Teamsters, Dock Wallopers and Child Captains

Port Henry’s first iron furnace was built just west of here in 1822, and through the 19th century additional furnaces, crushers, concentrating plants, and casting houses expanded production. The success of Port Henry’s waterborne heavy-freight trade rested on canal boats that arrived from the south carrying anthracite coal and could be reloaded with iron ore for the return trip, allowing fully loaded travel in both directions and helping them remain competitive after the railroad reached Port Henry in 1875. Ore and furnace fuel moved by canal boat, often with hundreds docked here, while teamsters hauled 7-or-8 ton ore loads down the plank road from the ore beds and dock wallopers pushed 500-pound wheelbarrows up gangways to dump ore into boat holds, with four men loading two 100-ton boats a day. After a decades-long decline in traffic on the Champlain Canal, New York enlarged it, and the Champlain Barge Canal opened in 1916 with modern locks and larger piers for steam tug-pulled barge trains. Life on canal boats mixed hardship and responsibility: cabins had only the barest amenities, no toilets, limited sleeping space, some crew slept under awnings on deck, young children were often tied on deck for safety, boys worked with their fathers until old enough to run their own boats, and even teenage captains were known. The toughness demanded by this work also marked the iron business, whose technologically complex and financially uncertain operations were successfully managed by Walter C. Witherbee, one of three generations of his family to lead the Witherbee-Sherman Company.

Port Henry, New York · United States