Celebrating Waterville as a Canal Town

Twenty-eight years ago Waterville celebrated a sesquicentennial of the opening of the Wabash and Erie Canal. The Canal Boat “Albert White” passed through Waterville on May 8, 1843 on her way from Fort Wayne, Indiana to Toledo, where she was met with great fanfare and celebration. The opening of the canal opened our village, and many others along the route, to a period of great prosperity. Only twelve years after our founding, the canal opened our markets to virtually the rest of the world, connecting us to both Lake Erie and the Ohio River with an easily traveled water route. Note that the early canal connected through Indiana to the Wabash River, hence Wabash and Erie Canal. The connection south to Cincinnati did not open until two years later. The canal through Waterville led to two canal stores on the west bank, notably those run by J.E. Hall and the Haskins Brothers (later by Herman Rupp) and on the east the Ostrander Store on Third Street could trade out of their back door on the canal. The archives has ledgers from all of these stores showing the names and number of canal boats that stopped at these businesses to trade both ways. Many of our prominent business men did business between Waterville and Toledo and the great Pekin Mill was built at the end of Third Street making Waterville the “grain capital of Ohio.” The importance of the canal to the growth and secure future of our little town cannot be underestimated. It is quite proper then that the 1993 celebration was held marking the 150th anniversary of that momentous event and that we, 28 years later, may still celebrate the passage of the “Albert White” marking the opening of the canal era for Waterville.

No photographs of the Albert White’s passing were taken in 1843. Isn’t that a shame? The photograph shown may have been one on of the last canal boats to pass through town.