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Transcriber's note: Peter E. Walt was born Dec. 21, 1855 and died in Harrisburg at his home at 1360 Vernon Street, January 2, 1950. The man in this article was my great grandfather. newspaper article from Harrisburg Patriot Newspaper, dated Oct 4, 1948 by ED HAUCK.
BOAT MODELS REMIND HIM OF OLD PENNA. CANAL DAYS
(Click on photo in section below)
How many people in Harrisburg remember that this city was once a vital cog in a maze of inland waterways whereby coal, lumber and other products of the State found their way to ports on the Eastern seaboard?
Peter E. Walt of 1360 Vernon street, who will celebrate his 93rd birthday December 21, turned calendar back more than a half century yesterday as he reminisced about the days when he was a canal boat captain on the Central Pennsylvania waterways.
As mementos of that by-gone era the veteran canalman has carved two replicas of the type craft he piloted through the narrow waterways. Given the opportunity, he will discuss lengthily every detail of the boat and precisely explain the function of each.
With two teams of sturdy mules and a huge flat -barge, Mr. Walt whose profession pre-dated the advent of railroads in this section the State plied his trade for over 30 years.
BOUGHT HIS OWN BOAT
As a small boy in Liverpool, Perry County, where he was born in 1855, Mr. Walt remembered starting as a guide boy on a team of tow mules with a cousin who was a boat owner. Until he saved enough money in his early twenties, before buying his own boat, he worked for other men. It was a brisk business full of lively competition, and the fastest man to go downstream, unload and return for another load, was invariably the wealthiest man.
The canals stretched along two branches of the Susquehanna River to Sunbury, where they joined and flowed down the west short to Clarks Ferry. There is broke off abruptly and resumed again on the East shore to Columbia and thence went to Havre De Grace, Md.
At Clark's Ferry it was necessary for the mules. to pull the barge cross-stream from the west shore to the east. The mules mounted a special outside path along the old covered bridge there. Therein lies the fondest tale in Mr. Walt's memory. It occurred one time when his guide boy snarled the bridge gear at mid-stream. The harness on the lead mule, Belle, which was blind, slipped from his neck. The other mules hawed to one side, forcing the third mule over the guard railing. The animal plunged into the fast current and was swept downstream. To all intents the mule was lost.
CANAL BOAT CAPTAIN --Several hours later when the weary boatman stopped at an inn three miles downstream he was told by the innkeeper that the blind mule was stranded on an island in the river.
Mr. Walt immediately secured a raft and poled his way to the island, where he spied the animal munching dry grass. He called to her.
"And do you, know," the old man said she just pricked her ears and whinnied in recognition I took her back then and she and the other mules had a grand reunion."
Some years later the railroads with their decreased cost of transportation sounded the death knell for the sustaining business of the canal boatmen. By the early 1900's only a few token barges remained in the canals.
A section of the canal running along the Bethlehem Steel Mill in Steelton is all that remains of this once booming industry in this area. The other part that wended through Harrisburg has long since been filled as the track bed carrying railroad trains propelled the city into another age.
Following the demise of his livelihood on the canals, Mr. Walt moved into the city and worked at various jobs. He was last employed by the School Board as a utility man in the city high schools until he retired on his 80th birthday He resides with his daughter, is Minnie Walt.
About the days on the canal Mr. Walt says with a finality, "Ah yes those were the days." (SEE ADDITIONAL INFO BELOW)
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