A Magazine Exploring Indiana History IndianaThe Historian Canal Mania in Indiana This issue and the next— Whitewater Canal boat captain— September 1997—focus on Indi- who played an important part in Focus ana canals of the nineteenth the economy—demonstrates also century. This issue provides the enthusiasm and spirit of the general background about canals canal era. and internal improvements. It The spirit of that era is focuses on what travel on a canal continued in the present-day boat was like and the economic organizations and people who effects of canals. The September study and commemorate canals. issue will focus on how canals The Canal Society of Indiana has were constructed. been helpful in our quest for On page 3 is a map demon- materials. Paul Baudendistel, a strating the long interest in canal resident of Metamora on the building in Indiana, from 1805 Whitewater Canal, has been through 1915. invaluable. Baudendistel’s long On pages 4 and 5, there are involvement with the canal is the brief overviews of Indiana’s inter- subject of “Behind the Scenes” on nal improvements efforts and page 14. canals in Indiana and nationally. As usual, a selection of Space has limited coverage to the resources is available on page 15. Wabash and Erie Canal and the We hope that this issue will Whitewater Canal. help to interest more people in the Two personal narratives are canal heritage of Indiana. Stu- then used (pages 6-9) to demon- dents and others should investi- strate what it was like to travel by gate the effect of canals in their Cover illustration: A canal wedding, canal boat in Indiana in 1851. own areas. They should then add May 16, 1872, at Attica on the Wabash Both accounts describe travel on and Erie Canal. this information to the resources Indiana Historical Society Library the Wabash and Erie Canal, but available at both the local and (Negative No. A131). travel on other canals would have state level as a result of those been similar. investigations. There is still much The Indiana Historian June 1997 The economic impact of to be learned about canals in ISSN 1071-3301 canals is then discussed (pages Indiana, and every reader can Editor Pamela J. Bennett 10-13). The interview of a contribute. Lead Researcher Paula A. Bongen Designer Dani B. Pfaff Contributing Editors Carole M. Allen, Janine Beckley, Alan Conant, Dani B. Pfaff, You be the historian Virginia Terpening • Examine the map on page 3. Are acquiring a marker through the In- The Indiana Historian provides re- any of the canals near your loca- diana Historical Bureau. sources and models for the study of local history to encourage Indiana’s citizens of tion? What is the closest canal—or • Railroads took the place of canals all ages to become engaged with the his- proposed canal—to you? See what as the best means of transporta- tory of their communities and the state of Indiana. you can find in local history sources tion. Are railroads still the primary The Indiana Historian (formerly The about the canal in your area. means of transportation? What has Indiana Junior Historian) is issued quar- terly from September through June. • Investigate the Central Canal. How taken their place and why? What It is a membership benefit of the Indi- has that canal been used in the water transportation is an impor- ana Junior Historical Society. One compli- mentary subscription is provided to Indi- recent past? tant economic factor in Indiana to- ana libraries, school media centers, and • The eight projects of the 1836 In- day? cultural and historical organizations. Annual subscriptions are available for ternal Improvements Act (listed on • Throughout this issue, there are $5.00 plus tax. Back issues are available page 4) reached all areas of Indi- illustrations from a newspaper, the at individual and bulk pricing. This material is available to visually ana. What was planned for your Brookville Indiana American from impaired patrons in audio format, cour- area? Was the project ever com- the 1840s. Does your area have a tesy of the Indiana History Project of the Indiana Historical Society. Tapes are avail- pleted? What results of this act can newspaper that goes back to the able through the Talking Books Program of be located on an Indiana map to- nineteenth century? What was go- the Indiana State Library; contact the Talk- ing Books Program, 317-232-3702. day? ing on in your area at that time? The Indiana Historian is copyrighted. • There are many historical markers What subjects were frequently cov- Educators may reproduce items for class use, but no part of the publication may be in Indiana about the canals and ered? What sorts of advertisements reproduced in any way for profit without transportation. Locate any near appeared? written permission of the Indiana Histori- cal Bureau. you. If there are none, investigate 2 The Indiana Historian, June 1997 © Copyright Indiana Historical Bureau 1997 St. Joseph River (of the Lake) Lagrange Steuben Indiana Elkhart Michigan 6b City South Gary La Porte Bend Goshen Canals St. Joseph Dekalb Lake Elkhart Rome 1805 - 1915 Kosciusko City Porter Noble River 6 Maumee River 1 Ohio Falls Canal—to Allen Kankakee 6c Whitley provide passage around Starke Marshall the Falls of the Ohio, 1805, Pulaski 1816. Jasper 6a 6d Fort Wayne Newton Wabash 2 Wabash and Erie Fulton Canal—to connect Lake Miami Huntington Erie with the Ohio River ppecanoeRiver Ti Wabash through the Wabash Valley, Logansport Peru 1827. White Benton Wells Adams 3 Whitewater Canal—to Huntington connect Whitewater Valley Mississinewa with the Ohio River, 1833, Delphi Cass Marion 1836. Tippecanoe River Jay 3a , 3b . Surveys, 1825, 1837 of Blackford Warren Carroll Howard proposed routes for Whitewater Canal. Grant Tipton Madison Delaware 3a 4 Richmond and Lafayette Clinton Brookville Canal—to Attica Randolph connect Richmond to Hamilton Muncie Whitewater Canal, 1837. Covington 5 Central Canal—to 2 Noblesville Boone Anderson ermillion connect Wabash River with V Fountain Montgomery Wayne Ohio River at Evansville, Henry 3b Hagerstown 1836. Hendricks Richmond Montezuma Cambridge City 6 Erie and Michigan 5 Indianapolis 4 Canal—linking Wabash and Hancock Erie Canal with Lake Connersville Union abash River Marion Rush Michigan, 1836. W Parke River Shelby 3 Fayette 6a - 6d . Surveys completed to link Clay Morgan Putnam Laurel Lake Michigan and Wabash Valley, White Terre Haute Franklin 1829, 1830, 1876, 1915. Johnson Metamora Owen Martinsville Decatur Brookville West Fork Whitewater Vigo Spencer River Brown Cincinnati Bartholomew Dearborn Sullivan Worthington Monroe Lawrenceburg Jennings Bloomfield Greene Ripley River Ohio Martin Jefferson hite Jackson W Switzerland East Fork Lawrence Washington Washington Knox Scott Ohio River Daviess White River Clark Petersburg Orange Oakland City Jeffersonville Crawford Floyd Gibson Pike Canal construction completed Dubois New Albany Posey Warrick 1 Some construction, Vanderburgh but never completed Perry Evansville Harrison Surveys made, no other action Spencer Complete documentation for this map is available from the Indiana Historical Bureau. © Copyright Indiana Historical Bureau 1997 The Indiana Historian, June 1997 3 Opening Indiana In the early nineteenth treaty with the Principal Canals century, in Indiana—as in the rest Miamis and Built by 1860 of the existing United States— Potawatomis in travel was accomplished on foot or 1826. horseback, in wagons pulled by Passage by the 1 animals, or by water. Since road- General Assembly Buffalo Albany Chicago ways were quite primitive, water in 1836 of “An Act 10 Toledo Fort Wayne was the preferred means of travel to provide for a 7 Pittsburgh New York City 6 5 2 when possible. general system of Philadelphia 8 3 Baltimore As early as 1805, there was Internal Improve- C St. Louis incinnati Louisville interest in improving water trans- ments” marks the 9 portation in the Indiana Territory. state’s further 4 Adapted from: The territorial legislature char- commitment to Richmond Taylor, 35. tered a company to build a canal opening Indiana for 1 Erie Canal, 2 Pennsylvania Main Line Canal, 3 Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, 4 James River and Kanawha Canal, 5 Ohio and Erie Canal, 6 Miami and Erie Canal, 7 Wabash and Erie Canal, around the falls in the Ohio River expanded trade and 8 Whitewater Canal, 9 Louisville and Portland Canal, 10 Illinois and Michigan Canal near Jeffersonville. No Indiana travel. canal was built there. Kentucky The 1836 law provided for their mental balance; every later built a canal on its side of eight projects to construct roads, neighborhood became so intoxicated with the idea that a railroad or canal the falls. canals, and railroads throughout was to pass near it, that the people New York’s very successful the state. See the chart on this became mad, as it were, and were Erie Canal was started in 1817 page. unable to judge. Report of the Debates and Proceedings of the and finished in 1825. It provided This 1836 law resulted in Convention for the Revision of the the impetus and the model for financial disaster for Indiana. Constitution of the State of Indiana, canal building that erupted in the Construction on projects was 1850 (Indianapolis, 1850), 677. nineteenth century from the east stopped in 1839; the state was As James H. Madison con- coast to Illinois. unable to pay interest on its debt cludes, “Simultaneous construc- Indiana’s canal building in 1841. Paul Fatout has asserted tion . began on many dispersed started with the Wabash and Erie that the system “was conceived in segments: when it was halted the Canal at Fort Wayne in 1832. This madness and nourished by state was left with bits and pieces canal was enabled by a federal delusion” (76). The many reasons of ‘scatteration,’ rather than any grant of land in 1827 following a for the failures are too complex to single completed project” (86).