This essay was originally published in the 1947 OCHS Yearbook. Please note that this essay was published over 80 years ago. While still useful for general education, language may be outdated and at times offensive. The Oswego County Historical Society does not stand by the language used in this essay. All photos were added in 2026 when this article was uploaded to the web. To view the original document, please visit NYHeritage.org.
Paper Presented Before Members of Oswego County Historical Society March 18, 1947 by Charles McCool Snider of Social Studies Department of Oswego State Teachers College
In its narrowest sense, the Oswego Canal was a branch of the Erie Canal system. Considered more broadly, however, it was a link in a chain of public improvements, begun in Europe in the 18th century, spread to America in the years following the American Revolution, and extended thence beyond the Appalachians during the third and fourth decades of the 19th century. It was an important chapter of the competition of the cities on the tidewater for commercial preeminence dependent upon an easy passage to the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys. As late as 1820, prior to the completion of the Erie Canal, it was a matter of conjecture whether Boston, New York, Philadelphia or Baltimore would become the metropolis of the East. The canal was a cord binding East and West, providing a means of carrying manufactured goods westward and raw materials eastward. It was a highway for immigration into the West. We can only guess at the numbers of English, Scots, Germans, Irish, Scandinavians, to mention but a few nationalities, who found Oswego the gateway to the West.
An International Highway
The canal, like the Oswego River before the canal came into use, was a means of opening the Oswego River Valley and neighboring regions to further settlement and a means of transport for their imports and exports. It was an international highway between the United States and Upper Canada. Oswego was the port of entry for Canadian wood and grain, the port of departure for passengers and commodities; a means of healing the wounds of two wars. Finally, the canal quickened the lives of Oswego’s citizenry and broadened their intellectual horizons. Prices, markets and land values were at once responsive to conditions in New York, Washington and even London. It was imperative that the importance of the canal be recognized in Albany: that Buffalo receive no favors denied Oswego. It should be remembered that while other branches of the Erie Canal system were complimentary, the Oswego Canal was a direct competitor for business of the Erie or main line of the canal west to Syracuse. Obviously, such a subject goes beyond the limitations of a short paper. But I do feel that it is important at the outset to emphasize the significance of the canal to Oswego. It was far more than mud and stone; locks and towpaths.
Two Possible Routes
When Dewitt Clinton and his far sighted associates first speculated upon a waterway to join the Hudson valley to the West two plans were proposed. First, the improvement of the waterway of the Western Inland Lock Navigation company and its connection with Lake Erie by a canal around Niagara Falls. This company, chartered in 1792, had linked Albany to Oswego, making use of a wagon road from Albany to Schenectady, the Mohawk River with a short canal and locks at Little Falls, a canal across the portage between the Mohawk and Wood Creek (near the site of the present City of Rome), improvements on the Oneida, Seneca and Oswego Rivers, a portage at the Falls of the Oswego (at Oswego Falls at the site of the present City of Fulton), and the Oswego River again to Lake Ontario. Durham boats, sixty feet in length with a two foot draft, carried 20-24 tons of freight from Schenectady to Oswego, but portages were required to reach both terminals. The second proposal was a new canal from the Hudson to Lake Erie that would run roughly parallel with Lake Ontario’s South shore, but about 40 miles south thereof. Sentiment in the state was divided between the two plans, but there is little evidence of any division of opinion among the residents of Oswego, where the Oswego route appeared to be the natural path to the West, and the Erie, an artificial connection.
Van Buren’s Opposition
President Martin Van Buren in his “Autobiography” recalled an interesting sidelight which occurred in the state Senate during the Oswego Erie route controversy. Senator Perley Keyes of Jefferson county, an Oswego route supporter, prepared an amendment to the Erie authorization bill which would have made the Oswego branch a part of the original undertaking. This amendment placed the influential and crafty Van Buren upon the horns of a dilemma. He favored the Oswego plan, but it was a well known fact that he owned many acres of land, including the area in the City of Oswego today known as “the Van Buren Tract,” which would appreciate in value if the canal became a reality Under the circumstances he felt obliged to vote against it, and so informed his Jefferson county associate. But the latter would not be dissuaded. He offered the amendment and Van Buren voted against it, thus contributing to its defeat and the postponement of the construction of the Oswego Canal.
Oswego Route’s Advantages
When the decision was made in favor of the Erie route in April 1817, the year which followed Oswego County’s erection as such, Oswego neither despaired nor turned apathetic. The con-completion of the middle span at Rome-with the hope of diverting the western section to the Oswego route. A pamphlet published at the “Palladium” office in Oswego and largely written by Alvin Bronson and his business associate, Col. Theophilus Morgan, emphasized the greater speed to be provided by the Oswego Canal, a saving in time of two days between the Hudson and Lake Erie. It stressed, also, the location of Oswego, declaring: “We cannot dismiss this subject without noticing the harbor of Oswego, and its importance in the lake navigation must command the attention of the observer. View its fine position on the map; not a port on the whole shore of the lake offers such facilities for navigation. It is a place of such importance, and its river possessing so many natural advantages, our readers are, no doubt, ready to inquire, ‘Why are they so little regarded while there is such an impulse for improvement in the state?’ . . . There is one fact that ought to outweigh volumes of reports founded on hypothesis and supported by sophistry. The trade between Oswego and Lewiston, for the last twelve years, has been carried, almost exclusively, in vessels belonging to Oswego. The average number employed has been ten.” (Landmarks of Oswego, 152).
That this slight to Oswego was significant politically is indicated as early as 1820 when Oswego gave Tompkins, identified with the anticanal faction, 455 votes for Governor to 311 cast for the victorious Clinton. Unable to block the construction of the Erie Canal by the Buffalo route by press or ballot, Oswego turned to a second alternative, a connection for Oswego with the Erie system. Several difficulties were at once apparent. Pressure was being exerted at Albany by all sections of the State for internal improvements, for roads and connections with the Erie Canal. The Oswego valley was yet thinly populated and remote from Albany. Furthermore, adherents of the Oswego route were divided over the most feasible type of construction; some favoring an improvement of the Oswego River, others supporting the building of a canal that would closely parallel the route of the river.
River Improvement First
Oswego’s representatives in the legislature kept hammering away for action and in 1820 secured an entering wedge in the shape of an appropriation for $25,000 for the improvement of navigation on the Oswego River. Public rallies also kept the pot a’boiling. A public meeting was held in Guiteau’s Hall in Oswego on December 2, 1822, to “concert measures for bringing before the Legislature the subject of improving the navigation of the Oswego River, and other matters of public interest.” The question of the relative merits of canal and river improvement seems to have been avoided in the interest of harmony. In a memorial addressed by citizens of Oswego to the Legislature, the latter was reminded that $25,000 had already been appropriated which, combined with improvements at or near Salina, would provide boat navigation from the Erie Canal to Oswego Falls, a distance of 24 miles. But 12 miles more, it was argued, would join it with Lake Ontario. (Landmarks of Oswego, 153).
Construction Started In 1826
Oswego interests were not ignored in Albany. In the spring of 1823 the Canal Commission, prodded into action by petitions from the Seneca and Oswego River sections, presented a report to the Legislature urging the immediate improvement of navigation as far as Oswego Falls and the appointment of a board of investigation to make a scientific examination to determine the most expedient means of completing it to Lake Ontario. The latter, it held, presented “great difficulties” which might require a mode of improvement “different from any heretofore designed and estimated and considerably less expensive … ” (Oswego Palladium, March 7, 1823).
The Commission’s report was acted upon with despatch and the Legislature directed the Commission to investigate and report the probable cost of completing the canal from Salina to Lake Ontario. This investigation was duly made and 18 months later, on November 2, 1824, the bill authorizing the construction of the Oswego Canal was adopted. The first appropriation was voted the following April and construction was begun in 1826.
Aaron Burr’s Comment
Crisfield Johnson in his “History of Oswego County” recorded the following incident indicative of the Buffalo-Oswego rivalry: “Before a blow was struck on the Oswego Canal, the Oswego people learned with consternation that the Buffalo member of the Assembly, Reuben B. Heacock had introduced a bill repealing the law authorizing the Oswego Canal. Mr. (Alvin) Bronson was then out of the Senate, but was expected to take care of the interests of Oswego all the same. He mounted his horse and started for Albany. On entering the Capitol the first man he met was Aaron Burr, who twenty five years before, had been Vice President of the United States, but was then, in his old age, earning a very moderate subsistence by his practice at the bar. He knew Mr. Bronson, having argued cases before him when, as a senator, that gentleman was a member of the old Court of Errors. “Ah,” exclaimed the veteran, as he met the young Oswego merchant, “so you have come back after your canal, have you?” “Yes, sir; that is my main object.” “Well, now, Mr. Bronson, I am disposed to be on your side; I am in favor of the Oswego Canal too.” “Well, Colonel,” said Mr. Bronson, “I believe all sensible men are on our side.” “Ah, my young friend,” replied the disappointed and cynical politician, “If you have none but the sensible men, there is a vast majority against you.” But whether it was by the aid of the sensible or senseless, the Buffalo representative’s effort was defeated and construction of the Oswego Canal was begun in 1826.
First Lock At Fulton
The cornerstone of the first lock was laid at Fulton on the Fourth of July, the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Impressive Masonic services were used. Jonathan Case was the master of ceremonies, Judge David P. Brewster of Oswego delivered the address, Peter Schenck read the Declaration of Independence, and Hastings Curtiss* of Central Square served as marshall. An 18 pound cannon exploded, but fortunately there were no serious results. (Landon, “North Country,” 288).
In the construction of the canal the river was utilized wherever there was sufficient depth of water unobstructed by rapids. The tow path was built on the East river bank – except in a few instances where it was placed in the middle of the stream to be near deep water. The canal at its opening had a minimum depth of 4 feet; locks were 90 feet in length and 15 feet wide. In all “there were 19.7 miles of independent canals connected with the Oswego River by locks and dams, and 18.56 miles of slack water river navigation. Its structures of timber and stone consisted of 22 towing path and other bridges, 7 culverts, one aqueduct (to carry the waters of Waterhouse Creek at Fulton), two waste weirs and 8 dams built across the river, 13 locks of stone masonry and one of stone and timber, having an aggregate lift of 123 feet.” (Adding 3 locks located between Syracuse and Salina the total lift equaled 155 feet). (Whitford, “History of New York Canals,” 1,452).
* Curtiss was then a leading citizen of the Central Square area. The name Hastings given to the town in which Central Square is located was suggested by Curtiss’s first name.
Engineering Features
A brief survey of the 17 locks reveals: Numbers 1, 2, and 3 between Syracuse and Salina; total drop 32 feet; number 4, Salina side cut; number 5, mudlock at Liverpool, drop 9 feet, 7 inches. Situated in a marsh, this lock and the section beyond it as far as Phoenix required frequent repairs and an early reconstruction. Number 6, Hinmanville,* drop 7 feet; number 7, Morseman’s, drop 5 feet, 8 inches; numbers 8, 9, 10, 11, Fulton, total drop 39 feet; number 12, Battle Island, drop 11 feet; number 13, Minetto, drop 5 feet, 6 inches; numbers 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 along the approach to Oswego and Oswego Harbor, drop 45 feet. The eight dams, all constructed of wood, were in need of frequent repair, as were the tow paths which had to be raised at numerous points to avoid flooding. From South to North the canal extended from Syracuse to Salina and along the eastern shore of Lake Onondaga and its outlet to the Seneca river and thence to Three Rivers. From that point it continued along the East bank of the Oswego River to Oswego Harbor.
*The Hinmanville Lock is still extant today although no longer in use. It is the best preserved of the old Oswego Canal Locks.
First Operation In 1829
The completion date had been set for the spring of 1828 but an epidemic of malignant fever in 1827 greatly reduced the labor supply and increased costs. The lock contractor died a victim of this disease and other contractors could not fulfill their obligations. The fever abated during the winter but returned the following summer. There were also frequent and continued rains. As a result the consummation of the 38 mile project was delayed until December – hardly an auspicious time for canaling in Upper New York – and traffic moved on the canal throughout its entire length for the first time on April 28, 1829. The entire project cost the State $525,115, a sum considerably higher than original estimates.* The canal was designed to transport boats or packets carrying about 40 tons. The packets were light, blunt and narrow, their general characteristics determined by the size of the locks and the low elevation of bridges. These limitations, I should add, by no means eliminated opportunities for variation in detail. Gilt, gingerbread and awnings on the packets expressed the individuality of the owner. The boats were drawn by three horses or mules, usually driven tandem, but sometimes abreast. Passengers in fair weather rode on the upper deck above the cabins, often sheltered from the sun’s rays in midsummer by a resplendent awning. The arrival and departure of the packets in Oswego were occasions of great interest attended by crowds of curious onlookers.
* One of the engineers in charge of construction on the canal was Benjamin Winch, an early settler of “Vera Cruz” as the locality known today as Texas was called by George Scriba, the landed proprietor who sought to found a “city” there in 1795. Winch later moved across Mexico Bay to the mouth of the Salmon River and became one of the first settlers in the Town of Richland. He kept the first inn in Pulaski.
Bugle Notes Proclaimed Arrival
As expressed in the “Landmarks of Oswego”: “The bugle notes which announced its approach, were the signal for a gathering at the landing place ‘to see the packet come in’ while the horses which towed it made a spurt for the finish. The landing was at the east end of the lower bridge, to which the packets came down in the water power canal or mill race and landed their passengers on the level of Bridge Street opposite the Arcade Block.”* Stables used to house the horses and mules were located along the canal between Bridge and Mohawk Streets, (p. 346)
*The packet boat landing was located along the Bast bank of the river just South of Bridge Street in the area now occupied by the Neal Block. The packets operated between Oswego and Syracuse. They made stops all along the route to take on or discharge passengers at their convenience. The packets continued to carry passengers on the canal until about the year 1900. For many years they were operated both day and night packets between the two cities. A ticket office and landing place was also maintained in Fulton.
Canal Provided Employment
It is difficult to overemphasize the dependence of Oswego upon the canal almost from the start. It provided employment from April to November for many Oswego families, men, women and children. “Sons followed fathers and children grew up along the canal, cradled in their mother’s arms while she watched the steering, the family wash waving on lines overhead, with many acquaintances to be met nightly at the groceries – ‘the 5 mile grocery’ or some other name – canal bestowed, that made a landmark and a stage of the voyage. There were gatherings of canal folk, dances to the music of accordion and fiddle, and at sunup sleepy eyed youngsters harnessing canal nags to resume the plodding along the tow paths. A leisurely life, paced to the gait of the horses or mules, with breaks or high water to be accepted philosophically, even as the frequent altercations over crossed and snagged tow lines brought spice to the day’s proceedings.”*
The canal facilitated travel to and from Oswego, carried in ports and exports, attracted business, encouraged ship and boat building and lake commerce, and enhanced land values. It has frequently been repeated that in any Oswego assemblage, prior to the turn of the last century, a shout of “Low Bridge” would have caused at least one half of those present to lower their heads to escape contact with an overhead obstruction.**
* At the John Van Buren Tavern in Volney stables were maintained. Stables for canal animals, a blacksmith shop for shoeing the animals, a store for selling groceries to canalers.
** Quoted from Centennial Edition of “Oswego Palladium Times” November 20, 1945.
Early Operations At Loss
The history of the canal during the two decades after 1828 reflects the economic well being of the nation with variations due to conditions more local in character. For two years the volume of traffic was moderate, and by no means up to the predictions of enthusiasts. If we were to pause to observe a typical week’s traffic in 1830 (Week of May 19-26) we would note the following: Packet arrivals at Oswego; Packets with passengers 6, with merchandise 13, with salt 4, miscellaneous 2, total 25. Departure: Packets with passengers 7, with flour 6, with merchandise 7, whiskey 1, with stoves 1, with rope 1, with hogs 1, total 23. Toll collections were not sufficient to avoid criticism by the Buffalo press that the Oswego canal was operating at a loss. The charge was of course resented in Oswego, as was the practice of grouping the Oswego canal with other branches in making financial reports with the inevitable tendency to underscore the profits of the main line and the losses of the branches. Oswego could ill afford to be relegated to the status of a branch and thereby lose favors given to the money making main line. This situation was intensified, naturally, during depression periods when the State was economy conscious and the wisdom of the branches was questioned.
“Palladium” Champions Cause
The “Palladium” rose at once to the defense, and by a process of reasoning, which might be considered somewhat ingenious since the assets listed included such items as: augmentation of revenues on the Erie, augmentation of the general canal revenue by the increased manufacture of salt, credit for tolls not collected on wood carried to the salt works and interest on the sales of Oswego village lots enhanced by the canal, showed enough “indirect” or intangible credits to lift the Oswego canal out of the “red” and into the “blue.” (Palladium, Feb. 16, 1831)
When, a few years later, Oswego’s delegate in the State Senate, Henry A. Foster, spoke in defense of the utility of the state works in the northern sections of the state and contrasted their profits with the losses sustained from similar works in the southern sector, the “Palladium” reported the speech with pride, but it chastised him gently for a statement (which I am sure a more modern member would have avoided) to the effect that while the improvements in the Central and Western sections had brought rich returns to the State, two exceptions should be noted: the Black River and Oswego Canals. “Why is this invidious exception made to the Oswego Canal?” the “Palladium” inquired, “Senators from other districts might well be excused for error in regard to the productiveness of the Oswego Canal – for we are sensible that the whole truth on the subject has never been officially laid before the public. The true state of the case is, however, well understood by many of our distinguished citizens, and we confess our regret that it has not been looked into by Mr Foster.” The “Palladium” then brought its admittedly unofficial version of the balance sheet up to date, revealing not only an operation profit but the realization of 74 percent of the cost of construction in 14 years. (Palladium, Mar. 16, 1842) Whatever the validity of its figures, the “Palladium” was undoubtedly correct in insisting that the real value of the canal could not be stated in simple terms of profit and loss.
The Effect of Welland’s Opening
As the Oswego canal linked Oswego to the East, so the completion of the Welland Canal in 1830 united her to the West. The former contributed to her leadership as a lake port, the latter opened Lake Erie and the Ohio and Michigan regions to her ships and wharves, and made her one of the leading milling centers of the Nation. It is true that Oswego had flour mills before the opening of the Welland Canal, but they were now expanded rapidly. Furthermore, western grain continued to feed her mills for years after the growth of dairying had reduced local supplies.
The news of the completion of the Welland was expected through the spring and summer of 1830, but it was not until August the fourth that the arrival of the schooner “Erie” from Cleveland, Ohio, brought demonstrable proof that the lakes were joined. In the words of the “Palladium”: “The arrival of the schooner was greeted by the ringing of bells, by a national salute of twenty four guns, by a display of all the flags in the village and harbor, and by the cheers and congratulations of our citizens Thus this great event, the offspring with us of so many hopes and fears, and expectations and disappointments, has at length taken place and with exulting hearts, we hail the harbinger of the commerce of Erie. Another triumph of human ingenuity and wisdom is achieved. The hitherto insurmountable barrier of the Niagara is overcome, and the waters of Erie may now mingle with those of Ontario, bearing upon their bosoms the bounties of civilization, and the gifts of the arts. If there be a spot on the western waters, which, more than any other, is to reap the commercial harvest of which the Welland Canal is to be the parent, that spot is Oswego. To the 600 miles of coast to which we had access, 1000 more are now added, comprising the most western counties of New York, the county of Erie, in Pennsylvania, the shores of Ohio, Michigan, and Upper Canada – the abodes of a large and enterprising population, stimulated by the wants, and actively engaged in administering to the supplies of civilized life. It is needless to speculate, for imagination cannot compass the extent of that commerce which will inhabit the bosom of the northern lakes, when the regions of the far west shall yield their spoil.”
Dinner Marks Celebration
At four o’clock in the afternoon the citizens of Oswego assembled at the Welland House to partake of a public dinner in celebration of the joyous event. The President of the Village, T S. Morgan* presided, and George H. McWhorter, Alvin Bronson and Henry Fitzhugh gave him capable assistance. Officers and members of the “Erie’s” crew were among the guests gathered about the board. “Great good humor, hilarity and temperance prevailed.” It was made to order for toasts, and I shall quote several of the most appropriate:
“Oswego—Nature has done her duty, art hers; may her citizens do theirs.”
“The schooner “Erie”- the first to tell us that Erie is ours, and Huron is ours, and Michigan, Superior and all are ours.”
Chorus: “The Duncans are coming, McGregor coming, The Campbells are coming—and all the dealers in the West are coming.”
Among the volunteer toasts: by Gerrit Smith: “The Welland Canal—a stream of wealth into the lap of Oswego.” By Alvi n Bronson: “The schooner Erie—like the Dove from the Ark, a messenger on the winds; but unlike the dove, she proclaims that the waters are flowing not ebbing.” Finally, by Judge Daniel Hugunin: “Oswego—may she realize all the benefits from the Welland Canal, which her enemies predicted.” (Palladium, Aug. 11, 1830)
* Col. T. S. Morgan was a business partner of Alvin Bronson in the forwarding business and also in the ownership of the first flour mill established in Oswego. He also served in the State Legislature.
Optimism Vindicated
The optimism expressed at the Welland House* was vindicated in the years which followed. Canal and lake commerce, ship building and milling flourished, and Oswego’s population expanded. Oswego barely felt the business panic occasioned by President Jackson’s war with the United States Bank in 1833, and 1835 in particular was a year of record breaking activity at Oswego. More travelers passed through Oswego in 1835 than during any previous year. (Palladium, August 12, 1835)
Eleven lake steamboats made scheduled runs up and down the Lake Ontario weekly. Two packets departed daily for Syracuse, a trip requiring about eight hours, two others arrived from Syracuse each day. Inaugurated that year, also, was a daily packet to and from Utica. To quote a current traveler from Utica to Rochester by way of Oswego: “The traveler from Utica to Rochester taking this route, may spend a few hours in our village (Oswego), take a steamboat and arrive at Rochester some hours sooner and with lighter fare than he can to take the canal direct from Utica to Rochester. So from Rochester east, the traveler can reach our village in six or seven hours after leaving that city, and by the packets from this place he will reach Utica in twenty two hours more, and at less expense than by taking the canal direct from Rochester to Utica.”
Both packets on this line, the “Niagara” and the “St. Lawrence” were built in Oswego boat yards and “are fitted up in a style not inferior to any packets upon the Erie canal.” (Palladium, July 22, 1835) As the “Palladium” jovially expressed it: “A sharp competition is now carried on between these lines of boats, and in consequence, fare is so reduced that a man can hardly afford to remain at home.” (July 29, 1835)
* The Welland House which stood at the southwest corner of West First and Cayuga streets, was completed and occupied for the first time in the year the Welland Canal was first opened to traffic. The name “Welland” was given to the hotel to commemorate that event. The old Welland Hotel should not be confused with the “New Welland” which was erected after the earlier hotel had been destroyed by fire at West Second and Cayuga streets where it continues in use at this time.
The Land Boom
The prosperity of 1835 36 was reflected also in land values along the canal. For example, the farm of Benjamin Burt adjacent to the southern limits of the village containing 92 acres was purchased by Abraham Varrick, a mill owner from New York City, for the unprecedented sum of $19,000. (Palladium, July 22, 1835). A short time later two blocks of state reserved land on the west side of the harbor sold for $108,850 and $47,842 respectively. (Oct. 21) Gerrit Smith bought a farm in the autumn of 1835 for $40 per acre and sold it in March of 1836 for $200 per acre, and his holdings in Oswego purchased in 1827 for $14,000 and in 1835 for $81,000 were valued at $1,000,000. (Harlow: Gerrit Smith, 24) Oswego property values rose generally from 50 to 75 percent.
But Oswego was soon to find that her land prices were inflated and her business over expanded. Even before the panic of 1837 swept the Nation, prostrating business life for four years, the bottom dropped out of the market in Oswego. Prices fell as speculators unloaded; foreclosures mounted. By October 1836 Smith’s Oswego agent, John B. Edwards, was reporting to Smith that money was “scarcer and scarcer—I am not able to collect scarcely anything at all”. By April, following, Edwards was planning work “which will enable me to employ some more of the poor men that are begging for work—it is a great charity to employ and pay the poor laborers at this time” . . . But in May the work stopped because, “there is no horse feed to be obtained here. None of the mills here have done anything this spring except Mr. Fitzhugh a little.” (Ibid., 30) I should make it clear, however, that the canal boats did not all tie up to the docks. In 1837, for example, 1,773 boats cleared from Oswego. (Landon, 289).
Canal Traffic Doubles
Oswego began to emerge from the panic in 1839 and while canal receipts continued to indicate subnormal traffic the “Palladium” pointed with satisfaction to the fact that Oswego’s canal tonnage more than doubled the volume of the five branch canals, Chemung, Seneca, Cayuga, Chenango, and Crooked Lake, and totaled about one fourth the tonnage of the main line. In 1840 the recovery was sustained: canal tolls almost trebled and its packets carried more than 13,000 passengers. In 1841 the upturn was in full swing and the passengers increased two fold. This growth was continued through the decade of the 1840’s.
The “Vandalia”* and the “Chicago,” steamships with the Ericson type of screw propeller, built in Oswego by Sylvester Doolittle, and launched upon the Lake in 1841 and 1842 respectively proved to be a boon to Oswego commerce. (Palladium, June 1, 1842, and June 7, 1843) Another of these new propeller ships, the “Oswego” returned to Oswego from Chicago, distance of 3000 miles, with 900 barrels of pork, after numerous stops on four lakes, in the record time of twenty three and one half days for the round trip from Oswego. These screw propelled ships were not only more economical in operation than the traditional side wheelers, but they could pass through the Welland canal. Their economy is suggested by the steerage passenger fare from Oswego to Chicago, 1300 miles, for $6.
*The “Vandalia” was the first propeller boat built on the Great Lakes and the third to be built anywhere in the world. She was built in accordance with plans designed by Ericson himself who transferred the Great Lakes rights for the building of propeller ships to Captain James Van Cleve, a Lake Ontario steamer captain, who was part owner of the “Vandalia.” The Doolittle shipyard where the “Vandalia” was built was located at the foot of West Cayuga street east of Water street.
Oswego Population Increases
In 1845 the population of Oswego village was 6,313, an increase since 1840 of 2,318 or fifty one percent. And this figure the “Palladium” regarded as extremely conservative since so many inhabitants were absent during the navigation season that an exact enumeration was impossible. It failed to uncover a single unemployed person in the community!
Such were the 1840’s, a decade which might be termed the “golden age” of the canal. While the railroad was beginning to compete for passenger traffic in the State, the canals retained briefly a virtual monopoly upon the carrying of freight—protected from railroad competition by state law.*
*It wasn’t until 1848 that the Oswego and Syracuse Railroad, the county’s first railroad was completed, so that prior to that year the canal packets had no competition for passenger business in Oswego County except the stage coaches.
Harbor Works Suffered
The 1840’s, however, were not without problems which vitally affected the welfare of the canal. One of the most trying of these was the port of Oswego. Daniel Hugunin, Oswego’s first member of Congress, had secured appropriations for a breakwater, piers and light house during the decade of the 1820’s But the Democratic party of Andrew Jackson in the 1830’s and 1840’s was guided by a philosophy of economy and laissez faire. Internal improvements at Federal expense were cut to the bone and the states left to their own devices. Hence the harbor of Oswego was permitted to deteriorate; appropriations were both irregular and inadequate, and the harbor fell into disrepair at the very time when shipping and ship building were prospering. Fort Ontario, at Oswego, of course, languished also, during the early part of this period.
Another problem of the 1840’s, suggestive of “Keeping up with the Jones,” might be termed “keeping pace with the Erie.” The Erie Canal, pride of the State and model of the Nation, was the focus of attention in Albany, where there were recurring plans for its improvement. But, burdened with debt, other improvements, including the branch canals, were looked upon with a jaundiced eye. When the question of enlarging the locks on the Erie was before the Legislature in 1840 the “Palladium” presented a convincing battery of figures to prove that the locks were more than adequate for current and even future needs. (Apr. 15, 1840) A year later, with plans more articulate for the main line improvement, the “Palladium” modified its position. It ceased opposition to the Erie and championed a similar improvement of the Oswego branch. An Oswego town meeting lent its voice to this cause, maintaining in a memorial addressed to the Legislature, “that the Oswego Canal, in usefulness and actual production to the State, has not been equalled by any section of canal of equal length, constructed by the State.” If utility were not enough to justify it, the memorial insisted that “the interest of the State requires that the Ontario route, for the western trade should be improved to the full extent of the facilities furnished by the Erie Canal—the public interest requires it as a check upon monopoly in transportation.” A final argument presented anticipated the St. Lawrence Waterway. (Should I say more than a century before its time?) The Oswego route, it affirmed, would offer the only effective means of competing with our Canadian neighbors for the western trade once ocean going vessels passed from Kingston to Montreal.
High Tolls Favored Oswego
A year later, with the question yet unsettled, the “Palladium” found still another reason to rejoice at the prospect of enlarging both the main line and the Oswego Canal. The tremendous cost involved must inevitably raise the tolls, and, “Every cent that is added to the tolls will operate as a premium in favor of the Oswego route.” Why? Because the route west from Albany by way of Oswego to Lake Erie, including the 36 miles of the Welland Canal, equaled but 245 miles, while the Erie Canal added up to 364 miles. Thus goods carried over the Oswego branch saved tolls equal to the difference in length or 199 miles; the higher the tolls, the greater the advantage for Oswego. Just the same, the “Palladium” hastened to explain, Oswego and her representatives favored, and always had supported, low tolls. That the opposite was now anticipated could be interpreted as “one of the consequences of that recognized moral necessity—the final triumph of truth.” (Nov. 23, 1842)
Problems Faced Oswego Route
The sharpest criticism of the Oswego enlargement was made, to be sure, in Buffalo. An improved Erie Canal, it was served, would be adequate for everything moving east and west. All funds available and unavailable “should be allocated to the main line.” (“Buffalo Courier” as reported in Palladium, May 11, 1847) “A more selfish set of mortals never infested the earth than are the Buffalonians,” retorted the “Palladium.” “They would like to monopolize not only all the travel between the East and West, but the trade like wise” (Palladium, May 11, 1847) A bill in the Assembly to appropriate $100,000 toward the Oswego enlargement was strenuously opposed by members from Erie, Genesee, and Monroe counties and ably defended by Oswego’s representative, M. Lindley Lee, of Fulton, who emphasized that the Oswego Canal was not a mere branch or secondary work, but a part of the main line and “as much entitled to the fostering care of the State as the Erie Canal itself . . .” Lee’s remarks were received in Oswego with genuine enthusiasm. (Apr. 20th 1847)
Both canals were subsequently enlarged, but the trend in tolls was downward, not upward, all charges being eventually removed, and the ultimate advantage went to the Erie since the Welland Canal, a Canadian corporate organization, continued to collect its fees with the result that the use of the Erie Canal became for the time being more economical than the Oswego Route, which of necessity involved the use of the Welland Canal and the payment of its tolls.
Effect of the Salt Rebates
The granting of rebates upon salt tolls on the Erie Canal raised another problem for Oswego. The transportation of salt down the Oswego River from Salina, and thence to the West by way of Lake Ontario, the Niagara River, Lewiston Portage and Lake Erie, had provided Oswego’s earliest stimulus to growth, and salt had continued to pass through the Oswego canal upon its completion. Considerable ship tonnage had been constructed for its conveyance on the lakes as well as numerous boats and scows for the Oswego Canal. This trade had become “blended and interwoven with the manufacture of flour at Oswego, the purchase and transport of nearly all the wood used in the manufacture of salt at Geddes, Syracuse, Salina and Liverpool, the lumber for vats, salt works and other village purposes as well as barrels for the salt.” (“Palladium,” Feb. 2, 1842). Thus by the 1840’s this trade was traditional, and Oswego folk could hardly avoid the conviction that it just naturally belonged to them. However, the Legislature in 1841 authorized the Canal Commission to reduce tolls to stimulate the sales of salt in the West and in Canada; and the Commission in turn implemented the act by giving a rebate of eleven cents per barrel on salt shipped to Buffalo on the Erie Canal. No rebates were granted on the Oswego route. The decision of the Commission was at once denounced in Oswego.
The Salt Drawbacks
The “Palladium” called the action a flagrant discrimination enacted “to gratify the cupidity of Buffalo.” (Sept. 8, 1841) On Saturday evening, Sept. 4, 1841, the townspeople of Oswego, Alvin Bronson presiding, rallied at Market Hall to voice their disapproval. And they did it in no uncertain terms. “The drawbacks of duties and tolls on salt,” they resolved, “are partial and unequal in their operation, and establish an unjust discrimination, hostile to the commercial interests of Lake Ontario, and prejudicial to the interests of the State at large . . . not warranted by the language or spirit of the laws prescribing the duties of the Board.” The Oswego cause was amplified brilliantly in a memorial to the Legislature, prepared by Bronson, Luther Wright, Orris Hart, Henry Fitzhugh and William F. Allen.
“If it be said, as we believe it has been,” the memorial read, “that this regulation sought to stimulate competition, and not to divert or destroy trade, we answer—the boats on the Oswego Canal have many times as much tonnage in wood to bring up tc the salt works as they have salt to carry down to Oswego—hence they require no foreign competition; and the hundred coasters trading from Oswego to Lake Erie have full freights of agricultural products down, while they have but half loads of salt and merchandise up— no foreign competition is therefore required to cheapen the freight of salt through this route. It is one of the laws of commerce that freights are high in the direction that they are abundant, and low in the opposite direction where they are scarce—the full load pays a high price per ton or barrel—the half load a low price. Beside, if a bounty may be awarded to a dear route, the Erie Canal, to stimulate competition on the cheap route, Oswego, why not offer a bounty for railroad transportation to provoke cheap freight on the Erie Canal?” Excellent logic and sound economics! Finally, it was argued that salt trade to Cleveland and the West in general was active and expanding. There was no need for regulation. (Feb. 2, 1842) It is interesting to note that Gerrit Smith, owner of valuable property in Oswego harbor area, was aroused sufficiently to campaign actively inside and outside of Albany, against this discrimination. (Smith to F. Whittlesy, Feb. 1, 1845). The salt trade continued to flourish during the years which followed: in 1845 —273,730 barrels arrived on the Oswego Canal (Jan. 12, 1847, Palladium), despite discriminations—a tribute to the business sense of the Oswego merchants.
Railroad Becomes Competitor
Thus the 1840’s were years of hustle and bustle; of growth and change, of pressing problems, with the canal conditioning and permeating almost every form of activity. Then one day in 1848, on November 15, to be exact, a train of cars on the Oswego and Syracuse railroad arrived in town —marking the completion of the first railroad into Oswego, inaugurating the age of the railroad, and the decline of the canal. In Oswego the latter was not immediately apparent. The train carried only passengers, and the volume of business over the canal continued to expand in the decades of the 1850’s and 1860’s. This, I might add, again attests to the vigor of Oswego enterprise—since scores of canals succumbed without a struggle to this new rival. But it marked a new age just the same. From an artery of commerce, a colonizing agent, a way of life—the canal was gradually but inevitably transformed into a mode of cheaper transportation. But I would prefer to leave the canal in its era of glory, not decay, and I can think of no more appropriate way of closing than to look upon the canal briefly with the travelers of the 1840’s as guides.
Canal as Travelers Saw It
“First, an eastward passage, as reported in the Albany “Argus”:
“The traveler who takes this route at Buffalo, starts at 9 o’clock in the morning, and has a most delightful ride of 22 miles, along the bank of the Niagara River, to the Falls, at which he will arrive in about an hour and a half. The cars leave the Falls at 2 or half past 2 o’clock—giving passengers nearly four hours to visit that great natural wonder of the the World—a visit which afforded us great pleasure and satisfaction, and which cannot fail to interest and delight all who are not absolutely insensible to the beauty, grandeur, and sublimity of Nature’s Wonders and Works.
“The route to Lewiston is an exceedingly interesting and delightful one. The cars pass, for some distance, very near the edge of the high bank of the river affording a fine view of the Falls, the Narrows, and all the beautiful scenery on the river. On the Canada side, Queenston Heights and Brock’s Monument are distinctly in view.
“At Lewiston we went on board of one of our most splendid Ontario Steamboats, the “Niagara”: and we were never on board a more neat and orderly boat in our life. Everything was scrupulously clean and neat; and a more gentlemanly and accommodating set of officers, it has never been our good fortune to meet. In fact, the passengers feel perfectly at ease and at home; and, so quiet and orderly is everything on board, he frequently finds himself enjoying the pleasing delusion that he is really at home and in his own parlor! The “Niagara” and all the other Ontario Steamboats are fast sailers, too. Leaving Lewiston at about 4 o’clock and making several stoppages on the way, they arrive in Oswego by or before 5 o’clock next morning—a distance of 152 miles. This part of the route also, is no less agreeable and interesting than the others. Passing down the Niagara and out at its mouth, a fine view is had of the British and American Forts, and the villages and scenery on the banks of the River*; and then, when once fairly out on the broad, blue waters of Ontario, with a pure air and invigorating breeze, the relief which one feels from the dust, and smoke, and noise, and confinement, and heated atmosphere, with which the traveler meets in the Canal Boats or railroad cars on the other route, can be appreciated only by him who has endured the one and enjoyed the other. As the steamboats arrive here, (Oswego) a Packet Boat is always in readiness to take passengers directly on to Syracuse, arriving there in season for the afternoon line of Packets or train of cars, for Albany and Saratoga Springs.
It will be perceived, therefore, that this route not only affords an agreeable change in mode of conveyance, but combines all the advantages of pleasure, speed, and cheapness; and we are pleased to learn that a large portion of the travel of the East and West, now goes this way. The well filled registers of our excellent Hotels, and the daily crowd of travelers upon our wharves, are good and sufficient evidence on this point.” (Reprinted in “Palladium,” July 14, 1846)
* Old Fort Niagara.
The Westward Voyage
Finally, from the Syracuse “Standard,” a westward passage, which in 1846 might be arranged in advance by the new magnetic telegraph:
“Decidedly the most pleasant route for travellers going west, is that by way of Oswego Canal and Lake Ontario. There are two daily lines of packet boats plying between this village (Syracuse) and Oswego. The accommodations of these boats are everything that could be desired, and their officers, from the captain downwards, are obliging, gentle manly men. The scenery upon the Seneca and Oswego rivers, which form the canal for a considerable part of the way, is exceedingly beautiful, and the rate of speed of the boats, gives a fine opportunity to the traveller for taking a full survey of the natural beauties that meet him at every turn. A voyage up the Lake on one of the substantial and beautiful steamboats which are always found at Oswego on the arrival of the Packet Boats, is a rich treat to any one, not completely lost to all sense of the beauty and sublimity of Nature’s Works, and is not to be mentioned in comparison with any other method of conveyance.” (Reprinted in “Palladium,” July 14, 1846) Said the Palladium. “It is needless for us to add that we fully concur in all that our neighbours of the Argus and Standard here say.”
