The Reservoir War was a minor

insurrection Rebellion, uprising, or insurrection is a refusal of obedience or order. It refers to the open resistance against the orders of an established authority. A rebellion originates from a sentiment of indignation and disapproval of a situation and ...

Paulding County Paulding County is the name of two counties in the United States of America: * Paulding County, Georgia * Paulding County, Ohio Paulding County is a county located in the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was about 18 ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in 1887.

Background

Just east of

Antwerp, Ohio Antwerp is a village in Paulding County, Ohio, United States, along the Maumee River. Antwerp is home of the Antwerp Archers. The population was 1,736 at the 2010 census. Antwerp is the nearest village to the Six Mile Reservoir, the site of the ...

was the ''Six Mile Reservoir'' of the

Wabash and Erie Canal The Wabash and Erie Canal was a shipping canal that linked the Great Lakes to the Ohio River via an artificial waterway. The canal provided traders with access from the Great Lakes all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. Over 460 miles long, it was th ...

. The reservoir, about 2000 acres (8 km²) in size, had been built in 1840 by damming and diking a creek. It was used to provide water for the canal. The Wabash Canal was completed in 1843 and the Miami and Erie Canal in 1845, but they only operated for about ten years before they started shutting down. The last canalboat on the Wabash canal made its last docking in 1874 in

Huntington, Indiana Huntington, known as the "Lime City", is the largest city in and the county seat of Huntington County, Indiana, Huntington County, Indiana, United States. It is in Huntington Township, Huntington County, Indiana, Huntington and Union Township, Hun ...

, but other sections shut down years earlier. For instance, the section through

Fort Wayne, Indiana Fort Wayne is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Indiana, United States. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is west of the Ohio border and south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 263,886 as of the 2020 Censu ...

had been sold in 1870, and filled in so the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

could lay tracks. For twenty years, the reservoir provided little for area residents but a mosquito-breeding ground for the spread of "ague", an archaic term for what was later recognized as

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...

. The decaying resovoir also created issues for nearby agriculture and produced a noxious smell. An effort had been made to have the State of Ohio abandon the reservoir, but the bill failed to pass.

Conflict

Local residents attempted to cut the dike and drain the reservoir one night in March 1887, but wet work in cold weather being treacherous, they did an incomplete job. Governor

Joseph B. Foraker Joseph Benson Foraker (July 5, 1846 – May 10, 1917) was an American politician of the Republican Party who served as the 37th governor of Ohio from 1886 to 1890 and as a United States senator from Ohio from 1897 until 1909. Foraker was ...

issued a proclamation requiring the rioters to disperse, and ordered General Axline with several companies of militia to the site to protect the state's property and preserve the peace. When the militia arrived, however, there was nobody there. Residents of the county were in favor of draining the reservoir, and investigators were unable to discover who had damaged the reservoir. On the night of April 25, 1887, a band of between 200 and 400 men, residents of the county, proceeded to the lower end of the reservoir. They captured the guard and tended to his minor self-inflicted gunshot wounds; nobody else fired a shot. The band dynamited two locks, and spent the entire night cutting the dikes with pick and spade. Although this still did not entirely drain the reservoir, it was mortally wounded. The reservoir and canal were later abandoned by the state.

Aftermath

The band attacking the reservoir wall carried a flag bearing the slogan, "No Compromise!". Paulding County, Ohio still uses this motto as of 2021. A historical marker for the site was dedicated in 2021.

References

* Historical Collections of Ohio, by Henry Howe, Centennial Edition, 1903. * Historical Atlas of Paulding County, Ohio, by O. Morrow and F. W. Bashore, 1892.

External links

Paulding County Seal
* {{Ohio History of Ohio Paulding County, Ohio Riots and civil disorder in Ohio