450 - HISTORY OF TOLEDO AND LUCAS COUNTY.
CHAPTER IX.
EARLY CANAL AND LAKE TRAFFIC.
THE Erie Canal was first opened for traffic in the Fall of 1825. Previous to that time
finished portions of the same had been used for traffic more or less, and immediately there
after the entire line came to be supplied with facilities as fast as experience and the development
of the trade would admit; but these remained very imperfect during the ensuing year.
In January, 1827, appeared the first announcement of a " Through Line," affording accommodations to be made available by contract with regular agents. It was known as the Troy Steam and Tow-Boat Line (on the Hudson River), or the Troy and Black Rock Line of Canal Boats (on the Canal). The "best of Schooners on the Lake" connected with this line. The local agents of the same were as follows : P. Hart, Jr., New York; G. P. Griffith & Co., Troy ; D. Griffith & Co., Syracuse; Brown & Griffith, Rochester; Sheldon, Thompson & Co., Buffalo ; and William Townsend, Sandusky, Ohio. The latter was the only agent West of Buffalo, and he advertised that "a number of first-class teams " were employed by the Line for freight between Sandusky and Cincinnati or intermediate points. The senior of the Rochester firm of Brown & Griffith, was the late Matthew Brown, of Toledo. Very few of his acquaintances were aware of the relation he bore to the pioneer transportation line of the Erie Canal. At the request of the writer, Mr. Brown, a short time previous to his death, furnished the following statement of the inauguration of traffic on the Erie Canal, and its connection with the Lakes. He said:
The Erie Canal was commenced in 1817, the first shovel of earth having been thrown on the 4th of July of that year, at Rome, Oneida County. The work was pushed with great energy, and in the latter part of October, 1525, the flotilla from Lake Erie reached New York City, where it was welcomed with great pomp and imposing ceremonies. The Canal Commissioners very judiciously commenced the work in the central part of the State, where the levels were long and the bulk of the work consisted of excavations. The people of the State were not slow in availing themselves of the facilities offered by the work, as different sections were completed. Many single boats were at once put in commission, and several Transportation Companies were organized. As might be expected, these were composed, in great measure, of those who bad been engaged in similar pursuits, viz.: Mohawk River Boatmen and broad-tire wagons, formerly employed in the transportation of freight over substantially the same route. At the time of the opening of the Canal, my father (Dr. Matthew Brown) was a large property holder in Rochester and was engaged in several industrial pursuits, the principal of which was the manufacture of flour for the New York market. For want of better help, a good deal of the management of the business fell tome. I had considerable assistance from a younger brother (the late Henry H. Brown, of Detroit). We had, like other millers, at times much difficulty in getting our flour to market, and it was deemed best to own two or three Canal Boats. The result was, that during the Winter of 1825-26, we laid the keels of four Boats, to which a fifth one was added the following Spring. The Boats were of the first-class of that day, and carried about 30 tons, with accommodations for passengers. Mr. G. P. Griffith, of Troy, was the proprietor of a small line of eight or 10 Boats. He proposed to me to visit Buffalo and enlist the co-operation of Lake ship-owners there (with whom he had been in correspondence), in the formation of a line to run through from Lake Erie to Troy, in connection with a house (Pattison & Hart) who were about to establish a line of Tow-Boats on the Hudson. To make a long story short, the Canal line was formed, with a capital of $20,000-Sheldon, Thompson & Co., and Townsend & Coit, of Buffalo, owning one-quarter; G. P. Griffith & Co., of Troy, about one-half; my father the value of four boats ; while Griffith & Brown (Evan Griffith and myself) had a small interest, and were the agents at Rochester.
Such was the commencement of the famous (as I may now call it) Troy and Erie Line, which, with its correspondents at the several Lake ports, was not a whit behind the best of its contemporaries. I was in this organization four years, and after some episodical experience in other ventures, found myself in the Spring of 1836 a junior partner of the house of Coit, Kimberly & Co., Buffalo, which succeeded the two houses mentioned above. John L. Kimberly, now living, was the active head manager at Buffalo. I came to Toledo in 1843, and have been a member of several firms engaged in the shipping and commission business.
A prominent part of the Canal traffic then consisted in passenger business by Packet Boats; and Mrs. Matthew Brown well remembers the active part she took in the manufacture of pillow-slips for the Packets of the Pioneer line of the Erie Canal, in which she soon became more deeply interested by marriage with one of its owners.
In May, 1827, a second transportation line (the Pilot Line of Canal Boats) was announced, with the following agents: Shankland, Brace & Co., New York ; Joy & Webster, Buffalo ; and Wilcoxson, Swearingin & Co., Sandusky. It is proper here to state, that, with the exception of Detroit, Sandusky was then the most Western point of commercial importance on the line of the Lakes. There was then no Chicago or Milwaukee, while the trade of the Maumee
EARLY CANAL AND LAKE TRAFFIC. - 451
River was confined to the local traffic at Perrysburg and Maumee City, Toledo not having been heard, if thought of. Sandusky's superiority arose in the interior and Southern trade supplied from that point.
As early as December, 1827, a movement took place toward organization among the masters of Vessels on Lake Erie. As stated by the Buffalo Journal (then edited by Oran Follett, Esq., now of Sandusky), a meeting of such commanders was held in that City, when were passed resolutions, in which was set forth the necessity of masters acquiring a more perfect knowledge of Lake navigation, in consequence of the growing importance of their calling, for which purpose the " Lake Erie Marine Society " was organized.
In 1838, the cost of transportation of freight between New York and Toledo, was $22.00 per ton-via Erie Canal and the Lake. The rate from New York to Chicago « as $32.00. From Toledo to Chicago, the charge was $10.00 per ton. These rates were the average for Summer traffic, those for the later portion of the season being sometimes higher, reaching $4.00 per barrel bulk between Buffalo and Chicago. To these charges were added the cost for insurance, which, between Buffalo and Chicago, amounted to $12.50 per ton ; and between Toledo and Chicago, $8.34 per ton-thus making the aggregate Buffalo and Chicago cost, $44.50 per ton, and that between Toledo and Chicago, $18.34. The charge for passengers by Steamboats from Toledo and Detroit to Chicago, were-for cabin, $20.00; and for deck, $12.00. It was then estimated that with a Railroad between Toledo and Chicago (distance 234 miles), the two routes would compare as follows : By rail, the time would be 12 hours for passenger, and 24 hours for freight trains, with $10.00 as fare for passengers, and $7.05 per ton for freight; against five clays' time and $12.00 to $20.00 for passengers, and $18.34 for freight by water.
Did spare permit, it would be interesting to follow the progress of this great channel of trade, through the various changes which it has undergone during the past 60 years. But that is not practicable; and we must be content with this brief record of its start.