Ohio's Grand Canal by Terry K. Woods

Author:Terry K. Woods
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Ohio’s Grand Canal: A Brief History of the Ohio & Erie Canal
ISBN: 9780873389846
Publisher: The Kent State University Press
Published: 2013-09-30T00:00:00+00:00

5

The Flood

ABANDONMENT AND FLOOD, 1911–1913

John I. Miller was appointed chief engineer of Public Works on July 3, 1911. The canals of Ohio were, according to his first report, “in such a state of physical disability as to make it possible for navigation only in a very few instances.” Miller referred to the previous regime only once when he said, “The fact that there has been mismanagement in the past is not the fault of the canals.” He also urged that the canals be “put back into first-class condition for navigation in the near future. Miller’s report further stated that “the Ohio & Erie Canal from Cleveland to Dresden has been rebuilt for most of the way, but the fact that there is no aqueduct at Roscoe, and that the dredging was discontinued at Tuscarawas [Trenton] on account of lack of funds, puts the whole system out of commission.”1

In actuality, during the enforced hiatus of canal traffic during the attempted rebuild, the few mills, mines, and industries that had regularly shipped and received by canal either shifted their businesses 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 onto shore alongside basins or widewaters and converted into homes survived.2

Mixed signals came from the legislature and the Board of Public Works regarding the future of the Ohio Canal. Major physical improvements were made along the canal in Cleveland, Akron, and Tuscarawas County as late as 1912. However, the “spoil” from dredging the canal channel south of Clinton in Summit County to the Stark County line had been left there in heaps, obstructing the towpath. The dredging spoil south of Clinton through Canal Fulton was not plowed smooth and leveled until 1912. Also, it seems that the portion of the canal through Navarre in Stark County to the Zoar feeder in Tuscarawas County was never refilled with water after the rebuild of New Lock 5A and the Cemetery Run Culvert south of Massillon in 1909.3

Meanwhile, the state busied itself with 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 the section between the Licking Summit Reservoir (Buckeye Lake) and a few industries in Newark remained, and those were for hydraulic purposes.

The remainder of the Ohio Canal was allowed to just exist. Then, on December 31, 1912, perhaps acting on the premise that they no longer considered Ohio canals as viable transportation systems, the state legislature abolished the three-man Board of Public Works and replaced it with a one-man supervisor of Public Works.4 The legislature appointed John Miller as supervisor, which perhaps meant the state wasn’t quite ready to give up on its canals. Even so, things were soon taken out of the legislature’s hands.

The snows were heavy in Ohio during January and February of 1913. Then a rare early thaw occurred in mid-March, and on March 23, Easter Sunday, it began to rain.

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