Evening star., 1943-10-24
C>& O. Canal Reopening Recalls Early Days
il at Cumberland for


committed to jail at Cumberland for
trial"
Besides these riots and battles there
are occasional reports of the lndentured
laborers running away from the canal
project and their recapture and return
by police and company agents. On one
occasion serious difficulties arose in
Baltimore where a group of patriots
forcibly intewened and freed the
laborers, who in their views were being
treated as slave labor
In the early l830s the laborers In
large numbers fell victim to the dreaded
cholera because of unSanitary living
conditions Work had to be suspended
several times because of the depletion
of the labor force. The second annual
report devotes attention to this health
problem and to means of improving the
situation 1t was thus reported that
the work on many of the heavy Sec
tionS was entirely suspended: the labor
ers on the line were very much alarmed
and many of them were daily leaving
the canal" hospital was finally
sum of 25 cents month deducted from
the pay of each laborer Physicians
were employed to care for the sick, who
were formally reported to the Super
intendent of Imported Laborers."
The gravity of the cholera menace
: can be better appreciated when one
i reads the accounts of mass meeting
# in HagerstoWn where the citizenry was
4 aroused over the menace to health oc-
4 Casioned by numerous interments OF
& cholera victims in their town. At
8 public meeting held on July IT, 1888,
3 they demanded passage of an "ordi-
B nance declaring it nuisance TO bury
any persons within the limits of the
corporation who have died upon the
Il line of the canal" The Canal Company
3 needed this protest and established
small graveyards at points along the
Z canal.
B Mail Service.
81 The numerous letters from the Post
81 Office Department relative to service
M and Offices along the canal differs little
NJ from the current interest in expediting
II mail to the soldiers and sailors overseas
81 and in training. The following encour-
#3$ aging letter was sent to President Mer-
81 Ger on September %, 1929 by the Office
& of Mail Contracts of the Post Office
Department: The Postmaster General
is aware of the great Importance of a
u direct and regular mail communication
=, with this city to the persons engaged
= on the canal q. .. The contractor is now
iDet +ol
along the line of the canal on horse
back and to begin the service at once
III One can visualize a version of tha
"" Pony Express kicking up the dust along
the toWpath. bringing news from
home" to the canal laborers Another
letter to Mercer advises him of the
. establishment of Post Offices at Bear
Island Great Falls and Seneca Mills
Much has been written about the f.
nanclng of the canal, particularly the
difficulties in obtaining Federal funds
l. and subscriptions to stock. Strenuou,
le efforts were made to obtain loans
IT, abroad, particularly in London and Am.
g. Sterdam. Richard Rush. American Min.
Sc lister to the Netherlands. in a letter t.
rs Mr.. Mercer, recites his difficulties In hi
Sc endeavors to obtain subscriptions tt
Mt canal stock. Nothing is more certain
ou than that the enormous failures il
I'd South American projects of all kind
I'd that the English and Dutch money
n, lenders have had a hand in for ever
s. the latter have been burnt by them
Mt little have had a bad influence on m
ire efforts
Maryland to the Rescue.
~ Financial difficulties were overcom
ed through the generous initial support c
Nv the interested cities and States. Mary
land came to the rescue on several oc
casions, subscribing over S6OO0,OOO b
1889. All operating profits through tn
years were applied to the canals hug
~ Indebtedness. AS consequence the
W were unprepared to meet the cost
w. repairs to canal works caused by tr
he freshets of 1877 and in 1885, After som
oh delav on eacb occasion tho ,oc....,
eS. repairs were made.
OF The final curtain was drawn in 10.
US when the canal ceased operatons-ti
no loser in an unequal struggle with rs
vas competitors. In 1888 the Federal Go,
'ne ernment purchased the right of WI
Inc and rehabilitated and reopened f
'dy pleasure craft the % miles of can
lad between GEORGETOWN and Seneca G.
elr eral breaks In the canal caused by la
at springs flood were finally repaired Sc
me eral weeks ago, thus giving this O
sral historic landmark another hreothi,
md spell.