 Upon completion of the canal in 1834 it was already a thriving community featuring a manufacturer of canal boats.Other businesses in Port Penn included hotels and taverns that provided housing and food for the men working on the canal, and a blacksmith and a saddle maker.There was a butcher who also operated a grocery business, a weaver, a wagon builder, a shoemaker, an ice business, as well as several teachers, masons and general merchants.