Palmyra, NY, Erie Canal History, Joseph Smith

The Smith Family moved to
Palmyra in 1816, just before the
Erie Canal would Create Wealthy
Victorian Towns and Prosperous
Cities Between Albany and Buffalo
Palmyra became a successful
Victorian town and is now
important to the Mormon Religion,
it was once the home of Founder
Joseph Smith

Palmyra NY on the Erie Canal, Home of Joseph Smith

In 1825 The Erie Canal Opened a Water Route Of 365 Miles From Albany To Buffalo

Palmyra New York, on the Erie Canal, was
home Joseph Smith's Family when they moved
from Vermont. They arrived just when the
Erie Canal Opened the West for Trade and
Travel
Palmyra became an important town on the
Canal

The Erie Canal would open a huge
area to new settlers, immigrants and
those seeking freedom of speech and
religion.
The canal followed the path of least
resistance from the ocean to the Great
Lakes; there were no major mountain
ranges in its path.
The 363-mile canal was the first
all-water link from the Great Lakes to
the Atlantic's eastern seaports.
This link brought settlers and those
seeking religious freedom and new land
for farming.
The original canal was built starting in
1817 and completed in 1825 with a
depth of four feet, a width of 40 feet,
and the use of 83 locks to lift boats a
total of 570 feet from sea level on the
Hudson River at Troy, to Lake Erie near
Buffalo
Canals had long been dreamed of but
it was the will of De Wit Clinton, the
Governor of New York, that would make
a State-wide seaway possible.
On October 26, 1825, the Governor and
other dignitaries made the first passage
aboard the boat Seneca Chief, a trip of
ten days from Buffalo to New York City,
a distance of 500 miles. There in NY
Harbor Governor Clinton ceremoniously
dumped a barrel of Lake Erie water into
NY harbor calling it the, "Joining Of The
waters.".
The smith family moved to Palmyra in
1816 and worked as coopers among
other crafts and trades.
In the Fall of 1825 they had moved onto
a new home built by Joseph's brother
Alvin.

Erie Canal Bike Trails ,Annual Group Trip, Five Hundred bikers go fro Buffalo to Albany in eight days

Erie Barge Canal Biking

Erie Canal History

Erie Canal Inn to Inn Vacation

When the Smiths lived in Palmyra the old locks
from 1825 were just four feet deep and 40 feet
wide. They are now abandoned and have
become town parks, walking trails, and a part of
the heritage of the many canal villages.

The Coverlet Museum
near the bike trail

Just a few miles south of Palmyra Center stands the
recreated log cabin where the smith family first lived

The interior of the smith Family's second home on the farm of 100 acres near
Palmyra

The smiths were coopers or barrel makers
among other trades which included farming

The smiths second home in Palmyra
has been faithfully restored

The smiths first home in Palmyra, the log cabin, has been rebuilt to the original footprint and the fields
and woodworking shops preserved and restored...

The preservation
of the first canal
era home of the
smiths and the
farm life they lived
has been
meticulous.

Some of the
interior of the
second home is
preserved original
wood, crafted by
Alvin, in the
1820s, the eldest
brother of Joseph
Smith.

The two Smith homes at the complex, the recreated first home, the log cabin, and a second home
built in the 1820s by Joseph's brother Alvin for his parents to live in as they aged.

Near the homes and open to visitors, the grove of trees that was the smith's woodlot and the place
where Joseph had a vision. The area is now called the Sacred Grove.

Not far south from the homes of the Smith family, the hill where Joseph Smith received the tablets that
would become the Book of Mormon, the Hill Comorah, is now the scene of an annual pageant
attended by over 6000 visitors.