USA > Pennsylvania > Perry County > History of Perry County, Pennsylvania, including descriptions of Indians and pioneer life from the time of earliest settlement, sketches of its noted men and women and many professional men > Part 44
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 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119 | Part 120 | Part 121 | Part 122 | Part 123
Almost a quarter of a century before the building of the first "ark" on the Juniata, the province was busily interested in water- way transportation, even on smaller streams, as the following inci- dent will show. The Provincial Legislature of 1771, on March
405
RIVER AND CANAL TRANSPORTATION
9th, passed an act which declared the Susquehanna and Juniata Rivers public highways, but made no appropriation to improve them. By the act of February 6, 1773, Sherman's Creek was also declared a public highway. A man named James Patton had con- structed a dam across the creek near its mouth, and persons resid- ing near by made a protest, claiming it conflicted with navigation, hence the passage of the bill. It follows, in part :
Section one provides that "the said James Patton, and all and every person claiming under him, and all and every person or persons whatso- ever, having already erected any milldam or other obstruction across the said creek, where the same has been or can be made navigable for rafts, boats or canoes, shall make open and leave the space of twenty feet in breadth near the middle of said dam, at least two feet lower than any other part thereof; and for every foot that the dam is or shall be raised perpendicular from the bottom of said creek, there shall be laid a plat- form, either of stone or timber, or both, with proper walls on each side, to confine the waters, which shall extend at least six feet down the stream, and of breadth aforesaid, to form a slope for the water's gradual descent, for the easy and safe passage of boats, rafts and canoes through the same."
This section further provides as a penalty for not constructing these dam chutes within eight months six months' imprisonment or £50 for- feiture, one-half to the informer and the other half to the overseers of the poor of the township wherein the offender resides.
Section two provides against the construction of "any wear, rack, hasket, fishing dam, pond, or other device or obstruction whatsoever within said creek" for catching fish, with a penalty of one month's imprisonment "without bail or mainprize," or fio fine.
Section three makes it the duty of the constables of the respective town- ships adjoining the creek to inspect the dams therein and make information against offenders. This they must do every month throughout the year, under a penalty of twenty shillings.
Section four provides against fishing at the chutes of the dams so con- structed, by net or seine, within twenty perches above and below the same, under a penalty of £5.
Section five is a proviso to prevent the construction of the act to pre- clude fishing with a seine or net at other places in the stream.
Section six declares the stream a public highway as far as the same is navigable for rafts, boats or canoes.
Section seven provides that James Patton's dam shall not be affected in any way other than is specified by the act.
The session of the Pennsylvania Legislature appropriated two thousand dollars, February 17, 1816, to remove obstructions and improve navigation on Sherman's Creek, between Craighead's mill- dam and the junction of the creek and the Susquehanna River. A commission, consisting of Francis Gibson, George Stroop, John Maxwell, William Power, Samuel Anderson, John Creigh, Moses Watson, Isaiah Carl, and Robert Adams, was appointed to super- intend the work. The time was extended until 1822 to complete the task. The creek was at that time made navigable for small craft as far as Gibson's Rock.
406
HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
A special act of the legislature, passed April 14, 1827, required the commissioners of Perry County to pay the commissioners ap- pointed by an act of the same body for removing obstructions from Sherman's Creek.
Marcus Hulings also figures in the placing of a dam in Sher- man's Creek. On August 28, 1768, he took out an order of sur- vey for a tract of thirty acres which was located on Sherman's Creek, above the Duncannon Iron Company's plant, and upon which was a mill site. Evidently familiar with the Patton case he took precaution to obtain the authority of the State Legislature in 1787 to erect a dam in the stream. He died the following year and there is no record of the dam being built.
Odd as it now seems the Pennsylvania Legislature, in January, 1791, actually passed a bill which, among others, made navigable Little Juniata Creek, which empties into the Susquehanna River at Duncannon. Of course the springs and streams are less copious than when the county was wooded, but that stream has either dropped off wonderfully in the volume of water flowing or else there were some mighty queer proceedings in legislative halls even in those early days. An Act of February 5, 1794, made "the Coco- lamus Creek of Cumberland and Mifflin Counties, from the mouth thereof to the forks at Daniel Cargill's," a public highway.
The first iron steamboat to ply the Susquehanna was built near York, on the Codorus, for which it was named, and was launched in 1825. It was sixty feet long, had a nine-foot beam and was three feet high. It weighed six tons and when empty drew only five inches of water. Each ton of contents caused it to sink an inch further into the water. It went up the river as far as Oswego and Binghampton. Its receipts were small, and two years later it was sold for junk. During the winter of 1825-26 it was moored at Montgomery's Ferry, in Perry County.
The Miltonian, published at Milton, Pennsylvania, May II, 1826, said :
" "The Susquehanna and Baltimore' arrived at Northumberland on Mon- day last. She is able to ascend the river at the rate of about five miles an hour. At Liverpool she took Mr. Grove's eighty-foot keel boat, heavily laden, in tow. Notwithstanding, it did not in the least impede her progress, for she reached Northumberland in six hours, a distance of twenty-six miles. On May 3 one of her boilers burst at Nescopeck Falls and injured thirteen people whose names are known. Two New York State men were blown overboard and not recovered."
During the administration of Governor Bigler an appropriation was made for removing the obstructions from the channel of the Susquehanna River and to George Blattenberger, later associate judge of the county, was entrusted the work. Upon its completion he returned an unexpended balance to the state treasury, and for this he was commended in the governor's message to the legislature.
407
RIVER AND CANAL TRANSPORTATION
COMING OF THE CANALS.
Whose suggestions first brought the matter of canals to the at- tention of the public the writer does not know, and history fails to agree; but to William Penn, founder of the Province of Penn- sylvania, this book is inclined to give that credit. During one of Penn's periods of residence in the province, he made a trip up the Susquehanna as far as Middletown, and probably Harrisburg. As early as 1690 he was arranging for a second settlement or city in the province, upon the Susquehanna River. "It is now," says Penn, "my purpose to make another settlement, upon the river Susquehanna, that runs into the Chesapeake, and bears about fifty miles west from the Delaware, as appears by the common maps of the English dominion in America. There I design to lay out a plan for building another city, in the most convenient place for the communication with the former plantations in the East ; which by land is as good as done already, a way being laid out between the two rivers, very exactly and conveniently, at least three years ago; and which will not be hard to do by water, by benefit of the river Schuylkill; for a branch of that river lies near the branch that runs into the Susquehanna River, and is the common course of the Indians with their skins and furs into our parts, and to the provinces east and west, Jersey and New York, from west and northwestern parts of the continent, from whence they bring them."
As early as April 6, 1790, Timothy Matlack, John Adlum and Samuel Maclay were appointed commissioners to survey and ex- amine the Swatara, the Susquehanna, Sinnemahoning Creek and the Allegheny River with a view towards promoting an inland waterway. This route via the Swatara Creek is the one mentioned by Penn, in the above statement, it being described as "the branch that runs into the Susquehanna River." This was the actual be- ginning of the subject of canal construction.
As early as 1791 a "Society for Promoting the Improvements of Roads and Inland Navigation" existed in Pennsylvania and de- voted much of its time to the exploration of the various waterways and routes considered most feasible for connecting the Delaware with the waters of the Ohio and the lakes. Under authority granted by the legislature surveys were made and reports sub- initted. New York, Maryland, Virginia and the Carolinas were working along the same lines. About this time (1791 to 1827), when the Americans were displaying such enthusiasm and energy in opening up their extensive domain, came the intelligence of the success of steam power on the railroads being built in England, and the inauguration of the new system of passenger transportation between Manchester and Liverpool. Notwithstanding the Ameri- cans went ahead and completed their waterways.
.
408
HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
Prior to this, as early as 1761, commissioners had been appointed by the proprietary "to clear, scour, and make the Schuylkill navi- gable for boats, flats, rafts, canoes and other small vessels, from the ridge of mountains commonly called the Blue Mountains, to the river Delaware." After this initial step the Schuylkill at many places was dammed into long deep pools, which were connected by canals with a depth of six feet, carrying boats of two hundred-ton capacity. Following the appointment of the commission, previ- ously mentioned, in 1790, Governor Thomas Mifflin, in his mes- sage to the legislature in 1791, said :
"The very laudable attention paid to the survey of roads and rivers is a conclusive proof of the importance of the subject, while it furnishes an example highly deserving of your imitation. Every day, indeed, produces an additional incentive to persevere in improvements of this kind. The commercial policy of insuring the transportation of our produce from the interior counties to the capital is dependent upon the ease and facility of the communications that are established throughout the state; and when we consider Pennsylvania, not only as the route that actually connects the extreme members of the Union, but as a natural avenue from the shores of the Atlantic to the vast regions of the western territory, imagination can hardly paint the magnitude of the scene which demands our industry, nor hope exaggerate the richness of the reward which solicits our enjoy- ment."
The committee reported on February 19, 1791. They reported on the Delaware towards New York State and towards Lake On- tario; on the Lehigh and Schuylkill and connections of the latter leading towards the Susquehanna, and on the Juniata and the north and west branches of the Susquehanna. The report was compre- hensive and upon its foundations later were erected the extensive public waterways which carried the trade of the state for decades.
During the very infancy of Perry County, and while Governor Ileister was in office, the greatest question before the people of Pennsylvania was the construction of canals to reach the inland counties. An act of the Pennsylvania Legislature dated March 27, 1824. provided for the appointment of commissioners to promote the internal improvement of the commonwealth. A commission of three was to investigate the feasability and explore a route for a canal from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh, by way of the Juniata and Conemaugh Rivers. A report was made, and after enacting sev- cral laws and repealing others, five commissioners were authorized to examine routes through Chester and Lancaster Counties, then by the west branch of the Susquehanna and from the mouth of the Juniata to Pittsburgh. The people had little faith in the rail- roads building in England, then attaining success, but stood by their carly belief in inland waterways.
Then, on that eventful day, July 4, 1826, ground was first broken at Harrisburg for the "Pennsylvania Canal," to be in its
400
RIVER AND CANAL TRANSPORTATION
day a mighty artery of traffic, and yet to be so soon superseded by one of far greater proportions. An office was opened at Mil- lerstown and James Clark was made superintendent of the Juniata division. On July 15, 1827, advertisements appeared asking for bids for the construction of sixteen miles of canal between Lewis- town and Mexico, Juniata County, on the east side of the Juniata ; for fourteen miles from Mexico to a point opposite North's Island. below Millerstown, also on the east side, and for fifteen miles, ex- tending from North's Island to a point opposite the extreme north- ern point of Duncan's Island. On May 13, 1828, bids were called for for the construction of the old aqueduct, which crossed the Juniata at Duncan's Island, and thirteen houses of wood, stone or brick for the use of lock tenders. The distance from this old aque- duct to Clark's Ferry dam was 1.58 miles.
While the canal was building, on February 23, 1828, the fol- lowing appeared in the Mifflin Eagle:
"The work on the canal progresses rapidly; many sections are now more than half completed. The sections in the Narrows appear to get along slower than the rest. This is occasioned in a great measure by the high water, which has prevented the work from going on. The Juniata has not been frozen over this season, and ever since the middle of De- cember it has been on what is termed by boatmen good 'arking order.' We saw five arks pass down on Tuesday last. This is the first winter, in the recollection of our oldest citizens, that the river has remained clear of ice."
Some of these citizens must surely have attained the age of seventy, whose recollection would date back at least sixty years. so that here is a traditional weather record dating back to probably 1768, to the very days of the early pioneers.
In the fall of 1828 plans for the building of the canal from Lewistown to Huntingdon, a distance of forty-five miles, were consummated. The canal was built and completed by the summer of 1829, and on August 27th of that year the first boat came up the canal from Harrisburg, being in command of Cornelius Bas- kins, of "Upper Clark's Ferry," a name then applied to what later was known as Baskinsville, and now a part of Duncannon. The freight consisted of a quantity of merchandise and seven thousand bricks, which were consigned to John Hipple, then sheriff of Perry County, and residing at New Bloomfield. On September 22 the water was let into the first level of the Juniata Canal at Lewistown. On October 30 the entire line from Lewistown to Duncan's Island was filled with water and placed in service. In November the first packet boat to ply the canal, drawn by two white horses, went from Mifflintown to Lewistown, conveying a party of ladies and gentlemen and members of the legislature.
On November 5, 1829, a packet boat, probably the same one, · arrived at Newport from Mifflin laden with members of the legis-
410
HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
lature and other persons of prominence. According to descrip- tions of the period it "was drawn by two white horses and set off in fine style with the flag flying at her head, amid the shouts of the people and the cheering music of the band on board."
The canal was completed from Lewistown to Huntingdon the following year, and by 1834 the line was open from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, by using the railroad of eighty-two miles to Colun- bia and the portage road from Hollidaysburg to Johnstown, a dis- tance of thirty-six miles. Regular packet lines for the transpor- tation of passengers and freight were established and continued until about 1850, when the advent of the railroads caused the busi- ness to be unprofitable. For the hauling of freight, however, the canal did a large business almost to the end of its existence. The Juniata Canal was last used in 1898. Its entire cost was $3.525,000.
The following notice in the Pittsburgh Gasette of March 24, 1834, heralded the arrival of the first lot of goods via the Portage railroad and canal :
"We have, to-day, the pleasure to announce the arrival of the first lot of goods, by the way of the Portage Railroad. It was the packet boat, General Lacock, Captain Craig, arrived this morning from Johnstown, with goods in thirteen days from Philadelphia."
The only locks on the Juniata Canal in Perry County, below the Millerstown dam, were located in Miller Township, below the point known as Trimmer's Rock, and below Iroquois, near the home of J. Warren Buckwalter, once a member of the General Assembly from Perry County.
The celebration of National Independence Day, July 4, 1830, was a gala day at Millerstown, when the "splendid new canal boat, "Pennsylvania," was launched with a public ceremony. This was the first boat to be built west of Harrisburg.
At the "Rope Ferry," between Newport and Millerstown, the canal was transferred to the eastern bank of the Juniata, which is described by Jolın T. Faris, in his "Seeing Pennsylvania," thus :
"In the days when the canal was in its glory there was a pool below Millerstown, formed by a state dam in the river. On this pool boats passed 'by means of an endless rope stretched across the river and passing around a large pulley on the canal side.' When a signal was given, one of the pulleys was turned by water power ; this put in motion the rope, and the boat attached to the rope was moved in its turn. This was one of the interesting sights of travel by canal that led N. P. Willis to write, in 1840:
"Of all the modes of travel in America, the least popular-and the most delightful, to our thinking-is traveling on the canal. The packet boats are long drawing rooms, where one dines, sleeps, reads, lolls, or looks out of the window; and, if in want of exercise, may at any time get a quick walk on the towpath, and all this without perceptible motion, jar, or sound
4II
RIVER AND CANAL TRANSPORTATION
of steam ....... It is always a reasonable query to any, except a business traveler, whether the saving of time and fatigue in the wonderful im- provement of locomotion is an equivalent for the loss of rough adventure and knowledge of the details of a country acquired by hardship and delay. Contrast the journey over a railroad at a pace of fifteen ( !) miles in the hour, through the rough, the picturesque valley of the Susquehanna, with a journey over the same ninety years ago."
Rodearmel, Dearmond & Company were the contractors who built the North Island dam, as the Millerstown dam was first known, 1827-28, and had as their office boy the late John A. Baker, for many years editor of the Perry Freeman. He was then
Photo by Miss Minnie Deardorf.
OLD PENNSYLVANIA CANAL AND AQUEDUCT. Crossing the mouth of "The Big Buffalo" Creek at Newport, Pa.
a boy of twelve or thirteen, and used to relate a story of the pay- master, Edward Purcell, who was overly exact, if not overly righteous. Baker said that "while he took the ha' penny, he never failed to pay it out, even if he had to cut a row of pins in two to do it."
The Pennsylvania Canal along the Susquehanna was begun in 1828. It started from the junction of the Juniata and Susque- hanna Rivers at Duncan's Island, and passed through New Buf- falo, Liverpool, and Selinsgrove to Northumberland, a distance of thirty-nine miles. It then continued up the west bank to Muncy dam and later to Bald Eagle Creek, and up the north branch to a point two miles below Wilkes-Barre. In order to attain the proper depth locks were necessary, and there were six in Perry County, as follows: above New Buffalo, Montgomery's Ferry, Mt. Pat- rick, one each below and above Liverpool, and at Dry Sawmill. There were two on Duncan's Island, the lower one letting the . boats into Green's or Clark's Ferry dam, where they were taken
412
HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
across by being towed from a "wooden towpath" built along the south side of the bridge spanning the Susquehanna at that point.
Owing to the far greater expense required to build a canal on the Dauphin County side of the river it was located along the west bank on the Perry County side. The following is from the report of the Canal Commissioners in 1827, covering that phase :
"In the latter end of May, the location of a line from the mouth of the Juniata to Northumberland was commenced by Mr. Simon Guilford. He was instructed to examine both sides of the Susquehanna with the utmost care, to present an estimate of each, and further, to ascertain whether the river might be advantageously crossed at any intermediate point, so as to place the canal partly on one side and partly on the other. At the meeting of the board on the 2d of July, a report was received from Mr. Guilford, accompanied by an estimate, from which it appeared that a canal on the east side would cost $1,018,758, and on the west side, $472,298. Strong representations were at the same time made, from Dauphin and Northum- berland Counties, in favor of the east side, to all of which the utmost respect was paid. But the vast difference of expense was thought by the board to leave them no choice, and a location was adopted, beginning at Duncan's Island, and extending up the west side to a point opposite Northumberland."
George Blattenberger, once associate judge of Perry County, was a contractor for sections of both the tidewater canal and the Wiconisco Canal, as well as for a section of the Philadelphia & Erie Railroad. Under Governors Shunk and Bigler, by their ap- pointment he was supervisor of the Susquehanna Canal from Clark's Ferry to Milton.
During the last lays of September, 1829, the water was let into the upper levels of the Susquehanna division, aptly described by a narrative from a writer in Hazard's Register, during October, t829, as follows:
"It is with pleasure that we are enabled to announce to our readers, from undoubted authority, that the water is now flowing down the Sus- quehanna division of the Pennsylvania Canal. The water was first intro- duced two weeks since, and is now three feet high at Selinsgrove, and last Saturday had passed down the canal as far as Liverpool, and is gradu- ally passing on; the whole line being in complete order to receive water. No break or defect of ny kind has been found, though the water now occupies . twenty-seven miles of canal, a circumstance highly honorable to the talents and attention of Mr. Guilford, the engineer, and to the con- tractors, who executed the work. Boats are frequently passing with par- ties of pleasure from Selinsgrove to Sunbury and Northumberland."
(Signed "AURORA.")
During 1830 regular traffice was carried on continuously until the water was taken out of the canal for the winter months. This was the first year of the operation of this division. The cost of the entire Susquehanna Canal was $4,804,000. The matter of compensation for services shows comparatively the difference be- tween that period and this of almost a hundred years later. In
413
RIVER AND CANAL TRANSPORTATION
1832 the chief engineer, then known as the "principal engineer," received $2,000; division superintendents, $3 per day ; assistant engineers, 2.50 per day ; supervisors, $2.50 per day; foreman, $1.25 and $1.50 per day, and lock tenders, $10 per month and free house rent.
By 1834 six hundred and seventy-three miles of the public works had been completed, as the state's credit had been good, but unfortunately the immense system was too expensive for the state's finances at that period and was not managed in an eco- nomical manner, with the result that by 1841 the state debt was over $42,000,000, and work ceased.
The building of the canals through the new county of Perry brought to the county a lawless element, and riots and brawls were of frequent occurrence. One of the worst of these was during April, 1828, in Dolton's tavern, at Montgomery's Ferry. At that time F. Montgomery had his shoulder fractured and John O'Regan diet two weeks later from a fractured skull. Justice of the courts of the new county decreed that three of the rioters serve ten years in the penitentiary, and from then there was less trouble with this element.
The first coal from the Lykens Valley coal fields was shipped from Mt. Patrick by the Lykens Valley Coal Company, over the Pennsylvania Canal, beginning in 1846. The coal was brought sixteen miles over a primitive railroad from Bear's Gap to Millers- burg, the little cars being run upon flats fitted with tracks. These were ferried across the Susquehanna, where the tracks of another narrow gauge railroad ran from the canal to the river's edge, on which the small cars were transported to the canal's side and their contents dumped into canal boats for transportation to various marts of trade. After the completion of the Wiconisco Canal the trade was diverted that way.
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.