John B. Jervis started on the canal as an axeman and ended up an engineering giant
Jervis was hired at 22 to clear brush for the Erie Canal survey near Rome. He went on to build railroads and the Croton Aqueduct, then retired to Rome.
By Priya Nadler
In October 1817, Benjamin Wright, chief engineer of the Erie Canal, hired a 22-year-old named John B. Jervis as an axeman on a survey party working west of Rome. The next spring Jervis was promoted to rodman, and by July 10, 1818, the canal route from Rome to Montezuma was set.
Jervis became America’s leading consulting engineer of the years before the Civil War. He designed and supervised five of the country’s earliest railroads and was chief engineer on three major canal projects. In 1831, for the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad, he designed the DeWitt Clinton steam locomotive. A year later he designed the first locomotive with a swiveling four-wheel front truck.
His best-known work is the 41-mile Croton Aqueduct, New York City’s water supply from 1842 to 1891. He also consulted on Boston’s water system.
Jervis retired in 1864 to his home in Rome and kept working. In 1869 he helped form the Merchants Iron Mill, known today as the Rome Iron Mill. When he died, he left his homestead to the city of Rome for a public library. The Jervis Public Library holds his personal book collection.