Early in the 19th century, the Leiper Canal built in 1828–29 during the middle of the
American canal age ran about along
Crum Creek
Crum Creek (from the Dutch, meaning "crooked creek") is a creek in Delaware County and Chester County, Pennsylvania, flowing approximately , generally in a southward direction and draining into the Delaware River in Eddystone, Pennsylvania. I ...
in
Delaware County to its mouth in eastern
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
's
Delaware Valley carrying its owner‘s quarried products to docks on the
Delaware River tidewater until 1852.
Early days
Previously, a horse-drawn tramway, the
Leiper Railroad The Leiper Railroad was a 'family business–built' horse drawn railroad of , constructed in 1810 after the quarry owner, Thomas Leiper, failed to obtain a charter with legal rights-of-way to instead build his desired canal along Crum Creek. The qu ...
, carried stone from the quarry for 18 years before the opening of the canal.
The tramway was built by Leiper's father,
Thomas Leiper
Thomas Leiper (15 December 1745 – 6 July 1825) was a Scottish American businessman, banker and politician who owned a successful tobacco exportation business as well as several mills and stone quarries. He served as a lieutenant in the Philad ...
, whose request to build a canal in 1791 was denied by the Pennsylvania Legislature. However, the Legislature of 1824 were of a different mind, and were unbiased by reports of failed attempts to improve the
Schuylkill River
The Schuylkill River ( , ) is a river running northwest to southeast in eastern Pennsylvania. The river was improved by navigations into the Schuylkill Canal, and several of its tributaries drain major parts of Pennsylvania's Coal Region. It f ...
(a series of failures, back to 1764) as they were debating parts of the
Main Line of Public Works
The Main Line of Public Works was a package of legislation passed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1826 to establish a means of transporting freight between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. It funded the construction of various long-proposed can ...
omnibus transportation package of bills, and the project, once ranked a crackpot idea, was in 1824 simply stylish.
Changing times
As it had evinced enthusiasms for toll roads connecting the far off frontier settlements to the east, or to better connect parts of the old east itself, between 1790 and 1820, as the 1820s progressed, the whole nation had entered a period of frenzied canal building spurred on by the successful effects of the commerce on the
Lehigh Canal
The Lehigh Canal, or the Lehigh Navigation Canal, is a navigable canal that begins at the mouth of Nesquehoning Creek on the Lehigh River in eastern Pennsylvania. It was built in two sections over a span of twenty years, beginning in 1818. The low ...
and
Schuylkill Canals; along with the ongoing construction of the
Union Canal,
Chesapeake and Delaware Canal locally expected within a few years, and
New York's pending completion of the
Erie Canal
The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east-west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly reducing t ...
(first section now open) even while the various
Delaware and Hudson Canal projects were in the news. In light of the big projects contemplated to link Philadelphia by canal with Pittsburgh and Erie, Pennsylvania and
Lake Erie
Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also h ...
, the Pennsylvania general court speedily approved a second canal proposal by Thomas Leiper, and the construction project was carried out by his son.
The Leiper Canal was one of several privately funded canals such as the
Lehigh Canal
The Lehigh Canal, or the Lehigh Navigation Canal, is a navigable canal that begins at the mouth of Nesquehoning Creek on the Lehigh River in eastern Pennsylvania. It was built in two sections over a span of twenty years, beginning in 1818. The low ...
,
Union Canal and the
Schuylkill Canals that operated in Pennsylvania during the same boom era as when the
Pennsylvania Canal System
The Pennsylvania Canal (or sometimes Pennsylvania Canal system) was a complex system of transportation infrastructure improvements including canals, dams, locks, tow paths, aqueducts, and viaducts. The Canal and Works were constructed and assemb ...
was constructed. In 1852, the families railway was reopened and the canal and locks were eventually filled in. Completed in 1828 to haul stone in flat-bottomed boats from his quarry near
Springfield Township,
Delaware County, Pennsylvania, to the navigable
Delaware River at
Eddystone, industrialist
George Leiper financed the canal based on a dream of his father, using it when completed to replace the
animal powered
Leiper Railroad The Leiper Railroad was a 'family business–built' horse drawn railroad of , constructed in 1810 after the quarry owner, Thomas Leiper, failed to obtain a charter with legal rights-of-way to instead build his desired canal along Crum Creek. The qu ...
between 1829 and 1852.
Configuration
Crum Creek's mouth is located at .
—and perhaps uniquely ironic in history, was in turn replaced by the same railroad in 1852 when it was refurbished and reopened with new superior and now mature railroad technology.
The system, which had three
locks
Lock(s) may refer to:
Common meanings
*Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance
*Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal
Arts and entertainment
* ''Lock ...
, replaced an
industrial railway
An industrial railway is a type of railway (usually private) that is not available for public transportation and is used exclusively to serve a particular industrial, logistics, or military site. In regions of the world influenced by British ra ...
built in 1810 by the elder Leiper when he failed to obtain a
right-of-way
Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another.
A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...
charter for any canal; operated by his family, the
horse
The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...
-drawn industrial railroad carried the families stone goods until the canal, which could carry heavier loads, received legislative blessings and was completed in 1828.
[ ]
Recognition
The
Thomas Leiper Estate
The Thomas Leiper Estate, also known as Avondale, is a historic estate located at Wallingford in Nether Providence Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania. It was built by Thomas Leiper around 1785, and named Strath Haven after Leiper's birth ...
was added to the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
in 1970.
The Thomas Leiper House has been turned into a public museum in the well-to-do neighborhood of
Wallingford.
See also
*
List of canals in the United States
The following is a list of canals in the United States:
Transportation canals in operation
This list includes active canals and artificial waterways that are maintained for use by boats. While some abandoned canals and drainage canals have stret ...
Footnotes
{{reflist
External links
The Leiper CanalTownship Treasures: The Thomas Leiper HouseAmerican Canal Society
Canals in Pennsylvania
Transportation buildings and structures in Delaware County, Pennsylvania
Canals opened in 1829