From the Bolivar Breeze, March 9, 1939.
(Transcribed and submitted by Richard Palmer, wtih our thanks.)
EDITORIAL
POLITICS NOW AND THEN
(Frank A. Herrick, Editor)
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The influence of politics in state affairs was felt as keenly 100 years ago as it is today since history tells us that it is just a century ago that the Genesee Valley Canal through Allegany County was started. After the enactment of the legislature appropriating funds for its construction, came the preliminary surveys and the letting of the work in sections.
Work began in earnest in 1839 and continued until 1842, when a revolution in state politics occurring, a halt was called and work was suspended. Contractors were paid damages, in some cases enough to have completed the work if properly applied.
Meantime the country up and down the Genesee River presented a strange appearance, here a bridge spanning the dry ditch, there one partially completed, while around the site for locks, aqueducts, acres of land would be covered with stone.
This condition of things existed until 1849 when work was resumed and prosecuted to completion, in the spring of 1851. The first boat which passed through Fillmore was “The Daughter of Temperance,” and it would be drawing it mildly, reports the historians, to say it caused a sensation.