Franklin County, Ohio: A Collection Of Reminiscences Of The Early Settlement

William T. Martin

• Publisher: Jazzybee Verlag
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9783849652326
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

It is the design of this book to preserve for the people of Franklin County an imperishable record of its early history — now existing only in scattering and detached papers and records, which are every year wasting away. To write the history of a single county, may to some appear like a very small business; while to others it is considered very desirable that someone should do so in every county. How else are the names and memory of our early settlers and friends to be preserved? And who is there that would not be pleased to look back, or to have his children look back, upon some record of his early days, and of departed friends?. It has been the writer's object in this compilation, to give a correct statement of all events worthy of remembrance, with their proper dates, so as to form a book of ready reference, such as will be convenient and interesting to all residents of the county.

CHAPTER I.

FROM THE FIRST SETTLEMENT UNTIL THE ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY, IN 1803.

 

The first settlement of the territory now composing the county of Franklin, was commenced in the year 1797, while we were yet under the Territorial Government, and in the County of Ross.

In the year 1796, or early in '97, Lucas Sullivant, from Kentucky, then a young man, with his corps of chain-carriers, markers, etc., engaged in the surveying of lands and locating warrants, in the Virginia Military District, west of the Scioto; and in the month of August, 1797, he laid out the town of Franklinton. To encourage the settlement of the place, he appropriated the lots on a certain street, which he named "Gift street," as donations to such as would improve them and become actual settlers thereon. The settlement of the town was soon commenced. Among the first settlers, were Joseph Dixon, George Skidmore, John Brickell, Robert Armstrong, Jeremiah Armstrong, William Domigan, James Marshal, the Deardurfs, the McElvains, the Sells, John Lisle and family, William Fleming, Jacob Grubb, Jacob Overdier, Arthur O'Harra, Joseph Foos, John Blair and John Dill, the latter from York County, Pennsylvania.

About the year 1801, Mr. Sullivant having married, settled in his new town; and soon after, Lyne Starling and Robert Russell, and about the same time, Colonel Robert Culbertson, from Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, arrived, with his numerous family of sons, sons-in-law and daughters, both married and unmarried. He was a man of some wealth and distinction, and the first year after his arrival, he was elected a Representative to the General Assembly for the County of Ross.

At the first settlement of the county the Indians were numerous, but friendly, it being some two or three years after Wayne's Treaty; they were principally of the Wyandot tribe, some Delawares, and a few Mingoes. In front of where the Penitentiary now stands, they had an encampment, with their usual wigwams; another on the west bank of the Scioto, near where the Harrisburg bridge is now erected over the river; and they had for years raised corn in what was afterward known as Sullivant's Prairie. There was also another encampment of this kind two or three miles further down the river.

Agreeably to tradition, about the time Lord Dunmore's army was in Pickaway County, prior to the treaty at which Logan's celebrated speech was delivered, a party from Dunmore's army pursued and overtook a party of Indians at, or near, this second named encampment, and a skirmish ensued in which the Indians were defeated, with the loss of two or three men and a squaw.

It is said that Captain Minter, afterward of Delaware County, and also Mr. John Huffman, formerly of Franklin County, were of the pursuing party. Next, after the settlement at Franklinton, was a few families on Darby, near where Mr. Sullivant laid out his town of North Liberty, and a scattering settlement along Alum Creek. This was probably about the summer of 1799. Among the first settlers on Alum Creek, were Messrs. Turner, Nelson, Hamilton, Agler and Reed.

About the same time improvements were made near the mouth of Gahannah (formerly called Big Belly); and the settlements thus gradually extended along the principal water-courses. In the meantime, Franklinton was the point to which emigrants first repaired to spend some months, or perhaps years, prior to their permanent location.

In 1803, a settlement was commenced about where the town of Worthington now stands, by a company, said to number forty families, from Connecticut and Massachusetts, known by the name of the "Scioto Company" under the agency of Colonel James Kilbourne, who had the preceding year explored the country, and selected this situation for them. They purchased here half a township, or eight thousand acres of land, all in one body, upon which, in May, 1804, Colonel Kilbourne, as agent for the company, laid out the town of Worthington; and in August, 1804, the whole half township being handsomely laid out into farm lots, and a plat thereof recorded, they, by deed of partition, divided the same amongst themselves, and so dissolved the company.

The parties and signers to this deed of partition, were James Allen, David Bristol, Samuel Beach, Alexander Morrison, Ebenezer Street, Azariah Pinney, Abner P. Pinney, Levi Pinney, Ezra Griswold, Moses Andrews, John Topping, Josiah Topping, Nathan Stewart, John Gould, James Kilbourne, Jedediah Norton, Russel Atwater, Ichabod Plum, Jeremiah Curtis, Jonas Stanbery, Lemuel G. Humphrey, Ambrose Cox, Joel Mills, Glass Cochran, Alexander Morrison, jr., Thomas T. Phelps, Levi Buttles, Levi Hays, Job Case, Roswell Wilcox, William Thompson, Samuel Sloper, Nathaniel Little, Lemuel Kilbourn, Israel P. Case, Abner Pinney, and William Vining.

For several years there was no mill nor considerable settlement nearer than the vicinity of Chillicothe. In Franklinton, the people constructed a kind of hand-mill, upon which they generally ground their corn; some pounded it, or boiled it, and occasionally a trip was made to the Chillicothe mill. About the year 1799 or 1800, Robert Balentine erected a poor kind of mill on the run near Gay street, on the Columbus plat; and, near the same time, Mr. John D. Rush erected an inferior mill on the Scioto, a short distance above Franklinton. They were, however, both poor concerns, and soon fell to ruins. A horse-mill was then resorted to, and kept up for some time; but the first mill of any considerable advantage to the county, was erected by Colonel Kilbourne, near Worthington, about the year 1805. About the same time, Carpenter's mill, on Whetstone, in what is now Delaware County, and Dyer's, on Darby, were erected.

About one year probably after the first settlement of Franklinton, a Mr. James Scott opened the first small store in the place, which added much to the convenience of the settlers. And as early as 1803, we find that our old and respected townsman, Robert Russell, Esq., was engaged in merchandizing in Franklinton.

During the first years of the settlement it was extremely sickly — perhaps as much so as any part of the State. For a few of the first years, the fever and ague prevailed so generally in the fall seasons as to totally discourage many of the settlers; so that they would, during the prevalence of the disease, frequently resolve to abandon the country and remove back to the old settlements. But on the return of health; the prospective advantages of the country; the noble crops of corn and vegetables; the fine range for stock, and the abundance of wild game, deer, turkeys, etc., with which the country abounded — all conspired to reanimate them, and encourage them to remain another year. And so on, year after year, many of the first settlers were held in conflict of mind, unable to determine whether to remain or abandon the country; until the enlargement of their improvements or possessions, the increasing conveniences and improvements of the country, together with the fact that the seasons had become more healthy, determined them generally to remain. Although sickness was so general, deaths were comparatively few, the disease of the country being principally ague—or so it was called. There was the shaking ague, and what is now familiarly termed chills and fever, which was then called the dumb ague.

CHAPTER II.

FROM THE ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY UNTIL THE LAYING OUT OF COLUMBUS IN 1812.

In 1803, the County of Franklin was stricken off from Ross, and organized. The act creating the new county, was passed March 30th, 1803, to commence and take effect from and after the 30th of April, 1803. The bounds are described as follows: "Beginning on the western boundary of the twentieth range of townships east of the Scioto River, at the corner of sections Nos. 24 and 25 in the 9th township of the 21st range, surveyed by John Matthews, thence west until it intersects the eastern boundary line of Greene County, thence north with said line until it intersects the State line, thence eastwardly with the said line to the north-west corner of Fairfield County, thence with the western boundary line of Fairfield to the point of beginning."

That is, bounded on the east by nearly our present line, south by a line near the middle of what is now Pickaway County, on the west by Greene County, and on the north by Lake Erie. The creation of the county of Delaware in 1808, reduced our northern boundary to its present line; the creation of the county of Pickaway in 1810, reduced our southern boundary to its present limits; the creation of Madison in 1810, and of Union in 1820, reduced our western limits to the boundaries represented by Wheeler's County Map, published in 1842; but subsequently, by an act of the Legislature passed the 4th of March, 1845, our western boundary was changed by making Darby Creek the line from the north-west corner of Brown to the north line of Pleasant Township, as represented by Foote's Map of 1856; and by an act passed the 27th of January, 1857, entitled "An act to annex a part of Licking County to the County of Franklin," there were nine half sections taken from the south-west corner of Licking, and attached to Franklin.

This occasions the jog in the eastern line of Truro Township, as represented on the maps. Then at the session of 1850-51, a range of sections, being a strip one mile in width and six miles in length, including the town of Winchester, was taken from Fairfield County and attached to the east side of Madison township, in Franklin County, as represented on Foote's Map. The county is now in nearly a square form, and is twenty-two and a half miles in extent north and south, and would probably average a trifle over that from east to west.

There are four several denominations of land in this county. They are designated the United States Military Lands, Virginia Military Lands, Refugee Lands, and Congress Lands. The townships of Plain, Jefferson, Mifflin, Blendon, Sharon, Clinton and Perry, are within the United States Military District; the townships of Montgomery and Truro, in the Refugee tract; the townships of Hamilton and Madison, in the Congress Lands, so called; and all the other townships (west of the Scioto) are in the Virginia Military District. The United States Military Lands, are so called from the circumstance of their having been appropriated by an act of Congress in 1796, to satisfy certain claims of the officers and soldiers of the Revolutionary War. These lands were surveyed by Government into townships of five miles square, and then into quarter townships of two and a half miles square, containing four thousand acres each. Some of the quarter townships, however, were subsequently divided into lots of one hundred acres each, for the accommodation of those soldiers holding one hundred-acre warrants. The fourth, or south-east quarter, of Plain Township, and a strip in Perry Township, bordering on the river, are thus laid out into one hundred acre lots. And again, after satisfying the claims for which these four thousand acre tracts were designed, there appears to have been a surplus of land, which was then laid out by Government into sections of six hundred and forty acres, and sub-divided into quarter sections of one hundred and sixty acres, and disposed of as other Congress lands. Of this description are quarters one and two (or north half) of Plain Township. These original surveyed townships of five miles square, when divided into quarters, are numbered thus, (the top being considered north,) and are most properly designated as first quarter, second quarter, etc., in township No. —, range —, but sometimes in conveyances, they are called sections, and very commonly so in conversation, as the Rathbone section, the Stevenson section, the Brien section, etc., which in the minds of some may create confusion, as a section, in Congress Lands, is well known to contain six hundred and forty acres, while one of these quarter townships (or sections, if we so call them,) contains four thousand acres.

The Virginia Military District in Ohio, comprises the lands between the Scioto and Little Miami Rivers; and when the State of Virginia, in 1783, ceded to the United States all her right of soil and jurisdiction to all the tract of country she then claimed north-west of the Ohio River, it was provided that the "Virginia troops of the Continental establishment" should be paid their legal bounties from these lands. The patent to the soldier or purchaser of these lands, as well as of all other Ohio lands, is derived from the General Government. This District is not surveyed into ranges and townships, or any regular form, and hence the irregularity in the shapes of the townships, as established by the county commissioners, for civil purposes; but any individual holding a Virginia Military Land Warrant, might locate it wherever he desired, within the district, and in such shape as he pleased, wherever the land had not been previously located. In consequence of this want of regular original surveys, and the irregularities with which many locati...

Table of contents

• PREFACE.
• CHAPTER I.
• CHAPTER II.
• CHAPTER III.
• CHAPTER IV.
• CHAPTER V.
• CHAPTER VI.
• CHAPTER VII.
• CHAPTER VIII.
• CHAPTER IX.
• CHAPTER X.
• CHAPTER XI.
• CHAPTER XII.
• CHAPTER XIII. FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP.
• CHAPTER XIV. SHARON TOWNSHIP.
• CHAPTER XV. MONTGOMERY TOWNSHIP.
• CHAPTER XVI. PLEASANT TOWNSHIP.
• CHAPTER XVII. HAMILTON TOWNSHIP.
• CHAPTER XVIII. WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP.
• CHAPTER XIX. MADISON TOWNSHIP.
• CHAPTER XX. TRURO TOWNSHIP.
• CHAPTER XXI. PLAIN TOWNSHIP.
• CHAPTER XXIII. CLINTON TOWNSHIP.
• CHAPTER XXIV. BLENDON TOWNSHIP.
• CHAPTER XXV. JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP.
• CHAPTER XXVI. NORWICH TOWNSHIP.
• CHAPTER XXVII. JACKSON TOWNSHIP.
• CHAPTER XXVIII. PRAIRIE TOWNSHIP.
• CHAPTER XXIX. PERRY TOWNSHIP.
• CHAPTER XXX. BROWN TOWNSHIP.
• CHAPTER XXXI. COLUMBUS.
• CHAPTER XXXII. COLUMBUS. (continued)
• CHAPTER XXXIII. COLUMBUS. (continued)
• CHAPTER XXXIV. THE OLD STATE HOUSE, THE OFFICES, YARD, ETC.
• CHAPTER XXXV. PENITENTIARY.
• CHAPTER XXXVI. CHURCHES OF COLUMBUS.
• CHAPTER XXXVII. COLUMBUS CEMETERIES.
• CHAPTER XXXVIII. LITERARY INSTITUTIONS.
• CHAPTER XXXIX. LADIES' BENEVOLENT SOCIETY AND MECHANICS' BENEFICIAL SOCIETY.
• CHAPTER XL. STATE BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS.
• CHAPTER XLI. TRAGEDIES.
• CHAPTER XLII. MANUFACTURING ESTABLISHMENTS IN COLUMBUS IN 1858.