The Armitage Papers: A Rare Find of Historical Significance for Wabash & Erie Canal History

Valerius Armitage, Canal Builder

By Diana Vice

Vice is an honorary regent and historian for the General de Lafayette Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution.

Valerius Armitage first arrived in Indiana in 1830 to work on the Wabash & Erie Canal.

Who was Valerius Armitage? That was a question I asked myself after being asked to look through a large collection of canal-era artifacts bearing his name. The collection contains dozens of various legal documents, letters, and diary notes from the collection of Judge Cyrus Ball, a prominent attorney and pioneer from Lafayette’s earliest days. Judge Ball had served as an attorney for Armitage and handled his final estate. For nearly 200 years, the Armitage papers have been in possession of the Ball Family, and since it was constructed in 1876, the collection has been stored in a closet of the notorious Ball House that was built by Judge Ball for his wife, Rebecca. The papers include historical artifacts from Fort Wayne, Delphi, Logansport, Wabash, Lafayette, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.

From the A. Winter Ball Collection

Judge Ball’s 2x great-granddaughter, A. Winter Ball, inherited the artifacts and asked for assistance in determining whether they are of historical significance. Based on an initial review, it is apparent that it is a rare historical find of importance. Carroll County Historian, Mark Smith, has agreed to assist this writer in assessing the large collection. We hope to keep our readers updated with historical treasures from this collection as they come to light.

Judge Cyrus Ball, attorney for Armitage

The history of Valerius Armitage has been written by historians, including Tom Castaldi from a November 13, 2013, issue of The Hoosier Packet. Historian Tom Castaldi wrote about Armitage in a July 19, 2016, issue of History Center Notes & Queries – “Our Stories from Fort Wayne & Allen County, Indiana.”

Valerius Armitage arrived in Indiana in 1830 to work on the Wabash & Erie Canal. In 1836 he was joined by his wife Mary Hewitt Armitage and their five children.

Castaldi wrote, “An 1899 Carroll County Citizen article states that Armitage first came to Allen County, Indiana, to build the canal’s feeder dam at Fort Wayne in 1832. This was no ordinary dam. Canal planners determined that the dam must be at a high point near the proposed water route to effectively ‘feed’ the project. The site selected was on the Saint Joseph River where impounded water could be directed through a channel six miles long running south to the main line at Fort Wayne.

“To build the dam, trees were felled and brush collected to form a foundation on which wood ‘log cabin’ style cribs were fashioned and filled with stone. The trees were laid lengthwise with their tops facing the flow of water in the riverbed to trap sand and sediment. As the branches filled in, the dam formed, and the river water held back. When completed, the 230 feet long structure spanned the St. Joseph River and stood one-and-one-half stories high.

“Once the feeder channel was ready for use, the reservoir formed by the dam supplied water into the main line with great capacity. It could deliver water about thirty-three miles to the east at the Six Mile Reservoir in Paulding County, Ohio, and to the west as far as the Forks of the Wabash. As a matter of interest, the St. Joseph Feeder could send its waters into Wabash County a distance of approximately fifty-four miles. Beyond that point, other dams were necessary and were built along the canal line as needed.

“Securing the business of building locks seems to have been an interest of Armitage. The locks were designed that raised or lowered canal boats nine feet. It is what made movement possible, overcoming the up or down changes in the land’s elevation. Without a lifting lock, canals would only function on stretches of level terrain.

“After completing the St. Joseph River Dam, Armitage’s other canal contracts in Indiana were at Huntington, Wabash, and in 1835, he took a contract to build the locks at the Fitch Farm west of Logansport. Interestingly enough, the locks at Fitch Farm were identified as numbers 25 and 26 among the numerical sequence that began with number 1 near the Indiana-Ohio line east of Fort Wayne. Both were formed by constructing them with cut stone from an adjacent quarry. The only lock in the City of Wabash was also a cut stone; however, six locks in and around the town of Huntington were constructed of wood, one being a combination of both wood and stone.

“It seems that Mr. Armitage was pretty good working with the various materials available at the time. By 1853, the canal had reached Evansville on the Ohio River, all made possible because of the St. Joseph River Dam. Much of the credit was due to Valerius Armitage who died in 1838 at the age of only forty-six.”