Thank you for posting your stories here on my blog. I'm certain we will all enjoy reading each others adventures along the canal.
Jeff Maximovich
The Johnny Apple Seed of the Ohio & Erie Canal
Certain stories are subject to ALL RIGHTS RESERVED which will be acknowledged at the beginning of the story. No part of a specific story may be produced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission of the author except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a newspaper, magazine or journal. Any stories which fall under the terms listed, are not to be used for cinematic purposes without permission.
The Johnny Apple Seed of the Ohio & Erie Canal
Sold in most book stores use this ISBN #1424128765
2,142 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 601 – 800 of 2142 Newer› Newest»787- I'm just as confused about the whereabouts of Old Maids Kitchen as the rest of you. It's possible the bricked up cave was non-other than. The cave was sealed when a Boy Scout troop entered and was never heard from back in the 1920s as the story claims. I have never found a shred of evidence that it ever happened. Hocking Hills is home to the Old Mans Cave, so don’t be confused. These days climbing around is forbidden at the gorge. Another narrow path works across the northern rock face up high above the skating ring. There is absolutely a cave up there which can be entered if you really look for this and it's accompanied by a natural spring coming from the rock face the Indians would get their water.
788-Are you planning to re-walk the canal/ if so, when-and-where?
789
To 788 My plans are to re-walk the entire canal system a small section at a time. Anyone is invited to go along whether it be a mile or twenty we would enjoy the company. Our next walk will be rather short as last weekends walk was, were going from Massillon into Clinton.I'll post where the gathering point will be next week, please come along.
790- I was looking over this site trying to find out something of lock 12 of Canal Dover. I get conflicting information of the two deaths at the former lock. Was it a young girl that fell in, our two boys?
791-Name the Colonel who was a member of the Continental Army who was burned alive at the stake.
792--Two boys drown in the canal further up closer to Zoar near the weir at the Boy Scout Camp. I was led to believe that the boys drowned in the canal lock at Canal Dover. I thought I posted of this before but I failed to respond to posting 73 and apologize to the sender. So here’s a chance for me to catch up and get the facts straight.
“73- Hello Jeff Maximovich. I am very curious. I have heard a tale of two young boys who died in a lock somewhere in Canal Dover. Can you extrapolate on this? What was the lock number and how did they die? --Charles - Butler, PA”.
Tuscarawas County Ohio Cemeteries, Vol. IV
They were found drowned in the Ohio canal, at Canal Dover, Ohio where their father, George Smart was a lock tender. Rumor is the family, is that they were murdered by some older boys, because they supposedly had found a teacher’s diamond stickpin.
Sunday morning a very sad accident occurred near the Bolivar lock. Mr. George Smart has been employed there as a lock tender for a number of years, and lives close by. On the morning in question, he went to the locks, accompanied by his two little boys and after pulling out the grass, he went on to Bolivar telling his two boys to go back home.
They started but it is supposed they stopped at a waste weir and in playing on a log, the younger one fell in and in attempting to rescue the older one, was also drowned. The water was about four feet deep where the boys fell in, and the younger being 4 and the other only about 8 years of age, they could not get out. Their hats were discovered floating on the water about a half an hour afterward, and the bodies were soon recovered, but all attempts at resuscitating them were in vain. Both were bright little boys and the parents have the heart-felt sympathy of the community in their bereavement.
On the stone at the cemetery at Bolivar, grandma Molloy’s two brothers that were drowned before she was born on February 22, 1876 later placed this on the tome stone. “Our two little darlings have gone. My brothers have fled. Their faces no more on earth we see, they dwell among the dead.” They both died July 31, 1874. Albert E. Smart was 8 years, 4 months and 26 days old. George E. was 3 years 9 months and 27 days old.
Only one person drowned in lock 12. According to Mr.Scriber and his son who live there now, they said a small girl who was a neighbor was playing around the lock, fell in and drowned at 8 years old. That’s not why the lock was destroyed as some tell the story. I got it first hand that the bridge was collapsing from old age spanning the lock, and any deliveries, especially the coal truck, refused to cross. They removed most of the block stones for other purposes around the farm then set a couple of sticks of dynamite which loosened the remainder of the lodged block stones. Most of the lower lock is still below ground. They pushed dirt into the cavity and planted grass.
793--
Crawford County was named for Colonel William Crawford, who was burned at the stake by the Indians in Ohio in 1782.
794-I see you didn't hesitate earasing my posting yesterday about the cave which does not exist in the Summit County Metro Parks at the Gorge. Once again there is not a cave above the skating arena.
795
To-794-To the disgruntled park employee, I’m not even going to argue with you or parley about the layout of the Gorge Metro Park. Because you haven’t stumbled across this doesn’t mean it does not exist. I’ll take you up to it the next time that I’m in the area, it’s hidden well. Contact me at canalwayman@yahoo.com and let’s go up and have a look.
796 Near Dayton there was a lost indian gold mine along the banks of the Maumee River. Story has it the local indians wore alot of gold and the local tribe closed its opening when the white man arrived.
797
To 796- First off,the Maumee river is at least 100 miles from Dayton.
Secondly,Ohio has no known deposits of gold. Only Canadian gold redeposited south during the glacial era thousands of years ago can be found in our state, This takes the form of flakes that can be panned in creek beds. No commercial gold mining venture has ever been a financial success in Ohio.
If the Ohio Indians wore gold jewelry centuries ago,it's likely they obtained it through trade with their Canadian cousins- not by digging it up along the Maumee.-W.A.Seed
798-There are treasure places and gold mines which will never be uncovered that were purposely buried away forever. I personally know many men who will spend their last minutes on earth looking. The chances of unearthing them are slim to none by design from those who worked hard concealing them. I heard all the stories from so many miners about where all the gold may be hidden throughout our country, mostly in the southwest. I heard a story once that along the Maumee River was a stash of gold or a mine of some type. The early settlers couldn’t help but to notice that the Indians from the area from Lima and Fort Shawnee down to the Ohio River were covered with gold ornaments. The settlers traded with the Indians who produced gold in quantities but they never revealed its source. The Indians got smart and demanded something better than cheap tobacco and spices for the precious metal the white man thirsted for so badly. The Indians place no real value on gold but soon learned of its power. The demands of the Indians quickly changed - they wanted whiskey and firearms and white women but the white man refused to arm them or give up their women. The whiskey was given freely hoping to intoxicate them into divulging the gold’s whereabouts. Uneasiness between the two escalated and all trade came to a halt. It wasn’t too long before the Indians figured out the whites had malicious ideas and greedy motives to swindle them by offering little for their gold. It was apparent the whites would kill rather than bargain. The Indian soon learned that the gold meant death and it alone brought danger to their very existence. The Indians closed up the mine or cave, wherever it was coming from, in hopes the white man would leave. Many Indians were murdered and tortured but kept the gold’s whereabouts unknown. This story just told was purely hearsay from long ago sitting around a fire at a miner’s camp listening to endless stories. This story stuck because it named Ohio.
800-*Ashtabula County: In 1876 a bridge collapsed after a train carrying two million in gold bars was passing over it. The gold
is to have sunk to the bottom of the muddy river and has not been recovered.
*Athens County: A cave with buried gold inside is said to be located near Nelsonville.
*Carroll County: During the Revolution, $25,000 in gold coins is to be buried somewhere about a mile south of
Minerva along the north side of Sandy River.
*Clark County: A cache of some three million in gold is said to be somewhere in Snyder Park in Springfield.
*Columbiana County: Along the Ohio River, the Morgantown Gang is to have buried various caches of loot. In the 1880s the
gang frequented Woodford and East Liverpool.
*Crawford County: Outside of Wyandott on the south side of the Sandusky River, twenty-five thousand dollars is to have been
buried on John Ashlands farm during the Revolution.
*Erie County: During the French and Indian Wars, officers are said to have buried various treasure on the island of St. George.
It is located north of Sandusky. / Two miles east of Vermilion along the shores of Lake Erie, silver and gold coins are reportedly
buried.
*Gallia County: Riverboat pirates looted some twenty-four thousand in gold coins in 1876. The loot was never found as the
pirates were all killed by a posse. Somewhere one mile NE of Crown City on a bluff over the Ohio River. / Near Cheshire along the west bank of the Ohio River...gold coins have washed ashore from a previous river wreck.
*Greene County: Shawnee Indians are said to have buried a large amount of loot around 1780 while being pursued by the army.
Somewhere along the Little Miami River north of Xenia near Old Town.
*Hancock County: During the War of 1812, an army payroll was hid somewhere around Fort Finely by an officer who was
killed during an Indian attack shortly thereafter
*Lake County: A bank robber is said to have buried 100,000 in gold bars in 1862 somewhere along the riverbank of the Grand
River, two miles from Lake Erie near Fairport Harbor. It was to have been three feet deep and thirty paces northwest of a large oak tree along the river bank.
*Lucas County: A wounded army officer is to have buried an army payroll box somewhere near Portage on his way to Fort
Meigs.
*Mercer County: An army payroll was buried around 1790 somewhere on the river bank north of Fort Recovery. At
Rockford, bank loot has reportedly been found but more is cached in the area.
*Morgan County: One thousand in bank loot from 1924 is said to be buried about two miles east of Joy on the Lisman Farm.
*Muskingum County: North of Zanesville along the Muskengum River, British troops are to have buried various treasure during
the War of 1812. Somewhere in the vicinity of the Fort Wapatomica ruins.
*Ottawa County: 100,000 in sterling silver and gold coins was lot when a British warship wrecked somewhere fifteen miles
east of Toledo around Locust Point.
*Preble County: A pot of gold is reportedly buried near Eaton, known as the Bridge Family Pot of Gold.
*Putman County: John Dillinger is to have buried over a million dollars in a cow pasture on the Pierpont farm in the 1930s,
located near the town of Leipsic.
*Scioto County: A pirate hideout is to have been located at the mouth of the Scioto River where various caches are to be hidden.
*Wayne County: Buried money and loot are to be in the vicinity of Stibbs Mill on Apple Creek.
801-
To 800- Listing a group of gold deposits supposedly left by thugs & bank robbers in the early to late 19th & early 20th century is of moderate interest. None of these sites point to an actual vein of gold being situated in Ohio. Dillingers claimed loot burials,if you'd believe every urban legend,are 3 to 4 times what he ever gained from his actual short lived career.-- W.A.Seed
802-trivia guy said...
Who were they?-An association founded in the aftermath of the American Revolutionary War to preserve the ideals of the military officer's role in the new American Republic.
November 27, 2008 7:10 PM
803-Gold fever//canalwayman said...
On another note about “Gold”, I have several pictures that show tunnels below and through the mountains of New Mexico’s gold region. Many of these plainly show boarded up doors and passages leading into other rooms and underground voids. Someday, a book will be published about the gold mines of New Mexico. It would be unfair for me to do so while some of the miners are still alive that frequent those claims. It’s not that I have privileged information, but I’m a good investigator. I had gone into passages unaware about what lied ahead. Once the lamp went out and I came out slowly, crawling two hours in total darkness in total fear, remembering open pits and loose boards I had to cross.
Some of the miners were from other regions but somehow gathered when the drill rod was lost at the Lost Turtle Mine. We had “Hoppie” from Arizona who spent 50 years looking in the Superstition Mountains, looking for the Lost Dutchman Mine. Jack Crandel was more scientific, always trying out new inventions which were depth ground sonar and radar. Mr. Brown - I don’t know where he stood and I never knew whether he would shoot us if we found the gold. Then we had B.Franklin, a well-known miner through the Hillsborough Country of New Mexico who admittedly had killed men who jumped claims. Mr. Emerson who is a relative of mine, who majored in geology, knew how to study the rocks and was the sensible one and liked by all. Then there was me, a young man who believed all these crazy stories as I was spending the money in my head, buying this and that and dreaming away as I was breaking my back. I spent endless hours following some leads from other miners, some panned out. Many of those old timers would get enjoyment knowing some young man was slaving away below. I actually held a gold bar. Somehow it came out of nowhere, handed to me by an old timer. They would string one along and give a little taste here and there. I was ready to leave on several occasions but they led me to sites that kept the interest up. I learned how to set dynamite and held a jackhammer ten hours a day. The best times were as I roamed around investigating in any spare time that I could get, and sleeping. We had guys come and go, who as I was, were all promised riches beyond all imagination if you can stick it out until the end. Those were the magic words, “until the end”, anything less than that will not qualify you to reap the benefits. I had a few scuffs with a father and son deal that came out of the hills who were stealing us blindly. The son couldn’t get two words out without using bad language and he started to bully one of the older miners. It came down to him and me, as I defended someone who would have just shot him if it carried on much further. I listened as he screamed and yelled what he was going to do with my body when he was finished with it. Thirty seconds later this big mouth said, “I had enough”. His father drew a pistol on me and would have shot but Hoppie had drawn on him as well. After that, they picked up and left and then the troubles began. We had someone shooting into the camp from a distant peak and our stuff was being continuously stolen at night. We didn’t need proof to know who was responsible for these acts. In all, I worked dozens of claims. Many were dug out 500 hundred years ago by the Indians under Spanish rule. It all ended when guns were drawn among friends and we went our separate ways. That is what gold fever will do to you.
804
To 801-History of the Area
The Little Miami River basin in which East Fork State Park is situated has been home to many generations of man, dating back to nearly 3,000 years ago. Moundbuilders, the Adena and Hopewell Indians, occupied this area. The mound near Elklick Road is thought to have been built by the Adena. The Erie Indians also lived here much later, though by 1655 this nation was completely destroyed by the powerful Iroquois. The area was virtually uninhabited through the remainder of the 17th century.
As the new state of Ohio began to be settled in the early 19th century, the East Fork region attracted settlers from the east. Grist mills, sawmills, blacksmith shops, tanneries and stagecoach depots were among the early commercial activities.
In 1869, two gold mines operated in the vicinity. One mine was located near Elklick and consisted of a flume for washing gravel containing flakes of gold. The mine near Twin Bridges tunnelled underground to reach gold deposits encased in bedrock.
Not far from the present park office, the "Old Bethel Church" on Elklick Road dates from 1867. It occupies the site of a log church built about 1807 by Reverend John Collins. Some of the hand-hewn timbers secured with wooden pegs and hand-forged nails used to construct the 1818 church are still present in the existing church.
805- Ohio had a rich vein of gold at its East Fork State Park site that was busy through the Civil War hauling out a substantial payload.
806-When was the turning point where moving flour by use of barrels became obsolete along the Ohio and Erie Canal?
807-Post was commonly moved along the canal until designated postal roads were established. Our pikes generally charged a common toll which didn't add up to much, the postal carriers were exempt. Over the course of years studying our states history, I have often crossed appendages telling how army troops had movement via the Ohio and Erie Canal. This cannot be proven and lies in the category of hearsay until proven other wise. I welcome anything on this subject matter for our common knowledge.
808--What's a tidal lock and give an example where this would be needed?
809, Mr.Maximovich I would like to touch on a few things, before we get started I wish to commend this (Canal Stories) part of your website for its educational value, I’ll admit it, it has me constantly researching. To correctly answer posting 802, the Society of the Cincinnati is the answer we’re looking for.
Posting 796 is partially correct, except the river wasn’t the Maumee, but the Miami instead. The Shawnee had a great gold deposit along its banks in a place formerly called Chillicothe. Chillicothe wasn’t a stationary gathering place of the tribes and moved as the seasons changed. But near Dayton the Indians were dressed out with Gold. Huge ore deposits haven’t yet been unearthed brought on by the Taide River spawn from the Kansan Glacier which left huge mineral deposits in a gigantic basin, its drainage formed the Miami River valley draining into the Ohio River.
Bowling Green College had an in-depth study on the gold deposits that the Indians discovered. This class was given by Professor Jane Forsythe an expert on the subject who told of the great mine above Cincinnati which was discovered by the Shawnee.
A book which outlines the deep gold pockets’ here in Ohio was written by Simon. Kenton, who lived in real times then, goes into great detail speaking of the gold along the Miami.
810/Simon Kenton was the author of Pathfinder. This publication was based on true facts and his life that bridged the gap from the real days of the American Indians and frontiersman into the new age. The book speaks of gold in measurable amounts in the hands of the Shawnee and gold mines here in Ohio. Below we have an interesting piece on the Miami.
Summation of Cincinnati topography, ''A Recycled Landscape,'' the late Richard Durrell, a UC geology professor, described how three glaciers, the Kansan, the Illinoisan and the Wisconsinan, reached the edge of what is today Cincinnati before melting and transforming the land.
About 2 million years ago, our area was nearly flat, with a meandering river flowing north. The Kansan glacier stopped in Northern Kentucky about 2 million years ago, blocking that river and creating a giant lake in the area. After the glacier retreated, an ancestor of the Ohio River was born. It began to flow west, looping through what is today Norwood and on north to the Mill Creek and back south down a channel that is today the Great Miami River.
The river and water runoff cut deep ruts in the area's landscape, transforming the land into a series of plateaus. These plateaus, eventually through erosion many feet above the flowing waters, became the ''hills of Cincinnati.''
Cincinnati come from the word Cincinnatus.
811 To Trivia Guy. When the Pilgrims landed in this country what was their real purpose? What was their duties which were to be carried out for England?
812
To 811. To even approach that question as you have gives away that you’re of an advanced historical level. Hardly Pilgrims, they weren’t the peaceful easy going Englishmen with big buckled shoes and tall hats know them as, many were exiled swashbucklers and criminals whose lives were spared only to bring down the forest in the new land. Also along were the skilled woodsman and England’s strongest and best axe men and their families. They initially were here to harvest trees. England suffered a lumber shortage and had consumed all their oak trees for heavy building and ship construction. England was locked in battle with nearly every neighboring nation and to rule the world they needed more frigates, frigates require wood, oak of a hundred feet or better. They came here to wipe out the forest and done so by burning thousands of acres of pine, leaving the oaks to cut which survived the burning. That alone began hostilities with the Indians. Our best oaks were cut and shipped to England. Now there’s something we never learned in school.
813
To 808- I read about the tidal lock years ago and today looked for this passage. I feel that a tidal lock would come into play with the rise and fall with the tides, either coming and going. I talked this over today with another and he feels that a tidal lock would extend far out into a bay or sea far enough to be non-effected by the tide, whether it be in or out. By doing so the ships could navigate without problem.
DARIEN SHIP CANAL. Many attempts have been made in the last fifty years to locate a feasible routes for a canal across the Isthmus of Panama, and the U.S.government has expended considerable money in surveys; but the great cost of the undertaking has prevented active operations excepting by the notorious De Lesseps combination. In 1895, Gustavus, Karweise, an engineer who had spent nearly 30 years in investigating ship canal- routes in Central and South America, made known his plans for a new and short route, based on eight instrumental surveys. His projected line lies through the state of Columbia, between the Gulf of Darien, on the Atlantic side, and the Bay of San Miguel, on the Pacific side, and the greater part of it is south and outside of the territory included in the existing Panama Canal concessions. On the Pacific side there are about 11 m. of free navigation up the bay of San Miguel and the Tuyra River, which would need dredging out, and the remaining part of the river to a point 6o m. from the Pacific would be straightened and dredged. The canal proper would begin at this point with the (first tidal lock), of the Cordilleras, which would be tunneled a distance of 11,880 feet., and terminate in a naturally projected harbor between Cape Acanti and Tolo, on the Gulf of Darien.
814--Reading 812 makes one think of the level between Navarre and Bolivar namely Cordwood County. How about a good breakdown on this subject matter?
815, tell the story again about the drunken pigs at Moss mills,it's great.
816--Not that they were commonly used, where was the other location of a floating towpath along the Ohio and Erie Canal that also ended in failure?
817
To 814--Cordwood County is named for the thousands of acres which were cleared for farming needs between Navarre and Bolivar. The northern end of that canal level leading into Navarre was mostly hilly with steep sides with only limited farming abilities along Shepler Church Rd. Going south heading towards Rt. 212 where the land begins to flatten out were great flood plains which could be good farming. Along the southern side of 212 and before its northern bend are hundreds of acres, formerly forest. There are yet great fields between Rt.212 east and the canal where the canal bed swings a wide pattern from a northern to a southerly course dropping into Bolivar. The areas just mentioned were dense forest before the canal arrived, but being flat land, it would be ideal for farming if cleared. The farmers began the long process of removing the trees and piled the wood in great heaps, burning them. Cleveland’s steel mills were becoming increasingly active and readily purchased fire wood to burn in their blast furnaces along with coal that then was in short supply. Wood being our most abundant resource, was plentiful. The canal boat captains began to purchase the lumber from the farmers only if they would uniformly cut and stack it close to the canal for transport. These great forests began to be an unforeseen cash crop for the farmers who made a good living clearing their own land. Many farmers bought more land to clear for profit. As the fields began to materialize, the farmers began growing their crops and just about the time the fields were all cleared, the steel mills were buying coal instead of firewood and price had plummeted considerably for firewood. During its heyday while the fields were being cut, the wood was neatly stacked in cords 2x4x8 which lined the canal for miles waiting to be hauled up north; thus, the name Cordwood County was given for that section of the canal. This story comes from hearsay.
818-while living near Summit Lake Canalwayman as a boy was there a walk bridge over the canal in the area of Thorton and Bowery Sts.
820 to 817 it says that coal was in short supply, is that because the canal was in its early stages?
819
To 818-I was staying with my grandmother on Nathan St. and where it met Bowery was a walk bridge over the canal. I was on it everyday looking into the water. The canal was filled with long grass; I thought it was seaweed which was being swept by the current towards town. Looking back, I believe it was a real bridge dating back into the canal era although the walking surface was freshly planked. This bridge was used by everyone in the area. There was always old black men fishing off it and one of them named Pickle who was always somewhere along there. I never talked with him but I heard someone else call him Pickle. I can also remember shanty huts along the canal. The interstate wasn't through then and it was a short hike over to the lake. I snooped around the buildings at Summit Lake because it had all kinds of horses that were part of a merry-go-round and little cars and things to capture a boy’s imagination inside a fenced-in area. We crawled under the fence and played. At Summit Lake near the canal sat another boat and a barge; the boat was half sunk. I walked all along the canal up into the factories, past a really old building that was home to the January Paint store. No doubt it went back into the canal days. Opportunity Park wasn’t there then. I was often with a couple of kids who lived somewhere in the neighborhood. One was named Chucky. Back then, I was no more than a child with a stick in his hand throwing rocks into the canal. I do remember a boat in the canal - whether it was an actual canal boat or not, I just don’t know.
821
To 820- when the canal was being dug many of coal mines weren’t around only because of the newness of the canal. Many coal mines dotted Ohio and the smaller mines along the canal hadn’t had the need to expand until the steel industry began to grow and stemming from that other industry sprung up all over the state. Until then the industrial facilities consumed firewood until the canal could feed the hungry mouth of our industrial needs by supplying coal. The mining operations grew to compensate the industrial demands. Up into the 20th century most of the homes were heated by firewood. When steam heat was invented nearly every home used coal to fire the boilers. Today, coal still heats a large portion of our industry and is widely used with coke at the steel mills. That’s why the firewood from Tuscarawas County ended up going into both Akron and Cleveland until the demands were met using coal.
822 to 806- At first all mills used barrels for transporting flour. By doing so the customer had to pick up the cost for a deposit on the barrel and have them readily available to exchange or buy them outright. The most common method was to add an additional cost onto each pound of flour to cover the cost of making the barrel. Most mills had a barrel building facility and it was a costly operation all its own. Empire Mills from the Canal Winchester area stands in the forefront of barrel conversion by converting barrels into sacks which were easier to handle and could be broken down into smaller amounts. O.P. Chaney’s son went west into the gold fields in 1849 to make his fortune, while there he admired how the flour brought in from South America namely Chile was transported by use of canvas sacks that is much more stable than barrels bumping around. He returned home to Canal Winchester and spread the news and the mill immediately adapted this new method and from then on every mill soon caught on and followed suit. It was about 1850 that the barrels were decreasing in number as flour was moving up and down the canal in canvas sacks.
823 to 816 Lockbourne lock 30 had a floating walk bridge along a basin where a towpath couldn't be established. I don't think that it or the one used at Summit Lake was a failure, obviously they served they're purpose.
824 Examining the layout of Lockbourne’s surroundings gives no indication pointing to a floating towpath was at that place. A suspended walk bridge may have crossed a mill race. I understand the layout completely and from lock 29 the towpath was to the right moving on to lock 30, the towpath was also canal road. A change bridge was at lock 30s lower end that spanned the lock structure and the tumble and the towpath continued to a foot bridge over the Columbus feeder. I have nothing that gives a hint of a floating towpath at any Lockbourne sites from 1850 to 1900.
825-At lock 30 in Lockbourne I can't be certain of this, maybe, there was a bridge named Howards crossing.
826-825-There may have been a Howards Bridge somewhere else, but my information won't cross over to one along the Ohio and Erie Canal. In the area of Lockbourne’s lock 30 was the Howlett's Mill Bridge in an area of Lockbourne known to be a little on the wild side nick-named "Rowdy". We had a Howard’s lock 47 down in Pike County that indicates a crossover bridge was in that area. The difference between the two places is substantial with Lockbourne at mile 221, and Howards was at 291.
827 canalwayman, have you ever gave a good exploratory search of the Pugh Lock section south of Millersport on your outings. If so, explain what it is that's crossing the creek further down.
828- If anyone is interested in walking from Massillon to Clinton this Saturday we'll meet at Starbucks Coffee across from Wal-mart in Massillon at Rts, 21 and 30 at 1/2 past nine in the morning. We had a great time walking from Bolivar into Massillon, come along and trade thoughts and stories.
Best Regards: Jeff Maximovich
Canalwayman@yahoo.com
330-413- 2696
829--That sounds kindof grueling with our forecast. How many miles and how long, what's the driving arangements. Is it snow or shine?
830 to 829- We're going to put in about 18 miles and somewhere around 5 1/2 to 6 hours towpath time. What I'll do is leave my vehicle in Clinton the evening before, and it seats six. We have room for a couple of more. If you are interested leave you vehicle at Starbucks in Massillon and we'll head north. Keep in mind, just because the weather is cold doesn't mean that you need any less liquid. The time goes fast; we have a few extremely knowledgeable people who come along. Hope to see you there.
831-Tuesday, December 2, 2008 12:04 PM
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"Jean Adkins"
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"jeff maximovich"
Do you know of a young person (probably a boy) who went by BJ, who drowned in the Canal here in massillon? I don't know what time period, sorry. Jean
832- is the trenton lock accesible by foot and if so how did the boats get over the dam into uhicksville?
833 To 832- The old Trenton Feeder ditch still today runs across the countryside. For the biggest part, the canal ditch is in excellent condition - all that’s missing is the water. This was the last feeder in Tuscarawas County; the next was more than 30 miles away at Roscoe Village being the Walhonding Feeder in Coshocton County. I had previously and painstakingly researched this particular area looking for the slackwater crossing to get across to Eastport which sat 3 miles up Stillwater Creek. Further up was Uhrich’s Mill that was established along Stillwater Creek in 1806 at the rapids; thus, the surrounding village was named Uhrichsville. I have a couple of photos of this lock that can be seen by going to my home page and by clicking on rediscovered locks on the left-hand column. I found the Trenton Dam area to be quite confusing. The confusion begins up north at the New Philadelphia Lateral Canal’s eastern end. The Lateral Canal began at a slackwater pool which backed up the Tuscarawas at the Baker Dam. This sat just west of Blue Bell Avenue behind Big Lots department store; the fire hydrant marks the path of the inlet of the lateral off the Tuscarawas. The lower dam foundations and western dam abutments are still in plain view. The canal boats passed through the lateral canal and by doing so, by-passed the lower end of New Philly as the river swung around nearly making better than a 180° circle before an S curve, then headed directly south towards the Trenton Dam, or state dam as some call it. Because of the confusion of information, I walked the river several times trying to come to a decision whether or not the canal boats left the confines of the lateral canal’s eastern end and used the Tuscarawas River as a linear length slackwater channel running the distance from New Philly to Trenton. After time, I finally came to the conclusion that the Tuscarawas River was the slackwater route. For this reason if a boat loaded in the New Philadelphia’s eastern end of the lateral canal and it was heading south towards Uhrich’s Mill or Eastport, the boat would have to back track a couple miles to the Tuscarawas, then go upstream a good mile, then travel west a half a mile to re-enter the main line of the Ohio and Erie Canal. The boat would then swing around and go through Blakesfield, then turn due south towards Port Washington and then enter the Trenton Feeder only feet south of lock 16, Lower Trenton and then back track again for miles before locking into the Tuscarawas River from the feeder lock at a pool cut out along the river’s edge, then crossing into Still Water Creek. I find that whole scenario a little absurd when the river could be incorporated much easier by dropping into it from the eastern end of the Lateral canal than all that other maneuvering. Using the river as a connector has been done many times on other canal systems, it wasn’t new technology. How did the boats gain passage around the dam at Trenton? Here’s where we go somewhat on speculation. We know that the Trenton Feeder had a lock at it western end at the main line of the Ohio and Erie Canal. Physically being at the Trenton Dam, you can see a canal leading away going southeast which was formerly the diversionary river used when the dam was under construction. It’s also obvious that the feeder canal went due west a good 3/8 of a mile before elbowing south. The diversionary river may have had a giant weir on its far end at the river to serve as the overflow outlet for water control for both the river and the Trenton Feeder to regulate both. I tend to believe that no more than a guard lock was at the northern end of the Trenton Feeder at the river, I believe the river flowed freely into the feeder with plenty of block work to ward off erosion. Something sat on the far southeastern end of the diversionary river. By the looks of the busted block work that lies around, probably a rather good size weir.
To find the Outlet Lock to Uhrich’s Mill, just follow these easy directions. Walk parallel to the diversionary channel heading southeast until you meet the river, then follow it south and less than a half a mile, you’ll see some hills which the 4 wheelers use for recreational outings. On your right is the location where the lock came off the feeder. A bit further down river is the mouth of Stillwater Creek. The canal boats were towed across the river and up into Stillwater Creek a ways by some type of mechanical means. Once safely across, they were towed in the usual way by mules. I was told that on both sides of the river it had concrete supports with winches that assisted the boats crossing the river in either direction. I looked but came up empty-handed, although I believe they were there... By another, I was also told that a long cable that was stretched for miles in length tugged the boats by use of a steam-powered motor the whole distance. That’s a possibility. Another story was, it was almost a waste of time crossing the river, either it was too low or too fast and was deemed to be unreliable at the crossing for Uhrich’s Mill. The manufacturers and farmers found it to be much more reliable to carry their goods over land to the only bridge in the area crossing into the village of Tuscarawas or Trenton, (same place) to be loaded at the basin at the connection of the two canals, namely the feeder and the O & E, for freight going both directions. For that further south of Uhrichsville, their freight was taken to Gnadenhutten then ferried across to go over land into the Port Washington’s area of a small village named “Lock Seventeen” at lock 17 for loading onto the canal. Some of what you just read was purely speculation on my behalf. Most of it is factual. Other parts were derived from stories from locals and partly from my own knowledge of how things worked then.
834-831--Massillon, OH Train Wreck, May 1895
MASSILLON, O., May 11. --An improvised wreck train manned by a yard force of the Wheeling & Lake Erie here and the superintendent of transportation were through a bridge just west of the city last night.
Geo R. Gibson, trainmaster, was killed and his body is still in the debris. Henry McDonald, brakeman, was held in water neck deep five hours, lost one leg and
is seriously injured. A.J. Stout, superintendent of transportation, is seriously bruised. John Duross, engineer was carried 200 yards by the current and caught by a clump of willows. He is very badly bruised. W.R. Suydam, rounding foreman, was
burned about the legs. Half a dozen bridges between here and Sippo are
disabled. The ill-fated train had gone to the rescue of a ditched freight train at the next bridge above, which resulted from the wrecking of that Bridge.
Massillon, OH Willowbank Coal Mine Engine House Fire, Apr 1881
MASSILLON, April 22. -- The engine house, blacksmith shop and locomotive house at Willowbank coal mine, No. 3, owned by Rhodes & Co., of Cleveland, was burned to the ground last night. The fire is supposed to have started in the engine room. Loss $5,000; insured.
A HANGING BODY--Police say a body of has been found hanging from a tree in a Summit Metropark along Memorial Parkway. Officials say a body of a man was discovered along the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trailhead near the dog park along Memorial Parkway Friday afternoon in the Cascade Valley area.Apparently, a 17 year old boy fishing in the Cuyahoga River discovered what he thought was a body hanging on the other side of the river. After further investigation the boy affirmed what he thought he had seen. The boy told his mother who then contacted fire officials who then contacted police around 4 p.m.
Akron Police Lieutenant Rick Edwards told AkronNewsNow's Aaron Coleman the body is badly decomposed and looks as if it has been in the area for some time. The cause of death will be determined once the Summit County Coroner conducts an autopsy. A medcial examiner investigator was on the scene as of 6:20 p.m. Friday evening. The location of where the body was found is not visible from the towpath trail itself and is about 200 yards north of the Memorial Parkway Towpath Trailhead parking lot.The scene Friday night was covered with police, fire officials and interested onlookers.Police do say the situation is very suspicious as the hands of the the man were restrained. Although they do not know if the death was a suicide or homicide.
1877 EDDIE SLOAN, aged about ten years, son of Rev. J. F. Sloan, and PAUL HOSTETTER, aged nine, were drowned at Minerva, on the 11th, while bathing in the canal.
835-I can see where the Trenton passage by river arbitrarily has its good points and questionable issues. It seems highly probable a shorter route would be put to use. The explanation given in posting 833 seemed precise by which your scenario hits the key points. We already know that river connections work, for example, the narrows of the Black Hand Gorge worked quite adequate. The biggest hold back reveals itself when the rivers swell. It was that reason and that reason alone which steered the canal planners away from river travel using it only when being the last resort. In the case of the Trenton Feeder as an inlet for boats arriving from New Philadelphia, that holds great possibilities being that it was an optional route only and the canal passage hadn’t solely relied upon it for passage.
836- I believe that the Circleville Feeder was an inlet all the same as Trenton was for boat traffic.
837
To 836-I didn’t know how to answer posting 836 so I focused on figuring out why the feeder inlets off the river like the one at Circleville had the same type of Whalen gates which rested on a miter seal like any other lock. The walls of the inlet were the same distance apart as a lock, the reason being so that a state repair boat could enter the slackwater pool and make repairs to the dam. The Scioto River was never used for canal boat traffic except for the wharfs and dockage in the stillness of the water backed up by the Scioto River Dam in downtown Columbus. The dam was put in place to fill the Columbus Feeder that reached south into Lockbourne.
838- I tend to think the northern end of the canal system above Akron was slightly over-kill in the feeder department.
839
To 838-The water was free and was more readily abundant up north than what the rivers offered in southern Ohio. There were many feeders and many weirs in northern Ohio by comparison to what was below Columbus to Portsmouth on the canal. But if you notice, the dams along the Scioto were much wider than the usual dams you’ll find up north. They made them wider to collect every bit of water to operate the canal system. Many times during the life of the canal the Scioto ran dry because all of the water was diverted down the canal. If the dams along the Scioto were built small to mimic those along the northern rivers the canal would had ran dry more often than it had. There were some smaller dams in southern Ohio at both the Little and Big Walnut streams that worked as a slack water crossing and feeders as well. Along the Little Walnut Creek wherever a dam was put in placed that area of the stream was usually widened to accommodate a longer blocking surface, thus making a small reservoir. The larger the reservoir, the less chance of a swift current would push a boat to the edge of the dam. A well known construction habit and fact was and is, the wider the dam was built across a river would make a considerable difference in the amount of current in the slackwater pool behind the dam. A couple examples of rather small dams can be reflected on those along the Little Cuyahoga River. During the initial canal construction they used what was available up north and they used what they had to work with in southern Ohio to develop feeders.
840 I live in Summit County and this is news to me that any dams were along the Little Cuyahoga River. Where are they?
841
To 840-The Little Cuyahoga River paralleled the Ohio and Erie Canal for a short distance beginning from the area going north at lock 15 for a bout a good mile and a half or better before turning northwest just past lock 21. In that short stretch the Little Cuyahoga had two dams of no more than a good 50 feet in length which spanned the river. These feeder dams are yet located near the north end of lock 16 and just north of the sewage overflow outlet that was the former site of lock 21. There are still enough remains present to make them out. A good point which to surface, for those who think that they’re walking the real towpath to the confluence of both the Big and Little Cuyahoga and you’re not, after lock 21 it became a walking trail. The real path of the canal can be marked by the sewer trunk where the walking path meets it further down. The towpath angled northwest after lock 21 and the main sewer trunk was laid into the canal bed here and there going down the northern slope to the sewage treatment plant between locks 23 and 24.
842 - using Geick's book has Wolf Creek Dam listed on the southern outskirts of town can this be found as well?
843-Mr.Maximovich are you familiar with the publishing by a author initials D.A.M if so whats an honest opinion of the graph outlining the appearence of the placements of the Lockbourne locks to the road and the Norfolk and Western R.R.. I study the canal in my off time and by using the length of lock 29 as a ruler at its total linear stretch, I tend to believe the map is inconsistant to being factual.
844 responding to 843-Looking at the hand drawn map in question after a thorough examination it's accurate.
845--Would the Columbus Feeder be a lateral canal?
846 -which Ohio and Erie Canal town rested on the western edge of the Appalachian Plateau.
847
The village of Granville is located in Licking County on the western edge of the Appalachian Plateau. Granville slumbered in its early days without any signs of growth as the founders often thought of abandonment and moving closer to Newark to be in the hustle and bustle of the mainstream of activity. By fate, a constant water supply from Raccoon Creek was dammed and created a reservoir which extended its valuable water to the Licking Summit by way of a navigable feeder canal to operate the Ohio and Erie Canal. With this new water way that was completed in 1834, the village began to prosper and achieved early maturity going into the 1850s. The Ohio & Erie Canal which extended 309 miles from Cleveland to Portsmouth was begun in 1825 at Heath and later as planned, passed through Licking County several miles east of Granville after ascending 30 miles from Dresden. The Licking Summit was insufficient to supply enough water to operate the summit. To remedy this situation, a feeder canal was constructed bigger and wider. The original plans were to only extend Raccoon Creek by a mere waterway. When the feeder became navigable, that alone resulted in Granville becoming a thriving community. In 1880, the Ohio Central Railroad came to Granville and 10 years later an interurban street railway connected the village to nearby Newark. By then, the canal was nearly an afterthought.
848-Granville was never really considered to be a thriving canaltown nor was it born of the Ohio and Erie Canal.
The Village of Granville is located in Licking County on the western edge of the Appalachian Plateau. Settled in 1805 by New Englanders from Granville, Mass., and Granby, Conn., who sought more fertile farmland, they followed a group of Welsh settlers who, in 1803, had settled in the hills to the northeast of Granville's plat.
Before leaving New England, the village design was planned in great detail. The favorable report of the advance-surveying scouts encouraged 107 families to form The Licking Company and to buy and settle 28,000 acres of Ohio land. Advance parties came westward early in 1805 to plant com for the fall harvest and to erect a mill for sawing lumber and grinding com. They also laid out the farm and village plats. The families left New England in September, arriving in their new homeland in December.
The Granville connection
Utter writes that four prominent Granville
men were centrally involved in the
construction of the Ohio Canal:
Mower, Alfred Avery, Elias Fassett and
Augustine Munson. These men were part of the building program either as subcontractors
or as financial backers of the former. Utter
also notes that "a contemporary writer
estimated that construction to the value of
$200,000 was undertaken by Granville men,
and this only in the first years after 1825...."
[p. 1101 Munson in particular was connected
centrally with the Deep Cut construction
project.
Utter also writes that with the completion of
the Ohio Canal--along with the six mile
Granville feeder canal linking up with the
main canal--the pioneer isolation of central
Licking County finally came to an end.
Using the canal, now goods and products
from Granville and Newark could be sent to
New York City via the northern route or to
New Orleans via the southern route.
As
Utter enthusiastically suggests: "A new era
had arrived!"
849-Alligator Mound is a gigantic earthen sculpture of some four-footed animal with a long curving tail. It was built by one of Ohio's prehistoric Indian cultures sometime between 800 and 1200 B.C. Although it has been referred to as "the Alligator" since it was first reported in the Smithsonian Institution's Contributions to Knowledge, it is more likely that the giant effigy represents an opossum, a panther, or perhaps a salamander. Like the Serpent Mound in Adams County, Ohio, the Alligator Mound is not a burial mound. It is made of mounded earth and small chunks of broken and burned rock. Similar effigy mounds are known from Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois where they were built between 600 and 1200 A.D.
The Alligator Mound is one of the most remarkable remnants of Ohio prehistoric Indian heritage. It is located on a prominent hilltop overlooking the Raccoon Creek valley east of Granville, Ohio where it has reclined, Sphinx-like, for untold centuries.
Location: End of Bryn Du Drive, Granville, Ohio
850
In 1832, the Ohio and Erie Canal was completed. The entire canal system was 308 miles (496 km) long with 150 perhaps more lift locks and a rise of 1,206 feet (368 m). In addition, there were five feeder canals that added 24.8 miles (39.9 km) and 6 additional locks to the system consisting of:
1828 opens from Akron to Massillon, Ohio. The canal is 65 miles (105 km) long.
1829 opens from Massillon to Dover, Ohio. The canal is 93 miles (150 km) long.
1830 opens from Dover to Newark, Ohio. The canal is 177 miles (285 km) long.
1831 opens from Newark to Chillicothe, Ohio. The canal is 258 miles (415 km) long.
Tuscarawas Feeder (3.2 miles)
Walhonding Feeder (1.3 miles)
Granville Feeder (6.1 miles)
Muskingum Side Cut (2.6 miles)
Columbus Feeder (11.6 miles)
851 to 850 I recognize the wording on posting 850 which is word for word as its derived from the Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Just bear in mind that information which they offer is often loaded with discrepancies. Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_and_Erie_Canal ... Further down the page, it has the Sandy and Beaver Canal as A.K.A. as the Tuscarawas Feeder which is totally inaccurate among many other things. The two have absolutely no connection to one another
852
To 851- People have often said that the Ohio and Erie Canal was better than 330 miles long - that’s including its feeders and side-cuts. The feeders and side-cuts have their own names and identities which are separate from the mainline canal. For the most part, all lateral and feeder canals are connecting canals allowing passage from one canal to the other or from one place to another - town or villages with limitations. Even the canal reports have them listed separately from the main canal. I also read where the Wikipedia site has the Trenton Feeder as one-in-the-same as the Sandy and Beaver Canal and the graph someone placed there is incorrect. The Sandy and Beaver Canal became a water supply for the Ohio and Erie Canal. Its water was from Sandy Creek. No where did the waters of the Tuscarawas River influence Sandy Creek. When the Sandy and Beaver Canal was connected into Bolivar, the water was spilled over a weir into a small basin at the connection of the two and a lift lock was in place to either lift boats onto or off of the Sandy. If we were talking railroad language and when a set of tracks were put in off the main line, it would be called a spur, especially if it doesn’t make a complete connection bringing you back to the point of origin or main line. Lateral canals were pretty much the same as a spur with only one way in or out, having to stop at a designated point enabling any further travel. Side cut or lateral canals would be useless without a mainline connection to move their freight in or out. That’s not true for a feeder canal which is the life support of the canal system which in itself is extremely valuable.
I was asked once if the Ohio and Erie Canal could have survived without the aid of the Columbus Feeder and my answer was definitely yes. The state had already planned a dam to be built across Big Walnut Creek that backed up the water for a feeder into the Ohio and Erie Canal before the Columbus Feeder project began. The Columbus Feeder came down and was built inline with the proposed inlet gates of the Big Walnut Feeder at Lockbourne. Here’s something interesting about the Construction of the Columbus Feeder. The work began on April 20, 1827. It took 4 years to complete. The canal was to be a short project but was halted by solid rock and terrain difficulties; thus, having to take alternate courses and changes before its completion. It took a considerable toll on completion dates. The first section which was completed was its northern end that included the dam on the Scioto, the area of the slack water dam and feeder. For some reason, the ground on the proposed canal route was plagued with an unusual hard pack which was nearly impossible to sink a shovel into. To remedy this situation, the canal construction supervisor opened the waters at the head gates of the feeder at the Scioto and allowed the water to soften the earth where the men were digging. They ended up working in a foot of muck. This process was very effective except it took the lives of the men who worked, who began getting sick and their feet began to rot off. The regular worker fled the area to work elsewhere and the digging came to an abrupt stop. Almost inhuman and treated as slaves, the Governor of Ohio wanted this connection made at any cost - even human life, and the first mile of the canal was constructed by inmates at the Ohio State Penitentiary until they just refused to work because so many just up and died, working day and night like dogs. Even with an early-out option handed down from the Governor himself for completing the canal on time, the prisoners chose to stay alive by staying out of the canal bed, who then faced beatings and starvation and even death for disobeying orders.
The Columbus Feeder connected Ohio’s capital city to the Ohio & Erie Canal in Lockbourne. It was nearly 12 miles long with 2 lift locks and 2 guard locks. The feeder canal at Lockbourne would have been used with or without the Columbus Feeder connection with the Big Walnut Creek being so close at hand. I reviewed the Columbus history department and they seem to fall short on one of the three dams in which two are present today, it being the former slack water and guard lock dam. I fell short finding the necessary work providing the name of the former dam which held back the water for the feeder. I’m led to believe that today’s Griggs Dam was built near or on the foundations of the original feeder dam. It’s said that the Griggs Dam built in 1908 and was the first dam to span the Scioto River. We don’t have to dig in very deep to find that statement incorrect. The following is from the Columbus Historical dept.
Griggs Dam
Completed in 1908, Griggs dam was the first dam built across the Scioto River. Julian Griggs was the chief engineer for Columbus at the time. The purpose of the dam was to provide an adequate supply of water for the growing city.
O'Shaughnessy Dam
The O'Shaughnessy Dam was completed in 1925 to provide an additional water source for Columbus and the surrounding communities and to further control flooding that was especially apparent in the 1913 flood that destroyed much of Franklinton. Originally, it was proposed to increase the size of Griggs Dam, but Jerry O'Shaughnessy, superintendent of the Columbus Waterworks opposed this idea and instead proposed building a 2nd dam further up on the Scioto. Although Jerry O'Shaughnessy didn't live to see the new dam completed, his idea for building the 2nd dam proved mostly successful. Combined, both dams provide 6.2 billion gallons of water for Columbus while only restricting a small percentage of the river's natural flow.
853
To 816 and 824. Researching the area of the slack water crossing at Lockbourne distinctly shows a floating walkway through a slackwater crossing at Big Walnut Creek. This was just north of the state dam running directly north parallel to the county road bridge I believe is Rowe Road. This map can be viewed by logging on at-http://www.canalsocietyohio.org/columbus_feeder_canal.htm
854 = as an amateur historian I understand that you have uncovered a lot of valuable insight of how things worked around Canal Dover & New Philadelphia. Living around this part of Tuscarawas County my entire 65 years, I hadn’t ever heard of the Baker Dam or found the spot where the Lateral Canal entered and made the separation from the mainland making Blue bell Island. These things were learned on this site. We have a dam spanning the river today next to the water treatment plant that was built in the 1940s by the workforce of the WPA, was this dam built overtop the first dam which was a slackwater.
855-Where were all the toll gates and scales located on the Ohio and Erie canal?
856---The toll stations were strategically located along the entire length of the Ohio-Erie Canal. In all there were eleven toll houses beginning at Cleveland at the weigh lock, lock 42 general vicinity, Akron at the intersection of the P.O.Canal, Massillon at the downtown basin, Canal Dover at West Tuscarawas, Roscoe at the intersection of the Walhonding Canal, Newark on market Ave and 1st., Carroll at the connection of the Lancaster Lateral to the Ohio and Erie at the basin, Circleville at the western end of the Circleville Basin along the dock, Waverly at lock 44, and Portsmouth at the Union Mills dry goods store. Each canal boat was required to pay a toll or a fee for canal usage.
857 to 856 of the eleven tolls which was perched high on a hill to avoid being washed away?
858-The toll collection station in Dover was perched high above the canal to warrant of a washout by the Tuscarawas river. This particular one still has remains at Front St, and West Tuscarawas Ave at the bridge. The toll collections at Portsmouth set much higher itself but it had no real threat of being washed away by the Scioto.
859- A former dam wasn't present in Canal Dover where the municipal dam sits at now. A guard lock was cut from the canal near the place where the dam is at today to service the other side of the river and the Rolling Mills operation where a canal was present across the river as well.
860
To 859- I don’t feel the crossing was where the person posting 859 thinks it may have been. I have a map showing the inlet off of the Tuscarawas River to Dover Rolling Mills was up the river a couple of hundred feet above both the main road and railroad bridges. I personally looked extensively for a guard lock or remains or an indication on the canal side of the river, and I believe an outlet may have been about 300 feet up river on the same side as the toll booth. Today, mobile homes and homes sit along the flat area approaching West Tuscarawas paralleling Front Street. I researched for quite some time to figure this dilemma out. There was a canal opposite the river that was a manufacturing access channel which serviced the mills across the river. I feel that I located the outlet and inlet on both sides for a possible slackwater crossing but can’t really be absolutely certain yet how the boats were kept from being whisked downstream. One cannot rule out the possibility that a slackwater dam existed.
861-where on the Ohio and Erie Canal was the river at its furthest distance from the canal?
862 responding to 860. The outlet to the Tuscarawas River to service south Dover was nearer to Potchner Drive NE on the west by north side of the river. Directly on the opposite bank is yet today the inlet and canal bed cutting diagonally across the isthmus towards both bridges.
863- did you know that the river in Pennisla Ohio was rerouted to accomodate the Ohio and Erie Canal?
864
To 863-Its true the course of river in the town of Peninsula was altered for two reasons, one of which is, if not altered a second aqueduct would have had to been constructed between locks 29 and 30. The second reason the course was changed was to dam the river and at the hair pin corner on the Cuyahoga River at the Moody and Thomas Mill built in the 1830s. If one gets out and surveys the area, you can find the original path of the Cuyahoga River. The original course started at the sharp bend and come around a full circle to nearly the same place and formed a nearly perfect circle. The Cuyahoga River had another change in direction up in the steel mills of Cleveland. The purpose was to align the river and deepen it for the mills; its reasoning was also to incorporate a ship turn around section near lock 42.
865 to 851 -There are many places where the canal and river put some distance between them. I'm not going to go out and measure either do to the amount of work involved. As a good guess as anyone's, I would think that in northern Ohio that Summit Lake is quite a ways away from any main stream. And in southern Ohio, Frazeysburg, is far from a major river and below the Licking Summit before and after the Walnut Creek connections, there may have had a few stretches where a stream was quite a ways off possibly Carroll, was the furthest from any major stream.
866-True or not? Was there a plan on the table back in 1905 to expand the first 175 miles of the Ohio and Erie Canal to 50 feet in depth and 200 feet in width to revive the crippling canal making it competitive to the Erie Canal?
867 to 834—John Gala drowns in canal Saturday night at the Huston ST .Ferry.
John Gala, 37, drowned in the Ohio and Erie Canal at 9:30 when crossing the water in a small boat attached to a wire. Since the Huston ST .railroad crossing was vacated and the canal bridge abandoned when the east Tuscarawas Viaduct was built, the ferry had been used to cross the canal. Two other men drowned at this crossing a few weeks ago…
A telephone message informed police that a man had fallen into the canal said officers. Baylor and millbourne recovered the body. Joe Dormish had been diving for it before the officers arrived. Barberton Herald- 8-7-24.
868-was the canal fulton mclaughlin drydock surrounded by a dike?
869 Canalwayman, I recently sent you a plethora of information about Sugar Creek Dover and New Philadelphia plus an enormous amount of never seen information about the canal. What's your conclusion now how the boats exited the canal to enter the Lateral canal?
870-We have a busy site today don't we? I have different episodes on the subject of the first white child registered here in Ohio and your former site had a great caption which I cannot find anymore. How-about reposting that piece.
HELLO EVERYONE AND THANK YOU FOR POSTING TO THIS SITE. TODAY I HAD TO ERASE A POSTING THAT HAD AN EMAIL AND FULL NAME CONNECTED TO IT. THE REASONING BEHIND THIS SITE STAYING INCOGNITO IS SO IF I HAD TO USE YOUR INFORMATION IN A PUBLICATION, I DON'T HALF TO GET PERMISSION TO USE YOURS OR ANYONES PUBLICATIONS. IF YOU REALLY NEED YOUR NAME POSTED TO A REMARK, REPLY, OR ANY POSTING, FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS. SEND YOUR WORDING TO canalwayman@yahoo.com WITH A NAME PHONE NUMBER, AND YOUR OCCUPATION AND I'LL MAKE CERTAIN THAT YOU GET LISTED IN THE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE NEXT BOOK.
871-The Canal Dover and New Philadelphia's canal's with its branches was very complex. So far no-one has honed in on its actual mechanical design. This site will soon uncover the way things worked down here because you're getting close. Not to stir things up, but the canal bible never touched base and basically went right over this area of the canal without diving into the functions at Sugar Creek and across the river. I and others appreciate the time you and other put forth discovering how the system really worked. Keep this in mind, Sugar Creek had an Outlet and inlet.
872…Mr.Canalwayman, I read your book and found that sections were left out. Is there a reason why Havensport and other towns weren't spoken of? You would want the reader to think you have a sharp eye for detail by the looks of this site. It’s informative and you hit key points never before mentioned, I have a little dilemma, I read where you stumbled across an old fire pit near Chillicothe which is probably more of a hunters doing, who knows? We do have an oven that comes to the waters edge along the Ohio and Erie Canal, a good sharp researcher would have easily found this. Where is this oven located?
872
To 872-The book originally covered everything including Havensport, but the publisher insisted that I shorten it a bit. That bothered me some because the book was already small in pages. We sat down and started eliminating this and that and it was rewritten leaving things out. It wasn’t intended to be that way. The next book will be a bit more technical, and it’s this site which is helping us get to the bottom of the facts. Anyone can jump in and say their piece and make corrections. I was mailed some great stuff about Dover and New Philadelphia during the canal era last week and it covers some things that I may have suspected already. The boats left the confines of the Ohio and Erie Canal at a guard lock built into the dam at the eastern end of Sugar Creek Basin as an original map from the 1840s shows. Once in the Tuscarawas, they then pulled the boats down the towpath on the western side of the river which is still there today and entered the Lateral Canal on the opposite side using a slack water pool behind Baker Dam. It also clearly displays a lift lock on the lateral canal’s eastern end. The lateral canal had many contractors but it was the team of Seaton and Leonard who completed the work on the canal. The canal was surveyed using the Lancaster Lateral Canal Co. Now, about that oven in southern Ohio. That may have been put there by hunters but I really doubt it. After I mentioned this brick oven in my book, it was removed. I put a GPS reading on it so I could return to it. When I did, the old-looking brick and mortar oven was removed. There is another oven that rests on the banks of the canal. This can be found about 2 to 2 1/2 miles south of Canal Fulton on the eastern side of the canal. If you go to the other side where it’s located, you’ll find an old wooden bridge as well, crossing a creek. Up the hill from the oven sit the foundations of something from the canal era with a 15 foot high chimney standing tall.
873-The oven on the south of Canal Fulton is the one I had in mind. You're obviously observant and have a keen detail for things. Do we have any working weirs between Canal Fulton and Massillon left working?
874--Since you have walked the canal from point A to Z that probably gave an insight on how hard the canawlers life really was. I read where you suffered some pains from the walking, I can almost imagine the pains you went through. I and a few others have walked the towpath the distance of the corridor ten miles at a time. By the time we get to the eight mile mark with two miles remaining the pain is so intensified we can hardly finish. I’ll really hand it to you for such dedication.
875 to 873- We have a working weir that section and its water enters the canal at the sluice gate at Butterbridge Road and travels for several miles where it spills over the weir back into the Tuscarawas. This weir can be found at the only walk bridge along the towpath we have nearer to Massillon. Now I have a good question for you. Where would be the longest section of the canal be where the eastern bank of the canal has miles of block work? This does not include the work in the Blackhand Gorge which has the most block work anywhere. A note, the water only enters at Butterbridge when the water level is up in the river. It’s only then that the waters spill at the weir.
876-When walking the towpath from Cleveland to Portsmouth 3 years ago, it took a toll on me, and I still have lingering pain. My back often hurt so badly that the pain shot down my legs, stemming from that, I nearly called it off all together doing that adventure back in 2005. In preparation before I started out back in 2005, I went through several months of rigorously working out by carrying a heavier than normal back pack and running up and down the stairs at Canton’s McKinley Monument Park. There was one thing which I never anticipated or prepared for, and that was, the long hours of the pounding to my feet mile after mile. While walking, the pain became so extreme sometimes, resting wasn’t the answer, it carried on through the evening when you’re suppose to be recovering. After a restless and painful evening, I could hardly get up or get moving again the next morning for lack of sleep because of the pain. After a while, while moving along the canal day-in and day -out, I often thought about those who walked the towpath day after day for countless years before me, plying the Ohio and Erie Canal cutting out a living and wearing their bodies down. I can really say that I feel real sympathy for those who walked and took part in the canal way of life so long ago. I often tried to visualize their way of life, and the pain that I endured, put me as close to their suffering as it can get, except the crude living conditions they had, which added to their misery. A big difference between them and I is that, at the end of the day, I had a nice home to return too. It all starts over again as soon as I started out again heading towards Portsmouth, counting the miles. I often stayed out on the towpath to mimic the life of the canawlers. It’s probably my age which factors in; because after about 15 miles of walking the pain starts surfacing, as my feet and extremities begin swelling up from fatigue. Yesterday, I swelled up so much, I had to fight to remove my gloves; they had to be pulled off by another. Often enough brought on by long walks, other areas of the body begin wearing away by gaulding and chaffing, the only answer in to apply Vaseline. Lately, I have been re-walking the towpath with my new walking partner; he and I can cover some ground by walking on average a good 17 minute mile. We walked a good stretch of the northern end of the canal just yesterday and we had to quit sooner than expected by the strong head wind which began picking up, but we still put five good hours and several miles in our wake. My new walking partner is from New Zealand, has walked all over the world making record times. He is well noted for his work by walking the south island of New Zealand, and he has walked thousands of documented miles. He has given me plenty of tips and ways to reserve power for the long haul. On a good day we can cover better than thirty miles, but not without agonizing after affects, that will leave you nearly crippled for a couple of days. Years back, my walk from Cleveland to Akron covered more than 30 miles, which hurt me so badly; I could hardly sleep the first night out. I got up the next day and walked from Akron to Massillon, which in itself nearly left me helplessly crawling the last mile into Wal-Mart at Rt. 21 & 30 south of Massillon, where I spent the second evening. The third day was even worse, to continue, I had to actually drug myself to continue on by drowning myself in high energy drinks like Full Throttle and consumed pure sugar and anything sweet, and by swallowing a bottle of Tylenol to fight off the pain. Back in the canal era they didn’t have aspirin to do the same when the pain set in, in its place; they consumed plenty of whiskey to dull or remove the pain. It really makes my think why whiskey was so important back then. It was probably used out of necessity for those mule skinners and hoagies’ that walking forever down the towpath and for those who were bitten day and night by horse flies and mosquitoes. Taking a good long swig was probably filled with pleasure. Whiskey alone was the driving force which kept the canal diggers working by keeping them drunk enough too forget their pain. I actually feel that I have a strong connection with those who suffered the long miles along the towpaths of the Ohio and Erie Canal, because I have gotten a first hand taste of the reality of it...
877-WHAAA hahah Whaa canalwayman you big old sissy i'll show you what suffering is-the average skinner put in 50 miles per day. when's the next walk tuff guy?
878-To the individual who previously posted in 877. Is there any proof that the average canal walker made fifty miles in a single day. You need to remember then the boat stopped at every lock and they probably took some time to talk. These days someone would just keep on going with no activity at the lock as was then.A ten mile walk is hard on the body when pushing straight through. I hardly feel that canalwayman is a sissy.Perhaps who ever you may be should demonstrate ones abilities to cover so many miles in a single day before making an acusation of that nature. Read below about shoes, it may be of assistance.
well-constructed walking shoe should carry you 300 to 500 miles, which translates to three to six months for most walkers, says Fenton. At that point, the midsole will have lost a good deal of its ability to cushion, the outsole will be showing signs of excessive wear, and the upper could be pulling away from the midsole (more plainly, you may have suffered a blowout). One sure-fire way to know when you need a new pair: Once you find a pair of shoes you really like, buy two pairs. Designate one pair for daily walks, and save the other pair for your Sunday stroll. When the everyday pair looks noticeably more worn than the Sunday shoes, toss the beat shoes and make the Sunday kicks your daily ones. Then buy a new Sunday-only pair.
879-What was the name of the first canal boat to be constructed in Coshocton County? What was the name of the fist boat to enter Coshocton County and where was it built?
88o
To 877 You're really not worth getting to upset over. If you really want to put down fifty miles in a single day of walking and pull it off, you have my utmost respect. We'll be in Canal Fulton Saturday, so come and show your stuff.
881-The first boat to enter Coshocton County moored at Roscoe Village and was marveled upon for days by curious visitors. The boat was the Monticello which was on its maiden voyage from Cleveland on August 24th, 1830 to its new home. The first boat launched in Coshocton County was built by builders Thomas, Butler and Louis. Christened the canal boat (Renfrew) this boat was set to launch on May 19, 1831, named in the honor of James and William Renfrew who were distinguished citizens of Coshocton.
882Thomas Andrews of Butler, Ohio writing under date of March 7th, 1881, in your paper of March12th, 1881, seems to think that his mother, born near the present site of Steubenville, April 15th, 1784 was the first white child born within the limits of present day Ohio. In that he is doubtless in error. Much less was the daughter of Robert Bradford, born January 9th, 1794, ten years following entitled to that distinction, as the following statements of facts clearly show: In April 1764 a woman whose husband was a white man, was captured in Virginia, by some Delaware Indians, and were taken to one of their villages on or near the Wakatomika at the Muskingum, now we know as Dresden of Muskingum County. In July of said year, she while still in captivity, gave birth to a male child. She and her child were among two hundred captives who were restored to friends and family in November 1764, under an arrangement made by a certain Indian Chief with Col.Boquet, her husband being present at the exchange receiving her. This white child being born in the Muskingum valley was the first white child born to our state, of we have rich reliable accounts; even with this we aren’t able to give an exact time or place of birth, its name or subsequent history. Moreover it’s highly probable that some white children were born to the wives of white traders among the Indians some of who had their families with them, for years before the times of Bouquet’s expedition of 1764, but this opinion I am not able to verify.
In 1770 a white trader named Conner, married a white woman, who was a captive among the Shawnees, near the Scioto River. During the next year she gave birth to a male child probably where the marriage took place. This family in 1774, removed to Schoenbrun, one of the Moravian missionaries along the Tuscarawas River, where another child was born to them.
In April 1773, Rev, John Roth and wife arrived at Ghadehutten on the Tuscarawas, and there, on July 4th 1773 gave birth to a child, who the next day at his baptism, by Rev, David Ziesberger, was named John, Lewis Roth. He grew to manhood and died at Bath, Pennsylvania Sept 25 1841. John Lewis Roth it is clear to my mind, was therefore the first white child born within the limits of Ohio, whose name sex time of birth and biography are known for certain.
It has been claimed a child was born to French Canadian parents at or neat Loramie Portage, now a part of Shelby County, about the year 1774, but there is nothing sufficiently definite or authentic in this case in either time or birth, as to challenge belief. This child then cannot be brought into account.
Joanna Maria Heckewelder, daughter of the distinguished Moravian Missionary, was born at Salem, one of the Moravian settlements on the Tuscarawas River, April 16, 1781, and she was the first white female child born upon Ohio territory, as to whose time and place of birth and death and subsequent history there is no uncertainty. She lived out her life and died at Bethlehem Pennsylvania, September 10th 1868 in the eighty eighth year of age.
We have at least four births which occurred before that of Patience Carpes, (The mother of Thomas B, Andrews) born in 1784. Sarah Bradford was born in 1794, ten years following Patience Carpes, was, it may be, about the twentieth white child born on Ohio soil, but probably has the honorable distinction of being the oldest person living in Ohio that was born within its present limits. This information was found in the Archives of the Norwalk Reflector in July 7th, 1934 edition.
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883 to 852 I totally disagree with the statement from the Columbus history dept, claiming the Griggs’s Dam was the first to cross the Scioto River in or about 1908. If it were only Columbus we were referring to that statement still fall short of being accurate. The Main St. and Friendship Park Dam was the first, its purpose was to back up a water supply for the feeder canal built 70 years ahead of the Griggs Dam.
884
I've just returned from a 3 1/2 week gold prospecting tour up & down the Great Miami & Maumee rivers. No gold was was discovered. Unlike Coronado & the Conquisidors I managed to survive my quest for El Dorado. Although my feet hurt probably more than the now legendary muleskinners of a bygone era.
Actually I made that tale up-Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry & safe Christmas.--W.A.Seed
885-- Mr.Seed, you certainly have a great sense of humor. That was probably the best thing I read all day, and I needed that. That statement is actually funny as heck. I know, and you know, that Ohio is not the Klondike Gold Fields, and we never had anything comparing to the 1849, California Gold Rush. I done some further research on the subject and there wasn’t enough gold found to fill an old boot. Mr. Seed, I have missed your input, and intellect. I wish everyone who watches this site a wonderful Christmas and especially to you Mr.Seed. and all your family and friends. Jeff
886-A small piece of history was just torn down. My Great -aunt Gertie house was on State St. was recently razed to make room for Walgreens. The tidy white house was a good one hundred years or better old. It had a side porch which faced the canal and there was a reason for that. Aunt Gertie lived in that house from 1879-1960. Her father was canal boat Captain-John Reichard 1854-1927.
She spent her youthful summers on the canal as did her sister hazel, my grandmother, who was born on the canal onboard her father’s canal boat while sitting behind the old match company. The family lived on the old canal boat in the summer but stayed the winter in the Portage Lakes then named New Portage before Mr. Ohio Columbus Barber come to town.
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Mr.Moritz Young owned the general store and boarding house and butcher shop on State St.between the Tuscarawas River and the canal. When the canal was frozen over my grandmother worked there. The Reichard home was torn down last summer. It stood on what is now Ashland Court high on a bank overlooking the canal. He had learned to wire his own home when electricity was invented. He was known for having his grape arbors and outhouse with lights, imagine that! A lighted bathroom then.
A bridge now spans the river and the canal. Traffic moves quickly over it now, but once the wide open speed was a staggering 4 mph. The Reichard family hauled good from Cleveland to Zoar then to the Ohio River at Portsmouth. Grandma had fond memories of her childhood. Fishing, swimming and most of all being on the Ohio and Erie Canal. Sundays were special because if a preacher was available all the boats would gather around and they could walk from boat to boat and meet other canal people.
During the winter months Grandma attended riverside School, a one room school house with only 8 years of study. It sat at the corner of State ands fifth St. during her marriage to grandpa they owned the house behind the Portage school playground and yes, I can still remember the tombstones. Grandma’s other sister great auntie Sis Coffman lived on the corner of Summit and Burt Sts. All of them lived a stones throw of the canal. Their houses still stand but they have been gone along time.
Progress is so important but it’s still sad when the colorful parts of Barberton’s history slowly disappear. Copies of captain John Reichard log books for his years on the canal are now available for viewing at the Barberton public Library. All the names mentioned have here already passed on.
887
To 868- This dry dock was an integral component of the Ohio and Erie Canal system in order to facilitate the occasional repair of canal boats. The McLaughlin dry dock once operated out of Canal Fulton, Ohio at canal mile 55. This dock was able to repair two boats at once which made it well-known for that alone. At the dry docks canal end, there was a removable walk bridge which lifted or swung out of the way to gain access to the lock. When finished, a boat returning to service could pass back into the canal the same way it entered. A much smaller version of whalen gates were at the opening point which rested in the same fashion as the larger doors that were designed to rest against a miter seal. Just like the larger doors, they had wicket doors all the same to allow the water to pass, allowing the cavity to fill. After the boats entered the repair dock, the water was let out by draining it back into the Tuscarawas River through a pipe which was directly behind the facility. All the work was done under the open sky in its early beginnings but a roof was used later on. The dock was surrounded by a rather high fill which could be called a dike. The reasoning for the dike was to keep out the river when seasonal floods raged into the area. Once the water was drained, the boats settled onto stanchions which were placed well in order to elevate the boats above ground to gain access below the craft. The main reason for boats being docked was to repair leaks or a busted rudder or whatever was called for. Many of the boats were laden down with heavy cargo upon entering which called for more supporting along the keel in order to keep the boat from busting in half once out of water. The idea was to distribute the weight evenly. The floors were made of the strongest oak planks. Next to the dry dock facing town was the office under roof and boiler house and storage building that was partially covered by a lean-to type structure. A water tank was dug out for reserve water to be boiled for contouring the wood and sharp bending. The boiled wood was softened in the process, then bent fairly effortlessly. A big stove and a kiln was set up on the premises for any metal requirements as well as a blacksmith shop to do the metal work that was necessary while making repairs. The dry dock was a place to get more than boat repairs done and the townspeople used the facility for all types of expanded repairs. The McLaughlin dry dock offered repair for buggies or anything that needed mending, riveting or welding. The dry dock worked all season long as mentioned before, tending to anything that the people of the community needed fix. The dry dock had many in-house capabilities and made all their own nails and screws and boiled sap to produce good, pliable non-hardening glue which kept the craft water-tight. Today, the McLaughlin dry dock houses the canal boat Saint Helena II which is used for canal rides during the summer season. This boat is made of cement. The plank flooring has been gone forever and now is lined with rather large piece of limestone.
888-Memories of the old canal: The return trip from New Orleans had to be made on foot or by horse back. This trip was an interesting experience which should be written of. But I’ll reside to the events of here at home in Ohio in Licking County. I wish to start by thanking Mr. Collins for his interest in the work of preserving the facts about these old things, and the fact of the matter is, he was so filled with these things that he had read in a series of long ago, it would take him a life time to relay his own personal findings and facts.
It was unusual for woman readers to indicate that they have many memories of things that happened long, long ago, but a very splendid exception to the story fell into his hands which he will share with us. This great piece was passed down by a descendent of the former canal era whose name was Louella Fant whose been gone by now a half a century. Reading in a recent issue of the Advocate, about the canal brought back to her memory a very detailed and vivid picture of the past and enabled her to Reminisce the good times along the canal. One thing which sticks in her mind for one reason or the next was, a boat with a smoking stove pipe rising from the roof billowing out its black smoke. The packet always had the woman’s touch with dainty curtains, for it was home, not only for her, but those who entrusted her to make the passage as comfortable as possible. She kept chairs and stools on a small sun deck designated for the passengers; it was in plain view of barrels, baskets and old wooden boxes. The men were generally tooling on top as the woman and children dressed with calico dresses and sun –bonnets, or often a better clad of silk, with shawls to their shoulders with dainty lace with straw bonnets kept in place by a fancy ribbon tied below the chin. They occupied the chairs on the sun deck and often held fancy sun-shades to show off the most modern and fancy up-to-gate wears was always in fashion. The boat woman had maybe two dresses, one to wear each day and that special one for occasions. They were often looked down upon, but pride gave her the strength to hold her head much higher than those who whispered. The men and boys who lived along the canal always made appearances when a packet was coming down and would holler and whistle as a pretty face would often pear out the window. Persons on board often ogled the natives-called to them in banters viewed the landscape o’er with contempt or dropped the slant of the sun-shades and looked on. She remembered sitting in a buggy with a canal bridge blocking the way, waiting for a boat to pass, it was quite the adventure, if one had the time to wait and was in no-hurry. It would appear first just a horse or a mule way off, a long stretch of hawser, or chain traces to a whipped tree, or any single tree could be called that for it connected the animals together. After that came more ropes then the boat slowly passed with a dead silence except for the hooves’ hitting the ground and the canal crew and onlooker just stared and gazed. Off in the distance a man waited who stood still like a statue as we approached the lift. She patently watches as they passed into the stone room and glided to a soft stop with mild bumping. All around was big stone room and soon to be the massive door closed and the ropes were throne up to the handler and wrapped to the capstans. On top in anticipation a man turned a lever and you felt a sudden movement in your stomach as well as the wall became much higher as we slowly passed lower into the block room with a roar of water sucking. When the boat hit bottom the men open the big gates and we were off again, only the roof and stove pipe could be seen moving inside from afar as the pounding was heard as the men jumped back on pulled the lines. That made her think of the time they left the Newark lifts and moved into position for to cross the North Fork Aqueduct that was recently overhauled. The crew too often jokingly and was a bunch, made all think the passage was unsafe. In doing so the passengers become sickened from the fear, by then the crew told of there foolishness and was no chance of danger. We crossed and the spanned, it creaked and moved below us, on past we headed for Black Hand Narrows. Circa- 1924
889-I recently read your exploits of the New Mexico gold regions. I lived in El Paso, Texas during WWII stationed at Fort Bliss. on the weekends a group of us soldiers met in Alamogordo and went into hills up hi-way 54/70 to visit some caves and old Spanish mining operation thought to be from the days of the Conquistadores and it was fascinating to see. Returning again forty years later with some comrades there was nothing left to see, or any word of this place, except the historian at the NASA Space Museum who said he heard that the Government closed every thing up in 1944 throughout the military region having the word gold connected to it, spanning from Hot Springs, to El Capitan. That makes plenty of sense because we were in there in 42.
890=We read this section of this wonderful website often and from its core, we as a family have come to understand the workings and history behind the Ohio Canal. We have a story which has accounts of my great- grandmother and grandmother, mother and us all who are tied into the Ohio and Erie Canal era.
I was born to two Irish Catholic parents in 1911 in Chillicothe, Ohio. As a child, I often gazed upon the many canal pictures that were scattered about the house and dreamed often about them. As the years unfolded into the 1940s, I was intrigued one day sitting at the table at a Thanksgiving gathering. From then on, the canal has fascinated me. The conversation was the living conditions that our grandmother and mother both must have endured living a good part of their life on the canal. My mother often avoided getting into detail about her link to our past as canalers. My mother’s mother - my grandmother, has a cloudy past when it comes to her early childhood. We suspect she came over from Ireland and landed here in America somewhere about 1850/55. She lived in New York for a spell. How it was that she came west keeps us bewildered and more so, how she ended up in Chillicothe. We never heard the mention of her parents and the family tree stops right there. Her name before marriage we believe was Katie O’Sullivan, born in Ireland in 1840 and lived until 1898, dying here in Ross County, Ohio. We came to figure out Katie hails from Munster province and County Limerick close to the Atlantic Ocean. This would be a place where the lottery drafts to work act in New York by digging the canal was popular. Those days, with so much hostility and starvation throughout Ireland, the people jumped at the chance to leave. The job speculators offered passage to America in exchange for several years of service by working for New York State as laborers. Katie and her parents, two sisters and two brothers must have arrived in our country by these means. Grandmother had no idea where the brothers and sisters had gone, she never spoke well of her parents I understand. We often would wonder why. My mother claimed that grandmother bottled up when she was asked about them and left to be by herself. No one really knows what happened to Katie’s family. For whatever means or reasons, it was unfair to divide the children forever. Grandma Katie lived her whole life without knowing anything of her bothers and sisters. What a shame to carry that pain. The parents have never been talked of by Katie in a good way. We believe that the father, who was a drunk, never fulfilled his obligations to the state and fled into oblivion leaving the mother and children. Somehow the family was separated for an unknown reason and the kids had to fend for themselves and strayed from each other for all time. We heard that grandmother out of pure desperation tied up with a no-gooder who may have sold the girls. In those days, nobody cared how the Irish ended up. Katie must have traveled into Ohio by canal boat, we think. We understand she may have been involved in forced prostitution as a young woman back in New York as so many young Irish girls ended up. Somehow by the grace of God, she was bought or escaped, ending up here in Ohio. We understand that she stayed close to the canal and worked on several boats as a chamber maid by cooking and cleaning. When my mother was born to grandmother, she was born on board while mooring at Conesville or Adam’s Mill. My grandmother married a crewman, who was my grandfather Leroy, and her best days in life were onboard one of state boats until the canal slowed down. Then they set our feet on land, here in Chillicothe. I will forever love the canal, and for me, I have bittersweet memories and so many unanswered questions about my heritage. Great-grandmother said she would never celebrate Christmas without her brothers and sisters
This story was written before the 1970s and hopefully those who read this fine piece will gain some knowledge about the harsh way of life in early America here in Ohio, along the canal. No-one really knows for sure if the dates and times are accurate, that in itself ultimately keeps us confused.
891--what a bitter sweet story portrayed in the previous posting. I have a strong Irish background and have a story of my own which will be told here on this site once the story is put into order. To be Irish was equal to having the plague here in Ohio once all the digging was completed. Beforehand we were welcomed.
892--
When I landed in sweet Philadelphia,
The weather was warm and was clear;
But I did not stay long in that city
As you shall quickly hear.
I did not stay long in that city
For it happened to be in the fall;
And I ne'er reefed a sail in my rigging
'Til I anchored upon the canal.
cho: So, fare you well father and mother,
Likewise to old Ireland too,
And fare you well sister and brother
For kindly I'll bid you adieu.
When I came to this wonderful empire,
It filled me with the greatest surprise.
To see such a great undertaking,
On the like I never opened my eyes.
To see a full thousand brave fellows,
At work among mountains so tall.
A dragging a chain through the mountains,
To strike a line for the canal, So....
I entered with them for a season,
My monthly pay for to draw.
And being of very good humor,
I often sang "Erin go bragh."
Our provision it was very plenty,
To complain we'd no reason at all.
I had money in every pocket,
While working upon the canal.
When at night we all rest from our labor,
Sure but our rent is all paid.
We laid down our pick and our shovel,
Likewise our axe and our spade.
We all set a joking together,
There was nothing our minds to enthrall.
If happiness be in this wide world,
I am sure it is on the canal.
From The Canaller's Songbook, Hullfish
Verses from The American Vocalist (1853); music from The Roving
Irish Songster.
893"No Irish Need Apply": A Myth of Victimization Richard Jensen University of Illinois, Chicago [Tables] Introduction The Irish American community harbors a deeply held belief that it was the victim of systematic job discrimination in America, and that the discrimination was done publicly in highly humiliating fashion through signs that announced "Help Wanted: No Irish Need Apply." This "NINA" slogan could have been a metaphor for their troubles -- akin to tales that America was a "golden mountain" or had "streets paved with gold." But the Irish insist that the signs really existed and prove the existence of widespread discrimination and prejudice. The fact that Irish vividly "remember" NINA signs is a curious historical puzzle. There are no contemporary or retrospective accounts of a specific sign at a specific location. No particular business enterprise is named as a culprit. No historian, archivist, or museum curator has ever located one ; no photograph or drawing exists. No other ethnic group complained about being singled out by comparable signs. Only Irish Catholics have reported seeing the sign in America -- no Protestant, no Jew, no non-Irish Catholic has reported seeing one. This is especially strange since signs were primarily directed toward these others: the signs said that employment was available...
894-For the most part, the Irish Gangs were not particularly like those shown in the movie. They did not spend their time fighting with gangs of “natives” who were trying to run them out of town. They actually spend most of their time fighting each other. What the movie does show well is the anti-Irish sentiment of the “natives.” Indeed, life was more difficult for and Irishman than it was for and African American in New York. The hatred of the Catholic Irish made their economic situation very tough, jobs were hard to come by as they were usually given to people of other backgrounds. Most of the businesses were owned by the anti-Irish “natives,” who had been in the city for years and could easily deny an Irishman a job if he so chose. Thus, the intentions behind most of the Irish Gangs were economic. A gang would control a specific area and thus control all the employment in that area. The gangs were frequently groups of men who had no jobs or men who helped those who had none. The Irish Gangs would try to force employers to give them work. However, do to the lack of available jobs, Irish Gangs were always fighting each other. There were many gangs, each with Irish from a different neighborhood. They would fight each other for the limited jobs available. In addition to this fighting for employment, there was also a lot of hatred between the Irish of different neighborhoods. For the most part, there was great deal of hostility between the Irish of the northern neighborhoods and those of the southern neighborhoods.
Some gangs also had a political alliance. Boss Tweed of Tammany Hall was known to have alliances with many gangs. He would give the gang members employment and a little money in exchange for their services. These services would include protection rackets and beatings as well as massive forced voting campaign on election day in which gangs would force the public to vote for the “right” candidate or suffer the consequences.
The most famous time in the history of the Irish Gangs was certainly the draft riots. This was a very violent anti-African American and anti-draft riot in which much damage was caused. With a large and powerful Democratic party operating in the city, a dramatic show of dissent had been long in the making. The state's popular governor, Democrat Horatio Seymour, openly despised Lincoln and his policies. In addition, the Enrollment Act shocked a population already tired of the two-year-old war. On Sunday, June 12, the names of the draftees drawn the day before by the Provost Marshall were published in newspapers. Within hours, groups of irate citizens, many of them Irish immigrants, banded together across the city. Eventually numbering some 50,000 people, the mob terrorized neighborhoods on the East Side of New York for three days looting scores of stores. Blacks were the targets of most attacks on citizens; several lynchings and beatings occurred. In addition, a black church and orphanage were burned to the ground. All in all, the mob caused more than $1.5 million of damage. The number killed or wounded during the riot is unknown, but estimates range from two dozen to nearly 100. Eventually, Lincoln deployed combat troops from the Federal Army of the Potomac to restore order. However, none of the very racist part of this riot is shown in the movie. A very large part of the draft riots was the killing of African American people all over the city. It was supposedly very savage, with children being killed along with adults and whole neighborhoods destroyed.
The Irish Gangs were at their worst during the Draft Riots, displaying a hatred that had stewed for two years during the climate of the war. However, for the most part, Irish Gangs were usually a bunch of guys trying to get by.
895--A historian challenges the `No Irish' myth
NOTHING SYMBOLIZES the hatred faced by Irish immigrants during their first century in America as strongly as the signs that used to hang outside factories and in shop windows: ''Help Wanted-No Irish Need Apply.''
The late Tip O'Neill recalled seeing them as a boy in Boston, as has Senator Edward Kennedy. In a 1996 speech on the Senate floor, Kennedy said, ''I remember `Help Wanted' signs in stores when I was growing up saying `No Irish Need Apply.' Thankfully, we have made a great deal of progress in ending that kind of... bigotry.''
The signs, which some have likened to the ''Whites Only'' signs of the South before the civil-rights era, have been used to illustrate not just native-born Americans' bitter opposition to the Irish, but how the Irish managed to surmount that opposition in order to achieve the American Dream.
There's only one problem with this story: The signs may have hardly existed.
896—I read the pieces leaning towards the possibility of the way the Irish were treated was a hoax. That is probably the most lop-sided statement to ever land on this website. The Irish came to America in the droves and for lack of employment at home in Ireland. Some fell into crime and prostitution, more than likely in the bigger cities like Boston, Philadelphia and New York. The Irish mob and gangsters of the seaport cities themselves treated their fellow country man with little to no respect. In a more brutal way, they can be guiltier than the rest of the eastern American population for exploiting and abusing them. This discrimination started years before overseas in England against the Catholic Irish, inflicted by the Protestant Irish and English alike, and has been carried into the new land and hostilities still rage war even today in Ireland.
Over here the Irish leaders set up brothels and the gangs roamed the wharfs and were involved in criminal acts which all began at the docks while their un-suspecting countryman disembarked. Prostitution was the biggest money making machine in the inner cities and the gangs paved their way for more riches by bringing even more Irish here from abroad only to force them into a terrible life. This was usually a fatal move for those who resisted. The gangs ran advertisement in Ireland which looked attractive to young ladies. They were offered jobs here in America at influential homes with schooling and a fair wage. Once they arrived, the young girls hardly had a chance. For those who were too old or un-attractive, that was a good thing. The biggest part of the workforce that filtered outwards certainly were a convenience for the predators, or for a better word, they were commodities when it came down to hard labor.
The Irish performed the jobs no-one would consider doing, too stay alive. We seem to forget that the Irish on the overall, hand dug every canal system from New York to Illinois. Thousands of them died from horrible conditions stemming from diseases and infection while working here in Ohio alone. I personally have never seen the discriminating signs except for what’s on the internet and we cannot validate them. I heard that Roscoe Village was big on discrimination against the Irish by readings that I have obtained. We do know that right here at home we had several shanty towns that was basically home to the Irish immigrant canal digger after the canals completion. Little Dublin, was a prime example of total destitute and squalor in that small village of despair less than a half a mile north from the center of Akron. My version of the story of how the Irish all the sudden left New York state and come west to Ohio is as follows; In the beginning, New York was short of laborers to dig the Erie Canal, they had to consolidate a work force and secure it before funding would come available. To obtain a quota they went abroad into Ireland and offered passage and a good life in America in exchange for their hard work digging the Erie Canal. The canal was dug, taking about eight years before it was completely operational costing thousands of lives of the Irishmen. Upon completion, several thousand un-employed Irishman roamed hungry through New York State in near starvation, and there wasn’t enough work for even a fraction of them. Too survive they turned to whatever had to be done, to do so. The crime situation was at an all time high in the state, and theft and robbery was intensifying at an alarming rate. People were afraid to take an evening stroll in New York City in fear for their lives. I was told that going into the 1840s less than 1 percent of property in the state of New York was owned by the Irish. The Irish were a very poor ethnic group who wasn’t given much of a chance, and if they had to exaggerate to get ahead, then so be-it. Anyhow, New York had just way too many people for the jobs which were available and no relief in the immediate future to help them, except for finding them employment elsewhere. The answer came when the New York State Legislature said lets go into Pennsylvania and Ohio and convince them to follow in our steps by convincing them to dig a canal system connecting Lake Erie to the Ohio River and to New York as well. Two things will happen from that if we can pull this off. For one, we get rid of the Irish because they’ll go elsewhere to dig and the crime spree will stop. Number two, other states will benefit by having their own canal systems.
It’s my opinion that the Irish were fully exploited and were used as a commodity with little to no respect. They had to fight back using any means at their disposal to get there proper place in today’s life. I can’t agree with their practices towards one-another and using religion as the go-ahead to harm and kill. How many people do we know that could dig, day-in and day-out, being constantly hungry, being bitten by insects all day long and still work and get the job done.
897--They had it pretty tough and that cannot be denied. In comparison to what the Indians went through it was nothing. We tried to wipe the Indian of the American Continent and waged an all out war nearly wiping out complete cultures. A lot of people faced persecution, why cry about it now, we can't reverse the clock. What are we suppose to do write every Irishman a big check?
898-one of the canal boats had three times its name changed, what were the names and why?
899
Hello! Can you tell me back in the day did the which side of Summit Lake was the towpath actuall on? Is the City of Akron following that path or has present day development prevented that? Thanks! G. Leimeister
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It takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate
them, a day to love them, but then an entire life to forget them.
900- Can we connect any canal boats to Barberton, was a boat named Wolf Creek?
901 – There were two canal boats at New Portage. One was the Lily that was owned by the Witner Bros. and captained by Wellman Witner and the other was Wheeling, owned and captained by Wilson Witner. The village of Wolf Creek, just north of Snyder Ave., was also booming during the canal era. Lock 1 was located there as well as a dam, feeder creek and aqueduct made of concrete and a basin. William Pierce also operated a grocery at the lock. The canal boats, Fisher and the Crawford were docked there often. John Simon had a rowdy tavern in that little community. The Diamond Match Co. provided much of the workload of the canal. In 1894, the local paper announced that lumbar was arriving for the match factory. About 200 boat loads were expected but due to the lack of boats, came by rail. The canal was rebuilt by 1907 and in 1910, concrete was used to shore up damaged structures in the Barberton area. By 1912, a new company was born to the Ohio & Erie Canal named the White Eagle Launch Lines which ran the short distance from Barberton four times daily to the Portage Lakes. Its landings were Crooks Landing on Long Lake and Wolf Creek. The Barberton end had a dock one foot off of Tuscarawas Avenue where the boats moored. One year later during the 1913 flood, the canal and river became one mighty force of running water. Much of the canal system was destroyed at this time but some sections on the Portage Summit were unharmed. In February of 1918, the east bank of the Ohio Canal broke near the Diamond Match Co. The water rushed through the widening gap into the Tuscarawas River which threatened the water supply for Barberton industries. It took a large force of men three days and 5,000 sand bags to fill the hole. Now, nearly 100 years later, much of the Barberton portion of the canal remains intact, the Ohio & Erie Canal Corridor Coalition has pushed the towpath into Zoar.
902-One can see just how the canal would keep on flowing when the canal breached in 1918, as mentioned in the above posting. They had no way of shutting the water off on the south end of the Portage summit except for at Wolf Creek. The break was north of the Wolf Creek lock so it couldn’t offer assistance by drainage. Because there was no dams built along the canal south of the feeder until the 1930s which only then two were placed that could block the canal for repair and utility purposes. They were at these places, one was just south of Young’s and the feeder, the other a half a mile north of Tuscarawas Ave. Those are the concrete protrusions sticking out into the canal put in to block the canal if the water had to be turned off. During the 1918 flood the water was draining back all the distance from Summit Lake.
903-It was the state boats which took the presidents names and often when the presidents changed in office a state boat dropped a former name and renewed the boats name. One particular boat stands out, the Grover Cleveland had its name changed to the James Garfield and finally ended up the Benjamin Harrison.
905-was an aqueduct in Jasper and why would a guard lock be needed there?
906-what does the stations of the cross and the Ohio and Erie Canal have in common?
907
To 906-Sargents Station, located between Piketon and Wakefield, was founded and named around 1800. It was named after the three Sargent brothers who came from Maryland in the 1790s,to establish stations to help Negro slaves who had managed to get across the Ohio River. Strategically chosen at the center and narrows of the Lower Scioto Valley, astride both the land and river routes going north from Portsmouth. Sargents Station was a principal stopover along the Scioto Trail, en route to Chillicothe and the Pee Pee Settlement in nortwest Pike County. The term station came from the Stations of the Cross but now is termed the Underground Railroad.
908 The Duncan Co. had planned to establish a booming town half the distance from Canal Fulton to Massillon, but this idea fell short because of what reason, and what was this town to be named?
909
To 908-The proposed town was going to set up at the grist mill at lock 4, was to be named Fenelon. The original owners and builder of the mill was the Duncan & Company., who had great hopes of establishing a town there. The overall plans were to control all the buying and selling interest of the wheat industry and hopefully hurt Canal Fulton’s and Clintons buying strengths and abilities by offering ridiculously low warehousing rates to attract the local farmers. They had plans to erect several huge warehouses and were going to use the Ohio and Erie Canal to ship the product free of charge from the farm to the warehouse. Duncan wanted to buy up property all along the towpath and make wharfs and dockage for easy loading in other regions, for instance, close to Clinton and Canal Fulton. This created quite a stir and the farmers in both towns previously mentioned, all pulled together to stop the Duncan & Co, from expanding into their region and monopolize the wheat industry. Duncan was already well known for his part in the closings of many smaller warehouses in Massillon, and he spread his questionable empire into Navarre where he quickly began systematically carrying on his unrelenting ways of doing business, and it was to hurt the small guy and by crushing all opposition. Duncan had no remorse for his action, nor did he care. In Navarre, Duncan began a war between the warehouses of Rochester and Bethlehem and Navarre that ultimately ended his controlling ways. The beginning of the end for Duncan came when the Farmers Merchant Association was formed to stabilize the cost of grain and warehousing. It was solely Duncan and his ways which was detrimental for that course of action. He needed to be stopped. No –sooner did Duncan open his warehouses in Navarre; did he dropped the price to the farmers, to an all time low, too practically nothing to gain their business, he even covered the cost to transport their wheat. The penny pinching farmers quit using the other formerly established warehouses and contracted to Duncan. The other warehouses began to fold, and stemming from his actions, a war was brewing in Navarre, Rochester and Bethlehem. The people of Canal Fulton and Clinton already were quite aware of Duncan’s way of doing things, they quickly band together and practically shoed in their own warehouses overnight and offered good and fair rates. The towns to the north of Massillon were at war with Duncan and he began to play dirty. In retaliation to Duncan, they put out the word on Duncan, claiming that he withholds payment, to farmers, and canal boats alike. Duncan & Company didn’t know how to respond, ironically the way they carried out their daily business has been turned and reversed on them for a change, and the word quickly spread along the canal, that he was in a financial crisis. Duncan soon lost his kingdom and was removed from the throne. Whether it was true or not, it’s talk like that, that hurt his stability. Before to long, with the new pricing that set in along the canal, which he lost control of, Duncan himself began feeling a serious financial blow. His strength and empire was beginning to show signs of stress. Duncan lost the respect of his fellow piers and he wasn’t holding all the cards anymore. More troubles began to surface when the bankers were slow paid, that creating pressure, threatening foreclosures and closing his credit lines. In or about 1840, Duncan began selling off his property one of which was the grist mill at lock 4, selling it to a F. Reynolds. That was the same property and area where the town of Fenelon was to be built at, that dream withered away. Duncan, for once was feeling the same type of pain that he inflicted on so many others throughout the previous years. In the end, Duncan lost his fortune and owed huge debts.
910-Ohio Erie Canal
The Pickaway County Historical & Genealogical Society aquired a 2.5 mile long section of the Ohio Erie Canal in 1999. Located in Wayne township along Canal Road, it stretches from the old Penn Central Railroad right-of-way south to the Scioto River access maintained by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, near where the old village of Westfall once flourished. The canal is maintained as an historical, educational, and recreational are open to the public.
Construction on the Ohio Erie Canal was begun in 1825. The Canal reached Circleville in 1831 and by 1835 linked the interior of the state with Lake Erie on the North and the Ohio River on the South. This gave the Ohio farmer and merchant access to the markets on the East Coast, a great boom to the economy of the state's interior. The Canal cost $4,695,000 and was 333 miles from Portsmouth to Cleveland. The trip by canal boat took about 80 hours. It was slow, but one horse could pull a canal boat laden with freight that would require several wagons and 30 horses to pull over land.
The coming of the railroad about the middle of the 19th century was the beginning of the end of the Canal Era in Ohio, but the canal was in use until 1913. The aqueduct at Circleville which carried canal boats across the Scioto River was the longest on the canal. There were 152 locks along the route.
911- I would like to respond to listing 910. I think it's great that those in Pickaway County in the town of Circleville have taken the initiative to make towpath improvements. I disagree with the mileage of the canal with it being listed at 333 miles and the same for the amount of locks as well. Following this sight, this situation has been discussed several times. The canal without any side cuts included registers between 308/309 miles. Forty four locks from Cleveland to Akron, thirty locks From Barberton to the Dresden Side Cut, from the lock at Bottoms Road at the side cut there was twenty locks up to the Licking Summit and fifty five down to Portsmouth. That comes to one hundred and fifty two locks. If the side cuts are included which we must take into consideration those of the Trenton Feeder and its two locks and the triple locks of Dresden of the side cut and the triple locks of the Walhonding with the four locks of the Columbus Feeder and a few more on the Granville Feeder and two more on the Licking Summit? All these feeders and extension canal accumulate about 333 miles. Within the mileage included the number of locks rises by fourteen, changing from 152 to 168. The entire Walhonding Canal was not included in the mileage, only the first six miles were under control of the Ohio and Erie Canal in the later stages of the canal era going into the 20th century.
THE ATOMIC BOOM
In 1953 the Federal Government chose Pike County as the location for a gaseous diffusion plant designed to enrich uranium. The time around the construction of the facility is still referred to as the "Boom", as literally hundreds of new people flooded the county to construct, and later work, at the facility.
912-During this time, government housing projects were undertaken, school facilities were expanded and improved, and many new businesses were started in Pike County.
The plant covered nearly 4,000 acres and provided employment for over 2,000 workers at its height of operation. Anthony. R said...
913-When whoever might responds to entry 905-would you place some history of Jasper for posterity purposes?
914--In response to posting 905. Jasper never had an aqueduct but just about 3/8 of a mile south of town, a culvert carried the Ohio and Erie Canal where it crossed over No-Name Creek near the Scioto River. There was a guard lock present at that point that could shut off the water if need be. The culvert collapsed somewhere in the 1930s according to what I’ve learned by talking with some of the elderly citizens from there. One person had a lot to talk about. They had a direct link to the canal era and to a general store at Dewey’s Station. Dewey’s Station was a well-known mercantile and a good place to buy some of the best whiskey in southern Ohio. Somewhere in the nearby hills around Sugar Run Holler, the Jensen boys or maybe it was the Johnston boys according to my elder friend who was confused on their name, said they operated a backwoods distillery and their brew was the real stuff, firewater as some would call it. Jasper came to life and died along with the canal. Although it is still in existence today, its hey-day was in the past. Jasper is only a stone’s throw from the Scioto River that was previously a scant and unreliable transportation route to the Ohio River. Jasper sits near the Appalachian Hi-way that was named in the 1960s by Ohio’s Governor Rhodes. My friends from Jasper said it was once called Morgan’s Pike or the Wet Road. I asked where it got the name of Wet Road. He said because it’s the only road in the state of Ohio that has the Ohio River at both ends, one being Cincinnati and the other end is Belpre. Morgan’s Raiders spent a lot of time raising havoc along it. Most of the river barge traffic on the Scioto then passing through was up and down from Circleville and Chillicothe to the Ohio River. During the period before the canal came through on the Scioto River, there was a landing. The gentleman recalls hearing it was named Jasper’s Landing or Jaspers Port but he wasn’t for certain it was called that. This landing was no more than a small area of dockage on the western side of the river. This small landing serviced the settlement where Jasper now exists. The opposite side of the river was called Pike’s Landing and a ferry boat once ran between the two. It was the good whisky (moonshine) that brought people into the area of Jasper in the pre-canal days and during. Jasper moonshine was well- known and was a magnet for the infamous John Hunt Morgan of Morgan’s Raiders who frequented the moon shining operation where they loaded up. He made a deal with those in Jasper for supplies and goods. In exchange he would refrain from pillaging there homes and farms and he gave his word that he would never torch them either. Morgan had some close calls and was nearly caught on several occasions while visiting the still back up in the woods and he soon realized that a sympathizer to the Union Army was among someone in Jasper. Morgan was too smart and stayed a step ahead of the army. This angered Morgan because he spared Jasper and Piketon from the destruction of war. Morgan spared certain areas that could be used for his use, but would kill anyone who he felt was a trader or an ear for the northern army. Morgan, who was desperate to find out who was giving him away, began torturing a young man for this treachery, knowing well this boy was innocent. He was beaten with a bull whip and stemming from that, the real perpetrator stepped forward, only to be executed. A prominent citizen name McDougal of Pike County was shot to death, murdered by Morgan in 1863 for spying for the Union Army concerning Morgan’s whereabouts and movements. McDougal was a Deacon, school teacher and a leading name throughout Pike County who was shot to death in broad daylight. Morgan was setting an example for espionage, when McDougal was tied sitting upright in a canoe and placed in the Scioto River and shot to death in front of hundreds . It was several days before he was pulled from the river. Although dead, he was still sitting upright and was half- eaten by the buzzards as he was slowly drifting towards the Ohio River. The grave site of Joseph McDougal who was killed on July 16, 1863 is at the Jasper United Methodist Church Cemetery.
Jasper among other things had a changing station along the line of the Ohio and Erie Canal up into the 1860s before it closed down. The local taverns survived the duration of the canal but changed hands often except for Dewey’s. The station was well-known for two of the strongest draft horses along the towpath. Their names were Jim & Jack. Jim & Jack worked well together and were leased as a team only. Individually they weren’t worth a dime as the story goes. Stemming from Jim & Jack, anytime a canal boat had a good team, they were referred to as Jim & Jack. Along the canal, both of these horses were so well-known because of their pulling strength; they had to defend their title as the pulling champs until they got too old to prove themselves at the county fair. They were never out-pulled as the story goes. Going into the early 20th century, the Dewey Store was well-known for having these powerful teams of horses and mules. They re-named two mules Jim & Jack after the two famous draft horses of the previous years. These two mules were extraordinary in size and strength, becoming two of the strongest ever known for tugging timbers for the N.W.Railroad. Many offered to purchase this outstanding team, but the Dewey Store refused to sell. The Dewey store burned down in or about 1920, but in the year before, maybe 1919 or so, the mules were replaced by a Ford truck which ironically was often enough pulled out of the mud by Jim & Jack. Some think that a competitor burned the store down. After the burning, the nearest store was over the river and a toll was placed on the recently constructed bridge which angered those in Jasper because the toll had to be paid coming and going. The local government intervened and put a stop to that.
This story was assembled by the stories passed down by two elderly gentleman of that area who I had the unique opportunity to speak with. Although this short story for the most part is here-say, it does have certain facts that can be substantiated.
915 to 914-McDougal was set adrift by Morgan then had a sharp shooter kill him with a head shot. Morgan basically kept the last twenty miles of southern Ohio in terror during his campaign. Before the Civil War, Morgan raised an independent infantry company known as the "Lexington Rifles," and spent much of his free time drilling them and he was always rebellious and had a long standing battle against the government of the north. He was welded, contoured and molded as a young man after watching his own personal family and others loose every thing to taxes. Morgan was more of a renegade band than a structured detachment of the Confederacy. General John Hunt Morgan has set the torch to countless homesteads and cost the lives of hundreds of Ohioans. Before his capture Morgan executed scores soldiers after a reckless summary style court-martial. He attempted to ignite Athens but left in a hurry and the flames were extinguished. McDougal was a prime example to anyone who harbored any thoughts about crossing him.
916
G. W .Simmons, 66, never worked a day on the canal or any canal boats, but he can vividly remember the canal days. His job was to maintain the playgrounds and parks around Canal Fulton. When I was a youngster, he said, the whole section here was bridged by trestles here from the coal banks beyond the railroad tracks, Simmons said. They filled the small coal cars with coal, ran them over to the trestles with canal boats and dumped through the tracks into a boat waiting below. This was an on going daily routine, and then the boat left for Cleveland. When the railroads come along they made a point to lay their tracks practically on top the canal wherever possible. Today, freight and passengers train of the Baltimore & Ohio and the Pennsylvania Railroad race through Canal Fulton. (1930)
917- Is it true the Predident McKinley visited the village of Navarre as late as 1900, while taking an excursion through the locks of the Ohio & Erie Canal?
918 to 917-I don't have any recollections about President William McKinley passing through Navarre by canal boat in or around 1900. He did arrive by train. The wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad had a special presidential car decked out with all the amenities of comfort and it was by those means that he arrived in Navarre. McKinley with his wife and entourage after a mid-summer outing in or around Zoar, on their way back to Canton pulled in the Wheeling and Lake Erie station in Navarre because the train tracks going into Canton were under repair from damage done earlier that day. The President who was familiar with Navarre, took this time to look around and reminisce. He made a point to look over the milling operation and went from there to the lock on the canal and walked up and down Canal Rd., talking with some young boys who were fishing off a canal bridge. I understand that he gave the boys some pointers about fishing and he pulled a fish from the canal and enjoyed his time in Navarre. The President was familiar with the hotel named Navarre House where he was made welcome in the past.
In the year of 1840, a campaigning Presidential candidate named William Henry Harrison, arrived in Navarre by the Hawk Stagecoach Line from Massillon and stayed the evening. The next morning, Harrison and his party secured several canal boats and he boarded a packet and then they headed south, anticipating rallying in all the major towns along the canal hoping to win support. Once he arrived in Columbus, worn and fatigued from the canal passage, he removed himself and party from the canal boats and again went by stagecoach.
919-After the completion and rehabilitation of the Ohio and Erie's northern end in 1908 was there a fleet of canal boats ,crews and captains standing by ready to re-kindle the transfer of freight via the canal? Were factories waiting and willing to abandon the rail system and get restarted shipping by canal standards all over?
920-Hey Canalwayman, can we give anything pertaining to the cost of hydraulic water for industrial purposes supplied by the Ohio and Erie Canal?
921-919 In the year 1908, it would stand to reason that maybe ten canal boats were left afloat and that probably would be a high number. There were dozens of rotted hulls still sticking out of the canal going into the twentieth century and for many years to follow. By the 1890s, the railways dominated the transfer industry throughout Ohio and the nation. We as a state accelerated into the modern age with the coming of the rail systems. We weren’t going to turn back the clock by re-establishing the canal systems in Ohio when every one of them failed so far. In 1908, only the Ohio and Erie Canal was barely breathing and with its recent new facelift, it was still too slow and cumbersome to be of any good. A Cleveland boat building company located in the flats was trying to secure the funds to build a new style steel hulled canal boat but was met head-on by heavy opposition from the lenders. These boats were to have a gasoline powered engine that was able to make 8 to 10 mph. Even with this doubling the standard 4 mph speed of the previous canal boats, they were no match for the locomotive that could run for twenty five miles at 25 mph or faster before refilling, and they were pulling fifty cars or better that were filled with hundreds of tons, primarily coal. Today, we still have some remains of the water towers and coal refilling stations here in Summit County; one is in Barberton at the 619 exit and in Akron along Eastwood Ave. In the early part of the 20th century, the transfer companies found the biggest demand was to deliver coke, coal, limestone, wood and steel. Today in insurmountable amounts, that same need goes on daily in the giant blast furnaces of Cleveland. The canal boats never got a handle on how to quickly unload coal or get a sufficient amount of product to the mills in a timely fashion. The biggest hold-up with the canal boats was the following: The inability to deliver coal on a twelve month schedule or around-the-clock, being always at the mercy of weather conditions. It took hours to unload a canal boat which was done by hand, where a train car would open its belly and the coal would unload by gravity onto the ground or bins below within seconds. By 1908 nearly every factory and industry here in northern Ohio had a railroad spur leading either up to it or inside for easy handling. The canal by then, was really best suited for its water for making steam power or cooling rather than for cargo passage. In 1906, only five boats passed through Newcomerstown and less than twenty were recorded at the Dover toll station. The railroad was the answer to Ohio’s growth, but it was the Ohio and Erie Canal that jump started our state’s economy and established dozens of new towns. The Canal set the course for the railways that subsequently ran within inches of the canals throughout the state. The question was, were there any canal boat crews and boat captains on standby to re-enter the canal life by 1908? Not really, most of them walked off the canal twenty years prior and left the boats to rot in the canal, and for some, they never looked back. The truth is, most of them went to work for the railroads who were hiring by the droves. Most canal boats were approaching sixty to seventy years of age, and plying and re-starting the transfer of goods by canal usage was unthinkable by industry and previous canal boat owners and captains.
DAILY TIMES 8-22-12
LAST CANAL BOAT BEING TORN DOWN
The “Fairfield” Newcomerstown’s last canal boat owned by a Newcomerstown man, Frank Lyons, is being torn down for what usable lumber can be gotten out of it. Mr. Lyons had plied on the Ohio canal with the Fairfield but two years ago when the canal became impractical for travel, and it has laid here next to the west canal bridge for the last six years steadily rotting down. Decay has so far progressed that the boat was far past the point of being serviceable again.
Mr. Lyons has another boat at Canal Dover that has been operating some this simmer, mostly in the moving of wheat. (Newcomerstown Index)
“The canal was off and on during the early years of the 20th century and to set out wasn’t a guarantee that your boat would make it back to its home port.” J.M.
922-The selling of canal water power was contracted out over several years. In most cases the hydraulic power was sold to the highest bidder at auction. The standard water rights leases were sold at a thirty year contract. The average cost per year was $125.00 per run, per year, in which the Canal Commission would supply enough water to propel two runs of five and a half foot milling stones at the maximum of 130 RPMs. The lease was well written and was drafted in a way that kept Commission in total control of the water rights and any adjoining leased properties. The one well noted part of the lease is the part where the Canal commission cannot be held responsible for any cost or lost revenue by the miller in times of drought or breaches in the canal system causing the mill to be halted. In fairness to the miller if the water would stop, the price would be adjusted upon the by-annual payment. Navigation was the highest priority on the canal and any operations were second too it, including milling.
A proclamation by the Canal commission as follows: It is supposed that the power will be sufficient to propel two runs of mill stones for flouring, during the whole year, (except perhaps a short period in seasons of extraordinary draught) and two additional runs, during eight or nine months each year.
No saw mill or other works, from which chips or rubbish will be likely to be thrown into the canal, will be permitted.
The conditions of sale or lease will be more particularly explained at all time of the sale.
ALFRED KELLEY, Acting Commissioner, October 7, 1833
923-Hello Canalwayman -I hope you can shed some light of various facts around the Columbus Feeder. I would like to read an partial sentence from a well known publication which I'm in total disagreement with concerning a certain guard lock. "and a third on the Columbus Feeder where it emtied into the Scioto River what is now Main Street in Columbus." I tend to think the author has that reversed. How many Guard locks were on the Columbus Feeder?
924
923-The Columbus Feeder had only two guard locks and their locations were as follows: Up north at the entrance to the feeder off the Scioto River in Columbus and the other was on the eastern side of Big Walnut Creek and west of where the feeder merges with the mainline. The feeder never spilled into the Scioto through a guard lock in Columbus. The phrase in posting 923 was a misprint which was found in that publication.
925-There is many more guard locks connected to the Ohio and Erie Canal than were ever documented. Seven are actually listed, if we delve into this others will emerge.
926- I recently read an article about the canal boat "Storm" that was still in service in October of 1912. The article relays how the towpath was completely overgrown and the only sizable section of the canal was no more than twenty miles. The Evans Creek aqueduct failed the previous year and slowly remained under repair causing a blockade to gain access to Roscoe, Coshocton and Dresden.
927-I stand confused. Posting 925, says there are seven known guard locks on the O & E Canal, I can only relate to six of them. Would the individual who posted 925, list all of them?
928-Wolf Creek Dam Guard Lock---Clinton Dam & Guard Lock---Zoar Dam & Feeder at side cut---Sugar Creek Basin Guard Lock---Walnut Creek Dam & Guard Lock---Big Walnut Creek Dam & Guard Lock---Circleville Dam Guard Lock & Feeder---Tomlinson Dam & Feeder Guard Lock---Higby’s Guard Lock---Jasper Guard Lock
929-AQUEDUCT-An artificial conduit of considerable length used to allow canal water to pass over a river stream ravine or gorge. Its construction was wooden or block. Wooden spans were used in the greater lengths. Block stone were used when the conduit was closer to the ground and was considerably shorter.
CHANGE BRIDGE-A walking bridge built high enough and wide enough for a team and man alike providing access to change from one side of the towpath to the other.
COPING STONES-The top and smooth layer of the construction blocks situated on top a lock chamber.
COURSE-a horizontal layer of brick or block stones which can make up a lock chamber or a foundation.
CRAMP-A flat piece of steel generally cut in six inch lengths that are placed into precision into slots cut into block stones for rigidity and keeps the alignment and eliminates frost slippage. These can be found at the Black Hand Rock walkway and lock 27 in Lockbourne and the terminus lock 55, on the Ohio River has a good display and other sights.
CULVERT- Is an elevated artificial water way over a stream or creek. They basically consist of a single arch of no-more than thirty feet in length. Typically they are designed as a block stone archway structure. Some are designed using parallel timbers resembling an aqueduct but shorter.
DRY DOCK- These boat docks are filled of the canal and they have the ability to drain the water and then resting the boat on stations for hull repairs. Mostly dry dock are located near a major river were its water can drain back into it at lower elevation. A good example is the McLaughlin Dry Dock in Canal Fulton
FEEDER- A channel used to direct the water from a river or body of water into the canal. An example would be the Portage Lakes Feeder and the Pinery Feeder that wasn’t designed for boat traffic.
FEEDER CANAL-The same as above except it has been groomed to accept canal boats. An example would be the Columbus Feeder, the Walhonding and Trenton Feeders.
GOOSE NECK-An U shaped steel band by design is used to hold the upper part of the heel post mechanism of the lock gates. Generally this consist of two parts which are fastened to the coping stones at the gate recess and bent to form around the gate post in the circular shape called a quoin or collar strap.
MITRE SEAL- Is the area of the lower lock chamber where the doors rest against sealing the bottom of the doors. This seal is placed at angles rather than straight across they are at a 100 & 260 Degrees. These moderate angles assure the doors are pressed tight together by the heavy weight of the water.
SIDE CUT-Is similar to a railroad spur its basically a small stretch of canal connecting a town or industry to the mainline canal.
SLACKWATER CROSSING-We have two types. One of which is known as a linear slackwater where a river becomes the canal for obvious reasons such as a place where a canal will not go as in a canyon. Other linear slack water crossing are designed to cut down on digger expenditures by placing dams and use the rivers as canals instead, this was practiced often on the Sandy and Beaver Canal system. The Black Hand Gorge by example had a linear crossing there. More often a slackwater was an area of a river or stream which was backed up by a dam to raise its elevation for boat travel by crossing in a calm pool of water without current. A good example would be at the Big Walnut Creek crossing in Lockbourne at the Columbus Feeder.
SPILLWAY-A channel usually running parallel to a lock and was used for multiple purposes as follows: Sluices, waste weirs, tumble-ways and mill streams. Generally the waste weir deposited the waters back into a river because there was an over flow situation. A tumble-way was the adjacent waterfall that was next to a lock which constantly flowed by design. This waterfall was deigned to be slightly lower than the canal only by an inch or two at the very most, which alone assured the water progressed to the next level, by doing so, it kept the canal full further down. Sluice gates were used in many areas for several different reasons, be-it drainage from the canal in an emergency, or regulating water for an aqueduct crossing or a milling operation, there were several options for a sluice gate.
STAIRCASE-This term comes from the Akron area where the locks 1 through 15 were practically on top one another. Lockville and Lockington were also considered to be named the same but were slightly spread out more.
SUMMITS-We know a summit as the highest point for instance, Mt.Everest at 29.002, feet is one of the highest summits in the world. But in canal language, a summit would be the highest portion on a canal where the water flows in opposite directions at its ends from each other. On the Ohio and Erie Canal we had two summits, the Licking and the Portage. The Licking Summit rose 413, feet from the Ohio River up to the New Reservoir near Newark, and then descended 160, feet into Dresden at the Muskingum River. Dresden is near the halfway point of the total length of the Ohio and Erie Canal. The climb to the Portage Summit into Barberton was 238. On the other end of the summit was Akron, form there the canal lowered another 395, feet to Lake Erie. Each summit had the numbering system beginning over again at the ends, naming it lock 1. Going down the summit the lock numbering went to the next higher number.
930-928 I would really think that the guard lock in Toboso should be in the line-up.
931 to 930-The Toboso lock could be one of the following or all of them. A guard lock for sure by safeguarding the canal from the unpredictable Licking River. It certainly was the very last feeder to the bottom of the Licking slope descending into Webbsport to lock 19, and Adam's Mill lock 30 level. The Toboso lock also served as an inlet and an outlet lock on the eastern end of the Licking Narrows. The Outlet lock 15, was at the western end of this river link section of the canal. There’s one thing that the Toboso lock wasn't capable of doing and that was lifting or lowering a canal boat - it wasn't a lift lock. The sign in Toboso next to the lock clearly states it to be none other than lock sixteen, it’s not. Lock 16 is about 8 miles nearer to Frazeysburg west of the Wakatomika Bridge. I agree with posting 925 about the guard locks. Anywhere the canal crosses a stream at a slackwater, there is a guard lock nearby. That includes aqueducts, culverts and feeders, etc. I was led to understand that after the collapse of the Furnace Run Aqueduct in 1827 or 28, that some major efforts went into prevention to cover the canal from running dry or overflowing by high water or washouts. To eliminate this problem or get a grip on it, the canal commission had key locks picked out which had a slot chiseled on the high side. This slot enabled lumber to be stacked on top of each other, closing off the water if need be or a ready-made door was in the area that fit right inside the ways (slots). This would act the same as the shut-off valve at lock one in downtown Akron that is still in force to the south of the water regulator building operated by the O.D.N.R. There are many guard locks which worked during the canal era on the Ohio and Erie Canal that were never accounted for or listed that served and protected the canal.
932 - About the lock in Toboso which sits a good 100 yards of the Licking River, how could it have been anything except a lift lock? This lock is built exactly the same as all the lower states locks without a breast dam, they lift!
933-to 932- That is a good point about the lock’s construction by not having a breast dam on its high side mimicking other locks. Most of the southern Ohio locks are built the same and they are lift locks as you stated. I believe that the outlet lock to its west was built with a standard high side where the eastern lock in Toboso wasn’t. When a boat passed through the western lock, it was lowered from canal depth to the elevation of the Licking River. Once passing through a short channel that was dug out angling towards the Licking River, it then entered a slackwater crossing. This slackwater was backed up by a dam built 2 miles down river near Toboso. The reasoning for the river link - there was no other place to run the canal into the Licking River Narrows Gorge, so the river was implemented. The proper name of the slackwater dam was the Licking Dam & Guard Lock. It was not lift lock because we know that guard locks are not in the numerical numbering system and there weren’t two lock 16s. The park system down there refuses to own up to the mistake at the lock sight by naming it lock (Sixteen). On the eastern end of the slackwater was a channel cut that led up to the lock. Rather than having a guard lock sitting on the rivers edge, they moved it inland to solid ground for stability rather than having it built on an aggregated base. The inlet was lined once with rip-rap at its entrance to ward off erosion. A channel was dug that led into the lock and before it, became a slightly wide water area where another channel passed alongside of the lock and reached out beyond the Licking Dam where a weir controlled the river and canal. The other side of the lock was a tumblway which kept the water in motion. The feeder & guard lock were probably kept in an open position under normal conditions to supply the 8 mile level to the Vickers Lock numbered 16. This weir at the feeder lock in Toboso can easily be located by going to the eastern end of the lock and then cutting a course directly to the river. The canal ran parallel to the river for a good couple of miles before turning northeast towards Frazeysburg. On the stretch before the directional change, there were a couple of waste weirs on the canal. I know that one of them washed completely out. Although the lock in Toboso resembles a lift lock, I really cannot see any real reason why one would be needed at that point. Today you can still find the small building on the southern side of the river where the dam keeper’s quarters were. Below it was a controllable sluice gate where the river water was also regulated.
934- It makes no sense that the Toboso lock is none other than a lift lock. I would need to be convinced otherwise!
935-934- Without being smug or sarcastic, why don't you convince me that it was a lift lock back in Toboso rather than a guard lock, and publish anything you can muster up claiming it to be. I'll give a couple of scenarios where a lift lock accompanied a guard lock opposite each other at a slackwater crossing. Hopefully it may shed some light on the mechanics of a standard stream crossing. Two really good examples are as follows: In Lockville at Creek Lock 18, the lock dropped the canal boats into the dammed up section of Walnut Creek only to pass through a guard lock on the lock 19, Chaney's Mill level. Another example would be the Columbus Feeder at the Big Walnut crossing near Lockbourne. Where the feeder met the Big Walnut coming down from Columbus the canal boat was lowered from a higher elevation by use of a lift lock into the stream, and after passing through the slackwater pool the boats then passed by the gates of a guard lock and also known as a feeder lock. Those gates back then were generally kept in an open position to replenish the Ohio and Erie Canal in normal conditions... If the water would have risen from a heavy rain the guard lock was then closed. As a standard rule of thumb to safeguard the canal, the top of the guard lock gates were designed to be 5 to 7 feet above (or higher) the top of its nearby dam. To breach the guard lock the water would have risen substantially. Both examples tell where a lift lock accompanied a guard lock and the same applies near Toboso. Even today to the west of Toboso up river beyond the Black Hand Rock wall still sits the remains of Outlet Lock 15, (a lift lock). This lock doubled by lifting or lowering at the Licking River. To have an outlet lock we would need an inlet lock as well and well say that it was a water inlet, which it was. An inlet lock has to have the ability to guard the canal by closing off the water.
936-Can we then assume that a guard lock by nature is a feeder as well?
937- To close off a guard lock inevitably would stop the flow of water necessary to operate the canal at any point. Guard locks were feeders.
938- I often browse this site and learn many things in doing so. I live here in Waverly and our town’s strange name has even stranger beginnings. I guess this would be a trivia question for anyone who cares to answer it, by what means did Waverly acquire its name?
939- What is the definition of a (Buffer Whale)?
940 939-A (Buffer Whale) was the wooden bumber built along the entire lenght of the boat from the bow to the stern.
941- Are the names such as "Deep Lock" official names given by the state?
942- The Waverley Novels are a long series of books by Sir Walter Scott. For nearly a century they were among the most popular and widely-read novels in all of Europe. Because he did not publicly acknowledge authorship until 1827, they take their name from Waverley (1814), which was the first. The later books bore the words "by the author of Waverley" on their title pages. Although the spelling is different from the Waverly we know of in Pike County, the town was named in his honor. During the canals construction along the path of the Ohio and Erie Canal an engineer who was involved deeply with the books of the author Sir Walter Scott suggested that the town be named Waverly by changing the spelling slightly to avoid complications. A famous canal boat by the name of (Rob Roy) was named after one of Scott’s Novels as well.
943-The City of Waverly was founded in 1829 along the Ohio-Erie Canal which ran for more than 300 miles connecting Lake Erie to the Ohio River. Originally called Union, a name claimed by several other Ohio communities, the name of Waverly was suggested by an engineer on the Ohio-Erie Canal, Francis Cleveland. Cleveland had been reading Sir Walter Scott's Waverly Novels.
944-where is the replica aqueduct located today on the Ohio and Erie Canal?
945- The only aqueduct which could qualify for a replica aqueduct would the Walhonding structure. I really don't think that it resembles it at all, but it's a good stable walkway. The Walhonding replica aqueduct (Walhonding Aqueduct) crosses the Whitewomans River namely the Walhonding River between the middle and lower basins of Roscoe Village at Coshocton.
946- In Cleveland Ohio a marble finishing company was located at Prospect and Canal, what was its name?
947-My great grandfather was a crew member on board the canal boat General Harrison, and it was he that started our family in the Dayton area. His nickname was "Tug" his real name was, we think, Neal Taggart. When he was alive, he often made reference to his days on the (ole canal) until he passed in 1925, and from then on the stories have filtered down. He died in a train accident while traveling home to Mississippi for a burial. He’s buried in Illinois near the Mississippi outside of St. Louis. We have a picture with him standing on lock 17, at the now Carillon Historical Park where we once visited only to match the old pictures to the lock and reminisce for his sake, that alone adds validity. That lock in the year of 1870, was standing upright where today it’s leaning inward. My grandfather worked many boats but it's the Gen.Harrison that he loved the most. He was born in 1850 in Mississippi; he never attended school and could did not read nor write, always worked hard we been told. In or about 1863 at the age of 13 he volunteered to join the Confederacy but was dismissed because of his youth a standing injury while being crushed docking a boat some where along the Miami & Erie Canal. We often heard that during the war that he stayed in the south although unable to wear a uniform that never stopped him, he and other young men banded together and were self appointed snipers. That last sentence cannot be substantiated. After the war at about age 18, he changed his full name to Thomas Andrews and carried that last name and the name Andrus as well, why we'll never really know. He may have been wanted for his part in the Civil War. Sometime after the War, grandpa returned to Ohio and then pulled duty on the O & E Canal. He spoke of Pearl Nye and knew his music well. In our photo collection Thiers’s grandpa as a young man standing on top a boat on a long wooden span which is open. The picture reveals a handsome young man with a twisted arm which we would assume was left mangled from being crushed somehow by a boat. We have no-idea where the picture was taken except for the buildings off in the distance may be recognizable to the trained eye of an historian. You know how stories go, everyone had a famous person somewhere in their family tree, and we believe that we have one also. Supposedly he helped cooked for Morgan’s Raiders and set up cook camps along the Ohio River on both sides. We have a picture with him standing with several men of the confederacy holding two pistols crossed over his chest. In the picture he barely had a beard and the soldiers looked mean and nasty. We matched that shot to every known picture of General John Hunt Morgan and it’s not of him. Our family has cloudy ties to the canal and the civil war. For everyone’s sake, keep this sight going, for its contents have become a great learning tool for those who are unaware of our rich past. Everybody has a story, tell it!....
948-Regarding 947
Just thought I'd add some info regarding Lock 17S now located in the Carillon Park in Dayton. This lock was originally situated approx. 17 miles north of the park near the intersection of Chambersburg Road & Endicott Rd. in Huber Heights. The lock was dismantled & rebuilt in the canal bed at the park in the late 40's.
Regarding 941- Lock names & numbers were refered to in the 1909 Board of Public Works annual report in regards to Miami & Erie structures. Guess this gives the lock names semi-official status.
Regarding 935- Several coventionally built numbered locks on the Miami & Erie were refered to as guard or bulkhead locks. They served the dual purpose of primarily being a guard but also could lift & lower. Perhaps the un-numbered one at Tobaso did the same. I can't imagine the state going to the added expense of building it like a regular lock otherwise.
Regarding 914- The unique feature of the Jasper guard lock is that it only had one gate at each end instead of the usual two. Due to weight the gates reputedly sagged badly
To Mr.Maximovich- Did you ever make it back down to Higby's guard lock ?====W.A.Seed
948-Do we have anything interesting on Clinton Ohio and why did it wither when canal failed?
950 to 949-I think we may be a little harsh on the description of Clinton. Clinton has had a ongoing grievance with Canal Fulton that dated back to the canal era. Clinton, formerly Warwick, was established far ahead of the canal’s arrival. Its name changed to honor New York’s Governor, Dewitt Clinton. Clinton Township was the first established warehouse district in Summit County. I'd be certain we could come up with some great attributes when writing about this quaint town. We must be a little nicer when talking of our neighboring towns. Clinton was the only milling center of the area and farmers came over land for miles to use their operations
951-Clinton falls into the category of the many towns which died when the canal vanished.
A small piece of Clinton history: Francis Baker built a home in1854 at a total cost of property and construction of $5597. He owned several coal mines which interest in the railroad operations; he was indeed a very important business man to Clinton. He died young at 38, and his business partner, David Todd, Governor of Ohio from 1862-64, purchased his properties and business which included a vast network of tramlines sweeping the country side to transport the coal from Rogues Hollow to the Ohio and Erie Canal. History suggests that the Governor lived in Columbus. The Becker and Todd Enterprises were indicative to the expansion of Clinton. The mines failed and went into bankruptcy causing a great riff in the community. Clinton has never recovered and has drastically decreased, they hold no claims to any manufacturing concerns, but in all, they hold onto some good history.
952- The coal mine panic of 1901 caused the demise of many of Ohio's smaller mining operations, Clinton's succumbed to bankruptcy. Many historic things went on during the 1892, great balloon ascension as part of a large land selling extravaganza. A Massillon millionaire by name of John G.Warwick who headed up the railways had a large interest in the coal mining business of Clinton and its surrounding areas. He was elected into congress but died before his term was up and his widow carried the corporations going which included the Warwick furnace and Glass Co. Two canal boats were owned and operated from Clinton, they were owned by the Limabach Brothers who hauled everything from coal to limestone to Cleveland regularly. Canal Fulton was better known for its drunks and gun-play and prostitution.
953- Ohio wasn't a safety zone for run-away slaves. Slaving was a big business here and across other northern states. The Episcopal and Quakers and Presbyterians alike formed the movements to help them escape into Canada, once across they could live out as free men. It was usually the local officials here in Ohio who shackled the Negro slaves by holding them until the trackers made their rounds. Everyplace had someone or somewhere that richly profited off the misery of slavery. By the 1840s, everyone who wasn't compassionate to the slaves, after a buck could collect a bounty for bringing them in. It was big business and the blacks were less than dogs in some eyes. Ohio was the hot-bed for slave recapturing. The Negros with the help of compassionate Christians kept them hidden well from the law until arrangements were made for transferring them. It was truly a network of everyday people who risked loosing their homes and lively hood who partaken in the Underground Railroad. Blacks never openly worked the towpath or were ever seen in daylight for common fear. We did have a black boat Captain named John Malvin who was born a free man.
954-MALVIN, JOHN (1795-30 July 1880), leader of Cleveland's black community who worked at various times as a cook, sawmill operator, carpenter and joiner, and (canal-boat captain), and was a licensed and ordained Baptist preacher, was born in Dumfries, Prince William County, Va. to a slave father and free mother, making him free under the Slave Code. He was apprenticed as a carpenter, secretly taught to read, and arrived in Cleveland in 1831 after a short stay in Cincinnati.
955- I have friends at the Clinton Historical Society who work hard at their jobs. I would appreciate it if some of those who post here refrain from using such bad judgment and choice of words. I read all that stuff and I have no idea where some of that information can be obtained. I have never been across such negative facts concerning Clinton yet. If anywhere was filled with corruption we wouldn’t have to look too far to the north or south of Clinton to have something to talk about.
956 to 948 I haven't yet returned to the Omega area since the last time. I'm going back before the foliage sprouts. We did manage to cover several miles of the Sandy system going as far as East Rochester. After spending days in along the Sandy, it left me just as confused as my first day out near its western end. What a mess of confusion.
I can't understand why you felt it was necessary to obliterate my Clinton posting yesterday. I thought this sight was free speech, I had refrained from using bad language and outlined my true feelings only to be evaporated by a bleeding heart namely you. How about an explanation?
957 -Why do you think the Sandy and Beaver Canal is so difficult in comparison to the Ohio and Erie Canal? Its so much smaller by comparison.
958--The Sandy and Beaver Canal and our Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal are a bit more difficult to track only because at their demise their structures became a field day for scavengers, that includes block stone and timbers. Anywhere that block stones were accessible they were stolen for foundations, retaining walls and just about need requiring sandstone blocks. So basically trying to track these old canals in desolate places using old locks for landmarks becomes increasingly harder because mostly everything is gone. Those two systems had a thirty years head start filling back in with trees and vegetation adding to the confusion. In comparison, the Ohio and Erie Canal was quite easy to track, all except for a few southern Ohio places which are pretty far from the road. I got so bogged down on the Sandy and Beaver more than once; where I had got out of there to get a fix on my whereabouts. As of now, I have located everything I set out to find on the Sandy, plus we put a good hike behind us by walking to East Rochester. While doing our research and plotting the Sandy it came to my attention that the Bolivar Aqueduct was built on top a significant landmark being the Northern boundary of the U.S.Military Lands and the Treaty of Greenville Demarcation Line.
959-can you see any plans in the future for a towpath reconstruction project for the Sandy and Beaver Canal?
960- The other evening, I met again with the descendents of the Daley Brothers Construction Co. The Daley’s were very instrumental in the state’s rehabilitation project which included several canal locks, weirs and sluice gates. With a combination of several reliable construction companies in the first decade of the twentieth century including the Daley brothers at the forefront in this region, they completed the state’s request. These brothers hailed from Bolivar and were very active in the final attempts to pump life into the ailing Ohio and Erie Canal. Their family now is extremely active today in the life and times of their ancestry and what part they played on the canal and heavy structural abutment work throughout Ohio. The Daley Bros. still have testimonials to their ingenuity standing in several counties today. It’s been over a hundred years now since the canal locks through northern Ohio stemming from Cleveland to Dresden Junction were refitted by more modern standards by setting the old block stones aside and by using concrete.
961- 182 years ago an important event unfolded that changed the face and economic future of the great state of Ohio, as follows: It was quite an occasion—the launching of this particular boat. By notes an eye witness accounts and the archives of the Canton Repository we have the unique details of this historic event. Between the dates of July 4 thru 12, 1827 a newly finished boat and a brave new crew of the state of the art vessel, the “State of Ohio” which was presented in bold black letters across its prow launched from Akron in front of thousands of cheering spectators, its destination was Cleveland. On it maiden voyage it was to rally the support of the countless men and woman on this historic 38, mile trod who anxiously lined the towpath in anticipation of this glorious moment. Along the shore of the canal at the Portage Summit, a great crowd of spectators had gathered. They for the first time viewed this elegant boat in awe, its brilliantly painted interior with was complimented by its splendid furnishings. The young boys gazed upon this great boat yelling to each other of their future plans to be a boat captain. Many were able to take a short ride which changed their live forever. Her appearance was more than delightful as the article in the Repository claimed. It read like this; “sailing in the harbour of a place, where nothing but the dreary wilderness only a few years since would have greeted the eyes of a stranger”. But now the scene has changed, a busy village occupies its place, a pleasant little harbour which will soon be swarming with boats and loaded with the fruits of its nearby lands and farms. Then come the great procession following the great Governor Trimble and the Canal Commissioner and dignitaries. In Akron the prominent people walked an elegantly decorated gang plank to embark this historic passage into time. Amidst the shouts by the spectators and the loud band with the pounding beat fell a moment of silence and solitude as the great black horses were coupled to the great boat. A word was yelled by the skinner and their came a tug and off she went headed towards the edge of the summit before dropping out of sight.
At the summits edge, the boat was lowered off the summit on its way to Cleveland by way of the newly ands finely finished lock chambers. Shortly the boat vanished in the deep bowels of the staircase of lockage designed as elevators. It was a tiresome journey for those of importance who waved to the thousands of spectators endlessly hours on end. This journey lasted all day and the next morning the boat met by two others arrived to the screaming crowds and bands alike to ceremoniously welcome them into Cleveland. It was a day which wasn’t soon forgotten in the village of Cleveland. Along the banks lined the bands and the people who came from miles around by wagon to see the great spectacle. On the Cuyahoga River many lake ships lowered their flags at half mast to honor the arrival and usher in the newly found transportation route. Canon fire was heard coming from the canal boat that was fitted for the occasion as the old fighting man-of –wars out in the harbour fired a series of batteries into the distant lake which added to the festivities. After the excitement died down and years to follow the great Ohio and Erie Canal was the strength and backbone of our great state.
962- to 960
A mutual acquaintance of ours,Terry Woods,wrote a terrific article on the Daley Bros. Construction Company for the Tuscarawas County Historical Society (& reprinted in the CSO's quarterly). The Daley's rebuilt locks 4,6,7,8,9,10, & 14 during 1907 & 08. Additionally,they built 4 wasteways & sluices,1 culvert, plus the Zoar & Hilton dams.
Although they weren't the most prolific contractors during the ill advised refurb of the O&E or M&E canals, virtually every structure they built is still extant.--- W.A.Seed
963-was it uncommon for boats to change names?
964 to 963-I would say that when a boat changed hands, it would be common to change its name. I understand that usually a fresh coat of paint constituted a name change for some boats. Naming the boat was a big ordeal and finding the right name was important. The owners were interested in catchy names that would hopefully become an everyday name along the canal. Many boats named after towns and milling operations held their names indefinitely unless the mill changed names. State boats were named after presidents and dignitaries who often changed names with new elects. Along the canal they had their share of the unscrupulous characters who would steal freight and cargo from the unsuspecting shipper. In return, the shipper would label that boat by name and put the word out of the acts of piracy. Those boats often changed names and captains alike because they were known as thieves.
The principal items transported by canal were wheat, corn, oats, flour, bacon, salt pork, lard, iron ore, coal, pig iron, whiskey, lumbar, fire wood, food staples and miscellaneous merchandise.
Toll rates varied from 2/10 to 7/10 of a cent per ton mile, depending on the nature of the cargo. Three mules, driven in tandem, could tow freight boats hauling 50 to 80 tons of cargo up to 4 miles an hour.
965-Why were the fast packets considered to be swifter than the conventional packet?
966-I understand that a separation of the sexes was common in the sleeping quarters onboard a packet, even if the passengers were husband and wife.
967-Through the years it’s well known that anything man-made will eventually succumb to a technological advancement. This is also the same scenario when it comes to canal boats, namely the packet. The early packet passenger boat was a wide, rounded boat. It could be compared to floating a rather large square block with extreme resistance. By nature, they were designed to firmly hold extreme loads, built with a very shallow draft and a bottom very similar to a barge. The idea was to displace a huge amount of water allowing better floatation. Through time, the cumbersome design evolved into a well streamlined boat which was developed to make more speed by cutting easily through the water. Onboard, it actually had some of the comforts of home. These boats sported a sun deck and lodging was slightly more hospitable. These later packets were laid out to carry passengers only and were pretty elaborate by comparison to the old ones. They sat lower in the water and the swifter ones were more pointed and streamlined, giving an impressive appearance. For performance reasons, the fast packets were towed by strong horses which could keep up a good 6 miles an hour for quite some time exceeding the 4 mph imposed by the state. The passenger paid about two cents per mile and a half a cent more for each child. This fare included the meals that were usually the nearest wild game within the range of their rifles or what could be purchased along the way. The sleeping quarters were segregated for the men and women that kept them separated, even if it be man and wife.
968-In Ohio, during the period between 1829 thru 1863, the property value of 37 counties has been re-adjusted upward 14 times, all of which were directly related to the canals. By 1841, Ohio had the third largest population in the union and was the second in industry by 1890, mainly after the railways took hold. Ohio was the crossroads of America. With our canals in full swing by the 1840s, it enabled a much needed transportation route within the state’s interior. Now in full operation, our canals provided the raw materials to the manufacturers. Ohio was a self reliant state, within it the ability to produce the raw materials that were needed. We were fortunate because we really never had to rely on importing after the completion of our canalways. Ohio was busy exporting. The glaciers were good to Ohio by leaving substantial pockets of bituminous coal. This product was close to or near the surface in large areas. Unlike other states nearby who had to dig deeply into the earth, Ohio had to do no more than scratch the surface by comparison. The iron works of Cleveland were multiplying and steel manufacturing was on the rise. The mills of Cleveland were the biggest buyers of firewood brought via the canal. Firewood was in abundance. Millions of trees were moved to make way for the canal and its towpath alike. This wood became a commodity and was a byproduct of canal construction. For easier loading and cutting, many fallen trees were in close proximity to the canal and had plenty of time to season and dry, ideal for the mills up north. Who would have thought the abundance of trees, once a nuisance, would become so viable for industry. Tallmadge, Ohio was extremely rich in bituminous coal and from there came a self proprietor whose name was Henry Newberry who launched the first coal sale known in Cleveland. Cleveland got its first glimpse of the black fuel in 1828 when Henry Newberry shipped a load of coal by canal boat into the flats of Cleveland. He was met with resistance after loading a wagon-full of the black material and demonstrating its potential, all day long, all over town. After a long day’s work, completely exhausted, he did manage to make a single sale to a Philo Scovill who managed the Franklin House. The Franklin House was a well known inn and tavern who catered to the area’s most prominent and finest. Scovill waited until the wood burned down, then he packed the pot belly stove in the bar room full of the black substance and to his surprise it worked well and expelled much more heat than wood. The word quickly spread about the burn duration of coal as compared to wood. Many of the upstanding patrons of the Franklin House were the heads of such places as the mills along the Flats and the Cuyahoga who were amazed by this stuff called coal - this new-found source of heat. They began placing orders and stemming from that first sale, Henry Newberry became a wealthy man overnight and the mills still demand this product today.
969-Massillon Weekly Independent-24 Nov, 1897.
MRS.GODFREY GOFF HAS A NARROW ESCAPE FROM DEATH.
FELL FROM A CANAL BOAT INTO THE WATER AND HAD GONE FOR THE LAST TIME WHEN HELP ARRIVED.
What came very near being a fatal accident occurred just below the second lock yesterday afternoon? Mrs. Walker, whose residence is a short distance from the lock, herd children crying and calling for help on the boat Wm. McKinley. She called her son Harry, who ran to the place and the children told him their mother was in the water. There was nothing visible but an apron, with the use of a pike pole the body was soon found. The Shana brook Brothers arrived on the scene and the three men quickly pulled the body from the water. Life seemed to be extinct but the men immediately went to work to resuscitate her. After about 20 minutes their efforts were rewarded by signs of life, and the woman was soon able to put aboard the boat. Mrs., hardy was summoned but the woman had been restored to consciousness before she arrived. Mrs. Goff and her husband had been spending the afternoon at the Bellingham place, and this probably accounts for the accident. Goff was below the boat attending the team when the accident occurred, but he was in no condition to render assistance.
970-The Evening Independent Jan. 26 1899.There was little water in the canal. A culvert near Butter Bridge, north of the city, through which a small stream flows under the canal, broke down. Allowing the water to run into the river. The culvert was old and decayed, and boatmen expected it to crash in long since. A force of men now at work, and by Monday navigation can be resumed. The present un-navigable condition of the waterway seriously inconveniences the local coal dealers who mines are located along it.
971-Hello Canalwayman and readers. I apologize for my absence. This is do to a sudden untimely death in the family. I had to sit back and regain my composure and get things back on tract.
At the celebration ceremonies commemorating the opening of the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal, more important than David Wittenhouse Porter who was Pennsylvania’s Governor, what cargo onboard was more anticipated?
972-Skaters on the canal Sunday between Massillon and Millport found it difficult to enjoy the sport. Many broke through and only escaped drowning after a hard hand struggle, as others jumped in to the shore as they felt themselves descending an icy incline. All the unlucky ones were from Massillon. our people had smooth ice on the ball ground that was flooded by excess water from the creek. Jan 6,1899.
974-When the first canal boat arrived via the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal, it was April 4, 1840. Akron had a grand celebration. In addition to Pennsylvania’s governor, David Wittenhouse Porter, was an elaborate cargo of sherry, Madeira wines and imported champagne. Several barrels were consumed adding to the excitement of that historic event.
975- In 1842, which world renowned author book passage on the Ohio and Erie Canal on a short trip to America.
976-I have been going over the details of the O&E Canal and have yet found a special place known for being a landing. This was once known as the "Metamora landing", it was probably in the Portage Lakes. Do we have anything about it?
977-"Metamora" is a village in Woodford County, Illinois, United States. The population was 2,700 at the 2000 census. Metamora is a growing suburb of Peoria and is part of the Peoria, Illinois Metropolitan Statistical Area.
I can't see a connection to the canal systems. Metamora is not listed anywhere along the Ohio and Erie Canal.
978-Metamora is a village in Fulton County, Ohio. It's easy to assume that this place was near the Portage Lakes or Canal Fulton with it sitting in Fulton County. Metamora was a stop along the Miami and Erie Canal and during the canal days had a landing called Metamora Landing.
979--I know a fair amount about the Miami & Erie canal. I've never heard or read of a Metamora being located anywhere on it. The M&E did not pass through Fulton County. It did pass through two adjacent counties-Henry & Lucas.
The only Metamora canal town that I'm familiar with is located approx. 40 miles northwest of Cincinnati, in Franklin County Indiana. It was a port for the Whitewater canal & is home to a canal boat ride, working water powered gristmill,2 stone locks,& a covered aqueduct (the only one remaining in the U.S.).--W.A.Seed
980-The Ohio & Erie Canal even for a short moment, figured into the lives of many famous men. The list of those who booked passage is rather extensive but we will go over a few of the names which will include possibly a great, renowned author and a few Presidents. James A. Garfield as a boy, served as a mule skinner and a hoagie on the Ohio & Erie Canal. He had many duties and later became a bowman on board the “Evening Star” owned by Amos Letcher. Garfield’s destiny changed when he caught canal fever we know as malaria. He barely escaped with his life and went on to be President of the United States. President William Henry Harrison campaigned by use of packet boat along the Ohio & Erie Canal but returned to the stage coach to finish his campaign. A world-famous renowned author by the name of Charles Dickens, traveled by canal while in the United States but nothing really implies he ever booked passage on the Ohio & Erie Canal. Dickens was unimpressed and preferred the stage coach to the banging around of the canal boat in the locks and the pesky flies and mosquitoes. King Louis Phillipe, once the Duke of New Orleans, stayed overnight in several towns along the canal and got himself in trouble in the Colonel Charles Williams Tavern in Coshocton where he was asked to leave.
981- where was the famous canal boat graveyard located at in Akron? Was it Summit Lake, or, locks 2, or 3?
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