Illinois and Michigan Canal records, ca. 1839-1871.

ArchivalResource

Illinois and Michigan Canal (Ill.). Board of Trustees. Illinois and Michigan Canal records, ca. 1839-1871.

Illinois and Michigan Canal records, ca. 1839-1871.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/713347413

Correspondence, maps, circulars, toll sheets, package of internal improvement certificates, canal scrip, bonds, reports and proceedings, and other records relating to the Illinois Michigan Canal. Also included are two letter books containing copies of outgoing letters. The correspondence is chiefly between Captain W.H. Swift, David Leavitt, William Gooding, Edward B. Talcott, Eli S. Prescott, John Preston, Charles Oakley, Robert Stuart, Governor Ford, Governor French, Governor Matteson, Governor Bissell, Governor Yates, Governor Oglesby, Jacob Fry, Isaac N. Arnold, Charles Ray, John Wentworth, and Maginiac (?) Jardine & Co., London. The letters deal entirely with canal affairs, such as appointment of capable engineers, superintendents, lock keepers, and other employees; construction of feeders, dams, locks, hydraulic works, pumps, tugs; boats to be used on the canal; tolls; and the sale of lots and lands. Problems discussed include maintaining a sufficient supply of water for the shallow cut canal, grave charges of mismanagement, severe sickness in the Illinois valley, a strike of canal laborers, and disagreements between State Trustees, Bondholders Trustees, and the engineers. Few references were made to the Civil War; however, the letter by William Gooding from Lockport (Ill.), 1860 June 11, discusses Abraham Lincoln. Includes photocopies of two letters (7 p.): letter from George Forquer, Springfield, to General Thornton, Chicago (1836 Mar. 3), offers advice on where construction of the canal should begin; letter from Edward Smith, Chicago, to the Board of Canal Commissioners (1836 Apr. 19), concerns the terms of his employment.

2 oversize folders.

Chicago History Museum