USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I > Part 95
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In March, 1867, diphtheria and typhoid fever prevailed in the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb to such an extent that the school was disbanded, and about one- half of the scholars were sent home. A Board of Health appointed by ordinance of May 6 comprised the following members : Doctor William Trevitt, Frederick Fieser,
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R. Walkup, Frank Howard, John Miller and Louis Hoster. This board was authorized to ahate nuisances, regulate the registration of births and deaths, remove infected persons, and " make all orders and regulations necessary for public health and the prevention of disease." In addition to these measures a uniformed sani- tary police force was appointed (May 22) by the Mayor and distributed, by dis- tricts, through the city. This was done in pursuance of a code of regulations adopted by the Board of Health May 16. The cleaning of streets and abatement of nuisances were among the things which this code most urgently required.
On May 5, 1868, the Statesman regaled the musicloving population of the city with the information that " the frogs hold a grand concert nightly in the ponds." It is therefore fair to infer that pools of water still existed within the limits of the city which frogs delighted to inhabit.
Seven or eight cases of smallpox were reported in December, 1871. On May 7, 1872, a Board of Health was appointed by ordinance, and on May 24 it adopted a code of sanitary rules. The board comprised seven members, who were obliged to serve without compensation. Among the powers conferred upon it was that of appointing a health officer, a clerk, and as many district physicians as might be deemed necessary.
The epizootie reappeared in Columbus November 17, 1872, shortly after which date a great many horses were seized with chills and coughing, accompanied, in some cases, by the discharge of yellowish-green matter from the nose, and a swelling of the glands. Prevention was attempted by wrapping asafcetida around the bridlebits, and administering bromi-chloralum. Owing to this con- tagion the running of streetcars had to be suspended November 18, and the horses of the Fire Department all being affected, volunteer companies of men to draw the engines and hosecarts had to be organized. By November 26 nearly all the horses in Columbus were more or less affected, bakers and grocers were obliged to deliver their goods by footmen, and oxteams for heavy hauling became so numerous on the streets as to cease to be a curiosity. Stages, streetcars and omni- buses all ceased running, passengers were obliged to walk between the hotels and the railway station, and the country mail transportation was seriously embarrassed. Many alleged remedies for the malady, most of which it would be unprofitable to reproduce, found their way into print.
During the spring of 1873, cholera prevailed extensively in the Southen States, and during the months of July and August of that year it existed to a limited extent in Columbus. Up to July 19, fifteen deaths had taken place in the Peni- tentiary, within the walls of which the pestilence was mostly confined. The last cholera death mentioned took place August 11.
Fifteen cases of smallpox were reported, within the city, in February, 1875, and on March 15 a health ordinance was passed by the City Council. In Novem- ber of the same year ten fatal cases of smallpox were reported. Rumors were current at that time that the disease had assumed an epidemic form.
The epizootic again appeared in Columbus in October, 1875, and seems to have been of a more malignant type than it had hitherto assumed. It was stated that
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.
twentythree horses had died from it within the city during the week ended October 30.
A yellow fever death occurred on North Lazelle Street September 22, 1878. The victim bad come to Columbus from Memphis.
During the autumn of 1881, cases of typhoid and socalled malarial fevers were unusally numerous. One physician estimated that there were as many as four hundred cases of typhus in the city at one time, in October. Several cases of small- pox were reported in January, 1882, and a pesthouse was built. The current rumors as to the prevalence of the disease at that time were said to have been greatly exaggerated. Thirtysix scarlet fever cases occurred during the latter part of November, 1882, in the Asylum for the Fceble Minded.
A horse disease called the " pinkeye " made its appearance among the teams of the Fire Department early in January, 1882, and was for a time quite common in the stables of Columbus and vicinity.
The State Sanitary Association convened at the City Hall, February 14, 1884. A welcoming address was delivered by Doctor J. F. Baldwin, and William M. Beach, of London, was chosen to preside at the sittings. A constitution for the Association was adopted, and the propriety of establishing a State Board of Health was discussed. The Association again met in Columbus, February 5, 1885, and was welcomed by Rev. Washington Gladden. Professor Edward Orton was chosen President, and valuable papers on sanitary subjects were read by Professor Edward Nelson, Doctor E. S. Ricketts, Professor Edward Orton and others. An interesting address on the sanitary condition of Columbus was delivered by Professor Orton, April 7, 1885, before the Board of Trade. A meeting of citizens in the interest of better sanitation of the city was held April 16, 1885, and resolutions were adopted demanding that measures be taken by the Board of Health and City Council to mitigate the filthy condition of the streets, such measures being deemed particularly important in view of the probable outbreak of the Asiatic cholera in the United States during the ensuing summer.
Two cases of trichina spiralis were reported February 19, 1885, on Lazelle Avenue. A paper on the Climate and Diseases of Columbus was read by Doctor Starling Loving before the Climatological Society of New York, May 28. The same paper was read before the State Sanitary Association at its third annual meeting held in Columbus, February 24, 1886. William Halley, of Columbus, read a valuable paper at this meeting on Sanitary Plumbing. The Association elected officers for the ensuing year, Doctor J. H. Herrick, of Cleveland, being chosen President.
The State Board of Health, created by act of the General Assembly, began its existence in 1886, and held its first or preliminary meeting April 30. On April. 14, a special committee of the Board of Trade on Sanitary Regulations made a report containing the following recommendations: 1. The general circulation of Professor Orton's address. 2. Such a change of the law as would enable the city to have a Board of Health. Such a board which could keep the city clean, says the committee, " would be of more value to it than any other department. The present law, which attaches the duties of a Board of Health to the Police Com-
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missioners we think very unwise, as it places one of the most important duties of the city government- the securing of the health of the people - under the con- trol of a board organized for a wholly different purpose." 3. The adoption of such measures as would effect the complete and permanent cleansing of the city. 4. That the General Assembly be memorialized to grant the use of so much of the Columbus Feeder as might be necessary to complete the sewerage of the city.
In May, 1887, a new Board of Health was commissioned, in accordance with the foregoing recommendations, and in September of the same year a meeting of the board was held at which Doctor Norton S. Townshend presided, a code of san - itary regulations was adopted, and an important report was made by the Health Officer, Doctor F. Gunsaulus, showing that the municipal districts along the banks of the river, on both sides, were in an abominable state of filthiness, and that the river itself, even above the point from which the water supply of the city was obtained, was being used as a depository for excrement, even to that of persons who were ill with typhoid fever. The biweekly report of the Health Officer at this meeting showed that 1,137 nuisances had been found and 1,202 abated; that 841 pounds of meat had been condemned in the shops and markets, that seventeen slaughter houses and eleven dairies had been inspected, and that seventyeight milk tests had been made. This report illustrates the current work and useful- ness of the food inspection and health administration of the city, of which, when the Municipality shall come to be discussed, a more particular account will be given.
NOTES.
1. History of Ohio.
2. History of Franklin County.
3. Communication to the Ohio State Journal.
4. Isaac Appleton Jewett to Samuel Appleton, of Boston.
5. Ohio State Journal.
6. Martin's History of Franklin County.
7. Ibid.
8. To the Ohio State Journal.
9. Martin.
10. Ibid.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
SOCIAL AND PERSONAL.
Social life during the earlier and intermediate history of the capital differed from that of the present day as much in character as in moral and material con- ditions. Some of its phases have been depicted in preceding chapters; a few others seex worthy of notice.
The mutually helpful disposition of the neighbors of the early settlements contributed much to assuage the hardships of frontier life. In the letters of Mrs. Betsy Green Deshler, quoted in an antecedent chapter, some striking illustrations are given of this neighborly temper among the people of the borough of Columbus. Wellbehaved strangers who came into the little community received kindly atten- tions from every side. Painstaking efforts were made to make them feel welcome, and to help them over the difficulties and trials of establishing a new home. Even a high officer of state lent a helping hand to Mrs. Deshler in putting away her pork. The " best people " were not above doing such things then. As was one of the beautiful customs of the time, neighbors who were total strangers shared with the newcomers their little luxuries, and tendered them such household con- veniences and help as they might need in getting settled. Nor were such attentions shown to the newest settlers only. A helpful spirit was cherished among the pioneers, and to be neighborly was esteemed by them as an indispensable social virtue. If a barn or a house was to be put up, all the people round about came to help raise it. The sick received all the consolation which kind attentions conld offer. The misfortune of a reputable citizen, however humble in station he might be, was taken to heart by the entire community. The Freeman's Chronicle of July 8, 1814, narrates the following incident, characteristic of the frontier :
On Thursday morning the 30th ult., a daughter of Mr. Robert Taylor of Truro Township, six years old, got lost in the woods while driving a eow to a neighboring farm. More than a hundred men continued in pursuit of her till Saturday morning, when she was found five miles from home standing against a tree ucar a swamp. Notwithstanding she had not tasted food from Wednesday night till Saturday morning, and was exposed to several severe rains, she was in good health, and not much dispirited by fatigue and hunger.
Such was the implicit trust of the people in one another, that for many years of the earlier borough history the doors of their dwellings were seldom locked, and even the proverbial latchstring was not always drawn in at night.
The insufficiency of school facilities was long felt as a great drawback to the cultivation of the minds and manners of the young, and much juvenile rudeness
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SOCIAL AND PERSONAL.
is said to have resulted from this cause. The boys of Franklinton were in stand- ing fend with those of Columbus, and the belligerents frequently manifested their mutual dislike by bandying epithets and throwing stones at one another neross the Scioto. A writer in the State Journal of November 23, 1826, calls attention to the " crowds of youth who nightly infest our streets with riot and din, accom- panied with the most shocking profanity." Frequently, " on visiting the streets in the morning," this writer continues, " yon witness manifestations of the most wanton and mischievous acts. Barrels, boxes, and lumber are removed from their places ; fences thrown across the streets, doors obstructed, etc." In 1833 we find in the same paper complaint of similar disturbances, attributed, in part, to the same cause -want of schools. Juvenile profanity and inebriety were among the things deprecated. " I do not mean," says the complainant, "that religion, mor- ality or education is wholly neglected. On the contrary, piety and morality seem to abound, and great efforts are made by many to educate their children."
The disadvantages of the frontier were numerous and subjected people to moral and intellectual as well as physical hardship. Doubtless Columbus fared no better and no worse in this respect than other wilderness settlements, but from the beginning the predominant influences which moulded its society were exception- ally good. A large proportion of its pioneer business men, including its original proprietors, were not only very able and strong intellectually, but were men of fine education. Lucas Sullivant, Lyne Starling, John Kerr, James Kilbourn, Lincoln Goodale and many of their coadjutors would have achieved prominence and busi- ness success in any community. Farsighted, shrewd, and resolute, they bodly met and triumphantly vanquished difficulties which would have appalled men of ordinary qualities. But for what they achieved, Columbus would probably now be, not the capital, but its rural, easygoing subnrb.
The strong wills and clear, trained intellects of such men did much to give society its original cast. To this should be added the equally important fact that a large proportion of the borough families were people of refinement, who, while willing to endure the privations of the frontier, were yet keenly alive to all the amenities of well-developed society and genteel intercourse. Many of them had come from the older communities of the East and South, and had brought with them the vesy best social influences and traditions of the time.
An eastern visitor, writing from Columbus to a friend in 1833, thus records his impressions :1
The society of married ladies is decidedly superior to that of any other part of the State I have visited. It is not my intention to panegyrize nor even describe ; but they in general possess grace, beanty, and no small fund of information. The younger class of females in these respects resemble their mothers, but with some exceptions. . .. Of the men I shall only say, they are agreeable and well-informed. The young gentlemen are attentive to strangers, polite to the ladies, and have quite a literary taste.
To this picture there were some shadows. Isaac Appleton Jewett, a man of fine education and rare intelligence, wrote from Columbus on February 22, 1833, to his friend, the eminent Boston merchant, Samuel Appleton :
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.
The wine parties have been very numerous during the winter. It is here particularly that the " members" show off. If ladies chance to be present, as is not unusually the case, they are too often left to the solitude of their own reflections. The gentlemen are in an adja- cent apartment listening to the popular songs of "Jim Crow," and "Clar de Kitchen," or rending their sides with shouting at the facetious stories of a celebrated German doctor who, although a very obscure individual in the "House," is unquestionably a hero at these festal associations.
Referring to the legislative clement in Columbus society Mr. Jewett con- tinues :
As to their morals, they do not invariably furnish the purest models of propriety. Nay, it is a fact that they grossly violate in the evening and livelong night the very laws which they were enacting during the day. You may perhaps be surprised when I inform you that in this village of the West, the capital of our State, are supported two billiard tables open continually to the public, two roulette tables expressly for gambling, and at the first hotel a room is occupied by a stranger who is risking his thousands, or rather hundreds, every night. at the game of faro. Now it is a difficult matter to enter any of these hells between the hours of six and twelve P. M., without meeting Representatives " fresh from the people," or the most grave and reverend Senators. True, we have gaming prohibitions, but they are quietly reposing on the shelf. The games are too captivating and the green ones are duped. The citizens are pleased to have the salaries of members untransferred from the city.
From this twoedged comment we perceive that, socially considered, the official element connected with the state government was not universally and in all respects advantageous to the capital. Indeed, the permanently resident society and the transient official element, both of the borough and of the city, while they have blended to such a degree as was mutually agreeable, have never blended to such a degree that the one has taken its character from the other.
. The connubial felicities, and infelicities, of the pioneers of the borough have left some curious traces. In the Freeman's Chronicle of July 23, 1813, and March 18, 1814, respectively, we find these quaint matrimonial announcements :
MARRIED. - On the 20th ult. in Montgomery Township, by Percival Adams, Esq., Mr. Josiah Williams to the agreeable Miss Comfort Weartherington.
Hail wedded love, supremely blest, Where heart meets heart reciprocally soft.
MARRIED, - On the 24th ult., in Truro Township, by John Stevenson, Esq., Mr. William Cornell to the agreeable Miss Milly Inks, both of Truro.
On Tuesday evening, in this town, by Rev. Mr. Hughes, Mr. Samuel Barr, merchant, to the amiable and accomplished Miss Rachel Jamison.
The same paper of April 8, 1814, contains the following " notice :"
Whereas my wife Nancy has eloped from my bed and board without any just cause ; This is to forworn all persons from harboring or trusting her on my account. . DANIEL FERGUSON.
Another warning of this kind, bearing date April 3, 1827, runs thus :
Notice is hereby given that my wife Maria has left my bed and board, and has since conducted herself in a very romantic and in corrigible manner. This to forwarn and interdict all intercourse with the said MARIA, as I am determined henceforth, unless (I alter my mind)
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SOCIAL AND PERSONAL.
to have nothing further to do with the said Maria, and to pay no more debts of her con- tracting.
BROOKEN LYNES.
Many similar notices might be reproduced from early newspaper files. That the charivari was a common incident of early weddings finds evidence in the following card - October 19, 1826 - of a protesting citizen :
Matrimony should ever be held sacred, and the greatest respect paid to the institution. Every moral and especially every married person of the community must feel pained at the foolish conduct of our youth in this town whenever there is a wedding in the place. Such hooping and drumming and ridiculous conduct should be put a stop to.
Among the later novelties in the course of conjugal events we find the announcement, of February 7, 1840, that Mr. Hilarious Willging had been wedded to Mrs. Catherine C. Otten. Also this, which bears date August 30, 1834 :
In this City, on the 28th instant, by W. T. Martin, Esq., Mr. Joseph Mapes, a Revolu- tionary pensioner, to Mrs. Eleanor Swordon ; each seventythree years old, and only three months difference in their ages.
An almost parallel case is thus mentioned in the Ohio Statesman of March 29, 1855 :
A couple were married in this city on Wednesday morning, the bride being seventyone and the groom seventythree years of age. The old codger asked the parson whether it " was a sin," to which the parson responded that he didn't think it a sin before God, but it was hardly worth while for all the time it would last.
The oldtime announcements of deaths were as quaint as those of marriages. The following are taken from the Freeman's Chronicle of dates in 1813 and 1814 :
DIEn .- In this town on Wednesday last, after a distressing ilness of four weeks, Mrs. Elizabeth Davis, consort of Mr. Jacob W. Davis, and daughter of Mr. Peter Grubb. She sus- tained a fair and worthy character through life, and is sincerely lamented by numerous friends and acquaintances.
DIEn .- On the 7th inst. in this town, Miss Jane D'Lashmutt, a very respectable and amiable young lady.
On the 14th, Mr. Abijah Domigan, a useful and worthy citizen.
The Ohio State Journal of June 4, 1829, announced as follows :
DIEn .- A few days since, at his residence near Hamilton, Butler County, after a long and painful ilness, Colonel John Cleves Symmes, the ingenious author of the new Theory of the Earth, aged about fifty.
Advertisments of runaway apprentices were of frequent appearance in the early newspapers. Some examples of these notices have heretofore been cited. Runaway children were also advertised, sometimes, by their parents.
The Ohio State Journal of July 27, 1827, thus heralded the advent of the African element :
Immense numbers of mulattoes are continually flocking by tens and hundreds into Ohio. . . . This state of things calls loudly for legislative interference, and whilst the Col- onization Society rids us of a few, the legislature ought to devise some mode to prevent the people of this state from suffering under nearly all the inconveniences and deleterious effects consequent upon slaveholding.
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After the German people began to arrive, their favorite modes of amusement were practiced at their places of resort, and attracted much attention.
The early Governors of Ohio, while sojourning in Columbus, usually lodged at the inns. Sometimes they brought their families to the capital, sometimes not. Armstrong's Tavern, Russell's Tavern and the National Hotel frequently enjoyed the distinction of being the place of executive residence. Levees and dinner parties given by the Governor, or at which he was the principal guest, were fre- quent, and contributed much to the social animation of the capital. One of the most notably amiable and popular of the earlier executives in this respect was General McArthur, whose presence in society seems to have been much sought after and much enjoyed. When Governor Wilson Shannon was installed in office in 1842, a grand inauguration ball was held at the American House, and inaugura- tion suppers were given at the Franklin House and at Oyler's City House. This seems to have been the first festival of the kind celebrated on such an extensive scale. During a high state of political feeling, social amusements sometimes assumed a partisan cast, and we hear of Polk and Clay balls in 1843.
At various times the socalled " art of selfdefense" has attracted attention, rather as a passing fancy, we may well believe, than as an accomplishment made necessary by social conditions. Sometimes fencing exercises were taught, and sometimes lessons in pugilism, by transient " professors" in such craft. In 1836 one of these peregrinators announced that he had rented a room on State Street " for the purpose of giving private instruction in the above manly art [boxing] whereby pupils, in a few lessons, will be enabled to protect themselves from the assault of the ruffian."
Deferential consideration for the sex was esteemed to be one of the cardinal virtues of the olden time, but there seem to have been some enroachments upon its observance as the city grew in years. For example, we find in a newspaper record of current events in 1841 this exceptional statement, reference being made to a discourse on "tight lacing " by one of the hygienic instructors of the day : "We were pained to see some dozen ladies standing in the crowd during the whole of the lecture. It was wrong, ungallant and disereditable, especially in a city so notorious for its gallantry and civility as this."
To make record of the multiplied whimsies of fashion which have rippled the surface of society during the lifetime of the city would occupy more space than the importance of the subject justifies, but a few of these whimsies have been of such exceptional grotesqueness as to deserve passing notice. One of these was the socalled Bloomer style or " reform " of female attire which began to attract atten- tion about the year 1851. On July 4 of that year thirtyone young ladies dressed in the abbreviated skirts prescribed by the reform marched in procession at Battle Creek, Michigan. During the same month and year the presence of several " Bloomers " was noticed on the streets of Columbus. The merits and demerits of the style became a subject of animated discussion in the newspapers, one zealous advocate, evidently a wearer of trowsers, making this captivating presentation of the affirmative side of the case :
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