NY-TROY-IRISH-GENSOC-L Archives

Archiver > NY-TROY-IRISH-GENSOC > 2007-01 > 1168914923


From: "Thomas J. Ebert" <>
Subject: Re: [NY-TROY-IRISH-GENSOC] Canal Workers - Irishmen - 1820's-1830's
Date: Mon, 15 Jan 2007 18:35:23 -0800 (PST)
In-Reply-To: <c59.b3de6ea.32dd7f05@aol.com>


Kitty

The main canal was completed in 1825 but after that a
number of spurs were dug including the Oswego (my home
town) Canal which was completed in 1828. But I imagine
spurs also linked the Genessee River, the Finger Lakes
and other waterways. Such work would have brought your
ancestor to the far Western New York area which
includes Wyoming County.

But even after the canal was completed, it needed
laborers to keep it open, boatman, and other laborers
to handle the animal teams that sometimes pulled the
barges along the canals.

For further reading,you might look at:

Bernstein, Peter L.
Wedding of the waters : the Erie Canal and the making
of a great nation New York : W.W. Norton, c2005.

Shaw, Ronald E.
Erie water west; a history of the Erie Canal,
1792-1854 [Lexington] University of Kentucky Press
[1966]
xii, 449 p. illus., map.

Svejda, George J.
Irish immigrant participation in the construction of
the Erie Canal, [Washington] Division of History, U.S.
Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation, 1969.
ix, 63 l.

Sheriff, Carol.
The artificial river : the Erie Canal and the paradox
of progress, 1817-1862 New York] : Hill and Wang,
1996.
xvii, 251 p. : ill., map

Tom Ebert

wrote:

> Dear Listers,
>
> I need a little history lesson.
>
> My gr gr grandfather (Dennis ROWAN) left Limerick
> and arrived in New York
> September 5, 1827. By app. 1830, he was in Troy. I
> have been told by a
> researcher that, given the time frame, Dennis
> probably worked on "the canal".
> Recently, on the Limerick Mailing List, there has
> been conversation re
> "boatloads of Irishman being brought over to work
> on the canals".
>
> Was there an influx of Irishmen to the Troy area
> during the late
> 1820's-early 1830's for the purpose of working on a
> canal? Is there any documentation
> regarding the building of the canal in the Troy area
> during that time frame?
>
> About 1838, Dennis left Troy and moved to western
> New York (Wyoming County),
> where he lived until his death in 1892. During his
> years in Wyoming County
> he was a farmer.
>
>
> Kitty
> Illinois
>
>
>
> ROWAN, COSTELLO, POWER
> ==== NY-TROY-IRISH-GENSOC Mailing List ====
> >Troy Irish Genealogy Society website
> >http://www.rootsweb.com/~nytigs/
>
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