Canal Raised Standard of Living

for Farmers

1963, January 01 - Newcomerstown News: Tuscarawas county's first industry was farming. However, it was not at first a very prosperous industry. The farmer was able to raise comparatively large crops, but he had no means of shipping his products to large cities of the east. We read that the farmer had to sell his eggs for two and three cents a dozen; he was fortunate to receive 12 cents a bushel for corn or wheat. Chickens sold for only a few cents each.

The farmer would have been glad to sell his produce at those prices, but there was no one to buy them, for nearly everyone raised his own food. For many years the only way by which a farmer could send his goods to New York, Baltimore, or Philadelphia was by wagon and team. This was so expensive that few of the farmers tried it. Wagon trains, loaded in Ohio spent many weeks on a trip to the east. The roads were often rough and muddy. There were no bridges over the streams. To break a wagon tongue, wheel or axle meant a delay of days. When the grain was sold in the east it might bring so low a price that after the freight was paid nothing was left for the farmer.

The farmers were overjoyed, them, when it was decided to dig a canal from Lake Erie to the Ohio River. This canal, named the Ohio and Erie Canal, was begun at Cleveland, passed through Tuscarawas county and met the Ohio River at Portsmouth. By means of the canal, Tuscarawas farmers could send their produce to the eastern market more rapidly and cheaply.

Towns along the canal began to grow more rapidly. In Dover, New Philadelphia and other towns along the canal there were busy scenes as the canal boats were loaded with wheat, corn, hogs, chickens, flour, and other products. After the boats were loaded they were pulled along by mules and horses, which traveled along the towpath. As a boy, President Garfield drove the teams of mules and horses which pulled the canal boats through Tuscarawas county.