By Ken Wyatt
You could say that Clinton’s Folly led to the founding of Jacksonburg in 1829-30. Or, to use a more geographically precise descriptive, you could credit Clinton’s Ditch.
History has been kinder, for we remember it as the Erie Canal, the construction of which began in 1817 and was completed on Oct. 26, 1825. Yes, in another month we’ll mark the bicentennial of the canal’s opening.
That achievement was due to the vision and persistence of New York’s Gov. Dewitt Clinton. He provided the political force that pushed and prodded and finagled to get this great engineering feat realized from Albany on the Hudson River to Buffalo, New York.
Despite the scorn heaped on the “ditch” by naysayers, it did just what Clinton had envisioned: It brought in a huge stream of revenue and hastened the settlement of the Great Lakes territories – particularly Michigan.
According to a Wikipedia summary of the canal’s history, “The original canal was 363 miles long, from Albany on the Hudson to Buffalo on Lake Erie. The channel was cut 40 feet wide and 4 feet deep, with removed soil piled on the downhill side to form a walkway known as a towpath.
“Its construction, through limestone and mountains, proved a daunting task. To move earth, animals pulled a slip scraper (similar to a bulldozer). The sides of the canal were lined with stone set in clay, and the bottom was also lined with clay. The canal was built by Irish laborers and German stonemasons.”
That reference to the Irish and Germans is a segue to this Jackson history lesson: At least two of the thousands of men who built the canal were of English and French ancestry. Their names were Jonathan F. Stratton and William R. DeLand.
The names may be familiar to those who know early Jackson history. Stratton was the surveyor who platted the village of Jacksonburg in the spring of 1830. DeLand was the village’s first justice of the peace and at times was called the “father of the village.” Both men had significant influence on the settlement of early Jackson – and on the entire area.
Their influence, however, was what you might call a part of Jackson’s pre-history. And that story is a bit convoluted. So let’s take a look into the events that led to the settlement of Jackson and Jackson County.
When the War of 1812 erupted between the new United States of America and Great Britain, Jonathan Stratton and William DeLand found themselves comrades in that brief war. The war played out for three years and officially ended in 1815. After their discharge at the war’s end, Stratton and DeLand remained together in New York state.
They teamed up when the construction of the Erie Canal began in 1817. Stratton worked as a surveyor. Both men worked the canal project for the next five years. They parted company when William began teaching school in a small town.
There he met and married Mary G. Keith, who happened to be a niece of Lemuel Blackman. That relationship led to other connections with the Blackman family – including Horace Blackman, who married a young teacher who was William DeLand’s cousin.
Though separated from his friend Deland for the last half of the 1820s, Jonathan Stratton continued corresponding with him. He had gone west to Michigan after the canal’s completion, working as a surveyor in the southern half of Michigan territory.
In his letters, he urged William to consider moving to Michigan now that the canal had greatly minimized the challenge of travel westward.
Here’s how Charles V. DeLand, son of William, described what happened in his 1903 History of Jackson County:
“While [Horace Blackman was] visiting my father and mother, father showed him the letters from Stratton. Mr. Blackman had already had a touch of ‘western fever,’ though it had only reached as far as western New York.
Stratton’s letter renewed it, and he expressed a desire to see Michigan.
“Father gave him Stratton’s letter to show to his father and brothers and also a copy of his own letter to Mr. Stratton. After conferring with his people in New York, it was determined that Horace should make the trip to Michigan, and if satisfied locate a farm and report.”
The story of Horace Blackman’s trip is well known. What isn’t always appreciated is that he traveled by the Erie Canal to Buffalo and via Lake Erie to Detroit and from there to Ann Arbor. There he met Jonathan Stratton, who helped him retain the services of two men – Capt. Alex Laverty, and Peewytum the Indian guide.
To put into perspective the time saved in travel by the canal, consider this tidbit from an online source: “In 1800, it took three weeks to travel from New York City to Buffalo by wagon. By 1830, with the completion of the Erie Canal, that same trip took only eight days.” As for expenses, “In 1830, the cost of traveling on the Erie Canal was approximately two to four cents per mile for passengers. For shipping goods, the cost was between $90 and $125 per ton before the canal was built, but by 1835, it had dropped to $4 per ton.”
And those were the changed circumstances that enabled the first settler of Jackson County to wind up on the banks of the Grand River the evening of July 3, 1829. And that is where the three men held the first recorded Independence Day celebration the next morning on the banks of what the tribes called Washtenong Sepee.
How appropriate. A vision that began with two veterans of the War of 1812 helping to build the Erie Canal in New York State was realized by one who acted on the surveyor’s appeal to move west. That vision was realized on Independence Day of 1829 along the banks of the Grand River in the Territory of Michigan.
Horace Blackman returned east and by the spring of 1830 he and a small company of pioneer settlers began building their new settlement along the banks of the Grand River. Ah yes, there is more to the story of this county than most have ever realized. And a major part of it is due to Clinton’s Folly. Or Clinton’s Ditch, if you prefer. No one scoffs anymore.
The canal has been an object of much redevelopment, realignment and repurposing over the 200 years since it was completed. But it remains – a monument to the push westward that hastened development of the howling wilderness of Michigan into what we know as our pleasant peninsula.
