Much of what we know of life onboard the Erie Canal boats has been handed down from generation to generation, either as oral history or if we are lucky, through letters and journals. Such is the case in a series of letters that have been preserved by the Klingenschmitt family from Shawnee Road. They received some very early correspondence written by their progenitors, the Pickard family, who operated boats on the canal and lived near “Pickard's Bridge,” along the current Tonawanda Creek Road. The letters were written by Jacob and Catharine Pickard's granddaughter. Jacob and Catharine were the first Pickard family members to settle in Niagara County in the early 1800s. Her letter follows.
“My father owned a canal boat. Its name was Gold Coin. They (first) lived on the boat in winter as well as summer. During the winter my father bought 50 acres of woods from the Land Company. Then he cut down trees for the barn and for the horses, and that gave them a place to build the log barn. The men cut trees all winter and cut them up into cordwood. Father wanted to clear the land for a garden.”
“As soon as navigation opened, the boat was loaded with cord wood and taken east in Tonawanda Creek and the canal to Lockport where they sold the load. At Lockport they loaded the boat with stone for a new stone house on the land the men had cleared of trees near the log barn. After navigation closed and the boat was tied up for the winter, mother decided she did not want to live on the boat another winter. There was no other place to live but the log barn. The men cleaned the barn and whitewashed it. They put in windows and doors and then it was quite comfortable and warm. Mother called it her “barn house.” In the spring they moved on the boat again and carried cordwood east and again picked up stone at Lockport. I might state here that Lockport's stone was shipped as far east as New York City by canal and Hudson River. The first three buildings of the Presbyterian Hospital in NYC we built of Lockport stone. The Chicago Court House and many other buildings in Great Lakes' cities were constructed of our stone.”
“Father brought back a load of stone every two weeks and the men worked long hours on the house. Roads were being surveyed and Father gave land for the road. He named it the Sweet Home Road. The stone house was on the corner of this road and the Tonawanda Creek Road, just across the creek in Erie County. On Oct. 20, 1847 the house was finished. Father tied up the boat for the season so he could help move into the new stone house. The men then resumed cutting trees to clear the land. A log bridge was built across the Creek to drive over.”
“In the fall when the boat was tied up for the winter, father butchered seven or eight hogs. Uncle David Pickard and Uncle Sylvanus Pickard came across the Niagara County side of the creek and helped. Uncle David made the sausage and Uncle Sylvanus rendered out the lard in an iron kettle. There was meat and sausage everywhere. The whole job of killing and taking care of the meat and lard took about four days.”
“Father had forty sheep. They had good pasture and plenty of water from the creek, so they only had to be brought up to the barn in May when they to be washed in the creek. It was a big job. Father would tie up the boat for the day. It took two men to bring a sheep to the creek, and two men standing in the water for one sheep. They washed the sheep with soap and water until the wool was clean. The sheep were then put in a clover field until the wool was dry. Then the shearing began. After the sheep were all shorn the fleece was spread out in the air until Father came back from Buffalo with the boat loaded for Rochester. He took the fleece to Lockport to the carding mill. At this time there were no less than 10 firms in Lockport who were buying wool. The first wool carder was Jabez Pomroy who lived on the Leete Road and he had a small carding mill at the base of the falls in the creek. That was in 1818. In 1825, after the canal was finished, he built a mill in the lock basin.
Doug Farley is director of the Erie Canal Discovery Center. Contact him at 434-7433. The Discovery Center is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Canal Discovery w/ Doug Farley
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CANAL DISCOVERY: Garrity, cook — part two
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