Genesee Valley Canal - from New York History of Canal System

HISTORY OF THE CANAL SYSTEM

OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

TOGETHER WITH BRIEF HISTORIES OF THE CANALS

OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA

VOLUME I

BY NOBLE E. WHITFORD

1905

CHAPTER XIX.

THE GENESEE VALLEY CANAL.

Including the Dansville branch, the extension to Millgrove, and the various feeders and reservoirs, from the inception of the project to the abandonment of the canal.

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The year 1825 marked a new era in the internal navigation of New York

State. New York City now had direct water communication both with the

Great Lakes and with Lake Champlain by means of the Erie and

Champlain canals. The next step was by a system of branch or lateral

canals, to connect the inland portions of the state with these main

waterways.

The prosperity which had followed the opening of the Erie, section by

section, and the rapidity with which the glowing predictions of early

promoters were being realized led to a veritable canal mania. From

all parts of the state came the cry for a share in the benefits of

internal navigation, and the Legislatures were flooded with petitions

which, if acceded to, would have covered the state with a network of

canals.

In the western section of the state, in the valley of the Genesee

river, was an extensive tract of wonderfully fertile and productive

land, having no means of access to the markets of the country. The

Genesee river, which meets the Erie canal at Rochester, is separated

from the Allegheny river at Olean by a very narrow divide. By

constructing a canal across this divide and by canalizing the two

rivers, an unbroken inland water communication would be afforded

between all the important sections of New York State and the valleys

of the Ohio, Mississippi, Missouri. Arkansas, Osage, Illinois,

Wabash, Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, three-quarters of the entire

territory of the United States. The dream of so extensive a line of

internal communication appealed to the people of the Genesee valley

as affording irresistible arguments for constructing a canal along

this route. As early as 1823 a petition from citizens of the counties

of Monroe, Livingston, Genesee, Allegany and Cattaraugus was

presented to the State Legislature praying for an appropriation of

$10,000 from the State treasury for the purpose of improving the

navigation of the Genesee river. This petition, however, had no

immediate results.

This route was not considered to be of sufficient importance or else

its advocates were not insistent enough to have it included in the

first group of lateral canals that were authorized, but it was begun

after the mania for canal-building had somewhat abated, after the

utility of railroads began to be demonstrated, and its construction

was protracted during a long period while the resources of the State

were being severely taxed for the enlargement and repairs of the

other canals. The whole history of this canal reveals a series of

unfortunate events; the numerous delays were very costly; the time

for building, most inauspicious; and even the advisability of

beginning the project at so late a day is not sustained by results.

The subject first came before the Legislature for serious

consideration as the result of a message of Governor De Witt Clinton

in February, 1825, "respecting a navigable communication between the

waters of the Allegany river and the Erie canal, and soliciting a

full investigation of the proposed measure by able engineers" 1 and

recommending the adoption of effectual preliminary measures.

As a result of this message, together with sixteen petitions from

counties in the neighborhood of the proposed improvement, an act was

passed on April 20, 1825, rendering it "the duty of the canal

commissioners to cause examinations, surveys and estimates to be made

of the most eligible routes . . . from Rochester to Allegany river at

Olean, through the valley of Genesee river; from Scottsville by way

of Le Roy, to the upper falls of the Genesee river; . . . from Lake

Erie to Allegany river, through the valley of the Conawanga, and from

the Allegany river at Olean to the Erie canal by way of the village

of Batavia." 2 In accordance with this law the canal commissioners in

1826 reported the practicability of each of these routes, although

they did not endeavor to make any comparisons between them.

This act of 1825 showed to what an extent this desire to participate

in the benefits of canal navigation had spread throughout the state.

The act ordered the surveys of seventeen separate routes in various

parts of the state. James Geddes, the veteran engineer of the Erie

canal, made the surveys, and his reports were embodied in the

communications from the canal commissioners. Although twenty-nine

petitions were presented during the spring of 1826, no legislation

was enacted concerning this project. In 1827 fifteen petitions were

presented, some praying for the construction of a canal from the Erie

canal by the way of Tonawanda creek to the Allegheny river at Olean;

some by the Genesee valley route, and others for a canal from the

Erie canal at Buffalo to the Allegheny river along the valley of the

Conewango creek. The canal committee to which these petitions were

referred could not select a line from the rough surveys already made

of the three routes, and recommended that for the present the

condition of the finances of the State was not such as to warrant the

expense of constructing this canal.

In April, 1827, an act was passed incorporating a company to improve

the navigation of the Cassedaga and Conewango creeks and the

Chautauqua outlet. Although incorporated for the purpose of

constructing the long desired canal, this company accomplished

nothing. During the next three years twenty-seven petitions were

received. In April, 1830, an act was finally passed authorizing a

careful survey of the Genesee valley route, but as the appropriation

($750) was so obviously inadequate, no survey was attempted.

From 1831 to 1833, only nineteen petitions were presented, but in

1834 the friends of the Genesee valley route began work in earnest

and twenty-eight petitions were brought before the Legislature. The

desire for the canal was no longer confined to the counties in the

western part of the state, but from every section came petitions.

Even the common council of the City of New York and the American

Institute of the City of New York passed resolutions "appealing to

the intelligence, justice and patriotism of the Legislature" to

effect the necessary legislation for the opening of intercourse with

Pittsburg and the inexhaustible beds of bituminous coal of western

Pennsylvania by means of the canal system of the State. The valley

through which this proposed canal was to pass contained over one

hundred thousand inhabitants and remarkably fertile lands. Annually

over 200,000,000 feet of lumber passed down the Allegheny river, and

it was supposed that this would, for the most part, be deflected to

the New York State canals. From these considerations the canal

committee recommended a minute survey of the Genesee valley route. An

act to this effect was passed on April 30, 1834, and it also provided

for a side-cut from the village of Dansville down the Canaseraga

creek to the Genesee valley line at or near Mount Morris.

In compliance with instructions received from the canal commissioners

a very complete survey and examination of the proposed route was made

by an engineer, Mr. Frederick C. Mills, the result of whose

investigations was embodied in the report of the canal commissioners

on March 2, 1835. Mr. Mills reported that the proposed canal, side-

cut and navigable feeders, if located on the west side of the Genesee

river, would extend over 122 ¼ miles, with 1,057 feet of lockage and

were estimated to cost $1,890,614.12; if the east side of the river

were chosen, the length would be 123 3/10 miles, the amount of

lockage the same, and the estimated cost, $2,002,285.92. These

estimates did not take into consideration damages to lands through

which the canal was to pass or to hydraulic works and water-

privileges. A part of the line south of Mount Morris was shown to be

very difficult and expensive. At the falls, the high lands closed in

upon the river with perpendicular sides, at some places rising nearly

four hundred feet. In a distance of two miles the river appeared to

be a continuous succession of falls, descending two hundred and

seventy-four feet. The plan proposed was to construct a tunnel for

one thousand and fifty-six feet through an immense projecting cliff

of rock. The summit level of this canal was to be eleven and a half

miles long and the greatest depth of excavation was stated at twelve

feet. It was estimated that an adequate supply of water could be

obtained without any material damage to water-privileges.

This report was made too late in the year for any action to be taken

on it, but the friends of the project were determined that by

persevering they would win, and during the sessions of 1835-6 one

hundred and eleven petitions were filed. Finally, on the 6th of May,

1836, an act was passed (chapter 257), providing for the construction

of a navigable canal, to be known as the Genesee Valley canal, "from

the Erie canal in the city of Rochester, through the valley of the

Genesee river, to a point at or near Mount-Morris; and from thence,

by the most eligible route, to the Allegany river, at or near Olean;

and also a branch of the same, commencing at or near Mount-Morris,

and extending up the valley of the Canaseraga creek, at or near the

village of Dansville. And should the canal commissioners be of the

opinion that the construction of the said canal will injure the

hydraulic privileges at Rochester, then they are required to connect

the said canal with the Genesee river, above the feeder dam above

Rochester, and from thence to construct a navigable canal to the Erie

canal, or improve the Erie canal feeder from this place, as may best

promote the public interest.

"The canal commissioners shall determine on the width and depth of

the said canal and branch . . . and shall borrow, on the credit of

the state, . . . such sum or sums of money as shall be required for

the same, as they shall deem best for the interest of the state, not

exceeding two millions of dollars." 3

In June, 1837, contracts were let for building that portion of the

canal extending from the Erie canal in Rochester to the rapids on the

Genesee river, a distance of two miles. The estimated cost of these

two miles of canal, including the expense of a dam across the Genesee

river, was $47,492.59. On the fourteenth of November, 1837, proposals

were received for constructing twenty-eight miles of this canal from

the rapids to Piffard’s in the county of Livingston. The cost of the

work calculated at contract prices was $522,181.89, while the

estimate of 1834 was only $408,725.63, but the prices of supplies of

all kinds, were considerably higher than when the first estimate was

made.

At Scottsville the Genesee Valley canal crossed that of the

Scottsville Canal Company, a company that was organized in 1829, with

a capital of $15,000 to build a canal from Scottsville to the Genesee

river.

By January 1, 1839, the first two miles of the Genesee Valley canal

were completed and work was in progress on fifty-one miles more, from

the rapids to Dansville, all of this work to be completed, according

to the terms of contracts, by October 1, 1840. In addition, the canal

commissioners had made a careful examination of the various proposed

routes from Mount Morris to the Allegheny river, and after having

finally decided on a route, contracts for fifty miles had been let on

October 31, 1838. This route passed from Mount Morris up the valley

of the Canaseraga creek to the Keshequa creek, following the line on

which the branch canal to Dansville had been located; thence up the

valley of that stream through the village of Nunda and Messenger’s

hollow, by the deep cut near Colonel William’s, and thence to the

Genesee river, crossing that stream by an aqueduct to Portageville;

thence up the west side of the river to Black creek; thence up the

valley of that stream to Cuba; thence down on the east side of Oil

creek to Hinsdale; thence down on the east side of Olean creek to

near the village of Olean, crossing that creek by an aqueduct, and

thence passing the village of Olean to the Allegheny river. The work

under contract at that time between Rochester and the village of

Nunda called for an expenditure of $1,959,011, while the estimated

cost of completing the canal between Nunda and the Allegheny river

amounted to an additional sum of $2,791,111.79. These contracts and

plans called for a canal twenty-six feet wide on the bottom, forty-

two feet wide at water-surface, the banks seven feet high and

calculated for four feet of water, the locks to be built of hammer-

dressed masonry, laid in hydraulic cement, ninety feet long and

fifteen feet wide.

In May, 1839, an act (chapter 305) was passed favoring a cheaper form

of lock and giving the canal commissioners the power to change the

plans accordingly, thereby reducing the expense of the canal

$384,506.95. The contracts for the remaining twenty miles were let in

October, 1839.

That portion of the Genesee Valley canal between its intersection

with the Erie canal at Rochester and the Genesee river dam near Mount

Morris, a distance of thirty-six miles, was so far completed that

water was admitted in the latter part of August and navigation was

opened on the first day of September, 1840. On that day the first

packet boat passed up the canal from Rochester to Mount Morris and a

daily line of packets then began this trip. Numerous warehouses were

erected along the line of the canal and freight boats were engaged in

the transportation of produce and merchandise. A collector’s office

was established at Scottsville and from then until the close of the

season $6,929.15 was collected in tolls.

In the fall of 1841 the canal was opened from Mount Morris to the

junction at Shaker settlement, 5.22 miles, and the branch from thence

to Dansville, 11.12 miles, thereby giving fifty-two miles of finished

canal. In April, 1842, a collector’s office was established at

Dansville and a collector appointed. The portion of the canal, from

Dansville to the Genesee river, which was completed, was supplied

with water from the Canaseraga and Mill creeks. In April, 1840, an

additional appropriation of $500,000 had been granted to carry on the

work of the Genesee Valley canal, and by an act (chapter 194) passed

May 18, 1841, the canal commissioners were authorized to borrow, on

the credit of the State, $550,000 to be applied toward the

construction of the canal.

The financial panic of 1837 had so disturbed monetary affairs that

the work of enlarging the Erie, building the Black River and Genesee

Valley canals, and repairing the other canals was prosecuted under

considerable embarrassment till the passage of what is popularly

known as the "Stop law." On March 29, 1842, this act (chapter 114)

was passed for the professed purpose of "paying the debt and

preserving the credit of the State." It ordered the suspension of all

expenditures on public works at that time in progress of

construction, except such as were necessary for the protection of

work already done. This act practically stopped all work on the

canals of the state, and contracts already let were stopped abruptly.

From this time till the new Constitution allowed further

appropriations there is little of interest to record. In March, 1843,

it was estimated that the total cost of the Genesee Valley canal

would be $4,535,776.47 and work to the amount of $4,224,700.88 was

then under contract. During the summer of 1843 practically no work

was done on the canal beyond that absolutely essential in the line of

repairs. During this season navigation was more or less interrupted

on the Dansville branch from the inadequacy of the water-supply.

Another obstruction to navigation during the early part of the season

was experienced in consequence of large accumulations of deposits

above the dam across the Genesee river near Mount Morris. It was

originally intended to cross the river at this point by means of an

aqueduct, and the contract was let and well under way, when in 1839,

under an act respecting the Genesee Valley canal, passed May 1, 1839,

the aqueduct was dispensed with by the acting commissioner then in

charge, who was of the impression that he was thereby cutting down

expenses, and a plan of locking boats to the pool above an existing

dam was adopted. The aqueduct would have been very expensive, but a

channel had to be dredged above the dam to allow boats to cross the

pool, and nearly four thousand cubic yards of accumulated earth had

to be taken out annually. If all the difficulties of maintaining good

navigation through the pond could have been foreseen, it is probable

that the original plan would have been carried out and the aqueduct

constructed.

The citizens of Dansville were dissatisfied with the terminal

facilities that had been supplied for them, and after having applied

in vain to the canal board and the canal commissioners for the

construction of a slip or for permission to construct a slip from the

village of Dansville and connect it with the side-cut, they proceeded

to construct a slip and basin and applied to the Legislature in 1844

for permission to connect them with the side-cut. Several

remonstrances were also presented to the Legislature against building

or assuming this work as a State charge.

After a bill for this purpose had been defeated the people of

Dansville were greatly aroused and one evening at dusk more than a

hundred of them assembled on the bank of the canal. One of their

number who was a large property owner mounted a pile of lumber and

made an incendiary speech to the people, describing the manner in

which the bill was defeated; he said to the crowd that they "were the

sovereign people, and their rights had been trampled on, and they

must do as their forefathers did to resist oppression, obtain their

rights (as he called them) by their own power." 4 On the following

morning they reassembled and cut through the berme bank and let the

water into the new side-cut, after using force to eject the State

employees from the village. Indictments were secured against the

ringleaders of this mob and they were all punished.

At the next session of the Legislature another bill authorizing the

builders of the side-cut to connect with the Dansville branch of the

Genesee Valley canal was defeated on the ground that its passage

would sanction a violation of law.

Not until 1848 (chapter 172) was the canal board authorized to assume

the Dansville slip and basin as a part of the Dansville branch of the

Genesee Valley canal. The main objection to this slip was the fact

that even without it the supply of water was inadequate and it would

require a great deal of water from the side-cut and could give none

in return. In accordance with this act the canal board assumed the

slip and basin on December 10, 1851, and they were thereafter

considered a part of the canal.

Some repairs were made to the canal in 1844-5. The banks were, to a

considerable extent, composed of material easily affected by the

action of water and required much labor to keep them in repair.

By an act of May 12, 1846 (chapter 246), the commissioners of the

canal fund were authorized to pay to the canal commissioners $10,000

to be expended by them in protecting and preserving from decay the

unfinished works and in the preservation of materials collected for

construction. A large amount of this fund was spent for transporting

materials from the unfinished to the finished portion of the canal

near the Shaker settlement, to be used in repairs or to be otherwise

disposed of. Although operations had been stopped, for the most part,

for over four years the work was standing well. The unfinished

portion extended from the junction at Shaker settlement to Olean, a

distance of sixty-six and a half miles, in which there were ninety-

five lift-locks, the foundations of seventy-one of which had been laid.

On January 1, 1847, the new State Constitution went into effect; this

permitted appropriations for the canals under article 7, section 3,

which reads as follows: "After paying the said expenses of

superintendence and repairs of the canals, and the sums appropriated

by the first and second sections of this Article, there shall be paid

out of the surplus revenues of the canals, to the Treasury of the

State, on or before the thirtieth day of September in each year, for

the use and benefit of the General Fund, such sum, not exceeding two

hundred thousand dollars, as may be required to defray the necessary

expenses of the State, and the remainder of the revenues of the said

canals, shall, in each fiscal year, be applied in such manner as the

Legislature shall direct to the completion of the Erie Canal

enlargement and the Genesee Valley and Black River canals, until the

said canals shall be completed."

From the time of resuming work till the opening of the entire canal

in 1862 the record shows a continuous succession of small

appropriations. The first of these was made by the act of May 12,

1847, (chapter 263) by which $128,000 was appropriated towards the

construction of the Genesee Valley canal. In pursuance of this act

contracts were let for finishing section No. 54, known as the "Deep

Cut;" for finishing the Portage tunnel, ten hundred and eighty-two

feet in length, and some smaller pieces of work. By an act of 1847

(chapter 446) a further appropriation of $50,000 was made and this

enabled the commissioners to let the contract for the completion of

the foundations and masonry of the Portage aqueduct and several locks.

About this time it was found that the Genesee Valley and Erie canals

were taking so much water from the Genesee river as to greatly damage

the water-privileges of the many manufacturing interests located on

the river, in and below Rochester. The Legislature took action

immediately, and after several methods of augmenting the supply of

water in the river were examined, they decided that making a

reservoir of Conesus lake was the most feasible plan, and by an act

of April 12, 1848, (chapter 339) they authorized the canal

commissioners to construct the works necessary for this purpose.

The Legislature appropriated the sum of $218,000 on April 10, 1848,

(chapter 217) to be applied to the construction of the canal, between

the navigable canal at Mount Morris and the Genesee feeder at or near

Caneadea. The contract for the completion of the Portage tunnel was

abandoned by the contractors with the consent of the commissioner in

charge, in September, 1848, and a new contract for an "open cut" in

place of the tunnel was awarded, thereby directly saving over $72,000

to the State, and indirectly a large amount, as a tunnel would

require very large expenditures to keep it in repair.

In 1849 that section of the canal from Mount Morris to the Caneadea

feeder, thirty-six and one-half miles, was all in progress of

construction. This entire distance was to be supplied with water from

the Genesee river at Caneadea and from the Wiscoy creek. On the

remaining portion from Caneadea to Olean (thirty-two miles), a large

amount of work was done previous to the suspension of work in 1842.

From previous experience with stone found in this vicinity, it was

found that it would not withstand the action of the atmosphere and

frosts, therefore the canal commissioners changed the plans,

specifying wood instead of masonry locks, thereby reducing the cost

$38,500.

On April 5, 1849, (chapter 227) the $128,000 appropriated in 1847

(chapter 263), or as much as remained unexpended, was reappropriated

and in addition $120,000 was appropriated (chapter 229), to be

applied between the navigable canal at Mount Morris and the Genesee

feeder at or near Caneadea, and $20,000 to the Ischua reservoir. In

the following year an appropriation of $170,000 was made (chapter

192), to be expended on the construction of the canal.

In the spring of 1851 thirty-six miles of canal extending from the

Shaker settlement, four miles above Mount Morris to the Genesee river

feeder, near the village of Rounesville, were opened. This made

eighty-eight miles of completed canal and left thirty miles partially

finished. Work on this last section was going on rapidly. The

Rockville reservoir and the Ischua feeder were commenced in 1839 and

1840. Millions of feet of lumber and staves, besides timber, shingles

and other produce were transported over the new portion of the canal

during the season of 1851.

Most of the supply of water required for the canal between Oramel and

Olean was to be furnished from Oil and Ischua creek feeders and

reservoirs, the estimated cost of which was $133,400. These were the

most important and expensive works yet to be constructed and it was

necessary that they should be started soon, as their completion was

essential to the opening of the last thirty miles of the canal.

In 1853 (chapter 620), $100,000 was appropriated towards the

completion of the Genesee Valley canal. In the following year

(chapter 329) an additional sum of $65,000 was allotted to this

canal. In 1854 (chapter 331), in response to petitions for a

navigable feeder for the Genesee Valley canal from the Genesee river

at Wellsville to intersect the canal at or near Belfast, the

Legislature instructed the canal board to prepare maps, plans and

estimates for this feeder. In March, 1855, the canal board reported

unfavorably on this project.

In the spring of 1856 an act was passed (chapter 149), directing "the

state engineer and surveyor and canal commissioners . . . to cause

surveys to be made for extending the Genesee Valley canal, from or

near the first lock north-east of the village of Olean, across and

through the bottom lands lying between said lock and the Alleghany

river, to the pond in said river known as the Millgrove pond, and to

make the necessary plans and estimates of the cost of the

construction of said canal, by the route and to the point aforesaid." 5

At this session of the Legislature only $32,000 was appropriated for

the Genesee Valley canal (chapter 148). At the next session, April,

1857, an act was passed (chapter 247), authorizing the extension of

the canal as contemplated by the act of 1856 (chapter 149), provided

the total cost could be kept under $109,000. By chapter 365 there was

appropriated $63,142.36 towards the completion and extension of this

canal, and in the next year (1858) $40,000 was apportioned for the

canal proper, and $61,212.36 for the extension.

In the spring of 1856 all work on the main canal was under contract

and rapidly nearing completion and the contract for the Oil creek

reservoir, which was to supply the deficiency of water experienced

during the dry part of the season, had at last been let, and was in a

fair state of progress. Two miles of canal from Oramel to Belfast had

been opened in 1853, and in 1854 three miles more, extending from

Belfast to Rockville, were completed and brought into use, making

ninety-three miles of completed canal. That section from Rockville to

Olean (twenty-four miles) was completed in the season of 1857, thus

making one hundred and seventeen miles of completed canal. During the

first season the only sources of water-supply for that portion of the

canal south of Rockville were the natural flow of Black, Oil,

Chamberlain and Ischua creeks, as the Oil creek reservoir was not

completed until 1858. In consequence of the leaky condition of the

banks and the scarcity of water, the canal below Hinsdale could not

be filled and it was found necessary to construct a feeder five rods

in length from Olean creek to the canal.

In November, 1857, the work for the construction of the extension of

the Genesee Valley canal from Olean nearly seven miles up the valley

of the Allegheny river to Millgrove pond was put under contract.

About six miles of this canal was completed and brought into use in

August, 1859. The rest of this work was so situated that it could not

be done advantageously except in time of low water. This extension of

6.70 miles would, when completed, connect the Genesee Valley canal

with the Allegheny river; and by a navigation of twelve miles on that

river, and a projected railroad of about twenty miles, it would

connect with coal mines said to be of great value and of almost

inexhaustible supply, and also with very extensive timber tracts.

Although one of the objects of constructing the Genesee Valley canal

was to connect with the Allegheny river at Olean, that object was not

then accomplished. To connect with the river at this point would

involve the construction of two locks, originally estimated to cost

$23,220. At this time it was thought that the construction of these

locks might be desirable but that their completion was not then

demanded. Neither the State of Pennsylvania nor the United States

Government had carried out their alleged plans of improving the

Allegheny river, so that the original scheme of drawing trade from

the Ohio and the other great rivers, to which its waters afforded

access, was destroyed. Pennsylvania did not wish to further New

York’s interests in this way, for she now had means of transporting

goods from Pittsburg to the coast without permitting any other State

to reap the advantages of their transportation.

The Buffalo, Bradford and Pittsburg railroad was then being

exploited. This railroad was to cross the Allegheny river about

fifteen miles below Olean, and it was claimed that its construction

would bring for transshipment to the river and thence to the canal,

coal and lumber in sufficient quantities to warrant the expenditure

necessary for the construction of the locks and the improvement of

the river. In 1859 (chapter 149) $17,700 was appropriated for the

completion of the canal and extension. This was followed in 1860

(chapter 213) and 1862 (chapter 137) by appropriations of $56,840 and

$8,000, respectively.

In December, 1861, the extension of the Genesee Valley canal was

completed and brought into use on the opening of navigation in 1862.

This completed the construction of the canal and the accounts were

closed. The lockage from Rochester to the summit level in Allegany

county was all ascending, as was also that by the branch to Dansville

in Livingston county. The summit extended from New Hudson to North

Hinsdale, a distance of about twelve miles, thence the canal

descended to the Allegheny river.

The provisions made for supplying the canal with water were as

follows: proceeding southerly from the Erie canal, there were: first,

a feeder from Allen’s creek at Scottsville; second, the Genesee

river, one mile north of Mount Morris; third, a feeder from Wiscoy

creek at Mixville Landing; fourth, a feeder from the Genesee river at

Oramel; fifth, Rockville reservoir at Rockville; sixth, a feeder from

Oil creek reservoir, two miles north of Cuba; seventh and eighth,

Champlain and Chamberlain’s creeks, in the village of Cuba; and

ninth, a feeder from Ischua creek near Hinsdale. The last four

feeders entered the canal on the summit level. South of the summit at

Smith Mills there was a short feeder from Olean creek. The Dansville

branch was supplied by a feeder from Mill creek at Dansville and one

from the Canaseraga, two miles north of that place. The supply for

the branch was not quite sufficient during the dry season, but that

of the main line was ample for the needs of that time if properly

husbanded. Of all these feeders and reservoirs the Oil creek

reservoir was by far the most important. Its flow line, when full,

covered about four hundred and seventy acres and its average depth

was estimated at twenty-five feet. At the dam it was forty-six feet

in depth. The embankment forming the dam was two thousand feet in

length, fifty-six feet in height and two hundred and ninety feet in

breadth at the base where it crossed the channel of the creek.

The locks of the canal were of three kinds: wooden, composite and

stone. The wooden locks were used on account of the poor quality of

the stone of that region and the great expense of bringing stone

there before the canal was opened. It was intended to rebuild these

with stone as soon as the canal could be used as the means of

transporting the material.

In April, 1863, an act was passed (chapter 342) authorizing the canal

commissioners to raise the water in Oil creek reservoir three feet,

also to build a dam across Ischua creek at Ischua feeder at such

elevation as might be determined by the canal board and to raise and

maintain, at an elevation of five feet above the bottom of the canal,

the dams across the streams that supplied with water that part of the

canal designated as the extension of the Genesee Valley canal.

It was difficult to meet the ever increasing demand for more

reservoirs, caused by the growing business of the canal, and in 1864

(chapter 170) the Legislature appropriated $85,000 towards making a

reservoir of Lime lake and towards rebuilding with rubble masonry

five locks. In 1866 (chapter 304) the balance of the 1864 allowance

was reappropriated and the further sum of $6,936.26 was added to it

for the original purpose of the act of 1864. The locks were completed

and brought into use during the following season.

Owing to the nature of the country, either with its many streams

flowing into the canal or with the canal following their winding

courses through the narrow valleys, the Genesee Valley canal was

bound to require large expenditures for maintenance and repair. It

was a country of floods; the outlets of the valleys could not take

care of their great drainage areas and the floods frequently washed

out canal embankments and carried away dams, locks and aqueducts.

On May 7, 1868, an act was passed (chapter 715) appropriating the sum

of $242,000 for furnishing additional water to the summit level of

the Genesee Valley canal, improving Ischua feeder, changing the plan

of rebuilding Ischua feeder aqueduct, removing Mud lock, deepening

and widening the channel of the Genesee Valley canal, from the guard-

lock at the rapids to the junction with the Erie canal, for

protecting the canal at the "slide banks" and for improving the canal

in general.

After careful investigation it was decided that the best way of

increasing the supply of water for the summit level was to raise the

surface of Oil creek reservoir six feet (covering an area of about

five hundred and twenty-five acres) and to construct a new reservoir

on the Ischua creek by raising a dam about twenty-five feet in

height, and thus flooding some two hundred acres. It was estimated

that these improvements would furnish a supply of water sufficient

for the lockage of twenty-seven boats per day in each direction

through the entire season and that this would meet all demands for

many years to come. But in 1869 the canal commissioners decided that,

as the proposed reservoir of Ischua creek would flood the best

farming lands of that section, it would be cheaper to raise the State

dam across the Ischua creek about six and one-half feet and to

increase the capacity of Oil creek reservoir by raising the dam there

an additional two feet.

On May 12, 1869 (chapter 877), the Legislature set aside $50,000 for

protecting the slide banks and otherwise improving the Genesee Valley

canal. In the following year (chapter 767) $100,000 was allotted to

the Genesee Valley canal for improvements and for completing work

already under contract. In 1871 the Legislature (chapter 930)

appropriated $13,000 for constructing a stone abutment and docking at

the east end of the dam across the Genesee river at Mount Morris and

$12,000 to pay for work at that time under contract and for

protecting the Genesee Valley canal against the encroachments of the

Genesee river.

On May 23, 1872 (chapter 850), the Legislature made provision for

increasing the water-supply at the Dansville end of the Dansville

side-cut. An appropriation of $10,000 was made for conveying the

water from Loon lake into the canal at Dansville by discharging it

through Mill creek. Loon lake was about ten miles from Dansville; it

was about one mile long and one-third of a mile wide, and by opening

a channel about one-quarter mile in length the water would pass down

natural watercourses to Mill creek above the point where that stream

entered the side-cut. The contracts for deepening the summit level

and for raising the dam of Oil creek reservoir were completed during

the season of 1872. In 1873 the Legislature appropriated $18,537.94

for the canal (chapter 643) and in the following year (chapter 399)

$2,000 was set apart for raising the tow-path bank on the four and

six-mile levels to prevent flood waters of the Genesee river from

overflowing.

There was considerable delay in the opening of navigation in the

spring of 1874, occasioned by an extraordinarily high freshet. At

first it was supposed that the damage which the canal had sustained

was so great that the State would not be warranted in attempting to

put it in repair. The dam was carried out at Shaker’s, together with

much embankment both there and along the Cuba level. It was finally

decided to make temporary repairs and navigation was opened about the

first of June.

Shortly before this time the public mind began to be agitated on the

subject of abandoning some of the lateral canals, but as another

chapter has been devoted to a study of the causes that led to this

condition it is not needful here to repeat the deductions from that

study, but simply to state a few of the facts as they related to the

Genesee Valley canal.

At the fall election of 1874 the State Constitution (article 7,

section 6) was so amended as to "give the Legislature the authority

to sell, lease or otherwise dispose of" any of the canals of the

State, except the Erie, Champlain, Oswego and the Cayuga and Seneca

canals. As it could not have been supposed possible to "sell or

lease" the other lateral canals which were not paying financially, on

conditions which required the purchaser to maintain and operate them,

this amounted to abandonment, should the Legislature decide to

dispose of them.

By an act of 1875 (chapter 499) the Legislature required the canal

board to investigate and report upon the disposition to be made of

the lateral canals; to take testimony and examine maps, surveys and

documents relating to the same; to ascertain whether they should be

sold, leased or abandoned; whether any should be retained as feeders

and as to what effect such sale, lease or abandonment would have upon

the legal rights of individuals.

According to the report of the canal board the Genesee Valley canal

had cost in the aggregate $6,723,625.23, with some claims against the

State on file in the appraisers’ office. They recommended that the

State should lease the canal for a term of years or should sell it

outright on condition that it should be maintained in good condition

for four or five months each year. If it were impossible to either

sell or lease the canal, they advised that the State should abandon

the canal at the end of three or five years.

In May, 1876, a commission of three citizens of the State, – Warner

Miller of Herkimer county, E. W. Chamberlain of Allegany county and

Artemus B. Waldo of Essex county – was appointed by the Legislature

(chapter 382) to further investigate the advisability of abandoning

the lateral canals. An appropriation of $40,000 was made at the same

time (chapter 386) to defray the expenses of collecting tolls,

superintendence and maintenance for the year.

These commissioners reported that many of the structures on this

canal were in a condition to last for two or three years with slight

repairs, but some of them would need extensive repairing to fit them

for another season’s service; that the amount of tolls collected

during the season of 1876 was $14,668.50, the amount of tolls

contributed to the Erie canal was only $513 and the expenditures for

repairs and employees amounted to $23,264.10; that the expenses for

operating the canal during a season of three or four months in 1877,

if no unusual break occurred, need not exceed those of 1876; that the

reservoirs and feeders along the line of the canal were not required

to supply the Erie; that ample facilities for transportation were

furnished by the adjoining railroads and that these roads had already

superseded the canal in the carrying of nearly all the trade and

tonnage of the country, except in the article of lumber. Therefore,

they advised that it should be opened for at least a part of the

season of 1877, that the lumber products stored along the route might

be shipped, and that then the canal should be abandoned. They

recommended that the Dansville branch should be closed immediately

(January 19, 1877).

By an act of June 4, 1877 (chapter 404), the Legislature directed

that the Genesee Valley canal should be abandoned and discontinued as

a canal and be no longer subject to the control or authority of any

of the canal boards or officers of the State on or after the

thirtieth day of September, 1878. The act also directed that it

should be the duty of the canal commissioners or Superintendent of

Public Works, subject to the approval of the canal board, as soon as

practicable after the close of navigation in the year 1878, to

advertise for sale and to sell the Genesee Valley canal, its feeders,

branches, appurtenances and water-privileges. On June 18, 1879

(chapter 522), this act was amended and the date for selling the

canal was changed to January 1, 1880.

In 1880 the division engineer of the western division reported the

need of retaining the Cuba and other reservoirs of the abandoned

Genesee Valley canal as feeders for the Erie canal. Under chapter

326, Laws of 1880, the Legislature authorized the commissioners of

the land office to sell the banks and prism of the Genesee Valley

canal for $100 per mile to any railroad corporation that would give

bonds as a guarantee that it would, within two years, begin the

construction of a standard gauge railroad substantially following the

line of the Genesee Valley canal. This act reserved two sections of

the canal property – from Allen’s creek feeder to Rochester and from

Cuba reservoir to Rockville reservoir.

On November 6, 1880, the Governor deeded the main line of the Genesee

Valley canal to the Genesee Valley Canal Railway Company, so that,

with the exception of the Cuba reservoir, its feeder of about three-

fourths of a mile between the reservoir and the Genesee Valley canal,

about seven and a half miles of canal below the mouth of the feeder

and about ten miles between the dam across Allen’s creek and the City

of Rochester, the Genesee Valley canal was no longer under the

control of the State. These portions were retained for the purpose of

feeding the eastern end of the "long level" of the Erie canal in the

City of Rochester.

By an act of 1882 (chapter 166) the State sold the Dansville side-cut

and the Wiscoy and Ischua reservoirs and feeders to farmers whose

lands abutted on these sections of the canal and feeders.

This canal with its numerous structures, costly in their original

construction and not less so in their maintenance, was built after

the era of canal-building had substantially ended. The locomotive,

and consequently the method of transportation by railway, had just

come into use and was practically tested when the construction of the

Genesee Valley canal was entered upon. The Erie railroad was

completed and in operation when the last section of the canal was

brought into use at Olean.

The expectations of the projectors of this canal, as they related to

its business and its pecuniary importance to the country, were never

realized. The Genesee Valley canal, like the other laterals, probably

did not, in the way of tolls received, pay more than one-quarter the

cost of repairs, but it saved over $150,000 annually to the people of

the City of Rochester in the reduced price of lumber. The measure of

its utility was out of all proportions to its cost, but there is

reason to wonder whether the agricultural wealth it created, the

industries it stimulated, encouraged and established, the thousands

of benefits and conveniences which it yearly conferred, directly and

indirectly, on the country through which it passed and at its

termini, were not so vast in the aggregate as to counterbalance to a

large extent the expenditures that the State had made.

------------------------------

ENDNOTES.

1 Assembly Journal, 1825, p. 612.

2 Laws of 1825, p. 356. (chapter 236.)

3 Laws of 1836, p. 340.

4 Senate Documents, 1845, No. 96.

5 Laws of 1856, p. 243.

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