Past and present of the city of Zanesville and Muskingham County, Ohio, Part 10

Author: Sutor, J. Hope, 1846-
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Chicago : S.J. Clarke Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 898

USA > Ohio > Muskingum County > Zanesville > Past and present of the city of Zanesville and Muskingham County, Ohio > Part 10

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY.

75 tons. The cabin was built on the deck, and the bunks were narrow beds, fastened to the sides and concealed by curtains, after the fashion of canal boats and now familiar in sleeping cars ; the freight was carried in the hold.

Friday, January 9, 1824, an animated crowd assembled on the banks of the Muskingum, in Marietta, to witness the departure of about twenty-five guests who were to accompany the initial trip of a steamer on the beautiful river. The approach to Zanesville was announced by booming cannon from the boat and immense crowds were attracted to the river banks on each side, and when the lights of the steamer came into view, about 10 p. m., Saturday, January 10. the expectant crowds scarcely knew what to an- ticipate. The boat tied up on the Putnam side below the Third street bridge and the doors of both towns were opened wide in hospitality to the visitors.

Sunday the visitors attended church and the residents of the towns visited the curiosity ; Mon- day, two trips were made to Duncan's Falls to carry Zanesville people and every one went who could be accommodated ; tradition says the can- non was so frequently and loudly fired that nearly every pane of glass on the river front was broken. Monday evening an entertainment was tendered the captain at Hughes' hotel, in Zanesville, and Judge Buckingham, unwilling that Putnam should suffer by comparison, gave a large and elegant reception at his residence. At the Zanes- ville soiree toasts were drunk and speeches made, and the press said the evening was spent "in hi- larity and good feeling."

Tuesday, the towns turned out en masse to see the vessel start on the return trip, which was begun at 10:30 a. m .; the day was fine and as the cannon boomed a farewell and the flags were thrown to the breeze, cheer after cheer was given until the boat was lost to sight around the bend; the current was rapid and the vessel seemed to fly and the return trip was made in eight hours.

FIRST COAL BARGE ON THE OHIO RIVER.

Timothy Gaylord and Jacob Adams built the first flat boat at the boat yard, in Putnam, and in the fall of 1816 it was launched and taken to "Dead Man's Riffle," at Taylorsville, where it was loaded with coal dug from the bed of the river and in February, 1817, floated to Cincinnati and sold for twenty-five cents per bushel; it is said to have been the first shipment of coal to the city and certainly the first shipment by river.

MUSKINGUM RIVER IMPROVEMENT.

The citizens of Muskingum county have an tinusual interest in water transportation, as the

media within its boundaries are both natural and artificial. Before the days of railroads com- munication with interior points was difficult and expensive, and the handicap to progress, which was laid upon inland settlements three quarters of a century ago can be only imperfectly understood. This lack of commercial intercourse with even neighboring communities attracted the attention of the General Assembly and the subject of build- ing a canal system was presented at the first session held at Columbus, commencing December 2, 1816, by a special message from Governor Worthington, accompanying a communication from Governor DeWitt Clinton, of New York, setting forth the advantages of interior water lines of transportation. In 1820 three Commis- sioners were named to locate a route for a canal between Lake Erie and the Ohio river, with the provision that if possible the Capital city should be on the line. At the session commencing De- cember 2, 1822, the Commissioners reported upon the practicability of a canal system, and January 27, 1823, an act was passed authorizing the Com- missioners to make application for grants and donations in aid of the canal, and at the session commencing December 6, 1824, estimates were presented for

The Muskingum-Scioto route, by way of Kill- buck and Black rivers, including Cleveland, Co- lumbus and Raccoon feeders, with an ascending lockage from the mouth of the Scioto to summit level of 580.36 feet, and descending lockage to Lake Erie of 488.97 feet ; an aggregate length of 339 miles and costing $3,061,368.47.

Route by way of Killbuck. Chippewa and Cuyahoga rivers, including feeders and additional lines ; ascending lockage from the Scioto 638.42 feet, descending to Lake Erie, 547.03 feet ; aggre- gate length 338.57 miles and cost $3,131.429.02.

Route by way of Tuscarawas and Cuyahoga rivers, with the same lockage a length of 322.13 miles and cost of $2,801.709.85.

These routes were combined and modified, by which the cost of the work was materially re- duced and the facilities increased.

The Miami-Maumee route; ascending lockage from the Ohio river, at Cincinnati to Loramies, 511.4 feet, and descending to the foot of the Mau- mee rapids, 378 feet ; total length 200.62 miles and cost, including feeders, $2,929.957.00.

February 4, 1825. the General Assembly passed an act "to provide for the internal improvement of the state of Ohio by navigable canals," and the Commissioners were authorized to make a navi- gable canal on the Muskingum-Scioto route, so- called, by way of Licking Summit and the Mus- kingum river, and on July 4, 1825. the ceremony of breaking ground was observed at Licking Sunt- mit, to which reference is made in the history of the Zanesville Artillery.

PAST

AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY.

Work was begun at once under the general direction and supervision of Hon. Alfred Kelley, a member of the Commission, and progressed under many difficulties, but was completed within the specified time and within the limits of the original estimates. The total cost was $14,340,- 572.59 in excess of the donations of land, right of way and money from individuals and corpor- ations. Congress donated land by grant of March 2, 1827, 292,223.51 acres, and May 24, 1828, 938,298.44 acres, an aggregate of 1,230.521.95 acres. Seventy-five miles of the original canal system have been abandoned but there remains in charge of the Board of Public Works 582 miles of navigable canals and 30,000 acres of reservoirs, besides the feeders; the St. Mary's reservoir covers 17,603 acres.

May 8, 1861, the General Assembly passed an act to lease the public works of the state for a term of ten years, and June 2 a contract was signed and they were transferred to Kent Jarvis, Wm. J. Jackson, Thomas Brown, Arnold Med- bery and Thomas Moore at an annual rental of $20,075.00, and April 6, 1867, the lease was ex- tended, by act of the General Assembly, to June 1, 1881, but June 23, 1877, the lessees notified the Board of Public Works that they would surrender their contract December 1. No attention was paid to the notice and on the designated date the "general agent of the lessees" formally surren- dered and abandoned the works; the board de- clined to accept the vacation and after conference it was agreed, December 8, to have receivers ap- pointed to take charge of and manage the public works until the questions at issue could be de- cided, and December II receivers were appointed and remained in possession until Mav 15, 1878. On May 11, 1878, the General Assembly resolved that the Board of Public Works be authorized and required to take immediate possession of the public works but it was specifically declared that the passage of the resolution should not be con- strued to mean that the lessees were released from any damage claimed by the state for non-per- formance of contract, nor as admitting their right to abandon the lease, and on the 15th the board took possession.

THE MUSKINGUM RIVER

is not naturally a navigable stream, except at ir- regular periods during the year, and the oppor- tunities to use it for commercial purposes were limited to its navigable stages. It was custom- ary to prepare for these periods and float out the products, but as these conditions produced a glut in the markets visited a method of securing a navigable stage of water at all times became very desirable. Therefore, when the system of canals for the state was adopted the residents of the

Muskingum valley naturally reasoned that they had a canal but no locks, and that some of the internal improvements should be placed upon the Muskingum; they were successful in their repre- sentations and until the introduction of the rail- roads the improvement of the Muskingum proved to be all its advocates had claimed for it. The slogan now echoed along the Ohio, "On to Cairo," and the vigorous efforts to secure the opening of the ship canal to Cleveland from Zanesville, are renascences of the sentiments which prevailed in the Muskingum valley before its waters were hus- banded by dams.

January 17, 1827, the General Assembly author- ized a survey of the Muskingum river and the Commissioners ascertained the best plan and prob- able cost of improving the stream; it was found that eleven dams were necessary to maintain a minimum depth of four feet of slack water from Zanesville to Marietta, and between Zanesville and Dresden one dam and lock and a branch canal two and one-half miles in length from the river to the main canal, and that the descent of twenty- eight feet in this short distance would require three boat locks.

June, 1834, the dam at Symmes' creek was con- tracted to be completed by November 1, 1835, but the dam and canal constructed by the Zanesville Canal and Manufacturing Company were not adapted to the proposed improvement, and the company was unable to modify them or continue the work. February 19, 1835, the General As- sembly authorized the Canal Commissioners to take possession of the property of the Z. C. & M. Co. for the uses of the state and May 1, 1835, the Commissioners met at Zanesville and were confronted with the actual condition of affairs ; doubts existed as to the legal status of the com- pany and it was questioned whether it could make a valid contract, and the commission decided that a purchase could not be safely made by the state. May 5 appraisers awarded damages and the Com-

missioners took possession of so much as was suf- ficient to complete the locks and dam to connect the navigation of the Muskingum below Zanes- ville with the canal at Dresden. The appraisers placed values on the improvements made by the company and a strip of ground from the upper end of the race to a point 113 feet below Main street in an aggregate sum of $41,680.15, of which $9,868.07 was due individuals and $31,812.08 due the company ; and in consequence of the enlarge- ment and extension of the canal from the lower or Third street bridge to Slago Run, the additional award of damages was made, October 29, 1838, of $11,754.00, of which $2,807.87 was due indi- viduals.

March 9, 1836, the General Assembly author- ized the improvement of the Muskingum river by dams and locks, and when the information reached

PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY.

the valley there was general rejoicing; at Zanes- ville the citizens were elated, houses were illumin- ated throughout the town and on Main street everywindow contained a candle, in many of them there being a candle at every pane, and the panes were small in those days; evidences of gratifica- toin were exhibited on every hand, crowds thronged the streets, various ceremonies were ob- served and sixteen yoke of oxen, hauling a couple of sleds, loaded with people, with drums and vio- lins, came from Oxbury or West Zanesville.

In June, 1836, the state corps of engineers, of nine men, assembled at Zanesville to begin the survey ; a flat boat was fitted for office, sleeping and dining rooms and kitchen; there were no stoves in those days and a chimney was built in the stern of the boat of hugh dimension and weight as to materially increase the draft of the craft. June 20, the survey began, the starting point for the levels being the lower sill of the Symmes' creek lock; as the survey progressed the boat floated down stream and landed where hailed by the men ashore, an arrangement which relieved them of the labor of traveling to meals. Marietta was reached about August I and the corps was entertained by the people several days; they re- turned to McConnelsville, where the grand jury room, in the old court house, had been tendered as an office, and where the computations of the es- timates were made, and the location of the dams fixed.

October 18, 1836, contracts were left and the work of improvement was commenced by felling and preparing timber, and quarrying stone ; local contractors were ignorant of such work and bid too high and the entire contract went to profes- sional contractors, as follows: George W. Many- penny, dam at Zanesville; Josiah Spaulding, lock at Zanesville; Hosmer, Chapin and Sharp, dams at Taylorsville, McConnelsville and Marietta and the locks at McConnelsville and Marietta ; Lyon, Buck and Wolf, the dams at Luke Chute and Lowell and the locks at Taylorsville and Lowell ; Arthur Taggart, the dams at Eagleport, Stock- port and Devol and the locks at Eagleport, Stock- port, Beverly and Devoi; John McCune, the canal and dam at Beverly. Early in 1837 John Sherman began his eventful life in the public service by en- gaging as a rodman on the Muskingum improve- ment. Locks were constructed at Dresden, Symmes' Creek, Zanesville, Duncan's Falls, Ea- gleport, McConnelsville, Stockport, Luke Chute, Beverly, Lowell, Devol and Marietta, with a dam at each except Dresden, the aggregate cost of the twelve locks and eleven dams being $1,627,018.20.

Before the improvement was completed the con- struction of steamboats for traffic on the river was begun at Zanesville, and before the river was open for navigation below, boats were plying the upper levels, the canal boats for Cleveland being towed

by the smaller craft. The first steamer built at Zanesville was a flat bottomed, stern wheeler, de- signed and constructed by Richard Reeve, and named the HOPE; the engine was built at the Richmond and Bostwick foundry, by a machinist from Pittsburg, and the first steamer to cut the waters of the upper level was so diminutive as to be scarcely larger than some of the pleasure launches now plying in the same portion of the stream.

The dam at Zanesville was completed during the fall of 1839, and traffic was opened September 15 to Dresden, and boats were loaded at Zanesville for Cleveland. All the dams were finished in 1840, in which year the Zanesville dam was very much injured by high water; the entire improve- ment was completed and boats passed from Mari- etta to the pool above Zanesville in the early fall of 1841, tolls being collected from October 1, 1841, but the Symmes' Creek dam did not permit the passage of the larger sized boats.

In 1860 the Muskingum river sustained a flood about three feet higher than was ever known be- fore; the east end of the dam was injured for a distance of 180 feet, and was rebuilt; the west end was threatened but saved by the exertions of citizens. The flood caused the construction of a levee along the west bank at a cost of $3,500.00, of which the citizens contributed $1,000.00, the Cen- tral Ohio railroad $500.00 and the state $2,000.00. In 1870 the General Assembly appropriated $3,000.00 and in 1871 another $1,000.00 for a levee along the west bank, and the embankment was raised sixteen feet above the surface of the slack water, March 13, 1884, the General Assem- bly appropriated $25,000.00 for a permanent and substantial levee in West Zanesville.

May 14, 1886, the General Assembly presented the Muskingum improvement to the general gov- ernment, and August 5 Congress accepted the gift, and Lieutenant Lansing H. Beach was detailed to take charge of the property and conduct the ex- tensive repairs which were made to the locks and dams.

DAMS.

The first permanent dam was across the Licking and was erected about 1810 bv Isaac Zane; his father, Jonathan, had ad- vised the project and proposed to give Isaac a half interest, and the son mortgaged thirty acres of land for $2,000.00 to secure funds to conduct the work; when the dam was com- pleted the father came from Wheeling, sold the improvement to Moses Dillon, retained the money and returned to Wheeling, leaving the son over- whelmed in debt. The present dam was built in 1868, by William Beaumont, and in 1903 was par- tially destroyed by high water, and rebuilt in 1904: during a heavy freshet, later in the year, the

PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY.

north bank was washed out and a large area of the surrounding ground was destroyed.

February 21, 1812, during the last session of the legislature held at Zanesville, an act was passed to "enable John McIntire and his associates to build a dam across the Muskingum river at Zanesville," opposite Market street, not to exceed five feet in height, with a slope of thirty feet, and keep the slope in repair for the passage of rafts; a wing dam was required on the east side extend- ing to Fountain alley, and a lock not less than twenty-five feet wide and ninety feet long, for the passage of boats between the levels, the improve- ment to be operated without cost to navigation. Permission was given to cut a canal below the Third street bridge and charge tolls for its use.

January 25, 1814, a meeting of citizens was held at Robert Taylor's residence when a committee was appointed to draft articles of association ; re- port was made to an adjourned meeting on Janu- ary 27, when the Zanesville Canal and Manufac- turing Company was formed under the provisions of the act of February 21, 1812; subscriptions to the stock were made and February 14, 1814, a board of directors was elected and the following day John McIntire was chosen president. June 7 the County Commissioners visited the desig- nated site and determined the most desirable loca- tion for the slope of the dam, and June 9th it was decided that the east side of the slope should begin one-third the length of the dam from the abutment on the east side of the river. The dam was at once erected and work was begun on the canal in 1816, the stockholders of the Zanesville Canal and Man- ufacturing Company being incorporated by act of the General Assembly, February 24, 1816; by 1820 the canal had been extended below Main street.

The present dam was built by the State of Ohio and was completed in the fall of 1839; as origin- ally constructed it was only 350 feet long, and much too short and in 1838 one abutment was un- dermined and partially fell, and in the following year a new channel scoured around it and it was overthrown ; the error was corrected by increasing the length two hundred feet, and when the struc-' ture was completed the contractor furnished an entertainment on the dam to the men who had been emploved on the work, the Board of Public Works and other distinguished gentlemen being present.

NATIONAL ROAD.

While enjoying such public utilities as the rail- road, the telegraph and the telephone, which have served to eliminate both time and space in our daily affairs, little or no consideration is given to the condition of our predecessors who lacked even the convenience of a wagon road of practicable

grades and surface. With hundreds of miles of . mountain and forest separating them from their only source of supplies, the "National," "United States," or "Cumberland" road, by each of which names it was called, became not only a pos- itive necessity to the early settlers but was one of the most powerful influences in the upbuilding of the west and in holding the territory to the newly formed Federal government. Such early records as private letters, mercantile entries and published reminescences of travelers and settlers, describe the tedium, delays, expense and privations attend- ing a journey between the older settlements on the Atlantic coast and the newer ones in west, and perhaps the most convincing argument which de- signing men employed to cultivate a sentiment in the west for the creation of an inland empire, independent of the newly established republic on the east, was the lack of means of communication between the sections, and the facility with which intercourse with each other and other nations could be had by way of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and their tributaries.

If the idea of such a national highway did not originate with George Washington, it certainly had in him a staunch supporter and advocate; as early as 1770 he examined the headwaters of the Potomac and the streams flowing into the Ohio, with a view to constructing a canal between them, and in 1784 made a second trip into the western country on the same mission, during which he met Albert Gallatin, later Secretary of the Treasury, and accredited father of the enterprise, and the two went over the ground and soon discovered that a road was more practicable than a canal. Therefore, when Gallatin advocated the road he was familiar with the subject, and was able to convince broad minded statesmen that the propo- sition was not merely a commercial convenience, but a patriotic measure, essential to national unity and existence, and no doubt can now be enter- tained, from the information in our possession, that without it the Alleghany mountains would, probably, have been the western boundary of the United States.

It was stipulated, in the act approved April 30, 1802, empowering the people of Ohio to form a state government, that five per cent. of the net proceeds from the sale of all lands lying within the state and sold by the general government, should be applied to surveying and constructing public roads from the navigable streams emptying into the Atlantic, into and through Ohio, and an act was approved March 3, 1803. designating three of the five per cent. for the construction of roads within Ohio and the remainder for similar purposes east of the river.

December 19, 1805, a Senate committee re- ported that nearly $13,000.00 was available for a road to the Ohio, and suggested five courses for

PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY.

consideration, commencing respectively at Phila- delphia, Baltimore, Washington and Richmond, and varying in length from 218 miles from Balti- more to 314 from Richmond and 317 from Phila- delphia. It was recommended that the road eom- menee at Cumberland, Maryland, and end at a point on the Ohio river, between Steubenville and Wheeling. Action was taken and Mareh 29, 1806, President Jefferson approved an aet empowering him to appoint three commissioners to lay out a road four rods wide, from Cumberland, as reeom- mended ; $30,000.00 was appropriated and the commisioners were directed to report an accurate plan of the survey, which the President was au- thorized to aeeept or reject.

The President acted at onee by appointing Thomas Moore and Eli Williams, of Maryland, and Joseph Kerr, of Ohio, who made report at considerable length, December 30, 1806, and which was submitted to Congress, January 31, 1807, with the information from the President that he had asked consent from the states through which the road would pass, for its construction ; that Maryland and Virginia had given such con- sent, and an early reply was anticipated from Pennsylvania, which was given April 9. 1807, with the provision that the road should pass through Uniontown and Washington.

The old Braddoek road served "as a basis whereon to proceed in the examination of the grounds and the face of the country" and it be- came "necessary to view the whole to be able to judge of a preferenee, due to any part of the grounds, which imposed a task of examining a spaee comprehending upwards of 2,000 square miles ; a task rendered still more ineumbent by the solieitude and importunities of the inhab- itants of every part of the district, who sev- erally coneeived their grounds entitled to a pref- erenee."

Albert Gallatin was owner of large tracts of lands in western Pennsylvania, near the route of the proposed road, and at the time was Secretary of the Treasury of the United States; accusations were made that he was using his influence to se- evre the course of the road for personal gain, and when the direction, from Brownsville west, was so diffieult of determination, he wrote the superin- tendent to employ a surveyor to select the most proper road and report distances and topography, and requested the President to deeide the matter.

January 15, 1808, the commissioners filed their second report, and February 19, 1808, President Jefferson reported to Congress the approval of the route as far as Brownsville, and that one half the width of the traee had been cleared to preserve it from obliteration ; that west of that point a de- eision would be reached which would pay atten- tion to the interests and wishes of the populons parts of Ohio, and to a future and convenient con- nection with the road to St. Lonis.

The route selected was the general alignment of the Braddoek road, but its bed was seldom used, as the two roads crossed each other fre- quently and are by no means identical. From the summit of Laurel Hill the roads diverged, the National being directed straight to Brownsville (Old Redstone), and the Braddock to Pittsburg. From Cumberland to Brownsville, the two highest elevations above Cumberland, were 2,022 and 2,328 feet, and the commissioners said that "from the crooked and hilly course of the road now trav- eled, the new road could not be made to occupy any portion of it exeept for about one mile in the entire distance, without unnecessary sacrifice of distances and expense." Estimates were therefore prepared wholly over new ground.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Past and present of the city of Zanesville and Muskingham County, Ohio, Part 10

Author: Sutor, J. Hope, 1846- Publication date: 1905 Publisher: Chicago : S.J. Clarke Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 898

Author: Sutor, J. Hope, 1846-
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Chicago : S.J. Clarke Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 898