Chelmsford’s Fabric

Introduction

Before 1793, thirty canal companies formed to build canals but most of these startups failed. Merchants could not economically transport goods to the interior of Massachusetts without a waterway, causing Coastal cities to die. Wealthy Boston businessmen wanted to stay wealthy and had to solve this problem.

As a result on June 22, 1793, Governor John Hancock signed the legislative act of incorporation for the Middlesex Canal Company

Construction

The country had never built a canal and did not have the knowledge for the creation of a canal. The new civil engineers took on the challenges of:

• Building locks
• Making earth watertight
• Building the canal over a river
• Making iron fittings for canal locks, pumps, wagons and boats
• Inventing hydraulic cement two decades ahead of the American cement industry

Local farmers, carpenters, blacksmiths, teamsters, and stonemasons worked on the 27-mile canal during the spring, summer, and autumn months.

Completion

December 31, 1803, was the completion date. There were 8 aqueducts, 48 bridges, 18 lift locks, 2 guard locks, and 2 tidal locks. Passenger boats outfitted like private train cars carried passengers and sight seers. Cargo boats carried produce, commodities like coal and lumber, and manufactured goods.

The first boats travelled the canal from Chelmsford to Charlestown in 1804. The sole water supply for the canal was the Concord River in Billerica. This source was 25 feet above the mean water level of the Merrimack River and 101 feet above the mean tide level in Boston.

Operation

A horse and wagon could only haul up to 1 ton. A horse and a barge could pull 25 tons. The trip was 12 hours upstream in the Chelmsford direction and 8 hours downstream toward Charlestown. Some locks took 4 hours to pass, and boats could not travel after dark. Taverns, located near the locks, provided food, rest stops, and overnight accommodation. A resort on an island in Horn Pond at the Winchester-Woburn line featured row boats and a restaurant.

The Merrimack Boat Company built a canal by 1815 extending up into Concord, NH. They later extended it onward to Plymouth, NH, providing service to the White Mountains and the White River, VT area. New York sent representatives in 1817 to study the canal and obtain cost figures before building the Erie Canal.

John Sullivan secured the first patent for a steamboat over the conflicting claim from Robert Fulton. This steamboat was not an option for use on the canal due to damage from backwash. The Merrimack Boat Company with John Sullivan as agent used it on the Merrimack River for service into New Hampshire starting in 1819.

The Middlesex Canal made possible the development of nearby Lowell, with the Merrimack River used as a link between the two canal systems. Canal boats carried granite railroad ties and a locomotive among other goods.

Decline

The Boston and Lowell Railroad went into service in direct competition with the canal in 1835. The railroad had the advantages of speed and year-round operation, and as a result, canal receipts declined from this point on.

On September 5, 1850, toll collector Samuel Hadley purchased the toll house and 6 acres of land on the canal in Middlesex Village. In return, he accepted responsibility for canal maintenance and toll collections in his section.

The proprietor’s investment was on the verge of collapse, and commercial traffic on the Middlesex Canal ended on November 23, 1851.

The Middlesex Canal Company officially dissolved in 1860. The Chelmsford section of canal was granted to the town in 1871.

Epilogue

Canal Street became an accepted town road on February 8, 1926. The Middlesex Canal Association incorporated in 1962.

The American Society of Engineers designated the Canal as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark on May 18, 1971.

The Middlesex Canal Association initiated a plan to place the canal on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1980, as part of this plan, Chelmsford funded a survey of its portion of the canal.

The National Register of Historic Places recognized the entire length of the Middlesex Canal in July 2008.

References:

1 – Content summarized from the Chelmsford Historical Commission Website Timeline – Middlesex Canal Toll House

 2 – Sketches courtesy of the Middlesex Canal Commission.