By Ken Drenten

The Ohio & Erie Canal was an important development in Ohio, and was largely built by Irish workers. You can experience canal life at places like Roscoe Village in Coshocton, above. (Credit: Ken Drenten)

If you’re Irish, and even if you’re not, you know that March 17 is St. Patrick’s Day, when all things to do with the Emerald Isle are celebrated. Irish workers played an important role in building Ohio’s infrastructure of canals and railroads.

In the first half of the 1800s, especially in the 1830s and ‘40s during the potato blight and the resulting famine, many people immigrated from Ireland to escape famine and extreme poverty. Over the time, nearly 5 million Irish relocated to the United States. Many Irish moved to Ohio with plans to become farmers.

Because of anti-Irish discrimination and the economic condition of most of these refugees, buying land was often not an option. Many Irish went to work at jobs that not many others wanted to do, like building the Ohio & Erie and Miami & Ohio canal systems from 1825 to 1845 and the Ohio railroads starting in the 1840s.

It took two years of hand-digging by Irish and German work crews to complete the section of the Ohio & Erie Canal from Cleveland to Akron, and five more years to finish all the sections. This four-foot-deep ditch stretched 308 miles to Portsmouth on the Ohio River. By the fall of 1832, travelers on the canal could go from Cleveland to Cincinnati in 80 hours, a trip that had once taken weeks. With the completion of the canals, goods could be transferred to and from the Ohio River to Lake Erie and to eastern markets.

Ohio’s first railroad was a horse-drawn line in Toledo in 1836, and the introduction of the steam engine the following year brought great expansion in railroad construction. By 1860, due again to the efforts of Irish workers, Ohio had more track laid than any other state – 3,000 miles. Some workers rose from lowly laborer jobs to positions with railroads that were well-paying for the time, as engine mechanics and boilermakers.

Irish people also worked in coal mines, steel mills, building construction and many other positions that helped build Ohio and the nation.

So a good place to tip your hat (or your glass) to the Irish is at one of Ohio’s well-preserved canal and railroad historical sites. You can find more information about these canal sites and railroad sites in Dusty Tires.

Ken Drenten is creator and manager of Dusty-Tires.com, a travel blog for out-of-the-ordinary places in Ohio.

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