USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > History of the city of Columbus, Ohio, from the founding of Franklinton in 1797, through the World War period to the year 1920 > Part 24
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Bela Latham succeeded Joel Buttles as postmaster in 1829 and continued in the office till 1841 when he was succeeded by John G. Miller. The eredit system at the postoffice ob- tained during Mr. Latham's service and we find him in 1840 giving notice that "letters will be delivered to no one who has not a book account, without the postage being paid at the time of their receipt." Frequent losses, he adds, compel him to pursue this course, but "book account may be opened by making a deposit, the account to be balanced each month."
Mr. Miller served as postmaster till 1815, when he was succeeded by Jacob Medary, who announced that, in accordance with an act of Congress, from and after Jannary 1, 1847, all sums due for postage must be paid in gold, silver or Treasury notes. Stamps were authorized by Congress March 3, 1847, and Postmaster Medary received instructions that stamps should be sold only for cash, and so announced to the community. It cost five cents for a letter of half an ounce a distance of 300 miles, and 10 cents for a greater distance, an additional rate for every additional half ounee or fraction. Newspapers were carried free for a distance of 30 miles; private competition was suppressed by prohibiting transmission of mail by express unless the postage was first paid. In 1851 postage for a letter of half
Postoffice and Federal Court Building.
an ounee was made three cents for a distance of 3,000 miles; for more than 3,000 miles, six cents. It was not until 1855 that prepayment of postage was required.
Jacob Medary was postmaster from 1845 to 1847; Samuel Medary, 1847-49; Aaron F. Perry, 1819-53; Thomas Sparrow, 1853-57; Thomas Miller, 1857-38; Samnel Medary, nine months in 1858; Thomas Miller, 1858-60; John Dawson and Joseph Dowdall for short periods in 1860; John Graham, 1861-65; Julius J. Wood, 1865-70; James M. Comly, 1870-77; Andrew D. Rodgers, 1877-81; L. D. Myers, 1881-1886; DeWitt C. Jones, 1886- 1890; Andrew Gardner, 1890-1891; F. M. Senter, 1891-98; R. M. Rownd, 1898-1906; H. W. Krumm, 1906-14; Samuel A. Kinnear, 1914 -.
The first site of the postoffice, so far as records go, was on East State street, at the southwest corner of Pearl. In the latter part of 1861 the postoffice was moved to the rear part of the Odeon building, High street, opposite the State House. There it remained till November 7, 1871, when it was moved to the northwest corner of the ground floor of the City Hall, the room being furnished at a cost of $4,000, subscribed by citizens. The Coun- eil fixed an annual rental of $500. In the spring of 1879 a mail room was fitted up in the Union Station and used for assortment and transfer.
As early as 1858 there was a movement in Columbus for the erection by the Federal Government of a building to house the postoffice, judicial and other business of the govern- ment. A petition for such a building, signed by 800 citizens, was presented in Congress by
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HISTORY OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
S. S. Cox, then representing the capital district. He pointed out that during the 36 years from 1820 to 1856, a United States Court was maintained in Columbus and that publie- spirited citizens had provided a building rent-free. He thought it was time the Federal Gov- ernment did something in return, but Congress did not agree with him. He made another unsuccessful effort for a federal building in 1860; and it was not till 1880 that Congressman George L. Converse secured the passage of an act for the construction here at a cost of not more than $250,000 of a building to house the federal courts, the postoffice, the internal revenue and pension offices, etc. The site at the southeast corner of State and Third streets was purchased for $16,000 and the cornerstone was laid October 21, 1884. During the period of construction the postoffice occupied temporary quarters on Third street opposite the Capitol, and was moved into the new building October 1, 1887. By 1907 the business had so outgrown the building that Congress enlarged the building, erecting a structure that covers the entire Third street frontage of the site. At the southwest corner of Chestnut and Third streets, David C. Beggs erected a one-story building which the government rented during the four years and more of construction. The remodeled building was occupied by the postoffice, courts and other federal departments in February, 1912. It seemed all sufficient then, but it is crowded now, the business of the postoffice having grown at an enormous rate in the last 10 years. For the year ending June 30, 1888, the receipts were $140,309.42; for 1898 they were $312,328.59; for 1908, $691,144.23; for 1918, $1,570,907.61.
In the spring of 1918 Postmaster Kinnear put on a motor service for parcel post as far as Hillsboro, and later a similar service as far as Zanesville, with the prospeet that it would be extended and that other routes for motor carriage would soon be established. Up to that time, too, the automobiles for delivery and collection in the eity had been contracted for, but as a measure of economy and in recognition of the growing service, the Postoffice Depart- ment in 1918 decided to install its own automobile service and authorized Postmaster Kinnear to contract for a garage with a capacity for the care and repair of 25 automobiles. A garage was built at the corner of Lazelle and Capital, and the government occupied it in October. About 40 men are employed in this service, making the total of postoffice em- ployes 360. It is interesting to contrast the volume of this service with that of of 100 years before when the postoffice consisted of a desk in a manufacturing establishment.
The United States Barracks.
During the Civil War the Federal Government established in Columbus a cartridge manufactory. It was located on West Gay street, and there was a branch on the West Side. It is said to have turned out 100,000 cartridges a day. By this success, the war department seems to have been favorably impressed with the location of Columbus, and in 1863 a bill was introduced in Congress to establish here a National Armory and Arsenal. Columbus promptly sent a delegation to Washington to promote the enterprise. The delegation con- sisted of William B. Hubbard, Samuel Galloway, William G. Deshler, William Dennison, Walstein Failing, John S. Hall, J. H. Geiger and Peter Ambos, representing the eitizens, and A. B. Buttles, Horace Wilson, Luther Donaldson and C. P. L. Butler, representing the City Council. Finding the bill in a comatose condition, the Columbus delegation secured the introduction of another providing for the location of several arsenals, one of them at Columbus. This bill passed and General C. P. Buckingham was designated to selcet the sites and on October 9, invited proposals of ground for the arsenal at Columbus. The result was the purchase for $112,377 of 78 acres belonging to Robert Neil. The building which was subsequently crected was originally intended solely for the deposit and repair of arms and other munitions of war. Buckingham street in front of the tract was named for the officer who selected the site. Early commandants were Captain J. W. Todd and Colonel George B. Wright. For many years the one building the government had ereeted was known as the arsenal. Then it was made a regimental post and other buildings were construeted, troops being moved here from Newport, Ky. After the war with Spain it was changed from a regimental post into a recruiting station and as such served a useful purpose, largely owing to the exceptional location of the city. A fine hospital, administration building, recruiting station, laundry, gymnasium, company quarters and residences for the officers were erceted and the tract transformed into a veritable park. Such it was when the nation entered the World War and every available foot of the tract was used for housing troops, as elsewhere
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FEDERAL AND OTHER INSTITUTIONS
related. Colonel Franklin O. Johnson commandant from 1915 to 1919, was succeeded August 15, 1919, by Colonel George O. Cress.
U. S. Storage Depot.
In June, 1918, as one of the necessities of war, the Federal Government decided to ereet just east of the city a number of great warehouses for the storing of supplies needed for the army. This was to be one of several depots established in the country for the same general purpose. Work was at onec begun under the direction of Major T. Frank Quilty, of the Quartermaster's department, the contractors being the Hunkin-Conkey Construction Co. of Cleveland, N. E. Blair superintendent. With a view to haste, more than three thousand men were employed in the construction. The barraeks was first ereeted and then the ware- houses, nine in all with a floor space of 50 acres and 10 miles of railroad trackage. The estimated cost was $1,000,000. By the middle of August the work so far progressed that some supplies such as canned pork and beans and rope had begun to arrive for storage, with other foodstuffs, elothing, medical and ordnanee supplies to follow as room was prepared-all destined for shipment overseas as needed by the great army there. On August 17, the 100th day of construction work, there was a flag raising on Building No. 1 with music by the Bar- racks band. All the buildings were completed in December, and the work of receiving, storing and shipping was maintained by a military foree, with the aid of several hundred laborers. The end of the war found the depot still a busy place, for there was need of room to store the supplies that had been bought until they could be disposed of. The enlisted personnel, under Captain F. A. Grimmer, had been discharged by the middle of March, a few being retained for guard and fire protection and several hundred civilians were employed as labor- ers. In July the perishable food in cans was offered for sale.
County Infirmary and Hospital.
Aside from the liberal quota of State institutions which have from time to time been placed in the city, the county has an equal number within the confines of the city, and some of civie outgrowth also in the immediate vicinity.
Only the older citizens know that the first Franklin County Infirmary was originally located northwest of the city, in what was onee called Sellsville on the present King avenue, just west of the Olentangy bridge. The foundations were put in, when it was realized a mistake had been made, that the site was too close to the city, and that there was not enough land obtainable for the infirmary farm. The work was stopped and after almost endless wrangling, the infirmary was located southeast of the eity, and the first site was sold. For a long time the people of the North Side felt they had been trieked by the change, and the loss of an institution which would enhance the value of their own holdings. But that feeling has long since died out, and the location has become one of the city's most promising residence scetions. Prior to building the present infirmary the county kept its paupers in "the poor-house"-an old stone structure of not more than a dozen rooms, on the Pennsylvania railroad, in Grandview; later in an old building, still standing on Mohawk street. The present Infirmary on the Loekboarne road was built in 1883-84, southeast of the city. It is a commodious building, delightfully situated, with 100 acres of farm land which is cultivated in part by the inmates themselves. In 1908 the County Commissioners erected on the grounds adjacent to the Infirmary building two frame structures called shaeks for the care of sufferers from tuberculosis and, subsequently, when the need appeared, built near by a briek hospital for their care. The hospital, which is well equipped, was one of the first county hospitals in the State. Both the hospital and the shaeks are maintained by county funds free to all who are unable to pay for the service.
Court House and Penal Institutions.
The first Court House, as narrated elsewhere, was located in Franklinton on the site of the present Franklinton school building, and there was a jail near by. When the county seat was moved to Columbus in 1824, the Common Pleas Court sat in the building on the State House grounds that had been erected for the United States District Court, the county officers also occupying rooms therein. Later, a building for the county offices was ereeted
.
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HISTORY OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
on the State House grounds directly west of the Court House. In 1840 a building was erected on the site of the present Court House for the use of the county judges and officers, and was used till 1887 when the present structure was erected at a cost of $100,000 and dedicated, as described in the chapter on the events of that period. The County Jail was constructed at the same time.
The City Prison, at the northwest corner of Town and Scioto streets, was built in 1878-79. Prior to that date, the prison had been in a brick structure on the alley between Town and Rich streets, across from the present Central Market House. The Work House was built in 1894 at Sullivant and McDowell streets, and there misdemeanants were worked on contract until 1912 when the new state constitution abolished all contract prison labor. Since then as many of these prisoners as possible have been used in cultivating a farm acreage owned by the city, in the parks and on other municipal work. The treatment of prisoners has taken on the color of helpfulness, as well as punishment and there is a prospect that even more will be done to return these prisoners to usefulness.
The City Hall.
On February 8, 1869, the City Council bought the site for the present City Hall, paying $23,000. Despite the protest of the minority that the amount was exorbitant the
Columbus Public Library (Carnegie Building.)
deal was consummated. On May 24, 1869, the contraet was let to Hall, Fornoff & Co., for the building, at $121,822. R. T. Brooks was the architect. May 27, 1869, ground was broken, with the usual elaborate exercises, a banquet being given in the evening to the mem- bers of the Board of Education and the City Council. The first Council meeting was held in the new building March 25, 1872, and the dedication was three days later. Studer in his history described the building as "one of the most beautiful and imposing public edifices that adorn the capital." It long since lost that reputation and for years there has been a desire for something more commodious, convenient and beautiful.
Public Library.
The present Public Library building on Grant avenue at the head of State street was erected in 1903-06, at a cost for site, buikdling and equipment of $310,000, of which $200,000 was given by Andrew Carnegie, the remainder by the city which agreed, in ae- cepting the Carnegie gift, to appropriate not less than $20,000 annually for its maintenance and growth. The building was turned over by the contractors to the city November 14, 1906, and was formally dedicated April 4, 1907. Governor Andrew Harris, Mayor D. C. Badger, Dr. Washington Gladden and others made addresses. That event was the culmi-
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nation of 35 years of effort to secure such an institution for the city. It was June 15, 1871, that at a meeting of citizens, among whom were John W. Andrews, Joseph Hutcheson, Joseph R. Swan, S. S. Rickly, Charles Breyfogle, James Westwater and Dr. W. E. Ide, petitioned the City Council to establish a public library. Others joined in the movement and a plan for a library under the joint control of the City Council and the School Board was evolved. The formal opening of the library and reading room in the east ground floor room of the City Hall occurred March 4, 1873. The Columbus Athenaeum contributed 1,200 books, the High School library 358 and the Horticultural Society 33; Council and School Board were to make annual appropriations for new books and maintenance. Rev. J. L. Grover was the first librarian. The establishment of alcoves followed-one by John G. and Wm. G. Deshler; a second by Henry C. Noble, a third by John W. Andrews, a fourth by Mrs. Mary N. Bliss, in memory of her father, Wm. B. Hubbard; a fifth by Wm. D. Brickell and later a music alcove by the Women's Music Club, Mrs. Ella May Smith president. These were all endowed or otherwise guaranteed to make yearly additions of books.
In 1891 the School Board, having erected a library and headquarters building on Town street, withdrew its books, established its own library and elected J. H. Spielman librarian. That left the Public Library with 11,122 books, of which 3,582 were in the alcoves. In
Memorial Hall.
the next two years 8,000 volumes were added by gift and purchase. In 1897, Mr. Grover retired as librarian, and John J. Pugh, who had been his assistant, was elected to the vacancy. He at once began a campaign for a larger library and better quarters, the result being the beautiful Carnegie building and its splendid equipment. The number of books now exeecds 125,000.
Meanwhile the Public School Library flourished with the annual appropriations for its support and at the outset duplicated the work of the Publie Library in the same section of the city. It also provided supplementary reading books for the schools and, under the free textbook system, has cared for and issued the books as necessary. Librarian Spielman died in 1896 and was succeeded by Martin Hensel. Since then collections of books have been made up and sent to the school buildings for temporary use, and in the high schools branch libraries have been established. In 1911 the library and headquarters building on Town street was so wrecked by a storm that it was abandoned and torn down, offices and books being removed to the Ohio National Bank building at the corner of Town and High streets. The general circulating department was elosed and the reference, traveling and branch libraries only maintained. Librarian Hensel reported in 1916 that the books and pamphlets numbered 110,813. In 1919 Mr. Hensel retired and Miss Emma Schaub, long an assistant, became librarian.
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HISTORY OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
Frank Fager, a resident of the West Side, sought to make provision in his will for a public library on West Broad street, giving property valued at $13,000 for that purpose. In August, 1918, Judge Bostwick appointed as trustees: John W. Sleppy, J. B. Glick, Walter B. Ferguson, Sarah E. Lewis and Clara T. Barnes.
Memorial IIall.
The Franklin County Memorial Building, shortened now to simply Memorial Hall in popular parlance, was erected as a monument to the soldiers, sailors, and pioneers of Franklin county, at the expense of the county; it was begun in 1904, completed and occupied in 1906. The building alone cost a quarter of a million dollars, and furnishings $27,000. A pipe- organ was added later by the Women's Music Club, which assumed the expense of $22,000, making the entire cost of the building $299,000. The auditorium seats 3,500, but by a slight change in the seating plan the capacity can be increased to about 1,600. In late years overflow meetings are almost as common as meetings in it, epecially on political military, and great civic occasions. The work of the Women's Music Club and other musical organizations in this auditorium has been phenomenal for many years. The halls of the Grand Army of the Republic and the Pioneer Association are on the second floor of the Hall, as also the library of the Old North-West Historical Society, numbering several thousand volumes.
The trustees in charge of the construction were N. B. Abbott, John Siebert, Wm. H. Knauss, Eugene Powell and Thomas Carpenter. The architect was Frank L. Packard.
The Children's Home.
The site for the County Children's Home was secured in 1878 and the building thereon was completed in 1880. Forty children were taken to it from the "old home" of semi- public nature, at Town and Front streets. Dr. William Schatz was first superintendent, succeeded by Albert S. White, and on his death by his widow, Mrs. Mary E. White. She was followed as superintendent by John D. Harlor, who, going into war service in 1918, was succeeded by Otis Ellis. The management is in the hands of trustees appointed by the County Commissioners. The home is beautifully situated east of the city near Shepard, but, like most of the institutions of that date, is is overcrowded.
CHAPTER XIX. STATE BUILDINGS AND INSTITUTIONS.
The New Capitol and Its Construction, 1839-57- Judiciary Annex-Purchase of the Wyan- dotte Office Building-The Penitentiary and Prison System-Women's Reformatory and Prison Farm-School for the Deaf-School for the Blind-Central Hospital for the Insane-School for the Feeble Minded-State Arsenal-State Board of Administra- tion.
By W. F. Felch.
Ancient, classic architecture has few more notable examples of pure style than Ohio's Capitol; albeit many are wont to decry it for its severe plainness. It is of pure Doric style, which was one of the first and simplest styles in Greece. To travelers and world-wide tourists it commends itself for its truth to type, its uncompromising plainness and hence primitive beauty of line, like the Parthenon, the temple of Theseus, and other examples, before the ornate Corinthian came into vogue. As such it typifies the simple honesty, the stury manhood, and stately womanhood of our commonwealth.
The first Governor to occupy the completed Capitol was Salmon Portland Chase, a man of intrinsic worthiness, inherent honesty, and other statesmanlike qualities which bore fruitage in Lincoln's war-cabinet when he was called to grace that august body, and later as Chief Justice. He was one of the greatest statesmen of Ohio, and fitted into the new structure as typical of the principles of the grand old commonwealth, its idols and ideals, as if "born to the purple." He was as typical of the state as was the Capitol itself.
On January 26, 1838, the General Assembly, passed the act which created its Capitol, at least on paper. A commission appointed on March 16, consisting of W. A. Adams, of Muskingum, Jos. Ridgway, jr., of Franklin, and W. B. Van Hook, of Butler county, signed a contract in April for stone, at fifty cents a perch of 25 cubic feet, from a quarry on the Scioto just west of Columbus, owned by Wm. S. Sullivant. Most of the work of getting out the stone and preparing it for the building was performed by inmates of the Ohio Penitentiary. A large number of skilled masons also assisted.
More than fifty plans were received from architects of the United States, and in October three plans were selected for consideration. Some of the plans submitted had esti- mated the cost at a million dollars; the three plans led the commission to believe that the building could be erected for $450,000, based on prison-labor and low rates. An initial appropriation of $50,000 was asked, and granted early in the session of 1839. Active work was commenced in April of that year, under the supervision of Henry Walter of Cincinnati, and the commissioners. Walter's plan was one of the three submitted.
The corner-stone of the new Capitol was formally laid July 4, 1839, with a large and imposing civil and military display and celebration. During that year the foundation was laid to a level with the surface of the ground. In the corner-stone was placed a glass tube, hermetically sealed, containing the following:
The corner-stone of the Capitol of Ohio, in the United States of America, was laid under the direction of the commissioners, by Jermiah Morrow, ex-governor of the state and one of its earliest pioneers, in the presence of the officers of the state and a large concourse of citizens, on the fourth day of July, 1839, at meridian, being the sixty-third anniversary of our National Independence. The State of Ohio, being the sixteenth state admitted into the Union, was organized into an independent state in the year of our Lord, 1802.
The next winter the progress of the work was arrested by the ill feeling of other towns in the central part of the State toward Colmbus as the capital, as narrated elsewhere; but on February 21, 1846, a second act was passed providing for the erection of a new State House, and making a small appropriation. Commissioner Van Hook was succeeded by Samnel Medary; but little work was done until 1848, when the commission became active again. William Russell West and J. O. Sawyer were appointed architects, and Jacob Strickler superintendent. Stone was quarried in greater quantities, cranes and derricks were provided, and a railroad track laid to the quarries. The result was that the walls were erected to a height of fourteen feet in 1849.
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HISTORY OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
In 1850 great progress was made, in spite of an epidemic of cholera in the city, and at the end of the year the walls were thirty feet in height. An appropriation of $80,000 had been made the previous winter for the continuance of the work. One of the commis- sioners, Joseph Ridgway, jr., died in August of that year, from the cholera, at Mt. Vernon, and in March, 1851, Wm. S. Sullivant of Columbus was appointed to the vacancy. The railroad was extended to the State House yard, so that stone could be taken to the site without reshipment at the Penitentiary.
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