Back to Document 35
Up to Document List
Ahead to Document 37

Document 36 –

Abstract of Canal Boats Registered at Chicago
 

December 8, 1849
 

Document 36
Click for larger image

     

Transcription

     Abstract of Canal Boats in use
on the Illinois &Michigan Canal, as re-
gistered at the Collectors office at Chicago
between the 18th May 1848 and the 8th. Decr. 1849.
                            Description of Boats.

Pass.
Packets.
Line.
Lake

Deck’d
Scows

Open
Scows
River.
          5.       52.        6         17.         39          16.

Note.  There have been registered in this office one
                    hundred & eighty boats                  180.~
          Deduct for change in name, included
                   in above Registry, say . . . . . . .        45.
                                                      Leaving,      135.~
       Deduct from this number, boats lost and
                    unfit for service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.~
       Making the number of boats in use as          100.~
          registered at this office, about.
                                             Jno H Kinzie
                                                Collector.
                                                  Dec. 8.1849. 

Explanation

When the canal first was opened in the spring of 1848 only sixteen boats had been commissioned to navigate through it. But demand soon was met and by the end of that first summer a large number of boats, in various degrees of soundness, were operating. Passenger packets and line, lake, and river craft generally were keelboats. The smaller lake and river boats in question probably were steam powered. The decked and open scows were flatboats.

Toll collectors, in granting clearances, were required to account for each boat’s cargo and to match tallies with bills of lading (see document 42). They recorded passenger names as well. John H. Kinzie had been appointed the canal’s toll collector and inspector for Chicago on May 6, 1848. His annual salary was $1,000. Kinzie served in this position until 1861 when President Lincoln appointed him Chicago’s paymaster for the army. John H. Kinzie’s father, John Kinzie, had been one of the city’s earliest white settlers, having arrived in 1804.

Points To Consider

What percentage of boats registered, minus the number with name changes, had been lost or were unfit for service? Why might this have been?

With the canal stretching ninety-six miles, how many boats per mile were on it December 8, 1849?

What was a pass. packet? Why would one have chosen to have traveled in a passenger packet along the canal rather than by stagecoach?

If you had been transporting grain in an open scow along the I and M, what would have been your principal concern?

Back to Document 35
Up to Document List
Ahead to Document 37

Back to Illinois and Michigan Canal Introduction page
Back to Illinois State Archives home page