80 Facts About Columbus Delano

Columbus Delano was an American lawyer, rancher, banker, statesman, and a member of the prominent Delano family.

Columbus Delano was elected US Congressman from Ohio, serving two full terms and one partial one.

Columbus Delano became a Republican when the party was founded as the major anti-slavery party after the demise of the Whigs in the 1850s.

Columbus Delano was instrumental in the establishment of America's first national park, having supervised the first federally funded scientific expedition into Yellowstone in 1871, and becoming America's first national park overseer in 1872.

In 1874, Columbus Delano requested that Congress protect Yellowstone through the creation of a federally funded administrative agency, the first Secretary of the Interior to request such preservation of a nationally important site.

Columbus Delano remained a spoils man at a time when reformer demands for a federal merit system were gaining support.

Columbus Delano returned to Ohio to practice law, tend to his business interests, and raise livestock; he did not return to politics and died in 1896.

Columbus Delano was viewed as an effective first administrator of America's first national park.

Columbus Delano was born in Shoreham, Vermont, on June 4,1809, the son of James Delano and Lucinda Bateman.

Columbus Delano's father died in 1815 when Columbus Delano was six years old, and his family was put under the care of his uncle Luther Bateman.

In 1817 the family moved to Mount Vernon in Knox County, Ohio, where Columbus Delano resided for the rest of his life.

Columbus Delano was raised primarily by Luther Bateman, who died in 1817.

Columbus Delano became active in politics as a National Republican, and later as a Whig, and in 1834 he won election as Prosecuting Attorney for Knox County.

Columbus Delano won reelection in 1836 and served two terms, 1835 to 1839.

On July 14,1834, Delano married Elizabeth Leavenworth of Mount Vernon, the daughter of M Martin Leavenworth and Clara Sherman Leavenworth.

In 1844, Columbus Delano was elected to the United States House of Representatives after appearing on the ballot as a replacement for Samuel White Jr.

Columbus Delano went on to defeat Democrat Caleb J McNulty by only 12 votes, 9,297 to 9,285.

Columbus Delano did not run for reelection in 1846, instead campaigning for the 1848 Whig nomination for Governor of Ohio.

Columbus Delano lost to Seabury Ford by two votes at the January 1848 party convention; Ford went on to defeat Democrat John B Weller in a close general election, and served one term.

Columbus Delano was a delegate to the Chicago Convention in 1860, and he seconded the nomination of Abraham Lincoln for president.

In 1862 Columbus Delano was a candidate for the United States Senate seat held by Benjamin Wade.

Columbus Delano was nearly successful, losing the nomination to Wade by only two votes.

In 1863, Columbus Delano served in the Ohio House of Representatives and played a notable role in shepherding the passage of legislation in support of the Union war effort.

Columbus Delano served as Chairman of the Judicial Committee and settled the matter of the right of soldiers to vote.

Columbus Delano served as Chairman of the Ohio delegation that attended the Baltimore Convention.

Columbus Delano was again elected to the US House in 1864, and he served in the 39th Congress.

In September 1867, Columbus Delano made a speech on Reconstruction in Eaton, Ohio, in which he said that President Andrew Johnson did not have the constitutional authority to establish civil government in the former Confederate states.

Columbus Delano remained active in politics and supported Grant for president in 1868.

Additionally, Columbus Delano was cleared of involvement in another scandal in which Babcock was implicated, the Gold Ring, which was triggered when two New York financiers attempted to corner the gold market on September 24,1869.

Columbus Delano's reputation for personal honesty was not in question, which was an asset when Grant needed to nominate a new Secretary of the Interior in 1870.

Grant appointed Columbus Delano to succeed Cox at the Interior Department; he served from November 1,1870, until resigning on October 19,1875.

Columbus Delano rejected the civil service reforms of his predecessor Cox and reverted the Interior to the spoils system.

The few free-roaming bison left in Yellowstone were protected from poaching by a federal law passed in 1872; during Columbus Delano's tenure, mounting criticism by the public forced Congress to pass legislation that would stop the bison slaughter on the plains.

On November 10,1871, Columbus Delano advocated Grant that Apaches be given new reservation land in Arizona and New Mexico, following the recommendation of Indian Peace Commissioner Vincent Colyer to find them a location where they could be protected from attacks by white settlers.

Columbus Delano advocated that all Apaches be put on reservations including young men and warriors, who were forming raiding parties, rather than just their old men and women.

Railroad interests and African-American civil rights had been priorities for the Republican Party; on behalf of Huntington and Gould, Columbus Delano twice asked Akerman to change rulings that had gone against the Union Pacific, and both times Akerman refused.

Columbus Delano then complained to Grant and suggested that Akerman should be removed.

In 1871, Delano organized America's first federally funded scientific expedition into Yellowstone, which was headed by US Geologist Ferdinand V Hayden.

Columbus Delano gave specific instructions for Hayden to make a geographical map of the area and to make astronomical and barometric observations.

The law provided that the Secretary of the Interior exercise "exclusive control" over Yellowstone; As Columbus Delano was the incumbent, this made him the first overseer of the first national park in the world.

The poaching of fish and wildlife, including bison, was forbidden, and Columbus Delano was authorized to preserve the "natural curiosities and wonders" found inside the park.

Columbus Delano was now in charge of millions of acres of land he was not provided any funding to care for it.

Columbus Delano agreed and demanded Congress appropriate $100,000 to set up a federal park agency to administer and protect the park for the public, and asked for an increase in the terms of the concession leases from 10 to 20 years.

Columbus Delano ultimately resigned because of evidence that surveying contracts had been awarded to companies in which his son John, the chief clerk of the department, and Orvil Grant, the president's brother, had ownership interests; this was more or less permissible by the standards of the day, but to reform-minded individuals, including the editors of the New-York Tribune and other newspapers, it represented a conflict of interest and breach of the public trust.

Columbus Delano argued that the Congressional Reconstruction Acts had been passed to "rescue order and government out of the chaos and confusion" that came from the Civil War.

Columbus Delano said the Ku Klux Klan had in fourteen North Carolina counties killed 18 people and cruelly whipped 315 Republicans who had done nothing wrong.

Columbus Delano said that evidence presented in prosecuting Klan members in the federal courts proved the "barbarity and treason" of the Ku Klux Klan.

In 1873, Columbus Delano formally defined the methods to be used in attaining the goals of Grant's policy toward the Native Americans.

Grant sent the expedition, hoping to find gold in order to support his species currency policy; Columbus Delano opposed the move, believing travel through and eventual occupation of hunting grounds violated the Treaty of Fort Laramie and could lead to an Indian war.

Columbus Delano had no intention of giving Red Cloud cash, but rather a receipt for $25,000 from the Treasury and additional presents purchased at a later date and distributed to members of the tribe.

Columbus Delano warned Grant that a war would likely break out if negotiations were not successful.

Columbus Delano informed Red Cloud that whites were going to take over the Black Hills anyway, so it would be best not to leave empty-handed.

The New-York Tribune reported that John Columbus Delano was profiteering through Interior's Office of the Surveyor-General by accepting partnerships in Wyoming surveying contracts without having been trained in surveying or map-making, and without providing any meaningful contribution to the fulfillment of the contracts; the obvious implication was John Columbus Delano had taken extortion money from illicit contract agreements.

Stevens said both Reed and John Columbus Delano had blackmailed five deputy surveyors for $5,000.

Governor Edward M McCook of the Colorado Territory, claimed that John Delano had accepted a $1,200 bribe from a Colorado banker, Jerome B Chaffee, to secure land patents from the Department of Interior.

In July 1875, Columbus Delano was rumored to know that Orvil Grant, the president's brother, had received Indian trading posts, that were a corrupt source of lucrative kickbacks, from the sutler, at the expense of the Indians and soldiers.

Columbus Delano was rumored to have threatened Grant at Long Branch that he would expose Orvil to the public when Columbus Delano's resignation was enforced.

Columbus Delano told Grant that he would quietly leave office after Congressional Indian fraud investigations were complete.

Columbus Delano's administration was investigated by Congress, Chandler, and a special presidential commission; his personal conduct was exonerated, but his reputation as an honest, capable administrator was damaged, and Columbus Delano never again ran for office or served in an appointed one.

On September 26,1875, Columbus Delano submitted to Grant a letter defending his tenure at the Department of the Interior; in essence, he argued that the size and complexity of his department made it difficult to manage effectively.

Columbus Delano stated that he had resigned because he intended to return to his business and domestic concerns in Ohio.

Columbus Delano reminded Grant that the Land Office dealt with complex railroad land grants, as well as issues resolving land titles in California, Arizona and New Mexico, because those areas had previously been under Spain's and then Mexico's jurisdiction.

Columbus Delano further informed Grant that when he had to decide issues between competing claimants, those he ruled against often gave false and misleading statements rather than accept their loss, which was to Columbus Delano's detriment.

Columbus Delano found the Bureau of Indian Affairs to be the most corrupt and replaced its commissioner and chief clerk.

On his resignation from Grant's cabinet, Columbus Delano returned to Mount Vernon where for the next twenty years he served as president of the First National Bank of Mount Vernon.

Columbus Delano was a longtime trustee of Kenyon College, which awarded him the honorary degree of LL.

Wright, who had been an Indian Agent in the Interior Department while Columbus Delano was secretary, had been convicted of fraud and blamed Columbus Delano.

Wright claimed that Columbus Delano had been verbally harassing him and that he then felt compelled to defend himself.

Columbus Delano did not sustain serious injuries; Wright's defense was weakened by witness testimony that after the assault, he claimed credit for it, and stated that he would have continued if passers-by had not intervened.

On December 3,1889, Columbus Delano was elected president of the National Wool Growers Association, a lobbying group organized to advocate for tariff protection of the national wool industry.

Columbus Delano died on October 23,1896; he was interred at Mount Vernon's Mound View Cemetery, Lot 42, Section 16, Grave 4.

Columbus Delano's death was sudden and unexpected, and took place at his "Lakehome" residence near Mount Vernon, at 11:00 AM.

Columbus Delano later defended his reputation by saying that the Interior Department was difficult to manage due to its expanding size and its many offices with disparate functions.

In 2021, some 145 years after Columbus Delano left office in 1875, the position of secretary of the interior was first filled by a Native American.

Columbus Delano has received criticism for allowing millions of bison to be slaughtered, with the exception of Yellowstone, in order to compel the Indians to move to and remain on their reservations, a policy approved by President Grant and the US Army.

The demise of the bison herds during Columbus Delano's tenure led to the destruction of the Plains Indian culture, including their economy, cosmology, and religion.

Columbus Delano was the first Secretary of the Interior to be in charge of Yellowstone, America's and the world's first national park.

Columbus Delano, California, located in Kern County, originally a terminal railroad town, was founded on July 14,1869.

The name of Columbus Delano was officially given by the Southern Pacific Railroad.

The town of Columbus Delano was incorporated as a city in 1915.