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Summarized by Kent Larsen
Erie Canal celebrates a landmark anniversary
Albany NY Times Union pgD1 25May00 N6
By Paul Grondahl: Staff writer
ALBANY, NEW YORK -- A New York historian reports that Brigham Young,
who was later the second prophet of the LDS Church, worked on the
Erie Canal in 1825, just prior to its opening. The historian
mentioned the event in connection with the 175th anniversary of the
opening of the canal.
Young was one of thousands of local laborers hired to work on the
363-mile, 40-foot-wide and 4-foot-deep canal. Young was working as a
painting contractor in 1825, and billed the state of New York's canal
superintendent, an R. Matson, $200 for painting a few lockhouses and
bridges on the canal. The bill and receipt for the work is located in
the New York State Archives, one of the more than 5 million documents
concerning the canal that are in the state archives.
According to Craig Williams, history curator with the State Museum
and a canal scholar who previously worked at the Erie Canal Museum in
Syracuse, Brigham Young's contribution was probably just sprucing up
a portion of the canal for the grand opening, "That stretch of the
canal that Young painted had actually been in use, so my guess is
that he was paid to spruce things up before the opening ceremonies in
1825," Williams said.
The canal had a significant impact on the economy of New York State,
reducing the shipping cost per ton by 95% and making travel to and
within western New York much easier. It created canal boom towns
along the way. The anniversary of the canal was celebrated in Albany
last week.
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