Canal Towns: Southampton

Citizens from Southampton were involved in the canal's promotion as early as April 1825, attending a key meeting in Westfield to organize and fund a new survey for the route. In an engineer's estimate from February 1826, the construction costs for the section through Southampton were projected to be $33,338. This budget included $9,024 for excavation, $6,829 for embankments, $13,944 for locks, and $2,143 for aqueducts and culverts. This section required significant engineering, including 86 feet of lockage and, as detailed in a contract notice from January 1833, aqueducts to carry the canal over the Manhan River near Strong's Mills.

The canal became operational as far north as Southampton by July 1, 1835. A newspaper report from that same week celebrated the arrival of a freight boat that "came to Southampton and returned," marking the beginning of commerce for that port. Theodore Bliss, a passenger in September 1835, recalled his boat trip taking him through "quiet, old Southampton". The town became a regular stop for commercial traffic, as evidenced by numerous freight manifests and bills of lading preserved in the "Scrapbook of Gaius Lyman's papers, Southampton Historical Society". These records detail frequent shipments from New Haven to Southampton on boats like the Ceres, Flora, and Venus, delivering cargoes of salt, flour, molasses, sugar, oil, and dry goods to local merchants.

Southampton was not just a destination but also a point of origin for canal commerce and industry. A collector's manifest signed by Gaius Lyman on November 15, 1841, shows the boat Old Tip departing from Pomeroy's Basin in Southampton with 36,000 bricks and 1.5 cords of wood bound for Westfield. The following day, the Ceres arrived from the connecting Western Railroad depot in Westfield carrying wool and paper destined for Northampton. In 1840, Gideon Pomeroy Jr. wrote from Southampton inquiring about using water "from the second lock" to power a mill and a brickyard. Like other sections this part of the canal was vulnerable; a major breach in the "southern part of Southampton" was reported in December 1834, carrying away embankment and leaving a passenger boat stranded in the mud. Additional breaks in or near Southampton were reported in July 1839 and August 1842.