Ohio History Journal

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FRANKLINTON AT THE TIME OF THE DEATH

FRANKLINTON AT THE TIME OF THE DEATH

OF LUCAS SULLIVANT*

 

BY ANDREW DENNY RODGERS, III

 

Dedication ceremonies of the monument erected to

Lucas Sullivant and the pioneers of Franklin County

in the Franklinton Cemetery

Our mood this afternoon is one of retrospect. This

afternoon we lift away the gray mists of more than a

century to move among the valiant, pioneer spirits of

the borough of Franklinton.

Today this is Franklinton and the time is the ninth

day of August in the year 1823. Upward from the

western hill, the dark of evening is suffusing asomber

sun-setting with shadows. Over the borough, a sultry

blue haze is cast. The vast and surrounding wilderness

is still and motionless. And the low river Scioto lan-

guishes by the pioneer settlement--this evening, stirless

and inert.

The burghers have begun their journeys homeward--

over paths through greenjointed stretches of oak and

hickory and maple and beech, to crude shacks hewn

from the forests--over coarse, mud streets of the bor-

ough to hardy, weather-beaten cabins--a few, to sub-

stantial brick dwellings.

* An address at the dedication ceremonies of the monument erected

to Lucas Sullivant and the pioneers of Franklin County in the Franklinton

Cemetery, October 4, 1931.

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