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 4
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86
Of little Keziah Hamlin, a pleasant tale is told, showing the Indian nature at its best. From their village on the Seioto at what is now Livingston avenne the Wyandots used to go to the Hamlin cabin, for they were fond of the bread that Mrs. Hamlin baked. Sometimes they would help themselves to the loaves, leaving as they silently departed, a haunch of venison, or other game in payment. One day, several Indians entered the cabin, when only the mother and child were at home and, uttering no word, took the sleeping babe and carried her off. Unable successfully to resist what by all appearances was the abduction of her child, Mrs. Hamlin prayed for help and suffered hours of anguish. Her joy can be im- agined when at nightfall the Indians returned with the little girl who was wearing a beau- tiful pair of beaded moccasins which the makers had found it necessary to fit to her feet. Instead of bringing the moccasins to the child, it was the Indian way to take the child to the moccasins. This token of friendship was preserved in the family, but was one day aeci- dentally destroyed. The incident itself has been enshrined in a ballad, presumably written by Mrs. Sigourney, the New England poet.
Basler Hess, his wife and several children, came to this county about 1800, Mr. Hess building a double log cabin on his land on the west side of the Olentangy four miles north of Franklinton. There Basler Hess tanned leather and made boots, and he and his wife main- tained a hospitable home for travelers. He died in 1806, leaving a large family. About 1804, David Beers settled in the forest, just north of the present site of the Ohio State University. Prior to that, while he and his sister were living with their widowed mother in Maryland, they were all captured by Indians. The children, who were separated, never saw their mother again; but, after his release by the Indians and his coming to Franklin county, he found his sister living happily with the Indians at Upper Sandusky. He died in 1850, aged 104.
Ludwig Sells and his sons, John, Benjamin and Peter, came in 1800 from Huntingdon county, Pa., and settled near the present site of Dublin. Benjamin Sells was one of the early county commissioners, and all, either in agriculture or otherwise, contributed largely to the early life, and their descendants have done no less in their day.
James O'Harra came from Ireland to America in 1780. He came to Franklin county with his wife and three sons, James, Arthur and Thomas, and settled in Franklinton about 1802. They built a stone house on the east side of the river, two and a half miles north of
22
HISTORY OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
Franklinton. Arthur was one of the first county commissioners. Other O'Harras, relatives of those first mentioned, came early and settled in Hamilton township. One of them, Nancy, who rode horseback from Maryland to Franklinton, married Samuel Pursell in 1810.
The settlement at Worthington was made in 1803. Its founder was James Kilbourne who was to that settlement what Lucas Sullivant was to Franklinton-a man of courage, energy and vision. It was in 1802, when he was thirty-two, that Mr. Kilbourne made his first appearance in Ohio. Deprived in his boyhood, by the War of the Revolution, of the com- forts of a prosperous farm home, he had worked on the farms in the vicinity of New Britain, Connecticut, where he was born, been apprentieed to a clothier, whose business he had learned, studied theology with young Griswold, son of one of his farmer employers and had taken orders in the Protestant Episcopal church. At thirty, he was established in suc- cessful business at Granby and occasionaly officiated at the church services. Both of these activities bade him stay in the East, but the lure of the West was the stronger and, acting on the advice of John Fitch, whose daughter Luey he had married, he decided to establish a colony in Ohio. With difficulty he enlisted the interest of a half dozen of his friends and, on their behalf, set out in the spring of 1802 to locate a suitable tract. On his return he reported that he had found cast of the Scioto "a traet of 1000 acres at least, in one place, of the best clear meadow I ever saw in any place whatever, without a tree or a bush in the whole extent, and the old grass and weeds are burnt off every spring." He reported the soil superior, the traet well watered and the trees of the forest vigorous and of many kinds. Of the healthfulness of the country, he could not speak so favorably, for he found that both whites and Indians had suffered from ague and bilious fever, but he expressed the conviction that, with proper individual care and the advancement of agriculture, the peril would be eseaped.
On the strength of this report, the colony, which called itself the Scioto Company, was organized and contraeted for the purehase of 16,000 aeres from the national government at $1.25 an aere. That was December 14, 1802. In the following spring, Mr. Kilbourne again set out for Ohio, this time aeoempanied by a millwright, a blacksmith, nine laborers and a fam- ily. Mr. Kilbourne rode a horse ; the others traveled in wagons. The little company proceeded by way of Pittsburg, Wheeling, and Zanesville to Franklinton. At the last named place and at Chillicothe, the supplies that were not brought with them from Connectieut were pur- chased and were taken by boat up the Olentangy (Whetstone) to the site that had been chosen for the town. David Bristol, Levi Pinney and Job Case were in this first party.
One-half of the land bought by the company was in one piece, and it was upon that the town was to be built. By the terms of the agreement, two roads were to be opened- one north and south, the other east and west-the intersection of the two to be the eenter of the town; the four eenter lots were to be a publie square, a fifth lot was reserved for a Protestant Episcopal church and a sixth for the public school, 160 aeres being set aside for the support of the church, and a similar tract for the support of the school. When the new-comers had provided shelter for themselves, they organized St. John's parish of the Protestant Episcopal church and erected a log structure which served for a time as both church and school, Mr. Kilbourne being the pastoral leader.
The original town plat consisted of 160 one-acre lots which, in August, 1804, were ap- portioned in varying number to the following: James Allen, David Bristol, Samuel Beach, Alexander Morrison, Ebeneezer Street, Azariah Pinney, Abner P. Pinney, Levi Pinncy, Ezra Griswold, Moses Andrews, John Topping, Josiah Topping, Nathan Stewart, John Gould, James Kilbourne, Jedidiah Norton, Russell Atwater, Ichabod Plum, Jeremiah Curtis, Jonas Stanberry, Lemuel G. Humphrey, Ambrose Cox, Joel Mills, Glass Coehran, Alexander Morrison, jr., Thomas T. Phelps, Levi Buttles, Levi Hayes, Joh Case, Roswell Wilcox, William Thompson, Samuel Sloper, Nathaniel Little, Lemuel Kilbourne, Israel P. Case, Abner Pinney and William Vining.
It was a task to test the courage of the colonists. In 1804, according to the diary of Joel Buttles, the space meant for the public square was only partially cleared and the trees that had been felled lay in the path of the pedestrian. He tells us that on the north side of the square, west of the main street, Nathaniel Little built the first frame store; east of the main street was Ezra Griswold's tavern. He continues:
On the east side of the square there was a large cabin built for public purposes, and used on the Sabbath day as a church, Major Kilbourne officiating as deacon of the Episcopal
23
FRANKLINTON AND ITS NEIGHBORS
church. At all public meetings it was a town hall; and, whenever the young people wished to have a dance or ball, that being the only room large enough for that purpose, it was used as a ball room; and this, I know, was very often, probably once in ten days on an average. Of course the house was never long unoccupied or unemployed.
On the south side of the square, the only house was that of James Kilbourne, then called Major or Esquire Kilbourne, now Colonel Kilbourne, who was the principal sachem of the trihe, being general agent of the Company settlement-the Scioto Company-so-called clergyman of the place, Justice of the Peace, large stockholder, or rather landholder of the Company, had been the longest out there and so the oldest settler, having been there over a year, and many other things which went conclusively to designate him as head of the clan. On the west side of the square 1 only recollect one house which was occupied by Isaac Case, at whose house 1 frequently hoarded.
The first school, maintained by subscription, was taught by Thomas T. Phelps, who was suceeded, the following year, by Clarissa Thompson. Ezra Griswold opened the first tavern in 1803. The first brick house was erected in 1804 by Mr. Kilbourne who, in the following year, built on the Olentangy the first gristmill. The first physician was Dr. Josiah Topping who in 1806 removed to Delaware, leaving the town without a physician till Dr. Daniel Upson came in 1810. The first marriages in the colony were of Abner P. Pinney to Polly Morrison and Levi Pinney to Charlotte Beach.
Through the instrumentality of Mr. Kilbourne, Worthington became the seat of the pioneer manufacturing concern in central Ohio. It was known as the Worthington Manu- facturing Company, with factories at Worthington and Steubenville and stores at Worthing- ton and Franklinton. It was incorporated in 1811 and produced large quantities of woolen fabric for army and navy clothing. It prospered during the war of 1812, but failed when the demand for its product ceased. Another of Mr. Kilbourne's enterprises was the estab- lishment at Worthington of the first newspaper in the county, the Western Intelligencer. He himself acted as editor for a short time after its establishment in 1811, but, owing to the pressure of other business, he sold the plant to Joel Buttles and George Smith. The paper and printing office were successfully conducted by them during the war and the succeeding period of apprehension, and then were moved to Columbus where they are perpetuated in the Ohio State Journal.
Blendon township was settled in 1806. The families of Edward Phelps, sr., and Isaac Griswold, accompanied by Ethan Palmer, came in that year from Windsor, Conn. They were two months on the road and the journey from Granville took three days. Phelps' family consisted of a wife and six children. Griswold was accompanied by his wife and two children; Salina, his sister, and Oliver Clark, brother of his wife. Other early settlers were: Simeon Moore, sr., and his son, Simeon Moore, jr., in 1807; John and William Cooper, in 1808-09; Col. George Osborne and Francis Olmsted and wife, in 1808; Samuel McDannald and wife from Virginia, in 1813; Samuel Puntney and Isaac Harrison, in 1813; John Yovel and Reuben Carpenter, in 1809; John Matoon and wife, first to Worthington in 1806, to Blendon in 1808; Squire Timothy Lee from Masachusetts soon after the war of 1812; Gideon W. Hart and wife, in 1816; Peter, William and Mathew Westervelt from Duchess county, N. Y., in 1818; Joseph Clapham and wife, in 1823; Nicholas Budd and wife, in 1829; Edward D. Howard, in 1837; Joseph Dickey in 1838.
The village of Westerville was laid out by Mathew Westervelt in July, 1839, and was incorporated in 1858. Westervelt was also instrumental in locating at Westerville the Blen- don Young Men's Seminary in 1838, giving twenty-five acres of land and serving as one of the trustees. When Ohio Wesleyan University was located at Delaware, the ground and buildings at Westerville were offered to the United Brethren and accepted. Thus came Otterbein College, founded in 1847 and chartered in 1819.
In 1808 Robert Taylor built the first frame house in the eastern part of the county on the west side of Big Walnut creek, his son David, then a lad of seven years assisting. In the spring of the following year the Taylors occupied it, and parts of the old house are in the residence which today stands on the site. Three other houses-log cabins-were built about the same time in the vicinity. John Edgar and family occupied one, and Benjamin Cornell and family, including a brother, William, occupied another. These long since dis- appeared. The names of the earliest settler in various parts of the county-as accurately as they could be determined by a committee consisting of Henry C. Taylor, H. Warren Phelps, James Kilbourne, Herbert Brooks and Adam Grant -- have been inscribed on a tablet in Memorial Hall, the names being necessarily limited to ten for cach township.
24
HISTORY OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
Out of these and other such beginnings, which can only be referred to here, eame the vil- lages of Dublin (1818), Georgesville (1818), Lockbourne (1831), Reynoldsburg (183]), Harrisburg (1836), Alton (1836), New Albany (1837), Groveport (1844), Grove City (1852), Hilliards (1853). Other villages dot Franklin county, but they are most of them of more recent origin.
Conditions in Franklinton just prior to the second war with England are described in the following from the pen of Judge Gustavus Swan:
When I opened my office in Franklinton in 1811, there was neither church nor school nor pleasure carriage in the county, nor was there a bridge over any stream within the compass of an hundred miles. The roads at all seasons of the year were nearly impassable. Goods were imported, principally from Philadelphia, in wagons; and our exports, consisting of horses, cattle and hogs, carried themselves to market. The mails were brought to us once a week on horseback, if not prevented by high water. I feel safe in saying there was not in the county a chair for every two persons, nor a knife and fork for every four. The propor- tion of rough population was very large. With that class, to say that he would fight was to praise a man; and it was against him if he refused to drink. Aged persons and invalids, however, were respected and protected, and could avoid drinking and fighting with impunity; but even they could not safely interfere to interrupt a fight. There was one virtue, that of hospitality, which was not confined to any class.
Franklinton was a straggling village of a few hundred people, when the war of 1812 was not unexpectedly declared. That year was an eventful one for the town, for it at once marked the beginning of its greatest prosperity and the commencement of its decline. The war gave it a temporary importance; the laying out of Columbus as the capital of the State as surely meant its ultimate eclipse. Singularly, the formal declaration of war and the sale of lots in Columbus took place on the same day, June 18, 1812. While Governor Meigs, of Ohio, was organizing three volunteer regiments to take the field, Lyne Starling, Alexander MeLaughlin, John Kerr and James Johnston were treating with the General Assembly, then sitting at Zanesville, for the location of Ohio's capital on their land on the east bank of the Scioto, opposite Franklinton. A bill accepting their proposition, after much discussion, was passed February 14, 1812. While these men were preparing to execute their part of the contract, Franklinton, Urbana and Dayton were resounding with the notes of war. The Third Ohio Volunteer regiment, commanded by Lewis Cass, assembled at Franklinton and proceeded to Urbana, where it met the First, Second and Fourth regiments, From Urbana the troops marehed north under Hull, building block houses as they went, reaching Detroit August 8, where they surrendered on the 16th to the British. The news of this remarkable capitulation was with indignation communicated to the people of Frank- linton through a Freeman's Chronicle extra. It was feared that the surrender would en- courage the Indians and lead them to attack the town, and to guard against surprise, scouts were sent far to the north to give warning. Settlers in outlying districts floeked to Franklinton and it was planned to fortify the town.
In the emergency, Governor Meigs, of Ohio, and Governor Scott, of Kentucky, exerted themselves to hurry more volunteers into the field. General William Harrison was put in command of the newly recruited troops and prepared to recapture Detroit. Franklinton, because of its location, was chosen as a rendezvous and depot of supplies, and October 25. Generals Harrison, Perkins and Beall came here for an important conference. "Our town," says the Freeman's Chronicle, October 31, 1812, "begins to assume quite a military appear- ance. Six or seven hundred troops are already here. Two companies of Pennsylvania troops are expected in a few days, and we look daily for the arrival of 100 United States dragoons from Kentucky. The force to be collected at this place will be nearly 3,000. How long they will remain has not been ascertained."
The same paper of November 17 notes the return of General Harrison from Delaware and his reception with the military honors due to his rank. The following day, Governor Meigs arrived from Marietta, was saluted by Captain Cushing's company of artillery and later, accompanied by General Harrison and staff, reviewed all the troops at the public square. To intimidate the Indians, General Harrison, on the 18th sent an expedition 600 or 700 strong against the Miami villages near the present site of Muncic, Indiana. The expedition was successful and, General Harrison, from his headquarters here, issued an order, announcing the victory. Army supplies continued to arrive al Franklinton and to be forwarded to Upper Sandusky, Harrison being sometimes here and sometimes elsewhere.
25
FRANKLINTON AND ITS NEIGHBORS
direeting the movement of reinforcements and supplies. He was in the nothern part of the State when Winehester's foree of 850 was defeated at Frenchtown. This ealamity but spurred Ohio and Kentucky to greater efforts. Governor Meigs called for more men, direeting that two of the three divisions rendezvous at Franklinton, where he himself super- vised their preparation and departure north. Among the Ohio troops thus provided were two companies of dragoons reeruited in Franklin county, one eommanded by General Joseph Foos and the other by Captain Joseph Vanee.
It having been decided to make no further effort to recapture Detroit until the army could have the co-operation of Commodore Perry's naval foree, General Harrison made a tour of inspection to the south. Returning June 6 ahead of the Twenty-fourth U. S. infan- try, he invited representatives of the hitherto friendly, but neutral, Indians to a conference. That eonferenee was held June 21, 1813, on the grounds of Lueas Sullivant, and is thus deseribed in the Sullivant Family Memorial:
The Delaware, Shawnee, Wyandot and Seneca tribes were represented by about 50 of the chiefs and warriors. General Harrison represented the government and with him were his staff and a brilliant array of officers in full uniform. In front were the Indians. All around were the inhabitants of the region, far and near, with many a mother and maid as interested spectators. The general began to speak in ealm and measured tones * * which seemed to fall on dull ears. At length the persuasive voice struck a responsive chord; and then Tarhe, or Crane, the great Wyandot chief, slowly rose to his feet and, standing for a moment in graceful and commmanding attitude, made a brief reply, and then, with others, pressed forward to grasp the hand of General Harrison, in token not only of amity, but of agreement to stand as a barrier on our exposed border. * * Jubilant shouts rent the air, women wept for joy and stalwart men thrilled with pleasure, as they now thought of the assured safety of their wives and children, and prepared at once with cheerful alacrity to go forth to the impending battles.
The speech that seeured this measure of co-operation is thus reported in the Freeman's Chroniele :
The general promised to let the several tribes know when he should want their services, and further eautioned them that all who went with him must conform to his method of war- fare, not to kill or injure old men, women, children or prisoners; that by this means we should be able to ascertain whether the British told the truth when they said they were not able to prevent Indians from such acts of horrid cruelty; for, if the Indians under him (Harrison) would obey his commands and would refrain from acts of barbarism, it would be very evident that the hostile Indians could be easily restrained by their commanders. The general then informed the chiefs of the agreement made by Proctor to deliver him to Tecumseh, in case the British succeeded in taking Fort Meigs; and promised them that, if he should be successful, he would deliver Proctor into their hands, on condition that they would do him no other harm than to put a petticoat on him, for, said he, none but a coward or a squaw would kill a prisoner.
The spot in which this conference was held is now marked by a boulder bearing an appropriate tablet. The memorial stone was erected by the Columbus Chapter of the Daughters of the Revolution and was dedicated June 28, 1904. Mrs. Edward Orton, jr., regent, presented the memorial which was accepted by Mayor Robert H. Jeffrey. General B. R. Cowen then delivered an historieal address.
July was a busy month in Franklinton. Alarm followed alarm, and the troops were inereased by another eall for volunteers. These were organized here and elsewhere by Gov- ernor Meigs and sent north. But soon they eame streaming baek through Franklinton. The regulars were preferred at the front. The response continued, however, until there eame the glad news of Perry's victory on Lake Erie. September 10, 1813, of the eapture of Malden by Harrison's army on the 28th and of the defeat of Proctor and Teeumsch by the same army on the Thames river, October 5. Those events practically ended the war for Ohio, the remainder of the work being merely precautionary. Franklinton, however, continued to be a station for troops and supplies ; and its armory, superintended by William C. Lyman, repaired muskets and supplied ammunition. The Kentucky troops were eneamped here for a time on their way south.
CHAPTER V. COLUMBUS BORN A CAPITAL.
l'arious Sites Offered for State Capital- Starling et al. Win by Superior Generalship-Their Proposition and Mutual Agreement-Description of the Site-First State Buildings- Settlement with the Proprietors-Careers of the Proprietors-The John Kerr Papers- First Columbus Library.
By the Constitution of 1802 the seat of government of Ohio was temporarily fixed at Chillicothe until 1808, the prevailing sentiment being that, when established permanently, it should be near the center of the new State. The first General Assembly of Ohio, thus, met in the Court House at Chillicothe, as also did its successors until 1810, when by invita- tion, the sessions of 1810-11 and 1811-12 were held in Zanesville, which was one of the towns that aspired to be the capital. Other aspirants were Franklinton, Worthington, Delaware, Lancaster and Newark. As some of the residents of each of these places had so located, on the chance that the capital would come to it, there was a considerable pressure on the Gen- eral Assembly for settlement of the question. On February 20, 1810, the General Assembly provided for the appointment of a commission to inspect sites, hear arguments and report its recommendation. James Findlay, W. Silliman, Joseph Darlington, Resin Beall and William McFarland were appointed and, on the following December 11, after a consideration of all the sites, reported in favor of a tract of land owned by John and Peter Sells on the west side of the Scioto, where Dublin now stands. At the time of the submission of this report various additional propositions were made, one of them by Lyne Starling, John Kerr, Alexander McLaughlin and James Johnston, offering a tract of about 1,200 acres on the cast bank of the Scioto opposite Franklinton.
This proposition was very businesslike throughout. The tract had been provisionally platted, and a copy of the plat was submitted. The offer was that, if the General Assembly would permanently fix the seat of government there, the subscribers would lay out the town according to the accompanying plat by the following July 1; that they would deed to the State a square of ten aeres for the publie buildings and another lot of ten acres for a Penitentiary ; that they would erect and complete a State House, offices, Penitentiary and such other buildings as the General Assembly might direct, building them of stone and brick, or either as might be preferred, in a workmanlike manner and of such size as the General Assembly might direet, the Penitentiary to be completed January 1, 1815, and the State House and office building, by the first Monday in December, 1817. It was further proposed that, when the buildings were completed, they should be appraised by workmen appointed mutually by the General Assembly and the subscribers; if the valuation was less than $50,000, the subscribers were to make up the deficiency, but if it was more than $50,000, the General Assembly was to remunerate the subscribers as it might consider just. The subscribers also offered a bond of $100,000 for the faithful performance of their part of the contract. Later when it appeared that the General Assembly hesitated because of the permanence of the location of the capital on their tract, the proprietors submitted a supple- mentary proposition, asking that the capital remain in the town to be laid off by them until 1810.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.