Kurt A. Sanftleben, LLC
John Staats
1837 – A letter from the first Collector of Tolls for the Erie Canal reporting its poor state of repair, navigational issues, and other significant problems
List price has been discounted for this show.
$120
Item Details
Geneva, New York, 1837, Letter
Very Good
This one-page stampless folded letter from John Staats, the first Collector of Tolls for the Erie Canal, located in Geneva, New York, to the State Comptroller, A. G. Flagg, in Albany. It measures approximately 15½” x 12¼” unfolded and is dated 20 April 1837. It bears a circular Geneva postmark and a manuscript 75 cents rate mark, which covered the cost to mail the letter and three enclosures that were removed upon receipt. In nice shape.
In the letter, Staats describes several issues.
“Navigation has opened better this Spring than last, but very great dissatisfaction is expressed by the Navigators on account of the bad state of the canal between this and the first Lock. There are several sand bars, which heavy loaded boats find impossible to pass without lighting. At this moment, I understand, there are Boats and a Raft aground and prevent all passage either way. It is really too bad that Navigators of the Canal should, after paying in some instances a heavy toll, be prevented from such causes, from pursuing their way. The Inspector has several times sent word to the Superintendent, Mr Gage, and he has been spoken to by others on the subject, but, although he promised to attend to it, from some cause or other, he has not done so. The difficulties must be removed and that promptly. The Seneca Lake is lower this Spring than last, by nearly eighteen inches, which of course, increases the difficulty.
“I [also] wish to enquire whether Furniture, charged as Merchandise, is to be rated the same when going towards as when going from tide water? The practice here has been to charge 4.5. I think it should be the same in either case. . ..”
“Enclosed are several Certificates [no longer present] of change of ownership of Boats. . ..”
(For more information, see Shaw’s Erie Water West: A History of the Erie Canal, 1792-1854.)
#10461
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Kurt A Sanftleben
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