The Genesee Valley Canal at Olean

THE GENESEE VALLEY CANAL AT OLEAN

Not much has been written about the Genesee Valley Canal in Olean. If fact not many know that this infamous canal that once was thought to be a boon to this area even existed here. The canal entered Olean through Boardmanville, crossed the Olean Creek by means of a aqueduct into North Olean, at the location of the old car barns or where the Hampton Inn is now located. It ran along the east side of North Union Street, making a eastward turn along the Olean Creek, under the East State Street Bridge. Here the Canal again crossed the Olean Creek on another aqueduct to the Olean Basin (location of Bradner's Stadium). The Canal eventually followed the path of the Allegany River to Millgrove Pond in the Town of Portville.

Today plans are in the works to connect a trail from JCC to the park at E. Henley & Fulton Streets along the property now owned by the Norfolk Southern Railroad Co. This is the location of the old Genesee Canal in Olean, and I believe the only remaining bed of the canal that hasn’t been filled in. IT’S A HISTORICAL SITE.

When Major Hoops founded Olean Point 1804, and the first clearing was made at the mouth of the Olean Creek and Allegany River, this section became known as the “Gateway to the West.” Olean could no longer claim that distinction after the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 from Albany to Buffalo. It was originally planned to connect the Erie Canal with Lake Erie, but also build a connection canal to the Allegany River at Olean. In May of 1836 the bill at Albany was finally passed into law for the construction of a canal from Erie Canal in Rochester, through the valley of the Genesee River to the Allegany River at Olean.

The following excerpts were taken from the OLEAN JOURNAL newspaper concerning the Genesee Canal being constructed near Olean.

FEBRUARY 23, 1854“The People of Olean and the surrounding country seem now in a fair way to realize a portion at least, of the benefits they have expected to derive from the completion of this Canal. During the past years, the bright and gloomy prospects of that work, have alternately inspired them with hope and fear, giving to property an unstable value, and unsettling everything calculated to have a favorable effect upon the growth and prosperity of the village. This state of doubt and uncertainty is now at an end. Our citizens now know what they can depend upon. The Canal will be finished within a few months at farthest, and the benefits to result from it will very soon be visible. That it will build up and concentrate a large and ever increasing business at this place, there is every reason to believe. The heavy articles of freight, such as lumber and coal, will afford a large amount of business, and probably disappoint those who have predicted it would have but little to do.”

“The Allegany Valley Railroad Company" regards the Genesee Valley Canal as one of their most favorable connections, and in all their reports have spoken of it as a highly important and useful work. And the fact that they located their Road on a line a mile and a half longer than a good, practicable route, for the purpose, as they state, of having a down grade from the coal region here, shows that they intend to avail themselves of the advantages it will afford for heavy transportation.”
There was much rejoicing after the Genesee Canal was completed to Olean, and the first boat entered Olean in October of 1856. When the canal boats reached Olean the incoming and outgoing freight was unloaded from a platform, which was located near the site of the old Windsor Hotel.

A famous boatman of the pioneer canal days was Ben Streeter, who navigated the first canal boat between Rochester and Mt. Morris and was an occasional visitor to Olean. He was known as “The Rochester Bully” and was quite handy with his fists. Among the canal laborers in those days, there was a good deal of scrapping, the result in most cases, of whiskey potations, which were frequently indulged in at various points along the canal route including Olean.

Many of the boats, which plied the Genesee Valley canal were quite attractive in appearance, generally round at the bow and square at the stern and were usually clean and neatly painted. They were some eighty feet long and fourteen feet wide, with a cabin at the stern for living purposes and a cabin for the crew, or for horses at the elbow. They could carry about ninety tons of freight, or if floated with lumber, fifty to eighty thousand feet or fifty cords of wood. Care had to be given not to overload the boat since it made hard pulling for the horses and caused dragging on the canal bottom. Among the boats were the following names, The Wave, The Bersey-King, Diantha Marie, Fashion, Homer and Crescent.

The Genesee Canal was finally closed and abandoned on September 30, 1878. The material, locks and bridges were sold at auction. The residents whose land the canal had passed through were reimbursed and the beds of the canal were sold to railroads.

OLEAN’S STORIES CONCERNING THE GENESEE CANAL
On Tuesday night, March 21, 1861, there was a fire in a barn near the Genesee Canal north of the Merritt and Bennie Store. It was morning before it was discovered that the barn owned by an Irishman, whose name was unknown, had burned to the ground. A small quantity of hay, a cow and a calf were lost in the fire.

The Canal Board adopted restriction speed of canal boats to speed of not over five miles an hour under the penalty of fine of $25 for each violation to be imposed by any of the canal officers and repair contractors on their respective sections of the canal. (June 8, 1861)

Clips from Charles Carter, “Where the New Central Hotel stands there was an old apple orchard. We lived where the Pennsylvania depot is now and father’s limekiln was on the site of the Genesee House. The old Genesee Valley Canal was still open at that time and the Cramer boat yard, where canal boats were built and repaired, stood on the site of the Acme Mills.”
“The canal was a big factor then. The horses that were used on the towpath were put up at the big barn on Whitney Avenue, the one Jaekle Bros. later owned. The canal men would hang out at the Farmer’s Hotel, just in front of it. The boatmen were accustomed to putting up for the winter months here. Mr. Carter characterized Olean as “a tough canal town in the early years”. Olean was really one of the toughest towns on the Genesee Valley Canal”. Among Mr. Carter’s early memories of the canal-boat days was a tar-and-feather party given for a young man who had come to Olean to take a bride. As a result of the incident, most of those who participated left town, and many of them never returned here”.

Mr. Borst recalled the days when the site of the Bradner Stadium was a mill pond, part of the Genesee Valley Canal. After the canal was no longer in use, the tow path that boarded the northern part of East Avenue was known as the BLUE LINE section.

The BLUE LINE became a notorious section in the late 1890's. The police had tried to clean up the place and had made frequent arrests of the people who had made the night hideous and caused many complaints from those who lived nearby, especially on Laurel Ave. and Tompkins Street. It was notorious for the “disorderly houses” where shootings, robbing, and so forth went on.

After the closing of the Genesee Canal in Olean, the swampy area of the abandoned canal became a nuisance. In 1893 the W.N.Y.&P. Railroad had received a notice to fill in the abandoned canal between Union and Fulton Streets to a level with the adjoining premises.

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