The early history of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company is linked with that of the Wurts family. Three Wurts brothers -- Maurice, William and John -- were instrumental in the formation of the company.

Maurice Wurts (1783-1854) was born in Flanders, New Jersey as were all of his siblings. At age eighteen he moved to Philadelphia and went into the dry goods business. His brother William (1788-1858) went into partnership with Maurice in Philadelphia in the dry goods shop around 1810.

Because the War of 1812 halted the importation of bituminous coal from England, there was a shortage of fuel for manufacturing in the United States. Aware of this shortage, William and Maurice Wurts decided to find an alternative fuel for bituminous coal. Around 1814, William discovered anthracite coal in the Carbondale area and the brothers purchased property there. They mined some anthracite in 1816, but had problems selling it as it was not widely used at that time. In 1822, they went to Carbondale and built a loghouse for themselves and opened a mine. In late 1822, the Wurtses mined approximately 1,000 tons of anthracite. In the winter some of the coal was transported to Philadelphia, but it was difficult and expensive to transport the anthracite there. The small quantities of coal were taken by sled to Lackawaxen where it was put on rafts and floated down the Lackawaxen and Delaware Rivers to Philadelphia. In the 1820s, most of Philadelphia's coal came from the Lehigh area, so the Wurtses turned their attention to a different market: New York. This led in turn to the creation of the Delaware and Hudson Canal as a means of transporting the coal. The Wurtses' dry goods business financed the coal business and enabled the purchase of coal lands.

The Delaware & Hudson Canal Company's original object was to mine anthracite coal and transport it to New York City and New York State. The Wurts brothers in 1823 engaged Benjamin Wright, chief engineer for the construction of the Erie Canal, to survey from the Hudson River to as near the coal mines at Carbondale as possible. The Wurtses circulated copies of their own map showing their coal deposits in early 1823 in an attempt to find sources of money in New York City to build the canal because they could not afford to do it themselves.

One of the first steps in the construction of the canal was to get the support of the Pennsylvania and New York state legislatures. The Pennsylvania legislature passed an act in March 1823 authorizing Maurice Wurts and others to canalize the Lackawaxen River for descending navigation. John Wurts (1792-1861), the youngest of the Wurts brothers, was a member of the Pennsylvania legislature at this time and was instrumental in the passage of the legislation. The Delaware & Hudson Canal Company was incorporated on April 23, 1823 by an act of the New York legislature empowering the company to open water communication between the Delaware and Hudson Rivers and conferring the right to purchase coal lands and transport coal. The Wurtses had been aided by such influential men as former New York governor DeWitt Clinton who had written letters expressing support for the canal.

In late 1824 the Wurts brothers formed the Lackawaxen Coal Mine and Navigation Company to handle their coal mining in the Lackawaxen area. In December the first Lackawaxen coal arrived in New York City via ship from Philadelphia. By January 1825, subscriptions for the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company stock opened and the stock was oversubscribed. The first board of managers was elected in March 1825 consisting of thirteen prominent men, mostly from the New York City area, with Philip Hone as president, and the company opened an office on Wall Street in New York City. In April the Pennsylvania legislature passed an act allowing the company to succeed to the rights of Maurice Wurts for improving the navigation of the Lackawaxen River and its branches. This act enabled the company to have full control of both the canal and mining operations. Benjamin Wright submitted a report to the board of managers in June recommending a route for the canal and proposing the construction of a railroad to link the mines and the canal because the Moosic Mountain lay between the mines and the headwater of the Lackawaxen River. Also in June the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company's bank opened for business and Maurice Wurts was appointed the company's agent to contract for the canal construction.

The Wurtses' vested interests in the Lackawaxen Coal Mine and Navigation Company were purchased by the board of managers of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company in July 1825; the Wurtses received cash and Delaware & Hudson Canal Company stock. Also that month, the first contracts were let for canal construction and ground was broken at Mamakating, Sullivan County, New York. By early summer 1827 part of the canal was navigable and ready for use and it began to function by April 1828. In October, the first boats to navigate the entire length of the canal carried coal. Upon completion of the canal, Maurice Wurts was appointed agent of the company at Rondout, New York. The canal's route began at Kingston, New York on the Hudson River and extended southwest through Ulster, Sullivan and Orange Counties to the mouth of the Lackawaxen River in Pike County, Pennsylvania and up the Lackawaxen to the junction of Dyberry and the west branch of the Lackawaxen at Honesdale in Wayne County.

Benjamin Wright, who had been appointed as chief engineer for the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company in 1825, resigned in March 1827 and was succeeded by assistant engineer John B. Jervis. Jervis surveyed and located a railroad route from the end of the canal at Honesdale to the coal mines at Carbondale. He made a report about the railroad to the board of managers in October that recommended double-rail for the railroad, the use of inclined planes and chains to haul cars up the inclined planes. He suggested employing steam locomotives on level distances between the planes. In January 1828 the board of managers sent Horatio Allen, an engineer under Jervis during the canal construction, to England to purchase railroad iron and have four locomotives built. The Stourbridge Lion was the first locomotive taken on the historic three-mile trial run on the railroad on August 8, 1829 by Allen. It was the first locomotive to be operated in the United States.

The Delaware & Hudson Canal Company coal sales were successful. The company delivered coal in New York City and adjacent locations at slightly lower prices than its rivals and began selling coal in Boston and Providence in 1830. There was a change of management in 1831 when the president of the board of managers, John Bolton (who had succeeded Philip Hone in 1826), resigned. John Wurts was elected his successor and held the position until 1858. He was an attorney and had served in the United States Congress from 1825-1827. Wurts assumed the position of president when the company was in much debt and immediately instituted successful cost-cutting measures.

From 1842 through 1850 the canal was enlarged, the railroad was extended, and the supply of mineable coal was increased. R. F. Lord, employed by the company since 1826, was the chief engineer for the canal. When the enlargement was completed, the canal's annual capacity was five times that of 1842. James Archbald, with the company since the mid 1820s, was chief engineer for the railroad and mines. Improvements were made from 1841 through 1848 and the railroad was extended seven miles south. Archbald also surveyed and purchased additional coal lands for the company in the 1850s. William Musgrave (a member of the firm Wurts, Musgrave and Wurts in Philadelphia) was appointed vice president of the company in July 1850 due to John Wurts's declining health. Wurts then spent much time traveling abroad and away from business and finally resigned as president in 1858. George Talbot Olyphant, one of the company's board of managers, was elected president in 1858 to succeed Wurts. The railroad was again enlarged from 1856 to 1858 to help meet the demand for anthracite coal; because of this demand the company prospered during the Civil War.

In 1864 there was a major staff reorganization at the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company. R. F. Lord resigned his position as chief engineer of the canal and was appointed consulting engineer. Charles Pemberton Wurts, previously superintendent of the railroad department, was named chief engineer and Colonel F. Young was appointed superintendent of the canal. Thomas Dickson, formerly superintendent of the coal department, was named to head the newly created office of general superintendent. An executive committee was created in 1865 that consisted of the president and four appointed members of the board of managers to meet at least once a week.

In the years immediately following the Civil War, the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company acquired additional coal lands and in 1868 again commenced railroad expansion. By 1870 there were no longer any men from the company's early years to link the company's past with its future. The company railroad continued to expand and coal was primarily transported by rail. In the years prior to turn of the century the company made additional changes to break with its past. The final boat carried the company's anthracite coal on the canal in November 1898 and in February 1899 the canal was formally abandoned and the name of the company officially changed from "The President, Managers and Company of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company" to "The Delaware and Hudson Company."