At their first meeting the proprietors intrusted the management of the corporation to a board of thirteen members, who were to choose a president and vice-presidents from their own number, the entire board subject to annual election.  Boston capitalists subscribed freely, and Russell, Gore, Barrell, Craigie, and Brooks appear among the earliest directors.  This board organized on the 11th of October by the choice of James Sullivan as president, and Col.  Baldwin and John Brooks (afterwards Gov.  Brooks) as vice-presidents.  The first step was to make the necessary surveys between the Charlestown basin and the Merrimac at Chelmsford; but the science of engineering was in its infancy, and it was difficult to find a competent person to undertake the task.  At length Samuel Thompson, of Woburn, was engaged to make a preliminary survey; but the directors, not wholly satisfied with his report, afterwards secured the services of Samuel Weston, an eminent English engineer, then employed in Pennsylvania on the Potomac canals.  His report, made Aug. 2, 1794, was favorable; and it is interesting to compare his figures with those of Mr. Thompson.  As calculated by Thompson, the ascent from Medford bridge to the Concord river, at Billerica, was found to be 68-1/2 ft.; the actual difference in level, as found by Weston, was 104 ft.  By Thompson’s survey there was a further ascent of 16-1/2 ft. to the Merrimac; when, in fact, the water at Billerica bridge is almost 25 ft. above the Merrimac at Chelmsford.

Col.  Baldwin, who superintended the construction of the canal, removed the first turf, Sept. 10, 1794.  The progress was slow and attended with many embarrassments.  The purchase of land from more than one hundred proprietors demanded skilful diplomacy.  Most of the lands used for the canal were acquired by voluntary sale, and conveyed in fee-simple to the corporation.  Sixteen lots were taken under authority of the Court of Sessions; while for thirteen neither deed nor record could be found when the corporation came to an end.  Some of the land was never paid for, as the owner refused to accept the sum awarded.  The compensation ranged from about $150 an acre in Medford to $25 in Billerica.  The numerous conveyances are all in Sullivan’s handwriting.

Labor was not easily procured, probably from the scarcity of laborers, as the wages paid, $10 a month and board, were presumably as much as could be earned in manual labor elsewhere.  “An order was sent to England for a levelling instrument made by S. & W. Jones, of London, and this was the only instrument used for engineering purposes after the first survey by Weston.”  Two routes were considered; the rejected route was forty years later selected for the Lowell Railroad.  The canal, 30 ft. wide, 4 ft. deep, with 20 locks, 7 aqueducts, and crossed by 50 bridges, was, in 1802, sufficiently completed for the admission of water, and the following year was opened to public navigation from the Merrimac to the Charles.  Its cost, about