THE EDITOR'S PAGE
In August of this year the city of
Columbus celebrates its
150th birthday. In August 1797 Lucas
Sullivant, a young Ken-
tucky surveyor, laid out the town of
Franklinton just south of
the confluence of the Scioto and
Olentangy rivers. Sullivant set
aside one street which he named Gift
Street; the lots on it were
donated to those who became the first
settlers of the town. The
settlement began immediately, with John
Dixon the first settler.
Among the-other pioneers in Franklinton
were John Brickell, who
had spent five years, 1791-95, as a
captive of Indians on the Mau-
mee, and Jeremiah Armstrong, who was
captured in 1794 and
adopted by the old Wyandot chief, Tarhe,
the Crane, who lived
at Upper Sandusky.
When Franklinton was first settled,
Indians were still living
in the area. There were Wyandots,
Delawares, and Mingoes.
Their villages were located, on both
sides of the Scioto, and their
cornfields were planted in Sullivant's
Prairie. In a few years,
however, most of the Indians had
departed, and the new Amer-
ican had established himself. By 1812,
when the state capital
was platted on the east side of the
Scioto, Franklinton was a
town of 400 or 500 people. Franklinton
was destined to grow,
but its distinctiveness was lost in the
rise of its twin city, Co-
lumbus. In 1870 it was absorbed by the
state's capital city. In
the past century and a half Columbus has
grown from a few
families in Franklinton to the
metropolis of Central Ohio, with
a population of over 400,000; it has
developed from a lusty
frontier village into a great commercial
and industrial center.
An anniversary, especially a
sesquicentennial, is an event for
celebration and the expression of pride.
It should also be a
time for reflection, a time to look back
over the years and dis-
cover whether the ideals of the city
have kept pace with its physical
growth. Columbus today has the problems
of government and
cultural unity typical of most of
America's fast-growing towns.
A study of its past should awaken a
common pride or civic con-
sciousness and furnish the background
for directing the people
toward solving municipal problems and
building a beautiful and
happy city.
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