by Terry K Woods.
Today’s column is another one taken from personal interviews. This one was taken by me and the interview has first hand information. Still, I had to take many of the statements ‘out of context.’ Waldo Streby, the man I interviewed, would change the subject, get back to it, then sometimes talk about something else. This column is made up of bits Waldo told me on two different occasions.
I think it came out well. And it tells us something that not many know, that the canal between the feeder above Canal Fulton down to Navarre was repaired after the 1913 flood for hydraulic purposes. That is one of the reasons part of that section was chosen in 1938 to become Ohio’s first State Canal Park – it had been repaired just 20 years previously.
I REMEMBER THE OHIO CANAL; THE OHIO CANAL AND THE 1918 FLU EPIDEMICi
“During the 1918 Flu Epidemic, they closed the Canal Fulton schools. As I remember it, it was for two weeks. A lot of people were die’n, ya know. It was a real terrible mess. So, ah, they closed the schools down and this Johnny Mooreii who was one of our neighbors – he was Superintendent of the Canal in the area right south of Akron, to, a, . . Navarre – down ta Navarre – took care of the canal – lived just a few houses up from where we lived, stopped and asked whether one of the boys could help him out – – work for him since the schools were gonna be shut down. Well, sure, I was available. My brother was available. He had a paper route, but I was available. Johnny McGee, Moore’s Grandson, lived just across the street from where we lived. Then there was several other boys. Fella name of Greenhole, – and I just forget who the rest of em were. Anyway, my brother, my next oldest brother, Lowell, we all went ta work for him down at Navarre. He had a job down there.
“Ya see, immediately after the 1913 flood, just within a year or so, these, these companies that wanted the water, the Steel Mills down ta Massillon, especially, wanted some fresh water, clean water. So they offered to pay so much to the County – er, the State – to fix up the banks, ya see and get the water down to em.iii So that was, – they had ta repair the banks all along where it was needed ta get the water down to where it was needed.
“They had ta even . . They even had ta repair some of the banks down by the lock there at Canal Fulton. But all that was done with some of Johnny Moore’s regular help – his crew. Then he had a crew. Well, as they finished it, they put water in the canal, see, and a, they, a, as they went down the line, there was a small leak at Massillon. And that was done. Now in 1918, the only leak was down – back in, in Navarre, ya see.
“When we were kids, we’d help Johnny Moore lots of times. Rode the State Boat down there ta below Massillon, out there by the Asylum. Remember there was a, – along the Canal, – of course it used ta be, before that, – when we were kids, Johnny McKee and I, we used ta go down there a lot of times, ride on the State Boat to cut grass and things, cutten grass and stuff. And, these guys, from the Asylum, used ta come down and talk to us, ya know – interesting people.
“But that leak at Navarre, during the 1918 Flue Epidemic, was the only time we worked at as part of Johnny Moore’s crew, right back of where the bakery, -where the bakery is down there now. Course its all filled with dirt now. You can’t see where the canal was. But, anyhow, there was a, a, lock there and a, a drain – – so the flood had washed, washed away part of the bank away, right bank of the canal. And Johnny Moore hired a, a, fellow – with a team and a slip-scraper. Moore didn’t have many, much equipment then. He hired him, with a team, ta go down ‘n drag in this dirt, ya know, ta rebuild the dike, – towpath bank. They always called it the dike, ya know. The dike. And of course we had a couple weeks work there.
“That was some of the last alterations of the canal done by, – the State. Now, after that, ya know, , that most of the alterations around the canal was done by a contractor or by a, a, someone – – a, for instance, up around Akron, – was a lot of changes made, but, in most cases, it was done by someone what was goin ta benefit by the changes. For instance, the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company made a lot of changes back around where they had their Golf Course. And a down at a, where the road usta cross over – the canal. That’s now route #93 that goes up through there. There’s where some of the water, well, all of the water came out of Portage Lakes. Came out there, – out of Long Lake, and a, they changed the canal, or the river, that went through the Firestone properties.
“Oh, I’m, oh yeah. Navarre. Whole canal’s filled in down there by Navarre now. That’s where we worked, cleaning it out. About two weeks. Took us down in a car, and back ta Fulton each night. Wouldn’t, we didn’t go down ta Navarre on the boat. He took us back and forth with a car. Eh, we could park, park up there above the hill there, back of the bakery, see. Then we had ta go down the hill, on back ta the lock. Couldn’t get the boat much past – -. They parked it up there where the old cemetery is in Massillon. There was a lot of water come down Cemetery Run. Build up a bar. You couldn’t get the boat past that, ya see, so they pulled the thing out and put the boat back of where, not the Hull farm, I guess it was the Cole Farm.
“After we fixed that last leak, the canal had water all the way down. Filled up, but just a, like a ditch. Water came down like through a ditch. So after we did that work in Navarre there was water in the canal clear down ta Navarre. But no boats.”
i From two taped interviews (1989 and 1990) with Waldo Streby at his home in North Canton Ohio by Terry K Woods.
ii John Moore was the last State Boat Captain in the Canal Fulton area. He maintained this position as late as 1927.
iii More than likely, these steel companies south of the Canal Fulton Feeder had water power leases with the State, so wherever these leases were of enough importance, the State repaired the canal sufficiently after the 1913 flood to maintain the leases requirements.