page_title: Alfred Kelley
section_title: Canal commissioner
hierarchical_section_title: Alfred Kelley / Involvement with the Ohio & Erie Canal / Canal commissioner
caption_attribution_description: English: Topographical map of Ohio by Alfred Kelley of the Ohio Canal Commission. Map first made in 1826, and published in 1828 by Horton Howard, Columbus, Ohio.
context_page_description: Alfred Kelley was a banker, canal builder, lawyer, railroad executive, and state legislator in the state of Ohio in the United States. He is considered by historians to be one of the most prominent commercial, financial, and political Ohioans of the first half of the 19th century.
  Kelley is known as the "Father of the Ohio and Erie Canal" for his successful legislative attempt to establish the Ohio and Erie Canal. He was one of the canal's first two "acting commissioners", and oversaw its construction and completion. He was the president of Columbus and Xenia Railroad and the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad, and pushed for a state charter for the Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula Railroad. For this, he is known as the architect of Ohio's rail system.
  As a member of the Canal Commission Fund, he helped save Ohio from bankruptcy in 1841 and 1842.
context_section_description: The Ohio General Assembly approved legislation on February 4, 1825, authorizing construction of the Ohio & Erie Canal. The same day, the legislature adopted a bill to reconstitute the investigating commission as the Canal Commission, with authority to oversee financing and construction of the canal. Canal Commission members included Kelley; newcomer Nathaniel Beasley, a former surveyor and soldier who had served several terms in both chambers of the General Assembly; newcomer John Johnston, a former Indian agent with extensive landholdings in Miami County; Miner; Tappan; Williams; and Worthington. The Canal Commission picked two of their members, Kelley and Williams, to be "acting commissioners", individuals with direct supervision over canal construction. The two men located the actual canal route, negotiated for and purchased land, wrote engineering specifications for the canal bed and locks, advertised for and awarded contracts, purchased supplies, and supervised the engineers and surveyors in the employ of the state who worked on the canal. The raising of funds through the issuance of bonds and stock was the legal responsibility of a separate Canal Fund Commission, but in practice the Canal Fund Commission delegated most of its power to Kelley and Williams.
  Kelley and Williams accomplished two major tasks in 1825. The first was to purchase or obtain a right of way to the land needed for the canal. The Canal Commission did not formally select the northern route of the canal until May 1825, and until that happened Kelley and Williams had to solicit land along both the Black and Cuyahoga rivers. They were highly successful, and managed to have significant amount of land donated (rather than sold). Kelley himself donated about a third of his remaining Scranton Flats land for the project. Kelley and Williams also established a large, professional bureaucracy to construct and finance the canal. In the United States in the early 1800s, state governments employed only a few dozen people. Kelley and Williams made recommendations to the full commission regarding organizational structure, staffing, and the duties of each job. The commission invariably followed their guidance, and in so doing allowed Kelley and Williams to create the first large bureaucracy in Ohio history.
  Work on the Ohio & Erie Canal commenced on December 10, 1825. Ohio was underdeveloped and starved for capital, and there was not nearly enough private money in the state to make even a small domestic bond sale successful. Kelley and Williams had to spend money judiciously. Rather than market all or a large portion of the necessary bonds immediately, the Canal Fund Commission decided to float only $400,000 ($9,300,000 in 2019 dollars) worth of bonds. These bonds were offered at a high rate of interest to attract buyers. The hope was that, as segments of the canal became operational and substantial toll income was generated, the bonds would become more attractive and the interest rate on future offerings would necessarily fall. Work on the Cleveland-to-Akron segment began first. Kelley fought against constant pressure from politicians and the press to spread finances and workforce thin and work on all segments of the canal at the same time. The "acting commissioners" also had to overcome unexpected labor shortages and contractors who abandoned their work.
  Through his hands-on work on the canal, Kelley became so well acquainted with the geography of Ohio that he authored the first comprehensive topographical map of the state in 1826. The other canal commissioners agreed to allow it to be published. Kelley tried to have the map published by a printer in the state of Delaware, but was embarrassed to discover that the Ohio General Assembly claimed copyright of his document.
  The Cleveland-to-Akron portion of the canal opened in July 1827, ahead of schedule. The high quality work, lack of corruption, and budget-conscious construction impressed investors, making it easier to sell canal bonds in the future. The responsibility for setting toll rates on the new canal als
caption: Kelley's topographical map of Ohio
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