Historic Columbus

Transcription

Historic Columbus

HISTORIC COLUMBUS
A Bicentennial History
by Ed Lentz
A publication of the
Columbus Chamber of Commerce
HISTORIC
COLUMBUS
by Ed Lentz
Commissioned by the Columbus Chamber of Commerce
Historical Publishing Network
A division of Lammert Incorporated
San Antonio, Texas
ABOUT THIS BOOK
This book is dedicated to the entrepreneurs and businesses who form the backbone of the Columbus Region—strengthening our
community and economy from 1812 to 2012 and beyond.
Founded to be the State Capital in 1812, Columbus marks 200 years of growth and prosperity in 2012. The Columbus Chamber
produced this book, Historic Columbus, to honor the rich history that makes the Columbus community what it is today and honor just
a few of the businesses and organizations that share in Columbus’ proud past.
Historic Columbus tells the story of where we have been. The Chamber is proud to have served as an economic catalyst of and
advocate for this community since 1884, when it was established as the Columbus Board of Trade.
In 2012, the Columbus Region is at a pivotal point. As we celebrate the bicentennial, residents, neighborhoods, community and
business leaders, pay tribute to the past. But we also look forward, to embrace the future with bold plans to for economic development.
Together, we will ensure that we continue to grow, prosper and thrive.
Happy 200th Birthday, Columbus.
Michael Dalby
President and CEO
Columbus Chamber
Jack Partridge
Chairman 2010-2012
Columbus Chamber
Melissa P. Ingwersen
Chair Elect 2010-2012
Columbus Chamber
First Edition
Copyright © 2011 Historical Publishing Network
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without permission in writing from
the publisher. All inquiries should be addressed to Historical Publishing Network, 11535 Galm Road, Suite 101, San Antonio, Texas, 78254. Phone (800) 749-9790.
ISBN: 9781935377597
Library of Congress Card Catalog Number: 2011938334
Historic Columbus:
author:
cover photography:
contributing writer for “Sharing the Heritage”:
Ed Lentz
Larry Hamill Photography
Marie Beth Jones
Historical Publishing Network
president:
Ron Lammert
project managers:
Wynn Buck, Igor Patrushev, Bruce Barker
administration:
Donna M. Mata, Melissa G. Quinn
book sales:
Dee Steidle
production:
Colin Hart, Evelyn Hart, Glenda Tarazon Krouse, Omar Wright
PRINTED IN CANADA
HISTORIC COLUMBUS: A Bicentennial History
2
CONTENTS
4
A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS
5
P REFACE
6
C HAPTER I
“A Most Delightful Country”
15
C HAPTER II
Frontier Conflict
22
C HAPTER III
Franklinton
29
C HAPTER IV
A Capital Beginning 1812-1816
37
C HAPTER V
The Hub of the Wheel 1816-1840
48
C HAPTER VI
The City Challenged 1840-1865
59
C HAPTER VII
Railroad Town 1865-1900
68
C HAPTER VIII
A City of Light 1900-1930
80
C HAPTER IX
Hometown 1930-1950
88
C HAPTER X
All-America City 1950-1970
96
C HAPTER XI
Test City to Best City 1970-1990
105
C HAPTER XII
The City Rising 1990-2012
116
S HARING
199
S PONSORS
200
A BOUT
THE
THE
H ERITAGE
A UTHOR
CONTENTS
3
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A history book—especially a pictorial history—is never the work of one person or even of a few. As is often the case, a lot of people
helped in the preparation of this book.
For help with research, I am once again indebted to the reference librarians at the Main Branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library,
the Archives-Library of the Ohio Historical Society, the State Library of Ohio, the Ohioana Library, and The Ohio State University Library.
As to the pictures, there are even more people to thank.
There are two major sources of the pictures used in this book.
The first is the Columbus Dispatch. I am especially grateful to Michael Curtin, Associate Publisher Emeritus for his help and to Linda
Deitch and the staff of the Dispatch library for their extraordinary assistance in finding obscure images for a local historian.
Equally helpful was the staff of the Genealogy, History and Travel Division of the Columbus Metropolitan. I am especially indebted to
Bonnie Chandler, Nick Taggert, Andy Miller, and Russ Pollit—all whom spent more than a little time on this project.
Other helpful assistance with photographs and their availability came from the Capitol South Community Urban Redevelopment
Corporation, the Columbus Downtown Development Corporation, the City of Columbus Department of Development, the Columbus
Museum of Art, the Library of Congress, the National Archives and Records Administration and the New York Public Library.
Also special mention should be made of pictorial help from Parrill Hertz, Esther Miller, and Donald Schlegel.
Thanks are in order to Jack Partridge and Susan Merryman of the Columbus Chamber and Ron Lammert of Historical Publishing
Network for their advice and support as the book was in preparation.
Finally, as always, a special thanks to my wife Andrea, who makes my work both possible and worthwhile.
✧
The Columbus skyline in 2005.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
4
PREFACE
Like most cities, Columbus has been a place that has seen a lot of different people pass through over the course of the last couple of
centuries. Some stayed awhile. Some did not. So at any given time there are a lot of people living in Columbus who do not know very
much about the place where they are living.
And this lack of knowledge is not just about who we have been. It is about who we are. Columbus is the largest city in land area in
the state of Ohio. Many people living in the suburbs of one side of the city may come downtown from time to time but they seldom travel
to the other side of town. In short, many of us do not really know who we are—as well as who we have been.
I happen to think we should know who we are and who we have been. I came to Columbus in the late 1960s to study American history
at The Ohio State University. While I was doing that I was surprised to find that no one had written a history of Columbus and Franklin
County since 1930. And that history was something of a rehash of one written ten years before. And the 1920 history was a simplified
retelling of a lengthy narrative published in 1892.
And since there were not all that many people teaching and writing local history in central Ohio, one might say the field was rather
open to newcomers who might be inclined to tell the story of Columbus.
I was so inclined.
I have always believed that we cannot really know who we are if we do not know where we have been. And that is what history does.
It gives us roots in a society of increasingly rapid political, economic, and social change. Some might wonder what there is new to tell
about the history of Midwestern capital city. Writing a weekly newspaper article about local history for almost twenty years has taught
me that there is always a new story to tell.
In the course of writing this book, I have learned a few things I did not know about Columbus and found a lot of new pictures that
have not been published all that often and sometimes not at all. It is that discovery of new things about a familiar town that keeps me
returning to the past of this place.
Columbus is not only geographically in the middle of the state. As the center of state power and authority for the past two hundred
years it is also the symbolic heart of Ohio. This admixture of state history and local history makes the story of this city unique and unlike
that of any other place in Ohio.
It is a story well-worth retelling.
✧
The Riverfront in 2009. Columbus, Ohio,
has been a place where people have been
meeting one with another for more than two
hundred years. It is the state capital—and
much, much more.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
PREFACE
5
CHAPTER I
“A MOST DELIGHTFUL COUNTRY”
T H E L AY O F T H E L A N D
✧
Created as Ohio’s first state park in 1896,
Fort Ancient in southwest Ohio has been a
place of human habitation for at least two
thousand years and possibly much longer.
Its people were residents of central Ohio
as well.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
In the fall of 1750, a trapper, trader and frontiersman named Christopher Gist was hired by
the Virginia Land Company to cross the Appalachians and report on the land beyond in and
around the valley of the Ohio River. People had been living in what is now central Ohio for quite
a long time before Christopher Gist came calling. Some of those earlier residents were French
“Courier du Bois” and English “Long Hunters.” But none of them could or would leave a record
of what they found.
Passing very close to what would later be Columbus, Ohio, Christopher Gist would later
record what he found. The well-known American author Washington Irving later wrote that
Gist’s journal reported that the land was “clad with noble forests of hickory, walnut, ash, poplar,
sugar-maple and wild cherry trees. Occasionally there were spacious plains covered with wild rye;
natural meadows with blue grass and clover.”
“Nothing is wanted save cultivation,” said Christopher Gist, “to make this a most delightful country.”
Gist’s report was important because it convinced a number of people in the English colonies to
the east that the Ohio Country was neither a wasteland nor an endless trackless forest. It was in
fact a very pleasant and desirable place indeed.
6
This was a place of extraordinary natural
richness and diversity. Over the long history
of North America, different sorts of people
would continue to find something to like
about this land between the Great Lakes to
the north and the Ohio River to the south.
The broad arc of the various ranges composing the Appalachian Mountains begins in
the American South and moves to the northeast eventually ending in the mountains of
New England and maritime Canada. People
traveling east from the Great Plains would
inevitably be drawn inexorably north and east
into the Ohio Country. And they would like
what they found. Unlike the subtropical heat
of the South or the numbing cold of the land
north of the Great Lakes, Ohio is a place of
relatively temperate climate—occasionally
very hot or cold but generally more moderate.
This temperate climate produced plains
with grasses more than six feet tall and
mighty old growth forests whose trees soared
to heights of more than one hundred feet
both of which served as the home to a wide
variety of wildlife. The natural cycle of death
and rebirth of the plant life of the forests
produced a thick rich soil, especially along
the clear clean rivers running through
the land.
From time to time, we still find evidence
of the extraordinary wildlife which wandered
across the land in that long ago time—fossilized bones of the mastodon, the tree sloth,
and other large animals.
For at least 14,000 years, this rich land
has served as the home of a wide variety of
people. While people might have been here
even longer than that, we will be hard put to
find evidence of their presence. Prior to that
time, 14,000 years ago, most of central Ohio
was buried under a great glacier that covered
most of the Midwest for hundreds of years. It
was not the first glacier to cover Ohio. And it
is not likely to be the last. But since the next
one is not due for another 50,000 to 75,000
years from now, it is not a matter of current
and pressing concern.
The great Wisconsinan Glacier completely
transformed the landscape of most of Ohio.
It rerouted some rivers, eliminated whole
mountains and carved out the Great Lakes
as it ground its way across the Midwest. The
traveler interested to know what Ohio
looked like before the glacier does not have
to travel very far. Leaving Columbus and
driving south and east one will soon see
hills in the distance beyond Lancaster, Ohio.
It is here—where the flatland ends and the
hills begin that the glacier stopped and began
eventually to withdraw.
The land the glacier left behind was a new
country. To some extent we tend to be biased
by our conventions in map making. Looking
at a map of Ohio with roads and rivers noted,
it is tempting to think of the state as a uniform
kind of place. It really is not that way at all.
✧
Until about 14,000 years ago, most of
central Ohio was under a very large layer
of glacial ice. This map shows just how far
south the great glaciers came—and what
they left behind.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE OHIO DEPARTMENT OF
NATURAL RESOURCES.
GLACIAL MAP OF OHIO
CHAPTER
I
7
✧
To the south and west of what is now
Columbus lay the great Pickaway and
Darby Plains. The prairies of central Ohio
have largely vanished under the progress of
the plow. A few remain such as the Bigelow
Cemetery Nature Preserve near Plain City.
NATURAL RESOURCES.
Ohio is really several different places—
from the flat lands in Northwest Ohio that
were once part of the Great Black Swamp to
the hills of Southeast Ohio, the terrain of the
state varies quite a bit. More importantly the
northern third of Ohio sees its rivers drain
into Lake Erie while the southern two thirds
of the state looks south to where its rivers
empty into the Ohio River. It was near the
places where rivers come together that people
coming into Ohio as the glaciers retreated
often spent some time.
8
One of those places where two great rivers
meet is in central Ohio.
THE FIRST PEOPLE
People have been living in North America
for at least 15,000 years and possibly much
longer. For many years, it was believed that
people crossed over to the Americas from Asia
on an ice bridge between Siberia and Alaska. It
is likely that some people did arrive by that
route. But in recent years, theories have also
been put forth suggesting early arrival by boat.
In any case it is clear, that at least some
people were present in North America long
before the glaciers began to withdraw.
We do not know all that much about the
earliest residents of central Ohio. There were
not all that many people anywhere 15,000
years ago. And the people who came to North
America were even fewer in number.
These people were “hunter-gatherers.” They
lived in small bands of closely related people
and did not stay very long in one place. They
followed the animal herds in their migrations
across the land and relied on the animals they
hunted for food, clothing, shelter and even the
weapons they carried. Because the remains of
animals do not survive all that well, the only
real evidence we have that early people were
here at all is in the stone arrow points that turn
up from time to time in central Ohio.
The forests were different in those days.
It is important to remember that the forests
and woodlots we see today in central Ohio
are relatively recent. A close look will show
that most of the trees are simply not all that
big. The reason for this is that most of the
forests of Ohio have been cut down at least
once, and sometimes several times.
The forests that will cover Ohio will later
come to be called “old growth” forests. Some
of the trees will grow to truly astonishing
sizes. Some sycamore trees would be twenty
to thirty feet in diameter and rise more
than one hundred feet above the forest floor.
Sycamore trees decay and die from the
inside out. More than one frontier narrative
describes sheltering from a storm or camping
for the night inside the trunk of a fallen
sycamore tree.
Certain of the hardwood trees
come to be identified with the forests
of Ohio and central Ohio in particular. Some like the Maple will be
prized for the syrup made from their
sap. Others like the Walnut and
Hickory are favored for food. And
some like the Horse Chestnut are
simply admired for their immense
size and the value of their wood. The
massive groves of Horse Chestnut
trees are generally gone today from
Ohio but the characteristic seed of
the tree—said to resemble the eye of
a deer—gave Ohio its nickname—
the Buckeye State.
Over the course of several thousand years, the land grew warmer,
the forests and prairies flourished
and in time the size of the roving
bands of “hunter-gatherers” grew
larger and larger. In some parts of
the world, the lives of hunter-gatherers continue today much as they have for
the past several thousand years. But in Ohio,
a different path would be followed. What had
been a culture and a way of life for generations was about to become a civilization.
CITIES OF
EARTHEN WONDER
A number of American towns and villages
have a Mound Street. But few major cities
have a Mound Street only a few blocks from
the center of town in the middle of the
central business district. But Mound Street in
Columbus, Ohio, is just such a street.
When early American settlers of the Ohio
valley reached the junction of the Scioto and
Olentangy Rivers in the late 1700s they
were surprised to see what appeared to be
a large tree-covered hill standing along the
flat crest of the high ridge on the eastern
bank of the Scioto river. They were even
more surprised when they determined that
the hill was apparently manmade. Rising
more than fifty feet above the forest floor, the
large trees growing on the sides of the mound
indicated that it had been there for quite a
long time.
Undeterred by this feat of prehistoric engineering, the surveyors of Columbus laid out
their new town and placed the mound in the
intersection of High Street and the appropriately named Mound Street. They then proceeded to use clay from the mound to make
bricks for the original two story statehouse.
For more than twenty years, traffic moving
along High Street came to the intersection of
Mound and High Street and carefully skirted
around the edge of the mound blocking
the intersection. An enterprising local physician named Young went to the trouble of
hacking a path to the top of the mound and
then proceeded to build a two story white
frame house on the summit. Mound notwithstanding, it is not fully clear how Dr. Young
acquired the right to build a house in the
middle of a public intersection. But it is fair
to note that squatters and other practitioners
of less than legal occupancy were rather
common on the frontier.
It is also not clear why the good doctor
constructed his office at the top of a rather
steep hill. Presumably if one was really sick,
they would make it to the top of the hill. Or
it is also possible that the doctor liked his
privacy and was in the habit of making a lot
✧
Most of what is now Columbus was once
part of an immense old growth forest of
huge hardwood trees. The forests that once
covered Ohio have mostly been removed—
more than once. One of the places that was
missed is the Davey Nature Preserve in
Champaign County.
NATURAL RESOURCES.
CHAPTER
I
9
✧
When European explorers first came to
Ohio they found thousands of Native
American enclosures, mounds and
ceremonial sites. As late as 1914, William
Corless Mills could still show dozens of sites
in Franklin County in his Archeological
Atlas of Ohio. Few of them remain.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF ED LENTZ.
of house calls. In any case the mound and the
doctor’s house lasted until the early 1830s. By
that time, Columbus was large enough and
local traffic was bad enough to warrant the
removal of the mound. Over the next several
years the mound was removed. Since all of
this took place before the invention of photography, there is no known surviving image
of the Mound Street mound. But it is believed
to have closely resembled the Grave Creek
Mound in West Virginia—a mound which
also once had a house at its crest.
When some local residents were not driving
around the mound or plundering it for clay
and artifacts, they undoubtedly sometimes
wondered who had built it. And wonder is
perhaps the correct word since the Mound
Street mound—while larger than most—was
by no means the only mound in the valley.
When settlers arrived in Ohio they found
literally thousands of mounds—big and little
conical mounds, enclosures of all shapes and
sizes, and even an occasional effigy of an
animal of one sort or another. Over the next
century, many if not most of these mounds
were removed by farming, road construction
or the rapid expansion of towns and cities.
10
Several mounds were located in what
is now downtown Columbus. Late in
the 1800s, longtime local resident Joseph
Sullivant remembered that, when he was
young, there were still two small mounds
near the place where COSI and Veterans
Memorial Auditorium is today on the west
side of the Scioto. And there was a mound
where the Arena District is today. All were
removed by the 1830s.
In the years before the emergence of archeology as a profession, there were all sorts of
speculative ideas about who these mound
builders might be. Perhaps the Aztecs or
Mayans had made it to Ohio and lacking
stone built their large mounds with dirt.
Perhaps Viking explorers had built them or
Egyptian sailors blown off course and looking
to remind themselves of the pyramids they
would never see again. It was even seriously
proposed that the ten lost tribes of Israel
might be responsible.
Perhaps the only people not proposed as
mound builders were the Native Americans
whom the new American settlers were
slowly but surely removing and sending away
from their longtime homes in Ohio. What
we know today is that the Mound Builders
were a diverse and interesting group of
people. We also know that all of them were
Native Americans and we know how they
built their mounds.
But there is much we still do not know.
About one thousand years before the
current era, the long generations of huntergatherer peoples decided to settle down.
Why they did and precisely when they did
is still a subject of considerable and often
acrimonious debate.
For whatever sets of reasons—and there
may have been differing reasons for different
groups—the Native American peoples of
Ohio began to build villages of greater or
lesser size and stay in one place for lengthy
periods of time. Archeologists have found
remnants of enough of these villages to
form some opinions as to how these people
lived. Unlike our common image of Native
Americans living in large groups in wigwam
like tents, the Native Americans of Ohio built
sturdy structures anchored on wooden poles
planted in the ground and then covered with
layers of bark for walls and roofing. Many of
these structures were built and rebuilt and
stayed on the same site for decades. And at
least at first, these people did not live in
large villages but rather in small groups of
houses probably occupied by people linked
by kinship and acquaintance.
But most of what we have learned of these
people has come not from their village sites
but from their monuments, ceremonial sites
and cemeteries—cemeteries in the form of
mounds. We have come to call these people
the Mound Builders mostly because we do not
know what they called themselves.
Around five hundred years before the
current era a group of residents of central
Ohio began the funerary practice of
constructing burial mounds for their dead. As
more people were buried in a mound, new
layers of earth were added and the mounds
became larger. Because one of the first of
these mounds to be carefully excavated was
located at Adena, the Chillicothe home of
Governor Thomas Worthington, the builders
of the mound came to be called the
Adena people.
The Adena were not the first people in the
Midwest to build mounds. But the Adena people took up the practice and built more elaborate mounds and mounds with more extensive
ceremonial sites associated with them.
By one hundred years before the current
era the Adena people had been superseded
by a new culture that came to be called
the Hopewell. The Hopewell people were
named for the farmer in Chillicothe on whose
land their remains were found. There are still
differing opinions as to whether the Adena
and Hopewell were two separate peoples or
simply one people passing through a period
of cultural change.
In any case, the Hopewell had a much
more elaborate sense of the ceremonial. Their
towns were larger, their ceremonial centers
like Newark and Chillicothe were extensive,
and their use of a variety of items from distant
locations—obsidian from Oregon, shells from
the Gulf of Mexico—is evidence of a welldeveloped trade network.
In time, the Hopewell yielded to yet other
cultures. One of the most important of these
was the Fort Ancient people who occupied
the hilltop enclosure now called by that name
in southwest Ohio. It appears that these later
peoples were involved in lengthy conflicts as
the people buried at their sites show evidence
of disease and violence. Who exactly they
were fighting and why is not completely clear.
What is clear is that by 1500 the age of
the great Mound Builder societies had ended.
Of the thousands of mounds that once
dotted the landscape of Ohio, only several
hundred remain. Some of the best known like
✧
Above: Mound Street is named for a large
mound that once stood in the intersection of
that street with High Street in downtown
Columbus. Removed in the 1830s, it was
said to have resembled the Grave Creek
Mound in West Virginia—shown here
in 1848.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.
Below: The Native American cultures of
Central Ohio produced exquisite pieces of
ceremonial art. A notable example is the
Adena Pipe at the Ohio Historical Society.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
CHAPTER
I
11
Fort Ancient in Warren County and Serpent
Mound in Adams County are preserved as
historic sites. In fact Fort Ancient was the first
park acquired by the State of Ohio in 1896.
In central Ohio, two of the best preserved
sites are the Jeffers Mound near Worthington
and the Shrum Mound on McKinley Avenue.
And hidden in the woods in the southbound
interchange of Route 315 and Bethel road is a
small mound. At the time of construction the
entire freeway was shifted a bit to accommodate the mound. One of the men who insured
the survival of the mound later said that it
seemed like the right thing to do.
THE NEW PEOPLE
The story of central Ohio in the years
between 1500 and 1650 is lost in historical
darkness. The Mound Builder cultures of the
Adena, Hopewell and Fort Ancient had faded
away and it is not fully clear what happened
next. Probably some of the groups living in
the state were the ancestors of tribes who
would also be around later. But European
explorers—especially literate ones—would
not come into the Ohio valley until well into
12
the 1600s. It is the people encountered by
those explorers, traders, trappers, frontiersmen and priests who would be remembered
as the historic Indian tribes of Ohio.
What we do know is that by 1600, a confederation of Native Americans called the Erie
had come to occupy much of the southern
shore of the lake that bears their name. The
Erie’s neighbors to the east were a recently
established confederacy of five previously
warring tribes along the Mohawk River
valley in New York. Calling themselves
Haudenosaunee or People of the Long House,
these people were often called Iroquois by
both friend and foe alike.
Finally exasperated by continued conflict
with the Erie, the Iroquois swept out of New
York and virtually annihilated the Erie in a
series of pitched battles. Having defeated their
enemies, the Iroquois took most of the rest of
what is now Ohio and part of Indiana and
held it as their own private preserve for most
of the next century.
But by the early 1700s, the Iroquois were
feeling some pressure of their own. Beginning
with the travels of Jacques Cartier in 1534,
French explorers were traveling up the
St Lawrence River to the Great Lakes. At
the same time English colonization was
proceeding apace along the Atlantic coast.
Responding to the growing proximity of both
the English and the French, the Iroquois
increasingly withdrew from Ohio to protect
their homeland.
Into the empty Ohio Country left by the
Iroquois came a number of people from many
different places. Into western Ohio from
Indiana came the Miami or Twightee people.
From the east came the Delaware or Leni
Lenape people. These were the people who
had met William Penn when he founded
Pennsylvania in 1681. Their villages would
extend all the way west to the county immediately north of Columbus.
From the north came the archenemies
of the Iroquois, another Algonquin people
called the Hurons by their French friends.
They called themselves “wendat” and that
name would become the Wyandot or
Wyandotte that they came to be called
in Ohio. Their villages occupied most of
northwest Ohio and extended as far south as
northern Franklin County and even to what
is now Columbus.
✧
Opposite, top: Fort Ancient, Ohio’s first
state park.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
Opposite, bottom: Located along McKinley
Avenue in Columbus, the Shrum Mound is
maintained by the Ohio Historical Society.
It is believed to be a burial mound of the
Adena people.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
Above: The Jeffers Mound near
Worthington, Ohio, is a Hopewell mound
from 100 BC to 400 AD. It originally stood
within a rectangular enclosure with two
adjacent circular enclosures. Quite well
preserved, it now is in the midst of a
residential area.
CHAPTER
I
13
✧
Any place where two major rivers come
together will eventually attract people as
well. Yet the confluence of the Olentangy
and Scioto Rivers was remarkably free of
people as late as 1908 when this picture
was made.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE COLUMBUS
METROPOLITAN LIBRARY.
The Iroquois were not completely gone
from Ohio. Much of the northeastern part
of the state was still controlled by the
Senecas, one of the five tribes of the Iroquois
Confederacy. And scattered across the
state were random bands of Iroquois who
chose not to formally associate with the
Confederacy. These people came to be called
Mingo and they also had villages in various
parts of central Ohio.
And then there were the Shawnee. They
came to occupy most of the Scioto River
valley from what is now Columbus to the
Ohio River.
These were the people who had come
to occupy Ohio by 1750. It is important to
remember that there were not all that many
of them. Although no one was taking a
census at the time, it has been estimated that
there were approximately 20,000 people
living in Ohio at the time. And of those
people, about 10,000 were Shawnee.
Interestingly, these relatively recent arrivals
were also the people who gave many of the
places in the state the names we still use
today. “Ohio” is a variation of an Iroquois word
meaning “great river.” “Scioto” is a word a little
more difficult to define. Its root is a Wyandot
14
word meaning “deer.” And the word Olentangy
is probably the most elusive of all. It was
originally called “Keenhongsheconsepung” or
“Knife Stone Creek” by the Delawares because
sharpening stones could be found within it.
In fact the river is still called Whetstone Creek
in the counties north of Columbus.
In 1833, possibly as a gesture to the Indian
tribes it had spent a generation evicting from
the state, the Ohio General Assembly decided to
return a number of rivers to their original Native
American names. Perhaps despairing of calling it
by its former name, the Assembly settled the
more easily pronounceable “Olentangy”—the
original name of Big Darby Creek—on the river
to the north. Olentangy is a word of varied
origins. It has been variously translated as “river
of red face paint” and “river at rest” depending
on the language one consults. Certainly red
ocher face paint sources can be found along the
upper reaches of the Big Darby. And compared
to other nearby streams, it is today a comparatively restful waterway.
But in the mid 1700s, none of the waterways
were all that restful and soon many of them
would run red and not with face paint. After a
generation of peace, the Ohio frontier was
about to become a very dangerous place indeed.
CHAPTER II
FRONTIER CONFLICT
A CONTINENTAL CONTEST
✧
English and French North America clashed
In the years after 1700, the powerful Iroquois Confederacy had withdrawn slowly from the
Ohio Country to meet the challenges of French and English incursions into their New York
homeland. What had followed was a generation of peace as a number of tribes had moved into
the rich and bountiful lands north of the Ohio River and had generally avoided conflict among
themselves or with outsiders.
Now, in the 1740s all of that was about to end. Wars had come and gone before among
America’s Native American peoples. But they were brief conflicts following rather strict rules of
how warriors behaved one to another. Total destruction of communities as the Iroquois had done
to the Erie was rare and usually was the climax of decades of conflict.
Now a new kind of warfare was coming to Ohio. It pitted Europeans against each other and it
also would lead to attacks by Native Americans of differing loyalties against other tribes.
And finally it would lead to the destruction of entire communities of both Europeans and Native
Americans. In short it was war with little mercy for both Native America and colonial settlers.
And it would not end for more than sixty years.
It began for the seemingly most trivial of reasons. By the 1740s, Europeans of one sort or
another—English, French, Spanish and several other nationalities—had been settling on the
various edges of the Americas for more than 200 years. And generally they had left each other
alone. They were able to ignore the presence of people they might not have liked very much
because the country was vast and generally the newcomers were few in number.
violently at Pickawillany near what is now
Piqua, Ohio, in 1752. Recent archeological
research at the site is beginning to reveal the
layout of a frontier village and trading post.
A local marker reads:
PICKAWILLANY
LOCATED ONE MILE NORTH OF THIS MEMORIAL
HEADQUARTERS OF THE MIAMI TRIBES
FIRST ENGLISH SETTLEMENT
AND THE MOST IMPORTANT
TRADING POST IN THE WEST
1748
DESTROYED BY THE FRENCH
1752
MARKED BY THE PIQUA CHAPTER
DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
CHAPTER
II
15
For more than a generation, English “long
hunters” had been threading their way
through the passes in the mountains and
making a modest living by laboriously bringing the furs and skins of the animals they
had killed back over the mountains to sell
in the East. But their numbers were few.
When caught by the French or their Native
American friends, their furs were confiscated
and the men sent away.
But now, in the 1740s, French traders
began to notice that the numbers of
Englishmen in Ohio were increasing and they
were not simply hunting for a while and
leaving. Some of the newcomers were traders
and they were building trading posts as if
they had right to do so—as if they had come
to stay.
To the Comte de Galissoniere, the
Governor General of French Canada, such
English effrontery was simply unacceptable.
In 1748, he ordered Captain Celoron de
Blainville to take a force of French and
Indians and secure the Ohio valley for
France. With more than 200 French and
Canadian irregulars and fifty of their Native
American allies, Captain de Blainville proceeded to his task in the summer of 1749.
Following the Allegheny River south to its
junction with the Monongahela to form the
Ohio, Blainville forcefully exhorted every
Englishman he met—and he met several—to
leave what he considered French territory at
once. To reinforce the point, his party also
buried a series of lead plates at the places
where a number of major rivers emptied into
the Ohio. The buried plate and a similar sign
nailed to a nearby tree said that the place
belonged to France. Reaching the Great
Miami River, the party turned north and
✧
Many of the people living in North
America—as well as their European
friends—had little idea what eastern North
America looked like when John Mitchell
published his large map of the area in 1755.
It would remain the standard map of the
region for many years.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.
16
stopped briefly at a settlement of Miami
Indians near what is now Piqua, Ohio.
Among the residents of Pickawillany town
were several English traders. Captain de
Blainville ordered them to leave but he had
little reason to believe that they would.
Over the next few years, the English
continued to come down the Ohio River and
the French continued to try to get them to
leave. Finally, in 1752, the French decided
that enough was enough. A party of 300
French and Indians led by Pierre de Langlede
swept into Ohio and burned Pickawillany to
the ground. Several of the attackers seized the
leader of the village—a man unfortunately
nicknamed “Old Britain” by his English
friends. To emphasize the point that aiding
the English was unwise, the Indian allies of
the French killed Old Britain and ate him.
Pickawillany was not rebuilt.
But the English continued to arrive in the
Ohio valley. The French responded with the
construction of a series of new forts from
the Great Lakes to the Ohio River. The most
important of these was built where the Ohio
River began. It was called Fort Duquesne and
occupied land claimed variously by Virginia,
Pennsylvania, and the King of England.
In 1754, the Royal Governor of Virginia
sent a young officer named George
Washington with several hundred men to
order the French to leave English territory.
Washington’s mission resulted in a pitched
battle between Washington’s small army and
a much larger French force. Washington surrendered and in short order a major struggle
between France and England was underway.
It came to be called the French and Indian
War. When it was over in 1763, Great Britain
had won control of North America—or so
it seemed.
A number of the Native American residents of the Ohio valley did not like the
idea that the French were leaving and the
British were taking their place. Many of them,
at least loosely affiliated with a charismatic
Ottawa leader named Pontiac, rose in revolt
in 1763 and began to attack every recently
occupied British fort they could find. Soon
only Fort Detroit and Fort Pitt (formerly fort
Duquesne) were still under British control.
As it turned out, holding those two forts
proved to be sufficient. As Pontiac’s revolt continued without success, the siege of the two
forts became less and less popular. At length
a British force under General Henry Bouquet
defeated the Native Americans and relieved
Fort Duquesne. While all of this was going on
two British traders named Matthew McCrea
and Patrick Ellison were camped at the Forks
of the Scioto and Olentangy Rivers. Attacked
by Native Americans, Ellison escaped but
McCrea was not so lucky and became the first
person whose name we know to die in what is
now downtown Columbus.
The combination of the French and Indian
War and Pontiac’s Revolt had left Great
Britain in possession of an Empire—and
deeply in debt. To raise money, the British
government thought it perfectly reasonable to
tax its colonies in America for at least some of
the cost of the war. The Crown also closed
the Ohio country to settlement so Britain
could continue the fur trade with Ohio’s
Native Americans that had previously been so
profitable for the French.
The residents of colonial America—unaccustomed to heavy taxation and wanting that land
for themselves—begged to differ. Over the next
several years, the colonists stopped begging and
began demanding. And the British government
became much less accommodating.
By 1774, Lord Dunmore, the Royal
Governor of Virginia, was rather exasperated
with his unruly residents. He began to look
around for something to occupy their attention and fortuitously found an Indian war.
A Mingo warrior with the Anglicized name
of Logan had been a friend of the English for
many years. That friendship ended when a
band of border renegades slaughtered his
entire family. In retaliation, Logan and several of his friends and acquaintances began to
kill every colonist they could find.
Dunmore marched into what is now Ohio
and established a camp near what is now
Circleville where he hoped to talk peace with
the local tribes. Some Native Americans
did come to Dunmore but Logan and many
of the Mingoes did not. To emphasize the
importance of his visit, Dunmore sent
Colonel William Crawford and 240 mounted
men north to attack what was considered to
be a hostile Mingo village at the Forks of the
Scioto and Olentangy Rivers.
Many years later Joseph Sullivant of
Columbus reported what he had been told
when he was young by people who had been
captives of the Indians,
…there were three Indian encampments or
villages in this vicinity; one on the high bank
near the old Morrill House one and a half
miles below the city; one at the west end of the
Harrisburg Bridge; and the principal one on
the river below the mouth of the Whetstone…
While there indeed was a Mingo village
at the Forks, it was not terribly hostile. When
Crawford and his men attacked before dawn,
the element of surprise was lost when one
of the men fired his weapon early. Still,
Crawford considered the attack a success.
In a letter, he later reported,
✧
Above: John Murray, the Fourth Earl of
Dunmore and Royal Governor of Virginia,
led an expedition into the Ohio Valley in
…the chief part of the Indians made their
1774 to quell an uprising led by Logan of
escape in the dark. But we got fourteen pris-
the Mingoes.
oners, and killed six of the enemy, and wound-
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
ed several more. We got all of their baggage
and horses, ten of their guns and two hundred
Below: Major William Crawford was
white prisoners. The plunder sold for four
dispatched with several hundred men to
hundred pounds sterling, besides what was
raid an Indian village at the Forks of the
returned to a Mohawk Indian who was there.
Scioto and Olentangy Rivers during Lord
The whole of the Mingoes were ready to start,
Dunmore’s War in 1774. He fought the only
and were to have set out the morning we
battle on the site of Columbus in the
attacked them. Lord Dunmore has eleven pris-
colonial period.
oners and has returned the rest to the nation…
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
With that, the only pitched battle of the
colonial era to be fought on the site of what
would later be the capital city of Ohio came
to an end. Dunmore made a treaty of peace
with the Indians that stipulated that no
Indian would hunt east of the Ohio River and
no white man would hunt west of the river.
He then returned with his army to Virginia.
It was a short lived peace. Within a few
months, the colonies had revolted against Great
Britain and Dunmore soon left America. On the
frontier, Virginia settlements in Kentucky and
western Pennsylvania would soon be attacked
by raiders from the Native American encampments north of the Ohio River.
CHAPTER
II
17
To counter the raids, men like George
Rogers Clark and Benjamin Logan would
launch mounted raids of 1,000 men or more
against the native villages of Ohio. Some
of the largest raids took place in western
Ohio near the present towns of Springfield
and Xenia. Similar raids were undertaken
from western Pennsylvania against hostile
Delaware and Wyandot villages in northern
Ohio. On one of those raids Colonel William
Crawford was captured by the Delawares and
burned at the stake.
Throughout the troubling and violent
years of the American Revolution, central
Ohio was generally rather peaceful. The only
major exception came when John Edwards, a
Virginia trader stopped for the night on the
site of the old Mingo camp at the Forks of the
Scioto. A Wyandot killed him as he slept on
September 3, 1775.
ANOTHER KIND OF WAR
After the American Revolution, the recently formed United States of America had much
about which it could feel justifiably proud.
Thirteen rather independent colonies—many
of whom had little use for each other—had
managed to hold together a fragile alliance,
raise an army and navy, and had managed to
free itself from one of the most powerful
empires in history.
Now having won its independence, the
new country had a few new problems to face.
Not the least of these was the simple fact that
the country had very little money and was
✧
General Harmar believed that he could best
defend the frontier from places like Fort
Harmar near Marietta. His campaign into
frontier Ohio in 1790 proved him to
be correct.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
18
facing an army and many other creditors who
had not been paid in quite a long time.
But America did one have important asset
to its name. At the end of the Revolution the
new country ended up in proud possession of
most of the land east of the Mississippi River.
And this new land could be used to pay debts
owed to soldiers, bankers and even a few
states. But to do that a few other matters
needed to be resolved.
First there was the question of measuring
the land to insure that it was properly
allocated to its new owners. This issue was
addressed by the Land Ordinance of 1785
which set out a system of rectangular
measurement which would end up giving
Ohio and the country a familiar system of
square townships marching across the
landscape. Or at least it did for much of the
country. In some of the land grants set aside
for the states in the new territory, older
systems of measurement were continued. So
if one ended up living between the Miami
and Scioto Rivers in the newly established
Virginia Military District, a system called
“metes and bounds” was used to measure the
boundaries of a land purchase.
The next big problem was how to govern
the new territories and eventually admit
them—or not admit them—to the Union. The
Ordinance of 1787 set up a method by which
a part of the vast new territory might become
a state like every other state in the United
States. The Ordinance also banned slavery
north and west of the Ohio River and protected certain basic civil liberties of its residents.
With the passage of these
laws many people began to
think that the time was right
to move to the new country.
In 1788, Marietta became
the first permanent settlement north and west of the
Ohio River. It would soon be
followed by a number of others. In short order, forts and
other military installations
began to be constructed.
They were built rapidly
because it soon became clear
they would be needed.
Even with the Land Ordinance of 1785
and the governing Ordinance of 1787, the
new territory north and west of the Ohio
River still had a few problems. Not the least
of these was the fact that the opinion of
the Native American population of Ohio of
all of these new laws and ordinances had
not been asked. Complicating the problem
was continued occupation of parts of the
new country by the British who were
continuing the fur trade and selling the
Indians guns and other supplies to help them
in their efforts.
The first Governor of the Northwest
Territory was General Arthur St. Clair. A
friend of George Washington, St. Clair
ordered the commander of America’s northwest army, General Josiah Harmar to go forth
and subdue the Indians. Josiah Harmar, like
St. Clair, was a veteran of the Revolution.
Modesty not being his strong suit, he had
named the post he had built to protect
Marietta—Fort Harmar. And it was at Fort
Harmar that he would have preferred to
stay. Nevertheless, he obeyed his orders and
sallied forth with his small army to find the
hostile enemy who had been attacking
frontier settlements. Near what is now Fort
Wayne, Indiana, he found them and engaged
his forces in a series of running fights. Having
bloodied both himself and the enemy a bit,
Harmar decided that he had won, declared
victory and came home.
General St. Clair was not pleased. He
became even less pleased when new raids
began to be made all along the frontier.
Determining that he could probably do what
Harmar couldn’t, St. Clair assembled an army
of his own in 1791 and marched north to
find and fight the Indians. Marching far too
late in the season with untrained and undisciplined troops—and 250 of their wives and
children—St. Clair camped in the snow on
November 4, 1791. Before dawn the next day,
he was attacked by more than 1,500 warriors
led by Little Turtle of the Miami and Blue
Jacket of the Shawnee. By the end of the
day Arthur St. Clair did indeed do something
no other American general had done. He
suffered the worst defeat ever inflicted on an
American army by Native Americans. More
than 700 American soldiers died that day
and many more were wounded. Most of
the 250 women and children also perished in
the battle.
✧
Left: General Arthur St. Clair was the first
Governor of the Northwest Territory.
Frustrated by the lack of progress in
pacifying the frontier, he personally led a
new expedition into northern Ohio in 1791.
It resulted in the worst defeat ever suffered
by an American army by Native America.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
Right: General Josiah Harmar was the
senior officer in the United States Army
St. Clair only avoided court-martial by
the direct intervention of an appalled
President George Washington. St. Clair
would remain Governor of the Northwest
Territory, but he would never lead an
American army again. To rebuild the
shattered army, Washington chose General
“Mad Anthony” Wayne. A ferocious combat
from 1784 to 1791. He constructed Fort
Steuben at what is now Steubenville and
Fort Washington at Cincinnati among
other fortifications.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
CHAPTER
II
19
general in the Revolution, Wayne was not
the first person some might have picked to
20
recruit and train a new army. But Washington
knew his generals and he had chosen wisely.
Wayne took two years to assemble a new
fighting force and build the forts to supply
and protect it. When the new army met
Native America at a place called Fallen
Timbers near Toledo in 1794, the battle was
over in less than twenty minutes.
Wayne then retired to his newly constructed Fort Greene Ville and called on Native
America to come to the fort to discuss a treaty
of peace. The Treaty of Greenville of 1795
was signed by representatives of thirteen
tribes and opened the southern two thirds of
what is now Ohio to settlement. The northern third, including the Great Black Swamp,
would remain in the hands of Native America
for several more years.
Hanging in the rotunda of the Ohio
Statehouse is a quite large painting of the
signing of the Treaty of Greenville by the
noted American artist, Howard Chandler
Christy. Completed for Ohio’s sesquicentennial, the painting is impressive and remarkably
accurate as to the appearance and dress of the
people who were present. However, some of
the most important people in the story of
Ohio are not shown. They are not shown
because they were not there. While important
✧
Opposite, clockwise, starting from top left:
Rebuilding the American army, General
Anthony Wayne won a stunning victory at
the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. The
battle was over in less than twenty minutes.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
Calling representatives of Native America to
Fort Greene Ville near what is now
Greenville, Ohio, in 1795, General Anthony
Wayne negotiated a major treaty that
changed the map of America.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
The Treaty of Greenville opened most of the
southern two-thirds of what is now Ohio to
American settlement in the years after the
Revolution. The northern third remained the
site of reservations until the last Wyandots
were removed in 1842.
Left: A quite large painting of the Treaty of
Greenville was completed by noted
American artist Howard Chandler Christy
in 1953. It hangs in the Ohio Statehouse
and is remarkable for its meticulous and
accurate detail.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
and common people, red and white, young
and old gathered at Greenville, another group
of men was already moving into the newly
opened land and drawing the lines that would
truly make the land their own.
Some of the people who moved across
Ohio in these years came only to see the land
and move on. Others came to protect and
defend it and then move on. Some, however,
came to stay.
CHAPTER
II
21
CHAPTER III
FRANKLINTON
THE FRONTIER SURVEYOR
✧
Top: The Sullivant family plot in Green
Lawn Cemetery centers on the large
monument to Lucas Sullivant. The
inscription on the stone notes that it was at
this place that Sullivant first saw the place
that he would soon call home.
Above: Lucas Sullivant is the pivotal figure
in the opening of central Ohio to settlement.
Too young to have fought in the Revolution
he came to Ohio as a surveyor in the 1790s.
The portrait is from his grave stone in
Green Lawn Cemetery.
The years after the American Revolution were times of great change. It should therefore not be
surprising that those times produced some remarkable people who sought a new life in the Ohio
Country. A few of them were rogues, scoundrels and not very nice people at all. Most were simple,
honest, and decent enough.
Some of these people had lived through the war that had created a new America and they
continued to be carried forward by the wave of patriotic energy it had created. Others were the
children of the founders and wanted to make their own mark as their parents had done. And
some were people with the hope that a new world on the frontier had to be far better than the
one they were leaving behind.
Men like Daniel Boone of Kentucky and Simon Kenton of Ohio loomed somewhat larger than
life even during their own lives. They had left home at a young age and gone to the frontier to—
as Kenton once put it succinctly—“live on their own hook”—and make a new life for themselves
in a new land.
One of those new people was a young man from Virginia named Lucas Sullivant. He had been
too young to have fought in the American Revolution. But Sullivant grew up on the edge of the
frontier and was as interested as anyone in the tales of the men who returned from the land on
the other side of the mountains. And in time he would come to have reason to follow them back
to the Ohio Country.
22
The Sullivants of Mecklenburg County,
Virginia, had come a long way since the
family had arrived from Northern Ireland. By
the time Lucas Sullivant was born in 1765,
the family of Michael Sullivant and his wife,
the former Hannah Lucas, had achieved some
success farming the back country with a
number of slaves and other occasionally
hired workers. Their family included young
Lucas, his older brother Michael and his
sister Anne. But Michael Sullivant Senior
became a bit too much accustomed to the
temptations of a leisure life. Having amassed
a considerable amount of debt, he died and
left Hannah Lucas and her young children
with little more than their home and the
small tobacco farm surrounding it.
By the time Lucas Sullivant was sixteen, his
sister had married and left home, his brother
had been the victim of an accidental drowning,
and his mother had recently died. While working on the farm, young Lucas Sullivant had
acquired a basic education and, with the help
of a local neighbor, Colonel William Starling,
Sullivant had been trained in surveying.
Having little reason to remain in Virginia,
Lucas Sullivant took his small share of the family’s estate settlement and left for Kentucky—
then still part of Virginia. He farmed near Paris
in Bourbon County for a time and later lived
with a family named Treacle in Washington
County. Through the next few years he perfected his surveying skills and looked with
increasing interest at the land across the Ohio
River to the north.
In 1784, Colonel Richard Anderson was
appointed surveyor of the western lands to be
distributed as bounty payments to Virginia’s
veterans of the American Revolution. Located
between the Little Miami and Scioto Rivers,
the Virginia Military District was narrow at
the top but became quite wide as the two
rivers diverged from each other as they flowed
to the Ohio.
To work as a surveyor under these conditions required men of extraordinary talent,
flexibility and courage. Colonel Anderson
became convinced that, along with men like
Nathaniel Massie and Duncan McArthur,
Lucas Sullivant was one of them. By 1795,
Sullivant was leading a survey team of chainmen, surveying assistants, scouts and hunters
into the northern part of the District.
His son later described him at this time.
Lucas Sullivant was a man “of medium
height, muscular and well-proportioned,
quick and active in his movements, with
an erect carriage and a good walk, a
well-balanced head, finished off with a
cue, which he always wore; a broad and
high forehead, an aquiline nose, and a
blue gray eye, a firm mouth and square
chin. He was firm and positive in his
opinions, but courteous in manner and
expression, prompt and decisive to act
on his own convictions, altogether a
man of forcible character, exercising an
influence over those with whom he
came in contact.”
Sullivant and his party were under
some pressure to move quickly and survey their allotted part of the District as
rapidly as they could. One reason for
this haste was to meet the demands of
the people who were holding the land
warrants. Some of them were veterans
who had not been paid in years. Others
were land speculators who had bought
the land warrants.
✧
Simon Kenton is Ohio’s answer to Daniel
Boone. Arriving in the Ohio River valley
while still in his teens, he and frontier Ohio
grew up together. He is reputed to have been
the model for James Fennimore Cooper’s
Natty Bumpo of the Leather stocking
Tales. Over a very long life, he came to
know central Ohio quite well.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
CHAPTER
III
23
✧
In 1797, Lucas Sullivant laid out a town on
the west bank of the Scioto River where it
met the Olentangy. An admirer of Benjamin
Franklin, he called it Franklinton.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
Another reason for speed was the enlightened self-interest of the surveyor who took his
own payment in land and wanted to find the
best property before someone else did. And a
final reason was the presence and occasional
pursuit of the party by Native Americans who
would be less than cordial if they caught the
surveyors in their homeland.
Surveying along Deer Creek in what is now
Madison County, the rear guard of Sullivant’s
party had, much to Sullivant’s chagrin, fired
on a small party of Indians accompanied by
a Frenchman, killed the Frenchman and
dispersed the Indians. Sullivant knew the
Indians would soon be back in force from
their villages along the Scioto. They returned
in large numbers and forced Sullivant to hurl
his large surveying compass into a tree top,
disperse his party and run for their lives.
Reassembling his party, Sullivant continued
with his survey work with another compass.
His first compass was found in good condition many years later, returned to his family
and later given to a local museum.
Sullivant continued his work further up
the Scioto into what is now Franklin County.
However, even managing to avoid local Native
Americans did not reduce the danger.
Once…three miles below the present City
of Columbus, a panther was detected
crouched on the limb of a tree, almost directly over the campfire around which the men
were sitting. The tail of the beast was swinging
to and fro, its eyeballs glaring…Seizing his
rifle, a huntsman of the party took steady aim
between the two blazing eyes and fired. The
panther instantly came down with a terrible
scream…When Mr. Sullivant awoke the next
morning after this adventure, he felt some
incubus on his person, and soon discovered
that a large rattlesnake had coiled itself on
upon his blanket. Giving blanket and snake
both a sudden toss, he sprang to his feet and
made away with his uninvited bedfellow.
Despite these dangers and diversions,
Sullivant continued with his work and over the
next two years saw much of central Ohio. The
major rivers in central Ohio had already been
given names by both Native Americans and
colonial explorers. But many of the smaller tributaries in the region had no name—until Lucas
Sullivant gave them one. One of Sullivant’s
scouts, Arthur Boke, had Boke’s Creek named
for him in recognition of his service. Boke later
left the area. His child out of wedlock with a
Sullivant African American servant, also named
Arthur Boke, served the Sullivant family for
many years. Treacle Creek in Union County was
named for Sullivant’s family friends in Kentucky.
THE TOWN BUILDER
In addition to acquiring large tracts of land
of his own, Sullivant also selected potential
town sites on or near land he owned and drew
up town plans for a few of them. North Liberty
along the banks of Big Darby Creek near what
is now Plain City, Ohio, actually drew a few
settlers in the assumption—wrong as it turned
out—that a town might follow. Another town
was planned—at least on paper—where Mill
Creek entered the Scioto River at what is now
Bellepoint in Delaware County.
24
But the place Lucas
Sullivant came to like
more than any other was
at the Forks of the Scioto
and Olentangy Rivers. In
August 1797, he laid out
a town on the west side
of the river just below the
place where the two rivers
came together. It was a
classic town plan with a
tight grid of small town lots complemented
by adjacent larger outlots nearby.
It seemed like a good place for a town. The
two rivers provided navigable traffic to several parts of the state. And the strong evidence
of Native American settlement, both recent
and ancient, indicated that the land in the
area had been occupied for many years.
Sullivant called his town Franklinton
because he was a great admirer of Benjamin
Franklin. In the fall of 1797, Joseph Dixon
and his family arrived to become the first settlers in the new town. Several other families
soon followed and by the spring of 1798, a
small village was beginning to appear.
Perhaps it is a good thing that it was small
because most of the village was inundated
in a flood in March. Undeterred by this,
Sullivant simply moved the entire town plan
about a quarter mile to the west to somewhat
higher ground and well within a large grove of
walnut trees.
Perhaps somewhat concerned about the
attractiveness of the town after the flood,
Sullivant set aside one street and called it Gift
Street. As long as they lasted, Sullivant would
give away lots to anyone desiring to live in his
town. They did not last long.
At the time it was platted, Franklinton was
the most northern settlement in the Virginia
Military District and the farthest removed from
other settlements in the area. The closest town
of any size was Chillicothe more than sixty
miles away. Undeterred by this the new village
began to attract a number of new families.
Some like the Deardurffs would settle on
Gift Street. Built in 1807, David Deardurff’s
house later became the first post office in
Franklinton and is now the oldest standing
structure in downtown Columbus. Others like
the McDowell, Skidmore, and Foos families
would acquire town sites and later give their
family names to the streets nearby.
And some of the early residents had even
been in the area before—quite a long time
before. John Brickell had been captured by
the Indians when he was a young boy and had
grown up among them. He spent a number of
years in the village located at what is now the
corner of Neil Avenue and Spring Street
before returning to the East in a prisoner
exchange. Discovering that he did not like
✧
Above: Frontiersman John Brickell had been
captured by Native Americans and brought
to an encampment in what is now
downtown Columbus. He returned later and
built a cabin on the site. Still standing for
this picture in 1892, it was removed in 1910.
Bottom, left: A flood in 1798 and a move of
the entire town a bit to the west convinced
Sullivant that settlers might require
inducement. He offered one with free lots
on the aptly named Gift Street.
Bottom, right: The home of David Deardurff
and his family is the oldest standing
structure in its original location in
Columbus. Built in 1807 the two story black
walnut log house served as the first post
office in central Ohio. Shown in 1983, the
home is currently being renovated.
CHAPTER
III
25
“civilization” all that much, he returned to
Ohio in 1797. He later moved across the river
and built a cabin on the site of the former
Indian village where he lived with his family
until his death in 1844.
Another former captive had a more
flamboyant career. Jeremiah Armstrong was
only nine years old and living with his family in western Virginia when his home was
attacked by Indians while his father was
away. Armstrong’s mother and several of his
siblings were killed. He was taken with a
sister and brother on a long march to the
Wyandot towns near what is now Fremont,
Ohio. Armstrong and his brother and sister
were adopted into the tribe and began to live
as their captors lived.
Armstrong later remembered, “The only
war dance I witnessed, was near where the
Penitentiary now stands [the Arena District],
when a party of them were preparing to
leave for Kentucky in quest of prisoners and
scalps. They returned with three prisoners
and five scalps.”
As part of the Greenville Treaty prisoner
exchange, Armstrong and his brother were
returned to their families and eventually he
returned to central Ohio. With the founding
of Columbus, he purchased a lot on High
Street and built an inn. He first called it
“The Indian Chief” and later the “Red Lion”
26
and in time it became one of the more popular hostelries in the city. While initially reluctant to leave the Wyandots, he then changed
his mind and later said that he returned to his
family “with affection and gratitude and never
more had a wish to return to the red men.”
In 1801, Lucas Sullivant returned to
Kentucky and married Sarah Starling, the
daughter of his friend Colonel William Starling.
The newlyweds returned to Franklinton where
Sullivant had built a two story brick home on
the southwest corner of the public square. It
was a grand and spacious home with large
fireplaces and wide staircases and in future
years would be expanded with an Italianate
tower and other additions. Standing where
Interstate 315 now crosses Broad Street, the
house looked out on a backyard that sloped
down and extended all the way to what is now
the Mt. Carmel Medical Center.
Lucas Sullivant’s home would have fit
well into any city in America. But looks can
sometimes be deceiving. In most American
cities, a family could not walk out to their
porch and watch a rather large and somewhat
disheveled man named Corbus wrestle a
bear—and win the match. And most housewives would not have had to negotiate with
people like Billy Wyandot—a former captor
of Jeremiah Armstrong—over the measurement of a bolt of cloth.
But for all of the roughness and crudities of
frontier life, Franklinton grew rapidly and
successfully. Joseph Foos opened a tavern and
later a ferry service across the Scioto River.
Both were so popular that Foos was elected
General of a local militia company and later
represented the area in the Ohio legislature.
Lincoln Goodale came to the village as a practicing physician but soon discovered that
there was little need for doctors. Opening a
store he soon began a career that would make
his fortune. By the time Lyne Starling arrived
in Franklinton to live with his sister and
brother in law, Franklinton was a village of
several hundred people with many of the
amenities of villages anywhere in America.
Near the Sullivant home were several
stores and Sullivant’s land office. Across the
square a two story courthouse would rise and
nearby a sturdy log jail would meet the needs
of a Franklin County that was created the
same year Ohio became a state in 1803.
Directly across the street from the courthouse
a number of taverns, inns and other establishments sprang up. Nevertheless, life was still a
bit on the rough side. When Gustavus Swan
arrived in Franklinton in 1811, he was not
impressed. “I feel safe in saying that there
was not in the county a chair for every two
persons, not a knife and fork for every
four…Aged persons and invalids, however
✧
Opposite, top: Complementing his medical
career, Dr. Goodale soon opened a store in
Franklinton and became quite successful.
Opposite, bottom: Dr. Lincoln Goodale was
a practicing physician who arrived in
frontier Franklinton in 1808. He soon
discovered that there was not a lot of call for
doctors at the time.
Above: Lucas Sullivant traveled to Kentucky
and returned with his young wife, for whom
he had built one of the first brick houses in
Ohio. Located on the southwest corner of
what is now West Broad Street and
Interstate 315, the spacious southern-style
mansion was often expanded. It is shown
here in 1870 after an Italianate tower had
been added. Later a convent, the home was
removed in the early 1960s.
CHAPTER
III
27
✧
Above: In the distance behind an early
Franklinton church can be seen the only
known sketch of the original Franklin
were respected and protected, and could
avoid drinking and fighting with impunity;
but even they could not safely interfere to
stop a fight. There was one virtue, that of hospitality, that was not confined to any class. ”
Lyne Starling had been raised in rather
fashionable surroundings and his letters to
relatives reflected his disdain. In 1810, he
wrote to his sister:
County courthouse in the middle of the
village. During the War of 1812, the
Our society is rather degenerating than
courthouse would be surrounded with a
getting better. The most of the old stock when
stockade and defensive ditch and made
Lucy was here are married, so that it is
into a fort.
difficult to collect a sufficient number of girls
of any description to have a party. We expect,
however, that we shall have a new recruit
Right: Brother-in-law of Lucas Sullivant,
during the summer, as several large families
Lyne Starling came to Franklinton in 1806.
are expected to emigrate here during the
Six feet six inches tall and a genteel
summer, which will probably make up the
bachelor, Starling would go on to make his
assortment as complete as ever.
fortune in transportation, trade and real
estate development. The land he liked best
lay on the ridge across the river
from Franklinton.
But for all of his disdain, Lyne Starling liked
the frontier village and decided to make it his
home. He took jobs clerking with his brotherin-law at first but soon was involved in
business ventures of his own. He discovered
that he had a knack for making money in shipping, agriculture, transportation and trade.
By the time he wrote his sister, he was doing
quite well and looking to new enterprises.
28
In 1809, he had mentioned to his sister in
a letter, “I have lately purchased an elegant
seat and tract of land opposite town on the
other side of the river, which I have an idea of
improving.” In the very near future, Lyne
Starling and a few friends would be quite busy
with those improvements.
CHAPTER IV
A CAPITAL BEGINNING 1812-1816
THE SEARCH FOR A CENTRAL PLACE
Lyne Starling had been living in frontier Franklinton for a while before it occurred to him to
begin looking at real estate on the other side of the Scioto River.
There was no bridge and getting across the fast moving Scioto was not all that simple at the
place where Franklinton had been built. Secondly, the Virginia Military District ended at the
Scioto. Starling’s brother in law, Lucas Sullivant, was not the official surveyor of the other side of
the river and was more than happy to stay busy with his land on the west side. And there was no
real demand for the land in that rather unusual land grant east of Franklinton.
The land located in the easternmost part of the Northwest Territory had been allocated very
quickly as land grants to a wide variety of people who were owed money by the new government
of the United States. In addition to land set aside for veterans of Virginia, there were a lot of land
grants for other veterans, residents of Connecticut, people who had been burned out by the
British, and even a set aside for some French citizens looking for a new home. And in addition to
all of these, there was the Refugee Tract.
Beginning at Fifth Avenue on the north and running to Refugee Road on the south the Tract
ran east from the Scioto River in a narrow strip of land for several dozen miles. The land was set
aside for residents of Nova Scotia who had lost property because of their loyalty to the American
Revolution. A few of those families actually traveled to the new land. Truro Township in Franklin
County is named for Truro Township in Nova Scotia—the home of some early arrivals. But most
of the recipients of land grants never made it to Ohio. Most of the land on the east bank of the
Scioto south of its junction with the Olentangy River was still empty and devoid of settlement
even as Franklinton continued to grow.
✧
The street plan of Columbus is not aligned
north and south. All of the streets of
Columbus are pointed twelve degrees west
of true north. No one knows why. But the
Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio
State University notes the difference in the
distinction between the building and the
white construction attached to it.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
CHAPTER
IV
29
✧
Above: Most refugees never made it to the
Refugee Tract. One who did was Robert
Taylor. He arrived with his family in 1808
and settled at West Crest on the west bank
of Big Walnut Creek. Truro Township later
came to be named for the Taylor home in
Truro Township of Nova Scotia.
Below: The Refugee Tract ran east from the
Scioto River from Fifth Avenue on the north
to Refugee Road on the south. It was set
aside for people from Nova Scotia who had
lost their property as rebels in
the Revolution.
To be completely accurate, the land along
the river was not completely empty. In 1800,
a man named Robert Ballentine had built
a rather simple kind of mill along the river
near the place where the Federal District
Courthouse is today. Shortly thereafter, a man
named Benjamin White—with equal disregard for the niceties of property ownership—
had built a small distillery nearby. Neither
venture was very successful. The businesses
closed and by 1810 they were little more than
ruins. Complementing the abandoned structures were a few cabins scattered along the
river bank. Some of them were occupied by
people who actually had bought a bit of land
in the Refugee Tract. Others were occupied
by people called “squatters” who would move
on when pressed to do so.
By 1810, Lyne Starling and a few of his
friends would begin to press. They saw an
30
opportunity in all of that vacant land and
were determined to make their fortunes
with it. They believed there might be a
chance to do so because the state capital
needed a new home. The State of Ohio
had only been around since 1803 and in
a few short years it had already had several capitals. Now it was looking again.
In some ways it was remarkable that
Ohio as a state even existed at all. Had
it been up to Arthur St. Clair the State
of Ohio would have been a long time in
coming. As governor of the Northwest
Territory, St. Clair may not have been
much of an Indian fighter, but he was a
formidable politician.
The Ordinance of 1787 had laid out a
three step process by which residents of part
of the Territory could petition for admittance
as a state. No one questioned the idea that
states would be carved out of this vast
domain. It was rather a question of what sort
of states—and when.
To preserve the power of Federalist government in the Territory, St. Clair foresaw the
creation of two states in what is now Ohio.
The capitals of each would be Cincinnati
and Marietta—both solid Federalist towns
and likely to be loyal to George Washington
and his friends. On the other hand the
friends of Thomas Jefferson—led by Ohioan
Thomas Worthington—liked the idea of one
big state with a capital closer to the frontiersmen who also wanted it.
St. Clair held his own until Thomas Jefferson
became President in 1800 and soon forced
JOEL WRIGHT’S
NEW TOWN
The Act of the Ohio General Assembly,
passed on February 14, 1812, read in part,
Section 1. Be it enacted by the General
Assembly of the State of Ohio, That the proposals made to this legislature by Alexander
McLaughlin, John Kerr, Lyne Starling and
James Johnston, (to lay out a town on their
St. Clair from office. Thomas Worthington got
his state and placed its capital in Chillicothe—
down the hill from his home called Adena and
where he could keep an eye on Ohio and its
government. His brother in law, Edward Tiffin,
became the first governor.
But all was not well in Chillicothe. In
addition to Federalist enemies, the new state
government faced challenges from restless
residents of Ohio who wanted the state
capital in their town. From 1808 to 1810, the
capital had been moved to Zanesville in a
complicated agreement. Then in 1810 it
came back to Chillicothe. Now the hunt for a
permanent home was on once again.
A committee of the General Assembly visited
a number of towns looking for the best location.
They included Delaware, Circleville, Newark
and even Franklinton. After reviewing the contenders, that group recommended a place near
what is now Dublin. Then the Ohio General
Assembly, as it was wont to do, ignored its committee and looked at other locations.
In the end it picked a site assembled by
Lyne Starling and three other “Proprietors” on
the east side of the Scioto on the “High Banks
opposite Franklinton at the Forks of the Scioto
known as Wolf’s Ridge.” Noting that the land
was high and dry and “salubrious in climate”
the Proprietors—Starling, James Johnston,
Alexander McLaughlin and John Kerr—also
promised to pay $50,000 to build buildings
and make other improvements. This was an
immense sum at that time and it seemed like a
sealed deal. But a number of legislators balked,
hoping to capture the capital for their own
town at a later date. Inserting a line keeping
the capital in central Ohio “until 1840 or until
otherwise determined” did the trick and the
legislation passed.
lands…for the purpose of having the perma-
✧
nent seat of government thereon established;
Left: In early 1812, the Director of
also to convey to this state a square of ten
Columbus, Joel Wright, laid out the city
acres and a lot of ten acres, and to erect
with this compass and the help of Franklin
a statehouse, such offices and a penitentiary
County Surveyor, Joseph Vance. The
as shall be directed by the legislature) are
compass is now in the Ohio Statehouse.
hereby accepted…
The Act also stipulated that the General
Assembly would soon select a Director to
“view and examine the lands abovementioned
and superintend the surveying and laying out
of the town aforesaid; also to select the square
for public buildings; and the lot for the penitentiary and the dependencies according to
the proposals aforesaid; and he shall make a
report thereof to the next legislature.”
One week later the Ohio General Assembly
passed another Act giving the new town a
name. Joseph Foos, a part-time Militia officer
Below: Joel Wright’s plan of Columbus
reserved ten acres for a statehouse and ten
acres for a penitentiary. The large open area
in the middle of the plan was reserved to the
four Proprietors of Columbus. The original
plan is lost. Versions shown are from Lee’s
1892 History of Columbus.
CHAPTER
IV
31
and ferry operator from Franklinton was also
representing the area in the legislature. In the
days since the Assembly had picked a site,
he had been lobbying vigorously to name the
new town after his favorite historical figure.
There has been an unverifiable story for many
years that Foos pursued his advocacy by
providing his fellow members of the Assembly
with legendary quantities of strong drink.
However he pursued the topic, his lobbying
apparently worked. Rejecting “Ohio City” as a
contender, the Assembly adopted “Columbus”
as the name of the new state capital. On the
same day it also adopted legislation selecting
Joel Wright as the Director of the new town.
Wright was a logical choice for the job.
A well-known surveyor, Wright had more
than a little experience laying out towns. The
town plans of Dayton, Ohio, and Louisville,
Kentucky, were his and he had been surveying
in Ohio and Kentucky for more than twenty
years. Born in 1750, Wright was a member of
the Society of Friends called Quakers and had
lived in Pennsylvania for most of his life. He
had married there and had returned to his
wife and children there after his trips over the
mountains for many years. But his wife had
died in 1806 and his children had grown, so
Wright had moved to the Quaker settlement
near Waynesville, Ohio, in Warren County. It
was from there that he came to central Ohio
to lay out a new capital city.
Working with local surveyor and soldier
Joseph Vance, Wright spent the spring of
1812 laying out the new capital city. Standing
on the Indian trail along the ridge on the
eastern high banks of the Scioto, in the midst
of a towering old-growth hardwood forest,
Vance and Wright must have appeared as an
interesting pair to any observers passing by.
Joseph Vance is sometimes mistakenly
confused with a later Ohio governor of the
same name. Born in 1775, Vance had been an
early settler in Franklinton. Married in 1805,
he had served as Franklin County surveyor
since 1803 and would continue to do so until
his death in 1824. In his frontier garb of
buckskin and linsey-woolsey cloth, he would
supervise the chain carriers and insure that
the lines set out by Wright’s compass were
properly laid. Standing at the compass and
32
supervising the survey of the capital city was
a man who rather obviously came from a
different world than Joseph Vance.
There is no known surviving portrait of
Joel Wright. This is not too surprising since
many Quakers considered them to be an
exercise in vanity. But a description of his
appearance was provided in a later account
by one of his heirs. “He was about medium
size. He continued to wear, as long as he
lived, the costume that is familiar to us in
pictures of Revolutionary worthies, long
surtout, long waistcoat with flaps over the
pockets, knee breeches with silver buckles,
low cut shoes with silver buckles on the
instep, and a broad brimmed beaver hat.”
Joel Wright personally selected the site of
Statehouse Square and a ten acre site for the
Ohio Penitentiary. He also laid out the major
streets to be quite wide—a reaction in the
new towns of the west to the small, twisted
and traffic-filled streets of eastern cities.
Statehouse Square is located at the highest
point along the ridge and is almost equally
distant from what were then two large ravines
carrying rapidly moving water down to the
Scioto. One of the creeks has now been completely removed by the passage of Interstate
70 through the city. The other is still there
but well-hidden. Until the mid 1850s anyone
traveling north on High Street crossed the
stream that would become Spring Street over
a wooden bridge. Today the stream that flows
from several natural springs near Memorial
Hall moves under the street in a deeply
buried brick sewer.
Joel Wright also gave names to the streets
he created in the town plan of Columbus. The
major streets drew their names from similar
streets in the eastern towns Wright knew so
well—Broad Street, High Street, Wall Street,
Pearl Street. Others reflected the role of the
new place as both a symbolic as well as local
place—State Street, Town Street, Capital Alley.
Some of the streets reflected a landmark like
Mound Street. With a rather whimsical touch
Wright named most of the alleys after the
various trees that grew in the dense forest
along the ridge—Maple, Walnut, Cherry. And
perhaps in deference to his own denomination
he named one street Friend Street.
The one remarkable aspect of the town plan
is that the quite straight streets do not run truly
north and south or east and west. Instead the
whole town plan is tilted twelve degrees west of
true north. No one knows why. But a good
guess can be made that Wright adjusted his
town plan to fit the street alignment of nearby
Franklinton. And why did Lucas Sullivant lay
out his town a little to the left of center? Perhaps
because there is a difference between magnetic
north and true north and Sullivant did not correct for the change? Or perhaps Sullivant simply laid out his town to fit the lay of the land.
In any case by June of 1812, it was done.
Having made an agreement among themselves as to the division of any profit they
might make and collecting subscriptions in
the amount of $20,000, the Proprietors of
Columbus announced:
FOR SALE: On the premises commencing
on Thursday, the eighteenth day of June 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
The rematch between the United States
and Great Britain for the control of a continent had been coming for some time. The
continued occupation by the British of forts
in the Ohio Country had provided supply
bases for their Indian allies to not only continue the fur trade but to occasionally attack
American settlements. A bold new generation
of young political leaders like Henry Clay and
John C. Calhoun had vehemently argued that
Canada was weak and defenseless and ripe
for the taking.
At the same time, Britain had been having
great difficulty finding sailors to man its
gigantic fleet in its continuing campaign to
blockade Napoleonic Europe. It solved this
problem by boarding American ships on the
high seas and “impressing” seamen presumed
to be deserters from the British Navy. Some
were but many were not and the American
government was offended by the incursion.
President James Madison had done his best to
avoid a conflict but continuing abuses and an
increasingly angry population left him little
choice. America would go to war with Britain.
✧
The Franklinton Cemetery on River Street
is one of the oldest in Ohio. Many people
buried there were later removed to other
cemeteries. But some of the founders of
Franklinton—and Ohio—are still there.
government for the state of Ohio.” After some
further description, the announcement concluded by noting that ease of transportation
would soon “make the country on the Scioto
River rich and populous.
Apparently a sizeable number of people—
especially from across the river in Franklinton—
agreed with the Proprietors and not only
arrived to inspect the site but to buy lots.
Most of the initial sales were of lots along
High and Broad Streets for amounts ranging
from $200 to $1000. These were large sums
of money in a time when an average worker
might earn considerably less than a dollar a
day and when land could be purchased in
Ohio in many places for $1 to $2 per acre.
But Columbus was a new town in a new state
and people felt confident about their future.
Perhaps they were a bit too confident.
WAR COMES TO COLUMBUS
On the same day the lots were sold in
Columbus, the United States went to war
with Great Britain.
CHAPTER
IV
33
✧
Above: General William Henry Harrison,
“Old Tippecanoe” used Franklinton—
among other places—as a mobilization
center in the War of 1812.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
Below: Many years after the fact, General
Harrison was reputed to have used the 1808
Oberdier House as a headquarters. He
probably didn’t, but the legend was enough
to save the house from destruction in 1975.
It is the second oldest standing structure in
downtown Columbus.
Back in central Ohio, work proceeded apace
for a brief time on the new capital city. Trees
were felled to begin to clear streets through the
forest although stumps would remain both in
the streets and on people’s lots for some time.
A number of modest cabins were constructed
in the forest and work began on split rail fences
to surround both the statehouse square and the
penitentiary site. As the summer turned toward
the fall a man named John Collett learned that
the new state house would eventually be
constructed near the corner of State and High
Streets on the square. Diagonally across the
street, Collett would build the first brick
building in Columbus—a two story brick
tavern. A little further up the street at Broad
and High, the somewhat pretentiously named
Worthington Manufacturing Company would
open a two story brick store at Broad and High
Streets selling the essentials of frontier life—
powder, shot, salt and hardware. Through
most of the rest of the village of a few people in
that first winter there was very little else. Most
people who had bought lots and cleared a bit
of land went back home and waited to see how
the war would go.
It would not go well.
The War of 1812 began with the greatest
of expectations in what was then the Great
34
American West. People living in the frontier
state of Ohio felt quite confident that their
armies, raised from local frontiersmen, would
quickly and decisively defeat the stodgy British
and their less than capable Indian allies.
Frontier Franklinton, sitting in the heart
of Ohio saw itself as the central staging area
of this new conflict. And indeed it was.
During most of the war, large numbers of
troops would gather here, train here and
march from here to do battle against
America’s enemies to the north. And while all
of these troops were here, they would need
food, and drink and amusements of all
sorts—all provided by the increasingly
wealthy merchants of Franklinton. Virtually
non-existent Columbus on the other side of
the river would see little growth at all
through the war.
The commander of the American armies in
the west was General William Hull. A veteran
of the Revolution, Hull had fought well in that
war and his brother Isaac was commanding
the soon to be quite famous American frigate
Constitution. But the American Revolution
had ended almost thirty years earlier and Hull,
now governor of the Michigan Territory, was
older, weaker and frankly frightened, not of
his British opponents but of their Indian allies.
General Hull assembled his army at
Dayton and marched north to Urbana gathering volunteers to his cause from as far east
as Franklinton. Striking north, he moved
through the Great Black Swamp building a
road whose route is still in use today and
quickly took Detroit as the British retreated
before him. After a brief incursion into
Canada, he fell back to Detroit and awaited a
British attack. It was not long in coming. The
British force, less than half the size of Hull’s
demanded his immediate surrender. To the
astonishment of the British and the consternation of his officers, Hull surrendered.
Now the whole Northwest was open to
attack. Responding to the challenge was
William Henry Harrison. Grandson of a signer
of the Declaration of Independence, Harrison
had gone west to seek his fortune. He found
it in a battle in Indiana at a place called
Tippecanoe in 1811 and now desperately
assembled a new force to stop the British.
Franklinton became an armed camp. The
newly constructed courthouse on the main
square of town became a fortress and refuge
with a large stockade and defensive ditch
built around it. Harrison was in town repeatedly seeking men and supplies for his campaigns. A brick house in Franklinton later
became associated with him. It was not his
headquarters, but he undoubtedly visited it
from time to time.
Franklinton and the people there who provided help to him were critical to his success.
By the summer of 1813, Harrison had rebuilt
an army and would successfully use it to
defend both Fort Meigs near Toledo and Fort
Stephenson in what is now Fremont, Ohio.
But to undertake a new invasion of Canada,
he needed at least the neutrality if not the
support of the Ohio Indian tribes. In July,
1813, he brought them together in the
back yard of Lucas Sullivant in Franklinton.
Under a large elm tree, he asked for their
✧
Above: In 1822, Lucas Sullivant erected this
land office at Green and Gay Streets in
Franklinton. He died the next year and this
would be his last building. It is the only
building directly associated with him that is
still standing. It was placed behind Harrison
House in 1983.
Left: In July, 1813, General Harrison held a
critical conference with the Native
American tribes of Ohio to seek their
neutrality in the War of 1812. He got it
from Wyandot chieftain Tarhe under this
tree in what was then Lucas Sullivant’s back
yard. The picture was made in 1892.
CHAPTER
IV
35
✧
Above: In the early 1900s, Tarhe’s tree fell
victim to Dutch Elm disease and was
removed. This plaque was erected nearby.
Below: Seeing where the future lay, Sullivant
built the first bridge across the Scioto in
1816. It looked something like the bridge in
this 1832 sketch. The sketch is on a
Staffordshire Blue turkey platter in
the Statehouse.
support and specifically that of Tarhe, principal
chief of the Wyandots. He got it and marched
to Canada. His army not only defeated
the British but also killed the charismatic
Shawnee leader Tecumseh.
Returning from Canada, Harrison had a
large number of prisoners. He put some of
them on a sandbar in the Scioto with a view
of the Franklinton graveyard and left them to
their own devices. A number of them immediately tried to escape and were shot dead by
American sharpshooters. Until it was washed
away after a number of floods, the lonely
place was called British Island and sometimes, Bloody Island.
With Harrison’s victory, the war in the
West was virtually over. The war elsewhere
went on for two more years. When it was
over, both America and central Ohio were
ready to move on. The village of Franklinton
had grown in both numbers and wealth
during the war. New stores and enterprises
had come into being. The first newspaper in
central Ohio, the Freeman’s Chronicle, was
published by James Gardiner on a press first
36
used in early Marietta. Large numbers of
doctors, lawyers and other professionals were
on hand. And now, at the end of the war, they
looked across the river and saw a capital city
about to be born. They crossed the river and
came to Columbus.
They did so quite often—so often in fact
that Lucas Sullivant worried about getting
them back from time to time. To solve the
problem, in 1816 he built the first bridge
across the Scioto. It was an open top bridge
on wooden struts and was not terribly strong.
But it worked.
The bridge was the first recognition that a
new town was coming into being across the
river. Soon the first church in central Ohio—
the First Presbyterian—would move across
the river. So too would Franklinton’s first doctors—Lincoln Goodale and James Edmiston.
And so too would many of the stores, shops
and tradesmen that had made their living in
Franklinton during the war.
It was time to leave the village of
Franklinton and travel across the river to the
borough beyond the bridge.
CHAPTER V
THE HUB OF THE WHEEL
1816-1840
BUILDING A BOROUGH
A person walking across the bridge over the Scioto River completed by Lucas Sullivant in 1816
to the new capital city of Columbus from the village of Franklinton would probably have noticed
rather quickly that there was not much of a city there. In fact there was not much of a town or
even a village. To say “Columbus grew slowly at first” as one early observer did, was perhaps a
bit of an understatement.
By the fall of 1812 two major buildings—both brick and two stories tall—had been erected in
the new town. Both had drawn their bricks from clay in the Indian mound at Mound and High
Streets. Their builders by no means would be the last people to do so.
✧
In 1818, John McGowan founded the
first suburb of the new village—McGowan’s
Addition to Columbus—at the bottom of the
map. Today it is called German Village.
This reproduction of the map is in
the Statehouse.
CHAPTER
V
37
✧
The very first public building in the new
capital city was the Ohio Penitentiary in
1813. It was built first because prison labor
would be used to build the rest of the new
capital city.
During the War of 1812, very little had
been done to increase either the size or
sophistication of Columbus. The Ohio
General Assembly had described in considerable detail in an Act of both houses what the
specifications of both a penitentiary and a
statehouse should be. There was apparently
some concern that without guidelines firmly
set forth, Director Wright and his associates
might build something too big, too elaborate
and most importantly—too expensive—for
the frontier state to accept.
Joel Wright, the Director of Columbus,
looked at these instructions and gathered
material about diverse prisons and other
public buildings. He then dug and placed
foundations and gathered some building
materials in the fall of 1812. And then he
resigned, went home and sent the Assembly a
bill for services rendered.
In 1813, the new Director of Columbus,
William Ludlow, got to work finishing what
Joel Wright had begun. His first major project
was the prison. It turned out to be a two story
building built on the side of the sloping bank
leading down to the river. Leaving the basement, open on one side, one entered a compound of a few acres surrounded by a high
38
fence. In the two story house of local limestone, the first floor was set aside for the warden and his family and was entered from the
street. The top floor was set aside into thirteen
cells—nine with light and four without. The
only entrance to the top floor was from the
prison yard. Entering the prison through
the front door, one was interviewed by the
warden. The choices were simple. Either one
was released to the world or one was dropped
through a trapdoor to the prison below—a
place where life was not very nice at all.
The Ohio Penitentiary was the first public
building completed in Columbus and it was
soon filled with a band of hard working but
rather variously motivated people. Some
prisoners worked to win favor. Others worked
to dispel boredom. But virtually all of them
worked—digging foundations, making bricks,
and erecting the other buildings needed by
Columbus. And at the end of the day, they
went to their new home at the penitentiary.
The prison was the first public building finished in Columbus for a very simple reason.
Prison labor would be used to build the rest of
the city. By early 1816, with some penitentiary
help, the new public buildings for the new
capital city of Ohio were either completed or
well underway. Most important among them
was the new statehouse.
It was, as one writer put it, “a common
plain brick building. seventy-five feet north
and south by fifty feet, east and west, on the
ground, and two lofty stories high, with a
square roof, that is, eaves and cornices, at
both sides and ends, and ascending to the
balcony and steeple in the center, at which
there was a first rate, well-toned bell. The top
of the spire was 106 feet from the ground. On
the roof adjoining the balcony, on two sides
were neat railed walks, from which a spectator might view the whole town as upon a
map, and had also a view of the winding
Scioto, and of the level country around as far
as the eye could reach.”
A later account recorded,
The halls, we are told, were ‘of good size’
and of ‘respectable wooden finish’ consisting
in part of large wooden columns handsomely
turned…The columns were painted in imitation of ‘clouded marble’…The interior walls of
the legislative chambers were hung with maps
of the state and engraved copies of the
Declaration of Independence besides ‘various
other articles of use and ornament.’
A year after the completion of the
Statehouse, a state office building was erected
adjacent to it along High Street. The building
was built of brick and was one hundred and
twenty-five feet long by twenty-five feet
wide and two stories tall. It held the offices of
the governor, Secretary of State, auditor and
treasurer on the ground floor and the State
Library as well as the Adjutant General on
the second floor. It was not very elegant
and over the course of time acquired the
nickname of “Rat Row”—whether for the
character of its furnishing or its occupants
was never entirely clear.
In 1820, a United State Courthouse was
erected along High Street north of the state
office building. Two stories in height and,
predictably, made of brick, the building
was approximately fifty feet square. The
bottom floor held offices. The second floor
held the court room and an adjacent jury
room. The entire building was topped by an
elaborate circular latticed wooden dome
which was painted a rather garish green.
When the dome was weakened by wood rot
and fell off during a storm in the 1830s,
it was not replaced. No one objected to
its loss.
✧
The northeast corner of State and
High Streets became the center of state
government. At the corner was the two
story brick statehouse. Next to it was the
state office building—soon to be called
“rat row.” And next to it was the
federal courthouse.
CHAPTER
V
39
✧
Governor Thomas Worthington and his
friends had arguably made Ohio a state.
Now he did his best to tidy up the new
capital city. In doing so, he soon found
himself in trouble with the first mayor of
Columbus, Jarvis Pike.
With the completion of these buildings the
basic work of constructing public buildings
in Columbus was completed. Now the work
of making the capital livable was begun
in earnest.
In the autumn of 1816 more than a dozen
ladies of the town held a sewing party in the
first floor of the Statehouse and completed
the first carpet of that chamber. The affair
had been suggested by Governor Thomas
Worthington who came by and left the ladies
with a number of apples from his Ross
County orchard. It was the simple way things
were done in those days.
Thomas Worthington was the third governor of Ohio and, more than any other single
individual, had brought Ohio into being as a
state. Now, just as his home in Chillicothe
had been the first capital, he was determined
to make the new capital his own. A man of
definite opinions and accustomed to getting
his own way in short order, he looked about
Columbus for someone to carry out his
wishes without complaint.
He decided that the mayor was probably
that person. It was not the wisest of choices.
In 1816 a number of residents of
Columbus concluded that the previous
method of operating the capital had outlived
its usefulness. Columbus had been managed
since 1812 by an all-powerful director who
could plan the city, build buildings and
generally get things done. The Director—first
Joel Wright and then William Ludlow—could
also levy taxes on the residents, and enforce
order by whatever means he saw to be
appropriate. Joel Wright, the amiable Quaker,
balked at using such power, and departed in
less than a year. William Ludlow on the other
hand treasured his authority and used it.
Now political and social power in the new
capital of Ohio began to shift. When they
were in town, the most important people in
the small village of Columbus would be
the members of the Ohio General Assembly
who had brought it into being. But the
General Assembly—and for that matter other
state elected officials—were not in town all
that often. So in their absence the director
of Columbus—William Ludlow—was the
all-important figure. But Ludlow’s job was
40
primarily to lay out a town and build its
public buildings.
Now that job was almost done. Indeed, in
1817, Ludlow would present a final accounting to the legislature of his work and a bill
from the four Proprietors of Columbus for
monies expended beyond the $50,000 they
had originally promised. In the end the
Proprietors collected another $33,000.
The four Proprietors of Columbus—
Starling, Johnston, McLaughlin and Kerr—
were still important men in Columbus in
1816. After all, they still owned much of the
town. But their major business was in recruiting more people to come to Columbus and
selling them a lot once they got here. And
they were becoming increasingly successful
in their efforts.
By 1816, with the Ohio General Assembly
soon to arrive, the prominent residents of
the city—meaning the owners of the hotels,
taverns and other businesses—decided they’d
had enough of government by director—as
honest and forthright as William Ludlow
might be—and that it was time for a real
town to have a real government. So the residents of Columbus incorporated themselves
and the Borough of Columbus was born.
Gathering together at the Columbus Inn, the
new council of the Borough elected a mayor
from among their number.
It was to the new first mayor of Columbus
that Governor Thomas Worthington came
seeking help with a few undertakings he
had in mind. The mayor’s name was Jarvis
Pike and, like the governor, he was a man
accustomed to getting things done.
A not-all-that-distant relative of Zebulon
Pike, of Pike’s Peak fame, Jarvis Pike was part
of the younger generation that settled much of
the Northwest Territory in the years after the
Revolution. His father had been a captain in
the Revolution and brought his family west to
settle in the then-frontier lands of Oneida
County, New York, in the early 1790s. It was
there that young Jarvis came of age, started a
family and served for a time as a judge.
Born in 1766, Jarvis Pike was in his early
forties when he decided to seek his fortune
further west and move his family to Ohio
accompanied by his brother Benjamin.
Settling originally Madison County in 1812,
the Pikes soon became attracted to Columbus.
Jarvis Pike liked what he saw and soon
became a strong advocate of the new town—
as well as a political activist.
In 1814, as the War of 1812 continued,
Pike and his friends erected a liberty pole and
a flag by the hole in the ground that would
soon be the statehouse. It was soon torn
down. Re-erected, the pole and flag were torn
down again. Ten men, led by Jarvis Pike,
formed a Vigilance Committee and offered a
$100 reward for the perpetrator whom they
assumed was loyal to Britain and “lost to all
sense of decency.” They also vowed in due
course “to give our expression in favor of
those who are qualified by disposition and
information to serve the people by promoting
their interest and happiness.” The culprit was
never found but Jarvis Pike was later elected
mayor by his fellow councilmen in the first
election in the borough of Columbus.
Governor Worthington had a number of
issues on his mind in 1816. But the one that
bothered him the most when he was in
Columbus was the awful condition of the
capitol square. It was still full of trees, brush,
and wandering animals and could scarcely be
distinguished from the surrounding forest
that still constituted much of downtown.
So he contracted with Jarvis Pike to clear
the ground and properly fence it—for a
reasonable fee. The mayor proceeded to the
task, probably working with his eighteen
year old son, Jarvis W. Pike, a man with
whom the old judge would sometimes later
be confused.
Judge Pike completed the job and presented his bill to the governor. The governor did
not pay it. He did not refuse to pay it. He
simply failed to do so after repeated requests.
Exasperated, Pike swore out a capias warrant,
had the governor detained and brought
before Squire King, a local Justice of the
Peace, to collect his money. Held at something of a disadvantage, the governor made
an arrangement with the mayor. In lieu of
money, which the governor did not have,
Pike could have the use of the Statehouse
grounds for a time until the state might need
the ground for its own use. Pike agreed and
grew corn on Statehouse Square for a number
of years. He also built a sturdy fence to keep
local pigs out of the square and local legislators in. So ended the first time a local official
took Ohio’s governor to court. It would not
be the last.
But at least the Statehouse grounds looked
nice when President James Monroe rode
into town in 1817. Traveling on a tour of
inspection of what was then “The West,”
Monroe arrived in town from Worthington
accompanied by the local Franklin Dragoons
mounted militia company. After a brief
welcome at the statehouse, the President
complimented what he called the “infant city”
on its progress and rode on. It was observed
at the time that the President seemed trail
worn and sunburned, but also quite happy to
be on the road in what had come to be called
the Era of Good Feelings.
As to Jarvis Pike, the judge only served as
mayor of Columbus for two years during
which time he also operated an inn called
the Yankee Tavern. Joining with a newcomer
named William Neil, he went into the
stagecoach business and had little time for
politics. Eventually he became a devotee of
the botanic medicine of one Samuel
Thompson and editor in Columbus of the
Thomsonian Recorder, a national newspaper
describing the benefits of the good doctor’s
practices. Remembered as the “Honorable
Jarvis Pike,” the Judge died on the morning
of January 28, 1836, leaving a widow,
two children and a brother who “mourn at
his departure.”
✧
President James Monroe rode into Columbus
in 1817 on an inspection tour of what was
then the west. He complimented the
“Infant City” and rode on. This sketch of his
arrival in town was made in 1888.
CHAPTER
V
41
✧
Above: John Kerr was one of the four
original Proprietors of Columbus. Two of the
others went broke in later land speculations.
Only Kerr and Lyne Starling made money
in the new city. Then Kerr died young in
1823. He was buried where North Market
is today. The third mayor of Columbus is
still there.
Below: Lyne Starling, the handsome
bachelor and Proprietor of Columbus, never
married. At his death in 1848, most of his
fortune went to establish the Starling
Medical College and hospital.
By the time Jarvis Pike died in 1836, the
capital city of Ohio had gone through a
period of enormous change and a whole
new generation had come of age. The Era of
Good feelings that had marked the Monroe
Administration came to an abrupt end. The
economy, artificially lifted by the War of
1812, declined in the 1820s. With that
decline came a precipitous drop in the value
of real estate. Lots in Columbus that had sold
for $1000 now were being sold at Sheriff’s
sale for $100 or less. A number of people
were economically ruined.
Among them were two of the Proprietors of
Columbus. James Johnston and Alexander
McLaughlin had continued to buy land at
higher and higher prices. When the crash
came, they were wiped out. Johnston returned
to his former home at Pittsburgh and died
there in poverty in 1842. McLaughlin ended
his career as a rural schoolmaster—the only
job he could find. John Kerr had followed
Jarvis Pike as a later mayor of Columbus and
rose out the troubles of the early 1820s rather
well until he died of malarial fever in 1823. He
left his family reasonably well off and was
buried with appropriate honors and ceremony
in the graveyard which he had given the city in
1813. The North Graveyard, and later an East
Graveyard, served the city until the 1870s
when they were closed and many people in
them were moved to Green Lawn Cemetery.
Many—but not all. Somewhere in the area
where the North Market is today lies the
lost grave of John Kerr—the third mayor
of Columbus.
Of all the Proprietors, only Lyne Starling
really did well. Investing his money in a
variety of businesses, Starling rode out
wars, depressions and other upheavals with
remarkable aplomb. Never marrying, Starling
died in 1848 and left the bulk of his estate to
found the first medical school and hospital in
the city. Starling Medical College in downtown Columbus later became St. Francis
Hospital and the medical school part of The
Ohio State University College of Medicine.
As Columbus entered the 1820s, despite the
downturn in the economy, it was still definitely
becoming the place to be in central Ohio. Lucas
Sullivant had recognized this with the bridge he
built across the river. In 1822, Sullivant erected
a new one story brick land office only a block
away from his home. It would be his last building. Less than one year later, Sullivant died in
the same round of virulent malarial fever that
took the life of John Kerr in Columbus. Within
a year, the county seat, which had been in
Franklinton since 1803, would move across the
river to Columbus.
Columbus was becoming the center of
central Ohio.
A TOWN OF RIVER RAFTS
AND COACHES
In the 1820s, there were many new businesses trying to establish themselves in the
new capital city. Some were service businesses like the inns, taverns and hotels that had
met the needs of the general assembly since
the town was founded. Others were a bit
more mundane. Every town of any size in the
era before refrigeration and preservation of
food had a public market. Columbus was no
exception and opened its first public market
in the middle of the intersection of Rich and
High Streets—close to the statehouse and the
hotels along High Street that served them.
But the biggest business of these years
was transportation—or trying desperately to
42
remedy the lack thereof. Lucas Sullivant had
founded his town at the forks of the Scioto
with the confident assumption that any
town placed where two rivers came together
had to prosper. Perhaps Columbus was destined to prosper—but not because of these
two rivers.
What Sullivant and other seemed to miss
was the point that there was a big difference
between a canoe or even a keelboat and a
large flat-bottomed raft—fifty feet wide by a
hundred feet long—with outriding oars to
guide the huge cargo laden craft down the
river. The Scioto could handle small craft very
well. In fact, a number of legislators from
southern Ohio took skiffs to return home
from legislative sessions.
But south of Columbus the Scioto River
narrowed and became considerably more
shallow. The only time the large flatboats full
of agricultural products and livestock could
successfully go down the river was for a few
weeks in the early spring when the river rose
in flood season. And then one took one’s life
in one’s hands trying to steer one of the huge
rafts down the river. Still, many people tried
to do it anyway.
One of the people who tried was a young
man from Kentucky named William Neil.
Neil had arrived in Columbus in 1818 with his
wife, Hannah, determined to make a success
of himself. Failing in an effort to negotiate the
river with a raft, he took a job with a local
bank while his wife Hannah ran a small tavern
✧
Above: In 1832, the Army Corps of
Engineers came to town and built a new
covered bridge across the Scioto to carry the
National Road. It would last for
many years.
Below: Thomas Kelah Wharton came to
Columbus in 1831 and stayed for a brief
time. An accomplished sketch artist, he drew
the first known picture of the new town.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE NEW YORK
PUBLIC LIBRARY.
CHAPTER
V
43
✧
Clockwise, starting from the top:
The Neil family—in addition to their other
ventures—established the first Neil House
Hotel in 1839—across the street from the
Statehouse. It would not be the last.
He was called the “Old Stage King.”
William Neil came to Columbus in 1818.
He soon drifted into stagecoaches and found
he liked the business. By 1840 he was the
most powerful stagecoach entrepreneur in
America. Neil Avenue was his private lane.
in a log house across the street from the
capitol building on High Street. While another local resident named David Deshler was
leaving cabinet making behind to go into
banking at his home near Broad and High
Streets, Billy Neil was deciding that his future
was elsewhere. It was in stagecoaches.
In the 1820s, it did not take much to start
a stagecoach line. If one had a coach and
some horses at each end of a run about ten
miles long, one was in business. The first
stage lines in the area ran from Columbus
to Worthington or Columbus to Granville or
Columbus to Circleville. They ran on a rather
eccentric schedule depending on the weather
and other impediments. But they did run and
provided a reasonably regular way to deliver
people, goods and mail around central Ohio.
Working in partnership with Adam Zinn, the
pioneer coachman in central Ohio, and Judge
Jarvis Pike, William Neil put together a series
of stagecoach companies that were faster,
After his death in 1870 his farm became
The Ohio State University.
While Billy Neil was driving coaches, his
wife Hannah was organizing private charity
in Columbus. She was a founder of
Columbus’ oldest charity, the Columbus
Female Benevolent Society.
44
safer, and cheaper than many of their rivals.
It was a tough business and only the strong
survived the travails of rough roads and even
rougher competitors. William Neil was the
toughest of them all and by 1840 his Neil,
Moore & Co. stagecoach line was the biggest
in the Midwest.
Not trusting banks all that much, Neil put
his profits—and they were quite large—into
land. Arriving in Columbus, he had stayed
briefly at the home of County Surveyor
Joseph Vance about three miles north of
Columbus on the road to Worthington. He
always admired it and after the death of
Vance in 1824, Neil bought the property as
his country home. Over the years he added to
his holdings until they included most of the
land between High Street and the Olentangy
River from Lane Avenue south to Goodale
Park. Neil’s brother Robert, also a stagecoach
entrepreneur, owned much of the land on the
other side of High Street. In addition to his
land holdings, William Neil bought a number
of properties in downtown Columbus and in
1839 built the first of what would eventually
be three Neil House hotels. It was a significant lifetime of accomplishment by a remarkable man. When William Neil died in 1870,
his farm would become the home of the new
Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College,
later The Ohio State University.
While William Neil was helping redefine
business in central Ohio, his wife was helping
redefine charity. In the earliest years of the
city, there was little in the way of organized
charity except for the charitable efforts of
church congregations to people in need
and the kindliness of individuals in helping
one another.
But by the 1830s, it was becoming clear
something else was needed. Families moving
across the state might find themselves bereft
of resources and unable to go any further.
They moved into the poorer parts of town
and became a burden to the community.
Many of these poorer areas were located
along the bed of the ravines that course
through the village on their way to the river.
Others were located in the wet and swampy
areas scattered around Columbus.
To help these people, Hannah Neil and
others organized the Columbus Female
Benevolent Society in 1839. It is the oldest
organized charity in Columbus and still exists
as a fund of the Columbus
Foundation. In her later years,
the Hannah Neil Mission and
Home for the Friendless was
also brought into being with
her support. It still is serving
the community.
While William Neil was
building his stagecoach empire,
other forces were working to
make Columbus a transportation center. One of them was
an initiative of the federal
government. The other was an
activity sponsored by the State
of Ohio.
✧
Above: The key to the success of the Neil
family was a safe, reliable and easy to
maintain stagecoach—like the one seen here
at the Statehouse.
Left: Late in her life, Hannah Neil became
a sponsor of what later would come to be
called the Hannah Neil Mission and Home
for the Friendless. It occupied the Neville
family home on East Main Street and stayed
there for years.
CHAPTER
V
45
✧
For a relatively landlocked city, the
Ever since the country was founded, members of Congress from the western territories
and then the western states had argued vociferously for federal support for transportation.
If the country was to prosper, said Henry
Clay of Kentucky, the national government
should subsidize improvements to road, river
and lake transportation. It was a tough sell.
Many people living in the East did not think
using their tax money to help their western
competitors was all that wise.
That is why a National Road begun in 1811
in the East took until the early 1830s to reach
Columbus where it stopped for a few years.
Many people, taking the National Road with
its all-weather roadbed and safe bridges got to
Columbus and saw that there was no road on
the other side of town. So they decided to
stay. More importantly the completion of the
National Road gave Columbus a link to the East
shared by only a few other cities in the state.
Columbus Feeder of the Ohio and Erie
Canal was a welcome sight. Combined with
the effect of the arrival of the National
THE CANAL COMES
TO COLUMBUS
Road, the city would double in size.
This view of the canal entering the Scioto
River was made in 1906.
The National Road was helpful to the
growth of Columbus. So too was the Ohio
and Erie Canal.
46
Canals are nothing new in the history
of western civilization. People have been
building them where rivers are not all that
reliable or where they don’t exist at all for
hundreds of years. But canals are expensive,
complicated projects and were not all
that common in America. At least they were
not until De Witt Clinton and his colleagues
completed the Erie Canal linking the Atlantic
to the Great Lakes and opening up New York
State to easy transportation.
Then, many people—including many people
in Ohio—wanted one too.
An original idea had been to do something
similar to what had been done in New York
and build one great canal crossing the middle
of the state. The difference would be that this
canal would run north and south and connect the Ohio River to the Great Lakes.
But it soon became clear that it was not
technically possible to build such a canal
through the center of the state. At this point
some people might have simply given up
and abandoned the idea. But the idea did not
die. In fact if anything it became even more
elaborate. Now instead of one canal, the
people of Ohio would sell bonds and build
two canals—The Miami and Erie in western
Ohio and the Ohio and
Erie from Portsmouth
to Cleveland. Columbus
would be linked to the
Ohio and Erie by a
Feeder Canal leading
south from the city.
Looking back later
many people would be
recognized as having
helped build Ohio’s
canals. Among them were
legislators, engineers and
the dozens of men who
dug the hundreds of
miles of ditch fifteen feet
deep and thirty feet wide
across the state. But perhaps most critical to the
success of the canals—as
well as many other projects over the early 1800s
in Ohio—was one man.
Alfred Kelley came to Ohio
from New York in 1810.
Settling in Cleveland, the twenty-one year old attorney served
as the first mayor of Cleveland
and then came to Columbus
as the youngest man in the
Ohio General Assembly. When
he retired in 1857, he was
representing Columbus and
had served as a legislator longer
than anyone else. Sometimes
called the architect of Ohio’s
banking system he was also
rightly called the “Father of
Ohio’s Canal System.”
It was not hard to see why.
Someone had to review the
contracts, oversee the contractors and generally make sure
the canals were built correctly.
Walking the entire length of
both canals, Alfred Kelley was
that supervisor. Later when
the state was in danger of
defaulting on its canal bonds in
the 1830s, Kelley pledged his magnificent
Greek Revival Columbus home to insure
payment on the bonds. It came to be called
“The House that Saved Ohio.”
William T. Martin in his history of
Columbus described the opening of the canal
to Columbus:
On the 23rd of September, 1831, the first
boat arrived at Columbus by way of the canal.
About eight o’clock in the evening, the firing
of cannon announced the approach of the
“Governor Brown” a canal boat launched at
Circleville a few days previous, and neatly
fitted up for an excursion of pleasure to this
place, several of the most respectable citizens
of Pickaway County being on board as
passengers. The next morning at an early
hour, a considerable number of ladies and
gentlemen of Columbus repaired to the
boat in order to pay their respects to the
visitors…the
party
proceeded
back
to
Circleville, accompanied a short distance by
a respectable number of the citizens of
Columbus, and the Columbus band of music.
✧
Left: When it was completed in 1835, the
Greek Revival Kelley Mansion was the finest
house in the city. Offered as collateral to
secure Ohio’s debt in 1837, it became “the
house that saved Ohio.” Threatened with
destruction in 1963, its stones were
numbered as the building was taken apart.
The stones still sit—in a field near
Cleveland—waiting to come home.
Below: Alfred Kelley came to Columbus in
1816—after serving a term as the first
mayor of Cleveland—to serve in the Ohio
General Assembly. He never went home. He
ended a long career in 1859 serving as the
Senator from central Ohio. He was the
father of Ohio’s banking system, the
superintendent of its canal system and a
promoter of a number of railroads.
He had a very busy life.
Longtime Columbus resident Emily
Stewart later remembered the almost
magical nature of the allure of the canal.
“The first canal boats seemed like fairy
palaces. They were painted white and the
windows had green shutters and scarlet
curtains. The inside panels of the cabin
contained mirrors and pictures. The officers
of the passenger boats were gentlemen…
For years after the canal opened, the boats
always came in with a band of music playing
on board. The captain of the boat usually
played the clarinet for the entertainment
of the passengers…A trip to Europe now is
nothing to a canal trip then…”
Columbus was now more open to the
world than it had ever been. And that
world would soon be coming to Columbus.
By 1834, Columbus had seen enough new
people arrive by the canal and the National
Road that the village of a few thousand
legally became a city of more than 5,000
inhabitants. With a newly elected and
reorganized city council and mayor,
Columbus was about to become a city in fact.
CHAPTER
V
47
CHAPTER VI
THE CITY CHALLENGED 1840-1865
UPON THIS HOUSE
✧
This is the best early birdseye view of
Columbus. Constructed with imagination by
people making sketches on the ground and
then lifting them and themselves above the
city, this birdseye looks at Columbus from
Goodale and High Streets in about 1854.
July 4 has always been a day to do a little celebrating in Columbus, Ohio. But the celebration
of July 4, 1839, was something of a wonder to behold. A large group of people consisting of bands
of music, military companies and large numbers of people both on foot and on horseback marched
and countermarched through the town until the entire group ended up on Statehouse Square at
the northeast corner of what appeared to be a rather large hole in the ground. A closer examination would reveal it to be the basement and foundation of what must be a very large building.
It was to be a very large building indeed. By 1836, only twenty years after the first Statehouse
had been built on the corner of State and High Streets, a number of legislators and state officials
had concluded that something should be done to replace the statehouse. As such things go,
it took two years of internal and external lobbying until The Ohio General Assembly decided to
act and authorize the construction of a new building. A contest with cash prizes of $500, $300
and $200 for the best plan for a new building was won by Henry Walter.
48
…
Walter’s design was breathtaking. Ohio, a
new state with a small population—many of
whom still lived in cabins—was proposing
to build a new statehouse that would be
second only to the United States Capitol in
size and magnificence. Simply accepting such
a plan, much less actually building it, was a
confirmation of Ohio’s faith in its future.
Now after a year of work, frugally
undertaken by prison labor, the cornerstone
was ready to be laid. The stone itself was a
huge block of hollowed limestone more
than six feet by three feet by two feet and
euphemistically called “the coffin.” Filled
with lead lined glass jars, the cornerstone
contained copies of newspapers, public
papers, local coinage and other documents.
Ex-Governor Jeremiah Morrow gave
the principal address of the day. He said
in conclusion:
And may the councils of truth and justice
and public virtue reside in its halls; may discord and faction be put far from them; and
may a free and united people who reared it,
and whose temple it is, watch over and cherish within its walls the form and spirit of their
republican institutions. And may the blessings
of benign Providence, now and through all
coming time, rest upon this people, and upon
this house, the work of their hands. I now lay
the cornerstone of the Capitol of Ohio.
Would that it would have been that easy.
The extraordinary and magnificent Ohio
Statehouse was estimated to cost about
$250,000 and take about two years to build.
It would take twenty-two years and cost
almost $1,500,000 to complete. It would
take so long and cost so much for a number
of reasons. First and foremost, many people
CHAPTER
VI
49
house. It would not be his last. But between
Jeremiah Morrow’s benediction and Lincoln’s
last visit a lot would happen in the capital city.
A BUSY TOWN
OF NEW PEOPLE
✧
Above: By 1855, there was a new
Statehouse—as yet uncompleted—on the
square. There is a Neil House Hotel to the
right and a hay wagon at Broad and
High Streets.
Opposite, top: Completed in 1832,
the new, improved Ohio Penitentiary was
considerably larger and more orderly than
its predecessor. And where else would one
find a tree in the midst of the prison yard?
Opposite, bottom: By 1856, Columbus and
Franklin County were beginning to grow.
That growth can be seen on this map with
dozens of new towns and crossroads
communities. The original map is more than
five feet tall.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE FRANKLIN COUNTY
ENGINEER’S OFFICE.
living elsewhere across Ohio knew that if
this great building were ever completed,
the capital city would never be moved to
another town—perhaps their town. So much
was done to delay and stop construction. And
of course the delayers were right. Since the
building was completed no one has seriously
proposed moving the capital.
Those disputes resolved, it still took a
while to get the building built. This was
mostly because the sponsors of the project,
the Ohio General Assembly and the state’s
elected officials, were hard people to please
and often changed their minds. So the project
went through numerous architects, engineers
and construction managers. With all of the
changes and delays, the building was still in
need of a lot of work by the early 1850s.
Then fortuitously, the old statehouse
burned to the ground in a blatant case of
arson for which no one was ever prosecuted.
While local souvenir dealers made money
selling miniatures of the old statehouse bell—
made from the original broken bell of the
destroyed building—work on the new statehouse suddenly became very busy indeed.
By early 1857, the ugly board fence around
the square to contain prison labor was gone,
the older buildings were removed and the new
statehouse was occupied after a grand ball in
which guests danced till dawn. The building
was not fully completed until early in 1861,
when newly elected President Abraham
Lincoln visited town on his way to his inauguration. It was Lincoln’s second visit to the state-
50
In 1840, Columbus, Ohio, was a bustling
city of 6,000 people and actually was several
different towns all at the same time. On the
one hand it was a center of transportation and
trade. The arrival of the Ohio Canal and
National Road had made the city the major
market center of central Ohio. Early resident
John Gill remembered many years later that,
“In front of every store, was a post and rail for
the convenience of the country people to
hitch their horses when they came to town.”
In fact the horses were so numerous, especially on weekends, that they were commonly
called “the cavalry.”
The National Road had come into
Columbus on Main Street from the east and it
was commonly assumed it would leave town
the same way. This gave state officials a reason
to move the overcrowded Ohio Penitentiary
out into “the country” on Spring Street—a
move accomplished in 1832. As it turned
out the move could have been postponed.
Columbus merchants and hotels—mostly
located on High Street—successfully persuaded the army engineers charged with
building a bridge across the Scioto to build it
at Broad Street. So the National Road entered
Columbus on Main Street, turned onto High
Street and left town on Broad Street.
It was at Broad Street and the Scioto River
that the local canal agent had his office. By
1840, the entire river front from Main Street
to Spring Street was lined with canal boat
wharfs and canal warehouses as well as
foundries, factories and mills.
While the original settlers of Columbus had
liked the spacious lots along Front Street away
from High Street, the arrival of coach and canal
traffic made the whole area less desirable.
Prominent families began to move further east
along Broad, State, and Town Streets as well
as north and south along High Street to the
city limits at North Public Lane (Nationwide
Boulevard) and South Public Lane (Livingston
CHAPTER
VI
51
✧
Irish immigration to Columbus peaked in
the 1840s as thousands fled the potato
famine and came to America seeking a
new life. Many of them found that life in the
railyards north of the city. Saint Patrick’s
Church was the beacon that drew the Irish
faithful to worship in Irish Columbus.
METROPOLITAN LIBRARY/JOHN CANADAY COLLECTION.
Avenue). Less affluent residents found themselves increasingly pushed into inexpensive
housing near the factories along the river or
into the ravines that still knifed down to the
river near Spring and Fulton Streets. It was
near the south ravine that some of the black
community of Columbus had something of a
residential center in what was formally referred
to as Negro Hollow and derisively in a more
derogatory way. Most African-American residents of the city did not live in any one defined
neighborhood before the Civil War but rather
were dispersed throughout the city.
Beginning in the 1830s large numbers of
immigrants began to arrive in America from
western Europe. The movement of new
immigrants to America increased even more
as revolutionary movements continued to
sweep across the continent. While the new
people came from virtually every country, the
primary arrivals in America were from
Ireland and Germany.
The Irish had been under increasingly
burdensome British governance for centuries
and the promise of a new life in America was
attractive. A massive potato famine in the
52
1840s increased Irish immigration even
more. Many of the new Irish immigrants
found employment as unskilled workers on
the Erie Canal and later on the canals in
Ohio. Some of them died building the
canals but others who survived stayed in
Ohio when their work on the canals was
done. The center of Irish immigration in
Columbus was on the near north side along
North Public Lane. By the 1850s, that street
anchored by factories along the river on one
end and St Patrick’s church on the other
would come to be called “Irish Broadway.”
The other major ethnic minority to come
to Columbus in the years before the Civil War
was the Germans. German immigration was
more complicated than Irish immigration
since Germany in its modern form did not
exist until well after the American Civil War.
German speaking immigrants to Columbus
settled on the south end of the city and
sorted themselves out by religion (Protestant,
Catholic or Jewish), by geographic origins
(Prussia, Bavaria or the Palatinate) or by
occupation (brewery workers, trades, or
crafts) to name just a few of the distinctions.
The new immigrants settled north and
south of the city limits for a simple reason—
the land was cheap. By the 1850s, Columbus’
first railroad, the Columbus and Xenia,
arrived in town and filled the near north side
with noise, smoke, and traffic. There were
many new jobs for Irish Columbus in the
railyards but it was not a pretty part of town.
In “Die Alte Sude Ende”, or the Old South
End, the Germans had their own problems.
The legendary south end smell—a mixture of
the rather nasty detritus of Columbus drifting
south along the river and the canal was complemented by really bad smelling tanneries
and a literal open sewer carried in a trough
from downtown over the top of the canal to
empty into the river. Living on the south end
required olfactory courage.
But for all of this the new Irish and
German communities genuinely liked the city
and tried to fit in. It was not always easy.
Louisa Frankenberg, a German immigrant,
introduced the German concept of kindergartens to America in Columbus in the
1830s. They were not all that successful and
only really became popular after the 1850s.
More troubling to the newcomers was the
reaction of the American Party. Founded to,
among other things, oppose unrestricted
immigration, the American Party was also a
secret society which instructed its members
when questioned to only say “I know
nothing.” Many immigrants came to feel that
“Know Nothing” accurately described their
American Party antagonists.
And there was antagonism. When the
Germans marched in 1855 to celebrate the
Fourth of July, they came downtown armed
to the teeth. Turning the corner from Town
Street to High Street, rock throwing escalated
to gunfire. The Germans fired back and one
young rock thrower died. The incident was
a turning point in Columbus as immigrants
and natives tried from this point on to better
tolerate one another.
Such toleration was useful because
Columbus and central Ohio was continuing
to grow in the 1840s and 1850s and many of
the new people as well as longtime residents
were working one with another.
While transportation, trade and manufacturing were continuing to expand, so too was
government. Unlike some other states, Ohio in
the 1830s made the decision to locate its major
institutions for the treatment, care and correction of its citizens in the capital city. So in addition to the Penitentiary, which had been in the
city since 1813, Columbus also became the
home of treatment facilities for the deaf (1827),
the blind (1837), and the mentally ill (1838).
Other cities in Ohio would eventually become
home to prisons and treatment facilities, but
Columbus was always the headquarters for
these services and would provide employment
to a significant part of its population.
While Columbus was able to settle its differences over ethnicity and the role of public
and private employment with relative ease,
other disputes were not so easily resolved.
Throughout the 1840s and 1850s, Whigs and
✧
Above: On the other end of the city, German
Columbus was building its own community.
The children of Stewart Avenue would
become the civic leaders of twentieth
century Columbus.
Below: Part of the reason for German
academic success was Louisa Frankenberg
and her kindergartens of the 1850s. The
idea soon spread to the rest of America.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
CHAPTER
VI
53
✧
Much of the success of Columbus in the
1800s was due to the large institutions
centered in the city. The treatment facilities
for the blind, the deaf and the mentally ill
combined with the prison to employ many
and diversify the economy. The picture
shows the many homes of the lunatic
asylum before the Civil War.
Democrats fought over political principles,
while other local residents argued about the
merits of women’s rights, the value of temperance, and the importance of public education.
But the issue that increasingly provoked
the most controversy was slavery. Slavery had
been prohibited north of the Ohio River by
the Ordinance of 1787. But many residents of
central Ohio had arrived in the area from
the South, still had relatives in the South
and felt that slavery had a role in American
life. Other residents of central Ohio strongly
believed that slavery was just plain wrong.
The most adamant among them felt slavery
to be an abomination and called themselves
Abolitionists. Their opponents, who really
felt slavery was a necessary part of American
life, came to be called Fire-Eaters.
Very few people in central Ohio were
either Abolitionists or Fire–Eaters. But the
central reason for their antagonism one to the
other was quite present. It was called the
Underground Railroad.
54
The Underground Railroad was neither
underground nor a railroad. Rather it was a network of trails and safe lodgings that permitted
runaway slaves to escape to freedom in Canada.
Driving through one of the small towns near
Columbus, one is tempted to believe that many
older houses were stops on the Underground
Railroad. Most of them were not. After the
passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850,
most Northerners could be fined and jailed
for harboring a runaway. Remarkably, protest
against the system increased, and many houses
did become stops on the Underground
Railroad. Several prominent white Columbus
families—the Neils, the Deshlers and the
Westwaters—were participants in the system,
as were black families like the Poindexters,
Jenkins and Wards. There are several places in
Columbus that were stops on the Underground
Railroad and which are still standing today.
They include the Kelton House on East Town
Street and the Southwick, Good & Fortkamp
Funeral Chapel on North High Street.
In the years since the Missouri Compromise
of 1820, America’s political leaders had struggled to find enough common ground to hold
the country together. And generally they had
succeeded. But each time a new compromise
was needed, it was increasingly difficult to
find agreement.
By the mid 1850s, the whole political
structure of the country was beginning to
change. The Whig Party of Henry Clay and
Daniel Webster was falling apart. The
Democratic Party of Andrew Jackson was
increasingly becoming the party of the South.
And, by 1854, a new coalition had begun to
piece itself together from former Whigs and a
variety of small independent political movements. It called itself the Republican Party
and ran a candidate for President, General
John Charles Fremont, the Pathfinder, in
1856, on a platform opposed to the extension
of slavery to the territories. Fremont lost but
gathered a respectable number of votes for a
new man and a new party.
As the election of 1860 approached, a
number of major figures in the Republican
Party—Governor Salmon P. Chase of Ohio,
Governor William Seward of New York and
others sought the Presidency. In the end, a
divided Republican Party chose an Illinois
prairie politician named Abraham Lincoln as
its candidate. Running against an even more
divided Democratic Party, Lincoln surprisingly won the election. Much of the South was
astonished and appalled.
Abraham Lincoln arrived in Columbus,
Ohio, by train on February 13, 1861, on his
way to Washington D.C., to be inaugurated as
the sixteenth President of the United States.
He had been in Columbus once before, in
1859, and had spoken briefly to a small group
of friends and supporters at the Statehouse.
Now he was back to briefly visit Columbus
in a more troubling time. Several states had
already seceded from the Union and several
more soon would follow. While waiting to
speak to the Ohio General Assembly, Lincoln
sat at the side of Governor William Dennison’s
desk in the governor’s office—a desk and an
office still in use today—and learned that he
had officially been elected President by the
Electoral College.
After addressing the legislature, he walked
to the east steps of the statehouse and met
with several people who had been patiently
waiting for some time to see him. He spoke
briefly to the group:
✧
Above: Columbus was a major switching
station on the Underground Railroad.
Neither underground nor a railroad, the
network helped hundreds escape to freedom.
The home of Fernando Cortez Kelton on
The General Assembly of Ohio has just
East Town Street was a “stop” on the
done me the honor to receive me, and hear a
Underground Railroad. It is now a
few broken remarks from myself…Knowing
house museum.
as I do that any crowd, drawn together as
this has been, is made up of citizens near
about, and that in this county of Franklin
Below: One conductor on the Underground
there is great difference of political sentiment,
Railroad was James Preston Poindexter.
and those agreeing with me having a little of
Barber, scholar and minister, Poindexter
the shortest row, (laughter) from this and the
was the first African-American to serve on
circumstances I have mentioned, I infer that
Columbus city council and the school board.
you do me the honor to meet me here without
distinction of party. This is as it should
be…I am doubly thankful that you have
appeared here to give me this greeting. It is
not much for me, for I shall very soon pass
away from you, but we have a large country
and a large future before us, and the
manifestations of good-will towards the
government, and the affection for the union
which you may exhibit are of immense value
to you and your posterity forever. (Applause)
In this point of view it is that I thank you
most heartily, for the exhibition you have
given me. And with this allow me to wish you
an affectionate farewell.
CHAPTER
VI
55
Two months later, the “manifestations of
good will” proved to be insufficient. Southern
troops opened fire on Fort Sumter, South
Carolina, on April 12, 1861, and America
was at war with itself. It would prove to be
the deadliest and most devastating conflict
in American history. It was a war that would
change America forever and Ohio and
Columbus would have much to do with it.
THE CIVIL WAR IN
CENTRAL OHIO
✧
Abraham Lincoln visited Columbus on
several occasions. After a stop in 1859,
Lincoln stopped in Columbus again on his
way to his inauguration. He spoke to the
legislature and to the public. In Columbus,
Lincoln learned that he had indeed been
certified as the winner of the 1860 election.
He left Columbus with some states in
secession and others about to join them.
Soon there would be war.
In the beginning, few people really
thought the war would last all that long.
The North outnumbered the South by more
than two to one. Most of the industrial might
of America lay in the North and much of its
best agricultural land was there.
Recognizing that the
seceding states posed a
challenge the small
American regular army
could not meet, and
unwilling to recognize
southern states as having left the Union,
President Lincoln called
for 75,000 volunteers
for three months to put
down “combinations to
powerful to suppress”
by normal means.
The response across the north was overwhelming. Thousands of men left their
homes and flocked to the cities. Ohio alone
soon had enough volunteers to meet half of
the President’s needs. These men needed
to be uniformed, armed and trained. But for
the moment they simply needed to be fed
and housed. That in itself proved to be a
challenge. Men were housed in every public
building in the city, in the Statehouse
and even aboard canal boats in the
Scioto River.
In 1851, Dr. Lincoln Goodale had given
Columbus its first park, a wooded site on
the near north side that came to be called
Goodale Park. Now in the spring of 1861,
Goodale Park was commandeered to become
Camp Jackson, a mobilization center for
56
Union troops. Trees were removed and buildings were quickly erected. But Camp Jackson
soon found itself to be much too small to
meet the needs of the huge number of men
arriving in the city to serve.
Later, in 1861, a much larger site of several
hundred acres was selected on the far west
side of the city between Broad Street on the
north and Sullivant Avenue on the south.
Honoring former Governor Salmon P. Chase,
the post would come to be called Camp Chase.
Camp Chase would become a major mobilization and training center housing more
than 26,000 Union troops. And it was not
the only military base in the city. The existing
arsenal and Columbus Barracks were
increased in size and new installations named
Camp Thomas, Camp Lew Wallace and Tod
Barracks were established. Farther up the
road in Delaware, a training camp for United
States Colored Troops would be built in
1863. Columbus and central Ohio became an
armed camp.
The war did not go well for the North.
Despite its greater size and economic base,
the North did not have all that much of
an advantage at the outset. Both sides had
large untrained armies. The South had a
somewhat more experienced officer corps,
shorter supply lines and the high morale
that came with defending one’s home from
invasion. For the first two years of the war,
Mr. Lincoln had a difficult time finding good
generals—with one notable exception. In the
west, Ohioan Ulysses S. Grant—ably assisted
by Ohioans William T. Sherman and Philip
Sheridan—was winning battles.
Needing a place to put the prisoners those
battles produced, a Confederate prison camp—
designed for 2,000 men—was attached to
Camp Chase. By 1864, More than 10,000
men were living there. More than 2,300 of
them are still buried there in one of the
largest Confederate cemeteries in the North.
A Confederate Memorial Day service is held
there each year on a Sunday in June after
June 3—the birthday of Confederate President
Jefferson Davis.
Ohio would provide more men to the
Union Army as a percentage of its population
than any other state, prompting President
2,400 Confederate cavalrymen. His purpose
was to draw away Union troops from other
battlegrounds. In this effort, he succeeded
admirably as he was soon being pursued by
more than 20,000 rather determined Union
soldiers. Checked in his attempt to cross
the Ohio back into Kentucky at a sharp
little battle at Buffington Island, Morgan
turned back north until he and his men were
surrounded and forced to surrender.
✧
In 1861, Columbus, a city of 18,000,
saw the emergence of Camp Chase—a
mobilization center of 26,000 Union troops.
This birdseye view shows the camp and its
Confederate prison camp at the upper left of
the picture.
The Camp Chase confederate prison was
built in 1862 and was designed to hold
2,000 men. By 1864, it held 10,000.
Twenty-three hundred of them are still there
in one of the largest Confederate cemeteries
Lincoln at one point to say “Ohio has saved
the Union!” Around 320,000 men served
from Ohio in the Union Army. More than
5,000 of those soldiers were free black men.
Some 35,000 of those 320,000 men died—
more than ten percent of the men who
served. Thousands more were seriously
injured and permanently disabled. It was
a costly price and one that touched every
community in the state.
Having said that, most of the fighting was
done in places rather far from Ohio—at least
until 1863. In May 1863, General John Hunt
Morgan crossed the Ohio River into Indiana
and then southern Ohio with more than
in the North.
There were no battles in Columbus in the
Civil War. But John Hunt Morgan, the rebel
raider who brought 2,400 Confederate
cavalry into the state, was caught and
imprisoned in the “escape-proof” Ohio
Penitentiary. It took Morgan and his officers
six weeks to escape in one of the more
ingenious jailbreaks in American history.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
CHAPTER
VI
57
✧
Abraham Lincoln’s last visit to Columbus
came in 1865 after his assassination.
The Lincoln funeral train stopped in
Columbus for one day and more than
50,000 people filed past the casket in the
rotunda for a last look at the President.
A city divided by war was reunited by the
last casualty of that war.
Most of Morgan’s men were sent to the
Camp Chase prison where many of them died.
Morgan and several of his officers were housed
in the “escape-proof” Ohio Penitentiary. It took
Morgan and a few of his men a little more
than six weeks to escape in one of the more
ingenious breakouts in the long history of the
Penitentiary. Changing to civilian clothes,
Morgan and a friend walked to the Union
Station and bought a ticket to Cincinnati.
John Hunt Morgan continued to serve in the
Confederate army until his death in 1864.
While Union sentiment was strong in
central Ohio, it would be incorrect to assume
everyone was dismayed by Morgan’s escape.
A significant part of the population of central
Ohio did not approve of Mr. Lincoln or his
war. Samuel Medary was one of the most vocal
opponents of the conflict. A longtime prominent resident of Columbus, Medary had been
a Columbus newspaper editor and territorial
governor in the Buchanan Administration.
During the war he edited a newspaper called
The Crisis which bitterly opposed the war.
In addition a number of other opponents of
the war also made themselves heard and
opposed Lincoln’s re-election in 1864.
But with strong support from soldiers voting
in the field, Lincoln was re-elected. With
General Grant’s victories in the east and General
Sherman’s successful March to the Sea in
Georgia, the war was effectively brought to an
end with the surrender of the Army of Northern
Virginia on April 9, 1865. Five days later, a
festive spirit in the victorious North was chilled
with the assassination of President Lincoln.
58
For the next two weeks, the Lincoln funeral procession moved its way west from
Washington D.C., to Lincoln’s home in
Springfield, Illinois. On April 29, the Lincoln
funeral train arrived in Columbus.
Local newspaperman William T. Coggeshall
described the scene as the President’s casket
was placed on a great funeral hearse drawn by
six white horses.
The hearse was the great center of attraction. All along the line of march it was
preceded by hundreds of all ages, sexes and
conditions, striving to keep as near as possible to the solemn structure…Every window,
housetop, balcony and every inch of sidewalk
on either side of High Street was densely
crowded with a mournful throng assembled
to pay homage to departed worth. In all the
enormous crowd, silence reigned…
Coggeshall later described the scene after
Lincoln’s casket had been placed in the
Statehouse rotunda.
By actual count, it was found that over
eight thousand passed in and out every hour
from half after nine until four o’clock, and
making due allowance ‘tis thought that over
fifty thousand people viewed the remains in
that time…
With the Lincoln funeral, some of the
healing of a country torn apart by war finally
began. For Columbus and Ohio as well as
America, a new time was beginning.
CHAPTER VII
RAILROAD TOWN 1865-1900
THE GROWTH OF RAILROADS
After the Civil War, Columbus, Ohio, grew at a remarkable rate. After doubling in size during
the four year conflict, the town of 31,000 people in 1870 would become a major American city
of more than 125,000 by 1900.
Of course, Columbus was not the only city in the Midwest to see this kind of rapid expansion.
Chicago would become the second largest city in America in the same period and other major
Midwestern towns like Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Detroit saw growth even more spectacular
than that of Columbus. Still, most Midwestern capital cities like Madison, Wisconsin, Lansing
Michigan, and Springfield, Illinois, remained quite small. Indianapolis and Columbus on the
other hand became major industrial cities.
How and why did this happen? While the story of each city is a bit different, there are some
common reasons for the growth of the Midwest in this period. In a few words, the region was a
place with a lot of good fortune and an Industrial Revolution. And each contributed to the other.
And in a way it all came about because of the War Between the States that had just come to an end.
During the Civil War, the leadership of the North, both military and civilian, quickly realized
that to win the war, the nation’s armies would require immense quantities of food, clothing and
weaponry. And while much of this might be readily produced by northern factories, getting it to
the places it needed to be might be difficult. Many parts of the North, even in 1861, still had only
the most rudimentary of railroad lines. And the lines in the South generally ran east and west
rather than north and south.
✧
Completed in 1874, the second Columbus
Union Depot opened for service in 1875.
It replaced an older barn-like structure that
had served the city since the first railroad
came to town in 1850.
METROPOLITAN LIBRARY
CHAPTER
VII
59
To remedy all of these problems, the federal government went into the railroad construction business. During the war a lot of old track
was repaired and reset to a uniform gauge or
distance between the rails. More importantly,
hundreds of miles of new track were laid to
many places that had never seen a railroad
before. One of the prime beneficiaries of all of
this railroad largesse was the State of Ohio.
By the end of the war, thanks to government construction, Ohio and nearby Indiana
had one of the most complex and sophisticated rail networks that one could find anywhere
in the world. In the center of
the state of Ohio and served
by more than fifteen of these
rail lines was the capital—
Columbus, Ohio. If anyone
wished to ship goods in Ohio
after the Civil War, inevitably
some of these goods would
pass through Columbus. Part
of the growth of Columbus after the Civil War
can be directly traced to this railroad expansion. New lines entered the city and old ones
expanded their repair shops and storage facilities. By 1875 the drafty old wooden barn that
had served as the city’s railroad station since
1850 was torn down and replaced with a new
multistory brick Italianate terminal and office
building. Virtually every picture taken of the
new terminal admiringly shows its front façade
and adjacent web of tracks. What these pictures do not show is what the average traveler
or railroad employee saw when they stood at
the front door of the station and looked west.
They saw the North Graveyard whose weather
beaten white fence did little to keep local pigs
and cattle from wandering among the tombstones. It was not a sight to encourage the
prospective traveler. Fortunately—and perhaps with a gentle nudge from the neighbors—the cemetery closed in 1876 and the
site—with at least some of the graves
removed—would become the home of the
immensely more attractive North Market.
The railroads existing at the end of the war
made Columbus into a commercial center and
a transport hub. But the old railroads did not
make Columbus into a factory town. For that
something new was needed. That something
new was yet another railroad.
In 1870, The Hocking Valley Railroad ran
from Columbus into the heart of southeast Ohio.
Its owners proudly proclaimed,
In addition to coal, the Hocking Valley
together with the counties lying south of
it…are rich in iron ore of superior quality.
Two furnaces are now in operation on the
line of this road and an almost unlimited
supply of iron, coal and limestone in the
immediate vicinity will lead to the speedy
erection of others…
60
Built with Columbus capital, the Hocking
Valley Railroad permitted great quantities of
coal, iron and timber to be readily and
cheaply available to Columbus businesses.
Using these cheap resources and the inexpensive labor of local workers—native or immigrant—Columbus was now in position to
make many things inexpensively, sell them
at high prices and make a lot of people a
lot of money. In short order that is exactly
what happened.
THE RISE OF INDUSTRY
A few examples will illustrate how the
process worked.
A number of older businesses simply continued to do what they had always done but
now they could ship their product further
and less expensively on the new rail lines.
Some businesses like the old agricultural
implement and hand tool companies now
could ship their product longer distances to
new markets. The same was true of local
breweries whose product—while perishable—could be shipped farther.
Other businesses took advantage of the
extraordinarily cheap resources of the
Hocking Valley. One of these was the carriage
trade. People had been making buggies,
carriages and wagons in Columbus since the
city was founded. But the custom-made
hand-tooled product was expensive and time
consuming to produce. Cheap wood and iron
meant that more people could make more
buggies more cheaply than had previously
been the case.
The people who did it best were the Peters
brothers. George and Oscar Peters had grown
up working in their grandfather’s really disgusting tannery along the creek that raced
through a ravine to the river south of the
Courthouse and north of the German community. Desiring to improve themselves they went
into the leather trunk and carriage business
and did well but wished to do even better.
A local history of a century ago noted that:
✧
Opposite, top: Replacing the North
Graveyard in 1875, the North Market was
one of several around the city. Shown in
1888, the original North Market burned in
1948 and was replaced for a number of
years by a Quonset building. The Market
has been at its current location since 1995.
Opposite, bottom: Directly across the street
…George M., the first son, learned the
from Union Station was the North
carriage-making business of the Messrs.
Graveyard. Established in 1813, the city
Booth, of Columbus, and from that circum-
had been trying to close it for years.
stance and his natural inventive genius, he
The new Union Station provided the final
originated the Columbus Buggy Company
incentive and the cemetery was closed.
and the Peters Dash Company.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF SCHLEGEL, DONALD M.,
THE COLUMBUS CITY GRAVEYARDS, (1985).
With the help of promoter and financier
C. D. Firestone, the Peters brothers went into
the carriage business on a grand scale. Using
assembly line methods pioneered in the
firearms trade, Columbus Buggy used inexpensive materials, labor and transportation to
become one of largest buggy companies in
Below: Located between the railroad and
Fourth Street on the near north side, the
Kilbourne and Jacobs Manufacturing
Company was formed in 1881 and merged
hardware and tool companies formed earlier
by James Kilbourne and Felix Jacobs.
CHAPTER
VII
61
✧
Above: Located at 482 North High Street
just north of the rail yards, the Buckeye
Buggy Company operated from 1882 to
1910 and helped make Columbus
“the Buggy Capital of the World.”
Right: M. C. Lilley & Co., manufacturers of
military and society goods.
Below: The Jeffrey Manufacturing Company.
62
America. And they were not alone. By 1900,
there were twenty two buggy companies
in Columbus and one buggy in every five
made anywhere was made in Columbus. The
inability of the company to effectively
compete in the auto industry would eventually lead to its demise. But many people in
that industry—including Henry Ford and
C. D. Firestone’s cousin Harvey learned a lot
from Columbus Buggy.
Other Columbus companies catered directly to the needs of the very companies producing the raw materials that were transforming
a continent. One of them was the Jeffrey
Manufacturing Company. Joseph Jeffrey was a
local banker in the 1870s who became interested in a local inventor’s coal mining machine.
Eventually Jeffrey acquired the patents for the
machine and launched a business to make
them. By the turn of the century, Jeffrey
Manufacturing was one of the largest producers
of coal mining equipment in the world.
There were also people who simply had
a good idea and found Columbus the place
to let it grow. Captain M. C. Lilley returned
from the Civil War and looked around for a
business to make his fortune. Unsuccessful at
first, he began to notice that more and more
men were joining lodges and other secret
societies. Most of these groups had uniforms,
commemorative swords and other weaponry,
badges, sashes and ribbons galore. What
they did not have was a central place to buy
this equipage. The Lilley Regalia Company
solved that problem with its large warehouse
and elaborate catalogue. It soon became the
largest regalia house in the nation.
And then there were the dreamers and their
dreams. Dr. Samuel B. Hartman was an orthopedic surgeon who was doing well but not all
that well in practice in Columbus, Ohio. One
day, the ghost of an Indian chief came to Dr.
Hartman in a dream and revealed the source of
all disease. The source was catarrh or congestion. But this was not the simple sinus catarrh
that one often had in the morning. One could
have catarrh in any part of the body—catarrh
of the eye, the nose, the ear etc. And the only
cure was a bottle or two of Dr. Hartman’s
famous formula. He called the medicine
Peruna after the chief who gave it to him.
The concoction was largely flavorings
laced with alcohol and was marketed with
paid testimonials from retired Civil War
officers and other public figures. People
bought the product, believed in it and used it
for years. Eventually the good doctor was
told in so many words to stop production or
open a distillery. He took the alcohol out but
continued to sell the product successfully for
a number of years.
CONVENTION TOWN
By the 1880s Columbus no longer looked
the way it had appeared at the end of the
American Civil War. The downtown was
larger and more diversified. Columbus now
had theatres, galleries, a museum, and quite
nice restaurants near the Statehouse. The
wealthiest people had begun to move away
from Statehouse Square onto Broad Street,
Mount Vernon Avenue or Bryden road. And
the poor of Columbus continued to live
together in their own communities—only
now they were not as close to the affluent
neighborhoods as they once were.
In 1886 the American Federation of Labor
was founded in Columbus. In 1890, the
United Mine Workers of America was founded here in a grand convention. One might
wonder if these two great organizations were
founded here because Columbus was a
hotbed of unionism.
✧
Above: Dr. Samuel Hartman was a
practicing physician who later claimed to
have learned the secret of a wonderful
medicine from the ghost of an Indian chief
named Peruna. Pe-ru-na became a
legendary patent medicine and made
Dr. Hartman a very wealthy man.
Below: By 1888, East Broad Street, with its
four lines of trees, was one of the most
fashionable avenues in America and was
featured in Harper’s Magazine.
CHAPTER
VII
63
64
✧
Opposite, top: Central Market in 1873.
The market was built in 1850 and served
the city until it was removed in 1966. The
upper floor served as city council chambers
until a new city hall was completed in 1872.
Opposite, bottom: The Grand Army of the
Republic, the Union Army veterans’
organization arrived in Columbus in 1888
with 250,000 members, families and
friends. The parade of 90,000 veterans was
the largest since the end of the Civil War.
Not really. They were founded here because
the town was a good place to hold a convention. How really good the town was at this
sort of thing was tested in 1888.
In 1888, Columbus decided to throw a
party. It was a party like no other and it was a
party with a panache not often seen elsewhere.
But mostly, it was a demonstration of how
well Columbus, with its excellent system of
transportation, could easily host a convention.
Ohio in 1888 was celebrating (a year late)
the centennial of the Northwest Ordinance
of 1787. To complement the celebration,
it was decided to ask the Grand Army of
the Republic—the Union Army veterans’
group—if it would like to hold its meeting
here. The GAR, one of the largest and most
powerful organizations in America, said
yes and began to hold planning meetings.
The meetings were necessary because in the
Above: Paul Mone and his family operated
a small grocery store at 84 North High
Street from 1873 to 1898.
CHAPTER
VII
65
✧
Founded as the Ohio Agricultural &
Mechanical College in 1870, the school was
opened in 1873 and graduated its first class
in 1878—all six of them. In the same year
it would become The Ohio State University.
end, 90,000 veterans and 160,000 of their
relatives and friends arrived in Columbus,
a town of 80,000. To put this in perspective,
it would be as if 2,000,000 people showed up
suddenly today and wanted to stay for a week
in Columbus.
What does one do with so many people?
In the first place one uses every park, public
building and recreation center in the city.
When that space is gone, one erects large tent
cities near the downtown.
The highlight of the encampment was the
procession of the Union veterans down High
Street in the largest parade of its kind since
the Grand Review at the end of the Civil War.
A newspaper of the period described the march.
The procession which inaugurated the
22nd National Encampment was a magnificent
and
incomparable
spectacle…The
Capital City was in holiday attire. Every
dwelling, though ever so humble, bore some
mark of respect to the veterans. On the
principal streets, all of the business houses
and private residences were decorated…The
veterans marched with firm step, and in the
ranks were many soldiers who would answer
the call to war again if the country needed
their services.
66
With all of these conventions and the new
business that went with it, it was easy to
believe that Columbus could only improve in
the next century. And perhaps it might, but
first the 1890s had to be survived. In 1893
the nation entered a period of economic
depression and business failure.
The bottom fell out of a number of
Columbus businesses and only the strongest
industries—the railroads, tool companies,
steel mills and the buggy businesses—survived unscathed. And then in 1898, just as
the city was beginning to recover from four
years of economic depression, the entire west
side of the city was inundated in a flood. It
was not the worst flood in the city’s history
but it was quite damaging none the less.
But all in all as the century ended and
Columbus and central Ohio prepared for a
new era, the city had reason to feel good
about itself. It had participated in the largest
economic transformation in the history of
the world to that time—the Industrial
Revolution—at the very center of its development and the city had come away successful.
For all of that, Columbus did not end the century a totally industrial city like Cleveland,
Akron, Youngstown or Toledo. It had maintained its diversified economy with people
working in commerce, trade, and transport as
well as industry. And it had sponsored the
successful beginning of what was then a small
but important new state institution.
In 1870, William Neil, the Old Stage King
had died, six years after the death of his
beloved wife Hannah. His great farm—the
old Vance farm—became available three
miles north of the city. The farm was acquired
and became the new home of the Ohio
Agricultural and Mechanical College. Opening
in 1873, it graduated its first class of six
students—women as well as men—in 1878.
By 1900 it was somewhat larger but still
not all that great in size or influence. As The
Ohio State University, the new school—like
the town where it was born—was about to
be transformed.
✧
Above: The West Side of Columbus had
been flooded many times since the city was
founded. The flood of 1898 caused extensive
damage but little loss of life.
Below: 1898 flood rescue.
CHAPTER
VII
67
CHAPTER VIII
A CITY OF LIGHT 1900-1930
✧
ARCH CITY
Completed in 1895, the Wyandotte
Building was designed by Chicago architect
Daniel Burnham and became the city’s
first skyscraper.
If a person who had grown up in Columbus in the years after the Civil War had left the town
and not had a chance to return until the turn of the twentieth century, an evening walk down
High Street from the train station to one’s hotel would have been nothing short of astonishing.
The entire face of downtown had changed.
68
✧
Top: The third Union Station was designed
by Daniel Burnham in Beaux Arts tradition.
The station was completed in 1897 and the
Arcade facing High Street was opened
in 1899.
Middle: By 1900, Columbus was known as
the “Arch City.” The arches had originally
been erected in wood with gaslights in 1888.
They were replaced by metal arches lit by
electricity and were the symbol of the city
until 1914.
Bottom: High Street at night.
METROPOLITAN LIBRARY/LAURA KUHNERT COLLECTION.
CHAPTER
VIII
69
✧
Top: Looking east on Broad Street from
Ninth Street.
Above: In the early twentieth century,
Columbus became a city of “streetcar
suburbs.” The electrified streetcar means
that many people could now live miles from
where they worked. This is Neil Avenue
looking north from Wilber in 1907.
Columbus was no longer a quiet country
capital city with people’s homes scattered
around Statehouse Square and along High
Street amidst the stores and warehouses of a
Midwestern commercial center. Now downtown consisted of a true central business
district with a number of multistory buildings and bustling crowds of people on the
sidewalks and in the stores.
The larger buildings had come about
because of a significant number of advances in
building construction. Stronger types of brick
and better cement to hold the bricks together
were reinforced with cast iron frames that
permitted buildings to rise to much greater
heights. But even with those advances it still
took some time before buildings got to be
much taller than five or six stories tall in most
American cities. Few people wished to walk
up more than a few flights of steps to do their
business. The development of safe and efficient elevators changed all of that. In 1894,
Daniel Burnham of Chicago designed and
supervised the construction of the first
“skyscraper” in Columbus, the Wyandotte
70
Building, near Broad and High Streets. It
would be the first of many that would soon
begin to rise near the heart of downtown.
But as a traveler walked down High Street
from the rather elaborate and somewhat
pretentious Beaux Arts Union Station Arcade
toward one of the greater or lesser hotels in
downtown, the main thing that one would
have noticed as night came on was not the
buildings or the theatres or the restaurants or
the stores—all of which stayed open quite
late to catch people leaving town for home.
One would have noticed the lighted arches
which marched down High Street all the way
through the middle of town. And moving up
the street toward the station were streetcars
lighted both inside and out with electric
lights. If anyone had any lingering doubt why
Columbus was called the “Arch City”, this
sight certainly dispelled it.
Columbus had first seen lighted arches in
1888 for the annual convention of the Grand
Army of the Republic. Concerned that the
streets of Columbus were dimly lit by oil
lamps at most corners, the city built elaborate
wooden arches lit by gas lights to illuminate
the downtown and provide a new level of
security and safety to the more than 250,000
people who came to town.
Eventually those arches were replaced by
metal arches illuminated by electric lights provided by the Columbus Railway Power and
Light Company. Many years later people who
grew up in Columbus would remember how the
lighted arches—combined with lighted stores
like the F& R Lazarus Company created an
effect that was often described as a “fairyland.”
But while electric power was changing
the way the world was perceived, a term just
as important in the power company’s name
was “railway.”
In 1900, Columbus was still the center of
things in central Ohio. This was the place
where people came to shop, to work, and to
be entertained. But increasingly a larger and
larger number of people were not living in
downtown. They were living one, two and
three miles away from downtown and regularly coming downtown from their homes. This
would not have been all that possible for any
but the most athletic only a few decades before.
But now a truly suburban lifestyle was possible for large numbers of people. And it was
all due to the electrified streetcar. There had
been streetcars in Columbus since 1863, but
they were horse drawn and rather slow. Now a
unified, electrified streetcar system served
most of the city. A person could make a daily
commute to downtown in less than half an
hour. All along the streetcar lines, new neighborhoods—streetcar suburbs—were springing
up in every direction from downtown. To keep
people using the cars throughout the day and
night, the streetcar companies built elaborate
amusement parks at the end of the lines.
The largest and most famous of the
Columbus attractions was Olentangy Park
along High Street to the north of The Ohio
State University. With its rather elaborate
grounds and a large number of rides and
attractions, the park had something for
everyone. A locomotive engineer, in town for
a convention in 1908 was suitably impressed.
“Olentangy Park is a very complete place of
amusement and has a fine auditorium…”
The people living in the new suburbs were
not all well-to-do. Industrial America was
creating a new class of people to manage its
factories and provide the teachers, doctors,
lawyers and other professionals who also
were needed. This new middle class were the
primary residents of the new neighborhoods
that one began to find in the new communities along the streetcar lines.
Urbanization, industrialization, electrification and new forms of transportation were creating new cities of challenge and opportunity.
And many people continued to flock to
these new urban areas to seek a new home
and new future.
Between the end of the Civil War and
the early twentieth century millions of new
people came to America from abroad. Many
of those people went to the great industrial
cities of eastern and Midwestern America
where jobs were plentiful for the newcomers.
By 1900 immigrants constituted a significant
proportion of the populations of places like
Cleveland, Detroit and Chicago. Such was
not so much the case in cities like Columbus
where industry constituted a smaller percentage of the work force.
But while most of the newcomers to
Columbus in the early twentieth century
were from rural Ohio and neighboring states,
certain parts of town developed a decided
ethnicity. On the far south end of the city,
immigrants from Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary,
Poland and elsewhere in Europe found jobs
in the steel mills and other factories that had
emerged in the 1890s. The area came to be
called Steelton.
The old factory district, located along the
Scioto River near downtown, was sitting on
land that had become too expensive to be
used for factory purposes. Just as new industries moved south to cheaper available land,
so too did they move north along the rail
lines serving the city.
✧
Above: The riverfront, 1908.
METROPOLITAN LIBRARY
Below: The South End of Columbus rapidly
became a melting pot in the late 1800s as
hundreds of immigrants from eastern and
southern Europe sought work in the
factories of what came to be
called “Steelton.”
METROPOLITAN LIBRARY/LAURA KUHNERT COLLECTION.
CHAPTER
VIII
71
Along North Fourth Street, a whole line of
factories provided jobs to recent immigrants
as did another set of factories along the
Olentangy River north of the downtown. All
of these new industries complemented older
factories and shops that continued to operate
in old Franklinton and near the railyards
north of downtown. The African-American
community, which had begun to form a
72
business district near Long and High Street in
the 1870s, also saw its developing neighborhood shifted to the east with the expansion of
downtown Columbus.
Shoehorned in between the downtown and
the new industrial and residential areas
around the city were the neighborhoods of the
less fortunate. On the north side, a neighborhood called Flytown served as a point of entry
for many of the people newly arrived in the
city. An area called Middletown near the eastern edge of Old Franklinton and another area
called the Badlands on the east side of the
central business district served the same purpose. In these marginal areas, one could find
inexpensive housing and a wide variety of
legal—and some not so legal amusements.
Columbus as the Arch City took some getting used to—even by people who had not left
and returned several years later. Cities in their
nature are cauldrons of change and innovation. And the bigger a city becomes, the more
rapid and diverse that change becomes. And
with that change and diversity also comes a
certain fragility.
Columbus had seen a modest amount of
labor unrest over the years. But most strikes
tended to be limited in both time and effect
on the general population. That had certainly
been the case with the strikes by streetcar
workers. But this lack of disruption was due
to the fact that most people did not use the
streetcars all that often. All of that had
changed by 1910, when a newly formed
union of streetcar employees decided to go
out on strike. Now, in a city full of streetcar
suburbs, the strike had an immediate effect.
Neither side gave way and the strike became
quite violent. At length, the National Guard
was called in to patrol the city. The strike
lasted for most of the summer. It was the
most violent time the city had seen since the
Civil War.
Three years later the city’s fragility was
illustrated in another way.
Like most people who live near rivers, the
people of Columbus had come to expect the
river to flood from time to time. And the
Scioto and Olentangy Rivers had met those
expectations no less than eleven times since
Franklinton was founded in 1797. In those
✧
Opposite, top: In 1912 Columbus marked
its one hundredth birthday. The celebration
culminated in a week-long series of events
in August when the Ohio State Fair was
underway. This postcard view is looking
north on High Street at Goodale Avenue.
Opposite, bottom: The 1910 streetcar strike
lasted for months and became quite violent.
Eventually the National Guard was called
in to preserve order. The strike ended in the
fall of 1910.
cases, people on low ground moved to high
ground and moved back when the flood
waters receded. To lessen the damage caused
by flooding, the city had erected levees along
the river near the downtown and had limited
construction along the riverfront. None of
that helped in March 1913, when five inches
of water on already soaked ground caused the
greatest flood in the city’s history.
A local resident later remembered,
We had very heavy rains and all of the
rivers were rising…From the window, we saw
a mad brewing rush of brown water. As we
watched, the Broad Street bridge slowly broke
up and tumbled into the flood…It was an
appalling sight.
The rising rivers took out every bridge save
one along the Scioto, tore through the levee
and put most of the west side of the city under
several feet of water. The flood came so quickly and with such intensity that many people
were caught before they could flee. Ninetyfour people were soon known to be dead in
the disaster and others were probably killed as
well. The National Guard was called out to
preserve order as the entire city shut down for
six days and the west side for six weeks.
Social and physical disasters such as these
were only the exceptional punctuation marks
to a growing concern by many people in
Columbus and in urban America as a whole
that the price of change had become quite
high indeed.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF PARRILL HERTZ.
Above: The 1913 Flood.
Left: The 1913 Flood was and remains the
worst single natural disaster in the history
of the city. The entire city was closed down
for six days in March 1913. The west side
was stricken for six weeks. At least ninetyfour people died. From the disaster came a
new riverfront.
CHAPTER
VIII
73
74
A PROGRESSIVE TIME AND
A WAR TO END WAR
It was not a new feeling. In the nineteenth
century, many people in rural areas came to
distrust the power of wealth and influence
that often concentrated in the cities. Opposed
to the perceived power of eastern corporations and distrustful of cities, a Populist
Movement tried to roll back some of the more
disliked aspects of Industrial Revolution and
restore the power of rural America.
In its time, the Populist Revolt captured
the imagination of many Americans. But it
ultimately failed in its effort to return to an era
that was rapidly ending. A few years later, a
new movement would arise that in retrospect
is often confused with the Populists. The
Progressive Movement was largely composed
of people who lived in urban America and
owed their success to its industry and commerce. Still many members of the new working class and middle class looked around and
saw aspects of their new world that needed
attention. Child labor, poverty and disease,
political corruption and moral ambiguity all
became concerns of a new movement convinced that reform could lead to progress.
The high tide of the Progressive Movement
came in the years between 1900 and 1920
and Columbus, Ohio, was caught up in its
fervor. The movement—never really a major
political party—expressed itself in a variety of
ways—not all of them all that consistent.
The Progressive Era had a decidedly esthetic side. Columbus had been designed as
planned city in 1812. But there had been little
if any planning since—until the turn of the
century. The rapid growth of the city had led
to a need for parks and a better use of the city’s
open space. A panel of professionals produced
a city plan in 1908 that proposed a system of
parks. It did not stop there however. The plan
also called for the demolition of much of the
area around the Statehouse and the creation of
a civic center vaguely reminiscent of the Mall
in Washington D.C. Very little of the plan was
adopted immediately. But in the wake of the
1913 Flood, the 1908 city plan provided the
impetus for what would eventually become a
civic center along the Riverfront in the 1920s.
But Progressivism in its essence was a political movement. At the national level, the movement would result in regulatory agencies and
antitrust activity. At the state level, Ohio saw
significant reforms. The Ohio Constitution of
1851, with a certain Jeffersonian flair, had
specified that the people must be asked every
twenty years if they would like a Constitutional
Convention. Most times the people had said
no. In 1912 they said yes. The Convention
that resulted gave Ohio the initiative, recall and
referendum and granted cities the power to
adopt Home Rule if they wished to do so.
Columbus decided to do so and also moved
away from ward representation to a council
elected citywide in 1914.
Many of the same reformers who pushed
through the political changes were also lobbied
heavily by advocacy groups to adopt suffrage
for women and the absolute prohibition of the
sale and distribution of alcohol. Both movements were extraordinarily strong in Ohio. In
fact, the Anti-Saloon League of America was
founded in Columbus and had its headquarters
in Westerville. While not adopted in 1912,
both movements would see success in a few
years, both locally and nationally.
By 1912 the city of Columbus had seen
remarkable change both politically and
physically in response to the needs of a new
and changing urban society. But arguably the
biggest changes had been social and cultural.
Since the 1880s, the Reverend Washington
Gladden had been holding forth from the
First Congregational Church in Columbus
with a message that favored a Social Gospel of
assistance to those in need.
✧
Opposite: Columbus was a planned city in
1812. The next great plan came in 1908
and proposed parks, parkways and a rebuilt
city center. Much of what was proposed was
never built. But some of the plan inspired
the reconstruction of the riverfront after the
1913 flood.
Below: The Reverend Washington Gladden
came to the First Congregational Church in
1882. Until his death in 1919, he was a
nationally known advocate of a “social
gospel” in the time of reform that came to
be called the Progressive Period.
The one injurious and fatal fact of our
present church work is the barrier between
the churches and the poorest classes. The first
thing for us to do is to demolish this barrier.
The impression is abroad among the poor that
they are not wanted in the churches…
While Gladden was the best known social
advocate in Columbus, he was by no means
alone. By the end of his life in 1919, Gladden
could see with satisfaction that a new career
called “social work” was defining itself
professionally and a whole series of “social
CHAPTER
VIII
75
settlement houses” and other charitable programs were underway to help the neediest
people of Columbus.
By the end of the decade of the 1910s, the
driving force of Progressivism as a political
movement was generally gone although its
legacy remained. The end had come as
America and Columbus approached another
defining moment in its history. In this case, it
was a war.
America had not fought a major war since
the end of the Spanish American War and
Philippine Insurrection in 1903. And many
people were not terribly thrilled with the idea
of becoming involved in what had become a
major conflict in Europe since its outbreak in
1914. Recognizing that the two major ethnicities in America by 1916 were British and
German—two countries at war with each
other—President Woodrow Wilson had run
for re-election on a ticket that proclaimed “He
kept us out of war.” Then, six months later he
led America into a “war to end all war” on the
side of Britain and its allies.
German Columbus was dismayed. It
became even more concerned after war was
declared in April 1917, when German was
banned in the public schools, the last German
newspaper was shut down, and the German
names of several streets were changed. In a
final gesture, a large pile of German books
were burned at Broad and High Streets.
Some have wondered since then why the
German community did not respond more
vigorously to this onslaught. The reason was
rather straightforward. By 1917, only a small
percentage of the more than 200,000 people
in Columbus were of recent German origin.
Most of the sons and daughters of the original
German immigrants to the city had moved
away to the new streetcar suburbs. The few
still left in the Old South End were in no
position to resist and so the books were
burned and the street names were changed.
They have yet to be changed back.
World War I was a transformative event
in Columbus as it was for much of the rest
of America. The war experience at home—as
harsh as it was for Germanic Columbus—
acted like a white hot flame in welding
together American support for the war.
76
In World War II, few people if any questioned
the loyalty or burned the books of an
American with a German name. The First
World War had begun to really make us into
one people.
CITY LIFE
IN THE TWENTIES
The war changed Columbus in other ways.
During the war many young men—otherwise
draftable for the first time since the Civil
War—avoided service and kept their jobs in
vital wartime industries. The industries
needed people drastically and recruited them
in many new places—like the Deep South.
During World War I, thousands of young
men from the rural South came north looking
for work in wartime industries. Many of them
were African-American. It came to be called
the Great Migration and by 1918, the black
population of Columbus had doubled—from
5,000 to 10,000. Many of these young men
would soon found families in Columbus or
bring their existing families north to be with
them in a place of promise.
A new and strong black community began
to emerge along the Mt. Vernon Avenue
and Long Street corridors. By 1922, Nimrod
Allen, the recently selected director of the
relatively new Columbus Urban League could
proudly tell The Crisis, the journal of the
National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People, that Columbus was, among
other things, a city with an important black
population. What Allen neglected to mention
was that the black population of Columbus
had been larger for much of its history, as a
percentage of population, than most other
cities in the state. However one measured
such things, black Columbus was now, as it
had been for some time, like the Irish, the
Germans and all of the other ethnicities, a
vital part of the city of Columbus, moving
into a new life in a new decade.
The 1920s will forever be the Roaring
Twenties—the decade of Flaming Youth,
Flapper Girls. and bathtub gin. The decade
began, of course long before it was 1920.
In 1919, the Volstead Act banned the sale
and distribution of alcohol. It was a law that
was virtually impossible to enforce in a land
✧
Opposite, top: Public support for World War
I remained quite strong until the conflict
ended in November, 1918. A large plaster
triumphal arch at Broad and High Streets
served as the focus of war bond drives and
other public meetings.
Opposite, bottom: Anti-German feelings
became strong with America’s entry into
World War I in 1917. German schools and
a German newspaper were closed. The
Germanic names of some streets were
changed. German books were burned in
downtown Columbus.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
Left: The African-American population of
Columbus doubled during the First World
War as many people migrated to the
North seeking work in wartime industries.
By 1919, East Long Street would become
the commercial center of the AfricanAmerican community with businesses like
Allen’s Barbershop enjoying some success.
CHAPTER
VIII
77
✧
Above: The neighborhood saloon became a
fixture of city life in turn of the century
America. Places like Hertz’s Restaurant and
Sample Room were not liked by increasingly
strong groups like the Woman’s Christian
Temperance Union and the Anti-Saloon
League of America.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF PARRILL HERTZ.
Right: The long campaign for the absolute
prohibition of the sale, manufacture and
distribution of alcohol succeeded with the
passage of the Eighteenth Amendment in
1919. A holiday sale in December, 1918,
marked the end of one era and the
beginning of another.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
78
that saw little reason to even notice its existence. In short order, people began to violate
the law and could not care less that they did.
People had a lot of fun in the Twenties. For
the first time girls could wear lipstick, smoke
cigarettes, and drink in public without too
much recrimination. To meet the needs of
thirsty Columbusites, a number of former
saloons soon reopened quietly as speakeasies.
The Twenties was a period of quite
extraordinary economic expansion. Many
people made a lot of money and arguably
deserved to do so. It was also a time when a
lot of people did not get overly concerned
about who exactly it was who was selling
them things that were not quite legal.
Despite all of this happy frivolity, there
was also a dark side to the 1920s. As society
preached tolerance of others, America closed
the immigration gates in 1924 that had been
open since the end of the Civil War. Now
Americans of many different backgrounds
began in earnest to learn to live one with
another. It was not an easy task.
Many Americans had come to fear the
immigrants. They felt the newcomers were
taking their country from them and they
did not like it very much. In the early
1920s, many Ohioans became enchanted
with an organization born in the South after
the Civil War and dedicated to white
supremacy. It was called the Ku Klux Klan
and by 1924 it had recruited several
hundred thousand members in Ohio. The
organization was anti-immigrant, anti-Jewish
and anti-black, but, it was claimed, the Klan
was “100% Pro-American.” How this was
possible was never explained as was the
ultimate purpose of the group. Fortunately
for Ohio and the country, the rapidly growing
Klan was cursed with a number of bad
leaders and bad decisions. By 1928, it was
virtually gone.
Through the 1920s, a number of
Americans had more or less followed the
rules of American finance and did their best
to make themselves millionaires.
It was a time that came to be thought of
as a New Era—a time in which all things
were possible.
America and Columbus soon discovered
the limits of those possibilities.
✧
Above: Womens suffrage, 1920.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
Below: The years after World War I were a
time of great prosperity and social change in
America. Not the least of these changes was
the new freedom women were given as they
received the right to vote. Now women
began to smoke in public, dress more
casually and even go bowling with their
male counterparts as these employees of the
Jeffrey Manufacturing Company are doing
in 1919.
CHAPTER
VIII
79
CHAPTER IX
HOMETOWN 1930-1950
AN AIR HARBOR
✧
The Curtiss Seagull was one of many
different aircraft produced by the Curtiss
Wright Corporation Columbus during
World War II.
In more than a few ways, July 8, 1929, was something of the high tide of the 1920s in
Columbus, Ohio. As the precocious and sometimes tragic decade wound its way to a close, most
people still believed that the 1930s would be much like the 1920s—brash, bold and economically
prosperous. Republican Herbert Hoover had run for president in the fall of 1928 with a campaign
slogan of “a chicken in every pot” and a continuation of the policies that had seemed to make
most people more money most of the time. He had handily beaten his Democratic opponent,
Al Smith, by a wide margin.
Now in the summer of 1929, Columbus was about to experience something the city had been
looking forward to for more than a quarter of a century—regularly scheduled passenger air
transportation. The city was welcoming an airport of its very own. Port Columbus was open.
It had been a long time in coming. Like most Americans, the residents of Columbus had been
fascinated by the flights of the Wright Brothers of nearby Dayton. Columbus had seen its share
of aerial stunts over the years. These had included the arrival of a bolt of silk from Dayton by
plane in 1910 and the spectacle of an airplane racing a car at a local track. And local fields had
been training pilots of one sort or another for a number of years. But the possibility of any
American—with enough money—being able to board a plane and fly across America seemed to
be nothing more than a dream.
80
✧
Above: Radio moved from being an
experiment and a toy to a common
Until that day in July, when Transcontinental
Air Transport lifted into the air and followed a
route laid out by Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh
across America. To be fair, it was only a partial
achievement. Since airports were few and far
between, the original trip in 1929 involved
riding trains for a considerable distance
and then flying the rest of the way.
Still, as historian George Hopkins later
recounted, to the traveler boarding the
plane it must have been rather impressive
to hear an attendant announce, “All
aboard by air for Indianapolis, St. Louis,
Kansas City and points west.”
To the people of Columbus and distinguished guests like Lindbergh, Henry
Ford and Amelia Earhart, it seemed
like the beginning of new and exciting
chapter in the city’s history. And it was. Air
travel and air transport over the years would
play an increasingly strong role in the success
of the city. But that would be many years in
the future.
household fixture in the 1920s and 1930s.
Stations like WBNS sent their powerful
signals across much of central Ohio.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
Left: July 8, 1929, was a landmark date in
the city’s history as Transcontinental Air
Transport made its first flight from the new
Port Columbus airport.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
Below: With the onset of World War II,
the Curtiss Wright Corporation came to
Columbus and built a major production
facility near the Port Columbus Airport.
At peak, it would employ more than
25,000 people.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
CHAPTER
IX
81
D E P R E S S I N G D AY S
✧
Clockwise, starting from the top, left:
In 1937, Bill Moose Crowfoot died a little
before his one hundredth birthday. After
travels with the Sells Brothers Circus, he
settled in central Ohio. The death of the
“Last Wyandot” attracted more than 10,000
people to his funeral on Wyandot Hill
overlooking the Scioto River. He once
claimed to have cast his first vote for
Abraham Lincoln.
In the short run, the hopes of Columbus
and America that had seemed so bright in
the summer of 1929, literally came crashing
down in the massive stock market collapse of
October of that year. Many people today still
believe that the massive economic dislocation
that came to be called the Great Depression
started that day with the stock market crash.
It didn’t. The economy actually rallied a bit
after the crash and the real economic disaster
did not begin until many months later.
Even after the downturn began in earnest,
many Americans continued to believe that
the troubled times would be limited. After
all, America had not had a major economic
collapse since the “Panic” of 1893. It said
something about how America had come to
look at the ups and downs of capitalism that
a difficult time was coming to be called a
“depression” rather than a “panic”—as if it
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
The 1930s were the years of the Great
Depression. Times were hard but people
coped with groups like the Food
Conservation League who gathered up
discarded food and gave it people in need.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
WPA or Works Progress Administration
workers at The Ohio State University.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
Street car tracks lead West Town Street into
South Gift Street, 1937.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
82
were more like a spell of bad weather than a
mad rush for an economic exit.
But this downturn was no simple period of
brief economic decline. By the time it was over
it would be the worst economic catastrophe in
the nation’s history. The Great Depression of
the 1930s would last more than a decade and
transform the lives of a whole generation.
The causes of the Great Depression were
many and diverse. It took a long time for the
public and private sectors to recognize and
come to grips with the problems they faced.
Most early efforts to meet the challenges of the
Great Depression involved assistance to large
businesses to “prime the pump” as the phrase
went at the time. It was only as the Depression
deepened that government began to intervene
and directly employ people in need. By the
end of the decade, the federal government had
spent more than 33 billion dollars to fight the
problems of the Great Depression. And the
Depression still continued.
It was a very difficult time. The years
between 1930 and 1940 saw very little
growth in the city. A city that had seen
significant positive growth for most of its
history barely grew at all. In the course of
the decade, the city only increased in size
from 290,000 to 316,000 people. Many new
people arrived in Columbus trying to find a
future when there was little work in the
country side. But many others left the city
and moved in with family or friends in
the small towns they had originally left for
the lure of the city.
While cities like Columbus with diversified economies probably rode the Depression
out better than the great industrial cities with
their double digit unemployment, it was still
not a good time to be looking for work. Many
local employers—stretched by debt and
declining markets—cut wages and hours in
an effort to keep as many people working as
possible, as long as possible. Many people
were faced with a choice of less work or no
work. They chose less work.
As budgets tightened, many companies
dependent on recurring public spending
began to suffer. Restaurants, department
stores and specialty stores all lost business.
Some businesses collapsed completely. Since
the turn of the century Columbus had been
the home of a number of major amusement
parks. By 1937, the largest of them—
Olentangy Park—was forced to close due to
lack of income.
So what did people do with their spare
time in the 1930s? They did things that did
not cost much. They went to the movies.
They listened to the radio. They socialized
with family and friends. It is no accident that
the 1930s saw the increasing popularity of
inexpensive entertainments like newspapers,
pulp magazines and paperback books.
✧
Top: As some forms of entertainment were
beginning, others were ending. The large
amusement parks had been built by the
streetcar companies to get people to ride
somewhere in their spare time. Now in the
1930s, high costs and competition from
movies, radio and other attractions doomed
the parks. Olentangy Park closed in 1937.
Above: Shoot the Shutes, Indianola Park.
METROPOLITAN LIBRARY/REEB, DEIBEL, RUFFING
COLUMBUS POSTCARD COLLECTION.
CHAPTER
IX
83
People still had their heroes and heroines
in these years. Sports figures and other
local people who had made something of
themselves were always welcomed back to
the city enthusiastically. Some of these people
like Eddie Rickenbacker—America’s Ace of
Aces—and Elsie Janis—the Sweetheart of the
American Expeditionary Force—had made
their names in World War I. Others like Mary
Catherine Campbell—the only two-time Miss
America—were celebrities from the 1920s.
84
And new heroes like Jesse Owens, the track
star of the 1936 Olympics, also were admired.
By 1940, America’s Great Depression had
been going on for a decade. There had been
times in those years—notably in 1934 and
1937—when it seemed like the worst might
be over and the economy might be on its way
to recovery. And then, for various reasons,
hard times returned and people resigned
themselves to patiently waiting for the worse
to end.
✧
Opposite, clockwise starting from top, left:
Born in Alabama and raised in Cleveland,
Jesse Owens came to Columbus to attend
The Ohio State University. On one day in
1935 he set three world records and tied a
fourth and in 1936 Owens won four gold
medals at the Berlin Olympics.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
Long trips and expensive pastimes may
have ended for many in the 1930s, but since
WAR COMES TO COLUMBUS
The wait came to an end on December 7,
1941, with what President Franklin Roosevelt
characterized as a “dastardly attack” by “naval
and air forces of the Empire of Japan” on the
American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
America was at war.
For all of the suddenness of the attack at
Pearl Harbor, the coming of war to America
was not entirely unexpected. The peace that
had been hoped for in Europe after World
War I had not materialized. The enormous
burden of reparation placed upon a defeated
Germany had sparked a ruinous economy
that devastated the country’s middle class.
Increasingly discourse in Europe moved to
the extreme left and the extreme right. At the
end of the 1930s, fascist regimes in Italy,
Germany to Spain were on the march. By late
1939, Europe was at war.
Asia had been at war even longer. A
lengthy conflict between Communists and
Nationalists in China had provided an
opportunity for Japan to take Manchuria in
1931. By the end of the decade Japan was
looking to manage a Greater East Asian
Co-Prosperity Sphere—whether its potential
members liked it or not.
Throughout the 1930s many Americans
had tried to avoid these conflicts. But since
1940, it was becoming increasingly clear that
the United States—the strongest economy in
the world—would probably play some role in
the coming conflict. But many Americans still
entertained the hope that the national role
would be an indirect one.
All of that changed after the attack
on Pearl Harbor. Within hours, American
sentiment was overwhelmingly in favor of
war. In short order, the conflict became a
world war with the United States at war in
both Europe and Asia.
It was a war like no other in American
history. Implementing a peacetime draft for
the first time in 1940, America ultimately
would increase its small peacetime military to
encompass more than 16,000,000 people. To
feed, clothe, arm and train so many people
required the conversion of existing companies
and the construction of whole new factories.
Some of the new factories transformed the
economy of the city. Curtiss-Wright Aviation
came to Columbus and acquired a site near
the Port Columbus airport. It then proceeded
to construct a factory that would eventually
employ 25,000 people building warplanes. In
its later roles as North American Aviation and
1926 the Palace Theater has offered a lift to
the spirits for one low price.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
In her youth, Columbus native Elsie Janis
(second on the left) was one of most famous
women in America. A child star in
vaudeville, she went on to become the
“Sweetheart of the AEF” after her trench
tours in World War I. Her later career
included singing, acting and writing several
books until her death in 1956.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
Captain Eddie Rickenbacker was a genuine
American hero. The World War I “Ace of
Aces” went on to a storied career in aviation
over the next several decades. His modest
home on Livingston Avenue is a National
Historic Landmark.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
Above: Begun by the Army during World
War I, the Columbus Quartermaster Depot
was greatly expanded during World War II
and employed more than 10,000 people.
After no less than fourteen name changes,
the facility is known today as the Defense
Supply Center Columbus.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH.
Left: John Thomas Blackburn, first soldier
from Columbus to be killed during the
attack on Pearl Harbor.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
CHAPTER
IX
85
✧
World War II moved toward a rapid
conclusion with the surrender of Japan on
September 2, 1945, on the deck of the
battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Back in
Columbus, many people were happy to see
the end of the war.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
North American Rockwell, the plant would be
part of Columbus for many years.
Similar to the experience of the Civil War
in Columbus, just as important as the private
sector companies were the military installations that were developed as part of the war
effort. In 1917 the Quartermaster Corps of
the Army had purchased 281 acres of farm
and swampland near three major railroads in
and around the community of Whitehall on
the far east side of Columbus. By the end of
the war the Army was operating six warehouses at the site. Not all that active during
the 1920s and 1930s, the facility became
critically important during World War II.
Acquiring another 295 acres and eventually
employing 10,000 people, the Columbus
Quartermaster Depot became by war’s end
the largest military supply depot in the
world. It also became the temporary home of
400 German prisoners of war. The Depot
would go through many other reorganizations over the years—including no less than
fourteen name changes—to become the
Defense Supply Center Columbus which continues to serve the nation today.
86
As one might imagine, all of these
thousands of jobs being created by
World War II proved to be extraordinarily appealing to people who had
not seen many job opportunities in
the previous decade. Thousands of
people flocked to Columbus looking
for work. They came from the small
towns and crossroad communities
of rural Ohio. And thousands of
other people, black and white, came
to Columbus from terminally poor
communities in southeastern Ohio,
West Virginia, Kentucky and
Tennessee. It was an area we today
call “Appalachia”. In those days, it
was simply “the South.” It was the
greatest mass migration to central
Ohio since the great immigration
waves of the nineteenth century and
would change both the politics and
culture of the city yet again. By the
end of World War II, thousands of
people from Appalachia were living
in Columbus.
The Urban Appalachian Council in
Cincinnati describes the result succinctly. “In
the years following World War II, 3 million
people left the Appalachian region.” Yet,
Appalachian people and their culture have
not always been embraced in the city. The
early migrants found the city a strange place
and had a hard time adjusting. In return the
city did not always understand the ways of
“these newcomers.” But eventually, over the
years, the newcomers and the city began to
understand and accept one another.
One of the more interesting aspects of
wartime life in Columbus was rationing.
Because so much was needed, many commodities came to be in short supply. The
government came up with an elaborate
rationing system for critical items like gasoline, tires, sugar and coffee. Since most
people had been living for a decade without
many of these items, the addition of rationing
was not all that burdensome. In fact,
some people became quite adept at trading
ration stamps and acquiring things that
they never would have had during the
Great Depression.
The war was a long unnerving, terrifying
experience. Today it seems—many years
later—that the Allies victory against European
fascism and Japanese militarism was
inevitable. It wasn’t. And the people living
through those years knew it. As unlikely as we
know today it might have been, people in
Columbus looked nightly from their rooftops
for German bombers. They had seen the
newsreels from London and they had listened
to Ed Murrow wishing them “Good Night
and Good Luck.” Unlike most of Western
Europe—Columbus was the recipient of both.
THE COST OF CONFLICT
But the city America’s veterans returned to
was not the same as the one they had left
behind. After a brief recession in 1946, the
economy refitted itself to domestic rather
than wartime production. It was at this point
that civic leaders began to realize the true and
total cost of almost two decades of depression
and war. During the hard times of the Great
Depression, little local money had been
available and little had been spent on public
improvements. During the war, most public
money was spent on war time needs. And
while the federal and state governments
had undertaken some notable public works
projects like the new Federal District
Courthouse in 1937, a lot remained undone.
Now the bill was coming due and
Columbus was in dire need of new money for
schools, hospitals and roads and bridges to
meet the need of the large new population
who had come to the city in the war years.
The problem was that residents of Columbus
had gotten into the habit of rejecting bond
issues and other taxation and convincing
them of the city’s needs was not easy.
To try to resolve the impasse, the mayor of
Columbus decided to try something new
and different. James A. Rhodes had come to
Columbus in 1932 from southeastern Ohio.
After a brief time at The Ohio State University,
he went into politics and was elected to the
Columbus School Board. By 1944 he was one
of the youngest mayors in the city’s history.
Rhodes would go on to a long and storied
career as auditor of state and ultimately as the
longest serving governor in Ohio history. But
in 1945, the young mayor had a more limited
objective—get a few bond issues passed.
Rhodes held a meeting in his office with a
number of governmental and private sector
leaders. Out of this came a series of meetings
leading to the formation of a group that came
to call itself the Metropolitan Committee.
Informally called the “Committee of 100,” the
organization consisted of representatives
from every part of the city’s leadership—
management and labor, social and cultural
groups, and local county and municipal government. Proposals to fund a variety of institutions—from schools to water treatment
plants—were presented to the committee. If
the proposal was approved by this very
diverse group—many of whose members
did not like each other all that much—the
Metropolitan Committee would recommend
it and push for its approval by the voters.
Local journalist Adrienne Bosworth later
quoted one of the leaders of Committee as to
how the organization operated. “We wouldn’t
support any issues that benefited one vested
interest or one end of town. We only supported the things that everyone recognized
were needed.”
The strategy worked. Over the years from
1945 to 1965, more than $80 million in bond
issues were approved by voters and much of
Columbus was rebuilt and refurbished.
And as it turned out, the money started
arriving not a moment too soon.
✧
Born in Coalton, Ohio, James A. Rhodes
had come to Columbus to attend Ohio State.
By 1945 he was mayor of the city and was
facing a lot of work left undone by two
decades of war and economic depression.
The Metropolitan Committee was formed to
get things done.
CHAPTER
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87
CHAPTER X
“ALL-AMERICA CITY” 1950-1970
A RUSH TO THE COUNTRY
At the end of World War II, the United States was unquestionably the strongest single country
in the world. The men and women returning from the war were looking for several important
things. They were—a spouse, a car and a house—and not necessarily in that order.
In short order, thanks to the “GI Bill of Rights” at least some of those desires were met.
Returning servicemen soon discovered that they could buy a house, go to school, and generally
improve their position in society. And they did.
In the years after World War II, Columbus, like many American cities, was a place in the
process of redefining itself. Prior to World War II, houses had been built individually. Even if a
developer proposed a new subdivision, he would do little more than lay out the streets, make sure
that sewer and water lines were available, and then sell lots to homebuyers. The owner of the new
property would build his own house. In some of the more exclusive suburbs of the 1920s, like
the Upper Arlington of King Thompson and his brother Ben, developer approval of the house
design was mandatory. In most parts of town, an owner could build whatever house he liked.
He could hire an architect or buy a plan and hire a contractor to build it. Or if the owner was in
a rush, he could buy a whole house and have it delivered to his home site. Before World War II,
the most popular place to do this was in the pages of the inimitable Sears and Roebuck catalog.
88
✧
Opposite, top: By the end of World War II,
even with wartime rationing, the automobile
had become the preferred means of
American transportation. The last streetcar
in Columbus took its last ride in 1948.
METROPOLITAN LIBRARY/PRESTON
REICHARD COLLECTION.
Opposite, bottom: By the late 1950s
Columbus had done so much, so rapidly
and so well that Look Magazine declared it
to be an “All-America City.” Columbus liked
the title and for the next several years
called itself “The All-America City.”
This is a statue of Christopher Columbus
that stands on Statehouse Square.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
After the war, a new Columbus company
offered yet another alternative. An all-metal
Lustron house could be built quickly and the
cost of the porcelain panels covering its outside was quite inexpensive. The houses boasted internal radiant heating and magnets to
hang pictures where nails could not be used.
The Columbus company advertisement
described the advantages.
Above: Through much of the 1950s, many
people still did much of their shopping in
downtown Columbus. Here Easter shoppers
Here is America’s new standard of living.
It offers cheerful convenience, room for living,
crowd High Street in April 1950.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
the strength and permanence of modern steel
construction—without the penalty of price.
Below: Millions of servicemen came home
after World War II looking for wives, cars,
and homes. At times there seemed like there
were not enough of any of them. To help
meet the demand for housing, the newly
formed Lustron Corporation in Columbus
began making and selling houses that were
mostly metal. The company was not
successful but many of their houses are
still around.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
CHAPTER
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89
✧
Top: The Great Southern Shopping Center.
Above: A number of new shopping centers
were built in the 1950s to meet the needs of
a rapidly growing city. Among them was
Great Western by the Casto Company.
The center was opened in 1954 and
included the “Walk of Wonders” miniature
models of the Wonders of the World.
Below: To serve the new residential
Hundreds of the houses were sold and can
still be found across America. Unfortunately,
to be profitable the company needed to sell
tens of thousands of the houses rather than
hundreds and the company soon went out
of business.
The people who did make money selling a
great many houses worked with different
rules than the developers of the past.
Recognizing the enormous pent up demand
for new housing and the availability of
inexpensive financing through the GI Bill and
Federal Housing Administration loans, new
builders built new houses in groups that they
subdivisions around the city, new shopping
areas began to be built. The first of a new
generation of shopping centers, Town and
Country, was completed by the Casto
Company in 1949.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
90
called “communities” or “neighborhoods.”
Because the houses were built on inexpensive
land and with the same general floor plans,
the houses could be built quickly and sold at
relatively low prices. Ranch, townhouse and
split level designs were always popular.
Aided by the National Defense Highway
Act, which used federal money for interstate
highways, and the rise of shopping centers
the number of new suburbs several miles
from downtown began to grow. The freeways
meant that the thirty minute journey to
work could now be made from Worthington,
or Reynoldsburg or New Rome—places
thought to be out in the country only a few
years before.
While many people were involved in building highways, one man in particular made
shopping centers the magnet which kept suburban people in suburbia. His name was Don
Casto. About the same time he was helping
bring the Port Columbus Airport into being,
Casto pioneered a strip of stores with parking
in Grandview Heights near Columbus. In
1948, he opened Town and Country, the first
modern automobile-based shopping center
in the city. Its success would lead to other
Casto centers. They included Northern Lights,
Graceland and the Great Eastern, Great
Western and Great Southern shopping centers.
✧
Left: The National Interstate and Defense
Highways Act of 1956 transformed
America. Over the next two decades large
interstate highways would permit people to
live farther than ever from where they
worked. And freeway construction would
divide entire urban neighborhoods as was
the case when Interstate 70 passed through
downtown Columbus.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
Below: Accompanying freeway construction
was a federal, state and local policy of
THE CENTRAL
CITY REBUILDS
All of this movement to the edges of
Columbus and beyond led to a precipitous
decline in the population of the central city. A
popular view of planners and government
officials was that when parts of a city became
“blighted,” the diseased section of the city
needed to be removed. Across America the
program was called Urban Renewal. In
Columbus, it was called Slum Clearance and
Redevelopment or SCAR. Beginning in the
early 1950s, plans were made in concert with
freeway construction to level certain sections
of town and rebuild them as part of a new
downtown. Sixty acres on the southeast side
of downtown were acquired and the venerable 1850 Central Market was removed to
make way for a new bus station. On the north
side, most of the old Flytown neighborhood
also was removed.
Many people noticed the important
progress Columbus was making. Look magazine was impressed enough to give Columbus
an All-America City award in 1958.
Columbus was not the first All-America City
nor would it be the last. In fact Columbus
would win the award again. But few places
took the award as seriously as Columbus did.
Columbus was a place in search of an image
of itself to project to the world. For a time in
the early 1900s, Columbus had been the Arch
City. But by the 1950s, the arches had been
gone for decades. So when Columbus got a
new title, the name stuck. For the next twenty years, Columbus was the All-America-City.
But not everyone was thrilled with the
city’s progress in reshaping itself. Some people
were angry and upset that whole neighborhoods were being removed. And the point
was not lost on a significantly larger AfricanAmerican population, boosted by wartime
Urban Renewal. In Columbus it was called
Slum Clearance and Rehabilitation (SCAR)
and took more than sixty acres of downtown
in the Market Mohawk project. Reacting to
the loss, nearby residents quickly bought,
fixed and resold houses to prove a
neighborhood need not be lost. The homes
were saved and came to be called
German village.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
CHAPTER
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✧
Above: More than nice neighborhoods were
saved in Columbus. In the late 1960s,
the 1928 Ohio Theatre was threatened.
A grassroots community movement raised
money and the theatre was saved.
It soon became the home of the
Columbus Symphony.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
Below: Mayor M. E. Sensenbrenner presided
over a period of unprecedented population
and geographic growth in the 1950s and
1960s by requiring subdivisions taking
sewer or water service to be annexed to the
city. Columbus would become the largest
city in land area in Ohio.
migration, that some of the areas being
removed and the sites of new freeways were
the homes of black Columbus. Old organizations like the NAACP and the Columbus
Urban League were joined by new organizations born in the “Civil Rights Revolution” of
the Deep South in opposing the displacement
of their community. Groups like the Reverend
Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian
Leadership Conference worked with groups
like the Congress of Racial Equality in seeking
a new future for the African-American community of Columbus.
Joining them were a not insignificant number of white people who also felt the loss of
whole downtown neighborhoods to be a
tragedy. Many people not only made their
views known, they began acting upon them.
Fearful that the old German neighborhood
might be the next target of urban renewal, a
number of people in the 1950s began buying
houses, fixing their exteriors and reselling
them. By 1960, a German Village Commission
was in place regulating owners’ use of their
property and a German Village Society would
soon be active.
In the 1960s, organizing for historic
preservation of the built environment was a
relatively new idea in Columbus. There had
been efforts over the years to attempt to save
individual buildings from time to time. The
battle to save the historic Kelley Mansion in
1963 had been unsuccessful. The house was
removed stone by numbered stone from its
site on Broad Street by Memorial Hall and the
92
stones were placed in storage. They are still
in storage.
But it says something about the success of
historic preservation in Columbus that by
1969, a movement to save the historic Ohio
Theatre succeeded admirably. The 1928
movie palace was saved and is now the home
to the Columbus Symphony. In 1977, the
Columbus Landmarks Foundation was
founded to further historic preservation in
Columbus. In 1978, Victorian and Italian
Villages on the near north side became preservation districts. They would not be the last by
any means as Columbus became quite successful in saving its older neighborhoods.
Looking back over fifty years of success in
historic preservation, the German Village
Society today declares that “German Village,
Columbus’ premiere downtown neighborhood is one of the preeminent historic districts in the United States. German Village is
233 acres of ‘living history’ where the old
meets the new and the result is a vibrant and
charming community.”
But none of these efforts would have mattered much had it not been for the selfdescribed “dynamic” mayor of his “dynamic”
city. Maynard E. “M. E.” Sensenbrenner was a
mayor like none the city had seen for some
time. Short, thin and not all that imposing in
appearance, Sensenbrenner had come to
Columbus from Circleville and had made a
success of himself as a Hilltop businessman.
Quite patriotic, he was a man of enormous
energy and was deeply committed to his
adopted town. Entering politics, he surprised
many people by winning the mayoralty in
the early 1950s. Forced to sit out a term after
taking the blame for the west side flooding
of a stream called Dry Run, Sensenbrenner
returned as mayor in 1964 and would serve
until 1971.
Like many successful politicians, Mayor
Sensenbrenner knew his limitations and
looked for good people to advise him as to the
direction he should take. These men working
with many others established a political
dynasty that would eventually come to control county as well as city government. Their
advice to the mayor was succinct—annex,
and then annex some more.
Many large cities in Ohio and across
America were being slowly strangled by a ring
of new suburban communities that were preventing further urban growth and taking
some of the most affluent taxpayers in the city
with them. In Columbus, this process was
checked by linking approval of sewer and
water line extensions to annexation to the city.
A developer could and sometimes did build
subdivisions with septic tanks and wells.
But they were never as popular as places
whose homes had city sewer, water and police
and fire services. With this policy in place,
Columbus soon grew to become the largest
city in land area and ultimately the largest city
in population in the state.
As Columbus entered the 1960s, it was
growing for a number of reasons. A wise policy of annexation combined with inner city
rehabilitation and revitalization put the city
in position to be able to grow. Probably the
most sophisticated freeway system in Ohio
saw major roads coming into Columbus from
every direction with traffic easily diverted to
any part of the city by a fifty-five mile outer
beltway surrounding the city as Interstate 270.
✧
Left: German carriage ride from the past.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
Right: German village was not the
only neighborhood helped by historic
preservation. In the late 1970s two
neighborhoods bracketing High Street in the
Short North—Victorian and Italian Village
(seen here)—also became quite successful.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
CHAPTER
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✧
Right: The Ohio State University grew in
the years after World War II. From 17,500
students in 1940, the campus exploded to
26,000 students by 1950. By 1952 it was
clear that filling the stadium on an autumn
afternoon would not be a problem.
Below: Legendary football player, Chic Harley.
Bottom: The Ohio State University
basketball team leaving for California, 1960.
THE IMPORTANCE OF A
GREAT UNIVERSITY
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
Still, even with space and access, a city
needs people in order to grow. Columbus
would soon see them for a number of reasons,
the most important of which was 3.3 miles
north of the Statehouse Square along High
Street. Since 1870, the country home and
extensive farms of William Neil, “the Old
Stage King,” had been the home of The Ohio
State University.
Ohio State has been such a large part of the
recent history of Columbus, Ohio, that it is
sometimes easy to forget that it was not all
that long ago when the campus and student
body were rather small. For most of the early
history of the university, the campus was the
94
home of a few hundred and then later a few
thousand students. Affluent residents of the
city often built large spacious homes near the
small university in exclusive neighborhoods
with names like Indianola, Northwood Park
and Dennison Place. The University area was
a nice quiet place near a nice quiet campus.
Some of that calm began to dissipate in
the early twentieth century when football
games—especially those featuring the legendary Chic Harley—began to make a lot of
noise at Neil Park along High Street. The
growing success of Ohio State’s teams would
support the construction of a new Ohio
Stadium that would draw even more
thousands of people to athletic contests. But
for all of that, Ohio State was still a small
school in a state rather filled with colleges.
All of that changed at the end of World
War II.
The GI Bill of Rights provided a means
for thousands of veterans of limited means
to come to Ohio State—among many other
places—and complete a college education.
The campus grew in size and complexity as
a result of these new students. But the real
growth of the land grant college would really
begin after most of the veterans had received
their education and left the campus. The
continued growth Ohio State owed its success
to World War II—but for different reasons.
Many of those veterans returning home
after World War II found their dream in a
new house, a new car and a new wife. The
result was also new kids. Most people had
put off family building during the Depression
for economic reasons. During the war, most
men were elsewhere. Now in the years
between 1946 and 1964, America saw an
extraordinary surge in the birth rate. It came
to be called the Post-War Baby Boom and it
would affect the culture and society of
America for many years.
By the early 1960s many of these young
people of the postwar generation began to
attend college. Because it was inexpensive
and because it was THE state university,
many young people came to Columbus. By
1965 the campus at Ohio State was the home
to more than 50,000 students.
And it was an interesting time—to say the
least. Many of the young people coming of
age after World War II had grown up as the
children of affluence with advantages their
Depression born parents had never had.
Many of these new children from the era
of the 1960s embraced the open culture of
that time. Of course, many more did not. But
the acceptors of the status quo are often
forgotten because they make so little noise.
In an oral history interview in 1985, former
OSU President Novice G. Fawcett remembered the students of the 1960s. “The greatest
satisfaction I had during my years at the
University was working with students. I was
always available to students…I had great faith
in the students. In every student body there is
always a small minority of people who think
otherwise…Most of the students wanted to
continue with their academic studies, but a lot
of them got caught up in one of these movements or the other.”
There were a number of movements to
choose from. The Civil Rights Movement in
the South was complemented by the Free
Speech Movement in the North. And with
protest about the Vietnam War thrown in after
1965, it would be only a matter of time before
the gigantic campus would explode. On April
28, 1970, twenty thousand students and their
friends appeared on the Oval in the center of
the Ohio State campus and began a protest
that would eventually become the greatest civil
disorder in the city since the 1910 streetcar
strike. By the time it ended, the campus had
been closed, the National Guard was called in,
and hundreds of people had been arrested.
It was a difficult time but the university
worked its way through its difficulties. As it
did, it became increasingly clear that places
like Ohio State made Columbus a rather
distinctive sort of city. Now Columbus was
about to succeed while much of the rest of
the state fell behind.
More than once in its history, Columbus
had proven itself to be a special place. It was
about to do so once again.
✧
In the early twenty-first century, the campus
of Ohio State continued to grow. In 2002,
there were more than 48,000 students
attending the main campus. By the time
Ohio played Penn State in fall of 2010,
the enrollment had climbed to 56,000.
Even a greatly enlarged stadium had no
trouble staying filled.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
CHAPTER
X
95
CHAPTER XI
TEST CITY TO BEST CITY 1970-1990
THE TEST CITY
✧
The F & R Lazarus Company has been an
innovator as well. Founded by Simon
Lazarus in 1851 as a men’s store, the
founder’s sons, Fred and Ralph, made
“Lazarus” into the biggest department store
in the city. Succeeding generations founded
Federated Department Stores and a
national business.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
In the years after World War II, the United States became the strongest economic power on
Earth. Most of the success of American business can be directly traced to a striking evolution of
American trade and commerce. The movement to a consumer based economy had started in the
1920s and continued through the Great Depression and World War II. In the 1950s and 1960s,
dozens of companies began to make their money selling lots of products to lots of people.
In a real sense this was the golden age of the department store and the supermarket and
Columbus, Ohio, had a large number of both. Founded in an abandoned roller rink near OSU,
Big Bear stores became one of the biggest supermarket chains in the Midwest. And the venerable
F & R Lazarus Company began a whole chapter of department store success by complementing
its huge downtown store with shopping center locations.
To compete in an increasingly crowded marketplace, the purveyors of everything from laundry
soap to candy bars were forced to advertise in all sorts of places from billboards to newspapers
and from radio and TV shows to free samples hung in a bag on a door knob. All of this promotion
cost a lot of money. Many manufacturers wanted to know whether a product would sell before
releasing it a waiting world. What was needed was a “test market.”
By the end of the 1960s, one of the most commonly used test markets in America was
Columbus, Ohio—so much so in fact that it came to be called “Test City USA” by Reader’s Digest
magazine. Columbus was used so often because its population was a veritable cross-section of
America. It had a population of working people and a large number of government, service and
commercial employees. The city’s still active downtown was ringed by both older established
neighborhoods and brand new subdivisions. Furthermore, the city was also politically diverse.
Columbus was not unique in being so diverse, but it was one of the largest cities close to the
commercial and industrial Northeast and Midwest with these traits.
96
In an interview in 2009, OSU professor
Neeli Bandapudi explained the appeal of
the capital city to America’s marketers.
“So Columbus, Middle America, it was the
idea that it truly was representative of the
broader trends of the nation.”
But by the 1970s, much to the chagrin of
marketers and advertisers working in Columbus,
the city was no longer the test city it once
was. In fact, the city was no longer a mirror of
most of America. The people of Columbus were
younger, better educated and generally made
more money than most of the people in cities
of comparable size across the country. In short,
Columbus was no longer a versatile test city
because of its continuing economic prosperity.
This extraordinary success was all the more
remarkable when one considers the condition
of the rest of the country and the Midwest
specifically in the 1970s and 1980s. It was
not a very pleasant time for a lot of people.
The great industrial cities of the East and
Midwest were in decline. Many companies
were moving their factories to the South and
West where regulations were few and labor
was considerably cheaper. In time, many of
those same factories that brought benefit to a
“New South” and a “New West” moved even
farther away to Latin America, to Canada and
even to Asia. And competitors from the rest of
the world were providing a new challenge
to American products and services. All of
these difficulties were compounded by high
priced oil controlled by the Organization of
Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
Very few cities were able to meet these
formidable challenges and emerge successfully.
Columbus, Ohio, was one of them. There were
a number of reasons why.
First and foremost Columbus had always
had something of a diversified economy.
Manufacturing had never composed the majority of business in the town. The commercial,
transportation and government sectors had
always been strong. While Columbus never
grew quite as fast as other industrial cities,
it never suffered quite as much in hard times.
But the secret to success in Columbus was
more than simple diversity. The city was
innovative too. Since 1929, Columbus had
been the home of the Battelle Memorial
Institute. Originally a metallurgical research
organization, Battelle had become the largest
✧
Top: In the early 1970s, the City of
Columbus was still reasonably well
populated during a working day like this
one at Broad and High Streets in 1974.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF ESTHER A. MILLER.
Above: Columbus had always had its share
of innovators. Big Bear opened its first store
in 1934 near OSU and was the first selfservice supermarket in the Midwest.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
CHAPTER
XI
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✧
Above: Columbus has been a favorable
market for new restaurant ideas for almost
a century. The White Castle Company was
founded in 1921 and came to Columbus in
1934. A former executive with Kentucky
Fried chicken, Dave Thomas decided he
wanted to open his own chain. Taking his
daughter’s name, he opened the first
Wendy’s across from Memorial Hall in
Columbus in 1969.
METROPOLITAN LIBRARY/NICK TAGGART COLLECTION.
Below: Children’s Hospital was founded in
1894 with nine patient beds. In 2007, a gift
of $50 million from the Nationwide
Foundation led to its renaming as
Nationwide Children’s Hospital. It is
consistently ranked as one of the best
hospitals in America.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
private research organization in the world.
With its neighbor, The Ohio State University,
Battelle pointed the way to new types of
business in Columbus.
While other Ohio cities were desperately
seeking manufacturers to replace lost jobs,
Columbus became the home to Chemical
Abstracts Service, the OCLC library cataloging
center, and Time-Warner communications
with its innovative QUBE cable television
service. And even more traditional businesses
like the Limited Stores, Nationwide Insurance,
Cardinal Health and Worthington Steel were
successful because they did a number of
new things with flair and style.
In addition, education has always been
important in Columbus. Like most of the
98
rest of the state, central Ohio is home to a
number of colleges and universities. They
include some like Capital, Franklin, Otterbein
and Ohio Dominican that have been here
for more than a century and others like
Columbus State and DeVry that are more
recent in origin.
Columbus also has a long history of innovation in health care. The establishment of
Starling Medical College in 1848 when
Columbus was a city of a few thousand people began a tradition of excellence that would
include what would eventually become
Nationwide Children’s Hospital as well as a
host of other excellent health care providers.
And then there is food and its preparation.
As people who operate certain eating
places will tell you, many successful chains
like McDonald’s and Burger King are NOT
“fast food” restaurants. They are “fast service”
restaurants. Having settled that issue, it
should be pointed out that Columbus is
corporate home to several of the best ones.
As early as 1929 the White Castle Company
moved its business to Columbus from its
birthplace in Kansas City. In 1969 former
Kentucky Fried Chicken executive Dave
Thomas started his own restaurant and
named it after his daughter—“Wendy’s Old
Fashioned Hamburgers.”
Remarking on his success, Thomas later
explained, It all comes back to the basics.
Serve customers the best-tasting food at a
good value in a clean, comfortable restaurant,
and they’ll keep coming back.
Columbus became the largest city in Ohio
in land area with its aggressive annexation
policies. It became the largest city in population by being a good place to work in a lot of
different kinds of places.
DOWNTOWN CHALLENGED
Despite this success and economic stability, the 1970s and 1980s still proved to be
years of challenge to the City of Columbus.
While the city continued to grow in size and
population, much of that growth was taking
place away from the downtown. A whole new
generation of shopping centers—Northland,
Eastland and Westland—was built even
further from downtown. Unlike the older
shopping centers, the new ones eventually
would all be covered to provide comfortable
year round shopping. And they began to
draw more and more customers away
from downtown.
The availability of inexpensive land meant that whole new
factories were built not near the
old working class neighborhoods
but along the distant Interstate
270 Outerbelt corridor.
While some historic districts
near downtown prospered in
the 1970s and 1980s, many of
the neighborhoods adjacent to
downtown were not German,
Victorian or Italian Village. And
to be fair, many of them did not
want to be. As business shifted from downtown to the suburbs, more and more property owners began to tear down old buildings
that lacked tenants and replace them with
parking lots that were easier to maintain.
There were some success stories. In 1974,
the 1895 Wyandotte Building, Columbus’ first
skyscraper, was renovated. And even though
the landmark Neil House hotel on Statehouse
Square was removed, the Huntington Center
that replaced it became a landmark in its own
right. The old headquarters of the Columbus
Area Chamber of Commerce was removed
and the Rhodes Office Tower that replaced it
became the tallest building in the city. Even
venerable Central High School was saved
from the wrecking ball after it closed. But over
the 1970s and 1980s, more and more empty
blocks began to appear in the downtown
cityscape. Perhaps the best known symbolic
loss to downtown came in 1976.
✧
Top, left: The third Neil House Hotel had
stood across High Street from the Statehouse
since 1924. In the early 1980s it was
replaced with the thirty-seven story
Huntington Center which opened in 1984.
The Center is the fourth tallest building in
the city.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
Top, right: In 1969 the 1885 Columbus
Board of Trade building was removed and
replaced with the James A. Rhodes State
Office Tower. A statue of Governor Rhodes,
the longest serving governor in state history,
stands in front of the building.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
Below: Central High School..
METROPOLITAN LIBRARY/DAVID LUCAS COLLECTION.
CHAPTER
XI
99
✧
Above: Plans to build a new convention
center in the 1970s originally included the
retention of part of the Union Station
Arcade. Plans changed and an unannounced
demolition proceeded quickly in October,
1976. When the destruction was halted only
one great arch remained. It now stands in
McFerson Park in the Arena District.
Below: Court ordered desegregation of the
Columbus Public Schools began in 1979. It
proceeded in a peaceful and orderly way.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
The Beaux Arts Union Station Arcade had
been planned to have been incorporated
into a new civic center being developed on
the site of the old train station. Immediately
to the south along High Street, Nationwide
Insurance had made a major commitment to
stay in the downtown and it was hoped that
the new convention center would incorporate
the best of the old and the new.
It was not to be. In October 1976, the
Arcade was removed. By the time demolition
could be stopped, only one great arch of
100
the old arcade remained. The arch would be
saved and rebuilt elsewhere. The movement
to preserve it led directly to the establishment
of the Columbus Landmarks Foundation in
1977 and the birth of a modern movement in
Columbus pledged to historic preservation
and sound new design.
The social fabric of the city was tested in
these years. While Columbus had its share of
low-to-moderate-income neighborhoods, the
city had not seen the intense inner city violence that had characterized much of the rest
of urban America in the 1960s.
While there had been instances
of civil disorder in those years,
they were few and far between.
Even so, the imposition of
court ordered busing for the
purpose of school desegregation
in 1979 became a cause for
concern among many residents
of the city. America’s experience
with forced busing had not been
pleasant. In many cities—north
and south—the reaction had
been violent. School officials,
civic leaders, and most importantly the people of Columbus,
were determined to see busing
proceed peacefully. And it did.
In releasing the Columbus
Public Schools from court
ordered busing in 1985, Federal
Judge Robert Duncan observed
that the “defendants have had
significant success in doing what
many view as impossible.”
The peaceful implementation of busing in
Columbus was not all that surprising to many
people living in the city. It was yet one more
example of how the city’s groups—public and
private—were generally committed not to
partisan advantage but to the betterment of
the city even as the city’s leadership changed.
Democratic control of city hall changed
with the election of Republican Tom Moody
as mayor of Columbus. He would be followed
by two other Republicans—Greg Lashutka
and Dana Rinehart and the composition of
City Council would change as well. But the
generally cooperative relationship between
private and public Columbus would make
possible some innovative responses to the
problems facing the city.
In addition to keeping old businesses and
finding new ones, the major challenge facing
Columbus in these years was to reverse the
decline of downtown. In the early 1970s
agreement had been reached that only way to
effectively revive a declining downtown was
to make it competitive with the suburbs.
DOWNTOWN REBORN
It was not that there were no people downtown. Thousands of people came downtown
every day to work, and dine and even occasionally shop. The major great old theatres—the
Ohio and the Palace—had been restored and
still drew large audiences from time to time.
And special events like the Greater Columbus
Arts Festival and the Red, White and Boom
celebration on the Fourth of July drew hundreds of thousands of people to the riverfront.
The problem was not special events.
Columbus was very adept at staging special
events. The problem—as one wag put it—
was Tuesday night. On an average Tuesday
night, one could “shoot a cannon up High
Street and not hit anything.”
To resolve the problem the City of
Columbus acquired four city blocks east of
High Street and immediately south of the
Statehouse. The city cleared the area and
transferred it to the newly created Capitol
South Urban Redevelopment Corporation.
“Capitol South” as it came to be called would
rebuild the area, first with a rather unsuccessful roller skating and ice rink called the
Centrum and then with a very successful
multilevel enclosed shopping mall called
City Center.
From the time it opened in 1989, City
Center was quite obviously the best place to
shop in central Ohio and thousands of people
came to Columbus from across the state to
visit it.
✧
Top, left: On June 15, 2000, five Columbus
mayors met socially one with another at the
Ohio Statehouse. Left to right: Tom Moody,
Greg Lashutka, James Rhodes, Dana
Rinehart, Michael Coleman.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
Top, right: While people still came to
Columbus for special events, getting them
downtown on weekday nights was a
problem. Acquiring three blocks south of the
Statehouse, the Capitol South Community
Urban Redevelopment Corporation opened
a combination skating rink and roller rink
on the site in 1979 while other uses were
being planned. Called The Centrum, the
rink was heavily used at first—as can be
seen in this 1980 holiday picture.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
CHAPTER
XI
101
By 1990, the City of Columbus had demonstrated time and again over the previous twenty years that the people of the town had the
ability to respond effectively and well to difficult problems as diverse as central city decline
✧
The Nationwide One Building.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
102
and school desegregation. Columbus also had
amply demonstrated that it knew how to manage large public events. Many of these—like
the Arts Festival—were located downtown. But
others were located elsewhere around the city.
In 1973, one of the best known sports
figures in the history of the city—golf legend
Jack Nicklaus—decided to bring a major
professional golf tournament to the city. The
development of the Memorial Tournament led
to the building of the Muirfield golf course.
The golf course led to the construction of
the Muirfield residential community and the
transformation of suburban Dublin, Ohio,
from a sleepy village with quaint stone houses
to one of the fastest growing areas in the
state and home to numerous companies. They
included Dave Thomas’ Wendy’s International.
And anyone seeking instruction in how to
handle large crowds of enthusiastic people on a
sustained and regular basis need only visit the
Ohio State Fair in Columbus every summer or
any OSU home football game in the fall.
✧
Probably the largest single one night
gathering in Columbus in recent years is
the annual “Red, White and Boom”
Independence Day celebration. The one in
2006 is seen here. One will usually find
about 500,000 people at the annual event.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
CHAPTER
XI
103
✧
Top, left: The decision by golfing legend
Jack Nicklaus to sponsor the Memorial
Tournament at the Muirfield Village
Golf Club near Dublin in 1976 led to
commercial, residential and recreational
development in much of northwest
Franklin County.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
Top, right: To celebrate the 500th
anniversary of the voyage of discovery of
Christopher Columbus, the largest city
named for the explorer held a major
horticultural exhibition called Ameriflora ’92
in Franklin Park. The exhibition ran from
April 20, 1922, to October 12, 1992, and
attracted 5.5 million visitors.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
Right: Battelle Memorial Institute..
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
Below: As part of the Quincentennial of the
arrival of Christopher Columbus in
The 500th Anniversary of the arrival of
Christopher Columbus and his band of
adventurous explorers was observed in 1992.
In several parts of America, various events—
social, cultural and literary—centered on the
event. Variously called the Quincentennial or
the Quincentenary—depending on who
was talking—the celebration of the coming
of Columbus was eagerly
anticipated by some, especially people of Italian
descent, and bitterly
detested by others, especially Native Americans.
Columbus, Ohio, had
its share of both. But as
the largest city anywhere
named for the explorer, a
lot of people felt that the
500th anniversary was a
good time to hold an event
in honor of the “Admiral
of the Ocean Sea.” It was quickly decided not
to erect another stature of Christopher
Columbus—the city already had three.
America, the city acquired an exact replica
of his flagship, the Santa Maria, in 1992.
It is moored just north of Broad Street
Bridge at Battelle Riverfront Park.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
104
A major event of the celebration was an
internationally sanctioned floral exhibition.
“Ameriflora” was held at Franklin Park and
the event spurred a massive expansion in
size and scale of the venerable 1895 Franklin
Park Conservatory. Ameriflora was quite successful and attracted several million visitors
to the city.
The other notable arrival in the city during
the 500th anniversary was a replica of
Columbus’ flagship—the Santa Maria.
Moored just north of
the Broad Street Bridge
near Battelle Riverfront
Park, the ship became
and remained a popular
tourist attraction.
As Columbus entered
the 1990s, the city
seemed poised to continue to enjoy continued remarkable growth
and economic success.
And it would—but not
without a few slight
turns and a few bumps
in the road.
CHAPTER XII
THE CITY RISING 1990-2012
A PROSPEROUS DECADE
The 1990s were years of change in much of America as well as in Columbus, Ohio. The 1980s
had posed economic and social challenges to much of the country. Occasional military
confrontations notwithstanding, the decade of the 1990s was one of general economic
prosperity. Not since the 1960s had the country seen such continued economic growth. Many
people looking for work were able to find it—especially in the high technology “dot.com”
companies that came to capture the imagination of investors and customers alike.
While the West and the South benefited most in growing these new businesses which
specialized in a savvy understanding of both media and technology, cities like Columbus did not
do all that badly. The high concentration of educational and research institutions which had
been a hallmark of the city since the end of World War II was helpful to the new companies of
Columbus. And older more established companies in retail and service industries also prospered.
What was hidden in the success of the new economy was the continued decline of the old
manufacturing businesses that once had been the core of the industrial Midwest. In 1988 the
large White Westinghouse plant on the far west side that had been operating in the city since
1954 closed for the last time and its large factory building became a warehouse. The century old
Jeffrey Manufacturing Company had been acquired by Dresser Industries in 1974. In 1995,
the thirty-two buildings constituting most of the closed factory were demolished. The site would
remain vacant for a number of years. A better ending followed the closing of the local Lennox
Industries factory near The Ohio State University in 1994. Within two years, the site had become
the home of the Lennox Town Center shopping mall.
✧
An awesome rainbow broadcasts a Clippers
game at Huntington Park on
April 20, 2009.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
CHAPTER
XII
105
✧
Above: The 1990s continued to see a
loss of industry in the city. The Jeffrey
Manufacturing Company had been part of
the near north side of Columbus for more
than a century when it was acquired by
Dresser Industries in 1974. In 1995, the
entire site was leveled.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
Below: Columbus had opened a new
convention center in the Ohio Center
adjacent to the Hyatt Regency Hotel in
1980. But more space was needed.
A strikingly modern new center was opened
in 1993 and expanded in 1999.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
In fact one could trace the growth of the
city by following the trail of its major retail
centers. The great enclosed shopping malls of
the 1960s and 1970s that had once replaced
an earlier generation of unenclosed strip
malls now saw themselves superseded. A
whole new series of shopping centers began
to be built around and beyond the northern
tier of Interstate 270. In 1997, The Mall at
Tuttle Crossing opened on the northwest side
of the city. Similar in look and concept to
City Center in downtown Columbus, Tuttle
Crossing was followed in 1999 by a development that was more of a new community
than a shopping center.
Beginning in the 1980s, retailer Leslie
Wexner had partnered with developer Jack
106
Kessler in the acquisition of a large amount of
land near rural New Albany in northeast
Franklin County. Beginning in 1991, the New
Albany Company transformed the small village into a fashionable residential community
with large tracts of commercial office space
and the Easton Town Center. Easton was
and is not so much a shopping center as a
shopping experience. It describes itself as a
“1.7 million square foot urban town center
featuring pedestrian friendly streetscapes,
open air gathering places, fountains, children’s
parks and more than 170 best-in-class retail,
dining tenants.”
Easton was soon followed by Polaris
Fashion Place on the north side in 2001.
While a more traditional multi-story mall in
general appearance, Polaris offered more
amenities and a wider variety of shopping
than had previously been the case in many
Columbus retail locations. The combination
of these new shopping areas proved to be too
much for Northland Mall. The shopping center closed in 2002 and by 2004 most of its
buildings would be demolished.
The success of the new shopping malls
soon attracted a wide variety of other businesses large and small to nearby locations. But
the new shopping centers, like the ones that
preceded them, were not so much a cause
as an effect. The suburban population of
Columbus was moving inexorably to new suburbs near and then beyond the Interstate 270
Outer Belt. That is where new businesses were
locating and the stores were moving to where
many of their customers lived and worked.
DOWNTOWN REINVENTED
The success of the fringes posed a conundrum to the civic leaders working to maintain
and enhance the urban core of Columbus. By
the early 1990s, it was clear that, while City
Center was still thriving and many people were
still coming daily to downtown and would
continue to do so, that a formidable economic
challenge to the urban center was emerging in
the suburbs. In the belief that the core of
Columbus could and would be as successful
as the suburbs, a number of important and
valuable projects went forward in the 1990s.
One of the great strengths and successes
of Columbus in the years after World War II
had been its historic districts. The initial
districts—German, Victorian and Italian
Village—had been adjacent to downtown.
Split from the city by the freeways encircling
the downtown core, these neighborhoods
had nevertheless increased the population of
the areas around the core. The success of
these neighborhoods led to the creation of
many more in many other parts of the city. In
the case of the Brewery District—created in
1993—the historic area was primarily commercial rather than residential and provided
an example of a whole new sort of historic
property preservation.
Historic districts have at times in American
history been somewhat controversial as low
to moderate income people living in older
neighborhoods saw their communities being
“gentrified” by middle class newcomers.
Sometimes this did happen. But in many cases
it did not and neighbors old and new learned
to live one with another. The neighborhoods
were saved and strengthened the nearby
central city.
So too did the convention center—in a
rather lengthy and somewhat convoluted way.
Columbus has been a convention city for
quite a long time. All of those railroads passing
through Columbus and later freeways and
air traffic made Columbus a good place to
hold a meeting. In the mid 1800s, meetings
were held in any place with a lot of room—a
church, a school or even a theatre. By the late
1800s, large public meetings were often held
in public auditoriums. The Board of Trade had
one attached to their building on Broad Street.
When not in use for conventions, its alternate
use can be deduced from the still surviving
Ringside Café on Pearl Alley. A real addition
was made to convention trade with Memorial
Hall at the turn of the century and with
Veterans Memorial Auditorium after World
War II. But by the late 1960s, it was clear a
new convention center was needed. Battelle
Memorial Institute provided much of the capital needed to build one adjacent to a new
Hyatt Hotel on the site of the old train station.
Unfortunately, the rapid growth of the city
and its conventions soon showed that center
to be too small as well. In the early 1990s,
architect Peter Eisenmann designed a new
convention for the city in the deconstructionist style for which he had become wellknown. Controversial in appearance, the new
✧
In 1989, a major shopping mall called City
Center was opened in downtown Columbus.
For the next several years it was the place
to shop in central Ohio. Then in 1997, a
new mall called Tuttle Crossing opened on
the northwest side in 1997. It was followed
by another innovative mall called Easton
Town Center—seen here in 1999.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
CHAPTER
XII
107
✧
Top: The Scioto River at dusk in 2008.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
Above: Franklinton had not seen the kind of
renovation dollars that poured into other
neighborhoods near the downtown after the
success of German Village because it was
still prone to possible flooding. Things began
to change in the 1990s with the beginning of
construction of a major flood protection
program. “The Floodwall” was completed
in 2004.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
Below: The Ohio Statehouse in 2008.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
center was nevertheless provided much needed convention space and was extended with
an addition in 1999. The success of the convention center sparked a revival in the last
public market in the city which was across
the street. The North Market had been located on the site of the old North Graveyard
since the cemetery was abandoned in 1876.
The Market burned after World War II and
was replaced by a rather large Quonset Hut.
Now the market would be revitalized. In
1995, the North Market reopened in a former
warehouse building adjacent to its longtime
former site. The Quonset Hut was removed to
make way for a parking lot.
And this was not the only success to come
to the north side of downtown. In 1832 the
State of Ohio had left the original Ohio
Penitentiary site and built a new prison far
from the city at what is now the corner of
Spring Street and Neil Avenue. The prison
stayed there for more than 150 years. By then
it had become an altogether unsavory and
unhealthy place indeed. Replaced by a new
prison at Lucasville, the “Pen” stood empty
until 1995 when it left state hands. In 1997
the prison was leveled and became part of a
new development—the Arena District. Efforts
to bring professional hockey to Columbus
were successfully led by local industrialist
108
John McConnell. The result was the arrival of
Columbus Blue Jackets hockey team and the
construction of Nationwide Arena as a place for
them to play in 2000. When the Arena opened,
John McConnell said, “Columbus has been
good to me. I think this is good for Columbus.”
Surrounding the new facility, a new area of
shops, offices, apartments and condominiums
called the Arena District came into being and
was a successful part of a revitalizing downtown.
But it was only one part.
Some of the most important changes to downtown were being undertaken by government.
The Ohio Statehouse is and always has
been the preeminent symbol of state power
and authority in Columbus. Begun in 1839
the building had taken twenty-two years to
complete and had been in continuous use
ever since. By the late 1980s state leaders
were convinced the great building needed a
makeover. Over most of the next decade it
got one. By the time the work was done in
1996, the Statehouse had been returned to
the way it looked in the late 1860s. It had
cost more than $100 million to do it, but
most people who have seen it come away
convinced it was worth the money.
Other parts of the downtown were seeing
some change. The combined impact of several cultural organizations on the east side of
downtown was significant. But that impact
was muted because of the lack of an organized way to promote all of the schools,
colleges, museums and library facilities in
the area. The Discovery District became the
marketing vehicle to let most of the rest of
Columbus know what this remarkably
creative area was all about. The District and
its constituent organizations became much
more strongly supported as a result.
The Center of Science and Industry, on
the other hand, literally went in another
direction. Housed in the former Memorial
Hall, the Franklin County Historical Society
had transformed itself in 1963 into the
Center of Science and Industry or COSI. By
the 1990s, the leaders of COSI felt a new
home was needed. That home would take
part of the front of the 1924 Central High
School and wrap an entirely new building
around it along the Scioto Riverfront.
Opened in 1999, the new COSI was a wonder to behold. In the years that followed,
WOSU Public Media partnered with COSI
and constructed a broadcast studio within
the museum building.
All of this helped spark a rediscovery of
the Franklinton neighborhood in the late
1990s. In 1997, Franklinton celebrated the
two hundredth anniversary of its establishment by Lucas Sullivant in 1797. A statue of
the explorer was unveiled along the riverfront. Until then, there had been three statues
of Columbus in the city but none of the man
who had built the first town.
It was not hard to see why. A lot of people
had simply forgotten about Franklinton.
Neighborhoods in every other direction had
been restored, rehabilitated and renovated over
the years—but most of Franklinton had not.
There was an important reason why—water.
Franklinton had flooded many times and
might flood many more. While that was
possible, people wishing to renovate found
it almost impossible to do so. All of that
began to change in the 1990s with the slow
laborious construction of a multimillion
dollar Flood Wall to protect the Franklinton
Community. Completed in 2004, the Flood
Wall has permitted rehabilitation and new
construction to go forward.
BEYOND THE
MILLENNIAL MOMENT
By the turn of the Millennium, Columbus
and central Ohio were moving forward in a
variety of positive ways. Much of the rest of
the state continued to suffer from the loss of
business and the migration of people to places
with better prospects. And one of those places
was Columbus.
The events of September 11, 2001, awakened a new spirit in Columbus as it did in
most other American communities and one of
the object lessons of those days was that it was
important for America to be strong and fair at
home it if it wished to be strong and fair
around the world.
This point was especially well-taken in
Columbus which began to see significant
immigration for the first time in many years.
Because of its educational and research facilities, Columbus had had a more diverse
population than most Ohio cities. But the
numbers of recent immigrants were relatively
small. That changed in the years after 1990.
Asian immigration increased as a number of
Asian companies began to build factories and
produce products in the state. Latin immigration also increased. While still small, the
Latin population doubled over the last
decade. And in the same years, Columbus,
Ohio, became the home of the second largest
Somali population in America.
In 2000, Columbus inaugurated a new
Mayor. Michael Coleman had worked his way
up through Columbus City Council and developed an ability to work with the widest variety
✧
Above: In 2000, Michael Coleman became
the fifty-second mayor of Columbus, and is
currently serving in the post.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
Bottom, left: The Latino community of
central Ohio is growing rapidly. Each year
the Latino Festival draws thousands of
people to the Riverfront. Seen here in 2010,
the festival has become an anticipated
downtown event.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
Bottom, right: One of the fastest growing
new populations in Columbus consists of
relatively recent arrivals from Somalia.
Today Columbus, Ohio, has the second
largest Somali community in America.
Somalian Flag Day was celebrated on the
Statehouse grounds on July 1, 2009.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
CHAPTER
XII
109
In his 2011 State of the City address, Mayor
Coleman reiterated his continuing commitment
Rebuilding neighborhoods is among the
most important work we do, and the most
difficult work we do. True neighborhood
revitalization does not take place overnight.
It requires dedication, patience and a strong
spirit. But when it is done successfully,
we strengthen our city, bringing new hope to
our residents.
✧
Above: The King Arts Complex opened in
March, 1987, after a $2.7 million
renovation of the 1925 Pythian Theater on
the Near East Side of the city. With an
additional $1.8 million renovation, Phase II
opened in October, 1989 creating a 60,000
square foot facility. The King Arts Complex
of people—a skill that would come in handy as
he was re-elected twice over the next decade.
One of the things Coleman and a number of
civic leaders wanted to accomplish was the
continued revitalization of inner city neighborhoods. On the Near East Side of Columbus, a
number of initiatives would be undertaken
with the best known project being the renovation of the historic Lincoln Theatre—a project
finally completed in 2009. Similar intensive
work to bring communities together and move
forward was undertaken in places as diverse as
Weinland Park in the North, the Hilltop to the
West and in the Far South Side of Columbus.
is a major center for cultural and
educational activities in the City
of Columbus.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
Right: The historic Lincoln Theatre in 2005.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
Below: Weinland Park is a neighborhood in
transition. Long a working class area
adjacent to factories along the railroad, the
area saw significant change as the factories
closed. Now a multifaceted partnership of
The Ohio State University and other local
institutions is involved in a long term effort
to help the people of Weinland Park reach
community goals.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
110
As Ohio celebrated its Bicentennial in
2003 and Franklin County celebrated its two
hundredth birthday in the same year, it was
becoming increasingly clear to governmental
and private leaders in Columbus that the key
to the downtown was housing—and a certain
sort of housing at that.
Columbus had lost much of its downtown
population in the years after World War II. But
it had not lost all of it. Downtown had always
been a continued to be a home to people of
both high and low incomes. The loss of so
many residents in downtown had made much
of the surviving housing rather inexpensive.
In addition, the wealthy had always been
able to find a place to live downtown. In
former years the better hotels had served
that purpose and more than one governor
spent his entire term at the Neil House
Hotel. The hotels were always complemented by a bit of luxury housing. In
recent times, the Waterford had opened
in 1979 next to the Cultural Arts Center.
In 2001, it would be followed by
Miranova a little farther down the river.
But what was missing was housing
to induce the middle class to
return to the city they had left
for the suburbs. A series of
inducements—to both developers and their customers—
were created with a goal to
provide housing for 10,000
middle class residents by
2010. It was sometimes stated that with that many people, it might be possible for a
genuine nightlife to reemerge
in downtown Columbus.
✧
Top: In 1997, Nationwide Insurance
announced it would a build a major new
Arena in downtown Columbus as part of an
effort to redevelop the former site of the
Ohio Penitentiary. The Columbus Blue
Jackets played their first game (seen here)
on October 7, 2000, in Nationwide Arena.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
Middle: The Columbus Crew Professional
Soccer Club was granted a franchise in
1994 and played its first game in 1996.
Since 1999 the team has played in
Columbus Crew Stadium near the Ohio
State Fairgrounds. To date, the team has
won five major trophies including the Major
League Soccer Cup in 2008.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
Bottom: Fans of The Ohio State
University Buckeyes.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
CHAPTER
XII
111
✧
Clockwise, starting from top left:
As Columbus moved into the twenty-first
century, it was recognized that attracting
new residents to downtown was critical to
its revival. To complement existing upscale
projects like the Waterford (1979) and
Miranova ( 2001) hundreds of new rental
and sale units would be needed as well.
Until the Recession of 2008 set in,
substantial progress had been made to reach
that goal.
Initial efforts to repopulate the downtown
were quite successful and hundreds of new
residents moved to new homes in the downtown over the middle part of the decade after
2000. But the magic goal of 10,000 was not to
be easily reached. By late in the decade, a
saturated real-estate market slowed as the
Great Recession of 2008 held America in its
grip. But even in those difficult times, the
number of people living downtown and
returning downtown continued to increase.
The last few years in Columbus have in
some ways been years of transition. City
Center, increasingly unable to compete
against the newer centers to the north, closed
and was razed in 2009. But in its place a new
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
The Scioto Mile is a major redevelopment of
the riverfront from the Arena District to the
Cultural Arts Center. Opened in the
summer of 2011, the Scioto Mile includes
water features, plazas, paths and bikeways.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF CAPITOL SOUTH.
Columbus City Center closed in March,
2009. Demolition of the mall while
retaining its parking garage was completed
in March 2010. Replacing the mall was nine
acres of green space called Columbus
Commons when it opened in May, 2011.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF CAPITOL SOUTH.
112
meeting place in downtown called Columbus
Commons with a band shell and a carousel
was coming into being.
Complementing a new Main Street Bridge
is a new series of parks, plazas and bikeways
along the Riverfront from the Arena District
to the cultural Arts Center. It is called the
Scioto Mile.
While one area in the heart of downtown
was being transformed, another area near
it was being reborn. Nationwide Realty
Investors, the developers of the Arena
District, opened the first phase of Grandview
Yard in 2010.
The Ohio State University completed the
enclosure of the open end of its horseshoe
✧
Greater Columbus Arts Festival, 2004.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
CHAPTER
XII
113
✧
Above: The Topiary Park, located in
downtown Columbus.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
Below: Opened in 2009, the Grange
Insurance Audubon Center transformed
part of the industrialized Whittier Peninsula
into a conservation and nature based
learning center through the cooperative
efforts of the City of Columbus Recreation
and Parks Department, Metro Parks and
Audubon Ohio.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
football stadium in 2001 and immediately
filled it with even more enthusiastic fans.
This is a town that sometimes wistfully wishes to be known for something other than college sports. Nevertheless, if it is sports by
which the place is known, it would be well if
their teams won. And in the case of The Ohio
State University, generally they do just that.
As is sometimes the case, the other teams
in town even get a new place to play. Minor
league baseball did in 2009 with the opening
of the Huntington Center in the Arena District
for the Columbus Clippers. The Columbus
Crew professional soccer team also got a new
home just north of the fairgrounds in 1999.
114
And has been the case since Columbus
was founded the city always is looking to the
future. Columbus was founded in 1812 as a
planned city with a dream of future greatness.
And for most of its history, it has been a place
where great plans have been made. In the
1820s, Ohio wished to link its few thousand
residents to the fortunes of the east with a
grand canal system. Columbus with a population of less than 2,000 wanted to make sure
it was not left out. And it wasn’t.
In the 1830s Ohio had the audacity to
propose building a Statehouse second only
to the U.S. Capitol in a town of mud streets
full of pigs and people. In the 1850s we
were planning parks and numbers of public
institutions in a country where most cities
had few if any of either. In the years after
the Civil War, railroads changed America
and streetcars transformed Columbus, and
the city reinvented itself once again—with
occasional rhyme if not always with reason.
The result was a city that really needed a plan
and in 1908 it got one.
Ignoring some of the 1908 plan, much of it
later came into being in the streets structures
and parks of 20th Century Columbus. And
then there was the Metropolitan Committee
that not only made plans but also made sure
they were followed.
Should it really be all that surprising that
in a time when times are hard and people are
in need of hope as well as help, we will once
again do a bit of planning and—unlike many
places—actually do what we plan to do.
One group of public and private leaders
calls itself Columbus 2020 and hopes to
create 180,000 new jobs in central Ohio by
that date. Another group calling itself
Columbus 2050 is looking at how the city
might look in that year and steps to take to
make it so.
And then there is 200 Columbus.
On February 14, 2012, Columbus will
celebrate its two hundredth birthday. It will
be an occasion to look back at who we
have been, look around at who we are, and
look forward to who we might be.
It will be a very good time—as most times
have been in this good place and “most
delightful country”
✧
Top: What Columbus may look like in the
future as foreseen in the 2010 Downtown
Strategic Plan for the city.
DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION.
Middle: Scioto Mile Promenade at night.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
Bottom, left: Columbus Commons.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
Bottom, right: Columbus, the celebration of
200 years of Ohio’s capital city will look
back in pride as we remember who we have
been while we look forward with
anticipation to the world we will soon call
our own. It has been a long road to this
good place, but our journey has really
only just begun.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF 200 COLUMBUS.
CHAPTER
XII
115
✧
The columns and arch are all that remain of
Union Station which stands in contrast to
nearby Nationwide Arena, 2006.
PHOTO ARCHIVES.
116
SHARING THE HERITAGE
Historic profiles of businesses,organizations,
and families that have contributed to the
development and economic base of Columbus
Quality of Life ..........................................................................118
The Marketplace ........................................................................144
B u i l d i n g a S t ro n g C o l u m b u s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 7 6
SHARING
THE
HERITAGE
117
✧
Skating in downtown Columbus.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE COLUMBUS METROPOLITAN LIBRARY.
118
QUALITY OF LIFE
Healthcare providers, school districts,
universities, and other institutions that
contribute to the quality of life in Columbus
N a t i o n w i d e C h i l d re n ’s H o s p i t a l . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 0
M e t ro P a r k s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 4
Columbus Blue Jackets ................................................................126
Ohio Education Association .........................................................128
City of Dublin ...........................................................................130
OhioHealth ...............................................................................132
Columbus Police Reserve .............................................................134
C a rd i n a l H e a l t h , I n c . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 3 6
Columbus Academy ....................................................................138
I s a b e l l e R i d g w a y C a re C e n t e r . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 4 0
G i r l S c o u t s o f O h i o ’s H e a r t l a n d C o u n c i l . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 4 1
Columbus Clippers .....................................................................142
Columbus Zoo and Aquarium .......................................................142
C o l u m b u s M e t ro p o l i t a n L i b r a r y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 4 3
Center of Science and Industry ....................................................143
QUALITY
OF
LIFE
119
NATIONWIDE
CHILDREN’S
HOSPITAL
For more than a century, Columbus, Ohio
has been home to a pediatric hospital where
everything matters in improving child health.
Although it is now the nation’s second largest
children’s hospital, Nationwide Children’s
resides in the same downtown setting in
which it was founded in 1892.
When a group of central Ohio women
established Children’s Hospital 120 years ago,
it was done with the belief that everything
matters in the care of a child. To this day,
Nationwide Children’s embodies this promise
every day, ensuring everything will be taken
into consideration to make children well. This
promise stems from its century-old mission to
provide the best care for all children regardless of their family's ability to pay, a commitment that has never changed.
Having remained accessible to patients
across central Ohio for generations, Nationwide
Children’s has proven its commitment to provide local families with exceptional care
without needing them to travel exceptional
distances. Yet the hospital has become more
than a community treasure. Nationwide
Children’s has become a homegrown resource
with riches to share. It has drawn patients
from every state and around the world. It is
ranked as one of America’s best children’s hospitals by U.S.News & World Report and Parents
Magazine, as well as a top 10 recipient of the
National Institutes of Health (NIH) funds to
free-standing pediatric research centers.
120
Nationwide Children’s Hospital’s new
12-story main hospital draws attention to the
amazing growth of a pediatric facility that
started with just nine beds.
As the City of Columbus celebrates its
bicentennial in 2012, Nationwide Children’s
celebrates its 120th year in central Ohio.
The Hospital’s reputation as a growing
and passionate leader in pediatric care is
engrained in its history and came from humble beginnings. When the hospital first
opened, all beds were filled two
months after opening. Demand was
such that even at the first annual
meeting, the trustees were already
developing expansion plans.
At the turn of the twentieth century, the hospital had an operating
budget of 56 cents, which was only
possible after its president had
written a check for $10 to cover
a shortfall of $9.44. When the
president was asked about the situation, he said, “We may be poor in
funds, but we are rich in resources.
What we lack in currency, we more
than make up for in character.”
And so began Children’s Hospital’s
world-class attitude.
Over the next several decades, Children’s
Hospital grew tremendously with local philanthropy. The constant desire to expand and be
of greater service to the Columbus community
brought significant changes, and with each
milestone, Children’s advanced, eventually
becoming the first pediatric center in Ohio to
be certified as a pediatric Level 1 trauma
center in 1991.
Advances rapidly continued. In 2004,
Children’s Hospital’s outpatient laboratory
became the first national pediatric reference
lab. In 2005, Children’s became the first freestanding pediatric hospital in Ohio to achieve
Magnet status, which measures quality patient
care and innovation in nursing practice
In 2006, the hospital marked a transformational milestone in central Ohio philanthropy, receiving a $50 million gift from the
Nationwide Foundation. To honor the vision
of Nationwide Insurance’s leadership, hospital trustees unanimously elected to change
the name to Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
The hospital’s current five-year strategic
plan, to be fully completed in 2014, is
Nationwide Children’s most recent commitment to optimal health for children in central
Ohio and beyond.
The strategic plan is designed to extend
expert pediatric care across all horizons of a
child's development helping them to reach
their full potential and optimal quality of life.
The first goal is always to ensure every child
the best hospital experience and to extend
this outstanding care between and after treatment. Yet what sets Nationwide Children’s
strategic plan apart is its ambitious goal to
improve child health beyond the traditional
reach of the hospital.
Nationwide Children’s serves as a catalyst
and coordinator for the long-term health of
all children in the central Ohio community.
Working beyond its walls, the hospital
embraces the responsibility of caring for all
children, not just those who come through
the main campus. An integrated health care
delivery system and a network of health care,
academic and community partners allow
powerful preventative care. Advocating for
nutritious school lunches and leading the
fight to end child abuse, allows Nationwide
Children’s to play a part in making sure
children reach their full potential.
Nationwide Children’s doctors represent
every major pediatric subspecialty. They have
achieved at the highest level, with vision
and relentless determination. They could
pursue their life’s work at literally any
hospital they choose. Yet, they’ve all chosen
Nationwide Children’s. This talent has built
Children’s signature programs, including
heart, cancer, gastroenterology, neurosciences
and neonatology care, which are internationally recognized for boldly raising the
standard of pediatric care.
QUALITY
OF
LIFE
121
Nationwide Children’s also has a passion
for answers and, alongside Battelle and
Ohio State, is one of central Ohio’s top
three research centers. The Research Institute
at Nationwide Children’s Hospital is also an
international leader in pediatric research and
is one of the nation’s top ten free-standing
pediatric research centers based on National
Institutes of Health funding. The Institute
works to enhance the health of all children
by engaging in high-quality, cutting-edge
research. More than 100 faculty scientists
focus on discoveries to improve child health
and support an environment for training
and mentoring the next generation of
scientists in pediatric research. Nationwide
Children’s doctors are also scientists, with
forty percent of research faculty serving as
practicing physicians.
Nationwide Children’s is more than a hospital at the corner of Livingston and Parsons
Avenues. Sixty-eight facilities extend out across
Ohio and beyond to provide pediatric expertise whenever and wherever it’s needed. With
more than one million patient visits in 2012,
the hospital is growing to meet a growing need.
At 1.3 million square feet, the main campus
expansion is the largest pediatric construction
122
endeavor in the nation to date. The expansion
has added 2,000 more hospital and research
jobs and will generate a projected $1.3 billion
in new regional economic activity.
The centerpiece of the expansion is the
new main hospital. At 750,000 square feet,
the 12-story inpatient building is connected
to the current facility. Imagine a unique combination of cutting edge medical facilities,
a first-class hotel, an inspiring museum and a
blossoming garden and you’ll be close to the
design of this new structure.
Beyond the underground parking garage
providing direct access to the main hospital,
patients and families are immersed in a healing
environment. Educational exhibits and natureinspired niches along with panoramic views of
the outdoors give rise to a hospital atmosphere
meant to inspire hope and comfort. The firstfloor acoustic ceilings decrease ambient noise
so that families and visitors can concentrate on
finding their way through the cheerful halls.
The entire new main hospital is equipped with
wireless internet access. Expansive views of
nature-inspired design elements bring a sense
of the outdoors in. Whimsical animal features
engage the imagination.
Parents, children, nurses and doctors provided input on patient room design. The
result is a patient room that mimic a child’s
bedroom. Large windows allow natural daylight to spill in. Sound-absorbing materials
reduce ambient noise. These details do more
than inspire a healing atmosphere for patients
and families. They ensure a safer environment
for the delivery of care.
This commitment to detail carries from
the latest addition to Nationwide Children’s
research campus.
From cascades of natural light to laboratories designed for collaboration, every detail
has been considered in the construction of
research facilities. The hospital’s third research
building houses a 75-seat conference facility
with videoconferencing capabilities and laboratory space for research faculty. Initiatives
housed in Research Building III include
preterm birth and prematurity, cardiovascular
and pulmonary diseases, child safety and
injury prevention and computational biology
and mathematical medicine. This $93 million
world-class facility supports 680 new jobs in
research and brings Nationwide Children’s
pediatric research space to more than 500,000
square feet.
A place that feels like home couldn’t be
complete without a spacious front lawn. The
new front lawn to the hospital adds close to
six acres of greenspace to the campus. The
park is designed to provide activity space for
patients and families with benches, serene
gardens, walking pathways and a maze.
Additionally a new environmentally friendly,
LEED-certified Central Energy Plant powers
the entire campus.
Every detail is taken into consideration
beginning the moment patients and families
pull up to the hospital. The inpatient visitor
garage is located under the new green
space and provides 420 parking spaces connected via tunnel to the new tower. Because
convenience matters.
Together, the stunning new facilities, ambitious strategic plan and world-class clinical
care and research programs have created an
unsurpassed atmosphere of care.
From Nationwide Children’s humble beginning to its long-held place in the national spotlight, the hospital has become a Columbus
landmark. Nationwide Children’s is proud to
call Columbus home and will continue to provide outstanding, accessible care to patients
across central Ohio and around the world for
coming generations. Continuing in the spirit
of passionate founders, Nationwide Children’s
embodies the belief that when a child needs a
hospital, everything matters.
QUALITY
OF
LIFE
123
METRO PARKS
✧
Above: Picnics were a popular activity for
visitors to Blacklick Woods, the first Metro
Park that opened in 1948.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF METRO PARKS.
Below: Bison were re-introduced at Battelle
Darby Creek Metro Park in 2011, after
an absence of more than a hundred years,
to demonstrate the natural role of large
herbivores in the prairie ecosystem and
educate visitors about our nation’s
largest mammal.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF KIM GRAHAM.
The largest metropolitan park district in the
state, Columbus and Franklin County Metro
Parks features more than 26,000 acres of land
and water in 16 natural area parks where
visitors can get out, get active and connect with
wildlife and the wonders of the natural world.
Each year over 6.5 million visitors spend time
in the parks. The park system provides vital
health and social benefits for individuals and
the community while having a positive impact
on the economy of Central Ohio.
Each month park naturalists offer more than
300 free programs for preschoolers through
senior citizens, ranging from full moon hikes to
searching for owls and other wildlife, and from
124
wildflower walks to identifying waterfowl, all
aimed at helping visitors discover the wonders
of the outdoors. When Blacklick Woods, the
first Metro Park, opened in 1948, it was
considered “out in the country,” and many
people thought that no one would travel twelve
miles from downtown Columbus and then
drive down a two-lane dirt road to get to the
park. Today Blacklick Woods is one of the
busiest parks, attracting a million visitors a
year. The park features two golf courses that
have achieved award-winning certification as
“Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Courses” for
their environmental management practices.
In addition to featuring picnic and play
areas, the parks offer lodges that can be rented
for family gatherings or company outings.
Fishing, canoeing and kayaking are among
the favorite activities in the beautiful streams
and lakes at several parks. More than 175
miles of trails for biking, hiking, rollerblading
and jogging are available, as are trails for
horseback riding, exercising your pet or
cross-country skiing.
Interested in history? You will enjoy Slate
Run Living Historical Farm, where visitors can
explore Ohio’s agricultural past while strolling
through the farmhouse, barns and fields. You
will even see costumed staff doing chores as
they were done in the 1880s, before gaspowered tractors and electrical refrigerators.
The park system is also home to one of Ohio’s
largest botanical gardens. Nestled within a
scenic nature preserve, the 121-acre Inniswood
Metro Gardens is a continual source of
inspiration for Ohioans of all ages. Streams and
woodlands filled with wildflowers and wildlife
provide a majestic backdrop to the beautifully
landscaped flowerbeds, rock gardens and lawns.
Dedicated to the enjoyment, cultivation and
preservation of nature’s treasures, Inniswood
boasts more than 2,000 species of plants,
specialty collections and several theme gardens,
including the rose, herb and woodland rock
gardens. Visitors will enjoy the seasonal beauty
of the gardens and natural areas as they stroll
along three miles of trails and paved pathways.
For more than forty years Metro Parks has
worked with sixty other agencies and private
organizations to preserve, protect, and restore
the scenic Big Darby Creek Watershed so that
this and future generations may benefit from
its rich diversity. Recognized nationally as one
of a dozen “Last Great Places” in the Western
Hemisphere, the Big Darby Creek system
boasts a remarkable array of fish and wildlife,
many of which are threatened or endangered.
Metro Parks has also been a partner in
the Franklin County Greenways Initiative, an
extensive network of recreational trails along
some of the area’s most valuable natural
resources. The trails provide opportunities for
people to enjoy the many streams and forests
in Central Ohio. Metro Parks maintains over
sixty miles of Greenway trails.
The parks got their start when local and
statewide garden clubs, the Columbus Chamber
of Commerce, Columbus City Council,
Columbus and Franklin County Planning
Commission, Wheaton Club, and many other
proponents of creating a park district attended
a public hearing held August 14, 1945. With
no formal opposition, the park district was
established and three citizens were appointed to
the first board of park commissioners. Park
commissioners are volunteers who serve without
pay and make the policy decisions needed to
chart the future course of the Metro Parks.
Since that day, Metro Parks has grown
steadily, now operating sixteen natural area
parks and providing more than 175 miles of
trails, and working to conserve and enhance
habitat for the more than 2,400 species of
animals and plants that thrive within the parks.
The system’s first urban park, Scioto Audubon,
opened near downtown Columbus in 2009,
with Metro Parks joining with the City of
Columbus and Audubon Ohio to turn a
blighted once-industrial area into a green oasis.
This park features one of the largest free
public outdoor climbing walls in the country,
and is home to the Grange Insurance
Audubon Center, a sustainably designed
18,000 square foot urban ecology-learning
center. Metro Parks spent millions of dollars
and obtained grant money for structural
demolition and brownfield remediation to
clean up the ninety-four-acre park.
The importance of Metro Parks is reflected
in the tremendous increase in the number of
visitors—from 200,000 in 1953 to 6,855,800
in 2011 as well as by overwhelming support
by Franklin County voters over the years in
support of the Metro Parks levy.
For more information about Metro Parks,
please visit www.metroparks.net.
✧
Above: Metro Parks offers more than 175
miles of trails where visitors can enjoy
nature as they hike, bike and jog. These
scenic paths wind through wetlands,
woodlands, meadows and fields and past
streams, rivers and lakes.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF MARGARET WALKER.
Below: Metro Parks ponds, streams,
forests, and fields provide a safe haven for
barred owls and thousands of other species
of wildlife.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF KARL HASSEL.
QUALITY
OF
LIFE
125
COLUMBUS
BLUE JACKETS
✧
Above: Blue Jackets majority owner and
Founder, John H. McConnell, is joined by
NHL Commissioner, Gary Bettman, for the
ceremonial puck drop prior to the franchise’s
inaugural game vs. the Chicago Blackhawks
on October 7, 2000.
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF GREG BARTRAM.
Bottom, left: Rick Nash, the top overall pick
of the 2002 NHL entry draft is a five-time
All-Star and the Blue Jackets’ all-time
leader in goals, assists and points.
Bottom, right: Fans during a Blue Jackets
home game at Nationwide Arena.
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF GREG BARTRAM.
On June 25, 1997, the National Hockey
League awarded the city of Columbus an
expansion franchise that would begin play
in 2000. On October 7, 2000, the Columbus
Blue Jackets took the ice for the first time at
Nationwide Arena in the capital city’s brandnew Arena District, ushering in a new and
exciting chapter in central Ohio sports history.
Local business leader and philanthropist
John H. McConnell was the driving force in
bringing a major league sports franchise to
Ohio’s largest city. An early investor in the
Columbus Crew (MLS) and a former minority
owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates, he led a
group of investors whose efforts brought the
NHL to the city.
126
Since the Blue Jackets began play, over
seven million fans have attended games at
Nationwide Arena witnessing countless memorable moments. The club’s first team, under
head coach Dave King and led by goaltender
Ron Tugnutt and leading scorer Geoff
Sanderson, posted a 28-39-6 record with its
71 points among the highest ever accumulated by an NHL expansion team.
The Blue Jackets posted their best season
in 2008-09, compiling a 41-31-10 record
and 92 points to earn a Stanley Cup Playoffs
berth under head coach Ken Hitchcock.
Goaltender Steve Mason burst onto the scene,
posting a 33-20-7 record with a 2.29 goalsagainst-average, .916 save percentage and
league-leading 10 shutouts on his way to
earning NHL rookie of the year honors.
During its first decade, a number of memorable players have called Columbus home.
They include early fan favorites like Tugnutt,
Sanderson and Tyler Wright; All-Stars Espen
Knutsen and Ray Whitney; long-serving
Jackets like David Vyborny, Jody Shelley
and Rostislav Klesla; and new favorites
such as former Ohio State All-American
R. J. Umberger and Jared Boll.
However, no player has stood taller than
Rick Nash, who Columbus selected with the
first overall pick of the 2002 NHL Entry Draft.
He made his NHL debut at the age of eighteen
and scored a goal in his first game against the
Chicago Blackhawks on October 10, 2002.
The following year, he became the youngest
player in NHL history to lead the league in
goals when he scored forty-one.
Nash has taken his place among the
NHL’s elite players, appearing in all five All-Star
Games played since 2002 and representing
Canada at the 2006 and 2010 Olympic Games,
winning a gold medal in the latter. He has led
Columbus in goals every season since 2003-04
and in points in four-straight from 2007-11.
Off the ice, Nash also won the NHL Foundation
Player Award in 2009 in recognition of his work
in the central Ohio community.
The team’s arrival also brought an influx of
development and community pride, as well
as national and international attention, to
Columbus. Nationwide Arena was the site
of Team USA’s training camp in August 2004
in advance of that year’s World Cup of
Hockey Tournament and the Blue Jackets
welcomed the hockey world to central Ohio
in June 2007 for the NHL Entry Draft.
The club’s commitment to the community
has been reflected by the work of the
Columbus Blue Jackets Foundation. Since its
inception 2000, the foundation has donated
$3.5 million to various central Ohio nonprofit organizations in support of its four pillars
of giving: pediatric cancer, education, children’s health and safety and the development
of youth and amateur hockey. The club’s
work on behalf of the latter has seen the
number of youth hockey players registered in
the Columbus-area grow from 150 in 1995 to
over 4,500 today. Central Ohio was home to
just two sheets of ice in the early-1990s compared to thirteen today.
The arrival of the Blue Jackets and
Nationwide Arena has meant much more to
central Ohio than what has happened on the
ice. Economic impact studies conducted by
the John Glenn School of Public Affairs at the
Ohio State University in April 2009 concluded that the team and arena had driven a local
economic impact of more than $2 billion
since 2000 including: $850 million in spending directly attributable to the Blue Jackets,
Columbus Destroyers (Arena Football Team
from 2004-08) and Nationwide Arena, $160
million in indirect spending at area hotels and
restaurants via out-of-town visitors attending
games and events at the arena and the generation of approximately $4 million in local
income tax revenue since the fiscal year 2002.
“Taken as a whole or separately, the results
speak for themselves,” said Blue Jackets
President Mike Priest, praising the “incredible partnerships and remarkable leadership”
of the late John H. McConnell, current owner
John P. McConnell and others who have been
instrumental in giving Columbus the NHL
franchise and Nationwide Arena. “Today our
entire community benefits from their vision,
and we are happy to be a part of the growing
strength of our downtown.”
✧
Left: Former Ohio State All-American
R. J. Umberger joined the Blue Jackets in
2008 and has set a franchise record by
playing in 246 consecutive games between
2008 and 2011.
Right: Nationwide Arena has hosted
numerous special events since 2000,
including the NHL Entry Draft in June
2007, and serves as the anchor of
Columbus’ vibrant Arena District.
QUALITY
OF
LIFE
127
OHIO
EDUCATION
ASSOCIATION
✧
Below: Left to right, OEA President Patricia
Frost-Brooks, Columbus Education
Association President Rhonda Johnson,
NEA President Dennis Van Roekel and
Principal Andrew Smith visit a South
Mifflin STEM Academy classroom as the
2010 school year begins.
Since 1847 the Ohio Education Association,
formerly the Ohio State Teachers’ Association
(OSTA), has advocated on behalf of its members and for strong public schools in Ohio. In
1851 the OSTA set broad goals: to build a
strong public sentiment for schools, to promote the adoption of a better plan of school
organization, and to improve teachers and
elevate the profession of teaching. Over the
past 175 years, the organization has continued
these early aims, elevating public schools
through sound instruction and curriculum; by
standards of teacher preparation and teacher
certification; and improved working conditions
with a state minimum salary schedule and state
teacher’s retirement system.
128
The organization’s first president, Samuel
Galloway, served as Ohio Secretary of State
during most of his term. Some years later
President Abraham Lincoln called upon him
for advice on the issuance of the Emancipation
Proclamation. Other early highlights included
a self-reporting plan of school control, which
was outlined in 1857 by James A. Garfield,
then an Ohio teacher in his twenties, who
would later become U.S. President.
Teachers in Ohio who felt an interest in
their profession and the improvement of the
state’s schools were encouraged to attend the
first OSTA convention and assist in organizing
the association and promoting its interests.
Early on, “teachers’ institutes” promoted
professional development of teachers and
helped to encourage statewide association
unity; professional development days continue
throughout Ohio today.
The OSTA recognized the importance of
political action to achieve better teaching and
school organization and funding. The initial
focus was on teachers’ institutes, then on
normal schools for professional education of
teachers, both aimed at improving teaching.
OSTA worked toward state support of teacher
training and establishing state-funded normal
schools, resulting in passage of a supporting
law in 1902. A survey in 1913 examined
school conditions in Ohio, leading to a
complete revision of rural education, and to
minimum standards of teacher preparation
and changes in teacher certification requirements, all embodied in what became known
as the Cox School Code. In part this 1914
legislation created positions of county and district school superintendents, and for the first
time based teachers’ certificates on holding a
college diploma with required academic and
professional courses.
In 1920, when the minimum Ohio teacher
salary was set at $100 per month, membership
surged from 12,000 to 21,309, then in 1930 to
over 40,000 classroom teachers, administrators, elementary and high school principals.
The Department of Classroom Teachers was
formed as its own group, separate from administrators, principals and superintendents in
1924. OEA’s legal services, school law expertise
and consultation programs began in 1954.
OEA’s new headquarters building was constructed in 1965 at 225 East Broad Street in
Columbus. In support of changing times, OEA
created an Urban Affairs Committee to assist in
dealing with problems that arose in city schools
in the 1960s. Field operations for local advocacy, political action and negotiations were built
with a commitment to teacher rights.
The average teacher’s salary in the 1970s
was $8,798. Through successful lobbying at
the federal level, an exemption was secured to
avert a wage freeze that potentially would
have affected all Ohio teachers. The state minimum salary schedule was implemented
through extensive lobbying, resulting in
salary increases for 37,000 teachers in 486
school districts. Superintendents, principals
and other administrators split from OEA in
1969-70. By the mid-1970s—before any
statutory provision for public employee
bargaining was enacted—OEA helped win
negotiation agreements for local associations
in two-thirds of the state’s school districts.
The Ohio Supreme Court ruled in 1975 that
negotiated master agreements and binding
arbitration were legal and enforceable.
During the fifteen-year period between
Ohio’s first strike at Tallmadge in 1966 and
the passage of Ohio’s Public Employee
Collective Bargaining Law in 1983, teachers
in every major city in Ohio went on strike,
peaking in 1969-70 with twenty-eight walkouts. In the 1980s, the Ohio Supreme Court
ruled in favor of four cases involving OEA
members, establishing legal precedents in
areas of fair dismissal and salary credit for
teaching experience. OEA’s membership level
continued to grow when it expanded to
include school support personnel.
As OEA continued its advocacy for school
funding in the 1990s, the Ohio Supreme
Court affirmed the trial court’s decision in
DeRolph versus State of Ohio, finding that
the State failed to meet the requirement to
fund a “thorough and efficient system of
common schools.” OEA continued promoting
educator standards and public accountability.
Current OEA goals include ensuring public education funding, preserving collective
bargaining rights and the economic security
of OEA’s 130,000 members; and offering
great public schools for every student. These
are in keeping with the OEA mission: To lead
the way for continuous improvement of public education while advocating for members
and the learners they serve.
QUALITY
OF
LIFE
129
CITY OF DUBLIN
✧
Above: The Artz Quarry operated at the
north end of the Village of Dublin on the
west bank of the Scioto River. Much of the
stone was used to build many of the
limestone fences in the town. The original
stone fences are still seen throughout the
town today.
With a long and colorful history and a continuing story of service to its more than
40,000 residents and 60,000 corporate citizens, the city of Dublin is a vital part of the
metropolitan Columbus area. The land that is
now Dublin can trace its recorded history to
1795, when Lieutenant James Holt acquired
title to 889 acres here. By 1803 the Sells family of Pennsylvania owned 800 acres of the
property, and six years later Ludwick Sells and
his wife Katherine traveled by flat-bottomed
boat on the flooded Scioto River to build their
log cabin home and the Black Horse Tavern, a
way station for travelers along the Scioto Trail.
John Shields, an early visitor, surveyed
and platted Sells’ land into small lots that
became Dublin. Legends about the name’s
origin vary, but all of them agree that it was
chosen to honor Dublin, Ireland. Early settlers included George Michael Karrer, Charles
Mitchell, Samuel Davis, Henry Coffman and
Holcomb Tuller.
130
Fertile land along the Scioto produced
wheat, alfalfa, corn, clover, timothy, hay
and other crops. Early businesses included
Edward Eberly’s blacksmith shop, John
Ashbaugh’s pottery, and a sawmill operated by
Henry Shout, who floated large quantities of
lumber down river to Columbus.
Limestone, the residue from the bottom
of a vast sea in centuries past, was
quarried and dressed in Dublin for use in
constructing buildings, bridges and fences
beginning in the mid-1800s. The Pinney
family, Eli, Earl and Frank, were among the
best-known stonemasons.
Dublin was one of three sites considered
“finalists” to become state capital in 1912.
According to legend, Dublin lost the honor to
Franklinton (which would later become
Columbus) in a high stakes poker game. The
representative favoring the third contender,
Worthington, was the first to fold, leaving
Sells facing Franklinton’s proponent, a
Dr. Smith. When the players showed their
cards, Sells confidently turned over three
kings, a ten and a two, but Dr. Smith showed
three aces, a jack and a three. Is the
story true? No one really knows, but
however it happened, Columbus became the
state capital.
While Dublin may have not been selected
as the state capital, in 1966, it was chosen as
the site for Jack Nicklaus’ world-class golf
course, Muirfield Village Golf Club. It was
Jack’s desire to create a tournament that would
remember and honor the great golfers of the
past, and those individuals who built the
foundation to a game that today is played and
enjoyed by millions around the world. Thus,
the Memorial Tournament was born. The
course was officially dedicated on Memorial
Day, May 27, 1974.
In 2013, Muirfield Village Golf Club will
host The Presidents Cup when the biennial
competition returns to the United States.
Dublin is the only city in the world to have
hosted the top three international matchplay golf tournaments—The Ryder Cup,
The Solheim Cup and The Presidents Cup.
In addition to the Memorial Tournament,
the city hosts numerous other special events,
ranging from the Dublin Kiwanis Frog Jump
to the Dublin Irish Festival. Dublin is a great
destination for leisure and business travelers
alike with its attractions, restaurants, shopping and hotels.
The Dublin Convention and Visitors
Bureau, a nonprofit organization, was founded
in 1988 to help market and promote Dublin,
Ohio as a travel destination. The Bureau has
developed innovative programs and sports
marketing packages to attract visitors from
various markets. The Bureau is funded by a
portion of a bed tax that is levied on visitors to
Dublin’s hotels. This bed tax revenue generates
approximately $2 million each year and helps
fund a variety of local events and programs,
including the Dublin Arts Council, which
offers Central Ohio’s most vigorous public art
program, “Art in Public Places.”
Located in the northwest area of metropolitan Columbus, Dublin’s central location and
energized corporate climate attracts national
and international companies. Wendy’s
International, headquartered in Dublin, has
become one of the city’s largest employers.
Other internationally recognized companies
such as Cardinal Health, Verizon and Ashland
are headquartered in Dublin.
The city’s recreational programs and
extensive parkland acquisitions enrich both
green space and leisure-time activities. With
a proactive police presence, Dublin is
recognized as one of the safest cities in
Central Ohio. The city also has an aggressive
capital improvements program financed by a
two percent income tax, which allows Dublin
to invest in infrastructure to accommodate
development and maintain a high quality of
life for residents and corporate citizens.
In fact, in the 2009 National Citizen
Survey, the residents of Dublin rated their
community higher as a place to live than
residents in any other city in the United
States. The city’s scores are significantly
higher than the norm for such surveys,
according to Tom Miller, president of the
National Research Center, Inc., an independent organization that conducted the survey.
“Clearly something remarkable is happening
in Dublin, demonstrated by empirical evidence that residents truly appreciate so many
aspects of community quality,” Miller said.
✧
Above: Field of Corn, 1994.
Below: The 18th Hole, the Memorial
Tournament, Muirfield Village Golf Club.
QUALITY
OF
LIFE
131
OHIOHEALTH
OhioHealth has a long history of delivering
on its mission to improve the health of those
it serves. A faith-based, not-for-profit family
of leading healthcare providers, OhioHealth is
the largest health system in central Ohio.
What started as a single hospital in 1891 has
grown into a system of providers with collective strengths and specialties that together
make up a complete array of high quality care
and services for the community.
With 8 member hospitals,
including 5 in central Ohio and 3
in the region, more than 40 care
sites and countless programs and
services that deliver the highest
quality care and service to its
patients and visitors, OhioHealth
is more than a health system,
it is a belief system. Together,
OhioHealth’s more than 16,000
associates, 2,000 physicians and
3,000 volunteers, plus the
patients, families and communities it serves believe in the power of their shared
strength—the power of WE.
Many people know OhioHealth’s central
Ohio hospitals by name:
• Riverside Methodist Hospital
• Grant Medical Center
• Doctors Hospital
• Grady Memorial Hospital
• Dublin Methodist Hospital
What they may not know, however, is that no
matter which facility or service patients choose
within the OhioHealth system—whether it is
132
home health, an OhioHealth Neighborhood
Care center, or a hospital—they have access to
the most advanced technologies and most
knowledgeable physicians and associates.
“All members of our community deserve
access to high quality healthcare services.
As a not-for-profit health system, we have
grown to provide the care our community
members need close to where they live,
and developed programs and services that
help them achieve their best health,” says
Dave Blom, OhioHealth’s president and chief
executive officer.
From providing the most advanced, worldclass care for patients with acute illnesses like
heart disease or cancer, to offering preventive
care and health and wellness programs,
OhioHealth is committed to providing the
highest quality care. OhioHealth was named
one of the top ten health systems in the country for clinical performance by Thomson
Reuters for the third year in a row–a further
reflection of the quality and value it provides.
One of the most tangible measures of
OhioHealth’s value to the community is the
amount of “Community Benefit” it provides
annually. Even in challenging economic times,
OhioHealth has succeeded in fulfilling its
health ministry mission and providing
responsible stewardship of community
healthcare dollars.
In Fiscal Year 2010 (July 2009 to June
2010), OhioHealth provided $191 million in
Community Benefit–a $22.9 million increase
over the previous year.
OhioHealth’s Community Benefit
includes $81.2 million in charity care,
$35.1 million in net unreimbursed cost
of medical education, and $2.0 million
in community health services, just to
name a few of the ways OhioHealth
brings value to the community.
Every dollar OhioHealth earns is
reinvested in the communities it serves
to improve quality of care and enhance
service to patients and families. Instead
of paying dividends to shareholders or
owners, OhioHealth uses its earnings to
provide a wide array of community benefits,
including subsidizing essential community
health services such as trauma centers, poison
control or psychiatric service that some
patients may not otherwise be able to pay for
on their own.
“There is nothing more important than the
health of our community members. Because
we work together as a family of healthcare
providers to be stewards of our resources, we
are able to deliver on our commitment to the
communities we serve and reinvest into community health in a number of ways that make
a significant impact,” says Dave Blom.
Additionally, OhioHealth supports a broad
range of vital community outreach services, with
particular emphasis on the most vulnerable and
historically underserved community members. Through
investing in research, innovation and technology, and medical education and training,
OhioHealth works to advance
medical knowledge and support a strong network of highly
skilled healthcare professionals
in central Ohio who provide
the care needed to keep the
community healthy.
Employing 16,000 associates and working with 2,000
physician partners, OhioHealth
is an economic driver in central
Ohio. As a large organization
in the community, it is an important part of
the strength of the local economy, creating a
substantial economic impact.
OhioHealth’s belief in the power of WE is
the driving force in how it cares for the health
of those it serves. Bringing together the collective strengths and specialties of the people
and facilities that make up the system allows
OhioHealth to do more for more people and
to make the community strong, vital, healthy
and whole.
As OhioHealth continues to grow, its focus
on delivering the highest quality care at the
lowest cost will be essential for the health of
its patients and the future of the community.
WE includes the patients and community
members who trust OhioHealth physicians and
associates to care for them and those they love,
and with them, OhioHealth is working to make
the community healthier. And that is an invaluable investment in the future of central Ohio.
QUALITY
OF
LIFE
133
COLUMBUS
POLICE
RESERVE
Excellence in Service.
The Columbus Auxiliary Police was organized in 1945 as part of the Civil Defense
Administration for use in civil defense
emergencies during World War II. It was
abandoned after the war ended, but was reactivated in 1951 by the Columbus Division of
Police. The unit came under the direct control
of the chief of police in 1954, and continued
to work the streets armed only with a nightstick and a flashlight. Members were trained
in the use of firearms in 1961, and permitted
to carry their weapons while on duty.
The Reserve unit, with volunteers from all
walks of life, augments the division of police by
aiding its personnel, providing additional patrol
officers on precinct cruisers normally staffed
by a single patrol officer. The volunteers, who
serve without pay, maintain full time employment outside the division, while fulfilling an
interest in police work and community service.
134
Tragedy struck the Reserve in 1969 when an
armed robbery suspect shot and killed Sergeant
Lawrence Kipfinger in the line of duty. He was
buried with full police honors, and his name
appears on the Columbus Police Memorial.
The dedicated men and women of the
Reserve attend the Columbus Police Academy
in the evenings and weekends, and after graduation each of them completes field training and
a one-year probationary period. They are fully
trained to meet the State of Ohio’s standards for
police officers, and receive the same training as
full time division officers. In 2003 the chief of
police authorized the Reserve to carry their
firearms while in an off-duty status within the
corporate limits of the city of Columbus.
Officers purchase their own uniforms and
firearms, and must donate a minimum of eight
hours a month to the division, as well as being
required to attend monthly training sessions and
complete all Division mandated training and
firearms qualifications. The Reserve Unit meets
or exceeds all standards established by CALEA.
Members are authorized to work special
events within the city upon approval by the
police chief. Those working such approved
special events are compensated at the current
special duty rate, with twenty-five percent
of these earnings deposited directly to the
Reserve Police Operating Fund for use in purchasing uniforms and equipment for the unit.
Reserve officers are held to the same moral
and ethical standards as the division of police
sworn personnel, and they must abide by
the division directives. In 2005 the Columbus
Police Reserve celebrated sixty years of
“Excellence in Service” to the Division of Police
and Police and the citizens of Columbus.
The chief of police appoints the commander of the unit, and that commander is given
the rank of colonel. Current and past commanders of the unit are:
• Major Roland Sedgwick, 1951-1954
• Major Ember Schaer, 1954-1956
• Lieutenant Colonel Robert G. Hutchinson,
1956-1970
• Colonel George Gladdon, 1970-1972
• Colonel Lincoln R. McFarland, 1972-1974
• Colonel David Stewart, 1974-1980
• Colonel Robert E. Reiss, 1980-1984
• Colonel Rocco A. Eramo, 1984-2000
• Colonel Michael York, 2000-present
Members serve without pay, and must possess both a valid State of Ohio driver’s license
and personal vehicle insurance. Approval
from both the chief of police and the city safety director is required. A member must take
an oath of office and commit to three years as
a Columbus Police Department Reserve officer. The service commitment requirement is
waived if the member is accepted for full time
employment as a Columbus police officer.
“From the first group of auxiliary officers,
who worked the streets unarmed and without
the powers of arrest, the unit has evolved into
professionally trained and fully certified law
enforcement officers who are granted full
powers of arrest,” said Colonel York. “I am
truly proud of all those who serve now, and
those who have selflessly served before us.”
Any person over age twenty-one interested
in becoming a Police Reserve officer must
apply on a standard form available by contacting the Columbus Police Reserve at
www.cpdresv.com. After returning the completed personal history questionnaire, the
applicant will be subjected to a criminal
record check, a background investigation, an
in-home interview, a polygraph examination, a
physical exam, and an oral board review. Upon
successful completion of the requirements, the
candidate will be accepted for training.
This consists of over 650 hours of classroom
and practical training conducted by experienced, certified instructors. The training sessions are usually conducted from 6 to 10 p.m.,
Monday through Thursday, though many eighthour Saturday sessions are also scheduled. Most
of the training is held at the Columbus Police
Training Academy at 1000 North Hague Avenue
in Columbus, Ohio. This training is in excess of
the State of Ohio minimum standards. Upon
graduation, Police Reserve officers are certified
by the Ohio Peace Officer Training Council.
While on duty, the Police Reserve officer has the
same authority, arrest power, and responsibility
as a full-time police officer.
For more information, call 614-645-7136,
or visit on the Internet at www.cpdresv.com or
www.columbuspolice.org.
✧
Opposite, clockwise, starting from the
top left:
Excellence in Service.
POLICE DEPARTMENT.
Current Staff: Colonel Mike York, retired
Colonel Rocco Eramo, Major Dave Bowers,
Major Bruce Hamler, Captain Dave
Kienzel, Captain Rebecca Kienzel, Captain
Charles Smith, Lieutenant Pam Badgley,
Lieutenant Jack Bledsoe, Lieutenant John
Dimond, Lieutenant Robert Livingston,
Sergeant Robert Hurford, Sergeant Thomas
Chilicki, Lieutenant Dallas Baldwin,
Sergeant Tony Luzio, and Sergeant
Dave Ross.
Sergeant Harry West working Red, White
and Boom.
Lieutenant John Dimond guarding cars at
the Columbus police impound lot auction.
Captain Dave Kienzel working traffic at
WCMH Channel 4 Toy Drive with
Brutus Buckeye.
Below, left: Sergeant Harold Rausch working
Operation Safe Child booth. At Scioto
Super fest.
Below, center: Reserve officers in
classroom training.
Below, right: Reserve police
officers inspection.
QUALITY
OF
LIFE
135
CARDINAL
HEALTH,
INC.
Cardinal Health, Inc., is a Fortune 19
healthcare services company that improves
the cost-effectiveness of healthcare. As the
business behind healthcare, Cardinal Health
helps pharmacies, hospitals and ambulatory
care sites focus on patient care while
reducing costs, and improving efficiency and
quality. Cardinal Health employs more than
32,000 people worldwide.
Cardinal Health helps healthcare providers
focus on what is most important—improving
people’s lives. The company is an essential
link in the healthcare supply chain, providing
pharmaceuticals and medical products to
more than 60,000 locations each day. It is
also a leading manufacturer of medical and
surgical products, including gloves, surgical
apparel and fluid management products.
Pharmacies, hospitals, ambulatory care centers and clinics rely on Cardinal Health to
help improve quality, safety and productivity.
When Robert D. Walter bought a small,
regional food distribution company in 1971,
he set in motion a growth story few entrepreneurs in business can match. At age 25, with
an engineering degree from Ohio University
and an MBA from Harvard Business School,
he returned to his hometown of Columbus,
Ohio, and opened a small distribution company he named Cardinal Foods. Less than 10
years later, his company became a prominent
regional food distributor. A transformational
acquisition occurred in 1979, when the
company purchased a drug distributor in
Zanesville, Ohio, and changed its name to
Cardinal Distribution to reflect distribution
capabilities outside of the food industry.
While small, this acquisition provided a new
growth platform for the young company.
Cardinal Distribution had its initial public
opening in 1983. Its common stock opened
on the NASDAQ at $1.03 per share. Its
fast-growing pharmaceutical distribution
business expanded further during the next
decade, with the acquisition of more than
a dozen U.S. drug distributors, which
expanded service to the Northeastern United
States, including markets in New York
and Massachusetts.
By 1987, Cardinal Distribution was recognized as a leading wholesaler in each of its
regional markets. The company’s pharmaceutical distribution business had grown to be
almost twice the size of its food distribution
business, and in 1988, the company sold its
food distribution business to focus solely on
the fast-growing healthcare industry.
136
The company grew rapidly over the next
few years, with revenues in 1991 exceeding
$1 billion. Cardinal Distribution also expanded through the formation of National Specialty
Services, Inc. of Nashville, Tennessee, which
opened up a new offering for pharmaceuticals
that require specialized distribution capabilities. The company also expanded through the
opening of distribution centers in Mississippi
and Florida, bringing a broad-based presence
in the Southeastern region.
Through additional acquisitions including
Whitmire Distribution Corp. of Folsom,
California; Humiston-Keeling, Inc. of Calumet
City, Illinois; and Behrens Inc. of Waco, Texas;
Cardinal Distribution became the third-largest
pharmaceutical distributor in the United
States and had grown from a regional distributor to a national healthcare services provider.
In 1994, the company changed its name to
Cardinal Health, reflecting its commitment to
the healthcare industry. It began trading on
the New York Stock Exchange under the
symbol CAH, and Cardinal Health had established itself as a leader in the drug distribution business with a nationwide presence and
annual revenues of approximately $6 billion.
In 1999, Cardinal Health merged with
Allegiance Healthcare Corp., a manufacturer
and distributor of medical-surgical and laboratory products and services, which had been
serving hospitals since 1922. The combination of Cardinal Health and Allegiance created
a healthcare supply chain services company
that could offer a one-stop shop for both
pharmaceuticals and medical products across
the United States and Canada.
In 2009, Cardinal Health spun off
CareFusion Corp., a division of the company
that offered medical devices that promoted
medication safety, as well as respiratory
equipment and infection prevention products.
This allowed Cardinal Health to focus on its
core capabilities of healthcare distribution
and services. In 2010, Cardinal Health
became the first U.S. healthcare distributor to
expand outside of North America with its
acquisition of Yong Yu, which created a platform for growth in the fast-growing Chinese
healthcare market.
Today, Cardinal Health provides an integrated offering of innovative products and
services to help hospitals, pharmacies and
other healthcare providers meet the growing
challenges of a dynamic industry. As a multinational healthcare industry services provider,
Cardinal Health applies its resources, knowledge and expertise to help healthcare manufacturers and patient care providers meet
their most pressing challenges of providing
safe, high-quality and cost-effective care.
Cardinal Health is also committed to giving
back to the communities where its employees
and customers live and work. The Cardinal
Health Foundation supports programs that
improve healthcare efficiency, quality and
cost-effectiveness, and that promote healthy
and vibrant communities. Since 2001, Cardinal
Health and the Cardinal Health Foundation
have contributed more than $150 million in
cash and product donations to nonprofit
organizations, domestically and abroad.
Cardinal Health is located at 7000 Cardinal
Place in Dublin, Ohio, and on the Internet at
www.cardinalhealth.com.
QUALITY
OF
LIFE
137
COLUMBUS
ACADEMY
✧
Top: Small class sizes means more
individual attention for each Columbus
Academy student.
Above: Intellectual curiosity is the hallmark
of a Columbus Academy education.
In 1911 a group of area businessmen
founded the Columbus Academy to provide a
local educational option for boys in grades
5-12. They adopted the independent country
day school philosophy that academic
preparation was a cooperative effort between
the school and the home. Thus, Columbus
Academy began as a college preparatory
school dedicated to the highest standards
of intellectual, social, moral, aesthetic and
physical development.
Columbus Academy’s first home was situated on four acres along Alum Creek on Nelson
Road in Columbus and the number of students
quickly grew in grades 5-12. The school’s first
headmaster, Frank P. R. Van Syckel, instituted
a strong liberal arts program coupled with
vigorous athletic instruction, and he established a tradition of excellence that is reflected
in the school’s motto, “In Quest of the Best.”
138
In 1916 demand prompted the addition of
a lower school so that area young men could
complete their elementary and secondary educations at one institution. During the 1950s,
Columbus Academy grew in several ways.
Facilities—such as new classrooms, a pool and
a new gymnasium—were built as the campus
expanded to thirteen acres. A reputation for
academic excellence was also growing, thanks
in large part to the selection and retention of
a highly qualified and dedicated faculty.
Columbus Academy had the opportunity to
become more and more selective regarding the
composition of the student body: waiting lists
for admissions were established.
In the 1960s, the confluence of several factors (outdated facilities, a growing school population, and lack of space for science and other
specialized programs) brought about another
major change: relocation from the Nelson Road
campus to 231 acres in Gahanna (eight miles
northeast of Columbus). Funds were raised
and a new five-building complex helped to
double both the size of the student body and
the faculty, as well as the curricular offerings.
In the fall of 1990, eighteen females were
admitted to the Academy and the school
became a coeducational institution. By the
1992-93 school year, females were admitted
into every grade, and Columbus Academy
graduated its first females in June of 1993.
During this time, the student population grew
from 595 to 825, and a major capital campaign was undertaken to enlarge the school to
accommodate the increased student body.
In recent years, the school’s enrollment has
continued to grow, primarily due to the success of coeducation and the increased number
of female students. The Academy’s current
facilities include: distinct building areas for
lower, middle and upper schools (263,569
total square feet), 6 state-of-the-art computer
labs and campus-wide wireless Internet
access, a centralized performance and visual
arts complex, a library for each division with
online access to holdings, a large dining hall
serving both family style and buffet meals,
an indoor, 6-lane swimming pool, 3 developmentally designed playgrounds, 2 full-sized
gymnasiums, a well-equipped fitness/weight
room and a wrestling/multipurpose room,
and lighted football, soccer and field hockey
fields, 2 baseball diamonds, an all-weather
8 lane track, 8 outdoor tennis courts and an
on-campus cross country course.
Currently, Columbus Academy operates as
a PreK-12 coeducational independent school
with 1,072 students (51 percent boys, 49
percent girls with 25 percent students of
color and 24 percent receiving $3.1 million in financial aid and tuition remission) and over 3,500 alumni. Of the 127
full-time and 21 part-time faculty members, 67 percent hold advanced degrees
(master’s and/or doctoral) and the average teaching experience is twenty years.
Fully coeducational for almost twenty
years, Columbus Academy graduated its
first class consisting of more girls than
boys in 2007. The school, which promotes
a well-rounded experience, has won over
sixty state championships in a dozen
sports, has students selected for state
and national art awards on a yearly basis,
and consistently has Central Ohio’s
highest percentage of seniors recognized by the
National Merit Scholarship Corporation.
Columbus Academy has also made significant efforts in recent years to boost its financial aid offerings and to make the school more
visible throughout Central Ohio. In May of
2010, Columbus Academy was one of only
three schools in the United States selected as
a 2010 recipient of a $2 million endowment
from the Malone Family Foundation to
provide scholarships for top-level students
with financial need. With the award,
Columbus Academy became the only Malone
Scholarship School in Ohio and one of just
thirty-one nationwide.
As the school celebrates its Centennial
in 2011, Columbus Academy will be in an
outstanding position to continue excelling for
its next 100 years.
✧
Above: Academy’s picturesque 231-acre
campus is just ten miles from
downtown Columbus.
Below: Columbus Academy draws students
from over fifty different zip codes in and
around Central Ohio.
QUALITY
OF
LIFE
139
ISABELLE
RIDGWAY
CARE CENTER
The genius of the human spirit is our
ability and capacity to serve. This capacity
to serve is intrinsic and innate in the lowest
of us; and the noblest of us, rich or poor,
black or white, all have the God-given ability
to serve.
by Guy S. Schley, Chaplain.
✧
Isabelle Ridgway.
140
Consider this person of Columbus’ history,
Mrs. Isabelle Ridgway. After the death of her
husband, Mr. John P. Ridgway, Mrs. Ridgway
transformed the pain of her tears into a passion of purpose as she embarked upon an
endeavor that would define her Christian witness and work. Mrs. Ridgway realized
that there was a need in the community for someone to care for and to
serve the aging and ailing of central
Ohio. She was inspired to serve the
least of these in our community.
What is so compelling and utterly
amazing is that Mrs. Ridgway’s care
and service to the aging population
occurred during a period when there
were no entitlement programs such
as Social Security, Medicaid or
Medicare. She inspired others to give
of their time, talent, and treasure to
meet the needs of the elderly. Women
(black or white) in 1912 had no identity or status outside of their husbands. Mrs. Ridgway, with two strikes
against her, started and inspired work
that has outlived the normal span of
her mortality. Mrs. Isabelle Ridgway
was born in 1858, five years before
the Emancipation Proclamation was
signed and issued into law on January
1, 1863 by President Abraham
Lincoln. And though she died on
April 4, 1955, at the age of ninetyseven, Mrs. Ridgway’s life work and
witness continues at Isabelle Ridgway
Care Center, as we embark upon 100
years of service.
The administration, staff, professionals, and Board of Trustees of
Isabelle Ridgway Care Center strive
to provide “warm, compassionate,
culturally appropriate, family-friendly care and services to the aging population of central Ohio,” which is
conducive to improving their health
and well-being.
Perhaps, this information about
the Isabelle Ridgway Care Center’s
history will inform your mind,
inspire your heart and soul; hence,
empower you to serve.
On March 12, 1912, in Savannah,
Georgia, Juliette Gordon Low announced,
“I’ve got something for the girls of
Savannah and all of America, and all the
world, and we’re going to start it tonight.”
Founded on the belief that girls should
be given the opportunity to develop
physically, mentally, and spiritually, the
Girl Scouts was formed.
By 1916, troops were organized
throughout Ohio. In 1950, the Girl
Scouts of the USA was chartered by
the U.S. Congress, and several councils
existed in Ohio. Over time, these
smaller councils joined together to
form larger councils. In a 2009 national realignment, three councils—from
Columbus, Mansfield and Zanesville—
joined to form the Girl Scouts of
Ohio’s Heartland Council, headquartered in Columbus.
The council now serves more than
34,000 girls from kindergarten through
grade twelve, and more than 9,000
adult members and volunteers. Its thirty
county region includes: Adams, Ashland,
Coshocton, Crawford, Delaware, Fairfield,
Fayette, Franklin, Gallia, Guernsey, Highland,
Hocking, Holmes, Jackson, Knox, Licking,
Madison, Marion, Morrow, Muskingum, Perry,
Pickaway, Pike, Richland, Ross, Scioto, Union,
Vinton, Wayne and Wyandot Counties.
Celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2012,
Girl Scouts of the USA now has a membership
of more than 3.2 million girls and adults.
In fact, more than 50 million women in the
U.S. today are Girl Scout alumnae.
The mission is: “Girl Scouting builds girls
of courage, confidence, and character, who
make the world a better place.” The organization’s guiding principles are the Girl Scout
Promise and Law, which indicate the way
Girl Scouts agree to act every day toward
one another and other people.
As the premier leadership development
program for girls today, Girl Scouts provides
activities in science and technology, business
and economic literacy, outdoor and environmental awareness, the arts, and more. While
providing girls with opportunities for fun and
friendship, the focus is on the new Girl Scout
GIRL SCOUTS
OF OHIO’S
HEARTLAND
COUNCIL
Leadership Experience—a model that engages
girls in discovering themselves, connecting
with others, and taking action to make the
world a better place. Even selling Girl Scout
cookies is a business literacy program where
girls learn five key business skills—goalsetting, decision-making, money management, people skills and business ethics.
Ohio’s Heartland Council also operates
seven camps throughout its region, including
day and residential camps and a horse ranch.
Camping provides girls with a powerful experience in independence, friendship and social
character, outdoor exploration and environmental awareness in a safe environment.
Girl Scouts from grades four through
twelve can work to earn Girl Scout Bronze,
Silver and Gold Awards as well. The Girl
Scout Gold Award, for girls in grades nine to
twelve, is the ultimate and highest recognition
a Girl Scout can achieve and symbolizes
exceptional achievement in leadership development, career exploration and community.
From its willingness to tackle important
societal issues, to a commitment to diversity
and inclusiveness—Girl Scouts is dedicated to
preparing the leaders of tomorrow.
QUALITY
OF
LIFE
141
COLUMBUS
CLIPPERS
A visit to beautiful Huntington Park
immediately fills visitors with the great
history of professional baseball in Columbus.
Hundreds of photographs, memorabilia
and artifacts of the great players, ballparks
and lore that made our city famous are
displayed here.
Since the first game played in Columbus
in 1866, fans have had the opportunity
to cheer championship teams and future Hall
of Famers from Pop Lloyd, Enos Slaughter
and Willie Stargell to Derek Jeter and
Mariano Rivera.
Columbus has always been on the cutting
edge of sports promotions, from having
baseball’s first concession stand and Ladies’
Day over a century ago to the Knot Hole
Gang and night baseball in the 1930s to
the Clippers’ Dime-A-Dog Nights and
Victory Bells of today. Over 29 million fans
have attended professional baseball games
in Columbus’ state-of-the-art ballparks,
including The Recy, Neil Park
and Cooper Stadium—affectionately
called “The Coop.”
Huntington Park continues this
grand tradition with its state-of-theart amenities. The picturesque park
was named Ballpark of the Year in its
inaugural season.
The Clippers, who won the
Triple-A National Championship
the following season, continue to
carry on Columbus’ rich and deep
baseball heritage.
COLUMBUS ZOO
AND AQUARIUM
Founded in 1927 the Columbus Zoo and
Aquarium gained international recognition
and stature with the 1956 birth of Colo,
the world’s first zoo-born gorilla. Today,
the Columbus Zoo is a nationally and
internationally acclaimed conservation
center, housing more than 700 species,
including thirty-seven endangered and
threatened species. Annually, the Zoo
supports more than seventy wildlife
conservation projects around the world
through its Conservation Fund and
Partners in Conservation.
In addition to its role as a global
conservation leader, the Zoo is a
renowned year-round education and
recreation facility for visitors of all ages,
backgrounds, and experiences. Each year,
the Zoo attracts and educates more than
2 million visitors and its mission is to enrich
its community’s quality of life and to inspire
a greater appreciation of wildlife for the
advancement of conservation action. The Zoo
resides on 580 acres, making it one of the
fastest growing zoos in the world and the
third largest municipally-affiliated zoo in
North America.
142
The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium is an
Association of Zoo and Aquariums (AZA)
accredited institution, which requires member
organizations to adhere to high standards in
animal care and demonstrate strong programs
in conservation, research, and education.
For hours of operation, current events or
exhibits or to plan your next visit to the
Columbus Zoo, visit www.columbuszoo.org.
Columbus Metropolitan Library (CML) is
made up of twenty-one library locations, 3 million materials, dozens of educational programs,
and a website at www.columbuslibrary.org.
CML began as a reading room established
by Columbus City Council in 1872. In 1906 a
$200,000 Andrew Carnegie Grant funded construction of the first permanent library building.
With a 2011 budget of $60 million and a
staff of 350 full time and 250 part time
employees, CML serves an economically
diverse metropolitan area population of over
1.7 million.
Ranked as the number one science center
for families by Parents Magazine, COSI is about
inspiring interest in science and encouraging
In 2010 over 43,000
customers used CML’s Job
Help Centers to search
for jobs, create and
edit resumes and take
advantage of staff and
volunteers’ expertise.
More than 53,000 kids
used CML’s Homework
Help Centers in 2010.
HHCs offer computers,
free printing, school supplies, textbooks,
reference materials and trained staff
and volunteers.
CML was named 2010 National Library
of the Year and received 5-Star ratings in
2008, 2009 and 2010 from Library Journal;
and has been ranked the number one library
in the country by Hennen’s American Public
Library Rating Index three times in the last
ten years. Over 8 million customers visit
the library, 16 million items are circulated
and 10 million people visit its website
each year.
people to want to learn more about their
world. With all of its hands-on experiments
and exhibits, COSI makes learning about
science fun!
Maneuver, a Rover in a Martian landscape
in Space, behold Poseidon’s majesty and
experiment with water in Ocean, or learn
about watershed creatures in LilyPad. Take
a walk back in time in Progress, intrigue
your techie side with the Gadgets exhibit,
learn about your body, mind and spirit in
Life, or experience larger than life science in
Big 0 Park.
COSI always has something going on in
the halls, whether it is the many hallway
exhibits or Science Ala Carte carts with roaming experiments. And do not forget to catch
shows featuring rats playing basketball and
the electrostatic generator—it is guaranteed to
be a hair-raising time! Plus be sure to add on
a giant screen movie in Ohio’s largest digital
screen theater!
Additional information is available by contacting COSI at 614-228-2674 or 888-819-2674,
or on the Internet at www.cosi.org.
COLUMBUS
METROPOLITAN
LIBRARY
CENTER OF
SCIENCE AND
INDUSTRY
✧
The number one science center for families!
QUALITY
OF
LIFE
143
✧
White Castle, a fast food hamburger restaurant chain. The company’s headquarters is in Columbus.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH PHOTO ARCHIVES.
144
THE MARKETPLACE
C o l u m b u s ’s re t a i l a n d
commercial establishments offer
an impressive variety of choices
N o r t h A m e r i c a n B ro a d c a s t i n g C o m p a n y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 4 6
Drury Hotels ............................................................................150
T h e F l a g L a d y ’s F l a g S t o re . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 5 2
Capital Wholesale Drug Company ................................................154
Nationwide ...............................................................................156
Renaissance Columbus Downtown Hotel .........................................158
P o r t e r Wr i g h t M o r r i s & A r t h u r L L P . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 6 0
T h e We s t i n C o l u m b u s H o t e l . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 6 2
S c h o e d i n g e r F u n e r a l a n d C re m a t i o n S e r v i c e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 6 4
U.S. Bank .................................................................................165
C o l u m b u s C h a m b e r o f C o m m e rc e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 6 6
Experience Columbus .................................................................167
Conway Center for Family Business ..............................................168
S u g a rd a d d y ’s S u m p t u o u s S w e e t i e s ® . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 6 9
Columbus Sign Company .............................................................170
Limited Brands ..........................................................................171
Heidelberg Distributing Company .................................................172
G re a t e r C o l u m b u s C o n v e n t i o n C e n t e r . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 7 3
C e n t e r C i t y I n t e r n a t i o n a l Tr u c k s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 7 4
SPECIAL
THANKS TO
Columbus Sign Company
THE
MARKETPLACE
145
NORTH
AMERICAN
BROADCASTING
COMPANY
✧
Right: Groundbreaking, left to right:
Robert Fergus, John Fergus, George
McConnaughey, Jr., Mayor Sensenbrenner,
Bill Mnich, George McConnaughey,
Roger Doerr, and John Gardiner.
Below: In studio Sign-on, left to right:
Norma Mnich with son Bill, Governor
O’Neill, Bill Mnich and daughter Louise,
April 1958.
When WMNI, the first North American
Broadcasting Company radio station went on
the air in April of 1958, the Platters had the
146
number one hit record with Twilight Time,
Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo was playing at
movie theaters, Gunsmoke was tops with
television viewers, and everybody “liked Ike.”
Broadcasting from the top floor of the
Southern Hotel at the corner of Columbus’
Main and High Streets, the WMNI “sign-on”
was preceded by several days of a countdown
that included space age sound effects, and
the launch of a satellite. William R. Mnich
proclaimed the “…launch of a new sound
around town, which you will hear for the
rest of your life….” A message from Governor
C. William O’Neill and some of the top hit
songs of the day followed.
Mnich was North American Broadcasting’s
majority stockholder. Others, who owned
twelve percent each, were John C. Fergus,
Robert H. Fergus, John H. Gardiner, and
Roger M. Doerr. Their construction permit
was delayed by Purdue University’s objection
that WMNI would interfere with the university’s station on the same frequency in Lafayette,
Indiana. After hearings and a subsequent policy change, the FCC ruled in favor of WMNI.
The rule change is notable because it essentially paved the way for the favorable decision. George C. McConnaughey, a Columbus
lawyer and FCC chairman from 1954 to 1957,
played a significant role in the process.
Although his duties as chairman prohibited
him from being involved on North American’s
behalf, he ensured that the new company
understood how to navigate the process.
John W. Galbreath and his son, Dan M.
purchased the interests of all the original
minority shareholders in 1960, and in 1965,
Mnich acquired the Galbreath interest to
become the sole owner.
The company signed WRKZ (originally
WMNI-FM) on the air in 1962, broadcasting
from the same site as WMNI, an antenna atop
one of the existing towers. In 1974 the company built a new 500 foot tower dedicated to
the FM, and it was the station’s primary facility until 1988, when it was relocated to the
WBNS tower, where a number of FM and TV
stations are located.
WTDA (103.9 FM) went on the air under
a time brokerage agreement in September of
1998. North American Broadcasting acquired
the station in March 1999.
The station’s broadcast studios and business offices were located in the penthouse of
the Southern Hotel from WMNI’s inception
until December of 1984, when they were
moved to the current facility at 1458 Dublin
Road. The company maintains several transmitter facilities. WMNI’s remains in its original location on the north side of Grove City.
WRKZ broadcasts from a tower adjacent to
the WBNS-TV studios on Twin Rivers Drive,
along with several other Columbus radio and
TV stations. WTDA’s antenna is on the
WOSU-TV tower just north of Westerville,
which is the station’s city of license.
Mnich managed day-to-day operations
until his sudden death in December of 1981.
His widow, Norma Mnich, assumed ownership and operational control, and continues as
board chair. Their son, Matt, who was an
account executive at the time of his father’s
death, is president and CEO. Other officers
are Nick Reed, secretary; Gerald Mosko, vice
president/treasurer; Hal Fish, vice president
of programming and operations; and Frank
Fraas, vice president of sales. Company
ownership remains within the Mnich family,
which is represented by a board of directors
composed of Norma Mnich, Matt Mnich,
George C. McConnaughey Jr., Arthur D.
Herrmann and Lee Guzzo.
Mnich, the son of Czechoslovakian immigrants, enlisted in the U.S. Navy at age
seventeen and served during World War II
aboard a sub-chaser in the South Pacific.
A graduate of Ohio University, he was student
manager of the school’s radio stations in
1949, when WOUB-FM became one of the
first full-fledged education
FM stations in the country.
His commercial radio
career included work at
WBEX in Chillicothe as an
announcer, news and sports
reporter, sales, and ultimately
as general manager. While
there he had an ownership
interest in WLMJ, Jackson.
In 1954 Mnich married
Norma Marchi of Columbus,
who worked as a home economist for Philco in Chillicothe
following graduation from the
College of St. Mary of the
Springs (Ohio Dominican
College). A first generation
Italian, her parents came to
America from northern Italy.
After the birth of their first
✧
Above: WMNI tower delivery.
Left: WMNI production studio.
Below: WMNI early 1960s promotion.
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147
✧
Above: The Southern Theatre featuring
WMNI’s Country Cavalcade.
Right: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hal Fish,
and Greg Moebius, WBZX, 1999.
child, the family moved to Columbus where
Mnich was a salesman for WCOL-AM.
By the early 1970s, WMNI AM/FM were
rooted in the Southern Hotel, where amenities were convenient for visiting guests,
entertainers and even staff during weather
emergencies. In addition, the Southern
Theatre housed live performances, which the
station could broadcast. The Mnichs bought
the historical hotel and theater in 1974, and
sold the hotel following Mnich’s death.
Originally, WMNI aired top ’40s music,
with some entertainers performing live in
the studios, as well as a full complement of
news, sports and community information,
live play-by-play of Ohio State football and
men’s basketball, the Indianapolis 500 and
Columbus Jets baseball.
In 1961, WMNI began playing big band
music then became one of the first largemarket stations north of the Mason-Dixon
Line to switch to country music. It soon
became one of the most influential country
music stations in the U.S., helping launch
number one hits and the careers of top artists
including Conway Twitty. As teenagers,
Barbara Mandrell and her sisters traveled to
Columbus in a station wagon driven by their
father to perform shows promoted by WMNI.
Nashville artists and producers knew that if
a song was a hit in Columbus, it would be a
hit nationwide.
148
WMNI promoted sellout appearances by
the biggest stars in the 1960s and early 1970s
on the Shower of Stars Show or the WMNI
pavilion at the Ohio State Fair. Governor Jim
Rhodes, a country music fan, frequently
visited the station’s shows at the Fair. Known
as the “Home of the Country Gentleman,”
WMNI hosted personalities including Carl
Wendelken, Bill Andrick, Ron Barlow, Doc
Lemon, Bill Weber, “Uncle Joe” Cunningham
and Spook Beckman. A strong news team
led by Martin Petree maintained the station’s
commitment to news and information.
WMNI was the first station to provide daily
traffic coverage from its “Eye in the Sky”
helicopter in the 1960s.
In the mid to late 1970s, nationally known
entertainers appeared before packed houses
at the Southern Theater. The shows were
broadcast on WMNI and distributed to
hundreds of other radio stations over the
Mutual Radio Network.
WMNI music shifted in 1995 to “adult
standards,” including top hits from Nat King
Cole, Johnny Mathis, Frank Sinatra, Tony
Bennett, and others. A similar music mix
continues today.
When WMNI-FM went on the air in 1962,
few FM receivers were in use, and early shows
were often a simulcast of WMNI programming. The station split away for specialized
coverage of sporting or community events,
and in the mid 1970s was the home of the
Cincinnati Reds. Rebranded WRMZ-FM, it
moved in 1978 from contemporary easy listening to Disco, then to a modern country
sound as FM-100 by 1980, and became Magic
99.7 in 1986, with new call letters, WMGG.
When a “New Music Revolution” began in
1992, WBZX 99.7 “The Blitz” led the way for
listeners who wanted the “Grunge” sounds of
Seattle, and harder-edged music from bands
like Metallica AC/DC and Ozzy Osbourne.
The Blitz quickly became the top-rated rock
station in Columbus and was instrumental in
developing today’s “Active Rock.” It filled
amphitheaters annually through the 1990s
with its Blitz Anniversary Bash featuring
up-and-coming artists like Kid Rock, Creed,
Staind and Disturbed. Local personalities
Suzy Waud and Mark The Shark hosted
mornings and Ronni Hunter and Blazor rose
to popularity along with the station.
In 1998, The Blitz added The Howard Stern
Show to its lineup. The often controversial
“shock jock” was the perfect complement to
The Blitz and Stern was the number one
morning show for men ages 18 to 49 until
Stern’s departure for Satellite radio in 2006.
In an effort to differentiate itself from the several other stations offering “Grunge” music,
The Blitz became “New Rock 99.7 The Blitz,”
playing music primarily from the 1990s with
emphasis on current Active Rock hits.
This was successful, but after the “9/11
attacks,” the radio broadcast industry faced
financial challenges that were particularly
daunting to a “New Rock” station whose target audience was men 18 to 34. To broaden
its audience, WBZX, “The Blitz” became
WRKZ “The Rock,” which featured a broad
mix of rock music from the 1980s through
the 2000s, targeted to a 25-54 year old audience. Audience ratings and revenue sagged,
and in 2010, a Rock Town Hall Meeting was
held live on the air at 99.7 FM to allow
listeners to make suggestions. Their primary
suggestion was: “Bring back The Blitz!”
Voting via a website, BlitzorRock.com
brought the rebirth of The Blitz, which has
more than doubled the audience compared to
The Rock’s final days. The Blitz, which
retained the call letters WRKZ, quickly
became one of the nation’s highest rated stations of its kind.
WEGE went on the air in 1998 as
“Eagle 103.9” FM. The Eagle’s mix of
“Classic Rock ‘n’ Roll Hits” primarily from
the 1970s featured artists like Fleetwood
Mac, The Steve Miller Band and Boston.
By the early 2000s, the Columbus market
had become crowded with Classic Hits/
Classic Rock flavored stations. The Eagle
shifted emphasis to “Rockin’ 80’s and 70’s” in
2002 then experimented with variations of
“Classic Rock” for two years.
In 2004, North American Broadcasting
introduced WTDA “TED FM” with the slogan
“We Play Everything,” which was a popular
format in other markets. Although the
addition of The Bob and Tom Show improved
morning ratings, TED FM never lived up to
expectations. In 2007, the company debuted
Columbus’ first FM “talk radio” station
with “103.9 WTDA, Talk FM,” featuring
The Glenn Beck Show and The
Bob and Tom Show.
Two years later The Glen Beck
Show exercised its option to
leave, moving to a cross-town
rival, and North American
Broadcasting moved The Bob
and Tom Show to WRKZ “The
Rock.” Talk FM was unable to
recover its audience loss, and
“Classic Hits” came to 103.9 in
2010. This format features adult
rock hits from the ’60s, ’70s and
’80s. The station added local
personality Greg Moebius as
host of The Classic Five at Five
each weekday afternoon, and
103.9 again found a niche in the
Columbus radio market.
✧
Above: Blitz first anniversary show.
Below: WTDA 2008 advertisement.
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149
DRURY HOTELS
✧
Above: Lambert Drury hard at work on a
Drury construction project.
Below: The Drury family built their first
Columbus hotel in 2002.
With three Drury Hotels in Columbus, it is
clear that the Drury family loves this Ohio
city. The same spirit of determination and
hard work that have driven Columbus for the
last 200 years have also driven the Drury
family from a small farm in the boot heel of
Missouri to a hotel company with 130
locations in 20 states.
The Drury brand was not born in a
boardroom or on a golf course, but in the
small town of Kelso, Missouri, with a farmer
and his family. Lambert Drury taught his
children the value of hard work, resilience
and family. When baseball-sized hail
destroyed a season’s worth of crops, Lambert
gathered ice from the fields and made ice
cream for his children. The lesson of that day
lasted long after the ice cream melted: face
challenges head on and work hard to make
the best of what you have been given.
In the 1960s, Lambert and his sons started
a local plastering and construction company.
As their reputation for quality and fairness
grew, so did their vision for serving the community. In 1962 the Drury family bought a
108 room Holiday Inn, making their first
entry into the hotel industry. Over time, the Drury’s
became increasingly aware
of the need for a valuefocused alternative to overpriced luxury hotels and
cheap, dingy motels. Filling
this void became, and
remains, the Drury’s main
objective in growing their
family business.
In 1973, the first Drury
Inn was built in Sikeston,
Missouri. Just off of I-55,
150
the hotel marked the start of a fresh approach
to the industry: build and operate hotels
internally, cutting costs, and passing the savings on to their guests.
Not satisfied to simply expand, the Drury
family began innovating new ways to offer
guests additional value. Twenty-five years ago,
“free breakfast” raised eyebrows of those in
the hospitality industry. “Free hot breakfast”
blew their minds. In the 1990s, Drury became
the first hotel in its segment to offer free hot
breakfast seven days a week and, soon after,
became the first to offer free long-distance
calls and, eventually, free evening beverages.
At Drury, The Extras Aren’t Extra® is not
just a tagline, it is a business model. Drury
became the first hotel to offer free high speed
Internet in 2003. In 2010, Drury had another
first, becoming the first hotel to offer free hot
food in the evening. Now along with free alcoholic beverages and soft drinks, all Drury
hotels serve free hot food from a rotating
menu at their 5:30 Kickback®.
As Drury Hotels’ list of free amenities continued to expand, so did their locations. Not
just a Midwest hotel company anymore,
Drury operates multiple hotels in San
Antonio, Atlanta, Houston, and many other
cities throughout the United States.
In search for another hub that provided
travelers with not only a convenient stop on
the road, but was also a vacation destination,
the Drury family began plans to move into
Columbus, Ohio.
By the turn of the century, the Drury’s had
purchased land in Columbus and were ready for
construction. The year 2002 marked the opening
of the very first Drury Inn & Suites in Columbus
and the beginning of a very special relationship.
Soon after, two more hotels followed.
Drury has actively promoted the Columbus
community through its Vacation Savings
coupon guide. Partnering with the Columbus
Zoo & Aquarium, Franklin Park Conservatory,
Easton Town Center, the Columbus Crew,
Columbus Blue Jackets, COSI, and more,
Drury offers its guests special deals for these
Columbus attractions.
Like the city of Columbus, Drury understands that friendliness is more important than
any attraction or amenity. All Drury team
members practice the hotel system’s special
breed of service: “+1 Service.” This Drury
brand of service has helped the system earn
five consecutive J. D. Power & Associate
awards for “Highest in guest satisfaction
among mid-scale limited service hotel chains.”
As guests continue to book rooms at Drury
Hotels, the Drury family is grateful that
America’s Greatest Cities, like Columbus,
have let them be a part of their proud communities. Drury strives to provide an enjoyable stay for their guests and relies heavily on
the team members at each location to bring
customers back again and again.
Thirty-eight years and 130 hotels after
Lambert Drury opened the first Drury Inn,
the Drury family is grateful for the opportunities afforded to the entire Drury family—
now 4,000 team members strong. President
and CEO Chuck Drury remembers the humble upbringings of the company.
“We really didn’t start out to build a hotel
system across the country,” says Drury. “What
we really wanted to do was provide the customer with quality service and amenities each
and every day, each and every stay.”
The same spirit that inspired Lambert
Drury to turn hail to ice cream still inspires
the Drury brothers today. The Drury family
remains driven to provide quality rooms at
affordable rates, add new, free amenities, and
strive for an enjoyable stay for its guests.
✧
Above: The Drury Inn & Suites in
south Columbus.
Below: Drury Hotels has been providing
guests with clean, comfortable rooms
since 1973.
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151
THE FLAG LADY’S
FLAG STORE
✧
Mary Haley Leavitt, with her son and
daughter, Andy Leavitt and Lori Watson.
Mary Haley Leavitt sells more than flags. She
is an extraordinary vendor of patriotism and
love of the United States. Her story is as tied to
national allegiance as are the colors of Our Flag.
And anyone who questions whether this devotion is merely a matter of good business—
considering the business she is in—will discover from her life story that she is totally sincere.
Mary’s commitment to the United States
began in childhood. “Patriotism is in my blood,”
she says. Her Irish father’s family served in the
American Revolution, Battle of Tippecanoe, War
of 1812, and her great-grandfather was a
Captain in the Civil War. Grandma Haley always
carried a hand-held U.S. flag in her purse.
One day Mary asked, “Grandma Haley, why
do you always carry that flag in your purse?”
She replied, “Who knows, I may get a chance to
wave it today.” Her mother had two rules in the
Haley home: “Don’t let the flag touch the floor
and don’t set anything on top of the Bible.”
During WWII, when Mary was five, her
brother (fifteen years older) was in the U.S.
Navy serving in the south Pacific. Her mother
displayed the flag, hung the blue service star
banner in the window and dressed Mary in
red, white and blue. Her father was an Air
Raid Warden and, together, they gathered
scrap metal for the war effort. They listened to
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s fireside
chats over the Philco radio and stood and
faced the east with their hands over their
hearts when the National Anthem was played.
As a “Railroader’s Daughter,” Mary remembers taking train trips to Indianapolis to
visit her grandparents almost every weekend.
152
“White-haired ladies gave their seats to servicemen; buffets were set up in the train station for
them to have one more hot meal before heading
off to war; every Saturday we walked through
the biggest park from one grandparent’s home
to the other and saw trucks with red crosses,
ambulances, bands marching with ‘Old Glory’
leading the parade. When Our Flag passed us,
everybody put their hands over their hearts.”
Time marched on. Mary married her high
school sweetheart, Tom. When he was transferred from “Good Ole Hometown Columbus”
to Chicago, the family, which included three
children, Lori, Andy and Charlie, lived in
Libertyville because Mary loved the name.
After completing high school, their son, Andy,
joined the U.S. Navy and the Iranian Crisis
occurred. In 1979, Mary got caught up with
a message from a D.J. urging his listeners to
“Fly your flag, put a candle in the window and
a yellow ribbon around the tree.” Mary could not
find her flag, nor did any merchant have the
U.S. Flag in stock because it was not “flag season.”
She went to a flag company thirty-five miles
away, but he only sold wholesale. Explaining
about her son’s service, Mary talked him into
selling her a U.S. flag. While walking out, she
got an idea and asked him if she could have
twelve flags to sell door-to-door in Libertyville.
He said, “Who do you think I am, the Avon
Lady of the flag world?” He gave her twelve
flags and told her to have the flags or the
money to him the next Saturday. She had the
money there in four days and he gave her
twelve more…and the beat went on.
Mary got a new idea: Watch for tattered flags
flying from company flagpoles and sell them a
new one. Her first stop was at a bank, where a
Libertyville News reporter heard her sales pitch
and wrote a story headlined “Woman Sells U.S.
Flag Door-to-Door.” A reporter from the Chicago
Sun Times called Mary the next week for an
interview for President’s Week. The story and
her picture were on the front page of the
Midweek Magazine, entitled “Meet The Flag
Lady.” On that day, February 15, 1980, unbeknownst to her, she began her “Journey to the
Flag Lady’s Flag Store.”
In 1982, Tom was transferred back to
Columbus and Mary resumed her career as
a legal secretary at Vorys, Sater, Seymour and
Pease, and continued selling flags downtown
during her lunch break. Her fervor for the
American flag impressed Bob Caldwell, a
Columbus car dealer, when she asked him if
he would donate a large U.S.A. and Ohio flag
to display in the new addition of Veterans
Memorial. He not only donated the flags, he
encouraged her to sell flags full-time, and also
offered to help jump-start her business.
In 1985, as the business took over more
rooms of their home, she followed Tom’s suggestion to open the first storefront on Indianola
Avenue. The “1492” telephone number she
requested was not available, but “1776” was—so
263-1776 became the store’s telephone number.
In 1986 she started the custom flag and
banner business in a warehouse space along
the railroad tracks behind the storefront. Tom
used to say, “If we don’t have it, we’ll find it;
if we can’t find it, we’ll make it.” In 1989 she
took over the entire warehouse building and
combined the retail and custom departments.
The Persian Gulf situation occurred.
Customers packed into her store “and my customers told me I was on TV more than Tom
Brokaw,” Mary says. “They nicknamed us
‘The Store with the Spirit.’”
In 1992 the store moved to 4567 North
High Street in Beechwold. She added a “Stars
and Stripes” awning above the front and the
two back entrances and it became known as
“The Store with the Stars and Stripes Awning.”
Mary heard someone mention she might have
a hard time because the customers could not
park in the front. She called a sign company
to order a neon sign for her front window
with “Park in the back.” The salesman said,
“You mean, ‘Park in the rear?’” She said,
“No, the opposite of ‘front’ is ‘back.’”
The Flag Lady’s Flag Store is a drop-off point
for her customers to “retire” their “Old Glory”
which is no longer suitable for display and
receive ten percent off their new one. “Our
American flags are made in the U.S.A.” The
business retail side has many other items, such
as military flags and gifts; international, state,
historical and church flags; bunting, grave
markers, flagpoles, sports flags for schools, colleges and professional teams, and much more.
The Flag Lady’s custom department has
a resourceful graphic artist and skilled
seamstresses, who will help our customers
rally, motivate, celebrate and identify their
idea with custom flags and banners, parade
and podium banners, tradeshow exhibits,
family crests and much more. Thousands of
Ohio State University flags, sewn by The Flag
Lady’s Flag Store, are sold each year and are
another reason to visit the store. “For twenty
years, Brutus Buckeye and the cheerleaders
have entered on the football field with
Buckeye flags made by The Flag Lady’s Flag
Store. “We Flag the Team.”
Mary says, “I can’t believe I started my journey to The Flag Lady’s Flag Store over thirty
years ago.” She has been told she is one of
the top five retail flag stores in the U.S.A. Tom,
“the wind under my wings,” passed away in
2001. The Flag Lady’s Flag Store is entrenched
in the business with passion, love and enthusiasm. “Our store is about our customers, veterans, communities, businesses, corporations,
schools and churches. We believe in customer
service, quality products and timely deliveries.”
All her children and grandchildren have
participated in the business. Her daughter,
Lori Watson, is vice president, joined in 1993.
Andy, “The Flag Man,” is director of Home
and Business Services Door-to-Door. “We are
blessed with loyal, dedicated employees. The
Flag Lady’s Flag Store is proud to be “Small
Business America—the backbone of the U.S.A.”
Mary is a founder of Clintonville Chamber
of Commerce and National Independent
Flag Dealers Association (NIFDA), which is
dedicated to preserving manufacturing of
the U.S.A. flag in the U.S.A. She serves on
the Leadership and Safe Trust Committee of
National Federation of Independent Businesses
(NFIB)—“The Voice of Small Business.” Lori
served as president of NIFDA for two terms
and is serving on the board of directors of
Clintonville Chamber of Commerce.
“Our Flag represents our forefathers, who
sacrificed their lives, fortunes and sacred
honor for ‘We the People.’ It has no other
character than that which we give it from
generation to generation. God is chairman of
the board; ‘Old Glory’ goes before us and is
the backbone of our company.”
“You are the ‘U’ in the U.S.A. and God
Bless America!”
THE
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CAPITAL
WHOLESALE
DRUG
COMPANY
✧
Above: Historic building at 343 North
Front Street.
Right: Grand staircase of the historic
building that went to the second floor with
the Capital Wholesale Drug Company and
a beautiful brass rail.
Below: The photograph was taken during
one of the firm’s board of directors’ meetings
in 1978 and features (from left to right)
Linda R. Richards, treasurer; Dr. Marvin
Roszmann, board member; Dan Scarberry,
secretary; H. B. Henry R.Ph., chairman;
George D. Richards R.Ph., president; George
K. Richards, vice president; and David L.
Franklin, vice president.
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Capital Wholesale Drug Company is a
family owned distribution company founded
in 1950 by George D. Richards R.Ph., Edwin
Hoffman R.Ph., and Richard Longenbaker.
At that time, Capital served hospitals and
hundreds of retail pharmacies in Ohio. It was
a time when most retail pharmacies were
independently owned.
Since 1950, Capital Wholesale Drug
Company has moved once. Capital’s two
locations reflect not only the growth and
change of the business but also represent
the rapid growth of the Columbus region.
In 1950, Capital was located at 343 North
Front Street, Columbus, Ohio. The building
was originally constructed by the “Moline
Plow Company” and later converted to be
used for distribution. This historic building
is still standing in the redeveloped central
city area called the “Arena District.” In 1984,
Capital moved to its current location at
873 Williams Avenue in Grandview Heights,
Ohio, and is once again surrounded by
change. This warehouse district is being
transformed into a multiple use area,
“The Grandview Yard.”
In the 1970s, when his partners retired,
George D. was joined by his daughter Linda
R. Richards and his son George K. Richards.
A few years later, David L. Franklin joined the
management team.
The 1980s and 1990s were a period of
consolidation at both the retail pharmacy
and the drug wholesale level. The hundreds
of independent retail pharmacies in the
greater Columbus market dwindled to a
handful as national chain retailers took their
place. At the national level, the 200 drug
wholesalers who were often family-owned
also declined as the era of the national
chain wholesalers evolved. It was a time
when the local independent wholesaler had
to search for new market opportunities.
During this period Capital watched as
the trade associations in which they maintained active membership also merged
and Capital eventually became a member
of Healthcare Distribution Management
Association (HDMA), Washington D.C.,
which represents the collective interests of
drug wholesalers with manufacturers and
various government agencies.
By the beginning of the new millennium,
the number of authorized distributors of record
(ADR) had declined to less than thirty drug
wholesalers nationwide. Capital Wholesale
Drug Company remains one of these top tier
wholesalers and purchases directly from all
major pharmaceutical manufacturers.
The key to Capital’s success is daily focus
on efficient operations and customer service.
Capital has reinvented itself on multiple
fronts, including information technology and
expanding its geographic market area. The
ever-increasing power of computers is a key
component allowing Capital to be more
efficient and to operate on smaller margins.
The other factor that facilitates Capital’s
success is its use of overnight delivery service
provided by public carriers, which allows
Capital to service pharmacies and hospitals
in forty-eight states. Being in a single location
is no longer an obstacle to participating in
the national marketplace.
Capital Wholesale Drug Company and
the other drug wholesalers are an important
link in the pharmaceutical supply chain:
• Nearly eighty-six percent of prescription
medicines sold in the United States are
stored, managed and delivered by drug
wholesalers on the way from manufacturers to pharmacy settings.
• Wholesalers utilize cutting-edge technologies to further improve safety and security,
streamline operations and inventory management, reduce errors and enhance
patient health.
• In emergencies, drug wholesalers leverage
their logistics expertise to rapidly deliver
medical supplies and disaster aid packages
around the clock to affected communities.
At ninety-one years young, George D. is
chairman, and comes to work daily. The
third generation of the Richards family
has joined the company with the addition
of his granddaughter Sarah Richards. At the
end of the day, the company still flourishes
because of the close-knit family and the sixty
associates who identify with the concept of a
“family business.”
✧
Current location at 873 Williams Avenue in
Grandview Heights, Ohio.
THE
MARKETPLACE
155
NATIONWIDE
✧
Above: Early headquarters of Farm Bureau
Mutual Automobile Insurance Company,
now Nationwide, included the Southern
Hotel and this building on East
Broad Street.
Below: Murray Lincoln, long-time
Nationwide president and one of the
company’s founders, left, talks with farmers
about doing business with Farm
Bureau Mutual.
Nationwide is one of the world’s largest
insurance and financial service companies,
with more than 15 million customers. It was
founded on the idea that the company could
help people do things together that they could
not do alone. As a mutual company, it exists
to serve the best interests of its customers.
Leaders of the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation
(OFBF) were exploring insurance as a member
benefit in 1925, when they were approached by
the leader of another insurance company, who
proposed a sponsorship agreement. The Ohio
Department of Insurance nixed a deal with the
out-of-state businessman, however, forcing
OFBF, led by its executive secretary Murray
Lincoln, to consider starting its own auto
insurance company.
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OFBF believed that because Ohio farmers
had fewer accidents than city folks did, they
should pay less for auto insurance. Motivated by
that belief, OFBF incorporated the Farm Bureau
Mutual Automobile Insurance Company late in
1925. The Federation loaned the new company
$10,000 to open a one-room office in downtown Columbus with three employees. Twenty
part-time agents, who volunteered to sell
auto insurance policies without commission,
obtained 1,000 applications, and Farm Bureau
Mutual officially started business April 10, 1926.
Ezra Anstaett, the company’s first employee and general agent, used his experience
working with county farm boards to develop
new and unique sales methods. He created a
direct mail campaign, illustrated sales kits,
sales training, sales manuals, and a weekly
sales bulletin to inform and motivate the
agency force, which had a slogan of “Fair,
Frank, Firm and Friendly.”
The company’s first office was in the
Southern Hotel in Columbus. The first company car, a temperamental, 1926 two-door
Nash, was acquired from a policyholder who
had crashed it, then refused to accept it after
the company had it repaired.
Although it offered just auto insurance,
and only in Ohio, the company was so
successful that rural drivers in other states
soon sought coverage. In response, the
company expanded to seven other states
by 1928. It added residents of towns and
small cities in 1931, and metropolitan area
residents in 1934.
Introduction of a fire insurance company
in 1934 followed by the purchase of a struggling life insurance company the next year,
brought total personal protection to customers. Farm Bureau Mutual agents were first
in the country to offer both property/casualty
and life insurance to consumers. When World
War II interrupted expansion, Farm Bureau
Mutual operated in twelve states and the
District of Columbia. Territorial growth
resumed in 1951 and accelerated in 1956.
Farm Bureau Mutual started a 5,000-watt,
daytime-only radio station from a hotel in
Worthington, Ohio in 1947, to promote its
insurance products and Farm Bureau services.
Its communications holdings grew to nineteenth in the nation.
In 1955 the Ohio Department of Insurance
forced a split of the insurance business from the
OFBF. Under the new name of Nationwide,
with Murray Lincoln as president, the company
continued to innovate. It grew through multiline selling, pioneering the sale of life insurance
and mutual funds by its agents. Although both
the insurance and securities industries vigorously opposed this bold move, many leading
insurance companies eventually followed
Nationwide’s lead into mutual funds. Over the
years, Nationwide expanded its businesses,
either creating or acquiring other companies.
Columbus has been home to Nationwide
since its beginning, and the company has always
given back to the community. In 1974, CEO
Dean Jeffers’ commitment to urban renewal led to
construction of the company’s new headquarters
in downtown Columbus. This sparked development, leading to a new convention center,
hotels, restaurants and other businesses.
CEO Dimon McFerson directed Nationwide
to build a civic arena to provide a home for
the Columbus Blue Jackets of the National
Hockey League in 1997. That led to creation
of the Arena District, adding dining, businesses and urban housing. Located immediately
northwest of Nationwide’s Home Office complex, the Arena District is developed, managed and marketed by Nationwide Realty
Investors, its real estate development affiliate.
The company’s long-standing support of
Nationwide Children’s Hospital, highly successful United Way campaigns, blood donations and food drives cement Nationwide as
the leading corporate citizen in Central Ohio.
Today, more than 10,000 of Nationwide’s
associates are located in central Ohio. The
company’s full range of insurance products
includes vehicles, homeowners, agribusiness,
commercial and pet insurance. Its financial
services include life insurance, annuities,
mutual funds, retirement plans, and banking.
Nationwide is committed to helping people protect the most important things in their
lives—their families, property and financial
futures. The company’s success has helped
it protect and serve the communities where
Nationwiders live and work and make a
positive difference in the lives of others.
Nationwide is proud of its history of community involvement, truly reflecting its On Your
Side® brand promise.
✧
Left: In 1926, Ezra Anstaett, Farm Bureau
Mutual’s first employee and general agent,
signs the first policy issued by the company
as Murray Lincoln and Ohio Farm Bureau
President Lee Palmer look on. Today,
Nationwide has more than 15 million
policies in force.
Right: Former Nationwide CEO Dean
Jeffers displays the model for Nationwide’s
current headquarters, which sparked the
1970s revitalization of the northern part of
downtown Columbus.
THE
MARKETPLACE
157
RENAISSANCE
COLUMBUS
DOWNTOWN
HOTEL
When did you last discover a hotel that
married purpose with panache so seamlessly?
From where it sits on the corner of a fabulous
downtown location, the Renaissance Columbus
Downtown Hotel corners the market on bringing great minds together and ideas to life—in
a most unconventional center.
But the Renaissance Columbus Downtown
Hotel is part of a bigger story: the Marriott story.
The history of the Marriott hotel chain began
with a nine-seat root beer stand, coined “the
Hot Shoppes” opened in 1927 by J. W. Marriott
and his wife, Alice Sheets-Marriott, in
Washington, D.C. Despite the challenges of the
Great Depression, hard work and intuitive
business ingenuity enabled the Marriotts to
thrive and build a chain of restaurants that
would become the foundation of their business
empire. In 1957, after beginning the company
as a concept restaurant/café, they directed their
endeavors to the lodging industry with the
opening of the 500-room Crystal City Marriott
in Arlington, Virginia. Widely known in the
power circles of Washington, D.C., the Marriotts
built lasting personal and business relationships
with many renowned personages of the day.
A biography of J. W. Marriott Sr., has been
shown several times on the History Channel
and on MSNBC. One of the remarkable stories
from his youth occurred while he was still
herding sheep for his family. At the time of the
incident he was too young to be permitted to
ride the train alone when a large flock of
sheep was transported from Utah to Texas.
158
Marriott rode his horse to meet the train when
it made its final destination in Texas. Without
human supervision during the trip, many of
the Marriott family’s sheep and those of others
got mixed, but when owners were called upon
to separate them, Marriott did so without
apparent difficulty. When his father asked
later how he was able to do this, Marriott
replied, “I just selected all the biggest sheep,”
an indication of the keen business insight that
would serve him well throughout his career.
This insight, along with his defining principle
of the hotel business: “Take care of your
associates and they will take care of the
guests” stands at the forefront of Marriott
business successes almost a century later.
Marriott now has 143 Renaissance Hotels
across twenty-eight countries. Renaissance
believes that travel (either on a jet stream in
the clouds or across the fiber optic universe) is
always a chance to find something wonderfully new and different. We created Renaissance
for travelers. Those who seek new adventures
and discoveries.
With its enviable Capitol Square foothold
among the city’s most dynamic business,
entertainment and cultural hot spots, the
Renaissance Columbus is the perfect location
to explore and discover something new. Leave
it up to our onsite Navigators to give you the
local lowdown. They will lead the way to
wonderfully new experiences with up-to-date
recommendations on the best, most authentic
and undiscovered things that Columbus
has to offer. But there is plenty to discover
without even leaving the hotel.
It is usually the subtlest touches that make
the biggest impressions. Our 376 guest
rooms are sophisticated retreats, where
comfort and technology peacefully coexist.
Custom duvets and an abundance of plump
pillows deliver the promise of a great night’s
sleep. High-speed Internet access allows for
an instant connection—to work, home or a
favorite blog. And our suites? A whole new
level of luxury defines our most spacious
accommodations. Or, take a moment to enjoy
the rarefied air of relaxation on our rooftop
poolside patio. Some of Columbus’ best
musicians entertain Renaissance guests here
on seasonally warm evenings.
But helping our guests discover Columbus
is not the only way we are connected to the
neighborhood. Always heavily invested in
giving back to the community throughout
its history, the Marriott family is involved in
a wide variety of community and charitable
activities. From education foundations to
charitable organizations, awards for community service and accolades from many distinguished entities have lauded the Marriott
family of businesses for their commitment to
give back—best encapsulated in the second
part of the company’s mission statement:
Spirit to serve our Associates, Spirit to
serve our Guests and Spirit to serve our
Communities. Three of the prominent charities for which the Renaissance Columbus
Downtown Hotel raises funds each year are
Children’s Miracle Network, United Way, and
the Ronald McDonald House, along with
many other local organizations.
Specific corporate awards—the Alice
Marriott Award for Community Service and
the J. W. Marriott Award of Excellence—are
given annually to selected hotels. In 2010 the
Renaissance Columbus Downtown Hotel was
awarded the prestigious AAA Four Diamond
Award. Only five percent of all hotels ever
achieve a rating above three diamonds. The
dramatic $16 million renovation, with its stylish and innovative indoor and outdoor event
facilities, provides the perfect backdrop for
business meetings and social gatherings. It was
also selected from among fifty-four venues as a
2010 winner in The Knot Best of Weddings for
its wedding reception venue. This distinction
was given by local brides in an independent
survey by The Knot and Wedding Channel.
At this stylish downtown hotel, which is
located near many local attractions including
Nationwide Arena, COSI, the Convention
Center, and popular museums and theaters,
guests are eligible for package deals, some of
which include admission to these destinations. So are you ready? Ready to escape and
try something new? Soak in the local flavor of
Columbus. There really is so much to see and
do, and we will navigate the local experiences
just for you. Find our special deals and
packages so you can take it all in on the
Internet at www.renaissancecolumbus.com.
THE
MARKETPLACE
159
PORTER WRIGHT MORRIS & ARTHUR LLP
As a twenty-first century law firm, Porter
Wright has proven to be a nimble, thoughtful
partner evolving to meet the needs of its clients,
from new entities to those it has represented for
over a century. The diverse professional backgrounds of Porter Wright’s attorneys allow the
Firm to provide advice that works in an everchanging business environment. The Firm has
developed a portfolio of attorney experience
focused on meeting both the business and legal
goals of its clients, including former software
engineers, former in-house counsel in various
industries and experts in the fields of health
care, nanotechnology and bioscience. It is this
first-hand experience that gives Porter Wright
attorneys a big-picture perspective. The Firm
has the highest percentage of The Best Lawyers
in America® 2011 of all large Ohio firms and
has been recognized as a leading law firm by
BTI Client Service Leader, Chambers USA 2011
and US News–Best Lawyers Best Law firms 2011®.
Tracing its roots to 1846, Porter Wright has
represented some of the most successful businesses in Ohio and across the nation. The Firm
has provided service to its clients for more
than a century and a half and is enduringly
linked to the history of law in Ohio.
160
The Firm’s founder, Richard Harrison,
set up shop at a small desk in the London,
Ohio, Courthouse 165 years ago. He traveled
to surrounding small towns, assisting clients
in resolving disputes and addressing legal
issues. Harrison also served Madison County
in the House of Representatives and later
was a member of the Ohio Senate. As a
Congressman during the Civil War, Harrison
participated in deliberations that helped
shape the country’s future.
After retiring from public office, Harrison
moved his practice to Columbus, Ohio, where
it began to thrive. Harrison was named president of the Ohio State Bar Association, and the
Firm played a key role in the Boesel railroad
cases, which challenged the constitutionality
of municipal use of taxpayer funds to develop
railroad lines for future sale to railroad companies. Harrison quickly gained a reputation as
one of the best lawyers in the state.
As the nation expanded, the Firm’s representation of the railroad industry grew to
include The Pennsylvania Railroad Co. and
American Railway Express Co. By the turn of
the century, the Firm had become counsel to
P. W. Huntington & Co. Bankers, Columbus
Iron and Steel Co., and Columbus Gas Light
and Heating Co. The Firm also represented
utility industry pioneers including Ohio Bell
Telephone Co., The Columbus and Southern
Ohio Electric Co., and Postal Telegraph Co.
By the 1950s, the Firm’s clientele had
grown to include The Klingbeil Company,
The Columbus Museum of Art, Max & Erma’s
and White Castle.
The Firm gained national exposure through
“The Harding Papers” case in the mid-1960s.
Earl Morris, a Porter Wright partner who later
served as Ohio’s first American Bar Association
President, was deeply involved in the highprofile matter concerning the love letters of
former President Warren G. Harding. At the
time, the case brought together some of the
most preeminent legal minds in the state.
As the Firm’s statewide and national reputation grew, it undertook some of the most challenging issues of the times. In the late 1970s,
partner Sam Porter defended the Columbus
Board of Education in litigation related to
desegregation of the Columbus Public Schools.
When the Harvard Defense
Fund and the NAACP filed suit
against the Columbus Board of
Education, the Board turned to
Porter to lead the defense team.
Porter recalls, “During the civil
strife of the 1960s and 1970s,
the school system became one
of the battlegrounds.” Although
considerable unrest surrounded
these suits elsewhere, “...there
was never any violence. All parties and lawyers maintained
civility and decorum and the
local media was very careful to
report the issue objectively.”
In 1977, the Firm achieved a significant
milestone—merging to form Porter, Wright,
Morris and Arthur. At the time, it was the
largest merger of two law firms in Ohio and one
of the earliest of such mergers nationally. It was
a successful combination that has stood the test
of time. In the years following, the Firm added
offices in Washington, D.C.; Cincinnati, Dayton
and Cleveland, Ohio; and Naples, Florida.
In the early 1980s, Porter Wright had more
offices in Ohio than any other law firm. The
Firm’s strength proved critical in 1985 when
The State of Ohio retained Porter Wright following the collapse of Home State Savings
Bank, then the largest bank crisis since the
Great Depression. The Firm’s work resulted in
significant new legislation and recovery of
over $200 million needed to protect Home
State’s depositors. The year also marked the
date the Firm moved into its current
Columbus offices in the Huntington Center at
41 South High Street.
Since that time, Porter Wright has served
clients in many important cases, including
the representation of the Columbus-America
Discovery Group in its efforts to win rights to
the treasure discovered aboard the sunken
ship, SS Central America, in the 1980s and
1990s. Porter Wright has also helped entrepreneurial and technology companies to
grow and expand their businesses, including
Checkfree Corporation (now Fiserve), which
grew to become a Fortune 500 financial
services company. The Firm recently led the
successful defense of a coal mining permit
to mine under a National Natural Landmark
forest, recovering $4.7 million from the State
of Ohio for a regulatory taking of coal property. The Ohio underground mining industry
views this as the seminal precedent protecting private property rights against regulation
that effectively prevents mining.
Managing Partner Robert “Buzz” Trafford
notes: “For more than 150 years, our attorneys have worked to preserve the integrity
and professionalism that was the hallmark
of our founder—Richard Harrison. Through
several wars, the Great Depression, recessions
and years of social unrest, our firm has
weathered change in the nation, state and the
legal profession itself with resilience and
growth. We recognize that the Firm’s success
is due to our commitment to clients and
community and to our adherence to the
highest standards of the legal profession.”
THE
MARKETPLACE
161
THE WESTIN
COLUMBUS
HOTEL
A historic landmark elegantly styled for
the twenty-first century traveler, The Westin
Columbus offers today’s guests the utmost in
gracious service and luxurious surroundings,
as it has since the hotel’s grand opening
in 1897. This AAA Four Diamond hotel for
162
fourteen consecutive years is ideally situated
in the heart of the downtown Columbus
business district, within walking distance of
the convention center, sporting and cultural
venues, and some of the city’s finest shopping
and attractions, including the State Capital,
Arena District, Brewery District, German
Village, Ohio Center of Science & Industry,
Columbus Commons, the Scioto Mile, and
the Short North Area.
Originally known as the Great Southern
Fireproof Hotel and Opera House, the building
fulfilled a promise by city leaders to build the
“showcase of the Midwest.” The decade before
the hotel’s opening had been a tragic one for
Ohio’s capital, with fires having claimed three
other hotels, the Seneca, the Deshler, and the
Vendome. This grand new hotel had been
financed on the dreams of 400 men who
invested $100 each toward its construction.
Visitors at the building’s opening toured the
gem of all lobbies, the café or supper room,
lavatory, travelers’ exchange (containing railroad, ticket, telegraph, transfer company and
telephone offices), check rooms and bar,
billiard, reading and writing rooms, barber
shop and five stores. Many had never seen
such an outstanding example of French
Renaissance architecture. They marveled at the
open-air feeling as they strolled in the promenade on the second floor, which was reached
either by the grand stairway or elevators. The
promenade connected with spacious parlors
offering views of High Street, as well as leading
directly to the main dining room, maids’ dining room, ordinary (breakfast) room, private
dining room and guest chamber corridor.
As J. M. Lee, the general manager, welcomed the visitors, they
marveled at the lobby’s extreme
size. Its 46 by 90-foot expanse
rose to the height of the second
and third floors. A decorative
arch screened and secluded the
musicians’ gallery. With six fluted pilasters on each side and
dome capitals surmounted by an
ornate entendres, the dining
room’s appearance was second to
none in the country.
Parlors were finished in white
enamel and gold with unique
designs. More than a few of the
ladies present retired to the comfort of the seating arrangements
there to escape from the men’s cigar smoke.
At the time it opened, the Great Southern
housed 222 guest rooms, with 2 club rooms,
56 private bathrooms and 8 public baths.
Guest chambers on the second, third, and
fourth floors were finished in plain oak, with
yellow pine completing the rest. The structure
was far ahead of its time, housing the latest
equipment for electric work, call bells,
heating, ventilating and plumbing. The basement held huge coal-fired boilers in addition
to the building’s water supply, provided by
three separate wells.
Then, as now, the hotel offered guests the
utmost in gracious service and luxurious
surroundings. The historic Westin Columbus
is elegantly styled for the twenty-first century
traveler. Its exquisite architecture includes
original stained-glass windows and crystal
chandeliers, with special touches reminding
today’s guests that history provided the
inspiration for this stately hostelry.
With over 12,000 square feet of meeting
space, The Westin Columbus can accommodate virtually any meeting or event imaginable. In addition to the grandeur and elegance
of the stunning Grand Ballroom—the city’s
premier event site—the hotel provides smaller meeting and breakfast rooms, as well as an
exclusive boardroom for intimate meetings.
Guests can enjoy a complimentary state-ofthe-art fitness center that is open twenty-four
hours a day, as well as convenient access to
multiple jogging paths, several unique golf
courses, tennis courts and swimming facilities.
Hotel services include twenty-four hour room
service, running maps by Runner’s World, highspeed Internet access in the business center
and free high-speed Internet access in public
areas, air conditioned and handicap accessible
facilities, dry cleaning and wake-up service
availability, smoke detectors, safe deposit
boxes, luggage storage, valet service, pay selfparking facilities, and much more.
With 188 luxurious guest rooms, including twenty-one spacious suites, The Westin
Columbus provides everything from rooms that
are perfect for the solo traveler to the most spacious and luxurious suites and other accommodations available anywhere. Amenities include
smoke-free rooms, windows that open, coffee
and tea maker, mini bar and refreshment center,
beds for babies, older children and pets, a
restaurant and lounge, coffee bar, and many
other luxurious features are also available.
As a member of the Starwood family of
hotels, The Westin Columbus offers Starwood
Preferred Guest and Starwood Preferred Planner
points. You may refer to The Westin Columbus
website at www.westincolumbus.com or the
Starwood website at www.starwoodhotels.com
for special promotional offers for individual or
group travel.
The Westin Columbus is the hotel of
choice for individuals or families, business or
pleasure travelers.
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SCHOEDINGER
FUNERAL AND
CREMATION
SERVICE
In 1855, German immigrant Philip
Schoedinger transitioned his cabinet making
business into one making caskets. After
Philip’s sons, George J. and J. Albert, joined
the business a few years later, it saw such
innovations as addition of the first automobile
hearse, and at 229 East State Street, the first
chapel built expressly for funeral service and
one of the earliest in America of such magnitude. The bell tower there is a city landmark.
Schoedinger was among the first companies
offering an air-conditioned building, the first
motor hearse in Central Ohio, and the first
offering guaranteed advance funeral arrangements. Fifth and sixth generation family
members, along with forty licensed funeral
directors, now operate fourteen neighborhood chapels and four crematories under the
Schoedinger name.
Schoedinger designed
the MourningStar funeral
arrangement process that
creates healing experiences.
Through a unique life exploration process,
families share about a life lived, and then
work together to create opportunities to share
memories, express emotions, and find comforting support. Whether you choose burial
or cremation, the need for acknowledgement
of the loss with family and friends is ever
present. Together, they develop meaningful
ceremonies to express a person’s individuality
and find healthy ways to honor their life.
For families who consider their pets to be
family members, Schoedinger offers full pet
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cremation and memorialization services at
three crematories used only for pets. Each
family receives their pet’s cremated remains in
a wood-stained ornamental urn, a paw print,
fur clipping, and grief-support materials.
Schoedinger pioneered advanced planning
in the 1970s, being the first to offer guaranteed preneed plans. Pre-funding reduces
assets and can help if a family needs to apply
for Medicaid. The company is also Central
Ohio’s only funeral home providing a fulltime, professionally trained bereavement
specialist to help families deal with loss.
This specialist often goes into schools to help
children who have faced loss, frequently
offering a H.U.G.S. program to teach children
and their families how to talk about and deal
with loss.
Schoedinger holds Selected Independent
Funeral Homes membership, available by
invitation to only one funeral service in each
community; has been recognized as one of
the top three family-owned businesses in the
country; was the inaugural recipient of the
1999 Family Business of the Year Award
given by the Family Business Center of
Central Ohio; and won the 2000 Better
Business Bureau of Central Ohio’s Integrity
Award and CEO Magazine’s “Best Places to
Work” Award.
U.S. Bank operates under the secondoldest continuous banking charter in our
nation. It was originally signed July 13, 1863
by Hugh McCullough, the Comptroller of the
Currency under Abraham Lincoln for the
First National Bank of Cincinnati, National
Charter #24.
The bank entered Central Ohio on July 1,
1985 with the acquisition of the Ohio State
Bank/Columbus, first established in December
1950. Deposits were approximately $240
million with eighteen offices throughout the
Columbus area. In 1988 all subsidiary banks
of First National Cincinnati Corporation
began to operate under the shared name Star
Bank. On July 14, 1995, Star Bank acquired
Household Bank/Columbus. This acquisition
gave Star Bank/Columbus thirty-five fullservice banking locations.
In 1995, Richard K. Davis, then executive
vice president of Star Banc Corporation's
consumer banking division, and now president
and CEO of U.S. Bancorp, the parent company
of U.S. Bank, said the acquisition served to
reaffirm the company’s commitment to expand
its banking presence and underscored its desire
to be a more important part of Central Ohio.
By early 1999, all Star Bank branches in
Central Ohio were renamed Firstar Bank,
following Star Banc Corporation’s $8 billion
acquisition of Milwaukee’s Firstar Corporation.
These branches became U.S. Bank in 2001 as
a result of Firstar Corporation acquiring
Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp. In December
2007 the Columbus headquarters was moved
from 175 South Third Street to the northwest
corner of Broad and High Street, and proudly
placed U.S. Bank’s name atop the One
Columbus Building, a key downtown landmark.
It also made headlines in 2010 when it
donated more than $1 million dollars to The
Ohio State University with the unveiling of a
new U.S. Bank branch inside of the new Ohio
Union. The U.S. Bank Conference Theater
inside the Ohio Union can accommodate up to
three hundred individuals for OSU lectures and
community events.
U.S. Bank, both locally and nationally, has
undergone explosive growth over the past
decade, and is now the fifth largest commercial
bank in the nation. As of January 2011, U.S.
Bank in Columbus has deposits of approximately $1.1 billion, operates 44 traditional and
in-store/on-site branch locations and has 400
U.S. Bank associates. U.S. Bank operates 331
branches throughout Ohio.
The following bank leaders have supported
the Columbus community over the years in
their role as market president: James Gatton,
Linda Page, Tom Green, Bob McLaughlin,
John Christy, Tom Lakin, Doug Wyatt, as well
as Dave Sceva. Current U.S. Bank/Columbus
advisory board members who also encourage
a dialogue between the bank and its diverse
community partners include: Jane Abell,
John Cadwallader, Mike Crane, Pete Davies,
Stephanie Hightower, Doug Mayr, Chuck
Murlin, Larry Ruben, and Jim Wyland.
U.S. BANK
✧
Top, left: U.S. Bank regional headquarters
in Columbus.
Above: U.S. Bank operates today under the
original First National Bank of Cincinnati
National Charter #24, which is now the
second-oldest continuous charter in the
nation. It was signed on July 13, 1863 by
Hugh McCullough, the Comptroller of the
Currency under Abraham Lincoln.
Below: Dave Sceva, former U.S. Bank
Columbus market president (left), Dr.
Gordon Gee, OSU president (center), and
Kyle Grusczynski, U.S. Bank OSU branch
manager (right).
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COLUMBUS
CHAMBER OF
COMMERCE
✧
North Bank Park and the Columbus skyline.
COURTESY OF RANDALL LEE SCHIEBER.
A guiding force for more than 126 years,
the Columbus Chamber continues to help
grow the Columbus Region economy, one
business at a time.
From our establishment as the Columbus
Board of Trade in 1884 and into the twentyfirst century, this organization has been the
voice of business in Columbus—advocating
for, leading and supporting the progress of
business in this region, which is now home to
2 million people and 60,000 businesses.
Together with government and our partners,
we have cultivated a diverse and sustainable
economy. Indeed, Columbus is one of the
fastest growing major metropolitan areas in
the Midwest.
Now, as we celebrate the city’s bicentennial
and stand on the verge of the region’s boldest
and most aggressive economic development
strategy, Columbus2020, the Chamber is
poised to play an even greater role. Within
Columbus2020, we are singularly focused on
helping businesses operating in the Columbus
area prosper. The Chamber represents more
than 2,000 member businesses, and our team
of more than 20 business specialists and topical
experts is driven to accelerate member success.
That is because the Columbus Chamber
has one purpose—to help businesses thrive.
166
The team provides the resources, services and
intelligence businesses need to overcome
obstacles, take advantage of opportunities, or
simply make a connection to get the job done.
Each day, the Chamber serves its businesses
through one-on-one counsel or small group
discussions. Our staff helps make connections
to people and information; deliver educational
programming; find solutions to business
issues; research and analyze business
intelligence; alert the business community of
important news and policy issues; advocate on
behalf of businesses at the local, state and
federal levels and more. Ultimately, we assist
businesses by delivering programs and
services that enable them to flourish in the
new, dynamic world economy.
The Columbus Chamber believes in
Columbus, and our staff knows business. It is
that simple. The Chamber team has the
curiosity to learn about business, the smarts to
analyze situations, the connections to critical
resources, and the passion to deliver the best
solution for each business and this community.
We invite you to call on the Chamber as
your business partner.
The Columbus Chamber is located at 150
South Front Street, Suite 200 and online at
www.columbus.org.
Columbus’ reputation as a convention
capital began in 1840, with the great Whig
Party convention. Columbus, then a city of
just 6,000 residents, was unprepared for
the 23,000 visitors who, exuberant about
Ohioan William Henry Harrison’s presidential nomination a few months earlier, came to
nominate Thomas (Wagon Boy) Corwin for
governor. Conventioneers stayed in hotels,
private homes, hallways, tents, and on seven
boats docked on a branch of the Ohio Canal
near downtown.
Ohio’s central location along the Midwestern
rail network and its small town atmosphere
promoted Columbus’ popularity as a convention
site. Other early conventions included the 1886
organization of the American Federation of Labor;
1890 organization of the United Mineworkers
of America; and the Grand Encampment of
the Union veterans’ group, Grand Army of the
Republic, in 1888. For the latter event the city
built four huge campgrounds and hosted an
exposition of agriculture and industry celebrating
the Northwest Territory’s centennial.
An aggressive campaign for convention
business began in 1910, and by 1915 larger
hotels began to help fund the work. After
operating under the Chamber of Commerce
for two decades beginning in 1920, the
Columbus Convention Bureau was incorporated in 1941 as a private, not-for-profit
organization designed to promote Columbus
as a convention destination.
The Columbus Convention Bureau continued to operate on membership fees and
contributions until the Hotel/Motel Bed Tax
was enacted in 1969. When regular
Bed Tax investment began in 1971,
the word “Visitors” was added to the
organization’s title.
The Greater Columbus Convention
Center was built downtown in 1993
and expanded in 1999. The Greater
Columbus Sports Commission (GCSC)
was formed in June 2002 to focus
on attracting regional, national and
international sporting events. In 2003
the Greater Columbus Convention &
Visitors Bureau started doing business
as Experience Columbus.
Today the travel and tourism
industry in Columbus and Franklin County is
an important contributor to the community’s
economy and quality of life, generating an estimated $7.3 billion in sales annually.
Leisure tourists enjoy
the city’s vibrant arts
scene, a renowned zoo,
top-ranked science center, exciting sports, lively
urban entertainment districts and excellent dining
and shopping.
The Columbus convention package now
includes nearly 24,000
hotel rooms citywide,
a state-of-the-art convention center with
410,000 square feet of
exhibition space and a convenient location
within 550 miles of the nation’s population.
The Hilton Columbus Downtown, a 532room hotel across from the Greater Columbus
Convention Center, will open in fall 2012
during the city’s Bicentennial celebration.
Experience Columbus generates revenue
for the community by selling and marketing
the area to attract conventions, meetings,
trade shows and leisure travelers. Visitor
spending helps support jobs, businesses
and quality of life for a growing community
of 1.7 million people. Experience Columbus’
headquarters is at 227 West Nationwide
Boulevard. For more information, please
visit www.ExperienceColumbus.com or call
866-354-2657.
EXPERIENCE
COLUMBUS
✧
Left: Columbus skyline.
Below: The Greater Columbus Convention
Center was built in 1993 and expanded in
1999. On the left, the Cap at Union State is
modeled after the city’s 1899 railroad
station designed by famed American
architect Daniel Burnham.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF RANDALL L. SCHIEBER.
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CONWAY
CENTER FOR
FAMILY
BUSINESS
✧
Above: CCFB co-founder Dick Emens greets
participants at the Annual Family Business
Awards Program.
Below: Monthly educational programs
provide timely information for Central
Ohio’s family business leaders.
The Conway Center for Family Business
was founded in 1998 to provide education,
networking and recognition to the more
than 6,000 family-owned businesses in
Central Ohio. Family businesses are widely
recognized as a powerful economic driver,
generating more than fifty percent of the
country’s Gross Domestic Product and sixty
percent of its jobs.
Attorneys J. Richard “Dick” Emens and
Beatrice “Bea” Wolper, together with family
business owners, recognized the unique
challenges family business leaders have in
growing their businesses and transitioning
them to the next generation. They established
the not-for-profit organization to provide
educational programs, peer group meetings,
networking opportunities, and the region’s
only annual awards program celebrating
family-owned businesses and the benefits
they bring to the Central Ohio economy.
The Conway Center offers membership
opportunities for family businesses and those
with special expertise regarding familyowned businesses and is led by an advisory
board comprised of family business owners
and service providers. The Conway Center’s
members range in size from firms with five
employees to large corporations employing
thousands. A generous $1 million grant in
2007 by James R. Conway, the former owner
of Marion Steel, and continuing support from
the Conway family have helped the Center
grow and expand programs and services.
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The Conway Center is the region’s go-to
resource for challenges and issues specific to
family businesses, and is recognized nationally in
business and trade publications. Its educational
programs include topics such as succession and
planning, case studies, and other business issues
addressed from a family business perspective.
The Conway Center also partners with Ohio
Dominican University, which has hosted the
Center since 2000, to offer an undergraduate
course on family business management.
The Annual Family Business Awards
Program celebrates the success of small, medium and large Central Ohio family businesses.
Achievements in succession planning, communication, community engagement, reinvention, and milestones are recognized.
In addition, peer group opportunities
allow family business leaders with common
interests to share their experiences in small
group settings and receive guidance from
experts in family business practices. Peer
groups are available for next-generation leaders, women in family business, CEOs, CFOs,
and those interested in growth/development
and marketing/sales.
Networking opportunities include the
Annual Family Business Tour and Networking
Event hosted by a different Central Ohio
family business each year; this event gives
members an opportunity to get a behind-thescenes look at their peers’ operations.
More information can be found at
www.FamilyBusinessCenter.com.
Sugardaddy’s Sumptuous Sweeties® is a
business-meets-opportunity story with a
twist. Sugardaddy’s was founded and initially
developed as an online business in 2005
at www.sugardaddys.com by Columbus
residents’ Tom Finney and Mark Ballard to be
the nation’s premier online brownie and
blondie gifting and dessert company.
Finney worked as a sales and marketing
professional and loved to bake as a hobby.
Ballard worked as an online retail executive
and often traveled for work. After one trip to
New York City, he told Finney, “Your brownies are better than many of the desserts I’ve
enjoyed in New York City.” They wondered,
“Could we put a new spin on brownies?”
“Could they create a unique, upscale online
gifting company with brownies as the star
attraction?” Joining forces they channeled
their respective passions and entrepreneurial
spirit into something special—brownie and
blondie desserts and gifts.
Finney and Ballard found their niche in
what they call “luxury” desserts. They settled
on the round shape of their brownies and
blondies to make every bite of the customer
experience uniformly moist and delicious.
While at the same time, their brownies earned
the name “edgeless brownies.” Ingeniously,
they use the “scraps” or cut-aways, as Ballard
likes them to be called, to make other dessert
items such as Brownie Trifles, Brownie Truffles,
and Brownie Biscotti. Today, Sugardaddy’s is
known not only for the best brownie and
blondies a “round” but for being brownie innovators with such extended brownie products
as Brownie Ice Creams, Brownie Bark, and
Brownie Cheesecakes and with such brownie
and blondie flavors as chocolate-chipotle,
chai-spiced, and chocolate-bacon-toffee.
Sugardaddy’s boasts twenty signature
brownie and blondie flavors—made from natural, premium ingredients. All Sugardaddy’s
brownie products are made in small batches,
baked fresh each day, and only sold fresh.
Sugardaddy’s ships nationwide “Oven to door
in 24.”®
Sugardaddy’s validation came when
Sugardaddy’s was selected as Green Room
amenities for The Ellen DeGeneres Show
(2006-2008); named “Best of the Best”
SUGARDADDY’S SUMPTUOUS SWEETIES®
Brownies & Blondies by Food
Network (2007); and crowned
winners of Throwdown with
Bobby Flay (2007). Since that
time, Sugardaddy’s has been
named “Editor’s Pick” by
The Nibble.com (three times),
Desserts Magazine, Chocolatier,
Food 411, ChocolateGrail.com,
Instyle,
Midwest
Living,
Woman’s Day, Instinct, and the
Washington Post. And, “Best
Gift” by Today Show (twice),
Instyle (twice), Instyle Weddings,
Modern Bride, and Brides.com.
Today, Sugardaddy’s operates
as a multichannel business with
three company-owned retail
stores, its online store at www.sugardaddys.com,
and a toll free number at 1.888.4 i want 1.
Additionally, Sugardaddy’s sells and ships
brownie and blondies “Oven to door in 24”®
through partnerships with NeimanMarcus.com,
Saks.com, Foodzie.com, and GoldenEdibles.com.
Plans are underway for a Sugardaddy’s franchise model to be launched in 2012.
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COLUMBUS SIGN
COMPANY
Rapid growth of the Columbus
area in the early twentieth century
created the need for identification
through signage, leading to the
founding of the Columbus Sign
Company in 1911. Now the
oldest operating sign company in
Central Ohio, CSC continues to
serve locally and beyond as an active
community member.
Founded by local businessmen
Fred Schenck and Austin Wood,
Columbus Sign included employees
and friends, Herb Moesner and Art
Hoy, who later took over ownership
and control of the company. Each
decade has brought challenges and
opportunities, from the early days of
hand painted show cards and window
signs to the many changes in signage dictated by
electricity, neon and the advent of automobiles
of the 1920s. During the Great Depression of the
1930s, the company often worked two-day
work weeks to prevent laying off employees. A
steady, but grim work source during that time
was painting “Going Out of Business” signs.
Throughout the years, Columbus Sign
served as a “melting pot” for many individuals
and small companies that eventually created
several of the area’s other sign companies. It
was during this time in the mid 1940s when
Bill Hoy, Sr., and his brother, Bob, both of
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whom served in World War II, began to work
in the sign industry. Bill remembers almost
daily work at the AIU Building (Leveque
Tower) of hand painting twenty-three karat
gold leaf on doors and windows. Bill, the
oldest, went to work for Columbus Sign. Bob
(two years younger) worked in a separate sign
shop that was located in the back area of the
Columbus Sign building. Bob later founded
Vacuform Corporation, one of the largest sign
companies in Ohio during the 1970s.
Columbus Sign has evolved through the
decades and remained current with new
technologies. Advanced technologies
have changed the sign production
methods drastically. Today, the use of
computers, combined with custom
hand-fabrication talents, is intertwined
to achieve unique products.
Columbus Sign is continuing this
next century with the fourth
generation of leadership. The family
tradition started with the early years
of Art Hoy, to the second generation
of Bill Hoy, Sr., to the third
generation of Bill and Mike Hoy, and
now the fourth generation of David
and Eric Hoy. The family business
prides itself with the thousands of
quality signs and displays that have
been provided throughout these first
one hundred years of business.
In 1963 the term specialty retail was just
beginning to permeate the fashion and retail
world. It was also the year that a young
entrepreneur from Columbus took
a risk on this idea based on
knowledge of his family’s retail
business. It was a watershed
moment that would forever change
Les Wexner’s life.
Armed with a bank loan and a
$5,000 loan from an aunt, the OSU
graduate became a shopkeeper
by launching the aptly named
“Limited” in Kingsdale Shopping
Center. His vision for specialty retail
would eventually pay dividends and
ultimately redefine an industry.
To understand Limited Brands’
success is to acknowledge the
entrepreneurial spirit of its founder.
Wexner’s vision has always been
about defining what is next, taking
calculated risks and being a source
of good. That mindset led him to
take his company public with six
Limited stores so that others could
share in the company’s success.
The desire for next has been balanced by
discipline, which is best exemplified by the
company’s $1 billion international business
before opening or acquiring a single store
outside of the United States.
This pursuit of excellence is what attracts
retail’s best talent from around the world
to Limited Brands, which today includes
Victoria’s Secret, Victoria’s Secret PINK,
Bath & Body Works, La Senza and Henri
Bendel. Today the company boasts nearly
3,000 stores nationwide, a 1,000 worldwide and nearly 100,000 associates who
provide today’s woman with lingerie and
personal care products that fit her
inspirational lifestyle.
Through every stage of the business,
success has been led by a shared set of
common values to improve the lives of our
customers, associates, partners, shareholders
and communities in which we live and
work. Themes within the company’s values
speak to the importance of passion, integrity,
inclusion and loyalty—the latter reflecting
Limited Brands’ dedication to Columbus for
nearly fifty years and the commitment to give
back to the community.
LIMITED
BRANDS
Limited Brands is an entrepreneurial
success story of remarkable scale. But this
visionary story is still being written and
international growth is positioned as the next
exciting chapter. After all, it is what’s next.
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HEIDELBERG DISTRIBUTING COMPANY
✧
Above: This 1921 photograph was taken in
Cincinnati during Prohibition. Mozart’s
tavern owner Albert Vontz (behind the bar),
who later founded Heidelberg Distributing,
stayed afloat by selling near-beer and root
beer. His three-year-old son Al, Jr., sits on
the bar near the cash register helping out.
Below: Delivery trucks filled with wine and
beer line the parking lot of the Heidelberg
Columbus facility in 2007.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF TERRY WILSON.
Heidelberg is a family-owned distributing
company in the business of marketing and
delivering the highest-quality beer, wine,
spirits and other beverages throughout the
states of Ohio and Kentucky.
Our Columbus operation, centered in the
middle of Heidelberg’s eight locations, is
located on a sprawling piece of property on
the west side of town off I-70. The company
entered the Columbus market in 1989, leasing
a 55,000 square foot building near downtown.
At that time, we represented thirty suppliers and about 500 products. By 1999,
Heidelberg Columbus had grown so quickly
that the company built a 100,000 square foot
warehouse-office facility to accommodate
thousands of items. Expansion is scheduled
again in 2012.
Heidelberg was founded in 1938 by Albert
W. Vontz, who had arrived in Cincinnati in
172
1907 as a twenty-two year-old immigrant
from Hanover, Germany. A trained brewer,
he immediately invested in two local taverns,
but Prohibition in 1919 and the Great
Depression forced them to close.
When Prohibition ended in 1933 Albert
helped open Cincinnati’s Vienna Brewery,
which he sold to his brother-in-law five years
later. In 1938, he invested in a Dayton
delivery branch for the Heidelberg Brewery
located in Covington, Kentucky, popular for
its Student Prince and Heirloom beers. He
named the company Heidelberg Distributing
and quickly added wine products to deliver to
Dayton bars, restaurants and grocery stores.
Albert’s only child, Albert W. Vontz, Jr.,
became active in the business in 1947 when
he returned from World War II. With a graduate degree in economics, Al looked for every
opportunity to expand. During the 1950s,
wine products represented a large part of
Dayton Heidelberg sales. In 1959, Al was able
to purchase the Anheuser-Busch delivery
branch in Cincinnati; in 1961, he purchased
the Budweiser distributorship in Dayton. The
firm has been growing ever since through
aggressive product expansion and acquisitions.
Third and fourth-generation family members continue to lead Heidelberg and are
actively engaged in the day-to-day business,
operating facilities in Columbus, Cleveland,
Lorain, Toledo, Dayton, Cincinnati, Evendale
and Covington, Kentucky.
You will see Heidelberg Associates and
products at numerous Columbus events and
venues as we work alongside other Columbus
partners to build a strong and vibrant community. Sales representatives and delivery
associates call on every retailer with an Ohio
liquor license in a thirty county area in central
and southeast Ohio.
A premier convention destination managed by SMG, the world leader in entertainment and conference venue management,
marketing and development, the Greater
Columbus Convention Center is owned
and developed by the Franklin County
Convention Facilities Authority.
The center’s history dates to 1974, when
Battelle Memorial Institute contributed $36.5
million to develop a convention facility in
downtown Columbus. The Ohio Center and
its premier venue, Battelle Hall, opened in
1980, and Battelle Hall quickly became a versatile venue embracing family shows, rock
and pop music concerts, theatrical productions and sporting events. Battelle Hall later
became the preferred place for large public
assemblies, trade shows, cheerleading events
and other athletic competitions.
The long-planned Greater Columbus
Convention Center, built on the site of a former train station, was designed to emphasize
the city’s information age relevance. Railroad
tracks, highways and cables converge as contemporary symbols inspiring the building’s
design by architect Peter Eisenman, which is
composed of long fingers twisting their way
between the truck docks at the back and the
abstract streetscape with front doors along
High Street.
Just five years after it opened in 1993,
a major expansion and renovation project
was approved to meet the overwhelming
demand for this facility. Upon its completion
in 2001, the Convention Center grew to
nearly 1.7 million square feet.
Through continued reinvestment, Battelle
Hall was rejuvenated in 2010 by a $40 million
transformation into Battelle Grand, Ohio’s
largest multipurpose ballroom, the crown
jewel of the Greater Columbus Convention
Center and beyond. The ballroom is equipped
with spectacular LED lighting in the ceiling,
capable of projecting thousands of color
combinations and effects.
A dedicated and flexible staff of 240 full
and part-time employees and associates
remains ready to host a variety of events,
regardless of the challenges involved. In 2008,
the building even reopened for business the
morning after a sixteen inch water main break
flooded its entire north part.
The Center’s client list includes major
national and state trade associations, some
of the nation’s Top 200 trade shows,
groups with international visitors, a bicycle
motocross race in which a dirt track is
sculpted within the exhibit halls, dozens of
athletic competitions, and events ranging
from small meetings to the Arnold Sports
Festival attracting over 175,000 attendees in
one weekend. U.S. presidents and presidential candidates have appeared there.
ARAMARK, the facility’s exclusive caterer,
prepares and donates thousands of individually packaged Thanksgiving meals and banquet
food to charitable organizations. The staff and
the facility also provide assistance to many
other school, civic and charity groups.
Greater Columbus Convention Center is
located at 400 North High Street in Columbus
and at www.columbusconventions.com.
GREATER
COLUMBUS
CONVENTION
CENTER
✧
Top: The Greater Columbus
Convention Center.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF D. G. OLSHAVSKY.
Above: Battelle Grand is the largest multipurpose ballroom in Ohio.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF ELLEN DALLAGER/
DALLAGER PHOTOGRAPHY.
THE
MARKETPLACE
173
CENTER CITY
INTERNATIONAL
TRUCKS
Founded on October 16, 1982, Center
City International Trucks, Inc. (CCI) has
always been committed to providing Central
Ohio with a complete line of new and used
trucks and services. CCI sells light, medium
and heavy-duty International trucks, Isuzu
trucks, IC BUS school buses, Continental
Mixers and Workhorse utility trucks. Its
leading parts and service department has over
$1 million in inventory, and provides twentythree service bays for customers’ convenience.
In the early 1980s, Branch Manager Jerome
J. Wahoff bought International Harvester’s
Columbus operations at 4200 Currency
Drive. Ken Maykowski became secretary/
treasurer; Dan Shepherd, service manager;
Bob Glancy, parts manager; and John Maxson,
leasing manager. With a poor economy during
its earliest days, the dealership sold just
one truck in its first quarter, maintaining
operations by building a strong parts and
service business that continues to be an
essential part of their business today.
174
Wahoff had acquired thirty-three percent
ownership by 1990, hired John Colston as
secretary/treasurer to develop a plan to
purchase the remaining stock over ten years.
Business boomed in the 1990s, and in 1993,
seven years early, Wahoff completed his
purchase of the business.
Dick Epp became sales manager in 1990.
The Isuzu line of trucks was added and grew
rapidly. Center City became Isuzu’s second
largest annual sales leader in the country,
winning the J. D. Power Award of Excellence.
The dealership also began distributing Ward
School Bus, which later became IC BUS.
Under the leadership of Jim Stickel and Epp,
this division was named 2009 IC Bus North
American Dealer of the Year.
On January 23, 2006, Wahoff sold the
business to Timothy E. Reilly of Miami Valley
International, making it part of the MVI
Group. The group’s other Ohio locations
include Dayton, Cincinnati, Lima, Findlay,
Pataskala, Cleveland and Akron. The
dealership employs over 100 personnel in
Central Ohio, and has over $80 million in
annual sales.
Center City’s civic and community
participation includes the Columbus
Chamber of Commerce, Ohio Truck Dealers’
Association and Ohio Clean Fuels. CCI also
works hand-in-hand with Eastland Career
Center to develop training programs for their
students. It also aids other truck-related
organizations such as fairs in Franklin and
Fairfield counties, food banks, fire-fighting
groups, youth groups, and Toys for Tots.
❖
The Huntington Center.
THE
MARKETPLACE
175
✧
Marie Radar puts rolled steel on a 30 inch slitter for cutting at Worthington Industries, 1996.
176
BUILDING A STRONG COLUMBUS
C o l u m b u s ’s re a l e s t a t e d e v e l o p e r s ,
construction companies, heavy industries,
and manufacturers provide the economic
foundation of the county and fuel for the state
The Cellar Lumber Company .......................................................178
Smoot Construction ....................................................................182
O h i o C AT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 8 4
John Eramo & Sons, Inc..............................................................186
American Electric Power .............................................................188
Capital Resin Corporation...........................................................190
K i r k W i l l i a m s C o m p a n y, I n c . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 9 2
H a m i l t o n Ta n k s , L L C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 9 4
F r i t z - R u m e r- C o o k e C o . , I n c . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 9 5
Buckeye Shapeform ....................................................................196
Central Aluminum Company ........................................................197
A u t o m a t i o n a n d C o n t ro l Te c h n o l o g y, I n c . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 9 8
BUILDING
A
STRONG
COLUMBUS
177
THE CELLAR
LUMBER
COMPANY
✧
Rachel Jones Miller painted this forty-foot
mural depicting the history of Cellar
Lumber Company in1978. The mural is
located on three walls of the conference
room of the company’s offices in Westerville.
Any company that operates successfully for
over a century is bound to be doing a great
many things right. Certainly, that is the case
with The Cellar Lumber Company, which has
furnished lumber and building materials in
Westerville, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus, since
October of 1908. At that time Wilson F. Cellar
and eleven investors pooled $5,400 to open
the company. The property at College Avenue
and Summit Street was purchased due to its
border with the railroad, providing convenient
access to inbound material. Cellar opened the
doors less than thirty days after his marriage to
Carrie Saunders.
Frank Bookman was named as president,
with Jos. J. Knox as vice president and Wilson
Cellar as secretary-treasurer and general
manager. Knox had formerly lived in
Westerville. He owned and operated a large
lumberyard on Columbus’ Cleveland Avenue,
across from Fort Hayes. Cellar, who had left
Otterbein College Department of Business in
1902 to take an office position with the
Hocking Valley Railroad, left there about a year
later, when he became associated with D. H.
Bard in the sawmill and lumber business at a
site east of the Lincoln Street Cemetery in
Westerville. After Bard’s death, Cellar formed a
new company in 1908 at its current location.
J. C. McLeod was Cellar Lumber’s first
customer, with others among the earliest
including the Westerville Creamery Co.,
Otterbein College, the Methodist and
Presbyterian churches, the Village of Westerville,
178
H. L. Bennett & Co., F. C. Arn, and the Culver
Art & Frame Co. Westerville was just getting out
of the mud. College Avenue had been paved
only a short time. Dr. W. M. Gantz, a jovial
dentist, was mayor.
Mrs. Cellar, a bride of only thirty days when
she became a director of the new company,
recalled that her first dinner guest in her new
home was a business associate her husband
brought in without warning. She remembered
that he was particularly fond of hot spiced
cling peaches and attempted to get them off the
seed by putting the whole peach in his mouth.
Receipted bills in the company’s early
records show that it sponsored space for
advertising at the rate of 10 cents per inch.
Other bills show the purchases of a curry comb
for 10 cents and a bucket of axle grease from
Bale and Walker Hardware Store for 25 cents. A
blacksmith charged 20 cents to refit old shoes
and $1.20 for four new ones. Corn and hay for
the horse were other early items of expense.
The first stocks of lumber were pine from
Arkansas and hemlock from West Virginia and
Michigan. Then, as now, red cedar shingles
came from the Northwest. Redwood was just
being introduced locally as a building material.
Good carpenters earned 30 to 35 cents per hour,
and good laborers from $9 to $12 per week.
Stephen Rizer, one of the finest characters
Westerville has ever known, was the first yard
man and “pilot” for the horse and wagon. A
devout Methodist and a faithful employee, he
never talked politics on the job but was
always ready to discuss religion and a better
way of living.
A fire in January of 1912 destroyed the office
and largest shed and their contents. It was a
very cold winter, and Westerville’s volunteer fire
department responded promptly, only to find
the hydrant adjacent to the lumberyard frozen
solid. They did what they could, forming a
bucket line from a nearby cistern. Cellar
admitted to being a bit excited when he fell
while jumping through an office window in
trying to save books and records. This fire was
a major disaster. Had it not been for the prompt
adjustment by the insurance company, Cellar
Lumber would have been unable to rebuild.
Wilson’s brother, George B. Cellar, became
associated with the company in 1914, and
served for many years as manager. Early
directors of the company included Mr. and
Mrs. Wilson Cellar, George B. Cellar, Don P.
Miller, H.O. Reece, manager of the Sunbury
branch; J.B. Miller and Frank C. Arn.
In 1919, Wilson began an expansion
program, moving with his family to Circleville
shortly after the purchase of stores in
Chillicothe and Circleville, followed by the
purchase of a store in Sunbury in 1923 and
stores in Johnstown and Groveport in 1926.
Later, yards were purchased in Frankfort and
Canal Winchester, and one was started in
Marengo. The Circleville yard was sold in 1927.
With the exception of a few hard years, growth
and expansion have continued, accomplished
largely by plowing profits back into the business.
✧
In 1932, Cellar hired his nephew, Don Miller,
a part-time student at Otterbein College. Miller
soon began going to school for six months and
working at the Chillicothe store for six months.
In 1936 he returned to the Westerville store and
was named its manager in 1938. He became
secretary-treasurer of the entire company in
1938, and general manager five years later.
Cellar began spending winters in Florida as he
phased in his retirement. When the Cellars
made Florida their permanent home, they
donated their house to Otterbein College.
Miller served as general manager through
the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s and was named
president in 1970. During that period the stores
were modernized with the introduction of
forklift trucks and the addition of hydraulic
dump beds on the delivery trucks. This
modernization was accomplished with the
immense help of Dick Longhenry.
Miller and his wife Rachel had three sons,
Bill, John, and Tom, and a daughter, Jean. All
three of their sons have been involved with the
company in various capacities over the years.
BUILDING
Above: Setting the corner stone at the
Women’s Christian Temperance Movement,
c. 1908. This photograph features Cellar
Lumber’s first delivery vehicle and its
“pilot,” Stephen Rizer.
A
STRONG
COLUMBUS
179
✧
Above: Wilson Cellar, Ernest McElwee, and
Isaac Williams at the company’s Westerville
office in 1915.
John Miller came on the scene at Cellar
Lumber in the 1950s, playing in the
boxcars and hanging out in the sheds. His
first paying job with the company was
painting its numerous white picket fences.
In 1961 he worked as a driver’s helper,
assistant driver, and loaded and unloaded
rock lath. After completing high school in
1962 he served in the U.S. Army, returning to
work at Cellar during the summers until he
graduated from Miami University in April
of 1967. He then worked for five years at
Armco Steel in Middletown, Ohio, during
which time he met and married Melinda
(Mindy) Scott.
In 1972, John was again hired at Cellar and
returned to Westerville, where Don Miller
planned to spend five years training him in
management and knowledge of the business.
Unfortunately, Don died during the first year
of John’s apprenticeship. With the help of the
employees and Scott Neely, an important
supplier from Lima, Ohio, the company
180
continued. John was named general manager
in 1972, president in 1976, and CEO and
chairman in June 2008.
In 1948, as Cellar was writing the
company history for the Public Opinion, he
attributed Cellar Lumber’s success to its loyal
and faithful employees. More than sixty years
later, that has not changed. Two of those on
hand representing Cellar Lumber at the
Westerville Chamber of Commerce in honor
of the company’s hundredth anniversary in
2008 had also been on the payroll when
Cellar made the statement in 1948. Dick
Longhenry worked forty-eight years as yard
foreman and manager of inventory control
and safety and was a company director.
Of most significance was his influence
convincing John Miller to return to
Westerville in 1972 to work for the company.
Doyle Spangler worked in Westerville from
1948 to 1963, and was instrumental in
opening a new store in Circleville in 1963. He
managed it until 1991, making it the top store
in the company for many of those years. Upon
retirement from management, he went into
outside sales from 1991 until 2005. He still
serves on Cellar’s board of directors.
Key employees today include Tom Kramp,
who joined the company in 1987. He was
store manager in Westerville (1988-91 and
1999-2010), and Circleville (1991-99);
was named operations manager (2001),
general manager (2003) and company
president (2008).
John and Mindy’s two sons are the thirdgeneration Millers and fourth-generation family
members actively involved in the business. Both
received their initial training with the company
reporting to Pat Farington, who has been with
Cellar since 1986 and is currently office and
credit manager. Drew Miller began working
part time with the company in 1992 and full
time after graduation from Muskingum College.
He managed the Sunbury store (2003-2006)
and returned to Westerville to assist in the
switchover from custom homes to consumer
remodeling as the Sunbury store was retrofitted
for roofing contractors. He has spent over half
of his life working for Cellar Lumber Company
and has been a director since 2006. Brian Miller
began working part-time with the company in
1995. After attending Miami University he
worked for McCabe Lumber in Cincinnati from
2005-2010, when he was hired back by Cellar
and returned to Westerville. Currently manager
of the Westerville store, Brian has been a
director since 2006 and was named company
vice president in 2010.
Bryan Moehring came on board in 2011 as
operations manager and to use his thirty-plus
years of experience in the building materials
supply industry to help expand current
operations in the areas of commercial and
installed sales, and help further expand into the
remodeling supply arena.
The ability to adapt to continuing changes
in the industry has been instrumental in the
longevity and continued success of the
✧
company. In addition to modernizing
equipment in the yards and office procedures,
the company has consolidated several stores
and added new product lines over the years,
reinventing itself to better serve a changing
customer base. For many years Cellar Lumber
catered primarily to home owners, farmers,
and “mom and pop” contractors. By the 1970s
to 1980s the main focus had gradually shifted
towards custom homebuilders. With the rapid
decline in demand for new homes following
the recent housing bubble, the focus of Cellar
Lumber has been adjusted yet again to better
serve professional home remodelers, with
plans to become more involved with
commercial, industrial and installed sales.
Looking back, the motto Carrie Cellar coined
over one hundred years ago still holds true
today: “Honest, Courteous Service Builds our
Business.” A second motto has since been
added: “Doing What’s Right Since 1908.” We
believe that staying true to our core values of
customer service and having a willingness to
adapt to the continuously changing needs of the
building industry will keep the company going
strong the next hundred years.
BUILDING
Above: The Cellar Lumberyard, 1948.
A
STRONG
COLUMBUS
181
SMOOT
CONSTRUCTION
✧
Above: Ohio Union at The Ohio
State University.
Below: Statehouse.
When a company has operated successfully for more than sixty-five years, you know
it is doing a good job. That is the case
with Smoot Construction, which offers a
comprehensive range of general contracting,
design/build and construction management
services to public and private clients. With
offices in Columbus, Ohio; Indianapolis,
Indiana and Washington D.C., the company
has amassed a portfolio that represents an
extensive range of expertise in the construction of aviation, civic/government, commercial/
corporate, cultural, healthcare, higher education, hospitality/resort, industrial, justice,
K-12, parking, research, residential, retail,
and sports projects.
Combining successful project experience,
with a profound sense of integrity, the firm
182
applies a broad understanding of construction to develop and implement innovative
and highly-effective approaches and techniques to bring greater reliability and economy to each client’s project.
A profound spirit of teamwork in every
department and at every level results in the
hallmark quality of each Smoot project. Pride
in workmanship is the rule within the Smoot
organization resulting in pride of ownership
for those who employ the company’s services.
Smoot utilizes its professional construction staff as an extension of the client’s organization from the initial design coordination
through bid packaging and management of
contractors and subcontractors. Smoot’s
proven management systems ensure the
project is delivered on time and within the
client’s budget.
“It’s not the way we’ve built buildings that
distinguishes our company; it’s the manner in
which we’ve constructed our business,” said
Lewis R. Smoot Sr., chairman and CEO of the
company founded by his father, Sherman, in
1946. He emphasized that the business has
been formed “not by the characteristics of our
projects, but by the character of our people.”
The company’s guiding principles, summed
up by the acronym, CHIPP, are Character,
Humility, Integrity, Pride and Performance,
Smoot explained. “These principles help us
identify, hire and retain only the best
people. They motivate us to maintain
our record for never failing to deliver a
project. They commit us to accountability, which fosters repeat business. And
they give us the strength to reach out
and actively support the communities in
which we work and live.”
He noted that a successful building is
not born in the field, and that success
is not always ensured through careful
planning. Instead, success evolves from
the shared goals and vision of every
person within our organization.
2010 marked significant milestones
in the firm’s evolution. It was at this time
the reins of leadership were handed off
to the family’s third generation. Lewis R.
Smoot, Sr., who has led the firm since
1984, and who continues to serve in the
dual capacities of chairman and CEO,
handed over the title of president to
his nephew, Mark Cain. Mark worked
for the company in various capacities and
tenures since the early 1980s and since 2005
has served as CEO of Smoot Construction of
Washington D.C.
Mark noted that the company has grown
and flourished because of the high standards
of the entire Smoot team. These values
extend through all phases of construction
and include knowledgeable needs assessment, thorough on-site supervision, responsible and effective office management, and
successful project completion. “Combining
uncommon skills in construction engineering
with our ability to solve problems, we meet
project construction requirements with quality results—on time, within budget and
according to specifications.” he added.
The leadership transition also included
expanding the administrative and business
development roles of Lewis’ eldest son, Lewis
R. Smoot, Jr., with his promotion to senior
vice president. These three key individuals
are joined by a cousin, Dana Smoot, who is
an associate vice president and the firm’s
Corporate Counsel.
United with a corporate family, the firm’s
new leadership structure combines the sound
business acumen of a seasoned construction
✧
executive with the youthful energy of
the family’s next generation and other
corporate executives with many years of construction experience.
Thank you for reading an abbreviated history of Smoot Construction. For more information, we would be pleased to have you visit
our website: www.smootconstruction.com.
BUILDING
Above: The control tower at Port Columbus
International Airport.
Below: Jessie Owens Stadium at The Ohio
State University.
A
STRONG
COLUMBUS
183
OHIO CAT
✧
Above: Innovative Caterpillar D7E Track
Type Tractor powered by an Advanced
Electric Drive Power Train.
Below: Caterpillar C175 Standby Electric
Power Generators at Nationwide Children’s
Hospital in Columbus.
As the exclusive, authorized distributor for
Caterpillar Inc. in Ohio, Northern Kentucky
and Southeastern Indiana, Ohio CAT provides
sales, rentals, parts and service for Caterpillar
equipment, engines and related products,
conducting its operations through eighteen
locations and three divisions, Equipment,
Power Systems and Agri Business.
Ohio CAT also operates CAT Rental Stores
at eight of its locations, remanufactures and
repairs all makes of hydraulic components at
its Hydraulics Division in Bolivar, remanufactures and repairs fuel pumps, fuel injectors,
turbochargers and water pumps for all makes
of diesel engines at its two International Fuel
Systems locations, and provides leasing solutions through its wholly owned subsidiary,
OMCO Leasing Corp.
184
Ohio CAT, originally and still legally
named Ohio Machinery Co., was organized in
Columbus in 1945 as a partnership among
three individuals who had ventured to Ohio
from Iowa. The company was incorporated
the following year, and the headquarters was
moved to the city of Independence in the
Greater Cleveland area. In 1961 the founders
retired, and Caterpillar changed the company’s territory to twenty-five counties in
Eastern Ohio. At that time, Tom Taylor, Sr.,
who was involved in sales operations and
management, and his son, Tom Taylor, Jr.,
bought the company, anticipating that
Northeast Ohio, for the foreseeable future,
would be the portion of Ohio with the most
population and economic activity.
In the 1950s, Ohio Machinery Co. was a
pioneer in providing the major Great Lakes
shipping companies with diesel generators
for both the required electricity and the bow
thrusters on commercial vessels transporting
iron ore, limestone and other products across
the Great Lakes region. Many of these generators remain in service today, and they continue to be serviced by Ohio CAT.
In concert with post-WWII economic
growth and infrastructure development, Ohio
Machinery Co. grew rapidly and added
numerous employees and locations in the
1960s, 1970s and 1980s. A leased facility
opened in Zanesville in 1962, and three years
later a new facility was built and occupied
there. In 1971 a sizeable new store was built
and opened in Cadiz, where operations
had previously been conducted in a shop
with no electricity and only a dirt floor. The
new facility significantly raised the company’s
capabilities in selling and supporting
Caterpillar’s larger equipment utilized in
Eastern Ohio’s surface coal mining operations. Also in 1971, Ohio Machinery Co.
moved its headquarters to its present facility
in Broadview Heights, which boasts 91,000
square feet of office space, warehouse space
and service bays.
A second facility was built in Broadview
Heights in 1980 to accommodate Caterpillar’s
increasing involvement in the commercial
engine and truck engine markets. Ohio
Engine Power was then formed in 1988 as a
separate division, focusing on the sales and
service of Caterpillar engines and related
products. This division is now referred to as
Ohio CAT’s Power Systems Division.
Continued growth and expansion marked
events during the next two decades, with Ohio
Machinery Co. opening new facilities in
Canton and Youngstown as well as Complete
Hydraulic Service in Bolivar; acquiring Miller
Tool Rental Inc. and a new rental services
headquarters in Oakwood Village; opening a
Painesville location; acquiring the International
Fuel Systems (IFS) business from Caterpillar;
and moving the Bolivar Hydraulics Division to
a much larger, 53,000 square foot facility in an
industrial park in Bolivar.
Economic recession brought the closing of
two Ohio CAT locations in 2009, Lucasville and
Painesville. However, that same year the company’s first, dedicated Ag location opened in Upper
Sandusky and a new CAT Rental Store opened
in North Canton. Then, eighteen months later,
a second dedicated Ag location opened in
Washington Court House in early 2011.
Tom, Sr., who is fondly remembered for his
sales abilities, had worked with Northwest
Engineering before joining the predecessor
company to Ohio Machinery Co. to sell
Caterpillar equipment in 1938. He was
involved with the Caterpillar Dealer until his
death in 1980 at age eighty-two.
Tom, Jr. joined the company in 1959, after
earning his MBA from the Wharton School at
the University of Pennsylvania. He became the
company’s president in 1969 and presided over
three decades of organizational growth and
facility expansion throughout Eastern Ohio.
He is best known for his financial acumen,
organizational skills and keen sense of humor.
Ken Taylor became the third generation of
his family to own and run the business after
the untimely death of Tom, Jr. in 1994. Ken
had worked at the company since 1988 in
a number of capacities including parts and
service, sales finance, machine sales, and
product support management. Under his
leadership, Ohio Machinery Co. acquired the
Western Ohio Caterpillar territory in 2003,
creating Ohio CAT, which was probably the
single most important event in company
history. With this acquisition the company’s
territory expanded to 80 counties in Ohio,
3 in Northern Kentucky, and 6 in Southeastern
Indiana such that, today, Ohio CAT is considered a top ten Caterpillar dealer in terms of
North American industry opportunity.
BUILDING
✧
Above: Complete Hydraulic Service
machine shop in Bolivar, Ohio.
Below: Challenger 865C belted tractor
pulling a Sunflower Disc Chisel.
A
STRONG
COLUMBUS
185
JOHN ERAMO &
SONS, INC.
✧
Founders Giovanni “John”, Rocco “Rocky”,
and Cesidio “Joe” Eramo, 1992.
Left to right: Tony Eramo, Bill Ditty,
operator, Joe Eramo in the ditch, Warren
Skiver and Ron Walker, 1977.
John Eramo watching Joe Eramo in the
ditch, 1968.
Giovanni “John” Eramo’s original passport
picture to the United States in 1932.
A site development contractor specializing
in installing underground utilities, earth moving, environmental projects, and general contracting, John Eramo & Sons, Inc. provides
these services for residential and commercial
developers, general contractors and municipalities. In keeping with the company’s motto:
“Do It Right the First Time,” its goal is to provide its customers with quality service and
product in a timely, cost-effective manner.
The company was founded in November of
1966 by Giovanni “John” Eramo and his two
sons, Cesidio “Joe” Eramo and Rocco “Rocky”
Eramo. Although he spoke no English, John
emigrated from Alvito, Italy in the 1920s, in
order to find work. He knew how to use a
pick and a shovel and learned how to install
sewer pipe, obtaining a sewer tapper’s license.
Columbus grew rapidly after WWII. By
1948, John had saved enough money to become
a partner in Southeast Excavating Co., which
installed sewer and water mains throughout the
city. After the owners decided to part ways in
1966, dissolving Southeast Excavating, John
decided to form his own company, John Eramo
186
& Sons, Inc. His new company’s first job was to
install a twelve inch water main on Brice Road
south of Livingston Avenue for the city of
Columbus at a contract price of $19,000.
Throughout the 1960s, 1970s and early
1980s, John, Joe and Rocky operated with
twenty to twenty-five employees, installing
sewer and water mains throughout Columbus
for developments, including Forest Park, The
Limited, Wedgewood Country Club, and
Victoria’s Secret.
The Eramo company was known for its
innovation in the industry during this period.
It was one of the first companies to install
PVC sewer pipe in Central Ohio, at Broadview
Farms, and one of the first to use laser beams
for sewer installation, increasing production
by twenty-five percent over their competition.
Joe revolutionized the industry when he
became the first contractor to use quick couplers to change backhoe buckets in order to
increase production and save material.
In 1978, at age sixty-five, John retired,
leaving Joe as president and Rocky as vice
president/treasurer. Joe’s oldest son, Tony,
joined the team in 1981 and ran two subsidiaries—Ohio Leak Locators from 19811984 and American Lawn Sprinkler Systems
from 1985-1988. Both were successful, but in
1988, Joe decided to close American Lawn
Sprinkler Systems so Tony could begin managing field operations for Eramo’s. He trained
Tony in all aspects of field operations before
being diagnosed with lung cancer in 1991. He
passed away the next September.
After graduating from Ohio State, Rocky’s
oldest son, Chris, joined Tony and Rocky in
the operation, for which Rocky was president,
managing office operations, Tony was executive vice president managing field operations.
As vice president/secretary, Chris learned the
operation’s business side through punch-out
work, estimating, and customer relations. In
June 1993, Tony’s brother, John, retired from
teaching to join the operation, helping Tony
manage utility operations.
Throughout the 1990s the company grew
slowly and steadily, as did the economy. Three
to four utility crews operated during this period, and sales increased from $3.5 million in
1992 to $7 million by 1999. The bulk of
the work during this time was installing
underground utilities for major
residential land developers in
Central Ohio. Although the
growth had been positive and
profitable, it became tougher for
John Eramo & Sons to get
certain jobs because they did
not construct the “earthwork”
portion of the development.
In 2000 the company set up
an “Earthworks” division. Chris
took the lead in this part of
the business.
Rocky’s youngest sons,
Michael and Bryan, joined the
management team in 1999
and 2001, to the utility and
earthwork divisions, respectively. Both started
as crew foremen to get hands-on experience,
and now manage multiple projects.
From 2000 to 2005 sales increased from
$8 million to $14 million, primarily due to
the housing boom and addition of the
earthwork operation. With a significant
slowdown in the housing market in 2006, the
company adjusted, seeking more public
works and commercial jobs. Thanks to the
bonding capacity Eramo built up over the
years, the company has been able to retool
and seek other niche opportunities as
competition increased.
The economy hit rock bottom in October
2008, the worst economic collapse since the
Great Depression. By this time Eramo’s had
adjusted to the public works market,
continuing to fight through economic
conditions that sent many competitors into
bankruptcy. The Eramos remain true to their
craft, continuing to seek innovative ways to
install their products. They look for new
opportunities, while continuing to provide
their customers with quality service and
product in a timely, cost-effective manner to
“Do It Right the First Time.”
BUILDING
✧
Top, right: Stream before restoration, 1920s.
Top, left: Stream after restoration.
Below: The third generation, left to right:
John T., Bryan, Chris, Rocco, Tony, Michael
and Steve Eramo, 2010.
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AMERICAN
ELECTRIC
POWER
✧
Right: Former Columbus Southern Power
general office building located on North
Front Street in downtown Columbus. CSP
today is known as AEP Ohio, a unit of
American Electric Power.
Below: American Electric Power
headquarters building in
downtown Columbus.
Founded in 1906, American Electric Power
has been at the forefront of the electric utility
industry since its inception. Throughout its
history, AEP has pioneered a myriad of innovations and advancements in power generation and the transmission of electric energy.
One of the nation’s largest electric utilities,
AEP delivers electricity to more than 5.3 million customers across an 11-state service
territory that measures 200,000 square miles
and extends from the Rio Grande River to
Lake Michigan. AEP’s size has fostered the
economies of scale and the efficiencies of
diversity, flexibility and advanced technology
that, in turn, have led to pocketbook savings
for its customers: residential, commercial,
industrial and neighboring utilities.
Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, AEP
ranks among the nation’s largest producers of
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electricity with approximately 39,000-megawatts
of generating capacity. Coal fuels 65 percent of
that generating capacity, and AEP is an industry leader in pursuing technologies to burn it
more cleanly. Natural gas provides 23 percent
of the company’s generating capacity, while
hydro, wind and solar contribute 7 percent
and nuclear energy the remaining 5 percent.
In 2009, AEP completed the world’s first
fully integrated project to capture and store
carbon dioxide (CO2) from a coal-fired power
plant. The project uses a patented chilled
ammonia CO 2 capture technology from
Alstom of France on a 20-megawatt portion
of the 1,300-megawatt Mountaineer Plant
in West Virginia. The captured CO 2 is
compressed and pumped into deep saline
formations, roughly 1.5 miles below the
Earth’s surface.
By investing billions of dollars in environmental technologies—scrubbers and selective
catalytic reduction systems—AEP has been
able to reduce its emissions of sulfur dioxide
and nitrogen oxides from its coal-fired
power plants by eighty percent compared
with 1980 levels.
AEP has also taken an active role in developing renewable sources of electricity, such as
wind and solar. The company currently has
1,504-megawatts of wind and solar capacity
online or under contract, not including a
proposed 49.9-megawatt solar project in
southeastern Ohio that has not yet received
regulatory approval.
To move the electricity to locations
where it is needed, AEP operates the
nation’s largest transmission system,
encompassing 39,000 miles of transmission lines. The company has been a
leader in transmission technology since
its earliest days, when they completed
the first long-distance transmission
line, connecting a mine-mouth power
plant near Wheeling, West Virginia,
with customers in Canton, Ohio.
AEP was the first company in the
U.S. to research, build and operate
765,000-volt transmission lines and
today the company has more than
2,000 miles of these lines in operation—more than all of the other utility
companies in the nation combined.
The company distributes power and provides customer service through its utility operating units: AEP Ohio, AEP Texas, Appalachian
Power (in Virginia and West Virginia),
AEP Appalachian Power (in Tennessee),
Indiana Michigan Power, Kentucky Power,
Public Service Company of Oklahoma and
Southwestern Electric Power Company (in
Louisiana, Arkansas and east Texas). AEP Ohio
provides electric service to nearly 1.5 million
customers in the Buckeye State and the northern panhandle of West Virginia, serving cities
such as Columbus, Canton, Chillicothe, Lima,
Marietta, Portsmouth, Zanesville and Wheeling.
To give customers greater control over their
energy usage, increase the efficiency of the
electric grid and improve overall service, AEP
launched its gridSMART initiative in 2007.
From a technology standpoint, gridSMART
incorporates a two-way communications system between the company and its customers
that facilitates a more efficient use of electricity. For example, gridSMART may allow AEP to
send price signals to customers so they can
decide when to run home appliances. Toward
this end, some 110,000 SMART meters have
already been installed in Ohio.
AEP and its operating units have a significant impact on the economies of local communities. AEP has nearly 19,000 employees
across its service area, of which more than
6,200 are located in Ohio alone. The company pays $1.8 billion in annual wages.
In addition, the company pays approximately
$1.2 billion in taxes, including $850 million
in state and local taxes.
The company is committed to playing an
active, positive role in the communities it
serves. In 2010 alone, AEP, its operating
units and the AEP Foundation contributed
$23.7 million to nonprofit organizations.
Financially, AEP celebrated a milestone in
2010 when the company marked 100 years
of paying consecutive quarterly dividends to
its shareholders.
Today, more than ever, American society is
powered by electricity. And AEP is committed
to providing clean, affordable and reliable
electric energy to the homes, schools,
businesses and industries in the many
communities that it serves.
BUILDING
✧
Above: American Electric Power’s Dolan
Technology Center, Groveport, Ohio, just
outside Columbus where AEP’s gridSMART
technologies have been tested.
Below: High-voltage line mechanic
apprentices train at the AEP Groveport Line
Training Center just outside Columbus.
AP PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF COLUMBUS DISPATCH,
JEFF HINCKLEY.
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CAPITAL RESIN
CORPORATION
A family run manufacturer of liquid
polymers based upon a variety of chemistries,
Capital Resin Corporation is a custom and toll
manufacturer of specialty chemicals for a
wide variety of larger industrial companies.
It applies its manufacturing skill set and
core competencies to the manufacture of
developmental/prototypical chemicals or
processes to evaluate commercial probability
for a number of Fortune 100 chemical
partners. With eighty employees and slightly
190
over $30 million annual revenue in 2010,
CRC services industries as diverse as building
products, paints and coatings, adhesives,
electronics, agricultural intermediates, rubber
additives, personal care intermediates,
chemical process industry, metal processing,
textiles, and the horticultural market. Growth
has been greater than ten percent per annum
over the past decade.
CRC’s founder, James R. (Jim) Hansen,
initially moved to central Ohio as a
sales representative for Delta Resins and
Refractories, a privately owned company
based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Delta,
owned by the Hansen cousins, serviced the
foundry industry, including prospects and
ongoing customers in Ohio, Pennsylvania,
Indiana, and the Southeastern United States.
After establishing a well performing territory
and warehousing operation in Columbus,
Jim’s “entrepreneurial fires” were ignited by
a number of challenges associated with
his employer.
He quickly ascertained the benefits of
starting his own company, founding Capital
Resin Corporation at 1250 Refugee Lane,
Columbus, Ohio in July of 1976. Growing
at a healthy rate, CRC required greater
infrastructure by December of 1979, when it
was relocated to the old A. E. Staley Starch
facility located on six acres in south central
Columbus. The former starch factory, a fixture in Columbus for seven decades, then
stood vacant. Shortly after moving, the company made its first major capital investment,
a 2,000 gallon gas-fired reactor, referred to in
the industry as a “kettle.”
During the 1980s CRC’s business saw
tremendous growth and evolution, with
expansion of its manufacturing capabilities
through the installation of additional resin
reactors, and glass-lined production vessels
to manufacture a variety of sulfonic acids.
These were ancillary products used in
conjunction with the liquid resins being
produced. The eighties also saw commercial
expansion beyond the foundry industry, as
CRC became a toll manufacturer of various
resin intermediates, going into the building
industry via initial relation with a Cincinnati
company, Formica Corporation.
In the late 1980s Jim Hansen integrated
vertically into the supply chain by investing in
a small platform formaldehyde production
site, installing a 100,000,000 pound per year
(production rated on a thirty-seven percent
concentration basis) mixed metal oxide
catalyst plant. This was the first continuous
process operation installed at CRC, and the
first step toward evolving into an operation
with a bit more “girth.”
After Hansen’s death at age fifty-one in
1990, his widow, Judithe Hansen Jordan
Wensinger became CEO and chairman of the
board. During this decade of change and
evolution, many of CRC’s initial customers
had gone out of business. Under Wensinger’s
guidance, the company evolved from a
commodity resin and formaldehyde supplier
to one focused on its core manufacturing
capabilities in solution polymers, while
expanding beyond the foundry industry.
In this decade, CRC’s interests and investments of time and effort were galvanized.
It gained ISO certification on its quality
program, and joined SOCMA to invest and
improve upon the organization’s environmental integrity. One of the “catalysts” to these
evolutionary investments was the over
pressurization of one of its main production
reactors in August 1994. Although offsite
impact was nothing more volatile than might
be expected from “brake dust” on the front
wheels of a car, this incident resulted in a
tremendous improvement in safety methodology employed in manufacturing polymers in
CRC’s product line. Tremendous investment
in safeguards, personnel, and advancements
in its manufacturing control systems ensued.
“In the early 2000s CRC divested the
remaining business within the foundry industry, and initiated our move toward project
planning and custom and toll manufacturing
for various projects leading to our current business model. The CRC team has very effectively
evolved this business into a performance based
mentality, and has constructed an extremely
effective model to assist in scale-up developmental projects to ongoing manufacturing
of new and interesting technologies that fit
within our structure and build insight and confidence in CRC’s manufacturing techniques.
We achieved a company best performance in
2008, and believe that 2010 will be yet
another step beyond our previous best
results,” said Dan Yinger, company president.
Capital Resin Corporation’s current headquarters and single production site is located
at 324 Dering Avenue in Columbus, Ohio
and on the Internet at www.capitalresin.com.
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KIRK WILLIAMS
COMPANY, INC.
✧
Right: Founders James K. Williams Jr.,
James “Kirk” Williams, and John Ubbing at
Kirk Williams Company’s original Chestnut
Street location.
Below: Kirk Williams utilized multiple
cranes to place the large custom fabricated
duct work high in the Ohio State
University’s Jerome Schottenstein Arena.
A full-service mechanical contractor and
specialty fabricator, the Kirk Williams Company,
Inc. offers everything from piping, plumbing,
and sheet metal fabrication and installation to
HVAC, refrigeration, and plumbing services.
Having performed work for almost every major
business, past and present, in Central Ohio, the
company is committed to ensuring that each job
and project is part of its overall interaction with
customers, suppliers and employees.
Involvement in community and charitable
activities, which has been extensive throughout
the company’s more than sixty year history
continues today, as fourth generation family
members assume a place in the organization.
Kirk Williams Company, Inc. is active in such
community organizations as the Columbus
Chamber of Commerce, Builders Exchange of
Central Ohio, Safety Council of Greater
Columbus, Mechanical Contractors Association
of Central Ohio, Sheet Metal Contractors of
Central Ohio, and Better Business Bureau. In
addition the company contributes to numerous
charities, including the Columbus Foundation;
Columbus Public Schools; United Way; Grant
192
Medical Center Foundation (OhioHealth);
Riverside Methodist Hospital (OhioHealth);
Mount Carmel Foundation; UNICEF; YMCA
of Central Ohio; Columbus Public Schools;
Alvis House; Heinzerling Foundation; Big
Brothers Big Sisters; Ohio Foundation of
Independent Colleges; The Alcohol, Drug, and
Mental Health Board of Franklin County; The
Homeless Families Foundation; Cystic Fibrosis
Foundation; and The Littlest Heroes.
The company’s leaders and its many employees work daily to fulfill their long-term policy
of ensuring that each project they undertake
reflects the high quality and consistency for
which Kirk Williams is known, and continuing
to operate with the strong values that ensured
the organization’s success from its inception.
Founded in 1949 by J. K. “Kirk” Williams Sr.,
the company began as a specialty sheet metal
fabricator, manufacturing such items as electric
boxes, troughs, and machinery and belt guards
from a small shop in downtown Columbus,
Ohio. In time specialty fabrication gave rise
to ductwork and hoods with commercial and
industrial applications.
Through the years, successive generations
of the family have joined the company. Kirk’s
son, James K. “Jim” Williams Jr., who started
as a laborer in the fabrication shop, left for
two years to serve in the U.S. Army during the
Korean Conflict. During Jim’s absence, Kirk’s
son-in-law, John Ubbing, joined the company,
and in 1954, after Jim’s return, the company
was incorporated, with Kirk, Jim, and John
responsible for fostering its growth. Jim’s son,
James K. Williams III, began working as a
laborer in the fabrication department in summers from 1971 until joining the firm full time
after his graduation from Xavier University.
New company facilities include a 40,000
square foot facility built on six acres at Home
Road and I 270 in 1974, are indicative of
the company’s growth through the years. This
facility houses the sheet metal, piping and
specialty fabrication divisions.
In the 1990s the company made a conscious effort to grow in automotive and
industrial projects as a diversification and
risk-mitigation strategy to reduce reliance on
the cyclical plan and spec market. Since that
time Kirk Williams has serviced many domestic and international leaders in automotive
and industrial manufacturing and takes great
pride in having these clients as repeat
customers. In order to become less reliant on
subcontractors and to gain increased control
to provide better service to its clients, the
company became a full-service mechanical
contractor in the 1990s and started providing
mechanical services in the early 2000s.
Licensed to perform mechanical contracting
in a six-state area, Kirk Williams’ specialty
✧
metal fabrications have been installed
throughout the hemisphere. Now presided
over by Jim Williams, who is approaching sixty
years of service, the company’s day-to-day
operations are overseen by J. K. Williams,
secretary-treasurer, representing the third
generation of family leadership with almost
forty years of company experience.
In addition to its work for Central Ohio’s
major businesses, the company has had as
clients many hospitals, laboratories, government entities—on local, state, and federal
levels—and educational facilities from
elementary schools to universities.
Kirk Williams Company, Inc. is located at
2734 Home Road in Grove City, Ohio and on
the Internet at www.kirkwilliamsco.com.
BUILDING
Above: An aerial view shows the magnitude
of the 688,000 square foot Wright Patterson
Air Force Base’s Human Performance Wing,
on which Kirk Williams Company
completed a $35.5 million Design Assist
HVAC and Plumbing contract
Below: Before construction, Kirk Williams
Company ensured successful coordination
with other trades by creating a
3-dimensional model of the Ohio State
University’s South Campus Central Chiller
plant, which serves the Cancer Care Tower,
Rhodes Hall, Doan Hall, Cramblett Hall,
and other medical facilities on campus.
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HAMILTON
TANKS, LLC
✧
Hamilton Tanks manufacturing technologies
include UL, API, ASME, and custom tank
designs ranging in size from 150 to
50,000 gallons.
Hamilton Tanks, LLC was originally
founded in 1916 as Hamilton Welding &
Manufacturing Company in Hamilton, Ohio by
Robert H. Kemp and initially produced smoke
stacks and repaired boilers. When Robert went
to fight in WWI, his son C. Eugene Kemp
took over the company. During that period,
Hamilton Welding was awarded a contract to
produce skid tanks for the war effort. And
from that original contract, the future of the
business had been established.
In the late 1940s, Hamilton Welding
received its UL permit and began manufacturing 275-gallon home heating oil tanks,
which are still manufactured today. A second
tank manufacturing
facility for the company was formed in
Columbus, Ohio in
1955. The business
operated both facilities until 1983 when
the operation was
consolidated to conduct business exclusively from 2200
Refugee Road in the
city of Columbus.
Thomas A. Kemp,
son of Eugene Kemp, joined Hamilton
Welding after graduating from The Ohio
State University in 1958 and eventually
became president and a fifty percent shareholder in the business. Thomas sadly passed
194
away in 2004 and as the last family member
active in the operation, the shareholders
explored selling the business.
In March of 2006, Hamilton Welding was
sold to brothers R. Jeffrey and Stephen G.
Meeker, and Hamilton Tanks, LLC was
formed. The transition of ownership was
smooth, as Meeker Equipment Company,
Jeffrey and Stephen’s other business, was
already a large customer to Hamilton
Welding. Today, Stephen is president of
Hamilton Tanks, LLC while Jeffrey remains
president of Meeker Equipment Company.
In 2008, Donald W. Garrett and James R.
Hurlburt, Jr., P.E. gained a minority ownership in both businesses.
The primary business of Hamilton Tanks,
LLC is manufacturing carbon and stainless
steel storage tanks for commercial and industrial users serving the petroleum, chemical,
asphalt, oil-field and other industries. As a
licensed member of the Steel Tank Institute,
it is one of the largest and most respected
manufacturers of aboveground and underground steel storage tanks in the Midwest.
Hamilton Tanks’ manufacturing technologies
include UL, API, ASME, and custom tank
designs ranging in size from 150 to 50,000
gallons. Hamilton Tanks’ breadth of products, reputation and service to industry has
sustained its history and will continue to support its success moving forward.
For more information on Hamilton Tanks,
LLC, visit www.hamiltontanks.com.
Established in 1879 by Henry C. Cooke
and Adam G. Grant to build road and bridge
structures in Franklin County, Fritz-RumerCooke Co., Inc., was founded on principles of
honest business dealing to safely provide
quality finished products. Those principles
hold true today. Company officials say that
FRC, (Fritz-Rumer-Cooke) also stands for
Fair, Reliable, and Consistent.
During more than 130 consecutive years in
business, FRC has completed every contract
it started. Fifth generation family member
C. Clem Cooke, III is company president and
treasurer, and his wife, Karen Cooke is vice
president and secretary.
After Clem’s great-grandfather, Albert C.
Cooke, joined the company in 1889, its work
expanded to include structures for railroad
companies and private industries. W. A. and
J. F. Fritz merged their construction business
with the company in 1905, and in 1911 it
was incorporated as The Fritz-Rumer-CookeGrant Co.
Albert’s son, Carl C. Cooke, Sr., joined
FRC soon after competing in the 1912
Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden, and
his sons, Carl C., Jr., and Grant W., began
work here in the 1940s. Grant started an
independent engineering and consulting firm
in 1959, specializing in railroad and structural engineering, and FRC’s focus gradually
shifted to railroad track construction. Clem,
who joined the company in 1972, points out
that railroads are one of the keys to economical, efficient, clean transportation in the U.S.
Recent FRC projects include constructing
over ten miles of new railroad track for a
major auto manufacturer; track inspection
and preventive maintenance protecting safety
and reliability of nearly 100 track owners
around the U.S.; rehabilitating a narrow gauge
tourist railroad track; rehabilitating existing
track and constructing new track for a prominent steel producer and for a leading metals
recycling company; new track construction for consumer products
manufacturing distribution facilities in multiple U.S. locations; and
maintenance and rehabilitation
work in multiple locations for a
major intermodal company.
Workplace safety is of prime
importance at FRC, which recently
won the highest safety award presented by the National Railroad &
Maintenance Association for its
diligent awareness and safe work
performance of all team members.
“Karen and I are blessed to be
surrounded by a wonderfully capable and talented group of people who work
together to provide a necessary service to
clients. The people at FRC make this company who we are and are the reason FRC is
so trusted and relied upon,” Clem says. “FRC
intends to continue providing its service to
those who rely on railroads to transport
goods and those who will again rely on
railroads for transportation in the future.”
BUILDING
FRITZ-RUMERCOOKE CO.,
INC.
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BUCKEYE
SHAPEFORM
✧
Below: Rendering is c. 1912.
Bottom: Buckeye Shapeform in 2011.
A supplier partner to small volume end
users of electronic enclosures, precisiondrawn metal structures, metal stampings,
molded plastic parts and value-added services, Buckeye Shapeform began by manufacturing cans in 1892. Purchased in 1902 by
E. C. Derby and renamed The Buckeye
Stamping Company, it manufactured parts
transferred by wagon to the Federal Glass
Company, its largest customer. Parts were
produced in its new building in 1912.
At the beginning of World War II, Bell
Sound founder Floyd Bell invented and
patented a navigational device still used by
Boeing today. Bell Sound grew from seven or
eight to about 350 employees to produce
these items for the military, leading Bell and
other investors to purchase Buckeye for its
manufacturing capabilities. The company’s
products shipped to the military included
Bell’s new inventions, small candles manufactured from Buckeye cans, and tow lines
imbedded with intercom wires to enable
communication between glider pilots and
their tow planes. With war’s end and the
196
resulting decline in military business, Bell
sold Bell Sound to TRW.
About 1960, Bell founded F. W. Bell Inc.
within the walls of Buckeye Stamping to
manufacture gravity measuring equipment
and voltage testing instruments and sensors.
In 1970, F. W. Bell was sold to the Arnold
Magnetics Division of Allegany Industries.
Buckeye Stamping utilized its machinery
and employees to manufacture instrument
knobs and electronic enclosures designed by
Ira W. (Bill) Simons. These were sold to other
electronic OEMs.
Within the walls of Buckeye Stamping,
Bell founded Floyd Bell Associates in 1971 to
manufacture audio alarm devices including
replacement telephone ringers. This company still exists in Grandview, Ohio, under
direction of Bell’s youngest son, Jamie, while
Bell’s oldest son, Dave, became president of
Buckeye Stamping in 1971.
In 1995, Buckeye was acquired by D&H
Holdings, Ltd. The next year Buckeye Stamping
acquired Shapeform, Inc., a manufacturer of
precision deep drawn cylindrical aluminum
products used in missile and flare housing for
the military; oxygen tanks for firemen and
SCUBA divers; air cleaner housings for the
Hummer; sonobuoy housing for electronic
tracking used by the U.S. Navy; and many other
tubular devices. To retain Shapeform’s name
recognition, the company began doing business
as Buckeye Shapeform. Now in its third century, the company has operated since 2000 under
direction of Ken Tumblison, president.
Visit Buckeye Shapeform on the Internet at
www.buckeyeshapeform.com.
CENTRAL
ALUMINUM
COMPANY
A custom producer of high quality aluminum extrusions, the Central Aluminum
Company of Columbus, Ohio, has been in business since 1963, serving Midwest industrial and
manufacturing communities. Located in the
heart of the Buckeye State, Central Aluminum
serves such industries as window and door,
home improvement, automotive, truck, marine,
aircraft, recreational vehicle, agricultural, sign
and billboard, awning and canopy, electronics,
display and showcase, structural and tubular
extrusions for construction, and many others.
The company takes great pride in providing excellent customer service, from initial
contact to delivery. Knowledgeable and technologically skilled staff members look forward
to helping customers solve their extrusion
problems, from drawing board to delivery.
Thanks to its location, the company’s trucks
are within twenty-four hours from eighty-five
percent of its customers.
Gale Roshon, who received his mechanical
engineering degree from Ohio State University
and worked soon after graduation for an aluminum extrusion business in Cincinnati,
founded Central Aluminum, which operated
profitably from the Grandview area during its
first nine years. In 1972, Roshon exchanged
property in Obetz with the Columbus Auto
Auction to acquire a site on Broehm Road that
included a ninety-seven thousand square foot
building that would allow for expansion.
Roshon added a second aluminum
extrusion press, and during the next
decade upgraded and installed other new
equipment, including an aluminum caster
to convert scrap generated by his business
back into aluminum billets. At one time,
Central was among the country’s most
modern extrusion facilities. Roshon was
also closely associated with B&T Extrusion
Company; the first “independent” aluminum
extruder in the United States. B&T extruded
the first uranium rod used to build the
first “FAT BOY” atomic bomb. Roshon
held several offices with the Aluminum
Extruders Council.
After his death, the business was purchased by GDIC Group, a small private equity firm in Cleveland by Steven White with
partners George Anthony and Edward Heil.
White, who had a significant background in
metal forming, felt comfortable with the
extrusion process and was intrigued with
Central’s long legacy of success. Shortly after
acquiring Central, GDIC began to vertically
integrate the portfolio with additional acquisitions that utilized extrusions in their products. Patio Enclosures in Macedonia, Ohio, is
among the more famous companies. Central
Aluminum now serves over two hundred
customers in the central Ohio region.
For more information, please visit
www.centralaluminum.com.
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AUTOMATION
AND CONTROL
TECHNOLOGY,
INC.
The objective of Automation and Control
Technology, Inc.—better known by its
acronym and motto: “ACT in the interest of the
customer”—is to supply highly appropriate,
results-oriented solutions for data acquisition
and management and process management,
leading its customers to better decision making
and a higher return on investment. ACT was
awarded the State of Ohio’s Governor’s Export
Award in 2009, and is recognized as one of
Ohio’s top companies actively selling products
and services internationally.
198
The company’s wide range of proven measurement, control and decision support technology is an essential tool for industries
including metals, plastics, non-woven, rubber,
coating and converting, and tobacco. Since the
1950s, the company has been noted for its
successful response to its customers’ needs.
Beginning as Industrial Nucleonic, which
received the original technology patents for
measurement and control used in the tobacco
industry, the company delivered products
and services to multiple industries using a
common electronics platform. Several
changes in name and ownership
occurred in the 1980s and 1990s, prior
to the purchase in 1999 by ACT
management and employees of the
assets and historical identity associated
with the tobacco industry interests of
Asea Brown Boveri.
ACT purchased and integrated software to provide electronic operation and
tracking of financial, management, planning, project status, R&D, engineering
requirements, and other details of each
project. Beginning with three process
measurement sensors, ACT has since
developed, licensed or acquired more
than fifteen sensors. Patents have been
applied for two of these, with one
already approved. Acquisitions in the
past few years have allowed ACT to
bypass expensive development costs
and gain immediate access to targeted
market segments. As its customer base
increased, the company moved in 2005
into a new leased facility at 6141 Avery
Road in Dublin, Ohio, with twenty thousand square feet evenly divided between
manufacturing and office space.
The company’s leadership team has
many years of management experience
in small, medium, and large corporate
environments. The company’s outstanding combination of people,
technologies, and think tank capabilities has delivered unique solutions,
not available from other vendors, to
its customers.
For additional information, please
visit www.autocontroltech.com.
SPONSORS
American Electric Power ...................................................................................................................................................................188
Automation and Control Technology, Inc. .........................................................................................................................................198
Buckeye Shapeform...........................................................................................................................................................................196
Capital Resin Corporation .................................................................................................................................................................190
Capital Wholesale Drug Company.....................................................................................................................................................154
Cardinal Health, Inc..........................................................................................................................................................................136
Center City International Trucks .......................................................................................................................................................174
Center of Science and Industry .........................................................................................................................................................143
Central Aluminum Company ............................................................................................................................................................197
City of Dublin ...................................................................................................................................................................................130
Columbus Academy ..........................................................................................................................................................................138
Columbus Blue Jackets......................................................................................................................................................................126
Columbus Chamber of Commerce ....................................................................................................................................................166
Columbus Clippers ...........................................................................................................................................................................142
Columbus Metropolitan Library ........................................................................................................................................................143
Columbus Police Reserve ..................................................................................................................................................................134
Columbus Sign Company..........................................................................................................................................................145, 170
Columbus Zoo and Aquarium ...........................................................................................................................................................142
Conway Center for Family Business ..................................................................................................................................................168
Drury Hotels .....................................................................................................................................................................................150
Experience Columbus .......................................................................................................................................................................167
Fritz-Rumer-Cooke Co., Inc. .............................................................................................................................................................195
Girl Scouts of Ohio’s Heartland Council ............................................................................................................................................141
Greater Columbus Convention Center...............................................................................................................................................173
Hamilton Tanks, LLC ........................................................................................................................................................................194
Heidelberg Distributing Company .....................................................................................................................................................172
Isabelle Ridgway Care Center ............................................................................................................................................................140
John Eramo & Sons, Inc. ..................................................................................................................................................................186
Kirk Williams Company, Inc. ............................................................................................................................................................192
Limited Brands..................................................................................................................................................................................171
Metro Parks.......................................................................................................................................................................................124
Nationwide .......................................................................................................................................................................................156
Nationwide Children’s Hospital .........................................................................................................................................................120
North American Broadcasting Company............................................................................................................................................146
Ohio CAT .........................................................................................................................................................................................184
Ohio Education Association ..............................................................................................................................................................128
OhioHealth .......................................................................................................................................................................................132
Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP ..................................................................................................................................................160
Renaissance Columbus Downtown Hotel ..........................................................................................................................................158
Schoedinger Funeral and Cremation Service......................................................................................................................................164
Smoot Construction ..........................................................................................................................................................................182
Sugardaddy’s Sumptuous Sweeties®..................................................................................................................................................169
The Cellar Lumber Company ............................................................................................................................................................178
The Flag Lady’s Flag Store .................................................................................................................................................................152
The Westin Columbus Hotel .............................................................................................................................................................162
U.S. Bank..........................................................................................................................................................................................165
SPONSORS
199
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ED LENTZ
Ed Lentz has been teaching, writing and exploring the history of Central Ohio for the past forty years or so. When not doing that sort
of thing, he teaches history in general and Ohio history in particular at various local colleges and universities. He has been known to
write for local newspapers, consult in history and historic preservation and keep company with his wife,
three cats and occasionally resident two children. If the best life is a busy one he has no reason to complain.
Mr. Lentz holds degrees in history from Princeton University and The Ohio State University. He is the author of several books about
Ohio and its capital city.
200
LEADERSHIP SPONSORS
ISBN 9781935377597

Historic Columbus

Transcription

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