From Prof. J.T. Stewart's "Indiana County Pennsylvania - Her People, Past and Present" Published 1913


Transcribed by: E.K. Warner (wgene@twd.net)           September 20th., 1999


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THE PENNSYLVANIA CANAL


The location of the Pennsylvania Canal was begun April 20, 1825, by Nathan S. Roberts, an engineer, and 
was completed Dec. 6, 1826, and placed under contract the same year. Instructions were given to have 
particular regard to economy in all things. Mr. Roberts estimated that it would be necessary to have one 
engineer at $3,000 per year and reasonable expenses; two assistant engineers, one at $3 per day and expenses, 
and one at $2 per day and expenses; two target men at $1.50 per day each and find himself; and two axe men, 
at $1 per day each and find himself. 


The general dimensions of the canal were fixed as follows: Width at the water line. 40 feet; width at bottom, 
28 feet, and depth, 4 feet. The locks were 15 feet wide and 90 feet in length in the chamber. 


Governor Schultze in his message of 1826 favored the Pennsylvania Canal. He stated that the transportation 
by land from Philadelphia to Pittsburg would be reduced twenty miles. The object of the Pennsylvania Canal 
was to develop the natural resources, and cherish the industry of the Commonwealth by bringing all its 
important sections as near as possible to a sure and profitable market. 


At that time it was estimated that 578,160 bushels of salt, and 17,440 tons of iron, arrived annually at 
Pittsburg by land and water from districts bordering on the Conemaugh and Kiskiminetas. The Transportation 
of goods by land, from Philadelphia and Baltimore to Pittsburg, amounted to 9,300 tons a year, for which 
$465,000 was paid; and the return transportation to these places was 5,300 tons, for which $132,500 was 
paid. The aggregate of this land transportation on 14,600 tons may be added to the tonnage already stated as 
existing on the Juniata and Kiskiminetas. Nor did this estimate include the flour, whiskey and other produce 
which arrived at Pittsburg by land, and was carried by land from the neighborhood of the Juniata. The trade 
on the Juniata amounted yearly to $1,188,000. 


It was believed that the commerce already existing was an object sufficient to justify the undertaking proposed. 
But when the immense quantity of mineral and agricultural products, comparatively worthless, which a safe 
communication with a steady market would raise at once to their proper value, was taken into the account, the 
aggregate as above stated sinks into insignificance. It was expected that the iron and coal trade of the Juniata, 
and the supply of salt, coal and iron of the Kiskiminetas, would increase in the same ratio. These things alone 
would afford the State a handsome revenue. 


Wm. Darlington, president, and James McIlvane, secretary, reported Feb. 27, 1827, as follows : 

"One view of this subject remains to be suggested, which is entitled to great weight with the intelligent and 
patriotic. The State of Pennsylvania has advantages of the highest grade; and sources of wealth almost without 
a limit. But while the bounties of nature have flowed so copiously, the great principle in the order of 
Providence which calls for human effort, in exact proportion to natural capability has been indelibly written on 
her mountains and her torrents. For want of such exertion the prosperity of Pennsylvania has comparatively 
languished, while a more enterprising neighbor has advanced with unparalleled rapidity. Without artificial 
navigation, the citizen of Pennsylvania has been limited in his commerce to the course of a stream or has found 
in his mountains an impassable barrier to a profitable market. Hence each section of country has had a 
different outlet, most of it beyond the borders of the State; hence that wealth has been dissipated among 
strangers, which ought to be accumulated in emporiums of our own; and worse perhaps than al1, a disunion 
of interest and of feeling has been created which is dangerous or enfeebling. 


"The system proposed is deemed adequate to the remedy of all these evils. It will give scope to our natural 
resources, and to our most valuable industry, and increased security. It will unite all sections of the State by 
the band of common interests and mutual dependence. It will insure our citizens the profits of our industry, 
and accumulate that wealth which industry and enterprise, combined with natural and artificial advantages, 
cannot fail to produce.” 


The committee appointed to make investigations regarding the advisability of making the Pennsylvania Canal 
reported as follows: 

" The greatness of the commercial emporium, and the superiority of the market on the Delaware, contrasted 
with the seaport on the Chesapeake, or any of the seaports of the South, will always attract the western trade 
into the Pennsylvania Canals. This result cannot be prevented by New York, as our route will be shorter and 
less interrupted by ice. When besides this advantage we consider the superior productiveness of the country 
through which the Pennsylvania Canal will flow; the fertile valleys of the Susquehenna, in their present 
cultivation, sending annually to the market products to the amount of nearly four millions of dollars; the extent 
to which the manufacture of salt may be carried; the immense masses of coal; the beds of iron ore, the most 
precious of metals, and would be converted into all its artificial forms; the new mineral wealth which would be 
discovered by means of the geological and mineralogical survey now contemplated; and when we further 
consider the numerous branch canals and auxiliary railroads, which would soon be constructed, it will be 
perceived that the tonnage on the Pennsylvania route will be of vast magnitude, and greater than that which 
will ever pass upon any other route between the eastern and western waters. If then we assume that after the 
completion, the total of the tonnage of the descending trade will be 200,000 tons, which is but little more than 
the present tonnage of the Susquehanna; and if we compute the tolls at. an average sum of one cent per ton a 
mile, for a mean distance of 300 miles, it will give an annual sum of $600,000. From which, if we make 
ample deductions of 20% for repairs and superintendency, say $120,000, there will be an annual revenue of 
$480,000. This sum will pay the interest on ten millions of dollars, for money can be secured from the banks 
at 4 1/2% Besides it has been ascertained that more than one million of dollars have been paid for many years 
in succession, for carrying commodities from the Atlantic ports to the western waters. 


" The next proposition which it is the purpose of the committee to sustain, is that the contemplated 
improvements will enliven the great roads of the State, and render productive the vast amount of stock in 
turnpikes and bridges (which has been computed at ten millions of dollars), and of which the state owns more 
than two millions of dollars. 


"A full development of our resources will give fertility and population to the barren districts, and spread 
agriculture, manufactures and commerce over the whole State, embraceing twenty-nine millions of acres. One 
of the results of this general prosperity will be an active intercourse between the various parts of our 
Commonwealth, and a vast increase upon the roads and bridges of those vehicles which pay toll without 
wearing out the road. 


" In presenting general considerations in favor of the canal policy, the committee may be allowed to advert to 
the facilities it will hereafter afford for the construction of railways. Many intelligent persons are of the opinion 
that from the immense field for productive industry and active labor presented by Pennsylvania and from the 
magitude of future trade between the seaports of our State and the great growing country of the west, railroads 
will hereafter be constructed parallel to our canals.” 


The act to begin the Pennsylvania Canal at the expense of the State passed Feb. 25, 1826. In 1827 the State 
appropriated five millions of dollars for the Pennsylvania Canal. Jan. 30, 1827, George T. Olmstead, assistant 
engineer to Nathan S. Roberts, reported to the Legislature of the State as follows: 

" The examination down the Conemaugh and Kiskiminetas has been confined exclusively to the north bank of 
the river, and is comparatively the best, particularly when taking into view the advantage of a southern 
exposure. The line has been located with a strict adherence to a canal navigation, and no insurmountable 
obstacles have been found to prevent such location, notwithstanding improvements by slackwater navigation 
would perhaps be advisable in some places. It has been suggested that an improvement of the river passing 
through Laurel Hill and Chestnut Ridge would be the cheapest or best mode to pursue. There would be no 
serious objection to a slackwater navigation past Laurel Hill; the river has a descent of 32 feet to five miles, 
and could be overcome with two dams, while the Chestnut Ridge has a descent of 64 feet in the same distance, 
and would be more expensive than a canal. 


"The stone necessary for the construction of locks can be found principally in the vicinity of the canal; in some 
places, however, there will be a difficulty in obtaining stone of good quality—the stone required for 
aqueducts, culverts, bridges, etc., can be obtained at almost any point along the river. 


"Beginning at Johnstown and extending to the mouth of the Kiskiminetas there was 64 miles of canal and 46 
locks. The estimated cost is as follows: 


Total amount of excavation, embankment, etc ...................... $654,124.93

368 feet of lockage @ $600 per foot  ................................ $220,800.00

35 bridges @ $250 ..................................................... $    8,750.00

32 miles of fence @ $480  ............................................ $   15,360.00 

                                                                                                       __________

                                                                                                        $899,034.93  

Add for contingencies 10% ............................................ $  89,903.49

                                                                                                       __________

                                                                                                        $988,938.42


"At this time no complaints were made by any person through whose lands the canal passed.


"The eleventh mile ran by Rodger's mill at old Ninevah. The line ran between the saw and grist mill. It was 
suggested that it would be better to move the grist mill below the canal. This was done. The cost of making 
this mile of canal was $12,808.30. 


"The lock at. a small town called Abnerville, east of Centerville, was on the fifteenth mile, and was the 
thirteenth lock west of Johnstown. The cost of this mile was $3,473.62. 


" The thirty-second mile commences at Blairsville, and with the exception of two short pieces of narrow 
bottom land, an embankment in the bed of the river will be necessary the whole distance, from 6 to 12 feet 
below. The mile will cost $21,426.60. 


"Mile 35 commences with a piece of deep cutting, and continues about 12 chains over very steep sideling 
grounds; the line then continues in the road on a narrow bank to Blacklick creek, which will require an 
aqueduct of two hundred feet—surface water 18 feet below and about two feet deep.”


The western division of the main line of the Pennsylvania Canal, as it passed along the Conemaugh, 
frequently opened into a series of slackwater pools in the river. Slackwater, the time when the tide runs 
slowly, or the water is at rest; or the interval between the flux and reflux of the tide. Slackwater navigation, 
navigation in a stream the depth of which has been increased, and the current diminished, by a dam or dams. 
Nine miles below Blairsville the canal passes through a tunnel over 1,000 feet long, and emerges upon a stone 
aqueduct across the Conemaugh. 


To the travelers passing up the canal, the view of the aqueduct, and the western entrance of the tunnel, with the 
river and rugged mountains above it, is exceedingly picturesque. Previous to the construction of the canal, the 
Conemaugh was a rough impetuous stream, of dangerous navigation. 


Before the slackwater dams were built, the rapidity of the water through Chestnut Ridge was such that a 
heavily loaded boat, after entering Richard’s Falls, ran a distance of seven miles with the swiftness of the 
fastest racehorse, and in that distance were two of the shortest bends that ever a large craft of any kind was 
piloted around. These were the Spruce Bend and Packsaddle Falls. At the Spruce Bend a ridge of rocks 
projected almost across the river from the north side, leaving a channel of very little more than the width of the 
boat, and the bend was so short that as the boat passed her bow was heading straight for the rocks on the 
north side, not much more than the length of herself ahead. If the pilot missed the exact spot on entering the 
chute, or a stroke of the oar was missed by himself, or his bowsman, the boat was smashed to pieces and 
often men killed among her broken timbers, or drowned in the boisterous billows. At a very early day three 
brothers were lost from a boat that was wrecked on this reef of rocks, and from that circumstance they got the 
appellation of the "Three Brothers,” and were known by that name as long as the channel of the Conemaugh 
was navigated. Richard’s Falls were often run by good pilots, by keeping the boat in her proper position while 
rounding the Horseshoe Bend at Lockport, without the stroke of an oar when entering or passing through, and 
as we swept down the straight rapids from the mouth of Tubmill to Spruce Bend an awful silence generally 
prevailed, our oars held in the proper position to be dipped in the twinkling of an eye, at the pilot’s command. 
As we came to the first bend the orders were given, "To the left.” The blades were dipped, and every man’s 
shoulder to the stems, dashed them across the boat with a rapidity that cannot be described. All except the pilot 
and the bowsman wheeled their backs to the oar and dashed back, followed by the undipped oars in the hands 
of the pilot and bowsman; the blades were dipped and every man wheeled with the quickness and exactness of 
rapid machinery, and we extended the chute, as if it were possible to add anything to the motion and the 
strength of the men’s nerves. The pilot’s voice was heard above the roar of the convulsed waters, "Hard to the 
left,” "Hard to the left,” "Hard to the left”; and without time to breathe as we entered the Packsaddle, "Hard to 
the right”; and in the twinkling of an eye every man was on the opposite side of the oars, and all shoulders to 
their work, dashing them in the opposite direction; and with a higher speed than that of lightning train of cars 
behind time, we passed that awful precipice, now to be seen by the traveler on the Pennsylvania railroad. All 
reeking with sweat, and bosoms heaving with respiration, a shout of joy was raised as we emerged from the 
Packsaddle. All dangers were then believed to be passed. 


Boatmen from Johnstown and Ligonier Valley considered all danger passed when they had got safely through 
Chestnut Ridge, though there were scary places below to those who had seen nothing worse. These were 
Brown’s Dam and Campbell’s Dam on the Conemaugh, Kiskiminetas Falls on the Kiskiminetas, and Pockety 
Chute on the Allegheny river. 


Mr. T. C. Reed gives the following: "The last craft of any kind that was ever run down the channel of the 
Conemaugh through, the Ridge, was a craft of green boards which was built at the foot of Richard’s Falls, on 
the north side of the river. It was getting dark when we had finished building our raft and hanging our bars. 
Lest the water should fall, to be too low in the morning, we pushed out and ran the frightful falls bends in 
darkness, having nothing visible but the white foam of the dashing waves and the rugged mountain sides for 
our guides. Brother Andy was the pilot, and, if I remember correctly, Henry Harr the bowsman, and Robert 
Riddle and myself the only common hands. We ran safely through, landed that night at Blairsville, sold our 
boards to Noble Nesbitt, to be delivered at Livermore. The Pennsylvania Canal was just coming into 
existence. We shoved out the next morning, our raft of green boards all under water, except the floor, which 
was merely on a level with the top of the water. In crossing Campbell’s Dam, at the mouth of Blacklick, she 
dived to the bottom. The dashing of the waves would have washed us off if we had not held on to the oars, 
one of which had become unshipped, leaving us to drift at the mercy of the current, standing in the water 
almost to our arms, with the raft under our feet. As we drifted along she kept gradually rising, until at last, 
about a mile below the dam, she came to the.top of the water, when we quickly reshipped our unshipped oar 
and landed safely at Livermore. Thus ended the navigation of the Conemaugh river. 


"The same year, 1829, the Blairsville Dam, the two dams in Chestnut Ridge, and the two dams in Laurel Hill, 
were built, and the only boating from Johnstown, or the valley, to Pittsburg afterwards was done on the canal. 
The canal was located along the end of my father’s house. The canal was first commenced by the filthiest, 
most ignorant, and uncivilized men that ever Cork emptied into the United States. On the first Sabbath after 
getting into their shanties, they got out with their shotguns and commenced shooting the poultry about the 
barnyard. My father went out and remonstrated; but he was answered: 'Be jabers it’s a fra country, an’ we’ll 
shoot as minny checkens as we plaze. , 


" On the 4th of July a regular old-fashioned celebration was got up at Lockport on the line of the canal. The 
Irish in attendance far outnumbered all others. While the oration was being delivered they swore they would 
put the speaker off the stand. They made the attempt but failed. They were driven out of the village; many of 
them badly used up. They made a threat to take the place on the following Saturday. There were about five 
hundred men engaged in building the aqueduct. The contractor provided every man with a rifle and 
ammunition for the occasion. On the appointed day the Irish collected in great numbers on the bank of the river 
opposite Lockport, where they came in view of over five hundred armed men. They were informed that if they 
attempted to cross thc river they would be shot down. They scattered off faster than they had collected. 


" On one occasion three of my brothers, three or four hired men, and myself, were going home to dinner from 
our work at the sawmill, on the lower end of the farm. We were crossing the fields some rods from the canal. 
We saw and heard a great commotion, but had no thought of anything unusual, and were passing by as we 
were in the habit of doing, supposing it to be but a common Irish fray among themselves, when we heard a 
wellknown voice calling out: 'Will you fellows allow a fellow to be murdered by a set of redmouthed Irish ? , 
It was William Bennett. More than one hundred Irishmen had him surrounded. Their noise could only be 
compared to the barking of as many angry bulldogs, but their courage fell far short of the courage of that 
animal. He had threatened the first man that would come within a rod of him, and they had made their inner 
circle fully that distance from the center which he occupied. We all ran to his rescue, and such a chattering of 
brogue has seldom been heard. Those who made the first break didn’t wait to see whether there were a dozen 
or a hundred of us, and more them one-half of them didn’t know why the rest ran. The panicstricken crowd 
might be, compared to as many sheep with dogs let loose among them. They never stopped to look behind 
them, till they were out of sight, and how far they ran before they discovered they were not pursued, we never 
knew. 


" There were a great many cart horses used in building the embankment at the east end of the aqueduct. These 
were turned into my father’s grain fields at the back part of the farm after night, and taken out before daylight 
in the morning; when the grain was nearly ready to be harvested, and before we knew of it, the crop was 
entirely destroyed. Our horses were poisoned by arsenic being put upon their chopped feed in such quantity 
that they had eaten but little of their feed. One of my brothers was on horseback on an errand. The feed was 
ready mixed in the feed box. He came home about dark, and fed all the horses in the stable. The next morning 
the one he had been riding was lying dead in the stable, and five others were so badly poisoned that some of 
them never recovered, but died lingering in misery for some months after receiving the poison. 


"About a mile of fence, together with the partition fences, the breadth of the first tier of fields along the river, 
were burnt in the shanties for fuel, and the whole laid waste during the two years of making the canal. The 
owner of the farm below my father’s threatened the contractor with the law, if he wouId not pay for damage 
done to his farm. He replied: 'D—n ye, bring on yer sheriff, an’ I set me han’s on him, an' guv him a good 
batin, an' he’ll not trouble me much.’ He brought the sheriff, and the sheriff brought three or four rugged 
fellows with him from Indiana, and enlisted as many from the neighborhood of the scene of action. As they 
approached they were met by about one hundred Irishmen, armed with picks and shovels. One of the sheriff‘s 
posse drew and presented a pistol, which was sufficient, and they didn’t bate the sheriff.’ The contractor was 
taken to Indiana. An Irishman from Blairsville bailed him for his appearance at next court, and before he left 
the justice’s office he said to the prosecutor: 'Now, sur, I’ve guv bail, and I’ll just go home an’ set me han’s to 
work, an' we'll pile up all the rails on yer place, an' burn them to ashes.’ Before he had finished he found 
himself again in the hands of the sheriff, who took him to jail, where he remained a long time before he could 
procure sufficient bail to release him till court. He was compelled to pay damages, and taught that a 'fra 
country was not what he took it to be.’ 


"Before the Pennsylvania Canal was constructed, salt and Juniata iron were carried across the mountains on 
packhorse's. Two or three of the settlers were furnished with bacon, dried beef, deerskins, venison, etc., and 
all the horses in the neighborhood. A train of packhorses consisted of from five to a dozen and even more, 
tethered by a hitching rope one behind the other. The master of the train rode before or followed after the 
horses and directed their movements by his voice. About fifteen miles per day were traveled in this manner, 
and each horse carried about two hundred pounds, burden. The harness consisted of a packsaddle and a 
halter, and the lead horse often had, in addition, a circling band of iron over his withers attached to the saddle 
and to which were hung several bells, whose tinkling in a way relieved the monotony of the journey and kept 
the horses from going astray. 


" The packhorse required the use of a packsaddle. It was made of four pieces of wood, two being notched, the 
notches fitting along the horse’s back, with the front part resting upon the animal ‘s withers. The other two 
were flat pieces about the length and breadth of a lap shingle, perhaps 18 inches by 5 inches. They extended 
along the sides and were fastened to the ends of the notched pieces. Upon the saddles were placed all kinds of 
merchandise. Bars of iron were bent in the middle and hung across; large creels of wicker work, containing 
babies, bed-clothing, and farm implements, as well as kegs of powder, caddies of spice, bags of salt, sacks of 
charcoal, and boxes of glass, were thus carried over the mountains. They crossed Laurel Hill on the road 
leading from Shrum’s mill to Johnstown. By what route they crossed the Allegheny mountains, I do not 
know. After arriving at the caravansary, and exchanging their commodities for salt and iron, they loaded their 
horses by bending the bars of iron and hanging them across the packsaddles on the horses’ backs. The salt 
was carried in large bags of home manufacture. To protect the salt from rain the bags were covered by 
bearskins. Their homeward journey was performed by the same routine of the eastward trip. Shoppers from 
Pittsburg went to Philadelphia in squads of eight or ten to lay in their yearly supply of goods and brought them 
to Pittsburg in this manner. 


"The time came at last to relieve the community along the Conemaugh of their annual trip for salt and iron. An 
enterprising German, named John Benninger, built a quarter stock furnace and tilt-hammer forge on Tubmill 
creek, not far from where Ross Furnace was afterwards built, and another tilt-hammer forge on the same 
creek, where Bolivar now stands. A considerable amount of bar iron was made by these works, but so brittle 
that it was unfit for the farmers’ use, and the consequence was that he failed, and the works were suffered to 
go to ruin. 


"By some means a road was opened across the mountains to Johnstown, I believe the old Frankstown 
road—and Juniata bar iron was brought in wagons to Johnstown, and carried to Pittsburg in fiatboats at times 
of high water or freshets. Persons passing along the Conemaugh river at the present day can form no correct 
idea of its appearance in the high water before the rocks were blasted out and the slackwater dams built in the 
mountain passes. I doubt whether a more difficult stream was ever navigated by men of any age. A great many 
were drowned in proportion to the number engaged in boating. For some years after boating commenced six 
or eight tons were considered to be a load for a large boat. But one adventurer after another loaded heavier and 
heavier, until fifty tons of pig metal were loaded and carried safely by different boatmen. 


" Bar iron was the principal loading for boats built at Johnstown. After Westmoreland Furnace, Washington 
Furnace, and Ross Furnace were built, and the northern turnpike was completed, boats built on the south side 
of the river, in Ligonier Valley, were loaded with pig metal, and those built on the north side were chiefly 
loaded with bar iron, brought by wagons to different boatyards along the north bank of the river. Most of the 
pig metal stopped at Pittsburg, the great iron emporium of the world, to be manufactured into castings; but 
much of the bar iron went on down the Ohio river to Cincinnati and Louisville, and some was run on down 
the Mississippi to New Orleans in the same boats in which it left the Conemaugh valley. 


"The main line of the Pennsylvania Canal with,its connecting railroads was opened for business throughout its 
entire length in the spring of 1834, the branches being opened at later dates. Important and valuable as these 
improvements were, in the aid they gave to the development of the material resources of Pennsylvania, and in 
bringing into closer rerations the whole people of the Commonwealth, it is painful to record the fact that the 
operation of the main line and its important branches virtually came to an end within thirty years after it began. 
This ever to be regretted termination of a great and useful enterprise was due primarily to the inefficient and 
sometimes corrupt management of the entire system and next to the competition of the Pennsylvania railroad, 
the building of which was authorized by an act of the Legislature dated April 13, 1846, and which was com- 
pleted to Pittsburg on Dec. 10, 1852. On Aug. 1, 1857, the State sold the whole of the main line to the 
Pennsylvania Railroad Company for $7,500,000, which soon abandoned the great part of the canal. 


" Ephraim Stitt, of Blairsville, was probably the last captain to bring through freight from Pittsburg to 
Johnstown. .He brought a cargo consigned to the Cambria Iron Company in 1859. About Dec. 1, 1860, the 
Monongahela, of which George Rutlidge was captain, brought a cargo of salt and grain from Livermore to 
Johnstown, and this was probably the last boat to bring a load of merchandise to the latter place. There were 
no lock-tenders at this time. On May 1, 1863, the Pennsylvania Railroad Company abandoned the canal 
between Johnstown and Blairsville. 


" The first tunnel that was built in the United States formed a part of the Portage Railroad. It was made at the 
staple bend of the Conemaugh, four miles from Johnstown. The tunnel was made through a spur of the 
Alleghenies, near which the stream makes a bend of two miles and a half. On the western division of the 
Pennsylvania Canal, at a place then and now called Tunnelton, about half way between Johnstown and 
Pittsburg, a tunnel was built between 1827 and 1829 through one of the foothills of the Alleghenies. This 
tunnel connected with an aqueduct over the Conemaugh. It was the third tunnel that was built in the United 
States."