Sandy and Beaver Canal. — Fort Lawrence. 57 



county of rolling uplands, cultivated by an industrious population 

 of German descent. It contains at present about twenty thousand 

 inhabitants, and is nearly thirty miles square. Soon after entering 

 the borders of this county, we passed the village of Bolivar. It is a 

 town of considerable importance, and fast rising into notice, as the 

 point where the Sandy and Beaver canal will unite with the Ohio 

 canal. 



Sandy and Beaver Canal. — This canal will be seventy six miles 

 in length, and is now under contract. Bolivar is forty two miles 

 south of Akron. The canal terminates on the Ohio River, at the 

 mouth of Little Beaver, fourteen miles below Big Beaver, and will 

 be continued to the Pennsylvania and Ohio canal, and thence to 

 Pittsburgh, opening a new route from the eastern cities to the most 

 fertile and productive portion of Ohio. This canal is also owned 

 by a joint stock company. The water for its supply will be fur- 

 nished by Sandy Creek and Little Beaver. 



Fort Lawrence. A few miles south of Bolivar, the canal 



passes through the earthen walls of old Fort Lawrence, once the 

 scene of border warfare, and of bloodshed. The parapet walls 

 are now four or five feet high, and were crowned with pickets made 

 of the split trunks of trees. The ditch is nearly filled up. The 

 walls enclose about an acre of ground, and stand on the west bank 

 of the Tuscarawas. Fort Lawrence was erected in the fall of the 

 year 1778, by a detachment of one thousand men from Fort Pitt, 

 under the command of Gen. Mcintosh. After its completion, a 

 garrison of one hundred and fifty men was placed in it, and left in 

 the charge of Col. John Gibson, while the rest of the army returned to 

 Fort Pitt. It was established at this early day in the country of the 

 Indians, seventy miles west of Fort Mcintosh, with an expectation 

 that it would act as a salutary check on their incursions into the 

 white settlements south of the Ohio River. The usual approach to 

 it from Fort Mcintosh, the nearest military station, was from the 

 mouth of Yellow Creek, and down the Sandy, which latter stream 

 heads with the former, and puts into the Tuscarawas just above the 

 fort. So unexpected and rapid were the movements of General 

 Mcintosh, that the Indians were not aware of his presence in their 

 country, until the fort was completed. Early in January, 1779, the 

 Indians mustered their warriors with such secrecy, that the fort was 

 invested before the garrison had notice of their approach. From 

 the manuscript notes of Henry Jolly, Esq., who was an actor in this, 



Vol. XXXI.— No. 1. 8 



