James B. Gardiner was a journalist, joker, tavern owner in Columbus

There is an old saying, “Every decent deck of cards needs a joker.”

People like frontier surveyor Lucas Sullivant, who laid out the village of Franklinton at the forks of the Scioto River in 1797, were serious people indeed. Born in Maryland in 1789, the year George Washington became the first president, Gardiner arrived in Marietta with his family and was apprenticed as a printer’s “devil,” or errand boy, when he was quite young. He grew up learning the printing trade but was anxious to make his own way in the world. In 1810, reaching the age of 21, he moved with his wife Mary to the town of Franklinton.

The Chronicle was a regular publication during the War of 1812, and much of what we know about frontier Franklinton – a town where many people had never learned to read – comes from its pages. An early history records what happened next. He had adopted the nom de plume of “Cokeley” while in the newspaper business and kept that name as a satirist and practical joker in the new town of Columbus. It is now recorded as to how well his jokes were accepted by the stoic residents of the city, but no harm was meant so his wit was tolerated.

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