USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Farmington > Farmington papers > Part 12
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22
· 170 .
AN HISTORICAL ADDRESS DELIVERED AT
THE ANNUAL MEETING
of the
VILLAGE LIBRARY COMPANY
OF FARMINGTON, CONNECTICUT
September 13, 1899
by Julius Gay -
O.K
THE CANAL
delivered at the annual meeting of the Village Library Company September 13, 1899
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Village Library Company of Farmington:
We have on former occasions considered the libraries which our ancestors founded, the music they sang in the sanctuary, the scanty learning taught them in the old log schoolhouse, their noble services in the War of the Revo- lution and in colonial days, the venerable houses which sheltered them and finally the early industries of their laborious and worthy lives. To-night we will go back no further than many of us can remember. What we have ourselves seen may perhaps interest us quite as much as those things only our ancestors saw and of which they have left such meager knowledge. I propose to speak of the Farmington Canal, an institution of great expecta- tions never realized, to the capitalist a losing venture, to the farmer a great annoyance, but to the boy of half a century ago the most delightful source of endless enjoy- ment. To-day the traveler, just before he is stopped in his rambles westward by the river, will occasionally find traces of a good-sized ditch, here overgrown with alders, there cut deeply between high banks of sand, and again totally disappearing with the march of improvements. Before it shall have been wholly wiped from the face of
· 175 .
OK
FARMINGTON PAPERS
the earth, like a picture on a schoolboy's slate, let us for one evening recall it to mind; in summer with all its gaily painted boats, its bridges and quiet depths, and in winter a highway for merry skaters. In the first place, however, let us for a moment consider the facilities for travel our townsmen enjoyed just before the days of the canal. .
In the year 1822 the principal means of communica- tion between the towns of this state was by the ordinary highway, sandy in summer, buried out of sight by snow drifts in winter, and when these began to melt in the spring, of unknown depths. A charter for a turnpike road to Bristol had been granted in 1801 and revoked in 1819. The Talcott Mountain Turnpike Company was chartered in May, 1798, to run from Hartford through Farmington to New Hartford, and the Greenwoods Com- pany, chartered six months later, was to proceed thence northward to the state line. At the same session the Hartford and New Haven Turnpike Company was char- tered, and these roads, with one on the east side of the Farmington River from New Hartford to the Massachu- setts line, constituted the turnpike facilities of this region. The traveler along these thoroughfares paid at the numerous toll gates, according to the style of his equipage, from 25 cents if in a four-wheeled pleasure carriage down to four cents if on horseback. Sunday was in general a free day, not by any means for the en- couragement of Sabbath-breaking, but because everyone was supposed to be traveling to church or returning therefrom. Funerals were free. The soldier on train- ing day, the freeman on his way to town meeting, and the farmer going to mill might all proceed on their way unmolested. Stage coaches were beginning to appear.
· 176 .
The CANAL
From the first day of May a coach was advertised to leave Hartford on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 3 o'clock A. M. and arrive in Boston at 8 o'clock P. M. Fare, $6.50. Also we are informed that the "New Post-Coach Line Dispatch, in six hours from Hartford to New Haven, leaves Hartford every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.at 11 o'clock A. M. precisely, and running through Farmington, Southington, and Cheshire, arrives at New Haven at 5 o'clock P. M. in time for the steamboat .
- The above lines of Post-Coaches are new and in modern style, horses selected with great care and are first-rate, drivers that are experienced, careful and steady."
The broad Connecticut furnished ample means of communication for the river towns, and in the year 1822, of which we are writing, any restless spirits who were unwilling to waste time in beating against head winds could leave Hartford for Saybrook on the steamboat Experiment, Captain Haskell, on Tuesday and Friday, and return the following days.
Such were the means of intercommunication in the year 1822 when 260 miles of the Erie Canal were an accom- plished fact and boats were to run when the season opened. Why should not this state have a canal also? So thought · the public-spirited men of New Haven who, not content with rivaling Hartford in their foreign commerce, wished also a water communication with the interior towns. On the 29th of January, 1822, a meeting of citizens from sev- enteen towns on the proposed line of the canal was held at Farmington with the Hon. Timothy Pitkin as moder- ator, and a committee was appointed to procure a survey and raise one thousand dollars to pay for the same. In May, 1822, The Farmington Canal Company was char- tered. The canal was to run from the tide waters of the
:
· 177 .
FARMINGTON PAPERS
harbor of New Haven through Farmington to South- wick, Massachusetts, and a branch along the Farmington River through New Hartford to the north line of Cole- brook. The branch, though the subject of much after con- troversy, was never built. Of the six charter commis- sioners, Gen. George Cowles was the member from this town, and here they held their first meeting on the 8th of July, 1822. Subscription books were opened July 15th and the stockholders held their first meeting on the 31st and chose twenty-one directors, of whom Solomon Cowles and Samuel Deming were two. In the latter part of the year 1823 a survey was made, and the estimated cost of the work was $420,698.88. From a map of the canal printed in 1828, giving distances and the heights and posi- tion of the locks, it appears that this canal was only a small part of a grand project. It was to connect at the state line with the Hampshire and Hampden Canal to be constructed in Massachusetts, and that in turn was to be continued northward along the west bank of the Connecticut River, crossing it at Brattleborough into New Hampshire, and then, sometimes in New Hampshire and sometimes in Vermont, it was to reach Lake Memphremagog through which connection was possible with the St. Lawrence River in Canada. A grand scheme to rival the Erie Canal in im- portance. Subscriptions came in slowly. The river towns laughed at the project which was to rival their broad river, and writers in the Connecticut Courant, who must have their joke at the expense of the rival capital like others since their day, commended the wisdom of the New Haven people who were about to divert the waters of the Con- necticut from flowing past Hartford and turn them upon the mud flats in which their own shipping was usually stuck fast. At length by a brilliant bit of financiering the money
· 178 .
The CANAL
was raised. The Mechanics Bank of New Haven was chartered on condition of its subscribing for $200,000 of the stock of the Canal Company, the plan of requiring a bonus from a newly chartered bank for some worthy ob- ject having been previously introduced with the Phoenix Bank of Hartford and continued in the case of the Con- necticut River Banking Company and others. In July, 1825, we learn from the New Haven Register that "on Monday, the 4th instant, the ceremony of commencing the excavation of the Farmington Canal took place at Salmon Brook village in Granby. The day was remarkably pleas- ant and the exercises were appropriate and interesting. There were from two to three thousand people present on the occasion, and among them several gentlemen of distinc- tion from Massachusetts. The barge fitted up by Capt. Geo. Rowland of New Haven, drawn by four horses, in which he and several gentlemen of our city (New Haven) embarked for Southwick, gave an additional interest to the occasion, and the sight of it was highly gratifying to all present, the plan was well designed and happily executed, and reflects great credit on the gentlemen who conceived the project. The services of the day were commenced with prayer by the Rev. Mr. McLean. The Declaration of Independence was read by the Hon. Timothy Pitkin, and an able oration was delivered by Burrage Beach, Esq., after which a procession was formed under the command of Gen. George Cowles, which moved to the north line of the state in the following order, viz .:
" The Simsbury Artillery.
" Capt. Rowland's boat drawn by six horses, [the re- porter has judiciously increased the number since we started] in which were seated the Governor of the State; the President of the Canal Company; the orator of the day,
· 179 .
-
)
FARMINGTON PAPERS
the Hon. Jonathan H. Lyman of Northhampton ; the Com- missioners and the Engineer; together with several of the Clergy.
" The Directors and Stockholders of the Canal Company.
" Citizens from this State and Massachusetts.
" The procession, composed of gentlemen in carriages, wagons, and on horseback, was two miles in length. Pre- vious to commencing the excavation, Gov. Wolcott deliv- ered the following address :
" Fellow Citizens and Friends: - We are assembled on this anniversary of our National Independence to perform an interesting ceremony. The time, the circumstances, and the object of our meeting are calculated to awaken re- flections and to suggest thoughts peculiarly impressive. The noble enterprise of uniting the Valley of the Connecticut with the city of New Haven by a navigable canal is this day to be commenced. To me has been assigned the high honor of first applying the hand of labor to a work which is itself magnificent, though, as I believe, but the first of a series of like operations which are to combine the re- sources of an extensive and flourishing country." . . . On concluding the address, the governor began the ceremony of digging, in which he was assisted by the President of the Canal Company. After the performance of this cere- mony, the Hon. Mr. Lyman addressed the assembly. After the ceremonies were concluded a numerous company par- took of a dinner provided for the occasion.
We used to hear that much of this glorification occurred on the Sabbath day, and that that was the cause the canal never prospered. The Fourth of July, however, that year fell on Monday, and Deacon Hooker, a strict observer of the Puritan Sabbath, and one who took part in the celebra- tion, writes, " On Saturday a boat on wheels drawn by four
· 180 .
The CANAL
horses arrived in town from New Haven this afternoon con- taining old Mr. Hillhouse, the superintendent of the canal, and eight or ten other persons. It was covered with a white awning and curtains decorated with two flags. On its stern was painted 'Farmington Canal,' and on each side ' For Southwick & Memphremagog.'" " On Monday," the deacon writes, "at 5 o'clock this morning, I rode with brother Martin Cowles in a chaise to Granby village where a large concourse of people assembled to celebrate Ameri- can Independence and to perform and witness the cere- monies of breaking ground for the Farmington Canal. Gov. Wolcott read an address and performed the ceremony of breaking ground by digging a small hole with a spade. Mr. Lyman, of Northampton, made an address on horseback, and, after a few other ceremonies, the multi- tude returned to Granby, and about three hundred dined together on the village green under a bowery. Returned home and arrived about ten in the evening." And so the canal was begun. The governor said so, and the deacon testified to a small hole in the ground. The great con- course of people after much oratory and drinking of toasts had gone home, and it is to be hoped that all the valiant warriors who marched that day under General George got safely home again.
A little more than two years pass and the little hole in the ground reached from Southwick Ponds to the waters of Long Island Sound. Water was let into it in Cheshire and a correspondent of the Connecticut Courant writes : " On Saturday, November 24th, the Cheshire summit being so far completed as to be navigable, three boats and a can- non were provided, and at 3 o'clock, on the firing of a signal gun, the Petticoat Flag was hoisted on board the Fayette, and the boats started from the north end of section 63.
. 18I .
FARMINGTON PAPERS
On passing the summit three cheers were given and one gun fired. On its safe return three cheers were given and a Federal Salute of 24 guns fired. The ceremony closed by a plentiful refreshment to everyone who had worked on the canal."
Winter was now fast approaching and little more was done on the canal that year. Deacon Hooker gives us an account of maritime affairs in Farmington at the opening of navigation the next season: " Friday, June 20th, 1828. Very fine weather. A multitude of people collected this afternoon to witness the launching and sailing of the first canal boat that has been seen at Farmington. Everything was conducted well. Bell ringing, cannon firing, and music from the Phoenix Band were accompaniments. About two hundred gentlemen and ladies who were previously in- vited and furnished with tickets, sailed to and over the aqueduct and back again. The boat was drawn at first by four, and afterwards by three, large gray horses hand- somely decked, and rode by as many black boys dressed in white. Crackers and cheese, lemonade, wine, etc., were furnished to the guests, and the musicians performed very finely on the passage. The boat was named James Hill- house with three cheers while passing the aqueduct." The Courant states that "the boat was owned by Messrs. Cowles and Dickinson, and was launched at Pitkin's Basin, and that other boats were finished and floated ready for im- mediate use as soon as the water in sufficient depth shall have reached New Haven harbor, it being now at navi- gable depth from the head of the feeder on Farmington River to Taylor's tavern near New Haven." We have the following account of the first letting the water into the Farmington feeder in a letter of Commander Edward Hooker of the U. S. Navy :
· 182 .
JULIUS GAY
The CANAL
" When the canal was finished the feeder dam near Unionville was built, the feeder prepared, and the water was let into the canal there on a certain day - speeches, flags, rum, sandwiches, big day, etc., etc. Father (that is Deacon) Hooker and Mr. William Whitman went out there together, and little Will Whitman and I went with them. A sort of gate was built to let the water through, and it was supposed there would be such a rush that the opening was very narrow. When the speakers had made themselves hoarse, the people yelled and the big gun had brayed, - the Unionville gun, - Sam Dick will remember that old iron gun, for he and Lute Cowles were instrumental once in getting it loaded, one Fourth of July, with a cart- ridge filled with oats instead of powder, and so shut up its noise all the rest of the day. When the gun brayed, the gate was knocked away and the first water came into the canal. The opening was so small that at first all the water soaked into the sand. Axes soon increased the flow, and it began to move along, not very fast, and Will Whitman and I ran down into the canal bed and ran along just ahead of the water. Our fathers, no doubt, kept along the bank ready to fish us out if we got caught by the water; but we didn't get caught, and we ran quite a distance keeping just ahead of the water. Soon, however, the axes increased the opening and Will and I had to get out of the way of the rushing tide, the first water in the old Farmington canal.
" Sam Dickinson's father was captain of the boat. She was named for James Hillhouse of New Haven, the pres- ident of the company, and I well remember many journey- ings on board of her to and from New Haven, for then everybody traveled by boat and the stages were nowhere. Of all the boats that ever battled with the raging
. 183 .
-
FARMINGTON PAPERS
tide of the old canal, not one had so wide and famous a reputation for passenger comforts and prompt movements as the staunch old James Hillhouse and her genial captain. Not one had so nicely fitted-up cabins as the gentlemen's cabin aft and the ladies' cabin forward as she had, and not one captain on the surging seas of the canal had such a ringing, convincing voice, when he shouted 'Bridge ! Bridge !' as Captain Dickinson; and above all things else, not one of them set so good a table, and yet some of those old canalers could (or their cooks could) make savory dishes out of Cape Cod turkey and eloquent beans and juicy pork. Long live the memory of the old James Hill- house and her jolly Captain Dickinson."
The part of the canal through which Commander Hooker saw the first water run was known as the feeder. It took water from a dam across the Farmington river a little below Unionville, and delivered it into the main canal just above the aqueduct, supplying the place of un- avoidable leakage from Northampton to Farmington. A considerable source of water was from the numerous brooks which emptied into the canal, and, lest the supply should, during a protracted storm, be in excess, a contriv- ance called the waste-gates was built on the line of Poke Brook. Hither, after every storm, Mr. Leonard Winship might have been seen hastening to raise the gates. In con- sideration for his services he was allowed to build a turn- ing shop on the north bank of the brook adjoining the tow- path, and use the surplus water to turn his wheels. On one memorable occasion the water supply was so much in excess of his needs as to carry off his big overshot wheel well nigh to the river and threaten the whole establishment. I remember seeing the wheel standing under an apple tree
. 184 .
The CANAL
where it had lodged all one summer. It was finally got back into the place before the canal came to an inglorious end.
The year 1828 was now pretty much spent, and as yet the principal business of the canal had been to carry ex- cursion parties short distances with much oratory, music, and good-cheer, a free advertisement of the great things which were to be. Here is a specimen card published in the Connecticut Courant returning the thanks of the good people of Simsbury for one of these pleasant occasions :
" The undersigned, a committee in behalf of nearly two hundred ladies and gentlemen who were gratuitously furnished with passage and entertainment on board the new and elegant packet-boat Weatogue, built and owned by our enterprising citizen, John O. Pettibone, Esq., which made an excursion from Simsbury to the aqueduct across the Farmington river, at Farmington, on Thursday after- noon, the 23d of October, present the thanks of the party to the proprietor for his politeness and liberality mani- fested upon the occasion, and to Capt. Ennis for his accom- modating and gentlemanly conduct, likewise to the citizens of Northington for the cheerful greeting and cordial re- ception of the boat and party in that village. This with Mr. Gridley's handsome boat, the American Eagle, of Farmington, which passed us on an excursion of pleasure northward, being the two first boats which have navigated this part of the line, afforded a scene no less interesting from its novelty than gratifying to our citizens, as an event furnishing evidence of the completion of the canal."
Let us now return to the narrative of Deacon Hooker : " Monday, November 10th, 1828. This morning the canal boat James Hillhouse, with Dickinson as Captain, Newell
· 185 .
.
.
1
FARMINGTON PAPERS
lieutenant, Captain Goodrich, an old sea captain, at the helm, Curtis bugler, etc., etc., and several passengers, started for New Haven, and is the first boat from Farm- ington that has undertaken to go through, the canal be- ing now open for navigation, but the water not having yet risen high enough to render the practicability of the under- taking perfectly certain, but the proprietors (my neighbor Dickinson and Col. Gad Cowles) are ambitious to have their boat enjoy the honor of making the first passage. Pleasant but rather cold. Edward and I rode to the South Basin in it. Wednesday, November 12th. A notable day at Farmington and to be remembered as the first time of canal boats arriving in our village from other towns. About noon the canal boat Enterprise, built at Ithaca, N. Y., and loaded with sixty thousand shingles from Seneca Lake, arrived. In about half an hour afterward the Wea- togue, a handsome packet boat, arrived from Simsbury with a company of ladies and gentlemen on their way to New Haven, and after stopping an hour departed on their way. The Farmington band of music accompanied them a few miles out. It was drawn by three horses. About 4 o'clock, P. M., the elegant packet boat, New England, arrived from New Haven with passengers and one hun- dred barrels of salt on board. The Farmington band, hav- ing met the boat, returned in her to the village with ani- mating music. Our village bell could not ring, having broken its tongue ringing for joy at the arrival of the other boat at noon, but there was some scattering firing of muskets. Between 9 and 10 in the evening the sound of the bugle and the firing of their swivel denoted the arrival of Dickinson's boat, which demonstrated the prac- ticability of navigating our canal, especially by her re- turn, although in going down there was barely enough
· 186.
.
The CANAL
water to float the boat between Farmington and Southing- ton. . . Friday, November 28th, damp and uncom- fortable day. Rode to Northington to attend an adjourned town meeting. A number of people went down thither in a canal boat as far as R. F. Hawley's and then walked about a mile to the place of meeting."
This -was the first instance of our citizens attending town meeting by canal-boat. The meeting had reference to the division of the town which was soon afterward hap- pily consummated to the lasting peace and happiness of all parties concerned, as must always be the case when diverse local interests clash. Nor were town meetings the only gatherings attended by canal-boat. Before a church was erected in Plainville, worshipers came thence by boat to the old meeting-house at the center, beguiling the way with psalm singing and other pious recreations. One of these old-time worshipers once told me that the small boys were wont to fish for shiners from the stern of the boat, their elders conniving at this mild form of going-a-fishing- on-Sunday. So ended navigation for the year 1828. The constantly thickening ice impeded the passage of boats and the water was let out to await the return of spring and the opening of business. The merchants began to advertise in the newspapers in big type. " Canal naviga- tion. ' Port of Farmington. Just arrived and for sale," etc., etc. Houses and farms were advertised as highly desirable, only such and such distances from the canal. The administrator on the estate of Seth Lewis recom- mends his tavern as being only fifty rods from the canal. A new hotel, now a principal part of Miss Porter's school- house, of dimensions commensurate with the coming pros- perity, arose and was fondly deemed the most magnificent structure of all the region round. A young man, writing
.187 .
.
FARMINGTON PAPERS
home an account of his travels through the principal towns of New England in 1832, could find no higher praise for the architectural wonders he saw than that they surpassed even the Union Hotel of Farmington. The canal boat owners also advertised that during the ensuing season, as soon as the canal is navigable, the American Eagle, Capt. John Matthews, will leave Farmington on Monday, and the DeWitt Clinton, Capt. E. O. Gridley, on Thursday, of each week, and returning, leave New Haven on each succeeding Thursday and Monday. And now while the elegant packet-boats and other craft are frozen in the ice, and Captain Dickinson is turning his attention to house building, and the owners of all this fine property are look- ing anxiously for some returns on their investment, let us consider a little the financial situation of the canal company from its published statements. They tell us that in 1826 the stock of the Farmington Canal Company was united with that of the Hampshire and Hampden Company of Massachusetts. In 1827 the funds from the stock sub- scription were exhausted. - In 1828 the company labored under great embarrassment from the want of funds, and suffered from freshets and from the work of malicious in- dividuals. In 1829 the canal was opened to Westfield and the financial embarrassments of the company were relieved by the subscription of one hundred thousand dollars to its stock by the city of New Haven. For the next seven years considerable business was done which had a per- ceptible effect upon the prosperity of New Haven and other places on the line of the canal. In 1835 the canal was finished to the Connecticut River, the first boat pass- ing through ,on the 21st of August of that year. The company did not own the boats which passed through its
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.