300 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY lin County has suffered rather less than the average. With a wide diversity of comparatively small industries the unemployment situation has not been extreme, and the presence of the state government, with necessarily large local expenditures, has tended to ease an otherwise distressing condition. The history of the world is that some years of depression always follow a great war. We are yet engaged in paying the bill for the last one. In addition, we have witnessed an enormous diversion of capital and expenditure from usual channels to the automobile industry and the purchase of cars necessary to put the entire country on wheels. Incidentally, some billions of dollars have been required from the tax-payers to build the roads on which to wear out the automobiles purchased and keep the manufacturers busy making new and more expensive ones. The over-night destruction of all the capital invested in the liquor traffic, the dismissal of the army of employes engaged therein and the consequent decreased consumption of bottles, barrels, kegs, lithographs, furniture, fixtures and what-not, added materially to the financial and industrial confusion, no matter what good results may accrue in other ways. But, despite hard times, Columbus has continued its upbuilding. The Buckeye, the Columbian and the Ohio State Building and Loan Associations have erected new and imposing buildings in Gay Street. The Beggs office building in State Street, just east of High Street, would have been considered an accomplishment even during prosperity. The Loew's State Theatre, occupying the site of the old City Hall, is an ornament to the city and a credit to its builders. The new Neil House, on the old site, now somewhat in advance of immediate needs, does full credit to its traditions and is certain to be the scene of history-making in the future as its predecessors have been in the past. Concerning the new City Hall, now two-thirds completed, too high compliment cannot be paid. Designed by Columbus architects for Columbus uses, it has added greatly to local prestige, and its location on the river front has made possible the development of civic center plans that, otherwise, would have been abandoned. The new Police Headquarters building to the north harmonizes with the general plan for municipal beautification. HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 301 The location of the State Office building on the river, south of Broad Street, assures the completion of the Civic Center plans. The Riverside Boulevard is now under way and other features of the general plan seem not far off. In East Broad Street the new home of the Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts is nearing completion, and the foundations are preparing for the architectural gem that is to be the First Congregational Church. In west King Avenue, near the Olentangy River, the Battelle Memorial Laboratory has been completed. It serves the dual purpose of furnishing facilities for expert inquiry into the many problems of metallurgy and keeping green the memory of Colonel James Gordon Battelle, who, with quiet dignity, did much to make the Capital City what it is today. James J. Thomas was inaugurated Mayor of Columbus January 1st, 1920. His administration has been without fire-works display but the accomplishments during his tenure of office, for which he must be given proper credit, are noteworthy. In addition to the public buildings named, the electric light plant has been vastly improved, one great intercepting sewer has been built and the entire sewer system of the city extended and made more serviceable ; the street paving is in better condition than ever before ; the entire fire department has been motorized ; High and Broad Streets have been equipped with an entirely new lighting system and practically all of the more important streets are better lighted than in the past ; the grade crossing elimination program has taken great strides forward, the Pennsylvania, Hocking Valley and Big Four overhead crossings of Dennison Avenue have given an additional thoroughfare to the North and the elevation of the Norfolk and Western tracks in the East is a benefit almost beyond present appreciation. The extension of public playgrounds has been almost phenominal and the Municipal Golf Course has been a convenience and satisfaction to many thousands who have not the time or opportunity to play their favorite game on a private course. During the administration of Mayor Thomas the City Manager plan has gained no advocates in Columbus. According to the census of 1930, the city of Columbus has a population of 289,056. Ranking as the fourth city in the state, Colum- 302 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY bus led the three others in the rate of increase during the past ten years-21.95 percent. Toledo was second, with 19.6 percent, followed by Cleveland, with 13.1 percent and Cincinnati, with 11.5 percent. The population of the county, outside Columbus, was 70,405, making a total of 359,461. And so we come to the end of our narrative of events in their order as nearly as they might be told, and leave to the following special chapters the story of those matters and things that must be considered by subjects rather than by times. CHAPTER XX THE HALL OF FAME. GEORGE BELLOWS, ARTIST-WILLIAM DENNISON, POSTMASTER GENERAL CROMWELL DIXON, ARGONAUT OF THE AIR-WASHINGTON GLADDEN, AUTHOR AND PREACHER-BENJAMIN RUSSELL HANBY, COMPOSER ELSIE JANIS, STAGE FAVORITE-LEO LESQUEREUX, SCIENTIST. Franklin County has been the home of many great men and women. The names of some of them have been heralded abroad over all the nation and into foreign lands. It has been the purpose to make appropriate reference to these in the chronological narrative so far as possible, but the accomplishments of some of them are of a a wider than local interest. The following sketches aim to present pictures of Franklin County people who have gained national reputation—people who were either natives of this county or were bona fide residents of the county at the time of winning general recognition—with special reference to the activities that brought them acclaim. They are not biographies in the ordinary sense—they omit too much uninteresting information; but they attempt to present the reasons for their inclusion. The arrangement is alphabetical—thus avoiding all responsibility for precedence. GEORGE BELLOWS. George Bellows was born in Columbus August 12, 1882 and died in New York in January, 1925. These dates are given for reference only. They mean little because he crowded into his forty-two years the tasks of a century. - 303 - 304 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY He attended the public schools in Columbus where he studied some, played more and drew pictures so persistently that he was called "the artist." Then he went to Ohio State, where he absorbed something from the regular indoor curriculum, but he won his magna cum laude in baseball. He went to New York in 1904 and joined the artists colony where he was viewed as an outlander by the metropolitan provincials whose world is hedged on the one side by the Palisades and bounded on the other by the drifting fogs from the Sound. They had no place for him ; so he made a place for himself, and when it was finished it was a throne. During that time he climbed to the heights above the clouds and stood alone where "the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth His handiwork," where the stars come close and it is given to understand. His life was an anthology of contrasts, light and shadow, roses and thyme, ranging the gamut of human emotions. He had the natural instincts of a gentleman with the wind-blown manners of the North woods. He respected the conventions because they were old and delved eternally for something new. He paid tribute to Ceasar, but wherever he met the warning "verboten" he demanded to know why. He was so full of vitality he had to work, and he worked as one possessed. When he painted, he pictured his own soul ; therefore, he was great. In New York he studied under Robert Henri and with Kenneth Hayes Miller and H. G. Maratta. He took what he could use from them and then he watched the crowds of every-day people, the children in the street and learned about life from them. One of his first canvasses, "Forty-two Kids," boys along the river front, was the result of his postgraduate course in the school of life. From then on his brush was never idle. He produced "Rain on the Roof," in 1908; "Sharkey's," 1909 ; "Warships on the Hudson," 1909 ; "Polo Game at Lakewood," 1910 ; and so on to the end of the list. When he was not painting for the ages, he made lithographs and magazine illustrations instead of taking a vacation. He began to exhibit in 1908 with a landscape at the National Academy of Designs that won a prize. The next year he was elected HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 305 an Associate Member. He was twenty-seven and the youngest man ever to receive such recognition. In 1910 he became a teacher in the Art Student's League ; he also taught in the Art Institute of Chicago during 1919. His work was exhibited in Buenos Aires, Munich, Venice, Berlin, Paris and London, although he never went abroad to exhibit himself. He won prizes at the National Academy of Designs in 1908, 1913, 1915 and 1917; at the Pennsylvania Academy in 1913, 1917 and 1921; at the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, in 1913, 1914 and 1922 ; at the National Arts Club in 1921; at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in 1923 ; at the International Exposition in Buenos Aires in 1918 ; at the Panama Pacific Exposition, 1915 ; at the Chicago Art Institute in 1915, 1921 and 1923 ; at the Newport Art Association in 1918. Every important American museum owns at least one example of his work. The Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts owns "The Polo Game at Lakewood." Another of his paintings is in the collection left by Franz Huntington, and many specimens of his lithographs and book illustrations are owned in Columbus. His portrait of Doctor Thompson is rated with the full length portraits by Whistler, Velasquez and Henri. His other work ranks with the most significant art of his epoch. He lived up to his own standard, expressed by himself : "Watch all good art and accept none as a standard for yourself. Think with all the world and work alone." WILLIAM DENNISON. As Ohio's first Civil War Governor, William Dennison has already received notice in a previous chapter. Probably no other Governor had the opportunity to render Ohio so great service and certainly no other Governor has ever given the state so much of executive ability wisely directed, although the accomplishments of his administration were not appreciated at the time. However, it was as Postmaster-General in the cabinet of the President of the United States that he gained national reputation. 306 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY William Dennison was born in Cincinnati November 23, 1815. His father, a typical gentleman of the old school, was the proprietor of the "Dennison House," a hotel famous throughout the west and south for generous hospitality. William was sent to Miami University, where he graduated in 1835. He studied law in Cincinnati, was admitted to the bar and moved to Columbus in 1840, where he practiced his profession until 1848. He was a member of the State Senate in the 47th General Assembly during the years 1849-51. In the meantime he had became a man of affairs and had accumulated what was considered a fortune at the time. He had operated extensively and successfully in real estate, he was President of the Exchange Bank of Columbus and had been one of the organizers and the president of the Columbus and Xenia Railroad. Aside from his one term in the Senate he did not become particularly prominent in politics until he participated as a delegate in the first National convention of the Republican party in Pittsburgh in 1856. Here he impressed his personality on the leaders from all sections and laid the foundation for a wider reputation. During his campaign for the Governorship in 1859, he called for and received the assistance of Abraham Lincoln and cemented a friendship, already begun, that lasted until Mr. Lincoln's death. During his term as Governor of Ohio, the times were too turbulent to permit a clear view of his patriotic services, but all that he did has received the sanction of every historian since. His record in the gubernatorial chair has been summarized by Whitelaw Reid : "He led in the redemption of West Virginia. He led in seeking to enforce upon the Government the need of speedy action in Kentucky. He led in pressing the necessity for a large army. He met the first shock of the contest, and in the midst of difficulties which now seem scarcely credible, organized twenty-three regiments for the three months service and eighty-two for three years ; nearly one-half of the entire number of organizations sent to the field by the state during the war. He left the state credited with 27,751 soldiers above and beyond all calls made by the President upon her. He handled large sums of money beyond the authority of law, and without the safeguard of bonded agents, and his accounts were honorably closed." HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 307 He was a delegate-at-large from Ohio to the National Republican convention in Baltimore in 1864 and was chosen as Chairman on that great occasion when Lincoln was nominated for a second term as President of the United States. Later in the same year the President appointed him to the Postmaster-Generalship, a position to which he gave great talent and did much honor. When President Johnson gave unmistakable signs of deserting the principles of the party, Mr. Dennison resigned and returned to Columbus, where he lived, until June 15, 1882, as a leading citizen respected in every quarter and revered by all who knew him well. William Dennison was fortunate in his marriage, his wife being the daughter of William Neil, the famous stage coach proprietor and Franklin County pioneer. It was probably the influence of his wife that brought Dennison to Columbus and she contributed her full share to the partnership. Among his many activities one of the most beneficient was his deep interest in the college at Granville, to which he made large contributions of money and influence, and which bears his name—a perpetual monument. CROMWELL DIXON. He was fourteen years of age in 1905 when he performed a feat in the new art of aviation that has never been duplicated and that won him fame here and abroad. Santos Dumont had made the first Zeppelin type motored "flying machine" and had circled the Eiffel tower to the amazement of the Parisians ; Roy Knabenshue had built a similar air craft and astonished the visitors to the State Fair in Ohio and other states ; but Cromwell Dixon made a "blimp" without a motor, except for the running gear of his old bicycle, hooked up to a propeller, operated by his own leg-power, and rode the sky as a bird. The bicycle was not quite the clumsy contraption it is today. Cromwell had learned to ride without wasting his strength standing on his pedals. He sat his seat like a racing man, held himself down with a firm grip on his handle bars, and pumped until his propeller roared and he soared away and beyond. For a few seasons he gave 308 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY exhibitions everywhere. He was a front page story during the week and a feature story on Sundays. But the airplane came and lured him away. Curtis was developing the biplane for show and practical purposes. He needed pilots with nerve and he picked Cromwell Dixon for the post of danger. In 1910 the young aviator made a record breaking flight over the Rocky mountains, reaching an elevation of 17,000 feet, but he was caught in a storm that ended his life of nineteen years, most of which had been spent going to school in Columbus where he was born. Possibly the fame of Cromwell Dixon has suffered a temporary eclipse, but when man-driven planes are perfected for sporting purposes and the joy of flying of the earth without a motor or the aid of the wind becomes an every-day affair, then he will regain his place as the original human bird. WASHINGTON GLADDEN. The Reverend Washington Gladden, D. D., LL. D., spent thirty-five years of his eventful life in Columbus. He was born at Potts-grove, Pennsylvania, February 11, 1836. His father and mother were school teachers. Both of his grandfathers were shoemakers. During the ages before machinery came to make footwear, the shoemakers were philosophers, free-thinkers, who took nothing for granted, but insisted on proving all things and holding fast to that only which was true. With shoemaker ancestry and school-teacher training, Washington Gladden inherited the ability to think and was trained to express his thoughts. His education began early, but after the death of his father he spent eight years on the farm of his uncle, Ebenezer Daniels, where he worked as an apprentice, attended the district school and, after the chores were all done at night, read aloud from Farmer Daniels' collection of classics. In after years Dr. Gladden gave Uncle Ebenezer credit for teaching him what he knew of the art of oral expression. When he was sixteen he was apprenticed to a printer, learned the case and soon became a news gatherer, setting his own stories in type. In 1856 he entered Williams College, graduated in 1859 and the HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 309 same year was licensed to preach in the Congregational Church. In 1860 he was pastor of the First Congregational Methodist Church in Brooklyn ; in 1861 he was preaching at Morrisania, N. Y. ; in 1866 at North Adams, Massachusetts ; in 1875 at Springfield, Mass., and in 1883 was called to the First Congregational Church of Columbus. While at North Adams he began to write for the Independent, Scribner's Monthly and other magazines and continued as a contributor to leading periodicals during all of his active career. Dr. Gladden was the author of some forty books, most of which attained international distribution. His "Who Wrote the Bible ?" compiled from sermons delivered here, is probably best known, not only because he was utterly untrammeled by the rigid cerements of fundamentalism, but because it presented the results of vast research by the world's scholars in convenient form for progressive clergymen as well as the hungry laity. He was honored by his church as Moderator of the National Council ; he was President of the American Missionary Association ; was a trustee of Williams College, and served a term as preacher at Harvard University. At one time he made a tremendous fight in the pulpit and the press against the acceptance by religious and educational organizations of money that had been accumulated by questionable methods. In this crusade he coined the expression "tainted money." He refused to accept the Devil's dollar because he did not subscribe to the doctrine of those who are willing to do evil that good may come. Dr. Gladden died in Columbus July 2, 1918, writing and preaching for common sense in religion to the last. BENJAMIN RUSSEL HANBY. There's a low, green valley, on the old Kentucky shore, Where I've whiled many happy hours away, A sitting and a singing before the little cottage door, Where lived my darling Nelly Gray. Benjamin Hanby was a sophomore in Otterbein College at Westerville in 1856 when he wrote "Darling Nelly Gray." He was born 310 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY at Rushville, Fairfield County, July 22, 1833. His father, William Hanby, was a bishop in the United Brethren Church and, in common with all of his denomination, was strongly opposed to the institution of slavery. For a time his modest home in Fairfield County was a station on the "underground railroad" and here young Ben became familiar with the furtive, fugitive blacks who were forever stealing away from the "old Kentucky shore" seeking freedom in Canada. When he was sixteen he enrolled at Otterbein and started to work his way through college. Later the good bishop, his father, moved to Westerville, so the other members of his growing family could have the advantages of higher education. Benjamin early showed musical ability. He was a member of the church choir and he composed bits of songs to the eternal delight of his companions. He had personality and he lived close to nature. He was in tune with the Infinite. But he had a physical as well as spiritual side. He was one of the early athletes of Otterbein—one of the first of a long line the little school has given to the college world. He went far in physical development without the instruction of coaches or the direction of trainers. It is said that "his gymnasium was the wood-pile ; his natatorium was Alum Creek ; his stadium was chosen at will in the wide valley of meadows and woodland that stretched away on either side. In spite of the absence of trapeze and arena, he excelled in athletics, was fleet of foot, accurate of eye, a lithe, agile wrestler and an expert swimmer. The singer is supposed to be inspired and there has been question as to what compelled Benjamin Hanby to write "Darling Nelly Gray." The words came to him in his father's home, at family prayers and from almost every sermon he heard preached. Uncle Tom's Cabin had been published four years before he wrote his song and his soul was saturated with that plaintive tale. The music came from the droning bees, the cooing doves and the low sigh of the summer breezes in the honeysuckle. So, the words came from the messages of men and the music from the heart of nature to an ear attuned. When the song was written it was sung at a gathering of young people at the Hanby home and here it passed its severest critics and met its first success. Then it was sent to a publisher who immedi- HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 311 ately procured a copyright and proceeded to make a fortune. He didn't even notify Hanby of the acceptance of his score. He was busy supplying the demand that grew and swelled throughout the North. Eventually Hanby heard that his song had been published. He bought a copy from a dealer in Columbus. When he wrote to the publishers, they sent him a dozen copies free, even prepaying the postage and he got a letter: "Dear Sir : Your favor received. Nelly Gray is sung on both sides of the Atlantic. We have made the money and you the fame—that balances the account." And that is all he ever got out of that publishing house—fame on both sides of the Atlantic. After graduation, Hanby entered the ministry of his own church; but while he had many of the qualifications for success in that line, he was inclined to do some of his own thinking. He had symptoms of doubting the efficacy of the vicarious atonement and was far from strong on eternal damnation. In 1866 his credentials to preach "were received back by the conference at his request," and he entered the employ of the John Church Music Company, of Cincinnati. Afterward he was connected with the music house of Root and Cady, of Chicago. While with these two music houses he composed and published some sixty tunes, writing the words for half of them. He died March 16, 1867—not quite thirty-four years of age ; but long enough to touch the hearts of many millions "on both sides of the Atlantic," before saying: "Farewell to the old Kentucky shore." ELSIE JANIS. To the people of Columbus for many years, she was "Little Elsie." When she was but five years old she began to appear on the local stage in recitations and giving imitations of her elders. She was a demure child with large, inquiring eyes, suggesting the idea that she had just stepped from the train of Little Ladies in Mikado and was wondering "why on earth the world could be." All children have the ability to mimic, but in most cases it is suppressed by parents who do not understand. Elsie's mother, Josephine Janis Bierbower, herself a teacher of voice and elocution of 312 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY more than passing ability, took the other way 'round and developed the child's natural endowment to the verge of perfection. To the consistent, intelligent coaching of a wise mother, Elsie owes and acknowledges much of her success. Her father was John E. Bierbower, now dead. The name may seem strange, even here in Columbus. Yet Elsie Janis has never sought to deny it. When she began to make her way on the stage, it was realized that the family name was too long and too hard ; so she merely dropped it for professional purposes. As a matter of fact, a certain ancestral Bierbower, of Pennsylvania, helped build block houses for George Washington in some of the early battles of the Revolutionary War, and no apologies have been needed for any of the line. On her mother's side, she is descended from Sir Charles B. Oldham, an English baronet, but the family have been on this side so long as to dim his memory. Elsie Janis won international reputation as a stage favorite in little more than a decade. In 1904 she was playing in "When We Were 41" in New York ; 1906, in "The Vanderbilt Cup ;" 1906-9 in "The Hoyden," with Charles Frohman and Charles Dillingham, followed by "The Fair Co-Ed," "The Slim Princess," and "The Lady of the Slipper ;" 1914 in "The Passing Show," with Alfred Butt in London ; returning in 1915 she starred in four pictures in three months ; in 1916 "The Century Girl ;" back to London in 1916 she resumed "The Passing Show" at the Palace Theatre. She then returned to America and revived "The Century Girl," until December, 1917, when she went to war. For ten months, under the patronage and protection of General Pershing, she entertained, cheered and heartened thousands upon thousands of American soldiers, from doughboys to generals, in training camps, cantonments and along the front line trenches, in hospitals and huts, singing, playing and scattering sunshine where none had been before. If she had done nothing else in her life but carry joy to the Americans in France, Elsie would have been entitled to a place on the honor roll of Franklin County. After the war, she played "Hello, America," in London ; produced her own play "The Gang" in New York and shortly stepped from behind the footlights to realize another ambition. HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 313 Since retiring from the stage, Miss Janis has been a frequent contributor to the magazines and has written and published six books. In 1930 she is writing and arranging plays and directing the production of talking pictures with the Paramount Picture Company in California. In the midst of a busy life, with work of the most exacting nature, she has found time to acquire five languages and a delightful philosophy of life that is forever smiling through her published writings. LEO LESQUEREUX. Leo Lesquereux came to Columbus in 1848 and lived in this city until his death, October 25, 1889, at the age of eighty-three. He was brought here as an assistant to William S. Sullivant in the studies and publications that had already made him one of the world's foremost bryologists. Lesquereux remained where he found so much practical appreciation and so many opportunities for the use of his undoubted abilities. Although he had acquired a reputation of the first class among the scientists of Europe before coming to this country in 1846, Lesquereux did the major portion of his life work while a citizen of Franklin County and scored his greatest triumphs here. His ancestors were French Huguenots who fled to Switzerland after the Edict of Nantes. He was born in Neuchatel and educated in the local academy. From there he went to Eisenach where he taught the French language while perfecting himself in German preparatory to further study in the University of Berlin. After completing his course in Berlin he returned to Switzerland as principal of a college in his own canton, but becoming deaf he was obliged to abandon his school work and for twelve years supported himself as an engraver of watch cases and maker of watch springs. In the meantime, however, he continued his researches in botany. In 1832, shortly before losing his hearing, he wrote one of the most interesting and important chapters of his life by marrying the Baroness Sophia von Wolffskeel, of Eisenach, Saxe-Weimer. This titled lady blithly abandoned her life of luxury to join in a scientific quest for the secrets of nature, in which she never complained and for which she is entitled to rather more credit than she has been given. 314 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY In 1844 he was awarded a gold medal by the Swiss government for researches and the memoir following, entitled "Directions for Exploration of Peat Bogs." This led to his being employed the following year by the Prussian government to make a more extensive study and report on the peat bogs of Europe. Then he came to America. Professor Louis Agassiz had already been attracted to this country by the opportunities incident to the development of our natural resources, and Lesquereux did his first work assisting Agassiz. After coming to Columbus and making a safe place for himself with Sullivant, he began, in 1850, a series of studies of the coal formations of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Kentucky and Arkansas, in which he made reports of the greatest value at the time—reports that continue as classics in that branch of science. He prepared a catalog of the "Fossil Plants Which Have Been Named or Described from the Coal Measures of North America." In 1844 he furnished the "Coal Flora" for the second Geological Survey of Pennsylvania, three volumes of text with atlas, which is regarded as the most important work on carboniferous plants that has appeared in the United States. He came to be considered as the world's greatest expert on fossil botany, and much of his time was taken with examinations of materials submitted to him by various national surveys and the rendering of his brilliant reports thereon. His publications include more than fifty titles. One of his last works, "Manual of the Mosses of North America," was published in 1884 in collaboration with Thomas P. James. He was the first member elected to the National Academy of Sciences (1864) and was honored with membership in more than twenty national scientific societies in the United States and Europe. On account of his physical infirmity, he was obliged to deny himself many of the usual social relations, but his home here, for forty years, was a Mecca for the scholars of the world. In many of the far corners of earth, Columbus is best known as having been the residence of Leo Lesquereux. CHAPTER XXI HALL OF FAME (Continued). JOHN S. RAREY, HORSE TAMER-EDWARD V. RICKENBACKER, AMERICAN ACE IN THE WORLD WAR-WILLIAM S. SULLIVANT, EMBRYOLOGIST-NOAH H. SWAYNE, JURIST-ALLEN G. THURMAN, STATESMAN-HOWARD THURSTON, MAGICIAN-WAYNE B. WHEELER, STRATEGIST-T. G. WORMLEY, TOXICOLOGIST-OTHER NOTABLES. JOHN S. RAREY. Considering his time, with its dearth of modern publicity methods, no citizen of Franklin County ever gained such wide international fame as John S. Rarey, of Groveport. He was born in the old Rarey Tavern, kept by his father Adam Rarey, December 6th, 1827. He began his association with horses when a lad attending the district school, and was already a local celebrity in this field at the age of twelve when his father gave him a pony. It is doubtful if any pony, before or since, ever received such a thorough education or ever responded so admirably to his teacher's instruction. In 1850 Rarey went to Cincinnati to see the first Ohio State Fair. Here he learned of a horse trainer in Covington ; so he crossed the river, took a lesson, bought a bood and returned to Groveport to practice the art as expounded by the "Professor." It is probable that he did not learn much from this source because he soon fell a victim to his only accident with horses—one of them kicked him and broke his leg. Then he went back to his own methods. In 1855 Rarey went to Texas and set up as a professional horse tamer. It seems that he did not make much money, but he made so much reputation that a visiting Englishman advised him to go to - 315 - 316 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY Europe where he would be sure of expert appreciation. So Rarey returned home, gave some exhibitions in Columbus, gathered some money and letters of introduction from Governor Salmon P. Chase to the governor-general of Canada and began his foreign career under the British flag in the dominion to the north. His conquest of Canada was rapid and complete. He made money and friends and was soon supplied with letters of introduction to notables abroad, among them being Lieutenant General Sir Richard Airy. Early in 1858 we find him in England, giving exhibitions of his skill before royalty. A list of his patrons looks like a reprint of Burke's Peerage. He not only gave the conservative English nobility such a show as they had never thought possible, but, stranger yet, Rarey himself was socially acceptable. He handled people with the same ease, grace and polish as he used with horses. Then came Cruiser, a six-year old blooded stallion with a pedigree equal to that of his titled owner, the Earl of Dorchester, and a temper as bad as that of Xantippe. He had been kept for more than three years in an enclosed box of brick, with a door of solid oak planks, his head straight jacketed in an iron muzzle. Rarey admitted afterward that Cruiser was the most vicious horse he ever saw. Dorchester challenged Rarey to ride this four-legged devil. He said : "Cruiser, I think, would be the right horse in the right place to try Mr. Rarey's skill ; if he can ride Cruiser to London as a hack, I guarantee him immortality and enough money to make a British bank director's mouth water." Then he laughed in his ermine sleeve. But Rarey threw open the oak door, took off Cruiser's muzzle, soothed his wild desire to smash everything and ended by riding him to London "as a hack." Cruiser came back to America with Rarey and outlived his only master. After this feat there were no bounds to Rarey's success. Queen Victoria called him to provide the entertainment on the occasion of the marriage of the Princess Royal to the Crown Prince of Prussia, and then invited him to stay for the wedding. He showed before the crowned heads of Sweden and Prussia, met Baron Von Humbolt and charmed him, tamed a wild Cossack pony for the Czar of Russia in the presence of the Romanoff family and court, and subdued Stafford, second only to Cruiser in pure cussedness, for the Emperor of France HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 317 in the imperial presence. The list of his spectacular successes in Europe is too long for this sketch. From the Irish Sea to the Ural Mountains Rarey's name was known to every one who loved a horse. Dorchester made good on at least a part of his promise—immortality was won. Rarey reached his climax when he tamed a zebra and rode it about like a lubberly Shetland pony. For four years Rarey amazed and delighted his admirers abroad. It is said that he made over a quarter of a million dollars and brought a good share of it home with him. In addition he brought back a collection of medals, diplomas, momentoes and letters from personages abroad—a collection that now occupies a case of its own in the museum of the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society for the edification of coming generations. There was nothing of the occult or supernatural about his system ; he didn't hypnotize his horses ; he was kind and unafraid and the animals soon recognized him as a friend—and then there was the little trick of the strap that "fastened up the near fore foot"—a simple little thing that has been adopted in the cavalry of half a dozen nations and on which there have been no improvements. Rarey died in Cleveland October 4, 1866. His body rests in the old Groveport Cemetery, but his memory lives in the minds of all who know horses for what they are. EDWARD V. RICKENBACKER. The World War differed from all its predecessors, not only in the number of men engaged, the length of the battle front and initial causelessness, but because it was almost entirely devoid of the pomp and circumstance that have made the history of other wars tolerable reading. The German may have "come down like the wolf on the fold," but his cohorts were not "gleaming in purple and gold." There were no wild cavalry charges, no flags flying at column heads, neither fifes nor drums beat time for moving men. There were trenches and mud, dirt and every imaginable discomfort—all the horrors of war with none of its glories. None of its glories save in the air. While on the ground the millions of soldiers seemed but an army of sappers and miners who sometimes ceased their grubbing to poison each other with deadly gasses, in the air above the age of chivalry was lived 318 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY again. The reincarnated knights of Camelot, eagle mounted, went forth daily to single combat with their flying foes and returned to be wreathed with honors or, with broken lances, fell to immortality. When the United States entered the war, the army had twelve fighting planes, two training planes and eleven others under construction. When the armistive was signed, we had 6,472 planes in France, 4,865 in the United States ready for shipment and other thousands rapidly nearing completion. Even if the Germans had been able to weather the storm on land, they were doomed, for they had lost the air, lost it irretrievably during the few months the Americans had disputed its possession. The bright, particular star in this accomplishment was Edward V. Rickenbacker. He was born in Columbus October 8th, 1890; went to school here and played ball on vacant lots with the boys who now delight in telling how they knew him then. When the automobile got past the day of being a curiosity and became a thing to use in races, Rickenbacker took to driving and his driving was like that of Jehu. As this is written the morning paper reprints as an item of important news from its issue of May 16, 1915 : "Winning the 25-mile minor sweepstakes and setting a new 25-mile record for the local track, Eddie Rickenbacker yesterday afternoon was the hero of the first day of the Columbus automobile carnival at the Driving Park. Rickenbacker drove the twenty-five miles in twenty-three minutes and eighteen and four-fifths seconds, beating his nearest contestant by three-quarters of a mile." When the declaration of war came, Rickenbacker was in England. He returned at once and tried to organize a corps of automobile racing men to go into the air service. Before he made much progress there came the opportunity to go to France with Pershing, and he went as driver of the general's car or any other headquarters car that happened to be detailed on a journey where extra speed and reasonable safety were important. He made the acquaintance of General Mitchell and the two of them conspired to convert a first class chauffeur into the American Ace of Aces. His conduct in the air is best told by the official citations of the War Department : HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 319 April 29, 1918. He attacked an enemy Albatross monoplane and after vigorous fighting, in which he followed his foe into German territory, he succeeded in shooting it down near Vignelles-les-Hatton Chatel. One bronze oak leaf is awarded Lieutenant Rickenbacker for each of the following acts of extraordinary heroism in action : On May 17, 1918, he attacked three Albatross monoplanes, shooting one down in the vicinity of Richecourt, France, and forcing the others to retire over their own lines. On May 22, 1918, he attacked three Albatross monoplanes 4,000 meters over St. Mihiel, France. He drove them back into German territory, separated one from the group, shooting it down near Fliery. On May 28, 1918, he sighted a group of two battle planes and four monoplanes which he at once attacked vigorously, shooting down one and dispersing the others. On May 30, 1918, 4,000 meters over Jaulny, France, he attacked a group of five enemy planes. After a violent battle he shot down one plane and drove the others away. On September 14, 1918, in the region of Villecy, he attacked four Fokker enemy planes at an altitude of 3,000 meters. After a sharp and hot action, he succeeded in shooting one down in flames and dispersing the other three. On September 15, 1918, in the region of Bois-de-Wavrille, he encountered six enemy planes, who were in the act of attacking four Spads, which were below them. Undeterred by their superior numbers, he unhesitatingly attacked them and succeeded in shooting one down in flames and completely breaking the formation of the others. On September 25, 1918, near Billy, France, while on volunteer patrol duty over the lines, he attacked seven enemy planes (five Fokker type protecting two Halberstadts). Disregarding the odds against him, he dove on them and shot down one of the Fokkers out of control. He then attacked one of the Halberstadts and sent it down also. And so on. He is credited with bringing down four balloons and twenty-one planes. In shooting down airplanes he made a specialty of Fokkers 320 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY —twelve of them. Fokker was a Dutchman, selling his planes to the Germans. Now he is selling them to Americans, and Rickenbacker is in New York as vice-president of the corporation and director of sales, and he sells with an intimate knowledge of his wares. At the complimentary dinner given Rickenbacker upon his return from the war, Secretary of War Newton D. Baker read a message from General Pershing : "The history of the American air service on the western front is as remarkable for its sound and successful development of aviation tactics as for its spirit of unselfish devotion and daredevil gallantry which is unsurpassed by anything that the great war has produced. Captain Rickenbacker has written some of its brightest pages and, on behalf of the American Expeditionary Forces, I am proud to bear witness to our admiration for the air service and for him." General Mitchell has said : "Had the war continued and had he lived, he undoubtedly would have commanded a brigade of air forces in the spring of 1919 and been a general officer." On July 15, 1930, the War Department announced that the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation's most coveted decoration, had been awarded to Captain, now Colonel, Rickenbacker for "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action" during the World War. WILLIAM S. SULLIVANT. William S. Sullivant was the oldest of the four children of Lucas Sullivant, the founder of Franklinton. He was born January 15, 1803, and was early trained in the sports and hardships of a frontier settlement. At an early age he made trips with his father on surveying excursions and frequent journeys on horseback alone, becoming an expert in woodcraft and developing the rugged constitution that stood him so well in his life work. He received his education first in a private school in Kentucky and afterward at Yale, where he graduated in 1823. The death of his father prevented the realization of his ambition for a professional career and he returned to his home to take charge of the family estates and vast business interests in which his father had been HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 321 engaged. He remodeled his father's mills, helped survey the Ohio canal, and was an active member of the Ohio Stage Coach Company, and served as president of the Clinton Bank and as trustee of the Starling Medical College. When about thirty years of age, through the influence of his brother Joseph, who was interested in archaeology, botany and the sciences generally, William took up botany as a pastime and soon became recognized as an authority on the flora of Central Ohio. In 1840 he published his first work, "Catalogue of Plants, Native or Naturalized in the Vicinity of Columbus, Ohio." Soon mosses began to absorb his attention and he had before him a field of more than 5,000 varieties whereas but a few hundred had at that time been recorded and classified in this country. Dr. T. C. Mendenhall, in writing of the achievements of William Sullivant, gives him credit for being the pioneer American scientist to use the microscope in botanical research. He says further : "Eminent men of science from all over the world were guests at his beautiful suburban home. It was there that I had the privilege of meeting the distinguished botanist, Asa Gray, who said to me : 'Columbus, Ohio' is known in every country in the world, not on account of its city hall, but because it is the home of William Sullivant and Leo Lesquereux.' Mr. Sullivant became the foremost authority as a bryologist in the United States and without a superior in the world." His other works were "Musci Alleghaniensis," to produce which he made a journey from Maryland to Georgia (1845) ; "Musci and Hepaticae of the United States East of the Mississippi River" (1856) ; "Mosses Brought Home by Wilkes Expedition" (1859) ; Mosses and Hepaticae Collected Mostly in Japan" (1860) ; "Musci Cubenses" (1861) ; "Icones Muscorum" (Vol. I, 1864) , the second volume being published after his death. He also collaborated with Leo Lesquereux in two series of "Musci Boreales Americani." Mr. Sullivant was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was recognized and honored by all of the important scientific societies of Europe. He died April 30, 1873, leaving a portion of his collections to Harvard University, the remainder being divided between the Starling Medical College and the Ohio State University. 322 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY NOAH H. SWAYNE. Noah H. Swayne, justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, was one of Virginia's long list of contributions to the early development of Ohio. He was born of Quaker parentage in Culpepper County December 7, 1804. As a boy he was a clerk in an apothecary's shop in Alexandria, and while mixing nostrums during the day he studied law at night, and was admitted to the bar in 1823 at the age of nineteen. Being entirely out of sympathy with the system of negro slavery, he moved to Ohio and settled at Coshocton. He was elected prosecuting attorney of the county in 1826 and at the end of his term, was elected to the State Legislature. After his term in the Legislature he moved to Columbus and was appointed United States district attorney, a position he held for ten years, from 1831 to 1841. He was chosen as a judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Franklin County in 1833, but declined the office. He was elected to the Legislature from Franklin County in 1836 and was prominently identified with legislation providing for the organization of the institutions for the deaf and dumb, the blind and the insane. He joined the Republican party on its organization, because of its opposition to slavery and took a leading part in the speaking campaign in the interests of John C. Fremont. When Justice John McLean, of the Supreme Court of the United States, died in 1861, President Lincoln appointed Judge Swayne to fill the vacancy. This appointment was made not only because the President was fully aware of Judge Swayne's qualifications, but because of the unanimous endorsement of the Ohio delegation in Congress, the recommendations of all the leading members of the bar in Washington who had heard his arguments in important cases before the Supreme Court, but because of Justice McLean, anticipating his own death, had asked that Judge Swayne be appointed his successor. He served as a member of the Supreme Court for twenty years when he resigned at the age of seventy-seven and spent the three remaining years of his life in New York City. He was the father of Major General Wager Swayne and F. B. Swayne, the eminent attorney of Toledo, Ohio. HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 323 ALLEN GRANBERRY THURMAN. From the day he assumed his duties as a justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio in 1852 until his death in 1895, "The Old Roman" was one of the most distinguished citizens of Columbus, and the most picturesque. Large of body and bone, with a massive head and formidable beard, with a voice to harmonize, he did not need the famous red bandanna to attract and hold attention. He was born at Lynchburg, Virginia, November 13, 1813—born a Virginian and a Democrat. He never allowed his environment to interfere with his heredity, even if his family did move to Chillicothe when he was but a year old. Young Thurman was educated at the old Chillicothe Academy and when he was well grounded in the classic essentials, he studied law with his uncle, William Allen, afterward governor of Ohio, and Noah H. Swayne. With two such mentors and natural aptitude, he not only studied law but he learned the principles and the history of the law as his later history amply illustrated. In 1844 he married Mary Dun, of Kentucky, and the same year was elected to Congress. In 1852 he was elected to the Supreme Court of Ohio and froth 1854 to 1856 was chief justice. At this time the Supreme Court of Ohio enjoyed a reputation for the soundness of its decisions and this reputation was sustained and added to by the work of Judge Thurman as recorded in the Ohio Reports and yet cited with confidence. Judge Thurman was the Democratic candidate for governor of Ohio in 1867. In spite of the fact that his sympathies for the people of the South had been rather too well known during the Civil War and that his opponent, Rutherford B. Hayes, had been a major general in the Union Army, Judge Thurman was defeated by fewer than three thousand votes. In 1869 he succeeded Ben Wade in the Senate of the United States and served two terms with distinction to himself and honor to his state. As chairman of the Judiciary Committee he added much to his prestige. During his service in the Senate he was prominently mentioned for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency in 1876. In the session of 1877-78 he sponsored legislation, known as the "Thurman Bill" to compel the Pacific railroads to secure their indebt- 324 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY edness of nearly seventy million dollars to the federal government. His argument for the constitutionality of the proposed legislation in the debates on its passage formed the basis for the decision of the United States Supreme Court in the final disposition of the subject. At the Democratic National Convention in 1888 Judge Thurman was nominated as the candidate of his party for the vice-presidency. It was an off year for the party of Jefferson and Jackson, but the "old Roman," hale at seventy-five, made a gallant campaign and went down without any bitterness of spirit. When assured of his defeat, he is said to have heaved a sigh of relief and commented : "Now I can go back to reading the History of Rome without fear of being interrupted." HOWARD THURSTON. One evening in 1876 an eager-faced Columbus boy leaned over the balcony railing in the old City Hall anxiously waiting for the orchestra to finish the overture to his first show. The boy was seven years old and he had spent all of his money for the privilege of seeing what was behind the mysterious veil that shrouded that stage. At last the music swelled to its final crescendo, the curtain rolled up and, greeted by generous applause the strong, lithe figure of a man seemed to ma-- terialize from nowhere. His hair, mustaches and imperial were raven black and his eyes seemed to be of even a darker hue. He might have been Mephisto in evening clothes. He bowed slightly, gravely, to his audience, deliberately doffed his dress gloves, carefully rolled them together in a shrinking ball—and then they vanished in the fraction of a second that measures the flutter of an eye-lash. The magician was Herrmann, the Great; the little boy was Howard Thurston. That night Herrmann worked his greatest wonder. He conjured from the boy world another magician, destined to sit on the same throne and wield the same wand in the kingdom of make-believe. And from that night on the boy Thurston traveled the long dangerous road of Aladdin in quest of his lamp, the road to the land of enchantment where bushels of gay flowers pour from empty cornucopias, rabbits and guinae pigs pop out of innocent silk hats and statues of beautiful