Columbus City (part 35 of 57)

By the treaty made by Lord Dunmore with the Ohio tribes, the Indians were to give up all prisoners ever taken by them in war with the whites: also all negroes captured and all horses stolen since the last war; they were not to hunt east of the Ohio and the whites were not to hunt on the west side. The hope of peace lay in keeping the Indians and whites apart. Hut it was a vain hope. The shot at Lexinirton that was "heard around the world," was heard also on the borders of the Ohio country. British intrigues with the Indians against the colonists began. There were raids and punitive expeditions into the Ohio country, much fighting and many atrocities with which this particular section happily had nothing to do. It was a spoil of war, rather than a seat of hostilities. The War of the Revolution ended with the surrender of Cornwallis, September 10, 1781. The American colonies thus gained their independence, but the fighting in the Ohio country went on. The British troops in the interior yielded but sullenly to the agreements of the peace treaty and continued to fan the fires of Indian opposition. The infant nation had come into prospective possession of a vast territory extending from the northern boundary of Florida to the Great Lakes and from the Atlantic ocean to the Mississippi river, and the Indians, at a conference in January, 1786, acknowledged the United States to be "the sole and absolute sovereign of all the territories ceded by Great Britain." But what was professed in word was denied in action by both the British and the Indians whom they incited to revolt, as will be seen.

Upon the eastern border of the promised land, the tide of migration beat with increasing force after the close of the Revolutionary War. But when the British and Indians had been dispossessed, new troubles arose. To whom did the territory northwest of the Ohio river belong? To the several states or to the infant nation as a whole? The entire territory, out of which were subsequently carved the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, was claimed by both New York and Virginia, while Massachusetts and Connecticut each laid claim to a considerable part. There were years of heated discussion, which put the very life of the nation in jeopardy, and then, under the leadership of New York, the several states relinquished their claims, thus putting the general government in possession except that Connecticut reserved a tract in northeastern Ohio, later known as the Western Reserve, and Virginia retained for herself the tract in Ohio which lies between the Scioto and Miami rivers. Some of the land thus retained, Connecticut gave to her citizens to reimburse them for losses in the Revolution, and the remainder she sold to create a common school fund. Virginia's reservation was for the purpose of distributing bounty to her soldiers, many of w7hom had fought for the possession of the land. The discussion of this ownership question was one of the things that showed the weakness of the Articles of the Confederation and brought about the formulation and adoption of the Constitution of the United States in 1788.

Congress, on May 20, 1785, provided for a survey of the western domain, and surveyors sprang to the work only to meet the obstacle of Indian opposition and to be turned back. After some preliminary meetings, the Ohio Company, having in view a settlement in the new territory, was organized at the Bunch of Grapes tavern in Boston, March 1, 1786. General Rufus Putnam was made president of the board of directors; Major Winthrop Sargent, secretary, and Richard Piatt (later chosen) treasurer. Other directors were General Samuel H. Parsons, Rev. Manasseh Cutler and General James M. Varnum. By the following March 250 shares of $1,000 each had been taken, and in October, 1787, the contract with the federal government for the purchase of 96-1,285 acres on the Ohio river extending from the mouth of the Muskingum river, was signed. The purchase price was 66% cents an acre, to be paid in public securities then worth about twelve cents to the dollar.

Then arose the Scioto Company of Colonel William Duer and others, of New York, whose enterprise, so far as government was concerned, clashed with that of the Ohio Company. By compromise, the purchase was extended to include 1,000,000 other acres lyingwest and north of the Ohio Company's tract, the purchase price to be the same and to be paid in four annual installments. The Ordinance for the Government of the Northwest Territory was adopted by Congress, July 13, 1787, and by the same agency General Arthur St. Clair was chosen Governor; James M. Varnum, Samuel H. Parsons and John Armstrong, Judges, and Winthrop Sargent, secretarv. Later, when Armstrong declined to serve, John Cleves Svmmes was chosen.

Thus was the stage set for the coming of the colonists and the making of a new civiliation. The Ordinance was a noble, forward-looking document, second only to the Constition itself in importance and virtue. The leaders of the Ohio Company were superior intellectually and morally, and the expedition which landed at the mouth of the Muskingum, April 7, 1788, was composed of men and women of high purpose and strong courage. Reaching the scene of their adventure under the leadership of General Rufus Putnam, they found the flag flying from Fort Harmar. built nearly three years before, and the fort occupied by a detachment of United States troops. There the colony established itself, its sturdy members playing a great part in the building of the State. The Scioto Company was less fortunate, for its business was chiefly speculation. Duer, its leader, sold some shares for the Ohio Company and thus assisted it in making its payments to the government ; but its larger operation was in selling land to people in France. Several hundred of these French purchasers came to America and settled on their supposed possessions, only to find that the Scioto Company had defaulted in its payments and could give no clear title. Congress in 1795 relieved their distress by making to them a grant of 24,000 acres in the eastern part of Scioto county.

In 1787, John Cleves Symmes bought from the government 1,000,000 acres fronting on the Ohio river, and Benajmin Stites, who was interested with him, brought a party of twenty-six who landed, November 18, 1788, at a point now within the corporate limits of Cincinnati, naming their settlement Columbia. Another colony, headed by Matthias Denman, December 28, the same year, settled on a tract of 640 acres, bought of Symmes, directly opposite the mouth of the Licking river. Symmes himself came with a colony in February, 1789, and settled at North Bend below Cincinnati, or Losantiville, as the Denman colony was first called. In 1791, the French colony already alluded to settled at a point they appriately called Gallipolis. In the same year, Colonel Nathaniel Massie, surveying in the Virginia Military district, founded Manchester on the Ohio river, and in 1796 he laid out the town of Chillicothe. The first settlement in northern Ohio was made by General Moses Cle(a)veland, July 4, 1796, at the mouth of Conneaut creek, the colonists coming from Connecticut. In September of the same year he laid out a town at the mouth of the Cuyahoga, which was named for him and has since become the largest city in the State.

The coming of the colonists only angered the Indians who were still being excited to hostility by the British, and there were many sanguinary raids and much fighting. General St. Clair, in an effort to make the territory safe, led 2,000 soldiers to defeat by Little Turtle and his warriors in Mercer county. In 1793, General Anthony Wayne was dispatched with an army of 3,000 to subdue the victorious Indians, severely defeated them at Fallen Timbers and forced the treaty of Greenville, by which the Indians released all their lands in the territory except a few specified reservations, the Indians taking $20,000 in merchandise and a personal annuity of $9,000 to be apportioned among the contracting tribes. The Indians were to deliver up all captives and keep the peace forever. The battle of Point Pleasant in 1774 has been referred to as really the first conflict of the Revolution. With equal truth, the battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794 may be considered the last, for it was not till then that the Indian power was broken and the last British hope destroyed.

Thereafter, new settlements sprang up rapidly, the first General Assembly was created and organized as provided in the Ordinance of 1787, and met with the Governor, at Cincinnati, September 16, 1799.

There is agreement by all the early travelers that the Ohio wilderness was most alluring. Pages could be filled with the record of their rhapsodies at the spectacle of the Ohio river with its heavily forested banks, the flocks of wild geese and ducks upon its waters, the noble trees grown to maturity as Nature willed it, the abundance of turkeys, quail and singing birds and the bears, wolves, buffaloes, deer and other animals visible to the travelers on the rude craft of the river. Short trips up the Muskingum, Scioto and Miami proved also the high quality of the interior. Everywhere the territory seemed to these and other chroniclers who traversed the country from the river to the lakes to be a veritable unbroken paradise, offering all that man could ask, not only in woodland treasures, but also in wellwatered plains, "level as the ocean and seemingly bounded only by the distant horizon and covered with the most luxuriant growth of grass and herbs."

It is nut strange that to such a country people were attracted even from Europe, as were the French of the Gallipolis colony. Nor can there be wonder that those who had fought in tin War of tin- Revolution or had suffered because of it looked eagerly to the territory as their future home. As we have seen, Virginia and Connecticut made special reservations to care lor their lighting men and war sufferers. Congress also provided land for those who fought the battles for independence and later for the security of life and property in the new domain. The region about Columbus is notable for a land division having these rewards in view. Three of the four denominations of land in Franklin county are of this sort. At I he north extending south to Fifth avenue, east of the Scioto, are the United States Military lands, Sel apart by Congress ill 1796, to satisfy certain claims of the officers and and a half miles wide and extending forty-eight miles east from the Scioto. It was appropriated by Congress for the benefit of Canadians and Nova Scotians who had espoused the cause of the colonics in the War of I lie Revolution. When all the claims had been satisfied, the remainder of the tract was sold, as in the ease of other public land. All the land west of the Scioto river lies in the tract that Virginia reserved for her soldiers and is know as the Virginia Military district. That which lies south of the Refugee tract and a small triangular piece south of Fifth avenue and bordering the river are known as Congress lands because they are of the great body of land which was sold direct to settlers.

In the surveys there was a lack of uniformity which has since proved very troublesome. The United States Military district was divided into townships five miles square and each township was quartered, each quarter having an area of 6\ square miles, or 1,000 acres. The Refugee tract, in which the greater part of Columbus lies, was divided into sections of (MO acres each and subsequently divided into half-sections. The Congress lands were divided into townships six miles square, and the townships into sections, each one mile square, or (>t0 acres. The Virginia Military lands were surveyed with reference to no regular plan. Any person holding a Virginia land warrant might locate at will within the district and make his own boundary lines, provided only he did not encroach on land previously located. Says Judge J. E. Safer, in his exhaustive study of Franklin county land titles: "Many of the surveys fell short in quantity, others overlapped each other. Confusion and litigation necessarily resulted. The first surveyors in this district were accustomed to add or throw in a percentage in their surveys, sometimes as much as ten per cent." Professor R. W. McFarland characterized these surveys as "wonderful to behold," and tells of a tract "calling for ninety acres, the given metes and bounds of which enclosed over 1,600 acres." The eageriiiss to possess lacked or defied regulation of choice - a characteristic which has not yet departed from the affairs of man. At first, the government price of public land was $2 an acre, in payments. After 1820, the price was $1.25 an acre, payable at entry.

It is now pertinent to inquire what was the nature of the country toward which land claimants and other settlers were directing their footsteps. This is important because the geology and topography of a given section determine in considerable measure the occupation of the people living within it. Dr. Edward Orton in his contribution to Lee's History of Columbus, wrote :

Central Ohio consists of a slightly undulating plain from 800 to 1100 feet above sea level. Across it the present drainage channels extend in shallow valleys. Columbus is situated in the most important of these shallow troughs, the Scioto valley, but it also extends to the adjacent uplands in considerable portions of its area. Low water of the Scioto in the central portion of the city is approximately 700 feet above tide. The uplands of the northernmost portions are not less than 900 feet above tide. ... In addition to the furrow occupied by the Scioto proper, parts of two other important valleys are included here, viz., the Whetstone (Olentangy) and Alum creek. The former is in reality a much more conspicuous feature of the country than its main valley. The Scioto has wrought out its bed for a number of miles above Columbus in Devonian limestone. It therefore hay rock bottom and rock walls, though the latter are of small height. The "Whetstone (Olentangy) on the other hand, lying to the eastward of the Scioto, has wrought its valley out of the shale. It nowhere has a rocky floor, but the beds of drift that underlie it are not less than 100 feet deep. ... A beautiful scope of fertile bottom land, not less than a half mile in breadth, constitutes the intervales of the present river. . . . Alum creek also occupies an old valley, as is proved by a series of facts similar to those already given. We thus see that these easily eroded shales have been removed from Columbus and the region south of it on a very large scale, and into the space from which they have been carried away a vast load of glacial drift has been deposited. The substitution has been of priceless service to the district in every way. The most barren soil of Ohio, viz., that derived from the shale series, is the one that is geologically due here. In place of it, the weathered limestone gravel yields a soil that is the very type and standard of excellence. The forest growth that the shale would have supported is decidedly inferior in character, but in place of it we find oak, walnut, hickory and other of our most valued timber trees. The natural water supply of the shale is of the most unsatisfactory sort but these same drift deposits constitute a universal and inexhaustible reservoir from which we can draw all needed supplies for all time.

The Glacial period has done everything for Columbus. It is practically the only important fact in its geology. The topography, soils, water supply and drainage are all dependent upon this great series of beds.

The soil on which the city was to be built consisted of clay, sand and gravel judiciously distributed and enriched by fallen and decayed vegetable matter. Thus there were here, waiting the coming of the white man, not only fertile plains already rudely cultivated by the Indians, but also forests in which there was a great variety of animal and bird life, trees of which timber could be made, animals whose flesh could be turned into food and their skins into clothing, stone and sand for building, clay for brick-making and water for power. There were other riches, such as coal and natural gas, in near-by fields, but of these the first comers had no hint.

"It was easy," says Professor George D. Hubbard, in a recent monograph, "to put the land under cultivation, for like most of the prairie, it was not fully timbered and only a part needed to be cleared before all could be turned over by the plow and planted. So level, too, was the land that none was really waste, unless too wet; and communication either by canoe in stream or by wagon was easy in all directions. The timber along the streams and over parts of the upland plains furnished all the lumber needed for quickly built log houses, fences and slock shelters, and provided ample fuel for all early needs, but was not so heavy, dense or widespread as to depress the people or obstruct their progress in agriculture and intercourse."

Chapter Ii The Settlement Of Feanklinton

Lucas Sullivant and His Surveying Parti/ on Deer Creek - Armed Encounters and Perils - Location of the Town - First Residents and Their Rude Cabin Homes - Stories of the Captivity of John 3 rich ell and Jeremiah Armstrong among the Indians.

Some such promise as this must have presented itself to the mind of Lucas Sullivant who, in 1795, when he was thirty years of age, came into Ohio as one of a number of deputy surveyors of land in the Virginia Military district. Virginia had authorized her soldiers to select a surveyor of the lands she had reserved for them when she made her cession to the general government. They had chosen Colonel Richard C. Anderson, a distinguished soldier of the Revolutionary War, and the latter had established headquarters at Louisville, Ky., sending deputies to do the actual field work. Among these deputies, besides Mr. Sullivant, were Nathaniel Massie and Duncan McArthur, two men who were destined to play an important part in the building of the State. To Mr. Sullivant was assigned the northern portion of the district, and his first appearance on the field of his operations was on Deer creek, in what is now Madison county. He came with about twenty men - assistants, chain carriers, scouts and porters. It was a dangerous enterprise upon which this party had embarked for there were wild animals to be encountered and of the human beings already there, the Indians were hostile and the whites, desiring all they could find for themselves, were suspicious of one another. White men who had claims, rather than come themselves, were willing to pay large sums to surveyors who would explore and locate their claims for them. They would give for the job one-fourth or even one-half the land located or, when money was required, ten pounds Virginia currency for each thousand acres. The Sullivant party's first encounter was with a French trader and two Indians, as a result of which the trader was killed and the Indians put to flight. It was a rear guard action with which Mr. Sullivant had nothing to do and which he sincerely deplored. He regretted the shedding of human blood and feared for reprisal by the Indians. His fears were well founded for, four days later, while he was completing his task on Deer creek, he saw a band of Indians, more numerous than his party, approaching. They had been sent, he subsequently learned, from the Mingo village on the present site of Columbus, to take revenge for the previous attack. The odds being against them, Sullivant and his party concealed themselves in the high grass, and the Indians passed on, only to be recalled at nightfall by the sound of a gun fired by one of the surveying party at a flock of wild turkeys. There was a brief encounter with firearms and the surveying party escaped in the darkness. In their flight, they were separated into two groups and when they were reunited three days later, it was found that two of the party were missing, one of whom was known to have been killed at the first fire of the Indians.

Soon after this adventure, Mr. Sullivant and his party began operations in the present confines of Franklin county, and on a subsequent expedition, he located a tract of land for himself on the fertile lowlands opposite the "forks of the Scioto," as the junction of the Scioto and Olentangv was then called. Mr. Sullivant's surveying experiences were interesting. He had at least one other narrow escape from violence at the hands of the Indians. He awoke, one morning, from his sleep in the open to find a huge rattlesnake coiled on the blanket that covered him, but threw off both blanket and snake and soon despatched the latter. A panther was, later, discovered perched on the limb of a tree under which the campfire of the party had been built, and the animal was shot dead just as he was about to spring upon them. At Marble Cliff, Mr. Sullivant discovered a veritable den of rattlesnakes - a prodigious number of them, just awakened from their winter torpor and filling the air with a most offensive odor as thev basked in the sunshine. It was the most famous of many snake dens along the rocky bank of the Scioto and was the scene in later years of numerous snake hunts in which the settlers engaged in order to rid the neighborhood of the loathsome and dangerous reptiles.

The Indians, the wild animals and the snakes did not deter Mr. Sullivant. They were to him only temporary incidents, while the alluring facts were the fertility of the soil, the luxuriance of the forest, the converging streams providing an abundance of water and the general availability of the section for a contented and prosperous human existence. If there is wonder that he located on the lowlands, instead of on the now more desirable highlands east of the river, the answer is to be found in the fact that he had nothing to do with the latter lands. The limit of the tract he was surveying was the river. Besides, the high banks were densely wooded and the land just beyond was marshy. He chose what to almost anybody at that time would have appeared to be the more desirable of the two sites. And so, in August, 1797, on the edge of the fertile plain where the Indian women had long cultivated maize, he laid out a town which he called Franklinton. The first plat fronted the river opposite the junction of the two streams, but before the announced sale of lots was held, a flood came to warn him and he shifted the plat to higher ground adjacent. To one street he gave the name, Gift, and offered to donate lots thereon to persons who would make actual settlement. Other streets were named Foos, Green, Sandusky, and Skidmore, the names in some cases being those of the earliest settlers. Joseph Dixon and his wife were the first actually to locate on the site of the new town, they having come in the fall of 1797, while the Sullivant party were absent, and built a cabin near the forks of the two rivers, on the south and west sides. John Brickell, Robert, John and Jeremiah Armstrong, who had been prisoners with the Indians, came about the same time ; and in the returning Sullivant party were Samuel and Andrew McElvain, Abraham Deardurff, George and John Skidmore, Robert Balentine, Jacob Grubb, Benjamin White, Jacob Overdier, John Blair, and perhaps others. At any rate among the earliest settlers were William Domigan, who came from Maryland; Joseph and John Foos, from Kentucky ; Michael Fisher, from Virginia ; John Dill, from York county, Pa., James Marshall, Adam Hosack, William Fleming, John Lisle, Arthur O'Harra, and others whose last names only have been preserved - Dunkin, Stokes, Hunter, Stevens, Brown and Cowgill.

Lucas Sullivant, having again returned to Kentucky to be married, established his permanent home in Franklinton about 1801. Then came Lyne Starling, Robert Russell and Colonel Robert Culbertson, the last named from Shippenburg, Pa., with a numerous family of sons, sons-in-law and daughters. These then were the First Families of Franklinton.

The first houses were, of course, log cabins built of the trees that were felled to make the clearing necessary for agriculture. They were rude affairs like those that are still to be found in various parts of the countrv. Logs, piled one upon another to the desired height, notched and pinned together, made the sides, the chinks being filled with strips of wood and covered with mortar made from the clav. Rafters were raised in the form of an inverted V and pinned ton-ether at the top and to the upper log below. Small pieces of hewn timber were pinned across the rafters, and over them split boards in tiers to make the roof. Openings for doors and windows were cut through the logs, the doors being made of boards, swung on wooden hinges, and the windows being covered with young deerskin scraped thin so as to let the light through. Floors were of timber hewn smooth for the upper surface. The fireplace was built of stone; the chimney was built up outside the house and was made of stone laid in clay mortar. If there was an upper room, it was reached by a rude ladder also outside. Bedsteads were made of poles or rails, one end being fitted into a hole bored in a log that helped to make the side of the house, and poles or rails on end for the corner posts. Strips of pawpaw, elm or buckeye were tied across the horizontal rails and leaves, wild grass or straw filled the ticks and made the early mattress. No iron was used in the building of these first cabins, even the hinges and latch of the door being of wood, and the door being opened by pulling a string of deerskin attached to the latch and protruding through a hole in one of the slabs. At night the latchstring was pulled in and the door was locked. Some families had two cabins with a floored and covered space between. According to H. Warren Phelps, many of these early cabins were occupied as late as 1815, when he came here as a boy with his parents.

Captives Among The Indians

Among tin- first settlers in Franklinton were two men who had been held captives by the Indians - John Brickell and Jeremiah Armstrong. Brickell's story, as told by himself in the American Pioneer in 18 12, may be thus summarized: He was born May 2 1, 1781, near Uniontown, Pa. His father died when he was quite young and he went to live with an elder brother near the site of Pittsburg. In February, 1791, a band of Indians 150 strong made a raid on all the white settlements along- the Alleghany river. Brickell, then a lad of ten, while working in the field, was approached by one of the Indians who indicated the direction in which he wanted the boy to go with him. Suspecting nothing, as he had been on friendly terms with Indians, Brickell complied but later, feeling that something was wrong, attempted to run away. He was caught, his hands tied behind him and marched off with the warning that, if he made trouble, he would be killed. Subsequently, he was turned over to George Girty, a renegade white man, and taken to the Indian rendezvous at Tuscarawas, where he met two other white prisoners, Thomas and Jane Dick, who had been neighbors on the Alleghany. From there Brickell was taken on a journey towards Sandusky, was beaten by drunken Indians on the way and, on entering a Seneca town with his companions, was made to run the gauntlet till he was rescued half dead by a big Indian who, he thinks, was Captain Pipe. Proceeding onward with his Indian captor, they met at the Auglaize river another Indian whom Brickell's companion addressed as brother, to whom he was delivered and by whom he was subsequently adopted. The name of this latter Indian was Whingwv Pooshies, or Big Cat of the Delawares. Brickell lived in his family from about the first week in May, 1791, until his release in June, 1795. Big Cat was a member of the Indian army that fought and defeated St. Clair and shared in the spoils, much to the comfort of the captive as well as others of the family. On the occasion of one of the annual visits of the Indians to the Maumee rapids to receive presents from the British, Brickell again saw Jane Dick, but her husband was absent, having, as he learned, been sold for $40 and taken to Canada. One day during that visit, Jane Dick was missing and a great search was made for her without avail. In later years she told him that her husband had formed a plot with the captain of the vessel that brought the presents to abduct her. She was taken secretly on board and hid in a hogshead, where she remained until the day after the vessel sailed, about thirty-six hours. It had been planned to abduct Brickell at the same time, but the opportunity did not present itself.

In June, 1794, Brickell went with three Indians on a hunting expedition and, returning two months later, found all their companions gone, as they supposed to receive their presents from the British at the Maumee rapids. But the next morning they learned that the vanguard of General Wayne's army was at hand. The Indians fled, and Brickell with them, joining a larger body at the rapids. There they were attacked, two or three days later, by some of Wayne's soldiers, but successfully defended themselves capturing one soldier named May, who was shot the next morning. Brickell tells of seeing Indians retreating after the battle of Fallen Timbers, of the diseouragement of the Indians, their anger at the British who, they insisted, had not given the support promised and of the offer to make peace with Wayne. On the conclusion of the treaty, by the terms of which all captives were to be released by the Indians, Big Cat took Brickell to Fort Defiance and, standing before the officers, addressed the lad, asking him to testify if he had not been treated as a son and giving him the choice to remain or go with the whites. The boy testified to the Indian's kindness, but decided to go with the people of his own race. It was a pathetic scene, for in the years of Brickell's captivity, a real affection had sprung up between him and the Indians, and Big Cat, who was old, expected the lad's support.

Brickell returned to the south with the soldiers of Wayne's army, found his relatives in Kentucky, and went again to his old home in Pennsylvania. In 1797, he came to Franklinton and later bought of Lyne Starling a ten-acre tract in front of the Penitentiary site. When he died July 20, 18-14, he owned three pieces of property - the one mentioned, another on Spruce street and a third in Clinton township - which he bequeathed to his wife and two sons, making bequests of money to his daughter and granddaughter. In 188S, after the real estate had been sold to other parties and, with the growth of the city, had greatly increased in value, the Brickell heirs brought suit to recover the lands transferred, claiming that the terms of the will had been violated. The courts held that they were entitled to no relief.

The story of Jeremiah Armstrong, as told by him to William T. Martin in 1858 and incorporated in Martin's History of Franklin County is substantially as follows: Mr. Armstrong was born in Washington county, Maryland, in March, 1785. He had a sister and three brothers, William, Robert and John, older than himself. The family went to live in Virginia, opposite the upper end of Blennerhassett's island. There, in April, 1791, in the absence of William and Robert, who had gone to a floating mill the family owned on the river, the house was attacked by twenty Wvandots. The father, finding his firearms de- fective and being unable to make a defense, escaped througb the roof and ran for assistance. Meanwhile, the Indians broke into the house, killed three of the children and the mother who had fallen while trying to escape through the chimney and had broken her hip. She was useless to the Indians in that plight and so they slew and scalped her with the others. The boy, Jeremiah, and his sister, they carried off, after plundering the house. When they had gone a mile or two, they halted to determine whether or not they should kill the lad who was a burden. A young Indian offered to carry him, if necessary, and so the party moved on, distancing all pursuers and coming at last to a point near where Lancaster now stands. There Jeremiah and John were separated from their sister and taken to Sandusky, where the former was adopted into the Deer tribe and the latter into the Turtle tribe. The sister was taken to Maumee, whence she was abducted by a white man in search of his sister, taken to Detroit and subsequently married. John was taken to Brownstown, and Jeremiah came with the family to which he belonged to what is now Columbus, camping on the present site of the Penitentiary. Jeremiah became, as he says, "a very good Indian" and was called Hooscoatahjah, meaning "Little Head." When the news of Wayne's victory reached the camp, the Indians hurried off to Sandusky bay, the lad with them, eager to go because he had come to feel that the pale faces were also his enemies. Soon after, William Armstrono-, who was then living in Kentucky, hearing that Jeremiah was held a prisoner, came into Ohio in search of him and located both boys at Sandusky bay, but the latter were unwilling to leave their captors, feeling very proud of their paint and feathers. William went to Detroit for help and, returning with an officer and twelve men, compelled the boys to leave the Indians and go with him. He took them to Erie, then to Pittsburg and finally to Chillieothe, reclaiming them en route by changing their Indian dress for the clothing of the whites and telling them of the dreadful scene in their pioneer home, when the mother and the three other children were killed.

Jeremiah and Robert Armstrong came to Franklinton when the former was twelve years old, the latter being some years his senior. Jeremiah there grew up to manhood and in the spring of 1813 purchased a High street lot and built a tavern which he conducted for many years. The house was known first as the Christopher Columbus and later as the Red Lion.

Chapter Iii Early Days In Franklinton

Selected as the County Seat - First County Buildings - First Industries - Road Building - First School and Church - Coming of Dr. James Hoge - Execution of Leaiherlips - The Sullivants, Lyne Starling, Dr. Lincoln Goodale, Dr. Samuel H. Parsons, Gustavus Swan, and Other Leaders in the Settlement.

There are no statistics to show how many people gathered at Franklinton in the first five years after it was laid out, but it is probable that, when Franklin county was created by the first General Assembly of Ohio, sitting at Chillicothe, Franklinton had a population of 100 or more. This may be inferred from the fact that, at the election held in June, 1803, Franklin county was credited with 159 votes, of which 59 were cast in Franklin township. And it was an extensive county at that time, too. The eastern boundary was nearly what it now is, the southern ran near the middle of Pickaway, the western was the Greene county line and the northern Lake Erie. The boundaries so remained till 1808, when Delaware county was created, bringing the northern boundary of Franklin county to its present line. The creation of Pickaway and Madison in 1810 and of Union in 1820 reduced the county approximately to its present size, though there were a few subsequent changes.

At the time of the creation of the county, the General Assembly chose Jeremiah McLene James Ferguson and William Creighton to fix the county's permanent seat of justice. This commission served six days and selected Franklinton. The records of the Court of Common Pleas, September 8, 1803, show that they were paid at the rate of $2 a day for the service, McLene being allowed $3 extra for writing and circulating notices as required by law. The county, in May, 1803, was divided into four townships - Franklin and Darby, on the west side of the river, separated by a line running westward from a point a little south of Dublin; and Harrison and Liberty, on the east side, separated by an east and west line running through the middle of what is now Hamilton township. Franklin township is the only one of the original four remaining even in name, changes in the shape of the county and density of population making more and different divisions desirable. Hamilton, Montgomery and Pleasant were created in 1807; Madison, Plain, Truro and Washington, in 1810; Clinton and Mifflin, in 1811; Norwich, in 1813; Blendon and Jackson, in 1815; Jefferson and Sharon in 1816; Prairie, in 1819; Perry, in 1820, and Brown, in 1830.

The first county building was a log jail, built by order of the Court of Common Pleas, at its session, January 10, 1804.. The order specifies that the jail shall be constructed of hewn logs 12 feet long and 18 inches in diameter; two floors, with a clearing of seven feet between and above the upper floor, two rounds of logs and a cabin roof; a door of two-inch plank, two feet, eight inches wide; two 8x10 windows, each secured by two iron bars, one inch square. Lucas Sullivant, who signed the record as Clerk, was the builder of the jail and received $80 for the task. John Dill, who was an associate justice of the Court, furnished the lock and received $8 in payment, voting for the appropriation. Fears of official graft had evidently not yet made their appearance in the community.

The second county building was the Court House of brick, constructed, under a similar order of the Court of Common Pleas, in 1807-8, under the supervision of Lucas Sullivant. Until then the court had held its sessions in rented rooms. The brick for the structure were made from the clay of one of the ancient mounds in the vicinity. The building was square and of two stories, with an octagonal cupola rising from the center of the roof. There was a central hall on each floor, with rooms on either side. Arthur O'Harra, under order of the court, erected a brick jail nearby at about the same time. These buildings stood on the lot at the corner of what is now State and Sandusky streets, until 1873, when they were torn down to make room for the Franklinton school building. The court house was used for its original purpose till 1821, when the county seat was moved to Columbus. Then it was used as a school building.

Around this old building many interests centered. There was transacted the business of the county, not onlv judicial, but also executive, and in those days that was a dominant thing. In a reminiscent article in the Ohio State Journal, October 30, 1871, Joseph Sulli- vant savs that often in his boyhood, he attended court in the old court house, when there was gathered the best legal talent of the State. He mentions "the members of our own bar such as Gustavus Swan, Orris and John Parrish, John A. McDowell, Thomas Backus, David Smith, P. B. Wilcox and James K. Cory," and speaks of Benjamin Tappan, Henry Stanberv, Thomas Ewing and others from different parts of the State. He recalls an incident, one summer day, after the adjournment of court, when Joe McDowell offered to bet $10 he could beat any of the group of lawyers in a 100-yard foot race. Orris Parrish took him up and they all went out on the green, where it was agreed that Thomas Ewing should be the champion of the lawyers. Ewing stripped off his coat, vest and shoes, and awav they went. Ewing won and, when McDowell complained that he had tripped and lost ground, Ewing replied, "Well, if you are not satisfied, let us try again." In the second race, Ewing won even more easily than before. There were other tests, such as standing and running jumps, throwing the stone, the ax and maul and leaping over a stretched string. Ewing had participated in all but the last and had shown superiority when McDowell, having made what he considered a very high leap, challenged Ewing to "beat that." Ewing told the judges to raise the string four inches and, coming at it "with a curious sidelong swing and motion, went over it amid the cheers of the crowd."

Wagon roads were an early need, and the records of the Common Pleas Court show that, on the legally required petition of citizens, presented in 1803 and 1804, viewers and survevors were appointed to project roads toward Lancaster, Newark and Springfield and to Worthington. These officials reported at subsequent sessions, and the supervisor of the township in which the road lay, was directed to open it, the width mentioned in one case being 33 feet.

The settlers had brought with them horses, cows and hogs, and to agriculture, stockraising was soon added as an industry. Stock which could carry itself to market was the chief article of export for a dozen or more years for, although road-building, as we have seen, began in 1803, there was in 1811 no bridge within 100 miles of Franklinton. Streams were crossed either at fords or by ferry, and the roads leading to them were primitive.

The manufacture of clothing was a home industry, and one of the principal materials was the skin of the deer, which were accustomed to come into the clearings around the cabins and browse on the green branches of the fallen trees. The hide was first soaked in a running stream, scraped, dried and tramped in a leathern bag filed with the brains of wild animals, being wrung out after each tramping and sometimes smoked to keep it soft. The skin was then covered with ochre and rubbed with pumice. A single family would thus dress a hundred deerskins in the course of a winter, thus producing the buckskin for gloves, moccasins and other articles of apparel. A buckskin suit over a flax shirt was full dress for a man. Flax, the fibre of the nettle, and wool - when it could be obtained - were made at home into a coarse cloth called linsey woolsey ; and the wools of black sheep and white were woven into what was called sheep's gray. Another fireside industry was the making of baskets, which were exchanged for supplies not readily produced.

The manufacture of whisky was an early industry, for whisky was regarded as a necessary stay in hardship, as well as a cure of prevalent ills. It was in active demand, became a standard of value and was used in buying goods and paying debts.

Among the new settlers from 1805 to 1812 were Isaac and Jeremiah Miner, Samuel White and his sons, the Stewarts, the Johnstons, the Weatheringtons, the Shannons, the Stambaughs, the Ramseys, the Olmsteads, the Liles, Jacob Gander, Percival Adams, John Swisher, George Williams, Lyne Starling, Dr. Lincoln Goodale, Dr. Samuel Parsons, R. W. McCoy, Francis Stewart, Henry Brown., John Kerr, Alexander McLaughlin, Orris Parish, Ralph Osborn, Gustavus Swan and Rev. James Hoge. The town was looking up, for many of these were substantial and energetic men.

Joseph Foos, who was an associate judge, was the first tavern-keeper. James Scott and Robert Russell were the first to open stores. William Domigan also kept a house of public entertainment. Samuel McElvain built a rude mill to grind corn - a hole burned in a stump, with a sweep so fixed that two men could reduce the corn to meal, the sifter being a deer skin stretched over a hoop, with holes made therein by a hot iron. Robert Balentine erected a water mill on a small stream east of the Scioto. Benjamin White distilled whisky. One of the Deardurfs made salt which was one of the most difficult articles to obtain in those days of primitive commerce, when all supplies that the pioneers were unable to produce for themselves had to be brought by river or by trail. Mr. Sullivant early felt this need and had himself sought to supply it. His biographer writes:

He knew that the deer resorted in great numbers to the lick on the river below Franklinton and he had observed, when he encamped there some years before, that there wenstrong evidences of the Indians making salt in that place. The work was vigorously prosecuted and the lick cleaned out, when it appeared that a feeble stream or spring of weak salt water came to the surface at the edge of the river. A wooden curb was inserted which kept out a large portion of the fresh and surface water. The salt water was gathered in large wooden troughs hollowed out from huge trees, and with the aid of a battery of common iron kettles and long-continued boiling, a limited quantity of rather poor salt was obtained; but when a road was opened along Zane'si Trace from Wheeling to Lancaster, and thence to Franklinton, it furnished greater facilities for procuring salt, and this well was abandoned.

Adam Hosack was the first postmaster at Franklinton, and Andrew McElvain was the first mail carrier. Their service began in 1805. A weekly mail left Franklinton every Friday, stayed over night at Markley's mill on Darby creek, next day made Chillicothe, proceeded to Thompson's on Deer creek and thence home on Sunday. When the route was first established there was no postoffice between Franklinton and Chillicothe, but during the first winter one was established at Westfall in what is now Pickaway county, where there was a cabin. Mr. McElvain was then thirteen years old, and during the year that he traveled this lonely route, twice had to swim Darby and Deer creek, carrying the mailbag on his shoulders.

It was probably in 1806 that Lucas Sullivant built a log school house, a square and a half north of Broad and west of Sandusky street. It was fifteen or sixteen feet square with puncheon floor, rough slab benches supported at either end by a pair of hickory pins inserted in auger holes ; battened door with wooden hinges and latch raised from its notch with a string; a clapboard roof with weight-poles and a fireplace and stick chimney and paper window panes. Miss Sarah Reed and Miss Mary Wait were two of the early teachers in that primitive building, but whether either of them was the first teacher is not known. From the diary of Joel Buttles, who was a teacher at Worthington at about the same period it is learned how these early schools were supported. He made record of the following contract :

These presents witnesseth: That, on condition that Joel Buttles shall duly attend five days in one week and six in another alternately, and six hours in each day, for the space of three months, and teach reading, writing and arithmetic to the best of his knowledge, we. the subscribers, promise and oblige ourselves to pay to the said Joel Buttles, at the expiration of said term of three months, each for himself, one dollar and sixty-two and a half cents for each scholar we may respectively subscribe; and should some unavoidable or unforeseen accident hinder said Buttles from attending the whole of said term, we obligate ourselves to pay said Buttles a due proportion for the time be may attend. And, likewise, the subscribers are to bear, each his just proportion, in boarding said Buttles and to furnish a convenient school house, together with a sufficient quantity of firewood so that school may commence the first day of January next.

The pioneer preacher was Rev. James Hoge who, November 19, 1805, reached Franklinton during a missionary pilgrimage through Ohio. Mr. Hoge came of Scotch stock and, at the date mentioned, was in his twenty-second vear. He had taught school in Virginia and studied theology privately. On the previous 17th day of April he had been licensed to preach by the Presbytery at Lexington, Va., and had subsequently obtained a license as an itinerant missionary in Ohio. The day following his arrival in Franklinton, lie preached in the house of John Overdier to a small group of settlers. The congregation that he gathered was organized as a Presbyterian church, the following February, and he was called to be its pastor. Worship, which began in private homes, was transferred to the Court House in 1807, and was continued there till the first church building was erected on the cemetery lot near the river in 1811.

In 1812, James B. Gardiner began in Franklinton the publication of the first newspaper, the Freeman's Chronicle, and maintained it for about three years covering the period of the second war with England. The paper was then discontinued probably because in the post-bellum slump it was unprofitable.

Alter the treaty of Greenville, following General Wayne's victory at l-'allen Timbers, the Indians for the most part left the vicinity of Franklinton. One of these who remained was Billy Wyandot, who had a lodge at the west end of the present Harrisburg bridge. He was a roisterous fellow and met his death, while drunk, trying to show how on a previous occasion he had pursued a bear into the river and killed it in midstream. In spite of protests, he plunged into the icy stream, for it was winter, and was drowned. While few Indians lived in the vicinity, bands from the villages north often came here to trade with Lincoln Goodale, Starling & DeLashmutt, R. W. McCoy, Henry Brown, Samuel Barr and other storekeepers. They brought furs, skins, venison, cranberries and articles of their manufacture and took back ammunition, tobacco, knives, cloth, pigments, blankets, calicoes and whisky - one of the certain incidents of a visit being a drunken carousal. While this trading was profitable, it was also full of menace to the whites. Mrs. Lucas Sullivant was herself once attacked by a drunken Indian and was saved from his knife only by the timely arrival of her husband. Bears also occasionally sauntered into the settlement, and there is record of one that came into the field where men were at work, was driven into a doorvard by blows of a trace-chain and fought by dogs and men till it was finally dispatched.

The execution of Leatherlips (Sha-te-ya-ron-yah), a Wyandot chief, by Indian decree, is one of the famous incidents of the period when the Indians were retiring from this region. Leatherlips was a friend of the whites and persistently refused to enter into the project of Tecumseh, Roundhead and other chiefs who wanted war. For this reason, the latter trumped up the charge of witchcraft against Leatherlips, and sent a party of six Indians to slay him. Leatherlips was found in June, 1810, at his lodge on the Scioto, about H miles north of Columbus near the Delaware county line. He was seized and his captors, of whom Roundhead is supposed to have been the leader, held a council in which the charges were heatedly made and calmly replied to by the prisoner. The previous condemnation was affirmed and preparations for the execution were begun. William Sells, of Dublin, and other white men, interceded, pleading Leatherlips' good behavior and finally offering to buy his release. The Indians withdrew to consider the proposition and then refused it. Leatherlips was submissive to his fate. He attired himself in his best, painted his face and stood, an impressive figure, before his accusers and the white spectators. Shaking hands with the latter, he turned from his wigwam and, with a strong and musical voice, chanted his death song as he walked to the place of execution. About se\ enty yards away, he and the whole party came to a shallow grave the Indians had secretlv dug. Leatherlips there knelt in prayer, the leader of the executioners also kneeling and offering a prayer to the Great Spirit. As Leatherlips knelt, an Indian approached him from behind and drove a tomahawk into his head. The prisoner fell prostrate and perspiration gathered on his face and neck. To this the leader of the Indians pointed as proof of guilt. As soon as life was extinct the body was buried, and the Indians and whites went their way.

A rude pile of stones long marked the grave. An appropriate monument, erected by the \\ yandot Club of Columbus citizens, now stands on the spot.

Lucas Sullivant, after platting the town in which he meant to live, returned to Kentucky on a matrimonial visit. There lie was married to Sarah Starling, daughter of Colonel William Starling, of Harrodsburg, a descendant of Sir William Starling, once Lord Mayor of London. The couple came to Franklinton and lived here the remainder of their lives, chiefly in the house which Mr. Sullivant built at the southwest corner of Broad and Sandusky streets. The T-shaped brick house, an unusually fine residence for the pioneer days of 1800, still stands, in large measure as originally erected, sheltering the life and work of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd.

Mr. Sullivant was born in Mecklenburg county, Va., in 1765. At 1 (i he was left to make his own way in the world. With his little patrimony he secured a liberal education, including surveying, which he early practiced in the Virginia counties. He served in one of the expeditions against the hostile Indians in such a way as to win him influential friends, among whom was Colonel William Starling, whose daughter he afterwards married. From Virginia he went to Paris, Bourbon county, Kentucky, subsequently engaging in the surveying work which brought him into central Ohio. From the laying out of the town until he died in 1823, he was the foremost man in Franklinton. His remarkable energy continued witli him to the end, his last task being the construction of a dam across the Scioto for a large gristmill. He was a man of force and courage, but had a tender side, and the affection of the Sullivant home is manifest in what the husband and wife did for eacli other. She left a home of luxury to share his danger on the frontier. It was because she was a member of the Presbyterian faith that he built and gave the house of worship to the congregation of Dr. Hoge. The best physician in Chillicothe was induced to ride fifty miles on horseback and tarry at their home three weeks that he might be present at the advent of her first-born. It was for her that the finest house of the town was built, and she reciprocated in kind by doing many things in her own home that would have been done for her in the home of her father. Her end was characteristic of her courageous and unselfish life, for her death was caused by exertion and exposure, while aiding and nursing the soldiers encamped on her husband's premises in the war of 1812, during which the little brick church, her husband's gift, was appropriated for a granary and storehouse for the quartermaster's department.

To Mr. and Mrs. Sullivant were born three sons who survived him and added to the honor of the Sullivant name - William S., Michael and Joseph. Sarah, a daughter, born in 1812, died aged two. William S. Sullivant early turned his attention to the flora of central Ohio and became the most eminent American bryologist of his time. His name was given to a number of hitherto undiscovered species, and his work on mosses was such as to make his name honorably remembered wherever mosses are studied. He died in 1873. Michael Sullivant became a stoek-raiser and farmer on a gigantic scale. He was one of the originators of the Ohio Stock Importing Company and of the Ohio State Board of Agriculture and was twice the president of the latter body. In 1854 he sold out his Ohio holdings and moved to Illinois where he cultivated (tens of thousands of acres. It was a stupendous and unsuccessful experiment. He died in 1879. Joseph Sullivant was deeply interested in literary, scientific and educational matters. He was for many years a member of the Columbus Board of Education and the building on State street was named for him. He was one of the projectors of Green Lawn cemetery, and generally was a valuable and public-spirited citizen, serving his fellow-citizens in many ways until his death in 1882.

John K. Delashmut, came from Maryland to Franklinton in 1802, married Sarah Worthington, of Hamilton township and earlv engaged in the manufacture of hats.

John Huffman, born in Maryland and as boy a resident of Washington county, Pa., was a captain in Lord Dunmore's army. He came to Franklinton in 1801, but in 1801 located on a tract of 380 acres on the Scioto, further south, built a house and a distillery which he operated for many years.

Lyne Starling, a brother of Mrs. Lucas Sullivant, was born in Mechlenburg county, Ya.. in 1781. In 1806, he came to Franklinton to live. He succeeded Lucas Sullivant as Clerk of the Courts, and was a merchant and trader. He was one of the four original owners of the land on which Columbus was built and led in the negotiations which brought the capital to its present location. He was an eccentric, but warm-hearted and useful man. Through his generosity Starling Medical College was established and housed in a castle-like building on State street.

Rev. James Hoge the first clergyman of Franklinton, was born at Moorefield, X. J., the son of a Presbyterian divine. He organized the Presbyterian church in Franklinton, went with that body when it moved to Columbus and was its pastor till 1858, thus completing a service here of more than fifty years. He assisted in the establishment here of the State School for the Deaf and Dumb and the Central Hospital for the Insane, and was one of the founders of the Ohio Bible Society.

Dr. Samuel Parsons was a native of Reading, Conn., and came to Franklinton in 1811, where he practiced his profession till 1816, when he moved to Columbus, continuing his practice until within a few years of his death. He was the head of the house of Parsons, father of George M. Parsons and grandfather of the late Gustavus Parsons. In 1813 he was elected to represent Franklin county in the Ohio General Assembly, and for some years he was president of the Franklin branch of the State Bank of Ohio.

Dr. Lincoln Goodale came with his recently widowed mother to Franklinton. He was the son of Major Nathan Goodale, who fought in the Revolution and who, after he had come into the Ohio country, died of disease while being held by the Indians for ransom. Here Dr. Goodale practiced his profession, engaged in business, both mercantile and real estate and became wealthy. In the war of 1812 he served ate an assistant surgeon. His life was filled with good deeds, the crown of which was the girt to Columbus of the park that bears his name. \

Jeremiah McLene, one of the three commissioners who loeated the county seat at Franklinton, came to Ohio from Tennessee. He was for some time county surveyor, Secretary of State for twenty-one years and member of Congress for two terms. He died in Washington, March 19, 1837, aged 70 years.

Orris Parrish, a lawyer, came from New York, practiced in the local courts and in 1816 was elected President Judge of the Common Pleas Court of this district. In the winter of 1818-19 he resigned, returned to the practice of law here, represented the county in the General Assembly and died in 18:37.

Ralph Osborn, a native of Waterbury, Conn., came to Franklinton in 1806. For five terms he was Clerk of the Ohio House of Representatives, for eighteen years Auditor of State and then a member of the Ohio Senate. He died in Columbus, December 30, 1835.

Isaac and Jeremiah Miner, brothers, came from New York, the former in 1806 and the latter in 1808. They were farmers and stock-raisers in Madison and Franklin counties. They owned the farm from which Green Lawn cemetery was cut. Isaac (Judge) Miner died in 1831, aged 53; Jeremiah later, at an advanced age. Both are buried in Green Lawn.

Gustavus Swan was born in Sharon, N. H., July 15, 1787, and educated for the law. After visiting different localities in the State, lie selected this, believing it would become the capital. He opened a law office in Franklinton, but in 1811 transferred it to Columbus, where he lived many years, rounding out with distinguished service an exceptional career.

Joseph Foos was proprietor of the first hotel in Franklinton and joint owner of the first ferry over the Scioto. He was a senator and representative during twenty-five sessions including those covered by the war of 1812. In this war he rose from Captain to Brigadier General, and from 1825 until his death he held a commission as Major General of the State Militia. He was a man of original ideas, and a speaker and writer of note.

Chapter Iv Franklinton And Its Neighbors

Cabins on the East Bank of the Scioto - Story of Keziah Hamlin - The Hess, Sells, O'Harra, Taylor and Other Families - Col. James Kilbourne and the Founding of Worthinffton - Blend on Township and Westerville - Franklinton at the Time of the War of 1812 - Headquarters of Gen. Wm. Henry Harrison - Conference with the Indians - Site Marked by a Boulder.

In 1800, three years after the founding of Franklinton, there was but one house on the east bank of the Scioto, on the site of the present city of Columbus. It was the cabin of Nathaniel Hamlin and his wife. Later, John Brickell, the story of whose captivity among the Indians is told in a previous chapter, built his cabin on the Penitentiary site. About the same time, some settlers appeared on Alum creek - the Turners, Nelsons, Hamiltons, Aglers and Reeds. The Hamlins had come from New Jersey and established their home just west of what is now High street and Livingston avenue. John Brickell's cabin stood near the river bank north of the present Spring street. Measuring around the bend of the river, these homes were about a mile apart, though in that forest solitude they probably seemed very much nearer. To the Hamlins was born in 1804 a daughter, Keziah, to whom belongs two distinctions - one of being the first child born in the wildwood where Columbus was subsequently laid out; the other being the mother of a family that has given service, strength and character to the community for, when she was eighteen she married David Brooks, of whom and of whose descendants more will elsewhere be told. As a baby she was rocked in a cradle made from a maple trough, and protected from the weather by clothing and even by doors and windows made from the skins of wild animals.

Of little Keziah Hamlin, a pleasant tale is told, showing the Indian nature at its best. From their village on the Scioto at what is now Livingston avenue the Wvandots used to go to the Hamlin cabin, for they were fond of the bread that Mrs. Hamlin baked. Sometimes they would help themselves to the loaves, leaving as they silently departed, a haunch of venison, or other game in payment. One day, several Indians entered the cabin, when only the mother and child were at home and, uttering no word, took the sleeping babe and carried her off. Unable successfully to resist what by all appearances was the abduction of her child, Mrs. Hamlin prayed for help and suffered hours of anguish. Her joy can be imagined when at nightfall the Indians returned with the little girl who was wearing a beautiful pair of beaded moccasins which the makers had found it necessary to fit to her feet. Instead of bringing the moccasins to the child, it was the Indian way to take the child to the moccasins. This token of friendship was preserved in the family, but was one day accidentally destroyed. The incident itself has been enshrined in a ballad, presumably written by Mrs. Sigourney, the New England poet.

Basler Hess, his wife and several children, came to this county about 1800, Mr. Hess building a double log cabin on his land on the west side of the Olentangy four miles north of Franklinton. There Basler Hess tanned leather and made boots, and he and his wife maintained a hospitable home for travelers. He died in 1806, leaving a large family. About 1804, David Beers settled in the forest, just north of the present site of the Ohio State University. Prior to that, while he and his sister were living with their widowed mother in Maryland, they were all captured by Indians. The children, who were separated, never saw their mother again; but, after his release by the Indians and his coming to Franklin county, he found his sister living happily witli the Indians at Upper Sandusky. He died in 1850, aged 104..

I.udwig Sells and his sons, John, Benjamin and Peter, came in 1800 from Huntingdon county. Pa., and settled near the present site of Dublin. Benjamin Sells was one of the early county commissioners, and all, either in agriculture or otherwise, contributed largely to the early life, and their descendants have done no less in their day.

James O'Harra came from Ireland to America in 1780. He came to Franklin county with his wife and three sons, James, Arthur and Thomas, and settled in Franklinton about 180°. Thev built a stone house on the cast side of the river, two and a half miles north of

Franklinton. Arthur was one of the first county commissioners. Other O'Harras, relatives of those first mentioned, came early and settled in Hamilton township. One of them, Nancy, who rode horseback from Maryland to Franklinton, married Samuel Pursell in 1810.

The settlement at Worthington was made in 1803. Its founder was James Kilbourne who was to that settlement what Lucas Sullivant was to Franklinton - a man of courage, energy and vision. It was in 1802, when he was thirty-two, that Mr. Kilbourne made his first appearance in Ohio. Deprived in his boyhood, by the War of the Revolution, of the comforts of a prosperous farm home, he had worked on the farms in the vicinity of New Britain, Connecticut, where he was born, been apprenticed to a clothier, whose business he had learned, studied theology with young Griswold, son of one of his farmer employers and had taken orders in the Protestant Episcopal church. At thirty, he was established in successful business at Granby and occasionaly officiated at the church services. Both of these activities bade him stay in the East, but the lure of the West was the stronger and, acting on the advice of John Fitch, whose daughter Lucy he had married, he decided to establish a colony in Ohio. With difficulty lie enlisted the interest of a half dozen of Lis friends and, on their behalf, set out in the spring of 1802 to locate a suitable tract. On his return he reported that he had found east of the Scioto "a tract of 1000 acres at least, in one place, of the best clear meadow I ever saw in any place whatever, without a tree or a bush in the whole extent, and the old grass and weeds are burnt off every spring." He reported the soil superior, the tract well watered and the trees of the forest vigorous and of many kinds. Of the healthfulness of the country, he could not speak so favorably, for he found that both whites and Indians had suffered from ague and bilious fever, but he expressed the conviction that, with proper individual care and the advancement of agriculture, the peril would be escaped.

On the strength of this report, the colony, which called itself the Scioto Company, was organized and contracted for the purchase of 16,000 acres from the national government at $1.25 an acre. That was December 14, 1802. In the following spring, Mr. Kilbourne again set out for Ohio, this time acoempanied by a millwright, a blacksmith, nine laborers and a family. Mr. Kilbourne rode a horse ; the others traveled in wagons. The little company proceeded by way of Pittsburg, Wheeling, and Zanesville to Franklinton. At the last named place and at Chillieothe, the supplies that were not brought with them from Connecticut were purchased and were taken by boat up the Olentangy (Whetstone) to the site that had been chosen for the town. David Bristol, Levi Pinney and Job Case were in this first party.

One-half of the land bought by the company was in one piece, and it was upon that the town was to be built. By the terms of the agreement, two roads were to be opened - one north and south, the other east and west - the intersection of the two to be the center of the town; the four center lots were to be a public square, a fifth lot was reserved for a Protestant Episcopal church and a sixth for the public school, 160 acres being set aside for the support of the church, and a similar tract for the support of the school. When the new-comers had provided shelter for themselves, they organized St. John's parisli of the Protestant Episcopal church and erected a log structure which served for a time as both church and school, Mr. Kilbourne being the pastoral leader.

The original town plat consisted of 160 one-acre lots which, in August, 1801, were apportioned in varying number to the following: James Allen, David Bristol, Samuel Beach, Alexander Morrison, Ebeneczer Street, Azariah Pinney, Abner P. Pinney, Levi Pinney, Ezra Griswold, Moses Andrews, John Topping, Josiah Topping, Nathan Stewart, John Gould, James Kilbourne, Jedidiah Norton, Russell Atwater, Ichabod Plum, Jeremiah Curtis, Jonas Stanberrv, Lemuel G. Humphrey, Ambrose Cox, Joel Mills, Glass Cochran, Alexander Morrison, jr., Thomas T. Phelps, Levi Buttles, Levi Hayes, Job Case, Roswell Wilcox, William Thompson, Samuel Slopcr, Nathaniel Little, Lemuel Kilbourne, Israel P. Case, Abner Pinney and William Vining.

It was a task to test the courage of the colonists. In 1801, according to the diary of Joel Buttles, the space meant for the public square was only partially cleared and the tr.es that had been felled lav in the path of the pedestrian. He tells us that on the north side of the square, west of the main street, Nathaniel Little built the first frame store; east of the main street was Ezra Griswold's tavern. He continues:

On thr east side of the square there was a large cabin built for public purposes, and used on the sabbath day as a church, Major Kilbourne officiating as deacon of the Episcopal church. At all public meetings it was a town hall; and, whenever the young people wished to have a dance or ball, that being the only room large enough for that purpose, it was used as a ball room; and this, I know, was very often, probably once in ten days on an average. Of course the house was never long unoccupied or unemployed.

On the south side of the square, the only house was that of James Kilbourne, then called Major or Esquire Kilbourne, now Colonel Kilbourne, who was the principal sachem of the tribe, being general agent of the Company settlement - the Scioto Company - so-called clergyman of the place, Justice of the Peace, large stockholder, or rather landholder of the Company, had been the longest out there and so the oldest settler, having been there over a year, and many other things which went conclusively to designate him as head of the clan. On the west side of the square I only recollect one house which was occupied by Isaac Case, at whose house I frequently boarded.

The first school, maintained by subscription, was taught by Thomas T. Phelps, who was suceeded, the following year, by Clarissa Thompson. Ezra Griswold opened the first tavern in 1803. The first brick house was erected in 1804 by Mr. Kilbourne who, in the following year, built on the Olentangy the first gristmill. The first physician was Dr. Josiah Topping who in 1806 removed to Delaware, leaving the town without a physician till Dr. Daniel Upson came in 1810. The first marriages in the colony were of Abner P. Pinney to Polly Morrison and Levi Pinney to Charlotte Beach.

Through the instrumentality of Mr. Kilbourne, Worthington became tihe seat of the pioneer manufacturing concern in central Ohio. It was known as the Worthington Manufacturing Company, with factories at Worthington and Steubenville and stores at Worthington and Franklinton. It was incorporated in 1811 and produced large quantities of woolen fabric for army and navy clothing. It prospered during the war of 1812, but failed when the demand for its product ceased. Another of Mr. Kilbourne's enterprises was the establishment at Worthington of the first newspaper in the county, the Western Intelligencer. He himself acted as editor for a short time after its establishment in 1811, but, owing to the pressure of other business, he sold the plant to Joel Buttles and George Smith. The paper and printing office were successfully conducted by them during the war and the succeeding period of apprehension, and then were moved to Columbus where they are perpetuated in the Ohio State Journal.

Blendon township was settled in 1806. The families of Edward Phelps, sr., and Isaac Griswold, accompanied by Ethan Palmer, came in that year from Windsor, Conn. They were two months on the road and the journey from Granville took three days. Phelps' family consisted of a wife and six children. Griswold was accompanied by his wife and two children; Salina, his sister, and Oliver Clark, brother of his wife. Other early settlers were: Simeon Moore, sr., and his son, Simeon Moore, jr., in 1807; John and William Cooper, in 1808-09; Col. George Osborne and Francis Olmsted and wife, in 1808; Samuel McDannald and wife from Virginia, in 1813; Samuel Puntney and Isaac Harrison, in 1813; John Yovel and Reuben Carpenter, in 1809; John Matoon and wife, first to Worthington in 1806, to Blendon in 1808; Squire Timothy Lee from Masacliusetts soon after the war of 1812; Gideon W. Hart and wife, in 1816; Peter, William and Mathew Westervelt from Duchess county, N. Y., in 1818; Joseph Clapham and wife, in 1823; Nicholas Budd and wife, in 1829; Edward D. Howard, in 1837; Joseph Dickey in 1838.

The village of Westerville was laid out by Mathew Westervelt in July, 1839, and was incorporated in 1858. Westervelt was also instrumental in locating at Westerville the Blendon Young Men's Seminary in 1838, giving twenty-five acres of land and serving as one of the trustees. When Ohio Wesleyan University was located at Delaware, the ground and buildings at Westerville were offered to the United Brethren and accepted. Thus came Otterbein College, founded in 18-17 and chartered in 1819.

In 1808 Robert Taylor built the first frame house in the eastern part of the county on the west side of Big Walnut creek, His son David, then a lad of seven years assisting. In the spring of the following year the Taylors occupied it, and parts of the old house are in the residence which today stands on the site. Three other houses - log cabins - were built about the same time in the vicinity. John Edgar and family occupied one, and Benjamin Cornell and family, including a brother. William, occupied another. These long since disappeared. The names of the earliest settler in various parts of the countv - as accurately as they could be determined by a committee consisting of Henry C. Taylor, H. Warren Phelps, James Kilbourne, Herbert Brooks and Adam Grant - have been inscribed on a tablet in Memorial Hall, the names being necessarily limited to ten for eacli township.

Out of these and other such beginnings, which can only be referred to here, came the villages of Dublin (1818), Georgesville (1818), Lockbourne (1831), Reynoldsburg (1831), Harrisburg (1836), Alton (1836), New Albany (1837), Groveport (1811), Grove City (1852), Hilliards (1853). Other villages dot Franklin county, but they are most of them of more recent origin.

When I opened my office in Franklinton in 1811, there was neither church nor school nor pleasure carriage in the county, nor was there a bridge over any stream within the compass of an hundred miles. The roads at all seasons of the year were nearly impassable. Goods were imported, principally from Philadelphia, in wagons; and our exports, consisting of horses, cattle and hogs, carried themselves to market. The mails were brought to us once a week on horseback, if not prevented by high water. I feel safe in saying there was not in the county a chair for every two persons, nor a knife and fork for every four. The proportion of rough population was very large. With that class, to say that he would fight was to praise a man; and it was against him if he refused to drink. Aged persons and invalids, however, were respected and protected, and could avoid drinking and fighting with impunity; but even they could not safely interfere to interrupt a fight. There was one virtue, that of hospitality, which was not confined to any class.

Franklinton was a straggling village of a few hundred people, when the war of 1812 was not unexpectedly declared. That year was an eventful one for the town, for it at once marked the beginning of its greatest prosperity and the commencement of its decline. The war gave it a temporary importance; the laying out of Columbus as the capital of the State as surely meant its ultimate eclipse. Singularly, the formal declaration of war and the sale of lots in Columbus took place on the same day, June 18, 1812. While Governor Meigs, of Ohio, was organizing three volunteer regiments to take the field, Lyne Starling, Alexander McLaughlin, John Kerr and James Johnston were treating with the General Assembly, then sitting at Zanesville, for the location of Ohio's capital on their land on the east bank of the Scioto, opposite Franklinton. A bill accepting their proposition, after much discussion, was passed February 14, 1812. While these men were preparing to execute their part of the contract, Franklinton, Urbana and Dayton were resounding with the notes of war. The Third Ohio Volunteer regiment, commanded by Lewis Cass, assembled at Franklinton and proceeded to Urbana, where it met the First, Second and Fourth regiments. From Urbana the troops marched north under Hull, building block houses as they went, reaching Detroit August 8, where they surrendered on the 16th to the British. The news of this remarkable capitulation was with indignation communicated to the people of Franklinton through a freeman's Chronicle extra. It was feared that the surrender would encourage the Indians and lead them to attack the town, and to guard against surprise, scouts were sent far to the north to give warning. Settlers in outlying districts flocked to Franklinton and it was planned to fortify the town.

In the emergency, Governor Meigs, of Ohio, and Governor Scott, of Kentucky, exerted themselves to hurry more volunteers into the Held. General William Harrison was put in command of the newly recruited troops and prepared to recapture Detroit. Franklinton, because of its location, was chosen as a rendezvous and depot of supplies, and October 25. Generals Harrison, Perkins and Beall came here for an important conference. "Our town," says the Freeman's Chronicle, October 31, 1812, "begins to assume quite a military appearance. Six or seven hundred troops are already here. Two companies of Pennsylvania troops arc expected in a few days, and we look daily for the arrival of 100 United States dragoons from Kentucky. The force to be collected at this place will he nearly 3,000. How long they will remain has not been ascertained."

The same paper of November 17 notes t li ^ return of General Harrison from Delaware and his reception with tlic military honors due to his rank. The following day. Governor Meigs arrived from Marietta, was saluted by Captain Cushion's company of artillery and later, accompanied by General Harrison and staff, reviewed all the troops at the public square. To intimidate the Indians, General Harrison, on the 18th sent an expedition 600 or 700 strong against the Miami villages near the present site of Muneie. Indiana. The expedition was successful and, General Harrison, from his headquarters here, issued an order, announcing the victory. Army supplies continued to arrive at Franklinton and to be forwarded to Upper Sandusky, Harrison being sometimes here and sometimes elsewhere.

Franklinton And Its Neighbors 25

directing the movement of reinforcements and supplies. He was in the nothern part of the State when Winchester's force of 850 was defeated at Frenchtown. This calamity but spurred Ohio and Kentucky to greater efforts. Governor Meigs called for more men, directing that two of the three divisions rendezvous at Franklinton, where he himself supervised their preparation and departure north. Among the Ohio troops thus provided were two companies of dragoons recruited in Franklin county, one commanded by General Joseph Foos and the other by Captain Joseph Vance.

It having been decided to make no further effort to recapture Detroit until the army could have the co-operation of Commodore Perry's naval force, General Harrison made a tour of inspection to the south. Returning June 6 ahead of the Twenty-fourth U. S. infantry, he invited representatives of the hitherto friendly, but neutral, Indians to a conference. That conference was held June 21, 1813, on the grounds of Lucas Sullivant, and is thus described in the Sullivant Family Memorial:

The Delaware, Shawnee, Wyandot and Seneca tribes were represented by about 50 of the chiefs and warriors. General Harrison represented the government and with him were his staff and a brilliant array of officers in full uniform. In front were the Indians. All around were the inhabitants of the region, far and near, with many a mother and maid as interested spectators. The general began to speak in calm and measured tones * which seemed to fall on dull ears. At length the persuasive voice struck a responsive chord; and then Tarhe, or Crane, the great Wyandot chief, slowly rose to his feet and, standing for a moment in graceful and commmanding attitude, made a brief reply, and then, with others, pressed forward to grasp the hand of General Harrison, in token not only of amity, but of agreement to stand as a barrier on our exposed border. * * Jubilant shouts rent the air, women wept for joy and stalwart men thrilled with pleasure, as they now thought of the assured safety of their wives and children, and prepared at once with cheerful alacrity to go forth to the impending battles.

The general promised to let the several tribes know when he should want their services, and further cautioned them that all who went with him must conform to his method of warfare, not to kill or injure old men, women, children or prisoners; that by this means we should be able to ascertain whether the British told the truth when they said they were not able to prevent Indians from such acts of horrid cruelty; for, if the Indians under liiui (Harrison) would obey his commands and would refrain from acts of barbarism, it would be very evident that the hostile Indians could be easily restrained by their commanders. The general then informed the chiefs of the agreement made by Proctor to deliver him to Tecumseh, in case the British succeeded in taking Fort Meigs; and promised them that, if he should be successful, he would deliver Proctor into their hands, on condition that they would do him no other harm than to put a petticoat on him, for, said he, none but a coward or a squaw would kill a prisoner.

The spot in which this conference was hsld is now marked by a boulder bearing an appropriate tablet. The memorial stone was erected by the Columbus Chapter of the Daughters of the Revolution and was dedicated June 28, 1901. Mrs. Edward Orton, jr., regent, presented the memorial which was accepted by Mayor Robert H. Jeffrey. General R. R. Cowen then delivered an historical address.

July was a busy month in Franklinton. Alarm followed alarm, and the troops were increased by another call for volunteers. These were organized here and elsewhere by Governor Meigs and sent north. But soon they came streaming back through Franklinton. The regulars were preferred at the front. The response continued, however, until there came the glad news of Perry's victory on Fake Erie. September 10, ISP'S, of the capture of Maiden by Harrison's army on the 28th and of the defeat of Proctor and Tecumseh by the same army on the Thames river, October 5. Those events practically ended the war for Ohio, the remainder of the work being merely precautionary. Franklinton, however, continued to be a station for troops and supplies; and its armory, superintended by William C. Lyman, repaired muskets and supplied ammunition. The Kentucky troops were encamped here for a time on their way south.

Chapter Columbus Born A Capital

Various Sites Offered for State Capital - Starling et al. Win by Superior Generalship - Their Proposition, and Mutual Agreement - Description of the Site - First State Buildings - Settlement with the Proprietors - Careers of the Proprietors - The John Kerr Papers - First Columbus Library.

By the Constitution of 1802 the seat of government of Ohio was temporarily fixed at Chillicothe until 1808, the prevailing sentiment being that, when established permanently, it should be near the center of the new State. The first General Assembly of Ohio, thus, met in the Court House at Chillicothe, as also did its successors until 1810, when by invitation, the sessions of 1810-11 and 1811-12 were held in Zanesville, which was one of the towns that aspired to be the capital. Other aspirants were Franklinton, Worthington, Delaware, Lancaster and Newark. As some of the residents of each of these places had so located, on the chance that the capital would come to it, there was a considerable pressure on the General Assembly for settlement of the question. On February 20, 1810, the General Assembly provided for the appointment of a commission to inspect sites, hear arguments and report its recommendation. James Findlay, W. Silliman, Joseph Darlington, Resin Beall and William McFarland were appointed and, on the following December 11, after a consideration of all the sites, reported in favor of a tract of land owned by John and Peter Sells on the west side of the Scioto, where Dublin now stands. At the time of the submission of this report various additional propositions were made, one of them by Lyne Starling, John Kerr, Alexander McLaughlin and James Johnston, offering a tract of about 1,200 acres on the east bank of the Scioto opposite Franklinton.

This proposition was very businesslike throughout. The tract had been provisionally platted, and a copy of the plat was submitted. The offer was that, if the General Assembly would permanently fix the seat of government there, the subscribers would lay out the town according to the accompanying plat by the following July 1 ; that they would deed to the State a square of ten acres for the public buildings and another lot of ten acres for a Penitentiary; that they would erect and complete a State House, offices, Penitentiary and such other buildings as the General Assembly might direct, building them of stone and brick, or either as might be preferred, in a workmanlike manner and of such size as the General Assembly might direct, the Penitentiary to be completed January 1, 1815, and the State House and office building, by the first Monday in December, 1817. It was further proposed that, when the buildings were completed, they should be appraised by workmen appointed mutually by the General Assembly and the subscribers; if the valuation was less than .$50,000, the subscribers were to make up the deficiency, but if it was more than $50,000, the General Assembly was to remunerate the subscribers as it might consider just. The subscribers also offered a bond of $100,000 for the faithful performance of their part of the contract. Later when it appeared that the General Assembly hesitated because of the permanence of the location of the capital on their tract, the proprietors submitted a supplementary proposition, asking that the capital remain in the town to be laid off by them until 1840.

On February 11, 1812, this amended proposition was accepted, and the controversy settled till May 1, 18 10, "and from thence until otherwise provided by law." But this was achieved only alter a heated contest with Worthington which, under the leadership of James Kilboume, had made an attractive offer; Delaware, which had promised much and had manv friends; Lancaster, Chillicothe, the Pickaway Plains, the Sells tract at Dublin and the Thomas Backus tract, four miles west of Franklinton. Four of the proposed sites, it will be seen, were in Franklin county. The proposition made by Lyne Starling and his associates won, in part at least, because of superior generalship. On February 21, 1812, both houses of the Genera] Assembly adopted a resolution giving to the site that had been selected for the capital the name of Columbus. In the House, the name, Ohio City, had been disapproved by a vote of 22 to 19. Columbus, which is said to have been suggested by Joseph Foos, was adopted in the Senate without a record vote ; it was adopted in the House by a vote of 24 to 10. The site selected, as determined by the U. S. Geodetic Society in 1871, is 39° 57' 40" north latitude and 82° 59' 37" west from Greenwich.

In the act locating the State capital at Columbus, the General Assembly provided for the appointment by itself of a director who should examine the lands, supervise the layingout of the town, determine the width of streets and alleys; select the two ten-acre lots for the State House, Penitentiary and other public buildings and perform other duties required of him by law. It also fixed the temporary seat of government at Chillicothe.

On February 19, 1812, Starling, Johnston, McLaughlin and Kerr signed and acknowledged articles of association as partners, under the law for laying out the town of Columbus and other tilings as they had proposed. The preamble runs :

That the Legislature of the State of Ohio has, by law, fixed and established the permanent seat of government for the said State, on half-sections Nos. 9, 25 and 2(i and parts of halfsections, Nos. 10 and 11, all in township 5, range 22, Refugee Lands, agreeable to the proposals of the parties aforesaid, made to the Legislature of said State.

In this instrument it was stipulated that a common stock was to be created for their mutual benefit; that Starling was to put into said stock half-section No. 25, except ten acres previously sold to John Brickell; Johnston was to put in half-section No. 9 and half of half-section Xo. 10; and McLaughlin and Kerr (who had previously been partners and were jointly considered as one, or a third party to this agreement) were to put in half-section No. 26, on which they were to lay out the town, the proceeds of the sales of lots to remain in -common stock until the contract with the State should be completed.

It was also provided that the partnership should have an agent who would make the sales and superintend the entire business. Each party was to pay into the hands of this agent $2,400 annually, on the first Monday of January for five successive years, and such further sums as might be necessary to complete the public buildings. Each partner was to warrant the title to the land by him put into the stock, and each was to receive equal benefit on all donations that might be obtained on subscriptions or otherwise ; and when they had completed their contract with the State, each was to be released from obligations on account thereof, a final settlement was to be made and the profits or losses to be equally divided among them.

Under contract with the partners, Dr. James Hoge deeded to them for their mutual benefit eighty acres of land off the south end of half-section No. 11, in order to enable them to complete the plat to the size and form desired. Similarly, Thomas Allen, for the same purpose deeded to the partners twenty acres out of the south part of half-section No. 10. After the plat thus completed had been divided into lots, each of these grantors received by deed some of the lots. McLaughlin and Kerr's contribution of land was the southern part of the town - that part between the present State street and Livingston avenue. Starling's contribution ran east from the river between what are now State and Spring streets ; Johnston's contribution lay north of Spring street.