Clinton's Ditch and Expanded Erie Canal: Leach Engineers of Lyons, Father and Son, Jacob and Augustus M. Leach

Leach Rd sign at the intersection of Bauer Rd in Lyons, NY, on Feb 21, 2021. Photograph by Mark DeCracker. 


Lock 27, Lyons, New York, in Oct. 2020. Photo by Lisa Saunders
Jim and Lisa Saunders in Lyons on October 30, 2020. Lisa is a descendant of the Leach family. The couple currently live in Baldwinsville, NY, near Lock 24.


In Lyons, New York, home to all three stages of the Erie Canal, is modern Lock E27, off Leach Road. Leach Road  and Bridge, which crosses over the active Erie Canal, may have been named in honor of father and son, Jacob and Augustus M. Leach of Lyons,  both contractors on the Erie Canal. Jacob Leach (1777-1853) is my 4th great-grandfather and his son, Augustus Mortimer Leach (1825-1901), is my 3rd great-grandfather. They are  buried at the Lyons Rural Cemetery. 


"They call me Sal" mural, part of Mural Mania.
Jim Saunders beside Winston's Dream of Mural Mania. 

Jacob Leach (1777-1853) contribution to Clinton's Ditch (completed 1825):

Jacob Leach worked on the first and second Erie Canals. The first Erie Canal, completed in 1825 (the same year as his son Augustus's birth), is now referred to “Clinton’s Ditch” after DeWitt Clinton, the New York Governor who fought for its construction. Jacob also worked on enlarging the Erie Canal in 1840. He died before its completion in 1862. This Canal is referred to as the Enlarged Erie Canal or the Old Erie Canal. 
On October 17, 1825, Jacob Leach attended a meeting at T. Hawley's in Lyons with other appointed committee members responsible for making celebration arrangements for the opening the Erie Canal. Governor Clinton came through Lyons on October 28, 1925, arriving at the lock at the foot of Broad street, where "he was greeted by a fire of Artillery." (The celebration committee included Jacob Leach, Capt. H. Towar, M. Barney, H. T. Day, A. L. Beaumont, G. H. Chapin, W. H. Adams, F. White and R. H. Foster." ("Grip's" historical souvenir of Lyons, N. Y, p. 13,1904).
About Jacob Leach
"Jacob Leach came to Lyons from Litchfield, Conn., in 1809, and operated a distillery on the north side of Ganargwa Creek until the site was wanted for the Erie Canal in 1824. He then became a merchant with Joseph M. Demmon on Water street. He was a canal contractor, and erected a mill on the Ganargwa that was burned and rebuilt in 1837. He was a justice of the peace several years, member of Assembly in 1823, and at one time president of the old Lyons Bank with Thaddeus W. Patchen as cashier. He had ten children, and died in 1853, aged seventy-five years." (History of the Town of Lyons, 1895)

Jacob Leach (1777-1853) contribution to the Enlarged Canal (completed 1862):
Enlarged Canal: Jacob was responsible for the Canal portion in Jordan: "Mr. Jacob Leach, was the resident engineer and in the presence of the chief engineer, strongly urged to press his work forwards faster than he was going on with it. He was directed to excavate 10,000 yards monthly and had increase the number of laborers and had erected 20 shanties"(notes on Jacob's committee meeting, Onondaga Standard Extra,10/24/1840). 

 Augustus Mortimer Leach (1825-1901): contribution to the Enlarged Canal (completed 1862):

In the 1850s, Augustus, was employed by the corps of civil engineers and was promoted to overseeing the section from Syracuse to Buffalo. According to his 1901 obituary, Augustus "also invented and drafted plans for the drop gate for locks that were accepted by the state and have continued in use to the present time." 

Augustus Mortimer Leach, was educated at Geneva Academy, now Hobart College. Born the year the first Erie Canal opened, 1825, Augustus died in 1901, four years before construction began on the modern Erie Canal (once referred to as New York State Barge Canal). 
Augustus Leach's obituary tells of his career and states that Augustus "secured an early business training under his father Jacob in the milling business. In his college course he showed a natural talent for drafting and drawing, and after his graduation he worked as a draughtman for the corps of civil engineers engaged in plotting a new route for the Erie canal through [the Lyons] section. From them he acquired knowledge of civil engineering and he soon rose to a position of prominence in the department of state engineer and surveyor. In the early [18] fifties he was placed in charge of the engineering work on the western section of the Erie canal, having under his supervision the section extending from Syracuse to Buffalo. On the completion of this work he surveyed the Genesee Valley canal from Rochester to Olean [south and a little west of Rochester] and built a big storage dam at Cuba [near Olean]. During this period he also invented and drafted plans for the drop gate for locks that were accepted by the state and have continued in use to the present time [1901]. According to his obit: "From 1855 to 1857 [Augustus] was assistant state engineer under Van Rensselear Richmond of Lyons who was then state engineer and surveyor. During the latter park of that period, Mr. Leach lived in Rochester and Cuba, Allegany County. Later he became engaged in the milling business in Brooklyn together with his father-in-law and a Brooklyn miller under the firm name of Smith, Leach and Jewell. In a few years Mr. Leach, whose early training in the milling business under his father had adapted him for the work, bought out his partners and for ten years conduced the business alone. During the Civil War he had many contracts for furnishing supplies to the government, and both then and at its close his business was remarkably successful so that in 1870 he had amassed a fortune on which he was well able to retire... "(The Sisson Family of Lyons, New York,  2005, p. 234-243)
Augustus built (or bought?) a large house on a hill in Lyons when he returned from Brooklyn. Calling it Terrace Lawn, it still stands today at 27 Cherry Street. After his death, his son Francis (Frank) Leach lost the family fortune in a bad investment. The dwindling funds could no longer support Augustus's widow and Frank committed suicide in 1912.
I descend from his daughter, Emma (Leach) Sisson, seen at the bottom left:
Sisson, David Arne, "The Sisson Family of Lyons, New York",  2005, pages 234-243

References:
Cowles, George W.,History of the Town of Lyons, 1895
"Grip's" historical souvenir of Lyons, N. Y, p. 13,1904.


My husband Jim Saunders at Lock 27 in Lyons, NY.


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