USA > Ohio > Butler County > A history and biographical cyclopaedia of Butler County, Ohio, with illustrations and sketches of its representative men and pioneers. Vol. 1 > Part 36
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" The stone-work on this division, which has hereto -. fore, on the Miami Canal, cost much more than it was originally estimated to cost, has been let at rates about equal to the first estimate ; and the earth-work at as low rates as on any other part of the canals. But through- out the line of the Miami Canal it has been found that the quantities of most of the different items of work
upon which the first estimate was founded fall short of the actual quantity, and that its actual cost must neces- sarily exceed its estimated cost. The plans for crossing the different streams now adopted are, in many cases, more costly, but probably more substantial than those upon which the original estimates were made. In several instances heavy arches of masonry have been adopted, where wooden aqueducts or dams were the plans upon which the first estimates were founded. The item of locks is, however, the great cause of the difference be- tween the actual and estimated cost of this canal, com- pared with that of the Ohio Canal, north of the Licking Summit. The principal saving on that part of the Ohio Canal, now under contract, will be in the cost of the locks. A very large proportion of the lockage is em- braced in that line, and from the great facility of procur- ing stone of the easiest quality to work the locks from the summit to Kaldersburg, will be constructed at an average of $1,500 each less than the first estimate of their cost, and those from the latter point to Lake Erie upon terms but little less favorable; while on the Miami Canal the locks, instead of being the chief item of saving, have necessarily cost a sum considerably above the original estimate. The heavy bluffs and embankments encoun- tered on the line have also contributed to swell the actual over the estimated cost of it.
"The payments made on the entire line, within the year ending on the first of December, amount to $258,- 525.79. which, with the sum of 8297,296.98 previously paid, makes the total payments to contractors on this canal, $555,822.77. There has been paid on the line from Cincinnati to the Miami feeder the sum of 8456,- 854.52, and there remains yet to be paid the sum of $1,115.16, making $10,403.40 its average cost per mile. This sum includes what has been paid in raising banks, in strengthening, securing, and repairing the canal, and in building lock-houses, up to the first of December. There has been paid on account of the dam and feeder to the contractor, 810,614; and to the superintendent, since the work has been taken into the hands of the State, $600-in all, $11,214. The original estimate of the cost of this division of the canal, commencing at the Ohio River, and including the dam and feeder, was $474,254. The actual cost of the same, beginning at the head of Main Street, in Cincinnati, including the payments on account of the dam and feeder, is 8469,183.68. The estimated cost of the upper division of this canal under the contraets is $234,686.54. The work performed agree- ably to the certificates of the engineers amounts to 896,040.41, leaving work to be performed to the amount of $138,646. 13. To this should be added the probable sum of $3,000, which will be required to complete the dam across the Miami River. Awards have been made by the board of appraisers in favor of individuals for dam- ages sustained by the construction of the canal to the amount of $5,011.54, which have been paid to the
THE MIAMI CANAL.
149
amount of $4,521.87. The sums awarded have been mostly for stone and timber used in the construction of the eanal. There are several claims for the value of land occupied and for injuries alleged to have been sustained by the separation of the different parts of a farm, which have not yet been decided upon by the appraisers. A schedule of the awards which have been made is here- with submitted, marked A.
A .- SCHEDULE OF AWARDS FOR DAMAGES
ON THE MIAMI CANAL, MADE BY THE BOARD OF APPRAISERS, UNDER DATES JULY 4TH, OCTOBER 22D. NOVEMBER 24TH. 1828.
IN WHOSE FAVOR.
ON WHAT ACCOUNT.
D. C.
D. C.
Moses Vail.
The destruction of a grist mill and inill she on thel Miami River.
1,000 00
Jolin Allen.
Damage done bis mill on the Miami River bycutting
-
off the communication be -!
tween said mill and the
surrounding countis, and
the consequent deteriora-
tion in the value of the!
mill and other improve- ments
300 00
Ira White
Timber taken for use of canal
15 50
Oliver Martin.
Stoue
66
$ 37
Alexander Pinders.
60
44
:
59 75
Solomon MeCall
60
.6
36 00;
John Hillebrand
5 10
John Adams
Injary done a lot of land
150 00
Jacob Madeira ..
150 00:
Heirs of Joseph Ross ...
16 their farmi ..
100 00)
Umeinnati Water Com- Cutting and removing water pipes
125 00
pany .
October 224.
Injury to a crop of corn
12 50
Hannah Kenies ..
to a lot of land
60 00
Frederick Cristhian
40 00
Heirs of Daniel Horn ...
130 00'
Christian Kohr.
66
60 00
Nath. Woodward
..
to a crop of oats.
6 0
Ethan Stone.
Stone taken from his land ... Timber i. ..
57 75
Isaac Vanrest
24 00
Andrew Briningcr ...
25 38
Heirs of Sam't Rhoads.
39 47.
Christian Hawn ...
61
11 76
John Taylor ..
Timber taken from his land ..
Trustees of Section 16,
T. 4, R 8, M. B. S.
1 00
Andrew Emert.
4 CO
513 78
Norember 24th.
Jno. Stongbienborough Timber taken from his land ..
10 12
Abner Vannext
20 40
30 52
Total
5,508 71
With the report of next year we conclude our series of extraets :
"The injury which this canal sustained in conse- quenec of the floods of the last Winter was not so great as, from its exposed position, was expected. The cost of repairing the several breaches which oeeurred on that part of the line below the Miami feeder did not exceed the sum of two thousand dollars. The effects of the Winter on the line, in the lower part of the valley of Mill Creek, were of a nature calculated to cause serious difficulty, and to require a very considerable expenditure to prepare that portion of the cual the navigation. The late in the season. The entire canal from Cincinnati to settling of the heavy embaul. ments, and the sliding of | Dayton, with a freder from the Miami River a short the earth lying in its natural condition from under the ! banks of the canal on the lower side, and into it from !
the upper side, were evils of much magnitude, which were increased by the peenliarly wet Winter and Spring. The breaches caused by the flood were repaired, and the effects of the Winter upon the lower part of the line so far overcome as to permit of the passage of boats throughout the line from Middletown to Cincinnati, on the 17th of March. Navigation on this division of the canal has been continued throughout the season with fre- quent interruptions, arising out of the peculiar character of the lower part of the line, and the unpropitious nature of the forepart of the season for the safety of a new canal, construeted upon elay side hills and artificial banks. A very salutary change has been produced in the ap- pearance and character of this line since the termination of the Spring rains. The base of the embankments gen- erally bad been extended with a view to their greater security, the inner slopes and bottom of the caual, where it was deemed necessary, have been puddled, and the banks have now become much more solid and compact, and the evils arising from the slips are evidently lessen- ing so far as to give assurances of less difficulty hereafter. But it will require time, with the exercise of much vigi- lance, to render this part of the canal entirely free from the evils incident to its peculiar character.
"The measures which had been takeu at the date of the last annual report of the board to secure the dam across the Miami River from further injury proved effect- ual. It sustained little or no further damage through the Winter and Spring, and on the arrival of the proper season the breach through which the river had flowed for more than six months was elosed in a very substan- tial manner. The sum expended in securing and re- building the dam, added to that which had been pre- viously paid to the contractor, still keeps the cost of the dam and feeder within the sum which would have been payable had it been completed under the contraer without the occurrence of the breach.
"The causes, in part, which delayed the progress of the work on the Ohio Cana' have operated in their full force to retard the progress of the work on the upper division of the Miami Canal. It was confidently be- lieved that this line could all have been completed in the month of July; its full completion was, however, de- layed until the month of November, notwithstanding every reasonable exertion was made by the contractors to finish their work at an earlier period. The transpor- tation of stone for the locks and aqueducts, the quarries for which were situated seven miles from the line, was necessarily delayed until the middle and latter part of the Summer, in consequence of the impas-ability of the roads during the Winter and carly part of the season. This unavoidably delayed the completion of these works until
distance above Michlletown, and one from Mad River near Dayton, is now completed with the exception of the dam
-
66
2 62
Joseph Moore ..
Moses McCall
..
39 62
Cphmsim Brown
66
16-87
1 959 41
Saninel Hughes
4
10 (1)
Alex. Cummins ....
21 42
John: Coon ..
Timber and stone " 16
2 50;
Stephen Hall ....
JJuly 4.1.
150
HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY.
over Mad River, which was injured by the floods of ! January last. The water of this river continued so high up to the month of July as to induce the postponement of the rebuilding of the dam until another season. The feeder has been extended a short distance further up the stream, which, with the aid of a temporary brush and stone dam, gives an ample supply of water for the present.
"The filling of the new line with water has proved to be a tedious operation. That part of it nearest to Day- ton, being first finished, the water was introduced into it as early as the 27th of September, and with an intermis- sion of ten days made necessary by the unfinished state of a job, and another of twelve days, in consequence of a breach in an embankment, there has been a continued flow from Mad River in the canal of from six thousand to ten thousand cubic feet of water per minute up to the present time. Such has been the absorption of the water by the gravelly plains through which the canal is con- structed, that with the utmost exertions on the part of the superintendent the water of Mad River has but just reached the head of the lower division of the canal. This portion of the line being filled with water, a change in the temperature of the weather is all that is now required to open navigation from Cincinnati to Dayton. "" With the exception of about seven miles of the line near Cincinnati this canal is believed to be a very safe and permanent work, which will require for its annual repairs an expenditure comparatively small. It embraces twenty-two locks, overcoming one hundred and eighty- eight feet of lockage. These are built in a permanent manner, most of them in a character of workmanship that will bear a comparison with other works of the kind in the United States. The aqueduets on the lower division are constructed with wooden trunks, those in the upper division, with one exception, upon stone arches with embaakments of earth over the arches. That over Clear Creek, supported by three arches of forty feet chord, is built in a style of workmanship which, for strength and beauty, is not surpassed by any work of the kind. It reflects much credit upon the skill and fidelity of the contractor. A side cut to connect the canal with the town of Hamilton has been lail out and constructed under the authority of the boardl within the past season, the length of which is fifty-three chains and sixty-two links. The cost of this ent is between six and seven thousand dollars, two thousand of which have been paid by the State, and the remaining sum by the citizens of Hamilton and Rossville.
LENGTH OF THE MIAMI CANAL.
Miles. Chos. Loks.
The length of the Miami Canal as now constructed,
from an accurate survey of it made since its completion, is .
Ei 20 34
Miles Chat. Ink ..
Length of Huilton side cut,
66 Miami feeder, .
Mad River feeder, say 1 40 -
Total length of capal side cut and feeders, . 67 75 96 2 55 62
SCHEDULE OF FURTHER AWARDS
SUSTAINED BY INDIVIDUALS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE MIAMI CANAL MADE BY THE BOARD OF APPRAISERS ON THE MOTH AND ISTH DAYS OF DECEMBER, 1829.
IN WHOSE FAVOR.
ON WHAT ACCOUNT.
D. C.
Egbert T. Smith, .
For injuries to his farm, 200 00 dwelling-house. garden, water pipes. etc.,. .
Heirs Daniel C. Cooper, Timber taken from their land 52 50.
Henry Bacon,
= his land. 25 50'
Daniel Doty,
30 00
Nathaniel Woodward ..
Injury to his land, 40 00'
40 00
Total, 388 00,
The canal has continued to be in use ever since, and has been of immense value to the people of this section. Its usefulness, however, has been much lessened by the railroad, and those who are best informed on the subject look forward to the day as not far distant when the tolls will not pay the expense of keeping it in order, and it consequently will be abandoned. The dimensions of the . channel are twenty-six feet at the bottom and forty feet at the top. In depth it varies in different sections from four feet to five feet. The locks are eighty feet long, and fourteen feet inside chamber. The maximum size of canal-boats is eighty tons.
The Hamilton side -cut has been abandoned and filled up.
WARREN COUNTY CANAL
The Warren County Canal Company was organized February 22, 1830, and led from Middletown to Leba- non, a distance including the feeder, of twenty miles. There were six locks upon it,-four at or near Lebanon, with an aggregate lift of twenty-eight feet, locking up into the western part of the town; two locks were lo- cated at Middletown, each with a fall of eight feet, lock- ing down into the Miami and Eric Canal. At Lebanon was a dam on Turtle Creek about one hundred feet long, and also a reservoir of forty-five acres, the water from which, together with water urnished by the pool of the dam, supplied lockage water to the canal. To supply the canal from Middletown to the locks at Lebanon, two thousand cubic feet of water per minute was brought from Mad River by the Miami and Erie Canal, then known as the Miani Canal, and introduced into the Warren County Canal feeder above the second lock, north of Whddletown. This canal was commenced by a. company, and estimated in 1833 to cost 8123,861. By an act of the General Assembly dated February 20. 1836, the canal was made an appendage and part of the Miami Canal, and placed in charge of the canal con- missioners. The canal cost, when finished, the sum of two hundred and seventeen thonsind, five hundred and iffy-two dollars and sixteen cents. . The reservoir, sin- ated in the north-west part of Lebanon, when full of water, is very much elevated above the old dam site. and the water, when drawn therefrom for lockage par-
---------------
Christian Kohr,.
(0)
151
LEADERS OF THE HALF CENTURY.
poses, was used to propel machinery in its descent to the canal The canal was suffered to go into disuse, and in 1855 was sold and abandoned. At the time the com- pany turned over the canal to the State they had ex- pended $21,742.33.
The channel may still be traced above Middletown, and in some places in Lemon Township to the east.
LEADERS OF THE HALF CENTURY.
WE have found it expedient under this head to group together a list of names of those who, in the earlier half of the century, were the leaders of public opinion in this remote Western country. It only includes a few persons, and others as eminent are to be found outside of this roll. All are now dead. The list begins with the ven- erable president of Miami University,
ROBERT H. BISHOP.
Robert Hamilton Bishop, D. D., first president of Miami University, was the son of William and Margaret Bishop. He was born in the parish of Whitburn, Lin- lithgowshire, North Britain, on the 26th of July, 1777. Having early evinced a fondness for books, as well as a mind of more than ordinary vigor, he entered on a course of classical study, and in November, 1794, became a member of the University of Edinburgh. After com- pleting his course at the university, he entered the Di- vinity Hall at Selkirk, under the Rev. George Lawson, in August, 1798. Here he passed through the prescribed course of theological study, and on the 28th of June, 1802, was licensed to preach the Gospel by the Associate Burgher Presbytery of Perth.
In the Spring and Summer of 1801. the Rev. (after- wards Dr.) John M. Mason, of the city of New York, visited the Burgher Synod of Scotland, as the commis- sioner from the Associate Reformed Synod of North America, partly with a view to obtain a supply of preachers for the American Synod. Mr. Bishop, being at that time a student under Professor Lawson, was cas- nally introduced to Dr. Mason, and the brief interview which he had with him led, some two months after, to a partial engagement to aecompany Dr. Mason to Amer- ica, provided the synod, at whose disposal he was, should so dircet.
The synod met in April, 1802; and, under their spe- cial order, he was licensed to preach, with a view to his engaging in the contemplated mission. In September following, he, with five other ordained ministers, em- barked with Dr. Mason at Greenock, and arrived at News York before the elose of October. Having attended a meeting of the Associate Reformed Synod, which took place shortly after his arrival, he set ont with two other
clergymen for Kentucky; but, being lett to supply two new congregations in Adams County, Ohio, for tivo months, he did not arrive there until March, 1803. He had been appointed to labor in Kentucky by the casting vote of the moderator of the synod -- what was then called the Second Congregation of New York having made application for his services. Five years afterwards the same congregation sent him a pressing invitation to return to them, which, however, he did not accept.
In the Summer of 1803 he had three calls presented to him in due form ; but that which he finally accepted was from Ebcuczer, in Jessamine County, which was connected with New Providence, in Mercer County. The two congregations united contained about thirty families spread over a traet of country at least fifteen miles square ; and, as the Kentucky River and the Kentucky cliffs in- tervened between the two places of worship, the two Churches were not expected to worship together much oftener than twice in a year. About the same time a professorship in Transylvania University was offered him, and, accepting it, he combined the duties of that office with those of his charge.
- Having accepted the call from the above-mentioned Churches in the Autumn of 1804. subjects were given him for his trial discourses to be delivered in the Spring : but at the Spring meeting he was informed that he could not be admitted to trial for ordination till he should dissolve his connection with the Transylvania University. The reasons assigned for this were that the presbytery had the exclusive disposal of his time, and that bis du- ties in conucetion with the university were of such a na. ture as to interfere greatly with his usefulness to the Associate Reformed Church. This brought him into unpleasant relations with the presbytery; and ultimately he was regularly prosecuted upon a charge of disobedi- ence, the result of which was that he received a presby- terial rebuke, by which the matter was considered 25 judicially settled. The ease, however, being subsequently referred to the synod. it was decided that the resignation of his place in the university should not be an indis- pensable condition of his ordination, and that the Pres- bytery of Kentucky should proceed to ordain him as soon as circumstances would permit. This decision was given in June, 1807; but, owing to certain circumstances, his ordination did not take place till June, 1808. Thus, for nearly four years he was virtually under ceclesiastical process ; and, although only a probationer, bad yet the charge of two congregations, to which Le preached alter- nately every Sabbath-the one fifteen miles, the other twenty-seven miles distant from his residence.
For some time after his ordination. Mir. Bishop seems to have exercised bis ministry with a good degree of comfort and srece ... In the year 1810 the presbytery appointed aim, in connection with the Rev. Adam Ban- kin, of polemic notoriety, to prepare an ad ress to the Churches, in the form of a pastoral letter, designed to
152
HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY.
illustrate the obligation of sustaining Christian institu- tions, and especially the ministry of the Gospel. The document was written by Mr. Bishop, assented to by Mr. Raukin, and passed without opposition by the pres- bytery, though it gave great offense in certain quarters, and especially in Mr. Bishop's own congregation. The presbytery, with a view to prevent erroneous impres- sions and to avert threatening evil, directed their clerk to address au official letter to the Ebenezer congregation, distinctly stating that the offensive circular was to be considered the act of the presbytery, and not of an indi- vidual. This letter Mr. Bishop caused to be printed, with some explanatory remarks of his own, in the close of which he made an allusion to the conduct of Mr. Rankin, which he afterward pronounced " imprudent and unnecessary," and which occasioned him great embar- rassment in his ecclesiastical relations. His original eon- nection with the pastoral letter led to the dissolution of his relation to the Ebenezer congregation in October, 1814.
In the Autumn of 1811 Mr. Bishop entered into an arrangement with two or three other clergymen for con- ducting a monthly religious publication, to be called the Evangelical Record and Western Review. This was the first thing of the kind ever attempted in Kentucky, and the second west of the mountains. The work, however, owing chiefly to a deficiency in the subscriptions, was discontinued at the close of the second year.
In the second volume of this work Mr. Bishop pub- lished, as part of the history of religion in the State of Kentucky, an article entitled "The Origin of the Rau- kinites," which gave great offense in various circles, and which he himself subsequently regarded as extremely ill- judged and unfortunate. After considerable private and extra-judicial conference on the subject, a regular judicial inquiry was entered into by his presbytery, and iu Oe- tober, 1815, he was- brought to trial on a charge of slan- der; the result of which was, he was regularly suspended from the ministry. An appeal to the General Synod from the sentence was immediately taken. The synod met in Philadelphia in May. 1816, and, on an examination of the case presented by documents, they decided that Mr. Bishop should be publicly rebuked by the presbytery for the offensive publications ; that the presbytery should use means to bring the parties immediately concerned into harmonious relations with each other; and that. if this could not be effected, there should be a regular trial in- stituted, and that the presbytery should make one of the parties prosecutor and the other the defendant; and that, in the meantime, the sentence of suspension passed by the presbytery should be reversed. Nothing, however, was satisfactorily accomplished under this decision, and the case came again before the synod in 1817. At this meeting a committee was appointed to proceed to Ken- tueky to take whatever depositions might be considered necessary ; but that committee, after some correspond- ence with the parties and others concerned, coucladed not :
to fulfill their appointment. A synodical commission was, therefore, appointed in 1818. to go to Kentucky and adjudicate the case, subject to the review of the next synod. This commission, consisting of John M. Mason, Ebenezer Dickey, and John Linn, ministers, and Silas E. Weir, an eller from Philadelphia, proceeded to Lexing- ton in September following, and in.the execution of their trust made Bishop the prosecutor and Rankin the de- fendant. The latter claimed his legal teu days to pre- pare for his defense; but when the time had expired, he declined the jurisdiction of the court. The trial, how- ever, went on in his absence, and the decision was, "that the prosecutor should be publicly rebuked for the publi- cations he had issued, and that the defendant, being cou- victed of lying and -lander, be, as he hereby is, suspended from the Gospel ministry." It is honorable to Mr. Bishop, considering the relations into which he was brought by Rankin, that he has left the following testimony con- cerning him : " Mr. Rankin, with all his bitterness on particular subjects and on particular occasions, was also, in all other matters and on all occasions, a kind-hearted, benevolent man."
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