Paxson—Early Railways of the Old Northwest. 251 
any consequence, and the latter had only just succeeded V'an- 
dalia as capital of the state. The whole scheme was a piece of 
economic log-rolling, but the fact that supplies could be brought 
to Meredosia by river steamers determined the point at which 
construction should begin. In other cases initial points were 
of greater importance. Cleveland, Sandusky, Toledo, Monroe, 
and Detroit were well-known stopping places for the commerce 
of the lakes. Cleveland had the Ohio Canal, and was slow to 
go in for railroads, while the other ports were stimulated in 
their activity by her prosperity. 3 Cincinnati had wide busi¬ 
ness connections before she undertook the Little Miami; * 1 fur¬ 
ther down the Ohio a series of river landings had hopes of com¬ 
ing first into the field and monopolizing the internal trade of 
Indiana. The older inland towns, in many cases, influenced 
the route of the pioneer roads. Villages springing up along the 
National Road, or the Ohio or Miama Canal, became easy ob¬ 
jectives or starting points for new schemes. Indianapolis was 
an artificial center, but she did not begin her complex of radiat¬ 
ing lines until the Madison and Indiapolis had made it possible 
to deliver Ohio River freights to her warehouses. In Illinois, 
LaSalle, head of navigation on the Illinois River, and outlet of 
the Illinois and Michigan Canal, was regarded as a future rail¬ 
road center before the canal had ripened into the condition of a 
practicable scheme. 
The periods of canal and railroad dominance overlapped in 
the Old Northwest, and by their overlapping affected the de¬ 
velopment of both agencies of transportation. In 1825, DeWitt 
Clinton had not only opened his Erie Canal, but had given aid 
and comfort to schemes for feeder canals throughout the West. 
Ohio had undertaken two complete systems, the Ohio Canal, 2 
reaching from Cleveland to Portsmouth, and open in 1832, and 
the Miami Canal, which was so extended as to afford a water 
route from Cincinnati to Toledo by 1845. Indiana had pro- 
3 Cf. Oberholtzer, E. P., Life of Jay Cooke, I, 25. 
1 Taft, Alphonso, A Lecture on Cincinnati and her Railroads, (Cin¬ 
cinnati, D. Anderson, 1850) 1. 
2 Morris, C. N., Internal Improvements in Ohio, in Papers of the 
American Historical Association, III; Ohio Arch, and Hist. Soc., His¬ 
tory of the Ohio Canals. 
