The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1950-02-02
True Tales About Ohio
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the girls off with nothing.
Shortly after Starling's manipu-
lation of his will, one of the girls
lost her recently devoted sweetheart.
He too, was a boarder at the Amer
lean House and had become very
attentive after the sox knitting cpl
sode. The young knitter never knew
that he had been a witness on both
the old and the amended wills Of
Startling.
Benefactor of Medical College
Lyme Starting was born in 1884 in
Mecklenburgh County, Virginia-ken-
lucky, from where he came to
Franklinton, Franklin County, Ohio,
in 1906, formerly was Kentucky
County. Startling became assistant
to his brother-in-law, Lucas Sullivant,
clerk of the Franklin County court.
Later he had the office himself. A
successful merchant and trader, he
perpetuated his name by bounties to
Startling Medical College.
Franklinton was the first town
laid out in the Scioto valley north of
Chillicothe. Sullivant laid out the
town in 1897. On the west side of
the Scioto River, opposite Columbus,
which it antedated, the town grew
rapidly and was the county seat
from 1903 when Franklin County
was formed, until the capital of the
county was moved to Columbus in
1924. BY 1910 population had
dwindled. to 394 persons. 1t later
became West Columbus and then was
absorbed by the city, slower in los
ing it's characteristics than any other
community so near the center of the
city.
Lucas Sullivant was Kentucky
surveyor making surveys for land
warrants in the Virginia Military
Lands district west of the Scioto
when he became interested in the
ground around the present Columbus.
Little hills of the mound builders
were on the tract where Columbus
stands and there too, had been a
sizable village of the Wyandotte
Indians. The tribe lived all along
Darby, Alum, Walnut and Black
Lick creeks and had villages on both
banks of the Scioto and Olentangy
rivers.
Surveyor Lays Out Town
Sullivant had party of 20 men
with him, all surveying tracts for
Col. Richard C. Anderson, surveyor
general of the Virginia Military Land
District of Ohio, when they found
the wilderness site of the present
state capital. That fall Sullivant
laid out Franklinton, built his cabin
there and lived on it until he died
in 1923 at fifty-eight.
Sullivant left three sons: William
Startling Sullivant, born 1903; Mich
ael L. Sullivant, born 1907; and
Joseph Sullivant, born 1909, all in
Franklinton. They died in 1878,
1879 and 1882, respectively. All
| achieved prominence.
Columbus was laid out in 1910 by
Lyme Starting, with James Johnson,
Alex Mclaughlin and John Kerr,
especially to become the state
capital. All four men lived at
Franklinton.
From 1903, when the Ohio Legis-
lature first convened, until 1916 it
had no regular home but held its
sessions temporarily at Chillicothe.
In 1910 it moved to GAINESVILLE for
two sessions, then back to Chillicothe
until 1916. Dublin, Worthington and
Delaware also wanted the state
capitol but were not as suitably To-
Gated as was Columbus.
Columbus State Capital
ST. Valentines Day, 1912, the
legislature, then at GAINESVILLE, fixed
the state capital as Columbus
Starling's new town. An influencing
factor had been Starling's offer to
give the state two 10-acre tracts,
one for the State House and the
other for the Penitentiary.
In addition they agreed to build at
their own expense the capitol, pen
itentiary, and "such other buildings
as should be directed by the legis-
lature, net to exceed total cost Of
10000" In 1913 the penitentiary
was built and in 1914 the State
House, its brick made from pre-
historic mound nearby, was put up.
From the mound the street was
named-Mound Street.
The State House burned Sunday