The Wolfe Island Canal, press reports
With recognition to Richard Palmer, who transcibed many of the following extracts from various newspapers. The top ones is are later, more general 'history', below that the reports are in chronoogical order.
General
Kingston Whig-Standard, Saturday, September 8, 1883
SOMETHING ABOUT THE FERRY
The first ferry was established by Abijah Putnam, the founder of Port Putnam, and it extended from Cape Vincent across the Big Bay to Wolfe Island. About 1809 the second ferry was started from Gravelly Point to Hinckley’s Point of the same island. Eber Kelsey ferried from the American side for many years, and Samuel Hinckley from the other. For 10 years Peter Sternberg controlled a ferry from Carleton Island to Wolfe Island. Row boats and scows were used until 1847, when a small steamer called the Farmer made trips from and to Kingston, being governed by the demand of freight and passengers as to the frequency of trips.
The year after the railroad was completed to Cape Vincent, the Wolfe Island Canal was cut by a Stock Company, in which the railroad and the city of Kingston were interested as were private individuals. The steamer Lady of the Lake was used as a ferry boat by the Cape Vincent & Rome Railroad during 1852 while the steamer John Counter was being built especially for the route. The steamer John Counter was owned and managed by the aforesaid Stock Company and designed to run through the Canal, but was found too large. She was used, however, during the Fall of 1853 and the Spring of 1854, making her trips around the head of the island, until sold to parties in Montreal.
The steamer Star took her place during the remainder of the season. George W. Creighton was captain of the steamers John Counter and Star. In 1855, the steamer Sir Charles Napier, formerly owned by the American Lake & Steamboat Company, was purchased by Captain G. W. Creighton and commanded by him until the Spring of 1858, when Messrs. Kinghorn and Hinckley organized a Company, putting the steamer Pierrepont on the line and following her, at a later date, with the steamer Watertown. In 1873, Messrs. Folger Brothers and Mr. Nickle purchased these steamers, Captain Hinckley still retaining his interest.
Cape Vincent Eagle, 16 February 1911
There is no collaborative evidence at this date of any move to re-invest in the Wolfe Canal. Ed.
The opening of the Wolfe Island Canal through to Cape Vincent is of more importance to the people of Kingston at the present time than all the other canals put together and it is to be hoped that our Board of Trade will make a special effort to farther the project as it will mean a pig boom for Kingston’s merchants, As it is now steamers have to go up through the Batteau Channel and around the head of Wolfe Island a distance of about 25 miles. In stormy weather they have to go around the foot of the Island, a distance of 30 miles. By the canal, the distance from Kingston to Cape Vincent is only about twelve miles. The time saved is from three-quarters of an hour to an hour. The whole community will hold both hands up for the re-opening of the above canal and we are more than pleased to see the Kingston Standard advocating the cause — Kingston Freeman.
But the subject matter was resuscitated nearly ten years later after the end of the Great War, again with no apparent success. Ed.
Weekly British Whig, Kingston, Monday, September 13, 1920
Wants Re-Opening of Wolfe Island Canal
The Cape Vincent Eagle Laments Loss of Excursions
The Cape Vincent, N.Y., Eagle laments the fact that the Wolfe Island Canal has not been made navigable. The Canadian government has not maintained this waterway during the past decade and the Eagle suggests that merchants from Kingston and Cape Vincent bring the matter before Canadian authorities so that action may be taken to dredge the canal.
By boat the distance from Cape Vincent to Kingston is about twenty-five miles. The island lies between the two cities and steamers must go around the foot or around the head of the island. The canal formerly cut the distance in two.
Commenting on the loss of the waterway, the [Cape Vincent] Eagle says:
Many there are in this village who recall the time when the fare for Cape Vincent people was only a half dollar for the round trip, when scores and scores of Cape Vincent people could be seen on the streets of Kingston, and Saturday afternoons when the Cape was invaded by hundreds of Kingstonians, who made the round trip for 25 cents. These Kingston people spent considerable money here, just as Cape Vincent people did in the Limestone City and enjoyed themselves immensely.
And the Wolfe Island canal, which has been closed so long, was mainly responsible for the conditions that existed in those days. It mattered not how rough it was on Lake Ontario, or the St. Lawrence river either, there was the canal – without a ripple and as peaceful as a mill pond – a safe, short and direct route to and from Kingston. The trips through the old canal were heartily enjoyed by all who made them.
Since the closing of the canal all has changed. Now and then the steamer will bring over a small excursion from Kingston, but it is very seldom you see many Cape Vincent people in Kingston at one time. The distance around the head of the island and the short time given passengers in the Canadian city is the cause, no doubt.
The closing of the canal has caused merchants of Cape Vincent and Kingston to lose money during all these years, and there ought to be some way by which it can be dredged out, thereby making a short route between this village and the Limestone City. Just how it can be done, the Eagle will not attempt to say, but we hope that some of the energetic business men of Kingston may bring the matter before the Canadian government and that action may be taken whereby the Wolfe Island canal will be dredged and made available for for navigation.
Details
Daily News, Kingston, April 8, 1854
City Council &ndash Alderman Gildersleeve brought up the report of the special committee which was struck to enquire into the affairs of the Wolfe Island Canal Company and report as to gain or otherwise which might accrue to the city by the council taking additional stock in the canal. The following is the report, which was received with much satisfaction;
Your committee after an examination of the books, papers, and accounts of the Wolfe Island Railroad and Canal Company, and from information obtained from the Secretary of said Company, beg to report as follows:-
That the amount of stock originally subscribed and paid up in said company was 15,125 pounds.
That private individuals on the Canadian side of the line, have since subscribed the additional sum of 1,026 pounds, and the Watertown and Rome Railroad the further sum of 1,280 pounds, which will make the stock of the latter amount to 10,000 pounds; whereas the whole amount of the stock owned on the Canadian side is at present but 7,400 pounds; of which 2,500 pounds belongs to the City of Kingston, 1,000 pounds to the United Counties of Frontenac, Lennox and Addington, and 3,900 pounds to private individuals, thus leaving a preponderance of 2,600 pounds owned on the American side of the line.
Your committee would further report that the sum of 12,493 pounds has already been expended towards the construction of the Canal including expenses of real estate, bridge, etc.; and to which are to be added 1,036 for interest, as also 2,353 pounds on account of payment for the Ferry steamboat, making in all up to the present time, a cash expenditure of 15,882 pounds. The liabilities for the balance of the said steamboat are 6,850 pounds, which have been arranged for by the debentures of the Canal Company, payable from one to five years.
The computed further cost for the completion of the Canal is 3,500 pounds, which will make the stock of the Company amount to 25,532 pounds. The interest on this latter sum at 6 per cent would be about 1,532 pounds; and to meet this, a negotiation is now on foot by the Directors of the said Company, whereby the said steamboat alone, should the negotiation terminate successfully, will produce to the Company by way of charter the sum of 1,250 pounds, leaving only 280 pounds of interest to be met by all the other resources of the Company.
That by an arrangement entered into with certain individuals on behalf of the Watertown and Rome Railroad Company, the dividends on the Canal stock are to be guaranteed at the same amount as those dividends which from time to time after the completion of the Canal may be declared upon the stock of the Watertown and Rome Railroad, which has never heretofore been less than ten per cent per annum, payable half-yearly.
Your Committee have great pleasure in reporting, that, in their opinion, should the said Canal be completed at as early a date as possible, and of the capacity originally intended, that it will be of the greatest importance to the trade and prosperity of the city, but that the expenditure instead of even being a primary pecuniary draft upon the exchequer of the city, will be a direct profitable investment.
Such being the impression of your Committee, and the other sources for procuring an increase of stock being for the most part exhausted, your committee would recommend that, on conditions, the Directors of said Canal Company do take at par the city debentures payable in not less than ten years with interest.
And funds being now required to prosecute the completion of the said canal and to bring it to a speedy finish, and to place the amount of stock in the said Canal Company owned in and about Kingston as nearly as possible on a par, as to amount, with the stock in said company owned by the Watertown and Rome Railroad Company. That this city do take the further sum of 2,500 pounds in said Wolfe Island Canal Company, on conditions that the said canal be made eight feet deep at low water mark; but, should said canal be of less depth than last aforesaid, that the city do take only the sum of 1,250 pounds; and that, for the purpose of securing that the said canal will be made of the said depth of eight feet, the Mayor, on behalf of the city, do subscribe at the present time, merely the said last mentioned sum, and the balance when the said canal shall be of the depth of eight feet, but not before.
And your Committee, in recommending the taking of the said additional stock would suggest, that notwithstanding there will be held by the Rome and Watertown Railroad Company 5,000 pounds more stock than the City of Kingston, yet, by means of this said additional stock, plus the amount of the other stock owned in and about Kingston, the whole of the said stock owned on the Canadian side will be only 100 pounds less than the amount of stock owned as aforesaid by the Rome and Watertown Railroad, and which latter sum of 100 pounds will at once be subscribed by private individuals in Kingston.
By thus being on a par with the Americans as the amount of stock, the City of Kingston will have a more tangible guarantee that its interests will be more thoroughly guarded in respect of the said canal than otherwise would exist.
O.S. Gildersleeve.
Wm. Rudston.
John Flanagan.
Arch'd J. Macdonell.
Ald. Gildersleeve, after reading the report, said that there were many points of information not contained in the report which he would be happy to give to any member who would ask for them. Before this report was formed he did not think the stock which he owned in the affair worth anything, but now he would not sell it less than par, since he was confident it would pay at least ten per cent.
Coun. Murdoch asked if the sum asked for would be sufficient to stone the sides, for it would be necessary to do so, since the constant action of the waves would bring the bed of the canal to its original state.
Ald. Gildersleeve said that the water was so much higher on the American side than on this, that it would prevent any such filling up.
Ald. Jackson said, that if this is made a good canal, it will make Kingston the terminus of the Rome and Cape Vincent Railroad; which, together with the trade of the proposed Macadamized roads and railways into the interior, will place us in a position to laugh at the Grand Trunk Railroad, which so contemptuously intends to give us the go-by.
Ald. Breden asked if Mr. Milner had fulfilled his contract. Certain portions of the canal were to have been finished at given periods, and if the first and second portions were not so completed, the directors should have sued the contractor's bail.
Ald. Gildersleeve said that Mr. Milner had not fulfilled his contract; but that the directors had kept strict account of it, and intended to sue the bail for all delinquencies.
The report was adopted unanimously.
Kingston Whig Standard Tuesday, April 30, 1861
NOTICE
NOTICE is hereby given, that, in consequence of certain repairs required, the Wolfe Island Canal will be closed until further notice.
O. S. GILDERSLEEVE.
Office of the Wolfe Island Railway and Canal Company,
Kingston, 27th April, 1861
Kingston Whig-Standard Tuesday, May 7, 1861
The closing of the Wolfe Island Canal is a matter of some local interest. Mr. Gildersleeve either as sole proprietor or on behalf of the company, had given notice that the canal would be closed for alleged necessary repairs. Mr. Kinghorn, proprietor of the Pierrepont, denies the right of Mr. Gildersleeve to close the canal, and although a bridge is said to have been locked across, his vessel has made her way through.
On Saturday a body of men were stationed on the canal to enforce the notice, and the Pierrepont, without coming in collision with the men, made a trip via the head of Wolfe Island. Mr. Gildersleeve is the charterer of the Grand Trunk ferry steamer Walter Shanley, and the Cape Vincent and Kingston traffic is divided by competition between the steamer and the Pierrepont. Mr. Kinghorn’s boat was built specially to pass through the canal, which the Shanly cannot do, though when both steamers have to take the same route the Shanly is enabled to make the faster trip. It is understood that the law courts will be appealed to for a decision in the matter.
Kingston Whig Standard Wednesday, June 5, 1861
KINGSTON AND CAPE VINCENT FERRY VIA WOLFE ISLAND CANAL
The steamer Pierrepont, Coleman Hinckley, Master, carrying the International Mails and the Express Freight will leave the United States Wharf, Kingston, daily (Sunday’s excepted), at 9 A.M. and 3:30 P.M. for Cape Vincent. Will leave Cape Vincent at 1 P.M. and 9 P.M., on arrival of trains from Rome, connecting with the Grand Trunk and Watertown & Rome Railroads.
Passengers and owners of stock will find this route preferable to that by the head of Wolfe Island or the open Lake. For freight or passage apply at the Steamboat Office, United States Wharf.
Kingston Whig-Standard Friday, March 21, 1862
Canal Steamers. - The Rome Sentinel says the Watertown and Rome Railroad and Northern Transportation Companies are building twelve propeller barges to ply on the Erie Canal between Rome and New York, and it is intended to make Cape Vincent the eastern terminus for the fourteen propellers owned by the latter company. It is also said that a large lumbering firm on the Canadian side has made a contract for the transportation of twelve million feet of lumber over the road, making the connection through the Wolfe Island Canal.
The elevator at the Cape is capable of discharging 2,500 bushels of grain per hour. It also learns that Mr. Pearsons, the lessee of the marine railway at Ogdensburgh, is now building eight propellers for the Erie Canal to run the coming season. They are 97 feet long, 17 feet beam, planked outside with two inch plank, lined with one and one-fourth inch plank - to cost $3,000 each.
Kingston News Tuesday, April 15, 1862
Navigation Resumed at Kingston. - The mild weather of the past few days have not been without its influence upon the ice in Kingston harbor. On Monday, one broad strip of open water existed in the line of the channel from Garden Island to Cedar Island, and the extent of the ice-bound surface to the westward was greatly curtailed. The remaining ice was so treacherous that the ice boats had to be employed in communicating with Wolfe Island and different points.
A vast quantity of this ice was smashed up by the Steamer Pierrepont, Captain Hinckley, on Monday, which vessel left her wharf early in the forenoon for Cape Vincent. She was laden well down by the stern and lightly forward, enabling the boat’s flat bottom to be propelled bodily on the immense cakes of ice, crushing them by her superincumbent weight, and so clearing a channel for her passage. After gaining the open water the remainder of the voyage was effected with the ordinary ease. She made the trip round the head of Wolfe Island, the canal as yet being hermetically sealed.
Kingston Whig-Standard Friday, July 11, 1862
THE PIC-NIC OF THE ST. PATRICK’S SOCIETY
The Irish Pic-Nic to Carleton Island yesterday was a great success. The steamers Pierrepont and Gazelle left Kingston early in the morning, loaded down with pleasure seekers, with a Band of Music on each boat. Fully six hundred persons were on board of them. The steamers went through the Wolfe Island Canal and landed there freight on that most charming of all the Thousand Islands, the old British (now unfortunately Yankee) Island of Carleton [sic], just before noon.
The Pick-Nickers spread themselves all over the Island, and made up nearly one hundred dinner parties, at which they enjoyed themselves hugely, for although the day was fine, it was also delightfully cool. Dancing on the green was the order of the day until after the arrival of Gazelle’s second trip, when nearly three hundred other pleasure seekers came to participate in the pleasures of the day.
Hamilton Spectator Wednesday, March 16, 1864
The Kingston American says that on Friday afternoon a team of the Express Line, bound from that city from Cape Vincent, broke through the ice a short distance this side of the Wolfe Island canal bridge. The sleigh was loaded with boxes of oranges and lemons and other freight, consigned to several parties in that city; but the whole was saved and will probably be subjected to little damage if properly attended to.
Kingston Weekly British Whig Wednesday, March 23, 1864
Of steamers and schooners building, there are several. Mr. Kinghorn, at the Marine Railway, is building a fine large Scow Steamer for the Cape Vincent trade, much larger than the Pierrepont, but not to draw more water. To pass the Wolfe Island Canal, these scow steamers are especially adapted, being roomy, broad and seaworthy, drawing inches of water when other steamers draw feet. The new iron steamboat that was to have been built by the late O. S. Gildersleeve, Esq., will be put up this summer by his brother, Mr. Charles Gildersleeve, who we are happy to say will carry our all his late brother’s mercantile arrangements.
Preparations have long been made in the slip alongside the marine railway yard for the erection of the new steamer, as soon as her frame comes out from Scotland.
Kingston Whig-Standard Thursday, May 26, 1864
The tug Forest left today for Cape Vincent, via the Wolfe Island Canal, with four barges loaded with hop-poles, from Pike Falls.
Kingston Whig-Standard Friday, July 8, 1864
The Launch Yesterday. - The new Cape Vincent Steamer, Watertown, that was launched from the Marine Railway Ship Yard yesterday, is a very fine vessel of her class. She is much larger than the Pierrepont, being three feet longer with more beam. Her draft of water, when in running trim, will not exceed three feet, so that she can make constant use of the Wolfe Island Canal in making her trips to the cape. Her build is of the Scow fashion, but her stem is so built that she can cut the ice when necessary. It will take some time ere her fitments are completed, but when she takes the place of the Pierrepont, she will be commanded by that excellent home navigator, Capt. Hinckley, Senior. At the Launch the act of Christening was performed by Isabella Hinckley, one of the daughters of her excellent Captain. Mr, Kinghorn is her principal owner.
Kingston Whig Standard Tuesday, April 4, 1865
The steamer Watertown makes two trips daily to Cape Vincent, via the Wolfe Island Canal.
Kingston Whig-Standard Monday, November 4, 1867
Accident to the Pierrepont. - On Friday afternoon, as the steamer Pierrepont was making her homeward trip from Cape Vincent, and just as she was entering the Wolfe Island canal, she struck on a rock, which made a large hole in her bottom, through which the water came in rapidly. Had it not been for the exertions of a practical shipwright, who happened to be on board as a passenger, on his way home from Pennsylvania, and who, with the aid of some oakum tallow, and a piece of plank, managed to stop the leak, she would have stranded on the rock, and some time would have elapsed before she could have been got off.
Kingston Wing-Standard Friday, December 13, 1867
The Lower harbor is still open. The Wolfe Island canal has been frozen over some days, There is a little ice in the Batteau channel.
The steamer Watertown ran aground yesterday morning on a shoal between Garden and Wolfe Islands. She had not been taken off at six o’clock last evening. Consequently no steamer arrived from the Cape yesterday, and two day’s mails are due today.
Weekly British Whig, Kingston Thursday, September 2, 1869
Wolfe Island Canal. - A new danger threatened the navigation of this great work. On Tuesday morning the steamer Watertown was behind her time considerably in her arrival from Cape Vincent. The delay was occasioned by the passage of the Wolfe Island Canal having become obstructed by a dense drift of floating vegetation matter known as a “floating bog,” large quantities of which have to be removed to open up a passage for the vessel.
Kingston Whig Standard Monday, January 10, 1870
The Ferries. - The str. Watertown made a trip to Cape Vincent and returned Saturday evening, taking over some livestock. The return trip was made in consequence of the threatened freezing of the river and harbour, which would exclude her from her winter berth. The Wolfe Island canal is frozen fast.
Kingston Whig-Standard Monday, December 19, 1870
The navigation has closed in the Wolfe Island Canal. It is frozen up tight as a musket. The steamer Watertown makes her trips to the Cape around the island.