ORIGIN OF OUR CANALS. 265 



ber of commissioners were appointed, whose duty it was to em- 

 ploy an engineer to examine the country and report on the 

 practicability of making a canal from lake Erie to the Ohio 

 river. Those commissioners employed the Honorable James 

 Geddes of Onondaga county, New York, as an engineer, who 

 arrived at Columbus, the seat of government, in the month 

 of June 1822. He had already entered on his arduous labors. 



On his way he had examined the Cuyahoga summit. In 

 the spring, summer and autumn of 1822, Mr. Geddes exam- 

 ined the country for a canal a distance in length amounting to 

 nine hundred miles. Our engineers, Samuel Forrer and oth- 

 erSj leveled eight hundred miles with one instrument. All 

 this was done in less than eight months. 



The commissioners themselves assisted in the examination, 

 and devoted nearly all their time to this service. These 

 commissioners continued the examination of the different ca- 

 nal routes during the whole season, for such works, in the 

 years 1823-4, and finally, early in the year 1825, determin- 

 ed, on the route commencing at Cleveland and ending at 

 Portsmouth on the Ohio river. They also determined on mak- 

 ing a canal from Cincinnati to Dayton, on the Great Miami 

 river. In the mean time a board of canal fund commissioners 

 had been created by law, and a stock had been created, and 

 these fund commissioners had borrowed money in New York 

 city sufficient to begin the excavation of the canals, and 

 carry on the work the first year. All this being done, and 

 having also appointed David S. Bates Esquire, of Rochester 

 New York, chief engineer, and as many assistants as necessa- 

 ry; in fine, every other preparation being made, the canal 

 commissioners, and all our constituted authorities — our whole 

 people indeed, invited DeWitt Clinton, governor of New 

 York to be present at the commencement of making our 

 canals. 



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