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Canal Paths To Freedom

The Champlain and Feeder canals were crucial connections between the Hudson river and Lake Champlain on the northern passage. Completed 2 years before the Erie Canal, September 10, 1823, the 62.6 mile long Champlain Canal connected Lake Champlain, at Whitehall, N. Y., with the Hudson river, and eventually, the Mohawk river and Eire Canal at Watervliet, about 8 miles north of Albany, N. Y. Construction on a Feeder canal from Glens Falls, N. Y., for supplying water from the Hudson river to the Champlain Canal in the town of Kingsbury, began within a year of the Champlain Canal's completion, and was finished in 1824.

Several additional years of work relating to concerns over leakage, the constructing of locks, and size provisions, were needed before the Feeder Canal became navigable by boat. In 1829, the 13 mile feeder, running from the Hudson at Haviland's Cove, and approximately parallel to Warren street in Glens Falls, was officially open for traffic. The meandering course of the Feeder Canal diverged north from the lower end of Warren street near the former Ciba- Geigy plant, and then paralleled the Boulevard until it intersected the north end of Main street in Hudson Falls, just below Notre Dame street. From this point, the Feeder crossed part of Martindale Avenue, and then bisected Maple and Pearl streets, and Burgoyne Avenue just north of the Kingsbury- Fort Edward town fine. From here, there were an series of locks, the most prominent being the Five Combines, before the Feeder Canal emptied into the (old) Champlain Canal.

This expansion of navigation between Glens Falls and Hudson Falls, then called Sandy Hill, allowed for an increase in commerce in the area, and an improved outlet for lumber rafted down from the Adirondacks. It also created a link between two separate courses northward to Canada. In addition to the increased economic activity, which might provide a convenient guise of labor, the connection between the two northern waterways offered a complex set of options for passages to Freedom. A much more lucrative means of escape northward -might be had through Warren county via the log rafting enterprises along the Hudson, over through Luzerne, and eventually to Warrensburgh, then into Essex county. At the same time, a swifter and more direct route could be had along the Champlain to Whitehall, where further flight might continue into Vermont, or up the lake to Plattsburgh.

In either course, a number of local Free families were able to provide additional shelter. By 1850, there were more than a dozen Aftican- American households in Whitehall, and other single individuals working as laborers or servants in hotels. Of these individuals, three were cooks, and eight were operating as barbers.

Along with his immediate family, Titus Battis, a cook, had tow sisters, Julia and Susan Virginia, all of them from Troy. In the 1855 Troy Directory, Titus Battis was listed as a cook on the steamship Commodore. The sisters Julia and Susan were daughters of the late Calvin, and Mrs. Harriet Virginia. Also among the families was that of George H. Baltimore, the brother of Peter F. Baltimore of Troy. Two other families were those of Jacob Benjamin and Thomas Joseph, who were both barbers. Felix Schuyler, a grocer and shoemaker, and George Kneeland, a boatman, were also among the Whitehall families.

Allen Fitch, originally from the town of Providence, in Saratoga county, resided in both Ft. Ann and Whitehall, was engaged in boating, and was a son- in- law of George Kneeland.

Andrew and Jacob Gansevoort, who seem to have no family connections, appear in the census records for the town of Kingsbury from 1850 onward. Both men were engaged in the. maintenance and lock tending occupations on the Feeder canal, as canal vouchers for repairs during the mid1870's, preserved in the records of both the Warren and Washington County Archives indicate.

Abram and Isaac Williams of Kingsbury, presumably the older brothers of Charles Anthony Williams, a soldier of Co. A, 20th USCT, were also engaged in boating according to their stated occupation in the 1870 census. It is intriguing to note that Charles A. Williams place of enlistment was at Plattsburgh, N. Y,

Another Civil War veteran, Henry Van Vranken, resided only two houses from the locktender's house in Kingsbury and, in 1870, he operated a canal boat. In 1860, this same Henry Van Vranken was residing in Glens Falls as near neighbors with John Van Pelt, Anna Northup, and Philip Stanton. John Van Pelt, the barber, was responsible for encouraging a number of Saratoga, Warren, and Washington county men to enlist into the 54th Mass. Infantry. In the register of recruits in the appendix of Capt. Emilio's history of this regiment, two out of the four recruits from Glens Falls and Sandy Hill into Co. GCharles Stanton and William Robinson (2nd of the name) were described as boatmen, and a third, Horace Jackson, was a caulker.

Also residing near Henry Van Vranken in 1870 was John G. Roberson (or Robinson), a veteran of the 26th USCT, who was then engaged in boating, apparently in Van Vranken's employ, as Henry's son, George Van Vranken, provided an affidavit for Roberson's pension application.

The information found in Horace Jackson and John G. Roberson's pension files indicates that both had been acquainted with each other since childhood, and that at the time of Jackson's affidavits for the claim of Roberson's widow, they were both living on West street, Glens Falls (which, coincidentally, is within close proximity to the first lock on the Feeder Canal). An affidavit by Van Vranken's neighbor, Dudley S. Johnston, noted that Henry's occupation "was Boating lumber & iron ore." These pension materials were provided by the three witnesses noted (Horace Jackson, George Van Vranken, and Dudley S. Johnston) between July 25, 1889, and January 1890.

From examining the stated occupations of the various recruits into the 54th Mass. Inf., and the three N. Y. Infantry regiments, it is plausible to suspect that those engaged in boating or as teamsters played a dual role in transporting both goods and a human cargo. It is also credible to suspect that the households of these permanent residents also were stations along the line as much as those of any of their Abolitionist brethren.

Kenneth A. Perry