The Delaware and Hudson Canal Company
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Introduction by Richard Foy
The story of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company is
peripheral to the story of the Payne estate. While processing
early deeds in 2001, I noticed that a Maria Wurts purchased the
land now under the Payne mansion in 1820 and held it until 1837
when she sold it to John D. Pell. I hoped to connect her to the
Wurts brothers Maurice, William and Charles who spearheaded
the construction of the Delaware and Hudson Canal. By 2011 I
have given up hope of making the connection.
If you Google or Bing the D & H, you will find a great many sites
describing the canal, some of which are accurate, many of which
are misleading statements or judgments on the history.
Carrere & Hastings developed the Payne estate dependent on
coal for heating and also used coal to generate electricity. There
was a single electric generating plant for the estate, but each
building had its own furnace powered by coal.
Near the river landing owned by Mrs. Pratt, there was a large
stone building with a wooden roof we called the coal dock. This
was built when the estate was developed. The coal was
downloaded from barges, stored in the stone building, then
trucked up to the buildings. Trucks would follow the older path
from the dock to the Pratt house and maintenance area along a
serpentine path originally designed to reduce the uphill climb for
horse and ca rt in the Pratt era.
There was some coal on the floor of the building in 1942, but we
never used that system. It was abandoned in favor of railroad





delivery well before the Marist Brothers purchased the grounds in
1942.
When my brother Peter and I first attended Marist Preparatory in
September 1942, (he a sophomore standing 6'4" and I a
freshman reaching 4' 11 "), students were expected to help out to
maintain the grounds. Peter and several taller, stronger students
were often selected to take an ancient truck named Molly to the
Esopus railroad station and unload coal from a waiting car, then
distribute it to each building.
Among the taller and stronger students were Peter Stafford,
Jimmy Bree, Gene Connelly, Vinny DiMaso and my brother. This
group also often were assigned the task of splitting the logs used
to supplement the coal, as coal was somewhat at a premium
during the war years.
There is a time disconnect between the year that the D&H Canal
ceased transporting coal from Pennsylvania ( 1904) and the Payne
estate was developed (1911). So we don't know how many years
the coal dock was used, or whether the coal came from Kingston.
When I returned during the summers of 1951 - 1954 to work on
construction of additions to the English Village, coal was used for
heating the buildings, but gas lines had been strung from route
9W to power the stoves. Eventually all the buildings switched
over to oil heat.
Excerpts from Arthur G. Adams,
The Hudson Through the Years
The Delaware & Hudson Canal, completed in 1828, was the
brainchild of two brothers, Maurice and William Wurts, who
owned extensive anthracite fields in northeastern Pennsylvania.
At that time anthracite was not generally recognized as a feasible
fuel.


The Wurts brothers demonstrated its clean burning qualities to a
group of investors in New York City in 1823, and immediately
gained backing for construction of a canal from the coal fields to
tidewater at Rondout Creek -- a total of 108 miles. There were to
be 109 locks, fifteen aqueducts, and fourteen boat basins. The
canal was to be 4 feet deep and 20 feet wide at the bottom and
36 feet wide at water level. The bed was to be lined with clay to
prevent seepage and care was to be taken that this would not be
undermined by otters, beavers, muskrats, moles, or other
aquatic animals. The line was to be paralleled by the new
telegraph and this was to be used for dispatching.
Philip Hone, soon to become Mayor of New York City, was elected
the first President of the Canal Company in 1825. He was a
personal friend of Washington Irving's and a close observer of
contemporary life. His famous diary is a valuable source of
information on the period. The new town at the coalfield end of
the canal was named Honesdale in his honor. This engineering
marvel was worked upon by such famous engineers as John
Bloomfield Jervis, Horatio Allen, America's first locomotive
engineer, Benjamin Wright, a famous surveyor, and John
Roebling, developer of the suspension bridge and builder of
Brooklyn Bridge.
Honesdale was connected with the mine area by a gravity
railroad, whereon the loaded cars rolled down to the canal by
gravity. The empty cars were hauled by a combination of cables
and winches on inclined planes in the steep sections, and by one
of the first steam locomotives used in the United States, the
Stourbridge Lion, in the less steep sections. The locomotive was
built in England. Horatio Allen, the first locomotive engineer, was
also a practical mechanical engineer -- not merely an engine
driver. He later made many practical improvements in locomotive
design, starting a tradition on the Delaware & Hudson. On August
8, 1829, he drove the first steam powered train to move in
America.


From Honesdale the canal followed along Lackawaxen Creek to
Hawley and Lackawaxen, on the Delaware. Here it crossed the
river and followed the north bank of the Delaware downstream to
Port Jervis, along the foot of the towering Hawks Nest Cliffs. A
right of way had to be blasted out of sheer rock faces, and the
hard-drinking Irish construction workers had numerous bloody
fights with the raftsmen on the Delaware, who resented the canal
as an obstruction to navigation. From Port Jervis the canal
followed the Neversink River, Basher Kill, Homowack, Sandburg,
and Rondout Creeks to Eddyville, near Kingston. At Rondout was
located the famous Island Dock where the coal was unloaded
from the canal boats and was stored prior to transshipment via
coastal schooners and river barges, pulled by tow boats, such as
the old sidewheeler Norwich. This made Rondout the major port
on the mid-Hudson, and home base of the famous Cornell line of
towboats.
The canal followed the northwestern foot of the Shawangunk
Mountains for many miles. Many remains can be seen in the form
of old locks, earthworks, and bridge abutments. However, there
are very few water-filled sections left. It is largely paralleled by
Routes 97, 209 and 213, although it would be necessary to often
use secondary roads to follow the route more closely. The old
Canal House Tavern at High Falls has been restored and reopened
as a restaurant, and the Delaware & Hudson Canal Society
operates an interesting museum at High Falls.
Eventually the dam which had been built across the Delaware
River at Lackawaxen, to provide slack water in the river upon
which the canal boats could be ferried across, proved too much
of a hindrance to river navigation and too expensive to maintain,
and was replaced by a suspension bridge that carried a water-
filled trough. This Roebling Aqueduct was completed in 1848. It
was designed by John Roebling and consisted of four spans
varying in length from 132 ft. to 142 ft. It is still in use today as
a vehicular bridge, the water trough having been removed, and
has been designated a National Historic Landmark. A toll is


charged. the Roebling Bridge takes PA route 590 across the
Delaware to connect with NY route 97. Roebling later used the
same suspension bridge technology to build the Brooklyn Bridge
and the Niagara Falls suspension bridge
Other Roebling suspension bridges were at Lackawaxen Creek
(1848-228 feet in two spans), Cuddebackville, across the
Neversink River (1850-170 ft. in one span), and across the
Rondout Creek at High Falls, where remains of the stone
foundations of the viaduct and several old locks may be seen.
From Lackawaxen, the route was as follows: Barryville, Pond
Eddy, Mongaup, Port Jervis, Huguenot, Godeffroy, Roses Point,
Cuddebackville, Westbrookville, Haven, Wurtsboro, Summitville
(formerly Beatysburg), Phillipsport, Ellenville, Napanoch,
Wawarsing, Kerhonkson, (formerly Middleport), Alligerville, High
Falls, Bruceville, Lawrenceville, Rosendale, Creeklocks, and
Eddyville. The highest point between the Hudson and the
Delaware was at Summitville. The first through shipment of coal
was received at Kingston on December 5, 1828. In 1842 the
canal depth was increased to 5 feet, enabling the boats to carry
an additional 10 tons. In 1847 the depth was again increased to
6 feet
Boats were hauled by mules as the bow wave from a steamboat
would damage the banks and barges tied up in the basins. The
only steam vessel was the paymaster's launch Minnie. The
captain and his family lived on board the canal boat in a cabin
measuring 12 feet square. The trip from end to end took a week,
and the canal was closed on Sundays. Whole families grew up,
lived and died, on the canal. The "canallers" were a rough and
tumble lot, and hard drinking was the norm, with many taverns
along the line. They were also a musical lot, singing at their
work. Popular songs included, As I Went Down to Port Jervis,
Haul On The Bowline,
and the comic Mule Song, with its
concluding verse-"Never take the hind-shoe from a Mule."



Always essentially a single commodity canal, traffic began to
dwindle with improvements in the parallel railroads, which could
operate year around. In November 1898 the Delaware & Hudson
Canal Company sent the last load of coal through, and in 1899
reincorporated as the Delaware
&
Hudson Railroad. They sold
the canal to S. D. Coykendall of Kingston, who operated towboats
on the Hudson and was a leading developer of the Wallkill Valley
Railroad and the Ulster & Delaware Railroad. He operated the
canal between Rondout and Ellenville until 1904 for the transport
of Rosendale cement and general merchandise. The canal was
totally abandoned in 1904.
Commentary by Stephen Skye, President of the Board of Trustees of
Neversick Valley Museum of History and Innovation, Cuddebackville,
NY.
All in all, the colonial fuel supply came mostly from wood which
was in much greater supply than coal. For the most part the coal
that was consumed was not mined in the colonies and the ships
that carried it to our shores were probably not owned by
colonists. In 1769, for example, almost nine thousand tons of
coal were imported into the American colonies from England
according to contemporary British records. Three quarters of this
coal went to just four ports, the colonies' largest settlements:
Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Charlestown. This relatively
modest amount probably represented less than five percent of
the fuel used by the households and businesses in these cities.
More than likely, most of the coal stayed in these ports and
nearby settlements. A few hundred tons of coal also arrived from
Virginia and Nova Scotia. Such as it was this was America's
energy economy.
Except for shipments from England, there were no other
significant sources of coal. At any rate, this coal trade was halted
during the War of 1812 when the British instituted a trade
embargo. After the war, the coal trade with England resumed but
remained relatively modest. As a result, most of the fuel used for


heating or manufacturing in the early United States continued to
come from locally cut wood and smaller amounts of locally
produced charcoal. It took a while for coal use to take hold.
In 1850 coal only made up ten percent of the nation's fuel
supply. Wood remained the predominant fuel source making up
almost ninety percent of all the fuel we used. The steam power
revolution was still in its early days and muscle power made up
about two-thirds of all mechanical power with wind and water
making up another quarter. Even as late as 1885, wood still
accounted for about half of the fuel used in the country's homes
and workplaces though it barely accounted for less than ten
percent of the fuel used by railroad locomotives.
Excerpts from David Kirby, A Main Artery of the 1BOO's, Travel Section
of the New York Times, Sunday, August 25, 2002
... The 160-mile journey from Carbondale, Pa., where anthracite
coal was mined, to Kingston, NY, where it was loaded onto boats
for New York City and elsewhere, is an odyssey into another
America, when time was measured more in months than
minutes, and when transportation technology was based largely
on mules and gravity .
. . . Carbondale is the site of America's first underground
anthracite mine, started not long after the end of the war of 1812
when 'black diamonds' were mined here by two brothers from
Philadelphia, William and Maurice Wurts. The war had ended with
heavy restrictions on the export of British coal to America and, in
1824, the enterprising brothers brought anthracite to New York,
where they heated a Wall Street coffeehouse with the newfangled
fuel. Investors were so impressed, they bought out the million-
dollar stock offer that day ....
The company built an ingenious way to convey coal from mine to
market. A gravity railroad was built to carry anthracite over
Moosic Mountain and other ridges from Carbondale to Honesdale,


Pa., where the canal began. Cars were hauled up a series of
inclined planes by stationary steam engines at the head of each
plane; they then were lowered down a series of planes on the
other side of the mountain with an ingenious system of pulleys
that brought the empty cars back up as the full ones glided into
Honesdale ....
Though the original source of the region's wealth, Carbondale
today seems to be prospering the least. It's a somewhat sad,
forgotten old company town with a bingo hall and thrift stores.
Still we loved its stoic beauty and faraway feel, its classical turn-
of-the-century buildings and friendly residents ....
Somehow, Honesdale escaped Carbondale's fate, and today is a
vibrant town, its handsome Main Street lined with stately banks,
antiques shops and homespun cafes. Old stone churches, some
built on land donated by the D & H Company, grace the skyline.
Even though the canal her3e was filled in long ago, Honesdale
was its loading dock and served as an important link in the
system, a badge it still wears proudly ....
A 20-minute drive on Route 6 winds through deep woods and
along the Lackawaxen River to Hawley, a lovely old canal hamlet.
Antiques stores and architectural jewels, like the 1890
Presbyterian church, built in Queen Anne Stick style, about. With
52 miles of shoreline, nearby Lake Wallenpauack is the largest
body of water in the Poconos and popular among anglers, boaters
and campers.
Heading east on Route 590, we got our first glimpses of the D &
H, with the canal on the left (partly filled in) and the river on the
right. We realized we were actually driving on the old towpath ....
At Lackawaxen, the canal met the Delaware River. In the 1800's
the Delaware was slowed by a slack-water dam, allowing barges
to be pulled across by rope. But timber-rafters on the river had
to shoot rapids over the dam, and accidents were frequent ....


John Roebling, of Brooklyn Bridge fame, is the star architect of a
major part of the D
&
H. When the canal was widened and
upgraded in the 1840's, the company hired him to build
aqueducts to traverse four different rivers, including the
Delaware .... Roebling's Delaware crossing, the country's oldest
existing wire suspension bridge, was expertly restored by the
National Park Service from 1985 to 1995 .. The thought of coal
barges crossing high above the river is astonishing ....
Next morning ... we crossed Roebling's bridge (on the paved
canal bed) to New York. The 21-mile drive south on Route 97,
along the Delaware, is terrific with many appealing stops for
eating, fishing or canoeing, many with quirky names: Quicks
Eddy, Pond Eddy, Sparrowbush.
Hawk's Nest is a spectacular stretch, reminiscent of the Rhine
Valley, leading into historic Port Jervis, an important D
&
H town
with rich canal heritage .... Much of the D
&
H in Port Jervis was
filled in around 1900, after a drunken city elder supposedly
toppled in and drowned. But accessible stretches of the canal bed
and towpath remain, which the historical society is preserving as
a public greenway.
Heading northeast on Route 209 to Cuddebackville, we stopped
at the Neversink Valley Area Museum. Roebling built another
aqueduct here, across the Neversink River, and his stone
abutments remain .... we walked the mile of fully restored
towpath and water-filled canal, alone in the chill but entranced by
the pastoral landscape ....
Other canal towns we visited included Wurtsburo (named for the
brothers)' Ellenville (whose library has a D
&
H collection) and
Accord (formerly Port Jackson).
Arriving in High Falls, about 20 miles from Kingston, I checked
into Locktender Cottage, a tiny, saggy but utterly appealing
three-room antique-filled B
&
B. It sits next to Lock 15 near



another Roebling aqueduct ruin on Rondout Creek, its rusty
ironworks visible in the stonework ....
We visited the splendid D
&
H Canal Historical Society and
Museum in High Falls, with its working models of a lock and a
gravity railroad, excellent photos and paintings, and canal
artifacts.
"Finally we traced the remaining miles of canal. At charming
Rosendale, we took Creek Locks Road, past more towpath and
locks, until we hit Lock 1, in Eddyville. A tidal lock, it opened onto
Rondout Creek, where barges completed the journey to Kingston
on the Hudson, with its still vibrant waterfront and maritime
museum.
Lock 1 marked the end of the canal, which closed when railroads
rendered the mule barges obsolete. The lock stands as a final
glorious ruin, a sentinel of a long-past marvel whose memory
and remains so many still try to preserve.
Sources:
Arthur G. Adams, The Hudson Through the Years, Third Edition, New York, Fordham
University Press, 1996, pp. 73 - 78. Available Marist College Library
David Kirby, A Main Artery of the 1BDD's Travel Section of the New York Times,
Sunday, August 25, 2002. Available on the internet
Many other articles on the internet
Stephen Skye is presently writing a book on the history of the D&H Canal. The
excerpts posted above are draft copies of some of his text, which is scheduled for
publication in 2014.
First written 2002. Revised and reformatted 5 June 2011.