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

ch7. Voices on the Canal

Chapter 7 Voices on the Canal peg฀bobel฀and฀lynn฀metzger The stories of people who lived on and around the canal when it operated as a transportation system add a rich texture to the description of the actual building and operating of the canal. These are the tales of nineteenth-century settlers and travelers, twentieth-century boatmen, and canal-town residents. The latter are from people who bridged the turn of the century. These appeared in newspapers, magazines, letters, diaries, and in the Canal Society of Ohio journal, Towpaths. In the long scope of history, the canal era was brief. The Ohio & Erie Canal was at times plagued by mismanagement, it was always challenged by the limitations of the seasons, and it was, finally, trod over by the “godless iron horse” of the railroads. However, the canals were and remain an important part of the local and national culture because they were the first thoroughfares to connect the rural Midwest to markets and the world beyond. The idea for a canal system for Ohio, including the Ohio & Erie Canal, was received with enthusiasm; the farmers of Ohio were desperate for a way to transport their products to markets in the east. The roads in the early 1800s were either muddy and slippery or dusty and rutted, depending on the season. Everyone heard news about the Erie Canal and how it was changing the economy across the midsection of New York State; Ohioans were, understandably, eager for this new transportation system. The Ohio & Erie Canal was begun in 1825 and completed from Cleveland to Portsmouth by 1832, a total of 309 miles. The canal changed and ฀ 117 118฀ peg฀bobel฀&฀lynn฀metzger connected the landscape of Ohio with hard work and intriguing technology , creating what Pearl Nye in song called the “little silver ribbon.” The story of the Ohio & Erie Canal is well documented in history, legal documents, surveys, and plat maps. More diYcult to find are the stories of the actual people who built the canal; lived, worked, and traveled on it; and served its community. Probably most did not write very much, if at all. Other stories have been lost in time. But both photographs and stories do exist from the later part of the canal era, when the canal was losing its competitive battle with the railroads. In the early 1960s, there was a groundswell of interest in the old canal, best noted in the founding of the Canal Society of Ohio and the sustained eVort of that group’s members to collect stories, journals, diaries, and photographs from the canal era—as well as firsthand recollections from individuals who lived and remembered when the canal was a waterway from Cleveland to Portsmouth. From the Canal Society of Ohio’s collection and other sources, we can glimpse what life was like in Ohio when canals dominated the transportation scene. Descriptions of life on and near the canal vary widely, from variations on the “little silver ribbon” theme to comments about a smelly, polluted ditch. Some accounts tell us that life on the canal boats was often a family aVair, with the husband/father as captain and the wife/mother as cook, laundress, and general housekeeper. There are many more stories about the men and their activities than about the women and theirs. The men’s activities were at the center of the expanding economic development, and, as was the custom, the women provided the support for those activities. And the women did not leave behind many words about their own lives. It is diYcult now to comprehend just how they managed the work—living on the boats, cooking for their family and the crew, doing the laundry, and “boat-schooling” their children. Most important, however, chroniclers talked about the canal as a transportation system that connected places which had never been connected and opened Ohio to immigrants, commerce, and general expansion. Ellis H. Shimp of Newcomerstown, Ohio, collected many canal stories from local elders who remembered the canal days. Writing for the Newcomers News in 1975, he reported, “In retrospect, old timers living today say during their youth the Ohio & Erie Canal was truly a sight to behold and without doubt served its purpose well.”1 The following stories shed light on several aspects of the canal-era life, from immigration and travel to canal boat labor. Thecanal,asathoroughfare,servedbothlocaltravelersandthosecomingfromgreatdistances .WhenOhio’seconomybegantoflourishwiththe voices฀on฀the฀canal฀ 119 movement of goods...