Erie Water West: A History of the Erie Canal, 1792-1854

471 Pages·1990·25.06 MB·English

by  Ronald E. Shaw

Erie Water West

6RI6 WAT6R W6ST
A History
of the Erie Canal
1792-1854
RONALD E. SHA W
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY
Publication of this volume was made possible in part by a grant from the
National Endowment for the Humanities.
Copyright © 1966 by The University of Kentucky Press
Paperback edition published in 1990 by The University Press of Kentucky
Scholarly publL~her for the Commonwealth,
serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre
College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University,
The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College,
Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University,
Morehead State University, Murray State University,
Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University,
University of Kentucky, University of LouLwille,
and Western Kentucky University.
All rights reserved.
Editorial and Sales OjJices: The University Press of Kentucky
663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008
www.kentuckypress.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Shaw, Ronald E.
Erie water west: a history of the Erie Canal, 1792-1854 / Ronald E. Shaw
p. cm.
Reprint. Originally published: Lexington, Ky.: University of Kentucky
Press, cl966.
Includes bibliographical referenc'es.
ISBN-lO: 0-8131-1711-9 (alk. paper)
ISBN-lO: 0-8131-0801-2 (alk. paper: pbk.)
1. Erie Canal (N.Y.)-History. 1. Title.
TC625.E6S48 1990
386'.48'09747-<ic20 89-70702
ISBN-13: 978-0-8131-0801-8 (pbk.: alk. paper)
This book is printed on acid-free recycled paper meeting
the requirements of the American National Standard
for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials.
§@
Manufactured in the United States of America.
Member of the Association of
American University Presses
TO Glyndon G. Van Deusen
Teacher, Author, Friend

Preface
T
HE ERIE CANAL has long been celebrated in song,
folklore, and fiction. Shortly after the turn of
the twentieth century its history was told in a com
prehensive engineering study. More recently it has at
tracted attention for its contribution to American eco
nomic growth.
I have attempted to give a balanced account of the
history of the Erie Canal during the period 1792-1854
that brings together such varied aspects as its political
sponsorship and opposition, construction and operation,
travel and commerce, and its social and cultural sig
nificance. I have tried here to show the place of the Erie
Canal in the lives of the generations that planned, con
structed, and first traveled upon it, and have sought to
explain why many saw it as the wonder of their age.
Any discussion of the Erie Canal requires designation
in time. Today the canal passing boats and barges
through gigantic locks between the Hudson River and
Lake Erie is the Erie Barge Canal, construction of which
began in 1905. Though its route is much the same as that
of the Erie Canal of the nineteenth century, it represents
the last of three major phases of Erie Canal history. Here
I am concerned with the first two phases: the construction
and use of the original canal, completed in 1825 and
viii Preface
often called the "old Erie Canal" or "Clinton's Ditch";
and the enlarged or "improved Erie" on which construc
tion began in 1836 and was completed in 1862.
This study, however, closes with the year 1854 as that
year saw the climax of the major political contest between
the Democrats and Whigs over the enlargement of the
canal, and as the consolidation of the New Yark Central
Railroad only a year earlier marked the transition from
the Canal Era to the Railroad Age in New York. More
over, in the 1850s New Yorkers turned their attention
increasingly away from state conflicts over internal im
provements toward the national problem of slavery and
the threat of civil war.
Research for this study has been supported by grants
from the Penrose Fund and the Johnson Fund of the
American Philosophical Society and by research grants
from Miami University. The latter institution also pro
vided a Summer University Research Fellowship in 1958.
I am indebted to Glyndon G. Van Deusen for encour
agement and criticism in my initial work on this subject.
I also wish to acknowledge the unstinting assistance of
Richard N. Wright, secretary of the Canal Society of New
York State, who loaned research materials, provided illus
trations, and sought to save me from published error.
To Albert E. Gayer of Schenectady I am grateful for
permission to use his extensive personal canal collection
and for the energetic tours on which he guided me over
parts of the remains of the Erie Canal.
I wish to acknowledge the generous assistance of
members of the staffs of the Library of Congress, the
Columbia University Library, the New York Public Li
brary, the New-York Historical Society, the New York
State Library, the Utica Public Library, the Jervis Public
Library in Rome, the Onondaga Historical Society, the
Preface ix
Cornell University Library, the Rochester Public Library,
the University of Rochester Library, the Buffalo Public
Library, the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society,
and the Miami University Library. Particular thanks are
due Margaret B. Andrews, Assistant Librarian in Charge
of Special Collections at the University of Rochester, for
assistance spanning many years.
lowe a special debt to my wife, Judith M. Shaw, for
her help in research and typing and for her critical
judgment which have made the preparation of this book
a shared endeavor. For errors of fact or interpretation,
however, I alone am responsible.
Miami University Ronald E. Shaw
November, 1965