Two Famous Canals
From New Jersey as a Colony and a State
by Francis Bazley Lee1902
IN a dim way, probably before the American Revolution, men
with progressive ideas foreshadowed the possibilities of an internal
water route between the Delaware and the Raritan Rivers. That
sentiment was drifting toward the accomplishment of this end,
and drifting rapidly, when the organization of the Federal government
had been perfected, is shown by a suggestion made by the ponderous
but none the less interesting Wintherbotham in his "Historical,
Geographical, Commercial, and Philosophic View of the United States
of America," of which the first American edition was printed
in New York City during 1796. It is therein claimed that the Raritan
River might be made "capable" of a "very steady"
lock navigation as high as the junction of the North and South
Branches, and thence up the south branch to Grandin's Bridge in
Kingwood. Thence to the Delaware by turnpike or portage was but
ten miles. Another route was offered, being that between the headwaters
of the Assanpink Creek and Millstone River.
But when capital was presented with the estimates of cost it
stood confounded at the size of the project. And so the plan awaited
the coming of the years.
Elsewhere in the State a canal project had attracted local
attention. In 1800 mill-dam properties on the South Branch of
the Raritan were authorized to improve navigation by the erection
of locks. But the agitation leading to the construction of a canal
to unite Philadelphia and New York was formulated in the year
1804, when, by act of the Legislature, a charter was granted to
a number of friends of internal improvement, among whom was William
Paterson, for the purpose of opening communication by water from
the river Raritan at or near New Brunswick to the tidewater of
the river Delaware at or near Lambertona village of some
commercial importance, then in the County of Burlington, but now
a part of the City of Trenton. Incidentally it may be mentioned
that in 1816 Michael Ortley was authorized to cut a tidal canal
through Manasquan Beach. The Delaware and Raritan Canal had failed.
Interest was again revived in 1816, when Thomas P. Johnson, of
Princeton, surveyed a route from the Delaware to the Raritan by
way of Heathcote and Lawrence Brooks. The revival of business
after the panic of 1817 led the State of New Jersey, in 1823,
to appoint commissionersGeorge Holcomb, Judge Lucius Q.
C. Elmer, and Peter Keanto locate a route uniting the Delaware
and Raritan Rivers, and to report upon the probable expense and
revenue incident to such a project. The commissioners, taking
a somewhat socialistic view of the matter, recommended that the
State should become a party in undertaking so great an enterprise.
Upon the 30th of December, 1826, a bill passed the Legislature
incorporating the canal company, granting thereby equally exclusive
privileges which had already been assured the promoters of the
Morris Canal. No rival could construct a canal or railway within
ten miles of any point upon the said canal or its feeder, and
probably for the first time " government by injunction "
appears in New Jersey legislation in the provision that the chancellor
could "issue his injunction to stay and prevent the erection
and construction" of any such opposing canal or railway.
Owing to the inability of those interested in obtaining the consent
of the State of Pennsylvania for the use of the waters of the
Delaware the charter became a nullity.
Synchronous with the passage of the charter of the Camden and
Amboy Railroad Company was the statute authorizing the corporate
existence of the Delaware and Raritan Canal Company. This act
of February 4, 1830, capitalized the company for one million dollars,
with right of increase to one million five hundred thousand dollars.
The par value of the shares of stock was placed at one hundred
dollars. The canal was to be fifty feet wide at water line, five
feet in depth, with a feeder somewhat smaller in size. No rival
company could, without the consent of the new company, construct
a canal within five miles of any point upon this artificial waterway.
The rates for freight were fixed at five cents per ton per mile.
For each passenger the State was to receive a transit duty of
eight cents, and the like amount on each ton of freight transported
through the canal. In the case of rough freights, such as coal,
lumber, ashes, and the like, the transit duty was two cents per
ton. The State reserved the right to purchase the canal at a fair
appraisement thirty years after its completion. Upon February
3, 1831, the time of State purchase was extended to fifty years,
the canal to be made seventy-five feet wide at water line, seven
feet deep, with locks one hundred feet long and twenty-four feet
wide. With the creation of the joint companies, the consolidation
of the Camden and Amboy Railroad and Transportation Company and
the Delaware and Raritan Canal, under the so-called "Marriage
Act " of February 15, 1831, all the rights, privileges, and
franchises of the two corporations became identical.
The need of funds immediately became evident, and it was due
to the energy of Commodore Robert F. Stockton, according to the
relation of the story by J. Elfreth Watkins, Sr., that money was
secured. In 1823 Commodore Stockton had been detailed to survey
southern waters, and while in Charleston, South Carolina, met
and married Maria Potter, daughter of John Potter, a man of large
wealth. Removing his family to Princeton, in 1826, Commodore Stockton
induced his father-in-law to invest a half million dollars in
the speculation, the money having fortunately been withdrawn from
the United States Bank, the failure of which afterward wrecked
so many fortunes.
Before the close of the month of February, 1830, the State
commissionersJames Parker, James Neilson, John Potter, William
Halsted, and Garret D. Wallmet to provide points at which
stock subscription books should be open. Trenton, Princeton, and
New Brunswick having been selected, the stockholders organized
in Trenton upon the 10th of May, 1830. Robert F. Stockton, of
Princeton, was chosen president; Join R. Thomson, of Princeton,
secretary; James Neilson, of New Brunswick, treasurer, with a
board of directors consisting of James Parker, of Perth Amboy;
William Halsted, of Trenton; Garret D. Wall and Joseph McIlvaine,
of Burlington City; and James S. Green, of Princeton. The chief
engineer was Canvass White, famed for his work upon the Erie Canal,
assisted by J. Hulmstead, Ashbel Welch, and Edwin Douglass. The
surveyors worked through the summer of 1830, also laying out a
plan for a railroad from the Raritan River to the mouth of Heathcote
Brook, and thence paralleling the canal route to the Delaware
River. It was estimated that the canal would cost about $1,175,000
and the railroad about $275,000. Steps were taken to present a
memorial to the Legislature asking for railroad privileges.
The canal was completed during the year 1834, and with its
feeder was sixty-five and a half miles in length, the main stem
of the canal, from Bordentown to New Brunswick, passing through
Trenton, Princeton, Kingston, Rocky Hill, Griggstown, Millstone,
Somerville, and Bound Brook, the highest elevation being the lock
at Trenton, which is fifty-eight feet above the level of the sea.
In the report of the directors of the joint companies made to
the Legislature in the year 1840 it is stated that the total cost
of the canal had been $2,830,000.
To the enterprise and enthusiasm of George P. MacCulloch, of
Morristown, the State of New Jersey owes the inception of the
Morris Canal, and to the zeal and energy of Cadwallader D. Colden,
first president of the Morris Canal and Banking Company, its completion.
Bold in its design, its demand upon the engineering skill of the
day was far greater than that made by the Delaware and Raritan
Company, and while it played no important part in the turmoil
of State politics its generally unfortunate financial history
is at least equally interesting.
While upon a fishing party, at Lake Hopatcong, Mr. MacCulloch
conceived a plan for uniting the waters of the upper Delaware
and the sea, but by a far different route than that designed extending
along the lowlands of Central New Jersey. In brief, his plan was
to erect a dam across the outlet of Lake Hopatcong, the source
of the Musconetcong River, double the volume of water in the lake,
lead the waters to the Rockaway River upon the east and to any
practical route to Easton upon the west, and give an outlet to
market for the mineral wealth of the region.
By 1820, owing to the cost of transportation of manufactured
products and the scarcity of fuel, eighty-one iron forges of the
Counties of Morris and Warren within a few years had decreased
to fifty, while of twelve furnaces but three remained.
The Legislature of New Jersey, upon November 15,1822, appointed
George P. MacCulloch, Charles Kinsey, and Thomas Capner commissioners
to inquire into the matters of surveying a route for the canal
and the cost of construction. Major Ephraim Beach selected the
route for the great waterway, and it was upon December 31, 1824,
that the Morris Canal and Banking Company was chartered to build
a canal from the Delaware River near Easton to Newark, and in
1828 was authorized to extend the canal to the Hudson River. The
authorized capital was one million five hundred thousand dollars,
while in banking operations the sum of two hundred thousand dollars
could be employed for every like sum expended on the canal. In
1829 the corporation was authorized to borrow money and issue
bonds.
Under the plans of the engineers the canal was thirty-two feet
in width at the water line, twenty feet wide at the bottom, and
four feet deep, with locks seventy-five feet long and nine feet
wide. This admitted the passage of no boats of over twenty-five
tons burden. In the canal throughout its length of one hundred
and one miles from Phillipsburg to Jersey City there were two
divisions. The actual route lay from tide at Jersey City, thence
across a narrow neck of land and Newark Bay to Newark, and ascended
the hills to Bloomfield, Paterson, Little Falls, Boonton, Rockaway,
Dover, and Summit, which was nine hundred feet above the level
of the sea. Throughout this distance there were twelve inclined
planes, an interesting system suggested by Professor James Renwick,
of Columbia College, raising boats seven hundred and fifty feet,
and seventeen locks performing a like service for one hundred
and seventy feet. From Summit the canal ran along the valleys
of the Musconetcong and the Pohatcong by Great Meadow and Hackettstown
to Phillipsburg. In the western division there were eleven planes,
overcoming six hundred and ninety feet in elevation, and seven
locks, which obviated seventy feet of ascent or descent.
But from the first the canal company contended with overwhelming
difficulties. It was too small for the tonnage of its boats, which
difficulty was partially corrected by 1844. Then the boats injured
the machinery of the inclined planes, while by adroit manipulation
the Lehigh anthracite coal trade, upon which the projectors of
the Morris Canal Company had counted, was diverted to the Delaware
and Raritan Canal Company.
While for many years the Morris Canal was of great benefit
in upbuilding the region through which it passed, it was not a
successful venture and became deeply involved in debt. Under the
provisions of the original charter, as an inducement to capital
to engage in so hazardous an enterprise, the State exempted the
canal and its property from all taxes, reserving the right to
take to itself the canal and its appurtenances in the year 1923,
paying to the company the fair value thereof, to be estimated
by commissioners. If the State does not elect to buy the property
in 1923 the canal charter continues until 1973, at which time
the charter ceases and the canal will become the property of the
State.
The later history of New Jersey is practically barren of attempts
to incorporate additional canal companies, although during this
period of industrial activity and subsequent to the panic of 1837
many companies to develop water power received charters, some
of which are still in existence. To this end the Delaware River
was and ever has been an attractive base for prospective operations.
New Jersey
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