HISTORIC HIGHWAYS OF AMERICA
VOLUME 14
[Illustration: VIEW OF OLD ERIE CANAL BASIN AT BUFFALO]
HISTORIC HIGHWAYS OF AMERICA
VOLUME 14
The Great American Canals
BY
ARCHER BUTLER HULBERT
_With Maps and Illustrations_
Volume II
The Erie Canal
[Illustration]
THE ARTHUR H. CLARK COMPANY
CLEVELAND, OHIO
1904
COPYRIGHT, 1904
BY
THE ARTHUR H. CLARK COMPANY
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE 11
I. THE MOHAWK AND ITS IMPROVEMENT 15
II. EARLY PROMOTERS AND THEIR DREAMS 43
III. CLINTON'S MEMORIAL 62
IV. PLANNING, BUILDING, AND OPENING 104
V. LOCAL INFLUENCES OF THE CANAL 152
VI. THE CANAL FUND AND ENLARGEMENTS 178
APPENDIXES 211
ILLUSTRATIONS
I. VIEW OF OLD ERIE CANAL BASIN AT BUFFALO _Frontispiece_
II. MAP AND PROFILE OF THE ERIE CANAL (from Poussin's
"Travaux d'améliorations intérieures ... des
États-Unis d'Amérique de 1824 à 1831"--Paris, 1834) 107
III. A CANAL LOCK AT ROME, NEW YORK, TOUCHING THE SITE
OF FORT STANWIX 117
IV. VIEW OF CANAL AT LITTLE FALLS, NEW YORK, SHOWING
LOCK 37 IN THE DISTANCE 133
V. MAP OF ERIE CANAL, SHOWING IMPROVEMENTS PROPOSED (from
report of February 12, 1901) 205
PREFACE
This second monograph on the great American canals which played the part
of important highways westward, is devoted to an outline of the Erie
Canal. In the comparatively short space at our disposal for so great a
theme, it has been possible only to sketch some of the leading features
of our subject, namely, the early history of the Mohawk Valley route,
the origin of the canal idea, its building, the celebration of its
completion, a catalogue of its finances and enlargements, and its
effect.
Our sources have been the state _Reports_, Sweet's _Documentary
History_, Hawley's _Origin of the Erie Canal_, and the various state and
local histories which treat of the subject. A monograph, in the form of
a thesis, by Julius Winden, has been of great advantage, as will be
indicated, in presenting the influence of the Erie Canal upon the
population along its course.
The author is under a debt of gratitude to Hon. A. R. Spofford of the
Congressional Library, Hon. John S. Billings of the New York Public
Library, and T. M. Ripley of Marietta, Ohio, for advice and assistance.
A. B. H.
MARIETTA, OHIO, March 4, 1904.
The Great American Canals
Volume II
The Erie Canal
CHAPTER I
THE MOHAWK AND ITS IMPROVEMENT
The "great western" route through New York State to the Lakes has come
under consideration in our study of highways in three places: as an
Indian trail, as a portage path, and as a pioneer road. The old Iroquois
Trail, as we have called it, ran up the Mohawk, which it crossed at
Nun-da-da-sis, "around the hill," (Utica); thence it made for the
Genesee River and the Niagara frontier; an important tributary pathway
led down the Genesee to Swa-geh (Oswego) on Lake Ontario. This was the
landward route from the Hudson to the Great Lakes. As a thoroughfare in
its entirety, it meant much to the Indians, but very little to the white
men before the nineteenth century. Though the lower Mohawk Valley was
sparsely settled early in the eighteenth century, white men did not
build their cabins along the Iroquois Trail to the westward until
nearly a century later, when the old Genesee Road was opened. Until then
the country through which the Iroquois Trail ran had been a _terra
incognita_ where only Indian runners knew the way through the Long House
of the Iroquois. Yet it was a pleasant country for all the forest
shades; from Nun-da-da-sis the trail ran on, leaving the Mohawk River
and Ole-hisk, "the place of nettles"--the famed battlefield of
Oriskany--to the north, passing Ka-ne-go-dick (Wood Creek) and
Ga-no-a-lo-hole (Lake Oneida), the "Lake of the Head on a Pole."[1] To
the southward, the path bore away toward Na-ta-dunk (Syracuse), the
place of the "broken pine-tree," and Ga-do-quat (Fort Brewerton). There
were the silver lakes strung like white gems on wreaths of heaviest
green. The low lands of the Genesee country, soon to see the great
advances heralded by the famous purchases of land speculators,
intervened; and straight beyond, far away across the pine-tree tops,
gleamed the Great Lakes and the plunging river between them; the deep
growl of Niagara seemed to warn voyageurs away to the forest trails on
either side. Those falls were the only interruption in a water highway
which in many aspects is, today, the most stupendous in the world.
Had this winding trail been the only means of communication between the
rapidly filling Hudson River valley and the chain of lakes to the
northwest, it is very probable that a Braddock or a Forbes would have
built a military road even through that bloody Long House; but the
Mohawk River, and the Oswego, offered a waterway which, though difficult
and uncertain, was the white man's route from the Hudson to the
Lakes--the western war route of which the portage at Rome was the key. A
clear picture of the old Mohawk would be a precious possession. The
records, however, are so few and so general in character that one would
be at a loss to supply an artist with his material. It is only in the
staid reports of old navigation companies that we get any definite
description of our old-time rivers. We know of the main obstructions to
continuous navigation in the Mohawk; first there was the Ga-ha-oose
Falls, or Cohoes Falls as we know them today. These were impassable for
any craft, and made Schenectady the metropolis of the lower Mohawk
Valley because it was the Mohawk terminus of the difficult portage to
Albany through the pine barrens. Thus the old-time river traffic began
at Schenectady. Proceeding northward by Te-hon-de-lo-ga, the famous
lower castle of the Mohawks, and Ga-no-jo-hi-e, the middle castle, the
traveler passed the present Fonda, which was Ga-na-wa-da, "over the
rapids," and came to the rocky confines of Ta-la-que-ga, the "place of
small bushes"--the present Little Falls. Here the roaring rapids
interrupted all navigation, empty boats not even being able to pass over
them. The early portage of one mile here in sleds over the swampy ground
has been described as it was in 1756, when enterprising Teutons residing
here transferred all boats in sleds over marshy ground which would
"admit of no wheel carriage." In all of the military operations in the
Mohawk Valley in the French and Indian and Revolutionary wars this
portage played a part. As early as 1768, Governor Sir Henry Moore
suggested the improvement of the Mohawk at the Falls of Canajoharie. A
route for a canal around Niagara Falls was surveyed in 1784. Travelers
to Niagara with heavy baggage invariably went by way of the Mohawk
batteaus. We have seen that in 1793 two of the commissioners to the
western Indians, traveling light, went overland by horse to the Genesee,
while General Lincoln went with the heavy baggage by way of the
Mohawk.[2] From Schenectady to the Oneida Portage at Rome, Little Falls
offered the only insurmountable obstruction; later on, about 1790, we
find that the Germans' sleds were out of use and that boats were
transferred on wheeled vehicles appropriately fashioned to carry them
without damage to their hulls. No great boats could be transferred by
such means; this fact had a tendency to limit the carrying capacity of
Mohawk batteaus to about one and a half tons. These boats were operated
by three men, and a journey from Rome to Schenectady and return--one
hundred and twelve miles--required, at the least estimate, nine days.
Such was the high rate of freight that, if no return freight was
secured, the cost of sending a ton to Schenectady equaled one man's
wages for eighteen days, about fourteen dollars.
The improvement of the Mohawk before 1792 was, without doubt, of no real
consequence. Ascending boatmen and forwarding companies here and there
of necessity made the river passable, otherwise there could have been no
traffic at all. As one of our maps shows, as early as 1730 a neck of
land, in one instance, was cut through.[3] The batteaus which carried
provisions and ammunition northward to Fort Stanwix or Fort Schuyler
probably often broke a new way through the dams of forest driftwood
which the flood tides left; and at high tide there was, we know, good
downward navigation. Elkanah Watson must be remembered as one of the
pioneers in the improvement of the central New York waterway. In 1788
he made a western journey by way of the Mohawk, and his journal is full
of observations which show him to have been a far-sighted man with
correct ideas of the logical advance of commerce and the revolutions it
would make.[4] Returning from his journey October, 1791, he prepared all
the facts in favor of improving New York's western waterway, in the form
of a pamphlet which he presented to General Schuyler, then a member of
the state senate. He also contributed an anonymous article to one of the
papers in January, 1792, urging publicly the improvement of the Mohawk
and Oswego Rivers.[5]
Public interest being awakened, in one way or another, as to the value
of the river route westward, and the route up the Hudson and across to
Lake George and Lake Champlain, a bill was presented to the New York
legislature authorizing the formation of two companies to undertake the
work of improving these strategic passageways between the country east
of the state and the country west. Accordingly, on the thirtieth day of
March, 1792, the following act was passed by the legislature: _An Act
for establishing and opening Lock Navigation within this State_.[6] The
legal name of the company which was to operate on the Mohawk was the
"president, directors, and company of the western inland lock navigation
in the state of New-York." The word "northern" was inserted in the legal
name of the Hudson-Lake Champlain company, which was otherwise the same.
The two companies were chartered by one and the same act, on exactly the
same basis; we will consider, however, only the one under discussion.
The Western Inland Lock Navigation Company, to operate between the
Hudson, and Lake Seneca and Lake Ontario, was to be capitalized at
$25,000; one thousand shares of twenty-five dollars each, no stockholder
being allowed more than ten shares. The subscription books were ordered
to be opened at New York and Albany on the first Tuesday of May, 1792,
and kept open until the last Tuesday. If five hundred shares were taken
the organization became effective. Thirteen directors were to control
its affairs and they were to be elected annually. Article VII authorized
"... each of the said corporations ... [to] enter into, and upon all and
singular the land and lands covered with water, where they shall deem it
proper to carry the canals and navigation hereinbefore particularly
assigned to each...." The stipulations usually made in such cases, as to
the company's right to enter land by paying damages, were nominated. The
controlling officers were empowered to name the per cent of stock the
stockholders were to be required to pay. They were also to decide upon
the rates of toll to be charged to boats for the enjoyment of benefits
of navigation; the one restriction was that the charge for one ton of
freight from Ontario or Seneca lakes to the Hudson should not exceed
twenty-five dollars, and other tolls were to be pro rata. The directors
were to be allowed to increase the capital stock at discretion, and
were ordered to make semiannual reports to the public. After ten years
an abstract record was to be published for the inspection of the
legislature, and if the profits were found to exceed fifteen per cent,
the excess above this amount they were to turn over to the state
treasurer. The act of incorporation also stipulated that the company's
charter became void if work was not undertaken in five years; if the
work was not completed in fifteen years, all rights, so far as the
residue was concerned, were to be forfeited. The state of New York
promised to give, as a free gift, to both the Western and the Northern
companies, $12,500 as soon as both had invested $25,000 in the work on
which they were starting.
On December 22, 1792, the act was amended as the lessons of the season
seemed to indicate that there was necessity. The principal amendments
were that the locks built on the company's works should have a breadth
of not less than ten feet at the base and should have a length of not
less than seventy feet between gates. The company was to be allowed, in
the future, to take up land without first having paid for it--settlement
to be made afterward in proper legal form. The land under all locks was
vested in the company owning the locks.[7]
It would seem from Elkanah Watson's account that, when these
subscription books were opened for signatures of prospective
stockholders, there were absolutely no subscribers forthcoming. "They
had been opened three days by the committee," he wrote from New York
where he happened to be in April (?), "at the old coffee-house, and not
a share was subscribed. I considered the cause hopeless--called on my
friend (I think it was) James Watson, Esq., and induced him, with much
pursuasion, to subscribe twenty [?] shares; from that moment the
subscriptions went on briskly. On my arrival in Albany, the
commissioners had kept the books open several days, at Lewis's old
tavern, in State street, and no mortal had yet signed to exceed _two
shares_. I immediately subscribed seven in each company...." Watson
also wrote to Schuyler of the low state of affairs; the latter ordered
him to subscribe to ten shares in Schuyler's name.[8]
A committee appointed by the directors of the Western Company, August
14, 1792, consisting of Philip Schuyler, Goldsbrow Bangar, and Elkanah
Watson, to examine the Mohawk from Fort Schuyler (Rome) to Schenectady,
reported in the following September. Accompanied by the surveyor Moses
De Witt, and Mr. Lightall, a carpenter, and a Mr. Nesbit, the committee
left Schenectady August 21 in a batteau, and reached Fort Schuyler on
the twenty-ninth. Their itinerary gives us a picture of the old river,
and preserves valuable facts for local historians.[9] The first day's
journey was six and one-half miles to John Mabey's, half a mile above
Jacobus Swart's. Six rapids were passed, over which the water ran, on
the average, a foot and a half deep--the river then having the least
water running "within the memory of the eldest person." The night of the
twenty-second was spent at John Fonda's, seventeen and three-fourths
miles up the river; in this distance were five sharp rapids and many
small rapids with shallow water, as at Sir William Johnson's "first
settlement," eight and one-half miles above Mabey's. The night of the
twenty-third was spent at Mr. Nellis's, nineteen and three-fourths miles
on; one mile above Fonda's was "Caughnawaga rift, deep, incommoded with
large rocks;" nine miles onward, lay Kettar's rapid, and two and a half
miles on was Colonel John Fry's. A journey of four miles the next day
brought the examiners to Fort Hendrick, four and a half miles below
Little Falls. "From the landing at the foot [of Little Falls], to the
landing at the head of the Falls, is about three-quarters of a mile, the
height thirty-nine feet two inches, the ground stony, rocky and rough."
It will be seen that this was not the old-time portage over which boats
were drawn on sleds. Two days were spent examining this strategic fall.
Proceeding on the twenty-seventh, Fort Schuyler, about fifty miles
distant, was reached on the twenty-ninth. The navigation throughout this
distance was good with but two rapids, Orendorff's and Wolf's.
The recommendations of the committee affirm that the work at Little
Falls will be the most important and expensive single work, and would
consist of a canal by which river craft can overcome the fall of nearly
forty feet; in addition to the canal "a strong work ... to prevent the
Canal and Locks from being overflowed, and damaged in high freshes; at
this point two guard gates at the distance of seventy feet from each
other must be placed; the surface of the ground here is eight feet eight
inches above the level of the water in the river above the falls, and,
as three feet ought to be given for the depth of the water in the Canal,
the depth to be dug at this point will be nearly twelve feet.... Many
large stones and rocks, and probably much solid rock will be found in
all the distance ... which is 1666 feet; the quantity of earth, stone,
and rock to be removed in this space, if the Canal has ten feet base,
will be about 242,200 cubic feet. [For] 422 feet the Canal must be
confined by a double dyke, or embankment, about four feet high; [for]
123 feet the whole depth to be dug is about 4-1/2 feet and contains
5,085 cubic feet; at various places to the water at the bottom of the
falls about 100,000 cubic feet of earth must be removed, and about 1,200
feet of a dyke to be made. An estimate of the expense of this work with
five Locks ... amounts to £10,500."
The improvement of the river from Schenectady to the mouth of the
Schoharie would call for an expenditure of £20,000 in dykes, dams, and
small canals.
At Rome a canal 5,352 feet long was proposed as a substitute for the
ancient portage path; "apparently the mean depth of the earth to be
removed for forming the Canal would be about twelve feet at the greatest
depth, hence about 642,240 cubic feet of earth must be removed. The
ground though soft is so much interwoven with the roots of trees, and
the work will also be so much retarded by the influx of water into the
Canal whilst digging, that it is supposed that one man could not remove
above fifty cubic feet per day, hence 12,845 days for one man would be
required; which at 4s. per day amounts to £2,569. In very dry times,
such as the present, the water in the Mohawk is so little that none can
be spared to increase the quantity in Wood Creek. A bulkhead must
therefore be placed ... precisely of the height with the level of the
water in the Mohawk, a boat then in this low state of the river coming
up Wood Creek ... must unlade, and be drawn across the bulkhead into the
Canal; there reloaded and proceed through the Canal into the Mohawk
River; but when the Mohawk River rises so much as that a quantity of
water equal to carry an empty boat is added to the water in the river,
the water on the bulkhead will rise to nearly that height, and the empty
boat will pass. If the rise be equal to the water drawn by a loaded
boat, the boat and its cargo will pass the bulkhead into the Canal. It
is evident by this arrangement the navigation of Wood Creek will be
much mended whenever the water in the Mohawk is higher than at present.
The whole expence at this place will probably not exceed £3,000."
Many of the general observations of this committee are important in the
history of water transportation across New York.
"Having premised thus much your Committee beg leave to observe, That
since (except in such an extraordinary dry season as the present) the
river from Schenectady to Scohara Creek is capable of considerable
navigation--is still better from thence to the Falls, and will be good
to Fort Schuyler, especially if the trees and timber are removed, That
therefore, except the removal of the trees and timber West of, and
blowing a few rocks on, some of the rapids, East of the Falls, nothing
further should be speedily attempted in the parts mentioned; but that
the primary exertions should be directed to the Canal and Locks at the
Falls; that when this is completed, the water in the river above, will
probably be sufficiently low to clear away the timber which incommodes
it, and to do the like by Wood-Creek down to the Oneida Lake, and to
remove the most dangerous rocks below the Falls. This accomplished, the
next in degree of eligibility, appears to your Committee, to extend the
navigation from Schenectady to the navigable waters of the
Hudson--because when with the improvements above suggested, the river
shall be rendered navigable in the greater part of its extent from Fort
Schuyler to Schenectady, in all seasons not so dry as the present, for
boats of considerable burthen; yet the portage from Schenectady to
Albany, is not only a very heavy charge on the produce of the upper
country, but attended with serious inconveniences to those who enter
largely into the interior commerce. To prepare for the accomplishment of
this apparently very necessary part of the navigation, your committee
recommend, That accurate surveys should be made, as early in the ensuing
spring as circumstances will permit, to enable the board to determine
the direction in which Canals are to run, to take the necessary
preliminary measures for providing the materials; that, if the works at
the Falls, &c., should be completed before the whole of the next
operating season is expired, the residue may be appropriated to this
important part of the navigation, and completed in the succeeding
year;--Soon after this shall be accomplished, the company will be
enabled to judge with precision, what farther is in their power, and if
what they have done, should prove beneficial to the community at large,
and the resources of the company be then found not competent to such a
perfect completion of the whole internal navigation, as is contemplated
by the act of incorporation, there can be little doubt but that an
enlightened Legislature will extend its aid, to objects promising such
extensive benefits to every class of citizens.
"It now remains for your Committee to venture an opinion on the mode of
conducting the contemplated improvements. The observations already made
will evince the necessity of strict economy in every operation. It will
certainly occur to the Directors, that in a work so extensive, as that
committed to them, much unnecessary expence, and much waste of time must
be incurred, unless the executive part of the business be properly
conferred; and your committee, to avoid this evil as much as possible,
recommend that the executive of the business should be committed to a
single directing head, to a man of known and acknowledged abilities, of
a mind so comprehensive, as to combine and form all the arrangements,
with a minute detail of each part....
"A Person who has had practical experience in making canals and locks,
would be a desirable and valuable acquisition, but such a person may not
be attainable in this country; if so, it has occurred to your committee,
that probably the defect might be supplied, if the person to whom the
general direction shall be committed was to select two or three of our
most ingenious and best informed carpenters, and repair with them to
view the works in Pennsylvania and Virginia, with a critical and close
attention. Canals and locks are already formed there, and little doubt
can be entertained but that every information which gentlemen are
capable of communicating will be afforded with alacrity; and your
committee have too good an opinion of their countrymen to apprehend,
that if your superintendant is a man of genius, and the mechanics who
accompany him men of approved reputation in their professions, they
would not after such an inspection be able to fulfil the wishes of their
employers with satisfaction and credit to both."
Work on the Mohawk River improvements[10] was begun in April, 1793, by a
force of three hundred men; the digging of the canal around the Little
Falls was the most important item in the difficult undertaking. Soon the
company's funds gave out and work ceased. It was begun again feebly in
January, 1794, in hopes that the next legislature would assist by
grants, loans, or money, or by subscribing to stock in the company. In
this the company was not disappointed, for the state subscribed to two
hundred shares of stock in each of the improvement schemes. In May,
1795, work was again resumed, and in November of that year boats could
go about Little Falls in the canal. It was opened November seventeenth
and on that day nine boats passed through gratis. In the next thirty
days "eight large boats, and one hundred and two small boats, passed the
little falls on the Mohawk, and paid toll in the aggregate of
£80.10."[11]
This famous little canal, for in its day it was a very significant piece
of work, was 4,752 feet long; it contained five locks, each having a
lift of about nine feet; the total rise of boats ascending was
forty-four feet and seven inches. The locks were located at the lower
end of the canal; "the pits, in which they are placed, have been
excavated out of solid rock, of the hardest kind. The area of the
chambers was 74×12 feet, admitting boats drawing 3-1/2 feet; the depth
of water in the canal above the locks was three feet and would float
boats carrying 32 tons; the time of the passage was three quarters of an
hour. Nearly one-half of the canal (2550 feet) was cut through solid
rock and its total original cost was about $50,000."
At the same time, 1793, work was begun at other points, principally on a
canal from the Mohawk to the Hudson (to avoid Cohoes Falls), but the
work soon ceased because of lack of funds. In that summer the
preliminary work on the water route down Wood Creek and the Onondaga to
Lake Ontario was done. The little, winding creek was found to be almost
incorrigible. It was so crooked that thirteen cuts were made across the
points of land contained within its curving banks. The banks were lined
with aged trees whose predecessors had fallen into the narrow waterway
which they choked with their many huge, straggling branches. It was no
less a task to remove the débris from the waterway than it was to remove
from the banks the trees which would fall into the water during the next
windstorm. Many have written gaily of the swift canoes of the olden
days, gliding peacefully on the limpid surface of the old-time rivers; a
study of the condition of the old Mohawk, Susquehanna, or Ohio would
have corrected suggestions which are inherently misrepresentations. On
such smaller streams as Little River or Wood Creek, the havoc of the
wind was even more noticeable. The company now at work on Wood Creek
planned to clear the banks of timber for four rods back on each bank
and, by the report of 1796, the contracts were actually proposed to that
effect. The company had trouble with settlers along the rivers, for
felling trees which grew along the banks into the water, thereby saving
themselves the labor of burning them or hauling them away. The company
expected to cut a canal from the Mohawk to Wood Creek near Rome, New
York, to take the place of the famous portage path. In the report of
1796 it was proposed even to mortgage the works at Little Falls in order
to secure funds for this portage canal.
The plan of the complete communication was outlined by the company's
engineer, Mr. Weston, December 23, 1795, and was embodied in the report
of 1796. It called for a canal from the Hudson, above Lansing's Mill, to
the Mohawk above Cohoes Falls; these falls, seventy feet in height, had
made necessary the portage path through the pine barrens from
Schenectady to Albany. The surveyor spoke hopefully of the rapids
between Schenectady and Utica (Fort Schuyler) since rapids always
indicated pools above and below. The rapids were to be overcome by
small, low dams with oblique walls "to collect a greater quantity of
water in the channel and pond above." In the forty odd miles down Wood
Creek and Lake Oneida to Fort Brewerton, the "chief impediment is
occasioned by an old Indian ell wear [weir]--a wing wall to confine the
channel into a narrow compass."[12] At Oswego Falls (Rochester) a canal
was proposed on the south side of the river, sixty-two chains in length,
and with a fall of eighteen feet. Thence to Lake Ontario, twelve miles,
the rapidity of the river necessitated a series of dams and locks.
"Arrived at lake Ontario, it is almost superfluous to remark (what is so
obvious to every person the least acquainted with the geography of the
state) on the immense expanse of internal navigation, that opens upon
our view--the extent of these lakes (with one obstruction only, that
doubtless will be surmounted in a few years) presents to the mind--a
scene unequalled in any other part of the globe; offering to the
enterprising and adventurous, sources of trade, rapidly advancing to an
incalculable amount, ensuring a certain recompence to the individuals,
who promote, and the state, that patronizes their important
undertakings." Thus Mr. Weston concluded his report.
Yet the projectors of this work were men ahead of their days; in a great
measure public sympathy was not in favor of the undertaking, especially
along the line of operation. Here the strongest objections were raised,
some of them of a curious nature. One petition to the legislature read
that the operations on the Hudson "will Cause the Fish to wit Shad,
Herrin &c Totally to Abandon the North River, a circumstance which would
be felt not only by Your Petitioners but by thousands Residing between
Fort Edward and as far Southward as the River Extends."[13]
It was found to be all the company could do to keep things going on the
eastern division of their works; much less carry on the work in the
west. In ten years the company spent $367,743 and, in the end, sank
about $100,000 more. The greatest expense was in remedying faults and
failures. "... hence the expenditures baffled all calculation," frankly
writes Watson; "--besides, we were all novices in this department....
Indeed we were so extremely deficient in a knowledge of the science of
constructing locks and canals, that we found it expedient to send a
committee of respectable mechanics, to examine the imperfect works then
constructing on the Potowmac,[14] for the purpose of gaining
information--we had no other resource but from books."[15] Wooden locks
were built at Little Falls, German Flats, and Rome at large expense, and
these rotted in six years. It was wooden locks like these that the New
Yorkers had found the Virginians building on the Potomac. The locks at
German Flats and at Rome were rebuilt with brick, but the mortar was
poor and they fell to pieces. Finally, at all points, the locks were
built of stone. This experimenting was extremely expensive work and
explains why, for a long time, no dividends could be paid. Up to
December, 1804, the company had received $232,000, which was paid on
2,630 shares of capital stock. It had received $25,494 on forfeited
shares. The tolls at Little Falls since 1796, when the works there were
completed, amounted to $58,346; at Rome, $15,037 had been taken in as
tolls. The sum of $12,500 had been received as a gift from the state. Of
the total stock the state held $92,000, and the private stockholders,
$140,000. In 1798 a dividend of 3 per cent had been declared; in 1813, a
dividend of 3-1/2; in 1814, a dividend of 3; 4-1/2 per cent dividend was
paid in 1815, 8 per cent in 1816, 3 per cent in 1817, and 5-1/2 per cent
in 1818. All receipts from 1798 to 1813 had been absorbed in
improvements and repairs.[16]