ROCHESTER, N.Y. – 200 years ago this month, the Erie Canal officially opened. In October 1825, Governor DeWitt Clinton traveled the entire canal and poured water from Lake Erie into the harbor of New York City. It’s known as the “wedding of the waters.”
Now, Chief Investigative Reporter Berkeley Brean introduces you to the governor’s great great great great great grandson, who has the same name.
“First of all, that’s a great first name,” Brean said.
“Thank you,” replied DeWitt Silber, 5X grandson of Gov. DeWitt Clinton.
DeWitt Silber, 15 years old, is the youngest descendant of Governor DeWitt Clinton and his namesake.
Berkeley Brean: “Do people ask you about it?”
DeWitt Silber: “Not always but fairly frequently I get asked.”
Berkeley Brean: “And what do you tell them?”
DeWitt Silber: “Well I tell them the truth that I’m named after my 5 times great grandfather DeWitt Clinton.”
Brean: “My hunch is that most people you say that to probably have no idea who he is.”
DeWitt Silber: “That’s very true, yeah.”
New York Governor DeWitt Clinton didn’t invent the canal, but he made it happen.
“I think it certainly provides a sense of family pride that my family did this and basically helped develop New York and the country,” said DeWitt Silber.
The canal helped move flour produced in Rochester to the entire world.
With the help of the canal, Rochester’s population went from 9,207 in 1830 to 328,132 in 1930.
“I realized early on that I didn’t know much of this history,” said Ken Silber, DeWitt’s father.
DeWitt’s lineage goes through his mother, but it was his father who published the book “In DeWitt’s Footsteps.”
“I realized this canal history was lying there in plain sight,” said Ken Silber. “I felt that people should know more about it.”
The book traces Ken and DeWitt Silber’s track of the canal, exploring the ruins that Governor Clinton would have seen himself as he rode the Seneca Chief to open the canal.
Governor Clinton would have passed what is now the Richardson’s Canal House in Bushnells Basin on his way to New York City. In 1825 it was called the Exchange Hotel. The governor would have passed under the original Marsh Road Bridge.
Berkeley Brean: “What do you think DeWitt Clinton’s legacy is?”
Ken Silber: “He was very important not just in getting the canal built in organizing the street grid in New York City, in getting public education started, he ran for president unsuccessfully.”
Gov. Clinton’s face was on the tax stamp that went on every carton of cigarettes so his image is one of the most reproduced in history.
By the 20th century, the memory of DeWitt Clinton started to fade. But his five-time great grandson competes in history challenges and inevitably there’s a question on the canal and the governor.
Berkeley Brean: “And I hope you buzz in and answer that right away.”
DeWitt Silber: “I don’t think I’ve missed one ever.”
Ken Silber: “It would be embarrassing if he were not the winner on that question.”
On October 26, a replica of the Seneca Chief canal boat will be in New York City. That will mark the exact moment DeWitt’s five-times great grandfather opened the canal 200 years ago.
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