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JANUARY 2005: BOON OR BOONDOGGLE?
Transportation was a huge problem in the early 19th century. Roads were at best, poor, and at worst, impossible. For many centuries mankind has solved the transportation problem by using waterways. In our country the way to the west was by water, either the Ohio river or over the Great Lakes. In these pages, we have discussed at length, the transportation business, chiefly about the steamboats. Using the waterways was the easiest way to transport goods until the advent of the railroads in the middle of the century.
Since water was a better means of transporting goods, we began creating our own waterways. We simply dug canals. Sounds easy but involved great toil and expense. In 1825 we had completed the Erie canal, a ditch between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. This gave the Eastern Seaboard access to the Great Lakes and thus to the West.
In the West (at this time the West included Illinois and the surrounding states) a big problem was in getting from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi. It still required a lot of land transportation. Of course you could sail from Boston or New York via the Atlantic and ultimately transship at New Orleans for the places on the Mississippi. Actually this is the way most goods got to early Hampton. We have only to examine Francis Black’s records to see that was how most of the things sold in Brettun & Black’s Store got here.
In the 1840s the Illinois-Michigan Canal was completed, opening up a good water passage to central Illinois, but was not much help to us on the shores of the northern Mississippi. Shipping by canal to the Illinois River was OK, but that river runs the wrong way to get to our part of the state.
Early on, there was discussion of a canal from the Illinois River to our part of the West. An early attempt to do this was made in 1837 when land speculators in Putnam County petitioned the Illinois General Assembly to incorporate the Bureau and Rock Island Canal Company. The intent was to build a canal from the Illinois River to the Rock River (at the mouth of the Green River) and thence to the Mississippi. Early Hampton pioneers McNeal and Thompson saw the possibilities of turning huge profits from the increased trade and purchased the land we live on and platted our town. They had ambitions to get rich. Unfortunately, that was not to be. The idea never got off the ground.
The idea only died temporarily. Two surveys of a canal were made in the 5 year period after the Civil War, in 1866 and 1870. The engineer in charge of the 1870 survey was instructed to base his calculations and cost estimates on an enlarged edition of the Illinois-Michigan Canal. The ditch was named the Illinois-Mississippi Canal but soon became better known as the Hennipin Canal, after the town at the Illinois River terminal.
There was a great deal of political wrangling over the new canal. The railroads had come to dominate the transportation business and were not excited about canal competition. The railroad interest had the advantage of being extremely wealthy. There was great dissatisfaction about the high fares the railroads charged, after all they had almost a monopoly on transportation. Opposed to the railroads and in favor ot the canal were the Farmer’s organizations, notably the National Grange. Also, retailers were on this side, particularly in the small towns. Politically, it was the Republicans for and the Democrats against the canal, but there was substantial cross over. It became clear that the project would have to be federally funded so the whole thing went to the Halls of Congress in Washington, for a siege of endless argument, .It was not until 1890 that a bill was passed authorizing a canal. So, after more than 16 years of wrangling the Hennepin Canal was a reality.
It was not built overnight. It was not until 1908 that the canal opened. It was never a paying proposition. The railroads still dominated in transportation. Unforseen problems also came up. For example, if you have a canal you must have water to fill it. A feeder for the canal was built from the Rock River near Sterling, joining the Hennipin east of Annawon. It happened that the first decade of operation was a decade of prolonged drought so problems of keeping the water level up became significant. Incidentally the places for the placement of the feeder were determined by the altitude of the land masses involved.
The canal was in use up into the 1940’s but was never a very significant factor in the transportation business. Today the canal is being made into a recreation area, a worthy use but not what the early developers envisioned. So that’s the canal that was to make Hampton rich. Decide for yourself if it was a boon or a boondoggle.