Heaven's Ditch: God, Gold, and Murder on the Erie Canal

by Jack Kelly

The technological marvel of its age, the Erie Canal grew out of a sudden fit of inspiration. Proponents didn't just dream; they built a 360-mile waterway entirely by hand and largely through wilderness. As excitement crackled down its length, the canal became the scene of the most striking outburst of imagination in American history. Zealots invented new religions and new modes of living. The Erie Canal made New York the financial capital of America and brought the modern world crashing into the frontier. Men and women saw God face to face, gained and lost fortunes, and reveled in a period of intense spiritual creativity.

Heaven's Ditch by Jack Kelly illuminates the spiritual and political upheavals along this "psychic highway" from its opening in 1825 through 1844. "Wage slave" Sam Patch became America's first celebrity daredevil. William Miller envisioned the apocalypse. Farm boy Joseph Smith gave birth to Mormonism, a new and distinctly American religion. Along the way, the reader encounters America's very first "crime of the century," a treasure hunt, searing acts of violence, a visionary cross-dresser, and a panoply of fanatics, mystics, and hoaxers.

A page-turning narrative, Heaven's Ditch offers an excitingly fresh look at a heady, foundational moment in American history.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Crime, True Crime, Audiobook, New York

304 pages, Hardcover

First published July 5, 2016

About the author

Jack Kelly is an award-winning author and historian. He has published works of narrative nonfiction focusing on the Revolutionary War and early America.

Jack lives with the acclaimed artist Joy Taylor and a lovely, nondescript cat named Allis Chalmers, in New York's Hudson Valley. He writes mainly about the American Revolution and the early history of the nation. He’s always happy to hear from readers via his website JackKellyBooks.com.

Perhaps because of a background as the author of five crime novels, Jack writes nonfiction with the compulsive energy of thrillers. He has covered a range of fascinating historical personalities in his books GOD SAVE BENEDICT ARNOLD, VALCOUR, and BAND OF GIANTS. In honor of the 2025 bicentennial of the Erie Canal, his history HEAVEN’S DITCH gives an intriguing look at the excitement surrounding that major achievement.

In January 2026, Jack will publish TOM PAINE’S WAR. The book offers a compelling portrait of the man who was the voice of the American Revolution and who remains our most relevant founder. Paine’s Common Sense convinced Americans to declare independence. He went on to march with Washington’s army during the desperate struggle of 1776.

Jack has received the DAR History Medal and is a New York Foundation for the Arts fellow in Nonfiction Literature.

Reviews

[David Eppenstein · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a disappointment. While it is well written and researched it fails by trying to be too many things and not supplying enough for any of them. Earlier this year I read David McCollough's book on the Panama Canal and was intrigued by the history of a monumental project of men that resulted in a positive addition to the world. I ran across this book and thought the history of the Erie Canal should be just as interesting since it was the first major construction project of the infant U.S. and built in the era before steam powered earth moving machines. Of course the entire project of nearly 400 miles and significant elevation changes through the mountains would have to be done by hand and that should be a fascinating and admirable tale of human achievement. In those parts of the book which deal with the building of the canal it is interesting and informative but, in my opinion, incomplete. According to the history provided this was an amazing accomplishment because the canal was built entirely at the expense of the State of New York without federal assistance and it was built by amateurs. None of the men employed to build this canal were engineers and knew nothing about building canals or hydraulics. At best these men were self taught surveyors and consulted what would have passed at that time for what we know today a the Idiots Guide to Canal Building before starting to work. That this didn't turn into a monumental disaster is amazing in itself. But they succeeded and the canal had a profound effect on the expansion of Western New York. What is not mentioned in any significant manner is the effect this canal had on the expansion and creation of cities along the entire length of the Great Lakes. Instead the author elected to supply parallel stories involving a religious upheaval of the time. It is a common practice for authors to run parallel stories in their books but those parallel stories are usually connected. In this book the only connection between the canal and these religious movements is that they occurred at the same time in roughly the same area. What the author gives us in addition to the canal is biographical sketch of the life of Joseph Smith and the early years of Mormonism. After reading this story all I can say is that Smith must have been seriously delusional or one of the greatest con artists this country has ever produced and the Mormons had to be the most gullible people on earth. But the author also gives us a story about an alleged murder committed by members of the Freemasons that leads to the downfall of the fraternal organization. None of these events has any positive or negative affect on the other. The canal would have been built regardless of the creation of Mormonism, the Freemasons, Adventists, or any of the other religious fanaticism of the time and the canal had no affect on any of these religious movements. Why the author chose to combine these stories in one book is beyond me but I found it annoying and at times confusing as the stories kept shifting time frames and characters. I just wanted to read about the building of the Erie Canal and these other unrelated stories were a waste of space that would have been better used on a more thorough treatment of the canal and its affect on the Western expansion of the U.S.

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Conceived by a man in debtor’s prison, planned by inexperienced government officials, and dug by the hands of farmers and day laborers, the Erie Canal was improbable from the start. Cutting through 363 miles of upstate New York wilderness, it offered remote towns exposure to previously unimaginable people and beliefs. The canal turned out to be an ideal conduit not only for commerce but also for the spread of religious and ideological fervor. Kelly deftly and enjoyably introduces us to zealots, charlatans, true believers and others who saw the waterway as a road to both riches and souls. Enter this book and take your own rousing trip from Albany to Buffalo!

[Rosemary Ellis · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are expecting something like McCullough's book on the building of the Panama Canal, this isn't it! Kelly's book is an easier, lighter read, almost like a novel, and covers "God, Gold, and Murder," not just the building of the canal, as the title indicates.

The first half of the 19th century in Upstate NY comes alive in this book, with stories of religious fervor, beliefs that the world was going to come to an end, the founding of new religions, the evolution of the Masons as a social organization, the growth of cities and town and industries along the new waterway, the creation of an easy and inexpensive route for mass movement of huge populations to the Midwest, and so much more.

[Todd Stockslager · Rating 2 out of 5]

Review title: Ditch this one

Jack Kelly has brought together the story of the building of the Erie Canal and the stories of the roughly contemporary spiritual fervor in upstate New York that hatched the Mormon Church, evangelical revivalism, and End-of-the-World predictions. The mash-up is a great idea; too bad Kelly didn't let the stories tell themselves.

Before the transcontinental railroads or the Panama Canal, the Erie Canal project in the first half of the 19th century was one of the biggest infrastructure building projects in the United States. And the Western New York region where the canal ran was known as the Burned Over District for the religious revivals that had burned bright there for a century. Joseph Smith was born there and with guidance from a vision from the angel Moroni claimed to find gold tablets covered in hieroglyphics which he translated with divine help into the Book of Mormon. About the same time Charles Finney was converted to Christianity and launched a series of evangelical revivals centered around Rochester and spreading east and west along the canal route that brought out huge crowds and ignited the second Great Awakening. In the same fervent time and place, farmer William Miller studied the Bible closely during his conversion and found prophetic formulas that convinced Miller that the Second Coming and End of the World in Armageddon foretold in the Book of Revelation would occur in 1842.

Great stories all. However, the way Kelly tells them is too episodic and overwrought to hold together. This is narrative popular history, certainly, so I was not expecting academic standards of argument and writing, but in trying to weave the stories together Kelly cuts back and forth between threads too frequently without providing the framework--through date and place references or outlines or timeliness--for the reader to understand the relationships in time and space. For example, some of the basic historical facts of the building of the canal are not clear to me after finishing the book: how long it took to build, how many men worked on it, the amount of commerce the canal carried, what role the canal played in the religious ferment in the region.

And while he has great stories to tell, Kelly seems afraid to let the facts of the stories provide their own excitement, instead resorting to overwrought generalizations. For example, at one point referring to the danger of working on the canal, he casually states that "perhaps a thousand" (p. 76) workers died building the canal, without providing specifics or a reference. Later, he again generalizes the topic but reduces the number to "hundreds". The reader is left with Kelly's breathless assertions that the canal work was dangerous without a clear feeling for the authentic magnitude of the danger. Popular narrative history can be written with some of the same writing styles and plot structures of fiction, but must must provide the facts that separate history from fiction. Kelly violates that most basic rule of writing: don't tell me, show me.

In addition, the subplot of William Morgan, a disgruntled Freemason from the area who had written an expose of the secretive society but was arrested then disappeared just before the book was published, seems to be layered onto the narrative to justify the "and murder" part of the subtitle but isn't really integrated into the main threads of the narrative. It feels like either an editor or a writer who didn't trust those stories to stand on their own without this extra dollop of sensationalism. It is a mistake that detracts from the power of the story.

I read and enjoy a lot of popular narrative history, and this one did have the advantages of great storylines. I just wish it had been better written.

[Brent McGregor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing growth in such a small window of time. All great works of this magnitude bring into that orbit the visionaries and ambitious. This book revolves around the major movements that benefited from a large influx of people and money that moved into this project.
The major American religions that sprang up during the Second Great Awakening took root in this fertile soil. The mysterious Masons rose to power and created such an outrage that the backlash exists today. Daredevils, traveling shows, and things unique to early frontier Americana grew strong along this ambitious path.
What I did not know what that the same time that the Shakers, Millerites, Finney, Dow, and a cadre of many others were shaping the new face of Protestant religion another entirely new one arose at the same time: The Church of Christ, later known as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Although the author draws from Bushmans biography, it is pretty accurate. (there are a few discrepancies that are still very contentious, like the statement of Lehi crossing the Pacific ocean. JS never said that, but a lot of people have built up the idea he did based on an editorial he never wrote or signed.)
The work of Finney is also dwelt upon as his revivalist movement focused on a kind of folk religion still very much observed today.
There is so much more, it's hard to know what won't be a spoiler.
What this book is about deals mostly with who built the canal, why it's important to us today, and how practical novices overcame tremendous engineering feats while others had to figure out how to get thousands of workers spread along the route of the canal to make it happen.
The human aspect of throwing, say, a huge segment of hard drinking, city slum dwelling, recent Irish immigrants into frontier towns with deeply religious farmers and tradesmen.
And the longer term social aspect of wage earners being a different kind of slavery where day to day survival supplants property and posterity.
This was a moment in history where the mechanical industrial age and the pastoral bucolic life came into direct conflict.

[Amy Moritz · Rating 4 out of 5]

When you grow up in Lockport, N.Y., you cannot escape the Erie Canal. It's part of your elementary school education and a reality of geography. I've read a lot about the history of the canal and while the politics, business and engineering were always interesting, I felt I was missing something. What was life like along the canal. How did it change those places? So when I was browsing the new book shelf at the library and saw this title, I picked it up immediately.

The author does a great job of mixing the building of the canal with life along the canal, mostly in the form of the religious revivals which were prominent at the time along with the Masonic and Anti-Masonic movements, which is where the murder part comes in. It really is challenging to see Western New York as "the west" and "the frontier" but in the 1800s it was and the canal helped change all that, in big ways for Rochester and Buffalo and smaller scale but equally significant ways for places like Lockport.

The work deals a lot with Joseph Smith and the founding of the Mormons, since that happened during the canal era and in a canal town. But it also was a product of the time where religious revelations were happening all over, especially when getting out of a cycle of poverty or dealing with the drunk and often violent acts of workers digging the canal. It also coincided with a time when people actually did dig for buried treasure and gold and silver. And golden tablets, well that would have been a money maker.

I also found very interesting the story of William Morgan, a Batavia man who wrote a book revealing the secrets of the Masons and was kidnapped and murdered. I was unfamiliar with his story and quite a tale it was.

And perhaps the biggest thing about the canal was how it changed the way Americans thought about their plight.

"The Erie Canal gave settlers courage. It facilitated a mobility that was to become a permanent characteristic of the American population."

[Jared Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am probably more well-read in Mormon history than the average person, but this book filled an important gap for me. Too often, Mormon history is written in a pretty insular way. The focus is on the internal politics and dynamics and revelations of the church and those that are directly interacting with it. This book is not really about Mormon history, it is about the religion and politics of the early 19th century along the corridor that became the Erie canal. It traces the story of Joseph Smith and the church he started, but along with that it traces the rise of the Anti-masonic party, the politicians and boosters and engineers that built the canal, Charles Finney's revival movement, and the rise and fall of the Millerites, but most importantly, it puts them next to each other and puts them all in context. Though this is a popular history, not an academic history, and doesn't exactly break new ground, it provides a very useful context for anyone interested in Mormon history or in New York state history.

[Patty · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nonfiction book about the building of the Erie Canal and the boomtowns (a word actually invented for this time and place!) that sprang up as it came into operation.

Kelly has three main strands running through his narrative, as seen in his subtitle. First, gold, which I suppose mostly symbolizes the planning, construction, and eventually use of the Erie Canal, which was both hugely costly and hugely profitable. This was by far the least interesting of the three strands, but does provide the necessary background for the rest of the book.

Murder: William Morgan was a man living in Rochester – one of those boomtowns – in the 1820s. He decided to write a book on Freemasons which would reveal some of their secret rituals. Freemasons, unsurprisingly, were not down with this, and shortly before publication a group kidnapped Morgan, who was never seen again. Freemasons at the time were hugely influential, counting as members everyone from George Washington to the current president Andrew Jackson to, most relevantly, local sheriffs and magistrates, who refused to even investigate the case until ordered to do so by the governor. This didn't go over well, leading to a public outcry and eventually an entire political party, the Anti-Masonic Party, America's first third party and the inventor of holding conventions to nominate candidates and announce the party's platform.

And finally God, the third strand and the reason I wanted to read this book. The 1810s to 1830s, the time period Heaven's Ditch is most focused on, are the moment of the Second Great Awakening. This was a time of massive religious revivals, and upstate New York was one of the centers for the extravagant conversions and new religions. In fact the area became known as the "burned over district" for the frequency and intensity with which religious frenzies swept across the local people. Heaven's Ditch focuses on several of the most prominent figures in this movement, including: Charles Finney, celebrated and notorious (depending on who you asked) for his camp revival meetings and promotion of an evangelical style of Protestantism that is still hugely influential in American religion and politics. William Miller, who claimed to have proof that the world would end in 1843; when it (obviously) did not, his followers eventually evolved into today's Seventh-Day Adventists. And, most famous of all and given the most page time, Joseph Smith, prophet and founder of Mormonism/The Church of Latter Day Saints.

Kelly is very respectful of the beliefs he describes, in my opinion – though I may be a bit biased because personally I would have been much more sarcastic in recounting visions of angels or biblical number conspiracies. The book is written in an engaging, almost fictionalized style, similar to Erik Larson or Tom Reiss. My one complaint is that the narration jumps around in time a great deal, specifically going back and forth to the building of the canal (1817-25) and the culture after it opened (mostly late 1820s, 1830s, and some of the 1840s). That occasionally made it hard to remember when events were happening in relation to one another. I do think that it probably would have been impossible to organize the whole book with a straightforward chronology, but section headings with prominently displayed dates would have made the various narrative strands a lot easier to follow.

I am resisting the urge to just go off listing various cool facts and stories that I picked up from reading this, since you'd be better off just reading the book and not my summary of every single thing in it. And it is absolutely worth reading! If you like weird historical escapades, I cannot recommend this highly enough.

I read this as an ARC via NetGalley.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Summary: I enjoyed this fascinating story, but sometimes found the multiple storylines disjointed and confusing.

The Erie Canal was an incredible technological achievement and this book tells the story of its creation. As the canal was built up, cities rose due to the new trade routes it created and transportation became much more rapid. Both of these factors enabled the religious revival taking place in the region.

The narrative style, helped along by some great images, made this an engaging story. I was never bored by the technical details of canal construction and I thought the author did a great job also highlighting the social changes the canal drove and was influenced by. The second storyline about the simultaneous religious revival was slightly less interesting to me, but the author kept my attention by focusing on the many fascinating developments of new religious sects and the many big personalities involved.

What kept this from being another Devil in the White City for me were some problems with the narrative flow. There were multiple pieces to each of the two storylines and connections between them were not made clear. When characters reappeared, the author gave us no reminders about who they were. This, combined with the sheer number of characters, made it hard to connect with any individuals. Towards the end, the pieces started to connect more, which was fun to see, but the transitions between sections remained abrupt.

Despite its flaws, this was an enjoyable read and I would recommend it to fans of the way The Devil in the White City combined a people-focused story with a story focused more on an awe-inspiring technical achievement.

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This review was originally posted on Doing Dewey

[Bonnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Learning about the Erie Canal and all the engineering and financial woes and successes that came with it was fascinating. People were tough, people were smart, people were dreamers and it all came together in this new age to link the products and materials of the "frontier" with the money of downstate New York City. This books adds in the 2nd Great Awakening which was also taking place in the same area of western New York State at the same time - again, tough, smart, dreaming people. My own faith, Mormonism, (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) is highlighted with its unique and spiritual awakening as a true American religion. Some may consider it not the best telling of the story of Joseph Smith. I thought Kelly gave a very straight-forward rendering of our history.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pick a topic and stick to it. The author had several different topics and the only thing they had in common was they at one point in their life they may have seen, crossed over, or heard of the Erie canal.

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weaving together all kinds of historical threads related to the building of the Erie Canal, this is the story of the opening of western New York and the social turbulence of the era. I found it fascinating for all the local connections and the various events, people, and places that I know about by living here or from history classes and historical fiction. To say that it's simply about this state doesn't do it justice, though, as many of the issues of the era (abolition, women's suffrage, temperance, religious revivals, bank failures, opportunists) are either part of the larger American scene or are universal. Should be required reading for New York State residents!

[Mikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hadn’t known much about the Erie Canal other than the song lyrics, so this book was a good chance to learn more. The author expanded on the canal story by telling the culture of the area at the time. Foremost was religious fervor of various stripes, including the beginnings of Mormonism. An unsolved murder and the possible culpability of a group of Freemasons only added to the book’s interest.

[Dpdwyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent readable account of the unlikely success in the building of the Erie Canal, set against a backdrop of almost fantastical religious ferment, in which the early Mormons were one of the more staid sects.

[Michelle Milnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

It had a lot more religous history than I anticipated. However I found it fascinating. Sometimes difficult to keep everything straight as there was a lot of information. However I would recommend if your interested in the history of western New York.

[Kristen Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a lot and really enjoyed it. Made me miss Upstate NY a bit and also think about what my ancestors were doing during this time, as they were in Rome, NY which was a place of action on the Erie Canal.

[Andy]

DNF. Not my cup of canal water.

[Book Worm · Rating 5 out of 5]

OUTSTANDING!!! I received the book as a gift, without ever having heard of it. I thought initially, "A history of the Erie Canal? Geez...THIS is one book will be one that I will try reading, will find boring, and will place it on the shelf after struggling through one chapter, and it will sit there for the next twenty years."

I couldn't have been more wrong. This book is a model for how serious history ought to be written for public consumption. The story is well told, well documented, and absolutely fascinating. The prose was a delight to read. The author tells the story of the planning and construction of the Erie Canal and the changes in the area that accompanied it in an engaging and approachable manner.

Some reviewers have commented on a "disjointed" or disconnected telling of multiple story lines. But that is what actually makes the book so masterful. It's true that the author presents a number of sub-stories in the text. They are served up in small increments, which is exactly how you would have experienced these events had you been living at the time. For example, take how he handles the story line of Joseph Smith and the beginnings of Mormonism. When he introduces Smith, he doesn't mention him by name--rather just noting that some young man was claiming to have supernatural experiences in Palmyra. In subsequent episodes, he gradually develops the story line, revealing more detail. This is exactly how we become aware of news items even today--as they generally unfold and enter our awareness. We often don't notice details about events at first. We gradually inform ourselves about them as they prove to be enduring as stories. Once you realize what the author is doing, the reading of the book becomes fun--almost an adventure.

Had he attempted to cover the events in a more traditional manner, with chapters focusing on the canal, Mormonism, Adventism, etc., it would have been more of a textbook and much less enthralling.

I've NEVER had the experience of "not being able to put down" a nonfiction book until this one. Simply superb! I am planning to read his other books.

Jack Kelly....keep writing!

[Judith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is serious, but also entertaining history, as Kelly is able to juggle several story strands well without getting the reader tangled up. The first strand is the Erie Canal, from the earliest idea that it would be a good thing, to the various attempts to determine its path, how it was funded and built, and finally celebrated. Another strand is the opening of western New York, which began before the canal was begun and, of course, was facilitated by its completion. Other strands are the various religious groups and various evangelists that formed the Second Great Awakening, and also the change of the Masonic Order from a secret society to an open one. Each chapter is headed by a photo contemporary with the building and use of the canal. There are maps and diagrams showing the elevation of the land.

I was puzzled though, initially, by the title and why the building of the canal should be covered in this volume with the Second Great Awakening, etc. The "Ditch" did not start nor necessarily facilitate the Awakening, the causes of which lie well outside the story of the canal. Rather, the volume is a study of the cultural background and changes of this part of early America, when all sorts of new things were developing (and sometimes coming to a comical or tragic end). So it is the period, not the Ditch itself that Kelly is engaged with. The Ditch is called "Heaven's" because the Awakening was connected with the idea of the imminent (more or less) apocalypse, whether its date was predicted or not (it was by Miller to 1843). One of the more interesting substrings in the narrative is the origin of Mormonism and of the Adventists.

[Patrick Lang]

An informative read that describes the origins and construction of the Erie Canal and the manifestations and results of the Second Great Awakening in Upstate New York. The construction of the canal is more prevalent in the book’s first half, while religious movements gradually come to dominate by the second half.

For me, the book highlights the concurrence of several 19th century developments that I was dimly aware of, but which I had never really imagined as an aspects of a single, cohesive historical period. For example, the first surveys of the canal route took place only a few years after 1812, when the people of upstate were still shaken by war. Or, the young Joseph Smith was living in Palmyra with his parents in the 1820s as canal construction was taking place there. I also hadn’t previously considered the strength of Second Great Awakening movements in upstate, or that Mormonism initially grows out of similar historical conditions as these other religious movements, or that the abolitionist movement was strongly fueled by Millerites, later known as Adventists, as they anticipated an apocalypse scheduled for 1843. The book covers these topics.

The book stops short of saying that the Eire Canal enabled these movements, though many popular orators also used it for travel. It is more concerned with evoking a sense of the era. But it does tie the canal to the initial opening of the west (first New York, later the Great Lakes region) to greater settlement and Empire.

[Kristi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The beginning was a bit a slow, but overall it kept a pretty good pace. Living in Rochester near the Erie Canal, I found this vastly interesting and informative. I very much like the narrative approach to the history. I think, however he is missing the spiritualism that was also sweeping the area caused by the Fox sisters.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating recounting of the building of the Erie Canal, it's impact on America and all the colorful characters who shaped this event and influenced the country's changing cultural dynamics during this amazing period! Thoroughly researched and highly entertaining, "Heaven's Ditch" gives a bird's eye view of what life was like along the Erie Canal and how the Second Great Revival marched alongside this incredible engineering feat. Jack Kelly did a great job providing insight into the clash of culture and religion during a tumultuous time in America's history. As the country inched closer to civil war, technological improvements and a theological revolution played a significant role in establishing the North as a commercial dynamo and tinder bed for a future abolitionist firestorm. I thoroughly enjoyed "Heaven's Ditch" and learned a lot about this incredible era, including the development of new religious sects in America and the birth of modern political parties. A good - no, a great - read and entertainingly educational!

[Keith Beasley-Topliffe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A history of the construction of the Erie Canal and its effect on the development of America with a particular emphasis on religious movements that grew along the canal. In particular, the author tells the stories of revivalist Charles Finney, Adventist William Miller, and Mormon founder Joseph Smith, Jr. These biographies go far beyond their time near the canal, as do several other bios told more briefly. These many stories are woven together episodically and chronology is often confusing. Interesting, sometimes fascinating, always fragmented. Sometimes feels like several different short books sifted together. It worked for me, but I could understand others getting frustrated with the jumble of different narratives.

[Karenbike Patterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the 1830's there was a great revivalist movement as the country moved westward starting with the Erie Canal in New York. People were breaking away from tradition in the form of the Masons, Mormons, and born agains. Revival tents were going up in cities like Rochester and many port cities along the canal. This books doesn't have a lot about the canal but it does tell the fascinating stories about the Masons and the murder of one of them who wrote a book about their secret society. The story of Joseph Smith and his followers is spellbinding. I wanted more about the canal but was satisfied with what I got instead.

[Therese · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thought I was reading a book about the building of the Erie Canal but it didn’t have much to do with it. It had different stories of mostly religious leaders of the time including Joseph Smith (with a Church today of 16 million) who he largely ridicules. This is a ruse to write an anti religious anti lds book.

[Steve Smits · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a resident of central New York who's interested in its 19th century history I found this book a great read. The author uses the construction of the Erie Canal to bring focus on the exceptional social and political movements and events in this region in the mid-century years.

The canal was one of the most significant public works projects in the nation's history and the book tells the story of its construction well. To take the history beyond the canal and its economic impact, Kelly uses the canal's path across the state to recount the explosive emergence of religious fervor and eccentric sects in upstate New York.

He chronicles the so-called Second Great Awakening led by the famed evangelist Charles Grandison Finney, whose emotion-packed revivals created the so-called "burned-over district" of central and western New York. (Finney's rise to prominence started in the local church in my small village; in his memoir he tells of converting the occupants of our present home. He went on from here to achieve national and international fame.) Finney's influence can be linked to the emergence of the temperance movement and to efforts to secure women's rights that took hold in mid-century.

William Miller drew a large following of "Millerites" who accepted his end of time predication that pegged the second coming of Christ to an exact date in 1843. Miller based this belief on arcane calculations from biblical history. His most fervent believers disposed of property or closed businesses to be ready for the apocalypse. Millerism is the forerunner of the Adventist denomination that exists to the present day.

The founding of Mormonism is told from the discovery of the golden tablets and revelations of Joseph Smith, Jr. to the exodus of the Mormons to Ohio, Missouri and Illinois where Smith was killed by an outraged mob. Kelly is careful not to criticize the tenants of Mormon theology, but in the context of the times and culture in which it arose one is drawn toward skepticism. Smith's "revelation from God" about the imperative of polygamy seems to have been based more on Smith's sexual needs than on revealed doctrine.

There is a brief description of the prophetess Jemima Wilkenson and a short history of the Shakers. He touches on the abolitionist Theodore Dwight Weld who advocated for the spread of the "Manual Labor" movement as an educational reform and was a leading light in the rise of abolitionism in the 1830's. One omission that would have been interesting is the Oneida Community in nearby Kenmore, NY. A utopian communal religious sect founded by John Humphrey Noyes, the Oneida Community is most remembered today for its practice of "free love" manifested through so-called complex marriages. The industrious Oneidas were the antecedents of the Oneida Silversmiths, a major producer of silverware for many years.

Equally fascinating is the story of the abduction and (likely) murder of William Morgan in western NY. Morgan was a former Freemason who, to make money, planned to publish a book revealing some of the Mason's secret rituals. He was kidnapped and held by unknown persons and never seen again; his body was never found. This act gave rise to vehement and widespread public opposition to Masonry resulting in the Anti-Mason political party that operated for some years on a state and national level.

Another interesting history of many of the esoteric spiritualist movements in this region during the 19th century is "Upstate Cauldron" by Joscelyn Godwin.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three main stories unfold in this book: the construction of the Erie Canal, the Second Great Awakening (a powerful religious revival) in Upstate New York; and the beginnings of the Mormon faith. While the intertwining is sometimes tenuous, each story is strong enough to withstand the patience required to shift from one to another.

Kelly succeeds better than any other author I’ve read in demonstrating the Erie Canal’s importance as a communication channel. Ideas and teachings that might have had no more than a local, short-lived impact in a pre-canal era spread throughout the growing United States thanks to the ability to travel quickly and easily. Those ideas include the pro-abolition movement and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormon church’s preferred name).

The religious revival of the early 1800s was “a prolonged spasm of enthusiasm and devotion far more intense than the First [in the early 1700s]…it would leave a permanent stamp on American Christianity.” Kelly introduces many of the influential preachers of the day through their conversion experiences and their evolving faith and principles (pro-abolition among them).

Joseph Smith, founder of today’s Mormon faith, is the third story line. Kelly approaches both Smith and the evolution of the early Mormon faith with respect. One resulting takeaway is how a religious sect can grow; it can be a disturbing read for a person of any faith as Kelly shows how an unlikely story, told by a convincing and perhaps convinced leader, can take root among rational people of reliable judgment.

I’d read other books by Kelly based on the extensive research and the strong writing. This is a must-read for a ground-level view of the history of Upstate New York.

[Lauriann · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the second book this month that I can't bring myself to finish. And so I apologetically give my review after only progressing through the first quarter. Too many other books on my list to spend time plodding through one that is disappointing me. I had high hopes for Heaven's Ditch because my husband and I have been cycling different parts of the Erie Canal bike trail and have been quite taken with the historical stops along the way. In fairness, Jack Kelly has given us some history of the canal, just not enough. We learn the story behind the people who brought the Erie Canal into being. We are treated to an obstacle to construction here and there. But there has been FAR more about the history of revivalist, evangelist religions than history of the Erie Canal. We learn about the Shakers, the beginnings of Mormonism, and about many smaller breakaway sects. Seems the whole state of New York was a-swoon under the revival tents. Which may have been true of that era, in which case, this is an decent historical account of that time. But I found myself skipping through many pages to get back to any morsel on the Erie Canal history. Another aspect of history that played heavily into this book was the Freemason Movement. In fact, a movement that has always confused me was summed up quite nicely in this book, in an understandable way. But again, it diverged from what I thought I would be reading and consumed too much of the book. I do like to have a meaty non-fiction to read alongside whatever fiction I am reading, but this book is going to be put down for another one I have started, one far better written, "The Boys in the Boat."

[Kathryn · Rating 2 out of 5]

picked up this book thinking I would learn a bit more about the economic, political and social circumstances surrounding the construction of the Erie Canal. Sadly, despite its title, the the actual canal takes a far back seat to Kelly's popular history of the mid nineteenth century religious movement known as the "Great Awakening," which transformed western New York into a fervid hotbed of fire and brimstone, complete with charismatic preachers, tent revivals, and most significantly, the genesis of a new American religion- the Church of the Latter Day Saints. A good 50% of the book is devoted to chronicling Joseph Smith's revelations and the early years of Mormonism, along with a disjointed smattering of profiles of other religious leaders such Charles Finny and Lyman Beecher. Kelly seems to hint that the rise of these movements is linked to the economic boon the canal's construction provided to the provincial communities of western New York, facilitating the movement of goods as well as ideas. The murder of a young outspoken opponent of Freemasonry that is referenced in the title is also woven through the narrative in terms of the effect it had on public perception of the Freemasons as a godless and increasingly "un-American" organization.

I slogged through this book. While its premise was interesting, I found the execution miserable. Kelly is very much trying to pull off an Erik Larsen type endeavor, where complex social history is conveyed through the exposition of seemingly unrelated events (e.g., a serial killer at large during the Chicago World's Fair), however the resultant narrative is a disjointed hot mess. The founding of the Mormon Church is a subject of much more sophisticated treatment (Stegner's work is still a classic), and Kelly's history adds nothing to our understanding of Smith and the Church's early years. And the rest of it is just esoterica, awkwardly woven together with brief reminders that a major feat of American engineering is occurring in close proximity.

[Gretchen Fatouros · Rating 2 out of 5]

That was painful! Lots of neat information, but the author was trying to cover too many topics. Kept switching from one to another without any warning. A few times information was thrown in where it seemed like the author wanted to tell you everything he knew what didn’t know where to put it or maybe he just randomly had a new thought that ended up on the page.

I bought this in November 2017 as a secret Santa gift. The idea was to find things from your state. I live within a few miles do the Erie Canal, so I knew I needed a book. Nothing seemed to be exactly what I wanted. I also found the title strange as the Erie Canal has been called Clinton’s ditch. I bought 2 copies. Luckily, the person who got it said she and her husband enjoyed it.

It was just too hard to read for me. The author was all over the place. As soon as you got into one narrative, he would change to another topic.

After sitting around for over 2 years, partly read, I knew I needed to get through it so it can be donated.

It did have very interesting information I didn’t know & being in Rochester, NY, a lot centered around this area.

Things covered included the idea of the canal through the process & 2 expansions. 3 religious revivals including the creation of Mormons though to just before the move to Utah. Charles Finney, Millerism...

Neat information, but just too much in one book, too much jumping around even in time. I am a very chronological person so this didn’t help at all.