Landmarks of Oswego County, New York, Part 36

Author: Churchill, John Charles, 1821-1905; Smith, H. P. (Henry Perry), 1839-1925; Child, W. Stanley
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 1410

USA > New York > Oswego County > Landmarks of Oswego County, New York > Part 36

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In foreign trade 148. 17,364

Foreign vessels entered at Oswego,

In foreign trade 527 168,641

Total 2,406. 511,425

(This does not include daily lines of steamers.)

Value of imports received at Oswego ;

Home trade -$7,798,863

Foreign trade

291,712

$8,090,375.

Value of exports cleared at Oswego : Home trade $7.977,444

1,852,806 Foreign trade Duties on Imports at Oswego. $58,200.

$9,830,250

The vessels registered in the Oswego district were eight steamers, average 277 tons each ; ten propellers, average 275 tons each ; 186 sailing vessels, average 114 tons each ; total. 26,170 tons. (Two steamers and two propellers were of nearly 400 tons each.) Canal commerce :

Canal boats cleared from Oswego, about 4,666, the average load being sixty-seven tons each.

Imports received at Oswego by canal 88,026 tons, value. $7,874,432.

Exports cleared from Oswego by canal 205,000 tons, value $7.781,757. (This last item included 667,000 barrels of flour, valued at four million dollars.)

Canal tolls collected at Oswego, 1847 $233,223.

The first dredging done in the harbor was in 1846 and 1847, when the original gravel bar with seven and one-half feet depth which crossed the channel near the foot of the upper island, was removed at private expense.

In 1848 the business of the place was increased by the opening of the Oswego and Syracuse Railroad connecting with the New York Central Railroad at Syracuse, and in the same year the city was incorporated. The great increase of trade made a constantly increasing demand for more harbor room, and in 1852 a board of U. S. engineers made a project for an outer breakwater 700 feet in advance of the original one. Nothing, however, was done towards its construction. Up to this time the only wharves in the harbor outside the river mouth were on the west side and under the shelter of the west pier.

In 1852, in order that the sheltered area might be fully utilized, the city authorities made a permanent lease to private parties of the land under water which was sheltered by the east pier, and which was known as Grampus Bay, being so named after the barque "Grampus " wrecked there in 1847. This land under water the city obtained by grant from the State in 1851. The lease was transferred to Gerrit Smith, and under its conditions the partly wrecked east pier was rebuilt by him and was extended up stream along the east side of the channel for 900 feet, forming the east channel pier. This entirely enclosed Grampus Bay on the exposed sides, and in the sheltered area thus formed were built the six large wharves, with an aggregate length of 2,100 feet and an

1 House Report 741, 36th Congress, Ist Session, June 23, 1848.

351

OSWEGO AS A VILLAGE AND CITY.

average width of 100 feet, which have ever since formed the "east-cove lumber dis- trict," from the rentals of which Gerrit Smith received large sums annually for many years. The rentals were said to be $60,000 per year at one time.

The construction of the east channel pier reflected westerly waves into the western half of the harbor, as was to be expected, and this made necessary the building of the west channel pier, as the present lower island was then called. It was 530 feet long and was also built at private expense by the consent of the city authorities.

On July 5, 1853, all the mills and elevators on the east side of the river were destroyed by a great fire which swept that part of the city. The greatest energy was shown in rebuilding them, Penfield, Lyon & Co. making contracts for the necessary timbers for their great mill before the fire had burned itself out. All were rebuilt and working in May, 1854

On May 10, 1854, a steam dredge was built and completed at Oswego for use on the Lake Ontario harbors, but there was no money available for much needed deepening at Oswego harbor, and the dredge was sent to Little Sodus. This dredge was sold in 1861 for want of funds to operate it, and was converted into a floating grain elevator, which was afterwards taken to New York harbor.

The large gains in wharf-room which these improvements in 1852 and 1853 afforded were not enough, and on May 20, 1854, a joint commission of the property owners and the Common Council made a contract with William Baldwin to build a coffer dam in the middle of the river, and to deepen the west half of the channel from Cayuga street to Albany street. The contract price for the coffer dam, pumping and excavation and all necessary work, was $55,000, of which the city was to pay one-quarter and the owners of the water front property three-quarters. The required depth of excavation was not stated, but it appears to have been three to four feet, making the depth ten feet at low water. This work was in progress during 1854 and 1855, but only a portion of the proposed work was then done. The water was pumped from within the coffer dam in a peculiar way. At the east end of the lower bridge a turbine water wheel was set in a flume drawing from the east power canal, and connecting with a line of shafting about 500 feet long, leading across the bridge to its west end where the coffer dam pumps were geared to it, and thus kept the work clear of water. The contract resulted in a law suit growing out of the lack of authority by the city to levy assessments for such purposes, and the work was not then completed, but was resumed in 1867. The present D. L. & W. R. R. tunnel leading to the river side at Utica street, and also their tracks along the river to Bridge street, were built in 1854 and 1855 by the Oswego and Syracuse R. R. Co., as a part of this improvement.

The removal of the bar across the river channel, which was begun in 1846 at private cost and completed in 1855 by the United States dredge at the cost of the city, was also a marked improvement, adding greatly to the available harbor room by making it possible for vessels of ten feet draft to enter the river and to reach the wharves on each side, and the mills and elevators which were built upon them.

The commercial statistics for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1855, are given as follows in the report of the chief of topographical engineers to the secretary of war :

352

LANDMARKS OF OSWEGO COUNTY.

Lake commerce 1855 :

American tonnage entered -504,816 tons.

Foreign tonnage entered.

II0.257

Total

(This includes two daily lines of Canadian steamers.)

Of the tonnage enrolled at Oswego, four per cent. were sailing vessels and ninety-six per cent. were steamers.

Value of imports at Oswego : Home trade. not stated

Foreign trade 990,348

Value of exports from Oswego : Home trade $2,541, 169

Foreign trade

1,239,306

Total

$3,780,475

Duties collected at Oswego. $245,112 1

Canal commerce 1855 :

Number of canal boats cleared at Oswego in 1855

5,046

Imports received at Oswego by canal 82,292 tons 2 .

Exports cleared from Oswego by canal. -382,755 tons. Value $11,181,781

(These canal shipments ir cluded 398,657 barrels of flour and three million bushels of wheat.) Canal tolls collected at Oswego in 1857 $270,638

(The amount of tolls for 1855 is not available.)

During the period from 1852 to 1869, there were no operations of importance for the improvement of the harbor by the government. Such work as was done was merely for the repair and maintenance of the existing west pier and for the deepening to twelve feet depth of the area sheltered by it, by dredging out the sand and gravel which the waves threw over the west pier and through its frequent breaches. In 1868 the tower of the main lighthouse was made twenty feet higher, and one of the most powerful lights on the lakes was substituted for the one then in use. These opera- tions were in local charge of Moses Porter Hatch in 1852 and for some years after, and then were directed by William Schuyler Malcolm until 1867, both of whom were citi- zens of Oswego whose families were prominent, but neither of whom was a civil en- gineer.

Meantime the commercial business of the harbor had steadily increased under the influence of a Reciprocity treaty with Canada, which was ratified on September 9, 1854, and continued until March 17, 1866, and under which the principal articles of international commerce were free of duty. Added to this was the effect of the com- pletion in 1862 of the enlargement of the Erie Canal and the Oswego Canal, which had been in progress since 1836, and which made them seven feet deep with locks 110 feet long and eighteen feet wide; capable of passing boats of 240 tons burden. The imme- diate result was that 5,483 canal boats cleared from Oswego in 1862, carrying property valued at $18,104,493 and paying canal tolls of $586,759.

The failure to complete the river excavation attempted by the city in 1854 and 1855 prevented the Oswege & Syracuse R. R. Co. (now leased by the D. L. & W. R. R. Co.)

1 Ex. Doc. No I. House of Rep., 34th Congress, Ist Sess., Feb. 14, 1856,

2 From Reports of State Auditor and State Engineer.

615,073

353

OSWEGO AS A VILLAGE AND CITY.

from making advantageous use of their tunnel and river front tracks, and on November 7, 1866, contract was made by the railroad company for the complete excavation of the same portion of the Oswego River channel.

The remains of the 1854 coffer-dam, which had stood in the middle of the river for many years, had gradually been washed away, and another was built in the middle of the river to enclose an area about 110 feet wide extending from Cayuga street for 1,550 feet up stream. The present middle wall of massive masonry, seven feet wide and fifteen feet high from the river bed, was built just within this coffer-dam, on the edge of the excavation, between 1867 and 1869; extending from the draw-bridge pier, 1,100 feet up stream and 400 feet down stream. This work was in progress during 1867, 1868 and 1869, and one of its results was the discovery of the now famous Deep Rock Spring, whose water ran from crevices in the rock of the river bed when blasted during this excavation. During the time that the coffer-dam was kept dry, the spring was visited by constantly increasing numbers of citizens, and in 1869 it was decided to drill for the water on shore a hundred feet or more west of the point where it ap- peared in the river bed. In pursuance of this purpose, Sylvester Doolittle (who was the builder in 1841 of the first propeller on the lakes, as has been described elsewhere) bought from Moses Porter Hatch (who has been referred to as the contractor who built in 1827 the first piers at Oswego harbor) his residence on West First street, which was removed, together with many large fruit trees and ornamental shrubs, to make room for the Doolittle House, which was there built about 1872. The excavation of the river channel was continued by the railroad company during 1867, 1868 and 1869. It was repeatedly delayed by breaks in the coffer-dam and by the difficulties of keeping the area free from water. The work was finally completed and during the period of extreme high water which chanced to prevail in the lake during 1870 and 1871, the new channel gave good access for vessels to the coal trestles built along the water front above the bridge.

In 1872 began a period of low water in the lake, and this disclosed the fact that by some unaccountable error on the part of the railroad employees, the depth made was twelve feet below average water level instead of below extreme low water level, and that the new channel was therefore two feet or more shallower than it was meant to be. It was also found that the deepened area was about 400 feet too short at its lower end, and during 1872 and 1873 further excavation was attempted without a coffer-dam by hand drilling from a float, using common powder as the explosive, the present im- proved methods used in 1893 for excavating submerged rock being not then known. The operations by the railroad company in 1872 and 1873 were costly and ineffectual, and the lack of proper depth in the channel has prevented its ever being fully useful except during periods of high water. At extreme low water level its depth is nine and three-fourths feet over the rock bottom.

Up to 1869, the total sum which had been expended in Oswego harbor improvement by the United States was $473,362. The duties collected in a single year at this time were nearly three times this total sum, showing the investment to have been a good one. In 1869, the resident engineer at Oswego in charge of the government works here and elsewhere on Lake Ontario was Major Nicholas Bowen of the United States Corps of Engineers.

354

LANDMARKS OF OSWEGO COUNTY.

During 1869 there was built the extension northward of the lighthouse pier, which was 432 feet long and thirty feet wide. Its object was to shelter vessels from westerly waves at the entrance to the river where its current must be met, and the harbor was much improved by its construction. Major Bowen was also successful in urging upon the authorities at Washington the necessity for providing better facilities for the growth of Oswego commerce, by building an outer breakwater under the shelter of which a large outer harbor would be formed, which would wholly include the old harbor and make its further repairs unnecessary. In pursuance of this project. a detailed survey of the harbor and of the lake front and lake bottom, for a mile each side of the har- bor and for half a mile in width, was made in September, 1869, by William Pierson Judson, civil engineer, upon the large map of which survey the proposed breakwater was planned by a Board of Engineers convened for that purpose. This board made a plan, which was afterwards approved and carried out, for the construction of a break- water placed generally upon lines paralle! to those of the old west breakwater and 1,100 feet in advance of it; starting from the shore of the lake about a mile west of the river mouth, running out into the lake 900 feet, to a point where the depth was about twenty feet, and thence running generally parallel with the shore for 4,900 feet, where the low water depth varied from twenty-eight feet to sixteen feet ; thus en- closing about 100 acres ontside of the twelve foot curve at lowest stage of water. The details for the construction of the breakwater provided for framed timber cribs thirty-five feet square, each divided into nine compartments by four bulkheads, all filled with loose stone; each crib having a grillage bottom formed of timbers crossing each other and screw-bolted together and planked; the cribs united above water by a con- tinuous superstructure six feet high of timber, also filled with loose stone and covered with a deck of three-inch plank laid across the work. The timbers were all of hem- lock below water and of white pine above water, and were all twelve inches square. The estimated cost was $1,161,682, but the actual cost of construction (not including maintenance) was considerably less than that. That so large an expenditure was justi- fied in order to foster and accommodate the business of the port is indicated by the single fact that the duties collected by the government in that year were $1,282,884 ; more than the total estimated cost of the outer harbor. The subject was strongly pre- sented, the approval by Congress of the plan was secured, and the first appropriations therefor were obtained by the Hon. John C. Churchill, who then represented the dis- trict in Congress. This method of construction was used throughout the entire work (whch occupied eleven years) with slight modifications. Experience has shown that the cribwork was lacking in the strength and stability which the exposed location needed.

Extensive repairs were made during the progress and after completion. The super- structure when decayed has been in part replaced by a different design, costing no more, but needing no repairs whatever, until decayed. The cribs below water, though not subject to decay, are not so readily accessible and may from time to time require more or less repair.

There were at this time (1869) fronting on the inner harbor, eleven large grain eleva- tors and sixteen flour mills, During this year (1869) the New York and Oswego

355

OSWEGO AS A VILLAGE AND CITY.

Midland Railroad was opened for one-half the distance to New York, and the Lake On- tario Shore Railroad Company was organized to construct a railroad to Niagara. In January, 1871, Major John M. Wilson, Corps of Engineers, U. S. A., took charge of the harbor works. On March 3, 1871, an appropriation of $100,000 was made for the pro- posed outer breakwater, and on July 5, 1871, operations were begun at the shore end ; 640 lineal feet of the shore arm were built that season. The extension of the break- water kept pace with the annual appropriations of varying amounts which were made for it. Both the completed and incomplete work were subject to frequent and extensive damages by storms, which required immediate repair at a great cost.

In 1873 there was an unusual ice formation upon the lake, and for some time the waters, which are usually as open in winter as in summer, were entirely covered by heavy floes, extending beyond the range of vision. Advantage was taken of this oppor- tunity to make numerous borings to determine the character of lake bottom upon which the rest of the breakwater was to be built: Some of the borings were made through twenty-five feet of floating ice and fifteen feet of sand, and valuable information was obtained for subsequent operations.

In 1874, the breakwater reached a total length of 2,716 feet; 916 feet being the shore arm, and 1,800 feet being lake arm. The latter was located in water twenty to twenty-eight feet in depth, including the deepest portion of the structure. This length was sufficient to shelter some useful harbor room, and the first wharves on the lake front were built in 1874.

The following are the commercial statistics for 1874 :

Lake Commerce :

Tonnage cleared, 3527 . 577,700 tons

Value of imports $7,356,646 00

Value of exports. 260.876.00

Duties collected at Oswego 765,992.67 Canal Commerce 1873 :

Number of canal boats cleared at Oswego 2,929

Value of exports cleared from Oswego by canal in 1873 $12,561,520

(This included 37,241 barrels of flour and 175,000 bushels of wheat).

Canal tolls collected at Oswego in 1873. $ 264, 166.44

The rate of canal tolls had been reduced in 1873 to one-third their former rate in 1862.

In 1876, Major Walter McFarland, Corps of Engineers, U. S. A., relieved Major Wil- son of the charge of the harbor works, and continued the construction of the break- water upon the same plans ; Congress making annual appropriations for the work.

In 1881 the lake arm was nearly completed and the D. L. & W. R. R. Co. built at the foot of West Fourth street a large wharf, 100 feet wide and a 1,000 feet long, upon which they erected a trestle and pockets for the storage and shipment of coal. When this was building, Major McFarland considered that the outer 225 feet would prove to be an obstruction to the harbor, and forbade that this portion be built, but without effect. The subject of compelling its removal was then put in the hands of the U. S. district attorney and is still open in 1894, when the rebuilding of the portion of the structure which is above water is in progress.

In November, 1881, the iron lighthouse, which had marked the outer end of the light- house pier extension since 1876, was taken apart, and was erected on the beacon crib,

356

LANDMARKS OF OSWEGO COUNTY.

behind the eastern end of the outer breakwater. It was built and lighted by the United States assistant engineer in thirty hours, which was much the shortest time on record for such work. In 1882 the west breakwater was completed, with a total length of 6,033 feet; 916 feet for the shore arm, 4,871 feet for the lake arm, and 246 feet for the channel arm. The channel arm and the last 1,400 feet of the lake arm were not sunk on the natural bottom, as was the rest of the work. The borings made in 1873 disclosed the existence here of fifteen or more feet of fine sand, and in this was dredged a trench four to ten feet deep which was filled with stone upon which the cribs were placed. Upon the completion of the west breakwater in 1882, the construction of a similar east breakwater was begun. It was located upon the same line prolonged, an opening of 352 feet being left for an entrance between it and the eastern end of the west breakwater, directly opposite the entrance, 357 feet wide. to the inner harbor.

The first section of the east breakwater, as then built, consisted of a channel arm thirty-five feet long and a lake arm 213 feet long, the project providing for extending the latter 2,700 feet eastward. This extension was never built. The whole of the suc- ceeding appropriations were required to renew superstructure and to repair and main- tain the west breakwater, and in 1889, by a very mistaken and short-sighted policy, the construction of an east breakwater was abandoned, and the section built in 1882 was dredged out and removed. Since then the entrance has been in a most unsatisfactory condition, and is very difficult for vessels to make during northwesterly gales.

At the close of navigation in 1882, the State removed all tolls from the Erie Canal and its branches. Ever since the completion of the enlargement in 1862 there had been a steady diminution in the rates and the amount of tolls collected, without making any appreciable change in the volume of business which used the canals, and from about 1872 they had been fixed at a rate merely sufficient to make repairs. In 1882 the tolls collected were only one-eighth those collected in 1862, while the tonnage was almost identical in amount, as shown by the following figures :

Tons of total movement on all canals in 1862 were . 5,598,785 tons. 5,467,423 tons.

Tolls collected on all canals in 1862 66 1882

1882 $5,188,943 655,826

But this gradual diminution and final removal of tolls operated most disastrously against the commerce of Oswego harbor.

So long as goods passing through the canal paid tolls in proportion to the length of canal traversed, Oswego could compete with Buffalo for a share of the western trade; but as soon as all tolls were removed from the Erie Canal, while they were still exacted on the Welland, Buffalo had a great advantage, which resulted in the loss by Oswego of most of the western grain trade. A little later when the Canadian government, in de- fiance of treaty rights, made a discriminating charge against vessels bound to Ameri- can ports, Oswego's western grain trade entirely disappeared, not to revive until 1894. Oswego had been the shipping place for Syracuse salt for the western markets; but the development of the Michigan salt regions put an end to this trade. Oswego had also been the great depot for receipt and distribution of Canadian lumber, and between 1865 and 1875 it far exceeded any other lake port in the quantity handled. It was the demands

357

OSWEGO AS A VILLAGE AND CITY.

of this business which called most loudly for increased harbor room. Changes in the lumber trade by making shipments from Canada by all-railroad routes instead of by vessel and canal, and gradual exhaustion of some of the Canadian timber limits which had shipped their product by the way of Oswego, gradually reduced the quantity of lumber which came to Oswego. and the harbor was thus relieved of its greatest pressure for more space.

The new outer western harbor was not, therefore, at once occupied by lumber wharves, as it was expected that it would be, and consequently there was no need for the creation of an eastern outer harbor. The combined effect of these various adverse conditions made a material reduction in the lake commerce of Oswego, but a large trade still remained to be provided for. In 1884 it was as follows:

Lake commerce :

329 steamers. 48 681 tons

1,827 sail. .317,534 tons

Total tonnage cleared 2,156 vessels . 366,215 tons

Value of imports $6,451,862

Value of exports 1. 162,109

Duties collected at Oswego. 697,818.86

The imports included 4,500,000 bushels of grain and 187,000,000 feet of lumber.

During the working season of 1884, the operations at Oswego harbor were under the charge of Maj. H. M. Robert, Corps of Engineers, who in 1883 had relieved Major McFarland. These operations consisted in dredging to fifteen feet at the extreme low water in the river channel from the lighthouse up to Schuyler street, and in rebuilding the superstructure upon the greater part of the lake arm of the outer breakwater, 3,000 lineal feet being thus rebuilt in parapet form, a parapet thirteen feet high above low water level being built along the exposed face for one-third of the width, while the remaining two-thirds on the harbor side was eight feet lower. This took the place of the original superstructure, which had a flat deck uniformly eight feet above extreme low water level. The change was a marked improvement, but it still needed and fre- quently received extensive repairs.

As soon as the season's work was finished, in October, 1884, signs of yielding were observed in the superstructure 400 to 700 feet eastward from the western angle, the whole upper work down to about nine feet depth, sliding inward upon the substructure two to three feet, under the force of the first heavy storm. Buttresses were at once built at each side of the yielding section, and during the next gale of December 11, 1884, 140 feet of the superstructure was forced into the harbor, leaving an opening about nine feet deep. The buttresses and braces limited this breach to its original size, and it is still unchanged in 1894. This opening caused so marked an improvement in the sanitary condition of the harbor, and was so convenient an entrance for vessels and tugs, that it has not been rebuilt, and will be made a permanent opening.

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Landmarks of Oswego County, New York, Part 36

Author: Churchill, John Charles, 1821-1905; Smith, H. P. (Henry Perry), 1839-1925; Child, W. Stanley Publication date: 1895 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason Number of Pages: 1410

Author: Churchill, John Charles, 1821-1905; Smith, H. P. (Henry Perry), 1839-1925; Child, W. Stanley
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 1410