Читать книгу Centennial History of Columbus and Franklin County - William Alexander Taylor - Страница 6

An Agent Provided For.

They were to have a common agent, to make sales and superintend their whole business. Each party was to pay into the hands of this agent the sum of two thousand four hundred dollars annually, on the first Monday of January, for five successive years, and such further sums as might be necessary to complete the public buildings. Each party was to warrant the title to the land by such party respectively put into the stock, and each to receive a mutual benefit in all donations they might obtain on subscription or otherwise. And when they should have completed their contract with the state, and be released from all obligations on account thereof, a final settlement and adjustment of their accounts was to take place and the profits or lessee to be equally divided between them.

John Kerr was appointed the first agent for the proprietors, in April, 1812, and continued as such until June. 1815, when he declined serving any longer, and Henry Brown was appointed and continued their agent until the close of their business in the spring of 1817.

The agreement of the proprietors having been faithfully abided by, and their undertaking completed, was finally canceled in April, 1817, when a division of the unsold property, and of obligations for lots sold, etc., took place, and each party released the other from all the obligations of their articles of association, and also released and quit-claimed to each other all the remaining parts of their several tracts of land originally put into the common fund that remained unsold.

Donations Were Generous.

The amount of the donations obtained on subscriptions is variously stated at from fifteen to twenty thousand dollars. And, pursuant to an agreement with Rev. James Hoge, better known as Dr. Iloge, he deeded to the proprietors eighty acres of land off the south end of half section number eleven, in order to enable them to complete the plat to the size and form desired. Of the lots laid out on this grant the proprietors retained one-half, and deeded the balance back to the doctor. And, pursuant to a similar contract with Thomas Allen, and for the same purpose, he deeded to the proprietors twenty acres out of the southwest part of half section number ten, they deeding back his portion of the lots and retaining the balance as a donation. Thus the town plat, including out-lots and reserves (which reserves have many years since been laid out into additions of in-lots), covered the whole of half sections number twenty-five and twenty-six, and parts of half sections ten and eleven.

McLaughlin and Kerr's half section (number twenty-six) was the southern part of the original town plat, bounded on the south by South Public Lane (the eastern part of which is sometimes called the Livingston Road), and on the north by a parallel (east and west) line, commencing at the river a little south of state street and crossing High street at the northeast corner of Dr. Goodale's brick block, and crossing Town street at an acute angle between Third and Fourth streets, including all between those two lines, from the river to the eastern boundary of the out-lots. Starling's half section (number twenty-five), also extending from the river to the eastern boundary of out-lots, and included all between the north line of McLaughlin and Kerr's half section, above described, and a parallel line from a short distance in front of the penitentiary, due east, crossing High street between Long street and Mulberry alley, and intersecting Broad street at the eastern extremity of the out-lots.

Although half section number nine was put into the common fund by Johnston, no part of the town plat was laid out on it. It lies between the penitentiary grounds and Olentangy river. The east half of half section ten, put into the fund by him, and on the south end of which lots were laid out, abuts on the north line of Starling's half section (number twenty-five), from Water street to Center alley, bounded east and west by due north and south lines, cutting the lots obliquely. The part conveyed to the proprietors by Allen also abuts on Starling's north line, immediately west of Johnston's, just described, and the part conveyed to them by Dr. Hoge also abuts on Starling's north line, immediately east of Johnston's land.

The Contract Finally Closed.

The contract being closed between the proprietors and the state, and all the preliminaries now arranged, in the spring of 1812 the town was laid out under the direction of Joel Wright, Esq., of Warren county, an agent of the state, appointed for that purpose, and Joseph Vance, of Franklin county, as assistant.

The streets all cross at right angles; those running northward bear twelve degrees west of north, and consequently those running eastward, twelve degrees north of east. High street is one hundred feet wide; Broad street is one hundred and twenty feet, and all the others eighty-two and a half feet wide: and the alleys generally thirty-three feet in width. The in-lots are sixty-two and a half feet front and one hundred and eighty-seven and a half feet deep. The out-lots on the east contain about three acres each.

Sometime after the laying out of the main town and the eastern out-lots, the proprietors laid out some forty or more out-lots, north of the town, which are represented on the record by a separate plat. These contain a trifle over two acres each, and from part of these lots they conveyed to the town an acre and a half for a graveyard. The time and terms of sale being agreed upon, the same was advertised far and near, and in a way calculated to attract bidders from a distance. The following is a copy of the advertisement: "For Sale" Advertisements.

On the premises, commencing on Thursday, the 18th day of June next, and to continue for three days, in and out-lots in the town of Columbus, established by an act of the legislature as the permanent seat of government for the state of Ohio.

Terms of Sale.—One-fifth of the purchase money will be required in hand: the residue to be paid in four equal annual installments. Interest will be required on the deferred payments from the day of sale, if they are not punctually made when due. Eight per cent will be discounted for prompt payment on the day of sale. The town of Columbus is situated on an elevated and beautiful site, on the east side of the Scioto river, immediately below the junction of the Whetstone branch, and opposite to Franklinton, the seat of justice for Franklin county, in the center of an extensive tract of rich and fertile country, from whence there is an easy navigation to the Ohio river.

Above the town the west branch of the Scioto affords a good navigation for about eighty miles, and the Whetstone branch as far as the town of Worthington. Sandusky bay, the only harbor on the south shore of Lake Erie (except Presque Isle) for vessels of burthen, is situate due north from Columbus and about one hundred miles from it. An excellent road may be made with very little expense from the Lower Sandusky town to the mouth of the Little Scioto, a distance of about sixty miles. This will render the communication from the lakes to the Ohio river through the Scioto very easy, by which route an immense trade must, at a day not very distant, be carried on, which will make the country on the Scioto river rich and populous. The proprietors of the town of Columbus will, by every means in their power, encourage industrious mechanics who wish to make a residence in the town.

All such are invited to become purchasers. T James Johnston, A. McLaughlin, Lyne Starling, John Kerr, Franklinton, April 13, 1812. Proprietors.

The Day of Sale Arrives.

Pursuant to this notice, public sale of the lots commenced on the 18th of June, 1812, and continued three days. The lots sold were principally on High and Broad streets, and were generally struck off at from two hundred to a thousand dollars each. The only cleared land then on, or contiguous to, the town plat was a small spot on Front, a little north of State street; another small field and a cabin on the bank of the river, at the western terminus of Rich street; a cabin and garden spot in front of where the penitentiary now stands, occupied by John Brickell; and a small field south of the mound, on the tract which two years after was laid off by John McGowan, as an addition to the original town plat, and called South Columbus.

Immediately after the sales improvements commenced rapidly, generally small frame houses and shops, enclosed with split clapboards instead of sawed weatherboards, which were not generally attainable. Both proprietors and settlers were too much occupied with their own individual and immediate interests to attend much to the clearing off of the streets and alleys: and for several years the streets remained so much impeded by stumps, logs and brush that teamsters were compelled to make very crooked tracks in winding their way through them. Gradually, however, they were cleared by the inhabitants, for fire wood and building materials, until about the year 1815 or 1816 a sum of about two hundred dollars was raised by subscription and appropriated to the removal of the remaining obstructions from High street. Soon after the town was incorporated and the streets were gradually improved by authority of the town council.

Some of the Original Bidders.

There are now (in 1858) but two men remaining in Columbus who were here at the sale of lots in 1812 and purchased property, and have remained citizens of the place ever since, viz: Messrs. Jacob Hare and Peter Putnam, and each one still owned the lot he purchased at that time, over forty-five years before. Among the first settlers, however, were George McCormick, George B. Harvey, John Shields, Michael Patton, Alexander Patton, William Altman, John Collett, William McElvain, Daniel Kooser, Christian Heyl, Jarvis Pike, Benjamin Pike, George Pike, William Long, Townsend Nichols, and Dr. John M. Edmiston. Dr. Edmiston was the first physician to locate in the new town—Drs. Parsons and Ball practiced in Columbus, but resided in Franklinton. About the year 1815 or 1810 Dr. Parsons removed over to Columbus, where he resided ever after.

Aboriginal and Modern Roads.

As suggested in the beginning of this chapter, the white man's lines of travel, in the beginning of the march of civilization, followed very closely along the lines of the aborigines, who in turn unconsciously absorbed the engineering knowledge of the elk, the red deer and the buffalo. Certain it is that when the white man came to Ohio he found an extensive system of highways on land, as well as upon the waterways, along which travel and traffic ebbed and flowed as seasons changed and pleasure, war or necessity required.

Rev. John Heekmelder, who made a study of this system in the eighteenth century, and not only located but made a complete map of the land lines, which in his day were as clearly defined as are the highways of today, albeit they, as a rule penetrated dense and almost limitless forests.

Many of these road beds still exist in Ohio which were known to the pioneers of well-nigh a century and a half ago, still so solidly packed as to resist the steel plough-shares of the farmer where they fall inside an enclosure devoted to agriculture. Nearly all these land lines, and probably in a majority of cases, were laid along elevations above the bottom lands and always along the line of least resistance, quite clearly establishing the fact that the bison, the elk, deer and other four-footed animals were the original engineers and the road builders for bipeds. Aboriginal man, when he came, preempted the highways of his quadruped predecessors. The white man, following the aborigine, utilized portions of these highways, but shortened up distances by paralleling them, in part, along the bottom lands or lower down the slope, and this general plan was followed throughout the state during the first era of road building.

Better grades and better material have been called into practical operation in these days, but nearly every important highway built during the century and converging upon Columbus either follows or lies parallel to an ancient line of travel, for two centuries ago—before that time and since that time— the point now Columbus was a center of population, barbarian commerce, and travel, from opposite the mouth of the Kanawha to the mouth of the Maumee from southeast to northwest; from the mouth of the Miami to the mouth of the Cuyahoga from southwest to northeast; from Sandusky bay to the mouth of the Scioto from north to south, and from the mouth of the Captina to the headwaters of the Wabash, where St. Clair was vanquished, from east to west, and all these lines crossing at a common center were at the junction of the Scioto and the Olentangy.

Modern Lines of Travel.

The twentieth century lines of travel and traffic converging here are practically the same as to numbers, but incomparable when it comes to the solution of modern problems of economics, travel and transportation. Instead of seven or eight thoroughfares, including the rivers, radiating to the four corners of the state, there are now eighteen steam railways reaching out from the center, with direct contact and connections with the trunk lines across the continent, and eight operating and other developing electric lines entering and radiating therefrom, sufficient in motive power and equipment to have removed all the savage population of a century and a half ago, along with their personal belongings and lares and penates, within the Ohio valley to the foot hills of the Appalachian range in twenty-four hours. Hence it may be set down among the verities that while nearly all roads in Ohio led to Columbus in aboriginal days, all (and of course more) roads lead to Columbus in these more progressive days.