"LI B R.AR.Y OF the: U N I VERS ITY or ILLl NOIS tlUI^OIS LIBl(Ai!y i~ I fi Z7 - A History of Transportation in the Ohio Valley A History of Transportation in the Ohio Valley with special reference to its waterways, trade, and commerce from the earliest period to the present time by CHARLES HENRY AMBLER Professor of History, West Virginia University The Arthur H. Clark Company Glendale, California, U.S.A. 1932 copyright, 193i, by The Arthur H. Clark Company All rights reserved including the right to reproduce this volume or parts thereof in any form Contents Preface 13 The Ohio River 17 The Boatmen AXD THEIR Craft 31 The Boatmen as Nation Builders .... 59 Shipbuilding on the Inland Waters . . . . 81 The First Steamboats west of the Alleghanies . . 107 The Day of Canals AND Turnpikes . . . . 133 The Heyday of the Passenger Packet . . . 161 Railroad versus River 185 Intermunicipal Rivalries 211 The Ciml War Period 239 Post-bellum Days to 1900 265 The Coal Trade 295 Life and Customs 319 Commercial Decadence 347 Floods and Disasters 369 Internal Improvements 393 Recent Years on the Rivers 423 Index 45 1 Illustrations River parade of Pittsburgh towboats of BYGONE DAYS Frontispiece The Flatboat 39 The Keelboat facing 42 Mike Fink, Hero of the Keelboatmen, and companions 55 William Mason's Map of Pittsburgh, 1805 . . 95 The First Steamboat on the Ohio river* . . -117 The Stage-coach 135 The Conestoga or covered wagon, the "Vehicle of Empire" 135 A Portage boat* 145 Viaduct and Towpath on the Pennsylvania canal * . 145 The "Washington," built 1820, at Cincinnati . -175 From an early woodcut in the possession of Frederick Way, Jr. The "Messenger," favorite of the first Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet line 175 From a contemporary print. Courtesy of Henry Holt and Company. Map showing railroads IN THE United States, 1850-1860 187 The Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad packet, "Fleetwood" 281 Steamer "Kate Adams," the "Lovin Kate," built AT Jeffersonville, Ind., 1899 281 Map showing boat-landings along the Ohio, ABOUT 1900 289 Typical Rousters of the lower Ohio and Mississippi 339 Courtesy of Ifaterivays Journal. ILLUSTRATIONS The "City of Cincinnati" 383 Wrecked by the ice gorge of January, 1918, at Cincinnati. Da1\I number I, MONONGAHELA RIVER, BUILT IN 184O * . 419 The now obsolete comb type of timber construction. Locks and fixed dam, Emsworth, Pa 419 The "Iowa" of 2000 horse-power* 431 With three barges containing 6000 tons of iron pipe at Lock number 2, Ohio river. The "Sam Craig," April i6, 1930* 435 With a tow of 10,000 tons of steel. Map showing important Waterways and Highw.ays IN the United States about 1836 .... 449 'Reproduced by courtesy of National H'ateriiays. Preface The purpose of this book is to give an historical ac- count of transportation in the Ohio valley w^ith special reference to its waterways, trade, and commerce. The early phases of this subject are somewhat hackneyed, and its later phases, except the spectacular, have been almost completely neglected. It is the hope of the au- thor that these may be given their historical settings and their proper relations to other events and condi- tions. It is his belief that those who have helped in the more recent decades and generations in making our country what it is today are deserving of some attention along with the "pioneers." As will be seen, however, the fields of transportation were never without their pioneers, the transportation facilities of any age of American history being inadequate to its needs and thus serving as a constant stimulus to initiative and inven- tion. The sources used comprise practically all the avail- able public documents bearing upon the subject of transportation in the Ohio valley, but chief reliance, particularly for local color and intimate accounts, was upon newspapers. Of these, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati papers proved most helpful, but newspaper files found in both Charleston and Wheeling, West Virginia, were storehouses of information for the decades before the Civil war. For the more recent decades extensive use was made of the Waterways Journal, published in St. Louis. Information gathered through interviews with 14 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY scores of former rivernien, most of whom have passed on within the last ten years, at ages well in the eighties and the nineties, aided the author in the interpretation of data gathered otherwise, as well as in his efforts to lend life and color to his narrative. It is hoped that a liberal use of footnotes will make unnecessary an ex- tended and critical bibliography. For the most part, the subject matter of this book is presented more or less chronologically, but for the pur- pose of economizing space, some chapters, such as those on the coal trade, internal improvements, life and cus- toms, and floods and disasters, are presented as separate topics. In this arrangement some duplication was un- avoidable, but it is hoped that it will be helpful rather than confusing. For many kindnesses and courtesies of librarians and for assistance from friends, given in the twelve years this work was in progress, the author makes grateful and general acknowledgments. Special mention is due Dr. L. D. Arnett, librarian of the West Virginia Uni- versity, whose resourcefulness was a constant aid ; to my wife who read each and every chapter and offered helpful suggestions; to my colleagues and associates in the faculty of the West Virginia University, Professor David Dale Johnson of the department of English, who read the entire manuscript and made constructive criti- cisms, and Professor J. M. Callahan of the department of history, who read most of the chapters and rendered like aid; to Assistant Professor Louis K. Koontz of the University of California at Los Angeles, Associate Professor Fred A. Shannon of Kansas State Agricul- tural College, Manhattan, Kansas, and Professor Carl Wittke of Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, each of whom read the entire manuscript and contributed PREFACE 15 to its form and substance; to the late Captain Edward P. Chancellor of Parkersburg, West Virginia, who aided in collecting and evaluating materials; to Cap- tain Thomas M. Rees of James Rees and Sons Com- pany, Pittsburgh, who made corrections contributing to a greater degree of accuracy; and to John W. Black, editor of National Waterways, Pittsburgh, for permission to use illustrative material, as well as help- ful assistance in selecting it. To the score or more stu- dents in the West Virginia University, who aided him in so many ways, the author can extend only a general acknowledgment. For possible errors in statements of fact and in interpretations, as well as for important omissions, he alone assumes entire responsibility. Charles Henry Ambler West Virginia University Morgantown, West Virginia December 12, 1930 The Ohio River There is a lingering glory about many of the streams of inland America, that is not easily forgotten. Some of them have unique and unsurpassed beauty; others are rich in association and tradition. It is doubtful whether any rivers of the world have a more romantic history than those that led Marquette and La Salle into the heart of an unexplored continent and those by which American pioneers crossed the Alleghanies into the Ohio valley to build homes and rear families. To the initiated the impressions and memories of these rivers are not unlike those that come from watching the flights and habits of native birds, from watching the sun and planets in their course and the flowers and grains in season. They are the essence of patriotism. Of all these rivers the Ohio, known to French ex- plorers as the "Beautiful River," is the most beautiful, as well as the most important. There are grander and more majestic streams, even in America, but there are few anywhere of such graceful loveliness. On a broad scale its banks suggest the soft and pastoral landscapes of the German Neckar and the Main, with their con- stant successions of curves and gently rounded hills, according in their natural state, with as true a harmony as that of music. More important still, the Ohio is the main thoroughfare between the Atlantic coast and the Mississippi valley. By way of its waters, more than any other route, a whole continent was peopled. Some persons develop interest in and love for the 1 8 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY Ohio; others inherit them. One boy, born and reared near its banks in the last quarter of the nineteenth cen- tury, discovered them. It was a mid-summer afternoon, and he was on his way to a blacksmith's shop for the repair of a part belonging to a mowing machine. As he hastened along a winding dirt road, impelled by an urgent paternal request for haste and by the warning rays of the declining sun, he came up close behind a supposed tramp leisurely moving before him. At that time, possibly more than now, tramps were a bane to the life and happiness of country boys, and the thought of passing this one on the public highway struck terror into the heart of his unwilling follower, but there seemed to be no other alternative. Accordingly he pressed forward hoping that some favorable turn of fortune, such as comes to country boys, would save him from the frightful possibilities of the situation. Thus sustained he came within speaking distance of the for- bidding stranger, whose gentle voice and kindly manner soon arrested his haste and quieted his suspicions. A short conversation disclosed the fact that the supposed tramp was in reality a professor in a noted German university and that he was then on a tour of America, having already seen much of Europe and Asia. Forgetting the importance of his errand and the late- ness of the day, the youth surrendered himself to the influence of the professor and continued the journey with him. As they walked on together, talking of the beauties of the Rhine and the comparative size and importance of certain European and American cities, they suddenly turned another curve in the road and came out upon a high point overlooking the Ohio, as it wound its course through the distant hills to the southwest, and gradually disappeared in the golden THE OHIO RIVER 19 rays of the setting sun. The view was at that time only commonplace to the boy and aroused no emotions in him, but to the professor it was new and appealing. For a few minutes he stood motionless, silently gazing into space. Indeed, his manner was such as to revive a feeling of fear within his companion, who again thought only of a means of escape. Luckily the sus- pense was only momentary. Turning to him with a beaming and reassuring smile, the professor said: "This is the most beautiful river I have ever seen. It is more beautiful than the Rhine." Increasing familiarity with geography gave this youth greater appreciation of the Ohio as a natural course of empire. To the eastward of the Alleghanies he found numerous rivers easily accessible to the Ohio by way of portages. To the west were a number of streams having their sources in these mountains and in the region immediately south of the Great Lakes. The latter streams the Ohio gathered into one and pointed a common course to the west. Indeed, it seemed that na- ture had conspired in this arrangement to aid the well known course of empire. To those who lived on and near the Ohio forty years ago it was a wonderful stream. Information about it was general. Many got this from actual contact; others as they did folk songs and nursery rhymes; a few learned only from school-masters. The significant thing is that this information was general and approximately correct. For example, all knew that the Ohio was about one thousand miles long; that one-fourth of the water reaching the Gulf of Mexico through the mouth of the Mississippi came from it; that the total area drained by it and its tributaries was approximately two hundred thousand square miles; that its high water mark was 20 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY more than sixty feet above its low water mark; that its source was more than four hundred feet higher than its mouth ; that the Falls at Louisville were the greatest in its course; and that its total navigable waters, to- gether with those of its tributaries, aggregated more than four thousand miles. But it was the natural features of the Ohio that made abiding impressions. There were the precipitous banks rising from one hundred to four hundred feet in height and extending their cliffs and forests to the very margin of the stream. Opposite these, with almost unvarying regularity, were broad alluvial bottom lands, the sites of farms and even cities. Then there were beautiful islands and islets, more than a hundred in number, some of which are still the domain of the forest prime- val. But more enticing still, were the silvery rapids, the low monotony of the sweeping current, the threaten- ing white caps, and the splendid beauty of the river as a whole. Before its improvement and the intrusions of indus- try the Ohio had moods all its own. In the winter sea- son it sometimes retired from the world, clothing itself in a coat of ice and snow. When summer came it grew intimate, even coquettish. Bathers and picnikers fre- quented its banks, and at low water stages men and kine sometimes crossed its course over paths almost dry, so modest and gentle could this mighty stream become. In fact gentleness and serenity were the nor- mal traits of the Ohio. But for occasional "freshets," it never lost its poise and dignity. When these came the rush of its waters was tremendous, the force of its cur- rents irresistible. These outbursts depopulated low- lands, covered the bosom of the river itself with the wreckage of homes and industry, and temporarily THE OHIO RIVER spread fear and dismay in the hearts of every living creature within its environs. Fortunately ice floes and destructive floods were infrequent. As soon as they were gone, however great their damage to life and property, all was forgiven and almost forgotten. Nothing adverse to "the River" was ever long remembered; only the ice floes and floods were blamed. Moodishness is not the only element of uncertainty about the Ohio. Its very name is hidden in obscurity, both as to its meaning and as to its origin. Most writers on the subject agree as to its Indian origin, but few are in accord as to the meaning of the word Ohio. Some ad- here to the French interpretation which makes it mean "the Beautiful River," La Belle Riviere. To others Ohio means simply fine or fair. Still others adhere to the translation of the Moravian missionary, John G. Heckewelder, who, after an exhaustive study of the subject, made with a view to correcting the French translation, concluded that the word Ohio was derived from the Indian word "Ohi," a prefix meaning "very," and that it was also frequently used by the Indians in a combination of words meaning "the white foaming river," descriptive of the Ohio when covered with white caps. Among early geographers common names were applied to the Ohio and the Wabash, and also to the Ohio and the Allegheny.^ It is possible that the original meaning of the word Ohio has not been and never will be determined. For our purposes tributary streams are second only in importance to the Ohio itself. First of all are those that unite to form it, the Allegheny and the Monon- gahela, each with its particular characteristics, some of 1 Hulbert, A. B. The Ohio River, a course of empire (New York, 1906), 2-4. 22 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY which are recognizable hundreds of miles distant from these rivers themselves. This is especially true when the ice runs. That from the Monongahela usually comes first and is coarse and cloudy; that from the Allegheny is clear as crystal and floats deep in the water. The latter of these tributaries reaches far into New York, while the former winds its way north through one of the richest coal fields of the world. Most of the lateral tributaries of the Ohio flow from the south. Advancing from its source towards its mouth, the most important of these are the Little Kanawha, the Great Kanawha, and the Big Sandy, each extending eastward to, and in the case of the Great Kanawha be- yond, the top of the Alleghanies and tapping some of the richest mineral lands of the continent; then come the Kentucky and Green rivers, natural outlets for the famous Kentucky blue-grass country, followed in turn by the Cumberland and the Tennessee, connecting it, as they do, with both the Old South and the Cotton states, and giving the Ohio valley a temperature vary- ing all the way from the sub-tropical to the north tem- perate. To the north, proceeding in the same direction, there are the Muskingum, Scioto, Miami, and Wabash with accompanying minor streams, which reach well to the Great Lakes. The area drained by the Ohio and its tributaries has been described as a "land of milk and honey." How- ever faulty this characterization may be, the Ohio val- ley does embrace everything needed to make another England, together with the lumber of Norway, the wines and fruits of Germany, France, and Italy, and the cotton of India. In all his travels Henry Clay had never seen a "section for which God had done so much and man so little." It is significant that the great river THE OHIO RIVER 23 at or near the center of this region is the only one of importance flowing from east to west in North Amer- ica and that the mountains surrounding this area shel- ter natural resources sufficient in quantity and quality for an ideal workshop of the world. Of such a river and its tributaries one naturally ex- pects to find much in both history and literature, and much is to be found. But accounts, even the historical, are almost as evasive as is the river itself. Of the scores who have written about the Ohio few have found ob- jects of common interest, and these objects have made separate and individual appeals. But they wrote of changing times and conditions. This was true even of proper names. But for the abiding quality of names, however, there is little in common between the writers of today and those of a hundred years ago, who took the Ohio and its environs for their themes. But why expect uniformity or even consistency in the writings of those who have preserved the history of the Ohio river? They wrote of life and change without which there is no history and no description worth while; they dealt with the course of universal history epitomized within a few generations; they told the story of the transformation of a "long shining aisle through a fair green world" into a great thoroughfare of commerce surrounded with all that exalts and em- bellishes civilized life; they told of the growth of small societies into great and populous commonwealths, each, in turn, influenced more or less by that residuum of ideas and efiforts left by a constant tide of immigrants moving to the task of founding still other common- wealths beyond the Mississippi. There is not even certainty as to who first discovered the Ohio and when. French accounts attribute dis- 24 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY covery to Robert Cavalier de la Salle. In his search for a stream thought to lead to the long-sought South Sea he is said to have reached the Ohio at or near what is now Louisville in 1669, two years before a party sent out by Abraham Wood from what is now Petersburg, Virginia, discovered the New river, an affluent of the Great Kanawha; but historians now agree in attribu- ting priority of discovery to the English.' It was, however, the geographer Franquelin, through maps made in 1688, who gave the first authentic infor- mation regarding the Ohio and its tributaries. Al- ready it was known to English and French traders whose wares were soon descending its waters and lay- ing the basis for an international feud that determined the destiny of empires and peoples. Despite the glowing accounts of discoverers and the subsequent impressions made on those who lived near it, the Ohio has not appealed to everyone. To some, in fact, it has been quite repelling. To those who first saw it there was something in the problems involving its mastery to inspire awe and to challenge the genius of the most resourceful. Its whirling eddies, its treach- erous shoals, its lurking logs and snags were veritable terrors to the boatmen. The havoc of its floods and ice gorges and its overhanging vines and trees bade de- fiance to the Indians. The absence of important native villages upon its banks, at the time of discovery, was significant. Except for short reaches, the sites of Indian corn- fields, the upper Ohio, at the time of the earliest white explorers, was lined on each side by one continuous forest, the branches of which dipped into its waters - Alvord, C. W. and Lee Bidgood. The First Explorations of the Trans- Alleghanies by the Jirginians, l6so-l6~4. (Cleveland, 1919), 96. THE OHIO RIVER 25 and at the narrowest places almost spanned its course. Its waters and forests teemed with life. There was the agile pike, the fat groveling cat-fish, and the silver scaled perch; bison and deer quenched their thirst in its waters; and, in his birch bark canoe, the Indian warrior pursued his enemy and wooed his dusky mate. Then, too, birds of many varieties, some permanent in- habitants, others coming only in the spring and the autumn, found homes or temporary resting places on its banks. Among these birds were the bald eagle and the turkey buzzard that soared in safe retreat above the hills that lined its course. In its natural and most beautiful state the Ohio was a thoroughfare of traffic. The craft most used was the canoe, long since dedicated to savage warfare and ro- mance. The period of its supremacy, which has been fittingly called the Canoe Age, was one of the longest and most interesting in the history of inland naviga- tion. Although the rivers of the Ohio valley may have been secondary to trails in these days, they were, never- theless, important thoroughfares. They had a part all their own in the fur trade, and, as has been said, over their balmy waters the Indian made war and love. The numerous mounds and battlefields that dot their banks seem to point to a day of even greater usefulness. Could they break their silence, it might be to tell stories of river activities rivaled only by those told of the Nile and the Euphrates in the dawning days of civilization. Before the coming of the whites the craft of the Canoe Age had become standardized. First there was the two-place canoe, twelve to fourteen feet in length, carrying two passengers and three to four hundred pounds of freight. Ne.xt came the four-place canoe, twenty feet long, with a carrying capacity of four per- 26 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY sons and one to two thousand pounds. Finally there was the master canoe, thirty-six feet long, four feet wide, and two and one-half feet deep, with a capacity of fourteen persons and several thousand pounds of freight." When suitable barks could not be secured and more substantial craft were required, "dugouts" were made by hollowing a log, durability and lightness mak- ing that from the cypress tree a favorite. Sometimes canoes were also made by stretching hides of native animals over frameworks of wood. It was by the use of such a craft that John Howard and others, in 1742, descended the Ohio and the Mississippi all the way to New Orleans.* The skill and dexterity of native artisans in the fabri- cation of canoes and kindred craft were, indeed, mar- velous. In emergencies little more than a day sufficed to find a suitable tree, strip it of its bark, fit this to the desired shape, and patch, caulk, and pitch the whole in such a fashion as to make it serviceable for long journeys. It required longer to make a dugout but scarcely less skill. A tree was felled and fabricated to the desired state, fire and crude implements being used for both purposes.^ Like the craft of other periods in the history of in- land transportation, canoes continued to be used beyond the period they dominated. They were admirably suited to the needs of the white explorer and the trader. With little care they could be used to float down stream in safety, and for light traffic they could be moved against currents with dispatch. Moreover, the end of naviga- tion did not destroy their usefulness, for they could be ^Chambers, H. E. Mississippi Valley Beginnings (New York, 1922), 22. * I'irginia Magazine of History and Biography (Richmond, 1893-date), vol. XXX, 203. ^ Dunbar, Seymour. A History of Travel in America (Indianapolis, 1915), vol. i, 21-25, 281. THE OHIO RIVER 27 carried across portages and used to continue expedi- tions that would otherwise have been impossible. It was with the aid of canoes that La Salle made his voyages of exploration; that Celeron, in 1749, de- scended the Ohio to take formal possession of the Ohio valley for the king of France; and that George Wash- ington and others subsequently penetrated the Trans- alleghany to assert ownership for the English and to spy out new lands. During the last years of this period the chief services of the canoe were to the fur-trader.* By its use English traders are thought to have reached the Ohio shortly after 1700. Years before that date La Salle found mer- chandise of English origin among Indians on the Mis- sissippi. Twent>^ years later the French complained of the presence of English on the Ohio, and before another generation ended this primitive age of transportation witnessed a conflict between the English and the French to determine the ownership of the Ohio valley. Despite the priority of English discovery, the French claims to this region were well founded. Very early in the eighteenth century they established themselves at Kaskaskia, Vincennes, and other points near the mouth of the Ohio. From this region they built up a trade to the lower Mississippi which is said to have begun as early as 1705, when a quantity of fur was sent thence to New Orleans. This trade continued to increase in volume until the French and Indian war, by which time the primitive craft formerly used on the Missis- sippi had been displaced by a more adequate one, the galley bateau,' which will be described in the next chapter. When the English took possession of the upper Ohio 8 Clark, C. M. The Picturesque Ohio (Cincinnati, 1887), 33-53. ' U. S. House. Executive Documents, 50 cong., i sess., vol. xx, no. 6, pt. ii. 28 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY valley in 1758 as a result of the surrender of Fort Duquesne, they renamed that fortress, calling it first Fort Pitt and finally Pittsburgh. A census taken two years later showed its total population to be one hun- dred forty-nine persons; eighty-eight men, twenty-nine women, and thirty-two children. All were sheltered and otherwise accommodated in one hundred forty- six houses and thirty-six huts. The following year the population almost doubled, and local taverns began to be frequented by trappers, traders, mule drivers, and pioneer farmers. Nearly everyone there drank heavily, and almost everyone was a fugitive, if not from justice, certainly from creditors. Drunken Indians staggered through the village and yelled as if on the war-path, and white traders were unabashed with temporary wives, some of them squaws. With few exceptions churches and schools were unthought of in this typical frontier outpost, as yet more barbarous than civilized.* Nevertheless, the English were even then planning a great future for this strategic point, the "Forks of the Ohio." First of all it was to be made an emporium of trade surpassing in importance both Quebec and New Orleans. Already curious natives were seeking it in increasing numbers to learn the character and plans of their new masters. As usual, they expected presents and trade, and the exigencies of the situation seemed to dictate liberality on the part of the English in pro- viding both. Already pack-horses and wagons were reaching the upper Ohio more or less regularly. They brought provisions for garrisons, presents for natives, and articles of merchandise. 179 of Wm. F. Switzler's "Report on the Inland Commerce of the United States." 8 Volwiler, A. T. George Croghan and the IVest-ward Movement, 174-1' iyS2 (Cleveland, 1926), 214. THE OHIO RIVER 29 As a result of these developments the volume of traf- fic on the Ohio increased, and its primitive craft no longer served adequately the needs of transportation. As w^ith the French on the Mississippi, the galley bateau came into favor with the English on the Ohio, and the Canoe Age on that stream practically ended. Following the subsequent failure of the English to build up a great inland commercial center at Pitts- burgh, French and Indian traders to the west, upon whom they were dependent, preferring to trade with former customers in Canada and in Louisiana and find- ing it easier to move with river currents than against them, primitive conditions gained a new lease on life in the region of the upper Ohio, and the canoe again came temporarily into use as the chief means of com- mercial intercourse. But homeseekers were already knocking at the gates of the West. Defying royal proc- lamations and imperial policies, they could not be denied admission. With their coming, in the years im- mediately following 1765, the Canoe Age on the Ohio passed forever, as did much of its primitive beauty. The Boatmen and their Craft The Revolutionary period in America marked the beginning of a new era in the transportation history of the Ohio valley. From the outstanding craft used it has been fittingly called the Flatboat Age. Had the naming been v^^ith reference to navigators rather than to craft, it would doubtless have been the Boatman Age. As already indicated the craft of the former period now almost completely disappeared. The dugout held on somewhat longer than did the canoe, particularly on the lower Ohio and with the French on the Mississippi, but it, too, soon entered the discard. The first impetus to this change came with the ter- mination of the French and Indian war and the subse- quent collapse of the so-called Conspiracy of Pontiac. The English now took permanent possession of the Ohio valley, and traders, accompanied in some in- stances by actual settlers, began to reach the upper Ohio in considerable numbers, stationing themselves along the Monongahela and in the vicinity of Fort Pitt. Of these movements George Croghan wrote: "As soon as peace was made last year contrary to our arrange- ments to them a number of our people came over the Great mountain and settled near Redstone creek and upon the Monongahela before they [the Indians] had given the country to the King, their Father." " Refer- ring again to the same movement a letter from Win- chester, Virginia, dated April 30, 1765, said: "The ^Western Pennsylvania Hist. Mag. (Pittsburgh, 1918-date), vol. ii, 115. 32 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY frontier inhabitants of this colony and Maryland are moving fast over the Alleghany mountains in order to settle and live there." '° Meanwhile private individuals and firms were mak- ing active preparations to participate in the Indian trade on the Ohio. Two rival firms, Baynton, Wharton, and Morgan, predominantly Quaker, and David Franks and Company, predominantly Jewish, were es- pecially active. In 1765 and before England had taken formal possession of the Ohio valley, the former of these firms tried to send merchandise to Fort Pitt under protection of a convoy carrying presents from George III to be used by that prince of pioneer diplomats, George Croghan, in an effort to win the friendship and trade of wavering Indian tribes. Fearing the conse- quences of reopening the Indian trade, especially that in arms and ammunition, frontiersmen in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, fell upon this convoy, killing pack-horses, destroying merchandise, scattering drivers, and jeopardizing the prestige of Croghan who was per- sonally interested in the success of Philadelphia traders. Nevertheless, he was permitted to continue his negotia- tions with the Indians, which resulted in opening up the entire Ohio valley to free and uninterrupted trade with the English." Thus it was that Fort Pitt first became a boat build- ing center. The most profitable trade thence was with the Illinois country. To reach it from the upper Ohio it was necessary to traverse the whole course of that stream, and suitable craft therefore became imperative. As early as 1765, Baynton, Wharton, and Morgan es- tablished a boatyard at Pittsburgh for the fabrication of galley bateaux and other craft. Materials, except ^^ — Idem, 116. 11 Volwiler, op. cit., 180-190. THE BOATMEN AND THEIR CRAFT 33 timber, were carried all the way from Philadelphia by packhorses and wagons, six hundred of the former be- ing employed at one time by this one firm. In a short time sixty-five boats had been completed; three hun- dred rivermen were navigating the Ohio; and mer- chandise valued at £50,000 was finding a market in the interior.'" As already indicated, the Indian trade of the Ohio valley was a great disappointment to the English, but the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, 1768, paved the way for a new era. Scarcely had this treaty been concluded, be- fore a tide of settlers began to pour across the AUe- ghanies. During the spring and summer of 1770 they were coming in continuous streams, the arrivals for the years immediately preceding aggregating between four and five thousand. While on a visit to the Trans-alle- ghany in 1770 George Washington found that all the best lands along the southern bank of the Ohio from its source to the Little Kanawha had already been taken, and he predicted that another year would suffice to carry the land grabbers to the Great Kanawha." His prediction came true, the tide of westward-moving set- tlers growing larger during each of the years imme- diately following. The Revolution decreased this vol- ume somewhat but did not turn it back. Thus, by 1780, the best lands in what is now northern West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania were taken, and the first English-speaking frontier west of the Alleghanies was tending to become a land of steady habits. '- — Idem, 203-204, 225-230. ^^ Old South Leaflets (Boston, 1883-1894), vol. ii, general ser., no. 41, p. 12; Washington, Writings (New York, 1889-1893. ed. Ford), vol. ii, 310; see also Alfred P. James's "The First English-speaking Appalachian Fron- tier," in Miss. Valley Hist. Review (Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 1919), vol. xvii, 55-71- 34 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY Independence and the treaty by which it was assured augmented the volume of immigrants passing into the Trans-alleghany. By the latter the United States ac- quired all the lands to the west between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi. Meanwhile, in some of the older sections to the east times were hard and discontent was general. Accordingly many persons sought an oppor- tunity to begin life anew under more favorable condi- tions. As usual they went west, but the numbers now seeking that refuge were unprecedented. Failing to find suitable lands on the upper Ohio, they turned their course to Kentucky. It was under these conditions that Pittsburgh again became a boat building center, although boats had been built along the Monongahela during the Revolutionary period." Arrived at either Redstone (Brownsville) or Pittsburgh, the immigrant's chief concern was for a suitable boat, the primitive craft of the natives being inadequate for the transportation of large families, most of them with household goods, farming imple- ments, and domestic animals. In fact, each family de- sired a craft suited to its particular needs. To supply these, boat building was undertaken on a large scale, skilled artisans from the East being employed to direct it. By 1783, Elizabeth, Pennsylvania, was advertising for sale "boats of every dimension," ^^ together with provisions of all kinds, particularly flour. Cargoes, both passenger and freight, were supplied from the East by the use of pack-horses and wagons and, after 1783, largely by the Conestoga wagon which, with the pack-horse, formed an important link in the transpor- 1* Volwiler, op. fit., 179 ff., 190-200; Thurston, George H. Allegheny County's Hundred Years (Pittsburgh, 1888), 99-101; Thwaites, R. G. editor. Early If'es/ern Travels (Cleveland, 1904-1907), vol. i, 53-173. 15 Western Pennsylvania Hist. Magazine, vol. ii, n6. THE BOATMEN AND THEIR CRAFT 35 tation system to and from the interior. This import- ance will justify more than passing mention of each of these means of transportation. Pack-horses usually moved in trains which wound their way over former Indian trails and improvised roads that then crossed the Alleghanies. The most fre- quented of these were called "tote-roads," "pack- roads," or simply "horse-ways." Some idea of the vol- ume of traffic passing over them may be had from the fact that many of them were worn into deep gullies, the banks of which brushed the sides of passing horses and sometimes dislodged their burdens. The age of pack-horse travel to and from the head- waters of the Ohio extended from about 1760 to near 1790. Just before and after the Revolution thousands of horses and mules were employed in this service. Tav- erns and ferries, towns and villages, sprang up along the most popular routes, and some of these towns be- came popular centers of entertainment. Among these was Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on the Lancaster-Bedford route, where as many as five hundred horses, with driv- ers, were frequently cared for over night.'" In time the pack-horse business became systematized, taking the form of an organized and established service in the hands of a few persons who owned most of the animals used, employed drivers and packers at more or less fixed wages, and made contracts for the trans- portation of persons and goods. So well established did this business become that subsequent invasions of its i^Earle, Alice Morse. Stage Coach and Tavern Days (New York, 1900) ; Dunbar, op. c'lt., vol. i, 192-200; Doddridge, Joseph. Notes on the Settlement and Indian Wars of the Western Parts of I'irgin'ia and Pennsylvania from 1763 to 1783 (Wellsburgh, Va., 1824) ; Monette, John W. History of the Discovery and Settlement of the Mississippi Valley (New York, 1848), vol. ii. 36 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY field were looked upon as destructive of vested interests and were resented accordingly. In his Notes " Joseph Doddridge left an excellent description of the organization and progress of a pack- horse train engaged in carrying salt over a part of what is now "U. S. 40." In the fall of the year, after seeding time, every family formed an association with some of his neighbors for starting the little caravan. A master driver was selected from among them, who was to be assisted by one or more young men and sometimes a boy or two. The horses were fitted out with pack saddles, to the hinder part of which was fastened a pair of hobbles made of hickory withes, — a bell and collar ornamented their necks. The bags provided for the conveyance of the salt were filled with feed for the horses ; on the journey a part of this feed was left at convenient stages on the way down, to support the return of the caravan ; large wallets well filled with bread, jerk, boiled ham and cheese furnished provisions for the drivers. At night after feeding, the horses, whether put in pasture or turned out into the woods, were hobbled and the bells were opened. The barter for salt and iron was made first at Baltimore ; Fredrick, Hagerstown, Oldtown, and Fort Cumberland, in succession, became the place of exchange. Each horse carried two bushels of alum salt, weighing eighty four pounds to the bushel. This, to be sure, was not a heavy load for the horses but it was enough, considering the scanty subsistence allowed them on the journey. The common price of a bushel of alum salt, at an early date, was a good cow and a calf. The Conestoga wagon first came into general use on the overland routes across the Alleghanies about 1783.'* As soon as roads were laid out in the American fron- tier, it, in one form or another, followed the pack-horse until the Pacific coast was reached. The form used for transportation across the Alleghanies seems to have originated near Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It probably took its name from that of a tributary of the Susque- 1' Ritenour and Lindsey edition (Pittsburgh, 1912), 12. 18 U. S. Department of Agriculture. Report 1863, 178. THE BOATMEN AND THEIR CRAFT 37 hanna. By 1790 it had practically superseded the pack- horse as a popular means of communication between the East and the West. In size and appearance the Conestoga wagon was a huge structure, heavily built, with broad wheels suited to dirt roads and a bed higher at either end than in the middle, so as to prevent its contents spilling out in go- ing up or down hill. It was topped by a dull white cloth, curved so as to present a rather artistic appear- ance. All exposed wood work was painted, the under body blue and the upper parts red. Thus, when not covered with mud, the colors of this pioneer vehicle might have suggested those used for the national flag. This "vehicle of empire" was drawn by four to six horses, the driver generally riding a wheel-horse. Sometimes it moved in solitary grandeur, at other times in immense caravans that stretched uninterruptedly for miles. Its slow but steady progress accompanied by the rumbling of wheels, the creaking of harness, and the weeping and singing of women and children told of an advance that knew no retrogression. The Conestoga wagon was, in fact, one of the most distinctively Amer- ican devices of all our transportation history. Its contributions, together with those of the pack- horse, are numerous and varied. In the wake of the latter and the "pony express" this "frigate of the land" did the pioneering for the canal boat and the locomo- tive. Like the automobile it accelerated the construc- tion of turnpikes, the Cumberland road and other high- ways being direct results of its use. The contributions of each to the manners and customs of the Appalachian mountain region are even more varied. To this day those residing there are good judges of horse flesh; the Pennsylvania Dutch and their Scotch-Irish neighbors 38 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY "pack" articles of merchandise and other things, in- cluding babies, instead of carrying or "toting" them, as do people elsewhere; and entertainment, as practiced in the early taverns and hostelries of the Alleghany moun- tain region, took on a leveling and democratic form that has characterized it to this day, in the West. For our immediate purposes the greatest contribu- tions of the pack-horse and the Conestoga wagon were to the river traffic of the interior. As has been indicated, they supplied cargoes in such quantities as to make necessary a new age in inland river transportation. It must not be inferred, however, that the flatboat was the immediate result of their use or that it was used ex- clusively. Like most other craft used on the inland waters, the flatboat evolved and was used contempora- neously with numerous other boats. Some of these craft were unique. One such was a semi-mechanical device suggesting the steamboat, built at Fort Pitt in 1761 by William Ramsey. As described by a Quaker trader, James Kenny, it consisted of two small boats joined together by a swivel in such a way as to make one. This boat was propelled by wheels attached to a treadle which was moved by the feet of the operator. Although devices of this kind proved im- practical, it was claimed that this boat could turn in a shorter space than could smaller boats and that it could rise over falls with great safety." Most of the craft of this period were non-mechanical and of local origin, but ideas for others were borrowed from the East and even from Europe. A confusing local terminology and an overlapping in time and geography make it difficult for any present day writer to name accurately and describe even the important boats of this ^' Thurston, op. cit., 99-100. 3- 5' < 3 o H* THE BOATMEN AND THEIR CRAFT 41 period. In this effort some have wished for aid from the antiquarian, in the hope that he might yet be able to find specimens of these pioneer craft. During the greater part of this period one could have built or bought, almost anywhere on the waters of the upper Ohio, any of the following craft of local origin: flat- boat, ark, barge, broadhorn, Kentucky boat, and New Orleans boat. Among the importations or modifications were skiffs, bateaux, and, toward the middle of the period, packet-boats."" Of all these craft the flatboat was easily the most popular and the most useful. It was a favorite with "moving families," hence its importance and preem- inence. In size flatboats varied greatly, the earliest ones being built with reference to the particular needs of the numerous families using them. Generally speak- ing, they included anything that could float from the primitive raft to the mammoth barge. Those in most general use were rectangular structures boarded up at both sides to a height of from two to three feet. The poorer sort had no covering but were provided with a shed in the rear for horses and cattle and a cabin for- ward for the use of the owner and his family. Others, those used for short trips, were partly covered and were called Kentucky boats, or broadhorns. Those used for longer trips were known as New Orleans boats and were covered throughout their entire length. As a rule these were more substantial than those built for local uses. All forms of flatboats were propelled by "sweeps" 2° Dunbar, op. cil., vol. i, 280-288 ; Flint, Timothy. Recollections of the Last Ten Years (Boston, 1826); U. S. House, op. cit., 185; McKnight, Charles. Our Western Border (Philadelphia, 1876). See, also, Pittsburgh Gazette Times, November 24, 1924; idem (Sunday), September, October, and November, 1917, for a series of articles by George T. Fleming. 42 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY alongside, a long oar astern, which served as a rudder, and by a short oar in front known as the "gouger." Sails and oars were sometimes used, but main reliance was upon the current. Every flatboat was provided with a "hawser" which was used to "whip" it over sandbars and riffles. The "hawser" was simply a strong rope which was made fast to a tree or stump on shore and wound by a reel on board the boat after the manner of the "cordelle" used on the Mississippi. In both popularity and usefulness the flatboat had a close second in the keelboat which, during a long per- iod, was the only practicable craft on the inland waters for up-stream uses. Although not of local origin it was well suited to its purposes. It was built about a long heavy piece of timber called the keel which was so placed as to absorb the shock of collisions. The frame, or hull, was built of stout planks and was ribbed like a ship. It was from thirty to seventy-five feet long, the cost of construction being determined by the length of the boat, prices varying from two-fifty to three dollars per running foot. In width keelboats varied from seven to nine feet. Most of them carried masts and sails. The body of the boat was usually covered for the protection of passengers and cargoes. Its capacity varied from fifteen to forty tons. Keelboats were steered from the stern by the use of a long swing oar, although their course was sometimes determined by the use of poles in the hands of those who supplied motive power. A walk, or running board, extended on either side the entire length of the boat. Each boat carried from six to eighteen "hands," as its size and the conditions of navigation determined, more power being required when waters were low and rapids swift. It required great power and patience to move a 3 5' - THE BOATMEN AND THEIR CRAFT 43 boat of any kind against the current of the Ohio. The favorite method was "poling." Advancing to the prow the crew, being divided equally on either side, "set" their long sharp poles on the bottom of the stream and pushing against them with shoulders to the "sockets," walked slowly from prow to stern. At the command "lift" they returned to the prow and repeated the opera- tion in unison at the word "set." In very swift water pole-men did not work in unison but always in such a fashion as to hold every inch gained. It was only with the greatest care and physical exertion that the swiftest rapids could be passed. The slightest error on the part of any member of the crew might cause the boat to "swing," thus driving it upon the rocks. Any boatman responsible for such a mishap or one who had been compelled to "back water" in a "chute" usually lost caste among his fellows. The barge was a cumbrous craft resembling an At- lantic schooner of its day. It was from thirty to seventy- five feet long, from seven to fifteen feet wide, and car- ried a mast, sails, and a rudder. Progress down stream was sometimes accelerated by an oar. For up-stream use motive power was supplied by numerous men, twenty- five to fifty, who used iron-tipped poles to push against the current. Barges were covered either wholly or in part, and sometimes carried cannon for defence. Dur- ing troublous times they anchored at night and posted sentries, few landings being made by any craft at other than fortified places or permanent settlements before 1794. The barge was a pioneer craft and soon gave way almost completely to the more practicable and elegant keelboat. After the termination of Indian hostilities the ark came into general use. It was from seventy-five to one 44 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY hundred twenty feet long, from fifteen to twenty-five feet wide, and from three to five feet deep. It was built of heavy timbers covered by planks and was sometimes V-shaped at both bow and stern. Its size and unwieldi- ness restricted it to down stream uses, a long sweep sufficing to keep it in the channel. Like the flatboat it, too, sometimes supported two wooden houses, one at either end, that in front being for passengers, the other for animals. Skiffs and bateaux were flat bottomed boats of the same general construction and propelled by oars, bateaux being much the larger. They were each built of strong planks and were ribbed. The former were used for ferries, for long distance trips requiring dis- patch, and, in the earliest days, to attend larger craft in receiving and discharging freight. In its crudest form, no ribs being used, the skiff became a "Johnboat" and, as such, was used largely as a ferryboat on small streams. Bateaux accommodated whole families and were used for long and hazardous journeys. They were also used for the transportation of military parties. From these craft there evolved, in time, the packet- boat which was used in 1794, when a regular packet service was first established on the Ohio. These boats were of the galley keelboat type and were from seventy- five to one hundred feet long. They were armed and covered so as to make them bullet proof, thus suggest- ing the modern cruiser. They were floated and rowed down stream, but progress against currents was made by the use of poles in the hands of pole-men after the manner of the keelboatmen. For passing riffles and shoals the "cordelle" or "hawser" was sometimes used. Despite the difficulties encountered, these packets maintained a regular schedule between Cincinnati and THE BOATMEN AND THEIR CRAFT 45 Pittsburgh, the time for a round trip being one month. "Having maturely considered the many inconven- iences and dangers incident to the common method heretofore adopted of navigating the Ohio, and being influenced by a love of philanthrophy, and a desire of being serviceable to the public," the proprietors of the above mentioned packet line advertised the following accommodations: "A separate cabin from that designed for the men is partitioned off in each boat for accommo- dating the ladies on their passage. Conveniences are constructed on board each boat, so as to render landing unnecessary, as it might at times be attended with dan- ger. Rules and regulations for maintaining order on board, and for the good management of the boats, and a table accurately calculated for the rates of freightage, for passengers, and carriage of letters to and from Cin- cinnati to Pittsburgh ; also, a table of the exact time of the arrival and departure to and from the different places on the Ohio between Cincinnati and Pittsburgh may be seen on board each boat, and at the printing office in Cincinnati. Passengers will be supplied with provisions and liquors of all kinds, of the first quality, at the most reasonable rates possible. Persons desirous of working their passage will be admitted, on finding themselves subject, however, to the same order and directions from the master of the boats as the rest of the working hands of the boat's crew. An office of in- surance will be kept at Cincinnati, Limestone, and Pittsburgh, where persons desiring to have their prop- erty insured may apply. The rates of insurance will be moderate." " -1 Cincinnati Centinel, January ii, 1794; Dunbar, op. cit., vol. i, 303; Hulbert, op. cit., 230; Hall, James, The fVest, its commerce and navigation (Cincinnati, 1848), 117. 46 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY All boats of this period were subjected to numerous hazards such as would test the patience and alertness of any master. Worst of all probably were attacks by Indians and by river pirates. During the years imme- diately preceding Wayne's victory at Fallen Timbers, 1794, which broke the savage power in the Northwest, they took a toll in excess of fifteen hundred persons along the Ohio alone. Probably the most offensive fea- ture of these losses was the fact that they were some- times planned and abetted by renegade whites. It was in one of these attacks that Captain May, founder of Maysville, Kentucky, lost his life. It was in this period that a group of notorious pirates composed of French, Spanish, Indian, American, and half-breed renegades infested the lower Ohio. Their rendezvous was Cave-in-Rock located about twenty- five miles below old Shawneetown, Illinois. Here they were sheltered by an overhanging clifif, from which they had a commanding view of the river both up and down stream. From this strategic point these pirates studied and systematized murder and robbery. The un- usual conditions served to conceal the extent of their depredations, which terrorized the whole inland waters from Pittsburgh to New Orleans." Other perils were more natural and consequently less irritating, although equally destructive. Probably most serious of these were trunks and limbs of trees im- bedded in river bottoms so firmly and at such angles as to inflict serious injury to the craft of nonsuspecting and uninformed navigators. An obstruction of this kind that moved slowly up and down with periodic action under the influence of waves, winds, and currents was -- Rothert, Otto A. The Oitllaiis of Cave-in-Rock (Cleveland, 1924) chap. 3 ; Dunbar, op. cit., vol. i, 298-300. THE BOATMEN AND THEIR CRAFT 47 called a "sawyer," whereas one so firmly planted as to be immovable under such influences was a "planter." Other perils were "falling banks," "floating islands," and stationary masses of trees and driftwood known as "wooden islands." In fact, every inland river had its own well-known danger spots, most of which received their names from previous accidents. The mere men- tion of such places to old boatmen sufficed to produce a reflective ejection of tobacco juice and to start a narra- tive of some harrowing incident in their history.^^ The commercial hazards of this period were not, however, all in the field of navigation. Modern storage methods were unknown, the cellar and the smoke-house taking the place of modern cold-storage plants and re- frigerated cars. Only surpluses were marketed, and the only practicable time for shipment was the spring. Then only could the quality and quantity of marketable goods be determined and "boating stages" be depended upon. These conditions combined to glut markets, lower prices, and foster uncertainty. Thus caution became a characteristic of the boatmen. As a rule before departing from a port on the upper Ohio they purchased a guide, the Navigator, published at Pittsburgh by Zadok Cramer in the early years of the last century, being a favorite."* Such aids indicated navigable channels, the location of obstructions to navi- gation, and, in some cases, headquarters of brigands. As an additional means of safety, many early navigators on the Ohio moved in companies, some of which were convoyed. In the former manner the English descended the Ohio to take formal possession of the Northwest ^^ — Idem, vol. i, 296-301; Hulbert, op. cil., 250. -* The IVestern Navigator (Philadelphia, 1822) and the ffeslern Pilot (Cincinnati, 1832 and 1840) were amplifications and modifications of Cramer's Navigator, as were also other like publications. 48 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY Territory, and numerous parties later reached the Ken- tucky country. In 1790 Captain Denney saw eighteen boats, sixteen Kentucky boats and two keelboats, de- scending the Ohio in one company. The Kentucky boats were lashed together, three abreast, while the keelboats played the role of attendants and defenders. The wom- en and the domestic animals of the party rode in the middle tier of boats, while the men not needed on the keelboats rode alongside. But many rivermen refused to make return trips by water even with the use of guides and in the company of others. Instead, they pre- ferred the overland route through Mississippi, Tennes- see, and Kentucky which was shorter and, although infested with robbers and wild beasts, safer. The coming of the steamboat in 181 1 did not at once destroy the supremacy of the boatmen and their craft. Five years after the first steamboat descended the Ohio, up-stream traffic, both passenger and freight, was car- ried largely in barges and keelboats. "Moving fam- ilies," almost all of whom went down stream, contin- ued, of course, to use the flatboat and the ark. For a longer time thereafter almost all down stream ship- ments, particularly of produce, were by flatboat. In 1826 three hundred of these craft descended annually from the Wabash alone. "° A decade later four thousand keelboats reached the lower Mississippi annually, most of them from the Ohio. In 1826 Timothy Flint de- scribed the craft then in use on the Ohio in these words : There is the stately barge, of the size of an Atlantic schooner, with its raised and outlandish looking deck. This kind of craft, however, which requires twenty-five hands to work it up stream, is almost gone into disuse, and although so common ten years ago, is now scarcely seen. Next there is the keelboat, of a long, slender and elegant form, and generally carrying from fifteen to thirty tons. 25 Hall, The West, 130. THE BOATMEN AND THEIR CRAFT 49 This boat is formed to be easily propelled over shallow water in the summer season, and in low stages of water is still much used, and runs on waters not yet frequented by steamboats. Next in order are the Kentucky flats, or in the vernacular phrase, "broad-horns," a species of ark, very nearly resembling a New England pig-stye. They are fifteen feet wide, and from forty to one hundred feet in length, and carry from twenty to seventy tons. Some of them, that are called family-boats, and used by families in descending the river, are very large and roomy, and have comfortable and separate apartments, fitted up with chairs, beds, tables and stoves. It is no uncommon spectacle to see a large family, old and young, servants, cattle, hogs, horses, sheep, fowls, and animals of all kinds, bringing to recollection the cargo of the ancient ark, all embarked, and floating down on the same bottom. Then there are what the people call "covered sleds," or ferry-flats, and Alleghany-skiffs, carrying from eight to twelve tons.^* But, as already indicated, the Flatboat Age on the Ohio was near its close. By 1840 arks, broadhorns, and primitive barges were rarely seen. The flatboat re- mained, but its use had already been restricted almost completely to the transportation of agricultural prod- ucts, passengers now preferring the steamboat. Mean- while flat-bottomed, light draught steamboats, first used in the late thirties, had driven the keelboat to the upper reaches of tributary streams,"^ whence it returned only in periods of low water. Of such a reversion the Cin- cinnati Commercial for June 30, 1862, said : "The keel- boatmen have it their own way on the Allegheny again, as it is entirely too low for steamboats." The actual navigators of this period were commonly known as boatmen, and represented all classes and con- ditions of society. Along with the meanest renegades of their respective communities, Henry Clay, Abraham Lincoln, U. S. Grant, and others, scarcely less distin- -8 Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh in 1816 (Pittsburgh, 1916. Pamphlet), 31, quoting Flint's "Recollections," 13. -^ Esarey, Logan. A History of Indiana from its Exploration to lS$o (Indianapolis, 1918), vol. i, 306-308. 50 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY guished, did manual labor at the oar and the setting- pole. It was a hard but certain way to earn needed cash, while seeing the world which did not mean much to a frontiersman of inland America who had not been in New Orleans. Many farmers and merchants of the Ohio valley visited the lower Mississippi in their own boats and in company with their own wives who went along as cooks for the hands and as clerks for the great open-air markets conducted by the Yankees for the sale of their products in southern river cities. Prep- arations for such adventures were usually gala aflfairs. Whiskey flowed freely, and friends and relatives assem- bled in large numbers to wish departing companies good luck in a venture never free from vicissitudes. Professional boatmen, those who followed the river for a living, were a distinct type, the self-styled "half- horse" and "half-alligators" of their day. Some of them actually bore the marks of the draft horse in large callouses on their arms and shoulders, products of the setting-pole and the socket of the keelboat. Their re- semblance to alligators was less evident but not wholly lacking, certainly not when they ate. They were indeed a fearless and hardy set with no peers of their kind, except among professional frontiersmen and Indian fighters. Hatless, stripped to the waist, and tanned by the combined effects of water and sun, they resembled Indians more than whites. Accustomed to every species of exposure and privation, they despised luxury. Their chief indulgence was hero worship, their idols being those of their own number who had successfully under- taken the most thrilling adventures. The boatman's restless spirit and fondness for excite- ment has been aptly described in these words: In his normal state he was silently waiting for something to hap- THE BOATMEN AND THEIR CRAFT 51 pen, knowing quite well that it certainly would. When the bomb of circumstance exploded the human creature was on that dot of time transformed into a combination of rubber ball, wildcat and shrieking maniac, all controlled by instantaneous perception and exact calcula- tion. After the tumult he subsided again into his listless lethargy of waiting, the monotony being endured by chewing tobacco and illus- trating the marvelous accuracy with which he could propel a stream of its juice for any distance up to fifteen feet."* With the professional boatman, fighting was a pas- time. Dressed in frontier style -flannel shirt, trowsers of linsey-woolsey, cap, moccasins, and a leather belt from which hung a hunting knife and a tobacco pouch - he was always ready for a fray. The bully who boasted that he had never been "licked" was in honor bound to fight whoever disputed his prowess. Encounters be- tween rival bullies sometimes lasted for hours at a time, the contestants remaining clinched, meanwhile chewing each other's ears and fingers and gouging each other's eyes. Sometimes encounters were staged on a large scale. Keelboatmen and bargemen looked upon rafts- men and flatboatmen as natural enemies, and meetings between them were usually the prelude to a battle- royal. Assemblies of boatmen were often riotous and lawless to the extreme, city authorities being defied for days at a time in their efforts to maintain order. This was especially true when "licker" flowed, as it usually did, and when rival bullies and their retainers met. To Creoles on the lower Mississippi boatmen from the Ohio were veritable terrors, yet quite American. Another distinguishing characteristic of the profes- sional boatman was his original vocabulary of meta- phors and similes interspersed with more than the aver- age amount of profanity. For example, acts performed with celerity happened "quicker nor an alligator can 28 Dunbar, op. cit., vol. i, 293. 52 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY chaw a puppy," whereas to be silent in speech was to be as "dumb as a dead nigger in a mud hole." Persons commanded to move were told to "shake yer skids" or "start yer trotters." Drowning persons "choked to death like a catfish on a sand-bar," and difficult tasks were "harder nor climin' a peeled saplin' heels uppard." '" Imagination can possibly supply illustrations of accom- panying profanity. However hard and unnatural their life may have been, few professional boatman ever left it for another. The charm of their excesses, their frolics, and their fist- fights lured them ever onward. Fatigue of the running board was easily drowned in a "fillee," or ration of whiskey, and a night's repose in the open, under a heavy blanket and the canopy of heaven, prepared all to "stand to" their places and "set oflf" without complaint. In the call of the bugle with which every flatboat and keelboat was provided, in the recollection of difficulties met and conquered, and in the daily prospect of new adventures upon a broad thoroughfare of life there was something to charm the imagination of the most un- romantic. Something of this appeal may be had from General Wm. O. Butler's poem entitled The Boatman's Horn, lines of which follow: O, boatman ! wind that horn again, For never did the listening air, Upon its lambent bosom bear So wild, so soft, so sweet a strain ! What, though thy notes are sad and few. By every simple boatman blown. Yet is each pulse to nature true, And melody in every tone. How oft in boyhood's joyous days, 2' — Idem, vol. i, 294. THE BOATMEN AND THEIR CRAFT 53 Unmindful of the lapsing hours, I've loitered on my homeward way By wild Ohio's banks of flowers ; While some lone boatman from the deck Poured his soft numbers to the tide, As if to charm from storm and wreck The boat where all his fortunes ride! Delighted Nature drank the sound. Enchanted echo bore it round In whispers soft and softer still From hill to plain and plain to hill Till e'en the thoughtless, frolic boy. Elate with hope and wild with joy. Who gamboled by the river side. And sported with the fretting tide, Feels something new pervade his breast, Change his light step, repress his jest. Bends over the flood his eager ear To catch the sounds far off, yet dear — Drinks the sweet draft, but knows not why The tear of rapture fills his eye.^" A hero of these days was the notorious, though some- what mythical, "Mike" Fink. He is said to have been born in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, about 1781. As a mere lad he played a prominent part in the Indian wars of his time, winning the enviable distinction of be- ing the best shot in the Ohio valley. Early in life he answered the call of the river, where he soon became notorious as an adept in its most lawless and question- able practices. On the upper Ohio he was "Bang All," the superb marksman, and was consequently generally excluded from shooting contests for beef, receiving for his forbearance the "fifth quarter," the hide and tallow. His share was soon exchanged for whiskey which he ^^ H^estern Pennsylvania Hist. Magazine, vol. i, 26 ; Western Revieiu (Lexington, Ky., igzi). 54 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY caused to flow freely, as long as it lasted, always man- aging to consume a large quantity himself." On the lower Ohio and the Mississippi Fink was a rough and tumble fighter and a daring and successful pillager of chicken roosts and barnyards. In this role he won fitting epithets. On the Ohio he was the "Snap- ping Turtle," while on the Mississippi he was simply the "Snag." To all he was a veritable Rob Roy without a peer for deviltry and meanness, unless it was in "Colonel Flug" (Colonel Fluger), a bad man of that part of the Ohio below Louisville. Good people stood in awe of Fink; officers avoided him; the bad idolized him. To all, accounts of Fink's exploits were good read- ing. Accordingly, local and most of the more cosmo- politan newspapers of the day, and even of a later per- iod, published his biography, first given to the world, with some embellishments, by the fertile pen of Mor- gan Neville. Fink, however, probably gave the best epitome of himself in these words: "I can out run, out hop, out jump, throw down, drag out, and lick any man in the country. I am Salt river roarer. I love the wimin, and am cock full of fight." "Mike's" closest friends were Carpenter and Talbott, two kindred spirits whom he had schooled in the arts of his own prowess. They were each close seconds to him in pilfering, fighting, and shooting. Carpenter and Fink were particular friends and at one time had great con- fidence in each other. As proof of this they are said to have shot from each others' heads cups of whiskey at a distance of seventy yards. No injury to either ever oc- curred so long as their prowess rested upon the score of friendship. About 1823 Fink and his companions are said to have Mike Fink, Hero of the Keelboatmen, and companions "Keep your noddle steady, Carpenter, and don't spill the whiskey." THE BOATMEN AND THEIR CRAFT 57 answered the call of the Far West, thus leading the way for boatmen of a later period, who were among the first of the frontiersmen on the upper Missouri. Engaging themselves to fur traders they ascended the Missouri in the double capacity of boatmen and trappers. After a successful season on the headwaters of that stream, they took up their abode for the winter in a "dug-out" near the mouth of the Yellowstone. Here followed a bitter quarrel between Fink and Carpenter, supposed to have had its origin in their rivalry for the afifections of an Indian squaw. Despite the efforts of friends at recon- ciliation and their temporary truces, they had broken forever. When spring came and fancy of outlaws, as well as of young men, turned to love, their quarrel was re- newed, but a reconciliation was again effected and was to have been solemnized by the usual ceremony of shooting cups of whiskey from each others' heads. As usual the first shot was determined by "skying a cop- per," and as usual, Fink won. Doubtful of his sincerity, yet scorning to save his own life by refusing to keep a contract. Carpenter prepared for death. His gun, shot- pouch, powder-horn, belt, pistol, and wages he be- queathed to his friend Talbott who was present. Then, without changing features, he filled a cup to the brim, took his distance, and placed it on his head. Fink loaded his gun, picked the flint, leveled and fired, and Carpenter fell dead. Fink at once disavowed the deed declaring it an acci- dent and cursing his gun, powder, and himself. Thus a cold blooded murder passed unpunished. But Talbott knew the truth and secretly determined to be revenged for his friend's death. For months no opportunity offered, but one day, in a fit of gasconade. Fink declared 58 TRAN SPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY tliiit he linii intentionally killed Carpenter and that he rejoiced in the deed. Talbott immediately drew the pistol which Carpenter had beijueathed him and shot l''ink lhrou,u;h the heart. lie died without a word, and his bones repose on the banks of the upper Missouri in an unmarked grave with those of others of the boatmen who later answered the call of the Far West. However fantastic the stories of "Mike" Fink may be, they illustrate a type all too plentiful in the Ohio valley in his day. Moreover, this type was not confined to the rivers. Conditions on land were almost as bad as on the waters, tough times making tough men every- where. Kvery town and village boasted its bully. Drink- ing, gambling, and horse-racing were favorite pas- times; churches and schools were few and far between; the sacrifices of human life, of human effort, and of the accumulated culture of the ages were appalling; and meanwhile vice and disease made their inroads. It was a period of extreme individualism, of tremendous phy- sical and mental efforts, and of supreme sacrifices. The ninks of the struggle are visible to this day. From those who survived uninjured and uncontaminated came some of the greatest leaders of the nation; from those who fell came some of the worst leaders in crime and vice. It would be useless to specify. "Mike" Fink was only a somewhat exaggerated prototype of the worst of the boatmen of his day. as well as the worst of those who lived on l.uid of the worst of all classes of a great societv in its beginnings. The Boatmen as Nation Builders The immigration movement into theTrans-alleghany, beginning about 1765, is without a parallel in Amer- ican history. Unlike most other immigrations it was natural and went on doubling and trebling for decades. The only other movement that can compare with it, that into California, was due to unusual and exceptional causes. Unlike the former, the latter grew marvelously for a time, then almost stopped, only to proceed more rapidly and normally in recent years." Each of these movements played a distinct part in the national development of the United States. In a very real way that into the Trans-alleghany made the United States a nation, while that into California tested its strength. It was in the Ohio valley that northerners and southerners first met and mingled, on a large scale, under conditions that made for toleration on the part of each. Here they intermarried and developed common interests and purposes. Moreover, by 1820 the new so- ciety thus formed was assimilating foreigners in such numbers and under such conditions as to cause it to be spoken of as "the melting-pot of the world." " Where sectional rivalries and jealousies persisted, they were intense, but most of these were finally forgotten in the conflict precipitated by the immigration movement into California, a movement that demonstrated Abra- *' Monette, up. cit., vol. ii, 143 ; McMaster, J. B. History of the People of the United States (New York, 1883J, vol. i, 149. 22 Adams, Henry. History of the United States (New York, 1889), vol. i, chaps. I and 2. 6o TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY ham Lincoln's contention that the United States is an indestructible union of indestructible states. To some observers the first of these movements, in its earliest stages, was anything but assuring. Eastern cap- italists and conservatives generally regarded it as a good riddance of worthless debtors, incurable dema- gogues, and insufferable malcontents. Others saw in it germs of fratricidal strife and possible dismemberment. They could not forget those lessons of history that seemed to indicate the inability of peoples to overcome the barriers of nature in their efforts at international comity. Most of the mountains of Europe then formed international boundaries, separating in some instances peoples of the same race, religion, and politics, into rival, even hostile, nations. To those participating in the movement its objects were mainly economic betterment."^ Matters political were important but secondary and always a means to an economic end. On one point all were agreed, and that was that the western movement into the Trans-alle- ghany was irresistible, for said a representative partici- pant: "You may as well endeavour to prevent the fishes gathering on a bank in the sea, which offers them plenty of nourishment." To those who saw the movement through the pages of history Dr. Ferrero, a famous Italian historian, may speak. "It were," said he, "as if the whole American Nation unconsciously or almost unconsciously was be- ing driven forward by a superior, not to say mystic force, to reach in pain and travail the goal of its des- tiny." " '^ McMaster, op. cit., vol. i, 518. '* Chambers, H. E., op. cit., 7 ; see also "The Ohio Valley in American History," in Turner, F. J. The Frontier in American History (New York, 1920), 157-177. THE BOATMEN AS NATION BUILDERS 6i The boatmen of the Ohio and their craft were im- portant factors in this movement. Without them the Ohio valley might have become a "melting-pot of the world," but certainly not when it did and as it did. Chief credit for this consummation has been given the steamboat and the locomotive, but it was practically completed before either became a determining factor in the interior. Although the first steamboat descended the Ohio as early as 1811-1812, the practicability of steam navigation for up-stream uses was not determined until 1 81 7 and the steamboat did not become a real fac- tor in the western world for almost two decades later. On the other hand, the locomotive did not reach the Ohio before the middle of the nineteenth century. Meanwhile, every foot of territory drained by it had become a part of a great and populous state in the Union. An account, however brief, of the services of the boatmen ought to be worth while. As already indicated, they began before the Revolution. It was with the aid of boats built at Fort Pitt that the English, in 1765, occupied the Northwest Territory, planting their flag at Kaskaskia and Vincennes, where the authority of the English people has been recognized ever since.'^ In 1770 George Washington, while on a visit to the Ohio valley, observed that the Ohio was navigable, even over dams and riffles at the heads of its numerous islands, by boats "rowed and set up with poles" and with canoes "which made twenty miles daily against the current and with it a good deal more." Washington might also have told of contemporary plans for the development of the Ohio valley with re- 35 Alvord, C. W. Mississippi I'alley in British Politics (Cleveland, 1917), vol. i, 299-301; idem, vol. ii, 113; Volvfiler, op. cit., 188; Alvord, C. W. The Illinois Country, 1673-1818 (Springfield, 1920), 274. 62 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY ference to its natural thoroughfares. Outstanding among these was that for a colony to be called Vandalia with boundaries suggesting those of the present state of West Virginia.'" More significant still, certainly for our purposes, were incidental suggestions looking to the development of the resources of the same region and to the transportation of products thence directly to the markets of the world. As set forth in answers to Lord Hillsborough, president of the Board of Trade for the Colonies, who objected to granting a charter for the proposed colony of Vandalia, the difficulties in the way of such undertakings were insignificant. The data for these answers were collected and compiled by Samuel Wharton, a merchant prince of Philadelphia, but they were presented by Benjamin Franklin who, in doing so, pointed out the possibility of drawing from the Ohio valley naval stores and raw materials for the "manufactories" of Europe, as well as the possibility of supplying the West Indies, the Floridas, and Mexico with lumber and provisions, particularly flour and corn from the same source. Furthermore, continued Franklin: "The Ohio is, at all seasons of the year, navigable with large boats, like the western country barges, rowed only by four or five men; and from February to April, large ships may be built on the Ohio and sent to sea laden with hemp, iron, flax, silk, tobacco, cotton, potash, etc." It was, also, asserted that shipments could then be made direct by way of the Ohio to the West Indies safer and cheaper than from either Philadelphia or New York, and a ^^ See "Journal of a Tour to the Ohio River in 1770," in Washington, Writings (ed. Ford), vol. ii, 310; Alvord, op. cit., 212; Turner's "Western State Making in the Revolutionary Era," in Amer. Hist. Revievj (Nevy York, 1895-date), vol. i, 70-87, 251-269; Alden's "New Governments West of the Alleghanies before 1780," in Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin (Madison, 1897), hist, ser., vol. ii, no. i, 1-74. THE BOATMEN AS NATION BUILDERS 63 prediction was made that "Whenever the farmers and merchants of the Ohio shall properly understand the business of transportation, they will build schooners, sloops, etc. . . . suitable for the West Indian and Europ- ean markets." Finally these proposals were urged as practicable." Already counties in western Pennsylvania had sur- pluses of agricultural products, and the French in the Illinois country had demonstrated that use could be made of such supplies. As early as 1746 they had trans- ported several thousand pounds of flour thence to New Orleans. Although none of the plans for participation in world commerce on the part of the residents of the Ohio valley bore fruit immediately, immigrants in in- creasing numbers continued to settle there. In 1775 approximately thirty thousand persons resided west of the Alleghany mountains, most of them along the Ohio and its upper tributaries. Moreover, they continued to arrive during the entire Revolutionary period, the re- gion thus populated being sometimes spoken of as the "child of the Revolution." '^ Although these settlers seem to have been interested primarily in their own economic welfare, they were not, however, lacking in patriotism, a fact attested by Washington when he ex- pressed a determination to "retreat beyond the Susque- hanna river, and thence, if necessary, to the Alleghany mountains," in the event of continued British successes in the East.'' '^T — Idem; Craig, Neville B. The Olden Time (Pittsburgh, 1846-1848), vol. ii, 6; Cramer, Zadok. Navigator (Pittsburgh, ed. 1818) ; Gould, E. W. Fifty Years on the Mississippi (St. Louis, 1889), 175; Franklin, Works (Boston, 1856. ed. Sparks), vol. iv, 348. ^' Volwiler, George Croghan and the Westviard Movement, 210-232. 3^ Sparks, Jared. Life of George }Vashington (New York, 1902. ed. Adam), 196. 64 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY Meanwhile rivermen of the interior were making distinct contributions to the cause of independence. From the banks of the Ohio went privateers who in- flicted losses on English commerce during the Revolu- tionary war." It was with the aid of craft built at Red- stone (Brownsville) on the Monongahela that George Rogers Clark moved to the conquest of the Northwest Territory. With the aid of boats built at or near Pitts- burgh - regular communication between the East and the West having been interrupted - patriots of the in- terior supplied themselves with gun powder from New Orleans. But the most outstanding service of the inland river craft of this period was that of the galley bateau "Willing." With its aid George Rogers Clark was able to recapture Vincennes, thus breaking the British power in the Northwest and sending their commander, General Hamilton, to Richmond, Virginia, a prisoner of war. Nevertheless, the year 1780 found the immediate val- ley of the Ohio little more than a wilderness. At its head under the guns of Fort Pitt, nestled the hundred or more cabins called Pittsburgh. The site of what is now Wheeling was occupied by a fort and a few log cabins. Farther down, on a flat that spread out at the foot of a low range of hills, were some squalid huts that marked the site of what is now Cincinnati; still farther down, at "the Falls," were the three streets and a cluster of cabins that already bore the name of Louis- ville, the only place on the lower Ohio that could boast a store; a fort had been built at the mouth of the Great Miami; some rude dwellings marked the present site of Clarksville; and the location of Limestone, now "Ambler, C. H. Life and Diary oj John Floyd (Richmond, 1918), 23-24. THE BOATMEN AS NATION BUILDERS 65 Maysville, had been determined. In 1778 the Kentucky district contained less than two hundred residents." Along the southern bank of the Ohio this condition was soon altered. Heretofore immigrants had confined their settlements largely to the Monongahela valley and the vicinity of Pittsburgh, but, in 1779, Virginia opened an office for the sale of lands in the Trans- alleghany. Soon the volume of immigrants passing thither increased tremendously. Forts along the upper Ohio became villages, and intervening spaces were filled with an industrious population. In a short time all the remaining good lands were taken, and the immi- grant tide turned its face toward Kentucky, hitherto known as the "Dark and Bloody Land." By 1783 the population of that region reached twelve thousand and continued to double and treble during the decades im- mediately following.*' Although many of those settling in Kentucky came direct by way of the Wilderness road and the Cumber- land and Tennessee rivers, most of them came by way of the upper Ohio and its tributaries. Fortunately data regarding their movements are abundant. For example, during a part of the autumn of 1785 an average of eight boats passed Fort Harmar weekly, all bound for Kentucky. By 1787 this average had increased to ten, "still others passing in the night uncounted." By the following year efforts to keep accurate accounts of passing boats were abandoned for estimates of their passenger contents, the number of persons for that year alone being placed at twelve thousand. But the boats then descending the Ohio carried other *i McMaster, op. cit., vol. i. 148. *- Monette, op. cit., vol. ii, 143 ; Bodley, Temple. The History of Kentucky before the Louisiana Purchase in iSoj (Louisville, 1928), 199-214. 66 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY cargo than passengers, most moving families being ac- companied by horses, cattle, sheep, hogs, farming im- plements, and household and kitchen goods - by every- thing, in fact, necessary to begin life anew in the wilder- ness. For instance during a seven months period includ- ing a part of 1786 and extending into 1787, one hundred seventy-seven boats passed Fort Harmar carrying car- goes estimated to contain 2,679 persons, 1,333 horses, 766 cattle, and 102 wagons, to say nothing of other particulars.^^ For a time the possibilities of this movement were disconcerting. It had originated in discontent, and, in its earlier stages, it seemed to encounter only snares and disappointments. Lands were plentiful and cheap, and crops were abundant; but in the absence of markets all were valueless beyond the means of a mere subsistence. Access to the only available market. New Orleans, had been denied, as had, also, the right to deposit goods there, even temporarily. Moreover, John Jay and the wily Gardoqui, who represented Spain, had considered a treaty by the terms of which the United States was to forego the use of the Mississippi river for a period of twenty-five years, receiving instead certain commercial concessions of primary benefit to New England. British and Spanish agents were, also, abroad in the interior with bribes of land and gold, and James Wilkinson and others were planning the alienation of at least a part of the West. Under such conditions it was feared that the improvised boats of the Ohio had carried their cargoes beyond the control of established governments, ^3 Schouler, James. History of the United States (Washington, 1887), vol. ii, 243-248; Roosevelt, T. Winning of the West (New York, 1889); Miss. Valley Hist. Reviev.; vol. vii, 26; Winsor, Justin. The JVestviard Movement (Boston, 1897) ; Phillips, U. B. American Negro Slavery (New York, 1918), 169. THE BOATMEN AS NATION BUILDERS 67 even beyond the reach and influence of home and kin. Letters and petitions from those recently settled in Ken- tucky spoke of a possible war with Spain, of proposed independent states in the Ohio valley, and of possible foreign alliances, provided the right to navigate the Mississippi freely was not otherwise assured." Fortunately counter influences were at work, fore- most of these being that of George Washington who had just relinquished command of the Revolutionary army. In 1784 he again visited the Ohio valley, this time to examine lands and study conditions. From his studies he concluded that the only way to bind the in- terior to the older sections of the country was by ties of commerce. He was struck, also, with the diffusion and the importance of the inland navigation of the United States and before returning to the East made surveys with a view to its improvement. Immediately upon his return he wrote Governor Harrison and other Virginians of the transportation needs and possibilities of the interior. Shortly thereafter he visited Richmond to lay before the general assembly of Virginia plans and proposals for connecting the eastern and western waters by means of canals." Meanwhile, other Virginians had sensed the trans- portation needs and possibilities of the interior. With one accord they seem to have thought of the state's many navigable rivers in which Patrick Henry recog- nized the "finger of heaven" marking out a course of empire, inviting new settlers to enterprise, and point- ing them to wealth and power.^" ^* McLaughlin, A. C. The Confederation and the Constitution (New York, 1905), Amer. Nation ser., vol. x, 94-101; Hulbert, op. cit. ■'^ Winsor, op. cit., 250-256; see also Filson Club Publications (Louisville, 1884-date. irreg.), no. 27, p. i8. ■*8 Winsor, op. cit., 248. 68 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY As a result Washington's suggestion for binding the East and the West by ties of commerce met with favor. In 1785 the Virginia assembly authorized the forma- tion of local canal companies for this purpose, Wash- ington becoming their first president. At the same time James Rumsey was promised an adequate reward for any invention he might make to propel boats against river currents, and a number of new roads were author- ized in the Trans-alleghany. Among these was a road to connect the navigable waters of the James and Kan- awha rivers, also, a road to connect Winchester and Romney with a possible extension to Morgantown and beyond, that would divert traffic from roads then being built and planned in Pennsylvania." The political results of Virginia's interest in internal commerce greatly accelerated the contemporaneous movement for a stronger central government. First, difficulties between Virginia and Maryland over the navigation of the Potomac river and Chesapeake bay were adjusted. This led to an attempt to adjust similar difficulties involving neighboring states and finally to the Philadelphia Convention, where the federal con- stitution was drafted. The paternity of this document has been generally attributed to Virginia, but few have appreciated her interest in its commercial provisions. This is probably due to the fact that Virginia's interests were chiefly in agriculture, those in commerce being largely potential and centering in the interior rather than on the high seas. They were, nevertheless, real, as was attested in the writings of her leaders, and by none more forcibly than by Washington. In a letter to Madison, dated *'' — Idem, 257; Callahan, J. M. Semi-Centennial History of tVest Vir- ginia (Charleston, 1913), 90-no. THE BOATMEN AS NATION BUILDERS 69 November 30, 1785, in reference to the movement that led directly to the making of a stronger national gov- ernment, he said: "It appears that no country in the universe is better calculated to derive benefit from in- land navigation than this [Virginia]."^* Appreciation of commercial opportunities under the proposed new government was a deciding factor with the delegates from Trans-alleghany Virginia in their vote for the ratification of the federal constitution. An outlet to market, either to the East or to the South, seemed more certain under the proposed stronger gov- ernment than under that of the Articles of Confedera- tion. But for the eloquence of Patrick Henry who spoke largely for the non-commercial sections of his state, the affirmative vote of the interior would have been all but unanimous. As it was, it included all the delegates, except one, from what is now West Virginia north of the Great Kanawha river, together with those of the Louisville district of what is now Kentucky." Meanwhile another westward movement into the Ohio valley had got under way, that was to continue, with slight interruptions but always with similar im- pulses and purposes, until the oceans were united by a continuous settlement. The choicest lands south of the Ohio having been taken. Congress opened to settlement the "Indian Country," as the lands north thereof were then called. Armed with a constitution, the famous Ordinance of 1787 for the government of the North- west Territory, which pointed the way to separate state- rs Winsor, op. c'tt., 256. •""Libby, O. G., "The Geographical Distribution of the Vote of the Thirteen States on the Federal Constitution, 1787-1788," in Bulletin of the Unwenity of Wisconsin (Madison, 1894), economics, political science, and history ser., vol. i, no. i ; Ambler, C. H. Sectionalism in I'irginia, I/y6-l86l (Chicago, 1910), 58. 70 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY hood for frontier peoples and guaranteed certain fundamental rights and liberties, Rufus Putnam, Man- asseh Cutler, and others of another Ohio Company, launched this movement. Their settlement at Marietta, April 7, 1788, was the first in what is now the state of Ohio. Moreover, in the same year, John Cleves Sym- mes made a settlement at Cincinnati, thus opening to permanent occupation a stretch of country several hun- dred miles long. Washington thought that no colony in America had been settled under more favorable auspices."" Like those that had preceded, the unprecedented im- migration movement that followed was made possible by the boats and boatmen of the Ohio. The founders of Marietta reached their destination in the "Mayflower," a namesake of the ship that bore their fathers to the bleak New England shores one hundred and sixty- eight years before. In the course of the first eleven months of 1788 more than nine hundred other boats descended the Ohio, most of them bound for Kentucky. They carried cargoes estimated to contain, among other things, eighteen thousand persons, almost eight thou- sand horses, about two thousand five hundred cattle, more than one thousand sheep, and almost as many hogs. In the older sections fear was expressed that the "fools going west would drain the East of its best blood." " To avert this and other possible catastrophies to the country at large. Congress, like the general assembly of Virginia, tried to keep the interior attached to the East by ties of interest. To this end one of its first acts, under '"Washington, Writings (ed. Ford), vol. xi, 282 ; Winsor, op. cit., 289-315. *i McMaster, op. cit., vol. i, 518; Schooler, op. cit., vol. ii, 242; Miss. Valley Hist. Review, vol. vii, 26. THE BOATMEN AS NATION BUILDERS 71 the constitution, was that making Louisville a port of entry. In the course of the twelve years immediately following, this act was followed by others giving Palmyra on the Cumberland, Cincinnati, Fort Massac, and Marietta similar designations. °" Numerous efforts were also made to adjust differences between the United States and both England and Spain regarding the interior, treaties of 1794 and 1795 resulting in the withdrawal of the former from the Northwest Ter- ritory and in permission from the latter allowing Amer- icans the right, temporarily, to deposit goods at New Orleans. Subsequently, and in anticipation of war, Con- gress provided for the construction of naval vessels on the Ohio and, during the Indian wars of the nineties, maintained a regular mail service between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati." The boats used by the government for this service were of the galley-keelboat type. They were armed and were operated in relays, changes being made at Limestone, Gallipolis, Marietta, and Wheel- ing, whence the service was continued overland by horses and wagons. The time for the round trip between Wheeling and Cincinnati was eighteen days, twelve up and six down.^* Despite these and other services the inhabitants of the Ohio valley did not hesitate to ask other things of the central government. This was particularly true when their right to use the Mississippi freely was ques- tioned, as it frequently was. Their requests were set ^- Hulbert, A. B., "Western Ship-building," in Amer. Hist. Revieiv, vol. xxi, 721. ^' U. S. House. Executive Documents, 50 cong., i sess., vol. xx, no. 6, pt. ii, 185; Thurston, George H. Allegheny County's Hundred Years, 103. ^* Magazine of Western History (New York, 1884-1888), vol. ii, 60; Ohio Arch, and Hist. Quarterly (Columbus, i9o6-date), vol. xxii, 60; Thurs- ton, op. cit., 103. 72 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY forth in numerous letters and petitions but in none more comprehensively than in one of 1798 which said, in part: The Mississippi is ours by the law of nature; it belongs to us by our numbers and by the labor which we have bestowed upon these spots, which before our arrival were desert and barren. Our innumer- able rivers swell it and flow with it into the Gulf of Mexico. Its mouth is the only issue which nature has given to our waters, and we wish to use it for our vessels. We do not prevent the Spanish and French from ascending the river to our towns and villages. We wish, in our turn, to descend it without any interruption to its mouth, to ascend it again, and to exercise our privilege of trading on it and navigating it at our pleasure. If our most entire liberty in this mat- ter is disputed, nothing will prevent our taking possession of the capital [of Louisiana], and when we are once master of it, we will know how to maintain ourselves there. If Congress refuses us effectual protection, if it forsakes us, we will adopt the measures which our safety requires, even if they endanger the peace of the Union and our connection with the other states. No protection, no allegiance.'" Such demands as the above had a direct bearing up- on the purchase of Louisiana. It might not be putting it too strongly to say that they made it imperative, even in the supposed absence of constitutional authority therefor. Months before it was made parties on the upper Ohio estimated the price that should be paid. More significant still, they calculated the ultimate loss to the Union in the event that Louisiana were allowed to pass to the permanent possession of either England or France, the amount being fixed at twenty times the price paid.^" Meanwhile the boatmen of the Ohio continued to ad- vance the material development of the interior. In 1798 they were transporting thence down the Mississippi, '^ U. S. House, op. cit., 182. ''^Pittsburgh Gazette, March 25, 1803; Hulbert, "Western Ship-build- ing," in Amer. Hist. Revieu; vol. xxi, 720. THE BOATMEN AS NATION BUILDERS 73 annually, goods valued at almost one million dollars which amount increased by more than three hundred thousand dollars during each of the years immediately following. By 1802 river shipments from Kentucky alone amounted to almost one million two hundred thousand dollars annually." Descending the Missis- sippi in 1 801 Moses Austin was surprised at the number of boats he saw from the Ohio.''* In 1807 almost two thousand flatboats and keelboats arrived in New Or- leans annually from that stream. They carried goods valued in excess of live million dollars. °^ Thus, through the aid of its boats and rivermen, the Ohio valley, by 1800, was practically transformed. A population of a few thousand twenty years before had grown to more than half a million. Kentucky and Ten- nessee were states in the Union, the former being ninth in population, having outgrown New Hampshire, Ver- mont, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Georgia; Ohio, with a population of forty-five thousand, was planning for statehood; former treasonable plottings had been submerged in visions of loyalty to a greater Union; and a tongue of settlement paralleling both sides of the Ohio and its tributaries reached the Mississippi and pointed to regions beyond. Six years later, Thomas Ashe, an English traveler descending the Ohio, found there many evidences of a well-developed and vigorous society. On the sites of the Indian camps of Washington's day were thriving vil- lages and cities: Pittsburgh, Steubenville, Wheeling, Marietta, Gallipolis, Limestone (Maysville), Cincin- nati, Louisville, and others, each with such composite ^' U. S. House, op. cit., 182-183 of Switzler's "Report." ^^ Barker, E. C, "Austin Papers," in Amer. Hist. Assoc. Report (Wash- ington, 1919), vol. ii, pt. I, 69-74. '''> U. S. House, op. cit., 185. 74 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY populations of English, Irish, and German peoples and such varied interests, as almost to defy description. Forests were rapidly giving way to cornfields; fruits and vegetables of many varieties were contributing to the revenues and sustenance of the inhabitants; from a thousand hills the voice of domestic animals broke the monotony of woodland and wave; and horse-racing, drinking, and gambling were favorite pastimes.*" In fact a rough and ready society, resourceful beyond precedent, crude beyond description, and independent beyond comparison, yet typically American, had planted itself in the Ohio valley. In the development of this society the river craft of the period supplied more than mere transportation. The fllatboat has been rightly proclaimed "the all important craft that made the Ohio a power in the world." Its services to early settlers alone would have entitled it to this distinction, but there were other achievements to its credit. Upon reaching its destination it and kindred craft, barges and arks, were "knocked down" and trans- formed into homes, barns, and even furniture and street paving materials. Thousands of homes along the Ohio, some of them of the better sort, were made from lumber taken from boats that bore their owners thither. This was certainly an unique service. Rarely have immi- grants to a new land come floating in their own homes, towing school houses and stores in their wake.^' But the boats of this period rendered still other serv- ices. Having supplied the needs of "moving families" for transportation, they were, as previously stated, next used to market surplus agricultural products. Mean- while, they were used as retail, or "boat stores." As 60 Ashe, Thomas. Travels in America (London, 1808). ^1 Flint, Recollections; Hulbert, The Ohio River, 230; Dunbar, op. cit., vol. I, 305-306. THE BOATMEN AS NATION BUILDERS 75 such, their more or less regular arrivals at river towns were heralded as community afifairs. As a rule, contem- plated landings were announced from the boat itself by the use of a bugle. Such a call summoned the women of the favored landing to their shopping. It was in this way only that many persons secured groceries, dry goods, crockery, china, paints, cutlery, boots and shoes, in fact all that merchandise most needed in a pioneer society. Fascinated by the aroma of store goods and by reports from the outside world, shoppers, both men and women, sometimes abandoned their regular routine and took a holiday, when the "boat store" came to town. It was a familiar sight along the Ohio until after the Civil war and was used until quite recently for the distribu- tion of china, glass ware, crockery, and other breakable merchandise. The contributions of Ohio boatmen were not, how- ever, confined to the material. The non-professional among them were real home builders. In fact, the con- tinuity of their home life was rarely broken, the daily routine of life on a flatboat not differing much from that on land, except for the actual work of navigation. At one end of the boat was a large room, often called a parlor or sitting room, where passengers ate their meals and children romped between times. Such boats were furnished with chairs, a table, a looking-glass, and such other articles as the women needed for their work. The kitchen was adjoining. A stove was set up there with its pipe projecting through the roof. A narrow passage way extended down the center of the boat for a con- siderable part of its length. In front the hall opened into the parlor, and on either side of it were several small bed-rooms. At the rear of the boat was another large compartment for the storage of provisions, fur- 76 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY niture, and agricultural implements, and still further astern was the abode of the live stock. The common experiences and privations of the boat- men tended to weld societies founded by them into one large family with an ever increasing bent toward na- tionalism. A boat in distress, and hundreds of them got into that plight, was a call for aid to all who saw it. Not to answer was to proclaim the offender a brigand, for the iron clad rule of the inland waters was help for all who needed it. It was this spirit that carried the boatmen to their future homes, collectively warding ofif Indians, escaping natural perils, bringing children into the world, and burying their dead. Their descendants are today regulating railroads, suppressing competition in restraint of trade, reducing infant and maternity mortality, and trying to subsidize agriculture, each by legislative enactments. Boatmen also had a part in developing those more personal traits, resourcefulness, patience, and hope, American characteristics that have ever since manifest themselves on trying occasions. Of these traits in the making James Hall, a noted English traveler, saw: Two large rafts lashed together, by which simple conveyance several families from New England were transporting themselves and their property to the land of promise in the western woods. Each raft was eighty or ninety feet long, with a small house erected on it ; and on each was a stack of hay, round which several horses and cows were feeding, while the paraphernalia of the farm yard, the ploughs, waggons, pigs, children, and poultry, carelessly distributed, gave to the whole more the appearance of a permanent residence, than of a caravan of adventurers seeking a home. A respectable looking old lady, with spectacles on nose, was seated on a chair at the door of one of the cabins, employed in knitting; another female was at the washtub; the men were chewing their tobacco, with as much com- placency as if they had been in the "land of steady habits," and the various family avocations seemed to go on like clock work. THE BOATMEN AS NATION BUILDERS 77 Furthermore, said he, In this manner these people travel at slight expense. They bring their own provisions ; their raft floats with the current ; and honest Jonathan, surrounded with his scolding, grunting, squalling, and neighing dependents, floats to the point proposed without leaving his own fireside.*- Possibly the greatest service of the boatmen in the development of American nationality was that of keep- ing young America attached to old America. Without this service the fears, and in some instances the hopes, of those who had predicted dismemberment as a result of the early westward movement, would have come true. This service was the special contribution of the keelboat. If the flatboat made the Ohio "a power in the world," the keelboat made that power national, for, as has been aptly said by another, writing of the calamity howlers of the time, "they never heard a boatman's horn or read aright its simple and powerfully patriotic mes- sage."*' Many of those who fought in the armies of the Revolution did so to preserve America as a land of opportunity, and to them opportunity meant largely new homes. Under such conditions the hardships en- countered in reaching the interior were only sequels to independence. The tears and sufferings of pioneer wom- en eti route, the deprivations endured by boys and girls, and the sacrifices and adventures of men only enhanced the love of all for their common country. All that was needed to maintain common interests, hopes, and as- pirations was an adequate means of intercommunica- tion. Proofs of these generalizations are numerous, but no one of them is more significant than the failure of Aaron Burr to rehabilitate himself in the West follow- 62 Hall, James. Letters from the IVest (London, 1828), 87. 83 Hulbert, op. cit., 6-7. 78 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY ing his unsuccessful effort of 1804 to become governor of New York and his subsequent killing of his chief political rival, Alexander Hamilton, in a duel. When Burr visited the West in 1805 conditions there were ripe for the successful consummation of almost any adventure. Politics were unsettled; Spain was not yet reconciled to the necessity of giving up her long cher- ished plans for territorial expansion in the Mississippi valley; and everywhere settlers were dissatisfied with existing conditions, transportation being inadequate, markets poor, and protection against the savage foe in- effective. Moreover, Burr was popular in the West, where his killing of Hamilton was generally regarded as a patriotic service. He was able, also, to find there kindred spirits in the person of James Wilkinson and others, and the existing means of transportation, al- though inadequate for other purposes, were suited to the ends of destruction. With boats hastily constructed on the Ohio and the Cumberland, Burr and his accom- plices finally reached the lower Mississippi, where they were arrested. Their plans, whatever they may have involved, had, meanwhile, aroused the patriotic oppo- sition of the West which swept them to pitiful failure."* A tragic incident of this adventure was as significant as was its failure. This was the ruin of Harman Blen- nerhassett, an eccentric and gullible Irishman who, a few years before, had acquired a part of Backus island (now Blennerhassett island) in the Ohio just below what is now Parkersburg (then Newport), where he had built a palatial residence. This Burr visited in the absence of its owner and interested its hospitable mis- tress in the possibility of still finer homes to be built on 61 — Idem, chap. 12; Gibbens, Alvaro F. Historic Blennerhassett Island Home (Parkersburg, W. Va., 1899) ; Lippincolfs Magazine (Philadelphia, 1868-1916), February, 1879. THE BOATMEN AS NATION BUILDERS 79 lands still farther to the westward. In turn she inter- ested her husband, already dissatisfied, and as a conse- quence he decided to cast his lot with Burr, with results already indicated. Ever since, the latter has been de- scribed as The despoiler of a tempting eden That knew no impulse to demur. The Burr incident was, however, only a flurry. It was soon spent, and the inhabitants of the Ohio valley went on planting crops, accumulating surpluses of farm products, fostering infant industry, and perfecting their inadequate transportation. To all these activities the War of 1 812 gave new impetus but to none more than to commerce. Travelers commented upon the increased number of boats ascending and descending the Ohio. The hazards of ocean travel had increased the inter- dependence of inland communities. From the "up country" the lower Mississippi now received annually increasing quantities of fruits, flour, whiskey, lard, pork, bale-rope, bagging yarn, venison, fowls, and fea- thers, giving in exchange cotton, wine, sugar, hides, coffee, indigo, copper, salt, and salt-peter. Products from the lower Mississippi were, also, now temporarily finding markets in the East by way of the Ohio and Pittsburgh, a keelboat reaching that port almost daily from the south during a large part of the period of hostilities. ''" The results are well expressed by Judge Hall who made a second tour of America in 1820. Everywhere in the Ohio valley he then found numerous evidences of future national greatness. For example, the number of children there was surpassed only by the squirrels of the surrounding forests. Although most of these chil- ^= Cramer, Zadok. Navigator (Pittsburgh, 1818). 8o TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY dren lived in log huts, they were, nevertheless, as "plump and active as health, hard fare, and exercise could make them." Moreover, their environment was one of the most wholesome in the world, for here Thomas Ashe, another traveler, had already witnessed "the novel spectacle of the coming together of the na- tions of the world, each bringing its own language, politics, and religion, and all sitting quietly down to- gether to erect states, make institutions, and enact laws without bloodshed and disorder." In it all he recog- nized the workings of some mysterious force attracting peoples to a common center and welding them into a great and powerful nation. shipbuilding on the Inland Waters** For more than half a century following 1760 the transportation facilities of inland America, always poor, were discouragingly inadequate. Worse still, most persons directly interested were wedded to old-time methods, pack-horses, wagons, and non-mechanical river craft. A few only were determined to solve the difficulties of the situation, with them necessity being the mother of invention. Moreover, the future of Amer- ica seemed to depend upon their success, and fabulous fortunes were in store for those who achieved it, to say nothing of consequent benefits. In the solution of this problem many plans were pro- posed, and others were cogitated. Accustomed to the use of sea-going vessels for navigating the high seas and the rivers of tidewater America there were, from the first, those who thought of using them on the "Father of Waters" and its chief tributary, the Ohio. It is probably significant that most proposals to this end emanated from Philadelphia. As early as 1761 Father Abraham's Almanac, published in that city, predicted that Fort Pitt, then only a frontier outpost, would become a shipbuilding center, sending thence "every spring" sailing vessels of from one to two hun- dred tons burden. Already mention has been made of *° For data used in this chapter the author aclcnowledges indebtedness to Professor A. B. Hulbert's "Western Ship-building," in Amer. Hist. Reviev.; vol. xxi, 720-733, also to R. T. Wiley's "Ship and Brig Building on the Ohio and its Tributaries," in Ohio Arch, and Hist. Quarterly, vol. xxii, 54-64. 82 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY an "Address" of 1770 from Benjamin Franklin and others to Lord Hillsborough suggesting the practicabil- ity of building sloops and schooners on the Ohio to be used for carrying food supplies thence to the West Indies and raw materials to the "manufactories" of Europe. The independence of the American colonies did not terminate these suggestions. As already indi- cated, they gave rise to a new immigration movement into the Ohio valley, that made access to markets on the part of its inhabitants imperative. Meanwhile leaders in the immigrant movement continued to place great store on the possibilities of the Ohio and the Missis- sippi. Manasseh Cutler, one of the founders of Mari- etta, Ohio, expected to see these streams "more laden than any ... on earth" with "heavy articles suited to the Florida and West India markets." Nor did he ex- pect this traffic to be entirely down stream, for said he: "It has been found by experiments that sails are used to great advantage against the current of the Ohio." " The example of American sea-board sailors of the time was inspiring to the would-be salts of the interior. Denied coveted and expected commercial relations with the mother country. New England shipbuilders directed their barques to the Spanish West Indies and to South America; their whalers reached the mouth of the Columbia; their heavier craft even found a way to China and Japan; and by 1800 they had practically succeeded in driving foreign merchantmen from our waters, leaving to them only eleven per cent of our total exports and imports as compared with seventy-six per cent carried by foreigners only ten years before. These activities of American merchantmen, together with the current rumors of war, contributed, also, to give us a ^' Magazine of Western History, vol. ii, 258. SHIPBUILDING ON THE INLAND WATERS 83 navy and a broadened outlook regarding our interests and rights upon the high seas/* At this time the Ohio valley contained shipbuilders and shipbuilding materials in abundance. The former came largely from New England, w^hereas the latter were produced locally. A subsequent writer described them in these words : Along the Muskingum and the Monongahela towered large forests of black walnut, a wood so lasting that farmers, plowing deep, to this day encounter roots of black walnut trees felled a cen- tury ago. Timbers of this wood could be had of great length ; they had nearly the strength of white oak and the durability of the live oak of the South but without its weight. Vessels with frames of this timber planked with seasoned oak would have, it was believed, pref- erence over ships of any other material in any port where there were competent judges. The necessary iron for ships at first had to be obtained from the East, as it was a year or two before the bar-iron works near Pittsburgh were, to quote their proprietor, sufficiently "upheld by the hand of the Almighty" to operate with regularity. Cordage . . . was being made in greater quantities than even the large local demand required ; numerous rope-walks existed at Pittsburgh, Marietta, and Cincinnati, being supplied with hemp from adjacent territor\', where it had been found growing wild by the first comers.^' It is not known when or where the first sea-going ves- sel was built in the Ohio valley. Elizabeth, Pennsyl- vania, had a ship-yard before the government under the federal constitution was established. In 1793 a schooner built there descended the Ohio and the Mississippi rivers by "that extraordinary inland navigation" and subsequently arrived safely in Philadelphia.'" That this feat was repeated shortly thereafter seems probable. The private papers of John Brisbane Walker, a noted ^8 Marvin, W. L. The American Merchant Marine (New York, 1910), chaps. 3-6; Amer. Hist. Revieiv, vol. xxi, 721-722. ^^ Hulbert, op. cit., 722. "0 Gallatin's "Report," in Inland Waterways Commission. Preliminary Report (Washington, 1908), 553. 84 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY editor and a grandson of John Walker, owner of the Elizabeth ship-yard, contains a passport in these words: "I grant free and sure passport to John Walker in order that on the schooner Polly, her captain, Mr. John Bain, he may go to New York, showing his bag- gage at the office of the royal duty. Given in New Or- leans on the 17th of July, 1795. Baron de Carondalet."" There is a bare possibility that this "Polly" was the same vessel that descended the Ohio in 1793. It will be recalled that that vessel reached Philadelphia. In any event, at least one sea-going craft was built on the Ohio before the opening of the last century. It also descended to New Orleans and passed thence to the high seas." The contemporary troubles with Spain, still pending at that time, over the free navigation of the Mississippi, seem to have checked, temporarily, shipbuilding on the Ohio. Although that power, in 1795, granted Amer- icans permission to deposit goods at New Orleans, the concession was temporary and was followed by re- peated threats of revocation. Under such conditions commercial ventures, on a large scale by the use of ships, were too hazardous to be attempted. When the period of the Spanish concession finally expired in 1798 and a request for renewal was denied, American fron- tiersmen demanded war and induced Congress to pre- pare for that contingency. To this end two armed sea- going vessels, the "President Adams" and the "Senator Ross," were built at Pittsburgh. Although little is known of the subsequent use of these vessels, their qual- ities for sea service can not be doubted. According to Major Isaac Craig the former was "as fine a vessel of '1 Ohio Arch, and Hist. Quarterly, vol. xxii, 6i. '= Hulbert, A. B. The Paths of Inland Commerce (New Haven, 1921), Chronicles of Araer. series, vol. xxi, 95 ; Ohio Arch, and Hist. Quarterly, vol. xxii, 56-60. SHIPBUILDING ON THE INLAND WATERS 85 her burden and construction, as the United States pos- sesses," and he pronounced the latter "a fine piece of naval architecture, and one which will far exceed any- thing the Spanish can show on the Mississippi." " Subsequent concessions on the part of Spain diverted American activities into the paths of peace. Fortunately conditions on the frontier and in the world at large made such a shift possible and profitable. Both Spain and England had ceased to occupy territory belonging to the United States; the savage power in the North- west was broken, thanks to the prowess of General Wayne; leading settlements on the lower Ohio were already ports of entry; throughout the Ohio valley sur- pluses of agricultural products were increasing annual- ly; and, best of all, European wars insured high prices for any farm products that could be got to market, either in the West Indies or in Europe. Already sea- board sections of the United States, particularly the Potomac valley and Piedmont Virginia, were supply- ing England with large quantities of wheat at good prices." Meanwhile, the annually increasing surpluses of the interior could not be sold at all for lack of access to market. Hence it was that farmers of western Penn- sylvania were compelled to feed their wheat to cattle, and their "rye, corn, and barley had almost no value for man or beast." '° It was under these conditions that shipbuilding first became an important and, for a time, a leading industry on the Ohio and its tributaries. Influenced doubtless by the plans and purposes of her founders. Marietta seems to have led the way. In 1800 Stephen Devol built there " Thurston, op. cit., 103. '* See W. F. Galpin's "The Grain Trade of New Orleans," in Miss. Valley Hist. Revieiv, vol. xiv, 496. '" Western Pennsylvania Hist. Magazine, vol. vi, 182. 86 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY the brig "St. Clair" of one hundred ten tons burden. In May of that year this vessel cleared the Port of Marietta for Havana, Cuba, under the command of Commodore Abraham Whipple of Revolutionary fame. She carried flour and pork and was manned by an inexperienced crew, her commander being the only person on board who could determine latitude and longitude. To avoid the payment of duties and other possibile recognitions of Spanish authority, she did not land at New Orleans, anchoring instead mid-stream in the Mississippi. In August, 1800, she reached Havana, whence she cleared with a cargo of salt for Phila- delphia. Here she was sold, her commander returning home by land. The return of Commodore Whipple to the sea after an absence of almost a generation was an event so spec- tacular and unusual as to set the poetic muse working in the mind of his fellow townsman. Captain Jonathan Devol, who commemorated the event in the following lines in which Neptune and the Tritons joined in wel- coming the old hero to their dominions : The Triton crieth : 'Who comes now from shore?' Neptune replieth ' 'Tis old Commodore, Long has it been since I saw him before. In the year seventy-five from Columbia he came, The pride of the Briton on ocean to tame; And often, too, with the gallant crew Hath he crossed the belt of the ocean blue On the Gallic coast I have seen him post, While his thundering cannon lulled my waves And roused my nymphs from their coral caves, When he fought for freedom with all his braves In the war of the Revolution. SHIPBUILDING ON THE INLAND WATERS 87 But now he comes from the western woods, Descending slow with gentle floods, The pioneer of a mighty train, Which commerce brings to my domain.' Up, sons of the wave, Greet the noble and the brave - Present your arms unto him. His gray hair shows Life's near its close ; Let's pay the honors due him. Sea maids attend with lute and lyre, And bring your conchs, my triton sons ; A chorus blow to the aged sire, A welcome to my dominions.'" About the same time the "Monongahela Farmer" of two hundred fifty tons was built at Elizabeth, on the Monongahela, by the Walkers. She was the property of twenty local farmers, each owning an equal share. With a cargo containing, among other things, 721 bar- rels of flour, 500 barrels of whiskey, 4000 deer skins, 2000 bear skins, large quantities of hemp, flax, firearms, ammunition, and provisions for a crew of eight, she left the upper Ohio in May, 1800. In her descent of that stream she was attacked by Indians, lost one of her crew by drowning, and was delayed at the Falls three months by low water. She finally reached New Orleans where her cargo was disposed of to advantage, despite the fact that much of the flour had soured in the hold of the vessel. Thence, full rigged, and with a new cap- tain, the "Monongahela Farmer" entered the regular trade between New Orleans and the West Indies. Cap- tain Walker returned home to superintend the construc- tion of the brig "Ann Jane" of four hundred fifty tons, '^ Howe, Henry. Historical Collections of Ohio (Cincinnati, 1888), vol. ii, 790; Lyford, W. G. Western Address Director, 1837 (Baltimore, 1837); Hulbert, The Ohio Ri'ver, 241. 88 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY which departed, in due time, from the upper Ohio for New York with a cargo of flour and whiskey." Meanwhile the Tarascons and others were establish- ing shipbuilding in Pittsburgh. Influenced doubtless by conditions already indicated, possibly also by a desire to aid the French Directorate, Louis Anastacius Taras- con, a French merchant of Philadelphia, in 1799, sent two clerks "to examine the course of the Ohio and Mis- sissippi from Pittsburgh to New Orleans, and ascertain the practicability of sending ships, and clearing them ready rigged, from Pittsburgh to Europe and the West Indies." The report of his agents was favorable, and soon thereafter he and his associates under the firm name of "John A. Tarascon Brothers, James Berthoud & Co.," established, at Pittsburgh, "a large wholesale and retail store and warehouse, a shipyard, a rigging and sail loft, an anchor smithshop, a block manufac- tory, and all other things necessary to complete sea- going vessels." " As shipbuilders the Tarascons and associates gave a good account of themselves. The first year of operations, 1 801, they built the schooner "Amity" of one hundred twenty tons, also, the ship "Pittsburgh" of two hundred fifty tons. Both vessels went to sea at once, the former loaded with flour, to St. Thomas, the latter, also loaded with flour, to Philadelphia. In time they both reached Bordeaux, France, and returned thence to America with a cargo of wine, brandy, and other goods, some of which came to Pittsburgh by the overland route from Philadelphia. These vessels were followed in turn by the brig "Nanina" of two hundred fifty tons, 1802; the " Elizabeth (Pa.) Herald, June 7, 1900. '8 Thurston, op. cit., 103. SHIPBUILDING ON THE INLAND WATERS 89 ship "Louisiana" of three hundred tons, 1803, and, in 1804, by the ship "Western Trader" of four hundred tons ; and by still others. Because of her somewhat typical experience the career of the "Louisiana" is here given in some detail. Sailing in ballast from Pittsburgh she stopped first at Marietta, the home of her owner, E. W. Tupper, where she was re-christened, becoming the "Louisiana of Marietta." Her next stop was at the mouth of the Cum- berland river where she took aboard a cargo of cotton, staves, and hides. After grounding in the Ohio and be- calming in the Gulf of Mexico, and subsequently pro- testing the cause of each delay, that her master and crew might escape responsibility for damages to ship and cargo from causes beyond their control, the "Louisiana of Marietta" reached the Gulf Stream and finally ar- rived at Norfolk, Virginia, weeks behind her expected time. Here she shifted her crew and again protested, "blaming the calms and weather, the sickness of the crew and all other events and occurrences aforesaid for all the losses, costs, charges, damages, and expenses." Reaching Liverpool, England, at an unknown date, she took on a cargo of merchandise for Trieste, Italy. At Messina, Sicily, a stop was made to protest "not against Scylla and Charybdis" but against "repeated gales and bad weather." Here her cargo was "surveyed" and found to be damaged "through the laboring of the ves- sel." After some delay at Trieste due to difficulty in establishing her identity, the Italians insisting that there was no such port in the world as Marietta, the "Louis- iana of Marietta," in the "Year of Human Salvation 1805," was given legal permission to return to Liver- pool. Thence in time, she again reached Philadelphia go TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY bringing, among other things, more than four thousand bushels of white salt. With Philadelphia as a home port, she continued to ply the high seas for years.'^ Following these initial successes shipbuilding be- came a popular and profitable industry on the Ohio and some of its tributaries, particularly the Mononga- hela. Of the possibilities the Tree of Liberty (Pitts- burgh) for May 30, i8oi,said: The spirit of enterprise which exists now is really worthy of a free and industrious people. Traders need not be confined to one market, but may carry the products of the western country to any port in their own vessels. Travelers commented upon the industry. For example Michaux, 1802, said: What many, perhaps, are ignorant of in Europe is, that they build large vessels on the Ohio, and at the town of Pittsburgh. One of the principal shipyards is upon the Monongahela, about two hundred fathoms beyond the last houses of the town. The timber they make use of is white oak, the red oak, the black oak, a kind of nut wood [walnut], the Virginia cherry, and a kind of pine which they use for masting, as well as for the sides of the vessels, which require a slighter wood. . . . The cordage is manufactured at Redstone and Lexington, where there are two extensive rope-walks, which also supply ships with rigging that are built at Marietta and Louisville.'^* In spite of advantages, difficulties encountered by the builders and operators of these vessels were numerous, discouraging, sometimes fatal. First of all these craft were built to sail in the high seas and not on inland rivers. Although the possibilities of craft of the latter construction were realized at an early date,*" 1803, the '» For a somewhat different version of this account see Lloyd, James T. Steamboat Directory and Disasters on the IVestern Waters (Cincinnati, 1856), 41. '8" See Michaux's "Travels" in Thwaites, Early Western Travels, vol. iii, 160. 80 Pittsburgh Gazette, May 20, 1802. SHIPBUILDING ON THE INLAND WATERS 91 tendency was to follow the conventions of maritime construction. Thus some of the first ships built on the Ohio drew ten feet of water; still others had holds twelve feet deep. The use of such vessels restricted sailings to the freshet season, spring, and increased the hazards of navigation. It will be recalled that the "Monongahela Farmer" was delayed three months at the Falls of the Ohio because of low water. Such pos- sibilities restricted cargoes to non-perishable articles, glutted markets, and made for low prices generally, even in the West Indies. It was partly because of such conditions, in the spring of 1803, that the price of flour in New Orleans fell from nine to five dollars per bar- rel, which was little more than the price then paid in Pittsburgh. ^^ From such conditions the commercial loss of that city alone, for 1802, reached sixty thousand dol- lars." But the greatest difficulty encountered by inland commerce was lack of credit. Banks existed, but they were few and far between and could not meet the de- mands made upon them even by unhazardous invest- ments. Chief reliance was upon the East, particularly Philadelphia, which was an exacting creditor, the pro- verbial shrewdness of her lawyers, as displayed in ad- justing accounts and guarding contracts, lingering to this day among the unpleasant traditions of the Ohio valley. Many moons passed between the time of plant- ing a crop and that of selling its surplus product. Mean- while tonnage was required to market the latter, and a new crop had to be planted. Frequently those who sup- plied the necessary credit to finance the operations did so on faith ; others simply took a chance. *i — Idem, May 27, 1803. *- Pittsburgh Tree of Liberty, October 9, 1802. 92 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY The wide leeway given John Walker, master of the "Monongahela Farmer," in the instructions given him for the disposal of that ship and its cargo, was not only a tribute to him personally but, also, emphasized some of the uncertainties involved in such commercial enter- prises. First of all, he was to proceed to New Orleans without delay. Should "the flour markets for flour be low" there and "the vessel appear to sell to disad- vantage," he was to dispose of a part of the cargo and use the proceeds to rig and man the ship so that he might carry it to any islands that he, in his judgment and information, might elect. Thus this particular ad- venture was self-sustaining, certainly in emergencies. Walker's ability to sell sour flour direct to the cracker makers of New Orleans, thus thwarting the exacting commission merchants of that place,*' was a bit of good fortune which could not be depended upon to finance future undertakings. Nevertheless, profits from such ventures as the above were sometimes fabulous and always appealed to pi- oneer ingenuity. Devices for sharing possible losses as well as possible gains were all that was needed to in- spire ventures. To this end, in 1802, residents of Pitts- burgh and vicinity, under the leadership of the vener- able Ebenezer Zane, founder of Wheeling, formed an association of exporters known as the Ohio Company. Although an alliance with eastern merchants and bank- ers was contemplated, membership in this association was restricted to residents of southwestern Pennsyl- vania and northwestern Virginia. The capital stock was one hundred thousand dollars divided into shares of one hundred dollars each. Somewhat later the 83 Elizabeth Herald, June 7, 1900; Hulbert, The Ohio River, 243. SHIPBUILDING ON THE INLAND WATERS 93 Miami Exporting Company was authorized with re- sources restricted exclusively to commercial uses." Just as the shipbuilding and exporting interests of the Ohio valley were getting on their feet financially they received a shock that was felt around the world. On October 16, 1802, the Spanish intendant at New Orleans formally refused to continue to permit Amer- icans to deposit goods there and gave them forty days to leave Spanish territory, pending its transfer to France. Already American frontiersmen had spec- ulated upon the possibilities of such a contingency. Some had even estimated the ensuing loss to the United States, one placing it at three hundred thousand dol- lars, a fabulous sum for that day.^^ The results of the above announcement were, therefore, immediate and paralyzing. Silence reigned in the boatyards; agricul- ture came to a standstill; and credit again became de- moralized, goods valued at almost two million dollars having gone into the interior during the previous year, most of them on promises to pay. Again westerners ex- pressed a desire to "arm ourselves, descend the river, and take New Orleans," regardless of who owned it. Napoleon and Jefferson were condemned alike in the same breath. Luckily the outcome was again favorable to the in- terior. Instead of Louisiana being transferred perma- nently to France, it was transferred to the United States, France acting only as an intermediary. The attitude of inland America, as expressed above, had doubtless helped to soften Jefferson's scruples regard- ing the constitutionality of the proposed purchase and 8* Pittsburgh Gazette, October 8, 1802. *^ — Idem, October 22, 1802; idem, February 18, 1803; idem, March 25, 1803. 94 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY to make it possible. In any event local interests in the Ohio valley now prepared to make the most of a great opportunity. It was at this time that the Ohio Company effected a banking alliance with the Bank of Pennsyl- vania, located in Philadelphia, in what may have been the first of such arrangements between the Ohio valley and the Atlantic coast. The fact that this arrangement grew out of the exigencies of the shipbuilders and ex- porters of the former section is significant. Moreover, about the same time, more local banks came into exist- ence, one in Kentucky and another in New Orleans, and shortly thereafter shipbuilding in the Ohio valley at- tained its greatest importance. Of the commercial pos- sibilities of the interior Jefiferson, in a letter to the first governor of Louisiana, said : "New Orleans will be forever, as it is now, the mighty mart of the merchan- dise brought from more than a thousand rivers, unless prevented by some accident in human affairs. This rapidly increasing city will, in no distant time, leave the emporia of the Eastern World far behind." '"^ The commercial results of the purchase were imme- diate. Among other things a commercial chain, long in process of formation, was completed, connecting the East, the West, and the South by way of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and New Orleans. The strongest links in this chain were the merchants and exporters of the Ohio valley. They purchased goods in the East on credit, and sold them to inland farmers at a profit, re- ceiving in payment farm products which formed car- goes for ships and schooners locally built. In turn both cargoes, ships and schooners were sold either in south- ern or Atlantic markets; if in the former, local prod- ^^ Amer. Hist. Re'vieio, vol. xxi, 731; U. S. House. Executive Documents, 50 cong., I sess., vol. xx, no. 6, pt. ii, 185. SHIPBUILDING ON THE INLAND WATERS 97 ucts, cotton, sugar, tobacco, etc., were accepted in pay- ment and re-sold in the latter, where the vessels them- selves found their best market. For instance, the "Ohio," which sailed from Marietta in 1804, was sold the same year in Philadelphia for ten thousand dollars exclusive of her cargo." The volume of traffic descending the Ohio in sea- going vessels during the early years of the last century can not be ascertained, the incomplete port records of the time making no distinction between it and that car- ried by other craft. It is certain that dozens of such craft descended to New Orleans and beyond, many of them with capacity cargoes. During the period at least twenty-five sailing craft were built about the mouth of the Muskingum and descended thence to the high seas. Contemporary accounts mention shipbuilding in Allen- town, Freeport, Wheeling, Cincinnati, Louisville, and other places in addition to those already mentioned elsewhere.*^ Mason's map of Pittsburgh for 1805 shows twelve sailing vessels and an extensive ship- yard.'" The shipbuilding possibilities of the Ohio val- ley now attracted agents of eastern firms, who built there sea-going vessels for use on the Atlantic. For ex- ample, the "Francis" and the "Robert Hall" of New York and the "Dean" of Philadelphia were built on the Ohio, the first two at Marietta and the last at Pitts- burgh. According to the Liverpool Saturday Adver- tiser for July 9, 1803, the "Dean" was the first vessel "which ever came to Europe from the western waters ^^ Ashe, Travels in America, 20; Amer. Hist. Review, vol. xxi, 728-729; Thwaites, op. cit., vol. iii, 158-159. ** Ohio Arch, and Hist. Quarterly, vol. xxii, 62. 8" Cramer, Zadolc. Navigator (Pittsburgh, 1818), 60; Pittsburgh Gazette Times, July 2, 1922 ; idem, July 9, 1922. 98 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY of the United States." '" A conservative estimate placed a value of one million dollars on the sailing craft built on the Ohio during the first eight years of the last cen- tury. It is doubtful, however, whether the material results of this industry were the most important. Along with these came a broadened outlook that led inland Amer- ica to participate in world commerce and aroused its interest in international affairs. Henceforth New Or- leans was more than a convenient market for the car- goes of flatboats and barges. It was a window from which, for the first time, interior America could view the world to advantage. That is why Jackson's subse- quent victory over the British at New Orleans meant more to inland America than did the victory of Wash- ington and Lafayette at Yorktown. Ever since the for- mer event there were those who have commented upon the anomaly of a war launched and waged by an inland people to establish their right to use the high seas. Unfortunately the events leading to this war worked irreparable injury to the shipbuilding industry on the Ohio. Misled by the poetic license of a local bard of Marietta, who celebrated Independence Day, 1808, and incidentally took a fling at the administration, some persons have concluded that this industry was ruined "forever." " The language of the local bard was indeed deceptive. He said : Our ships all in motion Once whitened the Ocean They sailed and returned with a cargo; Now doomed to decay They have fallen a prey To Jefferson, worms, and Embargo. ^"Amer. Hist. Review, vol. xxi, 729-730. 81 — Idem, 732. SHIPBUILDING ON THE INLAND WATERS 99 Records seem to indicate, however, that sea-going craft continued to be built on the Ohio in the years immediately following 1808. Gallatin's report of that year on internal improvements, prepared in obedience to a resolution of the Senate of March 2, 1807, says: Numerous vessels, from one hundred to three hundred and fifty tons burden, are now annually built at several shipyards on the Ohio, even as high up as Pittsburgh, and bringing down to New Orleans the produce of the upper country consumed there, carry to Europe and the Atlantic ports of the United States the cotton, the sugar, and the tobacco of Louisiana and of the states of Tennessee and Kentucky."^ It may be recalled incidentally that Gallatin resided on the Monongahela not far from Pittsburgh. Further- more, continued his report: That branch of national industry gives value to the immense forests of the Ohio and of its numerous branches, and will soon make a considerable, and perhaps necessary, accession to the shipping of the United States, and has a tendency to diminish the price of freights from New Orleans to the other American and to foreign ports. The importance of this last consideration will be duly felt, if the magnitude of the exports of which New Orleans is destined to be the emporium, be contrasted with the probable amount of its im- portations; for such are the labor, time and expense necessary to ascend the rapid stream of the Mississippi . . . that, whilst the greater part of the produce of the immense country, watered by that river and its tributary streams must, necessarily be exported through its channel, the importations of a considerable portion of that country will continue to be supplied from the Atlantic seaports, by water and land communications, susceptible of considerable improvement ; and thus, unless another outlet be found for a portion of the exports, or unless the upper country can supply vessels, those exports must necessarily pay a double freight. Thus, in 1808, it seemed necessary to the best interest of the Ohio valley, as well as of the country at large, '2 Inland Waterways Commission. Preliminary Report, 553. loo TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY that inland shipbuilding be continued. Moreover, the subsequent writings of travelers described ships in pro- cess of construction and in action on the Ohio. In the last days of 1810 a brig of one hundred sixty tons bur- den descended that stream from the Allegheny,"" and for years thereafter Pittsburgh and neighboring ports maintained "ship-yards." It was not until 181 1 that Zadok Cramer, editor and publisher of the Navigator and a careful observer of local events, bade adieu to the "white sail of commerce" of the interior. In an- nouncing the completion of the "New Orleans," the first steamboat on the Ohio, he said: "Now the white sail of commerce is to give place to vessels propelled by steam." It is true that flatboats, barges, arks, and keelboats sometimes used sails; but their main reliance for motive power was upon currents and brawn, and they continued to be used for decades. Moreover, Cramer himself later attributed the decline of ship- building on the Ohio to the "misfortunes and accidents" in getting ships thence to the ocean." Some may ask, what did kill early shipbuilding on the Ohio, if it was not the Embargo? To this question one might answer that it was not killed, it died ; and as usual under such conditions a number of things con- tributed to its passing. Among the most important of these was the absence of credit facilities. Despite the stabilizing influences of the Louisiana Purchase, money could not be had at any price in inland America, cer- tainly not for hazardous undertakings. Furthermore, no attempt was made to improve the navigation of the in- land rivers until well into the nineteenth century, the consequent delays at the Falls of the Ohio being de- ^^ Cramer, op. cil., 20; Ohio Arch, and Hist. Quarterly, vol. xxii, 64. '* Cramer, op. cit., 60. SHIPBUILDING ON THE INLAND WATERS loi structive of more than patience. Inland-built sailing craft continued to be designed, also, for use on the high seas and not for navigating the inland rivers, years being required before artisans learned to design steamboats for the latter use. Finally, possibly the de- cisive factor in the passing of the shipbuilding industry of the Ohio valley of this period was the coming of the steamboat, as indicated by Cramer. But, like later steamboat building on the Ohio, ship- building there had a "come-back," made possible by the developments of the years immediately following our second war with Great Britain. On the high seas the American clipper ship became a formidable com- petitor for all commerce; repeal of the English Corn Laws created a foreign demand for American food products; and the annexation of Texas stimulated the African slave trade, regardless of the fact that England and other countries then condemned it as piracy. More- over, at home the corporate method had simplified financing; the inhabitants of the Ohio valley had learned needed lessons in business cooperation, as was attested by the numerous banks that had been estab- lished there; and initial steps had been taken to im- prove the navigation both of the Ohio and the Mis- sissippi. It was under these changed conditions that citizens of Marietta, in 1844, organized the Marietta Ship Company, a joint-stock concern. Although the incor- porators had forgotten the art of shipbuilding, they had not forgotten the land of shipbuilders in America. Ac- cordingly they turned to New England, the home of their fathers, where they found a master builder. Cap- tain Ira Ellis. Under his directions a ship-yard that bore his name was established in Marietta. I02 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY The first sea-faring craft built at Marietta in this period of construction was the "Muskingum." She was launched in 1844, full rigged, except for her sails which were made in Boston and set in New Orleans. She left Marietta in March, 1844, being towed by a steamboat thence to Cincinnati, where she received her cargo. Thence she was towed to New Orleans whence she sailed under the command of Captain Wm. R. Wells direct to Liverpool, England. Of her safe arrival there the Times of that city, January 30, 1845, in a statement at some variance with facts, said: We have received a file of Cincinnati news papers, brought by the first vessel that ever cleared out of that city for Europe. The building of a vessel of 350 tons on a river 1700 miles from the sea, in itself, is a remarkable circumstance, both as a proof of the magnificence of the American rivers and the spirit of the American people. The navigation of such a vessel down the Ohio and the Mississippi and thence across the Atlantic would, a few years ago, have been thought impossible. She brings a cargo of provisions, and we trust that the success of this first venture will be such as to en- courage its frequent repetition.'^ Later the "Marietta," an exact counterpart of the "Muskingum," was built at Marietta and sent thence to the sea, also under command of Captain Wells. From New Orleans she sailed to Boston, where an effort was made to sell her. Failing in this her captain turned to the high seas and made many voyages, one of which carried her to Montevideo, South America. It was there that the "Marietta" met her sister ship, the "Muskingum," the two lying side by side in that port for some time. To those familiar with the anti-slavery traditions of Marietta the hankerings of her sailing craft of the forties for the environs of Africa would '5 Cist, Charles. Cincinnati in 1S51 (Cincinnati, 1851), 322. SHIPBUILDING ON THE INLAND WATERS 103 indicate that not all her inhabitants were interested in underground railroads. The second period of shipbuilding on the Ohio reached its height about 1847 but extended beyond the Civil war. Throughout, Marietta was an important building center, sending thence many ocean-going ves- sels. Among others there was the "Walhoning" of two hundred forty tons, built in 1847. Then followed the "America," "Grace Darling," "Ohio," and others, but the most popular of all was the "John Farnum" of two hundred forty tons. She was built in 1847 and went out as a relief ship to sufferers of the Irish famine. She was towed from Marietta to Portsmouth, Ohio, where she took on a load of corn. Her subsequent safe arrival at Cork, Ireland, was announced by the English and American press which alike predicted the building of many other such ships, provided only that the Euro- pean demand for American food products continued."" Meanwhile, other Ohio river ports established ship- yards and launched sea-going vessels, the number and character of which almost defy determination and de- scription. Among other builders were English capital- ists who now purchased large tracts of land on and near the Ohio for their timber alone; Cincinnati, Pitts- burgh, which now built sailing craft of iron, and Point Pleasant became outstanding building centers, rivaling Marietta; and subsidiary industries, notably brick- making, the products of which were used for ballast, sprang up. The possibilities seemed to call for unusual preparations. Accordingly, the Illinois river was sur- veyed with a view to connecting the Great Lakes and the Mississippi river by a canal suited to the use of sea- ^^ Cisfs Weekly Advertiser (Cincinnati), May 17, 1847; idem, July 27, 1847. I04 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY going vessels. In various ways Americans manifested pride in the situation. Among other things, representa- tions of inland-built ships were considered suitable decorations for the glass cup-plates then in use in the homes of the most fastidious, and, commenting upon the fact that five hundred steamboats were then naviga- ting the inland waters of the United States, Cist's Weekly Advertiser (Cincinnati) for May 17, 1847, said : "But this does not satisfy us : we must build ships of iron and wood to float on the ocean waves and carry our commerce as we carry our flag around the world." More significant still, John C. Calhoun took the place of Thomas Jefiferson in predicting a great future for the Mississippi and for New Orleans in particular under the changed conditions." Writing in 1851, John Swasey, a shipbuilder of Cin- cinnati, expressed the belief that sea-going vessels could then be built on the Ohio to as good advantage and "at less cost" than in any eastern city. He had already built and launched there three such craft, namely: the "Louisa" of 200 tons; the "John Swasey" of 300 tons; and the "Salem" of 350 tons. His account of their and other activities throws light upon contemporaneous shipbuilding as well as upon the use made of the pro- ducts. He said : The "Louisa" and the "John Swasey" took in full cargoes at this point for Salem and Boston, proceeding down the river in tow of steamers to New Orleans and putting right out to sea, stopping at New Orleans only long enough to bend sails and ship a crew. These craft have proved themselves fine vessels and fast sailers. The "Louisa" lately returned to Salem from a six months' trading voyage to the west coasts of Africa, and the captain reported her sailing and weather qualities to be of the highest order. The "Salem" which was *^ — Idem, May 9, 1848; If'ateriiiayi Journal (St. Louis, 1891-date), May 20, 1 9 10. SHIPBUILDING ON THE INLAND WATERS 105 launched about two months ago, left this place light in the expecta- tion of being able to procure at New Orleans a profitable cargo for California, eastern ports, or Europe. Three years ago we built at Marietta on the Muskingum, two schooners- the "Grace Darling" and the "Ohio" of 150 tons burden. Both of these vessels we loaded at this spot with provisions and other produce for Salem. These vessels have ever since been engaged in the African trade and are in no respect behind any vessels in their class. About three years ago the "IVIinnesota," a ship of 350 tons, was built at this place for Captain Deshon of New Orleans. She was entered for the cotton carrying trade but has since made several voyages to several parts of the world and proved herself a good ship. We are now getting out the timbers for another ship of 350 tons, to be built at Covington, and ready to launch in the early part of next fall. The timbers for this vessel we procured from the neighborhood of Point Pleasant on the Kanawha."* As already indicated ships continued to be built and to descend the Ohio until after the Civil war. There are those yet living who saw some of the last ones built, in frames, and on their way to the high seas. Probably the last of these craft was the barque, "Mary Belle Roberts," built near the mouth of the Little Hock- hocking, where she stood in frames during the greater part of the early sixties. Of her final completion and the preparations for her sailing the Cincinnati Com- mercial for March 2, 1865, said: The new Ai copper barque, "Mary Belle Roberts," of 600 tons capacity. Captain Chas. E. Ware, will soon arrive and load here going directly to New York by way of New Orleans. Several vessels in the past years have been built here and loaded for Liverpool direct, yet it is a novel spectacle to see an ocean vessel at our levee giving through receipts for New York. In conclusion it may be worth while to compare the outstanding facts in the two periods of shipbuilding on the Ohio described in this chapter. Possible contrasts, °^ Cist, Cincinnati in 1851, 323. io6 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY pass in review important facts in our national develop- ment. First of all, it will be recalled that the ships of the earlier period were the handiwork of local owners and builders operating as partners, whereas those of the later mid-century were the products of imported artisans who built for joint-stock companies and as a business. More significant still, the earlier craft drifted to the sea with the current, whereas those of the later period were towed to New Orleans by steamboats. Throughout, rigging and all, the inland-built ships of the early century were the products of the Ohio valley. Those of the later period depended upon the East, Salem, and Boston, for ropes, sails, and other rigging supplies. The ships of each period descended the Ohio with cargoes of surplus agricultural products, but the demand for such goods was stimulated in the earlier period by international wars, in the later by interna- tional free trade. As a rule ships of the earlier period were sold immediately after reaching New Orleans and discharging their cargoes, while on the other hand those of the later period were built to order for perma- nent owners who used them for participation in world commerce, even the African slave-trade. Finally, the first period ended amid a group of unfavorable condi- tions-lack of credit facilities, difficult navigation, em- bargoes, wars, and the coming of the steamboat; where- as the second period closed in the midst of civil war and after the advent of the locomotive and the steamship. The First Steamboats west of the Alleghanies Many things combined to make i8i i the annus mira- bilis of the West. Among others the waters of its prin- cipal rivers overflowed their banks; unprecedented sickness followed ; numberless gray squirrels left the North and pressed forward in deep and solid phalanx toward the South; for short periods countless numbers of passenger pigeons blackened the skies by day and mutilated forests by night; the splendid comet of the year long shed its twilight over the forests; toward the end thereof the whole Mississippi valley, from the Mis- souri to the Gulf of Mexico, was shaken by an earth- quake; in political circles "war-hawks," having turned their backs upon the Old World, talked of an appeal to arms in defence of free trade and sailors' rights; and finally the first steamboat began its descent of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Had it marked only the coming of the steamboat, the year i8i i would have been memorable in the annals of inland America. It was a high point in a long period of endeavor and sacrifice to solve its transportation needs by the use of steam."" Prominent among local charac- ters who worked and sacrificed to this end were John °^ For general summaries of the transportation history of the Ohio valley see U. S. Census, 1880, vol. iv, 659-666; Preble, George H. History of Steam Navigation (Philadelphia, 1883), 1-97; Sweeney, John M. The Con- struction of Steamboats navigating the Western Waters of the United States (Wheeling, 1893. Pamphlet. Paper read before the World's Columbian Ex- position Engineering Congress, Chicago, 1893) ; Winsor, The Westward io8 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY Fitch of Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky, James Rumsey of Virginia, and Edward West of Ken- tucky. For more than a decade prior to i8i i many per- sons throughout the whole country were more or less familiar with the particulars of a "war of pamphlets" between Fitch and Rumsey over the merits of their re- spective inventions and their claims to priority. Fitch contended that Rumsey 's boat of 1784, built at Bath, Virginia, propelled by a series of "setting-poles," and approved by General Washington, was not adapted to the use of steam as a motive power. The subsequent application of steam to navigation by Fitch, 1786, attracted much attention and resulted, the following year, in acts of the legislatures of Pennsylvania, Dela- ware, New York, and Virginia giving him exclusive rights to navigate the waters within their boundaries. This was very discouraging to Rumsey who had mean- while perfected a boat that could move against river currents, steam being employed to pump water into tubes and discharge it in such a way as to move the boat forward. Encouraged by his exclusive privileges. Fitch constructed at least two other steamboats before the end of the century, one of which was operated for some time on the Delaware river. Both Fitch and Rumsey were, however, overtaken by disappointment and consequent despair and left the scenes of their early achievements, the latter going to England where he died in 1792, and the former to Ken- tucky, where he is said to have terminated his own life, in 1798, at Bardstown, leaving a request that his re- mains be buried on the banks of the Ohio, "where the Movement, 620-625; Gould, Fifty Years on the Mississippi, chaps. 2-4; Thurston, Allegheny County's Hundred Years ; U. S. Congressional Record, March 2, 1915; Kettell, Thomas P. Eighty Years Progress (Harrford, 1869). FIRST STEAMBOATS WEST OF ALLEGHANIES 109 songs of the boatmen would enliven the stillness of his resting place, and the music of the steam engine soothe his spirit." ''"' Little is known of the achievements of West other than that in 1802 he was granted a patent for a steam- boat which he is said to have built in Kentucky. Elsewhere other Americans were trying to solve the mysteries of the proposed steamboat. Prominent among them were: Jehosaphat Starr and Captain Samuel Mowry of Connecticut; Nathan Reed of Massachu- setts; Wm. Longstreet of Georgia; Elijah Ormsbee of Rhode Island; John Stevens of New Jersey; Oliver Evans and Robert Fulton, both of Pennsylvania; and John French, Robert Livingston, and Nicholas J. Roosevelt, all of New York. Although none of the devices first constructed by these would-be inventors proved practicable, some attracted wide attention. Among them was the "Eruktor Amphibolis," a steam- boat built by Oliver Evans, in 1804, on the Delaware river, which is said to have made sixteen miles on a trial trip, "leaving all the vessels that were under sail full half way behind." In the same year John Stevens perfected machinery which was installed on a boat and operated successfully. In 1844 this same machinery was reinstalled on a barge which it moved at the rate of six miles an hour.^" From the practical standpoint Robert Fulton was certainly the most successful of these experimenters. ""Gould, op. cit., 18. 1"! Almost simultaneously with the completion of the "Clermont" by Fulton, John Stevens launched the "Phoenix" at Hoboken, New Jersey. As the "Phoenix" could not be used on the Hudson because of the alleged exclusive rights of the Livingstons and others, she was taken to the Dela- ware river. The trip was made by sea, the "Phoenix" thus being the first steam vessel to navigate the ocean. See U. S. Census, 1880, vol. iv, 662; also Waterviays Journal, January 17, 1914. no TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY More favored with this world's goods than some of his rivals, he was able to study abroad, where he made helpful and influential friends. Among these were Ben- jamin West, the great English artist; James Watt, per- fector of the steam engine; Robert R. Livingston, am- bassador of the United States to France, inventor of experimental steamboats, and owner of the exclusive rights formerly granted to John Fitch for the naviga- tion of the rivers of New York by steam appliances; and the Emperor Napoleon who was interested in Ful- ton's experiments and under more favorable circum- stances might have become a real benefactor. These and other friends were able to put at Fulton's command the accumulated knowledge of the ages upon the subject of steam. The results were the "Clermont," the first practicable steamboat. She ran on the Hudson river between New York and Albany, her first successful trip beginning August 17, 1807. Other boats followed, and soon the practicability of steam navigation in the Tidewater was established."" It must not be inferred that Americans were the sole contributors to the invention of the steamboat. Cen- turies before they wrought, the possibilities of such a device had challenged the genius of other lands. From Blasco de Garay who, in 1543, is said to have exhibited before the Emperor Charles V. a vessel the motive power of which came from "a caldron of boiling water and a movable wheel suspended on either side," to the numerous foreign contemporary rivals of Fitch, Rum- sey, and Fulton, there were scores of persons, most of whom resided in Europe, who cogitated the various possibilities of steam. The invention of the steam engine by the Marquis of Worcester, 1597, gave new impetus '"^ U. S. Census, 1880, vol. iv, 659-670. FIRST STEAMBOATS WEST OF ALLEGHANIES in to their endeavors, and new suggestions followed with each succeeding generation. The most practical of these seems to have been that by Jonathan Hulls who was granted a patent by George II. of England for the perfection of a steam invention designed to carry boats against wind and tide. In 1737 Hulls published a treatise, a drawing of which shows a picture of a steam- boat not unlike those "invented" fifty years later. Hence, public information of steam navigation must have circulated before the experiments of the later eighteenth century, and, while similarity of ideas is possible, absolute originality is difficult to establish."' Fortunately Robert Fulton's chief concern was not with honors and credits. Otherwise he might have de- voted his time to pamphlet writing in defence of his claims as an inventor."* Instead, the practicability of steam navigation having been demonstrated in the Tidewater, he turned to the West, where boatmen and shipbuilders were then wrestling with a difficult navi- gation. Luckily, the commercial possibilities of this region had long occupied a place in Fulton's plans. In 1803 he had written to James Monroe, then ambassador to Great Britain: "You have perhaps heard of the suc- cess of my experiments for navigating boats by steam engines and you will feel the importance of establishing such boats on the Mississippi and other rivers of the United States as soon as possible." Meanwhile Fulton had associated with himself in business Robert R. Livingston whose brother, Edward Livingston, was already prominent in Louisiana; De Witt Clinton who, as governor of New York, later built 1°^ U. 8. Congressional Record, March 2, 1915; ff'aieriuays Journal, Jan- uary 17, 1914. "^Sutcliffe, Alice Crary. Robert Fulton and the Clermont (New York, 1909). 112 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY the Erie canal; Daniel D. Tompkins, then governor of New York and later vice-president of the United States; Nicholas J. Roosevelt, a practical engineer; and others who numbered among their friends persons in high financial and official positions. Resources were matters of minor concern to this association, their first and chief interest being to determine the practicability of steam navigation on the western waters and to secure exclusive privileges to navigate them.'"** Un-American as the latter purpose may now seem, it was not generally so regarded in that waning day of special privilege. Accordingly Nicholas J. Roosevelt was sent to the West to make surveys of physical, as well as political conditions, the latter being almost as important as the former. "If everything was favorable," Fulton and his associates planned to build steamboats on the inland waters and to operate them on the Ohio and the Mis- sissippi rivers, boats being designed in each case for the use of trades later to be established. As then planned there were to be three separate trades : first, that between New Orleans and Natchez; second, that between Nat- chez and Louisville; and finally, in the event the first two proved practicable and profitable, that between Louisville and Pittsburgh. From the beginning it was understood that Roosevelt was to make surveys and supervise construction, Fulton and his other associates supplying the necessary capital. Encouraged by the greatness of the undertaking and by the presence of his young wife, a sister of the cele- brated attorney and writer, J. H. B. Latrobe of Balti- more, Roosevelt arrived in Pittsburgh in May, 1809. A flatboat designed for convenience and comfort was secured, and the happy pair were soon on their way to 1°^ Ohio Arch, and Hist. Quarterly, vol. xxii, 17. FIRST STEAMBOATS WEST OF ALLEGHANIES 113 New Orleans. En route they gauged river currents to determine, as far as possible, their velocity for different seasons of the year, and collected stores of statistical in- formation concerning every phase of life in the interior. In true Roosevelt fashion plans and purposes were not shrouded in mystery. From the outset everybody was told to expect his speedy return, and that too in a steam- boat! As proof of his earnestness Roosevelt caused coal mines to be opened on the Ohio and collected a quantity of fuel near Pomeroy. The survey ended at New Orleans in December, 1809, and soon thereafter Roose- velt's associates were in possession of an exhaustive and impressive report endorsing and urging the practica- bility of steam navigation on the western waters. Immediate action was delayed, however, waiting de- cisions of inland legislatures upon requests for exclu- sive privileges to navigate local rivers which the states and territories were then supposed to control. Follow- ing the initial successes of the "Clermont" the Fulton interests found themselves opposed by those who would have destroyed their monopolies. In addition to for- midable business rivals there were those who ques- tioned both the legality of their patents and their con- cessions. From the free and liberty-loving West came rumors of an intention to recognize neither. Neverthe- less, the Fulton interests pressed their claims and plans with vigor, powerful forces being set to work through- out the entire Union in their behalf. As a result a territorial legislature granted them the exclusive rights of steam navigation on the Mississippi within the Territory of Orleans.'"" Unfortunately for them but fortunately for the interior and the whole 108 Claiborne, W. C. C. Official Letter Books, 1801-1816 (Jackson, Miss., I9'7)i vol. V, 220; idem, vol. vi, 2-4. 114 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY country as well, this concession placed its recipients in a position not unlike that occupied by Spain in the days before the purchase of Louisiana and revived the long- drawn-out fight for the freedom of the western waters. Influenced by natural antipathies and wise counsel other inland legislatures refused to make similar con- cessions. Confident of further success in the political game and encouraged by Roosevelt's report, the Fulton interests prepared for the next feature of their program, that of building and operating steamboats on the Ohio and the Mississippi. First the Ohio Steam Navigation Company was organized, and Roosevelt was again sent to the West, this time to supervise the construction of a steamboat and to initiate steam navigation. Accom- panied by his loyal wife he reached Pittsburgh in the spring of 1810 and in characteristic fashion proceeded to the undertaking before him. It took only a short time to lay the keel of the proposed steamboat that was to do much to revolutionize the life and industry of the West. The scene of this momentous event was on the Alle- gheny side of Pittsburgh immediately under a bluff called Boyd's hilL Construction proceeded slowly, however. Unfore- seen difficulties delayed the work and at times threat- ened the success of the enterprise. Strange as it may seem, suitable timbers could not be had within reason- able distances, the earlier boat builders having wrought a destruction not unlike that of a modern lumber camp ; the saw-pit, then the only means for manufacturing lumber in the interior, was inadequate; and despite the fact that hundreds of workmen were then employed in the boatyards of the upper Ohio, skilled workmen, such as were needed for the fabrication of steamboats, FIRST STEAMBOATS WEST OF ALLEGHANIES 115 were scarcely to be had at any price. Then, too, the ele- ments seemed to conspire to defeat success. Storms descended and floods came carrying away timbers and threatening the destruction of the boat itself.'" Nevertheless, the very fact that a steamboat was be- ing built on the waters of the Ohio aroused strange re- flections in the minds of many, so momentous were the possibilities. The following from Zadok Cramer, as recorded in his Navigator,^"'"' is probably typical: There is now on foot a new mode of navigating our western wa- ters, particularly the Ohio and the Mississippi rivers. This is with boats propelled hy the power of steam. This plan has been carried into successful operation on the Hudson river at New York, and on the Delaware between New Castle and Burlington. It has been stated that the one on the Hudson goes at the rate of four miles an hour against wind and tide on her route between New York and Albany, and frequently with five hundred passengers on board. From these successful experiments there can be but little doubt of the plan succeeding on our western waters, and proving of immense advantage to the commerce of our country ... It will be a novel sight, and as pleasing as novel to see a huge boat working her way up the windings of the Ohio, without the appearance of sail, oar, pole, or any manual labor about her - moving within the secrets of her own wonderful mechanism, and propelled by power undiscoverable! — This plan, if it succeeds, must open to view flattering prospects to an immense countr}-, an interior of not less than two thousand miles of as fine a soil and climate as the world can produce, and to a people worthy of all the advantages that nature and art can give them, a people the more meritorious, because they know how to sustain peace and live independent among the crushing of empires, the falling of kings, the slaughter and bloodshed of millions, and the tumult, corruption and tyranny of all the world beside. The immensity of country we have yet to settle, the vast riches of the bowels of the earth, the unex- ampled advantage of our water courses, which wind without inter- ruption for thousands of miles, the numerous sources of trade and '"'Gould, op. cit.; Maryland Hist. Society, Fund Publication (Baltimore, 1867), vol. viii, 32. i"'* Edition 1818, p. 30, quoting an earlier edition. ^H^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H|^J ■i "T^Tr^^^HBWJWB^^T^^^HTu"'"" vf' ^^^E jfglr i ■ rft__* - * ^^^^^H^^^^P BHI^Riro i'-W^ff^ MP m '•-n -\i [j^,- ....»=^j _^_: j 'J| 1ltl^%b'iir'6-'a DYs'S " ■ ' ''^«ira\gFj=ro^p'-rT-i iBiW '.-', Columbus). 144 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY Ohio being 938,033, Indiana 538,688, and Illinois 420,972. Such an increase, accompanied as it was by a corresponding growth in wealth and enterprise, was among the forces that paved the way for the heyday of the passenger packet on the Ohio. Gleanings from experiences of a family that found a home on the upper Ohio in this period tell a typical story. In 1832 Andrew Muhleman, eldest son of a fam- ily of cheese makers residing in the mountains of Switzerland, came to America in search of lands. After an extended journey through the West, he finally chose a tract of several hundred acres on the Ohio river near Sun Fish, now Clarington, the home site of which is still known as "Buck hill." Shortly thereafter, some- time in 1833, his father and brothers, John, Jacob, and Rudolph, with their wives, followed him to America, pushing their efifects in a cart before them all the way from Berne to Havre. Thence they sailed to New York City. From this point they proceeded by steamboat to Albany on the Hudson, and thence to Bufifalo by canal boat. Here they sailed for Cleveland, whence they jour- neyed by canal to Canal Dover in central Ohio, where they purchased a horse and wagon with the aid of which they were able to reach Wheeling on the Ohio river. Unwilling to part with their horse and wagon which were needed for prospective farming operations, they continued overland down the Virginia side of that stream to their destination. Their arrival was unexpected, and the consequent delay of one night in crossing into their promised land permitted an event of future consequence to the upper Ohio to occur on the soil of Virginia. This was the birth of Charles Muhleman, who first saw the light of day under the pawpaw bushes that grew on the river A Portage Boat Operated by stationary engines over a series of inclined planes connecting Hollidaysburg and Johnstown, Pa., 1835-1S54. \'lADUCT AXD TOWPATH ON lilt PeNNSVLVAXIA CAXAL THE DAY OF CANALS AND TURNPIKES 147 bank opposite the palatial home he later built at "Buck hill." Whatever the circumstances of his beginnings, Charles Muhleman later became a popular and suc- cessful riverman. Throughout the course of the Ohio he was known for his cultured manners, gentlemanly bearing, and punctilious business methods. During the Civil war and for almost two decades thereafter he did much to shape transportation activities on the Ohio and to aid friends and relatives to become successful river- men. It was largely through his efiforts that Clarington, Ohio, became an important river center, a distinction retained to this day. Canals extending west from the Atlantic coast toward the Ohio, also, served as feeders to that river. Stim- ulated by the example of New York, construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio and the James river and Kan- awha canals was resumed. In 1850 the former reached Cumberland, and one year later the latter reached Buchanan in the valley of Virginia. But neither the western terminals of these belated waterways nor the time of completion thereto determined their usefulness. Construction had meanwhile proceeded in a piecemeal fashion, long stretches to the east, such as that between Richmond and Lynchburg, first opened to navigation in 1840, being available for use long before the western terminals were reached or definitely determined. Thus, even before their completion, these artificial waterways were increasing the volume of traffic passing to and from the navigable waters beyond the Alleghanies."^ The Pennsylvania canal was, however, by far the most important tributary of its kind to the Ohio. Be- ginning at Columbia, Pennsylvania, it followed the Susquehanna and Juniata rivers to Holidaysburg. By 1" U. S. Census, 1880, vol. iv, 731-762. 148 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY a portage railroad of inclined planes and stationary engines it crossed the Alleghanies to Johnstown, a distance of thirty-two miles, thence by way of the Conemaugh, Kiskiminitas, and Allegheny rivers it con- tinued to Pittsburgh. A branch connected the Susque- hanna and the Schuylkill, extending along the latter to Philadelphia which was connected by rail with Columbia, the place of beginning. Launched in 1825 and completed in 1835, sections having meanwhile been opened to earlier use, this system was, from its incep- tion, planned and maintained as a rival to the Erie canal. ^" In the volume of traffic carried it never ap- proached its rival, but it was, nevertheless, an important thoroughfare between the East and the West. Until the completion of through railroads connecting Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, this canal was the most important outlet of the upper Ohio valley to the east. Total re- ceipts are a barometer of its usefulness. These increased gradually from $250,000 in 1834 to almost $1,500,000 in 1852, after which the decline was rapid to 1856, when it became precipitous, the railroad having be- come a formidable competitor."' Excluding the canal connecting the Susquehanna and the Schuylkill, this enterprise cost almost sixteen and one-half million dollars and was financed largely by foreign capital, conservative Pennsylvanians hesitating to invest in anything fraught with possibilities for re- ducing the price of horse flesh and grazing lands and with disturbing influences to established businesses such as stage driving, tavern keeping, and the local trade in grain and hay. But for their conservatism, other things 1^* Pittsburgh Gazette, November 2, 1832; Magazine of Western History, vol. viii, 42. 1^^ U. S. Census, 1880, vol. iv, 738; Tanner, op. cit. THE DAY OF CANALS AND TURNPIKES 149 being equal, as they were not, Philadelphia and Pitts- burgh might have fared better in their rivalry with New York and Buffalo for a share of the commerce and trade of the American hinterland. However, in 1829, the "General Abner Leacock," a canal boat bear- ing the name of a popular local leader of western Pennsylvania, inaugurated canal boat service between Johnstown and Pittsburgh, and in the same year the "Hit and Miss," a keelboat, passed all the way from the Susquehanna river to St. Louis without breaking cargo.''' The results of these developments were immediate. Among other things Pittsburgh, the "sin and sea-coal cursed emporium of the West," in 1826 described as in the death throes of an arrested development, took on new life, and local commission merchants and transfer men, among them the Clarks and the Thaws, laid the basis of fortunes that are intact to this day. Wagons operating between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia now gave way, almost completely, to canal boats with their distinctive names and luxurious cabins lined with berths.'" The volume of flour, pork, lard, beef, wool, tobacco, hemp, and other local products passing east from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia doubled, as did also the volume of cotton, woolen and leather goods, por- celain, earthen ware, coffee, tea, spices, dried fruits, drugs and liquor going west from the latter city, most of it to augment the steamboat traffic on the Ohio and its tributaries. A recent writer has summarized the strategic com- 138 Pittsburgh Post, July i, 1921. See also Hulbert, A. B. Historic High- •ways (Cleveland, 1902-1905), vol. xiii, chap. 4. 1^' Pittsburgh Gazette, April 22, 1837; Pittsburgh Gazette-Times, Octo- ber 28, 1917; Harris, Isaac. Pittsburgh Business Directory, 1837 (Pittsburgh, 1837). I50 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY mercial advantages of Pittsburgh at that time, in these words : Nearly all the traffic between the central states and Philadelphia passed through Pittsburgh, which was situated in an advantageous position at the western terminus of the Main Line canal and occupied the same relation with regard to the trade over that waterway that Buffalo occupied with regard to the trade over the Erie canal. From Pittsburgh the merchandise coming from Philadelphia and Baltimore was distributed by means of the Ohio river and the canals and rail- roads of the central states among the towns of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Tennessee, and even to Mississippi and Arkansas. In addition, Pittsburgh sold large quantities of iron, glass, and bituminous coal to the various cities down the river, and received flour, provisions, and tobacco for local trade and for trans- portation to Philadelphia and Baltimore.^^* These advantages aroused the opposition of neigh- boring cities, particularly Wheeling which, since the completion of the Cumberland road, had questioned the right of Pittsburgh to be regarded as the chief port on the upper Ohio. The story of this rivalry will be told in another chapter, but the effects of the comple- tion of the Pennsylvania canal upon steamboating on the Ohio may be briefly noted here. They were, prob- ably, best set forth in a Wheeling print quoted in the Pittsburgh Gazette for June 24, 1835, which said : Since the completion of the Pennsylvania canal much of the pro- duce of the West, which before sought the New Orleans and Balti- more markets, has been drawn to Philadelphia. We have heretofore mentioned that two steamboats have commenced running the pres- ent season between Bridgeport, opposite Wheeling, and Pittsburgh, to carry produce to the canal spoken of ; and we have now to add that one will in a few days commence its regular trips between War- ren and Pittsburgh. . . . We hope to see, in two or three years, this western trade which Philadelphia is thus diverting, restored by the completion of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, to its natural channel. 13S Van Metre, op. c'li., vol. i, 236. THE DAY OF CANALS AND TURNPIKES 151 But for the opposition of local interests, among others, stage drivers, tavern keepers, and grazers, who feared that horses would become valueless in such an event, this hope would have been realized before it was. Simultaneously with the building of tributary roads and canals to the Ohio, navigable affluents thereto were being brought into the domain of the steamboat. Some of these, notably the Monongahela, Muskingum, Kentucky, and Green rivers, were being improved by the use of locks and dams in such a way as to make their conquest permanent. Shortly after the end of this period the Monongahela Navigation Company, first incor- porated in 1836, provided slackwater in the lower course of the Monongahela, and the other streams named above were being similarly improved."" The conquest of the comparatively unimproved tributaries was, however, more spectacular, if not so complete, but the whole story can not be told here. Fortunately ex- amples may suffice. Except the Monongahela, the Great Kanawha was, at this time, probably the most important natural tri- butary of the Ohio. It was an important link in Vir- ginia's pet scheme for connecting the East and the West, and as the James River and Kanawha improve- ment, then in progress, advanced, the strategic impor- tance of the Great Kanawha became more and more evident. The Kanawha valley was the repository of vast natural resources of timber, coal, and salt, large ship- ments of the last named article having been made from Maiden above Charleston annually since the early days of the century. Accordingly the Great Kanawha was a 1^^ U. S. Senate. Document 325, 60 cong., i sess. ; Inland Waterways Commission, Preliminary Report. 152 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY tempting field for rivermen, and in 1823 the "Eliza" was built expressly for that trade. She was successful and was followed, in turn, by the "Fairy Queen," 1824, "Paul Pry," 1826, "Kanawha," 1828, "O. H. Perry," and "Enterprise," both in 1830, and the "Tiskelwah" in 1832. Others came in rapid succession, so that by the end of this period a large steamboat trade was main- tained between Great Kanawha and Ohio river ports."" The conquest of the Allegheny was more spectacular because more difficult than that of most tributaries to the Ohio. To many it seemed that nature had reserved the former stream as a final and safe retreat for keel- boatmen and raftsmen. Nevertheless, Sunday, February 24, 1828, saw the "Wm. D. Duncan" at Franklin. A cannon shot announced her arrival and heralded the dawn of a new era in this land of primeval forests and native red men. The following day she proceeded to the future site of Oil City, and two years later the "Allegheny" extended the domain of the steamboat to Olean, New York. Many stories were told of these strange boats that "spat fire." They were said to have provoked many inquiries and conjectures. To Corn- planter, a half breed Indian chieftain then residing on the Allegheny with a remnant of the Seneca tribe, they were, doubtless, marvelous assertions of the prowess of the white man."' However that may be, this river soon became one of the important feeders of the Ohio. 1*0 11316, John P. Trans-Allegheny Pioneers (Cincinnati, 1886), 310; Kanawha IVestern Virginian, September 24, 1828; Western Register (Charleston, Va.), August 7, 1829; Kanawha Register, January 16, 1830; Kanawha Banner, July i, 1831 ; Isaac Lippincott's "Early Salt Trade in the Ohio Valley," in Journal of Political Economy (Chicago, 1892-date), vol. XX, 1029 ; Waterways Journal, August 7, 1909. 1*1 At an earlier date the "Albion" ascended the Allegheny for a dis- tance of fifty miles. See Pittsburgh Gazette, April 26, 1827; Niles Weekly Register (Baltimore, 1812-1849), April 28, 1827. THE DAY OF CANALS AND TURNPIKES 153 For the extension of steam navigation to the larger tributary streams to the south the story of the conquest of the Cumberland alone must suffice. In 1832 the "Pennsylvania" was built at Pittsburgh to ply the wat- ers between that city and Nashville, where she arrived late in December, breaking into a large and profitable keelboat trade to and from both the upper Ohio and the lower Mississippi. Other steamboats followed in rapid succession, among them the "Pittsburgh," "Ffam- bler," "Superior," and "President." By 1835 more than a dozen such craft served this trade more or less regu- larly, while a smaller number were in that between Nashville and New Orleans, where single packets were carrying individual cargoes of thirty-six hundred bales of cotton, together with other freight and pas- sengers. Net receipts for the cotton carried on such trips are said to have been in excess of ten thousand dollars, which explains the insatiable demand of the period for new steamboats for use on the western waters. Traffic between Pittsburgh and Cumberland river ports was varied. Passengers, both deck and cabin in almost equal proportions, were carried each way in large numbers, totals for single trips one way ranging all the way from one hundred to one hundred fifty persons. Freight to Nashville consisted largely of iron, nails, glass, whiskey, paper, castings, and cotton and woolen goods, return trips being made up largely of cotton, tobacco, hemp, and other agricultural products. Toward the end of the twenties iron ore began to reach Pittsburgh from the Cumberland river. Commenting upon the beginnings of this epoch-making traffic the Pittsburgh Gazette for January i, 1830, said: Some time ago we noticed the arrival of a quantity of pig metal from Tennessee. Since then another boat has brought to our wharves 154 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY a considerable quantity of blooms from the same works. A more forceful exemplification of the advantages conferred upon the West- ern Country by the introduction of steam power could not be given than is afforded by this single circumstance. Fifteen years ago, thou- sands of tons might have lain at the works on the Cumberland, and foundries and steam engine factories might have remained idle for months for want of materials. Indeed, if the metal had been de- livered gratuitously on board keelboats and barges at the mouth of the Cumberland, the price here would not have paid the freight. In a similar manner other navigable affluents of the Ohio and their tributaries were explored and used, the steamboats of that day accomplishing what seemed al- most impossible feats. But their triumphs were not local. They extended to the upper Mississippi, the up- per Missouri, and elsewhere. In May, 1823, the "Vir- ginia," a few days out from Cincinnati, reached Fort Snelling near the head waters of the former stream. This accomplishment was heralded throughout the en- tire Ohio valley."' A short time sufficed to justify this enthusiasm. Five years later at least ten steamboats were making regular annual trips between this frontier outpost and Louisville, bringing the lead mines of Illi- nois and the rich farm lands of the upper Mississippi into touch with their future source of supply for mer- chandise, railroad iron, and farm machinery. Of more importance still was the conquest of the Missouri which went forward more haltingly, always following the lure of the fur trade. In 1819 the "Inde- pendence" reached Franklin in Boone's settlement, more than two hundred miles from the Mississippi. Later in the same year the "Western Engineer," one of six boats built at Pittsburgh for a proposed expedition '^*'^ Saturday Evening Post (Burlington, Iowa), July 8, 1922; idem, July 15, 1922; fFesiern Virginian, July 2, 1828; Gould, Fifty Years on the Missis- sippi, 116; see also W. J. Petersen's "The Lead Traffic on the Upper Mississippi," in Miss. J'alley Hist. Revieiu, vol. xvii, 72-98. THE DAY OF CANALS AND TURNPIKES 155 to the Yellowstone under Major S. H. Long, reached Council Bluffs, at least four hundred miles farther by river. Here the conquest ended until competition from British rivals drove agents of the American Fur Com- pany to the use of a more adequate transportation than the keelboat. To this end the "Yellowstone" was built at Louisville. The following year, 1832, she succeeded in reaching Fort Union on the Missouri and, a few months later, the mouth of the Yellowstone river."^ Unlike many other epoch-making events this was recognized as of consequence, even by contemporaries. Ramsey Crook, Kenneth McKenzie, and other inter- ested parties commended Pierre Chouteau, in charge of the undertaking, in the highest terms. From Belle- vue, France, John Jacob Astor, founder of the Amer- ican Fur Company, wrote: "Your voyage in the 'Yel- lowstone' attracted much attention in Europe, and has been noted in all the papers here." Reflecting upon the incident, Indians who saw it are said to have advised the British to turn out their dogs and burn their sledges, as they would no longer be of use "while the Fire-boat walked in the waters." ^" Commenting upon its results at a later date Chittenden, the masterful historian of the American fur trade, said: "St. Louis became a great trade center, and soon her large levees had not space enough to accommodate the boats which assembled there from every direction - from New Orleans at the south and from the Falls of St. Anthony to the north; from the Alleghanies in the east and the Rockies to the west, and even from the distant cities of the Atlantic coast." "' ^*^ Chittenden, Hiram M. History of the American Fur Trade of the Far H'est (New York, 1902), vol. i, iii; idem, vol. i, 337-341; Waterioays Journal, June 29, 1907; idem, January 14, 1922. 1" Chittenden, op. cit., vol. i, 337-341. "^ — Idem, vol. i, 106. 156 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY Meanwhile Ohio river navigation was being im- proved, as if in contemplation of a new era. In the face of state rivalries and persistent opposition from local draymen and inn keepers the Portland and Louisville canal, locally known as the Portland canal, paralleling the Falls at Louisville, was opened in 1831. Tolls charged for its use were objectionable, the more so be- cause the federal government was a large stockholder in the enterprise, but benefits were immediate and sub- stantial, although defiant captains did continue to use the natural channel. To the surprise of many who thought her location the only reason for her existence, Louisville began to grow, her population of twenty-one thousand in 1840 being double that of 1830 which rep- resented a half century's growth. Throughout the whole course of the Ohio "planters" and "sawyers" were re- moved by the use of the snagboat, whose inventor. Cap- tain Henry M. Shreve, had become superintendent of western river improvements."'' This period also witnessed marked progress in the art and utility of steamboat construction. Before it ended practically every new boat built on the Ohio tended to adhere to the type of Captain Shreve's "G. Washington" rather than that of the "New Orleans" and her sister boats. High pressure engines were in general use, having demonstrated their superiority over the low pressure Fulton boats and others built at New York and Philadelphia and sent thence, under their own power, to the Mississippi; boilers and engines were completely out of the hold; paddle wheels were boxed ; commodious upper cabins were equipped with state-rooms instead of long narrow aisles between cur- ias Lyford, W. G. Western Address Directory, 356; Wheeling Times, February 13, 1848. THE DAY OF CANALS AND TURNPIKES 157 tained bunks after the manner of canal boats ; and boats everywhere were being adapted to their trades, the stern-wheeler tending to grow in favor on the upper Ohio and tributary streams and the side-wheeler hold- ing its own on the lower courses of the Ohio and on the Mississippi. An important tendency was that to length- en and lighten all newly built steam craft, thus adding both to their beauty and to their utility.'" Toward the end of this period, 1836, local river prints were com- menting upon the exit of the clumsy bobtailed steam- boat of the earlier period and upon the increasing use of those of elegant design. Rugged tributary streams were being navigated by the use of "mountain boats" of light construction and shallow draught, and "low water boats" of similar design were used to maintain an uninterrupted service on the Ohio for the regular de- livery of the mail."' With these achievements came an important economy in the handling of steamboats. Previously, landings had been effected only after boats had come to anchor in mid-stream. Thence they were hauled to the bank by the use of a rope, a reverse operation being necessary to start them on their way. This took time and re- stricted landings to improved levees. Fortunately it was discovered that a steamboat could be "landed" al- most anywhere. To do this, in most cases, all that was needed was to head to the bank, reverse machinery, and permit an accumulated momentum, under the direction of a good pilot, to do the rest. This simple discovery added greatly to the usefulness of all steamboats, per- mitting them to land at wayside points and increasing their possibilities for service generally. 1-" Sweeney, John M., op. cit. See also, articles by Mrs. S. Kussart, IVater- •ways Journal, 1926, 1928, passim. '** Sweeney, op. cit. 158 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY Other economies of this period advanced inland steam navigation. For example, the time from New Orleans to Louisville vras reduced from twent>'-five days to seven days and eighteen hours, the latter record being that of the "Tuscarora" made in April, 1834, the cost of transportation for passengers and freight de- clining proportionately. In fact, except for an occa- sional accident, it w^as, when compared with earlier years, as safe to live on a steamboat as at home, and persons took advantage of this fact to spend a part of their time in travel. These changes and conditions were reflected in the personnel of rivermen everywhere, but nowhere more noticeably than on the inland waters. Lawless and in- competent boatmen retired either to the upper reaches of tributary streams, there to continue their chosen calling, or to the woodyards that then lined the banks of the inland rivers and supplied passing boats with cordwood, the fuel in general use. The most competent of the boatmen meanwhile became captains, pilots, and engineers. Thus, in the days of Jacksonian Democracy, law and order began to prevail in the river circles of the interior, and gentlemen of means and culture took over the river business as professional steamboatmen. Many of these found their chief joy in life in the su- perior quality of their boats, particularly their speed. Even at that early day steamboats were beginning to reflect the tastes and qualities of their owners. Other devices and inventions of this period, first applied elsewhere, ultimately affected steam naviga- tion on the Ohio. Probably most important of these was the use of iron as a building material. The first steam- boat of this construction was built in England in 1822 THE DAY OF CANALS AND TURNPIKES 159 and made successful voyages from London to Paris."' Before the end of this period several such craft were afloat on European waters; an unsuccessful attempt had been made to operate them on the Susquehanna in America; and suggestions were being made here and there looking to the possible use of floating ironclad arsenals as instruments of warfare. Furthermore, Erics- son and others had perfected the screw propeller, launching a century-old controversy between its ad- vocates on one side and those of the paddle-wheel steamer on the other, and making possible the applica- tion of steam to ocean navigation."" Material proofs of the progress of this period of in- land navigation are abundant. Among other things the oldest steamboat line in the world, the Louisville and Cincinnati Packet line, first organized in 181 8 and popularly known as the "Mail Line," was operating regular packets between Cincinnati and Louisville. One of its boats, the "Ben Franklin," carried passengers and mail only."^ An auxiliary line connected Cincin- nati and Guyandot, and both Cincinnati and Louisville had through shipping facilities to Pittsburgh and points east, as well as to all important ports in the West and the South. In 1835 fifty steamboats were launched from Ohio river ports, and two hundred thirty were employed on the western waters."" The total capacity of all steamboats in use on the former reached almost 40,000 tons, the operation of which entailed an expense of almost $4,650,000, about $1,675,000 of which was for wages, $1,395,000 for cordwood, $835,000 for provi- 1^' Preble, History of Steam Navigation, chap. 3 ; Nites IVeekly Register, vol. xxiii, 19. 150 Preble, op. cit., chap. 3. i°i Gould, op. cit., 370; Waterways Journal, March 27, 1926. 1=2 U. S. Census, 1880, vol. iv, 671. i6o TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY sions, and $745,000 for contingencies."" Under such conditions the keelboat and Icindred craft almost dis- appeared from the navigable rivers. But possibly more significant still w^as the increasing value of the river port receipts of New^ Orleans. These rose from less than $9,000,000 in 1 816- 1 817 to almost $50,000,000 in 1840, when the "Crescent City" was the largest exporting center in the United States."* ^^^ Journal of the Franklin Institute (Phila., 1826-date), new ser., vol. xiv, 353- "■* U. S. House. Executire Documents, 50 cong., i sess., vol. xx, no. 6, pt. ii, 191 ; Van Metre, et a!., op. cit., vol. i, 243. The Heyday of the Passenger Packet The late thirties of the last century witnessed im- portant events in the history of steam navigation. On the inland waters of the United States the construction of steamboats more than doubled, a total of fifty-one new boats built in 1835 increasing to one hundred seven in the following year. On the Atlantic coast new con- struction, for the same year, increased from eleven to thirty-nine, the total capacity from twenty-three hun- dred forty to sixty-six hundred thirty-six tons, respec- tively."' Two years later, on April 22, 1838, the "Sir- ius" and the "Great Western," under steam power alone, reached New York almost simultaneously, the former from Ireland, the latter from England, thus inaugurating a new era in ocean transportation."" On the Ohio the Steamboat Age now entered a hey- day that is yet referred to as the "good old days." This period extended to about 1856, when local railroads, formerly tributary to rivers, first efifected through con- nections betvveen the East and the West. In its begin- nings chief interest of this age centered in tonnage con- struction, the Ohio as usual being the chief center of operations."' All of the one hundred seven steamboats built on the western waters in 1836 were launched from "S' U. S. Census, 1880, vol. iv, 672-678. 1'* See A. D. Tasker's "Our Merchant Flag on the Seas," in Current His- tory Magazine (New York, 1915-date), vol. xvii; Preble, History of Steam Navigation, 162-166; Day, Clive. A History of Commerce (New York, 1922), 305. 1^" Pittsburgh Gazette, April 22, 1837; idem, May 23, 1837; Niles Weekly Register, vol. xlix, 228 ; idem, 289. i62 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY its ports: sixty-eight from Pittsburgh; twenty-nine from Cincinnati; and ten from Louisville; the total value of those built in Pittsburgh in that year aggre- gating almost tw^o million dollars. At the same time Cincinnati had five boatyards: Gordon's, Hartshorn's, Huger's, Leatherwood and Littleberry's, and Week's, and she w^as launching steamboats that varied in size from one hundred to four hundred tons burden. In 1837 fifteen hundred steamboat passages were made through the Portland canal, which represented an in- crease of one thousand in five years, keelboats and kin- dred craft using the same course having meanwhile declined from about four hundred to approximately two hundred, and Pittsburgh was announcing packet arrivals from Louisville, St. Louis, Florence, St. An- thony, Nashville, New Orleans, and other distant ports."' Already steamboat owners and operators on the Ohio were tending to pool their interests to the extent that "lines" were being formed. These were gentlemen's agreements regarding time schedules and apportion- ments of cargoes. In the Pittsburgh-Louisville trade there were four such arrangements, viz: the United States Mail with twelve boats; the Express with eight; the Ohio Pilot with twelve; and the Good Intent with nineteen. In the Pittsburgh-St. Louis trade seven boats operated more or less regularly and cooperatively, as did three boats in a local trade between Pittsburgh and Wellsville."'^ On the lower Ohio and the Mississippi steamboat 1^' — Idem, vol. xlix, 98; Wheeling Times, February 13, 1846; Wheeling Trl-lVeekly Gazette, September 18, 1835; Pittsburgh Gazette, April 22, 1837; idem. May 23, 1837; Lyford, W. G., Western Address Directory, 1837, 165; Thurston, Allegheny County's Hundred Years, 108-110. i5» U. S. Census, i88o, vol. iv, 662; Gould, Fifty Years, chap. 61. THE HEYDAY OF THE PASSENGER PACKET 163 owners formed similar arrangements. The Louisville and Cincinnati Packet line, already mentioned, con- tinued to operate and to grow in favor and in import- ance, and it was now joined by others. Important among these was the Ohio and Mississippi Mail line which was a sort of joint-stock company, probably the first of its kind on the inland waters. It was organized prim- arily to carry the mail between Cincinnati and New Orleans, the promoters being Levi James and Samuel Perry of Cincinnati and Chas. M. Strader and Henry Forsythe of Louisville. The boats used were side- wheelers, the largest then afloat on the inland waters, and the wheel-house of each bore the inscription, in large letter, "The Ohio and Mississippi Mail Line." "" Relying upon the prestige that came to them because of the fact that they carried the federal mail, a boon to any steamboat operator at that time, the owners of this line defied all competitors in the hope ultimately of monopolizing their trade. To this end they engaged their own forwarding and commission agents, ignoring completely such popular, influential, and well estab- lished agencies as that of Wm. D. James of Cincinnati and that of J. C. Buckles of Louisville. They even selected crews and officers from among their own friends and relatives. This departure was opposed to the spirit of the West of that day, and soon the cry "monopoly" was directed against this new and haughty combine. As a result all those not in its favor united, as in the days of the fight against Fulton and Livingston, to "keep the river free." Cut rates were used, the freight charge on pork from Cincinnati to New Orleans falling from one dollar and fifty cents per barrel to thirty-seven and one-half cents, 1°" — Idem, chap. 54. i64 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY and other charges declined in proportion. One season of this sort of competition sufficed to bring the embry- onic monster down, the individual owners dissolving their corporate relationship but continuing to operate as individuals and in a manner more in keeping with western ideas of democracy and equality.^" Meanwhile conditions on the upper Ohio continued to favor steamboating on a grand scale."" Light draught steamers, some of which, it was claimed, could make regular trips on nothing more than a heavy dew, in- creased in number there and on tributary streams. These, together with roads and canals, carried freight in large quantities, that passing over the Pennsylvania canal in 1844 being in excess of seventy-five thousand tons. At the same time a varied industry was develop- ing in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and intermediate points. For example, almost two thousand residents of Cincin- nati then found employment on or in connection with the river. Wheeling and vicinity had one hundred thir- ty-four flour mills that manufactured annually two hundred eighty thousand barrels of flour, one hundred eighty thousand barrels of which found a market in New Orleans by way of the Ohio. As already indicated, these were golden days for Pittsburgh commission mer- chants and transfer men. Additional details regarding traffic then moving over tributaries to the Ohio may be interesting as well as informing. About 1840 eight lines of canal boats op- erated over the Pennsylvania canal to and from Pitts- burgh. Some of these owned and used as many as twen- ty boats among which were express packets, freighters, 181 — Wfm, 376. 182 U. S. Census, 1880, vol. iv, 736; Western Virginia Times (Wheeling, Va.), November 7, 1840. THE HEYDAY OF THE PASSENGER PACKET 165 and boats carrying both passengers and freight. In name, design, and accommodations many of these were worthy rivals of inland river packets. Among such were the "John Hancock," "Lady Washington," "James Madison," "Lehigh," "Baltic," and others, each with its uniformed officers and regular schedule."' The traffic developing on tributary streams was even more important. Although not as large as that on either the Monongahela or the Cumberland, the volume of traffic on the Allegheny was large and increasing. A brief outline of its development will suffice to show how traffic on the Ohio was augmented. In the early days persons living on and near the Allegheny received practically all their supplies from Pittsburgh, flatboats, keelboats, and Indian canoes sufficing for all the needs of transportation. By the use of this stream and its primitive craft Pittsburgh had even supplied a large part of the imports of Michigan territory and the army posts of the Northwest. To reach these distant parts keelboats and canoes ascended the Allegheny to Frank- lin, Pennsylvania, going thence by way of French creek to Waterford, New York. From this point wagons were used to Erie which had direct connections with western outposts, first by sailing craft and later by steam-pro- pelled vessels. Returning lake craft brought furs and salt, the latter finding a ready market along the Alle- gheny and even in Pittsburgh. By 1840 conditions on the Allegheny had changed. While continuing to draw merchandise and articles of general manufacture from Pittsburgh, the Allegheny valley was exporting large quantities of raw materials, most of which went to the lower Ohio and the Missis- 1*3 Pittsburgh Gazette, May i, 1840; Van Metre, et al., op. cit., vol. i, 236; Hulbert, Historic Hightuays, vol. xiii, 169. i66 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY sippi. Important among these were lumber, shingles, hoop poles, staves, pot and pearl ashes, whiskey, and farm products. Six steamboats, the "Eliza," "Pulaski," "Forrest," "Beaver," "Pauline," and "Orphan Boy," plied the Allegheny regularly during the boating sea- son. In low water stages flatboats, keelboats, and barges continued in use, more than four hundred flatboats reaching Pittsburgh from this stream in 1840. Their cargoes were either sold or reshipped, their containers then being sold to coal merchants who knocked them down and rebuilt them into coalboats which were sent to Cincinnati, Louisville, and other lower river mark- ets. Moreover, hundreds of log and lumber rafts then descended the Allegheny annually to Pittsburgh and beyond,'" its raftsmen rivaling the keelboatmen of an earlier day in their enterprise, as well as in their capa- city for rowdyism and corn whiskey. The passenger traffic was the greatest factor in mak- ing possible this heyday of the passenger packet. In the thirties immigrants began to reach the interior in ever increasing numbers, foreigners then joining natives in common efiforts to find homes in the West. As the steam- boat improved in design and security it found increas- ing favor with the traveling public. Of the immigrant movements of the earlier part of this period a contem- porary writer left this vivid description : The amount of travel, east and west, over the Alleghany range is so great as almost to surpass belief. Notwithstanding the numerous routes, all are covered ; notwithstanding the yearly additions to the number of stages and canalboats, all are crowded, crammed, packed, with the migratory public. The enormous and thickly wedged flocks of pigeons which yearly pass the Ohio in the upper element hardly exceed the human multitude who are floated, dragged, driven, and 1'* Harris, Isaac. Directory of Pittsburgh, 1841 (Pittsburgh, 1841), 129; Pittsburgh Gazette, April 10, 1852. THE HEYDAY OF THE PASSENGER PACKET 167 steamed on below, and their forest resting-places, stripped of foliage and beech nuts, and broken down by their innumerable company, afford a happy analogy to the hotels and inns, whose dining tables are swept clean, and whose dormitories are crammed full with the ever-swelling torrent from the traveling caravans."^ During the years immediately following 1837 the immigrant tide, both foreign and domestic, increased with each succeeding year, a large part of it going to the West by way of the Ohio. The Baltimore and Ohio railroad, completed to Cumberland in 1843, added another important tributary, and the steamboat con- verted New Orleans into a port of entry rivaling New York City. Local newspapers continued to tell of im- migrant movements, and almost any number of the Pittsburgh Advocate and Advertiser for 1840 and 1841 carried advertisements of the Tapscotts of England an- nouncing weekly sailings of immigrant ships to Amer- ica. Special mention was made of their New Orleans service which consisted of twenty-four "elegant first class ships," fitted out in superior style. By 1840 Cin- cinnati newspapers were announcing local arrivals of German immigrants by way of New Orleans, some of whom were born on the way and named for the steam- boat on which they traveled. As yet river traffic in rail- road iron inland from New Orleans was insignificant. Toward the end of this period the passenger travel on the inland rivers, particularly the Ohio, increased in volume, as the foreign immigrant tide swelled to flood proportions. It was especially large during the years 1846-1848 which were marked by famine in Ireland and revolution on the continent of Europe. Most of the Irish settled in eastern cities where they found employ- ment in construction work, industry, and practical ^o\- '^^^ Western Messenger (Cincinnati, 1835-1841), August, 1836; Vanable, Wm. H. Footprints of Pioneers in the Ohio Valley (Cincinnati, 1888), 46. i68 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY itics. For the most part the Germans went west to found new commonwealths. About the same time, also, the movement into California began, and thousands of per- sons left the Ohio valley for the "gold regions," where they introduced the art of steamboat construction and operation.^"" Some further idea of traffic on the Ohio, both freight and passenger, in the early part of this period, may be gained from a survey of the Port of Pittsburgh as of 1840. From August, 1839, to July, 1841, its steamboat arrivals and departures amounted to fifty-three hun- dred and seventy-nine, and the capacity of the eighty- nine boats owned there, wholly or in part, exceeded twelve thousand five hundred tons. Keelboats to the number of four hundred fifteen arrived in 1840, while the arrivals of "flats" and similar craft for the same year amounted to nineteen hundred sixty-three. During twelve days immediately preceding April 30, 1840, ninety steamboats arrived and ninety-one departed; at any time during the boating season there were thirty or more steamboats at the Monongahela wharf; and eight to ten canal boats arrived daily from the East by way of the Pennsylvania canal. Warehouses were stuffed to bursting with farm products, general mer- chandise, and articles of local and eastern manufacture. At the same time sailings were being announced for St. Anthony's falls, the upper Missouri, the lower Missis- sippi, and intermediate points.^" It was in the midst of these dynamic conditions that Charles Dickens, esquire, and lady descended the Ohio. Although they made the trip in March, 1842, an unat- tractive season of the year, Dickens wrote in his usual 1^* Pittsburgh Gazette, May 3, 1852. '8' Harris, Directory of Pittsburgh, 1841. THE HEYDAY OF THE PASSENGER PACKET 169 pessimistic strain of things American. The following from his pen is an excellent portrayal of life and con- ditions along the Ohio, removed from centers of traffic, at that time : The banks are for the most part solitudes, overgrown with trees which, hereabouts are already in leaf and very green. For miles, and miles, and miles, these solitudes are unbroken by any sign of human life or trace of human footstep ; or is anything seen to move about them but the bluejay, whose color is so bright, and yet so delicate, that it looks like a flying flower. At lengthened intervals a log cabin, with its little space of cleared land about it, nestles under a rising ground and sends its thread of blue smoke curling up into the sky. It stands in the corner of the poor field of wheat, which is full of great unsightly stumps like earthy butchers' blocks. Sometimes the ground is only just now cleared: the felled trees lying yet upon the soil ; and the log house only this morning begun. As we pass this clearing, the settler leans upon his axe or hammer, and looks wistfully at the people from the world. The children creep out of the tem- porary hut, which is like a Gypsy tent upon the ground, and clap their hands and shout. The dog only glances round at us ; and then looks up into his master's face again, as if he were rendered uneasy by any suspicion of the common business, and had nothing more to do with pleasure. And still there is the same eternal forward. The river has washed away its banks, and stately trees have fallen down into the stream. Some have been there so long that they are mere dry drizzly skeletons. Some have just toppled over, and, having earth yet about their roots, are bathing their green heads in the river, and putting forth new shoots and branches. Some are almost sliding down as you look at them. And some were drowned so long ago, that their bleached arms start out from the middle of the current, and seem to try to grasp the boat and drag it into the water.^^' Despite this unpromising picture, the year 1843 wit- nessed the organization of what was probably the most important steamboat line that ever coursed the waters of the upper Ohio. This was the Pittsburgh and Cincin- 168 Dickens, Charles. Miscellanies, American Notes (Boston, n.d. Illus- trated Cabinet ed. Dana, Estes and company), 232. I70 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY nati Packet line, later prefixed "First" to distinguish it from a line that bore the same name. The earlier line seems to have had its origin in the demands of a heavy passenger traffic, mostly immigrants, and in the unex- pected success of the "United States Mail," an inde- pendent packet that had served this trade since 1840. In 1 841 the "Mail" Vi^as joined by the "Swiftsure no. 2," and the two made "barrels of money" for their ow^ners, Lineas Logan and P. Wilson Strader, who were joined by others in 1843 to supply what seemed to be a demand for a regular daily packet service between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. The venture was a success, and, from the first, con- sisted of seven boats, one daily, ten A.M., from each ter- minus. Each boat was adapted to its trade and, although not the largest or the swiftest on the upper Ohio, was of the best type then in use on the inland waters. The original boats, with their captains, were the "Mononga- hela," Captain Charles Stone; the "Allegheny," Cap- tain Wm. Dean; the "Lehigh," Captain H. Price; the "Swiftsure," Captain J. J. Collins; the "Montgomery," Captain Elisha Bennett; the "Express," Captain James Parkinson; and the "Clipper," Captain N. Crooks. Five were owned in Pittsburgh and two, the "Clipper" and "Swiftsure," in Cincinnati. In a short time each of the original boats was succeeded by a larger and finer packet which, in turn, gave way to still another, the last boats of the line being more than twice the size of the first.^^' At all times this line was a sort of "regulated com- pany," neither partnership nor corporation, to serve the 169 The capacity of these boats varied from one hundred sixty-three tons for the "Montgomery" to two hundred forty tons for the "Monongahela." See Pittsburgh Dispatch, October 14, 1876; Wheeling Register, October 6, 1875; Gould, op. cit., chap. 54. THE HEYDAY OF THE PASSENGER PACKET 171 convenience and advantage of the boats of which it was composed. Except as to the times of sailing and divi- sions of cargoes, each boat operated independently. For low water seasons "low water boats" were used, and the regulations applying at other times were somewhat dis- regarded. But the boating seasons of this period were unusually long and favorable. The years 1838 and 1854 excepted, they averaged more than ten and one half months annually. Shortly after the organization of the Pittsburgh and Cincinnati and other packet lines the possibilities of steam navigation in the interior began to command the attention of statesmen and others. Outstanding among the many conventions called to consider the matter was that which met at Memphis in 1845. Practically every state of the South and the Southwest was represented, and the improved navigation of the Ohio and the Mis- sissippi was urged as a national enterprise, necessary for the commercial growth and defense of the country. At the contemporaneous rate of advance John C. Cal- houn, a delegate, estimated that by 1886 it would re- quire forty-four thousand steamboats and flatboats to carry the produce of the Mississippi valley to New Orleans and that sixteen thousand six hundred eighty sea-going vessels would be needed to carry them thence to coast and foreign ports. Accordingly he and others urged the deepening of the mouth of the Mississippi at whatever cost, the unification of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi by means of an artificial waterway, and the reclamation of the alluvial lands along the Mis- sissippi by the construction of levees.'" Moreover, these occasional strict constructionists urged that these things be done at the expense of the federal government. i"> U. S. House. Executive Documents, 50 cong., i sess., vol. xx, no. 6, pt. ii, 203. 172 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY The increased volume and variety of traffic on the Ohio during the decade immediately following 1845 would have justified the serious consideration of the proposals of the Memphis Convention. A survey of the commercial activities of Pittsburgh and Cincinnati for the years immediately following will suffice for illus- tration/" Pittsburgh then had at least one daily packet to and from each of the important ports of the upper Ohio and its tributaries. From these it received farm products, express packages, and articles of local manu- facture such as plows, wagons, fire brick, bar iron, nails, paper, and furniture; from Cincinnati, Louisville, and the Cumberland and the Wabash rivers came meats of all kinds, whiskey, soap, candles, cotton, tobacco, feath- ers, cattle, and pig iron; from St. Louis direct -few packets then turning back at Louisville - came lead, pig iron, hides, furs, hair, and farm products; and New Orleans contributed, sometimes direct, cotton, molasses, sugar, rice, coffee, and wine. From January i to July i, 1850, the total imports of Pittsburgh by river alone amounted to four hundred and ninety thousand tons. Exports were even greater, and immigrants continued to pass thence to the West by thousands. Most of these went to the Missouri and upper Mississippi valleys, but many continued to California. Among the travelers east bound the local press made occasional mention of Indians going to visit their "Father," the President of the United States. Meanwhile Cincinnati continued to grow in pros- perity. She was now the "Queen City," a title that was not often permitted to degenerate to "Porkopolis," and that, too, despite the fact that four hundred thousand ''1 Fahnestock, Samuel. Pittsburgh Directory, 1850 (Pittsburgh, 1850) ; Wheeling Times, December 20, 1848; Pittsburgh Gazette, May 3, 1852. THE HEYDAY OF THE PASSENGER PACKET 173 hogs were slaughtered there in 1849. Her enterprises were, however, by no means restricted to pork packing. In 1852 steamboats going thence to the South and the Southwest carried plows, wagons, and numerous other implements of husbandry. Commenting upon these facts the Cincinnati Commercial for April 2, 1852, said: "Several sugar mills were shipped to the South yesterday, as well as cotton apparatus. Everything from a pitchfork to a sawmill is now going South." At the same time large quantities of Virginia tobacco and its less patrician sister, "Old Kentuck," were being ship- ped from Cincinnati southward to be returned and re- distributed in the luxurious guise of "pure Havana." The passenger and freight traffic to Cincinnati from New Orleans and other points on the lower Mississippi had meanwhile increased tremendously. Items gath- ered here and there from local prints tell the story. On January 19, 1852, the "Telegraph" arrived direct from New Orleans with five hundred passenger immigrants, only one-half of whom came in the cabin. On March 27, the "Ben Franklin" brought another five hundred about equally distributed between deck and cabin pas- sengers. June 8 the "Midas" arrived with railroad iron and passengers, a large number having died en route from cholera. On June 9 the arrival of one thousand German and Irish immigrants was announced, two hundred of whom had come as deck passengers on the "Georgetown," which had escaped all sickness, except that of a woman who had given birth to a son. On June 22 the "G. W. Kendall" reached Louisville from New Orleans with a number of immigrants and a large cargo of railroad iron for use in Indiana. Similar items might be multiplied to great length. Thus practically the whole economic life of the Ohio 174 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY valley in the forties of the last century centered in the river, where rivalries were intense and successes phe- nomenal. For example, for years after its organization, opposition packets tried to put those of the Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet line out of business. But the ever increasing volume of traffic insured cargoes for all, even for the scores of additional packets that joined the competition. Rivalry sometimes extended to packets of the same line and to those of friendly lines, that between the "Messenger" and the "Buckeye State" of the Pitts- burgh and Cincinnati Packet line being the talk of the way-side in the early fifties. It is said that it was to show the "Messenger" a thing or two, she being a fav- orite with traveling celebrities and on this occasion carrying Jenny Lind, that the "Buckeye State," in April, 1851, made her famous run from Cincinnati to Pittsburgh.'" Conscious of their power and importance Ohio river steamboatmen assumed an air not unlike that of some modern railroad executives and near executives. To things political they were extremely sensitive. The ru- mor, studiously launched and circulated by the Whigs, to the effect that Stephen A. Douglas, a Democratic aspirant for the presidency, favored a tax on river ton- nage, detracted from his popularity in river circles.'" Moreover, through packets, after the manner of mod- ern express trains, catered only to through traffic, pass- ing large intermediate points without so much as a salute. This attitude fostered resentments which found expression in many ways. For example, one Gurley, writing for the Cleveland Plain Dealer and for rival commercial interests, said of them: "The cusses put on 1'= — Idem, April 25, 1851; Pittsburgh Gazette, November 7, 1920. 173 Wheeling Intelligencer, September 29, 1852. TiiL "Washington," built 1820, at Cincinnati by General Paul Anderson and others From an early woodcut in the possession of Frederick Way, Jr. Features Bob tail, crude paddle wheels, and absence of pilot house. The "Messenger," favorite of the first Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet line From a contemporary print. Charles Dickens, Jenny Lind, and Ole Bull traveled on this steamer about 1850. THE HEYDAY OF THE PASSENGER PACKET 177 as much airs as the New York ocean captains, yet 'nary one of 'em ever tasted salt water since they were infants, when they took it for worms." To which the reply came that Gurley had probably been denied a free pass on a coalboat, hence his "indiscriminate indignation." ^" These conditions stimulated enterprise, competition, even genius. As a result steamboat construction made marvelous strides. One of the creations of this period, the "Eclipse," built in 1852 at New Albany, Indiana, by Hippie and Evans, was designed to merit her name. She was three hundred sixty-three feet long, thirty-six feet beam, and nine feet hold. She carried two engines of thirty-six inch cylinders and eleven feet stroke, fed by eight boilers, each of which was thirty-two and one- half feet long and forty-two inches in diameter. Her wheels were forty-one feet in diameter and carried buckets fourteen feet long and twenty-six inches wide. Her cabin glared with paintings and tapestries sugges- tive of an oriental palace. At the men's end of the long hall through the cabin was a gilt statuette of General Jackson, and at the women's end a similar figure of Henry Clay. There were forty-eight bridal chambers, state-rooms for scores of passengers, and sleeping quar- ters for servants. At the time of her extraordinary run from New Orleans to Louisville, 1853, when she beat all previous records, making the distance in four days, nine hours, and thirty-one minutes, there were few sea- going vessels of her size and elegance in the world. "^ Most of the largest and finest of the boats of this period were built for Mississippi trades. Among the most talked of, after the "Eclipse," were the "Illinois" 1'* — Idem, May i6, i860. ^''^ IVateriuays Journal, April 9, 1927; Preble, op. ctt., 71; Thurston, op. cit. For steamboats built on the Ohio, 1811-1880, see U. S. Census, i88o, vol. iv, 671-672. 178 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY and the "John Simonds." Both of these boats were built at Pittsburgh in 1852 and were for the New Orleans-St. Louis trade, which had become the most important on the western rivers. The "Simonds" was the larger, being of eleven hundred tons burden. She had two upper cabins extending her entire length, seventy state-rooms, and a steerage cabin below for the accommodation of deck passengers. Cincinnatians, then as good judges of steamboats as their neighbors in Kentucky were of horse flesh, pronounced her the larg- est and the finest boat that had ever stopped at their levee. Although not the largest, the "J. M. White" was the most unique and original steamboat of this period."* She was built at the Walker boatyard in Elizabeth, Pennsylvania, and was only two hundred fifty feet long, thirty-one feet beam, and eight and one-half feet hold. She carried seven boilers which fed engines with cylin- ders thirty-one inches in diameter and of ten feet stroke. Her famous run from New Orleans to St. Louis, 1844, in three days, twenty-three hours, and nine minutes was not beaten before 1870. She was a side-wheeler, and her speed came from placing her wheels farther aft than usual, so as to bite the swells created by her motion in such a way as to push her forward. This design also added to her grace and beauty. The "White" was the handiwork of William (Billy) King and was built for Pierre Chouteau of St. Louis but under the direction of J. M. Converse. Her design is said to have met with the disfavor of Converse who, upon seeing it, shook his head and said : "It won't do, Billy." Whereupon King is said to have replied: "Then ''^Elizabeth Herald, June 7, 1900; Waterways Journal, June 8, 1910; idem, February 17, 1917; Gould, op. c'lt., 628. THE HEYDAY OF THE PASSENGER PACKET 179 I'm damned if I make the boat." Converse then ap- pealed to Samuel Walker who made him understand that King's plans could not be interfered with by those who would retain his services. In desperation Converse then appealed to Chouteau who, after some reflection, is reported to have said : "Let Billy King go ahead. He knows his business." The "White" made her designer famous. He re- ceived dozens of requests for similar craft, but to all he is said to have replied : "If there is ever a boat built that will walk away from the 'White,' I'll make another to beat her, but not until then." He was never called upon to fulfill his promise. For years thereafter the "White" was his love. Fearing that someone might copy her de- sign, a beautiful creation of white pine and black walnut, he is said to have broken the model into frag- ments. The annually increasing steamboat tonnage of this period kept transportation costs at a minimum never reached before or since and led to a degree of perfec- tion in the art of construction little surpassed to this day."' By 1843 the steam whistle, of eastern origin, was in use on the Ohio along with double compound engines known as "clipper engines." The "cordelle" had de- veloped into the "capstan," a sort of windlass first used to aid in moving boats by hand. In 1855 steam was ap- plied to this device through the use of a small engine called the "nigger" that did the work of many deck- hands. About the same time the "doctor," a boiler feed pump, was first used to doctor the ills of the engineer, ^" James Rees and Sons Company. Illustrated Catalogue (Pittsburgh, n.d.) ; Preble, op. cit., chap. 3. Authorities are not in accord regarding the first use of the calliope on the western waters. See Waterviays Journal; March 12, 1910; idem, April 23, 1910; idem, December 24, 1910; idem, Feb- ruary 12, 1921. i8o TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY making it no longer necessary for him to hitch and unhitch heavy machinery to feed the boilers on his boat. There were then in use valves of all sorts, such as cut-ofifs, slides, balances, pistons, poppets, etc. Boats w^ith rudders at bow^ and stern and propelled by stern- w^heel, side-wheel, Catamaran with wheel in the center, or stern-wheel working in recesses in the hull were all in use on the inland waters before 1856. More than ten years before, the "Texas," a lone star state-room for officers and owners, had been installed on top the upper cabin and beneath the pilot-house, and toward the end of this period Johnson's generating gas light and the steam calliope converted life on Ohio river packets into one continuous day of light and song. The general principles of steamboat design now fairly settled, with utility, comfort, and safety as the determining factors, owners and captains gave free range to their individual vagaries in the use of ginger- bread finishings and furnishings, each striving for something distinctive. To this end some used paintings on the wheel-house or the pilot-house, while others used emblems carried between the chimneys, or smokestacks. On the "Natchez" boats, of which their were seven, this emblem was a bale of cotton. Others carried stars, an- chors, and globes, while still others decorated only the chimney using a white, red, or yellow collar, the famous "White Collar" lines of both the Ohio and the Mis- sissippi being known far and near. Receipts alone de- termined the character and quality of cabin and state- room furnishings and decorations. When profits ranged all the way from ten to twenty thousand dollars for single trips, these approached the gorgeous, carpets alone costing as much as five thousand dollars for one boat, and only those of oriental make were acceptable. THE HEYDAY OF THE PASSENGER PACKET i8i Chandeliers were of sparkling glass, and tables and fur- nishings were of highly finished walnut and mahogany. Such demands contributed generally to make boat building a business for capitalists, artists, and architects. When a boat was lost or junked, its owners sought to replace it at once regardless of cost. Profits were im- mense, and delays were expensive. As a result success- ful builders were always in demand, some of them at- taining great popularity and accumulating fortunes. In the palmy days of this period some building centers, such as Elizabeth, Pennsylvania, had as many as fifteen boats in process of construction at one time, and Samuel Walker, a capable and successful builder of that place, was one of the most important personages in the Ohio valley."* Thus it was that steamboating in its various phases dominated the economic life of the Ohio valley during this period. Machine shops, engine and boiler works, and sawmills existed, in the last analysis, to supply the needs of transportation, as did commission merchants, transfer men, and inn keepers. Except for four years, 1838, 1840, 1 841, and 1843, when a large overproduc- tion was being absorbed, the total number of boats launched annually was well over one hundred, which represented an aggregate capacity of about twenty-five thousand tons. In 1851 freight shipments were in excess of eight million tons transported in three hundred thirty boats. These represented an aggregate capacity of two hundred thousand tons valued at thirty-three million dollars. During a three year period, 1852-1854, Pittsburgh and vicinity alone launched new steamboats representing a total value in excess of four and a quarter million dollars, and thence to the city of Cairo, in every 1'* Elizabeth Herald, June 7, 1900; Gould, op. c'it.\ Thurston, op. cit. i82 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY important port, mammoth steamers nosed one another about for landing space at local levees which presented scenes not unlike those of modern ocean ports.''" A significant local development of this period was the use of iron in the construction of steamboat hulls.''" Although iron had been used for this purpose in Eng- land for almost two decades, its earlier use in inland America had been retarded by an abundant and suit- able timber supply; but, as settlement advanced into the interior from the Ohio, timber became scarce. More- over river navigation remained somewhat hazardous, and rumors of war were abroad in the land. Accord- ingly, in 1839, the Washington Iron Works of Pitts- burgh experimented by launching the "Valley Forge," the first iron steamboat to navigate the western waters. This boat cost sixty thousand dollars and was one hun- dred eighty feet long, thirty-nine feet beam, and five and one-half feet hold. After a short service she was dismantled, but not before two other boats of similar construction, the "Jefiferson" and the "George M. Bibb," had taken her place. Each of these boats re- mained in continuous use for more than fifty years, the former on the Great Lakes and the latter on the high seas. Other boats of similar construction followed, among them the "Michigan," which was only recently dismantled after a long and creditable career. The services of Ohio river steamboats were not re- stricted to transportation and defense. They supplied an effective means of political education, Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, and others using them in going to and from the national capital. There i"> Cij/'j Weekly Advertiser, June 29, 1847; Cincinnati Commercial, April 22, 1852; Wheeling Intelligencer, February 27, 1855; Hunt's Mer- chants' Magazine, vol. xxix, 749 ; Pittsburgh Gazette, June 10, 1852. 180 Baltimore Sun, July 19, 1928; Waterways Journal, September 17, 1927. THE HEYDAY OF THE PASSENGER PACKET 183 were few persons living on the Ohio in the decades be- fore the Civil war who had not seen these men and heard them discuss the issues of the day, their arrival at any port, however small, being the occasion for an address. The educational benefits of the steamboat were not, however, wholly political. By the end of this period there were thousands of persons living on and near the Ohio, who had learned practical lessons in economics from the commercial needs and practices of their envi- ronment. This was particularly true of those having business relations with non-residents, for example those from the upper and the lower Mississippi and the far off Missouri. All such had difficulty in inducing local venders of cordwood to accept state banknotes in pay- ment for this necessary article, refusals sometimes re- sulting in free for all fist fights. In 1896 many local Democrats, educated in this school of experience, re- fused to vote for W. J. Bryan for the presidency and voted instead either for William McKinley or J. M. Palmer who ran on gold standard platforms. Moreover the Ohio and its steamboats made possible a common entertainment. By 1856 there were thou- sands of persons living on and near that river who had seen Charles Dickens and heard Ole Bull and Jenny Lind. "Dan" Rice and his elephants were popular in river ports, and P. T. Barnum was exhibiting "Tom Thumb" and a menagerie which even local church elders endorsed as affording a needed education for their children. Indeed, interest in the Ohio and its boats was nation wide and extended even to Europe. Scores of foreigners came to see them, and for those who could not come, Banvard, a celebrated landscape painter, depicted them in a panorama which was ex- i84 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY hibited in Egyptian Hall, London/*^ The scene used was almost twelve hundred yards long and was dis- played by the use of a revolving cylinder somewhat after the manner of the moving pictures of our own day. Finally, the steamboats of this period ofifered the best and to some the only means of social intercourse. Be- sides the thousands who used them on missions of busi- ness, other thousands used them as a means of travel. During the first three years of its existence the Pitts- burgh and Cincinnati Packet line carried almost two million passengers, and by 1855 the total annual passen- ger traffic on the Ohio reached the three million mark. The conditions under which they were transported made for wide acquaintances and for warm and inti- mate friendships. Officials acted as hosts; passengers were rarely selfish and exclusive; and, in the upper cabins at least, affability and freedom were chastened by decorum and good breeding. Music and dancing were the chief amusements; and at night one of these large boats, filled with well dressed men and women, was more like a floating palace than a mere conveyance of wayfarers. 181 Cist's Weekly Advertiser, May 8, 1850. Railroad versus River On a chilly night, November 29, 1852, the first rail- road train from the East reached Pittsburgh. It had started from Philadelphia the night before and spent most of the intervening day crossing the heavy moun- tain grades of the Alleghanies, the route being by the Portage Railroad connecting Hollidaysburgand Johns- town.'*' Although the trip was not made over a through line, inclined planes being used to cross the mountains, this "long distance triumph of the iron horse" was recognized as a marvelous feat. All those interested, even the tired and hungry passengers who rode in box- like cars without dining and other accommodations, recognized that a new epoch in inland transportation was at hand. Already they were talking about the prob- able exit of the steamboat, and fears of national disin- tegration were vanishing, the West having at last been bound to the East by a tie that was thought to be perma- nent and efifective. Of even greater significance, possibly, was the cele- bration six weeks later, January 12, 1853, of the comple- tion of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad to Wheeling, the Pennsylvania legislature of 1847 having refused permission to extend it from Cumberland to Pittsburgh. The first train had arrived January 10 over a continu- ous track, thus completing the "marriage of the East and the West," which was fittingly solemnized. To this '«2 Craig, Neville B. History of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, 1851); Pitts- burgh Gazette Times, April i, 1923; Van Metre, et al., op. cit., vol. i, 238. i86 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY end local orators contributed a part, as did the Steuben- ville Grays, the Bridgeport artillery, and a dozen or more steamboats whose musical bells and newly devised whistles at times drowned the oratory of the occasion and even the roar of artillery. In attendance from the East, coming by way of the railroad, was a distin- guished company which included, among others, the governors of Maryland and Virginia, Lowe and John- son; members of the Maryland and Virginia legisla- tures, those of the former state having adjourned for the occasion; Benjamin H. Latrobe, engineer of the road; and Thomas Swann, its president.^'^ Locally the enthusiasm of this occasion exceeded all precedents. Practically everybody over a radius of several miles participated and rejoiced in the thought that at last Wheeling had come into her own. The in- jurious effects of the Pennsylvania and Erie canals had at last been repaired by a "through railroad" which was relied upon again to divert traffic in the direction of the Cumberland road, where it was thought to belong. Under the changed conditions the improvised railroad connecting Pittsburgh and Philadelphia was little feared. It was claimed that Wheeling was destined to become the emporium of the upper Ohio valley. Meanwhile, a "railroad mania" had attacked the lower Ohio and the regions beyond to the west, a center of infection being at Cincinnati. A new westward movement fostered by the lure of gold, the invention of the reaper, and the possibility of federal land subsidies for prospective railroads kept the craze alive and stimulated local endeavor. Bent upon retaining for Cincinnati all the advantages that had already accrued from her location on the Ohio river and that were ex- 183 Wheeling Intelligencer, January i, 1853; idem, January 12, 1853. RAILROAD VERSUS RIVER 189 pected to flow from her strategic position on a through railroad line connecting Baltimore and San Francisco, Alphonso Taft and the venerable riverman, Jacob Strader, urged the necessity for railroads. Taft was especially aggressive. In an address entitled "The Railroads of Cincinnati," delivered before the Mercantile Library Association in 1850, he presented at length the possible benefits of railroads to that city and suggested proposed lines. Following a summary of the internal improvement history of Ohio he urged immediate consideration of three railroad projects, the completion of which he claimed would make Cincin- nati the great city of the West that was bound to arise in the near future, and to which New York and other Atlantic ports would bear a relation no higher "than that of ports of entry to a mart of commerce, such as Havre and some other seaports of France bear to Paris ; and such as Joppa anciently bore to Jerusalem." ''* The railroad projects proposed by Taft are of more than passing interest. First and most urgent of all was an additional line to connect Cincinnati and Lake Erie to divert thence the increasing volume of traffic passing through Indiana. Already "the pioneer of western railroads," the Little Miami, completed in 1846, af- forded a direct connection between Cincinnati and the Lakes, but this was not considered sufficient for the pur- pose in view. Accordingly, Taft urged the completion of an additional line by way of the Great Miami to Dayton, thence to Sandusky. Strange as it may seem, none of the arguments urged in behalf of this enterprise suggested the possibility of future rivalry between Cin- cinnati and Chicago. 18* Leonard, L. A. Life of Alphonso Taft (New York, 1920), 71, 60-92; Cisfs Weekly Adi'ertijer, March 27, 1850. igo TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY Of more importance was the proposed "great line, east and west" to connect Baltimore, Cincinnati, and St. Louis, and eventually San Francisco. This enterprise was urged as a "sublime plan," one that would inter- sect the commerce of the Mississippi at St. Louis and that of the Ohio at Cincinnati. Furthermore, Taft said, "It will unite the mines of the Sacramento with the golden harvests of the Mississippi valley. It will be direct ; and yet will pass through all important commer- cial cities of the Union, except New Orleans. For it will be seen by a glance at the map that Philadelphia, New York and Boston are on the same line, extended, with but a small deviation." The immediate completion of that part of the pro- posed line lying between St. Louis and the Atlantic coast was urged as imperative. Fortunately many for- mer difficulties had been reduced to a minimum. To the east, as already indicated, the Baltimore and Ohio railroad was then extending its lines to the Ohio river at Wheeling, with a projected line to Parkersburg. Thus, all that was needed to give Cincinnati a through railroad to the Atlantic was the completion of a two hundred mile stretch to connect with the Baltimore and Ohio lines. To the west the difficulties were great- er, the legislature of Illinois refusing to charter any railroad that might divert the commerce of St. Louis from Chicago to Cincinnati. Indiana had, however, approved such an enterprise, and Taft urged its im- mediate completion to the Wabash. By that time he hoped for a shift in the attitude of the Illinois legisla- ture. In case it remained immovable, he suggested the possibility of extending the proposed road west from Cincinnati to the Mississippi at Alton, twenty miles above St. Louis, or to Chester, sixty miles below. RAILROAD FERSUS RIVER ig^ The third project contemplated a direct railroad from Cincinnati to the lower South. It was pointed out that this could be effected by a line to Lexington, where connections could be made with the Nashville and South Atlantic railroad and also with the Louisville and Frankfort line. The possible advantages were numerous. First of all Cincinnati "would form a pro- fitable acquaintance with the rich interior of Kentucky, a country of whose vast wealth we have heard, but from which we have been effectively severed by bad roads, and a total want of improvements." Moreover, this connection was needed to counteract the possible effects of rival transportation enterprises to the southward, for, as Taft said, "Cincinnati cannot regard with in- difference the fact that some of the southern cities are now pushing their improvements resolutely toward the Ohio. Charleston and Savannah have already advanced their railways, north and west, five hundred miles across the mountains to the Tennessee river at Chat- tanooga, on their way to Knoxville and to Nashville; to which latter place the whole line is already under contract and in process of construction." Unfortunately these plans and suggestions encoun- tered insuperable obstacles."^ Ohio and other states of the Union were bonded for millions to pay for canals that were now to be abandoned, and states were on the point of repudiating debts incurred for internal im- provements. As a result their credit was destroyed, and new state constitutions forbade states to incur additional indebtedness. Ohio's constitution of 1850 went even further and denied this power to counties and munici- 185 Wheeling Intelligencer, April 22, 1853; Pittsburgh Gazette, July 9, 1853; idem, August 13, 1853; Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, vol. xxiv, 432; Cist^s Weekly Advertiser, March 27, 1850. 192 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY palities. The result was a severe blow to the numerous railroad projects of that state, which were thus made almost wholly dependent upon private enterprise. Meanwhile, Illinois and states to the west went on with their railroad building programs, some of them through the aid of federal land grants. The first of these grants was made in 1850 to the Illinois Central railroad. "^°^ The Railroad Record of Cincinnati thundered against the situation but was helpless, and Cincinnati remained a steamboat center despite the plans and wishes of her leading citizens. Pittsburgh was more successful in her efforts to se- cure railroad accommodations, but she accepted this new mode of transportation with some misgivings. Her comparative inaccessibility may have contributed to this attitude. However that may be, her press continued to ridicule the "railroad mania" that had captured other parts of the interior and to invite those affected therewith to pause before it was too late. With foreign capital estranged because of losses in canals, Pitts- burghers could not see where the money was coming from to build the scores of railroads then being pro- jected in the interior. They conceded the advantages of railroads for the transportation of passengers and small freight shipments but would not admit even the possi- bility of their ever superseding rivers and canals as carriers of heavy and bulky articles. The possibility of junking a total inland river tonnage five times greater than the capacity of all the railroads then reaching the interior was unthinkable. Locally, railroads were wel- issagronson, Howard G. History of the Illinois Central Railroad to 1870 (Urbana, III., 1915), University of Illinois Studies in Social Sciences, vol. iv, nos. 3 and 4, September and December, 1915. RAILROAD VERSUS RIVER 193 corned, but they were expected to remain tributary to rivers after the fashion of canals and turnpikes.'*" These conditions brought the passenger packet on the Ohio into its zenith. Individual packets now attained an undreamed degree of perfection and elegance and local lines reached their greatest popularity and useful- ness. New lines also came into existence. Gleanings from contemporaneous accounts to be found in the local press tell something of the story for Pittsburgh and vicinity. During the first three months of 1854 almost three million dollars in gold and silver bullion reached the mint at Philadelphia by way of the Ohio. Up-stream packets were carrying record-breaking cargoes of pig- iron, lead, agricultural products, horses, mules, and cattle, return shipments consisting largely of railroad iron, farming implements, merchandise, and passen- gers. For example, the "Granite State" left Pittsburgh January 21, 1854, "with almost every inch of her space covered with carts, wagons, wheelbarrows, plows, and empty molasses barrels." Later in the same year immi- grants passed through Pittsburgh at the rate of fifteen hundred daily, "a half dozen or more steamboats being required for their transportation to St. Louis."'" Mean- while, boat building had taken on new life. The new boats built in 1854 were in excess of eighty, and many of them were of unprecedented size, power, and capac- ity. Summarizing the situation, a writer in Hunt's Merchants' Magazine for June, 1854, said: "Contrary to expectation and owing to the great demand for river shipment at points on the western waters, freights are 18* Pittsburgh Gazette, August 3, 1853; idem, August 13, 1853. ''' — Idem, January 16, 1854; idem, February 2, 1854; idem, February 17, 1854; idem, April 7, 1854. 194 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY high, steamboats are selling at a greatly advanced price, and the numerous boat builders are driven to the wall with work, and are hotly pressed to fill their orders." It was under these conditions that the "First" Pitts- burgh and Cincinnati Packet line attained its greatest success. This was the period of its finest boats and most popular captains, its older and smaller boats giving way to so-called "floating palaces." Among these, together with their captains, were the "Keystone State," Captain Charles Stone; "Allegheny," Captain Charles Batche- lor; "Crystal Palace," Captain W. J. Kountz; "Phila- delphia," Captain R. J. Grace; and the "Pennsyl- vania," Captain John Klinefelter. Although the small- est of these, the "Pennsylvania" may be taken as typical. She was two hundred seventy-five feet long, thirty- seven feet beam, and seven feet hold. She carried engines of thirty-five-inch cylinder and eight feet stroke and five boilers each forty-two inches in diameter. Her wheels were thirty-five feet in diameter. In comparison with the first boats of her line, those of 1843, she was a marvel. Her launching was the occasion for a celebra- tion lasting from one day far into the next and calling forth the elite of Pittsburgh society.^'^ The first effects of the coming of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad were to stimulate traffic on the Ohio river. In anticipation of the event John McLure, Sr., Wm. List, and others, some of them southern sympa- thizers, incorporated the Union line of packets for the purpose of giving daily communications between Wheeling and Louisville. The boats used were "the finest that ever plied the waters of the upper Ohio in the line arrangement," their average capacity being in 188 The "Pennsylvania" was of four hundred eighty-six tons burden, the "Crystal Palace," the largest of the line, of five hundred forty-one tons. See Pittsburgh Gazette, February ii, 1854; idem, February 18, 1854. RAILROAD VERSUS RIVER 195 excess of eight hundred tons. They were the "Thomas Swann," named for the president of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad; the "Alvin Adams," bearing the name of the founder of the Adams Express Company; the "David White," named for a prominent resident of Madison, Indiana; and the "Falls City," the "Balti- more," the "Virginia," and the "Forest City," each of which bore a name that appealed to the South from which they expected to draw their chief patronage.'*^ Of these steamers the "Falls City" was typical. She was three hundred eight feet long, thirty-six feet beam, and less than seven feet hold. She carried five boilers each twenty-eight feet long and forty-six inches in dia- meter and two engines of thirty inch cylinders and nine feet stroke. Her upper cabin could be thrown into one room two hundred sixty-five feet long, one end of which was adorned by an elaborate painting of Louisville, and the other by an equally elaborate painting of Wheeling. In comparison with other upper Ohio river steamboats, her greater length and narrower beam were significant, as was also her shallow hold. In a comment widely copied the Louisville Courier described her luxurious state-rooms, her gold-etched ceilings and pil- lars, her skylights of stained glass, her imported queens- ware, and other things in keeping, all combining to produce an efifect suggestive of oriental splendor. As was anticipated the Union line of packets made its strongest appeal to the South. Many looked upon it as a possible link in the long-desired line of communi- cation between that section and the West. Agents of underground railroads were making the transportation 189 Wheeling Intelligencer, April 23, 1853; idem, April 27, 1853; idem, May 3, 1853; idem. May 14, 1853; idem, May 21, 1853; idem, August ii, 1853; idem, January 20, 1853; idem, January 24, 1853; idem, January 10, 1883. 196 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY of slave property on the Ohio dangerous, at times next to impossible. The pending controversy over the rights of slaveholders in the territories made such a service more imperative than ever. Accordingly the boats of the Union line were officered and manned, as far as possible, by persons of southern sympathies, some of the employees coming all the way from Richmond, Vir- ginia. Thus the editor of the Richmond Enquirer was pleased to find aboard these packets an atmosphere "delightfully Southern." ''" On the lower Ohio the steamboat more than held its own. Of its activities there, in the mid-fifties, statistics tell an otherwise voluminous story. In the year ending August 31, 1854, more than three hundred different packets touched at the port of Cincinnati, some of them daily. They brought imports representing a total value of almost sixty-five million dollars and took away ex- ports scarcely less valuable. Total arrivals and depar- tures reached almost eight thousand, or more than twenty daily including Sunday. Thus Cincinnati re- mained a river center. The profits of the trade between her port and that of Louisville were so large that the Lightning line entered it in competition with the Mail line whose packets had been without regular opposi- tion for more than a generation."^ But the "good old days" of the passenger packet on the Ohio were numbered. Like some other days they were brightest and most promising just before the end. During the years immediately following 1855, those of Horace Bixby and Mark Twain, steamboating on the ^^'' — Idem, May 2, 1853; iJem, March 26, 1855; Reizenstein, Milton, "Economic History of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, 1827-1853," in J. H. U. Studies (Baltimore, 1882-date), vol. xv; Hungerford, Edward. Story of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, 1827-1927 (New York, 1928). ^^^ Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, vol. xiii, 544; idem, vol. xxxix, 605. RAILROAD VERSUS RIVER 197 Mississippi was in its glory, but on the Ohio the local press told another, even a forlorn, story of river condi- tions. "River News" was almost completely superseded by "Railroad News" which grew daily in length and popularity. The following from the Wheeling Intelli- gencer for November 12, 1854, is typical of comments to be found regarding the river until the Civil war: "There does not appear that activity on our wharf that was wont to glad our eyes in the days gone by. Mer- chants and manufacturers look to speedy shipments and prefer the rail to water. Travelers do not generally care for expenses and want the quickest route, preferring the jolting car to the elegantly fitted-out steamer." Incidents in this transition are tragic and not without strains of romance. This is certainly true of the proud packets that plied the waters of the upper Ohio. Unable to make profits there and hearing of possible business to be had elsewhere, their owners took them to the Mississippi and its western tributaries, there to begin life anew after the fashion of the pioneers. By 1856 not a packet of the Union line remained on the Ohio, all having answered the call of the West. With them had gone, also, the boats of the Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet line and scores of others. The following year a river item of the local press told of the dismantling of the "Buckeye State" on the lower Mississippi and added, incidentally, that she was the last survivor of her formerly famous line. Similar items had, mean- while, announced the passing of all the packets of the Union line."' On the lower Ohio the transition was equally com- plete. Immediately following 1854 Cincinnati reported i»= Pittsburgh Gazette, February 2, 185+; Wheeling Intelligencer, Feb- ruary 9, 1854; idem, June 3, 1856; idem, June 19, 1859. 198 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY annual decreases in the number of steamboat arrivals and departures; by 1855 she was exporting almost as much to the East as to the South, most of it going by rail ; and in 1857 she exported five times as much wheat and corn to the North and the East as she sent to the South. The change was at once reflected in her local packing industry, the number of hogs slaughtered there in 1857 being one hundred thousand less than in 1854, the banner year for the fifties. Thus, by i860, "Cincin- nati had ceased to be strictly a river city, and the com- merce of the Mississippi had received a blow from which it was never to recover." ^"^ These changes were reflected in the whole economic life of the Ohio valley, which now began to sufifer from an arrested development that continued until the advent of modern industry, when the area became a "work- shop of the world." There are thousands yet living who could testify to the former condition. Some of these themselves used the scythe and the grain cradle and cured meat in smoke-houses, long after the mowing machine and the reaper came into general use in the West, and after the slaughtering of hogs and cattle and the preservation of meat, on a large scale and by mod- ern methods, became a profitable business in both the West and the East. Indeed, some of these persons con- tinued to ride on horseback to country grist mills as- tride bags of wheat, corn, and buckwheat, long after a large part of the world was using flour made by the roller process. Reluctant to yield the contest with mod- ern progress there are some of these folk who would now return to the "good old days" in the belief that their health would be improved, many modern mal- adies being locally attributed to the foods now used. •'2 Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, vol. xxxvi, 617 ; Van Metre, et al., op. cit., vol. i, 246. RAILROAD VERSUS RIVER 199 In a larger field the changes were even more marked. For instance, by i860 the flour producing area of the interior had shifted to the Northwest; Tennessee had given place to Illinois as the largest corn producing state in the Union; and two-thirds of the corn and wheat produced in the interior for the eastern markets was transported by rail. Cattle, hogs, and sheep now rode to market alive in cars that had only a short time before been good enough for passenger traffic, and both Chicago and New York surpassed Cincinnati as dis- tributing centers for their products.'"* Of the effects upon rivermen excerpts from the diary of Captain W. L. Holmes, a successful riverman of Ravenswood, Virginia (now West Virginia), tell a story."' After a period of reverses on the Ohio, "carry- ing light trips at ruinous rates," January i, 1858 found Captain Holmes and his boat, the "Crescent," in New Orleans. Thence they made a few trips to Bayou Sara on the lower Mississippi and other nearby points, "sometimes sustaining losses." On February 14, 1858, Captain Holmes left New Orleans for Cincinnati with a "good trip," a part of which was carried through to Wheeling to save the expense of reshipment, there be- ing no business at Cincinnati. While on the way back from Wheeling it was decided to try Cincinnati for a trip to the Missouri river, "that seeming to offer the best chance." However, it took more than a month to assemble a paying cargo which, when completed, con- sisted of four hundred tons of freight and two hundred 194 — Idem, vol. i, 244-248. In 1851 De Bow, editor of De Boti/s Reviev} (New Orleans), declared that northern enterprise had "rolled back the mighty tide of the Mississippi . . . until its mouth, practically and com- mercially, is more at New York and Boston than at New Orleans." See Van Metre, et al., op. cit., vol. i, 246. 185 Manuscript. In possession of descendents of Captain Holmes, Point Pleasant, West Virginia. 200 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY ten passengers, one hundred eighty of whom rode on deck. On April 26 the "Crescent" reached St. Joseph, to find business prostrate. May 8 found her back in Cincinnati planning for a trip that was never made. The reason may be inferred from items from the diary of her captain which ran as follows : There is greater complaint here now among rivermen than I have ever before known. Nearly all of them declare that they are virtually broke. Most any of them would be willing to sell their boats for about a third of their real value. I would be willing to sell the "Crescent" for $10,000, and I think, if business was brisk, I could sell her for $30,000 easier than I could now for $10,000. The record for May 13 was: Today we got one dray load ! This is certainly very encouraging. I think the City Fathers had better rent out the wharf to some good farmer and let him plow it up and plant potatoes on it. There never was, I think, so little done on the wharf at this season of the year as now. The wharf is crowded with boats, and all of them are not getting freight enough to load any one of them in ten days time. Failing to get a second trip for the Missouri, Captain Holmes took his boat to St. Louis, carrying a light trip at a low rate because of competition from the Ohio and Mississippi railroad. In St. Louis he found business no better than in Cincinnati, and the "Crescent" was tied up for repairs and a return of better times. In the course of three months she was painted and put into "ship- shape," at the end of which word came of possible profits for steamboats on the lower Mississippi, pro- vided they could escape the ravages of the yellow fever which was then claiming victims there at the rate of scores daily. Although he experienced a "good deal of difficulty in shipping a crew," Captain Holmes, in the spirit of a true riverman, was off for the South. He took aboard a light trip at the mouth of the Ohio, but RAILROAD VERSUS RIVER before it was unloaded his demise was noted in these words: "Captain Holmes, the author of this diary, died this day in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, with yellow fever." Of all his effects only his diary reached his family which was never informed of the disposition made of his boat or of his remains. Thus it was with many another riverman and steam- boat of this period: they simply dropped out of sight. In most cases the passing was not as tragic as that of Captain Holmes and the "Crescent," but the results were the same. With some exceptions to be mentioned later, their exit from the Ohio would have been com- plete. Outstanding among causes producing these results were great national and even international movements. Among the latter was the decline in European immi- gration that followed 1855, accompanied as it was by a temporary lull in the westward movement within the United States. It will be recalled that the passenger traffic was an important element in the success of the passenger packet which attained its greatest elegance and grandeur from the desire of boat owners to please the traveling public. After 1855 immigrants seemed to stand by, as if to await the outcome of an impending sectional conflict that was to test the strength of the American Union and disturb the repose of the world. This conflict was not confined to the North and the South. In some phases it was a contest between the Ohio valley on the one side, with its comparatively rapid rivers, poor soil, and rugged hills, and the upper Mis- sissippi valley on the other, with its more gentle rivers, rich soil, and level lands. The outstanding result was the triumph of St. Louis and Chicago over Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. By 1855 St. Louis was the greatest 202 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY Steamboat center on the western waters, and Chicago had outdistanced both Cincinnati and Pittsburgh as a railroad center.'"" Among the more tangible factors in this transition, the railroads were certainly the most important. For a short time after they reached the Ohio it is true that the volume of river traffic increased annually, but when railroads effected through connections thence to the East and the West by the use of bridges spanning the Ohio, by the use of standard and through tracks, some of which paralleled inland rivers for long distances, and by the use of common terminals, the volume of river traffic at once fell off. These events synchronize too closely to be devoid of causal relations. For exam- ple, the locomotive made its trial trip between Pitts- burgh and Cincinnati May i6, 1853,'" and one year later, by the use of a tunnel under the Alleghanies, the Pennsylvania railroad made possible a through and direct connection between Philadelphia and Pitts- burgh, which was extended to Chicago four years later by the use of a bridge over the Allegheny. Meanwhile most of the packets that had frequented Pittsburgh, in line and other arrangement, had ceased to run, and the steamboat business on the upper Ohio had become de- moralized. Elsewhere similar developments brought like results. For example, the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, which had been conceived with the purpose, among other things, of "restoring to the city of Baltimore, that por- tion of the western trade which has been lately diverted from it by the introduction of steam navigation, and by other causes," refused to subsidize the packets of the ISO Van Metre, et al., op. cit., vol. i, 244-248. '8' Pittsburgh Gazette, May 18, 1853. RAILROAD VERSUS RIVER 203 Union line, and in 1855 crossed the Ohio at Bogg's run (Benvvood) and Bellaire, where its lines joined those of the Central Ohio railroad to form a through rail connection between Baltimore and Columbus and points beyond. Fearing that she would become a "mere wooding station for steamboats," Wheeling opposed the move, charging a breach of faith, but she was helpless to prevent it. As has been indicated her packets deserted her at this time, seeking employment elsewhere. In the same year and despite the opposition of the Illinois legislature, the Ohio and Mississippi railroad was put into operation between Cincinnati and St. Louis, reduc- ing the distance between these important cities from seven hundred twenty miles by river to three hundred twenty-seven by rail.'"'* The effects on the river traffic between these points has already been indicated by the experience of Captain Holmes. A recent authority has described the effects of the railroads of the interior upon the river commerce of the Ohio valley and elsewhere in these words : In addition to the freight taken from the canal, the railroads easily secured the traffic that was accustomed to go from the north central states to the eastern coast and to Europe by way of New Orleans. . . . The speed of the railroads and the superiority of New York as an importing point gave the direct rail routes to the East a decided ad- vantage over the long roundabout route by way of New Orleans. In 1852 the Galena lead trade, which had long formed an important item of the river and coasting commerce of New Orleans, was cap- tured by the railroads. Flour and provisions of Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky that had formerly been sent to Philadelphia, Wash- ington, Baltimore, and other cities by way of New Orleans and New York were taken directly over the mountains to the points of consumption. Shipments downstream from Cincinnati and other im- portant centers on the Ohio shrunk rapidly in volume and, even 198 Van Metre, et al., op. cit., vol. i, 237-241. 204 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY before the war broke out, the direct commerce of Cincinnati with the East was much larger than its trade with the South/"' Despite evidence, even admissions, to the contrary, the conditions just described cannot be attributed whol- ly to a temporary shift in the immigration movement, to sectional conflicts, or to the railroads. Low water, ice, pestilence, panic, accidents, politics, extravagance, and other factors contributed their parts, the decade 1 850-1 860 being as unfavorable to river activities on and along the Ohio, from the above named causes, as the preceding decade had been favorable. During the fifties nature seemed to vie with the railroad in the undoing of the steamboat. Of these natural forces ice was, probably, most de- structive. In the fifties, when competition with rail- roads was keenest, the Ohio was closed to navigation for long periods at a time, each "freeze-up" being pre- ceded, as usual, by a dry spell that suspended naviga- tion, except with low water boats. For example, one of these periods extended from December 6, 1854, to March 6, 1855, ^^i^ another from January 2, to March 8, 1856.'"° The fact that the Ohio would not float a coal- boat during a period of more than two hundred days in 1856 was destructive of more than patience. Com- menting on the effects of an earlier "freeze-up," the Cincinnati Commercial for January 20, 1852, said: "Many boats have changed hands, but nearly all have maintained themselves." The conditions revived the memory of John Randolph who, at an earlier date, op- posed the improvement of the Ohio on the ground that 1°^ — Idem, vol. i, 238-239. """Wheeling Intelligencer, March 23, 1859; idem, January 17, i860; idem, March 19, i860; idem, April 24, i860. RAILROAD VERSUS RIVER 205 it was frozen over one half the year and dry the other half/" Details regarding the operation of other destructive influences may be worth while. Among other things fuel was becoming scarce and expensive, prices of cord- wood tending to advance as the native forests receded from the banks of the rivers. The contracted dimen- sions of the canal paralleling the Falls at Louisville prevented the passage of large boats that had come into use, thus diverting through traffic to the railroads and driving boat building to the lower Ohio.""' Moreover, cholera and yellow fever continued, meanwhile, to make more or less regular visits to Ohio river ports, defying medical skill and driving homeseekers to the high lands in the interior, made accessible by the rail- roads. As a rule periods of decline and adversity, in river circles, as elsewhere, are attended by more than a pro- portionate share of accidents and disasters. This period was no exception to this rule. It was an age of extreme individualism, when river captains and others were allowed to do about as they pleased regardless of their responsibilities. Racing continued to be the bane of the rivers, few captains being able to withstand the ever- recurring temptation to show the speed of their "nags." Many of the numerous accidents of this period were attributed to this practice. Accordingly Congress, in 1852, was forced to enact the Davis bill which provided for the licensing of pilots and engineers and for a more rigid inspection of steamboat boilers and hulls than that required under an earlier act, that of 1838.'°' -"' — Idem, February i6, 1856; idem, November ii, 1854; idem, Decem- ber 27, 1854; Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, vol. xl, 508. -"- — Idem, vol. xxix, 749; Cincinnati Commercial, April 12, 1852. -"'Rhodes, James Ford. History oj the United States from the Compro- 2o6 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY Wholesome and necessary as the Davis act was, its benefits were neutralized somewhat by the unfavorable advertising which rivers received in the course of its en- actment. The press of important railroad centers kept the public well informed regarding low waters and other uncertainties of river navigation. Accidents and other disasters were reported religiously, attention being called to the fact that whereas more accidents occurred on the railroads, they were attended by fewer casualties. In 1856 Lloyd's Steamboat Directory and Disasters on the Western Waters came from the press with all its gruesome illustrations of exploding boats and dying passengers, some of whom were tossed to the four winds of heaven. Even the Congressional Globe, and that too at a time when that publication was read and taken somewhat seriously and when there was some talk of the improved navigation of the inland waters at na- tional expense, either consciously or unconsciously joined the list of publications that were then poisoning the minds of the traveling public and others on the sub- ject of river transportation. The following from Sena- tor T. J. Rusk of Texas is a sample of what appeared there : The perils accompanying steamboat navigation, under the pres- ent system, are so great, and the chances of encountering an instant and horrible death are so numerous, that, for my part, I would rather encounter almost any risk than that with which I am threatened on the journey of some three or four thousand miles from this place to my home. . . . Sir, I will candidly avow, that I would rather take part in an Indian fight; ay, or enter on a long Indian campaign, than venture on undertaking this voyage.""* mise of l$so (New York, 1896), vol. ii, 25; Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, vol. XXX, 636; idem, vol. xxxiv, 369; idem, vol. xliv, 236, 752. 2<>< The sinking of the "Henry Clay" on the Hudson River and the "At- lantic" on Lake Erie, about this time, with a total loss of more than four hundred lives made action on the part of Congress necessary. See Con- gressional Globe, 32 cong., i sess., vol. xxiv, pt. 3, 2426. RAILROAD VERSUS RIVER 207 In the midst of the above adversities the river inter- ests of the whole country were overtaken by the panic of 1857 which was of unprecedented severity, as far as rivermen were concerned. The competition that fol- lowed led to ruinous extremes but fortunately to better organization and cooperation among rivermen. These benefits did not come in time, however, to save many individual owners from bankruptcy. Many of the boats that remained afloat on the Ohio continued to carry both passengers and freight at low rates and in small quantities. Except for occasional trips to the Missouri, passengers had practically deserted steamboats, and bad times, accompanied by the usual cut-throat competition of such periods, played greater havoc with steamboat profits than did competition from railroads, and this despite the fact that their charges were tending to de- crease generally. But for certain local and exceptional conditions the commercial decadence of the Ohio, in this period, would have been complete. Most important of these, probably, was the strategic position of Cincinnati and Louisville, the latter the doorway of the Middle West to the South, while the former was the portal of the South to the Middle West. Despite the fact that the Ohio and Mississippi railroad paralleled the Ohio somewhat closely for a considerable distance between these two points, they maintained uninterrupted steam- boat connections and a large river traffic with points in both the West and the South. On the upper Ohio following the completion of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad to her gates in 1857, Parkersburg became an important river center. Pack- ets plied the river thence both up and down stream, some of them in line arrangements, and barges came into use for the transportation of freight to and from 2o8 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY Baltimore and Ohio river termini.'"' The iron horse continuing to shy at the rugged hills of western Vir- ginia, to the southward, Great Kanawha river ports, particularly Charleston, continued to maintain import- ant river relations with both Cincinnati and Louisville to the south and Pittsburgh to the north. The discovery of oil (petroleum), about 1859, at several points near Parkersburg, and the contemporaneous interest in the development of other natural resources, coal, salt, and timber, stimulated enterprise and tended to keep steam- boating alive. Moreover, demands from the Mississippi and its other tributaries preserved the boat building industry on the Ohio, in i860 Wheeling alone launch- ing as many as twelve steamboats, most of them for the cotton trade of the Red river.""" During the entire period large through steamboats from both the lower and the upper Mississippi and their respective tributaries, continued to reach Ohio river ports, even Pittsburgh. From the latter they brought large quantities of iron ore, pig iron, farm products, and other raw materials, while from the for- mer came the usual sub-tropical products. Returning, these boats continued to carry merchandise, railroad iron and equipment, and agricultural implements which consisted of "everything from a wheelbarrow up." ^"^ In fact river shipments of railroad iron and raw materials were now so large as to necessitate the use of "model" and other barges which were towed to and 205 Wheeling Intelligencer, March 22, 1848; idem, May 15, 1857; idem, July 3, 1857; idem, July 10, 1857; idem, January 8, 1858; idem, March 9, 1858. =06 Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, vol. xl, 508 ; Wheeling Intelligencer, December 7, 185+; idem, January 28, 1856; Lippincott's "Early Salt Trade in the Ohio Valley," in Journal of Political Economy, vol. xx, 1029. -"'Wheeling Intelligencer, March 23, 1859; idem, January 17, i860; idem, March 19, i860; idem, March 21, i860; idem, April 24, i860. RAILROAD VERSUS RIVER 209 from their destinations. Packets carrying agricultural implements had practically every foot of their avail- able space taken and, unlike the cotton boats which were solid masses of white, presented a grand spectacle of varied colors. But in the absence of the "floating palaces" that had formerly served the river trades between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati and between Wheeling and Louisville, to say nothing of other evidences, the commercial decad- ence of the Ohio in the late fifties was a fact. This con- dition has generally been attributed to the railroad. It can not, however, be termed a victory, all the breaks of the short contest that preceded being against the river, which seemed to owe its undoing to the cumula- tive force of a number of factors. Intermunicipal Rivalries From early times to the present a spirit of rivalry has permeated the life of Ohio river towns and cities. Today it has extended to the field of sports, among the trophies fought for being those of the diamond and the gridiron. A century ago, how^ever, the advantages sought involved more largely the future of industry, trade, and commerce. Our present concern is with the earlier period which lies near the beginnings of things decisive in the material welfare of the Ohio valley. Industry was then in its beginnings; commerce was seeking new routes; and trade was becoming defin- nitely established. For all these purposes most Ohio river ports possessed natural advantages. Nevertheless, all realized that God helps most those who help them- selves. Consequently every loyal resident of a port town became a booster, efforts in behalf of "my town" being not confined to its limits. They extended to the courts, both local and national, to state legislatures, and even to the halls of Congress. Toward mid-century chief rivalry among these local units was largely for commercial advantages. The con- temporaneous shift from roads to canals and later from canals to railroads, together with the accompanying uncertainties of steam navigation, kept all alive to their particular interests. It was a period when cities were made or ruined by individual plans and legislative enactments. For instance, as long as the Ohio river terminus of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad remained 212 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY unsettled, Wheeling questioned every move to locate it to the advantage of Pittsburgh or of towns and cities within the bounds of Virginia, such as Wellsburg, Moundsville, Sistersville, St. Marys, Parkersburg, and even Point Pleasant. Plans to make Madison, Indiana, a railroad center for a vast hinterland also ran counter to similar plans of the neighboring cities, Jefiferson- ville and Lawrenceburgh, and led to an accumulation of grievances against both Cincinnati and Louisville. Lack of space forbids detailed accounts of these rivalries. Only outlines of those between Pittsburgh and Wheeling on the upper Ohio and Cincinnati and Louisville on its lower course will be attempted. Each epitomizes the conflicting interests between slave and free areas of the Ohio valley, as well as phases of the larger sectional contest between the North and the South, The struggle between Pittsburgh and Wheeling be- gan early in the century and became acute about a dec- ade before the Civil war.""' From the beginning the ad- vantages were with the former. She is the industrial and commercial outpost of the Keystone State which rests eastward upon the Atlantic, northward on the Great Lakes, and westward on the Ohio river which connects her with the Gulf of Mexico and the vast regions of the South and the West. The commercial advantages of Pennsylvania have long been recognized. Moreover, they were improved at an early period, Pittsburgh being the chief western beneficiary with her tributary state-built roads and canals. As a result of these factors, together with her location at the junction of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers and her rich '"'8 For much of the data used in this chapter acknowledgements are made Professor J. M. Callahan. See his "Rivalry for Headship of the Ohio," in Callahan, Semi-Centennial History of West yirginia, appendix. INTERMUNICIPAL RIVALRIES 213 natural resources, she early became the most important industrial and commercial center of the upper Ohio valley. At times an ultra conservatism and an over self- sufficiency have threatened her ascendancy, but she has always been sensitive to designs of would-be rivals. Despite her oft-asserted claims to insuperable natural advantages, the Ohio thence to the north being rapid, tortuous, and obstructed, and thence to the south com- paratively gentle, straight, and open. Wheeling is less advantageously situated than Pittsburgh. Except for the Ohio, the former has few physical advantages. No large tributary streams empty there and her natural resources are comparatively limited. Situated in a nar- row panhandle between Pennsylvania and Ohio, she has received favors from neither and was too far re- moved from the center of Virginia to come within the scope of the state's feeble efforts to conserve her com- mercial interests. Her hopes for greatness in the com- mercial and trade world were first aroused in 1818, when the Cumberland road entered her gates. After a period of disappointment the arrival of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, in 1853, gave new impetus to her ambitions, which were again to be thwarted. Her ad- vantages from the railroad were only temporary, Pitts- burgh being preferred as a western terminus even by the Baltimore and Ohio Company. The selfish interests of Virginia in keeping any railroad tributary to Balti- more as far north as possible were, also, well under- stood. She was determined to permit no plan to inter- fere with her pet scheme, a central line of internal im- provements by way of the James and Kanawha rivers terminating to the eastward at Richmond and Nor- folk.^"" -°^ Ambler, Sectionalism in Firginia, l/~6-lS6l, 125-126. 214 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY Nevertheless, Wheeling made a plucky fight for permanent trade and commercial advantages. To this end, in the early period, one of the things most desired was a local bridge across the Ohio. Thus itw^as planned to make the area to the north tributary to the Cumber- land road and incidentally to Wheeling. In anticipation of the latter improvement Noah Zane and others, in 1816, induced the legislatures of Ohio and Virginia to incorporate the Wheeling Bridge Company for the purpose of erecting the proposed bridge. The only con- dition imposed was that it should be so built as not to interfere with navigation. As steamboating was then in its infancy, most traffic on the Ohio still being by flatboats, barges, and keelboats, this requirement was not exacting. Moreover, the prospects of returns in tolls for the use of a bridge located at this crossroad of the interior seemed to invite private initiative and to insure immediate returns. Despite these favorable conditions the Wheeling bridge did not materialize. Private capital was not forthcoming, and for some time after 1818 traffic over the Cumberland road to Wheeling continued thence by way of the Ohio. With the completion of the Erie and Pennsylvania canals and the consequent diversion of traffic from the overland routes between the Atlantic coast and the Ohio valley. Wheeling became alarmed. Accordingly, in 1830, she appealed to Congress for an appropriation to aid in the construction of her pro- posed bridge. Although possessed of superior advantages, Pitts- burgh did not ignore these efiforts of her rival. Already the completion of the Cumberland road was a matter of importance to most Pennsylvanians. When it was Hearing completion Zadok Cramer, speaking for Pitts- INTERMUNICIPAL RIVALRIES 215 burgh interests, said of it: "The United States' [Cum- berland] road, when completed, will naturally draw a great deal of trade of the northern states to the states of Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and to Louisiana, through that channel, thereby abridging very much the trade from those states through Pennsylvania." To off- set the possible disadvantages to his state Cramer joined others in urging the completion of the turnpike then in process of construction between Harrisburg and Pitts- burgh and the improved navigation of the Ohio river."'" Subsequently steamboat navigation on the western waters became practicable, and Pittsburgh developed into an important boat building center. She also be- came the western terminus of a system of state-built canals that gave her direct water communications with the East and the Great Lakes. Accordingly she memo- rialized Congress against the "obstruction to naviga- tion" at Wheeling. Her influence prevailed, and this phase of the contest ended in the defeat of the latter. But local enterprise had meanwhile succeeded in financ- ing and erecting a bridge over the lesser channel of the Ohio at Wheeling, that separating its Ohio bank from Zane's island."" Undaunted Wheeling refused to accept defeat, local conditions seeming to make victory over Pittsburgh in the matter of the bridge controversy imperative. The Baltimore and Ohio Company was then planning to extend its railroad lines to the interior, provided a means of crossing the Ohio could be assured. As local farmers and others who had hitherto opposed railroads, fearing that they would lower the price of horses, were now less insistent. Wheeling again appealed to Con- =1° Cramer, Navigator (ed. 1818), 26. -11 Wheeling Tri-Weekly Gazette, September i6, 1835. 2i6 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY gress, this time with the request that her local bridge be built at national expense. This request was urged in fulfillment of a contract under which Congress in 1802, had agreed to build a road "to the state of Ohio," which, in lieu thereof, was to relinquish all claims to the proceeds from public lands sold or to be sold within her borders. Furthermore, it was set forth that this request had the endorsement of Ohio through a resolu- tion of her legislature and that numerous bodies of a more local character had approved it.''' It was under these conditions that the Wheeling bridge became a national issue, members of Congress and others favoring or opposing it as their sectional interests seemed to determine. At times, conditions seemed to indicate that it would be undertaken as a national enterprise. In 1836 it received the approval of a congressional committee on roads, and about the same time a corps of government engineers pronounced it both desirable and practicable. They also submitted a plan for a structure with a movable floor by the use of which it was claimed that the Ohio could be navigated at any time, even at flood stages. In 1840 the Postmaster General endorsed the proposal as necessary for the safe and prompt dispatch of the mails which were then be- ing delayed at Wheeling by ice, floods, and low water, for weeks at a time."'^ Nevertheless, work on the proposed bridge was again delayed, thanks, among other things, to the political influence of Pennsylvania in the Jacksonian period, to traditional notions of inland America regarding the freedom of its rivers, and to current controversies over the powers of Congress in the matter of internal im- 212 Wheeling Daily Times, November 16, 1844; Pittsburgh Gazette, July 24, 1846. 213 Wheeling Daily Times, September 14, 1846. INTERMUNICIPAL RIVALRIES 217 provements. Despairing of aid from other sources Wheeling again appealed to the national government. In support of her request the conditions of Ohio's ad- mission to the Union, previously mentioned, were re- vived, and attention was called to the fact that Virginia had, meanwhile, endorsed the Wheeling bridge as a national enterprise within the constitutional powers of Congress, and that the bridge had the unqualified ap- proval of federal officialdom. Since the objections thereto came only from parties who had not raised a voice against a bridge over the Ohio at Louisville, from parties who had themselves built several bridges over the Monongahela and the Allegheny at and near Pittsburgh, the former river being the only natural out- let for a large part of Virginia, it was maintained that the objections to the Wheeling bridge had their origin in fears less public and commendable than concern for free navigation. Finally, the construction of the pro- posed bridge was urged as a national enterprise, a con- necting link in a thoroughfare between the East and the West, that would, in time, follow the "immigrant trail to the Rocky mountains and the Pacific," providing a direct route to the national capital and a necessary means of transportation for soldiers and military sup- plies. Realizing that the decision on this request would be final, every effort was made to convince Congress of its merits. To this end a plan was submitted. It was the work of Charles Ellett, a famous engineer, and received the approval of a congressional committee on roads. To meet a frequent objection Lewis Steenrod, the local member of Congress, proposed the use of hinges on steamboat smoke-stacks, attached in such a way as to permit of lowering them in cases of emergency. 2i8 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY Meanwhile, Pittsburgh was becoming more and more interested in preserving the free and uninter- rupted navigation of the Ohio. A tributary system of canals was bringing and taking thousands of tons of freight and hundreds of passengers daily. The Monon- gahela had been locked and dammed all the way thence to Brownsville and the Youghiogheny from its mouth to West Newton, thus increasing the volume of traffic on the Monogahela, as well as that on the Ohio. As already indicated elsewhere, scores of packets were plying the upper Ohio, some of them in line arrange- ments, and the famous Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Pack- et line was being organized. Some of the packets of this and other lines were already palatial, and in the mania for speed, they had extended their smoke-stacks to unprecedented heights. Accordingly Pittsburgh re- solved upon a fight to the finish. In her behalf the Pennsylvania legislature of 1844 made another formal protest against any "obstruction" over the Ohio at or near Wheeling in the form of a bridge. Every possible resource, both local and national, was resorted to in order to make this protest elTective. As in the past Pittsburgh won, and Wheeling abandoned hope of get- ting her proposed bridge through aid from Congress. Persistent in her purpose to bridge the Ohio, Wheel- ing next sought authority therefor by the state's right route which led to Richmond, where the remonstrating voice of Pennsylvania was less potent than in Washing- ton. Fortunately the times and conditions were oppor- tune for such a move. Leading southern statesmen were then planning for a united South that would include all slaveholding territory. To this end political and other concessions were being made those sections that were comparatively free, such as the Trans-alleghany, INTERMUNICIPAL RIVALRIES 219 and the newly organized southern churches were mak- ing a vigorous fight to hold that section within their jurisdiction. For these and other reasons the Wheeling and Belmont Bridge Company was re-incorporated by the state of Virginia with authority to construct a bridge across the Ohio at Wheeling. Inasmuch as Vir- ginia's jurisdiction extended to low water mark, on the Ohio side, her power and rights in the matter were not seriously questioned, so long as their exercise did not interfere with navigation. To avoid any contro- versy on this point the act of incorporation provided that the proposed bridge might be abated as a nuisance, in the event that it proved an obstruction to steamboats and other craft using the Ohio in the "usual manner.""^* As no aid had been expected from the state of Vir- ginia, the proposed bridge was financed as a private enterprise of the joint-stock variety. Progress was rapid, former failures serving to allay opposition and the sus- picions of Pittsburgh. Plans were made for a suspension bridge, and in September, 1847, Charles Ellett was employed to supervise its construction. In little more than two years the masonry was in place, and local enthusiasm began to exult over the prospect of an ap- proaching triumph. Moreover, the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, the first through line between the Atlantic coast and the Ohio river, was nearing completion to Wheeling which again seemed in sight of her long cherished ambition to become the chief commercial city of the upper Ohio. It was under these conditions that Pittsburgh re- newed her efforts to prevent the construction of a bridge across the Ohio at Wheeling. The state of Penn- sylvania had made large expenditures for internal im- "^* — Idem, July 30, 1846. 220 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY provements in her western counties, and the steamboats plying the upper Ohio had grown in height. As the proposed bridge would be only thirty feet above high water mark, it was claimed that it would be an obstruc- tion that would practically suspend navigation for long periods at a time, thus rendering valueless Pennsyl- vania's internal improvements. In June, 1849, a mass meeting of Pittsburgh rivermen and their friends set forth these contentions and demanded action to protect their interests. In response Pennsylvania, in July, 1849, appealed to a local resident. Judge Grier of the federal Supreme Court, for an injunction to stop the progress of work on the Wheeling bridge. The request was granted, but before the writ embodying it could be served, a wire cable for the objectionable structure had been placed in position. Outgeneraled, Pennsylvania next asked the Supreme Court to abate the "obstruc- tion" as a nuisance in violation of the spirit and the letter of the act of Virginia incorporating the Wheel- ing Bridge Company."^° As immediate action on this request could not be had, work on the bridge went forward to completion, Octo- ber 20, 1849. Through the local press and otherwise the event was heralded as one "joining Virginia and Ohio in perpetual union" by the "longest and the most pow- erful single span ever projected in the world." To awaiting crowds that had visited the scene for days, hoping to see the last spike driven, two flags, one bear- ing the insignia of Virginia, the other that of Ohio, announced this triumph from their respective towers on the bridge. This demonstration called forth a shout that was echoed and reechoed by the surrounding hills. A few minutes later a cannon shot announced the safe -'^ — Idem, August 24, 1849. INTERMUNICIPAL RIVALRIES passage of the first traffic, the builders in a one horse carriage. Later in the day the fairy equipage of "Gen- eral Tom Thumb," in a carriage drawn by Shetland ponies, gifts of Queen Victoria, crossed and re-crossed the bridge, bringing to a fitting close its spontaneous and informal dedication."® The formal dedication of the Wheeling bridge, Nov- ember 15, 1849, was an event of national interest and importance. Thousands of persons heard the speaker of the day, B. W. Thompson of Indiana, as well as letters from Benjamin Ruggles of Ohio, Governor John B. Floyd of Virginia, Thomas Swann, president of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, Henry Clay, and others. As a part of the ceremony women of Wheeling and vicinity crossed and re-crossed the bridge in solemn procession. The ceremony ended in a blaze of light, the product of one thousand lamps so arranged as to bring out the grace and elegance of the proud structure. To every suggestion of removing it under an order from the Supreme Court the reply was that of Henry Clay: "You might as well try to take down the rainbow." The following lines from "Dick Doleful," sung on the above occasion to the air of "Carry Me Back to Old Virginia" tell something of its spirit: '" Our wants are many here below, But do not want them long ; We ask one thousand and ten feet - Of bridge that's high and strong. We want steamboats to pass beneath, And stages to pass o'er; And stout enough to bear the train That comes from Baltimore. Then give us the track, the railroad track, 218 Wheeling Gazette, October 22, 1849. *^^ — Idem, August 10, 1849; 'dem, November 17, 1849. 222 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY From here to the eastern shore; O give us the track to carry us back From Wheeling to Baltimore. 'Tis wrong to build your steamboat pipes To reach up to the moon, For when you look down at our bridge, Your feathers drop too soon. Since you in vain oppose our bridge To reach from shore to shore. Be generous now, and give the road To us from Baltimore. Then give us the track, etc. You'll find in law your great mistake, And this will be a pity, Too late alas, a light will break Upon your Smoky City. Then don't hold out about the route. Ere eighteen fifty-four, You will see stars when you hear cars Come in from Baltimore! Then give us the track, etc. While Wheeling celebrated Pittsburgh planned to destroy the source of her rival's joy by pressing her ap- peals to the Supreme Court. In fact every efifort w^as made to establish a winning case. To this end, among other things, packets approached the "Bridge of Size" cautiously, sometimes "lying by" for hours and even transferring passengers and freight w^ithout trying to pass under. The masters thus deporting themselves pro- claimed their injuries far and wide. Some were accused of subsidizing the press, even that in the East, and the state treasurer of Pennsylvania attempted to fortify the case by statistics showing how an obstructed river at Wheeling would injure the industrial growth of Pitts- burgh, thus tending to destroy the value of public im- provements in western Pennsylvania. Finally Robert INTERMUNICIPAL RIVALRIES 223 J. Walker and Edward M. Stanton, each as well versed in things political as in things legal, were retained as counsel. Mindful of her experiences with Congress, Wheel- ing was not disposed to allow actual possession to de- cide her case. Fortified with a resolution of the legisla- ture of Virginia approving her bridge as in keeping with the intent of the act under which it was author- ized, she determined to fight for the retention of every advantage already gained. To this end much was said about the rights of sovereign states, and two able attor- neys, each of the Whig variety of politics, Alex. H. H. Stuart of Virginia and Reverdy Johnson of Maryland, were retained to present her case to the Supreme Court."' At this stage the Wheeling bridge called forth many and varied comments."" For example, David Embree, a famous engineer, thought the Supreme Court should deny to any one, who did not have the permission of Congress, the right to use a single foot of land within the banks of a navigable stream; the Cincinnati Com- mercial hoped that the bridge would be permitted to stand as a bond of union between the North and the South; Governor Floyd of Virginia believed that the efforts to destroy it could be traced to morbid and jeal- ous rivalry, rather than to any serious apprehension re- garding the freedom of navigation; and the governor of Pennsylvania urged its abatement as a nuisance de- structive of the public improvements of his state and injurious to the commerce of the whole country. In presenting their case, counsel for Pennsylvania 21* — Idem, August 29, 1849; idem, November 20, 1849; idem, March i, 1850; Callahan, op. cit. -'^Wheeling Gazette, Jaunary 10, 1850; idem, January 16, 1850; idem, February 19, 1850. 224 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY maintained that the Wheeling bridge was built with a view to the malicious injury of Pittsburgh, whose boats, it was claimed, carried thence three-fourths of all the traffic passing over the Pennsylvania canal. Of the gen- eral elTects upon the public works of Pennsylvania Mr. Stanton said : The injury occasioned by this obstruction is deep and lasting. The products of the South and the West, and the Pacific coast are brought in steamboats along the Ohio to the western end of her canals at Pittsburgh, thence to be transported through them to Philadelphia, for an eastern and foreign market. Foreign merchandise and eastern manufactures, received at Philadelphia, are transported by the same channel to Pittsburgh, thence to be carried south and west, to their destination, in steamboats along the Ohio. If these vessels and their commerce are liable to be stopped within a short distance, as they approach the canals, and subjected to expense, delay, and danger to reach them, the same consequence to ensue on their journey depart- ing, the value of these works must be destroyed."-" Admitting some of the contentions of Pennsylvania, particularly the fact that she had made large expendi- tures for internal improvements in her western counties, counsel for the Wheeling Bridge Company would not concede that the bridge was an obstruction to steam- boats and other craft navigating the Ohio in the "usual manner," as contemplated in the charter under which it was constructed. As proof thereof they submitted a resolution of the legislature of Virginia approving the structure. Furthermore, they denied the corporate capacity of Pennsylvania to bring the pending suit, and justified the bridge as within the sovereign power of Virginia and as a necessary connecting link in a great highway second in importance only to the Ohio itself. With Associate Justice Daniel of Virginia dissent- ing, the Court accepted jurisdiction and appointed R. --" — Idem, February 23, :850. INTERMUNICIPAL RIVALRIES 225 H. Woolworth of New York a special commissioner to take testimony and report his findings. After months of investigation, during which the local press kept the matter before the public, he reported that the Wheeling bridge had a tendency to divert traffic from the public improvements of Pennsylvania and, also, that boats of the Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet line had been de- layed and otherwise inconvenienced by it. For example, the "Hibernia," in November, 1849, had been delayed for thirty-two hours and had been forced to re-ship a part of her cargo, including passengers, in a smaller boat. Later she had twice been compelled to abandon trips. Although the commissioner recognized the ben- eficial results of fair competition between river and railroad transit and, to this end, the necessity of bridg- ing rivers, when it could be done without obstructing navigation, he reported the Wheeling bridge an ob- struction to navigation resulting in injury to packets plying waters leading to and from Pittsburgh."' The opinion of the Court was based upon this report and was given in May, 1852. It was written by Asso- ciate Justice McLean of Cincinnati, Ohio, who held that the Wheeling bridge, in so far as it interfered with navigation, was inconsistent with and in violation of acts of Congress and that it could not therefore be au- thorized and protected by Virginia. Furthermore, he volunteered the opinion that, however numerous and important railroads might become in the future, they would never supersede waterways as arteries of com- merce. The Court had, therefore, ruled for the unob- structed use of the latter. It was willing, however, to permit the bridge at Wheeling to remain, provided it could be raised to an elevation of one hundred eleven --' — Idem, June 5, 1850; Water'ways Journal, March 25, 1922. 226 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY feet above low water and maintained at that elevation for a distance of three hundred feet over the main chan- nel, or provided it were altered in any other way so that it would not interfere with navigation. The Company was given until February i, 1853, to comply with this order. The dissenting opinions of Chief Justice Taney and Associate Justice Daniel are both interesting and in- forming. The former held that Congress could not sub- sequently intervene to decide the Wheeling bridge un- lawful having once acquiesced in its authorization by a sovereign state. He also thought that the location and regulation of bridges were legislative rather than judi- cial matters. On the other hand, Associate Justice Daniel resolved the case to state and local rivalry and concluded that "if mere rivalry of works of internal improvement in other states, by holding out the temp- tation of greater dispatch, greater safety, or any other inducement to preference to those works over the Penn- sylvania canals, be wrong and a ground for jurisdiction here, the argument and the rule sought to be deduced therefrom should operate equally." Reasoning thus Pennsylvania would have recourse against Virginia for damages, should the latter succeed in her plan to con- struct a railroad from the seaboard to the Ohio river at Point Pleasant, thereby diverting traffic from Pitts- burgh. Thus Daniel concluded that it was folly and injustice to attempt to regulate commerce to particular interests. Meanwhile Wheeling had appealed to Congress to save her pet enterprise. This body was asked to declare the Wheeling bridge a post-road and to require steam- boats using the waters under it to adjust their smoke- stacks to existing conditions. The immediate object was INTERMUNICIPAL RIVALRIES 227 to secure such action before the order of the Supreme Court directing its removal or alteration became effec- tive. This move had the approval of the legislatures of Virginia and Indiana, the conflicting railroad interests of Ohio alone preventing it from receiving the ap- proval of that state. However, a large minority of the Ohio legislature favored it, as did thirty-six members of that of Pennsylvania and numerous local organiza- tions. Through the influence of aggressive friends Con- gress acted at once. In July, 1852, a committee on roads endorsed the request, and on the last day of the session, August 31, 1852, it became a law, as a rider to the Post Office Appropriation bill. Among the members favor- ing it were : ( i ) those who believed that the entire pro- ceeding originated in Pittsburgh's jealousy of Wheel- ing; (2) those who felt that the decision of the Su- preme Court in the Wheeling bridge case was a blow at state sovereignty; and (3) those who believed in the superior advantages of railroads over rivers as a future means of transportation. Those opposing the measure condemned it as a malicious device to injure Pitts- burgh and pointed out the possibility of bridging the Ohio near Wheeling but at a point where navigation would not be obstructed."" The vote on the passage of the rider was, however, decisive, that of the Senate being thirty for to ten against and that of the House being ninety-two for to forty-two against. Many saw in the results of this act a crisis not unlike that involved in nullification. With the support of Vir- ginia, Ohio, and Indiana the Bridge Company relied upon the action of Congress to supersede the order of the Supreme Court. On the other hand Pennsylvania 2"- Wheeling Intelligencer, September 8, 1852. 228 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY insisted that the action of Congress was unconstitutional and that the order of the Court could and would be en- forced. Meanwhile Pittsburgh's river captains were needlessly "lying by" and lowering chimneys upon ap- proaching the Wheeling bridge, and showing other signs of detention and oppression. As a consequence the New York Courier feared "that all the most grave and important issues which had ever arisen under our form of government might occur at any time." But the Wheeling Intelligencer was more optimistic, express- ing the belief that Pittsburgh would in time see the error of her way and repent and not be like Demetrius of old who showed greater concern for the craftsmen of Ephesus than for the salvation of his own soul."^ With the advent of the locomotive in the Ohio valley the rivalry between Pittsburgh and Wheeling took on a new aspect. When the first Wheeling bridge was de- stroyed during a storm, May, 1854, Pittsburgh made an unsuccessful effort to prevent its restoration, again carrying her petition to the federal Supreme Court."* In aid of her efforts there, her steamboatmen again ap- proached the "Bridge of Size" at Wheeling with low- ered smoke-stacks and would have persisted in such offences but for the dissuading power of stones and other physical arguments in the hands of an indignant local populace. Despite her manifestation of concern in river transportation, Pittsburgh's chief interest had shifted to railroads. On the point of attaining through and direct rail connections with Philadelphia, she was planning to extend them to the West by way of Steu- benville, Ohio. Moreover, she was interested in a pro- posed extension of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad 223 — Idem, August 24, 1852; idem, January ii, 1853. 224 — Idem, July 4, 1854; idem, July 17, 1854; Callahan, op. cit. INTERMUNICIPAL RIVALRIES 229 from Cumberland to her gates. Among the numerous proofs of this shifting interest was the fact that Penn- sylvania was not even represented when the original Wheeling bridge case was called for final hearing in the federal Supreme Court in December, 1853, her legisla- ture having failed to appropriate funds to continue the suit. Meanwhile Wheeling was not indifferent to the growing importance of railroad transportation and to the eflforts of her rival. As a consequence her interest shifted from the river to the railroad. Among other things she desired rail connections with Marietta, Columbus, and Cleveland byway of her bridge. A pro- posed treaty of reciprocity with Canada was relied upon to bring great benefits to Cleveland and inciden- tally to Wheeling. Wheeling also planned for direct rail connection with Philadelphia by way of Little Washington and Brownsville over the proposed Hemp- field line, with not so much as a branch to Pittsburgh. But the proposed railroad between Pittsburgh and Steubenville, thence to the West with the possibility of a line paralleling the west bank of the upper Ohio, gave Wheeling greatest concern. She regarded it as a "mali- cious plan" to cripple her commerce and tried to pre- vent it. As any such road would of necessity have to cross Virginia, Wheeling appealed to the legislature of that state asking that a charter be refused. Her petition was granted, whereupon the promoters of the proposed road adopted the novel plan of purchasing a right of way from local owners in Virginia, rushing the road to completion, and then asking Congress to make it a post-road, as had been done in the case of the Wheeling bridge. The local situation led to threats of secession on the part of the two northernmost counties 230 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY of Virginia and to a vigorous assertion of the doctrines of state sovereignty on the part of the Wheeling Intelli- gencer, soon to become a self-appointed organ of na- tionalism. As a last resort Wheeling was vs^illing to prevent the construction of the proposed road by oppos- ing the building of a bridge across the Ohio at Steuben- ville/=^ Despite their plans for a greater future the years immediately following 1854 brought reverses to both Pittsburgh and Wheeling. Of the two, Wheeling suf- fered most. Her projected railroads did not material- ize, and the Baltimore and Ohio Company extended its lines into Ohio by a bridge at Benwood, four miles be- low Wheeling which remained for some time a "wood- ing station for steamboats." Charges of bad faith fell upon deaf ears and only served to place her in a class with Erie, Pennsylvania, then engaged in the "Erie War" to prevent railroads from effecting through con- nections thence to the East and the West. Before the end of the fifties the steamboat center of inland America shifted to St. Louis, the railroad center to Chicago. Meanwhile, as previously indicated, the "floating palaces" that had claimed Pittsburgh and Wheeling as home ports sought other ports, some of them going to the lower Ohio, others to the Mississippi. Thus com- mon adversities and, in more recent times, common in- dustrial interests tended to allay the dififerences between these rival cities. Shortly after the Civil war they were engaged in a common effort to prevent the construction of bridges across the Ohio, one at Steubenville, the other at Parkersburg. The rivalry between Cincinnati and Louisville was not unlike that between Pittsburgh and Wheeling and 225 Pittsburgh Gazette, February 9, 1854. INTERMUNICIPAL RIVALRIES 231 is almost as old as the cities themselves.*^* With her initial start in trade, commerce, and population and her superior location at the point of a bend in the Ohio reaching far into the Old Northwest, Cincinnati had the advantage and, like Pittsburgh in her contest with Wheeling, played the major role. Unlike Wheeling, however, Louisville had many natural advantages. From an early date her location at the Falls of the Ohio was relied upon to make her the leading commercial center of the interior, and she occupied a natural gate- way to the South. The first announcements of plans for local railroads called forth the conflicting interests of these two cities. The prize fought for was favor in the southern markets, Louisville making the most of her natural advantages, Cincinnati of her traditions and influence. Cut off from her coveted goal by "lands highly unfavorable to railroad construction -wild, unsettled, difficult of ac- cess, of extremely irregular geological formation, inter- sected by a wide mountainous region, and cut ofif by three great rivers and numerous smaller streams," Cin- cinnati desired a direct route, however bad, to the South. Of course Louisville did every thing in her power to prevent the realization of this ambition. Thus, when the legislature of Kentucky, in 1836, chartered a proposed Cincinnati, Louisville, and Charleston rail- road, Cincinnati went wild with joy, staging a celebra- tion in the midst of a snow storm, that was long remem- bered because of its brilliant illuminations. Soon 228 For fuller data see Hollander's "The Cincinnati and Southern Rail- way: a study in municipal activity," in J. H. U. Studies in History and Polit- ical Science, vol. xii, 7-96 ; U. S. Congressional Globe, 42 cong., i sess., pt i, 22, 73, 74; E. M. Coulter's "Commercial Intercourse with the Southern Con- federacy in the Mississippi Valley," in Miss. P'alley Hist. Reiieiu, vol. v, 377-395- 232 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY thereafter, in a southern railroad convention meeting at Knoxville and presided over by Governor Hayne of South Carolina, Cincinnati was designated, also, as the northern terminus of a proposed railroad to connect Charleston and the Ohio river by way of the French Broad river and the Cumberland gap, so that her com- mercial future seemed assured."' But Louisville de- manded a branch line in exchange for a franchise to cross the state of Kentucky and insisted upon other conditions that defeated the project. Had it been car- ried to completion, the results might have changed the course of American history by the fact that railroads would have run north and south as well as east and west. During the next fifteen years or more Cincinnati en- joyed great preeminence as a river city. Toward the end of this period agitation for a railroad connection with the South was revived, but nothing to that end was accomplished. Finally she awoke to find that the river center of the interior had shifted to St. Louis and that most of her commerce was being carried by rail to the North and the East. Three railroad lines be- tween the Middle West and the Atlantic coast com- peted with the Ohio river, and St. Louis was extending tributary railroads into Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri, having increased her connecting mileage from three hundred thirty-nine in 1850, to forty-one hundred eighty-six in 1856. Meanwhile, with the approaching completion of the Louisville and Nashville railroad, Louisville was being placed in direct communication with almost every important point in the South. Com- paratively, Cincinnati was helpless due largely to the debt-restricting provision of the Ohio constitution of -2' Amer. Hist. Assoc, Annual Report (1899), v'- "■ 4"- INTERMUNICIPAL RIVALRIES 233 1850. As late as 1859 the total railroad mileage of the state of Ohio was eighteen hundred sixty-nine miles, and this in spite of the fact that a pioneer line of the West was within her borders. It mattered not that much of this mileage was tributary to Cincinnati. Her trans- portation situation was, nevertheless, grave. But for the necessity of crossing the state of Ohio in effecting through rail connections between the East and the re- gion of the upper Mississippi, it would have been worse. It was under these conditions that Cincinnati again gave her transportation problems serious attention. Among other things efforts were made to construct a direct railroad to the South by public subscriptions. Failing in this, an effort was made to stimulate such initiative by offers of cash bonuses to be raised by pri- vate subscriptions. The Kentucky Central railroad was already in operation between Cincinnati and Lexing- ton, Kentucky, and the Cincinnati, Lexington, and East Tennessee railroad was in operation between Lexington and Nicholasville. The plan was to extend the latter to Knoxville, thus giving Cincinnati an independent and somewhat direct line into the heart of the South. With one-half of the necessary one million dollars sub- scribed for putting this enterprise through, the ap- proach of civil war put an end to further efforts. During the Civil war the relations between Cincin- nati and Louisville were anything but amicable. Im- mediately following the opening of hostilities the for- mer city suddenly lost much of her predilection for things southern and became surprisingly loyal. The Mississippi was soon closed to transportation, and Louisville became an important source of supplies for the Confederacy, traffic going thence directly south 234 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY through the neutral state of Kentucky by way of the Louisville and Nashville railroad. For a time she was the busiest city on the Ohio. Freight shipments thence by rail were held up for weeks at a time, so great was the congestion."' It was to prevent this species of "neutral rascality" that Cincinnati prepared to use force against Louis- ville. Meanwhile every efifort was made by the former to cut ofif the latter's source of supplies from the Wa- bash and other points north of the Ohio, some of them near Cincinnati herself. Despairing of Lincoln's len- iency toward Kentucky neutrals, she finally accused the national government of criminal negligence for per- mitting traffic between the North and the South by way of Louisville.'"' At one time it seemed that Civil war conditions would solve Cincinnati's transportation problems. In his annual message of December, 1861, President Lin- coln asked Congress to open direct rail communications thence to the South at government expense and as a war measure. Under direction of General Burnside, sur- veys were made to determine the most practicable route for this purpose, and plans were made for grading a road bed. Congress took no action, however, and with the abandonment of the proposed Union advance by way of Cumberland gap, the enterprise was dropped, to the great disappointment of interests on the Ohio. Cincinnati came out of the Civil war more com- pletely isolated than ever. The traffic of the Ohio valley had continued to shift to St. Louis, Chicago, Cleveland, and Buffalo. Trade with the southern states was almost completely cut off, Cincinnati's only communication --^Miss. Valley Hist. Review, vol. ii, 275-300. 22» — Idem, vol. V, 377-395. INTERMUNICIPAL RIVALRIES 235 with the lower South, aside from the all-water route, being by way of the Ohio to Louisville, thence by the Louisville and Nashville railroad. As a means of trans- portation, in competitive trade and commerce, this latter route was both indirect and inadequate. More- over, the Louisville and Nashville railroad was then a "Louisville Road," controlled by and operated in the interest of its merchants. Rates were determined arbi- trarily and sometimes with a view to injury to Cincin- nati. Through freights from that point were delayed to the extent that her board of trade found it necessary to station agents at Louisville to expedite shipments, particularly those to the South. Relief from this situa- tion seemed imperative, if Cincinnati were to regain any of her former trade and commercial prestige. The situation has been ably summarized in these words: Cincinnati and Louisville were active competitors for southern trade. This trade was definitely established upon the basis of railroad transportation. Cincinnati possessed no direct railroad to the South; Louisville did. The advantages enjoyed by the former city in the era of water transportation were now held by the latter. Southern mer- chants dealing directly with the North were diverted from Cincin- nati by the closer proximity of Louisville. The advantages of commercial travel were minimized by inadequate transportation facili- ties, unreasonable delays, and arbitrary freight charges upon southern consignments shipped via Louisville. Louisville, in a word, threat- ened to displace Cincinnati as the chief distributing point of northern manufacturers to southern consumers.-^" The situation challenged the best resources of Cin- cinnati. Many plans and suggestions were made, but all encountered opposition. Finally, Edward A. Fergu- son, an able constitutional lawyer of Cincinnati, sug- gested a municipally constructed and operated railroad. 280 Hollander, op .cit., i8. 236 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY He believed that the constitutional prohibition prevent- ing a city from lending its credit to such an enterprise would not prevent a city from building and operating it as a municipal undertaking. This plan received the en- dorsement of the local council, board of trade, and chamber of commerce, and w^as finally embodied in a bill which received the approval of the Ohio legisla- ture, May 4, 1869, but not before it had been so amended as to limit the capital stock of the proposed railroad to ten million dollars, none of which was to be sold below par. In a short time thereafter Cincinnati accepted the terms of the act by a popular referendum, and Chattanooga, Tennessee, was designated as the southern terminus of the proposed railroad which was christened the "Cincinnati Southern," later being popu- larly known as the "Queen and Crescent." Under the terms of the act of incorporation the construction and operation of this road were intrusted to a board of trustees appointed by the Supreme Court of Cincinnati. While preliminary plans and surveys went forward, this board attacked the most difficult feature of the en- tire undertaking, that of securing a right of way through Kentucky and Tennessee. Under conditions favorable to all parties, Tennessee readily gave her con- sent, but Louisville was able to prevent favorable action on the part of Kentucky. Thus baffled Cincinnati re- solved to appeal directly to the people of that state in its next legislative election. Fortified by a decision of the Supreme Court of Ohio confirming the legality of the proposed railroad, even the much-mooted question of the right of a city to spend public funds beyond its limits or vicinity, Cincinnati made a vigorous and thorough appeal in behalf of her pet enterprise. Her best argument was its possible benefits to Kentucky. For INTERMUNICIPAL RIVALRIES 237 example, it was shown that all the coal then used in cen- tral Kentucky was floated down the Ohio from Penn- sylvania and Ohio to Covington and sent thence by rail throughout the state, and that residents of the eastern counties were thus obliged to pay from thirty to fifty cents per bushel for fuel, while great fields of coal lay within a few hours ride of them in their own state. Moreover, it was asserted that the proposed road would be of advantage to the stock raisers of Kentucky, who would thus be able to reach the South directly and avoid long and expensive delays. Louisville again pre- vailed, however, alleging undue "meddlesomeness" on the part of certain "influential citizens of Cincinnati," and the desired right of way was denied. Following the example of Wheeling in her contest with Pittsburgh, Cincinnati now turned to the federal government for relief. She asked that her proposed municipally owned railroad be made a post-road, in the belief that Congress could thus legalize it and make it possible. A local delegation went to Washington in support of this request, which received the approval of the House by a two-thirds vote but failed in the Senate, seemingly only for lack of time to consider it. Following this failure, local conditions seeming to admit of no delay, Cincinnati again appealed to Ken- tucky, directing her efforts to those sections that had been the most effective in refusing her previous request. During the summer and autumn of the year 1871 an active canvass won many new friends for the proposed railroad. These now asked to be given complete charge of its future before the Kentucky legislature, a request readily granted in view of the alleged cause of the pre- vious failure. For weeks the fate of the bill granting the desired right of way hung in the balance, but, after 238 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY "the most determined and positive opposition that was ever inaugurated against any bill before any legisla- ture," it became a law but with conditions that made it impossible. Among other things the proposed road was to pay to the state of Kentucky, in addition to ordinary taxes, fifty cents for every passenger carried across that state, twenty-five cents for every passenger traveling a distance of one hundred miles within it, and one cent for every hundred pounds of through freight carried. As these conditions were prohibitive, Cincinnati now turned to other alternatives. Most promising was the proposed purchase of the Kentucky Central railroad and its subsequent extention to some point further south under concessions already granted. The possibilities of this course, together with its serious consideration by the legislature of Ohio and the city of Cincinnati, caused Kentucky to relent and make possible conditions under which the proposed Cincinnati Southern railroad could go forward. Following these concessions Cincin- nati soon carried to successful completion one of the most interesting enterprises in municipal railroad con- struction and operation in America. The resulting bene- fits to Kentucky helped Cincinnati and made Louisville comparatively impotent as a rival. Ever since, the con- flicting interests of these two cities have tended to keep in the background. The Civil War Period When Jefferson purchased Louisiana from France most exports from the Ohio valley went to market by way of New Orleans. Less than sixty years later, how- ever, almost nine-tenths of this total found an outlet east, chiefly by way of New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, so completely had canals and railroads revo- lutionized transportation in the United States. In the opening days of the Civil war the result of this transformation was a source of gratification and assur- ance to friends of the Union, who referred with pride and security to the economic sufficiency of the North.'" Abolitionist Cleveland, blustering Chicago and "smoke and sin-cursed" Pittsburgh, each formerly despised in many river circles along the Ohio, thus suddenly be- came allies and havens of security for cities to the southward, even those in slaveholding territory. Nevertheless, the secession movement was of vital concern to Ohio valley rivermen. Among other things, it meant the possible dissolution of the Union and the consequent loss of the free navigation of the Mississippi river, long cherished locally as a natural right. To the Northwest, with its railroads extending in every direc- tion, the Mississippi was a potential regulator of rail- road rates and services. For those living on the Ohio, the Mississippi and its tributaries were still arteries for a large and important domestic commerce that might 231 Cincinnati Commercial, May 27, i86i ; Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, vol. xlv, 541 ; idem, vol. xlvi, 363. 240 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY have gone far towards uniting permanently the North and the South, but for the aggressiveness of the aboli- tionists in the former and the cotton planters in the latter section. As in the days of the hated Spaniard, the mere suggestion of closing the Mississippi or of re- stricting its free use w^as sufficient to arouse threats of a resort to arms throughout the whole Ohio valley. Following the panic of 1857 and the first efifects of the completion of through rail communications be- tween the East and the West, river traffic between the Ohio valley and the lower South showed signs of re- turning vitality, thanks largely to the comparative absence of competing railroads. Some idea of the com- mercial relations between these sections may be had from a brief survey of the river traffic between them. The former was still pouring its food and industrial products into the cotton South. In return it continued to receive sugar, cotton, molasses, oranges, colTee, and, what was more important, millions of dollars annually for the services of its rivermen and their craft, the steamboats of the Ohio being to inland America, at that time, what the British merchantmen are to the world today. Meanwhile, most of the commerce of the Cum- berland and Tennessee valleys continued to be by river, and Cincinnati, St. Louis, Memphis, and New Orleans were important centers of a large intra-valley river trade. Prosperous steamboat lines operated daily pack- ets out of Cincinnati for Madison, Louisville, Nash- ville, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Memphis, and New Orleans."" These intra-trade and commercial relations were not without results. Among other things, as late as 1861 Cincinnati displayed many aspects of a southern city. 2^2 — Idem, vol. xliv, 752. THE CIVIL WAR PERIOD 241 She did not yet tolerate abolitionists, and, even after the formation of the Southern Confederacy, her local press was strong in its southern leanings. The Cincin- nati Daily Enquirer was for peace at any price; the Daily Gazette would say nothing to injure the commer- cial interests of the Ohio valley in the South; and the forward-looking Daily Commercial^ under the direc- tion of Murat Halstead, was only mildly anti-southern. Indeed, there were those who feared lest Cincinnati would "follow the lead of her purse strings" and cast her lot with the South. "'^ In April, 1861, in the midst of a period of business depression, she elected a mayor, George Hatch, who was a strong state's rights Demo- crat favorable to concessions to the South. About the same time her authorities permitted cannon consigned to parties in Jackson, Mississippi, for use of the Con- federacy, to pass her port without question. Of course, cities like Wheeling and Louisville, situated in slave territory and dependent upon southern markets, were even more pro-southern. On the other hand, ties of interest had much to do with determining Kentucky's position of neutrality and the divided sentiment to be found in western Virginia, Missouri, and southern Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Secession leaders were fully aware of the pro-south- ern interests and sympathies in the Ohio valley and were hopeful of making them even more favorable to their cause. Some are thought to have entertained the possibility of an alliance between the South and the grain-producing Northwest. Many of the early settlers of the latter section were pro-southern, and, as has been shown, there were many possibilities for that section 2^' Cincinnati Commercial, December ii, i860; Goss, Charles F. Cin- cinnati, the Queen City, Iy88-IQI3 (Cincinnati, 1912), vol. i, 206-207; Miss. Valley Hist. Revietu, vol. vi, 470. 242 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY in the Mississippi as a thoroughfare of commerce. All things considered, the ultimate success of the secession movement seemed to depend most upon its ability to use and control inland transportation."" To this end both the traditions and the immediate in- terests of the Confederacy seemed to dictate a policy of free trade. Accordingly the Confederate Congress, in one of its first acts, declared for free trade in the intra- Mississippi valley commerce. Moreover, and of even greater importance, it provided "that the peaceful navi- gation of the Mississippi is hereby declared free to the citizens of any of the states upon its borders and upon the borders of its navigable tributaries." '^^ The open- ing of hostilities did not change this policy which was re-affirmed in the general tariff act of the Confederacy passed in May, 1861, with the exception that a tariff was placed on the manufactures of New England enter- ing the seceding states by way of the inland rivers. Meanwhile other zealous seceders, as a rule of the less responsible type, were straining the friendly rela- tions of the inland sections. In both New Orleans and Memphis, rivermen from the up-country were detained and asked to prove their loyalty to southern institutions; their boats were searched; and some persons were forced to leave southern waters. In January, 1861, the "A. O. Taylor" was stopped near Memphis by a six- pound shot fired across her declt, possibly the first shot of the Civil war, and the press of the Ohio valley be- gan to express doubts as to the sincerity of the South regarding its promises of free trade and free naviga- -31 Cincinnati Commercial, December 13, i860; Columbus (Ohio) Crisis, January 31, 1861 ; idem, February 28, i86i. -3'' Confederate States of America, Statutes at Large, chap. 3 : 28, Jan- uary 8, 1861 ; idem, chap. 14: 36, February 25, 1861. THE CIVIL WAR PERIOD 243 tion."^" But satisfactory explanations were forthcoming, and the river press along the Ohio was, for a time, able to keep public sentiment in line with traditional eco- nomic interests. That of Cincinnati delighted in the obeisance of "King Cotton" to the "Queen City." The Daily Commercial was certain that "His Royal High- ness" would continue to seek markets where he could find pork, flour, and whiskey, and that, in any event, he would not sink steamboats carrying these cargoes."' Meanwhile the quantity of food products going south and of cotton going north increased daily. This condition was changed completely by the bom- bardment of Fort Sumter and the events that followed. As a result civil war became inevitable, and majorities in the Ohio valley generally remained loyal to the Union and determined to fight for the retention of the advantages which they enjoyed under it, including the free navigation of the inland rivers. Trade advantages were not to stand in the way of settling moral and political questions involving human rights. Those who did not care for this side of the issue, and they were undoubtedly in the majority, could not ignore the un- favorable economic effects of negro slavery then evi- dent in most all parts of the border. Cincinnati remained surprisingly loyal. Promised shipments of pork thence to Charleston, South Caro- lina, were cut off, and her residents joined others from Ohio and Indiana in an effort to prevent the neutrality of Kentucky from becoming a menace to the Union, through the tempting opportunity thus afforded for -3^ Cincinnati Commercial, January 15, 1861 ; idem, January 18, 1861 ; idem, January 23, 1861 ; idem, February 20, 1861; idem, February 27, i86i ; Wheeling Intelligencer, January 19, 1861. -^' Cincinnati Commercial, January 25, 1861. 244 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY getting arms and supplies to the Confederacy by way of the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers and the Louis- ville and Nashville railroad, only recently com- pleted.''' Follovi^ing the outbreak of hostilities loyal leaders of the Ohio valley manifested an active concern in the fu- ture of inland navigation. Their sentiments found best expression in a w^idely quoted extract from an oration by Edward Everett delivered July 4, 1861, in which he claimed that the Mississippi belonged to the Union "by the Law of Nature and of God." With them he thought it absurd "that ten million of the free people of the Union will allow her [Louisiana] and her seceding brethren to open and shut the portals of this mighty region at their will." '^"^ In messages to their respective legislatures both Governor Dennison of Ohio and Governor Morton of Indiana expressed grave fear lest the mouth of the Mississippi might be obstructed by the seceders. At the same time the Illinois State Journal, May 8, 1861, announced that "The great Northwest will wage war with the slave states bordering on that river [the Mississippi] as long as she has a man or a dollar but what she will enjoy the free and unobstructed navigation of her natural southern outlet," and a con- temporaneous writer in Hunt's Merchants' Magazine declared that "With God's help the North will keep the Mississippi." ''"' Moreover, many persons in both Kentucky and Tennessee now showed signs of appre- hension and began to waver in their allegiance to the Confederacy, when confronted with the economic exi- gencies of the situation. 23S _iJem, April 15, 1861 ; Smith, E. C. The Borderland in the Civil War (New Yorl(, 1927), 169; Miss. Valley Hist. Re'vievi, vol. vi, 285. "^^ The Rebellion Record, editor, Frank Moore (New Yorii, 1861), vol. i, 41-42. 2*" Vol. xlviii, 277. THE CIVIL WAR PERIOD 245 Most rivermen had anticipated the beginning of hos- tilities. Influenced by the dull times of February and March, 1861, and by the shouts for "Jeff" Davis and the Southern Confederacy on the one side and those for "Abe" Lincoln and the Union on the other, they had sought home ports, there to await developments and the desires of their respective governments which, it was rumored, would have profitable employment for all boats and rivermen. Attracted by the possibility of large profits to be drawn from this hazardous situation, a few rivermen, both in the North and in the South, lingered in the land of the enemy. Some of these saw their boats confiscated, while others made their escape by "French leave" and through a veritable gauntlet of lawless bands to whom a steamboat and its cargo were coveted prizes. For two generations persons have told of thrilling experiences on "the last boat through," of which there seems to have been more than one in each direction. Thus by June, 1861, except for local packets, the Mississippi below Cairo was closed to navigation for the first time in more than sixty years. With the same exception, traffic on the Ohio and most of its tributaries was also practically suspended. Insurance companies refused to assume risks; the Union maintained a block- ade at the mouth of both the Mississippi and the Ohio; and the Confederacy had blockades at both Memphis and Vicksburg. Boats permitted to pass the lines of the former were, of course, not permitted to pass those of the latter."^ For a time a few rivermen tried to operate their craft by the ruse de guerre of two flags, but most rivermen accepted the situation and settled down to watch the outcome of a struggle, the termination of 2*» Cincinnati Commercial, May 27, 1861. 246 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY which depended largely upon the control of the inland waters."*' Until invading armies blocked the way, the Louis- ville and Nashville railroad took the place of the river route to the lower South."' As a part of a plan for win- ning the border states Lincoln respected the neutrality of Kentucky, thus effectively removing her from the operation of all non-intercourse orders applying to the seceding states. Under the circumstances it took a high- er sense of patriotism than that possessed by many farm- ers along the Ohio to prevent them from shipping pro- duce across the river and doubling profits, even if the transactions were known to benefit the enemy. Accordingly, Louisville became the busiest city in the Ohio valley. All roads, particularly river roads, led to her gates, and the Louisville and Nashville railroad leading thence to the South was in a short time taxed to its utmost capacity."" Commenting upon the situation the Cincinnati Daily Gazette said : "Day and night for weeks past, every avenue of approach to its depot has been blocked with vehicles waiting to discharge their loads, while almost fabulous prices have been paid for hauling." A miniature civil war between Louisville on one side and her neighboring river cities to the north on the other soon followed. In the course of this contest Cin- cinnati threatened to use force; that local products might not reach Kentucky some proposed a blockade of the Wabash river; and the citizens of New Albany and JefTersonville were urged not to send "one dime's ^*'^ fV aterviays Journal, August 24, 1918; idem, September 11, 1920; Cincinnati Commercial, May 6, i86i; Pittsburgh Gazette, May 10, 1861. -*3 Miss. Valley Hist. Revievj, vol. vi, 275. -** Cincinnati Commercial, August 23, i86i ; idem, June 15, 1861. THE CIVIL WAR PERIOD 247 worth of any supplies - not even a pound of butter or a dozen eggs" across the river, "till this species of neu- tral rascality is at an end." In desperation Cincinnati appealed to the central government which she accused of criminal negligence and predicted a popular upris- ing in the West to suppress this "villainous traffic." '" As a result the federal government was forced to act. A new collector was appointed for the port of Louis- ville, and more stringent shipping regulations for traffic on the lower Ohio were adopted. But the smugglers were not to be outdone. Small river towns on the lower course of that stream now became starting points for wagon trains which either discharged their loads at railroad stations south of Louisville or continued their way completely across the state of Kentucky."" In many instances these overland caravans received their ton- nage from local steamboats, the "Masonic Gem" for a long time, being active in this traffic which continued until the Union army was ready to take the offensive. In all this sparring for advantages, preparations for active warfare were not neglected, each side relying somewhat upon its boats and rivermen. A survey, made for the Union by Colonel Joseph G. Totten, showed that there were then 250 passenger steamers, "rather more than less," on the Ohio, that could be called into service. It was estimated that these, together with 150 other available steamboats at St. Louis, could transport 120,000 men. Besides, there were 100 freight barges on the Ohio with a total capacity of 250,000 barrels and 200 coal barges with a total capacity of 2,000,000 bush- ^■'5 — Idem, April 19, 1861 ; Cincinnati Gazelle, May 29, 1861; idem, June 12, 1861 ; idem, June 15, 1861. -*^ Illinois Slate Journal (Springfield), June 12, 1861 ; idem, July 17, 1861. 248 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY els, all of which, it was claimed, could be made ready for military service in a short time."" Regarding the river resources of the Confederacy, General Leonidas Polk could conceive of no men more able to cope with the enemy "than the boatmen of the Mississippi." On December 27, 1861, he wrote Presi- dent Davis as follows: "With your knowledge of the daring and bravery of the captains, pilots, and men that live on this river, I think you will sustain me in this opinion." "* From the very first there were those on the Ohio who insisted upon the practicability of a fleet of gunboats, not only as a means of defense, but also as an indispen- sable auxiliary in the aggressive warfare which was to be waged. It mattered not that gunboats had been un- successful in the Crimean war and that they would be exposed to plunging fires from shore batteries. The Cincinnati Commercial insisted that they could, never- theless, be specially designed for protection against shore batteries and that they would, in any event, be in- dispensable as convoys.^" They would also afford an opportunity to the rivermen of the Ohio to try their prowess, nothing being too hazardous for them. Accordingly, early in the spring of 1861, Comman- der John Rogers was authorized by Secretary of War Stanton to purchase three strong towboats and to con- vert them into war vessels, without iron plating. Under this authority Commander Rogers purchased the "Cone- stoga," "A. O. Taylor," and "Lexington," each of which was equipped for service at New Albany, In- diana. The Louisville Journal^ August 8, 1861, an- -" U. S. War Department. War of the Rebellion, Official Records (Wash- ington, 1880-1901), ser. I, vol. Hi, pt. i, 164. ^*' — Idem, ser. i, vol. vii, 798. 2<9 Cincinnati Commercial, May 8, 1861. THE CIVIL WAR PERIOD 249 nounced their completion and departure in these words : "The gunboats . . . left for Cairo yesterday morning, fully equipped. The three boats have on board sixteen guns, ten of which are 32-pounders, and the balance 64- pounders. The boats will run only during the day." These three wooden boats formed the advance guard of a western flotilla that rendered gallant service to the end of the war. Of their subsequent use Admiral David D. Porter said : "These were the first gunboats that fired a shot in support of the Union, and became well known for their many encounters with the enemy." "°*' Meanwhile James B. Eads had been actively en- gaged at St. Louis in the construction of ironclad gun- boats for the use of the national government. The first of these vessels, the "St. Louis," subsequently renamed the "Baron De Kalb," was launched October 12, 1861, and was followed in a short time by the "Carondelet," "Cincinnati," "Louisville," "Mound City," "Cairo," and "Pittsburgh." Later, Eads built the "Benton" and the "Essex," powerful ironclads, the former of which was subsequently used as the flag-ship of the Western Flotilla. The average capacity of these vessels was in excess of six hundred tons. They were one hundred seventy-five feet long, fifty-one and one-half feet beam, and drew six feet of water. The encased sides were built at an angle of thirty-five degrees from the water-line, which was increased to forty-five degrees for the bows and sterns. Wheels were at the stern and were protected by case- ments of iron, and like the "Monitor," which they pre- ceded, these vessels carried pilot houses, also covered with iron. Of their service to the Union, Admiral 2^" U. S. War Department. War of the Rebellion, Official Records, ser. 3, vol. ii, 792; U. S. Naval War Records. Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies (1894-1922), ser. i, vols, xxii-xxiv. 250 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY David D. Porter later said : "Notwithstanding their de- fects and the vicissitudes they experienced, no vessels of the Navy engaged in so many successful battles or made such a record for their commanding officers." By 1863, as a result of these and other building ac- tivities, the Union had a fighting fleet on the inland waters of more than fifty vessels, thirteen of which were, in whole or in part, ironclads. Among these were the vessels already named including the wooden gun- boats, five additional wooden gunboats, two steam rams, and thirteen steam tugs designed for tenders. Together they made up the Western Flotilla which sometimes operated as a unit. Attended as these vessels were by thirty-eight mortar-boats, each equipped with a thir- teen-inch sea-coast mortar, they constituted a large and formidable fleet, one of the largest, in fact, ever assem- bled under one officer, and "equal in number, though not in efficiency, to the vessels composing the navy of the United States when the rebellion broke out." Ex- clusive of the mortar-boats, the aggregate capacity of this inland fleet was in excess of twenty thousand tons, that of the ironclads ranging from five hundred to a thousand tons. Commanding officers were from the Navy, but crews for both the fleet and the mortar-boats were detailed from the Army. But this did not comprise the entire fighting force then afloat on the western waters. Early in 1862, fol- lowing the encounter between the "Monitor" and the "Merrimac," Secretary of War Stanton received in- formation to the efifect that the "rebels" were building river craft at New Orleans "clad in railroad iron like the "Merrimack" to be used on the upper Mississippi and even on the Ohio."" It was popularly and officially ^'1 U. S. War Department. War of the Rebellion, op. cil., ser. 3 ,vol. ii, 792; U. S. Naval War Records. Official Records, ser. i, vol. xxiii, 315-386. THE CIVIL WAR PERIOD 251 believed that such craft could ascend these rivers and sink or capture the Union fleet being assembled there, together with all the non-combatant tonnage afloat. As a result consternation reigned in these and other quar- ters, and Secretary Stanton called for suggestions for dealing with the situation. Various plans were pro- posed, but that for the use of floating rams received both official and popular approval."" The tenseness of the situation was relieved somewhat when Captain Charles Ellet, engineer of the Wheeling suspension bridge, whose defiance of courts and whose professional ability had made that structure possible, was sent to the Ohio with authority to construct the proposed rams. His approval of the plan, he having been one of the first to suggest it, enabled him to put the best of his ability and energy into the undertaking. With the aid of local boatbuilders he was soon able to announce the completion of the proposed fleet. The "ram fleet" consisted of a number of unarmed and unprotected steamboats rebuilt by the use of heavy inner timbers so as to enable them to strike heavy and rapid blows which, it was claimed, would be efifective in anticipated encounters. It was expected that some, if not most, of these boats would be destroyed in any encounter with the enemy, but not before they had dealt destructive blows to the dreaded "Merrimacks." Commands were to be entrusted only to those willing to encounter extreme hazards. As long as he lived. Cap- tain Ellet himself commanded them. Already the river fleet had given a good account of itself. It was with its aid, under the command of Cap- tain Foote, and the "many steamboats laid up at Cairo for the want of employment" that General Grant was -^- — Idem, ser. i, vol. xxii, 680. 252 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY able to move against Fort Henry and Fort Donelson and to effect their capture in such a manner as to cheer the Union and confound the Confederacy. Later, a part of this fleet, together with sixty steamboats acting as transports, made possible the success of the Union for- ces at Pittsburgh Landing."" The successful running of the Confederate batteries at Island no. lo by the gun- boats "Carondelet" and "Pittsburgh" of the river fleet was heralded throughout the West as "among the most venturesome enterprises" that ever made "immortal the navy of a nation." The fact "that in the capture of Fort Henry and Island no. lo not a gun was fired by the Army" reflected much credit upon the inland navy.=" Official reports of some of the inland naval engage- ments of this time are not unlike those of modern naval battles. For example, that at Plumb Point bend, above Fort Pillow, was spectacular and thrilling. On this occasion five vessels from a Confederate squadron of eight ironclads attempted to seize a Union mortar-boat. First, one of the five attacked the "Cincinnati," cover- ing the coveted prize, ramming her, and receiving and giving broadsides at close range. Disabled, the attack- ing gunboat drifted away, but not before a half dozen enemy craft had attacked her allies which were rushing to the rescue. Amid the clashing of rams and the ex- plosion of boilers, broadsides were freely exchanged at close range, as a result of which each contestant sus- tained severe losses. Meanwhile, Captain Ellet had used the ram fleet to 263 Cincinnati Commercial, March 28, 1862. 2" Grant, U. S. Personal Memoirs (New York, 1885-1886), vol. i, 288; Cincinnati Commercial, April 11, 1862; Waierviays Journal, March 18, 1912; idem, October 12, 1918; idem, November 2, 1918; idem, November 30, 1918. THE CIVIL WAR PERIOD 253 good effect. In the engagements about Memphis, in June, 1862, he passed the Confederate batteries at Fort Pillow without the loss of a man and, two days later, he was the determining factor in the capture of Mem- phis, also without the loss of a single life or vessel. Captain Ellet himself received a wound in the latter engagement from the effects of which he died, at Cairo, two weeks later.*" But for lack of cooperation the accomplishments of the fighting forces on the inland waters might have been even greater than they were. As already indi- cated the fleet was officered by the Navy and manned by details from the Army. Under these conditions, certainly before Admiral Porter took command, co- operation was not always what it could have been. From the beginning the ram fleet was attached to and under the command of the Army, its officers ignoring and at times defying requests and even commands from the Navy. The achievements of the American navy, that part of it operating upon the inland waters as well as that upon the high seas, called for recognition. Against the great- est odds and difficulties it had won unforseen victories in unexpected places. More important still, it had con- quered a place in the affections of the friends of the Union. Fitting recognition had therefore become im- perative. Accordingly Congress, by an act of July 16, 1862, transferred complete control of the several fleets on the western waters from the Army to the Navy, the act being subsequently interpreted to include the ram fleet which became the Mississippi Marine Brigade, and, as such, continued to render valuable service."^ 2'° U. S. Naval War Records. Official Records, ser. i, vol. xxiii, 274. ^''O Blaine, James G. Tiventy Years of Congress (Norvfich, Conn., 1884- 254 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY The Navy was also completely reorganized. To this end three squadrons were created, the Atlantic, the Gulf, and the Mississippi, the latter two being placed under the respective commands of Admiral Farragut and Admiral Porter. The effect was a re-birth of the American navy. In transferring the western fleet Ad- jutant-general Lorenzo Thomas predicted that its for- mer accomplishments would constitute "one of the brightest pages in the history of the war." "" It was after this reorganization, and while under the command of Admiral Porter, that the western fleet, now the Mississippi Squadron, achieved its greatest triumph. This consisted in successfully passing the Confederate batteries defending Vicksburg and thus enabling General Grant to establish a base of opera- tions below, from which he was able to force the surren- der of that strategic point. Under cover of darkness and a heavy sky it was not a difficult thing for one or two vessels to pass the batteries defending Vicksburg. This had, in fact, been done on one or two occasions, but, to take a whole squadron by, was considered well- nigh impossible under any conditions. However, Grant desired that the attempt be made, and Porter was will- ing to undertake it.^'^' The result is well known. Additional details of this feat may be worth while. To the surprise of the Confederates it was undertaken April i6, 1863, in the early part of a clear night, when some of those in command of the shore batteries were reported to be attending a ball in the city of Vicksburg. Silently the "Benton," Admiral Porter himself in com- mand, led the way. Following at intervals of ten min- 1886), vol. i, 360; U. S. Naval War Records. Official Records, ser. i, vol. xxiii, 388; idem, vol. xxiii, 428; idem, vol. xxiii, 469. -'•' — Idem, vol. xxiii, 389. "°* — Idem, vol. xxiii, 410; Grant, op. cit., vol. i, 460-462. THE CIVIL WAR PERIOD 255 utes were the "Lafayette," "Louisville," "Mound City," "Pittsburgh," and "Carondelet," one of them carrying with her, on the protected side, the wooden transport, "Sterling Price." Next came the transports "Forest Queen," "Silver Wave," and "Henry Clay," each tow- ing barges loaded with supplies. The "Tuscumbia" brought up the rear. The movement was not discovered until the "Benton" was directly opposite the main bat- teries which let loose at once with a shower of shot and shell, that was returned in kind. Simultaneously, as if by magic, burning houses and bonfires, prepared be- forehand, made the scene almost as light as day and added to the accuracy of the aim of the defending batteries. As a result some of the gunboats were tem- porarily disconcerted ; fourteen among the several gun- boat and transport crews were wounded; the "Henry Clay" was consumed by flames; but her sister craft, under a canopy of their own smoke, pressed steadily forward."" As the last one passed out of range, some of the belated defenders reached their batteries. Like the revelers of Brussels before Waterloo, they came too late, and Vicksburg was practically lost. With it went the main hope of the Confederacy in the West. Official and other statements regarding Porter's feat before Vicksburg attest its brilliancy, daring, and im- portance.'"" To General Sherman, who was present, it was "sublime"; General Grant, also an eye witness, thought it "magnificent but terrible"; and official re- ports pronounced it "a damper to the spirit of all rebel sympathizers along the Mississippi." Subsequently 2^' U. S. Naval War Records. Official Records, ser. i, vol. xxiii, 408-410; Grant, op. cit., vol. i, 462. -"> Rhodes, History of the United States, vol. iv, 305 ; Grant, op. cit., vol. i, 544; Mahan, Alfred T. Farragut (Nevf York, 1904), 206; U. S. Naval War Records, op. cit., ser. i, vol. xxiii, 410. 256 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY General Grant spoke of it in these words: "The navy under Porter was all that it could be. . . . Without its assistance the campaign could not have been success- fully made with twice the number of men engaged. It could not have been made at all, in the way it was, with any number of men without such assistance." Captain Alfred T. Mahan was unable to find in the history of combined movements "more hearty cooperation be- tween the army and the navy than in the Vicksburg campaign of 1863, under the leadership of Grant and Porter." Following the fall of Vicksburg the boatyards on the Ohio continued active with military preparations, those of Cincinnati being especially productive. By March, 1865, fifty-six gunboats had been built or equipped there, and others were then in process of construction."" Pittsburgh, however, attempted the unusual. In 1863 she launched from the famous Sligo mills of that place two ironclad monitors, the "Manayunk" and the "Umpqua," each of which was taken to the high seas by way of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Two years later these were followed by other monitors, among them being the "Marietta" and the "Sandusky." Mean- while many other ports were contributing transports, most of which were privately owned but always avail- able for public uses at the high price generally paid for such service."'^' It was largely through the use of convoys and trans- ports that the Union was able to push its military opera- tions to a successful conclusion following victory at Vicksburg. Without them the later major military operations would have been practically impossible. For "^' Cincinnati Commercial, March i8, 1865. -"-Thurston, G. H., Allegheny County's Hundred Years, 118. THE CIVIL WAR PERIOD 257 example, from January 21 to June i, 1863, they "made, on an average, two trips a week to Nashville, taking never less than seven to eight steamers and barges, and sometimes fifty-five or six through at a trip," all of which were landed safely. As late as November, 1864, the gunboat "Fair Play" took a convoy of sixteen trans- ports to Nashville.""'' Without the aid of these convoys and transports the Union victories around Chattanooga might have been defeats and Sherman might never have made his march to the sea. In operation the Civil war convoys on the inland waters were not unlike those of the World war on the high seas. Usually one or more gunboats led the way and was followed by a line of transports, while other gunboats brought up the rear and still others flanked the procession. The guerrilla bands that infested the banks of the Ohio and the Mississippi played the role of submarines, picking off unaccompanied craft here and there but rarely attacking convoyed steamers. Despite the success of gunboats in running down guerrillas and keeping navigation open, Ohio river packets plied their trades with difficulty. This was par- ticularly true during the early years of the war. In passing the "pizen country," in 1861, a popular pilot felt like a solitary horseman on a mud road in western Virginia after a storm. ^°* Everywhere "seceshes" in- fested that and the Kentucky country, it being a rare community of either that could not, on short notice, raise a raiding party ready and eager to capture a steamboat and rob it of its cargo. The experiences of the "Greenwood" were typical. In September, 1862, 263 u. S. Naval War Records, op. cil., ser. i, vol. xxiii, 312; Cincinnati Commercial, November 15, 1864. 28* Wheeling Intelligencer, June 17, 1861; idem, November 20, 1861. 258 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY she was hailed near Guyandot, Virginia, by about fifty Confederates. She refused to stop and was fired upon, several shots going through her cabin which was filled with women, children, and wounded soldiers. The following day she was again subjected to a shower of lead. Lawless bandits unattached to either army found steamboats easy and profitable prey. Nor were rivermen concerned alone with the enemy and the law- less. Union officers and soldiers were continually on the lookout for contraband, and all steamers that did not heed the eloquent voice of their six-pounders com- manding the river, as in the case of the "Moses Mc- Clellan," were fired into, sometimes with fatal result to pilot-houses, machinery, and even persons."'^'' From the beginning to the close of the war many river towns on the Ohio were rallying points for Union soldiers. Among such were Pittsburgh, Bellaire, Park- ersburg, Gallipolis, and Cincinnati, points where rail- roads were either tributary to or crossed the river. It was a great day in the life of any of these ports when soldiers came to town in large numbers. Small boys were kept busy selling pies, cakes, pop-corn, and lemon- ade, and mayors found employment in trying to keep bar-rooms closed. In the failure of the latter, com- manding officers were sometime forced to declare mar- tial law, close barrooms, and confiscate their contents which were usually poured into the street, thus afiford- ing an opportunity for such soldiers and others as had not already imbibed to their satisfaction. Frequent al- tercations took place between citizens and soldiers, re- sulting sometimes in fatalities. Any large movement of soldiers by way of any of the above-mentioned points was a summons for mothers, wives, sisters, and sweet- -*^ — Idem, September 27, 1862; idem, November 20, 1861. THE CIVIL WAR PERIOD 259 hearts to gather at the wharf to bid adieu to their "soldier boys" as they passed onto the pontoon bridges across the Ohio. The forerunner to the resumption of normal traffic on the Ohio, as well as on the Mississippi, was the trade in contraband cotton. This began on a large scale in June, 1862, immediately following the occupation of Memphis by Union forces. Already large quantities of tobacco had reached Cincinnati and other points in the North from Kentucky, but tobacco was not contraband. Under the lax policy by which it was planned to attach parts of the seceding states to the Union and inciden- tally to aid New England, numerous persons, among them enterprising Jews and self-seeking military offi- cers, succeeded in shipping quantities of cotton with and without permits. Grant, Sherman, and other offi- cers objected to any form of commercial intercourse with the enemy, insisting that it strengthened its resist- ing power; but one dollar and ninety cent cotton in Boston, 1864, for supplies that cost twenty cents per pound in the South, offered a tempting road to fortune. The possibilities for getting ready cash were such that deckhands, women, and children turned cotton thieves and robbed steamboats of their snowy treasures.""" Other effects of this traffic were numerous and far reaching. As early as 1862 Tennessee was urged to re- turn to her place in the Union with the assurance that cotton would be to her what tobacco had been to Ken- tucky - "a veritable gold mine."""' It was the lure of cotton that induced the Secretary of War to open the Mississippi to commerce immediately following the 288 Cincinnati Commercial, May 23, 1862; idem, January i, 1863; idem, February 18, 1864; Wheeling Intelligencer, January 3, 1863; Rhodes, op. cit., vol. V, 275-295. -"" Cincinnati Commercial, May 23, 1862. 26o TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY fall of Vicksburg. In less than two months thereafter, through river traffic between New Orleans and Cincin- nati was restored, the "Tempest," Captain "Dan" Parr, reaching the latter port from the former, August 23, 1863, "the first boat through."'"* In a short time the North was receiving more cotton than was then being sent to Great Britain,""^ and Georgia refugees were finding a route of escape by way of the Mississippi."" Moreover, they were able to pay their passage and other charges in the currency of the United States. The coal trade was, however, a real factor in the success of the Union. The hundreds of references to coal in the official records both of the Army and of the Navy attest this fact. No successful commander in either ever reckoned beyond his coal supply which al- ways determined the radius and duration of his strik- ing power. Commanders quarreled about coal and threatened to resign when supplies were not to be had. In desperation some salvaged sunken coalboats, while others dredged river beds in search of coal. At this time most of the coal used on the lower Ohio and the Mississippi was floated down stream from Pittsburgh in coalboats, but some shippers were al- ready using towboats. Most large deliveries were made to the federal government, single transactions netting fabulous profits which became the basis for some of the large fortunes of modern Pittsburgh. Incidentally boat building was stimulated, and scores of persons again found employment in steamboating, among them being some of the later popular captains. Wages doubled and 2*8 — Idem, August 24, 1863. 288 Rhodes, op. cit., vol. v, 275 ; Hammond, M. B. The Cotton Industry (Amer. Econ. Assoc, new ser., 1897), 263; Cincinnati Commercial, May 31, 1862; idem, May 23, 1863; idem. May 27, 1863. ^■'O — Idem, December 6, 1864. THE CIVIL WAR PERIOD 261^ trebled, those of deckhands reaching the unprecedented figure of forty dollars per month, and the river press generally predicted a return of the "good old days." A significant development was the use of "model barges" for the transportation of freight. It was at this time that Captain J. K. Booth, later known as the "Barge King," began to use the "Allegheny Belle" and the "Liberty" for the purpose of towing "model barges." At first they were used mainly between Balti- more and Ohio railroad terminals, Parkersburg and Wheeling, but later they made trips to the lower Mis- sissippi and to Cumberland and Tennessee ports as well."^ As usual new packets were in keeping with the times and conditions. One such was the "Wild Wagoner," built at Cincinnati in 1864 for the Cincinnati and Wheeling trade."" She cost one hundred fifteen thou- sand dollars and had a capacity of seven hundred tons. Among her elegant finishings was a painting of the original "Wild Wagoner," her namesake and the hero of Thomas Buchanan Reed's poem bearing the same title. Reed, a resident of Cincinnati, and the author of "Sheridan's Ride," which had already been read and recited in hundreds of churches and school houses in the Ohio valley, was very popular. Hence the choice of one of his most popular titles as a suitable name for a local steamboat. As in the country at large, readjustments following the Civil war brought reverses to the boating interests of the Ohio valley. As early as 1864 rivermen found themselves burdened with a surplus tonnage which was 271 — W^m, September 15, 1863. 272 — IJern, November 11, 1864; Goss, Cincinnati, the Queen City, vol. i, 272. 262 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY soon engaged in a ruinous competition. Strikes fol- lowed,"" Irish and negro deckhands refusing to work for anything but war-time wages and some of the Irish refusing to work with negroes at any price. Pilots asked five hundred dollars per month, and other skilled workmen could not be had for money. At the same time railroads, by the use of bridges across the Ohio, com- pleted through connections to the West, and towboats with their "model barges" ate into the profits of pas- senger packets."* A great service remained, however, for the rivermen of the inland waters. Following the surrender of Lee at Appomattox more than a million Union soldiers were demobilized and returned to their homes, many of them by way of the Ohio. Among the grandest sights ever witnessed on that stream were the large number of steamboats crowding its banks at such ports as Parkers- burg and Wheeling awaiting the arrival of soldiers on their way to the Middle West and the Northwest. These sights were surpassed only by the long lines of steamboats, miles in length, as they passed up and down the Ohio, at more or less regular intervals, with their burdens of homesick men."" One of the greatest disasters incident to the Civil war, surpassing, if possible, either that of the "Titanic" or the "Lusitania," marred these preparations for peaceful living. It was the sinking of the "Sultana" near Memphis, April 27, 1865, by the explosion of her boilers. Immediately following the explosion fire broke out, sweeping the steamer from front to stern and pre- cipitating a scene beyond the power of language to de- scribe. Almost fifteen hundred of her two thousand -''Cincinnati Commercial, July ii, 1862; idem, June 20, 1866. -" — hiem, March 29, 1866. "'^ — Idem, June 8, 1865. THE CIVIL WAR PERIOD 263 passengers, composed of paroled soldiers, officers, and their wives, lost their lives. For days following, the impoverished people of Memphis, laying aside sec- tional feelings and the memories of their own dead of a hundred battle fields, devoted themselves to the work of caring for the survivors."" Homes were thrown open, clothing provided, and medical attention given: all harbingers of a new era of peace and good will between the former warring sections. -'^ IV atertvays Journal, June i, 1912; Memphis Argus, April 28, 1865. Post-bellum Days to 1900 During the decades immediately following the Civil war the Ohio river was locally known as the "Poor Man's Highway." Although the new trend was toward industry and agriculture, local traditions were in the field of river transportation which now offered unusual opportunities. This was due to the fact that the Ohio continued to be the only practicable thoroughfare for large inland interests. As yet most of the railroads en- tering the Ohio valley crossed it at right angles to the river, leaving rich bottom lands, growing river towns and cities, and large hinterlands dependent upon water transportation. The mails, also, continued to be trans- ported largely by water, government contracts there- for providing means for launching new river trades and maintaining old ones. Even before the fall of the Confederacy active prep- arations were being made to take advantage of these conditions. To this end more steamboats were built along the Ohio in either 1864 or 1865 than in any one year before or since.'" The preparations were for peace, but in the event that hostilities were prolonged, boat- builders depended upon the national government to continue to use all surplus tonnage. All could see that it would be needed in the work of demobilization, and that too, as in war times, at high, sometimes fabulous, prices. Generally things turned out as expected. A new -'' U. S. Census, 1880, vol. iv, 671 ; Cincinnati Commercial, April 23, 1864. 266 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY period of river activity began. It embraced all inland America, assuming grand proportions in the early eighties and not spending its force before the closing years of the century. There w^ere temporary setbacks, it is true. One of these came immediately follow^ing the cessation of hostilities; another followed the panic of 1873. The former was caused by the readjustments in- cident to Reconstruction, private owners finding diffi- culty in absorbing tonnage turned back to them from the national government. The causes of the latter are evident. Other periods of depression were short and only slightly interrupted river traffic. As in the "olden days" Cincinnati again became the leading river town on the Ohio. Of her steamboat ac- tivities in 1867, James Parton, in the Atlantic Monthly for August of that year, said : The levee which now extends five or six miles around the large "bend" upon which the city stands, exhibits all the varieties of west- ern steamboats. ... A traveler must indeed be difficult to please who cannot find upon the Cincinnati levee a steamboat bound to a place he would like to visit. From far back in the coal mines of the Youghiogheny to high up the Red river - from St. Paul to New Orleans, and all intermediate ports - we have but to pay our money and take our choice of the towns upon sixteen thousand miles of navigable water. In the same issue of this publication Parton also men- tioned a great number of other craft then to be found at Cincinnati, among them being merchantboats, float- ing theaters, circusboats, and houseboats. Incidents in this "comeback" of the steamboat were sometimes spectacular. For example, the proposed re- turn of the "Kenton," one of the first packets through direct from New Orleans, was announced weeks in ad- vance. When she finally came, in February, 1867, her arrival was heralded with delight from port to port. POST-BELLUM DAYS TO 1900 267 One reception, that at Wheeling, was typical. Scores of men, women, and children awaited her. At the first opportunity they went aboard; adults to greet old friends; youths, paddles in hand, to taste the sugar that dripped from the swollen hogsheads that covered the deck of the welcomed visitor. As she pushed into mid- stream, on her way to Pittsburgh, many of those left behind were heard to rejoice over the fact that the Union had been preserved and that old friends could and would be friends again.'" For the most part, however, the local "river news" of this period dealt with more prosaic, though scarcely less important, matters. Frequent mention was made of large shipments of salt from the Ohio and the Great Kanawha rivers to Mississippi ports, notably St. Louis which was now a chief distributing center for this monopoly-controlled necessity. There was also frequent mention of southward shipments of farming imple- ments and plantation supplies and a new product called "oil" or petroleum."'" Along with these were increased supplies of whiskey, dry goods, groceries, and other industrial products, some local towns and cities being designated according to their special contributions. For example, Wheeling became the "Nail City," because of the fact that it supplied most of the nails then used in the interior. The river press noted a resumption of traffic from the South in molasses, sugar, cotton, tobacco, and sub- tropical products in general. However, the product from this source that did most to make steamboating profitable was iron ore which was transported in large quantities from Cumberland river ports and mines in 2'8 — Idem, November 15, 1869; idem, August 20, 1870; idem, June $, 1870. -"^Wheeling Intelligencer and other local newspapers. 268 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY Missouri to upper Ohio river industrial centers. Re- turn cargoes consisted largely of railroad iron and rail- road supplies, the construction of the Union Pacific, Chesapeake and Ohio, Texas and Pacific, and other railroad lines, then in progress, being a distinct stimu- lus to river traffic on the Ohio."*" Demands from the Mississippi and other streams for rivermen and craft were also a great stimulus to river activities along the Ohio, which continued to be the chief source of supply for boats and rivermen for the whole interior. In the absence of adequate rail trans- portation the region about the lower Mississippi was dependent upon its rivers, as was also, but to a less de- gree, the whole interior. To the former the Ohio now sent "cotton boats," some of which found their way to the rivers of Texas. It was at this time that Ohio river- men developed trades on the upper Mississippi, some of which continued to be sources of profit until recent years. Meanwhile, other boats built on the Ohio were finding their way to the navigable waters of Florida, the Pacific coast. South America, Russia, and Africa.^" Despite the fact that the means of transportation of inland America have always been inadequate, the river craft of this period were creditable. Cotton boats were specially designed, as were packets, for particular river trades. For example, on the upper Ohio and its tribu- taries a type of light draught stern-wheeler came into more general use, while on its lower course and on the Mississippi the stately side-wheeler held its own. Some packets built for these trades attracted atten- =80 Cincinnati Commercial, February i8, 1865; idem, November 25, 1866; idem, February 13, 1867; Wheeling Intelligencer, August 3, 1868; idem, October 30, 1868; idem, November 29, 1869; Parkersburg (West Va.) Daily Times, March 20, 1866; idem, March 29, 1866. ^^^ American Shipbuilder (Newr York, 1919), April 18, 1919. POST-BELLUM DAYS TO 1900 269 tion throughout the whole interior. One such was the "Great Republic" built at Shousetown, Pennsylvania, in 1867, for use on the Mississippi. She was three hun- dred thirty-five feet long, fifty-one feet beam, and car- ried engines fifty-six inches in diameter and of ten-feet stroke. Her cabin was two hundred sixty-seven feet long and was surrounded by fifty-four state-rooms, each ele- gantly finished and furnished. Her launching and initial trip down the Ohio were topics of absorbing conversation among rivermen throughout the interior. When she passed Wheeling, the populace flocked to the levee in such numbers as to prevent her intended landing and forced her to "carry by" both freight and passengers."^" Like most boats of her day, the "Great Republic" carried modern equipment. For instance, she had a steam capstan, nigger, freight hoist, syphon pumps, steam fire engine, and running water for staterooms, steamboat construction having reached a high degree of perfection by mid-century. Although she was not a success financially, being too large and expensive to maintain, her size and elegance bespoke the hopes and ambitions of rivermen of this period. Before it ended their best packets carried electric lights and other mod- ern equipment, the "Guiding Star," "Kate Adams" and "Scotia," packets of the early eighties, being among the first on the Ohio to be equipped with electricity. A contemporary of the post-bellum period recently described the river business of Pittsburgh in the seven- ties in these words: A great number of men depended upon the river for their daily =82 Cincinnati Commercial, March 13, 1867; idem, March 19, 1867; Wheeling Intelligencer, March 9, 1867; idem, March 13, 1867; idem, March i8, 1867; Waterways Journal, March 22, 1919; idem, November 29, 1924. 270 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY labor. There was at that time eight boat-building companies who were building hulls, six cabin builders, six machine shops building engines for towboats, freight and packet boats, seven boiler firms building boilers for steamboats, four steamboat painters, three block makers, four steamboat tinners and coppersmiths, four steamboat pipe fitters, ... six supply stores for supplying boats with groceries, meats, and vegetables, four firms doing outfitting and frame work outside of regular cabin building, and four firms catering to steam- boat blacksmithing."*^ Of practically every other important city on the Ohio at this time, a smilar story might be told. Wheeling, Marietta, Cincinnati, Evansville, Jefifersonville, and Louisville w^ere especially active. Even small towns such as Wellsville, Steubenville, Clarington, Sisters- ville, St. Marys, Parkersburg, Murrayville, Ravens- w^ood, and Point Pleasant had one or more boatyards and launched one or more packets, some of great size and elegance. The barge w^as, how^ever, the distinctive river craft of that day. As already indicated, John K. Booth used "model" barges as a connecting link between Baltimore and Ohio railroad terminals at Wheeling and Park- ersburg. When his patron effected through connections with the Middle West, in 1871, by the use of a bridge across the Ohio at Parkersburg, the Wheeling terminus being already thus connected. Booth's favorite river trade was practically ruined, and he turned to other fields. For some time he found profits in the transpor- tation of iron ore and other raw materials from St. Louis to upper Ohio river ports and in carrying return cargoes of railroad iron, railroad supplies, and other products of local industry. Later he was driven to the wall by the panic of 1873, but meanwhile Booth had ^*^ — Idem, August 4, 1923. POST-BELLUM DAYS TO 1900 271 taken a long step toward revolutionizing inland river transportation."*'* Among the more successful barge owners and opera- tors in the post-bellum days on the Ohio was John Porter of New Cumberland, a name inseparably con- nected with the rise and development of the brick and pottery industries of northern West Virginia and south- eastern Ohio.^" From humble beginnings, about 1832, these industries grew to large proportions, furnishing cargoes for boats in Ohio, Cumberland, and other river trades. From the Cumberland iron ore and other raw materials supplied profitable up-stream tows. When local iron industries began to draw raw materials from the region of the Great Lakes, Porter curtailed his tow- ing operations on the Ohio, but he was able to carry on successfully into the present century. During the seventies and far into the eighties barges were also used on the Ohio for the transportation of crude oil and its products. In the face of growing monopoly of the Standard Oil Company, that tended to control all phases of the oil industry, the "Poor Man's Highway" was the only avenue open to compet- ing independents. A Congressional act of 1879, osten- sibly in the interest of the traveling public, prohibited the transportation of "oil" and its products on board passenger packets. The effect was to increase the use of barges, much crude oil being transported thus both to Wheeling and to Huntington for re-shipment east over the Baltimore and Ohio and the Chesapeake and Ohio -8* Cincinnati Commercial, January 5, 1867; idem, February 27, 1867; Wheeling Intelligencer, December 23, 1868; idem, September 24, 1869; idem, October 19, 1869; idem, December 3, 1869. 285 Manuscripts. In possession of the Porter family, New Cumberland, West Virginia. See also Wheeling Intellingencer, March 12, 1879; idem, July I, 1879. 272 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY railroads, respectively. A contemporary movement to parallel the Ohio river between these two points by a railroad track is said to have had its inception in plans to capture the local river traffic in oil, lumber, iron ore, and other products.''^ The most successful barge owner and operator of this day, on the Ohio, was R. C. Gray of Pittsburgh. He entered the transportation business, on a large scale, on a rising tide of prosperity that followed the panic of 1873, and is said to have accumulated a fortune. For a long time he was head of the famous Iron line, con- sisting of scores of barges and several towboats. Among the latter were the "Iron Duke," "Ironsides," "Iron Age," and "Resolute." For years they plied regularly between the iron deposits of Missouri and upper Ohio river ports, carrying ore up-stream and its products down. Following rumors of plans to parallel the Ohio with a railroad and to draw ore supplies from the re- gion of the Great Lakes, Gray shifted his boating ac- tivities to the upper Mississippi, where he became a factor in river transportation. In the increasing use of barges on the inland waters some saw, even at this early period, the dawn of a fu- ture "Barge Age." The development was at least signi- ficant and gave rise to comment. For example, the Cin- cinnati Commercial for January 5, 1867, said: "It is clear that the barge system does not encourage the building of gorgeous steamers." About the same time W. Milnor Roberts, a famous engineer, expressed his belief that the time was near, when "a large portion of the steamers engaged in freighting would be towboats, -*" Wheeling Register, May 3, 1876; idem, April 17, 1877; Wheeling Intelligencer, November 11, 1879; idem, April 13, i88i; idem, October 21, i88i; Tarbell, Ida M. History of the Standard Oil Company (New York, 1904), vol. i, 173-195. POST-BELLUM DAYS TO 1900 273 running in connection with barges." '" In this practice, a writer in the Atlantic Monthly for June, 1867, saw a "prodigious economy," for, continued he, "One of these large passenger boats on the Mississippi is run at an expense of a thousand dollars a day, and it wastes half of its time waiting for freight. A towboat capable of towing ten barges expends but two hundred dollars a day, and wastes fewer hours than a passenger boat wastes days." Still others believed that the time was near at hand when passengers would be transported in model barges arranged and operated after the fashion of modern Pullmans. The conditions stimulating boat building on the Ohio gave rise to outstanding characters. Prominent among those on its upper course was James Rees of Pitts- burgh. Like other boatbuilders of inland America, he was born in Wales and came to America at an early age to be educated in her workshops. Rees learned les- sons of application, thrift, and economy in his youth and while working to support a widowed mother. At- tracted by the unusual opportunities of the period he turned to boat building in the mid-sixties and was soon on an independent footing. Hence it was that he was able to finance the building of a number of steamboats for would-be owners on the Mississippi, among them ex-Confederates without money or credit. All received their boats, the debtors being told to "pay when you can." The fact that not a penny was lost in these trans- actions is a tribute to Captain Rees's knowledge of men, as well as to his patriotism. It may also have in- dicated unusually good times among steamboatmen. However that may be, the name Rees became a favorite along the Mississippi. "^T Journal of the Franklin Institute, vol. xxxiv, 297. 274 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY In all his numerous activities Captain Rees employed the spirit and methods of the investigator. The results were many useful inventions and applications. Among these was the world's first steamboat of homogeneous steel-plate construction/*^ with water tight compart- ments. Other inventions and applications included the first iron railroad bridge, the first light steel angles of unequal legs, and the first all-steel-hull steamboat. Thus Rees became an international character. In the eighties his packets, especially his stern-wheelers, were in demand in Central America, South America, Canada, Alaska, Russia, and Africa. When he died, September 12, 1889, he was at the head of two boat building concerns, James Rees and Sons Company and James Thorn and Company, that have since combined and continue to operate under the firm name of James Rees and Sons Company and under the general direc- tion of Captain Thomas M. Rees. This and the com- panies out of which it grew have built a total of more than six hundred steamboats, besides a number of other craft. At the present time Rees-built boats ply the waters of three continents."*^ What James Rees and his stern-wheelers were to the upper Ohio, James Howard (familiarly known as "Uncle Jim") and his side-wheelers were to the lower Ohio and the Mississippi. Howard was born in Eng- land in 1 8 14. At the age of six he emigrated to America living for a time in Cincinnati, where he learned the art of steamboat building. Later he established himself in Jefifersonville, Indiana, where he founded the How- ard shipyards which are now operated by the Howard 288 The "Montoya," built in 1878 for the Magdalena Steam Navigation Company of South America. See Thurston, op. cit., 119. =s^ Pittsburgh Times, May 23, 1882; Pittsburgh Gazette Times, September 26, 1909. POST-BELLUM DAYS TO 1900 275 family. Many things attested the popularity and worth of the elder Howard, but none more than the attend- ance at his funeral, which was estimated at fifty thou- sand persons/™ He died in 1876. Among other prominent contemporary boatbuilders on the Ohio M. G. Knox is deserving of mention. From his boatyard in West Marietta he launched more than one hundred steamboats, among them being the "Key- stone State," "Emma Graham," and "Scotia," each famous in its day. At Wheeling, A. J. Sweeney and his son John M. Sweeney made a specialty of light draught stern-wheelers. They also built many cotton boats. At Elizabeth, Pennsylvania, the Larges and Wiegels maintained the reputation of the Walkers of an earlier day for the superior quality of their river craft. Mean- while several prominent builders were using the Marine ways of Cincinnati, while others launched steamboats and barges from Louisville and Evansville. Many of these packets were more famous than their builders. Outstanding among such were the "Robert E. Lee" and the "Natchez." The former was built by the Howards; the latter was a product of the Marine ways of Cincinnati, her cabin being the handiwork of a famous builder of that city, Elias Ealers, and her boilers the work of an equally famous artisan, C. T. Dumont. Both boats were built for use on the Missis- sippi, where they were rivals in the St. Louis-New Orleans trade in the seventies. Their race of July, 1870, is generally regarded as the greatest event of its kind in history. More than one million dollars is said to have been bet on the result which was never satisfactorily determined. Some objected because the "Natchez" took -^° Gould, Fifty Years on the Mississippi, 638 ; Wateriuays Journal, November 27, 1909. 276 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY time out on account of fog. Others complained because the "Lee" used an auxiliary craft to supply her with fuel over a part of the course. Nevertheless, the friends of the "Lee" claimed the victory. Her time was three days, eighteen hours, and fourteen minutes. Interest in this race was perhaps unusual, but it was, nevertheless, significant. A local print described it in these words : "The whole country watched with breath- less interest, as it [the race] had been extensively ad- vertised by the press, and the telegraph attended its progress along the river at every point. At all the principal cities people for many miles were present to see the racers pass, and the time of passing was cabled to Europe." "" The captains, John W. Cannon of the "Lee" and T. P. Leathers of the "Natchez," were, tem- porarily, as much in the public eye, especially the sport- ing part of it, as are rival contenders of the prize fighter's ring and the baseball diamond today. Scores of other Ohio river-built steamboats of this period attained a popularity that was more than local. Among them the "J. M. White," built by the Howards in 1878 after the model of the "J. M. White" of the forties, was outstanding. It was claimed that she em- bodied the last word in the art and utility of steamboat construction. To this day her record of seven hours and forty minutes between New Orleans and Baton Rouge is unbeaten. Then there was the "Kate Adams," which, with two other packets that bore the same name, plied the trade between Memphis and Helena for almost fifty years. The recent destruction of No. Three, known as the "Lovin' Kate," brought sadness to the hearts of 25' Gould, op. cit., 532-544. See also Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi. The time of the "Natchez" in this race was 3 days, 20 hours, and 58 min- utes. See National IVaterivays, July, 1930. POST-BELLUM DAYS TO 1900 277 rivermen everywhere and called forth editorial expres- sions from the press of the entire country."'" Another famous packet, the "Chesapealce," Captain Edwin F. Maddy, had to her credit a distinct achievement. Un- der her own power she made a continuous trip from Point Pleasant, West Virginia, to Jacksonville, Flori- da, a distance of thirty-one hundred miles, most of it on the high seas. Most packets of this period operated in line arrange- ments after the manner of those of the forties and the fifties. For instance, on the lower Ohio there were the boats of the Louisville and Cincinnati Packet line, popularly known as the "Mail Line." Under the favor- able conditions of the mid-sixties this line entered a period of prosperity that carried its capital stock to the million dollar mark and made it one of the most pop- ular routes of travel in inland America. However, in a manner peculiar to the river, it encountered unfore- seen reverses. In 1868 a collision between two of its choice packets, the "United States" and the "America" in which a number of lives were lost, brought success- ful actions for damages that turned it on the downward road financially. Then came the hard times of the seventies, forcing railroad reorganizations and tem- porarily curtailing river activities. To these adverse re- sults the eighties added bad management and railroad competition. As a result the packets of this line were forced to pool their interests with those of the "White Collar Line," then operating between Cincinnati and Charleston, West Virginia, and Pomeroy, Ohio. The "White Collar Line," a contemporary of another line by the same name in the trade between St. Louis 292 See series of articles beginning in the IVaterivays Journal, October 4, 1924. 278 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY and New Orleans, was incorporated in 1866 as the Cincinnati, Portsmouth, Big Sandy, and Pomeroy line. Like others, it had its origin in the plans of a number of independent owners and operators to avoid the re- sults of a ruinous competition."^^ During a decade or more following its formation a number of factors con- tributed to its success. Most important of these was the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad which reached the Ohio at Huntington in 1873 and for some time thereafter de- pended upon steamboats for shipping connections to the West. In the absence of a railroad closely parallel- ing the Ohio, local industries were dependent upon steamboats for transportation. Large quantities of salt and farm products were shipped by river, and it was no uncommon thing for "White Collar" packets to tarry hours at a time both at Hanging Rocks and at Ironton, taking aboard the products of local iron in- dustries and unloading farm products and other raw materials. Moreover, these packets had splendid ship- ping connections both by river and by rail at Cincin- nati, and their management was superior. From 1866 to well into the eighties they had only two superin- tendents, "Wash" Honshell and, following him, Chas. M. Hollaway. Each of these rivermen deserves more than passing mention. Captain Honshell, the leading spirit in the organization of the "White Collar" line, was for a long time its mainstay. Like most successful steamboat- men, he was a strong and resourceful character in whom "way folks" imposed implicit confidence. Even with those who did not emulate his example, his pop- ularity was enhanced by a reputation for total absti- nence from the use of either intoxicants or tobacco. 2'3 Cincinnati Commercial, September 23, 1866; idem, September 24, i866. POST-BELLUM DAYS TO 1900 279 Some of his more simple-minded admirers are said to have believed that the Ohio between the "Mouth of Sandy" and Cincinnati belonged to him. More than once raftsmen and washwomen asked his permission to use its waters.^" In his day, the eighties, Captain Hollaway was scarcely less prominent than was Captain Honshell in his. Among rivermen Captain Hollaway is still re- ferred to as an example of the possibilities of their tribe, when opportunity comes their way. He is said to have commenced his career as a bar-tender on a small packet on the Great Kanawha. From this humble, even questionable, beginning, he became, in turn, manager of a large salt manufacturing and distributing concern, president of the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, and superintendent of the most important packet line then navigating the Ohio. A contemporary, "Wash" Kerr, was equally popular and probably more widely known. Ten years before the Civil war he owned and operated the "Messenger," then the most popular packet on the Ohio river. With the "J. B. Ford" and other steamboats Captain Kerr rendered distinguished service in the transportation of troops in the Civil war, and later he became known as one of the most efficient and dependable rivermen on the western waters. So regular were his packets that farmers along the Ohio are said to have set their clocks by them. In the "Murphy Movement" for prohibition Captain Kerr was one of the first to banish the bar from his boat. This was done by placing a sign, bearing large letters, over the entrance. It read "This Bar is -^■'Wheeling Intelligencer, December 20, 1867; idem, October 2, 1869; idem, November 13, 1S76; idem, January 28, 1883; JVater' King, Sidney. The Story of the Sesqui-Centennial Celebration of Pitts- burgh (Pittsburgh, 1910). 367a por full account of proceedings see Ohio Arch, and Hist. Quarterly, vol. xxii, 1-125. 354 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY for what promised to be a new and great era in the his- tory of inland transportation. Following a preliminary report of the Inland Waterways Commission, 1908, giving information regarding the extensive and profit- able use then being made of the rivers of continental Europe and warning against the consequences of a threatened "commercial decadence" on our own,'^' public opinion became more intelligent and assertive in behalf of the improved navigation of our inland waters. As a result former "pork barrel" methods of using public funds for improving rivers and harbors were condemned ; the preparation of a comprehensive plan for the improvement of the inland waters was de- manded and provided; and, in a short time, a program was announced that called for the completion of a sys- tem of locks and dams to cover the whole course of the Ohio. Repeated failures of railroads to serve transpor- tation needs in times of crises seemed to necessitate the immediate completion of this program, which was ac- cordingly announced for the year 1922. The Monon- gahela river, then carrying the largest river traffic in the world, was an ever present reminder of the possi- bilities of slackwater on the Ohio.''''' Nevertheless transportation on the Ohio river sys- tem again entered a decline. Unlike that of the preced- ing fifties this decline proved fatal to the old order of things. A remarkable vitality, sustained by large in- vestments and resourceful leadership, prolonged the struggle, but the forces making for change were numer- ous, powerful, and in some instances unscrupulous, and in time prevailed. The appeal of local rivermen to corporate methods of owning and operating their prop- 358 Inland Waterways Commission, op. cit., 377-435. 359 Waterv;ays Journal, August 28, 1920. COMMERCIAL DECADENCE 355 erty, already mentioned, was an admission of their inability to carry on under existing conditions, as was also their appeal to President Roosevelt and their re- quests of this period that the whole matter of river rates and traffic be turned over to the Interstate Commerce Commission/"" Evidence of the commercial decadence that followed is abundant. A few typical examples relating to the Ohio will suffice. In 1908 both the Pittsburgh and Cin- cinnati Packet Company and the Louisville and Evans- ville Packet line were forced into receiverships, and their holdings were sold, those of the former bringing twenty-two thousand two hundred dollars, those of the latter eighteen thousand seven hundred dollars, in each case only one-fifth the appraised value. ^"^ Formerly the derelict and superfluous tonnage of the Ohio had found markets on the Mississippi and its lower tributaries, but these were now closed, the decadence of the rivers be- ing general. In less than a decade after 1908 Pittsburgh ceased to send towboats to the South or even to the lower Ohio, her entire output of coal being consumed locally, and river shipments of coal on its lower course were temporarily curtailed. The local press described the situation in these words: "Never before has Ohio river tonnage been so worthless." Much of what was left was carried to destruction in the ice floes of 1918, the aggregate value of the tonnage, dredges, and termi- nals then destroyed in this manner reaching almost six million dollars.^^' For years before this event, however, one could travel along the upper Ohio below Wheeling for a whole day and never see a steamboat. 2^" — Idem, August 15, 1908; idem, November 9, 1907. ^*' — Idem, April 29, 1910; idem, August 20, 1910; idem, October i, 1910. ^*- — Idem, January 18, 1919. 356 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY Worse still this decline afifected the ardor of local rivermen and the "friends of the river" generally and was reflected in the local press which now gave serious consideration to suggestions looking to the abandon- ment of further efforts to improve the navigation of the Ohio and its tributaries. When the press did mention the rivers for other purposes, it was generally to laud a glorious past and to tell distressing stories of existing conditions. Even the game fish for which the Ohio had been famous disappeared, victims of or refugees from the acids with which industry was polluting its waters. Here and there only did physical reminders of the former splendor of the river remain. About Pittsburgh, under conditions presented elsewhere, river traffic in- creased annually in volume, as did that southward from the Great Kanawha and Huntington. About Parkers- burg local "oil booms" and industrial developments kept alive short packet trades, and Captain Greene and his wife continued to operate their packets in a trade between Cincinnati and Huntington and Charleston, West Virginia, and Gallipolis and Pomeroy, Ohio. In the trade between Cincinnati and Louisville conditions were favorable, and Captain Laidley carried on despite the failures of others. Meanwhile traffic in timber, grain, and other raw materials kept alive declining trades on the lower Ohio, Cumberland, and Tennessee rivers, sustaining packet lines in favor with railroads, and with the Barrett, Bay, and other packet lines. Otherwise the commercial decadence of the rivers was practically complete. The causes of this decline were numerous, and the effects were varied and sometimes subtle. All causes were, however, contributory, no one of them singly be- ing powerful enough to effect a destruction so complete. COMMERCIAL DECADENCE 357 Possibly first and most effective among them was a shortsighted policy that had neglected to improve inland navigation and had failed to provide adequate river terminal facilities. "Pork barrel" methods of adminis- tering federal funds were largely responsible for the former condition. Solution of the latter, where it was attempted at all, was left to private initiative. As a re- sult snags, sandbars, shifting channels, and alternating high and low waters continued to make the navigation of the Ohio and its unimproved tributaries uncertain, and freight could not be handled with safety and dis- patch at local levees. Under the complex and intricate economic conditions, the mainspring of which was com- petition, traffic shifted from rivers to railroads but not without considerable assistance, some of it of a ques- tionable character, from the latter. Some attributed this transition wholly to an alleged inadequacy of rivers to meet the transportation needs of a new age. Among these were most of those prophets who had for a long time predicted the final passing of the steamboat and the barge from our inland waters. The fact that the decline of river commerce was gen- eral, even where conditions were favorable, as on the Hudson and the lower Mississippi, was urged as a proof of their contentions which ignored the fact that European river traffic was increasing in volume to the benefit of railroads and of all parties concerned, and that, too, under less favorable natural conditions than in America.^" Others regarded the fallen conditions 363 Moulton, Wateriuays versus Railways, 77-96 ; Inland Waterways Commission, op. cit., 375-435; F. H. Dixon's "Traffic History of the Missis- sippi River System," in Report of National IVateriuays Commission (Wash- ington, 1909), document no. ii; Edgar A. Holt's "Missouri River Trans- portation in the Expansion of the West," in Missouri Hist. Revienv, vol. xx, 361-381. 358 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY of river traffic in America as a national calamity and fixed the responsibility therefor largely upon the rail- roads. In their competitive warfare with river transporta- tion interests railroads adhered to no common policy, methods varying to suit particular needs and conditions. Only the more important practices used in the Ohio valley are considered here. They are presented in the following order which, although open to some criti- cism, is meant to be suggestive of their relative import- ance: (i) consolidations resulting in advantages to the railroads in the transportation of first-class freight; (2) the more efficient organization of railroad service; (3) refusals of railroads to cooperate with water lines in prorating arrangements; (4) railroad control of river terminals and terminal facilities; and (5) rail- road control of waterways and their carriers.'"* The workings of the first two of these practices can best be understood in the light of historical develop- ments making them possible. About 1897 the Balti- more and Ohio Railroad Company, which was then interested in rich West Virginia coal and timber lands contiguous to its lines, acquired a controlling interest in the Cincinnati, Washington, and Baltimore railroad, connecting Parkersburg and Cincinnati, which soon thereafter became the Baltimore and Ohio Southwest- ern railroad and acquired, in its own right, the Ohio and Mississippi railroad connecting Cincinnati and St. Louis. Meanwhile lateral lines were built, acquired, and leased, extending the Baltimore and Ohio system to St. Louis and paralleling the Ohio to the north by a network of tracks along most of its course. In 1889 the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad, which also passed 3')'i Moulton, op. cit., 78-96. COMMERCIAL DECADENCE 359 through rich coal and timber sections of West Virginia, extended its track from Huntington to Cincinnati and later effected through connections to Chicago, laterals being meanwhile extended to additional coal and tim- ber fields in West Virginia and Kentucky. Moreover, about the same time the Louisville and Nashville rail- road, over which large shipments of coal were accus- tomed to pass south from Louisville, became interested in coal mines in Tennessee and southern Kentucky and effected working arrangements with railroads to the north.^^^ Thus entrenched, the chief railroads of the Ohio valley proceeded to build a "fence" about the coal oper- ators and shippers who were using the lower Ohio with Cincinnati as a chief base of operations. Materials for this obstructive fence were discriminating rates, con- trol of car supplies, and inadequate re-shipping termi- nals. With each succeeding year this so-called fence came nearer Cincinnati and other re-shipping points and became so secure in other ways as to be in local terminology practically "bull high and hog tight." Examples of typical methods used in its construction are informing. In the interest of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad freight rates and reshipping charges on river coal from Cincinnati were made so high that they could not compete in local markets with the price of coal produced about Fairmont, West Virginia, and Luhrig, Ohio, from mines in which railroads were in- terested. At the same time the Louisville and Nash- ville railroad charged more for carrying coal to points twenty-five and thirty miles inland from the Ohio than it did for carrying its own coal to the same points from 2"^ Inland Waterways Commission, op. cit., 375 ; Hungerford, Story of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, vol. ii, 227. 36o TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY mines in Tennessee and southern Kentucky/^" In the absence of court decisions on the commodities clause of the Hepburn act enacted 1906, forbidding railroads to transport freight which they themselves produced, and in the absence of control by the Interstate Com- merce Commission these practices were ruinous to local river traffic in coal and were not helpful to that in other first-class freight. In despair some rivermen suggested the possibility of a remedy for their ills in anti-rebating laws of Congress. In the second place railroad extensions and consoli- dations made possible systematic methods of handling traffic and advertising rail service. Already the great trunk lines crossing the Ohio at right angles were fam- iliar with these devices. In 1885 the Cullom Committee of Congress found the "most effective cause of relative increase in railway tonnage" to be "administrative or- ganization of the railway companies." The same com- mittee noted, also, that the "inventive genius and the business talent of the country" were drifting to the rail- roads, "leaving waterways comparatively neglected." "" After 1900 these tendencies became realities throughout the Ohio valley, particularly along the Ohio itself. Every important center had its railroad agent, one or more, in many cases former rivermen, actively engaged in soliciting traffic and boosting railroads, whereas the rivers got only such traffic as sought them. The third of these practices, refusal to cooperate in prorating arrangements, was generally injurious but particularly so to passenger packets. In both the eighties and the nineties most Ohio river packets, as well as those on tributary streams, had such arrangements, 366 Inland Waterways Commission, op. cit., 111-116. ^" Moulton, op. cit., 86. COMMERCIAL DECADENCE 361 which after 1900 were practically all withdrawn. In 1907 only four lines enjoyed such benefits."* A few others like the Louisville and Cincinnati Packet Com- pany which had close working relations with the Louis- ville and Nashville railroad, were able to continue without them, but, as has been shown, other packets went out of business. To this day scores of former steamboatmen trace their decisions to leave the river to the refusal of railroads to prorate freight receipts."" In a letter to Major H. C. Newcomer of United States Army Engineers, August 19, 1909, Captain James A. Henderson, president of the second Pitts- burgh and Cincinnati Packet line, summarized the ef- fects upon packets of railroads refusing to cooperate, in these words: The first severe blow given to the packet lines occurred when the railroad lines withdrew and thereafter declined to renew traffic and equitable prorating arrangements on business that had always been interchangeable. The withdrawal was accomplished so nearly simul- taneously, about 1900, as to force the conclusion that a "Community of Interest" existed among the rail lines to the hurt and detriment of the packet lines. From our own experience many instances can be cited where we were deprived of enormous tonnage through our inability to continue handling business to inland rail points and terri- tories that we formerly reached regularly through prorating arrange- ments with rail lines. . . . Many reasons and excuses have been offered for this condition, one of the strong ones being the regulations of the Interstate Commerce Commission, but in our case, when we have always been willing to place our Line under the Commission's rules to connect with the rail lines, this willingness seldom accomplished the desired ends. It is one of the peculiarities of the workings of the Interstate Commerce Commission that rulings pertaining to rates and divisions applying to inland junction points, are not effective at river junction points. ... In its operation the Interstate Commerce Com- 368 Inland Waterways Commission, op. cit., 375. 369 ffaler'ways Journal, January 15, 1910. 362 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY mission ignores river traffic and protects rail traffic by practically pro- hibiting the cooperation of the two. It was in this period that the fourth of the above named practices became intolerable. To remedy a local situation, Cincinnati under the leadership of Albert Bettinger and others, staged an oldtime fight for the "freedom of the inland rivers." Their success is a mem- orable event in local river annals. A decision of the Su- preme Court of the state of Ohio denied the local city council the power to authorize the obstruction of the local levee. Furthermore and of even greater impor- tance, this decision said: "It is not in the power of the legislature, unless in the exercise of the power of em- inent domain, to authorize property, dedicated to the public use for a specific purpose, to be used for a pur- pose inconsistent with the purpose for which it was dedicated." "" Finally, as already indicated, railroads were per- mitted to control waterways and their carriers. To this end they sometimes purchased tonnage. When to their interest, in meeting competition and making shipping connections, this tonnage was operated by the railroads. Otherwise it was sold and the trades in which it had been used were abandoned. In 1907 four packet lines, all on the lower Ohio below Cincinnati, showed traces of railroad influence."^ The continued prosperity of the most important of these, for a number of years follow- ing, was probably due almost entirely to aid from friendly railroads. Incidentally the effects of the two-cent railroad fare were injurious to transportation by the rivers. Al- s'o Moulton, op. cit., 8i ; Inland Waterways Commission, Preliminary Report, 1908, 139; Water-ways Journal, June 6, 1914; idem, October 25, 1913. ^'1 Inland Waterways Commission, op. cit., 375. COMMERCIAL DECADENCE 363 though opposed by the railroads, these reduced fares benefited them in their competition with the rivers by diverting passenger traffic from the latter. Before mile- age rates became legally compulsory, railroads made flat fares, rarely less than twenty-five cents each, how- ever short the distance. Meanwhile local packets, where there were any, were charging fifty cents to one dollar for round trips covering twenty-five to fifty miles or more. But when it became cheaper to travel short dis- tances by rail than by water, other things tending to favor the railroads, the traveling public deserted local packets. The next, and possibly the most effective blow ad- ministered packets operating on the Ohio, particularly those running to and from Pittsburgh and Wheeling, was the formation of the United States Steel Corpora- tion in 1901. Prior to this consolidation the subsidiary companies out of which it was formed "were large shippers by packets." Today they are again using the rivers, but they own and operate their own tonnage. Previously they depended upon privately owned ton- nage which they supplied with large quantities of first- class freight that paid good rates and, as a rule, was car- ried over long distances. The policy of the consolida- tion was to ship by rail only and was adhered to so stringently that the river rates did not enter into the matter, as the Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet line demonstrated time and time again. Nor did the positive instructions of the purchaser of its products to ship by boat receive any attention or consideration, as this same line demonstrated by "bringing in orders specifically routed" by its boats. Another contributing cause in the decline of river traffic, especially that on the Ohio, was the "cutting 364 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY down of the mileage of the raw material," made pos- sible by the westward march of industry, bringing in- dustrial plants to and near raw materials and con- sumers. In the ante-bellum days steamboats bound west and south carried cargoes of industrial products, gen- eral merchandise, dry goods and groceries, while those returning north and east carried farm products and other raw materials, notably iron ore, in an exchange that was continued well into the palmy days of post- bellum steamboating. But, when iron and steel indus- tries of the Ohio valley began to shift their location towards the region of the Great Lakes, when the man- ufacture of agricultural machinery moved to the Mid- dle West, when slaughtering and packing businesses were shifted to the same section, and when other indus- tries tended to follow suit, local steamboats were robbed of first-class freight."* For the transportation of what was left, railroads were better suited than rivers with their uncertain stages and inadequate equipment. A growing uncertainty regarding the type or types of boats best suited to future needs and conditions was al- most equally depressing. Despite delays and uncertain- ties, slackwater had been promised for the Ohio and its chief tributaries. Under such conditions, plus the cheapness and durability of steel and the growing scar- city of timber, there was little choice between the all- steel-hull and the wooden hull steamer,"' but there was less accord regarding the best methods of propulsion. The new Diesel engine, an internal-combustion oil- burning device, had its friends and its critics. The latter maintained that it would be hard to improve upon the ^"- Watrrivays Journal, October 29, 1927. ^^' The first all-steel hull steamboat for local uses, the "Chattahoochee," was built at Pittsburgh in 1881 under direction of Captain Thomas M. Rees. See H^atervsays Journal, September i6, 1916. COMMERCIAL DECADENCE 365 "improved steam engine," whereas the former insisted that their device, the Diesel engine, made possible necessary economies in both space and fuel and also in adjustments making for speed, dependability, and the use of double wheels/" Chief discussion waged, however, over the compara- tive merits of paddle and screw-propelled boats,"^ the Diesel engine being used with either. Impressed with the further possibilities of the screw propeller, the es- sential principles of which had been understood and applied for more than half a century, Charles Ward of Charleston, West Virginia, produced a modified type of this device which he maintained would solve some of the navigation difficulties of inland America. First and most important of all, it was claimed that this device would assure greater power and dependability at less cost. The fact that an older type of the screw propeller had long been used successfully on the rivers of both Europe and Africa was thought to be indica- tive of its possibilities in America. With the courage of his convictions Ward began to manufacture screw pro- pellers, and his friends, among them the W. C. Kelly Company of Charleston, West Virginia, began to use them. Soon engineers and others were advocating their general use, and, after a careful investigation, the na- tional government decided to use them on its boats in the Federal Barge line on the Mississippi and War- rior rivers. The paddle-wheel boat was not without its friends and defenders. Any craft that could accomplish the 374 — Idem, January 2, 1926; idem, February 27, 1926. '" For the results of the government investigations see U. S. House. Document no. 857, March, 191+; U. S. House. Document no. 108, August, 1921. For typical articles on the discussion see IVaterivays Journal, February 25, 1911; idem, November 6, 1915; idem, November 13, 1915; idem, No- vember 20, 1915; idem, January 15, 1916. 366 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY feats of the "Sprague" and the "Robert E. Lee" was not to be deserted by their builders and owners in the presence of innovators. In numerous articles the late Captain John M. Sweeney of Hollywood and Chicago, Captain Thomas M. Rees of Pittsburgh, and others, widely distributed but chiefly from the upper Ohio, established the superior advantages of paddle wheel propulsion for shallow and difficult navigation. They also showed that it is reasonably dependable. The uncertainties aroused by these discussions tem- porarily depressed boat building on the inland waters and thus injured commerce, but they were wholesome signs of an otherwise deplorable condition. As in the past, the means of inland transportation were adjusting themselves to new needs. It was by discussion and agita- tion that the new order was able to preserve what was best in the old and make necessary changes. Another contemporary force contributing to the de- cline of river traffic in the interior was low wages. After 1900 skilled river employees, pilots and en- gineers, received from seventy-five to one hundred dol- lars per month. At the same time mates were receiving from forty to fifty dollars per month and deckhands rarely more than twenty. Other employees were paid according to their traditional importance and with lit- tle reference to living costs. In practically every in- stance compensation was less than in the eighties, when the evil effects of low wages were offset by declining prices. In the latter period prices were rising, and river employment was more uncertain and irregular than in the former. As a consequence the condition of river em- ployees became desperate; some were driven to the shore; and, when their place was filled at all, it was generally by those of comparatively inferior caliber. COMMERCIAL DECADENCE 367 Naturally the change was reflected in the class of boats used and in the quality of service rendered. Other factors of this transition were more local in their operation. Outstanding among these were "wharf- age" and "agency," collectively known as "way charges." These were collected from steamboats by riparian municipalities, the former for the privilege of landing at local levees, the latter for the privilege of carrying freight and passengers across levees and for storing freight. Although levees were in bad repair and wharf masters and their assistants, in some places, re- ceived compensations greater than the total of all their collections, the practice of collecting these charges was fixed by custom which, like other customs, could not be abandoned despite the suicidal tendencies. More- over, competition prevented packets from shifting them, and consequently they became burdensome, some- times prohibitive. For example, during a two-year period, 1905-1907, a packet in the Pittsburgh-Charles- ton trade, making stops at many intermediate points, was assessed a total of approximately thirty-three hun- dred dollars in "way charges," which was more than one-fourth her net income."" Refusals to pay brought counter refusals of landing privileges. As a result some packets were taxed out of existence; others ceased to make unprofitable landings; and local packet accom- modations were generally curtailed. Among other local factors depressing river com- merce were motorboats and motor-driven trucks. Their use to make quick deliveries of goods, in large quanti- ties and over short radii, destroyed short packet trades and ate into the profits of long ones. An objectionable ^'* — Idem, January 15, 1910; Inland Waterways Com. Preliminary Report, 1908, 136-143. 368 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY feature of this situation was that packets were subjected to rigid governmental inspection and regulation, whereas motorboats of less than fifteen tons burden escaped inspection entirely and were subjected to few regulations. The situation called forth numerous pro- tests."' In addition to the more or less external forces opera- ting to the detriment of river business, the Ohio itself contributed much to the undoing of its packets. In its natural state it was too low for navigation from three to five months annually, thus producing an uncertainty in deliveries made by it, that prevented shippers from accepting contracts based upon river rates. Moreover, the system of locks and dams, then in process of con- struction for the improvement of its navigation, did not temporarily remedy the situation. In some instances they made it worse. This was always true when locks were out of commission and when accumulated pools of water were used to create artificial waves below the mouth of the Great Kanawha for the use of towboats transporting coal from that stream to Cincinnati and other lower river ports. Still other causes contributing to the commercial decadence of the Ohio might be enumerated, but enough have been given and described in their opera- tions to show a divided responsibility. A reasonable inference is that the work of rehabilitation lies in co- operation. Like destructive forces, constructive ones are generally cumulative in their operation. "' — W^m, 98. Floods and Disasters Always rising or falling, the Ohio is a turbulent stream. A difference of thirty-five and one-half feet be- tween low and high water marks at Pittsburgh, increas- ing to sixty-four feet at Cincinnati, is indicative of the range of its activities. Moreover, the coming of the white man seems to have accentuated its moodiness, re- cent floods and low waters occurring with greater fre- quency than in the distant past. But tradition holds stories of the shiftiness of the Ohio in the period in which nature alone held sway. It was from experience that friendly Indians were able to warn the white man against the consequences of building homes too near the banks of the "white foaming river." Nevertheless those who knew that stream best loved it most, having ac- cepted it for better or for worse. Like the moodiness of a loving companion, its freaks were long regarded as natural phenomena, great floods being expected at more or less regular intervals of about seventeen years. ^'' While unable, as yet, to change this situation, science has thrown light upon the causes of floods in the Ohio valley. Briefly, they are due to "the accident of ge- ographic location considered with respect to me- teorological conditions." "" Fortunately this explanation is explainable and that, too, from data supplied by the scientists themselves. First of all the Ohio valley is a vast area 203,900 square miles in extent, paralleling the 878 Wheeling Intelligencer, June 30, 1865; Cisfs IVeekly Advertiser, January n, 1848. 2'^ See "Floods of 1913," in U. S. Department of .Agriculture. Bulletin Z, 11. 370 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY western slope of the Appalachian Mountains for a dis- tance of eight hundred miles and at an average width of two hundred fifty miles. Practically all this area lies within the range of the heavy winter and spring rain- falls that pass from Texas to New England directly over the axis of the Ohio basin, and the northern por- tion of this basin lies within the area of heavy rain- fall produced by storms that pass over the continent from west to east along the region of the Great Lakes. Local storms of long duration and copious downpour may occur at the same time. Thus portions of the Ohio valley may be visited almost simultaneously by two or more downpours. As floods result primarily from rain- fall, or melting snows, or a combination of the two, those of the Ohio valley are not mysterious in the light of the meteorological conditions under which they occur. Physical features and natural conditions are also con- tributing factors. Chief among the former is the ab- sence of surface storage in the form of lakes, either nat- ural or artificial, and the steep slope of stream beds, the Ohio being four hundred thirty feet lower at its mouth than at its source. In proportion to their length the fall in its tributaries, particularly those flowing northward, is even greater. Moreover, when snow, in large quantities, collects on frozen ground about the headwaters of the Ohio and its tributaries, as it some- times does, flood conditions are imminent. Any one of the meteorological conditions already described may then occur, melting collected snows even in winter. Fortunately all of them have never operated simul- taneously; otherwise, the destruction wrought might have been complete. The Ohio is said to be "flooded" when its waters FLOODS AND DISASTERS 371 reach the danger line or the flood stage. These stages are points at which overflows first begin to damage prop- erty and are not necessarily the same for any two points, being determined in every case by the height of river banks. For example, flood stage at Pittsburgh is twenty- two, Parkersburg thirty-six, Cincinnati fifty, Louisville twenty-eight, Evansville thirty-five, and Cairo forty- five feet, respectively.^*" The varying stages of the Ohio have been classified as: (i) technical floods or freshets, known locally as "rat row washes;" (2) severe floods, or stages from two to five feet above the danger line; and (3) great floods, or general inundations of the greatest recorded height.^*" Local conditions have given particular names to some of those of each of the first two classes. For instance, a freshet of 1864 was the oil flood, the upper Ohio being literally covered with floating oil barrels discharged from the Allegheny. Possibly still better known were two "pumpkin floods," one of which oc- curred in 181 1, the other in 1861, when large portions of the Ohio were completely covered with floating pumpkins, squashes, and gourds.^*" Freshets and floods occur frequently, but great floods are fortunately rare, only those of 1884, 1907, and 1913 being thus desig- nated in recent years.''^ Because of their unusual size but otherwise typical features the flood of 1884 and the great flood of 1913 are given more than passing mention. The former was the greatest general inundation of the Ohio since rec- ords have been kept. It was caused by a short but heavy downpour upon a general snow of from four to five feet in depth. In hilly and mountainous sections this ^^o — Idem, 12. 38- Wheeling Intelligencer, October i, 1861. ^*' U. S. Department of Agriculture. Bulletin Z. 372 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY snow was even deeper, drifts remaining in many sec- tions until late in the following spring. On the upper Ohio this flood reached peak stage on the eighth and ninth of February, when the main channel was literally covered with drift. The great flood of 19 13, thus called to distinguish it from another flood of the same year, reached its crest on the last day of March and the first day of April. Un- like most other great floods it was due entirely to exces- sive rainfall, the only other contributing factor, in addi- tion to the natural conditions already described, being an open and rainy winter. The downpours immediately responsible for this flood were general but heaviest over the states of Ohio and Indiana, where total precipita- tions, for a four-day period, were in excess of ten inches. The result was a freak flood which raised the high water mark at Parkersburg to almost fifty-nine feet, which was five feet higher than any previous record. Thence both up and down stream few records were broken, the stage at Pittsburgh being five feet under high water mark. Tributary streams may have floods of their own, that produce little or no effect upon the Ohio proper. For example, in July, 1888, the Monongahela established many new high records. At Fairmont it rose to thirty- five feet, at Brownsville to forty-four feet, and at Char- leroi to forty-two, the resulting stage at Pittsburgh be- ing little above normal. This was another freak flood following a local downpour and is mentioned, among other things, to show the possibilities of such phe- nomena in the mountainous sections of the Ohio valley. As already indicated, this section was visited by floods before authentic records were kept and before its hills and mountains were stripped of their forests. FLOODS AND DISASTERS 373 Indian traditions tell of great floods even before the coming of the white man. Up to 1866 floods occurred in the Ohio in the years 1786, 1792, 1806, 18 10, 1832, 1847, 1852 ,1860, 1 861, and 1865, some of them being great, notably those of 1832 and 1847. Of all these, however, that of 1832 was probably greatest. Little is known of its causes, but its records, although unofficial, form a popular basis of comparison to this day. It was then that the high water mark for Pittsburgh was fixed at thirty-five feet, where it remained until 1884, when it climbed six inches higher.^** The flood of 1832 was probably more talked of and written about than any other that ever visited the Ohio valley. A diarist who witnessed it from a point about sixty miles below Wheeling counted one thousand houses floating down the Ohio at that time, together with "innumerable stacks of wheat, hay, oats, rye, etc., with shocks of corn, warehouses, mills, corn cribs, planks, barrels of flour, whiskey, apples, etc." His neighbor, a Mr. Riggs, lost "fifteen head of cattle and 2,000 bushels of Indian corn," and, continued the diar- ist: "It is said a man in Pittsburgh offered $500 for a skiff for an hour. The salt works up the Allegheny lost 41,000 barrels of salt. We do consider ourselves as lucky even at the worst. You may laugh, but it was no joke to see men come down in skiffs looking for a house, and to see another house tied to a tree, like a horse hitched by the bridle." '"" Only those who have witnessed floods in the inland rivers can form an adequate idea of their scope and 384 Wheeling Intelligencer, June n, i88i ; Wheeling Register, December 23, 1873; Kanawha Banner (Charleston, Va.), February 4, 1832; idem, February 18, 1832; idem, March 3, 1832. 385 Manuscripts in possession of the family of the late Robert Henry Browse, Grape Island, West Virginia. 374 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY possibilities for destruction. Great floods swell river channels to many times their normal width; whole vil- lages and large parts of cities are submerged; and the force of swollen currents sweeps everything before it. While yet a child the author of these chapters walked across the country, highways being impassable, to wit- ness the flood of 1 884 at its height. Surrounded by wom- en and children who had taken refuge in the open on the river bank, he gazed upon that scene of desolation. Much of the village below was entirely submerged, a few projecting houses serving to indicate the location of streets over which skiffs and "Johnboats" were being used to rescue both persons and goods. Beyond, the main channel of the river was sweeping to destruction an unbroken and surging mass of drift that included boats, houses, fencing materials, hay stacks, and other objects too numerous to mention. Perched high on some of these were geese, ducks, chickens, and guineas, the defiant crows of passing cockerels alone adding life and zest to an otherwise gruesome and distressing pan- orama. In a few days, however, the flood had subsided, and homes formerly submerged were cleared of mud and drift, aired, dried, and otherwise made ready for re- occupation. Meanwhile a government boat had ad- ministered to the relief of the sufferers, who in some in- stances came from miles inland. In a short time there- after the whole event had passed into local tradition, incidents of which were preserved by suitable marks on the local railroad station and the post office and in the memories of local chroniclers. This experience was typical of that of many other cities and villages along the Ohio at that time. As of old, however, nothing was recorded against "the River," which, like the Nile, con- FLOODS AND DISASTERS 375 tinued to be adored as an object of beauty and a source of profit. Sometimes these floods effected freakish, even weird, things. For example, buildings were placed awry on their foundations and even carried to new locations, sustaining little or no injury in the operation. Large steamboats, too, were often left stranded high and dry. For example, the "Virginia," a famous packet of the Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet line, was left three quarters of a mile from the Ohio, in a cornfield near Ravenswood, West Virginia. Her re-launching was ef- fected only after the lapse of considerable time and at great expense. Flood damages of the Ohio valley are incalculable. Only recently have serious efforts been made to esti- mate them. The conflicting results are confusing and uninforming, it being next to impossible to determine, even approximately, the damage of high waters in such matters as injured buildings, interrupted trade, par- alyzed utilities, sickness and death, and depreciated realty. Conservative estimates placed the direct dam- ages of the flood of 1884 at more than $15,000,000, and similar damages for that of 1907 are thought to have reached $100,000,000, which did not include deprecia- tion, "the most serious of all flood losses." In a period covering little more than one year, March 15, 1907 to March 20, 1908, the total flood losses for Pittsburgh aggregated $6,500,000, similar losses for a twenty year period immediately preceding being estimated at $17,- 000,000, whereas those for a similar period following were placed at from $25,000,000 to $40,000,000, the in- crease being due to an expected frequency and destruc- tiveness.'*" 2*" Pittsburgh Flood Commission (Pittsburgh, 1912), Report, 66-71; Wheeling Intelligencer, March 6, 1884. 376 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY These losses have led to the conclusion that "Flood control is one of America's greatest peace time prob- lems." Few, if any, contemplated the possibility of preventing such disasters, but numerous agencies w^res- tled with the problem of control. Among others the Inland Waterways Commission of 1907 was instructed to "take account of . . . the control of floods," and about the same time Pittsburgh appointed a flood com- mission for the purpose of ascertaining and reporting means of preventing flood losses to that city and vicin- ity. The former commission relied largely upon the researches and recommendations of M. O. Lighten of the United States Geological Survey and W. H. Bixby of the United States Army Engineers, which were pub- lished in reports,''" whereas the latter commission relied upon Morris Knowles and other local experts whose findings and recommendations were printed in a volume of four hundred pages, not including accom- panying maps and charts.'^' Incidentally, recent inves- tigators of the problem of flood control have not ig- nored the findings and recommendations of those of an earlier period. Especially helpful were those of 1852 by Charles Ellet, those of 1857 by W. Milnor Roberts, and those of 1879 by Major W. E. Merrill.''" In all this voluminous literature two suggestions were outstanding, viz., flood control and flood prevention.""" Under the former were included all those devices such ^8' Inland Waterways Commission, Preliminary Report, 1908, 451-491; Inland Waterways Commission, Final Report (Washington, 1912), 135-174; U. S. Senate. Document no. 325, 60 cong., i sess. 2^^ Engineer's Society of Western Pennsylvania, Proceedings, July, 1907 ; idem, October, 1907. 385 For a complete bibliography on the subject of flood control see Pitts- burgh Flood Commission, Report, 416-419. See also U. S. House. Executive Document, 63 cong., 2 sess., no. 918. 300 por typical articles on this subject see JVaterii'ays Journal, April 5, FLOODS AND DISASTERS 377 as dredging, wall construction, widening and straight- ening of channels, and removal of obstructions, applied directly at points of overflow and damage. The possible benefits were generally conceded, but attention was called to the fact that they would be necessarily local, and that, whereas the destructiveness of great floods would not be lessened, those of lesser magnitude would be more injurious than formerly to those not thus pro- tected. These considerations led to more pretentious plans of control to be executed with a view to ultimate pre- vention. Outstanding among these was the plan for reforestation, the increasing frequency and destructive- ness of floods, particularly those in the Ohio valley, being attributed to the destruction of native forests. It was claimed that a restored forest, if large enough, would act as a sponge from which the heaviest down- pours would flow gradually to the great advantage of navigation, industry, and agriculture. Moreover, en- thusiasts pointed to the fact that the work of reforesta- tion had actually begun and insisted that the power of Congress to regulate commerce has removed possible legal difficulties to its completion. Critics of this plan were numerous and insistent. They approved reforestation in a small way, largely as a means of providing a timber supply, but refused to see in it a panacea for floods. First of all, they insisted up- on the impracticability of turning farm lands into for- ests of sufficient area to be effective. They also pointed to such baffling facts as these: the Indian traditions of great floods before the coming of the white man and 1913; idem, April 12, 1913; idem, April 19, 1913; idem, May 10, 1913; idem, April 25, 1914; idem. May 23, 191+; idem, August 22, 1914; idem, October 3, 1914; idem, April 8, 1916; idem, January 26, 1918; idem, Feb- ruary 2, 1918; idem, July 29, 1916. 378 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY that the high water marks along the Ohio were estab- lished in 1832, while those on the Great Lakes and the Mississippi were made in 1838 and 1841, respectively. The conclusion seemed inevitable: "The forest prime- val did not prevent floods, neither will newly grown forests." Accordingly interested parties asked for a more certain and effective protection/*" For many the answer was a system of storage reser- voirs, first proposed in 1852 by Charles Ellet and later dismissed before convincing objections from W. Mil- nor Roberts. This plan was based upon the assumption that "the logical way to control a river is to control the source of its water supply." Moreover, it was claimed that storage reservoirs could be used to develop elec- tric power, for irrigation purposes, and to maintain navigable stages of water. Furthermore, the plan was said to be practicable both from a financial and from an engineering standpoint. Costs, however great, were to be distributed over a long period of years, thus reduc- ing their burden to a minimum, whereas storage facili- ties were to be provided by a hundred or more dams instead of a few, as originally proposed by Mr. Ellet, thus reducing the dangers from impounded waters and making the plan more practicable from other view- points. To this latter end numerous surveys were made about the headwaters of the Ohio to determine possible locations for a sufficient number of dams to protect that section, and following a flood disaster in 1913 five dams were built on the Great Miami to protect Dayton and other cities. Nevertheless, this system was open to serious criti- cism. Engineers were generally agreed as to its theo- 391 Pittsburgh Flood Commission, Report, 73; National Waterways Com- mission, Final Report, 205-303; Wateriuays Journal, July 9, 1927. FLOODS AND DISASTERS 379 retical possibilities but differed widely as to its prac- ticability from legal, financial, and physical stand- points. They maintained that traditional notions and practices would not permit national encroachments up- on state preserves, that the total cost would aggregate billions of dollars, which under existing conditions would be beyond the means of the states, or the na- tional government, or both, and that it was practically impossible to secure sites of sufficient number and capacity to be effective. Those who remembered the Johnstown flood and other such disasters saw in the im- pounded waters of the reservoir plan a constant menace to life and property. Furthermore, it was said that such a system, designed as it would be primarily for flood control, would have to be used for that purpose, which would practically nullify its use for generating electric currents, for irrigation, or for improving navigation, impounded waters being, of necessity, so controlled as to prepare for floods rather than for other uses. Other critics of the reservoir plan were those inter- ested in internal improvement projects then in process of construction or contemplated and intended primarily to benefit navigation. They were unwilling to give up a bird in hand for two in the bush, whatever the possible benefits from the possession of the latter. All were agreed that neither the reservoir system nor reforesta- tion could prevent a flood like the great flood of 1913, which had its origin in a section given over to agricul- ture on a large scale and not suited to the construction of dams, sites being unavailable. Meanwhile those in immediate danger continued to demand relief and to conduct themselves as if they did not expect to get it. To all such, the recent action of Congress providing for 38o TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY flood control on the Mississippi and its affluents on a grand scale brought new hope. Discussions of and plans for flood control in the Ohio valley were, however, worth while. Among other things they kept in the foreground the importance of the subject as well as the difficulties and complexities involved, and they were potent factors with Congress in its recent decision to undertake flood control on a national scope. Henceforth informed persons did not think of this subject as separate from navigation, elec- trical power, irrigation, and other possible uses of water resources. Neither did they forget that any plan to be permanently successful must be not only legally and financially possible but scientifically correct. In fact the problem was primarily one for engineers and as such challenged the best talent of the nation, yes, of the world. A definite plan, scientifically determined, is needed not only as the basis of further congressional action but also as a means of directing and enlightening the public. Disasters due to ice movements on the rivers of the Ohio valley have been almost as destructive as have been those due to floods. Fortunately the former have been rather infrequent. They occurred at irregular and indeterminate intervals after the manner of floods but not as their companions, ice years, as a rule, being some- what removed from flood years. In the Ohio great ice floes occurred in the following of the last seventy-five years: 1856, 1857, 1867, 1873, 1879, and 191 8 which were not, in any instance, dates of great floods.'"'' In each of the above years local rivers were frozen over for an unusually long time, the average period of ^^^'WheeVing Intelligencer, March 7, 1856; idem, February 4, 1867; idem, February 7, 1857; Wheeling Register, January 5, 1873. FLOODS AND DISASTERS 381 interrupted navigation because of ice, other years in- cluded, being only about ten days. As a result of these more severe "freeze-ups" the ice formed was sometimes of great thickness. When it broke and moved, it fre- quently gorged against obstructions and in narrow and crooked channels, a single gorge thus formed being miles in length and many feet high. When such a gorge moved, its force was irresistible, sweeping everything before it as if by magic. Locally these movements or breakups were awaited with mingled feelings of joy, hope, and fear. The events were in fact among the most exciting and thril- ling in local annals and were proclaimed by the use of bells and whistles. In March, 1856, between four and five thousand Pittsburghers were thus summoned to witness a long-awaited passing of an ice gorge.'^^ The following year a Cincinnati newspaper described a lo- cal breakup in this characteristic language: Soon after 12 o'clock, the ringing of bells and the scream of whistles proclaimed a third start of the ice. This time the start was in earnest, for only a few temporary stoppages occurred thereafter. Very soon the levee and the landings in Newport and Covington were crowded with thousands of spectators. The windows that commanded a view of the river were thronged with ladies, and many were driven down in buggies to view the exciting scene. As incidents occurred here and there, or boats were sunk, the multitude dashed through the mud to the spot with deafening shouts and yells.'^* Of all the more recent ice floes in the Ohio that of January, 1918, was the most destructive and the most spectacular. As already indicated the total damages aggregated six million five hundred thousand dollars. It followed eight weeks of suspended navigation dur- ing most of which time ice continued to form. When it 893 Wheeling Intelligencer, March 7, 1856. ^°* — Idem, February 9, 1857. 382 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY finally broke, many gorges formed, which in turn swept everything before them. Among the property thus car- ried to destruction were ferries, terminals, and steam- boats, most of which floated beyond the reach of willing rescuers and were ground to pieces or dashed against dams, piers, and other obstructions. After the main floe had passed Cincinnati, the local levee was de- scribed as a "wreck." It was covered with splinters of boats and barges, and the harbor proper was strewn with sunken barges and steamboats, among the latter being two of the finest boats that ever plied the local waters, the "City of Cincinnati" and the "City of Louis- ville." In the early days of steam navigation many disasters, most of them serious, were caused by exploding boilers. The safety-valve was unknown; experience with "cor- roding boilers" and "foaming waters" was limited; and racing was a mania. Excessive steam pressure and defective flues were the natural results which led as naturally to disasters. Horrid as these incidents gen- erally were, the public loved to read about them. Ac- cordingly, accounts thereof occupied a large place in the local press "'" and in such works as Lloyd's Steam- boat Directory and Disasters on the Western Waters which, by the use of numerous illustrations, most of which were greatly exaggerated, went into the grue- some details of the most spectacular steamboat boiler explosions on the western waters before 1856, the date of its publication. ^'^ For typical articles see Kanawha Register (Charleston, Va.), May 4, 1830; idem, June 4, 1830; Kanaivha Banner (Charleston, Va.), September 23, 1831; idem. May 17, 1832; Kanaw/ia Republican (Charleston, Va.), May 7, 1842; idem, October 30, 1844; Wheeling Times, January 4, 1848; Pittsburgh Gazette, January 8, 1853; Wheeling Intelligencer, May 4, 1855; idem, March 6, 1856; idem, March 16, 1856; idem, March 30, 1859. FLOODS AND DISASTERS 385 A typical description of such a disaster is that of the sinking of the "Moselle," April 25, 1838: The "Moselle" was a fast boat, holding the record between St. Louis and Cincinnati (750 miles) at sixty-four hours. On the day mentioned she drew out of her pier at Cincinnati with a passenger list numbering over 250 men, women, and children. A landing in the suburbs of Cincinnati was made to take on a party of German emi- grants. The boilers were being forced to their limit in anticipation of equalling or surpassing a previous record, and as the boat was leaving shore the four boilers exploded simultaneously. The entire end of the boat in front of the wheels was blown to kindling wood. ... It is said that passengers were blo^vTl upon both the Ohio and the Ken- tucky shores, and the exaggeration may not be so great as it seems. Eighty-one persons were known to have been killed and fifty-five were missing.^'^ In a characteristic way this accident was denounced in public gatherings and elsewhere as unnecessary, even criminal. Nevertheless, it was followed by others, the number keeping close pace with the increasing use of steamboats. Finally, in 1852, as the result of two dis- asters, one on the Hudson and the other on Lake Erie, in which a total of more than four hundred lives were lost. Congress was forced to act, individual members having found from experience that it was more dan- gerous to use steamboats on the inland waters than to fight Indians on the frontier. The result was an act pro- viding "for the better protection of human life on ves- sels propelled by steam." To this end pilots and engi- neers were first required to be licensed; hulls, engines, and boilers were to be inspected regularly; and the use of lifeboats, life-preservers and other safety devices was required. This law, together with subsequent discover- ies tending to control corrosion and foaming, reduced 3»8Hulbert, The Ohio River, 344; Hall, The H^est, 179-184- 386 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY Steamboat disasters from exploding boilers to a mini- mum.''' In the early days of inland navigation snags, saw- yers, planters, and similar obstructions did much dam- age to steamboats and other craft. As already indicated sawyers and planters were veritable terrors to the early boatmen, but steamboatmen suffered also from these lurking foes, hundreds of boats, among them the "New Orleans," having been snagged and thus destroyed. This destruction continued until about 1830, when Captain Henry \l. Shreve invented and began to use his famous snagboat. By its use most of these obstruc- tions to navigation were in time removed, but artificial barriers, in the form of bridge piers, were allowed to take their place. Both the Steubenville and the Bellaire bridges have been referred to elsewhere as menaces to navigation, and that at Parkersburg was scarcely less objectionable. In 1869 the "Rebecca," Captain Thad- deus Thomas, of the Wheeling and Parkersburg Packet line, hit one of its piers and sank in a few minutes with great loss of life.''* Still other disasters came from head-on collisions. Outstanding among such was that of March 4, 1868, between the "United States" and the "America,'' packets of the Mail line operating between Cincinnati and Louisville, and that of July 4, 1882, between the "Scioto" and the "John Lomas," the former of the Wheeling and Parkersburg Packet Company. The first of these accidents occurred between Cincinnati and Louisville, the second about twenty miles above Wheel- ing. The first was probably due to a misunderstanding 397 The use of zinc to control erosion in boilers was discovered accidentally by a French engineer. See Wheeling Intelligencer, August 26, 1875. *'* — Idem, December 9, 1869. FLOODS AND DISASTERS 387 regarding signals, the second to carelessness and possibly to the use of intoxicants."' In each instance interested packet lines were almost ruined through claims for damages instituted and prosecuted to successful con- clusions by the friends and relatives of the scores of persons who lost their lives. Windstorms have been a constant menace to river- men of all classes. This was particularly true in the days of the boatmen and when steamboats were small and comparatively frail. Elsewhere mention was made of the destruction wrought by wind upon coalboat fleets in the fifties. Moreover, this experience was not excep- tional. The following letter will speak for itself regard- ing similar accidents to steamboats: Vaxceburgh, June 2, 1832. I am under the painful necessity of communicating to you one of the most awful occurrences that ever happened on the Ohio River. On this day, about 3 o'clock, there came up a tremendous hur- ricane and, in a few moments after it commenced, our boat ["the Hornet"] was bottom upwards. The scene was dreadful beyond description and what made it more so. Captain Sullivan was lost, together with one of the pilots. A young lady from Greenup and the chambermaid were also lost. We suppose that between thirty and forty were drowned. We were crowded with both cabin and deck passengers. Our situation is dreadful indeed.*'-'^ Even more destructive than any of the causes al- ready mentioned, except floods and ice, was fire. In the early days, when wood was used for fuel, a steamboat w^as as combustible as a theater; in its midst was a rag- ing volcano spouting fire and smoke; and at the same time twtry available space on deck was strewn with combustibles. When fanned by prevailing river breezes, a stray spark, unobserved for a few minutes, became an '""> — IJem, July 27, 1882; iJem, November 8, 1882. *^'' Kana'uha Banner, June 7, 1832. 388 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY unquenchable blaze that continued to rage until swal- lowed up by the river itself. River annals record such incidents in great numbers. More destructive and spectacular still was the burn- ing of a number of boats at one and the same time. This was always possible when several boats were tied up in close proximity to one another, motive power having meanwhile been temporarily dispensed with. Under such conditions, plus a heavy wind, a fire on one boat rapidly spread to all, effecting a destruction usually complete. Recently (1922), four steamboats and two wharfboats were destroyed in this manner at Cincin- nati with a total loss in excess of two hundred fifty thousand dollars, but ever since the introduction of steam navigation such disasters have not been uncom- mon. One of the most spectacular of these wholesale burn- ings was that at Cincinnati, May 17, 1869, when six steamboats, the "Melnetto," "Clifton," "May Irwin," "Darling," "Cheyenne," and "Westmoreland," were destroyed before "the largest crowd of people that ever witnessed a fire in that city after midnight." "^ Sum- moned by the ringing of bells and a "great light to the southward," thousands of men, women, and children rushed to the local levee. Before they reached it the burning boats were shrouded in sheets of flame and clouds of smoke. Soon thereafter their decks quivered and parted, and their tall chimneys toppled over and fell like forest trees, some upon the wharf, others into the water. About the same time oil burst from one of the uppermost boats, ignited, and flowed in a broad ^"1 Cincinnati Enquirer, November 19, 1919; Wheeling Intelligencer, May 18, 1869. For different data and fuller description see Grayson, Frank Y. Thrills of the Historic Ohio River (Cincinnati, 1930?), 114. FLOODS AND DISASTERS 389 Stream far down on the surface of the river suggesting a separate rivulet of molten gold. Before fire engines could reach the scene a column of flame five hundred feet long and several hundred feet high was shooting serpentine tongues over the levee, making relief im- possible. One of the most gruesome misfortunes that could be- fall a steamboat, either a towboat or a packet, was an outbreak either of yellow fever or of cholera. Like a haunted house, a craft with such an experience was henceforth doomed. Both workmen and passengers avoided it, and municipalities refused it landing priv- ileges. In 1878 the "John Porter," a towboat, was thus overtaken near Gallipolis. Her crew deserted; her barges were cut loose and allowed to float to de- struction; and it was a long time before a pilot and other employees could be induced to board her and move her to other quarters. It mattered not that she later changed her name to the "Transporter" — like other boats with similar experiences, she was hence- forth more or less of a castaway. Another similarly gruesome experience was that of the "Annie Laurie," a favorite Great Kanawha river packet. In July, 1866, she left Cincinnati for Charles- ton, West Virginia, on a regular trip. When she reached Round Bottom, a deck passenger, a steersman of a saltboat from the Great Kanawha, developed a case of cholera. Before she reached Gallipolis he was dead, and the second engineer had contracted his mal- ady, only to die before Point Pleasant was reached. Both were buried in a box and in such a manner as to create the least alarm. Soon, however, other cases devel- oped, and passengers and crew began to seek the shore at every opportunity. Enough of the latter to man the 390 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY boat were retained only by the use of force, the captain stationing himself on the gang-plank and threatening those who attempted to escape. Passing boats refused assistance; the dead remained unburied; and, when the ill-fated packet finally reached Charleston, her home port, she was met by a committee headed by a local minister, who informed her captain that she must not land. The tears and entreaties of homesick women and children were unavailing to secure landing privileges. After sleepless hours her intrepid captain fell upon the upper deck exhausted from overwork and exaspera- tion. In a few hours he rallied and was able to read a newspaper account of his own death and of prepara- tions for his burial."" Reference is to Captain F. A. Laidley of Covington, Kentucky, who is still living at an age well past eighty. The above and other similar events and conditions have been a part of the development of the institu- tional, professional, and the industrial life of the Ohio valley. Plans for flood and ice control have already been mentioned. From still other contributions insur- ance has probably profited most. It will be recalled that the first important shipment of goods on the Ohio, that of 1765 by the British from Fort Pitt to the Northwest Territory, was insured, as were also the cargoes of the first packet line, that of 1794. Subsequent developments on that stream have contributed materially to the prin- ciples now governing insurance in general. Today some of the largest companies dealing in marine insurance are located on or near its waters. Here contributions were also made to admiralty law and to admiralty pro- cedure, as well as to the principles governing riparian ■">- For an account of Captain Laidley's reported death see Cincinnati Commercial, August 15, 1866. FLOODS AND DISASTERS 391 rights, local attorneys of distinction specializing in these subjects. On the industrial side the superior qual- ity of Ohio-river built craft has long been admitted, and the Ohio valley has long been recognized as one of the "work shops of the world." Fortunately these benefits were national, even international. Internal Improvements George Washington, owner of large tracts of western lands, was among the first to suggest the improved navigation of the Ohio river and its tributaries. His purpose seems to have been to preserve the integrity of the United States and to protect his private interests. Scarcely had the Revolution ended before he again turned his attention to the Trans-alleghany. After a personal inspection of portages between its rivers and those flowing towards the East, he prepared a map showing routes of proposed roads and canals in a plan of improvement for connecting the eastern and western waters. It was at this time, also, that he expressed the wish that God might give his people wisdom to im- prove their waterways. In all this, evidences of Washington's patriotic and farseeing purposes are abundant, but nowhere were they more evident than in a letter from him to his friend, Arthur Lee, in which he said : "There is nothing which binds one country to another but interest. With- out this cement the western inhabitants, who more than probably will be composed in a large degree of for- eigners, can have no predilection for us, and a commer- cial connection is the only tie we can have upon them." "^ Somewhat later, under Washington's leader- ship, Virginia and Maryland appointed commissioners to adjust differences between them regarding the navi- es Washington, Writings (ed. Ford), vol. x, 488; Hulbert, A. B., Wash- ington and the West, 32. 394 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY gation and the proposed improvement of the Potomac river. The meeting and the adjustment that followed led to another meeting and finally to the convention that framed the Constitution of the United States, set- ting up a government w^ith ample powers to regulate commerce and its agencies among the several states of the Union. About the same time a definite plan for the improve- ment of the Ohio and its chief tributaries was pro- posed by General Richard Butler."* This contemplated the use of dikes, or semicircular dams, so constructed and placed as to contract channels making them deeper and more continuously navigable. Streams with broad gravel beds, such as the Great Miami, for the improve- ment of which the dike was originally proposed, and with numerous islands dividing channels, as in the Ohio, seemed to invite this treatment. Moreover, it seemed adequate. Accordingly it found favor, and, like other makeshifts, it outlived its usefulness. Following the purchase of Louisiana interest in in- ternal improvements was revived largely with a view to the common defense. This brought forth Gallatin's report of 1808 proposing a system of roads and canals to be built at national expense and so located as to con- tribute "toward cementing the bonds of the Union." That part of this famous document relating to the Ohio valley proposed "artificial roads" to connect the navi- gable waters of the Allegheny, Monongahela, Kan- awha, and Tennessee rivers with the nearest corre- sponding Atlantic streams : the Susquehanna or Juniata, Potomac, James, and either the Santee or the Savan- nah. It also suggested the future improved navigation of the above-named western rivers and the use of a *»* Jones, R. R. The Ohio River (Washington, 1920), 148. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS 395 canal to parallel the Falls in the Ohio at Louisville. Setting forth the possibilities of the western rivers this report also called attention to the fact that Brownsville on the Monongahela, two thousand miles by water from the sea, was elevated only about one hundred feet more than Cumberland on the Potomac."^ Although nothing comprehensive, so far as the inland waters were con- cerned, came of this report, it was probably a deter- mining factor in a decision of Congress to provide funds for an Atlantic coast survey and for the comple- tion of the Cumberland road, already authorized, from Cumberland to Wheeling. States bordering upon the Ohio had meanwhile been considering the matter of its improved navigation. In response to repeated overtures from Kentucky, first made in 1803, the state of Ohio, ten years later, asked neighboring states to join her in "exploring the rapids of the Ohio and considering the proper means of open- ing and improving the navigation of the same." Nothing came of this request and after the lapse of a short time, in which the steamboat became practicable, Ohio again asked her neighbors to aid in determining the probable cost of improving the river. Incidentally, a significant trend was indicated in a resolution of her legislature asking national aid for this, as yet, some- what local enterprise. As expected nothing came from this request. Subsequently neighboring states were more interested, and a joint commission composed of repre- sentatives of Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, and Ken- tucky recommended the construction of a canal around the Falls at Louisville, the cost of which was to be borne jointly by their respective states. Furthermore, ^"^ Gallatin's "Report," in Inland Waterways Cora., Preliminary Report, 396 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY this commission asked that each of the four states con- cerned contribute ten thousand dollars for the general improvement of the Ohio river.""" Following another period of delay and inaction, in- terested parties being unable to act concertedly, Ohio river improvement came into favor as a national enter- prise. A congressional act of May 24, 1824, appropri- ated seventy-five thousand dollars to be used for the removal of planters, sawyers, and snags and served as an entering wedge. With the inauguration of the second Adams, federal appropriations for the improved navi- gation of the Ohio became more or less regular during a period of almost twenty years. As these appropria- tions were for a national purpose and never large, they weathered the Jackson regime with its Maysville veto and consistent opposition to things favored by Henry Clay, a popular favorite in the Ohio valley. Once the Ohio river had found favor with Congress the local public would permit no reversal of policy, petitions requesting additional appropriations for its improved navigation becoming numerous and persist- ent. With one accord they urged their favorite enter- prise as a national undertaking, one petition claiming a total loss to Ohio river craft and cargoes, for a period of ten years immediately preceding 1828, of one mil- lion four hundred forty-five thousand dollars, most of which, it was maintained, was sustained by immigrants and could have been prevented."' Under this changed program the Ohio was put into usable condition for the great steamboat age that was approaching. Operating under a charter from Ken- tucky and with the aid of a subscription from the na- tional government, in 1830, a joint-stock company com- bos Jones, op. cit., 148. *"' — Idem, 149. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS 397 pleted the Portland canal near Louisville. Meanwhile boulders were removed from the Grand Chain above Cairo. By 1837 some of the most dangerous bars had been reduced by the use of dikes, and more than three thousand snags had been removed from the main chan- nel, thanks to the efficiency of Captain Henry M. Shreve and his invention, the snagboat. From 1837 to 1844 the work commenced by Shreve was continued by others who constructed dikes and removed snags, as conditions required."* Jackson had taught the public not to expect much in the way of internal improvements at the hands of the national government, and most in- terests along the Ohio were satisfied. The tolls col- lected for the use of the Portland canal were their chief source of complaint, the interested public insisting that inasmuch as this improvement had been made possible by subscriptions from the federal government, its use should be free."" With the approach of mid-century, conditions in the Ohio valley changed rapidly, transportation facilities again becoming inadequate. Because of its contracted dimensions the Portland canal could no longer accom- modate the large and fast steamers of the period, and delays on account of low water became frequent and expensive. The use of low water and other boats of special design did not overcome these disadvantages, be- cause the demand was for through, rapid, and uninter- rupted transportation. Moreover, inland industry was then calling for regular and adequate coal supplies. The advent of the locomotive in the interior did ^"^ — Idem, 148-150; Hulbert, op. cit., 361; Journal of the Franklin Institute (Philadelphia, 1862-date), vol. xxxiv, 26. ios Ifaterivays Journal, March 29, 1913; U. S. House. Executive Docu- ments, 50 cong., I sess., vol. xx, no. 6, pt. ii, 488-550; "Internal Commerce in the United States," in U. S. Bureau of Statistics. Report, 1886. 398 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY much to quicken the mid-century movement for the im- provement of its rivers, particularly the Ohio/'" In 1852 the Baltimore and Ohio and the Pennsylvania railroads each established a terminus upon its course and was not long in discovering that the volume of rail- road traffic fluctuated with that of the river. Accord- ingly, they both favored its improved navigation. It mattered not that they were each planning for through connections to the Middle West by the use of bridges spanning the Ohio. Rivers were the main thoroughfares of commerce and were generally expected to continue as such. Accepting Lieutenant Maury's conclusion, that "The atmosphere pumps up our rivers from the sea, and transports them through the clouds, to their source amongst the hills," all agreed that the solution to the problem of improved rivers lay in the proper conserva- tion of water supplies.*" To this end plans varied all the way from the ridiculous to the admittedly practica- ble. For example, an eminent meteorologist proposed the use of fire for arresting the watery vapors and pro- ducing rainfall at will. Herman Haupt of Philadelphia would have used a succession of open dams from six to ten feet high, the pools thus formed being connected by an open channel two hundred feet wide and of sufficient length to equalize natural flows, the whole system to be operated in connection with a number of artificial reservoirs and without the use of locks. Alonzo Liver- more favored the Haupt system with modifications eliminating reservoirs and contracting open channels to one hundred feet, by which latter device he thought that natural flows would be so retarded as to make them *^^ Journal of the Franklin Institute, vol. xxxiii, 1-24. *ii — Idem, vol. xxxiii, 2. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS 399 adequate to all the existing needs of navigation. But the most popular of all these early suggestions for the im- proved navigation of the Ohio was that for the exclu- sive use of artificial reservoirs, first seriously proposed by Charles Ellet, a famous engineer, and later elab- orated by Elwood Morris and others. In the spring of 1856 this plan was given wide publicity through the Cincinnati Gazette and the following year through the Journal of the Franklin Institute, published in Phila- delphia."' The Ellet plan was based upon observations made at Wheeling over a period of eleven years, 1838 to 1848, inclusive. These indicated a sufficient flow at that point in the Ohio, if equalized, to maintain a permanent depth of six feet, which was then considered adequate for all future needs. The problem was to collect the natural rainfall and equalize its distribution. To this end a small number of receiving reservoirs, "to be filled and emptied frequently during each year and con- trolled in their discharge by six regulating reservoirs each of sufficient capacity to hold the drainage of 600 square miles and located upon the larger affluents," were deemed sufficient. Moreover, this device was urged as sufficient within itself, dispensing with the use of locks and dams and thus leaving the main river channel free from obstructions. Furthermore, it was claimed that it would prevent floods and that it was both legally and financially possible. The cost of con- struction was estimated at twelve million dollars which was later increased by one-half, the number of major dams having been increased in the same proportion. Fresh from the Monongahela, where he had com- <'- U. S. House, op. cit., 527-550; Inland Waterways Com., op. cit., 452; Ellet, Charles. The Mississippi and Ohio Rivers (Philadelphia, 1853) ; 400 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY pleted a system of locks and dams providing slackwater navigation, six feet in depth, from Pittsburgh to Brownsville, W. Milnor Roberts, a distinguished en- gineer, so elTectively disposed of all the above described plans for improving the Ohio that to this day one needs only to mention them to the informed to call forth the question "Have you read Milnor Roberts's Report?" Admitting the correctness of the hypothesis upon which the plan for artificial reservoirs was based, Rob- erts, nevertheless, opposed their use. His chief objec- tions were that initial costs and probable upkeep could not be definitely determined ; that other costs to existing cities, towns, railroads, mines, and farm lands occupy- ing proposed sites would be prohibitive; that the pro- posed storage was inadequate, insufficient allowance hav- ing been made for evaporation and extremely dry sea- sons; that the desired sites were physically impossible; that regular navigation and flood control through the use of reservoirs were incompatible, "one demanding that the reservoirs shall be allowed to fill to supply the river in drought, the other that they should be as nearly empty as possible, to be used in holding back floods;" and finally that the number of reservoirs proposed, even if increased to nine, would be inadequate."^ Instead, Roberts proposed to improve the Ohio by the use of a system of locks and dams such as he had installed on the Monongahela. Such a system had earlier been proposed by Edward F. Gay and others and was then in successful operation on the Muskin- Morris, Elwood. Treatise on the Improvement of the Ohio River (Potts- ville, Pa., 1857) ; Ellet, Charles. Report on the Improvement of the Kanawha and Incidentally of the Ohio River (Philadelphia, 1858). *^^ Journal of the Franklin Institute, vol. xxxiv, 23, 73, 146, 217, 289, 361 ; U. S. Engineer Department. Report, 1873, '*'°'- '. 5°°! Roberts, Wm. Milnor. Improvement of the Ohio River (Pittsburgh, 1856). INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS 401 gum, Kentucky, and Green rivers in America and on rivers in Europe. As originally proposed for the Ohio, the Roberts plan of improvement contemplated the use of about fifty dams, each with a lift of eight feet and at least one lock. For the free passage of arks, coalboats, fiatboats, and rafts, w^hich was demanded locally, each dam was to be provided with a chute. The use of res- ervoirs was not contemplated. The initial cost of the proposed lock and dam system was placed at twelve million dollars which, together with an estimated an- nual upkeep of one hundred ten thousand dollars, was to be raised through the collection of tolls.*" This plan was bitterly assailed by Elwood Morris and other proponents of the reservoir system. Without the use of reservoirs they attempted to show that the natural waterfall on the upper Ohio was inadequate to maintain a permanent stage of slackwater of the de- sired depth. Furthermore, they asserted that the use of locks and dams on the Ohio would increase the num- ber and the destructiveness of floods; that ice floes would be more frequent and destructive than in the past; that slackwater pools would fill with sediment and become stale, thus entailing expense to keep them clear and endangering the health of local residents; that the existing river traffic in both lumber and coal would be destroyed; that initial costs and upkeep could not be determined with sufficient accuracy to warrant launching the enterprise; that the proposed tolls for meeting costs would be a source of dissatisfaction; that a thoroughfare of practically unlimited capacity, when usable, would be limited to the point of nullity by the time taken out for repairing locks and dams, the system, like a chain, being no stronger than its weakest link; *^* Journal of the Franklin Institute, vol. xxxiv. 402 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY and finally that the arrangement for operating rafts and coalboats by the use of chutes was inadequate because of the hazards involved."" To these objections, as already indicated, Roberts made convincing answ^ers. Some of them w^ere even prophetic. Among these were observations on the fu- ture of the coal traffic, in which he said : The old fashion of conducting the coal business, between the upper and lower Ohio, and the Mississippi valley, will, from choice, and from economical motives, be entirely abandoned. Barges will be substituted for frail arks, which now not only never return, but in too many instances never reach their destination. Consequent upon this change, the coal business will rapidly and largely increase, be- yond the calculations of the most sanguine - to the advantage of the consumer as well as the producer; regulating the price to a nearly uniform rate throughout the season, and incidentally giving the coal operators more complete control over their mining hands ; at the same time it will be better for the miners.*^^ Of Still greater importance was Roberts's suggestion that the method of improving the Ohio be "investigated and reported upon in such a manner as to command the respect and confidence of the country,'''' experience hav- ing taught the danger of legislative determination of such matters in the absence of scientific guidance and popular approval."' Had this suggestion been fol- lowed, when made, such a course might have kept sub- sequent internal improvement funds out of the orgy of "pork barrel" raids into which they fell. The conse- quent benefits to the country can scarcely be estimated. The impending sectional conflict, together with other things, particularly a paucity of funds, prevented im- mediate and serious consideration of any of the above described plans for the improvement of the Ohio. Since ^"i — Idem, vol. xxxiii. >< Z I 6.1 Emsworth, Pa. (replacing Nos. i and 2) 1919 1921 3 10.9 Glenosborne, Pa. 1899 1908 4 18.0 Legionville, Pa. 1898 1908 S 23.9 Freedom, Pa. 1898 1907 6 2g.g Beaver, Pa. 1892 1904 7 36.9 Midland, Pa. I9IO 1914 8 46.1 Newell, W. Va. 1904 191I 9 55.6 New Cumberland, W. Va. I9IO 1914 10 65.7 Steubenville, Ohio I9I2 1915 II 76.3 2.3 miles below Wellsburg, W. Va. 1904 1911 12 87.0 2 miles above Wheeling, W. Va. I9II 1917 13 95.8 McMechen, W. Va. ' I 901 19U 14 113.8 Woodland, W. Va. I9II 1917 15 128.9 New Martinsville, W. Va. I9II 1916 16 146.4 Ben's Run, W. Va. I9I3 1917 17 167.4 4 miles above Marietta, Ohio I9I3 1918 iS 179.3 4.5 miles above Parkersburg, W. Va. 1902 1910 19 191.4 Little Hocking, Ohio 1908 1916 20 201.7 Belleville, W. Va. I9II 1917 21 213.8 Portland, Ohio I9I5 1919 22 220.1 Ravenswood, W. Va. I9IS 1919 23 230.6 Milwood, W. Va. I9I7 1921 24 242.0 Graham, W. Va. I9I3 1919 25 260.0 5 miles above Pt. Pleasant, W. Va. I9I7 1922 26 278.0 Hogsett, W. Va. 1908 1912 422 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY ests of Pittsburgh, there are two locks, one fifty-six feet wide by three hundred sixty feet long and the other one hundred ten feet wide by six hundred feet long. Location with reference to nearest town or other geographical location e a Q 11 >6 a > 27 300.3 4 miles above Guyandot, W. Va. 1918 1923 2g 310.9 Huntington, W. Va. 1911 191S 29 319-4 3 miles below Catlettsburg, Ky. 1911 1916 30 338.9 3 miles below Greenup, Ky. 1919 1923 31 358-4 3 miles below Portsmouth, Ohio 1912 1920 32 381.7 I mile above Rome, Ohio 1919 1925 33 404.0 3 miles above Maysville, Ky. 1915 1921 34 432.8 Chilo, Ohio 1919 1925 35 449-7 I mile below New Richmond, Ohio 1913 1919 36 459-2 10 miles above Cincinnati, Ohio 1920 1925 37 481.3 Fernbank, Ohio 1905 1911 38 501.3 McVille, Ky. 1920 1924 39 529.6 I mile above Markland, Ind. 1914 1912 41 604.0 Louisville, Ky., New Power Navigation dam 1925 1927 43 630.2 3 miles below West Point, Ky. 1914 1921 44 660.3 Leavenworth, Ind. 1920 1926 45 699.7 Addison, Ky. 1923 1928 46 752-9 Owensboro, Ky. 1923 1928 47 772-5 Newburg, Ind. 1923 1927 48 804.1 6 miles below Henderson, Ky. 1912 1921 49 867-7 Ford's Ferry, Ky. 1924 1927 50 893.0 Golconda, Illinois 1925 1929 52 928.0 Brookport, Illinois 1924 1928 53 951.2 Foot of Grand Chain 1925 1929 Recent Years on the Rive rs When the United States entered the World war in 1917 river traffic in the Ohio valley, as elsewhere in the interior, was almost a thing of the past. Traffic on the Ohio had declined to four and one-half million tons annually, the lowest mark since 1890, and most of this was coal carried for short distances in the Pittsburgh district."" Conspicuous by their absence were the great coal fleets that had formerly descended from Pittsburgh to the lower Ohio and the Mississippi. Meanwhile, local packet departures from Pittsburgh had decreased from two hundred fourteen in 191 5 to one hundred twenty-two in 191 7, and, probably worse still, work on locks and dams for improved navigation had practi- cally ceased. Practically completing the destruction, in 1918, most of the tonnage and terminals left on the Ohio were swept away in the ice floes of that year. Only here and there were to be found traces of the former glory of the Ohio and its tributaries. On the lower Monongahela alone was traffic large and in- creasing, while on the lower Ohio coal was still being transported from the Great Kanawha to Cincinnati and Louisville. With headquarters at Cincinnati the Bar- rett line of towboats operated on the Ohio, Cumber- land, and Tennessee rivers."" Packets were also main- taining themselves in trades between the former city and Charleston, West Virginia, and Pomeroy, Ohio. Such was the local situation when our nation and associated powers turned to the Ohio valley, a great <39 u. S. Army Engineers, Interim Report, 1927. **° — Idem, 11. 424 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY industrial center, for aid in a crisis involving the future of peoples and of governments. This section was asked to do its part in a mobilization of man power and of the products of industry. The final outcome of the struggle then waging seemed to hinge largely upon the ability of local interests to supply industrial products in such quantities and at such times as they were needed, but an inadequate transportation stood in the way of this accomplishment. During a half century local railroads had boasted their ability to supply all transportation needs, only to fail the country in this crisis. In 1917 their breakdown was officially admitted, and both their officers and own- ers welcomed relief. Soon thereafter they were tem- porarily taken over by the national government which, at once, supplemented them by a nationally owned and controlled barge line on the Mississippi and Warrior rivers, leaving to private initiative the further solution of the transportation problem of the Ohio valley and of other sections. Along the Ohio the response to this demand was im- mediate and effective. As in other crises, resort was to rivers, the first effort being to supply tonnage. To this end old and discarded steamboats were remodeled and recommissioned ; new ones were built; and many local concerns entered the boat building business, some of them on a large scale. Chief activity was, however, di- rected to barge building, the total output of such craft for the Pittsburgh district reaching tAvo hundred forty- five in 1918. The following year it fell to seventy-one but soon thereafter passed the 1918 mark and has tended to increase annually since."' The Barge Age of transportation, long promised, had at last arrived. ^•'i — Idem, II. RECENT YEARS ON THE RIVERS 425 At once local barge building became the order of the day, almost a dozen companies participating in their construction."' The value of their products for the year 1920 was in excess of one million one hundred thousand dollars, and some of their craft, notably the boats built by James Rees and Sons Company, were for use on foreign waters. Meanwhile still other companies were building boatyards and otherwise preparing to supply the large and increasing demand for tonnage. In this one year the total expenditure for river craft in the Pittsburgh district alone reached five and one-half million dollars, while half as much more was spent by private individuals for terminals, docks, and other de- vices for improving navigation. The restoration of boat building on the upper Ohio may be illustrated from facts in the history of a repre- sentative building concern, the Dravo Contracting Company. With headquarters at Coraopolis, Pennsyl- vania, this firm, first organized in 1891 under the name F. R. Dravo and Company, planned at first only to sell machinery and to maintain a general contracting busi- ness, the building of river craft, on a large scale, being scarcely contemplated. In 1906, under its present name, headquarters and a main plant were established on Neville Island, in the Ohio below Pittsburgh, but still comparatively little was attempted in the line of boat building. Following the entry of the United States into the World war this company, along with others, was driven into the boat building business, first to supply its own needs and later for commercial purposes. While hostilities lasted and for some time thereafter, it em- **= Pittsburgh Post, January i, 1921. Prominent among local builders were the Dravo Contracting Company, the American Bridge Company, the Vesta Coal Company, the Hazelwood Dock Company, the Dravosburg Dock Com- pany, the De Forest Barge Company, and the John Eichley, Jr. Company. 426 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY ployed fifteen hundred men daily, most of them in its boatyard, and at few times since has the number em- ployed there fallen below five hundred daily. In 1925 it launched barges at the rate of ten to twelve monthly, together with an occasional steamboat, derrickboat, and dredgeboat. Meanwhile it maintained a general con- tracting business, building locks, dams, bridges, and houses, the total cost of which ran into millions annu- ally/" This revival was not confined to the Pittsburgh dis- trict. As in the forties and the eighties of the last cen- tury, boat building became an important industry in practically every important port of the Ohio valley. For example, near Charleston on the Great Kanawha, the Charles Ward Engineering w^orks began to launch some of the finest boats and barges to be seen on the in- land waters; at Jefifersonville, Indiana, the Howard ship-yards increased their output, maintaining mean- while a reputation of long standing for the excellence of their products; at Paducah, Kentucky, the Ayer and Lord Marine ways were never idle; at Point Pleasant, West Virginia, the Marietta Manufacturing Company received more orders for new boats than it could fill ; and at Nashville, on the Cumberland river, the Nash- ville Bridge Company began to build parts for sea- going vessels, that were assembled in Gulf ports and put into successful operation. Incidentally the Ohio valley regained its place as a chief source of supply for boats and rivermen, not only for inland America but for other parts of the world as well. The Federal Barge line, already referred to as in successful operation on the Mississippi and Warrior rivers, drew most of its boats and barges from the Ohio, **^ W atervsays Journal, May 22, 1926. RECENT YEARS ON THE RIVERS 427 as did also Standard Oil subsidiaries and sugar pro- ducers on the lower Mississippi, and self-propelled barges of the type of the famous "Inco no. I," built in 1918 at the Carondolet Marine ways in St. Louis for use in France, were built on the Ohio and tributary streams.*" Thus were the benefits and the achievements of the Barge Age of American inland transportation carried to the world, and that by a craft which unlilce its forerunner of more than a century before, the in- land built ship, was able to return to the place of its origin under its own power. Present indications are that local production of river craft will be equal to all demands. In 192 1 there was a temporary decline in the number of barges built, but this was due largely to a shift from the use of wood to steel as a building material and also to business depres- sion and to uncertainties regarding the type, or types, of construction best suited to future needs.*" Since that time however, as already indicated, the product of local boatyards has tended to increase annually, current river news being largely a chronicle of completions of boats and barges and of contracts for new ones. In 1928 the total value of the barges, boats, and terminals employed in the Ohio river system aggregated seventy-five mil- lion dollars of which sum forty million dollars was in river craft, and the capacity of the three hundred thirty-eight barges in process of construction aggre- gated almost one hundred and twenty-five thousand <«4 — Idem, January i8, 1919. The "Parana" and the "Mohawk Belle," self-propelled barges, were built on the Ohio before the Civil war. See Waterways Journal, September 16, 1916. ^■''"V. S. House. Document no. 857, March, 1914; U. S. House. Document no. io8, August, 1921. For articles on various phases of these subjects see fFateriuays Journal, February 25, 1911; idem, November 6, 1915; idem, November 13, 1915; idem, November 20, 1915; idem, January 15, 1916. 428 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY tons.''" At the same time more than two thousand ves- sels of all kinds were in use. More significant still was the tendency to the exclu- sive use of steel for barge construction. The total num- ber of wooden barges built on the Ohio since 1921 has not reached half of the total for 1920 alone. The same tendency prevailed in the construction of towboats and packets, most of those built recently being of all-steel construction. With the price of lumber tending to in- crease and the price of steel tending to decrease it is not probable, everything considered, particularly the greater durability of steel, that wood will again be used to any great extent for the construction of boats and barges anywhere in the Ohio valley. Outstanding among the modern devices used is the Diesel internal combustion engine which uses oil for motive power and is displacing the old-time steamboat with its towering stacks and space consuming boilers and engines. The long drawn out fight between the devotees of the stern-wheel and the side-wheel boat continues with the odds in favor of the former, which now works in duplicate, thus increasing its effective- ness, but screw propellers are coming into general use. Everywhere the tendency is to the practical and the utilitarian at the sacrifice of the gingerbread embellish- ments of former days. As yet, standardization is not a discernible feature of the locally built craft. For example, in the harbor of Pittsburgh one may now see, along-side of new all-steel hull paddle-wheel steamboats, of either stern-wheel or side-wheel construction, a wooden-hulled craft of the same general design and practically new. Here and ^■'^ — Idem, January 15, 1927; idem, December 17, 1927; idem, June 2, 1928. RECENT YEARS ON THE RIVERS 429 there are also stern-wheelers of two sections, each inde- pendently controlled, together with screw-propelled boats and barges. At the same time one may see boats carrying Diesel internal-combustion engines, the whole, except for the sound of the exhaust of the oil-consuming devices, resembling more a lake tug than a steamboat. Together with old-time towboats these will be towing barges varying in size from eighty feet long, sixteen feet wide, and five feet deep to two hundred seventy-five feet long, fifty-two feet wide, and fourteen feet deep, the standard barge being one hundred seventy-five feet long, twenty-six feet beam, and eleven feet hold. Inter- spersed among these will be seen gasoline boats, dredges, derrickboats, and, in season showboats and ex- cursion boats, the latter now plying the Ohio and trib- utary streams in increasing numbers. Twin screw turbo- electric towboats, the first on any inland waters, are now in process of construction for local uses. The change in the character of the commodities car- ried has been as great as that in the craft used. Prior to 1922 the major portion of local river traffic consisted of coal and coke, the volume of which continues to in- crease. Logs and lumber, packet freight, and unclas- sified items of a miscellaneous variety were important prior to 1910, but since then they have been of declining importance. On the other hand the stone, sand, and gravel traffic increased from a nominal figure in 1920, until it now exceeds the volume of coal and coke trans- ported. From a small volume in 1910 the iron and steel traffic on the inland waters showed little increase until 1925, since which date it has gone forward by leaps and bounds. Of all these products iron and steel have the longest haul.^" *" National H^aterviays, October, 1929; U. S. Army Engineers, Interim Report, 1927. 430 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY Like the changes in the types of craft used on the inland waters, those in the character of the commodities carried did not come until well after the World war. In each the strikes and readjustments incident to the resumption of private control of railroads were pos- sibly determining factors. All were trying to get back to normal conditions. In so doing it was discovered that production costs had declined greatly in the interven- ing years, and this despite the effects of war conditions. Moreover, the indications were that the greater effi- ciency of labor and machinery, together with a tend- ency to the elimination of waste everywhere, would cause production prices to go still lower. On the other hand transportation costs tended to increase, in some instances becoming practically prohibitive. Further progress had, in fact, become impossible in the absence of a cheaper and more dependable transportation. It was under these conditions that the possibilities of water transportation for basic, heavy, and bulky com- modities, such as iron and steel, fuels, forest products, building materials, and agricultural products were practically forced upon the country. Heavy freight was then being carried by rail on an average of twenty-four miles daily with only thirty miles promised as a maxi- mum under the most favorable conditions, and the Transportation act of that year, guaranteeing profits to railroads and permitting them to combine, with the approval of the Interstate Commerce Commission, was not encouraging to agriculture and to other extractive occupations. The action of the "waterways bloc" of 1922 in overriding the wishes of the administration and demanding a resumption of the improved waterways program, on a large scale, was the answer of the coun- try at large to the problem involved in the situation. RECENT YEARS ON THE RIVERS 433 Already local Ohio valley interests had resolved up- on the same solution. They, too, were suffering from the effects of an over production and of an inadequate transportation which, in some instances, was practically prohibitive because of uncertainties and delays. More- over, demands were pouring into the Pittsburgh dis- trict for industrial products. Those from the South and the Southwest for casing, pipe, and oil well supplies were urgent. It was under these conditions that Pitts- burgh and neighboring interests again thought of "Ole Man River," long deserted and by some practically for- gotten. But, in the absence of tonnage, rivers were prac- tically useless. Except on the lower Monongahela, there were few private bottoms, and, as indicated else- where, common carriers were few and far between. In 1920 all of these that were available were called from the "bone yard," and a mosquito fleet of gasoline pack- ets and towboats sprang into existence to help them. Through their use the usual movements of coal, coke, and raw materials were resumed, and finished prod- ucts, sewer pipe, brick, tin plate, automobiles, steel, iron pipe, and machinery began to find markets, some of them in Mississippi ports."' As conditions did not improve with the succeeding months, local industry was practically driven into the field of transportation. It mattered not that agriculture was thus deprived of the more or less exclusive ben- efits wont to be bestowed upon a time-honored hand- maid. Orders for finished products increased in num- bers and attractiveness. It was thus that local industries decided to market their own products by water and in their own bottoms, the initial trips of the "Transporter" ■"^^ Pittsburgh Post, January i, 1921. 434 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY of the Wheeling Steel Company and the "Alliquippa" of the Jones and Laughlin Company, 1921, marking the beginning of a new era in the field of inland transpor- tation, as well as in the field of industry. These boats carried steel products to Mississippi ports, the latter to a company-owned terminal at Memphis/" In a short time other local corporations followed the example of these pioneers, each of which has since in- creased the scope of its activities. Beginning in 1922 the Carnegie Steel Company, in the same manner, has made scores of shipments of steel from Pittsburgh to southern markets. For this purpose and local uses it now (1930) operates a dozen or more towboats and more than three hundred barges representing a total value in excess of eleven million dollars, the largest and most valuable privately owned fleet on the inland waters. In October, 1927, the Jones and Laughlin Com- pany of Pittsburgh made its fifty-sixth river shipment of steel from Pittsburgh to terminals on the Missis- sippi, the event being a feature of the program of the annual convention of the Ohio Valley Improvement Association of that year. Since then there has been scarcely an issue of the Waterways Journal (St. Louis, weekly) that has not recorded river shipments of steel and other industrial products from Pittsburgh. In April, 1930, the "Century Tow" of the Jones and Laughlin Company passed down the Ohio to Memphis and New Orleans with a cargo which, together with the tonnage used to transport it, was valued at approx- imately one million dollars. The event was celebrated all along the route, and the owners issued an illustrated booklet to commemorate it. As this tow was somewhat HB ff^ateriuays Journal, January i, 1921 ; idem, March 4, 1922; idem, June 30, 1923 ; The Blast Furnace and Steel Plant, January, 1923. 1 > RECENT YEARS ON THE RIVERS 437 typical of the others then descending the Ohio, it is described here somewhat at length. Ahead of the steam- boat in charge, the "Sam Craig," were a dozen modern steel barges covering an acre or more of water surface, their contents being sufficient to fill several hundred freight cars. After all had been assembled a deep res- onant whistle blew a long blast that was echoed and reechoed from the surrounding hills. A bell was tapped, and a megaphone carried commands from the boat to men standing at the head of the tow several hun- dred feet forward. In response these cast oflf the ropes holding the boat and barges to the shore; bells tinkled in the engine room; the great high-riding paddle wheel began to thrash the water, lifting it into the air to glisten snow-white like a mountain cataract sparkling in the pale, early sunlight; and the huge mass swung slowly away from its terminal and was ofif for a voyage of two thousand miles of winding rivers. A more accurate idea of the alliance thus formed be- tween industry and commerce may, possibly, be gained from facts regarding the operations of another going concern. The Wheeling Steel Company is taken from among a dozen or more possibilities. This company operates many plants scattered along the Ohio all the way from Steubenville to Portsmouth. Company- owned steamers and barges supply all with fuel from company-owned and operated mines located at Har- mersville, Pennsylvania. At the same time these craft maintain the closest inter-plant relations for the inter- change of raw materials and finished products in vary- ing stages of fabrication. Meanwhile other company- owned steamers, among them the "Conqueror," the "Transporter," and the "La Belle," carry finished prod- ucts to Memphis for re-distribution from privately 438 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY owned storehouses. A subsidiary, the La Belle Trans- portation Company, has charge of transportation."" Facts from the history and activities of still another company of the same character, the American Steel and Wire Company of Pittsburgh, are informing. In 1900, in pursuance of a plan of eleven years standing, this company built and put into successful operation two towboats, the "Juniata" and the "Braddock," to- gether with seventy wooden barges, the whole fleet be- ing used to carry coal, billets, scrap, and rods. Its chief use, however, was for the transportation of coal which was carried from mines on the Monongahela to com- pany-owned plants in Donora, Rankin, Braddock, and Pittsburgh. In 1905 this company began the use of steel barges as an experiment, its superintendent of transportation insisting that they would, in the long run, be more serviceable and durable than those of wooden construction, especially so since the company then contemplated the transportation of acids by water. In 1907 this experiment was put into successful opera- tion, and soon thereafter all the barges used by this company were of steel construction. At present it owns and operates a number of towboats and about one hun- dred barges. Some of these are used for the transporta- tion of fuel, others to maintain inter-plant relations, and still others to carry finished products to company- owned warehouses located in Louisville, Memphis, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, and St. Paul.*"^ As a result of these and still other activities the Ohio river system in 1930 carried the largest freight tonnage in its history. In 1928 the total for the Ohio alone reached almost twenty-one million tons which was two- 450 JV aterivays Journal, August 14, 1926. ^5' — Idem, January 21, 1928. RECENT YEARS ON THE RIVERS 439 thirds of the volume of traffic then passing through the Panama canal and surpassed that passing through the Suez canal. During the same period the gross traffic on the Ohio and its navigable tributaries increased from a little more than twenty-seven million tons in 1917 to almost sixty million tons in 1928, which included slight duplications. For many streams this increase was phenomenal. This was certainly true of the Ohio, the traffic of which, in 1917, was less than five million tons. In the same year "20,000,000 tons annually for the Mon[ongahela]" was predicted as a possibility by the most sanguine river boosters,^"' but three years sufficed to carry the traffic for that stream well beyond the twenty-four-million- ton mark and to fix thirty million tons as the goal for the near future. Meanwhile the increase on still other streams was almost as rapid. For example, that on the Cumberland and the Tennessee rivers almost doubled, while that on the Allegheny increased from practically nothing to almost five million tons, the bulk of which was gravel. ^°^ Another tendency in local river traffic is the increas- ing use of rivers for the transportation of crude oil and its products. Already many towns along the Ohio and its chief tributaries receive their supplies of these prod- ucts by water, and the area thus served is gradually widening. By this method the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, in 1927, made a single shipment of six hundred thousand gallons of gasoline from Parkers- burg, West Virginia, to Fairmont in the same state. *^* Because of its success and its significance this feat was ■•=- Pittsburgh Post, January i, 1921. ^53 U. S. Army Engineers, Interim Report, 1927. *64 Waterways Journal, April 2, 1927. 440 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY heralded throughout the Ohio valley, but it has been repeated several times since, the size of the shipments tending to increase. Unlike the forties and the eighties of the last century, when bells and whistles were used to announce arrivals and departures of the one thousand or more steamboats that then plied the waters of the Mississippi and its chief tributaries and when hundreds of persons fre- quented important local levees daily, the present freight movements on the Ohio and its tributaries go on unob- served and even unsuspected. In the "good old days of steamboatin' " most boats were small but boisterous, whereas today a single tow, such as is sent forth on an average of one monthly by such corporations as the Carnegie Steel Company of Pittsburgh, consists of from fifteen to eighteen barges carrying a total of from ten to twelve thousand tons. Steamer and all, they are about nine hundred feet long by one hundred feet wide, and, like ships that pass in the night, they move quietly, un- observed, and unannounced, except for time taken out for "locking," uninterrupted, with not so much as a salute for the towns and cities passed in their course. Fortunately the benefits of this new order, recently characterized by President Hoover as the "renaissance" of river navigation, are not local. With the recent pas- sage of the Denison act which provides, among other things, for the establishment of rates and suitable divi- sion of revenue between the Federal Barge line and all railroads connected with its terminals, and the subse- quent enlargement of its scope by the Interstate Com- merce Commission, the outlook is most encouraging. As a result we may soon expect published combination rail and water rates, thus carrying the benefits of inland RECENT YEARS ON THE RIVERS 441 water transportation to forty million people residing be- tween the Appalachian and the Rocky mountains/" Already the enlarged local advantages are apparent. Within recent months Memphis has become the lead- ing point in the South for the storage and distribution of steel products in that section and the Southwest. More than a half dozen large steel manufacturing com- panies own terminals there and distribute their prod- ucts thence by rail and water. Moreover, following the extension of the services of the Federal Barge line from St. Louis to Minneapolis, in 1927, several Memphis firms went into the export business using barges and steamers, and the indications are that Memphis will become a great importing and exporting city. Conditions following our entrance into the World war also stimulated the passenger packet trade on the Ohio, where patriotically inclined persons organized new packet lines and extended old ones. It was then that the Louisville and Cincinnati Packet Company temporarily extended its services to Pittsburgh and that the Liberty Transit Company came into existence. With a number of boats and an authorized capital stock of five hundred thousand dollars this company revived a regular packet service between Pittsburgh and Cincin- nati. In a short time other packets entered local trades here and there, and a new company, the Independent Packet line, placed competing steamers in the Pitts- burgh-Cincinnati trade."" Thus, about 1918, conditions and accomplishments indicated a possible come-back for the Ohio river packet. i^^ National Waterways, October, 1929; U. S. Interstate Commerce Com- mission. Ex Parte, no. 94 (November 12, 1928) ; idem, Ex Parte, no. 96 (November 9, 1929). *^o Water 7 > H a W » O JO c H w - K oad oad U o >« " u, w )— • C« I s ■3 3 ON > > ;: H !-< Index Index "Aetna": 124-125 Allegheny river: caste-bound popula- tion, 320; conquest by steamboats, 152; growth of exports, 165-166; ice, 22 ; too low, 49 "Allegheny": 152 "Alliquippa"; see Jones and Laughlin Company "America": 103, 386 American Barge line: 445-446; see also Kelley Barge line; Inland Waterways Corporation (Louis- ville) American Steel and Wire Company: 438 "Amity": gg "Annie Laurie": 389-390 "Ann Jane": 87-88 "A. O. Taylor": 242, 248 Arks: structure, 43-44 Atlantic Monthly: 266, 273 Ayer and Lord Barge Company: 351- 352, 426 Baltimore and Ohio railroad: 142, '67, 358-359; connects with river traffic, 207-208; effects, 194; fight with Wheeling, 230; opening, 185- 186; refuses to subsidize, 202-203 Barges: "barge age" arrives, 424- 425, discussed, 272 ; "model," 2og- 209; structure, 43; substituted for coalboats, 306; use in iron and coal trade, 270-271 ; see also Booth (John K.) ; Coal; Gray (R. C.) ; Porter (John) ; Oil Barnum, P. T: 324 "Baron De Kalb": 249 Barrett line: 351, 356, 423 Bay line: 352, 356 Baynton, Wharton, and Morgan Com- pany: 32 Bedford-Lancaster pike: 140 "Belle Riviere, La": see Ohio river Belle Transportation Company, La: see Wheeling Steel Company "Ben Franklin": 159, 173 "Benton": 249 "Big Seven" line: see Colson line Bixby, Horace: 196 Bixby, W. H: 376 Blennerhassett, Harman: 78 Boatmen: Allegheny crews, 166; Civil war secession attitude, 245, readjustments, 261-262, value in war, 248; coalboatmen, 302; crew of "New Orleans," 120; demands for on Ohio, 268 ; effects of river traffic decline, 199-201 ; effects of steamboats, 158; famous captains, 280; high quality, 294; life and social importance, 76-77 ; low wages change type, 366-367 ; packet crews, 45, 338-341, captains, 337- 338, pilots, 337; precautions, 47- 48; rivermen, 33; superstitions, 344; transform Ohio, 73; types of men, 49-58; see also Honshell (Captain) ; Kerr (Wash) ; La- bor; Labor unions; Muhleman (Charles) ; Wages Booth, John K: 270-271 "Braddock": see American Steel and Wire Company Broad-horns: 49 Brown, William Hughey: 308-309 "Buckeye State": 174, 197 Budd (A. R.) Company: 349 452 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY "Buffalo": 125 Burr, Aaron: 77-79 Butler, General Richard: 394 Butler, William O: The Boatman's Horn, 52 "Cairo": 249 Canals: dikes, 397; feeders to Ohio river from Atlantic, 147; Great Lakes-Mississippi canal plan, 103- 104; Ohio to Lake Erie project, 141; routes, 148-149; Virginia in- terest, 68; Washington's proposals, 67-68 ; see also "George Abner Leacock" ; "Hit and Miss" ; Musk- ingum canal; Ohio and Lake Erie canal; Ohio canal; Pennsylvania canal; Portland canal Canoes: age, 25; discarded, 29, 31; types and construction, 25-26; uses and users, 26-27 Cargoes: 153, 349-350; Civil war possibilities, 247-248, post-vfar trade, 259, southern necessities, 243; comparison of early and la- ter, 106; early, 34; during 1787, 70; during 1854, 193; during panic of 1857, 208 ; effects of river traffic decline, 199; increase in bulk, 347; noted by "River Press," 267-268 ; of "Monongahela Farmer," 87 ; of new regions, 154; of Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet lines, 293; of "St. Clair," 86; of "White Col- lar" packets, 278; Ohio trade dur- ing 1786-1787, 65-66; Ohio-South trade, 240; on Allegheny, 165-166; on Mississippi during 1812, 79; on Ohio during 1845-1855, 172- 173; Pittsburgh-Cumberland trade, 153; Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, 149; possibilities, 62; recent changes in commodities, 416, 429- 430; storage, 47; supplied by wa- gon, 38; see also "Ann Jane" "Amity"; Coal; Flour; Grain Iron and steel ; "John Farnum" "Louisiana"; "Nanina"; Oil; "Pittsburgh"; Salt; Sand and gravel; Shipping lines; Trade and commerce; Traffic; "Western Trader" Carnegie, Andrew: 320 Carnegie Steel Company: 434, 440 "Carondelet": 249 Carondolet Marine ways: 427 Carpenter and Talbott: 54 Central Ohio railroad: 203 "Century Tow," the: see Jones and Laughlin Company Charleston (W. Va.) : newspaper files, 13 "Chesapeake": 277 "Cheyenne" : 388 Chicago: railroad center, 230; ri- valry with Pittsburgh forecast, 448 "Chris Greene": see Greene line Cincinnati: 64, 70, 249; attitude to- ward secession, 241 ; last river center, 196; municipal railroad, 235-238 ; "New Orleans" visits, 121; newspapers, 13; "Porkopolis" of west, 130; "Queen City," 172- 173; railroad projects, 191-192; resumes river traffic lead, 266; ri- valry with Louisville, 230-238 ; steamboat fire, 388; strategic posi- tion, 207 "Cincinnati": see Louisville and Cin- cinnati Packet line Cincinnati Commercial: 49, 173, 204, 241, 243, 248, 272, 330 Cincinnati Daily Enquirer: 241 Cincinnati Gazette: 241, 246, 285, 305. 330, 399 Cincinnati Enquirer: 330 Cincinnati, Lexington, and East Ten- nessee railroad: 233 Cincinnati, Pomeroy, and Charleston Packet Company: 348 Cincinnati, Portsmouth, Big Sandy, and Pomeroy line: 277-278 Cincinnati Railroad Record: 192 Cincinnati Southern: 236 INDEX 453 Cist's fVeekly Advertiser (Cincin- nati) : 104, 299 Civil war: 239-265 ; impending struggle hurts river trade, 201 Clark, George Rogers: 64 Clarksville: 64 Clement, Captain: 124 "Clermont": no Cleveland Plain Dealer: 174 "Clifton": 388 Clipper ships: 101 Coal; barges used, 306; Civil war trade, 310, effect on Union, 260, post-bellum trade, 313; Cincinnati receipts, 310; conservation, 314; decline of river traffic, 423; de- velopment during 1812, 297; dis- covery, 296 ; early transportation, 297-298; expansion, 299-300; fac- tors causing growth, 298-299; first shipments, 296-297; fortunes made, 308; importance to navy, 309-310; increases in trade, 312; influence on cities, 295-296 ; long-distance trade, 306 ; raining industry im- provements, 307 ; minor coal areas, 316; monopoly effects, 315; navi- gation restrictions, 311-312; Pitts- burgh ceases to supply south, 317; Pittsburgh-New Orleans traffic, 305 ; prices cause river traffic de- cline, 205 ; prices reduced, 306 ; production figures, 299; produc- tion statistics, 1840-1860, 307; pul- verized as fuel, 447; reasons for monopolies, 314-315; receipt rec- ords for 1886, 312; recent coal traffic, 318; Roosevelt opens mines on Ohio, 113; stimulates shipping, 260-261; traffic, 1906-1907, 316; value to Pittsburgh, 310-311; volume increases, 306 ; see also Brown (William Hughey) ; Coal- boats; Cochran (Captain); "Cres- cent City" ; Great Kanawha re- gion; Monongahela River Consoli- dated Coal and Coke Company; "Sprague" ; Towboats ; United States Coal and Oil Company Coalboats: coalboatmen, 302; haz- ards, 302 ; structure, 300-301 ; use, 301-302; see also Towboats Cochran, Captain: 305 Colson line: 283-284 "Comet": 125 "Conestoga" : 248 Conestoga wagon: 34; construction, 37; contributions, 37-38; origin of name, 36 Confederacy tariff act of 1S61: 242 Congressional Globe: 206 Cotton: contraband trade, 259; opens Mississippi, 259-260 "Crescent City": 305 Croghan, George: 31-32 Cramer, Zadok: 214-215; Navigator, 100, 115 Cullom report of 1SS6: 409 Cumberland and Tennessee Trans- portation Company: condition, 347 Cumberland Gap turnpike: 139 Cumberland (National) road: 134- 137 Customs and life: Allegheny river inhabitants, 320-321 ; amusements, 324-327, on steamboats, 341-343; arrival of mail packet, 331-332; boat racing, 330; coalboatmen, 302 ; condition of packet employees, 337-341 ; cross section of Ohio river life, 329 ; Dickens's descrip- tion of Ohio, 169; educational facilities, 322 ; extremes of wealth and cuhure, 321; gambling, 342; houseboat life, 322-323 ; in 1806, 73-76; in 1812, 79-80; merchant pedlers, 323-324; Monongahela river environment, 319; Ohio river during Civil war, 258-259; packet accommodations, 336; Pittsburgh in 1758, 28; reform movements, 326-327; river press and writers, 330-331 ; river songs and poets, 332-336; river superstitions, 343- 454 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY ^44; river supplies employment, 328 ; river towns, 58 ; shipbuilding broadens outlook, 98-99 ; steam- boats as educational forces, 182- 184; typical family travel, 144- 147; Vfharf scene, 344-345; see also Boatmen ; Showboats Cutler, Manasseh: see Ohio Com- pany "Darling": 388 Davis Island dam: 408 "Dean": 97 Deep Waterways Convention: 413 De Hart, Captain: 124 Denison act: 440 Devol, Captain Jonathan: 86-87 Devol, Stephen: 85-86 Dickens, Charles: 168-169 Disasters: bridge piers, 386; con- struction of "New Orleans," 114- 115; exploding boilers, 382-386; fire, 387-389; head-on collisions, 386-387; "New Orleans" maiden voyage, 123 ; "snags," "sawyers," "planters" and uncharted rivers, 46-47, 386; windstorms, 387; see also "America"; "Cheyenne"; "Clifton"; Coalboats; "Darling"; Disease ; Floods ; Ice ; "John Lomas" ; "Louisiana"; "May Ir- win"; "Melnetto"; "Monongahela Farmer" ; "Moselle" ; "Rebecca" ; "Scioto"; "Sultana"; "United States" ; "Westmoreland" Disease: 133; causes river traffic de- cline, 205 ; yellow fever and chol- era, 389-390; see also "Annie Laurie"; "John Porter"; Laidley (Captain F. A.) "Dispatch": 127 "Dorothy Barrett": see American Barge line Dravo Contracting Company: 425- 426 "Duncan Bruce," the: see American Barge line Eads, James B: 249 "Eclipse": 177 Economic influences: after War of 1812, loi ; banking systems, 94; causes of traffic decline, 201-208; causes of final river failure, 356- 368 ; causes of 1882 river decline, 286-287; early Ohio detractions and attractions, 66-67; educational aspects of steamboats, 182-184; ef- fects of canals, 143 ; effects of packet lines, 277-278 ; effects of river traffic decline, 198-201 ; ef- fects of steam navigation on set- tlers, 129-131; effects of turnpikes, 139; exceptional conditions prevent Ohio decadence, 207-209 ; factors aiding remaining packet lines, 288 factors aiding steamboats, 284-285 factors delaying steamboating, 133 factors futhering shipbuilding, 85 forces unite to defeat steamboats 209 ; Fulton's Ohio steamboat con- struction, 114; in 1805, 78-79; in- dustries created by steamboats, 164; industries fostered by ship- ping, 103-104; influences causing decline of shipping, 106; Louisiana Purchase unites Ohio, 94; New Orleans Embargo of 1802, 93; op- position to canals, 151 ; panic of 1819, 133; steamboats aid explora- tion, 154, dominate Ohio life, 181- 182 Elizabeth (Penn.) : 34, i8i; first ship-yard, 83 Ellet, Captain Charles: 399; flood control of 1852, 376; see also Ram fleet Ellis, Captain Ira: loi England: discovers Ohio river, 24; plans for Ohio, 28 ; takes Ohio valley, 31-32; Treaty of 1794, 71 "Enterprise": 125 "Eruktor Amphibolis": 109 "Essex": 249 Evans, Oliver: 109 INDEX 455 Evansville, Paducah, and Cairo Packet line: 348 Everett, Edward: 244 Express: 162 "Fair Play": 257 "Falls City": 195 Father Abraham's Almanac: 81 Federal Barge line: 365, 426, 440, 443 Finance: Bank of Pennsylvania, 94; banking system spreads, 94 Fink, Mike: 53-58 Finley, J. B: see Monongahela River Consolidated Coal and Coke Com- pany Fitch, John: 108-109 Flatboats: 31; structure, 41-42; uni- que devices, 38; unique services, 7+ Floods: control and prevention, 376- 380, reforestation, 377-378, storage reservoirs, 378-380; damages, 375; Ohio flood causes, 369-370, dates, 373, impressions of 1884 disaster, 374, kinds, 371, 20, records of 1832, 373, records of 1884 and 1913, 371-372. stages, 371 Flour: 199 Fluger, Colonel: 54 Fort Stanwix, Treaty: 33 France: claims Ohio river, 27; Ohio experiments, 63 "Francis": 97 Franklin Institute Journal: 399 Franks (David) and Company: 32 Franquelin (geographer) : 24 French, John: 109 Frick, H. C: 320 Fulton, Robert: 109-110; Ohio opera- tions, 111-112 Gallatin : Preliminary Report, 99, 394-395 Galley bateaux: 29, 32; structure, 44 "George Abner Leacock": 149 "George M. Bibb": 182 "George T. Price" : see American Barge line Good Intent: 162 Government aid: 395; Allegheny river improvements, 411; Cincin- nati municipal railroad asks, 237; dam structures, footnote, 421-422; Erie canal improvement by New York, 412 ; federal barge line possibilities, 444-446 ; flood control and prevention, 379-380; Granger movement, 405 ; Lincoln's southern railroad plans, 234; locks and dams, 151 ; Memphis convention proposals, 171; moveable dam, 406-408; neutrality enforced, 247; Ohio congressional appropriations, 403, 410, improvements, 156, 396- 397, 416-422, national project, 396- 397, state project, 395-396, locks and dams, 354, plans, 141-142, "pork barrel" policies, 405 ; peti- tions for, 71-72; Pittsburgh roads and canals, 212; Portland canal en- largement, 404; vessels armed, 84; Wheeling bridge, 214-217; see also Canals; Cumberland road; Davis Island dam; Improvements; Inter- slate Commerce Act of 1SS7; Reg- ulations ; River and Harbor act of iQlo; Windom report "Grace Darling": 103 Graham (Emma) Packet Company: 291-292 Grain: 350 Granger movement: 405 Gray, R. C: 272 Great Kanawha region: 316; im- portance to Ohio river, 151-152 Great Miami: 64 "Great Republic": 269 Greene, Gordon B: see Greene line Greene line: 348, 356, 442 "Greenwood": 257-258 Gunboats: advocated on Ohio, 248; inland fleet lacks cooperation, 253; purchased by Union, 248 ; struc- 456 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY ture, 249; Union fleet and Western Flotilla, 250 ; see also "A. O. Tay- lor"; "Baron De Kalb" ; "Ben- ton" ; "Cairo" ; "Carondelet" ; "Cincinnati" ; "Conestoga" ; "Es- sex" ; "Fair Play"; "Lexington"; "Louisville"; "Manayunk" ; "Mar- ietta" ; "Merriraac" ; "Monitor" ; "Mound City"; Navy; "Pitts- burgh"; Porter (Admiral David D.) ; Ram fleet; "Sandusky"; "St. Louis"; "Umpqua" "G. Washington": 127, 129 "G. W. Kendall": 173 Hepburn act: 360 "Hit and Miss": 149 Holmes, Captain W. L: 199-201 Honshell, Captain: 278-279 Howard, James: 274-275 Hovrard, John: 26 Howard ship-yards: 426 Hunt's Merchants' Magazine: 193, 244, 306 Ice: 21-22; cause of river traffic de- cline, 204; dates of Ohio ice floes, 380; destroys remaining Ohio ship- ping) 355 ; effects of ice floes, 381; Ohio ice floe of 1918, 381-382 Immigration: aids packets and steamboats, 173, 284; effect of coal, 299; lull during 1855, 201; routes of entrance, 65 ; stimulated by steamboats, 130; suffers losses on Ohio, 396 ; Trans-alleghany, 59 ; westward sweep, 166-168; see also Settlers Improvements: Allegheny, 411; bea- con-lights, 404; conflicting theories, 401-403; dam structures, footnote, 421-422; delays in river improve- ment, 415-416; Erie canal im- proved by New York, 412 ; inter- national interest, 411-412; Inter- state Commerce act of iSSy stops river improvement, 408-409 ; Lake Erie drainage, 404; moveable dam, 406-408; national interest, 412-415; navigation of inland waters, 352; Ohio river appropriation from con- gress, 403, 410, improvements, 156, 395-397. 4'6, 422; Ohio Valley Improvement Association con- tinues, 409-410; Pittsburgh cen- tennial celebration and "Marine Day," 353; plans abandoned, 356, fail, 404-405, of Butler (General Richard), 394, of Ellet (Charles), 399, of Gay (Edward F.), 400-401, of Haupt (Herman), 398, of Liver- more (Alonzo), 398-399, of Ro- berts (W. Milnor), 400, of Wash- ington (George), 393-394; Port- land canal enlargement, 404; see also Davis Island dam; Gallatin's report ; Government aid ; Granger movement; Inland Waterways Commission ; Ohio Valley Improve- ment Association ; River and Har- bor act of June 25, IQIO; IVindom report "Illinois": 177-178 Illinois State Journal: 244 Independent Packet line: 441 "Indian Country": opened by con- gress, 69 Indians: 28, 32; attack boats, 46 Inland Waterways Commission: 354, 376. 413 Inland Waterways Corporation (Lou- isville) : 444-445 Insurance: 390; packets, 45 Interstate Commerce act of 1887: 286 ; government to regulate rail- roads for public, 408 Interstate Commerce Commission: 317. 440, 442 Inventors: see Evans (Oliver) ; Fitch (John) ; French (John) ; Fulton (Robert) ; Livingston (Robert) ; Longstreet (William) ; Mowry (Captain Samuel) ; Orms- bee (Elijah) ; Ramsey (William) ; INDEX 457 Reed (Nathan) ; Rees (James) ; Roosevelt (Nicholas J.) ; Rumsey (James) ; Starr (Jehosephat) ; Stevens (John) ; West (Edvpard) Iron and steel: 153, 173, 351; build- ing material, 158; important cargo, 208 Iron line: 272 Jacobv, Wilmer M: 444 James river and Kanavrha turnpike: 138-139 "Jefferson": 182 "J. M. White": 178; Hovfards' craft, 276 Johnboats: 44 "John Farnum": 103 "John Lomas" : 386 "John Porter": 389 "John Simonds": 178 "John Swasey" : 10+ Jones and Laughlin Company: 434- 437, 446 "Juniata": see American Steel and Wire Company Jutte, Charles: 314 Jutte (Charles) and Company: 349 "Kate Adams": 276 Keelboats: decline of, 162; naviga- tion, 43; number used, 48; struc- ture, 42 Kelley Barge line: 445 Kelly (W. C.) Company: 365 "Kenton": 266-267 Kentucky: 65, 231; see also Regula- tions Kentucky Central railroad: 233, 238 Kerr, Wash: 279 King, William: 178-179 Knowles, Morris: 376 Knox, M. G: 275 Labor: coal relieves unemployment, 307; employees in 1880 on steam- boats, 285 ; recent barge construc- tion, 425-426 ; see Boatmen ; Cus- toms and life; Labor unions; Wages Labor unions: pilot organizations, 341, 404 Laidley, Captain F. A: 390 Lake Erie canal: 141-142 Lakes-to-Gulf Waterways Associa- tion: 412 Larges and Wiegels: 275 La Salle, Rene, Robert Cavalier, Sieur de: 24 Ledlie (Geo.) and Co: 305 "Lexington": 248 Liberty Transit Company: 441, 442 Licenses: 205 Lightning line: 196 Lighten, M. O: 376 lincolii, Abraham: 234 Little Miami: 189 Liverpool Saturday Advertiser: 97 Livingston, Robert: 109 Lloyd: Steamboat Directory and Dis- asters on the W estern W aters, 206, 382 Lloyd, Black, and Brovfn: see Wil- liam Hughey Brown Logan, Lineas: 170 London Times: 102 Longstreet, William: 109 "Louisa": 104 "Louisiana" (Louisiana of Mari- etta) : 89-90 Louisiana Purchase: 93-94; need of, 72 Louisville: 64; busiest Ohio city dur- ing Civil war, 246 ; lines to Pitts- burgh, 162; "New Orleans" hon- ored, 122; population increase, 156; rivalry vfith Cincinnati, 230- 238 ; strategic position, 207 "Louisville": 249 Louisville and Cincinnati Packet Company: 348, 441, 443; sole pa- latial packets, 351; lines, 159, 163, 277, 288 Louisville and Nashville railroad: 232, 235, 359 458 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY Louisville Courier: 195 Louisville Courier Journal: 330 "Lovin' Kate": 276 Mail Line: see Louisville and Cin- cinnati Packet line Mail lines: continue by vfater, 265; during Indian wars, 71 ; early packet lines, 45; importance, 331; on Ohio, 139; pass over Cumber- land road, 138; postmaster en- dorces Wheeling bridge proposal, 216; postoffices, 332; see also Ohio and Mississippi Mail line ; Ship- ping lines and ovf ners ; United States Mail "Manayunk": 256 Marietta: 70, 101-103; leading ship- builder, 85 '"Marietta": 102, 256 Marietta Manufacturing Company: 426 Marietta Ship Company: loi Marine vpays (Cincinnati): 275 "Mary Belle Roberts": 105 May, Captain: 46 "Mayflower": 70 "May Irwin": 388 "Melnettc": 388 Memphis Convention: 171 Merrill, Major W. E: 376 "Merrimac": 250 "Messenger": 174 Miami canal: 142 Miami Exporting Company: 93 Michaux : Travels, 90 "Michigan": 182 "Midas": 173 "Minnesota": 105 Mississippi Marine Brigade: 253 Missouri: conquest by steamboat, 154- 155 "Monitor": 249 Monongahela Consolidated Coal and Coke Company: 314-315, 349 "Monongahela Farmer": 87 Monongahela river: boatbuilding, 34; ice, 22; industrial territory, 319 Monopolies: Fulton-Roosevelt Ohio steamboat plans, 112; independents obtain rights, 125, 128; line rivalry stimulates enterprise, 177; Pitts- burgh interest in free passage, 218; pooling arrangements, 277, 292; railroad consolidation damages packets, 362; see also Fitch (John) ; Jutte (Charles) ; Monon- gahela Consolidated Coal and Coke Company; Ohio and Mississippi Mail line; Shipping lines and owners ; Standard Oil Company "Moselle": 385 "Mound City": 249 Mowry, Captain Samuel: 109 Muhleman, Charles: 144-147 Municipal rivalry: 149, 189, 201, 2ii- 239; Cincinnati-Louisville rivalry, 230-238, 246-247; history, 211; Pittsburgh-Wheeling rivalry, 150, 212-230 "Muskingum": 102 Muskingum canal: 142 Nashville Bridge Company: 426 "Natchez": 275; boats, 180 National Rivers and Harbors Con- gress: 412, 414 National Wateriaays: 15 Navy: 83; given control of inland fleet, 253; importance of coal, 309- 310; importance of transports, 256-257; reorganized, 254; siege of Vicksburgh, 254-256; success during Civil war, 253-254; use of convoys, 257; see also Gunboats Negroes: cause strikes, 262 Neville, Morgan: 54 New Orleans: 84; coal trade with Pittsburgh, 305; port of entry, 167 "New Orleans": 353; launching and maiden voyage, 116-124 New Orleans Bulletin: 305 New Orleans Embargo: 99-100 INDEX 459 New York Courier: 228 Northwestern turnpike: 138 Northwest Territory: 69 Ogden, Captain: 124 "Ohio": 97, 103 Ohio and Mississippi Mail line: 163; maintains steamboat connections, 207 ; railroad, 203 Ohio canal: 1+2 Ohio Company: 70, 92, 94 Ohio Pilot: 162 Ohio river: "Beautiful River," 17; beauty, 19; "coalboat stage," 295; discovery, 23-24; early appearance, 24-25 ; fear loss through Civil war, 244; losses due to dangers, 396; low and high water marks, 369; merits of Pittsburgh and Wheel- ing locations, 213; navigation im- proved, 156; origin of name, 21; physical facts, 19-20; "Poor Man's Highway," 265 ; poor navigation causes river failure, 368 ; possi- bilities, 62; secession attitude, 241- 242 ; thoroughfare east and west, 17; tributaries, 19, 22; valley, 22- 23, in 1780, 64, loyal to Union, 243-244 ; see also C r o g h a n (George); Floods; Ice; Improve- ments Ohio Steam Navigation Company: 114 Ohio Valley Improvement Associa- tion: 352, 409-410, 414 Oil. 439-440; barges used, 271 Ordinance of l/Sy: 69 Ormsbee, Elijah: 109 Overland traffic: volume on turnpikes in 1817, 140-141 ; see also Cone- stoga wagon; Cumberland road; Pack-trains; Railroads; Stage- coaches; Traffic; Turnpikes Packets: schedule, 44-45; structure, 44; see also Shipbuilding; Ship- ping lines and owners Pack-trains: business, 35; progress, 36; reach upper Ohio, 28; routes, 35 Panic cf 1857: 207 Farkersburg: 207 Passengers: change to railroads, 197; first railroad, 185; immigrant travel, 173; influence on packets, 166; "New Orleans," 124; of 1787, 70; Ohio 1787 average, 65-66; packet lines, 45 ; Pittsburgh-Cum- berland route, 153; stage-coaches, 137; statistics for 1905, 347; see also Shipping lines and owners; Traffic Passports: 84 Pennsylvania: 63 "Pennsylvania": 194 Pennsylvania canal: 147-148 Pirates: attack boats, 46; half-breed renegades of Cave-in-Rock (III.), 46 Pittsburgh: 64, 84; assumes new life, 149; celebrates steam navigation, 353; coal navigation freedom de- manded, 311-312, output used locally, 317, shipments, 296-297, trade influences, 2q5, value as in- dustry, 310-311; customs, 28; Eng- lish fail, 29; lines to Louisville, 162; lines to St. Louis, 162; named by English, 28; "New Orleans" leaves, 120-121 ; newspapers, 13 ; population, 28 ; port survey for 1840, 168; railroad construction, 192; rivalry with Chicago forecast, 448; rivalry with Wheeling, 212- 230; shipbuilding center, 32, 34, 88; see also Municipal rivalry "Pittsburgh": 88, 249 Pittsburgh Advocate and Advertiser: 167 Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet line: 170-171, 197, 292-293, 348; famous ships and captains, 194; greatest success, 194; reasons for success, 293-294; see also "Buckeye 46o TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY State" ; "Messenger" ; Shipping lines and owners Pittsburgh Chronicle-Telegraph: 331 Pittsburgh Gazette: 126, 150, 153, 305, 331 Pittsburgh Times: 331 Pittsburgh Tree of Liberty: 90 Pittsburgh, Wheeling, and Parkers- burg Packet line: 349 Pleasureboats: see showboats "Plymouth": see American Barge line Pollock, William S: 443 "Polly": 84 Population: 80; by 1800, 73; in 1775, 63 ; in Kentucky, 65 ; Louisville growth, 156; Pittsburgh in 1760, 28 Portage Railroad: 185 Porter, Admiral David D: 249-250 Porter, John: 271 Portland canal: 156, 397 Prentiss, David: 126 "President Adams": 84 Putnam, Rufus: see Ohio Company Queen and Crescent: see Cincinnati Southern Railroads: advertise, 360; break down under World war stress, 424 ; cause river improvement failure, 404-405; cause river traf- fic decline, 202-204, 358-363; cause shipping decline since 1882, 286; Cincinnati-Louisville rivalry, 231- 238; consolidate, 360; early pro- jects, 189-193; effects on packets, 277-278; first rail reaches Pitts- burgh, 185; obstacles, 191-192; Ohio "railroad mania," 186-189; Pittsburgh-Wheeling rivalry, 228- 230; replace river traffic during Civil war, 246 ; supersede river traffic completely, 197-201; tribu- taries to river traffic, 161, 193; Virginia refuses charter, 229; see also Baltimore and Ohio; Central Ohio; Cincinnati, Lexington, and East Tennessee; Cincinnati South- ern ; Kentucky Central ; Little Miami; Louisville and Nashville; Ohio and Mississippi; Municipal rivalry; Portage Railroad; Rates; Regulations; Strader (Jacob); Taft (Alphonso) ; Traffic Ram fleet: 251-253 Ramsey, William: 38 Rates: cut by monopolies, 163-164; decline, 158; excursions on packets, 288; increase, 193-194; lines reg- ulate, 162; "New Orleans," 124; passenger fares on Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet line, 293; Pitts- burgh to Cumberland, 153; prorat- ing, 360-361, 442; railroads, 359, 362-363, compete with steamboats, 286; reduced during panic of 1857, 207; see also Economic influences; Interstate Commerce act of lS8y; Interstate Commerce Commission "Rebecca": 386 Redstone (Brownsville) : 64 Reed, Nathan: 109 Rees, James: 273-274 Rees (James) and Sons Company: 274. 425 Regulations: cotton causes free-trade, 259-260; debt limit of Ohio, 232; early international treaties, 71 ; Fulton patents, 113, tested by Shreve as monopolies, 126; inspec- tion of packets, 368, 385 ; Kentucky charters railroads, 231-232, chal- lenges Cincinnati, 238; lack of railroad rate regulations, 360; licenses, 385 ; New Orleans embar- goes, 84, 93 ; New York Central- New York State Barge canal de- cision, 447; Ohio navigation re- strictions, 311-312; oil transporta- tion limited, 271 ; Pennsylvania re- fuses railroad extension, 185; ports of entry, 70-71 ; river-railroad traffic in coal regulated, 317; seces- INDEX 461 sion threatens free navigation, 239; shipping regulations during Civil vear, 247; "St. Clair" avoids, 86; Virginia railroad interests, 213, 229; west refuses railroad charters, 190; see also Hepburn act ; Interstate Commerce Commis- sion ; Licenses; Passports Revolutionary war: inland boat serv- ices, 64; Ohio privateers, 64 Rhea, Captain Isaac T: 291 Rice, Dan: 324 Richmond Enquirer: 196 River and Harbor act of iglo: 414 River Combine (Combine) : see Monongahela River Consolidated Coal and Coke Company River press: causes river traffic de- cline, 206 ; comments on post-vyar conditions, 267-268 ; importance of newspapers to river life, 331 ; writers and publications, 330-331 "Robert E. Lee": 275 "Robert Hall": 97 Roberts, W. Milnor: 376 Roosevelt, Nicholas J: 109; surveys western rivers, 113 Roosevelt, Mrs. Nicholas J: 120 Roosevelt, Theodore: attitude toward river navigation, 413-414 Rumsey, James: 68, 108-109 Ryraan line: 348 "Salem": 104 Salt: 151 ; pack-train cargo, 36 Sand and gravel: 350 "Sandusky": 256 "Scioto": 386 "Senator Ross" : 84 Settlers: enter Ohio in 1765, 29-31; move westward, 33-34; see also Immigration; Population Shipbuilding: 33, 38-41, 64, 152; adapt craft to trade, 351; barge construction recently, 425-429; best types uncertain, 364-366; builders, 103, from New England, 83; clip- per use, loi ; coal-pushing packets, 304-305 ; comparison of building periods, 106 ; competition with coast builders, 104; construction improvements, 179-180; designs improved, 166; during Civil war, 256; economic influences, 85; ef- fects of barges, 272-273 ; factors killing, 100; first sea-going vessels, 83-84; first ship-yard, 83; "float- ing palaces," 194; Franklin's sug- gestion, 82 ; Fulton's Ohio plan, 112; gradual decline, 105; inade- quate, 81 ; increase during 1864- 1865, 265; iron hulls and ships, 158-159. '82; landing improve- ments, 157; luxuries, 193; main- tained at Wheeling, 208 ; materials in Ohio, 83; modern improve- ments, 269-270, 428-429 ; "New Orleans" construction controversy, 1 18-1 19; number of boats from 1830-1840, 161-162; packet accom- modations, 336; profitable industry, 90; pulverized coal as fuel, 447; retarded by Spain, 84; river ves- sels unsatisfactory, 90-91 ; second high period, 103 ; services, 61 ; shipbuilding centers, 97; showboat construction, 326; steamboats adapted to cargoes, 170-171, earli- est, 108, European influence, no, first Ohio-built, 114-116, improve- ments, 156-157, increase, i6i, type change by coal towing, 304, trans- Atlantic, 161; trade designs, 268; value on Ohio during 1800-1808, 98; waning interest, 100; see also "Aetna" ; "Allegheny" ; "Amer- ica" ; American barge line; "Amity"; "Ann Jane"; Arks; Ayer and Lord Marine ways; Barges; Baynton, Wharton, and Morgan; Broad-horns; "Buffalo"; Canoes; Carondolet Marine ways; "Clermont"; Coal; Coalboats ; "Comet"; "Dean"; Devol (Ste- 462 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY phen) ; "Dispatch" ; Dravo Con- tracting Company; Eads (James B.) ; "Eclipse"; Elizabeth (Penn.) ; Ellis (Captain Ira) ; "Enterprise"; "Eruktor Amphibolis" ; "Falls City"; Flatboats; "Francis"; Gal- latin; Galley bateaux; "George M. Bibb"; "Grace Darling"; "Great Republic"; Gunboats; "G. Washington"; Howard (James); Howard ship-yards; "Illinois"; Inventors; "Jefferson"; "J. M. White"; Johnboats; "John Far- nura" ; "John Simonds" ; "John Swasey" ; Keelboats; Kelly (W. C); King (William); Knox (M. G.) ; Larges and Wiegels; Ledlie (Geo.) and Co.; "Louisa"; "Lou- isiana"; "Marietta"; Marietta Manufacturing Company; Marine ways; "Michigan"; "Minnesota"; "Monongahela Farmer"; Mononga- hela river; "Muskingum"; "Nani- na" ; Nashville Bridge Company; "Natchez"; "New Orleans"; "Ohio" ; Ohio Steam Navigation Company; Packets; "Pennsylva- nia" ; Pittsburgh ; "Pittsburgh" ; "Polly"; Prentiss (David); "Pres- ident Adams" ; Rees (James) ; Rees (James) ; Rees (James) and Sons Company; Redstone; Regula- tions ; "Robert E. Lee" ; "Robert Hall"; "Salem"; "Senator Ross"; Shipping lines and owners; Shreve (Captain Henry M.) ; Skiffs; Sligo mills; "Sprague" ; "St. Clair"; Steamboats; Swasey (John); Sweeney (A. J. and J. M.) ; Tar- ascon Brothers, Berthoud and Company; Thorn and Company; Towboats ; "Valley Forge" ; "Ve- suvius" ; "Walhoning"; Walker (John); Ward (Charles); Ward (Charles) Engineering works; "Western Trader"; White (George); "Wild Wagoner"; "Wm. D. Duncan" ; "Zebulon M. Pike" Shipping lines and owners: attitude of executives, 174; captains, 280; coal lines and operators, 313; cor- porate ownership, 352; damage prosecutions, 387; decline since 1882, 286; first-class tonnage, 442- 443 ; Fulton-Roosevelt interests, 112-127; line agreements, 162, scarcity, 433-434, survivors, 356; packet lines, 138, names, 283, races revived, 443, records, 276-277; pooling arrangements, 292; private fleet values, 434; profits until 1840, 159-160; rivalry, 174; shipping-in- dustry alliance, 434-438; smaller lines, 159; Smith (Samuel) inde- pendent interests, 125-126; steam- ship lines fail, 355; survivors of decline, 288 ; traffic created by rail- roads, 194-195; transition to rail- roads, 197-201 ; "way charges" ex- orbitant, 367; see also Ayer and Lord Barge Company; Barrett line; Bay line; Budd (A. R.) Company; Carnegie Steel Com- pany; Cincinnati, Pomeroy, and Charleston Packet Company; Cin- cinnati, Portsmouth, Big Sandy, and Pomeroy line ; Colson line ; Cum- berland and Tennessee Transpor- tation Company; Evansville, Pa- ducah, and Cairo Packet line; Ex- press; Federal Barge line; Good Intent; Graham (Emma) Packet Company; Gray (R. C.) ; Greene (Captain Gordon C.) ; Greene line; Honshell (Captain); Inde- pendent Packet line; Inland Wa- terways Corporation (Louisville) ; Insurance; Iron line; Jones and Laughlin Company; Jutte (Charles) and Company; Kelley Barge line; Kerr (Wash) ; Liberty Transit Company; Lightning line; Logan (Lineas) ; Louisville and INDEX 463 Cincinnati Packet line; Marietta Ship Company; Miami Exporting Company; Monongahela Consoli- dated Coal and Coke Company; Monopolies; "Natchez" boats; Ohio Company; Ohio Pilot; Pitts- burgh and Cincinnati Packet line; Pittsburgh, Wheeling, and Parkers- burg Packet line; Rhea (Captain Isaac T.) ; Ryman line; Shipbuild- ing; Standard Oil Company; Steamboats ; St. Louis and Tennes- see River Packet Company; Stra- der (P. Wilson) ; Tennessee Navi- gation Company; Traffic; Tapper (E. W.) ; Union line; United States Mail; Wheeling Steel Com- pany; White Collar line Showboats: 183, 324-327 Shreve, Captain Henry M: 125 Skiffs: structure, 44 Slavery: 102-103; related to packet lines, 196; uneconomic in Ohio, 243 Sligo mills: 256 Smith, Samuel: 125 Spain: Treaty of 1795, 71 "Sprague": 315-316 Stage-coaches: lines, vehicles, driv- ers, 137 Standard Oil Company: 271, 427, 439; employs coalboats, 317 Starr, Jehosaphat: 109 "St. Clair"; 86 Steamboats: "comeback" after Civil war, 266-267 ; conquest of Alle- gheny, 152, Cumberland, 153, Mis- souri, 154; descend Mississippi, 107; difficulties during Civil war, 257-258; European influence, no; Ohio-built steamboats, 114-116; start in 1811, 48; Tidewater navi- gation, no; upstream navigation, 61; use in demobilization, 262; vessels plying on Great Kanawha and Ohio, 152; see also "Green- wood" ; "Kenton" "Steel": 446-447 Stevens, John: 109 St. Louis: lines to Pittsburgh, 162; steamboat center, 230 "St. Louis" : 249 St. Louis and Tennessee River Pack- et Company: 291, 347 St. Louis Internal Improvement Con- vention: 412 Strader, Jacob: 189 Strader, P. Wilson: 170 "Sultana": 262-263 Swasey, John: 104 Sweeney, A. J. and John M: 275 Symmes, John Cleves: 70 Taft, Judge Alphonso: 415; projects proposed, 189-191 Taft, William Howard: 415 Tarascon Brothers, Berthoud and Company: 88 Tariff: free-trade policy of seces- sionists, 242 ; south forgets free- trade promise, 242-243 ; see also "A. O. Taylor" ; Regulations Tennessee Navigation Company: 291 Thorn (James) and Company: 274 Tobacco: 259 'Tom Greene": see Greene line Totten, Colonel Joseph G: 247 Towboats: "pushed" instead of "towed," 304 ; replace coalboats, 303 ; see also Coalboats Trade and commerce: 33; Allegheny river outputs, 320; canals and rail- roads revolutionize, 239; competi- tion from motorboats, 367-368; contraband cotton running, 259 ; credit lacking, 91 ; declining inter- est in navigation freedom, 312; decrease in steamboat traffic, 198- 201 ; difficulties during Civil war, 243-244; effects on secession, 240- 241 ; foreign demand for goods, 103; freight by rail congested, 234; international success, 82 ; Monon- gahela river outputs, 319; New Orleans freight receipts, 130; Ohio 464 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY freight shipments during 1850- 1860, 181-182; Ohio-South traffic revives, 240; Ohio transportation decline, 354; passing of passenger packets, 196-197; post-war condi- tions, 262 ; profit from steamboat lines until 1840, 159-160; river transportation revives, 265-294 river combine shipments, 351 steamboat on lower Ohio, 196 time of navigation shortened, 158 typical voyage of "Louisiana," 89 90; unusual trade methods, 92 volume of Wheeling freight in 1822, 138; world plans, 62-63; see also Cargoes; Economic influences; Traffic Traffic: advantages of renewed ship- ping, 441 ; amount and value on Ohio during 1880, 285, on water from 1800-1807, 73; changed char- acter of shipping, 440; coal traffic from 1906-1907, 316; counter forces, 442-443 ; "cut-throat" com- petition since 1882, 286; decline of river traffic, 198; during 1788, 70; early river increases, 29 ; fluctuates with river condition, 398; govern- ment traffic possibilities, 444; Ohio river averages for 1785-1787, 65, between 1900-1906, 351, canal effects, 143-144, during Civil war, 247-248, failure, 355, increase be- tween 1845-1855, 172-173, increase on upper, 164; Pennsylvania canal, 148 ; Pittsburgh port survey of 1840, 168; Portland canal, 162; private traffic amount, 443-444; river by 1917, 423, regulated, 317, relieves railroads during World war, 424, reverses, 442, suited to changed commodities, 433, unites north and south, 239-240; ship- ping-industry combination, 438- 439; steamboats on Ohio in 1835, 159; suspended during Civil war, 245 ; terminals, 446-447 ; tributary traffic during 1840, 164-165; vol- ume in early years, 97; western possibilities, 448; see also Car- goes ; Denison act ; Economic in- fluences; Passengers; Railroads; Regulations; Shipping lines and owners; "Steel"; Trade and com- merce Trans-alleghany : sale of lands, 65 "Transporter": see Wheeling Steel Company Tupper, E. W: see "Louisiana" Turnpikes: 138-140 Twain, Mark: Life on the Missis- sippi, 196, 341 "Umpqua": 256 Union line: 194-195; appeals to south, 196 "United States": 386 United States Coal and Oil Company (Holden, W. Va.) : 317 United States Constitution: commer- cial significance, 68; ratification, 69 United States Mail: 162 United States Steel Corporation: 363 "Valley Forge": 182 Vance, Colonel John L: 409-410 Vandalia: 62 "Vesuvius": 124 Virginia: 65-68; refuses railroad charter, 229 Vittor, Frank: 446 Wages: coalboat crews, 260-261; deckhands, 328; low in interior river trade, 366; low pay favors packet lines, 284; pack-train driv- ers, 35; pilots' associations' work, 341 ; salaries of crews, 285 ; strikes, 262; see also Boatmen; Labor; Labor unions "Walhoning": 103 Walker, John: 83, 84, 87, 92; see also Elizabeth (Penn.) INDEX 465 Ward, Charles: 365 Ward (Charles) Engineering works: 426 "W. A. Shepherd": see American Barge line Washington, George: 67, 393-394 ffatericays Journal (St. Louis) : 13, 434 Way, Frederick Jr: +43 Wells, Captain William R: 102 West, Edward: 108-109 "Western Trader": 89 "Westmoreland": 388 West Virginia: 62 Wheeling: 64; entrance of railroad, 185-186; newspaper files, 13; ri- valry with Pittsburgh, 212-230; river center, 138 Wheeling and Belmont Bridge Com- pany: 219; see also Wheeling Bridge Company Wheeling bridge: Congress rider to Post Office Appropriation bill, 227; construction by private company, 219; destroyed by storm, 228; opening, 220-221 ; opinions con- cerning, 223; rebuilt, 228; su- preme court decision, 223-226 ; see also Government aid ; Improve- ments ; Pittsburgh; Wheeling; Wheeling Bridge Company Wheeling Bridge Company: 214 WheeVing Intelliffencer: 197, 228, 230, 285 Wheeling Steel Company: 434, 437 Whipple, Commodore Abraham: 86 \^'hite Collar line: 180, 288, 348; packets, 278-279 ; see also Cincin- nati, Portsmouth, Big Sandy, and Pomeroy line White, George: 127 Wierton Steel Company; 446 "Wild Wagoner": 261 Williamson, Captain J. N: 291 "Willing" (galley bateau) : 64 Windom report: 405-407 "Wm. D. Duncan": 152 \\'ood, Abraham: 24 Zane, Ebenezer: see Ohio Company "Zebulon M. Pike": 126-127 RSnv OF ILLINOIS-URBANA ffiiSv OF TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO 3 0112 025309383