Easthampton Transportation
By: Ben Scott and Shaun Kelly

To what extent did the advances in transportation affect Easthampton in the 1800’s? What were the different forms of transportation? What were they used for? Were they safe?

Transportation in the Easthampton area during the 1800’s greatly affected many aspects of society. On a national level, transportation was growing technologically as well as expanding into new territories. Roads, canals, steamboats and railroads were being created all over the country to improve the economic state of America. The Easthampton area was no different, joining the transportation revolution. The transporting of goods and people all across Western Massachusetts brought some economic prosperity, but also safety concerns, and, in one case, complete failure.
Roadways are one of the oldest routes of transportation in the world. It is one of transportation methods that takes less work to complete. The roadways were tolerable if you had to get from one point to another that was not that far away, but if you had to travel long distances then it was not that great. It was hard to travel by roadways for there were many obstacles in the way. Some of those obstacles included stumps and boulders. These items would have made it very difficult to travel by horse drawn carriages and wagons. The wheels would have been stuck in the mud if it were to be raining. In the winter, the snow would make it nearly impossible to travel the roadways. Looking at a map of Easthampton in the 1800’s, one will see that there were few roads because other modes of transportation available. People in Easthampton had choices. Either they could take the slowest possible mode of transportation, the roadways, or travel by boat on the canals, which was not much better but compared to the roadways was a godsend. The last and fastest way to get to somewhere was the Railroads. This was the fastest mode of transportation. It was quick and that’s what people in Easthampton wanted. The railroads were a reliable and fast transportation method. The roadways had many problems that people could see. The roads were not kept up and not repaired. The people had to use animals to pull their wagons or carriages. This added another issue all together. Now people had to care for an animal on their journey. With this extra burden on their hands, people chose not to travel far distances on roadways. If the animals would not obey the owner then you had a problem. Wagons and carriages on the roadways were a very unreliable method of transportation and that’s why most people took the canal or train to their destinations. No one in his or her right mind would try to ship something by roadway when it could arrive safer and faster by train or boat. Other ways people in the 1800s traveled was by river.
The Barnet in 1826 was the first up-river steamboat on the Connecticut River. The steamboat was a very valuable device that made it easier for people to travel around. This steamboat was able to travel on canals and up stream on rivers. The steamboat allowed people to travel by water up-stream, which was almost impossible to do with a rowboat or ship. The steamboat was a good advancement since it allowed people to use already established waterways to travel around on. The roadways and steamboats in the 1800’s made the lives of Easthampton residents somewhat easier. They had a choice whether to take the railroads, canals, or roadways to get from place to place. The people in Easthampton would now be able to live farther away from the center of town to conduct their business. The families could travel more freely with the roads being established, which allowed them to move farther away from town, while still being able to do the things that needed to be done.
Transportation advances with canals in the 1800’s affect the people in Easthampton as well as the nation as a whole. With the invention of the steamboat people would now be able to travel on the canals faster and easier than before. The canal that had the biggest impact on Easthampton would have to be the New Haven-Northampton Canal constructed in 1827.
Canals caught on in America when Britain had success with their first canal, which was named the Bridgewater Canal. This was completed in 1761 and was connected to a Manchester coal mine for easier access. Once this canal had the success it did canals were being built left and right in the 18th century. It was a new idea that worked well at getting people and shipments farther into the country. Canals had started to be built in the nation when people wanted a faster way to get to the western territories of the United States. One of the first successful canals to be built in the United States was the Erie Canal. This canal ran from the Hudson River to Lake Erie. The canal would now connect the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. The Erie Canal was proposed in 1699 but the plans for the construction would not be prepared until 1798 when the Niagara Canal Company was created and they started their building preparations. The canal would start off at a slow pace with the first section of the canal being completed in 1819. The whole canal would not be completed until October 26, 1825. The Erie Canal would end up being 363 miles long and 40 feet wide. The canal would be 4 feet deep. Along the 363 mile canal there were 83 locks. The reason the Erie Canal is such a big advancement in transportation is because it was the first route faster than carts and wagons. The construction of the Erie was a great advancement in the United States and cut transportation costs by about 95%. This allowed for more people to move out west and contiune the expansion of the country. One of the problems with the Erie Canal was that the land rises about 600ft from the Hudson River and locks at that time could only handle a change of up to 12 feet. The only way to fix this problem was make many locks which they did but it cost them a fortune to do. The impact the canal had was that it contributed to the increaed weatlh and the importance of New York City and New York State. The Erie canal increased the trade in the nation and it opened markets in the east to the people in the west. It created new Irish communites along the route of the canal because the Irish were much of the Labor Force involved in costruction of the canal. Canals that were being constructed in the nation created the head way for two canal company’s located New England to ban together to create the New Haven-Northampton Canal.
On April 12, 1826 the first stockholders meeting took place to gather funds for the project to run a canal from New Haven to Northampton. At the meeting the Farmington Canal Company showed their willness to unite their stock with the Hampshire-Hampden Company. These two companies would then joined together to form the New Haven-Northampton Company. The engineer for the project, Jarvus Hurd, started construction in Northampton in the summer of 1827. Jarvus had a difficult time planning the construction since he had many varibles to consider. Canal engineers called for a greater skill and more ingenuity than those involved in construction or railroads. The engineers would have to take into account mountain levels, water supplies, reserviors for storage, spillways, and the construction of locks and aquedust to make this canal work. The time around the construction was a time of high optimism. Everyone seemed to feel that “…this canal would be even more profitable than the Erie Canal.”(MacCarthy). This thought raised interest and led people to invest in the New Haven-Northampton Canal Company. This was not the best idea because the canal idea was doomed from the very beginning. People would lose a lot of money in this investment. First, the New Haven-Northampton Canal was estimated to run 80 miles from New Haven to Northampton and cost about $299,000. This price was greatly off and it exceeded the investors expecatations. The real cost of the canal was over $1,000,000. Even with the increased cost people were willing to proceed with the construction of their canal. The canal was constructed by hand with picks, shovels, and carts. Construction of the canal ended in 1835, which made people very excited to see their new mode of transportation that would allow them to travel and ship the items that needed to be shipped easier and faster and cheaper than ever before. The only problem with that would have to be the many problems the canal faced once it was completed. One of the problems the investors did not count on was the winter. The canal would not be in use during the winter months because of ice. This was a big problem for the people that needed to use the canal and move their goods around the country. If the winter months were not the only problem the canal may have been a good idea but that would not be the last issue the builders would face. In the spring a problem arised. Freshets, muskrats, and beavers would undermine the foundations in thousands of places. The canal would be wrecked by these animals and the canal would need more money for repairs and maintance. Breaks in the canals would cause rushing waters that would end up damaging boats and sometimes cause the crews of those boats to abandon ship. This was yet another problem that would only make investors lose more and more of their money. There was an expression during this time of the canal’s failure. “Every man who put a dollar into the canal scheme lost four dollars.” The people were expecting large dividends for their investments into the New Haven- Northampton Canal Company when in fact they lost all their investments and more. People were very unhappy with this situation. One man tried to fix the canal and make it work, for he knew the importance a canal from New Haven to Northampton would have on Western Massachusetts. His name was Hon Nathan Smith of New Haven. He went to Northampton to create a new company that would end up raising $165,000 to make repairs and give the canal a second chance at success. In the end this would not happen. The canal was finally shut down in 1847 for the lack of funds to keep the canal operational. The idea was just not profitable if repairs were needed at a steady rate. There was a rumor that the railroad that was built made the canal less profitable, but that was wrong. The New Haven-Northampton Canal was losing money and was destined for failure way before the railroad was built. People just assumed that it was the railroads to blame for the failure. It may have had some impact since it was faster and it only took three hours to get from New Haven to Northampton on railway and one week by boat on the canal. Even with the the downfall of the New Haven-Northampton Canal people in Easthampton had a very brief opportunity to make use of the canals in the area.
The impacts of canals on the people of Easthampton were as followed. People in Easthampton were able to use the New Haven-Northampton Canal to ship goods and supplies around faster and easier than by roads. It was hard to travel by wagon and it took a very long time to get to a destination. With the canal people had a reliable route that was one of the quicker modes of transportation of the time. Factories in Easthampton were able to receive materials faster than before and produce more than ever thought possible. People had high hopes for the canal's propersity and helpfulness in their everyday lives. This mode of transportation made it easier to do most things which would have been deemed impossible by horse or ox drawn wagons and carraiges. People were grateful to have a faster way to get from point A to point B. The canal entered Easthampton from the south and crossed the Manhan river through a lock and an aqueduct. Easthampton citizens were full of hope for the great rewards a canal would bring to the area and the people. The New Haven-Northampton Canal affected Easthampton as the Erie Canal affected the lives of people in the nation.
The advances in transportation methods affected Easthampton and the nation much in the same way.The Erie Canal construction paved the way for more canals to spring all around the country in the hope to connect places to make travel faster, easier, and cheaper than ever before. Since the Erie Canal was such a big success the building of The New Haven-Northampton Canal was something that everyone could say was a good idea at the start, but it would not end up that way. The Easthampton residents were thrilled to now have a reliable traveling method that would increase their productivty in manufacturing goods and shipping and reciveing supplies. The advances in transportation made it possible for many people to travel, spread out, and expand the country.
During the late 1820’s railroads were beginning to appear in the United States, offering a fast and reliable connection between cities for freight and passengers. The popularity of railroads continued through the 19th century, and would appear in Western Massachusetts by the 1830’s, and Easthampton by the 1870’s. Following the national trends the railroads brought prosperity to businesses, but also safety concerns.
On a national scale railroads began being built in the late 1820’s, and by the 1830’s they were competing with other forms of transportation such as canals and roadways. Railroads were mainly built on the east coast and connected to western towns, creating huge commercial cities like Chicago and Detroit. Businesses between the different railroads prospered greatly from the ease of transporting goods from town to town, or even across the country.
By the mid 1800’s, railroads became the largest industry in America. Farmers and merchants were buying stocks in the railroad companies in order to transport their goods to the outside world. State and local governments in the U.S. were giving out tax breaks and loans to help the railroads expand. Later in 1850, the U.S. government granted 2.6 million acres of federal land to the Illinois Central Railroad to build a transcontinental railroad. The government ended up giving out many land grants, such as those under the Homestead Act, which gave out 170 million acres of public land to over 80 railroad companies. The rapid transportation of goods promoted much growth of the agricultural west, and created a close link from the Northeast to the Midwest. Railroads also provided the North with a strategic advantage in the Civil War where the South only had access to rivers.
The railroad building craze also affected population as well. In the 1870’s railroads were on the east coast and Midwest, and the population in those areas were still significantly spread out. After the Civil War thousands of miles of track were laid out, and by the 1890’s railroads were all over the east coast. The population density grew considerably due to this, especially in New England. Western Massachusetts stepped on the band wagon during this era to help businesses become more productive, and help the overall economy prosper.
During the 1830’s and 1840’s the Boston and Maine Railroad was built across Massachusetts and New England, connecting towns to Boston. The New Haven & Northampton Railroad was built in competition to the B&M. For about 20 years the Easthampton area only had this railroad to choose from, but in 1872 the Connecticut River Railroad (formerly the B&M) built a branch in the NH&N Railroad’s backyard so they could compete. This branch is often called the Mt. Tom branch due to it passing right by the mountain. This gave Easthampton two choices in transporting their goods, and also allowed for passengers to travel to New Haven, Springfield, or even Boston! These railroads could not build or expand though without government approval. The Senate of Massachusetts in one instance had to meet with the Board of Directors of the Connecticut River Railroad on the subject of a union passenger depot in Northampton on December 30, 1856. The buildings and tracks of the different railroad companies had to meet both local and state standards while also being voted upon by the Senate. This limited some development of railroads, but could not stop the enormous corruption in the industry nationwide.
With the overbuilding of railroads in the late 19th century many were unprofitable. Many of the railroads were mismanaged and suffered from complete fraud. Speculators, such as Jay Gould, went into the industry to make a quick buck by watering stocks (inflating the value of a business and profits before selling it back to the public). Many railroads scrambled to survive, often offering rebates or discounts to favored shippers while charging more to small-time farmers. Also, pools were formed between companies in which they agreed secretly to fix rates and share traffic. A nationwide panic took place in 1893, forcing a quarter of all railroads to go bankrupt. The railroads in Western Massachusetts though still stayed around for the most part. The Mt. Tom branch in Easthampton stayed open up until the mid-20th century!
The Panic of 1893 ended up allowing entrepreneurs, such as J.P. Morgan, to consolidate the bankrupt railroads and control a large chunk of railroads in the United States. A positive result of this though was a stabilization of rates and a more efficient railroad system. Yet many small investors and customers still felt victimized by the financial schemes that haunted the railroad industry.
Corruption was not the only negative outcomes of the railroad industry. Safety played a major part, or rather, the lack thereof. Since so many railroads were being built all across America during the 19th century railroad tracks did not have a standard set for them. Tracks were being connected that were not the same size, which caused numerous derailments and collisions. Cornelius Vanderbilt helped fix this by integrating trunk lines (major route between cities) with smaller branches that went into small towns. This helped make the railroad system much more efficient. Another major problem was the frequent occurrence for railroad trains to run over sheep, horses or cattle that had strayed upon the track. This endangered a great amount of property and life. An article from the Hampshire Herald stated, “It is an evil that demands remedy and we understand. The Western Railroad company will prosecute $20 to the owner of the animals for each offense plus other damage.” This was obviously serious for farmers since money was extremely important to them, as well as their livestock. It goes to show that trains and tracks were extremely dangerous when railroads were first being developed.
Railroads were a vital part in the economic prosperity of America during the 1800’s, including the Easthampton area. The New Haven & Northampton Railroad, as well as the Boston & Maine brought an economic boom to the area, as well as providing transportation for passengers to far distances. The two railroads gave Easthampton merchants a choice and provided competition in prices. Easthampton and surrounding towns became commercial centers due to these “iron horses.”
Throughout the 1800’s Easthampton was a growing city that had many options open to them in transportation. Roadways, while unsafe and hazardous, provided an accessible route to go short distances. Canals and steamboats were then created to move freight and passengers along the Connecticut River and Manhan River efficiently and safely. By the mid-to-late 19th century two railroads were built in the Easthampton area, allowing access to a much faster and reliable link between cities. Each mode of transportation had positives and negatives, but as time passed each type improved. Easthampton became a commercial center of goods, and could finally connect to the outside world.