Franklinton-An Historical Address. 59
FRANKLINTON--AN HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
By GENERAL
JOHN BEATTY.
A few rods from where we are assembled
to-day the waters
of the Olentangy unite with those of the
Scioto, and together flow
down to the Ohio, thence to the
Mississippi, and so onward to a
gulf of the Atlantic ocean. Southwardly
from the place where the
two streams meet, there was, at the time
to which we propose to
refer, a broad, handsome stretch of
valley land, where good crops
of corn would follow even rude
cultivation, where the wild grape,
plum and paw-paw could be gathered in
their season, and whence
it was an easy matter to make forays to
the higher lands in quest
of such beasts and birds as prefer not
to live in close proximity
to man, whether he be tame or wild. This
suggests, in brief, the
field about us as our fathers saw it,
but not the incidents, marvel-
ous and otherwise, connected with it.
At a time when our ancestors were living
in thatched huts on
the Rhine, the Thames, the Shannon, or
the Tweed, and when
even London was an inconsiderable
collection of rude houses, a
people far advanced in certain lines of
civilization established a
town near the junction of the Scioto and
Olentangy, and built
temples and places of sepulture, and
worshiped God in a fashion
somewhat different from our own, but not
greatly dissimilar to
that of the old Britons who met for
devotional services at Stone-
henge.
The Scioto was then a great
thoroughfare; its banks dotted
with homes and populous villages. That
was a thousand - may
be three thousand - years ago, and yet
the beautiful temple
mounds, and mounds of sepulture, which
this prehistoric people
left behind them - some almost within an
arrow's flight from
where we stand - have for centuries
defied the ravages of time,
and now bid fair to continue to exist
when the decaying edifices
of ancient Greece and Rome shall have
finally moldered into dust
and forever disappeared.
When and why this people left the Scioto
valley, and to what
60
Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
place they journeyed, will always remain
matters of conjecture,
but the splendid cities and other
evidences of high civilization
which the Spaniards found in Mexico and
Peru suggest, at least,
that they moved southward in search of a
more genial climate
and perhaps more fertile lands.
Then the red Indian came - a race of
stalwart men, who
spurned fixed habitations, delighted in
the freedom and solemn
grandeur of great forests, and loved the
world as it had come
freshly from the hand of the Creator.
But even this nomadic
people had their favorite places of
resort, and their frail abodes
were standing near the junction of the
Scioto and the Olentangy
when the Pilgrim fathers landed at
Plymouth Rock, and the first
English colony settled on the James. It
can hardly be a stretch
of the probabilities to say that a
knowledge of these important
events at the time of their occurrence,
traveled slowly from the
seacoast to the interior, and in a
somewhat distorted and exagger-
ated form finally reached those who
lived then where we live now.
And we may safely assume, also, that the
strange news was re-
ceived by some who heard it, with
scornful incredulity, while oth-
ers pondered over it in awe as if it
might betoken a visitation of
the gods in winged ships from the happy
hunting grounds, to
which all good Indians hoped in due time
to be translated.
Still many years passed by, and although
the old rumors of
the coming of the white man with his
smoking, thundering, deadly
gun, and blade of flashing steel,
crystallized at last into absolute
certainty, it was yet a far cry, and the
savage ear in this remote
section grew accustomed to it, and
ceased to give it marked atten-
tion. At last, however, the day arrived
when the skirmish line
of advancing civilization, crossing the
Alleghanies, entered the
valleys of the Ohio and its tributaries
and setting up its standards,
built stockades and domiciles, and made
known its purpose to
occupy the land. Then there followed
years of desultory warfare
in which wives and children were not
spared; and this condition
of unrest and blood and midnight
burnings continued until finally
the more intelligent of the native race
were made to comprehend
that it was a heedless and cruel waste
of life to prolong the con-
test against constantly increasing
numbers and so, in patches,
Franklinton - An Historical Address. 61
62 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
At that time the war of the revolution
had been ended but
14 years. The seat of the national
government was at Philadel-
phia. John Adams had just succeeded
Washington as president.
Arthur St. Clair was governor of the
northwest territory. The
Scioto river was the boundary line
between Washington county
on the east, with its seat of justice at
Marietta, and Hamilton
county on the west, with its seat of
justice at Cincinnati. There
were Indian trails through the great
forest, but no roads. Eben-
ezer Zane, however, was engaged in the
work of opening a road
from Wheeling, Virginia, to Maysville,
Kentucky, but "Zane's
trace", as it was called, was 40
miles south of Franklinton, and
the first settler in what is now
Fairfield county, Captain Joseph
Hunter, did not travel over it until
1798. Putnam and Tupper
had established a colony at the mouth of
the Muskingum. There
was a remnant of a deceived and
despondent colony of French at
Gallipolis. Inconsiderable settlements
had been made between
the Miamis on what was known as the
Symmes purchase. There
were settlements opposite Wheeling in
what is now Belmont
county, and the year before the time of
which I speak the avant
couriers of a Connecticut colony had
built cabins at the mouth of
the Cuyahoga river. Chillicothe was a
town of 40 log cabins,
but in what are now known as the
counties of Delaware, Licking,
Union, Madison, and Fayette, there was
not, so far as I can ascer-
tain, a single white man. The
environment of Mr. Sullivant's
proposed town, therefore, was not such
as to afford him great
encouragement, and it required an
exceedingly lively imagination
to leap forward to the time when it
should become a part of a
populous and important city.
Providence, however, seems to delight in
taking some folks
by the hand and leading them blindfolded
to success. We see
this truth made manifest in business, in
war, and in politics, and
I think Mr. Sullivant was one of the
favored few who builded bet-
ter than they knew. But let this be as
it may, here he built his
home, and a few years later brought to
it a young wife, who by
blood and marriage was allied to the
more prominent families of
Virginia and Kentucky and whose paternal
ancestor had been a
baronet in England, and lord mayor of
London.
I know too much of the narrow economies
and deprivations
Frankliton - All Historical Address. 63
of pioneer life to wholly excuse Lucas
Sullivant for thus taking a
young woman from a comfortable home, the
companionship of a
wide circle of relatives, and the
delightful adjuncts of a long estab-
lished and well ordered community, and
bringing her to such a
place as Franklinton was then, and yet
our hearts swell with ad-
miration as we reflect that only a
devoted and brave wife would
accompany her husband to a solitude
where in the shadow of the
forest when the night shut down, the
world would have seemed
blotted out but for the complaining
voices of wild beasts, and the
ever present fear that the thick
darkness concealed savage foes
who might at any moment resort to
violence. But it may be
said some were called upon to make such
sacrifices, and this is
true. Grateful thanks, therefore, not to
Sarah Starling alone,
but to other heroic wives as well, who
did not hesitate to follow
the standards of civilization to new
fields, and by their grace and
beauty adorn and brighten the rude homes
of the wilderness.
Lucas Sullivant was in person of medium
height, with a good
head, acquiline nose, blue-gray eyes,
and a chin and mouth popu-
larly supposed to be indicative of
firmness and decision. When
he made the preliminary survey of the
site for Franklinton, he
was just thirty-two years old, and hence
in the prime and vigor
of early manhood. His sons were all
taller and heavier than
himself, and in these particulars
resembled the Lynes and Star-
lings. His grandchildren were in face at
least, if not in height
and weight, unlike him also. But strange
to say - and yet it
should be said in confirmation of a
theory with respect to the
transmission of ancestral traits- one of
his great-grandsons is
in stature and facial features his exact
counterpart. Mr. Sulli-
vant's sons were all strong men, both in
mind and body. Indeed,
it can be no exaggeration to affirm that
the eldest of the three,
William Starling Sullivant, is entitled
to high rank among the
greater Americans of the past century.
He was graduated at
Yale in 1823. The council of the
American Academy of Arts
and Sciences pronounced him "the
most accomplished bryologist
which this country had ever
produced", and the distinguished bot-
anist, Dr. Asa Gray, said: "His
works have laid such a broad
and complete foundation for the study of
bryology in this country,
and are of such recognized importance
everywhere, that they must
64 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
always be of classic authority." In
brief, Mr. William S. Sullivant's
contributions to the science of botany
are so valuabe that they can
be found to-day in all the great
libraries of the world. He was
born here, and as the dead live, he is
still Franklinton's most ac-
complished son.
The great beauty and unsurpassed natural
advantages which
sanguine men invariably discover in
their own broad acres,
prompted Mr. Lucas Sullivant to lay out
a site for his prospective
town on an exceedingly liberal scale.
Indeed, I think when he
had completed his surveys and drawn his
maps the land embraced
within its boundaries would have
accomodated the village popula-
tion of the entire northwest territory.
But the next spring's
floods suggested to him that until dikes
were built it would be
well to modify his plans, and restrict
the purchasers, he so confi-
dently expected, to the higher grounds.
This he did and then
with a display of generosity which must
have elicited much quiet
but good natured laughter from the few
sensible pioneers who had
come to look about them for a place to
settle down, he offered lots
on Gift street as a gratuity to those
who would accept them as a
place of residence. At that time good
land could be bought at
from one dollar to two dollars an acre,
and consequently Mr. Sulli-
vant's lots on Gift street were not
worth to exceed fifty cents a
piece, and if recording fees were as
high in that day as they are
in this, the man who should avail
himself of Mr. Sullivant's benefi-
cence would at the end of the
transaction be out of pocket a full
dollar. For this and other obvious
reasons neither the lots on
Gift, nor any other street in
Franklinton, found eager takers.
Even John Brickell, a lad of sixteen,
who had spent four years
in captivity with the Indians, and who
was among the first to reach
the town, took abundant time to consider
Mr. Sullivant's proposi-
tion, and then exhibited the excellent
sense with which nature
had endowed him, by buying a tract of
elevated ground near where
the penitentiary now stands.
In 1802 Ohio became a state of the
federal union, with its
temporary capital at Chillicothe, and in
the year following Ed-
ward Tiffin was elected governor.
Franklin county was organ-
ized in 1803, enclosing a broader area
than it does at present, and
Franklinton was made its seat of
justice. In 1804 a log jail was
Franklinton -An Historical
Address. 65
built in the new county seat, and in
1807 a court house erected.
Still Franklinton did not prosper and
become populous. It
should be said, however, that no western
towns save those situated
on the lakes and great rivers, increased
in population rapidly from
1800 to 1850. In that period railroads
had not made transit from
the seaboard to the interior cheap and
easy, and hence only the
more stalwart and energetic ventured to
encounter the discom-
forts and perils incident to a long
journey through the wilderness.
The first comers were as a rule the
best. I doubt if there can now
be found among the 175,000 residents of
Franklin county a single
man superior in education and
intellectual strength to many of
the settlers of that early day. Bishop
Philander Chase, Colonel
James Kilbourne and Salmon P. Chase were
then at Worthington.
Judge Gustavus Swan, Lyne Starling, Dr.
Lincoln Goodale, the
Reverend Dr. James Hoge, General Joseph
Foos, the Sullivants
and the McDowells were in Franklinton or
in its vicinity. Where
shall we find better blood, brighter
intellects, or braver hearts
than they possessed? Certainly not here,
and I think not else-
where in Ohio. Judge Gustavus Swan has
left us a graphic pic-
ture of the country at that early
period, and one suggestive of the
deprivations to which its people were
subjected.
"When I opened my office in
Franklinton in 1811," he says,
"there was neither church nor
school-house, nor pleasure car-
riage in the county; nor was there a
bridge over any stream within
the compass of a hundred miles. The
roads at all seasons were
nearly impassable, there was not in the
county a chair for every
two inhabitants, nor a knife and fork
for every four."
What a valuable lesson this should
suggest! We now com-
plain about hard times; what sort of
times were those when mer-
chandise was brought up the Scioto from
the Ohio in barges
and canoes-when men burned holes in
stumps where women
and children might pound corn for the
midday dinner-when the
most estimable of wives in writing back
to her old home said,
"We shall occupy one room this
winter as my husband must
make use of the other for a shop."
Hard times! The truth is
the people of this generation in Ohio
have been indulged and
pampered until, like babes, they whimper
when the nursing bottle
happens for a moment to be withdrawn.
Where now is that
Vol. VI-5
66 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
knightly spirit of the fathers which
prompted them to seek new
fields of enterprise, and that admirable
stoicism which would
brook no murmurs of complaint? It may be
said all good fields
are now occupied, but the saying would
be false, for lands as
fertile as those around us are more
accessible to-day than the
Scioto valley was to the fathers one
hundred years ago and they
are as low in price as Ohio lands were
then, and as easily made
valuable by settlement and cultivation.
In 1805 Lyne Starling, a Virginian by
birth, just 21 years
old and six feet seven inches in height,
came to Franklinton, and
a few years later, forming a partnership
with his brother-in-law,
Mr. Lucas Sullivant, opened a general
store. Mr. Starling's
head was, I think, fully as long as his
body, for in 1809 he bought
land on the east bank of the Scioto, and
in 1810 entertained
strong expectations of getting the State
Capital located either on
it, or in its immediate vicinity.
Franklinton, Worthington and
Dublin were each struggling for the
honor of becoming the seat
of the State government, with the
chances decidedly against the
former, because of the low ground upon
which it was situated.
At one time Dublin seemed to be the
favored place, and at an-
other time Worthington, but the
proprietors of the elevated land
on the east bank of the Scioto opposite
Franklinton were by no
means lacking in either vigilance,
enterprise or tact, and uniting
in a proposition to the State they
succeeded in securing its ac-
ceptance, and the selection of their
land as the site of the pros-
pective city. Lyne Starling, John Kerr,
Alexander McLaugh-
lin and James Johnston were the prime
actors and beneficiaries
in the successful undertaking; but it is
more than probable that
Worthington would have won the prize if
Mr. Lucas Sullivant,
General Joseph Foos, and other citizens
of Franklinton, who
then thought they had but little if any
pecuniary interest in the
matter, had not finally come actively
and earnestly to the assist-
ance of the Starling syndicate.
The future seat of the State government
was by law estab-
lished at Columbus in 1812, but the act
was passed and the city
named when the site on which it was to be
built was simply a
densely wooded tract without even a good
wagon road through
it, and with hardly a clearing or a
cabin on it. It was not until
Franklinton - An Historical Address. 67
1816 that public buildings were
completed, and made ready for
the reception of the State officials.
But between the time when
the legislative act was passed fixing
the site of the capital, and
the date of its occupancy, Franklinton
for a year or more reached
a higher degree of prosperity than it
had ever previously attained.
The war of 1812 was in progress and
Hull's surrender at De-
troit left the isolated settlements open
to the assaults of not only
the British, but of their savage,
merciless allies. The dispersed
and exposed white families of Ohio,
therefore, were for a time
in abject terror. Settlers from
Delaware, Worthington, Dublin
and the surrounding country hurried to
Franklinton as to a
place of refuge and safety; defensive
preparations in the way of
ditches and stockades were begun in the
vicinity of the court
house, but the panic subsiding, they
were never completed. Then
it was that Franklinton became a place
of gathering for troops,
and a base of supplies for the Western
Army, and in it the roll
of the drum and shrill notes of the fife
became unremitting.
Troops from Virginia, Pennsylvania,
Kentucky and Tennessee
-foot, horse and dragoon-came marching
into the village under
flying colors, were rested and supplied,
and then went marching
on to the Maumee. Ohio recruits
assembled here, were organ-
ized into companies, hastily taught a
few simple military move-
ments, and sent forward to the scene of
hostilities. Seven hun-
dred men under the gallant Colonel
Campbell left the town on
horseback, fought a winning battle with
Indians at Munceytown,
and obtained as their reward a
congratulatory order issued by
General William Henry Harrison from his
headquarters at Frank-
linton. Parades and reviews took place
on the public square
in the presence of the commanding
general and his excellency
Governor Return Jonathan Meigs. General
Lewis Cass visited
the town, and General Perkins and
General Beall and the chival-
rous Governor Shelby, of Kentucky. The
gallant General Left-
wich marched into it at the head of a
brigade of brave Virginians,
and then in good time marched out again.
Colonel Anderson
came also, leading a regiment of
Tennesseeans, accompanied by
General Harrison, then on his return
from Cincinnati. General
Joseph Foos and Captain Vance, both
Franklinton men and
good officers, were at the head of
Franklin county soldiers, and
68
Ohio. Arch. and His. Society Publications.
were quick either to lead or follow, and
eager for battle. It
was within a few rods of where we stand
that General Harrison
held his conference with the Delawares,
Wyandots and Senecas-
when mothers, with babes in their arms,
looking upon the scene
trembled with anxiety and suspense. Then
a great shout of glad-
ness went up from strong men, and
thankful prayers from women,
when Tarhe, the great Wyandot, announced
that the tribes rep-
resented in the council would stand as a
barrier between hostile
Indians and the wives and children of
the settlers, while husbands
and fathers were absent on the border
fighting the British and
their allies.
It was here, alas! that a poor wretch-a
despondent and
homesick man, may be, or one weary of
the dull routine of mili-
tary life, and desperate, was shot to
death for the crime of de-
sertion, and it was here also that
another-a young boy, perhaps-
convicted of the same offense and
sentenced to die, was led to
his coffin, blindfolded, and then, thank
heaven! reprieved. Of
course, in war discipline must be
maintained, and examples must
be set, and army regulations enforced,
and military law upheld,
and the orders of commanding officers
obeyed; but God help the
poor boy whose heart strings draw him
home. He may be as
brave as Julius Caesar, and yet in a
moment of despondency, or
under the goadings of a personal
grievance, risk all for a chance
of reaching sympathetic friends, and
sitting by the family fire-
side again.
It was in the fields about us that
Captain Cushing's battery
boomed now and then upon the receipt of
encouraging grape-
vine dispatches from the front, and then
a little later, the whole
town went wild with joy, and every gun
thundered, and every
flag waved proudly, and every man stood
more erect, and every
woman smiled with moist eyes and
grateful heart, when the news
came that that Kentucky boy, George
Croghan, had won a splen-
did victory at Fort Stephenson, and
thereby achieved immor-
tality. Then in time came Perry's
victory on Lake Erie, the
taking of Malden, and Harrison's great
triumph over Proctor and
Tecumseh on the Thames. And then it was
that captured British
soldiers were conducted through
Franklinton to Chillicothe, and
by this time the war was virtually over
in the West, and a little
Franklinton - An Historical Address. 69
later it was wholly ended and Mrs. Lucas
Sullivant exclaimed:
"Thank God!"
When the war closed the glory of
Franklinton disappeared.
It then became a dull, uninteresting
hamlet, occupied as Judge
William T. Martin in his history of
Franklin county tells us,
mainly by "farmers and laborers
who * * * worked Mr.
Sullivant's extensive prairie
fields," or labored in the stone quar-
ries. "The proportion of rough
population," writes another,
"was very large." But even the
rough population referred to
consisted of strong men and stubborn
fighters, who had an ele-
ment of rugged justice in their hearts,
which prompted them to
wage fair battles. The old residents
tell us of Billy Wyandot,
an Indian who pursued a bear to the
middle of the Scioto, killed
it, and then brought its carcass to the
shore. This was a fair
display of the brutal courage of the
time, but it was perhaps
excelled by a white man named Corbus,
who, having occasion to
meet a bear in combat, cast aside his
weapons so that the bear's
friends should be unable to claim he
took unfair advantage of the
beast, and then in a hand to claw,
square, stand-up rough and
tumble fight to the death, he came off
finally with the honors
of victory. These men were not what are
called society people,
and were not profound in their knowledge
of theological dogmas,
and they entertained withal peculiar
notions with respect to
dietary matters, and believed corn
whisky better for the human
stomach than river water, but
notwithstanding all this they fought
fair fights, and asked odds of nobody.
Let us, therefore, hope
that Billy Wyandot and his bear and
Jacob Corbus and his bear
are living together to-day in royal good
fellowship on that happy
shore which lies beyond a river broader
and murkier than the
Scioto.
But I am detaining you too long, and
must conclude with a
brief summary of facts.
Judge Martin, in speaking of Franklin
township in 1848,
says: "The town of Franklinton has
not varied much in popu-
lation and business for forty
years." The census reports show
that in 1840 it contained only 394
inhabitants, while Worthington
at that time had 440. Franklinton was
never an incorporated
town, and never had either mayor,
marshal or board of council-
70
Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
men; indeed it never had a government
nor an existence sepa-
rate, apart and independent of Franklin
township. In 1824 it
ceased to be the seat of justice for
Franklin county. Its last
postmaster, appointed in 1831, served
for a few years, and then
the postoffice was discontinued. The
territory included within
the limits of the town, and that south
and west of it, were annexed
to the City of Columbus from time to
time, as follows: In 1862,
the territory as far west as Lucas
street; in 1870 the territory
south of Town street, as far west as
Sandusky street, and north
of Town west as far as Darby street; in
1888 the territory as far
west as Central avenue, between
Sullivant avenue on the south,
and the P., C., C. & St. L. Railroad
on the north, and in 1891
other parts of Franklin township were
taken into the city, making
its western boundary the (Sullivant)
county road and Hague
avenue.
It may be said that if Lucas Sullivant
had not founded Frank-
linton the capital of the State would
not have been located where
it is, and this is true. Franklinton on
the west bank of the Scioto
in 1810-12 called attention to the high
ground on the east bank,
and at the same time supplied a party of
shrewd, energetic and
interested men to urge its acceptance by
the State, and still with
all the influence the Franklinton
syndicate could bring to bear
upon the General Assembly it came very
near losing the prize
it was so eager to obtain. The committee
appointed by the Leg-
islature to examine the country within a
certain area, and recom-
mend a site, reported in favor of
Dublin, and subsequently pledges
were secured from a majority of the
members of the General As-
sembly in favor of Worthington; but
finally after a long struggle
the high bank opposite Franklinton was
chosen. Worthington
lost by a hair and Columbus won by a
scratch. Time, however,
which makes many, if not all things
even, will soon do for Worth-
ington what it has done for Franklinton,
namely, bring it within
the boundaries of the Capital City. And
ultimately the pictur-
esque region on the Scioto in the
vicinity of Dublin will become
an elegant suburb of Columbus, but
thirty minutes' ride by elec-
tric cars from the State House.
The changes which have taken place
within the past one
hundred years are marvelous. The first
generation planted; the
Franklinton - An Historical Address. 71
second watered, and the third gathered
in a bountiful harvest.
What the next three generations to
follow us may accomplish,
and what their harvest will be, only
infinite wisdom can foretell.
The intervals of time between the eldest
here to-day, and the
fathers of a hundred years ago, and the
youngest and those of a
hundred years to come, seem so short
that we are prompted to
cry to those who have gone before us
thanks and farewell, and
then with anxious but hopeful hearts bid
those who shall gather
here a century hence, hail and godspeed!
Franklinton-An Historical Address. 59
FRANKLINTON--AN HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
By GENERAL
JOHN BEATTY.
A few rods from where we are assembled
to-day the waters
of the Olentangy unite with those of the
Scioto, and together flow
down to the Ohio, thence to the
Mississippi, and so onward to a
gulf of the Atlantic ocean. Southwardly
from the place where the
two streams meet, there was, at the time
to which we propose to
refer, a broad, handsome stretch of
valley land, where good crops
of corn would follow even rude
cultivation, where the wild grape,
plum and paw-paw could be gathered in
their season, and whence
it was an easy matter to make forays to
the higher lands in quest
of such beasts and birds as prefer not
to live in close proximity
to man, whether he be tame or wild. This
suggests, in brief, the
field about us as our fathers saw it,
but not the incidents, marvel-
ous and otherwise, connected with it.
At a time when our ancestors were living
in thatched huts on
the Rhine, the Thames, the Shannon, or
the Tweed, and when
even London was an inconsiderable
collection of rude houses, a
people far advanced in certain lines of
civilization established a
town near the junction of the Scioto and
Olentangy, and built
temples and places of sepulture, and
worshiped God in a fashion
somewhat different from our own, but not
greatly dissimilar to
that of the old Britons who met for
devotional services at Stone-
henge.
The Scioto was then a great
thoroughfare; its banks dotted
with homes and populous villages. That
was a thousand - may
be three thousand - years ago, and yet
the beautiful temple
mounds, and mounds of sepulture, which
this prehistoric people
left behind them - some almost within an
arrow's flight from
where we stand - have for centuries
defied the ravages of time,
and now bid fair to continue to exist
when the decaying edifices
of ancient Greece and Rome shall have
finally moldered into dust
and forever disappeared.
When and why this people left the Scioto
valley, and to what