Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-09-20


fluous compliments mountain high. Messrs
Donnelly, of Milwood, and Mccormick, o
Altoona, were appointed an Auditing Com
mittee, and, before the expiration OF tht
outgoing administration, declared its fnan
cial operations o. K.
President Hill read from the Apollo Her.
aid letter from George Nelson Smith, the
pioneer boatman of the Western division oil
the PENNSYLVANIA canal. Mr.. Smith lives
in Philadelphia, and is 81 years old, but
| though too old to attend the reunions, he
always sends a letter. In the one read yes
terday, evidences were thick that reminis-
cences crowded thick and fast over the
memory tablet of the ancient mariner. He
stated that the first canal boat that ever
plowed the western division of the canal
was built in 1929, on the east bank of the
Kiskeminetas, in front of the village of
Warren, now Apollo. She was built
by order of Patrick Leonard, a promi-
nent merchant of Pittsburg. The boat
was named General Abner Lacock,
after one of the Canal Commissioners.
She was exclusively passenger boat, with
a gentlemen's and ladies cabin of elegant
workmanship, in the stern-cabin style of
the times. Mr.. Leonard put a New York
canal boatman in command, Benjami E.
Belts, and Mr.. Smith was appointed second
in command. AS the Allegheny division of
the canal was not complete for several weeks
after the launch of the Lacock, Messrs.
Belts and Smith put IN the time in excur-
sion trips between Warren and Leechburg.
The remainder of the long letter is devoted
to retrospection and prediction.
THE DAYS OF AULD LANG sYNE.
Routine business being over, the silver
j.. l.l
Captain j. NJ. Hanna SAYS he is the oldest
regular canal boatman living. He began
his boating career in 1888, just 53
years ago, and is the only survivor
of the packet line with which he
was connected, General J. K. Moorhead be-
ing the last member of the line that died.
The boats with which he was connected
transported material used in the construc-
tion of the Portage Railway that carried
section boats over the Allegheny Noun
tains. Captain Hanna helped Henry Clay
on his way to Washington in 1886, and was
on the packet, James Madison, which con-
veyed the corpse of President William
Henry Harrison to its rest in the Ohio Val
ley in 1S41 Captain Hanna got into Pitts
burg on the first trip of a regular packet of
tie line on st. Patrick's Day, 1885, The
line was composed of the passenger boats
Pittsburg, Cincinnati and Niagara. In
1888 Captain Hanna carried Brigham
Young part of his way from New York
to Nauvoo to join Joe Smith, the Mormon
prophet. Brigham hadn't then achieved
notoriety, nor had he met Amelia
Rev. A. Getty, of Salisbury, began active
life as canal-boatman in 1S43. He drove
mules at salary of S7'a month for three
months, and at the end of that time his en-
ployers were unable to pay him in full, and
he took their note for $40 of a remainder
and carried it until principal and interest
amounted to S11, when it was paid. He
spent 81 so of that amount In Pittsburg for
barrel of -four for his mother, and in
vested the remainder in an interest in a
section-boat, and from this investment his
fortune took its rise. Rev. Getty attempted
to impress MS audience with sense of
what frugailty and energy might do, but |
the idea of man saving money |
to go into business on a salary of |
81 a month was too much for the COM
prehension of the younger part of his |
auditors and smiles of incredulity four feet |
in diameter surrounded their countenances
like an aureole. After laudation of Penn |
svlvania for her prosecution of public i'm |
provements Mr.. Getty subsidized. To those |
who remember the average canal mule |
driver and his
vARIEGATED PROFANITY,
the step between that avocation and that of |
q minister of the gospel may seem a long
one. but they may remember that President |
Garfield drove on the canal, went to college,
became a preacher, lawyer, general in the |
army, Congressman and finally President.
and yet died young.
DR.. Moore, of Butler, told his experience
on the canal and a funny story, and then
Scooted for a train. Hon. William Don
nelly, brother of DR.. Donnelly, of Latrobe,
recounted the advance of material progress
since the building of the Pennsylvania
Canal.
John S. Free, of Salisbury, who was born
on the Yough, two miles above McKeesport,
81 years ago. told of the great time his craft
had made on the raging canal, 105 miles in
p hours, notwithstanding passage through
many locks. Major Nesbit, of Livermore,
who is over so years of age, but whose eye is
yet bright and his natural force but little
abated, told how he had helped to build the
canal, hauling hickory logs so feet long to
put into the Tunnel dam, which logs are
still in a good state of preservation, and
also told how he had helped to build the
West Penn Railway after the long wait for
.he completion of it under the name of the
\ Northwestern Railway.
Letters were read from two of the original
ooatmen, Captain Burkey, of Minneapolis.
md Captain Keely, of Leechburg. Less
han half a dozen OF the pioneer boatmen
Ire now living. The canal boat wasn't fast,
,ut, like the ciDae1 lectuldrus, it got there
III the same, and it was eminently safe.
some passenger packets carried 250 pas
engers, and freighter 40 to 80 tons cargo.
During most of the boating season the
cenery was delightful, and a trip from
3ittsburg to Philadelphia was never for
often.
The ancient mariners after being ashore
o years had gotten their land-legs, and
Apollo being dry town, by act of Assem-
ly, all walked steadily, and the old girls
Thom the boatmen didn't leave behind
hem enjoyed the occasion equally with
heir spouses.
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