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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
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Cfjicago Jlistorical ^otittfi
COLLECTION
Vol. X.
Illinois Centennial Publication
ILLINOIS *ND MISSISSIPPI CANAL
ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAl-<-«-i
CHICAGO OflAINACE CANAL
ILLINOIS
CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY'S COLLECTION, VOL. X.
THE ILLINOIS AND
MICHIGAN CANAL
A Study in
Economic History
By JAMES WILLIAM PUTNAM, Ph. D.
PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS IN BUTLER COLLEGE
Illinois Centennial Publicatioft
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
CHICAGO
1918
Copyright
By Chicago Historical Society
A. D. 1917
R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY
CHICAGO
T
w.\o
PREFATORY NOTE
The approaching centennial of the admission of
Illinois into the Union awakens a new interest in
the agencies that contributed to the making of
the state. The following pages are, therefore,
given to the reader in the hope that they may
shed some light on the economic development of
the commonwealth, and with the further hope
that they may be of some service to those who
interpret our country's economic history in its
larger phases. Originally prepared as a doctoral
dissertation at the University of Wisconsin, the
^ study is subject to the limitations and charac-
V teristics of such monographs. In the preparation
'' of the manuscript for publication, the statistics
and discussions in Chapters III and V have been
made to cover the developments that have taken
place since the dissertation was first written.
1 Otherwise the study retains its original form. The
J delay in publication has been due to a hope that
the controversy over the character of the enlarged
waterway might be finally settled before these
pages were put into print.
Acknowledgment is hereby made of the in-
debtedness of the writer to the many persons
through whose courtesy the investigations were
rendered less laborious than they would otherwise
V
^
vi PREFACE
have been. The officials and attendants at the
several libraries were uniformly courteous and
obliging as were also those at the canal office.
The transportation men and shippers likewise
rendered substantial aid in the acquisition of facts
which would otherwise have been inaccessible.
But these acknowledgments would not be com-
plete without mention of the helpful suggestions
of Professor Richard T. Ely during the progress of
the work and of the reading and criticism of the
manuscript by my friend and former colleague,
Professor Murray Shipley Wildman. Miss Caro-
line M. Mcllvaine of the Chicago Historical So-
ciety rendered invaluable assistance during the
investigation and while the volume was passing
through the press.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction ix
Chapter I The Project i
Chapter II Finance and Construction . 30
Chapter III Management 66
Chapter IV Economic Influence ... 92
Chapter V Improvement and Enlargement 126
Chapter VI Conclusion 154
Appendices 161
Bibliography 183
Index 205
ILLUSTRATIONS
Illinois — Outline Map
Chicago Plain — Relief Map
Chart of Receipts
Chart of Tolls and Expenditures
Thompson's Plat of Chicago .
Chicago Harbor
Chart of Freight Carried
^ron
Uispiece
op.
p. 4
op.
p. 85
op.
p. 87
op.
p. 94
op.
p. 106
op.
P- 113
Vll
INTRODUCTION
Recent years have revealed an apparent re-
awakening of interest in the improvement of our
national waterways. A century ago the subject of
waterway improvement occupied a large place in
public and private consideration. But for more
than two generations of men the public interest
in water transportation has steadily declined.
The reasons for this decline are obvious. In the
early days the waterway furnished not only the
cheapest but also the most expeditious means of
transit for persons and property. But with the
growth of the railway net, speed and convenience
passed from the steamboat and canal barge to the
railway train. In spite of the fact that cheapness,
a third important element in the transportation
problem, remained with the waterway, whenever
and wherever adequate facilities were provided for
properly handling the traffic, the increasing effi-
ciency of the railways gradually led to the neglect
of the waterways and of their transportation
facilities. All but the most important fell into
disuse and were entirely abandoned. Not until
inconvenienced by annoying car shortages and
rate discriminations did the public again give
serious thought to the possibilities of a rejuvenated
water traffic.
ix
X INTRODUCTION
Throughout the years of discouragement for
the waterways some of them, and these naturally
the most important, kept up a portion of the
services of former days and demonstrated their
ability, under favorable conditions, to furnish
cheap and satisfactory transportation, especially
for cheap and bulky commodities. The experi-
ence of the public, confirmed by numerous de-
cisions of the Interstate Commerce Commission,
also demonstrated the fact that these water routes
exercised a potent influence on railway charges
at competitive points. The experience of other
countries also, and especially that of Belgium,
France, and Germany, confirmed the public mind
in the belief that a well-arranged and effective
system of waterways would serve the double pur-
pose of supplementing the railways as transporta-
tion agencies and of exercising a degree of control
over railway rates. This belief prepared the way
for a renewed interest in waterway development
in this country. This interest manifests itself
in improvements already begun and in the lavish
expenditures Congress is permitted to make for
all sorts of possible and impossible schemes for
waterway improvement.
It is a noteworthy fact that the waterways for
whose improvement there is now the strongest
demand are mainly those which formed the great
highways of commerce nearly a century ago,^
^This statement ignores, of course, the exigencies of
"pork barrel" legislation. It considers rather the
rational demands of commercial advantage.
INTRODUCTION xi
Chief among these are the Erie Canal and the
Mississippi River with its important tributaries.
Each of them played a large part in the commercial
development of the Middle West. But each
acquires added importance when united with the
other, so that they unitedly form a commercial
highway extending from the Atlantic, through
the Great Lakes down to the Gulf of Mexico, and
reaching the large and growing trade of the inte-
rior. At the middle of last century these two
great commercial routes were united by two canals
across the state of Ohio, one in Indiana, one in
Illinois, and one in Wisconsin. Aside from the
Illinois and Michigan Canal, however, these did
not prove of great importance as parts of such a
continuous waterway, whatever their local im-
portance may have been. All the others were
more seriously handicapped by a large lockage
and a shortage of water supply than was the
Illinois and Michigan Canal. As a consequence
they more readily lost their importance as parts
of a larger system and gradually fell into disuse
even as local trade routes. The route of the
Illinois and Michigan Canal is the only one that
is practicable for a connecting waterway that
would be at all adequate for the needs of present
day commerce, to say nothing of the probable
needs of the future. No one now seriously pro-
poses any other route for the connecting link in the
proposed great waterway system.
In its essential features, the present movement
for a deep waterway between Lake Michigan and
xii INTRODUCTION
the Mississippi River is not a new one. It is
only the latest phase of a project which took
definite form in the early part of last century and
which, in its evolution wielded a large influence on
the early economic development of the state of
Illinois and, incidentally, on much wider com-
mercial interests. At the inception of the project,
it was assumed that a short canal of moderate
dimensions connecting Lake Michigan with the
Illinois River would amply serve the purpose of
affording an effective continuous waterway from
the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. It was
to serve this purpose that the Illinois and Michigan
Canal was constructed. However, the industrial
and commercial growth of the region and the
ineffectiveness of the Illinois River as a com-
mercial route, in periods of low water, led to an
ever increasing demand for an improvement of
the entire route, a demand which was unheeded
for a quarter of a century and which has been only
partially and quite inadequately met to the present
day. The demand for a deep waterway from the
Lakes to the Gulf is only a demand for the doing
in a twentieth century way what the Illinois and
Michigan Canal did in a nineteenth century way.
The history of the Illinois and Michigan Canal
is worthy of more than passing interest, not only
because it was the forerunner and in a large meas-
ure the creator of the present deep waterway
movement, but also, because in the manner of its
financing and construction and its local influence,
it is typical of many of the canals of this country
INTRODUCTION xiu
and especially those of the Middle West. It
differs from most of them, however, in having
occupied a more strategic position and having
wielded a more extensive influence than they did.
In tracing the history of this canal, an effort is
made to sketch the evolution of the project, the
difficulties incident to the financing and construc-
tion of the work, the successes and failures of the
canal as a transportation agency, its influence on
the economic development of the region which it
has so long served, the conditions which led to the
present movement for an enlarged and deepened
channel, and, finally, the progress thus far made
toward the achievement of these larger plans.
THE ILLINOIS AND
MICHIGAN CANAL
Chapter I
THE PROJECT
No problems in American economic history have
been more persistent than those incident to trans-
portation. In varying forms, from the colonial
days to the present, they have continually pressed
for solution. One of the earliest of these prob-
lems, as well as one of the most persistent, was
that of adequate facilities for cheap transporta-
tion between the interior and the seaboard mar-
kets. The products of the interior could reach
the seaboard by either of two principal routes.
The first was by way of the Mississippi to New
Orleans; the second, by way of the Ohio and
thence overland from Wheeling to Baltimore or
from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia. Neither of
these routes was satisfactory. Both as a local
market and as an export market New Orleans
failed to meet the needs of the interior. The
limited population of the city and its adjacent
trade territory demanded only a small part of
the food products of the upper portion of the
I
2 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
valley.^ The export trade was also still small and
was subject to the embarrassments which ham-
pered all our foreign trade during the first decade
and a half of the nineteenth century, while the
route from Cincinnati, Louisville, or St. Louis to
the Atlantic cities by way of New Orleans was
circuitous and expensive for domestic trade. All
these facts combined to make New Orleans a
poor market in which to sell the products of the
interior. The supply usually exceeded the de-
mand and the price was, therefore, correspondingly
low.^ The long and expensive over-land carriage
between the Ohio and the eastern markets rendered
this route impracticable except for such com-
modities as possessed a relatively high value for a
moderate weight and bulk.^ The chief exports
of the interior were not of this kind. A third
possible route was afforded by the Great Lakes
and their eastern connections, either down the
St. Lawrence to Montreal or to New York by way
of the Mohawk and Hudson trade route. For
lack of commercial connections, however, between
the Mississippi or the Ohio and the Great Lakes,
the latter route was not available for the com-
merce of the interior with the exception of that
^In 1810, the entire population of the state of Louisi-
ana was only 76,556.
2 Ford, History of Illinois, p. 96; Report on the Internal
Commerceof the United States, iSSS, pp. iS4.-iS6yigi-igS.
^Turner, Rise of the New West, pp. 99-100; Niles
Register, XX, p. 180; Journal of Political Economy,
VIII, p. 36.
THE PROJECT 3
of the few scattered settlements which had grown
up about the fur-trading posts in the Northwest,
The problem of an improved means of com-
munication which would bring the new West into
closer and cheaper commercial intercourse with
the eastern cities was recognized both by the
cities themselves and by the interior as of prime
importance. The bulky farm products could not
pay the transportation charges and compete in
the eastern seaboard markets.^ The cost of
carrying merchandise to the interior, either by
way of Pittsburgh and the Ohio or by way of New
Orleans and the Mississippi greatly enhanced its
cost to the consumer.^ Both the cost of exporting
the products of the region and of importing mer-
chandise operated to lessen the demand for im-
ported commodities and to drive the remoter
settlements, in a large measure, to a self-sufficing
economy. Similar conditions prevailed to a
greater or less degree in all the "back country."
It was the effort to relieve the economic burdens
of transportation which led to the general move-
ment for internal improvements. When private
capital did not appear in sufficient abundance to
•Turner, Rise of the New West, p. loi; McMaster,
History of the People of the United States, III, p. 464;
Andrews, Report on Colonial and Lake Trade, p. 278;
Annals of Congress, 15th Cong., ist sess., I, p. 11 26.
^Ringwait, Development of the Transportation Systems
in the United States, p. 18; Journal of Political Economy,
VIII, p. 36; Hyde and Conrad, Encyclopaedia of
History of St. Louis, IV, p. 2291.
4 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
develop the numerous projected works, govern-
ments of all grades were appealed to for assistance
in these undertakings. In his report of 1808,
Secretary Gallatin endeavored to systematize the
various projects which appeared to him to merit
national aid.-^ His scheme provided for an im-
proved means of communication between the
western waters and the Atlantic seaboard, but
it did not provide for an adequate connection
between the Mississippi valley and the Great
Lakes with their proposed New York connec-
tion.
Enlarging on Gallatin's scheme, Peter B. Porter
of New York, proposed the commercial connection
of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi by means
of a canal or a series of canals. In 1810, in an
endeavor to secure the aid of the federal govern-
ment for a system of waterways extending from
the St. Lawrence and the Hudson to the Gulf
of Mexico, he pointed out the commercial im-
portance of such a system and the ease with which
the artificial portions could be constructed, and
particularly that portion connecting Lake Michi-
gan with the Illinois River.^ Porter's scheme was
not a novel one. The commercial importance of
the proposed united systems of waterways must
^American State Papers, Miscellaneous, I, pp. 724-741.
"^Annals of Congress, nth Cong., 2nd session, II,
pp. 1 388-1393. The fact that boats of light burden
frequently passed from the Chicago river to the
Des Plaines during periods of high water was widely
known.
This map shows the ancient outlet of "Lake-
Chicago," the course followed by the Illinois and
Michigan Canal, to be the most feasible route be-
tween the Great Lakes and the great river systems.
The Chicago Plain {Siebenthal)
THE PROJECT S
have been obvious. The physiographic character
of the region of the Chicago portage rendered that
the most feasible place for a canal uniting the
Great Lakes and the Mississippi system.^ The
character of this portage was well known. Since
the latter part of the seventeenth century it had
been largely used by explorers and traders and the
feasibility of a continuous water communication
between Lake A^ichigan and the Illinois River had
^In the later glacial period, the enclosed waters of
Lake Chicago, the geological predecessor of Lake
Michigan, cut a southwesterly outlet across the
Valparaiso moraine. Through this outlet they were
discharged into the Illinois river till the withdrawal of
the ice sheet opened an outlet to the northeast. In
the meantime the floor of the outlet through the
moraine had been lowered by erosion till it now stands
only about twelve feet above the present level of Lake
Michigan, the subsidence of whose waters cut off the
outflow through this channel. This outlet forms a
Y-shaped valley, one fork of which leads from the south
branch of the Chicago river and the other from the
Calumet. These two forks unite about twenty miles
from the lake, and united enter the valley of the Illinois
river beyond the moraine. The Des Plaines river
passes the moraine through the northern fork of this
valley and the Illinois and Michigan canal, the
sanitary and ship canal, and the Chicago & Alton
and the Atchison, Topcka & Sante Fe railroads,
taking advantage of the very slight grade, now
pass out from the Chicago plain through the
same outlet. Geological Atlas of the United States^
Chicago Folio, pp. 1-12; Davis, The Ancient Outlet
of Lake Michigan, in Popular Science Monthly, XLVI,
pp. 217-229.
6 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
been frequently commented upon.^ The scheme,
however, failed to secure the support of the
government.
Meanwhile the legislature of New York had, at
the instance of the inhabitants of the Genesee
country,^ taken up the project of a canal from the
Hudson River to Lake Erie as preferable to the
Lake Ontario route proposed in Gallatin's report
and adopted in Porter's scheme. The accom-
plishment of the project was placed in the hands
of a commission, which appealed for aid, not only
to the federal government, but also to the state
of Ohio and the territories bordering on the Great
Lakes. In the Michigan territory the appeal was
referred to A. B. Woodward who, in reporting
adversely, took occasion to discuss the superior
advantages of a waterway from the Gulf of St.
Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, the completion
of which would require only the construction of a
short canal around Niagara Falls and another
from Lake Michigan to the Illinois River.^
These suggestions had no other eifect than to
call more distinctly to the attention of the public
^ Benton, The Wabash Trade Route in the Develop-
ment of the Old Northwest, in Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity Studies, XXI, p. 28; also, Winsor, Westward Move-
ment, p. 24.
2 Libby, The Early History of the Erie Canal, in the
University of Wisconsin ySgis, March 17, 1893; Fairlie,
The New York Canals, Quarterly Journal of Economics,
XIV, p. 212.
' Niles' Register, VI, p. 139.
THE PROJECT 7
the feasibility and the future importance of a
canal on the proposed route, a service which Niles^
Register took up in the summer of 18 14 and
continued from time to time till the project was
consummated.^ There was no local demand for
the canal at the time as there was for the Erie
Canal and the one at the falls of the Ohio, and
several other schemes for internal improvements
then being forced on the attention of Congress
and the public.^ It was also at that time of less
consequence in the development of the trade
between the seaboard cities and the interior than
roads and canals connecting with the upper waters
of the Ohio. Population northwest of Ohio was
confined to a few scattered communities along the
Great Lakes, whose commerce was necessarily
quite limited, while the banks of the Ohio River
were lined by settlements practically all the way
from its source to its mouth^ and the stream itself
was a great highway of commerce."* The com-
mercial interests were, therefore, still seeking
primarily an Ohio River connection.
The second war with Great Britain, however,
resulted in a renewed interest in the project.
^ Niles' Register^ VI, p. 394, 417; X, p. 427, and suc-
ceeding volumes.
"^American State Papers^ Miscellaneous, I and II,
passim.
' Census Maps of the United States for 18 10; also,
Tenth Census^ Population^ p. xiv.
* Turner, Rise of the New West, pp. 80-82; McMaster,
History of the People of the United States, III, pp.
483-484.
8 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
The unfortunate experiences of that war em-
phasized the importance of such a route over
which military and naval forces and supplies
could be transported to the northern frontier
expeditiously.^ Consequently, in the Indian treaty
of August 24, 1 8 16, the first practical step
toward the accomplishment of such an object
was taken by the extinction of the Indian title to
a strip of land along the route of the proposed
waterway.^ As a further step in the same direc-
tion, two successive examinations of the physio-
graphic character of the region were made and
the results reported to the War Department.^
^Treaties and Conventions between the United States
and Other Powers^ pp. 413-415. This need assumed a
greater importance in the public estimation after the
agreement between the United States and Great
Britain, April 28-29, 1817, limited the naval forces
which might be kept on the Great Lakes to one vessel
on Lake Champlain, one on Lake Ontario, and two on
the upper lakes.
2 United States Statutes at Large, VII, p. 147. Ninian
Edwards, one of the commissioners who negotiated the
treaty, afterwards asserted that the Indians were
influenced to make the sale of this land by the oral
assurance that a canal would be opened through it,
thereby increasing their opportunities for trade.
Illinois Senate Journal, 5th General Assembly, ist
session, p. 77; Edwards, History of Illinois and Life of
Ninian Edwards, pp. 769-175.
^ The first report was made by Major Stephen H.
Long, on March 4, 18 17, and the other by R. Graham
and Joseph Philips, April 4, 18 19. American State
Papers, Miscellaneous, II, pp. 555-557.
THE PROJECT 9
Both agreed concerning the importance of the
proposed canal and the ease and relatively small
expense of accomplishing its construction, although
they differed with regard to the type of canal
which should be built. ^
Before the second of these reports had been
received John C. Calhoun had come to the office
of Secretary of War. With sentiments unchanged
since his fight for the Bonus Bill and still an en-
thusiastic supporter of internal improvements, he
transmitted to the House of Representatives, on
its request, a comprehensive plan for a system of
roads and canals, the construction of which would
^ Major Long proposed a canal from the Chicago
River to the Des Plaines with a lock at each end and
supplied with water from the Des Plaines. Graham
and Philips proposed a lake-fed canal cut deep enough
across the Valparaiso moraine which forms the
"divide" to permit the flow from the lake to the river
farther to the southwest than Long had proposed.
They conclude: "The route by the Chicago, as fol-
lowed by the French since the discovery of Illinois,
presents at one season of the year an uninterrupted
water communication for boats of six or eight tons
burden between the Mississippi and the Michigan
lake; at another season, a portage of two miles; at
another, a portage of seven miles, from the bend of
the Plcin (Des Plaines) to the arm of the lake; at anoth-
er, a portage of fifty miles, from the mouth of the
Plein to the lake, over which there is a well-beaten
wagon road, and boats and their loads arc hauled by
oxen and vehicles kept for that purpose by the French
settlers at the Chicago." American State Papers^
Miscellaneous, II, p. 557.
lo THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
be of military importance in the defense of the
country.^ In defense of the western portion of
the northern frontier, he advocated a water com-
munication from Pittsburgh to Lake Erie, a road
from Detroit to Ohio and a canal from the Illinois
River to Lake Michigan.^ But the constitutional
scruples of President Monroe, the indifference of
the South and the hostility of the East to any in-
ternal improvements in the West which would
result in a further migration from the North
Atlantic seaboard proved fatal to his plan.
At this stage in the development of the project,
local interest began to play a part. It was on the
same day on which the House of Representatives
passed the resolution requesting Calhoun to report
a plan for a system of military roads and canals
that the bill for the admission of Illinois into the
Union was so amended as to place the port of
Chicago within the boundaries of the State.^ The
amendment was made with the evident expectation
that the state would become interested in the
development of the waterway.* Nor was this
expectation unfulfilled. In his inaugural message
Shadrach Bond, the first Governor of Illinois,
^Calhoun's report was dated January 14, 1819.
American State Papers^ Miscellaneous, II, pp. 533-
535-
2 Ibid. 535.
^Annals of Congress, 15th Cong., ist Sess., II,
p. 1677; also Moses, Illinois, I, p. 277.
^Annals of Congress, 15th Cong., ist Sess., II,
p. 1677.
THE PROJECT ii
expressed the conviction that the canal would be
of great importance to the state, in conjunction
with the Erie Canal then in process of construc-
tion.^ Recognizing the serious financial difficulties
which lay in the way of the accomplishment of
such a work by the young state, he proposed an
appeal to Congress for a diversion of a portion of
the funds arising from the sale of public lands in
the state to that object.^ Although no action
was taken on his suggestion, the state interest
became henceforth the active and dominant one
in support of the project.
Matters incident to the establishment of the
new state government absorbed the attention of
the first General Assembly, but the second took
up the question of the canal with vigor. It re-
quested from the federal government, first, au-
thority to construct the canal through the public
^Illinois House Journal, ist General Assembly, 1818,
p. 10, also Illinois Senate Journal^ ist General Assem-
bly, 1818, p. 10.
2 The "Enabling Act" had provided that two-fifths
of five per cent of the net proceeds of the sales of public
lands in the state after January i, 1819, should be set
apart as a fund for the construction of roads leading
to the state. Governor Bond proposed that Congress
be memorialized to so alter the law that this fund
could be used in the improvement of the navigation
of water courses in the state. He believed that this
fund would soon accumulate sufiiciently to pay for the
construction of the canal. United States Statutes
at Large, III, p. 430; and Illinois House Journal, ist
General Assembly, p. 10.
12 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
lands; secondly, the donation to the state of the
sections of public lands through which the canal
would pass; and, thirdly, the diversion of the two
per cent road fund reserved from the proceeds of
the sale of public lands in the state, to the financing
of the canal construction.^
At the meeting of the first session of the Seven-
teenth Congress, Daniel P. Cook in the House
of Representatives and Jesse B, Thomas in the
Senate, took up the task of securing the compliance
of Congress with the request of the General As-
sembly of Illinois.^ Their earnest and persistent
efforts resulted in the grant of authority asked,
but not in the financial assistance desired. The
act of March 30, 1822, restricted the land grant to
the strip on which the canal should stand and
ninety feet on each side of it, reserved from sale
the sections of public land through which the
canal would pass, and authorized the state to use
in the construction of the canal any materials on
the adjacent public lands. ^
Thus authorized to construct a canal through
the public domain, but with the financial problem
still unsolved, the General Assembly of Illinois,
by the Act of February 14, 1823, appointed a
board of commissioners to determine upon the
most available route for the canal and to estimate
^Illinois Senate Journal, 2d General Assembly, pp.
103, 106.
2 Annals of Congress, 17th Cong., ist Sess., I, pp. 32,
153, 160, 194, 309, 311, 525-526, 709; II, pp. 1324, 1349.
' United States Statutes at Large, III, pp. 659-660.
THE PROJECT 13
its cost of construction.^ Owing to the difficulty
experienced in obtaining a satisfactory engineer,
the surveys could not be undertaken for several
months. In the autumn of 1823 an examination
of the region was made, but no accurate survey was
completed till the following year.^ Five lines
were then run and estimates made but all fol-
lowed the same general course from the south
branch of the Chicago River across to the Des
Plaines valley and down that to the Illinois. The
estimated cost varied for the different routes from
^639,542.78 to ^716,110.71.^
^ Laws of Illinois, 3d General Assembly, ist session,
pp. 151-153. The board of commissioners consisted
of Emanuel J. West, Erasmus Brown, Theophilus W.
Smith, Thomas Sloo, Jr., and Samuel Alexander.
Col. Justus Post, of St. Louis, was the engineer, and
later Rene Paul was also employed.
The commissioners were also directed to correspond
with the governors of Ohio and Indiana relative to
improving and connecting the navigation of the Wabash
and Maumee rivers. The people in the southeastern
part of the state were more interested in the Wabash
and Lake Erie route than in that from the Illinois
River to Lake Michigan.
2 The swampy character of the region to be surveyed
and the height of the water in spring and early summer
rendered an earlier survey impracticable.
^ The five estimates were as follows:
First route $716,110.71
Second " 639,542.78
Third " 668,289.68
Fourth *' 662,718.24
Fifth " 689,746.96
14 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
While these surveys were being made the finan-
cial problem was not forgotten. Governor Coles
proposed the plan of annually setting apart a
portion of the revenues of the state to create a
fund with which to finance the undertaking.^
But this plan would necessarily entail a delay of
several years in its consummation. Daniel P.
Cook endeavored to reach the goal by a shorter
road. He again appealed to Congress for the
necessary funds. ^ Having failed a second time to
secure a grant of the sections of land through
which the canal would pass, he urged on Congress
the national character and importance of the work
and the propriety of its being constructed at the
expense of the national government. However,
he had an alternative plan. If the government
still neglected or refused to undertake the work,
he proposed that provision be made for its accom-
plishment by permitting Illinois to divert from the
school fund the three per cent of the net proceeds
of the sale of public lands in the state. ^ The pur-
pose could be accomplished by changing the fund
into canal stock, the profits of which would be
paid into the school fund.^ Fortunately for the
public school system of the state, his plan was not
adopted.
^Illinois House Journal, 4th General Assembly, 1st
Sess., p. 14.
2 Annals of Congress, i8th Cong., ist Session, II,
p. 1914.
^ United States Statutes at Large, ,111, p. 610.
* Debates of Congress, i8th Cong., 2d Sess., I, p. 99.
THE PROJECT 15
Despairing of federal aid in the construction of
the canal and with the state finances entirely
inadequate for such an undertaking,^ the General
Assembly turned to the corporation method of
financing the scheme. The Act of January 17,
1825, incorporated the Illinois and Alichigan Canal
Company, with a capital stock of ^1,000,000, and
the power to increase it.^ The act of incorporation
specified the conditions under which the work
should be begun, the latest date for its comple-
tion, the dimensions of the canal to be con-
^The treasury was then facing an approaching deficit,
due to depreciation of the currency in which taxes were
paid, to increased ordinary state expenditures, and to
rebuilding the State House. Receipts and expenditures
were as follows:
Funds in treasury, Dec. i, 1824 ^38,556.73
Receipts, Dec. i, 1824 to Jan. i, 1826 38,304.00
Total Receipts 76,860.73
Expenditures, Dec. i, 1824 to Jan. i, 1826.. 107,782. 12
Deficit, Jan. i, 1826 $30,921.39
Lazvs of Illinois^ 4th General Assembly, ist Sess.,
p. 160.
'^ Laws of Illinois, 4th General Assembly, ist Sess.,
pp. 160-164. The incorporators were Edward Coles,
Shadrach Bond, Justus Post, Erasmus Brown, William
S. Hamilton, Joseph Duncan, and John Warnock. A
copy of the law creating the canal company and an
editorial supporting that plan of constructing the canal
are to be found in the Illinois Intelligencer of March 25,
1825.
i6 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
structed,^ and the tolls which the company was
authorized to charge.^ It further provided that
at the expiration of fifty years the state might
acquire the canal by payment of the actual cost
of construction and six per cent semi-annual inter-
est from the date of expenditure to the date of
acquisition by the state. This plan for solving
the financial problem was short lived. In spite
of the liberality of its charter and the prominence
of the incorporators, the company was not able
to dispose of its stocks. Furthermore, the policy
of granting away to a corporation the vast rev-
enues which he expected the canal to earn was
strenuously opposed by Daniel P. Cook, who had
not lost faith in the ultimate outcome of his per-
sistent efforts for federal aid.^ Even Governor
^The dimensions of the authorized canal were:
forty feet wide at the summit water level, twenty-eight
feet wide at the bottom, and having a minimum depth
of four feet of water. It was intended to accommodate
boats seventy-five feet long, thirteen and a half feet
wide and drawing three feet of water.
2 The act authorized the following rates of toll: On
boats constructed exclusively for canal traffic, not to
exceed one-half cent per mile for each ton of capacity.
On commodities transported: Flour, all kinds of grain,
beef, pork, tobacco, domestic manufactures, and all
other articles grown or produced in the state, three
cents per ton per mile. Merchandise of foreign manu-
facture, six cents per ton per mile. All other articles
not enumerated, a rate not to exceed eight cents
per ton per mile. Laws of Illinois, 4th General As-
sembly, 1st Session, p. 162.
^ Davidson and Stuve, History of Illinois, p. 475.
THE PROJECT 17
Coles had also come to doubt the wisdom of the
policy upon which the state had entered, and
recommended the repeal or radical alteration of
the charter.^ Under these circumstances the
company was not loath to abandon its project
and the act of incorporation was repealed.^
With the failure of the canal company to accom-
plish its object, the state again turned to Congress
as the only source of immediate aid. The Adams
administration had assumed a more liberal atti-
tude toward the relation of the federal govern-
ment to internal improvements than its prede-
cessors had done.^ Therefore, with renew^ed hopes
the General Assembly memorialized Congress and
the Illinois delegation redoubled its activities.^
It was not, however, till March 2, 1827, that their
efforts were crowned with success.^ Bv an act
^ Illinois House Journal^ 4th General Assembly,
2d Sess., p. II. Coles claimed that he had always
favored public ownership of the canal, but had deferred
to the wish of the General Assembly because he be-
lieved it better to have the canal constructed by a com-
pany than to have its construction delayed.
^ Davidson and Stuve, History of Ulinois, p. 476.
' Messages and Papers of the Presidents, First annual
message of J. Q. Adams, especially pp. 307-308, and
311-313-
* Davidson and Stuve, History of Ulinois, p. 475;
Hlinois House Journal, 4th General Assembly, 2d
Sess., pp. 78-80.
^ The bill was passed In conjunction with that for
the Wabash and Erie Canal and contained the same
provisions. It was in progress of these bills through
i8 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
of that date the federal government donated to
the state of Illinois for the purpose of aiding in the
construction of the canal the alternate sections of
land for a distance of five miles on each side of
the proposed canal.^
With the land grant as a basis the state began
to plan for definite action regarding the long-
delayed project. Under the act of January 22,
1829, a new canal commission was appointed to
take charge of the work of raising the necessary
funds and placing the work in process of con-
struction.^ Under the direction of this commis-
sion land sales were begun, the towns of Ottawa
and Chicago were laid out, town lots were sold,
and new plans and estimates for the work of con-
struction of the canal were prepared. But the
re-awakened hopes of the friends of the canal were
the Senate that the plan of granting alternate sections
of public land in aid of internal improvements was
evolved. Debates in Congress^ 19th Cong., 2nd Sess.,
Ill, pp. 337-338-
On May 10, 1826, a bill to appropriate public land
in aid of the canal failed in the Senate only by the
casting vote of Vice-President John C. Calhoun. De-
bates in Congress, 19th Cong., ist Sess., p. 698.
^ United States Statutes at Large, IV, p. 234.
2 Revised Code of Laws of Illinois, 1829, p. 14. The
act provided for a board of three commissioners, ap-
pointed biennially by the Governor with the confirma-
tion of the Senate. The powers and duties of the
Commissioners were specified in the act, Gershom
Jayne, Charles Dunn and Edmond Roberts were ap-
pointed commissioners, and employed James Thompson
as surveyor.
THE PROJECT 19
once more doomed to disappointment. In the
first place, the financial problem had not yet
reached its solution. The land sales proved
disappointing. With an abundance of purchas-
able public land more advantageously situated
with reference to transportation facilities, men
hesitated to invest in canal lands till convinced
that the construction of the canal would not be
further delayed.^ This assurance they did not
have in 1830. Furthermore, the alternative plan
for raising the necessary funds proved even less
successful. On January 5, 183 1, the House of
Representatives refused by a decisive vote to take
back the unsold portion of the donated land and
issue script to the amount of ^1.25 an acre for it,
to be used in payment for the construction of the
canal, and receivable at the government land
offices in payment for public land.^ Nor were the
commissioners more successful in their search for
a loan based on a pledge of the canal lands. Capi-
^The sales of lands and lots during 1830 amounted to
only $18,924.83. The canal lands were sold in half,
quarter and fractional sections, and on the same terms
as the lands sold by the United States. Revised
Code of Laws of Illinois^ 1829, pp. 16-17.
2 The bill was strongly supported by such men as
Clay of Alabama, Bell of Tennessee, Duncan of
Illinois, Irvine of Ohio, and Rencher of North Carolina,
but was as strongly opposed by McCoy of Virginia,
Martin of South Carolina and Barringer of North
Carolina. The contest resulted in the defeat of the
bill by a vote of 67 to 115. Debates in Congress, 21st
Cong., 2d Session, pp. 41 1-417.
20 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
talists did not look with favor on such a loan.
J. H. Pugh, the president of the board of canal
commissioners, visited the eastern states in quest
of a loan, but the best proposition he could secure
was one for a loan to the state for a term of fifteen
years with interest at the rate of five per cent.^
The proposition was not accepted.
Meanwhile, a new menace to the canal project
had arisen. By the beginning of 183 1, the idea
that the railroad was destined to be the mode of
transportation of the future was gaining adherents
in Illinois. There were already those who believed
that a railroad from Chicago to Peru would prove
more beneficial to the state than would the pro-
posed canal.^ Their position was soon strength-
^ The capitalists of New York and Albany were willing
to furnish the necessary funds on any one of five plans:
First, they would take the donation of land, construct
the work and own both the land and the work; second-
ly, they would subscribe, under a charter, one-half of
the stock in a railroad and own the land and the
work jointly with the state; thirdly, they would lend
the state the necessary funds to construct it; fourthly,
they would subscribe the stock under a charter of
incorporation; fifthly, they would subscribe for one-
half of the stock on condition that the state would
sell them one-half of the donation of land at ^1.25 an
acre. The commissioners refused to consider any of
these propositions except the third. Cf. Report of the
Canal Commissioners, Illinois Senate Journal, 8th
General Assembly, pp. 225-226.
2 An amendment, March 2, 1833, to the act donating
the land to the state in aid of the construction of the
canal authorized the construction of a railroad instead.
THE PROJECT 21
ened by the added argument that it would also be
the cheaper of the two to construct. James M.
Bucklin, chief engineer for the canal commission,
estimated that a canal supplied with water from
Lake Michigan would cost ^4,107,440.43; that a
"shallow cut" canal with the summit level ele-
vated eight feet above the level of Lake Michigan
and receiving its water supply from Ausogonaskki
reservoir and from the Calumet and Des Plaines
rivers could be constructed for ^1,601,695.83; and
that a railroad could be built for ^1,052,488.19.^
The estimates of the engineer and the result of
J. H. Pugh's investigations in the East convinced
the canal commissioners that the railroad was the
more desirable work for the state to undertake.
Therefore, in their report to the General Assembly,
January 7, 1833, they advocated the building of a
railroad, assigning three reasons in support of their
recommendation: First, it would be cheaper to
construct; second, it would be open to commerce
all the year, whereas the water in the locks of a
at the option of the state. The same act extended,
for a period of five years, the time limit within which
the work must be begun. United States Statutes at
Large, IV, p. 662.
^Thc surveys and estimates were made in 1830 and
183 1, although the official report was not made to the
General Assembly till two years after. Bucklin's
preliminary estimate for the cost of the railroad was
^964,168.74, but it was revised before his final report.
Report of the Board of Canal Commissio7iers, 1833,
p. 17. Preliminary report given in Illinois Senate
Journal, 8th General Assembly, p. 61.
22 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
canal might often be frozen while the Illinois
River and Lake Michigan were navigable; third,
it would be a more rapid, and a better mode of
transportation and travel than the canal. ^
Although formerly a supporter of the canal
project. Governor Reynolds had, also, arrived at
the same conclusion. In his message to the Gen-
eral Assembly, December 4, 1832, he advised
careful and serious consideration of the question
as to whether a railroad would not be preferable
to the canal, and concluded, — "I consider it the
only practicable mode of connection."^ But the
General Assembly was unable to settle the vexing
question.^ It abolished the canal commission and
left the state without either canal or railroad.^
The failure of the General Assembly to provide
for an improved means of transportation between
Chicago and the Illinois River was a source of
great disappointment to the inhabitants of that
region.^ Such an improvement was daily becom-
ing more imperative. The trend of immigration
was setting in that direction. Within four years
from the date of sale of its first town lots Chicago
had become a thriving village of 1,200 people, and
had already begun to lay the foundation of its
^ Report of the Canal Commissioners, Illinois Senate
Journal, 8th General Assembly, p. 219.
2 Illinois Senate Journal, 8th General Assembly, p. 22,
^ Laws of Illinois, 8th General Assembly, p. 113.
* By act of March i, 1833.
^Chicago Democrat, December 10, 1833.
THE PROJECT 23
commerce,^ but it sorely needed better facilities
for carrying on commercial intercourse with the
interior. But the interior was in even greater need
of the benefits which a canal would render. The
scattered but growing settlements between Chicago
and the Illinois River were dependent on overland
transportation for the sale of their produce and the
purchase of their merchandise. The construction
of the canal would promote the industrial develop-
ment of the region by giving a better market to
its products and by diminishing the cost of its
imports, thereby increasing rents and property
values. But such a connection between the two
great systems of waterways would have more than
a local influence. It would reduce the prices of
New York merchandise to all the region beyond
Chicago located near a navigable stream, and
increase the price of farm produce.- The Erie
Canal and the Great Lakes furnished a commercial
^ Niles^ Register states, on the authority of a Chicago
paper, that 180 vessels had arrived at that port during
the season of 1834, whereas two years before a dozen
would have been considered a large number for the sea-
son. Niles' Register, XLVII, p. 55.
^ The usual price of wheat at Buffalo was from $1.12
to $1.25, while on the Illinois River its average price
did not exceed fifty cents. It was estimated that with
a canal charging the same rates as the Erie Canal
wheat could be sent to Buffalo from Beardstown, on
the Illinois River, for thirty-seven and a half cents a
bushel. Cf. Report of Senate Committee on Internal
Improvements, Illinois Senate Journal, 9th General
Assembly, p. 244.
24 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
route from New York to Chicago. Steamboats
were plying on the Illinois River as far up as
Peoria, and could readily extend their operations
to La Salle, the western terminus of the proposed
canal. ^ In spite of the comparatively heavy cost
of transporting merchandise by wagon across the
country from Chicago, this route was cheaper
than the ocean and river route by way of New
Orleans.^ It was therefore evident that with a
means of cheapened transportation between Chi-
cago and the Illinois River the traffic on that route
would be largely increased.
From such conditions developed the agitation
which determined the issues of the political cam-
paign of 1834, so far as the northern portion of
^ Drown, Record and Historical View of Peoria, p. 107.
2 Enoch C. March, of St. Louis, claimed to have re-
ceived merchandise from New York by way of the
Lakes at one-third less percentage for freight and
insurance than he had been accustomed to pay through
the other route. Also, a Mr. Linton, a merchant at
Terre Haute, Indiana, repeatedly assured members of
the Board of Canal Commissioners that during three
preceding years (1830-1833) he had brought his goods
from New York by way of the Lakes, and transported
them in wagons from Chicago to Terre Haute, a
distance of 170 miles, at a less cost for freight than he
had previously paid on the other route. Report of
the Board of Canal Commissioners, 1833, p. 4.
In 1835, Mitchell said that the completion of either a
canal or railroad would make Chicago a place of
consequence and an admirable distributing point for
eastern merchandise in the Mississippi Valley. Mit-
chell, Compendium of Canals and Railroads, pp. jG,
THE PROJECT 25
the state was concerned.^ Men were chosen to
the General Assembly entirely on the basis of their
known attitude toward the question of the canal.'^
Joseph Duncan, a staunch supporter of the canal
project, was elected Governor. His interest in
the project was evinced by the fact that more than
one-third of his entire inaugural address was de-
voted to an effort to convince the General As-
sembly that the interests of the state would be
better served by the canal than by a railroad.^
He pointed out three specific advantages which the
canal would possess: first, it would bring into
commercial relations the vast extent of territory
tributary to the two great systems of waterways
which it would unite; second, it would improve
the navigation of the Illinois River by turning into
its channel a large volume of water through a lake-
fed canal; third, it would render every farmer
independent of the monopoly of railway trans-
portation by enabling him to transport his own
produce to market. Duncan not only argued for
a canal but he argued for one large enough to
permit steamboats to pass freely from the Illinois
River to Lake Michigan.'^
^Chicago Democrat, June 11, July 16, July 30, August
6, and October 8, 1834.
* Chicago Democrat, August 6, 1834.
' Illinois Senate Journal, 9th General Assembly,
pp. 21-29; ^Iso, House Journal, pp. 25-33.
* Illinois Senate Journal, 9th General Assembly, p. 26.
The superior advantages of a steamboat canal over
either an ordinary canal or a railroad were urged by
26 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
The Governor's message, however, was not the
only influence brought to bear on the General
Assembly in favor of the canal. Newspapers
and mass-meetings were used with effect. The
Chicago Democrat was particularly active in pre-
senting arguments favorable to the canal and in
answering those of its opponents.^ Lengthy mem-
*'A Peorian" in the Sangamo Journal of January 23,
1834. The article also appeared in the Chicago Demo-
crat of February 25, 1843. Benjamin Mills, editor
of the Galena Advertiser, opposed the canal, and espe-
cially Duncan's plan for a steamboat canal. He
considered such a work expensive and inadequate.
A transfer of freights would have to be made at
Chicago, because river steamboats could not navigate
Lake Michigan. As an offset to Duncan's arguments
in favor of the canal, he specified seven particulars in
which the raiload was preferable to the canal:
First, it would be cheaper to construct.
Second, it would be cheaper to maintain.
Third, it would have greater durability.
Fourth, it would furnish cheaper transportation.
Fifth, it could operate during all the year.
Sixth, it would have greater speed.
Seventh, it would offer perfect certainty of opera-
tion. Chicago Democrat, January 21, 1835.
^ Chicago Democrat, January 14 to December 30, 1834.
It was the custom of the paper to copy editorials from
the down-state papers and commend or contest the
opinions expressed, as they chanced to support or
oppose the canal project. It was particularly hostile
to the proposals of the Alton Spectator and the Beards-
town Chronicle for a railroad from the Mississippi
River to the Wabash River or to Lake Erie in order to
shorten the route to Buffalo, claiming that such a work
THE PROJECT 27
orials to the General Assembly were adopted by
mass meetings of citizens of Cook and La Salle
counties,^ urging the construction of the canal and
laying special stress on the fact that it would fur-
nish cheaper transportation than the railroad
would for bulky articles such as the outgoing and
much of the incoming freight would be. For
these classes of freight cheapness of transportation
was of more consequence than speed. The author
of the memorial showed clearness of economic
vision by pointing out the fact that the saving in
freight charges would be capitalized into taxable
property values.
The friends of the canal could also point to the
favorable opinions of men less influenced by local
interests. On June 6, 1834, General Charles
Gratiot, chief of the Corps of Engineers of the
United States Army, in a report to the Commit-
tee on Roads and Canals in the House of Repre-
sentatives, strongly urged the construction of the
canal from the Illinois River to Lake Michigan as
one of the most important of public works. His
would be poor "state policy," because Illinois would
have to help bear the financial burdens of Indiana
and Ohio through freight charges, whereas the Illinois
and Michigan canal would lie entirely within the state
and its earnings would be wholly for the benefit of the
state.
'The former November 5 and the latter December
2, 1834. These two counties at that time comprised
all the territory embraced in the canal region. For
accounts of the meetings, see Chicago Democrat,
November 5 and December 17, 1834.
28 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
view of the relative importance of a canal and
a railroad on this route was expressed in these
words: "There would seem to be, in a position
such as this, and to accomplish objects so vast,
no question as to which of the usual means, rail-
road or canal, should be resorted to. The ex-
clusive character of the first; the repeated handling
of the commodities transported over it, always
attended with expense; the complication of ma-
chinery, and the consequent liability to accident
and detention, as well as the principle of rapid
decay, inseparable from the materials used in its
construction, seem to offer to my mind objections
not to be overcome. A canal, on the contrary,
would afford facilities commensurate with the
great thoroughfares it would connect, and the
vast amount of produce afloat upon them during a
greater portion of the year, or in waiting upon
their shores," ^ On June 25, 1834, the Committee
on Roads and Canals reported to the House in
favor of the construction of a canal of sufficient
dimensions to permit river and lake steamers to
pass through without unloading, a matter of
especial consequence in the transportation of
bulky or breakable articles. The committee was
emphatic in its preference of a canal on this route.
Although these reports did not lead to favorable
action on the part of Congress, they were published
^Chicago Democrat, December 10, 1834. Also,
House Committee Reports, No. 546, 23rd Congress,
1st Session, p. 14.
THE PROJECT 29
in Illinois newspapers and reinforced the argu-
ments of the friends of the canal. ^
With all these reassurances of the importance
of the canal and the demand for its construction,
the General Assembly took the matter up at the
beginning of the session. The committees on
Internal Improvements in both the House and
the Senate made long reports in favor of the imme-
diate construction of the canal, repeating in detail
the most important arguments that had been
advanced in support of the project and urging as
a reason for immediate action that the needs of
the state and the condition of public opinion both
demanded such a course. The majority of the
members of both houses accepted the views of the
committees and, by an act approved February 10,
1835, provided for the appointment of a third
canal commission, and invested it with powers
thought to be ample to raise the necessary funds
and to place the work in process of construction.^
^Chicago Democrat, December 10, 1834; also House
Reports, No. 546, 23rd Congress, ist Session. The
Committee accounted for the recent growth of railroad
sentiment in these words: "A prejudice of natural
origin pervaded all the first inquiries on this subject.
The imagination was led captive by the flying motion
of a railroad car, impelled by one of the most powerful
agents hitherto discovered by the ingenuity and subject
to the control of man."
"^ Laws of Illinois, 9th General Assembly, ist Session,
pp. 222-226.
The Commission consisted of five men appointed by
the Governor with the ratification of the Senate. The
member known as the "Acting Commissioner" was
practically the general Superintendent of the work.
Chapter II
FINANCE AND CONSTRUCTION
It was a Herculean task that the young state
had set for itself; but, led on by that large optimism
which has ever been characteristic of the continu-
ally advancing West, the people of Illinois were
not dismayed by the magnitude of the under-
taking. With prophetic vision they beheld the
completed canal bearing on its placid waters the
products of the East, the West, the North, and
the South; they saw the cities, villages, farms, and
factories which would ultimately come into being
along its course; but they did not see so clearly the
intervening difficulties, which lay like the sunken
road of Ohain between project and accomplish-
ment. For ten years the commercial and indus-
trial importance of the Erie canal had been a
familiar story to the people of Illinois, and they
confidently expected to see that history repeated
in their own state.
The undertaking had been long delayed because
of the lack of funds with which to pay the cost of
construction. New York and Ohio had financed
their canals by means of loans. Pennsylvania
had undertaken a great system of internal im-
provements financed in the same way. With the
land grant as a basis, and with the expected earn-
30
FINANCE AND CONSTRUCTION 31
ings of the canal as an additional security, the
method of loan financiering seemed entirely feas-
ible.^ It was, therefore, to this method that the
state first turned, and on this method it chiefly
depended to the end.
The act of February 10, 1835, which provided
for the appointment of the new canal commission,
authorized the Governor to negotiate a loan not
exceeding ^500,000 on a pledge of the canal lands
and tolls, and "such other means as the govern-
ment of the United States may hereafter give
toward the construction of the Illinois and Michi-
gan Canal."- As evidences of indebtedness the
state issued certificates known as Illinois and
Michigan Canal Stock, drawing five per cent in-
terest and payable at the option of the state any
time after 1860.^ The proceeds of this loan as
well as those from the sale of lands and lots, and
from the later operation of the canal itself, when
completed, were to constitute a canal fund in-
tended entirely for the construction of the canal
and the payment of interest on the canal debt.
Correspondence was at once entered into with
New York financiers, and Ex-Governor Edward
^Report of the Senate Committee on Internal
Improvements, in Illinois Senate Journal^ 1834-5,
pp. 97-99.
2 The members of the General Assembly, as well as
Governor Duncan, believed that if the land grant al-
ready made should prove inadequate to pay for the
construction of the canal, the federal government
would supplement it by further grants.
' Laws of Illinois, 1834-5, pp. 222-223,
32 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
Coles was appointed the special representative of
the state to visit the eastern cities and negotiate
the loan.^ But his efforts with the financiers of
New York and Philadelphia and with the agents
of the Rothschilds proved entirely futile. Basing
their opinions on the experience of the Erie Canal,
some of the New York bankers were convinced,
however, that the loan would eventually be a safe
one because, by giving to Illinois both an eastern
and a southern seaport connection, the canal
would lead to such an economic development of
the region as to greatly enhance the value of the
canal lands ;^ but in the meantime no sufficient
provision was made for the payment of the inter-
est if the sale of lands and lots should fail to provide
the necessary funds. Furthermore, as interest
rates in this country were at that time higher than
five per cent, it would be necessary to dispose of
the canal stocks in Europe, and the European
financiers were not disposed to accept loans based
on wild lands in the United States.^ Other states
had pledged the faith of the state in support of the
loans which they had raised for similar purposes,
and the bankers who had taken up their stocks
^Illinois House Journal, 1835-6, pp. 12-13.
^ Letter of J, Delafield, President of the Phenix Bank
of New York, to Edward Coles, April 20, 1835; i^^
Illinois House Journal, 1835-6, pp. 19-21.
' Letter of Edward Coles to Governor Duncan, dated
at Philadelphia, April 28, 1835; in Illinois House
Journal, 1835-6, pp. 14-18.
FINANCE AND CONSTRUCTION 33
would not accept those of Illinois on any other
terms. ^
As a result of his experience and the conferences
held with the financiers, Coles became convinced
that the loan could be raised only on a pledge of
the faith of the state as to the payment of both
the principal and the interest.- Having been
brought to the same conclusion, Governor Duncan
urgently recommended to the General Assembly
that such a step be taken. He the more readily
made the recommendation because he was con-
vinced that in no case would the burden of the
debt fall on the state. Basing his opinion on the
prices received by the federal government at the
sale of its alternate sections of land at Chicago
in the previous June, he considered the market
value of the canal lands to be abundantly ample
to reimburse the state.^ He expected the value of
the land to continually advance with the progress
of the work, and ultimately to bear the entire cost
of the construction. Furthermore, having but
recently left the halls of Congress, he thought he
knew the temper of that body well enough to
^Letter of J. Delaiield to Edward Coles, dated,
New York, April 20, 1835; in Illinois House Journal,
1835-^, pp. 19-21.
2 Letter of Edward Coles to Governor Duncan; in
Illinois House Journal, 1835-6, pp. 14-18. Also,
letter of Charles Butler to Edward Coles; in Illinois
House Journal, 1835-6, pp. 21-22.
' The estimates of the market value of the land at
that time varied from $r,ooo,ooo to ^3,000,000, but
probably averaged about J^2,ooo,ooo.
34 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
safely count on an additional grant of land if it
should be found that the grant already made was
not sufficient to cover the expense of constructing
the canal. ^ The recommendation met with a
ready response on the part of the General As-
sembly.^ Accordingly, on January 9, 1836, a
new act was passed reorganizing the canal com-
mission and pledging the credit and faith of the
state to the payment of the principal and interest
of the loan.^
A new commission was appointed at once and
used every effort to get the canal under way at the
earliest possible moment, believing that the more
actively the work was pushed, the easier would
be the task of financing it.^ But the fact soon
^Governor Duncan's message, December 8, 1835;
in Illinois Senate Journal, 1835-6, pp.6-io.
^ The Senate Committee on Internal Improvements
estimated the value of the canal property as follows:
About 250 lots in Chicago $ 312,500.00
250 lots in Ottawa 50,000.00
277,383 acres of land (at ^5 per acre) . . 1,386,915.00
Fractional section 15 adjoining Chi-
cago and containing about 160
acres 160,000.00
Estimated total value $1,909,415.00
The committee believed that by adding the value of
the water power which would be developed, the sug-
gested plan of financiering would be entirely practic-
able. Illinois Senate Journal, 1835-6, p. loi.
^ Laws of Illinois, 1836, pp. 145-154.
* The Commission was composed of Gen. William F.
Thornton, Col. Gurdon S. Hubbard, and Col. William
B. Archer.
FINANCE AND CONSTRUCTION 35
became apparent to the commissioners that the
magnitude of the undertaking had been generally
underestimated. James M. Bucklin's estimate of
$4,107,440.43 as the cost of a lake-fed canal,
although at the time regarded by the friends of
the project as excessive, was now found to be en-
tirely too low for the construction of a canal of
such dimensions as its place in a great system of
waterways and its probable future traffic would
demand.^ Therefore, although the initial expense
of the canal would be greatly increased, the com-
missioners determined, on the advice of the chief
engineer, William Gooding,^ to adopt the plan of a
lake-fed canal sixty feet wide at the water level,
thirty-six feet wide at the bottom, and having a
minimum depth of six feet of water.^ Governor
Duncan also urged the larger canal.^ The work
was laid out in three divisions, known as the
Summit division, the Middle division, and the
Western division, and these were sub-divided into
^Bucklin's estimate had been for a canal 45 feet
wide at the water level, 30 feet wide at the bottom, and
having a depth of four feet of water.
2 As a former engineer on the Erie Canal, Gooding
was aware that New York had made the mistake of
constructing a canal inadequate to its rapidly growing
traffic, and desired to prevent the same mistake being
made by Illinois.
' Report of the Board of Commissioners of the Illinois
and Michigan Canal, 1836, p. 8.
* Governor Duncan's inaugural address, Illinois
Senate Journal, 1834-5, p. 26.
36 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
sections of varying lengths.^ Deeming it good
policy to begin operations in the vicinity of Chi-
cago, the commissioners, on June 6, 1836, con-
tracted for the construction of a portion of the
Summit division.^ The intention had been to
contract for the entire division, but, on account of
the abnormally high prices of labor, provisions and
supplies, the bids were almost uniformly above the
estimates of the engineers, and on some of the
sections the discrepancy between the estimates
and the bids was so great that the commissioners
refused to accept them.^ It was hoped that the
experience of the contractors whose bids were ac-
cepted would demonstrate the possibility of carry-
ing on the work at the lower figures, and that, by
the time they had the work under way, the prices
^The seven miles of earth excavation from the
Chicago River to the "Point of Oaks" were divided
into half-mile sections. From that point to the term-
ination of the Summit division there were twenty-four
sections of thirty chains each.
^ The act of January 9, 1836, required the commis-
sioners to hold a sale of lots at Chicago on June 20,
of that year, and it was naturally assumed that they
would bring better prices if active preparations for the
construction of the canal were being carried on in
that vicinity.
' Laborer's wages were from twenty to thirty dollars
a month and board. Pork at Chicago was from ^20
to $30 a barrel; flour from ^9 to ^12; salt from ^12
to ^15; oats and potatoes, seventy-five cents a bushel;
and other articles of consumption commanded similar
prices. Davidson and Stuve, History of Illinois, p. 479.
FINANCE AND CONSTRUCTION 37
of labor and materials would so decline that the
remaining sections could be profitably taken at
the estimates of the engineers, or even below
them. But these hopes were doomed to disap-
pointment. Some of those whose bids had been
accepted found it necessary to abandon their un-
dertakings, although such an act involved the
forfeiture of a penal bond to the extent of five per
cent of the amount of the original contract.^
The work of constructing the canal was formally
begun with imposing ceremonies and a great cele-
bration at Canalport on the Chicago River, July 4,
1836. But not much progress was made during
the summer and autumn. Much of the time was
consumed in preliminary preparations such as
constructing roads across the marsh on the eastern
sections, building houses for the laborers, and
procuring machinery and other supplies.^ Being
desirous of extending the work as rapidly as pos-
sible, on October 20 the commissioners let the
contracts for twelve sections on the Western divi-
sion, including the steamboat basin at La Salle, ^
Preliminary operations were accordingly begun
at the western extremity of the canal as well as
on the Summit level. Owing to the scarcity of
laborers and to the floods in the Des Plaincs valley,
^Report of the Board of Canal Commissioners, 1836,
pp. lo-ii.
"^ Report of the Board of Canal Commissioners, 1838,
P- 5-
' Report of the Board of Canal Commissioners, 1836,
p. 1 1.
38 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
however, little progress was made on either
portion of the work during the autumn and winter
months.^
The commissioners expected that the work
would really begin on a large scale with the open-
ing of the following season, but in this expectation
they were disappointed. In the first place the
continued scarcity of laborers along the line of the
canal seriously retarded the progress of the work
till well on toward the close of the summer, by
which time they had begun to arrive in consider-
able numbers from the eastern states and Canada.^
In the second place, a threatened change of the
plan for the construction of the canal retarded the
letting of further contracts, and, consequently,
hindered preparations for pushing work on the
central division and certain portions of the western
division as soon as a sufficient force of laborers
could be secured. The plan adopted by the com-
missioners was attacked by the House committee
on Internal Improvements as entirely Impracti-
cable because beyond the financial ability of the
state to accomplish. The committee claimed that
the estimates of the engineers were untrustworthy
^Engineer's report, Illinois Senate Journal, 1837,
p. 28. With the hope of drawing laborers from the
eastern states, to the Illinois and Michigan Canal,
advertisements were inserted in the eastern papers
ofi^ering wages of from ^20 to ^26 a month. Niles*
Register, L, p. 388.
2 Report of Board of Canal Commissioners, 1838,
pp. 6-25.
FINANCE AND CONSTRUCTION 39
because, they had omitted entirely several import-
ant items of expense and had underestimated the
cost of others.^ By the estimates of the commit-
tee, the canal would cost ^13,253,875.15, or nearly
^4,600,000.00 more than had been anticipated.^
The Committee proposed, therefore, that the
*' shallow cut" plan be adopted on the Summit
level, and that the canal should terminate at Lake
Joliet, slack water navigation being provided from
that point by means of locks and dams in the Des
Plaines River.^ The result of the attack on the
plan of the commissioners was the reorganization
of the canal board and the appointment of Ben-
^The total cost, as estimated by the canal engineers,
was $8,654,337.51. The Seventh Annual Report of
the Board of Canal Commissioners^ p. 73.
^ The engineers had estimated earth excavation at
33i¥o- cents a cubic yard and stone excavation at $1.54-
T§if. The committee estimated earth excavation at 40
cents a cubic yard; stone, one-third at $i.24roi7, and
two-thirds at $2.$^^%^. It also added Jl miles of
slope wall, 18 foot cuttings, 129,885 perches, at $4.00 a
perch, $519,540; a towing path 26 miles long, 12 feet
wide and 8 feet deep, 488,106 yards, one-half stone
at $1.25, and one-half earth at 25 cents per cubic yard,
$366,083 ; and a guard lock at the junction of the deep cut
with the Chicago River at a cost of $45,000. In addi-
tion to these items the Committee estimated the cost of
contingencies and superintendence at $1,329,451.48;
and improvement of five miles of the Chicago River at
$16,565.75. For the entire argument of the Commit-
tee, see Illinois House Journal, 1836-7, pp. 326-347.
' For the plans on which it is now proposed to develop
the lakes-to-the-gulf deep waterway, see p. 145 et seq.
40 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
jamin Wright, of New York, as a special engineer
to re-examine the route of the canal and give to
the General Assembly an expert opinion on the
relative feasibility of the two plans. ^ Wright's re-
port, made October 23, 1837, strongly supported
the plan adopted by the commissioners, and urg-
ently recommended the completion of the work on
that plan.^ This report was accepted as remov-
^The new Board consisted of Gen. W. F. Thornton,
Gen. Jacob Fry, and Col. J. A. McClernand. Under
the act of March 2, 1837, the Board became elective
by the General Assembly, and subject to its control,
instead of receiving its appointment from the Gov-
ernor and being subject to his control, as its prede-
cessor had been.
2 The following extract from Wright's report indicates
his opinion of the importance of the work as planned
by the Commissioners. "The Illinois and Michigan
Canal, as now projected, and under construction, may
truly be considered as one of the greatest and most
important in its consequences of any work of any age
or nation. In looking over this connection between
the Lakes and the Mississippi River, it is no doubt
superior in its advantages to any other which can
ever be formed. It is the shortest artificial work,
with the least lockage. The climate, soil and the
capability of productions of the country which will
be benefitted by the construction of this work, will
certainly equal, if they do not exceed, any other
part of the United States; and when I view it in this
light, I think it justly merits to be executed upon the
best and most permanent plan, and will justify by
its revenue any outlay which may be put upon it in
reason." Report of the Board of Canal Commissioners,
1838, p. 80.
FINANCE AND CONSTRUCTION 41
ing all doubt of the continuance of the work on
the plan adopted.
The financial situation in the early part of the
summer of 1837 tended to still further embarrass
the activities of the commissioners and the progress
of the work. The preceding year had been a suc-
cessful one for the canal finances. Under the
conditions established by the act of January 9,
1836, the canal bonds had become marketable
securities. Governor Duncan easily negotiated
the authorized loan in New York at a premium of
five per cent.^ The sales of lots had also resulted
much more favorably than those of six years be-
fore.^ The real estate market at Chicago had
been extremely active for the past two years, and
the prospect of the early construction of the canal
gave it a still firmer tone.^ Under the favorable
market conditions, the commissioners were able
to dispose of 375 lots in Chicago in June, 1836, at
the total price of ^1,355,755,'* and three months
later, Sept. 26, they sold at Ottawa seventy-eight
lots for $21,358, an excess of more than $2,000
^At first he refused to sell more than $100,000 of
the bonds on the terms off"ered, thinking five per cent
too low a premium; but obtaining no better offer he
sold the remaining $400,000 in 1837. Illinois House
Journal, 1836-7, p. 15.
'^ The earlier sales had yielded only $18,924.83.
' Wright's Chicago, pp. 4-5.
* 41 5 lots were sold, but forty of them were forfeited by
the failure of the purchasers to make the first payment.
Report of the Board of Canal Commissioners, 1836, p. 12.
42 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
above the appraised value. In accordance with
the provisions of the act authorizing these sales,
one-fourth of the proceeds and the interest on the
remaining three-fourths were paid to the treasurer
of the canal fund. With this sum together with
the second installments which would fall due
respectively in June and September, 1837, and
with the proceeds of the loans which the Governor
had been authorized to negotiate,^ it was confident-
ly expected that the work could be readily main-
tained during the year.^
The work of the season of 1837 had but fairly
gotten under way, however, when the panic of that
year swept over the state. As a means of self-
protection the State Bank of Illinois suspended
specie payments on May 24. At that time it
held $390,834.89 of canal funds. Moreover, with-
in the next month the second installment of the
payments on the Chicago lots, amounting to some-
^By the act of March 2, 1837, the Governor had been
authorized to negotiate a second loan for $500,000.
2 On May 4, 1837, the treasurer of the canal fund
reported the available funds for the work of the year
as follows:
Cash in Branch Bank at Chicago.. . . $297,081.53
Loan to be negotiated by the Gov-
ernor 500,000.00
Second installment of payments on
Chicago and Ottawa lots 385,591.39
Total $1,182,672.92
Report of the Treasurer of the Illinois and Michigan
Canal, 1837 (111. Sen. Jour. 10 As. Spec. 1837, p. 24).
FINANCE AND CONSTRUCTION 43
thing like ^375,000 would fall due, and unless
other provision were made for the disposal of it,
it would become a deposit in the Chicago branch
of the State Bank. The situation presented a
grave danger to the prosecution of the work on the
canal. Under the law of Illinois, if the suspension
of specie payments should continue for more than
sixty days, the Bank would forfeit its charter.^
Such an event would tie up the canal funds during
an indefinite period of liquidation. On the other
hand, if the Bank were forced to resume specie
payments it would soon be drained of its specie and
ultimately compelled to pay its creditors in de-
preciated currency. In the first case the work on
the canal would have to stop until such time
as the state could secure other funds with which
to carry it on. In the second case, the cost to
the state would be still further enhanced by the
depreciation of the currency with which it would
have to pay its creditors and the consequent higher
prices it would be compelled to pay for the con-
struction of the portions of the work not already
under contract, to say nothing of the possibility of
driving the contractors then at work into bank-
ruptcy. After a careful canvass of the situation,
Governor Duncan called the General Assembly in
special session on July 10, and it legalized an
indefinite suspension of specie payments.^
^Law of February 12, 1835, supplemented by an act
of January 18, 1836.
"^ At the time of suspension the State Bank was
indebted to the state as follows:
44 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
By the autumn of 1837, however, work on the
canal had assumed the proportions which the com-
missioners had anticipated several months earlier.^
And, although the sudden increase of a transient
population and the consequent enlarged demand
for materials and provisions in an undeveloped
region added materially to the financial burdens
of the contractors, the work was carried forward
with such vigor that at the close of Governor
Duncan's administration in December, 1838, the
entire line of the canal was under contract except
about twenty-three miles of the Middle division
between Dresden and Marseilles.^ Several sec-
Capital stock held by state ^100,000.00
Agreement to pay Wiggins loan 100,000.00
State deposits held 388,669.51
Canal funds held in Chicago Branch. 285,834.89
Canal fund on N. Y. loan and pre-
mium 105,000.00
Total ^979,504.40
Governor Duncan's message. Senate Journal, Special
Session, 1837, p. 9.
^The expenditures for work on the canal were
^70,902.30 from December i, 1836 to June i, 1837.
The expenditures for the year 1837 were ^350,649.90.
Evidently, more than ^280,000.00 of this sum was
expended after June i.
^ Enhanced prices of supplies resulting from the
greatly increased demand and the difficulty of supply-
ing machinery and tools with which to utilize to best
advantage the greater labor supply proved so great a
financial burden that several contractors were forced
to abandon their contracts. In order to prevent
FINANCE AND CONSTRUCTION 45
tions of the Western division were completed and
others far advanced.^
Henceforth, the greatest problem of the com-
missioners was that of supplying sufficient funds
to enable the contractors to continue the work and
maintain the labor that was available. The two
loans authorized by the acts of January 9, 1836,
and March 2, 1837, had yielded a revenue of
$1,036,211.67.2 Up to December 3, 1838,^444,292
others from pursuing the same course, the com-
missioners established a store at Lockport from which
they furnished to the contractors such supplies as were
not obtainable in the region of the canal, and deducted
the price of these supplies from the contractors'
monthly estimates. The result was so satisfactory
that no more contracts were abandoned, and those
that had been given up were re-let to the contractors
who had continued at work. Report of the Board of
Commissioners of the Illinois and Michigan Canal,
1838, p. 6.
1 Governor Duncan's message, December 4, 1838,
Illinois House Journal, 1838-9; pp. 13-14-
2 Each act authorized a loan of ^500,000. The
first loan was placed in two installments of j5ioo,ooo,
and ^^400,000 respectively, and at a premium of 5%.
The second was placed at par. The proceeds of the
two were as follows:
^^500,000 at 5% premium $525,000.00
500,000 at par 500,000.00
$1,025,000.00
Interest on deposits 11,21 1.67
Aggregate proceeds $1,036,211.67
Report of Board of Canal Commissioners, 1838, p. 53.
46 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
had been received from the sale of canal lands
and lots. Thus far the funds received from these
sources had proven sufficient to maintain the
work, but it was entirely evident that provision
must be made soon for further available resources
if the work was to continue. ^1,434,838.02 had
already been paid out for work done.^ The funds
in the treasury were diminishing and the monthly
expenditures on the canal were rapidly increasing.^
A loan of ^4,000,000, bearing six per cent interest,
was therefore authorized,^ and Ex-Governor John
Reynolds and Hon. R. M. Young, at that time a
United States Senator, from Illinois, were ap-
pointed special agents of the state to negotiate the
loan.*
In April, 1839, Mr. Reynolds negotiated two
loans. The first for ^300,000 was placed with
John Delafield, President of the Phoenix Bank of
New York. By the terms of this loan, however, it
would not aiford much financial aid to the work
^Report of the Board of the Canal Commissioners,
1838, p. 61.
2 The increase of expenditures is roughly indicated
by the following statement of annual payments for
work done on the canal:
1836 $ 39,260.58
1837 350,649.90
1838 911,902.40
3 By act of February 23, 1839.
''The sales of Illinois and Michigan Canal bonds
before 1840 were as follows:
FINANCE AND CONSTRUCTION
47
on the canal till late in the year.^ The second
gave more immediate results. It was for ^i,ooo,-
ooo and was placed with Thomas Dunlap, Presi-
dent of the United States Bank of Philadelphia.^
Date of act Number and denomination By whom and to Total amount
authorizing sale of bonds whom sold yielded
Jan. 9,1836 500 bonds, $1000 each Gov. Duncan to
State Bank of 111 . . . $525,000.00
Mar. 2,1837 500 " $1000 " Same 500,000.00
July 21, 1837 300 " $1000 " Gen. Rawlings to
J. Delafield, N.Y. . . 300,000.00
Feb. 23, 1839 1000 " £225 " Rawlings and Reyn-
olds to U.S. Bank.
(Redeemable at
London) 976,396.67
Feb. 23, 1839 100 " £225 " Gen. Thornton to
different persons.
(Redeemable at
N. Y.) 100,000.00
Feb. 23, 1839 150 " £225 " Wright & Co. under
contract withYoung
and Reynolds. (Re-
deemable at Lon-
don.) 145,188.00
Feb. 23, 1839 1000 " £225 " Governor to con-
tractors. (Latter to
Magniac, Smith &
Co., London, at 83.)
Yield to state 1,075,000.00
Feb. 23, 1839 197 " $1000 " Canal commission-
ers to contractors.
(1841) 197,000.00
Feb. 23, 1839 84 " $1000 " Gen. Whiteside to
Duffee & Co., 48 re-
(48 redeemed) deemed by Gov.
Ford, leaving 36,000.00
Feb. 1, 1840 Checks on State Bank of Illinois bearing 6 per
cent interest and payable when funds became
available for that purpose. Amount of issue. . 409,448.70
^ By terms of the contract, $50,000 was to be paid
within fifteen days after the delivery of the bonds,
another $50,000 on August ist, and $50,000 on the
first of each month from October to January inclusive.
^Governor Carlin's message, Dec. 10, 1839, Illinois
House Journal, Special Session, 1839-40, p. 19. Also,
Carlin's letter to Ford relative to the sale of bonds,
etc., Illinois Senate Reports, 1842-3, p. 172.
48 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
By agreement, the proceeds of this loan were
paid in monthly installments of ^100,000 each.
This sum, however, was not sufficient to meet the
demands on the canal funds. By the first of May
the monthly expenditures had reached the neigh-
borhood of ^150,000, and on the first of June the
canal funds showed a deficit of ^208,000.^ To
meet this deficit Governor Carlin placed ^500,000
of state bonds in the hands of Gen. W. F. Thorn-
ton, President of the Board of Canal Commis-
sioners, for sale in the local market. Of these
bonds. Gen. Thornton sold ^100,000 in Chicago
at a premium of one per cent, but was unable
to dispose of the remainder on satisfactory terms.^
Arrangements were therefore made with the State
Bank of Illinois to furnish the state sufficient funds,
supplementary to the installments from the United
States Bank, to prevent the necessity of curtail-
ment in the forces on the canal during the re-
mainder of the year.
The most pressing and immediate needs having
been provided for, Reynolds and Young en-
deavored to float the remainder of the authorized
loan in London, but the condition of the money
market made it impossible to sell the bonds at
par.^ After considerable negotiation, they placed
$1,000,000 of sterling bonds drawing six per cent
interest, with the brokerage firm of John Wright
^Governor Carlin's message, Dec. 10, 1839.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
FINANCE AND CONSTRUCTION 49
& Co. for sale at a minimum of ninety-one per
cent of par value, and with the understanding
that these bonds should be replaced by others
of like amount and rate but bearing interest pay-
able semi-annually instead of annually.^ On this
deposit of bonds, Wright & Co. advanced 30,000
pounds which, by the terms of the contract,
yielded the canal funds ^145,188.- The firm,
however, failed before the delivery of the new
bonds, and no further funds were available from
this source.
At the beginning of the year 1840 the canal
treasury was once again in a depleted condition,
and on the first of March the commissioners were
forced to the expedient of issuing to the contractors
checks bearing six per cent interest and payable
at such time as the necessary funds should be
provided.^ An effort was made to replenish the
treasury by a further sale of bonds, and in order
to increase their marketability the act of February
I, 1840, directed the commissioners to sell enough
lands and lots to pay the interest on the canal
loans. But sales extending over a period from
June 30 to July 13 yielded only ^7,387.06, and this
'Carlin's letter to Ford relative to the sale of bonds,
etc., in Illinois Senate Reports^ 1842-3, p. 172. The
semi-annual payment of interest was authorized by
the act of Feb. i, 1840.
^ Message of Governor Cariin, Dec. 7, 1842, Illinois
Senate Report^, 1842-3, p. 6.
' Seventh Annual Report of the Canal Commissioners,
p. 112.
50 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
sum was principally paid in Canal scrip. ^ Finding
it impossible to continue the sale without such a
reduction in the price of the land as would, in
their judgment, prejudice the interests of the state,
the commissioners abandoned the effort to raise
funds by this means. ^ At this juncture the con-
tractors held a meeting at Lockport and proposed
to take ^1,000,000 of the authorized bonds at par
and bear the discount at which they would have
to be sold.^ The proposal was accepted and
Gen. Thornton, on behalf of the purchasers, sold
the bonds to Magniac, Smith & Co. of London, at
a discount of fifteen per cent.^ This act of the
contractors made it possible to continue the work
for several months longer, but with a somewhat
diminished labor force. ^
^The sales amounted to ^60,775.57, but by the pro-
vision of the act of February i, 1840, only one-fourth
of the purchase price of the timber land was payable
in cash and the remainder in three annual installments,
while only one-tenth of the price of the prairie land was
payable at the time of the purchase and the remainder
in twenty years. The deferred payments drew interest
at the rate of six per cent.
^ Fifth Annual Report of the Canal Commissioners, p. 9.
' Gen. W. F. Thornton, President of the Board of Canal
Commissioners, and W. B. Ogden and George Barnett,
contractors, were appointed a special committee to
carry on the negotiations with Governor Carlin.
^ Seventh Annual Report of the Canal Commissioners,
p. 113.
^ The amount paid for work in 1839 was ^1,479,907.58;
for 1840, ^1,117,702.30; and for 1841, $644,875.94. Be-
FINANCE AND CONSTRUCTION 51
Although the canal treasury had again been
drained of its funds by March i, 1841, the con-
tractors continued their work and their active
preparations for the following season with the
apparent hope that the General Assembly would
be able to successfully solve the financial problem
to which it had addressed itself throughout the
winter. But the Legislators proved unequal to
the task. The large sales of state bonds within
the preceding decade had surfeited a depressed
market with that particular kind of securities.
This fact had been painfully evident for the past
two years. It was likewise true that Illinois had
done her part in bringing about this condition of
affairs. In addition to the canal bonds the state
had already placed upon the market, in her efforts
to finance an elaborate scheme of internal im-
provements, evidences of indebtedness of more
than ^5,600,000.^ It was with the greatest diffi-
culty that the state was able to pay the interest
on its debts on January i, 1841. Under such
circumstances a new loan could be floated only
at an enormous discount. With property values
tween March i and November i, 1840, the pay-
ments were $832,888.20, and between November i,
1840 and March i, 1841 they were $280,940.46. Seventh
Annual Report of the Canal Commissioners, pp. 65, 113.
'On December 7, 1842, the Internal Improvement
debt was $5,614,196.94. As work on these improve-
ments had been stopped in 1840, the debt had not
increased much after that date. Illinois State Reports,
1842-3, p. 7.
52 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
depressed and the people clamoring for reduced
taxation, the General Assembly was unable to do
more than to provide for an additional tax of
ten cents on the ^loo worth of property to be set
apart exclusively as an "interest tax," establish
a minimum taxable valuation of three dollars an
acre on all lands subject to taxation in the state,^
and authorize the sale of enough bonds at what-
ever they would bring in the market to meet the
interest on the public debt for the next two years. ^
The failure of the General Assembly to provide
further means for the maintenance of the work
was interpreted as the abandonment of the canal
to its fate. As many of the contractors as were
able to abandon their work without too heavy
financial losses to themselves did so. Others
continued for a time, but reduced their forces as
rapidly as conditions would warrant. There
were only two possible sources of payment to the
contractors, namely, state bonds and warrants
drawn against a future canal fund. Both of these
methods were resorted to. Such contractors as
were able to meet their own expenses and wait for
their pay accepted the bonds until the depreciation
^By the act of February 21, 1841.
2 In order to raise the necessary funds to pay the
interest on the state debt July i, 1841, $804,000 in
interest bearing state bonds were hypothecated with
Macallister and Stebbins of New York as a guarantee
of a loan of $321,600. From this time on no more
interest was paid on the state debt till the trustees took
charge of the canal in 1845.
FINANCE AND CONSTRUCTION 53
became so great as to render this means of pay-
ment impracticable.^ The alternative method of
payment was introduced by the commissioners in
May, 1 841, in order to relieve the embarrassments
of those contractors whose finances did not enable
them to meet their accruing obligations. To the
extent of the amount due them, the contractors
were permitted to draw orders in favor of their
creditors against the commissioners, which orders
became negotiable after having been formally
accepted and recorded by the Secretary of the
Board.- For a time these orders served as cur-
rency along the canal. But, although receivable
in payment for canal lands at the sale to be held
in November, 1841, the issue soon exceeded the
demand and depreciation began. Naturally, the
depreciation of this medium of exchange soon put
a stop to that method of payment and all work
on the canal was at an end except in the case of a
few contractors who were willing to bear their
own burdens and await a better day for their
compensation.^
* ^197,000 was paid in this way in the latter part of
1 841 and early part of 1842. Illinois Senate Reports,
1842-3, pp. 16, 172.
2 Seventh Annual Report of the Commissioners of the
Illinois and Michigan Canal, p. 115.
3 Illinois Senate Reports, 1842-3, p. 16. By the act of
February 21, 1843, provision was made for the pay-
ment of damages sustained by the suspension of work,
and by the act of March 3, 1843, all claims against the
canal were to be investigated and, when approved.
54 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
After the failure of the State Bank in February,
1842, the financial affairs of the state seemed to be
in a hopeless condition. The state debt was near-
ing the ^14,000,000 mark, and was increasing at
the rate of ^830,000 a year from the one item of
accumulating interest.^ The credit of the state
had sunk so low that in June its obligations sold
at public auction in Chicago at from eighteen
and one-fourth cents to twenty-four cents on the
dollar, while the bills of the defunct State Bank
brought thirty-eight and one-fourth cents. ^ There
were not lacking those who openly advocated
a policy of repudiation.
In this crisis, the canal seemed the only hope of
the state. ^ A completed canal would aid the
state finances both directly and indirectly. It
would give direct aid by yielding a revenue which
would offset a portion of the interest charges which
the state was then unable to meet. Indirectly,
it would bring larger revenues to the treasury by
increasing the basis of taxation, first, through the
they and the accrued interest should be charged against
the fund of $230,000 appropriated for settlement with
the contractors.
^On December i, 1842, the debt amounted to
$13,836,379.65, and the interest for the year was
$830,182.77. Illinois Senate Reports, 1842-3, p. 7.
2 Chicago Democrat, June 8, 1842.
' Report of the Senate Committee on Canal and
Canal Lands, in Illinois Senate Reports, 1842-3, pp.
90-91 ; and Report of the House Committee on Finance,
in Illinois House Reports, 1842-3, pp. 6-7.
FINANCE AND CONSTRUCTION 55
raising of property values by the capitalization of
the diminution in transportation charges; and,
secondly, by making the state a more attractive
place for settlement and investment through this
provision for lightening its financial burdens,
which would tend to draw the population and
capital that naurally shun a debt-ridden com-
munity with its exorbitant taxes. The increased
land values resulting from the opening of the canal
would also enable the state to materially diminish
the burden of the debt by liquidating a large por-
tion of it through the sale of canal lands. In
short, the difference between a completed and an
uncompleted canal meant the difference between a
solvent and an insolvent state. These facts were
clearly enough perceived,^ and there was no lack
of desire on the part of the state officials to bring
the work to its final consummation, but that
would involve an additional expenditure of more
than ^3,000,000, and in the insolvent condition
of the state the raising of such a sum was clearly
impossible.^
In this extremity the friends of the canal be-
thought them of the old "shallow cut" plan. It
was estimated that $1,600,000 would suffice to
complete the work on this plan, and it was deemed
^Illinois Senate Reports, 1842-3, pp. 90-91.
^William Gooding, the chief engineer of the canal,
estimated that the sum of $3,098,169.29 would be
required to complete the work in accordance with the
plan on which it was being constructed. Seventh
Annual Report of the Canal Commissioners, p. 66.
56 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
practicable to raise this sum on a pledge of the
canal and the canal lands and revenues. The
principal holders of canal bonds in New York also
looked upon the plan as feasible.^ Consequently,
by the act of February 21, 1843, the Governor was
authorized to negotiate a loan for the amount and
to secure its payment by a deed of trust. The
canal and all its property were to be turned over to
three trustees, two of whom should be chosen by
the subscribers to the new loan and one appointed
by the Governor. These trustees were authorized
to hold and manage the canal for the benefit of the
creditors,^ under such restrictions as would safe-
guard the interests of the state.^
^Justin Butteriield of Chicago is said to have first
suggested the plan to Arthur Bronson of New York,
one of the large holders of canal bonds. Whether
this statement be true or not, the friends of the canal
eagerly took up the idea. In the summer of 1842,
Michael Ryan, Chairman of the Committee on Canal
and Canal Lands in the Illinois Senate, visited New
York and discussed the plan with the leading bond-
holders, who took kindly to the idea.
2 In the interest of the subscribers to the new loan
the act directed the disbursement of the income of the
canal, after the payment of the incidental expenses,
as follows: first, interest on the loan; second, interest
on other canal bonds held by subscribers to the loan;
third, interest on canal bonds held by non-subscribing
bond-holders; and fourth, payment of the principal
of the loan.
^ Among the important provisions of the act safe-
guarding the interests of the state were those limiting
the conditions of the sale or lease of the lands, lots
I
FINANCE AND CONSTRUCTION 57
Governor Ford appointed Charles Oakley and
Michael Ryan as agents to negotiate the new loan.
Having first received assurances that the American
creditors would subscribe their proportion, Oakley
and Ryan hastened to Europe; but the foreign
creditors were less inclined to take a favorable
view of the proposed loan than those in America
had been.^ However, it was finally arranged that
Abbott Lawrence, Thomas H. Ward, and William
Sturgis of Boston should designate two competent
men to examine the conditions of the work and
report to the creditors the value of the property
and the amount of debt, including accrued interest,
charged against it. This service was performed
by Ex-Governor John Davis of Massachusetts
and Captain William H. Swift of the engineering
corps of the United States Army. During the
winter of 1843-4 these men made a personal in-
vestigation of the condition and the possibilities
of the canal. ^ Their report to the creditors, dated
March i, 1844, was entirely confirmatory of the
reports of Ryan and Oakley. They found that on
and water-power of the canal. For the provisions of
the act in full, see, The Laws of Illinois, 1843, pp. 54-61.
•The attitude of the European creditors in 1843 was
fully set forth in a letter of Baring Brothers & Co.
to Charles Oakley, October 18, 1844, which was later
published in the Illinois and Michigan Canal Docu-
ments, pp. 24-29. Also in a letter of Charles Oakley
to J. S. Zieber, dated at London, July 18, 1843, and
published in the Chicago Democrat, August 23, 1843.
^ Illinois House Reports, 1845, p. 315.
S8 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
January i, 1844, the total canal debt was $5,390,-
697.57. Offsetting against this debt the sum of
$150,209.83 redeemed and in the contingent fund,
and $393,034.91 of securities held against canal
lands sold, the net debt was found to be $4,847,-
402.83.^ On the side of assets the state could
offer besides the canal 230,476 acres of land which
Davis and Swift estimated would be worth ten
dollars an acre at the completion of the canal, and
3,491 lots in the cities and towns of Chicago, Lock-
port, Ottawa and La Salle, valued at $1,900,000.
The canal itself was considered to be worth
$5,000,000. In addition to this $9,204,670 of
physical property, it was estimated that the
rentals for water power would aggregate from
$75,000 to $100,000 a year, and that the tolls for
the second year of the operation of the canal
would reach $363,865.25.^ In view of these facts
the report recommended the acceptance of the
loan as an entirely safe financial proposition.
The experience of European holders of American
internal improvement bonds, however, had not
been a pleasant one. For the most part they had
^ Davis and Swiff s Report of the Illinois and Michigan
Canal, 1844, pp. 13-14. There are some slight dis-
crepancies in the figures in the report, but they seem
to be due to either clerical or typographical errors and
do not affect its importance materially.
2 Davis and Swift's Report of the Illinois and Michi-
gan Canal, 1844, p. 42. This estimate of the earning
capacity of the canal was far too high, as shown by
the earnings when completed. The tolls for the second
year of operation were $118,375.
FINANCE AND CONSTRUCTION 59
been unable to get interest on their bonds, and
these were consequently greatly depreciated in
value. But the holders of Illinois and Michigan
Canal bonds were reassured by the correspondence
of the report with the assertions of Ryan and
Oakley and more particularly by the personal
statements of Ex-Governor Davis, who visited
London in the summer of 1844 on invitation of
Baring Brothers & Company and Magniac, Jardine
& Company, representing the creditors. As a re-
sult of the report and of these conferences, the
European creditors agreed to take the full amount
of the new bond issue apportioned to them on the
basis of their holdings of the earlier issues,^ pro-
vided the state would restore the interest tax which
had been repealed in 1843.^ The state readily com-
plied with this very reasonable condition.^ By the
^It was expected that the holders of earlier issues
would subscribe to this one to the extent of thirty-two
per cent of their holdings. This would enable them to
register their old bonds under the act of February 21,
1843, thereby making them a sort of second mortgage
on the canal and its property and revenues.
2 Illinois Senate Reports, 1844, pp. 89-96.
^ That the land owners were not all averse to such a
tax is shown by the fact that on January 18, 1844,
John Wentworth sent from Washington to the Gov-
ernor of Illinois a petition from holders of Illinois
land to the amount of nearly ^1,000,000 asking that
the property in the state be taxed to raise funds to
pay the interest on the state debt, reasoning that an
improvement in the financial condition of the state
would react on property values. Wcntvvorth's letter
in the Chicago Democrat, January 31, 1844.
6o THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
act of March i, 1845, provision was made for an
interest tax of one and one-half mills on each
dollar of property values.
In the meantime the creditors had subscribed
the remainder of the loan and elected Captain
Swift of Washington and David Leavitt of New
York as trustees and the Governor had appointed
General Jacob Fry as the State member. In June,
these trustees assumed the trust and began active
preparations for resuming the work on the canal.
On June 21 they called for the first installment
of the new loan to be paid on September 20
following.^
While awaiting the arrival of the funds with
which to carry on the work, the necessary prepara-
tions for its resumption were under way. In
accordance with estimates submitted by Charles
B. Fisk and William Gooding, the former con-
tractors were allotted the work on their old sec-
tions,^ July 22, and on August 18 those sections
not preempted by the former contractors were let
to the "lowest responsible bidder."^ These con-
tracts evidenced the change in the economic con-
dition of the region since 1836. In that year
1 Captain Swift's Report to the Creditors^ 1849, p. 5.
Also Chicago Democrat, June 25, 1845.
2 Section seventeen of the act of February 21, 1843,
provided that on resumption of work on the canal
former contractors should have priority of right in
securing the contracts on their old sections, but on an
estimate to be made by the chief engineer of the
Board of Trustees.
^ Report of the Canal Trustees, 1845, p. 3.
I
FINANCE AND CONSTRUCTION 6i
the country generally was on the crest of the
wave of prosperity. High prices prevailed. This
condition was magnified in the region of the
canal with its suddenly acquired population and
its undeveloped resources, and the necessity of
importing all needed supplies. In 1845 the coun-
try was slowly recovering from a period of in-
dustrial depression. Prices were relatively low.
Food supplies were particularly cheap in the
region of the canal, where they were now pro-
duced in abundance.^ As a consequence, although
the new estimates were far below the earlier ones,
the trustees experienced no difficulty in finding
contractors who would undertake the work at
less than the estimated cost of completing it.^
After the period of abandonment, with the
consequent deterioration of the unfinished work,
considerable time was consumed in general repairs
^The following comparison of prices was made by
Davis and Swift during their investigation of the canal:
Cost in Cost in
1836 1843
Labor of man per month (av.) $ 40 . 00 $ 1 6 . 00
Horses, each 100.00 60.00
Oxen, per yoke 80 . 00 45 • 00
Beef, per cwt 6 . 00 3 • 00
Flour, per barrel 1 1 . 00 3 • 50
Pork, per barrel 22 .00 8 .00
Other articles had been proportionately reduced in price.
Report of the Illinois and Michiga^i Canal, 1844, p. 103.
2 Portions of the work estimated at ^171,700 were
let for }5i48,ioo, and feeder contracts estimated at
$141,500 were let for $133,200. Report of the Canal
Trustees, 1847, p. 26.
62 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
and preparation for the resumption of the actual
work of construction.^ The act of February 21,
1843, required the completion of the canal within
three years after it should be turned over to the
trustees. In spite of delays caused by floods and
by an unusual amount of sickness among the
laborers, the work was completed in the allotted
time and was opened for navigation in April, 1848.
For the next twenty-three years the efforts of
the trustees were devoted to building up the traffic
of the canal and to the payment of the canal debt.
The expenditures on the work before it passed into
the hands of the trustees amounted to $5,039,
248.04, of which $4,674,637.23 had been paid for
construction and $364,610.81 for contingent ex-
penses.^ The trustees expended $1,429,606.21^ in
completing the canal and constructing feeders to
furnish the water supply, rendered necessary by
the adoption of the "shallow cut plan" which
raised the canal on the summit level twelve feet
above the datum line of Lake Michigan.^ But
^Report of the Canal Trustees^ 1847, p. 26.
2 Eighth Annual Report of the Acting Commissioner
of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, p. 3. Cf. Report
of the Secretary of War, 1887, Volume II, Part 3,
pp. 2146-2148, which gives the expenditures by the
commissioners as $5,133,062.21 and by the trustees
as $1,424,619.29.
^ Final Report of the Trustees, 1871, p. 9.
* Three feeders were constructed: (i) from the
Fox River at Dayton to Ottawa; (2) from the Kankakee
River to the Dresden level; (3) from the Calumet
River through the "Sag" to the Summit level.
FINANCE AND CONSTRUCTION 63
these sums did not comprehend the entire canal
debt.^ Aside from the outstanding bonds to the
amount of ^5,383,000, the debt was composed
of interest-bearing canal scrip, non-interest-bear-
ing canal scrip, ninety day circulating checks,
balances due to contractors, damages awarded for
injuries sustained by the canal's crossing private
property, and accumulated interest.^
The funds with which to meet the accruing
interest on this debt and with which ultimately to
liquidate the debt itself were gradually accumu-
lated from the sales of lands, from tolls derived
from the operation of the canal, from rents of
lands and water-power, from interest on the canal
funds when deposited with the banks, from inter-
est on the unpaid installments on the lands sold,
and from a few minor sources.^
The burden of the liquidation of the debt was
increased, first, by the length of time which elapsed
between the beginning of the work and the final
payment of the bonds and accounts. The trustees
paid ^2,155,622.38 in the discharge of the arrears
of interest on the registered bonds, and ^2,457,
^ Final Report of the Trustees, 1871, p. 9.
2 Eighth Annual Report of the Acting Commissioner
of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, pp. 7, 8.
^ Some of these minor sources of income were, the
sale of wood, timber and stone, the sale of old machin-
ery and implements which the state acquired when
it settled with contractors who were forced to abandon
their work in 1842-3, the lease of lots, and the ad-
vantages occasionally derived from the course of
exchange.
64 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
276.46 may be charged to the operating expenses
of the canal while used as a fiscal agent for the
payment of the debt.^ Secondly, the burden of
the debt was increased by the monetary and bank-
ing conditions prevailing in the country during
the period of the trust. Between 1848 and 1863,
^14,563.52 was lost through "wild-cat currency,"
counterfeit bills, and bank failures, and between
the former year and 1871 the sum of $370,864.42
was expended for premiums on gold with which to
pay the interest and principal of canal bonds held
abroad.^
By the close of April, 1871, the entire debt had
been liquidated except $13,000 of the bonds which
their holders had failed to present for payment.^
On April 30, the trustees rendered their final
report and the trust was dissolved, at which time
they turned over to the state a cash balance of
$95,742.41.^ In the main, the finances had been
^ Final Report of the Canal Trustees^ 1871, p. 9.
2 Prior to 1863 payments on bonds held in London
had been made in New York at the rate of exchange
at which the best bankers' bills on London could be
purchased on the day of payment. This method
sufficed so long as gold and paper had the same value
in the money market. When the difference between
them became material, payments were made in coin.
Swift's Report to the Creditors, 1865, p. 7.
^ These bonds are still outstanding and are carried
in the Auditor's accounts as "called in by the Gover-
nor's proclamation and not surrendered." Illinois
Auditor^ s Report, 1906, p. vii.
'^ Final Report of the Canal Trustees, 1871, p. 9.
FINANCE AND CONSTRUCTION 65
well managed during the continuance of the trust.
^11,009,507.41 had passed through the hands of
the trustees with no greater loss than the ^14,563
.52, which was lost through bad currency and
banking conditions. On the other hand, the funds
had been so managed as to yield ^183,303.97 from
interest and exchange.
In the end it was found that the anticipation
with which the work was undertaken, namely,
that the canal lands and revenues would pay the
cost of construction, had been well founded.
However, because of the length of the period
covered by the work of construction and by the
acquisition of the funds necessary to defray the
expenses incident to the construction and the cost
of management and maintenance, the total ex-
penditures had been increased far beyond the
expected sum.
Chapter III
MANAGEMENT
The administrative organization for the manage-
ment of the affairs of the canal has always been a
simple one and in keeping with the organization
and methods employed in the management of
other state enterprises in Illinois. With a single
brief exception, the direct management has been
in the hands of a commission or board. -^ That
exception was during the suspension of work on
the canal between 1843 and the beginning of the
trust in June, 1845. The management was then
in the hands of one of the commissioners, known
as the acting commissioner, assisted by the secre-
tary, an engineer, and an agent for the protection
of the canal lands and other property.^ Prior to
^This statement ignores the period from the abolition
of the board of commissioners by the act of March i,
1833 till the creation of a new commission by the act
of February 10, 1835, during which time there was
no administrative machinery for the management of
canal aifairs. During this period the project was
temporarily abandoned.
2 The act of March 2, 1843 provided for the discharge
of all officers and employees except these three. These
were authorized to settle with the contractors, in so far
as they could obtain the necessary funds, and to protect
the canal property. Laws of Illinois, 1843, p. 62.
66
MANAGEMENT 67
this arrangement the board of commissioners had
usually consisted of three men/ chosen biennially,
part of the time by the Governor with the ratifica-
tion of the Senate and the remainder of the time
by the joint action of the two houses of the Gen-
eral Assembly,- During the continuance of the
trust, the board of trustees consisted of two mem-
bers elected biennially by the canal creditors and
a third appointed by the Governor.^ Since the
termination of the trust in 1871, the three commis-
sioners have been appointed by the Governor with
the ratification of the Senate. The result has been
thatthe appointments haveusuallybeen determined
by party service or political expediency rather than
by any special qualifications for the management of
the canal. In politics and in law the commissioners
are regarded as part of the state administration.^
^By the act of February 14, 1823, the number was
established at five. The act of January 22, 1829,
reduced it to three. The act of February 10, 1835,
again provided for a board of five but that of March
2, 1837 again fixed the number at three and it has
since remained that number.
^The members of the first board in 1823 were named
in the act by which it was created. The act of March
2, 1837, placed the election of the commissioners in the
hands of the General Assembly.
' The trustees who received the deed of trust were
Captain William H. Swift of Washington and David
Leavitt of New York, elected by the creditors at
New York, May 27, 1845, and Jacob Fry, appointed
by the Governor of Illinois, June 10, 1845.
* The legal status of the commissioners is determined
by chapter 19, section 3, of the Revised Statutes of Illinois.
68 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
From time to time special appointments have
been made for special services, independent of the
board of commissioners.^ The most important
of these special services was that of the sale of
canal bonds during the period of construction.
These sales were always conducted by the Gover-
nor or by special agents appointed by him. The
boards of appraisers which determined the mini-
mum selling price of each lot or tract of land, were
appointed by the judge of the circuit court within
whose jurisdiction the lot or tract lay.^ In addi-
tion to these, it was a common occurrence for the
General Assembly to appoint special commissions
to investigate claims against the state growing out
of the construction or management of the canal
and for other specific services.^
The subordinate officials and employees of the
canal have usually been appointed by the board or
subject to its approval.^ During the development
of the project, the offices of secretary and treasurer
were filled by members of the board and since 1873
the same policy has been pursued. But, from
^ Laws of Illinois, 1847, p. 23.
2 Ibid., 23.
' As an example- of such appointments may be men-
tioned the two agents appointed by joint vote of the
General Assembly to protect the canal lands from
trespass and to grant permits for residence on canal
lands. Laws of Illinois, 1837, pp. 44-48.
*" Public Laws of Illinois, 1 871-2, p. 213; Laws of
Illinois, 1891, p. 71; Laws of Illinois, 1899, p. 82.
MANAGEMENT 69
1837 to 1873 these officials were appointed by the
board from outside its membership. Recently,
the employees of the board have been the general
superintendent, the chief clerk and paymaster,
the land agent, the attorney, and a force of about
twenty-five clerks, collectors of tolls, lock tenders,
and repair men.^
The functions of the board have varied with the
changing phases of the canal history. In the
main, however, they have been rather narrowly
restricted by legislative action. The General
Assembly has not only assumed control of the
general policy of the management, but it has oc-
casionally, by legislative enactment, directed the
action of the board in specific cases. But, in strictly
administrative matters the board has usually been
permitted to exercise discretionary powers. This
has been particularly true in recent years. With-
in the restrictions laid by the General Assembly,
the board has managed the contracts for construc-
tion and repairs, the canal finances other than
the bond sales, and the sales and leases of canal
lands and water power. It has fixed the rate of
tolls and the condition under which the canal may
be used, and has had general charge of the canal
interests.
In the contracts for construction, due provision
was made for the protection of the interests of the
state. The contracts were let to the lowest re-
'A list of the officers and employees of the canal
on November 30, 191 5, together with their compen-
sation, is given in appendix II.
70 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
sponsible bidder only after the conditions under
which they were to be performed had been widely
advertised both in Illinois and in the eastern states,
in order to secure the widest possible competition
among contractors.-^ In the earlier of these con-
tracts the contractors were required to give bond
for the specific performance of their agreements.
Later, the bond was not required, but fifteen per-
cent of the amount due the contractors for work
done was withheld till the completion of the work
in accordance with the specifications in the con-
tract.^ Although several of the contractors lost
heavily and some of them were compelled to
relinquish their contracts, the amounts forfeited
by such relinquishments usually reimbursed the
state for the extra expense entailed by the neces-
sity of making a new contract, frequently at a
higher figure.
The financial management of the canal has
generally been honest and reasonably efficient,
but it has not always been above criticism from
the standpoint of policy adopted or methods used.
During the period of construction, the ever present
financial problem led to the trial of unsound
financial expedients, some of which have been
discussed in the preceding chapter. The re-
sponsibility for these expedients rests partly with
the board and partly with the General Assembly.
The issuance of canal scrip is a case in point. As
^Laws of Illinois, 1835, p. 226; and, Report of the
Canal Trustees, 1846, p. 3.
2 Report of Canal Commissioners, 1836, p. 11.
MANAGEMENT 71
is usual in such cases, the scrip was overissued and
consequently suffered a heavy depreciation, cast-
ing an undue burden upon the men least able
to bear it, namely, the laborers.^ The General
Assembly which authorized such a course was
not blameless, but the administration of the act
lay with the commissioners. The act was rather
permissive than mandatory and the amount of
the issue was entirely within their control. It
may be urged, however, in extenuation of the
policy, that no other means was available at the
time for continuing the work on the canal and
that a suspension of operations would have been
much more disastrous to the contractors and cer-
tainly so to all the laborers who could not readily
find work elsewhere, than the depreciation of the
scrip proved to be. Be that as it may, the in-
evitable result of the policy adopted was the
practical reduction of the wages of the laborers
and the development of a class of land speculators
at the expense of the laboring men who were
forced by the necessities of life to cash their scrip
for whatever it would bring. Men with ready
money were enabled to purchase scrip at a heavy
discount and use it in payment for canal lots or
lands at face value.
'The contractors were paid in scrip but they were
able to pass it on to the laborers in payment of wages.
The laborers either used it in making purchases of
necessaries of life, the price of which was raised to cover
the depreciation of the scrip, or it was sold to speculat-
ors for cash at a discount. In either case, the laborer
bore the chief part of the burden of depreciation.
72 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
If the board was led to dangerous lengths in
the issue of canal scrip, it showed greater con-
servatism than its legislative master in meeting the
problem of "wild-cat" money. During the sus-
pension of specie payments following the panic
of 1837 and again during the civil war, the canal
revenues suffered much from the receipt of "un-
current" money.-^ The act of July 21, 1837,
required the canal commissioners to accept in
payment of bills to the canal, the notes of either
the State Bank of Illinois or the Bank of Illinois
or those of any other bank whose notes were
accepted and credited as cash by the bank where
the canal funds were kept. While the losses to
the canal from this source were probably pro-
portionately no heavier than those of the average
business firm, they became of considerable im-
portance.^ To relieve the treasury as much as
possible from this evil, the trustees ordered that
"specie funds only, or the equivalent thereof"
should be received in payment of tolls. ^ The
natural result was a nominal increase of earnings
which practically offset the losses from the neces-
sary acceptance of depreciated money. From
i860 to 1862 the tolls increased 95.34 per cent
^Report of the Canal Trustees^ 1862, pp. 5-6.
2 The actual loss sustained during the year 1861, in the
conversion of notes into specie values was ^2,225.53, but
the board held deposits of canal funds to the amount
of ^32,605.40 on which it estimated there would be
an average loss of 50 per cent. Report of the Trustees
of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, 1862, p. 5.
^ The resolution was adopted May 27, 1861.
MANAGEMENT 73
while the traffic for the same period increased
83.32 per cent.^ The establishment of the national
banking system and the enforced retirement of the
circulation of all other banks, effectually removed
the danger of losses from "uncurrent" money.
When the board of trustees made its final report
on April 30, 1871, and turned the canal and its
property back to the state, the financial sky
seemed to be entirely clear. The canal debts
were fully paid and a surplus of ^95,742.41 was
turned into the state treasury. This sum was
regarded as but an earnest of the revenues to be
derived from the operation of the canal. The
problem of financial management for the future
was assumed to be the simple one of collecting the
revenues, paying the expenses of operation and
repairs and turning over the surplus to the treasury
of the state. As the revenue for the preceding
ten years had exceeded the gross expenditures for
the same period by ^1,244,048, such an assumption
seemed well founded.^ The history of the suc-
ceeding years, however, did not give so much cause
for optimism. In the succeeding decade, the tolls
exceeded the expenditures by only ^320,199 and
the following decade showed a deficit of $211,039.
In fact, the expenditures have exceeded the tolls
regularly since 1879. During all these years up
'The statistics from which these percentages have
been derived may be found in the appendix to any
recent report of the canal commissioners.
^ This sum does not include a small annual income
from rentals, the amount of which is not obtainable.
74 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
to 1903, the General Assembly made biennial
appropriations from the state treasury to cover the
deficits, under the guise of appropriations for the
improvement of navigation. In 1903, it appro-
priated $152,950 to make needed repairs and to
maintain the canal in navigable condition for the
next biennium.^ In the circuit court of Sanga-
mon County, Richard E. Burke sought an injunc-
tion restraining the commissioners from using the
appropriation, on the ground that it had been
made in violation of the following provision of the
constitution of 1870: "The general assembly
shall never loan the credit of the state, or make
appropriations from the treasury thereof, in aid of
railroads or canals: Provided, that any surplus
earnings of any canal may be appropriated for its
enlargement or extension." ^ The case was carried
^The appropriation was made up of three items:
$50,000 a year for the biennium for maintenance of the
canal in navigable condition, $42,950 for the main-
tenance and operation of the pumping station at
Bridgeport, and $10,000 for dredging the steamboat
channel and basin at La Salle.
2 The entire section is as follows: "The Illinois and
Michigan Canal shall never be sold or leased until the
specific proposition for the sale or lease thereof shall
first have been submitted to a vote of the people of
the state at a general election, and have been approved
by a majority of all the votes polled at such election.
The general assembly shall never loan the credit of
the state, or make appropriations from the treasury
thereof, in aid of railroads or canals: Provided, that
any surplus earnings of any canal may be appropriated
for its enlargement or extension."
MANAGEMENT 75
to the Supreme Court of Illinois, which held the
appropriation violative of the above constitutional
provision and therefore illegal.^ Since then the
commissioners have been compelled to maintain
the canal by such expedients as have been at their
disposal from year to year. To supplement the
small earnings, tracts of real estate have been
sold from time to time and portions of the ex-
penses formerly charged against the canal funds
have frequently been charged against the appro-
priations for the improvement of the Illinois river
channel,^ By these expedients the canal has been
maintained in recent years. The lack of funds,
however, has prevented the commissioners from
making the necessary repairs and the efficiency of
the canal as a transportation route has suffered
accordingly. Much of the time, portions of the
canal have been practically unnavigable for boats
with anything like a standard load.^ In fact, the
^ In the case of Burke vs. Snively et al, the decision In
the Supreme Court was handed down February 17, 1904
and is given in full, together with a dissenting opinion,
in the Illinois Reports ^W oXnme 208, pp. 328-363, and also,
in the Northeastern Reporter^ Volume 70, pp. 327-338.
* Since the completion of the locks at Henry and
Copperas Creek on the Illinois River, the portion of the
river from La Salle to Copperas Creek has been under the
charge of the canal commissioners and is, to all intents
and purposes, an extension of the canal to the latter
point. The lock at Henry was opened in September
1871 and that at Copperas Creek in October, 1877.
' A canal boat bearing the standard load draws four
feet and eight inches of water.
76 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
upper section of the canal from Lockport to Chi-
cago has been abandoned and the traffic transferred
to the Drainage Canal.
Nearly allied to the financial administration, is
the policy pursued in relation to the canal lands
and water power. It has never been the policy of
the state to retain permanently the ownership of
any considerable portion of the 290,915 acres
granted to it, aside from the ninety foot strip on
each side of the canal. The sales of lots and lands
in 1830 and 1836, however, convinced the com-
missioners that the only hope of obtaining any
large part of the cost of the canal from the federal
land grant, lay in the retention of the land by the
state till the completion of the canal should have
increased its value. Small sales of lots and of
farm and timber lands were made occasionally, to
meet the most urgent demands on the canal treas-
ury. As a means of replenishing the treasury,
however, the sales proved a failure. First, because
the amounts sold were relatively small and, sec-
ondly, because the payments were made in in-
stallments, most of which did not fall due for
several years after the date of sale. Land sales,
even under the act of January 9, 1836, which
required the payment of the purchase price in
four equal annual installments, would not have
met the pressing needs of the treasury, but suc-
ceeding laws rendered this method of raising
needed funds, entirely ineffective. The act of
February 26, 1839, provided that one-tenth of the
purchase price should be paid on receipt of the
MANAGEMENT 77
certificate of purchase, but the remaining nine-
tenths became due only at the expiration of twenty-
years from the date of sale.^
In the desperate state of the finances in 1840,
the commissioners were directed to sell enough
canal land each year to meet the interest on the
canal debt.^ The sales for the year, however,
amounted to only ^61,975.57 and for the follow^ing
year, $88,598.38.^ Since the land was sold under
the provisions of the act of February 26, 1839,
and since the canal debt was even then about
^3,000,000 and rapidly increasing it was clearly
evident that the interest could not be met by the
sale of land unless at a price detrimental to the
permanent financial welfare of the state. More-
over, the land could not be sold at lower prices,
except on a revaluation by the appraisers.^ This
the commissioners did not desire. They preferred
^The commissioners were permitted to increase the
proportion of the purchase price which should be
paid at the time of purchase, by previously advertising
the conditions of the sale. Little advantage seems to
have been gained by this privilege. Many changes
were later made in the conditions of sales, but it was
not till 1869 that payment had to be made in cash at
time of the purchase.
^ Laws of Illinois y 1839-40, pp. 79-80.
' Report of Canal Commissioners , 1878, p. 47.
* No land or lot could be sold till after its value had
been appraised by the board of appraisers, and none
could be sold for less than its appraised value. The
fluctuation of real estate values, especially in the cities,
required frequent revaluations.
78 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
to continue the policy of reserving the greater part
of the land till the completion of the canal should
have enhanced its value sufficiently to cover a
large part of the canal debt. From July i, 1841,
the state suspended interest payments on its
entire debt.^ Had the commissioners pursued the
policy authorized by the act of February i, 1840,
this event might have been delayed. It would
not have been averted. On the other hand, the
sale of a sufficient amount of the canal land to
meet the interest charges on the canal debt would
have so seriously weakened the resources of the
canal that it is doubtful whether the creditors
would have accepted the deed of trust on the canal
and its property as a sufficient guarantee of the
^1,600,000 loan necessary to the completion of
the work. The policy of the commissioners may
have permitted the state to be forced to a tempo-
rary suspension of interest payments, but it pre-
pared the way for the completion of the canal and
the ultimate extinguishment of the canal debt.
Had the commissioners adopted the policy of
forcing the land on the market, the abandonment
of the canal and the ultimate financial ruin of the
state would have been inevitable, and the repudia-
tion of the state debt almost certain.^
Not only did the land policy pursued by the
commissioners furnish the state a valuable asset
^Chapter II, page 52, note 2, above.
^Repudiation had already been seriously proposed
by many people as the only possible means of freeing
the state from an excessive burden of debt.
MANAGEMENT 79
in securing the necessary loan, but it proved an
equally important one in the extinguishment of
the canal debt. From the opening of the canal
for traffic till the final settlement of the canal debt,
the sales of lands and lots played an important
part in furnishing the funds for the liquidation
of the maturing financial obligations of the canal.
In the summer of 1848 the trustees sold 45,625
acres of land and 2,244 lots. In the case of both
lands and lots, the selling price exceeded the
appraised valuations.^ The spirited competition
among the buyers forced the prices of many of the
lots to double their appraisement.- In the first
three years of the operation of the canal the sales
of lots and lands amounted to ^1,001,487,^ while
all the sales for the fifteen years preceding the be-
ginning of the trust had aggregated only ^1,152,
064.79.^ During the continuance of the trust from
June 26, 1845 to April 30, 1871, the trustees dis-
posed of lands and lots to the amount of ^4,706,
482.68,^ After the extinguishment of the canal
^The lands sold were appraised at ^208,021 and sold
for ^210,775. The appraised value of the lots was
$505,124 and the selling price, $554,864.
^The Chicago Daily Democrat, September 26, 1848.
This issue of the Democrat quotes at length from the
Ottawa Free Trader concerning the sale of lots in that
city. The Free Trader estimates that the sales of lots
in Ottawa had exceeded $130,000.
^Swift's Report to the Canal Creditors, 1850, p. 9.
* Report of the Secretary of War, 1887, Volume II,
Part 3, p. 2147.
^Final Report of the Canal Trustees, 1871, p. 9.
8o THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
debt, the sales proceeded more slowly. Between
April 30, 1871, and December l, 1878, they yielded
^27,492.21 to the canal funds, but in the succeed-
ing seven years, ending December i, 1885, the
total receipts from this source were only ^6,668.28.^
From that time, the sales were of little conse-
quence till the decline of other sources of revenue in
recent years compelled the canal management to
resort to this method of replenishing the treasury.
In the meantime, the advance in the value of city
lots, which compose most of the real estate values
held by the canal, has been sufficient to leave the
value of the present holdings about the same as
those of 1885.^ The estimated value at that time
was ^166,023.59. In 1907, it was ^168,878.59.
Since 1898, there had been a decrease of ^18,-
969.41 in the value of lands and lots held, but,
during the same period the sales amounted to
^79,18773.'
The early management of the canal lands was
of such a character that at the conclusion of the
^Report of the Secretary of War, 1887, Volume II,
part 3, pp. 2147-2148.
^Of the estimated values for each year since 1885,
only $360.59 has been assigned to the tracts of land
as follows :
Two very small islands $10.00
Two tracts of land aggregating 15.34 acres.. 350-59
$360.59
^The decrease in value since 1898 and the amount of
sales for the same period have been computed from the
annual reports of the canal commissioners.
MANAGEMENT 8i
trust in 1871, sufficient funds had been derived
from their sales to cancel ^5,858,547.47 of the
^6,557,681.50 which the canal originally cost,
exclusive of interest charges, exchanges, and other
similar items. Since the payment of the original
canal debt, more than ^100,000 has been re-
ceived from the sales of lots and lands, in addition
to the rentals, which have varied from year to
year.
The management of the canal was liberal toward
the purchasers of canal land. Although the law
provided for the forfeiture of lands and lots if the
purchaser failed to meet his payments of principal
or interest when due, it also made the certificates
of purchase negotiable and transferable either by
endorsement or by a separate instrument. These
provisions not being sufficient for the relief of
purchasers who had bought lands or lots at the
inflated prices preceding the panic of 1837, the
act of February 27, 1841, made special provision
for this class of debtors.^ The debtor was per-
mitted to select such part of his purchase as the
payments made would buy after deducting one-
third from the original purchase price. On re-
linquishment of the remainder, his remaining obli-
gations to the State were cancelled.^ The State
^Lazvs of Illinois, 1841, pp. 49-51.
*In the case of farm or timber lands all divisions
were to be made on the basis of the government survey
divisions. In case of city lots, such division was
required as would leave to the state proportionately
as much frontage as to the purchaser.
82 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
went even further in its liberality and passed num-
erous special acts for the relief of individuals who
for one reason or another, did not come within
the purview of the general enactments.^ It also
enabled men to secure choice tracts of land by
permitting them to occupy and improve the tracts
before they were offered for sale. By payment of
rent to the state these men were able to hold the
land till it was put upon the market when they
were usually able to secure it at the valuation of
the appraisers. For the protection of the State
and the bona fide settlers against the land grabber
and speculator the limit of the privilege of hold-
ing land was restricted to six hundred and forty
acres. ^
An effort was also made by the canal manage-
ment to assist in attracting to the canal region a
desirable class of settlers by promoting the com-
munity life of the villages and towns along the
canal, by aiding the social and moral uplift of the
community through provision for public education
and religious instruction.^ In pursuance of this
policy lots were granted for public buildings, such
as court houses, schools, and churches. Liberal
^Examples of such acts are those of February 25, 1845
and numerous others.
"^Laws of Illinois J 1837, p. 45.
^Henry Brown, a historian of Chicago, is authority
for the statement that the canal commissioners gave
twenty-five lots to Chicago to aid in the erection of
public buildings. Brown's Present and Future Pros-
pects of Chicago, p. 5.
MANAGEMENT 83
concessions were made in the matter of the location
of the lots and in the manner of using them.^
In addition to the rental of unsold lands, it has
been part of the policy of the management to
grant twenty-year leases for the use of such parts
of the ninety-foot strips as are favorably situated
for the location of ware-houses, elevators, or other
business establishments.^ The same policy is
pursued relative to the water power developed at
various places along the canal from Lockport to
La Salle. These leases of water power have been
of especial importance at Lockport, Joliet, and
Ottawa. The water power lease at Lockport was
of less financial importance directly than indirectly,
however. The Norton Mills at that place derived
their power from the canal but they also trans-
ported much of their wheat and flour on it. For
several years the wheat carried from Chicago to
these mills and the flour and millstuffs returned
'Churches were permitted to sell part or all of the
lots donated, provided the funds received from the
sale should be expended in the erection of a church
building or in securing a more desirable site.
^On taking control of the canal, the trustees adopted
the policy of charging rentals for the use of canal
property. The act of February 21, 1843 prohibited the
sale of lands or water power till three months after the
canal was opened for operation, but the act of Feb-
ruary 25, 1847 removed the restriction and left the
matter to the discretion of the trustees, with the one
restriction that not more than one tenth of the canal
lots or lands in any one city or town could be sold
till after the completion of the canal.
84 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
constituted a large part of the traffic on the upper
section of the canal. ^ In addition to Norton and
Company, among the more prominent of the les-
sees of recent years have been the Economy
Light and Power Company and the Great West-
ern Cereal Company of Joliet, and the Ottawa
Hydraulic Company, and the Northern Illinois
Light and Traction Company of Ottawa. Many
other corporations, firms, and individuals derive
power from the same source, or pay rentals for
the occupation of portions of the ninety-foot strip.
The opening of the Chicago Drainage Canal
materially increased the rentals from water power
by largely augmenting the flow over the state dam
where the Illinois and Michigan Canal crosses the
Des Plaines River in the city of Joliet. The in-
creased rentals from water power have about
counterbalanced the decrease of those from the
ninety-foot strip, which have declined with the
decline of the traffic on the canal.^
To these rentals should be added the receipts from
the ice leases and from water pipe and sprinkling
iQf the 38,820 tons of freight carried on the canal
in 1905, there were 335,334 bushels of wheat shipped
from Chicago and 6,163,444 pounds of flour and
2,340,927 pounds of millstuffs received. Practically
all of this business was produced by the Lockport
mills. However, the upper section of the canal,
extending from Lockport to Chicago, has since been
closed to traffic and all canal traffic between these two
points is now carried on the Drainage Canal.
2 For the last eighteen years, the earnings from these
two sources have been as follows:
RECEIPTS OF THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
1898-1915
MANAGEMENT 85
privileges and miscellaneous items, which have
recently aggregated several hundred dollars a year.^
In the last eighteen years the earnings from rent-
als, leases, and privileges, have been ^333,511,
while the tolls for the same period amounted to
only ^150,433.
The state has never attempted to transport
passengers or freight. It has furnished the route
and left the work of transportation to individuals
and corporations. On the opening of the canal,
the commissioners fixed the rate of tolls to be paid
by the owners of vessels for the privilege of using
the canal. These tolls were made up of two sepa-
Year
90 foot strip
Water power
Both
1898
$7,726.93
$7,572.70
$15,299.63
1899
13,627.00
8,108.50
21,735-50
1900
6,141.00
4,704.87
10,845.87
I9OI
4,175.00
9,068.22
13,243.22
1902
1,550.00
13,857-69
15,407.69
1903
3,79075
11,911.82
15,702.57
1904
3,ooi-33
18,988.87
21,990.20
1905
1,959.00
15,936.47
17,895-47
1906
2,399.00
15,337-59
17,736.59
1907
2,957.00
6,413.84
9,370.84
1908
2,370.40
9,288.43
12,658.83
1909
2,529.20
19,666.06
22,195.26
I9IO
3,272.20
13,050.75
16,322.95
I9II
5,479-56
12,196.30
17,675.86
I912
3,258.60
13,541-74
16,800.34
I913
5,781.20
14,150.00
19,931.20
I914
5,386.20
14,510.00
19,896.20
I915
8,066.33
14,110.00
22,176.33
'These receipts have been;
86 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
rate charges. First, a charge per mile for each
boat or barge. Second, a charge per mile for
each thousand pounds of freight or for each pas-
senger carried.^ The same method of estimating
the charges for the use of the canal has been
continued down to the present time, but the rates
have been reduced from time to time in an effort
to withstand the increasing competition of the
railways. Notwithstanding the reductions in
canal charges, the traffic has gone more and more
to the railroads till for the year ending November
30, 1905, the total amount of freight transported
Year
Ice leases
1898
$ 856.00
1899
1,257.00
1900
767.00
1 901
1,077.00
1902
1,057.00
1903
1,772.00
1904
300.00
1905
987.00
1906
371.00
1907
585.00
1908
3 1 1 .00
1909
526.00
191O
i,455-oo
I9II
846.50
I912
i>095.5o
I913
901.50
I914
355-50
I915
1,786.50
Water pipe and sprinkling
privileges and miscellaneous
1 Both
^1,236.21
$2,092.21
3,211.48
4,468.48
1,670.50
2,437.50
193-50
1,270.50
553-00
1,610.00
1,022.15
2,794.15
4,372.90
4,672.90
2,102.34
3,089.34
2,327-31
2,698.31
1,977-95
2,562.95
3,467.81
3,778.81
3,879-58
4,405.58
6,364.40
7,819.40
4,175.16
5,021.66
5,351.19
6,446.69
5,240.17
6,141.67
7,452.46
7,807.96
5,821.88
7,608.38
^The list of tolls adopted in 1848 may be found in
appendix III.
TOLLS AND EXPENDITURES ON THE
ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL, 1848-1915
TOLLS
CROSS EXPENSES
ORDINARY REPAIRS
EXTRAORDINARY REPAIRS
' ' I I ^
-+H-
A /-
' \ /
1 00000
MANAGEMENT 87
on the canal was only 38,820 tons against 1,01 1,287
tons in 1882. In 1915 the tonnage had increased
to 358,550 tons but the tolls had decreased, due to
the character of the freight handled and to the fact
that no tolls can be charged for the traffic on the
Drainage Canal portion of the route. For 1905
the tolls, including those collected at the locks at
Henry and Copperas Creek on the Illinois River,
amounted to only ^4,950 and the gross expendi-
tures were $50,890.^ In 191 5 the tolls were
^1,336, and the expenditures were $35,756. For
the decline in tonnage and tolls, the management
is only partially responsible. The railroads have
taken the business from the canal partly because
of the advantages offered by the great railway
systems with their methods of prorating of freights
and interchange of cars and partly because of the
fact that the railroads are managed by capable
men, thoroughly familiar with the transportation
business, while the canal is managed by men
appointed because of the political influence back
of them, rather than because of their familiarity
with transportation problems.
Although politics played a more or less impor-
tant part in the management of the canal from the
beginning, it has been a more pronounced element
in the determination of appointments in recent
years than formerly. For many years practically
all the appointments have been determined by
^The tolls, expenditures, and tonnage of the Illinois
and Michigan Canal to the close of 191 5 are to be
found in appendix I.
88 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
political affiliations.^ The efficiency of the canal
administration necessarily suffered. Two in-
stances which have come to public knowledge
within recent years exhibit this phase of the later^
management.^ In the investigation of the dam-
^The insecurity of tenure is illustrated by the changes
which occurred in the personnel of the canal force
between February 15 and March 15, 1897 when
every man on the pay roll with a single exception
was changed. The changes were somewhat more
sweeping in this case than usual because the state
administration was passing from the control of one
party to that of its opponent, but the principle holds
true generally that the employees must affiliate with
the political faction in power.
^The one scandal connected with the earlier history
of the canal grew out of the failure of the canal officials
to properly cancel or destroy the redeemed scrip.
By reason of this failure the state came near losing
^200,000 through the redemption of a portion of it
a second time, and the fair name of Ex-Governor
Mattison was brought under suspicion. The scrip
in question was issued in 1840 and mostly redeemed
within a few months. After remaining in the Chicago
branch of the Illinois State Bank and at the canal
office till 1853, it was transferred to Springfield in a
trunk and a shoe box and placed in the basement of
the capitol building. In 1857 Governor Mattison
presented for redemption scrip which with the ac-
cumulated interest amounted to about ^200,000.
In 1859, after an investigation, a senate committee
and the grand jury of Sangamon County failed to hold
Mattison culpable. He reimbursed the state, but his
friends claimed that he did so to prevent financial
loss arising under his administration and that the
scrip presented had come into his hands through
MANAGEMENT 89
ages which would be sustained by the canal prop-
erty from the construction of the Chicago Drainage
Canal, it was discovered that for many years
squatters had held several tracts of canal land
which had been entirely lost sight of by the canal
management. It was further discovered that
among the forgotten files of the canal office were
unrecorded deeds to several lots and parcels of
land in the city of Joliet.^ The same failure to
conserve the best interests of the state in the
management of the canal affairs came to light in
the legislative investigations of the "Dresden
Heights dam lease," in the month of November,
1907. According to the evidence there pre-
sented, the canal officials entered into a sale and
lease of state property to a private corporation,
seemingly without any definite knowledge of the
value of the rights conveyed.- The consideration
was ^2,200 and the value of the rights conveyed
legitimate business transactions. Cancellation or
destruction of the scrip as redeemed would have
prevented the unfortunate affair.
^Report of the Canal Commissioners, 1897, pp. 9-1 1.
''The report of the testimony given before the
legislative investigating committee was published
daily in the Chicago Record Herald during the progress
of the investigation, beginning November 20, 1907.
The lease was made to Harold F. Griswold who trans-
ferred it to the Economy Light and Power Company.
By a joint resolution which passed both houses on
November 27, 1907, the General Assembly directed
the Canal Commissioners to cancel the lease. Laws
of Illinois, Adjourned Session, 1907-1908, pp. 101-102.
90 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
has been variously estimated at from ^5,000,000
to ^15,000,000.^ Even assuming that the lowest
of these estimates greatly exceeds the real value
of these rights, it would appear that the canal
officials permitted themselves to be drawn into a
contract by which the state would not receive com-
pensation commensurate with the rights conveyed.
These instances are sufficient to indicate a type of
management which is certainly not above criticism.
Although in recent years the canal has been
compelled to carry the incubus of the spoils
politician, it has not, on the whole, suffered more
from this source than the state penal and charitable
insitutions did before they were placed under the
civil service system. The character and efficiency
of the management has varied at different times
and with different boards. As a rule, however,
it was more efficient when the canal was an im-
portant commercial route than it has been since
the traffic has largely gone to the railroads. Since
the canal has ceased to be of much consequence as
a transportation agency, the public has ceased to
exercise the watchfulness, born of personal inter-
est, which compelled a reasonable degree of
efficiency in its earlier management. The history
^The entire deal consisted of three parts. First, a
lease of flowage rights in the Des Plaines River, con-
sideration $2,200. Second, the right to place a line
of poles for the purpose of stringing electric wires along
the ninety-foot strip. Third, the purchase of a small
tract of land lying between the canal and the river
bank, consideration $500.
MANAGEMENT 91
of the canal has demonstrated once again the oft-
demonstrated facts that, in the long run, an intel-
ligent public interest is essential to the successful
conduct of a public business and that there is no
necessary correspondence between the ability of a
political appointee to obtain an appointment and
his ability to successfully perform the duties which
attach to the position obtained. There can be
little doubt that a greater care exercised in the
selection of the canal commissioners and a well
organized civil service based on the merit system
and strictly applied in the selection of all officers
and employees, would have added to the efficiency
of the canal management. The tasks to be per-
formed demanded men of large ability, special
skill, and unswerving integrity. The system em-
ployed in the selection of men and the distribution
of powers and responsibilities has not always in-
sured the highest type of management.
Chapter IF
ECONOMIC INFLUENCE
Before the canal was opened for traffic its local
influence in the development of the region through
which it passes had been distinctly marked. After
its opening it wielded a larger influence, not only
locally, but over a wider range of territory, by
means of the added facilities which it furnished as
a transportation route before the era of railroads,
giving access to otherwise closed markets. Since
the era of railroad building began in the middle
West, it has also served as a freight-rate regulator
at all competitive points. In the performance of
these services, however, it has been handicapped
first, by the conditions of the Illinois River, which
together with the canal, completes the waterway
from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi; secondly,
by the character and conditions of the railroad
competition; and, thirdly, to a less extent, by the
character of the canal management. The in-
fluence exerted by the canal may be divided logical-
ly and chronologically into three periods. The
first period was during the development of the
project and the construction of the canal. The
second period was comprised in the six years from
the beginning of the traffic on the canal in 1848 to
the opening of the Chicago and Rock Island Rail-
92
ECONOMIC INFLUENCE 93
road from Chicago to the Mississippi River in 1854.
The third period consists of the years of competi-
tion for traffic between the canal and the railroads.
During the years of projection and construction
of the canal the wealth and population of the
canal region grew apace. In 1829 when the Canal
Commissioners laid out the towns of Chicago and
Ottawa, Peoria was a small pioneer outpost on the
extreme northern frontier of the settled portion of
Illinois.^ Beyond it, far removed from any imme-
diate connection with the remainder of the state,
and separated by wide stretches of country trav-
ersed only by the red man and a few traders, lay
a small settlement at the mouth of the Chicago
River and another at Galena in the lead mining
district on the upper Mississippi.^
Between 1830 and 1835 the increasing probabil-
ity of the early construction of the canal and the
widely disseminated opinion that its completion
would greatly increase the value of all the land
within a reasonable distance of the route and
^There were but few settlers north of Fulton County
in the "Military Tract," or north of the Sangamon
River east of the Illinois.
*The entire population in the vicinity of the present
city of Chicago, including white families, half-breeds
and three or four French traders, did not exceed one
hundred. The poll-book used at an election held in the
precinct of Chicago, Peoria County, August 2, 1830,
contains thirty-two names. Not all of these voters
lived at the village of Chicago. Cf. VVentworth's
lecture before the Chicago Historical Society, in the
Fergus Historical Series^ No. 7, p. 16.
94 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
develop the proposed cities and villages along its
course, led to a steadily increasing demand for
farms and town lots along the line of the projected
waterway. This movement, slow at first, was
accelerated as it became increasingly apparent
that the construction would not be long delayed.
By the beginning of the actual work of construc-
tion in 1836, real estate speculation had become
the chief occupation in the canal region. Shrewd
business men perceived that Chicago would neces-
sarily become the transfer point for all passengers
and commerce passing between the Great Lakes
and the canal and that it was destined to be the
emporium of western trade. ^ A realization of
these facts made the canal region, and particularly
Chicago, a favorite place for the exercise of the
speculative mania that swept over the country
just prior to the panic of 1837. Accordingly, real
estate values advanced by leaps and bounds.^
In 1830, one hundred and twenty-six lots sold in
Chicago at prices varying from twenty-four to
one hundred and thirty dollars each, but averaging
about thirty-five dollars. Eighty acres of land,
^As originally laid out In 1830, the town of Chicago
comprised the territory between the present streets
of State and Halsted, and KInzIe and Madison, the
junction of the north and south forks of the Chicago
river falling within the limits of the town. James
Thompson of St. Louis was surveyor for the Commis-
sioners. His plat and compass are owned by the Chicago
Historical Society.
2 Andreas, History of Chicago, I, p. 115.
The original Town of Chicago, the eastern ter-
minus of the Canal, as surveyed by James Thompson-
by order of the Commissioners. His plat showing
purchasers of lots, filed August 4, 1830. "The
Forks," not the Public Square, was the center of
population at this time.
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James Thompson, Surveyor
ECONOMIC INFLUENCE 95
now in the heart of the city, brought ^1.55 an
acre.^ Four years later, lots on South Water
street, then the chief business street of the city,
sold for ^3,500 each.^ A tract of forty acres of
land, now included in Butler, Wright, and Web-
ster's addition, was purchased on January 2, 1835,
for ^4,000. On April 10 following it was sold for
^10,000.^ The active preparation for the actual
beginning of the work only led to still w^ilder spec-
ulation, till the mania was checked by the panic.
• The rise and decline in real estate values in
other towns along the canal were less phenomenal
and spectacular but otherwise very similar to those
at Chicago. The growth of the towns was slower
and the speculative spirit less rampant. Conse-
quently, the real estate prices were not subject to
such violent fluctuations. At Ottawa, in 1830,
the Canal Commissioners sold nine lots at an
average price of twenty dollars each. In 1836,
they sold seventy-eight at an average price of
^273.85.^ In other canal towns the increase in
values followed about the same course as at Ottawa .
As was to be expected from the inflated real
estate values, the reaction produced by the panic
of 1837 was particularly violent in Chicago. For
several years after the panic, periods of inflated
prices were succeeded by periods of depression.
Some of these variations took a wide range. The
* Andreas, History of Chicago, I, p. 115.
2 Wright, Chicago, Past, Present, Future, pp. 4-6.
3lbid., p. 6.
* Report of the Canal Commissio7iers, 1878, p. 44.
96 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
high prices of 1843 were followed by the heavy-
decline in 1845. In the latter year, thirteen canal
lots which had been forfeited by their former
purchasers, were sold for ^8,622. These same lots
had formerly been appraised at ^49,430. In the
same year, a syndicate of canal creditors accepted
at an appraisement of ^30,210, lots and tracts
which had brought ^94,405 in October, 1843.^
However, in each period of inflation the prices
usually rose higher than in the preceding.
Such a field for speculation could not fail to
attract population and investments. But not all
the investments were of a speculative character.
Much of the demand for farms and town lots came
from those who turned their faces toward the canal
region to make it their future home. To be sure,
the increasing demands for farms and business
locations and the estimates placed upon the future
enlargement of those demands formed the basis
for the speculation which from time to time placed
abnormal valuations on the choice tracts of land
and business situations. But the general upward
trend of real estate values throughout the period
depended on a steadily growing population and
industry.
The entire population included in the territory
extending from Peoria to Wisconsin on the north
and Indiana on the east, was 13 10 in 1830.^ By
1835, Cook and La Salle counties had been created
along the line of the proposed canal, the former
having a population of 9,826 and the latter of
1 Report of the Canal Commissioners, 1878, p. 49.
"^Twelfth Census, Population I, Part I, p. 16.
ECONOMIC INFLUENCE 97
4,754. The river section of the route, lying be-
tween the proposed western terminus of the canal
and Peoria, was comprised in Putnam and Peoria
counties with a combined population of 7,241,^ a
net gain of 20,511 in the region of the proposed
waterway in five years. In the next five years
the population of this region rose to 46,451 and
in 1850, it had reached 125,708. The population of
Chicago grew from 4,470 in 1840 to 12,088 in 1845
and 28,269 in 1850.^ It was in the neighborhood
of 20,000 at the opening of the canal for traffic.^
The economic development of the region is
further shown by the rapidity with which the land
passed from public to private ownership. Of the
3,626,536 acres of public land in the Chicago land
district on May 29, 1835, 2,780,640 acres had been
sold to individual purchasers by November i , 1 847."*
^Illinois House Journal, 9th General Assembly, 2nd
Session, p. 86, gives the state census by counties in 1835.
^Senate Executive Document, No. 16, 34th Cong.,
3rd Sess., pp. 40-41.
'The population given for 1847 was 16,860 and that
for 1848 was 20,035.
* Report of Jesse B. Thomas, member of the Executive
Committee of the Chicago Harbor and River Conven-
tion, 1847, p. 18. The yearly sales were as follows:
Year Acres sold Year Acres sold
1835 370,043 1842 194,556
1836 202,364 1843 229,460
1837 15,697 1844 235,258
1838 87,881 1845 220,525
1839 160,635 1846 198,849
1840 137,382 1847 (toNov.i) 98,569
1841 138,583
98 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
The imports and exports of a community fairly
indicate the condition of its economic develop-
ment. Measured by this standard, the economic
development of the canal region did not lag behind
its growth of population. During the period under
consideration, the import and export trade of the
region chiefly centered at Chicago, as it has since
continued to do. The trade at Chicago grew and
altered in character with the development of the
country tributary to it.^
^For the years when the canal was in process of con-
struction, the imports and exports at Chicago were as
follows :
Year Imports Exports
1836 $325,203.90 $1,000.64
1837 373,677-12 11,065.00
1838 579,174.61 16,044.75
1839 630,980.26 38,843.00
1840 562,106.20 228,635.74
184I 564,347.88 348,862.24
1842 664,347.88 659,305.20
1843 971,849.75 682,210.85
1844 1,686,416.00 785,504.23
1845 2,043,445.73 1,543,519.85
1846 2,027,150.00 1,813,468.00
1847 2,641,852.52 2,296,299.00
Report of Jesse B. Thomas, member of the Executive
Committee of the Chicago Harbor and River Conven-
tion, 1847, p. 15. These statistics are also given with
the omission of the columns for cents in Andrews,
Report on Colonial and Lake Trade, p. 218.
The leading articles of export for the six years pre-
ceding the opening of the canal and the quantities
exported were:
ECONOMIC INFLUENCE 99
The second period of influence of the canal began
in the month of April, 1848.^ The development
of the region during nearly two decades preceding
had been in anticipation of the canal. That of
the next six years was due to a partial realization
of the anticipations with which the project had
been carried to consummation. It was a period of
large industrial growth. For several months after
the opening of the canal its efficiency was adversely
affected by an insufficient supply of water on the
summit level, ^ and by an insufficient supply of
canal boats to carry the commodities and pas-
Bbls. of pork
Year
Bu. of wheat
Bbls. of flour
and beef
Lbs. of wool
1842
586,907
2,920
16,209
1,500
1843
628,967
10,786
21,492
22,050
1844
891,891
6,320
14,938
96,635
184s
956,860
13,752
13,268
216,616
1846
1459,594
28,045
31,224
281,222
1847
1,974,304
32,538
48,920
411,488
^The first boat, the General Fry, passed over the
Summit level from Lockport to Chicago on April 10,
and the General Thornton made the first trip the
entire length of the canal from La Salle to Chicago,
where it arrived on April 23. In the canal records
April 19 is regarded as the date of the opening of
the canal.
'The Calumet feeder not yet being completed, the
supply of water for the Summit level had to be pumped
from the Chicago River at Bridgeport. The porous
condition of the soil on some of the sections of the canal
rendered it extremely difficult to maintain a sufficient
depth of water for the navigation of loaded boats.
loo THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
sengers seeking transportation.^ Before the close
of the summer, however, the traffic had assumed
large proportions. Lumber from the Great Lakes
and merchandise from the East passed down the
canal for distribution to the canal and river towns
and from them to the interior settlements. The
farm products from the canal region and from the
Illinois River and sugar, molasses, coffee and
other tropical products from the New Orleans and
St. Louis markets were carried to Chicago on
their way to northern and eastern consumers.^
With improved facilities for transportation and
with the rapid industrial development of the
region influenced by these facilities, the traffic
and earnings grew almost steadily throughout the
period. Only in 1852 did the canal fail to show an
annual increase in earnings and in that year the
tolls were only ^4,723 less than in 1851. They
were ^43,073 more than for any previous year.^
During this period the annual tolls increased from
^87,890 to ^198,321. The decline in earnings in
1852 was due to the low water in the Illinois River
^At the opening of the canal only sixteen boats were
in commission for the service.
2 In their report for 1848, the canal trustees mention
with evident satisfaction and as an indication of large
through-freight business in the future, the fact that
sugar and other commodities from the New Orleans
market reached Buffalo by way of the Illinois and
Michigan Canal on April 30, a full two weeks before
the first boat of the season reached that city on the
Erie Canal.
^For the annual earnings of the canal, see Appendix I.
ECONOMIC INFLUENCE loi
which seriously affected the "through" business
of the canal. ^
The importance of the through traffic is shown
by the fact that in 185 1, 44,000,000 feet of lumber,
47,000,000 shingles, and 11,000,000 lath were sent
from Chicago to points beyond the western ter-
minus of the canal, and most of the 3,221,317
bushels of corn received at Chicago that year,
came from the Illinois River.^ From 185 1 to 1852
there was a decline of 4,334,976 feet of lumber,
1,067,670 bushels of corn, and 10,057 barrels of
salt and 4,134 barrels of pork carried on the
canal. But these losses were partially offset by
a gain of 39,379 bushels of wheat, 231,826 pounds
of sugar and 1,214,418 pounds of merchandise.^
The net result of these changes was the small
reduction in earnings already noted. In 1853 the
water supply continued insufficient. There was
sufficient gain in traffic, however, to regain the
loss of the previous year. The tolls exceeded
those of 185 1 by seventy-two dollars and those of
1852 by ^4,795. The increased earnings over
1852 were chiefly derived from larger shipments of
pork, wheat, corn, sugar and lumber.* But, in
'The low water in the Illinois River was equally
injurious to the St. Louis trade. Annual Report of St.
Louis Trade and Commerce, 1852, pp. 9-14; also Report
of the Canal Trustees, 1852, p. 3.
^Andrews, Report on Colonial and Lake Trade, p. 220.
^Szviffs Annual Circular (Report to the creditors),
1854, p. 14.
*Ibid., p. 14.
I02 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
spite of the river conditions, the canal traffic and
earnings continued to grow.^
Chicago, Peoria, and St. Louis were directly
affected by the canal as a transportation route.
Of the three, St. Louis was the only one affected
adversely and that only in a limited field. Before
the opening of the canal, the Illinois River trade
was tributary to St. Louis. After the opening of
the canal, most of it became tributary to Chicago.
For southern products, St. Louis still held the
territory, but the merchandise came principally
through the canal and the products of the region
largely sought the Chicago market. The Annual
Review of Trade and Commerce of St. Louis for
1848 accounts for the decrease of 316,625 bushels
of corn and 237,588 bushels of wheat received in
that market as compared with the receipts of the
previous year in the following words: "The deficit
may be accounted for from the opening of the
Illinois and Michigan Canal, which drew off to
Chicago and other points on the Lakes, the accus-
tomed heavy arrivals from the Illinois River, and
^The five leading articles of commerce carried on the
canal during the period were wheat, corn, sugar, mer-
chandise and lumber. The quantity of each of these
commodities carried is shown in the following tabula-
tion:
Year
Wheat, bu.
Corn, bu.
Sugar, lbs.
Mdse., lbs.
Lumber, feet
1848
454,111
516,230
3,219,122
4,948,000
15.425.357
1849
579.598
754,288
4,218,298
9.176,943
26,882,000
1850
417,036
317.674
5,680,324
10,372,623
38,687,528
1851
78,062
2,878,550
4,591.471
14,175,928
56,845,027
1852
117,441
1,810,880
4,822,297
15.390,346
52,510,051
1853
340,277
2,490,675
7,332,032
10,687,598
58,500,438
ECONOMIC INFLUENCE 103
greatly lessened the aggregate amount received at
this port."^ The next year showed a still greater
decrease.^ Henceforth, St. Louis could hope to
draw the major part of the grain from the Illinois
River only when temporary market conditions
should chance to give that market an advantage
in price. The freight rates from the Illinois River
to the eastern cities by way of Chicago and Buffalo
were lower than those by way of St. Louis and
New Orleans.^ Consequently the grain from that
region intended for the Atlantic seaboard cities or
for foreign export normally sought the northern
route.
St. Louis was compensated for this loss, how-
ever, by an enlargement of her mercantile interests.
The wholesale grocers found new markets for
sugar, coffee, tobacco, and other products of the
lower Mississippi trade.^ Eastern merchandise
for which St. Louis was the distributing point for
the rapidly developing regions west of the Missis-
sippi, could be obtained more expeditiously and
cheaply by way of the canal than by way of New
Orleans.^ From 1845 to 1853 the grocery business
^Annual Review of Trade and Commerce of St. Louis,
1848, p. 7.
^The receipts of corn decreased 393,829 bushels and
those of wheat 402,254 bushels.
^Annual Review of Trade and Commerce of St. Louis ,
1852, p. 9.
*■ Annual Review of Trade and Commerce of St. Louis,
1848, pp. 2, 10.
^Andrews, Report on Colonial and Lake Trade, p. 220.
I04 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
of St. Louis advanced from ^1,134,367 to ^5,018-
677 and the hardware business from ^251,259 to
^904,316. Between 1846 and 185 1 the imports of
coffee rose from 65,000 bags to 102,000 bags and
sugar from 17,000 packages to 66,000 packages.
The sales of dry goods in 1841 amounted to
^1,300,000; in 1852 they reached ^7,000,000.^
This growth of trade was not wholly due to the
opening of the Illinois and Michigan Canal but
was greatly facilitated by it.
The opening of the canal gave a strong impetus
to the development of Peoria. Although checked
in its growth by the cholera of 1849-50, the popu-
lation increased from 3,014 in 1847 to 6,202 at the
close of 1850.^ Five hundred and seventy-nine
buildings were erected in the three years, 1848,
1849, and 1850.^ These building operations were
facilitated by the cheapening of lumber through
the opening of the canal giving access to the north-
ern lumber regions. In 1848 the canal brought
large quantities of pine and cedar lumber from the
northern forests, reducing the price to about half
that of the preceding year when the supply was
received from the St. Louis and Pittsburgh mark-
ets.^ Business prospered generally. By 1850 the
importations of merchandise, lumber, and other
^Annual Review of Trade and Commerce of St. Louis,
1856, p. 9.
2 Drown, Record and Historical View of Peoria, p. 146.
'Ibid., p. 147.
^Ibid., p. 105.
ECONOMIC INFLUENCE 105
commodities had quadrupled since 1847.^ During
the season of 1850 six packets made regular weekly
trips between St. Louis and La Salle. Twenty-
seven steamers served as tow-boats each towing
from two to fourteen canal boats at a time. Aside
from the canal boats and flat boats an aggregate
of 1286 steamers touched at the Peoria wharf dur-
ing the season, an increase of more than 300 since
1847.2 The number of steamers at the wharf,
however, does not convey a correct impression
of the relative amount of business done during these
two years, because much of the imports and exports
of the latter year were carried on canal boats, the
number of which was not recorded. A record was
kept only of the steamers that had them in tow.^
^Drown, Record and Historical View of Peoria, p. 107.
^Ibid., pp. 107-109.
^Ibid., p. 144. The exports for 1851 amounted to
$1,227,134.10, the most important items of which were:
Corn, 628,719 bu. at $0.40 per bu $251,487.60
Wheat, 151,465 bu. at $0.68 per bu 102,996.20
Oats, 262,357 bu. at $0.35 per bu 92,874.05
Flour, 35,753 bbls. at $4.50 per bbl 151,888.50
Whiskey, 5,685 bbls. at $10.00 per bbl . . 56,850.00
Wool, 250,760 lbs. at $0.30 per lb 75,228.00
Dry hides, 10,701 hides at $2.00 per
hide 21,402.00
Coal, 20,580 tons, at $2.50 per ton 51,450.00
Beef cattle, 1,719 head at $15.00 per
head 25,785.00
Hogs, 26,796 head, at $7.00 per head . . 185,572.00
Cooperage — valued at 47,785.00
Sundries — potatoes, eggs, fruit, etc. . . . 25,000.00
Manufactures 100,000.00
io6 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
The remarkable growth of Chicago during the
twelve years of construction of the canal was far
surpassed during the first six years of its operation.^
The economic development of the country tribu-
tary to the city necessarily increased its imports
and exports which led in turn to an increase in
the population and wealth of the city itself. The
population of the four canal counties which had
increased from a few hundred in 1830 to 29,716
in 1840 and 80,926 in 1850, more than doubled in
the next five years, reaching 171,012 in 1855.^
Almost an equal gain was made by the river
counties from La Salle to the mouth of the Sanga-
mon. From 40,536 in 1840, their population rose
to 90,961 in 1850 and 128,462 in 1855. It is thus
seen that the population along the waterway from
Lake Michigan to the mouth of the Sangamon
River increased from 70,252 in 1840 to 171,887
in 1850 and 299,474 in 1855. But the growth of
population was not confined to the counties imme-
diately touching the canal and the upper course
of the Illinois River. As the better tracts of land
in these counties were taken up, settlements con-
tinually spread further back into the unoccupied
sections. By 1855 more than half the population
^Senate Executive Document, No. 16, 34th Cong.,
3rd Sess., pp. 40-41.
^The population is not obtainable for 1848, the
beginning of canal traffic, nor for 1854, the year when
railway competition began. The figures for 1840 and
1850 are taken from the federal census and those for
1855 from the lUinois state census of that year.
Shipping crowded at the mouth of the Chicago
River by the flood in the Des Plaines March 12,
1849. This is probably the earliest camera view
of the river in existence, the original being a da-
guerreotype by P. von Schneidau. Fort Dearborn
is shown at the right.
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ECONOMIC INFLUENCE 107
of the state was to be found north of the Sangamon
River/ and the most densely populated counties
lay in the region of the waterway.^
During the first period of canal operation, from
1848 to 1854, ^he population of the city of Chicago
advanced from 20,035 ^o 74yS^^-^ But the en-
largement of commerce more than kept pace with
the growth in population. The grain exports
grew from 3,001,740 bushels to 13,132,501 bushels,
the shipments of corn alone increasing from 550,460
bushels to 6,837,890 bushels.'* By 1851 the Chi-
cago exports had reached ^5,395,471 and the
imports, ^24,410,400.^ The heavy preponderance
^Of the 1,300,251 inhabitants of the state in that
year, 737,867 were north of the Sangamon River.
*0f the five counties in the state having a population
of more than 30,000 in 1855, Cook, La Salle and
Peoria were on the waterway and Madison and Adams
on the Mississippi. The areas of densest population in
the state were in Cook, Kane, and Peoria counties.
Two of these were on the waterway and the other was
connected with it by way of the Fox River and was
also within wagoning distance of Chicago. Moreover,
since 1851 Kane county had been connected directly
with Chicago by the Galena and Chicago Union Rail-
road. Gerhard, Illinois As It Is, pp. 221-224.
^Senate Executive Document, No. 16, 34th Cong.,
3rd Sess., pp. 40-41.
* Annual Report of the Chicago Board of Trade, 1905,
p. 19.
'Andrews, Report on Colonial and Lake Trade, pp.
220-222.
Of these imports the chief items were:
io8 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
of imports over exports Is accounted for chiefly by
the fact that a large proportion of the imports
passed through the canal to the regions whose pro-
ducts found their way to other markets. Large
quantities of ready made clothing, hats, caps,
boots, and shoes, and other manufactured products
intended for the St. Louis market were imported
through Chicago and were carried by canal and
river to St. Louis from which city they were dis-
tributed to the newer portions of the West.
The extension of settlement to portions of the
state not easily accessible to the waterway led to a
demand for railroad connection with the markets.
Of the lines of railroad projected to meet this
demand, one was destined to come into inevitable
rivalry with the canal. For many years the
question of the construction of a canal or railroad
Merchandise $21,081,300
Lumber, shingles, and lath 1,698,755
Iron 41 1,440
Sugar 282,582
Salt 192,811
Coal 1 50,000
Coffee 135792
The leading exports of the year were:
Merchandise $1,245,500
Corn 1,159,674
Furs 564,500
Wheat and flour 477,^53
Beef, tallow, and hides 523,644
Pork, hams, and shoulders 400,816
Wool 326,083
Lard 238,140
ECONOMIC INFLUENCE 109
from the Illinois River near the terminus of the
Illinois and Michigan Canal to the Mississippi at
Rock Island, had been agitated. On February
27, 1847, the Rock Island and La Salle Railroad
Company was chartered to construct a road be-
tween these two points.^ It was expected that
this road would prove an important feeder for the
canal by developing the region between the two
rivers and also by tapping the upper Mississippi
trade and drawing it to Chicago through the canal.
An amendment of the charter, February 7, 185 1,
however, authorized the extension of the road to
Chicago and designated the corporation as the
Chicago and Rock Island Railroad Company.^
It was the evident intention of the legislators in
granting the right of extension, to make the rail-
road supplementary to the canal rather than a
competitor for its traffic. Therefore, following
the example of New York regarding railway com-
petition with the Erie Canal, the act granting the
charter provided for compensation to the canal for
losses of freight traffic by reason of railroad com-
petition.^ It required that for all freight except
live stock, carried by the road when the canal was
open for traffic, and originating between a point
twenty miles west of La Salle and the eastern
terminus of the road at Chicago, the company
^Crosby, History of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific
Railway, p. 2.
^Ibid., pp. 2-3.
'Cf. Prentice, Federal Power Over Carriers and Corpor-
ations, pp. 94-95.
no THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
should pay to the canal trustees, tolls equal to
those which the canal would have earned if the
freight had been carried on that route. ^
Through a blunder of the trustees the road
escaped the burden of this provision.^ A formal
grant by the trustees of a right of way through the
canal lands not later than the first Monday in
June, 185 1, was necessary in order to obligate the
company to observe this provision of the act of
incorporation. Advised that the right of eminent
domain could not be exercised in the case of land
granted for public use, the trustees refused to make
the grant, thinking in this way to prevent railway
competition. The company instituted successful
condemnation proceedings and the trustees failed
in an effort to enjoin the construction of the road
through canal lands. The work of construction
was begun in April, 1852, and the road was opened
for traffic from Chicago to Rock Island in the
summer of 1854. In the same year the Bureau
Valley Railroad was completed from Bureau
Junction on the Chicago and Rock Island to
^The act granting the charter also provided that all
freights carried by other railroads extending from
Chicago to points on the canal or to points on the
Illinois River within twenty miles of the terminus of the
canal, should be subject to the same rates of toll as
those imposed on the Chicago and Rock Island Rail-
road.
'^It is not probable that such a provision could have
remained operative for any great length of time.
It was an impossible provision as the experience of
New York proved.
ECONOMIC INFLUENCE m
Peoria, and leased In perpetuity to the latter cor-
poration. Thus, before the close of 1854 the
railroad was in competition with the waterway
from Chicago to Peoria and was supported by a
rapidly developing country between the Illinois
and Mississippi Rivers and on the upper Mis-
sissippi.
The opening of the railroad for traffic along the
line of the canal ushered In the third period of the
canal Influence. The Inevitable contest for the
traffic of the region common to both transporta-
tion lines, began at once. The railroad easily
took from the canal the passenger traffic, which
had assumed considerable proportions. For six
years the canal and river route had been a popular
one with western travelers. An excellent line of
packets operated between Chicago and La Salle
and an equally good packet service was provided
for the river trip from La Salle to St. Louis. ^ But
within a few months after the opening of the rail-
road, practically all the passenger business deserted
the canal for the speedier mode of travel.^ The
contest for freight, however, was long and spirited.
'Gould, Fifty Years on the Mississippi, p. 522.
^The railroad was opened from Chicago to Joliet In
1853 and at once became a favorite route for passengers
between these two cities. As a result the passenger
traffic on the canal was reduced to 25,966 for the
year. With the opening of the railroad the entire
length of the canal the following year, practically all
the passenger business between Joliet and La Salle
also deserted the canal.
112 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
In the end, the railroad secured most of this traffic
also, but only after its service and its charges had
been greatly affected by the struggle. Both by its
traffic and by the effect of its actual or potential
competition on railroad rates, the canal has con-
tinued to influence the development of the region
in which it is located though with diminishing ef-
fect. Naturally the high class freights were the
first to seek the more rapid means of transporta-
tion. Lumber, grain, coal and stone continued to
be transported on the canal in large quantities for
several years after the higher class freight had
chiefly gone to the railroad. For the commercial
year, from April i, 1866, to March 31, 1867, 33-
929,632 bushels of corn were received at Chicago,
of which 9,575,569 bushels were carried on the
canal and 4,279,190 bushels on the Chicago and
Rock Island Railroad.^ Of the 10,713,981 bushels
of oats received during the same period, 1,417,436
bushels came by the canal and 982,761 bushels by
the competing railroad.^ This, in spite of the fact
that the railroad operated 407 miles of line and
^Wright, Chicago, p. 154.
^The railroad carried 1,420,163 bushels of wheat and
179,316 barrels of flour as against 83,834 bushels of
wheat and 45,317 barrels of flour carried by the canal.
It should be remembered, however, that at this time
the railroad was completed and open for traffic, almost
to Des Moines, Iowa, and drew much of its grain
traffic from non-competitive territory. There are no
statistics which show what proportion of the wheat
and flour produced in the canal region was carried
by each of the competitors.
MILES RUN AND FREIGHT TRANSPORTED ON THE
ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL, 1860-1915
1000000
ECONOxMIC INFLUENCE 113
drew its traffic all the way from central lowa.^
12,722,569 bushels of corn were transported to
Chicago on the canal in 1873 and 1874, or an
annual average of 51,300 bushels for each of the
124 miles of canal and river route operated by the
canal commissioners in competition with the rail-
road.^ In the same time the Chicago and Rock
Island Railroad carried to Chicago 8,547,187 bush-
els, or an annual average of 6,284 bushels for each
of the 680 miles of road then operated by the
company,^
By the reduction of canal charges from time to
time, by the personal solicitation of freight by the
boat owners, and by the permission of boat owners
to shippers to use the boats for storage purposes
when navigation was closed, the canal traffic con-
tinued to increase till 1882, in which year the
tonnage carried was 1,011,287 tons. From that
year till 1899 the amount of freight carried annu-
ally declined at a variable rate. With the excep-
tion of 1898, however, the tonnage stayed well
above 400,000 tons a year till 1900, when it sud-
'In 1866 the main line of the Chicago and Rock
Island Railroad extended to Kellogg, Iowa, and the
Oskaloosa branch to Washington, in the same state.
'Until the opening of railroad traffic between the
various Illinois River towns and Chicago, large quanti-
ties of grain were sent to market through the canal
from as far down the river as Beardstown. By 1873,
however, the greater part of this traffic had gone
to the railroads.
^Special Report of the Canal Commissioners, 1875,
p. 10.
114 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
denly dropped to 121,759 tons and has since con-
tinued its downward course. While the reduction
of canal charges assisted in preserving traffic for
the boat owners and in keeping up the canal ton-
nage, it operated adversely on the canal earnings.
The maximum tolls were received in 1866, and
amounted to ^302,958.^ By 1877 the annual tolls
had fallen below ^100,000,^ and in 1882, the year
of the maximum tonnage, they were only ^85,947.
Since that time the decline in earnings has about
kept pace with the decline in tonnage.
In recent years, the traffic and earnings of the
canal and its relative importance as a transporta-
tion route, have declined rapidly. In 1905, of the
7,944,955 barrels of flour received in the Chicago
market 21,216 came by the canal, while none of
the 26,899,012 bushels of wheat and only 35,300
bushels of the 92,486,761 bushels of oats were
carried on the canal. As usual, the corn shipments
exceeded those of any other single commodity,
amounting to 326,802 bushels of the 110,823,444
^Recent canal reports give the tolls for 1866 as
^202,958. The statement is due to a typographical
error which has been copied from year to year. The
correct figures will be found in all the reports up to
1882.
2 Since 1879, the gross expenditures of the canal have
regularly exceeded the tolls. In 1907, the expenditures
were $50,050 and the tolls were $2,176.87. In this
year, however, the canal had an income from rentals,
water-power, leases, etc., of $11,933.79, giving it a
total income of $14,110.67, and leaving an excess of
expenditures over earnings of $35,939-34.
ECONOMIC INFLUENCE 115
bushels received at Chicago. Neither rye nor
barley were found among the shipments on the
canal, although 2,392,444 bushels of the former
and 28,074,142 bushels of the latter were received
in the Chicago market. Of the 1,110,371,601
pounds of dressed beef, 1,160,572,790 pounds and
144,909 barrels of pork products shipped from
Chicago during the year, not a pound was carried
on the canal. ^ Such products as coal, potatoes,
beans, salt and corn products were carried entirely
by the railroads, and only 66,000 cubic feet of
stone found its way to Chicago on the canal.
The ultimate loss of the canal traffic has been
due to several causes. The first in point of time
was the condition of the Illinois River, which
often, for months continuously, was unnavigable
by canal boats and frequently by river steamers.^
The inability of the canal boats to navigate the
^Report of the Chicago Board of Trade, 1905, pp. 2,
5, ID, 16, 42, 43.
^Almost every year from the opening of the canal,
the trustees called attention to the necessity of a
sufficient depth of water in the Illinois River to float
canal boats throughout the season of navigation. In
1856, from the middle of June till late in November
there was not more than twenty inches of water on
some of the most troublesome sand-bars in the river.
Navigation was practically suspended during a period
of nearly six months. The trustees estimated that the
revenues of the canal were reduced $55,000 or i56o,ooo
below what might reasonably have been expected
had there been sufficient depth of water to navigate
the canal boats carrying through freigiit.
ii6 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
river necessitated the transfer of freight to the
river steamers at La Salle, with the consequent
delay and expense. The failure of steamboat
navigation restricted the canal to local traffic.
The canal management recognized the importance
of an unobstructed channel from La Salle to St.
Louis, but the state and federal governments acted
too tardily on the constant appeals of the trustees
and commissioners to afford effective relief.^ The
frequent interruptions of river traffic led the river
towns to rely less on water transportation and to
turn to the railroad as offering a solution of their
transportation difficulties.^
In the contest for traffic the railroad possessed
not only the advantages of greater speed and
freedom from the effects of freshets and droughts,
which so seriously affected the river portion of the
waterway, but it also gave a more convenient and
satisfactory service to many of the shippers who
had formerly used the canal. Before the open-
ing of railroad transportation, shippers had hauled
their commodities long distances to the canal.
The building of railroads drew from the canal
much of the traffic of these outlying regions, by
offering a more convenient transportation route.
The railroads built branches and established
stations at points more convenient to the farms
and inland villages than were the shipping points
^For an account of the construction of locks and
dams, see Chapter V, pp. 136-138.
"^Annual Review of Trade and Commerce of St. Louis,
1854, p. II and 1859, p. 48.
ECONOMIC INFLUENCE 117
on the waterway. The greater convenience of
the railway service also materially aided in taking
traffic from the canal in the canal towns and cities.
In the early years of the contest between the
rival transportation agencies, the terminal facil-
ities for handling freight on the two routes, were
not very different. Whatever advantage existed
v/as in favor of the canal. Warehouses for the
receipt, storage and shipment of grain and mer-
chandise were established on its banks. Mills
and factories largely depended on it for both
power and transportation facilities. But, as the
years passed by, the railway facilities were im-
proved and those of the canal were not. Then
the owners of warehouses and manufacturing es-
tablishments, grain shippers and others largely
engaged in transportation, showed a tendency to
desert the canal and transfer their business to the
railroad. Wherever business establishments were
kept up on the canal, the railroad usually con-
structed side-tracks to them, and became a com-
petitor for business on the very banks of the canal
itself.
The terminal facilities at Chicago have been
especially advantageous to the railroads. Spurs
have been run to all the large manufacturing es-
tablishments, to the grain elevators, to the lumber
yards, to the stock yards, and to every other point
where it is possible to place a track needed for the
delivery of incoming freight or for the receipt of
that intended for shipment. Many of those are
inaccessible to the waterway, while through the
ii8 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
reciprocal switching arrangements among the
railroads, they are all accessible to every railroad
entering the city. This advantage of the railroad
over the canal is well illustrated in the handling of
building stone. When the stone is intended for
use at any considerable distance from the canal,
it is found cheaper to transport it from the quarries
along the canal by rail and switch the cars to the
nearest rail point, than to pay the lower freight
rates on the canal and incur the heavier expense
for the longer haul by teams in the city. Only a
part of the grain elevators are located on the
waterway, while all are accessible to the railroads.
The same is true of the coal yards. Formerly
large quantities of coal were shipped from the
Spring Valley district to Chicago by way of the
canal. Now, none is transported on the canal.
The system of pro-rating freight charges, how-
ever, has done more than any other one thing to
undermine the canal traffic. The practice of pro-
rating grain from the canal region began in 1879
and consisted of an arrangement between the
traffic officials of the Lake Shore and Michigan
Southern and those of Chicago, Rock Island and
Pacific Railroads whereby the Lake Shore cars
should be hauled by the Rock Island road from
Chicago to the loading point along the canal and
be returned loaded for transportation to the sea-
board cities. For this service the Rock Island
received ten per cent of the Chicago-New York
rate with a minimum of two cents a hundred
pounds for hauling the cars. Since an elevator
ECONOMIC INFLUENCE 119
charge of a cent and a fourth a bushel had to be
met at Chicago on all grain shipped on the canal,
while the loaded cars passed through the city
without the necessity of rehandling the grain, the
pro-rating arrangement proved a serious obstacle
to the canal shippers of grain intended for the
eastern markets.^ As early as 1877 William
Thomas, the General Superintendent of the canal,
complained that grain was being driven from the
canal by the discrimination of the owners of
Chicago elevators in favor of the railroads and by
injustice in grain inspection.^ While there may
have been some basis for these charges, the
tendency of the grain to leave the canal at Joliet
seems to have been more largely due to the com-
petition of the Michigan Central Railroad for
an increasing share of the eastern grain shipments.
The Michigan Central at Joliet and the Toledo,
Peoria and Western at Peoria, with their eastern
connections, have been able to make rates on
eastern grain shipments which could not be met
by any combination of local rates. As a con-
^The statement is made on the authority of Mr-
Noble Jones of Mokena, Illinois, who was a grain
shipper from the canal towns and at whose instance
the pro-rating arrangement was made in 1879. The
statement has been verified by Mr. James L. Clark,
General Western Freight Agent of the Lake Shore and
Michigan Southern Railroad and by Mr. William
Borner, General Freight Agent of the Chicago, Pitts-
burgh and F"t. Wayne Railroad, both of whom were then
connected with the roads interested in the agreement.
"^Report of the Canal Commissioners, ^^77-, P- 38.
I20 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
sequence the canal has been unable for several
years to handle grain from these points. In recent
years, the Peoria-New York rate has ordinarily
been about a cent and a half a hundred pounds
above the Chicago-New York rate.^ It is clearly
impossible for the waterway to carry the grain to
Chicago and transfer it to eastern carriers in com-
petition with this rate. Joliet has had the same
rate as Chicago for grain billed through to New
York whether it goes by the Michigan Central or
through Chicago. Under the rules of shipment,
grain may be unloaded at Chicago for a period
not exceeding ten days and reshipped on the
same bill of lading. The result has been that all
grain intended for the Chicago market from Joliet
has been billed to New York and the cars used to
carry other grain from Chicago to New York on
the through bill of lading.^ At other points along the
waterway, however, the water transportation has
been able to withstand the competition of the rail-
road rates on grain intended for the Chicago market.
The canal has not only been able to meet the
local rates of the railroads, but where they are
competitors, it has forced the railroad rates much
^The all-rail rate from Chicago to New York during
recent years has varied from 16.46 cents to 21.83 ^
hundred pounds, falling below 17 cents only in 1900,
1901, and 1905. In August, 1906, the rate was 17.50
cents and that from Peoria to New York was 19 cents.
^This advantage has been lost under the re-arrange-
ment of rates in northern Illinois since the passage of
the Hepburn act.
ECONOMIC INFLUENCE 121
below those at non-competitive points for similar
hauls. In 1874 the average length of haul for
grain on the canal was 72.5 miles and the average
rate, 3.47 cents per bushel. At the same time,
the Illinois railroad commissioners' rate for a haul
of equal length was 7.48 cents per bushel.^ The
Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, how-
ever, found it impossible to maintain the maximum
rate allowed by the commissioners because of the
canal competition. In 1876, the canal rate on
corn from La Salle to Chicago, 99 miles, was 3.25
cents per bushel. The railroad rate was 4.50 cents.
From Henry to Chicago, 128 miles, the rate by
river and canal was 4 cents per bushel while the
railroad charged 4.50 cents as against 6.83 cents
from Tiskilwa to Chicago, a distance of 123 miles.'
The grain from both Henry and Tiskilwa was car-
ried by the same railroad and, with the exception
of the nine miles from Tiskilwa to Bureau Junction
it was carried over the same tracks and frequently
on the same trains. From Peoria to Chicago,
160 miles, the railroad rates were 4.50 cents a
bushel during the winter season and 3 cents in
summer, when the canal was in operation.^
The freight rates on lumber showed a similar
influence of the waterway. From Chicago to
^Special Report of the Canal Commissioners, 1875? p. n.
^Report of the Canal Commissioners, 1876, p. 8. .
'For many years the railroad made a practice of
charging a higher rate in winter than in summer at all
points where it had to compete with the waterway for
traffic.
122 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
Peoria, the canal and river rate was ^2.25 per
thousand feet. The railroad charged ^2.985.
For a haul of substantially the same length from
Chicago to Geneseo, 159 miles, the railroad rate
was four dollars.^ An examination of the sched-
ules of local grain rates from various shipping
points in northern Illinois to Chicago in 1901
shows still further the influence of the canal on
freight rates on competing railroads. The rates on
the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railroad had
been determined by long competition with the canal
and by the possibility that much of its traffic might
again revert to the canal in case the railroad rates
should be raised. The rates on roads having no
water competition were distinctly higher, as shown
by the following tabulation of distances and charges :
Town
Transportation Distance from
Rates per
Route
Chicago,
100 lbs.
Miles
Cents
La Salle
C. R. I. & P. R. R
• 99
5-5
Dixon
C. & N. W. R. R.
100
8
Ottawa
C. R. I. & P. R. R.
85
5
Mendota
C.B. &Q. R. R.
83
6.S
Marseilles
C. R. I. & P. R. R.
77
4-75
Emington
Wabash R. R.
77
6
Earlville
C. B. &Q. R. R.
72
6.5
Morris
C. R. I. & P. R. R.
62
4
Chebanse
111. Central R. R.
62.8
6
JolietS
C. R. I. & P. R. R.
40
3
Manhattan
Wabash R. R.
40
4
Aurora
C. B. &Q. R. R.
37
5-6
^Report of the Canal Commissioners, 1876, p. 8
2The Chicago and Alton and the Atchison, Topeka,
and Santa Fe railroads also compete for Chicago
traffic at Joliet.
ECONOMIC INFLUENCE 123
These lower rates from the canal towns were
necessary in order to prevent the Chicago ship-
ments from going chiefly by way of the canal. ^
Until recently it was possible to load the canal
boats and barges to the depth of four feet and
eight inches. With a fleet load of from 16,000
to 17,000 bushels, the grain rate from Marseilles
to Chicago was two cents a bushel.- The Ottawa
rates were two and a fourth cents and those at
Utica two and three-eights cents. Since 1902,
shallow water in the canal has precluded the
loading of boats to their full capacity. The rate
has therefore increased on the average about a half
cent a bushel, the Marseilles rate being two and
a half cents. ^
After the passage of the Hepburn act, there was
a general readjustment of railroad rates in the
vicinity of the canal. In this readjustment the
^That the Rock Island rates were determined by the
competition of the waterway is shown by the fact
that the non-competitive winter rate was higher than
the competitive summer rates and by the further fact
that its charges from all points beyond a reasonable
teaming distance from the waterway, the Rock Island
rates were similar to those of other railroads.
'^When the boats could be loaded to a depth of four
feet and eight inches, the usual steamer load was from
4,000 to 4,200 bushels and each barge load from 6,000
to 6,200 bushels. A steamer and two barges make
up a fleet.
'This charge includes the entire expense to the ship-
per for the delivery of the grain to tlie elevator in
Chicago.
124 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
local grain rates came to be based roughly on the
principle of distance tariffs arranged on a series of
concentric circles with Chicago as the center.
This arrangement resulted in a decided rise in rail-
road rates in the canal towns. The rates at Mar-
seilles increased from four and three-quarters cents
per hundred pounds to five and one-half cents. At
Morris they advanced from four to five cents. At
Ottawa from five to five and a half cents. At La
Salle from five and a half to six cents.
The present schedule gives the canal an ad-
vantage of from a cent to a cent and a half on each
hundred pounds. However, it is not probable
that this difference in rates will turn the major part
of the grain traffic back to the canal. Other
advantages of the railroad tend to offset this
difference in rates, especially for through traffic.
During the period of its operation, the canal
has carried 74,031,104 tons of freight.^ It has
received ^6,631,007 in tolls and expended $5,391,-
107 for maintenance, repairs and operation. In
these years it has also received large sums from
rentals, leases, and privileges.^ It has not proven
to be the great source of revenue for the state
treasury that had been anticipated in the days of
^These statistics include all the period of operation
up to December i, 191 5, except those regarding the
tonnage. No tonnage statistics are available before i860.
'The canal office is unable to furnish statistics for
these items complete. On pages 85 and 86 will be
found a tabulation of these earnings for the eighteen
years from 1898 to 191 5 inclusive.
ECONOMIC INFLUENCE 125
its projection and construction. But the great
services of the canal have been in the economic
development of the middle West, particularly of
the northern part of Illinois, and in its influence
on railroad rates. For the performance of these
services the canal has been worth all it has cost the
state.
Chapter V
IMPROVEMENT AND ENLARGEMENT
When the Illinois and Michigan Canal was pro-
jected, it was intended to form the connecting
link in a great system of waterways which would
carry the commerce of the interior of the United
States. It was therefore projected and con-
structed on a plan supposed to be adequate for
that purpose. Before it was completed, however,
experience had shown that the Illinois River
channel was inadequate to furnish an effective
commercial route to the Mississippi, in low stages
of water^ Accordingly, in 1845, at the request of
Governor Ford and under the patronage of George
Bancroft, Secretary of the Navy, George R. Mowry
examined the river with a view to the improve-
ment of navigation from La Salle to the mouth of
the stream. This examination disclosed the fact
that on seventy-one shoals and bars, the depth of
water did not exceed thirty-two inches and on
nineteen or twenty of these it was not more than
ifn a letter to Capt. W. H. Swift, dated November
21, 1845, Mowry writes: "With the exception of a few
long stretches of deep water, the river is filled with
shoals from Peoria to within twenty miles of the
mouth. Some of these shoals are long and all of them
have but from 26 to 32 inches of water upon them."
126
IMPROVEMENT AND ENLARGEMENT 127
twenty inches at its lowest stages.^ Such a chan-
nel was clearly inadequate for steamboat naviga-
tion, to say nothing of floating the canal boats
which it was expected to carry within the next
three years. Mowry therefore recommended the
construction of six locks and dams, which he esti-
mated would give a minimum depth of three feet
of water at the lowest known stage of the river.^
The importance of the improvement was fully
appreciated, but as it was estimated to cost ^492,-
292.70, the state of Illinois was in no financial
condition to undertake its accomplishment at that
time.
The hindrances to navigation in the Illinois
^Illinois House Reports, 1846-7, p. 39. Cf. Report
of the Canal Trustees, 1846, pp. 15-26. Mr. Bancroft
set apart $15,000 of the funds at his disposal to pay
the expenses of the survey.
^The recommended locks and dams and their esti-
mated cost were as follows:
Location Length of Height of Lift of Cost
Dam, Dam, Lock,
ft. ft. ft.
Henry 700 9 7 $63,151.26
Copperas Creek 800 10 7 81,820.76
Foot of Grand Island. . 800 10 4 76,561.42
La Grange 600 11 6 62,455.30
Florence 1200 11 7 78,902.56
Apple Creek 1400 9 6 81,099.30
Excavation of channel between mouth of
Apple Creek and mouth of Illinois River 3,365.40
^447,357-00
Add 10% for contingencies 44,735.70
Total $492,292.70
128 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
River, however, were no more serious than those
in other western streams. Of the three hundred
and thirty-eight vessels registered with the United
States Surveyor and Inspector at St. Louis, from
1838 to 1 841, fifty-three were lost through acci-
dents. It was estimated that fully nine-tenths of
these losses were occasioned by obstructions to
navigation which were readily removable.^ Ac-
cordingly, with the hope of securing the improve-
ment of the Mississippi and its most important
tributaries, by the federal government, a river
improvement convention was held at Memphis,
Tennessee, November 12-15, 1^45)^ attended by
representatives from Tennessee, Kentucky, Ala-
bama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri,
Illinois, Indiana, North Carolina, South Carolina,
Texas, and the Territory of lowa.^ As a part of a
general scheme for the development of the interior
of the country, the convention recommended the
improvement of the Mississippi and its chief
tributaries and the connection of the Great Lakes
and the Mississippi by means of a ship canal.*
At the following session of Congress, the House
was flooded with bills for all sorts of internal im-
^ Report of St. Louis Chamber of Trade and Com-
merce, 1842, p. 25.
^The Southwestern Convention, usually called the
Memphis Convention.
^Proceedings of the Southwestern (Memphis) Con-
vention of 184^, pp. 3-5.
* Proceedings of the Memphis Convention, 1845, pp.
25-26.
IMPROVEMENT AND ENLARGEMENT 129
provements.^ As a result, the River and Harbor
bill became much more elaborate and extensive
than its predecessors had been. As finally passed
by the House, after many eliminations, it carried
appropriations for forty-nine specific objects and
aggregating ^1,378,450; but it contained none for
the improvement of the Illinois River nor for the
proposed ship canal, although Stephen A, Douglas,
John Wentworth, Robert Smith, and Edward D.
Baker, had strenuously endeavored to secure such
recognition for the waterway.^ The bill passed
the senate without amendment,^ but was vetoed
by President Polk on the ground that the federal
government had no constitutional authority to
appropriate funds for the construction of works of
internal improvement within a state, as most of
the proposed improvements were.^
^Congressional Globe, 29th Congress, 1st session,
PP- 530-531-
* Among the items in the bill was one of ^12,000 for
harbor improvement at Chicago and another of ^75,000
for improving the harbor at St. Louis. The bill also
carried an appropriation of $240,000 for the improve-
ment of the navigation of the Mississippi, Missouri,
and Arkansas Rivers and the Ohio below the falls at
Louisville.
*Thc bill passed the House, March 20, and the
Senate, July 24, 1846, and was vetoed August 3, 1846.
* Congressional Globe, 29th Congress, ist session,
pp. 1181-1183, also, Messages and Papers of the
Presidents, IV, pp. 460-466. The River and Harbor
Bill which passed the House, February 20th, and the
Senate, March 3, 1847, carrying appropriations ag-
I30 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
Deeply chagrined at the miscarriage of their
plans, the friends of river improvement in the
West called a Harbor and River Convention which
met in Chicago, July 5, 1847.^ The Convention
was avowedly non-partisan and numbered among
its members many men of prominence in the
political and industrial world. Edward Bates of
Missouri presided. Letters endorsing the object
of the convention were received from such men as
Thomas H. Benton, Silas Wright, Henry Clay,
Martin Van Buren, Lewis Cass, and Daniel Web-
ster, as well as from many less well known men of
aifairs.^ Resolutions were passed declaring it the
sense of the convention that Congress possessed
the constitutional power to regulate both foreign
commerce and commerce among the states, and
memorializing that body to facilitate both by the
gregating ^564,000, was also vetoed, but being in
the hands of the President at the close of the session,
the veto message was not received by the House till
December 15, 1847. The bill contained no provision,
however, for the improvement of the Illinois River.
^The states represented by delegates in the con-
vention were: Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Indiana,
Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Mich-
igan, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New
York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South
Carolina and Wisconsin.
^Most of these letters unreservedly committed the
writers to the support of the movement for the improve-
ment of the waterways of the middle west, but in a few
cases, as those of Cass and Wright, the writers were more
reserved in the form of their statements. Proceedings of
the Chicago Harbor and River Convention, 1847, pp. 28-37.
IMPROVEMENT AND ENLARGEMENT 131
improvement of the rivers and harbors of the
interior.^ The opposition of many of the Demo-
cratic leaders, however, together with the sectional
jealousies which developed in the effort to appor-
tion the appropriations among the various inter-
ests involved, and the straightened condition of
the finances due to the Mexican War, resulted in
the failure of the federal government to take any
steps toward the improvement of the Illinois River
till 1852, when the sum of ^30,000 was appropri-
ated for that purpose.^ The expenditure of this
sum on a channel more than two hundred miles in
length could do little more than furnish a tempo-
rary relief from the worst bars and shoals.
The unusual drought in Illinois in 1856 so seri-
ously interfered with river traffic that a corpora-
tion known as the Illinois River Improvement
Company was formed for the purpose of main-
taining a navigable channel, by the use of docks
and wing-dams.^ In 1858 J. B. Preston made
^Proceedings of the Chicago Harbor and River Con-
vention, 1847, pp. 39-42.
^The River and Harbor Bill of 1851 had contained
an appropriation of ^50,000 for the improvement of
the Illinois River, but it failed to pass the Senate.
^This company was incorporated February 14, 1857.
There were forty-five incorporators, among them men
of far more than local prominence, such as W. B.
Ogdcn, Col. W. F. Thornton, Gen. J. M. Ruggles,
and others. The capital stock of the corporation
was ^^3,000,000 divided into shares of ^500 each.
The affairs of the corporation were to be controlled
by thirteen directors chosen annually, who were
132 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
surveys and estimates for such enlargement of the
Illinois and Michigan Canal and such improve-
ment in the Illinois River channel as would insure
a waterway that would carry the Mississippi River
steamboats to Chicago at the lowest stages of water.
The corporation, however, was unable to raise the
funds to carry on the work and in the midst of the
excitement aroused by the slavery agitation, Con-
gress failed to give any attention to the project.^
required to make detailed reports of the business of
the corporation to the Secretary of State not later
than January 15th of the year succeeding the one for
which the report was made. The work of channel
improvement was required to be begun within two
years from the date of incorporation of the company
and be completed within seven years. The corporation
was empowered to charge fees and tolls and to lease or
sell water-power, but it could not engage in commerce.
^The need of the improvement in order to complete
an efficient transportation route is shown by the words
of the Superintendent of the Illinois and Michigan
Canal in his annual report, December i, i860. He
says: "The water in the Illinois River has been
unusually low since April. Boats have made but two
round trips from Chicago to St. Louis during the
season; the low water has interfered very seriously
with the lumber business and the grain trade from the
River." He gives the depths of water on the "Tree-
top Bar," a short distance below La Salle as follows:
Mar. 31, 6 ft. 5 in. April 28, 3 ft. 5 in.
May 2, 2 " 7 " June 24, i " 11 "
July 26, 2 " 3 " Aug. 28, 2 " o "
Sept. 26, I " 8 " Oct. 3, I " 8 "
Nov. 25, 2 " 5 "
The lowest water in the canal was 4 ft. 6 In.
IMPROVEMENT AND ENLARGEMENT 133
The closing of the lower A/[ississippi to northern
vessels at the outbreak of the Civil War, and
the threatened complications with Great Britain,
growing out of the Trent affair, caused a renewed
interest in the development of a larger and deeper
waterway from the Mississippi to the Great Lakes.
On February 20, 1862, Francis P. Blair introduced
into the House of Representatives, a bill providing
for the development of such a waterway by the
federal government, through the enlargement of the
Illinois and A'lichigan Canal and the improvement
of the Illinois River channel.^ Bitterly attacked by
such men as Thaddeus Stevens, Daniel W.Voorhees,
William S. Holman, and Clement L. Vallanding-
ham, the bill was first postponed till the following
December and finally defeated, on February 9, 1 863 ?
^It was estimated that a channel 160 feet wide with
locks 350 feet long and 75 feet wide, and with sufficient
depth to accommodate vessels drawing six feet of water,
could be developed at a cost of $13,346,824. The bill
carried an appropriation of this amount. The engineer,
John Ericsson, estimated that by the use of buoys,
iron-clad gun-boats 200 feet long and 25 feet wide
could be taken, stripped, through such a channel.
He regarded these vessels as ample for the protection
of the Great Lakes.
^The bill as reported from the Committee on Military
Affairs, is given in the Congressional Globe, 37th Con-
gress, 2nd session, p. 271 1. As amended by the House to
include the enlargement of the locks in the New York
canals, it is to be found in the Congressional Globe, 37th
Congress, 3rd session, p. 700. At p. 830 is also to be
found the bill which was accepted as a substitute and
then finally defeated in the House, February 9, 1863.
134 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
On March 2, a call was issued from Washington
for a National Ship-canal Convention, to be held in
Chicago the following June. The call was signed
by Edward Bates, Attorney General of the United
States, by eighty members of the House of Repre-
sentatives, and by fourteen Senators. The con-
vention met June 2, 1863, with Vice-President
Schuyler Colfax as chairman. In a series of
resolutions and a memorial to Congress, the con-
vention urged the great military and commercial
importance of the work and the desirability of
national ownership and control of the waterway.^
The course of events, however, tended to lessen
the weight of the arguments for the immediate
construction of such a waterway. The fall of
Vicksburg, July 4, 1863, opened the Mississippi
to navigation throughout its full length. In the
meantime the immediate danger of war with
Great Britain had practically disappeared. There-
fore, when Isaac N. Arnold, on January 11, 1864,
introduced a bill in accordance with the recom-
mendations of the Chicago Ship-canal Convention,
^Proceedings of the National Ship-canal Convention,
1863, pp. 40-41, and 227-246. Based on a survey and
estimates completed by William Gooding and J. B.
Preston shortly before it met, the convention recom-
mended the enlargement of the Illinois and Michigan
Canal from Chicago to Joliet to a width of one hundred
and sixty feet and a depth of seven feet, with locks
three hundred and fifty feet long and seventy-five feet
wide. From Joliet to La Salle, it was planned to
improve the river channel except around the Mar-
seilles rapids, where a short canal would be required.
IMPROVEMENT AND ENLARGEMENT 135
the old antagonists were able to prevent favorable
action on it during the session.
Problems incident to the closing years of the
Civil War so engrossed the attention of Congress
that the ship-canal project received no further
consideration till 1866, when the act of June 23,
directed the Secretary of War to cause a new sur-
vey of the Illinois River to be made.^ This survey
was made by General James H. Wilson, who
recommended the enlargement of the Illinois and
Michigan Canal to a width of one hundred and
sixty feet and a minimum depth of seven feet from
Chicago to Lockport, The plan provided for a
channel of like capacity from Lockport to the
Mississippi, by the construction of locks and dams
in the Des Plaines and Illinois rivers.^ With
locks three hundred and fifty feet long and seventy-
five feet wide, it was estimated that such a water-
way would meet the requirements of both a com-
mercial and naval route. It would carry the
largest vessels that were capable of being operated
on the Mississippi River above the mouth of the
Ohio.^ Even larger war vessels than were usable
^ United States Statutes at Large, XIV, p. 74.
'^ House Executive Document, No. 16, 40th Congress,
1st Session, pp. 7-8.
•■'General Wilson did not deem it necessary to provide a
channel of sufficient depth to float the lake steamers, be-
cause he thought them too unwieldyforuse onthe rivers.
On the other hand, he regarded the river steamboats
unsuited to use on the lakes. Since he considered a
transfer of freight at Chicago inevitable, he could see no
necessity for providing for a greater depth of channel.
136 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
on the Mississippi, could be taken from the Gulf
of Mexico to Lake Michigan by the use of " camels"
or barges to lift them partially out of the water.^
Concerning these improvements, estimated to cost
$21,373,906,^ General Wilson said: "I desire to
state that I recommend improvements of such
magnitude after the fullest consideration of the
subject, believing that nothing else will answer
the present and future demands of the national
defense, and sufficiently provide for the immense
internal commerce of the country." ^ A re-
examination of the route in 1868 by General
Wilson and William Gooding only confirmed the
recommendation, but Congress took no steps
toward accomplishing the proposed task.
While the federal government procrastinated,
the state of Illinois was led to act. Many times
since 1848 had the canal trustees uged the neces-
sity of providing a channel adequate to carry canal
boats to St. Louis, in order to give the canal its
greatest usefulness. But not until 1867 did the
General Assembly take any steps toward accom-
^House Executive Document^ No. 16, 40th Congress,
1st Session, p. 7. In the Chicago Ship-canal Conven-
tion, Admiral Porter was reported as authority for the
statement that the United States then had about
sixty vessels capable of passing through the proposed
waterway.
^A more careful estimate made the following year by
General Wilson and William Gooding reduced the esti-
mated cost of the improvement to $18,217,242.56.
^ House Executive Document, No. 16, 40th Congress,
1st Session, p. 9.
IMPROVEMENT AND ENLARGEMENT 137
plishing that end, further than to occasionally
memorialize Congress in behalf of the much
needed improvement. By the act of February
28, 1867, however, the state inaugurated the work
of improving the Illinois River channel. By means
of a lock and dam at Henry and another at Copperas
Creek and at a cost to the state of ^747,747.51, a
section of waterway, ninety-eight miles in length,
was insured a channel with a minimum depth of
seven feet, and capable of accommodating the
largest Mississippi steamboats that could reach St.
Louis during seasons of low water.^ This section
of the waterway was placed under the control of
the Illinois and Michigan Canal commissioners and
the schedule of tolls and lockage charges for the
canal was applied to this portion of the river.
With the completion of the Copperas Creek
lock and dam, in 1877 the state improvement of
the river channel ceased. There were no longer
^On the lock and dam at Henry the state expended
$400,000. On that at Cooperas Creek, the federal
government expended $62,359.80 in the construction
of the lock foundations and the state paid $347,747.51
to complete the work. The lock at Henry was complet-
ed in January, 1872, and that at Copperas Creek was
begun September i, 1873 and completed in October,
1877, and was formally turned over to the canal com-
missioners on November 8th. In order to facilitate
the passage of large steamers, and in accordance with
the recommendations of Preston in 1858 and Preston
and Gooding in 1863 and Gen. Wilson in 1867, the
locks were made 350 feet long inside the gates and
75 feet wide between the walls.
138 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
net revenues from the Illinois and Michigan Canal
which could be used for this purpose, and the
General Assembly was unwilling to assume the
responsibility of voting an extra tax to provide the
necessary funds with which to carry on the work.
The plan of improvement called for three more
locks and dams. Apparently, there was no pros-
pect of the completion of the work unless done
by the federal government.
Having resurveyed the lower river. Major J. G.
Lydecker, in 1880, recommended the completion
of the work of improvement by the federal govern-
ment, but on an altered plan. Instead of the
three proposed locks and dams, he recommended
two, together with sufficient dredging to insure
the required seven-foot channel. The proposal
was adopted and the River and Harbor act of
June 14, 1880 appropriated ^110,000 with which
to begin the work.^ Nine years later, October 21,
1889,. the La Grange lock was opened for use, but
it was not till August 30, 1893, that a steamboat
passed through the lock at Kampsville. Com-
pleted at a cost of ^1,145,886, these two locks
carried to the Mississippi the channel improve-
ment which the state of Illinois had inaugurated
twenty-six years before,^
^Of this sum ^100,000 was to be expended on the
locks and $10,000 in dredging. From former appropri-
ations there was already available for dredging the
sum of $38,699.45.
^Up to June 30, 1907, the federal government had
expended on these works and in dredging, $1,515,720.77.
IMPROVEMENT AND ENLARGEMENT 139
Before the completion of the Illinois River im-
provements, the federal government took up the
project of opening a commercial waterway from
the upper Mississippi to Chicago.^ The project
included the construction of a canal between the
Mississippi and Illinois Rivers and the enlargement
of the Illinois and Michigan Canal. In the hope
that the federal government would complete the
entire system of waterways from Lake Michigan
to both the upper and the lower Mississippi, the
state of Illinois, by act of April 28, 1882, con-
ditionally ceded the Illinois and Michigan Canal
and all its property, rights and privileges to the
United States.^ Although in 1883 an estimate
was made of the comparative cost and relative
advantage of the enlargement of the Illinois and
Michigan Canal throughout its entire length and
the alternative plan of enlarging it from Chicago
to Joliet and adopting a system of channel im-
provement and slack-water navigation in the Des
Plaines and Illinois Rivers from Joliet to La Salle,
^The Hennepin Canal route, having been surveyed
under private auspices in 1866, was surveyed by the
government engineers in 1870, 1874, 1884, and 1885-6.
The surveys for the enlargement of the Illinois and
Michigan Canal were largely based on those of former
years.
^The cession was conditioned on the acceptance of
the grant by the United States within five years. The
grant was ratified by vote of the people of the state,
November 5, 1882. The federal government failed to
accept the grant, which expired by limitation, Novem-
ber 5, 1887.
I40 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
no steps were taken by the government toward
making either improvement.^ In 1886, Major
Thomas H. Hanbury advised that the proposed
enlargement and improvement in the waterway
should take the form of channel improvement in
the Illinois and Des Plaines Rivers to Joliet and
an enlargement of the Illinois and Michigan Canal
from that city to the "Sag," through which a new
canal should be constructed to the Calumet and
thence to Lake Michigan at the Calumet harbor,
in order to relieve the congested condition of the
Chicago River and harbor.
The following year, the Illinois River Improve-
ment Convention memorialized Congress in behalf
of an improvement which would furnish better
water transportation facilities between the Missis-
sippi and Chicago.^ Urged by the commercial
and shipping interests of the upper portion of the
Mississippi valley. Congress directed a survey
and estimates for such a channel improvement in
the Illinois and Des Plaines Rivers from La Salle
to Lockport, as would provide a navigable water-
way not less than one hundred and sixty feet wide
and fourteen feet deep. From Lockport to Chi-
^The survey was made by George Y. Wisner, under
the direction of Major W. H. H. Benyaurd. It was
estimated that channel improvements giving seven
feet of water from La Salle to Joliet and with locks
of the same dimensions as those on the lower Illinois,
would cost $3,433,582.
^The convention was held at Peoria, Illinois, October
11-12, 1887.
IMPROVEMENT AND ENLARGEMENT 141
cago, a channel of like proportions was to be
created by the enlargement of the old canal or the
construction of a new one. Regarding a channel
of eight or nine feet as sufficient to accommodate
any vessel that could reach the mouth of the
Illinois River, Captain W. L, Marshall, in charge
of surveys, reported adversely on the proposed
fourteen-foot channel. An eight-foot channel, one
hundred and sixty feet wide, extending from the
Calumet harbor to Joliet through the Calumet and
Sag route and down the Des Plaines and Illinois
Rivers, was recommended as preferable to the
proposed improvement and as entirely adequate
for commercial and naval purposes.^
With the question of the location and the di-
mensions of the eastern portion of the waterway
still unsettled, the federal government entered
upon the task of constructing the long projected
Illinois and Mississippi Canal, popularly known as
the Hennepin Canal.- Following the "Rock Island
Route," fifty miles of canal and twenty-seven
miles of slack-water in the Rock River form the
steamboat route from the upper Mississippi at
Rock Island to the Illinois near Hennepin.^ A
^ House Executive Documents, 51st Cong., 2nd Sess.,
Vol. V, pp. 2419-2452.
^The canal is eighty feet wide at the water surface,
fifty-nine feet at the bottom, and carries a depth of
seven feet of water. The locks are one hundred and
seventy feet long, thirty feet wide and have a minimum
depth of seven feet.
^From the point where the Rock River feeder enters
the canal on the summit level, five routes were surveyed
142 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
navigable feeder from the Rock River near Dixon,
connects the upper course of that river with the
canal on the summit level twenty-five miles from
its junction with the Illinois River. So slowly
was the work of construction carried forward,
however, that the canal was not opened for use
throughout its entire course till 1907.^ Its con-
struction, at a cost of more than ^7,200,000,
provided a waterway from the upper Mississippi
to the upper Illinois, capable of accommodating
barges carrying six hundred tons of freight.^
The completion of the Illinois River improve-
ment and the progressing construction of the
Illinois and Mississippi Canal emphasized the im-
portance of enlarging and improving the water-
way from La Salle to Chicago. Till this should be
accomplished the improvements already made and
to the Mississippi. Two of these reached the river
at Rock Island, two at Watertown, and one, the
Marais d'Osier route, near Albany. The route chosen
was the one by way of Penny's Slough and Rock River.
^The work of construction was begun in July, 1892, on
the canal, four and a half miles in length, around the
falls in the lower Rock River, near Milan. This section
of the waterway was opened for use April 17, 1895.
^Up to July I, 1907, the expenditures on the canal
had reached ^7,188,696.87. In addition to this sum,
there were outstanding liabilities to the amount of
^15,000. To meet these liabilities and those which
would be incurred in completing the odds and ends
of the work, the sum of $305,837.55 was available
from the previous appropriations. Report of the
Chief of Engineers, 1907? PP- 637-640,
IMPROVEMENT AND ENLARGEMENT 143
those in progress would avail but little. The
locks of the Illinois and Michigan Canal being too
narrow to permit the passage of the steamers and
barges which were able to reach the western ter-
minus of the canal, a transfer of freight to canal
barges or to freight cars, was rendered necessary
within a hundred miles of Chicago.^ Before the
water route could again become effective for trans-
portation purposes, it was necessary that the
Mississippi River vessels should be able to dis-
charge their cargoes at the wharves and elevators in
Chicago. The most urgent problem, then, was that
of enlarging the waterway from La Salle to Chicago.
Meanwhile the sanitary problem at Chicago had
become a pronounced factor in the movement for
a more commodious waterway. As early as 1865
the problem of sewage disposal led the city to
obtain from the state the permission to lower the
summit level of the canal sufficiently to insure
such a flow of water from Lake Michigan as would
carry the sewage from the Chicago River through
the canal into the Des Plaines.^ This improve-
ment, completed in 1871 at an expenditure of
approximately ^3,000,000,^ met the sanitary re-
^The locks of the Illinois and Michigan Canal being
only eighteen feet wide between the chamber walls,
will not permit the passage of river steamboats and
barges which are built wide and shallow.
2 Authorized by the act of February 16, 1865.
'After the Chicago fire in 1871, the state reimbursed
the city for this expenditure to the amount of
^2,955,340.
144 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
quirements for nearly a decade. By 1881, how-
ever, the collection of debris in the prism of the
canal, the lowering of the lake level, and the in-
creasing amount of sewage to be carried, combined
to render the canal ineffective as an outlet.^ The
putrid condition of the sewage laden water passing
sluggishly through the canal became a menace to
the health of the people living along the course of
the canal and the Des Plaines and upper Illinois
Rivers. To obviate this danger, the General
Assembly, in 1881, required the city to re-establish
the pumping works at Bridgeport in order to
augment the flow of water through the canal. ^
This expedient, however, proved unsatisfactory.
Local floods frequently polluted the water supply
of the city by carrying the accumulating sewage
from the river into the lake. As the most feasible
way of solving the sanitary problem, the Sanitary
District of Chicago, created by the act of May 28,
1889, abandoned the old canal and constructed the
Chicago Drainage Channel, 28.03 miles in length
^In the decade, 1870 to 1880, the population of the
city grew from 298,977 to 503,185. During the same
period the stock-yards and slaughtering business also
made rapid strides. The number of cattle received
rose from 532,964 in 1870 to 1,382,477 In 1880, and
the number packed mounted from 21,254 to 511,711,
while the receipts of hogs increased from 1,673,158,
to 7,059,435 and the number packed Increased from
919,197 to 5,752,191. The sewage from the stock-
yards and packing houses was emptied Into the South
branch of the Chicago River.
^Lazvs of Illinois, 1881, pp. 159-161.
IMPROVEMENT AND ENLARGEMENT 145
from the Chicago River to the Des Plaines at
Lockport.^ Varying in surface width from 164
feet in the rock sections to 300 feet in the earth
portions, and carrying a depth of twenty-four
feet of water at the ordinary lake levels, the
Channel, together with the Chicago River, fur-
nished an excellent beginning for the proposed
deep water-way from the Lakes to the Gulf.
Since the construction of the Chicago Drainage
Channel, the federal government has continued to
make surveys and estimates of the cost of enlarging
and improving the waterway from the terminus of
this channel to the Mississippi. The most im-
portant of these surveys was undertaken in com-
pliance with the act of June 13, 1902." The plan
contemplates a channel having a minimum width
of two hundred feet at the bottom and fourteen
feet deep.^ It further contemplates the removal of
the four dams now in the Illinois River and a
combination of channel improvement and short
canals from Lockport to Utica. Although bills
carrying appropriations for defraying the expenses
of the proposed improvement, have been intro-
duced at almost every session of Congress since
^Work was begun on the canal September 3, 1892.
On January 2, 1900, water was turned into the canal
from Lake Michigan, and fifteen days later the bear-
trap dam at Lockport was lowered and the flow from
the canal to the Dcs Plaines began.
*Thc report of the Board of Engineers was made
December 12, 1905.
'House Reports, No. 263, 59th Cong., 1st. Sess., pp. 4-5.
146 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
the report was made, no provision has been made
for the accomplishment of the work by the federal
government.^
The state of Illinois, however, has taken up the
project more seriously. Urged by the commercial
interests which would be aifected by the improve-
ment, by the Chicago Sanitary District, by the
Internal Improvement Commission of Illinois, by
annual deep waterway conventions, and by the
inhabitants of the Illinois valley, the General
Assembly, by a joint resolution of October i6,
1907,^ submitted to a referendum vote, a pro-
posed amendment to the constitution of the state
authorizing the issue of state bonds to the amount
of ^20,000,000 for the purpose of obtaining funds
with which to complete the improvement from
the western terminus of the Chicago Drainage
Canal to Utica, and to construct power plants for
the utilization of the potential power created by
the waterway.^ The proposition was adopted
^The joint resolution of April 21, 1904, authorized
the lowering of the dams at La Grange and Kamps-
ville. U. S. Statutes at Large Vol. 33 p. 589. These
were lowered with the permission of the Secretary
of War, and under conditions prescribed by him,
with the concurrence of the Chief of Engineers, and
at the expense of the Sanitary District.
"^Laws of Illinois, Adjourned session, 1907-1908, pp.
102-103. -^ survey of the deep waterway was author-
ized by the act of June 3, 1902. U. S. Statutes at
Large, vol. 32, pt. I, 364.
^The original plan contemplated a channel improve-
ment in the Des Plaines River from the present
IMPROVEMENT AND ENLARGEMENT 147
at the general election on November 3, 1908, by a
vote of 692,522 to 195,177.
The possibilities of electrical power development
along the line of the proposed improvement was
one of the strong factors in leading the state to so
extensive an undertaking. The region is rich in
electrical possibilities and the market for the power
is close at hand. The plan for the waterway,
therefore, includes the construction of four state-
owned power plants with an aggregate capacity
of 140,000 horse power.^ It is estimated that
terminus of the Drainage Canal above the city of
Joliet to the junction of the Des Plaines with the
Kankakee in forming the Illinois. Because of the
complications growing out of the "Dresden Heights
dam" lease, two alternative plans have recently
received consideration. The first is to enlarge the
Illinois and Michigan Canal from the place where it
crosses the Des Plaines River to a point below Dresden
Heights and there enters the Illinois River. The other
is to extend the Drainage Canal through the eastern
part of the city of Joliet and follow the general course
of the Des Plaines, but, keeping to the east and south
of it, to enter the Kankakee near its mouth, following
this stream to the Illinois. The report of the Illinois
Internal Improvement Commission, however, submitted
on March i, 1909, adheres to the original plan.
^The four proposed plants are to be located as
follows:
Brandon's Road, 24-ft. head 38,182 horse power
Big Dresden Island, i8-ft. head. . 28,636 horse power
Bell's Island, 26-ft. head 41,364 horse power
Utica, 20-f t. head 31,818 horse power
Total 140,000 horse power
148 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
this amount of electrical power would carry the
interest charge on the cost of construction, pay the
cost of operation and maintenance, and provide a
sinking fund with which to finally extinguish the
entire debt.^ Thus the sanitary necessities of
Chicago and the seeming possibility of defraying
the cost of the extension through the created power
apparently carried the project for an enlarged and
improved waterway from the Great Lakes to the
Gulf of Mexico, appreciably nearer to consum-
mation.
However, the authorization of the bond issue
did not clear the way for immediate accomplish-
ment of the plan. Legal complications delayed
the beginning of the work. Meanwhile, a change
of administration placed the control of the project
in the hands of men who thought a less ample and
less expensive channel would be entirely adequate
both for the needs of commerce and for the de-
velopment of water power. In keeping with this
view the Illinois Waterway Commission was
created and authorized to expend ^5,000,000 in
making the improvement.^ The new plan con-
templates a channel depth of eight feet, instead of
^The results of the operation of the power plant of
the Drainage District would seem to confirm the
estimates of the advocates of a deep waterway financed
by this method. On a production of a little more than
30,000 horsepower the District derived ^804,934.92
in 1912 and ^812,934.86 in 1913, from the sale of
electrical current.
^Laws of Illinois, 1915, pp. 18-35.
IMPROVEMENT AND ENLARGEMENT 149
the fourteen feet contemplated when the ^20,000,-
000 bond issue was authorized. In fact, this plan
is substantially a revision of the Marshall plan of
1889 with the upper sections eliminated as unnec-
essary since the construction of the Chicago
Drainage Canal. The reasons for the reversion to
the shallower channel seem to be that, first, the
deeper channel down to Utica would be of little
practical value unless carried on to the mouth of
the Mississippi, or, at least, to St. Louis. There
is no assurance that this would be done at an early
date, if ever. Secondly, that the shallower chan-
nel would secure many of the advantages that
could be secured by the deeper one and at a much
less cost.^ With either channel the Mississippi
steamers could ply between New Orleans and
Chicago, connecting both cities with those on the
Illinois, the Mississippi, and the Ohio and usually
with those on the Missouri, as far up as Kansas
City. The shallower channel, however, would
preclude all possibility of the lake vessels and
sea-going vessels using the waterway.'^ With the
'Development of the waterway on the new plan
has been stopped at least temporarily, by a court
injunction. The restraining order was issued by
Judge Norman S. Jones of the Sangamon County
Circuit Court, on January 29, 1916, on a complaint
of William A. Hubbard, a member of the General
Assembly. An appeal was taken to the Supreme
Court, where the case was reversed and remanded to
the Circuit Court with instructions to dismiss.
^Mr. Joy Morton, President of the Morton Salt
Company, is of the opinion that in the shipments of
I50 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
shallower channel practically none of the lake
vessels could be used below Joliet. The deeper
channel would be usable by probably one-fourth,
or more, of the vessels entering the Chicago har-
bor.^ It is entirely possible, also, that if the water-
way had a twelve or fourteen foot channel, more
lake boats would be built of a capacity to use it.
It is not probable that many would be built small
enough to use the eight foot channel. They would
not be practicable for lake service.
The completion of the waterway to Utica, if the
larger plan be followed, would open to the naviga-
tion of the smaller lake vessels ninety-one of the
three hundred and twenty-one miles intervening
salt, it would be cheaper to transfer the cargoes at
Chicago than to send the more expensive boats and
larger crews on a slow journey through the canal, even
if the depth of channel were ample. He says: "If
we had a canal 14 ft. deep or even 20 feet deep, we
could not afford to send our lake boats inland, partly
on account of the necessary canal speed regulation,
but chiefly because of their much greater construction
cost per ton of cargo capacity and the fact that they
are obliged to carry a larger crew than a canal boat;
and for the further reason that a transfer of cargo
at the Lake harbor can be accomplished by present
unloading facilities so cheaply that it would not pay
to send a Lake carrier into the canal."
^In 1901, out of a total tonnage of 4,244,498 tons,
only two-tenths of one per cent had a draft of nine
feet or less. Fifteen per cent had a draft of twelve
feet or less and thirty-five and eight-tenths had a
draft of fourteen feet or less. House Document No.
263, 59th Congress, ist Session, p. 13.
IMPROVEMENT AND ENLARGEMENT 151
between the Chicago River and the Mississippi.
This section is by far the most expensive portion
of the route. If this portion were completed at
an expenditure of more than ^70,000,000 by the
Sanitary District and the State of Illinois,^ the
advocates of the deep waterway confidently be-
lieve that the federal government would appro-
priate the ^10,000,000 or ^11,000,000 necessary to
carry the fourteen foot channel to the St. Louis
harbor.^ However, should the other plan prevail
and consequently the lake vessels be unable to use
the waterway, Chicago would necessarily become
the transfer point for the Mississippi steamers and
the lake vessels. In either case, the traffic on the
waterways would be greatly increased. There is
no doubt that the larger and deeper channel would
carry the larger commerce, possibly not propor-
tionately larger as compared to the greater initial
outlay, but the indirect benefits would no doubt
at least partially make up the difference.
The steps already taken have given a renewed
impetus to the scheme for the development of a
great system of interior waterways. The progress-
*The expenditures of the Sanitary District on the
Drainage Canal, up to December 31, 1906, amounted
to ^52,698,024.98.
^The board of engineers which made the survey
under a provision of the act of June 13, 1902, estimated
that the projected fourteen foot waterway from
Lockport to the mouth of the Illinois River would cost
$23,543,582. The Mississippi River Commission esti-
mated the cost of the proposed improvement from
the mouth of the Illinois to St. Louis, at $6,553,880.
152 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
ing enlargement of the Erie Canal, giving as it
will improved facilities for eastern trade, lends
added importance to such a system. The in-
ability of the railroads to serve adequately the
public needs for transportation facilities during
the last few years has added still further weight to
the arguments advanced in favor of such a work.
Neither are the possibilities of future development
of trade between the interior and the Orient
through the Panama Canal forgotten.
The completion of the section of the waterway
which niinois has undertaken, would still leave to
the federal government the improvement of the
Illinois River channel from Utica to the Missis-
sippi and considerable improvement in the latter
stream, in order to provide a satisfactory channel
from the Lakes to the Gulf. It is to the con-
struction of this section of the work that the
federal government is now being urged.
The completion of the proposed improvement
would mean the abandonment of the Hlinois and
Michigan Canal, or those portions of it not in-
corporated into the larger waterway. This would,
however, be in keeping with the purpose which led
to the original construction of the canal and to
the persistent efforts for such improvement of
the entire waterway as would enable it to meet the
constantly increasing demands made upon modern
transportation agencies. It would be only another
of the long series of efforts to maintain an effective
route for water transportation through the interior
of the country and between the "inland seas"
IMPROVEMENT AND ENLARGEMENT 153
and the ocean commerce. To this series of efforts,
the federal government, the state of IlHnois, the
municipality of Chicago, and the Chicago Sani-
tary District have contributed in a financial way.
The interests of trade, of sanitation, of industrial
development, and, perhaps of ambition, have fur-
nished the incentive and the stimulus. The com-
pletion of the project of a deep waterway from
the Lakes to the Gulf, adapted to the standards
of the twentieth century, rests, at present, with
the federal government. Despite the conflict over
the project there is little doubt that the state of
Illinois would readily develop the waterway down
to Utica on as large a scale as the federal govern-
ment would carry it on to the Gulf. Part of the
indifference, if not of the active opposition, to
the fourteen foot channel is due to a belief that
its effects would be neutralized by the shallower
channel below. There can be no doubt of the
ultimate enlargement of the waterway at least
down to Utica, but whether that enlargement
shall take the form of the fourteen foot channel or
one of less proportions only future developments
can determine.
Chapter VI
CONCLUSION
The Illinois and Michigan Canal has played a
notable part in the history of the state. The
project for its construction grew out of the well
recognized importance of the development of
commercial routes between the Mississippi valley
and the Atlantic seaboard cities that would mate-
rially lessen the excessive economic burdens of
transportation. In the effort to establish such
"through routes" the construction of a canal was
proposed at almost every portage from western
Pennsylvania to the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers.
Physiographically, the Chicago portage offered
the most feasible place for an artificial connection
between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi
system. The necessary length of a canal across
this portage would not be great. The elevation
to be overcome was less than elsewhere. The
available water supply was abundant. No other
proposed route possessed all these advantages.
Despite these advantages, however, the project
languished till the construction of the Erie Canal
provided for the commerce of the lake region a
more direct and inexpensive route to the Atlantic
coast markets than was furnished by the St. Law-
rence, and till the admission of Illinois to the Union
154
CONCLUSION iSS
and the increasing population of this and neigh-
boring states provided a local interest in the con-
struction of the proposed canal, and consequently
furnished a persistent and effective demand for it.
It was due to the financial difficulties which
beset the young state that more than a score of
years were permitted to elapse after the land grant
by the federal government, before a cargo of freight
passed through the canal. These difficulties were
augmented by the unwise extension of other inter-
nal improvement schemes in the state, by the
financial panic of 1837, and by the failure of the
State Bank of Illinois in 1842. Itself the cause
of more than one-third of the enormous debt
which threatened to drive Illinois into bankruptcy
and repudiation, the canal furnished the means of
escape from impending financial ruin.
While the canal played an important part as a
commercial route between the East and the West
before the rise of railroad transportation, its in-
fluence on the economic development of the region
adjacent to it was even more marked as is attested
by the growth of population, industry, and com-
merce in that portion of the state, in the quarter
of a century from 1830 to 1855. It not only trans-
formed a wilderness into a settled and prosperous
community, but it made Chicago the metropolis
of the Mississippi valley. For half a century the
influence of the canal was felt as a transportation
route and as a freight rate regulator. But this
influence was gradually undermined, first, by the
unsatisfactory condition of the Illinois river chan-
156 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
nel during a portion of almost every year and by
the delay of the state and federal governments in
relieving these conditions. Secondly, by the in-
creasing inadequacy of the canal to meet the
growing demand of an enlarging commerce and
thirdly, by the ever increasing efficiency of the
competing railroad service.
An agitation seven decades long, for an effective
waterway from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi
has resulted in a river channel improvement in-
adequate for present commercial needs and a
canal from the upper Mississippi to the upper
Illinois, the traffic of which can not reach Chicago
without the expense and delay incident to a trans-
fer of cargo. The sanitary necessities of Chicago,
however, having led to the construction of the
most expensive portion of a deep waterway of
sufficient dimensions to meet the needs of twentieth
century commerce, and the state of Illinois having
become thoroughly interested in the project and
committed to an important extension of the work
already done, the probability of the completion of
an effective route for water transportation between
the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico appears
less remote than at any previous time since the
movement for such route began. In fact the only
probable cause for failure would seem to lie in the
divided counsels of the advocates of the waterway.
The enlargement of the Erie Canal, making it
possible for freight to pass between New York
and Chicago without transfer, has given a new
impetus to the movement for a similar enlargement
CONCLUSION 157
of the waterway from the Lakes to the Gulf.
Relatively, however, such a waterway would be
of less importance as a traffic agency than before
the development of railroad transportation. That
it would still influence local freight rates along its
course, there can be little doubt. Possibly it
might cause a readjustment of rates over a wide
region wherever the waterway should come into
competition with railway traffic. As a trans-
portation agency, it would carry low class freight,
such as coal, grain, lumber, and other products of
the mine, the forest, and the field. Even the
coarser products of the manufacturing establish-
ments might also be carried by water instead of
by rail. But the experience of the old canal would
indicate that as adequate terminal facilities must
be provided along the waterw^ay as along the rail-
ways, if the traffic is again to turn to barge instead
of to railway train. The opening of the Panama
Canal has added still further to the importance of
a waterway from the Lakes to the Gulf, of sufficient
capacity to carry eifectively and economically the
enlarging commerce of the Mississippi valley. In
the past, the transportation problems have mainly
centered about the efforts to reach the eastern
markets. Henceforth, the problems incident to the
Gulf trade will claim a larger share of the attention
of transportation men and the public, as may also
the trade between the interior and the Pacific coast
and the Orient. In the traffic from the Great
Lakes to the Gulf, the deep waterway would be as
conspicuous a factor as the Eric Canal has been in
158 THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
the traffic from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic, and
as it promises to become again as a barge canaL
The present movement for a deep waterway
from Lake Michigan to the Gulf of Mexico is the
direct outcome of well nigh a century of effort to
furnish a continuous water transportation route
from New York to New Orleans by way of the
Great Lakes and the Mississippi. In this century-
long movement the Illinois and Michigan Canal
has played a worthy part, but the progress of the
last half century has rendered it ineffective. Like
an out of date machine, it must be replaced by one
better adapted to present needs and conditions. But
when the deep waterway shall have become a reality,
it will follow the route of the old Illinois and Mich-
igan Canal and it will perform the functions so long
performed by that historic highway of commerce.
In final analysis, the significance of the Illinois
and Michigan Canal has been two-fold. In the
first place, its influence on the economic develop-
ment of the region adjacent to it probably sur-
passed the local influence of any other American
canal except the Erie. Secondly, the present
movement for a Lake-to-the-Gulf deep waterway
is the logical outgrowth of the long-continued
efforts to render the canal and its river connection
effective in meeting the continually enlarging de-
mands made upon them. Had this canal never been
constructed, there is little probability that the deep
waterway proposition would now be seriously con-
sidered. No small part of the strength of the pres-
ent movement is due to its historical antecedents.
APPENDICES
Appendix I
TOLLS, EXPENDITURES AND TONNAGE OF
THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL
Year Gross Tolls Tons
expenses Transported^
1848 $48,197 $87,890
1849 70,932 118,375
1850 68,415 125,504
1851 58,475 173,300
1852 53,508 168,577
1853 44,870 173,372
1854 53,242 198,326
1855 70,873 180,519
1856 91,458 184,310
1857 103,282 197,830
1858 58,088 197,171
1859 74,432 132,147
i860 82,583 138,554 367,437
1861 55,061 218,040 547,295
1862 55,362 264,647 673,590
1863 62,715 210,386 619,599
1864 66,107 156,607 510,286
1865 124,869 300,810 616,140
1866 116,363 302,958 746,815
1867 162,656 252,131 746,815
1868 122,052 215,720 737,727
1869 91,765 238,759 817,738
1870 108,695 149,635 585,970
187I 97,232 I 59,050 628,975
'Statistics of the tonnage before i860 are not avail-
able.
161
l62
J
APPENDIX
Year
Gross
Tolls
Tons
Expenses
Transported
1872
$88,876
165,874
783,641
1873
81,088
166,641
849,533
1874
73,798
144,831
712,020
1875
74,511
107,081
670,025
1876
91,595
113,293
691,943
1877
110,018
96,913
605,912
1878
82,330
84,330
698,792
1879
97,701
89,065
669,559
1880
125,601
92,296
751,360
1881
108,223
85,130
826,133
1882
104,412
85,947
1,011,287
1883
116,756
77,975
925,575
1884
99,289
77,102
956,721
1885
86,393
66,800
827,355
1886
72,430
62,516
808,019
1887
71,385
58,024
742,074
1888
76,845
56,028
751,055
1889
85,478
60,605
917,047
1890
75,125
55,112
742,392
189I
72,592
49,557
641,156
1892
67,137
54,937
783,288
1893
59,522
38,702
529,816
1894
54,258
44,928
617,811
1895
71,142
39,106
591,507
1896
77,987
32,100
446,762
1897
68,307
33,065
484,575
1898
78,986
38,570
395,017
1899
91,196
41,021
469,352
1900
88,317
13,867
121,759
19OI
111,002
8,120
81,456
1902
127,150
2,879
35,824
1903
52,400
5,857
62,894
1904
42,761
6,743
47,616
1905
50,890
4,950
38,820
1906
48,523
5,358
35,480
1907
50,050
2,126
80,616
APPENDIX
163
Year
Gross
ToUs
Tons
Expenses
Transported
1908
60,345
2,985
312,500
1909
48,294
2,170
352,600
19IO
57,938
3,754
374,500
I9II
39,877
2,816
362,652
1912
49,523
1,875
384,729
I913
49,103
2,712
395,654
I914
45,955
3,292
487,328
191 5
35,756
1,336
358,550
^5,391,107
$6,631,007
74,031,104
Appendix II
LIST OF OFFICERS AND AGENTS EMPLOYED
BY THE BOARD OF CANAL COMMISSIONERS
November 30, 191 5
R. F. Burt, general superintendent; salary, *$2,50o.oo;
began Feb. i, 1914.
John K. Monahan, chief clerk; salary, *^2,400.oo;
began July 22, 1912.
Margaret O'Brien, assistant clerk and stenographer;
salary, *^78o.oo; began Nov. i, 1908.
W. A. Panneck, attorney; salary, *^2, 500.00; began
Aug. 5, 1913.
H. M. Coulehan, assistant treasurer; salary, *^36o.oo;
began Oct. i, 1914.
W. E. Hemmerle, collector tolls at Ottawa; salary,
*^900.oo; began Dec. 7, 191 3.
Elias B. Wright, collector tolls at Henry; salary,
*^900.oo; began Oct. 24, 1913.
Wm. H. Richards, collector tolls at Copperas Creek;
salary, *^900.oo; began July 3, 191 5.
James T. Walsh, assistant superintendent; salary,
*$i, 500.00; began Jan. 3, 1914.
Thos. Coyne, locktender No. i; salary, 1^35.00;
began Jan. 16, 1914.
Michael McFadden, locktender No. 5; salary, t^50.oo;
began Oct. 21, 1913.
Wm. Brannick, locktender Nos. 6 and 7; salary,
t^50.oo; began Oct. i, 1913.
* Per annum,
t Per month.
164
APPENDIX 165
Wm. Wood, locktender No. 8; salary, 1^35.00; began
Oct. I, 1913.
Timothy Driscoll, locktender Nos. 9 and 10; salary,
t^50.oo; began Mar. i, 1914.
Mrs. Geo. Funk, locktender, No. 11; salary, 1^35.00;
began Feb. 17, 1896.
Michael Looney, locktender No. 12 salary, 1^35.00;
began April i, 1913.
Chas. Hasenkamper, locktender No. 13; salary, 1^35.00;
began April i, 1914.
John Roach, locktender Nos. 14 and 1 5 ; salary, 1^50.00;
began Dec. 15, 1913.
Chas. Carrier, locktender at Henry; salary, t^40.oo;
began July i, 1912.
Chas. Tompkins, locktender at Copperas Creek; salary,
X$40.oo; began Dec. 16, 1914.
t Per month.
X Per month during navigation.
Appendix III
ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL TOLLS
AND LOCKAGE CHARGES, 1848 & 1915
Tolls upon the Illinois and Michigan Canal for
the year 1848.
1 . Rates of Toll on Boats.
Cents Mills
On each boat used chiefly for transporting
common freight, 3^ cents per mile 3 5
On each boat used chiefly for transporting
mineral coal, 3 cents per mile 3 . .
On each boat used for transporting passengers,
6 cents per mile 6
2. On Passengers.
On each passenger 8 years old and upwards,
4 mills per mile o 4
Note. Each passenger 8 years old and upwards
shall be allowed 60 pounds baggage or household
furniture (if belonging to or used by such passenger)
free of toll.
3. On the following named articles, toll is
computed according to weight — that is to say,
the following rates per mile are charged on each
1000 pounds, and in the same proportion for a
lesser or a greater weight:
166
APPENDIX
167
Mills
Ale 10
Agricultural imple-
ments 10
Animals, domestic . . 10
Anvils 15
Ashes, wood 4
Beef 8
Beans 10
Bread 10
Beer 10
Butter 10
Baggage 20
Beeswax 10
Bacon 8
Brooms 10
Broom handles 10
Broom corn 10
Bristles 10
Buhr blocks 12
Barley 10
Buckwheat 10
Blooms 15
Bran 5
Bark, tanners' 5
Barrels, empty 10
Coffee 12
Crockery, in crates . . 15
Cheese 10
Crackers 10
Cordage 10
Cotton, bagging .... 10
Cotton, raw in bales 10
Coopers' ware 10
Carpenters' and join-
ers' work 10
Carriages 10
Mills
Candles 10
Corn 3
Cider 8
Clocks 20
Charcoal 5
Coal I
Coke 2}^
Clay 2
Eggs 10
Flour 7>^
Flax 10
Fruit, home 10
Fruit, foreign 15
Fish 10
Furniture, household 20
Feathers 15
Flags, for chairs ... . 15
Furs and peltries, all
kinds 25
Grease 7
Ginseng 10
Grindstones 6
Gypsum 6
Glass and glassware . 1 5
Hemp
Hides 10
Horns and tips 10
Hair 10
Hoops 15
Hams 10
Household furniture,
accompanied by
and belonging to
familicsemigrating 15
Hay and fodder .... 5
Heading 3
i68
APPENDIX
Mills
Hoops, and materials
for 3
Hobs, boat knees
and bolts 2
Iron, pig and scrap. . 7>^
Iron, wrought or cast 1 2
Iron tools 15
Ice I
Leather 15
Lard 8
Lime, common 3
Lime, hydraulic. ... 3
Lead, pigs and bars . i
Merchandise, includ-
ing dry goods, gro-
ceries, hardware,
cutlery, crockery,
and glassware, and
all other articles
not specified 15
Manilla 10
Molasses, in hogs-
heads or barrels.. . 12
Malt 7K
Meal 5
Marble, unwrought. 6
Marble, wrought .. . 15
Marble dust 9
Millstones 12
Machinery 12
Mechanics' tools ... 15
Manure 3
Nuts 9
Nails 12
Oats 3
Oil cake 6
Mills
Oil, linseed and corn. 12
Oil, lard 10
Ore 3
Peas 10
Provisions, salt and
fresh 10
Pork 8
Pot and pearl ashes. 10
Porter 10
Palm leaf 10
Potter's ware 10
Pitch 10
Potatoes, and other
vegetables 6
Paper 15
Powder 15
Rags 9
Rosin 9
Rye 6
Salt 6
Seeds 10
Saleratus 10
Salts of lye 10
Soap 10
Sumach 10
Sugar 12
Skins, animal 10
Sleds and sleighs. .. 10
Saddle trees 10
Shorts and screen-
ings 5
Ship stuff 5
Spikes 12
Starch 10
Shot 10
Steel 15
APPENDIX 169
MiUs Mills
Spirits, except whis- Tobacco, not manu-
key 25 factured 7^
Straw 4 Tobacco, manuf act-
Staves 3 ured 15
Sand, and other Veneering 10
earths 2 Vinegar 10
Stone, cut and Wheat^ 7
sawed 3 Whiskey and high-
Tallow 8 wines 10
Tar 10 Wool 10
Tombstones, not Wooden ware 10
marble 6 Wagons and other
Trees, shrubs, and vehicles 10
plants 6 White lead 15
4. On the following named articles toll per mile
is computed by number or measure.
Cents Mills
On each 1000 ft. (board measure) of lumber per
mile I
On each 100 cubic ft. of timber, hewed or round,
if transported in boats i ...
On same, if transported in rafts 2 ...
On each 1000 brick i ...
On each 1000 laths or shingles i]/2.
On each 100 split posts or rails for fencing i ...
On each cord of wood for fuel i 2
On each cubic yard (27 cubic ft.) dressed stone. . . 5
On each cubic yard (27 cubic ft.) undressed
stone 2
In ascertaining the amount of toll chargeable on
any article, the weight of the cask, box, bag, crate,
'During the months of October and November,
1848, this rate was reduced to 5 mills per mile per 1000
pounds.
I70 APPENDIX
vessel, or thing, in which said article is contained,
is added to the weight of the article itself, and the
toll computed accordingly.
If two or more articles, chargeable with different
rates of toll, be contained in the same cask, box,
or vessel, the whole is charged with the highest
rates of tolls chargeable on any article so con-
tained.
The rafting of timber on the Canal or the feeders
is prohibited, unless by written special agreement
with the Superintendent of the Canal. Any viola-
tion of this order subjects the person violating it
to a penalty of ten dollars for every such offence.
Illinois and Michigan Canal Tolls, 191 5
The following rates of tolls and lockage on the
Canal and at the locks at Henry and Copperas
Creek in the Illinois River, adopted by the Board
of Canal Commissioners in 1914, are still in
force.
By Resolution of the Board of Canal Commissioners,
Adopted on April 2, igi4y to Take Effect on and
after April 75, 1914.
All boats without cargo shall pay as tolls on the
canal at the rate of three cents (3c) per mile between
the Deep Lock at Joliet and La Salle, Illinois, a distance
of sixty-three (63) miles, and the same rate to and from
all intermediate points. Where boats lock from Deep
Lock into or out of the Drainage Channel from or to
Joliet a charge of fifty cents (50c) lockage each way
shall be made.
APPENDIX 171
Articles Through Local Lockage
Freight Freight
Lockage in
Tolls in Ti'llg Tolls in mills cents
Barbed wire Ya, Y 3
Bark, tanners' i i iK
Barley 1^ K^ iM
Barrels, empty 2 2 3
Beans i i 3
Bran i i 3
Buckwheat -tb Y ^K
Charcoal I I 3
Clay Ya Y 3
Coal, per ton per mile Y Y 3
Coke Y Y 3
Corn I I 3
Drainage pipe i I 3
Flour I I 3
Furniture, household 2 2 3
Hay and fodder i I 3
Hemp I I 3
Hoops and material for i I 3
Hubs, boat knees and bolts i i 3
Ice lY 2 iK
Iron, pig, scrap and railroad Y Y ^
Iron, wrought and cast i i 3
Iron ore Y Y 2
Land plaster, bone dust and sup-
er-phosphate I I I
Lead, pipe, sheet and rool, pigs and
bars I I 3
Lime, common i I 2
Lime, hydraulic i I 2
Machinery 2 2 3
Meal I I 3
Merchandise (including hardware,
dry goods, cutlery, groceries,
crockery and other articles not
specified) i I 3
172 APPENDIX
Artides Through Local Lockage
Freight Freight
Lockage in
Tolls in mills Tolls in mills cents
Oats t\ ^ iK
Rye. T% H iK
Salt in sacks and barrels i I 2
Sand and other earth J^ J/2 i
Seeds i i 3
Ship stuff 113
Shorts and screenings i I 3
Staves and headings i I 3
Wheat T^6 K I K
Zinc spelter i i 3
On the following articles toll per mile and lockage will
be computed by number and measures^
Articles Through Local Lockage
Freight Freight
Tolls in Tolls in
mills mills Lockage in
per mile per mile cents
On each 1,000 feet of lumber 5 5
On each 1,000 feet of dressed
flooring 4 5
On each 1,000 feet of siding 2 2^
On each 1,000 feet lath I i}i
On each 1,000 shingles }4 i
On each 1,000 brick 2 2 5
On each 1,000 split posts (not over
5 inches in diameter) or fence
rails 3 4 5
On each 500 railroad ties 15 20 8
fOn each cord of wood or fuel 8 10 8
fProvided that on wood transported over 25 miles,
the toll shall not exceed 25 cents per cord. All timber
on boats shall be taken board measure.
APPENDIX
173
Article
Through Local Lockage
Freight Freight
Tolls in Tolls in
mills mills Lockage in
per mile per mile cents
*0n each cubic yard (27 cu. ft.)
dressed or sawed stone 7
*0n each cubic yard (27 cu. ft.)
rubble stone 4
*0n each cubic yard (27 cu. ft.)
dimension stone 6
*0n each cubic yard (27 cu. ft.)
macadam stone 2
Passengers (each round trip of 25
miles or less on canal) lyi cents
each
8
8
10
IS
5
On lumber shipments from Chicago to points named
below, the following rates of toll will be charged, ff
From
Chicago
To
Lemont
Lockport
Joliet
Bird's Bridge. . . .
Channahon
Morris
Seneca
Marseilles
Ottawa
Utica
La Salle
Henry and below.
1000
Feet of
Lumber
Cts.
10
12
13
14
15
17
i8
19
20
22
23
16
1000
Feet of
Dressed
Flooring
Cts.
8
9.6
10.4
II .2
12
13.6
14.4
15-2
16
17.6
18.4
12.8
Articles
1000
Feet of
Siding
Cts.
4
4.8
5-2
5-6
6
6.8
7.2
7.6
8
8.8
9.2
6.4
1000 1000
Lath Shingle
Cts,
2
2.
2.
2.
3
3-
3-
4
6
8
4
6
3.8
4
4-4
4.6
3-2
Cts
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
2
2
2
I
*Providcd that on stone transported over 25 miles,
the toll shall not exceed 12^ cents per cubic yard on
macadam and rubble, and 25 per cent per cubic yard
on dimensions and dressed or sawed stone.
174 APPENDIX
"Through freight" is that which is cleared from
Copperas Creek or Henry to Chicago, or from Chicago
to Henry or Copperas Creek.
"Local freight" includes all other freight.
ttProvided that on lumber cleared to the same point,
100,000 feet shall be considered a full canal boat load —
all over that free of toll. Flooring, siding, lath, and
shingles to be figured on the same basis.
Provided that on clearances from Chicago to Cop-
peras Creek, or from Copperas Creek to Chicago, the
lockage on boat and cargo shall be one-half the above
rate of each lock, provided the cargo is not transferred
before reaching destination as cleared.
Provided that boats passing both locks in the Illinois
River shall be charged one-half the above rate of lock-
age at each lock, on cargo, but shall pay the straight
lockage charge on boats at each lock.
Boats entering the canal at La Salle, and passing
out again without proceeding as far as Ottawa, shall
be charged $1.00 each, if the toll on boat and cargo
at above rates should not amount to $1.00.
The weight of a box, crate, vessel, or thing in which any
article may be contained, shall be added to the weight
of the article itself and toll computed accordingly.
Duplicate bills of lading required in all cases, one
to be deposited with the collector to whom toll or
lockage is paid.
Appendix IV
The results of the latest efforts to use the old
canal as a practicable transportation agency are
given in the following letter and the accompanying
statement of operations of the Morton Salt Com-
pany. The letter also clearly states Mr. Mor-
ton's attitude toward the two rival projects for
an enlarged and improved waterway.
11-15-1915
Lieut. Col. W. V. Judson,
Corps of Engineers,
U. S. Engineers' Office,
Chicago, Illinois.
Dear Sir: In urging your approval of the plans
for the construction of the Illinois waterway, as
authorized by the act of the State Legislature,
approved May 27, 1915, I beg to report the prac-
tical results attained by this Company in three
years' operation of three old canal boats running
between Chicago and Davenport, Iowa, via the
Illinois and Michigan and Hennepin Canals and
their Illinois River connection.
The idea of utilizing the existing waterways
for the transportation of salt from Chicago to the
west bank of the Mississippi River, occurred to us
in the Spring of 191 2, the intention then being to
175
176 APPENDIX
try and get one boat through to the Mississippi
River merely as an experiment. The result of the
first voyage was more satisfactory than we had
anticipated, notwithstanding there was but little
water in the old canal and under the advice of an
experienced canal man, we put a very small cargo
in the boat, because of the shallow depth of the
old canal.
The boat, the "Peerless," left Robey Street,
Chicago, at 5 :oo o'clock on the afternoon of June
I, 1912, arriving at Lockport at 9:45 p. m.
Left Lockport June 2nd at 6:15 a.m. and
arrived at Morris, Illinois, at 5:55 p.m.
June 3rd, left Morris at 6:00 a.m. and arrived at
Marseilles at 7:25 p.m.
June 4th, left Marseilles at 6:12 a.m. and arrived
at Lock No. 11 at 4:55 p.m.
June 5th, left Lock No. 11 at 5:50 a.m. and
arrived at the Illinois River at 3:35 p.m. — almost
four days from Lockport to La Salle — a distance
of sixty-three miles.
Arrived at Marquette for coal at 5 115 p.m. Had
to wait there because the U. S. Steamer "Marion"
was coaling.
June 6th, left Marquette at 7:45 a.m. and arrived
at the Illinois and Mississippi Canal at 8:30 a.m.
Passed through Lock No. i at 8:40 to 8:50 a.m.;
passed the ten-mile post at 1.28 p.m.; reached the
19-mile post at 6:50 p.m., having passed through
twenty-one locks in about ten hours.
June 7th, the "Peerless" arrived at Lock No. 29
at 6:15 P.M. and passed into the Rock River, where
APPENDIX 177
it met the Government Pilot sent there on the
order of Major Keller,
June 8th, left Milan at 8:33 a.m. and passed
through Lock No. 37 into the Mississippi River
and down the River to Muscatine, at a speed of
twelve miles per hour, arriving at Muscatine at
12:40 P.M.
This trip was accomplished by a very old,
wooden boat, in poor condition. We had to keep
her pumps going all the way to keep her afloat.
Under the circumstances, we were so encouraged
by the remarkable trip she made that we had the
boat repaired and secured another old steamboat,
the "Niagara," and also the only canal tow-barge
that was available, and put all three to carrying
salt to Davenport, which, we found, would be a
better terminus for us than Muscatine. These
boats were kept in the trade during the summers
of 1912, 1913, and 1914, except during the period
of the break at Mineral on the Hennepin Canal in
191 2, and a statement of their operations is hereto
attached. Their trip movement shows 54 loads
and 6 trips light west bound; 40 loads and 19
trips light east bound; or a total of 119 one-way
trip loads — 79% loads and 21% light.
The capacity of the boats was 150 to 175 tons
of cargo, but, owing to shallow water in the Illinois
and Michigan Canal, we were able to load an
average of only 97 tons per boat; whereas, had we
had a draft of 4' 8", which is the normal draft in
the Illinois and Michigan Canal, we could have
carried easily 150 tons to the load. Had our 94
178 APPENDIX
loads been of 150 tons, we would have carried
14,100 tons instead of 9,134 tons, and the operating
cost would not have exceeded ^1.17 per ton, or
63c per ton less than it actually cost, on account of
shallow water in the Illinois and Michigan Canal,
and the condition of the antiquated boats we were
compelled to use — boats that were more than
forty years old and the only survivors, so far as
we could ascertain, of the big fleet that once navi-
gated the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and two of
these boats were fished out of the bottom of the
Illinois River to be put into this service.
After careful investigation, we are confidently
of the opinion that a motor canal boat of 150 tons
capacity, i. e., the same size as the three boats we
used and drawing 5-ft. of water, could have made
the 119 trips loaded to capacity and made a good
profit in the operation at a freight of 80c per ton;
whereas a motor canal boat of maximum capacity
to pass through the present locks of the Hennepin
Canal, say 30 x 155 ft,, would easily carry 700 tons
from Chicago to Davenport for less than 50c per
ton, after making full allowance for interest and
depreciation on the boat.
The success of these pioneer operations in the
establishment of a through line from Chicago to
the Mississippi River, via existing waterways, was
handicapped not only by the old boats, but be-
cause there were no loading and unloading facili-
ties on the Mississippi River nor along the line of
the canals in Illinois. Our boats were long de-
layed in discharging their cargoes on the Iowa
APPENDIX 179
side of the Mississippi and there were few elevators
along the line of the canal suitable for loading
grain. Some of our loads of grain were taken from
farmers' wagons through holes in bridges across
the canal, and by other make-shift arrangements
— all of which greatly delayed the boats, but the
fact that when the boat was loaded and had water
enough to float it, we made excellent time and
conveyed freight at very reasonable cost, con-
vinced us that the operation of canal boats across
the State of Illinois, in a waterway of sufficient
capacity to accommodate a power boat towing
a barge which, together, could carry as much
freight as a railroad freight train, is entirely
feasible, profitable, and expeditious — our con-
clusions as to the latter having been made from
the fact that every autumn during the three years
we operated, we were able to deliver grain from
point of shipment to the Chicago elevators quicker
than it was delivered from the same points by
rail, and much of the grain we carried was so
carried because there were no cars available for
shipment on account of the annual congestion in
the railroad yards at Chicago, which, of course,
did not affect the delivery of grain to elevators
by canal boats.
We have, for many years, operated a line of
Lake boats, and, prior to this experience on the
Canal, were inclined to favor the proposed 14-ft.
waterway, but now we have learned that, even
if we had a canal 14-ft. deep or even 20-ft. deep,
we could not afford to send our Lake boats inland
i8o APPENDIX
— partly on account of the necessary canal speed
regulations, but chiefly because of their much
greater construction cost per ton of cargo capacity
and the fact that they are obliged to carry a larger
crew than a canal boat; and for the further reason
that a transfer of cargo at the Lake harbor can be
accomplished by present unloading facilities so
cheaply that it would not pay to send a Lake
carrier into the canal. Besides, loading and un-
loading facilities adequate for prompt handling of
modern canal boats can be built at a compara-
tively small cost any place along the canal; where-
as, the facilities necessary to handle Lake boats
are very expensive.
Our experience leads us to the conclusion that a
wide canal, with 8-ft. depth of water, is desirable
as compared with a narrow waterway of greater
depth. We must have boats of sufficient cargo
capacity to compete with freight train loads,
instead of freight car loads, and we prefer to get
such capacity through increasing the beam of the
boat, rather than the depth of the hold.
Yours truly,
Morton Salt Company,
By Joy Morton, President,
APPENDIX
i8i
Statement of Movement of Morton Salt
Company's Canal Boats on Illinois & Michi-
gan AND Hennepin Canals, 1912-1913-1914.
1912
1913
1914
Total
From
To
12 loads salt
2 " "
Chicago
Davenport
LaSalle
2 light
((
LaSalle
10 loads grain
4 " cement
Utica
La Salle
Chicago
2 light
22 loads salt
4 light
12 loads grain
6 "
Davenport
Chicago
Hennepin Canal
Morris
Davenport
Alorris
Chicago
8 light
18 loads salt
Davenport
Chicago
Davenport
6 " grain
2 " lumber
Hennepin Canal
La Salle
Chicago
(t
9 light
Davenport
({
52 loads salt
2 " "
Chicago
Davenport
La Salle
2 light
4 "
(C
Morris
10 loads grain
Utica
Chicago
18 "
6 "
Hennepin Canal
Morris
4 " cement
La Salle
((
2 " lumber
((
<(
19 light
Davenport
((
54 loads West bound
6 light " " 94 loads
40 loads East bound
79%
19 light "
25 light
21%
119
100%
i82 APPENDIX
Tons Carried and Freight Revenue
Tons Revenue
Salt 5,322 $5,745-27
Grain 3,216 3,797-53
Cement 386 292.49
Lumber 210 228.00
Charter __i^_L 125.00
Totals 9,134 $10,188.29
Operating Expenses Cost per Ton on
Amounts Cargo Carried
I. & M. Canal tolls $1,041.41 .114
Wages (includes lay up and fit
out) 7,455-20 .816
Steward's Dept. :
Provisions 2,264.00 . 248
Coal and washing 8.03 .0009
Sundries 81.01 .009
General sundries I03-I5 -OH
Mate's Dept. :
Ship chandlery ' 296.79 .033
Paint and oil 179-34 -020
Engineer's Dept.:
Fuel 1,844.32 .202
Oil 53-17 -006
Repairs 724-75 -79
Supplies 33.68 .003
Loading and unloading (ex.
grain) 2,054.01 .225
Loading and unloading grain . . 360.23 -0391
Totals $16,499.09 $1 . 806
Carried 9,134 tons in 94 loads — average load 97 tons.
On 4' 8" draft (which we should have had) — average
load 150 tons.
On 94 loads at 150 tons each, should have carried
14,100 tons.
Basis 14,100 tons, operating cost — $1.17 per ton.
On actual tonnage carried, received — $1.12 per ton.
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See also Annual Reports, Manuscripts, Maps,
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Hlinois House Journals, 1834-1903.
Vandalia, 1818-1838; Springfield, 1838-.
192 BIBLIOGRAPHY
Illinois Senate Journals, 1826, 1 834-1903.
Vandalia, 1818-1838; Springfield, 1838-.
Illinois Intelligencer, 1 822-1 826.
Vandalia, 1822-1826.
Illinois Waterway Report by the Internal Improve-
ment Commission of Illinois.
Springfield, Illinois State Journal Co., State
Printers, 1909. -
James, Edmund J.
The Canal and the Railway.
Publications of the American Economic Asso-
ciation, V, p. 282.
Johnson, Emory R.
American Railway Transportation.
New York, D. Appleton & Company, 1904.
Inland Waterways, Their Relation to Trans-
portation.
Annals of the American Academy of Politi-
cal and Social Science, supplement, Septem-
ber, 1893.
Philadelphia, 1893.
Ocean and Inland Water Transportation.
New York, D. Appleton & Company, 1906.
Jones, Alexander J.
The Chicago Drainage Canal and Its Forbear,
the Illinois and Michigan Canal.
Publication No. 11, Illinois State Historical
Library, p. 153.
Jones, Lawrence M.
The Improvement of the Missouri River and Its
Usefulness as a Trafic Route.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 193
Annals of the American Academy of Political
& Social Science, XXXI, p. 178.
Journal of the Constitutional Convention of Illinois
of 1870.
Springfield, State Journal Printing Office, 1870.
Journal of the Proceedings of the Southwestern
Convention. Memphis, Tenn., 1845.
KiLBURN, J.
Public Documents Concerning Ohio Canals.
Columbus, I. N. Whiting, 1832.
Laws of Illinois, i8i8-igi^.
Vandalia, 1818-1838.
Springfield, 1838-.
MacDonald, William.
Jacksonian Democracy. (The American Nation,
XV.)
New York, Harper and Brothers, 1906.
McMaster, John Bach.
A History of the People of the United States from
the Revolution to the Civil War. 6 vols.
New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1 883-1906.
Manuscript Reports of the Board of Trustees, 1^45-
187 1.
In Canal Office, Lockport, Illinois.
Maps.
Collections of maps in the Wisconsin Historical
Library and in the Chicago Historical Library,
illustrative of the development of Illinois at
various periods discussed in this dissertation.
Memorial to the Fifty-Second Congress of the United
States in Favor of the Improvement of the
Navigation of the Mississippi River.
194 BIBLIOGRAPHY
St. Louis, R. P. Studley & Co., Printers, 1892.
Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 10 vols.
Washington, Government Printing Office, 1896-
1899.
Mitchell, A. S.
Compendium of the Internal Improvements of the
United States.
Philadelphia, Mitchell & Hinman, 1835.
Morse, Jedediah.
The American Universal Geography. 6th ed. 2 vols.
Boston, Thomas and Andrews, May, 18 12.
Moses, John.
Illinois, Historical and Statistical. 2 vols.
Chicago, Fergus, 1889-93.
National Intelligencer, 1816-1831.
Washington, 1816-1831.
Newcomb, H. T.
Changes in the Rate of Charge for Railroad and
Other Transportation Services.
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bulletin
No. 50, Miscellaneous series, 1901.
Newcomb, H. T.
Railway Ecomonics.
Philadelphia, Railway World Publishing Co.,
1898.
Newlands, Francis G.
The Use and Development of American Waterways.
Annals of the American Academy of Political
and Social Science, XXXI, p. 48.
Niles^ Weekly Register.
Philadelphia, 1811-1849.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 195
North, E. P.
The Erie Canal and Transportation.
North American Review, vol. 170, p. 121.
NOYES, W. C.
American Railroad Rates.
Boston, Little, Brown & Co., 1906.
Parrish, Randall.
Historic Illinois.
Chicago, A. C. McClurg & Co., 1905.
Patterson, R. W.
Early Society in Southern Illinois.
Fergus Historical Series, No. 14, pp. 103-13 1.
Pitkin, Timothy.
Statistical View of the United States.
New York, James Eastburn & Co., 18 17.
PooLEY, William Vipond.
The Settlement of Illinois from 1830 to 1850.
Madison, Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin,
1908.
Poor, H. V.
Sketch of the Rise and Progress of Internal Im-
provements, in Poor'' s Manual of Railroads in
the United States for 1881.
New York, H. V. and H. W. Poor, 1881.
Prentice, E. Parmalee.
The Federal Power over Carriers and Corporations.
New York, The Macmillan Company, 1907.
Proceedings of the Convention for the Improveme^it
of the Mississippi River and Its Navigable
Tributaries.
Washington, D. C, 1884.
196 BIBLIOGRAPHY
Proceedings of the National Rivers and Harbors
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Washington, D. C, 1906.
Proceedings of the National Ship- Canal Convention.
Chicago, Tribune Company's Book & Job
Printing Office, 1863.
Proceedings of the Mississippi River Improvement
Convention.
St. Louis, Great Western Printing Co., 1881.
Proceedings of the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce
in Relation to the Improvement of the Naviga-
tion of the Mississippi and Its Principal Tribu-
taries and the St. Louis Harbor, with a State-
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Chamber.
St. Louis, Printed by Chambers & Knapp,
Republican Office, 1842.
Proceedings of the Convention for the Improvement
of the Mississippi River and Its Navigable
Tributaries together with a Brief Memorial to
Congress.
Washington, D. C, 1884.
Proceedings of the Harbor and River Convention,
1847.
Chicago, R. L. Wilson, 1847.
Proceedings of the Illinois River Improvement Con-
vention.
Peoria, Illinois, 1887.
Ransdell, Joseph E.
Legislative Program Congress Should Adopt for
Improvement of American Waterways.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 197
Annals of the American Academy of Political
and Social Science, XXXI, p. 36.
Reavis, L. U.
The Com?nercial Destiny of the Mississippi Valley
and the Improvement of Its Great Water System.
A lecture.
St. Louis, 1880.
Records of Sales of Canal Lands and Lots. In Canal
Office, Lockport, Illinois,
Reizexstein, Milton.
The Economic History of the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad. Johns Hopkins Studies, XV, p.
283.
Reports of Chief of Engineers, 1 867-1907.
Washington, Government Printing Office, 1867-
1907.
Report of the Committee on Statistics for the City of
Chicago, submitted to the National River &
Harbor Convention, Chicago, June 2, 1863.
Chicago, Tribune Company's Book & Job
Printing Office, 1863.
Report of the Canal Commissioners of the State of
Illinois, January 3, 1825.
Vandalia, Illinois: Robert Blackvvell, Printer,
1825.
Report of the Main Drainage Covimitire to the
Citizens^ dissociation of Chicago, 1880.
Chicago, HazUtt & Reed, Printers, 1880.
Report of the Sewerage Committee to the Citizens'
Association of Chicago.
Chicago, Hazlilt & Rccd, Printers, 1880.
198 BIBLIOGRAPHY
Report of the Committee on Drainage and Water
Supply to the Executive Committee of the
Citizens'' Association.
Chicago, Geo. K. Hazlitt & Co., Printers, 1887.
Report of the Committee of the Citizens'' Association
on the Main Drainage afid Water Supply of
Chicago.
Chicago, Geo. K. Hazlitt & Co., 1885.
Report of the Committee on Canals of New York
State, 1899.
Albany, N. Y., Brandow Printing Co., Dept.
Printers, 1900.
Report of the Inland Waterways Commissiofi.
Washington, 1908.
Report of the Commissioner of Corporations on
Transportation by Water in the United States.
Washington, 1909.
Report of the Senate Committee on Finance in Rela-
tion to the Illegal Finding of Canal Scrip, etc.,
together with the Minority Reports, February
14, 1859.
Springfield, Bailhache& Baker, Printers, 1859.
Report of the State Trustee of the Illifwis ^ Michigan
Canal. (Made in relation to certain charges
which were preferred by him against the
Chief Engineer, and read at a meeting of
subscribers to the loan of ^1,600,000 held in
New York on the i8th of October, 1847, with
the evidence in support of the same).
Chicago, Democrat Book & Job Office, 1848.
Report of the Illinois and Michigan Canal. (Re-
port by Swift and Davis to Baring Brothers &
BIBLIOGRAPHY 199
Co. and Magniac Jardine & Co., for the
creditors.)
London, W. Clarke, 1844.
Report of the Select Committee on Transportation
Routes to the Seaboard. Senate Report No.
307, 43rd Cong., 1st Sess.
Washington, 1874.
Report on Ca^ials of the United States, loth census,
1880, Vol. IV.
Revised Statutes of Illinois, 1845.
Springfield, Wm. Walters, Printer for Walters
& Weber, Public Printer, 1845.
Reynolds, John.
History of Illinois.
Chicago, Fergus, 1879.
RiNGWALT, J. L.
Development of Transportation Systems in the
United States.
Philadelphia, Published by the Author. Rail-
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Roosevelt, Theodore.
Our National Inland Waterways Policy.
Annals of the American Academy of Political
and Social Science, XXXI, p. i.
ScHARF, J. Thomas.
History of Saint Louis City and County. 2 vols.
Philadelphia, Louis H. Everts & Co., 1883.
Semple, Ellen C.
Americayi History and Its Geographic Conditions .
Boston & New York, Houghton, Mifllin & Co.,
1903.
200 BIBLIOGRAPHY
Senate Executive Documents, No. i6, 34th Cong.,
3rd Session.
Senate Report No. 307, 43 rd Cong., ist Sess.,
Part I, p. 233.
Sheldon, Theodore.
Land Registration in Illinois.
Chicago, Callaghan & Co., 1901.
Sterns, W. P.
Foreign Commerce of the United States.
Journal of Political Economy, VIII, pp. 34-57,
452-490.
Stuve, Bernard.
The State Internal Improvement Venture of 18 ^y-
Publication No. 7, Illinois State Historical
Library, p. 114.
Swift, Captain W. H.
Illinois and Michigan Canal. A circular to the
subscribers to the loan of ^1,600,000 for the
completion of the Illinois and Michigan Canal,
dated January 2, 1849.
Towers, Printer, 1849.
Correspondence. In Chicago Historical Society.
SwiTZLER, W. F.
Report on Internal Commerce of the United States.
Washington, D. C, Bureau of Statistics, 1888.
Also published as House Executive Document
No. 6, 50th Cong., 1st Sess., Vol. 20.
Tanner, H. S.
A Description of the Canals and Railroads in the
United States.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 201
New York, T. R. Tanner & J. DIsturnell,
1840.
Taylor, Robert S. (of the Mississippi River
Commission).
The Improvement of the Mississippi River. An
address delivered at St. Louis, January 26,
1884.
Reprinted by the Mississippi River Improve-
ment Committee of the Merchants' Exchange
of St. Louis, 1884.
Thayer, Walter.
Transportation on the Great Lakes.
Annals of the American Academy of Political
and Social Science, XXXI, p. 126.
Toll Books of the Illinois and Michigan Canal,
I 848- I 906.
In Canal Office, Lockport, Illinois.
TuNELL, George G.
The Diversion of the Flour and Grain Traffic from
the Great Lakes to the Railroads.
Journal of Political Economy, V, p. 340.
Report 071 Lake Commerce.
Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau
of Statistics, Washington, 1895.
Transportation on the Great Lakes.
Journal of Political Economy, IV, p. 332.
Turner, Frederick Jackson.
Rise of the New West. (The American Nation,
vol. 14.)
New York, Harper & Brothers, 1906.
United States Census, 183 0-1900.
Washington, Government Printers, 183 2-1904.
202 BIBLIOGRAPHY
United States Statutes at Large, 36 vols., Washing-
ton, I 848-1908.
Vance, John L.
The Improvement of the Ohio River.
Annals of the American Academy of Political
and Social Science, XXXI, p. 139.
Waite, O. T.
Fox y Wisconsin River Improvement.
University of Wisconsin Thesis, 1892.
Walker, Francis A.
Making of the Nation.
New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1898.
Ward, G. W.
Early Development of the Chesapeake iff Ohio
Canal Project.
Johns Hopkins University Studies, XVII, p.
522.
Way, R. B.
Mississippi Improvements and Traffic Prospects.
Annals of the American Academy of Political
and Social Science, XXXI, p. 146.
Webster, W. C.
A General History of Commerce.
Boston, Ginn & Company, 1903.
Wentworth, John.
Early Chicago.
Fergus Historical Series, Nos. 7 and 8.
Wheeler, Henry G.
History of Congress, Vol. II.
New York, Harper & Brothers, 1848.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 203
WiNDEN, Julius.
Influence of the Erie Canal upon the Population
along Its Course.
University of Wisconsin Thesis, 1900.
WiNSOR, Justin.
Narrative and Critical History of America.
Boston & New York, Houghton, Mifflin and
Company, 1884-89.
The Westward Movement.
Boston and New York: Houghton, Miffln and
Co., 1897.
Wright, John P.
Chicago: Past, Present, Future.
Chicago, sold by the Western News Co., 1868.
Young, J. S.
A Political and Constitutional Study of the
Cumberland Road.
Chicago Press, 1904.
I
INDEX
Abandonment of I. & M. from Lock-
port to Chicago, 76, 84, 152.
Adams County population, 1855,
107.
Alexander, Samuel, commissioner,
13-
Alton Spectator, 26.
Apple Creek, Dam at, 127.
Appointments, 88 et seq.
Appraisal of canal lands. See Canal
lands.
Appropriations for I. & M., 74; 1903,
unconstitutional, 75.
Archer, William B., commissioner,
34-
Arnold, Isaac, N., 134.
Assets of I. & M. See Finances of
I. &M.
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Ry.,
5, 122.
Ausogonaskki reservoir, 21.
Baker, Edward D., 129.
Bancroft, George, secretary of the
navy, 126, 127.
Bank of Illinois notes accepted for
canal bills, 72.
Bank situation in 1837, 42 et seq.;
1848-63, 64.
Baring Bros. & Co., 57, 59.
Barnett, George, 50.
Bates, Edward, 130, 133, 134.
Beardstown, 113.
Beardstown Chronicle, iG.
Beef shipped, 1842-47,99; 1905, "S-
Bell's Island, power plant, 147.
Benton, Thomas H., 130.
Benyaurd, Maj. W. H. H., 140.
Bibliography, 183-202.
Big Dresden Island, power plant,
147.
Blair, Francis P., scheme for deep
waterway, 133.
Board of Commissioners. See I. &
M. canal: Commissions.
Board of Trustees. See I. & M.
canal: Trustees.
Boats on canal, 99, 100, 105, 176
et seq.; canal boats, 75, 105;
lake boats, 150; packets, 105, iii;
steamboats, 105, 135.
Bond, Gov. Shadrach, 10, 11, 15.
Bonds, Canal, 31, 41; interest on,
49;
sales, 68; before 1840, 46, 47;
1841, 51; 1844, 59;
sold to contractors, 50. See
also Loans, canal.
Bonds, State, 51, 52, 146.
Bonus Bill, 9.
Borner, William, 119.
Brandon's Road, power plant, 147.
Bridgeport, pumping station, 74, 99;
re-establishment, 144,
Bronson, Arthur, 56.
Brown, Erasmus, commissioner, 13,
IS-
Brown, Henry, quoted, 82.
Bucklin, James M., chief engineer,
estimate of cost, 21, 35.
Buffalo, 23, 100, 103.
Bureau Junction, no, 121.
Bureau Valley R. R. merged with
C. & R. I., no, III.
Burke, Richard E., and 1903 appro-
priation, 74.
Burke vs. Snively et al., 75.
Butler, Wright & Webster's addi-
tion to Chicago, 95.
Butterfield, Justin, 56.
Calhoun, John C, 9, 10, 18.
Calumet feeder, 62, 99.
Calumet harbor, 140, 141.
Calumet River, 5; water from,
21.
Campaign of 1834, 24.
Canada, laborers from, 38.
Canal Board. See 1. & M. canal:
Commissions.
Canal boats. See Boats on canal.
Canal Commissioners. See I. &
M. canal: commissions.
Canal financiering, 30.
205
2o6
INDEX
Canal lands: appraisal, 68, 77, 79;
basis for loans, 30; certificates
of purchase negotiable, 81; for-
feiture, 81; given for public
buildings, 82; grants, 12, 18, 34;
leased, 83; ninety-foot strip, 73,
83, 84, 85, 90; obligations can-
celled, 81; occupation before sale,
82; payment, 50, 76, 77, (in
scrip), 53, 71; policy, 76 et seq.;
rental, 82, 83, (1898-1915), 85;
reserved, 78; residence on, 68;
sale of, \i et seq., 90; amount,
1830, 19; 1840, 50; authorized,
49; begun, 18; conditions, 56;
failure, 76 et seq.; in Chicago, 36;
more favorable, 41; proceeds, 46;
restricted, 83; statistics, 79-80;
speculation, 94 et seq.; squat-
ters, 89; value, 33, 34, 41, 58, 76,
77, 80, 95, (inflated) 94, (variable)
96.
Canal scrip, 50, 53, 63; cancellation,
89; depreciation, 71; issued, 70;
not cancelled, 88; paid for labor,
71; scandal, 88.
Canal stock. See Finances of I. &
M.
Canal vs. railroads. See Railroads
vs. canal.
Canalport, celebration, 1836, 37.
Carlin, Gov. Thomas, 47, 48, 50.
Cass, Lewis, 130.
Certificates of purchase. See Canal
lands.
Cession of canal to U. S., 139.
Chicago: bonds sold in, 48; canal
begun near, 36; canal lands, 33,
34, 41, 95; commerce, early, 22
et seq.; exports, 1848-1854, 107,
(185 1) 105, 108; freight rates to,
121 et seq.; grain exports, 120,
(1851) 107; growth, 22, 155,
(1830-1855) 106, 107;
harbor, 150; congested, 140;
improvement, 129;
imports, 98, 107, (185 1) 107,
108, (1905) 114; included in
Illinois, 1818, 10; land values
increase, 1830-34, 94; market,
100; original town limits, 94;
panic of 1837, 95; physiographic
characteristics, 5; platting, 18, 93;
population, 1829, 93, (1840, 1845,
1850) 97, (1848) 54, 107, (1870-
80) 144; public lands sold before
1847, 97; railroads, no, in;
sanitary problem, 143, 144; takes
St. Louis trade, 102; terminal
facilities, 117; trade affected by
canal, 102 et seq.; transfer point,
94, 135; transportation to Illinois
River, 22; vessels arriving, 23;
wheat shipped, 84.
Chicago and Alton R. R., 5, 122.
Chicago and Rock Island R. R.,
92; charter granted, 109; con-
struction begun, 1852, no; corn
shipped, 112; extension, 113;
opened, 1854, no; traffic, 113.
Chicago Branch of State Bank, 42,
43; held redeemed canal scrip, 88.
Chicago Democrat in campaign for
canal, 26.
Chicago Drainage Canal, 89, 144
etseq., i^get seq.; effect on rentals
of canal land, 84; traffic trans-
ferred to, 76.
Chicago. Harbor and River Con-
vention, 1847, 130.
Chicago, Lake. See Lake Chicago.
Chicago. National Ship-canal Con-
vention, 1863, 134, 136.
Chicago, Pittsburg & Ft. Wayne
R. R., n9.
Chicago portage, 5, 9, 154.
Chicago River, 4, 9, 140, 145; con-
gested, 140; improvement, 39;
South Branch, 5, 13, 144; water
pumped from, 99.
Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Ry.,
118, 121, 122.
Chicago Sanitary District, 144, 146,
151, 153-
Chicago to Lockport section aban-
doned, 76.
Churches, land for, 82, 83.
City lots. See Canal lands.
Civil War, effect on navigation im-
provement, 133, 134, 135.
Claim investigators, 68.
Claims against canal investigated,
53-54-
Clark, James L., 119.
Clay, Henry, 130.
Coal shipped, 118.
Coffee imported, 104.
Coles, Edward, 15, 32, 33; appointed
to negotiate loan, 32; proposes
change in charter, 17; proposes
finance plan, 14.
Colfax, Fice Pres. Schuyler, 134.
INDEX
207
Commissioners, Canal. See I. & M.
Canal: Commissions.
Committee on Roads and Canals
reports favorably, 28.
Commodities transported, 166 et
seq., 171.
Compensation to canal by railroad,
109.
Completion of I. & M. required in
three years, 62.
Congress and deep waterways, 133
et seq.
Congressional action on I. & M.
See Federal aid.
Constitution of 1870 and canal im-
provement, 74.
Construction of I. & M. begun, 36,
37, 94; suspended, 53.
Contractors: burdens of, 44; forfeit
bonds, 37;
paid, 52, 53; by interest-bear-
ing check, 49; in scrip, 71; for
damages sustained, 53;
responsibility of, 70; take loan.
Contracts, 36, 38, 44; abandoned,
44, 52; for Western division, 37;
let, 60, (at less then estimated
cost) 61, (by commissioners) 69;
widely advertised, 70.
Cook, Daniel P., 12, 14, 16.
Cook County, Mass meeting in, 27;
population (1835) 96, (1855) 107.
Copperas Creek, Dam at, 127, 137;
lock at, 75, 137, 170; tolls at, 87.
Corn shipped, 102, 103, 107; (185 1)
loi; (1866-67) "2; (1873-74)
113; (1905) 114-115.
Cost of I. & M., 13, 44 et seq., 81;
(1848-1915) 161 et seq.; (1905)
124; (to 1915) 124; (total) 62.
Estimated, 21, 35; by Bucklin,
35; by House committee, 39; in
detail, 39; for completion, 55;
shallow cut, 55, 121; See also
Expenditures for I. & M.
Creditors given negotiable orders,
53; report to, March i, 1844,
57; take bonds, 59.
Davis, John, influence for loan, 59;
investigates canal, 57.
Dayton, end of canal feeder, 62.
Debt, State, 54, et seq.; interest on,
52; interest payment suspended,
78; internal improvement debt,
1842, SI.
Debts of I. & M. See Finances.
Deed of trust, 56, 78.
Deeds, unrecorded, 89.
Deep Waterway to the Gulf, 133
et seq., 145 et seq. See also Ship-
canal.
Deficit in canal funds, 48, 49; in
state treasury, 15.
Delafield, J., 32,46,47.
Democratic leaders opposed to
river improvement, 131.
Depth of canal. See Dimensions.
Des Moines, Iowa, 112.
Des Plaines River, 4, 5, 9, 139, 143,
145; crossed by I. & M., 84;
flowage rights leased, 90; im-
provement, 140, 146-7; locks and
dams, 39, 135; survey, 1887, 140;
unsanitary, 144; water from, 21.
Des Plaines valley, 13; floods, 37.
Digging. See Construction.
Dimensions of I. & M., 16, 25, 26,
28, 35, 126^^ seq., 134, 135; of
proposed ship canal, 133.
Divisions of I. & M., 35.
Dixon, 111., 142.
Douglas, Stephen A., 129.
Drainage Canal. See Chicago Drain-
age Canal.
Dresden, 111., 44.
Dresden Heights dam lease, 147;
legislative investigation, 89, 90.
Dresden level, 62.
Drought in Illinois, 1856, 131.
Dry goods, 1841-52, 104.
Duffie & Co., 47.
Duncan, Gov. Joseph, 15, 19, 31, 33,
34. 35. 43. 44. 47;. and deep canal
project, 25; negotiates loan, 41.
Dunlap, Thomas, and million dollar
loan, 47.
Dunn, Charles, Commissioner, 18.
Earnings. See Revenue.
Eastern merchandise on canal, 100.
Economic development due to
I. & M., 155, 158.
Economy Light and Power Co.,
lessee, 84, 89.
Edwards, Ninian, 8.
Efficiency of I. & M. impaired, 75,
88 et seq.
Eight-foot channel. See Sliallow
waterway.
Electric power development, 147,
148.
Elevators, 119; on canal land, 83.
2o8
INDEX
Employees of I. & M., 68, 69;
changed with party changes, 88.
"Enabling act," 11.
Ericsson, John, 133.
Erie canal, 6, 7, 11, 13, 17, 30, 100;
and Great Lakes route, 23; com-
petition with railroads, 109; effect
on I. & M., 154-156; enlargement,
152, 156; inadequate, 35.
Estimates of construction. See
Cost estimated.
European financiers and canal loan,
32; and American internal im-
provement bonds, 58, 59.
Expenditures for I. & M., 44, 46,
62; (1839-41) 50-51; (1848-1915)
161 et seq.; (1860-1915) 124;
(1905) 87; charged against ap-
propriations for Illinois River,
75; have exceeded tolls since
1879, 73, 114; monthly, 48; more
than expected, 65.
Exports, I et seq., 98, 105.
Farm products transported by canal,
100.
Federal aid for I. & M., 4; granted,
18; not obtained, 10, 11, 14, 19,
20, 28, 132, 133, 135, 136;
Federal aid for Illinois River im-
provement sought, 116.
Feeders of canal, 62.
Finances of I. & M., 11, 14, 16, 19,
^oetseq.; assets, 44, 58, 63; banks,
42 et seq.;
debt, 58, 62, 63; increasing, 77;
paid, 64; 1871, 73; by land sales,
79;
five per cent bonds, 31; interest
paid, 63; specie payments, 72;
stock, 31; surplus, 65, 73; un-
sound, 70, 71; See also Expendi-
tures for I. & M.; Loans; "Wild
Cat" currency.
Financial crises in Illinois, 155; in
country (1842) 54.
Fisk, Charles B., 60.
Florence, III., Dam at, 127.
Flour shipped, 83; (1842-47) 99;
(1905) 84, 114.
Ford, Gov. Thomas, 47, 57, 126.
Foreign creditors. See Creditors.
Forefeiture of land. See Canal
lands: forfeiture.
Fourteen-foot channel. See Deep
t" water-way; also Ship canal.
Fox River, 107, 154; feeder, 62.
Freight, competition for, in, 112;
decrease, 86; pro-rating of, 118
et seq.;
rates, 103, no, 112, 120, et
seq.; Chicago to N. Y., 120; effect
of competition on, 120 et seq.; in-
creased, 123-4; winter, 121, 123.
traffic, loss of, to be compensat-
ed by railroad, 109-110.
Frontier, Advance of, 30.
Fry, Jacob, commissioner, 40; trus-
tee, 60, 67.
Fulton County, 93.
Galena, 1829, 93.
Galena Advertiser opposed canal, 26.
Galena & Chicago Union R. R., 107.
Gallatin, Secretary, scheme for im-
proving transportation, 4, 6.
General Assembly of Illinois, 2d, 11.
"General Fry," first boat on Canal,
99.
"General Thornton," canal boat, 99.
Geneseo, 111., rate to, 122.
Genessee country, 6.
Geology of Chicago plain, 5.
Gooding, William, 60, 134, 137;
chief engineer, 35, 55; re-examin-
ation of canal, 136.
Graham, R., 8, 9.
Grain, exports, 107; freight rates,
121, 123, 124; pro-rating, 118;
shipped, 119-20; shipping rules,
120.
Grand Island, Dam at, 127.
Gratiot, Gen. Charles, favored canal,
27, 28.
Great Lakes, Connection with Mis-
sissippi advocated, 4, 128, 133, 154.
Great Lakes route, 2, 6, 23.
Great Lakes to Gulf Waterway.
See Lakes to Gulf Waterway.
Great Western Cereal Co., of Joliet,
lessee, 84.
Griswold, Harold F., lessee, 89.
Grocery business, St. Louis, 104.
Gulf of Mexico, waterway to, 4, 6.
Gulf of St. Lawrence, 6.
Gulf trade, 157.
Gun-boats for Great Lakes, 133.
Hamilton, William S., 15.
Hanbury, Maj. Thos. H., scheme
for improved waterway, 140.
Harbor and River convention, 1847.
See Chicago.
Hardware business, St. Louis, 104.
Hennepin, 111., 141.
INDEX
209
Hennepin Canal. See Illinois and
Mississippi Canal.
Henry, 111., 121; dam at, 127, 137;
lock at, 75, 137, 170; tolls at, 87.
Hepburn Act, 120, 123.
Holman, William S., 133.
Honesty of management, 70.
House Committee on Internal Im-
provements attack plan, 38.
Hubbard, Gurdon S., Commissioner,
34-
Hubbard, William A., 149.
Ice leases, 1898-1915, 86.
Illinois and Michigan Canal: agents,
1915, 164, 165;
commissions, 12-13, i^j 22, 66,
91; abolished, 21; appointed, 34,
40; chosen biennially, 67; com-
position of, 67; functions, 69; land
policy, 76 et seq.; legal status, 67;
made elective, 1837, 40; reor-
ganized, 1836, 34; 1837, 39; take
charge of section of Illinois River,
137; third, appointed, 29; upheld
by engineer's report, 40.
officers, 1915, 164, 165; super-
intendent's report, i860, 132;
treasurer's report, 1837, 42;
trustees, 56, 60, 62, 67, (final
report, 1871) 64, 73.
Illinois and Mississippi Canal, 139
et seq., 178.
Illinois, Bank of. See Bank of
Illinois.
Illinois River, 5; appropriations
for, used for I. & M., 75; channel
inadequate, 126; condition ham-
pered canal traffic, 92; connection
with Lake Michigan advocated,
4; depth of water, i860, 132;
federal appropriation granted,
1852, 131, (not granted, 1846)
129, 131;
improvement, 137; cost esti-
mated, 140; dropped by state,
1877, 137-8; needed, 22, 25;
projected, 133; 1905, 145; by
federal govt., 152; recommended
by Lydcckcr, 138;
kept open by private company,
131, 132; La Salle to Copperas
Creek section, 75; locks and dams,
127. 13s. 137, '38; low water,
100, 10 1, 132; .Vlowry report,
126 et seq.; population along, 106;
slack-water navigation, 139;
steamboats, 24, 137; survey,
1866, 135, (ordered by Congress,
1887) 140; trade, 102, 103;
traffic, 113, (given to railroads)
116; unnavigable, 115; unsanitary,
Illinois River Improvement Co.,
131-32.
Illinois River Improvement Con-
vention. See Peoria.
Illinois, State Bank of. See State
Bank of Illinois.
Illinois Waterway Commission, 148.
Importance of I. & M., 7, 22 et seq.,
40, 54- .
Importation to interior, 3.
Income. See Revenue.
Incorporation of I. & M., 15; failed,
16.
Indian treaty, 1816, 8.
Influence of I. & M., 92 et seq., 155
et seq.
Interest on canal debt. See Finances
of I. & M.: interest.
Interest on state debt. See Debt,
State.
Interest rates compared, 32.
"Interest ta.x," 52, 59, 60.
Internal Improvement Commission
of Illinois, 146.
Internal improvement proposed,
3, 9, 129 et seq.; for defense 9, 10.
Iowa, railroad traffic from, 13.
Jayne, Gershom, commissioner, 18.
Joliet, 119, 134, 139, 140, 141, 147,
150, 170; dam, 84; freight rates,
120; railroad, 1853, 11 1; un-
recorded deeds, 89; water power
leases, 83.
Joliet, Lake. See Lake Joliet.
Jones, Noble, 119.
Jones, Judge Norman S., 149.
Kampsvilie lock, 138; lowered, 146.
Kane County, population, 1855, 107.
Kankakee River, 147; feeder, 62.
Kansas City, Mo., 149.
Kellogg, Iowa, 113.
Labor on I. & M.: advertised for in
East, 38; Canadian, 38; paid in
canal scrip, 71; scarcity, 37, 38;
wages, 38, (hiKli) 36-
Laborers, houses built for, 37;
sickness of, 62.
LaGrangc, Dam, 127; lowered, 146.
LaGrangc lock, 138.
Lake Chicago, 5.
2IO
INDEX
Lake Joliet, proposed terminus, 39.
Lake Shore & Mich. Southern R.
R., 118, 119.
Lake steamers on L & M. See
Steamboat canal; Boats on canal.
Lakes-to-the-Gulf Waterway, 39,
145 et seq., 148, 152 et seq.; im-
portance, 156-58; relation to L
& M., 152, 158.
Land grants. See Canal lands.
Land sales. See Canal lands.
Land speculators, 71.
Land value, advancing, 33, 94; see
also Canal lands: value.
LaSalle, 111., 75, 99, 105, 109, in,
121, 126, 132, 134, 139, 140, 142,
143, 170; freight rates, 124; pro-
posed western terminus, 24;
steamboat basin, 37, 74; transfer
of freight, 116.
LaSalle County, Mass meeting in,
27; population, 1835, 96-7, 1855,
107.
Lawrence, Abbott, 57.
Leases of canal land. See Canal
land, leased.
Leavitt, David, trustee, 60, 6y.
Legislation affecting L & M.:
March 30, 1822, 12; Feb. 14, 1823,
12, 67; Jan. 17, 1825, 15; March
2, 1827, 17; Jan. 22, 1829, 18, 67;
Jan. 5, 183 1, 19; March i, 1833,
22, 66; Feb. 10, 1835, 29, 31, 66,
67; Jan. 9, 1836, 34, 41, 45, 76;
March 2, 1837, 40, 45, 67; July
21, 1837, 72; Feb. 26, 1839, 76,
77; Feb. I, 1840, 49, 78; Feb. 27,
1841, 81; Feb. 21, 1843, 53, 55,
56, 60, 62, 83; March 2, 1843, 53,
66; Feb. 25, 1845, 82; March i,
1845, 60; Feb. 25, 1847, 83; Feb.
7, 1851, 109; Feb. 16, 1865, 143;
June 23, 1866, 135; Feb. 28, 1867,
137; June 14, 1880, 138; April 28,
1882, 139; June 13, 1902, 145;
Oct. 16, 1907, 146.
Load of canal boat, 123.
Loan for L & M.: authorized, 45,
(1835) 31, (1837) 42, (1839) 46,
(1843) 56; negotiated, 46, 47, 59;
unobtainable, 19, 20, 32.
Loan method of financing canal, 30
et seq.
Lockport, 135, 140, 151; contractors
meet, 50; end of Drainage canal,
145; first boat, 99; mills, 84;
section to Chicago abandoned, 76;
store, 45; water power leases, 83.
Locks in Illinois River. See lUinois
River, Locks.
Locks of I. & M. too narrow, 143.
London and canal loan, 48.
Long, Major Stephen H., 8, 9.
Lumber cheapened, 104; freight
rates, 121-22; shipped, 100, loi,
102, 104, 174.
Lydecker, Alaj. J. G., scheme for
improving Illinois River, 138.
Macallister & Stebbins, New York,
52.
McClernand, Col. J. A., Commis-
sioner, 40.
Madison County, population, 1855,
107.
Magniac, Jardine & Co., 59.
Magniac, Smith & Co., London, 47,
SO.
Management of I. & M., 66 et seq.;
affected by politics, 87, et seq.;
generally honest, 70; inefficient,
87 ei seq.; under trustees, 64-65.
Manufactured products, 108.
Marais d'Osier route, 142.
March, Enoch C, St. Louis mer-
chant, 24.
Marseilles, 44, 123; freight rates to,
124; rapids, 134.
Marshall, Capt. W. L., Report on
14 ft. channel, 141, 149.
Mass-meetings, 26, 27.
Mattison, Gov. Joel, and scrip
scandal, 88.
Memphis Convention, 1845, 128.
Mexican War, effect on federal
finances, 131.
Michigan Central R. R., 120; com-
petition, 119.
Middle Division of I. & M., 35, 44.
Milan, 111., 142.
Military importance of I.& M., 10,36.
"Military Tract," settlers in, 93.
Mills, Benjamin, opposed canal, 26.
Millstuffs received, 1905, 84.
Mississippi River, closed by war,
133; improvement, 128.
Mississippi River Commission, 151.
Mississippi trade, 103, 109.
Monroe, Pres. James, 10.
Morris, freight rates to, 124.
Morton, Joy, favors shallow chan-
nel, 149-50; letter to U. S. en-
gineers' office, 175 et seq.
INDEX
211
Morton Salt Co., 181-182.
Mowry, Geo. R., examines Illinois
River, 126 et seq.
National Ship-canal Convention.
See Chicago.
Naval forces on Great Lakes, 8.
New Orleans, 103, 149; market, i,
2, 100.
New York bond holders favor " Shal-
low cut" plan, 56.
New York financiers and canal loan,
32,41-
New York prices, 23.
Niagara Falls, 6.
N lies' Register and I. & M., 7.
Ninety-foot strip. See Canal lands.
Northern Illinois Light and Trac-
tion Co., of Ottawa, 84.
Norton & Co., lessee, 84.
Norton Mills, 83.
Oakley, Charles, 57.
Oats shipped, 1866-7, 112; 1905, 114.
Officials of I. & M. See Illinois and
Michigan canal.
Ogden, W. B., 50, 131.
Ohio River, highway of commerce,
7-
Opening of I. & M., April 19, 1848,
62, 99.
Ottawa: canal lands, 34, 41, 79,
95; end of canal feeder, 62;
freight rates, 123, 124; laid out,
18, 93; water power leases, 83.
Ottawa Hydraulic Co., lessee, 84.
Packet service. See Boats on canal.
Panama Canal, 152; influence on
Lakes-to-Gulf Waterway, 157.
Panic of 1837, 41 et seq., 72, 94, 95.
Passenger traffic taken by railroads,
III.
Paul, Rene, engineer, 13.
"Peerless," The, 176, 177.
Penny's Slough, 142.
Peoria, 96, 97, iii, 119, 121, 122,
126; growth, 104; 1829, 93; steam-
boats to, 24; Illinois River im-
provement convention, 140.
Peoria County, 97; 1855, 107.
Philadelphia financiers and canal
loan, 32.
Philips, Joseph, 8, 9.
Phoenix Bank of New York, 46.
Pittsburgh, 104.
Point of Oaks, 36.
Politics and the canal, 67, 87 et seq.;
campaign of 1834, 24.
Polk, Pres. James K., vetoes River
& Harbor bill, 129-130.
Population, 1837, 44; increase due
to canal, 93, 97; in canal counties,
1830-55, 106-7; in Northern Illi-
nois, 96; near Great Lakes, 7; on
Ohio, 7.
Pork shipped, loi; 1842-47, 99;
1905, 115.
Portages, 9.
Porter, Admiral David D., 136.
Porter, Peter B., 4, 6.
Post, Justus, engineer, 13, 15.
Power plants, 146, 147.
Preston, J. B., 131, 134, 137.
Prices, high, 36; 1851, 105; 1836 and
1843, 61.
Privileges paid for, 1898-1915, 86.
Property values depressed, 51;
raised by canal, 55.
Pro-rating freight charges. See
Freight.
Public buildings. Land for, 82.
Public interest essential to public
business, 91.
Public lands granted for canal.
See Canal lands.
Pugh, J. H., fails to obtain loan,
20, 21.
Putnam County, population, 97.
Railroads vs. canal, 20, 21 et seq.,
86-87, 92, 152; competition, 92,
93, 108 et seq., 1 16 et seq., railroad
advantages, 116 et seq.
Rawlings, Gen., 47.
Rental of canal land. See Canal
lands.
Repairs not made, 75.
Repudiation policy advocated, 54,
78.
Revenue of I. & M., 84, loi, Apx.
I.; 1898-1915, 85, 86; appropria-
tions, 74; disbursement, 56; in
excess of expenditure, 73, 1 14; in-
creased, 100; privileges, 86; rent-
als, 84; sources, 63; total to
191S, 124.
Reynolds, John, 47, 48; negotiates
loan, 46; supports railroad plan,
22.
River and Harbor Bill, 1846, 129;
1847, 129; 1851, 131; 1880, 138.
River and Harbor Convention.
See Chicago, Harbor and River
Convention, 1847.
Road construction, 37.
212
INDEX
Roberts, Edmond, Commissioner,
i8.
Rock Island, 109.
Rock Island & LaSalle R. R. char-
tered, 109; rates, 123.
Rock Island route, 141.
Rock River, 141-42.
Rothschilds' agents, 32.
Routes for I. & M., Comparative
cost, 13.
Routes to seaboard, i, 2.
Ruggles, Gen. J. M., 131.
Ryan, Michael, 56, 57.
"Sag," 140, 141; feeder through,
62.
St. Lawrence, Gulf of. See Gulf.
St. Louis, 149, 151; affected by
canal, 102 f^ji?^.; harbor improve-
ment, 129; market, 100, 108.
Sale of I. & M. forbidden, 74.
Sale of lands. See Canal lands,
Sale of.
Salt shipped, loi, 181.
Sangamon County, Circuit Court,
74; grand jury, 88.
Sangamon River, 93, 106, 107.
School fund diversion, 14.
Schools, Land for, 82.
Scrip. See Canal scrip.
Services of I. & M., 125, 154 et seq.
Settlement, 1830-55, 106, 107.
Settlers attracted, 82.
"Shallow cut" plan, 39, 55, 62.
Shallow waterway plan, 149 et seq.
Ship canal, 128, 129, 132, 133, 136
et seq. See also Steamboat canal.
Size of I. & M. See Dimensions,
Steamboat canal, Ship canal.
Slack-water navigation, 139.
Slavery agitation, 132.
Sloo, Thomas, Jr., Commissioner,
^3- . .
Smith, Robert, sought appropriation
for Illinois River, 129.
Smith, Theophilus W., Commis-
sioner, 13.
Snively, et al. vs. Burke, 75.
Soil along canal porous, 99.
Southwestern Convention. See
Memphis.
Specie payments. Suspension of,
42, 43, 72. _
Speculation in canal land. See
Canal land speculation.
Spring Valley coal district, 1 1 8.
Standard load for canal boat, 75.
State Bank of Illinois, failure, 54?
furnishes funds, 48; notes ac-
cepted for canal bills, 72; sus-
pends specie payments, 42 et
seq.; took loan, 47.
State bonds. See Bonds, State.
State debt. See Debt, State.
State guarantee of loan, 33, 34.
Statistics of cost. See Cost.
Steamboat canal, 25, 26, 28; See
also Ship canal.
Steamboats on canal. See Boats on
canal; Ship canal.
Stevens, Thaddeus, 133.
Stock, Canal. See Finances of I. &
M.
Stock yards, Chicago, 1878-80, 144.
Stone, shipped, 1905, 115; trans-
portation, 118.
Sturgis, William, 57.
Sugar shipped, loi, 102.
Summit division, 35, 36, 37, 39;
level, lowered, 143; water supply
for, 99.
Supreme Court of Illinois, 75.
Survey for I. & M., 1824, 13.
Swift, Capt. W. H., investigates
canal, 1843-4, 575 letter from
Mowry, 126; trustee, 60, 67.
Taxation, 1841, 52; effect of I. & M.,
54-
Terminal facilities, 117-118.
Termini of I. & M., Lake Joliet
proposed, 39; Western, 24.
Terre Haute, Ind., 24.
Thomas, Jesse B., 12.
Thomas, William, General Supt.,
119.
Thornton, Gen.W. F., 47, 48, 50,
131; commissioner, 34, 40.
Through-freight, 100, loi, 124.
Tiskilwa, 111., 121.
Toledo, Peoria & Western R. R., 119
Tolls of I. & M., 16, 58, 85 et seq.,
100, loi, 170; 1848-1915, 161
etseq.; amount, 87, 114; decreased,
73, 114; increased, 1860-62, 72;
paid in specie, 72; railroad to
canal, no.
Tonnage of I. & M., 1848-1915,
161 et seq.; 1860-1915, 124; 1851,
loi et seq.; 1905, 84; compara-
tive, 84, 86-87; decrease, 1882,
Treasurer. S^^ I. & M. canal.
"Tree-top Bar," 132.
INDEX
213
Trent affair, 133.
Trustees. See I. & M. canal.
Uncurrent money, 72, 73.
U. S. Bank, 47; of Philadelphia,
LxDans, 47.
United States Surveyor and In-
spector at St. Louis, 128.
United States expenditures, 138;
undertakes Hennepin Canal, 139.
Unsanitary condition of I. & M.,
144.
Utica, 123, 14s, 146, 149, 150,
152, 153; power-plant, 147.
Vallandingham, Clement L., 133.
Valparaiso Moraine, 5, 9.
Value of lands. See Canal lands,
value.
Van Buren, Martin, 130.
Vessels at Chicago, 23, 150.
Vessels lost, 1838-41, 128.
Vicksburg, fall of, opened Missis-
sippi, 134.
Voorhees, Daniel, W., 133.
Wabash and Maumee to be con-
nected, 13.
Wages, 38; high, 36; paid in scrip, 71.
Wagon transportation, 24.
War department examines region,
8,9-
War of 18 12 emphasizes need for
canal, 8.
War vessels on canal, 135-6.
Ward, Thomas H., 57.
Warehouses, 117; on canal land, 83.
Warnock, John, 15.
Washington, Iowa, 113.
Water pipe and sprinkling privileges,
1898-191S, 86.
Water power of I. & M., increased
by Drainage canal, 84; leases, 83;
rentals, 58, 85; to be sold by 111.
R. Improvement Co., 132.
Water supply for I. & M., 21; in-
adequate, 99, loi, IIS, 123, 131,
132; lake fed, 35.
Watertown, 111., 142.
Waterways proposed, 1808, 4.
Webster, Daniel, 130.
Wentworth, John, 59, 129.
West, Emanuel J., Commissioner,
West, The, Intercourse with the
East, 3 et seq.
Western Division of I. & M., 35,
37,45- .
Wheat prices, 23; received at St.
Louis, 102; shipped, 84, loi et
seq., (1842-47) 99, (1866-67)
112, (1905) 85, 114.
Whiteside, Gen., 47.
Width of Canal. See Dimensions.
Wild-cat currency, 64, 72.
Wilson, Gen. James H., 137; plan
for enlarging canal, 135 ^^ seq.
Winter navigation of I. & M., 22.
Winter rates. See Freight rates.
Winter.
Wisconsin River, 154.
Wisner, Geo. Y., Estimate of
channel improvements, 140.
Woodward, A. B., favors waterway
from St. Lawrence to Gulf of
Mexico, 6.
Wool shipped, 1842-47, 99.
Wright, Benjamin, engineer. Re-
port, 40.
Wright, John, & Co., and canal
bonds, 47-49.
Wright, Silas, 130.
Young, Hon. R. M., 46, 47, 48.
This book is DUE on the last
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