OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Ohio Canals (Part 2) *********************************************************************** OHGENWEB NOTICE: All distribution rights to this electronic data are reserved by the submitter. Reproduction or re-presentation of copyrighted material will require the permission of the copyright owner. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net/oh/ *********************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 August 23, 2001 *********************************************************************** Historical Collections of Ohio The Kelley Family Collections Newspaper article, Plains Dealer compiled by S.J. Kelley-- 1925 And Then They Went West by Darlene E. Kelley 1998 *********************************************************************** Ohio's Canals -- Part 2. Construction -- When it came time to build the canals the Commission forsook the idea of Public Enterprise building the system in favor of Private Enterprise. It was felt that the Private sector would get the work done more efficiently. The canal was therefore divided into half mile sections with private contractors bidding on th job. The comparative cost of construction per mile of the canal in Ohio was: The Ohio & Erie $10,000 per mile and The Miami & Erie $12,000 per mile compared with the Erie Canal at $19,225 per mile and the Chesapeake & Delaware at $161,000 per mile. On the whole, the Ohio canals were built efficiently and constructed well. On July 4, 1825, Governor De Witt Clinton of New York and Governor Jeremiah Morrow of Ohio turned the first spadefuls of earth on the Licking Summit, 3 miles south of Newark to begin work on the Ohio and Erie Canal. There was an estimated 5-10 thousand people present on that day. On July 21, they similarly started the work on the Miami Canal at Middletown. By November 20 nearly 2,000 men were working with picks, shovels, and wheelbarrows while oxen dragged huge stones for locks through the mud. At the height of construction there were more than 4,000 wrkers on the project. Work was done by private contractors who bid on sections of the project. There were six stages to the work; 1. Grubbing and clearing the right-of-way and stripping 20 ft on each side of the canal bed. 2. Removal of wood, rubbish and lose dirt to provide solid banks where the sides of the canal would be above the level of the ground. 3. Removal of water, earth and rocks where the canal would be below the surrounding land and construction on embankments. 4. Construction of locks and culverts. 5. Reinforcement of culverts and locks with gravel mixed with cla loam. 6. Protection by stone of canal banks that were likely to wash away. Minimum dimensions for the canal were; 40 feet wide at the surface, 26 feet at the bottom and four feet deep. These dimensions were generally exceeded. Large portions of the canal were 60 to 150 feet above the waterline with the towpath at least 10 feet wide. The standard lock of stone and timber construction was 90 feet long and 15 feet wide with walls 5 feet thick at the top and 4 feet at the bottom. There was usually a 6 to 12 feet rise per lock, called " Locking Through " and was taken care off by two crews. The boat crew and the lock crew. A summit level was characterised by steps of locks at one or both ends because there was usually a steep drop from the summit to the next level. Of Ohio's 88 counties, 33 contained portions of canals or canal quarries. Most locks were built from sandstone and then lined with wood. Wood below the water level was extremely durable, it would not rot away like exposed wood because it was saturated and swollen, making a strong watertight bond. In North West Ohio some locks were constructed entirely from wood. These were often later rebuilt with cement. Many inexperienced contractors underestimated their construction costs and had to abandon the project forcing the jobs to be re-bid. Wages for the laborers during the early years were 30 cents per day, sunrise to sunset, plus board and lodging. Upon the completion of the Erie Canal in New York many experienced workers came to Ohio. Many were Irish workers. In 1832, the commission reported that 343 miles of the original 400 miles were complete with the balance of construction on track for completion the following year. This was accomplished except for the lock system at Cincinnati. By 1845 the extension of the Miami Canal to Lake Erie was finished giving Ohio two complete canal systems connecting the Lake with the River. By 1850, there was almost 1,000 miles of canal through Ohio. Numbering of locks was very random and different reports on the same canal might show different numbering for the same lock. Both the Ohio & Erie and the Sandy Beaver canals adopted a system where there would be a lock number 1 on either end of the summit level. As each canal descended the lock numbers ascended. Changes on the numbering system were also made which confused matters e.g. on the Maimi & Erie canel the numbering system was changed to ascend as the canal ascended, thus changing Lock # 40 at Independence Dam to # 13 amd # 44 at Providence Metropark to # 9. *********************************************** Overcoming the problems-- Work on the Ohio Canal never quite ground to a halt mainly due to the personal finances of two of the Canal Board of Commisioners. Micajah T. Williams of Cincinnati and Alfred Kelley of Cleveland, who both often dug into their own pockets to cover traveling expenses as they traveled around Ohio overseeing. Both worked for the State almost without pay throughout their tenure as Commissoners. There were relatively few problems to overcome in the contruction of the canal system because there were no mountain ranges to " Lock " over and most of the route was fairly level. One of the greatest problems, however, was the supply of water to the summit points. This meant the building of dams across rivers to create reservoirs at levels higher than the canals because water supplies were often deficient during the peak Summer months. Five major reservoirs were constructed on the two canals. Major problems occurred through flooding of the rivers that supplied the canals. This was overcome usually by building guard locks to regulate and control water levels in the canal. At rivers they either built aqueducts, water filled wooden troughs with a towpath, or dammed the rivers until they were at a level with the canal to permit towing across it. Summit Lake had a floating towpath across it. At the end of the canal season, usually between November and April, many of the northern, larger, canals were drained so that the locks, lining, and canal beds could be repaired. Towpaths and embankments which were eroded in winter would be repaired in the spring. Northern canals that were not drained froze over in the Winter. In the south the canals were used year around except for a few weeks in winters coldest weather. There were problems with some of the emigrant workers, in which there were almost a constant turnover. Contractors were held responsible for their part of the construction. Irish emigrants loved their whiskey, but soon the contractors withheld their supply, using the whiskey only for medicinal purposes. Experienced workers demanded more pay. Constant fights were between the men who felt some were lazy workers. Lazy workers were layed off and had to be replaced. Contractors were held responsible, and were to solve their own worker problems, either by the replacement of the Contractor by re-bid. The 1825 Act gave the commisioners eminent domain over the land required for construction of the canals, locks, and reservoirs. Many people willingly sold or donated their land and towns who vied for the canal to go through them because of the enhancement to property values. ********************************************* to be continued in part 3.