Feb. 14, 1812: A new capital city for recently created state of Ohio
Columbus is a created city. There was nothing but woods, paw-paw patches and plum trees on the “High Banks Opposite Franklinton at the Forks of the Scioto” until the Ohio General Assembly chose the place as the site of a new capital city for the recently created state of Ohio.
All of this took place in the then capital of Ohio in Chillicothe on Feb. 14, 1812, which also — then as now — was Valentine’s Day. There is no evidence that the Ohio General Assembly — sober and serious as it always was — ever took note of the coincidence.
In any case, the observance of the town’s birthday is a good time to remember how all of this began.
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It was a time of determination and trepidation as a new state on the edge of a moving frontier tried to find its place as well as its purpose in a world of loyal friends and numerous enemies. It was not an easy undertaking.
Ohio had become a state on or about March 1, 1803, when the federal government determined that the terms of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 had been met and more than 60,000 people were living in this place who were ready to govern themselves as a state equal in all respects to the existing states of the American union.
Influenced strongly by a close group of men led by Edward Tiffin, the first governor, and his brother-in-law, Thomas Worthington, the site of the first capital was at the home of the two men in Chillicothe in southwest Ohio. Every morning, Thomas Worthington, soon to be the third governor of Ohio, could step out to the porch of his home called Adena on a hill overlooking the town and be assured that the capital was close by.
But this peaceful reliance was not to last. The members of the Ohio General Assembly faced a number of challenges. In a place with little money and a lot of empty land, raising enough money to keep government running was a challenge. Lurking in the background were the Native Americans who had been recently dispelled from the land and their British allies. The British defied the terms of the treaty ending earlier conflicts and continued to sell guns, provisions and alcohol to their Native friends. But to many legislators, a greaterconcern than any of these was the location of the capital city.
Unable or unwilling to negotiate the paths, fords and trails pretending to be roads in early Ohio, many legislators began agitating for a move to central Ohio. A brief sojourn in Zanesville from 1810 to 1812 did not work out and the capital returned to Chillicothe.
Facing continuing controversy, the Ohio General Assembly did what it often did. The legislators appointed a committee to go into the wilderness and find a new home for the state capital. The committee did just that and visited a number of places in central Ohio including Newark, Circleville, Delaware and Worthington. They rejected frontier Franklinton as it was on low ground and subject to flooding. In the end, the committee chosethe site of a settlement on the west bank of the Scioto called the Sells Plantations. Today we call it Dublin, Ohio.
The Ohio General Assembly, as it is occasionally wont to do, ignored the recommendation of its committee and instead accepted the proposal of four proprietors for the High Banks Opposite Franklinton. The four men offered the legislature 10 acres for a statehouse — where the Statehouse still stands, and 10 acres for a penitentiary — where the Cultural Arts Center is today and $50,000 — an immense sum in those days — for buildings and improvements. The proprietors claimed that the site was “High and Dry and Salubrious inClimate.”
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Accepting these claims, the Ohio General Assembly passed an act on Feb. 14, 1812, “for the purpose of having the permanent seat of government thereon established.” Shortly thereafter there was considerable discussion as what to name the new capital city. After considering names with Greek and Roman allusions and other classical terms, the initial name for the new town was proposed to be Ohio City. But an assemblyman from Franklinton named Joseph Foos disliked that name. He was a great admirer of Christopher Columbus and proposed to name the new town in his honor. Using his considerable powers of persuasion and more than a little tavern traveling, Foos convinced the Ohio General Assembly to pass an act naming the new town “Columbus”.
The General Assembly then appointed Joel Wright, an experienced surveyor from Springboro, as the director of the new town. Wright came to the High Banks and with the help of local surveyor Joseph Vance began to lay out a town in what was then a mature forest of walnut, oak, sycamore and maple tall trees interlaced with large grape vines. Ignoring a 40-foot mound at what is now Mound and High Streets, the men laid out sites for the Statehouse and penitentiary and the major streets in the town.
The new capital city was underway and is with us still.
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Local historian and author Ed Lentz writes the As It Were column for ThisWeek Community News and The Columbus Dispatch.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus milestones: Capital city celebrates 211 years on Feb. 14
