USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I > Part 86
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The history of real estate transactions in Columbus indicates that the market has been active or dull as the general business of the country bas been prosperous or depressed. The financial disturbances of 1817, 1837, 1857 and 1873, and the
656
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.
depression which set in about two years ago, affected real estate quite as much as any other article of barter and sale. Of the various species of property realty is one of the last to decline in value in periods of financial depression, and also one of the last to respond to returning prosperity. The location of the capital at Columbus gave an impetus to the real estate trade for several years. The effects upon that trade of the financial stress which followed the War of 1812, coupled with the failure of two of the original proprietors of the town, and the attacks made upon the title of the proprietors in the courts have already been described in a preceding chapter.
In the year 1826 real estate business entered a new period of activity which continued until about 1837. A census of the town taken in the spring of 1826 showed a population of 1,400 and about two hundred houses. Three years later the population had increased to 2,014 and the houses numbered three hundred. The advance in real estate prices between 1829 and 1837 was rapid. In 1836 the wharf lots were laid out under direction of the City Council. Young's addition was platted and put upon the market in 1831, Brotherton & Walcutt's in 1831 or 1832, MeElvain's in 1832, Otis and Samuel Crosby's first and second addition in 1833, Heyl and Parson's and Matthew J. Gilbert's additions in 1835 and Kelley and Northrup's in 1838. John McGowan's addition was laid out in 1814. During the financial disturbances of 1837 and the agitation as to the removal of the seat of government which soon after began, real estate became dull and so con- tinued until 1844 when an upward movement again set in and was maintained not- withstanding the ravages of the cholera until 1853. Within this period the Gwynne Block and many other important buildings were erected. In 1853 the financial disturbance began which culminated in 1857. With the opening of the Civil War there came a revival of all kinds of business, that of real estate included. The depreciation of the currency induced many capitalists to invest their money in realty, the market for which consequently improved and remained active until the panic of 1873. Although the growth of the city continued after that panic there was no perceptible advance in real estate prices, except in a few favored localities, for ten or twelve years. Property remote from centres of trade suffered most, and some purchasers who were unable to meet their obligations or had become dis- couraged for other adverse reasons permitted their property to be sold or to relapse to the original owners. To our personal knowledge there were numerous cases in which the owners of additions who had faith in the future development of the city, rather than distress worthy people who had purchased of them, paid the taxes of such purchasers and waited on them for the payment of interest for periods of from five to twelve years. The growth of the city was such, however, that in the latter part of the eighties such owners, after paying the accrued taxes and liquidating their mortgages were able to sell their lots without loss and in many cases with profit. Those who held their property, after paying all incident expenses and six per cent. annual interest on their investment, either realized a profit or escaped loss.
In 1888 there was a general advance in the prices of real estate all over the city. An upward movement occurred about the same time in other cities,
657
LANDS AND LAND TITLES.
as for example Cincinnati, Cleveland and Toledo. The Columbus " boom " in real estate began in the month of January, 1888, and soon afterward property advanced considerably throughout the city, that located on East Town and East Broad Street being most affected. During this activity some of the principal real estate offices were so crowded that many persons were unable to gain admission and the agents were in some instances obliged to remain at their desks until nearly mid- night. The excitment attracted attention in all parts of the city and in neighboring towns. Some of the small buyers turned their property with profit three or four times successively. Platted ground frequently sold in block, and there was some gambling in options. Prior to the " boom" an average number of from ten to twelve deeds had been filed for record per day : on February 15, the number of deeds so filed was fifteen, on February 7, fortytwo, and on February 10, fortythree. Directly after the latter date the number declined and the excitement subsided, although real estate transactions continued to be more frequent than usual. The number of sales made in which deeds did not pass is unknown but is supposed to have been quite large. A large amount of property was purchased by outsiders.
Following this episode large tracts of land west of the Whetstone and Scieto rivers, even beyond the State Asylums, also south and east of the State University, as far north as Clintonville, east of Parsons' Avenne, about the United States Barracks, beyond Alnm Creek, in the southern portions of the city, and even south of the corporation line, were platted and put upon the market. Not only hundreds of lots but hundreds of acres which had lain unimproved or as farm lands were offered for sale. The total number of plats of property within or adjacent to the city filed for record from 1879 to 1888 was twohundred and sixty- four. The number filed in the four succeeding years was two hundred and sixty, distributed as follows: In 1888 eighty ; in 1889 fortyeight; in 1890 sixtyeight; and in 1891 sixtyfour. In some additions lots were sold on weekly or monthly payments, a title bond being in such cases usually given at the time of sale to be followed by a deed when a specified sum should be paid. In order to attract purchasers the owners of additions frequently provided them with sewers, sidewalks and other street improvements before putting their property on the market. The spread of the city which resulted from these transactions created a demand for extended street car facilities and more rapid transit. The system of sewerage was also enlarged and extended.
Under a street improvement law enacted May 11, 1886, and amended March 21, 1887, many thoroughfares were permanently paved at the cost of the abutting property. Sometimes these expensive works were extended to unimportant and sparsely inhabited streets of the suburbs. The aggregate cost of the street improvement under the law just named amounted to $406,034.69 during the year ended March 31, 1888. During the year ended March 31, 1889, the cost of such improvements was $800,836.48; year ended March 31, 1890, $850,815.18; year ended March 31, 1891, 8724,308.39. The aggregate cost of all the street improve- ments in Columbus during the year ended March 31, 1892, was $983,158.50. The corporate limits have been extended until the platted property within and adjoin- ing the city is commensurate with a population of several hundred thousand
42
658
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.
inhabitants. Large numbers of new buildings have been erected and the general style of architecture has been much improved. New streets have been opened, while others have been widened, straightened or so changed as to make them more attractive. To accommodate the increasing population costly bridges have been thrown over the Scioto and Whetstone rivers, new water mains have been laid, a new pumping station introduced and new fire engine and markethouses built. A natural gas supply, discovered about thirty miles east of Columbus, has been carried to all parts of the city.
Notwithstanding the various seasons of depression in the real estate market the inerease in reality values has been on the whole steady and permanent. From 1829 to 1837, from 1848 to 1853, from 1860 to 1873, and from 1880 to 1891 this increase was very marked. The County Auditor's duplicate of lands subject to taxation confirms this remark by many interesting facts. The Neil House stands, in part, on inlots 268, 269 and 270. In 1825 the first two of these were valued at twentyfive hundred and twentyfive dollars, respectively. Inlot 269 was doubtless unimproved. In 1827 the respective values of the same lots were sixtyfour hundred and forty dollars. In 1846 the three lots were valned at twentysix thousand two hundred and fifty dollars, and their improvements at fiftyfive thousand dollars. In 1859 the same lots were valued at $37,700 and their improvements at $65,000. In 1891 the three lots, including the improvements, were valned at $241,970. The average estimate of four competent judges as to the present value of the lots, exclusive of improvements, is sixteen hundred dollars per foot front, or three hundred thousand dollars. In 1846 the valuation of inlot 292 at the northwest corner of Spring and High streets, on which a part of the Chittenden Hotel now stands was seven hundred and fifty dollars; inlot 309, at the northeast corner of High and Chestnut streets, now covered by a portion of the Clinton Block was valued at seven hundred dollars; inlot 322 on which the Sessions Block now stands was valued at $1,650 and the improvements at $3,500; inlot 324, on which the Hinman-Beatty Block now stands was valued at $1,500, and the improvements $1,600. The average estimate of the same four persons abovenamed as to the present value of these lots per front foot, not including buildings, is $1,300. Each of the lots bas a frontage of sixtytwo and a balf feet, and is worth on the above estimate $81,250, exclusive of buildings. In 1846 inlot 445, on which the residence of William G. Deshler now stands, was valued at $2,800. In 1863 the entire frontage on the east side of High Street between Spring and the first alley south sold for $25,500. If the buildings were all removed the ground would now sell for as much per front foot as the inlots abovenamed, i. e. $1,300. In about the year 1859 William A. Hershiser bought lot number eight of the Starr farm, as subdivided by William Jamison, adminis- trator. He paid four thousand dollars for the lot. It lies on the north side of West Third Avenue between High Street and Dennison Avenue. Mr. Hershiser has up to the present date sold eighty thousand dollars worth of property from the tract and values the portion which he retains at twentyfive thousand dollars. The net advance in the value of the property after deducting the cost of improve- ments is perhaps seventy thousand dollars. In 1870 the grounds of the old
659
LANDS AND LAND TITLES.
Asylum for the insane on East Broad Street were purchased for $200,500, and were platted as tho East Park Place Addition, containing three hundred and ten lots. The twentyone lots of this addition which ubut on Broad Street have an aggregate frontage of 1104.61 feet, and, as estimated by the four persons above named are worth at this time one hundred and seventyfive dollars per front foot, or $193,306.75 in all. In 1869 Henry M. Neil was offered three hundred dollars for an acre of land lying on High Street and Fourteenth Avenue. His father thought it worth at that time two hundred and fifty dollars. In 1888 it was sold by Mr. Neil at a price fixed before the real estate " boom" of that year for $15,000. It is needless to further multiply instances to illustrate the increase in valne of Columbus real estate.
Investments in realty have largely contributed to the financial strength of many wealthy families and citizens. The foundations of many of the greatest estates were laid by large and judicious investments in lands. Not all, however, have dealt with profit in Columbus lands. The same degree of eare and skill necessary to success in other kinds of business is requisite to success in real estate transactions. While many have accumulated a competency, or made large for- tunes, many others have waited long and in vain for a rise in value or the oppor- tunity to sell. Yet it is generally conceded that, at almost any time in the history of the city, investments in real estate, judicionsly made, have been safe and pro- fitable.
In concluding this chapter it is proper to express my gratitude to those who have assisted in its preparation. Mr. George J. Atkinson and the ladies in his office, Misses Jennie M. Geren, Henrietta C. Geren and Mary J. Jones, whose long experience in abstraeting titles has made them familiar with lands in every part of the city, have by their suggestions and assistance materially reduced my labor. The tables of statistics were prepared by E. J. Converse. The map show- ing the kinds of lands lying within the corporate limits, the portion of the city included in the original inlots and the present limits of the city, was prepared by B. F. Bowen.
NOTES.
1. Kent's Commentaries, Volume 3, pages 501, 502, tenth edition.
2. Chase's Statutes of Ohio, Volume 1, page 9.
3. Bancroft's History of the United States, Volume I, page 16.
4. Parkman's Pioneers of France in the New World, 302, 303.
5. Ibid, 308, et seq. ; Hinsdale's Old Northwest, 25.
6. Ibid, page 26.
7. Ibid, page 28.
8. Ibid, page 44; Chase's Statutes, page 10.
9. Hinsdale's Old Northwest, 38.
10. Parkman : La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West, 8.
11. Ibid, 24 to 27; Encyclopedia Brittannica, article Ohio; Old Northwest, 30, 31.
12. Parkman : La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West, 288.
13. Old Northwest, 6.
14. Parkman : La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West, 324, et seq.
660
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.
15. Old Northwest, 32.
16. Chase's Statutes, 10.
17. Old Northwest, 12.
18 Bancroft's History, Volume 1, Chapter 4.
19. Ibid, Volume 2, 99; Old Northwest, 73.
20. Bancroft's History, Volume 2, 215; Old Northwest, 75.
21. As to claims and cessions of the Iroquois, see Bancroft, Volume 2, 175, 211, 222 ; Old Northwest, 46, 59, 65.
22. Old Northwest, 58.
23. Bancroft, Volume 2, 343, 362.
24. Ibid, 385.
25. Rufus King's Ohio in America Commonwealths, 401.
26.
American Political Ideas, by John Fiske, 56.
27. Bancroft, 389, 391.
28. Old Northwest, 48.
29. Pioneers of France in the New World; Parkman, 395.
30. Ibid, 399.
31. La Salle's Discovery of the Great West, 93.
32. Ibid, 113.
33. Old Northwest, 48.
34. Parkman's Conspiracy of Pontiac, Volume 1, Chapter 2, 47, 48.
35. Parkman's Wolfe and Montcalm, Volume 2, 403.
36. Encyclopedia Britannica, United States ; Bancroft's History, Volume 2.
37. Bancroft's History, Volume 3, 32.
38. As to Quebec Act, see Encyclopedia Brittannica, article, United States; Old North- west ; Pitkin's History of the United States, appendix.
39. As to England's western land policy, see Old Northwest, Chapter 8.
40. Old Northwest, 198; Magazine of Western History, Pt. 2, page 345.
41. Old Northwest, 199; Magazine of Western History, Pt. 2, 345.
42. Magazine of Western History, Pt. 2, 345, etc.
43. For cessions by the States, see The Public Domain, by Donaldson, 56 to 88; Chase's Statutes, Volume 1, pp. 12, 13, 14 ; Land Laws of the United States, 1828, 93 et seq .; King's Ohio, Chapter 7; Old Northwest, Chapters 12, 13,
44. Chase's Statutes, Volume 1, 15 ; Old Northwest, 249, 250.
45. Donaldson's Public Domain, 21.
46. Ibid, 22.
47. In addition to authority cited as to Indian titles see Kent's Commentaries, Volume 3, Lecture 51; The Public Domain, by Donaldson, Chapter 16, and authorities there mentioned.
48. For Indian treaties referred to in the text, see Western Annals, 288, 295, 296, 442 ; Land Laws of the United States, 148 to 154; Taylor's History of Ohio, 439, 140, 457, 458; Land Laws of Ohio, 477, et seq.
49. Proceedings of the Society of Civil Engineers, 1881, 13, 14.
50. For acts relating to the United States Military District, the Refugee Tract, the Vir- ginia Military District and the Congress Lands, see Ohio Land Laws, Land Laws of the United States, 1828, and Local Land Laws of the United States, Volume 2. Mr. Samuel McClelland is authority for the method of alloting Refugee Lands.
51. Proceedings of the Society of Civil Engineers, 1881, 16.
52. Ibid, 1883, 47, 48.
53. Ohio Land Laws, 35, et seq.
54. Ohio Gazetteer, 56.
55. Proceedings of the Society of Civil Engineers, 1883, 45.
1
661
LANDS AND LAND TITLES.
56. Chase's Statutes, Volume 1, 167 ; Moore's Lessee v. Vance, I Ohio, 1.
57. Chancery Record, 7, 500, etc.
58. Deed Book 6, pages 172 and 173.
59. See 1 Ohio, 1.
60. Ohio State Journal, February 5, 1879.
61. The description of the Walcutt abstracts is obtained from the testimony given by General C. C. Walcutt in the case of Deardurff v. Deardurff et al., Common Pleas Court.
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XXXII.
Annual real estate valuation and tax levy in the city of Columbus from 1848 to 1860, and from 1879 to 1890, inclusive.
Year
Valuation.
Levy por dollar in mills.
Year.
Valuation.
Levy per dollar in mills.
1848
$2,568,715
10-7
1878
$18.746,320
20
1849
2.723.099
141
1879
19,166,640
21 °
1850
2,828,614
13,3
1880
19,509,460
23.3
1851
2,995,245
151
1881
21,662,670
201%
1852
3,104,384
15,7.
1882
22,204,620
22
1853
3,282,196
16}
1883
23,010.870
20
1854
5,514 238
103
1884
23,981,980
21 %
1855
5,755,632
1311
1885
25,252,150
21,
1856
5,852,391
13.76
1886
26,332,100
20%
1857
5,900,814
13
1887
27,638,310
2128
1858
5,976,264
131
1888
28,850,540
215
1859
6,050,391
1426
1889
30,079,250
21%
1860
5,794,922
1890
31,570,710
23
Deeds and mortgages of city property, and consideration for same, in the years 1860, 1870 and from 1880 to 1890, inclusive.
YEAR.
NO. OF DEEDS.
CONSIDERATION.
NO. OF M'RTGAG'S
CONSIDERATION.
1860
1285*
$
685
$1,293,137 49
1870
1696+
1214
1,880,875 00
1880
1918
2,406,381 00
1543
666,925 00
1881
1918
186,215 00
1511
1,660,074 00
1882
1866
3,116,869 00
1967
2,798,593 00
1883
1840
3,214,800 00
2164
3,043,653 80
1884
1863
3,934.750 00
2459
3,156.253 50
1885
1827
3,899,245 52
2448
3,309,679 44
1886
2040
1,734,000 00
1675
884,400 00
1887
3496
3,146,400 00
2788
2,788,000 00
1888
4542
3789
1889
4450
4,580,100 00
3906
4,500,000 00
1890
2903
3,018,400 00
2977
2,997,400 00
*Leases, and all deeds for the county, included.
+For the whole county.
662
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.
Cost of street improvements and of main and lateral sewers in the city of Columbus during the years ended as indicated.
COST OF STREET COST OF MAIN AND IMPROV'MENTS. LATERAL SEWERS.
YEAR ENDING
COST OF STREET COST OF MAIN AND IMPROVEM'NTS. LATERAL SEWERS.
YEAR ENDING
$ 126,056 38
$ 60,340 64
April 8, 1875
$ 121,139 76
$ 253,064 76
March 31, 1884
110,908 17
11,176 05
8, 1876
100,042 82
90,854 85
30,1885
300,443 20
7,099 08
66
8, 1877
64,921 51
21,623 04
29,1886
83,777 74
4,669 60
8, 1878
186,060 22
23,470 47
28, 1887
5,108 64
1,773 40
8, 1879
453,866 83
93,801 94
30,1888
3,070 00
1,182 47
= 8, 1880
871,563 63
63,277 91
25,1889
12,795 93
1,639 86
March 31, 1881
853,849 25
56,386 89
31,1890
81,756 41
2,453 76
27,1882
796,190 87
144,127 26
30,1891
116,845 42
51,089 91
26, 1883
983,158 50
111,646 08
23,1892
CHAPTER XXXIII.
GEOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY.
BY EDWARD ORTON, LL. D.,
Professor of Geology in the Ohio State University and State Geologist of Ohio.
In the present chapter a brief account will be given of the geology and physi- cal geography of Columbus. Under the latter division the topography and climate of the city will be discussed, and the relations of both its geology and geography to its water supply, drainage and sewerage will also be considered.
GEOLOGY.
The geological history of Ohio is marked by very little that can be counted unusual or surprising in character. There are no mountains in the State and there never have been any. This is the same as saying there is no geological record in its rocks of great uplifts or extensive fractures of the strata, involving earthquake and volcanic energy, within that portion of the surface of the earth which we call Ohio. On the other hand, while the history contained in the rocks of the State carries us back through vast spaces of time and therefore covers great changes in the physical geography, and thus in the life of the area represented, its several stages are connected with one another in most instances by almost imperceptible gradations and transitions. Iu other words, the series that com- poses our geological column is a very regular and orderly one, considering its range and extent. But this fact must not be understood as implying that our geo- logical annals are uninteresting or unimportant. On the contrary, the general regularity of the record enhances its value in some respects; and in any case we may be sure that no portion of the earth's crust can be studied with due care and with suitable facilities without being found replete with interest and instruc- tion. What we already kuow of the geological history of the State makes for us an instructive chapter of science; but our strata will yield to the students of geology for many centuries to come, materials which will prove the basis of ever- widening knowledge and ever-deepening interest, and in comparison with what will then be known all that we have hitherto learned will seem fragmentary and insignificant.
[663]
664
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.
Geological time preceding the present order, is divided into four great divisions which are named in descending order as follows :
Cenozoic time, Mesozoic time, Paleozoic time, Archæan time.
These divisions have all been of vast duration according to the measures that we are accustomed to employ, but they appear to have been very unequal in length. The oldest division, viz., the Archæn rocks, undoubtedly eover in the stages of their history a much longer period of time than any of the subsequent divisions. Next to it in duration is Paleozoic time. An aggregate of not less than fifty thousand feet of stratified rocks is credited to the Paleozoic column in North America ; and probably no geologist would undertake to account for the growth of this vast series of formations, holding as they do all the distinct records of the earliest life of the globe, without assigning many millions of years to the history.
All the bedded rocks of the Ohio scale belong to the Paleozoic series. The lowest of them are found at about the middle of this series and they extend nearly to its summit. The Ohio column contains the following main divisions named in descending order :
Permocarboniferous-
Upper Barren Measures.
Carboniferous-
Upper Coal Measures.
Barren Measures,
Lower Coal Measures,
Conglomerate Series.
Subcarboniferous-
Logan Group.
Cuyahoga Shale,
Berea Shale,
Berea Grit,
Bedford Shale.
Devonian-
Ohio Black Shale,
Upper Helderberg Limestone,
Lower Helderberg Limestone.
Upper Silurian-
Niagara Limestone and Shale,
Clinton Group, Medina Shale.
Lower Sulurian
Hudson River Series, Trenton Limestone.
It is scarcely necessary to remark in a chapter of this character that all of these rocks, with the exception of the Coal Measures in small part, are marine for-
665
GEOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY.
mations. All are the products of the seas that covered the area that we now call Ohio, and widely adjacent territory as well.
Columbus is centrally located in the State and it so happens that the rocks underlying it are found at the middle of the state column. The two formations that erop out within or near its boundaries are the Upper Helderberg limestone and the Ohio shale. Both are of Devonian age. The former is found in the great quarries that line the banks of the banks of the Scioto within three miles of the Statehouse, and the latter is shown in many considerable outcrops in the northern portions of the city. Each of these will be briefly described.
The Devonian or Upper Helderberg Limestone .- It will be seen by an inspection of the column previously given that the lowest or oldest portions of the rocks of Ohio are limestones. It is also a wellknown fact that all of these limestone forma- tions ocenpy in their outcrops the western half of the State. The stratum with which we are now coneerned is the latest or highest of this series. Underneath it limestones and limestone shales are to be found without any important inter- ruptions for at least twentyfive hundred feet. On the other hand, there is no con- siderable limestone overlying it in the series of the State. It is not only, therefore, the highest of this particular series, but it is also the last of the great limestone formations, so far as our column is concerned.
Divisions .- The formation consists of two distinct portions, which by some would be regarded as distinct strata, a lower and an upper, of about equal thick- ness. Each has a thickness of thirty to forty feet, in full section. The lower is an even bedded and fairly pure limestone, suitable for lime-production and for building stone. The upper consists of thin, shaly beds containing a considerable number of flinty nodules, in more or less definite courses. When crushed, it serves a good purpose as street foundations. This is the only use that has been found for it thus far. It is certain, however, that hydraulic cement could be manufactured from some of its beds.
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