Board of Trustees of the Illinois and Michigan Canal

State: Illinois

The Board of Trustees of the Illinois and Michigan Canal succeeded the earlier Board of Canal Commissioners as oversight body for the Illinois and Michigan Canal. In 1843 the Illinois General Assembly passed an act which authorized the governor of Illinois to negotiate a loan of $1,600,000 to fund the completion of the canal. Under the provisions of the act, once the canal loan was fully subscribed a board of trustees was to be created. The act stipulated that the board be comprised of two trustees to be elected or appointed by the subscribers to the loan, and one trustee to be appointed by the governor to represent the state of Illinois. In 1845 the General Assembly passed an act supplemental to the act of 1843, which stated that once the loan was successfully contracted and trustees selected, the governor would execute a deed of trust to be delivered to the board of trustees. The loan was secured in the spring of 1845, following which a meeting was held at the American Exchange Bank of New York in May of 1845 and the subscribers to the loan elected William H. Swift and David Leavitt as their first two trustees. Swift was further elected president of the board. In June of 1845 Governor Thomas Ford appointed Jacob Fry to be the first trustee representing the state of Illinois. That same month, the canal and its resources were transferred to the Board of Trustees and preparations began to resume work on the canal. The salaries of the initial trustees were $5,000 each for Swift and Leavitt and $2,000 for Fry as state trustee. In 1871 the canal debt was fully repaid, with the exception of $13,000 worth of bonds that were never redeemed, and the trust and board of trustees were dissolved and the canal was turned over to the management of the state of Illinois. Of the original trustees, only Swift served until the board disbanded, continuing in the office of president for his entire tenure on the board. Fry was replaced by Charles Oakley as trustee for the state in 1847, and Leavitt was replaced by Henry Grinnell in May of 1859.

“An Act to Provide for the Completion of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and for the Payment of the Canal Debt,” 21 February 1843, Laws of Illinois (1843), 54-61; “An Act Supplemental to “An Act to Provide for the Completion of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and for the Payment of the Canal Debt,” Approved, February 21st, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Forty-Three,” 1 March 1845, Laws of Illinois (1845), 31-32; Report of the Canal Commissioners of Illinois to Governor John R. Tanner (Springfield, IL: Phillips Brothers, 1901), 206-9; John H. Krenkel, Illinois Internal Improvements, 1818-1848 (Cedar Rapids, IA: Torch, 1958), 180-82, 189-91, 199; A. T. Andreas, History of Chicago (Chicago: A. T. Andreas, 1885), 2:123.