OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Ohio Canals (Part 8)
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by
Darlene E. Kelley
http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374
September 12, 2001
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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
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Ohio's Canals -- Part 8.

Clevelanders and the Canals--

Clevelanders were indifferent, more or less, to the Ohio Canals at
first, some of them perfectly satisfied to give it to Painsville or
Black River ( Lorain ), who wanted it badly. The lakes to the south of
Cleveland, and the Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas rivers were the deciding
factors, however, and the canal reached its southern goal in 1832.

Clevelands's fame spread far and wide with the opening of the canal.
Strategic location on the lake and inland water route made the village
an exchange point for goods from the south and east as well as export.
Long lines of overland wagons and heavy passenger traffic by waterways
taxed housing facilities. Vessels, crowded the river, light and heavy
vehicles filled the unpaved streets, and pedestrians wormed their way
around bags, barrels, boxes on the sidewalks. Real estate values rose at
alarming rate, and rents were high.

Newcomers were met at the docks by smooth talking promoters with
beautiful city plans on paper, urging them to buy. Inflationary
prosperity was mansifested in new taverns and hotels, commercial blocks,
stores, tenament buildings, and extended boundry lines. Cleveland, a
boom town, was riding the crest of the wave.

Private individuals and companies who were subject to tolls, charged by
the canal buillder, sprung up. Jobs were offeed at low pay, and those
who needed work, oft time applied for those jobs to feed their families.

Canal travel was safe and became popular, especially in fair weather,
when passengers could lounge on the top decks, leisurely enjoying the
wooded hillsides, the shadowy mysteries of the canal, and the twinkling
lights in isolated houses.

" Missing the boat " was not necessarily a disaster. The passenger
merely hired a rig and galloped to the nearest bridge across the canal,
waited for the boat and climbed aboard. The expression " Low Bridge " is
said to have originated when the skipper warned passengers riding on top
of the packet to prepare them to recognize the three or four foot
clearance between the bridge and boat.

The completing of the Ohio Canal, the State seemed to have abandoned the
burden of laying out state roads, and gave to private corporations the
right to improve certain roads, and charge tolls. Stock in the company
was usually purchased by the state. These tolls were high, compared to
the canal tolls. Turnpike, and plank road companies sprang up over
night, all over Ohio, building a network called the Farmers Railway,
some conecting to the terminels to the canals. Others did not. By 1870,
the companies had almost disappeared, leaving upkeep to the counties.

Reports of railroad progress in the East incited emphatic expressions
for and against the new development. Pessimists pointed out the hazards
that accompanied wood burning engines, their stacks belching out great
glowing cinders along with the smoke.

On the other hand, Clevelanders were spurred into the idea, as they
realized that speed by stage and canal was slow, and isolated during
winter months.

So they began planning rail connections with Pittsburg and Cincinnati.
In the face of many protests from the citizenship, forward looking
businessmen took their first steps in the long uphill climb to bring the
railroad to Cleveland. At the same time, local promoters were laying
wooden rails for a streetcar line motivated by horsepower that was ahead
of their time.

With the coming of the wooden planked roads, horses were replacing oxen
as beast of burden. They were speedier. Fine farms around Cleveland
boasted fine breeds. Those who wished to travel on business or for
pleasure could hire saddle horses, gigs, sulkies, and hacks at a number
of local livery stables.

There was always room for one more rider on the patient family nag when
ladies chose to do a bit of shopping. It was considered for two buxom
females to mount one horse, jog to town with perhaps a basket of eggs
and a pail of butter, and trade for their family needs at the general
store. The one horse principle served equally well when a young man took
his best girl to a sociable, Starched and smiling, she stood on the
mounting block, and with a sprightly leap, born of experience, she
settled herself on the horse behind her escort, arrnged yards of skirts
and petticoats, and clung to him with genuine pleasure.

This area of canals was the period of Clevelands city making.  The
business district of the new city fronted on the river, where steamers,
schooners, and canal boats exchanged imported commodities for products
of local industry. The river bank was a thriving center of forwarding
and commission warehouses, ship chandlers, merchants, and artisans.
Stores lined steep, unpaved Superior hill, and there were a few brick
buildings of several stories on the street beyond..

All this accomplished by the for- thought of City makers, politicians,
and dreamers,  who had the mind of genius, and created the Ohio canals
by shovels, wheelbarrows, hard work, and their own ingenuity, giving
unselfishly their time, money, and lack of family. We are in awe of the
creation of these mighty canals.
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