Canal contributed to growth in the area
Neal Brady, executive director of the Miami and Erie Canal Association, explained the historical importance of the Miami-Erie canal at Mill Park in St. Marys as part of a tour series hosted by OSU Extension Agriculture and Natural Resources educator Jamie Hampton.
Brady said it was in 1825 that the state realized a need for transportation and shipping and developed two canal systems. One route was from Cleveland to Portsmouth, known as the Ohio-Erie Canal, and the Miami-Erie Canal was from Cincinnati to Dayton. He explained how land was seized and compensated for during the building of the canal.
“If a land owner failed to object when land was taken, no deed was prepared,” Brady said. “It became state of Ohio property.”
He said this occurred when the state capital was in Chillicothe. There was still a great deal of wilderness in the area as detailed by settlers.
Brady said Liwwät Böke came to the Fort Loramie and Minster area in 1837. The canal had been completed to Piqua. She wrote in her diary that when she walked to Minster from Maria Stein she would walk 7 to 9 miles and “never see the light of day,” due to thick tree cover. Brady explained that Böke also wrote about watching for wolves and bears on that route.
Brady said the canal had a tremendous impact on the lumber industry and local deforestation as it came to the area only a few years later, clearing a great deal of forest.
“They were cutting trees, rutting out the stumps and moving dirt,” Brady said. “It took a tremendous amount of manpower.”
The canal brought people in for settlement and economic development. Barrels were used for storage. Meat was often processed near canals and mills were developed powered by canal water.
Canals brought storage areas for mules and supplies, saw and flour mills as part of that development. Canals provided a means of economic mobility.
Brady said a barrel of flour, which sold for $3.50 in Cincinnati would sell for $8 in New York. Brady said a bushel of corn would sell for 10 cents locally but would fetch $1 a bushel in New York.
Brady compared the canal to today’s interstate used by truckers. It could take 15 to 20 minutes to cycle through a lock causing long delays in cities with locks.
Among the items shipped on the canal were coffee, cloth, tea, rum, gypsum from the south port; butter, corn and several other items were sold in the eastern markets.
While routes were frozen in the winter, among the first items shipped in the spring was ice. Brady said the KC Geiger Park was at one time used for ice ponds.
“The breweries needed ice,” Brady said.
Ice, along with butter, was shipped along the Miami Erie canal.
Brady showed how the canal shaped downtown architecture with many buildings being able to serve as loading docks for canal boats.
Other tours are scheduled, including on July 27 at Elizabeth Kuffner Nature Preserve to discuss tree identification, on Aug. 17 at K.C. Geiger Park to discuss wetlands for water quality and on Sept. 21 at the Lockkeeper’s House in New Bremen to discuss agricultural marketing on the canal.