Postal History Question Regarding The Erie Canal

Some historians have maintained, or at least assumed, that mail was carried by packet boats on the Erie Canal. However, I have found no evidence of mail being carried on the canal and think that their assumption may be based solely on the origin of the term "packet" which originally referred to packets of mail. Can anyone shed any light on this? The Erie Canal bicentenniel is coming up in 2025.

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See: https://goscf.com/t/77613 especially the first post by centerstage98.

The Hugh Feldman book on contract mail routes by water would have the contract for carriage on the canal if it was ever done. Such mail would have been carried in closed bags and would not have any evidence of canal carriage.

It is likely that there will be some privately endorsed stuff floating around, whether or not the canal was deemed a post road or had contract carriage. That is certainly the case for the area I know better, which is Ohio canal mail (where there WAS a contract for one year) and where privately carried letters exist but are hard to find.

Thanks so much. I had seen that post previously but wasn't able to find it again. I know it's often difficult to prove a negative, but I'd like to find some evidence for the statement "The canal and boats had no contract with the Post Office Dept. so mail did not regularly travel by canal boat." I will look for the Hugh Feldman book.

Thanks again.

Check newspaper archives for contemporary advertising and accounts of the operating era of the canal. Also local historical societies and, of course, state societies. Many possible places to look for information.

The US Serial Set, the official Congressional record of government contracts, list mail contracts awarded during this era.

Have fun on your quest.

Contract Mail by Canal - The first I have found is an 1814 mail contract on the Dismal Swamp.

Perhaps my favorite - from Cleveland to a prominent resident of Akron in the summer of 1837 (which was the year there was a contract on the Ohio canal). Originally endorsed "per packet" (i.e., canal boat) but then entered in the mails because of the contract.

I'm adding my 2 cents, with no expert opinion or information, just to be conversational.
I always thought if I found a cover with any "packet" marking and addressed to and from cities along the Erie Canal it would be assumed it was carried on a canal boat.
Alas I haven't found any.

Thanks for all the responses. To commemorate the upcoming bicentennial of the Erie Canal, the Buffalo Maritime Center is building a full-size replica of the canal boat Seneca Chief, the boat that carried NYS governor DeWitt Clinton on the Wedding of the Waters trip. For the past 2-3 years, I have been researching the boat, its owners, the passengers and the event, in an effort to find out as much as possible about the boat and ensure that the replica is as accurate as possible. I've searched extensively in primary sources, in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Albany, in libraries and archives and historical societies and museums all along the canal as well as in newspapers online. Nowhere during the research have I seen any reference to Erie Canal packet boats carrying mail which makes me question the statement whenever I hear it. I've ordered the Hugh Feldman book on mail contract routes which was suggested earlier by Interlibrary Loan. Hoping that it will provide the evidence I need.

Feldman's book is quite clear. From page 107, in the Indiana section relating to a contract on the Wabash & Erie Canal, "The use of canals to transport the mails for any considerable distance was extremely rare, the only other long routes being on the Kanawah Canal in Virginia and the Cleveland and Ohio in Ohio."

It is far easier to find pre-civil war era business letters sent by horse/rail containing merchant's shipping documents which mention their goods being shipped via various canals.