D & H Canal, Page 3

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="04fd05a3.jpg"> <div> Orange County, New York</div> <div> American History and Genealogy Project</div> <div> D & H Canal, Page 3</div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="050d2123.jpg"> <div> <A HREF="http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ny/county/orange/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ny/county/or"><U>Orange County AHGP/ALHN</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ny/state/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ny/state/"><U>New York AHGP/ALHN</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://ahgp.org" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://ahgp.org"><U>AHGP</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://alhn.org" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://alhn.org"><U>ALHN</U></A></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div>   Public opinion was against them; but the minds of the ignorant and prejudiced were enlightened by these energetic and enterprising brothers, who erected, in New York and Philadelphia, stoves and grates suitable for burning Lackawanna coal, and thus established the fact that it was cheaper, more convenient and every way preferable to wood and charcoal.  The press, then influential because not sensational, was enlisted in their favor, and rapidly the mountain of prejudice, more formidable than the Moosie range, was removed.  There was a favorable change in public sentiment.  The plans of the brothers were matured.  They proposed that a company should be formed with a capital of $1,500,000; that the company should surmount the Moosic by the way of Rix' Gap (800 feet in height) by means of inclined planes; that their railway should extend to the nearest point at which a sufficient supply of water could be commanded for canal navigation; that they should mine, carry to market and sell their own coal; that they should embark in the business of banking; and that they should engage in real estate speculations at points on their canal where land was certain to appreciate in value. A wise economy permeated every part of their undertaking.</div> <div>      Books of subscription were opened in New York and every share of the capital-stock taken.  The brothers were no longer half crazy adventurers-the sport of shallow-brained wits-but the acknowledged heads of a powerful organization, with means to test fully and fairly the merits of their project.</div> <div>      The canal and raliroad were commenced in 1826 and completed in <A HREF="#_in_some_places_on_the_summit_level_1" TITLE="D H Canal, Page 3"><U>1828.</U></A><A HREF="#_in_some_places_on_the_summit_level_1" TITLE="D H Canal, Page 3"><U>*</U></A>  On the 3d of December of the latter year, a fleet of six canal boats, laden with one hundred and twenty tons of coal, (the first from the head of the canal,) passed through Mamakating Hollow (now Wurtsborough), on their way to the Hudson.  The ancient Dutch residents, and the more recent Yankee importations, turned out with their families to witness the cheering spectacle.  The sleep of ages was broken by the roaring of cannon and the lusty cheers of the people.  The canal was considered a great public blessing-quite equal to anything in the history of the country, not excepting even the birth of the nation; for we find the good people of the valley on the ensuing Fourth of July engaged in celebrating “American Independence and the canal,” on which occasion Colonel Jacob Gumaer officiated as Marshal; Eli Bennett, as Reader; John Dorrance, as President, and Lyman Odell as <A HREF="#_watchman_july_1826__1" TITLE="D H Canal, Page 3"><U>Orator.</U></A><A HREF="#_watchman_july_1826__1" TITLE="D H Canal, Page 3"><U>*</U></A></div> <div>      Said Mr. Odell, “The genius of free government is peculiarly adapted, no less to public than social improvement. Already our citizens caught the enrapturing flame, and accomplied more in the great field of public enterprise, than centuries have been able to produce under the despotism of feign power. <A HREF="#_watchman_july_1826__1" TITLE="D H Canal, Page 3"><U>* * * *</U></A> Suffer me to roll back the tide of a few short years, and contrast the past with the present condition of this county.  Then the towering summits of the Shawangunk mountain, piled up in massive sublimity as if to hold converse with the clouds, stretched an almost impassable-barrier along her borders, and seemed to laugh in sullen silence upon every attempt of her citizens to communicate with the rest of the world by toiling over its rocky surface.  Then the wealthy feared and the enterprising shrank back from the privations and seclusions of this familiarly denominated wooden country.  At length the scene is changed.  A faint ray of light begins to illuminate her dusky horizon; and the groat project conceived of mingling the waters of the Delaware and Hudson together through the medium of an artificial channel!  Heaven fired the breasts of a few public-spirited individuals with a fortitude which no obstacle could shake, and having ascertained the feasibility of the project, and made the necessary arrangements, the first decisive blow was struck!  But four years have elapsed, and while timidity has faltered at the hazardous undertaking, and incredibility has pointed the finger of derision at the "wild and visionary project," the work has been steadily prosecuted, with a rapidity which outstrips all former example, to a successful completion!!  The gloomy silence which heretofore reigned along the base of these mountains is broken by the busy din of commercial enterprise; and our daily avocations are cheered with the shrill music of the bugle, announcing the arrival and departure of boats laden with the produce and the wealth of this hitherto wild and neglected region.     </div> <bR> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="_in_some_places_on_the_summit_level_1"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A>*In some places on the summit-level, the bottom of the canal was made of coarse gravel, and in a few hours all the water that could be commanded leaked through and disappeared.</div> <div>  <A NAME="_watchman_july_1826__1"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A>*Watchman, July 1826.</div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>