Ohio History Journal

THE LAST OHIO CANAL BOAT     BY ALBERT N. DOERSCHUK   Amid mammoth sweet corn and prosaic cabbage, near the now peaceful and dead port of Bolivar (once a great trading and manufacturing town noted for its life and the dash of its inhabitants), nestles the last canal boat, now a poor squatter's shelter. Long years

ago forced over the banks of the canal during a flood, this boat was abandoned where it lies, and now is the last1 remaining specimen of the all important inland water carriers of passengers and freight that played so   1 Probably the last in this section. Other sections claim to have the last canal boat. (109)

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great a role in the early development of the Buckeye

state. Being of the better type, this boat had an iron

well amidship on each side running through at the bot-

tom to water; from the stand of water in this, the

draught and evenness of the load could be judged.

While the depth of the canal was four feet yet no boat

could be loaded to draw much more than three feet for

smooth passage. The "wells" in this boat are still in-

tact, but looking down into them now one sees only dis-

mal sand. Nearby lives the last "Lock-keeper" at a

salary of $15.00 per month, shelter and garden fur-

nished, a pensioner of the state.

When a man learned that water would lift as well as

carry the boat and its burden, and the simple secret of

the canal lock came into use, prophesies became numer-

ous that the country would be weeded with waterways

by which boats would climb mountains and skip like

lambs among the hills. Others "viewed with alarm the

prospect, and trembled for the freedom which was

threatened by a menacing utility that not only defied

nature but tended to centralize wealth and tyranny, and

to strangle liberty".

The Ohio state canal from Lake Erie to the Ohio

River was 307 miles long, 40 feet wide at the top, 26

feet wide at the bottom, and 4 feet deep, and had sev-

eral seven-mile levels. With 49 locks it crossed an ele-

vation of 499 feet from zero at the river to Akron on

the crest of the watershed south of the lake. The

Miami canal from Cincinnati to Maumee was 241 miles

long. Thus Ohio, in its infancy as a state, had 548

miles of canals of standard type, while the ancient Im-

perial Chinese Canal, from Canton to Pekin, was less

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The Last Ohio Canal Boat        111 than 500 miles long. Another canal which was never finished was planned to leave the Ohio canal at Bolivar and proceed through the Sandy and Little Beaver Creek valleys to the Ohio River. Through this it was hoped to make Bolivar the queen city of eastern Ohio. The Chesapeake and Ohio canal from Georgetown to Pitts- burgh was 340 miles long, and crossed an elevation of 1898 feet with 398 locks. The Western New York, Hudson and Lake Erie was 360 miles long, and crossed an elevation of 568 feet with 84 locks. The Susque- hanna and Ohio canal was 322 miles long, and crossed an elevation of 2291 feet. The Ohio Canal Commission was created in 1822, and the first canal digging began July 4, 1825. On July 1, 1827, the first boat passed from Akron to Cleveland. There were over six thousand bidders for the parcels of

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digging and construction let south of Akron. This is

an index of how men scrambled for ready money in

those days -- and were willing to work for it. The

wooden mould board plow of the period was useless

among the muck, weeds and heavy tangled roots every-

where, and the horse scraper had not yet been invented.

Pick and shovel, wheel-barrow, wicker baskets, aprons

and human hands used by farmers, emigrants, men,

women and children were the instruments that dug the

canal. Completed in 1833, by that time Ohio had spent

sixteen millions for nearly a thousand miles of canals.

The Erie Canal, 360 miles long (advertised as only 120

hours long), cost eighty-three million dollars. The

itemized cost for one of the first boats used on the Ohio

canal totalled $2,123.34, including six horses for tow-

ing, five gallons of tar at fifty cents per gallon and $1.00

for hemp for calking, and two gallons of whisky at

twenty-four cents per gallon for "the hands".

Before the completion of the canal, freight from the

coast to interior points was $125 per ton, and after the

Erie and Ohio canals were opened this rate came down

to $25 per ton. At present by rail this rate is from $9

for 8th class, to $22 for first class freight per ton.

From Cleveland south one cent per mile was charged

for each grown person which included 100 pounds of

baggage, one-half cent per mile for each child under

twelve, and twenty-five cents per hundred weight for

extra baggage to destination.

This great system of internal water-ways extending

from New York to New Orleans, accounted largely for

the rapid development and settling of the adjacent coun-

try. Mines were opened, large mills were built, and the

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The Last Ohio Canal Boat          113

great natural resources of the country rapidly devel-

oped.

The uncovering of so much earth and decaying vege-

table matter along the sluggish waters and in the wet

and musty levels where the canal was dug, with the

poisonous exhalations from same, brought about the

plague of miasma and malaria known as "Canal Chills",

also as the "Galera", and as the "Friererah" (the freez-

ing) which came after the infection; then followed days

of fierce, high and recurring fever, delirium and parch-

ing thirst known as "Canal Fever". The victims would

first shake so their teeth would rattle, and would writhe

with clasped hands while knees knocked together; then

when the fever came on they would, unless restrained,

rush out of doors and commit all manner of violence

upon themselves.* The blessing of quinine was un-

known and there was nothing to do but wear it out or

die. Those who apparently recovered were impaired

for life and were seized each spring and fall with re-

curring "Chills and Fever". This malady attacked dig-

gers, boatmen and passengers alike with a peculiar vio-

lence that far exceeded any previous mortal ailment.

This was largely responsible for the low moral condi-

tions prevalent in the early days along the canal. It

will be remembered that Ouantrell was born on the

banks of the Ohio canal and his first experiences were

on the canal. The victims were numbered by the thou-

sands, many being buried in shallow graves along the

canal, and a great number of the engineers employed on

 

* It is now generally understood that the "poisonous exhalations" were

not responsible for the maladies here enumerated. The festive mosquito

that infested the stagnant pools along the canal was the guilty agent.

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the work died; the mortality among the less intelligent

was extremely high; men grew wary and wages were

forced upward due to this hazard. Later the now neg-

lected thistle weed wormwood (Absinthium), and the

perforated leaf weed boneset (Eupatorium), came to

be known as specifics for this ailment, and these share

the credit of having made possible the population of the

valleys. Huge crocks of wormwood and boneset tea

were kept on the stove, and the entire family would

drink of these, unsweetened, instead of water during the

"chilling" seasons.

At this day the hard fate of emigrants and others

forced to travel by canal when it was first opened

through the wilderness, can not be pictured to the mind.

One had intermittently to recline to avoid the innumer-

able low and poorly built bridges which often forced a

rehitch, the horses having to go around the bridge. A

day or two on board was sufficient to give the dreaded

"fever" to the most vigorous. Forced to lie about on

the deck or in the hold, with no convenience or atten-

tion whatever, delirous, and oblivious to place or sur-

roundings, the poor victims cared for naught and were

not concerned whether soul and body held together.

The food was of necessity of the hardest and poorest

quality; no fresh vegetables could be obtained, and

there was even no hay for the horses. The final land-

ings amidst the most rude surroundings were pitiable

for many families to whom the "towns" had been pic-

tured as flourishing communities, yearning for business

enterprise and workers by the emigrant agents working

on commission. Only the most meagre shelter was

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The Last Ohio Canal Boat        115 available, the coarsest food was difficult to obtain, and there was no medical attention whatever to be had. The canal developed its own etiquette, and the epithets of the tow path were varied and picturesque; barbar- ous pearls and gold were plastered over many of these primitive boats which were given the most fantastic names. The Pullman Company could get many a wierd name that it has not yet dreamed of from any lock keep-



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er's log on this canal. Passengers went ashore at 9 A. M. and 2 P. M. to build fires and cook their food while the horses were being fed; the hostlers joined the vil- lagers in familiar gossip while cargoes were loaded or unloaded. Very fittingly the appealing lilt of the clar- inet became the music of the canal. This brilliant and successful system  of inland wa-

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116      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications ter-ways was dissolved as the morning dew by the ad- vent of the steam railway. Traffic languished and locks decayed until 1897, Ohio, at considerable expense, re- built some of the locks and deepened the canal in places to six feet; hopes were entertained for its revival, but not a single boat ever passed the rebuilt locks. Now lilies bloom, stagnant pools fester and cattle graze in the space over which commerce once was at high tide, and where gay souls filled with the quest of adventure and profit often danced in the moonlight to the soft tunes of long ago. The canal is now a mere memory in the minds of only a few who will soon be passing, and this remaining land locked boat is but a poor speci- men of the varied craft, crude as well as splendid, laz- ily towed on the canal in those fitful bygone days.

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