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CHAPTER II. THE TOWNS AND THE MEN (1825-1880) Any attempt to draw a line between the era of the novice ship- builder and the trained shipwright must necessarily meet with failure. The year 1825 has been selected primarily because a few trained men had made their appearance by this time. The tide of immigration had begun to rise, and along with this trade increased. Two of the major routes to the West merged at the eastern end of Lake Erie - the Erie Canal terminated at Buffalo, and the Welland Canal (under construction in 1825 although not opened until 1829) connected Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River with the upper lakes of Erie, Huron, and Michigan. Thus Lake Erie became a major highway, and Ohio provided a great proportion of the vessels needed to maintain this flow of trade and people. For a short time it looked as though the railroads, which came to Ohio in the 1850's, would cut deeply into this trade, but with the coming of the Civil War, grain prices soared, more hulls were needed, and Ohio became a major supplier of vessels. Toward the end of the wooden shipbuilding era, the processing of the Lake Superior iron ore was developed to such a point that it became practical to make the long haul from the Head of the Lakes to Lake Erie ports, and once again Ohio met the call for ships. An effort to discuss individually the men who built these ships is virtually impossible because of the numbers involved and because of their methods of operation. Many of the most prominent builders followed the supply of timber and moved from town to town, going wherever a contract was available. Enough, however, did stay in one place long enough to make it possible to tell this story by area rather than by individual. This story traverses the northern shore of Ohio from east to west, from Conneaut to Toledo. Ashtabula County Conneaut Conneaut is located in the most northeasterly corner of the state, only two miles from the Pennsylvania border. Conneaut Creek meanders north to the Lake and broadens sufficiently at its mouth to permit shipbuilding. Moses Cleaveland and his party landed here on July 4, 1796, 19