By Terry K Woods
I was given a copy of Kelly’s articles by Lew Richardson who I deem to be, by far, the best editor of the many who worked on Towpaths, the quarterly historical publication the Canal Society of Ohio. I never met Lew, who had retired and moved to Georgia to live before I became editor, but whenever I contacted him, I could always count upon him answering my letter of inquiry and dire need quickly and concisely.
This Kelly isn’t Alfred, the Acting Canal Commissioner for the Northern Division of the Ohio Canal back in the beginning. The is S.J. Kelly who wrote two very short, very informative columns about the Ohio Canal back in 1943 for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. There is an error or two here and there, and I’m not sure if he wasn’t describing early Erie boats rather than early Ohio boats, as Ohio’s boat’s stables were in the center of the craft while those on the Erie had bow placed stables. Anyway, there is some good stuff in this piece. Here, then, is S.J. Kelly – on the Ohio Canal.
“Gazing west, down Superior Avenue you sight the heavy B & O Railroad bridge poised in air. Some 165 feet above the street level. At its base, east of the Cuyahoga, about 300 feet south of Superior Hill, the old Erie and Ohio Canal entered the river through big Ship Lock (No. 44). Eastward along the tracks you can almost locate Merwin’s Basin, 225 by 150 feet, between West and James Streets. You can picture, too, the busy scene when gaily painted canal boats lay up beside Brigantines, Schooners and other craft and passenger packets moored to the slip in the northwest corner.
“The STATE OF OHIO was the first boat to descend the canal. Leaving Akron on July 3, 1827, it stopped at Boston, about half way to Cleveland for the night. Aboard were Ohio Governor Trimble, State Officials, and Canal Commissioners. The ALLEN TRIMBLE joined them later and on the Fourth the Governor reported in his annual message: “The boats were cheered by thousands assembled from the adjacent country at different points to witness the novel and interesting sight.”
“The PIONEER is said to have been purchased at Buffalo and towed to Cleveland for the celebration, and some distance up the Cuyahoga it was hauled across and launched in a cut through the towpath. This is wrong.
“Records show the PIONEER was built at Peninsula. On the Fourth, loaded with passengers and a band, the boat met the other two some six miles up the canal. A salute was exchanged and the three journeyed on together. (1)
“Cleveland histories fail to report that the three boats stopped some distance outside the village or to locate the spot. When the waterway was started in 1825 its terminal and which side of the Cuyahoga it would follow were left undecided. An estimate of 1825 showed it would cost $6,000 less for the canal to remain on the left bank. Judge David Bates of New York, chief engineer, arriving at that time, picked the east side and Cleveland Village donated $5,000 to the Canal Fund.(2)
“Where those first three boats stopped that Fourth is of historic importance. Investigation shows that not until April 1828, was water let into the long Cleveland Bends from Four Mile Lock (N0. 42) nor was Sloop Lock (No. 43), at the foot of south Water Street hill, completed until July 29. Then boats entered Merwin’s Basin for the first time, reaching the river by a temporary cut and unloaded. Ship Lock (NO. 44) was completed months later.
“Research leads me to believe that Lock 41 at the foot of Harvard Avenue, often referred to as “Five Mile lock, was the stopping place. I believe, also, that “Weight Lock”, 1,000 feet south of the Old Grasselli chemical plant on Independence road, must have been Lock 42.(3) Some may remember the drydock at the foot of Seneca (West 3d) Street hill, long used by canal boats.
“A canal trip is better understood if one knows something about canal boats. The first (on the Ohio Canal) were from 50 to 60 feet long and rather sharp at bow and stern, resembling river keel boats in their hulls, They were narrow with small cabins, sleeping bunks for passengers and crew, and a “galley” for the cook.
“These first boats were built for freight, and perhaps a half dozen passengers. Bulky cargoes of coal stone (4), flour, grain, whiskey, merchandise and produce (usually carried in barrels or other wooden containers) were the rule.
“ But sharp bows damaged bridges, locks and other structures as well as a careless ramming of a canal bank. In the early 1840s regulations were imposed that required rounded bows and iron bars or straps on the bow edge were prohibited.
“As the Ohio Canal was completed through to the Ohio River and a branch to Columbus, a demand was created for long distance accommodations, By 1835 a number of passenger/freight Lines were answering this demand and the design of boats was altered to accommodate this freight/passenger trade. Boats particularly designed to carry both passengers and freight called Line Boats) appeared and, by 1837, true “Passenger Packets” carrying exclusively passengers were making through, scheduled trips between Cleveland and Portsmouth.
“The traveling public could be divided into two classes. One included families, persons going west, permanently, to resettle, and individuals wanting dependable travel (at least more travel than the current roads could promise) for required travel and conduct business or seeing to other important matters away from their normal habitats. These used Line Boats (two-deckers) that carried both passengers and freight.
“The other class, with money enough to travel a bit classier or swifter or purely for pleasure, would engage passage on packet-boats after they were introduced onto Ohio’s canal in the late 1830s.
“An early Line Boat was often 65 or so feet long by 7 ½ feet wide. In the bow were stables for horses, three of which were taken aboard at the end of each shift. Across a passageway was the crew’s cabin with bunks for six men, Projecting above the deck over four feet. This gave a ceiling clearance of about eight feet. Passengers on a Line Boat were not generally provided with a cabin, but slept in the hold, frequently without bunks. No bedding was supplied. They brought their own provisions and were advised to bring a cook stove if they wanted warm meals.(5)
“At the stern of an was the Captain’s cabin and the cook’s quarters. Here was stationed the steersman. The white cabins had slightly slanted walls and fairly flat roofs with shuttered windows. The crew included two steersmen, two boy drivers, and a cook. The Captain sometimes owned the boat and lived on it year round. Almost the entire craft was given over to freight, often with deck loads of lumber. The speed of a Line Boat was from 2 to 2 ½ miles an hour. Cost of passage varied. Sometimes it was as low as 50 cents a day for a distance of 50 to 60 miles. Again, it could be as high as 3 cents a mile.
“A standard line of Packet Boats was soon built with far more luxurious interior fittings and arrangements.(6) A typical Packet Boat was 75 feet long by 11 wide, its cabin extending above the boat proper some six feet or more. Along each side ran a row of about 20 neatly framed windows. With curtains drawn and green window shutters, these gave the packet an elegant appearance.
“Near the bow the crew quarters had berths for 10 men. This was separated from the rest of the main cabin by a partition. Nearly all the rest of the cabin space aft was devoted to the passengers. First came the woman’s dressing room and the ladies cabin. The largest compartment, the full width of the packet, was usually about 45 feet long with a ceiling 9 feet above the floor. It became a long, rather narrow, gentleman’s sleeping apartment at night, a dining room three times daily, and between those periods, a gathering place for men, a place to write letters, play checkers and backgammon or discuss politics.
“At 6 a.m., noon, and 6 p.m. the Captain appeared with stewards and quickly cleared the room, setting up a large table at the center. Fares on a packet boat included meals and all passengers, ladies gentlemen, and children, dined at the same table. With dusk, the younger children romped through the cabin. If the night was clear, older passengers gathered on the roof which served as a deck. No packet made the trip without some travelers who brought their flutes, fiddles and accordions”.
(1) I always assumed that, if the PIONEER was built in Peninsula, it was the GOVERNOR TRIMBLE that was brought from the Erie and slid from the Cuyahoga to the canal.
(2) This is just a bit garbled, David Bates from New York ran the initial surveys in 1822 and 1823, but was not involved in the final route selection. That was finalized by the Ohio Board of Public Works at a meeting in February 1825, though rumor insists the decision (of the Cleveland terminus over the Black & Killbuck Route and the west Cuyahoga) had been made long before, but not announced in hopes of obtaining “donations” from interested localities.
(3) The “Weight Lock” mentioned was built in the 1870s after Cleveland obtained the northern-most three miles of canal and leased it to a railroad. I believe the actual stopping point for the first three craft on the Ohio Canal was at Lock 42 (Four Mile Lock) which was about a mile further south and removed in 1838 and the canal banks raised for flood control.
(4) Stone coal doesn’t appear to have been commonly used, or transported, during the first seven or eight years of the Ohio Canal’s life.
(5) I have a lot of trouble with this entire paragraph. I have seen no authenticated description of Ohio Line Boats, but I believe they were similar to the design of early Ohio Freight Boats, with the addition of “amenities” for a few passengers .Early Ohio Lines experimented with using way stations to provide fresh teams, but found the practice too expensive and converted to carrying a spare team in a center-mounted stable in the early 1840s.
(6) By 1835 or 36 Packets were making scheduled runs between Cleveland, Columbus and Portsmouth. By mid 1837 a ‘through’ line was established between Cleveland and Portsmouth. This through line’s last year was 1842, but passenger packet travel on the northern section of the Ohio Canal lasted through 1852 and on the southern division into the 1870s.
