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Lockport Lock Tenders Tribute

Keepers of the Gateway to the West

In 2014, at a meeting of the Sanborn Historical Society, Youngstown artist Susan Geissler gave a presentation about her recently completed "Freedom Crossing" bronze sculpture, now situated on the west bank of the Niagara River in the Village of Lewiston. Following the presentation, representatives of the newly formed Lockport Locks Heritage District Corporation shared with her a proposed project for the creation of a series of statues to be located on the stairway in the Lockport Locks to commemorate the 19th Century Erie Canal workers pictured in an 1897 photograph of 12 Lockport lock tenders and a little girl seated on a stairway in the Lockport Locks. The photo was a possession of the Niagara History Center, and had been inspected by Eisterhold & Associates of Kansas City, who recommended the re-creation of the scene in the 1897 photo as part of their ""Interpretation Plan for the Erie Canal Flight of Five" report. Eisterhold had been commissioned to develop a plan to help visitors to the growing heritage tourism site to understand the significance of the Erie Canal and the Flight of Five. The ""Canal Workers" project, as described by Eisherhold, would be the thematic centerpiece for what has become an ambitious assemblage of displays and interpretive signage in Lockport.

The Lockport Locks Heritage District Corporation asked Geissler if she would be interested in undertaking the project. Geissler grasped the significance of the 1897 Frank B. Clench photo, and quickly presented a clay model of what she envisaged for the site: cast bronze, life size sculptures of the 12 Lock Tenders and the little girl from the Clench photo plus a full size figure of the photographer himself.

Susan's depiction in the Lockport Locks ranks as her largest public work of art, and the largest cast bronze artwork in Western New York. She takes pride in each individual figure in the Lock Tenders Tribute Monument and has a unique understanding of the men and the single girl who posed for photographer Clench on the stairway of the Lockport Locks in 1897. She will continue to be a vital part of the heritage of the Lockport Lock Tenders for many years to come. For more information on Susan Geissler and her works, see her web site.

The creation and installation of the 14 piece assemblage has taken place in three stages. In 2020, the first three sculptures were placed on the historic stairway, located between the Erie Canal Flight of Five Locks and Barge Canal Locks 34 & 35. The following year, another five figures were added, including the figure of the photographer. The final stage was the unveiling in September 2023 of the final six figures.

Susan Geissler with sketch of one locktender.	Susan Geissler sculpture of the Lockport Lock Tenders.	Sculpture of the Lockport Lock Tenders with the photographer, F.B. Clench.

Lock Tenders labored 12-hour days from April through November every year to enable boats to navigate through the Erie Canal Flight of Five Locks and deliver their freight to Buffalo and points west or east to New York City and subsequent final destinations. Lock Tenders in the 1890s were selected from each of the City of Lockport's eight wards. Little background knowledge existed about any of the people in local photographer F. B. Clench's picture at the time. After a decade of research by a team of local genealogists and amateur historians, we do know the name of everyone in the photo. Numbered in the order created by artist Susan Geissler, the Lockport Lock Tenders in the 1897 photo are:

1) Frank J. LeValley Jr. (1848-1916). After several years as a lock tender, he became a foreman in 1904. He also worked as a contractor. 2) Michael "James" Riley (1880-1949). After his service in Lockport, he and his second wife moved permanently to Buffalo, where Riley owned an electrical shop and worked as an electrician on a public housing project. 3) Michael Oates (1853-1930) came to the U.S. from County Roscommon, Ireland, in 1872, following the long tradition of Irish immigrants working on the canal. Oates was listed as a stonecutter in the 1897 Lockport city directory, and still followed that line of work as late as 1923. 4) William J. Bower (1861-1938). A foreman in 1897-98, he eventually became a millwright in the private sector, including a stint at Lockport's Indurated Fibre Co.. 5) Ira M. McCoy (1859-1943) He worked as a letter carrier for two years in the early 1890s, and became a lock tender in 1895, a job he kept until 1898. McCoy was elected alderman for Lockport's 5th Ward from 1908-1912 and 1915-1917. 6) Michael E. Hennessey (1870-1945) Hennessey worked as a lock tender for 16 years and then became a chain gang guard for the Niagara County Sheriff's Department in 1915. After joining the county Highway Department, he later worked for the City Streets Department. 7) John A. Leonard (born 1856, date of death unknown). His parents were Irish immigrants and he worked at a stave mill in Lockport when he was a teenager. He was a married father of three. 8) Thomas O'Hara, after his stint as a lock tender, worked at the Lockport Glass Works and as a clerk as late as 1923. He was a married father of three and in his senior years, worked at a restaurant called Tim's Place, the present location of Danny Sheehan's Steak House. 9) Martin Noonan (1856-1935) was a lock tender foreman in 1897-98. His brother, Michael, became a Catholic priest and the pastor of St. Patrick's Church in Lockport. 10) William J. Crowley (1869-1940), the son of Irish immigrants, served as a lock tender from 1896 to 1898 and like Martin Noonan, never married. 11) Fred J. Wagoner (1851-1933) was an immigrant from Mecklenburg, Germany, who worked again as a lock tender in 1898. By 1915, he was working as a blacksmith. Wagoner was married twice and had a total of four children. 12) Edward E. Barrett (1847-1930) made a career at the locks, working as a lock tender for more than 40 years. At the time of his retirement, he was one of the most senior canal employees in the state. 13) Bessie Wagoner (1883-1901) was Fred Wagoner's daughter, the third of his four children. We'll never know why the 14-year-old girl was at the locks the day Clench took his photo.

At the dedication of the installation of the final figures in September 2023, descendants of the Lock Tenders in the 1897 photograph gathered with the bronze statues of their ancestors for a family photograph on the steps of the Lockport locks.

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