Episode 15 - The Delaware & Raritan Canal - Where the Irish came to die in NJ

We make an unexpected stop in NJ to check out The Mapleton Aqueduct in The Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park, Princeton, NJ. The dark history of Irish workers is forgotten in the middle of this beautiful park.
Most of the Delaware & Raritan Canal system remains intact in 2018.It is a beautiful place but a quite reminder of the days when the delivery of freight depended upon a team of mules or steam tugboats and the backs and blood of many Irish immigrants. Thirty-six miles of the main canal and 22 miles of the feeder canal still exist, with many historic structures along its entire length.
Princeton NH is a grat strating point with many fun things to do around the town as well as the nature aspect of the adventure.
Also See:
www.dandrcanal....
www.njskylands....
en.wikipedia.o...
Additional info sourced from.
Millstone Township Website
www.state.nj.us...
Fiddles McGinty Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
creativecommon...

[@vickic.1303]

Actually, the numbers of workers who helped to build the D&R remains in question as a "central set of records" documenting the workforce has not been located (or never existed). In fact, the sections of the canal were bid out as contract work and it was incumbent upon the contractor who won the bid to hire the laborers for their section. Each contractor would (or would not) keep records of those laboring on the sections they were responsible to complete. So while the number "3000" laborers is thrown out there, we don't know the actual number of workers who labored on the project during the 4 years of construction.
The majority of the unskilled laborers were likely drawn from immigrating, and migratory, Irish workforce though not all. Many local men were also hired. Many Irish laborers were those who had been recruited to help build the Erie Canal. That project was completed in 1825 and once proved successful, other such internal improvements across the eastern seaboard soon got underway and drew on those men "seasoned" from their time on the Erie. Presumably, some of these "migratory" Irish workers made their way to the D&R project.
It is highly doubtful that those who died from the Cholera epidemic were buried in fields along the canal (and certainly not in the canal bed as is sometimes told). Instead, the dead were taken to local cemeteries (ie Griggstown, Ten Mile Run, Trenton) or plots of land outside town limits (Lambertville, Stockton) and buried in unmarked graves. There is no evidence that anyone was buried on Bulls Island. And, it wasn't just Irish laborers who fell from the disease; it hit the contractors, locals and laborers alike - Irish and non-Irish.
There weren't gates on the Millstone Aqueduct when the D&R was a working canal. Only the locks had gates (mitre and drop gates) which were needed to raise and lower the water levels. The water levels was always constant on the aqueducts. The one you visited here was originally constructed of wood. That was replaced with the concrete one you see today when the canal was resourced as a water supply for the State of NJ.

[@samanthab1923]

Do you know of an Irish workers cemetery in Stockton? I remember my doctor telling me her son was helping to clean up the plot for his Eagle Scout project. Could never find it though.

[@littlejimmy7741]

Vicki C knows her stuff. She's an expert.