Today, only small-boat antiquarians recognize the names Nelson and Edward Bowdish, and only a handful of these have actually seen a boat or canoe bearing the Bowdish nameplate. Prior to the advent of the wood-and-canvas canoe, however, these Skaneateles, New York, builders were renowned as builders of some of the most admired craft of their day. For a time, they eclipsed even the redoubtable Rushton, their great competitor to the north. If time has dealtless kindly with the Bowdishes than with Rushton, it is not because they were not his equals as craftsmen. Instead, their current obscurity stems partly from the ambitions and nterests of the Bowdishes themselves, partly from the economics of the 1890s, and partly from the failure of Skaneateles residents to recognize the Bowdishes’importance in the history of small boats.

This last has resulted in gaping holes in the story of the Bowdishes and their operation. Fortunately, however, local interest in the Bowdishes is growing, making it likely that the more obvious gaps will be filled in. In the meantime, it is possible to draw a tantalizing sketch of two remarkably talented men and of the canoes they built.

     The chronology of Nelson Bowdish’s movements before he arrived in Skaneateles, in 1876, is obscure. Born in 1831 in a village near Cooperstown, the New Yorker appears to have resided for a time in nearby Richfield Springs. He probably had training as an artist, but the nature of the training is unknown. Before or immediately after the Civil War, in which he served as an officer with his local regiment, he began building organs. In the early 1870s, he appears to have spent some time in Clayton, supporting himself as an artist, organ builder, and photographer. During his stay in Clayton, he was undoubtedly exposed to the area’s considerable boat-building activity. Quite probably, he saw boat building as a satisfying way to combine his woodworking and artistic skills, and allied himself with a Clayton builder.

      Where or how he picked up his knowledge of boat building may be unclear, but one fact is indisputable: He arrived in Skaneateles fully equipped in tools and knowledge to begin building boats. In addition, he arrived with a fully developed business sense, for Skaneateles was an excellent spot for a shop. A dozen miles from the city of Syracuse, the village was located on one of New York’s eastern Finger Lakes. This meant that Bowdish had a sizable potential market. It also meant he was centrally located in an area bounded on the north by Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River, on the east by the Hudson, and on the south by the Delaware. With the heart of he Adirondack region only an hour or two away by rail, he was able to compete directly with builders in that area, including Rushton.

      No catalogs or advertisements have surfaced to reveal what kind of boats Bowdish and his 20-year-old son, Edward, built under the name Bowdish and Son, beginning in 1876. But considering the large bodies of water in central New York, they probably concentrated in their early years on rowing and sailing craft similar to those Nelson had seen along the St.Lawrence. Whatever they were building, they evidently did a good job at it, for Bowdish and Son became Bowdish and Company in the early 1880s.

     Building mainly for the local market then, the Bowdishes probably saw little potential in making general-purpose cruising canoes. Large bodies of water—and the Finger Lakes are extremely large lakes—have never been too attractive to paddlers. As the popularity of decked sailing canoes swelled, however, the Bowdishes could not have failed to perceive both the local and long-distance sales potential of these “miniature yachts.

 

    By the late 1880s, the Bowdishes had developed sailing canoes so finely tuned that Paul Butler, the Massachusetts munitions manufacturer and innovator in canoe rigging, forsook his Rushton for a Bowdish “If” in the 1888 Barney Cup race, finishing second to another canoe of the same model sailed by Morton Brokaw. The following year, If also won the Gardner Challenge Cup in the Western Canoe Association meet. “Jabberwock,” another popular Bowdish model, won the Longworth Cup in the WCA’s meet on Lake Erie in 1890. Although old periodicals devoted to canoeing frequently neglect to mention builders’ names, it is safe to assert that Bowdish canoes dominated the racing world from 1888 until the demise of the fad, in the second half of the 1890s.

      Coincidental with—or because of—their success with canoes, the Bowdishes decided to expand and diversify their business. In 1888, stock was issued, and the company’s name changed to Bowdish Manufacturing Company. Nelson Bowdish was superintendent of construction in the new company; Edward occupied a seat on the board of directors. The firm’s president, Lucien Moses, announced the company not only planned to expand its line of small boats but also ntended to build steam launches. Even more surprising, the company also planned to begin fabricating marine and stationary steam engines and the castings necessary for the fittings on its boats. Bowdish Manufacturing was far removed from the two-man shop Nelson and Edward Bowdish had established 13 years before.

      All this expansion necessitated new quarters. Accordingly, the company erected a two story wooden building on the north side of the village. Heated by steam and lighted by electricity provided by the municipal dam, the new factory was a source of local pride. More importantly, the company employed upwards of 35 men, making its weekly payroll of $400 a significant factor in the village economy.

     Although expansion-minded, the directors of Bowdish Manufacturing realized that small boats were the mainstay of the company. As a result, the firm hired A. L. Bain of Clayton to supervise the building of St. Lawrence skiffs. Bain had a considerable reputation in the Clayton area, and it is conceivable Nelson Bowdish knew him from his Clayton days. The Bowdishes had been building skiffs for many years, so Bain’s boats were somewhat redundant, but the company’s directors may have felt Bain’s reputation would attract additional customers.

      At about the same time, the firm hired James Ruth, from Peterborough, Ontario, to oversee the construction of “Canadian” canoes. The Bowdishes, of course, were already building open canoes as well as decked models, but the addition of the rib-and-batten basswood canoes to the company’s lines allowed the firm to offer an inexpensive canoe for casual recreational use. (Ruth may have been the first to use the rib-and-batten system commercially in the United States.)

      The sole surviving Bowdish catalog, dated 1891, gives an excellent picture of the company’s offerings. Containing 70-odd pages and many excellent line drawings—done, perhaps, by one or both of the Bowdishes—the catalog reveals that Bowdish Manufacturing was building three types of canoes in the late 1880s and early 1890s: decked sailing canoes for cruising and racing, open cedar paddling canoes, and Canadian basswood canoes.

      The sailing canoes were available in eight models—Nomad, Jabberwock, Oakland, If, Nilo, Corinne, Thistledown, and Guenn—but only If and Corinne were kept in stock; the remaining models were built on order. As luck would have it, the only missing pages from the catalog are smack in the middle of the sailing-canoe section. As a result, specifications for several of the models are incomplete. At 18 feet long, 48 inches wide, and 18 inches deep, Nomad weighed 150 pounds even without its rigging and sailing hardware. The smallest canoe was Thistledown, only 14 feet 3 inches long.

      Without rigging, the cost of these sailing canoes ranged from $100 for Thistledown to $175 for Nomad. The sailrigs, steering gear, centerboards, and other hardware added between $60 and $100 to the price of the hull. (The average paycheck for a Bowdish employee amounted to $4 per week.) The purchaser had the delightful task of contemplating a lengthy list of options. For example, one had to choose from three models of the Radix Folding Centreboard. Rudders were available in mahogany, maple, birch, or nickel-plated brass. Steering gear consisted either of an elaborate brass chain-and-sprocket arrangement or an even more elaborate system of foot controls. Other options were sliding deck-seats of mahogany or oak, lazy backs, mahogany cleat boards, and Potter Rowlocks—“self-fastening and never fall out.”

      The sailing canoes were built in one grade only. Stems were natural crook hackmatack; ribs, red elm or oak; gunwales, coamings, beads, and deck battens, quartered oak or maple. Deck frames were cedar, elm, or ash. Planking was “perfect white cedar.” Fastenings were copper or brass; mast tubes and air compartments were copper; and the remaining hardware was either polished or nickel-plated brass. Floorboards were select pine. Decks and dry-stowage lids were mahogany. The finish was in “the best oil and varnish throughout,” except for the stowage compartments, which were painted.

      The ribbing of these sailing canoes was most unusual. Instead of running from gunwale to gunwale, the ribs were inserted in two pieces. The bottom end of each rib was fastened to the keel with a brass hold-down. The reason for this unorthodox system is difficult to discern. Rib replacement would, of course, be facilitated, but the Bowdishes may have had a theory about expansion and contraction of the hull, which the halved ribs were to have remedied.

       There were five paddling-canoe models: Sagamore, Waiontha, Owahgena, Nenemoosha, and Pappoose. The largest, Sagamore, was a 17-footer with a 39-inch beam and a weight of 80 pounds. A slim 26 inches wide, with a weight of only 40 pounds, 13-foot Pappoose was the smallest canoe in the line. Prices on these canoes began at $45 for Pappoose and soared to $60 for Sagamore. In common with the sailing canoes, the paddling canoes were built in one grade only. Decks and thwarts were cherry, but for a 10% advance on the list price, the canoes could be fitted with mahogany decks and thwarts, and nickel-plated stem bands, painter rings, and thwart plates. Floorboards were basswood; planking was selected white cedar. The paddling canoes had minimal sheer, but, with their long cherry decks contrasting nicely with the cedar hulls, they must have been striking. As with other pre-twentieth-century canoes, the Bowdish paddling canoes were not equipped with seats. The paddler either knelt against one of the thwarts or sat on a cushion or paddling seat placed in the bottom of the canoe.

      The four Canadian models built by James Ruth were economy canoes. The term “Canadian” denoted (for Bowdish, at least) a construction system rather than a design. The hull was formed of six basswood planks with battens placed over the seams and between the ribs. The battens, although wrapped in oiled packings, were excellent moisture traps and probably fostered rot in the vulnerable basswood planking. But because the canoes were intended to have short lives, this feature was not considered a drawback, either by the customer or the company.

       The Canadian models were available either painted or varnished. Varnished, the prices ranged from $30 for 13-foot Suggema to $45 for 17-foot Ahmeek. Painted, the canoes cost about $3 less. Maple paddles were included. Judging from the illustrations in the catalog, the Canadian models had slightly more sheer than the regular Bowdish paddling canoes, but both styles had decks about 30 inches long. Although basswood planking was run-of-the-mill at the time, the curious thing about the Canadian models is that the rest of the woodwork seems lavish. Decks and thwarts were elm, butternut, or maple; deck coamings were oak, elm, or maple; gunwales were oak or maple; and the floorboards were basswood. Unless painted, the canoes were finished with oil, shellac, and “Spar Composition” varnish. If the customer wished, the canoes could be built with butternut, white cedar, or Spanish-cedar planking, and with cherry or mahogany decks, presumably at no extra cost.

        The placement of the Canadian canoes well apart from the paddling canoes in the catalog suggests the company wanted a clear distinction between the two lines of open canoes. Although assuring readers that rib-and-batten canoes are “cheap and serviceable” and “superior to the best lapstreak (clinker) canoes in every respect,” the catalog goes on to assert that, compared with canoes built by the “Bowdish system,” the Canadian canoes “have nothing to recommend them excepting their low price.”

       The “Bowdish system” is the most remarkable feature of Bowdish sailing and paddling canoes built after 1885. The system was patented and is the most easily identifiable characteristic of a true Bowdish hull. The Bowdishes were proud of the system, explaining it at length in the 1891 catalog:
 

                 For a long time it was our study and aim to invent some system of construction whereby a smooth boat could be built with close seams not requiring calking, perfectly tight, and in other respects superior to old methods. In our compressed expansive seam  we have realized more than our expectations; we have submitted it to the most severe    trials, and it has in no case disappointed us in any particular.
                 This seam makes a much more beautiful and complete boat than any other, as the  planks are narrow and give the beautifully rounded and curved lines and surfaces so desirable in a boat ....
                 The compressed expansive seam is made as follows: In each edge of each plank a groove is cut, and in these grooves are placed strips of cedar, compressed in such a manner that they will expand edgewise as soon as any moisture reaches them. ... We presume that many think that because moisture expands the filler the seam must retain moisture; but this is not so. We have also found that oil does not impair the expanding qualities of the filler; therefore use it freely in the seams. Besides, as the planking is  narrow and thoroughly seasoned, and great care is taken in putting it together, water  seldom reaches the filler, but when it does, the filler has a capacity to expand more than  enough to compensate for any possible shrinkage .... We have yet to hear of a boat built   by this method that has leaked through the seams.

Because the planks of a Bowdish hull were tied together with the red-cedar strips, the only fasteners needed were those holding the planks to the ribs. The smaller number of nails and the absence of seam filler make a Bowdish hull easily distinguishable from one built by any other builder of the time.

        Although the Bowdishes claimed that boats using their seam had “stood the test of constant use in nearly all climates,” the liability of the system lay in the difficulty of making repairs. Perhaps in anticipation of this criticism, the catalog assures prospective buyers that a boat built with the seam “can be very easily and cheaply repaired by any good workman.” (If repairing a Bowdish hull was a measure of a “good” workman, we can only wonder at the degree of skill possessed by a “superior” one.)

      Though the number and variety of the products produced by Bowdish Manufacturing were growing, we can only speculate about what was happening in the board room of the company at the very time the 1891 catalog was in preparation. In the spring of 1891, Edward Bowdish placed ads in various boating publications, announcing that he had “severed all connection” with Bowdish Manufacturing and had established his own boat shop in Skaneateles. His use of the verb “severed” suggests relations had become less than cordial. At 34 and with a family to support, Edward’s departure could only have resulted from a situation he considered intolerable. Presumably, Nelson Bowdish left the company at the same time. At the age of 55 and financially secure, he may have wanted to devote the remainder of his life to his first love—painting.

     Whatever the reasons for the departure of the Bowdishes, the company managed nicely without them for a few years. But with its aggressive expansion, the company had to keep large inventories of both materials and finished products on hand. Moreover, its production of castings and engines required the securing of large loans. Consequently, the company was in a precarious position to withstand the unexpected depression of 1893. When orders began slowing, the economic situation was dismaying, but when orders stopped altogether, early in the summer of 1893, the company was in serious trouble. Unable to meet its financial obligations, it declared bankruptcy. A sheriff’s auction was arranged, but the Bank of Skaneateles, aware of the company’s importance in the village economy, relented at the last moment and reached an “amicable settlement” with the company’s directors.

The shop  reopened and production  resumed, but  with a considerably diminished work  force and a more modest product line  composed entirely of boats. Bowdish  Manufacturing was not, of course, the only boat builder to be caught in the Panic of 1893. Rushton nearly went under at the same time. He, too, was saved by his local bank, and for the same reason.

     Quite possibly, Edward Bowdish suffered in the same depression, for in 1893 he sold his business to James Ruth, the Canadian canoe man, and George Smith, a Clayton native who had built on his own in Skaneateles for a time and then had worked for Bowdish. Deciding to engage in a field less susceptible to economic breezes than boat building, Edward went to work for Otis Elevator Company as a commercial artist. He lived in Yonkers until his retirement, then  returned to Skaneateles, where he died, in 1938, at the age of 84.

      In his ill-fated venture as a custom designer and builder, Edward Bowdish undoubtedly lost whatever settlement he obtained from Bowdish Manufacturing. Nelson, on the other hand, seems to have remained financially stable. He devoted himself entirely to painting. His Hudson River School style evidently appealed to art lovers, for many of his paintings—some with Bowdish boats in their foregrounds—can be found all over central New York. Today, Bowdish scenes still sell. Reports of paintings going for $300 are not uncommon. When he died, at 85, in 1916, his obituaries noted only in passing that he had been a boat builder.

       Bowdish Manufacturing struggled on through the 1890s, but when fire struck the wooden factory, in 1899, destroying most of the building, machinery, patterns, and inventory, the bank-appointed directors decided the business was not worth salvaging. The Bowdish legacy, however, lived on in Skaneateles for another half century. Smith and Ruth, the partners who had purchased Edward’s shop in 1893, formed Skaneateles Boat and Canoe Company, and prospered for many years. When first fire and then the Depression hit in 1930, Smith sold the business to John and George Barnes. (Ruth had sold his interest to Smith years earlier; he died in the 1930 fire.) Smith remained with the reorganized concern (renamed Skaneateles Boat Company) as superintendent of construction until his death, in the late 1930s. Skaneateles Boat remained in production until the mid 1950s.

      One wonders if Edward Bowdish ever spent an idle hour talking shop at Skaneateles Boat. If so, he may have been cognizant of the link between the “miniature yachts” he and his father once built and the boat the Barnes brothers were getting ready to produce in the year of his death—the famous Lightning sailboat.

       It is impossible to determine how many Bowdish canoes have survived. Production records for Bowdish and Son, Bowdish and Company, and Bowdish Manufacturing were destroyed years ago, but an item in a local newspaper in 1890 states that Bowdish Manufacturing had about 400 boats and canoes and several steam launches ready for the summer trade. This suggests a fair number of canoes may still be found. The basswood canoes were intended for short lives, but the canoes built of cedar are probably awaiting discovery.

      To date, three sailing canoes have surfaced. One, a Thistledown owned by John Barnes of Marcellus, New York, was purchased by a member of the Barnes family in the early 1890s. The canoe has been in use for its entire life. A second. the Amie, a 15 foot 9 inch canoe originally owned by the Willetts family of Skaneateles, is presently owned by WCHA-member Phil Sharples of Arizona. Sharples uses the canoe at his summer home in Canada and displays her regularly at antique boat shows. As this article was being finished, WCHA-member Doug Fowler, sailmaker and intrepid old-canoe hunter, located a third canoe at a private club in the Adirondacks.

      Because of the success of Bowdish canoes in Midwestern racing circles, some might be located in the Cincinnati and Chicago areas. The Finger Lakes region of central New York has seen much property turnover in the past 50 years; nevertheless, it is only reasonable to suppose that several Bowdish craft are lying half-forgotten in barns, old boathouses, and under summer-house porches. The Adirondacks, of course, remain fertile ground, particularly because searchers have concentrated on Rushtons. If these areas seem overhunted, consider that Bowdish Manufacturing shipped boats to Africa, India, Brazil, Mexico, California, Florida, and Colorado. They’re out there. Just look for that compressed expansive seam.

John McGreivey sells and restores canoes at his shop in Cato, New York. He has additional specifications for  various Bowdish canoes, so readers who have or suspect they may have a Bowdish can write to him for further information at McGreivey’s Canoe Shop, R.D.2, Box 139, Cato. NY 13033.

This article was originally published in Issue 6 (Spring 1981) of Wooden Canoe, the journal of the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association. It appears here with permission of the WCHA and the author. It may not be reproduced without permission. Contact the editor: editor@wcha.org for more information. To learn more about the WCHA, visit www.wcha.org. ©2006, The Wooden Canoe Heritage Association.