STREETS, SEWERS AND PARKS - 525

fireworks and a parade of the Columbus Cadets. The dancing was kept up until after midnight. Captain W. B. Parisen, the patentee and superintendent of construction of the pavement, meanwhile entertained his friends at the parlors of the American House.

When the Nicholson pavement was laid, " a healthy streak of cleanliness struck the authorities," said a newspaper writer, "and horsebrooms were set to work, but the work was not kept up. The streets, not excepting the newly paved one, soon relapsed into a state of neglect, of the continuance of which, in 1874, we have evidence in these statements of July 10, that year : "The thousands of cart-loads of ashes thrown on our streets during the last winter by private citizens and city officials have now done double duty. During the winter they gave us an interminable abyss of hogwallow ; all summer long they have been a principal source ofinterest in the shape of dense and varied, if not beautiful, clouds of dust."' On November 9, 1874, propositions to clean the streets were made by the Columbus Scavenger & Garbage Company, and at a later date these propositions were accepted by the Police Commissioners.

On June 21, 1875, ordinances were passed providing for the pavement of Town and North High streets with concrete. The Town Street contract was awarded on August 9 to F. W. Smith & Co , at 95 cents per square yard, for which compensation the contractors were to surface the old Nicholson with a coating of small stone and bitumen, and, on top of that, a 2 ½ inch layer of Filbert,s patent vulcanite. As the work was about to begin, Captain N. B. Abbott, then of Brooklyn, New York, gave notice that he would enjoin the execution of this contract as an infringement of his patent on the process for surfacing Nicholson pavements, whereupon all further proceedings were suspended. On August 23 a new ordinance for the paving of Town Street was passed, and on October 4 a contract with F. W. Smith & Co. to pave the street from High Street to Parsons Avenue, at $1.25 per square yard, was ordered. This contract provided for a central roadway of concrete, leaving a strip of the Nicholson on each side, between the concrete and the curb. The completion of the High Street pavement, between Broad and Long streets, was celebrated by a street dancing party at the corner of High and Gay streets September 29. State Street, from High Street to the City Hall, was laid with the Abbott concrete in the autumn of 1877. This was an experimental piece of work, and was the first use made of concrete composed of Trinidad asphalt. (Patent was for Trinidad asphalt and petroleum wax, with some sand and gravel.) Already in 1877 the condition of the Parisen coaltar pavement on High Street had become very bad, and extensive repairs were urgently needed. An ordinance for the repair of the street was therefore passed on August 21. and the Columbus Paving Com- pany — H. M. Claflen President and. N. B. Abbott Manager — was employed to execute the work. An ordinance of April 16, 1880, authorized the property owners on High Street to pave it by blocks or squares and be relieved of assessment. A sweeping machine for High Street was purchased in the autumn of 1875. On September 5, 1877, N. B. Abbott began cleaning the street six nights of the week with a onehorse sweeper, and offered to continue this service regularly at $400 per month. An ordinance for the improvement of South High Street was passed January 22, 1877.

Of the North High Street improvement, authorized by ordinance of June 21, 1875, the author has been favored with the following sketch by DeWitt C. Jones, Esquire:

During the year 1876 North high Street, from Naghten Street to the north corporation line, a distance of 3 1/2 miles, was improved under an net of the General Assembly of Ohio, passed March 30, 1875, commonly called the Penn Act. At that time more than three miles of the roadway to be paved was a mere country turnpike, known as the Worthington Toll Road, comprising a track thirteen feet wide flanked on each side by a ditch without curbing. The act authorized the improvement of this street, but required, as preliminary to action in

526 - HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

that behalf by the City Council, that two thirds of the owners of the abutting property

was should unite in a petition for the improvement to be made under the ad. Such a petition w s signed by the property owners in the spring of 1875. There were likewise numerous remonstrances against the proposed improvement ; nevertheless it was authorized by an ordinance of June 21, 1875, which also provided for the election of five commissioners to superintend the work. At an election held at the schoolhouse, High Street and Woodruff Avenue, John G. Mitchell, Frederick Michel, John H. Hughes, Henry M. Neil and G. A. Frambes were chosen to serve on the board. The power of these commissioners was extensive. They determined the kind of improvement to be made, let all the contracts and made the assessment upon the abutting property. The contract for the whole of the work and materials was let to the Columbus Paving Company, which completed the work in the fall of 1876.4 The total cost was *226,253. As the work progressed bonds aggregating this amount were signed by the Mayor and City Clerk, and delivered to the commissioners who negotiated them and paid the cost of the improvement with the proceeds

After the work was completed, the commissioners caused a plat to be made showing each abutting lot or parcel of ground, together with the name of its owner. At this point a disagreement arose among the commissioners as to the meaning of the words "abutting property." Some of them thought that the cost of the improvement at the crossings of streets and alleys, amounting to $25,828, or more than onetenth of the entire cost, should be paid for by the city at large and not assessed upon the property owners on High Street. In order to settle this dispute mandamus proceedings were brought in the Supreme Court of the State, which held' the Penn Act to be unconstitutional on the ground that it was a special act applying to Columbus alone. At the same time the court held that inasmuch as the work had been done at the request of a large number of property owners, and the bonds of the city had been issued and were unpaid, the commissioners should make an assessment embracing the entire cost of the improvement to be charged on the abutting property other than streets and alleys. The court further held that, as there was no power to sell streets and alleys to enforce the collection of any assessment made on them, such assessment was futile, and that such was not the design of the act.

After the assessment was made upon the abutting lands a very large number of suits was brought to enjoin collection of the assessments, on the ground that the law had been he! .d to be unconstitutional; charging fraud in procuring signatures of property owners to the original petition to the council asking for the privileges of the act of March 30, 1875; and alleging that twothirds of the frontage were not represented on the petition. After long, tedious and expensive litigation through all the courts, those who in any manner participated in or in any wise encouraged the making of the improvement were held to pay the assessment on their properties ; while those who opposed the improvement, or took no part in favor of it, escaped, and their lands were not held to pay the assessment. The original assessment was $7.15 per front foot, upon all the property on both sides of the street. The bonds drew seven per cent. interest, and when the litigation was at an end the original assessment and interest amounted to about twelve dollars per front foot. That portion of the assessment which was enjoined was paid by the city at large.

A statement of the development of the public inconvenience caused by obstructing railway trains at the High Street crossing will be found in Chapter XVIII of this volume. When railway lines first began to touch Columbus, the council, in its zeal to promote their construction, and hasten the advantages to be derived from them, practically voted them the freedom of the city. The extent of the inconvenience which has since resulted from the passage of steam cars through the streets was not then foreseen. Complaints of this inconvenience, which began to be serious in the sixties, and have covered a period of not less than thirty years, culminated in the construction of a tunnel under the railway tracks in 1875.6 An ordinance granting the street railway company a right of way through this tunnel was passed on December 5 of that year. So far as the pedestrian and vehicular travel were concerned, the tunnel afforded no adequate relief. It was therefore 'necessary that some other expedient should be found for the relief of the street from railway obstruction, and, on August 1, 1881, the matter was referred in the council to a special committee. That committee reported December 19, 1881, presenting a communication from prominent citizens containing the following statements :

The daily experience of the public shows it [the railway obstruction of High Street] to have become almost insupportable. That the main business artery of a city of 60,000 inhab-

STREETS, SEWERS AND PARKS - 527

itants should be cut in two and all movement thereon should be blockaded during a large portion of each day, is probably without a parallel in this country. . . . With a view to obtaining some basis on which action may be initiated, the undersigned, have, at their own cost, employed an engineer of the highest qualifications . . . who has made an examination of the premises, and whose report, with an accompanying plat, we herewith submit.

The matter was further agitated in the council, the Board of Trade and the press until an arrangement was made, between the city and the railways, for the viaduct now in course of construction. The City 'Engineer,s report for 1884 contained the following passages:

The improvement of High Street from Livingston Avenue to Naghten Street has periodically engaged the attention of property owners along the line of the street for eighteen years. . . . Prior to 1867 the street was a graveled roadway ; during the year 1867 the wooden block pavement was put down. This pavement proved to be a miserable abortion and cost the property owners along the line of the street, from a point 125 feet south of Main Street, $100,170.93, and the Street Railroad Company $5.757 ; total cost, $105,927.93. This pavement remained in tolerably good condition for about four years, when it began to fail, and from that time to the end of its existence in 1876 it was a miserable roadway. In 1876 the Hastings asphalt was put down from 125 feet south of Main Street to Naghten Street, and the Filbert asphalt from 125 feet south of Main to Livingston Avenue. The Hastings asphalt cost $84,012.81 and the Filbert pavement put down the following year cost $16,465.94. Total cost of wooden block and asphalt pavements, $206,406.76. This is not all, for the cost of repairs of the wooden block and asphalt was $45,150, making a grandtotal of the cost of wooden block and asphalt pavements of $251,556.76, in round numbers a quarter of a million dollars — more than would have been sufficient to put down a granite block pavement which would have worn for thirty or forty years, with but little cost for repairs.

In 1885 the paving of High Street began under an ordinance permitting the work to be done by private Contract by the property owners. About one third of the street was let to Booth & Flynn, of Pittsburgh, whose surface metal consisted of blocks of Ligonier stone packed with sand. Another onethird of the work was done by N. B. Abbott, whose surfacing was composed of Medina stone blocks with pitch filling. In 1886 contracts for the remaining onethird were advertised for by the council and let to George W. Foster and W. H. Venable, of Atlanta, Georgia, the surfacing to be done with Georgia granite blocks and pitch filling. These con- tracts were sublet by the Georgia company to N. B. Abbott, who executed the work. Part of it comprises that portion of the street which lies contiguous to the Capitol Square. A long controversy as to the application of pitch filling resulted in permission to use it in laying the Georgia and Medina 'blocks.

An ordinance providing for the renumbering of houses, and prescribing a system therefor, was passed in March, 1887. In the course of that year a general improvement of the thoroughfares of the city was begun under the Taylor Law, an account of which has been elsewhere given. The operations of this law are described in Chapter XXXII of Volume I, to which chapter is appended a tabulation showing the cost of the street improvements of the city from 1875 to 1892 inclusive. A more particular account of recent street paving in the city is appended to the present chapter.

From want of system in surveying and looseness in approving building lot additions to the city, much crookedness, irregularity and other disfigurement of the streets and alleys have resulted. Efforts to correct these mistakes by opening, widening or straightening the thoroughfares spoiled by them have caused a great amount of controversy, litigation and expense. Some of the finest streets are permanently disfigured —a fact the more noticeable in a city unusually favored in the general regularity and amplitude of its thoroughfares. Efforts to clear the streets and alleys of the unsightly poles and wires used for electric service have at various times been made, but thus far without success. An obvious and practicable escape from this nuisance is found in placing all electric wires underground, and this expedient will doubtless in course of time be reached.

528 - HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

The duty of the State and the United States governments to pay their proportionate share of the expense of grading, paving and cleaning the streets and alleys contiguous to their grounds and buildings has been the subject of intermittent discussion for at least a quarter of a century past. In January, 1879, the matter was brought to the attention of the General Assembly by a petition from the City Council, in which many prominent citizens united. In this petition it was stated that extensive improvements had been made on the streets and pavements adjacent to the property of the State; that the grounds on which the public buildings had been located were donated by the people of the city ; that the people of Franklin County had voluntarily levied upon themselves a tax of $300,000 to establish and locate the Agricultural College ; that more than half the sum thus levied had been paid by the people of Columbus; that no claim had made on account of the sewers built by the city and used by the State ; that 3,000 feet of paving touching the Agricultural College grounds on North High Street had been paid for from the proceeds of bonds issued by the city ; that no part of the cost of this improvement had been assessed upon the college farm ; and that the finances of the city had been crippled by such exemptions of State property. The petitioners therefore asked that an appropriation of $50,000 be made from the State Treasury as an equitable indemnity to the city for its street improvement obligations and expenditures directly beneficial to the State buildings and institutions.

This petition failed to move the General Assembly to take the action desired, nOr has the State made any payments for street improvements contiguous to its property, excepting portions of the paving around the Capitol Square and the asphalt on Town Street fronting the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb. The State now stands charged with the following assessments, all made under the Taylor Law excepting that for paving touching the Capitol Square on Broad Street :

The Peters Run sewer, as originally projected, was intended to furnish drainage to the greater part of the city. It connected with the Oak and Fourth Street sewers, was designed to connect with an intercepting lateral on Front Street, and was to be conducted to a point where it would disgorge into the Scioto, below the city. Apprehension of legal difficulties to be encountered should the sewer seek its outlet outside the corporation boundaries caused the' stoppage of its construction at a point about one square west of Front Street where it discharged its contents into Peters Run, thus causing a great nuisance to the southern part of the city, while at the same time the discharge of many other sewers into the river where its current was checked by the State dam, was rapidly creating a general nuisance for the entire city. Such was the situation in 1872,

STREETS, SEWERS AND PARKS - 531

In 1873-4 the Peters Run Sewer was extended to the river by crossing the canal through a conduit called an aqueduct.

Up to this time the construction of sewers in the city had been entirely destitute of system.9 The controlling motive had been to discharge the sewage into the river by the shortest possible route. Many of the conduits were so defectively constructed as to lodge the filth at their turning points, and discharge both fluids and gases through numerous leaks into the streets. A plentiful harvest of disease and death was the inevitable result of this heedless scheme of infection. An outbreak of the cholera which claimed many victims in 1873 was directly traced to a frightfully vile sewer near the Penitentiary. This nest of pestilence disseminated its germs of death through various openings. As soon as these were closed and the sewer cleansed the epidemic was stayed. How much typhoid, "malaria" and other forms of disease have resulted from the leakages of " shoddy " sewers built at the expense of their victims can never be known ; undoubtedly a great deal. It is one of the least aggravating circumstances of the case that many of these death breeders which have contaminated the atmosphere both in the streets and in the homes of the people have cost far more than honest work was really worth. Had the sewers been built scientifically and systematically from the beginning, and their discharges been rationally disposed of, not only would the money cost of the work have been far less, but the hygienic benefits conferred would have been far greater.

The northeast and northwest trunk sewer ordinances were passed August 11, 1879 ; estimated total cost $155,000. In July, 1880, the route of the northwest sewer was so changed as to make it discharge into the Scioto instead of the Whetstone. For the information which here follows as to these and other main sewer lines the writer is indebted to the City Engineer, Mr. Josiah Kinnear, and Mr. Fisher, and others, among his corps of assistants.

The Northeast Trunk Sewer discharges into Alum Creek at a point just south of the Main Street Bridge whence it extends on Main Street westwardly to Ohio Avenue, on that avenue to Oak Street, on Oak Street to Hoffman Avenue, on that avenue to Broad Street, on Broad Street to Miami Avenue, on that avenue to Long Street, on Long to Eighteenth, on Eighteenth to Mount Vernon Avenue, on that avenue to Galloway Avenue, on Galloway to Leonard Avenue, on Leonard to Denmead Avenue and on that avenue to the northern boundary of the corporation ; total length, including extension, 17,114 feet ; diameter from six feet six inches to nine feet. The construction of this sewer began at its eastward terminus and was finished in the year 1883.

The Southeast Trunk Sewer discharges into the Scioto near the junction of the Canal and the Moler Road, whence it takes its course by Thurman and Fourth streets to Blackberry Alley and thence by Schiller and Ebner streets, Section Alley and Parsons Avenue to Forrest Street; total length, 11,378 feet ; diameter, from three to five feet.

Franklin Park Sewer, a branch of the northeastern line, forms its junction with the main trunk at Fairwood Avenue, about 2,800 feet from Alum Creek. Its length is 4,844 feet ; diameter, from seven to seven and one half feet.

The Northwestern Trunk Sewer discharges into the Scioto at the foot of Cozzens Street, whence it extends on that street to Dublin Avenue, thence to Maple Street, thence across the railway grounds to Spruce Street, on Spruce to Henry, on Henry Street to Poplar Avenue, on that avenue to. Delaware Avenue, on Delaware to First Avenue, on that avenue to Hunter Street, on that street to Second Avenue, on Second to Dennison Avenue, thence across lots to Greenwood Avenue, thence to High Street, thence across lots to Summit Street and thence by a curved line to Fifth Avenue. An extension of this sewer begins at Fifth Avenue whence it extends north to Sixth Avenue, on which it takes an eastward course to the Bee

532 - HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

Line Railway where it ends. The total length of the original sewer is 11,354 feet ; of the extension, 2,100 feet. The diameter of the original line varies from six and onehalf to seven feet; that of the extension from four and onehalf to five feet.

In 1881 Engineer Graham reported a plan for draining the lowlands west of the river, which, he stated, were, of all portions of the city, most in need of drain age and most difficult to supply with it.

The extension of the Peters Run sewer in 1873-4 only changed the location of the nuisance caused by that troublesome sluiceway, and during a period of scanty rainfall and low water in the summer of 1881, loud complaints were made of the stench caused by its discharge into the channel of the Scioto. In reporting a plan for obviating this trouble the City Engineer, John Graham, said :

As far back as 1872, when I came into office for the first time as City Engineer, among the first problems presented to me to solve, was to find an outlet to the Peters Run sewer. This was a question that had perplexed the minds of the city engineers and the City Council for many years prior to 1872. The sewer, as originally constructed, discharged its contents at the level of the surface of the ground, at the foot of the bluff, a few hundred feet west of Born's brewery, from which point it became an open drain, was carried over the canal by a dilapidated aqueduct, and meandered along the west bank of the canal to the river near the present outlet of the sewer. This open drain had become an elongated cesspool, emitting its disagreeable and pestilential odors along its entire line for a distance of nearly a mile.. . . I recommended a plan which fixed the outlet in very much deeper water, and where there was a more rapid flow in the river, and at a much less cost, than the plan adopted.

In pursuance of instructions the engineer then proceeded to suggest plans for "abatement of the nuisance at the mouth of the sewer by obviating the pool formed at the outlet, and by giving the contents of the sewer a straight and unobstructed channel into the body of the river." To prolong the sewer down the river, the engineer suggested, would only once more shift the locality of the nuisance, which, in any event, he thought Nature would soon abate by flushing the channel of the Scioto.

In December, 1881, Engineer Graham reported as to the cost of an intercepting sewer, commencing at the point where the northwest sewer then constructing would cross Spring Street, and extending on Scioto Street to the canal feeder and thence to a point of discharge into the river about eight hundred feet below the southern boundary of the corporation. The cost of this work, including necessary readjustments and extensions of other sewers, was estimated at $404,524. Contemporaneously with this discussion a scheme, often previously broached,' for using the canal jointly for sewer and railway purposes, was renewed, and an effort to obtain the legislation necessary for this purpose was unsuccessfully made. No less than five or six main sewers at this time discharged into the Scioto between the Penitentiary and the State dam, thus converting the river, which just then happened to have a very_ slender current, into a receptacle for all the filth of the city. It will be observed that the only plans seriously discussed for otherwise disposing of this filth were such as would carry it, in current phraseology, "to a safe distance outside of the corporate limits." Another report invited attention about this time to the contamination of the river by an asylum sewer which, descending from the Sullivant heights, discharged into it from the west, at the foot of Mound Street. Thousands of fish, poisoned by the sewage, were also, it was said, adding their decaying bodies to the putrescent discharges which were accumulating in the river channel along the city front. As a result of this condition, it was believed, there had been from 400 to 900 cases of typhoid and "malarial" fever in the city during several preceding months. For the remedy of these evils the usual and threadbare suggestions were made— an intercepting sewer and abandonment of that conventional scapegoat of municipal sins— the Ohio Canal.

STREETS, SEWERS AND PARKS - 533

The original estimate of the cost of the northeast and northwest sewers proved to be far short of the mark ; consequently, in February, 1883, the council asked the General Assembly for permission to issue bonds to an additional amount of $200,000 — making $355,000 in all — to carry the work to completion. In explanation of the misapprehension which had taken place as to what the sewers would cost, the following statements were made:

The council and officers, it seems, did not know that lumber would be required in making the excavation. They did not know that a superintendent would be necessary. They did not know that the quality of the water supplied to the city would be affected by discharging a main sewer, into the river above and near the waterworks. They did not know that the discharge of a main sewer into Alum Creek, just west of the Lutheran College, would render its buildings uninhabitable.

All of which suggests the importance of choosing municipal officials on the basis of qualification rather than that of political belief.

Although the State dam had long been complained of as a source of miasmatic poison, in March; 1884, a proposition came before the council to construct a dam across the Scioto below the mouth of the Peters Run sewer in order that the discharges from that conduit might be " emptied into deep water." In April, 1885, a bill authorizing conversion of the " Columbus feeder" into a trunk sewer was for the second or third time introduced into the General Assembly. In opposition to this measure a strong array of facts was presented showing that the commercial usefulness of the canal, which the proposed use of the " feeder " would ruin, had by no means ceased. The discussion was carried into the Board of Trade where, and in the press, the project continued to be agitated during the next two or three years, but the General Assembly steadfastly refused to relinquish the canal property of the State for the purpose proposed.

During the dry summer of 1887, the discharges of the Peters Run sewer into the attenuated waters of the Scioto again became intolerably offensive. In a current newspaper reference to this trouble these statements were made:

Numerous citizens of the South End have recently made complaint of the fact that the mouth of the sewer is entirely exposed and that this and the other surroundings produce a stench which permeates the atmosphere of the whole locality. . . . The low water has suffered an accumulation of dead animals which would have gone over the dam if that faulty structure had not leaked to such an extent that the water is four or five feet below the top. This same dam was built a short time ago for the alleged purpose of backing up the water until the mouth of the sewer is [should be] submerged, but as the leak is so large as to make the escape almost a torrent, the entire death breeding opening is exposed to full view. . . . There seems to be as great danger from the stagnant water in the dam as from the exposed mouth of the sewer, as the very face of the basin suggests typhoid malaria.

The dam here spoken of was built in pursuance of an act of the General Assembly authorizing a special tax for the purpose. Its estimated cost was $3,000 ; its actual cost much greater. It proved to be in every sense a worse nuisance than that which it was intended to cure. After producing a large harvest of damage suits, many of which are yet pending, and after having cost the city for its construction and the damage claims paid on account of it an aggregate sum of about $30,000, it was blown out with dynamite by the City Engineer.

In 1887 discussion of the sewerage problem became more active than ever. A Citizens' Sanitary Association was organized and gave special attention to the Peters Run sewer and dam nuisance, the abatement of which was then a burning question in the council. Experts in municipal sanitation were invited to contribute views and suggestions, much useful information was obtained and many schemes were proposed. In October, 1887, Mayor P. II. Bruck, acting in behalf of the Sanitary Association, laid before the council a communication in which he stated

534 - HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

that unless immediate steps should be taken to abate the poisonous effects of the sewage then pouring into the Scioto and already causing much sickness, an epidemic might be expected. Moved by this appeal the council appointed P. H. Bruck, Edward Orton, R. T. King, Philip Fisher and Josiah Kinnear as members of a committee to report some plan by which the discharge of sewage into the river might be avoided. On January 30, 1888, the council passed a resolution offered by Mr. Fleck :

That the City Civil Engineer be and is hereby authorized to secure the services of some expert sanitary engineer to prepare a plan for a complete system of sewerage for the city of Columbus, and to report as to the advisability of disposing of the sewage of the city, or of certain districts thereof, by infiltration or sewage farming.

This, and many other efforts and schemes for solution of the sewerage problem, culminated finally in adoption of the plan for building a great intercepting sewer, to provide for the construction of which an act authorizing the issue of bonds to the amount of $500,000 was passed March 23,1888. Bids for the construction were opened January 21, 1889, and the contract was awarded to L. C. Newsom, of Columbus. The estimated cost of the work was $718,000; Mr. Newsom took it at $460,838.61. The bids were as follows : Wolf & Truax, Duluth, $780,347.00; Kanamacher & Fornoff, Columbus, $742,394.10 ; N. B. Abbott; Columbus, $725.- 963.89; James E. Sullivant, Denver, $715,674.71 Everson & Riley, Cleveland, $576,264.50; D. F. Minahan, Springfield, $523,890.47; L. C. Newsom, Columbus, $460,838.61. The excavation began on February 1, 1889, and proceeded steadily except when stopped by injunctions or other legal proceedings, resulting from claims for right of way and questions raised by the city engineer and the council, some of which partook of a partisan character. The following statements concerning the nature and progress of the work are taken from the Evening Post of October 6, 1890:

The excavation necessary to its [the sewer's] completion is ponderous in its proportions. The trenching varies from nominal to thirty feet at the deepest point, while no less than sixteen tunnels are found along the line, . . . one at the C. H. V. & T. tracks ; one at the Peters Hun sewer ; one at Mound Street ; one at Friend Street ; one along past the City Prison nearly half a mile in length ; . . . one at the Little Miami tracks, under Spring Street and Dennison Avenue ; one under the network of railroads near the new steel works ; one under Third and King avenues and the Dodridge Street bridge abutments. . . . Under the canal is a long distance where the entire sewer is built of stone, a fine piece of masonry. For its construction was necessitated a switch in the canal of five hundred feet. The terminal of the sewer is for a long distance half exposed, the slope of the valley being so much greater than that of the sewer as to run the latter out of the ground, where it will be built up with a bank of earth.

The route of this great work may be traced in general terms as follows : Beginning near the dam in the. Whetstone at North Street it courses southerly to King Avenue and through the .Dennison Addition to Fifth Avenue, whence it proceeds to the left bank of the Whetstone, the meanderings of which it follows to Goodale Street, whence it takes an irregular course to Dublin Avenue, on that avenue to Cozzens Street and thence across a corner of the Penitentiary grounds to the corner of Dennison Avenue and Spring Street, whence it crosses to Scioto Street, follows that street to Canal Street and Canal Street to Livingston Avenue, whence it pursues the line of the canal to Greenlawn Avenue, from which it accompanies the track of the Hocking Valley Railway to Moler Street, from which it turns westerly under the railway and canal to a point on the east bank of the Scioto 1,602 feet beyond the canal tunnel, the masonry of which is one hundred and seventy feet in length. The entire work thus described has, at the present writing (August 27, 1892), been completed and accepted. Its total length

STREETS, SEWERS AND PARKS - 535

from end to end on the line above traced is 35,946 feet, including 5,700 feet of tunneling at an average depth of about forty feet beneath the surface of the ground. Where the necessary depth below the surface was not over thirty feet, the excavation was made by trenching. The longest tunnel is that between Rich and Broad streets, which measures 2,100 feet. The next largest tunnel, the longitudinal centre of which lies under Greenlawn Avenue, measures from end to end 1,700 feet.. The interior diameter of the sewer varies from two and onehalf to six feet. If present plans are carried out the line will be extended under and 420 feet beyond the river, where it will connect with a proposed additional extension of 5,615 feet, descending the west bank of the Scioto to the proposed sewage farm. The entire work thus far constructed is built of brick.

This sketch of the sewer system of Columbus cannot be more appropriately closed than by inviting the reader's attention to Professor Orton's discussion of the same subject in Chapter XXXIII, of Volume I. A tabulation showing the cost of the main and lateral sewers of the city from 1875 to 1892, inclusive, will be found appended to Chapter XXXII, of the same volume.

PARKS.

On July 14, 1851, a proposition from Doctor Lincoln Goodale to donate to the city about forty acres of land to be used as a public park was presented to the City Council and therein referred to Messrs. Armstrong, Riordan, Blake, Miner and Stauring. Four days later (July 18) Doctor Goodale's deed for the proposed park was presented by Mr. Armstrong to the council, which body, on motion of Mr. Baldwin, thereupon adopted the following expressions of appreciation :

Whereas, our esteemed fellow citizen, Lincoln Goodale, Esq., has generously and munificently donated to the citizens of Columbus a large and beautiful tract of land lying adjacent to the northern boundary of said city, to be held by said citizens as a park and pleasure ground for the public use and enjoyment of said citizens forever ; and whereas he has this day deposited with the President of the Council an unconditional conveyance of the same for the uses and purposes solely as above stated, now therefore

Resolved, by the City Council of Columbus, That we receive the gift of said park with emotions of profound gratitude, and in behalf of our fellow citizens tender unto L. Goodale, Esq., our deep and heartfelt thanks for his noble and princely donation.

That we, the members of this council, esteem ourselves most highly honored in being the recipients in behalf of our constituents of so valuable and grateful a gift to our city, and that we will endeavor to carry out the generous design of the donor in beautifying and adorning said park for the use and benefit of our citizens.

That we will ever cherish an abiding memory of the liberal spirit which has prompted this deed on the part of the giver of said park, and gladly pledge our fellow citizens never by ungenerous action on their part to cause him momentary regret for this

action.

That a committee of four, of which said L. Goodale shall be one, be appointed to take charge of said grounds and to report immediately for the consideration of the council suitable plans for the protection, speedy improvement and ornamentation of the same.

That a copy of these resolutions, signed by the President of the Council and attested by the City Clerk, he presented to L. Goodale, Esq., and that the same be published in each of the papers of this city.

The members of the committee appointed pursuant to this resolution were Lincoln Goodale, William Armstrong, John Miller and William Miner.

The land thus donated and accepted was spoken of at the time as a tract of beautiful woodland on the northwestern boundary of the city, " well worth $40,000." On October 23, 1851, the City Council, accompanied by Doctor Goodale,

536 - HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

visited and inspected the grounds, up to that time, apparently, untouched by ax or plow. During the summer of 1852 the park was enclosed with a fence and the underbrush growing among its primitive forest trees was cut away. No further improvements of much importance seem to have been made for several years, although doubtless some walks were laid out and some sod grown and eared for. When the Civil War broke out in 1861 the park was provisionally used as a military rendezvous under the name of Camp Jackson. This ruined its turf, strewed its pleasant places with debris, and disfigured it, for the time being, with unsightly buildings. After the removal of the rendezvous and its appurtenances to Camp Chase, its grounds were ckeaned, its sod restored and its original quiet resumed. Doctor Goodale died on April 30, 1868; he therefore lived beyond the time when the ground which he had so generously donated to the city had become one of the historic spots of Ohio, but he was, unfortunately, not permitted to see that ground beautified in a manner appropriate to the purpose to which he had devoted it. Fri 1872 new drives were laid out in the park, a lake was excavated at its northeastern corner, and a fountain was added to its then meagre embellishments. In 1888 a bronze bust of Doctor Goodale, executed by J. Q. A. Ward, was place I upon an appropriate pedestal, facing the south gate. This work cost five thousand dollars, onehalf of which was paid by the city, the remainder from the Goodale estate, represented, in this matter, by Hon. Henry C. Taylor. This is the only work of' art which thus far adorns the grounds.

On April 22, 1867, the City Council appointed a select committee of five of its members to contract with Messrs. Deshler & Thurman for twentyfive acres of land in what was then known as Stewart's Grove, for the purposes of a park. Accordingly, on April 29, 1867, a contract was made with Messrs. D. W. & W. G. Deshler and Allen G. Thurman for the purchase of 23.59 acres of the Stewart's Grove land, to be known and used thenceforward as the City Park." The price paid for the ground was $15,000. In 1868 this park was laid out pursuant to plans drawn by R. T. Brookes. An ornamental fountain was placed in the park in 1871. In 1872 it received as one of its attractions a live eagle caught in Madison County. This bird measured eight feet six inches from tip to tip of its outstretched wings. In 1873 a lake was excavated. In 1891 the beautiful bronze statute of the poet Schiller which now adorns the park was completed and donated to the city by its German born citizens. A description of this work, and its dedication, is given in another chapter. The faithful keeper of the City Park from its opening until recently has been John L. Stelzig.

A proposition to convert the fairgrounds of the Franklin County Agricultural Society, on East Broad Street, into a park was broached by Francis C. Sessions in an address before the Columbus Horticultural Society in 1884. In accordance with this suggestion a bill was introduced in the General Assembly by Hon. Henry C. Taylor, and, on May 17, 1886, became a law, vesting the title to the grounds in Franklin County for use as a public park for all the people of the county. This act further provided that the park thus established should be placed under the supervision of a commission of five members, two of whom should be appointed from the county by the County Commissioners and two from the city by the Mayor. The present area of the park is about 112 acres, all of which, except a few fragmentary strips of ground, is owned by the county. At the suggestion of Mr. Sessions it was named Franklin Park. In 1887 plans for its improvement were prepared, but as yet it remains destitute of systematic embellishment.

Among other free spaces in the city which, to a greater or less extent, serve as public pleasure grounds, are those fronting the State institutions for mutes and the blind, the Capitol Square, and the enclosures of the United States Arsenal, the State Agricultural Society and the. Ohio State University. The old graveyard,

STREETS, SEWERS AND PARKS - 537

tract of eleven acres, in the southeastern part of the city, is reserved for purposes of recreation under the name of South Park. Elliptical spaces of about one acre each, now planted with shrubbery and susceptible of very attractive additional embellishment, beautify the East Park Place avenues bearing the names of Hamilton, Lexington and Jefferson.

NOTES.

1. The Ohio State Journal of July 18. 1867 stated editorially:

" There is a great deal of inquiry as to whether the contractor is doing his work in the most durable manner on High Street. It is claimed that the boards should be saturated with hot tar instead of being simply smeared with a mop ; that the blocks should be thoroughly saturated with boiling tar instead of receiving a hurried plunge in a vessel cold or lukewarm; and that the blocks should be firmly fastened in their place, instead of being placed so loosely that they may be lifted out without difficulty."

2. On February 15, a proposition to put down a wood pavement was tabled by one majority

3. Ohio State Journal.

4. .The roadway was paved with the Abbott concrete, consisting of ninety per cent. of distilled coal tar and ten per cent. of Trinidad asphalt. The completion of the street was celebrated by an entertainment given to the contractors and other guests at Stevenson & Ruhl's, December 1.

5. The decision was rendered November 20, 1877. The State ex rel. the City of Columbus v. John. G. Mitchell et al., Commissioners ; 31 O. S. Reports, 592.

6. Further particulars in regard to this tunnel will be found in the chapter on railways.

7. The condition of the street prior to this improvement had again become most deplorable, compelling a large part of its ordinary traffic to seek other thoroughfares.

8. Ohio State Journal.

9. To this day not even a map showing the extent and location of the sewers has been made.

10. Ohio State Journal.

11. At a celebration of the Fourth of July, held on the grounds in 1867, the following resolutions offered by Colonel George W. Manypenny were adopted by the multitude there • present :

" Whereas, The grounds upon which we now assemble have been purchased by the city authorities for a public park, therefore

"Resolved, That this meeting, in the name of the people of the City of Columbus, do accept and adopt the same as the City Park, and shall be gratified at the early improvement thereof ; and hereby return our thanks to the members of the City Council for their united action in securing the grounds."

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XXXIII.

RECENT STREET PAVING.

BY CAPTAIN N. B. ABBOTT.

The extent of street improvements in Columbus has been one of the surprises of the last decade. In 1880 the city resembled a country village in its unpaved and muddy streets. Up to the year 1886 no systematic plan of street improvements had been attempted on a liberal scale. The business part of High Street had been paved with wood, which had rotted and been replaced with concrete or socalled asphalt. This, in turn, had worn out and just been replaced with stone blocks of various kinds in a very unsystematic manner. Every property owner was allowed to make his own contract so long as he used some kind of stone. The result was a patchwork, about onehalf of which was first class Medina stone and granite block paving, both of which are in good condition now. The balance was an inferior Ligonier stone block, rough in shape, poorly laid and has always been in a bad condition. The result is, our finest business street presents in some parts the most shabby specimen of pavements of any street in the city. Town Street from High Street east one mile went through about the same experience as High Street, being paved first with wood, then with concrete, which failed and was resurfaced with Trinidad asphalt, which is in fair condition at the present time. In 1876 North High Street from Naghten Street to the city line, a distance of three and onehalf miles, was paved with coaltar concrete, which at that time was being extensively used in the East. This being the only paved street leading out of the city on the north, received immense wear, as the entire country travel came over it. It was kept in good condition for about ten years, when the roadway was widened from 36 to 42 feet, a double track replaced the single street railway track, and the concrete was surfaced with Trinidad asphalt.

The foregoing, a total of about five miles of street, comprised all that had been done up to 1886, in paving the streets of a city of 75,000 population. About this time the great need of street improvements was agitated in the Board of Trade, the final result of which was the Passage in the State legislature of a law known as the Taylor Law. This act provided for the improvement of streets under a systematic plan, the city issuing its bonds to raise money with which to meet the cost. The total cost is assessed under this law on the property fronting the improvement, the property owners having the option of paying annual instalments for eight or more years, or to pay the whole the first year. This law has been in operation until the present time and under its provisions about $4.000,000 have been expended. The total amount of paved streets in Columbus at the present time is about 1,600,000 square yards, or, counting all streets as thirty feet wide between curb lines, about eighty-eight miles of roadway.

These eighty-eight miles of paved streets are laid with a variety of paving material, about as follows: Hallwood paving block twentynine miles ; Hayden paving block fifteen miles ; red clay brick thirteen miles ; fire clay brick eleven miles; Trinidad asphalt eleven miles ; Medina stone and granite eight miles ; Kentucky rock asphalt one mile.

A brief description of the several paving materials used and the manner in which they are laid may be of interest. At the beginning of work under the Taylor Law, a general specification was adopted as follows : Grade to the required depth, foundation to be of broken stone eight inches deep, and rolled with a tenton steam roller ; on this foundation the stone block, Hallwood or Hayden block, or paving brick are set on edge in two inches of

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RECENT STREET PAVING - 539

sand and thoroughly rammed by hand. A light sprinkling of fine sand is swept into the joints, and washed to the bottom. The joints are then filled with hot coaltar pitch, and the surface covered with sand. Asphalt pavements are laid with six inches of cement concrete, and surfaced with a two and one half inch coat of asphalt pavement. The entire eighty-eight miles of pavements in the city have been laid practically according to these specifications, varied only in a few cases by substituting cement grout for coaltar cement filling in the brick or block pavements. There has been such a variety of material used here, and in such large quantities, within se short a space of time, that numerous inquiries from abroad are made as to what material has proved on the whole the best for city use. Without undertaking to answer that query it may not be out of place, in giving a correct history of street paving in the city, to state certain facts shown by experience.

The stone block pavements laid as described have been the most costly at the outset but it is admitted by all that so far as durability is concerned they are the cheapest in the end. A good stone pavement properly laid will be better when five years old than when newly laid. This cannot be truthfully said of 'any other pavement. The great objection to stone pavements is the muchness of surface, and noise produced by their use. In five years' wear the roughness largely disappears by reason of the wear. This is especially true with the Medina sandstone, which becomes even and true, by wear, and thereby becomes less noisy. The high cost of a firstclass stone pavement, however, prevents its general use in this city, and it is confined to a few of the most heavily 'traveled business streets. The noise would also make it objectionable on residence streets. The average cost of our best stone pavements has been about $3.75 per square yard.

Asphalt comes next to stone in cost, the average price being about $2.75 per square yard. Of asphalt in this city there have been two kinds, the Trinidad and the Kentucky rock. Of the latter little need he sail, as only one mile has been laid. and so far it is not generally considered a success. Trinidad asphalt pavements, constructed in the best manner, furnish, under favorable conditions, the most perfect pavement for travel that can be made. All such pavements laid in Columbus during the last six years have done good service. There are conditions under which they are objectionable, namely, when covered with a thin coating of ice or snow, they become dangerously slippery. They also require especial care in cleaning and being kept free from a pasty mud caused by too much sprinkling and too little sweening. Considering the advantages and disadvantages of asphalt as a whole, there is no doubt that a reasonable proportion of city streets can safely be paved with this material.

The Hayden block comes next in order as to cost, the price having averaged here about $2.20 per square yard. This block, named after its inventor, William B. Hayden, of this city, is peculiar in its formation, being made hollow on the under side, requiring a filling of sand before it is laid. When filled, the block is turned hollow side down and the process of ramming compresses the sand so as to make a solid filling. The block is made of fine ground plastic fireclay of a quality that will require extreme heat to burn sufficiently to vitrify. It has stood the test of use in this city well and is now considered as one of the standard pavements.

The Hallwood paving block is another manufactured block which takes its name from its inventor, H. S. Hallwood, of Columbus. The material used in this block is practically the same as that used in the Hayden block. In some localities shale clay is used, in others plastic clay. The best results appear in a mixture of the two. Unlike the Hayden, this block is made solid, which somewhat modifies the cost of both manufacture and laying, accounting for the lower average cost, which has been in this city about $2 10 per square yard. The large amount of Hallwood block laid in the city, twenty-nine miles in all, indicates the esteem in which it is held.

Brick pavements mean in Columbus any of the various socalled street paving brick offered in the market and so largely used throughout the country. Of the twentythree miles of fireclay brick and red brick pavements in this city, at least onethird show extreme wear, quite disproportionate to the expense of their construction. This is doubtless due to the difficulty in producing a large quantity of brick by ordinary methods, of a uniform durable quality. There has been sufficient defectiveness apparent in the brick pavements laid here to warrant the present discontinuance of their use The average cost of these pavements has been about $1.90 per square yard. It has proved to be money well invested to pay the additional twenty cents or thirty cents per square yard required to construct a Hallwood or Hayden block pavement.

These improved blocks are made of carefully selected, finely ground clays, pressed with heavy presses and repressed into uniform shape and compactness. Clays are selected that require an extreme heat for burning, and kilns are so constructed as to burn the blocks to extraordinary hardness, vitrifying them thoroughly. Economy lies in making sure of a thoroughly good paving material, as it costs no more to lay than a poor material. These con-

540 - HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

siderations have resulted in substituting a better and more expensive block for the inferior ordinary paving brick.

As street assessments are made by the foot front of property on streets improved, the following table is given of cost per foot front of the several pavements described This cost includes the entire improvement, comprising grading, curbing, paving and catchbasins for a thirty foot roadway, adding ten per cent. as estimated additional cost of street intersections :

A liberal sized city lot in Columbus has a frontage of fifty feet, It will be seen from the foregoing table that the assessment on a fiftyfoot lot for the highestpriced pavement named would be $368.50, and that on the lowestpriced pavement $200. As the assessments under the Taylor Law are divided into from eight to twenty annual payments, it is readily seen that the burden on property owners is not heavy compared with the benefits gained.

The curb used in Columbus is the bluish gray sandstone known as Berea grit, from quarries at Fulton and Berea, Ohio. The size commonly used is five inches thick by eighteen inches deep, dressed to a bevel on top, corners rounded, and set in six in ches of gravel. The curb lines in this city are good, and the general effect of our finely paved streets bordered by straight curb lines, with easy circle corners at all street intersections, is neat and harmonious.

The new era of street improvement has brought with it many other things that have added to the attractiveness of Columbus. No sooner is a street paved than a general improvement follows in other respects. Houses are remodeled, lawns are beautified, trees are planted and pride in general appearance stimulated. The entire character of the architecture of our buildings has changed since street improvement began. Formerly the houses were distinguished for their plainness and sameness. Now every variety of style can be seen on our streets and the improvement in architectural beauty is constantly increasing. With good pavements have also come fine horses and carriages. Formerly there was no comfort in driving over the mud-burdened streets and pleasure driving was rare. Now every family that can afford it keeps its turnout, and the city is gay with equipages of all kinds. All of these things have had an exhilarating effect on the general business of the city. Some of the more conservative citizens complain that street improvements are overdone, and that the expense will cause financial distress and strain the credit of the city. The facts do not warrant any croaking of this nature. In round numbers the street improvements have cost four million dollars and bonds have been sold to that amount. Over onequarter of these bonds have already been paid off, which is considerably faster than bond purchasers had supposed would be the case. This proves that the people are promptly and cheerfully paying their street assessments, which would not be the case if financial distress was to be the result. As to straining the credit of the city, the truth is our bonds are in great demand, and on some late sales three per cent. premium has been paid on six per cent. improvement bonds, with a maximum of only eight years to run. The bonds issued for improvements under the Taylor Law are a loan of the credit of the city to the property owners, enabling them easily to pay for street improvements by distributing the payment over a term of years. This results in great increase in the value of the property, without immediate strain on the property holder's ability to pay large assessments. The street improvement makes houses rent more readily and at better prices, and thousands of vacant lots have found a market by reason of the streets being paved, while otherwise the lots would have been in no demand. The rapidity with which the property owners are repaying these loans shows that the plan is a wise one.

In conclusion, it can be confidently stated that the Capital City of Ohio leads the cities of this country in the beauty, uniformity and utility of its paved streets, as well as in the mileage of the same in proportion to its population. Some other cities have more miles of some special kind of pavement, but Columbus is ahead of all other cities in giving a variety of paved streets to suit the varied character of neighborhoods and in the general perfection of all the street work that has been done. One of the surest signs of a high state of civilization and general intelligence of a community is a liberal expenditure in a variety of public improvements. Chief of these should always be wellpaved streets, and the citizens of Columbus may well be proud of what they have accomplished in this direction in the last six years.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

WATER SUPPLY, FIRE PROTECTION AND STREET LIGHTING.

The inhabitants of the borough and earlier city of Columbus derived their water for domestic use entirely from wells and natural springs. Of the latter, as has been described elsewhere, there were many, and in some instances the discharge of these natural fountains was copious and constant. An abundant supply was also reached by shafting to a moderate depth, and it is fair to presume that much of the water earliest in use was of a surface character, exposed in greater or less degree to vegetable contamination. The frequent prevalence of febrile and diarrhoeal disorders corroborates this theory. As the town grew in years and in population, the water veins and deposits in the earth beneath it became more and more liable to the infiltration of poison from animal as well as vegetable decay, until the purity of no ordinary well could be implicitly trusted. To this sanitary necessity for new and safer sources of supply was coupled that for a readier and more copious one for protection against fire.

Directly alter the meridian of the century was passed, these united demands for cleaner and more plentiful water gained sufficient force to compel action. Accordingly, on April 18, 1853, Hon. William Dennison, then a member of the City Council, offered a resolution, which was adopted, instructing the committee on General Improvements to report on the practicability of establishing waterworks for the city. Relative to this action we find the following contemporary comment :1

About a year ago we discussed the subject [of water supply] at some length, and urged the propriety of a survey of the Whetstone branch of the Scioto for the purpose of ascertaining how far up it was necessary to go to get head enough to bring the water to all parts of the city. We are satisfied that that point would be reached somewhere this side of Worthington.

An artesian well for Statehouse supply was about the same time suggested by a newspaper cardwriter. In Swan's Elevator of April 24, 1854, this suggestion was renewed, with the added remark : " The writer has long entertained the belief that our city may be supplied, and abundantly supplied, with pure and wholesome water by means of one or more of these wells." On June 9, 1856, Joseph Sullivant addressed the council, by request, and illustrated his remarks by diagrams and profiles. Mr. Sullivant's remarks were printed in pamphlet form, and an ordinance was introduced providing for taking a vote of the people on the question of borrowing money for the construction of waterworks, but further than this no action was then taken. Thus matters rested until July, 1859, when a document appeared in the Columbus Gazette memorializing the council to provide waterworks for the city. The facts on which this memorial was based, it was stated, had been furnished by M. J. Ball, of Jersey City, an expert in building " similar works." Mr.

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542 - HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

Ball's plan was to pipe water sufficient for 60,000 people " from the falls of the Whetstone, a few miles north of the city." The estimated cost of this contrivance was $275,000.. The scheme contemplated the construction of a reservoir with an area of eight acres, to be filled by a pump driven by the current of the river. Besides supplying the city, it was proposed to run a fountain, eighty feet in diameter, on the Capitol Square. The work was to be guaranteed ter two years. In the council the memorial was referred to a committee, which subsequently, we are told, made a vigorous investigation of the whole subject and presented plans for consideration, " together with specimens of the pipe used in various cities."

On November 6, 1860, the original Neil House took fire and failed to be saved, it was said, because of scant water in the public cisterns and insufficiency of hose to reach the river. This event revived, for a time, popular interest in the subject of water supply, and various new waterworks schemes were broached. One of these schemes, suggested in the council, proposed to place a five-thousandgallon tank on top of a stone tower to be erected on the city lot on State Street, between High and Front, this tank to be filled by pumping, and the water to be piped thence to different parts of the city.

On May 18, 1863, Mr. E. B. Armstrong moved in the council the appointment of a committee to "inquire into the practicability of supplying the city of Columbus with water." The motion was agreed to, and Messrs. E. B. Armstrong, John Graham, G. Douty and John G. Thompson were appointed to execute its instructions. In March, 1865, these gentlemen reported that they had, partly at their own expense, inspected the methods of water supply in many prominent cities,• and had learned by surveys and analyses that the resources of the city were ample for an abundant supply of good water. The surveys for the committee had been conducted by Philip D. Fisher, City Engineer. The analyses were executed by Professor T. G. Wormley. Much valuable information was acquired by these efforts, but in consequence of the Civil War then pending, and the uncertain condition of the iron market, definite action was postponed.

In November, 1867, the City Council, accompanied by various representatives of the local press, set out for an extended tour through the East for the alleged purpose of obtaining information on the waterworks question. Returning from this expedition, the council, on December 23, directed the City Engineer to make fresh surveys, plats and reports of cost. On the same date an ordinance was introduced by E. B. Armstrong providing for taking a vote of the people as to the issue of waterworks bonds to the amount of $500,000. On February 10, 1868, this ordinance, so amended as to postpone the time of the election until the first Monday in May, was passed. About the same time a communication from Professor Wormley was .published stating that numerous wells in the city were dangerously impregnated with organic matter. The professor recommended that the city take its water from the Whetstone River, which he deemed sufficiently pure for domestic use. Another writer stated that the steam boilers then in use looked " like honey combs," so encrusted were they by the " limestone water."

During the night of November 18, 1868, the Central Asylum for the Insane took fire and was completely destroyed. The progress of the flames was not particularly rapid, yet so insufficient was the water supply that the great building could not be saved, and several lives were lost. By this impressive disaster the waterworks movement was given an impetus which finally resulted in something decisive. On November 23, 1868, the council appointed a new committee, with instructions to visit Lockport and Auburn, New York, and there inspect the Holly Manufacturing Company's system of water supply. In December this committee, the members of which were L. Donaldson, J. Reinhard, William Naghten, E. B. Armstrong, James Patterson, H. W. Jaeger and C. P. L. Butler, reported recommending that the Holly system be adopted for Columbus.

WATER SUPPLY - 543

On September 20, 1869, a committee of the council reported a proposition from the Holy Manufacturing Company to furnish two elliptic rotary pumps to throw simultaneously six oneinch streams 150 feet without interrupting a supply to the city of 4,000,000 gallons daily ; also one gang pump with capacity to throw 2,000,000 gall ns daily; the whole to be delivered, with necessary steam engines, for $55,000. 2 On February 14, 1870, an effort was made to enjoin performance of a contract mad by the council with the Holly Company, but without success. Finally, on February 15, 1870, an ordinance was passed which provided :

That a supply of water shall be provided for the city by the construction of waterworks upon the system known as the Holly Waterworks, in accordance with the contract entered into by the city and the Holly Manufacturing Company, as approved by the City Council on the seventh da of February, A. D. 1870, which contract is hereby ratified and confirmed. 3

This ordinance further provided that buildings and machinery appropriate for the purpose named should be erected on ground to be purchased near the mouth of the Whetstone River, and established a board of " trustees of waterworks," comprising three members, one of whom should be elected annually for the term of three years : salary $100 per annum. Eight acres of land located as indicated in the ordinance were purchased of W. A. Neil for $8,000; plans and specifications fOr buildings thereon were submitted to the trustees by N. B. Kelley, and accepted; Mr. Kelley was appointed architect and superintendent ; engagements were made for piping and trenching, and on July 22, 1870, a contract for the buildings was awarded to F. A. Schlapp.

The laying of waterpipe began September 12; a cavity called " a huge well " was sunk into the gravel beds forming the basin of the Whetstone, and on November 12 it was announced that the gauge at the waterworks showed a supply of two million gallons per day. In February, 1871, a schedule of rates for domestic consumption was arranged and, on March 6, same year, the water was let into the pipes and the first water rent was paid into the County Treasury by E. B. Armstrong, Secretary of the Board of Trustees. Up to this time five miles of piping had been laid ; about severity miles more were put down during the ensuing season. The amount expended on the works up to November, 1871, was stated at $449,700. The number of permits taken out the first year was 736. In 1873 filtering galleries were excavated from the well in 1874 the piping was extended to the State Fair grounds, more land was purchased and the equipment was reinforced with additional machinery. The two engines first put in had a joint capacity to pump 7,000,000 gallons per day. In February, 1884, another engine was purchased, with a daily capacity of about 9,000,000 gallons. The cost of the entire water plant of the city as it existed in 1885 was $1,700,000. Up to that time about 7,000 feet of filtering galleries had been driven. These galleries were excavated over twenty feet below the surface of tile ground, and extended under the Whetstone and Scioto. Main pipes carrying the water to the new State Fair grounds were laid in 1886.

In 1887 the pumping machinery of the works comprised two Holly quadruplex condensing engines having a daily capacity of four million gallons each, and one Gaskell horizontal compound condensing engine with a daily capacity of ten million gallons. in January, 1888, a contract was awarded to the Holly Company for an additional duplex condensing engine costing $73,000, and having a daily capacity of fifteen million gallons. Meanwhile a serious doubt had arisen as to the capacity of the waterworks to supply the whole city, and particularly the eastern part of it, in time of drought or any special emergency. Two plans for removing this doubt were considered ; first, that of multiplying the filtering galleries; second, that of establishing a new pumping station near Alum Creek. The latter plan prevailed, and on February 1, 1889, the waterworks trustees, by author-

544 - HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

ity of the City Council, purchased of William B. Hayden, for a pumping station, seven acres of ground situated on the west bank of Alum Creek, near the Baltimore & Ohio Railway. The price paid for the land was $4,000. This action was taken in accordance with a special report by Professor Edward Orton as to the waterbearing qualities of the geological formations in the Alum Creek valley, and also in accordance with the recommendations of Thomas H. Johnson, a civil engineer who had been employed to investigate the subterranean currents of the valley by borings.

On the grounds thus tested and purchased a well was sunk, a brick building erected and two large Holly engines placed in position. These engines were first put in motion on May 6, 1891. Their capacity is 7,500,000 gallons per day. Water is furnished from this station to the eastern portion of the city as far west as Grant Avenue. Its summer temperature is about fiftytwo degrees; its quality, as shown by analysis, excellent. Additional particulars as to the quality and geological conditions of the water supply of the city will be found in Chapter XXXIII of Volume I.

FIRE PROTECTION.

The need of apparatus for quenching fire in the borough of Columbus was felt as early as 1819, and the legislature was requested to provide it. As the forest trees were cut away, the little village on the " high bank opposite Franklinton " became more and more exposed to the winds which, should a fire break out, might make swift work with the State buildings, to say nothing of the wooden cabins of the settlers. Nevertheless the people of the borough seem to have gotten along without any serious disasters of this kind until 1822, in which year the writer 4 of a private letter which has come under the author's inspection stated, under date of March 15 : " The first fire of any consequence that ever took place in this town happened a few weeks since. Eight buildings were consumed. They were all small shops, except one dwelling house."' Probably it was this event which impelled the council to pass, on February 21, 1822, "an ordinance to prevent destruction by fire in the borough of Columbus," the first section of which enacted :

That there shall be formed, by enrollment at the Mayor's office in said borough, the following companies, to wit: One Hook and Axe Company consisting of fifteen men ; one Ladder Company consisting of twelve men, and one company consisting of twelve men, as a guard to property.

The ordinance proceeded to state how these companies should be organized ; authorized the mayor and council to fill them up by drafting, if necessary; pro. vided that a residue of citizens, between 15 and 50 years of age, should serve as " bucket men ; " required the appointment of " one Supreme Director at all fires," with authority to command all present; and made it the duty of the town marshal, "upon the first alarm of fire" to "ring or cause to be rung the bell." The ordinance Further directed that the borough should be inspected with reference to protection against fire four times a year ; commanded the mayor to procure, at public expense, "two long ladders, four axes, four short ladders, [and] two hooks," for the use of the fire companies ; and required each owner or occupant of a dwelling, store or shop to " furnish as many water buckets of good jacked leather, each to contain ten quarts," as the " committee of safety" should direct. On

FIRE PROTECTION - 545

March 7 the marshal was directed to notify the occupants of tenements as to the number of buckets they would be obliged to keep. On December 22, 1822, the General Assembly was again asked to make " an appropriation for the purpose of procuring a fire engine," and at the next meeting of the council the Mayor and Recorder were appointed a committee on that subject. On July 14, 1823, the Governor reported that an engine was engaged in Philadelphia.

On January 29, 1824, permission was sought, from the General Assembly, to erect an engine house on the Public Square, east of the Statehouse, and on March 12, 1825, a list of householders (112) and the number of fire buckets required (247) was reported. In November of the same year the committee of safety was renewed An ordinance of 1826 makes the owners and possessors of firebuckets responsible for their preservation in a state of readiness for use, under penalty of a fine. An old citizen informs the writer that a fire in the Penitentiary, in 1830, was quenched by forming two rows of men, one of which passed buckets of water up from the river while the other passed the buckets back again. The water was poured from the buckets into a hand engine consisting of a forcepump worked by levers moving up and down, and called " The Tub."' An ordinance of December 14, 1831, provided :

That there shall be paid out of the Treasury of the Corporation, to any member of the Fire company who shall be first at the engine house in case of alarm, when any building in said Borough may be found on fire, the sum of five dollars; and there shall be paid to the member which shall be second at the engine house as aforesaid, four dollars ; and to the member who shall be third as aforesaid, three dollars ; when more than one arrive at the same time, they shall decide who is first by lot ; the money shall be paid on certificate of the Captain to the Mayor, who shall draw an order on the Treasurer for the amount ; Provided always that nothing shall be paid in cases of false alarm.

This ordinance made it the duty of " the Committee of Safety to go round and see that all chimneys, stove pipes, smith shops and other places where fire is issued are secure and safe," and imposed upon all users of chimneys and flues the duty of keeping thorn clean and making their fireplaces safe under penalty of a fine. In May, 1833, the first volunteer making company — William A. Gill, engineer — met at the office of W. A. Gill & Co. to elect officers. A letter by Joseph Ridgway, Junior, read at a firemen's supper in 1849, made the following statements:

By reference to the 'proceedings of the City Council on the eighth of December, 1834, [it appears that] a petition was presented on behalf of the Fire Companies by Matthew J. Gilbert, a gentleman long associated with the Department, . . . intended to call the attention of the Council to the importance of a more thorough organization of the Department, and a committee consisting of Messrs. McCoy, Heyl, Stewart and Ridgway, was appointed to consider its expediency, which committee, through Mr. McCoy, their chairman, reported favorably on the twentyninth of December, 1834. At a subsequent meeting, on the twenty-eighth of February, 1835, the committee was instructed to procure two good engines, with the necessary hose, and on the eleventh of May following William hey!, from that committee, reported a contract with Messrs. Chase & Seymour of Cincinnati.

The ordinance which, with slight modifications, still continues in force, was reported on the eighth and passed by the Council on the eleventh of June. On the thirteenth of July a committee was appointed to furnish a plan for the Engine House, which house was completed so that the engines were received from Cincinnati and placed in it on the thirtieth day of November, 1835. Since that time the fire companies have been constantly organized, and although, during the former part of the time, not under the most perfect discipline, yet, when duty called, they were ever ready, so far as lay in them, to protect the property of their neighbors. During the latter part of the time which has intervened since the first formation of this department it is due to the companies to say that their discipline, in general, has been very complete.

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546 - HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

On July 25, 1835, a contract was made for the erection of an enginehouse at a cost of $1,000, and on the same date it was ordered that four new wells be dug near the points designated for public cisterns, " to be supplied with a good pump in each . . . in order to supply the public cisterns with water instead of bringing the water from a spring in pipes, as formerly contemplated." On August 10, same year, fire cisterns, each costing $130 and having a capacity of 6,000 gallons, were contracted for, and a fire warden for each ward was appointed. The cisterns were to be situated at the intersections of High Street with Broad, State, Town, Rich and Friend.

The ordinance of June 11, 1835, referred to in Mr. Ridgway's letter, established a company of fire wardens, one of fire guards, a protection society, a hook and ladder company and an engine and hose company, each of these organizations to be composed of volunteer members, exempt from military duty, and holding their appointments at the pleasure of the council. To the protection society, numbering not over fifty members, was assigned the duty of removal and protection of property during fires. The fire guards were expected, on the outbreak of a fire, to form a line of sentinels surrounding the same, and permit none to pass except members of the protection society and fire companies. Each fire engine was to be manned by not over fifty men ; the hook and ladder company numbered forty men.

Participation in the organizations provided for by this ordinance was quite active at first, but after a time lost its novelty and became languid. In 1837 the fire engine companies had become so indifferent to their meetings and practice that their dissolution was seriously proposed. When a fire broke out scarcely men enough appeared to " man the brakes." During the latter part of 1837 efforts were made to revive interest in the fire service, but without success. Fire inspection, however, was continued, the apparatus was said to be in good condition, and in 1838 we read of meetings of the hook and ladder company, the protection society and the fire guards.

On August 29, 1839, William Neil's steam sawmill, near the Penitentiary, was burned, together with 40,000 feet of lumber. This fire was supposed to be of incendiary origin. On April 17, 1841, a fire broke out "in the frame buildings between the National Hotel and the Eagle Coffeehouse." The buildings were destroyed, and the inmates, many of whom were needy, were assisted by private donations. These mishaps seem to have imparted a fresh 'stimulus to the organization of fire service, for in the Ohio Statesman of November 29, 1842, we read :

We are pleased to see that our City Council has resolved to encourage our Fire companies./ They are now most efficiently organized, and exceedingly prompt. . . . Our fire companies deserve the praise and gratitude of every citizen for the energy and perseverance they have shown in perfecting their organization and discipline.

The Statesman of later date makes the following references to the earlier fire organizations:

The Niagara and Constitution were the pioneers, afterwards contemporary- with the Franklin and Scioto and followed by the Fame. At the same time the Neptune Hose Company flourished under command of Billy Flintham, an old sailor and a character too conspicuous in fire annals to be left unnoticed. . . . The " boys, " as they were familiarly called, were divided into two brigades, the Northern and Southern. The engines belonging to the former were located in the Statehouse square, and those of the latter near the corner of High and Mound. There was the most energetic rivalry between the brigades, which always took active shape at the election of Chief Engineer. Messrs. John Miller, Alexander McCoy, William McCoy, William Westwater, G. M. Swan, John Weaver and other prominent citizens served at different times in this capacity, and had command of as efficient a force of volunteer firemen as ever operated on the continent.

FIRE PROTECTION - 547

The Statesman proceeds to narrate the particulars of a drenching given to a notorious nest on West State Street, between Clinton Bank and the Tontine Coffeehouse under pretense of putting out a fire, and continues:

About the year 1842 [actually 1843] there was a startliing succession of fires, generally trifling in their results, for several months, evidently the work of incendiaries. Citizens were detailed secretly to patrol the streets, but still the fires continued in the destruction of Taylor's tannery on Gay Street, one very cold night. So cold was it that the water in the hose and suction pipes froze up, and the work of thawing them out was a heavy one. . . . It was subsequently ascertained that the succession of fires was the work of a party of boys belonging to respectable families, who took this method of amusing themselves.

Of two new engines manufactured for Columbus by John Agnew, of Philadelphia in 1842, one was named the Franklin, the other the Scioto. New public cisterns, ordered in 1841, were dug at the following street intersections : Third with State, Town and Friend; High and Gay ; Mound and High and Front Street with Broad, State and Rich. Apropos of the burning of Taylor's tannery, above referred to, the following card, characteristic of the fire service of the period, was published :

The members of the Neptune Hose No. 1 tender their thanks for refreshments so liberally furnished by Mrs. Backus, Col. Samuel Medary, Messrs. Taylors, and all others who contributed to their comfort on the night of the fifteenth instant. S. B. Fay, Secretary.

Thanks for like courtesies received during .the tannery fire were tendered by the Niagara Company Number One, the Franklin Engine Company, and the Constitution Fire Association. During the evening of March 12, 1844, the members of the Columbus Fire Department, 400 strong, held a torchlight parade, after which they sat down to supper, the Niagara Engine Company and Captain Sheffield's Hook and Ladder Company at the American House, the Spartan Hook and Ladder Company at the Franklin House, and the Franklin Engine Company at the Neil House. At the Franklin Company's festivities the following song was sung with great glee :

Hark, comrades, hark, that tolling bell !

And see yon smoky column swell!

A fire! a fire! list how they shout ;

And we must haste to put it out.

O get along fast, ye Franklin boys

Nor own your strength declining ;

O get along fast, ye Franklin boys

To where yon light is shining.

The Constitution, bold and strong,

With rushing speed now comes along,

But all in vain their strength and will

The Franklin will be foremost still.

O get along fast, etc.

And hark, those sounds of " clear the way,"

And give the swift Scioto play ;

Yes, give her room, and pull each man

The Franklin still will lead the van.

O get along fast, etc.

And hark I what shouts are those we hear,

Of distant and of feeble cheer ?

It is Niagara's friendly crew

548 - HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

With will, but not the might to do.

O get along fast, etc.

And here we are, first of the throng;

Come, hosemen, string the hose along,

And soon the water we will throw

And make those swelling flames look low.

Then work away, ye Franklin boys,

Though others are returning;

We'll work away, my Franklin boys,

While a spark of fire is burning.

And see, the fire has ceased to burn ;

Comrades, we will now return ;

And as we course our way along,

We'll blithely chant our fav'rite song.

O get along home, ye Franklin boys,

Nor own your strength declining;

O get along home, ye Franklin boys,

For the light no more is shining.

A fire occurred in the Roster brewery September 28, and one in Pinney's dry-house in the Penitentiary December 16, 1845. On December 28, same year, a building belonging to Bela Latham was destroyed ; owing to scarcity of water, the firemen could only save the neighboring property. Some frame buildings between the City and Exchange banks, on High Street, were partially burned November 15, 1846. A fire in William Neil's block, a short distance -south of the Neil House, on February 10, 1847, destroyed the two upper stories, and obliged various business establishments on the ground floor to vacate. A long ordinance, of twentysix sections, to provide for the prevention and extinction of fires and the regulation of fire companies, was passed February 25, 1848. It was substantially a reenactment, with amendments and supplements, of the previous ordinances on the same subjects. Firemen were exempted by it from military and jury service, and were entitled to certificates of membership from the City Recorder ; each company was authorized to enact its own rules, and each was permitted to enroll volunteers, but subject to the acceptance and control of the council, which might displace individuals or whole companies for misconduct. All fire company officers were vested with police powers during the fire; the protection society, fire wardens and fire guards were retained. The Old Zack Engine Company, the Salamander Hook and Ladder Company and the Relief and Phenix Hose Companies flourished in 1848. All through the forties and fifties various social festivities and holiday celebrations by the fire companies of the city are spoken of. On April 18, 1849, the Columbus Engine Company was organized, and its advent was made the occasion for a general afternoon parade of the department, followed, in the evening, by a banquet at the Odeon. The organizations which took part in the parade were the Old Zack, Scioto, Columbus and Franklin Engine, the Spartan and Salamander Hook and Ladder and the Phenix, Relief and Neptune Hose. These seem to have been all the fire organizations then existing in the city, though we hear of the Eagle Engine Company during the following year.

The frequency of incendiary fires was again complained of in 1849. During a period of drought in the autumn of 1850 the public cisterns were filled by pumping water through the fire hose from the river. The purchase of a stationary engine for this purpose, as a permanent service, was about the same time talked of. On August 2, 1850, a new hand engine, costing $1,800, was ordered. On January 7 and 8, 1851, the Fame Engine and Hornet Hose companies held a bene-

FIRE PROTECTION - 549

fit fair and ball at the Odeon. These efforts to raise money were so meagerly responded to by the citizens that the companies resolved to disband and signed a rather petulant pledge never to join another fire organization " until better arrangements for the protection and benefit of the firemen " should be made. The residue of funds belonging to the disbanding companies were donated to the Female Benevolent Society. On the thirteenth of the ensuing October new companies bearing the names of Fame Engine, and Hornet Hose, were accepted by the City Council. On August 11, 1851, three lots were purchased as sites for engine houses. One of these lots was situated on Third Street, between Sugar Alley and Town; one on Gay, near High ; and one on State between High and Front. The Old Statehouse fell a prey to the flames on February 1, 1852. A firemen's parade on July 4 of that year is thus spoken of by the Ohio Statesman :

The tasteful and becoming uniform and dress and regalia of the men, the beautiful flags and banners, and the elaborate decorations of the engines as the cortege marched through the streets, presented one of the finest spectacles our eyes ever looked upon.

The same paper of August 10, 1852, said :

When we get the alarm bell in operation, our firemen will be saved a great deal of trouble. Heretofore they have been often compelled to run three quarters of a mile before they could by any means discover the location of the fire.

An ordinance of 1853 forbidding the fire companies to run their machines on the sidewalks gave them great offense. On July 13 the South Brigade, comprising the Scioto Fire, the Phenix Hose and Spartan Hook and Ladder, adopted resolutions declaring they would no longer serve as firemen, and inviting the North Brigade to take similar action. On July 15 the Eagle Fire Company resolved to disband unless the ordinance should be repealed. The North Brigade took similar action July 16. The Fame Engine Company did not disband. At the suggestion of the Chief Engineer new companies under the names of the disbanded ones were organized. An ordinance of August 15, 1853, fixed the salary of the Chief Engineer at $100. After this we hear of numerous balls and festivals by the different companies, and everything seems to have gone along smoothly. In June, 1854, the new enginehouse on Gay Street, then nearing completion, was ecstatically described.

The troubles with the volunteer firemen probably hastened measures for providing a permanent and paid fire service. At any rate, on May 21, 1855, a contract for a steam fire engine was closed with A. B. & E. Latta. The new engine arrived on November 2 next following, was named Columbus, and was placed in the engine house then recently erected on Third Street. Its cost was $6,000 ; its advent was celebrated by a " congratulatory supper" at the Neil House. It was described as a " ponderous affair, drawn by three horses and attended by an army of firemen." The volunteer companies regarded it with extreme jealousy, and derisively named it " Bull of the Woods. So intense was the feeling on this subject that the Fame Engine and Niagara Hose companies disbanded, and the handmachines were mutilated and abandoned. A fire in Hyde & Schlapp's sash factory on August 6, 1855, developed the fact that these machines were so poorly manned, and had been purposely so disabled as to be of little use. One of them, the Franklin, was taken back to the engine house while the fire was raging. In short, the anticipation of supersedure by the steam machine threw the volunteer department into a state of complete demoralization.

Meanwhile the council had passed an ordinance designed to reorganize the fire service, but which, by confused investiture of the control of the service as between the chairman of its Fire Department Committee and the Fire Engineer, seems to have produced a great deal of dissension. After a prolonged contest,