Columbus, Ohio: its history, resources, and progress. With ... illustrations

Front matter

This sterling institution deserves to rank as one of the soundest and best conducted Insurance Companies in existence. — Chicago Tribune. For such honorable conduct and correct financial management we praise the Home Insurance Company, of Columbus, O. — Chicago Evening Mail. Was the first to notify the public of their ability and determination to pay their losses in full. — Chicago Times. It. A. DAUGHERTY, Pres. ORGANIZED 1864. JAC°B PEETREY, Sec'7. THE HOME Insurance Company, COILTTIMIIBTTS, : : : : OHIO. Cash Assets, $800,733.76, January, 1873, DIRECTORS. M. A. DAUGHERTY, Pros., Lancaster, 0. E. T. MITHOFF, Vice-Pres., Columbus, 0. C. P. L. BUTLER, Columbus, 0. FRANCIS COLLINS, Columbus, 0. JAKED SPERRY, Mt. Vernon, 0. JOSEPH BLACK, Zanesville, O. HENRY JONES, Zanesville, O. J. WARREN KEIFER, Springfield, 0.

CHARLES FOLLETT, Newark, 0. S. W. PICKERING, Athens, O. HENRY MILLER, Columbus, 0. SAMUEL GALLOWAY, Columbus, 0. B. E. SMITH, Columbus, 0. JOHN G. MITCHELL, Columbus, 0. B. Si BROWN, Columbus, 0. This Company issues Policies insuring against LOSS OR DAMAGE BY FIRE OR LIGHTNING On Dwelling -Houses and Contents, Barns and Contents, Churches, School- Houses, and Public Buildings, for a term of years at favorable rates. Business Buildings, Merchandise Stocks, Elevators, Grain, Stores, Mills, and Manu factories insured at rates as low as will furnish indemnity to the insured ami protection to the capital employed. For the promptness in attention to claims for losses occurring to property insured by this Company we refer you to our patrons generally, and particularly to our patrons who were sufferers by the Great Conflagrations of 1871 and 1872.

WM. TRESTON BROWN. JAS. FINLEY BROWN. Brown Brothers, CIVIL ENGINEERS AND SURVEYORS, ABSTRACTERS OF TITLES, Notaries Public, COMMISSIONERS OF DEEDS FOR ALL THE STATES AND TERRITORIES. PROPRIETORS OF THE ONLY ABSTRACTS OF TITLES TO REAL ESTATE IN THE CITY OF COLUMBUS, AND FRANKLIN COUNTY. LOANS NEGOTIATED On First-Class Mortgage Securities. Accurate Plats, Diagrams, and Maps of all City and Town Lots and Farm Lands. Office: 5 Odeon Building, 47^ South High Street, OPPOSITE STATE CAPITOL. COLUMBUS, OHIO. W"-' Tmsley.ATch COLUMBUS, OHIO. atro"bricl6e '■ ■ ' ■ ■■ " en Columbus, Ohio: ITS History," Resources, and Progress, WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS. JACOB H. STUDER, Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, By Jacob H. Studer, In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. CARD.

Chapter I

— Six decades in the history of Columbus; a State capital wanted; appointment of commissioners to select site; Franklinton talked of; report of commissioners; proposals of Starling and others ; act accepting proposals and establishing the State capital; Columbus platted; refugee lands; name of capital; direction and width of streets and alleys; first public sale of lots; primitive condition of town; John Brickell's cabin and garden spot; first water-mill and distillery; out-lots laid off; immigration, improvements, and sales of lots; mails carried on horseback; Zinn's mail-coaches; post-office established; first newspaper, first marriage, first saw and flouring mills, jeweler-shop, stores, tavern, school census; market-house, bridge, almanac, the first physician, and the first two churches; street obstructions removed; town incorporated; first bank; first State-house built; Public Square cleared of timber; first penitentiary built; removal of seat of government to Columbus; settlement with Starling and company; the articles of association; their agents; the donations they received; the town plat 13

CHAPTER IL

— Failure of MeLaughlin and Johnston; depression of business; lots sacrificed at forced sales; Starling's title disputed; litigation ; claim set up against Kerr and McLaughlin's grantees ; legal proceedings; last days of the four original proprietors; basis for a medical college in Columbus; early manufacturing; fate of first saw and flouring mills ; patent saw-mill; cotton spinning; new process for dressing flax; woolen factory; steam saw-mill; origin of Ridgway's foundry ; United States court-house built; description; its occupation by the courts; removal of courts to Cincinnati; clerks and marshals; Franklinton the first county-seat; its prosperity and decline; county-seat removed to Columbus; judges of Common Pleas; building for county offices; removal of offices to court-house; hunting and fishing; call fora grand squirrel-hunt; the result; Ohio Canal begun; De Witt Clinton's welcome to Columbus; his prediction; celebration of commencing the Columbus side-cut ; toasts ; its completion celebrated; arrival of canal-boats; their joyous welcome; Columbus looking up 25

Chapter III

— The cholera in 1833; number of victims; act for erection of a new State-house; envy; citizens accused of intermeddling with legislative proceedings ; new State-house act repealed ; removal of State capital agitated; objections to Columbus; subject referred to a committee; reports of the majority and minority; resolution for removal passed by the Senate, but lost in the House ; Sullivant's bridges across the Scioto ; the franchise bought and a free bridge built; Sandusky Turnpike Road Company incorporated; grant of lands ; survey and construction of the road ; dispute about the CONTENTS. meaning of the charter ; the road a mud pike; toll-gates torn down; repeal of charter; State road established on the route; company seek to recover damages ; additions to Columbus ; growth of the city; population 36

Chapter IV

— Road-making era; the Portsmouth turnpike constructed in county sections; the Harrisburg turnpike; county donation; the Worthington plank-road; the first directors; the Sandusky turnpike and plank-road; the Granville plank-road and turnpike; the Groveport turnpike; the Lockwin plank-road; cost per mile; the plank used ; the first and second balloon ascensions from Columbus ; execution of Clark and of Esther, a colored woman; their crimes; arrest of "Jerry" as a fugitive slave; the claimant and "Jerry's" return to slavery; excitement in consequence; indictment for kidnapping; trial and result; decision of Supreme Court ; legal proceedings instituted in Kentucky; how Jerry obtained his freedom; cholera in 1849; board of health; its report of victims; deaths of well-known citizens; return of cholera in 1850; terror of the citizens; number of fatal cases reported; names of citizens included in the list; cholera in 1853 and 1854 ; legislation at a stand-still in the sessions of 1848-49 and of 1849-50; statement of the dispute in each case; continued growth of Columbus; rapid increase of population; value of real and personal property 42

Chapter V

— Opening of the decade; roads and city improvements; first Sængerfest ; flag presentation ; exercises in Stewart's Grove ; farewell concert and ball; meeting to invite Kossuth ; committees appointed; procession on Kossuth's arrival and speeches; reception the next day; Hungarian association ; Kossuth's visit and address to the legislature ; meeting at the City Hall ; Henry Clay's obsequies ; the processions and badges of mourning; meeting of citizens; defalcation in State treasury; resignation of the treasurer; indignation meeting; death of Dr. Kane; remains to pass through Columbus ; committees appointed ; State Fencibles ; arrival of the remains ; deposited in the Senate chamber; exercises there on Sunday; procession to depot on Monday; third balloon ascension by M. Godard ; execution of Myers for murder in the penitentiary ; his stolidity ; war meeting; the resolutions adopted and speeches made; arrival of troops ; Camp Jackson ; Columbus companies first in the service; appropriation for soldiers' families by the city council ; Columbus surgeons appointed to regiments ; Camp Chase established; Camp Thomas; retrospect of decade; slight increase of population; decrease of marriages: western emigration fever; increase in value of real estate; city improved; Broad street; benefit of the war to trade, manufactures, and the general business of the city 54

Chapter VI

— Incidents of the war; report of Ladies' Soldiers' Aid Society; its work; exhibition at the High-school building; bazaars at Ambos Hall, at Naughton Hall, and at the Atheneum ; provisions brought in from the country for soldiers' families ; entertainment at the Opera House; soldiers' homes; object of Tod Barracks; dimensions of the buildings ; John Morgan's escape from the penitentiary; his cell and the cells of his six captains ; the air-chamber and its construction ; how it was entered; tunneling under foundation; getting over the wall; note to the warden ; thanksgiving proclamation; news of Lee's surrender ; great rejoicings and grand illumination; thanksgiving turns out a jubilee; procession and speeches; news of President CONTENTS. IX Lincoln's assassination ; tokens of sorrow ; meetings on Sunday ; city council's resolutions; citizen's meeting; action of I. O. O. P.; arrival of the President's remains; citizen pall-bearers; the procession, the hearse, and team; the firedepartment; emblems of mourning; the rotunda; viewing the remains; funeral oration; Sængerbund festival ; meeting of citizens ; preparations ; decorations at Schreiner's Hall and elsewhere; flags displayed ; reception concert; flag presentation ; the grand concert ; the prize concert ; the picnic and ball ; council meeting to invite General Grant ; his arrival ; the procession ; school children ; the general presented to the people ; banquet at the Neil House; inter esting documents discovered; railroad conductors in convention ; Humboldt's centennial anniversary; peace celebration; procession; " Peaceful Germania ;" exercises at the City Park ; Chicago relief meeting; generous subscriptions; ladies' relies meeting; total contri butions r. 72

Chapter VII

— Columbus, its growth and prospects; location and brief description; the State-house; other buildings; carpings of the envious; area increased sixfold in nine years; population by wards since 1850; ratio of .increase since 1820; comparative increase of city and county; population doubled since 1860; probable future increase; increase of new buildings ; a look ahead; Columbus a railroad, manufacturing, and trade center; land cheap, and more dwellings in demand; the city healthy; its superior fire department; its immunity from heavy losses by fire ; street railroads, churches, newspapers, and schools ; reasons why Columbus should be selected for business and for a residence; investing in real estate in and about the city; city and county statistics ; population; agricultural produets ; livestock; real and personal property; marriages; probate matters; deeds and mortgages ; new structures; turnpikes, county buildings, banks, and banking; Franklin compared, as to taxation, with other counties; comparatively low price of lands in and around Columbus ; prospects of increase; our facilities for obtaining iron and coal, and advantages for manufacturing; guaranty as to the future; growth of Cities.... 97

Chapter VIII

— The new City Hall ; general description ; the borough of Columbus; borough officers; city of Columbus; councilmen, mayors, recorders, clerks, treasurers, solicitors, surveyors, engineers, clerk of markets, street commissioners, division into wards, finances, value of property; fire department, alarm telegraph, water-works 112

Chapter IX

— Where the courts were first held; the Supreme Court; court in bank; the law library and librarian; clerk of the Supreme Court; its official reporters and judges from Columbus; court ot common pleas and its president and associate judges; its judges under the present constitution ; the district court ; the superior court and its abolition ; the probate court and its judges; common pleas clerks; prosecuting attorneys, sheriff's, coroners, county commissioners, county auditors, county treasurers, county recorders, county surveyors ; the title deeds to the court-house site ; general description of the court-bouse and its occupancy; additional building on the south; the first jail; the the present jail; the first county poor-house or infirmary; how it was managed and by whom ; an inmate over a century old ; why the location was changed; directors elected; superintendents and physicians; additional grounds purchased ; hospitals; alterations and additions to original building; infirmary statistics; a new site and a model infirmary X CONTENTS.

Chapter X

— Diocese of Columbus; Catholic churches; Episcopal churches; Methodist Episcopal churches; Presbyterian churches; Congregational churches; Baptist churches; Lutheran churches; Independent German Protestant churches; the Universal ist Society ; United Brethren in Christ; the Central Christian church; Hebrew temple ; cemeteries: Green Lawn, Calvary, Hebrew; the North, old Catholic, and East grave-yards 161

Chapter XI

— Columbus Female Benevolent Society; Industrial schools; Hannah Neil Mission ; Woman's Home; Harec Charity Fund ; Hare Orphans' Home ; St. Francis Hospital ; House of the Good Shepherd 227

Chapter XII

— The Press— Ohio State Journal, Ohio Statesman, Daily Dispatch, Columbus Gazette, Westbote, Sunday Morning News, Educational Monthly, Odd Fellows' Companion, Lutherische Kirchen Zeiting, Mutes' Chronicle, Ohio Convention Reporter, Lutheran Standard, Algemeine Volkszeitung, Bulletin; the papers of the past; former German papers; miscellaneous papers 242 Agricultural College; Starling Medical College; Capital University; German Evangelical Lutheran Seminary; Academy of St. Mary's of the Springs; Sisters of Notre Dame; St. Aloysius Seminary; Otterbein University; the public schools; Holy Cross Church and St. Patrick's Church Schools; business colleges 261 State library; public library; circulating library; Tyndal Association 288

Chapter XIII

— Agricultural resources; coal; its production in different countries; what it has done for England; what it is capable of doing for Ohio; where the great coal-field of Ohio lies; Columbus in its relation to the central coal-field; coal and iron may both be used to make it a great city; the great seam of the central field; its extent and thickness ; quality of the coal ; its use for household purposes, for steam, for the smelting of iron, and for gas-making ; advantages of Columbus for enterprise and the investment of capital; iron; the use of iron the index of civilization and progress; increase in its manufacture and consumption; probable increase of its manufacture in the United States; the share Ohio should take in its production; what advantages Columbus has for becoming an iron city; varieties of iron ore in the Ohio mining region; blackband, kidney ore, block ores, etc.; iron ore in the Second Geological district; localities where iron ore is found below the great coal-seam, and the analyses of samples; where it is found above that seam, and results of analyses; comparison of the ores with those of the Cleveland district in England; coal, iron, and furnaces in the Hanging Rock iron district; furnace statistics; charcoal and bituminous coal for furnaces; increase of iron in price; the supply falling far short of the demand; Great Britain failing to meet the demand; prospect of success in iron manufacture and trade; Columbus a most eligible point for investment and enterprise in all branches of the iron business 298

Chapter XIV

— Erection of the first State-house; its dimensions; inscriptions in verse; the final doom of the old Capitol ; dirge of the old bell; property saved and lost; where succeeding legislative sessions were held; the building for State offices; its description ; rooms appropriated to different offioes; planting of elm trees; the iron fence; appropriation for a new one; grading and ornamenting the square; the Artesian well ; the new Capitol ; general view; its cost and the time CONTENTS.

XI it took to build it; its dimensions, etc. ; first building act; the commissioners; beginning of work; plans presented ; plans selected; estimates of cost; work begun in earnest; corner-stone; deposits in it; Governor Morrow's address; object in view ; work suspended, and resumed; active operations; progress of the work under new commissioners, and a new architect ; interior work ; ventilation and warming ; banquet on the opening of the new Capitol; addresses; music and dancing; first legislative session in the new Capitol; completion of work; flag-room; rooms of State Board of Agriculture; Perry's victory; the rotunda floor ; the Lincoln memorial; the statues ; asylum for lunatics; purchase of the first site; laying of the corner-stone; description of same; the asylum burned; rebuilding the asylum; a new site; sale of the first site; building a new asylum; description of same; institution for the blind; superintendents; trustees; new building; description of same; statistics of the institution; deaf and dumb institute ; description of same ; public opening ; asylum for idiotic and imbecile youth; purchase of a site; the buildings; bequest; State arsenal ; United States arsenal ; United States post-office; introduction of the penitentiary system into Ohio; building of first penitentiary; description; inspectors and keepers; Statejagent ; successive keepers and clerks ; prison trades ; a rush and escape ; what become of the old prison buildings ; litigation about the old penitentiary tract ; laid off' into lots ; appropriation to McLaughlin's widow ; cholera in the prison in 1833 ; its fatality in 1849 ; the first nine days of the epidemic ; physicians called in ; thepanic; prisoners let out of cells; noattemptto escape; culmination; deaths of Drs.

Lathrop and Gard ; subsidence; number of deaths ; the State quarry, its purchase, situation, and general description ; act for a new penitentiary; the first directors and their first report; the site selected; plan of the new building; commencement of work; removal from the old to the new prison; the new system ; cost of the new building; purchase of additional grounds; wardens and clerks; present officers; receipts; present number of prisoners; contracts for convict labor; prison library; religion in the prison 321

Chapter XV

— The Masons, Masonic lodges; Knight Templars; Odd Fellows, lodges and encampments; Improved Order of Red Men; Druids, Knights of Pythias, Knighthood, German Beneficial Societies; Catholic German Benevolent Societies; Columbus T3*pographical Union; Arbeiter Verein , Bne Berith; Knights of St. Crispin; Theodore Parker lodge; United American Mechanics; Butchers' Association; St. Joseph's Mutual Association ; Machinists and Blacksmiths' Union; Columbus Ministerial Association; Clerical Aid Society; Preacher's Relief Society; Gruitli Verein; Firemen's Association; Hackmen's Union 382

Chapter XVI

— The first theater; State Street Theater; Atheneum; Opera House; musical societies: Mænnerchor, Liederkranz, Harmonie, De Beriot Club, Eckhardt Club 433

Chapter XVII

State Board of Agriculture; Horticultural Society; Franklin County Agricultural Society; Trinity Guild; Young Men's Catholic Association ; Young Men's Christian Association, and religious societies in general; Franklin County Bar Association; Columbus Turnverein; association of 133d Regiment; German Target Club; Golden Light Lodge; Babbling Brook Lodge ; Eureka Degree Temple ; Pure Fount Temple of Honor ; St. Patrick's Total Abstinence CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XVIIL

— Columbus railroads; Central Ohio; Columbus and Hocking Valley ; Columbus and Ferrara; the Scioto Valley ; Columbus and Toledo; Pittsburg, Cincinnati and St. Louis; Pittsburg and Steubenville; Holiday's Cove; Columbus, Piqua and Indiana; Richmond and Covington; Little Miami, and the Columbus and Xenia; Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis, and Springfield Branch, "Bee Line;" Columbus, Springfield and Cincinnati; Cincinnati, Sandusky and Cleveland; Cleveland, Mt. Vernon and Columbus; Columbus and Maysville; Columbus, McArthur and Gallipolis; Columbus and Northwestern 475

Chapter XIX

— Columbus Board of Trade; Clinton Bank of Columbus; State Bank of Ohio; Franklin Bank; City Bank; Exchange Bank; the National Banks; private bankers ; building and loan associations; fire insurance business; street railroads; Columbus Gas-light and Coke Company 53

Chapter XX

— Manufacturing interests ; Columbus asa manufacturing center; statistics of the manufacturing industry 563

Chapter XXI

— Trade; Columbus wholesale trade; statistics of the trade in the city for 1872 A most valuable new publication is now being published by Jacob H. Studer, entitled The Birds of North America. It will contain over one hundred and sixty beautiful Lithographic Colored Engrav ings of birds, with a scientific and popular description of the same. From Ex-State School Commissioner, Hon. E. E. White. — "I have examined the first two numbers of the 'Birds of North America,' published by Jacob H. Studer, and take pleasure in commending the work to the public. E. E. White." •}U3Ul}UCO Slip UO UA\OU5J 03J3L{111{ uibiuod 'p3}3[diLio3 u3i|A\ '[[ia\ aqx 'si^d X}joj }noqu jo s^sisuod puB 'suisd ui psqsqqnd si bdusluv ipiojsj jo spaig sqj^ .^^rH "INVAmilS "s -aan^BU jo sj3ao[ 3iu} [[B o; 4/bdu3ujv quo^i jo spaig 3qx» '^om jnjiin-esq aqi pusuiiuoosj X[[njj33ip [ For all lovers of the beautiful in nature and art, the Birds of North America will be a most valuable work, containing, as it will when completed, over Six Hundred different species of Birds, taking in all from the Arctic Regions to Central America.

The price of the work will be only One Dollar per part, four beautiful Colored Lithographic Plates in each part, with eight pages of letter-press, printed on fine tinted paper. Publication Office of Iks Birds o! North America. Bank Bulling, Southeast Comer High ani Slate Sts., Columbus, 0. FIRST DECADE, 1812 TO 1822.

Chapter I

It is now seventy years since the State of Ohio was admitted into the Union, and sixty years since Columbus was selected for its capital. We propose to trace briefly the history of the latter in six chapters, each embracing a period often years. SELECTION OF THE STATE CAPITAL. It was not of its own seeking that Columbus became the capital of Ohio. That was its destiny from the beginning. At the time the law was enacted that made it the state capital, its site was covered by an almost unbroken forest, and not a human being was resident within its original limits. Ohio wanted a capital at or very near the center of the State. Chillicothe was originally the seat of government. In order to make this seat more central and permanent, the legislature, in February, 1810, appointed five commissioners — James Findlay, W. Silliman, Joseph Darlington, Eeisin Beall, and William McFarland — to examine and select the most eligible site.

The commissioners were to meet at Franklinton, on the first of Sep tember following. Franklin county was organized in 1803, with Franklinton for its county seat. This town was situated in a bend of the Scioto river, south of the point of its confluence with the Olentangy or Whetstone, and about one mile west of the site of the present state-house. The town was laid out in 1797, by Lucas Sullivant, a young man from Kentucky, engaged in surveying lands and locating land warrants in the Virginia military district, west of the Scioto. Its settlement began soon afterward, and it grew apace. From having been made the county-seat, and from other causes, it soon became, for that time and country, a place of con siderable importance, and was talked of as the future capital of the State. But the plan upon which it was laid out, and espe cially its low situation, were, by many, deemed objectionable.

The five commissioners met at Franklinton as directed. They examined that and several other places proposed as sites for the state capital. In their report to the legislature, dated September 12, 1810, the commissioners recommended a site twelve miles above Franklinton, on the west bank of the Scioto river, where the town of Dublin, in Franklin count}*, was afterward located. Here the subject rested until the next session of the legislature. At that session, in February, 1812, a company composed of Lyne Starling, John Kerr, .Alexander McLaughlin, and James John ston, proposed that, if the legislature would establish the seat of the state government on the high bank, east of the Scioto river, nearly opposite Franklinton, in township five, range twenty-two, of the refugee lands, and would, on or before the first Monday of December, 1817, begin to hold its sessions in a town to be laid off thereon by the company, and continue to hold the same there until the year 1840, the company would : First.

Lay out a town on the lands mentioned, on or before the first day of July, 1812, agreeably to a plan presented to the legislature. Second. Convey to the State by general warranty deed, in fee simple, such square in the town, containing about ten acres, for public buildings, and such lot of ten acres for the penitentiary and dependencies, as a director or such person or persons as the legislature should appoint, might select. Third. Erect and complete a state-house, offices, and peniten tiary, and such other buildings as should bo directed by the legislature to be built, of stone and brick, or of either — the work to be done in a workmanlike manner, and of such size and dimensions as the legislature should require ; the penitentiary and dependencies to be completed on or before the first of Jan uary, 1815, and the state-house and offices on or before the first Monday of December, 1817.

HISTORY, 1812 TO 1822. 15 When the buildings should be completed, the legislature and the company were, reciprocally, to appoint workmen to examine and value the whole buildings, which valuation should be binding : if it should not amount to fifty thousand dollars, the com pany were to make up the deficiency in such further buildings as should be directed by law; but if the valuation should exceed fifty thousand dollars, the legislature were, in such way as it might deem just and equitable, to remunerate the company for such excess. Annexed to these proposals was the penal bond of the com pany, dated February 10, 1812, conditioned for the faithful per formance of the agreements and obligations therein set forth. An act was passed, February 14, 1812, accepting the proposals and bond of the company, and permanently establishing the seat of government of this State on the lands named therein, the legislature to " commence their sessions thereat on the first Monday of December, 1817, and there continue until the first day of May, 1840, and from thence until otherwise provided by law."

The act provided for the appointment by the legislature of a director to superintend the surveying and laying off of the proposed town — to direct the width of its streets and alleys and select the square for the public buildings, and the lot for the penitentiary and dependencies. It was also provided that McLaughlin, Kerr, Starling, and Johnston should, before the first day of July, at their own expense, cause the proposed town to be laid out, and a plat of the same recorded, distinguishing thereon the square and the lot to be conveyed to the State. COLUMBUS LOCATED. Under this act, Joel Wright, of Warren county, was appointed director or agent of the State; and Joseph Vance, of Franklin county, was selected to assist him. Under their joint superintendence was platted a town destined to be the capital of ■Ohio, and the thriving metropolis of the central portion of the State.

The refugee lands, upon which our state capital was located, comprised a narrow tract four miles and a half wide, from north to south, and extending forty -eight miles eastwardly from the Scioto river. It took its name from the fact that it was appro priated by Congress for the benefit of persons from Canada and Nova Scotia, who, in our revolutionary war, espoused the cause of the revolted colonies. The lands in this tract were originally surveyed in 1799, under the authority of the general government, and divided, as other public lands, into «6eetions of six hundred and forty acres each. But in 1801, they were divided into half-sections, and numbered as such. Patents were issued for half-sections, designating them by these numbers. On the recorded plat of the town, the streets and alleys crossed each other at right angles, bearing twelve degrees west of north, and twelve degrees north of east.

High street, running north and south, was one hundred feet wide ; and Broad, an east and west street, was one hundred and twenty feet in width. The other streets were eighty -two and a half feet wide, and the alleys generally thirty-three feet. The in-lots were sixty -two and a half feet front, and eighty-seven and a half feet deep. The out-lots, east of the town plat, each contained about three acres. On the 18th of June, 1812, the same day on which the United States declared war against Great Britain, the first public sale of lots took place. It had been extensively advertised. The terms of sale were extremely liberal. Only one-fifth of the purchase-money was to be paid in hand ; the residue in four equal annual installments, without interest, unless default was made in prompt payment. The lots sold were principally on High and Broad streets, and brought prices varying from two hundred to one thousand dollars each.

Inmiediatery after the sale, improvements began to be made rapidly. The first build ings erected were small frame-houses and shops, inclosed with split clapboards, instead of sawn weather-boards which were not easily obtainable. THE INFANT CAPITAL. Thus we see Columbus, in the summer of 1812, started on the career of development and future greatness. At the time of the public sale of lots, its prospects were by no means enticing. The streets and alleys marked on the plat had to be traced HISTORY, 1812 TO 1822. 17 through a dense forest. Its site and immediate surroundings presented but few evidonces of the former presence of civilized man. There was a small spot of cleared ground on Front, a little north of State street ; and a small field and cabin on the river bank, at the western terminus of Eich street.

John Brickell lived in a cabin and cultivated a small garden in the old Indian encampment in front of the site of the present penitentiary, being part of the ten-acre lot conveyed to him by Lyne Starling, long before the town of Columbus was located. The site of the first water-mill in Franklin county, erected by Eobert Balentine, was on a small stream, near the spot where Hayden 's rolling mill now stands ; and near the location of Hayden's (formerly Eidgway's) foundry, was the site of a small distillery, built by one White, in which was distilled the first whisky ever made in this county. The mill and distillery were put in operation about the beginning of the present century, but soon became of the things that were, but are not. South of the noted Indian mound, from which Mound street took its name, was a small cleared field, on a tract of land which, in 1814, was made by John McGowan an addition to the original town plat, and designated as " South Columbus."

The proprietors, some time after they had laid off the new town and the eastern out-lots, caused to be recorded a separate plat of forty or fifty out-lots, north of the town, each contain ing a little over two acres. From a part of two of these lots, they conveyed to the town an acre and a half for a graveyard. For the first three or four years after the decree had gone forth that Columbus was to be the future capital of Ohio, immi grants sought homes within its borders. Improvements and general business went forward with the increase of population. Frequent sales of lots were made by the proprietors — usually by title bond. A third, fourth, or fifth of the price was paid in hand, and promissory notes given for the payment of the resi due in annual installments — without interest, if punctually paid when due ; otherwise, bearing interest from date.