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A large part of the money raised by the city on its bonds was expended in completing the Government canal. The citizens hoped that Congress could be prevailed upon to refund to the city the money so expended, but all efforts to get a bill through Congress for that purpose were unavailing. Taxes were levied to pay the interest on the bonds, the assessments being made on the real estate in the city in proportion as it was supposed it would be benefited by the building of the canal. Money was very scarce, and a great deal of real estate in the city, especially that near the docks which had been assessed very heavily, was leased to pay the canal tax the bidder who would pay the canal tax for a lease of the property for the shortest term of years receiving a lease from the city for the term bid. Some of these leases run for ninety-nine years, and considerable property is held under these canal tax leases at the present time. The commissioners were unable to raise sufficient funds to meet the interest on the bonds, and the common council was compelled to issue new bonds for the semiannual interest as it matured, and to petition. the bondholders for leniency, and finally the bondholders, believing that the citizens were unable to meet their obligations and did not possess sufficient resources to pay the bonds. in full, offered a compromise. General Lewis Cass, who held a large amount of the bonds, took the lead in the matter, and a compromise was effected at 624 cents on the dollar.

In April, 1840, the canal commissioners made a report to the council showing that at the commencement of the work it was estimated that the amount of excavation necessary to construct a channel of suitable dimensions to correspond with the canal constructed by the United States, was computed at 55,000 cubic yards, exclusive of the dams at either end of the canal, necessary to preserve the work from inundations during the progress of excavations. The expense of excavation in the body of the work was estimated at thirty cents per yard, and removing the dams by dredging $1,500, and that the commissioners believed. that the object of the commission would be more fully secured by conducting the work under their own supervision by the appointment of an acting commissioner, than by accepting any proposals that were offered to take the work by contract. The work was

accordingly commenced, and for some time progressed with a reasonable prospect of an early completion according to the original plan, and at an expense somewhat within the estimate. Their operations were suddenly arrested by the failure of the banks which had on deposit the unexpended portion of the fund which had come into the hands of the commissioners, and by the withholding of $2,000 of the loan by the Farmers and Mechanics' Bank, of Albany, New York. At this time the whole of the timber dams had been completed, and something more than 45,000 cubic yards of earth had been excavated. The amount of money expended by the commission for materials, improvements, provisions and labor, was $20,600. The commission being without funds were compelled to abandon the further prosecution of the work, and they accepted the proposal of George W. Strong of October 2, 1839, to take the work by contract and complete the channel to the depth of eleven feet from the top of the capping for $4,636.92, to be paid as follows: Upon the execution of the contract, $1,411.78, in property belonging to the fund and demands due the fund from sundry individuals for pork sold; and upon the completion of the work a draft upon the Bank of River Raisin for $670.69, and upon the Merchants and Mechanics' Bank of the city of Monroe for $2,535.45, in full. The drafts and demands were to be taken without any recourse whatever to the commissioners of the canal fund or the city of Monroe. The work was to be completed by the 15th of May following.

Little was accomplished for the next two years for the want of funds to carry on the work. Petitions and memorials were sent to the House and Senate frequently from Monroe, Adrian and surrounding towns, asking for an appropriation. But the General Government refused or neglected to make any further appropriation, and in 1842 the work was still uncompleted, and the harbor at La Plaisance in a very bad condition. The city, feeling the necessity of sufficient harbor improvements, decided to bond the city for $10,000 to complete the work. But the credit of the city was so poor in the East that it was evident that the loan could not be made in the money market and must be taken at home, and $1,000 of the bonds were issued in denominations as small as $5.00 and taken up by persons of small means.

Finally several patriotic citizens, David A. Noble, Thomas G. Cole, Harry Conant, Dan. B. Miller, William V. Studdeford, James Armitage and Levi S. Humphrey came forward and provided for the balance of the loan, $10,000, and gave their personal obligation for $9,000.

The commissioners made a contract in August, 1842, with Henry W. Campbell and George W. Strong for the completion of the canal, Henry V. Disbrow acting as treasurer of the canal fund and superintendent and surveyor of the improvements. The canals were completed in 1843; but from that time to the present frequent dredging at certain points in the channel has been necessary to keep it clear and of sufficient depth for navigation.

Many attempts since then have been made to increase the depth of water in the river and canals. At one time the legislature made a land grant of 5,000 acres for that purpose, and in 1849 the plan of confining all the water in the river to the canals and that part of the river channel connecting them, by damming the old river channels at the head of the canals, and a wing dam at Barn Island to narrow the channel and make the water cut its way through Barn Island Bar, was adopted. A contract was made with J. M. Sterling and William A. Noble to construct four dams in accordance with this plan, for which they were to receive 2,500 acres of the land grant. The dams were built of spiles and plank, but did not remain long enough to test the merits of the plan. The ice raised them and they were carried out with the first spring freshet. Isaac P. Christiancy, for 320 acres of land, offered the hull of the old steamer Constitution to be used for a dam. Judging from the records it would seem that most of the schemes. were proposed for the purpose of obtaining the remainder of the land grant, and that numerous patriotic citizens were as much if not more interested in that than in the improvement of the shipping facilities and navigation. Finally Dan. B. Miller got the remainder of the land grant for building dams in the river at the points where the railroad crossed the old channel.

There were five commissioners of the canal fund elected every fall, and the contests were at times quite spirited. As high as twenty of the leading citizens were in the field at one time as candidates. The five candidates receiving the highest vote were elected and con

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stituted the commissioners of the canal fund for the year. The following is a list of the names of persons who held the office of canal commissioners:

1838-John Burch, Gershom Bulkley, Moses B. Savage, James Hervey Miller, Chester Stewart.

1839-Gershom Bulkley, John Burch, Moses B. Savage, James Hervey Miller, George W. Strong.

1840 –Harry V. Man, Alpheus Felch, Charles M. Humphrey, Luther Harvey, Jacob W. Alexander.

1841-Charles M. Humphrey, Wolcott Lawrence, James Armitage, Enos Jackson, Walter W. Prentice.

1842-James J. Godfroy, Wolcott Lawrence, Warner Wing, Carlos Colton, Henry Disbrow. 1843-James J. Godfroy, Henry Disbrow, Carlos Colton, Warner Wing, James Armitage. 1844-James Armitage, Jefferson S. Bond, Titus Babcock, James E. Skinner, Obadiah Spalding.

1845-James E. Skinner, Titus Babcock, Jefferson S. Bond, Obadiah Spalding, Norman D. Curtis.

1846-Hiram Stone, John Burch, Charles Noble, Charles G. Johnson, Harry Conant.

John Mulhollen acted as collector of the canal fund, and for several years his whole time was occupied in collecting the canal tax and selling lots and land returned as delinquent for non-payment of the tax.

With all the modern appliances, the excavating of a canal is a very simple matter; but at that early day, with the primitive methods then in vogue, it was a great undertaking. The greater part of the excavating was accomplished with the spade, shovel and wheelbarrow, operated by the sons of the Emerald Isle, a large number of whom were imported for the express purpose from "York State." Bulkheads or dams were built at each end of the canal, and earth partitions or bulkheads were left at different points as long as possible. The sections so divided off were kept free from water by horse-power pumps, as the work progressed. After all the earth possible had been removed from between the two dams at the end of the canal, they were broken through and the water let in, and the remainder was excavated by means of a horse

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power dredge. The horse-power dredge complete consisted of two scows, one about 50 feet long and 25 foot beam, with an opening similar to a center board box about 6 feet wide and 25 feet long, and a little aft of the middle of the scow. Through this opening a large scrapershaped excavator with long arms was operated. The arms were secured at the after end of the opening with pins, and were of sufficient length so that the scraper could be let down to the bottom of the canal to a depth of 12 or 14 feet in a position to scrape; the scraper was connected with chains to a crank at the forward part of the opening.

The other scow was improvised from an old scow that had been used in the coasting trade to Toledo and Sandusky. A capstan was set up in it so that it extended from the bottom of the boat up through the deck. The drum, or part around which the line wound, was on deck. The four sweeps to operate it were in the hole, and were arranged so that a horse could be hitched to each sweep, and the horses moving around in a circle turned the drum on deck. This scow was anchored securely in the canal, and a line made fast to it passed over a sheave on the dredge scow a short distance off, and back around the drum, so as to give a double purchase in towing the dredge scow.

When everything was in readiness, the scraper was let down to the bottom of the canal, the dredge scow made fast to the other scow by passing a line over the sheave and around the drum, the horses hitched to the sweeps in the hole of the scow. The horses then walked around with the sweeps and wound up the line about the drum, steadily drawing the dredge scow forward and causing the scraper to scrape along the bottom of the canal and fill itself with dirt. When the crew on the dredge scow thought the scraper was full enough, they took hold of the crank and with the chains attached to the scraper hoisted it up into the opening, as a center board is raised in a sailing vessel, and then with long poles poled the dredge scow off into the "old river" channel, opened a dump or door in the scraper and let the dirt out, then poled her back again to the canal in position ready to scrape up another load. A horse-power dredge of another patron was used for a while, but the one above described, invented by H. W. Campbell and used by Messrs. Campbell and Strong

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in their work, was considered the best. It was estimated that when the scraper was well filled every three linear feet of it contained a cubic yard of earth.

In 1850 a committee consisting of H. V. Man, C. G. Johnson, A. A. Rabineau, I. R. Grosvenor and R. O'Connor, were appointed at a public meeting to investigate into the true financial condition of the city, its indebtedness, and if possible the causes of such indebtedness, in order that our citizens may be enabled in future to guard against a repetition of like evils.

I give below an extract from the report of the committee in regard to the canal loan, canal expenditures, etc., in order that the present generation may see that if we do not manage our city government at the present time infinitely better than our fathers did, we do fully as well, and that there are probably no more jobs and politics in the city government as it is now conducted than there were when our forefathers held down the aldermanic chairs.

EXTRACT FROM REPORT.

It seems to have been contemplated when the charter of our city was obtained in the year 1837, to procure a loan or vote a tax for the completion of the ship canal previously commenced by the General Government, as we find in the act of incorporation provision made for a loan or tax, not exceeding $50,000. A movement was made in 1838 under this authority. The first step taken by the council, after a vote in its favor purporting to have been made by the people, was on the 20th day of August, 1838, appointing an agent to proceed East to negotiate a loan of $25,000. This was effected by said agent by an exchange of the bonds of the city for the stock of the North American Trust and Banking Company of the city of New York for a similar amount. The stock of the Trust Company was then pledged to the Mechanics and Farmers' Bank, of Albany, and a loan obtained of $25,000, said stock being held as collateral security and the city said to be responsible for the depreciation that might arise from a fall in the market value of the same. A further guaranty was required by the bank at Albany and claimed to have been given in behalf of the city by several gentlemen residing at Troy and Albany, they being owners of property near the present landing

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