As preparations got underway early in 1824 to start building the C & D Canal, John Randel, Jr., the engineer who received the contract to construct the eastern half of the waterway advertised in Wilmington newspapers for 300 carts with horses and 500 men not addicted to profanity or intemperance. He promised to pay liberal wages, and by June, work hands, many of whom were Irish, labored tirelessly with pickaxes, shovels, wheelbarrows, and carts removing the dirt and obstacles on the route.
Workers received tokens as payment for their arduous, muscle straining work related to moving earth between the waters of the Chesapeake and Delaware. Occasionally, these small copper tokens about the size of penny show up here and there.
The National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form reports that there was a bank in mechanics row at Glasgow, and Francis A. Cooch in Little Know History of Delaware and Environs refers to Randel’s bank being located there.
By Sept of 1825, company reports show that in the field on the eastern end Randel employed a workforce of 700 men and 154 teams of horses. Randel’s work on the canal was terminated that autumn and other contractors picked up the work.
Sources of Information
* The National Waterway: A History of the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal 1769 – 1985 by Ralph D. Gray, (1989)
* The Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, 150th Anniversary, 1829 – 1929 by Edward J. Ludwig, III (1979)
* Pencader Heritage Area http://www.pencaderheritage.org/landmarks/phland_p26.html
