History of Delaware County and Ohio, Part 59

Author: O. L. Baskin & Co; Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago, O.L. Baskin & Co.
Number of Pages: 818

USA > Ohio > Delaware County > History of Delaware County and Ohio > Part 59

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Another institution of the early times, and one which appears to have been intended as a mo- nopoly, was the public scales. Permission was granted by the Council, in an ordinance dated May 5, 1835, to erect a hay scale on North street, "between the southwest corner and the front gate of the court-house fence." This permission was extended to the citizens in general, but the enter- prise took shape, finally, in the hands of a par- ticular citizen, Gen. Moore, and was located east of the. " front gate." The ordinance made it an offense to buy or sell hay in the village, without first obtaining a certificate of weight from the Weighmaster, which was subject to a fine of 50 cents for each offense. The charges were fixed at 123 cents for drafts under 1,000 pounds, not

including the wagon; 184 cents for drafts of from 1,000 to 1,500, and over 1,500 pounds, 25 cents. This law became a dead letter on the book of ordinances, but was revived in 1857, when ordi- nances were passed requiring a license from the owners of scales, providing for the weighing of hay and coal and the measuring of wood. These ordinances have, long since, lost their vitality, and the people buy these articles at a guess, or take the dealer's assumption for the weight, save when some careful citizen revives this relic of a past decade, and insists on having them weighed.

The date of the first regularly built sidewalks and of the first improvements on the streets, by the corporation, are unsolved conundrums, even to the oldest inhabitant. Nor are the records any clearer on the subject. The first page of the earliest record now preserved notes the appoint- ment of a committee to inquire into the pavement of North Sandusky street, and that dates August 9, 1834. Previous to 1829, the restricted powers of the Council precluded any such public improve. ments, and it is probable that the matter of side- walks ran through all the stages incident to their growth in villages. The earliest ordinance at hand on the subject requires the walks to be graded, and covered with four inches of gravel or paved with brick, but it is not probable that such walks were required, save on the business portion of Sandusky street, before 1834. In this year the walks on Sandusky street, north of North street, and the east end of Williams and Winter streets, were improved. These improvements accommo- .dated the more thickly settled portions of the village, and sufficed, with general repairs, until 1845, when the west ends of these streets were taken in hand. The . plan of improvement, in the case of all sidewalks built at that time, is substantially set forth in the ordinance in relation to Winter street, the substance of which we give. From Sandusky to Washington street, the walk on the south side of the street was to be twelve feet wide, and the remainder of the walk on both sides of the street was to be ten feet. From Sandusky to Washington street, on the south side, the walk was to be curbed with good stone and paved with brick, and on the north side, curbed with stone and paved with brick or " good, smooth and well- laid flagstone." From Washington to Liberty street, the walk was to be graded, curbed with stone or plank, and paved with brick, flagstone, or graveled only. Where the grounds were unim- proved, and the owner intended to build on the

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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.

premises within eighteen months, it was required simply to grade it, curb it with plank and gravel it, the gravel in all cases to be four inches thick. From that to the present state of the sidewalks is but a short step. The early difficulty of quarry- ing limestone rock made brick preferable as a material for paving, and in the extent of such walks Delaware may fairly be said to be without a rival among her equals in the State. Strect improvement was a very much more difficult undertaking. The village, planted on Williams street, in a sort of basin, as it grew, spread out upon the hills that surrounded it on all sides, and presented a task in street engineering that might well cause the corporation, with its limited resources, to hesitate to make the attempt. It was not until about 1842 that any comprehensive plan of grading was adopted, and this was repeat- edly modified, as the disposition of the people and the natural obstacles demanded. The generation of to-day can hardly comprehend the topography of the city at that time. That portion of the city lying along the banks of the river, which was very low, has been raised at places to the extent of several feet, and the hill about the court house, with Sandusky street, north of Winter, has been cut down from five to twenty feet. Other changes quite as radical have been made elsewhere in the city, and the corporation is to be congratulated on the fact that this has been accomplished at compara- tively trifling cost in the way of private claims for damage. The subject of sewerage was early taken up, but was opposed as tending to create the very evil it was intended to prevent. In 1844, large drains were constructed to carry off the sur- face water on Franklin street to the run, and that stream has been straightened and made to do more effective service by artificial means. A sewer, from the American House along Winter street to the river, was constructed in 1845, and is the only regular sewer in the city.

In the latter part of 1852, a petition of the citizens for a general macadamizing of the princi- pal streets, brought in response an ordinance pro- viding for such improvement to be completed before the close of the following year. This plan included Sandusky street, from the north line of the corporation to the south line thereof; Williams street, from its intersection with Liberty street to its intersection with the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati & Indianapolis Railroad, and Winter street, from its west end to its intersection with the same railroad. The ordinance in the matter

provided that the curb of the sidewalks on each side of the street should be, on Sandusky street, thirteen feet from the line of lots on the street, and twelve fcet on the other streets. The gutters were to be paved with good sizable round stone on each side, six feet from the curbing toward the center of the street, the rest of the street to be macadamized. It was also provided that the side- walks for six feet from the curbing toward the lots should be paved with good durable brick, the rest of the sidewalk being left to be finished with pave- ment or grass-plat, as the wishes of the lot owners might suggest. In July, 1853, that part of Lib- erty street lying between a point eight rods north of North street and Winter street was included in the number of streets covered by the above plan of improvement, and later in the year other streets were taken in hand, involving improvements, how- ever, of a less permanent and expensive character. This comprehensive undertaking proved a consid- erable burden even to willing citizens, and the Council afterward modified the original specifica- tions so far as to allow the construction of wooden sidewalks and crossings in some places, and the graveling instead of macadamizing some parts of the streets. The contract for the principal part of the work was let to the firms of Brown & McCoy (R. O. Brown and Janus McCoy), and Finch & Gallagher (Joshua Finch and Patrick Gallagher). The aggregate cost of these improvements it is difficult to ascertain, but the lot assessments varied from 25 cents to $1.25 per foot of lot frontage.

There is no doubt but that the Olentangy River played a conspicuous part in fixing the original loca- tion of the village of Delaware, and it served its pur- pose well. In the early times, water-power, even of inferior advantages, was an important element in manufacturing enterprises; and, while the advance of mechanical arts has long since wrought great changes in this regard, the early success of the place may be said to have been due to the advan- tages the river then afforded. The fall of the river was too slight ever to have rendered it con- spicuously advantageous as a power to move heavy machinery, yet in the early day, fed in the dry season from the accumulations of the swamps, it presented a respectable stream during a larger part of the year. But it had its unfavorable features as well. It needed only the slightest pretext of a heavy rain or a rapid melting of the snow to over- run its banks and drown the low portion of the village lying along its banks ; or, bearing on its sur- face large forest trees- which the early settlers

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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.

were wont to fall into the stream to be carried out of the way-come booming down stream, carrying away the bridges and cutting off the villagers from the eastern part of the county for weeks at a time. Until recently, this matter of bridges has been. a source of considerable agitation to the citizens of Delaware. For twenty years the only bridge that spanned the river within the limits of the town was the one originally erected by Col. Byxbe. It was a rude structure, made of such materials as could be secured at that time, log pens doing serv- ice as abutments, and was located on Williams street. This bridge served the public well, but it gradually decayed, and, about 1823, became unsafe for teams. It was still practicable for pedestrians and was used considerably in that way until 1828. The original location , of the bridge was dictated simply by the interests of the builder, and, as the settlement was principally along Williams street, it served the community just as well. But in later years the settlement, spreading northward, would have been better accommodated by a bridge at North street, or, as a compromise, at Winter street. The natural outgrowth of this fact was a move- ment to place a bridge at one of these points. The people in the lower part of town saw at once that the success of this scheme would prevent the rebuilding of their structure, and set up a vigor- ous opposition. The result of this contest was to prevent the erection of any bridge for some years. At length M. D. Pettibone, a public-spirited, enterprising man, and Ezra Griswold, a man of considerable wealth and influence, who discharged the double duties of hotel-keeper and editor, on the southwest corner of North and Sandusky streets, headed the faction for a North street bridge. The Commissioners, besieged on every

hand, wavered between the more expensive site on the established highway of Williams street, and the cheaper site, but with no established road on the east side of the river, at North street. One night during the controversy, the planks of the old bridge were thrown into the stream and the bents

racked over or burned, it was supposed, by factory

hands, who were favorable to the upper. bridge. . The Commissioners were finally won over to the North street site. The friends of the Williams street bridge rallied, and secured subscriptions of work and timber to build the bridge. Money

be used in the construction. At this juncture, Jacob Drake contributed $100 in cash, and the for the want of means to buy the necessary iron to was very scarce, and the project was likely to fail

work was pushed forward, the bridge completed and given to the Commissioners that fall. There had been some pledges of money made to the Commissioners in relation to the building of the North street bridge, and some preparations under- taken to put it up, but, when the other bridge was constructed, the Board refused to go further in the matter, and the upper part of town lost its thor- oughfare over the river. In the winter of 1831-32, high water, with trees and ice, swept out the mid- dle bent of the bridge, and for a time in the spring the river had to be crossed by swimming. This was at once repaired by the Commissioners, at a cost of $390. Two years later, the Board granted permission to E. Griswold, B. F. Allen, M. D. Pettibone, Charles Sweetser and others to con- struct a durable wooden bridge at North street, and the privilege of using the Commissioners' names to collect the subscriptions that had been made a few years before. This enterprise was carried on to completion by private subscription, and probably benefited the property of those engaged in it enough to repay their expenditure.

In 1836, there was another remarkable freshet. The ice broke up and formed a gorge just above town, causing the water to flood the lower part of the village, coming up to the west line of Henry street, and covering large areas of flats with ice to the depth of some three feet. This flood car- ried away the North street bridge almost bodily, and, lodging it against the lower bridge, carried away the west bench. In 1840, the upper bridge was restored at an expense of $449, Silas and Spenser Dunham taking the contract. Six years later, there was a remarkably open winter, with copious rains that filled the river to overflowing, inundating the lower part of town up to the line of Union street in places. One family was isolated by the flood, and had to be removed from their floating tenement by boats. This freshet took away both bridges and raised havoc with similar structures all over the county. The water con- tinued deep, with a rapid current, and teams were obliged to go to Stratford to cross the river, the bridge at that point having escaped the general destruction. Some attempts were made to swim the river in the village, but it was always attended with great danger. It is related that a traveler, on horseback, desiring to cross, secured passage for himself in a canoe and hired a man to ride his

horse across. The canoe made the passage of the stream without special trouble, but the horse, tak- ing the river just above North street, was carried

HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.

347

down below Williams street before he reached the west bank. To accommodate travel through Delaware, J. C. Alexander built a ferry-boat, going to Cincinnati to get his irons and appurtenances made. It was propelled by the current acting upon the boat, held in a proper angle by lines stretched across from bank to bank, and did a thriving business during that spring; but, with the subsiding of the water, the occasion for its use passed ; it was sold, and travel managed to ford the stream. In 1848, the Williams street bridge was put up again, Cyrus Platt taking the contract, a Mr. Carpen- ter doing the work, however. This bridge was an open one and stood but a year or two, when it went down. In 1854, the present structure was put up by a Mr. Sherman, for the Commission- ers, at an expense of several thousand dollars. It was accepted by the Board, but, soon afterward, a drove of cattle, that had been driven across from the west and corraled just east of the bridge, broke loose during the night and made their way back across the bridge at a lively trot. This proved too much for the bridge, and, in the morn- ing, it was found sagged to an alarming extent. It was propped up and additional braces supplied, making a structure which has stood until the present. When this bridge was about to be put up, the village, desiring very much to have a bridge on North street, through the Council of- fered to pay one-half of the expense of building an iron bridge there, but the Commissioners re- fused to take so great a load on their hands. In 1853, I. and E. B. Gray built the wire suspension foot-bridge on Winter street, for which the Coun- cil paid $909. This was secured mainly through the enterprise of Judge Hosea Williams. In 1868, eight citizens petitioned the Council for permission to erect a free, open wooden bridge across the river at this street, which was granted, but the project never went further, probably from the large outlay which it would require, without the promise of any adequate return. In 1867, the North street project was again revived by the presentation of a monster petition signed by four hundred names. Mr. John Wolfley began, in 1860, to circulate a petition for a bridge there, but the beginning of the war discouraged the at- tempt, and he waited until affairs became more settled, and the petition of 1867 was the result of his persistent effort. The Commissioners re- sponded by appropriating $5,000, if a sufficient sum could be procured elsewhere, to erect an iron bridge of the King pattern. This was readily

accomplished, and, in that year, a bridge of that pattern, with three spans, each seventy-five feet long, a roadway eighteen feet wide, and sidewalks on each side, four feet wide, guarded with an iron rail- ing, was put up at a cost of $31.50 per linear foot.

Another public improvement which marked the growth of enterprise in the community, was the introduction of gaslight into the town. Several attempts were made by different parties to estab- lish works for the manufacture of gas, but they never got beyond the preliminary steps. As early as 1856, Harvey P. Platt made a proposal to the Council, and they granted him the use of the city, restricting the price of gas to the corporation to $3 per 1,000 cubic feet, and the price to citizens to $4. In the latter part of the succeeding year, Platt having failed to fulfill his part of the con- tract, Israel I. Richardson and J. C. Evans were granted like privileges for the same purpose, the price of gas being made to city and citizens alike,. at $4. These gentlemen were given to 1860 to complete their project, but they failed, and the rights granted were revoked. During 1859, how- ever, the present company was organized by Will- iam Stephenson, Joseph Atkinson, Jacob Riblet and others. These gentlemen were from Mans. field, Galion and elsewhere, and were granted the usual privileges on April 21, 1860, the price of gas being fixed at $2 per 1,000 cubic feet to the city, and $3 to private consumers. This company organized under the name of the Delaware Gaslight and Coal Oil Company, with Jacob Riblet, Presi- dent; A. S. Caton, Secretary ; J. Atkinson, Su- perintendent, and Charles Wottring, Treasurer, and at once set about erecting their works where they now stand, on Estella street. The first pipes put down were of wood, but in 1870 these were replaced by iron pipes, and the whole establish- ment enlarged. A new purifying house was built, a gasometer with a capacity of 18,000 feet replaced the old one, and a new bench of five retorts added, making an effective force of eleven retorts. The Company have about seven miles of pipe laid, reaching from the north line of the corporation south to the cemetery, and 400 meters in use. The street lighting has grown from twenty-three lamps in 1866, to 160 at the present time. The Company propose during the current year to en- large their works, adding new castings throughout and putting in larger mains. The paid-up capital is about $65,000.

In thus rapidly sketching the growth of public improvements, we have passed over an element of

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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.

progress which was a marked feature in the revival of the town's enterprise in 1830. The great hin- drance to the activity of the communities in the early day, especially in frontier towns, was the lack of ready communication with the rest of the world. Information of all sorts was meager and generally inaccurate, and a place ten miles away was more of a stranger to the pioneers for the first fifteen or twenty years, than Europe is to us of to-day. The papers almost universally were too much taken up with State affairs to mention local matters, and there was nothing to incite the community to a generous rivalry, or to awaken an enterprising en- thusiasm. In the case of Delaware, the establish- ment of the Ohio Stage. Company's line through the village, about 1826, brought the relief so sorely needed. Their route was from Cincinnati to San- dusky, and by Suubury to Mount Vernon and Cleveland. The vehicles were the regular Troy coaches, hung on thoroughbraces, drawn by four horses, and would accomodate from nine to twelve persons inside. Their route through Delaware was along the road which followed the west bank of the river, passing through Liberty Township, where they changed horses at the old tavern of David Thomas. About 1830, Otho Hinton, a resident of Delaware, became connected with the Company, first as agent, and finally as sole pro- prietor, not only of this line, but of large stage interests throughout the West, and for years was reputed to be the wealthiest man in this part of the State. Mr. Hinton came to Delaware with his father from Virginia about 1810, and is remem- bered as a boy in 1812, peddling walnuts to the troops that were encamped here for a short time. He learned the carpenter's trade, and made an en- terprising and skillful mechanic. He joined the militia, and was a member of a company of dra- goons, from which he rose by popular elections to the position of Brigadier General in the " Peace Establishment." He was a man of ready tongue, slight education and great assurance, and his public speeches, though often ridiculed by his opponents on account of thegrammatical inaccuracies they dis- played, were generally effective and well received. His lack of " book-learning " did not seem to inter- fere with his stage business, and, until the winter of 1846, he seemed to enjoy an uninterrupted course of success. In the fall of 1845, he laid the founda- tions of the large hotel which stands on the corner of Winter and Sandusky streets, then known as the " Hinton House," and of which in his " Histori- cal Collections of Ohio " in 1848, Mr. Howe says

it was "one of the largest and best-constructed hotels in Ohio." The building remains unchanged to-day, but is known as the American House. The winter of 1846 proved a disastrous one to stage interests, and bankrupted Mr. Hinton. The roads were flooded, bridges carried off, and the highways became impassable, causing ruinous delays and large and unprofitable expenditures. Added to this, was the matter of fines which the Government imposed upon him for the non-fulfill- ment of his mail contracts, proving in the aggre- gate a financial burden which crushed him. The stage line passed into the hands of Neil, Moore & Co., of Columbus, who originally owned it, and Mr. Hinton left the scene of his greatness, not to return.

There is no feature in the city's history which possesses so much of interest, or which measures the progress of its social development so accurately as the press. The newspaper in Delaware began its history with the beginning of the village as a separate organization, and has grown and improved with the city until its legitimate successor stands among the weeklies of the State, with few equals in point of influence and circulation. The first paper published in the village was the Delaware Gazette, established, in 1818, by Rev. Joseph Hughs and Rev. Jacob Drake, early ministers in the Presbyterian and Baptist churches. But little accurate knowledge is possessed in regard to this paper. It was printed on coarse, yellowish paper that was common at that day, and about eighteen by twenty-four inches in size. It continued, with decreasing patronage, until about 1825, when it died a natural death. Two years later, however, it was revived under the name of the People's Advocate, but it was short-lived and soon ceased, not to revive again. In the meanwhile, Ezra Griswold had established a paper in Worthington, Franklin County, and removed it to Columbus, which became the origin of the Ohio State Journal. After con- tinuing it two years, he sold the establishment, and, in connection with Judge Smith, established the Monitor. He sold his share in this soon after- ward to his partner, and worked at the case in this office for some time, when he returned to Worth- ington, and started the Columbian Advocate and Franklin Chronicle, the first issue of which ap- peared January 7, 1820. This paper was published at Worthington until after the issue of September 24, 1821, when it was removed to Delaware, and appeared, in its next issue, October 10, as the Delaware Patron and Franklin Chronicle. "The

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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.

reasons," says the editor, " which have induced us to remove, are many ; but the most important one is the fact that our business in this place has been so small that we do not realize money enough from it to purchase the paper on which we print, and have been compelled to draw from other sources a considerable portion of the expenses of the estab- lishment. We expect, by blending it with other business, to proceed with less embarrassment in Delaware." The establishment came, as has been noted, and was established in the old hotel that stood where the Bank of Deposit now is, where Mr. Griswold edited his paper and kept hotel. He moved across the street in 1822, and, in April of 1824, the office was removed into " the large brick house, belonging to Messrs Drake & Smith, near the court house." This building stood on the southwest corner of North and Sandusky streets, where it was erected for a hotel, and was used for that purpose for years by Mr. Griswold. The paper at first was a four-column paper, eighteen by twenty-four inches. Soon after coming to Dela- ware, it was enlarged by the addition of another column, and, in later years, grew to the size of a six-column paper. A very noticeable feature in the literary part of the paper was the prominence given to State affairs and the almost total lack of local news. The summary of legislative proceed- ings, and the liberal review of Congressional pro- ceedings usurped the first and second pages, while the fourth page was devoted to selected miscellany. The third page was usually occupied by long com- munications upon subjects that would prove any- thing but interesting to the modern subscriber, save a half-column or so, where the editor made some apologetic allusion to some local matters. So im- portant a local event as the dinner given to Judge Baldwin, and his gift of the spring property and the parade ground to the corporation, is passed over with a three-line statement of the fact, and the expression of the belief that the Judge had "presented the spring to the corporation," while the toasts at a Fourth of July gathering in San- dusky or at Worthington, are printed in full, tak- ing up about a column of the paper. This singu- lar style of editing was probably satisfactory to the patrons of the paper, and arose from the fact that no other paper, or means of general information, was accessible to the people. The local news they knew, or got from their neighbors, while the foreign news was furnished only by their home paper, and it will sound queer in these days of telegraphs and ocean cables to read in an issue of the Patron of

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History of Delaware County and Ohio, Part 59

Author: O. L. Baskin & Co; Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892? Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Chicago, O.L. Baskin & Co. Number of Pages: 818

Author: O. L. Baskin & Co; Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago, O.L. Baskin & Co.
Number of Pages: 818