the United States courts to have a judicial ruling made, defining the sovereign powers of the states and declaring the act an usurpation. But the federalist lawyers themselves saw the fallacy of raising the question and the idea, was abandoned. In February, 1845, the banking law to incorporate the state bank of Ohio and other banking companies was passed. Books were immediately opened and the requisite amount of stock soon subscribed for three new banks-the Exchange branch and the Franklin branch of the state bank and the city bank, based upon state stocks. The Exchange Bank went into operation the 24th of May, 1845, with a capital of one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. The Franklin Bank went into operation July 1. 1845, with a capital of one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars. City Bank of Columbus. This institution went into operation near the same time as the Exchange and Franklin branch banks under the same law, but a different provision of it, which authorized independent banks. secured by the deposit of state stocks with the treasurer of state. This hank was located in the .same building as the Columbus Insurance Company. and to a great extent. the CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS - 297 stockholders in one of these institutions were also in the other; and so also with the directory of both institutions, which became in their business much mixed up together. Joel Buttles was the president of the bank until the time of his death, in the summer of 1850. Then Robert W. McCoy was president until the time of his death, January, 1856. Thomas Moodie was cashier during the whole existence of the institution. Finally the bank and insurance company both failed; the insurance company in 1851, and it was in the month of November, 1854, that the bank suspended and closed its doors. The public lost nothing by the notes, they being secured, as above stated. But it was ruinous to the holders of stock, which was nearly all sunk. The charter of the bank, however, was for a time kept alive by the annual election of officers-probably with the view of sometime commencing business again. At the legislative session of 1837-8, the Mechanics' Savings Institute, a bank of deposit, etc., was incorporated and soon after went into operation in Columbus. William B. Hubbard, Esq., president, and for a time Warren Jenkins, then Thomas Moodie, cashier. It was continued till about the time the City Bank commenced business, when the former was discontinued. or merged in the latter. The moneyed institutions in Columbus in 1858 were the Exchange branch and Franklin branch of the State Bank of Ohio, above named. and three pretty extensive private banks or brokers' offices, viz.: The association doing business under the name of "Clinton Bank," "Miller Donaldson Co., Bankers," and "Bartlitt & Smith, Bankers." But a few years later there were four regular chartered banks in the city. One had failed, as before stated : the charter of another expired by limitation and it became hard to obtain a new bank charter under the then Constitution. Columbus Gas Light & Coke Company. By an act passed the 21st of February, 1846, Joel Buttles, Samuel Medary, Charles Scott, James S. Abbott, Dwight Stone, John Miller, James D. Osborn. James Westwater, S. D. Preston and William Armstrong and their associates were incorporated by the name of the Columbus Gas Light Coke Company, for the purpose of lighting the streets and buildings of the city of Columbus. The company to be governed by a board of not less than five nor more than nine directors. On the 6th of December, 1848, the company held their first meeting for the election of five directors, when John Miller, D. W. Deshler. J. Ridgway. Jr.. John Lockwood and William A. Gill were elected. Mr. Miller was chosen president, Mr. Ridgway .secretary, and Mr. Deshler treasurer. Subsequently Mr. Gill was president of the hoard. The buildings and necessary preparations being made on the 14th of May, 1850, the city council passed an ordinance granting the privilege to the company of using the streets and alleys for the purpose of laying their gas pipes and conveying the gas through the city. As a consideration for this privilege the gas company are to furnish such quantity of gas as nay be required by the city council for public lamps at two-thirds the price paid by private consumers. 298 - CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS A Thousand Per Cent Increase. In 1858, the banks then in existence in Columbus stood for and represented approximately one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. In 1908, the banks of the city with their cognate financial institutions, stand for and represent at least, if not more than one million dollars for each one thousand dollars at the beginning of the past fifty years. In other words, the increase has been one thousand per cent in the half century, an average increase of twenty per cent annually, and this has also been the approximate annual expansion of business, population and all the essentials for the upbuilding of the municipality. The banking institutions prior to 1858 scarcely reached a half score. Now they are numbered by scores. Among the principal ones may be mentioned. The Deshler National; The Commercial National, The City National; The Ohio National; The Huntington National; The Hayden-Clinton National; The New First National; The Union National; The National Bank of Commerce; The Capital City Bank; The Capital City Trust Co.; The Citizens Savings Bank; The Colonial Banking Co.; The Columbus Savings Bank; The Columbus Savings & Trust Co.; The Lincoln Savings Bank The Market Exchange Bank; The North Side Savings Bank Co.; The Northern Savings Bank; The Ohio Trust Company- The Peoples Bank; The Produce Exchange Banking Company: The Security Savings Bank: The State Savings & Trust Co.; The West Side Dime Savings Bank; The Foreign Exchange Bank; The Market Exchange Bank; The American Savings Bank; The Beggs Bank; The Home Store Bank; Caleb L. McKee & Co., Bankers; F. G. Thompson & Co., Bankers. Allemania Building & Loan; Buckeye State Building & Loan ; Central Loan & Savings Co.; The Columbian Building & Loan, The Fidelity Building & Loan ; The Fifth Avenue Building & Loan: The Globe Building & Loan ; The Home Building & Loan : The Lilley Building & Loan: The Park Building & Loan ; The Peoples Building & Loan ; The Railway Employes Building & Loan; The Union Building & Loan: The West Side Building & Loan. This, in a form, no less suggestive than it is condensed, conveys a clear idea of the half (as well as the whole) century progress of the city along financial lines, since the most important points in the history of national and municipal progress is embraced in comparisons between original conditions and subsequent achievements. Steps of Railway Progress. The close alliance between the banks and the railway interest was more marked no doubt fifty years ago than today in many respects-at least contemporaneous history shows such to have been the case, and in this, as in other instances pointed out the growth of the two interests, for reasons entirely obvious, also have been proportional. A condensed account of the contemporaneous history of railway progress in. and tending to Columbus and as showing the keen interest taken therein by the people in various PAGE 299 - COLUMBUS CLUB, EAST BROAD AND B. P. O. E. HOME, EAST MAIN PAGE 300 - BLANK CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS - 301 forms, exhibits these facts, expressed in the then present tense by the then recorders of passing events Railroads Add to the Impetus. The location and construction of the railroads also gave a new impetus to improvements, particularly in the north end of the city. The Columbus & Xenia road was constructed in the years 1848 and 1849, and the first passenger train passed over it on the 26th of February, 1850. Soon after, an invitation was extended to the legislature, then in session, and they took a pleasure excursion over the road to Cincinnati and back. The depot grounds, amounting to some thirty-six or thirty-seven acres, and the building, generally, belong to the Columbus & Xenia, and the Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati roads, jointly. The Central road, however, by lease and contract, has certain rights and privileges in the same. The lot where the office is and the office itself belong to the Columbus & Xenia Company. exclusively. By the month of February, 1851, the C., C. & C. road (i. e., the road from Columbus to Cleveland) was so far finished as to be in running condition and pursuant to an arrangement between the railroad company and the Cleveland authorities, a grand celebration of the opening of a direct railroad communication from Cincinnati to Cleveland, was to take place at Cleveland. on the 22d of February, and invitations were extended to the legislature and to the city authorities of Columbus and Cincinnati and numerous other citizens to attend the celebration ; and on the 21st, the excursion party first passed over the road. The 22d was spent at Cleveland and on the 23d the party returned highly gratified. In the spring of 1852, the Central road being finished as far as Zanesville, on an invitation of the Zanesville authorities to the legislature, the city council of Columbus and certain others, a free pleasure excursion was had over the road to Zanesville, where the party was received and hospitably entertained by the citizens of Zanesville, and they returned the same night. On the Columbus, Piqua & Indiana road, the first train passed over the road from Columbus to Urbana on the 4th of July, 1853, and in the fall of the same year the trains ran as far as Piqua. A Century Epitomized. In 1808-9 Columbus was an unbroken forest save as to a small number of scattered log cabins and five or six more pretentious houses on the west side. In 1908-9 it is not only the capital of the fourth state but a most thoroughly modern city in all regards. Its growth and importance are due: 1st. Primarily to the pioneers, their intelligence and their patriotism. 2nd. To the wisdom and statesmanship of the public officials and state legislators of the first half of the nineteenth century. 3rd. To the faith and courage of its early moneyed men and financiers. 4th. To its manufacturers, merchants and business 302 - CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS men of all lines, including the learned professions. 5th. To its religious and educational institutions. 6th. To the wise foresight of its financiers and public-spirited citizens. 7th. To judicious railway enterprises which were directly and indirectly fostered by the foregoing. In 1808-9, transportation lines and lines of trade, travel and traffic were primitive. Today they are equal to any on the continent. all environments taken into consideration, and the result of all may be and is Epigrammatically Summed Up. Columbus is situated in the geographical center of the state of Ohio. and practically in the center of population of the United States. Columbus was made the capital city of Ohio in 1808. Columbus was incorporated as a borough in 1816. Columbus had a population in 1815 of 700. In 1820 of 1,500. In 1830 of 2,435. In 1840 of 6,251. In 1848 of 12,804. In 1850 of 17,811. In 1870 of 31,551. In 1880 of 52,194. In 1890 of 88,150. In 1900 of 125,560. In 1907 (estimated on basis of registered voters, school enumeration, and City Directory), about 200,000 and rapidly increasing. Columbus was made a port of entry in 1889. Columbus has, within her corporate limits, an area of sixteen and twenty-five hundredths square miles. Columbus might make increase of her population fully 25.000 by extending her present square miles (sixteen and twenty-five hundredth-) of area to thirty. It, is proposed to do this in the near future. Columbus is free from malaria; is situated on plateau; and has an altitude of seven hundred and fifty feet above sea-level. Columbus has forty-seven hotels in all, a number of which are spacious and splendid structures, absolutely fireproof and conducted on up-to-date lines of elegance and refinement. Columbus has halls and theatres with a combined seating capacity of over forty thousand. Of these the Board of Trade Auditorium seats two thousand; and the Memorial Hall seats five thousand. Columbus has entertained, all in comfortable and successful way. many of the largest conventions held in the United States. Columbus is now recognized broadly as a great convention city-an average of one convention a day-national or state-for every day in the year, is about her record. Columbus hotels treat the "convention" proposition fairly-rates are frequently lowered to "delegates," they are never increased. Columbus Board of Trade has a membership of one thousand two hundred. Columbus as an amusement city stands in the front rank. Her theatres are many, fine, and spacious; and all the best attractions are to be seen here. Her amusement parks. zoological gardens, natatoriums, skating rinks. etc., are open in season and are all conveniently and pleasantly located. CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS - 303 Columbus street railway service-if cheapness of fare (seven tickets for 25 cents, with universal transfer), comfort and elegance of cars, promptness. reliability, and general efficiency, are to be considered-is without a rival. Columbus' transportation facilities-for receiving and distributing-are without superior. Industrial and commercial enterprises located in Ohio's capital city have, in this, "all the best_ of the game." Columbus is within less than six hours' ride of the most remote county seat in the great state of which she is the capital city. Columbus has more than one million five hundred thousand people making their homes in such adjacence as will enable them to traverse the most extreme distance therefrom in a ride of less than two hours. Columbus is so geographically located in the country as a whole, that at least one-fourth of the entire population thereof, live within a radius of three hundred miles of her corporate limits. Columbus had her first railroad in 1850. Columbus now has eighteen steam railroads and is reached by all the trunk lines. Columbus has eight electric or interurban lines entering and radiating therefrom. Columbus has, entering and leaving daily, one hundred and forty-eight passenger trains. Columbus has more than three million visitors brought into her confines annually, through the medium of "Excursions"-run from various parts of the state of Ohio. Columbus Union Station-one of the finest in the country-is centrally located and reached by all the street railway lines within the city. Columbus has one hundred and ninety-five miles of paved streets. Columbus has one hundred and fifteen miles of street railway within city limits. Columbus has two public service companies-supplying current for power and light at very low rates and water heat as well. Columbus has many transfer companies and cold storage plants-soule conducted on absolutely model lines. Columbus can boast the possession of eight manufacturing establishments-each the largest of its kind in America. Columbus has an abundant supply of natural gas, sold at a cheap rate to householders and factories. Columbus consumes two million five hundred thousand tons of coal annually. Columbus manufactured product finds a market in every country on earth. Columbus has the largest crushed-stone plant in the world. Columbus produces a greater number of high-grade vehicles than any other city in the world. Columbus manufacturers of leather goods use one-seventh of the entire leather stock consumed in the United States. 304 - CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS Columbus breweries have an annual output of beer amounting to seven hundred and fifty thousand barrels. Columbus has more than twenty million dollars invested in her steel and iron industries. Columbus has many "sky-scraper"; and attractive office buildings are to be seen on every hand. Columbus has twenty-eight banks, including nine national banks. Columbus banks clearings for the past ten years is as follows: 1896, $87,606,600; 1897, $92,904,200; 1898, $104,640,400; 1899, $130,688,900; 1900, $134,634,500; 1901, $167,303,000; 1902, $207,655,700; 1903, $240,456,600; 1904, $236,937,000; 1905, $257,430,900; 1906, $274,131,600; 1907, $289,479,401; 1908, $294,500,000. Columbus for twenty-five years has shown a greater per capita wealth than any city in the United States of approximately her population. Columbus has twenty-two building and loan associations. Columbus has twenty-nine educational institutions, inclusive of public schools. Columbus has seven public libraries, containing over three hundred thousand volumes. Columbus has many public institutions-state and national-enjoying distinctive reputation as such-of interest to visitors. Columbus has, in public grounds, an area of nine hundred and twelve acres. Columbus has, in parks, an area of one hundred and ninety-six acres. Columbus has, in other parks, an area of one hundred acres. Columbus has recently made purchase of an additional park site, at the junction of the Scioto and Olentangy rivers, where a bathing place, free to the general public, is to be established. Columbus is planning a system of parks and boulevards; and has landscape artists and engineers, of world-wide reputation, already engaged upon the work. Columbus has recently unveiled a "McKinley Memorial"-accepted as a splendid work of art, located at the main entrance to statehouse grounds. Columbus has fifty-six newspapers and magazines printed within her limits. Columbus uses more than forty thousand tons of paper annually in her printing offices. Columbus contains the agencies of six different express companies. Columbus has three telegraph companies. Columbus has two telephone companies, with thirty thousand 'phones now in use-service excellent and cost to users reasonable. Columbus has never had a disastrous fire. Her fire department. "'one of the finest," sees to that. Columbus has never experienced earthquake shock or cyclone blowknowing no extremes of cold or heat. Columbus is not handicapped by the periodic devastation of floods and overflows. PAGE 305 - FRANKLIN COUNTY MEMORIAL HALL, EAST END AND UNITED STATES BARRACKS AND GARRISON PAGE 306 CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS - 307 Columbus has the "shops" of three of the great railroads entering the city, and the thousands of men, to whom they give employment, spend their earnings here. Columbus has one steel car manufacturing plant, with an annual output of product valued at nearly five million dollars. Columbus barracks is the largest military recruiting station in the United States. Columbus federal building, by enactment of last congress, had appropriated for its enlargement four hundred and eighty thousand dollars-work on this is now progressing. Columbus postoffice business:-Total amount of business transacted (exclusive of the money order business done at the nine postal stations in the city) for the year 1906, was $4,179,282.24. Increase over the year 1906. $510.276.40. Later reports showing greatly increased per cent. Postoffice receipts. $610,486.04. Mail dispatched, 81,000,000 pieces. Mail received, 45,000,000 pieces. Special delivery letters delivered, 61,630. Special delivery letters dispatched, 49,270. Columbus contains the largest government pension office in the United States. and makes the largest distribution of money in payment of pension claims, amounting annually to more than sixteen million dollars. Columbus has two splendidly appointed "country clubs," beautiful grounds, of large areage surrounding. with golf links, tennis courts, bowling alleys. etc. Columbus has gun club grounds equal in their appointments to the best in the land, contemplating club houses, clay pigeon traps and rifle ranges. The club's membership numbers nearly six hundred. Columbus Riding Club, with a membership of one hundred and twenty-five, owns its own kennel of hounds, chases the living fox, and has its "horse show" annually. Columbus has base-ball grounds without superior in the country, a grand stand and bleachers with seating capacity of fourteen thousand. In season. her citizens and visitors enjoy base ball of a very choice quality and under the most pleasing auspices. The Columbus Base Ball Club constitutes as integral part of the "American Association"; and her "team" has been a "pennant winner." Columbus race track is famous throughout the country. The world's best horses are to be seen here from year to year; and the world's "harness records" are being made thereon, from time to time. Columbus has forty-two public school buildings. Columbus has five hundred and sixty-seven public school teachers. Columbus has two universities of national and international reputation. Columbus has two medical colleges combined in one whose degrees of graduation are recognized the world over. Columbus has a number of business colleges one of them, especially, taking high rank among institutions of a kindred character no matter where located. 308 - CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS Columbus has an estimated church membership among her citizens of over forty thousand. Columbus has one hundred and twenty-eight churches, eight chapels. and twenty-six missions. Columbus is essentially a city of homes-thousand.: of her wage earners owning their own. Columbus, in the past, has experienced a little of "labor troubles": and there is no reason to believe that conditions will change in this regard in the future. Labor finds here a constant market for its wares, on a basis of fair wages; and employers are disposed to accord it considerate treatment. The natural sequence of this is good understanding and a general content. Columbus' State Hospital grounds comprise three hundred and twenty-five acres. Columbus has twelve general hospitals, besides a. number of private sanitariums. Columbus is the center of traffic for the white-pine lumber producers of the south. Columbus death rate per 1,000 of population in 1907, all deaths included, was 13.65 local death rate, excluding non-residents, 11.29, excluding premature births, 10.94. Columbus has one hundred and sixty-seven forty hundredths miles of sewers and is now engaged in building, at a cost of one million two hundred thousand dollars, a "sewage disposal plant," assuring the best. sanitary conditions in this connection. Columbus is completing a "garbage disposal plant," at a cost of five hundred thousand dollars. This plant will be built on lines, accepted be experts, as being in harmony with the most advanced thought on this subject. Columbus, with her immense concrete storage dam-built across the Olentangy river-establishing a great reservoir or lake of over seven miles in length-is now assured of a water supply, in quantity, meeting any and all possible contingencies for generations to come, while her "purification and softening plant," in association therewith, at a cost of one million two hundred thousand dollars guarantees that the water, so supplied, will, in its purity, be healthful to drink; and, in its softness, "a thing of joy forever" to the bath, the laundry and the tubes of the boilers. Columbus stands at the very threshold of Ohio's great coal fields-knowing nothing of the troubles associating themselves with coal famine and its attending high prices. Fuel is cheap in Columbus. Columbus is the greatest distributing center for tropical fruits, and hothouse vegetables in the state of Ohio. Columbus freight depots are centrally located and grouped in such way as to be conveniently accessible to shippers. The level surface of the streets is a constant source of saving to the manufacturer or merchant in the item of drayage alone. Columbus has come to be preeminently the most important importing and breeding center for high-class French and German horses in America. CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS - 309 Columbus is accepted as a most strategic point for the wholesaler in all lines; and the business is growing enormously from year to year. Columbus has been called the "Retailer's Paradise." This, doubtless, may be attributed to the wonderful volume of business done here in retail way. owing its source, in great measure. to the very populous and rich sur rounding country, together with the extraordinary facilities the many railroads, steam and electric, extend to "shippers." Columbus' main business thoroughfares are lighted by a. system of electric arches, spanning the streets. The effect at night is beautiful in the extreme. and must be seen to be appreciated. Columbus offers four things to all those who may locate within her limits:-Great opportunities for a business success; a healthful climate; a law-abiding and kindly community ; and rate privileges for those seeking educational advantages. It is obvious that there were one or more great impelling forces that performed a. major part in so shaping events and eventuations that it made it possible to reduce to epigrammatic statements the facts of history recorded in the foregoing pages. They were the public spirit of our former generation of business men, and the courage and foresight of their contemporaneous bankers and financiers, and the wonderful transportation facilities they wrought, cooperating one with another for the common prosperity and progress of a. great state and its capital. Without them there would have been but little with which to have constructed the epitomization. In 1858 and 1908. In 1858 there were four railroads in a semi-completed state centering in Columbus, with as many more existing on paper, with a strongly emphasized sentiment to eventually imbed them on terra firma. Columbus in 1908 has eighteen steam railway systems radiating from the common center, reinforced by eight electric suburban lines, radiating also to all points in the state, with new and important lines in progress of projection. The history of the railway progress, between the beginning and fruition above outlines would constitute a. long series of volumes. The achievement of one of these modern traffic and transportation enterprises is a replica of all the others, modified only by environment and the recession of the wave of progress at intervals. There is one of these railway systems that may stand as the type of all the others, as to the processes of evolution and vicissitude or triumph, especially because its center is Columbus and its field the great mineral district of the state and its mil-sage confined entirely to Ohio, although it connects with every other system touching or crossing the state. This is the great Hocking Valley system, extending northwesterly to the lake and southeasterly to the Ohio river, including the larger portion of the Muskingum valley. Mr. F. B. Sheldon, assistant to President Nicholas Monsarrat, kindly volunteered to give the Genesis and Revelation of the Hocking Valley system as a. contribution to the railway and business literature of the closing 310 - CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS decades of the nineteenth century and the opening years of the twentieth. and this contribution, the author of the Centennial History of Columbus esteems of inestimable historical value in future years, and therefore gives it place in this connection, as infinitely more entitled to permanent record in history than aught he would be able to write on the subject. Mr. Sheldon says: The Hocking Valley Railway Company. April 14, 1864, The Mineral Railroad Company was incorporated to build a railroad from Columbus to Athens, Ohio, but beyond making preliminary surveys and securing some rights of way, nothing was done toward the construction of the line. Air. M. M. Greene, who was operating salt works at Salina (now Beaumont), Ohio, in the Hocking valley, seven miles north of Athens, in 1867 took up the project, and on June 26 of that year by decree of the Franklin county common pleas court, the name was changed from Mineral Railroad Company to Columbus & Hocking Valley Railroad Company. Peter Hayden was elected president of the company and M. M. Greene vice president; the road was finally located and construction was begun. In 1868 the line was opened for traffic from Columbus to Lancaster, and in 1869 was completed as far as Nelsonville, where it reached the coal field. Construction. Finished. July 25, 1870, construction was finished to Athens with a. branch from Logan to Straitsville, in the coal district. The annual report of the president for the year 1870 stated; that the company owned twelve locomotives, eight passenger cars, three baggage cars, two hundred and seventy-nine coal, s sixty box and twenty-six flat cars, in addition to which, private parties furnished four hundred and three coal cars, and that with all this equipment, together with one hundred and fifty other cars furnished by connecting lines, the company was unable to supply the demand for coal and would have to provide more coal cars. The gross earnings of the line for 1870 amounted to three hundred and seventy-two thousand two hundred and twenty-nine dollar. In 1870 the population of the city of Columbus was thirty-three thousand and its subsequent substantial growth began with the building of manufacturing concerns immediately upon the introduction of coal by the Hocking Valley line. Increase of Earnings. In the year 1871, the gross earnings increased to five hundred and forty-eight thousand nine hundred and forty-two dollars and the president's report for that year stated that a valuable trade for coal had been commenced through Cleveland to points on the lakes. The report further stated that the heavy traffic made it necessary to renew some of the rails, and that, in order to have a. test between iron and steel, fifty tons of steel rails were purchased as an experiment and laid in sidings in Columbus yard under the heaviest wear of any part of the road. CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS - 311 A New President. In January, 1871, Benjamin E. Smith succeeded Peter Hayden as president of the company, M. M. Greene remained vice president, and J. J. Janney was elected secretary and treasurer. The directors chosen were: W. B. Brooks, C. P. L. Butler, Theodore Comstock, Isaac Eberly, John L. Gill. M. M. Greene, John Greenleaf and B. E. Smith, all of Columbus, John D. Martin of Lancaster, C. H. Rippey of Logan, and S. W. Pickering of Athens. The coal business of the line developed rapidly, the gross earnings for the year 1872 being eight hundred and fifty-four thousand eight and ninety-two dollars. The company trebled its number of coal cars and began to feel the need of proper outlets for traffic to points beyond Columbus, connecting lines being either unable or unwilling to furnish cars for the business offered their lines. It was thereupon determined to undertake the construction of a line to supply the great demand of the lakes and the northwest for Hocking Valley coal, and Toledo was selected as the most appropriate port. Accordingly on May 28, 1872, the Columbus & Toledo Railroad Company was incorporated by M. M . Greene, P. W. Huntington, B. E. Smith, W. G. Deshler, James A. Wilcox and John L. Gill, and a preliminary survey was at once made. The Toledo Extension. October 15, 1873, the line was permanently located from Columbus to Toledo. The financial panic of 1874, however, made it necessary to defer for nearly a year the construction, which was commenced August 17, 1875; on October 15, 1876, the line from Columbus to Marion was opened for traffic. and on January 10, 1877, the first regular train ran through to Toledo, where the company had acquired valuable frontage on the Maumee river for the construction of docks. February 22, 1877, The Columbus & Hocking Valley and Columbus Toledo Railroad Companies entered into a contract providing for the joint management of the two lines and for the joint use of terminal property and facilities in Columbus. During the year 1877, extensive docks were constructed at Toledo, and connecting lines at Toledo furnished an outlet to points in Michigan and Canada. In the meantime, The Columbus & Hocking Valley Railroad had continued to prosper. In December, 1874, M. M. Greene succeeded B. E. Smith as president, and in 1877, the Monday Creek and Snow Fork branches in the coal field were partially constructed and opened and seven iron furnaces were in blast in the coal region. Ohio & West Virginia Branch. May 21, 1878, the Ohio & West Virginia Railway was incorporated to build from Logan. in the Hocking Valley, to Gallipolis. on the Ohio river, and some little grading was done upon this line, but no further progress was 312 - CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS made until one year later. May 21. 1879, when Hocking Valley interests took up the project, amended the charter to extend from Gallipolis to Pomeroy. and commenced construction. October 15, 1880. the line was opened for traffic from Logan to Gallipolis, and January 1, 1851, to Pomeroy. A Consolidation,. August 20, 1881, The Columbus & Hocking Valley and Columbus Toledo Railroad Companies, and The Ohio & West Virginia Railway Company were consolidated under the name of The Columbus. Hocking Valley & Toledo Railway Company, '.\l. M. Greene continuing as president of the new company until July 1, 1886, when he was succeeded by Stevenson Burke of Cleveland, who occupied the presidency for a few months ending January 11, 1887, the next annual meeting, at which John W. Shaw was elected president, continuing in office until August 30, 1889. when he resigned and was succeeded by C. C. Waite. Mr. Waite came to the property with large railway experience and immediately set about the work of reducing grades. rebuilding bridges, and introducing heavier equipment upon the line. increasing the capacity of coal trains from thirty cars of seventeen tons each, to forty-five cars of thirty tons each, a. gain of one hundred and fifty per cent, which brought the property up to the best standards of that day and assumed its position as the principal coal-carrying road of the state. The Wellston & Jackson Belt. In 1895, the Wellston &; Jackson Belt Railway was built by The Hocking Valley Company from McArthur Junction to Jackson. through the Jackson county coal field, affording a valuable feeder to the line. and was opened for traffic to Wellston December 1, 1895, and to Jackson February 10. 1896. While attending a banquet given to the officials of the Hocking Valley Railway Company by the citizens of Jackson, on the occasion of the opening of the line, President Waite took cold resulting in pneumonia, from which he died on February 21, 1896. Samuel D. Davis, vice president, became the executive head of the company until June 18. 1896. when he was succeeded by Nicholas Monsarrat as vice president, who has continued in charge of the property to date. becoming president of the reorganized Hocking Valley Railway Company March 1, 1899. President Monsarrat's Administration. to Date. During Mr. Monsarrat's term of office radical improvements. have been made in the capacity of the line for handling traffic: forty-ton and fifty-ton coal cars to the number of eight thousand have been added to the equipment. mogul freight engines have been superseded by consolidation engines of greater capacity, making a large increase in the loading of freight trains: improved machinery for handling coal and iron ore has been placed on the PAGE - 313 FIRST OHIO PENITENTIARY AND THE OHIO PENITENTIARY PAGE 314 - BLANK CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS - 315 company's docks at Toledo, and the yards, sidings and station facilities of the line have been increased to take care of the growing traffic, the freight business of the company having doubled (in the past ten years) and its passenger traffic having made almost as great a gain as the freight during the same period. Of the five seams of bituminous coal mined in the state of Ohio, four are to be found on the line of the Hocking Valley Railway, and through its connection wih the Kanawha & Michigan Railway at Athens it also receives shipments of coal and coke from the Kanawha and New river districts of West Virginia, and transports coal for shipment by lake to the amount of about two million tons yearly. Although the carrying of bituminous coal and coke still form the principal business of the company, there has been a steady development along its line in manufacturing and particularly in steel and iron, stone, lime and clay products. The Hocking Valley is the longest line of railway entirely within the limits of the state of Ohio, and occupying as it does a central position from the Ohio river to Lake Erie, passing through the capital, with branches in the populous regions of the coal fields, it is probably of more value to the state generally than any other local line of railway. 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