Elkanah Watson papers

Elkanah Watson was born in Plymouth Massachusetts in January 1758 to Elkanah and Patience Watson. From 1775 on Watson traveled to France and assisted with dispatches for Benjamin Franklin and also was a courier for George Washington. after the Revolutionary war Watson settled down in North Carolina where he met and married his wife Rachel Smith in 1789. A year later the couple would move to Albany N.Y. where Watson worked as a land speculator and helped found the Bank of Albany. His elevated status in Albany gave him the ability to start an expedition to purchase land and propose an idea to build a canal that connects the Hudson River to Lake Erie, which would eventually become the Erie Canal. Watson claimed to be the originator of the Erie Canal but this was disputed by DeWitt Clinton, which led to a long dispute between the two men. Watson was dismissed by the board of directors of the Bank of Albany in 1795 due to Watsons promotion of ideas such as: canals, turnpikes, and free schools. In 1803 state legislature granted Watson a charter to establish the State Bank of Albany. In 1807 Watson retired and moved to Pittsfield Massachusetts where he turned his interests towards agriculture fairs and raising sheep. Elkanah died in December 1842 in Port Kent N.Y.