Ohio History Journal

THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE OHIO CANALS.

 

 

GEORGE WHITE DIAL, LOCKLAND, OHIO.

The observant passenger on the Cincinnati, Hamilton and

Dayton railway between Cincinnati and Troy, Ohio, will catch

short glimpses of a broad ditch filled with sluggish water. Wind-

ing its way through the beautiful Miami and Maumee valleys, it

follows the railroad for miles, now on this side of the tracks,

now on that; ofttimes close beside the river, hidden by the

foliage of the willows and the sycamores, or by rows of mills,

lime kilns, gas-houses, brickyards, and grain elevators: some-

times lost to view while it wanders off around the hills and

through the forests. Similar sights and scenes will greet the

eyes of passengers on the railways running through the Scioto,

Licking, Muskingum and Cuyahoga valleys. Ever and anon

one sees a string of sleepy mules and a canal boat pushing along

with quiet dignity appropriate to the days when leisure was still

allowable.

A vision of the old waterway in all its former glory as a

carrier of passengers - echoing from end to end with the crude

blasts from the boat horns of passing "packets"--looms up for

a moment, but only to be dispelled by the actual sight of pass-

ing trains, shrieking and roaring with their demon-like whistles.

We shall better appreciate the vast change from mule to steam

if we remember that roughly speaking, these old waterways be-

long to the first half, and the railways to the last half of the

nineteenth century.

The period of canal construction is so long past, that not

only to the average person who catches a glimpse of them from

the car window, but even to the citizens of the state, the historic

waters and towpaths of the "old ditches" are little known. Agi-

tation favoring inland waterways began with our earliest develop-

ment as a nation. Among the first to urge canal building was

George Washington. For his plans to connect the Ohio with

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The Construction of The Ohio Canals.        461

the Potomac, he received a vote of thanks from the Virginia

House of Burgesses; and later he was president of the company

organized to join the Hudson with the Great Lakes.

Work on the Erie Canal, however, was not begun until 1819,

and though various sections were soon in use, the line was not

opened through to the lake till 1825. This interest in in-

ternal improvements the early settlers carried with them to their

homes in the Northwest, where it reappeared in agitation for

a waterway to connect the Ohio River with the Lake.

During the period of settlement in the Northwest, roads

such as we know them now, were quite as little known to the

widely separated communities in Ohio, as were railroads. With

very few exceptions, the roads were only widened bridle

paths, improved in swampy places by patches of corduroy

construction, but wellnigh impassable in the spring and fall.

Thus in the absence of roads, overland transportation for trade

was impracticable and productions of any kind were of no value

so long as they could not be shipped cheaply by water

to the consumer. This need of cheaper communication was

keenly realized from the time of the first settlements west of

the great barrier, the Alleghanies, and most keenly by those

situated some distance from any river or stream, and thus cut

off from the usual modes of transportation by canoe, flatboat,

"keelboat," or "ark."

 

AGITATION.

Contrary to the statements in our histories, the agitation in

the west did not arise as a result of the success of the Erie

Canal in 1825.   But before that waterway was even begun,

several private companies enthusiastically drew plans to con-

nect the lake with the Ohio. Successful private construction was

prevented only by the failure of every endeavor to secure char-

ters from the State. But these companies were not in vain. Their

numerous stump speeches and articles in the meagre "press" of

that day aroused public interest and effort in "internal improve-

ments." This Ohio agitation was contemporaneous with that in

New York state. In 1817, the same year in which work on the

Erie Canal began, the first resolution relating to the Ohio canals

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462       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

was introduced in the State Assembly; and the friends of the pro-

ject entered actively into the fall campaign to elect men pledged

to vote for internal improvements -and not without success.

Governor Brown, in his inaugural address of December, 1818,

referred to the necessity of providing "cheaper ways to the mar-

kets for the Ohio farmers." In accordance with this sugges-

tion, on the motion of Mr. Sill, January 7th, 1819, the assembly

appointed a committee to investigate the expediency of a canal

from the Lake to the Ohio. This committee reported favorably,

but no action was taken by the Assembly. On recommendation

from Governor Brown in 1820, three commissioners were ap-

pointed, who were to "employ an engineer to survey routes for

canals,-provided however that Congress would aid the construc-

tion."¹ But Congress did not afford the desired aid and noth-

ing was done for two years.

During the interval, however, interest was not allowed to

lag. Meetings were held throughout the state, in which speakers

dwelt upon the "dangers and risks of the river voyage to New

Orleans," and "the tendency of finding the markets there over-

stocked, especially at that season of the year which admits of

descent from above the Falls" (at Louisville). They argued,

"to leave one's property (at New Orleans) is to abandon it to

destruction-to wait for higher prices is to incur the dangers

of an unwholesome climate. One must ship his flour or sell,

at a sacrifice-ofttimes at a price that will not pay the cost of

freight and charges. It is fair, therefore," they declared, "to

compare the delay, cost and risk of sending the cargo from Ohio

to some place on the Gulf of Mexico, with the time, charges and

risk that will be incurred in sending it to New York by the

projected canal; and to compare the voyage to New Orleans,

by circuitous and dangerous navigation through more than ten

degrees of latitude, approaching the torrid zone, exposed to all

the deleterious effects of that climate, with a safe and expe-

ditious voyage through our own State and that of our sister

state, in a healthful climate, and supplied with all the necessi-

ties and comforts which a thickly settled and highly improved

country will afford. In the first case, the difference in time

1Ohio Canal Doc., pp. 12.

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The Construction of The Ohio Canals.       463

 

will be several weeks and in cost, at least equal to the dif-

ference between an unhealthful climate, dangerous navigation

and a tedious voyage in returning 1,600 miles against the cur-

rent of the Mississippi and Ohio-and a healthful climate, safe

navigation, and an expeditious voyage both going and coming."2

To-day one can scarcely imagine the force these words had with

the many pioneers who had experienced the hardships of the

"keelboat" trip to "Newor-Leans" (as they called it in those

days). Another argument of equal weight was the ease with

which gypsum, salt, cloth and other commodities could be "im-

ported" from the east.

The final arguments of the canal agitators emphasized the

amount of revenue to be derived from the water power at every

lock. At Cincinnati alone, it was estimated, there would be

"power sufficient to keep in operation forty over-shot wheels of

fifteen feet diameter, turning eighty pairs of four and a half

foot millstones," and that "two hundred dollars would certainly be

a moderate rent for water power sufficient to drive a pair of

millstones or the same power applicable to machinery-in such a

place as Cincinnati, making the total amount of water rents

$200,000 per annum."  Further, "Much water power may also

be obtained in the descent of 107 feet between Middletown and

Cincinnati."3

These lengthy discussions had the desired political effect in

electing "canal men" to the Assembly in 1821; and on Decem-

ber 6th, Micajah P. Williams, the Hamilton County Represen-

tative, introduced and carried a resolution "for the appointment

of a committee of five to take up so much of the Governor's

message as related to canals. Governor Brown named Micajah

P. Williams, W. H. Moore, John Shelby, Henry Howe and

Thos. Worthington.

Acting on the report of this committee, the Assembly on

January 21st, 1822, passed a bill authorizing a board of canal

commissioners and an examination into the various possible

routes. This board consisted of Thomas Worthington, Alfred

2Ohio Canal Doc., pp. 20.

3 Ohio Canal Doc., pp. 141.

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464       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

Kelley, Benjamin Tappan, Jeremiah Morrow and Ebenezer Buck-

ingham.

Samuel Geddes, one of the Erie Canal engineers was em-

ployed by the commissioners. During the next two years his

parties hunted down the various water courses, camping here

and there in the wilderness to ascertain the level and to gauge

the water-flow in every stream. To accomplish this work they

were compelled to cut their way through the virgin forests

and swamps, transporting with them all their supplies, and to

take their observations without the aid of modern instruments.

In less than eight months, 900 miles were surveyed, 800 being

leveled by Mr. Forrer and party, with one instrument. In his

report Mr. Geddes roughly suggested various feasible routes,

outlining the principal difficulties and estimating the water-supply

and cost. He especially emphasized the fact that, "as a suf-

ficient supply of water, available at all seasons of the year, is

absolutely necessary, the location of the summit level is highly

important."  The later favorable action of the Assembly was

due to the fact that on the Miami and Maumee route, the sur-

veyors found a fully sufficient supply of water on the Loramie

Summit from a branch of Jackson's Creek, a tributary to the

Mad River.

In January, 1823, the commissioners made their first report,

dwelling on the commercial value and the feasibility of the pro-

posed waterways. In passing, it is pleasant to note that these

commissioners neither asked nor received any compensation for

their time and services. Acting on this report, the Assembly

authorized the commissioners to secure more detailed surveys

and estimates of the possible routes.

In place of Jeremiah Morrow, who resigned, Micajah P.

Williams, of Hamilton County, was appointed, and soon proved

to be the most enthusiastic member of the commission. He made

the long journey to New York and personally investigated the

construction, water supply, and management of the Erie Canal.

He also carried on an extensive correspondence with Gover-

nor Clinton and other New York business men in regard to

loans for the Ohio canals - a matter in which he was very suc-

cessful.

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The Construction of The Ohio Canals.       465

 

Meanwhile the commission stated in their second report of

June 2₄th, 1824, that the plan to connect the Miami and the

Scioto Rivers was entirely impracticable because of the inter-

vening hills and lack of water supply. But the Ohio route from

Cleveland to Portsmouth, and the Miami-Maumee route from

Toledo to Cincinnati, as roughly outlined in the surveys of

Forrer and Bates, were very favorably considered. Discussing

this report in his message of December, 1824, Governor Mor-

row strongly advocated a special tax to build the canals, but no

action was taken. A month later, on January 8th, 1825, the

commission submitted a further report, giving the exact loca-

tion of these two routes, with details of the engineering diffi-

culties, and with definite estimate of the cost and water supply.

 

 

THE CANAL BILL PASSED.

This report occasioned much favorable debate  It closed

on February 4, 1825, with the passage, by votes of 34-2 in the

Senate, and 58-13 in the House, of the long desired act, "To

provide for the improvement of the state by navigable canals."

The act created, (1) a new board of seven Canal Commissioners,

holding office at the pleasure of the Assembly; (2) an "acting

board of three," chosen from among their own number; (3)

a "Canal Fund" to consist of private and State land grants,

moneys from the sale of stocks and from the special taxes

pledged for the payment of the interest on such stocks, and all

rents and tolls accruing from the canal works; (4) a second

board of three commissioners of the "Canal Fund"--members

to hold office for six years and to be appointed, one every other

year by the Assembly in joint session. The acting board was

authorized "to prosecute the construction of the Ohio line and

so much of the Miami-Maumee line as lies between Cincinnati

and the Mad River at or near Dayton."   The commissioners

of the "Canal Fund" were directed to borrow for 1825, $400,-

000, and in any succeeding year not more than $600,000, for

which loans they were to issue transferable certificates of stock,

bearing six per cent. interest, and redeemable at the pleasure

Vol. XIII-30.

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466       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

of the State between 1850 and 1875.1 The credit of the State was

such that the first sale of bonds in 1825 was at the rate of 97½;

all subsequent sales were at a premium. As the news of the

Assembly's action spread throughout the State, the hills of Ohio

blazed up in a bonfire celebration which illuminated the valleys

as they have never been illuminated since. The German pioneers

were carried back to the old days when they kindled the fires

of St. John in the fatherland.

 

 

OHIO'S TWENTY-FIRST BIRTHDAY.

Immediately Governor Morrow invited Governor DeWitt

Clinton, of New York, to be present and to strike the first spade

into the earth in the digging of the canals. By the middle of

June contracts had been let for work on the Ohio line. About

the same time Governor Clinton accompanied by his aides, Colonel

Jones and Colonel Reed; Colonel Van Rensellaer, who as an

officer under General Wayne had traversed Ohio as a wilder-

ness; Messrs. Rathbone and Lord, who had loaned the money

with which to commence the canals; and Judge Conkling, U.

S. district judge of the state of New York, started on his

journey westward, arriving at Cleveland by steamboat July

1st. Here, amid greetings and rejoicings worthy of the event,

he was welcomed by Governor Morrow and many state officials.

The parties took stage for Newark and on the Fourth of July,

when Ohio had just come of age, in the presence of a great

concourse of people, Governor Clinton lifted the first spadeful

of earth from the soil of the Licking Summit of the Ohio Canal

-about three miles southwest of Newark. Governor Morrow

lifted the second spadeful and then a number of distinguished

men struggled with one another as to who should raise the

third spadeful. A squadron of cavalry, holding back the crowd,

kept a space open for the ceremonies and in the midst of this

hollow square, New Yorkers and Ohioans vied with one another

in filling the wheelbarrow with successive spadefuls. The cap-

tain of the militia had the honor of wheeling away the load

and dumping it over a bank. Thomas Ewing delivered the ora-

Ohio Canal Documents, pp. 165-166.

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The Construction of The Ohio Canals.       467

 

tion of the day and men all around him wept for joy.¹ On the

fifth, the Governors took part in a celebration at Lancaster. On

the seventh, in the capitol at Columbus, Governor Morrow de-

livered an address to Governor Clinton, and a public dinner

followed.

Similar festivities occurred in Dayton and in Hamilton.

After attending a dinner in honor of Henry Clay, Governor

Clinton visited the "Falls" below Louisville and decided that

the canal around the "Falls" should be placed on the Ken-

tucky side of the river. He then returned to Cincinnati and

participated in the canal celebration there. On Sunday he re-

plied to an address by Joseph S. Benham in the First Presby-

terian Church, and on Monday was the guest of honor at a

public dinner. A few days later he journeyed by stage to Mid-

dletown, where he found a large crowd gathered together from

Hamilton, Dayton, Miamisburg, and all the surrounding coun-

try. Here on July 21st, on the bank of the Miami River just

below the city, the Governor lifted the first spadeful of earth

from the Miami Canal. Joseph H. Crane made the address.

The "Father of the Erie Canal" then visited Chillicothe, Circle-

ville, Lancaster, Somerset, Zanesville, Cambridge and other towns

of the State, being everywhere received as a hero. Mr. Atwater

describes the visit as follows:

"From one shire town to another, Governor Clinton was at-

tended by all its county officers, and most of the distinguished

citizens of each county, to its line, where the governor was re-

ceived by a similar escort from the adjoining county, and by

them conducted to the next city or town. In this manner he

passed across the state. As soon as he appeared in sight of

any town, the bells of all its churches and public buildings

rang their merriest peals; the cannon roared its hundred guns,

and a vast crowd huzzaed, "Welcome to the Father of Internal

Improvements." * * * "The grave and the gay, the man of

gray hairs and the ruddy-faced youth; matrons and maidens

and even lisping infants, joined to tell his worth and on his

virtues dwell; to hail his approach and to welcome his arrival."1

1Stories of Ohio. W. D. Howells.

1Atwater, Caleb. Hist. of Ohio, pp. 270,

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468       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

This tour had much to do in encouraging and confirming

the spirit of the people in the great work which they had begun.

During his sojourn in the state of nearly a month, his party

was not permitted to spend a penny in return for their elaborate

entertainment. They were Ohio's guests. The pioneers of the

Northwest, like their Indian neighbors, had good memories for

both wrongs and kindnesses; well they remembered Governor

Clinton's letter of 1823, in which he wrote: "When we consider

that this canal between Lake Erie and the Ohio River will open

a way into the great rivers which fall into the Mississippi;

that it will be felt not only in the immense valley of that river,

but as far west as the Rocky Mountains and the borders of

Mexico; and that it will communicate with our great inland

seas and their tributary waters, with the ocean by various routes,

and with the most productive regions of America, there can be

no question respecting the blessings it will produce and the riches

it will create."²

CONSTRUCTION.

Breaking ground for the canals was the corner-stone cere-

mony of these great works. During the interval between Feb-

ruary and July the commissioners of the Canal Fund had laid

strong foundations on which to build. In addition to the loans

from the New York banks, aggregating $390,000, they had se-

cured private grants to the value of $150,000, very large

sums when we consider the selling price of land at that time-

one to three dollars per acre - and the price of labor - fifteen

to twenty dollars per month. David S. Bates, of New York,

was appointed engineer-in-chief; Samuel Forrer and William

H. Price, assistant engineers.

 

The Miami Canal.

By the twentieth of July contracts had been let for the

first twenty miles of the "Miami Canal," extending from a point

on the Great Miami River near Middletown, to the head of

Millcreek, and including six locks: one just below Middle-

town, two at Amanda, two at Hamilton, and one at Rockdale.

2Ohio Doc., pp. 85.

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The Construction of The Ohio Canals.       469

 

Construction was immediately begun with great vigor, but soon

trouble with the laborers over the depreciation of the bank paper

in which their wages were paid, retarded the work. Money

used in the construction of the canals was drawn, as needed,

from New York and placed in the Western Reserve Bank and

Lancaster Bank, of Ohio, subject to check by the acting Canal

Commissioner. The Commissioner's checks were paid in notes

of these banks. In Cincinnati and the region about the Miami

Canal, they were at a discount of two and one-half per cent.

Although the canal deposits were not transferred to banks nearer

to the laborers, measures were taken to have the wages paid

directly by one of the canal commissioners, and to advance no

money to the contractors till their work was finished.

The Miami Canal follows the valley of the Great Miami

River from Middletown as far as Hamilton, where it bears away

southeast across a low and at that time swampy plain, to the

head of Millcreek. Across this plain the canal is from six to

ten feet above the level of the surrounding country, and feeds

irrigating ditches running from it in all directions, the whole

scene reminding one of Holland's canals and her irrigating

ditches. Leaving the plain and stepping down two locks, the

canal follows the western bank of the east fork of Millcreek to

Lockland; there it crosses the west fork of Millcreek and drops

four locks to the "Nine mile" level leading into Cincinnati. The

upper sill in the second of these locks is, strangely enough, on

the exact level of Lake Erie - 573 feet above tide-water. Con-

tinuing three miles to Carthage, the canal crosses to Millcreek's

east bank, which it follows into the heart of Cincinnati.

This route was the "upper" of the two possible routes

given in the surveys: the "one line, from a point on Millcreek

near White's mill, about nine miles north of the Ohio, on the

principle of keeping up the level so as to command the plain

on which Cincinnati stands, enters the Ohio at the mouth of

Deer Creek, above town;" the "lower" route was "the other

line," which locks "down Millcreek valley as it descends, and

passes in on the west side of that plain to the lower plain of

the town (Cincinnati)."  The surveyors estimated that the

greater cost of the "upper line" will be small, as the lockage

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470      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

which on the lower line is distributed along the valley of Mill-

creek for a distance of seven miles, is on the plan of the upper

level thrown into the valley of Deer Creek where suitable stone

for the construction can be had from the bed of the Ohio

without the cost of hauling eight and nine miles." "The superior

value of the hydraulic privileges afforded by the higher level;

the favorable position which the mouth of Deer Creek affords

for a safe harbor for steam and canal boats, both in high and

low water; the great facility it affords over any other for the

construction of both dry and wet docks; and the pre-eminent

and mutual advantages, both to the surrounding country and to

the city, which a level uninterrupted by locks for a distance

ten miles back into the country, will afford; all conspired

to convince the commissioners that the upper line was required

by the best interests of the work."1

Despite the delays caused by the spring floods of Millcreek

which undermined the piers of the aqueducts over that stream

(which piers on a careful inspection were found to have been

built in a very unfaithful manner),"² in 1827 the upper line

was completed to the head of Main street in Cincinnati. Great

crowds gathered in July to see the water flow into the canal.

But they were disappointed; no rushing flood surged through

the channels which had been so long in digging. The water

sunk away into the dry beds and it was only after almost four

months of patient waiting that sufficient water collected to float

boats. On November 28th, however, the first fleet of three

boats made the trip from the basin six miles north of Cin-

cincinnati, to Middletown. Throughout the entire trip, booming

cannon and the shouts from the immense throngs on the banks,

welcomed the fleet. After the return of the boats, the water

was allowed to run off, or in present day parlance, "to go out"

in order that the banks might settle during the winter.

The following summer, 1828, the work was extended on the

south to Broadway, in Cincinnati, and on the north, up the

valley of the Great Miami, four locks to Franklin, two to Miamis-

burgh, two to Carrollton, and three to the Mad River above

1Ohio Canal Documents, p. 189.

2Ohio Canal Documents, p. 245.

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The Construction of The Ohio Canals.       471

 

Dayton. And on Sunday, January 22nd, 1829, the people of

Dayton gathered together at the head of the basin just below

town, to enjoy the sight of the first boat to arrive from Cin-

cinnati, the packet, "Governor Brown."  Later in the day ar-

rived the "Forrer," the "General Marion," and the "General Pike,"

each individually by the firing of cannon and the cheering of

the crowd. On April 16th, a steam canal boat, the "Enter-

prise," made the passage from Cincinnati to Dayton. As has

been the case with all steamboats tried on the Ohio canals, its

use, after a fair trial, was found to be impracticable. The pas-

senger packets however continued to make three round trips

to Cincinnati weekly, and the Dayton Journal estimated that the

number of people traveling on the Miami Canal in 1832 was

probably not less than one thousand per week. In 1828 con-

tracts were also let for the ten locks to overcome the descent

(112 feet) to the Ohio River, but owing to the unusually high

summer stages of water they were not completed till two years

later. This sixty-mile section of the Miami-Maumee route,

known till 1856 as the "Miami Canal," immediately became the

great highway for freight and passenger traffic between Cincin-

nati and the north and east.

 

The Ohio Canal.

Work on the Ohio Canal had proceeded more slowly, as

the commissioners were forced to choose from many bids. It

is said that for each of the sections into which the surveys had

been divided, there were sixty or more contractors bidding for

the digging. In addition sickness among the laborers retarded

the work; and in 1827 fevers were so prevalent that many

laborers were frightened away. During the fall of 1825 the

first contracts were let for thirty miles on the Cuyahoga or

Portage Summit; ten miles on the Licking Summit and for em-

bankment around the Licking Reservoir. Over the snow and

mud, during the winter and spring of 1826-1827, the oxen slowly

dragged together the great piles of stone with which were con-

structed the locks leading down the Licking and across coun-

try towards Dresden. Meanwhile the Portage Summit, extend-

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472      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

ing nine miles south from Akron, was completed and work on

the staircase of forty locks leading down the Cuyahoga valley,

progressed so rapidly that on July ₄th, 1827, the first boat made

its triumphal passage of thirty miles to Cleveland. To greet

the bright, freshly painted boat there were the usual crowds,

speeches, bon-fires, dinners, and booming cannon. On this sum-

mit, between the waters of the St. Lawrence and the Missis-

sippi, are situated a number of small lakes (aggregating 380

acres) which form a natural reservoir and feeder for the canal.

One of these, Summit Lake, was crossed by the canal, the tow-

ing bridge consisting of a series of dykes and floating bridges.

Despite the destruction by spring freshets, the route south-

ward from the Summit level, down the Muskingum or Tus-

carawas valley--a drop of 238 feet in 29 locks--109 miles

to Dresden, was finished during the next two years. Six miles

from the end of the Summit level the Tuscarawas River was

crossed to the west bank by a dam, and some twenty-two miles

further down, is crossed by the old Tuscarawas aqueduct. Con-

tinuing thence on the west bank, it crossed the Walhonding

River about a half mile from its junction with the Muskingum,

on the Walhonding aqueduct near Roscoe, 138 miles from

Cleveland. Feeders run in from the Muskingum near Trenton

and from the Walhonding at Roscoe. The Walhonding branch

canal, extending 25 miles from Roscoe to Rochester, was begun

in 1842 and abandoned by the State in 1896. At Dresden the

water descending from both summits, is discharged into the Mus-

kingum by a navigable two-mile channel, known as the "Mus-

kingum Side Cut." Leaving Dresden, the canal ascends the

Wakatomita valley about nine miles and, passing a gap in the

intervening hills, enters the Licking valley and ascends 160 feet

by 19 locks in 42 miles to Newark, 174 miles from Cleveland.

On July loth, 1830, a few days more than five years after the

time when Governor Clinton made his stage trip from Cleve-

land to Newark to lift the first earth from the Ohio canal, the

first boat arrived at Newark from Cleveland.

From Newark the route follows the south fork of the Lick-

ing to the reservoir bearing the same name; crosses the reser-

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The Construction of The Ohio Canals.        473

 

voir and descends, by 14 locks, Little Walnut Creek valley as

far as Groveport; and then cuts across to the Scioto valley

at Lockbourne 219 miles distant from Cleveland. At Lockville

and at Lockbourne one finds picturesque staircases of eight locks

each, always noisy with the splash of falling water. From Car-

roll, 17 miles north of Lockbourne, the Hocking branch canal

(abandoned in 1894) extends 56 miles to Athens. At Lock-

bourne a navigable feeder running north eleven miles to Colum-

bus, joins the main trunk, which following the Scioto valley,

descends 211 feet by 24 locks to Portsmouth. Near Circleville

the river is crossed to the west bank by a massive stone aqueduct

and a short distance above the city a feeder leads in from the

river. At Portsmouth the canal enters the Scioto river some

two hundred yards from its juncture with the Ohio, 413 feet

lower than the Licking Summit and about ninety feet below the

level of Lake Erie. The first boats landed in Chillicothe in

1831 and navigation was opened from the lake through to the

Ohio River during 1832. Soon freight and passenger packets

were making regular trips between all the large towns; and the

locks rang with the boat horns and the hallowing of the crews

day and night.

The "Great Debate."

The phenomenal success of the Miami Canal greatly in-

creased the agitation for the continuation of the waterway

through to the Lake. Settlers in the Northwest and even in Ken-

tucky and Tennessee, were anxious to realize their dream of se-

curing articles from New York by what Governor Clinton called

the "extension of the Erie Canal." The cost of the overland

route or of the water route by the way of New Orleans and

the Mississippi River practically cut them off from all but the

necessities of life. They considered the Ohio Canal, with its

308 miles and 143 locks too round-about, and demanded the

completion of the short and direct Miami-Maumee line with

only 244 miles and 105 locks. This view of the Miami-Maumee

Canal, as simply an extension of the Erie Canal and a highway

to the West, and this view alone brought about its construction.

Considering the benefits to be shared by Kentucky, Tennessee

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474      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

and the west, Ohio did not feel it her duty to bear the entire

cost of further digging.

Following the precedent set by the building of the "National

Road," Congress was appealed to; but the memorials asking

for grants of government land in Ohio to aid the extension

aroused much discussion both at Washington and over the en-

tire country. Not all the states could view this internal im-

provement in Ohio as one of national benefit. In the "Great

Debate" of 1830 the Senate warmly discussed the value of the

Ohio canals to the nation. Webster in his "Reply to Hayne" de-

clared, "this very question, What interest has South Carolina

in a canal in Ohio? is full of significance." His answer to

the question, showing the canals to be a connection between the

Atlantic and the western inland waters, and therefore of vital

interest not only to the West, but to the entire country, occupies

some ten pages (more than one-seventh), of his whole speech.

This discussion took place about nineteen months after Congress

had granted the lands to aid the Ohio and Indiana canals--a

fact which shows the continued interest of the nation.

 

The "Miami Extension."

This Congressional grant, dated May 24th, 1828, gave to

Ohio 500,000 acres of land, to be sold by the State at $2.50 or

more per acre for the payment of the canal debt. It also con-

veyed back to Ohio all the grants of land within the limits of

Ohio, made to Indiana in the aid of the Wabash and Erie Canal.

Indiana affirmed this action in 1829; and early in 1830 the Ohio

Assembly authorized a commission to relocate and estimate the

cost of the extension. Early in the spring of 1831 construction

was begun. Continuing up the Miami Valley the "Extension"

crossed the Mad River a mile and a half above Dayton, on a

picturesque aqueduct. Some six miles further up, the Miami

River is bridged by the stone arches. Thence the line rises

rapidly, passing up ten locks, through Tippecanoe, Troy, and

Piqua, to the foot of a battery of nine locks at Lockington, where

it reaches up to the Loramie Summit Level of fourteen miles.

Near the top of this battery the Sidney Feeder enters, supply-

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The Construction of The Ohio Canals.       475

 

ing water for the locks and part of the Loramie Summit. To-

wards the northern end of the Summit stretch, the Loramie

Reservoir Feeder enters to furnish water to the eleven locks

stepping down, within as many miles to the St. Marys Level.

Here another feeder leads in from the St. Mary's Reservoir.

Thence the level drops down the Auglaize Valley, twenty-one

locks within fifty miles, to Junction, passing through the towns

of Kossuth, Spencerville, Delphos and Hammar. At Junction

the "Extension" joined the Wabash and Erie Canal, which

formerly connected Toledo with Logansport, Ft. Wayne, Terre

Haute and Evansville, Indiana. The sixty-mile section of this

latter canal which exists between Junction and Toledo, follows

the Maumee valley, dropping down a battery of nine locks at

Defiance to the "Twenty-three mile" level, and thence passing

Independence, Florida, Napoleon, and Damascus to a lone lock

at Texas. Half way to Providence two more locks step down

to the "Twenty-mile" level, on which is situated Maumee City,

eight miles and two locks from  Toledo. Here a battery of

six locks connects the canal with Swan Creek on the level of

the lake. The Wabash and Erie Canal, begun in 1832 and

finished in 1842, was abandoned west of Junction in 1854. To

take the place of sectional names the Assembly in 1856 gave

the entire canal from Toledo to Cincinnati the title, "Miami and

Erie Canal." The waterway was opened through to the Lake

in 1845.

Meanwhile the success of the Miami and Ohio canals had

stimulated private enterprise. The State in 1827 and 1828 char-

tered the Sandy and Beaver Company to connect the Ohio River

at Smith's Ferry with the Ohio Canal at Bolivar; and the

Pennsylvania and Ohio company to connect them at Akron and

Pittsburgh. Although the State aided in their construction by

buying nearly one-third of their stock, they proved unprofitable

and were abandoned in 1852. In 1834, a private company be-

gan the Warren County Canal, extending twenty miles from

Middletown on the Miami Canal to Lebanon, but work pro-

ceeded so slowly that the State took possession in 1836 and

completed it in 1838. But, as was the case with all the branch

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476      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

canals, it proved unprofitable and was abandoned, in 1847. The

canalization of seventy-five miles of the Muskingum River, known

as the "Muskingum Improvement," was begun by the State

in 1837 and finished in 1840. In 1886 it was ceded to the

United States, which has since greatly enlarged the work so

as to admit the passage of Ohio River steamboats, not exceed-

ing 175 feet in length and 36 feet in width, to Zanesville.

The cross-section measurements of the Ohio, Hocking, Wal-

honding, and Miami canals (following those of the Erie Canal)

were, 40 feet on the water line, 26 feet on the bottom, and 4

feet deep; those of the Miami Extension, 50 feet by 26 by 5;

those of the Erie division (from Junction to Toledo) 60 feet

by 46 by 6. All the lock chambers were 90 feet in length;

varied in width from 15 to 20 feet, and had an average lift of

10 feet. With one or two exceptions, where locks were re-

moved from available quarry, the entire number of locks (262)

were built of stone. The so-called "wooden locks," built partly

above ground with an outside wall of stone and an inner, wooden,

chamber wall, and having the space between the walls packed

with earth, were only temporary. As soon as stone could be

transported by boats these locks were solidly reconstructed and

embanked on the sides with earth. The many aqueducts, so

familiar in our pictures as old moss-covered, wooden affairs

pouring a beautiful fall of water over one side, were narrow

troughs, bearing no resemblance to the modern, rigid steel

structures. Many of the earlier aqueducts were housed in and

roofed over, exactly like the old wooden bridges. One by one

these old covered aqueducts are being torn down, carrying with

them the countless drawings and initials of the boys who gathered

under their roofs in days gone by, to escape the broiling sun or

pouring rain, or to sport in their cooling waters.

 

Reservoirs.

On the Ohio Canal, immediately north of the ridge which

separates the waters of the Muskingum   from  those of the

Scioto, is situated the Licking Reservoir, supplying water for

the lower levels, both to Newark on the north and to the Colum-

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The Construction of The Ohio Canals.        477

 

bus Feeder on the south. The reservoir extends east and west

nearly eight miles, with an average width of half a mile, and

has a total area of 4,200 acres.

Shortly after the completion of the Miami-Maumee Canal,

the removal of the forests by the settlers made the water sup-

ply very irregular and often deficient in dry seasons. To pro-

vide for a sufficient supply at all times, the State began the

construction of immense reservoirs. In 1841, the first of these

great artificial bodies of water, the Mercer County Reservoir,

was built. It contains 18,000 acres with a watershed of twenty-

eight square miles, and is said to be the largest artificial lake in

the world; it supplies the canal from  St. Marys to Defiance,

a distance of fifty-eight miles. The surrounding country is such

that its capacity could easily be greatly enlarged, and filled by

surplus water from the Wabash River or the Lewiston Reser-

voir. As this land surrounding the lake is good oil territory

and is yielding the state $120,000 annually from oil leases, it is

not probable, however, that the capacity will be increased.

The second reservoir, known as the "Loramie Reservoir,"

was completed in 1844. It contains about nineteen acres, con-

sisting of a string of narrow lakes, connected by artificial chan-

nels; it also is capable of holding a much larger quantity of

water, easily obtainable from its own water-shed of seventy

square miles. Although not easy of access, this reservation is

still the favorite camping ground of many fishermen and hun-

ters. The reservoir provides for the Summit level north of St.

Marys and south to the Sidney Feeder.

The last of these great public works was the "Lewiston

Reservoir," a beautiful body of water, containing many pictur-

esque islands. It is not situated on the canal, but about fifty miles

directly east of the Mercer County lake. The small, original

pond, called "Indian Lake," was formed by damming the Great

Miami a short distance from its source, and by throwing up em-

bankments across the lowlands, flooding an area of 1,000 acres.

It has a watershed of 101 square miles and was enlarged during

1856-1860 to cover 6,000 acres.

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478       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

Cost.

Exclusive of the aid given to the private canal companies,

the canal system cost the State $14,340,572.59, divided as fol-

lows: The Ohio Canal-309 miles and 25 miles of feeders-

$4,695,203.32; the Miami and Erie -250 miles and 32 miles of

feeders - $6,762,458.73; the Hocking branch of 56 miles--

$975,481.01; the Walhonding branch of 25 miles -$607,268.99;

the St. Mary's Reservoir, $528,222.07; the Lewiston Reservoir

$600,000; the Licking Reservoir - $ 200,000; the Portage (Sum-

mit County) Reservoir-$80,000; and the Loramie Reservoir

-$22,000. This bonded debt was paid from a fund made up

of the income of the canal tolls, land rents and sales, water

rents, and special taxation till 1851.  Mr. Charles N. Morris

writes: "The public works of Ohio were far more successful

than those of many other states. In Indiana and Illinois, for ex-

ample, the spectacle is presented of undertaking on a scale

vastly in excess of the State's ability to provide the means by

borrowing; a feverish eagerness in contracting additional loans,

regardless of ruinous discount in selling stock; default of the

installments of interest, ending in the bankruptcy of the State and

the collapse of the public works. Some of these features, to be

sure, are seen in the history of the Ohio improvements, but Ohio

shines in comparison with the other western states, and, indeed,

in  comparison  with  Pennsylvania and   Maryland.   *    *

Though often embarrassed for funds, Ohio never defaulted on

the interest due on the loans contracted for internal improve-

ments."1

THE GOLDEN AGE.

After the completion of the reservoirs, the canals entered

upon the area of their greatest prosperity. For nearly twenty-

five years they were the means of transportation and travel -a

very convenient and comfortable means for those days. At every

lock there was always a string of boats above and below, patiently

waiting their turns to reach the other level. The blast of the

boat horns and the "Lo-o-ow bridge" calls echoed continually

from the river to the Lake. Hundreds of sixty and eighty-ton

1 Internal Imp. in Ohio. Chas. N. Morris.

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The Construction of The Ohio Canals.       479

 

freight boats plied up and down between all points, while reg-

ular passenger packets, accommodating from forty to sixty trav-

elers, connected with all stage and steamboat lines. Or more

accurately, after the fashion of the nineteenth century "thro

trains," the packets waited, to make connections with the in-

variably late stages and steamboats. Not being affected by the

bad roads, bad weather or breakdowns of the stage, nor by the

winds, high or low water of the steamboats, the packets were

seldom delayed.

These packets, often described as the Pullman cars of the

50's, bore more resemblance to the "limited" train, as each

"packet" was "diner," "sleeper," "smoker," "parlor car," "bag-

gage," and "mail coach" combined.

I can best illustrate the value of the canals in building up

the towns and cities of the State by a few quotations from a

contemporary historian,¹ who wrote in 1838: "It (Chillicothe)

enjoys many advantages, such as lying on the Ohio and Erie

Canal. Delaware is a thriving town twenty-four miles north

of Columbus. It is older than the last-named town, but not

having any connection by water with the main canal as Colum-

bus has, by a navigable feeder, Delaware has not grown up like

the canal towns."  "Newark  *   *      *    contains scarcely three

thousand people, but from its position on the canal, Newark

must always be a very important point for inland trade and

manufactures." "This town (Mt. Vernon) will one day become

a very important one when a canal shall connect it along the

Vernon River with the Ohio." "All along the Miami and the

Ohio canals are springing into life and no description can be

correct one month, which was so before."  Shortly after the

Ohio canal was put in operation, wheat commanded a higher

price in Massillon, Ohio, 100 miles west of Pittsburg, than at a

point sixty miles east of there. Fire-arms, cloth, shoes, coffee,

tea, chocolate, rum, salt, gypsum and sugar came south from

the lake ports, while wheat, corn, flour, butter, beef, cheese,

tobacco and whiskey found their way more easily to the eastern

market. In 1829 merchandise was brought from New York

city to Dayton, Ohio, by the all-water route of 1,100  miles in

1Atwater, Caleb. Hist. of Ohio, pp. 335-345.

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480      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

twenty days at a cost of $17.25 per ton. The route followed

the Erie Canal to Buffalo, the lake to Cleveland, the Ohio

canal to Portsmouth, the Ohio River to Cincinnati, and the Miami

canal to Dayton. The "Canal Counties" immediately took the

lead in industrial and agricultural growth, a lead they have

never lost, as to-day these thirty of the eighty-eight counties

contain fifty-two per cent. of the State's population.

 

 

EFFECTS.

The canal system has had two principal effects: it has de-

veloped Ohio commercially and politically. The agitation for

the project, the fight in the Assembly, the celebration of the

passage of the bill, Governor Clinton's visit and tour of the

towns of the state, aroused the people and welded them into

an acting political unit that has never lost its vigor. The effect

of the water-power furnished by the system on the early man-

ufacturing industries, at a time when steam power was almost

too costly and undeveloped for profitable use; and the relief

given to transportation by the canals, at a time when all roads

were extremely bad if not impassable during mild and open

winters, it is difficult to realize under the commercial condi-

tions that now exist. Just as the Erie and Champlain canals

made New York the "Empire State" and New York city the

metropolis of America, and as the Pennsylvania canals made

Pennsylvania the second state of the Union, the Ohio canals

made Ohio the third state in the Union.

It is very greatly to be regretted that the canals have been

neglected and permitted to deteriorate in their physical condition

and efficiency since they were leased to a privatecompany, 1861-

1877. And it is to be hoped that, following the example of

Russia, Prussia, France, Austria, and New York State, Ohio

will improve her inland waterways and thereby save to her citi-

zens one-third of their transportation charges.

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The Construction of The Ohio Canals.               481

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Atwater, Caleb.                    History of Ohio.

Bourne, E. G.            Distribution of the Surplus.

Bullock, Wm.                       Sketch of a Journey Through the Western States.

Carpenter, W. H. History of Ohio.

Chevaier, Michel. Transportation in the U. S.

Craige, E.                 The Olden Time.

Fairlie, J. A.             New York Canals. Quart. Jour. Economics. Vol 14,

1899-1900.

Griffith, P.               Two Years in Ohio.

Haupt, L. M.            Canals, Their Economic Relation to Transportation.

Amer. Economic Assoc. Pub. 1890.

Howe, Henry.           History of Ohio.

Howells, W. D.,        Stories of Ohio.

Howells, W. D.,        A Boy's Town.

Johnson, E. R.          Inland Waterways, Their Relation to Transportation.

Amer. Acad. of Pol. & Social Science Pub. 1893.

King,            History of Ohio.

Kilbourne, John. History of the Ohio Canals.

Knapp,           History of the Maumee Valley.

Morris, Chas. N. Internal Improvements in Ohio, 1825-1850. Amer. Hist.

Assoc. Pub. Vol. IX.

Ringwalt,                  Transportation in the United States.

Tanner, H. S.           Canals and Railroads, 1840.

Webster, Daniel. Reply to Hayne, U. S. Senate, Jan. 26, 1830.

Drake, E., and

Mansfield, E. D. History of Cincinnati.

History of Hamilton County.

History of the Miami Valley.

Millcreek Valley, Past and Present.

Valley of the Upper Wabash.

 

 

Harper's Magazine, Vol. 92, pp. 286-290.

Hunt's Merchant Magazine, Vol. 22.

Report of the Ohio State Board of Public Works, 1900, '01, '02, '03.

Report U. S. Census, 1890.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vol. XIII-- 31.

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482     Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

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