Chenango Canal

Eagle Hotel in Norwich where a celebration and dinner were held after news was received that the New York State Legislature had passed a bill creating the Chenango Canal. [Note: Every year between 1826 and 1832 a bill was introduced to the New York State Legislature to build the Chenango Canal. Each year it was defeated. Finally, the Bill was passed on February 23, 1833. The following article was published in the Anti Masonic Telegraph in Norwich on Wednesday, February 27, 1833].                            CANAL CELEBRATION.     Our village, on Saturday afternoon last, presented a lively scene of activity and bustle. As even approached, the people from the surrounding country  came flocking in, every countenance sparkling with pleasure. At about four o’clock, the stage arrived, bearing a “star spangled banner,” on which was painted the words “Chenango Canal.”     Soon after, the discharge of cannon announced the final passage of the bill, and a hearty shout from the mult

These are paintings created in 1996 by the late Gordon L. Dresser of Earlville At right are the Page Forwarding Co. warehouses. The bridge that crossed the canal was about where East Main Street is now. The lock beyond to the north is near the site of the Earlville Paper Box Co. The fisherman is believed to have been “Old Abe, one of a number of Oneida Native Americans who often camped near the swamp on the old Deacon Ira Crain farm. “Old Abe” always remained in this area while the others relocated their camp. He would husk corn and do other light chores in return for being allowed to roll up in his blanket by the kitchen fires at the home of local residents. At other times he hunted, fished, and trapped. Local children were especially fond of him because he frequently made them toy bows and arrows and other toys for them.   Quincy Square Museum, Earlville. Break in the Canal at Earlville Chenango Telegraph, Wednesday, April 27, 1859     A very extensive break wa

By the time this photo was taken the Chenango Canal had been abandoned. The scene is north of Court Street in Utica and the New York & Oswego Midland Railroads is on the left. This 1855 map shows how the Chenango Canal intersected the Erie Canal in   Utica, including four sets of locks.     ___________ Syracuse Standard August 21, 1854     Utica, July 30. - Boy Drowned. - A boy about nine years old, son of Joseph Marshall, of West Utica, was drowned yesterday while bathing in the Chenango Canal near third lock. It was his first and last attempt at swimming. _____________ Syracuse Standard Friday, May 23, 1856     Rape Case at Utica. - The Utica Telegraph gives an account of a brutal rape case recently committed near the city by three young men on a girl 12 years of age. The case somewhat resembles the one committed in this city last year.     It seems that a girl, in company with another girl aged about 15, was coming down the tow-path of the

                      Will o-the-Wisp came and went on the Chenango Canal                                                 By Richard F. Palmer     In 1863 an unsuccessful effort was made by two Binghamton businessmen to establish steam packet boat service on the Chenango Canal between there and  Hamilton. It was run in competition with horse drawn packet boats that had operated on this canal since the 1840s.    The steamer, built in Binghamton, was called the Will o’ the Wisp, an appropriate name for a vessel that occasionally appeared and then vanished.  No published histories of the Chenango Canal mention it. If it wasn’t for the newspapers of the day its story would be lost.  In February, 1863, Daniel S. Dickinson, a prominent Binghamton attorney, presented to the New York State Canal Board a petition to allow Binghamton businessmen Abram Bevier and Nelson Orcutt to operate a steam packet boat on the Chenango Canal.(1)   Apparently the Canal Board granted permission for

Considering the Chenango Canal was abandoned in 1876, many of the locks are in a remarkably good state of preservation. This is Lock 99 near Greene, owned by the Chenango County Land Trust.  Chenango American January 9, 1879  [This is an excerpt from a longer  account that includes theoretical statistics if the “southern extension” of the canal had been completed to Athens, Pa. to connect with the North Branch Canal extending to the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania].     A pamphlet is in circulation in this county, written by H.C. Rogers, of Utica, giving forcible reasons why the people of this valley cannot allow the Chenango Canal to be closed. An earnest effort is to be made during the coming session of the Legislature to secure appropriations for its re-opening. We take the following extract from the pamphlet, which will interest most of our readers.    “The last sad years of the Chenango Canal in its management, or rather mis-management and neglect,

             Binghamton Press March 11, 1933                            State Street in Binghamton     State street in 1933 with its congested traffic and throngs of hurried pedestrians bears no trace of the old, colorful days from 1837 to 1875 when, as the Chenango canal, it formed the chief artery of communication of travel between Binghamton and points north, east and west.     The white-painted canal boats or “packets” with their cargo of passengers and freight were towed over the placid waters by three horses. Pleasant, leisurely trips were made daily to Norwich at the rate of three or four miles an hour. Boys of the neighborhood coated the stolen rides to Port Dickinson from where  they would “hitch-hike” back to town on another boat.     Arrival of the packet at the dock just back of Sisson’s store always was announced by the blasts of a bugle. Men working along the towpath frequented the saloon and gambling den of one, “Buckshot” Adams, which st

Broome Republican June 1, 1879 [This is not a true story]                                A Local Reminiscence                                               ___     The recent ovations to the  Marquis of Lorne and the Princess Louise remind us of an event in our local history - the reception of the Prince of Wales (the local paper spelled his name at the time with a “b,” which was doubtless a mistake) in Binghamton, on the 23d of October, 1860. Binghamton was at that time a port  of entry, and the Prince and suite arrived via the Chenango canal, having braved the dangerous navigation of that turbulent stream, and appeared promptly at the hour appointed - four o’clock, ten minutes and thirty seconds, p.m.     An immense crowd had long been waiting in the vicinity of the Exchange Hotel, and when the Prince and suite, escorted by the committee of reception (all in gorgeous -extremely gorgeous-uniforms) the enthusiasm was immense. An address of welcome was made in front

The aqueduct south of Greene sat on stone piers 25 feet high and carried the canal across the Chenango River. It was erected in 1837 but was repaired numerous times. It stood fairly intact well into the 1900s. On Tuesday morning a party of about 100 young ladies and gentlemen started from the swing bridge, on a canal boat handsomely decorated with evergreens and flags drawn by four horses and accompanied by the Greene Cornet Band. They went up the raging canal as far as Warn’s Pond and spent the day as all days at at a picnic are spent - very pleasantly.  Chenango American, Greene, N.Y. Thursday, August 3, 1876                                            Chenango County Historian   Chenango American, Greene, N.Y. April 18, 1935        Memories of old Canal Days are Recalled by Former Greene Resident     Memories of the “old days” and of the last trip of the packet on the old Chenango Canal, have been written by Charles A. Winston, a former Greene b

                        Good Old Days of Packet Boats Madison County Eagle, Cazenovia Aug. 2, 1843     Col. T.C. Nye, of Madison, and Mr. Butterfield, of Utica, have commenced running a daily line of packet boats on the Chenango Canal, from Hamilton to Binghamton. The boats run in connection with the line of stages from Hamilton to Utica. Chenango Telegraph, Norwich, N.Y., May 1, 1844                                                             PACKET LINE     The public are respectfully informed that the Packet Boat “Norwich,” runs daily from Oxford to Hamilton, up and down. It is connected with a line of stages for Utica, at the latter place, by which passengers arrive at either end of the route in the evening. As the line is established expressly for the accommodation of the traveling public, it is hoped the it will receive liberal encouragement. The Boat leaves Oxford in the morning at 5 o’clock; Norwich at 7; Sherburne at 10; and arrives in Hamilton a