More Canal Facts! Civil War Adventures!

Hello again, everypony!

I must apologize for the long wait for I have been rather busy lately. I’ve been so many adventures as of late that I haven’t even had any time to write them up!

The Civil War reenacting season has started for me again, and I’ve done the traditional starting events to the season now: the Ohio Statehouse Ball back in January and the Ohio Military Regimental Ball (aka ORMB) last month. This weekend I’m going to attend an special event at the Dunham Tavern in Cleveland which commemorates the “Sanitary Commission Fair” held in Cleveland in 1863, which was a fundraiser for troops during the war.

At the ORMB I attended several panels, not the least of which was one on Canals in the Civil War. This was presented by a “Captain Frank Lyons of the Canal Boat Akron”, in actuality a head educator of a historical park in Indiana. He was a real professional, and it showed: his presentation was a definite highlight of the event, with 1st person interpretation, and a model lock and canal boat. He was able to answer some of the questions I had about the canals I wasn’t able to discover the answers to when writing my canal story, and I thought I’d share them here with you.

Firstly, I leaned that Ohio’s canal, whilst being owned, maintained, and managed by State, actually sold shares to raise funds for its continued operations. Thus, you could actually buy stock in the canal! I suppose this shouldn’t be surprising, given one can do much the same with railroads, but it was simply something I never would have thought of. If I ever write a sequel to my canal story, I’ll be sure to give Mr Wilkins some shares!

Secondly, I learned a bit more about the toll system on the canal. You see, when researching my story I found out about the system of weighing boats using the weigh lock, described in the story and my last blog. But I knew this was a latter day system, instituted around the 1850’s (thus dating my story). The canal was built in the 1830s, so I had wondered how the tolls were initially accessed. Well, it turns out “Captain Lyons” had the answer. In the early days of the canal, tolls were determined by the type of cargo carried and the number of miles a canal boat traveled along the canal. The more valuable the type of cargo and the farther a boat traveled on the canal the higher the rates for usage as determined by the state would be. Presumably that rate structure discouraged longer routes, which would not have been ideal for canal utilization. Additionally, I believe it would encourage you to carry ever increasing loads on boats to meet the usage costs, and perhaps heavily landen boats would have worn the canal out more than lightly laden boats, whilst paying the same costs. Whatever the reason, this system clearly wasn’t as sustainable as the later rate system... but it’s interesting to know about!

Thirdly, I learned a bit more about life on the canals during the winter. Since the canals, like any body of water, froze over in the winter this was when the boats laid up for the season. A very similar pattern of on and off seasons for shipping is also present on the Great Lakes, even today. Many canal boats had entire families living on them, and the winter was generally when the children of these families got what little schooling they received. They might even ice skate along the frozen canal to school! The off season was also the time to recruit new crews. Canalers, as readers are aware from Mr Garfield’s adventures, were known to be fighters and so often fighting prowess was a job requirement. Although the right of way, for example, theoretically gave the up-bound boat preference but in practice usually went to whichever crew one the resulting fist fight. A rowdy crew could actually help a captain save time, and money, on a trip.

I also learned a bit about the teams which towed the boats. Usually made up of three horses or mules led in a line, these were made up of the leader, middle, and leaner. The leader of the team would be the most intelligent and sure footed member, the least likely to losing their footing or crash into obstacles. The middle member of the team was usually the strongest one in the team. Perhaps not as bright as the leader, but they didn’t have to be: their job was to pull and to follow along behind the lead animal. Finally, there’d be a “leaner”, a specially trained mule or horse that would lean slightly towards the shoreward side of the canal. Like cornering on a motorcycle, this helped keep the team stable and counteract the force of the canal boat.

So there’s your fun canal facts for the day! I hope it answers some readers questions about the workings of the canal. It has really proven to be a fascinating subject.

In terms of future story writing, I don’t have anything particular planned at the moment. I’ll definitely have plenty of material for blogs, however. My Historical Preservation course this semester has a final project, drawing up a proposal to save a historic building and restore it, and I hope to share the finished product with you all. This summer, I’m also heading to Gettysburg for the 160th Anniversary of the battle and the re-enactment of it. So I’ll definitely blog about that!

In the meantime, here’s a question for my fellow long term Pony fans: when did you last rewatch the show? It’s actually been quite a while for me, though I did watch a few episodes around the holidays. Most of my interactions with Pony stuff comes through the fandom these days. I really ought to revisit the show, but for whatever reason haven’t got round to it. There’s a bunch of new anime ect that I want to watch too, that also I’m terrible at getting round to, that I might watch first however.

Well anyways, watch this space for more blogs of my various adventures everypony! See you all again soon!

Comments

[Gyro Pony]

Wonderful history lesson!
Thankyou.

[Admiral Biscuit]

I suppose this shouldn’t be surprising, given one can do much the same with railroads,

Not only could you buy stock in railroads, but back in the day some of them were even more directly-funded . . . I found out when I was researching the City of Prineville Railway (Oregon) that the town was foundering for lack of a railroad in the early 1900s, so the city chartered their own. It might be that one or it might be another one (they kind of blur together in various kinds of research) where the townspeople helped grade the right-of-way, lay track, etc.

Looking back at the Wikipedia article to refresh my memory, it says that the City of Prineville Railway "also remains one of the oldest municipally built railroads in the U.S.", implying that there were other cities who also built railroads when the rail barons wouldn't.

In the early days of the canal, tolls were determined by the type of cargo carried and the number of miles a canal boat traveled along the canal.

There's a Johnny Cash song—Rock Island Line—about railroad tolls (I don't know if those were a real thing). In the song, when he get to the toll gate he claims he's got livestock, which has no toll. As he passes through the gate, he says that he's actually got pig iron.

Thirdly, I learned a bit more about life on the canals during the winter. Since the canals, like any body of water, froze over in the winter this was when the boats laid up for the season.

Weirdly, this had never occurred to me, and I live around the Great Lakes where . . .

A very similar pattern of on and off seasons for shipping is also present on the Great Lakes, even today.

I know about this. In fact, I was thinking of making a weekend trip to Toledo where some of the Great Lakes fleet is wintering, although from looking at maps I can't really get close by road.

This is a detail I should include in a future canal story--really, all of it.

The winter was generally when the children of these families got what little schooling they received.

I'm sure the same concept held true for lots of farm children back in the day as well.

Usually made up of three horses or mules led in a line, these were made up of the leader, middle, and leaner.

Interesting that the terminology is different than non-canal horses, where they were the lead, body, swing, and wheel (I might have my middle teams reversed; I'd have to check my notes to be sure). Similarly, the horse's attributes were a factor in their position.

I've seen some videos of new horses working in teams who didn't know what they were doing, and you can see the veteran giving them that 'what are you up to?' kind of look.

It's interesting to speculate in the MLP-verse, would ponies who pulled wagons or canal boats aspire to the leader role, or would there be some who made a good career out of one of the potentially more complex positions, such as leaner?

In the meantime, here’s a question for my fellow long term Pony fans: when did you last rewatch the show? It’s actually been quite a while for me, though I did watch a few episodes around the holidays.

Hmm, the last time I regularly watched was Season 5, I think. I did watch the finale when it was aired with a bunch of friends, but there's a lot of episodes I haven't seen yet. Every now and then I watch one of them for research purposes.