Background
James Geddes was born on July 22, 1763, of Scotch ancestry near Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
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James Geddes
Edit ProfileEducation
Geddes received only an elementary education and was entirely without technical training, having used a level on one occasion only.
Career
In 1794, James Geddes moved to the region of Syracuse, Onondaga County, New York.
After studying law, Geddes was admitted to the bar. In 1800, he was made a justice of the peace, and in 1809, he was appointed judge of the county court and of the court of common pleas.
Becoming interested in public affairs, he was elected to the Assembly in 1804, to the Thirteenth Congress, serving 1813-15, and again to the Assembly in 1822.
During his first term at Albany, Simeon DeWitt, surveyor-general of New York, broached to him the possibility of constructing a canal from the Great Lakes to the Hudson River.
Since the suggestion touched his imagination, he visited various sections of the state to secure information and launched a campaign to arouse interest in the undertaking.
Moreover, he himself ran the first survey in 1808, under appointment from the surveyor-general.
His report to the legislature, January 20, 1809, established the fact that a canal could be constructed without difficulty along a route essentially the same as that later adopted for the Erie Canal.
His report included, also, surveys of routes suggested for canals from Oneida Lake down the Oswego River to Lake Ontario, and from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario around Niagara Falls.
After the War of 1812, when work on the New York canals was begun, Geddes was engaged by the Canal Commissioners of New York as one of the four “principal engineers” to construct the Erie and Champlain Canals, tasks to which he devoted the years 1816-22.
In 1822, for the State of Ohio, he surveyed a canal from the Ohio River to Lake Erie; in 1827, for the federal government, he examined the routes for the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal; in 1828, he was engaged in Pennsylvania.
In 1829, although he had declined to investigate the feasibility of a route between the Tennessee and Alabama Rivers, he reported on a canal in Maine from Sebago Lake to Westbrook.
Achievements
Connections
In 1799, James Geddes was married to Lucy Jerome, daughter of Timothy Jerome of Fabius, New York.
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Born
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Died
August 19, 1838 (aged 75) -
Resting place
Buried Oakwood Cemetery, Syracuse, New York -
Nationality
American