05/23/2026
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Saturday History Lesson with
The History Fanatic
This weekend we are talking about:
–Ward Canal–
Lake Erie's southern shoreline, once teeming with shipbuilding activity, now is without any major shipyard following the closing of two American Shipbuilding Co. Yards.
The Lorain yard closed, as did the Toledo Amship yard on Front St. The demise of the industry spurred one local historian and boating enthusiast to research the days when an area of Jerusalem Township, 13 miles east of Toledo, was a shipbuilding center.
Martin Z. Wiener, a local businessman and township farmer,in the journal of the Western Lake Erie Historical Society, describes activities along Wards Canal in the 1870's. The shipyard only lasted a few years, but a sawmill built as an adjunct to it survived well into the 1990's.
Mr. Wiener noted that not many of the thousands of boaters and fishermen who use Wards Canal to get to Lake Erie, are aware that the canal was dug to provide access to the shipyard.
A barn on his farm, north of Route 2 at Bono, was built on the foundations of an old shipyard. Western Lake Erie has always,up until now, been the center of shipbuilding activity, even extending back to the War of 1812, when some of Commodore Perry's ship were built there
In 1867, Captain Eber Brock Ward, a Detroit industrialist, bought 8,500 acres of oak Timbers for his shipyard. Ward needed some way to get the lumber out of the swampy area. Using a steam dredge towed in from Detroit, as well as scrapper, picks, and shovels, he had a Canal dug extending about 2.5 miles in from the Lake.
The canal, was 30 feet wide and 15 feet deep, ran southwest from the Lake for about 1 ¾ miles, where it turned west, following the path of present day Route 2 . It narrowed into the channel of Cedar Creek just east of what today is Teachout Road.
The Detroiter first built a sawmill near the present intersection of Route 2 and Lyon Road. The shipyard was built on the north side of the canal about 1 1/2 miles east of the mill and opened in 1870. The shipyard employed about 100 men, stood north of the canal opposite what now is Main Street in Bono.
The town across from Wards shipyard was named Shepherdsville, probably after brothers Dan and Bogne Shepherd who operated a saloon and the boarding house. They applied for a post office under that name, but were turned down because another Ohio town already had applied for the name. Instead they picked the name of a respected Indian, Joseph Bunno. Eventually, through repeated usage, the name was shorted to Bono.
Some sizable vessels, including schooner-barges were built in Wards shipyard.
Ward's shipyard shut down in the economic depression of 1873, and the captain died two years later in Detroit. His former home was sold, the boarding house was made into two separate homes and the sawmill became an onion storage house.
History and Pictures Provided by: Oregon-Jerusalem Historical Society Archive
