150 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY the road, the states could do so and thus provide the needed funds. In Ohio a toll gate was established at distances of about twenty miles and one was remaining and collecting tolls a short distance west of Reynoldsburg in Franklin County in 1899, the amount received for that year being $522.08. The coming of the railroads gradually sapped the business and the glory of the great highway, but its use was enormous for the twenty year period from 1833 to 1853 and from the beginning of the Civil War to 1876, after which it fell into neglect and for another quarter of a century was little more than a brilliant memory. During this period of neglect much was written of the history of the road, of Concord coaches and Canastoga wagons, with many regrets over the passage of the days of romance when adventure stalked the open road ; but if these revered historians could travel the road today, from Cumberland to Vandalia, luxuriously reclining amid the overstuffed cushions of a high-powered motor car, driven by the lineal successor of Jehu at fifty miles an hour, and watch the passing busses, trucks, vans and touring cars and read the signs on the reincarnated inns and taverns, they could but conclude that the departed glory has come again increased an hundred fold. THE CANAL. When Governor Brown wrote the messages referred to in the beginning of this chapter, he was saying one word for roads and three for canals. In 1806, while he was a judge of the Superior Court of Cincinnati, he had corresponded with DeWitt Clinton, of New York, the father of the Erie Canal, and gathered much materials concerning the whole subject of canal construction and benefits. It was to be expected that he would use the prestige of his position as Governor to forward the movement for internal improvements to which he was so enthusiastically committed. The immediate result of the Governor's representations was nothing more than some public debate and more private discussion among the "whittlers" gathered at every country postoffice, but the necessary publicity was procured and, in December 1821, the Legislature provided for the appointment of a commission of five persons to consider and report on the Governor's recommendations concerning the canal question. This commit- HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 151 tee gave immediate attention to the subject and, on January 3rd, 1822, made an elaborate and forceful report to the House, setting out in detail the varied advantages to be gained by the state from a system of inland waterways, with estimates of construction costs and revenues. Upon the presentation of this report a bill was introduced providing for the appointment of a commission to make "an examination into the practicability of connecting Lake Erie with the Ohio river by a canal." This bill became a law on the 31st of January of the same year. Important and interesting as the canal history of Ohio no doubt is, Columbus was not located on the main line and the subject might well receive less attention were it not for the fact that Alfred Kelley, of Franklin County, was a member of this first commission, the others being Benjamin Tappan, Thomas Worthington, Ethan Allen Brown, Jeremiah Morrow, Isaac Minor and Ebenezer Buckingham, Jr. Speaking of Alfred Kelley in this connection, the historian Ryan says : "In every great movement there is developed some man who quickly and rapidly seizes the situation and forces it onward to success. He may not have been the originator, nor even a pioneer of the idea, but he shapes into concrete form the work of those who have gone before, and with his practical mind transforms the idea into a fact. In the era of internal improvement in Ohio, this man was Alfred Kelley. Of Mr. Kelley's life and achievements in this and other fields a fuller statement will be made in a later chapter." The commission thus created proceeded to make a practical investigation of routes, ways and means, reporting to the General Assembly annually. In their third report, January 8, 1825, they recommended that the canal be constructed at once. So thoroughly and convincingly were all of the necessary details set forth that on the 4th of the following month the General Assembly passed culminating legislation entitled "An Act to provide for the internal improvement of the state of Ohio by Navigable Canals," which authorized the construction of a canal on the Muskingum and Scioto route from the mouth of the Scioto river at Portsmouth to Lake Erie at Cleveland and so much of the Maumee and Miami line as lies between Cincinnati and the Mad river at or near Dayton. Thus was Ohio committed to o program of public improvements that ultimately cost more than 152 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY sixteen millions of dollars, the initial steps being taken at a time when the taxable. value of all property in the state did not exceed fifty-eight million dollars. The work of actual construction began on the Licking summit, near Newark, July 4th, 1825. Governor Jeremiah Morrow officiated on behalf of Ohio and Governor DeWitt Clinton, of New York, participated as the honored guest of the state. These two distinguished executives shoveled the first earth and set in motion the greatest material improvement ever attempted by the commonwealth and one fraught with the most far-reaching consequences. Governor Clinton visited Lancaster the next day, and then on to Columbus, arriving here on the evening of the 6th. On the 7th he was given a great ovation at the Capitol, after which there was a public dinner in his honor at the "Sign of the Golden Bell." The work of constructing the canal system was pushed with such energy that water was turned into the Ohio canal at the Licking summit on June 23, 1827, and the first boat arrived at that point from Cleveland on July 10, 1830. On the Miami canal boats arrived at Dayton from Cincinnati in February 1829. The state owned system was completed in 1847, there being 512 miles of the Ohio canal from Cleveland to Portsmouth, with its laterals, and 301 miles of the Miami and Erie canal. In addition there were connecting canals built by private enterprises as follows : The Warren County Canal, from Middletown to Lebanon ; The Cincinnati and White Water, from Cincinnati into Wayne County, Indiana ; The Sandy and Beaver Canal, from Bolivar, Tuscarawas County, to the Pennsylvania state line ; and The Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal, from Akron to a junction with the Pennsylvania and Erie Canal. At its period of greatest development and use the canal system of Ohio comprised approximately 1023 miles. The canal was an artificial river without rapids or shoals and was not subject to the fluctuations of high and low water. The channel was forty feet wide at the surface of the water, twenty-six feet wide on the bed and at least four feet in depth. On one side was a roadway, called a tow-path, for the use of the motive power, consisting of two or three horses or mules, driven tandem, making about two miles per HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 153 hour. The boats were patterned after the accepted models of Noah's ark, blunt prow and stern, the latter distinguished by the rudder, and, on the Ohio Canal, had a capacity of from seventy-five to one hundred tons. The superiority of transportation by canal over the then existing roads, especially for heavy freight, was so great as to need no proof in this state. When the Erie Canal was opened in New York, the cost of transportation from Buffalo to Albany was immediately reduced from $100 per ton to $10 and, within a few years, went to $3.00 per ton from Buffalo to New York City. The inauguration of the canal system in Ohio immediately opened the way for enormous importations of manufactured goods from the east, particularly New York. It also permitted a great increase in the exchange of commodities within the state. Coal fields in southern Ohio were developed and factories in the cities, able to obtain cheap fuel and raw materials, came into existence many years before such development would have been possible otherwise. For twenty-five years after the canal had passed its period of greatest usefulness, it continued to exert a wholesome influence on railroad freight rates. In this way alone it amply justified the expense of construction and paid dividends directly to the people of the state. The question as to the permanent utility of canals has never been decided in the negative. What would have been the fate of the Ohio canals if they could have been built wider and deeper in the first place and provided with some mechanical motive power, is a question open for speculation. The recurring agitation for the building of a canal from Lake Erie, by way of Columbus, to the Ohio River, capable of accomodating lake barges without breaking the load, is proof of a continued interest that may in time bring back an era of water transportation ; even as the National Road came back under changed conditions. The Columbus Feeder, as it was called, was a lateral from the main line of the Ohio Canal at Lockbourne. It connected with the Scioto River, just above the State Dam, from which stream it received the water for its operation. Work on this branch was begun April 30, 1827. This was one of the outstanding events of the Burough's history. The ceremonies attending the occasion are fully de- 154 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY tailed in the local newspapers of the time. It is recorded that more than a thousand of the citizens assembled at the State House at two o'clock in the afternoon and formed a parade with Captain McElvaine's company of Dragoons and the local Riflemen and Artillery, the whole procession directed by General Warner, with his staff, and proceeded to the east bank of the Scioto near Friend Street, where addresses were made, and the Secretary of State and the Warden of the Penitentiary did sufficient excavating to load a wheelbarrow which the State Auditor and Treasurer wheeled away. The procession was again formed and retreated to the site of a "cold collation," which meant more a hundred years ago than it does now. The building of the canal was not fast work, and it was September, 1831 before water was let into the Columbus feeder and navigation opened. On the 23rd of September the first boat, the Governor Brown, arrived from Circleville, greeted by the firing of cannon and the cheers of the multitude. The Governor Brown seems to have been a packet, or passenger boat, carrying "several of the most respectable citizens of Pickaway, County." They were received in due form with speeches, music by the band and more "collations." Three days later the boats Cincinnati and Red Rover, from Lake Erie, by way of Newark, were pulled into the river and proceeded to the wharf at Broad Street, welcomed by a salute of twenty-four guns, music by the Lancaster band and a speech by Colonel Doherty--also a "collation" at Ridgeway's Warehouse. From these beginnings grew a thriving freight business. A resident ox that time has written that during the five weeks preceding November 1st, 1831, more than eighty boats arrived "laden with eastern merchandise, destined to almost every section of the Mississippi Valley." Until the canal was completed from Newark to Portsmouth, freight intended for the southwest was shipped by water to Columbus, transferred by land to Dayton and reshipped by water to Cincinnati and the west. On account of the slow speed at which canal boats traveled they never did much, or attempted much, in the way of passenger traffic. However, there were boats built and equipped for this purpose. A contemporaneous writer says : "They seemed like fairy palaces. They HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 155 were painted white, and the windows had green shutters and scarlet curtains. The inside of the cabin contained mirrors and pictures. The officers of the passenger boats were gentlemen. The cabin was a dining rom and sitting room in the day time and was converted into a sleeping apartment at night." For a time there was a regular packet running from Columbus to Chillicothe, leaving at 9 A. M. and arriving at 9 P. M.—not fast, it is true, but four miles an hour without dust and no danger of running into any other ditch. CHAPTER IX COLUMBUS AS A CITY-1834 TO 1850. THE CITY CREATED BY ACT OF LEGISLATURE-THE FIRST MAYOR AND COUNCILMAN-SURVEYOR LAPHAM-WILLIAM T. MARTIN AND NOAH SWAYNE- EARLY FINANCES-THE MICHIGAN BOUNDARY DISPUTE AND TOLEDO WAR-GENERAL HARRISON'S VISIT-THE BUILDING OF THE STATE HOUSE-OLD STATE HOUSE BURNED-THE CAPITOL DOME-WAR WITH MEXICO-COL. MORGAN'S SWORD-THE CALIFORNIA GOLD CRAZE. In the year 1834, with a population of 3500, Columbus became a city. This was accomplished by special act of the Legislature on March 3rd, granting enlarged general privileges of self-government, vesting legislative powers only in the city council and conferring executive and judicial powers on the mayor. The latter was charged with the usual duties of enforcing the laws and ordinances, supervising the administrations of lesser officials and was given the same judicial powers and duties as Justices of the Peace in both criminal and civil cases with the same fees. Section 24 of the charter provides that electors shall be white male persons twenty-one years of age, who have resided in the city at least one year. The city was divided into three wards, each represented by four councilmen. At the first election on the second Monday of April in each ward one councilman was elected for one year, one for two years, one for three years and one for four years ; and thereafter, one councilmen elected each year for four years. The Mayor was elected biennially for a term of two years, or until his successor was elected and qualified. Under this charter the first Mayor elected was John Brooks. Councilmen from the first ward were : Joseph Ridgeway, R. W. McCoy, Henry Brown and Otis Crosby ; from the second ward, Jonathan - 156 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 157 Neereamer, Noah H. Swayne, Francis Stewart and William Long ; from the third ward, John Patterson, Christian Heyl, William Miner and William T. Martin. The council elected as its first President Robert W. McCoy ; as Recorder, William T. Martin ; Treasurer, William Long ; Surveyor, I. A. Lapham ; Marshal and Clerk of the Markets, Abraham Stotts. R. W. McCoy continued as president of the council until his resignation in 1853, after having served as a member of that body for thirty-seven years. William T. Martin continued as Recorder until 1839, serving as a member of council and concurrently as Mayor or Recorder from 1816, and for twenty years afterward in county and township offices, making a record of more than fifty years in local public service. He was the author of the History of Franklin County published in 1858, a work of great merit at the time and invaluable to subsequent writers on early local affairs. Increase Allen Lapham, elected as City Surveyor, was a man of no mean attainments at the time and afterward gained for himself an enviable reputation in the scientific world. He was born at Palmyra, New York, March 7, 1811. He was a civil engineer by profession and came to Ohio in connection with the building of the Ohio canals and served as Secretary of the Ohio Canal Commission from 1833 to 1835. He won fame early as a botanist and geologist. In 1836 he removed to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where, for forty years, he was identified with the archaeological and historical researches of the state and gained a national reputation by his meterological observations, laying the scientific foundations for the United States Weather Bureau. In 1916 his memory was honored by the action of the United States Topographic Board in giving his name to a peak in Waukesha, County, Wisconsin. During his service as Secretary of the Ohio Canal Commission, for which he received $400 a year, he had plenty of leisure, some of which was devoted to keeping a diary and writing letters, from which it is learned that he paid $1.75 a week for his board and added $100 a year to his income by acting as night custodian of the State Treasury, concerning which he said : "I am now writing in a little office, whose door and window shutters are faced with thick sheet iron. I have locked, barred and bolted the whole and, therefore, think myself secure. At the head of my bed is 158 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY a loaded pistol, ready for use in case of necessity." In a letter dated July 7, 1835, speaking of his appointment as City Surveyor, he says that his duty is to superintend the laying of about a mile of wooden conduit and the construction of five water cisterns of six thousand gallons each. On the 18th of February, 1846, the city was divided into five wards as follows : First—All that part of the city north of Gay Street ; Second—All between Gay and State Streets ; Third—All between State and Rich Streets ; Fourth—All between Rich and Main Streets ; and Fifth—All south of Main Street. Each ward was represented by three councilmen until by act of the Legislature May 3, 1852, the number was reduced to two from each ward. Noah H. Swayne, of the first council, gained a national reputation as a lawyer and member of the highest judicial tribunal in the land. Of him we shall speak further in a later chapter. Columbus began its life as a city on a remarkably small cash capital, there being but $90.75 in the treasury vaults at the time. On December 8, 1834 Mayor Brooks was paid $37.50, that being the amount of his salary for the preceding six month's period. However, some additional money had been collected in the meantime. A tax levy of two mills on the dollar had been made for city purposes and all places where intoxicating liquors were sold were licensed at $150 per year each. Incidentally the city began to acquire a debt amounting to $11,000 in 1835, $13,000 in 1836, with modest increases from year to year. In 1836 the revenues of the city were: from licenses of taverns, etc., $820 ; theaters, $75 ; rent of wharf lots, $168 ; licenses to showmen and fines, $110.63 ; tax collected on the duplicate, $2,327.97 ; paid by butchers for stall rent, $235.72; from Loans, $10,000. The expenses were $12,589.00. For a season during 1835 attention was distracted from local affairs by the greater excitement concerning the state line boundary dispute between the state of Ohio and the territory of Michigan. In the act providing for the formation of Ohio as a state Congress had attempted to establish the northern boundary on insufficient data, the language being, "On the north by an east and west line drawn through the southerly extreme of Lake Michigan running east after intersect- HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 159 ing the due north line from the mouth of the Great Miami, until it shall intersect Lake Erie, or the territorial line, and thence with the same through Lake Erie to the Pennsylvania line." The first trouble was that the "southerly extreme of Lake Michigan" was a good deal further south than it was supposed to be and a line drawn from that point due east would not intersect Lake Erie at all, passing several miles south of Cleveland. Even Michigan did not lay claim to so much territory, but did claim a strip of land from five to eight miles in width including the city of Toledo. Ohio wanted Toledo and the bay on which it was situated, not only because it had always been considered a part of the state but because it was one terminus of the Miami Canal. Michigan was preparing for statehood and boundary lines were a prerequisite to political identity. Moreover acting Governor Stephen T. Mason was a very young man, rash, impetuous and anxious to do something or anything to get in the public eye. When, on February 23rd, 1835, the Legislature of Ohio passed an act extending the northern boundaries of Wood, Henry and Williams counties to what was known as the "Harris Line" providing for elections and local government in the new townships thus created, and appointing commissioners to re-mark the line claimed to be the state boundary, the Territorial Council of Michigan retaliated with an act providing fines and imprisonment as the punishment of any persons who should attempt to exercise any official functions in the disputed strip. Governor Lucas, of Ohio, had been a soldier in the War of 1812 and was quite ready and willing to add to his military experience. He not only ordered his commissioners to proceed in the matter of remarking the Harris line hut, with his military staff and General John Bell, commanding six hundred Ohio militiamen, proceeded to the scene of action where they found Governor Mason and General Joseph W. Brown, with a thousand Michigan militia encamped and apparently eager for the fray. Just when all the horrors of civil war were about to be staged, Richard Rush, of Philadelphia and Benjamin C. Howard, of Baltimore, special envoys from President Andrew Jackson, arrived on the field of battle and made representations to Governor Mason which induced him to send his army home and when Governor Lucas saw the enemy departing, he ordered his own army back to the capital. However, the doughty Governor Lucas proceeded 160 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY to have his commissioners run the line and the Governor of Michigan ordered General Brown to watch the proceedings. When the Ohio commissioners, with their surveyors, chain bearers and supernumeraries had proceeded some distance within the disputed territory they were set upon by a Michigan sheriff and some of the Ohio party were arrested, while the others fled for points well to the south. Thereupon "grim visaged war raised high his horrid head, gnashed loud his iron fangs and shook his crest of bristling bayonets." Governor Lucas called a special session of the Legislature, an act was passed "to prevent the forcible abduction of citizens of Ohio," the county of Lucas was created, composed largely of disputed territory named in honor of the Governor and Toledo was made its county seat ; $300,000 was appropriated and the Governor authorized to borrow $300,000 more for the war chest ; and the Adjutant General reported that ten thousand troops were ready for instant action. While the streets of Columbus were echoing to the shrill note of the fife and the martial call of the drum and "all was bustle and excitement," Governor Lucas sent Noah H. Swayne, W. Alden and D. T. Disney to Washington to confer with the President. The matter must have been presented with much of the clarity and force that distinguished Noah Swayne before and afterward, for the President communicated with the Governor of Michigan, using language he could understand, and the war cloud passed. On the 29th of August Governor Mason was removed from his office and the following year Michigan was admitted to the Union with the "Harris Line" marking her southern boundary ; so the Dove of Peace built her nest where the "Toledo War" was to have been. General William Henry Harrison, who had honored Franklinton with his presence as commanding General of the Western Army during the War of 1812, was the guest of the City of Columbus on November 5th, 1836. He revisited the scenes of his former headquarters and conference with the Indians and was the guest of honor at a public dinner at Russell's hotel in the evening, where the address of welcome was delivered by Alfred Kelly. The General responded with many references to his experiences in the Northwest Territory, before the creation of the state and to his military experience in Franklin County. This was three years before General Harrison was elected HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 161 to the Presidency, but he was being freely discussed as the most available candidate to beat Van Buren. He again visited Columbus in 1840 during his Presidential campaign. In the decade from 1830 to 1840 the population of the State of Ohio grew from 937,000 to more than a million and a half, an increase of 63%, placing Ohio third in rank in the column of states. The affairs of the state kept pace with the development resulting from this increase in population and the era of improved transportation. Ohio had outgrown its first capitol and a new building was necessary to house the expanding activities of government. To meet this situation, the General Assembly passed an act on January 26th, 1838, providing for the appointment, by joint action of the two houses, of a commission of three persons empowered to erect a new state house on the public square in the city of Columbus. The members of the first commission were Joseph Ridgeway, Jr., of Columbus, William A. Adams, of Muskingum County, and William B. VanHook of Butler County. The first act of the new commission was to advertise in the newspapers of Ohio, and the cities of New York, Philadelphia and Washington, offering prizes of $500, $300 and $200 for plans to be submitted by architects. The approximate size of the building was given and it was specified that the style of architecture should be what was then referred to as "the Greek revival," of which there were a number of excellent examples in the country, particularly the Treasury building in Washington. Between fifty and sixty sets of plans were submitted and the prizes were awarded to Henry Walter, of Cincinnati, Martin E. Thompson, of New York City and Thomas Cole, of Catskill, New York in the order named. The commissioners announced at the time of making these awards, their purpose to be, "first to construct an edifice which should combine in its interior arrangements perfect security to the archives of the several departments of the public service, and convenience to the several bodies and officers to be accomodated and, secondly, that in its exterior form and interior disposition of apartments there should be united that beauty and grandeur which the rules of art require, and which comport with the wealth and dignity of the state." Mr. Walter, who was appointed the first architect, was instructed to combine the several desirable features of all three plans and thus 162 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY was evolved the design that was followed as to the style of architecture, size and in general the interior arrangement. Mr. Walter, however, was not primarily an architect at all but a landscape painter, having a keen sense of architectural beauty it is true, but insufficient knowledge of details to carry the work to a successful conclusion. However, he is entitled to the credit for his part in crystalizing the idea conceived by the Legislature and for laying the foundations of what is characterized by good authority as "one of the finest examples of the Greek Revival in America," and "at the time of its completion was considered, both in this country and in Europe, the most imposing State Capitol in the United States." In the spring of 1839 the work was begun. The State House lot was enclosed with a high board fence to prevent the escape of convicts employed, the massive foundations were laid to a depth of from six to ten feet and from twelve to fifteen feet thick. The corner stone was laid on the 4th of July with impressive ceremonies. There was a citizens committee, of which Colonel James Kilbourne was President and Noah Swayne and Alfred Kelly among the large list of Vice-Presidents. Then there was a procession, formed of foot and horse with bands and civic societies, including a small but heroic unit composed of Revolutionary soldiers. More than five thousand persons crowded the enclosure and massed about the northeast of the foundation where the huge cap stone was suspended by many ropes over the block containing the various documents, coins, periodicals, etc., deposited in absolute security for the eyes of some far distant generation. For the benefit of those future archaeologists it may be well to remark at this place that the glass-enclosed scroll bears curious misinformation in its reference to Ohio as the 16th instead of the 17th state admitted to the Union and the date of its organization into a state as 1802 instead of 1803. Otherwise the contents may be accepted for perpetuation. With fitting words and due solemnity ex-Governor Jeremiah Morrow performed the ceremony of laying the corner stone, and the great building was under way. But this propitious beginning was not augury of future progress. For a few months the work went on, quantities of materials were gathered and the sound of the mason's maul mingled with the creak- HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 163 ing of the windlass until the sinister hand of partisan and personal politics reached out and stilled it all. Taking advantage of local differences of no importance, certain members of the Legislature seized the opportunity to agitate the question of the removal of the state capital at that time, the original establishment having been made "until the year 1840." Although they failed in their major objective, the legislation providing for the erection of the new state house was repealed, the architect took his plans and went home, and the foundations were allowed to settle for six years. However, the urgent need for the new Capitol grew, and in 1846 a second act to provide for the erection of a new state house was passed and a new commission appointed consisting of W. A. Adams, Samuel Medary and Joseph Ridgeway, Jr. The work was resumed and continued in a half-hearted way until 1848 when William Russell West and J. O. Sawyer, of Cincinnati, were appointed as architect and superintendent and operations were given a new impetus ; so that by the end of 1849 the walls had grown to a heighth of fourteen feet. In 1850 the railroad running from the stone quarries to the Penitentiary was extended across the city and down Third Street to the State House lot so that the supply of stone was more constant and the transportation expenses greatly reduced. By the end of 1851 the outside walls were forty feet high and much of the interior marble and tile work was completed. On Sunday morning, February 1st, 1851, the old State House was destroyed by fire. The Senate and House were obliged to find quarters in the Ambos Hall and Neil's Odeon. While the cause of the fire was never discovered, there being suspicions of incendiarism, it served to impress the General Assembly with the necessity of hastening the completion of the new Capitol. There was much added interest on the part of the legislators which was beneficial in the way of appropriations and detrimental in the way of unskilled interference. This state of affairs continued until 1854 when Mr. West resigned as architect and N. B. Kelly was appointed in his stead. Mr. Kelly served until the building was nearing completion in 1858 when he was succeeded by Isaiah Rogers. Mr. Kelly seems to have fallen heir to a "sea of troubles." He found no provisions for ventilating the building and no system for 164 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY warming the corridors, rotunda or passages. The heating problem was solved with comparatively little difficulty, but in order to provide a system of ventilation he was compelled to line practically every chamber with brick in order to construct the necessary ventilating shafts. In 1856 another new commission was appointed consisting of William A. Platt as acting commissioner and James T. Worthington and L. G. Harkness as advisory commissioners. In the act appointing these commissioners they were directed to submit the plans of the building to at least two architects of their selection for their opinion as to the work already completed and recommendations as to the completion of the building. The plans were so submitted to Thomas U. Walter, architect of the Capitol at Washington, and Richard Upjohn, architect of the Trinity Church, New York City. These gentlemen made a number of practical suggestions as to the interior and two as to the exterior, viz : the fluting of the columns and, second the removal of the dome, then in the course of construction. Despite Kelly's handicaps in the way of too little information from his predecessors and too much from his coadjutors, the legislative halls were ready for the session of 1857. On Tuesday, January 6th of this year, the citizens of Columbus sponsored a reception at the Capitol to the people of Ohio and made of it one of the most brilliant occasions of the city's history. In the evening the entire building was illuminated for the first time, the rotunda was decorated with evergreens and flags where a banquet was given the distinguished guests from all parts of the state. It is said that the schottish and the polka were danced in the corridors while the Senate chamber was given over to the stately quadrille. The more sedate ceremonies were held in the hall of the House of Representatives, opening with invocation by the Rev. James Hoge, then a veteran pioneer, followed by Alfred Kelly, then a member of the Senate from Franklin County, with an address that did credit to him and his constituents. Governor Salmon P. Chase responded on the part of the state, and the building was formally dedicated as the official home of Ohio. The building was fully completed November 15, 1861. Isaiah Rogers had been appointed architect in July 1858 and superintended the concluding details of construction with rare ability, even if he was not HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 165 able to realize his desire for architectural perfection. The original plans for the building, if there ever were complete plans, disappeared with architect Walter and, with the lapse of time, changes in the personnel of the commission and succession of architects, there were so many changes that it is impossible to say now what the original design may have been. However, it is fairly certain that no architect is responsible for the unfinished dome now surmounting an otherwise satisfying structure. This unhappy turret, generally spoken of as the "cheese box" and referred to by Bill Nye as the "architectural wart of Ohio," is the embryo of what might yet be developed into a graceful feature. A dome of some kind was almost necessary to permit the development of the rotunda with a vaulted ceiling. That it was intended to have at least some degree of architectural excellence is proven by prints published in 1856, no doubt taken from architects designs of that or several years earlier date, showing a collonade of fluted columns surrounding the dome, with a roofing in harmony. All of the designs published up to and including 1858 show all of the columns fluted and the splendid perspective of Isaiah Rogers, embodying the result of an intelligent study of the development of the almost completed building, a knowledge of the best ancient and modern examples of Greek architecture and the suggestions of skilled members of his own profession, shows the completed dome surrounded by fluted Corinthian columns, a portico extending on the west side of the building and all of the columns fluted. As it stands today the State Capitol "combines that sublime massiveness, that dignity of form and feature, that beautiful symmetry of proportion, which together constitute true architectural excellence in a high degree," but sordid parsimony and crass ignorance have combined to prevent the addition of grace to dignity and the crowning of massiveness with beauty. The War with Mexico absorbed the attention of the people of Franklin County from the receipt of the news of the first victory over the Mexicans at Palo Alto until the return of the soldiers in 1848. This was not a popular war in the North. There was nothing about it to arouse popular fervor or fan the flame of patriotism into a white heat. It was regarded as a move to promote the extension of slavery and add to the power of the slave states. Senator Thomas H. Benton 166 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY charged that the administration "wanted a small war, just large enough to require a treaty of peace, and not large enough to make military reputations dangerous for the Presidency." American adventures in Texas had seceded from Mexico and set up a government of their own and, with such promptness as to justify the suspicion of a formal plot, had their new Republic annexed to the United States. Not satisfied with the accomplishment of their primary purpose, claim was made to the territory between the Neuces and Rio Grande Rivers, and the President sent the Army of the Southwest from New Orleans, under General Zachariah Taylor, to be in readiness to occupy the disputed territory. After his force had been augmented to about four thousand men, Taylor advanced to the Rio Grande and the war was on. On May 11th President Polk reported to Congress the state of affairs in the southwest and two days later the call for fifty thousand volunteers was made. The apathy of the North did not infect Ohio, and the Governor's office was besieged with applicants ready, willing and able to raise companies, battalions and regiments for the front. Military headquarters were established at Cincinnati where the volunteers were received, organized and forwarded to the theatre of war. The state furnished four regiments and three independent companies, numbering 5,536 and in addition supplied 2,321 recruits to the regular army. Two local companies, the Columbus Cadets, Captain William A. Latham, and the Montgomery Guards, Captain George E. Walcutt, succeeded by Captain J. T. Nickum, were speedily mobilized and forwarded by canal to Camp Washington, where they were assigned to the Second Regiment, under Col. George W. Morgan, of Knox County. This regiment left Cincinnati by river about the middle of July, participated in several important actions and did honor to itself and to the state. In 1847 two additional companies were recruited in Columbus. Captain Otto Zirckle, whose German artillery attempted to get in on the first call, was accepted at this time and Captain M. C. Lilley departed in command of the Franklin Guards. These two companies were transported by stage to Cincinnati and assigned to the Fourth Ohio Regiment. HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 167 Other Franklin County citizens serving in this war were Dr. William Trevet, Surgeon of the 2nd Regiment ; Captain W. F. Sanderson, in command of Company B. U. S. Mounted Riflemen and Lieutenant Irvin McDowell, who distinguished himself as an aide on the staff of General Wood at the battle of Beuna Vista. The recruiting of the Fifth Ohio Regiment was well under way in Columbus when the Mexican resistance broke down completely and the war was at an end. The returning veterans were received with full honors, the first two companies, after a year of service, arriving home by stages on July 5th, 1847, and the others a year later. Both contingents were publicly welcomed. Col. George W. Morgan, of the Second Regiment, was received as the guest of the city on December 10th, 1847, given a public dinner at the American House and presented with a sword described as "richly and brilliantly laid with gold." In all Franklin County furnished about three hundred men in volunteers and recruits to the regular army, practically twice her quota based on population. The cholera again appeared in Columbus in June of 1849 and took its toll of two hundred lives in the city and one hundred and sixteen in the Penitentiary before abating in September. The following year the plague returned and was responsible for two hundred and twenty-five deaths. Forty-nine is also remembered as the year of the California Gold Rush. The yellow metal always has had the power to lure men from home and comfort to the uttermost parts of the earth and perhaps always will. When the news came that gold had been found in the sands of far California it found response at once in Franklin County. There were many individuals who started out alone to test their fortunes on the Pacific Coast, but more pretentious and better equipped ventures were inaugurated by the Franklin California Mining Company, organized by John Walton, and The Columbus and California Industrial Company, by Joseph Hunter, each with thirty or more members. These companies purposed invading the gold fields with something like military discipline and working for the common benefit. They soon found individual ambition too strong for communal restraint. The Walton company broke up before getting to the land 168 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY of promise and such members of both parties as reached the goal operated each for himself. Not only did the organization and departure of these parties provide local excitement, but there were frequent wagon trains passing over the National Road through Columbus on the long trek toward the sunset. There is no record of any considerable wealth being brought back to this part of the world by these argonauts, but several of them did meet with success in mining or allied industries and remained on the western coast. As evidence that the gold craze was not all imagination it may be recalled that within ten years after the discovery of gold, the population of California increased from 30,000 to 600,000 and the productions of the mines increased the wealth of the state by six hundred million dollars. CHAPTER X FROM 1850 TO 1860. THE GROWTH IN POPULATION AND WEALTH-THE FIRST STATE FAIR-THE RAILWAY AGE, EARLY PROJECTS AND THE BUILDING OF THE COLUMBUS AND XENIA-THE ROADS TO CLEVELAND, ZANESVILLE AND PIQUAVISITS OF HORACE GREELY AND GENERAL SCOTT-HONORS TO MEMORY OF HENRY CLAY-VISIT AND RECEPTION OF LOUIS KOSSUTH-HIS SPEECH BEFORE THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY-THE BIRTH OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY- KNOWNOTHING OUTBREAK- DR. ELISHA KENT KANE -NOMINATION OF WILLIAM DENNISON FOR GOVERNOR-SACRIFICE OF JUDGE SWAN-THE FIRST VISIT OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN-THE KENTUCKY AND TENNESSEE LEGISLATURES IN COLUMBUS. The end of the first half of the Nineteenth Century brought with it a revival in business conditions, following almost a decade of depression due, in a large measure to an unstable banking system. Through the creation of a state bank, with numerous branches, and the substitution of a currency acceptable at face value in all sections, confidence returned and business blossomed. From 1840 to 1850 the population of the county increased from 25,049 to 42,909, a gain of forty-one percent. The agricultural lands of the county were valued at approximately five million dollars, the city and village real estate at six millions and personal property at four millions, a total of fifteen million dollars. The second Ohio Constitutional Convention met in Columbus on the first Monday in May, 1850, the legislation providing for its deliberations having been enacted by the General Assembly in the preceding February. The Constitution of 1802 had survived almost half a century, time enough to emphasize its defects. Long before experience had - 169 - 170 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY verified his criticism, Thomas Jefferson called attention to the fact that the constitution contained too much legislation, a criticism that might be revived today and urged against the growing tendency to write laws for a day into charters intended for the generations. It was contended that the Legislature was clothed with too much power, particularly with reference to the appointment of the judiciary and state officers—indeed the people elected only the Governor—and the prerogative of contracting public debts for internal improvements. The membership of the convention constituted a galaxy of stars of the first magnitude. There was William Medill, of Fairfield County, as its President; there were Rufus P. Ranney, of Portage County, ex-Governor Joseph Vance, of Champagne, Josiah Scott, of Harrison, William S. Groesbeck, of Hamilton, Simeon Nash, of Gallia, and Samuel Kirkwood, of Richland, while Franklin County was represented by Joseph R. Swan and Henry Stanberry. The convention held its sessions in Columbus until July 9th, 1850 when, because of the cholera epidemic, it adjourned to meet September 2nd and continued its labors in Cincinnati to March of the following year. The result was the draft of an entirely new constitution, approved at a special election held June 17, 1851—a constitution that withstood all sorts of assaults for more than sixty years. It has been amended since in many particulars—possibly improved in a few—but on the whole these changes have rather served to brighten by contrast the genius and wisdom of the statesmen of 1850. A state fair was held at Camp Washington, Cincinnati, in 1850 and Columbus was a bidder for the exposition the following year. The city council took the initiative, appointed a committee, of which W. A. Platt was chairman, to raise the sum of three thousand dollars for expenses and the novel attraction was duly booked. The fair was held in Franklinton on land owned by Michael Sullivant, near the old county court house, and the venture was crowned with success. The fair came to Columbus again in 1855, 1864 and 1865 and was brought back in 1874 to become a permanent institution of the state capital. This period is especially noted as the beginning of the railway age in central Ohio. As early as 1825 railroads were being talked of HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 171 and advocated instead of canals. It was argued that they could be operated in spite of wind and weather and did not freeze up for three months in the winter. At that time, however, the railway was in a crude experimental stage in England, while canals were a demonstrated success. Not until 1833 was the first railway in America built from Philadelphia to South Amboy, with rails of cast iron laid on stone sills, and the trains were drawn by horses until September of that year when the famous locomotive John Bull was put in commission and gave the horse his first defeat. The following year, progressive men in Ohio foreseeing the imminence of the railway age, began to incorporate companies and procure rights of way and franchises for the construction of railway lines. Lincoln Goodale, Gustavus Swan, Joseph Ridgeway, Daniel Upson and Aurora Buttles incorporated a company to build a line from Columbus to Marion and Sandusky and later William A. Neil, William A. Platt and others incorporated for the same purpose. This was followed the same year by The Columbus, Delaware, Marion and Upper Sandusky projected by William A. Neil, Lyne Starling and associates. In 1836 Gustavus Swan and W. S. Sullivant, associated with representatives of other counties through which the line was projected, procured a charter for The Columbus, London and Springfield Railroad. A Columbus and Marysville road got as far as the organization stage ; a Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati railroad was incorporated ; then the Central Ohio Railroad Company, designed to connect Columbus with the Ohio River ; and in 1849 Joseph Sullivant and Joseph Ridgeway were the promoters of The Columbus, Piqua and Indiana Railway Company. These railways did not get beyond the charter and incorporation paper stage, but they indicate the trend of the times, the crystalization of thought and the focussing of attention that speedily brought tangible results. In August, 1845, the Little Miami Railroad was completed from Cincinnati to Xenia. This was the signal for a mighty effort on the part of local capitalists to bring the road on to Columbus. A company was incorporated by Joseph Ridgeway, Samuel Medary, William Dennison and others from the counties along the line. When subscriptions for the stock amounted to $200,000, a board of directors was 172 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY elected consisting of Joseph Ridgeway, Jr., W. S. Sullivant, D. W. Deshler, Samuel Medary, Charles H. Wing, A. F. Perry, Joshua Martin, R. E. Neil, Orange Johnson and William Dennison. By authority of a special act of the General Assembly the people of Columbus voted a municipal subscription for $50,000 of the company's stock and Franklin County subscribed for another $50,000, both political units being given representation on the board of directors. Even with these public subscriptions there was great difficulty in raising the amount of money necessary to finance the enterprise ; but success was achieved and the road completed early in 1850 at a cost, including equipment, of $1,403,000. The rails were bought in England at a cost of sixty dollars a ton delivered. A locomotive was shipped from Cincinnati by river and canal to assist in the track laying. Alfred Kelley succeeded William A. Neil as president in 1847 and gave to the enterprise all of his great ability and genius until successful completion. On Washington's Birthday, 1850, the first through trip was made over the road from Columbus to Xenia by a locomotive pulling a train of open platform cars, carrying passengers, in three hours and five minutes for the distance of fifty-four miles. On March 2nd the state officers and members of the General Assembly enjoyed their first free ride from Columbus through to Cincinnati and return. A temporary station in Franklinton was used until December, 1850, when the original depot just east of the High Street viaduct was completed and the first train ran into it on the fourteenth. Three years later the company erected an office building on the west side of High Street at the foot of the viaduct, which still stands although it has not been used for railway purposes for many years. In 1845 the representatives of the several companies incorporated for the purpose of building a road from Columbus north got together and revived the charter of the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad Company. Franklin County was represented in this company by Lyne Starling, William A. Neil and John A. Bryan. Alfred Kelley was elected President and began the work of construction in 1848. The last rail was laid February 18, 1851 and a train in waiting for the final ceremonies, ran into the station and returned to Cleveland. Three days later the state officers and members of the General Assembly enjoyed another free jaunt, after which the road was opened HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 173 to the paying public. The operation of this road was a financial success from the very beginning. The second year it paid a dividend of seven percent and the Franklin County Commissioners, who had bought $50,000.00 of the stock, sold it on a rising market at a profit of $15,000.00. Semi-annual dividends were paid regularly until 1868 when the road was consolidated with the line to Indianapolis as The C. C. C. and I., now a part of the New York Central System. By this time railroad building was the order of the day. The Central Ohio Railroad, from Columbus to Zanesville, financed by private subscriptions, of which R. W. McCoy, Robert Neil and William Dennison were the local directors, was completed in January 1853 ; and on February 4th, the state officers and members of the General Assembly took their usual complimentary trip. The following year the road was completed through to Cambridge and by October, service was given from Columbus to the Ohio River at Wheeling in conjunction with the Baltimore and Ohio. This road, built at a cost of more than six million dollars, passed through the usual receivership of the times and finally became a part of the B. & O. system. At the same time The Columbus, Piqua and Indiana road was under construction. The- first passenger train ran from Columbus to Piqua October 16, 1854. This road is now a part of the Pennsylvania system. Thus, within a period of five years, the capital city advanced from a mere dot on the National Road and the terminus of a minor feeder of the Ohio Canal, to an important railway center, connected by direct lines with Cincinnati and the great southwest, with Wheeling and the east, with Cleveland and the potential wealth of the Great Lakes, and with Indiana and the unmeasured richness of the western agricultural empire. Columbus had already passed through several stages of rapid evolution and had profited wonderfully by each transformation scene, but never before nor since have such wonders been worked as during the half-decade during which these early railroads were projected and brought through to successful operation. Horace Greeley, the distinguished editor of the New York Tribune, visited Columbus in 1852. He had just returned from a journey abroad during which he had served as one of the jurors at the World's Fair in the Crystal Palace, London. At the time Mr. Greeley was an 174 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY outstanding national character, his editorials accepted as gospel by an admiring public, and he was given a great ovation by his friends in Franklin County. In the fall of the same year, General Winfield Scott, the hero of the Mexican War, then the Whig candidate for President of the United States, stopped in Columbus and was given a warm welcome at a formal reception and at a mass meeting he addressed in the evening. The death of Henry Clay in Washington on June 29, 1852, aroused emotions of deep sympathy in the breasts of many citizens of Columbus who had met him on his frequent visits here or who had been his loyal political supporters for years. In order that these followers of the dead statesmen might have an opportunity to show their respect for his memory, it was arranged that the remains be taken from the train and lie in state over night. A great procession marched from State Street to the Union station where the body was received and amid a deep silence, broken only by the tolling of bells and muffled drum beats, was carried to the Neil House where it was received by Governor Jones of Tennessee and William Dennison, of Columbus. In the evening public services were held, the invocation being offered by the Reverend James Hoge and eulogies delivered by William Dennison and Aaron F. Perry. February 4, 1852, Louis Kossuth, the Hungarian patriot, arrived over the new railroad, from Cleveland and was received by civic socities and military organizations. He was conducted to the Neil House where an outpouring of the people made it difficult for him and his party to reach the quarters prepared for them. That evening a preparatory meeting was held at the City Hall, resolutions adopted and arrangements made for the entertainment of the visitors during their stay in the city. The next morning at 11 o'clock, Kossuth spoke from a platform erected for the purpose in front of the Old Court House in the Capitol grounds, to a dense crowd that packed High Street as far as his voice could be heard. Samuel Galloway delivered the address of welcome and William Dennison introduced the famous guest. What was intended to he the principal address of this visit was delivered before a joint session of the General Assembly held in the Odeon building on the 7th. Governor Reuben Wood escorted the visitor to the hall where Lieutenant Governor Medill delivered the ad-