Of Canals and the Men who Built Them. . .Sam Blodgett

 . . .as the country increases in population, we must have manufactories, and here at my canal will be a manufacturing town, the Manchester of America! ~ Samuel Blodgett

Samuel Blodgett's early years

Another canal builder in the family was our cousin Samuel Blodgett (2C8X). Samuel's grandmother was our aunt Hulda Symonds Blodgett (8A). His mother was our cousin Sarah Wyman (2C8X).  Samuel was born in 1724 in Woburn.

In 1745 when he was 21, Samuel did his duty in King George's War as a commissary. In his early 20s, he moved to Haverhill, MA. According to George Waldo Browne in his book Hon. Samuel Blodgett: The Pioneer of Progress in the Merrimack Valley:

Upon his return from the Louisburg campaign, having then reached his majority, he naturally looked for some means by which to earn his livelihood. He was not needed at home, and seeking the excitement of new fields, he went to Haverhill, Mass., where he engaged in traffic on the Merrimack between that city and Newburyport.

Below is a portrait of Samuel as a young man, probably in his early 20s.

The Merrimack River would prove to be of continuing importance to Samuel throughout his life. He married in 1748 and, a few months after their first child was born the couple made a move to Goffstown, NH, only a few miles from Derryfield (now Manchester) which lay on the Merrimack River. The markers on the map below show the course of the Merrimack from Manchester, NH to Newburyport, MA:

(1) Goffstown, NH (2) Manchester, NH (3) Merrimack, NH (4) Lowell, MA (5) Haverhill, MA (6) Newburyport, MA

In 1751, Samuel purchased two pieces of property. One was a 317 acre farm in Goffstown. Since the river made it easy to continue his business ventures in Massachusetts, he also bought a lot in Haverhill in order to build a wharf on the Merrimack.

Four years later, the final French and Indian War began and Samuel threw his hat into the ring once more. He was at Lake George on September 8, on a day that three important battles were fought. Ever the consummate entrepeneur, Samuel wasn't part of the regular troops. His job was to follow the army and sell provisions to the soldiers. Since he didn't take part in the battle, he was able to position himself on a hill where he had a perfect view of the action on the battlefield. The resulting map that Samuel sketched of the action was engraved and printed early in 1756. He called it "A Propective Plan of the Battle fought near Lake George." We featured this plan in our "Final French and Indian War" post. An original printing of his Prospective recently sold at auction for $12,000.

As a commissary man it appears that Samuel was more soft-hearted than most. A letter from Isaac Merriam written after the war about Samuel bears this out:

I Isaac Merriam at Fort Edward fell in sick Some Time in July & had a permitt to Com Down to albany In Company with a Number of other sick and at my arrival Did Apply to Comasary of the Kings Hospital for my Self & others was Refused. But Mr. Blodget arrived at Albany we all apply to him who Supplied us with Nessariys we wanted to our Great joy & Satisfac'n and did continue so to do Till I Left albany. . .and of the Opinion that Great numbers would have suffered had it not ben for Mr. Blodget Supply, their being for Sum Time Neither Doc or Officer to Do anything for us & the Sick Sent almost every week and in Great Numbers — & for Near a Month Before I came away had Recovered so far as to becom helpful for Coming Necesssry to the poor helpless Creatures and always found m Blodget Ready & willing to Supply me with sutch things as I went for.

ISAAC MERRIAM. "Suffolk SS. Boston March 14 1760.

family business

After the war, Samuel lived in Boston for ten years, concentrating on different branches of business that he conducted in Haverhill and Goffstown as well as Boston. He dabbled in lumber clothing, fur, and "pot and pearl ash." In 1769, he returned to Goffstown where, in 1770, the governor of New Hampshire appointed him Collector of the Excise at a time when tax collectors were particularly unpopular. Luckily for, Samuel, the Townshend Act, which added extra taxes onto various imported items, had recently been repealed.

About this time, it seems there was a little trouble in the family. Evidently Samuel's elderly uncle Benjamin Blodgett (1C9X), son of our aunt, Hulda Simonds Blodgett (8A), had been living with him. In August of 1771, Samuel wrote a letter to a former teacher of his, James Fowle of Woburn.

Note: James was married to our cousin Susannah Wyman (2C8X). Their daughter Mary (3C7X) married our cousin Loammi Baldwin (3C7X).

The letter read as follows:

Sir —

My uncle Benj will shortly pay you a visit. You must not expect me to pay anything for him; as he has left me and has Reported abought this Town that I had agreed to Give him Large wages — But poor old man will shortly feel the effect of his Ingratitude and abuse of my family; he might have lived with me to the end of his life, provided Truth and Gratitude had been his guid; thus he is a stranger to, you are not a Stranger to occasion of my Taking of him — paying his Debts &c but more of this when I have the pleasure of seeing you in meen time I am your friend and humble Servant. SAM'L BLODGET.

When the Revolutionary War began in 1775, Samuel again worked for the army providing supplies to the troops during the months of the Boston siege. When the British left Boston, he returned to his business in Goffstown. More family trouble ensued when his second son, Samuel, Jr. (3C7X) unexpectedly resigned his post as captain in the army and went into the trade business. Only a year had passed when the young man found himself over £4,000 in debt. After letting the debt linger for ten years, Samuel finally did the honorable thing and got permission from his other children to pay his son's debt:

Boston, Oct. II, 1788. This act, though attended with great loss is given up and a receipt given in full discharge; it being consented to by the children then present, viz. : Nathan Blodget, Abigail Stickney, Polly Gilman and Caleb (3C7X) .

Note: Samuel's daughter Abigail (3C7X) had married our cousin Thomas Stickney (3C7X).

Samuel in Europe

When the war ended, Samuel embarked on a altogether new endeavor. He invented a machine that could be used to raise cargo from sunken ships. In 1783, he was successful in raising a haul from a ship near Plymouth, MA but had less success when he took his machine to Europe. Browne wrote about his failure:

As there was no other opportunity for the inventor to prove his claims, he was forced to retire, his experiment having proved a costly venture. Unwilling to return under the cloud of his failure, and somewhat broken in health, he spent the following seven months in sight-seeing, visiting many parts of the Kingdom.

While he was in Europe, Samuel wrote a letter to son Samuel, Jr. concerning the education of his grandchildren. The lengthy "memorandum" says in part:

Therefore I wish they may be sent to the Best schools in Boston. In short I would have no reasonable expense saved for in comparision with the general advantage which may be gained. . .Above all things I would have them love each other & consider Betsey Gilman & the Little Stickneys as Brothers and Sister for this must be of great Importance at some future time.

Samuel goes on to write a little about the lack of success with his machine and his need of financial assistance from family members:

You will please not to mention any thing you have seen or that I have told you respecting our embarrassments to any Body (Caleb & Mr. Gilman excepted). It requires but a small extra exertion to relieve me & they surely will not neglect me when they know our future fortune depends on their exertions.

It will be a great mistake if I am not Immediately relieved in the manner pointed out Nothing but absolute madness can Prevent my being placed in a very different situation from that I have remained too long. . .I bear every disappointment patiently for I consider the evils I have suffered as unavoidable. . .Tell Mr Gilman that my health is much better than for 18 months Past that I hope soon to be Intirely recovered. . .

the canal idea takes shape

Upon his return to Haverhill, Samuel immediately got back to business. He began to recover some of his "shattered fortune" when he opened a general store, started a clothing factory and established a stage line between Haverhill and Boston. These endeavors restored him to the the "height of his prosperity, but his restless, ambitious spirit was not satisfied." For his next project, Samuel probably took some inspiration from his (and our) cousin Loammi Baldwin (3C7X) from his hometown of Woburn. Loammi had recently begun work on the Middlesex Canal and Samuel saw the same type of opportunity for himself in New Hampshire. With stars in his eyes, he promptly moved his family back to Derrytown (now Manchester), NH and purchased land surrounding Amoskeag Falls on the Merrimack in Derrytown.

Samuel's idea was to create a canal that would facilitate boat travel around the falls.

Work on the canal began on May 2nd, 1993. Samuel sold all his business ventures in Haverhill to raise capital. In 1795, he also began selling shares in a side project to make the Merrimack River navigable to Lake Winnepesaukee which was north of Manchester. Samuel purchased 50 shares and two of his sons bought 20 shares each. Our cousin Samuel Phillips Kidder (2C6X) also bought 20 shares. Below is a copy of one of the shares purchased by Samuel Blodget, Jr. Note that Samuel Blodget, Sr. is president of the Blodget Canal Company, and Samuel Kidder is clerk.

Samuel Kidder, born in Billerica in 1768, moved to Derryfield as a young man. He must have become well acquainted with Samuel Blodgett because he not only invested in the canal scheme but he named his first born child Samuel Blodgett Kidder (3C5X) to boot. We'll have more on Samuel and his family in a future post.

Sadly for Samuel Blodgett and his investors, the Lake Winnepesaukee endeavor was never completed and problems on the main canal project began to demand all his attention and funds. In 1797, after four years of toil and an expense of $20,000, a trial run of the slips and locks proved to be disastrous: "The speed attained by the rafts or boats was such as to smash the one and 'stave up ' the other. The merchandise on the boats was scattered along the banks, while the logs had to be re-rafted."

So it was back to the drawing board. A year and an additional $20,000 later, the project was no better off:

The water now entered the canal with a power which tore the locks from their fastenings and tossed them on its foaming current! Worse than before, the work of a year was a wreck! This was late in the autumn of 1798, and the following June, an unusually high freshet completed the ruin of nearly five years' labor and the loss of $20,000 by washing off the canal below the locks.

Cousin Loammi to the rescue

To his credit, Samuel didn't give up. With his "own fortune now depleted," he obtained a charter for the canal to "secure the necessary capital to go ahead." In 1798, he hired an expert surveyor with extensive canal building experience to select the most feasible route. That expert was none other than Cousin Loammi Baldwin (3C7X) whose Middlesex Canal was nearing completion:

Colonel Loammi Baldwin who superintended the construction of the Middlesex canal, made the survey, and evidently in sympathy with the project made a favorable report, placing the prospective cost at $9000. He recommended a route farther removed from the river's bank, in order to escape the high freshets, and what was of equal importance, if something of a sting to the man in his disappointment, that "there were certain established principles which it would be well not to depart from, nor presume much on new theories, or to introduce works of speculation into canalling."

On the basis of Loammi's report, Samuel was able to raise $7,000 and secure from the New Hampshire legislature the right to hold a lottery for up to $9,000. Below is a copy of one of the one of the lottery tickets sold:

Samuel was only able to raise $5,000 from the lottery and it seems he managed to annoy his cousin Loammi. When Loammi came out to Derryfield to discuss plans for continuing work on the canal, Samuel failed to arrive for their meeting. An irked Loammi wrote him a letter which said in part:

As soon as the first class of our lottery was suffienctly known to give data for calculation, I set out for the Canal where I arrived last Friday and have been waiting your arrival ever since but disparing of seeing you at this time I am now preparing to return without making those important arrangements which I contemplated so essentially necessary to the successful operations on the canal. . .

Loammi then went on to fill a page with suggestions for continuing the project. By this time, however, it appears that nerves were frayed. According to an article in the Middlesex Canal Association site, "Blodget and Baldwin had a serious falling out over this; it's said that, at one point, the two old men came to blows."

Five years later, Samuel was still smarting from the bad publicity he had received due to the lottery scheme. In 1803 He published "a true statement relative to the Amoskeig Canal." The statement said in part:

It is very painful indeed to me, to reflect on a ten year ardent exertion at this stage of life sparing no pains in my power, with the utmost stretch of invention, to finish this Canal, the expense of fifty thousand Dollars having already been devoted to it, and the Canal not yet completed. Many are the misfortunes and embarrassments which have unavoidably fallen to my lot, in the course of this great work, but neither of these, nor the addtition of old age shall deter me from persevering in the laudable undertaking. . .For although I cannot expect to reap any advantage myself by this Canal; yet I have the pleasing hope, that the great public, and my heirs, may derive important benefits from it -- And much of the money I have brought from the other State into this, has in many influences been so applied as in feed the hungry and clothe the naked.

Among the unavoidable misfortunes which have attended the completing this Canal, one has not been well understood; and it may not be unwise to set the public mind right with respect to it --- At the time I petitioned the Legislature of New Hampshire, for a Lottery, to raise nine thousand dollars, my suffering proved much more. . .out of this 9000 dollars, exclusive of necessary charges, I have received only 5000 dollars; all which, with many thousands more, have been actually expended on the Canal, besides 1300 dollars of toll received the last season. So that the reports now circulating of my being indifferent whether I complete the Canal or not, and that I have made use of Lottery money in building a house, &c. are both false and without foundation. So far from making use of the money I received by the Lottery, I have expended more than 7000 dollars upon the Canal, besides the 5000 received by the Lottery. This I am ready to prove, when called upon.

Manchester of America!

In spite of all of the problems, Samuel's canal was finally completed in May of 1807. His vision, however, didn't end there. He announced his belief that "as the country increases in population, we must have manufactories, and here at my canal will be a manufacturing town, the Manchester of America!" 

From an article by the New Hampshire Historical Society, we learn just how successful Samuel's foresight came to be:

Manchester (originally called Derryfield) began as a small farming village located several miles east of the Merrimack River. . .The town’s potential as an industrial center was first recognized by Samuel Blodget. . .When Blodget’s canal system opened in 1807, it allowed boats traveling between Concord and Nashua to bypass the steep falls completely, thereby providing for water travel north of the falls, which opened this area of the state to development. . .Within a few years, through the construction of other canals and locks, the Merrimack would link Concord to Boston, opening up for central New Hampshire all sorts of possibilities for trade and industry.

Blodget envisioned the creation of a massive factory complex on the banks of the Merrimack. . .He proclaimed that the spot around the Amoskeag Falls would someday become the “Manchester of America,” a water-powered textile center comparable to Manchester, England. While Blodget did not live to see his vision of an industrial complex realized, the town of Derryfield voted to change its name to Manchester in 1810, as a memorial to Blodget’s dream.

Inspired by Blodget’s successes and the power of the Merrimack River, a group of men. . . established the Amoskeag Cotton and Woolen Manufacturing Company, the precursor to the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company, in 1814. . .Between 1838 and 1915, the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company constructed a total of 40 mill buildings, a dozen or so of which still stand in the city today.

Amoskeag quickly became the largest producer of cotton cloth in the world, and, in 1873, it became the main supplier of denim used to make Levi jeans. The Amoskeag company turned a village of 125 inhabitants into a city of 10,000 in 10 years, and went on to become the largest textile manufacturing plant in the world, turning out cloth at the staggering rate of 50 miles per hour by 1915!

Below is a marker erected in 1978 by the New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources:

Sadly, after fourteen years of blood, sweat and tears, Samuel did not live long enough to see his visions come to fruition. His canal was completed in May of 1807 and four months later he was dead at age 63. His only satisfaction would be the fact that "the great public, and my heirs, may derive important benefits" from the canal, his crowning achievement.

In his will, Samuel stipulated that his executors were authorized to sell any part of his estate other than "my. . .interest in the canal called Blodget." He felt selling his stock in the canal would be "against my family's welfare to part with at present because it must be of great value."

The heirs that would "derive important benefits" would not be Samuel's children. Of his nine sons and daughters, it appears that only one who outlived his father was Samuel, Jr. 

Next up: Samuel, Jr. and the passing of the torch