Back to Document 45

Up to Document List

Ahead to Document 47

Document 46 –

Letter from Norton & Co. to the Canal Trustees Concerning Deepening the Canal

May 7, 1866

Document 46 Click for larger image

Transcription     Lockport,     May 7  1866 To the President and Board of Trustees of the Illinois and Michigan Canal      Gentlemen We beg to present to you a claim for damages sustained by us from the 15th November last to the first of April last in consequence of being deprived of our usual supply of water for our mills caused by the deepening of said Canal for the benefit of the City of Chicago —      The Capacity of our Flouring Mills is two hundred barrels per day besides our cus- tom business averaging 120 bushels pr day. During the whole time from November to the present time there has been a net profit for flouring of over one dollar per barrel, which we are fully prepared to show by satisfactory Evidence       We claim – for loss on Custom work   $ 1000 119 days flouring at $200 pr day               23.800                                                            $ 24.800 We are prepared and shall be pleased to afford the Trustees any explanation and informa- tion they may require in the premises and have the honor to be                      Your Obt Servts                              Norton & Co

Chicago in 1865 contained 178,900 inhabitants, all of whom were producing garbage and waste, most of which was deposited in the Chicago River. This virtually stagnant waterway was obnoxious to smell and a danger to public health. An act of the General Assembly approved in February of 1865 was designed to address this problem. Chicago was authorized to enter into an agreement with the canal trustees to deepen the canal’s depth along the Summit Division. The new "deep cut" was to insure a steady flow of Lake Michigan water into the Chicago River, into the I and M, and from there into the Des Plaines River at Lockport. The Des Plaines connects with the Illinois River which flows into the Mississippi.

The project was to be conducted in stages and mostly while the canal normally was closed to traffic over the winter months. By the time this new cut had been completed in 1871 Chicago had invested nearly $3,000,000 in this work. But unfortunately, after only a single decade this solution no longer was viable. By 1881 an increased volume of sewage, an increasingly clogged canal, and a lower Lake Michigan level combined to pose a real health threat to Chicago residents.

Norton & Co. was a leading canal customer. It operated a major mill works at Lockport which was powered by canal water. Wheat was transported to those mills from the Chicago harbor and returned there in the form of flour, all by way of company owned and operated canal boats. The Norton company agreed to relinquish the claim it had filed in this document in return for a twenty-year lease of the additional water supply the "deep cut" promised to provide at Lockport when completed.

Why was Norton & Co. submitting a claim for $24,800?

Why was the I and M being deepened in 1866?

How was this project going to impact residents along the Des Plaines, down river from Lockport?

Why would such a project not be acceptable today?

Back to Document 45

Up to Document List

Ahead to Document 47

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