Palmyra / Lyons Canal Items - 1820, 1821, 1825

Palmyra Register Wednesday Aug. 30, 1820

The Canal- - The Western section of this great work is progressing as fast as the most sanguine friends could have reasonably anticipated. We learn that it is expected nearly one half of the distance from Montezuma to Genesee River will be completed this fall. The jobs in the vicinity and through this place, are in a state of great forwardness- - some of them are already nearly finished. There is but little doubt of the entire completion of the whole distance ready for navigation, by the close of the next season.

The middle section, which extends from Utica to Montezuma, as is well known, has been completed and navigable for boats, for nearly a year. And the benefits which have already resulted in the state from the use of this section forever confound and put to silence its most bitter and unprincipled opposers.

The Canal, which at its commencement, according to Mr. Noah’s calculation, was to cost the state millions to carry it on, and ages to complete, and when done, would be a curse rather than a benefit, has thus far been finished at the rate of at least 45 miles a year, and has cost the state less than 12,000 dollars per mile.

Now even Mr. [Mordecai] Noah cannot say to much in commendation of this great and prosperous undertaking. He has even gone so far as to give it a formal divorce from Mr. Clinton, whom but a short time since, he declared with all the prophetic wisdom of a Jewish High-Priest that it was indissolubly wedded. He once oppose the Canal as the "project" of Mr. Clinton. He now denounces Mr. Clinton, apparently for no better reason, that the Canal project has not failed agreeably to his former predictions, and ruined Mr. Clinton’s popularity as its "projector."

Lyons Republican Oct. 19,1821

Utica, Sept. 25.

Canal Navigation

Arrived the last two weeks, 60 boats, with 937 brls. Flour, 397 do. Salt, 226 do pork, 148 do. Ashes, 2061 bushels wheat, 500 do water lime, 1033 galls whiskey , 90800 feet boards, 4000 do lumber, 276,000 shingles, 17 cords wood, 15 tons gypsum, &c, and passengers.

Cleared same time 55 boats with 62 tons merchandise, 6 do clay, household goods, &c and passengers.

Wayne Sentinel Palmyra, Wed., April 13, 1825

The inauguration of the Erie Canal commenced last Monday, and the various lines of freight and package boats, (having undergone great repairs and amendments since last season,) are now all or nearly all in motion– – and a new aspect is given to business of all kinds. The Packet boats have been fitted up in a manner worthy of remark, and the proprietors are determined to stem the effect intended to be produced by the sudden and extravagant increase of toll. Great improvements are yearly made by the inventive genius of New Yorkers upon canal boats. The necessity which heretofore seemed to exist in warm weather, for passengers to resort to the upper deck, to regale themselves with the occasional fresh breezes, at the same time exposing themselves to the scorching rays or the sun, and to the frequent bridges, is wholly superseded in the packet boats by the enlargement of the windows, and by the construction of folding doors, by means of which a free circulation of air is admitted into cabins. Numerous other improvement have been made the present season– and upon the whole, we shall not be disappointed if the proprietors should realize a handsome profit, even at a toll of twenty cents per mile!