 Unfortunately for Hawley, the Western Company halted progress on continued improvements to the rivers after Schuyler's death in 1804.Struggling to receive shipments and make deliveries over the wretched roadways of the era, Hawley imagined the canal as early as 1805.Eventually, in 1807, Hawley's difficulties in securing reasonably priced transportation drove him in 1806 to debtors' prison for twenty months.