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 3
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The first county building was a log jail, built by order of the Court of Common Pleas, at its session, January 10, 1804. The order specifies that the jail shall be constructed of hewn logs 12 feet long and 18 inches in diameter; two floors, with a clearing of seven feet between and above the upper floor, two rounds of logs and a cabin roof; a door of two-inch plank, two feet, eight inches wide; two 8x10 windows, each secured by two iron bars, one inch square. Lucas Sullivant, who signed the record as Clerk, was the builder of the jail and received $80 for the task. John Dill, who was an associate justice of the Court, fur- nished the lock and received $8 in payment, voting for the appropriation. Fears of official graft had evidently not yet made their appearance in the community.
The second county building was the Court House of brick, constructed, under a similar order of the Court of Common Pleas, in 1807-8, under the supervision of Lucas Sullivant. Until then the court had held its sessions in rented rooms. The brick for the structure were made from the clay of one of the ancient mounds in the vicinity. The building was square and of two stories, with an octagonal cupola rising from the center of the roof. There was a central hall on each floor, with rooms on either side. Arthur O'Harra, under order of the court, erected a brick jail nearby at about the same time. These buildings stood on the lot at the corner of what is now State and Sandusky streets, until 1873, when they were torn down to make room for the Franklinton school building. The court house was used for its original purpose till 1824, when the county seat was moved to Columbus. Then it was used as a school building.
Around this old building many interests centered. There was transacted the business of the county, not only judicial, but also executive, and in those days that was a dominant thing. In a reminiscent article in the Ohio State Journal, October 30, 1871, Joseph Sulli-
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HISTORY OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
vant says that often in his boyhood, he attended court in the old court house, when there was gathered the best legal talent of the State. He mentions "the members of our own bar, such as Gustavus Swan, Orris and John Parrish, John A. McDowell, Thomas Backus, David Smith, P. B. Wilcox and James K. Cory," and speaks of Benjamin Tappan, Henry Stanbery, Thomas Ewing and others from different parts of the State. He recalls an incident, one summer day, after the adjournment of court, when Joe McDowell offered to bet $10 he could beat any of the group of lawyers in a 100-yard foot race. Orris Parrish took him up and they all went out on the green, where it was agreed that Thomas Ewing should be the champion of the lawyers. Ewing stripped off his coat, vest and shoes, and away they went. Ewing won and, when McDowell complained that he had tripped and lost ground, Ewing replied, "Well, if you are not satisfied, let us try again." In the second race, Ewing won even more easily than before. There were other tests, such as standing and running jumps, throwing the stone, the ax and maul and leaping over a stretched string. Ewing had participated in all but the last and had shown superiority when McDowell, hav- ing made what he considered a very high leap, challenged Ewing to "beat that." Ewing told the judges to raise the string four inches and, coming at it "with a curious sidelong swing and motion, went over it amid the cheers of the crowd."
Wagon roads were an early need, and the records of the Common Pleas Court show that, on the legally required petition of citizens, presented in 1803 and 1804, viewers and surveyors were appointed to project roads toward Lancaster, Newark and Springfield and to Worthington. These officials reported at subsequent sessions, and the supervisor of the township in which the road lay, was directed to open it, the width mentioned in one case being 33 feet.
The settlers had brought with them horses, cows and hogs, and to agriculture, stock- raising was soon added as an industry. Stock which could carry itself to market was the chief article of export for a dozen or more years for, although road-building, as we have seen, began in 1803, there was in 1811 no bridge within 100 miles of Franklinton. Streams were crossed either at fords or by ferry, and the roads leading to them were primitive.
The manufacture of clothing was a home industry, and one of the principal materials was the skin of the deer, which were accustomed to come into the clearings around the cabins and browse on the green branches of the fallen trees. The hide was first soaked in a running stream, scraped, dried and tramped in a leathern bag filed with the brains of wild animals, being wrung out after each tramping and sometimes smoked to keep it soft. The skin was then covered with ochre and rubbed with pumice. A single family would thus dress a hundred deerskins in the course of a winter, thus producing the buckskin for gloves, moccasins and other articles of apparel. A buckskin suit over a flax shirt was full dress for a man. Flax, the fibre of the nettle, and wool-when it could be obtained-were made at home into a coarse cloth called linsey woolsey; and the wools of black sheep and white were woven into what was called sheep's gray. Another fireside industry was the making of baskets, which were exchanged for supplies not readily produced.
The manufacture of whisky was an early industry, for whisky was regarded as a neces- sary stay in hardship, as well as a cure of prevalent ills. It was in active demand, became a standard of value and was used in buying goods and paying debts.
Among the new settlers from 1805 to 1812 were Isaac and Jeremiah Miner, Samuel White and his sons, the Stewarts, the Johnstons, the Weatheringtons, the Shannons, the Stambaughs, the Ramseys, the Olmsteads, the Liles, Jacob Gander, Percival Adams, John Swisher, George Williams, Lyne Starling, Dr. Lincoln Goodale, Dr. Samuel Parsons, R. W. McCoy, Francis Stewart, Henry Brown, John Kerr, Alexander McLaughlin, Orris Parish, Ralph Osborn, Gustavus Swan and Rev. James Hoge. The town was looking up, for many of these were substantial and energetic men.
Joseph Foos, who was an associate judge, was the first tavern-keeper. James Scott and Robert Russell were the first to open stores. William Domigan also kept a house of public entertainment. Samuel MeElvain built a rude mill to grind corn-a hole burned in a stump, with a sweep so fixed that two men could reduce the corn to mcal, the sifter being a deer skin stretched over a hoop, with holes made therein by a hot iron. Robert Balentinc erected a water mill on a small stream east of the Scioto. Benjamin White distilled whisky. One of the Deardurfs made salt which was one of the most difficult articles to obtain in those days of primitive commerce, when all supplies that the pioncers were unable to produce
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EARLY DAYS IN FRANKLINTON
for themselves had to be brought by river or by trail. Mr. Sullivant early felt this need and had himself sought to supply it. His biographer writes:
He knew that the deer resorted in great numbers to the lick on the river below Frank- linton and he had observed, when he encamped there some years before, that there were strong evidences of the Indians making salt in that place. The work was vigorously prose- cuted and the lick cleaned out, when it appeared that a feeble stream or spring of weak salt water came to the surface at the edge of the river. A wooden curb was inserted which kept out a large portion of the fresh and surface water. The salt water was gathered in large wooden troughs hollowed out from huge trees, and with the aid of a battery of com- mon iron kettles and long-continued boiling, a limited quantity of rather poor salt was obtained; but when a road was opened along Zane's Trace from Wheeling to Lancaster, and thence to Franklinton, it furnished greater facilities for procuring salt, and this well was abandoned.
Adam Hosack was the first postmaster at Franklinton, and Andrew McElvain was the first mail carrier. Their service began in 1805. A weekly mail left Franklinton every Friday, stayed over night at Markley's mill on Darby creek, next day made Chillicothe, pro- ceeded to Thompson's on Deer creek and thence home on Sunday. When the route was first established there was no postoffice between Franklinton and Chillicothe, but during the first winter one was established at Westfall in what is now Pickaway county, where there was a cabin. Mr. McElvain was then thirteen years old, and during the year that he traveled this lonely route, twice had to swim Darby and Deer creek, carrying the mailbag on his shoulders.
It was probably in 1806 that Lucas Sullivant built a log school house, a square and a half north of Broad and west of Sandusky streel. It was fifteen or sixteen feet square with puncheon floor, rough slab benches supported al cither end by a pair of hickory pins inserted in anger holes; battened door with wooden hinges and latch raised from its notch with a string; a clapboard roof with weight-poles and a fireplace and stick chimney and paper window panes. Miss Sarah Reed and Miss Mary Wait were two of the carly teachers in that primitive building, but whether either of them was the first teacher is not known. From the diary of Joel Buttles, who was a teacher at Worthington at about the same period it is learned how these early schools were supported. He made record of the following contract:
These presents witnesseth: That, on condition that Joel Buttles shall duly attend five days in one week and six in another alternately, and six hours in each day, for the space of three months. and teach reading, writing and arithmetic to the best of his knowledge. we, the subscribers, promise and oblige ourselves to pay to the said Joel Buttles, at the expiration of said term of three months, each for himself, one dollar and sixty-two and a half cents for each scholar we may respectively subscribe; and should some unavoidable or unforeseen accident hinder said Buttles from attending the whole of said term, we obligate ourselves to pay said Buttles a due proportion for the time he may attend. And, likewise, the subscribers are to bear, each his just proportion, in boarding said Buttles and to furnish a convenient school house, together with a sufficient quantity of firewood so that school may commence the first day of January next.
Under this contract, Mr. Buttles secured twelve pupils, so that for his three months' work he got his board and $19.50.
The pioneer preacher was Rev. James Hoge who, November 19, 1805, reached Frank- linton during a missionary pilgrimage through Ohio. Mr. Hoge came of Scotch stock and, at the date mentioned, was in his twenty-second year. He had taught school in Virginia and studied theology privately. On the previous 17th day of April he had been licensed to preach by the Presbytery at Lexington, Va., and had subsequently obtained a license as an itinerant missionary in Ohio. The day following his arrival in Franklinton, he preached in the house of John Overdier to a small group of settlers. The congregation that he gathered was or- ganized as a Presbyterian church, the following February, and he was called to be ils pastor. Worship, which began in private homes, was transferred to the Court House in 1807, and was continued there till the first church building was crected on the cemetery lot near the river in 1811.
In 1812, James B. Gardiner began in Franklinton the publication of the first news- paper, the Freeman's Chronicle, and maintained it for about three years covering the period of the second war with England. The paper was then discontinued probably because in the post-bellum slump it was unprofitable.
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HISTORY OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
After the treaty of Greenville, following General Wayne's victory at Fallen Timbers, the Indians for the most part left the vicinity of Franklinton. One of these who remained was Billy Wyandot, who had a lodge at the west end of the present Harrisburg bridge. He was a roisterous fellow and met his death, while drunk, trying to show how on a previous occasion he had pursued a bear into the river and killed it in midstream. In spite of protests, he plunged into the icy stream, for it was winter, and was drowned. While few Indians lived in the vicinity, bands from the villages north often eame here to trade with Lincoln Goodale, Starling & DeLashmutt, R. W. MeCoy, Henry Brown, Samuel Barr and other store- keepers. They brought furs, skins, venison, cranberries and articles of their manufacture and took back ammunition, tobacco, knives, eloth, pigments, blankets, calicoes and whisky- one of the certain incidents of a visit being a drunken carousal. While this trading was profitable, it was also full of menace to the whites. Mrs. Lucas Sullivant was herself once attacked by a drunken Indian and was saved from his knife only by the timely arrival of her husband. Bears also occasionally sauntered into the settlement, and there is record of one that came into the field where men were at work, was driven into a dooryard by blows of a trace-elain and fought by dogs and men till it was finally dispatched.
The execution of Leatherlips (Sha-te-ya-ron-yah), a Wyandot chief, by Indian decree, is one of the famous incidents of the period when the Indians were retiring from this region. Leatherlips was a friend of the whites and persistently refused to enter into the project of Tecumseh, Roundhead and other chiefs who wanted war. For this reason, the latter trumped up the charge of witchcraft against Leatherlips, and sent a party of six Indians to slay him. Leatherlips was found in June, 1810, at his lodge on the Scioto, about 14 miles north of Columbus near the Delaware county line. He was seized and his captors, of whom Round- head is supposed to have been the leader, held a council in which the charges were heatedly made and calmly replied to by the prisoner. The previous condemnation was affirmed and preparations for the execution were begun. William Sells, of Dublin, and other white men, interceded, pleading Leatherlips' good behavior and finally offering to buy his release. The Indians withdrew to consider the proposition and then refused it. Leatherlips was sub- missive to his fate. He attired himself in his best, painted his face and stood, an impressive figure, before his accusers and the white spectators. Shaking hands with the latter, he turned from his wigwam and, with a strong and musical voice, chanted his death song as he walked to the place of execution. About seventy yards away, he and the whole party came to a shallow grave the Indians had secretly dug. Leatherlips there knelt in prayer, the leader of the executioners also kneeling and offering a prayer to the Great Spirit. As Leatherlips knelt, an Indian approached him from behind and drove a tomahawk into his head. The prisoner fell prostrate and perspiration gathered on his face and neek. To this the leader of the Indians pointed as proof of guilt. As soon as life was extinct the body was buried, and the Indians and whites went their way.
A rude pile of stones long marked the grave. An appropriate monument, erected by the Wyandot Club of Columbus citizens, now stands on the spot.
Lucas Sullivant, after platting the town in which he meant to live, returned to Kentucky on a matrimonial visit. There he was married to Sarah Starling, daughter of Colonel William Starling, of Harrodsburg, a descendant of Sir William Starling, once Lord Mayor of London. The couple came to Franklinton and lived here the remainder of their lives, chiefly in the house which Mr. Sullivant built at the southwest corner of Broad and Sandusky streets. The T-shaped brick house, an unusually fine residence for the pioneer days of 1800, still stands, in large measure as originally erected, sheltering the life and work of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd.
Mr. Sullivant was born in Mecklenburg county, Va., in 1765. At 16 he was left to make his own way in the world. With his little patrimony he secured a liberal education, includ- ing surveying, which he carly practiced in the Virginia counties. He served in one of the expeditions against the hostile Indians in such a way as to win him influential friends, among whom was Colonel William Starling, whose daughter he afterwards married. From Vir- ginia he went to Paris, Bourbon county, Kentucky, subsequently engaging in the surveying work which brought him into central Ohio. From the laying out of the town until he died in 1823, he was the foremost man in Franklinton. His remarkable energy continued with him to the end, his last task being the construction of a dam across the Scioto for a large gristmill. He was a man of forec and courage, but had a tender side, and the affection of
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EARLY DAYS IN FRANKLINTON
the Sullivant home is manifest in what the husband and wife did for each other. She left a home of luxury to share his danger on the frontier. It was because she was a member of the Presbyterian faith that he built and gave the house of worship to the congregation of Dr. Hoge. The best physician in Chillicothe was induced to ride fifty miles on horseback and tarry at their home three weeks that he might be present at the advent of her first-born. It was for her that the finest house of the town was built, and she reciprocated in kind by doing many things in her own home that would have been done for her in the home of her father. Her end was characteristic of her courageous and unselfish life, for her death was caused by exertion and exposure, while aiding and nursing the soldiers encamped on her husband's premises in the war of 1812, during which the little brick church, her husband's gift, was appropriated for a granary and storehouse for the quartermaster's department.
To Mr. and Mrs. Sullivant were born three sons who survived him and added to the honor of the Sullivant name-William S., Michael and Joseph. Saralı, a daughter, born in 1812, died aged two. William S. Sullivant early turned his attention to the flora of central Ohio and became the most eminent American bryologist of his time. His name was given to a number of hitherto undiscovered species, and his work on mosses was such as to make his name honorably remembered wherever mosses are studied. He died in 1873. Michael Sul- livant became a stock-raiser and farmer on a gigantic scale. He was one of the originators of the Ohio Stock Importing Company and of the Ohio State Board of Agriculture and was twice the president of the latter body. In 1854 he sold out his Ohio holdings and moved to Illinois where he cultivated tens of thousands of aeres. It was a stupendous and unsuccessful experiment. He died in 1879. Joseph Sullivant was deeply interested in lit- erary, scientific and educational matters. He was for many years a member of the Columbus Board of Education and the building on State street was named for him. He was one of the projectors of Green Lawn cemetery, and generally was a valuable and public-spirited citi- zen, serving his fellow-citizens in many ways until his death in 1882.
John K. Delashmut, came from Maryland to Franklinton in 1802, married Sarah Worth- ington, of Hamilton township and carly engaged in the manufacture of hats.
John Huffman, born in Maryland and as boy a resident of Washington county, Pa., was a captain in Lord Dunmore's army. He came to Franklinton in 1801, but in 1804 located on a tract of 380 aeres on the Scioto, further sonth, built a house and a distillery which he operated for many years.
Lyne Starling, a brother of Mrs. Lucas Sullivant, was born in Mechlenburg county, Va .. in 1784. In 1806, he came to Franklinton to live. He succeeded Lucas Sullivant as Clerk of the Courts, and was a merchant and trader. He was one of the four original owners of the land on which Columbus was built and led in the negotiations which brought the capital to its present location. He was an eceentric, but warm-hearted and useful man. Through his generosity Starling Medical College was established and housed in a castle-like building on State street.
Rev. James Hoge the first clergyman of Franklinton, was born at Moorefield, N. J., the son of a Presbyterian divine. He organized the Presbyterian church in Franklinton, went with that body when it moved to Columbus and was its pastor till 1858, thus completing a service here of more than fifty years. He assisted in the establishment here of the State School for the Deaf and Dumb and the Central Hospital for the Insane, and was one of the founders of the Ohio Bible Society.
Dr. Samuel Parsons was a native of Reading, Conn., and came to Franklinton in 1811, where he practiced his profession till 1816, when he moved to Columbus, continuing his prae- tice until within a few years of his death. He was the head of the house of Parsons, father of George M. Parsons and grandfather of the late Gustavus Parsons. In 1813 he was elected to represent Franklin county in the Ohio General Assembly, and for some years he was president of the Franklin branch of the State Bank of Ohio.
Dr. Lincoln Goodale came with his recently widowed mother to Franklinton. He was the son of Major Nathan Goodale, who fought in the Revolution and who, after he had come into the Ohio country, died of disease while being held by the Indians for ransom. Here Dr. Goodale practiced his profession, engaged in business, both mercantile and real estate and became wealthy. In the war of 1812 he served as an assistant surgeon. His life was filled with good deeds, the crown of which was the gift to Columbus of the park that bears his name.
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HISTORY OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
Jeremiah MeLene, one of the three commissioners who located the county seat at Franklinton, came to Ohio from Tennessee. He was for some time county surveyor, Secre- tary of State for twenty-one years and member of Congress for two terms. He died in Washington, March 19, 1837, aged 70 years.
Orris Parrish, a lawyer, came from New York, practiced in the local courts and in 1816 was elected President Judge of the Common Pleas Court of this district. In the winter of 1818-19 he resigned, returned to the practice of law here, represented the county in the General Assembly and died in 1837.
Ralph Osborn, a native of Waterbury, Conn., came to Franklinton in 1806. For five terms he was Clerk of the Ohio House of Representatives, for eighteen years Auditor of State and then a member of the Ohio Senate. He died in Columbus, December 30, 1835.
Isaac and Jeremiah Miner, brothers, came from New York, the former in 1806 and the latter in 1808. They were farmers and stock-raisers in Madison and Franklin counties. They owned the farm from which Green Lawn cemetery was cut. Isaae (Judge) Miner died in 1831, aged 53; Jeremiah later, at an advanced age. Both are buried in Green Lawn.
Gustavus Swan was born in Sharon, N. H., July 15, 1787, and educated for the law. After visiting different localities in the State, he selected this, believing it would become the eapital. He opened a law office in Franklinton, but in 1814 transferred it to Columbus, where he lived many years, rounding out with distinguished service an exceptional career.
Joseph Foos was proprietor of the first hotel in Franklinton and joint owner of the first ferry over the Scioto. He was a senator and representative during twenty-five ses- sions including those covered by the war of 1812. In this war he rose from Captain to Brigadier General, and from 1825 until his death he held a commission as Major General of the State Militia. He was a man of original ideas, and a speaker and writer of note.
CHAPTER IV. FRANKLINTON AND ITS NEIGHBORS.
Cabins on the East Bank of the Scioto-Story of Keziah Hamlin-The Hess, Sells, O'Harra, Taylor and Other Families-Col. James Kilbourne and the Founding of Worthington -Blendon Township and Westerville-Franklinton at the Time of the War of 1812- Headquarters of Gen. W'm. Henry Harrison - Conference with the Indians - Site Marked by a Boulder.
In 1800, three years after the founding of Franklinton, there was but one house on the east bank of the Scioto, on the site of the present city of Columbus. It was the eabin of Nathaniel Hamlin and his wife. Later, John Briekell, the story of whose captivity among the Indians is told in a previous chapter, built his cabin on the Penitentiary site. About the same time, some settlers appeared on Alum creek-the Turners, Nelsons, Hamiltons, Aglers and Reeds. The Hamlins had come from New Jersey and established their home just west of what is now High street and Livingston avenue. John Brickell's cabin stood near the river bank north of the present Spring street. Measuring around the bend of the river, these homes were about a mile apart, though in that forest solitude they probably seemed very much nearer. To the Hamlins was born in 1804 a daughter, Keziah, to whom belongs two distinctions-one of being the first child born in the wildwood where Columbus was subsequently laid out; the other being the mother of a family that has given service, strength and character to the community for, when she was eighteen she married David Brooks, of whom and of whose descendants more will elsewhere be told. As a baby she was rocked in a cradle made from a maple trough, and protected from the weather by clothing and even by doors and windows made from the skins of wild animals.
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