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Bolivar History |
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In 1820, when the Ohio Canal was surveyed, the center line was on the west
side of the river. Consequently, Lawrenceville, on the east, declined and
Bolivar was established in 1825. Before the canal was built, grain had to be
hauled either to Cleveland or Pittsburgh by horse and wagon. The shipping costs
were greatly reduced via the canal and Bolivar became a shipping center. Farmers
from as far away as Magnolia would bring their grain to Bolivar for shipment.
Wagons waited in lines a mile long to be unloaded into a horse-powered elevator
and raised into the mill. During the Canal Era, there was a great influx of people to the area. The Sandy-Beaver Canal was planned to connect Pittsburgh and Bolivar. The Yant Allotment was laid out at that time. In the 1830's, the Sandy-Beaver Canal project failed and growth slowed. Bolivar's first mill was operated by James F. Evans it was later modernized and last operated by the Farm Bureau. The mill was later moved to an industrial park area were it still stands unused. Bolivar is also the home of Fort Laurens State Memorial. In 1779, a garrison of fewer than 200 Americans with stood a siege of British and allied Indian forces at Fort Laurens, a tiny outpost on the Ohio frontier. Through the long winter, the troops fought off the enemy and the threat of starvation: twenty-three soldiers died. Their sacrifice is honored in the Fort Laurens museum and in the Tomb of the Unknown Patriot of the American Revolution, the final resting place of one of the fallen defenders of the fort. |
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Tuscarawas County Convention & Visitors Bureau 124 East High Avenue, New Philadelphia, Ohio 44663 (330) 602-2420 / (800) 527-3387 / Fax: (330) 602-2433 tourism@tusco.net |
