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Irish canal diggers laid foundations for Williamsport’s industry

Despite 1800s xenophobia against the Irish, residents of Williamsport owe the ethnicity for the city’s status today. For, had it not been for the West Branch Canal and its workforce, Williamsport would have been resigned to another backwater borough.

Propelled by the encouragement of a simple job, the Irish endured the protracted persecution along with the prodigious prospect of digging the ditches of the West Branch Canal.

“At one time, there were almost 14,000 miles of canals just here in Pennsylvania,” said Bill Poulton, director at the Muncy Historical Society. “It was the first true interstate highway system moving goods and people.”

Finished in 1835, “The canal was 28 feet wide on the bottom, 40 feet wide at the top and 8 to 10 feet deep,” wrote Paul Rickold in the journal of the Muncy Historical Society. It ran through Northumberland, at the Southernmost end, to Lewisburg, Montgomery, Muncy, Williamsport, Jersey Shore, Lock Haven and ending in Bellefonte. The 73-mile canal cost the state $1.15 million, in that day’s currency, by its completion.

Before, the size of industry’s products in Williamsport were limited by size. The cost of shipping would decimate any profit to be had when the only method was by carriage, according to Williamsport: Boomtown on the Susquehanna.

The Pennsylvania’s Mainline, finished construction in 1831, traveling from Northumberland to Wilkes-Barre, then north into New York. All momentum for canal building to the West was lost.

Williams F. Packer — the only Williamsport native to serve as governor and one-time reporter for the Lycoming Gazette, now Sun-Gazette — pushed hard for a canal along the West Branch and work was able to continue.

The influx of itinerant Irish workers were used as work horses, given low wages, long hours, terrible living conditions and copious amounts of alcohol to keep them from wanting better.

Their arrival meant a new large workforce of working-age individuals would flock to the area. Despite the mistreatment of the time, many chose to stay. This highly benefited Williamsport in the Industrial Revolution to come, according to Williamsport’s Economic Development During the Canal Period.

But, tensions came to a head in 1933 when a young Irishman was shot and slightly wounded for picking apples from a farm near Dunnsburg.

It was largely blown out of proportion by locals, the Lycoming Gazette reported the overblown statistics and its record serves as a litmus for the time.

“This caused great offense to the whole body of Irishmen (about 300 in number) engaged in that quarter, and they determined to take immediate revenge on the Americans,” according to the reporter.

About 70 irishmen were arrested, but only 16 were kept and even they were given light sentences or fines.

“The Rioters continued their turbulent conduct on Saturday and Sunday, pulling down shanties, and destroying everything that came in their way,” the article continued.

The damage also was blown out of proportion, according to Robin Auken, who wrote Boomtown, although the shantee supervisor did get beaten and native-born Americans were attacked.

The local militia was called and the revolt was quelled after three days.

Ultimately, the West Branch Canal operated until the 1889 flood, but the railroad started coaching by the 1850s. But the Canal allowed industries to seed themselves in our area and the Irish workforce came to them. When the Industrial Revolution came, Williamsport was well prepared, allowing for the city we know today.

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