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M. L.
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
GEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02279 7465
f
HISTORY
OF THE
CITY OF COLUMBUS
CAPITAL OF OHIO,
BY
ALFRED E. LEE, A. M.
Author of "European Days and Ways," "Battle of Gettysburg," "Sketches and Studies of Leading Campaigns," etc.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
ILLUSTRATED. VOLUME I.
PUBLISHED BY MUNSELL & CO., NEW YORK AND CHICAGO. 1892.
COPYRIGHT, 1892. BY MUNSELL & CO, NEW YORK.
Wecloud 22,50 20015
1194900
TO THE
Brave, Honesthearted, Muchenduring Men and Women who were the pioneer architects of civilization in Central Ohio ; to all of their successors who, by industry, intelligence and virtue, have contributed to the advancement of their work to its present majestic proportions ; and to all who shall hereafter strive with honest purpose to carry forward that work to results yet more beneficent and beautiful, these volumes are respectfully dedicated.
THE AUTHOR.
CONTENTS
ORIGIN OF THE STATE :
PAGE.
Chapter I. The Ohio Wilderness
Alfred E. Lee. 3
Chapter II. The Prehistoric Races Alfred E. Lee. 19
Chapter III. Ancient Earthworks in Franklin County . James Linn Rodgers 44
Chapter IV. The Iroquois and Algonquins Alfred E. Lee. 62
Chapter V. Advent of the White Man
Alfred E. Lee. 81
Chapter VI. Founding of Ohio
Alfred E. Lee.
105
Chapter VI. The Territorial Government
121
Chapter VI. The State Government
123
ORIGIN OF THE CITY :
Chapter VII. Franklinton I
. Alfred E. Lee. 135
Chapter VIII. Franklinton II
Alfred E. Lee. 152
Chapter IX. Franklinton III
Alfred E. Lee. 164
Chapter IX. Franklin County Civil List
174
Chapter X. Worthington
Alfred E. Lee. 184
EVOLUTION OF THE CITY :
Chapter XI. The Forest Settlement
Alfred E. Lee. 201
Chapter XII. The First War Episode
Alfred E. Lee. 236
Chapter XIII. The First Public Buildings
Alfred E. Lee. 251
Chapter XIV. The Capital as a Borough. 1816 1834. I.
Alfred E. Lee. 260
Chapter XV. The Capital as a Borough. 1816-1834. II.
Alfred E. Lee. 273 Alfred E. Lee. 281
Chapter XVI. The Borough Taverns and Coffeehouses
Chapter XVII. Fur, Feather and Fin
Alfred E. Lee. 291
Chapter
XVIII. The Scioto River
Alfred E. Lee. 301
Chapter XIX. From Trail to Turnpike
Alfred E. Lee. 311 Alfred E. Lee. 320
Chapter XX. The National Road
Chapter XXI. The Canal
Alfred E. Lee. 330
Chapter XXII. Mail and Stagecoach
Alfred E. Lee. 341
Chapter XXIII. Mail and Telegraph
Alfred E. Lee. 357
Chapter XXIV. Beginnings of Business
Alfred E. Lee. 368
Chapter XXV.
Business Evolution
Alfred E. Lee. 380
Chapter XXVI. Banks and Banking
John J. Janney. 396
Chapter XXVII. The Press. I
Osman C. Hooper. 419
Chapter XXVIII.
The Press. II
. Osman C. Hooper. 452
Chapter XXIX. The Schools. I James UT. Barnhill, M. D. 494
Chapter XXX. The Schools. I
James U. Barnhill, M. D. 521
iv.
CONTENTS.
EVOLUTION OF THE CITY-Continued : PAGE.
Chapter XXXI. Bench and Bar
Chapter
XXXII. Lands and Land Titles
Chapter
XXXIII. Geology and Geography.
Chapter
XXXIV. Climate and Hygiene. I
Chapter XXXV. Climate and Hygiene. II
Alfred E. Lee. 716
Chapter XXXVI. Social and Personal
Alfred E. Lee. 730
CHURCH HISTORY-PART I.
Chapter XXXVII. Presbyterian
W. E. Moore, D. D., LL. D. 757
Chapter XXXVIII. Methodist John C. Jackson, D. D. 784
Chapter XXXIX. Congregational
Benjamin Talbot, A. M. 830
BIOGRAPHICAL:
Chapter XL. Representative Citizens
Walter B. O'Neill, Esq. 855
Ambos, Peter E.
863
Andrews, Doctor John 888
Bottles, Joel 857
Carpenter, William B. 909
Cox, Samuel S. 893
Critchfield, Leander J. 902
Egan, Patrick A. 909
Fieser, Frederick 893
Firestone, Clinton D. 920
Frisbie, Charles H. 885
Galloway. Samuel 856
Greene, Milbury M.
870
Harrison, Richard A.
903
Hildreth, Abel
885
Hillery, Luther
910 872
Hoster, Louis
915 890
Hubbard, William B.
Hughes, John R. 873
869
Janney, John J. 396
Johnson, Orange 912
Jones, Richard 876
Kilbourn, James
866
Kroesen, James C. 917
878
Lee, Alfred E. 900
Leonard, Theodore 876
Lindeman, Louis 887
Neil, Hannah .
911
Neil, Robert E. 884
Neil, William 879
Orton, Edward 906
Otstot, John 868
Peters, Oscar G. 919
Leander J. Critchfield, A. M. 582
John E. Sater, Esquire. 616 . Edward Orton, LL. D. 663
Alfred E. Lee. 695
Hinman, Edward L.
Jaeger, Christian F.
Kilbourn, Lincoln
V.
CONTENTS.
Representative Citizens-Continued :
PAGE.
Pfaff, Carl T.
874
Platt, William A. 864
Pugh, John M.
874
Powell, William
888
Reinhard, Jacob
877
Sater, John E.
905
Sessions, Francis C.
912
Shepard, William
908
Slade, William H.
899
Smith, David 896
Sullivant, Lucas, Frontispiece
Taylor, David
881
Thurman, Allen G. .
855
Townshend, Norton S.
859
Wilson, Andrew 916
Wright, Horatio
917
Wright, James E. 861
Zettler, Lonis
· 814
ILLUSTRATIONS.
HISTORICAL :
PAGE.
Glacial Boundary in Ohio
20
The Serpent Mound 38
Ancient Earthworks near Worthington
46
Ancient Mound on the Pope Farm opposite 48
Ancient Earthworks in Delaware County
50
Ancient Earthworks in Pickaway County 50
Map of Franklin County Earthworks opposite 56
Ancient Earthworks in Fairfield County opposite
56
Surrender of the Captives 88
The Indians and Bouquet in Council 90
Original Plat of Franklinton 140
The Lucas Sullivant Store, Franklinton 154
165
Original l'lat of Worthington 190
202
Original Plat of Columbus, East Section
203
Portrait of John Kerr 206
Portrait of Lyne Starling 207
209
John Brickell's Cabin
211
General Harrison's Headquarters, Franklinton
242
Harrison Elm and Hawkes Hospital, Franklinton
247
View of High Street, 1846
253
The Swan Tavern 283 Old Milestone 321 325
Fort Cumberland in 1755
Freeman's Chronicle Extra, January 24, 1813
421
Page of Freeman's Chronicle, June 16, 1813 First Page of Freeman's Chronicle, July 23, 1813
455
Page of Freeman's Chronicle, February 25, 1814
465
Western Intelligencer Extra, October 1, 1814 477 School District Map of Columbus, 1826-1845 497
Old Rich and Third Street Schoolhouse
The Old Academy 506
Sullivant School 511
Third Street School 514
Garfield School 517
501
Franklinton School
524
The Lincoln Goodale Store, Franklinton
Original Plat of Columbus, West Section
John Kerr's Land Office
431
viii.
ILLUSTRATIONS.
HISTORICAL-Continued :
PAGE.
Twentythird Street School
530
Fifth Avenue School
535
Siebert Street School .
543
Portrait of Asa D. Lord
547
Library Room, Public School Library
550
Portrait of D. P. Mayhew
553
Portrait of E. D. Kingsley
554 556
Portrait of William Mitchell
558
Portrait of R. W. Stevenson
561
North Side High School
563
Land Map of Columbus
631
Franklinton Presbyterian Church, 1811
760
Original First Presbyterian Church in Columbus
764
"Trinity in Unity "
766
Present First Presbyterian .Church, before Alteration
769
First Presbyterian Church, State and Third Streets
777
Wesley Chapel, 1892
792
Third Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church
801
Broad Street Methodist Episcopal Church
815
Shepard Sanitarium
opposite 704
PORTRAITS :
Ambos, Peter E.
. opposite
128
Andrews, Doctor John
opposite 400
Buttles, Joel
opposite 56
Carpenter, William B.
opposite 720
Cox, Samuel S.
. opposite
448
Critchfield, Leander J.
opposite
584
Egan, Patrick A.
opposite 736
Fieser, Frederick
opposite 432
Firestone, Clinton D., Volume II
. opposite
160
Frisbie, Charles H.
opposite
368
Galloway, Samuel
opposite
32
Greene, Milbury M.
opposite 240
Harrison, Richard A.
. opposite
600
Hildreth, Abel
opposite 376
Hillery, Luther
. opposite 816
Hinman, Edward L.
opposite 256
Hoster, Louis
opposite 752
Hubbard, William B ..
opposite 416
Hughes, John R.
opposite
264
Huntington, P. W.
opposite
768
Jaeger, Christian F.
opposite
224
Janney, John J., Volume II
opposite 256
Johnson, Orange
opposite
312
Jones, Richard
opposite 304
Kilbourn, James
opposite 184
Kilhourn, Lincoln
opposite
336
Central High School
ILLUSTRATIONS.
ix.
PORTRAITS-Continued :
PAGE.
Kroesen, James C. .
. opposite 720
Lee, Alfred E.
opposite 504
Leonard, Theodore
. opposite
296
Lindeman, Louis
opposite 384
Neil, Hannah
. opposite
784
Neil, Robert
opposite 360
Neil, Robert E.
opposite
352
Neil, William
opposite 344
Orton, Edward
opposite 672
Otstot, John
opposite
200
Peters, Oscar G., Volume II
opposite
152
Pfaff, Carl T.
opposite 272
Platt, William A.
opposite
144
Powell, William
opposite 392
Pugh, John M.
opposite 288
Reinhard, Jacob
opposite 328
Sater, John E.
opposite
616
Sessions, Francis C.
opposite 832
Shepard, William
· opposite
704
Slade, W. H.
opposite 480
Smith, David
. opposite 456
Sullivant, Lucas
Frontispiece
Taylor, David
. opposite 160
Thurman, Allen G.
opposite
16
Townshend, Norton S.
opposite 80
Wilson, Andrew
opposite
168
Wright, Horatio
. opposite 192
Wright, James E.
opposite 104
Zettler, Louis
. opposite 640
RESIDENCES :
Ambos, Peter E.
opposite
128
Fieser, Frederick
. opposite
432
Frisbie, Mary L.
opposite
368
Hinman, E. L.
. opposite 256
Hoster, Louis
opposite 752
Hubbard Homestead
· opposite 416
Hughes, John R
opposite
264
Otstot, John
. opposite
200
Powell, Frank E.
opposite
392
Pugh, John M.
opposite 288
Sessions, Francis C.
opposite
832
Thurman, Allen G.
. opposite 16
Zettler, Louis
opposite 640
.
PREFACE TO VOLUME I.
The labor which has produced this work, so far as its author is concerned, has been performed during such intervals and opportuni- ties as have been vouchsafed by an exacting business. Two years were spent in preparatory investigation and collection of materials before a line of the text was written. No statement has been made without authority, and the best authorities within reach, pertaining to the different subjects treated, have been consulted. When these have differed, as has not infrequently been the case, the author has exercised his own judgment according to the best lights before him. His primary and directing purpose has been to be, before all things, truthful and fair. Tens of thousands of details have had to be dealt with, but in no instance has anything been left to mere hypothesis or opinion when the exact truth, real or apparent, could be arrived at. Much of the routine work has necessarily been confided to copyists, but the utmost care has been taken to prevent errors. For mis- prints, or errors in the matter quoted, neither the copyist nor the author is responsible. As a rule, quoted matter has been reproduced exactly as it has been found, verbatim et literatim. Even the punc- tuation, however awkward and contrary to present rules, has usually been preserved. Where inelegancies of expression or grammatical mistakes have occurred, these have been allowed to remain. Some- times these faults of diction have historical significance; they help to reflect the writer's mind and the spirit of his time.
In general historical treatment the plan has been adopted of pre-
xii.
PREFACE.
senting each subject separately, rather than that of blending all sub- jects, chronologically, into one continuous narrative. This classifica- tion, it is believed, will make the work much more convenient and useful for reference than it could possibly have been if constructed on the continuous narrative plan. To produce a symmetrical histor- ical tree we must have both stem and branches, and in order to give these their proper balance and proportion we must before all consider the origin of the tree and the elements from which its life and char- acter have been derived. Hence the preliminary chapters of this work which relate to the primitive races and wilderness and the original settlement and organization of the State. The history of Columbus is not merely that of a city, but also that of a capital, and no history of the capital of Ohio would be complete which did not take into account the settlement and social organization of the great commonwealth which created the capital and of which it is the polit- ical centre.
If any readers expect to find in these pages any labored and irrelevant personal mention ; any connivance at pretentious selfasser- tion at the expense of merit ; any indulgence of mere family pride to the detriment of historical fairness; any unnecessary parade of personal folly and weakness; any pandering to appetite for the salacious and criminal ; any appeals to the partiality of wealth, power or personal vanity ; any disguised advertisements masquerad- ing in the name of history ; or any fulsome laudation of the city or its citizens, individually or collectively, they will, the author hopes, be profoundly and completely disappointed. The mission of this work is to record facts and not to praise or dispraise persons or things except in the voice and terms of accurate and unswayed his- torical statement.
To those, of whom there are many, who have responded orally or otherwise to the author's requests for information, his acknowledg- ments are due, and are hereby heartily tendered ; to the others, hap-
xiii.
PREFACE.
pily few, who have not responded to such requests even to the extent of the ordinary courtesy of acknowledging the receipt of a letter, no aspersions are offered and no reference would be made except as a matter of justice to the author in showing that the task of collecting the materials for such a work as this has not been easy or always pleasant.
To the gentlemen with whose contributed articles the author has been favored he feels deeply indebted, but his obligation is small compared with that which these conscientious, painstaking and able writers have laid upon the students of local history. The work they have so faithfully done is their fittest and best eulogium. No invid- ious distinction is intended, and certainly none will be inferred, when it is stated as the tribute of a personal friendship more than twenty years old, and as a matter of justice to one of the greatest living geologists, as well as to a citizen to whom Ohio and science owe a measureless debt, that the scholarly yet most interesting and practi- cal chapter on local geology and its related topics which Doctor Edward Orton has contributed to this volume was one of the very latest tasks which had engaged his pen prior to the moment when a sudden affliction compelled the suspension, brief, let us hope, of his work and usefulness.
The biographical sketches which close this volume, it should be stated, have mostly been written by Walter B. O'Neill, Esquire, a graduate of Michigan University.
For the publishers of this work the author desires to say that the spirit they have shown in risking a large amount of money in an undertaking of this kind, and the efforts they have made to produce such a result as would be creditable to the city and satisfactory to all interested, are such as richly deserve the cordial, helpful and liberal recognition of every publicspirited citizen. Few indeed are there who would have had the courage, not to say the ability, to grapple with the difficulties and discouragements ineident to such an enter-
xiv.
PREFACE.
prise, and still fewer are there who would not have found in it the grave of their financial hopes. The response with which the business skill, energy and determination of those gentlemen have been met has surpassed the author's expectations, but has not surpassed their deservings.
ALFRED E. LEE.
COLUMBUS, OHIO, July 27, 1892.
Origin of the State.
:
CHAPTER I.
THE OHIO WILDERNESS.
In the aunals of Ohio the middle of the seventeenth century forms the divid- ing line between history and myth. All beyond that is vague and shadowy. Two hundred and fifty years ago the country now known as Ohio was a primeval wilder- ness which no white man had ever seen. Except along the southern shores of Lake Erie, where dwelt the Cat Nation of Indians, it was occupied by no fixed inhabit- ants. During the latter half of the seventeenth century it was a hunting preserve to the various Indian tribes which approached it from the north, south and east.'
The authentic descriptions of this primitive solitude are extremely meager. For adequate conceptions of its virginal grandeur, gloom and loveliness, changing with the seasons, and untouched as yet by the hand of man, we are left mainly to the conjurations of our own fancy. La Salle, who was its first white explorer, has left us no record of its physical aspects .? Hunters and captives tell us of their ad- ventures, but do not describe the country.3 We know more of the interior of Africa than they have told us of the vast interior regions west of the Alleghanies. The early travelers and annalists have done little better. They came to view the land not for historical purposes, but to inspect and report its material resources. They have given us glimpses here and there of the external features of the coun- try, but only glimpses. They have at best drawn but the vague outlines of a picture the details of which would now be of intense interest.
The Jesuit missionaries who explored the region of the Great Lakes and the Valley of the Mississippi were so absorbed in the work to which they had conse- crated their lives, or so occupied with other special purposes set before them, as to have given little thought, apparently, to their unique surroundings. They nar- rate incidents and experiences with minuteness, but dismiss natural objects with the barest allusion. It is by free interpretation of what they say, rather than by what they have actually said, that we must fill out and perfect our impressions of the great northwestern wilderness. Such interpretation we find in the pages of one of their most accomplished annalists, who has drawn the following Doré-like picture of the primitive Canadian forest :
Deep recesses where, veiled in foliage. some wild, shy rivulet steals with timid music through breathless caves of verdure ; gulfs where feathered crags rise like castle walls. where the noonday sun pierces with keen rays athwart the torrent and the mossed arms of fallen pines cast wavering shadows on the illumined foam ; pools of liquid crystal turned emerald in the reflected green of impending woods ; rocks on whose rugged front the gleam of sunlit waters dances in quivering light; ancient trees hurled headlong by the storm to dam the raging stream with their forlorn and savage ruin ; or the stern depths of immemorial
4
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.
forests, dim and silent as a cavern, columned with innumerable trunks, each like an Atlas upholding its world of leaves, and sweating perpetual moisture down its dark and channeled rind; some strong in youth, some grisly with decrepit age, nightmares of strange distortion, gnarled and knotted with wens and goitres; roots intertwined beneath like serpents petrified in an agony of contorted strife; green and glistening mosses carpeting the rough ground, mantling the rocks, turning pulpy stumps to mounds of verdure, and swathing fallen trunks as, bent in the impotence of rottenness, they lie outstretched over knoll and hollow, like mouldering reptiles of the primeval world, while around, and on and through them springs the young growth that battens on their decay,-the forest devouring its own dead. Or, to turn from its funereal shade to the light and life of the open woodland, the sheen of sparkling lakes, and mountains basking in the glory of the summer noon, flecked by the shadows of passing clouds that sail on snowy wings across the transparent azure.4
The scenes witnessed by Marquette and Joliet while descending the Wisconsin in search of the Mississippi are thus portrayed by the same writer :
They glided calmly down the tranquil stream, by islands choked with trees and matted with entangling grapevines ; by forests, groves and prairies,-the parks and pleasure grounds of a prodigal nature ; by thickets and marshes, and broad, bare sandbars; under the shadow- ing trees, between whose tops looked down from afar the bold brow of some woody bluff. At night the bivouac,-tbe canoes inverted on the bank, the flickering fire, the meal of bison- flesh or venison, the evening pipes, and slumber beneath the stars; and when in the morn- ing they embarked again the mist hung on the river like a bridal veil; then melted before the sun, till the glassy water and the languid woods basked breathless in the sultry glare.5
Another writer tells what these voyagers saw as they descended the Mis- sissippi : 5
Soon all was new; mountain and forest had glided away ; the islands with their groves of cottonwood became more frequent, and moose and deer browsed upon the plains; strange animals were seen traversing the river, and monstrons fish appeared in its waters. But they proceeded on their way amid this solitude, frightful by its utter absence of man. Descend- ing still further they came to the land of the bison, or pisikiou, which, with the turkey became the sole tenants of the wilderness ; all other game had disappeared."
From Marquette himself we have these striking bits of description :
We see nothing but deer and moose, bustards and wingless swans, for they shed their plumes in this country. From time to time we meet monstrous fish, one of which struck so violently against our canoe that I took it for a large tree [probably a catfish] about to knock us to pieces. Another time we perceived on the water a monster with the head of a tiger, a pointed snout like a wildcat's, a beard and ears erect, a grayish head and neck all black. On casting our nets we have taken sturgeon and a very extraordinary kind of fish; it resembles a trout with this difference, that it has a larger mouth but smaller eyes and snout.8
" Both sides of the river," continues Marquette, " are lined with lofty woods. The cottonwood, elm and whitewood are of admirable height and size. The num- bers of wild cattle we heard bellowing make us believe the prairies near. We saw quails on the water's edge, and killed a little parrot with half the head red, the rest, with the neck, yellow, and the body green."
Some of the glorious scenes which Hennepin has faintly described but must have witnessed when he explored the upper Mississippi in 1680, are thus portrayed by his poetic chronicler :
The young Mississippi, fresh from its northern springs, unstained as yet by unhallowed union with the riotous Missouri, flowed calmly on its way amid strange and unique beauties ; a wilderness clothed with velvet grass; forest-shadowed valleys; lofty heights whose smooth slopes seemed levelled with the scythe; domes and pinnacles, ramparts and ruined towers,
5
THE OHIO WILDERNESS.
the work of no human hand. The canoe of the voyagers, borne on the tranquil current, glided in the shade of gray crags festooned with blossoming honeysuckles: by trees mantled with wild grapevines, dells bright with the flowers of the white euphorbia, the blue gentian and the purple baltu ; and matted forests where the red squirrels leaped and chat- tered. . .. And when at evening they made their bivouac fire, and drew up their canoe, while dim sultry clouds veiled the west, and the flashes of the silent heat-lightning gleamed on the leaden water, they could listen, as they smoked their pipes, to the strange, mournful ery of the whippoorwills, and the quavering scream of the owls."
The wilderness stretching southward from Lake Erie was analogous to these solitudes of the Northwest, and yet different. An enthusiastic writer declares that " the Creator never planted on any other portion of His globe a forest more mag- nificent that that which elad the primeval hills and valleys of the Ohio basin." 10 Another, writing in 1838, says " the wild scenery of this region seventy or even fifty years ago must have been eminently beautiful. If any one at that time had ascended any elevated ground near the Ohio, or any of its larger rivers, the prospect of hill and dale, spread out immense, must have been delightful to the eye of the beholder. The spectator beheld tall trees covered with vines of the grape and of wild roses hanging in clusters from near the ground to the topmost boughs. He saw, too, a beautiful shrubbery of flowering plants, tall grasses and a great profu- sion of wild flowers in full bloom, of every shade of color. All was silent and still except the singing birds of every variety, of wild fowls, -the paroquet, bob-of-lin- coln, quail, turkey, pigeon and mocking-bird.""
Daniel Boone has left this record of what he saw when he entered Kentucky in 1769 :
We found everywhere abundance of wild beasts of all sorts through this vast forest. The buffalo were more frequent than I have seen cattle in the settlements browzing on the leaves of the cane, or cropping the herbage on those extensive plains, fearless because ignorant of the violence of man. Sometimes we saw hundreds in a drove, and the numbers about the salt springs were amazing. . . . Nature was here a series of wonders, and a fund of delight. Here she displayed her ingenuity and industry, in a variety of flowers and fruits, beautifully coloured, elegantly shaped and charmingly flavored ; and we were diverted with innu- merable animals presenting themselves perpetually to our view. In the decline of the day, near the Kentucky River, as we ascended the brow of a small hill, a number of Indians rushed out of a thick canebrake upon us, and made us prisoners.
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