Canal Comments – The Trenton Feeder by Terry K. Woods

Terry’s email introduction- I still haven’t heard that many opinions of your thoughts on multi-part columns. I did get one comment from Dave Myer of Canal Winchester who said, in part, that he likes to read of my escapades up north. So I was going to use, for today’s column, some reworked hiking notes I took in the National Park not too long after the bike trail first opened up.

Then I thought of another two-parter I have – from a man who lived in Trenton around the turn of the last century with some interesting information about the guard lock at the junction of the Trenton Feeder and the Ohio Canal.

Then I thought maybe some of you would not be that familiar with the Trenton Feeder, so today’s column is a reworking of an article I wrote on the Trenton Feeder for BUCKEYE COUNTRY in the early ‘90s. I got a lot of great information on the workings of that feeder from Jon Baker, then writing for the New Philadelphia Times-Reporter.

I believe, as Dave stated, this was called the Ohio City Canal. Actually, Frank Trevorrow wrote a short description of that short canal in 1973 and I used it in our 1975 Sesquicentennial edition of TOWPATHS.

“An organization known as the Buffalo Tract bought a large piece of land on the west side of he river, opposite Cleveland. It extended from the west bank of the river to what is now West 28th. Street and north from Detroit Avenue to the Lake. Docks and warehouses were built along the river and the Company dug a short ship canal to connect the old river bed with the new channel of the Cuyahoga.

“A village on the west side of the river was incorporated as Ohio City in 1836. Soon after incorporation , Ohio City authorized the digging of a branch canal to run north from opposite the outlet of the Ohio Canal to the old river bed just west of the Buffalo Company’s ship channel.

“The Ohio City Canal eventually disappeared, possibly when the Detroit-Superior Viaduct was built. The site of the canal is now Sycamore Street. A vestige of the canal still remains – the slip alongside the Huron Cement Dock. From the new River Road bridge, the line of the canal can clearly be seen south from the cement slip to the railroad bascule bridge”.

Keep in mind, Frank wrote this in 1973. Many things may have changed.

THE TRENTON FEEDER

Buckeye Country, Winter/Spring 1992-93

When the Ohio Canal was projected through Tuscarawas County in 1827-28, terrain considerations took its route as far as two and three miles from its primary water source, the Tuscarawas River. Therefore, when a feeder to supply the canal about midway between the Sugar creek and Walhonding River crossings was planned, that feeder was required to be several miles long. That feeder canal was to intersect the main Ohio Canal just below the village of Trenton (now Tuscarawas) and Lower Trenton lock (Lock No. 16). The State would throw one of their typical low-tech dams across the Tuscarawas River some three miles below it’s confluence with the Big Stillwater Creek.

Historical Topographic Map Collection. The feeder is seen running down the right side of the valley. The dam is just below Midvale and the feeder can be seen between the a and s in Tuscarawas. It then turns and connects to the main canal.

Some twenty years before all this canal-building activity, in 1804, Michael Ulrich had established a mill and home at the ford across the Big Stillwater, approximately three miles above that stream’s junction with the Tuscarawas. Ulrich’s mill had prospered and other settlers moved into the area. Over the years, many a raft and flat-boat filled with grain and flour had traveled from that area down the Stillwater, Tuscarawas, Muskingum and Ohio to southern markets. If the feeder to Trenton was made navigable, it would be possible for the residents on the upper Stillwater to gain access to the main canal and markets, both north and south.

The canal through Trenton to the Ohio River was opened for traffic in 1832, and a great flood of activity stirred along the lower Stillwater Valley that next year. Michael Uhrich II platted a town around the millsite on the right bank of the creek in the summer of 1833. The town consisted of 94 lots that Uhrich named Waterford. He fully expected it to become the main distribution point for grain shipments from further up the Stillwater Valley down to the Ohio Canal and outside markets. Not to be outdone, two other teams of entrepreneurs also had visions of developing grain distribution centers along the Stillwater. Messers Beebe, Kilgore, Olmsted & Dewey had laid out the 66-lot town of Eastport on September 3, three days before Waterford was platted. Eastport was also on the right bank of the Stillwater, but some two miles closer to the Tuscarawas and the Ohio Canal. Then, Philip Laffer plated the 55-lot town of Newport on the left bank of the Stillwater, some two miles beyond Ulrich’s Mill a short time later.

Though the Trenton Feeder began supplying water to the Ohio Canal in 1830, there was no guard lock constructed at it’s entrance to allow access to craft navigating the upper streams. It was necessary, then, for craft from all three of these new upper river towns to navigate the Stillwater, the Tuscarawas, and a portion of the Muskingum before gaining access to the Ohio Canal through the side-cut at Dresden, and that wasn’t accessible until 1832. It wasn’t until 1836 that the State threw together an Alligator lock at the head of the Trenton Feeder and gave upper river craft access to the Ohio Canal just below Trenton.

It would appear now, that Eastport had the better chance of developing into the predominant Port in the area. It was closer to the Feeder and seems to have had more organized backing. Snags and sawyers were removed from the Tuscarawas and Stillwater to make navigation easier from Eastport to the Feeder. Farmers from the area came to the new village to sell their grain. All this traffic caused the founding of several new businesses, including a tavern. The Eastport Company erected two warehouses. A large amount of business was carried on here initially. Eastport’s backers promoted their town so well that Tanner, compiling a listing of the Nation’s canals from New York in 1843, mentions the Eastport Canal. Eastern canal historians have searched long and hard for this canal – they need search no longer.

It is historical fact, however, that Waterford (renamed Urichsville in 1839) quickly garnered the larger percentage of the valley’s grain transshipment business, perhaps because there were already established communication in the region to the mill and ford. Sawyers and snags between Waterford and Eastport were quickly removed, the men from Eastport having assisted greatly by clearing the waterways below their village.

One warehouse had been erected here by Uhrich in 1827. By 1836 there were two. This was soon increased to five. It wasn’t unusual to see three or four canal boats, on occasion five, at the docks, all loading at the same time. It was during these occasions that Waterford’s young men could earn a Shilling (12 ½ cents) shoveling wheat from warehouses into canal boats.

George Wallick established a boatyard here and completed the COMMODORE PERRY during the spring of 1836. The PERRY was small as canal boats ran, carrying approximately 1,800 bushels of wheat. Still, her owner, Dennis Cahill, was pleased with it and ran it in the trade for many years. Wallick built the much larger EASTPORT for John Welch during the winter of 1836-37. All-in-all, eleven canal boats and five flat boats were built by several boat builders in Uhrichsville over the years.

Interviews with local boatmen revealed that most loaded 2,000 to 2,200 bushels of wheat and took an average of seven days to make the round trip to and from Cleveland. They also stated they used two horses or mules to pull a loaded boat and that animals and drivers were changed every six hours.

Most of the boats that were owned in Uhrichsville brought back loads of salt, shingles & merchandise of different kinds. The majority of these craft also had accommodations for five or six passengers. The fare for the 113-mile trip to Cleveland, board included, was $3.00.

A canal boat was also a good way for pack peddlers to travel. When a boat came to town, the peddler could put his pack on his back, canvass the place over, and catch up with his boat before it had gotten out of sight.

Boating in the upper rivers was certainly more difficult than boating in the canal, however. Local tales insist that a towpath existed along the right banks of the creek and river below Eastport, but little documentation exists^ⁱ. It was no doubt a tedious and strenuous job poling by the crew to get a boat the four to six miles from the feeder to Eastport or Waterford/Uhrichsville. And once you were out of the canal, you had your choice of routes. Waterford’s promoters erected a large red arrow at the junction of the Tuscarawas and Stillwater pointing up the correct waterway.

Boating downstream was easier on the muscles, but harder on the nerves. Apparently it wasn’t that easy to hit the feeder, particularly during times of high water. Once, when John Voshell, reportedly in a steam canal boat, was navigating the river during high water, the current was so rapid that he missed the feeder entrance. A third of his craft went over the dam, and the weight of the engine, being in the bow, broke her back.

Newport apparently never attracted much of the transshipment business and was required to develop industries of its own to survive. Uhrichsville’s period of vigorous growth and activity came to a screeching halt during the early 1850s with the construction of the Steubenville & Indiana R.R. Grain was afterwards shipped from various points along the railroad, depriving the town of much of its former trade. Uhrichsville’s growth was stagnant for nearly twenty years, until construction of the railroad shops in nearby Dennison livened things up again.

Hard times hit all three of the Stillwater villages, though Newport had a modest pottery trade to help sustain it. All three towns are listed in the 1875 County Atlas, but by 1883 Eastport was a ghost town with only three or four empty houses to witness that any formal community had ever been there. Newport was a sleepy little village of 150, while Uhrichsville had blossomed to become the second largest town in the county, being home to nearly 3,000 citizens.

The old brush and stone feeder dam was finally replaced by a permanent stone-filled wooden crib dam in 1855. It was also 1855 that the State finally replaced the wooden crib walls in the old Alligator feeder lock with masonry walls. Of course, by then, railroads were already taking over much of the river traffic.

When the State attempted to refurbish the northern division of the Ohio Canal in the early 1900s, navigation of the Feeder was no longer required and the Trenton Feeder guard lock and State Dam were not considered in the project.

For some years previously, the State had not even maintained the old dam. They had, instead, extended the race from a private mill dam (Hilton’s) farther up the Tuscarawas. This race entered the Feeder just below the old guard lock. The Hilton Dam was purchased by the State in 1908 and rebuilt with concrete (by the Daily brothers) in 1909.

Presently, much of the old Trenton Feeder channel is still visible, as is the stone ruins of the guard lock and the remains of the (breached) concrete Hilton Dam^ⁱⁱ.

Of the three attempts to found a town at the head of navigation to the Trenton Feeder, no sign remains of Eastport. It was officially allowed to revert to public land in 1906.. Newport is a tiny dot on county maps at the junction of County Highways #37 and #28. Uhrichsville, with the impetus given it by Waterford and the Trenton Feeder, is currently (2018) the third largest community in Tuscarawas County (behind New Philadelphia and Dover) with a population of 5,413 – down slightly from the last two census counts of 5,600 and 6,023.

i The Board of Public Works Report to the State for 1855 indicates the streams “above the Trenton Feeder Lock were cleared and improved” – but there is no mention of a towpath being worked on.

ii This area is now in a private County Park called the Hilton Preserve that can only be visited by permission.

Canal Comments – Kelly’s Canal

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.

Canal Comments- The First Time I Saw Santa Claus

Terry K Woods

As told to Terry by Ben Ludenberger, January 1972.

Wick Ludenberger worked on his dad’s canal boat, the BOILVAR, from the time he was able to drive a team or handle the lock gates until his dad quit boating after the season of 1905 or ‘06. I was able to get Wick and his younger brother Ben to let me interview them both on audio tape at Ben’s home in Bolivar Ohio one Saturday afternoon in January of 1972. Since Christmas is rapidly approaching one of the short tales Wick related that afternoon seems to be quite appropriate. He remembers being four or five at the time this story took place. Wick was born in 1892, so that would mean that it was in 1896 or 97 that little “Wick” Ludenberger first saw Santa Claus.

“ We got froze in one winter just this side of Canal Dover. We had about a half load of coal on board so we decided to stay right where we were instead of trying to make it to the farm at Bolivar to winter at Grandma’s as we usually did.

“Christmas Eve came. There was snow on the ground and everything was froze up. A fellow named Jim Steiner was there that winter too. He had a daughter about 15 or 16 years old. Dad and Jim had been to Canal Dover on the team. I don’t know if they got that Santy Claus suit while they was there or not, but the Steiner girl, maybe somebody put her up to it, decided she was going to play Santy Claus for us kids in all those boats – there was six or seven boats froze up there with us then. I must have been about four or five, because I don’t think Ralph was born yet, but Ben was.

“We was all sitten in the aft cabin of our boat with Mom and Mrs. Steiner. I don’t know where Dad and Jim were. There was a hatch on top of the cabin, the stern deck was up there, with a step-ladder kind of arrangement leading down from the hatch into the cabin. I remember I was sitten on the bottom step. I suppose we were all playen some kind of game or something – when all of a sudden – that hatch flew open, AND THERE WAS SANTY CLAUS. He throwed a bunch of candy and nuts down through the hatch onto the floor. Us kids like to be scared to death. Back under the bunks we all scurried. And that’s the first time I saw Santy Claus.

“The reason I know it was the Steiner girl playen Santy Claus was that, to top things all off – – I don’t know whatever made her try to go around on the gunnel, on the outside of the boat. She could have gone along the catwalk from the stern cabin over the cargo holds and then onto the bank from the bow deck, but she tried to swing down to the gunnel from the stern deck and walk around on it along the outside of the boat to the bank, instead. She must have missed her footing when she swung down, because she fell right into the canal. The ice there along the bank wasn’t that thick and she went right through it into the water. There must have been six or seven feet of water there where she went in.

“We all ran up on deck and Mom and Mrs Snyder, and some of the other folks from the nearby boats, helped fish her out. With that Santy Claus suit on, and how cold it was, and the ice and everything, they had the devil of a time getting her back on board. It’s a wonder she didn’t drown. I don’t think she ever played Santy Claus again, and I know that I’ll never forget that Christmas.”

Last Days of the Ohio and Erie Canal – Canal Comments

By Terry K Woods

There have been a number of statements over the years in the press and media about the “end” of the Ohio Canal. Through traffic ran on it, these statements say, until 1913 when the flood destroyed the canal and the State abandoned it. Well, there are true statements in that and some, eh, not so true. I set about writing a column to set the record straight. I’m not at all sure I have done that.

My first effort was to use two newspaper articles about the last days of the canal in their entirety and correct the wrong parts. Well, that didn’t work well at all. Then I decided to use an excerpt from the Board of Public Works Report for 1911 describing how the canal was in bad shape. But I couldn’t find one of the two statements from that report I wanted to use verbatim.

I knew, however, that I had quoted that bit in my 2008 GRAND CANAL, so I went to it, and sort of changed my mind, again, about the column. Today’s final column will be a slightly rewritten and shortened version of pages 64 to 71 of my GRAND CANAL.

It is basically about the results of the State pulling the plug on the early 1900s rebuild of the northern division of the Ohio Canal and then nature taking a hand in the final decision of keeping the canal open with her devastating 1913 Flood.

I hope you find today’s column informative and, at least a bit, interesting. It is a long one, and, “Yes Mary, no pictures.” And if you have read my book, this is all old news. Still, I think, in order to understand the history of Ohio’s Canal Era completely, it is important to look closely at that period between the ending of the 1909 construction season and the Spring of 1913.

————————————————————–

LAST DAYS OF THE OHIO CANAL

From the end of the 1909 construction season until the devastating March 1913 flood, the Ohio Canal lay, with its attempted northern rebuid stalled, manymiles from the coal fields of Tuscarawas County. Charles E. Perkins’s ninth consecutive term as Chief Engineer of Ohio’s Public Works expired in May of 1910. He was not reappointed; nor was he immediately replaced. There was no Chief Engineer’s Report to the State Legislature for 1910, and for over a year the Ohio Canal existed in a state of limbo.

Finally on July 3rd, 1911 John I. Miller was appointed to the position of Chief Engineer. In his annual report to the State Legislature presented on November 11, 1911, he stated that, “the canals of Ohio are in such a state of physical disability as to make it possible for navigation only in a very few instances.”

During the enforced hiatus of long distance canal traffic during the attempted rebuild, the few mills, mines, and industries that had regularly shipped and received by canal either shifted their business elsewhere or were forced out of business. The boatmen too, drifted away and into other jobs and lives. Only those few boats that had been dragged up on shore or sunk for the duration into the convenient basins and widewaters that still survived.

Mixed signals came from the Legislature and Board of Public Works regarding the future of the Ohio Canal. Major physical flood damages in the northern division during the fall of 1911 were rebuilt in 1912. However, the spoil from dredging the canal south of Clinton in the last days of the rebuild had been left in heaps. The towpath south of Clinton into Canal Fulton was not plowed smooth and leveled until 1912. Also, it appears that portions of the canal through Stark County to the Zoar Feeder in Tuscarawas County was never refilled with water after the rebuild and relocation of New lock 5-A and the new Cemetery Run Culvert south of Massillon in 1909.

Meanwhile, the State Legislature busied itself disposing of the lower portion of the Ohio Canal. Most of the canal line between the Dresden Sidecut in Muskingum County and Portsmouth was officially abandoned in 1911. Only that section between the Licking Summit Reservoir and a few industries in Newark remained and that was only for hydraulic power.

The remainder of the Ohio Canal was allowed to ‘just exist’. Then, on December, 31, 1912 the State Legislature abolished the Board of Public Works and replaced it with a one-man “Supervisor of Public Works”. But since John Miller was appointed to that position, perhaps the State Legislature wasn’t entirely ready to give up on its canal system. As it turned out, that question was soon taken out of the Legislature’s hands.

The snows were heavy in northern Ohio in January and February, 1913.(1) Then a rare thaw occurred in mid-March, and on March 23, Easter Sunday, it began to rain. A heavy downpour continued all over the State. By the wee hours of Tuesday morning the creeks and rivers throughout Ohio were at a high flood stage. Though western Ohio was hardest hit the rivers in eastern Ohio, including the Cuyahoga, Tuscarawas, Muskingum, Licking and Scioto, – rivers whose valleys carried the channel of the Ohio Canal – all were at a record flood stage.

Dayton Ohio during the 1913 flood. Library of Congress.

Rain had begun falling in northeastern Ohio around noon on Easter. More than eight inches fell during the next four days. Families in the river valleys were forced to leave their homes. Cities in those valleys were without power, shelter, food, and water. Firemen and police found it difficult to reach any emergency.

The Tuscarawas River bottom including the canal near Clinton and Warrick, were covered by water for a width of 12 miles. All that water had to be funneled through a valley that contained Canal Fulton, Massillon, and Navarre. The Tuscarawas River overflowed its banks at Canal Fulton and, together with the canal, raced through town, destroying much within its path.

Easter Sunday had seen the residents of Massillon going to special musical services through a diving rain. It continued all day and night and again through Monday. At 8:45 Tuesday morning the Tuscarawas River passed the previous high-water mark set in 1904 and continued rising at the rate of two feet per hour. Only the roofs of homes along the canal were above water.

At 11:00 am that day the only two schools in Massillon that had managed to open were closed. The raging Tuscarawas waters, reaching halfway up the sides of a house on Tremont, battered and pushed until the house rose from its foundation and floated off only to crash against a railroad trestle and disintegrate.

The rising waters covered the Ohio Drilling Company, the Massillon Foundry, and Shuster Brewery to a depth of three to four feet. A portion of the Sippo Creek Culvert under South Erie Street collapsed and the creek flooded the main business section of Massillon.

The three villages that made up Navarre were on higher ground and didn’t suffer as greatly as Canal Fulton or Massillon, but the canal through Navarre was utterly destroyed. Every bridge across the Tuscarawas in Stark County except one in Navarre was swept away.

Floodwaters in Bolivar exceeded the previous record by four feet, though damage to the actual town was minimized as much of the town had been built upon higher ground.

The Sad Iron Works, a plant of the Dover Manufacturing Company, and the Wagner Brothers Machine Shop, all located along the canal’s towpath just below the Factory Street Bridge in Canal Dover, collapsed due to flood waters. Every bridge across the Tuscarawas and Muskingum Rivers in Tuscarawas, Coshocton and Muskingum Counties was destroyed by the rapidly flowing flood waters which undermined the abutments.

Damage in Zanesville after the 1913 flood. Library of Congress.

Residents in Lockport, on the southeast side of New Philadelphia at Lock 13 were completely cut off from the surrounding countryside for days. Provisions had to be boated in. The residents of Port Washington and Newcomerstown were also isolated for several days and the canal channel through those towns was nearly obliterated.

Damage in Chillocothe from the 1913 flood. Library of Congress.

In Coshocton, floodwaters spread across 30 city blocks – 8 feet deep in some areas. In Zanesville, near the head of the main Muskingum Improvement, the river crested at 51.8 feet, the highest stage ever recorded up to that time, putting nearly 3,500 buildings under water.

The northern part of the canal above the Portage Summit wasn’t hit quite as hard as other areas, but its citizens reacted more violently. Over the years, a number of fine homes and vacation sites had sprung up along the shores of the Portage Lakes Canal Reservoir. Nervous home and land owners demanded that floodwaters be sent down the canal, away from their properties. Somehow, the banks of the reservoir were breached, sending thousands of tons of water cascading down the Tuscarawas and Muskingum Valleys.

Rumors quickly began circulating that Summit County residents, fearing for the safety of their homes and property, had dynamited the reservoir embankments to relieve local flooding. The Massillon City Council later investigated the alleged dynamiting of the Cottage Grove Dam near Paddy Ryan’s Inn on a feeder from Turkeyfoot Lake to the canal and river. Summit County Officials denied that there was any dynamiting of dams or retaining embankments to save Portage Lakes property. The blame was placed upon excessive pressure of floodwaters on the earthen embankments of the Reservoir.

Whatever the cause, the embankment was breached around Midnight on Sunday. The level of Turkeyfoot Lake dropped some six feet quickly, with a subsequent rise in the Tuscarawas River to the south and the Ohio Canal through Akron to the north.

The closed gates on each of the 15 locks within the city of Akron became small dams, building up a head of water as high as eight feet above the lock. There were bypass channels around each lock, but the sudden increase in the volume of water from the Portage Lakes was too much. The crowds of people panicked and demanded the lock gates be dynamited. The gates of several locks within the city were blown open with dynamite, beginning with Lock 1 at Exchange Street on Monday night and including Locks 8 and 9 , just south of Market Street around noon on Tuesday. This uncoordinated destruction probably did little more than destroy the lock gates, damage some nearby buildings, and hastened the flood of water down the valley.

Bridge swept away in Cleveland. Library of Congress.

Local papers questioned who had authorized the destruction of State Property. Years later, stories were told about the flood and John Henry Vance, an engineer at the B F. Goodrich plant, who took credit for supervising the destruction of Lock 1, a Mr. Madden for Lock 8 plus the nearby Alexander Building, and the City Police for Lock 9.

When the pent up water from the reservoir feeders and the pools behind the Akron locks were unleashed, it tore through the valley, shoving buildings from their foundations and destroyed the canal channel from Akron to Peninsula. At Boston, local residents used 200 pounds of dynamite to blow up the mill dam in the Cuyahoga, hoping to relieve flooding in their town and sending torrents of water down the valley, destroying property and life along its banks. Along the Cleveland Flats, at the junction of the Cuyahoga River and Lake Erie, devastation was tremendous, with docks, lumberyards, and businesses all swept away.

The Statewide extent of death and destruction due to the Flood of 1913 exceeds all other weather-related events in Ohio’s history. Rainfall over the State totaled 6 to 11 inches, and no part of the State was unaffected. The total death count was 467 and more than 40,000 homes were damaged or destroyed. The total property damage totaled more than $100 million dollars (in 1913 money). Homes, businesses and institutions across the State were destroyed by the flood and the State’s transportation system was severely damaged. With nearly every river bridge destroyed, trains swept off tracks, railroad yards destroyed, and railroad tracks torn up by the rampaging waters, it was months before the railways and highways were back to any semblance of their former efficiency.

Much of the northern section of the canal, that portion where the recent rebuilding had taken place, was in shambles, but there was never more than local efforts to repair it, and then only for hydraulic purposes. Through boating on the Ohio Canal had ceased during the height of the rebuild about 1905 or 06. The Flood of 1913, by washing away many of the canal’s feeder dams and seriously damaging it banks all along the line, put an end to the Ohio Canal as a viable, through transportation system.

(1) Editors note- The Flood of 1913 was a multi-state event caused by a winter storm. In addition to the damages to the Ohio Canals, it also great impacted work on New York’s new Barge Canal, which was being constructed at that time.

Canal Comments- Muskingum River Trip of October 2007

By Terry Woods

Introduction- The Muskingum River system of dams, locks, and short canals has been in the news lately as the state looks at how or if, to rebuild the old dams and locks that make the river navigable. The system is claimed to be the oldest intact canal in the United States with it’s hand operated locks. Terry Woods had sent along an article about the river and then added this in his next email. By the way, the Valley Gem is still in operation.

Hi,

Glad you liked the article on the Muskingum. I think it was the “Case for the Muskingum”, the forerunner of which I presented in Rochester in 1992.

Here, I hope, is a different one, an account of a trip Rosanne and I took down the Muskingum in October of 2007.

Because of the long-range plan to rebuild a great deal of the structures along the Parkway, it may be a while before such a trip can again be taken.

I wonder if the improvement of the waterway might entice more commercial use of it.

MUSKINGUM RIVER TRIP 10/04/07

I had been anticipating this trip on a river boat replica on the Muskingum River for well over a year and a half. One of our local hospitals sponsors a Senior Citizen’s group called Prime Time and one of their activities is some very nice trips around the area. A year ago last February I received a flyer from them that, among other things, publicized a seven hour boat trip on the Muskingum River aboard the Valley Gem. We had a trip planned for Medgorija for that June, but as soon as we returned I called to reserve our spots on the Muskingum Trip. We also wanted to take a trip offered in November to Pittsburgh to do some Christmas Shopping. Both trips were full, but we were told there might be cancellations and that we would certainly be placed on next year’s mailing list.

There was one cancellation, but we both wanted to go so we decided to wait. This year’s flyer arrived in February. The Pittsburgh trip wasn’t being offered, but the Muskingum trip was. On Wednesday, October 3, the boat would travel from Marietta to Stockport and on Thursday, October 4 it would travel back to Marietta. So we had a choice of two days for the trip in two different directions – up or down river.

I thought going down river might be just a bit more interesting than going up river, so I promptly signed us both up for the Thursday trip. I believe I even paid our money, $96.00 each, right away, though it wasn’t due until August some time.

So, the day finally came. I had been talking about it for quite some time, but all of the kids were shocked to discover that we weren’t going to be home that day. The buses were to leave from the St. Michael’s Church Parking lot at 6:30am. That is the church that Rosanne and I go to, so we wouldn’t have any trouble finding it.

Rosanne can’t really start her day without coffee so we stopped at a Sheetz on the way in and she picked one up. While she was in the station, a woman came in asking for directions to St. Michael’s. Even though we were within three blocks of the church, the clerk had no idea where it was. Rosanne overheard the conversation and offered to lead the way so we had a two car caravan going from Sheetz, over a half block of Hills & Dales, a left turn onto Whipple, and a right turn onto Fulton and the church.

We got there about as planned, 6:15, but we were just about the last to arrive. We found we had been assigned to bus number 1 and found two seats together on the right side of the bus about four seats from the front. Coffee was available as well as water, Orange Juice and chocolate chip cookies. Rosanne already had her coffee and I got an Orange Juice and the cookies.

Bus no 2 left almost exactly at 6:30. Bus no 1 was missing a couple and we waited a standard ten minutes, but they never showed. We actually left about 6:45, but were soon on I-77, south. It was a rather uneventful bus trip. People chattered away. We heard the two ladies behind us discussing among themselves the route we were taking. They seemed confused about something. Finally, one of them asked our hostess when we would leave I-77 for Pennsylvania. When informed we were not going to Pennsylvania, they seemed surprised. Rosanne got out her puzzle book as soon as it got light and started in on it. I fell back on an old army custom and just leaned back, closed my eyes, and relaxed.

We stopped at the first rest stop past the I-70 exit. Bus no 2 had been there about ten minutes so the rest rooms were relatively clear. Both buses left the rest stop together with bus no 1 in the lead. Soon after we left the rest stop, we were given a general itinerary of meals on the boat for the rest of the day and assigned tables for dining. We were given table 15.

We took route 78 at Caldwell to the south-west to McConnellsville, then route 376 down the right bank of the Muskingum River to just across the river from Stockport.

Actually, our bus, in the lead, went across the river bridge on route 266 west into Stockport and bus no 2 followed. Then we both had to turn around and take a road a bit south of the bridge to where the Valley Gem waited for us just below the bridge and lock no 6 on the left bank of the river

We unloaded both buses quickly and went onto the Valley Gem then right to our assigned tables on the lower deck. There we had a light breakfast, a pastry of some kind, fruit (bananas and apples) and coffee and iced tea.

There were only four at our six person table as it seemed that the couple that didn’t show had been assigned to our table. The other couple that was at our table were the two ladies from the seat in the bus behind us who had thought they were going to Pennsylvania. I asked them about that. It seems friends of one of them couldn’t make it at the last minute so these two ladies took over the tickets, but didn’t know where they were going. Somehow, they got the Muskingum River confused with the Monongahela River and were fully expecting to end up somewhere around Pittsburgh.

We backed away from the shore, out into the river, before we were finished with breakfast. I had the video camera with me and I shot some of the old mill at Stockport, the dam and Lock No 6. I ended up with about a 50 minute (slightly edited) tape, but some of my extemporaneous comments were inaccurate.

Initially, I thought we were going to go through Lock no 6, then I realized we were heading away from the lock (which was to be expected since we were to go south to Marietta). I went to the upper deck to take video and made some comment on tape about the paddle wheel being fake. I had noticed when we came back over the bridge, that the wheel was revolving while the boat was nosed into the river bank along the dock, so I thought it was just for cosmetics. Actually, the wheel was revolving to keep the boat against the dock. It was what made the boat go.

The Captain (J.J. Sands) made an audio announcement while I was topside. He welcomed us all to the Valley Gem (our group of 106 had the boat all to ourselves) and gave us a bit of a history of the Valley Gem. There was a real Valley Gem that operated on the Muskingum, Ohio and Monongahela Rivers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This Valley Gem, though not a replica of the original, is sort of set up to look like an old time river boat. It was built in 1988-89 and had a new German Diesel engine and transmission put in about a year ago. It is 30 feet wide 120 feet long, has 2 ½ feet of draft and can carry up to 296 passengers. It has radar, depth finder, and all other kinds of electronic gadgets. It is pulled up out of the water every five years for a Coast Guard Inspection and this winter it will be inspected and the bottom painted. The boat is family owned and operated. The lower deck was enclosed and air-conditioned with two complete ‘heads’ (bathrooms). The upper deck was open, had a number of round tables and chairs strewn about and had an awning covering a bit more than half of the deck.

By the time all the talk was done, we were ready to enter Luke’s Chute Lock. I got a great, long, shot of the boat entering the lock. I also got an ‘extra’ when the boat struck the side of the lock. There is the great sound of us hitting, a shudder of the camera, and my three times exclamation of OOPS!

I videoed most of the locking-down operation and it provides a good idea of the length of time the operation takes. It also shows the physical effort required to open and close the gates and open and close the sluices to empty and fill the locks. We had the same two men operating each of the four locks during our trip down river. They were apparently volunteers and ‘ran’ ahead of us for each lock in a car.^ⁱ

The locks apparently are all set for down-stream boats as we saw the lower lock gates closed as we left the lock. So we just entered each lock as we came to it and came to a controlled stop with our gang-plank out in front of the boat, just a few inches from the closed lower gates. The upper sluices were then closed (apparently they were left open to insure a full lock) by cranking a windless on the river side of the lock. Then the gates were closed by a man using a long lever to turn a gear on each side of the lock that rotated a pinion (spur gear) that moved a rack (gear) that was attached to each gate half. The man had to walk around the pinion in a circle with his lever, stepping over the rack on each rotation. The two men then moved to the lower end of the lock where the lower sluices were opened. Regulations call for a boat to be tied off when locking up and down and a line was looped over one of the ladder rungs in the lock’s side wall, but the Captain kept the boat sort of centered between the gates with the paddle wheel rotation.

Once the boat was lowered to the lower level of the river, the gates were opened. The captain had to move the gang plank from side to side by moving his gang plank windless from side to side to give each gate room to swing. Once the gates were closed into the gate recesses, we started out into the river again – always advancing steadily upon Marietta.

Shortly after leaving Luke’s Chute Lock, our entertainment came on deck. They were a husband and wife team, Chuck and Judith Craig, of Folk Singers – the Valley Singers. They were very good and often humorous. They sang for much of the seven hour trip down river.

About an hour after we left Stockport, a vegetable and dip snack was served in the snack bar on the lower deck. Most of the passengers chose to bring their snack to the upper deck to eat under the awning. It was sunny and warm (later getting into the 90s), but it had been cool in the morning, with a nice breeze on the bow, so most of us stayed top-side much of the time.

We soon passed a large power plant on the right side of the river. The “BIG MUSKIE” (a huge drag line) used to strip coal on the opposite side of the river and the coal was carried to the power plant on a high conveyor. The conveyor bridge is still in place, but the giant drag line has been dismantled with only the bucket on display. The Captain told us that the power plant pumps a lot of heat into the river and it very seldom freezes over during the winter any more. That day, the temperature of the river water above the power plant was 70 degrees F, and 81 degrees F, below.

We soon came to the Beverly Canal. There was a flood gate at the entrance – just a structure with a single wooden gate that would be closed in times of high water to keep that high water out of the canal channel.

The right side of this channel (our left side going down) was found to be very shallow on the previous day’s trip. The Valley Gem had become stuck and it took awhile to get her off the bottom. We slowed down to just a ‘crawl’ and the water in the hull usually kept for ‘ballast’ was pumped out a bit to lighten our load. A stern wheeler can lower its stern toward the bottom if the wheel isn’t handled correctly, so we slowed down to about the speed of an old time Ohio Canal freight boat (1 ½ to 2 miles per hour). It was great to get a feeling for the movement of an actual canal boat. We actually touched bottom on occasion and I got some great video of the mud being churned up and carried toward our stern.

This canal was a little less than a mile long and it took us quite a time to get to the Beverly Lock, but we finally did and found our ‘Volunteer Lock Tenders’ waiting for us. I had wanted to get some shots of them closing the upper gates, but I missed it, as the bright sun sometimes made it difficult for me to read the ‘record’ light in the screen. Our ‘Volunteers’ did as good a job here as they had at Luke’s Chute and we were soon on our way, south.

I wandered about the boat taking video and had just come out of the ‘head’ when the captain announced that soup was being served in the snack bar, so I was second in line and took two bowels to the upper deck. Rosanne was ‘gone for soup’ I was informed by one of the other people who were sitting with us up there. So I ate my soup – chock full of vegetables, and then used my bowl to cover Rosanne’s and went to take more videos.

I found her on the lower deck eating soup with our table mates. I told her I had a bowl on the upper deck for her. Apparently she and our table mates had gotten in the wrong line and their soup was good, but all broth.

We spent a lot of the next hour on deck listening to the music and just enjoying the perfect weather, the slight drum of the engine, the strong rhythm of the paddle wheel, and the sight of the countryside slowly slipping past us.

During one of their breaks, I talked with the female half of the Valley Singers and asked her if she were familiar with the folk singer, Pearl Nye. Surprisingly, she wasn’t, though she had heard of Pearl’s Mentor back in the 30’s, Allen Lomax. She also said she would try to find some of Pearl’s Canal Songs.

Our afternoon meal was announced and we all went to our assigned tables on the lower deck. The meal was great – rolls and butter, green beans, chicken, pasta, scalloped potatoes, and a terrific Prime Rib. There was also pumpkin pie and two kinds of cheese cake for desert. The meal was catered by a butcher shop in Marietta. Rosanne got the name and address of the firm for the next time we go to Marietta.

Shortly after the meal was over, we came down onto the Lowell Canal. Again we slowed away down, but this canal wasn’t quite as shallow as the one at Beverly. We did pump ballast, but never seemed to scoop up much mud. There was a structure on the river bank at the head of this canal, but it seemed to be the abutment for an old road rather than for a flood gate. This canal was a bit longer than the Beverly Canal and it seemed to take a very long time to get to the lock. When we finally did, though, it was negotiated with the usual dexterity and grace. Then we were once again into the river and on our way toward Marietta.

We had been told on the bus coming down that there would be a ‘surprise’ for us in the afternoon. The ‘surprise’ turned out to be a good one – wine and cheese! There was also beer for those who didn’t care for wine and some fruit juices for those whose medications couldn’t be mixed with alcohol (hey, this was an ‘Old Folks’ Tour).

Later, when I was sitting with Rosanne at a table on the upper deck, the singers mentioned that I was interested in the canals of Ohio and they were going to sing one they had written several years before for the Roscoe Old Canal Days Celebration when they were singing there. They then sang a very nice song, about the canal, in general. I didn’t think to turn on the video camera until the song had already begun, but I got the last portion of it. It was a very good song.

We then came to Lock no 2, Devola Lock, the last one we would negotiate until we docked at Marietta. The lock was similar to Luke’s Chute in that there was no canal involved, just the lock in the dam. We had the same two locktenders for this lock also. They both worked the upper gates then walked down to the lower gates. One man was wearing a blue shirt and one a green one. The fellow in the blue shirt opened the sluice gate to drain the water in the lock, then they both had a bit of a discussion and the fellow wearing the green shirt walked off and the other man had to open both lower lock gates. That meant that the boat sat there with one lower gate open while the single locktender now, after opening the river side gate, walked back to the upper end of the lock, across the two closed upper gates, then back down the shore side of the lock to that gate and open it. Finally with both gates opened, we entered the river again.

Now we began seeing other craft – a few small, gas powered craft and three or four ‘sculls’ from a local high school. Then we got very close to our final docking spot and saw a multitude of smaller craft docked on both sides of the river and, just at the highway bridge before we reached the dock area an historic craft was anchored, the towboat W.P. Snyder Jr., built in 1918, which had worked the river until 1955. The W.P. Snyder Jr. is scheduled to go into dry dock soon which may signal its refurbishment and return to active service on the river.

On the other shore, just a bit south of the bridge, was the Claire E, a ‘Make Up” boat, sort of a tug that pushed other boats into proper position for loading. She was built in 1926. In 1966 she was purchased by Gene and Clare Fitch of Hebron Ohio and renamed after Clare. The craft was rebuilt in 1967 and Gene, with his wife, lived on the boat, traveling all over the country for more than 30 years. A local business man, Harley Noland, purchased the Cassie and converted her into a “Bed & Breakfast” about ten years ago. In 2003 the boat was sold to Dr. Roger Anderson who will keep her in Marietta as a Bed and Breakfast and cruise the Ohio River.

The Valley Gem powered under the bridge, went into a swooping “U” turn and slid up to her dock just south of the W.P. Snyder. Our buses were waiting for us higher up on shore next to the Ohio River Museum. We disembarked from the water craft and quickly boarded the two buses. I would liked to have spent a half hour or so at the River Museum, but I think everybody else was happy to be heading home, and I didn’t really object. In fact, when they handed out critique sheets on the trip I didn’t even mention that I thought we should have toured the museum.

As it was just 5:00, the traffic was heavy in Marietta and it took us some 15 to 20 minutes to go the five or six blocks through town (a couple of blocks past the Ohio River I might add), to get onto I-77. Then it was a straight shot north.

We handed in our name tags as we boarded the bus and our hostess picked out two of them for “door prizes”. It turned out that the two older gentlemen in the double seats across from Rosanne and I got the two door prizes. Of course, there was a lot of good natured “razzing” about two men sitting next to each other winning the prizes.

We stopped at a Rest Stop just across I-77 from the one we had stopped at on the way down. As we boarded the buses, we were offered our choice of soft drinks or water. Then, when we were on our way again, little packets of salted peanuts were handed out. Our hostess made an announcement about “the little happy face on your peanut bags”. I looked at my bag and asked her what about the little happy face on it? It seems that meant I had won the third door prize. Of course the three door prizes being won by three men sitting next to each other drew a lot of “talk”, especially, when it turned out that the door prizes had apparently been put together for women – holiday napkins, table candles, etc. Still, I had won!

About two and a half hours after leaving Marietta, we arrived at the St. Michael’s parking lot. So, our outing was over. It was a very, very good trip and one that, with the help of these notes and the 55 minute video tape I made, will stay in my memory for a very, very long time.

i I found out later that they were not “volunteers”, but employees of the State whose job was to “fit” each lock the VALLEY GEM came to on its journey from Stockport to Marietta. They drove ahead of us on our journey.