Our story dates back to the canal boom era of the early 19th Century, an all but forgotten period in time when Hanover was a thriving port on the Sandy & Beaver Canal and an important link in the region's underground railroad.

Early Hanover played a particularly key role in the life of the Sandy & Beaver Canal which extended 73½ miles from the Ohio River at Smith's Ferry to the Ohio & Erie Canal at Bolivar. Situated midway between these two points just west of the big canal tunnel, Hanover was to become a flourishing center of commerce, boasting a peak population in the late 1830's of 2,000 inhabitants.

Having been settled in 1813 by the Quaker abolitionist James Craig, early Hanover was also known as a safe-haven for runaway slaves. Evident still today are remnants of the underground passage that connected George Sloan's "Brick Row" with his brother-in-law Dr. James Robertson's home just across the street. Runaway slaves were often whisked then, to a secret upstairs hideaway in the Robertson home that was accessible only by the way of a second-story window. At nightfall it is told, the slave fugitives would board a canal boat and flee to their next safe-haven and on to freedom in Canada.