The Contagious Result of a Mad Dash for Labour

The Contagious Result of a Mad Dash for Labour

Labour, the Welland Canal and the Transformation of the Niagara Region

Nathan Gratton

Niagara - 2024

Immigration has shaped the history of Canada since Confederation when the Immigration Act first passed in 1869. In the post-Confederation period before Canada's call for immigrants the government reached out to invite whoever wished to move to this country. Part of such efforts to evoke new people to the nation was the facilitation of the construction of the Welland Canal. The construction of the Welland Canal was a grand project driven primarily by a man named William Merritt, who would connect Lake Ontario to Lake Erie allowing ships to bypass Niagara Falls and facilitate easier trade through the Great Lakes.

The Welland Canal had four different iterations since its initial construction began in 1824. The first two canals were constructed between 1824-1829 and 1841-1845, however these canals faced a greater number of challenges than the later projects. Among these challenges were issues of funding, labour, and disease. The Welland Canal Company struggled to secure funding for their project which had quickly ballooned beyond its initial plan. As labourers flooded into the Welland area, the landscape of the region began to shift. Many of these project labourers were immigrants from nations like Ireland, who altered the cultural and religious landscape of the region. In the face of much adversity, these labourers persevered to complete the Welland Canal, an architectural feat during its time. Without the contributions of these immigrants to the canal's construction the cities of St. Catharines and Welland would not have prospered to the point that they exist today. Without their perseverance and sacrifices, Niagara and its unique cultural heritage would not have existed as it does.

The construction of the first Welland Canal began in 1825, the year after the Welland Canal Company was incorporated through an Act passed by the Upper Canada Legislative Assembly.1 Initial plans for the first canal put the entrance to the canal in Port Dalhousie where it is today, but the exit was located off the Niagara River unlike the modern canals.2

Figure 1: Early Map of the Welland Canal Drafted a Year Before Completion

Eventually, plans for the canal would change and a new route would be devised. Figure 1 shows the final route decided upon by the Welland Canal Company (WCC), with ships detouring southwest down the Welland River into a new canal cut out leading to the Grand River.3 When planning was complete, initial costs for the project were estimated to be around £200,000. As construction progressed and new expenses appeared this estimate quickly ballooned, requiring more fundraising to be done.4 The route change alongside increasing labour costs resulted in the need for an expanded budget for the project. Unlike the second canal, the first canal did not make extensive use of immigrant labour sources, such as Irish immigrants, who were willing to work for less pay. While some Irishmen remained in the area having migrated from the Erie Canal, the workforce of the first canal consisted primarily of a number of contractors and engineers who would hire domestic workers to perform the labour. Some local British and many American contractors worked on the project, as many skilled American labourers were available for work after the recent completion of the Erie Canal. The manual labour required for the canal was primarily sourced either from nearby communities or from the United States itself.5 However domestic workers received higher wages immigrant labourers.

During construction of the First Welland Canal from 1824-1829, various difficulties were experienced by both the Welland Canal Company and the contractors tasked with construction. Several complications experienced in the construction process caused work to be delayed or unable to continue. The removal of dirt, especially in a section called the Deep Cut, which was 3 kilometers long, proved one of the most challenging aspects of the first canal\'s construction. This challenge caused the WCC to host a competition to design a machine that could remove the greatest quantity of dirt in the most efficient manner. The competition was won by an American contractor named Oliver Phelps whose machine and influence on the project came to be essential to the project's success. Phelps' work allowed the significantly delayed Deep Cut to be finished in a reasonable time frame. Phelps eventually settled in the region around the canal having earned the rights to use the canal's water in his mills. Incentives such as that given to Phelps aided in the settlement of the area around the canal, shaping the early history of the region even before construction on the second canal had begun.6

Despite the growing progress of the first canal's construction, significant problems continued to arise in the later half of the project that created unsafe working conditions for labourers. As construction progressed along the canal, especially towards the Deep Cut, conditions in the area deteriorated allowing for the spread of disease. The increased population density as contractors, workers, and their families settled led to the rampant spread of disease among them. Chief amongst the diseases present in the region during the late 1820's was malaria, which was also referred to as 'swamp fever'. The moist and humid environment of the canal proved a perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes allowing malaria to spread.7 However malaria was not the only disease of concern at the time; as outbreaks of cholera occurred in the region following the start of work on the feeder canal in the 1830's. Spread primarily in areas with poor sanitation and inadequate access to clean drinking water, cholera and malaria quickly spread through the poverty stricken labourers who were already struggling due to the poor conditions.8

Despite the many difficulties throughout Welland Canal project, the first Canal managed to open for business in 1829, wherein the schooner Ann and Jane took the first voyage across the canal, carrying William Merritt himself.

Figure 2: Newspaper Ad Drawing Notice to the Opening of the Canal

The opening of the Canal was a momentous occasion for the region, one which was highly publicized to draw traffic to the area. Figure 2 shows an example of an ad run in papers advertising the Canal to anyone wishing to pass.9 The success of the Canal would result in not just profits for the Welland Canal company, but also benefits for the local communities. The continued operations of the canal would over time draw more and more people to the area and the communities would continue to expand as commercialization increased. The canal made travel through the region easier and commerce expanded as the effects of an economic depression of the 1820's dissipated.10 During the early 1830's the area of St Catharines now know as Merritton was founded by workers from the canal, including Oliver Phelps. Phelps was a significant figure in this new community, and worked as a leader and a businessman who had economic interests in the development of the town.11 At this time, the first canal passed through the Merritton area, creating a system of privileged water usage where water-reliant occupations such as mills and certain canallers could use the water from the canal freely. The free commercial use of the Canal's water quickly drove settlement to Merritton for purposes of industrialization and the town quickly became reliant on the water to continue its business.12

As the first canal began to age, it became clear that a new one would need to be constructed. With the wood rotting and the general degradation of the channels, the first Welland Canal was set to become a hazard in a short period of time. Work began on a second, much larger Welland Canal in 1841, a project no longer headed by the Welland Canal Company as the company had been purchased and dissolved. This new canal was a government project funded by the United Province of Canada, who began by replacing the Welland Canal Company's Board of Directors. The Board of Directors was the controlling body who had managed the first project, but with the dissolution of the WCC, it had to be replaced with a new Board of Work, appointed directly by the United Province of Canada.13

The construction of the Second Welland Canal marked a period of great change in Niagara Region. When the second canal project began, the mostly unsettled areas surrounding the canal had grown to a population of 3,500 that lived in nearby towns such as St. Catharines.14 Communities such as these provided the first labour force to begin work on the Second Welland Canal, but the project quickly changed as a flood of unskilled immigrant labourers were hired out of necessity to work on the canal. Of the many immigrants entering the country looking for work, the group that had both the greatest numbers, and the greatest impact, were the Irish. The Irish labourers that entered the country looking for work on the canal alone numbered in the thousands. Many of them came with their families to settle in the area believing that they would have had steady work.15 This would not always be the case though as the sheer number of immigrants far outweighed the number of available positions the Board of Work had for the canal. The desperation of the workers was known to the company, who despite not having enough work for the immigrants, were often not able to pay them. Workers typically had to wait months before they were paid for their work; while the company continued to hire for positions without the ability to pay new and former labourers. As a result, many of the workers were desperate to feed their families, but with few choices available for work they continued to agree to construct the Canal, as the promise of eventual income was better than none.16

The influx of Irish labourers in Niagara Region throughout the 1840's affected not only the canal project, but the communities of the Niagara Region itself. Southern Ireland was a primarily Roman Catholic nation, and many southern Irish immigrants brought their catholic religious traditions and practices with them. Irish immigrants came to outnumber the Protestant English and Americans who initially settled the region. The Irish Catholic faith spread out into the community and over time the different faithed factions had to learn how to coexist.17 This did not occur quickly or easily however, as the cultural differences between the locals and the Irish often led to conflict over available work, housing, ethnic and economic differences. Additionally, differences in material wants tainted relations between the groups, wherein the Irish held a great desire for food and safety as many had just escaped poverty in their home country.18 When community tensions reached a boiling point, it often resulted in violent events that soon came to characterize relations between locals and the immigrants. One such event occurred in 1849 known as the battle of Slabtown, where the increasing tension between Irish Catholics and Protestant Orangemen exploded into a conflict resulting in multiple deaths. It was only through the mediation of Catholic missionaries like Reverand William Patrick McDonagh and Father Micheal Robert that this incident ended quickly and further such incidents were prevented through similar mediation efforts.19

While many of the locals, and some immigrants settled and lived in the nearby communities to the Canal such as Thorold and St. Catharines, not canal workers were quite so lucky. Thousands of canal labourers were forced to live in what amounted to makeshift shantytowns along the Welland Canal itself.

Figure 3: A Map of the Second Welland Canal, Displaying the Shantytown Built Nearby

One such shantytown can be seen in Figure 3, where the shantytown was built directly on the bank of the canal that had ongoing construction at the time.20 The shantytown was tightly packed, which can be seen in Figure 3 where the boundaries are backed right onto the road. A Jarron, a doctor who visited the canal in 1843 recounted his experience stating "About two thousand labourers, with their wives and families, were hutted on the Welland Canal, extending about one mile on nearly cleared ground, and along the margin of an extensive marsh."21 Conditions were harsh on the second canal, and were made worse when disease was taken into account. Much like the construction of the first canal, the poor living and working conditions that led to the spread of diseases such as cholera, malaria and typhus amongst labourers continued and worsened throughout the construction of the second canal. Not only were there far more workers on the second canal, but the overcrowded living and working spaces spread disease at a much faster rate than before, leading to a wider spread in local communities. The Welland Canal's environment became similar to a marshland in this period, where still water became a breeding ground for mosquitoes which were the main distributors of malaria. The marsh-like environment led to far higher levels of malaria, fever and dysentery in St. Catharines than in surrounding areas.22

The grim and epidemic living conditions of canal labourers were only symptoms of a greater issue pressing the Niagara Region at the time. Due to the influx of the labourers and the need to find housing and food for them, the already shoestring tight budget given to the canal was pressed beyond its limits. Wages paid to the workers were barely enough to cover daily living expenses and often the lack of available work meant that it could not be guaranteed that labourers would be able to make enough income to get by.23 During especially bad seasons on the canal the Board of Work frequently could not provide wages to workers who had finished their jobs. Additionally work assignments were often given to labourers when there were no funds to pay them for their efforts which resulted in the Board of Work habitually being months behind on payroll. The struggle to secure consistent pay for labour in the region became a large point of tension between local labourers and was a primary motivation for violence on the canal, as many fought for positions that could securely pay them for their work. Labourers were often willing to fight other workers for jobs if they did not belong to the same faction as them, typically either religious or ethnic, contributing to the tension that defined local community life in the 1840's.24 Additionally, inequalities in the rates of pay between immigrant and local labour contributed to the factional tensions amongst workers. English and American immigrants were typically granted better rates of pay due to their smaller numbers, while the Irish, the only other significant faction of workers hosted by the Second Canal, were in greater abundance and typically accepted work for cheaper as a means of getting ahead of other workers.25

The Welland Canal continues to be one of the great works that has defined life in Niagara since the 19th century. The canal's development spurred the settlement of nearby communities like St. Catharines and Thorold and allowed the Niagara Region to flourish. The challenging history of the canal, from the shocking labour conditions, tense ethnic divides and the dreadful diseases all served to test those that settled the region and developed the unique culture of the present today. The influx of foreign labour from Ireland and America served to develop a fascinating local culture mixed with varied traditions and religions. Later projects like the Third and Fourth Canals continued to shape the cultural landscape of the region, new waves of Italians immigrant labourers faced many of the same challenges Irish immigrants experienced working on the Second Canal.26 The development of local culture did not come about without sacrifices though, as without the workers unparalleled commitment to the canal project and to their families it is unlikely that the canals would have succeeded as they did throughout the 20^th^ century. The Welland Canal remains a powerful symbol today, a symbol with a rich history behind it of the resilience of a community, and the important role of labour in creating a prosperous region.


  1. Jackson, John N. The Welland Canals and Their Communities: Engineering, Industrial, and Urban Transformation. University of Toronto Press, 1997, 80. 

  2. MacTaggart, John. Three years in Canada : an account of the actual state of the country in 1826 London: H. Colburn, 1829, 147-148. 

  3. Figure 1: George Keefer and A. Doolittle, Map of the First Welland Canal 1828,1828. Brock University Library. 

  4. John H. Dunn and P. Maitland. "Copies of two dispatches upon the subject of the Welland Canal". London, 1828, 243. 

  5. Roberta McAfee Styran and Robert R. Taylor. "This Great National Object: Building the nineteenth-century Welland Canals." Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2012, 133-134. 

  6. Styran, This Great National Object, 110 

  7. Ibid, 279 

  8. Jackson, The Welland Canals and Their Communities, 48 

  9. Figure 2: Alcide\'s Ephemerides. 1829 Opening of the Welland Canal, Newspaper Advertisement. Nov. 30, 1829. 

  10. Dunn & Maitland, "Copies of two dispatches", 242 

  11. Allen Hughes. Looking back with Alun Hughes - Brock University: The Early History of Merritton. 2013, 2. 

  12. Jackson, The Welland Canals and Their Communities, 113-115 

  13. Styran, This Great National Object, 28 

  14. Daniel Drake. "A Systematic Treatise, historical, etiological, and practical, on the principal diseases of the interior valley of North America.". Philadelphia: Winthrop B. Smith & Co, 1850, 407. 

  15. Ruth Bleasdale. "Class Conflict on the Canals of Upper Canada in the 1840s." Labour / Le Travail 7 (1981): 9--39, 14. 

  16. Jackson, The Welland Canals and Their Communities, 67 

  17. Jackson, The Welland Canals and Their Communities, 60 

  18. Ibid, 68. 

  19. Arden Phair, and Kathleen Powell, Triumph & Tragedy: The Welland Ship Canal. St. Catharines, Ontario: St. Catharines Museum, 2022, 78-79. 

  20. Figure 3: Brock University Archives, Second Welland Canal Survey Map 1, 1845. St. Lawrence Seaway Authority Canada Fonds. 

  21. Canadiana. "The Upper Canada Journal of Medical, Surgical and Physical Science" [[Vol. 2, No. 1] (Apr. 1852)], 4. 

  22. Drake, A Systematic Treatise, 407-408. 

  23. Styran, This Great National Object, 270 

  24. Ibid, 271 

  25. Ibid, 266 

  26. Styran, This Great National Object, 296