2'he Middlesex Canal. 47
was opened with the markets and ough, and agricultural products from wharves upon the harbor, through a great extent of fertile country, found Mill Creek, over a section of which their way along this channel to Blackstone street now extends. Boston ; while the return Boats sup- As the enterprise had the confidence plied taverns and country stores with of the business community, money their annual stock of goods. The for prosecuting the work had been receipts from tolls, rents, etc. were procured with comparative ease. The steadily increasing, amounting, stock was divided into Soo shares, in 1812 to $12,600, and among the original stockholders " 1813 " 16, Soo, appear the— names of Ebenezer and " 181^ " 25,700, Dudley Hall, Oliver Wendall, John " 1815 " 29,200, Adams of Qiiincy, Peter C. Brooks " 1816 " 32,600, of Medford, and Andrew Craigie of Yet, valuable, useful, and produc- Cambridge. The stock had steadily tive as the canal had proved itself, it advanced from $25 a share in the had lost the confidence of the public, autumn of 1794 to $473 in 1803, the and, with a few exceptions, of the year the canal was opened, touching proprietors themselves. The reason $500 in 1804. Then a decline set in, for this state of sentiment can easily a few dollars at a time, till 1816, be shown. The general depression when its market value was $300 with of business on account of the embargo few takers, although the canal was and the war of 181 2 had its effect in successful operation, and, in 1814, upon the canal. In the deaths of the obstructions in the Merrimac had Gov. Sullivan and Col. Baldwin, in been surmounted, so that canal boats, the same year, 1808, the enterprise locking into the river at Chelmsford, was deprived of the wise and ener- had been poled up stream as far as getic counsellors to whom it owed its Concord. existence.
Firewood and lumber always The aqueducts and most of the
formed a very considerable item in locks, being built of wood, required
the business of the canal. The navy- large sums for annual repairs ; the
yard at Charlestown and the ship- expenses arising from imperfections
yards on the Mystic form any years in the banks, and from the erection
relied upon the canal for the greater of toll-houses and public houses for
part of the timber used in shipbuild- the accommodation of the boatmen,
ing ; and work was sometimes seri- were considerable ; but the heaviest
ously retarded by low water in the expenses were incurred in opening
Merrimac, which interfered with the Merrimac for navigation. From
transportation. The supply of oak Concord, N.H., to the head of the
and pine about Lake Winnipiseogee, canal the river has a fall of 123 ft.,
and along the Merrimac and its trib- necessitating various locks and canals,
utaries, was thought to be practi- The Middlesex Canal Corporation
cally inexhaustible. In the opinion contributed to the building of the
of Daniel Webster, the value of this Wiccasee locks and canals, $12,000;
timber had been increased $5,000,000 Union locks and canals, $49,932;
fcy the canal. Granite from Tyngsbor- Hookset canal, $6,750; Bow canal
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