Warren County
Local History by Dallas Bogan |
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Dallas Bogan on 13 September 2004 |
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original article by Dallas Bogan |
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The following article will relate the history and beginning of the early canal system through a portion of Warren County and through Ohio.
Miami Canal, Near Xenia
Lock 67, Shantee 706, June 16.
The Albany Microscope states that the bed bugs in that place grow to an enormous
size. A traveler was lately waked up by a loud barking, which he discovered
to proceed from the bugs around his bed, and in the morning he saw a remarkably
impudent one sitting on his haunches on the hearth, picking his teeth with the
fire- poker! Several occurrences, of a character less remarkable than the above,
have taken place in the vicinity of my SHANTEE, on the Miami Canal. At this
time, I am seriously apprehensive of imminent bodily harm to my laborers! In
order, however, to secure them, as much as practicable, from the violent assaults
of these voracious belligerents, I have employed a body guard of sixteen staunch
Irish Jacksonians, armed with potatoe stalks, to act on the defensive only.
By giving the above an insertion in your paper, you will oblige a friend to
fair play.
SCRUB-BROOM James B. Gardiner, Esq. Ed'r P.P Xenia, O.
Twenty hours from Cincinnati to Dayton by canal was considered a rapid trip.
Merchandise was brought to Dayton from New York by water in twenty days. The
cost of freight per ton was seventeen dollars and twenty-five cents. The route
was by the Erie Canal to Buffalo; thence by Lake Erie to Cleveland; thence by
the Ohio Canal to the Ohio River, down the river to the Miami Canal, and up
the canal to Dayton--a distance of one thousand one hundred and fifty-two miles.
A Congressional grant dated May 24th 1828 gave to Ohio 500,000 acres of land,
to be sold by the State at $2.50 or more per acre for the payment of the canal
debt. This was called the "Miami Extension." The upper Miami Canal
had been slighted as to the advantages of the lower Miami Canal. The shipping
of goods and produce on the canal proved to be of no use to the farmers in the
upper part of the proposed Miami-Erie Canal. The promise of the completion of
the northern section of the canal had not been started. This extension to Lake
Erie was not granted until 1831. The actual construction on the extension did
not start until two years later. Land was granted for the extension totaling
464,000 acres.
The complete construction of the Miami-Erie Canal from Cincinnati to Toledo
took an incredible twenty years. There were actually three phases of construction.
The Miami Canal, which extended from Cincinnati to Dayton, was completed in
1829. The next phase was the Miami Extension Canal which ran from Dayton to
the interchange of the Auglaize and Maumee Rivers near the town of Defiance,
its completion being in 1845. At the north end of the Miami Extension Canal,
the Wabash and Erie Canal started and continued to Toledo.
"Early in 1831, an extention of the Miami Canal was begun. Continuing up
the Miami Valley the "Extension" crossed the Mad River a mile and
a half above Dayton, on a picturesque aquaduct. Some six miles further up, the
Miami River is bridged by the stone arches. Thence the line rises rapidly, passing
up ten locks, through Tippecanoe, Troy, and Piqua, to the foot of a battery
of nine locks at Lockington, where it reaches up to the Loramie Summit Level
of fourteen miles. Near the top of this battery the Sidney Feeder enters, supplying
water for the locks and part of the Loramie Summit. Towards the northern end
of the Summit stretch, the Loramie Resevoir feeder enters to furnish water to
the eleven locks stepping down, within as many miles to the St. Mary's Level.
Here another feeder leads in from the St. Mary's Resevoir. Thence the level
drops down the Auglaize Valley, twenty-one locks within fifty miles, to Junction,
passing through the towns of Kossuth, Spencerville, Delphos and Hammar. At Junction
the "Extension" joined the Wabash and Erie Canal, which formerly connected
Toledo with Logansport, Ft. Wayne, Terre Haute and Evansville, Indiana. The
sixty-mile section of this latter canal which exists between Junction and Toledo,
follows the Maumee Valley, dropping down a battery of nine locks at Defiance
to the "Twenty-three mile" level, and thence passing Independence,
Florida, Napoleon, and Damascus to a lone lock at Texas. Half way to Providence
two more locks step down to the "Twenty mile" level, on which is situated
Maumee City, eight miles and two locks from Toledo. Here a battery of six locks
connects the canal with Swan Creek on the level of the lake. The Wabash and
Erie Canal, begun in 1832 and finished in 1842, was abandoned west of Junction
in 1854.
In 1836, the canal was complete to Troy. However, the financial status, in 1837,
of the nation was bleak. The panic caught the State completely by surprise.
The canals had drained the fairly new State to almost oblivion.
Funds kept coming somehow and on July 4, 1837, the canal was completed to Piqua,
thus welcoming the first boat to reach this far.
In the valleys of the Miami and the Maumee, north of Piqua in the 1830's, was
a large region consisting of over two million densely wooded acres. The clearing
away of this region was nil. The main reason for the non-clearance of this area
was the cost to have it done; this cost being in the neighborhood of $15 to
$20 per acre. The market in the Lake area was great but the cost of transporting
it was too much of a burden for this type of shipment.
The Miami Canal extension opened up in this area in the 1830's and the demand
for wood and the new ship- ping methods allowed the wood to be ferried. This
pro- vided a cheaper way to ship this product. Wood sold along the line of the
canal for $2.50 or $3.00 per cord. Forests could be cleared and made the way
for the plow at no cost to the land owners.
The distances between locks was highly irregular with one extremely long distance
given as 23 miles. If the locks were evenly distributed as to mileage, the distance
would be about one every 2 miles.
The "Miami and Erie Canal" was opened to Lake Erie in 1845 with the
official name being designated in 1856.
The Miami-Erie Canal would not be possible without a water supply. Certainly
huge reservoirs were to be made that would supply the canal's 244 miles and
105 locks. The Grand reservoir was built at Celina. The Loramie and the Indian
Lake reservoirs were made by damming Loramie Creek and the Great Miami River
respectively.
The Miami-Erie Canal brought a new revelation to the people interested in trading
and selling their goods. The population that followed the canal tended to be
a more business-like nature. Industry followed this waterway and made many towns
what they are today.
The period of greatest prosperity of the canal was from 1831 to 1861, and the
largest amount received in any one year since the canal was in use was $351,897.72,
in 1851. The largest amount expended in any one year was $270,471.18, in 1852.
From 1829 to 1888, inclusive of both years, the total receipts of the Miami
and Erie canal were $5,969,432.56, the total expenditures, $4,352,454.79. On
all the canals of the State, for the period from 1827 to 1888, inclusive of
both years, the total receipts were $16,158,441.83, and the total expenditures
$10,180,871.87.
The Miami Canal, between Dayton and Cincinnati, operated for years without any
competition. Water was the cheapest transportation. However, turnpikes were
coming and by 1840 these means were taking a bite out of the canal's profit.
The tolls taken on the canal were $2,000 less in 1841 than in 1840. The Board
of Public Works said: "This diminution is mostly produced by the completion
of the turnpike roads, over which produce can now be transported to Cincinnati,
if not more cheaply, at least frequently with greater convenience than on the
canal. This effect would seem to indicate the policy of so arranging the rates
of toll as to do away with this competition, either by increasing them on the
roads or diminishing them on the canal."
The canal business started breaking up around 1877. With increased railroad
and turnpike traffic the waterway was outdated. The Miami-Erie Canal had in
1905 approximately 600 miles still in existence. This mileage was in very bad
shape. Public sentiment wanted it repaired, but, competition narrowed it down
to extinction. The railroads picked up the grain, livestock and freight business.
Passenger traffic abandoned the canal packet and turned to the speedier railroad.
After 1913, only a few localized sections of the canals existed.
The canal was 248.8 miles in length and rose at its summit at Loramie of 512
feet above the Ohio River level. There were a total of 19 aqueducts, 3 guard
locks, 103 lift licks, and 3 reservoirs.
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This page created 13 September 2004 and last updated
28 September, 2008
© 2004 Arne H Trelvik
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