and after much chaffer, unloaded the flour and wheat from their wagons,
and loaded up with fish and salt, sometimes giving three barrels of flour
for one barrel of salt.

In 1827, the Ohio Canal was partially opened to Cleveland, and a
revolution in trade was effected. The interior of the State was soon
brought into communication with the enterprising merchants on Lake Erie
and the Ohio river. Mr. Blair was prompt to avail himself of the
opportunity to increase his trade. He built the first canal boat
constructed in Cleveland, and launched her in 1828, near the site of the
present Stone Mill, amid the plaudits of all the people of the village,
who had turned out to witness the launching. As soon as the craft settled
herself proudly on the bosom of the canal, Mr. Blair invited the
spectators of the launch to come on board, and, with a good team of horses
for motive power, the party were treated to an excursion as far as Eight
Mile Lock and return, the whole day being consumed in the journey.
Subsequently Mr. Blair became interested, with others, in a line of twelve
boats, employing nearly one hundred horses to work them.

From this time Cleveland continued to grow and prosper. The products of
the interior were brought in a steadily increasing stream to Cleveland by
the canal, and shipped to Detroit, then the great mart of the western
lakes. A strong tide of emigration had set towards Northern Michigan, and
those seeking homes there had to be fed mainly by Ohio produce, for which
Michigan fish and furs were given in exchange. But the opening of the
Erie Canal placed a new market within reach, and Mr. Blair was among the
first to take Ohio flour to New York, selling it there at fourteen
dollars the barrel.

In 1845, Mr. Blair, then in the prime of his vigor, being but fifty-two