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Eveline Bates (1859), and LaPetite (1860). In 1856 John F. Squires appears in Huron, and from then until 1884, he is the principal builder there. His most outstanding contribution to lake commerce was the propeller Ohio (1875), which was double-decked and carried four masts. Squires's last vessel was the propeller Sakie Shepherd in 1884. He also built many schooners and several tugs. Other builders' names that appear are William Baker, Asa Cherry, Andrew McDonald, and Joseph M. Keating. Again, as is the case with most of the towns in Ohio, wooden shipbuilding ended in the period covered by this chapter. With the exception of Squires's last vessel, the only hulls launched in Huron between 1875 and 1884 were those of tugs. Milan It is difficult to imagine today that this sleepy small town located about eight miles inland from Lake Erie was once the leading grain shipping port in the United States, and on a par with Odessa, Russia, in the world!93 Ebenezer Merry laid out the town of Milan in 1815, originally calling it Beatty. Work was begun on a canal to ultimately connect the town with Lake Erie via the Huron River. This was in 1824. By 1828 the canal company was faltering, so a charter was granted to build a ship canal from Merry's mill pond to the navigable waters of the Huron River. Subscriptions to the Milan Canal Company stock were opened in 1831. But the canal was not completed and opened until July 4, 1839 when the schooner Kewaunee arrived at Milan. The canal was about three miles long, forty feet wide, and thirteen feet deep. Only two locks were necessary as the fall was only seven feet. The upper lock was about a mile from the basin, and the lower lock was at the junction of the canal and river. Warehouses lined the south edge of the L-shaped basin, and shipyards lined the north side. In 1847 at the height of the grain trade in Milan, 600 wagons made a solid line extending from Milan to the Blue Fly Inn on the old plank road (Route 601), a distance of six miles. In one day, 35,000 bushels of wheat were handled.94 As already hinted, shipbuilding also was one of Milan's important industries. Eveline Bates appears to be the earliest builder at Milan. He built the schooner Boston in 1842. It is likely that Bates had a hand in building the ten other schooners which were built between 1842 and 1846. As early as 1846, Salmon Ruggles built the schooners Sea Gull, George Davis, and 57