The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1855-06-20
CITY OF EVANSVILLE.
WEDNESDAY NOMENCLATURE 20
clay county--The Canal--Regulators.

came to us as part of the letter published
yesterday:
There is no resisting the conclusion,
when the whole matter is viewed intell- /
gently and dispassionately, that Clay county
has been the benefited party by the con-
structiou of the public works within her
borders, to an extent which has at once
elevated it in the scale of counties, from
manifest inferiority to an enviable equality
with the average of the counties in the State.
The amount of feeder and canal navigation
in the county, including the slack-water navi-
CATION created en- Eel river by the erection
of a dam, by the Canal Company, is equal to
about thirty-five miles. Since the construc.
!. ton of the feeder from the junction at Plague
Creek Reservoir and the dam on Eel river,
making navigable channel of fifteen miles,
teaversing the County from north to south,
touching Bowlingreen, the County seat, and |
Belleair, another prominent point, both have
become large shipping points for the contgu-
GUS country. More than 200, 900 bushels of
grain was shipped by Canal from the above
points during the last year, part of which
time navigation was interrupted by similar !,
outrage to the one recently perpetrated.-
The cost of Transportation from Bowlingreen |
to Terre Haute, by Canal, is 81 cents per
bushel. Hitherto IL to Is cents has been
the ruling price by land carriage over the
mud roads. Large quantities of pork, lumber,
slaves, hay and potatoes, will be annually |
exported from this county if Canal aaviga-
ton is maintained, but heretofore, such |
articles of great bulk and small value would
not pay cost of transportation. The aver
age advance in lands lying in accessible |
proximity to the canal and feeders has been,
from 50 to $40 per acre. The proportion o
population in the county, that can by any
possibility be injured by the Reservoir of
which the citizens complain, (supposng it by
the most violent OF all Prescriptions to be the
infectious pest which they claim it to beg is
not more than one TO one hundred.
tiic men in the country whose attention has
been called to the subject, is, that the Re-
servoir, filled with water, will rather con-
duce to than detract from the health of the
surrounding country. No unprejudiced OBJ
server can avoid a full and hearty con-
currence in their judgment. Another trans
action which should forever silence the dis
affected miscreants who are without doubt
the authors and perpetrators of these out
RACES, is, that they have been compensated
by the Canal Company both for the value of
their property and all other real or imaginary
damages sustained by them, at prices Of their
own naming.
The great point which the citizens of Clay
county now attempt to make, and the only
subterfuge resorted to in extenuation of their
conduct is, that "the canal Trustees have
failed to fulfil an agreement to remove the
timber from the basin of the Reservoir" -
To this matter would invite especial atten-
ton. In the first place, in compliance with
the earnest request of the citizens of Clay
county, the canal Trustees entered into
contract with parties officially representing
the wishes of the aforesaid county, to grub
out the Reservoir for $3.50 per acre. This
agreement was entered into and signed by
the contracting parties. Subsequently the
contracting party or parties on behalf of the
citizens of Clay county, insisted upon con-
siderations in which they alone were to be
benefited, and the Trustees declined to
accede to them, whereupon they receded
from their contract and declined to do the
work, but again renewed their grievances.
During all this time the agents ofthe canal
interest were busily engaged in settling the
damages of claimants, and as before stated
on terms of their own making, but still re-
Cancellation was not effected. second
contract was finally entered into for the
grubbing of the Reservoir. In this also a
Clay county man was the real contractor
The work was commenced; large quantity
of timber was felled, but not removed or
burned, and this contract was also abandond
The Trustees advanced means literally to
tho contractor to the amount of $500, and
were ever ready to comply with their agree
ment in every essential particular, and the
only reward they received for their liberality
and good faith was, the loss of their money
and their Reservoir left in worse condition
than it was originally. These are the cir.
cumstances under which they are now charg.
ed with not fulfilling their contracts, and with
acting in bad faith.
1t is under such cirrnnstancoa inf tho cit