CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS - 29 CHAPTER II. (RETURN TO THE TITLE PAGE) FIRST PEOPLE, FIRST EVENTS; FIRST FOOTPRINTS; FIRST SUCCESSES. Rome of Ancient Legends; Columbus of Modern Days. A large portion of the subsequent history of Rome would no doubt be lacking in interest, at least among the younger readers, were it not for the legends of the laying of the foundations of the Eternal City, mythical and credulity-testing though they may be. The story of the abandoned Romulus and Remus being suckled and reared to vigorous youthhood by a, female wolf may have been mercifully invented to soften the memory of the wife of some guardian who had the two boys in charge. The narration of the just-before-dawn vigil of the two youths on the two convenient hills. "looking out for signs," and seeing diverse numbers of vultures, leading to the straining of their fraternal relations. some seven hundred years before the Christian Era. may have been an early form of the snipe hunting expeditions of. say, A. D. 1850, and down to the present day, among the youths of Columbus and outlying country. The building of the walls of Rome by Romulus. and the contempt shown toward the architect and his work by Remus. who leaped over them and who was chased thence and founded the City of Rheims. according to his own ideas of municipal architecture, may be readily toned down to a foolish boyish quarrel of some minor detail, and the story of the Sabine women is an oldnew-endless one of the selection of the loveliest. Young ladies being scarce in Rome. the boys over there no doubt challenged the Sabine youths to play a prehistoic game of baseball. Their sweethearts came out. of course, to cheer and encourage them, but when the Roman Senators shut out the Sabine Slashers in the ninth inning, with a score of 21 to 0, not only the game was lost. but the girls also, and they naturally clung to the Senators ever after. This may not be the exact narration of the events in their order, but they would naturally and perfectly furnish the historical raw material out of which the classic poets formed the finished story. But in any event, and without regard to the accuracy of detail, they told about the first people and the first things and the original methods. without 30 - CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS which in some form the rest of the story-called in courtesy History-would be desperately dry reading and spiritless. One must know of the beginning before one can teach the lesson of successive comparisons in the progress of events. The great things of the present are the grown-up children and grandchildren of the comparatively little things of the past. We must know something of the parent before we can properly estimate the child, as well as something about the child before we can fully analyze the matured individual, or, analyzing backward, properly estimate the progenitor. The very mysticism and glamour of the classic poets which surround the practical beginnings of Rome enhance the interest, to most readers, in the story of its subsequent progress. So also as to Columbus. Christopher Gist, Agent of the Ohio Conmpany. The first white men to visit the present site of Columbus were Christopher Gist, of Maryland, and George Croghan, an English trader, piloted by one Andrew Montour, a French-Indian half breed of the Senecas, no doubt. some time during the winter of 1750-1751. At, and preceding this period, the English colonies of the east and northeast were deeply interested in curbing, and eventually eliminating, the Canadian French influences. This was especially true with an association of Virginia and Maryland planters and English merchants, who realized the vast importance of keeping the French traders, and French influence of all kinds, out of that vast territory lying south of the present Canadian line. These men probably never thought of what the future had in store in the shape of trade and commerce, exceeding for a single business day from nine to three all the trade then being contended for during an entire year. A long line of English trading posts were being stretched across the practically unknown continent parallel with the 38th degree, and Mr. Gist was the active agent of this association, with well-nigh unlimited discretionary powers. One of these English trading posts was established at the point of the junction of the Great Miami and Loranaie creek, upon an extensive prairie, in 1749, and was named Pickawillany, English improvement on the Pickqualines, a tribe of Indians. It was to visit this post that Gist and his companions made the trip now under discussion. It was, in fact, the first point of English occupation within the present boundaries of Ohio, and here the English traders throughout the entire trading belt met and conferred between themselves and their Indian friends and allies. On October 31, 1750, Gist set out from Old Town, on the Potomac, in Maryland, and crossed the Alleghenies, following the usual route of travel to the Ohio river that seems to have existed from time immemorial. Crossing the upper Ohio, he made his way to the then Indian village at the forks of the Muskingum, where the city of Coshocton (Goshocking, the Place of the Owls), now stands, much more pacific and inviting than its Indian name would portend. 30 - CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS which in some form the rest of the story-called in courtesy History-would be desperately dry reading and spiritless. One must know of the beginning before one can teach the lesson of successive comparisons in the progress of events. The great things of the present are the grown-up children and grandchildren of the comparatively little things of the past. We must know something of the parent before we can properly estimate the child, as well as something about the child before we can fully analyze the matured individual, or, analyzing backward, properly estimate the progenitor. The very mysticism and glamour of the classic poets which surround the practical beginnings of Rome enhance: the interest, to most readers, in the story of its subsequent progress. So also as to Columbus. Christopher Gist, Agent of the Ohio Company. The first white men to visit the present site of Columbus were Christopher Gist, of Maryland, and George Croghan, an English trader, piloted by one Andrew Montour, a French-Indian half breed of the Senecas, no doubt, some time during the winter of 1750-1751. At, and preceding this period, the English colonies of the east and northeast were deeply interested in curbing, and eventually eliminating, the Canadian French influences. This was especially true with an association of Virginia and Maryland planters and English merchants, who realized the vast importance of keeping the French traders, and French influence of all kinds, out of that vast territory lying south of the present Canadian line. These men probably never thought of what the future had in store in the shape of trade and commerce, exceeding for a single business day from nine to three all the trade then being contended for during an entire year. A long line of English trading posts were being stretched across the practically unknown continent parallel with the 38th degree, and Mr. Gist was the active agent of this association, with well-nigh unlimited discretionary powers. One of these English trading posts was established at the point of the junction of the Great Miami and Loranaie creek, upon an extensive prairie, in 1749, and was named Pickawillany, English improvement on the Pickqualines, a tribe of Indians. It was to visit this post that Gist and his companions made the trip now under discussion. It was, in fact, the first point of English occupation within the present boundaries of Ohio, and here the English traders throughout the entire trading belt met and conferred between themselves and their Indian friends and allies. On October 31, 1750, Gist set out from Old Town, on the Potomac, in Maryland, and crossed the Alleghenies, following the usual route of travel to the Ohio river that seems to have existed from time immemorial. Crossing the upper Ohio, he made his way to the then Indian village at the forks of the Muskingum, where the city of Coshocton (Goshocking, the Place of the Owls). now stands, much more pacific and inviting than its Indian name would portend. CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS - 31 From that point Gist and his two companions came westward, holding conferences in the Indian villages at Wacatomika, Black Hand (so named for the black print of an enormous human hand on a high rock overhanging the Pataskala river, through which a. tunnel of the Columbus, Newark and Zanesville electric road is pierced), where an Indian potentate was located; thence to the present Buckeye lake, then little more than a great sedgy morass, full of fish, which the naked Indian children waded in and caught with their hands, which they skirted, coming on to the High Bank, where they crossed by canoe ferry to the Indian town or village that occupied a portion of what is now the west side. Here a conference was held in February, 1751. Later the three travelers went down the Scioto and the Ohio to the mouth of the Great Miami, up which they journeyed to Pickawillany, where a prolonged conference was held, under the direction of Gist, between the English traders and the tribal representatives of the Weas, Piekqualines, Miamis, Piankeshaws, and other sub-nations contiguous thereto, and a treaty, practically of alliance, was agreed upon, the French flag, which had for years floated over the chief tepee of Pickawillany, was hauled down and British sovereignty was recognized. Under the terms of the treaty the town rapidly rose in importance, Gist recording in his journal that it was the strongest town in the western country, as well as the most important one. But the French government in Canada was not in the dark as to the progress of events on Riviere a la Roche, or Rock River, as the Miami was called. but was kept constantly informed by their Indian and half-breed spies. So it came about, a few years later, that, in an unexpected moment, the combined French and more northern Indians swooped down upon Pickawillany, and the "coming" emporium of the great Ohio wilderness went up in smoke and flame, and it was blotted off the snap. But this part of the story belongs not to a Columbus history. but to the more comprehensive history of the state and its parent, the Northwest Territory. Eater Mr. James Smith. There may have been other white men at that period (between 1751 and 17610) .who threaded the mazes of the then Columbus, but history fails to present another than James Smith, who was held a captive among the Indians west, of the junction of the two rivers and who hunted and trapped along the rivers and their principal tributaries in this territory. Mr. Smith's personal narration is full of interest and gives one a fine insight into the character of the Indian - nomads of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. A complete resume of his graphic narrative appears in an appropriate chapter devoted to early reminiscences and later day historical gossip of the Buckeye capital. In the meantime, James Smith must rest upon his laurels of being the second early comer of the white race into the future capital, illuminated with this brief description, written by him, of the then site of the present city: "From the mouth of Olentangy (applied to the Big Darby), on the east side 32 - CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS of Scioto. up to the carrying place (in Marion county), there is a large body of first and second rate land, and tolerably well watered. The timber is ash, sugar tree, walnut, locust, oak and beech.'' This is no doubt the first written description of the point at and neighboring upon the lands on which the city of Columbus stands. The First Permanent Resident. The honor of being the first permanent resident within the present boundaries of Columbus seems to belong, without question, to Lucas Sullivant, a native of Virginia, born in 1765. He migrated to Kentucky when an orphan lad, where he learned surveying in the field, not in the schools. As a deputy under General Richard C. Anderson. surveyor general of the Virginia. Military District of Ohio. Mr. Lucas led a body of assistants into the wilderness of the Scioto valley northward, and in the summer and autumn of the year 1797 surveyed and platted and became proprietor of the town of Franklinton, long since made an integral part of Columbus. Here he erected his house, installed his helpmeet. set up his lares and penates; here he reared his children. and here he lived until he passed into the Great Beyond at the age of fifty-eight. Some of Sullivant's Compatriots. Among those who came with Sullivant into Franklinton as permanent settlers the following names have been handed down by the earlier historians: Joseph Dixon, George Skidmore, William Domigan, James Marshall. three families named Dearduff, McIlvain and Sells respectively, consisting of several persons, young and old, but not separately designated: John Lisle and family. William Fleming, Jacob Grubb, Jacob Overdier. Arthur O'Harra. Joseph Foos, John Blair, and John Dill, the latter of whom seem:- to have come unaccompanied from the town of York. Pennsylvania: Jeremiah Armstrong and John Brickell, and probably others whose names are forgotten. These, of course. were the first citizens, and among there Messrs. Armstrong and Brickell were the heroes of adventures which will be presented in the chapter of local historical events and gossip. Sullivant was married in 1801 and led in the settlement of the town, of . course. A little later than those afore named were Lyne Starling, Robert Russell, Colonel Culbertson of Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, with numerous sons. sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, unmarried sons and unmarried daughters. and withal a man of wealth and of distinction. The First White Woman. The first white woman born east of the Scioto river and in Columbus proper was Keziah Hamlin, who afterward married David Brooks, proprietor of "The White Horse Tavern," one of the famous early hostelries of the Ohio capital. She was horn October 16, 1804. in a log cabin which stood upon what is now the site of Hoster's brewery. PAGE 33 - PICTURE OF MRS. KEZIAH (HAMLIN) BROOKS PAGE 34 - BLANK CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS - 35 At that time there lived in the vicinity a sub-tribe of Wyandots, who were on friendly terms with the scattered white settlers. They had a great fondness especially for Mother Hamlin's corn bread, and were in the habit of paying the family informal calls and helping themselves informally to whatever they might find in the larder. The only explanation they offered was to leave with Mrs. Hamlin the finest cuts and quarters of venison, so that. if she and the lord of the household were left temporarily short on bread they found themselves long on meat. While this kind of exchange was one sided, the Hamlin firm never had occasion to complain that they had been cheated. When little Keziah came the Wyandots took great interest in the little pale face and never lost an opportunity to admire her in a sort of ecstacy of silence, punctuated with grunts of satisfaction; and the larger she grew, and when .she began to toddle about on the dirt floor of the cabin, their admiration knew no bounds, and then and there the Trilby inspiration took shape and form. One busy day, when Father Hamlin was on a journey to the mill and Mother Hamlin was busy with her household cares and duties and Baby Hamlin slept like a top in her sugar trough cradle, a delegation of Wyandots in gala attire invaded the cabin and, instead of depleting the larder, depleted the cradle and marched Indian file, the chief leading, with Keziah in his arms, and disappeared in the direction of the Indian village, in the dense forest at the bend of the Scioto, where the Harrisburg bridge now spans the river. It would be impossible to depict the feelings of the mother. She simply endured the terrors of the situation for hours, which passed like slow-paced centuries, buoyed up only by the faint hope that the children of the forest were merely playing some good natured prank on her. Realizing the uselessness of pursuit, nothing was left her but to cling to hope and endure and long for the return of her husband. Hours before his return (far past nightfall) the Indians returned, with their tiny captive smiling and cooing in the arms of the bronzed chieftain, and she too was resplendent in gala attire. In addition to the other gay outfitting, her feet were encased in a pair of dainty and artistically beaded buckskin moccasins. The Wyandot manteau and moccasin makers. for the purpose of giving the mother a happy surprise, had unceremoniously carried the child to their own town. where she could be fitted out and become a Wyandot Princess, and as such they had evidently adopted her before returning her. For many years Keziah retained the moccasins and trinkets. and told the story of that adventure to her children and her children's children. Finally the younger generations a few years ago unconsciously imbibed iconoclastic ideas, and the relics disappeared piecemeal. Keziah Hamlin married David Brooks. who came from Massachusetts and settled in Columbus on the 19th of December, 1822. She died February 4, 1875, leaving three sons and two daughters. One of the sons, David W. Brooks. was prominent in business and banking circles in the city. Herbert Brooks. a grandson, is prominent in the same circles in the Columbus of 1909. 36 - CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS The First State Senator. The first year after his arrival Culbertson was elected to the Ohio legislature, being the first member elected from the Franklin county section of Ross county in the senate of the first general assembly of the state in 1803. The First Mill West of the River. The first mill was located in the Franklinton section in 1797 or 1798. It was a public utility and the first instance of public ownership, hereabouts at least. All the people helped to build it and all the people helped to run it. The contemporaneous chronicler describes it as "a kind of a hand mill upon which they (the inhabitants) generally ground their corn; some pounded it or boiled it." The latter were probably opposed to public ownership. "Occasionally," says the pioneer historian, "a trip was made to the mill at Chillicothe." One may easily conjecture why this long trip to mill, through the wilderness, was made. The housewife was expecting company, no doubt sonic Revolutionary hero or some grand dame, coming from the east perhaps, and she wanted fine meal to enable her to furnish her guests with tempting johnny cake, and perchance the guests were coming from "Ole Ferginia," and what would be more to their liking than the peerless crackling shortened corn dodger, heightened to the seventh gastronomic heaven with the pale ambered and divinely saccharined maple molasses ! It was worth an hundred mile round trip to secure the ingredients for such a feast. 0The First Mill East of the River. "In 1790 or 1800 Robert Balentine," says the early historian, "erected a poor kind of a mill" on the Run, near the present line of Gay street, but whether east or west of Gay street it is not stated. The Run, however, is not there at the present writing. The First Up-River Mill. "At about the same period John D. Rush erected,"' in the frank language of the historian, "an inferior mill on the Scioto a short distance above Franklinton." They were, however, both poor concerns and soon fell into ruins, and clearly enough the "sound of the grinding" was not only "low," but the grasshopper had no musical rival to divide the honors with him; but not for long. The First Horse Mill. Then, as a last resort, some pioneer, whose name is lost to immortal fame, erected a horse mill and managed to eke out sufficient corn meal to meet the demand of the growing metropolis. The First Successful Mill. Then it was, in 1805, that at a point near Worthington, Colonel Janes Kilbourne erected a mill imbued, as it were, with the spirit of the eighteenth CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS - 37 century. It was a mill built on modern lines and principles and turned out wheat and buckwheat flour and corn meal in a steady stream and started Franklin county on the road to greatness, and after this there were mills and mills erected on all the streams in the vicinity of Columbus; men laid by a competence for themselves; became more than honest millets-leading citizens of county and state, whose names will continue to grace and ornament the general local annals for decades, and in many instances for centuries yet to come, as may be well and truly said of the proprietors of Carpenter's Mill on the Whetstone, Dyer's Mill on Darby, Nelson's on Alum creek and others contemporaneous with them in the first decade and the first half of the second decade of the century. The First Mercantile Venture. Nearly all, if not all, beginnings are small, and in accordance with that recognized law it is to be expected that the first things are small, although when we contemplate them in their fully developed form it staggers our credulity to think of them as merely tiny bubbles on the ocean of mercantile adventure. Mr. James Scott in 1798 or 1799, the precise date being in doubt, opened "the first small store in Franklinton, which added much to the convenience of the settlers." It was certainly a great convenience to the Franklinton housewife, since she could get breakfast, wash the dishes, tidy up the cabin, go to Mr. Scott's store, purchase three yards of brown muslin and a skein of thread, return home and cut out and make a shirt for her husband, get dinner and supper meantime, and have the garment finished in time for her husband to wear down to "the public square," where the men folks met and told hunting stories in the gloaming of the forest twilight and on contemporaneous subjects. while her ears tingled, a la telepathy, at the praises of the young men touching the neat hemming and hemstitching on the shirt aforesaid. The next store, and probably a larger one, was started by Robert Russell, Esquire, in 1803. So far as can be learned, there are now no direct successors to those merchant princes of the then unbuilt city. The First Unseen Terror. This was what was variously designated "ague, ager, fever'n-nager, chills and fever," and now recorded in the books as "malaria" or "malarial fever." The original, however, could have gotten in its work on the pioneers even if it had been unnamed. The First Capital Execution. The first execution in the county, and within the suburbs of the present city, was that of Shateyaronyah, Anglicized into Leather Lips, a celebrated Wyandot chief and philosopher. The account was originally recorded by Otway Curry, the poet and magazine writer of the first half of the nineteenth 38 - CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS century, and from which his nephew, Colonel William L. Curry, a valiant cavalry officer in the civil war and present pension commissioner of Ohio, furnishes the following tragically interesting synopsis The Doomed Wyandot. "The great northern family of Indian tribes which seems to have been originally embraced in the generic term Iroquois consisted, according to some writers, of two grand divisions-the eastern and western. In the eastern division were included the five nations or Maquas (Mingos), as they were commonly called by the Algonquin tribes, and in the western the Yendots, or Wyandots (nick-named Hurons by the French) and three or four other nations, of whom a large proportion are now entirely extinct. The Yendots, after a long and deadly warfare, were nearly exterminated by the Five Nations about the middle of the seventeenth century. Of the survivors part sought refuge in Canada, where their descendants still remain; a few were incorporated among the different tribes of the conquerors, and the remainder, consisting chiefly of the Tionontates, retired to Lake Superior. In consequence of the disastrous wars in which they afterwards became involved with other powerful nations of the northwestern region, they again repaired to the vicinity of their old hunting grounds. With this remnant of the original Huron or Wyandot nation were united some scattered fragments of other broken-up tribes of the same stock, and though comparatively few in number they continued for a long period to assert successfully the right of sovereignty over the whole extent of country between the Ohio river and the lakes as far west as the territory of the Piankishaws, or Miamis, whose eastern boundary was probably an irregular line drawn through the valley of the Great Miami (Shimeamee) and the Ottawah-se-pee, or Maumee river of Lake Erie. The Shawanees and the Delawares, it is believed, were occupants of a part of the fore-mentioned country merely by sufferance of the Wyandots, whose right of dominion seemed never to have been called in question excepting by the Mingoes or Five Nations. The Shawanees were originally powerful and always warlike. Kentucky received its name from them in the course of their migrations between their former place of residence on the Suanee river, adjacent to the southern sea-coast, and the territory of the Yendots in the North. The name (Kentuckee) is compounded from the Shawanees and signifies a "land or place at the head of a river." "The chosen residence of the Wyandots was at an early period, as it was later, on the waters of the Saun-dus-tee, or Sandusky. Though greatly reduced in numbers, they have, perhaps, attained a higher degree of civilization than any other tribe in the vicinity of the northwestern lakes. For the following specimen of the Wyandot language and for the greater part of the statements given above we are indebted to the Archaeologia Americana. The Wyandot Vocabulary. One, Scat. Three, Shaight. Two, Tin-dee. Four, An-daght. CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS - 39 Five. Wee-ish. Lightning, Tim-men-di-quas. Six. Wau-shau. Earth. Umaitsagh. Seven, Soo-tare. Deer, Ough-scan-oto. Eight, Aultarai. Bear, Anu-e. Nine, Ain-tru. Raccoon, Ha-in-te-roh. Ten, Augh-sagh. Fox, The-na-in-ton-to. Twenty. Ten-deft-a-waugh-sa. Beaver, Soo-taie. Thirty, Shaigh-ka-waugh-sa. Mink. So-hoh-main-dia. Forty, An-daugh-ka-waugh-sa. Turkey, Daigh-ton-tah. Fifty. Wee-ish-a-waugh-sa. Squirrel, Ogh-ta-eh. Sixty, Wau- hau-waugh-sa. Otter. Ta-wen-deh. Seventy. Soo-tare-waugh-sa. Dog, Yun-ve-noh. Eighty, Au-tarai-waugh-sa. Cow, Kni-ton-squa-ront. Ninety, Ain-tru-waugh-sa. Horse. Ugh-shut-te. One Hundred, Scute-main-gar-we. Goose, Yah-hounk. God, Ta-main-de-sue. Duck, Yu-in-geh. Devil. Degh-shu-re-noh. Man. Ain-ga-hon. Heaven, Ya-roh-nia. Woman, Uteh-ke. Good. Ye-waugh-ste Girl, Ya-weet-sen-tho. Bad. Waugh-she. Boy. Oma-int-sent-e-hah. Hell, Degh-shunt. Child, Che-ah-hah. Sun. Ya-an-des-hra. Old Man. Ha-o-tong. Moon, Waugh-aunt-vu-an-des-ra. Old Woman. Ut- in-dag-sa. Stars. Tegh-shu. My Wife. Uzut-tun-oh-oh. Sky. Cagh-ro-niate. Corn. Nav-hah. Clouds. Oght-se-rah. Beans. Yash-re-sah. Wind. Izu-quas. Potatoes. Da-ween-dah. It rains. Ina-un-du-se. Melons. Oh-nugh-sa. Thunder, Heno. Gras E-ru-ta. "The foregoing sketch of the history and language of the Wyandots, though certainly not strictly necessary, will, it is hoped. be deemed not altogether inappropriate as an introduction to the following narrative of the circumstances attending the death of a chief of that nation. The particulars have been recently communicated by persons who were eye-witnesses to the execution and may be relied upon as perfectly accurate. "In the evening of the first day of June, in the year 1810, there came six Wyandot warriors to the house of Mr. Benjamin Sells on the Scioto river, about twelve miles above the spot where now stands the city of Columbus. They were equipped in the most warlike manner and exhibited during their stay an unusual degree of agitation. Having ascertained that an old Wyandot chief, for whom they had been making diligent inquiry, was then encamped at a distance of about two miles farther up on the bank of the river, they expressed a determination to put him to death and immediately went off, in the direction of the lodge. "These facts were communicated early in the ensuing morning, to Mr. John Sells, who now resides in the city of Dublin on the Scioto about two mile. 40 - CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS from the place where the doomed Wyandot met his fate. Mr. Sells immediately proceeded up the river on horseback in quest of the Indians. lie soon arrived a t. the lodge, which lie found situated in a grove of sugar trees, close to the bend of the river. The six warriors were seated in consultation at a distance of a few rods from the lodge. The old chief was with them, evidently in the character of a prisoner. His arias were confined by a small cord, but he sat with them without any manifestation of uneasiness. A few of the neighboring white men were also there, and a gloomy looking Indian who had been a companion of the chief, but now kept entirely aloof-sitting sullenly in the camp. Mr. Sells approached the Indians and found them earnestly engaged in debate. A charge of 'witch-craft' had been made at a former time against the chief by some of his captors, whose friends bad been destroyed, as they believed, by means of his evil powers. This crime, according to the immemorial usage of the tribe involved a forfeiture of life. The chances of a hunter's life had brought the old man to his present location, and his pursuers had sought him out in order that they might execute upon him the sentence of their law. The Fatal Council. *'The council was of two or three hours duration. The accusing party spoke alternately with much ceremony, but with evident bitterness of feeling. The prisoner, in his replies, was eloquent. though dispassionate. Occasionally. a smile of scorn would appear, for an instant, on his countenance. At the close of the consultation it was ascertained that they had affirmed the sentence of death which had before been passed upon the chief. Inquiry having been made by some of the white men, with reference to their arrangements, the captain of the six warriors pointed to the sun and signified to them that the execution would take place at one o'clock in the afternoon. Mr. Sells went to the captain and asked him what the chief had done. `Very had Indian.' he replied, `make good Indian sick-make horse sick-make die-very bad chief.' 'Mr. Sells then made an effort to persuade his white friends to rescue the victim of superstition from his impending fate but to no purpose. They were then in a. frontier situation, entirely open to the incursions of the northern tribes and were, consequently unwilling to subject themselves to the displeasure of their savage visitors by and interference with their operations. He then proposed to release the chief by purchase-offering to the captain for that purpose a fine horse of the value of three hundred dollars. `Let me see him.' said the Indian: the horse was accordingly brought forth.. and closely examined; and so much were they staggered by this proposition that they again repaired to their place of consultation and remained iii council a considerable length of time before it was finally rejected. "The conference was again terminated, and five of the Indians began to amuse themselves with running, jumping and other athletic exercise. The captain took no part with them. When again inquired of as to the time of execution, he pointed to the sun, as before, and indicated the hour of four. The prisoner then walked slowly to his camp-partook of jerked venison- PAGE 41 - PICTURE OF THE OLENTANGY RIVER AND PARK PAGE 42 - BLANK CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS - 43 washed and arrayed himself in his best apparel and afterwards painted his face. His dress was very rich-his hair grey, his whole appearance graceful and commanding. At his request, the whole company drew round him at the lodge. He then observed the exertions of Mr. Sells in his behalf, and presented to him a written paper, with a request that it might be read to the company. It was a recommendation signed by Governor Hull and in compliance with the request of the prisoner, it was fixed and left upon the side of a large tree at a short distance from the wigwam. The Chief's Sublime Stoicism. "The hour of execution being close at hand, the chief shook hands in silence with the surrounding spectators. On coming to Mr. Sells he appeared much moved-grasped his hands warmly, spoke for a few minutes in the Wyandot language and pointed to the heavens. He then turned from the wigwam, and with a voice of surpassing strength and melody, commenced the chant of the death-song. He was followed closely by the Wyandot warriors, all timing with the slow and measured march, the music of his wild and melancholy dirge. The white men were all, likewise, silent followers in that strange procession. At the distance of seventy or eighty yards from the camp they came to a shallow grave, which, unknown to the white men, had been previously prepared by the Indians. Here the old man knelt down, and in an elevated, but solemn voice, addressed his prayer to the Great Spirit. As soon as he had finished, the captain of the Indians knelt beside him and prayed in a similar manner. Their prayers, of course, were spoken in the Wyandot language. When they arose, the captain was again accosted by Mr. Sells, who insisted that if they were inflexible in their determination to shed blood, they should at least remove their victim beyond the limit of the white settlement. 'No!' said he, very sternly, and with evident displeasure. 'No; good Indian fraid-he no go with this bad man-mouth give fire in the dark night, good Indian fraid-he no go!' 'My friend,' he continued, `me tell you white man, bad man, white man kill him, Indian say nothing.' The Final Scene. "Finding all interference futile, Mr. Sells was at length compelled reluctantly to abandon the old man to his fate. After a few moments delay, he again sank down upon his knees and prayed, as he had done before. When he had ceased praying, he still continued in a kneeling position. All the rifles belonging to the party had been left at the wigwam. There was not a weapon of any kind to be seen at the place of execution, and the spectators were consequently unable to form any conjecture as to the mode of procedure, which the executioners had determined on for the fulfillment of their purpose. Suddenly one of the warriors drew from beneath the skirts of his capote, a keen, bright tomahawk, walked rapidly up behind the chieftain brandishing the weapon on high for a single moment and then struck with his full strength. The blow descended directly upon the crown of the head and the victim 44 - CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS immediately fell prostrate. After he had lain awhile in the agonies of death, the Indian directed the attention of the white men to the drops of sweat which were gathering upon the neck .and face; remarking with much apparent exultation that it was conclusive proof of the sufferer's guilt. Again the executioner advanced and with the same weapon inflicted two or three additional and heavy blows. "As soon as life was entirely extinct, the body was hastily buried with all its apparel and decorations and the assemblage dispersed. The Wyandots returned immediately to their hunting ground and the white men to their homes. The murdered chief was known among the whites by the name of Leather Lips. Around the spot where the bones repose the towering forest has given place to the grain fields and the soil above him has for years been furrowed and refurrowed by the plow-share." First a County. The county of Franklin began its political existence, by virtue of a legislative enactment, passed March 30, 1803, and taking effect April 30, 1803. The metes and bounds of the county as originally fixed were as follows: "Beginning on the western boundary of the twentieth range of townships east of the Scioto river, at the corner of sections Nos. 24 and 25 in the 9th township of the 21st range, surveyed by .John Matthews, thence west until it intersects the eastern boundary line of Greene county, thence north with said line until it intersects the State line, thence eastwardly with the said line to the northwest corner of Fairfield county, thence with the western boundary line of Fairfield to the point of beginning." That is, bounded on the east by nearly our present line, south by a line near the middle of what is now Pickaway county, on the west by Greene county, and on the north by Lake Erie. The creation of the county of Delaware in 1808, reduced our northern boundary to its present line; the creation of the county of Pickaway in 1810, reduced our southern boundary to its present limits; the creation of Madison in 1810, and of Union in 1820, reduced our western limits to the boundaries represented by Wheeler's County Map, published in 1842; but subsequently, by an act of the legislature passed the 4th of March, 1845, our western boundary was changed by making Darby creek the line from the northwest corner of Brown to the north line of Pleasant township, as represented by Foote's Map of 1856; and by an act passed the 27th of January, 1857, entitled "An act to annex a part of Licking county to the county of Franklin, there were nine half sections taken from the southwest corner of Licking, and attached to Franklin. This occasions the jog in the eastern line of Truro township, as represented on the maps. Then at the session of 1850-51, a range of sections, being a strip one mile in width and six miles in length, including the town of Winchester, was taken from Fairfield county and attached to the east side of Madison township, in Franklin county, as represented on Foote's Map. The county is now in nearly a square form, and is twenty-two and a half miles in extent north and south. and would probably average a trifle over that from east to west. CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS - 45 First Judges; First Court House; First Jail; First Court Record. On April 6, 1803, the legislature, sitting at Chillicothe, met in joint session of both bodies, house and senate, and elected the following associate judges of the court of common pleas for Franklin county: John Dill, David Jamison and Joseph Foos. The state was divided into three judicial districts. Three presiding judges of common pleas, viz.: Calvin Pease for the first, Wyllys Silliman for the second, and Francis Dunlavy for the third were chosen as such. On the same day Return Jonathan :Meigs, Jr., Samuel Huntington and William Sprigg were elected supreme judges. Associate judges were elected in each of the seventeen counties into which the state was divided, so that the state judiciary in all its branches was established at the same legislative session. The first court of common pleas for the county, therefore, was Hon. Wyllys Silliman, of Washington county, presiding judge; Hon. John Dill. Hon. David Jamison and Hon. Joseph Foos. associate justices or judges. The first session of this court was holden May 10, 1803. The following is The First Court Record. "At a meeting of the associate judges of the court of common pleas. of Franklin county, at the temporary seat of justice of said county, in Franklinton, on Tuesday, the 10th day of May, 1803, present, the Hon. John Dill, chief judge; David Jamison, and Joseph Foos, Esqrs., associate judges of the court aforesaid; Who, having taken their official seats, were attended by Lucas Sullivant, clerk of the said court of common pleas, and they then proceeded to lay off the said county of Franklin into townships, as required by an act of the general assembly of the state of Ohio, entitled `An act to regulate the election of justices of the peace, and for other purposes,' in the following manner to wit.: "Ordered, that all that part of Franklin county contained within the following limits, to-wit: Beginning at the forks of Darby creek, that is, at the junction of what is called Treacles creek with Darby creek, running thence south to the line between the counties of Ross and Franklin ; thence east with said line until it intersects the Scioto river; thence up the same till it comes to a point one mile, on a straight line, above the mouth of Roaring run : and from thence to the point of beginning, do make and constitute the first township in Franklin county, and be called Franklin township. "Ordered, that all that tract or part of Franklin county contained within the following limits and boundaries, to-wit: Beginning on the west hank of the Scioto river, one mile, on a direct line, above the mouth of Roaring run from thence, on a direct line, to the junction of Treacles creek with Darby creek, which is frequently called the forks of Darby; thence south unto the line between the counties of Ross and Franklin ; thence west with said line until it intersects the county line of Greene; thence with the last mentioned line north, and from the point of beginning, up the Scioto to the northern 46 - CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS boundaries of Franklin county, do make and constitute the second township in said county, and be called Darby township. "Ordered, that all that tractor part of Franklin county contained in the following meets (sic) and boundaries, to-wit: Beginning on the east bank of the Scioto river, at the points where the sectional line between the sections number eight and seventeen, in township four, and range twenty-two intersects the Scioto river; thence east with the said sectional line until it intersects the line between the counties of Fairfield and Franklin ; thence south with the same to the line between the counties of Ross and Franklin; thence west with the same until it intersects the Scioto river; thence up the river to the point of beginning, to make and constitute the third township in Franklin county, and be called Harrison township. "Ordered, that all that part of Franklin county contained within the following limits and boundaries, to-wit : Beginning on the east bank of the Scioto river, at the intersection of the sectional line between the sections number eight and seventeen, in the fourth township and twenty-second range; running thence with the said sectional line east, to the line between the counties of Fairfield and Franklin; thence north with said line, and from the point of beginning, with the Scioto, to the northerly boundary of Franklin county, do constitute and make the fourth Township in Franklin county and be called Liberty township. "Ordered, that in Franklin township there be elected two justices of the peace, and that the electors hold their election for that purpose at the temporary place of holding courts for the county of Franklin, in Franklinton, on the twenty-first day of June next, as provided by law. "Ordered, that in Darby township there be elected one justice of the peace, and that the electors in said township hold their election for that purpose at the house of David Mitchell, in said township, on the twenty-first day of June next, as provided by law. "Ordered, that there be elected in Harrison township one justice of the peace, and that the electors in said township hold their election for that purpose at the house of Alexander Laughferty, on one Thomas Renixes' (sic) farm, in their said township, on the twenty-first day of June next, as provided by law. "Ordered, that there be elected in Liberty township two justices of the peace, and that the electors hold their election for that purpose at the house of John Beaty, in said township, on the twenty-first day of June next, as provided by law. "Ordered, that this court be adjourned without delay. "Test. "Lucas SULLIVANT, Clerk." The regular courts for several years were held in hired rooms, until the Franklinton court house was erected, in 1807-8-Lucas Sullivant, contractor. A jail was sooner provided, as was shown by the minutes. The First Jail was a small log building. It was a temporary concern, and remained but a few years. About the same time that the courthouse was erected, a new brick jail was also erected, a few rods northeast from the court- PAGE 47 - PICTURES: OLD FOUR MILE HOUSE, COLUMBUS; FIRST RAILWAY STATION BUILT 1850; THE OLD COVERED BRIDGE ACROSS THE SCIOTO RIVER, AT BROAD STREET, COLUMBUS PAGE 48 - BLANK CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS - 49 house-Arthur O'Harra, contractor. These buildings remained in use until the county seat was removed to Columbus, in 1824. First Justices of the Peace. On the 27th of June, 1803, under the provision of the 26th section of the act regulating elections the following justices of the peace were elected: Zachariah Stephen and James Marshall, in Franklin township; Joshua Ewing, in Darby; William Bennett, in Harrison; Joseph Hunter and Ezra Brown. First Congressman Voted For. On the same day an election was held for a representative in congress, being the first election for a member of congress ever held in the state, the state being then entitled to but one member, and his term was to commence from the fourth of March preceding his election. Jeremiah Morrow was elected. The following are copies of the certificates and abstract of the votes in Franklin county, to-wit "On Monday, the 27th of June, 1803, in conformity to the 26th section of an act of the general assembly of the state of Ohio, entitled `An act to regulate elections,' I called to my assistance David Jamison and Joseph Foos, Esqrs., two of the associate judges of the court of common pleas of Franklin county, and proceeded to open and examine the poll-books returned to me as clerk of said county. from the different townships therein contained, and for a representative in congress, find the votes as thus stated, to-wit: Michael Baldwin, 50; William McMillan. 34; Elias Langham, 44; Jeremiah Morrow, 2. "In testimony whereof, I have hereunto subscribed my name, and affixed the .peal of the county aforesaid, this, the day and year above written. LUCAS SULLIVANT, C. F. C. "We do hereby certify that the above statement of the election held on the 21st of this instan. in the county of Franklin, is a correct statement, as appears from the returns made to the clerk's office. from the several townships in our said county. "Given under our hands this 27th of June, 1803. "DAVID JAMISON, "JOSEPH Foos." First Military Execution. In June. 1813. while the Ohio army of the war of 1812-1815 lay at Franklinton, a soldier. William Fish by name, was shot under sentence of courtmartial on the charge of desertion and threatening the life of his captain. Three other soldiers. whose names were not recorded by the original historian, were also condemned to death, but were pardoned by Gen. William Henry Harrison. One. however. was placed on a coffin by a newly opened grave, blindfolded, and left under the impression that he was to be shot along with Fish. Imagining that the firing squad had missed him, he was restored to nervous 50 - CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS equilibrium only when the general's pardon, with an admonition, was read to him by an adjutant. The First Wedding. The first nuptial ceremony celebrated in Columbus occurred in 1814, the high contracting parties being Mr. George B. Harvey and Miss Jane Armstrong. A week or two later, another couple followed suit. They were Mr. Joseph Dello and Miss Polly Collett. Rev. James Hoge was the officiating minister. These weddings took place on the east side of the river. There were possibly, previous to this date, weddings on the west side of the river. but there are no attainable records thereof. The First Bank Established. The first bank to be established in Columbus began business in 1816. In that year Columbus was first incorporated, fuller mention of which appears elsewhere. The First Ohio Gazetteer. This valuable publication by John Kilbourne appeared in 1816, being duly copyrighted by the author. So great was the demand for the work that it went through six editions in three years. He died in Columbus in 1831. The First Almanac. William Lusk in 1817 published the first almanac at Columbus. To this he added a complete roster of the public officers of the state, by counties, making a pamphlet of sixty-four pages and bestowed on the work the title of "Ohio Register and Western Calendar," which he copyrighted and published for a number of years. He died in Dayton in 1855. In his Register of 1821, lie describes Franklinton as containing a post office, three taverns, a common school and an academy "in which are taught English, Grammar, Geography, Mensuration, Geometry, Trigonometry, Plane and Spherical Surveying, Navigation, Algebra, and Astronomy." He was president, faculty and teacher, all in one, of the institution. He described Worthington as a town containing "a post office, a printing office, four taverns, four mercantile stores, a college. a Masonic hall and a number of large manufactories for woolen clothes, hats, saddles, shoes, combs, etc." A First Presidential Visit. In the latter part of August, 1817, President Monroe and suite passed through this county, on their return from Detroit after his northern tour of inspection of the public fortifications. etc. They were met at Worthington by the Franklin Dragoons. commanded by Captain Vance. and escorted to Columbus, where proper arrangements had been made for the reception : and the CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS - 51 President was received in the state house, and welcomed to the capital by a neat and appropriate speech from Honorable Hiram M. Curry, then treasurer of state. To which the President made a suitable reply, complimenting the "infant city," as he called it, and its inhabitants. They traveled on horseback, and were generally escorted from one town to another by the military, or some distinguished citizens. They rode fast, generally in a canter. Mr. Monroe wore the old-fashioned, three-cornered, cocked hat his dress otherwise was in plain, citizen style. His face was effectually sunburnt from exposure. This troop of dragoons was first organized in time of the war of 1812, and continued until 1832, or 1833, when they disbanded. They were commanded by the following, successive captains : Joseph Vance, Abram J. McDowell, Robert Brotherton, P. H. Olmstead, Joseph McElvain and David Taylor. Captain Vance was a fine military officer, and was in the service, in different grades of office, during the greater part of the war. He was among the early settlers of the county; married in Franklinton in 1805, and remained a resident of the county the balance of his life. He was a surveyor and for many rears the county surveyor; was one of the conspicuous citizens of his day, and highly respected. He died in 1824. Captain McDowell was a military officer of portly and commanding appearance. He was afterward promoted to the rank of colonel, which title he bore through life. He was among the early settlers of the county, and held the office of clerk of the courts and county recorder many years. He was afterward mayor of the city of Columbus. Was a man of free and jovial disposition, and always had warm friends. He died in the fall of 1844, in the fifty-fourth year of his age. Captain Brotherton was the third commander of this popular troop, and was. from that, promoted to the rank of colonel, which title he bore through life. He was a native of Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, and came to Franklinton when a youth, and resided in this county ever after. He married a daughter of Captain Kooken, a family of high respectability. He was of a mild and sociable disposition, and became very popular, apparently without an effort on his part. He served two constitutional terms of four years each, as sheriff, and filled that critical and unpleasant office with peculiar ease and kindness, and was never charged with oppression. He died in November, 1837, aged about forty-five years. Captain McElvain, like his predecessors in the command of the troops, was promoted to the rank of colonel in the Ohio militia, and bore the title of colonel through life. He died suddenly on the 7th of February, 1858. at his residence in Worthington. aged about sixty-five years. Colonel McElvain was one of the first residents of Franklin county. He came here with his father and family, when he was a child, in the spring of 1798, and remained here ever since. He was in turn farmer, merchant, hotel-keeper and public officer. He was many years an assistant at the Ohio penitentiary. He held the office of county treasurer four years, and was superintendent of the county infirmary a number of years, and discharged the duties of his office with kindness and urbanity. 52 - CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS First Toll Bridge. The first toll bridge in Columbus was erected in 1815-1816 by Lucas Sullivant. It was erected across the Scioto on the road leading from Columbus to Franklinton. The bridge was erected under a charter granted by the legislature. This charter or franchise printed elsewhere in full, passed to the ownership of Joseph Sullivant, when the estate of his father, Lucas Sullivant. was divided among his heirs. The National road when located in 1832-1833, crossed at practically the same point, and the superintendent in charge agreed to erect a free bridge at the expense of the United States government, on condition that Sullivant's rights under the charter were abdicated. Public spirited citizens on both sides of the river subscribed eight thousand dollars. and Franklin county, through its board of commissions, added two thousand dollars, and the ten thousand dollars thus raised was paid to Mr. Sullivant. for the abdication of his charter rights. The First Pestilence. The summer and fall of 1823 exceeded anything before known for sickness. The whole country was little else than one vast infirmary-whole families were frequently prostrate without well members enough to take care of the sick ones. The diseases were bilious and intermittent fevers, of all types, from the common fever and ague to the most malignant. Although the mortality was great, still it was not excessively so in proportion to the number of sick. Many prominent men were taken off that season, amongst whom were Lucas Sullivant, Judge John A. McDowell, Judge John Kerr, David S. Broderick, Barzillai Wright, keeper of the penitentiary, and others. The ensuing year. 1824, was also very sickly, but not so much so as 1823. Amongst the prominent old citizens carried off this year were Captain Joseph Vance. Billingsby Bull, Esquire, James Culbertson, John Starr, Sr., and others. First Court House East o f the River. In 1824 the county seat was removed from Franklinton to Columbus and a commodious brick building and jail was erected at the spot where the great stone Temple of Justice on the block bounded by Mound and Fulton and High and Pearl streets now stands. First Extension o f High Street. In 1823 a road was opened extending from the then north end of High street to Worthington drawn at a tangent. This road obviated the use of the former thoroughfare, especially in muddy weather, extending up the Scioto and the Olentangy. This stream, formerly called Whetstone is, by a law passed in February, 1833, to restore the Indian names to certain streams, called Olentangy; and the stream sometimes called Big Walnut and sometimes Big Belly is named Gahannah, though it is said that the name Gahannah is only CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS - 53 applicable to that stream below the junction of the three creeks, Blacklick, Walnut, and Alum-that the Indian word Gahannah signifies three united in one. The First Silk Factory. One often sees in the lawns of the city and along the roadways and boulevards leading out into the suburbs that species of mulberry tree which produces a luscious white berry. Along in the '30s, and a little later perhaps, its stately Latin name, Mora Multicaulus, was on all lips, and young and old prophesied in its name of fortunes so fabulous that Alladin's lamp looked as insignificant, as a fortune getter, as an emaciated firefly under a full moon in August. During the excitement enterprising people made money selling the mulberry trees, or bushes, to other people, who planted and nurtured them for a few years, when they would be able to feed vast colonies of silk worms. which would spin fortunes in silk for the tree owners. The Mora Multicaulus sellers insured the growth of their trees, taking one-half in cash when they were "set out" and the other half the next year, when they come into full leaf and demonstrated their health and abilities to grow under Ohio's climate. The original purveyors made money, but the mulberry growers. the silk worm herders and silk manufacturers did not succeed so satisfactorily. In fact they did not succeed at all, save in having delicious fruit. for table use during the mulberry season. Joseph Sullivant, A. S. Chew and some others formed a company, set out an immense Mora Multicaulus field, contracted for the product of the silk worms in all directions and erected and equipped a big frame silk factory on the west side, but never made a yard or a skein of silk, but abandoned the enterprise, and an antiquarian could not locate the site of the factory at this day if he tried. This Mora Multicaulus business was then and since then denounced and pointed out as a fake and a humbug. But was it? Almost immediately following the Mora Multicaulus failure came the "sugar beet" craze, and it turned out to be a worse humbug than the silk worm business, and history so records it, interspersed at various points by strong implication, with expletives, objurgations and impolite remarks. And yet how unreasonable is "history" with respect to the sugar beet? It came too early or under adverse circumstances, and was whistled down the wind. May it not 1,e that the Mora Multicaulus came ahead of time in this latitude, earning only distrust because it came at an inopportune season of the continent's evolution? The future historian must answer this question. The First Political Millennium. This condition arrived in 1840 and continued throughout the presidential campaign of that year. It was hoe cake, the coon skin and hard cider for the present-"Two dollars a day and roast beef" for the future. The hoe cake, the coon skin and the hard cider came all right. The two dollars a day and roast beef did not appear in a well defined form, but the people, without much regard to party divisions, did help to send one of Ohio's grandest and 54 - CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS most patriotic citizens to the presidential chair-the heroic figure who most largely, from his headquarters on the west side of the river, directed the western and northern campaigns in the war of 1812, sometimes in personal command on the firing line, and whose military genius is not yet fully appreciated, whose achievements as a statesman were cut short by the untimely hand of death. The First Paper Mill. The first paper mill was erected in 1839-40 by Henry Roedter and John Siebert, a mile or two above the upper end of Franklinton, where they for some time carried on the paper making business. It did not, however, succeed well, and Roedter soon passed out of the concern and removed to Cincinnati. It was then for a time owned and worked by Siebert and Ernst Frankenberg, and succeeded no better. It then passed into the hands of Asahel Chittenden, who removed the. machinery to a new brick building, erected for that purpose, just above the National road bridge in Columbus, where it was worked for some time by J. L. Martin and R. H. Hubbell, and then by William Murphy until it was destroyed by fire in 1848. It was then rebuilt and worked by Mr. A. B. Newburgh until the fall of 1849, when it finally closed its business. The same building was afterward converted into machine shop, owned by Messrs. Swan and Davis, and in July, 1854. it was again destroyed by fire-building, machinery and all. The First Newspaper. The first newspaper in Franklin county was established at Worthington by Colonel James Kilbourne, grandfather of Colonel James Kilbourne, the present Columbus manufacturer, in 1811, and named the Western Intelligencer. In 1814 the paper was removed to Columbus, and it finally evolved into the Ohio State Journal of the present day. A full account of that evolution and the evolution of the Press Post, along with the rise and fall of a long line of newspapers down to the present time, finds a, conspicuous place elsewhere in these volumes. The First Turnpike. The Columbus and Sandusky Turnpike was the first ,joint stock company road constructed, any part of which was in Franklin county. On the 1st day of January, 1826, an act was passed by the legislature incorporating John Kilbourne, Abram I. McDowelL Henry Brown, William Neil. Orange Johnson, Orris Parish and Robert Brotherton, of Franklin county. and nineteen others, named in the act and residing along the line of the road, in and about Delaware, Bucyrus and Sandusky. and their associates, by the name of "The Columbus and Sandusky Turnpike company," with a capital of one hundred thousand dollars, with power to increase the same to two hundred thousand dollars: the stock divided into shares of one hundred dollars each : the company to be governed by a board of nine directors. PAGE 55 - PICTURES: CORNER OF HIGH AND LONG STREETS AND CORNER OF BROAD AND HIGH STREETS PAGE 56 - BLANK CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS - 57 The charter was accepted by the company, and by an act of congress passed March 3, 1827, there was thirty-one thousand eight hundred and forty acres of land given to the state of Ohio in trust for the use of the said company, to aid them in the construction of the road. Without unnecessary delay the road was surveyed and located. Colonel Kilbourne was the surveyor and Orange Johnson, Esquire, was one of the locating commissioners and the principal agent for the company from first to last. The road was nearly eight years in constructing and was finished in the fall of 1834. It is one hundred and six miles in length, from Columbus to Sandusky, and cost seventy-four thousand three hundred and seventy-six dollars, being an average cost of a little over seven hundred and one dollars per mile. The charter required that at least eighteen feet in width should be made "an artificial road, composed of stone, gravel, wood or other suitable materials, well compacted together, in such manner as to secure a firm, substantial and even road, rising in the middle with a gradual arch." Upon a proper construction of this clause has hung all the troubles between the road company and the traveling public. The company seem to have supposed that a properly formed clay road would meet the requirements of the charter, while the public seem to have expected a stone or graveled road. The charter required that the governor should, at the proper time, appoint an agent to examine the road and report his opinion in writing to the president of the company, whether the same be completed agreeably to the provisions of the charter: and Nathan Merriman was appointed the agent for that purpose. and he reported "that he had examined the road and that, in his opinion. the same was completed agreeably to the provisions of the act incorporating said company." And thereupon the company erected their gates and exacted toll from those traveling the road. The road was quite all important public improvement at that time, but it was only a clay or mud pike. and in the spring and wet seasons of the year it was in places almost impassable: and to be obliged to pay toll at such times was grievously complained of and the gates occasionally torn down ; but the agent of the company would immediately re-erect them. The subject was finally brought before the legislature and on the 28th of February. 1843. the act incorporating the company was unconditionally repealed : and it was further provided that it should not be lawful thereafter for said company to erect or keep up any gate or collect any tolls on the road. At the same session, in March, 1843. commissioners were appointed for that purpose. who surveyed and laid out a state road from Columbus to Sandusky upon the bed of the turnpike; and on the 12th of March, 1845. an act was passed establishing the same a public highway. Until this time the toll gates had been kept up and toll received, notwithstanding the repeal of the charter. But immediately after the passage of this act the gates on the road were torn down by an excited populace and never more erected. There was but one gate on this road within the bounds of Franklin county, and that was about two miles north of Columbus. The company claim that these acts of the legislature were unconstitutional: that their road had been made according to the provisions of the charter, and relied most particularly upon the decision of the state agent. who had formally accepted the 58 - CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS road, and they kept applying regularly to each successive legislature for relief. At the session of 1843-4 a committee, of which Dr. S. Parsons was chairman, reported in favor of the road company conveying to the state all their rights, interests and privileges in the road, and that the state pay the stockholders severally the amount of their stock in state bonds, and that the road be declared one of the public works of the state and placed under the control and supervision of the board of public works. In 1847, by a resolution of the legislature, the subject was referred to the attorney general (Henry Stanberry, Esquire), and in his report he did not directly give an opinion on the constitutionality of the repeal, but says: "I am of opinion that a wrong has been done the company," etc. At the session of 1856-7 a bill passed the senate to authorize the company to bring suit against the state for injustice done in the repeal of the charter, but the bill was lost in the house and the project was never revived. The Columbus and Worthington Plank Road or Turnpike, the Columbus and Portsmouth Turnpike, the Columbus and Harrisburg Turnpike. the Columbus and John: town Turnpike Road, the Columbus and Sunbury Turnpike and Plank Road, the Columbus and Granville Plank Road or Turnpike. The Columbus and Groveport Turnpike, the Cottage Mills and Harrisburg Turnpike, the Franklin and Jackson Turnpike, the Columbus and Lockwin (Lockbourne) Plank Road, the Clinton and Blendon Plank road, and other state and county highways which radiated from Columbus in all directions between 1826 and 1856, indicated how securely the city was attracting to herself the great possibilities incident not only to her outlying townships, but the adjoining counties east, west, north and south, two or three. tiers deep with the great National Road bisecting the state east and west from Virginia to Indiana and the west and the great State Road-the first above named-bisecting it north and south, from Sandusky to Portsmouth, from Lake Harbor to navigable rivers, crossing at right angles under the shadow of the dome of the capitol. Originally all these were toll roads, and one by one were bought by the county and the cost of purchase assessed against the abutting farm owners within prescribed limits, the last toll road disappearing about 1891-2. Free turnpike.. with the mile limit on either side, has given the country a good highway system. touching almost directly every section of land within its limits. The First Canal. The first canal in Columbus was a. branch of the Ohio canal, and was the last one as well. On the 30th of April, 1827. was the commencement of the first. manual operations upon this part of the Ohio canal. The citizens of Columbus and its neighborhood, to the number of eight or nine hundred. assembled at the state house and at two o'clock formed a procession, marshaled by Colonels McDowell and McElvain. and preceded by General Warner and his suite and parts of Captain Joseph McElvain's company of dragoons, Captain Foos's company of riflemen, Columbus Artillery and state officers, and marched to the ground. near where Comstock's warehouse stood at that time. CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS - 59 Joseph R. Swan, Esquire, delivered a short but pertinent address, and at its close General McLene, then secretary of state, and Nathaniel McLean, Esquire, then keeper of the penitentiary, proceeded to remove the first earth from the lateral canal, which was wheeled from the ground by Messrs. R. Osborn and H. Brown, then auditor and treasurer of state, amidst the reiterated shouts of the assembly. The company then retired from the ground to partake of a cold collation, prepared by Mr. C. Heyl, on the brow of the hill a few rods north of the penitentiary square. After the cloth was removed the following. among other toasts, were drunk: "The Ohio Canal"-The great artery which will carry vitality to the extremities of the Union." "The Citizens of Columbus -Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Who envies this day, let him slink back to his cavern and growl." This branch of canal was over four years in process of construction. The heaviest jobs were the canal dam across the Scioto and the Columbus locks. Messrs. W. McElvain. A. McElvain. B. Sells and P. Sells, contractors; the four mile locks at Lockbourne, the Granville Company, consisting of Messrs. Monson. Fasset. Taylor and Avery, contractors. The first mile from the Scioto was excavated by the penitentiary convicts under guards. Such men were selected by the keeper as would have least inducements to break away; and they generally received a remitment of part of their sentences for faithful services. The farming and producing part of the community were watching with great anxiety the progress of this work, pretty correctly anticipating the new era that the completion of the canals would introduce in the Ohio market. Of the substantial farmers along this short line who were thus watching its progress might be named William Merion, Moses Merrill. William Stewart. R. C. Henderson. Joseph Fisher, Andrew Dill, Percival Adams. Michael Stimmel. Fergus Morehead. Samuel Riley. James German, Thomas Morris, William Bennett. Jacob Plum, Luke Decker and Thomas Valise. Of whom Messrs . Adams. Stimmel and Riley were the only survivors in 1853. On the 23d of September. 1831. the first boat arrived at Columbus by way of the canal. About eight o'clock in the evening the firing of cannon announced the approach of the "Governor Brown." a canal boat launched at Circleville a. few days previous and neatly fitted up for an excursion of pleasure to this place, several of the most respectable citizens of Pickaway county being on hoard as passengers. The next morning at an early hour a. considerable number of ladies and gentlemen of Columbus repaired to the boat in order to pay their respects to the visitors; and after the delivery of a brief but vary appropriate address by General Flournoy. exchanging those friendly salutations and cordial greetings which the occasion was so well calculated to call forth, the party proceeded back to Circleville. accompanied a short distance by a respectable number of the citizens of Columbus and the Columbus band of music. On the afternoon of the second day after, two canal boats, the "Cincinnati" and the 'Red Rover," from the lake by way of Newark, entered the lock at the mouth of the Columbus feeder, where they were received by a 60 - CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS committee appointed for that purpose, and proceeded, under a national salute of twenty-four guns and music from the Columbus band, to a point just below the National road bridge, where the commanders were welcomed, in the name of the citizens of Columbus, by Colonel Doherty in a very neat address. A procession was then formed, when the company proceeded to Mr. Ridgeway'; large warehouse and partook of a collation prepared in handsome style by Mr. John Young. A third boat, the "Lady Jane," arrived soon afterward and was received in a similar manner. On the day following, these boats having disposed of their freight, took their departure for Cleveland in the same order and with about the same ceremonies as on their arrival, a large number of ladies and gentlemen, together with the Columbus band, accompanying their welcome visitors as far as the five-mile locks. Here they met the "Chillicothe" and "George Baker,"' which took them on board, and they returned home, highly delighted with their ride, at the rate of three or four miles an hour. The First Canal Toll Collector. Joseph Ridgeway, Jr., was the first collector of canal tolls, and kept the office up at the Ridgeway warehouse on Broad street, and nearly all the boats passed up there to put out and take in freight. M. S. Hunter was the second collector, and the office was removed to the head of the canal, where it continued ever after, and the freight business was nearly all done there following the removal of the office. David S. Doherty was the third collector, Charles B. Flood the fourth, Samuel McElvain the fifth and Benjamin Tressenrider the sixth. The First Poorhouse. The first poorhouse or county infirmary was erected on the Olentangy within the present general limits of the city in 1832, under the provisions of an act of the legislature of the date of March 8, 1831. Captain Robert Cloud was appointed superintendent. Further reference to this and subsequent buildings more appropriately occupy space in another chapter. The First Agricultural Society Was organized at a public meeting in the city hall on the 6th of September, 1851, and the following officers were elected: President. Samuel Medary: vice president. Samuel Brush ; treasurer, George M. Peters : secretary. William Dennison, Jr.: managers. Pliny Curtis, David Taylor. Joseph O'Hara, William L. Miner and William H. Rarey. A committee of three was appointed from each ward and township to obtain subscribers to the institution and collect dues from the members. The First Horticultural Society. The Columbus Horticultural Society was organized April 10. 1845. The officers elected May 12, 1845. were : President. Bela Latham : vice presidents, W. S. Sullivant and Samuel Medary: recording secretary. Joseph Sullivant; CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS - 61 corresponding secretary, M. B. Bateman, treasurer, John W. Andrews; manager. Dr. I. G. Jones. John Burr, John A. Lazell, John Fisher, Moses Jewett, John Miller and Leander Ransom. The first county agricultural fair was held on the state fair grounds near Franklinton in October, 1851. The first horticultural fair and exhibition was held September 26, 1845. The First Sale of Lots. The. first sale of lots in the city of Columbus began on June 18, 1812, and ,continued as a public vendue for three days, and after that they were disposed of at private sale. The First State House. The old state house was built on the southwest corner of the Capitol Square in 1814. A fuller description and an account of its destruction by fire appears elsewhere. The First Stores. The first stores in Columbus, say from 1812 to 1818, were opened in the following order and conducted or "kept" by the following persons, respectively Belonging to the Worthington Manufacturing Company, kept by Joel Buttles in a small brick building on west end of lot later covered by the Broadway Exchange. Belonging to McLene & Green. in a log cabin on Rich street. Three connected cabins, kept as a bakery and place of entertainment by Christian Heyl. The First Taverns. The first tavern was kept by Volney Payne in a two-story brick on the lot afterward occupied by the Johnston building, Volney Payne, John Collett, John McIlvain, Robert Russell and James Robinson, respectively, conducted this house until 1844. In 1844 Daniel Kooser opened a tavern on Front street, south of State, and a Mr. McCollum opened one on Front, north of Broadway. The Franklin, afterward called the Nagle, was kept by Christian Heyl, and several smaller hotels, incident to a growing town of that day, were kept, but without special designation. Later, in 1815, David S. Broderick opened the "Columbus Inn" in a large frame building on the corner of Town and High. In 1816 James B. Gardiner opened a tavern on Friend (Main) street, just west of High. Mr. Broderick having retired from the hotel business in 1818, Gardiner took charge of the stand, corner of Town and High, and called it "The Rose Tree," with the Biblical quotation: "The wilderness shall blossom as the rose." The stand for a time was known as the "Franklin House" and the "City House," and possibly was otherwise designated. When Mr. Gardiner removed from Friend (Main) street to take charge of "The Rose Tree," (Judge) Jarvis Pike 62 - CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS took charge of the former stand and renamed it "The Yankee Tavern."' About 1815-16 there was a somewhat famous "place" yclept "The War Office." where, between drinking and carousing and quarreling and fighting, Squire Shields, who was among the first justices of the peace, was enabled to run a pretty heavy police docket at times. . The First School and School Teachers. The first school taught in Columbus was in a cabin that stood on the public square (teacher's name not now known) ; then succeeded as teachers, in 1814-15, and so on, Uriah Case, John Peoples, W. T. Martin, a Mr. Whitehill, Joseph Olds (afterward a distinguished lawyer and member of congress), Dr. Peleg Sisson (while acquiring his profession), Samuel Bigger (afterward governor of Indiana.), Rudolph Dickinson (for a number of years a member of the board of public works and member of congress), Daniel Bigelow, Orange Davis. a Mr. Christie. Rev. Mr. Labare, Cyrus Parker, H. N. Hubbell, Andrew Williams, and a number of others not now recollected, who were all teachers of common subscription schools in Columbus before the introduction of the present free school system. The First Census. In the spring of 1815 the census of the town was taken by James Marshal. Esquire, and amounted to about seven hundred. By this time there were some half dozen or more of stores, among which were those of Alexander Morrison, Joel Buttles, Henry Brown, Delano & Cutler and J. & R. W. McCoy; and a printing office issuing a weekly paper. The First Lawyers. The first lawyers to locate in Columbus were David Smith, Orris Parish. David Scott and Gustavus Swan. about the year 1815. Shortly after, succeeded John R. Parish, T. C. Flournoy. Janes K. Cory, William Doherty and others. Mr. Parish died in June, 1829, in the forty-third year of his age. He was a man of vigorous mind and an able lawyer and legislator. and for a time quite popular. But he had his frailties. Mr. Cory died the first day of January. 1827, in his twenty-ninth year. He was a promising young lawyer from Cooperstown, New York, and had resided in Columbus some seven or eight years. On the same day Dr. Daniel Turney. a popular physician of Columbus, died from the effects of poison. Colonel Doherty was a native of Charleston, South Carolina, from whence he came to Ohio during the war of 1812, and took up his residence in Columbus in 1816. He subsequently, in 1820, married a daughter of General McLene, and made Columbus his residence the balance of his life. He possessed a turn of mind for public business, and. being a man of fine appearance PAGE 63 - PICTURES: FACADE OF THE BROAD STREET BAPTIST TEMPLE AND THE BROAD STREET METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. PAGE 64 - BLANK CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS - 65 and pleasant address, became popular and filled some highly respectable and lucrative offices. He was for seven years in succession clerk of the house of representatives in the Ohio legislature-one session at Chillicothe and six at Columbus. The clerks then received five dollars per day, while the members received three dollars. He was also for a number of years adjutant general of the state of Ohio. He was afterward United States marshal for the district of Ohio four years. He had, however, previous to this and since his residence in Columbus. prosecuted the study of the law and been admitted to the practice. In 1831 he was elected senator for the district of Franklin and Pickaway counties. and was at his first session chosen speaker of that body-a compliment rarely bestowed on a new member. But, he was competent to fill the place and filled it to the general satisfaction of the senate. He died in February, 1840, at the age of fifty years. The First Postoffice. The Columbus postoffice was established in 1813 and was made a distributing office in 1838. From that period it has grown constantly. The First Market House. The first market house was erected in 1814 by voluntary contributions of property holders in the vicinity of its location. It was a substantial frame. probably fifty feet in length and proportionable in width and height. It was situated in the middle of High street, a little south of Rich street. It continued there until the town became incorporated. Immediately after the incorporation the subject of a new market house and the proper place for its location was agitated. Rich street, Town street, State street and Broad street were all proposed as sites. Property holders on Broad street were strenuous iii favor of it, arguing its greater width than any other street and drawing the inference therefrom that it must have been designed in the plan of the town for the market house. Joseph Miller, who bought and erected the front of the building afterward known as the "Buckeye House," as early as 1816, it is said, was influenced in his purchase and made large improvements in the confident belief that the market house would be established nearly in front of his house. But about the year 1817 it was determined by the council in favor of locating it on State street. immediately west of High; and pursuant to contract. John Shields erected the new market house. It was a two-story building, something larger than the old frame, the under story of brick for a market house for the town, and the second story was a pretty well finished frame, divided into two large and well finished rooms and belonged to Shields. Thus he furnished a market house for the town for the privilege of having rooms of his own over it. These rooms he rented out for various purposes : one was occupied as a printing office and the other was for a time used by himself, and occasionally others, to hold preaching in. After some years Shields sold out to John 68 - CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS Young, and by him the rooms were appropriated to amusement and gaining. The first billiard table kept in town was in the upper part of this market house. About the year 1829 or 1830 the council bought out Young's interest and the building was removed and a larger market house, without any rooms above, was erected on the same site-Elijah Ellis, contractor. This building continued until the erection of the market house on Fourth street. The First Corporation. On the 10th of February, 1816, the town was incorporated as "The Borough of Columbus," and on the first Monday in May following, Robert W. McCoy, John Cutler, Robert Armstrong, Henry Brown, Caleb Houston, Michael Patton, Jeremiah Armstrong, Jarvis Pike and John Kerr were elected the first board of councilmen. First Town Wit and Poet. James B. Gardiner, who was the wit of the day, composed the following off-hand doggerel verse with reference to their occupations, with which he would occasionally amuse himself by repeating to the members : I sell buckram and tape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . McCoy. I sell crocks and leather . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Cutler. I am the gentleman's ape . . . . .. . . . . . . . R. Armstrong. I am all that together . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brown. I build houses and barns . . . . . . . . . . . . . Houston. I do the public carving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Patton. I sell cakes and beer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . J. Armstrong. I am almost starving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pike. I sell lots and the like . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kerr. And dabble in speculation We and his Majesty Pike (Mayor Pike) Make a splendid corporation. Mr. Gardiner was very apt in writing amusing and satirical verse and was in the habit of using the signature "Cokeley" until he was familiarly known by that name to all his acquaintances, and he was frequently so addressed by his jocular friends. But he also wrote some very fine patriotic and sentimental poetry for July celebrations and such occasions. He removed from Columbus to Greene county about the year 1823. and while there represented that county in the state legislature. He afterward returned to Columbus, and in 1834 was elected state printer for three years. He died in April, 1837, aged forty-eight years. The First Incorporated Bank. The Franklin Bank of Columbus was incorporated by the act of the legislature February 3, 1816, and on the first Monday of September, 1816, the first election of directors was held, the following being elected: Lucas Sullivant, CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS - 67 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. Lucas Sullivant was chosen the first president, and his immediate successors were: Benjamin Gardiner, John Kerr, Gustavus Sevan. The charter of the institution expired January 1, 1843. First Big Sensation. The first big sensation in banking, social and political circles occurred shortly after in the sudden disappearance of Benjamin Gardiner, the second president of the Franklin Bank, although it does not appear that he misapplied or carried off the money of others. This gentleman, whose true name was Barzillai Gannett, had left his home and family in one of the eastern states under unfavorable circumstances and obtained an appointment by the name of Benjamin Gardiner as quartermaster in the army, and was stationed at Franklinton during the war. He was grave and dignified in his appearance and manners and obtained a high reputation in the church and society generally, and married into a respectable connection in this county. But, unfortunately for him, his history followed him, and to avoid a prosecution for bigamy he left clandestinely and was never heard of, except perhaps by a few confidential friends. The First Cotton Yarn Mill. Colonel Jewett and Judge Hines erected a mill for spinning cotton yarns in 1821, run by horse power, on Front street, between Rich and Friend (Main) streets. Later it was run by water power, and it continued for some years, but was never very successful. First Woolen Factory. Ebenezer Thomas and others erected a woolen factory for carding, spinning and weaving at the corner of High and Noble streets. This venture, too, was not a great success. First Steam Sawmill. The first steam sawmill was erected in 1831-1832 by John Mcllvain at the head of the Columbus branch of the Ohio canal. It was only comparatively successful in a business sense. The First Plow Factory. The first manufactory which was a success from the start was a plow factory and foundry established by Joseph Ridgeway in 1822. This being the heart of a great agricultural district, this establishment possessed signal advantages. 68 - CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS The First Addition. The town was originally laid out in 1812 and the plat regularly made and laid down. The first addition was made to the original plat in 1814 by John McGown and called by him "South Columbus." The surveyor and platter was John Shields. The First Insurance Company. The Columbus Insurance Company was chartered by the legislature of 1832-33 and was known as the Columbus Insurance Company. It continued in business less than a score of years and went upon the shoals of failure in 1851. First a City. Columbus was incorporated as a city by the act of February, 1834. and entered upon a vigorous growth and began to expand its boundaries iii all directions, as well as to take on the air and appearance of solidity. The First Theater. In the fall of 1835 the first public play house or theater was opened. It was a large frame building and was erected on the west side of High street. between Broad and Gay, and was opened "by a corps of dramatic performers under the management of Messrs. Dean & McKinney." says the original chronicler. The First Balloon Ascension. The first balloon ascension to be witnessed at Columbus was made on the 4th of July, 1842, from the state house grounds, in the presence of a great concourse of people, gathered from a radius of thirty or forty miles, who came on horseback, in vehicles and on foot. A Mr. Clayton of Cincinnati was the aeronaut. The First State Bank Law. In February, 1845, what was known as the state banking law was passed by the legislature, and three banks were organized under it in the city during that year. The First Railway Passenger Train. The first railway passenger train entered Columbus, coming in over what was then called the Columbus & Xenia Railroad, now a part of the Panhandle System of the Pennsylvania Railway Company. It arrived on the 26th of February, 1850. The First Museum. Mr. William T. Martin, writing of this interesting event, says: "In July, 1851, Captain Walcutt first opened his Museum in Columbus. It then consisted CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS - 69 of only six or seven wax figures and a few paintings. It for a time attracted as much attention and patronage as could be expected from so small a collection. He has been since then constantly adding to it, until it now comprises over twenty good wax figures, two or three hundred specimens of beasts, birds, fossils and other curiosities and about one hundred fine oil paintings, presenting quite a respectable collection. But those of our citizens who saw it or heard of it in its infancy are not aware of its improvements and do not seem to fully appreciate it." With 1858-1860 the "firsts" of the ancient era and regime ceased and determined, and the present forms are but the outgrowth and improvements upon those which have gone before, and in none more conspicuously than those forms appertaining to transportation, trade and travel, which appeared in its original forms in the Columbus & Xenia, Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati and the Ohio Central Railways of over fifty years ago. The present great system, more elaborately presented elsewhere, including the electric street railways, evolving from the earlier tramways or horse cars, and the great web of traction and interurban lines, is but the advanced growth from the earlier forms, some of them remoter than the middle of the nineteenth century. Instead of one steam railroad alone, as in 1850, bringing annually from eight. thousand to twelve thousand visitors into the city, it now has eighteen steam roads in operation, and others in contemplation for the near future, with an average of one hundred and fifty passenger trains entering and leaving daily, and in touch with all the trunk lines more than three million two hundred and fifty thousand visitors enter the city annually. Ten electric lines in operation, radiating in every direction. bring in and carry out more passengers daily than arrive and depart over the steam roads, so that the passengers in and out annually by both systems reach eight million or ten million. (RETURN TO THE TITLE PAGE)