As I noted in my review of the new book by Nancy Kraus, there has been considerable push-back from the members of the Virginia Canals and Navigations Society who feel Ms. Kraus is mistaken in her findings. They sent along a resolution laying out their concerns along with this list.
Overview on Difficulties with Nancy’s Book
Page 22 Plat of proposed Great Basin mistakenly labeled as “super-imposed on the grid of Manchester” when it was made on the Byrd Lottery lots map of Richmond.
Page 30 “Conjectural Map” of John Ballendine property has no relationship to the two deeds that define his property boundaries.
Page 33 Labels on Latrobe’s sketches are inaccurate – planks & large stones are labeled as Cascade and Eddy, canal is extended in wrong direction and Downstream & Upstream are reversed.
Page 36 Thomas Jefferson’s quotes are augmented by incorrect structures “[Foundry]” and locations “[to the north bank]”.
Page 39 Many added labels to the 1819 Manchester Canal Map are incorrect.
Page 42 Patrick Coutts had not “inherited the land that he sold to Ballendine from Alexander Coats” and it was not “on the east side of Westham Creek”.
Pages 46-51 Elliot Lacy did not survey land along the south bank, many of the added labels to the Manchester Canal map are incorrect, only one of the 5 property owners on the Lacy plat owned land on the south bank at this time.
Page 53 The photo labeled “One of two locks” is actually of a covered-culvert for later railroad tracks.
Page 59 Added label “Head Broad Rock” is incorrect. Broad Rock (now Belle Isle) was upstream from this Byrd mill canal location.
Page 62 Wood Map of Chesterfield County is not “depicting features of the lower canal”. It is depicting areas across the river from the locations that are shown on the Wood Map of Henrico County.
Page 64 Radziminske Map is mislabeled with “Manchester Canal” and “James River Lower Canal” when these waterways were actually the Byrd/Mayo mills headrace and the Town of Manchester mills headrace.
Pages 73-81 The 1819 Manchester Canal Map was for the proposed route of a south-side continuous canal. It is incorrect that “that canal was excavated“. There was another full 1825 survey of the same route that has no mention of any parts of a previous 1819 canal.
Pages 85-89 The structures listed were not “a water-control tower and an underground system of aqueducts and cisterns” “linked to the Manchester Canal”. They were an early mansion basement repurposed as a Civil War magazine and the 1880s water tower for the town of Manchester.
And this was included in a separate email from Dick Helm, who wished to address a couple points.
First is Latrobe’s estimate of “A large island lies opposite to the entrance of the Canal at about 300 Yards distance from it.” Nancy makes much of the difference between this estimate and the current river width on the north side. This estimate was made in his diary entry for 12 April 1796. It could be that this estimate made by an architect was accurate IN 1796. I suggest that comparing it to the distance between Williams Island and the north shore IN 2014 is not an apples-to-apples comparison. This might be due to the changing nature of James River islands in size and shape due to currents and floods. The Williams Island side of the north-side dam was along the downstream sheltered side of the island and could have been added-to by sand, mud and flood debris over the years. The north shore has had extensive alterations during this 200+ year interval. In the early 1820s the James River Company extended the canal upstream from Ballendine’s canal location. This involved blasting part of a bluff, digging the newer larger canal bed and a larger towpath. In the later 1830s the James River & Kanawha Canal Company changed the lock location in this part of the canal, expanded the canal width and declared Ballendine’s dam was no longer needed as a water feeder into the canal. In the 1880s The Richmond & Allegheny Railroad laid their train track on the towpath and probably made sure it was wide enough and supported enough for train traffic. In the early 1900s, the City of Richmond built a concrete dam from Williams Island to the north shore and constructed their water-control intakes and a concrete channel to the settling ponds of the Richmond Waterworks. All of these north shore alterations make a current comparison to a 1796 estimate problematic.
Second is Nancy’s Timeline. The beginning errors in this document are the starting and ending dates. She uses two documents for these dates for the North Bank canals. Her starting date of 1793 was the date of a plan for the Great Basin located in Richmond. However, excavating and connecting the basin in Richmond was a very late step in the total canal construction. Prior to 1793, John Ballendine bought his land on the north shore, excavated his canal and built his locks on the north shore. Prior to 1793, the James River Company acquired Ballendine’s canal and bought other land and excavated the Lower Canal on the north shore. Only when those steps had been accomplished did the James River Company plan, excavate & connect the Lower Canal to the Great Basin. Nancy’s ending date of 1808 was the date of the Gallatin Report. The Great Basin in Richmond was connected to the Lower Canal much earlier than 1808. I have discussed the other errors in this Timeline with Nancy. Her “Canal B” WAS the Upper Canal and her “Canal C” WAS the Lower Canal.
One last point, John Ballendine bought land on the north shore of the James River for the sole purpose of excavating a canal around the Upper Falls of the James River at Williams Island. His canal excavated on his property did bypass the Upper Falls. There are 2 deeds that list the boundaries of the John Ballendine’s property. Those boundaries can be drawn by any independent knowledgeable cartographer (or any independent person familiar with early deed boundary descriptions) and they will show a north shore location. Since the Ballendine Canal and the Westham Foundry were located within this John Ballendine property, they were also on the north shore of the James River.