Canals

For reference queries contact Grenander Department Reference staff or (518)–437–3935.

COLFAX, JAMES, wharfmaster
Record Book, 1808–1813, 1 vol. (MSS–055)
Daily record of vessels using a New York City dock operated by Colfax. Includes tonnage, place of origin, and wharf fees and arrears for sloops, schooners, and other merchant vessels shipping between New York City and places in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

DE GRESS, FRANCIS, businessman
Letterpress Copybook, 1874, 1 vol. (MSS–060)
Contains copies of correspondence of Francis De Gress on a business trip through Chile, Peru, and Mexico, where he was selling weapons and other goods, May 11–October 3, 1874. He was a member of the import–export firm of Wexel and De Gress, with offices in New York City and Mexico City. There is a letter to Gen. William T. Sherman in Washington, D.C., discussing which countries control shipping in South America and how a canal would benefit American interests.

EDWIN ADAMS et al. v. WILLIAM ROCKEFELLER et al.
Records, 1889–1921, 2.75 ft. (MSS–067)
Includes trial evidence, topical indexes to testimony, transcriptions of business records, legal briefs, and other materials compiled by V. N. Roadstrum of New York City, attorney for the J. P. Morgan Estate, in a 1915–18 lawsuit brought in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against William Rockefeller, the Executors of the J. P. Morgan Estate, and the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company for "conspiracy to monopolize" railroad, streetcar, and water transportation of the "common–carrier business of transporting passengers and property" in New York, New Jersey, and New England.

HALLOWELL, CALEB S.
Journal, 1843, 1 vol. (MSS–076)
Kept on a journey from Washington, D.C., to Niagara Falls, New York, with an itinerary and summary of expenses. Includes a description of traveling on the Erie Canal. Hallowell was an educator from Alexandria, Virginia.

NEW YORK CANALS
Collection, 1828–1883 (MSS–093)
Includes a stock certificate from the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, 1828; receipts and checks for the Erie and Chenango canals from William C. Bouck, commissioner of the Canal Fund, 1835–1838; letters and petitions received by William W. Wight, clerk of the Canal Contracting Board, Albany, 1854–1858; letters received by Nathaniel S. Benton, auditor of the New York State Canal Department, Albany, 1858–1865; and a NYS Canal Department stock certificate, October 6, 1881.

RAND, E.C.M., railroad writer
Report, 1909, 1 vol. (MSS–104)
"Report on Investigation of Books and Records of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company from 1870 to 1899 inclusive Showing Value to it of the Leases of the Albany & Susquehanna and Rensselaer & Saratoga Railroads," a 510–page typescript report, including a 22–page subject index and numerous manuscript corrections and emendations. The author was a New York City authority on the railroad business.

SALTUS AND COMPANY
Day Book, 1825–1835, 2 vols. (MSS–109)
Kept by a New York City firm selling varieties of iron and steel bars; nails, hoops, and other iron products; and coal and salt to customers around New York State. Includes many entries for Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, the Troy Iron and Nail Factory, and companies in Albany and Syracuse.

THAYER, LITTLEJOHN AND COMPANY
Shipping Register, 1827, 1 vol. (MSS–117)
Records goods received from the firm of Thayer, Littlejohn and Company in Albany, New York, for shipping aboard Erie Canal boats. The volume bears the stationer's label "Packard & Van Benthuysen, Printers and Blank Book–Binders."