Research


Biographical Sketch

The land appropriation files document the state's acquisition of real property for the Barge Canal system, pursuant to Laws of 1909, Chap. 391, as amended. The land appropriation process was a large-scale, complex undertaking, involving three state agencies (Comptroller, Attorney General, State Engineer and Surveyor). In some locations relatively little land was acquired because the Barge Canal followed canalized rivers like the Mohawk, Oswego, and upper Hudson, or else followed the right of way of portions of the original Erie Canal and the branches that were retained in the new system. In many other locations, lands were newly acquired for the right of way of the relocated and/or enlarged and straightened canal. Retained in the Barge Canal system were the Erie, Champlain, Oswego, and Cayuga and Seneca Canals and small feeders needed for hydraulic purposes. The other branch canals had been abandoned in the later 19th century.