in her words: life on the canal in the eyes of a hoggee

The primary work of the Society is to tell the story of the D&H Canal. What exactly does that entail? Through our various means of education, we have covered topics ranging from construction and engineering, finances, immigration, and more. For the last ten months, the staff has been working on highly anticipated project. Follow along as we unravel the story of a woman named Catherine Huftill.

The Grant Project
Last Fall, our museum was selected to be a part of a two-year grant program hosted by the Museum Association of New York (MANY) and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Part of the program is to create a program to “virtually deliver to their audiences, focusing on developing programs from stories found in their collections that reveal cultural and racial diversity in their communities”. Our inspiration was to focus on marginalized communities that worked on the canal. Specifically, female hoggees. Hoggee was the name given to the children who led the mule teams that pulled canal boats. We decided to create a short film geared towards younger audiences to educate and introduce them to life along the canal through the eyes of a hoggee. 

Our Inspiration
What was our inspiration? The painting On the towpath by E.L. Henry is the ONLY image that we have found that features a female hoggee working on the canal. Our goal was to bring this unnamed woman’s story to life. As we continued to source material for the film, we discovered that there is a photograph taken by LeGrand Botsford that was used as the inspiration for the painting. Having a visual source for our story was a great start, but we hoped to find a woman from history whose story we could tell.

Henry, EL. (1891). On the towpath [Oil on Canvas].

A Dead End
Our first source material was an excerpt from Dorothy H. Sanderson’s book “The Delaware & Hudson Canalway.” There was mention of a woman named “Mrs. James McDermott” as a person who worked on the D&H Canal as a young girl. Copious genealogical and local research could not positively identify the woman or her husband, so that was a dead end. During Women’s History Month we posted on the museum’s Facebook page about our search for a female hoggee. Our friend Sarah Wassberg-Johnson at the Hudson River Maritime Museum responded, saying they had a 1956 New York Canal Society oral history interview of a woman named Catherine Huftill who worked on her father’s boat on the D&H Canal. We found our source! (The only reason this exists is because she married an Erie Canal boatman, whom the NY Canal Society was interviewing.)

Her Story
While we don’t want to give too much away, what we can tell you is that Catherine Huftill worked as a mule driver on her father’s boat from 1893 to 1896 from the ages of 7 to 10. The video will feature scripted narration and excerpts from the recorded interview with Catherine in 1956. Below is an excerpt from the script for our video:

“Hi friends, my name is Courtney. I’m going to teach you about life along a canal. Do you know what a canal is? Let me explain it to you. Over 100 years ago, before the common use of cars, trains, railroads, and even permanent roadways, there were canals which helped transport people and goods to other towns and across states. Instead of a system of roads, there was a system of waterways, or a water highway if you will, where people traveled on canal boats. These boats didn’t have sails or engines, they were pulled by mules! Quite often, young children (probably around your age) were in charge of leading the mules along so the boat would keep moving. Now, I want you to close your eyes and imagine with me: you’re walking outside leading two mules along with a rope, and there’s a boat full of coal behind you. There were no cell phones or internet at that time, and you spent your entire day walking outside. Do you think you could do it? Well, as you keep watching this video you’re going to learn what it was like to work on a canal. In this video you’re going to hear parts of an interview with a very special woman named Catherine Huftill. She worked as a mule driver on her father’s boat for three years from the ages of 7 to 10….”