THE "CROSS-CUT" CANAL.
CHAPTER V.
EARLY INTER-STATE ENTERPRISE -- THE
"CROSS-CUT" CANAL -- GEN. PERKINS, JUDGE KING AND DOCTOR CROSBY
ITS ACTIVE PROMOTERS -- CHARTER OBTAINED IN 1827 -- PRELIMINARY
SURVEY -- EIGHT YEARS SLUMBER -- PROJECT REVIVED -- OHIO A LARGE
STOCKHOLDER -- DELAYED BY PANIC OF 1837 --CHANGE OF ROUTE --
MERGED WITH CASCADE MILL RACE -- GREAT EXPECTATIONS COMPLETED AT
LAST -- FIRST BOAT TO MIDDLEBURY -- FIRST BOAT FROM PITTSBURG --
GRAND CELEBRATION -- MAGNIFTCENT RECEPTION GOV. PORTER OF
PENNSYLVANIA -- BANQUET, SPEECHES, TOASTS, ETC. -- DEATH OF
EXCURSIONIST FROM APOPLEXY -- EARLY MODES OF TRANSPORTATION --
CANAL PROSPEROUSLY OPENED -- ADVIRSITY AND DECLINE SWALLOWED BY
THE MAHONING RAILROAD -- LEASED TO AKRON HYDRAULIC COMPANY
--NOCTURNAL NAUGHTINESS -- BANKS CUT AND WATER DRAINED OFF --
CHARTER FORTEITED -- CANAL SOLD - MORE NIGHT WORK -- FINAL DEMISE
--RAILROAD BUILT UPON ITS RUINS, ETC., ETC.
PENNSYLVANIA AND OHIO CANAL.
UP to 1840, the only access
to, or egress from, Akron, except by wagon, etc., was by the Ohio
Canal, completed from Akron to Cleveland in 1827, and through to
the Ohio river in 1830. As early as 1825, however, the project of
constructing a canal from the Ohio river, a short distance below
Pittsburg, to connect with the Ohio canal, then just commenced, at
the Portage Summit, began to be agitated, a meeting of prominent
citizens of Trumbull and Portage counties, in the furtherance of
that project, being held at Ravenna, November 6, 1825, Gen. Simon
Perkins, of Warren, and Dr. Elinkim Crosby, of -- Middlebury,
being placed upon the committee to collect information as to the
most favorable route, etc.
The ensuing Winter, a
bill was introduced in the Ohio Legislature to incorporate the
Pennsylvania & Ohio Canal Company, "for the sole purpose of making
a navigable canal between some suitable point on the Ohio river,
through the valley of the Mahoning river, to some suitable point
on Lake Erie, or to some point on the Ohio Canal, "said act to go
into effect when the Legislature of Pennsylvania should pass a
similar act, but final action upon the bill was postponed until
the next session.
The people along the
line now became "terribly in earnest" on the subject, and numerous
meetings were held at Beaver, New Castle, Warren, Ravenna,
Franklin Mills, Middlebury, etc., in which Gen. Perkins, Judge
King, Dr. Crosby, Judge Wetmore and others participated, and on
the 10th day of January, 1827, the bill passed the Ohio
Legislature, with Jonathan Sloane, of Ravenna, and Frederick
Wadsworth, of Edinburg (afterwards for many years a resident of
Akron), as the corporators for Portage County, a similar bill
passing the Pennsylvania Legislature the following April.
Outside of preliminary
surveys, under the auspices of the Canal Commissioners of
Pennsylvania and Ohio, nothing further was accomplished for the
period of nearly eight years.
Interest in the project at
length having revived, on the 20th day of February, 1835, the
charter was renewed with an amendment, giving the company ten
years from December 31, 1835, in which to complete the work;
Pennsylvania taking similar action April 13, 1835.
The Company was
organized at Newcastle, May 21, 1835, with judge Leicester King as
a director, and as the Secretary; Col. Sebried Dodge (afterwards
owner of the "Dodge farm," three miles west of Akron), being
appointed Chief Engineer. The State having promised to take one
dollar of the stock of the company, for every two dollars
subscribed by private parties, judge King pushed the matter so
vigorously, both at home and in Pittsburg, Philadelphia, etc.,
that he was soon enabled to report private subscriptions to the
mount of $840,000, the State promptly responding in the sum of
$420,000; the Pennsylvania Legislature, in 1839, contributing
$50,000 for the completion of the work. In those days the present
system of exchange was not in vogue, nor were there responsible
express companies everywhere in operation, as now, and on his
return from his successful canvass for stock subscriptions in
Philadelphia, he brought with him, over the mountains, several
hundred thousand dollars of gold and paper money in a common
leather satchel, an exploit that would be considered very risky
now, with all our improved police regulations and methods of
travel.
Though pushed quite
vigorously for two or three years, for those comparatively slow
times, the work was somewhat retarded by the panic of 1837, owing
to the difficulty of collecting stock installments, so that the
canal was not fully completed and opened to through navigation
until the spring of 1840, though portions at either end were in
use as early as May, 1839.
The project, originally,
contemplated running the canal directly through Middlebury, with
its western terminus above Lock One, on the Ohio Canal. This would
have entirely given Cuyahoga Falls and North Akron the go by. But
in the intervening years a material change of interest had taken
place with Gen. Perkins, Judge King, Dr. Crosby and several others
of its early promoters, which, together with some engineering
difficulties encountered by the management, and the powerful
influences brought to bear by the people of Cuyahoga Falls,
resulted in a change of route, by which, after crossing the valley
of the Little Cuyahoga, it should merge itself with, and follow
the route of, the Cascade Mill race, and unite with the Ohio Canal
below Lock One. This change necessitated the construction south of
Cuyahoga Falls, of nine descending locks to meet the level of the
race, and of one lock up, at Mill street, in Akron, to meet the
level of its junction with the Ohio Canal, thus very materially
augmenting the waters of the race, and by so much the power and
value of the mills.
Under this arrangement,
and to somewhat mitigate the disappointment of the Middleborians,
a side-cut was constructed, following the race from the junction
southward to the mills and warehouses in that village. The first
boat to navigate the western end of the new canal was the "Joseph
Vance," which, on May 9, 1839, carrying a jolly load of
passengers, sailed from the junction, in South Akron, making a
triumphant entry into the "port" of Middlebury, and the joyful
plaudits of the people of that ancient metropolis.
It was not only supposed
that this canal would greatly inure to the advantage of the towns
and villages, through which it passed, but that Pittsburg,
Philadelphia and other points in Pennsylvania, as well as
Cleveland, Columbus and other points in Ohio, and further west and
south, would he largely benefited thereby.
On this point, the
BEACON of May 6, 1839, said: "This canal will be of very great
importance to the cities of Philadelphia and Pittsburg. In the
Spring goods can be brought from Philadelphia four or five weeks
earlier than by the New York Canal, which will make a vast
difference with merchants who live far in the interior, who are
naturally impatient at the long interruption to navigation which
now occurs between the West and New York; and all the Eastern
purchases will find their way to their destination by this route!"
[sic] the idea also being advanced that during the long seasons of
suspension of navigation, by reason of low water in the upper
Ohio, shipments of merchandise and products to the lower Ohio and
Mississippi could be made over this route; a Pittsburg paper of
about this date, saying: "This very important canal will open to
our city the trade of Warren, Akron, Massillon, Cleveland, and all
the north and western portions of the flourishing State of Ohio;
also of the lakes and Michigan, New York, Canada, etc."
On the eastern division,
the first trip from Beaver to Warren was made by the packet
"Ontario," May 23, 1839, quite a jollification taking place on its
arrival; among the impromptu toasts offered and responded to,
being: "Judge Leicester King and Col. Sebried Dodge, to whom the
public is much indebted for the early completion of this part of
the P. & O. Canal, in which they have done the company great,
justice, and themselves much credit!"
The first boat through
from Beaver, freighted with merchandise from Pittsburg, mostly
iron, nails, glass, etc., arrived in Akron, April 4, 1840, on
noticing which fact the BEACON said: "Pennsylvania and Ohio are
now united by a canal which promises to be of immense benefit to
both, and the citizens of Akron should felicitate themselves upon
the completion of this important work, which, from its termination
at this point, cannot but be of great importance to our already
flourishing town."
ENTHUSIASTIC CELEBRATION.
In May, 1840, Judge
King, Secretary of the company, successfully negotiated, at par,
in Philadelphia, a sufficient amount of the bonds of the company
to cancel its floating indebtedness and place it upon a firm
financial foundation, with abundant funds to fully complete the
line.
At a meeting of the Board of
Directors, at Warren, June 18, 1840, it was resolved to celebrate
the completion of the work, all along the line, and a committee of
arrangements was appointed, consisting of Judge Leicester King,
Hon. David Tod, Jonathan Sloane, Esq., and Col. Sebried Dodge; the
programme being for the boats to start from Newcastle, Pa., at 6
o'clock A.M., August 4, proceed to Youngstown for dinner, and to
Warren the same evening; leave Warren at 6 A. M., August 5, dine
at Ravenna, and arrive at Franklin Mills (now Kent) the same
evening; August 6 leave Franklin at 7 A. M., and with brief stops
at Munroe Falls, and Cuyahoga Falls, proceed directly to the
junction of the two canals, in South Akron.
The programme was
successfully carried out. The Pennsylvania party, including Gov.
David R. Porter, were met at the State line, by delegations from
Warren and Youngstown, and were warmly welcomed to Ohio, by Judge
King (in the absence of Gov. Wilson Shannon who had promised to be
present), which was fittingly responded to by Gov. Porter. Similar
ceremonies were observed at Youngstown, where the party dined,
with a banquet, speeches, toasts, etc., at Warren in the evening.
The next day, at
Ravenna, a dinner was given the excursionists with an address of
welcome by Hon. Darius Lyman, and responses by Gov. Porter and
Col. Dickey, of Beaver, and in the evening, a supper and reception
were given the party on its arrival at Franklin Mills.
The next day, making a
brief halt at Munroe Falls, where the villagers and surrounding
farmers made the welkin ring with cheers and shouts of joy, the
party, on arriving at Cuyahoga Falls, were escorted by a band of
music, to the American House, where an enthusiastic reception,
with a bounteous collation, was given them, with an eloquent
address of welcome from Hon Elisha N. Sill, and spirited responses
from Gov. Porter, Col. Dickey, Judge King and others.
Soon after leaving Cuyahoga
Falls, the party was met by a boat carrying Akron's reception
committee and other prominent citizens, when the entire fleet,
consisting of six new and freshly painted boats, with banners and
pennants flying, to the music of the Akron Brass Band, led by the
late Henry S. Abbev, drove gayly into Akron, amid the plaudits of
the multitude who lined both banks of the canal from Tallmadge to
Mill streets, and as soon as the lockage at the latter point could
be made, continued on to final destination, in the lower basin of
the Ohio Canal in South Akron, where an equally demonstrative
crowd welcomed its arrival with booming cannon and prolonged and
enthusiastic cheers.
The six boats were drawn
up side by side on the east side of the basin, many other boats
already in the basin, quietly drawing near, when in the presence
of the large concourse of people upon the shore and surrounding
boats, Hon. Rufus P. Spalding delivered an eloquent address of
welcome to the distinguished visitors, and of congratulation to
the officers of the company, at the final consummation of the
great work whose completion they were met to celebrate, to which
an equally eloquent and happy response was made in behalf of the
visiting party, by Governor Porter.
At the conclusion of the
exercises at the basin, the visitors were transferred to
carriages, and, headed by the band and the Summit Guards,
commanded by Capt. Philo Chamberlin, and followed by nearly the
entire populace, were escorted to the Universalist Church, on
North High street, where judge King, on behalf (if the directors,
made a concise report of the work which had been so successfully
accomplished, and of the highly satisfactory condition and
prospects of the company, Mr. King being followed by brief and
spirited congratulatory speeches from Hon. David Tod, Gov. Porter,
Hon. E N. Sill and others.
At the close of the
exercises at the church, the party repaired to the spacious hall
in the third story of May's block (the present Clarenden Hotel),
where a sumptuous dinner had been spread by that ancient prince of
hotelists, Mr. Samuel Edgerly (father of Mrs. B. F. Battels and
Charles H. Edgerly).
Here the balance of the
afternoon was spent in feasting, drinking, toasting and speaking,
in which both visitors and citizens heartily participated.
Upon the Akron boat had
been borne an elegant silk banner, upon which, in the line of his
early artistical profession, the writer had painted in gilt, two
right hands clasped underneath the legend, "Pennsylvania and
Ohio." Towards the close of the festivities, Mr. Spalding,
offering as a sentiment: "Pennsylvania and Ohio, distinguished by
unity of interest, unity of principle and unity of friendship,"
presented the flag in question to Gov. Porter, "as a slight
testimonial of the respect entertained for him by the citizens of
Akron, and as a memento, in subsequent life, of the joyful
festivities of the day."
On receiving the flag,
the Governor feelingly responded, expressing his great
gratification at the kindness of his reception by the people of
Ohio, and especially at the extreme cordiality that had been
extended to him by the citizens of Akron and Summit County.
Much wonderment, and
very great regret, was indulged in over the absence of Governor
Shannon, after his unqualified agreement to honor the occasion
with his presence, and on his non-appearance, without explanation,
it was feared that he had been suddenly taken severely ill.
But when it soon
afterwards transpired that, on the very days when the festivities
named were in progress, the Governor was in attendance upon
political meetings in the south part of the State, making stump
speeches in behalf of his own re-election, the indignation
hereabouts was both intense and emphatic, aiding to some extent,
no doubt, in compassing his defeat, a previous historical writer
has given the date of the celebration as 1841, and Gov. Thomas
Corwin as the delinquent official, an error that should be
corrected, as Gov. Shannon was defeated by Mr. Corwin, at the
ensuing October election after his shabby treatment of Gov. Porter
and the people of Northeastern Ohio.
SUCCESSFUL OPERATION.
In the evening of the
celebration in Akron, as above related, there was an impromptu
reception, with rather a late supper, accompanied with the usual
liquid refreshments then so universally in vogue, at the Ohio
Exchange, on the present site of Woods block, corner Main and
Market streets. The visitors retiring to their several rooms at
rather a late hour, were not very early astir in the morning, and
when finally assembled for breakfast, Major General Seeley, of
Warren, was found to be absent. A friend going to his room to call
him found him dead, from an attack of apoplexy during the night.
The General was 70 years of age, of genial manners, and a great
favorite, his sudden and unexpected death, creating great
excitement and the profoundest sorrow among his fellow
excursionists, as well as the citizens of Akron and other towns,
along the line of the canal generally.
But sometimes the most
serious event has a comical side to it. A middle-aged son of the
General, a physician by profession, being bibulously inclined, not
having entirely recovered from the indulgencies of the night
previous, on being informed of his father's death, broke out into
uncontrollable and hysterical fit of weeping. A lady acquaintance
of the family, a former resident of Warren, then living in Akron,
endeavored to comfort him urging him to cease weeping and control
his feelings, but the Doctor, in his maudlin phrenzy, pathetically
exclaimed: "Why, always cry when my dear father dies!"
Among the
incorporators and active promoters of the enterprise was a rather
eccentric and somewhat profane lawyer, of Ravenna, named Jonathan
Sloane, and when the sudden death of Gen. Seeley, who was one of
his most intimate friends, was disclosed to him, rubbing his hands
together he gleefully exclaimed: Dom'd fine! Went out of the world
with his belly full of beefsteak and brandy!"
Hitherto transportation
of iron, steel, nails, glass and other Philadelphia and Pittsburg
manufactures and merchandise, coming into Northern Ohio, had to be
made overland in "Conestoga wagons"-- immense schooner-like
affairs, drawn by four, six and eight horses-the products of this
region, black salts, potash, wool, cheese., flour, etc., etc.,
being in like manner transported thither. Among the commanders of
this class of crafts, the writer remembers, Mr. Peter More, of
Sharon, (father of the well-known cattleking, More Brothers, of
California), Mr. George Crouse, of Tallmadge, afterwards of Green,
(father of ex-Congressman G. W. Crouse) and Mr. Patrick Christy,
of Springfield, (father of Messrs. James and John H. Christy), Mr.
James Christy himself making an occasional trip both with his
father and by himself. Indeed, the writer, then with a brother
running the carriage making and painting business on the present
site of the Paige block, on South Main street, made several
excursions to Pittsburg with a four-horse rig, for iron, steel,
paints and other supplies, in 1839-40, previous to the completion
of the canal.
The opening of the canal to
navigation, as above narrated, changed all this, quite large
warehouses being erected upon its banks, at Akron, Cuyahoga Falls
and other points, for the storage and forwarding of produce and
merchandise through the large number of boats that immediately
commenced plying thereon.
For 12 or 15 years
receipts for tolls were quite satisfactory, and several small
dividends upon the stock were declared and paid. The tolls
received at Akron amounted to about $7,000, in 1852; over $8,000,
in 1853; and nearly $9,000, in 1855; quite large shipments being
made by this route between Pittsburg and Cleveland, Massillon,
etc.
In the meantime,
however, railroad competition had come in, the completion of the
Cleveland and Pittsburg, and the Akron branch, in 1852, very
materially interfering with the canal, and the building of the
Mahoning Valley road, from Cleveland to Youngstown, a few years
later, seriously crippling its resources and impairing its
usefulness and prosperity.
In 1862, under a
resolution adopted by the Legislature, in 1858, the Sinking Fund
Commissioners sold the $420,000 worth of the stock of the canal
owned by the State, to the Mahoning road for $35,000, which with
stock previously secured from private parties, at equally low
rates, gave that company a controlling interest in the canal. From
that moment its doom was sealed; transportation rates largely
discriminating in favor of the road and against the canal being
adopted, traffic upon the latter soon almost entirely ceased.
It will be remembered
that in the erection of the canal, the Cascade Mill race, from
Middlebury to Akron, had been merged therein under an arrangement
that gave the mills the advantage of the surplus or lockage waters
from the canal. So when, in 1867, the Legislature authorized the
company to abandon or lease any portion of the canal it might deem
advisable, the Akron Hydraulic Company leased, in perpetuity, all
that portion of the canal between the Portage summit, near
Ravenna, (including the reservoirs, feeders, etc.), and Akron,
with the view of maintaining the full supply of water that had
hitherto, since the constructing of the canal, accrued to their
several mills.
By a provision of the
charter, any portion of the canal not used for navigation purposes
for the period of one year, became forfeited, the lands covered
thereby reverting to their original owners. The middle and eastern
portion having thus gone into disuse, its stagnant waters were
drained off by contiguous land owners, and its bed and banks
largely brought under cultivation.
The Akron Hydraulic
Company, however, fully maintained its rights, under the charter,
and its lease, by keeping the section between Akron and Ravenna in
repair, and passing an occasional boat along its channel. In the
meantime, the people of Cuyahoga Falls, feeling that not only was
the health of the neighborhood being imperiled by the comparative
stagnation of its waters, but that a large proportion of what
water did pass, was just so much is wrongfully kept from the
wheels of their own mills and manufactories, in the Spring or
early Summer of 1868, the bank of the canal was clandestinely cut
in three several places, both at, above and below that village, by
which the entire waters of the long level between Kent and the
nine locks were drawn off into the river.
CANAL ABANDONED.
The Hydraulic Company
several times repaired the breaches thus made, and sought to
protect them by stationing watchmen along the line, but as often
would the waters mysteriously "percolate" through the soft earth,
and wash it out again. In this way the fatal year was permitted to
pass, without a resumption of navigation, and quo warranto
proceedings were at length brought in the Supreme Court, in 1872,
under which Gen. A. C. Voris, of Akron, and Hon. Samuel Quinby, of
Warren, were appointed trustees to sell the property, rights,
franchises, etc., of the Canal Company to the highest bidder which
was accordingly done, in September 1873, for the sum of $38.000,
the Mahoning Railroad Company, being the sole beneficiary of the
sale.
This sale did not, of
course, affect the rights of the mill men in that portion
connected with the original mill race, between Middlebury and
Akron, nor the short section, between the junction with the race,
in Main street, and the Ohio Canal basin in South Akron, the
benefits of whose waters, through the Mill street Lock, the mill
owners still for some years continued to enjoy.
To this enjoyment the
South Main street people, through whose lands the canal ran, put
in an emphatic demurrer on, night, in the Spring of 1874, by
filling the canal with earth at the Exchange street bridge, and
tapping the towing path at one or two points further North, and
discharging the waters of the leve upon the bottom lands, and into
the Ohio Canal on the west. Legal proceedings against the supposed
nocturnal violators of the law were instituted, but finally
abandoned, and that portion of the canal also reverted to the
contiguous land owners, and the and Ohio Canal, as such, became a
thing of the past, and its bed and banks, from Newcastle junction
to Akron are now covered by the tracks of the Pittsburg & Western
Railway, as fully set forth in another chapter.
The conception of the
scheme, however, was a grand one, and one which, through the
sagacity and enterprise of Gen. Perkins, King, Dr. Crosby and
their contemporaries, did its fu1l share towards establishing the
commercial and manufacturing reputation and importance of Akron,
Middlebury and Cuyahoga Falls, and but for the advent of that
still more potent factor - human enterprise and progress--the
modern railroad-would still have been one of the cherished
institutions of the State, and a source of profit to its
proprietors.
As a mill race, however, conveying the waters of the Little
Cuyahoga river, Springfield Lake, etc., from Ancient Middlebury,
now the populous Sixth yard, of Akron, to the several extensive
flouring mills of the city, it is still doing valuable service,
though hidden from sight by a substantial conduit through Main,
and that portion of Mill street, east of Howard. Peace to the
"ashes" of the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal
