Edwin Charles of Middleburg collected the stories of family members and others from the Middle Creek area of Snyder County for more than 60 years. One of his more memorable chronicles was a diary kept by his father, William Edwin Charles. At age 18, he was hired to tend four mules towing two canal boats from Port Trevorton to New York City and back in 1888.

The excerpts were published as “A Canaller’s Diary – 1888” in American Canals, No. 75, November 1990. Also, in November of that year, the Patriot-News of Harrisburg published the canal man's diary, with a few deletions of extraneous material and definitions of archaic words.

Because of its length, Susquehanna Footprints has divided the diary into two parts: the first from June 17 through June 30, and the second from July 1 through July 18 of 1888. It provides insightful content on canal life as seen through the eyes of William Edwin Charles. 

With the exception of punctuation, the diary is published as written by Charles.  

The departure Sunday, June 17: Hired to make trip to New York on boats of Benton Moyer of Independence (2 miles south of Port Trevorton). His brother, Isaac Moyer, to be captain; Richard Foltz, greaser (bowsman), and I to be hair-pounder (mule driver). Packed my turkey (valise) and started for Chapman (3 miles south along present Route 11-15) on foot. Road was dusty. Look into the stables at Independence Hotel to get an introduction to the four mules I'll drive. Fine ones they are. Four-year-olds. Look sleek and spry. Then we go on the boats, Pennsylvania Canal Co. snappers No. 237-238. Meet the captain and size up the provision box. Loaf around until 10 o'clock, then go to bunk.

Monday, June 18: Get out at 3 a.m. Feed, curry, and harness the team. Take them around and pull out. Passed a few light boats near McKees. Breakfast at Peevies Nest (Dry Sawmill), slapjacks, and bacon. Move on to Liverpool. Get several shoes reset at Miller's blacksmith shop. Team is a crackerjack. Am pleased. "At Girty's Notch, a pair (of boats) stuck in the curve. Richard is at our wheel, and we slide around without Reach Clarks Ferry. Pilot Carpenter gets aboard to scaring the catfish. steer across the river. Foltz drives team. Go on to New Grocery and tie up.

Tuesday, June 19: Pull out early. Go through the narrows by Emmaline Furnace (at the mouth of Clark's Creek). At Dauphin, a boat is on dry dock. Calking hammers are ringing clearly. Nothing much exciting. At Harrisburg, lot of boys swimming in the canal. I get on boat and dive in. Well, Harrisburg is a dirty town, and the canal is a dandy bathtub. At Steelton, a freight train roars past us at the board fence. Mules dance a little. This is a dangerous place. Many mules are scared into the canal here, and some have been drowned here, too. Pass Middletown and tie up at the Buck Lock. Eat a lunch of sharp cheese in Old Daddy Gross' grocery. Golly, you'd think the trains might shake the old house down as they pass only a few feet away. Go to bed, but don't sleep much. Conowingo (Conewago, at Dauphin- Lancaster county line?) Falls roaring and trains roaring, too, and blowing all night long.

Wednesday, June 20: Start away. At Collins, lock tender tells us of a break in Columbia dam. Go on to Marietta. Later, drop down to Vesta Furnace. Hear, maybe all boats will be unloaded at Columbia. Perhaps 20 boats held up. No stable room. Took team out to a farm.

Thursday, June 21: Went out to farm to feed. Hear a rumbling sound in a shed. Look in, there is a big dog in a wheel running like a squirrel in a cage. Woman told me the dog is churning the butter. It looked funny. Says she must tie up the dog every Wednesday evening or he won't be there in the morning. Went down to see the dam. Water is pretty low; big hole in it. A few repairmen there and a well-dressed fellow looking over things.

Friday, June 22: Get permission to keep mules in old furnace shed. That makes it handy. There are a lot of old furnaces here. Two of them are running, Chickies and Haldemans. About 25 of us drivers go in to see them cast. The red-hot iron runs out in little gutters like water. Golly, but it is hot. Men walk around and between it and stir it along with big pokers and some shovel sand over it. They wear wooden soles on their shoes. Sometimes the soles catch fire. We all go back to the old furnaces and play hide and seek in them. Clamber up the rotten steps and ladders to the tops of the stacks. The captain made us stop for fear we might get hurt.

Saturday, June 23: More boats come along. The water is clear in the canal. You can see the bottom. There is poison in the water. Hundreds of big fish floating on their sides. They look pretty but are not good to eat. We caught lots of them and carried them in buckets over the cinder dump and put them in the river. Maybe they got well again.

Sunday, June 24: Gang got an old scow and went over the river and up to Wild Cat (south of Mount Wolf York County). Kind of nice there. There were a lot of men and women, and they had a keg of beer on a cake of ice. They said, "Boys, have a drink," and some did. In the afternoon, I took a piece of towline and made a swing in the big willow tree between the furnace and the canal. It soon drew a crowd of drivers and some town boys and girls. We had fun with the swing. Some of the visitors took turns at swinging. Then I got on and was showing off a bit. Our bowsman thought he would take me down a peg, and as I swung out over the boat, he doused me with a bucket of water. It made me mad, and I jumped off the swing and pushed him overboard into the canal. Everybody laughed at him splashing in the water. He seemed to be cutting up antics, splashing about. Sometimes he was on top of the water, sometimes under. A boatman on the bridge yelled, "That man can't swim. I believe he is drowning." That scared me, and I jumped right into the canal and grabbed him. Then Hiram Fox reached down from the boat, and a dozen others pulled us both out to safety. It was almost a sorry ending to a bit of intended fun. I didn't know there were any boatmen who couldn't swim. I still feel bad about it, and I'll go to bed and try to sleep my ugly feelings away.

Monday, June 25: About a dozen of us fellows ride out in the country on mules. Some were running low on oats, some thought we might pick up early apples, and some went along for fun. We did some racing and stirred up clouds of dust. Guess the Amish people thought the rebels were coming, the way they got out of the way and looked scared. Shortly after noon, we get word that the dam is repaired, and that some boats farther down are going through the outlet lock at Columbia and are crossing the river to go down the tidewater. Everybody wakens up. The lock tender at Chickies is busy. By and by, our turn comes, and we lock through. In the outlet lock at Columbia, Daddy Bennett says, "Hustle, boys," but we delay a bit to get several bales of hay and a few extra bushels of oats from I.C. Gitt. We dropped down to the bridge, and the Wrightsville streamer is there. We put our mules on the steamer. There are already three teams aboard, and the mules become restless as the boat bumps around and the steam begins hissing.

Tuesday, June. 26: We mosey along pretty good. There is a little delay at every lock, but the swells help us along. I like to boat on the tidewater. It has more shade than the other canals. We reach Cold (Coal?) Cabin (York County) about 8 o'clock.

Wednesday, June 27: It's raining a little. First time we've put on the housings. Get to Havre de Grace. Weather clear again. Lock out. Run around Haverdy this evening and meet a few old cronies. Some of the boys tease old Fred, the baker, for ginger snaps.I talk Dutch to him, and that pleased him, and I got the dough patties. Thursday,

June 28: Laid here all day. More boats coming in. Did a little fishing. Caught a few catties and yellow perch. A fellow with a skiff took me down to the bridge for a boat ride. We cabbaged (stole) a hunk of ice and went back to the boats and made lemonade. It was almost too sour, for we had only a little sugar. Two other fellows and I went to a flying horse (merry-go-round) this evening. We found a lot of girls willing to ride with us. We rode and ate ice cream till nobody had any more money, then we scooted for the boats. The tug to take us away had come in. The fleet was making up. By and by, the signal was given, and away we went (into Chesapeake Bay). The ropes and rudders creaked, and the boats rolled and bumped. It was pretty rough rounding Turkey Point.

Friday, June 29: We reached Chesapeake City before daylight. There is a scurrying and commotion until we are locked into the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. There is a fog hanging over the ditch. As we enter the deep cut, you can hardly see anything, even a few feet away. A propeller coming toward us sounds its foghorn constantly. It made me feel creepy. Then the big boat comes close. It looks twice as big as it really is, through the mist. We pass it, move along to St. Georges and Delaware City. We locked out into the Delaware River. We are not there long before a big tug, the Taurus, comes and takes us upriver in the direction of Philadelphia. We pass the cities of New Castle and Wilmington. We stop at a government wharf below Chester. On the wharf stands an immense bell on a frame. The bell has no clapper. When the fog is heavy, a man strikes the bell with a heavy sledgehammer every once in a while to warn ships out in the river. During the night, we are towed farther upstream.

Saturday, June 30: By dawn, we are passing great forts below the city. For some reason, we are not out in the river but back in the channel. Now, we go out into midstream, up to the city that seems miles and miles in length. We pass a place where there's an island in the river. It has a kind of iron framework pavilion on it. People are on it dancing, and many small boats. We are taken up farther to a place called Petty's Island, opposite Cramp's shipyard. There are big ships on the stocks. Would like to see one of them slide down into the water. The tug leaves, and the boats are tied to some old piles driven into the shore. We have no small boat and can't get off. But every now and then, a boat comes along with bananas, ice cream, and other articles to sell. 

Part Two will follow.