Notes on the Old Bench, and Bar - 325 tice of the verdict, and somewhat confidently and imperiously demanded that it be set aside at once. The counsel for the defendant whispered a few words of consultation, when Mr. Coombs, assuming an unusual degree of gravity, arose and addressed the court substantially as follows : "May it please your Honors : The counsel for the plaintiff is a gentleman of much learning and ability, for whom we have all heretofore entertained the greatest respect. He is familiar with the Constitution, that great palladium of human rights, and to it he owes the right to appear before this Honorable Court. Imagine, therefore, my surprise to find him standing before this tribunal and audaciously demanding that your Honors shall deliberately violate the following provision of the Constitution : "'The right of trial by jury shall remain inviolate.' " To ask this Court to lay its hand ruthlessly upon the verdict of a jury, is to treat with contempt the people, the court, and above all the Constitution itself. I know your Honors understand the Constitution ; I know how profoundly you reverence it, and I cannot but hope that you will severely rebuke the imprudent zeal of the counsel, and stop at once the discussion of a proposition which assails our glorious Constitution in its most vital part. I'll not impugn the intelligence and patriotism of this tribunal by a word of argument upon such a proposition. Here the Constitution is safe, and, I trust, supreme. Shall not this jury trial remain inviolate ? " This speech profoundly impressed the Court. There was a moment's silence, and then: Mr. H.—" May it please your Hon—" Judge Walden—" Sit down, sir sit down. The Constitution is the supreme law of the land. It shall be maintained." Mr. H.___ But—" J. W.—" Sit down, sir. We will not hear you. True, the jury overlooked or forgot the evidence—I don't care which—but the Constitution plainly says that trial by jury shall remain inviolate. It must and shall be preserved. This trial must be as perpetual as the Constitution. We will not hear you. The Court advise the learned counsel to go home and read Henry Clay on the Constitution." The counsel left the room at once, and though a supporter of Henry Clay, just then he would have been glad the statesman had never been born. 326 - Notes on the Old Bench and Bar. Here it may not be out of place to recur to the early mein, bers of the old Fort Wayne bar. Those who quitted their jur- isdiction, and crossed the border to practice in the northwestern counties of Ohio, have been already named in the reminiscences of Hon. T. W. Powell, of Delaware, Ohio; but more ample testimony regarding the early lawyers of Fort Wayne could be furnished by the veteran Member of the Northeastern Indiana bar, David A. Colerick, Esq., who removed from Lancaster, Ohio, to Fort Wayne in 1829, forty-three years ago. The only member of the bar then residing at Fort Wayne was Henry Cooper ; and now Mr. Cooper being dead, Mr. Colerick is the only survivor of the bar of that date. Subsequently, about 1831, the bar was reinforced by the addition of Thos. W. Ewing, (a man, says Mr. Colerick, of rare intellect and culture, and eminent as a judge and a lawyer.) The next lawyer was Charles Johnson, who opened an office in Fort Wayne in 1834—a gentleman faithful to his clients, and a good lawyer. His death occurred in 1845—resulting from exposure on his return home from a professional tour at Bluffton. Lucien P. Ferry was about this date admitted to the bar at Fort Wayne, having studied with Mr. Cooper. His death was caused by a similar exposure, and occurred on the same night that carried off Mr. Johnson. These are all the reminiscences, furnished by Mr. Colerick—by reason of the pressure of business, advanced age, and ill health—regarding the "old time " lawyers of Fort Wayne. One of the early lawyers of Findlay was John H. Morrison, a character well adapted to the people and the times in which be lived. His right arm had returned to its native dust some half century before the main trunk perished. His natural gifts were good, and a noble heart was ever lodged on the left side of his vest. Judge M. C. Whiteley recalls the following of him : During a term of Court at Findlay, he had a case in which he manifested much interest, and after the evidence had closed he felt that the cause of his client was lost, and opened his address to the Court and jury with the following declaration : " May it please the Court : By the perjury of witnesses, the ignorance of the jury, and the corruption of the Court, I expect to be beaten in this case." The Judge (Patrick G. Goode) turned to the counsel and inquired : Notes on the Old Bench and Bar - 327 What is that you say, Mr. Morrison ?" The latter promptly replied; " That's all I have to say on that point," and proceeded in his remarks to the stupid jury. Judge Whiteley also recalls the following remarkable replevin case. A husband and wife whose domestic wrangles had led to .a separation, were the parents of a single child, the exclusive possession of which was sought by both husband and wife. The mother, however, had maintained her charge of it. The father applied to Morrison for counsel, and was advised to get out a writ of replevin! The proceedings had reached the point when it became necessary for the Sheriff to summon two persons to appraise the "property." These first could not fix a value upon the child ; when they were dismissed and yet others summoned, with the same result; and while a third effort to establish a value was pending, a brother of the mother seized the child, and placing it before him on his horse, pushed the animal forward upon his highest rate of speed, and soon was at a distance that would render successful pursuit impossible. " There?" exclaimed Morrison, " there goes my case! I could replevin the devil out of hell, if I could only get appraisers to put a value upon him." During the judicial service of Judge Goode, three new associates, by reason of death, resignation, and expiration of term of office, appeared upon the bench. They were men of very fixed notions of morality, but all. strangers to Mr. Morrison. In those days tavern licenses were granted by the Court to applicants whose moral character and general fitness to keep a public house, were endorsed by two responsible witnesses. A man in ill repute made application to the Court for license, and procured two witnesses, boon companions of himself, to testify to the virtuous character of the applicant. The Court considered the proposition, and Judge Goode announced that the application was refused. Mr. Morrison, much excited and agitated, rose and addressed one of the Associates: " Judge Ewing, is that your decision ?" Judge E. responded affirmatively. " And Judge Price, do you concur in that decision ?" " Yes." And Morrison was about putting the same question to the third Associate, when he was interrupted by Judge Goode with the question : " Mr. Morrison, what are you about ? What are you doing ?" "Why, I'm polling the Court, your honor." 328 - Notes on the Old Bench, and Bar. Hon. William Mungen solemnly asseverates as follows : When an early term of the Supreme Court was held at Findlay Judge Wood presiding, (perhaps his first visit to Hancock) he, company with John C. Spink, Andrew Coffinberry, (better known as the old Count) Jude Hall, J. M. May and some others, at the close of the District Court left Findlay on horseback, for Kalida or Defiance. They had saddle-bags, in which about all the law books in this part of the country were packed and carried aro and with the Court in its migrations. After getting down the river some twelve miles, they called a halt at a house to get some water to wash down their "drink." They hitched their horses to the fence and went into the yard. About the time the Court was washing down his drink, one of the horses reached his nose over the fence, and upset a beehive, which stood just inside. The scene which followed was a lively one. The horses struck for the "tall timber," and soon the saddle bags were emptied of their contents. The party followed in pursuit of the fugitive horses, which they succeeded, after much delay and racing through the woods, fuming and fretting, in recovering; though the " library," saddle-bags, bridles, &c., had suffered considerable damage. CHAPTER VII. THE CANAL SYSTEMS OF OHIO AND INDIANA. In any true history of the early settlement and material progress of the Maumee Valley, the two important Canals—the W and Erie, and the Miami and Erie—which unite trunk near Defiance, and thence reach the Maumee Bay by a common an important page. However valuable may be the railroads, built long afterwards, it is still true that the canals had prepared the way, settled the country, and laid the foundation of its cities, of which Toledo at the mouth, and Fort Wayne at the source of the river, are the chief. In 1816 Hon. Ethan Allen Brown, of Cincinnati, had a correspondence with DeWitt Clinton—the latter being then at the head of the Board of Canal Commissioners of the State of New York, upon the subject of the proposed canal connecting the waters of Lake Erie with those of the Hudson River. In February, 1820, an act was passed by the Ohio Legislature, appointing three Commissioners to locate a route for a navigable canal between Lake Erie and the Ohio River, and providing for its location through the Congress lands, then lately purchased of the Indians. The act also proposed to ask of Congress a grant of one or two millions of acres of land. This act was not thoroughly enforced, by reason of some failure to appoint Commissioners, or to have a suitable survey made. Governor Brown, in his inaugural address, 14th December, 1818, thus called attention to the subject of public improvements: "If we would raise the character of our State by increasing industry and our resources, it seems necessary to improve the internal communications, and open a cheaper way to market for the surplus produce of a large portion of our fertile country." Gov. Brown also called the attention of the Legislature to the subject of canals, at the two or three succeeding sessions. 330 - The Canal Systems of Ohio and Indiana. The subject of a canal did not, however, receive attention at the hands of the Ohio Legislature until at the session of 1821 and 1822, when, on the 3d day of January, of the last named year, Micajah T. Williams, of Cincinnati, a Representative from Hamilton county, and chairman of a committee to whom the subject had been referred, made the first report, discussing elaborately this question of connecting by canal, the Ohio River with Lake Erie. A sentence or two from this statesman-like document, will afford some adequate idea of the condition of the State and its industries at that period, and of the progress made in efforts to secure means of artificial transport: " It is a well-established fact that man has not yet devised a mode of conveyance so safe, easy and cheap, as canal navigation; and although the advantage of easy and expeditious transportation is not likely to be perceived when prices are high and trade most profitable, yet the truth is familiar to every person of observation, that the enormous expense of land carriage has frequently consumed nearly, and sometimes quite, the whole price of provisions at the place of embarkation for a distant market. This is essentially the case in relation to all commodities of a cheap and bulky nature, most of which will not bear a land transportation many miles, and consequently are rendered of no value to the farmer, and are suffered to waste on his hands. The merchant who engages in the exportation of the produce of the country, finding it a losing commerce, abandons it, or is ruined ; and crops in the finest and most productive parts of the State, are left to waste on the fields that produce them, or be distilled to poison and brutalize society.'" The valuable report of Mr. Williams concluded with the introduction of a bill authorizing an examination into the practicability of connecting Lake Erie with the Ohio River by a canal, which was read the first time, and finally passed January 31, 1822. The 2d section appointed Benjamin Tappan, Afred Kelley, Thomas Worthington, Ethan Allen Brown, Jeremiah Morrow, Isaac Minor and Ebenezer Buckingham, Jr., commissioners, " whose duty it shall be to cause such examinations, surveys and estimates to be made by the engineer as aforesaid, as may be necessary to ascertain the practicability of connecting Lake Erie with the Ohio River, by a canal through the following routes, viz : from Sandusky Bay to the Ohio River; from the Ohio River to the Maumee River; from the lake to the river aforesaid, by the sources of the Cuyahoga and Black rivers The Canal Systems of Ohio and Indiana - 331 and the Muskingum River ; and from the Lake by the sources of the Grand and Mahoning rivers to the Ohio River." At this period the population of the Maumee Valley was so sparse as to prevent the exercise of an influence adequate to compete for the prize with other routes—particularly with those of the Sandusky Bay and Cuyahoga River—and her claims were hardly considered. Cleveland was finally selected, over Sandusky City, as the lake terminus of the Ohio Canal. Between two of the gentlemen representing interests engaged in the bitter strife for the lake terminus, which arose out of these surveys, the late Elutherus Cooke, of Sandusky City; and the late Alfred Kelley, then of Cleveland, personal alienations were engendered, that continued throughout the lives of these eminent and useful citizens. The Maumee Bay, however, was from the first, looked upon as the proper lake terminus of the Miami and Maumee Canal, from Cincinnati to the lake, when that should be built. On the 27th of January, 1823, an act was passed, " supplementary to the act authorizing an examination into the practicability of connecting Lake Erie with the Ohio River, by a canal." The 2d section of this act appointed Micajah T. Williams, of the county of Hamilton, a Canal Commissioner, in place of Jeremiah Morrow, resigned. Under the 5th section of the act, the commissioners were "authorized and required to take the necessary measures to ascertain whether loans can be obtained on the credit of the State, for the purpose of aiding the State in the construction of a canal, from Lake Erie to the Ohio river ; and if so, on what terms and conditions ;" thus, in the incipient stages of the public improvements, imposing upon this Board., the duties of Fund as well as Canal Commissioners. In a letter addressed to Micajah T. Williams, Esq., one of the Ohio Canal Commissioners, by DeWitt Clinton Governor of New York, on the 8th of November, 1823, in response to inquiries from Mr. Williams, he thus refers to the project of constructing a canal from the Lake to the Ohio River: "The State of Ohio, from the fertility of its soil, the benignity of its climate, and its geographical position, must always contain a dense population, and the products and consumptions of its inhabitants must forever form a lucrative and extensive inland trade, exciting the powers of productive industry, and communicating aliment and energy to external commerce. 332 - The Canal Systems of ,Ohio and Indiana. But when we consider that this canal will open a way to the great rivers that fall into the Mississippi; that it will be felt, not only in the immense valley of that river, but as far west as the Rocky Mountains and the borders of Mexico ; and that it will communi- cate with our great inland seas, and their tributary rivers ; with the ocean in various routes, and with the most productive regions of America, there can be no question respecting the blessings that it will produce, the riches it will create, and the energies it will call into activity." During the season of 1824, a careful and continuous survey of what is now the Miami and the Wabash & Erie Canal, was made from the Ohio River at Cincinnati, through the Miami Valley to the Maumee River, at Defiance, and thence along the northwest bank of the River to the head of the Bay; and an estimate of the cost of the Canal on this route was reported to the Legislature of Ohio at the session of 1824-25. This survey was under the direction of M. T. Williams, Esq., then, and for ten years afterwards, Acting Commissioner and a leading member of the State Board of Canal Commissioners. The engineer corps was headed by Samuel Forrer, Esq., who still survives, and, at the age of four score years, continues in professional charge of the Miami Canal. Besides Mr. Forrer, three of the engineers engaged in this first survey, forty-eight years ago, are still living, to-wit: J. L. Williams, Francis Cleveland and Richard Howe. One half or more of the route of this survey was through an unbroken forest. From Fort St. Mary's, where the town of that name now stands, to the Auglaize River, some forty miles, not a house nor a trace of civilization existed. On the southwest bank of this river was found a squatter by the name of Thomas McClish, with a clearing of about one acre. While the engineer party were at this encampment, the second officer, in the corps, Thos. J. Mathews, father of the Hon. Stanley Mathews, of Cincinnati, was overtaken by a special messenger, who had made his way through the wilderness, with notice of his appointment as Professor of Mathematics in the Transylvania University at Lexington, Ky. A few miles further down the Auglaize the party encamped near an Indian village, Oquanoxa's town, (now Charloe,) of the Ottawa tribe, at that time numerous in the lower section of the Maumee The Canal Systems of Ohio and Indiana - 333 Valley. It was a time of threatening war with the Miamis, then dominant and powerful on the sources of the Maumee River and Upper Wabash. The Ottawa braves and warriors were at Fort Wayne to take vengeance for the loss of an Ottawa Indian, slain by a Miami. A money compensation, however, (or Indian goods) was agreed upon in lieu of blood, probably through the influence of the Indian Agent at Fort Wayne, the Hon. John Tipton, afterwards U. S. Senator from Indiana—an early instance in which arbitration proved better than war. From this Indian village the party pr ceeded to Fort Defiance, where they found the block houses yet standing, on the extreme point, at the junction of the two rivers. But, returning to the legitimate history of the Canal survey, it should be recorded that from one of the encampments in the depths of the forty miles forest south of the Auglaize River, Mr. Williams, the Acting Commissioner, left the party, and, with proper guides, explored in advance the route to the foot of the rapids. Taking there a small boat, he sounded carefully the depth of the water in the River from the foot of the Maumee rapids to Turtle Island, so called, off the north cape of the Bay. His report of these soundings, as communicated to the engineer on his return to camp, and afterwards stated in his official report to the Legislature, clearly indicated the mouth of Swan Creek, now the site of Toledo, as the point where the immense Commerce in the future to seek Lake Erie would be transferred from canal boats to Lake vessels. But while the survey on the Cincinnati branch of the Maumee Canal was a few years in advance of the explorations of the Wabash line, yet it is historically true that the Indiana work, known as the Wabash & Erie Canal, was first to seek efficiently and to obtain means for its construction through the beneficent and judicious action of the Congress of the United States in granting alternate sections of land, through this vast unsettled region of northern Indiana and northwestern Ohio. In the treaty of 1826, between the Miami tribe of Indians and the Government of the United States, through its Commissioners, Lewis Cass, gtjoi John Tipton, and James B. Ray, by which the Indian title in all northeastern Indiana, with the exception of certain reserves, was ex ished, the idea of the Wabash and Erie Canal found substantial recognition. The treaty contained the following clause : " And it is agreed that the State of Indiana may lay out a canal 334 - The Canal Systems ot Ohio and Indiana. or road through any of these reservations, and for the use of a canal, six chains along the same are hereby appropriated." The next step in the progress of events was the procurement, chiefly through the agency of the members of Congress from Indiana, of a survey of the Canal by a corps of United States Topographical Engineers, A corps of Engineers, under the command of Col. James Shrivel-, was detailed for this survey, by order of the War Department. After a tedious journey through the wilderness, the survey was commenced at Fort Wayne in May or June, 1826. But little progress had been made, when the whole party was prostrated by sickness, and Colonel Shriver soon afterwards died in the Old Fort. He was succeeded in command by Colonel Asa Moore, his assistant, under whose direction the survey was continued during 1826 and 1827, down the Wabash to the mouth of Tippecanoe, then considered the head of navigation. The work was continued along the Maumee in 1827 and 1828, until Colonel Moore also fell a victim to disease, so prevalent at that time in these forest-covered valleys, dying in his tent at the head of the Maumee Rapids, on the 4th of October, 1828. This survey was completed to the Maumee Bay by Colonel Howard Stansbury, who, from the beginning, had been of the party. Following this survey was " an act to grant a certain quantity of land to the State of Indiana, for the purpose of aiding said State in opening a Canal to connect the waters of the Wabash River with those of Lake Erie." By this act, approved March 2, 1827, Congress granted to the State of Indiana, one- half of five miles in width of the public lands on each side of the proposed canal, from Lake Erie to the navigable waters of the Wabash river, amounting to 3,200 acres for each mile. The Indiana terminus of the Canal, and therefore of the grant, was at that time established at the mouth of Tippecanoe river, a distance from the Lake of 213 miles. At the session of the Indiana Legislature of 1827-28, the grant was accepted by the State, and a Board of Canal Commissioners appointed, consisting of three members, to-wit : Samuel Hanna, David Burr, and Robert John. The Indiana Commissioners were directed to re-survey the Summit division in 1828 ; bat sickness again interrupted the progress of the work. Mr. Smythe, the engineer, accomplished no more, after arriving at Fort Wayne, than to gauge the river and adjust his in- The Canal Systems of Ohio and Indiana - 335 struments, when he was laid aside for the season. In this emergency the Commissioners themselves, though not engineers, took hold of the instruments, and with the aid of a competent surveyor, completed the survey of the division of thirty-two miles. An act " to aid the State of Ohio in extending the Miami Canal from Dayton to Lake Erie, and to grant a quantity of land to said State to aid in the construction of the canals authorized by law," &c., was passed by Congress and approved May 24,1828. The first section granted to Ohio for the purpose of aiding said State in extending the Miami Canal from Dayton to Lake Erie, by the Maumee route, a quantity of land equal to one-half of five sections in width on each side of said canal, between Dayton and the Maumee river, at the mouth of the Auglaize, so far as the same shall be located through the public land, and reserving each alternate section of the lands unsold, to the United States, to be selected by the Commissioners of the General Land Office, under the direction of the President of the United States ; and which land, so reserved to the United States, shall not be sold for less than two dollars and fifty cents per acre. The said land, hereby granted to the State of Ohio, to be subject to the disposal of the Legislature of said State for the purpose aforesaid and no other. This section also required that the extension of the said Miami canal shall be commenced within five years, and completed within twenty years, or the State shall be bound to pay to the United States the amount of any lands previously sold ; and that the title to purchasers under the State shall be valid. Section 4 enacted that " the State of Indiana be, and hereby is, authorized to convey and relinquish to the State of Ohio, upon such terms as may be agreed upon by said States, all the rights and interest granted to the State of Indiana to any lands within the limits of the State of Ohio, by an act entitled, " An act to grant a certain quantity of land to the State of Indiana, for the purpose of aiding said State in opening a canal, to connect the waters of Wabash river with those of Lake Erie," approved on the 2d of March, A. D., 1827 ; " the State of Ohio to hold said lands on the same conditions upon which it was granted to the State of Indiana by the act aforesaid.” The munificent grant to Indiana of the public domain before alluded to, of March 2d, 1827, was the first of any magnitude made 336 - The Canal Systems of Ohio and Indiana. for the promotion of public works, and may therefore be viewed as initiating the policy afterwards so extensively adopted of granting alternate sections for these objects. Under the section above quoted, Commissioners with plenipotentiary powers, were appointed by both States : W. Tillman, of Zanesville, on the part of Ohio, and Jeremiah Sullivan, of Madison, on the part of Indiana, by whom a compact was agreed upon in Oct. 1829, which, after some delay on the part of Ohio, was ratified by both States—Indiana agreeing to surrender to Ohio the land within her territory, and Ohio stipulating to construct the canal, and guaranteeing its use to the citizens of Indiana on the same terms as her own citizens. From this period, the canal, though one work as respects its commercial interests and bearings, became separated into two divisions, as regards its finances, construction and management. It is to the Indiana division that the following historical description chiefly refers: The portion of this land-grant, falling to Indiana, east of Tippecanoe river, amounted to 349,261 acres as the selections were finally made and approved. During the year 1830, the middle or summit division of thirty-two miles, was located and prepared for contract by Joseph Ridgway, Jr., of Columbus, Ohio, an engineer of experience and skill, employed for that purpose by the Canal Commissioners. The actual construction of the work was not authorized until the session of 1831-32, when a law was passed empowering the Board of Commissioners to place the middle division under contract, and creating a Board of Fund Commissioners, and authorizing a loan of $200,000 on the credit of the State. Jeremiah Sullivan, Nicholas McCarty and William C. Linton formed the first Board of Fund Commissioners, whose organization took place at Indianapolis on the 28th of February, 1832. The Board reported the entire Canal Fund at that date to be $28,651 received from the sale of Canal lands. Jesse L. Williams was appointed chief engineer of the Canal in the spring of 1832. The formal breaking of ground on this great work, with such ceremonies as could be arranged in an uninhabited region, where the chief and indeed only village contained but 400 people, was performed at Fort Wayne, on the 1st of March, 1832, just in time to save the land grant under the limitation of the act of Congress, ln The Canal Systems of Ohio and Indiana - 337 June, following, under the direction of the Board of Canal Commissioners, then consisting of David Burr, Samuel Lewis and Jordon Vigus, the first letting of contracts was made, embracing some fifteen miles, and in the fall of the same year, four miles in addition, including the St. Joseph Feeder Dam, were placed under the contract. Up to the close of 1832 the Commissioners report work performed by the contractors only to the value of $4,180. The remaining thirteen miles of the middle or summit division, thirty-two miles long, was let in May, 1833. This division, uniting the sources of the Wabash with the waters of the lake, was completed in 1835, and on the 4th of July of that year, the first boat passed through it. It was the beginning of canal navigation in all the vast region of country lying northwest of Cleveland and Dayton, and was appropriately celebrated at Fort Wayne in the presence of an assemblage of citizens of Indiana as numerous as could be gathered in that sparsely settled district, to whom an appropriate and able oration was delivered by Hugh McCulloch, late Secretary of the Treasury of the United States. It may serve to illustrate the rigid and judicious economy of that primitive period, as it also shows the greater relative value of money compared with other commodities for which it was exchanged, before the discovery of California gold, to state that this division of Canal, with a fair proportion of lockage and an important dam, cost but $7,177 per mile, though constructed in a wilderness where supplies of provisions could be obtained only from the distant settle-. ments on the Upper Miami through the limited and tedious pirogue navigation of the St. Mary's river. The Canal was constructed literally through and amongst Indian villages and wigwams. At the village of White Raccoon, a Miami chief, the log cabin of Chapine, the orator of the tribe, was found to stand exactly on the line of the Canal and was necessarily moved and rebuilt at the expense of the canal fund, and to the great disgust of the Indian. Probably no one contributed more to the success of the canal policy, during the first and trying years of its progress, than the late Samuel Hanna, of Fort Wayne. From 1828 to 1836, he was successively Canal Commissioner and Fund Commissioner, besides serving three years in the State Senate and one year in the House, representing as Senator, perhaps one-third the entire area of the State, - 22 - 338 - The Canal Systems of Ohio and Indiana.   and filling in each body, for a part of the time, the post of chair man of the Canal Committee. In these official stations he evinced the same judgment, tact and force of character, which, near a quarter of a century afterwards, enabled him to render important service to the northern section of Indiana, in the enterprise of 'completing, under financial difficulties such as would have discouraged men less courageous in assuming pecuniary responsibilities, that portion of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railway lying west of Crestline. In the summer of 1837 the division between Fort Wayne and the Ohio State line was placed under contract. These several sub-divisions were successively opened for navigation until a water communication was perfected, in 1840, between the east line of Indiana and Lafayette, the head of steamboat navigation of the Wabash river. The State of Ohio, realizing less than Indiana the want of this channel of navigation, from the sparse settlement of her northwestern territory, was more tardy in providing for its construction. It was only after repeated and urgent solicitations from the authorities of Indiana, by legislative resolves and through the appointment, finally, of a special commission, that the Ohio Legislature was induced to commence the construction of her division. The people of Indiana, in 1839 and 1840, gave evidence of a disappointed feeling regarding the tardiness of the Ohio authorities in prosecuting their portion of the work, and a joint resolution, approved January 22d, 1840, made it the duty of the Chief Engineer, J. L. Williams, " to proceed immediately to the seat of government of the State of Ohio, and in a respectful manner to urge upon the consideration of the members of the Legislature of that State the necessity of a speedy completion of the Wabash & Erie Canal, from the Indiana State line to the Maumee Bay, in compliance with the compacts heretofore made between the two States in relation thereto." Mr. Williams, thus accredited, hastened to Columbus ; on the 30th he addressed a forcible and elaborate letter to Governor Shannon, which, on the day following, January 31st, was, together with the joint resolution of the Indiana Legislature above mentioned, communicated by Governor Shannon, in a special message to the General Assembly. In his letter to the Governor, and referring to the magnitude of the enterprise, and the extensive interests dependent upon its early completion, he thus refers to the capabilities of the Wabash valley The Canal Systems of Ohio and Indiana - 339 for furnishing transportation, by means of its production and consumption : “For this trade the Wabash & Erie Canal will form the natural, amid, in fact, the only channel, so far as a Northern market may be sought. From the first settlement of the Valley, its citizens have anticipated the opening of this Canal at no remote period, for which expectation they, perhaps, had sufficient grounds in the donation of land for this object, and the acceptance of this donation, with all its requirements, by the States. They have neither sought nor desired any other connection with Lake. Erie, but on the contrary have located and constructed their common roads, to say nothing of their lateral canals and railroads, some of which have been commenced, so as to concentrate their trade on this Canal, as the main trunk. From this circumstance, as well as from the directness of the route, the Wabash & Erie Canal will not be subjected to competition with other established channels of trade, as is often the case on the opening of a new work, but from the first will command the undivided commerce and intercourse between the Wabash country and the Northern markets. “The district for which this Canal will form the main channel of trade, may be described as extending from the State, line, as far down the Wabash as the Grand Rapids, a distance of' three hundred miles. The boundaries of the district on the south and southeast may be defined by a line pursuing generally the valley of the west fork of White River, to the east line of the State, embracing nearly one third of the surface between the Wabash and the Ohio River ; and on the north and west by a line diverging from the Grand Rapids of the Wabash, and extending about one-third he distance to the Illinois River on the west, and Lake Michigan on the north. The limits of this district, it will be perceived, are marked out with due reference to the influence of the Ohio navigation on the south, and of the Illinois River and Lake Michigan on the west and north, as rival channels of commerce. The district thus described contains a surface equal to thirty-eight counties in Indiana, and nearly nine counties in Illinois, including an average area of 22,000 square miles." The difficulties encountered by Ohio, in the prosecution of her division of the work, and the earnest efforts put forth to keep faith with Indiana, are illustrated in the extracts given below, from reports of several consecutive years of Board of Public Works; Extracts from Annual Report of Ohio Board of Public Works, January 16, 1838 " Early last spring, the principal engineer, Mr. Forrer. was directed to complete the final location of' this Wabash & Erie Canal; and on the 25th of May last, proposals were received at Maumee the Acting Commissioner, for the construction of so much 340 - The Canal Systems of Ohio and Indiana. of the line as extends from its eastern termination, near Manhattan, to the " Head of the Rapids," being about thirty miles, and contracts entered into for all the sections, with the exception of those containing the lockage. "On the 25th day of October, proposals were received at Defiance for the construction of the remaining part of the line, extending from the " Head of the Rapids " to the Indiana State line, and contracts entered into accordingly. Extracts from Annual report of Board of Public Works, December 30, 1839 : "The contractors on this work have, from the commencement, labored under difficulties, to an extent that no other work in the State has been subjected. This has resulted from the continued high prices of provisions, enhanced by the remote situation of the line from the better cultivated portions of the State, and consequent high prices of labor, which, with the sickness that has prevailed along the line of the canal during the summer months, has much retarded the progress of the work. On the first of April last, it was progressing as rapidly as could be expected, and so continued until about the first of July, at which time, on account of the dread of sickness, such as prevailed the season previous, the larger portion of the laborers left the line and sought employment elsewhere. Owing to this cause, and the difficulty experienced by contractors in not receiving regular payments, but little work was done from the first of July until the middle of October." From the Annual Report of the Board of Public Works, January 12, 1841 : " At the close of the last year, and until the month of April, the prospect of obtaining money for completing this work was so doubtful that contractors were advised of the fact, and recommended to use their own discretion and consult their own convenience in prosecuting their jobs ; consequently, not much work was performed during that time. But from the first of April until the month of July, the season of the year when laborers usually leave the canal, on account of sickness, the work progressed as rapidly as could have been expected, with the limited number of laborers remaining on the line. All the locks and culverts are commenced, except the three locks connecting with the Maumee river at Manhattan, Toledo and Maumee City. From Defiance to the State line, the want of proper material rendered it necessary to build the locks of wood." From the Annual Report of Board of Public Works, January 8, 1842 : " Seventy miles of different portions of the line are finished, leaving about twenty miles to be completed. From Manhattan, the eastern termination of the canal, to the head of the rapids, a distance of thirty-one miles. the earth work and culverts are and The Canal Systems of Ohio and Indiana - 341 all of the locks on the main line, consisting of eight lift and one guard lock, are nearly so, and will be finished at the opening of navigation. The two locks on the Toledo side cut, and five on the Maumee side cut, are also finished, with the exception of the gates, which will be completed this winter. The out-let lock on the Maumee side cut will be finished next May, and the aqueduct across Swan Creek, which completes the canal communication with Manhattan, will not be finished before the month of July next. The water has been let in, and the canal used for the purposes of navigation the past season, from the head of the Rapids to Maumee City, a distance of eighteen miles ; and during the present month, it is expected, the water will be let into the canal from Maumee City to the head of the locks at Toledo, an additional distance of nine miles." From the Annual Report of Board of Public Works, January 2, 1843 : "The whole of this work is now so far completed as to admit the water, when the proper season for using the same shall arrive, and nothing but unforeseen accidents will from this time forward, prevent at all proper seasons of the year, an uninterrupted navigation." "For the last fifteen months there has not been paid one dollar in money, to contractors on this canal, and the amount now due is equal to $500,000. Almost the whole resources and credit of that portion of the State in the vicinity of this work have been used up and invested in the construction of the same." The financial embarrassment of that period which had so retarded the work in Ohio, was felt also in Indiana. The extended system of public works commenced in 1836, was entirely suspended with the failure of State credit. The Wabash & Erie Canal was left without means, other than the small receipts from land sales thereafter to be made. To open navigation from the Ohio State line to Lafayette, required about a quarter of a million of dollars. The following extract from the report of J. L. Williams, Chief Engineer, then also ex-officio a member of the Board of Internal Improvements, dated November 27th, 1840, shows the pledges by which these financial difficulties were overcome : "The completion of the Canal in this State has been accomplished during the past season, under circumstances peculiarly embarrassing to contractors and their creditors. The legislation of last winter, while it authorized and directed the completion of the work, provided not a dollar in payment therefor, until it could be realized from the sale of Canal lands, which was fixed by law for the month of October. Believing it important that the few remaining contracts which had been so long on hand, should be completed, in order that the community might enjoy the convenience of the navi- 342 - The Canal Systems of Ohio and Indiana. gation, and that the State might save the expense of maintaining any longer a corps of engineers for its superintendence, the undersigned has been unremitting in his exertions for the accomplishment of this object. " By giving an assurance to the laborers and others that their adjusted claims would be recognized, and that each claim would receive its proportionate dividend of the money received at the land sale, the contractors were enabled to keep up their operations and complete their „jobs. On final settlement, made during the present month, there was found to be due to contractors and others, the sum of $115,124.08, of which amount the money received for sale of lands was found sufficient to pay twenty five per cent., leaving the sum of $86,587.47 unpaid, for which the Commissioner has issued drafts on the fund commissioners, based upon the further proceeds of the canal lands. These drafts, of which there are eleven hundred and seventy-two in number, vary in amount from one dollar to several thousand dollars, in proportion to the size of the claims. Under existing laws they are redeemable only when the amount is realized from the future proceeds Of the lands. The propriety of meeting them at an earlier day will doubtless suggest itself to the Legislature. If there be no other means of paying these drafts, perhaps the substitution of scrip or Treasury Notes, of small denominations, made receivable for lands, would afford a convenience to the holders of them." No action having been taken by the legislature for the speedy payment of these drafts, the engineer, upon his own responsibility, and without the authority of the law, (necessity knows no law) procured a plate to be struck in imitation of a bank note, from which, on more lasting bank note paper, and in small denominations, new notes were issued in redemption of the first white paper drafts then nearly worn out by circulation. This issue, bearing interest and receivable for canal lands, entered readily during that period of pecuniary stringency, into the circulating medium of that part of the State, under the name of " White Dog," a name facetiously given to it by the recipients for reasons well understood at that time. The extension of the land grant from the mouth of the Tippecanoe river to Terre Hante, as claimed by the State, and finally authorized by Congress, laid a financial basis for the canal along the Wabash to that point. The construction of this part of the line was authorized by the legislature of Indiana at the session of 1841-42. Following the precedent set by the engineer east of the mouth of the Tippecanoe, which, though without law, had proved a success, the legislature having no other financial resource, authorized the issue of canal land scrip in payment for the work, of the denomination of The Canal Systems of Ohio and Indiana - 343 five dollars, and in the shape of Bank issues, receivable for these lands, This land scrip, as in the other case, formed a part of the circulating medium in that region. y the year 1845 navigation was extended as far west as Covington B on the Wabash. The contrast, financially, between the year 1840 and 1870 is certainly striking. Now, millions of money are readily obtained from Europe and in this country for the money of public works in exchange for securities of far less strength than the bonds of the State. Then, even State obligations, small in amount, required the pledge of future land sales to make them current. In the summer of 1843, as the Board anticipated, the Ohio portion of the canal was completed, and the entire work in navigable order between Lake Erie and the fertile valley of the Wabash. . The achievement was appropriately celebrated by the united assemblage of the citizens of both States at Fort Wayne, on the 4th of' July, 1843, to whom an able and classic oration was delivered by General Lewis Cass. The Miami Canal Extension, now known as the Miami and Erie, was open for business in June .1845—thus completing a continuous line of canal between the Maumee bay and the Ohio river at Cincinnati. Thus is sketched a history of the origin, progress and completion of the canal systems of the two great States of Ohio and Indiana, so far as the Maumee valley is concerned. It may not be out of place here to give a sketch of one of the civil engineers who was prominently connected with the public works of the Maumee valley. The names of others and their public services are referred to in another place. In a volume entitled, "Lives and Works of' Civil and Military Engineers of America, by Charles B. Stuart, Civil Engineer,"* a handsomely printed octavo volume of 323 pages, and one of the most interesting of its character ever issued from the American press, embraces sketches of Major Andrew Ellicott, Surveyor General of the United States ; James Geddes, Benjamin Wright, Canvass While, Jesse L. Williams, David Stanhope Bates, Nathan S. Roberts, Gridley Bryant, General Joseph G. Swift, Col. William McRee, Samuel H. Kneass, Captain John Childe, Friedereich Harbach, Major David Bates Douglas, Jonathan Knight, Benjamin H. Latrobe, Colonel Charles * Recently published by D. Van Nostrand, 23 Murray St., New York. 344 - The Canal Systems of Ohio and Indiana. Elliott, Jr., and others who have been prominent in the grand achievements made in Civil Engineering in the United States dur- ing the last half century. And among other civil engineers whose biography and services are sketched in the above named volume, and who have been connected with the early public works of the Maumee valley, undertaken by the joint action of the States of Ohio and Indiana, none have been more conspicuous than Samuel Forrer of Ohio. The subjoined sketch of him is from the volume just mentioned of Mr. Stuart : " Samuel Forrer, born in Dauphin county, Pennsylvania, January 17, 1793, visited Ohio at the age of 21 years, but soon after returned home, where he remained until 1817, when he removed to Dayton, which has since been his place of residence. " In July 1825, the Ohio canals, were commenced under the general supervision of David S. Bates as Chief Engineer. Mr. Forrer had been before employed from the very beginning of the canal surveys in Ohio, and now took charge of the work on the Miami and Erie canal. He continued in the service of the State until 1831 during which time he located the whole of the Miami and Erie canal and its branches, and a great portion of the Ohio canal. In 1832 he was appointed a member of the Board of Canal Commissioners, and continued in that position three years, when that Board was abolished and a Board of Public Works created in its stead by the Legislature of Ohio, of which he was a member several years. Not only was he exceedingly useful in this capacity, but by his zeal, general intelligence, and force of character, he contributed largely to the promotion of the canal system, and was a valuable co-laborer with the men of that period who shaped the policy of the State and laid the foundations of her commercial institutions. Mr. Forrer was at one time a contractor on the Wabash and Erie Canal in Indiana. " The following extract from a letter written by the Hon. Jesse L. Williams, of Fort Wayne, an old professional co-laborer, dated Dayton, Ohio, April 12, 1871, and published in Stuart's work, ex- plains the condition in which he found Mr. Forrer : "I was to-day an hour with Mr. Samuel Forrer at his home. He is in a feeble state. Paralysis has been gradually coming on, which affects somewhat his speech and strength of body, yet his intellect is unimpaired. He is still the consulting engineer and chief dependence, professionally, of the Ohio State Board of Public works, especially as to everything relating to the Miami and Erie canal for the enlargement of which work he has lately submitted an estimate. He attends all meetings of the Board at Columbus. His age is 78 years. I was gratified in having the opportunity, probably the last one, of conversing with so good a man, so near the close of a useful life."  The Old Packet Lines and that Captains - 345 Captain George Dutch Davis, now of the United States Revenue office, Toledo, kindly furnishes " some recollections of the palmy days of the Miami and Wabash canals, together with the names of boats and captains," which may be properly appended here. The fact may be recalled that the office of captain of a canal packet boat, in those times, was regarded as invested with a dignity equal to that now awarded to one in command of the bst steamer that floats upon the lakes ; and, though slower and more expensive, they had the advantage of railway coaches on the score of comfort. Some of the generation of to-day make merry when they recur to what now strikes them as the slow modes of travel and transportation of the canal days, and commisserate the condition of their fathers, whose highest rate of speed in a passage packet boat was from seventy-five to a hundred miles in twenty-four hours; while, by improvements since made, six hundred miles, in the same length of time, can be conveniently passed over in railway coaches ; yet, if they had " roughed it" through the black swamp, when, indeed, it was a "black swamp' —though one no longer—paying high rates of passage in the rude and comfortless vehicles that then conveyed the United States mails, and struggling, often on foot, half the distance through mud and water, because the horses had not the strength to draw their weary load ; and again, when off the stage routes, to undertake a journey of a hundred miles, one would leave home on horse-back, and before reaching his destination, would perhaps travel by the various conveyances of pirogue, raft and canoe, and finally be glad to finish his journey after several days of severe toil, on foot and horseless ; and, if our young friend would recur to the fact that farm products, in many places, did not pay transportation charges to reach a market ; and also to the fact that the country merchant often paid more in freights on some of his goods, than the invoice amounted to in the market where purchased ; he would not then marvel at the exultation indulged in by the inhabitants of the Maumee valley, when the canals were opened for travel and transportation uses. But in turning to the recollections of Capt. Davis : he states that in the year 1843, Samuel and Archie Mahon, brothers, commenced running two small packets between Toledo and Fort Wayne—starting and stopping without reference to regular time—sometimes cam ping out, and getting their meals at farm houses along the line of canal. Nothing, however, was permanently undertaken in packet 346 The Old Packet Lines and their Captains. boating until the summer of 1844, when Samuel Doyle and William Dickey, of Dayton, Ohio, organized a line making regular trips between Toledo and Cincinnati, and from Toledo to Lafayette, cam prising the following boats, namely: " Erie," " Banner," "Oh , " Indiana," " Illinois," " Missouri," " Kentucky," " Tempest," "Cata- Fact," " Atlantic," " Fashion " and a steam propeller named "Niagara." Capt. George Dutch Davis opened the first regular packet office in Toledo, in 1844, and in 1845 resigned the position to again take charge of his boat, and Wm. J. Finlay was given charge of the office, and retained it until the opening of the Toledo and Wabash railroad in 1854 caused the withdrawal of the line. During the last five years of the existence of the line the proprietorship was in the hands of Jerome Petree, of Little Falls, N. Y., and E B. Holmes, of Brockport, N. Y., who purchased the interest of Doyle & Dickey in 1849. The names of the old packet captains, which have a choice place in the memories of thousands yet residents of the Maumee valley, and of other thousands distributed over distant regions, are given below, and the disposition which the hand of Providence has made of them : Thomas B. Filton, deceased ; W. S. B. Hubbell, deceased ; M. Van Horne, resides in Iowa; John M. Wigton, Toledo; Clark Smith, deceased; A. Vanness, deceased; Byron 0. Angel, Fort Wayne; Wm. Sturgess, deceased ; Benjamin Ayres, deceased ; Joseph Hoskinson, Napoleon ; William Phillips, Lima ; Charles Sherwood, Cincinnati ; Christian Snavely, deceased ; George Alvord, in Arkansas; James Popple and Nathan Nettleton, St. Louis ; Thomas B. McCartv, late State Auditor of Indiana, at Indianapolis ; Elias Webb, Middletown, Ohio ; William Dale, New York; Geo. Dutch Davis, Toledo; J. R. Smith, Cincinnati. George Owen and David S. Davis, of Dayton, were proprietors of the first packet line from Dayton to Cincinnati. Samuel Doyle was the first to experiment with steam on the Miami canal--having built in 1845, the propeller " Niagara," at a cost of $10,000. She was commanded by Capt. William Dale, and proved a failure financially. Mr. Colerick, among his interesting reminiscences of early times, contributed to the Fort Wayne Gazette, gives the following account of the first boat ride on the canal : In the spring of 1834, the canal being finished from the feeder dam Opening of Canal Navigation at Ft. Wayne - 341 in the town, and the water having been let in in the month of June, all were regretting that there. was no boat with which to have a ride on the approaching 4th of July. Then the indefatigable F. P. Tinkham, seeing the situation, went to the woods and cut down the trees with which to make the hull of a boat, and in less than two weeks time had a staunch craft completed and afloat, and on the morning the glorious 4th of July the entire population embarked thereon and proceeded to the feeder dam, five miles distant, where, after spending the day in eating, drinking and making merry, all returned to their homes, well pleased with the day's doings, and feeling themselves under great obligations to Mr. Tinkham for the first boat ride on the canal. By the first of June. of the following year the canal was completed to Huntington. Capt. Asa Fairfield (recently deceased) meantime had contracted for the building of a boat, which was finished in the latter part of the month of June, and was called the, Indiana. He placed his brother, Capt. Oliver Fairfield, an old sea captain, who had just come to the country, in command ; and on the morning of the anniversary of American independence, (now an obsolete idea), the Indiana started on her first trip to Huntington, carrying a large party of gentlemen, (no ladies), including Dr. L. G. Thompson, Judge Hanna, Allen Hamilton, Samuel and Wm. S. Edsall, W. G. and G. W. Ewing, Francis Comparet, Capt J. B. Bonnie, Wm. Rockhill, Col. John Spencer, J. L. Williams, D. H. Colerick, L. P. Ferry, Jas. Barnett, M. H. Scott, Madison Sweetzer, and many others. Capt. Fairfield, now a resident of Decatur, Indiana, with whom I had a conversation recently regarding the matter, said that this was the liveliest party that he ever carried on the Indiana. On the return trip the next day, Dr. Tate, Capt. Murray and many other citizens of the town returned with the party, and thereafter trips were made every other day, carrying freight and passengers, and as the canal was completed to each point, the " Indiana " extended her trips thereto. And with what pleasure did we frequently repair to the dock on her arrival, (an event of no small interest to us isolated beings) which was always heralded by the clarionet and violin of Ed. Parker and Bill Patchin, employees, as the boat emerged from the aqueduct and rounded the bend west of town. sweeter music I think I never heard than these two men m_ ade ; at least, such is the impression that it left long years agone. There were no buildings then on the banks of the canal to interrupt the sound or view from Columbia street." CHAPTER, VIII. FORT WAYNE. This city, situated at the head of the head of the Miami of the Lake, and among the first founded in this empire of the north-west, by Europeans—the Ke-ki-ong-a of the aborigines—the capital of the ancient, Twigtwee, or Miami confederacy, appropriately occupies the first place in the sub-divisions commenced with this chapter. It has been stated (see aut. p 9), that the chevalier La Salle visited this place, and, as early as 1680, erected a stockade. As hitherto remarked, the authority for this statement is the late A. T. Goodman, Secretary of the Western Reserve and Northern Ohio Historical Society, whose intelligence in archaeological researches throughout both continents, in collecting material relating to the early history of the West, was appreciated and recognized by the best minds in the country. In a letter to the author of this work, dated Cleveland, August 28, 1871, Mr. Goodman says : " I was glad to learn by your favor of the 26th that you contemplate publishing a history of the Maumee Valley ;' and after some allusion of a personal character adds that "the field abounds in interesting historical resources, and I desire to place myself at your service, to aid and assist with what material I have in my private collections, and what is on file in the rooms of the society." With reference to the early occupation of the country, he assures his correspondent that his facts on this point are "drawn from French records at Montreal and Quebec, and papers at Albany and Harrisburg." In a subsequent letter he promises " full data as soon as his health improves," but unfortunately that improvement never came, and within a few days subsequent to writing his promise, his useful life was brought to a close. Mr. J. L. Williams, in his historical sketch of the First Presbyterian Church of Fort Wayne, says that " a report of LaSalle, written probably in 1682 [but more probably in 1680,] mentions the route Fort Wayne - 349 by the Maumee and Wabash, as the most direct to the that Mississippi ;" and very justly observes that” it is improbable that the French would pass this thronged centre of the Miamis, at the carrying place between these rivers, without establishing here one of that cordon of military posts designed to connect their Canadian and Mississippi settlements. Vaudreuil," says Mr. Williams, " Governor of Louisiana, writing in 1751," seventy-one years after the erection of the original work, "names Fort Miami at this point. It was a small stockade fort, and situated near the St. Mary, probably in the vicinity of the canal aqueduct. The dim outlines of the fort were traced by Wayne in 1794, and by Colonel John Johnston in 1800." Not having the benefit of the "full data" which Mr. Goodman intended to furnish, it is assumed as probable that the Chevalier built his stockade here in the autumn of 1680, on his return route from the St. Joseph's of Michigan to Fort Frontenac. In confirmation of this view, and in conclusion of its discussion, it may be added that the pioneers relate, as a current tradition among the Indians at Fort Wayne, that they were first visited by white men who came from the West. From the earliest record the Miamies have been a leading and influential tribe. Bancroft says: " The Miamies were the most powerful confederacy of the West, excelling the Six Nations. * * Their influence reached to the Mississippi, and they received frequent visits from tribes beyond that river." Mr. Gamelin, the messenger sent by Governor St. Clair, in April, 1790, to know the mind of the Indians as to peace or war, after reading the Governor's speech to the chiefs and head men, in every village on the route from Vincennes, was everywhere desired to proceed to the Miami town (Ke-ki-ong-gay). They said, " you know that we can terminate nothing without the consent of our brothers—the Miamies.' The impress of its name upon so many western rivers, shows the predominence of the tribe. The two Miamies of the Ohio will ever perpetuate it. The Miami of Lake Erie (now Maumee) was likewise named for the tribe. The St. Joseph, of Lake Michigan, was called the " river Mimics," when LaSalle erected a fort, and Henepin first raised the cross at its mouth in November, 1679.* Our own St. Marys was marked "Miamies river" on the rude skeleton map, made to represent the western country at the time of Colonel Boquet's expedition in 1763.—Note by J. L. Williams. In the conspiracy of Nicholas, begun in 1745, described in preceding pages, the destruction of the French village at Fort Wayne, it *This is one of Hennpin's historical errors. Father Marquette or Alloez had preceded Hennepin at this pointe several years, and established a mission and erected the cross.