OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Alfred Kelley [3]
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by
Darlene E. Kelley
http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374
June 8, 1999
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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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Third in Series --Canal and New Home

     In 1819 commenced the struggle for a Canal to connect Lake Erie
with the Ohio River.  The resources of the State were yet undeveloped,
and most of its six hundred thousand inhabitants were poor.  The project
had few suporters, and the foresight, courage and perserverance required
for such an undertaking, under the conditions than existing, can hardly
be realized in this age of railways and great industrial eneterprises.
     Alfred Kelley had earlier been an enthusiastic believer in the
importance and the practability of the Canal from the Hudson River to
Lake Erie, and now threw himself heart and soul into the proposition to
construct a waterway, which should do for Ohio what the Erie Canal had
done for New York.
     His words did not fall on unwilling ears. This had been repeated
year by year by others, and inquiries were made of those who had gained
experience by the construction of the water-ways in New York, as well as
capitalists and money-lenders in the great commercial centers of the
East.  It was necesary not only to find out that Canals were
practicable, but that they would pay; and not only this, but money
enough could be borrowed by the State in its corporate capacity to
arrange for their costruction.  All these questions were in the end was
answered satisfactorily.
     On the 3rd of January, 1822, Micajah T. Williams, od Cinninnati, a
representative from Hamilton County, and a chairman of a committee to
whom the report had been referred, made an elaborate report, discussing
the quesion at length. I quote;

   " It is well-established fact that man has not yet devised a mode of
conveyance so safe, easy, and cheap as canal navigation; and although
the advantage of cheap and expeditious transportation is not likely to
be perceived when prices are high and trademost profitable, yet the
truth is familiar to every person od observation that the enormous
expanse of land carriage has frequently consumed nearly, and sometimes
quite, the whole price of commodities of a cheap and bulky nature, most
of which will not bear a land transportation many miles, and
consequently are rendered of no value to the farmer, and are suffered to
waste on his hands. The merchant who engages in exportation of the
produce of the country, finding it a losing commerce, abandon its, or is
ruined; and crops in the finest and most productive parts of the State
are left in the fields that produce them, or be distiled, to poison amd
brutalize society."

   The valuable report of Mr. Williams concluded with the introduction
of a bill authorizing an examination into the practicability of
connecting Lake Erie with the Ohio River by a canal, which was read the
first time, and finally passed January 31,1822.  The second section
appointed Benjamin Tappan, Alfred Kelley, Thomas Worthington, Ethan
Allen Brown, Jeremiah Morrow, Isaac Minor, and Ebenezer Buckingham, Jr.,
commissioners, " whose duty it shall be to cause such examinations,
surveys, and estimates to be made by the engineer as aforesaid as may be
necessary to ascertain the practicability of connecting Lake Erie with
the Ohio River,by a canal through the following routes, viz.: from
Sandusky Bay to the Ohio River; from the Ohio River to the Maumee River;
from the lake to the river aforesid by the sources of the Cuyaoga and
Black Rivers and the Muskingum River; and from the lake by the sources
of the Grand and Mahoning 
Rivers to the Ohio River."

    In 1822, as one of the canal commission which had been appointed at
the proceeding session, Alfred Kelley presented to the Senate the report
of the commissioners.  In the spring of 1823, together with Micajah T.
Willams, he went to New York to inspect the New York canals and
investigate their operation.  When the project was finally authorized by
the legislature, Alfred Kelley was recognized as its head.
     The Ohio Canal is a monument to his enterprise, energy, integrity,
and sagacity. He was at all times its foremost advocate, and, from the
inception of the work to its completion, was a leading Board of
Commissioners. During the construction of the canal, every part of the
work was subjected to his supervision.  Contractors soon learned that no
fraud or artifce could escape his vigilance.  He was inflexibly true to
the interests of the State, and sacrificed both his health and his
private interests in his untiring devotion to the public.
     The dimensions of the Ohio Canal were the same as those of the Erie
Canal in New York, but the number of locks was nearly twice as great. No
canal in this country, or in Europe, of equal length, had been
consructed at as small a cost per mile, or at so small an advance on the
original estimate. 
     The Canal was practically finished in 1832, but Alfred Kelley
remained at the head of the Commission untill 1834, when the entire
system was in operation. He then resigned his position as a
commissioner, in order to regain his health, which had been affected by
close application to the duties of his office, an to devote himself to
private affairs.
      The result of this great public improvement fully justified the
faith of its promoters.  Agriculture, commerce, and manufacturing grew
rapidly; and on this, her first great work, as a foundation, have been
built up that wealth and influence, which have given Ohio a place among
the foremost of the American States.
     During the constuction of the Canal, Alfed Kelley removed his
family first to Akron. and in October 1830, to Columbus. where he
resided the remainer of his life.  In Columbus he built, as his
homestead, after designs by himself, the massive stone house with
porticoes supported by monolith columns.  It was built in a small
settlement originally called Franklinton. which later became Columbus.
During the time that the stonefront mansion was under construction. and
after it was finished, the site on which it was, was far out from the
center of town.  The house was cut off from the city by a series of
springs and swampy marshlands that-- were it not for a smal road in
front of the house-- it would have made a trek into town virtually
impassable.
     Others mocked Alfred, calling his plans too ambitious, and
ridiculed him for locating in a spot they considered to be way out in
the country.  Immediately after its construction was completed, many of
these naysayers dubbed the mansion; 
"Kelley's Folly."  In the years after it was completed on Broad Street--
just east of what became downtown, it was followed by a slew of other
magnicent homes and buildings.  The easterly stretch of Broad Street
continued to extend, and became a showcase for architectural transition
and style.  By 1895, the main drag into the heart of the city had
established itself as architecural one upsmanship.        Construction
went on at a rapid pace. Among the homes constructed there was the
Charles H. Lindenberg House and the Firestone Mansion, and many others. 
     In 1961, the Kelley Mansion which started it all and stood for124
years in its marshy spot, " out in the country," was torn down to make
way for more modern development.
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To be continued.--