Evening journal., 1912-11-12
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
The Incident That Gave
America a Famous Canal
Builder
BY Holland.

The late Commodore Alfred Van
Santyoord began the career in which
he accumulated one of the great for
tunes of New York as the owner and
manager of canal boats operating
upon the line OF the Erie canal While
still a lad in his teens Commodore
Van SantyoOrd was employed by his
father as clerk Of a canal boat COM
pany which began operations soon
after the opening of the Erie canal in
1925. The construction of this canal
across central New York. connecting
the Great Lakes and the Hudson Riy-
er, opened up the development of the
canal system in this country. It was
as the owner of the largest steamboat
line operating on the Hudson that
Commodore Van SantyOord made the
bulk OF his fortune
Among my earliest recollectiOns of
life on the Erie canal" said the Com
modore TO me few years before his
death in 1901, at the age Of eighty
two, were stories OF the manner in
which BENJAMIN Wright surveyed and
actually built part of the Erie canal
which runs from Rome, ~ Y, to the
Ne'ADA A'i ihiilho at AOHOtht ntdIiN
opposite Troy. In those early days
Benjamin Wright was quite as much
talked of in connection with the Erie
canal as was Governor De Witt Clin-
ton himself. whose energy and per-
sistency caused the canal to be built.
| remember my father once telling me
that Governor Clinton said shortly af-
ter the Erie canal was completed that
If it had not been for Benjamin
Wright the work might have been
delayed many years.
1T was my good fortune to meet
Mr.. Wright when he was about sew
onty years Of age and have a most
interesting chat with him When |
met him he had, in addition to the
Erie canal, constructed the canal
which ran from Northampton to New
Haven, Conn had assisted in the con-
structlon of the Delaware and Hudson
canal and had aided i'm the survey of
the Chesapeake and Ohio canal.
lie told me one extraordinarily IN
teresting circumstance which ex-
planned the manner in which he first
became intereted in canal construc-
tion. Born in a town on the banks
OF the Connecticut River. when a lad
IN his teens he went with his father
upon a little excursion along the west
side of the Connecticut. The river
was navigabie to a point about ten
miles above Hartford; there RAPIDS
obstructed further navigation While
he and his father stood looking at
the rapids from the shore, his father
said to him:
Benjamin, If they would only dig
a ten-fOOt deep ditch around these
rapids, then packet boats could sail
from Springfield straight through to
Long Island Sound.
That chance remark caused Benia-
min Wright, lad though he was. to
give great deal Of thought to the
way IN which a ditch might be dug
around rapids in the river. He fin
ally decided that when he became of
age he would set about the construc-
ton Of just the kind of ditch to
which his father referred
But the family removed TO a farm
somewhere near Syracuse New York.
when Benjamin was about twenty
years of age On the way thither
they Travelled along the banks of the
Mohawk River. Benjamin's atten-
ton was directed to that river. and
he even then determined that, at the
earliest opportunity. when he could
get a little money together, he would
see what he could do toward building
ditch around the rapids of the Mo-
hawk, another one around the rapids
of the Black river, and third to con-
meet the two rivers, so that he could
get a channel big enough for packet
boats to float from Lake Ontario di-
rectly to the Hudson via the Mo-
hawk He was only twenty-five or
three years of age when he started
about this work, but he could find no
capital to help him.
Some fifteen or twenty years later
his plans came to the notice of De
Witt Clinton, who instantly realized
how feasible they were Some years
later Mr. Wright was employed by
Governor Clinton to make the first
survey of what is known as the Erie
canal along the Mohawk Valley, and
it was he who selected Cohoes New
York, as the place for the eastern
terminal of the canal
"Mr. Wright was always convinced
that if it had not been for that ex-
sursion up the Connecticut with his
father when he was a lad he never
would have become interested in
canal construction"
Copyright, 1912. by L. j. Edwards.
All rights reserved.)
Tomorrow Mr. Edwards will tell
"A story Of the First Appalling
C-t,.,,,t.o.. Ao.fJopfu