USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > Columbus, Ohio: its history, resources, and progress : with numerous illustrations > Part 28
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45
Occupying, as this State does, a station in the political scale, among the first in the Union-having more than fulfilled the most sanguine expecta- tions of its founders-its situation now, in almost every respect, what we could wish it to be, our attention is drawn to the prospect before us.
The present is reality-the future we can not with certainty determine. It is not permitted to any to unveil futurity ; we arrive at conclusions by the process of reasoning from cause to effect. Speculative theorists have, indeed, imagined a law of nature to exist which prescribes fixed limits to the duration of States and nations, like that which limits the term of exist- ence to the individual man. We are assured, by the record of history, that the nations of antiquity had their rise and progress to maturity-a period of pristine vigor-a decline and final extinction; and it would seem that the same inevitable decree of nature has operation on the nations of modern times. Some-once mighty and powerful-are now hastening to final dis- solution, like the exhausted taper flickering in its socket to extinction. But the cases are not analogous; in the one moral causes operate-in the other the causes are physical. We may then, with certainty, conclude, that a political community has an indefinite period of duration-that while we continue to cherish and preserve our free institutions-while we are true to our best interests, we may calculate on a continued course of improvement. But, in reference to the object more immediately in our view, I pronounce that Ohio, a member of this great republic, by her assembled people, this day lays the corner-stone of her future capitol. Let the foundations be deep and strong; let the materials be of nature's most lasting gifts-dura- ble-imperishable; let the edifice rise in solemn, simple grandeur-a mon- ument of chaste and classic beauty. And may the lightnings of heaven,
338
STUDER'S COLUMBUS, OHIO.
which scathe, and the whirlwind and storm, which prostrate the works of man, pass by and spare this house, erected by a mighty people, and conse- crated to social and constitutional government. And may the councils of truth and justice and public virtue preside in its halls; may discord and faction be put far from them; and may a free and united people, who reared it, and whose temple it is, watch over and cherish within its walls the form and spirit of their republican institutions. And may the blessings of a benign Providence, now and through all coming time, rest upon this peo- ple, and upon this house, the work of their hands.
I NOW LAY THE CORNER-STONE OF THE CAPITOL OF OHIO !
The corner-stone of Ohio's new capitol was then properly and safely adjusted to its firm and permanent resting-place. Rev. Mr. Cressy invoked the Divine blessing, and the throng moved from the square to Fourth street, reassembling under a large elm, on Joseph Whitehill's property. Here a thrilling ode, com- posed by W. D. Gallagher, was sung, and an oration delivered by John G. Miller. The exercises of the day were closed by a bountiful repast served up on the public square.
The State-house commissioners adopted, by a modification of three premium designs, a plan for a building intended, not only for the accommodation of both branches of the legislature, but to contain apartments suitable for every officer of the State gov- ernment and for the State Library. It was their design to build in the next season the basement story and to provide brick and other materials for the interior walls. To enable them to do these things, they requested an appropriation of thirty thou- sand dollars.
SUSPENSION OF THE WORK.
The legislature, at the session of 1839-40, instead of provid- ing the funds needed for the prosecution of the work, repealed the act for the erection of a State-house. The work, of course, now ceased, and more than six years elapsed before anything further was done. The general assembly at length, on the 21st. of February, 1846, passed a second act to provide for the erec- tion of a new State-house, but made so small an appropriation for continuing the work that none was done the next season, except by a few convicts, in excavating for the foundations and laying about two thousand perches of large stone.
The commissioners appointed by the legislature, under the
339
STATE BUILDINGS AND INSTITUTIONS.
new act, were W. A. Adams. Samuel Medary, and Joseph Ridg- way, Jr. They express in their report, at the close of the year 1846, deep regret at the delays that had occurred in the pro- gress of the work. In 1847, work was again suspended for want of necessary means to carry it on. But early in the spring of 1848, the commissioners made arrangements for its vigorous prosecution. William Russell West and J. O. Sawyer were appointed architects and general superintendents, and Jacob Strickler, special superintendent. Suitable stone were delivered, under contract, by the officers of the penitentiary. Convict and other laborers were employed. The basement walls were partly raised at the close of the year. The next sea- son (1849) the stone-quarry was worked on a larger scale. A railroad track was made, to terminate at the bottom of the quarry. Cranes and derricks were erected for elevating the stone, and machinery put in operation, by which the cost of their transportation was reduced. The basement walls were completed, and the building loomed up about fourteen feet above the surface of the ground.
Active operations began in the spring of 1850, under favor- able auspices. The legislature had made an appropriation of $80,000 for the prosecution of the work. Machinery, operating by steam, was provided ; hired stone-cutters, and about eighty convict stone-cutters and laborers, were employed. Notwith- standing the prevalence of the cholera in the city during the summer, the edifice that season reached a height of nearly thirty feet above the original surface of the ground. The commis- sioners' report at the close of this year contains the following sad paragraph :
"In common with their fellow-citizens of the State, the com- missioners have to regret the loss of their colleague, Joseph Ridgway, Jr., who died of cholera, in the month of August, at Mt. Vernon, Ohio. He was endeared to his survivors by rare intelligence, honesty, and energy, which placed him among the most honorable and useful men in the community."
William S. Sullivant was appointed, in March, 1851, a mem- ber of the board of commissioners. The quarry railroad was extended along Third street, in the city, and into the State-
340
STUDER'S COLUMBUS, OHIO.
house yard, for the purpose of transporting stone by a locomo- tive, without the necessity of transhipment and hauling from ·the penitentiary. Work was recommenced on the building as early in the spring of 1851 as the weather would permit. About one hundred convicts and an average force of thirty hired stone-cutters were kept actively employed during the working season. The structure was raised about twenty feet higher, the height of the exterior walls being about forty-eight feet.
NEW COMMISSIONERS.
Pursuant to an act of the legislature "to provide for the more efficient and expeditious completion of the new State-house," Edwin Smith, S. H. Webb, and E. T. Stickney were, in March, 1852, appointed commissioners. One of their number, Mr. Webb, was appointed general superintendent, Mr. West being retained as architect. About eighty convicts and one hundred and thirty-five hired laborers were employed, in 1852, in the State-house yard, and one hundred at the stone-quarry. In July, 1853, a contract was made with Messrs. Ambos & Lennox, of Columbus, for the iron frame-work of the roof. Before the close of the year, the columns for the legislative halls, with their bases and capitals, all of Pennsylvania white marble, had been placed in their appropriate positions.
N. B. Kelly was, in May, 1854, appointed architect in place of Mr. West, resigned. Mr. Kelly was soon after intrusted with the general supervision of the work. A contract was made with Charles Rule, of Cincinnati, for furnishing and laying all the marble tile required, to consist of Italian white, and American black, white, and blue. Contracts were also entered into with James Lennox for the wrought-iron water-tanks, and with Nel- son A. Britt for putting on the copper roof. All the stone-work, except the steps and the cupola, was finished during 1854, and. the State-house rapidly approached completion.
In 1855, contracts were made for interior work ; among others, with James Lennox, of Columbus, for heating apparatus, and with the Columbus Machine Manufacturing Company for the wrought and cast-iron work for ceilings in the several rooms. Accompanying the annual report of the commissioners for this
341
STATE BUILDINGS AND INSTITUTIONS.
year, is an extended report from the architect, Mr. Kelly. In this report, the architect states that he had found in the building an entire absence of any means of ventilation ; that there was no provision for a system of warming the corridors, rotunda, and pas- sages, and that a very inadequate plan of warming by means of hot-air furnaces had been adopted. For a proper system of ventil- ation and warming, Mr. Kelly says he found it necessary to line the whole building, as it were, with brick inside the outer or main walls to obtain the proper flues, and to construct in the east open courts two great ventilating stacks. These stacks were built of bush hammered limestone, and are each thirteen feet and five inches at the base, ten feet and three inches at the top, and one hundred feet high. The report further says :
"Connected with these stacks at the bottom, and in fact emptying into them, is a vast system of underground circular brick flues-air-sewers ; by them the spent air is to be received from the removing flues, which take it from the rooms and convey it to the stacks. Of this circular air sewerage there are 1,872 flues beneath the basement floor, varying in dimensions ac- cording to situation and the capacity required-from ten inches to four and five feet in diameter."
The desk for the speaker and clerk of the House of Repre- sentatives were nearly completed in 1855. They are of white Italian marble. Those in the Senate chamber were designed to correspond in style and material. The Supreme Court-room and the library hall were to equal the legislative halls. The rotunda was to be finished in the richest style, and more highly deco- rated than any other portion of the building. The stairs were to be finished with white marble hand-rails and balusters. The colored balusters are of East Tennessee marble.
An act " to provide for the prosecution of the work on the new State-house, prescribing the order in which it shall be done, and making appropriations therefor," was passed April 8, 1856. Under this act a new board of commissioners was appointed, consisting of William A. Platt, acting, and James T. Worthing- ton and L. G. Harkness, advisory members. The commission- ers, pursuant to the requirements of the new act, submitted the plans previously adopted to Thomas U. Walker, of Washington City, and Richard Upjohn, of New York city, as consulting architects. These artists gave their opinion and advice, which .
342
STUDER'S COLUMBUS, OHIO.
did not lead to any material change in the general plan or de- sign of the building. All the work contemplated by the last- named act, except the floor of the library hall, was finished by the 1st of January, 1857. The legislative halls, with the neces- sary committee-rooms, clerks' rooms, etc., were at that time ready for the use of the general assembly.
THE BANQUET .- In honor of the opening of the new Capitol of Ohio to legislative and other governmental uses, a superb banquet was given by the citizens of Columbus, on the evening of the 6th of January, 1856, to the members of the general as- sembly and other State officials, and to visitors from this and other States. All parts of our own State, and many of the other States of the Union, were represented in the great assemblage gathered in the city on that memorable occasion.
The Cleveland Grays, a fine military company, arrived in the afternoon preceding the festival, and were received by the State Fencibles, of Columbus, whose guests they were. The appear- ance of the two companies, as they paraded the streets together, was the subject of general remark and admiration. During the day, the State-house was prepared for the grand banquet and the ceremonies and festivities of the evening. The chairs and furniture were removed from the halls. The rotunda, which had been handsomely arched and beautifully decorated with tri- colored muslin, evergreens, flowers, and wreaths, was assigned for the banqueting hall. Tables, bountifully laden, were placed in its eastern half, in a semicircular form.
As evening came on, the whole edifice was brilliantly lighted, and, crowning all, was the illuminated dome, from which the light shone in all directions with rare beauty and effect. At. nine o'clock, the ceremonies previously arranged began. Rev. Dr. Hoge offered prayer. Alfred Kelly, of Columbus, then rep- resenting the counties of Franklin and Pickaway in the State Senate, made an address of welcome.
While these exercises were going on in the hall of the House, the Senate chamber was the theater of music and dancing. It was not long before this festivity became general, wherever a space could be cleared for musicians and dancers. Till a late hour at night, the capitol was the scene of light, joy, and revelry,
343
STATE BUILDINGS AND INSTITUTIONS.
while crowds of people of both sexes jostled each other on the stairways, and kept thronging through the rotunda, the halls, apartments, and corridors, like the restless waves of old ocean. At one time during the evening, the number of people in the building was estimated at eight thousand.
On the 22d of December, 1856, preceding the festival, the city council appointed Messrs. Noble, Comstock, Decker, and Rein- hard a committee to make arrangements for a " house-warm- ing " in the new State-house ; and at a citizen's meeting on the same evening, L. Buttles, Henry Wilson, W. G. Deshler, R. E. Neil, and Francis Collins were appointed a committee for a similar purpose.
It appears from the report of D. W. Deshler, treasurer of the committee of arrangements, that from the number of admission tickets given up, and by other means, the number of visitors to the festival might be, with a close approximation to accuracy, put down at 10,728. The amount of money received on sub- scription and sale of tickets was $4,705 ; leaving on hand, after defraying all expenses, about $300. There were sold one hun- dred and seventeen whole cans, and seventeen tubs, each contain- ing seven gallons, of oysters, amounting to $245.30.
COMPLETION OF THE WORK .- The session of the legislature in 1857 was the first held in the present State-house. During that year, the unfinished work on the building was actively pushed forward. The next two years, 1858 and 1859, were devoted to the completion of the cupola, the main stairways, the eastern terrace and steps, the tiling of the rotunda floor, gas fixtures, brick arches, stone-flagging, and the grading and ornamenting of the grounds. Isaiah Rogers, of Cincinnati, was appointed architect in July, 1858, and, under his superintendence, the re- mainder of the work contemplated or ordered was completed.
FLAG-ROOM .- A room in the State-house was selected, in 1866, for the reception and preservation of the Ohio regimental and other flags carried in the late civil war. It was prepared with suitable stands and railings for the colors of different regiments and companies, which were put up in order on the sides and in the middle of the apartment, with a printed card attached to each banner, showing its number and title. There were in the
344
STUDER'S COLUMBUS, OHIO.
room, in 1867, three hundred and forty-four flags of cavalry, artillery, and infantry. A register is kept in which visitors may record their names.
STATE BOARD OF AGRIGULTURE .- The rooms of this board are in the northwest division of the capitol, opposite the governor's apartments. There are three of them, forming one of the pleas- antest suites in the building. The west room, occupied as the secretary's office, is handsomely furnished, and is the assembly-room of the board when in session. The middle room is devoted to the library and cabinet. The east room is the mailing office and store-room for reports, etc.
There are in the library about 1,500 volumes, all standard works, and nearly all purchased in Europe by Mr. Klippart, the secretary of the board. On the walls of these rooms hang the only set of the portraits, in the United States, of prize cattle, published by the Smithfield Club. Here, also, are portraits of twenty-five of the most noted stallions of the King of Hanover's stud, photographs of Baron Steiger's renowned sheep, etc.
PERRY'S VICTORY .- W. H. Powell's famous painting of Com- modore Perry's victory on Lake Erie, September 10, 1813, having been purchased by the State, was suspended, in the spring of 1865, on the northeast wall of the State-house rotunda, suitably draped.
Whatever defects a rigid criticism may discern in this fine painting, they are all cast into the background by its great merits. The naval launch in the foreground is an exact repre- sentation of the model formerly used in the United States navy. The chief merit of the painting lies in the life-like figures of Commodore Perry and his brave crew. The expression of the coxswain in the stern sheets of the launch is that of anxiety and inquiry, as he looks up to his commander, while the latter, with hand pointed toward the American ship at the right of the painting, seems directing the course of the launch toward her. Above him, on the quarter-deck of the vessel he has just left, which bears the marks of solid shot upon its counter, is a sailor with raised hat, evidently shouting for victory.
The figure, attitude, and expression of Commodore Perry's little son, as he looks, with fearful gaze, into his father's eye,
345
STATE BUILDINGS AND INSTITUTIONS.
is, for its simplicity and beauty, one of the finest features of the painting. The old tar behind the commodore, who is busily cleaning the boat with his oar, from the debris of sails, splintered masts, and rigging, shows from his bandaged head that he has seen hard service. A fine-looking sailor at the port-oar, near the commander, is eagerly scanning his countenance, while the negro servant, with outstretched arms, is watching the leaden storm of shot as it ricochets over the surface of the lake. The rents in the old flag are impressively represented. The vessels engaged, the fire from the cannonades of the British ships, the sulphur smoke of the battle, and the dim, hazy clouds floating around, are all admirably delineated.
THE STATUES .- In the rotunda of the State-house, there are at present four fine marble statues imported from Italy by James Emmitt, of Pike county, formerly state senator. They represent females. The one to the right of Powell's painting represents a Seeress or Prophetess of the Future, with her right hand on a sword-hilt, and her left resting on a shield. The statue to the left of the painting is the Muse of History, with a pen and scroll at her feet. On the left of the west entrance to the rotunda stands a Bacchante or Priestess of Bacchus, with her left hand raised aloft holding a bunch of grapes, at which she is intently gazing. On the other side of the same entrance is the figure of Innocence. On her right shoulder rests a dove, which she is feeding with her left hand.
THE ROTUNDA FLOOR .- This floor is a Mosaic of 4,957 pieces. The center is a star of 14 feet diameter, having 32 points. The center of the star is formed by seven hexagons, black, white, and red, surrounded by three borders of green, black, and green. The star-points are black and red on a white ground. A border of green separates this star from the body of the floor, which is composed of concentric circles of octagons and squares; the octagons of the inner circle measuring 52 inches-those of the outer, two feet in diameter. The whole is bounded by a border of green, as a dividing line between the rotunda floor and those of the corridors and niches, they being respectively squares and diamonds-black and white. The octagons are of black and white alternating. The black marble is from Vermont; the
346
STUDER'S COLUMBUS, OHIO.
white is the Italian veined ; the squares are of red marble from Lisbon, Portugal, and the green borders from Vermont. The whole forms a most beautiful floor of 64 feet 5 inches diameter, having an area of about 3,270 square feet.
THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL .- The commission given to Thomas D. Jones, sculptor, of Cincinnati, by the Ohio Monument Asso- ciation, having been duly executed, the mural monument now stands in the rotunda of the capitol. The memorial rests on a Quincy granite base, seven feet four inches wide, and two feet thick. The first section above the die contains the historical group cut from Italian marble in alto-relievo, the whole length of the surface upon which the figures are carved being five feet two inches, and the height and width respectively three and a half feet. The colossal bust, of pure white Carrara marble, surmounting the monument, is three feet two inches high, making the whole height of the memorial fourteen feet. In the bust the sculptor has preserved with remarkable fidelity the well- known features of President Lincoln.
The marble group in alto-relievo represents the surrender of Vicksburg. There are eight figures in the group, varying from twenty-four to twenty-five inches in height, and on the extreme right and left are seen the heads of two horses, with appropriate trappings, their bridles being held by two orderlies in attend- ance. The surrender is represented as taking place under a large oak tree, from whose branches beautiful Spanish moss is pending.
To the left of the tree, and on the right of the observer, the foremost figure is General Grant, next to him stands General McPherson, and next to McPherson, but more in the foreground, General Sherman is seen. An orderly stands on Sherman's right.
The foremost figure on the Confederate side of the group is, of course, General Pemberton, represented as surrendering to Grant. Next to Pemberton is Colonel Montgomery, and next to him General Bowen. There is in this group an athletic, lithe-limbed Southern orderly.
The unveiling of the monument took place in the rotunda on the evening of January 19, 1870, in the presence of a crowded
347
STATE BUILDINGS AND INSTITUTIONS.
assembly. The memorial, standing in the recess between the east and south entrances to the rotunda, was veiled by large American flags. Governor Hayes called the meeting to order, and Rev. D. H. Moore offered prayer. The quartette of the First Presbyterian Church-Miss Emma J. Lathrop, Miss Kate Kerr, and Messrs. A. H. Morehead and H. W. Frillman-sung " America." Hon. Samuel Galloway then delivered an address on behalf of the Ohio Monument Association.
At the close of Mr. Galloway's address, the governor intro- duced Mr. Jones, who proceeded to superintend the unveiling of the monument. The flags, at a signal, parted in the middle like a great curtain, and were drawn aside, when the monument, with the Vicksburg surrender and the colossal bust of Lincoln, came into full view. Silence reigned for a moment, and then rounds of applause followed. The quartette sung "Spirit Immortal." The scene was beautiful and impressive, with the bright light shining full upon the monument.
Speeches were then made by General Durbin Ward, of Warren county, member of the Ohio Senate, and General W. H. Enochs, of Lawrence county, member of the Ohio House of Representa- tives.
With singing, and a benediction by Rev. Mr. Cory. of the Ohio Senate, the exercises of the evening closed.
CENTRAL OHIO ASYLUM FOR LUNATICS.
At a State Medical Convention held in this city, January 5, 1835, a memorial was adopted and sent to the legislature, then in session, "for the erection of an asylum for the insane, adapted in all respects for the relief of mental derangement, and to be creditable to the State of Ohio." The legislature responded promptly to this call of humanity, and at the same session passed an act to establish a lunatic asylum for the State of Ohio, and appointed directors to purchase a site and attend to the erection of the necessary buildings. These directors were Dr. Samuel Parsons and Dr. William M. Awl, of Columbus, and General Samuel F. McCracken, of Lancaster.
PURCHASE OF THE FIRST SITE .- In July, 1835, thirty acres of land was purchased for a site; in 1839 an addition was made to
348
STUDER'S COLUMBUS, OHIO.
it of nearly twenty-seven acres, and in 1845 a little over seven acres more were added, making a total of sixty-four acres and a fraction. It lay in a fine, compact form in the northeast corner of the city of Columbus, as its corporate limits then existed. The entire cost of the grounds was $6,905.35, being about $108 per acre.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.