MIDDLEPORT — Royalton Hartland Community Library will host the presentation “The Irish and the Building of the Erie Canal” at 6 p.m. June 24, next Tuesday.
Tim Bohen, the author of Against the Grain: The History of Buffalo’s First Ward (2012) and Emerald Thread: The Irish in Buffalo (2024), will recap construction of the western section of the Erie Canal, focusing on the Pendleton-Lockport Deep Cut performed mostly by Irish immigrants.
Bohen, who traces his Irish American roots to an ancestor’s arrival in Buffalo in 1849, thinks those Irish canal builders don’t get enough recognition. He is familiar with the monument dedicated to them at Lockport’s Big Bridge over the canal.
“The Irish were kind of the brute force… the Hibernian brawn that built the canal,” he said. “Of the 1,200 workers blasting through stone in the western section, many were Irish immigrants ‘right off the boat’… and the working conditions were not great.”
The Deep Cut refers to conquering of the Niagara Escarpment which, as the canal was under construction, blocked access to Lake Erie. Laborers in the western section — the last section of the canal to be constructed — blasted through seven miles of solid bedrock to create a channel, utilizing black powder, and fire, to break up the rock.
“It’s important for western New Yorkers to realize how challenging that was,” Bohen said.
Bohen was born in Buffalo and grew up outside Washington, D.C., and later in East Aurora. Now residing in Elmwood Village, the pharmaceutical sales representative said his first book, Against the Grain, resulted from his quest to verify the spelling of his last name. His research led him to a “small community” on the Buffalo waterfront, and the story he told about that community generated an unexpected reaction: Buffalonians let him know there were many more local stories worth telling. Hence, Emerald Thread, which highlights men and women of Irish descent who, from Buffalo’s pioneer days to the present, left a lasting impact on the city and the nation.
Bohen said he will share a few of those stories Tuesday, as a prelude to his planned deeper dive into the Deep Cut. He has read enough about the conditions for the canal workers to conclude their lot was “pretty Darwinian.” The workers were paid by the hour, laboring year-round, through cold, harsh winter and hot, humid summer with no safety protections, and “if injured or maimed, you were on your own,” he said. “You can see some parallels to 200 years ago where immigration is concerned.”
Bohen’s presentation will touch on two riots that broke out in the nascent village of Lockport, one in 1822 that pitted Irish canal workers against villagers following an attempted break-in at a tavern, and another in 1824 sparked by disagreement amongst Protestant and Catholic Irish canal workers. Noting a daily liquor ration was part of their pay, Bohen surmised “that didn’t help” their situation as itinerant laborers doing extremely dangerous work.
Yet, he noted, “throughout this endeavor, they contributed to one of the most significant public works projects in the United States, helping New York become the Empire State.”
Bohen’s presentation is for adults only, Royalton Hartland Community Library director Angelina DiMascio said. Advance registration is required. To reserve seats, call 716-735-3281 or email mdtrpt@nioga.org.
Lockport Public Library will host Bohen’s presentation on July 22. For more information check the event calendar at lockportlibrary.org.