USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > Columbus, Ohio: its history, resources, and progress : with numerous illustrations > Part 4
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HISTORY, 1832 TO 1842.
vant for his franchise. The present bridge was then built as part of the National Road.
THE SANDUSKY TURNPIKE.
The first joint stock company road ever constructed in Frank- lin county was the Columbus and Sandusky turnpike. The legislature, January 31, 1823, passed an act, incorporating John Kilbourne, Abram J. McDowell, Henry Brown, William Neil, Orange Johnson, Orris Parish, and Robert Brotherton, of Frank- lin county, and nineteen others, and their associates, as the Columbus and Sandusky Turnpike Company. The capital was one hundred thousand dollars, with power to increase it to two hundred thousand, divided into shares of one hundred dollars each. The company was to have a board of nine directors. The corporators accepted the charter.
By act of Congress, passed March 3, 1827, 31,840 acres of the public lands were granted to the State of Ohio, in trust for the use of the company, to aid in the construction of the road. The road was forthwith surveyed and located. Colonel Kilbourne was the surveyor, and Orange Johnson was one of the leading commissioners, and the principal agent of the company through the whole of its active existence. Over seven years were spent in the construction of the road. It was finished in the fall of 1834. It was one hundred and six miles in length, extending from Columbus to Sandusky. It cost $74,376, or an average of over $701 per mile.
The company's charter required at least eighteen feet in width to be made " an artificial road, composed of stone, gravel, wood, or other suitable material, well compacted together, in such manner as to secure a firm, substantial, and even road, rising in the middle with a gradual arch." The proper construction of this provision gave rise to an interminable controversy. The company concluded that a properly formed clay road met the requirements of the charter, while the public, in general, ex- pected a stone or gravel road. The governor, in pursuance of the charter, appointed Nathan Merriman to examine the road, who reported that he had made the examination, and, in his opinion, it was completed agreeably to the provisions of the act
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STUDER'S COLUMBUS, OHIO.
incorporating the company. Toll-gates were upon this erected, and tolls exacted. A good road upon that route was a great need of the time; but the one made was only a clay or mud pike. In the spring, and in wet seasons, it was, in many places, quite impassable. To be obliged, at such times, to pay toll, on such a road, was felt to be a grievance too hard to be patiently borne. The toll-gates were occasionally torn down, but were immediately re-erected by the agent of the company.
At length the subject came before the legislature. On the 28th of February, 1843, the act incorporating the company was un- conditionally repealed, with a provision making it unlawful for the company thereafter to erect or keep up any gate, or collect any tolls on the road. By commissioners appointed for the pur- pose, a state road was surveyed and located on the bed of the clay turnpike, from Columbus to Sandusky. An act was passed, March 12, 1845, establishing such state road a public highway. Until the passage of this act, notwithstanding the repeal of the charter, toll-gates had been kept up and toll exacted. But im- mediately on the passage of the act declaring the road a free public highway, the gates were tore down by the people along the road, and were never afterward reinstated. There was only. one gate on the road within the limits of Franklin county, and that was about two miles north of Columbus.
The company insisted that those acts of the legislature were unconstitutional, and that their road had been made according to the provisions of the charter. They relied most strenuously upon the formal acceptance of the road by the state agent. Ap- plication was made to successive legislatures for relief. At the session of 1843-44, Dr. Samuel Parsons was chairman of a com- mittee that reported in favor of the State paying the stockhold- ers, severally, the amount of their stock in state bonds, and of declaring the road one of the public works of the State, and placing it under the control of the board of public works, upon the conveyance to the State by the company of all its rights, in- terests, and privileges in the road.
By a resolution of the legislature, in 1847, the subject was re- ferred to Henry Stanbery, the attorney-general of the State. He did not give a direct opinion upon the constitutionality of the
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HISTORY, 1832 TO 1842.
repealing act, but said he was of opinion that a great wrong had been done the company. About the same time, a bill passed the Senate, authorizing the company to bring suit against the State for the recovery of damages caused by the repeal of the charter; but the bill failed in the House.
GROWTH AND PROSPERITY.
In the summer of 1814, a large addition, which he called " South Columbus," was made to the original town plat, by John McGowan. It was surveyed and platted by John Shields.
We now pass over a period of sixteen years, till we come to 1830, when the wharf lots were laid out by order of the town council. They were town property.
In 1831, a few lots were laid off by John Young, and called Young's addition.
An impulse having been given to the idea of making " addi- tions," the " borough of Columbus " expanded rapidly.
In 1831 or 1832, Robert Brotherton and John M. Walcutt, owners of a few acres of an original reserve, sold some building lots on Town street, generally called Brotherton and Walcutt's addition. They did not have the lots platted, but sold them by metes and bounds. A plat of the addition was, however, sub- sequently made and recorded.
John McElvain and others, in 1832, laid off into lots a tract of two acres, near the canal. It was called McElvain's addition.
This, and Samuel Crosby's first addition, lying between Town and South streets, was laid off in February, 1833; and their sec- ond addition, which lay between South street and South Public Lane, was laid off in November of the same year.
It was in 1834, that Columbus was incorporated as a city.
The next year the following additions were made : Matthew J. Gilbert's, and Heyl and Parsons', in the southwestern corner of the city.
In 1838, Alfred Kelly, Maylen Northrup, and the heirs of John Kerr, laid off lots to which, in the recorded plat, they gave the name of the "Allotment of the Central Reservation." It was, however, more commonly called Kelly and Northrup's Addition.
As the foregoing list of additions indicates, Columbus pros- pered in her third decade. An authority before us states that in
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STUDER'S COLUMBUS, OHIO.
1837, our prospering little city contained twenty-five dry- goods stores, six drug-stores, three boot and shoe stores, three hardware-stores, one tin and stove shop, three wholesale grocer- ies, one iron-store, six clothing-stores, two hat-stores, one steam saw-mill, one steam carding-machine and turning shop, two coach and carriage shops, and five churches-the First Presby- terian, the Town Street Methodist, the Lutheran, the Broad Street Episcopal, and the First Baptist (in process of construc- tion). There were then in the city twelve lawyers, twelve phy- sicians, one dentist, and five clergymen ; two weekly political newspapers (one of which was issued semi-weekly, during the sessions of the general assembly), one semi-monthly medical journal, and one monthly temperance paper.
The population of Columbus, in 1840, was 6,048, being an in- crease of 4,611, or about one hundred and fifty per centum in ten years. Thus was Columbus growing and prospering.
CHAPTER IV.
FOURTH DECADE, 1842 TO 1852.
THE close of the fourth and the beginning of the fifth decade of our history constituted the road-making era. Turnpikes, plank-roads, and railroads were projected and constructed, or put in the way of construction.
Of the turnpikes and plank-roads directly affecting the busi- ness and interests of Columbus, we shall speak in this chapter, reserving railroads for separate treatment under the proper caption.
TURNPIKES AND PLANK-ROADS.
Of the Columbus and Sandusky turnpike, constructed in 1834, we gave an account in the preceding chapter. We now come to the Columbus and Portsmouth turnpike. This road was con- structed in 1847. Separate subscription-books were opened in each county through which the road was to pass; and the stock- holders in each county constructed, kept in repair, and controlled the road within their county. Yet to the public it was sub- stantially but one road, leading through the entire distance from Columbus to Portsmouth. It was a good graveled thoroughfare.
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HISTORY, 1842 To 1852.
The capital stock allotted to Franklin county was $8,800, divided into ten-dollar shares. One gate only was put up in this county, about a mile south of the city.
The Columbus and Harrisburg Turnpike Company was in- corporated in 1847, and the road was built in 1848 and 1849. Uriah Lathrop, of Columbus, was the surveyor and engineer. The capital stock of the company was $20,815, divided into shares of twenty-five dollars each. This county made a dona- tion of $4,500, for the construction of the bridge over the Scioto, southwest of the city. Two gates were kept on the road for the first two or three years, but the more western was afterward re- moved, leaving only one, two miles west of Columbus.
The Columbus and Worthington Plank-road or Turnpike Company was chartered by the legislature, March 23, 1849, to construct a plank or turnpike road from Columbus to Worthing- ton, with the privilege of extending it to Delaware. The capital stock was $27,825, with power to increase it to $50,000, divided into twenty-five dollar shares. There were to be three directors elected annually. The first directors, chosen in May, 1849, were B. Comstock, William Neil, and Alanson Bull. The road was made in 1849 and 1850. As it was authorized to be built upon any public road or highway, the company used the road-bed of the Columbus and Sandusky turnpike, which had been de- clared a public highway.
The Columbus and Sunbury Turnpike and Plank-road Com- pany was incorporated March 20, 1850, to construct a turnpike or plank-road from Columbus to Sunbury, in Delaware county. The limit of the capital stock was $75,000, divided into shares of twenty-five dollars each. This road was made to commence about three miles northeast of Columbus, where, verging off from the Johnstown road, it was extended to Central College, in the eastern part of Franklin county. It was built in 1852, and cost from six to seven thousand dollars.
The Columbus and Granville Plank-road or Turnpike Com- pany received its charter from the legislature February 8, 1852, for the purpose of making a road of gravel, stone, or plank, at option of the company, from Columbus to Granville, with the privilege of extending it to Newark. The capital stock, which was divided into fifty-dollar shares, might be extended to one
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STUDER'S COLUMBUS, OHIO.
hundred thousand dollars. In 1852 the road was built, and one good plank track laid for about seven miles, to Big Walnut creek, and a gate erected.
The Columbus and Groveport Turnpike Company, under a charter from the legislature, dated March 19, 1849, completed, in the fall of 1850, a turnpike road from Columbus to Groveport. The capital stock was $25,000, divided into one thousand shares ; the actual amount subscribed was $12,300-less than the cost of the road. The balance was soon made up from its earnings.
The Columbus and Lockwin Plank-road Company, incor- porated in 1853, to construct a plank-road from Columbus, through the northeastern portion of Franklin county, to Lock- win, in Delaware county, built the same year the first five miles of the road, and the next year two miles more. The cost of the seven miles was $16,500-a little less than $2,400 per mile. The planks used were eight feet long and three inches thick, laid on two strong pieces, four inches square. The original capital stock was $14,000; but the excess over this amount in the cost of construction was met by the net revenue derived from the collection of tolls on the road.
BALLOON ASCENSIONS.
The first balloon ascension from Columbus took place on the 4th of July, 1842. It was made by Mr. Clayton, a celebrated æronaut of Cincinnati, from the state-house yard, where a large concourse of people had assembled to witness the novel sight. The balloon, it was estimated, rose to the height of two miles. It bore southwardly at first, then eastwardly, and came safely down to the earth, about five miles cast of Newark.
Nine years afterward, or on the 4th of July, 1851, the second balloon ascension was made from the capital city, by the noted John Wise. Pursuant to an engagement with John M. Kinney, Mr. Wise ascended from an inclosure at the corner of Broad and Seventh streets. The ascension was a fine one, and the æro- naut landed, safe and sound, about six miles from his starting point.
These balloon ascensions are mentioned to show that Colum- bus, in this, her fourth decade, was beginning to be regarded by those who provided costly entertainments for the people, as a place with metropolitan curiosity and tastes.
4.5
HISTORY, 1842 TO 1852.
RICHES, COLUMBUS.D.
CITY MARKET-HOUSE, Located Southwest corner of Town and Fourth Streets.
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STUDER'S COLUMBUS, OHIO.
TWO EXECUTIONS IN ONE DAY.
On the same day, February 9, 1844, two persons-William Clark, a white man, and Esther, a colored woman-were executed in Columbus for murder in the first degree. At the time they committed the murders, both were convicts in the penitentiary. Clark was convicted of killing Cyrus Sells, one of the prison- guards, at a single blow, with a cooper's ax ; and Esther, of beating a white female prisoner to death with a fire-shovel. Both were tried and convicted at the same term of the Court of Common Pleas. The defense set up in Clark's case was insanity ; in the case of the woman, that the killing was not premeditated, and was consequently not murder in the first degree. The execution took place on the low ground at the southwest corner of Mound and Scioto streets. It was witnessed by an immense crowd of people. Sullivan Sweet, a citizen of Columbus, was pushed down in the crowd and trampled on by a horse. He was so injured that he died in a few hours.
THE JERRY FUGITIVE-SLAVE CASE.
Few events in the history of Columbus have excited a deeper or more general interest than the arrest, under the fugitive- slave law, of Jerry Finney, a colored man, who had resided in the city fourteen or fifteen years. On the night of the 27th of March, 1846, Jerry was, by some means, cajoled or decoyed to the office of William Henderson, a justice of the peace, in Franklinton. There Jerry was arrested as a fugitive slave, and summarily delivered over by the justice to the persons claiming him, one of whom, Alexander C. Forbes, held a power of attor- ney from Mrs. Bethsheba de Long, of Frankfort, Kentucky, to whom it was claimed that Jerry owed service or labor. Hand- cuffs were put upon the alleged fugitive slave ; he was placed in a carriage that was ready at the door, and taken to Cincinnati, thence to Kentucky, and returned to the woman who claimed that she was his rightful owner.
As Jerry was generally known in the city, having been cook or waiter at nearly all the hotels and houses of entertainment, his sudden disappearance, and especially the cause and manner of it, produced intense excitement and bitter comment. Persons
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HISTORY, 1842 TO 1852.
suspected of being concerned in his "taking off" were arrested and held to bail on the charge of kidnapping. They were William Henderson, Jacob Armitage, Henry Henderson, Daniel A. Porter, and Daniel Zinn. At the ensuing July term of the Court of Common Pleas for this county, a bill of indictment was returned against these persons and Alexander C. Forbes, for the unlawful seizure and carrying away of Jerry.
All the defendants, except Forbes, who had not been arrested, were put upon trial at the September term of the court. The prosecuting attorney, A. F. Perry, and Wm. Dennison, Jr., conducted the prosecution ; and N. H. Swayne and F. J. Mat- thews managed the defense. The trial occupied several days, and excited much interest in the city and abroad. During its progress, one of the jurors, Dr. George Rickey, was discharged on account of serious illness. It was agreed, on the part of the State and of all the defendants, to proceed with the remaining eleven jurors. The result was that the jury returned a verdict of " guilty " as to William Henderson, and of " not guilty " as to the other defendants. ' The latter were discharged, and Henderson was remanded to jail.
Numerous exceptions had been taken on the trial by the de- fendants' counsel to the rulings of the court. The case was taken to the State Supreme Court on writ of error. The prin- cipal error relied on was that it was not competent to a defendant on trial in a criminal case to waive his objection to the absence of a juror, and that it was error in the court below to try the case with only eleven jurors. The point was sustained by the Supreme Court, and Henderson was set at liberty.
By authority of our State legislature, William Johnson, a noted lawyer, instituted legal proceedings in Kentucky, in order to test certain questions of law, which would, it was claimed, result in the liberation of Jerry. Mr. Johnson argued his case before the Kentucky court with signal ability ; but the decision was against him, and Jerry remained in bondage. Not long afterward, a sufficient amount of money was raised in Columbus to purchase Jerry's freedom and restore him to his family. But consumption was already sapping the citadel of life, and he died soon after his return home.
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STUDERS' COLUMBUS, OIIIO.
RETURN OF THE CHOLERA.
The Asiatic cholera reappeared in Columbus on the 21st of June, 1849. Its first victims were four persons in the family of George B. Smith, residing in the Jewett block, near the place where the same fatal disease began its ravages in 1833. The alarm spread, and the fearful epidemic spread with almost equal rapidity. Many residents left the city. Isaac Dalton, N. W. Smith, George B. Harvey, W. W. Pollard, and James Cherry were appointed a board of health, who made daily reports and were active in the discharge of their duties. It was about the middle of September when the disease abated, and the board re- ported one hundred and sixty-two deaths in the city by cholera. The report did not include one hundred and sixteen deaths in the penitentiary, of which we shall take notice when we come to give an account of the institution.
We find mention made of the following well-known citizens who fell victims to the cholera in the summer of 1849: Dr. B. F. Gerard, Dr. Horace Lathrop, General Edgar Gale, Samuel Pres- ton, Abraham Mettles, William Cook and son, Robert Thomp- son and wife, Dr. Isaac F. Taylor, Christian Karst, Joseph Mur- ray, Bernard Berk, Christian Hertz, and John Whisker.
The cholera demon, not satiated with its victims in 1849, re- turned the following year. The first victim in 1850 was Mrs. Robert Russell, who died July 8th at the United States Hotel, on the northwest corner of High and Town streets. Forthwith the disease spread and raged with the same virulence and fatal- ity as in the preceding year till about the middle of September. The population of the city was then 17,882, and about one-fourth fled from the face of the destroyer.
A board of health was constituted, consisting of George B. Harvey, Isaac Dalton, and W. W. Pollard, who made daily re- ports from July 24 to September 4. During that time three hundred and two deaths were reported-two hundred and nine from cholera and ninety-three from other diseases. As the dis- ease had prevailed more than two weeks before any reports were made, the deaths from cholera were supposed to be about two
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IHISTORY, 1842 TO 1852.
hundred and twenty-five; and from other discases, about one hundred.
The following persons are named among those who died during the prevalence of the epidemic in the summer of 1850 : Elijah Converse, David S. Doherty, Emanuel Doherty, William Doherty, John Willard and son, William G. Alexander and his wife and two or three children; a son and three daughters of James B. Griffith, John Barcus, Joseph Ridgway, Jr., Robert Owen, Timothy Griffith, Dr. James B. McGill, Henry Wass, Isaac Taylor, Hinman Hurd, Mrs. Matthew Gooding, Mrs. E. B. Arm- strong, and Miss Fanny Huston.
There was no appearance of cholera in the city in 1851, In 1852 it reappeared, but with less virulence than in 1849 and 1850. The first victim in 1852 was Phillip Link, who died June 16, in the southeastern part of the city. Others are enumerated among the victims this year to the fatal epidemic, as William English and wife, Nelson Compton, Miss Henrietta E. Gale, John McGuire, and Newton Mattoon.
The year 1853 passed over without a visitation from the cholera, There were a few cases reported in 1854, including among those that proved fatal, John Leaf and his wife and son, two children of Mr. Westwater, Jonathan Reason, and Jonathan Phillips and daughter. Since 1854 the cholera has not visited our city.
LEGISLATION BLOCKED.
Two events occurring in two successive years, seem, though relating chiefly to the State legislature, so inwoven with the his- tory of Columbus, where they created general and intense inter- est, as to deserve a passing notice. It should be borne in mind that these scenes were enacted in the old state-house and under our first State constitution.
The general assembly, as required by the constitution, met on the first Monday of December, 1848. The Senate organized by electing a speaker. But the House of Representatives could not organize. The difficulty was this :
The apportionment law, passed at the preceding session, as- signed to Hamilton county five representatives-the first eight
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STUDER'S COLUMBUS, OHIO.
wards of Cincinnati, composing the first election district, entitled to two representatives ; and the residue of the county, composing the second district, entitled to three representatives.
At the annual election in October, 1848, George E. Pugh and Alexander Pierce, with three others, all Democrats, had the highest number of votes given in the whole county ; while Oliver M. Spencer and George W. Runyan, Whigs, had the highest number of votes given in the first district. The two justices, who assisted the clerk of the county in making out the abstract of the votes, declared Spencer and Runyan, duly elected repre- sentatives from the first district of Hamilton county ; and the clerk, on the other hand, gave to Pugh and Pierce, as well as to the three other Democrats, whose election was not disputed, cer- tificates of election as representatives from Hamilton county. The whole controversy turned principally upon the question, whether, under the constitution, the legislature had authority to divide a county into two or more districts for the election of members of the general assembly.
At an early hour on Monday morning, December 4, the Demo- cratic members of the House took possession of the speaker's chair, the clerk's desk, and the right side of the hall, Benjamin F. Leiter, of Stark county, acting as their chairman. The Whig members entered soon afterward and took possession of the left side of the hall, Anselm T. Holcomb, of Gallia county, being appointed their chairman. The Democrats swore in forty-two members, including Pugh and Pierce of Hamilton county ; and the Whigs swore in thirty-two members, including Spencer and Runyan of Cincinnati, making in all seventy-four members-two more than the constitution allowed. By that instrument a quorum consisted of two-thirds, or forty-eight members ; so either side could do nothing but sit and call over the counties for members elect to present their credentials and be sworn in. Of the eight Free-soil members, some had been sworn in by the Democratic, and others by the Whig side of the house. In order to keep possession of the speaker's chair, which was deemed a matter of primary importance, the Democrats sat day and night without adjourning or taking a recess. Various propositions for a com- promise were made and rejected. Both sides continued to call
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HISTORY, 1842 TO 1852.
over the counties for members elect from day to day. At length, after about three weeks spent in this way, a proposition, sub- mitted by the Free-soil members, was agreed to on the 22d of December, to the effect that the seventy members, whose election was not disputed, should form an organization with Mr. Leiter as chairman-and proceed to determine the right to the two dis- puted seats.
After a long discussion, a vote was reached on the 1st of Janu- ary, 1849, when the claims of Messrs. Pugh and Pierce to seats in the organization of the House were rejected by a tie vote of 35 to 35. The like claims of Messrs. Spencer and Runyan were then set aside by a vote of 32 to 38. So all the four claimants of the two disputed Hamilton county seats were told to stand aside till after the organization. The House was organized, with seventy members, on January 3d, by the choice of John G. Breslin, Demo- crat, for speaker, after a month spent in enacting a legislative farce. It is proper to add that, on January 26th, a resolution was adopted, by a vote of 32 to 31, declaring Messrs. Pugh and Pierce constitutionally elected members of the House from Hamilton county.
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