Canal Fever: The Ohio & Erie Canal, from Waterway to Canalway

ch13. The Ditch and the Path in the Backyard

Chapter 13 The Ditch and the Path in the Backyard peg฀bobel฀and฀lynn฀metzger In the collective memories of the elders in the cities and small towns along the Ohio & Erie Canalway, canal history is divided into two parts: life before and after the 1913 flood. Although the heyday of the canal was long past before the extensive canal rehabilitation of 1905–09, this work had created some optimism that the old transportation system would survive, if on a limited basis. However, the State of Ohio did not appropriate funds to continue the necessary repairs to make it navigable south of Roscoe. If the 1913 flood killed the canal as a transportation system, the railroads and roads had already made it obsolete. The canal and towpath, however, were integral parts of the towns and villages along the route, and they did not just disappear. In a number of areas, industry already leased canal water; the canal was also used for recreational boating and fishing, and the towpath , long used as a connection between the towns, was still a connecting thread. But for several generations of nearby residents and the historic record, the old transportation system was merely a ditch and a path in the backyard, to be ignored, drained, filled, farmed, and forgotten. Afterthe1913flood,peopleturnedtheirbacksonthecanal.Somefondly remembered the way of life, but most Ohioans were looking ahead as technology rapidly expanded. Wildflowers and tree saplings were poised to take over much of the canal route. But the ditch that took seven years to dig was not about to disappear completely. As they did in the memories of the elders, the canal and towpath remained a physical presence on the landscape. ฀ 231 232฀ peg฀bobel฀&฀lynn฀metzger Even before the flood, canal life was ebbing, and canal boats were disappearing or appearing in diVerent venues. The poor condition of the canal made it diYcult to use eVectively for a trip of any length. Terry K. Woods of the Canal Society of Ohio interviewed old boatmen in the late 1960s and early 1970s and noted, regarding the last days of the working canal, “Many of the remaining boatmen gave up. Basins and wide-waters all over the northern section of the canal were soon studded with rotting boats.”1 Old photographs depicting rotting, sinking boats conjure up the sadness that must have settled in some boatmen’s hearts. Since many boats were owner operated and entire families lived on them, some boatmen merely parked their boats and converted them into stationary homes, either on shore or in the water: “Quite a few of the boatmen pulled their craft up on a convenient shore, roofed them over with lath and tarpaper to make homes.”2 Here canal families kept scraps of their former lifestyle and lived among other canallers. The houseboat residence Cozy Corner was permanently moored in Akron’s Upper Basin in 1910. Don Cooke, lifelong resident of Navarre, remembers another canal-boat house in Navarre. In their later lives, some of the boats were “Quite a few of the boatmen pulled their craft up on a convenient shore, roofed them over with lath and tarpaper to make homes” (Louis Baus Canal Photograph Collection, University of Akron Archival Services). To view this photo, please refer to the print edition of this book. the฀ditch฀and฀the฀path฀in฀the฀backyard฀ 233 disguised more than others. Take, for instance, a pleasure boat operated by a Mrs. Watts that had carried groups on Sunday afternoon excursions on the canal from Navarre to Zoar when the canal was still in operation. Later, as Cooke described, “the boat was then taken apart and became a long, narrow house on Ohio Street,” the home of a schoolmate.3 The more locally famous of the canallers, Pearl Nye, who was first introduced in chapter 7, lived on a canal boat turned permanent residence. “The Nyes, Pearl, Ma, and one or more of the younger Nyes lived in the converted canal boat ‘IQUICKE’ as late as the 1920s. That home sat on the bank of the lower basin near Exchange Street in Akron.”4 Near the end of his life, Pearl Nye again lived in a converted canal boat, or at least part of one. In 1939, Nye built a one-room log cabin in Roscoe, across the river from Coshocton “against the double lock that once lowered canal boats 12 feet from the mouth of the...