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THE POS'!-STANDARD THURSDAY, MARCH 16, 2006

H. 1ST 0 R Y

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" _ . DickBiumeI Staffphotographer

JqEDiGEORGIO,
. director -of. the'Canastota Canal Town Museum, with a portrait qf Nathan Smith Roberts, an Erie Canal engineer.
, ,..' t~.'. :"" " .....

. The Canal Connection

-Nathan
SmithRobertsplayed an importantrole )-

, in,the,(onstrucfion~of
the Erie(anal,'. ,
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TheErie"Canal
andNatbanSmithRoberts'

~ONNEG11'ON

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'.-~. - -' _ ,.. . . . - -f, tf!, .-' Filephotos
L "THE ROBERTS MANS~ON. at Stroud Street and Route 5; Canastota, was built by Nathan Smith Roberts (inset) in 1824.
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From Roberts' Journals

EARLY TRAV-ELON Tllli CAi~~21 's. R,o
,. . N ath.an
'

,
bertsworked, extensivelyon ' the
construction, of the Erie Canal. Excerpts, from
his joiJrnals give iIDinsightmto what'his era
and life were like. These are taken ITom "Chips and
,

Shavings: Storiesof Ups!ate New .York," by George

W. Walter. ' '

On sening up a Madison, County home

"In 1813,1 purchased a farm in Lenox,Madison
Colinty . . . J had a considerable flocK of 300 sheep,
!DilDyofthem;Me@os, and considerable other stock,
cows, horses, which J collected and sent to my farm. J
hired a Mr. Butler to tal!;echarge of them."
"This farm cost me about $5,000 and for Which 1-
was.sooii~debt, but I!ly busin<;:ssand my habits of
economy woilld have ensUred my success in paying
.for it ... In 1914... the prices of wool fell and the
value of my sheep in proportion. I had laid out about
$700 on my flock of sheep and although lUuch re-
duced !n value, they were the only stock out of w!rich
I Dlade '~ything, arid they paid their way. "
'1!i
~
,
OJiscciiltingthe Erie Canal
~~ 'S I "In June, 1816: .. I agreed with !udge Benjamiq
Did<BlumeIStaff photog:apher Wright of Rome, to assist him in exploring, aild s!ll"~
A PACKET.BOAT painting is part of a display on early travel on the Erie Canal ,at the Canastota veying, of which I took charge, of the route of the
Canal Town Museum. Eq.eCanal~_. About the f.jrstof July we commenced
at Rome and explored the rotite of the middle section
'of ih~' canaho Montezuma. This we completed about
By Dork.Ys Ramos
Contributing writer ~athan,Smith !foberts Sr~ the first of November.
Born: July 28.1776, in "This w~a very labonous buSiness. We lodged in
Pilesgrove, NJ ..'''''' ~ tents, aboutl3 of Iis;-'incoIDpany during the whole

T J.
Died: Nov: 24, 1851, in suiDmerand autun)D. . . J never enjoyed betterbe~th
,Canastota than I did during this year. Our subsistence was con"
he Omal helpod SM;e many centr
New York towns and turned the ports of'
~ Wife:lavinia White, 16 years
Y0l!nger than R06e~ al)~
tidedtobutafewarticles: ,.
"Breakfast: chocolate, piece of pork, salt and hard
"'

, , ,

cousin of Canvass White, "

bread, pilot bread

"New York City into the bustling entryways , another assistant engineer
who worked with Roberts "Dinner. boiled or friized pork, hard bread, whis-
that they are today. Those who labored endlessly key and swamp water, principally
Chlldren:'DeWitt, MarYJane, 'f' "Supper. hard bread and milk, if we could get it.
during the early 1800s to build.the waterway con::' Albert, Lavinia Catherine, "
"'Jbere was scarcely any butter or:fresh IIleat to be
Fi-~[1cesJosephine and Nathan
necting the Hudson River to the Great Lakes helped Smith Roberts Jr. had and no pollJloes.But we were as resolute as lions
and as healthY,1\8sOl11anywolves.
develop the region's success. "The winter of 1816 and 1817 I spentat Rome in
./I[athan Smith Roberts was preparing maps and pro!iles of the C3Jlalline, we had
one of those influential figures. reeentlysurveyed or explored. Benjamiil Wright was
Yet information on this impor- appointed prinCipal engineer of the. middle section.
tant contributor to the Erie Canal' Ti1e next year it was laid out ~ far as Onondaga, and
is 'scarce, and even people in his " I was engaged as a surveyor: and engineer."
adopted hometown of Canastota
don't know a lot'about the self- - On a homeco,!,ing
made engineer who helped build "I bad been absent frotIJ. my family nearlyilire!:
months and went home to see them. I arrived in the
'

"Clinton's Ditch."
eveiJii).g'ofDec.6, 1819, when to ply great joy. I Was
The Canastota Canal Town presented with my only daugbter; being born ir1 a few
Museum hopes to bridge the his- hours after my arrival, about 12 o'clock the SaJ1.le
torical in June when it hosts a night.
toUr through Roberts' house, the ,.After remain.i!Ig hoine3bout a week, I returned to
oldest in Canastota, as part of the the canal again at ~ochester and took 'charge olit
until about the ffist of March, when I commenced in
Madison County Bicentennial
celebration. .' the perrington swamp '. . . A party of surveyors and'
assistants laid out the line of the canal as it now runs,
File photo I Oennis Nett, 1999
The Roberts mansion, at THEBASEMENTof the Nathan Roberts house in Canastota once as far as the village of Clyde, which was put in the
Stroud Street and Route 5, was hands of the contractor in the months of May and
served as a kitchen where servants cooked meals. It I)as a large June. "
built in 1824 and added fireplace with a beehive oven, bread-baking oven and a huge
ROBERTS,PAGE6 cast-iron caldron.-
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ROBERTS
S
FROMPAGE
to the 'National Register of His-
toric places in 1986, said Joe Di-
Giorgio,"director of the canal
museum and a museum board
member,

The bouse reflects the-symme-

try oftbe period's Federal de-
sign. The white clapboard house
has Ii two-story center section
flanked by two peljectly match-
ed one-story wings. Three taIl
brick chimneys, of Flemisb bond
serve the house's' fireplaces. .,- Dick Blume I Staffphotographer"
THE CANASTOi'A CANALTOWN MUSEUM features various dis-
Roberts was a qufet figure plays relating to the history of the ErieCaral.
wbo spent lDuch of his tiJiJ.e
away from home working on
fot- the dnal. He was appointed,. ~. H
- . ~.. .. .
"

t ed
, -. 1
other canals, s(j few townspeople
knew him well. His reserved assistantengineerby theproj-' ou,se~!es or . . . . <!
ect's.cWefen~neer, Judge.Ben- 'The.I~Je,.porrislll!1ior~I'.,aJIVson,II
lifestyle 'also makesit,totigh on
jaminWrjAA,t, Ii yell! lafer."Le!)~x !'.'\iVQhi>19rii!.n,a,!)d, I
bistorians, Madison COllntY .his: "I thinkone of the interesting tl1~forO)e~ovvn~r ofRop~rts' I
tOrlan Sarah Davies said she had things'aboutbimand so many '" '~':' ~ :;.-.ho"se, wrote,.. ,.
a hata time fmding primary in- other menwbo worked on the '!r-Ji!thaj)',. I
formation and archives on Rob- canal was thatbe wasn'tti-ained ,Robe~~;.Erlf;1,
erts and had to rely'on secondary
.' " 1'"1 . . ' d U"
as at!engtI.leer,(;':avle,SSaI. ne
Canal'
En'ineer.".She,J;
material. went througb wbat is called the.I1.. ,.", .,~." '
Erie Scboolot:En~eering;just '6~~iI~:fd,.EJ'ic,
If,
"He waSJi't acttia1lyb~rn i~-
s~rt of.engineering!>!d?~g it." W,'LK'risci!'~r,~..
Madison c.oupty, " she 'said, ,~ '",,'.. Durmg the followmg,eight ,also deceased,
"but! guess the reason he'~ so J3,years,R2/Jef!Shelped locate the.~. "_. _ _ 'rT]0}'~~.
iPtoth,'!c~
closely connected to Madison ~,canaJ,betweenpyde and.Roch-'. . :Erlc ,hovseJ!)19~~~
County is that most of the tinie "ester and,designed!heJocks at -laWson Sr. TheY!enovated,
th.at be, spent working on the ca-, ,Lockport,a featthatwasdeemed ", ,.,.' .' ap,:!r<J!<t(}red,,~'
nalscoiricidedwith the-tim~e impossible at the time because theho!jse tOltsforme~,glory, ~
there was Ii 60-foot rock ridge in tandj)Utlru~f~>r,~le in 19~9?
!I lived here, By the time be was" the way. His answer _ a double !()day, thehous~,"cludes 13
actually nationally known. ; '; be set of five locks
was living in Canastota:" . , d b
was consid.
.
_ ro()ms',se:-renfireplac,es ,and,a.
red barn .n the back. It Is,stlll;'!
-,
e.re y~ome to be the eighth private res';'denc;!1andits turrent
Roberts was born in ,wonder of the wOrld. ..0:' owners 'have.aad~(fonto the""'''c
Pilesgmve, N.J.,\vbere b~ lived After word spreadof his work, ,house. ' ., . ,
on the Erie Canal, Roberts' repu- ..:.._ :: "' '.'"
in poverty with his 'fairiily after" ' tation as IItalented engineer u ',,'
his father, Abraham, lost his for,
tune in the American Revolu-, grew. He.,tplveled around the Erie he was able to make a mark
country and worked on the Well- ' .
tion, He was a math t~acherfor and, ChesaPeake and Delaware, not,only-in New york state, but
several years in Oriskany, wbere Chesapeake and Ohio, Pennsyl- , re:inyall over," Daviessaid.
be taught his future wife, Lavi- vania and the Tennessee canals. ". "
nia White. ' "Just being able to learn on 'Roberts "died Nov.. 24;1851,
Iii 1816, Roberts left teaching ,the jo/J and then carry that
knowledge and bell' to teach
and his wife died st;ven years
. " "

temporarily to help survey iIie other young engineers and sUr-' later o~,Marcb 30. They re both
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area from Rome 'and MontezUIJia
.,,,eyers wh.3Ithe'slearned on the, buried in~nox Rural Cemet~ry.

'R~~rt("'cana,I'Wor!f,,7-1
i\I'!l8~~:H$lps~t.irY~};:t~~"~,, .J .
fr(}m R(}metl) Mot)tez
th~,t.ja~f;~e:~m~,lhi.
CanaL "
I 1817:1825:.As assiStant.,
"engin~~r ont~".f9-JjS1/'Uttio.(.1
oftheErieFamil,'locates the:
qll!al be~eE!Q~IYde 1nd "c.~
Rochester and buildsthe.16cKs
., atLe~p(}n:{ ":;-' ..~.'"
1835:0i~fengih~er,qurit)g
ca.nill'sfirst enlargement ..'
1830s: Chief engineerin'the.
construction'of canalSin ,,=, Dick Blume I Staff photographer
PennsYlvania, Phio,Maryla'nd A MODEL of an Erie .Canal boat is on display at the .Canastota
an:iJ\iirginia '-~ Canal Town Museum. Nathan Smith Roberts, who once lived in
Canastota, worked as an engineer on the canal.