put fear into many hearts.
A tortured silence followed the close of Harrison’s remarks. Finally, Tarhe, the Crane, the venerable, seventy-two-year-old chief of the Wyandots and the one who had assumed leadership of the Indian contingent, arose slowly, said a few words, and then gave his hand to the general in a token of friendship. The tense settlers recognized this as agreement with Harrison’s plea for either peace or help. As the other Indians moved forward to shake hands with the general, cheers of relief filled the air. Women wept, children laughed, and a scene of joyous pandemonium followed.
The Indian tribes kept their promise, reaffirming the pledges made at the Treaty of Greenville and at last creating a permanent peace between the Ohio tribes and the white settlers. Though these tribes were never called on to fight with the Americans, several of the chiefs, including Tarhe (who had been severely wounded fighting against the Americans at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794), accompanied Harrison’s troops into Canada and were present at the decisive Battle of the Thames.
No doubt about it. These settlers would never forget this day or this spot. It was seared into their memory until their dying days, so finding such an important tree—or at least the spot once shaded by it—shouldn’t have been too difficult.
In 1902, it wasn’t. The local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution went looking for the site in hopes of placing a historical marker on the spot. They knew that Harrison’s council with the Indians had occurred on Sullivant’s land—everyone knew that—and his mansion still existed at the time as the Convent of the Good Shepherd, which was located near the center of a closed auto dealership building, just south of West Broad Street and west of the Route 315 freeway.
But exactly where the tree had stood on Sullivant’s property seemed to have been lost with the passing of those early settlers. Someone suggested that the committee interview an elderly doctor who had come to Columbus in 1846. Dr. Starling Loving surprised them by saying that he knew precisely where the old tree was. It had been pointed out to him forty years before by Michael Sullivant, second son of Lucas Sullivant, and he took them to it.
The elm stood like an old man who had lived too long, in the rear of a house on Souder Avenue; only its massive trunk and a few scraggly limbs remained. Because it was located in a private yard, local DAR representatives decided that this was no place for a marker. The decision was made to place it two blocks away on the parklike median on Martin Avenue, which was described as being part of an old grove that included the elm and hence was part of the grounds where the people had assembled to see and hear Harrison and the Indians speak.
The marker is still there on a mammoth boulder, and a handful of houses still exist on the west side of Souder, although the hospital and its parking lots now occupy everything on the east side of the street. None of the trees in the vicinity are old enough to be the historic tree, which was probably long gone before the bulldozers came.
Alfred E. Lee’s 1892 History of the City of Columbus, Capital of Ohio has a photo of the old giant, with Hawkes Hospital, later Mount Carmel, in the background. Because that original building fronted on State at about the middle of today’s main buildings, that would seem to indicate the tree was considerably north of State, probably in the vicinity of the parking lots on the east side of Souder and north of Mount Carmel Mall, which runs to the east and west just north of the hospital.
It’s hard to know exactly where the tree stood. But even though the precise location of the tree has been lost, it’s safe to say that this entire area on both sides of Souder stretching even to the place on Martin where the boulder still sits was once crowded with people—settlers, soldiers, and Indians—on a day only a year after the infant village of Columbus was founded across the Scioto, a mile away.
Many of those who lived in little Franklinton eventually moved across the river to the new capital, leaving the harsh memo-ries of frontier life on the other side. The tree is gone, but if you close your eyes and listen, you may yet hear the wind rustle its branches, the strong clear voice of a general destined to become president, and the happy sobs of pioneers who didn’t know how close the safety of civilization actually was.
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1. Southeast corner of West Broad Street and South Washington Boulevard—The second Central High School opened for the 1924–25 school year in this building, now occupied by the Center of Science and Industry (COSI) and the Columbus Historical Society. The school, with an address of 75 South Washington Boulevard, sat in the midst of an 18-acre campus. It closed on June 6, 1982. In 1989, the building hosted Son of Heaven: Imperial Arts of China, a cultural exchange display from China that featured the artifacts of the ancient Chinese emperors. After that, the building mostly sat empty until 1999, when it was remodeled and expanded.
2. 300 West Broad Street—After the Columbus Auditorium was converted to the Lazarus store annex in 1945, proposals were advanced for a huge convention hall on West Broad Street with seating for 11,000. Ten years later, on September 29, 1955, Veterans Memorial Auditorium opened with seating for 4,000. The building has hosted just about every conceivable kind of stage attraction, and for many years this was the prime concert site in the city. Elvis Presley played two shows here in 1956. Bill Haley and Nat King Cole also played there that year. The acts started a long run of impressive musical performers. Among the highlights were Ray Charles, Liberace, Carol Channing, Peter, Paul & Mary, Johnny Cash, James Brown, the Grateful Dead, the Beach Boys, the Doors, Jimi Hendrix, the Who, Janis Joplin, the Temptations, Hank Williams Jr., Elton John, the Jackson 5, Henry Mancini, Sammy Davis Jr., Mantovani, Black Sabbath, Guy Lombardo, Jerry Lee Lewis, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Merle Haggard, Aerosmith, Bruce Springsteen, Barry Manilow, Jimmy Bufett, Bob Marley and the Wailers, Bob Dylan, Prince, Ozzy Osbourne, R.E.M., Alice Cooper, Willie Nelson, and Britney Spears. From 1961 to 1982, the Kenley Players summer productions were staged there; dozens of famous actors and actresses graced the stage, including Mae West, Richard Chamberlain, Gloria Swanson, Zsa Zsa Gabor, and Betty White. In 1985, the Columbus Ford Dealers 500 International Motor Sports Association GTP race was held on the downtown streets, and the pits were located inside Vets Memorial. Today, Franklin County Veterans Memorial is mostly used for trade shows and nonmusical events.
3. 379 West Broad Street—The building currently serving as the Columbus Firefighters Hall is the last surviving railroad station in Columbus. It was constructed for the Toledo and Ohio Central railroad (T&OC) in 1895 and designed by prominent local architect Frank L. Packard. It was the departure point for William McKinley when he left for Washington, DC, to be sworn in as president. The rival Hocking Valley Railway purchased the T&OC in 1900, and in 1911 the tracks were elevated above Broad Street. Later the New York Central took over and used the station until 1930, when passenger service was transferred to Union Station. The distinctive building with the pagoda-style roof served as headquarters for the Central Ohio Volunteers of America from 1930 to 2003. The high-water mark of the 1913 flood can be seen on the building’s interior walls.
4. Northeast corner of West State Street and South May Avenue—When Columbus-born magician Howard Thurston became internationally famous, he moved his parents into this new, fortress-like apartment building. His parents lived in the tower corner apartment of nine rooms, and when Thurston came to his hometown for his annual week of shows—his twenty-ninth annual appearance came in 1934, two years before he died—this is where he stayed.
5. 72 South Gift Street—This two-story frame house (now vacant) was originally constructed as a log house by Franklinton postmaster David Deardurf in 1807. The logs are now hidden by weatherboard and plaster, but the basic structure is a stellar example of pioneer craftsmanship. The front room of the house served as Franklinton’s first post office; mail was brought from Chillicothe once a week by horseback. It was a three-day trip over rough forest trails. The Alexander Deardurf family arrived in Franklinton from Pennsylvania in the spring of 1798—David was thirteen at the time—and constructed a house nearby on Gift Street that fall, but that house is long
