JJ McShane is a fictional creation of Chalmers, on pages 22-27 in a
fictional letter by Canvass White (a real Erie engineer) to the
fictional Pippa Post. In 1968, four years after the Chalmers book,
George Condon, Stars in the Water: the Story of the Erie Canal
(Doubleday), p63, begins the process of turning fiction into fact,
introducing McShane as a real character (and using language similar
enough to Chalmers' that some might apply the p word). Since Condon's
popular history, McShane has been considered real by those who have
not done their research, such as Bernstein, p269.
As to "Barto", invariably referred to as "Dr. Barto", "a scientific
gentleman" in such unreliable popular histories as Condon (p58) and
Bernstein (213), he was actually Andrew Abramse Bartow,
scientifically-inclined, yes, a doctor, no, but more to the point,
the canal commission's well-paid procurement agent for timber, sand,
and especially lime, among other materials necessary to the canal's
construction. While popular and scholarly writers have often repeated
a fanciful story (first published 30 years later when all the
principals were dead or dying) about the bar room assistance of
"Barto" in testing Canvass White's "discovery" of the hydraulic
cement required for the canal's masonry, it was in fact Bartow who
made the discovery through dogged field and laboratory efforts, sold
the patent rights for a very considerable $2,000 to White, and
retained a 25% share in future profits (of which, alas, there were
none). Fairfield (NY) town historian Jane Dieffenbacher was the first
to uncover the documentation several years ago (see www.rootsweb.com/
~nyherkim/fairfield/abartow.html); for a scholarly treatment, see my
"Andrew Bartow and the cement that made the Erie Canal," N-Y J of Am
Hist (Spring-Summer 2005), 52-60.
McShane and Bartow are interesting opposites, in terms of myth and
history: a fiction becoming fact, a fact becoming fiction.
Gerard Koeppel
NYC
On May 17, 2006, at 12:00 AM, NYHIST-L automatic digest system wrote:
> There are 3 messages totalling 323 lines in this issue.
>
> Topics of the day:
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Sat, 13 May 2006 09:22:02 -0400
> From: David Roberts <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: "How The Irish Built The Erie" by Harvey Chalmers II
>
> This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
>
> ------=_NextPart_000_0066_01C6766E.B1E6A240
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> charset="iso-8859-1"
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>
> Dave:
>
> In historical fiction, you have "real" people and characters that
> the =
> author created. That's been a part of historical fiction for a long
> time =
> - at least since the times of Sir Walter Scott. Good historical
> fiction =
> can teach us a lot of good history. One example is my family "name-
> sake" =
> Kenneth Roberts, noted historical fiction writer of the 1920s-1940s. =
> "Northwest Passage" is fiction, yet it features Major Robert
> Rogers, an =
> important figure in the French & Indian War era.
>
> Bad historical fiction .... well that's another story.
>
> I know nothing about the Chalmers book you mention, but I did check =
> "Wedding of the Waters" by Peter L. Bernstein and found for you, in
> the =
> index:
>
> White, Canvass
> background of: 192, 381
> as canal engineer: 192, 259, 263, 289
> English canal visted by: 192, 204, 259, 349n
> limestone cement developed by: 213, 214, 215, 260
>
> McShane, J. J. : 269
>
> and
> Barto, Andrew: 213
>
> Note that Bernstein uses the spelling BARTO. The name is, I
> believe, of =
> French Huguenot origin and it also exists on Long Island. One line
> of my =
> Huntington, Suffolk County, Conklin family marries into a Barto
> line. =
> I've seen the name spelled: Barto, Bartoe, and Bartow.=20
>
> If you are interested in these citations from "Wedding of the
> Waters," =
> let me know.
> You might try to either buy the book for your own personal library
> or =
> see if you can get it to read from your public library.
>
> David
>
> David Roberts
> Hollywood, MD
>
> ----- Original Message -----=20
> From: Dave Ruch=20
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2006 11:36 AM
> Subject: [NYHIST-L] "How The Irish Built The Erie" by Harvey
> Chalmers =
> II
>
>
> Thanks to all for your responses on this. What I find most =
> aggravating is the fact that many real players in the construction
> of =
> the original canal (i.e. Canvass White, Andrew Bartow) exist side by =
> side with other characters that Chalmers seems to have created.
>
> Has anyone come across references to J.J. McShane in other
> sources? =
> He was the rough and tumble Irish boxer in the story who was brought =
> back to NY by Canvass White to ride herd on a crew of wild Irishmen =
> working on the section of the canal around Syracuse. I have heard
> an =
> anecdote about him quoted as fact at a local canal museum and in
> their =
> publications, however, the info may have just come from Chalmers book.
>
>> Date: Fri, 12 May 2006 14:37:45 EDT
>> From: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: How The Irish Kings Built The Dakota, designed by
>> Stamfordt White, in 1882...
>>
>> -------------------------------1147459065
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>>
>> In a message dated 5/12/2006 2:28:01 PM Eastern Standard Time,
>> [log in to unmask] writes:
>> What I find most aggravating is the fact that many real players in
>> the
>> construction of the original canal (i.e. Canvass White, Andrew
>> Bartow) exist side by
>> side with other characters that Chalmers seems to have created.
>> Jack Finney's famous "Time and Again" states that the Dakota
>> apartment house
>> was built in "1882". It is well known that the Dakota was
>> completed in 1884
>> - a fact not even mangled by the most careless walking tour guides.
>>
>> But after mentioning in print the Dakota (a building on which I
>> have spent
>> three decades of research) in an article, I frequently receive
>> "helpful"
>> correspondance from those who point out my "error" of dating it to
>> 1884, when "in
>> fact" it's 1882, "because it's in 'Time & Again'".
>>
>> I once asked Mr. Finney why he used 1882 and he said he had just
>> "heard it".
>>
>> Christopher Gray
>> Office for Metropolitan History
>> 246 West 80th Street, #8, NYC 10024
>> 212-799-0520 fax -0542
>>
>> e: [log in to unmask]
>> www.MetroHistory.com
>
>
>
>
> End of NYHIST-L Digest - 12 May 2006 to 16 May 2006 (#2006-41)
> **************************************************************
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