Canton continued its role as gateway to northeast Missouri agricultural after the war, with several industries catering to those needs. Pork processing had begun in the 1840s, with thousands of hogs being slaughtered by the late 1870s. Iron plows, wagons, a patented hand corn planter, and buttons—using mussel shells from the nearby river—were some of the diverse items manufactured in Canton in the 19th century. Limited rail service had existed in Canton in antebellum times but the tracks were destroyed during Civil War fighting. Rail service was finally restored to the town in 1871 with the arrival of the St. Louis, Keokuk & Northwestern Railroad. While the Mississippi river has been the lifeblood of the town, it has also been Canton's nemesis throughout the years. Major flooding has occurred many times in the town's history. Some of the more notable, in addition to the aforementioned 1851 flood, were in 1929, 1973, 1993 and 2008. The 1929 flood was caused by a levee break. Within an hour of the break two square miles of the town and surrounding countryside were underwater, including more than 200 homes and the Canton school building but no lives were lost. During the New Deal era, Jessie Hull Mayer won the federal commission to complete a mural in the Canton post office. Murals were produced from 1934 to 1943 in the United States through the Section of Painting and Sculpture, later called the Section of Fine Arts, of the Treasury Department. Mayer's mural, "Winter Landscape" was installed in 1940 and was restored in 1971, with additional restoration work performed in 2005.