History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I, Part 47

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 47

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Repeated losses of money from the mails on routes traveled by Hinton, ante- cedent to the time of his arrest, had caused him to be watched. A government detective was placed upon his track, and decoy packages were sent back and forth through the mails for his especial benefit. On his trial, which began at Cleveland, September 11, on charges of stealing money from the mail between Cleveland and Columbus, and embezzling money at divers other places, Daniel M. Haskell, the Postmaster at Cleveland, testified that, on Sunday, August 4, 1850, he placed in the Wooster bag a package containing one thousand dollars in marked notes, knowing that Hinton would go in the same coach. Haskell sent forward John N. Wheeler

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MAIL AND STAGECOACH.

to Seville, Medina County, as a spy, and followed the coach himself to Mt. Vernon, where he arrived on Monday morning, August 5, about an hour and a half later than the coach. Wheeler boarded the stage at Seville. The passengers wore Hlin- ton, A. N. Thomas and two ladies named Sullivant. Nothing occurred until a point was reached about eleven miles north of Mt. Vernon when the coach halted, and Hinton helped the driver to unhitch. The time was three o'clock in the morn- ing. All the passengers except Hinton remained in the coach, the shaking of which attracted Wheeler's attention, whereupon he saw Hinton get down from the vehicle holding in his hand a mailbag, which he took with him behind a shed. While Hinton was gone with the bag Wheeler distinctly heard, in that direction, the rustling of papers. Returning in from five to eight minutes, Hinton threw the bag into the front boot, and after sitting there for a moment, went into the hotel. Soon he came ont again, got into the coach, asked Wheeler to change seats with him, and requested one of the ladies to let him have his carpetbag, which she was nsing for a pillow. He then put some papers in the bag, and resumed his former seat. When the coach arrived at Mt. Vernon, about five A. M., he retired to a room in the hotel. The night was clear and starlit, but moonless.

In its issue of August 29, 1850, the Cleveland Plaindealer contained the follow- ing statements :

Yesterday our town was thrown into great commotion by the announcement that Gen- eral O. Hinton, a gentleman who has represented himself in these parts as the Ohio Stage Company, but who, in fact, was merely a pensioned agent of said company, was arrested on a charge of robbing the mail of some seventeen thousand dollars. . . . He was arrested in this city yesterday afternoon, and large quantities of the marked money contained in those [decoy] packages found on his person. He was examined before Commissioner Stetson and bound over in the sum of ten thousand dollars. He applied to several of our citizens without effect. . . . The following handbill in glaring capitals met our gaze this morning:

Five Hundred Dollars Reward will be paid for the arrest and confinement, in any jail of the United States, of General O. Hinton, Agent for the Ohio Stage Company. Said Hinton was nnder an arrest, charged with robbing the mail of the United States on the fifteenth instant, and a portion of said money was found on the person of said Hinton at the time of his arrest. He is a man about fiftyfive or sixty years of age ; weight one hundred and eighty or ninety pounds; has dark hair, almost black, very fleshy, stout built, florid complexion, and looks as though he was a hard drinker, but is strictly temperate.

D. D. HASKELL,

Cleveland, Ohio, August 29, 1850. Special Agent Postoffice Department.

The events which led to these announcements may be briefly stated. On the fifteenth of August a moneypackage was taken from the mailbags between Colum- bus and Cleveland. Ilinton was on the coach from which the theft was committed, and on his return to Cleveland August 28 was arrested, as stated, by Officer Mckinstry. After a preliminary hearing before the United States Commissioner, instead of being locked up in jail, as a less pretentious criminal would have been, he was permitted to occupy his room in the Weddell House where three persons remained with him as a guard. During the night these addleheaded watchmen dropped to sleep, leaving the key in the door. Thus invited, Hinton arose, wont out, locked the door from the outside and disappeared. Some time later, a great outcry was raised by the imprisoned guards, calling for help and release.

Hinton was retaken near Wellsville, on the Ohio River, September 3, and on the fifth was brought by the Deputy Marshal to Columbus, where, as the news-

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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

paper report states, he "put up at the Neil House." The next day he was taken back to Cleveland. At Zanesville, on his way to Columbus, he was permitted to harangue the crowd which gathered to see him, asserted his innocence, and de- clared that his reason for attempting to escape was the excessive bail exacted. After a hearing at Cleveland, he was brought back, September 17, to Columbus, where, on October 10, 1850, he was arraigned, entered a plea of not guilty, and in default of fifteen thousand dollars bail, was committed to jail to await his trial before the United States District Court. Before his commitment he asked and was granted permission to make a statement in his own bebalf, and, says the Statesman, " for half an hour he spoke with the voice of a Stentor." On October 19, 1850, his bond was fixed at ten thousand dollars for his appearance at the next term of court, January 17, 1851, and on motion of the defendant's counsel, a con- tinuance of his case was granted. On April 16, 1851, the required bond was filed with P. B. Wilcox, United States Commissioner, and Hinton was discharged. His case was never brought to a final issue. Owing to his prominence, and social con- nections, public sympathy was wrought upon in his favor, and he quietly disap. peared, forfeiting his bond. We next bear of him, a few months later, on the Pacific Coast, where he spent, undisturbed, the remainder of his days.

As soon as the railways had taken up the through mails, a crisis in the fate of the old stage lines was reached, as witness the following advertisement of the Ohio Stage Company, dated at Columbus, June 17, 1853:

STAGE COACHES FOR SALE.

Fifty superior coaches, sixes, nines, fourteens and sixteens, for sale cheap at our shop at Columbus, Ohio. Stage proprietors would find it to their interest to call and examine, as we intend to sell.

Just one year later, in June, 1854, a large part of the company's stock and equipment was transferred to Iowa, for service on the stage routes of that State. Charles J. Porter, a veteran employé, had charge of the caravan.

Thus do the agencies of material and social progress forever change. With the coming of the locomotive, the stagecoach ceased to be a leading or very con- spicuous factor in the development of the Capital City.

NOTES.

1. J. H. Kennedy, in the Magazine of American History for December, 1886.

2. Letter of November 30, 1856, to Hon. W. T. Martin.

3. Martin's History of Franklin County.

4. Board of Trade Address, July 24, 1889.

5. Communication to the Ohio State Journal of April 10, 1868.

6. January 22. 1869.

7. Ohio State Journal.

8. Ibid.

9. Don't You Remember ; by Miss Lida R. McCabe. 1884.

10. Ibid.

11. Columbus Sunday News, March 30, 1890.

12. Ohio Statesman, February 26, 1853.

13. Took effect July 1, 1837.

14. Ohio State Journal.

CHAPTER XXIII.

MAIL AND TELEGRAPH.

Down to the opening of the railway lines in 1853, complaints of irregularities and failures in the postal service were incessant. In frequent instances inefficiency of management and office duty were pointedly charged, perhaps indiscriminately in some cases but in others, and too frequently, with apparent reason. The appointment and removal of postoffice officials and employes, from the highest to the lowest, for predominantly partisan reasons, which, with moderate qualifi- cation, has been the practice, ever since the elder Adams retired from the Presidency in 1829, has been a costly and constant detriment to the efficiency of the mail administration, and has been responsible for threefourths, at least, of all the inefficiency and unfaithfulness with which it has been properly charged. On the other hand, it should be considered that the difficulties in the way of the prompt, swift and sure transmission of the mails, prior to the advent of the railway era, and the vastly improved facilities which have followed it, were very great. Storm, flood, accident and the bad keeping of roads all made themselves incessantly felt as interfering contingencies. In such cases, when the true causes of delays and miscarriages were not, and could not be, popularly understood, the postoffice officials were often heedlessly blamed.

Nor did the complaints, or their causes, by any means cense until railway transportation had been made far more efficient and reliable than it was at the beginning. After the public had become accustomed to count the time of mail transmission by hours instead of days, it was just as impatient of a brief delay as it had before been of a long one. Yet the history of the mail service since the steamcar began to be its adjunct, has been one of steady and rapid improvement. One of the most marked and significant features of this progress has been the cheapening of the rates of postage. In 1845 Congress took an important step in that direction which proved to be of great popular benefit, although it caused a deficit in the postal revenues. By an act passed in that year rates were established as follows: For a letter weighing not more than half an ounce, five cents under and ten cents over three hundred miles, and an additional rate for every additional half ounce or smaller fraction. Newspapers were free under thirty miles, but for distances over that, paid one cent within, and a cent and a half for distances over one hundred miles without the State where published. The transmission of mail matter by express was prohibited unless the postage was first paid.

By an act passed March 3, 1851, still more important changes were made, and the letter rate was fixed as follows : For a letter weighing not over half an ounce,

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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

under 3,000 miles, three cents, if prepaid, and if not prepaid, five cents ; over 3,000 miles, six and twelve cents ; to foreign countries with which postal arrangements had not otherwise been made, ten cents for not over 2,500 miles, and for more than that distance twenty cents. Weekly newspapers to actual subscribers were free in the county where published ; outside of the county quarterly charges were made according to the distance.

By an act which took effect July 1, 1855, the letter rate was reduced to three cents on single inland letters for all distances under three thousand miles, and pre- payment of all inland letter postage was required. The lowest quarterly postage on newspapers and periodicals weighing not more than four ounces each, and sent to actual subscribers was five cents weekly. The latest revisions of postage were made by the laws of 1872, 1874, 1875, and 1885, which established, in substance, the rates which now prevail.

With cheaper postage came greater multiplicity of routes, a vast increase of business, and greater speed by water as well as by land. The steamer Pacific, which arrived at New York April 19, 1851, had made the trip from Liverpool in less than ten days, which, up to that time, was the most rapid trip which had been achieved. Postoffices were fitted up on the railway trains by which distribution was greatly facilitated. On accommodation trains of the Bee Line this was done in the summer of 1851. Office organization and the facilities of local distribution were greatly improved. The system of registration of valuable letters was first introduced by act of March 3, 1855. This was followed by the money order system, first established in the United States November 1, 1864. Postal notes . were first issued in September, 1883. The foreign transmission of money by mail took effect between this country and Great Britain October 2, 1871. Postal cards at a cost of one cent cach were authorized by act of June 8, 1872, and were first issued in May, 1873. By 1874 the number of railway postoffice lines had reached sixtyfour, and covered an aggregate distance of 16,400 miles. On July 1, 1884, the railway mail service had in its employ over four thousand clerks, and covered an aggregate length of routes exceeding 117,000 miles.

A uniform system of free delivery, first authorized March 3, 1863, was estab- lished on July 1 of that year in fortynine cities. During the first year of its existence the system employed 685 carriers, but on July 1, 1884, its service extended to one hundred and fiftynine cities, and employed 3,890 carriers.

In 1870 popular expressions on the subject of free delivery for Columbus were invited by Postmaster Comly, but the responses were, at first, not favorable. The postmaster nevertheless made request to have the system introduced in the city, but was met with refusal at the Department. In 1873 his efforts were renewed, and being seconded by popular favor, were successful. Sixty street boxes arrived in June of that year, and, by permission of the City Council, were attached to lamp- posts, the distribution on High Street being one to every square. Off of High Street none were placed nearer to that thoroughfare than two squares, except on Town Street. On the postmaster's nomination, the Department appointed ten carriers, the first to serve in Columbus, viz .: Orlan Glover, Thomas C. Jones, John M. Merguson, James K. Perrin, Thomas C. Platt, Wesley P. Stephens, James F. Grimsley, Robert N. Vance, John H. Condit, and Joseph Philipson. The service began July 1, 1873, and was successful beyond anticipation. In August the busi-

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ness increased thirtythree per cent. over that for July, and twothirds of the rented boxes and drawers at the postoffice were abandoned. The sale of postal cards in Columbus began almost simultaneously with free delivery, the first salo being made July 18.

At the beginning of President Lincoln's Administration the postoffice was located on East State Street, at the west corner of Pearl, where it had been for many years. From thence Postmaster John Graham removed it in the latter part of 1861 to rooms prepared for it in the rear part of the Odeon Building, opposite the Capitol, on High Street. Thence the office wasremoved by Postmaster Comly, November 7, 1874, to rooms on the ground floor of the City Hall, in the northwest part of the building. These rooms were fitted up, the postmaster stated, by private citizens, at a cost of four thousand dollars. The City Council having, by ordinance, granted the use of the rooms to the United States at an annual rental of five hundred dollars, an injunction was asked for to prevent a lease at a lower rate than fifteen hundred dollars per annum, but, after hearing, the application was dismissed by Judge Bingham.

On July 1, 1877, General J. M. Comly resigned the postmastership to accept an appointment as Minister to the Sandwich Islands. He was succeeded by Major A. D. Rodgers. During his administration - in 1878 - material improvement was made in the arrangement and convenience of the rooms at the City Hall.

In the spring of 1879 a mail room for assortment, registry and transfer, was fitted up at the Union Station.

In 1857-8 the propriety of erecting a public building for accommodation of the postoffice and other business of the National Government in Columbus, was first agitated. In January, 1858, Hon. S. S. Cox, then representing the capital district in Congress, presented in that body a petition with the names of eight hundred citizens attached, asking for the erection of such a building. A bill making an appropriation for that purpose was introduced by Mr. Cox, and passed the House but failed in the Senate. Another bill appropriating for the same purpose the sum of 850,000 was introduced by Mr. Cox in June, 1858, but the depleted condition of the Treasury at that time prevented its favorable consideration. In the course of his argument in favor of the measure Mr. Cox made the following historical state- ment :

In 1856, the State [of Ohio] was divided into two districts, and the [United States] courts removed from Columbus to Cincinnati and Cleveland. . .. From the year 1820 until 1856, the courts were held in Columbus. The United States used without intermission a building which was provided for that purpose, but not by the United States. It was built at the joint expense of the people of Columbus and of the State of Ohio. The State contributed a certain amount of depreciated bank (Miami Exporting Company) paper, then in the Treasury. But the burden was borne chiefly by the public-spirited citizens of Columbus. The United States never paid any rent. This rent, at a fair estimate of thirtysix years, at six hundred dollars per annum, would be $21,600.

Mr. Cox renewed his efforts in 1860, but was again unsuccessful, and twenty years passed before the matter was again taken up. During that interval condi- tions supervened which, fortunately for further attempts to obtain the building, produced a necessity for it far greater than that which existed in 1860. These conditions are found in the very great growth of the city and consequent increase

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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

of the postoffice business ; the addition of the pension and internal revenue adminis- tration to the localized interests of the National Government, and the passage of an act restoring to the capital of Ohio the sittings of the District and Circuit courts of the United States. The act by which this latter result was accomplished was first introduced by the Hon. George L. Converse, then representing the Ninth (Columbus) District of Ohio, and was approved and took effect February 4, 1880. Partly as a consequence of this measure, another, also introduced by Mr. Converse, was passed and approved April 11, 1882, directing the Secretary of the Treasury to purchase a suitable site and erect thereon "a substantial and com- modious building, with fire proof vaults for the use of the United States District and Circuit courts, internal revenue and pension offices, postoffice, and other gov- ernment uses," the cost not to exceed $250.000. This art appropriated $100,000, and additional appropriations for the building were subsequently made as follows : March 3, 1885, for extension and completion, $110,000; August 4, 1886, for approaches, $6,000 ; March 30, 1888, for elevator, $8,000.

After much discussion of various proposals the building was located. and its site purchased, at the southeast corner of State and Third streets. The cost of the ground there purchased by the United States was, in round numbers, $46,000. On October 21, 1884, the cornerstone of the building was laid with masonie ceremonies conducted by the Grand Lodge of Ohio, then in session at Columbus. In a cavity of the stone were placed copies of the contemporary newspapers of the city, various masonic and political documents, specimens of current coins, and a historical sketch read on the occasion. While the building was in course of erection, the postoffice occupied temporary apartments on the present site of the Young Men's Christian Association building on Third Street, to which it was removed, on expiration of the Government lease, from the City Hall. From these apartments the postoffice was transferred to its permanent home in the new building October 1, 1887.

While the officers and employés of the Columbus Postoffice have been efficient and faithful, as a rule, there have been some very serious exceptions. The writer has a circumstantial record of these before him, but forbears to reproduce more than its essential features. The memory of such crimes is at best of very trifling value, historical or moral, and omission of the names of those who have com- mitted them, while it may spare pain to the innocent, cannot impair the usefulness of these pages Let the most general mention, then, suffice.

On November 30, 1874, a deficit of about $12,000 in the money order depart- ment of the postoffice was detected. The loss, it is understood, was borne by the postmaster, who was entirely blameless in the matter.

During the summer and autumn of 1875, money losses from the mails of Central Ohio were continuous, and were finally traced to the Columbus office. Captain C. E. Henry, a special agent of the Postoffice Department, was detailed to work up the case, and soon learned that the depredations were being made by a thief of extraordinary stealth and cunning. Over a hundred decovs were sent through the Columbus office from different directions, but every one of them passed without being touched. Weeks were spent in watching, contriving, and applying various devices for detection, but in vain. Meanwhile the writer, who was one of many who were subjected to almost daily losses, received numerous letters of un-

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MAIL AND TELEGRAPH.

accountable complaint that remittances sent to him had not been acknowledged. The postmaster and his assistants were also harried with perpetual and increasing complaints. Meanwhile there was not an officer or employe in the office who was not, unconsciously to himself, placed under the strictest surveillance. " For months," says a contemporary account,1 " there was not a letter distributed in the office day or night, which did not come within the observation of men constantly on the watch. During the night, at different times, walls were pierced, floors re- moved and points of observation wero constructed in the very walls of the build- ing, from which men saw the unconscions workers handling all the mail (practi- cally) that passed through the office for weeks."

" The criminal in this case," continues the account just quoted," " was at work night after night under the vigilant eye of a man of whose very existence he was unconscious ; a man whom he had never met in his life. This man knew accu- rately every motion of his hand : knew how much money he spent in market, and the denomination of it; how many eggs he bought, how many pounds of meat, and what he paid for the purchase. . .. In the postoffice, where he supposed he was out of sight and perfectly secure, this poor wretch had been working in full sight of walls that had eyes, if not cars. One man saw everything for eighteen nights, another for thirtyeight nights. . . . Finally, one night, the watcher saw the distributing clerk, then entirely alone in the front room of the postoffice, with a quick motion ' thumb' certain letters, some of which, to the number of five that night he expertly opened, and after examining the contents as expertly sealed again and put back into the mail. Nothing was taken out - nothing remained on his person as evidence - no proof of guilty intent except the opening and sealing the letters. The same thing occurred another night; two letters were opened ; another night two more ; other nights many, other nights nonc.

" Finally yesterday morning [July 30, 1876], just before thealarm of fire sound . ed, he was observed to open five letters, laying them down on his table. Captain Henry and another whose name is not to be mentioned (Captain Henry's most trusted and valued assistant) immediately made a rush from their place of observa- tion, down the stairway, out - into the street - barcheaded, barefooted, at a break - neck pace, and found in that short space of time the worker had deftly resealed the letters and gone back to his work ; nothing yet on his person, after six weeks un- varied watching. The alarm of fire proved a friendly diversion, and Captain Henry and his assistant succeeded in rejoining Colonel Burr at his post without ob- servation.

" Just as they were ready to despair of getting the desired incontestable proof, they saw the worker open one more letter, and this time he finds money The money is swiftly janmed into one pocket, the letter into the other of his pantaloons, and now Captain Henry feels that the moment has come. While the clerk opened and seemed to be reading another letter they cantiously wend their way to the open door at the rear end of the postoffice, and enter. The clerk is engaged at his work, and he looks up with a frank and pleasant smile as he recognizes Captain Henry, whom he evidently supposes to have come casually in the course of his usual tour of inspection.

" ' How do you do, Captain Henry,' said he.

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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

" Captain Henry places his hand on the shoulder of the smiling man, or- ders him to throw up his hands and says [calling him by name]:

"' How could you take that money out of the letters ?'

" And the old trusted clerk, the man of unsuspected life, trusted in his church and in the lodge with the very treasury itself, thunderstruck in his guilt, exclaims : "' I was embarrassed, could not pay my debis, and had to do it.'"

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History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I, Part 47

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