USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > Centennial history of Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio, Vol. I > Part 29
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A Mortuary Record.
Mr. F. C. Maxwell, a prominent real-estate dealer, has compiled, or rather constructed, a remarkable mortuary record from the daily and weekly press of the city, covering something like a third of a century, coming up to the present. To his friends and immediate acquaintances, it already possesses much interest. To some gatherer-up of personal history and reminiscence a generation hence, it will prove a bonanza of information.
In a large and substantial scrap book, he has collected nearly all the local newspaper clippings, relating to the demise of citizens of local
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prominence and accompanying comment; proceedings of public and fraternal meetings, commemorating the deceased, and in many cases quite complete biographical accounts of the deceased which go with the announcement of the passing off the stage of well known citizens. To future writers, it will be especially valuable, because the personality of the actors in notable public events are so fully depicted concurrently with the transpiring of the same.
The Directory as an Indicator.
Some interesting historical facts are disclosed by summarizing the his- tory of directory making in Columbus, for which credit is due Mr. Joseph Wiggins, of R. L. Polk & Company. The summary is self-explanatory, save as to the fact that in several of the earlier directories, there was an apparent falling off in population, which is apparent but not real, owing to the changes as to ages and classes of persons to be named in the work, before that question was finally disposed of.
There lies convenient to' the writer a file of Columbus directories, em- bracing all the publications from the year 1843 till the present time for which we are indebted to the state library. This, perhaps, is the only complete list of Columbus directories in the city. The first volume was published by John R. Armstrong, in the year 1843, and printed by Samuel Medary and con- tains two hundred and one pages. One hundred and seven of these pages are devoted to historical matter, relating to the rise and progress of the city and descriptive of the state institutions. The Business Directory as it is styled, or that portion containing the 'names of the citizens, and appears else- where in this work was embraced in forty-three pages of the original.
The number of names contained therein, by actual count, is 1,005. The remaining pages, about fifty, are devoted to advertisements. In this depart- ment almost every branch of business conducted in the town is represented. The book is printed in small pica type and the workmanship would be con- sidered at that date as very well executed. Many of the representative men in our commercial, manufacturing, professional and public enterprises were registered in this quaint volume as clerks, students, etc., and those who have survived the ravages of time and were then men in middle age, are now retired from active life.
Our next volume is for the year 1848, compiled by John Siebert and printed by S. Medary. The book contains two hundred and sixty-four octavo pages, the greater portion of which is devoted to advertising and historical matter. The printing is neat and artistically executed. H. Glover and Wil- liam Henderson are the publishers of a directory for 1850-51 and S. Glover is the printer. Like their predecessor, these publishers furnish an elaborate history of the rise and progress of the city. The directory contains 2,151 names and a large number of business cards. A neat and attractive little volume, for 1855, was published and printed by the Ohio State Journal Com- pany, containing 2,810 names and no historical matter, but a goodly number of advertisements. Messrs. Williams & Company, of Cincinnati, published the directory for two years-1856-7 and 1858-9. The first volume contains
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4,530 names and the second volume 6,550 names. These directories were printed in Cincinnati. In 1859 M. D. Lathrop compiled a directory, which was printed by Richard Nevins, of Columbus. The number of names in this book is 5,884. The directory for 1862 was published and printed by Wil- liams, of Cincinnati, and contains 7,088 names. C. A. Poland compiled a volume for 1864, and Richard Nevins is the printer. There are but 5,984 names in this book, a loss of over two thousand names from the directory of 1862. The next two directories are published by Williams, the first volume of which (1866-7) contains 7,748 names, and the second volume (1867-8) 8,222. The directory for the years 1869-70 was published by Greer & Com- pany, printed by Nevins & Myers of Columbus, and contains 7,215 names. Columbus is now a city of over 20,000 population and the publication of a directory becomes an annual affair. A. Bailey is the publisher of an annual directory for three years 1871-2-3. There are 9,267 names in the first volume, 10,503 in the second, and 13,000 in the third. Hellrigle & Talcott are the publishers for 1873. This firm, in their preface, modestly claim that the directory contains over 16,000 names, while an actual count shows less than 13,000. The directory for 1874 is published by R. C. Hellrigle & Company, who claim, in their preface, 15,075 names. The names of females that do not properly require to be registered in a directory account for the increase for this year.
For the year 1875 two firms published directories-Wiggins & McKillop and R. C. Hellrigle & Company. The volume published by Wiggins & Mc- Killop contains 13,997 names. This directory was compiled under many difficulties. There being two sets of canvassers in the field, the citizens were at a loss to know to whom their information should be given, and when given to one party were loth to furnish it to the other.
The publishers endeavored to make their new directory for the centennial year, 1876, superior as a book of reference to any of the former publica- tions. This volume contains 15,192 names. Estimating the population of Columbus as three and one-half to each name in the directory, we now have a population of 50,632.
In 1877 both Hellrigle & Company and Wiggins & Company published directories, the population as shown by the directory of the latter firm was 55,000; in 1878 the number of names was 16,297. In 1879 Mr. McKillop died and G. J. Brand & Company issued the directory names 15,809; population 55,000. In 1880, the same firm issued the directory showing 18,706 names and 60,000 population. The same firm reported 21,700 names and 65,000 population in 1881; and 22,219 names and 66,000 population in 1882. Wil- liams & Company succeeding in 1883 and reported 30,651 names. Same firm reported 33,675 names in 1884, and Wiggins 35,375 in the same year. No estimates in 1885. Wiggins & Company in 1886 reported 34,810 names and 80,000 population ; in 1887-38,887 and 88,000; in 1888-42,450 and 106,- 125 population.
In 1889 the firm of R. L. Polk & Co. was formed and has since published the directory. The figures showing the names and estimates of pub- lication are as follows: In 1889, names 41,698, population, 125,094; in 1890,
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names 43,612, population 130,836; in 1895, the names had increased to 53,540, and the population to 133,350; in 1900, names 58,639, population 146,625 ; in 1905, names 71,786, population 179,207; in 1908, names 79,696, population 199,250. The estimates based on the ratio of 31/2 has been al- most exactly the population given by the Federal census in the years 1850- 60-70-80-90 and 1900, the discrepancies being that the official census showed a somewhat greater population, than was claimed in the directory estimates.
Captain Samuel Davis.
In one of his brilliant addresses before the Benjamin Franklin Chapter, Ohio Society Sons of the American Revolution, Colonel William L. Curry gave a deeply interesting sketch of Captain Samuel Davis, a prominent figura of the streets of Columbus in its early years, from which the following is ex- tracted. In point of local historical interest, it is scarcely excelled in our local annals of the early part of the last century.
Not Hero Worshipers Merely.
It is sometimes charged that the members of our society are hero wor- shipers, and I presume it is proper for us to plead guilty to the indictment. We believe that a prophet or hero is entitled to some honor in his own coun- try, and we have some heroes of our own "kith and kin" worthy of our wor- ship. It is not necessary to delve in the pages of ancient history, as many people are wont to do, to find a hero worthy of admiration and adoration, as the founders of our great republic were not only men of chivalric deeds but as "true of heart and as prompt of arm as any men who have been on earth." To lay a slight chaplet of praise to one of those heroes of two wars and an honored citizen of Franklin county, is the object of this sketch.
As introductory and explanatory to the source of my information on which the facts related in this sketch are based, it is proper to state that my grandfather, Colonel James Curry, settled in the southern part of Union county, twenty miles distant from Columbus, in the year 1811, where he laid a warrant for one thousand acres of land, which had been ceded by the state of Virginia to the United States, with the stipulation that these lands should be given to the soldiers who enlisted from that state, as part payment for their services during the war of the Revolution.
At that date nearly the entire territory now embraced within the limits of Union county was an unbroken wilderness, teeming with all kinds of wild animals and many friendly Indians. Even as late as June 1, 1810, the Indians held their councils in that vicinity and executed the noted Indian Chief Leatherlips just across the southern border of Union county and in the county of Franklin.
"Shrill through the forest aisles the savage war cry rung;
Swift to the work of strife the border huntsman sprung, ;
Red ran the blood of foeman on countless fields of woe
From Scioto's shimmering stream to Ohio, broad and slow."
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Among the earliest of my recollections were the thrilling stories related by my father and other old pioneers of adventures in hunting bear, wolves, panthers, deer and other wild game. I was raised up in that kind of atmos- phere and many a winter evening as we sat around the blazing fires in the old cabins, listening to the thrilling tales of Indian warfare, of massacre and scalping, I could feel my hair rising and imagine I could see the Indians bedecked with war paint and feathers peering through the windows. While some of those stories were related of Boone, Kenton and other famous Indian fighters, the exploits of Captain Samuel Davis, whose body is buried near the banks of the Scioto river, only ten miles distant from Columbus, are more clearly remembered.
From Manuscripts of Otway Curry.
The facts set forth in this sketch of that noted pioneer are from my recollections of the incidents which I heard related in my boyhood days and from manuscripts left by my uncle, Otway Curry. As my grandfather lived only ten miles from the farm of Captain Davis, they were considered neigh- bors in those early days and were frequent neighborly visitors, and talked much of their exploits and adventures, as my grandfather had also been an Indian fighter and was severely wounded during Lord Dunmore's campaign in the battle of Point Pleasant, Virginia, October 10, 1774.
Samuel Davis was born at Litchfield, Connecticut, January 1, 1762. Al- though only twelve years of age at the breaking out of the war of the Revolu- tion, he served two years in the Continental army before the close of the war. The first engagement in which he participated and received his "bap- tism of fire" was in a night skirmish with the British army at the time of their attack on West Haven, when they attempted a landing from an armed vessel in their boats. He was in a number of other engagements, and at the close of the war was a boy twenty years of age, strong of body, lithe of limb, well inured to the hardships and trials of a soldier in the Continental Army. He learned the goldsmith's trade, and at the age of twenty-one he decided to seek his fortune in the west, and crossed the mountains with the inten- tion of seeking a location where he could manufacture and sell cheap jewelry to the Indians. He stopped at Fort Pitt, but for some reason gave up the enterprise and started on a hunting expedition. On the Guyandotte river, this being about the year 1785, he fell in with two other hunters, whose names were Freehart and Mccullough. He had some thrilling adventures in this region in hunting bear. Arriving at the mouth of the Guyandotte, he joined two hunters named Kendall and Whitsel. They purchased a flat boat and decided to make a trip down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans with a cargo of buffalo meat and venison, which they intended to kill on the passage. They had a rough trip down the Ohio and had several encounters with the Indians. Just below the falls of Ohio, one of the party was taken captive and a fight was only prevented by paying a large ransom in powder and lead for his release. The next day the Indians followed them up in six large canoes crowded with savages. On the boat Davis and his companions
THE HOTEL HARTMAN, MAIN AND FOURTH, A Favorite Place for Private Dinners.
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WIEEE
THE HOTEL CHITTENDEN, HIGH AND SPRING STREETS, Where Many Private Parties are Entertained.
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had a large blunderbuss mounted like a cannon and loaded with thirty-six rifle balls. They fired one volley from the gun, which completely demoralized their pursuers, and they pulled for the shore in great haste. Davis was wont to relate this incident with much gusto, as he said the old gun was of no ac- count, excepting to make a loud noise, which seemed to frighten the savages.
A Disastrous Buffalo Hunt.
At another time Davis and another companion left the boat for the pur- pose of hunting buffalo, and having killed several, returned to the river to find that the boat had left them, as an alarm had come to the men manning the boat from one of the hunters that a large body of Indians was approach- ing. Davis and his companion constructed a raft and started to float down the river, but as the river was at high flood the raft was unmanageable and floated off over the country. As they passed a high bluff Davis' companion becoming frightened sprang from the raft and climbed up the bluff, shouting to Davis to follow him, but Davis stuck to the raft and was finally wrecked on an island, where he remained three days without food or shelter. His companion never was heard of again, and he was, no doubt, either drowned or killed by the Indians. Davis finally overtook the flatboat, in an Indian canoe which he confiscated, in a very exhausted condition, but during all this time had retained his gun.
After enduring many hardships on the voyage down the river, Davis with about twenty companions made a trip up the Cumberland in boats and up Green river to Limestone, Kentucky, now Maysville. This was about the year 1786, and for several years thereafter Davis made his headquarters at Limestone, going out on trapping and hunting expeditions up the Big Sandy and along the Wabash in Indiana.
After St. Clair's Defeat.
Soon after St. Clair's defeat, Davis and a man by the name of William Campbell embarked on a hunting and trapping expedition in a canoe and proceeded up the Big Sandy river. On this trip Davis related that they found a boiling spring on a fork of that river which emitted gas, and by applying a torch it burned with a strong flame. It therefore seems that they may have been the discoverers of natural gas, so we will just credit that discovery to one of our patriotic sires.
They were now near Harmar's Station, on which the Indians had just made an unsuccessful attack, but had captured one prisoner by the name of Donald with a number of horses. A party of these Indians with their prisoner and some of their wounded were floating down the river and seeing the camp fire of Davis and Campbell, who were fast asleep, the Indians sur- rounded them; they were then awakened to find themselves prisoners of the Indians, who stood with uplifted tomahawks. Campbell was severely cut on one hand with a tomahawk, but Davis was not injured. The Indians then tied them with thongs of dried buffalo hides and compelled them to push the canoes down stream with poles, the Indians frequently beating them with
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sticks. They went down the Ohio river to Hanging Rock, where they went into camp, and Davis made an attempt to escape but was recaptured. When at this point one of the Indian scouts reported that several flatboats were com- ing down the river and Davis was ordered to decoy them to the shore on pain of instant death. But the boats failed to come within hailing distance to his great joy. They then traveled some distance up the Little Scioto and one day went into camp, where the Indians held a council and then proceeded to gather up a large quantity of brush and dry wood, which they set on fire, around which they performed a war dance with murderous gestures and fiendish yells. The Indians were composed of Delawares, Pottawattames, Piankshaws and Shawnees. Davis was then informed by his guide that he and Donald were to be turned over to the Pottawattamies to be burned. The next day they moved on, the prisoners heavily loaded with packs, were driven along with kicks and blows; compelled to wade all the streams, while the Indians rode through on horses.
How He Was Guarded.
The next night Davis was placed on the bare ground between two Indians to whom he was tied by thongs as usual. His limbs and arms were tied so tight that they became much swollen and very painful, and every time he would move by reason of his great suffering he was beaten severely. The Indians were sleeping in one rank, with their guns standing immediately in the rear, supported by poles near their heads. Davis determined to make an- other effort to escape at all hazards, as he decided that he would take the chances of being shot rather than burned at the stake. About daybreak the Indians unloosed the thongs and Davis immediately sprang forward, ran across a little creek, on the banks of which the camp was located, and into a thicket of brush and briars, with the Indians in pursuit yelling like demons, and strange to say was not hit by any of their shots. He escaped and made his way toward the Ohio, which was reached in two days, and succeeded in pushing over a decayed buckeye tree, out of which he constructed a raft and finally reached the Kentucky shore. From there he proceeded to a place where he had secreted a bark canoe on a hunting trip and in this he floated down the river to Massies Station. When he made his escape he had no clothing on but his shirt and trousers and when he arrived at the Station, after five days without food excepting roots and raw fish, he was entirely naked, as his clothing had been literally torn off by the briars and brush in his rapid flight. A half breed of French and Indian blood, who gave his name as Montour, was with the band of Indians, and informed Davis that the Indian Chief in command was a Shawnee named "Charley Wilkie." Of the other two prisoners, Campbell escaped after being sold by the Dela- wares, and Donald was burned at the stake by the Pottawattamies. Montour boasted to Davis that he had taken sixteen scalps at St. Clair's defeat, and showed him the handle of his tomahawk on which sixteen notches were cut. Davis inquired of Montour what the British did with the cannon captured from St. Clair, and Montour informed him that four of the pieces were sunk
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in a deep stream near the battleground. Davis, after his escape, went to Cincinnati and gave the information to the commandant at Fort Washington and the cannon were rescued.
Davis went on many hunting and scouting expeditions in eastern Ken- tucky and often trailed marauding bands of Indians who had stolen horses from the whites, and at one time recaptured ten horses and returned them safely to the white settlers. Simon Kenton lived near Washington, Ken- tucky, and Davis was in his employ as a spy for three years. His principal duties were to patrol the Ohio river and to report to Kenton when Indians crossed from Ohio into Kentucky for the purpose of pillage and murder. In this service he had many encounters with the Indians. During a part of the time when a spy he was accompanied by Colonel Duncan McArthur. At one time he related that he shot and killed an Indian belonging to a pillag- ing band and made a miraculous escape, as he was chased for many miles through the forest by the Indians, but finally reached the river, where he had a canoe secreted and pulled out into the stream just ahead of his pursuers.
Campbell, who was captured by the Indians with Davis and was his com- panion on many of his hunting expeditions, was afterward killed by the Indians on the Ohio side of the river. Soon after Wayne's treaty, 1795, Davis moved to Ohio and settled on the Scioto below Chillicothe. He afterwards lived in Chillicothe and for some years west of the town. Davis related that when living in that vicinity a party of Indians came to his house and among their number were some of the Indians who had taken him a prisoner, and on seeing him, exclaimed, "waugh Shinneh wanneh," i. e., "Captain."
Comes to Columbus.
In the year 1814 he removed to Franklin county when he was about fifty-one years of age. During the war of 1812 he served on two expeditions in the northwest, and on one of them as a captain of volunteers. Captain Davis had a most remarkable career as a backwoodsman, hunter, Indian fighter and soldier, including his service in the war of the Revolution until the close of the war of 1812, a period of a third of a century of almost con- tinuous warfare with the British and Indians. The history of the service of this brave frontiersman is scarcely second to that of Daniel Boone and Simon Kenton. He was an intelligent, highly respected citizen, and lived quietly on his farm in Franklin county until his death, which occurred in Norwich township in 1849, at the age of eighty-six. Many of the descendants of Cap- tain Davis, the Davis and Sells, reside in Dublin and vicinity; others in the city of Columbus at this time.
A Columbus Squirrel Hunt.
In view of the present restrictive game laws, the following quotations from the early history of Columbus look strange, indeed, even with the sub- joined explanation. For the first twenty years or more after the settlement of this country, fishing and hunting were favorite amusements; and the fish
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and game being plenty, a person did not tire in the pursuit. Fishing was sometimes with a net seine but more frequently with a brush drag, which required from a dozen to twenty men, and was a kind of frolic. Hunting was for the double or treble purpose of amusement, the obtaining of fresh game for the table, and the protection of the crops against devouring animals.
The subjoined account of a general squirrel hunt, from the Columbus Gazette of August 29, 1822, is illustrative of the above fact, and at the same time it brings to view the names and the memory of a number of respectable citizens of that day, most of them have now passed away :
"Grand Squirrel Hunt .- The squirrels are becoming so numberous in the county as to threaten serious injury, if not destruction, to the crops of the farmer during the ensuing fall. Much good might be done by a general turn out of all citizens whose convenience will permit, for two or three days, in order to prevent the alarming ravages of those mischievous neighbors. It is, therefore, respectfully submitted to the different townships each, to meet and choose two or three of their citizens to meet in a hunting caucus, at the house of Christian Heyl, on Saturday, the 31st inst., at 2 o'clock P. M. Should the time above stated prove too short for the townships to hold meetings, as above recommended, the following persons are respectfully nominated and invited to attend the meeting at Columbus: Montgomery, Jeremiah McLene and Edward Livingston; Hamilton, George W. Williams and Andrew Dill; Madison, Nicholas Goetschius and W. H. Richardson; Truro, Abiather V. Taylor and John Hanson; Jefferson, John Edgar and Elias Ogden; Plain, Thomas B. Patterson and Jonathan Whitehead; Harrison, F. C. Olmsted and Captain Bishop; Sharon, Matthew Matthews and Buckley Comstock; Perry, Griffith Thomas and William Mickey; Washington, Peter Sells and Uriah Clark; Norwich, Robert Elliott and Alanson Perry; Clinton, Colonel Cook and Samuel Henderson; Franklin, John McElvain and Lewis Williams; Prairie, John Hunter and Jacob Neff; Pleasant, James Gardiner and Reuben Golliday; Jackson, Woollery Conrad and Nicholas Hoover; Mifflin, Adam Reid and William Dalzell.
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