The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1878-01-12


and in the Fall of 1925 contracted with
other persons for the completion of the
unfinished part of it. This action of the
company caused Randel to sue it for dam
ages, and after years of litigation he recov-
cred damages in January, 1884, to the
amount of more than two hundred and
twenty-six thousand dollars. The suit be-
tween Randel and the canal company,
which was tried in the Superior Court at
New Castle, is one of the most celebrated
being celebrated as well on account of the
amount of money involved in it as on &C
count of the eminent counsel employed by
the parties concerned, in it.
John Randel, Jr., bS-Ihich cognomen
he was known till the day of his densss was
possessed of much skill as a civil engineer,
though strange and eccentric, and full of
Ctopian schemes and projects. He after
wards became the proprietor of " Randa-
lia," which was large tract of land on
Bohemia Manor, near the mouth of Back
creek and south of that stream. His sue
cess in prosecuting mis- suit againt the canal
company appears to have made him fond of
litigation, and for many years after he be-
came proprietor of Randalia," he was
seldom without law suit on hand. Ow-
ing to his success in this suit with the
canal company he was placed in posses
sion of a competency, most of which he
squandered in the prosecution of wild chi
merical schemes for self ACKNOWLEDGEMENT,
which it would have taken many hundreds
| of thousands of dollars to have brought to
successful conclusion. At one time, while
Mr.. Randel was proprietor of Randalia,
he had steam saw mill in operation there,
and somehow he unfortunately lost breast
pin, which he valued very highly. Work
was Immediately stopped at Randalia, and
everybody in his employ was set to work
! hunting for the lost breast pin. His hands
| from the mill were set to work sitting an
| immense pile of saw dust, the accumula-
ton of years. in order to fluid the lost jewel.
After much tribulation the long lost and
much-esteemed bauble was found in the
| p'SstSoioh VI sum- PoiSohb VIM ooiu Nv
| found it along the road some distance from
| Randalia, where no doubt its owner had
| dropped it. The chance for law suit was
not to be lost, however, and the conteu-
tous Randel laid his case before the next
| grand Jury with the intention of having
the person who found it indicted for theft.
but the grand jury very wisely dismissed
| the case.
Though Randel was the engineer who
| surveyed the route for the canal and made
| the plans and estimates for its coustruc-
ton. when he became contractor for the
performance of the work, the company EN-
| ployed Benjamin Wright to act as engineer,
under whose superintendence the work was
completed on the 18th of October 1929.
| This important work is thirteen and five
eighths of mile long, and was made at
the cost of So,250,000 Its construction
was a work of great difficulty, owing to
the pecuiarties of the land through which
| the eastern part of it is made. Large sec
tons of the entertainments along the sides
| of it are said to have sunk As much as
hundred feet below the adjoining surface,
which caused the excavation to rise as
much as forty feet above its natural posi-
ton. This led to much trouble and delay
in the completion of the work: nor was
this the Gully trouble, for the earth taken
out of the deep cut which at the Summit is
seventy six and a half feet deep, was depos
~, ,a,1,D Of Nd
it is estimated that during the construc
ton of the work three hundred and sew
| enty-tive thousand cubic yards of it slid
| back into the canal and had to be again
removed. For many years after the com
| petion of the work, these immense noun
tain-like piles of earth had an ugly habit
of sliding into the canal, and at one time
the company had many acres of them
| matched with straw, like an Irish cabin, to
keep them dry and render them tenacious
enough to maintain the position in which
they were originally placed. Much stone
was required for walling parts of the exca-
walton, a great deal of which was obtained
IN the vicinity of Marley mill and Cherry
| Hill, and was hauled to the western part of
the canal in four horse wagons. These
stone were purchased by weight and
weighed upon immense scales constructed
| for the purpose. The scales were large
enough to hold wagon loaded with stone,
| and were constructed with wooden beam
similar to a steelyard; the loaded wagon
| was driven upon the platform and weighed,
and after being unloaded weighed again,
the difference in weight showing the weight
of the load Of stone. The Summit or Buck
bridge, across the canal at the deep cut.
WAS nearly ninety feet above the bottom of
the canal aud two hundred and forty seven
feet long. 1t was considered a StupendOus
structure fifty years ago, when the Pacific
Railroad had not been thought of and our
vast system of public improvement were in
their infancy. People that were school
| children forty years ago will recollect the
picture of this bridge that was in a popu
lar geography that was much used at that
| time. Most of the men engaged in the
construction of this important work have
long since died. few of them yet remain,
and from them the writer has obtained
many of the facts embodied in this sketch
Amongst the many distinguished citizens
| connected with the construction of this
canal that survived till a very recent date
was John r. Price, who spent nearly all OF
a long and useful life in the service of the
canal company, being employed in his early
youth in an humble capacity by one of the
contractors. He raised himself, by hon
estly attending to his business, to the posi-
ton of superintendent, which responsible
Office he held for many years and till the
time of his death. QUILP.
A TINE HoNORED SPECIFIC.-The long
and successful career of DR.. WIsHAKT's
PINE TREE TAR CORDIAL, as contrasted
with the speedy collapse of nostrums de-
void of efficacy Inch have from time to
time been pulled into a brief notorety dur
| ing the twenty odd wears that this cele-