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 Historical Collections of Ohio

By Henry Howe

Vol. I

©1888

 

FRANKLIN COUNTY

Page 609

 

FRANKLIN COUNTY was formed from Ross, April 30, 1803, and named from Benjamin FRANKLIN, who died April 17, 1790, aged eighty-four years, who was “at once philosopher, diplomatist, scientific discoverer, moralist, statesman, writer and wit, and in many respects the greatest of Americans, and one of the greatest men whose names are recorded in history.”  The prevailing character of the soil of the county is clay, and the surface is generally level.  It contains naturally much low wet land, and is best adapted to grain; but it has many finely cultivated farms, especially along the water courses.  In 1885 the acres cultivated were 151,102; in pasture, 55,100; woodland, 32,799; laying waste, 6,521; bushels wheat, 145,240; corn, 3,590,968 (being next to Pickaway the greatest amount of any county in the State); oats, 221,319; apples, 145,651.  School census 33,223; teachers, 520; area, 540 square miles.  It has 228 miles of railroad.

 

 

 

The population of Franklin in 1820 was 10,300; in 1830, 14,756; in 1840, 24,880; 1860, 50,361; 1880, 86,882, of whom 63,224 were Ohio-born; 2,916 Pennsylvania; 1,920 Virginia; 1,699 New York; 601 Kentucky; 521 Indiana; 6,098 Germany; 2,742 Ireland; England and Wales, 1,598; British America, 396; France, 266; Scotland, 156.

 

The tract comprised within the limits of the county was once the residence of the Wyandot Indians.  They had a large town on the site of the city of Columbus, and cultivated extensive fields of corn on the river bottoms opposite their town.  Mr. Jeremiah ARMSTRONG, who early kept a hotel at Columbus, was taken prisoner when a boy from the frontier of Pennsylvania, and brought captive to this place: after residing with them a number of years he was ransomed and returned to his friends.  Mr. Robert ARMSTRONG, also a native of Pennsylvania, being an orphan boy was bound to a trader, and while trapping and trading on the Alleghany, himself and employer were surprised by some Wyandots and Senecas.  The master was killed and ARMSTRONG brought to their town at Franklinton.  He was raised by the Indians, became a great favorite, lived, married and died among them.  He was occasionally an interpreter for the United States.  He left two sons who went with the Wyandots to the far west; both of them were educated, and one of them was admitted to the Ohio bar.

 

 

Page 610

 

 

Frank Henry Howe, Amateur Photo, 1888.

 

Page 611

 

The annexed anecdote, derived from J. W. VAN CLEVE, of Dayton, shows a pleasing feature in the character of the Indian.

 

A party, surveying on the Scioto, above the site of Columbus, in ‘97, had been reduced to three scanty meals for four days.  They came to the camp of a Wyandot Indian with his family, and he gave them all the provisions he had, which comprised only two rabbits and a small piece of venison.  This Wyandot’s father had been murdered by the whites in time of peace: the father of one of the surveyors had been killed by the Indians in time of war.  He concluded that the Indian had more reason to cherish hostility towards the white man than he toward the Indian.

 

In June, 1810, there was an old Wyandot chief, named LEATHERLIPS, executed in this county, and it is claimed for the sole reason that he was a friend of the white man and opposed to taking up armies against the whites.  We take the account of this event from “DRAKE’S Life of Tecumseh,” where it is abridged from an article by Otway CURRY, in the “Hesperian.”

 

Gen. HARRISON entertained the opinion that his death was the result of the prophet’s command, and that the party who acted as executioners went directly from Tippecanoe to the banks of the Scioto, where the tragedy was enacted.  LEATHERLIPS was found encamped upon that stream, twelve miles above Columbus.  The six Wyandots who put him to death were headed, it is supposed, by the chief ROUNDHEAD.   An effort was made by some white men, who were present, to save the life of the accused, but without success.  A council of two or three hours took place; the accusing party spoke with warmth and bitterness of feeling; LEATHERLIPS was calm and dispassionate in his replies.  The sentence of death, which had been previously passed upon him, was reaffirmed.  “The prisoner then walked slowly to his camp, partook of a dinner of jerked venison, washed and arrayed himself in his best apparel, and afterwards painted his face.  His dress was very rich–his hair gray, and his whole appearance graceful and commanding.”  When the hour for the execution had arrived, LEATHERLIPS shook hands in silence with the spectators.  “He then turned from his wigwam, and with a voice of surpassing strength and melody commenced the chant of the death song.  He was followed closely by the Wyandot warriors, all timing with their slow and measured march the music of his wild and melancholy dirge.  The white men were likewise all silent followers in that strange procession.  At the distance of seventy or eighty yards from the camp, they came to a shallow grave, which, unknown to the white men, had been previously prepared by the Indians.  Here the old man knelt down, and in an elevated but solemn tone of voice, addressed his prayer to the Great Spirit.  As soon as he had finished, the captain of the Indians knelt beside him and prayed in a similar manner.  Their prayers, of course, were spoken in the Wyandot tongue. . . .  After a few moments’ delay, the prisoner again sank down upon his knees and prayed, as he had done before.  When he had ceased, he still continued in a kneeling position.  All the rifles belonging to the party had been left at the wigwam.  There was not a weapon of any kind to be seen at the place of execution, and the spectators were consequently unable to form any conjecture as to the mode of procedure which the executioners had determined on for the fulfilment of their purpose.  Suddenly one of the warriors drew from beneath the skirts of his capote a keen, bright tomahawk–walked rapidly up behind the chieftain–brandished the weapon on high for a single moment, and then struck with his whole strength.  The blow descended directly upon the crown of the head, and the victim immediately fell prostrate.  After he had lain awhile in the agonies of death, the Indian captain directed the attention of the white men to the dr