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 6
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BOROUGH LIFE UNTIL 1834
spinning of wool by horse power, a business which in 1834 was moved by George Jeffries to the canal dam where water power was for a time used. These early manufacturing enter- prises were not very profitable and were not long continued.
In those early years the Fourth of July was religiously celebrated, first in Franklinton and later at Stewart's Grove (now Washington park), capitol square, or elsewhere in Columbus. In 1822, the orator was Rev. James Hoge, who expressed strong anti-slavery sentiments. In the same year at Gardiner's tavern, was the first celebration of Jackson's day (January 8, the battle of New Orleans), the speakers being Henry Clay, Thomas Corwin and others. There is no record of another observance of Jackson's day till 1835. On the occasion of the celebration of the Fourth, the spectacular feature was the marching of the Franklin Dragoons, the history of which dates back to 1812. The first captain was Joseph Vance, then in order, A. I. McDowell, Robert Brotherton, P. H. Olmsted, Joseph McElvain and David Taylor. In 1821, the Columbus Artillery appeared, Captain E. C. King, later Captain N. E. Harrington.
In 1817, Columbus had its first visit by a President of the United States. The visitor was James Monroe who, with his party, all horseback, was returning from inspecting the forti- fications in the Northwest. The Presidential party stopped first at Worthington, where Colonel James Kilbourne made the welcoming speech. The Franklin Dragoons, Captain Vanee, escorted them from Worthington to Columbus, and there was a formal reception, with speaking, for them in the State House, the committee of citizens consisting of Lucas Sulli- vant, Abner Lord, Thomas Backus, Joseph Foos, A. I. McDowell, Gustavus Swan, Ralph Osborn, Christian Heyl, Robert W. McCoy, Joel Buttles, Hiram M. Curry, John Kerr, Henry Brown and William Doherty. Hiram M. Curry, treasurer of state, made the speech of wel- come and the President responded as a President should to the honest efforts of the best citizens of an infant city.
But neither the compliments of a President nor the struggles of the pioneers could stay the hand of misfortune. Alexander MeLaughlin and James Johnston, two of the four founders of the city, failed and the depression was such that much of the real estate of the town was thrown on the market, some through sheriff's sale. Lots that had commanded $1,000 were sold for $300, while others that had been held at $200 and $300 were sold for as little as $10. A scourge of malaria and fever fell on the town; most of the inhabitants were sick and many died. And as if that were not enough, the titles to the land that had been sold by Starling, Kerr and MeLaughlin were assailed in the courts. Starling's half- section had originally been granted to one Allen, a refugee from the British provinces during the Revolutionary war. Allen had sold it to his son, the son had mortgaged it and allowed it to go to sheriff's sale at which Starling bought it. Each step in the proceedings was questioned. The suits were brought in 1822-23, and it was not till 1826 that Starling's title was affirmed. Kerr and MeLaughlin's half section had belonged to one Strawbridge and had been duly bought and paid for. Their title was attacked because the deed showed that Kerr and MeLaughlin had bought the property from an agent acting for Strawbridge and not from Strawbridge through an agent. That dispute, begun in 1826, was ended in the following year in favor of Kerr and MeLaughlin.
The end of this litigation was an occasion of great rejoicing in Columbus. Mr. Star- ling, his lawyers and friends celebrated the victory at the National Hotel, the predecessor of the Neil House, and were in such a state at last that they were all put to bed in one room. But they were not allowed to rest. The whole town was happy and when later in the night a crowd gathered to serenade the sleeping victors, the latter were obliged to hurry into their outer clothing and appear. In the darkness and the confusion, John Bailhache, who was a very small man, and Lyne Starling, who was a very large man, exchanged clothing and were found sweating and swearing and in a thoroughly ludicrous plight by the advance guard of the serenaders. It was a night that none of the celebrants ever forgot.
In 1820 the improved area terminated on the east at Fourth street, and stumps were still standing in High street. There were three dwellings on the west side of High street between Broad street and the Spring street gulley. On the east side going north there was nothing until Wilson's tanyard on the present site of the Dispatch building was reached; then only a vacant cabin at Spring and High streets. On High street opposite the capitol square. going south, were the residences of George Nashee and Gustavus Swan; three groggeries known as the "Three Sisters," the National Hotel (predecessor of the Neil House), Tom Johnson's
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HISTORY OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
bookstore, Mccullough's tailor shop, Marsh's bakery and R. W. McCoy's dry goods store. Most of the business district was south of State street.
The buffalo had been driven from the forests of Franklin county before the advent of the pioneers, but there is abundant evidence that the deer was still here. These animals, whose flesh was used for food and whose hides were made into clothing, were frequently shot in the forest, as well as in the river. It was their habit to come to the river in the night and feed on the grass that grew in the water. Hunters would float down the stream in canoes, blind the animals with their torches and then shoot them. Panthers and wildcats and wolves were here-the last named in such numbers that the General Assembly in 1809 placed a bounty on wolf scalps, continuing it till 1852.
Squirrels were so numerous as to be a great menace to crops, especially corn. In 1807, it was made the duty of every taxpayer to kill them. At the time of paying taxes, he was required to produce a certain number of squirrel scalps (the number to be determined by the township trustees), and for every scalp over the quota he received three cents, while for" every one under it he was fined two cents. In the fall they seemed to migrate by the river, and men waded into the stream and killed them by the dozen. In April, 1822, 9000 squirrels were killed in Franklin county, 5000 in the immediate vicinity of Columbus. In August of that year, a great squirrel hunt was organized in all the townships of the county, the call to a hunting caucus being issued by Lucas Sullivant, Samuel G. Flenniken, John A. McDowell, Ralph Osborn, Gustavus Swan and Christian Heyl. At the caucus, the county was divided into two districts, with a field marshal for each. A match was arranged, the prize being a barrel of whisky. At the round up 19,660 squirrel scalps were counted, and some hunters did not make returns. The winning team beat the other by 5000 or 6000 scalps, and no doubt consumed the whisky.
Some glimpses of the home life of the period are offered in the writings of Mrs. Emily Stewart, the youngest daughter of Wm. Merion, sr. Her father in 1818 built a brick house on the west side of High street, south of Moler street, which was still standing in 1918, neg- lected but occupied by transients glad of the shelter. The house faces south, and it is without adjustment to the present streets, Describing the mother of this pioneer home, she writes :
Every garment worn by the family was made from the raw material. The flax had to be spun, woven, bleached and made into garments. The table linen, toweling, bedding, and even the sewing thread were hand-made. The wool of a hundred sheep was brought in at shear- ing time. Mrs. Merion had it washed, picked, earded, spun, scoured, dyed, woven and made into flannel, jeans, linsey, blankets, coverlets and stocking yarn. The men's clothing was all home-made; even their suspenders were knitted. The floors were covered with beautiful carpets, not rag, but all wool of her own dyeing. The milk of 15 to 20 cows was brought in twice a day, to be turned into butter and cheese.
The brick oven, which held four pans of bread and 12 pies, was heated every day in sum- mer and twice a week in winter. Fruit in its season was pared and dried in the sun. Canning was unknown. Tomatoes, of which a few plants were placed in the flower beds, were purely ornamental and were called Jerusalem apples. Soda was not to be had (at the stores). Mrs. Merion made it by leaching hickory ashes, boiling lye into potash and baking it until it dried and whitened. With this and buttermilk she made delicious biscuit, batter cakes and corn bread.
The pioneer's wife had no time to improve her mind. All her time was spent in work. The long winter evenings were occupied with sewing, knitting or spinning on the little wheel.
The old house, the scene of this activity, was the produet of the skill of several pioneers who were prominent for one reason or another. The bricklayer was Mr. Loughery, whose daughter, afterwards Mrs. Wm. M. Awl, was famous in the early charities. David W. Deshler, head of the house of Deshler, did the carpenter work. James Uncles did the plas- tering. Rev. George Jeffries, founder of the Baptist church here, preacher, teacher and school director, did the painting and glazing and made the case for the grandfather's clock that was used in the house.
A good wife and mother of the time who, in letters to relatives in Pennsylvania, added to the picture, was Mrs. Betsy Green Deshler, wife of David W. Deshler, pioneer carpenter. In 1817, Mr. and Mrs. Deshler came from Easton, Pa., to Columbus and bought a lot on the north side of Broad street just west of High street, a part of the tract on which the Deshler Hotel now stands. The price was $1000. They paid $200 eash and gave a gold watch worth $200, and were to pay $100 in 1819 and $200 in 1820. There they built a two-room,
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BOROUGH LIFE UNTIL 1834
one-story frame, one of the rooms being used for a time as a workshop. "Everything is cheap," she wrote October 2, 1817, "and plenty except salt and coffee and a few other grocery articles" brought from long distances. The peaches are the finest she ever saw, some of them nine inches in circumference. They have kind neighbors and are invited to help themselves from the gardens. In January, 1818, she wrote that the Methodist meeting house was the only one in Columbus and the Presbyterians, rather than go the mile to the Franklinton church, are having service in the State House. In March, 1818, she wrote that a neighbor, Auditor of State Osborn, cut up their pork and showed them how to salt it, afterwards smoking it for them in his smokehouse. In August, 1818, she wrote that she had been very sick and that her husband had obtained work at the State House by which he hoped to make enough money to make the payment on their lot. She adds that the Presbyterian meeting house has been built and the pews sold to pay the cost. They have bought one for 374 cents. In February, 1820, she wrote that her husband had worked every day for five months, but had not received a dollar in money; everything was trade. In September, 1820, the work had disappeared and many families had moved away. On Christmas day, 1820, she wrote that Mr. Deshler had got his first job for ten months, a contract to make shelves for the State Library. February 11, 1821, she wrote that Colum- bus had been lively during the winter, owing to the session of the legislature and the courts. She had seen Henry Clay, a visitor in the town, and found him genteel, but very plain in his dress, his coat having buttons as big as a dollar. The letters she wrote in 1821-22 were, indeed, doleful. They had lost their first-born and both she and Mr. Deshler had been sick, as had most of their neighbors, all suffering from the epidemic fever. The thoughts of the people were on sickness, taking care of the sick, and hard times. There was no business, and there were many funerals. "Our burying ground," she wrote Sep- tember 29, 1822, "has averaged ten new graves a week, for a number of weeks past. She called the ailment bilious fever, reported that even the most robust did not feel safe and some of the stricken had died in three or four days. For work one could get all kinds of produee, but very little money. In eighteen months Mr. Deshler had not received $20 in cash. The stagnation in business continued through 1823-24, and to the original sickness was added what Mrs. Deshler called influenza. In March, 1826, she reported that the epi- demic had abated and in the following November, that the town was quite healthy and lively, with provisions plenty and cheap. In the following year, when her son, William G. Deshler, was but ten weeks old, she died, aged 30 years.
In 1824 the county seat was moved from Franklinton to Columbus, the courts being installed in the United States court house that had been erected on the capitol square across from the Neil House in 1820, the county offices oeeupying a building that was erccted a few years later just east of the court house building. Both of these structures were on state property, the county paying for the office building, and the court house having been erected with money donated by citizens, to which was added a small state appropriation.
In 1830, the Mechanics' Beneficial Society, which had just been organized for mutual relief in case of sickness and for general improvement in literature and seienee, gave a public dinner to Henry Clay, who was here occasionally in the earlier days arguing eases in the United States courts. There was a parade, July 22, followed by a dinner, with a political speech by Clay. In that year, too, the wharf lots were laid out by order of the city council, with the thought that they should always remain city property.
The presence in the early city of the members of the General Assembly, the judges and the lawyers who came to plead cases added much to the social life of the capital. The gov- ernor lodged at inns, sometimes with his family and sometimes without, and the dinners given by or for him were events of great importance. In the General Assembly there were then as always some men of loose living, and the papers and correspondence of the time chronicle protests against the influence of their gambling and hilarious doings on the morals of the town.
In the summer of 1833, cholera first made its appearance, being accompanied by febrile maladies not easily distinguished in the first stages from cholera itself. The seourge con- tinued from July to October, a third of the 3,000 population fleeing to the country to escape it. The deaths in that period numbered 200, one-half of which were attributed to cholera. Discouragements were numerous, but the prospect was not all black.
A traveler who approached the city from the east in the spring of 1831 wrote in a
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HISTORY OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
letter: "When the day dawned and the sun rose from beneath the eastern forest, it dis- closed the fairest sight I have beheld this side of the Alleghenies. Columbus is generally acknowledged to be the most beautifully situated town in the State. To the eye which delights in the prospect of natural scenery, either desire of hill and dale, forest and river, it presents attractions of no ordinary kind. The location is so elevated, on the ascending bank of the Scioto, as to command a complete view of the western horizon, which extends quite to a semi-circle, and is level as the horizon of the ocean. The sunsets are glorious beyond description, and almost every evening the west presents a scene which, while it invites the skill, would, I fear, baffle the cunning of the most glowing peneil."
In 1834, the population was between 3,000 and 4,000, wrote Mrs. H. M. Hubbard in 1885. Capitol square was enclosed the same year. That part of the city lying between Broad and Rich streets, east of Fourth, was a common in which was a large pond called "Hodgkins' pond," extending from State southeast to Main street. From that point to the river flowed a small stream called "Peters' run," which long since disappeared. Where Spring street now is was another stream which was crossed at High street, horses wading and pedestrians walking on a rude bridge of two logs, from which small boys were accus- tomed to fish. Drinking water was supplied by living springs in the eastern part of the city. In 1835, Columbus numbered 18 so-called dry goods stores, where could be found with dry goods, goods not dry-whiskey, rum and other strong drinks. Also groceries, hats, caps, stoves, shoes, in fact, everything for the comfort and use of inner man and woman. Colum- bus had two weekly newspapers, no dailies, four steam manufactories. For illuminating pur- poses tallow dips were used, and the streets were unlighted,
CHAPTER VII. CITY LIFE FROM 1834 TO 1860.
Business and Professional Men-Michigan Boundary Dispute-Business Depression-Dr. Lapham's Reminiscenees-Orris Parrish Family History-Effort to Remove the Capi- tal-Whig Convention of 1840-War with Mexico-California Exodus in 1849-Re- appearance of the Cholera-l'isit of Louis Kossuth-First Republican Convention- Know-Nothingism-State Treasury Defalcation-Visits by Lincoln and Douglas.
Columbus was incorporated as a city in 1834. It then had a population of about 3,500, with 10 lawyers, 11 physicians, eight elergymen, 36 mercantile establishments and nine taverns. The lawyers were Gustavus Swan, Orris Parrish, Noah H. Swayne, P. B. Wileox, Lyne Starling, M. J. Gilbert, Mease Smith, John G. Miller, Samuel C. Andrews and John D. Munford.
The physicians were Samuel Parsons, John M. Edmiston, M. B. Wright, Peter Jackson, Peleg Sisson, Robert Thompson, Wm. M. Awl, N. M. Miller, S. Z. Seltzer, J. S. Landes and P. H. Eberly. The elergymen were James Hoge, Presbyterian; Wm. Preston, Episcopalian; Thomas Asbury, Jesse F. Wiseom, L. B. Gurley and Russell Bigelow, Methodist; George Jeffries and Edward Davis, Baptist.
The taverns were: National Hotel, John Noble; Franklin House, (High and Town), J. Robinson & Son: Globe Hotel, Robert Russell; Lion Hotel, Jeremiah Armstrong; Swan Hotel, Christian Heyl; White Horse, afterwards Eagle Hotel, David Brooks; Union Tavern, Amos Meneely; Farmers and Mechanies' Tavern, T. Cadwallader, and a boarding house by Ira Grover.
Among the store-keepers were: L. Goodale & Co., Buttles & Matthews, J. & S. Stone, A. P. Stone, D. W. Deshler, MeCoy & Work, John, Reuben and David Brooks, Tunis Peters & Son, Brotherton and Kooken, Olmsted & St. Clair, Robert Russell & Co., W. A. Gill & Co., Wm. A. Platt. I. N. Whiting and John Young.
In 1835 came the exeitement incident to the Michigan boundary dispute, involving the ownership of a strip of land from Lake Erie to the western boundary and including the eity of Toledo. In February the legislatures of both states laid claims to the traet, and Aeting Governor S. T. Mason, of Michigan, sent militia to the spot. Governor Lueas, of Ohio, sent a commission to locate the boundary and later dispatched about 500 militiamen to give the commission protection. In spite of this precaution, nine members of the Ohio sur- veying party were seized by the Michigan troops and held. Under this provocation, the Ohio General Assembly was called in special session and made preparations for war. The Adjutant General reported 10,000 men ready for service and the General Assembly appro- priated $300,000 for immediate use and authorized a loan of $300,000 more. At that point President Jackson put a restraining hand on the Michigan authorities, Mason was removed from office, and Congress sustained Ohio's claim, giving to Michigan in lieu of the traet, the northern peninsula. Thus the controversy ended without bloodshed.
In 1836 Alfred Kelley built his handsome colonial, stone front house on Broad street, just east of Fifth street. The site was then so far out and was so cut off from the rest of the city by morass that it was called "Kelley's Folly." But Mr. Kelley knew well what he was doing. He mastered the springs, reclaimed the morass and made beautiful the traet on which the old house still stands, with Memorial Hall and the Elks Club House between it and Fifth street.
On November 5, 1836, General William Henry Harrison was a guest of the city. He was dined at Russell's Hotel and weleomed in a speech by Alfred Kelley. In his response, General Harrison referred to his coming to Ohio 10 years before and to his military experi- ences in and around Columbus.
From this time on for several years the city suffered from the general business depres- sion, and everybody went into polities to "save the country" and so escape from his own partieular ills. Both the Demoeratie and Whig parties held exciting conventions in Colum- bus in 1838, and there was mueh partisan bitterness.
Dr. I. A. Lapham, who was secretary of the Ohio Board of Canal Commissioners from
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HISTORY OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
1832 to 1836, during his residence in Columbus, kept a diary, from which it is learned that his salary was $100 a year, but was not required to give all his time to the work of the office. He boarded at first at Noble's National Hotel but, after a few weeks, at the home of Mr. Medberry, Penitentiary engineer, at $1.75 a week, which, he notes, is $39 a year less than he paid at Portsmouth. In June, Lapham "made an engagement with Henry Brown, Treasurer of State, to sleep in his office and guard the publie funds." "I am now writing," he said in a letter to his brother in June, 1833, "in a little office, whose door, and window shutters are faeed with thick sheet iron. I have locked, barred and bolted the whole and therefore think myself seeure. At the head of my bed is a loaded pistol, ready for use in ease of necessity. The Treasurer's office is in the same building with the Canal Commis- sioners' office. The addition to my salary is $100, per annum."
The eholera broke out while Lapham was here. On July 14, he records a death in the town; on the 23rd, two deaths at his boarding house, both vietims being well at breakfast time and dead at the time for the evening meal. "There have been three or four deaths a day," he writes, "and cases unnumbered since that day." On September 8, he wrote: "Columbus is not yet free from eholera, but it is not as bad as it was," and there are hopes that the heavy rains will wash it away.
"It is a busy time with me now." he wrote January 19, 1834. "Recording the proceed- ings of the board, copying their reports, assisting in settling with county treasurers who bring their collections to the state treasury, each year in January, are my principal duties." He also speaks of having become a member of the Historieal and Philosophieal Society of Ohio and having been appointed to an office with the duties of eustodian, for he says that members of the society are to send to him their collections which are for the present to the arranged in the office where he works. In a letter to his brother, January 30, 1835, Mr. Lapham speaks of a large case of drawers and shelves closed by glass doors and inscribed "Cabinet of the Historical and Philosophieal Society of Ohio," containing petrified "ram's horns," "ealves' horns" and "honey comb" and many other eurious stones, mussel shells, snail shells, minerals, ores, boulders, bugs, butterflies, dried plants, ete. There is a glimpse of the politics of the time in the following extraet :
I wish you would exert your imagination a little, and see me in the Canal Commissioners' office, sitting at a small desk appropriated to the use of the secretary of the board. Imagine further that you see at my right hand Mr. Kilbourne, standing at a high desk and writing a long report relating to the books, accounts and vouchers of the Auditor and the Treasurer of State for the last three years. Observe the dark frown on his brow, and you will be able to anticipate something of the nature of his composition; perhaps it relates to some wolf-sealp vouchers that are missing, or perhaps to the $10,000 of 3 per cent. money drawn from the United States Treasury without anthority and paid into the State Treasury when it suited the convenience of the one who drew it; or perhaps it may relate to the $504 paid to a certain printer for work which could have been done by others for half that sumn * * * Imagine further that Mr. R. is writing a chapter on the effect of the July rains and floods on the canal, for the annual report, and Judge Tappan studying some abstract question of law or politics, or possibly reading the Globe. If he opens his mouth, it will be to wish, perhaps. that Judge MeLene would resign his present office and become a candidate for the Presidency of the United States, and promise to vote for him, provided he would do so.
In a letter, dated July 7, 1835, Mr. Lapham wrote to his brother that he had been appointed by the Council of Columbus, which had just been incorporated as a eity, as City Surveyor, and that he has to superintend the laying of about a mile of wooden conduit and the construction of five fire cisterns, 6,000 gallons each. He asks his brother to note how they put the logs together in Cincinnati, as he thinks the manner of running one log into another is objectionable.
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