I am a family genealogist, and recently I was happy to inform my wife that Alfred Noble, the man who oversaw the construction of the Weitzel lock at Sault Ste. Marie, and was on the board that recommenced the use of locks on the Panama Canal (instead of digging a sea-level canal), was the nephew of the wife of her second great-grandfather. You can imagine her excitement when she said, “Who and who?”
This revelation came about as a happy accident due to my interest in creating family trees of the people who are my research topics. I like to use timelines when researching a topic or a person, and in the last few years, I have begun to construct simple genealogies for my main subject. Using my Ancestry.com subscription, I can create as many family trees as I want. As the family tree is developed and more info is added to a person’s profile, a very usable timeline is created, and then Ancestry suggests possible hints about records that can help add to the life story of my subject. In addition to all this, I can then upload and make available records and facts that might be usable to other genealogists.
So, over the years I have created a few canal engineer family trees and here are a few examples. These are in no way extensive, but hopefully show what else can be found by taking a deeper dive into the family tree.
The Gill family. If I say Gill, most will think of Edward Hall Gill, who worked on many canals including the Sandy and Beaver, Schuylkill, and James River and Kanawha. Edward was the son of Valentine Gill. Valentine had moved the family from Ireland to Nova Scotia in 1814 to work as a surveyor on the Shubenacadie Canal. While there, he wrote this letter to President Thomas Jefferson that can be found on the Library of Congress website;
“Sir, The eminence of your character, your philosophic and scientific genius and your ability to promote and reward merit, has prompted me to seek at Monticello, the retreat of its bountiful donor, that patronage, for want of which oft times fair science droops, and ability remains unnoticed and unrewarded; “And many’s the flower that’s doom’d to bloom unseen, And waste its fragrance on the desert air.” Your universal knowledge and love of science will plead the excuse for the intrusion of an adventurer, an exile of Erin, whose hopes there once flattering, is now without pain to be remembered no more, I have been regularly bred to the Engineer department, Surveying in its fullest extent, leveling and conducting Canals &c. My drawings of Maps Plans &c, will be found not inferior.
I was brought in here while on my way to your inviting shores, where I have been employed but not to the extent of my wishes, the first desire of my heart, is to become a resident of your land of liberty! as a friend to science and humanity, say can I hope for employment there; I have a small family companions of my adventurous fate, prudence forbids my leaving this without a Knowledge of where I should take them; with diffidence I humbly solicit this mark of your condescension, which should I be so fortunate to attain, my gratitude shall ever remain unabated, Your general knowledge of the country, and intimacy with its conductors might point out employment for me, at some of its public works, or your extensive domain would perhaps afford a field sufficient to found my introduction.
I have the Honor to be Sir, with every mark of Respect & esteem your most Obedient Honorable Servant &c,” (signed) Valentine Gill
There is no record if that letter resulted in any job prospects, but we do know that the family moved to New York in 1817 so Valentine could help survey the Erie Canal. Valentine is noted in canal history for his advocacy of the southern canal route that would have had a summit 90 feet higher then Lake Erie. (He lost and the canal took the northern route.) There is a mention of two children of a Valentine Gill who died when they fell into a cistern when the family lived in the Cooperstown area. He later moved to Rochester, NY, where he drafted a map that he said was compiled from “correct surveys.”
As noted, the well-known Edward Hall Gill was a noted engineer for many canals, apparently working on two canals at the same time. In 1980, the Pennsylvania Canal Society published an excellent bio of Edward Gill in their Canal Currents newsletter. Edward never had children, so few people actively research his life beyond his work.
A brother of Edward, Washington Gill, also went into the surveying and engineering trade. He often found work with his brother and then later as the first civil engineer of Richmond, Virginia. He later moved to St. Charles, Missouri, where he superintended the construction of the first bridge over the river at that place. Interestingly, it is said that Washington Roebling was named after Washington Gill.
The Whitford/Noble family- Anyone who has read any history on the Erie Canal has likely read a bit about Noble Whitford. Nobel wrote the two-volume 1905 state report that has become the “bible” of canal research. He later followed up with a 1922 history of the Barge Canal.
An interesting tidbit about Noble is that in one of his later in life interviews, he related how he and his sister narrowly escaped death in 1874 when the floor of the Central Baptist Church of Syracuse gave way during a strawberry festival that the two were attending. Many were killed and over 200 were injured.
Noble was the son of David Earl Whitford and Sarah Noble. David was also an engineer on New York’s canals. It was reported that David began his employment in 1853 as a “tape-man” in the Syracuse weighlock. David oversaw many projects during the enlargement of the Erie. He died in 1913, but we can say that he was able to witness all three canal eras of New York.
My interest was tweaked when I was rereading “The Path Between The Seas,” and was reminded of the American civil engineer Alfred Noble (not Alfred Nobel for who the Nobel Prize is named.) Of course this raised the question as to any possible connections between Alfred Noble and Noble Whitford, since the mother’s maiden name is often used for her children. Looking back over the generations, I found that both families came from Westfield, Massachusetts. From there it was simply a matter of how many generations back I would find the common ancestor. It turns out that Alfred Noble and David Whitford were of the same generation, although the grandfather they both share was some six generations removed!
However, in the research I saw that Alfred was from Livonia, Michigan. And, in one of his obituaries, I saw a mention of his close friend, Judge Edgar Durfee. This was indeed odd as I had researched Judge Durfee after my mother-in-law had asked me about her memories of a judge in her family from Michigan. As it turns out, Judge Durfee and Alfred Noble were first cousins, and as a result, my wife is a closer relation to Alfred than Noble Whitford was!
You can read more about Whitford in this post titled, Whitford on Whitford.
The Watt family- David A. Watt was one of the lead engineers on the New York State Barge Canal, and the designer of the Mohawk dams. But he found work on many river canalization projects around the country in the late 1800s. These include the Fox, Green, Big Sandy, Kentucky, and other rivers. He also co-authored “The Improvement of Rivers,” with Benjamin Franklin (B.F.) Thomas. He also oversaw the construction of the coffer dams around the battleship Maine in 1911 when the ship was being recovered from Havana harbor. David was born and trained in England and came to America with his family as one of the early settlers in St. Petersburg, Florida. His brother, John Marshall Watt, was also a civil engineer and worked on the Panama Canal. Like many of these engineers, David never had children.
In spite of being one of the later engineers, I have only found one photo of David in the Barge Canal Bulletin which is a bit of a puzzle as David was certainly a self promoter. However, he did leave his papers to the Florida Historical Society, and his accounts of camping and boating along the Gulf Coast were used for an article in 1980 by Kay Tapley. David and his wife Josephine Abercrombie left their home to the city and it is now Abercrombie Park in St. Petersburg.
Benjamin Franklin Thomas – Benjamin, or as he was always known, B.F., was the co-author of “The Improvement of Rivers,” with David Watt. Benjamin using “B.F.” might be the reason that David used D.A. as his name. Benjamin was 12 years older then David and likely a mentor. Both men worked in the Army Corps and were assigned to the work along the Big Sandy River in Kentucky. B.F. was the principal engineer for the dam and lock at Louisa, which was the first needle dam to be built in the states. Benjamin would remain as the engineer on the Big Sandy for years, unlike his protēgē who would travel extensively in his work. Benjamin was born in May 1853 in Ironton, Ohio, and died in Catlettsburg, Kentucky in 1923.
Both Benjamin and David were active promoters of the movable dam and many of the Chanoine wicket type dams that were built along the Ohio and other rivers was due to their influence.
The Hutchinson family- Holmes Hutchinson’s name is so entwined with the history of New York’s canals that he almost doesn’t need an introduction. His 1834 maps of the Erie are still used today to locate canal structures all across the state. He began work on the Erie in 1819, and he spent a majority of his life working on canals across the state. But, as with many of the engineers of the period, they went where the work was. In 1825, Holmes was employed as the Chief Engineer of the Connecticut River Company, and later he became involved with the construction of railroads to the point where he was named as president of the Oswego and Syracuse Railroad in 1851. He visited the Morris Canal in 1834 to study the inclined planes likely to study their possible use on the Black River Canal. His father, Amaziah, was a surveyor and helped to lay out many villages in the central New York area. In 1788, Amaziah plotted Owego, NY, and later moved to Union and then to Ithaca. He set up a ferry service across Cayuga Lake in 1802 near Genoa, which is where Holmes was born, before moving west to Dublin, Ohio.
Holmes lived in Utica and had a number of children, one of whom was Charles Webster Hutchinson. In 1875, Charles was elected mayor of Utica and then in 1876, became a founder of the Oneida County Historical Society.
The Schillner family- And, like Holmes Hutchinson and his maps, George Schillner is associated with his 1896 maps of the Erie Canal. But unlike the other folks I have researched, he was more a surveyor and draftsman, rather then being an engineer. So his time was mostly spent in the employ of the state working on various surveys and mapping projects. The Schillner family was part of the large German population who settled in the Utica and Rome regions of New York. Some of the family found early employment as boaters on the Erie before settling down for more permanent occupations in Utica. And, apparently the family had some musical abilities as they are often mentioned as part of the Rome Cornet Band and the Rome Musical Association.
A note for any genealogists out there. The trees I create are not up to the genealogical standards. These simple trees give me a sense of the lives lived and sometimes, a surprise such as a church collapse is found. I use what is available online and through Ancestry and Family Search. By creating the tree, I hope that others can use it as hints for their research, but as I caution, they need to be checking and holding to their own genealogical standards. They can be found on Ancestry.com.
