I was talking the other day with Carolyn Kaye about the book on the history of Columbus that she, her late husband Sam Kaye and I had written in 1992 and how much more information we had uncovered since then. Carolyn suggested a good column might be to take an 1822 description of Columbus and overlay it on present day Columbus. With Pilgrimage about to start, I agreed that might be a fun thing to do.
Rev. George Schaeffer moved to Columbus in 1822. In 1872 he wrote a description for the Columbus Index titled “Columbus in 1822 by its Oldest Inhabitant.” According to Shaeffer:
“As may be supposed, Columbus was a small place when my eyes first beheld it in 1822. It contained about 150 inhabitants. Main Street presented quite a different appearance from at present; only a few scattering houses: On the south side at the west end, there was a large house, composed of four rooms in each story, with a cross passage through the center in each direction; this stood on the point of the hill. It was occupied by the venerable Judge Cocke, who called it “a big pile of logs” (now Tennessee Williams home). The next house going east was a one storied store about 20-by-30 (feet), frame, kept by Judge Haden; it stood opposite the post office (about where the law office of Crowell, Gillis and Cooper is now located). The next was a two-story frame store on the corner opposite the hotel, occupied by John B. Raser (now the old Masonic building).
Between that and the corner of Main and Market streets, there was quite a hollow (The low place where the Trotter Convention center is located extended as a “hollow” across main street into the middle of the block south of Main Street). The first house from Raser’s was a log blacksmith shop in the hollow about halfway down the square (about where The Paint Store is located). The next house was a small tailor shop (now Books and Boards and Pie Co.). The next was a one story, about 50 feet long, occupied by Capt. C. Adams as a store; this stood about where Knapp’s shop stands (now the site of the Globe). The next house was an old carpenter’s shop on the Gross corner (now fashion Barn). There was a carpenter’s shop on the corner occupied by Humphries and Hudson (now Ruth’s Building and Cafe on Main). From thence east and south was covered with pines and small bushes.
On the north side of Main Street, west end, was a one-story store kept by Capt. Kewen (now small brick office building next to Elks Club). The next building was a small retail whiskey shop (now Elks Club). The next was Barry’s Tavern, a two-story house of pretty large dimension, a frame, but unfinished, it stood on the corner where the Gilmer Hotel is kept (the now vacant Gilmer lot). On the opposite corner, where the Index office is kept, stood a small two story framed house occupied below as Dr. Barry’s shop and above a Masonic lodge (Varsity Building). From these, going east was no building until after crossing a deep hollow (behind Trotter Convention Center), you arrive at a long one-story house, occupied in part by Major William Dowsing as a tavern, and in the west end as a small retail store; this house was on Blair’s Corner (now Bank of Commerce building on the northwest corner of Main and Market). Market Street was not built upon. The balance of the village was composed of a few log cabins scattered among the bushes. The Franklin Academy was a small frame house 30-by-40 (feet) not ceiled or plastered; this was the preaching place of all denominations; the Methodist was the only organized church at that time, composed of a very few members (current Franklin Academy is still at the original location).”
From other sources, we have found references that identified the site of other early downtown Columbus residences and businesses. The Columbus Post Office was established in late 1820 at the residence of Gideon Lincecum, the first postmaster. His house, which was built in 1819, was the first frame house in Columbus and was located behind the Elks Club building and the empty Gilmer lot.
The site of the first house built in Columbus in 1817 was about where the office of the Columbus Convention and Visitors Bureau is now located. My house at the corner of College and Third Street South was built or possibly purchased by Charles Abert in 1825. At that time, it was two rooms over two rooms facing the Tombigbee with no other structures between it and the river. The back part of the old Back Door Columbus or Old 82 building is probably the oldest surviving commercial building and may be as early as 1830.
A problem with the 1822 description that bothered me was that no ruins of a fire were mention. In the spring of 1822, several newspapers carried a brief mention of a fire at Columbus. Typical was the New Bedford Mercury of Massachusetts. It reported on May 10, 1822, that; “Nearly the whole village of Columbus, in the state of Mississippi, was destroyed by fire on the 19th of February.” The evidence of that fire may be the lack of any buildings being mentioned along the Military Road, which is now Second Avenue North, and the statement: “The balance of the village was composed of a few log cabins scattered among the bushes.” The fire could explain no houses mentioned along that important road through town or mentioned in the block behind the Ruth’s building.
Rufus Ward is a local historian. Email your questions about local history to him at [email protected].
Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].
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