Centennial History of Columbus and Franklin County. William Alexander Taylor
commemoration of the event and the spot by the Daughters of the American Revolution, however, we have every reason to hope and believe will in the course of coming years incite the people of a great city, the heart of a great state, to build other memorials to the simple-minded sons of the forest, who seem to have apprehended the true vision of the future.
The New Political Era.
It is but just to say, however, that the sentiment of British statesmanship, current in the opening of the eighteenth century, does not exist in the beginning of the twentieth, and the two nations interested are mutually grateful that the Harrison-Tarhe conference was held, that the then possible horrors of savage warfare were averted, and that Anglo-American politics and statesmen (probably as one of the outflowing consequences) are second to none in the uplifting of manhood and liberal ideas of political governments.
Following the event thus historically dwelt on to bring out the striking lights it throws upon current history and the state of which it is the capital went forward with full confidence in the future—a confidence that time has most amply justified.
The State Offices Assembled at Columbus.
In the fall of 1818, the state offices were removed from Chillicothe to Columbus, and on the first Monday of December, in the same year, the legislature commenced its first session in the then new state house in Columbus. The proprietors, having finished the public buildings and deeded the two ten acre lots to the state, agreeably to their proposals, at this session they presented their account for the erection of the public buildings; and by an act passed the 29th of January, 1817, the governor was authorized to settle and adjust the account, and the auditor required to draw on the treasurer for the balance found due after deducting the fifty thousand dollars which the proprietors were by their proposals bound to give.
In the settlement, after deducting from the charge for carpenter work some six or seven per cent, and the fifty thousand dollars, there was found a balance of about thirty-three thousand dollars due the proprietors, which was paid by the state, and thus closed this heavy and responsible enterprise.
A Practical Hanse Town.
This "Charter" is to be taken as the type of municipal organization at the beginning of the century. It was as Hanseatic in its latitude and freedom, as were the Hanse towns in Europe of the previous century and still more remote. It was home rule in its simplicity save as to the eligibility to office. While the elector was only required to be a native born or naturalized citizen of the United States and six months a resident, there were two important restrictions as to eligibility to office. Under this rescript to be eligible to an elective office the aspirant must either be a freeholder or a housekeeper. In other words, he must either be the owner of real estate or the head of a family and "keeping a house."
The advantages of the two classes were equalized and adjusted, however. The bachelor or widowed landowner was eligible to office. So, also, was the landless head of a family, sheltered under the clapboard roofed cabin. To the appointive offices, save in occasional exceptions, both classes were equally eligible.
The original body determined the tenure of its numbers, dividing them into three classes of three years tenure each, after the first two years, three holding for one year, three for two and three for three, three being elected annually. This did not precisely make the mayor, recorder, treasurer and common council a self-perpetuating body, owing to the fact that in those days an occasional public officer knew when he had enough. The nine members of the borough council, who were the corporation itself, elected the mayor, recorder and treasurer from their own number. Two thirds of them were in office when the remaining third were candidates for election to office, and as the whole body had the power to appoint all the subordinate officers of the town and control its entire business, expenditures, levies, etc., there was an opportunity for self-perpetuation at least. Whether it was taken advantage of or other is left to the judgment of the reader when he looks over the entire list of mayors, recorders, treasurers and councilmen, as well as the inferior officers on a later page, covering the entire borough period from 1816 to 1834.
The duties of the officers were plain and simple, and the borough government was not an onerous one; the population grew and Columbus increased in importance; there were no official scandals, and the people were, as a rule, satisfied. The final section forbidding the borough council to pass any law "subjecting cattle, sheep or hogs not belonging to the residents of said borough, to be abused or taken up and sold," is strikingly humane. They might abuse, take up and sell their own cattle, sheep and hogs, but such chattels belonging to the stranger and the outsider must receive respectful and humane treatment—a nineteenth century legislative rendition of the Golden Rule in behalf of domestic animals.
Early Years of Village Life.
For the first few years the town improved rapidly. Emigrants flowed in apparently from all quarters, and the improvements and general business of the place kept pace with the increase of population. Columbus at that date, however, was a rough spot in the woods, afar from any public road of much consequence. The east and west travel passed through Zanesville, Lancaster and Chillicothe; and the mails came to Columbus by cross lines on horseback. The first successful attempt to carry a mail to and from Columbus, otherwise than on horseback, was by Philip Zinn about the year 1816, once a week between Chillicothe and Columbus, via the Scioto river.
How Real Estate was Sold.
The proprietors of the town usually made their sales of lots by title bond. Upon receiving a third, fourth or fifth of the price agreed upon in hand, and annual notes for the balance without interest if punctually paid, otherwise to bear interest from date, they executed a bond binding themselves to make a deed when the notes were paid; and it frequently happened that after one or two payments and a small improvement had been made, the whole would fall back to the proprietors. The lots for sale all being in the hands of the proprietors, and their giving time on the payments, kept up the prices at from two to five hundred dollars on any part of the town plat, and price did not fall much below this until after the year 1820. when owing to the failure of two of the proprietors, McLaughlin and Johnson, as also of numerous other individuals who had possessed themselves of lots, there was such an immense number offered at forced sales by the United States marshal and sheriff, and so very little money in the country, that after being appraised and offered, and re-appraised and offered again and again, they finally had to sell. And lots which had years before been held at two and three hundred dollars, were struck off and sold at from ten to twenty dollars, and sometimes lower, even down to seven or eight dollars, for a lot on the extremities of the plat.
More Depression.
To add to the depression of business and price of property, about the year 1822 or 1823, the title of Starling's half section, on which the town was in part located was called in question. It had originally been granted to one Allen, a refugee from the British provinces in the time of the American Revolution. Allen had deeded it to his son. and the son had mortgaged it and it was sold at sheriff's sale to satisfy the mortgage, and Starling was the purchaser.
The First Disputed Title.
It was now claimed by the heirs of Allen, who took various exceptions to Starling's title. First as to the sale from the old man Allen to his son; also to the authentication of the mortgage by the son, and particularly to the sale by the sheriff to Starling, on the ground that there was no evidence that an appraisement had been made as required by the statutes of Ohio, and suit was brought by ejectment against some of the occupants who owned the most valuable improvements, first in the supreme court of Ohio, and then in the United States court for the district of Ohio.
Henry Clay in Ohio Supreme Court.
Mr. Starling defended the suits and first engaged Henry Clay, who then practiced in the United States courts at Columbus, as attorney. But owing to his appointment as secretary of state, he was called to Washington city and gave up the case, and Henry Baldwin, then of Pittsburg, was next engaged, who conducted the defense with great ability, and about the year 1826 it was finally decided in favor of Starling's title. So the matter was put to rest as to that half section.
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