The canal -- always an adventure

Brookville American, October 1845

WHITE WATER CANAL -- "We have heard it whispered that the Canal Company have agreed to give to Lawrenceburgh that portion of the White Water Canal between Harrison and Lawrenceburgh, if they agree to take it and keep it in repair. It is also said that Lawrenceburgh will accept it on condition that the Company will keep up the dam at Harrison."

HINT -- Most likely a rotten bargain.

WHAT RASCALITY NEXT! -- The Brookville Democrat says that the White Water Canal Company have refused, or soon will refuse, to receive their own scrip in payment of tolls and water rents.

If they do venture such a reckless effort to pilfer from the public, they will have done nothing more than most other companies of the kind, that wee suffered to put out for circulation their own promises to fill the place of money; but we doubt if the Legislature of that state will tolerate them in the villainy of the act.

HINT -- The scrip was worthless anyway. 

Cincinnati Gazette, November 1847

WHITEWATER VALLEY -- The damage done in this valley by the recent flood has been very extensive-- the injuries sustained well nigh equaling those of January last. In addition to the damage done at Harrison, which has already been mentioned, we learn from the papers of that region that the dams at Case's,  Brookville and Laurel have been torn away besides immense losses in the destruction of flour, salt, corn, wood, coal, lumber, etc. 

At Aurora, likewise there was considerable loss -- the creek ran out with such violence that 12 to 15 flatboats, mostly laden, were broken loose and drifted off with the current of the Ohio. two coal boats were also lost.

Very many mills along the line are much injured -- some of them to such an extent that the owners most either sell their grain or supply themselves with steam engines; and many other heavy individual losses are recorded.

The points along the route at which injuries have resulted are so numerous, and the damage is so very great, that the papers along the line, express the belief that repairs can scarcely be effected the present season.

HINT -- Worse than January?

Brookville Democrat, December 1848

BREAK -- We have been informed that there has been a break in the Miami Canal between Brookville and Lockland, the bank having been washed away by the latest freshets for several hundred yards. A stop to navigation at the present time will cause a great inconvenience to those shipping and receiving on this line. We hope the damage is not as serious as it has been represented.

HINT -- It was always worse than that.

NOTES: The canals took a beating from the river and were more often than not shut down for repairs. The feeder dams were built to tolerate a calm stream. Rarely did a season pass that the waterway between Hagerstown and Cedar Grove not close for repairs. The canals did make a profit when they were functional, all the way up to about 1848.

Flooding was an annual event with each disaster being reviewed and determined to be the worst in memory. As the population grew and expanded its commerce in the river valleys, the losses exponentially grew.

This blog was designed to discuss a lot of that. So start at the beginning ------------> over here.