Auroraadvocate.com - Kaleidoscope: Canal locks remind us of time long past

by Ken Lahmers

Editor

Relics of one of Ohio's oldest modes of transportation -- canals -- still are visible across the state, even though that mode hasn't been used for almost 100 years.

But when walls of locks are built of concrete 3 to 4 feet wide, they tend to last a long time.

It was in the early 1900s that boats last plied the water and were raised and lowered in locks along many of the state's 813 miles of canals.

The oldest section of the Ohio & Erie Canal, which connected Cleveland with Portsmouth (309 miles), runs for 65 miles between Cleveland and Massillon, and many of the original 44 locks remain.

The entire length of the O&E sported 146 locks. There were dozens more on the Miami & Erie Canal between Cincinnati and Toledo and on feeder canals such as the Pennsylvania & Ohio through Portage County.

When I was growing up in Tuscarawas County, I was familiar with many of the old locks. There were 15 of them from north to south between Bolivar and Newcomerstown.

Lock 13 on New Philadelphia's Southside was less than a mile from my house, and my buddies and I occasionally rode our bikes down to check out the structure.

The remaining section is about 40 feet long and 15 feet high. In the 1960s, brush and trees grew up between its walls, but in recent years it has been cleaned out and planted with grass.

I stop there sometimes when visiting my hometown to gaze at the concrete megalith and try to visualize what life was like during the simpler times of the 1800s.

Other Tuscarawas locks

Of the 15 locks (Nos. 7 to 21) on the canal through the county, I'm familiar with Nos. 14 to 17, which are visible along Route 416 between New Philly and Gnadenhutten.

A small village appropriately named Seventeen grew up around Lock 17. Only a handful of houses remain where more than 100 people once resided.

On a recent trip to Tuscarawas County, I stopped by Lock 15, also known as Upper Trenton. It's on the south end of the village of Tuscarawas, which once was known as Trenton.

A small plot around the lock has been well maintained by the village and the Lions Club. There's a picnic table beside the lock and a wooden foot bridge over it.

Like Lock 13, the space between the walls of Lock 15 also is planted in grass.

Lock 15 was built of sandstone in 1828-29, but after 80 years of wear and tear and exposure to the weather, it was reconstructed of concrete in 1907 at a cost of $6,815.

Unfortunately, the new lock didn't last many years after that, because Ohio's devastating flood of 1913 put an end to commerce on nearly all of the canals.

By that time, the canals had been going downhill for decades. In fact, the 1860s started the decline when the "iron horses" (railroads) provided a much faster mode of transportation.

Less than 1,000 feet down Route 416 from Lock 15 stands Lock 16 (Lower Trenton). One locktender, who lived in a long-gone house between the two, was in charge of both. Lock 16 today is overgrown with brush and trees.

Strategically located along the O&E were 11 toll houses. Tuscarawas County's only one was beside the Tuscarawas River in Dover. An Ohio Historical Marker now pinpoints the spot.

The O&E Canal from Cleveland to Zoar in northern Tuscarawas County was christened a National Heritage Corridor in 1996.

Northeast Ohio canals

The locks along the O&E were numbered in two directions -- north and south -- from a starting point in downtown Akron near the present day Canal Park baseball stadium.

Thus, the lock on New Philly's Southside is the 13th one heading south from that point. Lock 3 heading north is where Lock 3 Park is situated near Akron Civic Theater.

Because a 2-mile section of the canal just north of Akron is the steepest grade in Ohio, a series of locks were built.

That stretch is known as the Cascade Locks. They are clustered along the Tow-path Trail, which is near the path used by mules and horses to pull the canal boats.

A historic district has been designated along those locks, as has one along a 4-mile section through Valley View. Between Peninsula and Valley View, the canal runs through Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

The Cascades Locks District once was the center of a large industrial zone. Among early industries were two rubber factories, a furniture factory and the original mills of Quaker Oats founder Ferdinand Schumacher.

Recently, I visited Lock 15 in the Cascade Locks. Above it is the Mustill Store, which dates back to the 1850s.

The building, which has been restored in recent years and contains exhibits relating to canal history, is adjacent to a staircase-like series of nine locks.

Historians believe the first shipment of coal on the O&E departed from Lock 15 in 1828 on its way to Lake Erie. The coal came from Ohio's first known mine near the present Chapel Hill Mall area, which was then called Coal Hill.

More data about canal

Construction of the O&E took place from 1825 to 1832. Various sections, starting with Cleveland to Akron, opened each year from 1827 to 1832.

The canal's golden period lasted until the 1860s. The highest revenue period was between 1852 and 1855. Boats could carry 10 tons of goods at an average speed of 3 mph.

One famous man who briefly worked on the canal was President James A. Garfield. In his teens in 1847, he was a "hoggee," or mule driver. He reportedly fell into the canal several times and finally gave up the job.

Although most of Ohio's canal beds are now dried up and filled in -- and in some cases paved over -- water still flows along a 12-mile stretch between Akron and Barberton.

There also are other stretches still filled with water. For example, the boat St. Helena III operates in Canal Fulton and Monticello III operates at Roscoe Village near Coshocton.

The canal era is remembered with a handful of festivals, including Canal Fulton's Olde Canal Days (July 9-11 this year), Magnolia's Sandy & Beaver Canal Days (Aug. 7-9) and the Coshocton Canal Festival (Aug. 20-23).

E-mail:

klahmers@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3155