Read Online The Delaware Canal by Marie Murphy Duess - Free Book Online Page B

influenced by the temperance movement in the 1800s, a supply of beer, applejack, whiskey, rum, gin and even brandy was available.
    Canalboats had a wet well but no proper refrigeration to keep food fresh. As a result, stores along the canal provided necessities for the boatmen and their mules. Perishable foods were bought daily, and many of the local residents made a living supplying the boatmen with fresh-baked bread, cheese and meat.
    Expenses round trip from Mauch Chunk to Philadelphia could cost three dollars, which included feed for the mules. Bacon cost four cents per pound; ham, six cents; butter, twelve cents; coffee—which was a boatman’s staple—twelve cents; and brown sugar, four cents. They also purchased baskets of potatoes and bushels of oats.
    It is said that during the temperance movement no liquor was sold in stores along the canals, but Francis Rapp reports in “Lehigh and Delaware Canal Notes” that a drink called “strap” was sold at the locks and canal stores, and from the reputation of the canallers, liquor must have been available somewhere along the way, for the boatmen were always ready to “throw one back.”

    In addition to being an “avenue of commerce,” the canal also provided water for fire trucks in the later days of the canal era. This photo was taken near Lock 11 in New Hope. Courtesy of New Hope Historical Society
    Strong drink served to break the monotony for the men, and, it can be assumed, increased the tendency to crime. Abundant apple jack and black strap made with rum and molasses were available at every basin, dock, and even the locks. There were also floating saloons and plenty of taverns along the canal route. Saloons offered free stabling for the mules and lewd women to lure the boatmen off the water . 40
    Perhaps that is how “Devil’s Half-Acre” in the township of Upper Black Eddy got its name. Now known as Point Pleasant, the majority of development in Upper Black Eddy was centered on the canal. There were stables for the mules, a shipyard and a general store. A tavern was built in the 1800s while the canal was being constructed. The owner ran the tavern illegally and was often in trouble with the authorities and with the rough-and-ready canal men who found comfort in bottles of whiskey and the arms of “ladies of the night.” There is a legend that the area where this tavern was located is haunted by the ghosts of canal workers who were buried in shallow graves after being killed in drunken brawls. 41
    Taverns, Stores and Stables
    Merchants catered to the canallers in Bristol, where the basin was located, and in almost all cases the stores extended credit to the boatmen. This was where they stocked up at the beginning of their return trip. And in Bristol there was no shortage of taverns and inns. Most canal men enjoyed a beverage and meal at the Closson House (formerly the Delaware House), where they could await orders for their return while their coal loads were transferred to steamers. At the waterfront below this saloon, fifty or more canalboats could be seen docked while the men prepared for the return.
    Bristol was always bustling with canallers and their trade, and more often than not, they brought unwanted trouble with them. In Doran Green’s History of Bristol Borough , he relates how stimulating life with the canallers in town could be.
    One day a well-known young man with several companions was playing a game of cards on one of the canal boats. A row occurred and when the young man’s body was found next day, from marks upon his head, he was supposed to have been murdered by being struck by some hard instrument. Great excitement prevailed throughout the town. Several arrests were made, but no incriminating evidence could be found and the matter remains a mystery to this day . 42
    If they survived their stay in Bristol, the canal men boarded their “light” boats and headed back up the