Ohio History Journal

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THE FOUNDING OF FRANKLINTON:

THE FOUNDING OF FRANKLINTON:

ITS SIGNIFICANCE TODAY1

by HAROLD J. GRIMM

Associate Professor of History, Ohio State University

 

The citizens of Columbus owe a debt of gratitude to the

Honorable James A. Rhodes, mayor of Columbus, and his Frank-

linton Sesquicentennial Committee, under the chairmanship of

Mr. Erwin C. Zepp, for setting aside these two days in commemo-

ration of the founding of the village of Franklinton. By inviting

us to pause in our busy, work-a-day lives to give attention to the

faith, hope, and courage of our illustrious predecessors, they have

made us aware of those qualities which are indispensable not only

to the founding of nations and states, but to preserving and de-

veloping them.

Just as our artists, writers, and musicians make our lives

more fascinating by lifting out of what is generally a common-

place existence this or that feature to arouse our interest and help

us in our search for the meaning of life, so our historians call our

attention to those rare and brilliant moments in our history when

our leaders seem by some rare insight and power to set us on a

new and bold venture and give us a mission to fulfill; or they

encourage us to complete tasks of which we may have grown

weary and arouse a sense of appreciation and gratitude which im-

pel us to renewed activity.

The founding of Franklinton was no isolated event. On the

contrary, it was at once the culmination of a long and intense

struggle of the white men along the Atlantic coast to make good

their claims to the lands beyond the mountains and, at the same

time, the beginning of the planting of the seeds of western civil-

ization in the Midwest. That is to say, the laying out of Frank-

linton by Lucas Sullivant has as much significance for us as it

had for the courageous first settlers, including Joseph Dixon, Wil-

1 This is an address presented at the sesquicentennial banquet commemorating

the founding of Franklinton, August 22, 1947.

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