Help Wanted: Canal Building
Chief Engineer, Contractors, Workers
Hello, everyone, and welcome to another edition of Canal Stories, a series brought to you by the Canal Corridor Association to celebrate the 175th anniversary of the Illinois & Michigan Canal and the communities that were shaped by its legacy. It’s no secret that the construction of the I&M Canal was a huge undertaking for the state of Illinois, requiring funding, planning, and most importantly, manpower. Today, we’re going to do a little job shadowing as we take a look at some of the various occupations that were available during the construction of the I&M Canal, starting with the engineers.
The chief engineer for the I&M Canal was responsible for successful completion of all construction activities related to the 96-mile canal. This massive undertaking entailed digging the 96-mile ditch and constructing seventeen locks, four feeder canals, and four aqueducts, along with other vital structures, including dams, culverts, bridges, locktender houses, and a pumping station at Bridgeport. As you can imagine, such a job came with its fair share of obstacles, from engineering, financial, and political difficulties, to a shortage of laborers and qualified contractors.
The chief engineer had to keep track of countless details and take care of any issues that arose. He had to choose the best canal route, give specifications for construction of locks, aqueducts, and dams, estimate water supply from various rivers and design feeder canals to bring water to the canal, hire and supervise resident engineers, approve bids and contractors, and handle disputes between laborers and contractors. He also had to regularly report on his progress to the canal commissioners and to state lawmakers.
Travel was also a requirement of the job, whether it was a visit to the various canal towns, a trip to Springfield, or a journey out of state. One engineer took a lengthy trip to St. Louis, Louisville, Cincinnati, Pittsburg, Cleveland, Buffalo, Albany, New York City, and Philadelphia to examine various hydraulic works in preparation for planning the hydraulic works at Bridgeport, which were needed to pump water from the Chicago River into the canal.
William Gooding, who had worked as an engineer on the Erie Canal, was employed by the I&M Canal to exercise overall day-to-day supervision of the canal project. While his offices were at the commission's headquarters in Lockport, operations were broken down into three divisions: the Summit (which covered Chicago to Lockport), the Middle (covering Joliet to Marseilles) and the Western (from Seneca to LaSalle). Three resident engineers were hired to oversee work on each of these divisions.
Gooding’s salary of $3,500 per year, plus expenses, the largest in state government at the time, caused considerable jealousy among state lawmakers. Shortly after the canal opened in 1848, Gooding's moment of triumph was spoiled when he was fired as chief engineer, the victim of a politically-motivated smear campaign. Later that year, the independent Canal Trustees appointed him Secretary, a position he served until 1871.
Next, we look at another vital cog in the employment wheel, the contractors. Contractors were responsible for a variety of construction activities associated with the building of the canal. This included excavating the canal channel, building lock chambers and lock gates, and constructing bridges, feeder canals, dams, aqueducts, and locktender houses. Job notices for this specific work were advertised in local newspapers, as well as in newspapers in the eastern U.S.
Once awarded a contract, contractors faced a variety of challenges, such as finding qualified labor in a sparsely settled area, procuring housing and food, and supervising inebriated, often hostile workers who threatened bodily harm. Contractors also had to secure all tools, materials, and supplies necessary for the job, like shovels, wheelbarrows, timber, and stone. Illnesses that swept disastrously over the canal line created even greater scarcity of labor and made completion of work even more difficult. Because many of the contractors had little experience in building or construction, some of their estimates for the work fell short of the actual costs—an experience that ruined many of them.
By 1839, funding for the canal had nearly run out, and the Canal Commissioners paid contractors with canal scrip. These checks were drawn on the credit of the Illinois and Michigan Canal and were payable whenever funds became available. Their face values were accepted when purchasing canal lands, but on the open market, they were traded at less than par value. In 1842, this value was as low as 15 cents on the dollar. Contractors who paid their men in cash were stuck with the scrip.
Many important figures in Illinois history were canal contractors, including William B. Ogden, Hiram Norton, George Barnet, George Armour, Joel Matteson, William Reddick, John Hossack, and Nathaniel Brown.
Finally, we come to the unsung heroes of canal building, the canal laborers. Without the aid of machinery, canal laborers worked 12 hours a day, six days a week, for just $1 a day. Although there were many tasks involved in building the canal, excavating the 96-mile long, six-foot deep canal "ditch" was undoubtedly the biggest.
Before the actual digging of the canal could begin, workers grubbed and cleared the land, which involved the felling of trees and removal of rocks and brush. Once teams of mules broke the ground, the men began the arduous task of digging the canal with picks and shovels. The soil and clay were used to build embankments for the towpath, with the excess being loaded into wheelbarrows for removal, and explosive black powder was used to blast through the 400 million-year-old dolomite limestone at the eastern end of the canal.
As you can imagine, working conditions were less than favorable. Autumnal fevers (known nowadays as malaria) disabled and killed workers, and in several years, cholera and typhus epidemics ravaged the camps. Poisonous massasauga rattlesnakes posed a threat, and in marshy areas, canal diggers often ended up covered in leeches. The summer months brought heat and high humidity, making work unbearable, along with mosquitoes and biting flies. Many workers demanded to have whiskey as part of their provisions, on the grounds that it was medicinal and would protect them from fevers and illness. In a report to the canal commission, one resident engineer made a note about endeavors to raise funds to build a hospital for those who were sick or injured by accidents. In 1838 alone, between 700 and 1,000 canal workers died on the line.
Laborers and their families often lived in utter squalor. One contemporary commentator said of an Irish shantytown near Utica that "a more repulsive scene we had not for a long time beheld ... The number of persons congregated here were about 200, including men, women, and children, and these were crowded together in 14 or 15 log huts, temporarily erected for their shelter. .. I never saw anything approaching to the scene before us, in dirtiness and disorder ... whisky and tobacco seemed the chief delights of the men; and of the women and children, no language could give an adequate idea of their filthy condition, in garments and person."
A popular saying at the time stated that to build a canal you needed four things: a shovel, a pick, a wheelbarrow, and an Irishman. Although the Irish who worked on the Erie and other eastern canals are most associated with the building of the I&M Canal, many different ethnic groups played a role in its construction, including German, Norwegians, and the French. Most were unskilled, unmarried, and poor. When money ran out, laborers were paid with canal scrip, which could be cashed in for 20-50 cents on the dollar, or redeemed at face value to purchase canal land. Many workers chose to trade their scrips in for plots of land, allowing them to establish farms and put down roots in the area.
That concludes today’s Canal Story. Thank you so much for joining us as we continue our journey through the history of the Illinois & Michigan Canal. If you’ve enjoyed this episode, pass it along to your family and friends, and we’ll see you again very soon.