History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I, Part 42

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 42

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The amount of land thus conveyed in trust to the State of Ohio for the con- struction of this road was 31,840 acres, or a little over fortynine sections. The estimated cost of the line was $81,680, which sum included 88,400 for bridges. The company was organized by a meeting of the stockholders held at Bucyrus April 12, 1827. The directors chosen at that meeting were: Columbus, James Robinson, Joseph Ridgway; Worthington, Orange Johnson ; Delaware, M. D. Pettibone ; Bucyrus, E. B. Merriman, Samuel Norton; Sandusky City, George Anderson, Hector Kilbourn and Abner Root.

James Robinson was elected President; E. B. Merriman, Treasurer; Abner Root, Secretary ; Solomon Smith and Orange Johnson, Commissioners to locate the road ; and Colonel James Kilbourn, Surveyor. At a subsequent meeting held January 8, 1828, a new Board of Directors was installed and Joseph Ridgway was elected President, Bela Latham, Secretary, E. B. Merriman, Treasurer, and Orange Johnson, Superintendent. Mr. Johnson was the company's principal agent from first to last. The road was completed, one hundred and six miles, in the autumn of 1834, at a total cost of $74,376, or about seven hundred dollars per mile. The com- pany's charter required it to construct " an artificial road composed of stones, gravel, wood, or other suitable materials, well compacted together, in such a manner as to secure a firm, substantial and even road, rising in the middle with a gradual arch." Based on this requirement, a general expectation prevailed that the roadbed would be laid with stone or gravel, but it was not realized. An ordinary clay road was built and this, in wet weather, soon became nearly im- passable. Nathaniel Merriman, appointed as agent of the State to report upon its construction, as required by statute, declared that it had been completed in accord- ance with the requirements of law, whereupon the company erected its tollgates along the entire line. Popular dissatisfaction with these proceedings, and with the condition of the road, led to an act of the General Assembly, passed February 28, 1843, totally repealing the company's charter, and forbidding its further collee- tion of tolls. In the month of March, during the same session, a commission was appointed to survey and build a State road on the bed of the turnpike, and on March 12, 1845, this road was established by law as a public highway." Directly after this, the tollgates, which had been until then maintained, were torn away by wrathful citizens. No exception was made of the single gate in Franklin County, located about two miles north of Columbus. The company maintained that the legislative acts adverse to it were unconstitutional, and appealed to the General Assembly for relief. At the session of 1843-4 a committee recommended that the State should exchange its bonds for the company's stock, and take charge of the road as one of its public works. On December 19, 1845, the National House of Representatives adopted the following preamble and resolution :

WHEREAS, By an act of Congress, approved July 3, 1827, there was granted to the State of Ohio, in trust, a quantity of land equal to fortynine sections, to aid the Columbus and San- (lusky Turnpike Company in the construction of a road upon condition that no toll should be collected on any mail stage, nor any troops or property of the United States passing over said road ; and whereas, it is represented that said road is now in such a state of repair that it cannot be travelled ; therefore,

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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

Resolved, That the Committee on Roads and Canals be instructed to inquire how the trust fund aforesaid has been used and applied by the State of Ohio ; what is the condition as to repair and otherwise of the said road ; and what causes have produced the results before alluded to.

In 1847 the company's claims and complaints were referred, by resolution of the General Assembly, to the Attorney-General of Ohio, Hon. Henry Stanbery, who, ignoring the question of constitutionality, returned an opinion that the com- pany had not been fairly dealt with. During the session of 1856-7 the Senate passed a bill authorizing a suit against the State for the alleged wrong done the company by the repeal of its charter, but the measure was rejected by the House.

The construction of subsequent turnpikes converging at Columbus, down to 1854, may be summarized as follows :

Lancaster, Carroll, Pickerington and National Road Turnpike Company .-- In- corporated in March, 1839, to build a road between Lancaster and Columbus. Committee to receive subscriptions at Columbus : John Noble, Christian Heyl and Jeremiah Armstrong.

Columbus and Worthington Plankroad or Turnpike .- Chartered by the General Assembly March 23, 1849. Incorporators Solomon Beers, John Phipps, John B. Piatt, Philip Fisher, Robert E. Neil, and associates. Stockbooks opened April 15, and subscriptions completed May 5, 1849. First directors, B. Comstock, William . Neil and Alanson Bull. By permission, the road was built on the bed of the San- dusky Turnpike. It was completed in 1850, and the first dividend was paid to its stockholders in January, 1851. Capital stock $27,825, in twentyfive-dollar shares.

Notice of a petition to the General Assembly for a State road from Columbus up the east bank of the Scioto to the Delaware County line, was published in Sep- tember, 1831.

Columbus and Portsmouth Turnpike .- A graveled toll road built in 1847 on sub- scriptions taken separately in each of the counties through which it passed. Three directors and $8,800 of the capital stock were assigned to Franklin County. Dividends were paid on the stock at the office of Robert W. McCoy in Columbus, November 6, 1848, and in May, 1850. Pursuant to an act of the General As- sembly, the State's interest in this road was sold November 20, 1865, to Henry E. Ware, of Waverly, for $8,000.

Columbus und Harrisburg Turnpike .- Incorporated in 1847, built in 1848-9; Uriah Lathrop surveyor and engineer. Subscribed capital stock $20,815, in twentyfive- dollar shares. Cost of the road, $35,602. The county donated $4,500 towards building the bridge over the Scioto. Originally it was a free road, but after the first two or three years two tollgates were erected, but one of which remained in 1858. Down to that year no dividends were paid to the stockholders, all the re- ceipts having been applied to debts, repairs and current expenses. The incorpora- tors of this road were Joseph Chenoweth, John Morgan, M. L. Sullivant, David Mitchell, Jacob Grubb, Adam Brotherlin and John Dunn.

Columbus and Groveport Turnpike .- Company incorporated under act of March 19, 1849 ; organized May 18, 1849. Incorporators, William Harrison, Nathaniel Merion, William H. Rarey, William Darnell, Edmund Stewart, William W. Kyle, and associates. Capital stock, $20,000, in twentyfive-dollar shares; actual subscrip-

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FROM TRAIL TO TURNPIKE.

tion, $12,300. Road completed in the antumn of 1850. The debt incurred in building was soon paid off by earnings.

Columbus and Johnstown Turnpike .- Incorporated under act of March 1, 1850, by Robert Neil, Windsor Atchison, George Ridenour, Jesse Baughman, Walter Thrall, and associates, with authority to construct a turnpike or plankroad from Columbus to Johnstown, ria New Albany, and to extend itto Mt. Vernon. Author- ized capital stock, 875,000, in twentyfive-dollar shares.

Columbus and Sunbury Turnpike and Plankroad .- Incorporated under act of March 20, 1850, by William Trevitt, Christian Heyl, Peter Agler, James Park, George W. Agler, John Dill, Peter Harlocker, Timothy Lee, W. G. Edmison, John Curtis, E. Washburn, Stillman Tucker, and associates. Authorized capital stock, $75,000, in twentyfive-dollar shares. Built in 1852 from a point on the Johnstown road about three miles north of Columbus to Central College.

Columbus and Granville Turnpike, commonly called Brush's Plankroad .- In- corporated under act of February 8, 1850, by Josoph Ridgway, Samuel Barr, Gates O'Harra, William A. Platt, Samuel Brush, and associates, with authority to build a road surfaced with gravel, stone or plank, from Columbus to Granville, and to ex- tend it to Newark. Authorized capital stock, $100,000, in fifty-dollar shares. Built in 1852, with one plank track, from Columbus to Walnut Creek. Samuel Brush, President; John M. Pugh, Secretary ; D. W. Deshler, Treasurer.

Cottage Mills and Harrisburg Turnpike .- Incorporated under act of March 20, 1851, by Adin G. Hibbs, Levi Strader, Solomon Borer, Isaae Miller, William Duff, and associates, with authority to build a turnpike connecting the Columbus and Harrisburg pike with that from Columbus to Portsmouth at a point opposite the Cottage Mills. Built in 1852, seven and a half miles, at a cost of about 813,000.

The Columbus and Blendon Turnpike Company was organized May 2, 1850. Franklin and Jackson Turnpike .- Incorporated under act of March 20, 1851, by Samuel Landes, John Moler, Adam Miller, Jacob Huffman, John Stimmel, John Cherry, William L. Miner, Gersham M. Peters and Michael L. Sullivant, with authority to build a pike optionally from that between Columbus and Harrisburg, or from Franklinton, to the south line of Franklin County. Built from the Har- risburg road down the river to the Cottage Mills pike, about ten miles, in 1852, at a cost of about 88,000, leaving the company about two thousand dollars in debt.

Columbus and Lockwin Plankroad .- Incorporated in the spring of 1853, under general statute. Original stock, 814,000. First five miles built in 1853, the remain- ing two in 1854. Surfaced with plank eight feet long and three inches thick, laid on two stringers four inches square. Cost, $16,500, or about 82,400 per mile. Began at the interscetion of the old Harbor Road with the Columbus and Johns- town Turnpike.

Clinton and Blendon Plankroad .- Company organized in 1853, road built in 1853-4. Began at the Lockwin Road, four miles north of Columbus, and extended to the county line half a mile north of Westerville; total length, eight miles. Authorized capital stock, $16,000; cost, $16,600.

In 1851 a planked track was completed from the point where Broad Street then terminated to Alum Creek.

The condition of the country roads during the borough period was such, in bad weather, as to paralyze trade, and make vehicular locomotion next to impos-

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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

sible. Speaking of an " administration convention " to be held at Columbus, Decem- ber 28, 1827, the Ohio State Journal of the twentysixth of that month remarks : " From the present bad state of the roads (we have never seen them worse) it is likely some fair weather delegates will be deterred from coming." In 1830 the journey from Columbus to Worthington and return, such was the condition of the road, often consumed an entire day. Mr. S. P. McElvain informs the writer that on the day next preceding the great Whig convention at Columbus, in February, 1839, he quitted Delaware by stage, hoping to reach the capital the following eve- ning. The vehicle was drawn by four horses, but dragged slowly and heavily most of the way, nearly hubdeep in the mire. It reached Worthington at four o'clock P. M., and did not arrive at Columbus until one o'clock the following morning. Rain fell throughout the day of the convention, and High Street, on which the big political parade took place, was ankledeep with mud.

Mr. Isaac Appleton Jewett, who journeyed from New England to Ohio in December, 1830, thus describes some of his experiences in a letter dated March 9, 1831:

From Zanesville to Columbus-fiftyeight miles - we saw the wilderness in all its gloominess, and enjoyed self-constructed roads in all their terror. We felt as if carried back to the times of the early settlers. ... Our vehicle, which, in the dialect of the country was called a spanker, was intended for four persons, and on this occasion was drawn by four strong horses at the rate of two miles per hour. ... What, with the happy recollections of the preceding day, the fearful anticipations of the future, the wintry wind driving through an open stage, the warnings of the driver to be prepared for any and every hazard, the confes- sions of a timid fellow traveller, of horses frightened by the howling of the wolves, of stages overturned, of bones dislocated, and lives in jeopardy, all of which he had heard of and much of which he had seen ; what with travelling the dreary, livelong night and arriving at Col- umbus just before daybreak, and there finding four of the hotels at which we applied not only full but crowded, so that admittance for repose was out of the question ; considering these facts, as well as the simple incidents that one of our company was ever shrinking with fear, another had stupefied his senses with strong drink, and another was so much given to profanity as to succeed every harsh movement of the spanker with a tremendous oath, and I think one may receive full pardon for nttering the " groans of a traveller."

A Perrysburg paper of January, 1838, contained the following account of the condition of the roads in the Black Swamp region at that time :

The mud extends to the horse's bridle in many places, and is of a consistency of which no mind can have an adequate idea without becoming experimentally acquainted with its appalling reality. A portion of the truth can be gathered from the fact that six horses were barely sufficient to draw a twowheeled vehicle from Portage River to this town in three days. The distance is fifteen miles.

The editor proceeds to remark that the mail is often detained at Portage River for more than a week. In a later issue he says six different mails were waiting to get forward, and that no strength of man or horse could drag them through the existing mud.

Under the caption " Infamons," the Ohio State Journal of April 21, 1843, says : " A gentleman just informs us that he was three hours coming from Worth- ington, eight miles, on the repealed mud pike north of this, and had to pay toll at the gate."

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FROM TRAIL TO TURNPIKE.

In July, 1852, complaint is made of the Worthington Plankroad that its planks are " warped," and that its track bas for a long time been in a very bad condition.9

During the open winter of 1852-3 the country roads were reduced to a hor- rible state. Under date of March 2, 1863, we read in a contemporary chronicle : " The country roads in the vicinity of Columbus are in a terrible condition, and have been so for some time back."10

Whole volumes could be filled with such complaints. Nothing more conspic- uonsly marks the progress or proves the beneficence of civilization than the marvel- ous facility and comfort it has brought in the modes and means of travel and transportation.

NOTES.

1. Communication to the Ohio State Journal.

2. W. H. Venable.

3. Autobiographical sketch addressed to B. F. Martin, Esq., Secretary of the Frank- lin County Pioneer Association.

4. Atwater's History of Ohio contains this passage: "When the state was first or- ganized, we do not believe that there was even one bridge in the state. The roads were few and it was no easy matter for a stranger to follow them. For ourselves we preferred follow- ing the pocket compass or the sun, to most of the roads, in the Virginia Military Tract ; and this even ten years after the organization of the state government. Travellers carried their provisions with them when starting from any of the towns into the then wilderness, now thickly settled parts of the state. Judges and lawyers rode from court to conrt, through the forest, and carried their provisions or starved on their route. Though they generally got into some settlement before nightfall, yet not always, as we shall long remember. When the streams were swelled with rain, they swam every stream in their way."

5. See quotation introductory to this chapter.

6. Martin's History of Franklin County.

7. In the Ohio enabling act, says Atwater, " Congress offered the people one thirty- sixth part of their whole territory for the use of schools. They offered them also, certain lands, on which they supposed salt water might be procured ; they offered them five per cent. of all the net proceeds of sales of lands owned by Congress; three per cent. of which was to be laid out in making roads in the state, and two per cent. on a road to be made from Cumberland, in Maryland, to the state."

8. The subscription books were opened under the direction of William Dennison and L. Goodale. William Neil was President, and Josiah Scott Secretary.

9. Ohio State Journal.

10. Ibid.

CHAPTER XX.

THE NATIONAL ROAD.

The beginning of a new era of trade, travel, transportation and of material and social progress in Ohio dates from the construction of the Ohio Canal and the National Road. For the sake of topical continuity the latter will be here first considered.

In 1784 Philadelphia was the starting point of the only thoroughfare which made any pretensions to communication with the region then vaguely known as the Far West. After quitting the city and its neighboring settlements, its course, we are told, " lay through a broken, desolate and almost uninhabited country," and was supposed to be a turnpike by those who had never traveled it, but in reality was " merely a passable road, broad and level in the lowlands, narrow and dan- gerous in the passes of the mountains, and beset with steep declivities." Yet such was at that time the only highway between the Atlantic seaboard and the Missis- sippi. To the imagination the Alleghany chain of mountains then assumed the proportions of a tremendous barrier, separating those who passed beyond it from all connection, or hope of reunion, with their eastern friends.

To achieve the commercial conquest of this barrier, and extend into the great wilderness beyond it the domain of American civilization, were projects hindered and postponed by the poverty of national resources, yet none the less cherished by the earlier statesmen. With the tide of westward emigration which set in directly after the second war with Great Britain, and the resulting settlement and organiza- tion of new States beyond the Ohio, the opportunity for realizing these projects of extended and improved communication first began to dawn. What had before been a dream, then became a necessity, and quite as much so for political reasons as for economic. The utility of a great east and west wagonway, as a bond of union between the States, was no less obvious after the War of 1812 than was that of a great transcontinental railway after the War of 1861.

At the time of Ohio's birth, in 1803, the road, or rather trail, westward from Fort Cumberland crossed the mountains from Bedford, Pennsylvania, in two branches, which reunited with one another twentyeight miles west of Pittsburgh. The southern branch, known as the Glade Road, was that originally cut by General Braddock in his march on Fort Du Quésne, and passed through the dreary region of the great Savage Mountain then and since known as The Shades of Death. The northern branch was first opened by the British General Forbes when advancing against the same French stronghold in 1758, and therefore bore

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THE NATIONAL ROAD.

the name of the Forbes Road. Both were rough, lonely, primitive, often beset with highwaymen and embellished to the imagination with startling tales of murder, robbery and accident. " The tavern signs, as if adapting themselves to the wild regions in which they hung, bore pictures of wolves and bears as em- blems. High above the Alleghany summits the bald eagle soared."1

As a preliminary step towards providing better facilities for communication between the States east and the Territories west of the Alleghanies, the following clause was appended to the enabling act of April 30, 1802, by authority and in pursuance of which was organized the present State of Ohio :

That onetwentieth part of the nett proceeds of the lands lying within said state sold by Congress, from and after the thirtieth day of June next, after deducting all expenses inci- dent to the same, shall be applied to the laying out and making public roads, leading from

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the navigable waters emptying into the Atlantic, to the Ohio, to the said state, and through the same, such roads to be laid out under the authority of Congress with the consent of the several states through which the road shall pass.

This was followed by an act of March 29, 1806, authorizing the President to appoint " three discreet and disinterested persons " to lay out a road from Cumber. land, or some point on the Potomac, to the Ohio River at some point between Steubenville and the mouth of Grave Creek. It was further provided in this act that, on receiving from the commissioners a satisfactory report and plan, the President might proceed to obtain the consent of the States through which the road would pass, and also take prompt and effective measures to have it built. As

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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

to the construction, it was required that all parts of the road should be cleared to the width of four rods, that its surface should be " raised in the middle with stone, earth, or gravel and sand, or a combination of some or all of them," and that side ditches should be provided for carrying off the water. For the purpose of defray- ing the expense of laying out and making the road, the act appropriated the sum of thirty thousand dollars.

At the time this act and that of 1802 were passed, there was substantial unanimity among the leading contemporary statesmen of all shades of opinion in favor of giving national support to the building of roads and canals, and the im- provement of navigable watercourses. Mr. Jefferson, who was then President, was no exception to this, but doubted whether the Constitution, strictly constrned, would admit of the appropriation to such purposes of the public funds. He there- foro suggested in his December message of 1806 such an amendment to the Con- stitution as would enable Congress to apply the surplus revenue " to the great pur- poses of public education, roads, rivers, canals, and such other objects of public im- provement as may be thought proper."2

The annals of Congress indicate that the original mover of this policy was Senator Worthington, of Ohio, but Mr. Clay, who entered the Senate in December, 1806, soon made himself its most conspicuous champion. He maintained not only that such a policy was desirable, but that it was already constitutionally authorized. His vigorous efforts were promptly seconded by public opinion, which found a voice in resolutions of the Ohio General Assembly, petitioning Congress as early as 1817 for the construction of a great national highway between the East and West. Additional appropriations for the improvement, repair and extension of the Cumberland Road were therefore successively made as follows :

February 14, 1810, $60,000 for " making said road between Cumberland, in the State of Maryland, and Brownsville, in the State of Pennsylvania."

March 3, 1811, $30,000 to be reserved from the funds provided for by the enab- ling act of 1802, for the same purpose.

May 6, 1812, $30,000 for the same purpose, and from the same fund.

February 14, 1815, $100,000 from said fund, for building a road from Cum- berland to the State of Ohio.

April 14, 1818, $52,984.60, for liquidating unpaid claims on account of said road.

On May 15, 1820, an act was passed which recited in its preamble that "by continuation of the Cumberland Road from Wheeling through Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, the lands of the United States may become more valuable," and authorized the President to appoint three commissioners "to examine the country between Wheeling, in the State of Virginia, and a point on the left bank of the Mississippi River, to be chosen by the commissioners, between St. Louis and the mouth of the Illinois River," and lay out in a straight line from Wheeling to said point a road eighty feet wide, its course and boundaries to be " designated by marked trees, stakes, or other conspicuous monuments, at the distance of every quarter of a mile, and at every angle of deviation from a straight line." The commissioners were further required to deliver a report and plan of their work to the President.

From this act of May 15, 1820, dates the beginning of the extension of the Cumberland Road through Ohio to the West. In their report of January 3, 1821,

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to the Secretary of the Treasury, the commissioners remark that the law limited the location of the road " through the intermediate country between the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to a direct line, with discretion only to deviate from such line where the ground and watercourses make it necessary." Strictly observing this requirement, the commissioners add, "in all probability neither of the seats of government of Ohio, Indiana or Illinois could be embraced by the location, although it has been ascertained that to carry the line through them all, commencing at Wheeling and ending at St. Louis, would not exceed in length a direct line between those points more than three miles."

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History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I, Part 42

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