History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I, Part 35

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

USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I > Part 35

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The crisis culminated in 1819, but its financial depression and confusion dragged wearily along for seven more years. Of the Columbus proprietors Alexander McLaughlin, once considered one of the wealthiest men in the State, became completely bankrupt, and was obliged to support himself by teaching a country school. Early in the thirties he died. James Johnston, another of the proprietors, failed about the same time as Mclaughlin, and emigrated to Pitts- burgh, where he died in 1842. John Kerr and Lyne Starling weathered the storm, but Kerr died in 1823, leaving a young family to inherit, and unfortunately to lose his large estate. Starling lived to the age of sixtyfour, and being a bache- lor, left no heirs to receive or to squander his property.

Such was the depression, owing to the state of the currency and the failure of the proprietors, that the greater part of the real estate of the borough was thrown npon the market. The choicest town lots around the Capitol Square went begging at three hundred dollars each. A great number of others were offered at forced sale by the Sheriff or United States Marshal, but had to be reappraised again and again, at lower and lower values, before they finally found takers. Single lots which had been held at two or three hundred dollars seven years before, were sold for ten or twenty, and some as low as even seven or eight dollars each.

To add to the depression of business and price of property [says Martin] about the year 1822 or 1823, the title of Starling's half section, on which the town was in part located, was called in question. It had originally been granted to one Allen, a refugee from the British Provinces in the time of the American Revolution. Allen had deeded it to his son, and the son had mortgaged it, and it was sold at sheriff's sale to satisfy the mortgage, and Starling was the purchaser.

It was now claimed by the heirs of Allen, who took various exceptions to Starling's title. First as to the sale from the old man Allen to his son; also to the authentication of the

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mortgage by the son, and particularly to the sale of the Sheriff to Starling, on the ground that there was no evidence that an appraisement had been made as required by the statutes of Ohio, and suit was brought by ejectment against some of the occupants who owned the most valuable improvements, first in the Supreme Court of Ohio, and then in the United States Court for the District of Ohio.

Mr. Starling defended the suits, and tirst engaged Henry Clay, who then practiced in the United States Courts at Columbus, as attorney. But owing to his appointment as Secretary of State, he was called to Washington City, and gave up the case, and Henry Baldwin, then of Pittsburgh, was next engaged, who conducted the defense with great ability, and about the year 1826, it was finally decided in favor of Starling's title. So the matter was put to rest as to that half section.

The suit against Starling's half section was scarcely decided, when a claim was set up against Kerr and MeLaughlin's half section. They had bought from one Strawbridge, who conveyed by an attorney or agent, and the deed ran thus: That the agent conveyed for Strawbridge, instead of Strawbridge conveying by agent, and was so signed ; "J-M- (the agent), (seal), attorney in fact for Strawbridge."

Thus the defect in Kerr and MeLaughlin's title was merely technical. But it was con- tended that this was not Strawbridge's deed, but the deed of the agent who claimed no title. And about the year 1826, a quitclaim was obtained from Strawbridge's beirs, by some man purporting to be a New Yorker, upon which a snit was brought in ejectment, as in the other cases, against one or more of the occupants of the most valuable lots. By a suit in chancery to quiet title, about the year 1827, this was all set right, and the title of Kerr and MeLaughlin sustained. 5

The gratification of the people of the borough at the outcome of these snits was proportionate to the extreme anxiety and suspense which they had occasioned. Accordingly, when Mr. Starling won his case, a grand joHifiention was held at the National Hotel, which was the next lineal predecessor of the present Neil House, and it so happened, says Mr. Joseph Sullivant in his biography of Starling, that " the grand proprietor, his lawyers and several friends, had tarried too long over the wine and were all put to bed in one large room. At a later hour it was determined to give them a serenade, as expressive of the general joy produced by the occasion. Accordingly John Young, the proprietor of the Eagle Coffeehouse, and a warm admirer of Mr. Starling, with great exertion gathered a strong orches- tra of drums, fifes, fiddles, clarionets and horns, and proceeded to the hotel. But the great prelude, more remarkable for noise and vigor than music or harmony, suddenly aronsed the sleepers, and they arose in haste to ascertain the cause. Mr. Starling was very tall, six feet six inches in height, but easy and flexible in move- ment. In the room with him was John Bailhache, quite a small man, once editor of the Ohio State Journal. Somehow, in the darkness and confusion of ideas, Starling managed to thrust himself into Bailhache's breeches, with his feet and legs sticking out nearly a yard below, and the little editor, minus his own gar- ments, got into Starling's high boots and longtailed coat, which covered him all over and still dragged behind like a fashionable lady's train of the present day. Others were desperately struggling to force their nether extremities through the sleeves of their coats, and all were sweating and swearing when they were found in this ludicrous guise, and informed that the crowd awaited their presence and acknowledgment of the unusual honor of a serenade."

The domestic life of the borough period reflects better than anything else the true condition of the people at that time. Let us take some glimpses into their

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IHISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

homes, for here we perceive, as nowhere else, what they enjoyed, what they endured, and how they lived. The following charming pictures of the typical home and housewife of the borough are drawn by the pen of Mrs. Emily Stewart, née Merion, the subject of whose sketch is the pioneer life of William Merion, Senior, who built a cabin and settled on his land at the present corner of High and Moler streets in the autumn of 1810. Referring to Mrs. Merion, nee Sallie Voris,6 Mrs. Stewart writes:

Every one who worked on a farm at that time expected to be boarded and lodged. The school teacher boarded around. There were no cooking stoves, sewing, knitting or washing machines, and even the plain washboard was not used here until about 1830. It is evident that managing the housekeeping department of this family was no small matter. 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 ticking and sewing thread were hand-made. The wool of a hundred sheep was brought in at shearing time. Mrs. Merion had it washed, picked, carded (in early times by hand cards), spun, scoured, dyed, woven and made into flannel, jeans, linsey, blankets, coverlets and stocking yarn. Then it had to be made into clothing. The men's clothing was all home- made ; even their suspenders were knitted. Each member of the family had two snits through- out, two pairs of stockings, and one pair of mittens to commence the winter with. The floors were covered with beautiful carpets, not rag, but all wool, of the brightest colors of her own dyeing. The milk of fifteen to twenty eows was brought in twice a day, to be turned into butter and cheese.

It is impossible to do justice to the cooking of those days. Turkeys, geese, ducks, chickens, spareribs, beef roast, whole pigs, etc., were hung by twine cords which were fastened to hooks in the mantel, and roasted before the wood fire. Chickens, quail, squirrels, and tenderloin were first dipped in melted butter and broiled on the gridiron over wood coals. The corn pone that was baked in the Dutch oven all night, and was hot for breakfast, was matched by johnnycakes baked on a board before the fire, and chieken pies with not less than three and sometimes five fat chickens in one pie. The boiled dinner consisted of ham or shoulder, a bag holding not less than three quarts being filled with meat, vegetables and pudding batter which were all boiled together. The pudding sauce was sweet, thick cream and sugar, or maple syrup. The brick oven, which held four pans of bread and twelve pies, was heated every day in summer, 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 Jernsalem apples. Soda, then known as pearl ash, was not to be had. Mrs. Merion made it by leaching hickory ashes, boiling the lye into potash, and putting it in an earthen vessel, and baking it in the brick oven, until it dried and whitened. With this and buttermilk she made delicious bis- cuit, batter cakes and corn bread. Her table linen was of the whitest, her china always polished, and her table butter always stamped, in early times with four hearts, later with hanging pears. She was like the woman described by Solomon : " She seeketh wool and flax and worketh willingly with her hands. She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff."

She raised her family without nerves. They never heard of nervousness while under her care. She was without fear. Returning from Franklinton in 1814, alone on horseback, she was overtaken by darkness while crossing the river at the old ford, near the present lower bridge of the Hocking Valley Railway. A gang of wolves took after her and chased her nearly to her own door. When asked whether or not she was frightened, she said, " I am a good rider, and was on a horse which nothing could overtake. What had I to be afraid of ?"

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 family reading was the Bible, Life of Josephus, History of the United States, French

12 Hughes

PHOTOGRAPHED BY BAKER

Residence of John R. Hughes, 941 North High Street, built in 1870.

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THE CAPITAL AS A BOROUGH. 1.

Revolution, Life of Benjamin Franklin, and the weekly paper. The mail came once a month in early times, and the postage, which was not prepaid, was twentyfive cents on each fetter. Mrs. Merion liked to have some one read aloud in the evenings, but they had no lights except a large lamp or a homemade tallow-dip candle." There was a standing offer in her family of five dollars to any one of her children that would read the Bible through aloud to the family. There were several that read one dollar's worth. Nathaniel read the Old Testament but did not get into the New. His mother was so pleased, however, that she paid him in full.

The story of another matron's life in the borough shall here be presented. It is told in her letters to her parents, brothers and sisters - a package of precious mementoes kindly submitted to the inspection of the author by her surviving son. In the summer of 1817 the writer of these letters and her husband quitted their home at Easton, Pennsylvania, and journeyed westward, resolved to try their for- tunes at the frontier town of Columbus. The young emigrants, then newly- wedded, were not favored with an abundance of means, but were vigorous, cager and hope- ful. After a fatiguing and somewhat adventurous journey across the Alleghanies and through the still meagerly settled forests west of the Ohio, they arrived at their destination early in August. At the price of one thousand dollars they bought of Henry Brown, afterwards Treasurer of State, a town lot, now, in part, the site of one of the principal business blocks of the city. They were to pay for it, besides a gold watch worth two hundred dollars, given in exchange, two hun- dred dollars in cash, four hundred April 1, 1819, and two hundred April 1, 1820. The lot was located on West Broad Street, north side, a few rods west of fligh. On this ground the purchaser, who was a carpenter, erected with his own hands a plain, wooden dwelling. Ile and his young wife immediately reported to their eastern friends the enterprise which they had undertaken, and in response were sharply admonished that they had better not buy any more town lots, at least not at such prices. The investment doubtless seemed adventurous at the time, and so indeed it proved to be. To be prepared to make the deferred payments when they should fall due, and to fit up their little home comfortably, was the serions task to which the young carpenter and his wife addressed themselves, and it was a task which they did not fulfil withont a most determined and difficult struggle.

The letters to which reference has been made tell more impressively than can otherwise be told the pathetic story of this brave endeavor to found a home in primitive Columbus. They also contain many valuable historical facts fully justi- fying the liberal extracts from them which will now be made. The author of the letters was Mrs. Betsy Green Deshler, and her husband was David W. Deshler, afterwards one of the most prominent and wealthy citizens of the capital.

That Mrs. Deshler was a woman of uncommon intelligence and natural beauty of character is attested by every line she wrote. Judging her by these unaffected, unconstrained messages, than which there could be no truer reflex of her mind and character, she must have been a wife and mother of the noblest type. She was also an impersonation of modest, practical good sense. Without self-assertion she narrates in the simplest way her own and her husband's experiences - their plans, hopes, difficulties and disappointments.

On the fourteenth of August, 1817, Mrs. Deshler writes to her parents :

We have purchased and hauled 1500 bricks for our chimney at $4.50 per thousand at the kiln, and have engaged a frame twentysix feet front, eighteen deep, one story ten feet be-

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tween the joice, which is to be completed and raised for fifty dollars. We intend setting our building thirtyfive feet back, fronting towards the street, and dividing it into a room and kitchen, with chimney in the centre so as to have a fireplace in both. The kitchen will be eleven by eighteen, the room fifteen by eighteen including walls, chimney, &c.,-small, but plenty large enough for us and requiring less furniture. As soon as the house is done we intend building a shop about the same size, and placing it in front, at the upper end of the lot. Both will cost us about four hundred dollars exclusive of the carpenter work. . The person who owns the next half lot has offered us one hundred and fifty dollars cash for five feet, but we do not intend selling it as long as we can possibly hold it. I am in hopes by industry and economy we will be able to keep it. In a few years it will be very valuable.

October 2, 1817, to her brother :

Everything is cheap and plenty except salt and coffee, and a few other grocery articles which come high, owing to the distance they are transported, which is from Philadelphia or Baltimore. Sugar is cheaper here than at Easton ; we can get it in the spring of the year for 123 cents per pound, owing to its being the production of our own state. Salt will come lower in a short time, as there are many saltworks in this part of the country, and some near Columbus. We can't boast of as many luxuries as you can, but we have some which you have not ; one in particular is peaches. Such fruit I never saw before. One of the neighhors sent me in a basketful, several of which measured a full quarter of a yard in circumference. I have not seen any pears this fall, or any plums except wild ones, which we have in great abundance.8 Venison is sold here at four shillings * for a whole deer, and turkeys for twenty- five cents. Rabbits, pigeons and all kinds of game are very cheap. They are brought here, particularly venison, by the Indians, who live not far off. I wished for Lydia the other day, as I had a delightful boiled salmon for dinner, which was caught in the Scioto. [This prob- ably refers to a large fish with flesh of a red color, locally known as "red horse." No salmon have ever been taken in the Scioto.] I suppose it weighed between four and five pounds. That, with a fish called the bass, not quite so large, sold for twentyfive cents. We have no shad in this part of the country, but we have other kinds of fish which are caught at Lake Erie and sent here salted up in barrels.

I have very good neighbors. People here are remarkably kind to strangers. Several of the neighbor women have told me to come and get any kind of vegetables out of their gar- dens. There is a little boy who brings me cream every morning for breakfast. ... Our house is getting along very well .. All the dry boards made use of here are kiln-dried, as no board yard is kept here.

We sold our horse and wagon for more than they cost us. The horse we traded to a man for the plastering of our house, which is the same as cash. . . . Wood sells as it did at Easton many years ago, for a dollar a load, or à dollar and a quarter for a cord, piled up at your house.

December 1, 1817, to her father :

We shall occupy but one room this winter, as David must make use of the other as a shop. Our house is not large, but it is very neat and convenient. ... We took a great deal of pains to discover the prices of other lots, and when we compared the different situations and prices we found ours quite reasonable. Property all sells very high in Columbus ; the lot on the corner opposite ours was sold for eighteen hundred dollars and the owner has since been offered twentyfive hundred, which he thought proper to refuse, knowing that in a short time it would be worth considerable more. You observe that it would be best for us not to buy any more lots. You need not be the least apprehensive, as we are now using every exertion

NOTE -" The value of the shilling was onesixth of a dollar. The most common of the silver pieces was the York shilling, worth twelve and one half cents, or eight per dollar, and known also as a " hit " or " levy;" and the " fip," or half shilling, worth six and a quarter cents. In the Sonthern States the fip was called a pic- ayune. It was the smallest silver coin then used.

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THE CAPITAL AS A BOROUGH. I.

to pay for that we have bought before we put ourselves any more in debt. . . . We rise every morning and have breakfast by candle-light, and then work industriously all day. . . ..

Oak, ash, walnut and cherry are the only kinds of boards made use of in this country. and they all sell for nearly the same price, viz, from twelve to fifteen dollars per thou- sand ; kiln-dried, six dollars per thousand more.

Carpenters do their work by the piece; journeymen's wages one dollar per day and found ; bricklayers, four dollars per thousand, including lime, sand and tenders. Land unimproved from a dollar and a half to four dollars per acre; improved from eight to sixteen dollars. Twothirds of the land in this section of the country will average thirty bushels of wheat to the acre. The risk of transportation to New Orleans exceeds the ex- pense of carriage. The market for western produce, in two or three years, will be New York by the way of Lower Sandusky and Lake Erie. Spinning wheels are dull sale on account of the searcity of flax. . . . The Sandusky country [Indian reservation] compos- ing onethird of the State of Ohio, will either be sold or located next year by the United States Government.

January 31, 1818, to her brother :

We bave but one meetinghouse here, and that a Methodist, as onethird of the in- habitants are of that denomination, but there is one on the other side of the Scioto, about a mile from Columbus, which belongs to the Presbyterians. We [ the Presbyterians] have meeting very often this winter in the Statehouse, which is a very large and commodious building for that purpose.

March 26, 1818, to her sister :

I have most excellent neighbors. They are as kind to me as people can possibly be. Our nearest neighbor but one is the family of the Auditor of the State. They are very kind. Mr. Osborn, for that is the gentleman's name whose family I have just mentioned, when we laid up onr pork came over and eut it up, showed us how to salt it, and is now smoking it in his smokehouse.

The people. as a mark of attention when a stranger moves into the neighborhood, send them a dish of something that they think would be acceptable. . .. Our nearest neighbors [a family named Mills] are from Vermont, consequently Yankees. They sent me a fine mess of stewed pumpkin, their favorite dish. Our next neighbors are Virginians. You must know that they are extremely fond of anything made of corn, and as a mark of attention they sent me a dish of hominy. The next, a German family, sent a dish of sourerout.

June 20, 1818, to her brother :

We have a very neat house, and furniture good and plain, with a handsome green yard before the door, and planted with trees, rosebushes, currant bushes, raspberry bushes or vines, morning glories, and I know not what all.

The best wheat flour sells here for $2.50 per hundred, butter. by thousands, at twelve and a half cents, eggs at six and seven cents per dozen, and beef. uncommonly high, at six and seven cents per pound. At the last session a law was passed for the incorporation of Columbus, and since then we have our regular market days and hours.

August 20, 1818 ; writes to her brother that she had been very sick, and not ex- pected to live. The physicians treated the disease chiefly with laudanum. Her husband had formed a partnership, and obtained a contract for work at the State- house by which he hoped to make enough to meet his first payment and put up a shop. The letter continues :

We have at length got a meeting-house up, and the seats have been sold out to defray the expence of building. We have bought one, the price of which was thirtyseven and a half cents . .. The Presbyterian congregation of the place, is very large. Almost every respectable family of the town belongs to the meeting.

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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

February 3, 1820, to her father :

David works every day, and for the last five months has not got one dollar in money. . . All the work that is done in Columbus is for trade, trade, and no money. It makes . it difficult to get along.

Produce of every kind has become low ; beef three dollars, pork ditto, butter twelve and a half cents per pound, venison fifty cents per saddle, and all else in proportion. Yet it is more difficult to get cook things, as some of the neighbors used to say, than it was when they were higher. Groceries are high ; coffee 62} cents per pound, tea $2.25. Sugar we make ourselves, but loaf sugar is fiftysix cents per pound. Salt we get by weight, three dollars for fifty pounds. Drygoods are low in proportion to other things.

April 7, 1820 :

Produce of every kind is very low here, owing to the scarcity of money. . . I be- lieve the price [of freight from Philadelphia] is reduced to ten dollars per hundred weight.

September 10, 1820 :

In the spring David had considerable business, but for some time past he can't get a dollar's worth of work to do, and not only he but all other mechanics in town are in the same condition. . .. Many families have gone to the Wabash. ... There are but three stores in town that do any business worth mentioning; formerly there were ten or twelve large stores. Owing to the depreciation of paper money, and the scarcity of specie, merchants cannot collect their debts, and therefore cannot replenish their stores. The few that can continue to keep an assortment say they are making money faster than ever they did since the war.

Produce of every kind sells low; wheat fifty cents per bushel, rye forty, corn 12}, oats 12}, harley 623 (its being used instead of coffee enhances its price somewhat), butter from eight to twelve cents per pound, chickens eight cents apiece, beef four cents, veal four cents, pork two and a half cents pigeons from 182 to twentyfive cents per dozen, eggs 62 cents, apples fifty cents per bushel, peaches fifty cents. All are plenty and very good, but it is more difficult to get the articles mentioned than when they bore a high price, even double what they now bear. Tea and coffee we scarcely pretend to think of, much less taste. When the coffee ran out we drank rye, and instead of tea, hot water.

December 25, 1820, to her sister :

[Business still stagnant and labor unemployed. Mr. D. had been so fortunate as to get a contract to make shelves for the State Library, his first cash job for over ten months.9 The first payment on his lot coming due, he had no funds with which to meet it, but managed to arrange for it.]

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History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I, Part 35

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