From
the Delaware Gazette or the Columbus Dispatch (source says both),
April 17, 1923, we learn the following about Bokes Creek:
Columbus people who while at Magnetic Springs may have rowed on
Bokes Creek or hiked along its banks, probably guessed that it took
its rather rough-sounding name from some early pioneer who once
lived along its course, but the fact is that the person after whom
the little creek was named never lived in the vicinity and his body
was interred when he died in Columbus and now lies in Green Lawn
Cemetery. His name was Arthur Bokes. Who was Arthur
Bokes and how did his name come to be given to the little stream
that enters from the Scioto from the west nearly due west of
Delaware?
A little story of the Sullivant family - the family of Lucas
Sullivant who was the founder of Franklinton written by Joseph
Sullivant carries the explanation. Arthur Bokes was the son of
a female slave that belonged to the Sullivant family when it was
still living in Kentucky, his father being a white man. As
rarely happened in cases of this kind, the slave mother of this boy
abandoned him in infancy aand he was cared for by the Sullivants,
Mrs. Sullivant nursing him with her own baby.
He grew up into an intelligent and exceedingly valuable member of
the household and finally served Lucas Sullivant on his surveying
trips as a scout most satisfactorily. He remained with the
Sullivants to the end of his days and at death was buried in the
Sullivant burying ground.
Lucas Sullivant surveyed much of the land west of the Scioto
River here as far north as Delaware, and on one of his trips he came
to the mouth of Bokes Creek and entering it with his canoe, camped
for several days on its banks. It was on this occasion that he
gave to the stream the name of Arthur Bokes, whose services in the
field had been of great value to his.
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