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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



auspicies of the State itself in 1817, 1 in which year a commission 

 was appointed to purchase the rights of the Western Inland 

 Lock Navigation Company for the State. This commission re- 

 ported June 24, 1820, awarding to the company the sum of $151,- 

 000, which was to be appropriated among the stockholders of 

 said company, as follows: 



To the individual stockholders, proprietors of stock amounting 

 to $140,000, the sum of $91,616; and for the use of the people of 

 this State, proprietors of stock amounting to $92,000. the sum of 

 $60,204.80. 



This report of the commissioners was confirmed by the 

 Supreme Court August 11, 1820, The Western Inland Lock 

 Navigation Company then became the property of the State, and 

 in 1821 the State collected the sum of $450.56 for tolls charged 

 from Rome to the lower lock at Little Falls on account of trans- 

 portation over the route formerly controlled by the Western 

 Inland Lock Navigation Company. 



Chapter 144 of the laws of 1813 incorporated the Seneca Lock 

 Navigation Company for the purpose of constructing a canal 

 from Cayuga lake to Seneca lake. The rights of this company 

 were purchased by the State, pursuant to chapter 271 of the 

 laws of 1825. The two companies, the Western Inland Lock Navi- 

 gation Company and the Seneca Lock Navigation Company, may 

 be considered the forerunners of the Erie canal. 



About $100,000 was expended by the Northern Inland Lock 

 Navigation Comlpany on locks around the falls at Cohoes and 

 for their improvement, all of which proved a total loss, the rights 

 of the company being finally transferred to the State before 

 navigation from the Hudson river to Lake Champlain was actually 

 opened. 



The amount expended by the Western Inland Lock Navigation 

 Company up to December, 1804, was $367,743, which was in- 

 creased to $480,000 in 1813, and to a total of $560,000 before the 

 works were finally transferred to the State. The mistake of first 



ir The full authority for the construction of the Erie aud Champlain canals 

 may be found in two acts, the first being chapter 237 of the laws of 181G, 

 passed April 17, 1816; the second being chapter 2G2 of the laws of 1817, 

 passed April 15, 1817. There is more or less confusion of these two dates 

 In early canal literature. 



