I was given a bunch of old letters and recipes from the 1870s and included were contracts with the state of Ohio for ditch digging. The contract include: from where to where, how deep, how wide and what grade. From what I gathered if some joe needed some cash you could always dig ditches for the state. I have checked online for anything about this but came up flat. I had to destroy the letters due to mildew. It funny though cause I had wondered the meaning behind that line for a while. Another one that baffled me as a kid was 'kit-bag', I think I finally figured that one out through Mudcat.

Heres a drainage map of Ohio Watersheds.