Gladiator Newspaper from January 26, 1888

"The Gladiator" was a newspaper published in Worthington from 1887 to 1888 by Ezekiel Mettles. The office for the Gladiator was located in the Goodrich Block on the southwest corner of Main (High) Street and the Public Square. Pages one and two of the newspaper contain advertisements including several for Worthington businesses, along with state and national news and short columns. The front page article titled "The New Court House" focuses on the recently built structure in Columbus. Page two devotes a column to Worthington’s lack of support for the newspapers resulting in the decrease from five columns to four as of this publication.

Articles pertaining to local news appear on page three. Notes include an obituary for Edward Noble, age 28, a note about a building boom in Elmwood (now known as Linworth), and an advertisement for a "Farm for rent, 5 miles north of Worthington on the Worthington/Delaware Pike, Lewis Loop."

Another note is as follows: "Uncle Ben Lee is quite ill, having been attacked with a severe cold which settled upon his lungs." It is likely this refers to Benjamin Lee, an African American man who had lived in the Worthington area sixty years or more by 1888. An August 20, 1891 Westerville Public Opinion article detailed the lives of Benjamin and Jack Lee, enslaved half brothers, who were sent to Ohio in 1817 as an inheritance to Samuel McDannald of the Central College area in Westerville. They were emancipated, as slavery was not permitted in the state, but then immediately indentured to McDannald until they reached the age of 21. Benjamin Lee married Nancy Jordan in 1828, and two of the couple’s children were buried in St. John’s Cemetery in Worthington in the 1830s. In a Columbus Directory from 1878, Lee was listed as a basket maker.

Advertisements in this issue include "O. Johnson, M.D., Worthington, Ohio," "W.F. Griswold, Notary Public and Civil Engineer, Worthington, Ohio," "I.G. Deardorff, Dealer in Dry Goods, Groceries, Notions, Patent Medicines &c., &c., Elmwood [Linworth], Ohio," "A. S. Fay & Co., Dress Good and Dry Goods, Worthington, Ohio," and "R. W. Evans, dealer in stoves and tinware in Worthington."