Ohio History Journal

EARLY DAYS IN OHIO.

FROM LETTERS AND DIARIES OF DR. I. A. LAPHAM.

Increase Allen Lapham, at the time of his death regarded as the

most distinguished scholar of his state, Wisconsin, was for many years

a citizen and state official of Ohio. He was born in Palmyra, N. Y., in

1811, and while as a boy laborer, working on the construction of the

Erie Canal, became interested in the study of nature and her various

phases. The subsequent results of his studies were embodied in forty-

five different volumes and large and valuable collections. Mr. Lapham

was a striking example of the self-educated man. His schooling was

only that of the common rudimentary character. He did not have to

learn, he intuitively knew. At sixteen years of age he wrote his first

scientific paper, illustrated by original plans, geological sections, and a

map published in the American Journal of Science. This production was

highly commended by Prof. Silliman. Before he was of age, Mr. Lap-

ham moved to Portsmouth, Ohio, where he resided several years, and

during which residence, at the age of twenty-two he was appointed Secre-

tary of the State Board of Canal Commissioners and became an active

member of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio.

In 1836, the young man settled in Milwaukee, then a village in

the Territory of Michigan, with but twelve hundred inhabitants. Here

he entered upon a career of great mental activity, in the fields of geology,

geography, topography, mineralogy, botany, agriculture, education and

archaeology. He held many territorial and state offices. As a scientist,

he was, perhaps, better known abroad than at home; at one time it was

said Milwaukee was best known in Europe as the home of Dr. I. A.

Lapham.   In many of the subjects to which he gave his attention he

became a national authority. He was one of the founders of the Wis-

consin Academy of Science, of the American Ethnological Society and

of the Wisconsin State Historical Society, of which for many years

he was president. He was a member of the leading scientific societies of

this country and Europe. For several years he was employed in the

study of the prehistoric earthworks of Wisconsin and was the first to

notice that the mounds of aboriginal people in that state were, as he

wrote, "gigantic basso-relievos of men, beasts, birds and reptiles, all

wrought with persevering labor on the surface of the soil." Knowing

that they would be obliterated in the progress of settlement and cultiva-

tion, he made a systematic and thorough survey of these memorials of

a prehistoric race, the results being published by the Smithsonian Institu-

tion in a quarto volume, with plates and wood engravings from drawings

43

Early Days in Ohio.                 45

This Ohio canal was constructed under the supervision of

Micajah T. Williams of Cincinnati with Francis Cleveland resi-

dent engineer at Portsmouth and I. A. Lapham assistant.

Letters and diaries written by the assistant engineer have

been preserved and give interesting glimpses of the cities and

towns in the olden time.

January 1st, 1831, it is stated "The first number of the

Portsmouth Courier appeared today."

February 10th.- "About six inches of snow fell last night."

The Courier of Feb. ₄th contained a short article of mine

on silk culture and a story, "The Exile," by Miss Elizabeth

Dupee, for which I gave her the subject."

Feb. 22d.--"Washington Ball at McCoy's."

Jan. 9, 1832.-"A meeting held to organize a Lyceum. About

thirty members. Ten or twelve will deliver lectures. I am to

lecture on botany."

Feb. 12. -Ohio river 65 feet deep, still rising, still raining.

Feb. 14. - River higher than ever before known. Several

frame houses floated down.  Many small houses and stables

upset.

Feb. 15. - Went to a party in a skiff. Fell overboard, skiff

struck a post under water. Water in most of the houses. One

to one and a half feet deep in the tavern. Six or eight feet

deep on Front street. Ten feet higher than the flood of 1828.

March 7. - Twenty-one years old today!

Lapham's work at Portsmouth lasted a little more than three

years, closing the 15th of March, 1833.

He left Portsmouth for Cincinnati on the Atlanta. This

steamboat not only carried passengers and freight but towed

the fat boats loaded with stone for locks at Cincinnati.

On the 2₉th of April Lapham left Cincinnati for Columbus,

having received the appointment of Secretary to the Board of

Canal Commissioners. The salary was only $400.00, but he ac-

cepted the position with the understanding that all his time

should not be taken. This route was by steamboat to Ports-

mouth thence by stage to Columbus. He began his new duties

on the 4th of May, 1833, boarding at Noble's National Hotel.

On the sixth he wrote to his brother: "You have heard

46       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

without doubt the circumstances of the accident to the Guyan-

dotte, which ran foul of a snag and sank the day I left you.

It will only be necessary, therefore, to observe that I was not

scared out of more than one year's growth! My baggage was

not wet [except the box of minerals], it having been deposited

in the 'Social Hall,' which is on the second deck. By climbing

one of the posts, I succeeded in keeping above water myself. We

remained on board until the steamboat 'Rambler' took us off

the wreck and landed us in Portsmouth.

"Columbus appears to be very pleasant, it is improving rap-

idly, much business is being done. I think I shall like it very

much. I have ascertained that I can get good board for $1.75

per week, which will be $39 per year less than I paid at Ports-

mouth. May 2₉th Lapham was boarding with Mr. Medberry,

the penitentiary engineer, and had arranged with the state treas-

urer, Henry Brown, to sleep in his office and guard the public

funds and do some work for him for $100.00 per year."

In a letter of June 2₅th, 1833, he tells his brother of his

new arrangements and the precaution taken to guard the treas-

ures of the state. "I am writing on a small desk in a little office

whose door, window, and shutters are faced with thick sheet

iron. I have locked, barred and bolted the whole and therefore

think myself secure. At the head of my bed is a loaded pistol

ready for use in case of necessity. The treasurer's office is in

the same building with the canal commissioner's office.

"Perhaps, as I am in a new business it will interest you to

give an account of the manner in which I spend my time. First,

then, four o'clock a. m. fast asleep, secured as aforesaid. Five

o'clock I get up, wash my face and hands and prepare for

breakfast; I open the doors and windows to admit some light

into my dungeon and I immediately discover the wisdom of

Providence in creating twilight for, when I first open the door

the sudden glare of light is quite painful to my eyes. At half

past five I take my breakfast, but, in order to do so, I must

walk up High street to the National Road, down that, towards

the bridge, one square to Front street, up that street three

squares to Mr. Medberry's, in all about one-third of a mile.

There I meet mine host and landlady and, also, Mr. and Mrs.

Early Days in Ohio.                47

Mills. You will observe there is no danger of my getting the

gout while I have to go so far for my meals."

On July 1₄th the entry in the diary is the simple announce-

ment of "a death from cholera." July 23d. "Two fatal cases

of cholera at our house." A letter of July 26th gives some

idea of the panic caused by that dreadful disease.

Tuesday morning, the 23d, I met all the family at break-

fast, as usual, all well. Tuesday evening went to tea and found

both Mrs. Mills and Mrs. West dead with the cholera. Since

then there have been three or four deaths a day and cases un-

numbered.

I have not yet been able to drive away that dread and

fear, which you may readily suppose got fast hold of me. I

awake every morning after an unquiet, dreamy sleep and am

perfectly astonished to find myself alive and free from the

cholera. Then the idea of being in a strange place, where it is

probable (from the panic which universally prevails) that I

should receive but scant attention if I should be attacked does

not tend to compose my mind. Also the idea that I am every

night locked up where no one could get to me even were they

so disposed does not help the matter.

For these reasons I have determined to make my intended

visit home at this time and the stage which brings this to you,

will also convey me as far as Springfield.

Some of the people are "panic-struck," refusing to go into

a house where there has been a death or admit into their own

houses any one who has taken care of the sick. Some of our

family went into a neighbor's house and every one left the room

asking them to leave the house.

The next letter, dated August 15th, gives some account of

the trip to West Liberty, the home of his parents.

If you received my last letter you are aware that I have

been home. On Saturday, July 2₇th, at four o'clock in the

morning, I left here in the stage for Springfield and arrived

without the least accident, at half past eleven. About a dozen

gentlemen from the Springs [I need not describe the animal to

you] dined with us. They gave me a good idea of society at

Yellow Springs, so good, indeed, that I abandoned entirely the

48         Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

intention I had of going down there the next day. This deter-

mination was confirmed when I found a spring of chalybeate

water at Springfield, exactly like that of the celebrated watering

place.

The cholera is quite bad with us now. Mr. Horton How-

ard, his daughter and two of his grand-children [H. D. Little's

children] have fallen victims to it.

COLUMBUS, Oct. 6, 1833.

DEAR BROTHER:

Madison county is among the largest and most wealthy in the state,

but there is no printing office in it, consequently it will be an excellent

opening for Brother Pazzi. He has just returned from there and is

convinced from his own observations that he can make enough in one

year to pay for an office there. He wishes to get established in time

to secure the public printing which is to be done this month and will be

worth $100.00 to him.

A later letter shows this project was carried out.

"It was not without a good deal of hesitation and many previous

inquiries that we concluded to embark in the enterprise of establishing

a paper in London, Madison County, and we are happy to hear that it

meets your approval. We intend to take father by surprise by sending

him the first number of the Madison Patriot. Pazzi wishes you to send

him an article for his paper occasionally."

LONDON, OHIO, 17th November, 1833.

To I. A. Lapham.

DEAR BROTHER: Yours of the 10th by mail received yesterday.

Six days from Columbus is rather rascally but we can't help it.

I am in want of an article which will explain the use and advantage

to be derived from a Lyceum.

I have prepared an article myself but have so little knowledge on

the subject that I am in fear of committing a blunder at which my con-

temporaries would laugh. You have had some experience and can no

doubt write so as to be understood.

Yours with esteem,

PAZZI LAPHAM.

CANAL COMMISSIONER'S OFFICE,

COLUMBUS, SUNDAY, Jan. 19, 1834.

DEAR BROTHER: It is a busy time here now. My principal duties are

recording the proceedings of the board copying their reports and assist-

Early Days in Ohio.                       49

ing in settling with the county treasurers, who bring in their collections

to the state treasury in January of each year.

I have become a member of the Historical and Philosophical So-

ciety of Ohio and have been appointed a cabinet officer; [not a 'kitchen

cabinet'*]

The members of the society are to send me their collections of

minerals, rocks, etc., and they are to be arranged in this office, for the

present.

A bill has been reported to the legislature re-organizing the board

of canal commissioners and making them, agreeably to a suggestion of

the governor a "Board of Public Works."

What think you of Pazzi's paper? I am of the opinion he is con-

ducting it very well indeed.

He says the people of Madison county are mostly of the party called

"Van Buren" and, from what he said, I fear he may be induced to take

sides with that party. Now I can conceive of no greater calamity which

could befall his establishment than this.  You know it would be against

his honest convictions and, I think, if he can not sustain his paper there

without joining a party that puts self-interest above the interest of the

country, he had better, by all means, abandon the project entirely.

The editor of the Ohio State Journal has made him an offer which

I shall move he accepts in preference to being a Jackson-Van Buren-office-

hunting-editor.

His only motive for joining that party would be self-interest of

course, and for a man to be compelled to speak and write things which

he does not believe to be for the best interest of the country would de-

stroy all honorable, even honest sentiment which he may have before

entertained.

On the 18th of May, Lapham        wrote to his brother, "our

town has become a city and the new city council unanimously

appointed me city surveyor."

And January 30th, 1835 he wrote asking his brother to

exert his "imagination a little and see me in the canal commis-

sioner's office sitting at a small desk appropriated to the use

of the secretary of the board, placed at a point south, forty de-

grees west, distance six feet from the center of the fireplace,

directly before me you may imagine you see a large case of

drawers, and shelves, closed with glass doors endorsed 'Cabinet

of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio.' containing

*Francis P. Blair and Amos Kendall were so called by the Whig

party. They were Jackson's advisers and would go in the back door to

see him. See Wheeler's Noted Names of Fiction.

Vol. XVIII-4.

50        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

petrified 'rams' horns' and 'calves' horns" honeycomb and many

other curious stones, minerals, rocks, shells of all kinds, ores,

dried plants, bugs, butterflies, etc., etc. Imagine further that

you see Mr. Byron Kilbourn standing at a high desk writing a

long report, relating to the books, accounts and vouchers of the

auditor and the treasurer of the state, for the last three years;

observe the dark frown on his face and you will be able to antici-

pate something of the nature of his composition; perhaps it

relates to some wolf scalp vouchers which are missing; or, per-

haps to the $10,000 of 3 per cent money drawn from the United

States Treasury, without authority and paid into the state

treasury when it suited the convenience of the one who drew it;

or, perhaps it may relate to the $504.00 paid to a certain printer

for work which could have been done by others for half that sum.

"At any rate, Mr. Kilbourn is writing at the high desk. Ex-

ert your imagination further and see on my left Col. Jones

reading a newspaper or writing a letter and Mr. Forrer writing

a letter to the honorable committee on canals. Mr. R. writing

a chapter on the effects of the July rains and floods for the

annual report and Judge Tappan studying some abstract ques-

tion of law or politics or, possibly reading 'The Globe'. If he

opens his mouth it will be the wish, perhaps that Judge McLain

would resign his present office and become candidate for the

presidency of the United States and promise to vote for him.

Imagine all this, I say, and further that the fire is so hot as to

render my back uncomfortable, while the air which enters

through the crack of the windows and partitions renders me

uncomfortably cold, and you will perhaps have no difficulty

in imagining the reason why I wrote 1834 for 1835 in my last

letter."

Again on the 8th of March Lapham wrote to his brother in

regard to public matters; he said in part: "The legislature has

ordered surveys of turnpike roads from Cincinnati to Ports-

mouth; from the Miami canal through Greenville in Darke county

to Richmond, Indiana: from Mad river, near Liberty to the Mi-

ami canal, and from Columbus through the Scioto and King's

Creek valleys to Mad river, besides many others 'too numerous to

Early Days in Ohio.                    51

mention'. It has also ordered an examination into the whole

business and conduct of the canal commissioners and the com-

missioners of the canal fund."

COLUMBUS, O., July 7, 1835.

DEAR BROTHER: I wish you would have the goodness to examine

some of the wooden conduits in Cincinnati, especially the manner in

which the logs are joined together and send me a plan of the same in

your next letter. The usual manner of running one log into the other

is, in my judgment, very objectionable and, as I understand that at

Cincinnati they do the business differently, I should  like to know

something more definite about their plan.

I have to superintend the laying of about a mile of such logs

for the city of Columbus and also the putting in of five cisterns large

enough to hold six thousand gallons each, in consequence of an appoint-

ment I received a few weeks since as street commissioner and city fire

engineer."                    Your brother,

I. A. LAPHAM.

Evidently a request was made for information in regard

to the work of the Legislature of Ohio - for on the twelfth day

of the new year, 1836, Lapham wrote: "I must beg to be excused

from answering your query 'what are the legislators doing?'

You are no doubt aware that you include one hundred and eight

persons in this question and to describe with accuracy what each

one is doing would be a truly Herculean task.

A bill has been reported, and has made some progress to-

wards becoming a law, authorizing the extension of the Miami

canal and, if the bill does pass the Mad river feeder will be made

and, if in the opinion of the Board of Canal Commissioners it is

expedient, the said feeder will be made navigable.

As to the probability of the reorganization of the Board of

Canal Commissioners, all is uncertain, it is a difficult question.

There is a great probability that the present legislature will

authorize the borrowing of money to complete the Miami canal.

The idea suggested by Mr. Forrer that it can be done without

creating any additional tax on the 'dear people,' appears to take

very well with the Democrats.

Your allusion to my being at the head of navigation must

have reference to the present state of our roads and the num-

erous conventions being held in this city at present, for, the

52       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

depth of the mud is such that traveling through it may well be

compared to a species of navigation and, I know no other reason

why Columbus should be considered the head of this kind of

navigation, than the fact that delegates to the conventions are

all traveling to this point.

The great Democratic convention [which was compared to

a meeting of the people rather than of representatives], ad-

journed on Saturday. Today we have a Temperance convention

and tomorrow a "Convention of Professional Teachers."

I have been endeavoring to induce the legislature to comply

with the suggestion in the governor's message, in relation to a

geological survey of the state and have written the greater part

of a report which was submitted to the House of Representatives

by Mr. Creed, also an essay which is appended to it.

I wish you would be so kind as to draw a small plan of

the new fangled wooden aqueduct over Mill creek about which

Mr. Forrer brags so much in the canal report this year."

That Lapham was able to report some of the doings of the

legislators is proved by a letter dated February 18th, 1836, ad-

dressed to his brother who was, at that time, superintending en-

gineer of the Miami canal. He says, in part: "In compliance

with your request of the 8th of January in regard to the doings

of the legislators in relation to the organization of a new (Jack-

son) board of public works: the extension of the Miami canal

north of Dayton and authorizing the construction of the Mad

river feeder, I have the honor to submit the following report:

"So far as the Honorable, the House of Representatives is

concerned, these matters have all been acted upon and passed;

the more tardy senators have laid them on the table for further

consideration. The House has now before it divers and sundry

other matters of vital importance to the credit and interest of

the state, such as a bill to repeal the charter of a Life Insurance

and Trust Company, whereby it will be made known that our

laws are stable and held to be sacred by the legislature and the

credit of the state will be improved in the money market. They

have also a bill before them making it an offense against the

laws to pass or receive any piece of paper purporting to be a

note for one, two or three dollars on any bank, whereby the

Early Days in Ohio.                  53

citizens of the state will have the convenience of using silver

instead of paper money, if they choose, and, also, the power and

authority [for it can not be otherwise] of disregarding one of

the laws of the land.

"The bill to organize the Board of Public Works transfers

all powers and duties of the canal commissioners to that board;

fixes the salary of the acting commissioner at $1,000 per annum,

$267.50 less than those officers now receive; provides for two

acting and four advising commissioners and declares that so

soon as the aforesaid board shall be appointed the powers and

duties of the canal commissioners shall cease and determine."

A resolution was passed by the General Assembly of the

state of Ohio, appointing Samuel F. Hildreth of Marietta, John

Locke and John Riddell of Cincinnati and I. A. Lapham of Co-

lumbus a committee to report to the next legislature, the best

method of obtaining a complete geological survey of the state

and an estimate of its probable cost. This resolution was signed

by Wm. Medill, speaker pro tem of the House of Representa-

tives, and E. Vance, speaker of the Senate.

The duties of Lapham under this appointment were cut

short by his determination to make the newly founded city of

Milwaukee in the Territory of Michigan his home. Four days

after his arrival the Territory of Wisconsin was organized.