- 120
M36
:opv 1
ROCHESTER and its
EARLY CANAL DAYS
By
CAPT. H. P. MARSH
Type of Rochester Built Bullhead Boat " The Omvard:'
Captain Delos Pol ley of St . Paul Street, /Rochester, A'. }'.
Reminiscences of the Author
Price, 25 Cents.
1914
ROCHESTER and its
EARLY CANAL DAYS
Reminiscences of the /Author, while engaged
on the New York State JVaterways^ the
Erie, Genesee Valley, Black River,
and other lateral canals.
FHE LAST KNOWN ACTOR :,%. THt H^QSON RIVER MYSTERY
KV
^^
By CAPT. H/ P. MARSH
1914
Dedicated to the Foster /\r rents of the Author
They -were true friends to the Orphan Hoy.
OCTil 1914
Cn/>yin:/i' 1911. hy H. /'. MaisJi.
©CI.A;i87:M)3
PREFACE.
HIS is not a liiston- of the New York State
canals, l)ut recollections of the writer while
T engaged in the transportation business on those
waters, although some history will he quoted
for the benefit of those not familiar witii its
earl}^ chronicles.
It is what the author has seen through his
own experience, and heard recounted by others.
The exact dates cannot be given in all in-
stances, as no diary was kept, but I think this
account in i)lain words, hx one familiar with
the circumstances, will be more interesting and
truthful than a more noted author's history who
had no experience or way of getting it, only through old musty records.
The truth will be adhered to, for my motto will be. "what to say",
and not "how to say it". Those acquainted with the early days of
canal history will be m\ witnesses of its truthfulness.
The romance which it contains is true it its ever\- detail, nothing
lictitious but the names, nor would they be, only that some of the
actors and their families are still living, the author being one of them,
and proving the old adage that "Truth is stranger than fiction".
The romance or story was brought about by two men who for
twenty-eight vears believed each had murdered the other. Can the
reader even faintly imagine the reaction occurring in the bosom of each,
when they fully realized they were innocent of that terrible crime,
when they came face to face with, each other, and the dark cloud which
had overshadowed their lives ^^as dispersed. Who can but think that
the overruling power of a Supreme Being had guided them and
brought about the happ\' reunion.
And to think the whole trouble came from a somewhat burles(|ue
love affair !
REMIXISCENCES OF ROCHESTER.
■ER FALLS. ROCHESTEH, N.
ITS EARLY CANAL DAYS.
CHAPTER I.
The Kiie Canal was commenced in the year 1817 and finished in
1825. I do not know at what time they commenced enlarging it, but
it was a number of years before it was completed, and during the
process of completion they necessarily had to use a part of the old
canal and part of the new, thus keeping up the navigation until it was
finished. The writer, who commenced going on the Erie Canal about
the year 1853, can remember that when two of the large class boats
met in the old Erie part, there w^oukl be a wedge, which made it hard
for the horses to pull the boats through, although two of the smaller
boats could pass readily enough.
When the Erie canal was first commenced it was considered a
great undertaking although at this age of inventions and improve-
ments it would not be deemed of much account.
One old man near Port Byron came along where they were digging
and accosted them thus : "You can dig the canal all right but you can
never make water run up hill". He did not know that no matter how
high the level was, there was water still higher up to feed it. and with
the use of the locks the ascent was easily made.
What would the old man think of the machinery that is being
used now in the construction of the Barge Canal, which does the work
of eighty or one hundred men with pick, shovel, and wheelbarrow,
and only three or four men to operate it. And the man who said when
he saw them putting up the telegraph poles and wire, "Perhaps letters
might go through, but newspapers never would", would think you had
gone stark mad if you told him of the telephone and the wireless
telegraphy.
Perhaps it would interest our readers if they are not familiar with
the waterways of the great State of New York, to know that the Erie
Canal was not the first waterway for boats from the Atlantic to the
Great Lakes. I do not know when the first route was discovered,
but I think some time during the French and Indian wars. I know it
was before the revolution. It was before Rochester, Syracuse or
Buffalo were ever thought of ; those places were then vast wildernesses,
no white man had ever trod their wikls. and Oswego was a fort, in-
REMlXISCF.XCnS OF ROCIHiSTER.
habited only by soldiers and others necessary for the defense of the
borders. Ihey, together with their munitions of war, and other sup-
pHes, came on batteaus, a sort of boat that navigated the waters from
New York City to Oswego. They came up tlie Hudson river, then to
the Mohawk, a carrying place for boat and cargo, at Fort Stanwick
where is now the city of Rome, to \\'ood creek, near Fort Bull, then
down the creek to Oneida hike, and down that outlet to the Oswego
river, then to Oswego on Lake Ontario ; from there by sail boats to
Niagara river, a carrying place above the falls, then F.rie and the other
Great Lakes. Those batteaus could come up the Hudson and Mohawk
rivers by oar, or sail if the wind was favora1)le. but. on Wood creek
they had to pole them along with pike poles, as the creek was too nar-
row for any other propidsion. W^alking planks were on each side of
the boats where the men stood to push. The size of the crew depended
on the size of the batteau, one man to steer, which was generally the
captain. The boats were long and narrow, with a cabin to live and
sleep in. The ruins of Fort Bull can still be seen, a few miles west of
Rome, wJiere those batteaus unloaded supplies for the fort, and I pre-
sume there are plenty of people li\ ing along Wood creek to-day that
do not know it was once a highway for commerce. It nuist have been
rather lonely as well as dangerous for those hardy lioatmen gliding
along through that wilderness, inhabited by wild beasts and still wilder
savages, and imdoubtedly if that creek could talk it would tell many
a heartrending stow of events which trans]iired during the early day.>
of trans])ortatioii.
In the unbroken forests, while resting from their lal)ors, those
boatmen must have heard the dismal hooting of the owls and screech
of the wild cats, and perh.aps trembling with fear at e\ery snapping
bush, in anticipation of an attack bv savages.
That laborious and slow w^ay of transportation, caused the officials
of the State to endeavor to find a better way, and the Frie canal was
projected and realized under Gov. Clinton, called by his political opjK)-
nents, "Clinton's Folly", and afterwards "Clinton's ditch", and from
that day to this, every time the administration changes they change
employes. It is controlled by the party in ])ower. When the canal
was finished the first boat from New^ York City to ButTalo carried a
load of water as freight, and Gov. Clinton and staff as passengers.
There were cannons jjlaced a short distance apart the entire
length, and when the boat arrixed in Buffalo the water was emptied
6
ITS EARLY CANAL DAYS.
into the lake. There was great celebrating and rejoicing, 'i'he cannons
were hred, everywhere people cheering because the great work was
accomplished. The pouring of the water into the lake from the ocean
represented the mingling of the waters.
The Erie canal was soon to be the greatest highway for commerce
and passenger traflic that was e\er known. It ojiened up the great
West for settlement, it was the only thoroughfare l)etween the two
sections, as well as New ^'()rk State itself, \\hicli in many ])]accs was
an unbroken wilderness; one i)lace in ])articn]ar, Montezuma marsh,
six miles across it, where drivers were afraid to dri\e at night for fear
of wild cats which infested that region.
Rochester was then but a small village not as large as some of
its nearby towns. Penfield was settled before Rochester. Buffalo
was- a very small city, and would not be termed at the present time
a first class village. A few small sailing vessels for traffic with other
lake towns, and nothing but wagons in summer and sleighs in winter
to transport provisions from the country and the country jjcople to
take in exchange, such groceries, or produce needed by them or to
stock country stores. It was no uncommon thing for people to travel
in wagons eighty and one hundred miles and perhaps more, loaded
with provisions or lumber to trade for tea, coffee, calicoes, tobacco
and whisky. They used to consider whiskv as necessary, if not more
so. than any of the other articles, ^^'e are heartily glad that public
opinion in this ha.s changed with other things.
Rochester, through the instrumentality cjf the canal in a great
part, is now a first-class city, with over 200,000 inhabitants. The Erie
canal made the country prosperous all along the line. There were no
railroads when the canal wa- first built. The lirst one was a puny
affair, running from All)any to Schenectad\-. The writer can remem-
ber, when a boy of five or six years, coming with his father from the
east, and riding on cars which looked like old-fashioned stage coaches
without thills. From Schenectady we came to Rochester on an Erie
packet, then changed to a Genesee \^alley packet for Mt. Morris, the
nearest station to the place of our destination. Before the Valley
canal was finished steamboats were run up the Genesee river nearly
to Mt. Morris for freight and passengers. A steamboat left Rochester
for Geneseo every other morning, thirty-five miles away direct route,
but probably twice that distance by river. People living near the river
now would hardly belie\e it possible, it is so low in dry times, brought
REMJNISCRNCES OF ROCHESTER.
about by the forests being cut away which retained the moisture. I
remember Capt. Phihips, who ran a steam craft on the Genesee. Be-
fore canal times passengers or freight going south from Three River
Point on Oswego river sailed, rowed, and poled, their batteaus up
Cayuga and Seneca outlets to the lakes across them to Ithaca, Geneva.
Watkins and all other settlements on those waters. The magician's
wand has turned the useful batteau into the pleasure canoe and motor-
boat of the present day.
The Genesee Valley canal in 1842 or 1843 was finished only to
Dansville. I can remember the name of the packet boat that ran from
Rochester, where we engaged passage. It was the Caroline. I was
hit by a bridge and would have been knocked overboard, only my dress
caught over an iron cleat and saved me. I had not arrived at pants
age at that time. Passengers when on the deck of those boats- had
to stoop over to keep from being knocked down or overboard. They
were notified by the steersman, who was instructed to sing out very
loudly, "Low Bridge !" when approaching one of those structures.
The Erie canal at that time was a busy thoroughfare during the
months of navigation, commencing in April and closing when it froze
up in December. Now it is opened some time in May and closed in
November, as there is but little traffic on waterways at the present
time. As the country became settled, especially the West, the business
increased to immense proportions. All kinds of groceries were trans-
ported West; lumber, shingles, staves, and millions upon millions of
bushels of grain sent to tidewater from the great West.
Different companies had boats by the hundreds, and men hired to
run them. The crews consisted of two steersmen, a cook and captain.
The drivers and teams were stationed some twelve or fifteen miles
apart, where a station master had charge of teams and boarded the
drivers, they taking their meals on the boat only when on the passage
to the next station.
The crews of an individual boat owned by the captain consisted
of two drivers, two steersmen, a cook and captain, and sometimes a
bowsman wlicn the times were good.
ITS EARLY CANAL DAYS.
CHAPTER II.
Being a bowsman was the first business the author ever did on
the canal.
I will mention a few of the lines doing business on the canals in
those days; they will be familiar to the old inhabitants of the canal
sections. 'The American Transportation Co.'', 'The Western Trans-
portation Co.", "The Combination Line", (usually called the "Combo
Line") ; these run from ButTalo. Then there was the Rochester and
New York Transportation Co., with a man by the name of Fish as
president, and who was afterwards mayor of the city of Rochester,
and assistant canal superintendent. There was also the "New York
and Genesee Valley Line", running from New York to Dans\ille. They
did not run the line boats to Olean, as there were so many locks.
Some individual boats run as freight packets. I can remember a man
by the name of Arnold run one of them, and Hank ]\Iunsey had a
freight boat. Any of the boats would carry merchandise that water
would not hurt, as they had open decks, but the freight and passenger
packets were covered all over.
When the canal was finished to Oramel, they run a passenger
packet from there to Portage, it did not pay the owners, so they aban-
doned it. A stage ran in opposition, and at one time they carried pas-
sengers free, the one to outdo the other, till the packet to still show
her prowess gave free dinners to her passengers, as she could do so
on board the boat. Opposition is the life of trade but in this case it
was the life of the packet. The stage kept running until the Pennsyl-
vania Railroad put it out of business.
I can well remember the packet, the name of which was 'The
Frances", and how beautiful it looked to my boyish eyes, prettily
painted and majestically swinging around the bend from the feeder
into the main canal at Oramel.
Those days are passed, the writer is an old man, the boat has'
crumbled to dust, its crew and passengers have all or nearl\- all crossed
the dark river; the same sun shines as brightly to-day, but it shines
not on the glassy waters of the feeder, but on its rapidly disappearing
track, a fit home for frogs and malaria, and but few there are non*
R/:ML\isci:Xcr.s of Rochester.
who ever heard the lone toot of the crooked brass horn of the captain
echoing among the green clad hills of Crawford creek, as a signal to
the passengers that the boat was getting ready to start. It is the course
of all things, the old must give way to the new. l)ul only for death
could we have life.
/// aboard for Portage and intermediate f^orts
by ca)ial packet boat Frances!
THE PACKET BOAT FRANCES LEAVING HER DOCK AT ORAMEL
FEEDER FOR PORTAGE 65 YEARS AGO.
The steersinnii and bo7vsinan getting ready to cast off the lines as
the last notes of the crooked brass horn vigrated among the ivooded
hills of Crawford creek, the passengers coming and getting aboard the
boat at the packet dock in Oramel.
There was the old and tlic new Oswego lines, coming into the
I'^rie canal at Syracuse; Rome and New York line and Black River
line running from New York City to Carthage on the Black river.
There were plenty of other lines in those days of canal usefulness
whose boats carried passengers as well as freight. Thousands of
emigrants were transported, they and their household effects from
New York to Buffalo, then by steamboat to all points on the lakes.
Packets beautifully painted carried passengers and their baggage, also
express packages, while others carried both passengers and freight ;
they paid double toll and had the right of way, like the passenger
trains on the railroad. Where boats were congregated at locks, waiting
10
ITS r.ARLY CANAL DAYS.
their turn to lock through, these packets could pass them all which
called fortli many an oath from other hoat captains there in waiting.
Sometimes a heavily loaded freight boat would pay double toll
and pass all others waiting at the lock, making the other boatmen more
angry than for the passenger boat to go by them, and sometimes they
would get into fights. The rate was two cents per mile for light boats,
and different prices for freight, according to the distance carried.
Boats were so numerous at that time on the Erie canal, that a broken
lock, or a boat crosswise, would in one-half hour cause an accumula-
tion of dozens of boats on either side of the obstruction.
About the commencement of the Civil war there was a break at
Little Falls; the boats going east reached from Herkimer to Syracuse,
sixty-nine miles, and as many the other side of the break coming west.
I can remember a little circumstance which never did, nor never
would, happen again. While waiting in the crowd of boats, I left my
boat, with some others, to stroll along down the canal. I passed the
waiting boats, and in rotation not far apart, were three, one whose
name was "The Star"; the next one "The Spangle'", and a short dis-
tance in line was the "Banner". They might run on forever and never
happen to be placed in such rotation again.
Hundreds of boats towed by steamboats up and down the river
from New York to Albany every day. Boats were cleared from Buf-
falo by the hundred some days, and sixty or eight most every day of
canal navigation.
Tonawanda, with its lumber laden boats and huge rafts of ship
timbers going to tidewater, added to the list, kept the lock-tenders busy.
Those rafts were composed of sections called cribs, as long as could
be locked ; there were six of them fastened together but they must be
imcoupled to pass through the locks. The raft's crew lived in a sort
of rough board shanty. They needed no steersman, for it would drag
close by the towpath side, and boats kept the outside, and the crew of
the raft carried the towing line of the passing boat over the raft. \i
there were crowds of boats at the lock, the lock-tender would lock
one crib or section of raft, then a boat and so on, therefore while
one whole raft was being locked through, six boats would be locked,
making it slow work for the raftsmen and hard for the poor horses.
The traffic of the lateral canals swelled the Erie to huge propor-
tions, the Genesee Valley coming into the Erie at Rochester from
the Allegany river, running through Portville. Olean, Cuba. Belfast,
11
REMINISCENCES OF ROCHESTER.
Alt. Morris, Scottsville, and other towns, and a branch twelve miles
from Sonyea going to Dansville.
Many of the places have changed names since old canal days.
Spencerport, now called Fowlerville ; Shakers, now Sonyea ; Brush-
ville, now Tuscarora ; Messenger's Hollow, now Oakland ; Mixville
Landing, now Rossburgh. Three or four miles below Caneadea is a
beautiful temperance town called Houghton, with a noted theological
seminary; there is also a fine grove with an auditorium wdiere each
year in August is held a week's camp meeting, attended by thousands
of people and many noted speakers; it was once called Jockey St. and
contained a low, vile tavern.
East of the Genesee Vallc}- at Montezuma there came into the
Erie canal hundreds of boats from the coal chutes on both the Seneca
and Cayuga lakes. The Oswego canal running from Lake Ontario to
Syracuse, the Black river coming in at Rome, the Chenango at Utica.
and the Northern canal from Lake Champlain to Troy, By the time
all the boats from these different waterways reached the Erie they
could be counted by the thousands, and thousands of dollars worth of
property was floated to and from tidewater. Every hour of the day
you could count from any canal bridge, the wdiole length of the canal,
eight or ten boats going east or west, and at night the headlights from
the boats looked like a torchlight procession.
At the present time you can watch the canal all day without seeing
one boat. Carrying freight on the canal now is like angels' visits, few
and far between. Railroads have superseded the canals, for they can
move freight so much faster ; the building of the Barge canal looks to
me like a useless expense ; but then it makes business along the line,
work for poor men, and will be an ideal place for pleasure and motor-
boats.
Li the old days of canal usefulness there were many occasions for
quarreling among boatmen, and fighting was an every day occurrence,
especially among opposition line boats. Captains would hire men
more for their fighting abilities than their seamanship in managing a
boat. Some boats which had ditiiculty in passing each other, ha\e
been known when meeting again, to tie up alongside of each other
and go to fighting; when one gave up and said, "enough", they untied
and went llieir (lifierent ways, as though nothing unusual had
happened.
12
TTS EARLY' CANAL DAYS.
There were canal Inillies all along the line. one. a colored man.
called "Sleepy Frank", was a match for any one ; he could jump clear
across a lock fourteen or fifteen feet; the locks are wider now. Then
there was old Ben Streeter, all Valley canal boatmen knew him; he
was generally feared for his fighting qualities. He lived at the Rapids,
at that time out of the city of Rochester, but now the city runs clear
by it. Ben Streeter steered the first canal boat that ran up from Roch-
ester to Mt. Morris. He was called the Rochester bully, and fought
the bully of Buffalo in the old Reynolds Arcade for one hour and
licked him ; no officer dared interfere at that time.
The times have changed for the better. They could not fight there
now for five minutes without being arrested. Policemen were few in
the city then, fighting was considered a manly art. and the best man
in a fight, was praised and feared ; now fighting is called brutish unless
in self-defense. One thing in their favor at that time, they used only
their fists or their boots, while at the present time, when a fight is
on, a gun or knife is used, many times fatally ; at that time I never saw
any deadly weapons used or anyone killed or disabled to any great ex-
tent ; when a man said enough they quit and sometimes shook hands,
and the vanquished would apologize and say "you are the best man,
sure"', and perhaps go to some tavern and drink together. One small-
sized boat captain used to jump ofl:" his boat at anv little misunder-
standing and fight ; he invariably got the worst of it, but that did not
prevent him from juni])ing off at the next quarrel, and I never saw him
without a scratched face or a blackened eye. All of the side-cut
canals had their fighting men. and in fact nearly all boatmen ])rided
themselves on the then called, manly art.
I can also recall to memory many a good man on the Valley
canal. They did not pose as fighters, they were too gentlemanly for
that, and would avoid getting into trouble, but I would not advise any-
one to impose upon them too much. Geo. Eggleston of Brockport,
Johnnie Rover of Dansville, the Burke Boys of Mt. Morris, and plenty
of others, good fellows and good boatmen, ready to give a helping
hand to any needy one.
\\'hisky or strong drink, then as well as now, was the principal
cause of quarreling and fighting, not only among boatmen but
teamsters, log cutters, mill hands, and even farmers would get together
on certain occasions, generally after pay day, and the principal idea
was to have what they called a good time, drinking, treating and
13
REMJNISCIINCFS OF ROCHFSTER.
carousing from one tavern or saloon to another, until their money \va>
all spent, some staggering home, others dead drunk in the lock-up, or
cared for by their families or friends. That was the way they gen-
erally disbanded, to get together again at the next pay day or some
noted occasion, and go the same disgraceful rounds again ; and yet they
were called civilized human beings. Such customs and drinking habits,
have created endless sufferings and poverty in the families of such
drinking men. Although strong drink often brought about a tragedx-
I knew of cases where it brought a comedy as well.
There were two men who were running a boat together. They
arrived in the city of Rochester late one Saturday night; one sent the
other with a dollar to get provisions to last the boat's crew over Sun-
day. When he returned he had a jug of whisky and one loaf of
bread. The other partner was looking at the purchases, when his mate
said, ''What are you thinking of?" **Oh, nothin', only I would like to
know what in H made you get so much bread!" The canals, like
other sections, have reformed. The temperance wave is spreading.
When the writer was a boy almost every man drank and used tobacco,
and even the women smoked and used snuff ; a snuff' box and tobacco
pouch were reckoned as household utensils, whisky, cider and tobacco
were considered as essential as any other groceries. There was a
grocery at every lock, and sometimes two, on the Erie canal, where in-
toxicating liquors were sold. It was customary with the grocery
proprietor to treat the captain when purchasing supplies for his boat,
and the whole crew, if the trade was heavy, then the crew would get
money of the captain on their wages and treat each other, and so it
went; whisky was considered essential. What a change! The old
uninhabitable wrecks of some of those grocery hell-holes can still be
seen rotting down. No more liquor is sold in them, and the few boat-
men navigating the Erie canal to-day, are mostly temperate. Up the
Genesee Valley there were whisky shops in every town. From Jockey
Street to Belfast, only seven or eight miles, there were ten or more
miserable apologies for hotels. It was a new country, steam and
water saw mills dotting the valleys. Teams drawing lumber, shingles,
stavebolts, railroad ties and cord wood were on every road ; all families
used wood for fuel, in fact, they knew of nothing else to use.
Wood was used in all the cities, and the first railroads burned millions
of cords to fire their engines.
Deer were numerous in Allegany County in the early stages of
canal navigation, making it an ideal ]ilacc for hunters, and among all
14
ITS EARLY CANAL DAYS.
the inhabitants of that section at that time I knew of only one strictly
temperance man ; I presume there were others, i le came from Orleans
county to superintend the construction of the locks at Oraniel. and
the acqueduct at Caneadca. He married Hannah Emery, of Marsh
settlement, and built a sawmill in the town of Caneadea on Shongo
creek. He advocated temperance at all times, when to do so brought
slurs and curses from those around him, strongly addicted to the
liquor habit so prevalent at that time.
Yes, David L. Dudley was the name of that Nature's n(.l)leman,
and the foster parent of the writer, who will never forget while life
lasts the temperance lessons and fatherly ad\ice that have perhaps
saved the foster-son from stumbling into many pitfalls. The germs
of temperance cultivated years ago by that blessed man probably had
something to do with making some prohibition towns along the aban-
doned waterway of the Genesee Valley canal. This is not intended
for a temperance lectm-e, but the love I have for my fellow boatmen,
as well as all humanity, causes me to advocate it everywhere, knowing
as I do the terrible curse intemperance has entailed among its many
victims. A majority of people have been taught to believe that license
to sell this poison in a town makes more business. Yes, indeed it does,
some kinds of business. Business for the doctors, to cure diseases
caused by the terrible stuff. Business for lawyers to settle quarrels
caused by the same. Business for poormasters to supply neces-
sities to poor families made dependent by strong drink. More
business for taxpayers to get money to pay for murder trials
caused by drunken brawls, and last, but not least, business /;/ hell for
the devil. We hear it advocated that the world is getting more wicked,
but I can prove it otherwise; where T once saw drunkenness I see it
no more. Buildings can be raised and harvesting can be done without
whisky, which once was impossible. I can remember many fatal acci-
dents caused by strong drink served at raising. Temperance wa\es
have washed away the whisky fumes of Jockey St., now Houghton,
Burrville. Caneadea, Willard's tavern and Youngs, at Oramel feeder,
and many other places.
Oramel at that time w^as a business place. It was calculated by
its founder, Oramel Griffin to become a city. There was a hotel, a
number of saloons, a drug store, and sexeral other stores, a paper was
also printed there by Purdy, and many dwelling houses that all signs of
are now obliterated. The canal feeder at Oramel was lined with
15
RF.MINISCnNCFS OF ROCHESTFR.
lumber, shingles, stave bolts, etc.. to be loaded on boats for Rochester,
New York, and intermediate ports. Oramel lost a good share of its
business when the canal was finished to Olean. There was a great
celebration when it was finished to Belfast. The first boat carried a
load of passengers to that place ; they had a cannon on board and
fired it frequently, while the banks were lined with the cheering in-
habitants of the surrounding country. Belfast Was quite a village at
that early date, and when the canal was finished the sleepy old town
awakened, and has been wide awake ever since. Business men came
from other places to work in dififerent capacities.
There was a warehouse and drydock built by a man from Dans-
ville, S. Titsworth, who did quite an extensive business as commis-
sion merchant and repairer of boats. Geo. Chamberlain from Roch-
ester bought lumber for the Hollister Lumber Co. in that city.
There are a number of the old Genesee Valley boatmen still liv-
ing in Belfast and near towns, the Burke Brothers, James Fox of
Oramel. C. Reeves, and Aaron Stone, near Oramel, and others, all
good business men. Some are farmers and instead of the question
being interchanged "\Miat are they paying for lumber shipped to
Jvochester?" they sing out when meeting. "What's cheese bringing this
week?''
Through the courtesy of one of those prosperous ex-boatmen.
Captain Aaron Stone, I have been able to secure some more data of the
early days of the Valley canal. The first boat arrived at Cuba in
October, 18.S6. Whit Gould was the captain. Crowds escorted it
into Cuba with a band of music ; it was a great day for that village,
whisky was plentiful and free to all, both on the boat and at other
places.
The last boat there was in the year 1878, left on the bottom of
the canal near where is now the Cuba Cheese and Cold Storage plant,
when the water was drawn off and the Genesee Valley canal was
abandoned and water communication to Cuba was ended. The boat
was the Cul,)a lighter, owned by Messrs. Cutter and Bishop. This bit
of history was secured from an old copy of the Cuba ''Patriot" ; in
the old canal days it was handy for the farmers along the line, for it
fetched a market right at their own doors for oats, hay, pork and all
other things they had to spare. Horses were in great demand at all
])rices, from hundreds of dollars to four or five, according to the
wealth of the boatmen. Some poor boatmen would be necessitated to
use horses too old or poor to be of much service.
16
ITS EARLY CANAL DAYS.
The boats built on the Genesee Valley were very pretty, generally
round bow and square stern, nicely painted, some fourteen feet wide,
and eighty feet long. There was a cabin at the stern for living pur-
poses, and a hands' cabin or for horses at the bow. They served as a
nice little home for the waterman and his family; they would carry
ninety tons, if loaded with lumber, fifty to eighty thousand feet, ac-
cording to its degree of seasoning, and forty or fifty cords of wood.
They could load three and one-half feet, that was the law; if loaded
more than that, it was hard for the poor horses, as the boat would
drag the bottom of the canal.
I presume there are some living now who can remember the
names of some of the Valley boats. Nelson Lareau of Tuscarora ;
Burns and Wave, The Bersey-King, and the Diantha Mariah, all of
Dansville ; Fashion of Castile, Homer of Cayuga, C. J. Warrington of
Crescent, and the A. S. Baker. I could mention many more but these
are sufficient.
One of the Munsey girls. Hank Munsey's sister, was a natural
boatwoman. She steered her father's boat across the river below Mt.
Morris when the water was so high it was dangerous, and no man
dared to steer or even go in the boat with her. She made the lock on
the other side of the river all right; if she had not, the boat would
have went over the State dam which would undoubtedly have
drowned her and sunk the boat. She afterw^ards built and run a boat
herself. I think she married one of the Wiley boys of the Rapids.
There were the Blodget boys of Dansville, good boatmen, also the
Burkes of Mt. Morris, the Donnellys of Spencerport, and plenty of
others, but we cannot enumerate them all.
Below Oramel was a widewater called the Basin, used for stor-
ing ship timbers, to be made into rafts. Oramel was a busy place
then; no more will boatmen crowd its streets or their loud voices be
heard singing out "LIurrah — lock", or "Go on, Johnnie", when the
boat was locked through. The old tumble-down locks can still be seen
all along the Pennsylvania Railroad from Olean to Rochester, and
some of them are still in a good state of preservation. Now the rail-
road follows on the towing path of the old canal. It takes about three
hours to get to Rochester from Belfast; when the writer was a boy,
it took twenty-four hovirs. You took the stage in the morning at Bel-
fast or Caneadea, arrrived for dinner at Portage, then stage through
Brooksgrove, arri^ ing in the afternoon at Mt. Morris, then took the
17
REMINISCENCRS OF ROCHESTER.
packet boat ride all night, and if no detention occurred to the boat
you arrived in the city next morning. You could sleep on the boat
and get your meals if you wished. Jt was splendid board, equal to
any first-class hotel, and many times, superior. You had your bertii
assigned to you the same as on a railroad sleeper. The berths were
made of canvas, called sacking frames, hung on irons fastened on
the inside of the boat, put up by tlie steward at bedtime, and taken
down in the morning to make room for breakfast service and parlor
conveniences. The deck made a Hne. picturesque promenade, especially
on moonlight nights. The horses would trot, giving the boat the
PASSENGtR PACKET ON THE ERIE CAN/
EARS AGO.
Speed of a light carriage and horses. It was a nice, sociable way to
travel with your friends, and that included all of the passengers on
the boat, giving you the pleasure of an outing or picnic combined
with business travel.
I can remember the names of the packet boats running from Mt.
Morris to Rochester when I was a boy. Two left each place every
night, Sundays excepted, one carrying freight and passengers, the
father passengers, baggage and express. Their names were, "The Dia-
mond", "May Fly", "May Flower", and "Dansville". The boats
(locked, discharged cargo and passengers, in a slip, just back of
where limch and eating rooms are located at the present time on Ex-
change street, at the west end of the aqueduct. The building was a
18
ITS EARLY CANAL DAYS.
warehouse directly opposite the CHiitoii hotel, a noted hostelry in those
days. It is where Dan Bromley moored his packet, the "Red Bird"
of the Empire line.
In packet days boats vied with each other to be the faster, and
it was ten dollars fine for boats to pass through the canal at more than
four miles per hour. Boat captains, wishing to keep ahead and out-
run rival boats, would jump off at each collector s office and plank
down a ten dollar bill when offering their clearance to be signed. That
saved arrest, stoppage of boat, and a trial by Court. The next captain
coming after, did the same thing, making it quite expensive, as there
were collectors' offices in every large town. The passengers were as
enthusiastic as the crews to keep ahead, and would help the captain
pay the fine, and in shallow water or when passing boats, where it was
hard work for the horses, would jump ashore, grab the towing line
and pull on it, all the time shouting for their boat. Even bystanders
in towns and farmers in the country had their favorite boat or line, and
would get excited and help pull the boat on an emergency, if they hap-
pened to be there singing out, "Hurrah ! for the 'Red Bird' " or "Hur-
rah ! for Capt. Stevens", or whatever the name of the boat or captain
of their choice. Money changed hands equal to betting at a horse or
boat race at the present time. When I was a boy I hired out as bows-
man on Jacob Grow's boat, the "Homer" of Cayuga. He was com-
monly called Uncle Jake. He had always ])een a farmer, but when
the Valley canal was finished, he sold his farm and bought a canal
boat, with Edward Washbourn for steersman. Uncle Jake's son De-
villo as cook, an Irish boy for driver, and myself as bowsman. That
constituted the boat's crew, besides the Old Man. All captains were
called "the old man" by the crew, no matter if they are but boys in
command of any water craft. Once coming through the locks below
Fillmore, Uncle Jake got excited and got some oakum that had been
put by accident in the place he kept his tobacco and he was calling
down the groceryman for selling him such poor -tobacco before he
found out what it was. They used oakum for calking the boats; it
very much resembles tobacco and is probal)ly not lialf a hurtful.
One evening my old friend Devillo cut up about a bushel of pota-
toes and threw them out of the window, thinking them poor by the dim
light, when they were only pink inside, and at another time he went
to drain the potatoes over the taft"rail of the boat, when the cover
slid off and our dinner of potatoes tumbled into the canal ; and so the
19
REMIN!SCENCP:S of ROCHESTER.
laugh came first on one and then the other. ( )n one trip a funny
thing happened-, which brought the laugh on me. Just below the
Scottsville lock I saw, as I supposed, a wild duck swimming behind
the boat. I ran down into the cabin, got the shotgun, and fired at it.
killing the supposed duck. Giving the driver a pike pole, he left his
horses and went back and fished out one of my own mittens that had
fallen un])erceived overboard, the thumb looking like a duck's head.
It was a long time before I heard the last of duck, Devillo of rotten
potatoes, or Capt. Jake of oakum tobacco. I mention these incidents
to let the reader know there were occasions for sjjort on l)()ard those'
water crafts.
Boats, according to canal regulations, must turn to the right when
passing. That was the old law ; now on the Erie those going towards
tidewater, that is east, must drop their line to let the western boat
go over, and not stop towing, for the current generally runs east, thus
floating the tidewater boat on the current, and not usually affecting
its speed, when if the west boat stopped for the line to sink under
the other boat, the current being against it, would greatly retard its
headway.
Boats wishing to pass each other, and going in the same direction,
the head boat going slower, mu.st steer over to the berm bank, or more
commonly called the heelpath, stop, and let the other and faster one by.
Steam boats always take the outside of heelpath of horse-towing boats,
so as not to be mixed up with the towing lines. Boats when within
a certain distance of the lock cannot be passed until they are locked
through on to another level.
Some of the old groceries and wrecks of warehouses can be seen
all along the canals at this date (1914), and at Mt Morris can be
seen Burk's old tavern, where the packets discharged their passengers
and freight. Fillmore has still the old store and warehouse of J. B.
VVhitbeck, and at Caneadea only a part of the warehouse wall is visible,
opposite the Pennsylvania Railroad depot. It was once kept by Mark
Titsworlh. formerly of Dansville : he is brother of S. Titsworth, who
built the Belfast warehouse and dry dock. The enterprising and
beautiful village of Belfast w?s disgraced a few years ago by the turn-
ing of that historical building once used for transportation purposes
into a low brothel, where two murders were committed. That crime
awakened the honest citizens to their duty, and the consequence was
a temperance town At Rockville there was a small lake made for a
20
ITS EARLY CANAL DAYS.
canal feeder, and fnrihcr up, near Cuba, is a much larger one. Both
of those reser^•oirs were not sufiicient in very dry times to furnish
enough water for transportation purposes, and boats have laid in that
vicinity for weeks, waiting for a rain, before there was water enough
to float them.
Boat crews many times would get into mischief while waiting
during those obstructions caused by breaks in canal, lock, or low
water, and although there were many good honest law-abiding boat-
men, there would, in a crowd of boats, be more or less rowdies
among the crews, who woidd take adxantage of their idleness to get
SCENE ON LAKE CUBA.
THE STATE OF NEW
NOTED
WATE R
SUMMER RESORT, IT WAS BUILT
■OR THE GENESEE VALLEY CANAL.
into mischief. The\- pretended to be fighting men, and were generally
feared by the citizens along tlic water highways. 1 remember when
some boats were stalled in the village of Cuba waiting for water, the
rough element of the boats' crews would get together, swagger around
town, insult the citizens, and offer to fight every one they came in
contact with, climb stovepipes in hotels and make nuicances of them-
selves generally. One night they, through some pretext or other, got a
number of the fast boys around town to come aboard one of their boats,
which was anchored in the middle of the canal, and the boat ruffians
were secreted under the decks. When the boys all got aboard they
pulled in the nnniing ])laiik and set to ])onnding and kicking their visi-
tors, then threw them o\cr1)(Kird. and some would undoubtedlv have
been drowned bad tlierc been water enough for navigation. There
21
REMINISCENCES OF ROCHESTER.
was great rejoicing when there come sufticieiit water for the boats
to sail away to their respective ports.
Olean was at that time but a small village, but, getting its start
from canal days, is now a smart little city, and many houses are built
over the decayed hulls of old boats left in the canal basin. Western's
Mills, three miles from Olean, shipped millions of feet of lumber by
canal. Portville, the last village on the canal, was a great shipping
port. Boats could go two miles from that ])lace, lock into the Alle-
ghany river, and load lumber from mills on that water.
In the early canal days there were boats owned by companies,
called Line boats, they hired captains to run them, who were generally
of the rough class. The companies did not care if their boats were
rushed to their greatest capacity. The captains would hire their own
crews, who were generally as vicious as themselves, and their cooks
were usually hired from an intelligence office ; such outfits as this gave
the canal a bad name. There were, however, some of the captains
who were respectable, and had their wives, sisters or mothers attend
to the office of cooking, although most of the Line boats had rather
hard cases for their crews.
The individual boats, owned by the captain, usually hired a more
respectable crew. Many of them lived on their boats in the winter.
When the business began to fail there were no more Lines, and a man
who wished, could, by being saving, purchase a boat, and was not a
loafer; temperance and respectability took the place of intemperance
and fighting, and now the watermen are as respectable as any other
class of people, no matter what their vocation.
The two terminals of the Erie canal, Buffalo and New York, is
where most of the boats tie up for the winter. Erie Basin in Brooklyn
is set apart for the use of boats, and when boating was good it was
quite a city of water craft, and temperance and virtue was as highly
prized as in any community on shore. In the writer's time of canal
and river business religious meetings were held there on a covered
canal boat, fitted up for that purjiose.
The McCauly Mission started the first boatman's revival; although
rather belligerent, it served a good purpose. I think it was John Allen
who was keeping a low, vile dance house on Canal street, in New
York City, with drinking and debauchery as its main attraction. He
became converted, knocked in the heads of his liquor barrels, dis-
charged his dance girls, after giving them good advice, and started
a prayer meeting in his bar mom. It was sold to McCauly afterwards.
22
ITS EARLY CANAL DAYS.
One night a half drunken Oswego boatman, who was a noted
bully and fighting man, stumbled into McCauly's mission, intending
to break up or disturb the meeting. Instead, he got converted him-
self, and like Paul, he saw a great light, went home to his boat at Erie
Basin in Brooklyn, and the next day rigged seats and put up stoves
to warm the boat; being decked all over, it made a very comfortable
place to hold meetings. Then he went around to all of the neighbor-
ing boats, told the captains there would be services held on his boat
in the evening, and if they did not come he would give them a D
licking, and that they would catch H if they omitted being there.
It was a pretty effectual invitation, as the whole boat colony turned
out. He engaged ministers, who were only too glad to come and preach
the Gospel, with the consequence that nearly every boatman was con-
verted, and the effect was clearly seen the following summer, when
many boats were tied up on Sundays, and their occupants went to
church whenever possibe. And the Oswego boatman, I have heard
since, converted his boat into a floating Bethel, and held meetings
wherever they chose to anchor.
That religious wave surged over the canal doing an immense
amount of good. Poverty and disease changed to health and wealth,
vice to virtue, unhappiness to joy and gladness, friendly conversation
taking the place of drinking and fighting. Well-dressed families
wended their way from their floating homes to places of worship on
vSundays, far different from the drunken, quarreling crews that went
from the ale houses to fight their wives and families on getting back
to their beautiful and graceful vessels, disgracing the noble calling they
were engaged in. Their boats, in sheer disgust, strained at their
anchorage, to get away from their debased owners, and the bright,
sparkling waters underneath, roiled them'selves in anger. Thank God,
the old drunken days of boatmen are over, or nearly so, and how can
any one, no matter what his belief is, say there is nothing in the religion
of the Lord Jesus Christ, when its eft'ects are so apparent on drinking
men.
2.^
REMINISCENCES OE ROCHESTER.
CHAPTER III.
Rochester was a small city when the writer commenced running
his boat from Belfast to that place on the Genesee Valley canal. The
largest building the city contained at that time was Reynolds Arcade ;
the boys used to crowd around and look with wonder on such a noted
traveler and ask him if he had seen the Arcade. He took some of his
old schoolmates occasionally on his voyage, and the wonders they saw
was material enough for many day's conversation among their friends
on their return. The name of the boat was the A. S. Baker of Middle-
port. He had for a partner a man by the name of Delos HotYman.
They made a number of trips to Rochester, then loaded at PortvilU-
for Albany ; after unloading, the boat was found to be unseaworthy
and was abandoned in Troy. There they parted, Delos to tow a boat
with his horses to Oswego, and the writer to go as pilot on an Erie
Line boat. But before I engaged in that capacity, 1 took the cars
for Rochester, and met with the experience I will now narrate.
I arrived in the city in the afternoon, and just at dark sauntered
up to Exchange street bridge. At that time it was a common high
bridge, before hoist or swing bridges had been invented. I was stand-
ing on the bridge, watching the boats gliding underneath, when a man
with rather unsteady steps came up to me and said. "Do you know
where I can get a steersman?" I told him T could steer a boat, was out
of a berth and would engage with him for $30.00 per month, including
board; he said, "all right, my other steersman will meet us at Pitts-
ford to-morrow, where we will load with potatoes for New York City.
We usually carry Hour, as my boat is a Rochester Line boat, but there
is no load ready at present".
At that time Rochester .shipped thousands of barrels of Hour every
(lay during canal navigation, mostly from Whitney's elevator, and it
was conceded all over the world to be the.liest flour manufactured any-
where, and for that reason was called "The Flour City". Now it
keeps its name on account of its beautiful flower nurseries, but that
has nothing to do with my cxi)eri(?nce that night.
The captain said to me, '(io aboard and tell the cook to dish you
up something, if you arc luini,q-y ; there's the craft in the slip", motion-
ITS EARLY CANAL DAYS.
iiig towards a nicely painted ball head boat, lying in the old packet
basin. Those boats were built in Rochester, decked all over and called
"bald head" for being round on the bow, but by constant use the name
was perverted to "Bull head boat (See picture on cover.)
The captain stumbled along towards Wheeler's grocery and day
boat barn, and Wheeler's, like all canal groceries, kept a bar. It was on
the tow path side, and the building can still be seen just above the Ex-
change street bridge. I went aboard, knocked at the cabin hatch before
going down and being hungry told the girl what the captain said. She
did not speak at first, but looked frightened, and placed some cold meat,
potatoes and bread and butter before me, and said she would warm
up the potatoes and make tea, but as there appeared to be no fire, I told
her not to do it, as that was plenty good enough, and ate all I wished.
She looked as though she had been wee]:)ing and seemed afraid.
I made my way to the hands' cabin, in the forward part of the
boat. Having matches, T struck a light, found the lamp, stirred tip
an old bunk, and turned in for a good sleep. I did not go to sleep,
however, but thought of th.e sad-looking girl in the captain's cabin. I
concluded it was his daughter and he had scolded her, or she expected
him back drunk, or both, as that is what I thought his condition would
1)6 as he staggered towards Wheeler's grocery. I must have fallen
asleep, but the captain coming aboard awakened me; then there were
\ oices apparently in argument, the captain swearing, and knowing he
could be swearing to no one but the girl, I opened the door leading
from the hands' cabin into the midship. Hearing scuffling, I dropped
down from where I was, and walked back under deck to the cabin aft,
where I learned that the girl was not the captain's daughter. Then
she screamed, and I heard the captain chasing her, but sprawling un-
steadily around.
The door leading from his cabin into the midship was not fas-
tened, so I pushed it open, and as he came to that side, T reached into
the cabin, grabbed the skipper by the legs and jerked him through the
door. He fell heavily on the keelson, which is a heavy piece of wood
running through the middle of the boat from stem to stern. It was
about breast high from the midship to the cabin floor, and thus stunned
liim when striking.
I did not stop to see whether he was ali\ e or not, but climbed
np through the hole where T had pulled the captain, shut and bolted
the door, and said to the trembling girl, "You are all right, now, don't
25
REMINISCENCFS OF ROCHESTER.
be afraid. If he isn't dead now, I'll kill him any way. Pack up your
things if you have any, and I will go with you to the police station,
and you can tell your story to them." Then she cried and said she
did not want to go anywhere but home.
I then heard the captain swearing and stumbling around inside, sn
I ran up on deck, forward to my cabin, ran down, shut and bolted
the door leading from there to the midship, where the captain was.
Then I knew we were safe, for without outside help, or tools, he
could never get out. I ran back, got the girl and her small bundle
ashore, then yelled to the captain, who was mumbling curses, to shut
up, or I would go down and brain him ! I could be brave then, on the
outside, and Cap a prisoner, and I had an old single barrelled pistol
and one load, about as dangerous as a mosquito's bite.
The girl said she lived about six miles up the river, and that she
could walk, for she had seen all she wanted of Rochester. Her home
was near to what is now called the Junction, and is on the Pennsyl-
vania Railroad where it crosses the West Shore, in one of the houses
on the river road from Plymouth avenue in the city, through the little
village called the Rapids at that time.
No one had heard the rumpus, as that was the only boat in the
slip that night and policemen were scarce in the city at that time.
Such a commotion now in that vicinity would fetch a dozen of them,
as well as hundreds of citizens. As I could not persuade her to go
and enter her complaint at the Station, I concluded to walk home with
her, so taking the small bundle, we started on our long night's walk,
with no electric lights as now. She knew that I was her friend and
told me how she came to be on the boat. Some of her neighbors told
her if she wanted to get work in the city, all she had to do was to go
to an intelligence office and they would get her a position. Her mother
was a widow, and being poor, with nothing to do in the country, she
thought, as she was fifteen years old, she could help her poor old
mother keep their little home if she could get work. So that morning
she had bid her tearful mother good-bye ; she did not want her child to
go, she would sooner starve. But the girl, like many others, was a
little willful and thought she could take care of herself in the city, and
that was the way she did it.
She went to the intelligence oflice, and they caring nothing for the
girl except to get their fee, persuaded her to go as cook on the captain's
boat, for he had just then applied for one, and she went along with
26
ITS EARLY CANAL DAYS.
him, as innocent of harm as though she was with her own father or
brother. After being aboard a short time she began to consider her
position, and the rough talk of the captain had opened her eyes, and
the sad looks when I came in for supper, was the consequence.
I know not what would have been the outcome if I had not provi-
dentially arrived upon the scene as I did, and the poor girl was
about tired out before arriving at her home, near morning, having
traveled the same road twice that day, besides the experience and one
dollar out for her fee at the intelligence office ; but she bravely plodded
on, stopping to rest occasionally. She had ample time to acquaint me
with her history; she had had experience enough now, through not
obeying her mother, to take her advice ever afterwards; and with
tears in her eyes she said she would starve before she would ever
visit the city again without a protector.
I was not much of a philosopher in those days, but I told her
that to obey her mother and listen to her counsels, would be the great-
est protector she could ever get. We walked upon the towing path
of the canal from the rapids until we came to what is now the River
View House, then turned off on the river road and arrived at her home
a mile or so up the river. She awakened her mother, and the "God
blessings" I received after acquainting her of her daughter's escape
from the drunken canal captain, if worth anything, would put a regi-
ment of sinners through purgatory. I believe they were good for
something, however, as I felt like a hero after the praises that were
heaped upon me by those poor people.
They rigged me a bed upstairs and although near morning, I had
quite a rest before coming down to breakfast, which must have been
near noon. The simple menu consisted of baked potatoes, gravy and
tea, but the grateful looks of both mother and daughter sufficed for
bread and dessert. No one with plenty of wealth and relations could
have received more blessings and tears when going to the wars, than
were given to me when parting from them that day. All the capital
I owned then was good health, a good trade of boatmanship, six dollars
and a little change, but no home, and no berth on any boat, as I had
sacrificed my position engaged the previous night, but I left them a
five dollar bill. They did not want to take it, and would not until I
told them I had plenty in the bank. My bank was the banks of the
canal and the money could only be drawn after I had steered a boat
through them.
27
RRMINISd'-NCFS OF ROCIf ESTER.
I walked back to the city, arriving there at about three or
four P. M. I was weaving air castles all along the road, about how
1 would some day come back to see my little sweetheart, as I now
thought of her. That was young man fashion, but it never material-
ized, for I never saw them again.
I looked for the boat on which I had hired out, but she was gone.
The skipper ' must have routed out someone who had opened his
prison doors, hired help, and gone to Pittsford to load. Then I con-
ceived the brilliant plan, being out of a job, of going down and hiring
out to him again, for it being dark when he hired me, he could not
recognize me only by my voice, and being as drunk as he was, he
l)robably could not have done it by that. If he had not hired a man
yet, my chances would be good, as well as a good joke on the captain.
But I did not get to Pittsford, for at Brighton locks I hired out
to John Packard, captain of a Western Transportation Co.'s boat, the
"New Jersey", loaded with wdieat for New York.
I did not know the name of the boat upon which I had had the
adventure, nor the captain's name ; I only knew that it was a Rochester
hall head boat, but could never know it if I met it, as there were
so many of them built just alike.
A few years ago I delivered a lecture in a schoolhouse in that
neighborhood, and went to the house I was pretty sure was the one
my rescued girl and her mother had lived in. It looked like the place,
only improved, with additions built on it, and when giving the young
lady a lecture bill, I asked her if she ever knew of a widow and her
(laughter living there. She said "\\'hat were their names"? and I
could not tell her; if I ever did know, I had forgotten; she said she
never knew of any residing there. After getting some distance from
the house I figured U]) the time passed since that ever-to-be remem-
bered night, and realized the passing of time. It must have been near
lifty years, and I felt the absurdity of asking that woman about the
family that had lived there undoubtedly twenty-five years before she
was born. The question must ha\ e been asked as in a dream.
The reader can see that the inland waters of navigation are not
devoid of adventures. They have their lovers, their mysteries, and
crimes, as well as any other section of country. The above narrative
would furnish material for a first-class novel. I have had many other
adventures, but none as exciting: in so short a time.
28
ITS EARLY CANAL DAYS.
CHAPTER IV.
Many boats, mostly coal carriers, left the canal at Montezuma,
towed by horses to Cayuga lake and to Geneva or Seneca lake, could
load with coal at Coal Point, or they could go into the Chemung at
Watkins, for Corning or Elmira. In busy times I have seen from
sixty to eighty coal boats towed into Geneva by steamboat — then the
hustling to get teams out and their boats under way for their difter-
cnt ports of destination.
Seneca lake in storms was dangerous for loaded boats, and its
bottom is lined with wrecks. I know of a boat loaded with coal in
a sinking condition, which was cast off from the others, her crew got
on to the steamboat, when it sank, turned over, dumped her load, and
came to the surface, bottom side up. The steamer picked it up,
towed it to Geneva, rigged tackles and overturned it and pumped out
the water; the crew then moved on. w^ent back, loaded coal again, and
met on the canal the same boats coming back light that was in the
tow when they sank. It was an open boat, or it could not have dumped
its load.
There is no boating of any account on those lakes now. The
railroads have taken the bu.siness, and the Chemung canal is a thing
of the past. The boats have rotted away, the crews disappeared, and
all that remains is the crumbling walls of the coal trestles — monuments
of a past age.
The Fall Brook Coal Company had many boats. They were all
named "Fall Brook"', but numbered so as to distinguish them. Ithaca,
on Cayuga lake, was a noted place for building beautifully modeled
boats. They were called Ithaca Lakers, and could sail up and down
the lake for loads, but generally were towed by steamboats. A man
felt proud when he owned or commanded one of those pretty lakers.
No more boats are built there, or at any of those places, except a fevr
ugly looking scows to carry what little coarse freight is offered, at dif-
ferent places where boats v/ere i)uilt, all had different models, and any
experienced boatman, seeing one, could tell where she Avas built.
Rochester was a noted boat building port. They were decked all
over, and the decks were high, running from bow to stern, making
29
REMINISCENCES OF ROCHESTER.
them very handy to work upon. The Meyers Brothers built many of
them. I piloted one of them for two seasons. Its name was "The
Onward", owned and run by Delos L. Polley, who then lived in Carth-
age, three miles from the city: now the city takes in the village and a
long ways below. That spring the Meyers launched three other boats,
the "Manchester", "Catawba", and "A. W. Scott". During that sea-
son freights were good, and it was not uncommon for grain boats to
clear one thousand dollars or more, besides expenses, on a trip, which
usually took three or four weeks. They built many boats besides ball
heads, called lakers. They were nicely modeled boats, but much
heavier than the others.
The Genesee Valley, Chemung, Black river and Chenango boats
looked very much alike, and could run on all lateral canals. The
Pennsylvania canal boats were a different model, but very pretty,
and could run on all of the New York State waterways, and when
freights were good in Buffalo many of them loaded at that port.
The Delaware and Hudson canal coming into the river at Round-
out was owned by a coal company as well as the boats navigating it.
Those boats run all day and until twelve o'clock at night, when the
lock gates were fastened until morning, except Saturday nights, when
they were kept fastened until Sunday night at twelve o'clock. They
could rim on the Erie canal, but not on the laterals, being too long to
pass through the locks. The boats run on the Morris canal through
New Jersey to Hoboken were different than any of the others. The>'
were called double jointers, having two sections coupled together very
closely; very nice in case one section should become disabled or sink,
the other would be dry. This canal had no locks, but boats were
hoisted and lowered by inclined planes. Boats were floated onto cars,
then the cars slid up or down, according to which way they were
headed, one section at a time, getting the power from a stationary
engine.
On the "long level", so called, as there were no locks from Syra-
cuse to Utica. sixty miles, there were many boats built, all or nearly,
all scows, mostly square bows and sterns, awkward looking, but good
carriers of lumber.
There used to be an old story that those boat builders, made the
hulls by the mile and when a man wanted to piuxhase a boat, the}/
would saw off any length he wanted, plank up the ends, and his boat
was ready. Durhamville, State Bridge and other places on the long
30
ITS EARLY CANAL DAYS.
level, were noted for boat building, as well as Oneida lake and all
])orts on the Oswego river. Rome had a line running from there to
New York City, also a railroad from Watertown, on Lake Ontario.
The Black river canal ran from Rome on the Erie, to Lyons Falls,
on Black river. Then the river was navigable to Carthage, some forty
miles. The feeder was nine miles long from Forestport to Boonville.
The canal was only thirty-six miles long, and full of locks. A line
ran from Carthage to New York, called the New York and Black
River Canal Line. The freight from New York was merchandise,
and that from the Black river was cheese and lumber. The writer run
a number of boats on that canal, the ''Northern Light" of Boonville.
"N. Harris"', "Francis L.", "Arthur T. Collier", of Forestport. When
the canal was first built a man by the name of Hulbert owned quite
a number of wood boats. I think he built the Hulbert hotel at Boon-
ville. His son owned a steam saw mill, four miles from that place.
Mr. Hulbert senior owned a large tract of woodland that they cut off
and shipped to Syracuse by his own boats.
No fuel but wood was used in those days. It was before kerosene
oil was discovered, and the canal was a great highway for transport-
ing the commodity. Many boats were built for that purpose only,
Genesee Valley boats to supply Rochester, Tonawanda creek had
many boats running into Buffalo with wood, besides huge Canadian
scows too large for locks on the canal, but towed by tugs to Canadian
ports, loaded with hundreds of cords, just to supply the city of
Buffalo. There were many poor women and children ready to pick
up the chips and bark that fell from the wood while being tossed
ashore.
Many a "God blessing' I have received upon giving a poor
woman a whole stick of wood. I have sold wood in the city of Utica.
maple, eight and ten dollars per cord, and beech, six dollars, while
limbs and soft w^ood went readily at five dollars. Now it is used no-
where but in the country, and less and less even there, as manv
farmers use coal and even gas in Western New York and Pennsyl-
vania. In places where coal is being unloaded, or along the railroad
tracks, it is picked up by poor people to-day as was the wood in olden
times. So as Christ says, "the poor ye have with you always", and it is
caused mostly by what? Intemperance. In my day I have had man}-
ojiportunities of seeing poverty in its lowest dregs.
I had many experiences while navigating the Black river canal,
31
REMINISCENCBS OF ROCHllSTER.
and like the other waterways it had its fighting men, but I don't think
they were as numerous and were not bulHes either, but minded their
own business. But woe to the upstart that encroached upon their
rights. I remember the PhiUips boys, good honest fellows. Allen, one
of the brothers, did not allow any insults, and the man giving them
soon saw the folly of his ways. There were others, but I haven't the
space to enumerate them.
The writer got the name of a fighting man once because he
licked a man, and made him get on his knees and ask his pardon for
an insult to a lady. After that the boat boys, when seeing his boat
coming, would sing out, "Look out! there comes the bully of Black
river", although that was the only quarrel or fight he ever engaged in
on that water.
I was christened by some the ''Black River Owl", as I never al-
lowed any boats to get the start of me in the morning, for it was quite
an object to be the first boat out of any port, as the locks were so
close together. Seventy locks from Boonville to Rome, so a boat being
ahead had the advantage of the lock tenders. No boat ran night and
day, continually, but all of them ran late and early, although some
would run all night, making it hard for horses and crews, as they had
only one team and a day crew. The lock tenders had from one to six
or eight to tend, so could not help but one boat at a time.
The boats owned, built and run by men living on or near the canal
all knew each other, and when tied up near together over night, or
waiting for loads, or to discharge cargo, the crews would get together
and visit, equal to a neighborhood on land. Sometimes a boat from
some other canal would stray up the P)lack river for a load; they
were called ''wild boats'', and would cause jealousy among the home
boats. One of them was laid up for the night at Boonville with the
writer's boat, both loaded and bound down the canal toward the Eric
at Rome. The captain of the wild boat, while in the canal grocery
of Nick Swineburgh, heard of Cai)tain Marsh being noted for starting
out ahead. He made bets and bragged that I would never beat him ;
I was told of it, then turned in for a little rest, and at two o'clock at
night my crew was at their stations and the team on the towing path.
Mr. Wild boatman heard me getting under way, and hustled after me
as fast as possible, but I got my boat in lock seventy, two miles from
Boonville, ahead of him. That made him so mad he would lock
down, before my crew could open the lower gates of the next lock,
32
ITS EARLY CANAL DAYS.
making it slower work and hindering me. as well as himself, for he
could not get by me in the locks.
Boatmen all know that on those sliort levels, the boat behind
should not lock down until the head boat is through the lock below,
as it floods the level, sending the surplus water over the upper gates
of that lock, causing delay. He kept doing this, however, in three
locks, and at the fourth after I had opened the lower gates, his boat
was on the level above. As the lock tender was gone I hoisted both
lock paddles, and jumped on my boat, which was going out of the lock
pretty fast. Well, I was not bothered any more with the "wild boat",
for before the lock tender got down to shut the paddles, the water
was drawn all off the level, leaving his boat in the mud. The lock-
tender, who was my friend, did not fill the level very fast, and I never
saw the wild boat man again, but on going back up the canal, the lock
tender said he never stopped swearing until he arrived on the Erie at
Rome. He never tried the Black river again.
Freight that was shipped on the canal from Utica to Bingham-
ton consisted mostly of coal. In its early days, like other waterways,
it had its passenger and freight boats. Colonel Brown, with the 157th
New York Volunteers, rode on it when starting for the seat of war.
Considerable freight came from the Northern canal, running from
Waterford to Troy. The boats were good carriers, suitable for canal
or river. Boats secured their loads from commission merchants in
Buffalo and other large ports. They were called scalpers by the boat-
men, as they usually got as large commission as possible for getting
loads for the captains, and the poorer the time the more some took
advantage of it, and charged additional commission. Shippers of freight
looked up those commission men, instead of themselves engaging the
captains ; those agents advanced money to the captains to run their
boats, and pay insurance, as all freight had to be insured, and generally
the boat.
For repair work the State built scow boats, manned them with
captains and crews, who were under orders of the section superin-
tendent, and a state carpenter, the canals were divided oft' in many
sections, each with a superintendent and carpenter, and all under the
state superintendent, chosen from the ranks of the party in power,
from head superintendent to lock tenders, bank watchmen, captain and
crew of the repair boats, and many times more for their political in-
fluence than their ability to repair work. When the administration
33
REMINISCENCES OF ROCHESTER.
changed, the employees must change their poHtics or get out. About
election time large forces were required to repair the canal and swell
the votes. . When necessary the scows were used to convey voters to
political meetings, but as both parties when in power did the same
thing, they had no fault to find with each other. Those scows were
built to be comfortable to live in, handy for their work, the crews con-
sisting of captain, driver, cook and from six to eight men for crew.
I have tried in a brief, and perhaps bungling manner to explain
the old time way of transportation on our state waterways. It was
slow freighting and traveling those days, compared to our present
rate of rushing through the country, and some might think it tedious
but it was not to those who loved their business, although there were
many hardships, working in all sorts of weather, late and early, high
freights or low, leaky and unseaworthy boats to run, and all sorts of
help to contend with, made it many times discouraging; but to offset
those bad features in the life of the waterman were pictures on the
other side.
A good boat and crew, good freights, and a man with his family
on board is at home every night, and day, sailing quietly among green
forests and fields, or viewing the cities and towns while passing
through; the beautiful and ever changing scenery, like a dissolving
view, is passing before his vision at all times. The sparkling waters
of lake or river make a picture long to be remembered by a lover of
the beautiful in nature, and after the voyage is ended, and the boat
snug in its harbor, the freight collected, crew paid, then the hard
earned money to be used for necessaries and some to spare for lux-
uries or pleasures, in attending a theater or other amusements. Such
a boatman is, or should be, happy, those pleasures would offset the
liardships of the voyage.
Those former days of boating are passed. Whether the few navi-
gators of the new Barge canal, with its concrete locks, worked by
electricity, and barges towed by steam instead of mules or horses, will
have less work and hardship than our old boatmen did, remains to be
seen, and will they sing the same old song as we did of old?
The sun is no longer in view,
The clouds have begun to frown,
But with a good boat, a crew,
We say let the storm come down.
And this song we will sing one and all,
While the storm around us pelts;
Oh! a life on the muddy canawl,
We don't want nothing else.
34
ITS EARLY CANAL DAYS.
CHAPTER V.
This story, true in every detail, commences in the city of Buffalo,
the western terminal of the Erie canal. It was in the summer of
1862, when our country was in the throes of that terrible Civil war.
Boating at that time was the best it had ever been. Freights were the
highest and all water crafts were running at their greatest capacity.
The government was chartering many boats for use in southern
waters, and much grain was being shipped to Liverpool from New
York. From the West it came down the lakes to Buffalo on sailing
vessels, and from there on canal boats to New York City.
It was about sundown when two boats loaded with wheat were
poling along the canal, side by side. The meaning of poling is, boats
being propelled by men pushing with pikepoles in places where steam
or horses cannot be used. The boats were left in the narrow canal by
the tugs that had towed them from the grain elevator in Buffalo creek.
The two steersmen on these boats before mentioned were doing the
pushing, while the drivers did the steering, turning the tiller which-
ever way the steersmen told them. Each boat carried two steersmen
and two drivers, a captain and cook, making six people for a boat's
crew. At the present day such a crew can manage two boats lashed
together, and sometimes more, with a pilot house on one boat, and
steered with a wheel like a vessel.
Our two boats moved slowly along until the light boats moored
on either side of the canal, blocking the channel; so our boats sep-
arated, one dropping behind the other. The two captains had gone
ashore to get their clearances, leaving their crews to manage the boats.
They stopped in front of the canal grocery as ordered by their cap-
tains. The head boat was named 'The Octoroon" of New York, run
by Captain Dan Somers ; there was no woman for cook, but the other
boat, named the 'Oriole'", had a beautiful woman to serve in that
capacity, the captain's wife, Mrs. Ada Loverage.
The boats were hardly stopped when the captains, who were good
friends, arrived, bought groceries, put them aboard, untied their boats
and dropped them below the grocery near the dry dock. After sup-
per Captain Mark Toverage told his crew they had better turn in for
a good night's rest, for they would start very early in the morning.
35
RhMlNlSCENCES OF ROCJI I'STV.R.
A good many boats did that way, for it was quite dangerous get-
ting down through Black Rock harbor, although the shi])pers thought
the boats they loaded started immediately, as most of them did, es[)e-
cially boats owned by a company or those run by hired captains. Cap-
tains owning their own boats were more careful. Captain Dan came
on deck, lighted a cigar, and said to the crew of the other boat, "Come
on, boys, with us ; let's go down on Canal street to a dance house for
a little while".
He did not invite Captain Mark as he knew he would not g(j.
They, being friends, always tried to keep their boats as nearly together
as possible, although their characters were the opposite.
Mark Coverage was a gentleman, and his wife a lady, and they
moved in the best society in the city of Rome, Oneida county, while
Captain Dan was fond of his whisky, and somewhat of a loafer or
sporting man. "Come on, Hank Millions, let's have some fun", he
says, beckoning to one of the steersmen aboard the Oriole.
"No", says Hank, "I have no use for Canal street". "All right",
says Dan, "be a saint if you want to; come on, boys", and he jumped
ashore, followed by his crew. Ada who was seated in the hatch,
gently clapped her hands and said in a low voice, heard only by
Hank, he being near the stern of the boat, "Oh, I'm so glad !" Hank
looked up, and seeing her, asked her why she was so pleased. "Be-
cause I believe you are too much of a gentleman to disgrace yourself
by going to such places."
All who knew Buffalo at that time were aware that nearly all the
habitations on Canal street were houses of ill-fame. "You and Jack
are so much different," said she, "from all the other steersmen we
ever had. You neither drink nor swear, and must have had better
bringing up than most canal boatmen ; you keep yourselves well
dressed and stay with us longer. Wt can trust you in port or afloat."
"I appreciate your opinion," replied Hank, "and am glad we were
not educated for loafers, and although I feel that your compliments
are undeserved by me, I shall endeavor by God's help not to disgrace
myself, or get lower in the scale of humanity than I now am." The
captain coming aft just then, put a stop to the conversation.
Henry Millions, usually called Hank, and his partner. Tack Need-
ham, the other steersman, were dispositioned very much alike, quiet,
good-hearted, temperate young men, rather a scarce article those days
on the canal. Their tastes were similar, rather be reading when not at
36
ITS RARLY V.IN.IL PAYS.
work than laying around public places, both about the same size, rather
under medium, and altliough not quarrelsome, each had the courage
to stand up for their rights or for the rights of their captain. Never
were they known to back down when in the right or to be second
best in a fight if it came to that. Although sociable, and apparently en-
joying life, there was in each face a sadness of expression, as though
some deep grief was ever present in their thoughts. Perhaps that was
the reason for their being such good friends, being able to sympathize
with each other, although they never confided their secrets, one to the
other, if they had any. At this stage of the story they had been ship-
mates but a few days. Hank Millions had been on the Oriole ever
since she was laimched from the ways, brand new, in Rochester,
where she was built.
We give this extended description of the two steersmen, as they
play a considerable part in this romance, one of them in particular.
The crew of the Oriole was up early next morning and aroused the
other boat's crew, but not easily, as they had been out nearly all night
carousing. The boats were under way by daylight, and while waiting
for the lock at Black Rock, the crew of the Oriole saw a woman on
the Octoroon, apparently getting breakfast. Knowing that Captain
Dan had no wife, they concluded he had hired a cook while ashore the
previous night. When changing horses at 7 A. M., they ran close
alongside of Captain Dan's boat, and saw a Aoung and pretty girl,
officiating as mistress of the boat.
Ada said, '"'Oh ! what a shame ! to have that young girl on board
with those rowdies", and the rest of the Oriole's crew coincided with
her opinion. Jack said to his chum, when changing tricks at the tiller:
"If Captain Dan's cook was old and tough-looking, it would be all right,
but to think he has got such a nice-looking girl is beyond my compre-
hension." "Perhaps it's his sister," said Hank. "Well." responded
Jack, "whoever she is, she apparently wants to be there."
At Middleport, where the boats stopped to buy oats and groceries,
they lay side by side, so the cabins were close together. Then what
(lid Mrs. Loverage do, but start a conversation with the new cook,
who she learned was about sixteen years old, and a farmer's daugh-
ter, who lived in the town of Manchester, near Palmyra. She had
been influenced by a girl some older to leave her home and go to Buf-
falo; she did so under the pretense of visiting her married sister in
Palmyra. After their money ran out they took the advice of a man,
37
REMINISCENCES OF ROCHESTER.
and fetched up on Canal street. They were young and rather wild,
but as bad as they were, Canal street disgusted them, and the Man-
chester girl thought she had better get away from there; she in some
way came across Captain Dan, and hired out to cook on his boat.
Ada coaxed the girl to leave that degrading position at the first favor-
able opportunity, and go home. She promised to do so. The boats
soon separated and kept apart until Rochester was reached. A crowd
of boats was there, waiting their turn to be locked through.
The girl came aboard the Oriole to see Ada, who still advised
her to leave the Octoroon and come aboard the Oriole, until they
arrived at Palmyra at her sister's ; she also made her realize her de-
praved condition, and with tears streaming down her face, she prom-
ised to do as Ada told her, but went back to her boat to avoid sus-
picion. Captain Dan seemed rather pleased to think Ada would
notice his cook. His pleasure was soon over, for at the lower lock
at Brighton, his cook with her little bundle of clothes, jumped ashore
and ran back up the canal. When the captain saw her, he told his
crew to stop the boat below the lock and wait for him. He then
started on the run after her.
The Oriole was just coming out of the middle lock at Brighton.
Ada, who was on deck and expecting the girl, told her husband to
stop the boat and get her. The captain and his crew had heard from
Ada the girl's story, and lost no time in obeying orders from his wife.
Both steersmen jumped ashore with pikepoles, while the captain
and driver stopped the boat and ran a plank ashore. Captain Dan had
just caught the screaming girl, when steersman Hank came up and
made him loosen his grasp. The captain then made a lunge for Hank,
who promptly knocked him down. Jack came up to help his partner
steersman, who said, "Get the girl aboard, I will attend to the cap-
tain," who was knocked down every time he got up.
Captain Mark then came up and put a stop to the fight. Captain
Dan slunk away to his own boat, pretty well used up, cursing the
Oriole's crew, Hank in particular, swearing he would get revenge
some time. Thus ended the friendship of the two boats.
The girl was cheered up and made as comfortable as possible,
until the boat arrived at Palmyra the next day. The Oriole tied up at
the dock, near the collector's office, which was a little west of where
now stands Cleavland's Canal Grocery. Ada went with the girl to her
sister's, which was not far from the canal. The sister had not heard
38
ITS EARLY CANAL DAYS.
that the girl had left home until informed of it by Ada. The wanderer
asked her sister's forgiveness, and the sister in turn promised never
to let the parents know but what she had been with her all of the time.
It would have done no good, and made them feel very badly, to learn
of their youngest's daughter's escapade, and undoubtedly they were
always kept in ignorance of it. She was gone only a week, but never-
theless had in all probability learned considerable in that brief time of
human depravity. She tearfully parted with her benefactor, who
tripped lightly back. to her tloating home, where she was welcomed by
the whole crew, who looked upon her as superior to most of the human
race; and was she not? How few there are in church or out of it
that would care, or do, as did Ada Leverage. Many even, professing
Christians, are too absorbed in their own affairs, or too dignified to
throw out a helping hand.
Christ says, "'I came to call sinners to repentance, not the
righteous." Ada Loverage was one of His true followers, believed in
helping the downcast and sinful, and in this case her efforts were
crowned with success, for the writer lived some years in Palmyra and
learned that this wayward girl married and lived happily with her hus-
band, respected by ail her neighbors, who undoubtedly never heard
of her experience.
39
REMJNlSCnXC'-S' OF ROCHFSTEP.
CHAPTER VI.
The crew's conversation for several days consisted chiefly of the
events just narrated, and all were fearful that Captain Dan would
seek revenge in some way on the Oriole's crew. Hank said Dan was
a coward, and he could lick him, drunk or sober; all believed he was
only quarrelsome when in liquor. He was considered among boatmen
to be a fighting man, and bully, large of stature, but rather clumsy,
while Hank was small, but very quick and apparently knew nothing
of fear. One day as the Oriole was laying in a crowd of boats tied
to the bank and near noon, both steersmen were below in their cabin,
talking about the rumpus at Brighton and Jack says, "Ada is a true
Christian to do as she did by the girl", while Hank says, "Yes, she is
an angel".
The captain being in the midship, near the hands' cabin, unob-
served by the boys, overheard their conversation, and at dinner, sitting
by his wife, kept feeling of her shoulder, greatly to her embarrass-
ment, when she says, "Why; what are you doing!" "Oh!" says the
captain, "feeling to see if your wings have started, for the boys say
you are an angel ; if you are, don't fly away with one of them." You
could have lighted a match on the boys' faces, and Ada says, "I ap-
preciate your remarks, but if I run away with them, I fear I would
be a fallen angel." Captain Mark was a noble, true-hearted man, with
no feelings of jealousy, even if his wife was admired by his boat hands.
We give this conversation to show the harmony and good fellowship
among the crew of the Oriole.
It was slow getting along that trip, as there were so many boats,
they had to wait at every lock, there being but one lock at that time
where now there arc two, side by side, and the outer, or heel path
side lock, is long enough to admit two boats at a time, so three boats
can lock now where but one could at the time of our story. They
also have machinery at present to draw two loaded boats in the outer
lock, a great help to the poor horses.
Our good boat Oriole finally reached the long level between Syra-
cuse and Utica, and one night about twelve o'clock, while Jack was
steering ho heard a familiar voice sing out. '"Hold on abo\e, and take
•^0
ITS EARLY CANAL DAYS.
out a line, boats on the towpath" ! — an accustomed salute when there
is some obstruction that stops navigation ; breaks, sunken boats, boats
crosswise, or any other thing to prevent a clear passage. The boats
slowly drop down close to the last one, then the crew of that boat, if
the obstruction is to last long, go to sleep, leaving the other to keep
watch until another comes in sight, sing out, "Hold on above", and
when the approaching boat has stopped behind them. Then they, in
turn would lop down to rest on deck, while the driver hitches his team
nearby, and with horse blanket or old coat over him, falls asleep, and
so it goes, boat after boat with their crews all asleep, except the last
one to keep watch for the next one. When the obstruction ceases.
and boats are running, the crews must keep up, or at least one of them,
generally the steersman, on his trick at the tiller or wheel, must carry
over the lines of boats going in the opposite direction, or keep their
boats pried off the towing path, clear of the bank, so the coming boat
can drop its line under the I)oat moored to the shore. They do which-
ever way is most convenient.
The stopping of the Oriole that night when ordered by the boat's
watchman ahead, was near Dunbarton, and when the Oriole stopped a
few feet behind the boat, her head light shone bright on the name and
in large letters. Jack read "The Octoroon". "Well, Ed, how are you?"
he sung out to the .steersman. "All right." said Ed, "I'm glad to see
you, but I am afraid there'll be a hot time on the old boats to-morrow
when our captain gets up, for he swears he will kill Hank if he crosses
his path again."' "I agree with you'', said Jack; but their predictions
did not come true at that time, for when the morning came Captain
Dan, although not so familiar, greeted the crew pleasantly, telling
Captain Loverage there was a serious break near Herkimer, the boats
reaching clear across the nine mile level to Utica. and from there clear
to where they were stopped, all headed for tidewater ; and as far back
as could be seen from our two boats, others lined the bank, and before
the break was repaired, they reached to Syracuse, entirely across the
sixty mile le\el, all headed east, and as many more below Herkimer.
bound west.
At the time of this story, passengers traveled mostly by railroad,
but about all freight was shipped by canal, even groceries of all kinds,
coal, wood, and lumber, and all varieties of grain, on line as well as
on individual boats. There were so many boats on the l'>ie canal at
that time, if i)laced forward and aft. as sailors say. or as our boatmen
^1
REMINISCENCES OF ROCHESTER.
would say, "bow and stern", they would make a bridge, so you could
step from one to the other, reaching from Bufl'alo to Albany.
Some might think that story exaggerated, but it is not, for all boats
on all New York state canals Avere registered, their name, hailing
place, and length, so it was easy to figure up. Of course, they could
not all be on the Erie canal at once, hundreds in tows on the Hudson,
many lying in New York City and Buffalo, waiting for cargoes, or
unloading in those terminals, as well as in all towns along the line
of the canal, even warehouses outside the city and villages on coun-
try roads, were built to receive or ship freight, to accommodate rural
communities, and towns lying miles away from the canal. This is a
little divergence from my story but 1 mention it for the benefit of the
vounger generation, who can know only by history or by aged people,
the immensity or workings of our inland waterways. You can now
hardly trace their crooked pathways, and many do not know from the
sight of their crumbling stones that they were the locks that lowered
or raised the prettily painted boats. Sadly we will bid adieu to the
past, to the crumbling, weather-beaten old warehouses, and locks,
soon to be obliterated forever, and return once more to our two boats.
Captain Dan that morning even made a bow to Mrs. Leverage.
Avho was trembling while looking out of the window, expecting to hear
quarreling, or see fighting, but she saw nothing of the kind, greatly to
her satisfaction. During the day some of the boats ahead doubled
up in some manner, so our two boats dropped ahead nearly half a
mile, and the Octoroon lay alongside of an old sunken wood boat
moored to the berm bank, more commonly called the heel path. Its
crew consisted of captain, steersman, and driver, also a young girl,
the captain's sister, as cook.
They were Germans and all young, apj^arently twenty to twenty-
five. The driver was considerably younger. They lived in or near
Verona, on the sixty mile level. In that vicinity nearly all the inhabi-
tants were boatmen, but these people knew but very little about boats.
The captain had been coaxed into buying the old boat of a wood com-
pany, and was to pay for it in wood boating, and this was his first
trip, loaded for Syracuse Salt Works. The boat having been so long
empty, had dried out, and being loaded so quickly before the seams
soaked up, she sank. They had unloaded her deck, thus raising it from
the bottom, so the upper cabin and works of the hull were above water,
had borrowed pumps, and were pum])ing for dear life.
42
ITS EARLY CAN4L DAYS.
Jack and Hank, having nothing to do, strolled on to the sunken
craft and oiit'ered their assistance at the pumps, and as the captain's
sister looked pleased to see their exertions, they pumped the harder :
but they di^ not gain on the water much until Jack, who had had some
experience with leaky boats, found some sawdust in an old abandoned
ice house, which they threw around on the outside of the boat. It
drew into the seams, thus stopping the leak. The pumps kept going,
but in a short time they were heard to suck, which told them the water
was out. Then the boys made themselves useful by building a fire
in the wet cabin, mopping it up, and handing down dishes and other
cabin fixtures to the girl, while she was smiling pleasantly at Hank,
greatly to the discomfiture of Joe Gallus, the steersman of the wood
boat, who it appeared was the girl's lover. When Jack went aboard
the Oriole, he said, "You need never look for Hank any more, for the
Dutch girl has captivated him. She cannot talk much English, but
love needs no language to understand itself."
In the meantime the captain of the Octoroon was getting filled up
on poor whisky at a nearby grocery where liquors were kept ; he finally
came reeling aboard his own boat, but noticing the Dutch girl, stepped
onto the wood craft, passing Hank, who was trying the midship pump,
and yelled out, "Say, you wood girl, don't you want a berth on a nice
clean grain boat? I hain't got no cook". The girl's brother says, "Sir,
my sister don't go on no boats, but her brother's" ! "Oh !" says Cap-
tain Dan, "You need not get stuffy about it. you ." That
started Hank, who says, "Shame upon you, don't you know any better
than to insult those poor people, who have had such bad luck?" "Shut
up, you whelp", says Dan, and made a lunge at Hank, who promptly
knocked him down, then motioning to the wood boat's captain to grab
him by the heels, he taking him by the shoulders, they carried him
across the wood boat and slung him heavily on the deck of his own.
He struck so hard, he laid there until his crew took him down into his
cabin and Hank yells out, "Keep aboard your own boat; if you
ever come near me, I'll kill you, if I hang for it". To avoid further
trouble Captain Dan's crew, let go their lines and dropped the Octoroon
below the wood boat, then the Oriole moved alongside of that ancient
craft, greatly to Hank's satisfaction.
Ada hearing of the trouble, went aboard the old boat to talk to
the German maiden, although her English was rather limited, she
smiled when kindly spoken to. and was profuse with her thanks to all
43
REMfAUSCENCES OF ROCHESTER.
members of the Oriole, and thought Hank was a hero for licking the
big captain, as did her brother and the other spectators of the incident.
The next day the owners of the cord wood sent a team to help tow
the boat by the crowd of boats. Hank and Jack helped load the wood
that had been thrown off. The captain wanted Hank to go with them
to Syracuse and manage the boat. He could not resist the smiles of
the Dutch girl, so asked the privilege of Captain Leverage to go, and
as there would be but little to do, there being so many boats ahead of
them to go through the locks, Captain Mark gave his consent, telling
him he would probably make the tri]) to Syracuse, and then catch them
by the time they reached I7tica.
Ada was delighted; although she disliked parting with Hank, she
thought he would be doing his duty to help those i)oor people who •
were in trouble. Hank was a good boatman, and knew all the ropes
while they were green at the business. Ada told her husband she
could help some in the locks if their steersman failed to meet them at
Utica. About the time the wood boat started the break was repaired,
and boats were on the move, making it easier for the wood boat to
navigate, as they met the boats, instead of finding them tied to the tow-
ing path
There arrived at Syracuse in about two days, unloaded and run
back to Verona, where the boat's crew lived. Hank thought that Cap-
tain .Swarts would hire him. he being such a good boatman, and dis-
charge Joe (iallus; but instead of that. Captain Swarts and his sister
moved off from the boat to their lionic. gi\ ing it back to the wood
company, and recommended Hank as capable of running it. The
owners oft'ered the job to him, but he did not want any boat without
the captain's sister aboard. He offered to hire out to steer it, or take
it himself, if he could hire Swarts and his sister to go with him, and
said he would drop a line to Captain Lo\ercige that lie would not meet
liim, and for him to get another man.
ile did n(jl write, for he could ncjt persuade Swarls nor his sister,
they had gotten enough of the boatsman's life. The girl Margaret
wanted Hank to take the boat, so she could see him often. She told
her parents what a hero he was, and how he had fought for them.
They in turn persuaded him to sta\ ; their efforts, however, were fruit-
less, much to the satisfaction of joe Callus.
Hank bade them good-hve. the girl walked a short distance with
Inm. and in JTokcn l-.nglish. the- tears coursing down her cheeks, said
44
ITS EARLY CANAL DAYS.
she would !ie\er forget him. and to oome and sec her every time he
could.
They kissed at parting, she to go home and smile on Joe Gallus.
while Hank endea\ ored to. soothe a lonely heart, and build air-castles
about the Dutch girl and himself, on his way to \'erona Station, where
he took the train to Little Falls. He learned at the collector's office
that the "Oriole" had not passed there, so he took the towing path on
foot, and met her near Sandy Rankin's grocery ; but before he did. he
passed the Octoroon underway, as she was ahead of the Oriole. Cap-
tain Dan swore he would kill Hank if he was ashore, while Hank says.
"All right, I am with you in the killing business."
The Oriole's crew were glad to see Hank, as it was tiresome run-
ning short-handed. He resumed his trick at the tiller, and nothing
unusual happened until they locked into the Hudson river at Troy.
They hired a tug to tow them to Albany, for the large steamboats tow
for New York City. When the night's tow was made up, four boats
abreast, four more hanging behind, and so on until all going down
the river were made fast to one another, the head boats towing behind
the steamboat with hawser • nmning from the outside boats. The
Oriole was the right head boat, and fate or some other freak of cir-
cumstances, brought the Octoroon the fourth and outside one with
the other hawser. The crews chatted together and all thought there
would be no trouble^ unless Captain Dan should get full of whisky.
But as the steamer whistled, to cast ofT shore lines. Captain Dan
walked aboard his boat rather unsteadily, and a flask was seen pro-
truding from his coat pocket. \\'hen under way, the steersmen took
their regular watches, although there was nothing to do except to keep
a lookout, and when all was running well, the one on watch usually
went to sleep on the deck box. This night Jack called Hank at one
o'clock, then went below to his bunk, while Hank took his place on
the box. The steersman on the Octoroon called Captain Dan at one
o'clock also, for watch duty, as his other steersman had quit at Troy.
Usually when there was but one steersman going down the river, a
driver was pressed into the service of keeping watch, and nearly
always in the after part of the night everyone was asleep. Even those
supposed to be on v/atch were lying somewhere about the deck asleeji.
and this steamer tow was no exception.
Why Captain Dan did not have his driver called instead of him-
self, was considered proof that he wanted to pick a quarrel with Hank.
4.S
REMINISCENCES OF ROCHESTER.
knowing that the after part watch was his. Tlie captain, after taking
a good swig says to Hank, who was lying on the deck box of the
Oriole, "Now is your time — come over and let's see who is the best
man." Hank says, "I can lick you in about two minutes." Well, one
word brought on another, the same as in all cjuarrels, calling names
more forcible than elegant, until Hank got so mad, he ran over the
other two boats to the Octoroon. As soon as Captain Dan saw him,
he made a lunge for him. Hank dodged down, grabbing Captain Dan,
and with all his strength pulled or pushed him to the outside of the
boat, then with a mighty effort sent Captain Dan overboard.
What a thought for Hank, when a few minutes had elapsed, and
he had come to his normal senses, and fully realized the situation.
He had drowned the captain, for he well knew no one could stay one
minute in that rushing, whirling current, made l)y the steamer and its
tow of boats.
What to do he did not know, believing he would be accused of
murdering the captain, as both crews had heard him say he would
tix Captain Dan. He walked quietly back over the two boats between
the Octoroon and Oriole. No one had seen the scuffle, for no one
appeared to be awake on any of the crafts in their tow, and no lights
except the headlight on each outside boat, and the red and blue lights
on the tow boat. Day was breaking, and as Hank looked towards the
shore he saw a bum boat, headed for the tow. These are large row-
boats, loaded with all sorts of vegetables in their season, also milk,
butter, and groceries, to sell to the boatmen on the tows.
Why they are called bum boats, I do not know. They are run
from groceries, and are on the watch for tows up or down the river.
They fasten their lines to a cleat on a boat and tow along until all the
boats in the fleet are visited for trade.
Hank motioned for the bum boat to come alongside the Oriole-,
which it did, and Hank says "I wish to get ashore and take the early
morning train for New York, so as to find where to unload my
wheat ; now what will you ask to row me ashore ?" The man said,
'T could not do it, I would lose my trade." "I know it," says Hank,
"but your profit on trade would not be over four or five dollars. Now
I will give you ten to set me ashore, for it is worth that much to me."
"Done," says the man. Hank quietly descended into the hand's cabin,
took his pocketbook and a few trinkets, but left his valise and clothes,
no one l)eing awake, he let go tlic painter from off the cleat, and slid
46
ITS EARLY CANAL DAYS.
aboard the bum boat. For the benefit of landsmen unacquainted with
sea phrases, I will say that a painter is the rope fastening a small boat
to a larger one. The man turned his boat shoreward, and Hank took
his last look at the Oriole. He never saw her again, but branded in
his own heart was the word, "INIurderer", one more victim to a bad
temper.
When he got ashore, instead of going towards New York, lie
went in the opposite direction. The bum boatman thought of course
Hank was captain, was glad to make such a good morning's work, and
thought no more about it. Hank took the first train he could get to
Albany, got his moustache cut off at a barber's, and tried to eat, but
could get nothing down, but a cup of cofiFee. Not being a spendthrift,
he had considerable money, so bought a suit of clothes, thinking to
further disguise himself, but he could not rest eas}-, and kept walking
around imtil he spied a recruiting office. He enlisted for the war,
and before night he was on his way to ."^outh Carolina to ioin his
regiment.
47
RRMINISCENCHS OF ROCHESTER.
CHAPTER VII.
Now comes another incident in Hank's life, which saved him
much trouble in after years, especially when he applied for a pension.
Henry Millions was an assumed name; a few years before our story
opens, he had got into a scrape in the neighborhood where his people
lived, not a very serious one, but having a high sense of honor, and
being sensitive, he had left the home he thought he had disgraced,
and changed his name. Now, thinking he was a murderer, and no
one on the boats knowing of his first ofitense, or where he came from,
he thought of the two evils he would choose the least ; so he took his
own name, and kept it ever afterwards, but to save the readers getting
mixed by names, we will still call him Hank Millions.
We will not follow his military history, in fact, we could not do
so if we would. His honorable discharge is proof of his having done
his duty. From what we have heard he was foremost in danger, even
to being reckless ; he did not seem to care much for life, rather re-
served, but a good comrade. He kept a diary, and on many pages was
written the name Margaret Swarts. the pretty Dutch girl of Verona.
Only for thoughts of her, he would i)robably have gone mad with
recollections of his terrible deed, and the excitement and hardships
while engaged in legal murder, soothed his conscience some for his
illegal murder on the Hudson river. \\'hen the war was over, he
steamboated it on the Mississippi river, sailed on the lakes, but at all
times he had a longing for his old home and the Erie canal, as well as
to know the whereabouts of the Oriole and her crew. His greatest
desire was to know about Margaret, whether she was married or was
still single.
The remorse of conscience kept him uneasy and unhappy, and he
made up his mind to try the Erie canal once more. He being so much
altered, getting gray, and older, he thought his companions of recent
years would not know him if he met them. He went to Verona, hired
his board, and those who had formerly seen him did not recognize
him.
He learned that Margaret's parents were dead, her brother had
enlisted, went to the war. and had never returned. Joe (lallus had
4S
ITS EARLY CANAL DAYS.
never married Margaret, but some one else had ; no one seemed to
know his name, but they had gone to Butfalo and run a grocery. Later
accounts from neighbors said her husband had died and she was a
widow. This was told them, they said, by some of the long level
l)oatmen living near Verona. He was careful about getting his infor-
mation, and to allay suspicion he pretended to be looking for a wood
lot to purchase for the New York Central Railroad. Railroads at that
time used wood for fuel. He left Verona, and fetched up in Buffalo,
and walked the streets, hoping to meet his Margaret, not knowing her
name or the street she lived on. He finally gave it up as a hopeless
task, concluded he was foolish to think of her, and hnally bought a
boat, loaded her with wheat, and started for New York.
He was a boat captain now, although fearful of coming across
some one who would recognize him; but being a lover of the water,
he would run the risk.
We will now leave Henry ]\Iillions and go 1)ack to the Hudson
river tow of boats the night he left it, believing he was a murderer.
During the fore part of that eventful night, unlieknown to the after
watch on the boats, the steamer had stopped and hitched on to Cap-
tain Dan's boat a small Chemung boat loaded with oats, consigned to
different ports along the river, and had left their last unloading place
to go to the next stopping point below. The crew of the oat boat
being tired, and knowing the tow boat would whistle to wake them
when the time arrived to cast off' at their stopping place, went below
to rest what they could. As no danger of rain was expected, they did
not replace their hatches covering the oats. Hank knew nothing of
this, and of course concluded he had pitched Captain Dan overboard,
when instead he had pitched him into the open hatchway onto the oats ;
he was not hurt, only stunned a little, and when he had collected his
thoughts he had the impression that he had sent Hank overboard, for
he heard a splashing, or thought he did. at that time. What he heard
must have been a long wooden fender, which got knocked over-
l)oard, as there was one missing from Dan's boat, and in after
years, when comparing notes, they concluded that was what made the
splashing they both heard.
The thought that he had drowned Hank somewhat sobered him.
He crawled out of the oats, and gained his own boat, and seeing
nothing of Hank was jn-oof enough of what had become of him. He
49
REMINISCENCBS OF ROCHESTER.
crept quietly into his cabin, although not to sleep, his conscience wouM
not let him. With fear and trembling he lay in his berth until late
in the morning, pretending to be asleep, \vhen the one officiating as
cook called him to Ijreakfast. He ate but very little, and going on
deck, saw all the boatmen of the four boats gathered together in
groups, talking about the disappearance of the Oriole's steersman.
who had not been seen since the forepart steersman. Jack Xecdham.
had left him sitting on the deck box of the (3riole.
Then Captain Dan knew, he was a murderer. 'rrenil)ling he
sought his cabin, took his empty tiask and threw it out of the window,
and never afterwards did he touch a (jrop of intoxicating liquor. He
saw that whisky had been his undoing, and had made him a murderer.
He knew from his acquaintance with Hank, that he was a good, moral
man, a gentleman, above him in all noble qualities, and himself a de-
praved drunkard, and worse than all, a criminal.
Reader, how many such cases do you know, or have heard of.
where those devoid of any noble (lualitics, when in their drunken
state, have murdered, maimed, or ruined those who are far above them
in all the qualities pertaining to no1)ilily or humanity. There apjjears
to be no law in nature to hinder a drunken loafer from ruining or kill-
ing virtue, as well as vice, or a fool from killing a i^hilosopher. Captain
Dan realized all that, and his remorse for ihc deed was terrible, as
well as the fear of arrest, for he knew it could l)e ])n)ve(l that he had
threatened Hank's life more than once.
All the boats were searched, but no Hank was found. Suspicious
glances were cast at Captain Dan, when it became known that those
two had been on watch at the same time. Both boats' crews believed
that Captain Dan had killed, and pushed Hank overboard. 'Hie other
boats' crews had \arious opinions, when they had learned of the cir-
cumstances, but as told to them, it looked suspicious for Caj)tain Dan.
Ada, who always had so much charity for everybody, was sorry
to lose their gentleman steersman. Everything looked as though Hank
had been made away with by Captain Dan. Still, she wanted to think
it was not so, and said "perhaps he had accidentally fallen overboard."
They concluded he must have gotten into the water in some way, for
they did not knew at that time of any wa}- he could have gone ashore,
even if he had wanted to. Then, another thing, if in some way he
had gone ashore unbeknown to any one, he certainly would have taken
his valise, and books he had prized so highly. This was positive proof
50
ITS FARLV C..INJL DAYS.
that Hank was in the bottom of ihc Hudson river. If he had had any
relatives or influential friends, his disappearance would have been in-
vestigated, but as no one seemed to know him except his shipmates,
nothing was done about it.
Captain Dan was questioned, and of course he knew nothing about
it, and had not seen Hank when he came on deck at one o'clock for his
watch ; he had lain on his deck box and slept until near morning, then
seeing everything was running smoothly, he went l)elow and slept until
called for breakfast.
Captain Mark and his wife thought if Captain Dan was guilty
his conscience would be an everlasting punishment, and so it was.
Now in this case, as in all others, th.ere was all sorts of rumors, many
inconsistent ones and others reasonable. One story was that Hank
had seen someone who had recogni.Ted him as guilty of crime, and he
had gone ashore on the oat boat, when it was known it had lain along-
side. His clothes having been left overbalanced that theory. Then
another, and lucky for Mark and his wife that they did not hear it, that
the missing steersman had thought too much of Ada, making Captain
Mark jealous, and he had pushed Plank overl)oard. All such stories
tended to divert suspicion from Captain Dan.
The two arrived in New ^"ork on time, and separated to discharge
their cargoes in different slips; they did not go up the river together,
and never afterwards were together as friends. When passing one
another on the canal, their salutations were very brief. The crews of
both boats were strangers, excepting Jack, v/ho stayed on the "Oriole"
until she tied up for winter in Rome. That winter he enlisted for the
war, had the usual perils and hardships of a soldier for three years,
received an honorable discharge, and like a duck started for the water
again. His voyages were on the Black river, and Erie canals, the
Hudson river, then on the Genesee Valley canal. Finally, as business
grew more slack and his boat getting old, he ran it only daytimes on
short trips. He occasionally met Captain Mark Leverage, and when
possible had a good visit with him and his estimable wife. Once or
twice he met Captain Dan, who greeted him kindly, but he could not
get over the belief that Captain Dan had murdered his friend and
shipmate. Hank Millions. He, like Ada, had a large amount of charity,
and believed his conscience would punish him enough if he was
guilty, for he looked worn and dejected, like a man of sorrows, which
he was. No peace of mind by day, and troubled dreams by night.
51
RRMLYISCJINCES OF ROCHFSrER.
It made a man of him, however. He married one of his school-
mates in his native village in Pennsylvania; he was kind, temperate,
and a devoted husband. Xo one in his home town knew of his bad
habits, or of the circumstances we have related. His wife accompanied
him on his boating trips, and never knew of the secret gnawing at his
heart, unless he, in after years, re\'ealed it.
52
ITS EARLY CANAL DAYS.
CHAPTER VIII.
After the curioiis, and wc might say mysterious events we have
related, we will proceed to narrate what once more brought them to-
gether, producing a joy to their poor, tired souls that they never ex-
pected to experience again. Hank, during his boating days, like all
boat captains, had to have hired men to assist him, and among them
was a steersman who knew where the grocery was, that was kept by
Margaret, but had not seen her since her husband died. His name
was Miller. Hank \^as happy at this news, and immediately got ready
to find her, thinking she must still be a widow, and his chances would
be good, by the way she appeared when last he met her. He would
tell her his terrible secret, thinking, of course, she would never divulge
it, for was not the whole trouble on her account, or mostly ? So when
his boat was fast to the dock in Buffalo, and he had left his clearance
at the collector's office, he lost no time in walking the whole length of
Ohio street. His steersman knew the street, but not the number.
The only grocery he came across by the name of Miller was rather a
dirty looking place, the sign leaning against the house as though the
occupants were too lazy to nail it up to its original place. It read,
"Grocery by Mike Miller". The place did not look very inviting, but
our hero concluded she was poor and could not have things any better,
and, if it was ^largaret, he would m.arry her, put his money in the
business, and they would have a first-class grocery, paint the old
tumble-down building; many more such air-castles ran through his
head ere he concluded to enter, as his time was getting precious. So,
with a beating heart, he opened the door, and was greeted by the yells
of half a dozen children, dirty and half dressed, and a slovenly red-
faced woman, sorting potatoes, with sleeves rolled up showing grimy
arms. The whole place looked like a pig pen, with a strong smell of
stale beer.
Hank made a bow. that the woman did not seem to notice, and
said he would have a cigar. She yelled out to one of the ragged boys
to take her place at the potatoes, while she went to the bar-room. Hank
passed through the door on the customer's side. There were a few
rough-looking men in there, who were playing cards or dice, with half
emptied glasses of beer on their table.
53
RFMiyiSCnNCFS OF ROCHFSTFR.
A good many city groceries had bars allached, with a partition
between. She handed him a cigar, which he hghted. and walked out
into the other room, she following, after serving beer to the men at
the table. Hank was doubtful about this being his spruce little Dutch
girl of the wood boat, so he plied her with questions, saying "Is your
name driller?" "Yosh, it once vosh." "Well." says Hank, "you re-
mind me of some one I once knew years ago," which she didn't. "Did
you ever live in Verona?" "Yosh, I vosh horned der." "What was
your name them?" "Margaret Swarts. Meester. Vat yoos vant to
know fur?"
This was a stunner to Hank, his knees got weak, he could have
been knocked down with a feather. He was so flustrated he could not
say anvthing, until iinallv he mimibled out that she reminded him of
someone he had seen in Rochester, and to draw her from her inquisi-
tiveness. he ordered bread and a peck of potatoes, which she promptly-
set about preparing for him. smiling the while. He said at parting,
he should remember where to find such good cigars, although the one
.she sold him sickened him, before he threw it into the gutter outside.
His purchase of the groceries made her look pleased, and Hank .says,
"It must be hard for you to tend store to support your children, with
no husband." She looked up surprised and said. "I done cot von
allreadys. He ish Dick Blum, a dock wappler", meaning dock
wallaper. or more properly known as stevedore, one whose occujiatiou
is to load or miload vessels in port.
Hank waited to hear no more, but made a hasty retreat with his
bag of potatoes under one arm, and bread under the other. He felt
sick, whether it was the knowledge he had received, or the filthy oigar,
he did not know, but when out of sight of the grocery, he gave the
bread and potatoes to a hungry looking boy who must have thought
him crazy or else drunk, but ran ofif with them in the direction of the
grocery. Our hero was badly put out with the knowledge that his
pretty little Dutch girl had evoluted into that slovenly beer seller. He
could have seen the comical side of it had it not been for the tragedy
brought about through his defense of the girl. He could not help
being amused, howeAer, to think how his matrimonial hopes, which
he had cherished for so many years, were blasted. Even had he found
her a widow, she was too tough for him. He was disgusted with
himself in his musings to think he was a murderer for championing
such an object as she now ai)i)cared to be. "Well," he thought, "1 mu'^t
54
nS n.-lRTA' C.IXAL DAYS.
make the best of il. hut T wonder what Jack Xeedham would say if
l-!e conld see her now, or tlie other niemhers oi the ijood hoat Oriole."
Such thou£?hts made him laugh aloud, makinc^ a passing police-
mar think he was drunk. He went aboard his boat, and kept secluded,
read newspapers and books, going out but little, as his shippers knew
where his boat lay, and could send for him when they wanted to ship
a load by him, as freights were low and scarce.
We will now leave him, and hunt up Captain Dan, who had pros-
pered in the boating business, and at present owned two good new
grain boats. Boating had been getting poorer all of the lime, as new-
railroads were being built. Captain Dan, being now temperate, and
having a good, prudent wife, liad acquired considerable property, so
had concluded this season would be the last of their boating days.
'Ihey had bought in their native town in Pennsylvania a nice home.
He had promised his wife that he would sell their boats, and settle
down for the remainder of their days. vShe had wished him to do .>o
before, but the water held a fascination for him, especially the Hudson
river.
She had never heard of his trouble with Hank Millions, and no
rumor of the tragedy or of his intemperance, had ever reached his
childhood's home. He had always been a kind and devoted husband,
honest and temperate, but she had noticed that he was often
melancholy, especially on the Hudson river, and had urged him not to
lake any more freights to New York, as she had concluded tlie ri\er
liad a depressing efifect upon him, which she could not understand.
The day before the events now to be recorded, Captain Dan's two
!)oats arrived in Buflfalo, and as freights were scarce and he would be
obliged to wait several days before he could expect a load, he paid off
his crew, excepting one man. His wife thought this a favorable oppor-
tunity to visit their home in Pennsylvania. So early the next morning
■^he took the Lake Shore road for her destination.
Captain Dan was left alone with his unhappy thoughts, and al-
though prospering financially, there seemed no rest for his troubled
mind, which was more active when not employed with work or busi-
ness. He was getting old and gray, life did not seem to be worth the
living with that terrible shadow still hanging around him. He could
end it all, by stepping to the side of his boat, jumping off, thus getting
the same death he gave his victim, twenty-eight years before. He
hastily dismissed that idea when he thought of his faithful companion.
REMINISCENCES OF ROCHESTER.
Strolling down town he bought a newspaper, returned to his boat,
went down into his cabin, and after perusing it awhile, dropped
asleep on the locker, when something slid alongside of his boat, jarring
it considerably. He went on deck and saw a tug going u]) Buffalo
Creek ; he also heard a splashing close by. looked in the direction, and
saw a man struggling in the water.
It took but a moment to grab a loose wooden fender with a rope
attached, sling it in reach of the drowning man, who grabbed it, and
Captain Dan towed him to the stern of his boat, where he grabbed
the rudder blade and climbed aboard. He was not hurt, only strangled
somewhat, and nimbly stepped onto the boat's deck, and confronted
Captain Dan, who jumped back and came near falling down, giving a
surprised exclamation of "Oh! My God!" The rescued man stopped,
glared at the other, and spoke about the same words. Captain Dan.
who trembled all over, muttered something about 'You look like ,"
then checking himself, he stared at the man he had saved, who in turn
stared at him ; both now unable to speak.
Twenty-eight years had passed since they had met face to face,
and although much changed, each knew the other-, or thought they
did. The suspense could not last forever. Captain Dan says, "You look
like, like, one dead, like Hank." "\\'ell, I am. Hank, but in a night-
mare, or seeing a ghost." 'Well, I'm no ghost," said Captain Dan,
"but you are," as he reeled around like a drunken man, and grabbed
Hank by the arm to see if he really was flesh and blood. Then, feeling
fimny, he says, "Well, old boy, you are here all right, but you came
up a darned long ways from where you went down." Hank who be-
gan to realise that it really was Dan in the flesli still, blurted out,
"Well, Dan, it appears you got out in time to save my life."
Then they grabbed each other, shook hands, shouted, and I don't
know but they kissed one another, and those two stout able-bodied
men actually cried and shed tears of joy. Their hearts were lighter
than they had been for many a year, while the lone boatman on board
Captain Dan's boat, believed they had both gone stark mad. No one
can imagine their feelings, unless placed in similar circumstances. It
was the sudden reaction from sorrow to happiness, upon learning they
were innocent of murder. The dark cloud hanging over their lives
had been dispelled.
Reader, will not that same feeling come to us all in a more or
less degree, according to our sins, when we stand before the .Supreme
Judge of all, and have him say. "Your sins are forgiven."
56
ITS EARLY CANAL DAYS.
^^'ill not the brief history of those two men be a lesson to us all
to keep temperate, and strive to control our bad tempers. How they
suffered, and many others have suffered, and will continue to do so.
if slaves to intemperance by strong drink or passions. Be a true fol-
lower of the lowly Jesus and no tempter, or temper can harm you.
Our two heroes then narrated their different experiences on that
memorable night on the Hudson, when each thought they had mur-
dered the other, and their miraculous escapes. Although neither of
them had ever experienced religion, they felt like kneeling down and
thanking their Heavenly Father for freeing them from their terrible
bondage, by his great and sovereign power. Both Captain Dan and
Captain Hank now believed some good had come from that never to
be forgotten night's adventures, for it had eflfectually cured Dan of
drunkenness and other debaucheries. Hank never had the appetite for
drink or other debasing habits, thus avoiding much trouble. His tem-
per had gotten him into the aforesaid difficulty, and he knew it, there-
fore he broke himself in a measure from its baneful influence. He
once tried to drown his trouble in drink, but as he had no acquired
habit, he did not succeed. Here is a case, where the same thing pro-
duced opposites. Dan quit the habit through remorse, while Hank
would commence it for the same reason.
Our friends, as we must call them now, stayed together that after-
noon, supped together or as fashionable people call it, had dinner, at
the best eating house in Buffalo. Late in the evening Hank left Cap-
tain Dan and returned to his own boat, some distance up the creek,
where he found his only man worrying at his long absence, fearing
he was drowned as the tug men told him he had got on their boat
when leaving the foot of Main street. As he was not with them then,
he must have fallen off or jumped ashore when near some dock. He
came aboard the tug in this manner.
He was on the wharf where the shipping offices were at that time
located, below the foot of Main street. Those shippers charged a
percentage on all freight they secured for boatmen, who called them
"scalpers", and I presume the name was well applied. When Hank
learned the tug was going by his craft, he stepped aboard, and sat on
the stern unnoticed, as the crew had gone forward. The jar caused
by the tug hitting Captain Dan's boat, was what threw Hank into the
water. Who can say that it was not by the hand of Providence? To
think that he would be dumped at that particular spot is one of the
RliM/X/SCliXCl-S Of RiK HI-STl-R.
mysterious things about it, and of the thousands of ])eo])le around the
docks in Bufifalo. the one to save his Hfe was the one he thought he
had murdered. Saved by a fender, similar to tlie one knocked over-
board, the splashing of which meant so much to each. It was a singu-
lar coincidence.
We will now rhange this drama, or su])poscd tragedy to a comedy.
^^S^
W^^^^H
^K^^Lm
Bi^^^
Iw
•* '^ .:. . ' . - io. i '"" "^'Jp^^^^^H
li^HHB^'''
^:'^J■H■
ISE OF THE OLD B(
58
ITS P.ARLV CANAI. DAYS.
CHAPTER IX.
Dan and Hank were together the greater part of tlieir time now.
taking their meals together, either on their hoats or at some city eating
house.
One (kiv an amusing thought came to Hank, so he asked Dan
to go with liim along (3hio street. an<l when opposite the Miller
grocery, asked his companion to come in and have a smoke. Captain
Dan consented, but after entering, he thought Hank not as fastidious
as formerly. Margaret was behind the counter, and ujion seeing Hank
she burst out in a hearty laugh, making her appear more hideous than
ever. Then she said, in her peculiar dialect. "Fat for y(ju"s git drunk ?
ha! ha!" "'^'ou arc mistaken," said Hank. "I never drink liquor.''
"Den I tinks you pe one pig crazv; >on gif my poy Shoir j^otaties,
und breads, I lays oop faw yoos,." and reaching under the counter she
l)roduced the identical packages he had bought of her, and given, as he
supposed, to the hungrv-looking hoy. l»ut instead to ^ilargarct's own
son.
The transaction was so comical. Hank in turn had also to laugh.
causing Dan to think him on good terms w-ith the grocery woman, and
undoubtedly where he purchased his boat supplies. As there was
no one in the tap room, they sat down, while Margaret began her con-
versation again with 1 lank and seemed ])leased to get the trade of such
well-dressed gentlemen.
"I had a man working for me once," says Hank, "who knew you
when you lived in \'erona". "\'ats he name?" says she. That was a
stunner, but Hank sa}s, "1 forget his name. l)ut he said xou had a
sweetheart by the name of Joe Callus. Can you tell me where he is" :
"Oh ! he killed. Cot shooted in le pig wars : he no lof me. 1 le no coot
at all at all." "There was another one, my man says, helped i)ump out
your boat, then went to Syracuse." "Ha! ha!" laughed Margaret. "I
tinks me knows heem ; pig fool too ; no takes boat, caze I woont go.
No brains, ha! ha!'' This staggered Hank, who said, "Didn't he get
into a fight on your account?" "Oh, ya ! He von pig divil. Trow
heem on hees own boat all no notinks, all drunk, ha! ha! '
Hank got uj) and started for the door, while Dan followed him.
59
REMINISCENCES OE ROCHESTER.
liardly knowing what to think of it all. PTe almost came to the con-
clusion, that for Hank's own good he might better have remained
dead, as he supposed he was. INlargaret picked up Hank's bread and
potatoes and told him to take them, which he did, but threw them
away again after finding a suitable place. He then told Captain Dan
who Margaret was, making another surprise. "To think," says Dan,
"of that woman being the innocent cause of nearly all our troubles."
"There are two more causes." says Hank, "Poor whisky and bad
tempers".
Reader, what trou1)le, quarrels, and murders, have been caused
by those two agencies.
One day, after the occurrences just narrated, Jack Needham
came to Buffalo, looking for a canal boat suitable for his business, as
his old one was worn out.
It being about noon, he went into a nice-looking eating house on
Main street, and when nearly through his dinner, two well dressed
gentlemen passed him and took seats at a vacant table. They seemed to
be in very friendly conversation, which Jack took but little notice of,
until he began to recognize something in their voices which sounded
familiar. Then, looking in their direction, he saw^ Captain Dan and
to his great amazement, sitting beside him, was his old friend and
shipmate. Hank Millions.
It seemed more like a dream, as he listened, and soon knew it
surely must be Hank; although considerably changed, he knew his
voice, so jumping up, he walked over to their table, and said, as he
grabbed Hank by the arm. "Is this your ghost? Has the day of
resurrection come? At all events, the days of miracles have not
ceased. Say, old boy," said he, seizing Dan by the shoulders. "When
did you fish Hank out of the river"? He made this expression in his
excitement, little knowing at that time that Dan had really fished him
out. Captain Dan said, as he in turn, grabbed Jack, "You know w^hat
it says in the Bible, 'Cast your bread upon the waters, and after many
days it will return unto you" ". "Yes," says Jack, "but Hank isn't
bread, he is meat, but is probably turned to fish now. Got any scales?''
and he rubbed his hand across Hank's shoulder. "Well," says Hank,
"I may have scales on my body, but they have fallen off my eyes."
"Yes," says Dan, "ever since he found Margaret."
"What about her?" says Jack. "Oh, we will tell you after you
have eaten dinner with us. ' "I have already eaten, thank you," says
60
ITS EARLY CANAL DAYS.
Jack. "It makes no difference, you must eat with us," which he did,
to the discomfort of his digestive organs. His attention was occupied,
listening to the rehearsal of each of their strange tales, till at last the
dinner was eaten, probably much to the satisfaction of the waiters. Our
heroes shook hands again and again, and sauntered down to the boats
of Dan and Hank, that were now moored side by side.
On the way down to the waterfront, they passed Margaret's
grocery. They had told Jack who she was, and while they walked
slowly along. Jack stepped into her place, and bought a cigar, and
as a purchase of any kind made her very sociable, Jack says, "Did two
well-dressed gentlemen stop here yesterday and purchase cigars and
one took potatoes and bread he had bought a few days previous?"
Margaret laughed and said, "Oh ! shoor and he did. "Did you know
them?" says Jack. "Yash, me tinks dey pig fools, funny fools.'"
"Yes," says Jack., "they were not responsible, however, for they had
just escaped from a lunatic asylum." "Och ! an me taut so" ! says
Margaret, convulsed with laughter.
Jack took his departure, and after catching up with his com-
panions, he told them of his conversation with the grocery woman,
which made them laugh heartily. Dan says, "she is right, we w^ere
both fools," and Hank replies, "yes, it makes the old saying true, 'Chil-
dren and fools tell the truth' ". "I don't agree with you there," says
Jack, "she knows enough to make money and support her children,
with probably a worthless husband. I don't know how you fellows
are situated, but T have nothing to brag of". Dan says. "Yes, boys,
that women in her ignorance is smarter than we are, for she has ap-
parently filled her station in life honorably, while we, considering
ourselves superior, have fell far short of it."
Then said Hank, "That is so, but as we cannot now help the
past, we will take it as a lesson and do better in the future". Jack
stayed with his old shipmates that afternoon, and slept on Hank's
boat that night, and with many a handshake parted with them next
morning, and never saw them again, although he frequently heard
from them.
Dan ran his boats until the canal closed that season, then sold
them, and with his w-ife moved to his farm near Erie, Pa. Hank and
Jack ran boats a few years longer, but never happened to meet so as
to see each other. When passing, it was in the night, or else one or the
other laying in dock. Boating had begun to be unprofitable business.
61
REMINISCENCES OF ROCHESTER.
Less freights every year, until short trips, and lightering in New-
York harbor was about the only place where could be found business
f(3r boats. Hank quit dreaming of the Dutch girl, and married a nice,
respectable lady of his own town, living a happy life on his boat, en-
gaged in lightering around New York, when he could find work, com-
bining business with houseboating. Jack finally gave up the business,
but as he was always fond of the water, he like a duck waddles down
to some lake or to some river flowing towards the city of Rochester,
;ind has the time of his life in a rowboat or motor boat. Even like a
frog, he would be happy on a log, if boats were not available.
Cajitain jVIark Loverage ran boats a few years after that trip of
curious e\ents on the Hudson. He sold the Oriole, and went to
Nebraska, where by honesty and ability, he secured places of trust and
for a number of years was sent to the Legislature of that State, his
wife, Ada, filling faithfully and gracefully her i)art in the drama of
their livc'=;.
And now when bidding my readers good-b}e. I would say, for
aught I know every one of the principal actors in this strange story
are living yet. or they may be all dead, except the writer. It is hardly
possible that they are all living, for they are all past the three score
}'ears and ten.
Alive or dead, God bless, and be with them, till we meet again-^
on this, or Eternitv's shore.
62
LIBRORY OF CONGRESS
111
'llilllllll'iiiiifn!,*;,
014 107 861 6
Democrnt and Chroniilc Print,
Koilioster. N. Y.
