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Document 18 –

Letter from D.S. Hough to David Leavitt Concerning His Duties as Timber Land Agent

September 16, 1845

Document 18 Click for larger image

Transcription La Salle– Illinois   September 16. 1845       David Leavitt Esq                               Dear Uncle                                              Enclosed I send you Jeremiah Crotty’s note. – A portion of his goods were on the Orleans, which boat was sunk in nine feet water. – What damage they sustained he has not heard. –          I sent you, a few days since, a letter, in which I wrote with reference to the purchase of a buggy. – That letter I suppose you have by this time rec’d. – If the buggy has not been purchased yet, I would add to what I have before written, that I should like to have the running gear quite strong, the tire broad   As to the rest it might be made in a lighter manner                 I am now at Mr Hardy’s, & he requests me to say that he is getting along very well with his work. – He has much the largest force upon the line.      There is a great deal of sickness all along the route. – Gen Fry is but just recovering, from a severe attack of fever. – I am well, & progressing slowly in my work. – There are some anti-renters with whom I expect to have trouble. – An Irishman, the other day, because I saw fit to enter my protest against his stealing coal & stone, when I spoke to him drew his spade upon me & threatened to batter my brains out. – He, however, had sense enough not to strike, but swore if I troubled him any more he’d give me a whipping. – Upon that I had a warrant issued for him, & caused him to be bound over to answer for stealing. – It completely cowed the scoundrel. – He begged my pardon a dozen times, & dealt out any quantity of Irish blarney to me. – The effect I think has been beneficial, so far as his brother Irish are concerned. – Love to all                                       Affectionately Yours                                                         D.L. Hough

Canal trustee David Leavitt had successfully nominated his nephew, D.S. Hough, to be one of the two timber agents called for in the trustees’ resolution of July 23, 1845 (see document 16). Hough was writing from La Salle where Isaac Hardy held the contract for the steamboat channel and basin (see document 17).

In Ireland the potato crop failed in 1845 and famine resulted. For the period 1845-1854 approximately 1,300,000 Irish men, women, and children left their homeland and resettled in the United States. Nativism increasingly became part of the social fabric as older generation Americans came to resent and fear the influx of new immigrants. The Irish in particular were met with scorn and contempt. Their poverty, intemperance, Catholicism, and sheer numbers made them outcasts. Beginning in 1852 the Know Nothing Party enjoyed brief success as the formal political outlet for nativist sentiment.

Throughout the canal’s construction the employing contractor and the Irish laborer needed one another. The work was hard, dirty, often dangerous, and not particularly well paying. The number of available able-bodied men was limited. The Irish immigrant often did those jobs that few others would take. Canal work did after all provide a means of earning a living. See also document 11.

What type of job was D.S. Hough employed in?

What was an "anti-renter"?

What was Hough’s attitude toward the Irish workers?

Why might the Irish laborers have resented Hough?

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