History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I, Part 28

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1202

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SECT. 4. That the aforesaid director shall view and examine the lands above mentioned and superintend the surveying and laying out of the town aforesaid and direct the width of streets and alleys therein ; also, to select the square for public buildings, and the lot for the penitentiary and dependencies according to the proposals aforesaid ; and he shall make a re- port thereof to the next legislature ; he shall moreover perform such other duties as will be required of him by law.

SECT. 5. That said Mclaughlin, Kerr, Starling, and Johnston shall, on or before the first day of July next ensuing, at their own expence, cause the town aforesail to be laid out and a plat of the same recorded in the recordler's office of Franklin County, distinguishing therein the square and lot to be by them conveyed to this state; and they shall moreover transmit a certified copy thereof to the next legislature for their inspection.

SECT. 6. That from and after the first day of May next, Chillicothe shall be the tem- porary seat of government until otherwise provided by law.

MATTHIAS CORWIN, Speaker of the House of Representatives. THOS. KIRKER, Speaker of the Senate."

The tract of wild woodland thus chosen as the capital of Ohio was named Columbus.7 The christening took place very unceremoniously, it seems, by joint resolution passed February 20, 1812, on which date the General Assembly passed an additional resolution appointing Joel Wright, of Warren County, as Director

THE FOREST SETTLEMENT.

209

TIN SHOP

WYWILKINSONS SUGROCERY. 59

$125

JOHN KERR'S LAND OFFICE, WEST BROAD STREET. Photograph by F. H. Howe, Columbus Camera Club, 1892.

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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

to " view and examine " the lands proffered, and to lay out and survey " the town aforesaid." Meanwhile the four proprietors whose propositions had been accepted proceeded to perfect their stipulations with one another, and joined in a written covenant the preamble to which recites that " the Legislature of the State of Ohio have, by law, fixed and established the permanent seat of Government for said State, on half sections Nos. 9, 25 and 26, and parts of half sections Nos. 10 and 11, all in Township 5, range 22, refugee lands, agreeably to the proposals of the par- ties aforesaid, made to the Legislature of said State." In these presents it was agreed that a common stock should be created for the benefit of the copartners ; that all donations, and the proceeds of all sales, should be received by the syndi- cate on joint account ; that Starling's contribution to the real estate assets should be half section number twentyfive, except ten acres already sold to John Brickell ; that Johnston should contribute half section number nine and one half of half sec- tion number ten ; that MeLaughlin and Kerr, who had previously formed a part- nership with one another and were considered as a third party to the agreement, should put in half section number 26; that each partner should individually war- rant the title of the lands he contributed ; that the business of the company should be managed by an agent of its own appointment; that on the first Monday in January, for five successive years, each partner should pay to this agent twenty- four hundred dollars, and such further sums as might be necessary to complete the public buildings; and that when the contract with the State should be ful- filled, a final settlement and equal division of profits and losses should take place. These stipulations were closed at Zanesville, February 19, 1812.

To complete the town plat in the size and form desired, a contract was made with Rev. James Hoge for eighty acres from the southern portion of half section number cleven, and one with Thomas Allen for twenty acres from the south part of half section number ten. One half of each of these tracts was retained as a con- tribution, and the other half conveyed back, in the form of city lots, to the donor. The Mclaughlin and Kerr tract extended from the southern boundary of the town plat northward to an east-and-west line parallel to and just south of the present course of State Street. Starling's tract lay next on the north, extending to the vicinity of our present Spring Street. Beyond Starling's lay the tracts obtained from Hoge and Allen. At a later period the proprietors laid out a supplementary addition of about forty two-acre lots, still further north, and conveyed to the town one acre and a half for the cemetery afterwards known as the North Graveyard. The value of the total donations obtained by the company on subscription was estimated at fifteen or twenty thousand dollars. The first agent of the company, appointed in April, 1812, was John Kerr, who was relieved on his own volition, in June, 1815. From that date until the company finally wound up its affairs, its business was managed by Henry Brown.

The proprietors having closed their contract with the State, and all the pre- liminaries having been arranged, Director Wright called to his assistance Joseph Vance, of Franklin County, and proceeded to survey and stake out the streets, public squares and building-lots of the capital. The principal streets were made to take the directions which they yet retain, crossing one another at right angles, and bearing twelve degrees west of north, and twelve degrees north of east. The breadth of the two main thoroughfares, one going north and south and the other

211

THE FOREST SETTLEMENT.

Photograph by F. H. Howe, Columbus Camera Club, 1892. JOHN BRICKELL'S CABIN.

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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

east and west, was, respectively, one hundred and one hundred and twenty feet ; that of the other streets, eightytwo and one-half feet. The frontage of the inlots was sixtytwo and one-half feet, their depth one hundred and eightyseven and one- half feet. The outlots contained each about three aeres. The town lots were ex- empted from taxation for county purposes until January 1, 1816, but were mean- while subject to an equivalent levy by the State Director, who was required to ap- ply as much of the proceeds as necessary to sinking a well for the Statehouse, and improving the State Road from Columbus to Granville."

As soon as the Director had marked the boundaries of the streets, alleys, public squares and building lots of the proposed city, its proprietors published the following captivating advertisement :

FOR SALE.

On the premises, commencing on Thursday, the eighteenth day of June next, and to continue for three days, in- and out-lots in the town of Columbus, established by an act of the Legislature, as the permanent seat of government for the state of Ohio.

Terms of Sale: One fifth of the purchase money will be required in hand; the residue to be paid in four equal annual installments. Interest will be required on the deferred pay- ments from the day of sale, if they are not punctually made when due. Eight per cent. will be discounted for prompt payment on the day of sale.

The town of Columbus is situated on an elevated and beautiful site, on the east side of the Scioto River, immediately below the junction of the Whetstone branch, and opposite to Franklinton, the seat of justice for Franklin County, in the center of an extensive tract of rich fertile country, from whence there is an easy navigation to the Ohio River. Above the town, the west branch of the Scioto affords a good navigation for about eighty miles, and the Whetstone branch as far as the town of Worthington. Sandusky Bay, the only harbor on the south shore of Lake Erie (except Presque Isle) for vessels of Burthen, is situate due north from Columbus, and about one hundred miles from it. An excellent road may be made with very little expense from the Lower Sandusky town to the mouth of the Little Scioto, a distance of about sixty miles. This will render the communication from the lakes to the Ohio River through the Scioto very easy by which route an immense trade must, at a day not very distant, be carried on which will make the country on the Scioto River rich and populous. The proprietors of the town of Columbus will, by every means in their power, encourage industrious mechanics who wish to make a residence in the town. All such are invited to become purchasers.

Dated at Franklinton, April 13, 1812, and signed by the four proprietors.

The widespread interest which had already been excited by the movement to found a new State capital in the woods of Central Ohio was intensified by these alluring statements. Attracted by them, lot buyers and homeseekers came from near and far to view the "high bank of the Scioto " of which so much had been said. They found there little except paper plats and freshly-driven stakes to in- dicate a town, or even a settlement, yet the promises of nature and of destiny alike conspired to make the locality interesting. Of the scenes which at that time greeted the canoe-voyaging pioneer as he approached the site of Columbus, aseend- ing the Scioto, the following spirited picture has been drawn :9

On his left hand was a broad plain, bounded on the west by a low range of wooded hills, now in part a waving cornfield, in part a grassy meadow. Along the water's edge grew many wild plum trees whose blossoms filled the air with a pleasant perfume. Beyond the meadow and the corn the busy town of Franklinton appeared in the distance, guarded on the east and north by the river, whose thread of water was lost in the forest above. On the right bank of the river rose a sharply inelined bluff, covered by a sturdy growth of native forest

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THE FOREST SETTLEMENT.

timber. The abruptness of this bluff gradually declined as the voyager ascended the stream. As he came up the river he would have seen, south of the Indian mound, from which Mound Street took its name, a small cleared field, in which was the pioneer home of John MeGowan, who then cultivated a farm which he afterwards, in 1814, laid out as McGowan's addition to Columbus. On the ineline of the bluff, not far from the present crossing of Front and State streets, stood a round log cabin, surrounded by a small clearing and occupied by a man named Deardurf and his family. He was probably a squatter on the Refugee lands, and was secure in his home as long as the rightful owner did not claim possession. His small garden, his rifle and his traps furnished him an abundant frontier living, and if he could live free from many of the comforts of civilized life, he was also free from many of its cares. Farther north, and not far from the site of Hayden's rolling mills on the banks of a small stream, were the ruins of an old saw mill, built about 1800, by Robert Balentine, a citizen of Frank- linton. Near it were also the ruins of a distillery, built by Benjamin White about the same rime. They were now in decay and almost covered by small trees and underbrush. Near the site of the present penitentiary stood the cabin of John Brickell, who for many years had been a captive among the Indians. He now had a clearing made in the ten acres sold to him by Mr. Starling. Just above his cabin was the old Indian campground he had seen when an unwilling member of one of their tribes. and where, for many years before, Indian feasts had been held, couneils of the tribes deliberated, and horible barbarities inflicted on unfortu- nate captives. Mr. Brickell and his family lived in measured security now, and the man, though now a freeman, could not, and did not entirely, forego Indian customs. lle always wore deerskin moccasins and a skin cap with the tail of the animal dangling down his back. Indians were still plenty, and, owing to the evil influences of the British, troublesome.

Had the canoeist moored his birch bark vessel and ascended the bluff, he would have found himself in a forest of oak, beech, maple, walnut and other trees common to the uplands of Ohio. Their full leaved tops were now the home of the wild songsters of the western woods, who filled the air with their melodies as they flitted hither and thither among the branches. Squirrels gamboled up and down their massive trunks, or from their dizzy heights stopped to gaze at the intruder. Wild turkeys were plenty, deers not strange, and a still more formidable but not less valuable game, bears, not uncommon. About the great trunks of the trees huge grape vines were here and there entwined, whose abundant blossoms promised a rich repast in the autumn. Smaller fruits, such as hawberries, huckle- berries, wild plums, and wild blackberries, were everywhere. The Ohio forest was here in all its native grandeur and native beauty. The full leaved treetops and the leaves of the rambling grapevines almost hid the sun in the heavens. Trees of American growth were scattered here and there through this forest; the dogwood, wild plum, and hawberry, with luxuriant blossoms, mingled their odors with those of the wild flowers all about him, filling the air with a rich fragrance. Nature was here in all her native supremacy, and bad the . traveller known of the purpose for which this plateau was destined, he perhaps might have wondered if the busy life of a city would replace the life of the forest about him. Had he noticed the topography of the city's home, he would have seen a gradual incline from the north towards its centre, a more decided one from the west, and a level land towards the south ; eastward, the plateau slightly declined, while northward was a " prairie," as it was afterwards called. in which he would have found many springs whose outlet was a small stream which found its way westward to the river he had left. Excepting the cabins already mentioned, not a human habitation occupied the site of the future city. Where are now the "busy haunts of man " was a western forest, whose life consisted only in that of bird and beast, whose home it had been for ages past.

Pursuant to announcement, the sales began on the eighteenth of Ju'ne, 1812, and continued until they were sufficient to justify the commencement of the public buildings. The lots sold were located mostly on Broad and High Streets, and brought from two hundred to one thousand dollars each. Among the early pur- chasers were Jacob Hare, Peter Putnam, George McCormick, George B. Harvey,

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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

John Shields, Michael and Alexander Patton, William Altman, John Collett, Wil- liam McElvain, Daniel Kooser, Christian Heyl, Jarvis, Benjamin and George Pike, William Long, Townsend Nichols and Doctor John M. Edmiston. Visiting pur- chasers lodged in the tavern at Franklinton, and reached the place appointed for the sales by crossing the river in canoes, or at the ferry.

Improvements began at once, and were prosecuted with the rude energy char- acteristic of pioneer life. For a time havoc was let loose npon the forest and soon many a stately trec lay prone. The most shapely stems were used in laying up the walls of cabins or split into clapboards, which served the purposes of sawed lumber, of which little could be had. The cropped undergrowth and branches and superfluous logs were piled in heaps and burned. For want of time and funds to remove them, the stamps were permitted to remain, and for a long time impeded the streets. The actual throughfare therefore at first disdained the surveyor's boundaries, and took such devious courses as convenience and the condition of the ground might suggest. A few settlers were housed by autumn, but most of the cabin builders made arrangements to occupy their domieiles the following spring.

The influx of settlers when that season opened, and during the remainder of the year 1813, was considered large. It was sufficient to increase the population of Columbus by the end of the year to about three hundred. There were several ar- rivals from Franklinton, several from Worthington, and a good many from Chilli- cothe and other settlements down the valley. These newcomers located chiefly on Broad, Front, Town, State, and Rich streets, and on High Street, west of the Capitol Square. Front was then expected to be the principal residence street, and became such for the time being. One of the first mercantile ventures in the vil- lage was that of the Worthington Manufacturing Company, which opened an assortment of drygoods, hardware and groceries in a small brick building erected on the subsequent site of the block known as the Broadway Exchange, a few rods north of the present Neil House. Joel Buttles was manager of this establishment. McLene & Green opened a general store about the same time in a small log cabin which stood just east of the spot on which Mechanics' Hall was afterwards built, on the south side of East Rich Street. In the autumn of 1812 John Collett erected a twostory brick tavern on the second lot south of State Street, west side of High. This pioneer inn of Columbus was opened for gnests in 1813, under the manage- ment of Volney Payne.10 Collett took charge of it himself from 1814 until 1816, when he sold it to Robert Russell.

Among other taverns opened about the same time as Collett's was one on Front Street, corner of Sugar Alley, kept by Daniel Kooser, and one by McCollum, known as the Black Bear, on the northwest corner of Front and Broad. A fourth, kept at the northeast corner of High and Rich by two brothers, ex-boatmen, named Day, was disguised as a grocery, but became so notorious for its brawls among Scioto River navigators as to be popularly styled The War Office.

The Columbus Inn was opened in 1815 by David S. Broderick, in a frame building at the southeast corner of High and Town. It is historically mentioned as "a respectable tavern."

Isaiah Voris came over from Franklinton and started the White Horse Tavern. It was located on the present site of the Odd Fellows' Temple.11

In the spring of 1816 James B. Gardiner, also from Franklinton, started the Ohio Tavern, occupying a wooden building on Friend Street, just west of High.

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THE FOREST SETTLEMENT.

Such were some of the earlier Columbus hostelries, of which, together with their successors, a more particular account will be given in a subsequent chapter.

A similar enterprise, which afterwards developed as one of the most popular and widely-known inns of the period, was undertaken by Christian Heyl, whose experiences as one of the pioneer settlers in the embryo capital are deeply inter- esting. They are narrated in an autobiographical sketch" which states that Mr. Heyl, when he arrived at Franklinton in the spring of 1813, found that place so crowded with soldiers of the Northwestern Army, and labor so scarce, that he could neither obtain a house to live in, nor help to build one. He therefore betook himself to Columbus, where he had not at first intended to locate. How he estab- lished his home in that wilderness borough is thus described :

I succeeded in getting a very rough cabin on the southeast corner of Rich and High streets, where the Eagle Drug Store now is. The accommodations were very poor indeed, but still ] had to pay $125 rent and the cabins were not worth twenty dollars. They belonged to Nichols and Mr. Bradney. In the fall of the same year, I moved to Columbus. We were three days on the way from Lancaster to Columbus; the roads were very bad indeed. We had two heavily loaded wagons, with a five-horse team to each, and they had very hard work to get along.

The second day we intended to get as far as Williams's Tavern, about five miles from Col- umbus on the old Lancaster road, but we did not reach it, and so had to camp on the banks of the Big Belly, as it was then called. On the last day we arrived at Columbus about three o'clock in the afternoon. The road from the old William Merion farm was laid out, but the logs were not rolled out of the way. We therefore had to wend our way as best we could. When we came to South Columbus, as it was called, at McGowan's Run, the road was fenced. Old Mr. McGowan refused to let me go through his gates. I tried to prevail on him to let me pass through. I also found that the old man was fond of a little good old whisky. I promised to make him a present of some, and the gates were at once opened. We then passed on without any further trouble, and arrived at my great hotel, which I opened, and built a fire and got my widowed sister to cook some supper while we unloaded the wagon. After all was unloaded, I set the table, which was the lid of my dough tray laid across two barrels of flour set endwise. I rolled barrels of flour on each side for our seats, and we made out to take our supper, and as we were very hungry, I think it was the best meal I ever ate in Columbus. Old Mr. McGowan did not forget to call the next day for the prize I bad promised him.

I then went on and built myself an oven to carry on the baking business. I bad to get all my supplies from Lancaster, Fairfield County, for a number of years, this being a new county and Franklinton the headquarters of the army, where a great many troops were lo- cated, and consequently, provisions scarce.

We bad to go to Franklinton for all our drygoods, as there was at that time no store in Columbus. In the spring of the year 1814 Green & McLene, of Lancaster, started a small drygoods store in a cabin on the same lot where I lived. A second store was opened in a little brick house by the Worthington Manufacturing Company, and was managed by Joel Buttles.

The first winter that I was in Columbus I had my firewood very convenient, as I cut it off of the lot where I lived. My cabin was divided into three rooms, or, more properly, into three stalls. A widowed sister kept house for me and having fixed up the old cabin pretty comfortably, I carried on the baking business quite briskly. In May, 1814, I married Esther Alsbach in Fairfield County, Ohio. When she first saw my great hotel, she seemed a little surprised, but she soon became contented. I did business in the old cabins for two years. Ithen purchased a lot on the same square, and built upon it the house that is now the Franklin House. I kept a hotel there for twentyeight years, and then traded it off' for a farm five miles northeast of Columbus on Alum Creek.

216

HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

A picture of early Columbus, companion to this one drawn by Mr. Heyl, is found in the diary of Joel Buttles, who writes:

When I built my house, in which I lived for some years, it was difficult, after the house was finished, to get the large trees around it cut down without falling on and injuring it. It was a forest all about it, and the country almost in a state of nature. The winter after I came to Columbus to live [1813-14], the deer came into what is now, and was then intended to be, the public square, to browse on the tops of the trees which had been felled for clearing. The town, although located as the permanent seat of government, and the plan laid out by an agent of the State, was looked upon with little regard and slight expectation. The people of Franklinton were, of course, exceedingly jealous, as naturally they might be, with Columbus planted directly before them on the opposite bank of the river; feeling ran very high and sometimes led to insolence and altercation. But Columbus in a short time overtook Frank- linton, and the latter began to decline while the former increased rapidly.

Many of the industries and mercantile establishments of Franklinton were transferred, one by one, to Columbus. Among the more prominent business part- nerships and proprietors in the older town when the newer one was founded were these : Henry Brown & Co., Drygoods, Groceries, Liquors, Iron, etc .; Richard Court- ney & Co., Hardware; J. & R. McCoy, Drygoods, Groceries, and Liquors; Samuel Culbertson, Hatter; Jeremiah Armstrong, Tobacco and Cigars; L. Goodale & Co., Drygoods, Groceries and Chinaware; Starling & De Lashmutt, Drygoods, China, Glass, Hardware, Leather, Whisky, Gin, Salt and Groceries ; J. Buttles & Co., Euro- pean, India and American Goods; D. F. Heaton, "Taylor" [sic]; Joseph Grate, Silver- smith; and Samuel Barr, Drygoods and General Supplies. Most of these names became prominent in the business of Columbus. William Platt began there as a + silversmith and jeweler in 1815 or 1816. 1

The first postmaster of the capital was Matthew Matthews, appointed in 1814. His position seems to have been barren of both duties and emoluments. The mail arrived once or twice a week, and was distributed at Franklinton. Whatever por- tion of it, if any, Mr. Matthews had charge of, he gave out from his desk in Mr. Buttles's store, with which he was connected. He resigned and was succeeded, in 1814, by Mr. Buttles who held the office thenceforward until 1829.

A sawmill for the supply of lumber to the settlement was erected in 1813 by Richard Courtney and John Shields. Doubtless this mill wrought a revolution in the building resources of the village. It was located on the east bank of the Scioto, a short distance below John Brickell's cabin. A flouring mill erected by Mr. Shields three years later, in the southwest part of the town, took the Colum- bus patronage from the Kilbourn mill at Worthington, and other mills down the river.

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History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I, Part 28

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co Publication date: 1892 Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co. Number of Pages: 1202

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1202