Morris Canal and Banking Company

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The New Jersey Legislature chartered the Morris Canal and Banking Company on December 31, 1824, as a private corporation for the purpose of building the Morris Canal.

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The corporation issued twenty thousand shares of stock at one hundred dollars a share, providing two million dollars of capital, which was divided evenly between funds for building the canal and funds for banking privileges. The charter had provision that the State of New Jersey could take over the canal at the end of ninety-nine years. In the event that the state did not take over the canal, the charter would remain in effect for fifty more years, after which the canal would become the property of the State without cost. The banking privileges were dropped when the company was reorganized in 1844, leaving the corporation as canal-operating business only.

The idea for constructing the canal is credited to Morristown businessman George P. Macculloch, who reportedly conceived the idea while visiting Lake Hopatcong. In 1822 Macculloch brought together a group of interested citizens at Morristown to discuss the idea.

The Palladium of Liberty, a Morristown, New Jersey, newspaper of the day, reported on August 29, 1822: "...Membership of a committee which studied the practicality of a canal from Pennsylvania to Newark, New Jersey, consisted of two prominent citizens from each county (NJ) concerned: Hunterdon County, Nathaniel Saxton, Henry Dusenberry; Sussex County, Morris Robinson, Gamaliel Bartlett; Morris County, Lewis Condict, Mahlon Dickerson; Essex County, Gerald Rutgers, Charles Kinsey; Bergen County, John Rutherford, William Colefax...".

Gamaliel Bartlett (1796-1859), one of the members of the referenced committee, was appointed by President James Monroe in 1823 as the first postmaster for the Borough of Stanhope, New Jersey. Ten years later, in 1833, Mr. Bartlett would find himself embroiled in a lawsuit entitled: President and Directors of the Morris Canal and Banking Co. vs. Gamaliel Bartlett.^[1] On November 15, 1822, the New Jersey Legislature passed an act appointing three commissioners, one of whom was Macculloch, to explore the feasibility of the project and determine the canal's possible route and an estimate of its costs. Macculloch initially greatly underestimated the height difference between the Passaic and Lake Hopatcong at only 185 ft (56 m).

The original design of the canal allowed for boats of 25 tons, which was small by the standards of the day. By 1860, the canal had been progressively enlarged to allow for boats of 70 tons. Traffic reached a peak in 1866, when the canal carried 889,220 tons of freight (equivalent to nearly 13,000 boat loads). Between 1848 and 1860, the original overshot water wheel that powered the inclined planes were replaced with more powerful water turbines. The original iron chains used for towing the plane cars also were replaced with wire cables.

In 1871, the canal was leased by the Lehigh Valley Railroad, primarily to give that railroad the use of the valuable terminal properties at Phillipsburg and Jersey City. By 1871, however, the canal was already on the decline, and the Lehigh Valley Railroad] never realized a profit from the operation of the canal. By the early 20th century, commercial traffic on the canal had become negligible. In 1922 the state of New Jersey took control of the canal and formally abandoned it in 1924; between 1924 and 1929, it was largely dismantled.

Portions of the canal are preserved in various locations around the state. Important among these is Waterloo Village, a restored canal town in Sussex County, which contains many features of the canal, including the remains of an inclined plane, a guard lock, a watered section of the canal, a canal store, and other period buildings. The Canal Society of New Jersey maintains a museum in the village.