Presentation Transcript

1. Quill and Musket Guest Lecturer Series Mule Apples and Muskrat Stew: Life on the Canalsby Janet E. Rozick
2. Market Revolution An integral component of the market revolution was the development of canals, roads, and railroads. These easier ways to move people, goods, and ideas was the transportation revolution. Both, the market and transportation revolution connected the Midwest, South, and Northeast. Communities and products throughout the nation became interconnected and interdependent.
3. Early Roads Corduroy roads were logs of roughly equal size placed on the ground, covered with dirt to make travel over them smoother. The logs were layered because the mud absorbed them until it built a firm foundation. was built. They were absorbed so deep into the mud that 50 years later preserved logs were found 20-30 feet below the surface. This picture is from King County in Washington state, where workers uncovered remains of a corduroy road.
4. Early Roads Plank roads were difficult to maintain. They consisted of 1” thick, 6-8” wide, 12ft long oak planks on stringers laid in a boardwalk fashion. But, the roads were very narrow, making it impossible for two wagons to pass each other. The planks rotted within a decade, or floated away, or dislodged as fast moving wagons passed. The plank road picture is from California, notice the planks are much more uniform in size than the logs in corduroy road
5. Early Roads Macadamized roads had deep ditches that ran along side them, with culverts under the road. The ditches led to natural waterways and helped create usable roads, making the surrounding area habitable. Roads of this type are named after John Loudon McAdam (September 21, 1756 - November 26, 1836). John Loudon McAdam
6. John Loudon McAdam McAdam was a Scottish engineer and road-builder. He invented a new process for building roads with a smooth hard surface that would be more durable and less muddy than plain dirt, called 'macadamization'. McAdam worked on finding ways to improve the notoriously bad roads of Great Britain. He determined that roads needed to be raised above the surrounding ground, and carefully constructed from layered rocks and gravel. He wrote two treatises documenting his research, Remarks on the Present System of Road-Making (1816) Practical Essay on the Scientific Repair and Preservation of Roads (1819). As Suveryor-General, he remade the roads with crushed stone bound with gravel on a firm base of larger stones. A camber, making the road slightly convex, ensured the rainwater rapidly drained off the road and did not penetrate the foundations. This way of building roads later became known as the Macadamized system.
7. Early Roads When a macadam road was built, side ditches were dug, and the road bed was laid with three layers of decreasingly-sized rocks, carefully pulverized "so as not to exceed 6 ounces in weight or to pass a two-inch ring." The finished road was compacted with a cast-iron roller, and the compaction process was completed by passing traffic. The first macadamized road in North America was completed in 1830.
8. What to do? Travel & shipping products over these early roads proved to be slow and expensive. For example, the markets for Ohio’s goods were in the east in New York and in the south at New Orleans. The costs overland were $5 per hundred weight per hundred miles which raised the cost of the goods before they even reached Philadelphia making them too expensive to buy. Entrepreneurs, industrialists, and farmers all looked for a more affordable means of transportation. Water was the fastest and cheapest, but problematic for any landlocked city. The answer: artificial waterways.
9. Canal Fever Canal fever first struck New York right after the War of 1812. The Erie Canal, a 364-mile waterway, connected the Hudson River to Lake Erie. The effects of the canal were immediate – farmers and industrialists could always find a ready market for their products. The canals raised the market price of local goods, produce, and property values. It boosted industrial development. Locks caused towns because of the delays boats experienced waiting for their turn to pass through and areas that had twelve or more locks within a mile, major cities grew. “It was, in short, the ditch that brought the world to the wilderness.”
10. Erie Canal Check out the following websites for the Erie Canal: http://www.eriecanal.org/ http://www.canals.ny.gov/cculture/history/ http://eriecanalmuseum.org/
11. Dig em’ The canals were hand dug by immigrants, mostly Irish and German heritage. Workers earned $5 to $8 per month throughout the 1820s. By 1836, this salary increased to $24/month. It wasn’t until 1946 that there was full mechanization of canal construction.
12. Canal Dimensions Most canals were modeled after the Erie Canal. The canal was about forty feet wide, at the top, with sloping earthen sides to about twenty-eight feet wide at the bottom. Canals were only about four feet deep on average and typically ran parallel to a river, their water source. Sometimes reservoirs would be constructed to provide enough water for the canals.
13. Canal Dimensions Two other key features for the canal would be the towpath and berm bank. The towpath ran parallel to the canal generally along the river side, for the drivers and animals to trod. It was a minimum of ten feet wide. The berm bank, or often referred to as the heel path – a pun on the word tow (toe) – was an engineering term for the bank opposite the towpath. The berm generally followed the lay of the land to keep construction costs at a minimum.
14. Locks, a unique feature of the canals, accommodated for slight elevation changes. Locks were either stone, concrete , or wooden chambers closed at each end by gates. The wicket gates, butterfly valves, located under the water level permitted travelers to raise or lower the boat as necessary. Locking Through
15. Types of Canal Boats Boats cost between $2,000 to $4,000 and constructed low, long, and narrow, usually 13 to 14 feet wide and 78 to 89 feet long to slide through the standard 15 foot by 90 foot locks. Combination Packet Passenger Packet Freight Packet
16. Canal Life A full crew for a freight boat consisted of a captain, steersman, bowsman, and mule driver, often called the hoagie. Most captains wore distinctive headwear like a stovepipe hat and some wore the attire of quasi-military dress uniforms with brass buttons for special occasions. The captain and family lived in the rear cabin with a cook stove and bunk beds. The forward cabin was occupied by the crew if necessary. The canals created a subculture of the time – their world was the canal. Even though boats were docked during the winter months many families lived year round on board.
17. Canal Life Canal history has left a wonderful collection of primary sources documenting life along the canals. Cyrus Parker, in 1835, comments: The forward part of the boat is the gentlemen’s cabin, about 10 by 5; then the main part of the boat for the freight, where are also stowed the midship passengers; then, in the after part of the boat, the dining room, perhaps 10 feet square, with a kitchen closet adjoining. Our little cabin was fitted most ingeniously with berths for ten persons, but so contracted were the limits appropriated for each that he could only draw himself onto his shelf lengthwise and lie, without stirring for fear of a fall or a broken head.
18. Canal Life “Almost every boat while it lies in the harbor has one or more fiddles scrapping continually aboard, to which you often see the boatmen dancing.” ~John Woods, 1820
19. Canal Life “Still more unpleasant…is that greed for the ‘almighty dollar’ that causes the captains of these vessels to take on still more passengers, even though they already have more than enough in proportion to the size of the cabin. Thus the boat we boarded was overfilled with travelers of all sorts…” ~ Moritz Busch, 1852
20. “I found my breakfast this morning rather uneatable; either from want of an appetite, or because the breakfast was, in reality poor. Perhaps a little of both. The coffee was certainly not drinkable; & I seemed suddenly to have lost all relish for eggs & bacon – the staff of life in this country. … After traveling for 4 days in a small uncomfortable boat, living on food, that… we could not have relished, even if it had been neatly cooked & prepared for us,… our stomachs would nauseate at a single glance at the cook.” ~ Charles Titus, 1843 Canal Life
21. Canal Life Albert Koch describes canal life: “I thought I would find only a few passengers here because many prefer to travel by train to Buffalo, which takes only 40 hours, while the packet boats need 75 to 76 hours. I was very much mistaken, however, because when we arrived the boat was so full so passengers that there was hardly a seat left for us. The reason might be the cheapness of the canal trip, for, while the journey on the train with subsistence costs about $13.50, the one on the canal is only $7.75. Right after our arrival the boat departed and it took some time until all of us had paid their far, at which point our names were written down; yes, it was almost eleven o’clock before the hanging beds of the ladies were prepared. While this was being done, all the gentlemen had to go up on deck because the ladies had taken over our cabin for the time being. Now our beds were hung, in three tiers and in three rows, on each side and in the middle. After that, each was singly called in and assigned his bed, all of which took until half-past eleven… The cold lasted until this morning when it began to get comfortable again. All day yesterday we had a fire in the stove of the cabin, which we found very pleasant.
22. The Rise of Railroads Advantages Over Canal Travel: Built independent of water. Available year round travel. Speed! Canal’s Advantages Over Railroads: Cheaper cost. Smoother ride. “Safer”.
23. Railroads The canals were quickly put out of business by the booming railroads. However, had it not been for the canals then would not have had the transportation avenues open necessary to move in the railroad’s equipment. Trains were just a faster way to travel and they could travel year round. The same year that Ohio started construction on the canal systems, the first rail system was scheduled to be built, the Baltimore and Ohio. . In the 1860s, during the Civil War, troops would try to capture rail in enemy territory to disrupt transportation of goods. In 1864 the first steel rail was used.
24. The Railroads Effect on Canals By the 1870s, canal travel & shipments steadily declined. The growing popularity and convenience of the railroads was one of the leading factors in the decline of canals. Railroads travelled faster and year round. The canals were no longer profitable enough for states to make the necessary yearly repairs to keep them in operation.
25. Conclusion The improvement and development of roads, canals, and railroads helped to end the pioneer stage of the America by interconnecting the people and markets of the Midwest, Northeast, and South. Dishes from Paris could now be shipped to New York and then travel along canals to Defiance, Ohio. So, the finest goods could be bought either on Main Street in a small town in Ohio or on Fifth Avenue in one of the largest cities in America.
26. Bibliography Ellis, William D. “Clevelend as Canal Town” in Harry F. Lupoldand Gladys Haddad, eds. Ohio’s Western Reserve: A Regional Reader. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1988, 76 – 84. Gieck, Jack. A Photo Album of Ohio’s Canal Era, 1825 – 1913. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1992. Seasonal Interpreter’s Manual. Metropolitan Park Board of Toledo Ohio, 2003.