[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 104 (Tuesday, July 15, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1483]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




OHIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY MARKER TO COMMEMORATE NEW BREMEN AND MIAMI AND 
                               ERIE CANAL

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                         HON. MICHAEL G. OXLEY

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 15, 2003

  Mr. OXLEY. Mr. Speaker, at noon today in New Bremen, Ohio, an Ohio 
Historical Society marker was dedicated to commemorate New Bremen and 
the Miami and Erie Canal. I am proud to send my best wishes to everyone 
celebrating this event.
  One hundred seventy years ago, work commenced on a connector between 
the Miami Canal in Dayton and the Wabash and Erie Canal in Junction. 
This connector, dubbed the Miami Extension, was completed in June of 
1845. In that month, the packet boat Banner became the first vessel to 
travel the canal from Cincinnati to Toledo, taking three days for the 
journey.
  In 1849, the Ohio General Assembly gave the name ``Miami and Erie 
Canal'' to the entire system. Even as railroad track was laid 
throughout western Ohio in the decades to follow, the canal remained an 
important commercial and military transport route. The Great Flood of 
1913, however, washed out many major sections of the Miami and Erie 
Canal, rendering it impassable and leading to its abandonment.
  The Village of New Bremen in my congressional district was founded in 
1833, the same year the Miami Extension was started. Many of New 
Bremen's founders, mostly Hanoverian German Protestants, came to Ohio 
via the National Road and the Ohio River, landing in Cincinnati. There, 
they formed the City of Bremen Society and agreed to purchase 80 acres 
of land in Ohio to found a Protestant community. First called 
``Bremen,'' the village's plat was officially recorded on June 11, 
1833. New Bremen, the midpoint on the Cincinnati-Toledo segment of the 
Miami and Erie Canal, is celebrating its 170th birthday this year.
  Mr. Speaker, I applaud the New Bremen Historic Association and the 
New Bremen-New Knoxville Rotary Club for their efforts in securing this 
historical marker from the State of Ohio. I also thank Doug Harrod and 
Darrin Klinger for their research on New Bremen's history and the 
importance of the Miami and Erie in our state's past.

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