I came across something interesting while I was tracking Sydney Borden Scott through the catalogues of Atlanta Baptist College. In addition to providing all sorts of basic information about the school and current students, the catalogues also list what all of their alumni are up to during the year being discussed. And when the catalogue for the 1904-1905 school year was published, here’s what they had to say about Borden:
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| Catalogue of Atlanta Baptist College, 1897/98 - 1911/12. (1904-1905, p. 30). Found on HathiTrust: https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uiug.30112004585920 |
Yes: Scott, Sidney B. - Isthmian Canal Commission – Cristobal, Panama.
Huh. Isthmian Canal refers to the canal that the United States worked to build across the Isthmus of Panama, connecting the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific to make maritime trade easier for American interests. The United States wasn’t the first nation to try this effort – in fact, they purchased the project, equipment and all, from the French after a disastrous try on their part that resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and accusations of financial fraud and mismanagement. But the U.S. was the nation to complete it (with a lot of international help!), involving itself in the independence movement of the Panamanians from Colombia, working from 1904 to 1914, and establishing two different commissions to do it.
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Laborers at work on the Panama Canal at the Culebra Cut. , ca. 1904. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2003677394/. |
The first Isthmian Canal Commission was established in 1899, with the goal of deciding where in Central America a canal might best be located. (Nicaragua was also on the list.) The second was established in February of 1904, while Borden was still Principal of East Athens School in Georgia. Its goal was to actually oversee the canal’s construction, now that a location had been confirmed. It was under this commission that Borden seemingly worked, per the Atlanta Baptist College catalogue.
I found a second reference to Borden working on something related to the Panama Canal, actually while I was researching his time at the East Athens School. In an oral history recorded in 1939, the principal of the East Athens School who was elected after Borden left, Mary Wright Hill, remembered:
“I filled the vacancy of the principal, who accepted a position in Panama for $100, and he only made $40 here.”
While she doesn’t mention Borden by name, the timing and the records line up.
So, what did Borden do for the Isthmian Canal Commission? I don’t know. No idea! And it’s surely going to be a research journey to find out, requiring trips to the National Archives in College Park, Maryland when it’s safe to do so, they’re open again, and I have the time to for travel and focused research.
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| Detroit Publishing Co. Steam shovels, Panama Canal. Panama: Panama Canal. [Between 1905 and 1914] https://www.loc.gov/item/2016796141/. |
So consider this Mystery Monday post as my opportunity to publicly stick a pin in this research, knowing that I’ll come back to it when I can. In the meantime, I’ll keep digging into Borden’s - and all the Scott siblings’ – many other fascinating stories. Stay tuned!
And if you dig stories about public works and labor projects, check out these two posts on my grandfather, Louis Allen Shepherd's, work with the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1940s, here and here.
Do you know anything about Borden's time with the Isthmian Canal Commission? Leave a message in the comments!
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A Note on Sources
The quote from Mary Wright Hill comes from one of the American Life Histories of the WPA Federal Writers Project:
Hill, Mary Wright, and ? B Hornsby. Principal of Grammar School. Georgia, 1939. Manuscript/Mixed Material. https://www.loc.gov/item/wpalh000509/.
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