USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I > Part 21
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Brother William, knowing the uncertainty of the Indians, went to Detroit for assistance. He applied to General Hamtramck, who gave him an officer and twelve men. With this force he came to Brownstown, sixteen miles. We were all there, and I had found my brother John who was as unwilling to leave as myself. We were strutting back and forth on the porch. I had a large bunch of feathers tied in my hair at the crown of my head and rings in my ears and nose. I was feeling very large and defiant. When I saw William coming, I
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said to John, " There comes our white brother." He came towards us and put out his hand to shake hands, but we drew ourselves up seornfully, and would not allow him to touch us. Oh, how little we knew or thought of the toil and suffering he had endured for our sake !
We were both determined not to go with him ; so they took us by force. William took one of us by the hand and the officer the other ; they dragged us along to the boat. I well remember our setting one foot back to brace ourselves, and pulling with our might to get from them. But they succeeded in geting us into the boat and pushing off, leaving the old squaw who had the care of me, standing on the hank crying. There she stood, and I could hear her cries until lost in the distance. I eried too, till quite exhausted, and I fell asleep.
John, being with the tribe that traded with the whites, did not forget his native tongue. Some days after we started, William related the story of our capture, the murder of our mother, sisters and brother. John repeated it to me. Oh, what a sudden change it wrought in me! It brought back the whole scene so foreihly to my recollection, that I clung to my brother with affection and gratitude, and never more had a wish to return to the red men.
At Detroit we left our boat, and were kept in garrison four or five days, waiting for a vessel to take us to Erie, Pennsylvania. We went from Erie to Pittsburgh, from there to our old home at Mr. Gillespie's, one of our old neighbors. We then changed our savage clothes, and after remaining several days, we left for Chillicothe, from thence to Franklin, my present home. JEREMIAHI ARMSTRONG.
Columbus, Ohio, April, 1858.
In 1798 James Scott opened a small store in Franklinton, much to the con- venience of the settlement. This was the beginning of permanent trade in the upper part of the Scioto Valley. Robert Russell opened an additional store in 1803. Nearly everything in the way of supplies had to be brought up the valley in canoes, or on packhorses, from the Ohio. One of the articles most necessary, and most difficult to obtain, was salt, the great scarcity and cost of which impelled Mr. Sullivant to resort to an expedient for its manufacture. " He knew," says his biographer, " that the deer resorted in great numbers to the lick on the river below Franklinton, and he had observed, when encamped there some years before, that there were strong evidences of the Indians having made salt in that place. The work was vigorously prosecuted, 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 into long and large wooden troughs hollowed out from huge trees, and with the aid of a battery of common 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."10
More curious still were the expedients resorted to for providing the materials for bread. Writing in 1856, Colonel Andrew McElvain says the " first mealmaking establishment" for the infant community was contrived by Samuel MeElvain, by burning a hole in a stump, and adding "a sweep so fixed that two men could ponnd corn into meal." A sifter was added to this equipment by stretching a deer skin over a hoop, and burning holes in it with a heated wire. This primitive con- trivance vanished, in due course, before the enterprising spirit of one Rogers, who erected a handmill to do the meal-grinding for the settlement. Those who were not able to afford the luxury of hiring the services of the handmill, used improvised graters, or made hominy of their corn by pounding it in a log " mortar."
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.
The first ferry across the Scioto of which there is any account was owned by Joseph Foos, who was also proprietor of the first hotel in Franklinton, opened in 1803. Owing to the active part taken in politics by its owner, this tavern -all public lodging-houses were then known as taverns - became the political head- quarters of the settlement. Mr. Foos served as Senator or Representative in the General Assembly of Ohio during twentyfive sessions, including the first. During the War of 1812, in which he took an active part he rose from the rank of captain to that of brigadier-general. From 1825 until he died in 1832, he held a commis- sion as Major-General of the State militia. He was a man of original ideas, and a speaker and writer of some note.
Lucas Sullivant settled permanently in Franklinton in 1801. He had shortly prior to that time married Sarah Starling, the second daughter and fourth child of Colonel William Starling, of Kentucky. Of the ancestry of Lncas Sullivant little is known, but the lineage of the Starlings is perspicuous as far back as 1670, when their paternal ancestor, Sir William Starling, held the office of Lord Mayor of London. Their family name being one of the most prominent and important in the early annals of Columbus, a few particulars as to its antecedents are germane to this narrative. The first of the Starlings who came to this country was William, a great-grandson to the Lord Mayor, who settled in King William County, Virginia, about 1740. Married soon after his arrival to Jane Gordon, daughter of a Scotch physician, William Starling died in his twentysixth year, leaving three children, who were placed under the guardianship of Colonel Lyne, a wealthy neigh- bor, descended from an old English family which had settled in King William County. The Lynes were proud of their lineage, and very aristocratic; nevertheless young William Starling had the temerity to marry Susanna Lyne, his guardian's sister. Colonel Lyne's displeasure at this match made it convenient for young Starling and his bride to emigrate to Kentucky, where they settled, in 1794, on a farm near Harrodsburg. One of the eleven children born to William Starling and Susanna Lyne was the second daughter, already mentioned, who became the wife of Lucas Sullivant; another was Lyne Starling, who, though he lived and died a bachelor, has perpetuated his name for all time as one of the four original proprietors of Columbus, and the munificent founder of the Starling Medical College.
Among the accessions to the Franklinton colony in 1803 were David and Joseph Jamison, who came from Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, and were soon followed by several other representatives of their numerous kindred. A sister of the Jamison brothers, while visiting them in their new home, became acquainted with and married Samuel Barr, who had also come from the Shippensburg dis- triet. Barr was at that time one of the leading traders of the frontier. In connection with his cousin, John T. Barr, a wealthy merchant of Baltimore, he became interested in the firm of Barr & Campbell at Portsmouth, and established at Franklinton that of Barr & Keys. Immediately prior to his settlement in the Franklinton colony he had been engaged in business at Chillicothe.
In 1803 Colonel Robert Culbertson, also from Shippensburg, joined the colony "with his numerous family of sons, sons-in-law and daughters."1) Twice a widower, there had been born to him twelve sons and daughters. In Franklinton he married a lady who had been twice widowed and was the mother of twelve sons and daughters. No issue resulted from this third union but the Jamison and
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Culbertson families intermarried, and from thence sprang a numerous progeny. One of the suitors of Rachel Jamison, who married Samuel Barr, is said to have been the distinguished benefactor of Columbus who has given his name to Goodale Park.
Colonel Culbertson bought a large amount of land, not only about Franklin- ton, but on the eastern side of the Scioto. The next year after his arrival he was chosen as one of the Representatives of Ross County in the first General Assembly of Ohio.
Soon after the founding of Franklinton, Mr. Sullivant laid out the town of North Liberty, on the Big Darby, where a few families soon gathered. This prob- ably took place about the summer of 1799.12 Contemporary settlements were made at the mouth of the Gahannah, and along the other principal watercourses within the present limits of Franklin County. Among the carlier arrivals on Alum Creek were Messrs. Turner, Nelson, Hamilton, Agler and Reed. "In the mean time," says Martin, "Franklinton was the point to which the emigrants first repaired to spend some months, or perhaps years prior to their permanent location."18
NOTES.
1. His son, Joseph Sullivant.
2. Colonel Anderson was the father of Major Robert Anderson, the defender of Fort Sumter, and of Hon. Charles Anderson, late Governor of Ohio.
3. Sullivant Family Memorial.
4. 1874.
5. Sullivant Family Memorial.
6. The son of [Arthur] Boke hy a negro female, formerly a slave belonging to our family in Kentucky, was abandoned in infancy by his mother, but was nourished at her own breast by our mother, with her eldest son, William. This Arthur was, in after years, my nurse, and, spending his life in the family, at last found a resting-place with his old master in Green Lawn Cemetery .- Joseph Sullirant, in the Sullivant Family Memorial.
7. His patents covered most of the territory from Boke's Creek south to a point below the Forks, and from the Scioto West to the Big Darby.
8. The copy here given is taken from the History of Franklin County, by W. T. Martin ; 1858.
9. In 1797 the Government contracted with Ebenezer (some authorities say Noah) Zane, to mark a trail from the present site of Wheeling, West Virginia, through the Ohio wilderness to Limestone, now Maysville, Kentucky. For this service Mr. Zane was to have three sections of the public land, to be selected by himself. Assisted by some Indians, whom hé employed as guides, he proceeded to survey a practicable route, which was marked by "blazing" forest trees, and was theneeforward known as Zane's Trace. It crossed the Muskingum and Hocking at the points where now rise the cities of Zanesville and Lancaster, and was afterward extended from Lancaster to Franklinton. For many years it was the principal, indeed the only traveled route through the Ohio wilderness. The arterial roads and railways by which it has been since superseded have attested the wisdom of its location. The Zanesville and Maysville Turnpike is said to follow its path very nearly from the Muskingum to Chillicothe. Mr. Zane further evinced his sagacity by selecting his land at the points where now stand the cities of Lancaster, Zanesville and Wheeling.
10. Sullivant Family Memorial.
11. Martin's History of Franklin County.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
CHAPTER VIII.
FRANKLINTON. II.
We have now reached an important point of political departure for the settle- ments at the Forks of the Scioto, and in the wilderness circumjacent. It is the be- ginning-point of the present County of Franklin.
On the twentyeighth of August, 1798, the territorial county of Ross was pro- claimed by Governor St. Clair. It took its name from Hon. James Ross, a prominent Federalist of Alleghany County, Pennsylvania, and its boundaries were described in St. Clair's proclamation as follows :
Beginning at the fortysecond mile tree, on the line of the original grant of land made by the United States to the Ohio Company, which line was run by Israel Ludlow, and running from thence west, until it shall intersect a line to be drawn due north from the mouth of Elk River, commonly called Eagle Creek, and from the point of intersection running north to the southern boundary of the county of Wayne, until a north line to be drawn from the place of beginning shall intersect the same; and if it should be found that a north line drawn from the place of beginning will not intersect the said southern boundary of Wayne, then an east line is to be drawn from the eastern termination of said boundary until it shall intersect the aforesaid north line to be drawn from the point of beginning.
From the northern part of the territory thus vaguely defined, Franklin County was set off by act of the First General Assembly of Ohio, passed March 30, to take effect April 30, 1803.1 Its limits were thus set forth in the statute :
Beginning on the western boundary of the twentieth range of townships east of the Scioto River, at the corner of sections numbers twentyfour and twentyfive in the ninth Township of the Twentyfirst Range, surveyed by John Matthews, thence west until it inter- sects the eastern boundary line of Green County, thence north with said line until it inter- sects the State line, thence eastwardly with the said line to the northwest corner of Fairfield County, thence with the western boundary line of Fairfield to the point of beginning.
That is to say, according to Martin, " bounded on the east by nearly our pres- sent line, south by a line near the middle of what is now Pickaway County, on the west by Greene County, and on the north by Lake Erie."?
" The creation of the county of Delaware in 1808," continues Martin, "reduced our northern boundary to its present line; the creation of the county of Pickaway in 1810, reduced our southern boundary to its present limits; the creation of Mad- ison in 1810, and of Union in 1820, reduced our western limits to the boundaries represented by Wheeler's County Map, published in 1842; but subsequently, by an act of the Legislature passed the fourth of March, 1845, our western boundary was changed by making Darby Creek the line from the northwest corner of Brown to the north line of Pleasant Township, as represented by Foote's Map of 1856; and by an act passed the twentyseventh of January, 1857, entitled ' An act to annex a part of Licking County to the County of Franklin,' there were nine half sections
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taken from the southwest corner of Licking, and attached to Franklin. This oc- casions the jog in the eastern line of Truro Township, as represented on the maps. Then at the session of 1850-1851, a range of sections, being a strip one mile in width, including the town of Winchester, was taken from Fairfield County and attached to the east side of Madison Township, in Franklin County as represented on Foote's Map. The county is now [1858] in nearly a square form, and is twenty- two and a half miles in extent north and south, and would probably average a trifle over that from east to west."3
The statute creating the county further provided that " courts for the said County of Franklin shall be holden in the town of Franklinton, until a permanent seat of justice shall be established therein, agreeably to the provisions of an act en- titled 'an act establishing seats of justice.' "
Under the Constitution of 1802 the Common Pleas or County Judges were chosen by the General Assembly, and were called Associate Judges. By the act of April 16, 1803, it was made the duty of these Judges, to establish townships and fix their boundaries, to appoint certain county officers, and to discharge various other duties now performed by county commissioners. The first Common Pleas Judges appointed for Franklin County were John Dill, David Jamison and Joseph Foos, of whom the first named was the President or Chief Judge. This Court ap- pointed Lucas Sullivant as its Clerk,4 and on May 10, 1803, proceeded to divide the county into four townships, two east and two west of the Scioto. The eastern townships were named Harrison and Liberty, the western Franklin and Darby.5 At the same sitting of the court an election of Justices of the Peace was ordered, to take place on the twentyfirst day of the ensuing June. In pursuance of this order the following justices were chosen on the day appointed : In Franklin Township, Zachariah Stephen and James Marshal; in Darby, Josiah Ewing; in Harrison, William Bennett; in Liberty, Joseph Hunter and Ezra Brown. On the same day, Ohio elected Jeremiah Morrow as her first Representative in Congress. The vote of Franklin County, cast at that election, as canvassed and reported by Lucas Sullivant, David Jamison and Joseph Foos, shows the following aggregate, by townships : Franklin, 59; Darby, 22; Harrison, 21; Liberty, 28; total 130.
Liberal extracts from the proceedings of the first Common Pleas Court of Franklin County appear in Martin's History, transcribed, the anthor says, from unbound sheets of manuscript, in the handwriting of Lucas Sullivant, which had been thrown aside as office rubbish. The following portions of these extracts are of such local interest and significance as to deserve to be reproduced here :
At a meeting of the Associate Judges of the Court of Common Pleas of Franklin County, on the eiglith day of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and three, present the Honorable John Dill, Esq., first Associate, and David Jamison, Esq., second Asso- eiate Judges of said Court. Ordered, that the rates of Tavern License in Franklinton be four dollars per annum.
Ordered, that a license be granted William Domigan, Sr., to keep tavern in his own house in Franklinton until the next Court of Common Pleas for Franklin County, and after- ward, until he can renew his license.
Ordered that license be granted to Joseph Foos to keep a tavern at the house occupied by him in Franklinton for the accommodation of travelers until the next Court of Common Pleas for Franklin County, and afterward until the license can be renewed.
Adjourned without day.
Test,
LUCAS SULLIVANT, Clerk.
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.
THE LUCAS SULLIVANT STORE, FRANKLINTON. Photograph by F. E. Howe, 1892.
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FRANKLINTON. II.
At a session of the Associate Judges of the Court of Common Pleas for Franklin County, at the place of holding courts in Franklinton for the county aforesaid, on Thursday, the eighth of September, 1803, it being the first judicial day after the adjournment of the Court of Com- mon Pleas of the said County of Franklin-present John Dill, David Jamison and Joseph Foos, Gentlemen Associate Judges, aforesaid, who having assumed their official seats, and were attended by Lucas Sullivant, Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas of said county, the following proceedings were had, to wit: On the prayer of a petition signed by a number of signers as required by law, and who were citizens of this county, praying for a view of a road leading from the public square in Franklinton, out of said town on the Pickaway road, thence the nearest and best way to Lancaster, in Fairfield County, until it intersects the line between the counties aforesaid. Ordered, that the prayer of said petition be granted, and that John Brickell, Joseph Dickson and Joseph Hunter be appointed viewers of said road, who, or any two of them, shall view the ground aforesaid in this county and act in conjunc- tion with the viewers that may be appointed by the Court of Common Pleas of Fairfield County, on what point said road will eross the line between the counties aforesaid, to be on the nearest and best ground to be had from Franklinton to Lancaster. It is further ordered that Joseph Vance be appointed surveyor to attend the said viewers on the above described road, and that he make a survey and report thereof to our next January term
[Note by Martin : This road was made to eross the Scioto at the old ford below the canal dam, and pass through the bottom fields, then woods, to intersect what is now the Chillicothe road south of Stewart's Grove; and continued to be the traveled road until after Columbus was laid out. Jacob Armitage kept the ferry over the river.]
On the prayer of a petition signed by a number of freeholders and citizens of Franklin County, praying for a view of a road to lead from the northeast end of Gift Street, in Frank- linton, on as straight a direction as the situation of the ground will admit of a road, towards the town of Newark, in Fairfield County, so far as the line between the counties of Franklin and Fairfield. The prayer aforesaid granted ; and ordered that Sammel McElvain, Elijah Fulton and Joseph Parks be appointed viewers, who, or any two of them shall view said road in this county, and act in conjunction with viewers that may be appointed by the Court of Common Pleas of Fairfield County, at what point on the line between said counties the road aforesaid shall cross, to be on the nearest and best ground from the point of beginning as aforesaid to the termination thereof. It is further ordered, that Samuel Smith be appointed surveyor to attend the said viewers and make a correct survey of said road, and report the same to our next January term.
Ordered, that there be paid unto Jeremiah McLene, who was appointed by the Legisla- ture of the State of Ohio as one of the commissioners to fix the permanent seat of justice in this county (Franklin), the sum of fifteen dollars. it being a compensation for his services as aforesaid six days, and his additional service in writing and circulating the notices as required by law.
[Note by Martin : General Jeremiah McLene died at Washington City on the nineteenthi of March, 1837, aged 70 years. His sickness dated from his attendance at the inauguration of Martin VanBuren on the fourth of that month. He had just completed his second term in Congress. He was a native of Pennsylvania, and in early life emigrated from that State to the then Territory of Tennessee, where he was an intimate companion of General Andrew Jackson, for whom he always entertained a great partiality. He was subsequently a pioneer to the Northwestern Territory. In the early part of the present century, he settled in the infant town of Chillicothe, and was, while there. Sheriff of Ross County. Then, there and at Columbus together, he served twentyone years in succession as Secretary of State, and was a very popular State officer. He was a surveyor and fond of his compass and the business- was for a number of years county surveyor for Franklin County, and also city surveyor of Columbus.]
Ordered that there be paid unto James Ferguson, who was appointed one of the com- missioners to fix the permanent seat of justice in this county (Franklin), the sum of twelve dol- lars, it being a compensation for his services as a commissioner aforesaid six days.
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.
Ordered that there be paid out of the county treasury of Franklin, unto William Creighton, who was appointed by the legislature of the State of Ohio one of the commis- sioners to fix and establish the permanent seat of justice in the County of Franklin, the sumn of twelve dollars, it being the compensation allowed him by law for six days service as a commissioner aforesaid.
*
* * * * *
Ordered, that there be allowed and paid to Joseph Foos, Esq., as follows : Four dollars expended by him in preparing for the reception of the Court of Common Pleas for Franklin County at September term, 1803 ; also the sum of one dollar and fifty cents expended by him in conveying the election box and a volume of the laws of the State to the house of election in Darby Township prior to the twentyfirst of June as required by law ; also the sum of three dollars paid by him to James Marshall, Esquire, for bringing from the printing office part of the number of volumes of laws of this State, as was allowed by law for Franklin County, and which was brought for the use of the different townships ; also the sum of two dollars which he paid for the election boxes made use of at the past election in this county.
Ordered, that there be paid to John Blair lister of taxable property in Franklin Town- ship, the sum of six dollars and fortynine cents, it being the compensation in full this day claimed by him before this court for his services in taking the list aforesaid, and also the list of enumeration in said township, and three miles mileage in making said return.
On the prayer of a petition signed by a number of citizens, house and freeholders of Franklin County, praying for the view of a road to lead from the public square in Franklin- ton to Springfield, in Greene County, to be on the straightest and nearest direction towards Springfield as the nature of the ground and circumstances will admit of a good road, ordered that Thomas Morehead, Alexander Blair and George Skidmore he appointed viewers of said road, who, or any two of them, shall view the same as far as the line between Franklin and Greene County, and make report to our January term next. It is further ordered that Cap- tain John Blair be appointed surveyor to attend said viewers on the above premises, and survey said road, and return a fair plat or survey thereof as required by law, to our January session next.
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