Ohio's Grand Canal: A Brief History of the Ohio & Erie Canal

2. Early Operation

16  2  Opening Loans to build the initial stages of the Ohio & Erie Canal had been obtained relatively easily in New York in 1825. A national economic depression the following year, however, slowed Ohio Canal bond sales. Also, a few absconding canal contractors and the inevitable disease among workmen had slowed work on the project. By early 1827, construction on the Ohio Canal had been under way for almost two years and no portion had yet been completed. Those responsible for selling Ohio’s future canal bonds wanted something to show prospective investors. They wanted to showcase canal boats traversing at least a portion of the Ohio Canal, transporting the riches of the state’s interior to the newly improved lake port of Cleveland. The canal commissioners therefore decided to officially open the canal from the Portage Summit to Cleveland, some 37 miles to the north, on the nation’s birthday, July 4, 1827, even though several of the canal’s major structures were as yet unfinished.1 Grandiose plans were made for the great day. The Cleveland firm of Merwin and Giddings had a boat built prior to the opening of the canal at the present-day town of Peninsula and christened it the Pioneer. That same firm also purchased a boat from the Erie Canal and had it transported to Cleveland where it was christened the Allen Trimble. The Wheeler brothers ofPortageCountybuiltaboatbelowthefirstlocktothenorthofthePortage Summit, launched it on June 27, 1827, and christened it the State of Ohio. EarlyOperation Early Operation 17 Many boats were being constructed along the line of the canal, freight waspilingup,andtransportationlineswerebeingdevelopedandexpanded to handle the tonnage. It was the State of Ohio that left the basin below Lock 1 on July 3, 1827, met the Pioneer that night in Boston, and then joined the Allen Trimble some six miles north of Cleveland after the latter craft had been dragged from the Cuyahoga River and launched into the canal. These three boats composed the inaugural flotilla on the Ohio Canal.2 Vast throngs of people lined the banks of the canal for much of the last six miles of that journey. But it was at the temporary termination below the bluffs that held Cleveland’s main buildings where the real celebrating began. (The vast terminal basin and outlet locks into the river weren’t as yet completed.) It ended many hours later and a few blocks east and north, at Belden’s Tavern and the Franklin House, where numerous toasts were made to the wonderful accomplishment for which everyone present felt a personal satisfaction.3 However, the most important event of that day was the arrival of the Enterprise, a freight boat commanded by Captain Guy. The boat docked in Cleveland shortly after the celebrating throng had departed. Loaded with flour and whiskey from Akron, the Enterprise inaugurated commercial traffic on the Ohio Canal. Opening day and “first boat” celebrations were repeated over the next five years as completed sections of the canal were opened to traffic. The celebration at Massillon in Stark County on August 27, 1828, was a big one. The Allen Trimble and the State of Ohio, loaded with visiting dignitaries, were the focal point. The waters of the Ohio Canal reached Dover in Tuscarawas County on October 29, 1829. Christian Deardorf, the town’s founder and contractor of a section of the work nearby, had built a “large and commodious boat” on the banks of the dry ditch and christened it the Union. It was launched sideways into the canal as soon as water levels were sufficient. Reporters exclaimed that “most of the county’s residents turned out to line the banks” as the Union left its home port for the north and Cleveland.4 Flooding on the Walhonding in late 1829 so damaged the aqueduct and feeder that the canal’s completion through to Newark was delayed. Finally, on July 10, 1830, the section of canal from the Deep Cut in Licking County toDoverwasopened.ThefirstboatthroughNashport,MuskingumCounty, 18 ohio’s grand canal was the Reindeer, a pleasure boat built in Newark and taken to Coshocton to sell. The first commercial craft through the canal in Muskingum County from the north was the Union out of Dover. Caldersburg (the present Roscoe Village portion of Coshocton) celebrated the opening of the Ohio Canal on August 21, 1830. The Monticello, unable to cross the Walhonding River into town due to continuing problems with the aqueduct...