By: Jane Nice
Paulding County Bicentennial Committee
Part of a series
ANTWERP – In the early 1840s the manmade waterways of the canal system were nearing completion and about to open up northwest Ohio for commerce and settlement.
Paulding County was positioned to be the hub of transportation in the area because not one, but two, canals were being built within its borders—the Miami & Erie Canal, which ran north and south on the eastern side of the county, and the Wabash & Erie Canal, which ran east and west in the north.
The Miami & Erie Canal ran the length of the state of Ohio between Cincinnati and Toledo, while the Wabash & Erie ran the length of the state of Indiana beginning in Evansville. The Wabash & Erie passed through Fort Wayne, and then into Paulding County, Ohio for 18 miles through Carryall, Crane, Emerald and Auglaize townships, where the two canals met in Junction.
In addition to the two canal routes, Paulding County was slated to be the location of one of several reservoirs along the waterway that would feed water into the canal when needed. The reservoir site chosen was southeast of the village of Antwerp in Carryall and Crane townships. It was formed by cutting off the waters of the Six Mile Creek, and therefore named “Six Mile Reservoir.” When completed, it covered 2,000 acres.
Canal building in Paulding County was challenging. Conditions of constructing the Six Mile Reservoir were so dismal that jiggers of whiskey were regularly served to the men throughout the day as they passed under a rope one at a time.
The Wabash & Erie Canal and its reservoirs were completed and opened to boats in May 1843. Fort Wayne celebrated the event on July 4 of that year. No one at that grand celebration could have predicted that less than 50 years later, a band of 200-400 men would spend a night destroying a large section of the public works by secretly dynamiting, burning and breaking the banks of the Six Mile Reservoir and three locks on the Wabash & Erie Canal.
It is true that for a decade or two after its initial opening, the canal served both Indiana and Ohio well. Fort Wayne developed into a great port city, and Paulding County hauled out much of its timber on the waterway to markets in Delphos and Defiance and beyond, which allowed the swamp to be drained and farm ground established.
Throughout northern Paulding County, the towns of New Harrison, Antwerp and Junction were laid out along the Wabash & Erie, all by 1842. Tate’s Landing, though never platted as a town, was an important port on the canal. The town of Junction, located at the intersection of the two canals, prospered. The village of Antwerp grew along banks of the Wabash & Erie, where enterprising men erected manufacturing enterprises, hotels and warehouses.
The Paulding Furnace, located on the canal in Section 23 of Crane Township, opened in the mid-1860s. A number of kilns were used to convert timber that was cleared from the nearby forests into charcoal. That charcoal was used in the blast furnace that smelted ore that had been transported on the canal system from the Lake Superior area into iron.
Ironically, it was iron, or more specifically the “iron horse” that proved to be the downfall of the canals. Railroads beat canal travel in speed and efficiency, as well as year-round dependability. The canals often shut down in winter when the waterways froze, and could not run during summer drought periods, when the lack of water caused boats to be stranded in the mud.
After the Wabash Railroad came to Fort Wayne in 1852, the canal was no longer used to haul freight. Rather than repair the breaks in the now less vital public work, bondholders forced the sale of the canal in that state. In 1881, Thomas Fleming paid $44,500 for the section from the Ohio state line to the town of Lagro, Indiana, and resold it to the Nickel Plate Railroad.
This compounded a growing problem in Paulding County. In the 1870s, Indiana had cut off the supply of fresh water flowing into the canal, causing the Six Mile Reservoir, no longer a live body of water, to become stagnant. Mosquitos abounded, and malaria, then called the “ague,” returned as real health risk from back in the Great Black Swamp days.
A May 30, 1872 Antwerp Gazette article described the reservoir’s smell in the hot summer months, “as it is strewn with thousands of dead fish which were caught in the tangled grass and water flag, when the water receded, and the stench arising from the decomposing mass, can easily be recognized when the wind blows lustily from that quarter, although the ‘pond’ lies nearly a mile and a half from the village.”
During times of heavy rain, the reservoir waters left its shallow banks and flooded several thousands of acres, leaving them uncultivable. When the canal was running, Paulding County residents tolerated the flooding, but now that the public work was becoming obsolete, it seemed unfair for Paulding County to sacrifice precious farm land.
At least two efforts were made in the 1870s to force the issue of abandoning the canal and reservoir in Paulding County. In 1877, Francis B. DeWitt circulated a petition to be presented to the Ohio legislature asking for the state to vacate the reservoir and turn the canal into a ditch. That petition proved unsuccessful.
Then in 1878, Solomon S. Stambaugh, who owned over 200 acres lying under the water of the reservoir, challenged the lessees of the public works in the Common Pleas Court of Paulding County to vacate the Six Mile Reservoir. Stambaugh won, but no action was taken because while Stambaugh owned the ground within the reservoir, the state owned the banks.
While Paulding County’s grievances were legitimate, their efforts were thwarted because manufacturers in the city of Defiance still had a market for Paulding County’s timber, and they used the canal to float logs to their industries. Defiance resident C.A. Flickinger served on the State Board of Public Works and was a strong influence to preserve the reservoir and canal.
Paulding County generated a new petition in 1886, and the Honorable John L. Geyer drew up a bill to be presented to the state legislature calling for the abandonment of the Wabash & Erie Canal and the Six Mile Reservoir. It passed in the house, but failed in the senate, after Flickinger and influential Defiance businessmen traveled to Columbus to stop it.
Paulding County residents were outraged. Small bands of locals unsuccessfully attempted to break the banks of the reservoir with pick-axes and shovels, and guards were placed at the reservoir and locks. Frustrated Antwerp men held secret meetings and devised a plan to drain the reservoir themselves.
On the night of April 25, 1887, 200 to 400 men, armed with pick-axes, shovels and dynamite, and carrying a banner that read, “No Compromise” on one side, and “The Reservoir Must Go” on the other, descended on the Six Mile Reservoir and the two locks to the east—one at Tate’s Landing, and the other west of Junction. The men overpowered the guards, and at the appointed hour of midnight, dynamited the banks of the reservoir and the locks.
Water rushed out of the reservoir and through the canal all the way to the city of Defiance, where Flickinger and other outraged businessmen, upon hearing the news the next morning, sent telegrams to Ohio Governor John Foraker declaring that a lawless mob had destroyed state property, and urged him to take action.
Governor Foraker called out the state militia, who arrived by train at Cecil that evening with 53 enlisted men and nine officers who were armed with muskets, bayonets and a Gatling gun. Shortly after they arrived, a young soldier named Fred Reeves accidentally shot himself and died. Reeves was the only victim of the “Reservoir War.”
When the soldiers marched to the reservoir, no one was there. They set up camp, and the locals, who were excited to visit with the soldiers and see a Gatling gun up close, came out to visit with the troops. “Camp Dynamite” disbanded within a week. Governor Foraker himself visited Paulding County the next month, and was taken to the site in Indiana where the water source was cut off. Seeing the legitimacy of Paulding County’s grievances, the governor declared that state would cover the costs of the “Reservoir War.”
In the next session of the legislature, the legal abandonment of the canal and reservoir became law. No dynamiter was ever punished.
A historical marker will be placed at the site of the Reservoir War, at the intersection of Canal Road (County Road 180) and High Road (Township Road 77). Dates for the dedication of the marker and for the performance of “No Compromise!” a historical melodrama mystery dinner theater will be announced in the future.
Next time: Railroads and their Forgotten Towns, Part 1.
More information on the bicentennial can be found on Facebook at www.facebook.com/PauldingCounty200.
