Back in the late 1840's, a big, blond-haired, blue-eyed teenager, known as Big Jim, walked barefoot on the towpaths of the Pennsylvania-Ohio Canal. He had taken the job as a helmsman, using a whip to drive the horses and mules that pulled the canal boats, to help support his widowed mother and the rest of his family. There are many stories about how, despite his age, he was able to more than hold his own with the tough, older men that worked on the canal.
After an accident that resulted in his being pushed into the canal, his mother convinced him that maybe he wasn't cut out for that kind of work. Some time later, in Franklin Mills, which is now known as Kent, he was nominated for his first public
office, a seat in the Ohio Senate. Big Jim is known to most people today as James A. Garfield, the 20th President of the United States. And that's the rest of the story.
2 comments:
I did not know that James A Garfield had a Kent connection...
Hey did you hear that they want to open up the Erie Canal again...because it is a cheaper method of transport than trucking at this point. Maybe we can all run off and work on the canal and then become senators...
Kris
Everything old is new again. That's what an old song said. Bring back bicycles and passenger trains.
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