This Canal Comments was a bit unusual as it was a list of bullet-points that Terry used to guide a talk he gave. I don’t know if he used a slide show along with this talk. So aside from cleaning up the format, I left it as it was sent.
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Hi Guys:
This column is in the form of a set of note cards I made for a talk I gave to the Monroe Falls Historical Society back in May of 2008. This was before the Damn Busters destroyed the dam in the Cuyahoga River and they had to change the name of the town to Monroe Ripples.
The last time the subject of this column was the P & O Canal, I received a lot of replies, so maybe there is a bit of interest there. To the best of my knowledge, there never has been a book written on that canal. Over the years several people have planned to write one and done a lot of work, but no book as yet.
So here is the ‘complete’ history of that canal – in less than 1,300 words! Maybe it will inspire someone to write that book.
The interior Ohio towns of Warren and Ravenna were “left off” the route of the Ohio Canal.
Warren became a “hotbed” of Anti-Canal sentiment.
Alfred Kelley “promised” Simon Perkins (one of the leaders in the area), “every assistance” in approving a branch canal into his area. Perkins stood away from the anti-canal movement.
Local meetings were held to propose a canal between the Ohio and Pennsylvania systems throughout 1825 and 1826.
The state legislatures in Ohio and Pa. passed acts in Jan. and April 1827 granting a charter for a private company to build such a canal
Early in 1827, the Ohio State Legislature authorized The Board of Public Works (Kelley) to run surveys of a proposed canal connecting the Ohio & Pennsylvania canal systems. Sebried Dodge’s survey. Reported in January, 1828. Additional Surveys were run through 1832.
A meeting was held in Warren, Ohio on Oct. 1, 1833 with representatives from Pittsburgh and Philadelphia to determine which of three proposed “crosscuts’ they would support financially S & B Canal, P & O Canal, P & O RR. (P & O Canal ‘won’)
The Pa. canal connection hadn’t yet been finalized so the P & O Canal Co. decided to delay opening subscription books.
The Beaver Division of the PA Canal (from Rochester to New Castle) was authorized in 1834.
Finally, in 1835, the Canal Company Directors had the charters renewed in Ohio and PA and, in April, stock books were opened.
$1,000,000 of stock was subscribed by the end of May, 1835. The first meeting of stockholders of the P & O Canal Company took Place in New Castle PA on May 2, 1835. Officers and a Board of Directors were elected.
Engineers Sebried Dodge (Ohio) and James Harris (Pa.) were appointed and new surveys began on June 8, 1835.
Initial contracts were let, beginning at the PA Junction, in August of 1835. At the time these contracts were let, the western division ran through Middlebury and connected with the Ohio Canal at about the present site of the old Goodrich complex.
Early in 1836, the western division was changed considerably. It ran through the village of Cuyahoga Falls, into the Akron Mill Race and joined the Ohio Canal at the Lower Basin in Akron near the current baseball park.
The line of the canal was divided into an eastern division (from the Junction with the Beaver Division) to the Trumbull/Portage County Line – 45 ½ miles. The western division ran from the Portage/Trumbull County line to Akron and The Ohio Canal – 38 miles.
The country entered a deep economic ‘Panic’ in 1837. By the 11th of May only $290,000 of the subscribed $1,000,000 had been collected. Lack of funds and a Cholera epidemic among canal workers caused work to be suspended for several months that year, and next.
The Loan (Plunder) Law of 1836 authorized the State of Ohio to purchase up to half the stock in a company that had stock subscriptions of at least $1,000,000. Ohio pledged $420,000 in 1837 to the P & O Canal Company. The State of PA. pledged $50,000 in 1839.
These monies weren’t always paid promptly to the canal company’s treasury, But the project kept moving when others were shut down.
The P & O Canal opened from Junction to Ravenna in the fall of 1839 and through to Akron in April of 1840.
It was an immediate success. The initial feeder system at the summit was designed to handle from 40 to 60 boats a day. This limit was reached in 1843 and additional reservoirs were constructed during the next two years.
The canal line was divided into four sections for maintenance purposes. One, from Akron to Campbellsport – 24 miles. Two, from Campbellsport to Warren – 23 miles. Three, from Warren to Kimballs – 20 miles. Four from Kimballs to Junction – 16 miles.
Four new maintenance boats were constructed, but the entire engineering staff was ‘let go’.
Annual reports never detailed maintenance expenses which amounted to $0,000 to $12,000 per year.
The western division carried a great deal of farm and dairy products and built up the countryside. Coal and iron ore deposits from Girard to Youngstown resulted in a great industrial complex being built along the line of the eastern division.
Merchandise from the east flowed directly through the P & O to Akron and Cleveland. Akron receipts rose from ½ million #s in 1841 to 2.4 million by 1850. 1/3 to ½ of all canal receipts received in Cleveland came via the P & O by 1850.
Passenger packets operated on the P & O from 1840 thru 1852 with a peak of 8,481 passengers traveling on the canal in 1844.
Modest dividends of 1 or 2% a year were paid to the stockholders during the 40s and early 50s for a total of about 15%. 2 ¾% dividends were paid during the peak years of 1849 and 1850.
The Erie Extension Canal opened from Newcastle to Erie in 1844 and gave the P & O considerable competition to Lake Erie. The P & O and the Erie had a lively toll rate ‘war’ for a number of years.
Railroad competition began in 1852 in the form of the Cleveland &Pittsburgh RR. Most passenger and “rapid freight” traffic disappeared from the canal after this date.
Directors of the proposed Cleveland & Mahoning RR gained control of the canal in 1854. When this RR opened in 1857, canal tolls were raised by 50%, shifting most remaining traffic to the RR
In 1855 one arch of the stone aqueduct at Newton Falls had collapsed and a temporary wooden truss and trough constructed to maintain traffic. An engineer was hired by the company and his report detailed the poor physical condition of many of the canal structures. Dividends were cut in an attempt to gather a sufficient sum to effect repairs. The canal’s physical condition continued to worsen.
Under RR control, canal income for 1858 was half of what it had been in 1857. The RR attempted to legally abandon the canal in 1858, but a decision was handed down that attempts to close any portion of the canal would result in a loss of the charter.
Income in 1861 was $13,000 (66% less than in 1857) while maintenance costs totaled $16,000.
The legislature was petitioned in 1861 to authorize partial sale of the canal and abandonment of the rest, but no action was taken.
In January 1863, the state of Ohio sold it’s stock in the P & O Canal (original cost $420,000) for $35,000 to the C & M RR.
Ohio and PA authorized the closure of the P & O canal in March and April 1867.
Portions of the western division remained open for hydraulic purposes until 1872. Short stretches of the eastern division carried boating until 1872. The Middlebury Branch was used sporadically through 1873.
The P & O Canal was officially sold to the Cleveland & Mahoning RR In 1873. Canal right-of way & stone sold and distributed to various railroad lines thru 1879.
The original mill race in Akron was “sold” to Akron Millers in 1873 and ran beneath the streets of Akron well into the 20th. century.
J.H. Devereaux (Receiver) closed the books on the P & O Canal Company with an $812.84 Check to F.E. Pittman, Treasurer of the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio RR. Co. on January 31, 1882.
i Note cards from a talk given to the Monroe Falls Historical Society.
At one time the United States had over 4,500 miles of canals and navigations, and one of the longstanding goals of the American Canal Society has been to promote and educate about all these waterways. Many of these canals were connected, not only physically where a boat could move from one to another, but by the engineers, contractors, financiers, laborers and politicians, all who advocated for their construction and then moved from one to another to see that they were built.
I recently reread the book, Canals For A Nation, by Ronald E. Shaw (1990). I first read it decades ago and found that it remains a wonderfully written book. It perhaps has more meaning now that my understanding of canals has grown after many years of study. Shaw weaves the history of all the canals of the United States together, showing inter-connectivity of those American canals built in the canal era, which Shaw defines as 1790-1860. If you are a person who just gazes out upon your local or state canal as The Canal, Shaw gently proves that you are missing a large piece of the canal puzzle.
The book seamlessly weaves from one canal to the next. The book only has seven chapters that takes the reader through the canal era. Shaw begins with the Pioneer Canals and Republican Improvements, and then shows how those early efforts led to the canals of the Great Lakes to Atlantic: New York and New England, down to the Mid-Atlantic: Pennsylvania and New Jersey, then to the Chesapeake and Southern Canals, and finishing with the Canals of the Northwest. He wraps all these up with The Canal Network and the Canal Era in Politics and Economic Development. This last chapter hones in on how canals could be considered economic engines and community builders, even when they were considered to be financial failures.
Mr. Shaw presents those 70 years of history in 237 pages, which means that his narrative moves fairly quickly. In fact, Canals For A Nation is basically a guide that presents to you all the canals, and if you find that your interest has been tweaked, you can glance at the extensive notes, bibliographical essay and index, to find more in-depth resources for further study (at least those that had been published up to 1990). He also presents a nice map of all the canals in the inside cover to help you find your way around the network.
If you are new to canals or have been around for a bit, go find a copy of this book and give it a read. If you are one of those folks who only wants to study Your Canal, you might find this book to be eye-opening. There are new and used copies out there and the book deserves to be in your library.
Editors Note- I tried to find this article online and was not successful. So I don’t know if it was broken up into so many paragraphs or if that was Terry’s work. Anyhow, this is how he send it. It is quite a long article for a newspaper and makes me wonder if it was spread out over multiple days. There are a few words missing at the beginning of one paragraph.
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Terry’s Introduction- A couple of weeks ago, Tim Botos of the Canton repository had a three article event on Transportation in Stark County. He concentrated on three transportation routes, the Ohio Canal, the Lincoln Highway, and Route I-77. That made me think of a 1941 Repository article I ran across several years ago while compiling listings of the Massillon Museum’s clipping file. This 1941 article described the benefits to the county and area brought about by the county’s canals and railroads – and how local business benefited from modern transportation. Oddly enough, roads were not mentioned.
So I’ve copied that very good 1941 article for today’s CANAL COMMENTS column, only adding some footnotes to insert an historical fact over an historical legend here and there.
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THE CANTON REPOSITORY: March 31, 1940, with footnotes by T.K. Woods, Feb. 2011.
Canals came to Ohio – to Stark County – and with them an exciting era. The Legislature on February 4, 1825 authorized the Ohio & Erie system, by way of the Tuscarawas, Muskingum, and Scioto Rivers from Cleveland to Portsmouth, and the Maumee-Miami system on the western side of the state, each connecting Lake Erie with the Ohio River.i
It was a great day, July 4, 1825, when Governor DeWitt Clinton of New York turned the first shovel of earth at Licking Summit. With pomp and ceremony, Governor Jeremiah Morrow of Ohio and other dignitaries turned other shovels full, Governor Clinton toured much of the state to stimulate interest in the building of branch canals. He envisioned the entire Ohio system as a gigantic feeder for his own Grand Canal, running through New York State, a transportation system traversing all the inland states from New York to the Mississippi.
There was feverish speculation in land adjacent to the line of the canal. The economic and social effects were rapidly visible. After twenty years of quiet development, largely limited to the county’s boundary, shut in by nearly impassible roads to an economy self contained, the thrifty, industrious, steady, German-speaking farmers of Stark County and their English-speaking neighbors suddenly found the outside world knocking at their side door.
Thousands of men were needed for labor and much of it was performed by farmers living in the vicinity. Dreams of new towns seized the imagination. Canton men bought land and laid out Bolivar, naming it for the South American hero of the time. Here the canal was to cross the Tuscarawas River by an aqueduct. James W. Lathrop and William Christmas of Canton established Canal Fulton in the northwest corner of the county.ii
In the winter of 1825-26, Captain James Duncan, retired shipmaster from Portsmouth, N.H., owner of most of the township’s site land, established Massillon. His scholarly wife, a niece of Charles Hammond, early editor of the Cincinnati Gazette, suggested the name in honor of Jean Baptiste de-Masssillon, celebrated Roman Catholic French bishop of the days of Louis XIV. Contracts for canal work in the vicinity of Massillon were awarded at Captain Duncan’s house January 18, 1826. (Kendall, the hamlet that preceded it, is now the fourth ward of Massillon; named for Kirky-in-Kendal, ancient English town celebrated in history.)
Akron, the Greek word meaning The Heights, rose in bustling fashion from a collection of shanties where the canal laborers lodged at the top of a spectacular and picturesque descent which locks and sluices would lower the waterway from the Portage Lakes to the Cuyahoga Valley.
An advertisement in the Repository stimulated interest in the residential and business prospects of Massillon: “The proprietors are now laying out and offer for sale lots in the new town of Massillon, situated on the Ohio Canal at the intersection of the great road leading from Pittsburgh westward through New Lisbon, Canton, Wooster, and Mansfield . “It occupies both banks of the canal, having a large and commodious basin near the center of town, with a large number of warehouse lots laid out adjoining so as to render it peculiarly convenient for commercial business. The prices of the lots and terms of payment may be known by applying to Alfred Kelly, acting canal commissioner, James Duncan, one of the proprietors who resides in the town; or John Saxton, agent for the proprietors in Canton.”
Simultaneous with the Ohio development, Pennsylvania built canals and there was much competition for labor. Alfred Kelly advertised in the Repository that from $10.00 to $13 a month would be paid – 30 to 34 cents a day – with plain board and shanty lodging. Some contractors, in addition, assured their workmen a daily jigger of whiskey.iii
Canal traffic opened between Akron and Cleveland July 4, 1827. Exactly two years after the project began, a boat dropped down the Akron locks and, at 3 miles an hour, its speed hardly suggested the revolutionary effects the canal was to produce in Ohio and Stark County within a few years.
In August, 1828, the canal was open for traffic from Akron to Massillon. Stark County had its outlet to Lake Erie! Farmers responded instantly with grain for shipment. Bezaleel Wells and others shipped the wool and cloth which they milled at Steubinville overland to Massillon, up the canal to Cleveland, across Lake Erie, through the Grand Canal and the Hudson River to New York City, up the Atlantic to Boston and down the Atlantic to Philadelphia and Baltimore. It was faster and cheaper than the old wagon route over the mountains eastward.
The people of Columbiana county incorporated the Sandy & Beaver Canal Company, financed by the sale of stock as a private enterprise, surveyed its route from the junction of Beaver creek and the Ohio river, up through New Lisbon and across to Minerva and Bolivar, there to join with the Ohio & Erie. It was a distance of 73 miles and called for the construction of several tunnels, the largest at a summit just east of Hanover.iv It was confronted with protracted delays in financing, organization and engineering.
By the end of the year (1829) the (Ohio) canal was open to Dover and by July 10, 1830, it had reached Newark. The tide of commerce shot upward, the cash value of wheat doubling.
Lotteries flourished: the Dismal Swamp Lottery, the Union Canal Lottery of Philadelphia, the Pokomoke Lottery of Wilmington, and the Grand Consolidated Lottery of Pittsburgh. All of them sought chance-taking customers in these parts; their advertising was compelling, with dollar signs and strings of figures running through it.
Carroll county in 1832 was created out of townships taken from Stark, Columbiana, Jefferson and Tuscarawas counties.
Complete from one end to the other, the canal in 1833 transported freight and passengers from Cleveland to Portsmouth – from Lake Erie to the Ohio river and over these water courses to New York City and to New Orleans. Simultaneously, the Miami canal was open from Dayton to Cincinnati and the Welland canal on the Canadian side connected Lake Erie and New Orleans.
The new town – Massillon, as differentiated from Kendall – had 100 houses and population of 500.
Elderkin Potter, New Lisbon Lawyer, broke the first ground for the Sandy & Beaver Nov. 24, 1834, addressing great throngs of people, setting forth in glowing terms the rosy future for New Lisbon and Columbiana County.
Concerned over the growing importance of Massillon, misguided in their zeal to off-set Massillon’s advantage, a group of Canton citizens subscribed to stock in the Nimishillen & Sandy Slackwater Navigation Company – a fancy title for what they thought would be a feeder canal from Canton to the Sandy & Beaver, thence to the Ohio & Erie and out to the oceans. Pomp and ceremony accompanied the breaking of ground on lower Walnut Street. Speculation in real estate ensued, casting the buyers into despair when the little Nimishillen creek quickly demonstrated that its water supply was far too inadequate to float boats of size. The project, of course, was abandoned and a miner local panic occurred.v
Massillon grew and so did Canton, both in population and prosperity. Because Massillon’s movement had the excitement of a “boom”, local pessimists overlooked the gradual benefits backwashing to Canton. By comparison they saw Canton retrogressing. The country had a population of 26,556, doubled in ten years.
The canal boomed wheat to $1.00, corn to 37 cents, rye to 56 cents, oats to 28 cents, butter to 14 cents, clover seed to $5.00, whiskey to 31 ½ cents a gallon, tallow to 10 cents a pound. The tax value of town lots totaled $96,556, a gain 65% over 1827. Eighty-nine merchants were in business in Canton. Pleasure carriages ranged the streets where none existed ten years before.
Massillon thrived as “the Wheat City.” The, canal, a busy thoroughfare, reflected the lusty, picturesque period. There was talk of railroads, but it dampened not a whit the ardor of canal enthusiasts, yet it held much hope for communities remote from the waterways.
A charter granted by the legislature March 14, 1836, to the Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad Company, projected to run through Columbiana county and cut northward through a corner of Stark county, lay dormant.
The panic of 1837 struck the east and its repercussions were promptly felt in Ohio. Construction of the Sandy & Beaver canal prosecuted with vigor in despite many obstacles, came to a standstill. The price of wheat and other farm produce dropped. Business in general took a tailspin. In many ways, however, the canals served to cushion the effects of this depression. They brought settlers to all parts of the state, put them on farms and put them in towns and cities, kept the money in circulation, brought venture capital into industrial enterprise.
The legislature created Summit county, with Akron and contiguous territory shaping into size by reason of the canal, and to create it Stark county lost two townships in the readjustment.
Massillon’s growing importance brought on talk of transferring the Stark county seat from Canton. That is to say, there was such talk in the vicinity of Massillon; there was successful resistance in Canton and eastward in the county.
After nine years, The Cleland and Pittsburgh Railroad Company took one more step toward development of its line, in 1845 amending its dormant Ohio charter in preparation for construction work in Columbiana county and in the eastern angle of Stark county.
Determined to offset the canal, to get under way a paralleling railroad line, which would provide transportation all year in competition with water transportation which was icebound in winter, groups of citizens in Canton and Akron met in Akron January 21, 1845. Samuel Lahm served as chairman and Thomas Goodman as secretary. All attending were enthusiastic and anxious. Their reports raised high hopes and on January 24, 1845, the Repository issued a letter-size single-sheet Extra Edition, printing verbatim the proceedings of the meeting and urging accomplishment of its objective.
Never for a moment fading out, the project languished to await a more propitious time.
The first boat, under command of Captain Dunn, moved triumphantly from the Ohio river into Little Beaver and up through the Fredericktown locks of the Sandy & Beaver canal to New Lisbon, where it was hailed with calibration and rejoicing Mathias Hester laid out town lots at Freedom and in 1848 David G. Hester received appointment to postmaster. His first mail contained one newspaper – a copy of the Ohio repository – and one letter.
The State Legislature passed an Act incorporating the Ohio & Pennsylvania Railroad Company, giving it the right to lay track from Mansfield eastward by way of Wooster, Massillon and Canton to a point on the east line of the state within Columbiana county, there to connect with trackage through Indiana to Chicago.
The tracks of the Cleveland and Pittsburgh and of the Ohio & Pennsylvania were to cross at Freedom.
The shadow of futility fell upon the builders of the Sandy & Beaver canal, but they kept doggedly at their work. After four years of digging, with hand labor for lack of mechanical devices, burrowing the Big Tunnel as an 18-foot tube, 80 feet below the surface of the hill, the middle section from New Lisbon to Minerva was incomplete.
A boat was forced through from New Lisbon to Hanover to hold the canal charter.vi Approaching West Fork creek, east of Hanover, it went aground. Seven yoke of oxen and many willing hands lifted it over the barrier into deeper water. Then, traversing the Big Tunnel, a huge stone rolled down in front of the boat. Again struggling men released the craft and it pulled through to anchor at Hanover January 6, 1848, “on schedule”.
Something more than railroads was faintly visible as a forecast of prosperity for Canton. Just outside Greentown, a machinist-farmer, Cornellius Aultman in 1848 made patterns and experimentally made five Hussey reapers from designs laying dormant in the hands of their Baltimore originator. They were the first machines of the kind made in Ohio, with exception of two or three turned out at Martins Ferry the previous year.
Michael Dillman, a progressive and prosperous farmer living nearby, across the line in Summit County, used one of Aultman’s machines and with so much satisfaction that he bought a partnership with Aultman. The next year, 1849, the two went to Plainfield, Illinois, put up a small shop and went into limited production of reapers
Stark county subscribed $75,000 worth of stock in the Ohio & Pennsylvania Railroad Company and work was begun at many places along its right-of-way between Crestline and Pittsburgh.
Cornellius Aultman, after the close of the harvest season in 1850, sold his interest in the reaper factory at Plainfield, Ill., and returned to Greentown. Several months prior, the Baltimore designer, Mr. Hussey, agreed with Mr. Aultman and his associates that $15 for each machine would be paid as a royalty on his invention.
The tempo of industry quickened for Canton in 1851. The Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad line was completed and trains were running. The little neighborhood where the C. & P. tracks crossed those of the Ohio & Pennsylvania, known previously as Freedom, now bore the name of Alliance, conferred upon it by General Robinson, an official of the company at Pittsburgh – a name he symbolized as a wedding of the rails.
Ephraim Ball and Cornellius Aultman in 1851 formed Ball, Aultman & Co., made twelve Hussey reapers and six threshing machines at Greentown and sold them in the vicinity. The location of a plant near the Ohio & Pennsylvania railroad appealed to them as advantageous for shipping of their machines to the wheat country of the west. After the harvest, they bought land adjacent to the tracks and moved to Canton.
It was the dawn of a bright new day for Canton, though not at the moment distinguishable. Mr. Ball, Mr. Aultman, Lewis Miller, Jacob Miller and George Cook pooled their financial resources, $4,500 in all, paid for their three lots alongside the railroad line and built a two-story brick factory, housing a wood shop, finishing shop and molding shop.
While not yet a large employer of labor, Ball, Aultman, & Co. built 25 Hussey reapers in 1852 and worked out the details of the Ohio Mower. Encountering conflict of patents with inventor Haines at Pekin, Ill., they came to mutual agreement on manufacture and sale.
The Iron Horse came to Canton in 1853. The Ohio & Pennsylvania line opened for travel from Pittsburgh to Crestline April 11.
Overshadowed by parallel railroad lines, the eastern section of the Sandy & Beaver canal went into disuse; the middle division was too difficult and too incomplete to use; the western section from Hanover to Bolivar was left for the state to take over.vii
Ball, Aultman & Co. began in 1855 a season of expanded production, but a fire on the night of May 5 destroyed most of their plant. Though handicapped, they produced 12 Hussey reapers in time for the harvest and rebuilt the plant.
Almost primitive up to 1830 and with only meager mechanical development up to 1850, agriculture went through a swift transition concurrent with the early period of Aultman activity. Up to 1830 the farmer produced chiefly for himself and family. With the advantage of machinery, he raised crops largely to sell.
(Missing bit here.) …system under the competition of railroads, but it continued to be a busy and beneficial thoroughfare, reaching into regions yet untouched by rails.
The Ohio & Pennsylvania railroad opened its line through from Pittsburgh to Chicago early in 1856 and on August the three divisions comprising it – the Pennsylvania division, the Ohio division and the Indiana division – were consolidated and the name changed to the Pittsburgh, Ft. Wayne & Chicago Railroad Company. Stark County, by this time, owned $105,000 worth of its stock, selling the stock subsequently for $127,000 to redeem the bonds by which the county had raised money for its investment.
Bell, Aultman & Co. weathered a miner panic of 1857 to become stronger and busier than ever, in this year producing 1,000 agricultural machines, demonstrating the superiority of its reapers, threshers and mowers in competitive tests in various parts of the country. Its most significant victory, in a great field demonstration at Syracuse N.Y. brought widespread favor for the Aultman machines.
C. Russell & Co. went into production of a reaper, called the Peerless, at Massillon, in competition with Aultman.
The Aultman plant in 1863 was busier than ever; farm machinery stood in demand, so that greater crops might be planted and harvested for the people at home and for the army in the field. Cornelius Aultman and his associates were prevailed upon by enterprising Akron men to establish a branch factory there.
The Aultman Company increased its capital stock to $450,000, and at a later date to $1,000,000 for the Canton plant only, setting up a separate capital structure for the Akron plant.
The Pittsburgh, Ft Wayne & Chicago railroad was sold under foreclosure at Cleveland. It was leased subsequently for 999 years dating from July 1, 1869 by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and its parent, the Pennsylvania Company.
Dormant since 1845, the project for a railway line between Cleveland and Canton was revived and a charter obtained for the Akron & Canton Railway (The Valley Railway), but delay again confronted its development.
The Valley Railway set its capital at $3,000,000 and in 1871 went forward with plans to extend a line from Cleveland, by way of Akron to Canton and on through Tuscarawas and Carroll counties to Bowerstown in Harrison county, where it might tap the coal fields and connect with the Panhandle Railway.
Influential citizens of Cleveland, Akron, Canton, Wheeling and other towns along the projected route of the Valley Railway met in January 1872 at Akron. James A. Saxton of Canton presided. The Cleveland representatives pledged toward its financing $500,000, Akron $150,000 and Canton $150,000. Subscription books were opened at each of the cities and Canton was first to announce her quota had been raised. Akron reported the same success soon thereafter and, in due course, Cleveland subscribed $508,000. Saxton and George Cook of Canton along with five other men, were elected directors April 24.
David L. King of Akron, in 1875 president of the projected Valley Railroad from Cleveland to Canton, balked in his efforts to get it financed in this country, went to England. He was about to conclude the sale of bonds to English Capitalists when the House of Commons discredited American railroad securities on the basis of the Jay Cooke & Co. failure and other depression fears. Mr. King was forced to return empty handed, but he did not give up.
Work on the Valley Railroad, after all its financial vicissitudes, was well started in 1878. President King spiked the first rail at Akron Oct. 26 and from that moment the laying of track went forward with vigor, south to Canton and north to Cleveland.
Late in the year Canton became the beneficiary of another and equally important railroad project, the Connotton Valley Railway. It was developed by wealthy owners of coal property in the neighborhood of Dellroy, namely C.G. Patterson of Boston, N.A,. Smith of New York, G.L. Ingersoll of Cleveland, C.C. Shober of Carrolton and others.
They conceived it as a narrow gauge (3 feet) line of track, adequate and well operated for the transportation of coal, other freight and passengers, from a junction with the Panhandle at Bowerstown on the south, through Canton north to Fairport on Lake Erie and on to Cleveland.
They bought at court sale the little Ohio & Toledo line, laid between Carrollton and Minerva, which in 1878 was in financial difficulties. They extended it to Dellroy in 1879 and pushed toward Canton.
The Valley Railroad was completed from Cleveland to Canton in the winter of 1879-80 and the first train came through from the northern terminus January 28, 1880. Regular train service began February 2.
Soon thereafter, the Connotton Valley Railway came up from Oneida and Carrollton to Canton, then work completed with a rush in May 1880. At the same time construction was pushed to Bowerstown. It was a memorable occasion when on May 15 an excursion train came on the excellent narrow gauge line, bringing 500 enthusiasts from Carrollton, Dellroy and other points; the engine, two baggage cars, two passengers and four flat cars bedecked and crowded.
The Repository began its story of the event: “Energy begets success.” It was a compliment to the backers of the line, who with their own money, asking no loans, selling no bonds, calling only for free right-of-way in each community, built it.
The company placed a similar “special” train at the disposal of leading Canton citizens May 17 and they traversed the line to Carrollton, marveling at the Robertsville tunnel and Montgomery “cut”.
Regular passenger service began a schedule of two trains daily in each direction May 18, 1880. The company went forward with construction of the two northern branches, through Middlebranch, Hartville, Congress Lake, Suffield, Magadore, Brimfield, Kent, Twinsburgh and Bedford into Cleveland – and at an angle out of Kent toward Fairport, where coal from the Connotton Valley fields might be shipped to Canada, Milwaukee, St.Paul, Chicago and west.
i The Act referred to authorized the Ohio Canal from Cleveland to Portsmouth and the Miami Canal from Cincinnati to Dayton (later extended to Lake Erie). The Miami Canal was extended in two sections and completed to the Lake in 1847. A Legislative Act passed in 1849 changed the name of those three sections to the Miami & Erie Canal. That same Act changed the name of the Ohio Canal to the Ohio & Erie Canal though few people of the canal era ever called the Ohio Canal by any other name.
ii The initial name of the town was Fulton, the Canal prefix being added in 1830. When Fulton was established in 1826, Stark County included an additional township, Franklin, to the north. This was ‘lost’ in 1840 when Summit County was formed.
iii There is some evidence that not all contractors provided a standard four gills of whiskey a day even at the beginning of canal construction. Apparently, the practice of providing whiskey at all was stopped by all, or most, contractors within a year, not on moral grounds, but because the practice was too expensive for contractors to continue
iv The Sandy & Beaver Canal contained two tunnels, both on the summit level between Guilford and Hanoverton.
v When a project to link Canton with the canal at Massillon via an eight mile long horse-drawn railway was declared an engineering impossibility due to the steep grades between the two towns, and a waterway north was blocked by unfavorable terrain, the group of influential Canton businessmen turned their sights onto a waterway, south. In 1831, the State Legislature was approached to authorize an examination of the Nimishillen and Sandy creeks from “the forks” south of Canton to the Ohio canal near Bolivar with the object of improving those streams with slackwater dams and short stretches of canal. The examination was approved, and a Mr. Fields did the survey work. A Charter was given by the State to form the Nimishillen and Sandy Navigation Company that next year (1832). Stock subscriptions were slow until the Sandy & Beaver Canal Company broke ground in 1834. The Nimishillen and Sandy project was altered to tie into the former canal near Sandyville and the Nimishillen and Sandy Navigation Company stockholders met formally on December 25, 1834 to elect officers, and directors and appoint an engineer for their project. The sites for two reservoirs northwest of 6th St and Walnut N.W. were to supply the canal with water until the forks of the Nimishillen were reached. Ground was broken in 1836 and contracts let for both ends of the approximately 12 miles of canal and slackwater. The nation’s financial ‘bubble’ burst in the spring of 1837 and work on the Nimishillen and Sandy canal was suspended. By the late 1840s when the country’s economy had improved enough for the Sandy & Beaver project to be revived, Canton’s businessmen were focusing their hopes on the fledgling Pennsylvania and Ohio railroad and the Nimishillen and Sandy project was not revived. .
vi There was never any danger the canal company would lose it’s charter if the January deadline was not met. One of the principal investors had pledged $50,000 with the stipulation that the canal be finished by that date.
vii In actuality, the entire length of the Sandy & Beaver canal was operational beginning with the boating season of 1850 and carried a respectable amount of traffic. The canal company was under-funded, however, and when a dam on one of the reservoirs on the summit failed in the spring of 1852 causing local flood damage and losing support of the local communities, it became impossible for the canal company to survive. The entire line was auctioned off in sections approximately ½ mile long in March of 1854. A group from Sandyville obtained the western-most six miles of canal, refurbished it, and ‘sold’ it to the state for $1.00. The state took ownership of that section in December 1856 and ran it as a water and cargo feeder to the Ohio Canal at Bolivar until the Sandy & Beaver aqueduct across the Tuscarawas River collapsed in 1883.
It might seem archaic these days, but at one time the canal researcher would reach for their paper topographic map instead of clicking on Google Earth. Many of us still have our venerable paper maps with notes in the margins and circles around important sites. Even with Lidar and Maps and Google Earth, the old topographic maps are a valuable record of what once was. But do you know about the USGS topoView website which can offer decades of maps with a couple clicks?
Before we get to that, just be aware that the topographic mapping process began in 1880s and proceeded across the country over the decades. This is the one limitation to using these maps in canal research as the canal might have been long gone by the time the first map was created. But simply seeing the contour of the land might help to understand the why and how of a canal route.
The United States Geological Survey, or USGS, offers topo maps that cover the United States, online and for free, by way of their topoView website. Once in the site, you will be presented with a larger general purpose map where you can zoom in to quickly find the state, city, river, road, or feature. With a click on the map, a dashboard will open presenting a list of the available maps for whatever quadrant you happened to select.
A view of the topoView dashboard, with the Cascade Locks region selected.
The red circle on top left will show the number of available maps for that quadrant. The date range slider will allow you to chose the date if you want to focus on a certain time. Below that are a number of colored circles with the 250k, 100k, and so on. These are the scales available just in case you only want to see a certain type of map. If you click on a map scale, the number in the red circle will change as will the listing, showing what is available.
The listing of maps, from oldest to newest, will show you the quadrant name, the date of survey and scale. By clicking on the SHOW button (in this example, I have clicked on it so it now appears as a HIDE button), the map will appear and you can happily move around the page, zooming in or out, and moving with a simple drag of the mouse. There is also a MAP TRANSPARENCY slider that allows you to move back and forth between the general use map and the topo map. This is very handy if you happen to be trying to find a feature that you know about and want to see what used to be there. There are also helpful videos on YouTube if you really wish to dive into the mapping, but for general use, navigation around the site is easy.
Maps can be downloaded in a variety of formats that include JPEG, KMZ, GeoTiff, and GeoPDF. These are all free. These will be delivered to your computer as a ZIP file. You can click on the EXTRACT button to open the map and then you can save it as you wish.
The Illinois and Mississippi Canal as seen in the 1929 map at 1:62500 scale. Historical Topographic Map Collection
Older maps use a scale that is 1:63,360, where one inch equals one mile. This scale presents canals as a blue line without much detail. If you happen to get lucky, locks might be represented with a V mark, but in most cases, you will need to look for the contour lines to try to find lock sites. You can quickly change maps by using the list on the right side of the page to scroll through what is available. As you progress through the years, you might find a change in scale as newer maps were made in 1:24000, where one inch equals 2000 feet, or slightly less than a half mile. At this scale, you might find canal remains as seen in the 1954 map of Schenectady. The quality of the maps can vary, so it pays to click on all the maps to see how they change over the years.
Two maps of Schenectady. The above is from 1893 in 1:62500 scale, and the below is from 1954 in 1:24000 scale. Historical Topographic Map CollectionHistorical Topographic Map CollectionThe D&H Gravity RR was still in use when this 1894 map was made in 1:62500 scale. Historical Topographic Map CollectionThe Ohio and Erie Canal was still in use north of Dresden, Ohio, when this map was made in 1910 using 1:62500 scale. Historical Topographic Map Collection
As you can see here, most of the older maps are in the larger one inch to a mile scale. Once you have downloaded the maps to your computer, you can do as you wish with them. You can use any photo editor on them as you have them as JPEG files. Here is one that I used in a prior post where I stitched two together.
Historical Topographic Map Collection
So have fun, and let us know if there is some technique or way to use that I missed.
Terry’s email introduction- I still haven’t heard that many opinions of your thoughts on multi-part columns. I did get one comment from Dave Myer of Canal Winchester who said, in part, that he likes to read of my escapades up north. So I was going to use, for today’s column, some reworked hiking notes I took in the National Park not too long after the bike trail first opened up.
Then I thought of another two-parter I have – from a man who lived in Trenton around the turn of the last century with some interesting information about the guard lock at the junction of the Trenton Feeder and the Ohio Canal.
Then I thought maybe some of you would not be that familiar with the Trenton Feeder, so today’s column is a reworking of an article I wrote on the Trenton Feeder for BUCKEYE COUNTRY in the early ‘90s. I got a lot of great information on the workings of that feeder from Jon Baker, then writing for the New Philadelphia Times-Reporter.
I believe, as Dave stated, this was called the Ohio City Canal. Actually, Frank Trevorrow wrote a short description of that short canal in 1973 and I used it in our 1975 Sesquicentennial edition of TOWPATHS.
“An organization known as the Buffalo Tract bought a large piece of land on the west side of he river, opposite Cleveland. It extended from the west bank of the river to what is now West 28th. Street and north from Detroit Avenue to the Lake. Docks and warehouses were built along the river and the Company dug a short ship canal to connect the old river bed with the new channel of the Cuyahoga.
“A village on the west side of the river was incorporated as Ohio City in 1836. Soon after incorporation , Ohio City authorized the digging of a branch canal to run north from opposite the outlet of the Ohio Canal to the old river bed just west of the Buffalo Company’s ship channel.
“The Ohio City Canal eventually disappeared, possibly when the Detroit-Superior Viaduct was built. The site of the canal is now Sycamore Street. A vestige of the canal still remains – the slip alongside the Huron Cement Dock. From the new River Road bridge, the line of the canal can clearly be seen south from the cement slip to the railroad bascule bridge”.
Keep in mind, Frank wrote this in 1973. Many things may have changed.
THE TRENTON FEEDER
Buckeye Country, Winter/Spring 1992-93
When the Ohio Canal was projected through Tuscarawas County in 1827-28, terrain considerations took its route as far as two and three miles from its primary water source, the Tuscarawas River. Therefore, when a feeder to supply the canal about midway between the Sugar creek and Walhonding River crossings was planned, that feeder was required to be several miles long. That feeder canal was to intersect the main Ohio Canal just below the village of Trenton (now Tuscarawas) and Lower Trenton lock (Lock No. 16). The State would throw one of their typical low-tech dams across the Tuscarawas River some three miles below it’s confluence with the Big Stillwater Creek.
Historical Topographic Map Collection. The feeder is seen running down the right side of the valley. The dam is just below Midvale and the feeder can be seen between the a and s in Tuscarawas. It then turns and connects to the main canal.
Some twenty years before all this canal-building activity, in 1804, Michael Ulrich had established a mill and home at the ford across the Big Stillwater, approximately three miles above that stream’s junction with the Tuscarawas. Ulrich’s mill had prospered and other settlers moved into the area. Over the years, many a raft and flat-boat filled with grain and flour had traveled from that area down the Stillwater, Tuscarawas, Muskingum and Ohio to southern markets. If the feeder to Trenton was made navigable, it would be possible for the residents on the upper Stillwater to gain access to the main canal and markets, both north and south.
The canal through Trenton to the Ohio River was opened for traffic in 1832, and a great flood of activity stirred along the lower Stillwater Valley that next year. Michael Uhrich II platted a town around the millsite on the right bank of the creek in the summer of 1833. The town consisted of 94 lots that Uhrich named Waterford. He fully expected it to become the main distribution point for grain shipments from further up the Stillwater Valley down to the Ohio Canal and outside markets. Not to be outdone, two other teams of entrepreneurs also had visions of developing grain distribution centers along the Stillwater. Messers Beebe, Kilgore, Olmsted & Dewey had laid out the 66-lot town of Eastport on September 3, three days before Waterford was platted. Eastport was also on the right bank of the Stillwater, but some two miles closer to the Tuscarawas and the Ohio Canal. Then, Philip Laffer plated the 55-lot town of Newport on the left bank of the Stillwater, some two miles beyond Ulrich’s Mill a short time later.
Though the Trenton Feeder began supplying water to the Ohio Canal in 1830, there was no guard lock constructed at it’s entrance to allow access to craft navigating the upper streams. It was necessary, then, for craft from all three of these new upper river towns to navigate the Stillwater, the Tuscarawas, and a portion of the Muskingum before gaining access to the Ohio Canal through the side-cut at Dresden, and that wasn’t accessible until 1832. It wasn’t until 1836 that the State threw together an Alligator lock at the head of the Trenton Feeder and gave upper river craft access to the Ohio Canal just below Trenton.
It would appear now, that Eastport had the better chance of developing into the predominant Port in the area. It was closer to the Feeder and seems to have had more organized backing. Snags and sawyers were removed from the Tuscarawas and Stillwater to make navigation easier from Eastport to the Feeder. Farmers from the area came to the new village to sell their grain. All this traffic caused the founding of several new businesses, including a tavern. The Eastport Company erected two warehouses. A large amount of business was carried on here initially. Eastport’s backers promoted their town so well that Tanner, compiling a listing of the Nation’s canals from New York in 1843, mentions the Eastport Canal. Eastern canal historians have searched long and hard for this canal – they need search no longer.
It is historical fact, however, that Waterford (renamed Urichsville in 1839) quickly garnered the larger percentage of the valley’s grain transshipment business, perhaps because there were already established communication in the region to the mill and ford. Sawyers and snags between Waterford and Eastport were quickly removed, the men from Eastport having assisted greatly by clearing the waterways below their village.
One warehouse had been erected here by Uhrich in 1827. By 1836 there were two. This was soon increased to five. It wasn’t unusual to see three or four canal boats, on occasion five, at the docks, all loading at the same time. It was during these occasions that Waterford’s young men could earn a Shilling (12 ½ cents) shoveling wheat from warehouses into canal boats.
George Wallick established a boatyard here and completed the COMMODORE PERRY during the spring of 1836. The PERRY was small as canal boats ran, carrying approximately 1,800 bushels of wheat. Still, her owner, Dennis Cahill, was pleased with it and ran it in the trade for many years. Wallick built the much larger EASTPORT for John Welch during the winter of 1836-37. All-in-all, eleven canal boats and five flat boats were built by several boat builders in Uhrichsville over the years.
Interviews with local boatmen revealed that most loaded 2,000 to 2,200 bushels of wheat and took an average of seven days to make the round trip to and from Cleveland. They also stated they used two horses or mules to pull a loaded boat and that animals and drivers were changed every six hours.
Most of the boats that were owned in Uhrichsville brought back loads of salt, shingles & merchandise of different kinds. The majority of these craft also had accommodations for five or six passengers. The fare for the 113-mile trip to Cleveland, board included, was $3.00.
A canal boat was also a good way for pack peddlers to travel. When a boat came to town, the peddler could put his pack on his back, canvass the place over, and catch up with his boat before it had gotten out of sight.
Boating in the upper rivers was certainly more difficult than boating in the canal, however. Local tales insist that a towpath existed along the right banks of the creek and river below Eastport, but little documentation existsi. It was no doubt a tedious and strenuous job poling by the crew to get a boat the four to six miles from the feeder to Eastport or Waterford/Uhrichsville. And once you were out of the canal, you had your choice of routes. Waterford’s promoters erected a large red arrow at the junction of the Tuscarawas and Stillwater pointing up the correct waterway.
Boating downstream was easier on the muscles, but harder on the nerves. Apparently it wasn’t that easy to hit the feeder, particularly during times of high water. Once, when John Voshell, reportedly in a steam canal boat, was navigating the river during high water, the current was so rapid that he missed the feeder entrance. A third of his craft went over the dam, and the weight of the engine, being in the bow, broke her back.
Newport apparently never attracted much of the transshipment business and was required to develop industries of its own to survive. Uhrichsville’s period of vigorous growth and activity came to a screeching halt during the early 1850s with the construction of the Steubenville & Indiana R.R. Grain was afterwards shipped from various points along the railroad, depriving the town of much of its former trade. Uhrichsville’s growth was stagnant for nearly twenty years, until construction of the railroad shops in nearby Dennison livened things up again.
Hard times hit all three of the Stillwater villages, though Newport had a modest pottery trade to help sustain it. All three towns are listed in the 1875 County Atlas, but by 1883 Eastport was a ghost town with only three or four empty houses to witness that any formal community had ever been there. Newport was a sleepy little village of 150, while Uhrichsville had blossomed to become the second largest town in the county, being home to nearly 3,000 citizens.
The old brush and stone feeder dam was finally replaced by a permanent stone-filled wooden crib dam in 1855. It was also 1855 that the State finally replaced the wooden crib walls in the old Alligator feeder lock with masonry walls. Of course, by then, railroads were already taking over much of the river traffic.
When the State attempted to refurbish the northern division of the Ohio Canal in the early 1900s, navigation of the Feeder was no longer required and the Trenton Feeder guard lock and State Dam were not considered in the project.
For some years previously, the State had not even maintained the old dam. They had, instead, extended the race from a private mill dam (Hilton’s) farther up the Tuscarawas. This race entered the Feeder just below the old guard lock. The Hilton Dam was purchased by the State in 1908 and rebuilt with concrete (by the Daily brothers) in 1909.
Presently, much of the old Trenton Feeder channel is still visible, as is the stone ruins of the guard lock and the remains of the (breached) concrete Hilton Damii.
Of the three attempts to found a town at the head of navigation to the Trenton Feeder, no sign remains of Eastport. It was officially allowed to revert to public land in 1906.. Newport is a tiny dot on county maps at the junction of County Highways #37 and #28. Uhrichsville, with the impetus given it by Waterford and the Trenton Feeder, is currently (2018) the third largest community in Tuscarawas County (behind New Philadelphia and Dover) with a population of 5,413 – down slightly from the last two census counts of 5,600 and 6,023.
i The Board of Public Works Report to the State for 1855 indicates the streams “above the Trenton Feeder Lock were cleared and improved” – but there is no mention of a towpath being worked on.
ii This area is now in a private County Park called the Hilton Preserve that can only be visited by permission.
Cascade Locks and Canal; Images of America. Compiled by Janice Crane of the Friends of the Cascade Locks Historical Museum, 128 pages, black and white.
The current Columbia-Snake River navigation is a waterway that begins at Astoria, Oregon, on the Pacific Coast and reaches inland 465 miles to Lewiston, Idaho. It was created in the 1930s when the US Army Corps of Engineers built eight locks and dams that created navigation pools along the river. The waterway was opened to traffic in 1938. Prior to this, smaller boats and paddle wheelers plied the Columbia River on a 170-mile-long route between Astoria and The Dalles. However, roughly 20 miles upstream from Portland, the river passed through a five mile long narrows filled with rocks and boulders, where the river dropped nearly 300 feet. With the exception of a few daring souls, this section was not passable. Shipping lines had to maintain a fleet of boats above the cascades in order to complete the rest of the journey to The Dalles. A portage carried passengers and cargo between the boats.
In 1878, work began on the Cascade Locks and Canal. This 3000 foot man-made cut and two locks bypassed the worst of the rapids, and a section of the river below the locks was canalized by dredging and removing boulders. The work was delayed by seasonal floods which swept through the project and forced the reconstruction of work already completed. The locks were ready to use in 1896, although work continued through 1914.
The new passage was an immediate success, with tens of thousands of passengers and tons of cargo passing through the locks each year. However, the the life span of the works was relatively short, as construction soon began on the current Columbia-Snake River system.
Cascade Locks and Canal takes you through a photographic journey beginning in the 1850s and ending in the present day. Like all the Images of America books, the content relies on period postcards and photographic collections, along with detailed captions, to tell the history of the subject. There is a very short introduction that gives the reader a bit of a history but not in any detail. The chapters take you through the pre-canal river conditions, the construction of the works, it’s use, and what remains today. It is an enjoyable introduction to a topic that many fans of canals and inland waterways may not be familiar with.
The Cascade Locks Historical Museum was founded in 1968 in a lock tenders house located adjacent to the upper lock, which remains visible, albeit with some help by the addition of another 5 feet of concrete block. This additional layer was added to keep the lock walls above the level of the river. The old lock is part of the Cascades Locks Marine Park which is located in the small village of Cascade Locks. The Friends organization was founded in 2013, with the mission to manage the museum. Their website is www.cascadelocksmuseum.org.
After I posted the articles about Max Gard, and the Sandy and Beaver maps, I was contacted by Max’s grandson who said that he had a few copies of The Sandy and Beaver Canal book in his garage, and asked if he could send them to me.
This book was written by R. Max Gard, J.C. Hassler, and William H. Vodrey, Jr., in the 1950s and is the best work on the canal. The trio hiked and studied the canal and carefully drafted a large map that they included with the book. The original map was in two halves, each about 24 by 36 inches, and was printed on a lightweight paper that could be folded and placed in a pocket in the back of the book. Luckily, I have one of these books in the ACS archives as part of the Barber Collection and it had the maps. I had the maps scanned and have them up on the map page.
The book is available as a free download on hathi trust if you like your books as digital files.
The 18 books that came in the mail are softcover reprints of the original with the pocket in the rear, but no maps. So I had them reprinted on 11 by 17 paper, and they are very readable. So if you wish to add this book to your library, you can purchase a copy for $23.00 (20.00 plus 3 for S&H). Just send us an email at americancanals@gmail.com, and we will get one out to you.
Inland. The Abandoned Canals of the Schuylkill Navigation, Sandy Sorlien, with a foreward by John R. Stilgoe and essays by Mike Szilagyl and Karen Young. 2022. Hardcover, 192 pages.
The late Tom Grasso liked to call the ruins of the towpath canals our version of the Mayan ruins. You can find the remains of towpath canals throughout the landscape of the northeast and midwest in various conditions, from the lock that looks like it could be put to use today (with a bit of work), to piles of stones that where, maybe, an old lock that might have been. However, unlike the Mayan ruins, we have records, reports, maps, drawings, and even photographs of the canals in use. In many cases we can say how much stone and lumber went into a structure and what it cost. If we feel we need it, we can find out a lot about the old canals.
And yet, there is always a sense of mystery in those canal ruins. Most of the people who looks upon an old lock or aqueduct will not be a canal historian, and yet they will be fascinated by the stonework. Some will see art and beauty in the stones. It doesn’t matter what it was, the fact that it is here is enough. Some will see how nature is reclaiming the stones, with plants growing out from between the stonework and animals using it as their home. Others will see the ruins and wonder how our forefathers cut, shaped, moved and stacked the heavy stones. No matter how you look at them, the ruins of the past will always cause a sense of wonder.
The Schuylkill Navigation was one of many canals built in the 1800s, and it became one of the more successful canals that you have never heard about. Built along the Schuylkill River between Philadelphia and Port Carbon, the 108-mile-long system was a mix of river pools and 27 man-made canals. Construction began in the early 1800s and the canal remained in use through the early 1900s. Like many of the Pennsylvanian canals, it was built to haul coal and lumber to the cities along the Atlantic coast. However, unless you are from the Schuylkill area, or a canal historian, it is unlikely that you have learned about this navigation.
In Inland, Sandy Sorlien presents a history and photographic journey along of the Schuylkill Navigation in a grand style. Unlike the majority of history books that are presented in the typical smaller formats designed to fit on the book shelf, Sandy seemingly throws caution to the wind, using a large format that allows the photos and prints to be viewed with vibrancy, color and clarity. Sure, it costs more, but the book itself becomes a piece of art, as Sandy is a professional photographer and it shows in her images. The larger format encourages you to linger on the photos and prints to take them all in, and it is so nice that you can read the maps without the need to pull out the magnifying glass. The large format allows a map of the 108-mile-long navigation to flow, in color, across the inside front covers to the inside back covers. It might be the best map of the system I have seen.
The journey begins at the northern end in Schuylkill County and runs south to Philadelphia County. Sandy visited every lock and aqueduct site, and hiked all the 27 canals where they exist. Each photograph is presented with a brief caption. If you wish to know more, a separate chapter offers more detail on each photograph, such as notes about the structures and personal observations from her explorations. I especially enjoyed the drawings and maps in color. The people who drew these were often artists in their own right and presenting these in color is a nod to their talents.
Tom Grasso was fond of saying that the canal was the one creation of man most in harmony with nature. While the active canal offers an environment where animals and plants can live and thrive, the abandoned canal is gradually reclaimed to a point where it is difficult to distinguish between the man-made and the natural. The freeze-thaw cycle causes stones to shift and crack. Plants grow in the these cracks further hastening their decay. Trees grow and die. Seasonal floods wash away walls and berms leveling the landscape. The modern day canal historian realizes the need to capture this moment in time, as it, in itself becomes part of their history. Even though the canal is not in use, it is still there, and at some point, photographs taken today will become just as important as those taken 100 years ago.
As a plus, Inland also serves as a guide to the Schuylkill River Trail, the 120-mile-long greenway that follows the route of the old navigation and the railroads that replaced the canal boats. By using this book, you should be able to locate and understand the how and why of the system. It is a wonderful book.
(This was not a sponsored review. I purchased the book.)
In 1920, a headline in the Rome Daily Sentinel noted the passing of George L Schillner. It read; “Was An Engineer Of Great Ability.” If the name sounds familiar, it might be because George Schillner will be forever tied to the 1896 New York State Canal Blue Line Maps, otherwise known as “The Schillner Maps.”
George was born in Rome, NY, in January 1862. He was one of ten children of John and Nancy (Miller) Schillner. John Schillner (John’s father) was born in Wurtemburg, Germany and immigrated with his parents and siblings around 1847. After landing in New York City, the family appears to have moved directly to Rome. Nancy Miller (George’s mother) was the daughter of Joseph and Catherine (Seigle or Seigel) Miller. The Seigle family also came from Germany, but Nancy was born in New London, Oneida County. There was a large and active German community in the Oneida area and it would have been easy for John and Nancy to meet. John and Nancy were married about 1856.
We know a little about what jobs the family took on when they reached Oneida county. Conradt Schillner (George’s Grandfather) was a tailor with a home on Canal Street in Rome. Like many immigrants, John would first find employment as a “laborer,” and later he purchased a saloon. John’s younger brother Michael appears to have found work on the canal, leaving it around 1862 to become a liquor wholesaler located in the Armstrong Block. John’s youngest brother George C (likely for Conrad) was the last in the family to be born in Germany. He would become a civil engineer and later the Rome City Engineer. The family is often mentioned for their musical talents. George C was noted for his talents and because he consolidated the Old Rome Band with the Rome Musical Association. These two groups were mostly made up of Germans.
It is a safe bet that George L was named for his uncle, George C. (Oddly, the ‘L’ of George’s middle name is never explained.) George L followed his uncle into the civil engineering profession, and both men served as civil engineers in Rome. (This can make searching them a bit nutty!) The younger George was noted for his artistic abilities, and often made sketches of others in the family. While George C listed himself as a Civil Engineer and Surveyor, and a Mechanical Draughtsman; George L called himself a Civil Engineer, Surveyor and Architect. The only mention I could find of his time in Rome was in 1885, when it was reported that both the George’s worked on plans for an addition to the Oneida County Asylum.
In 1891, George left Rome to take a job as the head draftsman on the Adirondack and St. Lawrence Railroad. In 1893, he moved to Herkimer, where as his obituary states, he took charge of the engineering department of the Mohawk and Malone railroad. At the same time, he joined with two other engineers to form the civil engineering firm of Roberts, Schillner and Evan.
In January 1896, the paper mentions that George has been appointed by State Engineer Adams to the office of the state engineer as a mapmaker and draftsman on the 1895 Improvement project. At work, George found himself in good company. Two of his co-workers were Charles Delvan Burrus, and Merritt Peckham, Jr. Charles Burrus had been an state employee as a draftsman and engineer since the mid-1860s.i He worked on the enlargement of the Champlain Canal in 1866 and was the draftsman for the 1869 “Richmond” maps of the Enlarged Erie between Albany and Rexford. He was noted for having drawn the best map ever seen of Lake George in 1883, as his five-foot-long map of the lake was so detailed that it showed every one of it’s 250 islands.ii Merritt Peckham, Jr., was from the Utica area and would later serve as the Assistant Engineer in Charge of Land Bureau. One gets the sense that he liked things to be in order as in 1908 he wrote; “There has been a usual amount of correspondence and answering of inquires from surveyors, lawyers, and others on matters pertaining to the original maps and descriptions of the Colonial and early State surveys filed in this office.”…”For better preserving these records they have been rearranged, placed in bound volumes and indexed for convenience of reference. That it is the proper method for the care of these valuable papers,,,” These two liked to set things straight.
In January 1898, George married Mary Ann Morgan of Rome.iii Mary broke the mold when it came to members of the family staying within the German community, as she had emigrated from Wales shortly after her birth in 1869.
The work on the canal improvement was ordered to stop on March 8, 1898. By way of legislative frugality, the lack of time to prepare and create proper estimates and plans, and the poor state of the canal, the state had run out of money. And yet, work on the maps continued, mostly likely because the state still needed a decent set of maps that showed ownership, mostly for the Board of Claims and legal issues that arose from the work. The annual reports show that Schillner and his team continued to be employed on the mapping project for years, even while working on other projects. The state passed continuing resolutions to keep paying for the map work, even when Governor Odell vetoed the payments saying that there “does not seem to me to be any necessity for this item.”iv However, the work continued up to 1908.v
Perhaps the slow down in work allowed George to have time to survey and draw a map of the Capitol Park grounds in Albany. This project was part of the efforts to complete the construction of the Capitol that had been going on for years. viHe was also credited for drafting the plans for the West McKinley Colony on the Isle of Pines in Cuba.vii His name is listed under payments for work on canal repairs, State Board of Claims, even the 1910 Blue Line Maps. George remained employed with the state until his death in 1920. His obituary says that he was an accomplished musician and played the violin in bands around the Rome and Utica area, and then later, in Albany. George and Mary never had children, and no one in the family has produced a genealogy of the Schillner group.viii
NYSA_A3185-78, Map of capital park. NYS Archives. The George L. Schillner map of the West McKinley Colony.
The Schillner name pops up in a curious bit of history although only by marriage. Michael Schillner’s wife, Mary Frances Miller (who was the sister of Nancy), was used a witness to history. In a short book about the digging of the first shovel of earth in the construction of the Erie Canal, the author states that Mary Schillner reported that; “her two uncles, Joseph Seigel and Michael Seigel, were owners and captains of boats used on the Inland Navigation Company’s Canal and she always understood from their conversation and especially by what she was told by Joseph Seigel that the first excavation for the Erie canal was started somewhere in the vicinity of Fort Bull.”ix Like a lot of history, this folklore was accepted as truth, and yet the dates don’t line up. If they were boaters on the canal, it was likely that they were on the first Erie.
So there you go. I don’t even have a picture of the man to share!
iNobel Whitford, Supplement to the Annual Report of the State Engineer and Surveyor, September 30, 1905, Brandow Printing Company, Albany, Vol. 2, 1906. A short bio on Charles D Burrus can be found on page 1151. His obituary says that he was the oldest active man in service of the state when he died in 1919.
iiThe Post-Star, Glens Falls, NY September 15, 1883, page 3. Column mention.
iiiSchillner-Morgan, Rome Semi-Weekly Citizen, January 18, 1898
ivPublic Papers of Governor Odell for 1902, J.B. Lyon Company, Albany, 1907. Page 162
vAnson Getman, Principles and Sources of Title To Real Property, Matthew Bender and Company, Albany, 1921. Page 53.
viNew York State Archives, A3185, New York State New Capitol Commission New Capitol Park
viiRare Cadastral and Promotional Map for the West McKinley Colony, on the Isle of Pines. Www.raremaps.com/gallery/detail/54017/west-mckinley-colony-isle-of-pines-cuba-schillner
viiiI have made a quick family tree on Ancestry.com.
ixRome Chamber of Commerce, Memorial Of Centennial Celebration of the First Shovelful Of Earth In The Construction Of The Erie Canal, Held At Rome, N.Y., July 4th, 1917. Page 79
The focus of this article is how the built and operating canals were surveyed and mapped. We might call these maps “As Builts,” since they show what had been constructed. Having a decent map would aid the engineers and maintenance crews in their planning and repairs. And was necessary for the legal departments who had to defend against damage claims. This article will take a look at the history these maps, and why you should be using them as a canal researcher.
Although the process would be similar, the work of the surveying teams who measured the land to determine the route of the yet to be built canal, was very different. The life and hardships of these men is the stuff of legend, and there are many books and articles about them. In his autobiography, John Jervis wrote about his early life on canal survey crew, which offers a look at how someone could start as a axeman and work his way up to becoming an civil engineer.i William C Young wrote about his time on a survey crew in 1816-17 which offers a intimate look at how the crews functioned.ii
Over the nearly 100-years of the towpath canals in New York State, thousands of maps have been drawn that show the canals. But only a few maps show the entire length of the canals, from end to end, in a scale that allows the researcher to see structures, nearby buildings and streets, and even property owners. The maps that this article will focus on are;
1) The 1834 “Holmes Hutchinson” maps of the early canals.iii
At one time New York State had twelve working canals covering nearly1000 miles, and not every map set will cover every canal. But rest assured that somewhere in the New York State Archives, there will be a map of your canal and it is likely that many of these methods described here will apply.
Surveying the Built Canal, and the Red and Blue Lines
For the purpose of this article, let us keep things simple and say that the survey process locates fixed points on the earth, while a map is a visual representation of the survey. An example might an old deed that says something like, “Beginning at a blaze on a apple tree near the road.” Here the apple tree becomes the point where the survey begins and all others will go to start as they retrace the survey or property lines. If the deed is from the early 1800s, it might tell you to, “walk 14 paces to the rock in the stream and then follow the course of the stream down to the bridge.” This is the Metes and Bounds method of surveying. Over the years the process improved and became more scientific that used measuring instruments. Thus you will see phrases such as; “runs thence north 20 degrees 45 minutes east, two chains, 4 links.” Whatever the method, by repeatedly finding and connecting points in the landscape, a survey will be created. Later, by using the survey and notes, a map could be drawn.vii
This method of a boundary survey works fine for determining the outline of a piece of land. But on a long and linear canal, that might have been built through wetlands or deep cuts, it would be impractical to try to measure the properties boundary. Instead, another method was used. As the canals had a nice flat towpath, it was a simple matter to layout a line along the towpath and use this as the base line from which all measurements were made. The base line, shown on the survey notes and maps with red ink, became known as the red line.
Wherever there was a change in the canal, such as a change in direction or the width of the canal, or to note a structure (bridge, aqueduct, or lock, etc), the surveyor would stop and establish a cross section. The cross section was perpendicular to the red line running to outer edges of the canal property. Using the red line as the base, measurements would be taken to the outer edge of the towpath and berm embankments. So keep in mind that any red line on the map is a line of measurement.
A very simplified drawing of the redline and cross sections
Once the surveys were completed, a draftsman would use the survey data to draw a map. With the red line and cross sections laid out on paper, the outside boundary of the canal land could be roughly determined by drawing a line that connected the end of each cross section. Since blue ink was used to show this line, the “blue line” became the term for the state boundaries. This is why the drainage ditches on the outer edge of the embankments were called the “Blue Line Ditches,” and the maps are called the “Blue Line Maps.” Just keep in mind that the blue line was not measured, it was inferred.
In 1891, a newspaper article said; “What the Blue-Line Is.” The “Blue Line” is often mentioned in the course of the pending great debate in the senate. A brief explanation of what the Blue line is may be of interest. This line was established by the canal board when the canal enlargement of 1840 was made. The engineer corps, in surveying for the enlargement, indicated on its maps with a blue line the boundaries of the lands which were deemed necessary for State purposes. The irregularity of the line is explained as having been caused by adaptations to the needs of the canal. Where there wee embankments or streams or other peculiarities, the line was made to conform to these conditions as they were thought to affect the canals. The rule was to run the line five or six feet outside the limit of land absolutely required. The indication by the blue line was a formal taking of property by the State and extinction of the title of formal ownership.viii The date of 1840 in this article appears to be slightly in error as the first instance of the use of a blue line was with the 1834 canal maps. The term “blue line” would later be adopted for the line that shows the state lands in the Adirondack Park.
The blue line connects the cross sections.
Field Books and Monuments
A part of the survey teams tool kit were small note books in which they recorded their measurements and notes. In order to not turn this article into a book, it will suffice to note that these note books were used to record not only what the surveyor was measuring, but also what was around them. All the data you will find on the finished maps will be found in the field books, plus more. If you are exploring local history, and what may have been around the canals, be sure to check the field note books. Don’t assume it will be on the maps.
Below are two versions of the 1830s Holmes Hutchinson field notes, showing the Erie Canal in Port Byron, NY. The rough draft was likely done in the field while the other was a cleaned up version, perhaps drawn in the office. The survey shows the canal crossing the Owasco Aqueduct and passing Beach’s Mill. At the time the mill was one of the largest in the state and used the canal for receiving grain and shipping flour. Note that the canal is represented as running straight up the page, while on the map, the canal has quite the bend.
1834 field notes of Port Byron. All the maps used in this post are from the New York State Archives. (B0292) A cleaned up version of the Port Byron notes. Note the location of the drydock and mill. (B0292)The 1834 Holmes hutchinson map of Port Byron. Note the drydock and Beach’s Mill. (Joined by author. Erie Canal_6_Camillus to Galen, 309 Erie HH Map Mentz (Port Byron).pdf, and 310 Erie HH Map Mentz (Port Byron).pdf. Cropped to fit.)
As noted prior, all surveys need a physical point in the landscape where the measurements begin. These might be called a bench-mark, a hub, or a monument. While the older surveys used anything that was prominent in the landscape, such as that apple tree, eventually the tree would died and the stump dug up. And as more property was sold and divided, conflicts arose as to the lines of ownership.
In 1827, Governor DeWitt Clinton recommended that a survey of the state be made and a map drawn. Nothing happened with this. Then again in 1852 and ‘53, the governors stated that a state-wide survey be made, but nothing happened. In 1875, the American Geographical Society reported; “that the existing maps, made from these old land-parcelling surveys and by private parties, were as nearly worthless as possible.”ix The state finally relented and began a survey in 1876.
To begin their survey, the State used monuments that had been placed along the Atlantic coast by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, and and monuments around the Great Lakes that had been installed by the United States Lake Survey. These would serve as the foundation for their survey. If the survey was carried out correctly, the two should meet at exactly the same place somewhere in the middle of the state. This survey went on up to 1884 when the Governor vetoed the funding. It was restarted in 1888 by the U.S. Geological Surveyor and continued ever since.
As part of this survey, monuments were placed in the landscape that noted true north. Any surveyor could then use one of these to begin their measurements and thus, everyone would be working off the same grid. Interestingly, the canal itself would often become the place of permanence in the landscape and many deeds will often mention the blue line of the canal as part of the survey, even though in many cases, the line of the canal was often in doubt.
This is a fun example showing the use of bench marks. I include it because it is a remarkable example of what you can find in the field books. This is from the 1895 Improvement of the Clyde area. I would bet that Mack’s barn looked like this. (B0730 Box 23)
The 1834 Holmes Hutchinson Maps
As noted, the 1834 Holmes Hutchinson (HH) maps are a set of “as builts,” meaning that they are a record what had been built. During the canal construction, property was often taken and the state had no record of what was what, and who was who. The HH maps were made to fill that void.
In the HH collection, there are a total of 18 volumes showing five canals. The Erie Canal is shown in 10 volumes, with about 540 maps total. All the Hutchinson map sets have a set of Explanatory Remarks that go into detail as to how the map was drawn, but here are the basics with some added comments.
For surveyors of that time, the method of measurement was the 66-foot-long chain, otherwise known as the Surveyors or Gunter Chain. The chain had 100 links, each .66 of a foot or 7.92 inches in length. A mile would be 80 chains long (66ft times 80 chains = 5280 feet or one mile). The were drawn at a scale of two chains to the inch, or one inch equals 132 feet (66 times 2 = 132 feet), and all measurements are shown as chains and links. The measurements seem to run from west to east, although I have yet to find a point of beginning. But knowing where the surveyor began doesn’t really matter with this type of survey, because at every cross section, the measurement is reset to zero. So it goes something like this; start here- measure 2.50 chains to a cross section- stop, note the distance and measure the cross section, then reset and restart- measure 4 chains- stop, make notes, etc. In total, the measured distance was 6.50 chains, but it is not represented in that manner. On the colored version of the maps, it is easy to see where each measurement ends as it is noted with as a solid red cross section line running across the canal.
Confused? There is more. There are also places where an intermediate measurements were taken, meaning that the distance, bearing and cross section were noted, but the measurement continues. These intermediate sections are shown as dashed red lines. So you will see: start- measure 1.5 chains, stop to note measurement, continue- measure 3.0 chains – stop and reset to zero.
The measurements shown here are on one of the Hutchinson maps.
All compass headings are shown using the quadrant system where all headings begin either North or South, and then work between 0 and 90 degrees East or West. The heading N 88 E shows us that the canal was pointed 88 degrees east of north, or almost due east.
The HH maps are wonderful to study as they include the built and natural environs around the canal. Stores, businesses, property owners, roads and streets, prior canals, creeks, rivers, mill races, steam and electric railroads, historical sites, and more, can be found on the maps. The maps only include those features that are within a block or two of the canal, so in places where the canal passed through a city or village, you see a slice of the neighborhood. As they were drawn in the 1830s, these maps are often the first ever made of many villages and cities.
The 1834 HH maps were accepted and certified by the Canal Board, the Board of Canal Commissioners, and the Comptroller’s Office, as the legal maps of the State of New York.
The 1869-1874 Enlarged Canal Maps
The 1869 maps are another set of “as-builts,” showing the recently completed Enlarged canals. The funds to survey and complete the maps was provided by Chapter 543, Laws of 1866. The law states that the funding was to defray the expense of completing the work. This seems to suggest that the maps had been in the works prior to 1866, but there may have been an issue within the engineering offices as the act also notes that a uniform style of map had been adopted. The maps were completed in 1874. The Archives has them listed as B0292 in various volumes.
The maps were drawn in the offices of the division engineers, beginning with Van Richmond’s in the east. The 1869 “Richmond” map shows the canal from Albany to Rexford. These maps use the 66-foot-long Gunter chain, and many of the methods of measurement that were used on the Hutchinson maps apply to these. And yet, there are notations that tie the surveys, in some places, to local monuments. You can see these in the Cohoes area. As these maps predate the statewide surveys, it would be interesting to know what the monuments were. And other base lines were used to tie the survey to the landscape. In this way, these surveys are a bit more “scientific.” However, the maps are lacking in many of the details seen on the other maps. While they show nearby streets, and even the outline of blocks, they show only a few canal side buildings. They also show the route of the early canals. The maps were never certified but they were used by the state.
The 1869 Richmond map of the West Troy sidecut. The map was drawn by Charles D Burrus. (crop of Richmond1869 47-12A UpprSdCt.jpg)
The 1896 Schillner Maps
The Schillner maps came about as a result of the 1895 Improvement, also known as the nine-million-dollar deepening. The project was passed as an legislative act under Chapter 79 of the Laws of 1895, which called for the deepening of the canal by two feet, from seven to nine feet.x To support this work, surveys were made of the Erie, Champlain and Oswego in the winter of 1896 while the canals were shut down and drained. Although the main purpose of the surveys was to provide data to the engineering department in their efforts to create estimates and let out contracts for work, they were later used to create the1896 maps.
In the complete Schillner map archive, there are 71 rolls of three canals; the Erie, Champlain and Oswego. There are 53 rolls in the Erie set, 10 of the Champlain, and 8 of the Oswego. Physically, these maps are large at 234 x 183 cm, or 94 x 73 inches, Each roll is divided into four, five or six “frames” stacked top to bottom, each one running horizontally across the full width of the roll. Each frame is 30 to 60 cm, or 12 to 24 inches, in height. The height of the frame is governed by the complexity of the canal at that point, such as if it is passing through a populated area, or maybe somewhat twisting. So basically each roll will show 4, 5 or 6 segments of the canal. Each segment shows about 6700 to 6800 feet, or about 1.28 miles. So if you were to cut up the map and line each section side to side, the map would show between 4.8 to 7.8 miles of canal. These maps have been digitized. This divides the map into smaller bite-sized chunks of 10 to 30 plus images. Additional images were made of the locks and other notable features with a tighter lens and this adds to the number of images per roll.
(map-layout)
Here is a remarkable image made by Steven Talbot, where he pieced together all the images to create a roll. You can view Steven’s map work with this link.
We know the survey process used for these maps as it was outlined in the Annual Report. The Erie, Oswego and Champlain canals were divided into 28 sections that had an average length of 18 miles. (Note- these are not the eleven canal maintenance sections that are mentioned in the annual reports. These sections were only used for the 1895 canal improvement survey and later the 1896 maps.) Over 200 men were pulled from the civil service lists to act as assistant engineers, rod men, chain men, ax men, levelers and laborers. The work began in January 1896 and lasted throughout what they all said was a very harsh winter. The teams first laid out a base line (the red line) with stations every 100 feet using the Ramsden Engineers chain, or Paines steel measuring tape.xi All measurements on the maps are shown in feet and inches.
Selected stations, or a point of measurement, were tied to the ground by the use of bench marks. These bench marks ranged from iron spikes driven in between the stonework of canal structures, telephone poles, corners of buildings, fence posts, iron rods or wooden pegs driven into the ground, and more. Although the red line continued to be the inside edge of the towpath, to make it easier to work and set up the equipment, the line was “off-set” to the middle of the towpath. The off-set is shown on the maps with green ink. Once the red, and green, lines and stations had been established, the teams went back to run cross sections every 100 feet, or so, depending on the nature of the canal and what had to be removed or modified.
A big departure from the earlier maps was that each of the 24 sections were measured as one unit. The survey began at the east boundary line and worked to the western end. These measurements are show along the green line as small circles with a corresponding green numbering as needed to mark the location of structures, to aid the count, or bench marks. It appears that bench marks are noted as small triangles. So keep in mind that if you want to use these maps to locate a structure, the station count will reset to 0.00 23 times. I note this because in1905, Nobel Whitford also used the 100-foot-stations for measurements in his “Tables of Existing Structures On Canals.”xii However, he used a continuous measurement beginning at the Hudson River.xiii The blue lines are inferred by connecting the ends of the cross sections.
(diagram-003)
The 1896 maps. The blue line has been left out to make it easier to read.
As with the Hutchinson maps, these are very useful in showing the built and natural environs around the canal. The Archives listing says that, “In addition they show: city, town and county lines; streams, rivers, bodies of water and islands; property lines, along with names of owners and sometimes acreage of land; and streets, railroad lines, businesses and civic landmarks (ice companies, mills, cemeteries, etc.).” Basically anything within a couple blocks of the canal are seen.
The maps also are very useful in showing the route and some features from the Clinton’s Ditch canal. The older canal is represented with a combination of red and blue dashed lines, and/or black ink drawings that show a “shadow” of what once there. The use of shadow lines and ink wash seem to emphasize areas of note such as locks, basins, drydocks, etc. In addition, the maps include the 1834 cross section measurements with the old chain measurements converted to feet, and the older compass bearings. It does not include any of the linear measurements between the cross sections. Maybe this would have made the maps too busy, or perhaps Schillner felt it was unnecessary as anyone who needed them could simply pull out the old 1834 maps? The old canal does tend to wander off the Schillner maps in places where the two canal routes diverged, but it always comes back. It does appear that Clinton’s Ditch was added in the office and not surveyed.
Two of the 1896 maps of Clyde. If you look at the end of Lock Street, you can see the Clinton’s Ditch lock as a shadow. This is also the section of canal that was shown with the field book bench marks. Mack’s store is where the two maps are joined. (Merged by author, Roll 30 01_DSC0130.jpg and Roll 31 25_DSC0140.jpg. Cropped to fit.)
Although the work on the canal improvement was ordered to stop on March 8, 1898, the work on the maps continued as the state needed up-to-date maps. The Middle Division engineer noted that in addition to the work on the estimates, the survey teams were also gathering information that would be used by the State Board of Claims in defense of lawsuits that would very likely be lodged against the state for damages. He somewhat hopefully added that the survey data cold be used to; “create new set of canal maps, as there has been many changes in the canals since the enlargement which are not recorded on the maps now in use.”xiv Maybe he knew something was in the works. In 1921, Anson Getman, wrote that in 1896, George L. Schillner had, “commenced a compilation of all maps of all lands which had been acquired for canal purposes to that time,” and that the Canal Law of 1894 ordered “the preparation of complete manuscript maps and field notes of every canal then or thereafter.”xv So it certainly appears that Schillner and the others were working under two or more of these laws that were addressing different issues. You will also find these maps as being completed under Chapter 569, Laws of 1899. which was an act making appropriations for certain expenses of government and supplying deficiencies in former appropriations. One of the many projects listed was; “For the state engineer and surveyor, for completing new blue line maps of the Erie, Oswego and Champlain canals,…”
Getman noted that the work on the maps took 12 years, ending in 1908. Schillner’s name appears on other projects during this time, so the maps were not his only job. Getman also noted that the maps had not been certified by the State Engineer or approved by the canal board, so they “bear no endorsement.”
Getman might be the first person to add George Schillner’s name to the maps. Perhaps the maps were George’s pet project and the guys in the office just started to call them the Schillner maps? No one says. In 1939, the 1896 maps were introduced as evidence in the case Northern New York Power vs New York State, as the “Schillner Maps.”xvi This is odd as there is no mention of the 1910 maps. But being used as evidence in a trial seems to show that the court accepted the maps as somewhat “certified.”
By the time the 1896 maps were complete, the state was deep into the Barge Canal project. The maps, as nice as they were, showed a canal system that was disappearing.
The 1910 Blue Line Maps
Amazing, for all the work that went into the 1896 maps, they were never certified by the state. Instead the state passed Chapter 199 of the Laws of 1910, which was; “An act to provide for the mapping of certain canal lands and the lands adjacent thereto belonging to the state.” This act was certainly in response to the pending abandonment of the old canals as the new Barge Canal was brought into use. Within a couple years, the state would be in the position to begin selling off these lands and they needed a certified legal survey and map that would become part of the record. The 1910 Annual Report notes states that the only “official” canal map was the 1834 Holmes Hutchinson map, and that the purpose of the 1910 Act was to re-establish the boundaries of the canals that were being enlarged into the Barge Canal system.xvii
The Archives listing says; “This series consists of whiteprint copies of original survey maps, commonly referred to as “blue line maps,” of land appropriated by the State for canal purposes. The maps depict in minute detail lands acquired for canal purposes up to and including the time of construction of the Barge Canal. The Department of Public Works (earlier the State Engineer and Surveyor) produced and retained the original maps and submitted whiteprint copies to the Comptroller and Secretary of State. This set of maps was filed with the Comptroller. Laws of 1910 (Chapter 199) and 1917 (Chapter 51) authorized the production of “blue line maps” (the blue lines indicated boundaries of State-owned lands along the Erie, Champlain, Oswego, Black River, and Cayuga and Seneca canals) to minimize property disputes resulting from the construction of the Barge Canal. The maps depict inner angles of the towpaths on the old canal; property owned by the State prior to Barge Canal construction; property appropriated by the State for the Barge Canal project; locations of the old canal lines; location of the proposed Barge Canal; and various structures, roads, streets, and other landmarks and the names of owners of private property adjacent to the canal.”xviii A quick count of the maps showed 1029 maps in 71 volumes. The scale used was one inch equals 100 feet. The maps have a key, which is needed as the volumes do not run in sequential order.
Before the survey crews were assigned, the office of the state engineer made “survey” of what records they already had on file. In addition to the 1834 maps and field books, the 1869 maps were examined, and the “rolled maps” and ‘Nine Million’ surveys, which were called the “most valuable compilation existing,” but were also not considered to be of much value.xix One of the issues was that the older surveys and maps used compass bearings that were magnetic and not off the true meridian. And as the canal was so long, other factors such as the curvature of the earth had to be accounted for. All new surveys had to be conducted to re-establish the red and blue lines.
As they conducted the surveys, the teams used three-quarter inch iron pins to mark points on the blue line boundaries, and brass monuments to mark the red line. The brass plate had “ears” that were embedded into a concrete column that was eight inches round by 54 inches long. These were buried in the towpath along the red line. The top of the monument said; N.Y.S. – CANAL RED LINE MONUMENT, with blank spaces where the survey team would use a hand punch to add the station measurement and offset. (Sadly most of these have ended up in collectors hands over the years. Any that remained were plowed up by the contractors during the construction of the Empire State Trail.)
Two of the red line monuments in the collection of the Lock 52 Historical Society of Port Byron, NY.
By comparing the 1896 and 1910 maps, certain stations can be found on both, however the noted measurements do differ. Plus, the 1910 maps used two methods to establish base, red and blue lines, and the title page should be consulted if you are taking a deep dive into the measurements. The big difference between the Hutchinson and Schillner maps, and the 1910 maps, is that the blue line was surveyed and monuments placed so that; “Blue line points can be relocated by using the data shown on the map.”
The 1910 maps vary in what canal side features are shown. For instance, the little village of Pattersonville is noted, but few buildings are seen, while 3 miles away, the details for the village of Rotterdam Junction are a bit more robust. The maps also take an interesting approach to the new Barge Canal. The new Barge Canal Lock 10, dam 6 is shown fully constructed, however Lock 8, dam 4 is not even noted, and Lock 11, dam 7 merely shows up as dam piers.xx This is a bit odd as the work on the maps went on into the 1920s, so they certainly had time to update the maps and show the full lock and dam structures.
The 1910 Blue Line map of Rotterdam Junction. Lock 25 can be seen. (Set A BK_1_62.jpg)
The work went on for over 14 years. In the Annual Report of 1924, the State Engineer wrote that the work was almost complete. He said, “It is not a simple process, however, to prepare these lands for sale. Extensive surveys have to be made, maps must be prepared, and in these activities precautions taken which will insure accuracy of the surveys and correct descriptions of the lands. In preparing for the surveys it is necessary to examine old maps and deeds back to the first canals of the state, nearly one hundred years ago, when surveying and mapping was not the exact science it is today. In addition to the men required to examine the titles and plot the lands, survey parties are required to define the lands in the field, and others to prepare blue line maps for the Canal Board and to follow these with abandonment maps and descriptions. To survey one mile of old canal in a month is a good average rate of progress for a field surveying party.”xxi However, he added that the costs of mapping were not as high as continued maintenance of the old canal lands.
For those who wish to know everything about the maps, you might be wondering what the crosses with the numbers might be. I asked someone who used to use these maps in his day to day job, and he thought it might be part of a quadrant system that was tied to a master map. But he honestly wasn’t sure.
In Conclusion
If you have made it this far, congratulations, for you are a real map geek!
I picked these four map sets as they offer the most comprehensive view of the canals, its structures and canal side neighborhoods. However, the New York State Archives listing of maps is very extensive. There are over 140 volumes of maps in B0292 alone, with a great many of these dated between 1850 and 1880. So even if one of these sets missed a canal you are interested in, there is likely a map of it in the collection. Also, remember that other repositories will often have these maps, so be sure to check with the Canal Society of New York State or the Erie Canal Museum.
Steven Talbot has a great mapping webpage at Enlarged Erie Canal Map Viewer and he also helped me out with this article, so please take a look at what we has done.
And if you are a surveyor, and I got something wrong, please contact me!
Here is a comparison showing Sprakers, NY, with three of the four maps.
The Hutchinson map of Sprakers. The canal crossed Flat Creek on a small slack-water pool . You can see where Ferry and Clinton Streets ran up to the basin. (crop of 97 Erie HH Map Root & Canajoharie)
The Schillner map of Sprakers. The canal runs across the page while Flat creek runs from bottom to top. The canal crosses the creek on Aqueduct 9 and Enlarged Lock 31 is just to the right. Just above the lock is the boundary line that divides sections 4 and 5. The old line of Clinton’s Ditch can be seen curving across the top and note the outline of the basin. The line of the West Shore railroad runs across the bottom of the map. (Roll 10 Root and Canajoharie- 19_DSC9115.jpg)
The 1910 Blue Line Maps of Sprakers. The large circles note the location of bench-marks, and the map contains many measurements and compass headings. It also makes note of the old Clinton’s Ditch locks, something that the Schillner maps missed. (crop of Set FF BK3_110.jpg)
iJohn B. Jervis. The Reminiscences of John B. Jervis; Engineer of the Old Croton. Syracuse University Press. 1971
iiWilliam C. Young. Reminiscences of Surveys of The Erie Canal In 1816-17. Canal Enlargement In New York State. Buffalo Historical Society Publications, Vol. 13. 1909. Page 333.
iiiA0848. Canal system survey maps (“Holmes Hutchinson maps”), 1832-1843. 19 cu. ft. (26 volumes) The maps are available on the NYS Archives website. Search for the series number.
ivB0292, in various volumes; 31, 38, 43, 47, 57, 67, 75, 100.
vB0253. Barge Canal sectional maps (“Schillner Maps”), ca. 1896. ca. 132 cu. ft. (71 maps)
viA0867. Whiteprint copies of maps of lands permanently appropriated by the State for canal purposes (“blue line maps”), 1917-1948. 28 cu. ft. (69 portfolios containing ca. 850 maps)
viiFor those who are interested, Philip L. Lord, Jr., wrote an excellent book on reading old surveys and how they were conducted. Mills on the Tsatsawassa, The State Education Department, 1983.
viiiWhat the Blue Line Is. The Argus, Albany, NY. April 23, 1891. Page 4.
ixHenry Gannett. The Mapping of New York State. Journal of the American Geographical Society of New York, Vol. XXVII, 1895. Page 22,
xThe full text of Chapter 79 can be found in the Annual Report of the State Engineer and Surveyor, Fiscal Year Ending September 30, 1895, Wynkoop Hallenbeck Crawford and Company, Albany, 1896, pages 6 – 11.
xi The NYS Archives mistakenly says that Schillner measured the canal using the surveyors 66-foot-chain.
xiiiIt is easy to convert these stations to feet or miles by using ((station x 100)) / 5280). (Example- Station 528.89 times 100 equals 52889 feet divided by 5280 equals 10.02 miles.)
xivAnnual Report of the State Engineer and Surveyor, For the year 1896. page 450.
xvAnson Getman, Principles and Sources of Title To Real Property, Matthew Bender and Company, Albany, 1921. Page 53.
xviNorthern New York Power Corporation vs State of New York, Court of Appeals, 1939, Exhibit No. 116, “Certified copy of Map on file in the Department of the State Engineer and Surveyor, and commonly known as the 1896 or Schillner Map.”
xviiReport of Resurveying the Blue Line, Annual Report of the State Engineer and Surveyor, J.B. Lyon and Company, Albany, 1911. Page 282
xviiiFA05. The Mighty Chain: A Guide to Canal Records in the New York State Archives. 1992
xixReport of Resurveying the Blue Line, Annual Report of the State Engineer and Surveyor, J.B. Lyon and Company, Albany, 1911. Page 282
