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A Brief History of Columbus, Ohio
Franklin County Ohio, Genealogy and History
Submitted by Ruth Ficarra
Email: [email protected]
Date: February 10, 2000
Taken from Columbus City Directory 1852
Part II
Jeremiah Armstrong while quite a youth was a captive among the Indians for some time. Robert Armstrong in Gen. Waynes Indian campaign was employed to visit the Indian Tribes of the Northwest Territory and ascertain their disposition towards the government.........
Doctor John Edmiston was the first physician to locate in the town; Drs. Parsons and Ball practised in Columbus but resided in Franklinton. About the year 1815 or 16 Dr. Parsons moved over to Columbus where he resided ever since. The First stores opened in Columbus, were one belonging to the Worthington Manufacturing Co., kept by Joel Buttles in a small brick building on the west end of the lot now covered by the Broadway Exchange building; and one belonging to McLean and Green , kept in a cabin on the south side of Rich Street, just east where the Mechanics Hall now stands. About where the Mechanics Hall stands in two or three cabins connected together, Christian Heyl kept a bakery and house of entertainment where he continued until about year 1816 when he erected the front part of his tavern now the "Franklin House" where he continue to keep a public hotel until the spring of 1841..........
In the spring of 1815 the cencus of the town was taken by James Marshall Esq. and amounted to something over 700. By this time, ther were half a dozen more stores of which are recollectedthose of Alexander Morrison, Joel Buttles, Henry Brown, Delano& Cutler, and J.&R. W. McCoy, and a printing office, issuing a weekly paper called the "Western Intelligencer", owned and conducted by P.H. Olmsted, and Joel Buttles........
The first building erected in Columbus for public worship was a cabin by the Presbyterians on Spring Street in 1814, but was not used long for that purpose,the meetings being moved to the Franklinton meeting house.where they continued to be held until 1818, when the first Presbyterian Church was organized in Columbus and a frame building was erected on the west side of Front Street, on the second lot from Town Street where Dr. Hoge administered to the Congregaton until the present brick building called "The First Presbyterian Church" was erected at the corner of Third and State Streets fronting the Public Square in the year 1831. In 1814 the Methodist Church of Columbus was organized, and the same year they built a small hewed log-house on Town Street between High and Third Streets where Zion Chapel stands now, which for some time used for a school house as well as a meeting house, when a frame was added to the log , and permanent seats were fitted. In 1823 or 24 the present brick building was erected......
The First Penitentiary was erected in 1813-14 on the south west border on the town, on a ten acre lot conveyed to the state by the proprietors of the town. The building was the same that is now occupied for an arsonal.- The yard was enclosed by a stone wall was about 150 feet square, on the west sid of the building. In August 1815 the time that the first Penitentiary law went into force the improvements were completed. Capt Jack Kooken was appointed keeper of the prison and Col. G. Thomas was by him appointed clerk. In 1828 an addition to the main building was erected and the yard extended to the foot of the hill, embracing some eight to ten times the area of the original yard. The yard upon descending the hill contained three levels and at the time much admired, though it was afterwards condemned and the avowed cause of the removal of the institution to its present location.The plan as far as regards health was probably far superior to the present prison. The second and three levels from the west wall were above the top of that wall and permitted west winds which prevail almost constantly during the summer and fall months to sweep the greater portion of the yard and thoroughly ventiate the yard, the main building and work shops and is the most rasonable theory for accounting for the general good health of the convicts in the prison. In 1822 Barzilla Wright was by the legislature elected keeper in the place of Kooken. Wright died in the summer of 1823 and Nathaniel McLean was appointed by the Governor to fill the vacancy, who was continued by the election and re-election by the Legislature until the spring of 1830 when Bryum Leonard was elected. In 1832 W.W. Gault was elected who continued until the convicts were removed to the new penitentiary in the fall of 1834. The spacious elegant and durable edifice situated on the east bank of the Scioto River about a half a mile north of Broad Street and facing south. It is composed of a center building 56 feet long, about 40 feet wide and four stories high, with two wings each 200 feet long and three stories high built of cut limestone and of beautiful proportions. The center building contains the wardens house, the office, and guard room, the last so situated as to command a view of the interiors of the wings. Each wing contains 350 lodging rooms for prisoners. These rooms are seven feet long, seven feet high and 31/2 feet wide, admitting but one prisoner each. They are entirely detached from the surrounding walls by a hall 11 feet in width which extends from the pavement to the roof and passes entirely round them. Galleries, supported by iron framework , planted in the wall are placed round each tier of rooms and suitable stairways erected at one end of each block by which the prisoners are enabled with ease and without cofusion to arrive at their respective lodging apartments.......Each apartment is secured by a grated iron door, safely locked on the outside. The light admitted into these rooms passes through the outside windows, and thence Through the grated doors and is sufficient to enable the prisoners to read in their rooms.......
Ventilators are placed in the roof of the building above the halls. The prison yard is in the rear, and is enclosed by a stone wall 22 feet in height surmounted by watch boxes at the angles.............
Within the enclosure are the workshops, chapel, dining room, kitchen, hospital,&c. These are erected parallel with the outer walls and at a proper distance from them, so as to leave a hollow square of ground in the centre , containing about one and a half acres. In the center of this there is a large stone reservoir erected which contains a sufficient supply of water for prison purposes and greatly facilitates the putting out of fires.......
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