Oral history

This oral history of Clifford "Pete" Mose was conducted by Walt Bolton in 1972. In it Mose, from Sharpsburg, tells of his experience on the canal, replacing his brother who went to join the army during World War I.

Mose also tells of life growing up in Sharpsburg, finding bullets and muskets on the battlefield at Antietam, muskets in the Antietam Creek, and the discovery of the bodies of three Ohio soldiers on Mansfield Avenue on the battlefield.

The first PDF is the file as received from the Frederick County Public Library, the second is a searchable version.

Mrs. Schroeder: Yeah. And in the middle of the deck then we had a ring where we tied the children with a harness.

Mr. Wesley: So if there were children on the boat, you tethered them just like a dog or —

Mrs. Schroeder: Yeah, 'we tied them. They couldn't fall overboard.

Mr. Wesley: And that ring bowl was on top of the cabin.

Mrs. Schroeder: Yeah, on the deck.

Mr. Wesley: Now, you said earlier that your mother seldom took a trip on the boat. She just kept house in Sharpsburg?

Mrs. Schroeder: Yeah, and raised the other children and kept most of them in school. She'd go once in a while. You see, she's on here now.

Mr. Wesley: Oh, in that picture.

Mrs. Schroeder: Yeah, here's my mother. Here's her wash tub where she's washing and —

Mr. Wesley: Is that the whole family in the picture?

Mr. Wesley: I'm talking to Mrs. Mary Schroeder who lives near MacArthur Boulevard in Washington, who comes from an old canal family. Tell us where you were born.

Mrs. Schroeder: In Sharpsburg.

Mr. Wesley: Your father captained a canal boat?

Mrs. Schroeder: Yes, that's all he ever done, was canal boating.

Mr. Wesley: How long was he on the canal?

Mrs. Schroeder: Oh, gosh, I don't know. I know many a year.

The following interview was conducted on behalf of the National Park Service on Sunday, May 26, 1974, with Mrs. Clara Manning of Paw Paw, West Virginia. The interviewer is Martha Ross.

MS. ROSS:       What I want to ask you about, Mrs. Manning - I understand you were a lockkeeper's daughter, and that you lived on the Canal. Is that not true?

Ed Wesley:        So your father, after, say 1879, had someone boat for him, and then he—

Tom Little:        Oh, yes, he didn't buy the Enterprise, had it built, right next to him. That'uz in 1881. Boatyard was built in 1880. And he had the Enterprise built in 1881. And he sold it to Mr. Ed Gunn [?] , another boatman lived down here, to William A. Smoot of Alexandria, Virginia for—I think, $200.00. That'uz in 1889. He didn't get the check 'til after the '89 flood.

Ed:        Oh.

Interview of Tom Little
Age 97
Interviewer: Ed Wesley

Father Had the Best Known Store on the Canal
Hancock, Maryland

Ed:       I'm talking to Tom Little from Hancock, Maryland, whose father founded one of the best known stores along the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. You were starting to tell me how your father came to the store business here in Hancock.

MS. ROSS: Where did you live in the wintertime ?

MR. EATON: On the boat.

MS. ROSS: On the boat?

MR. EATON: Oh yeah.

MS. ROSS: Docked here at Cumberland.

MR. EATON: Oh, yeah. We was the first boat, right above the wharf where they loaded them. That was our quarters there. Yeah, it was a regular favorite tying up place, otherwise.

MS. ROSS: How did you keep it warm in the wintertime?

MR. EATON: Oh, we had a stove.

MS. ROSS: Coal fire?

MS. ROSS: How about taking care of the animals, when you were responsible for driving the mules and hitching them up and all, what were your responsibilities then?

MR. EATON: Well, if the drivers, if they worked all right, what I mean, and not actually abuse them or nothing, what I mean, to keep them working, you know what I mean, fairly working, but not just digging in as hard as they could, you know what I mean, along as they was pulling the boat at a good walking pace, I'd say, why, that was all we cared for, what I mean.

MR. EATON: And sometimes we'd get short trips at Williamsport, what I mean. We'd call them short trips, otherwise. And that would just be about three days, what I mean, and nights, and we'd be back, ready to load, what I mean. Sometimes we'd get unloaded, sometimes there'd be boats there ahead of us, we'd have to wait otherwise, our turn to get unloaded. If we was fortunate enough to drive in there with no delay, why, we'd get right unloaded, why, we'd hoof it right back, what I mean. We wouldn't lose no time.

MS. ROSS: What were some of your jobs on the boat?