This Canal Comments was a bit unusual as it was a list of bullet-points that Terry used to guide a talk he gave. I don’t know if he used a slide show along with this talk. So aside from cleaning up the format, I left it as it was sent.
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Hi Guys:
This column is in the form of a set of note cards I made for a talk I gave to the Monroe Falls Historical Society back in May of 2008. This was before the Damn Busters destroyed the dam in the Cuyahoga River and they had to change the name of the town to Monroe Ripples.
The last time the subject of this column was the P & O Canal, I received a lot of replies, so maybe there is a bit of interest there. To the best of my knowledge, there never has been a book written on that canal. Over the years several people have planned to write one and done a lot of work, but no book as yet.
So here is the ‘complete’ history of that canal – in less than 1,300 words! Maybe it will inspire someone to write that book.
P & O Canal Talk – May 8, 2008i
The interior Ohio towns of Warren and Ravenna were “left off” the route of the Ohio Canal.
Warren became a “hotbed” of Anti-Canal sentiment.
Alfred Kelley “promised” Simon Perkins (one of the leaders in the area), “every assistance” in approving a branch canal into his area. Perkins stood away from the anti-canal movement.
Local meetings were held to propose a canal between the Ohio and Pennsylvania systems throughout 1825 and 1826.
The state legislatures in Ohio and Pa. passed acts in Jan. and April 1827 granting a charter for a private company to build such a canal
Early in 1827, the Ohio State Legislature authorized The Board of Public Works (Kelley) to run surveys of a proposed canal connecting the Ohio & Pennsylvania canal systems. Sebried Dodge’s survey. Reported in January, 1828. Additional Surveys were run through 1832.
A meeting was held in Warren, Ohio on Oct. 1, 1833 with representatives from Pittsburgh and Philadelphia to determine which of three proposed “crosscuts’ they would support financially S & B Canal, P & O Canal, P & O RR. (P & O Canal ‘won’)
The Pa. canal connection hadn’t yet been finalized so the P & O Canal Co. decided to delay opening subscription books.
The Beaver Division of the PA Canal (from Rochester to New Castle) was authorized in 1834.
Finally, in 1835, the Canal Company Directors had the charters renewed in Ohio and PA and, in April, stock books were opened.
$1,000,000 of stock was subscribed by the end of May, 1835. The first meeting of stockholders of the P & O Canal Company took Place in New Castle PA on May 2, 1835. Officers and a Board of Directors were elected.
Engineers Sebried Dodge (Ohio) and James Harris (Pa.) were appointed and new surveys began on June 8, 1835.
Initial contracts were let, beginning at the PA Junction, in August of 1835. At the time these contracts were let, the western division ran through Middlebury and connected with the Ohio Canal at about the present site of the old Goodrich complex.
Early in 1836, the western division was changed considerably. It ran through the village of Cuyahoga Falls, into the Akron Mill Race and joined the Ohio Canal at the Lower Basin in Akron near the current baseball park.
The line of the canal was divided into an eastern division (from the Junction with the Beaver Division) to the Trumbull/Portage County Line – 45 ½ miles. The western division ran from the Portage/Trumbull County line to Akron and The Ohio Canal – 38 miles.
The country entered a deep economic ‘Panic’ in 1837. By the 11th of May only $290,000 of the subscribed $1,000,000 had been collected. Lack of funds and a Cholera epidemic among canal workers caused work to be suspended for several months that year, and next.
The Loan (Plunder) Law of 1836 authorized the State of Ohio to purchase up to half the stock in a company that had stock subscriptions of at least $1,000,000. Ohio pledged $420,000 in 1837 to the P & O Canal Company. The State of PA. pledged $50,000 in 1839.
These monies weren’t always paid promptly to the canal company’s treasury, But the project kept moving when others were shut down.
The P & O Canal opened from Junction to Ravenna in the fall of 1839 and through to Akron in April of 1840.
It was an immediate success. The initial feeder system at the summit was designed to handle from 40 to 60 boats a day. This limit was reached in 1843 and additional reservoirs were constructed during the next two years.
The canal line was divided into four sections for maintenance purposes. One, from Akron to Campbellsport – 24 miles. Two, from Campbellsport to Warren – 23 miles. Three, from Warren to Kimballs – 20 miles. Four from Kimballs to Junction – 16 miles.
Four new maintenance boats were constructed, but the entire engineering staff was ‘let go’.
Annual reports never detailed maintenance expenses which amounted to $0,000 to $12,000 per year.
The western division carried a great deal of farm and dairy products and built up the countryside. Coal and iron ore deposits from Girard to Youngstown resulted in a great industrial complex being built along the line of the eastern division.
Merchandise from the east flowed directly through the P & O to Akron and Cleveland. Akron receipts rose from ½ million #s in 1841 to 2.4 million by 1850. 1/3 to ½ of all canal receipts received in Cleveland came via the P & O by 1850.
Passenger packets operated on the P & O from 1840 thru 1852 with a peak of 8,481 passengers traveling on the canal in 1844.
Modest dividends of 1 or 2% a year were paid to the stockholders during the 40s and early 50s for a total of about 15%. 2 ¾% dividends were paid during the peak years of 1849 and 1850.
The Erie Extension Canal opened from Newcastle to Erie in 1844 and gave the P & O considerable competition to Lake Erie. The P & O and the Erie had a lively toll rate ‘war’ for a number of years.
Railroad competition began in 1852 in the form of the Cleveland &Pittsburgh RR. Most passenger and “rapid freight” traffic disappeared from the canal after this date.
Directors of the proposed Cleveland & Mahoning RR gained control of the canal in 1854. When this RR opened in 1857, canal tolls were raised by 50%, shifting most remaining traffic to the RR
In 1855 one arch of the stone aqueduct at Newton Falls had collapsed and a temporary wooden truss and trough constructed to maintain traffic. An engineer was hired by the company and his report detailed the poor physical condition of many of the canal structures. Dividends were cut in an attempt to gather a sufficient sum to effect repairs. The canal’s physical condition continued to worsen.
Under RR control, canal income for 1858 was half of what it had been in 1857. The RR attempted to legally abandon the canal in 1858, but a decision was handed down that attempts to close any portion of the canal would result in a loss of the charter.
Income in 1861 was $13,000 (66% less than in 1857) while maintenance costs totaled $16,000.
The legislature was petitioned in 1861 to authorize partial sale of the canal and abandonment of the rest, but no action was taken.
In January 1863, the state of Ohio sold it’s stock in the P & O Canal (original cost $420,000) for $35,000 to the C & M RR.
Ohio and PA authorized the closure of the P & O canal in March and April 1867.
Portions of the western division remained open for hydraulic purposes until 1872. Short stretches of the eastern division carried boating until 1872. The Middlebury Branch was used sporadically through 1873.
The P & O Canal was officially sold to the Cleveland & Mahoning RR In 1873. Canal right-of way & stone sold and distributed to various railroad lines thru 1879.
The original mill race in Akron was “sold” to Akron Millers in 1873 and ran beneath the streets of Akron well into the 20th. century.
J.H. Devereaux (Receiver) closed the books on the P & O Canal Company with an $812.84 Check to F.E. Pittman, Treasurer of the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio RR. Co. on January 31, 1882.
i Note cards from a talk given to the Monroe Falls Historical Society.