Brevoort & Bull Graves
Thomas Bull’s daughter Chloe came to the area with her husband Isaac Brevoort and son Henry around 1812. Isaac Brevoort was helping build a barn across the Olentangy River and was crossing the flood-swollen river in February 1814 when his boat was swamped and he drowned. He was 23 years old, and was buried just 100 yards from the river. That grave is now someone’s back yard. Some say the grave is behind 247 Kenworth; some sources say it’s behind 253 Kenworth; some sources say that Isaac Brevoort is buried behind 253, and Thomas Bull Senior (father of Thomas Bull Junior) is behind either 247, or 253, or 257.

An early 1970s article stated that “stones still mark the [Brevoort] cabin” and that “once past the field stone gateposts [which were just wide enough for a carriage], the ancient barn where Frank Brevoort once operated a dairy still stands.” Does any of this still exist?


Clintonville was never platted as a formal village. Alanson Bull, the son of Thomas Bull, sold several small lots to tradesmen for their shops. Located at the northwest corner of High Street and Orchard Lane, a post office opened in 1847, in a two-story frame building on the northwest corner of High Street and Orchard Lane, and was given the name Clintonville because it was located at the center of Clinton Township. (This building has since been torn down.) The postmaster conducted a rag rug business upstairs. High Street at that time was a dirt and plank turnpike connecting Columbus with Worthington and Sandusky. In 1913 a new two-story brick building was erected on Dunedin at High. Mr. Legg operated a grocery store; Mrs. Legg sold notions. The post office moved there and remained until 1917—when, according to one source, RFD was offered, and according to another source, because the area was annexed by the city of Columbus. (I believe this second post office was a small building behind the corner building.) (Photo courtesy of the Clintonville Historical Society)
James G. Bull (1838-1927) was a grandson of Thomas Bull. James served as Columbus Mayor from 1865 to 1868 and from 1871 to 1875. His grandfather, Thomas Bull, was the first white settler of the area and James’ father, Alonson Bull, founded Clintonville in 1846. (Photo courtesy of Columbus Metropolitan Libraries)
… is credited with starting Kenyon College somewhere near North High Street and Selby Roads, in a house that has since been razed. An earlier home of 

Another one of the first families of Clintonville was the Cooke family. According to the family’s history, Roswell Cooke (1764-1827) came to Ohio with his wife and five children in 1800 from Connecticut. His two eldest sons, Rodney and Chauncey, took up land 6 miles north of the state house, their farms adjoining (in the vicinity of Cooke Road and North High Street). They cleared the land and both erected “houses out of round, unhewn logs, with puncheon floors and primitive fire places, with mud-and-stick chimneys.” The brothers lived the rest of their lives on these farms. Family history states that in 1827 they constructed one of the first grist and saw mills on the Olentangy River, which later became known as the Whipp and then as the Weisheimer Mill. They also operated a distillery. (Photo courtesy of Terry Miller.)