Sullivant son built own legacy

He was the kid brother. Joseph Sullivant was the youngest of Lucas Sullivant's three sons. And by that accident of birth, he became an important player in the early history of Columbus and central Ohio.

The elder Sullivant was a frontiersman and scout in the vast Ohio Country that came to be part of America in the years after the American Revolution.

Importantly, he was also a surveyor of much of the northern reaches of the Virginia Military District stretching from the Little Miami River in the west to the Scioto River in the east. Taking his pay in land, Lucas Sullivant, in addition to his other accomplishments, became one of the largest landowners in the Midwest.

Deciding to settle down, Lucas Sullivant laid out the village of Franklinton at the forks of the Scioto and Olentangy rivers in 1797. The village was located in Franklin Township in Franklin County. As one can see, Sullivant was a great admirer of Benjamin Franklin.

Joseph Sullivant was born in December 1809. It was the same year that Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin in Kentucky.

Sullivant was given to a little more luxury. He was born in the grand brick house built by his father in old Franklinton. He and his mother were attended by numerous servants and a number of friends and relatives. His birth had all of the appearances of a life of ease and gentility.

But appearances can be deceiving.

Franklinton was on the edge of the frontier, and the Indian Territory allotted by the Greenville Treaty of 1795 was less than a day's ride to the north. In 1812, as the site for a new state capital was selected across the river from Franklinton, war broke out with Great Britain.

Franklinton became an armed camp, and hospitals were established for sick and wounded soldiers. While working in one of those hospitals, Joseph's mother, Sarah, contracted typhus and died. Joseph was 4 years old.

As his father continued to be away for lengthy periods, Joseph and his two older brothers were in large part raised by family and friends. After Lucas Sullivant's death in 1823, the three sons inherited equal parts of the land empire created by their father.

William, the oldest son, would marry and build a fine home on Sullivant's Hill west of the village. It is the area we today call the Hilltop. Interesting himself in the study of mosses and related plants, he became an internationally known bryologist.

Middle brother Michael was more inclined to agriculture. He became a cattle breeder and developed immense agricultural holdings in Ohio and Illinois and was an original sponsor of the Ohio State Fair. When in central Ohio, he lived in the original family home in Franklinton.

Of the three brothers, Joseph was probably most inclined to social issues. These concerns were shared by Joseph's lifelong companion and servant, Arthur Boke. The son of a family African-American servant girl and a local scout, Boke was abandoned as a baby and nursed by Joseph's mother. It says something about his closeness to the Sullivants that he is buried in the family plot in the local cemetery.

After his marriage, Joseph lived in Columbus and became very much interested in local institutions. He served on the Columbus school board from 1850-61 and from 1865-68. He was instrumental in bringing Ohio State University to Columbus and served on its board from its founding in 1870 to 1878.

He also helped found Green Lawn Cemetery, the Columbus Athenaeum and the Columbus Lyceum. Independently wealthy, he was considered professionally, in something of an understatement, to "be a 'book merchant and geologist.' "

On June 3, 1871, Joseph gave an address on "early times" in central Ohio to the Franklin County Pioneer Association -- a group I wouldn't mind seeing reborn. A few of his remarks give us a picture of that early world of his youth.

"At first our roads were mere traces through the woods, and long afterward were of the poorest description, without bridges, and notwithstanding the corduroys, were almost impassable during the winter, and I remember that wagons were stalled by the mud betwixt Franklinton and Columbus, and that they remained until they were dried out by the spring sun and winds.

"Salt, nails, iron, hard and hollow ware were brought from Pittsburg on packhorses, and as late as 1828, the chief mode of transporting our goods or our products was by the great Conestoga wagons with their four and six horse bell teams.

"As for the men, buckskin hunting shirt and breeches were not uncommon, and were warm and comfortable, except when they were wet.

"Do we not recollect when our beautiful capitol square was full of stumps and used as a pasture by the State officers, and when we boys went in to play ball, that we had to contend for possession with McLean's old horse and Osborn's cow."

Joseph Sullivant died in 1882 and is buried in Green Lawn Cemetery.

Local historian and author Ed Lentz writes the As it were column for ThisWeek News.