a great objection to the cultivation of steep lands. The torrents sweep
away much of the loose soil, cut deep ruts, and carry down slate-clay,
and spread it on the foot slopes, and on the flat grounds below.
The following enumeration of the manufacturing people of Pittsburg was
made last year. It gives some view of the nature and extent of the
business carried on.
Hands
Employers Employed
1 Augur Maker 6
1 Bellows Maker 3
18 Blacksmiths 74
3 Brewers 17
3 Brush Makers 7
1 Button Maker 6
2 Cotton Spinners 36
7 Cabinet-Makers 43
11 Copper and Tin Smiths 100
1 Currier 4
2 Cutlers 6
4 Iron Founders 87
3 Gun Smiths 14
2 Flint Glass Manufactories 82
3 Green ditto ditto 92
2 Hardware Manufactories 17
7 Hatters 49
1 Locksmith 7
1 Linen Manufactory 20
1 Nail ditto 47
1 Paper Maker 40
{62} 1 Pattern Maker 2
3 Plane Makers 6
1 Potter (fine ware) 5
1 Rope Maker 8
1 Spinning Machine Maker 6
1 Spanish Brown Manufactory 2
1 Silver Plater 40
2 Steam-Engine Makers 70
2 Steam Grist Mills 10
6 Saddlers 60
5 Silversmiths and Watch Repairers 17
14 Shoe and Boot Makers 109
7 Tanners and Curriers 47
4 Tallow Chandlers 7
4 Tobacconists 23
2 Weavers 9
3 Windsor Chair Makers 23
2 Woolen Manufactories 30
1 Wire Drawer 12
1 White Lead Factory 6
----
Total 1280
Besides the above, it is surmised that there are three hundred and
fifty-seven manufacturing people, of which no estimate has been
furnished by the conductors. There is, besides, a chemical manufactory,
in which ammonia, copperas, lamp black, ivory black, and various
acids, are prepared.
Formerly large ships were built at Pittsburg, which sailed down the
river during floods: large keel boats, capable of either ascending or
descending the river.[38] Square arks, family boats, and small skiffs,
are built in great numbers. A steam-boat of 330 tons burden, for the
navigation of the Mississippi and Ohio, is nearly completed.
The conveyance of goods from Philadelphia {63} and Baltimore, together
with their warehousing and boating, produces much business here. In
the year 1813, no less than 4055 waggons, engaged in this trade, were
calculated to have passed the road. The number employed now must be
considerably increased.
Pittsburg also derives much advantage from its being the thoroughfare
of settlers for the western country. Here they sell their horses and
waggons; here they often remain waiting for a rise of water. Here also
they purchase boats, and lay in a stock of provisions for their passage
down the river.
The waters of the Ohio are now lower than they have been for many years
past. Merchants with their goods, and families with their baggage, find
it impossible to get downward. Some whose moveables are light, are
making the attempt. Many emigrants are proceeding with their waggons by
land. Where the distance does not exceed three or four hundred miles,
this will, at present, be found the more economical and expeditious
mode of travelling.
_September 30._ Emigrants continue to flock westward. To-day the
numerous inmates and followers of three large waggons arrived in a
body. It is truly interesting to see people of different countries,
and of different costumes, coming forward in the mail-coach, on
horseback, and on foot. At first view, this great migration leads to
the conclusion, that oppression, and the fear of want, are in extensive
operation somewhere to the eastward.
_October 4. (Sunday.)_ This afternoon three fights have taken place
in Bayardstown, a small appendage of Pittsburg.[39] These originated
from private quarrels in taverns. The combatants sallied from {64} them
to the street, where the battles were fought in the presence of the
passengers. There are five taverns in this place; of course only two
of them have escaped being scenes of action. This is not in perfect
agreement with the character of sobriety, absence of dissipation and
gross vices, that a late describer of Pittsburg has given of its
people.[40]
_October 9._ The people are in great ferment about the ensuing
election. Newspapers teem with the most virulent abuse; and one of the
candidates for Congress has fought with a lawyer in town. It would be
useless to inquire after particulars, as facts are always differently
represented by opposite parties.
A farmer, who lives at the distance of a few miles from this place,
told me that he is a native of Ireland, and that he had not fifty
dollars in the world, fifteen years ago; now, he would not take 4000
dollars for his property. He commenced alone, and has not followed any
other occupation than the cultivation of his farm, and the sale of
its produce. However strange this may appear in Europe, an individual
farming in the new settlements of America, is an occurrence too common
to excite wonder.
_October 13._ To-day the inhabitants of Pennsylvania elect their
Representatives in Congress, Members of the State Assembly, and County
Officers. I have gone repeatedly to the court-house of Pittsburg,
to see the popular proceedings. The citizens wrap up the names of
the candidates they recommend in a small slip of paper, which they
hand through the open pane of a window to the inspector, an officer
previously appointed for {65} counting the tickets. This way of
balloting, places the poor man beyond the control of his superior
or creditor. I have seen no riot or confusion. Populous cities, in
America, are divided into wards, where separate elections are held at
the same time; a salutary precaution, that prevents the assembling of
great crowds.
The shortness of my stay, and my limited acquaintance with the people,
do not allow me to say much of their character. A considerable degree
of industry is manifested by the bustle that pervades the town. This
virtue, however, does not prevail to the extinction of dissipation.
Swearing is certainly the most conspicuous vice. Some affirm that a
class of people, whom they denominate low Irish, are the most immoral
of the population. It gives no pleasure, to hear such a reflection
on the peasantry of a country, distinguished by the hospitality,
generosity, and bravery, of its people. In justice to humanity, it is
necessary to bear in mind, that they have not enjoyed the means of a
good education in their native country; and it is proper to mention,
that there are natives of Ireland here, who have risen to opulence, and
deserved eminence in society. The recollection of several of these,
and other worthy citizens of Pittsburg, will always be accompanied with
sentiments of my esteem.
The weather continuing clear, and without the least prospect of a
flood, I have procured a skiff, and determined on proceeding down the
river. The skiff is 15¹⁄₂ feet long, 3¹⁄₂ wide across the gunwale,
and 14 inches deep. This is supposed to be sufficiently large for
carrying myself and baggage, (about 800 lbs.) The sides are composed
of two boards of pine, three quarters of an inch thick; the bottom
flat, and of the same material. It is a light, {66} and certainly
not a strong bark. My other equipments are, a copy of the Pittsburg
Navigator, (a book recommended as useful, in pointing out the proper
course for avoiding bars, and the points where rapids are to be
entered;)[41] small quantities of bread, cheese, and dried deer; a
small flask with spirits; and a tinned cup, to be used both in drinking
water from the river, and in casting out bilge water. Over the after
part of the skiff three hoops are fixed, in the form of an arch. A
sheet stretched over these, will form a canopy under which I may sleep,
by the margin of the river.
FOOTNOTES:
[37] The Pennsylvania legislature, having purchased from the Indians
the land north and west of the Allegheny River, in 1789 ordered a
tract opposite Pittsburg to be laid off in lots and sold to satisfy
the claims of the state troops. Allegheny City, thus established, by
its proximity to Pittsburg shared in the rapid growth of the latter,
becoming a borough in 1828 and a city in 1840.--ED.
[38] The building of keel-boats, barges, and later brigs and schooners,
had been one of the foremost occupations of Pittsburg since 1790.
Seaworthy ships were here launched and floated to New Orleans, whence
they sailed to foreign as well as domestic ports. See Harris’s
_Journal_, volume iii of our series, pp. 349, 353. Steamboat building
was begun here by agents of Fulton, seven years previous to Flint’s
arrival.--ED.
[39] Stephen Bayard, a colonel in the Revolutionary army, later a
merchant in Pittsburg, bought from the Penns, when the town was laid
out (1784), thirty-two lots on the present Penn and Liberty streets; a
district known for many years as Bayardstown.--ED.
[40] An American writer.--FLINT.
[41] For the Pittsburg _Navigator_, see Cuming’s _Tour_, volume iv of
our series, note 43.--ED.
LETTER VI
Descend the Ohio from Pittsburg to Beaver--Occurrences and remarks
there
_Atkinson’s Tavern, by Beaver,
28th October, 1818._
As a great part of my notes since I last wrote, relate to rapids, bars,
islands, &c. I shall omit the description of many of them, as being
altogether uninteresting.
On the 14th of October, I embarked on the Monongahela, about half a
mile above its junction with the Allegany. A gentleman to whom I had
been introduced, very kindly assisted me in arranging my lading, and
rowed me down to the lower point of the town.
The Allegany being a clear, and the Monongahela {67} a turbid river,
their compound, the Ohio, as might be expected, is of the intermediate
character. The mud, that covers the gravel at the height of three
or four feet above the present level of the water, shows, that a
very slight rising of the river carries much soil along with it.
One of the earliest writers who gives a detail of the beauties of
this river, states, that the bottom, and even fishes, may be seen in
several fathoms of water. During the present dry season, the bottom is
indistinctly visible at the depth of five or six feet. The water, when
taken up in a bright tinned vessel, appears to be perfectly limpid; but
after standing in it for an hour, a very small sediment is deposited.
From the experience of boatmen, and others who drink this water, it is
understood to be healthful.
To me this was a novel method of travelling. Steep ridges of hills
on both sides of the river, about 300 feet above the surface of the
water, and these covered with a profusion of timber, now clothed in all
the variegated hues of autumn, form an avenue of the most magnificent
description. For nearly the length of six miles, the surface of the
water has all the smoothness of a mill-pond, which gave an additional
effect to the scenery, but which imposed on me the labour of rowing
incessantly. My boat, besides being without rudder, or even that short
piece of keel in the after-part which is so essential in moving forward
in a straight line, went on in a zig-zag direction, occasioning much
trouble, and promising no great degree of safety on my coming into
quick running water.
At a rapid, six miles from Pittsburg, a boat has recently been stove. I
saw the people on shore drying their goods. In this same rapid, my ill
sailing bark put about broadside to the current. On reaching the lower
extremity of the declivity, {68} my situation was rather alarming. Here
the violence of the current being opposed by deeper and more placid
water, produces a sort of heaving motion. The sidelong motion over this
swelling surface, was much aggravated by a top-heavy load. Travellers
are fortunate when they arrive early in the season, as the stream at
that period propels a boat much quicker than the most laborious rowing
can do now.
After having passed several rapids, which are commonly called ripples
in this country, I attempted to land for the night, on the head of Dead
Man’s Island, a low bar covered with small willows, but found the water
to be so shallow that I could not approach the dry ground, and that
with a short rope, I could not effect a mooring to any log, bush, or
fixed object. The possibility of an unforeseen rise of water in such a
long river caused me to determine not to sleep aground, without being
securely fastened. It was now nearly dark, and I judged it impossible
to cross to the opposite shore to find a mooring, as the roaring of the
Dead Man’s Ripple, (a furious rapid, between the island and the right
hand shore,) convinced me that I was already almost within its draught.
The only alternative which remained, was to push into the principal
stream. I adopted it, and was soon carried through an impetuous winding
channel, where I could perceive large dark-coloured masses, supposed to
be rocks, above water, at small distances on each side.
_October 15._ Last night I put ashore about half a mile below the Dead
Man’s Ripple. The margin was of a convenient depth, admitting my lying
aground, to avoid the danger of my leaky bark’s sinking in the night.
Having made it fast to a log, and piled up my boxes toward the prow,
and spread three pieces of board over the seats behind for a {69} bed,
I covered the three hoops with a sheet for a canopy, laid down my
portmanteau for a pillow, and wrapping myself in a blanket, I went to
rest.
As I neither saw any light, nor heard the voice of a human being, I
imagined that I was far from the neighbourhood of any house. The only
sounds that saluted my ear, arose from bells attached to cows in the
woods, and from the breakers produced by the Ripple. The sheet which
served me for a roof, was not long enough to reach the sides of the
boat, a cold wind that blew down the river, passed in a constant
current through my lodgment, and for a considerable time prevented
me from sleeping. About midnight I heard the noise of footsteps
approaching me on the gravel, and looked out to see what my visitor
might be: a faint glimmering of moonlight enabled me to discover the
white face of a young cow that had come down to drink.
It would be imprudent to sleep ashore and leave goods in a boat on the
river, boatmen being much blamed for stealing.
I put off about seven o’clock in the morning. A continuation of the
same ridges of hills, and the same woods, bounded the view on both
sides of the river. The bottom land is narrow, and the parts which have
been cleared are chiefly covered with crops of Indian corn. Bottom
land is of two sorts; the lower by the margin of the river; and the
higher by the foot of the ridge. The lower bottoms are about twenty
feet higher than the surface of low water; but as the trees on the
beach are peeled by ice and drifted wood, to the height of four or five
feet above the level of the ground, occasioned by floods; it follows
that the lower bottoms are subject to inundation, and that their height
must be increased {70} by the earth deposited from every high rising
of the waters. Nothing, in the present state of things, seems to offer
a solution of the formation of the higher bottoms, which are here
about twenty feet higher than the lower ones, and appear to be equally
flat, and forming plains parallel to them. I shall hereafter be very
attentive to facts with regard to this anomaly.
About six hundred yards above the mouth of Big Beaver Creek, my skiff
ran upon the top of a large mass of stone under water, which the
ripplings occasioned by a slight breeze of wind, prevented me from
seeing. In attempting to push her off, she upset, so as to admit a gush
of water all along the lower side. The hoops over her after part, not
allowing me to leap directly upon the stone, I plunged into the water
and mounted the stone just in time to catch the bark by the after part,
and prevent it from being carried down by the stream. By a considerable
exertion, I succeeded in keeping the after end close to the stone,
while the fore part sunk obliquely to a great depth in the water. Here
the cargo must unavoidably have slipped into the bottom of the river,
except for a large box, that wedged itself into the narrow forepart of
the boat, and the others, resting on it, were kept in their places.
Two black men came in a skiff to my relief. They took me in, and rowed
toward the shore, while I still retained my hold of the wreck, and
succeeded in getting it safely moored. This interruption happened
exactly before the door of a tavern, where I was accommodated with
board, and the means of having my baggage dried.
_Afternoon._ While exposing my books to the wind, a respectable looking
man, apparently a farmer, entered into conversation with me. His
inquiries {71} respecting the scientific and literary personages of
Edinburgh, and his acquaintance with the poetry and provincial dialect
of Scotland, were more minute than I could have expected in this part
of the world.
_October 16._ I have discovered that my skiff is too weak for carrying
any considerable weight. It is so much strained, that many of the nails
have their heads drawn half an inch out of the timber, and others much
more. The misfortune of the 15th, has probably saved me from a worse
one. The system of boat building at Pittsburg cannot be too strongly
reprobated. Defects in caulking, in the number, and in the strength of
the nails, were in the case of my boat, disgraceful[42]
_October 19._ A farmer, in removing Indian corn from an island to his
residence, had his flat sunk, and much of the cargo lost, within a few
yards of the point where I stopped short. I am resolved on procuring
a better skiff, and waiting a few days in hopes of a rise of water.
Floods at or before this season of the year, are considered annual
occurrences. The oldest residents recollect of only one year in which
there was no autumnal rise of the Ohio.
_October 20._ The mornings and evenings are now cool, usually about
34° of Fahrenheit’s scale. To-day, at two o’clock P.M. the temperature
of the sun’s rays was 90°. Thick fogs continue over the river in the
mornings, till eight or nine o’clock. These are no doubt occasioned by
the water being hotter than the air. The radiant heat passing upward,
necessarily carries humidity with it, which is immediately condensed,
and rendered visible by the colder air. Whenever the heat of the air is
of a temperature equal to that of the water, the phenomenon disappears.
The same principle may be {72} very plausibly applied, in explaining
the autumnal risings of the Ohio. The great and long continued heats of
summer in this country, render the air capable of accumulating a great
quantity of moisture. It is not till the sun recedes considerably to
the southward, and till a great portion of the atmosphere is cooled,
that rains are precipitated over any great extent of the country. The
Allegany mountains, and other high parts, are soonest cooled, and
first produce a deposition of rain. Hence autumnal floods occur, which
proceed from the higher country alone, without corresponding risings in
the lower tributaries of the Ohio. In seasons when the heat continues
long, the flood occurs late. With such hot days as we now enjoy, a
rising in the river is not to be expected.
_26th._ Went up Beaver Creek.[43] This is a large stream, with a rapid
descent over a sandstone bottom. Within three miles of its mouth
there are three saw-mills, a grist-mill, an iron furnace and forge, a
fulling-mill, a carding-mill, and a mill for bruising flax-seed. At the
iron furnace, cast goods are fabricated, the coarsest that I have ever
seen. Coal is abundant, but not used in reducing the ores.
It has been suggested, that a navigation connecting Cayahogo, on Lake
Erie, with Alexandria on the Potomak, should pass through Big Beaver
Creek;[44] but it appears altogether improper that such a communication
should descend so low as the mouth of this creek, thereby incurring
the ascent of the Ohio to Pittsburg, and the Monongahela to the bases
of the Allegany ridge. The longer route to New York seems to be vastly
preferable, and, as it is now in progress, it must supersede the
Pennsylvanian line.
I saw some people thrashing buck wheat: they had dug a hollow in the
field, about twenty feet in {73} diameter, and six or eight inches
in depth. In this the grain was thrashed by the flail, and the straw
thrown aside to rot in the field. The wheat is cleared of the chaff by
two persons fanning it with a sheet, while a third lets it fall before
the wind.
Indian corn is separated from the husks or leaves that cover the ear,
by the hands. In the evenings neighbours convene for this purpose.
Apples are also pared for preservation in a similar way. These are
commonly convivial meetings, and are well attended by young people of
both sexes.
A respectable English family put ashore with a leaky boat, almost in
the act of sinking. They had run foul of a log in a ripple. The craft,
called family boats, are square arks, nine or ten feet wide, and
varying in length as occasion may require. They are roofed all over,
except a small portion of the fore part, where two persons row. At the
back end, a person steers with an oar, protruded through a hole, and
a small fire-place is built of brick. Such boats are so formed as to
carry all the necessaries of new settlers. The plough, and the body of
the waggon, are frequently to be seen lying on the roof; and the wheels
hung over the sides. The bottom is made of strong plank, not liable to
be stove in, except where the water is in rapid motion; and the whole
fabric is exempt from the danger of upsetting, except in violent gales
of wind. Family boats cost from thirty to fifty dollars at Pittsburg.
A great proportion of the families to be seen, are from the northern
parts of New York, and Pennsylvania, also from the state Vermont, and
other parts. They have descended the Allegany, a river that I have not
hitherto mentioned as a thoroughfare of travellers.[45]
The gentleman mentioned in a former paragraph, is Brigadier General
L----k,[46] who {74} is at present a member of the Senate of the United
States. I have had several accidental interviews with him, and find
that he is acquainted with the late works of imagination and taste
published in Edinburgh, down to the Second Series of the Tales of My
Landlord.[47]
_October 28._ Settlers continue to be much retarded in getting down
the river. Head winds oblige them to put ashore sometimes for a whole
day. Families for the eastern parts of Ohio State, are proceeding by
the road. The father may be seen driving the waggon; and the women and
children bringing up two or three cows in the rear. They carry their
provisions along with them, and wrap themselves in blankets, and sleep
on the floors of taverns. The hostess here does not charge any thing
for this sort of entertainment.
Travelling by land at this season is, for various reasons, economical.
Families by this means avoid delay and expense at Pittsburg; they are
not obliged to sell their waggons and horses at an under value there;
but take them along, as a necessary stock for their farms; and they
are not put to the expense of a boat, which would be ultimately sold
for a mere trifle, or left to rot by the water side. Besides, their
rate of travelling is now more speedy than by water. Those who go
below Wheeling will have a farther advantage, as the distance from
Pittsburg to that place is 38 miles shorter than by the river. The
waggons and horses must also be of immediate use to those, who settle
at a distance from navigable waters. It is impossible to state the
distance to which horses and waggons should be carried from Pittsburg;
this wholly depends on the state of the river, the quantity of goods
to be transported, the price of freight, (if paying passage instead of
purchasing a boat is contemplated,) the {75} price of a boat, and the
certain loss on selling horses and waggons at Pittsburg. Strangers will
do well to make strict inquiries, and the most careful calculations, of
the expense of both modes of travelling, previous to the adoption of
either of them.