HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 375 Thus, the tradition that President Lincoln intended to appoint Judge Joseph R. Swan seems fallacious. When Mr. Swayne will take his seat, South Carolina will have seceded and civil war broken out between the southern and northern states. Mr. Chief Justice Taney of the court will be considerably over eighty years of age and four out of the five associate justices either over, or but little under, seventy years. Mr. Justice Swayne will be vigorously urged for the position upon the death of the chief justice two years later. But the president will appoint his "imperious secretary" of the treasury, Salmon P. Chase, the same man who five years before as governor of Ohio held so tenaciously to a rigid view of states' rights and promised the enforcement of the state supreme court's order should Judge Joseph R. Swan have cast his vote in favor of the release of the prisoner Bushnell. But Governor Chase, convinced of the error of his views, will earnestly support the union cause. And, the forum of activities of Noah H. Swayne and Salmon P. Chase in the course of five years will be shifted from Columbus to Washington! Of Mr. Justice Swayne, who sat on the supreme bench of the nation nineteen years and through a number of appointments, including those of Morrison R. Waite and Stanley Matthews, also Ohio men, it may be truly said today that he exercised an incalculable influence on the court through two of the most difficult and strategic periods in the nation's history. In the Civil War period such immensely important and new questions as the rights of belligerents, of confiscation, of prize, of blockade and non-intercourse came before the court. In the reconstruction period following the war the court was called upon to construe and to adapt the new thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amendments to the constitution. For sixty-one years no constitutional amendments had been adopted by the nation at large and but twice before had the Supreme Court of the United States exercised its power to declare an act of Congress unconstitutional. But the famous guaranties of the "due process of law" and "equal protection under the laws" clause of the constitution contained legal dynamite. Immediately a number of suits were instituted, among them the ones 376 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY to test the constitutionality of the legal tender acts and the income tax law of the period, in both of which Mr. Justice Swayne wrote historic opinions. Always courteous of manner both on and off the bench—patient, amiable, the teacher of Allen G. Thurman, H. B. Alberry, James L. Bates and many others—"one of the ablest lawyers of Ohio"—such was Noah Haynes Swayne, LL. D.—Franklin County's single, able, splendid contribution to the Supreme Court of the United States ! He, together with Joseph R. Swan, Phineas B. Wilcox, John W. Andrews, Chauncey N. Olds and Leander J. Critchfield, the six leading lawyers of the second generation of the bench and bar of Columbus ! THE THIRD GENERATION. More than fifty years have passed and the year is 1912. The experience of the state under existing laws, the economic and social expansion of its people and the Progressive movement under the national leadership of Theodore Roosevelt have necessitated amendments to the state constitution affecting the judicial system of the state. The Supreme Court is now composed of six judges and a chief justice. The original jurisdiction of the court has been en-. larged to include the writ of prohibition. Generally speaking, its appellate or reviewing jurisdiction now includes cases involving questions arising under the constitution of the United States or of the state, cases of public or general interest which the court has directed to be certified to it, cases of felony upon leave granted, cases originating in the court of appeals, cases wherein the courts of appeals have expressed conflicting opinions and revisory jurisdiction over the final orders of certain administrative tribunals. Except for John W. Okey, whose signal contributions to the legal history of the state may, with a claim of right, be preempted by Monroe County, Franklin County has furnished no judges of the Supreme Court of Ohio. For, although Judge Okey was elected to the supreme bench while residing in Columbus as a member of the state codifying commission, he did not practice law here prior to his elevation to the Supreme Court. However, George K. Nash, prosecuting attorney of Franklin County from 1871 to 1875, attorney general of the state from 1880 HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 377 to 1883, president of the convention which drafted the charter of the municipal government of Columbus and afterwards governor of Ohio for two terms, served for two years as a member of the second Supreme Court commission, created by the Legislature in 1883 under its constitutional authority, to assist the Supreme Court in clearing its congested docket. The district court of the second generation has been displaced by the circuit court, now called "court of appeals," composed of three judges elected from a circuit of counties, meeting annually in each county of the circuit and having practically the same original jurisdiction as that of the Supreme Court, and appellate jurisdiction "in the trial of chancery cases and to review, affirm, modify or reverse the judgments of the courts of common pleas, superior courts, and other courts of record within the district * * *." Thus, this heretofore intermediate court has become the state court of last resort in all cases except where the constitution has specifically retained the right of review in the Supreme Court! To this court Franklin County has contributed a judge in the person of Gilbert H. Stewart. Elected one year after the creation of the circuit court, within eight years he was elected to the position of chief justice of the circuit courts of Ohio. After serving ten years on the bench, Judge Stewart has retired to the private practice with his son, Gilbert H. Stewart, Jr., and to the teaching of medical jurisprudence at Starling Medical College and federal practice at the Ohio State University Law School, at the same time preparing and editing his Ohio Citation Digest and a work on Legal Medicine. Later, Franklin County will contribute a second circuit court judge—James I. Allread. Each county now has a judge of the court of common pleas. In Franklin County the Legislature has increased the number of the court to six judges, having a general original jurisdiction and an appellate jurisdiction from the final orders of the probate court, justices of the peace and inferior tribunals exercising judicial functions. The court has earned and still maintains the reputation of having one of the strongest common pleas benches in the state. In addition to James L. Bates, who has been mentioned, Thomas J. Duncan, Hawley J. Wylie and Thomas M. Bigger of Columbus have 378 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY served the judgeship of the court of common pleas of the third subdivision of the fifth judicial district. And also, able lawyers such as Edward F. Bingham, David F. Pugh, Curtis C. Williams, Eli P. Evans, DeWitt C. Badger, Marcus G. Evans, Edmond B. Dillon, Frank B. Rathmell, Charles M. Rogers and Edgar B. Kinkead have come forward from Franklin County to serve the added judgeships of this court of the people. To the first list, may be added Joseph Olds and John L. Greene and to the second, George Lincoln and Isaac Abernathy as judges who have served this bench, but they came from either Pickaway or Madison Counties. The work of the probate court has been increased to include matters of lunacy, the conduct of condemnation proceedings, of assignments by insolvent debtors for the benefit of creditors and certain trials in election cases. For this important bench, the county has produced W. R. Rankin, William Jamison, Herman B. Alberry, John M. Pugh, John T. Gale, Charles G. Saffin, Lorenzo D. Hagerty, Tod B. Galloway and Samuel L. Black. Four years previous, the Legislature has authorized the establishment of a separate juvenile court. The author of the legislative act, Judge Samuel L. Black, is presiding over this court as well as the probate court. Judge Black, as mayor of Columbus, judge of the courts and one of the national leaders of the juvenile court movement, is remembered with admiration and affection by all who knew him, particularly the writer. The old Columbus mayor's court has given way to the establishment of a police court, which in the course of a few years will be dignified to the extent of becoming a part of the municipal court of Columbus, created by act of the Legislature with a special jurisdiction limited apparently in civil matters to causes involving an amount less than $750 and arising within the corporate limits of the city, and in criminal matters to offenses formerly cognizable by the police court throughout the county. It is composed of a chief justice and three judges. Thomas M. Bigger, Samuel J. Swartz, Moses B. Earn-hart, N. W. Dick and Samuel G. Osborn have served the city in the capacity of police judge. With respect to the federal courts, on February 4, 1880, Congress had responded to the necessities of central Ohio for regular federal HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 379 district and circuit courts, to be held at Columbus, and had reorganized the southern district of Ohio into an eastern division and a western division, with Franklin County in the eastern and with a district judge for each division. To this bench President Roosevelt has appointed Franklin County's first contribution to a federal district bench—John E. Sater, who as a young man had studied with J. H. Collins, attorney for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company and one of the state's leading lawyers ; later he had specialized in property law in the office of (G. G.) Collins and Atkinson ; and still later has been a senior member of the firm of Sater, Seymour and Sater. The Ohio State Bar Association has been also organized in 1880, in Cass Hall at Cleveland, George K. Nash and Leander J. Critchfield representing the local association. The association's first president was Judge Rufus P. Ranney of Portage County, "for many years regarded by the bar of Ohio as their ideal lawyer and judge." As its second president the association has chosen Rufus King, one of the great lawyers and historians of the state. The third man to hold the office was chosen from central Ohio—Richard A. Harrison. Mr. Harrison practiced in Columbus thirty-one years. A man of the most indomitable will, who firmly believed and practiced that "law is the basis of public liberty and also the safeguard of each individual citizen's public and private rights and liberties," he commenced the practice of law in Columbus in 1873. At about the same time came Charles E. Burr, a graduate of Kenyon College, who, after three years of legal study in various European universities, returned to Columbus and entered the law office of Henry C. Noble. He was also destined to become one of Ohio's leading lawyers, representing railroad, traction and other important interests. Associated with him in the practice was Colonel James Watson, a lawyer of exceptional ability. Later they together with Theodore M. Livesay, formed the firm of Watson, Burr & Livesay. A third leader of the early third period was added also in 1873 in the person of Henry J. Booth, who in his early practice was associated with Colonel George L. Converse and later became senior member of the firm of Booth, Keating, Peters and Pomerene consisting of Mr. Booth, Thomas J. Keating, George S. Peters and William R. Pomerene and who, in the course of 380 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY his career, became a vice-president of the American Bar Association and president of the Ohio State Bar Association and an author of a work on the "Law of Street Railways." Other lawyers of early prominence in this period, and not already mentioned, were Joseph H. Outhwaite, John J. Stoddart, Alex W. Krumm, Henry M. Butler, Luke G. Byrne, J. H. Dyer, J. K. Richards, E. L. DeWitt, Frederick T. Wood, Orlando W. Aldrich, J. Overton Reamey and many others. Before practicing law in Columbus, Mr. Harrison had represented Madison County in the legislature where, as a member of the judiciary committee, he introduced bills concerning the relation of guardian and ward ; the one providing for the semi-annual payment of taxes ; for the relief of the district courts and others of equal importance. In the course of the Civil War he had been elected to the Ohio Senate where he was an associate of James A. Garfield and had the honor of drafting the historic Ohio resolutions pledging the support of the state to the Union cause. His firm, Harrison, Olds and Marsh, composed of Mr. Harrison, Judge Joseph Olds of Circleville, who had served the district bench of the common pleas court here, and Mr. Marsh, the son-in-law of Mr. Harrison, soon "secured the largest practice in central Ohio." Later the firm included William 0. Henderson and Warner Harrison, Mr. Harrison's son, under the title of Harrison, Olds, Henderson & Harrison. "Enjoying a national reputation as a constitutional lawyer, his preeminence in this connection being established by his success in the Boesel railroad cases," and having a most remunerative practice, he declined Governor Foraker's offer of a seat on the Supreme Court, made vacant by death of Judge Johnson, and Governor Hayes' offer of a place on the first Supreme Court commission. And, upon reliable information, it is said that the "age limit alone prevented his appointment by President Harrison to the seat on the supreme bench of the United States, made vacant by the death of Mr. Justice Jackson of Tennessee." Other than the young members of his firm, Mr. Harrison gave assistance and guidance to another of his sons-in-law, David Kemper Watson, who, as attorney-general of Ohio, conceived and instituted HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 381 the nationally important case of State ex rel. Watson v. Standard Oil Company, which held illegal the defendant's trust device of common legal ownership by one company of a majority of the stock of several competing companies. Richard A. Harrison—"more intimately associated with the Supreme Court than almost any member of the bar"—a lawyer who filed in court his last scholarly brief on the day in 1904 he died—who, when he had passed the age of seventy-seven made "in an important case the most powerful argument * * *, occupying more than a day and a half in its delivery"—whose arguments were drawn from literature, morals and current events as well as an accurate and stupendous knowledge of cases and the general law—one of the great lawyers of his day and the greatest of his period of the bench and bar of Columbus. Obviously, in 1912, the character of the work of the lawyer has changed from that of the lawyer of the second generation. Columbus is now a city of over one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants. The days of the circuit or "stirrup" practice have passed into total oblivion. Transportation of persons and property may now be had by the connecting facilities of nationwide railroad, express and interurban systems. Almost immediate communication with other parts of the country is afforded by nationally extensive telephone and telegraph systems. And a new means of transportation, the automobile, is appearing on the city streets, to the consternation of the faithful old horse. The "home" practice has also changed. Corporation work has displaced the land title cases as the important work of the practice. The complexities of the new business world have required more specialization in the ever increasing branches of the law. The day of the office lawyer as distinguished from the trial lawyer has indeed commenced. We now find an "imposing array" of law firms consisting of some of the strongest lawyers of the city : Booth, Keating, Peters and Pomerene ; Henderson, Livesay and Burr ; Outhwaite, Linn and Thurman ; Wilson and Rector ; Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease ; Williams, Williams, Taylor and Nash ; Lentz, Karns, Linton and Hengst; Webber, McCoy, Jones and Shoedinger ; Crum, Raymund and Hedges ; Daugherty, Todd and Rarey ; 382 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY Huggins, Huggins and Hoover; Watson, Stouffer and Davis; Sheets, West and Game ; Butler and Carlile ; Morton and Irvine ; Arnold and Game ; Gumble and Gumble ; Weinland and Scarlett ; Addison and Addison ; Pugh and Pugh ; Bolin and Bolin ; Donaldson and Tussing ; Bennett and Westfall; Eagleson and Eagleson ; Loren and Schooler ; Richards and Richards ; Stoddart and Stoddart ; Schanfarber and Schanfarber ; Stewart and Stewart ; Belcher and Connor ; Hughes and Pavey ; Ward and Schlessinger ; Ricketts and Cope ; Thomas and Hays ; Thompson and Bennett ; Thompson and Valentine ; Badger and Ulrey ; Page and Page, and so on. More than three hundred and fifty lawyers are practicing before the bar. With some, the period of activity is waning ; with some it is high noon and with others it is morning. Space not permitting, mention only may be made of some of the most prominent contemporaries of the later third generation. William 0. Henderson, before mentioned as a member of the firm of Harrison, Olds, Henderson and Harrison and now senior member of the firm of Henderson, Livesay and Burr, composed of Mr. Henderson, Theodore M. Livesay and Karl E. Burr, son of Charles E. Burr ; Talfourd P. Linn, senior member of the firm of Outhwaite, Linn and Thurman, composed of Mr. Linn, Albert Lee Thurman, son of Allen G. Thurman, Charles P. Outhwaite and Singleton Outhwaite, sons of Joseph H. Outhwaite ; Arthur I. Vorys, senior member of the firm of Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease, successor to the before mentioned firm of Sater, Seymour and Sater, and composed of Mr. Vorys, Lowry F. Sater, Augustus T. Seymour, later assistant attorney general of the United States, and Edward L. Pease ; Harry B. Arnold and Elbert C. Morton, at one time members of the firm of Arnold, Morton and Irvine but later senior partners of their respective firms, Arnold and Game, consisting of Mr. Arnold and Francis H. Game, and Morton and Irvine with Mr. Morton and E. C. Lane constituting the latter firm ; Harry M. Daugherty, senior partner of the firm of Daugherty, Todd and Rarey, composed of Mr. Daugherty, later attorney general of the United States, John E. Todd and R. F. Rarey ; Louis G. Addison, at one time senior partner of the old firm of Addison, Sinks and Babcock, having Mr. Addison, Frederick N. Sinks and Worthington E. Babcock as members, and later associated with Clarence M. Addison in the firm known as Addison and Addison ; John F. HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 383 Wilson, senior partner of the firm of Wilson and Rector, consisting of Mr. Wilson and Fred C. Rector with F. C. Amos as their associate; John J. Lentz, congressman elected in 1896 and reelected in 1898, originally a member of the firm of Albery, Albery and Lentz, in 1887 partner of George K. Nash in the firm of Nash and Lentz, and subsequently senior partner of the firm of Lentz, Karns, Linton and Hengst, composed of Mr. Lentz, John D. Karns, James N. Linton and J. M. Hengst ; E. N. Huggins, originally a partner of John G. McGuffey, later a partner of David K. Watson, the latter already mentioned as attorney general of Ohio, still later with Daniel H. Sowers, and thereafter senior partner of the firm of Huggins, Huggins and Hoover, composed of Mr. Huggins, Burch D. Huggins and Fred R. Hoover ; Edgar T. Weinland, author of the standard work on the law of municipal corporations in Ohio and subsequentely associated with Henry L. Scarlett in the firm of Weinland and Scarlett ; Judge Curtis C. Williams, who read law in the office of Converse, Booth and Keating, became a judge of the court of common pleas and later senior member of the firm of Williams, Williams, Taylor and Nash, consisting of Judge Williams, Henry A. Williams, Simeon Nash and Edward L. Taylor, Jr. ; Karl T. Webber, senior member of the firm of Webber, McCoy, Jones and Schlessinger, composed of Karl T. Webber, Robert W. McCoy, William Harvey Jones, Louis J. Hegelheimer and Frank A. Hunter ; Ira H. Crum, the senior member of the firm having in its membership Mr. Crum, Frank Raymund and George R. Hedges; Thomas E. Powell, senior partner of the old firm of Powell, Owen, Ricketts and Black, composed of Mr. Powell, Judge Selwyn N. Owen and Samuel L. Black, prior to his promotion to judge of the probate court and now practicing with his son, Edward T. Powell; Henry Gumble, at first a member of the firm of Outhwaite, Linn, McNaughton and Gamble, but later associated with his brother Nathan as the firm of Gumble and Gumble ; James M. Butler, who began the practice with the firm of Booth, Keating and Peters, became city solicitor and in this period is associated with W. Wilson Carlile in the firm of Butler and Carlile ; Smith W. Bennett, associated with Ralph E. Westfall as Bennett and Westfall ; James M. Loren, associated with J. M. Schooler as Loren and Schooler ; Stuart R. Bolin of the firm of Bolin and Bolin, formerly United States District Attorney ; J. C. L. 384 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY Pugh of the firm of Pugh and Pugh—all of these were members of the third generation, whose pivotal year, for the purposes of this article, is considered to be the year 1912. Individuals without definite firm connections such as Daniel 3. Ryan, Ohio legislator and secretary of state, coauthor with E. 0. Randall of Randall and Ryan's "History of Ohio ;" Emilus 0. Randall, reporter of the Supreme Court for many years, author of some of the finest works on Ohio's history and professor in the Ohio State University Law School; George B. Okey, son of Judge John W. Okey, member of the state codifying commission ; ex-Governor James E. Campbell ; Rutherford H. Platt; J. W. Mooney ; Edward D. Howard ; C. D. Saviers ; David Neal Postlewaite ; Cyrus Huling ; Edward C. Turner ; George S. Marshall ; Charles J. Pretzman ; Clarence D. Laylin ; John J. Chester ; C. A. McCleary ; John H. and Joseph P. Eagleson ; George H. Jones ; Hanby R. Jones ; J. B. Kahle; Wilbur E. King ; Phil S. Bradford ; Barton Briffith ; Ralph M. Lucas ; John R. King ; Charles T. Warner ; Charles A. Leach ; Homer S. Bostwick and many others—all of them able lawyers of the author's so-called third generation. CONCLUSION. Of the aforementioned, many are young lawyers who since the year 1912 have become leaders of the bench and bar of 1930, the date of the present writing. To one better qualified, and having the advantage of retrospection is bequeathed the privilege of recording and evaluating their splendid work when completed. In passing, however, it may be observed that in 1912 Robert P. Duncan, Daniel H. Sowers, Henry L. Scarlett, Charles T. Warner, John R. King, Charles A. Leach and Homer Z. Bostwick were practicing lawyers at the bar. The task of estimating and appraising their splendid work on the county bench is likewise left to the writer of the future. Well may they be considered as among the leaders of the "fourth generation," should the historian of the future choose to follow the chronological classification by generations adopted by the author of this chapter. HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 385 BIBLIOGRAPHY. "Historical Introduction to Ohio Jurisprudence"—by Clarence D. Laylin, of the Columbus Bar, and professor of law at the Ohio State University. "The Court and Bar of Franklin County"—by Col. Llewellyn Baber in "History of Franklin and Pickaway Counties." "Bench and Bar"—by Leander J. Critchfield in Alfred E. Lee's "History of the City of Columbus, Ohio." "History of Columbus, Ohio"—by Osman C. Hooper. "History of Franklin County"—by William T. Martin. "Sketch of the Supreme Court of Ohio"—series of articles by Judge Edgar B. Kinkead appearing in Volume VII of The Green Bag. "The Ohio Hundred Year Book"-1803-1902. "Ohio Centennial Anniversary Celebration"—edited by Emilius O. Randall. "History of Columbus, Ohio," pictorial and biographical—author unknown. "History of the Supreme Court of the United States"—Charles Warren. Article on "A Great Judge"—XII Ohio Law Reporter—by Dr. Washington Gladden. "History of Ohio"—Randall and Ryan. Miscellaneous memorials of various Franklin County lawyers of the Ohio State Bar Association reports. "Bench and Bar of Ohio"—Emilius O. Randall, G. J. Reed and Charles Theodore Greve. Address "Early Judges, Courts and Members of the Bar"—by Henry B. Curtis before the Ohio State Bar Association. Address, "History of Ohio Judiciary"—by M. C. Reed before Ohio State Bar Association. For these valuable aids thanks are due and cordially given. CHAPTER XXV MUSIC, ART AND THE DRAMA. (By T. T. Frankenberg.) THE FIRST THEATRES-HAMLET AND CAMILLE-GRAND OPERA HOUSE-STOCK COMPANIES-WALCUTT'S MUSEUM-THE HENRIETTA-THE FIRST KEITH THEATRE-THE PARKS-HARTMAN THEATRE-PLAYHOUSES AND PICTURE PALACES OF TODAY-THURSTON, AL. FIELDS AND ELSIE JANIS -MUSIC-ODEON CONCERTS-MEMORIAL HALL-COLUMBUS AUDITORIUM -GRAND OPERA- WELSH AND GERMAN SINGING SOCIETIES-REPUBLICAN GLEE CLUB- WOMEN'S MUSIC CLUB-ORPHEUS CLUB-ORION CLUBOLE BULL-PATTI AND JENNY LIND-OLEY SPEAKS-THOMAS ORCHESTRA-PAINTING AND SCULPTURE-PORTRAITS IN THE STATE HOUSE--MARTIN, FAULEY, SCHILLE, BELLOWS, HAGUE AND SPRINGER-COLUMBUS ART GALLERY-BRONZE STATUES AND MEMORIALS-THE LIBRARY FOUNTAIN. If the city of Columbus were definitely ordained by act of Legislature and the County of Franklin owes its existence to a mandate of the same body, the beginnings of art in its various forms, dramatic, musical and graphic, are hard to trace in the first hurly-burly years of the young Capitol. Martin, whose history was published in 1858, at a time when there were still living many who remembered the early days of the City, devotes a few lines to the founding of what he says was the first theatre in Columbus. Howe, that redoubtable father of all Ohio history, neither mentions the theatre nor any theatrical activity either in the first edition, or in the 1888 edition of his work. Lee, who wandered through two ponderous tomes in telling of what had been Columbus history up to his time, makes no recognition at all of the theatre and very little of music. - 386 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 387 Studer, in a brief chapter, tells of the construction of two theatres, and gives a little attention to some of the earlier musical societies. Hooper, who must be considered in every sense a modern historian, groups three subjects in the last three or four pages of his history. He has found some reason to believe that as early as April 10, 1828, there was a performance of Sheridan's "She Stoops to Conquer" in the upper rooms which were built above the old Market House in West State Street. Another glimpse of theatrical information is dated 1832, when Young's Coffee House, which had a room called the Eagle Theatre, seems to have offered dramatic entertainment of sorts at long intervals. The first structure on which all authorities agree is known as the Columbus Theatre. Martin speaks of it being built in the Fall of 1835 and the Ohio State Journal of November 13 of that year contains a brief description which seems to have been written in advance of the completion of the building. It is described as 50 feet wide, 100 feet deep and 30 feet high, "a massive and splendid pile," a figure which strikes one as a bit grotesque seeing that the structure was built entirely of wood. On the same day the Journal felt called upon to say editorially that in spite of the objections which some people had to theatrical entertainments, they were "an amusement, rational, harmless in itself, and at the same time instructive." A $50 cup for first prize and a $25 cup for second prize were offered for the best orations given at the opening. Ottaway Curry and James Kilbourne are listed as the winners of these prizes. The Journal, however, felt under no constraint to mention the building in any way or form for many months after the initial notice. This playhouse was managed by a firm named Dean and McKinney, which fact has only a historical significance since neither seem to have been important in the larger world of the theatre of that day. Among the actors reputed to have appeared at this playhouse was Julia Dean, afterwards of national reputation in a variety of classical roles popular in her day. One would like to think that the great Edwin 388 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY Forrest might have had some part of his early career in Columbus, for it is known that in 1820 as a youngster he was acting in Cincinnati and in his wanderings got as far as Dayton. Even in the days of his national and international triumphs, Forrest retained a warm affection for the scenes of his youthful thespian struggles. A saloon was a part of this original Columbus Theatre and the moralists of a subsequent day are inclined to ascribe its early demise to that fact, forgetting that a bar was then, and still is, a regular feature of practically every first class theatre in Germany and France, as well as most other European countries where the drama has reached a high stage of perfection. In his very charming book "Years Of My Youth," William Dean Howells, who in later life came to write considerably of the theatre, in telling of his early days in Columbus says, "I had much better been at the theatre than writing some of the things I then wrote. But it may as well be owned here as anywhere that whatever might have been its value to me as the school of morals the theatre was not good society in Columbus then ; and I was now in the way of being good society and had been for some time." It was the irony of fate that in his capacity as a subeditor of the Ohio State Journal, it fell to his lot to write some of these theatrical notices and it is interesting to inquire just what the theatre was offering in those days, even when it was not good society. On January 20, 1859, Mr. Howell's paper says, "J. H. Taylor played Hamlet to a good house on the occasion of his farewell benefit at the theatre last night." Other plays which will strike a familiar sense to the person with theatrical training in the repertoire of that season were "The Jewess," "Othello," "London Assurance," and "Medea" with Matilda Heron running for four performances. This was that Matilda Heron, who, at the National Theatre in Cincinnati in 1856, played for the first time on any American stage a dramatic version of Alexander Dumas' "Camille," from that day to this favorite of the emotional actress. This same "Camille" with Miss Heron in the title role was played in Columbus, March 23, 1859, but seems to have provoked no discussion of the lady's morals, as it did upon so many other occasions in later years. HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 389 It is interesting to note that the standard price for admission to the theatre in Columbus at that time was fifty cents. The building in which these performances were housed was known at the outset as the Dramatic Temple, and later merely as the Theatre. It is the institution which casts the longest shadow over things theatrical in the history of Columbus. Its beginnings trace to 1855, when Kinney, Burrell and Company purchased for the sum of $8,000 a site on the south side of State Street midway between Pearl and Third Streets. There they erected the first of a series of structures which have always occupied that location and have always been devoted to theatrical entertainment. As these lines are written, and for many years preceding, it has been known as the Grand Opera House, or Theatre and has housed every conceivable type of entertainment or performance which by any stretch of imagination could be classified as dramatic. The opening performance was given September 12, 1855, and the chief feature of the bill was a play called "The Honeymoon." A Miss Deering, one of the players, read a poetic address after the manner of the times and the event seems to have been a gala occasion. There were frequent changes of management in the first few years. David Hanchett, who later came to considerable fame as an actor in Shakespearean tragedy, was one of the lessees in December, 1856. Almost fifty years later he returned to Columbus to spend his declining days at the scenes of his early managerial life. In December, 1857, the name of Ellsler first appears in the annals of the house records. This was that John Ellsler, formerly of Cleveland, who as the father of Effie Ellsler, a brilliant juvenile star of the Civil War days, became known from coast to coast. Ellsler had various associates in his local management and in 1863 changed the name of the theatre to The Atheneum. Those were the days of resident stock companies with travelling stars. Practically all of the great names that adorned the American stage in the post Civil War days were emblazoned on the Columbus billboards. Columbus as an important military point in the Civil War had its first taste of theatrical     Soldiers, then as now, desired 390 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY to spend their leave days in something that would make them forget their usual work. It is this war activity rather than the size of the city which must explain the erection of a second theatre in 1863 on the vest side of High Street, by Benjamin E. Smith, Theodore Comstock, and others. The building was a very pretentious one for its time. The auditorium was on the second floor, and with a single exception, it is the only theatre of this type ever operated successfully in Columbus. The opening bill was given September 9, 1864, with a production of Verdi's opera "Il Trovatore." For almost thirty years it continued to divide with the Grand the leading attractions that toured the country. Spectacular fire January 25, 1892, destroyed it, together with all the buildings on either side in the entire block. In the interval of these greater buildings, Columbus has had other structures which momentarily supplied the theatrical need. A building known as the Odeon, immediately south of the Neil House was used for some events, but found its chief usefulness as the home of musical attractions. It was lost to Columbus in the great Neil House fire in 1860 and never was rebuilt. Another structure which seems to have been important to the citizens of that time was Walcutt's Museum, which as early as 1833 and-1834 began to exhibit the type of things for which the museums of that day were known—wax figures, paintings, and curios. The State Journal in 1835 mentions that this museum had a hundred paintings and since the Walcutts were the first artists of record in the history of Columbus, this display of art may well have been in advance of its time. It was the logical successor of this museum which was the forerunner of the High Street Theatre, or Museum. Columbus in the late nineties was rather definitely divided in geographical routes. So that when the Comstock Theatre, or Metropolitan as it was variously known, was burned in 1892, there immediately arose the question of where its successor was to be built. Mr. Henry M. Chittenden, a public spirited capitalist, with interests definitely north of Broad Street, was planning a hotel for the site at the northwest corner of Spring and High Streets, and immediately decided to include in it a theatre which he named after his wife, The Henrietta, located immediately HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 391 west of the hotel in Spring Street. Its career was as brief as it was brilliant, measured in terms of what Columbus had seen. One of the numerous big fires which have always loved the theatre as a shining mark, destroyed it in November of the same year in which it was opened, 1892. Among the few attractions which were heard at that truly beautiful playhouse was the Theodore Thomas Orchestra of Chicago. Destroyed in the same fire was the Museum located on High Street and north of the hotel. This was known as the Globe and when it was rebuilt in 1893, it blossomed out as a first class theatre. The opening bill was "The Love Chase," with Julia Marlowe in the leading part. For many years this theatre divided its time between so called first class attractions and second class attractions. With the advent of the syndicate, it could no longer get plays and actors of the first calibre and gave all its time and attention to a series of melodramas and farce comedies that were very much in vogue in the late nineties. In recent years, it has been entirely given over to burlesque. With the destruction of the Henrietta Theatre, influences shifted to the South once more and in 1896 the Southern Theatre, which it had taken several years to promote and finance, was open to the public under the management of the Valentine Company, with a performance of a New York musical travesty, called "The Gay New York." For fifteen years this theatre continued a history of uninterrupted presentations of the leading theatrical successes of the country. It, more than any other one theatre in Columbus, profited by what may be called the golden era of the American stage. With the building of the Hartman at the southeast corner of Third and State Streets, in 1912, the Valentine Company transferred its leases and surrendered the Southern to lesser attractions and finally to pictures, and ultimately to darkness, rival companies finding it more profitable to keep the theatre closed than to operate it. In 1902 a group of citizens, headed by George E. Urlin, believed that Columbus had grown to the size where it could support four theatres and accordingly erected at the north side of Gay and the corner of Pearl, a theatre which was opened first as a vaudeville house and later as the home of the stock company, and finally passed into the control of the Keith interests of New York, who used it for 392 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY the presentation of their talent until the larger and newer theatre in West Broad Street was completed. The structure was then razed to make way for the Buckeye Building and Loan Company building, which now occupies the site. Again in 1906 another theatre destined to be pulled down after a few years was projected. Local promoters being unable to finish it, it was taken up by J. B. Howell and completed and dedicated as the Colonial. It was located on the north side of Broad Street just west of Wall. It served variously to house road attractions, stock companies, and finally pictures. It was torn down to make way for the A. I. U. Building, part of which became the Keith Theatre. Twice Columbus has had theatres in its amusement parks. Once at the defunct Minerva Park, northeast of the city, and for many years at Olentangy. Columbus has never displayed that interest in summer theatrical entertainment which has a big vogue in other communities. While many persons will recall a pleasant evening spent at one or both of these institutions, they added very little to the theatrical history of the town. With the completion of the Hartman, Columbus built its last monument to what has always been called the legitimate drama. The ensuing fifteen or sixteen years, however, saw an expenditure of many-times the total sum in all the preceding history of the city for structures that are known to the public as theatres, differing only in this from all such structures since the days of Pericles and the Theatre of Dionysus that theatres traditionally house actors. Magnificent piles of stone, brick, mortar and gilded decoration running into many millions of dollars have been erected in the downtown and expensive business section, to the sole end that unnumbered reels of celluloid films might be ground out for the delight and entertainment of those who fancied they were partaking of theatrical fare. The first of this group was the Majestic, built by Max Stern in 1913, on the plot of ground immediately south of the Neil House and across the street from the McKinley Monument. The ground alone had a value of approximately $500,000, and the theatre building cost in excess of $250,000. For a number of years it contended successfully with the newer and larger cinema palaces, until in 1929 it passed HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 393 into the hands of the Keith interests and was used for attractions not adapted to their larger houses. The Keith Palace, as it was known at the opening, before changes in the firm controlling it devised the name of R. K. O. Palace, was built at the same time and in conjunction with the A. I. U. Tower at Front and Broad, succeeding to a part of the original site of the Colonial Theatre which was demolished to make way for it. The new building was opened November 8, 1926, with a seating capacity of 4,000, at that time the largest in the city. The building had been three years in the making and had represented a cost of $3,500,000, without furnishings, and stood approximately $4,000,000 when the public got its first view of it. The older Keith house mentioned above, closed in March, 1926, so that there were seven months during which the Keith interests were not represented before the Columbus public. Those were the days when the Eastern group of managers were contending, one with the other, for representation in key points throughout the United States, of which Columbus was considered one. Therefore, the actual need of a city for more theatrical entertainment was not always the prime consideration in determining upon a new construction and an expensive investment. William James and associates in 1921 built a theatre at the southeast corner of Front and Broad where chiefly vaudeville and some pictures were shown. The structure cost $1,500,000. In June, 1927, this theatre passed to the Marcus Loew interests, who had in the meantime started a theatre called Loew's Ohio, on the site of the old City Hall, on the south side of State Street, at the corner of Pearl. This theatre was open to the public March 17, 1928, and has continuously followed a typical Loew policy, moving pictures with musical and vaudeville numbers interspersed. Mr. Ed. Melnicker has been the manager from the first. The estimated cost of the building and its furnishings is in excess of $1,000,000. The Loew interests acquired the real estate in fee simple and also own the fee of the West Broad Street site, making them the largest owners of theatrical real estate in Columbus. Most Columbus theatres have been erected on leaseholds. 394 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY A smaller theatre, the Broadway, had been built at the corner of Wall and West Broad, in 1910 by a group of local capitalists who did not find the venture profitable. This theatre in November, 1911, passed to Mr. James, and then to the Loews when his interests were acquired by them. It is important in Columbus theatrical history in the fact that for a considerable period it was given over to tabloid musical comedy ; a type of entertainment rather rare in this country and never, before or since, successfully exploited in Columbus. The mechanical device which permitted the celluloid replica of an actor to be shown anywhere that a crank could be turned in the dark, had prior to this time developed a series of small places of entertainment scattered throughout the city, and generally known as neighborhood theatres. This was in line with the practice of all cities of the size of Columbus and larger throughout the United States. For the most part, these places show films that have had their first presentation at the larger downtown places of entertainment. They have shown a disposition to come slowly under the control of several rather strong managers. Their contribution to Columbus theatrical history hardly would warrant their detailed inclusion at this point. Including moving picture and legitimate theatres, the total investment in Columbus in 1930 was approximately $15,000,000. A temple without worship is a vain thing. No recital of the physical structures, even though their worth may mount into the many millions, could properly detail the history of the dramatic art of any city. In the earlier years of its life, this art struggled rather feebly in the bustling young capitol. Not alone because the material for that life was sparse, but because as indicated, public sentiment had not in any large way endorsed the theatre. The earlier families of Columbus derived themselves in rather large numbers from the New England states, where the definite cult of Puritanism, taking its cue from Oliver Cromwell, never favored the stage. A smaller proportion, coming from the Southern colonies, and claiming allegiance to the Church of England, were more liberal in their views, as were also the European element which in Columbus consisted very largely in German settlers. The Germans gave a theoretical allegiance to the theatre, but of choice his diversion was HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 395 found in various forms of music, which flourished in Columbus quite as early, if not earlier, than the better grade theatrical entertainment. Following in the wake of Matilda Heron, whose "Camille" made world history, the greater artists of the day in increasing numbers found their way to Columbus. John Ellsler at the Atheneum or Grand became a national figure in theatrical management. During the Civil War, the theatre flourished as theatrical entertainment always has flourished where there are large camps and groups of soldier boys coming and going. Drama in the United States generally made a big advance immediately following that War. Where in the past it had been confined to the Atlantic Coast and the South to New Orleans it now had the entire nation over which to range. The stock companies which had flourished for a generation in many of these communities had produced a line of sterling actors and with increasing travel facilities and a more liberal attitude on the part of the public, they found audiences in cities even smaller than Columbus of that day. Practically all the stars who gained national and international reputation were seen regularly in Columbus. There is an aristocracy of the stage, families which for generations have produced actors, and their names are particularly prominent in the period. The Drews, the Sotherns, the Booths, the Jeffersons, the Boucicaults, the Barrymores, the Fiskes, the Jameses and many others belong to this class and this period. From abroad came Sir Henry Irving, Madame Sarah Bernhardt, Rejane, Olga Nethersole, Helen Modjeska, Rhea, Alexander Salvini, Elenore Duse, and other lesser lights, whose continental style of acting was not without its appreciation even in those days. For, with the advent of the Ohio State University, and the increasing number of state officials whom politics and business brought to Columbus, the city began to develop a critical type of audience which in the golden era of the drama—although like other cities Columbus did not appreciate it until the era had passed—made it one of the best in the United States for theatrical entertainment. The importance of the city was further increased by the contributions, it was making to the stage. Research has yet to establish 396 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY the first person to go forth from Columbus to make a name for himself in the theatrical world. Actors habitually subscribe themselves as residents of New York City and this, with the practice of adopting stage names, makes the tracing of this form of contribution extremely difficult. Columbus has enjoyed claiming Effie Ellsler, although at most she lived here but parts of several winter seasons. Miss Ellsler was like another Columbus woman who achieved theatrical fame early in life. This other, Miss Elsie Janis, born Elsie Beerbower, began to attract attention on the stage before she had reached her 'teens and was a full fledged New York star the year she achieved her sixteenth birthday. First at a little house in Clarke Place and later at a cottage called Eljan, at 18th and High, she maintained her home in Columbus for many years. The details of Miss Janis' career are given elsewhere in this work. The same is true of Howard Thurston, the magician, the site of whose boyhood home appropriately enough is occupied by the headquarters of the Billposting Company. More than either of these two, however, in the way of advertising Columbus, was done by that premier minstrel, Al. G. Field. Minstrelsy, which flourished for a half century beginning just before the Civil War, had so completely passed from the American stage that the younger generation has about the same detailed knowledge of it as it has of a husking bee. For some reason, which never has been scientifically ascertained, Ohio made an unusual contribution in this field. In fact more than half of all the nationally known minstrel companies were formed in Ohio, or by Ohio persons. Of these from Columbus, Al G. Field was easily the leader, although John Vogel was widely known for several years and the Faust family sent out a minstrel company for several years without, however, achieving any great financial success. Mr. Field, whose real name was Hatfield, abbreviated for stage purposes, was born in Morgantown, West Virginia, November 7, 1850. At the age of twenty-five he made a business connection with Peter Sells, then head of the Sells Circus, which had headquarters in Columbus and gave a minstrel performance, as a part of that organization's offering to the public. In 1884 Mr. Field launched a circus HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 397 of his own which later became known as the Hallenbeck-Wallace show, and two years later, cutting loose from the circus, he .began his career as the head of minstrel productions, which for twenty-five years had a national reputation. Always his performances were rehearsed in Columbus. Almost always they filled an engagement here during State Fair Week. Many a choir boy got his first taste of theatrical life by joining the Field's organization. Mr. Field died in April, 1922. The company, which had been incorporated, struggled on for a year or two, but finally quit the road. The history of all the famous minstrel shows—Dockstader, Primrose, West, Haverly, W. S. Cleveland, and others, is that they could not survive the loss of their dominant personality more than a year or two. A type of lurid melodrama which flourished in the gay nineties being built around wrecks, escapes from prisons, explosions and other similar things, calculated to produce thrills, had an able Columbus exponent in Harry Clay Blaney and his elder brother Charles. They produced and toured a number of this type of attraction and whatever its merits may have been they enjoyed a nation-wide reputation in their day. The same was true to a slightly lesser extent of Elmer E. Vance, whose earlier business activities were confined to reading and sending the Morse Code in a telegraph office. In the intervals between tricks he thought out a play which he entitled "The Limited Mail," the turning point of which was a telegraphic order flashed vividly across the stage, so that the audience could read it. It was a startlingly new trick in its day and after much worrying, begging and borrowing, the play finally saw the light of day. Tradition has it that in the hour immediately preceding the first curtain a half interest could have been bought for $500. Within a few weeks' time it was one of the country's big successes. It made a fortune for the author, whose several subsequent efforts at play-writing produced nothing above the mediocre and whose efforts at production dissipated the fortune which his earlier success had made for him. 398 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY All of these belong properly to what may be styled the spectacular, rather than the legitimate drama. Into the legitimate drama, however, Columbus sent a number of its young men and women who attracted wide attention outside their home community. Mr. William J. Dickson, for many years was the leading support of James O'Neil in the "Count of Monte Christo," a play which was one of the half dozen standbys of the melodramatic stage in the eighties and nineties. Mr. George Backus went from Columbus into various leading parts in the society drama of the nineties and the first decade of the next century. Miss Grace Reals left a Columbus church choir to become a member of the famous Bostonian Opera Company. Mr. Grant Mitchell began his career as a `super" with Richard Mansfield and concluded by being a Broadway star in his own right before he went into pictures. Mr. Lincoln A. Wagenhals, born at Lancaster, was early brought to Columbus by his parents and from here went to New York where as a member of the firm of Wagenhals and Kemper he launched a number of notable dramas of serious character, exploiting for the most part historical subjects. If the beginnings of the theatre are difficult to trace, in the early analysis of Columbus, the first expressions of music are even still more darkly shadowed forth. There needs in their recital no extended chronicle of buildings. Music, unlike the theatre, enjoyed the approval of the church and many early concerts were housed in church edifices. In the decade preceding the Civil War, big concerts were held at the Odeon. From the Civil War through the Spanish American War, practically all big musical events were held in one of the several theatres. It was not until 1900 that the need was felt for an auditorium larger than any theatre and adapted to concert purposes, and as a result, when Memorial Hall was built in East Broad Street, by public funds, it was made to include an auditorium capable of seating 3,000 persons and with fairly good accoustics, but with a stage so deliberately impossible that it has never been feasible to house oper- HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 399 atic productions upon it, although several attempts have been made in that direction. This auditorium, however, boasts a roster of performances which includes practically every well known name in the world's musical history for the thirty years following its construction. Through all the years of its musical struggle, Columbus had practically been denied that rarest flower of music, opera. Such performances as had found their way to the city were of the less pretentious organizations or the larger organizations curtailed as to orchestra, chorus and scenic investiture. In 1926 a variety of interests conspired to bring about the construction by private funds at a cost of $1,375,000, the Columbus Auditorium, at the southwest corner of Front and Town Streets. There, with an auditorium capable of seating 4,000 and a stage large enough to accommodate any scenery and chorus that ever leaves New York or Chicago, a series of operatic performances of the first calibre have been given for the past several seasons. It was opened September 10, 1927, with a "Greater Columbus" Exposition. Music expresses itself more freely in the mass than does the drama, which derives its pleasure very largely from contemplation of the work of others. The large number of Germans who early made their homes in Columbus was a special reason for music finding an early expression in the community. The Welsh also were a large contributing factor and in more recent years the Italian contingent has supported music both by volunteer efforts and patronage, but the very earliest efforts in the city's history seem to derive themselves out of English tradition. The first authentic date that challenges attention is that of 1821, when on July 4 an organization known as the Handel Society appears in the public prints. Handel suggests oratorio and oratorio suggests the English influence. The singing of an oratorio would hardly be in line with modern conception of a 4th of July celebration. In 1833 the Franklin Harmonic Society officered by a number of men whose names suggest Yankee ancestory is recorded. In 1838 the first of a number of organizations which called themselves the Columbus Band appeared. From that date forward there has scarcely been