"THE NAVIGATOR"
As the eighteenth century neared its close the great highways converging
upon Pittsburg and its neighboring towns on the Youghiogheny and
Monongahela became the routes of the great flood-tide of immigration
which in a day filled the Middle West with towns and cities. The
emigrant reached navigable waters at Pittsburg, if he came over Forbes's
Road or the Pittsburg Pike; if he followed Braddock's Road he found
himself on navigable waters at Brownsville, or, continuing the land
journey, he reached Wheeling on the Ohio. If he came over the Genesee
Road through New York he would reach the Allegheny waters at Warren or
Watertown, Pennsylvania.
At any of these points he would, perhaps, provide himself with a
handbook of information concerning his prospective route. One of these,
_The Navigator_, was published in Pittsburg in the first year of the
nineteenth century by Zadok Cramer. Its title-page (fifth edition)
affirms the book to be "the trader's useful guide in navigating the
Monongahela, Allegheny, Ohio and Mississippi Rivers; containing an ample
account of these much admired waters, from the head of the former to the
mouth of the latter; a concise description of their towns, villages,
harbours, settlements, &c with particular directions how to navigate
them, in all stages of the water, pointing out their rocks, ripples,
channels, islands, bluffs, creeks, rivers &c and the distances from
place to place."[45]
Perhaps the typical emigrant would not secure such a guide book but the
information for which he made eager inquiry at his port of embarkation
is contained here and is of great interest to the student of the times
because of the variety of matters treated. Of the Ohio and its two great
tributaries let us quote the following information:
"MONONGAHELA
"This river rises at the foot of the Laurel Mountain, in Virginia,
thence meandering in a N. by E. direction, passes into Pennsylvania, and
receives Cheat river from the S.S.E. Thence winding to a N. by W.
direction, separates Fayette and Westmorland from Washington county, and
passing into Allegheny county receives the Youghiogheny river at
Pittsburgh, fifteen miles below the mouth of the former, and by land,
fifty-five below Cheat. The Monongahela is about 450 yards wide at its
mouth, measuring from the top of bank to bank, and in the fall and
spring freshes has water enough to carry ships of 400 tons burthen;
these, however, subside quickly and render the navigation for such
vessels very precarious. One great difficulty attending the navigation
of vessels of burden down this river arises from the almost
impossibility of keeping them in the proper channel, it being in many
places very narrow, and full of short turns around points of islands
which are numerous. This observation will also apply to the Ohio,
especially as low down as Wheelen [Wheeling], ninety miles below
Pittsburgh."
The waters of the Monongahela River, in those days as in these, were
very muddy, and had it not been for the magnificent trees which
abundantly lined the firm banks, the stream could not have been termed
very beautiful. These trees were chiefly walnuts, black-oaks, hickories,
maples, and button-woods, and afforded a bountiful supply of logs for
the many sawmills which the pioneers had already erected along the river
at the mouths of the various tributaries. Mr. Cramer tells us that the
lumber obtained from these logs was floated down to Pittsburg, Wheeling,
or some more remote point, and sold for a price ranging from a dollar to
a dollar and a half per hundred feet. The country of the Monongahela
was, even at this early day (1806), well populated; the land along the
river was fertile and productive, and sold at any price from twelve to
thirty dollars an acre. The "bottoms" contained many valuable
sugar-maples and Cramer estimated that, if properly managed, each tree
would yield four pounds of maple-sugar per annum--about one dollar a
tree each season.
"The mean velocity of the current of this river is about two miles an
hour, and is in a middling state of the water, uninterrupted with falls,
impeding the navigation, from Morgantown to its mouth, a distance of one
hundred miles; thence upwards the navigation is frequently interrupted
by rapids, but is navigable however for small crafts for fifty or sixty
miles further. The west branch in high water is navigable for fifteen
miles, and communicates with a southern branch of the Little Kenhawa, by
a portage of eight miles."
According to _The Navigator_, such cereals as wheat, oats, barley, rye,
and buckwheat were already raised to "great perfection" in the valley of
the Monongahela. It was a soil especially adapted to raising exceptional
wheat crops and Mr. Cramer informs us that the flour made from
Monongahela Valley wheat sold for two dollars more per barrel in New
Orleans than Kentucky flour. Apples and peaches were staple fruit crops
of the Monongahela country and these fruits were not infrequently made
into brandy. Peach brandy was a luxury in the South and sold at a dollar
a gallon.
"ALLEGHENY
"This is a beautiful, large and navigable river, taking its rise in
Lycoming county, P. within a few miles of the head waters of
Sinemahoning creek, a navigable stream that falls into the Susquehanna
river, to which there is a portage of 23 miles. Thence pursuing a N.
course passes into New-York state, winding to the N. W. about 20 miles,
turns gradually to the S. W. enters Pennsylvania, and meandering in
about that direction 180 miles, joins the Monongahela at Pittsburgh.
"Few rivers and perhaps none excel the Allegheny for the transparency of
its waters....
"Its mean velocity is about two miles and a half an hour. In its course
it receives many large and tributary streams; among these are the
Kiskimenetas, Mohulbuckitum, Tobas, French creek, &c. French creek is
navigable to Waterford; thence to Lake Erie is but fifteen miles
portage. To render the communication more complete the legislature of
Pennsylvania have passed a law for the erection of a turnpike between
Waterford and Erie. Another communication to lake Erie is by way of
Chataughque creek and lake; here is a portage of only nine miles, and
affording ground for an excellent waggon road. We understand a
ware-house is already established at Chautaughque lake. The navigation
by this route is said to be the best of the two. At the mouth of a
creek, also called Chautaughque emptying into lake Erie, a town has been
recently laid off called Portland nine miles from Chataughque lake. This
town is about thirty miles below the town of Erie, and ten below the
line between Pennsylvania and New-York, John M'Mahon proprietor."
The trade between the Allegheny River and the Lakes was at this time
well established and, it was predicted, would become of great
importance. Pittsburg was receiving from Onondaga salt works in New York
State two thousand barrels of salt annually. Immense quantities of
timber were also constantly being hurried toward their destinations by
the current of the Allegheny. Quite an extensive trade in salt fish from
Lake Erie was carried on in 1806, and Mr. Cramer expresses an earnest
hope that this trade would be encouraged to the extent of superseding
the importing of fish from beyond the mountains, for the fish brought
over the mountains then cost twelve cents while those from Lake Erie
could be offered for four cents and perhaps less per pound.
"In return we could send up whiskey, bar-iron, castings, cider, bacon,
apples, glass, nails, &c. and this would be keeping trade among
ourselves, which is always preferable to the sending away specie for
articles of home consumption. It has been suggested that merchandize
could be bro't to Pittsburgh from New-York, by way of the lake and down
this river, for about three cents a pound, which is one half less than
is given from Philadelphia. By this route, there would be a portage of
fifteen miles from Albany on the Hudson to Schenectada on the Mohawk, 10
miles around the falls of Niagara, and fifteen between Erie and
Waterford, making in all forty miles land carriage from New-York to
Pittsburgh. The Pennsylvanians, however, are struggling for a turnpike
road all the way over the mountains, which when compleated, will no
doubt tend to lessen the very heavy carriages that are now paid on
merchandize of all kinds."
The current of the Allegheny River is much more rapid than that of the
Monongahela; and in the days of _The Navigator_, as now, the clear,
transparent waters of the Allegheny marked their course across the
yellow, muddy waters of the Monongahela. And even three miles below the
junction, the waters of the Allegheny were to be distinguished from the
Monongahela. "Here [at the junction of the two rivers] the Allegheny is
about 450 yards wide, and when an island lying to the right is
completely washed away, which is accomplishing rapidly, the river here
will be at least 800 yards wide. Will not the inquiring mind, on
examination, have cause to entertain an opinion with us, that the bed of
this river has greatly shifted its situation; and that it once washed
the hill now a considerable distance to the east; and that the ground on
which Pittsburgh now stands has been made by its withdrawing, through
time and accident, from that hill to its present channel?
"OHIO
"This river commences at the junction of the two above mentioned rivers,
and here also commences its beauty. It has been described, as 'beyond
all competition, the most beautiful river in the universe, whether we
consider it for its meandering course through an immense region of
forests, for its clean and elegant banks, which afford innumerable
delightful situations for cities, villages and improved farms: or for
those many other advantages, which truly entitle it to the name
originally given it by the French, of La Belle Rivière.' This
description was penned several years since, and it has not generally
been thought an exaggerated one. Now, the immense forests recede,
cultivation smiles along its banks, towns every here and there decorate
its shores, and it is not extravagant to suppose that the day is not far
distant when its whole margin will form one continued village."
Mr. Cramer further states that his reasons for such a supposition are
numerous. Among those which he gives are: the large tracts of fertile
lands that are connected with the Ohio River by means of the navigable
waters that empty into it; the high, dry and usually healthy river
bottoms of exceptional extent, fertility and beauty; and the
extraordinarily superior navigation of the Ohio, by means of whose
waters the abundant products of these extensive and fertile lands must
eventually be distributed.
"At its commencement at Pittsburgh, it takes a N.W. course for about 30
miles, then turns gradually to W.S.W. and pursuing that course for about
500 miles, winds to the S.W. for nearly 160 miles, then turns to the W.
for about 276 miles, then S.W. for 160 miles, and empties into the
Mississippi in a S.E. direction, about 1100 below Pittsburgh, and nearly
the same distance above New-Orleans, in lat. 36. 43 m. N. It is
amazingly crooked, so much so indeed, that in some places a person
taking observations of the sun or stars, will find that he sometimes
entirely changes his direction, and appears to be going back again; but
its general course is S. 60 d. W. Its general width is from 500 to 800
yards, but at the rapids and near the mouth, it is considerably wider."
We can easily agree with Mr. Cramer that the numerous islands, found in
the Ohio River, added greatly to its picturesque grandeur; yet, he
reminds us, they caused many shoals and sandbars and greatly embarrassed
navigation. Some of these islands contain several acres of rich and
fertile soil and, _The Navigator_ tells us, were covered with a
luxuriant growth of timber; when cleared and planted with fruit trees
the orchards thrived amazingly, bearing the choicest fruit and the crop
seldom failing. This was also the case when fruit trees were planted on
the river bottoms, the excellent crops, in both instances, being due to
the same cause: a sandy, fertile soil.
"In times of high freshes, vessels of almost any tonnage may descend,
and it is never so low, but canoes and other light crafts can navigate
it. Many of the impediments that are now met with while the water is
low, might in a dry time be got rid of, and that at a very
inconsiderable expense: at least the expense would be by no means
inadequate to the advantages accruing from the undertaking, if properly
managed.
"Rocks that now, during the dry season, obstruct or render dangerous the
navigation of the large flat bottomed, or what are called Kentucky
boats, might be blown, even a considerable depth under water; channels
might be made through the ripples, and the snags and the fallen timber
along the banks entirely removed.
"These improvements together with many others that might be enumerated
will undoubtedly, sooner or later, be carried into effect, as they
appear to be a national concern of the first importance.
"The Ohio has on its left in descending a part of Pennsylvania,
Virginia, Kentucky, and the S. W. territory; on the right, Pennsylvania,
Ohio and Indiana territory. It receives in its course many large,
navigable streams, the principal ones are, Big Beaver, Muskingum, Little
and Great Kenhawa, Sandy, Scioto, Little and Great Miami, Licking,
Kentucky, Salt, Green, Wabash, Cumberland and Tennessee; these will be
more particularly mentioned in their proper places."
It is of interest to note what Mr. Cramer has to say of the fish of the
Ohio River. He tells us they were numerous and of various kinds: the
catfish, weighing from three to eighty pounds; the buffalo, from five to
thirty; the pike, from four to fifteen pounds; the sturgeon, from four
to ten; the perch, from one to twenty-five; the sucker, from one-half a
pound to six pounds; and occasionally a few herring were caught. A
fisherman, drawing in his seine in the spring of 1805, found among other
fish, it is said, a few shad of three or four pounds. These were caught
at Pittsburg. A great many felt disposed to dispute that these were salt
water shad considering the great distance from the sea, but all who
tasted of them positively identified them, in taste and shape, as the
shad which were caught in the Delaware River. Eels and soft-shell
turtles, though occasionally caught, were not plentiful in 1806. The
numerous and various kinds of wild ducks and the few geese which
frequented the river often furnished food for pioneers descending the
Ohio; for the purpose of shooting ducks and geese, turkeys, and
occasionally a deer or bear, the boats were always well supplied with
fire-arms.
"We should be glad could some method be devised to ascertain annually
the state of the trade of our rivers--could not houses for this purpose
be established, say at Pittsburg and Louisville, to take an account of
all cargoes that descend the Ohio? A statement of this kind published
yearly would show the growing increase of our exportations, and no doubt
would be interesting to the trading part of the community, and perhaps
have a tendency to rouse the spirits of the more indolent and careless.
"To the vast quantities of produce and articles of our own manufacture
that are sent down this river, consisting of flour, whiskey, peach
brandy, cider, beer, bar-iron, hollow-ware, earthern-ware, cabinet
works, boots, hoes, plow-irons, mill-irons, chairs, biscuit, bread,
cheese, bacon, beef, pork, lumber, linen, &c. &c. we must not forget to
mention a part of the articles which are brought up in return, viz.
large quantities of cotton, furs, peltries, lead and hemp. As the
articles of cotton and lead can be brought up in this way much cheaper
than by bringing them over the mountains, and as they are in great and
constant demand in this country, we hope that those concerned will use
all due exertion in pushing this part of our trade, which in time we may
presume will become a very considerable object to those engaged in it."
The "Instructions" in _The Navigator_ to emigrants afford a very clear
idea of the nature and needs of river travel in the first half-decade of
the eighteenth century: The first thing to be attended to by emigrants
was to secure a boat, and be on the alert to take advantage of the first
flood. Mr. Cramer speaks with emphatic indignation concerning the
dishonesty often manifested by the builders of the river boats. He
asserts that a great per cent of the accidents which happened on the
Ohio and Mississippi Rivers were due either to unpardonable carelessness
or stinginess of the builder, who either slighted his work or used unfit
timber. He earnestly recommends the appointment of boat-inspectors to be
stationed wherever boats were built, thereby avoiding many serious
accidents caused by unsafe boats. Mr. Cramer attempts to impress upon
all who were purchasing Kentucky boats that those intended for
navigating the Mississippi must necessarily be constructed differently
and of much stronger timber; he suggests and urges that the owner have
them narrowly examined, before embarkation, by one who understands the
form and strength of a boat suitable for navigating the Mississippi
River.
"Flat and Keel boats may be procured at New-Geneva, Brownsville,
Williamsport, Elizabethtown, M'Keesport, on the Monongahela, and perhaps
several places on the Youghiougheny; at Pittsburgh, Beaver, Charlestown,
and Wheelen, Marietta, Limestone, Cincinnati, the Falls, &c. and at most
of the above places vessels of considerable burden are built and
freighted to the Islands, and to different ports in Europe, their
principal cargoes consisting of flour, staves, cordage, cotton, hemp,
&c."
The spring and autumn were the two seasons when the Ohio could be most
advantageously navigated. The spring season began at the breaking up of
the ice, about the middle of February, and lasted for three months. The
fall season generally began in October and lasted until the advent of
winter, or about the first of December. At this time the forming ice
prevented navigation. These spring and fall freshets, however, could not
be called periodical, as they entirely depended upon the rainfall and
the earliness or tardiness of the beginning and ending of winter. Nor
were these seasons of high water entirely confined to the spring and
autumn. It commonly occurred that in the summer season a heavy rainfall
in the Appalachian ridges, where the creeks and rivers that flow into
the Monongahela take their rise, would cause a considerable freshet in
the Ohio; or a swelling of the current of the Allegheny and other rivers
often happened in the summer months and occasioned a sufficient amount
of water, if taken immediate advantage of, to render the navigation of
the Ohio perfectly possible. These out-of-season freshets, however,
subsided rapidly and if the owner of a boat wished to take advantage of
one and go down the river, he had to embark immediately.
"When provided with a good boat and strong cable of at least 40 feet
long there is little danger in descending the river in high freshes,
when proper care is taken, unless at such times as when there is much
floating ice in it. Much exertion with the oars is, at such times,
generally speaking of no manner of use; indeed it is rather detrimental
than otherwise, as such exertion frequently throws you out of the
current which you ought to continue in, as it will carry you along with
more rapidity, and at the same time always takes you right. By trusting
to the current there is no danger to be feared in passing the islands as
it will carry you past them in safety. On the other hand, if you row,
and by so doing happen to be in the middle of the river on approaching
an island, there is great danger of being thrown on the upper point of
it before you are aware, or have time to regain the current. In case you
get aground in such a situation, become entangled among the aquatic
timber, which is generally abundant, or are driven by the force of the
water among the tops or trunks of other trees, you may consider yourself
in imminent danger; nothing but the presence of mind and great exertion
can extricate you from this dilemma.
"As frequent landing is attended with considerable loss of time and some
hazard, you should contrive to land as seldom as possible, you need not
even lie by at night, provided you trust to the current, and keep a good
look out; if you have a moon, so much the better. When you bring to, the
strength of your cable is a great safe-guard. A quantity of fuel and
other necessaries, should be laid in at once, and every boat ought to
have a canoe along side, to send on shore when necessary.
"Though the labour of navigating this river in times of fresh is very
inconsiderable to what it is during low water, when continual rowing is
necessary, it is always best to keep a good look out, and be strong
handed.--The wind will sometimes drive you too near the points of the
islands, or on projecting parts of the main shore, when considerable
extra exertion is necessary to surmount the difficulty. You will
frequently meet with head winds, as the river is so very crooked that
what is in your favour one hour, will probably be directly against you
the next, and when contrary winds contend with a strong current, it is
attended with considerable inconvenience, and requires careful and
circumspect management, or you may be driven on shore in spite of all
your efforts. One favourable circumstance is, that the wind commonly
abates about sunset, particularly in summer.
"Boats have frequently passed from Pittsburgh to the mouth of Ohio in 15
days, but in general 10 days from Pittsburgh to the falls is reckoned a
quick passage.
"Descending the river when much incommoded with floating ice, should be
as much as possible avoided, particularly early in the winter, as there
is a great probability of its stopping your boat; however, if the water
is high, and there is an appearance of open weather, you may venture
with some propriety, if the cakes are not so heavy as to impede your
progress, or injure your timbers; the boat will in such case, make more
way than the ice, a great deal of which will sink and get thinner as it
progresses, but on the other hand, if the water is low, it is by no
means safe to embark on it when anything considerable of ice is in it.
"If at any time you are obliged to bring to on account of the ice, great
circumspection should be used in the choice of a place to lie in; there
are many places where the shore projecting to a point, throws off the
cakes of ice towards the middle of the river, and forms a kind of
harbour below. By bringing to in such a situation, and fixing your canoe
above the boat, with one end strongly to the shore, and the other out in
the stream sloping down the river, so as to drive out such masses of ice
as would otherwise accumulate on the upper side of your boat, and tend
to sink her and drive her from her moorings, you may lie with a
tolerable degree of safety.--This is a much better method than that of
felling a tree on the shore above, so as to fall partly into the river,
for if in felling it, it does not adhere in some measure to the trunk,
or rest sufficiently on the bank, the weight of accumulated ice will be
apt to send it adrift, and bring it down, ice and all, on the boat, when
no safety can be expected for it. The reflection here naturally occurs,
how easy it would be, and how little it would cost, in different places
on the river where boats are accustomed to land, to project a sort of
pier into the river, which inclining down stream, would at all times
insure a place of safety below it. The advantages accruing from such
projection to the places where they might be made would be very
considerable, bring them into repute as landing places, occasion many
boats and passengers to stop there, who otherwise would not, and soon
repay the trifling expense incurred by the erection.
"The above observations are more particularly applicable to the Ohio;
the following apply to the Mississippi, and point out the greatest
impediments and the most imminent dangers attending the navigation of
this heavy-watered and powerful river:
"These are, 1st. The instability of the banks.
2. Planters, sawyers, and wooden islands.[46]
"We shall endeavor to instruct the unexperienced navigator how to avoid
them. The instability of the banks proceeds from their being composed of
a loose sandy soil, and the impetuosity of the current against their
prominent parts, which, by undermining them unceasingly, causes them to
tumble into the river, taking with them everything that may be above.
And if when the event happens boats should be moored there, they must
necessarily be buried in the common ruin, which unfortunately has been
sometimes the case. For which reason, navigators have made it an
invariable rule never to land at or near a point, but always in the
sinuosity or cove below it, which is generally lined with small willows
of the weeping kind, whence some call them although improperly, willow
points, and which being generally clear of logs and planters, the
landing is easily effected, by running directly into them, the
resistance of the willows destroying a part of the boat's velosity, and
the rest is overcome without much exertion by holding fast to the limbs
which surround you.--In those places the river generally deposits the
surplus of soil, with which it is charged from the continual cavings of
the points, and so forms new land on one side by destroying some on the
other.
"The banks of this river from where it receives the Missouri to its
mouth, being with a few exceptions below high water mark, an immense
country is inundated, when the river is in its highest state, by which
those extensive swamps are formed and supplied, which prove the
nurseries of myriades of musquitoes and other insects (to the no small
inconvenience of the traveller) and the never failing source of grievous
diseases to the inhabitants. There are also streams, which at all times
sally forth from the main river with astonishing rapidity, and whose
vortex extends some distance into the stream. Boats once sucked into
such bayous are next to lost, it being almost impossible to force so
unwieldy a machine as a flat bottomed boat against so powerful a
current. It will therefore be safest for boats, never to keep too close
to shore, but to keep some distance out in the river. To avoid planters
and sawyers requires nothing more but attention, for they always
occasion a small breaker whereever they are, and if your boat seems to
be hurried towards them row the boat from them, else if you are dilatory
you must abide by the consequence.
"WOODEN-ISLANDS are more dangerous than real ones the former being an
obstacle lately thrown in the way of the current, and the bed of the
river not having had sufficient time to form that bar or gradual ascent
from the bottom of the river to the island, which divides the current at
some distance from the point of the island above water, the current will
hurry you against them, unless you use timely exertion. From all this it
must be evident how imprudent it is attempting to go after night, even
when assisted by a clear moon; but after you are once arrived at
Natchez, you may safely proceed day and night, the river from that place
to its mouth being clear, and opposing nothing to your progress but a
few eddies into which you may occasionally be drawn and detained for a
short time."