The Conewago Canal Company built the Conewago Canal on the Susquehanna River at Conewago Falls, Lancaster County, Penn. The company was founded in 1792 by a group of Pennsylvania investors with the support of the state legislature. The locks were...
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The Conewago Canal Company built the Conewago Canal on the Susquehanna River at Conewago Falls, Lancaster County, Penn. The company was founded in 1792 by a group of Pennsylvania investors with the support of the state legislature. The locks were officially opened in 1797 and the company was sold to its creditors in 1800. Collection consists of correspondence, minutes, business papers, and accounts of the Conewago Canal Company. Correspondence between the shareholders and officers of the company, including its first president, Robert Morris, relate to the financing, engineering, construction, and operation of the canal and its locks. After 1801 most of the correspondence is addressed to Thomas Willing Francis, merchant of Philadelphia, who assumed ownership of the canal properties, and concerns the construction and management of a flour mill, distillery and sawmill, and to marketing of produce in Baltimore. Also, correspondence concerning a plan to build a toll road to the canal from York, Penn., and opposition to the plan in the Pennsylvania legislature; and a plan to create the town of York Haven adjacent to the canal as a commercial center for river trade. Other items are minutes of meetings of the board of directors, 1792-1798; business papers, 1788-1812; and accounts, 1792-1815, including account books, monthly payroll acounts of laborers, and ledgers.
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