HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY - 75 health gave her whole strength to labor for the future welfare and happiness of the family. There was little luxury or ease for the pioneer's wife of those early days, but whatever her destiny might be, it was met with a firm faith and a willingness to do her whole duty, living in the love of her husband and children and trusting in Providence for any other reward. At night the discovery was made that woman's work was never done. The household was asleep. The tired husband and father was resting his weary limbs in dreamland; the children were tossing here and there on their beds, as restless children always do. Nature itself had gone to rest and the outer world was wrapped in darkness and gloom, but the nearly exhausted mother sewed on and on, and the midnight candle was still shedding its pale light over the work or the vigils of the loved and loving mother. And this is the record of the thousands of noble women, the female pioneers, whose daily presence, loving hearts, earnest work and keen judgment made the work of civilization and progress one of success. And the question has often been asked, "What would the men of olden times have done if the women of olden times had not been with them ?" GENERAL PICTURE OF THE SIMPLE LIFE In the cabins of the pioneers were usually a few books—the Bible and hymn-book, "Pilgrim's Progress," "Baxter's Saints' Rest," " Harvey 's Meditations," "Æsop 's Fables," "Gulliver 's Travels," "Robinson Crusoe," and the like. The long winter evenings were spent in poring over a few well-thumbed volumes, by the light of the great log fire, in knitting, mending, curing furs, etc. Whisky was in common use, and was furnished on all occasions of sociability. Nearly every settler had his barrel stored away. It was the universal drink at merry-makings, bees, housewarmings, weddings, and was always set before the traveler who chanced to spend the night or take a meal in the log cabin. The whisky came from the Monongahela Country, and was floated down the Ohio and thence boated up the Scioto. A few years later many stills were set up by the settlers, and an article of corn whisky manufactured that was not held in such high esteem, though used in great quantities. As the settlement increased, the sense of loneliness and isolation was dispelled, the asperities of life were softened, its amenities multiplied. Social gatherings became more numerous and more enjoyable. The log-rolling, harvesting, and husking bees for the men, and the apple butter-making and quilting parties for the women, furnished frequent occasions for social intercourse. The 76 - HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY early settlers took much pleasure and pride in rifle-shooting, and as they were accustomed to the use of the gun as a means, often, of obtaining subsistence, and relied upon it as a weapon of defense, exhibited considerable skill. A wedding was the event of most importance in the sparsely settled new country. The young people had every inducement to marry, and generally did so as soon as able to provide for themselves. When a marriage was to be celebrated, all the neighborhood turned out. It was customary to have the ceremony performed before dinner, and, in order to be on time, the groom and his attendants usually started from his father's home in the morning, for that of the bride. All went on horseback, riding in single file along the narrow trail. Arriving at the cabin of the bride's parents, the ceremony would be performed, and after that, dinner served. This would be a substantial back-woods feast of beef, pork, fowls and bear or deer meat, with such vegetables as could be procured. The greatest hilarity prevailed during the meal. After it was over the dancing began, and was usually kept up till the next morning, though the newly-made husband and wife were, as a general thing, put to bed in the most approved fashion, and with considerable formality, in the middle of the evening's rout. The tall young men, when they went on the floor to dance, had to take their places with care between the logs that supported the loft floor, or they were in danger of bumping their heads. The figures of the dances were three and four-handed reels, or square sets and jigs. The commencement was always a square four, which was followed by "jigging it off." The "settlement" of a young couple was thought to be thoroughly and generously made when the neighbors assembled and raised a cabin for them. CHAPTER V TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION ZANE 'S AND TOD'S TRACES-POSTOFFICES AND MAILS-THE FLAT BOAT TRADE- FAMOUS STAGE LINES-ALLEGES BAD STAGE SERVICE-WORSE AND WORSE- PIONEER TURNPIKES—THE PORTSMOUTH & COLUMBUS TURNPIKE-BUILDING OF THE GRAND CANAL-OF SPECIAL BENEFIT TO CHILLICOTHE-FLAT BOATS. TOLLS AND CREWS-CHANGING THE ROUTE-COMMERCIALLY OPENED-GRAND COLLECTION OF WORN-OUT NAGS-WAGES AND FREIGHTS-A JONAH MUD HOLE-CANAL RULES-RAILROAD VS. CANAL-ODD ACCIDENTS-FAMOUS OLD BOATS-GARFIELD GETS IN FIRST-ROCKEFELLER 'S WAGES RAISED-GOOD OLD CANAL DAYS-DESTRUCTIVE FLOODS IN THE SCIOTO VALLEY-THE GREAT FLOOD OF 1913—WORK OF THE MILITIA AT CHILLICOTHE-RAILROAD RELIEF-THE BELPRE & CINCINNATI RAILROAD-MARIETTA & CINCINNATI RAILROAD ORGANIZED - RIVAL ROUTES - THE ACTUAL BUILDING-THE ROAD EMBARRASSED-RECEIVER APPOINTED-COMPANY REORGANIZED-THE SCIOTO & HOCKING VALLEY ABSORBED-THE LINE OPENED TO CINCINNATI-CONNECTION WITH BALTIMORE & OHIO- GENERAL REPAIR SHOPS AT CHILLICOTHE-RECEIVER FOR REORGANIZED COMPANY-THE DAYTON & SOUTHEASTERN RAILROAD-SCIOTO & HOCKING VALLEY RAILROAD THE IRON RAILROAD-BALTIMORE & OHIO SOUTHWESTERN- THE SCIOTO VALLEY ROAD AWAKENS-NORFOLK & WESTERN LINES. The exchange of goods and personal communication between the Ohio Country, the East, and the Mississippi Valley were mainly effected, for more than a century, through the broad, free channels of the Beautiful River and its large northern tributaries, of which the Scioto was one of the chief. Its first permanent settlers, who commenced to occupy the land just before and after the opening of the nineteenth century, built a few local roads through the wilderness, and about the same time the flat boats commenced to be floated down the Scioto to the Ohio, the Mississippi and to New Orleans, laden with grain, flour and live stock from the agricultural regions of central Ohio. - 77 - 78 - HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY ZANE 'S AND TOD 'S TRACES The earliest of the local roads to be cut into Ross County was known as Zane's Trace, which reached Chillicothe in 1796. Colonel Tod afterward continued the trail through the woods to the Ohio River opposite Limestone or Maysville; it was called Tod's Trace, running southwesterly from Chillicothe and thence southerly to Manchester, or Massie's Station. What we know as the old Limestone Road passed north and in front of Fruit Hill and was a part of the Milford and Cincinnati Turnpike. This was abandoned a number of years ago. The new Limestone Road on the route to Limestone, Kentucky, was used for quite a number of years and may now be traced across the hills southwest of Chillicothe. POSTOFFICES AND MAILS A postoffice was established at Chillicothe in 1799; and from this point mail was distributed throughout the Scioto Country. The mail was brought through from the East by way of Zane's Trace, and carried beyond to Limestone by Tod's Trace. In 1803 a road was opened from Oldtown (Frankfort) to Chillicothe, and several were cut through the woods of the county a few years afterward. There was no regular mail carrier up and down the Scioto until 1805; previous to that time people residing in the small settlements within the present limits of the county were accustomed to hire a man by subscription to go to the postoffice. Andrew McIlvaine, who came from Kentucky wtih his father in 1797, began to carry mail northward to Chillicothe and along the west side of the Scioto in 1805, when he was thirteen years of age. When the route was established, there was no postoffice between Chillicothe and Franklinton ; but during the first winter there was one established at West Fall, and later at Markley's Mill. It was not until several years after this that Franklinton or Columbus received a mail directly from the East. In the fall of 1799, the same year that a postoffice was established at Chillicothe, there was also one opened at New Market, Henry Massie's embryo town, which was to rival his brother's settlement at Chillicothe. A weekly pack mail was carried by way of this postoffice, between Chillicothe and Cincinnati, along the trace which Henry Massie had caused to be cut from New Market, to connect with the trace leading from the Falls of Paint to Chillicothe. The mail was carried upon pack horses. HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY - 79 THE FLAT BOAT TRADE The first flat boats that floated down the Scioto were two sent out by McLaughlin and John Carlisle, in 1803, from Chillicothe, and destined for New Orleans. They were laden with corn and flour. John Waddell went with one of these boats as supercargo, and John Briney and John Cryder served as pilots. In 1807 James McCoy sent down boats laden with pork. John Cryder and John Renshaw were engaged in the same traffic in that season. This system of disposing of the produce of the country that was not needed for home consumption, was for a number, of years very extensively carried on, and boats were not only sent to New Orleans from Chillicothe and its vicinity, but from Circleville and Columbus, and points even farther north than the latter. The principal articles shipped were flour, grain, pork and other articles of food supply, even turkeys occasionally forming a cargo. The boats were broken up when they arrived at their destination and sold for lumber or firewood. As each one could only be used for a single trip a vast number was required, and their construction afforded employment to a large number of men. At the old boatyard in Chillicothe, which extended from the foot of Mulberry Street to the present bridge, workmen were engaged constantly during the winter months, generally under the superintendence of James Fennimore, in constructing boats which they had in readiness for the spring flood. These craft were usually from sixty to seventy feet long, about sixteen feet wide, and seven feet high or deep. The "Orleans Trade" continued until the completion of the canal. It is stated in an article published several years ago in the Scioto Gazette that : "The first load of flour which was ever exported from Chillicothe went out on a keel boat in 1803. It was manufactured at Worthington's mill by an ancestor of Maj. John Boggs. 80 - HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY It was sent to New Orleans, and it took six months to make the trip. It took ten men to navigate the keel boat to Portsmouth, owing to the many rapids in the Scioto; the rest of the journey from Portsmouth to New Orleans only three or four men were needed. Having disposed of their cargo at New Orleans they would return home on foot, bringing the silver which they received for their goods on a pack horse, as it was too heavy for men on foot to carry. They had to keep a sharp lookout for robbers, and generally travelled in armed bands. The Indians were everywhere, and these had to be dodged by the traders, who always kept guards at night and who had to travel most circumspectly. The keel boat business flourished until the opening of the canal. Among the old keel boatmen whose names have come down to us were John Boggs, George and Jacob Miller, James McCoy, William Ens-worth, Daniel Dresbach and Z. R. Martin. These men used to handle large cargoes, and it is related that on one trip, in 1821, Z. R. Martin took 400 barrels of flour. "Not very many years ago there could still be seen in the Scioto River, just above the .pumping station of the railway, the remains of an old keel boat. The present course of the river at that point used to be a mere cut-off which was full only in high waters. The regular channel of the river was where the city park now is. In high waters the keel-boatmen coming down from the mills above the city, used to run through the cut-off in order to save traversing the big curve of the river by the city. It was while trying to run through this cut-off that the old keel boat struck a snag and sank. The last timbers of the old boat were covered up by sand and gravel years ago, but it is quite probable that parts of it could still be found beneath the bottom of the shallow riffle at that point." FAMOUS STAGE LINES Out of the firm of William and Robert Neil, of Columbus, who became mail contractors about the year 1825, grew the Ohio Stage Company, which did for many years a vast business, extending over the whole of Ohio and a large portion of the country adjoining. A lingering relic of a bygone age was the stage line along the Scioto from Portsmouth to Columbus. It remained in operation until 1877, when its strong-flanked and fleet horses of flesh were outstripped by the horse of iron. It was, at the time of its discontinuance, the longest stage line in Ohio, and the more aged travelers who rode in late years in its comfortable carriages over the excellent turnpike, were carried back in their recollections, when such was the common mode of journeying, and not the exception. The line was always a great source of convenience to the people HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY - 81 of Portsmouth, Chillicothe, Circleville and the smaller villages along the route, as well as to the business men who wished to reach any one of these places, or Columbus. It was well patronized, and a source of profit to its several owners. This line was established by Col. John Madeira, of Chillicothe, who sold out to Darius Tallmadge, of Lancaster, by whom the business was for many years carried on. In April, 1830, Dr. M. G. Krieder and Col. J. A. Hawkes purchased the Columbus and Portsmouth stage line of Mr. Tallmadge. They ran stages daily, as was required by the postoffice department, and carried seven mails per week. After two years of earnest solicitation by the proprietors, the postmaster general consented to a discontinuance of the Sunday mail. Doctor Krieder died in 1854 and Colonel Hawkes, who sometime prior to his death, had purchased his (Krieder's) interest, associated with himself Dr. W. B. Hawkes. In 1855 the managers commenced running two stages a day between Columbus and Chillicothe, and increased their stock to one hundred horses. During the last twenty-seven years' operations a very large business was done by this stage line ; as a few interesting facts will show. The amount of corn consumed by the horses was in that time, 360,000 bushels ; and the amount of hay, 12,000 tons. The total expenditures amounted to $1,250,000. The whole number of passengers carried over the route during those twenty-seven years was upwards of 1,200,000. ALLEGES BAD STAGE SERVICE Like all other public utilities the Ohio Stage Company's line did not get into smoothly running order all at once. That the Vol. I-6 82 - HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY statement is not made at random is proven by a letter written by an irate traveler from Philadelphia, who patronized the line when it was new—in September, 1827. On the 13th of that month he writes as follows, his communication being published in the Gazette : "To Mr. Thomas M'Cague, Proprietor of the Stages from Chillicothe to Maysville: Sir :—I promised you yesterday when leaving your store, that you should hear from me, and a German will always fulfil his promise. I have cheerfully paid a dollar to the Eagle office, at Maysville, for inserting my acknowedgment for the kind assistance and generous exertions of the inhabitants on this road, within four miles from the Ohio, for their endeavors to recover my valuable trunk, lost off your stage ; and here at the end of your line, I will spend another dollar to expose you for your mean and scandalous conduct towards me and the passengers, of your line of stages ! After telling you yesterday of the manner in which my trunk was lost, and the anxieties and trouble I had suffered, having paid about fourteen dollars for reward and other expenses, and lost two days of my time, and asking you, politely, to contribute a part of the expenses, or at least to allow me my passage (Five Dollars and fifty cents), which would be nothing out of your pocket; you most unreasonably refused all, and by your false and hypocritical talk endeavored to make it out an accident. Every honorable proprietor will, as I told you, furnish his stage with good and sufficient straps and lashings, to secure the baggage of the passengers; but you have not done so, for there was but a piece of an old strap, without a buckle to it, insufficient to lash two Trunks tight, as was well apparent; and when we four passengers remarked to the driver that it was impossible to hold, and protested against the miserable condition of his rigging, he cut, for want of even a rope or anything else, a piece off the line-straps or reins of the horses, to tie the handles of the trunks to the rack of the Stage, which piece hangs yet to the trunk; thus loosely tied, the trunks dropped off, can sure not be called an accident, but a niggardly, mean, and shameful neglect on your part towards the safety of the property of the passengers. The public may imagine how consoling it must have been to me, when you told me yesterday that you are now getting a good strap made ; you strain'd your heart strings, to part with a half a dollar for a new strap, after I had paid nineteen dollars and a half towards it. What a disgusting contrast is your behavior to that of Messrs. Powers, Davis and all the good people on the road near Aberdeen, who, after using every exertion in my behalf, generously refused to take a cent for my meals, lodgings, and refreshment, saying `that they regretted my loss and troubles, and that I should be at no further expenses for what they had offered.' HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY - 83 WORSE AND WORSE "Another illustration of your total neglect of the passengers, and the mean and shattered condition of your stage establishment, is the following fact :—The Stage, which from under your nose was sent from West Union to Maysville on Saturday, and which at my second starting took me out on Monday, had a wheel with a broken spoke, and when finally on our travel, the felloe and tire broke, for want of support, and we were in imminent danger of breaking down or to upset on some of those rough hills, we were unceremoniously shifted into an old common Jersey wagon, about sixteen miles from Sinking Spring, and besides a most disagreeable ride to the passengers, my box of fine jewelry was compelled to go on the hard jolting of the axletree; all for which I paid this imposter on the public seven and one-fourth cents per mile. But this is not all, for we had scarcely traveled a few miles in this miserable wagon before the tire of the two wheels became loose, and, at the same risk to our lives and limbs as before, we reached Mr. Wicker-sham's, where they nailed it up as well as they could, and proceeded to Sinking Spring. This is heaping insult to injury, and I thought it my duty to caution unsuspecting travellers, of the risk and provocations which they will always be exposed to on your shocking, miserable line of stages; and it is a pity that the United States mail should be entrusted to such a paltry and mean establishment ; for where no regard is paid to the life, limbs, and property of persons, what care can there be expected for the contents of a lifeless mail-bag? Now go and make the public believe that this was an accident, too. Under such avaricious and unprincipled management and trifling drivers such accidents will and must daily happen, and it is well known what irregularities (if called no worse) have at different times already happened on your line." PIONEER TURNPIKES The continued development of the Columbus and Portsmouth stage line, in the support of which Chillicothe was such an important factor, would not have been possible without a superior highway over which to travel; which naturally leads to the subject of the turnpikes of the Scioto Valley, especially the famous Columbus and Plymouth Road. The turnpike era may be said to have had its beginning about 1830. Discussion of the subject of extensive road improvements was commenced about that time, but no work was done until several years later. The Zanesville and Maysville and the Milford and Chillicothe turnpike companies were organized about the same 84 - HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY time. The first company was incorporated March 7, 1836, and the first meeting of the incorporators was held in Chillicothe, in June following. Samuel McCracken was elected president. Work upon the road was begun soon after, but suspended in 1842 on account of the bad financial condition of the company. In the meantime the Milford and Chillicothe Turnpike had been built, and this branch of public improvement having been thus inaugurated, was continued in all directions, and the means of travel between the principal towns in Southern Ohio was materially simplified, very much to the improvement of trade, and the general development of the country. The turnpike along the Scioto Valley has a peculiar history, and, as it was the first of its kind built in Ohio—the beginning of the cheap turnpike system—we give a somewhat extended account of its construction. THE PORTSMOUTH AND COLUMBUS TURNPIKE The Portsmouth and Columbus Turnpike is one of those great thoroughfares, which before the completion of the Scioto Valley Railroad, in 1876, was of vast use to the people along its line. Because of its great extent, its long term of more than commonly important service as a means of communication between Chillicothe and the other towns of the valley, and also from the fact that it was the first road of its kind constructed in the state, we give place to a more detailed statement of its history than it is necessary to insert in regard to the other turnpikes. The great expense of the turnpike roads made it impossible to construct them after the repeal of the law by which the state became a stockholder of one-half of the whole property. When the Columbus and Portsmouth Turnpike was incorporated, a sufficient sum of money to build it upon the old plan could not be raised by subscription. William Renick, of Circleville, proposed a different plan of construction—one much cheaper, but good enough for all practical purposes. The road was constructed, after long delay, upon the plan suggested and urged by him, and was the first of the kind in the State of Ohio, or west of the Alleghenies. Mr. Renick proposed that clean, unscreened gravel should be laid down on the line of the old road, except where it was necessary to straighten it, the gravel to be put on to the depth of four to six inches at each covering, until the road was covered with ten or twelve inches of gravel, each covering to be well packed and smoothed before the next was laid. He insisted that an ordinarily good turnpike could be built on this plan at an expense not to exceed $1,200 per mile—not equal to the perfectly constructed HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY - 85 macadam road, but such as would give all the essential advantages of the same, and, with a little attention to repairs, could be kept so. Mr. Renick found no one to agree with him. In fact, the directors of the road deemed his plan so chimerical, that, during his absence East, they let the grading of ten miles of the road to a Mr. Robinson, who was a practical roadmaker, on the old plan. On Mr. Renick's return home he so discouraged Mr. Robinson about his ever being paid for a road of that character, that he, Robinson, threw up his contract, although he had been at work on the road for a week or more, with a considerable force. The directors then relet the road to Mr. Robinson to grade, gravel, and finish, for the same price per rod that the grading alone had been contracted for, thus adopting essentially the plan proposed by Mr. Renick. There was no help for it; there could not be money enough raised to make a more expensive road. Much comment, quizzing, and unfavorable criticism were made during the progress. In time, several sections were finished and put into use. The experiment was a success. The road became sooner packed, was less rough, and constructed at a cost not exceeding $1,200 per mile, bridges included. The road from Circleville to Chillicothe was thus completed, and Mr. Robinson, the contractor, spent his life in building roads of the same character in other sections of Ohio. The company was incorporated by an act of the general assembly of the state, passed February 7, 1831, and Samuel M. Tracy, William Kendall, Ezra Osborn, John Peebles, Nathan R. Clough, and John Noel, of Scioto County ; John J. Vanmeter, James B. Turner, William Blackstone, and Robert Lucas, of Pike County ; James F. Worthington, David Renick and Anthony Walke, of Ross County ; Andrew Huston, G. W. Doan, George Crook and John Cockran, of Pickaway County ; and Joseph Ridgeway, Lincoln Goodale, Samuel Parnus, Robert W. McCoy and Joel Buttles, of Franklin County, were the commissioners named in said act. The said act was revised and amended several times before the completion of the road. The company divided the road into sections, or divisions, and these sections had their boards of directors, collected their tolls, kept up the repairs, and made dividends. All that portion of this pike lying north of Chillicothe and within the limits of Ross County, was purchased by the county, under the act of 1878, at the appraised value of $12,000. The controlling interest in the southern half was owned by James Emmitt, of Waverly, who in fact, owned a majority of stock in the Portsmouth and Chillicothe Turnpike and was very prominent in the building of the road. 86 - HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY BUILDING OF THE GRAND CANAL In the meantime the canals of the state had come into strong competition with the turnpikes and all highways by land; but while the Ohio & Erie Canal was getting into working order the stages not infrequently were brought into requisition for the relief of stranded and belated passengers. Under the legislative acts of 1825 two artificial waterways were constructed in Ohio. The Miami Canal from Dayton to Cincinnati, sixty-six miles, was first completed; the Ohio, or Grand Canal, from Cleveland to Portsmouth, by way of the Scioto River Valley, was not in operation until 1832. That direct means of communication with the region of the Great Lakes and, more indirectly with the East, proved a great uplift to the people of Southern Ohio. The natural riches of that section now had an outlet—imperfect though it was—to the large markets of the North and East, and even along the line of the canal were several flourishing' towns eager to purchase the products of the Scioto Valley. The Ohio Canal commenced at Cleveland, extended southerly up the Cuyahoga River to the old portage between it and the Tuscarawas, passed the Town of Akron and thence to the Tuscarawas River, the valley of which it followed by way of Massillon, Dover, New Philadelphia, Newcomerstown, Coshocton and Dresden, where it left what had become the Muskingum River, thence southwestwardly passing Newark, Hebron, Baltimore and Carroll to the Scioto, at a point eleven miles south of Columbus, to which a lateral feeder was extended ; thence to Portsmouth the canal stretched down the Scioto Valley, via Bloomfield, Circleville, West-fall and Chillicothe. The Grand Canal was forty feet wide on the surface and twenty-six feet on the bottom, and its channel carried four feet of water, but the old-fashioned flat-bottomed canal boat would sustain a HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY - 87 big load before. it "scraped," and soon these same shallow waters were alive with business. The Valley of the Scioto sprang into importance as the most fertile and financially productive of all the waterways of the state; the farmer was encouraged to enlarge his fertile fields, the manufacturer of both cereals and iron to increase his productive capital, and merchants to enlarge the scope of their business operations. The completion of the Ohio Canal was a partial relief to the people of the Scioto Valley in another particular. Its banks were raised above the lowlands and certainly were of a more substantial character than those which Nature had provided. The result was that in seasons of flood, if the water did not rise to an unusual height, the canal was sometimes available when the natural channels of the river were closed. But although the Grand Canal was a relief to the people of the region, it was by no means smooth sailing along its waters, and " closed for repairs" was not an unusual aggravation. In October, 1831, the canal was opened from Cleveland to Chillicothe, 250 miles ; in September, 1832, to Waverly, where there was a public celebration. The opening of the canal to Portsmouth was to have been celebrated in October of that year, but it was deferred on account of the prevalence of cholera. By June, 1837, a line of boats was running through to Cleveland, but in September, 1837, the flood destroyed the culvert at Cam Creek and the canal was broken. Extra stages were put on and teams employed to handle both passengers and goods. In January, 1838, navigation was closed, and twice in the spring of 1839 the canal was closed for repairs, goods being brought to Brush Creek and wagoned to Portsmouth. That portion of the canal passing through Scioto, Pike, Ross, Pickaway and Franklin counties, proved of greater value to the people along its line, than any other section of the Ohio Canal. Its usefulness was not so soon eclipsed by rail transportation, and the amount of traffic was well kept up until after the building of the Scioto Valley Railroad. OF SPECIAL BENEFIT TO CHILLICOTHE To Chillicothe especially, was the canal a very valuable means of communication. It became, very soon after the completion of the canal, an important shipping point—the place of outlet for the grain and produce of an extensive region. Wheat was wagoned from farms that lay within thirty or forty miles of Cincinnati, to Chillicothe, because at the latter place there was better demand. The growth and prosperity of the old capital never received a 88 - HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY more powerful impetus than that from the canal, and from no one cause was its business ever more stimulated or strengthened. The Ohio & Erie Canal stimulated the development of the Scioto Valley although it was periodically closed for repairs, as stated, and, was altogether rather an unreliable means either of communication or transportation. It is now history that it permanently declined with the substantial rise of the railroads. The details of the local celebration commemorating its opening to Chillicothe, with interesting reminiscences of the early canal boats and the quaint old boatsmen, have all been gathered from the columns of the local press; from the writings of James Emmitt, the pioneer merchant, banker and capitalist of the Scioto Valley, so long a resident of Waverly and the father both of the canal-boat trade and the turnpike system of Southern Ohio; and from personal interviews with a very few pioneers who can recall the old days when the Grand Canal was such a large figure in the commercial life of the Scioto Valley. The Canal Days have been reconstructed in detail by Dr. B. F. Sproat, of Chillicothe, in a paper read several years ago before the Sunset Club of that city. The picture that follows is largely abstracted from his article : FLAT BOATS, TOLLS AND CREWS The "broad-horns," as the flat boats were called, were, as a rule, sixty feet long and sixteen feet wide. They were generally manned by a crew of fourteen men, and operated by four huge oars, or sweeps, worked in large wooden sockets, each oar being handled by three men, who traveled an arc representing about one-fourth of the boat's deck, in moving their great oar to and fro through the water. From Chillicothe to the Ohio River took a day and a half, provided the boat did not foul around any snags on the way down. The boats were always tied up at night. The season for flat boating on the Scioto was from February to May. The flat boats which cost $100 to $200 each, were generally thrown away at New Orleans or sold for a sum not exceeding one-tenth of their cost. In 1812 100 boats loaded with Ohio products left Chillicothe for Natchez and New Orleans, and in the same year a vessel sailed from the mouth of the Scioto for foreign ports. With the advent of the steamboat, affairs were, of course, vastly improved. The first steamboat going down the Ohio and Mississippi was called The New Orleans. It was built in Pittsburgh and made its initial voyage in October, 1811, and two years later The Vesuvius, the second steamboat, made its first trip. At this time and for years afterward the greatest impediment to progress in Ohio was the lack of transportation facilities. Away HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY - 89 from the navigable rivers, to move freight a long distance was almost an impossibility, when it cost $3 to haul a cord of wood twenty miles or $5 to transport a barrel of flour 150 miles. Either of these rates would double the price of the commodity. The toll paid to the state on the Ohio Canal was 3 mills per mile for each passenger of 8 years or upwards. For freight, the toll varied from ½ to 1 ½ cents per 1,000 pounds for each mile. Canal boats were either freight boats or passenger packets ; the packets were narrower, had a sharper prow and ran faster. The male passengers always slept in the stern cabin and the women in the bow cabin. The dining room was always in the stern cabin. Frames covered with a sort of netting, like hammocks, were used to sleep in ; these were called "sacking frames," and were placed in tiers, one above the other, at night and taken down in the morning to make room in the cabin. In the early days the freight boats carried many of the emigrants moving west in a steady stream. These emigrants often brought a light mattress or blanket with them, and at night spread it amidship, or on the boxes of freight or anywhere they could find room. They bought their food from grocers along the line of the canal or in the towns, and often used the boat cooking stove to heat their coffee. In those days food cost but a fraction of what it does now. Eggs were from 3 to 5 cents a dozen, young chickens could. be had three for a quarter. My father, when a boy of sixteen, walked from Vermont to Chillicothe, a distance of about 1,000 miles. His expenses on the trip were $17, and in his first letter home he says, "I neither spared nor went hungry and could have made it for much less." Passengers on the packets spent much of their time reading or playing cards; all packets had a bar. Passengers often took a gun along and hunted in the woods nearby. Near Sharonville wild geese and ducks were often shot from the deck of the boat. Occasionally boats were detained by washouts or broken locks, six or seven weeks. At times forty or fifty boats would be collected waiting for repairs to be made. A loaded freight boat would travel about 1½ miles an hour, and a light, or unloaded one, three or four miles an hour. The fare for a cabin passenger between Chillicothe and Cleveland was about $10, to Columbus, $2. The boats were loaded by roustabouts; sometimes the crew would help load a boat but it was a rare thing for them to help unload one. A freight boat's crew generally consisted of a captain, two steersmen, one bowman, two drivers and a cook. The duty of a bowsman was not so much to look out for anything ahead, (as in the case of a vessel on the lakes or at sea), but to jump ashore as the boat approached a lock or stopping place, and take a turn with a rope around the "snubbing post" to check the speed of the 90 - HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY craft; these posts were often half worn through by the friction of the rope. A packet's crew consisted of a captain, two steersmen, two bowsmen, a cook and a steward. Packet horses and drivers were furnished in relays, being changed every twelve to fifteen miles, and the horses were, of course, stabled on land. Packet boats ran day and night; freight boats generally in day time only. GRAND CANAL CELEBRATION AT CHILLICOTHE Early in the fall of 1831, when it was seen that it was a matter of only a few weeks before the canal would be finished to Chillicothe, the citizens of that town began to prepare for the long looked for event. A few extracts from the newspapers of that time, may be of interest. The Scioto Gazette, of October 5, 1831, contains this item : "The citizens of this place are invited to attend a public meeting at the Court House this afternoon, at 3 o'clock, for the purpose of making suitable arrangements to celebrate the entrance of the first canal boat into this town." The same issue of the Gazette, says under the heading " Canal Commerce" : "On Wednesday last, the canal boat, 'Victory,' Captain Lewis, arrived within four miles of this place with, freight and passengers for Chillicothe, and left on the next morning for the north. This is the first boat that has navigated this section of the canal. On the succeeding day the boat, 'Athenian,' from New York, arrived at the same place, with 43 packages of dry goods, consigned to Messrs. Barr and Campbell, principally for merchants in Louisville. On this boat there was also a number of passengers," etc., etc. The entry of the first boats from the north into Chillicothe took place on Saturday, October 22, 1831, and a very full account of the event and the ceremonies attendant upon it, is given in the Gazette of the Wednesday following. From it we learn that at sunrise a national salute was fired by the artillery at the north end of Paint Street. After that the Independent Blues, under Captain Carrol, escorted Governor McArthur into town. At 10 o'clock the procession of the ladies was formed at the courthouse for the purpose of presenting a flag made by them to the packet boat, Dolphin, which was built here. The account says : " The order, the elegance and beauty of this ceremony surpassed anything of the kind, which we have ever before seen ; and the compliments of the vast multitude, who were the anxious spectators of this interesting scene, as well as those of the gentlemen who were honored as their attendants, are justly due to the tasteful conductors of this beautiful feminine ceremony. This procession was HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY - 91 composed of almost every respectable female of the place and of a very large number of accomplished and intelligent ladies from a distance who honored us on this occasion with their attendance." The flag was presented to Captain Williamson, who after thanking the ladies, invited all who could do so, to board his boat, the Dolphin and the General Worthington both of which were built in Chillicothe. They were taken up to the basin at the north end of town where they met the eight canal boats that had come down to take part in the celebration. After a short address by the mayor, and a salute of guns, the entire fleet sailed into town in the following order : Dolphin, General Worthington, Chillicothe, Monticello, Victory, Canton, Lancaster, Athenian, Napoleon and Citizen. The account continues : " Thus arranged the visiting boats with more than 500 ladies and gentlemen on board, with their flags waving in splendid civic triumph from their mastheads, under sounds of the most delightful music from the Chillicothe Band, made their first and triumphal entree into the very heart of this town, amidst the thunder of artillery and the loud, long and enthusiastic cheering and hurrahs of more than 8,000 people, who lined the banks of the canal, crowded the doors and windows and covered the roofs of the houses. This was a scene, reader, which no human pen can describe and which no human effort can portray. It was fiction itself realized—and the anticipation of the most wild and extravagant theorist reduced to fact, naked open and undisguised fact, with a thousand per cent added to his previous vision. It was a proud, a splendid and gorgeous day, for Chillicothe; and but little more for it than it was for the whole state and the entire West." The account goes on to say that an address of one hour's duration was made by Wm. Key Bond, after which another flag was presented by the ladies of Chillicothe to the canal boat Chillicothe, the first boat from the north to enter town. The young lady presenting the flag made the following address : "Captain Ulmer : The ladies of Chillicothe are unwilling that this day, which is the commencement of a new era in their state and gives cheerful hopes of great prosperity to their town, should pass without some public expression of the interest felt by them in its celebration.. Impressed with a nice sense of the delicacy of the female character, we wish not to transgress our appropriate sphere. But it seems admitted that that character has some influence on society, and to have remained silent on an occasion of such general interest and when all nature seems vivified, would have argued a morbid sensibility, and forfeited a right to that respect which we so justly appreciate and so greatly heed. We are apprised that the universal joy which now pervades this town is occasioned by the completion of the Ohio 92 - HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY canal from Lake Erie to this point, and the arrival here this day of the canal boat 'Chillicothe' under your command. This general burst of feeling is due to an event fraught with such beneficent good that the incredulity of some will call it the romance of history. "I am requested by the ladies of Chillicothe, to present to you, sir, as an evidence of their interest in the day, this flag, the happy emblem of the Union. Take it as a token of the friendship cherished by those near the banks of the beautiful Ohio, for their fellow citizens on the far distant lake. We earnestly hope that it may long and peacefully float o'er the Chillicothe,' bearing back and forth an interchange of rich cargoes, and with it, we unite our prayers for the growth and prosperity of our state, the prosperity of the union, and for your own individual welfare and happiness." In answer to which Captain Ulmer of the Chillicothe made the following complimentary reply : "Penetrated with sentiments of the most lively gratitude and impressed with your most sincere respect, I receive from your hands the flag awarded by the generous kindness of the ladies of Chillicothe to the boat of which I have the honor to command. With a modesty so natural to your sex and which lending to its mild radiance still further heightens the effects of their incomparable charms, you have alluded to the influence exerted on society by the female character. Believe me, that influence cannot be too highly appreciated. Connected with you by the most endearing ties, by the most blessed relations, by the innumerable sympathies which the names of mother, wife, sister and daughter kindle into being, the character of man himself is but the reflection of that purer lustre which invests the more divine parts of creation. You do not transgress the modesty of nature, you do not step beyond your appropriate sphere, when you bestow your approving smiles upon a work thus far accomplished by the councils and treasurers of your kinsmen, which may justly be styled the miracle of the age, in which we live. If the brows of youthful warriors are wreathed with laurels by the hands of the fair, if many a banner gloriously decked with all the elegance of female labour, has proudly floated over a battle's bloody array, do you not act more in unison with your feelings and character when you confer some token of your appreciation on this so great a triumph of the peaceful arts? "Borne on the water of this artificial navigation, we have penetrated into the heart of the American continent, we have reached your beautiful town, the capital of the fertile valley of the Scioto, far to the westward, as it is, of all the ridges of the Allegheny, and to the southward of those inland seas that separate our republic from the dominion of Britain; and here where the fathers of many of you, yet in the vigor of manhood, found naught but a trackless HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY - 93 waste, we behold the rich fruits of advanced civilization. It is here, indeed, that nature, too lavish of her bounties, almost dispenses with great agricultural skill; but the mechanic arts are highly improved; towns and villages have sprung up as if by enchantment, amid the wilderness that surrounded them; the distant spires of rising churches and flourishing academies, greet our eyes and, surprising contrast, strongest evidence of rapid refinement, where the ears of your fathers lately resounded with the shrieks of the savage, ours are charmed with the delightful tones of the most polished society. Happily and appropriately to this ceremonial, do you call the American flag an emblem of our Union. It is by the connecting links of this great work that that Union must be bound inseparably together. It is the golden hand of the prosperous commerce which will hereafter glide on the surface of these waters, that will unite the South and the West with the North and the East by a contract as strong as the marriage tie. I find myself inadequate to express my feelings. Be pleased to accept my warmest thanks, which I tender to you on my own account, as well as on behalf of the proprietors, and my fellow citizens of Cleveland for the distinguished honor done to my boat and the polite and elegant manner in which that honor has been conferred. With recollections that can never be effaced I shall bear this flag to the shores of that far distant lake. There it will wave in pacific triumph, fanned by those gales that once gloriously floated over her foaming billows, the victorious American banner above the cross of Britain." (Miss James and Miss Worthington were the two young ladies who made the presentation addresses.) The account then goes on to say that the commanders of the ten boats invited all the ladies and gentlemen who could get on board to a ride to the basin in Mulberry Street, then up to Worthington's Basin and finally back to the landing on Paint Street, it says : " The pleasures of this excursion was only equaled by the beauty, the novelty and splendour of the scene which it presented. All faces beamed with the expression of the most ineffable delight and all hearts beat with joy unbounded and inexpressible. "The whole company debarked, and after the lapse of an half hour, the procession for dinner was formed by the marshal of the day in front of Madeira's Hotel on Second street. It then moved to the Market-house on Paint street, where a dinner by the united industry of Col. Madeira and Mr. Lemuel DeVault was prepared, which, perhaps, for abundance and taste has never been equalled by any other, west of the Allegheny mountains. Among the rich varieties of this entertainment, and which added no little to its novelty, were two full grown deer, dressed whole and set on the table in the attitude of full flight. To this luxurious repast, there 94 - HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY sat down upwards of three hundred citizens with the Governor of Ohio at their head." The account then gives the toasts, some seventeen in number, the speech of Governor McArthur, etc., which all lasted until half past four when the boats took many of the people on another excursion, this time passing through the locks above town. At night the berm bank of the canal was illuminated from Walnut Street to Mulberry Street, by a row of candles only six feet apart, as was also an arch thrown across Paint Street where it joins Water, said arch being 100 feet long and 30 feet high. The account says of this illumination : "The splendor and beauty of this scene can only be understood by those who witnessed it." And in reviewing the events of the day, the writer says : "We hesitate not to assert that there never were on any former occasion an equal number of happy people together. In this immense assembly were to be seen participating in the ceremonies of the occasion, those possessing the refinements and elegancies of polished life, with the decent but uncultivated rustic—the aged with the young—the employer with the employed and the stranger with the citizen—all contributing to its interest and each enjoying the pleasures which all had united to create." CHANGING THE ROUTE As may be supposed, the route originally selected by the engineers for the canal, did not meet the approval of everybody and many were the efforts to have changes made; in some cases these changes were trifling, but in others they were of the greatest importance. Circleville came near being left to one side, but by hustling at the last moment, she raised $7,000 and succeeded in having the canal come through the town. And it was the original intention to have the canal built down to Portsmouth on the east side of the Scioto, but Gen. Robert Lucas (who was elected governor in 1832, and was the owner of a large tract of land at Jasper), succeeded in having the route changed, so as to pass that point, but he was not much benefited after all. Even in Chillicothe, the plans were altered, for the line originally ran through Church Street, and the channel was partly dug through that highway. We read in the Ohioan and Chillicothe Advertiser: "At a public meeting of the citizens of Chillicothe, assembled at the Court House, Sept. 5th, 1829, a resolution was passed, to request the Canal Commissioners to have the canal pass down by the old bed of the river, leaving it at the north end of Hickory street, and from there to Main street, where it will strike the line contemplated HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY - 95 through Main street," etc. As we know, this petition was granted, so far as going along the old bed of the river was concerned. When the canal was dug through Water Street (at that time the principal business street), the roadway was so narrow that vehicles could hardly get through it in busy times. After the big fire of April 1, 1852, this was, in a measure, remedied by setting back the new buildings some ten feet from the former line, on that part of Water Street east of Walnut Street, through which the canal passed. Of course, at the time the canal was dug, the Scioto River ran where the "Old Bed," or Park Lake, as it is now called, is at present. Not much space was left between the two streams, and for a while it seemed as if the narrow isthmus that was left would be washed away. An old letter tells how this was remedied : "The Scioto river had long been wearing away its banks and encroaching on the width of Water street. Yet right along that portion of the street, the engineers had surveyed the route for the canal. What was to be done ? It was soon explained. Plank walks were stretched across the river, and hundreds of men were employed wheeling sand from the other bank and emptying it into the bed of the river. After many days the earth appeared, displacing the water, and soon the level of the street was reached. To prevent leakage, the bottom and sides of the canal were properly puddled with a mixture of clay and gravel and after being sufficiently hardened, were ready to receive the water." COMMERCIALLY OPENED The first arrivals of freight by canal in Chillicothe are thus recorded in the Scioto Gazette, of October 26th, four days after the opening : "The splendid canal boat, 'Richmond,' of the Troy, Erie and Ohio line, arrived at the wharf on Paint street this morning, with freight consigned to Barr & Campbell. The canal boat, `North America,' Captain Bankerson, of the Ohio and Pilot line, arrived this morning, in four and a half days from Cleveland, freighted principally with emigrants." The first bill of lading for goods shipped by canal from Chillicothe, was written by Mr. D. A. Schutte, who was then in the employ of Barr & Campbell ; it was for a barrel of whiskey. The last section of the Ohio Canal to be finished was in this county, that between Three Locks and Stony Creek. It is a matter of interest to note that Chillicothe paid to the canal company during the first month after the opening, the sum of $1,353.49 in freight tariffs, besides sending to various points 1,561 passengers. 96 - HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY GRAND COLLECTION OF WORN-OUT NAGS Mr. Emmitt tells, us: "For several years after the canal was finished, the owners of the various freight lines lost money. Up to this time the horses were stabled on shore and the boat owners overworked them to such an extent that all the profits were eaten up by the purchase of new horses to replace those worked to death. After running this way for about a year the competing, lines organized the ' Towing-Path Company,' and by throwing their live stock together, they had control of about 600 horses, the boats themselves being still owned by their former proprietors. But this arrangement did not produce satisfactory results, as the actual loss of towing a boat was 26 cents a mile. As no money could be made in the face of such an expense account, a dissolution of partnership was agreed upon and all the animals belonging to the company were assembled at Cleveland, preparatory to a redistribution. It can honestly be said that it was the most wonderful collection of old, broken-down, sore-headed horses ever gotten together in Ohio. There were probably 500 animals in this grand round-up of worn out nags, and they presented every form of disease, deformity and dilapidation that the horse is subject to. The lame, blind and halt were there, shoulder to shoulder, with sore-headed, sore-eyed, spavined and ring-boned chargers. The sore-backed plug fraternized with the nag suffering with fistula and the horse, through whose lonely and arching ribs the wind mournfully whistled, rubbed pates with the beast having a huge tumor pendant from its sides and corns on its feet." The horses were drawn by lot and Mr. Emmitt drew three as his share of the wreckage and two of them died on the way home. Mr. Emmitt continues : "It was plainly seen after the non-success of this towing scheme that some method of working horses fewer hours and giving them more rest between tricks would have to be devised. It, at first, seemed impossible to do this without increasing the number of horses and placing the stations closer together, which would entail a very heavy expense, but finally some one conceived the idea of erecting a stall on the boat, amidship, in the center of the boat, capable of accommodating three or four horses and of carrying the horses 'off trick' right on the boat, where they could be fed and rested up with the greatest possible convenience and economy. This was a. happy scheme and the expenses of boating were reduced fully two-thirds and money-making was possible on the canal. With the horses carried on the boat, the cost of towing canal craft was reduced to seven cents instead of twenty-six." Mr. Emmitt probably owned more canal boats than any other individual in the state. He bought the first canal boat that came HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY - 97 down to Waverly after the canal was opened to that town, and he commanded it when it led the way to Portsmouth as the pioneer boat to the Ohio. This boat was the General Worthington, built in Chillicothe. When his distillery below town was burned, 700 barrels of whisky were rolled into the canal, filling the stream from the distillery to Three Locks. Thirty-five hundred barrels of whisky and 50,000 bushels of corn were consumed, but 5,000 hogs that were being slop-fed there, escaped injury. WAGES AND FREIGHTS For years $20 a month was big pay for a bowsman or steersman, and $12 for a driver; a boy driver might get $8 or $10. During the Civil war, however, boatsmen's wages rose to $35 and even $45, and $30 for a driver, but it was difficult to keep men at any price because of their enlisting in the army. Capt. Sam Lewis is said to have had fifty-two men leave his boat to go into the army during the period of the war. That was the most prosperous time though for boat owners. Many canal boats would carry sixty tons or 2,000 bushels of wheat, and for a while they got 25 cents a bushel for carrying it to Cleveland, making a gross profit of $500 on the trip up alone. The boats at first were smaller and carried 35 to 40 tons; later on they held from 50 to 65 tons. A boat formerly cost from $1,800 to $2,500. Latterly $900 to $1,000. A JONAH MUD HOLE There was one place on the Ohio Canal that was a regular "Jonah" for boatsmen; for some three miles on the Lancaster sidc-cut, a sort of black muck would come up from the bottom of the channel and prevent the boats from passing freely through. Nothing apparently could correct this. The bed was dug out or dredged again and again, but the mud was always there. A loaded boat would stand up in this thick ooze and look like an empty one. For quite a while the state kept a number of oxen to help pull the boats through ; they also used a rope and windlass and a flat boat was kept at hand, on which to unload a part of the cargo, but the principal plan adopted was this: When a number of boats had collected at the troublesome place, the teams of all would be hitched to the leading boat and pull it through and then go back for the others. The whole side-cut to Lancaster from the main canal at Carrol was only nine miles in length, but a boat would sometimes be ten days in getting through. Various boatmen have told me that they had seen from twenty to thirty horses hitched to one boat in this place ; one said that he had counted thirty-five. Vol. I-7 98 - HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY Most canal boat men went in winter to the slaughter houses to work and their boats were moored to the wharves as close as it was possible to put them. There were times when one could walk from Fourth Street locks to Reed's slaughter house in the north end of the town without getting off the boats, except at the bridges. There were eighty-four canal boats owned in Chillicothe, and every village and town .on the line of the canal owned from one to 100 boats. There were 420 boats owned in the first 100 miles south of Cleveland. Even towns at some distance from the canal owned boats, as for instance, Canton, six miles away, owned a number. "It seems that gambling in foodstuffs can hardly be considered exclusively a modern institution, as finding a profitable market was in the early days sometimes a gamble. I heard of a canal boat load of mess pork that was sent from Chillicothe to Pittsburgh by way of Portsmouth. There was no sale for the pork in Pittsburgh, so it was sent right back, down the Ohio River, past Portsmouth to New Orleans, and, there being no market there, it was reshipped to New York City by way of the ocean and sold there for less than the freight." CANAL RULES They were particular about the care of the canal in the early days. There was a fine for putting any dead animal in the canal, for driving or riding any beast along the tow path, except for towing boats or carrying freight to or from boats ; for running a boat faster than four miles an hour; for depositing hay, straw or manure in it; for allowing a horse to pass into or out of a boat on the sides of any locks, and a fine for slamming the lock gates. When boats passed each other, going in opposite directions, they went to the right, but the horses went to the left; otherwise the tow lines would catch on each other. RAILROAD VS. CANAL "It has given me much pleasure to hear canal boat men tell their experiences, and I have made notes of a few of them. One prided himself on being the only person whose boat was run over and cut in two by a railroad train. His boat was passing through a hoist bridge near Nelsonville, which bridge was at the foot of an inclined track, on which coal was carried from the mine above. The man in charge of the engine, at the top, failed to look and make sure that the track was clear, with the result that the loaded coal cars tore down the incline and crashed into the boat. All hands jumped in time, but the boat was cut in two parts and two mules killed." HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY - 99 Another man told of a boat that was being turned around in a basin below Lucasville, which basin adjoined the track of the Scioto Valley Railroad; the water was low and the boat stuck in the mud, with the bow very close to the track. The horses could not pull it off the mud bank, so one of the crew ran down the track to stop any train that might be coming along, and none too soon. When the train was brought to a standstill and the engineer asked the reason, one can imagine his surprise when the answer came, " There's a canal boat on the track." The train moved slowly to the boat, and it was only by fastening the tow line to the locomotive that they were able to pull the boat around and off the mud. ODD ACCIDENTS " One captain told me that his boat was once sunk with a load full of wheat by running into a child's playhouse. The water had been out of the canal for some time and some children living near had built a playhouse in the dry bed of it out of big rocks. It so happened that his boat was the first to pass after the water had been let into the canal. Although the pile of rocks was the cause of the accident, yet was it, at the same time, the boat's salvation, for it kept the boat from going to the bottom. As there was an empty boat at hand and the deck of the loaded boat was still above water, the hatches were removed and the wheat shoveled out with very little loss." Capt. Billy McGuire's canal boat loaded with corn, both below and above deck, was on her way from this neighborhood down the Ohio River when a windstorm blew her against a barge, making a hole in her side, spilling all the corn off the deck and drowning the cook. The crew escaped to shore, and the boat was carried down stream with only the top of the deck in sight. The two horses inside pushed up the stable hatch above them and when the boat was picked up twenty-five miles down the river they were still alive and uninjured ; their heads were then about the only things in sight, the rest of the boat being under water. Some time before the war a man named Dray collected live chickens in canal towns in Southern Ohio and sold them at various places on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, going in his canal boat even as far as New Orleans. On one trip Dray swapped his wife for an old white horse and on the next voyage this man wanted to trade the lady back again, but Dray refused. The man became very angry and left, saying that Dray Could keep them both. On a later trip, when his boat was tied up near Jasper Basin, some one pulled off a board, and the chickens, some 2,000 in number,