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Document 17 –

Letter from Jacob Fry and William Gooding to David
Leavitt Concerning an Advanced Payment on a Contract
 

September 15, 1845
 

Document 17
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Transcription

Canal Office
Lockport Sepr. 15–1845

    David Leavitt Esqr.
                             Dear Sir,
                                                  We are informed
by Mr. Hardy the contractor for Sections No. 195, 196
and 197, (the Steam boat Channel & basin at La Salle,)
that he desires to draw upon you at ninety days for
Twenty Five Hundred Dollars to aid in the purchase
of goods for the use of his work. We hereby certify that
he has a good force upon his job at present and prob-
-ably has already done enough to entitle him to this
amount of money and before the first estimate will
greatly increase the amount. We have therefore
no hesitation in saying that it would be perfectly
safe to advance him this sum, (or accept the above
specified draft,) and that with his authority to have
the money retained from his estimate it would
unquestionably be promptly met.
                                 Verytruly
                                              Yours,
                                                     Jacob Fry
                                                     Wm Gooding

Explanation

La Salle was the canal’s western terminus. There it connected with the Illinois River. By design the canal was not built to carry river-going steamboats. Consequently goods headed north had to be brought up the Illinois River on steamboats and then offloaded onto canal boats at La Salle. Goods being shipped south had to be removed from canal boats when they reached La Salle and there placed on steamboats. A steamboat channel and basin were constructed for this purpose. The first contract for this work had been let as early as October 20, 1836.

Transshipment was both time-consuming and expensive. As a fixed feature of the canal’s design it was ultimately to be one of the causes of the enterprise’s undoing. Although still in their unproven infancy, railroads were to provide more versatility and dependability.

Work all along the length of the canal had resumed by the late summer of 1845. In some places it proceeded more orderly than in others.

For a map of the completed canal route, see Exhibit A.
Points To Consider

What were Jacob Fry and William Gooding asking David Leavitt to do in this letter?

Why did Mr. Hardy need to be partially paid before he had fulfilled his contract?

Why were a steamboat channel and basin being built at La Salle?

When the canal eventually was completed and opened to traffic, what operation was going to take place at La Salle? What did this operation cause?
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