 In the 1820s , Franklin Mills was included in the route of the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal ( P & O Canal ) . When construction began on the canal in the mid @-@ 1830s , land speculation was rampant in many areas of northeast Ohio along the canal , including Franklin Mills . As a result , an industrial and business region was established along the east side of the river in what is now downtown Kent . Factories and mills were either planned or constructed along the Cuyahoga River , some of which either were never built or ultimately failed , due mostly to effects of the Panic of 1837 . A lock and attached arch dam , however , was completed in 1836 . The canal officially opened in 1840 , but would only operate into the 1860s . By the 1870s the canal was completely shut down . 
