Carolann Fisher Linn
Here’s a riddle: What could a destitute guy in debtor’s prison have to do with the inspiration and development of the Erie Canal? Gather around and I’ll tell you a story about how one person with vision, a need, and the power of the pen made the impossible happen. I’d like to introduce you to Jesse Hawley. Now, before Jesse landed in debtor’s prison, he collected wheat in Geneva NY and had it milled in Seneca Falls sending it, at great expense, to cities on the Atlantic. He speculated based on the belief that river improvements would expand and lessen his costs. Alas, it did not happen and in 1806, the poor guy ended up in debtor’s prison for twenty months. While there, he published newspaper essays in the Genesee Messenger under the name “Hercules” sharing his thoughts of a canal stretching from the Hudson River to Lake Erie. Oddly, he was neither a surveyor nor an engineer. In fact, he was rather humbly educated. Yet his writings filtered past those who thought he was, well, nuts, and caught the attention of Joseph Ellicott and DeWitt Clinton.
We in the Southern Tier are well familiar with the name of Joseph Ellicott. What we may not know is that aside from all the land settlement he facilitated in our region, he laid out Batavia, NY in 1801 and in 1804, the village of Buffalo, establishing mill sites and communities. He also advocated for a canal from the Hudson River to Lake Erie and was among the Erie Canal Commissioners appointed in 1816 to supervise the canal construction. (Wikipedia). When the canal was completed on November 4, 1825, Ellicott arranged for the contribution of more than 100,000 acres of company land for the project. DeWitt Clinton was at that time mayor of New York City, later to become NYS Governor overseeing this immense project, which was dubbed “Clinton’s Big Ditch” by his critics. Hawley never succeeded as a wheat merchant yet, in 1817, Hawley was appointed collector of revenue for the Port of Genesee. He became a member of the New York State Assembly, representing Genesee County in the 1820–21 session. Fittingly, he took part in the celebrations of the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825, representing the people of the city of Rochester.
Per Wikipedia, the canal, which runs east-west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie “was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly reducing the costs of transporting people and goods across the Appalachians. In effect, the canal accelerated the settlement of the Great Lakes region, the westward expansion of the United States, and the economic ascendancy of New York State. It has been called ‘The Nation’s First Superhighway.’” Well, Superhighway by Mule!
Canal boats were pulled by horses or mules and traveled at about four miles per hour. The boats floated in the water in the canal and the horses and mules walked beside the canal on a dirt towpath. Ropes were tied to the boat and to the horses or mules. But not all was work. Folk took pleasure rides on 80 x 14-foot “Queens of the old Erie Canal” called Packet boats which accommodated up to 100 people and provided meals and lodging. Now, that’s living!
The construction of the Erie Canal was a landmark civil engineering achievement in the early history of the United States. When built, the 363-mile (584 km) canal was the second-longest in the world (after the Grand Canal in China). Originally 40 feet wide and 4 feet deep, it is now 120 feet wide and 12 feet deep with 34 locks in its current 351 miles.
Today the Erie Canal is used mainly for recreation as well as being a tourist attraction, thanks to the arrival of railroads. While the historic locks are closed to boat traffic, two modern locks still raise and lower boats up a hillside in the heart of downtown Lockport. The Lockport Lock and Erie Canal Cruises leave from just downstream of the downtown area. Makes for a fun afternoon. Lockport is 71 miles (1 hour 15 minutes) from Ellicottville. Lockport Locks and Erie Canal Cruises, 210 Market St, Lockport, NY 14094. (716) 433-6155. (Check out the Erie Canal Song by Billy Murray, 1912, “Low Bridge Everydoby Down”.)