Life on the Canal

The canal was home to many different people who lived and worked alongside it.  Locktenders were on duty twenty-four hours a day, ready to operate the gates whenever they heard the horn or the shout of an approaching barge.  These men were given the lockhouse, and use of some land.  In the 1830s, the average yearly pay of a locktender was $100 (with additional pay if they had charge of more than one lock).  The whole family was involved, with wives and children taking over the job when needed (and often, widows of locktenders became tenders in their own right). 

Canal barges were homes as well as vehicles.  Each housed a captain and several workers, usually the captain’s family, and sometimes a hired hand or two as well.  The barge had a family cabin at one end, the mules’ stable and hay house at the other, and a cargo hold in between.  Everyone on the boat had a job to do: walking the team, steering, helping with the locks, tending the mules.  Wives and children did as much as the men, and roles were often switched around.

Other jobs on the canal included level walkers, who walked 20 miles in a day checking for damages and problems with the structures; superintendents, who were in charge of large sections of the canal; and maintenance workers.

Like any major transportation route, the canal was soon lined with businesses and communities.  Grocery stores and blacksmiths catered to the boatmen and their families; warehouses and mills took advantage of the canal to transport their goods.  Lives along the canal were closely intertwined.  Many men switched from millwork to boating or locktending, or vice versa; sons followed in their fathers’ footsteps; and neighboring families intermarried.   Towns sprang up next to some locks.  And just as it does today, the canal served as a recreational spot for casual visitors.

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