THE NAVIGATION OF THE OHIO
The neglect of the Ohio River by the United States government cannot be
better suggested than by comparing the expenditures on that river with
the appropriations for the great land thoroughfare--the Cumberland Road.
In thirty-two years (1806-1838) the government spent $6,823,559.52 on
the Cumberland Road. In seventy-five years (1827-1902) $6,752,042.04 was
appropriated for the Ohio River and much of that was portioned out to
the Mississippi, Missouri, and Arkansas.
It is impossible to determine with absolute assurance when and where the
first prominent movement looking toward the improvement of the Ohio
River originated. With the burst of population into the West came the
realization that the great waterway was a priceless possession.
It would be interesting to know in detail the actual condition of the
Ohio, say at the dawning of the eighteenth century. That it was greatly
clogged with sunken logs and protruding reefs and bars, of course, goes
without saying. Perhaps the average stage of water was less than it is
today; and yet the vast amount of water that stood in the tangled
forests and open swamps and meadows drained off so slowly as to maintain
a more uniform stage of water than is true in our day of alternate flood
and drought. If less water flowed in the Ohio's bed a century ago the
volume was at least more uniform than it is today.
As early as January 1817 a resolution was passed by the Legislature of
Ohio inviting the coöperation of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and
Indiana for the improvement of their great waterway. Virginia,
Pennsylvania, and Kentucky promptly responded, and in 1819 a preliminary
examination was made by General Blackburn of Virginia, General John
Adair of Kentucky, General E. W. Tupper of Ohio and Walter Lowrie, Esq.
of Pennsylvania who made reports to their several legislatures under the
date of November 2, 1819. But during the generation following, each of
these commonwealths became absorbed in internal improvements. Ohio, for
instance, between 1819 and 1844, built seven hundred and sixty-five
miles of canals costing nearly ten millions and almost as many miles of
turnpike at a cost of four millions. Ohio also built seventy miles of
railway, and in 1836 began to improve her most valuable river, the
Muskingum, for slackwater navigation. Thus there was reason enough why
Ohio could not undertake the improvement of the Ohio River. Her sister
states were equally engaged with internal affairs, and though some steps
were taken toward surveying the Ohio along the shores of several states
the matter was left, as should have been the case, to the general
Government.
This meant a long delay, but at last, in 1825, the great work was
undertaken; since 1836 there has been a continual struggle to compel the
Government to do its duty by the Ohio River and its great commerce. In
1837 the Government commenced a system of surveys and an improvement of
the low-water channels by means of riprap stone dams, arranged so as to
prevent the spread of the water by guiding and maintaining it in
comparatively narrow channels. The work was put under the direction of
Captain Sanders of the War Department. This system was continued at
intervals until 1844, when, the appropriation being exhausted, the work
suddenly ceased, not to be resumed until 1866.
Something of the difficulties of the old engineers may be estimated from
the records left by them concerning the various obstructions in the Ohio
River. "Thirty years ago," wrote an engineer in 1866, "there were
considerable tracts of woods abounding the stream ... forming dangerous
obstructions to navigation. Gradually, since that period, the number of
settlers along the river valley has greatly increased, and the bottom
lands ... have been cleared; so that comparatively few trees remain that
are liable to fall into the stream. And the same is true of most of the
principal tributaries. I refer to this to show the probability that when
the present snags and logs are removed, a slight expenditure annually
will keep the river clear of this character of obstructions." The snags
and logs of generations had been almost untouched by the
government--"left to the uncertain and unpaid-for attention of private
individuals." The plan now (1866) to rid the valley entirely of these
great impediments to navigation marks a new era in the history of the
Ohio. It was found, upon examination, that in the six hundred odd miles
between Pittsburg and Louisville there were seventy-five separate points
where there were snags, forty-nine "logs and loggy places," twenty-eight
wrecks and seventy-two "sunken boats &c." Between Louisville and Cairo
there were some sixty additional obstructions of similar nature--a total
of two hundred and eighty-five obstruction points. A schedule of these
obstructions, between Pittsburg and Wheeling for instance, will be found
interesting. The asterisks refer to obstructions in or near the channel
at comparatively low water:
_Distance_
_from_ _Snags,_ _Wrecks, etc._ _Remarks._
_Pittsburg._ _etc._
----------------------------------------------------------------------
2-1/2 Wreck. In the right channel of
Brunot's island below the
point on the left side.
3 Wreck. Same side as last, half mile
below.
3-1/3 Sunken barge. Left channel Brunot's island,
first below point.
4 2 wrecks.* Sunken in main channel near
old pork-house; one of them
has lately washed ashore.
9-3/4 Sunken barge. In shore on left side in way
of good landing; above
Hamilton's house, on Neville
island, a large coal barge
has stranded just below, but
may be gotten off.
13 2 wrecks.* Above Boyle's landing; first,
on right side, across
channel, is very dangerous;
second, in above, left.
15 Wreck. Near Shousetown, left side,
close in shore.
16 Snag. Opposite Sewickley, a little
below Boyle's landing.
16-1/2 Sunken barge. Right shore below Sewickley,
in way of boats at high
water.
18-1/2 Stranded Coal barge stranded, Logtown
barge.* bar, below Economy.
19-1/2 Sunken barge.* In channel of two boats,
Logtown creek.
21 Snag. Below foot of Crow island,
right side.
23-2/3 Snag. One-third mile above Freedom,
Penn., right side.
24 Snag. Close in shore at Freedom.
24-1/4 Snag. In main channel, very large,
below landing.
30-1/3 Sunken boat. Close in to right; not
dangerous below Raccoon
creek.
30-1/4 Sunken boat. In channel below last;
dangerous.
33-1/2 Snag. Opposite Industry, below Safe
Harbor landing.
33-2/3 Sunken boat.* Left side below last.
41 Snag. Sunken barge. Left channel of Line island
there is a snag.
42-1/2 Wreck. Wreck of steamer Winchester,
burnt, left channel of
Babb's island, Va., shore;
not much in the way.
49-3/4 Sunken boat.* In channel foot of Baker's
island; dangerous.
63 Snag. Foot of Brown's island; old.
63-1/4 Snag. Center of River, head of cable
eddy.
67 Wreck and Left channel, pier Pittsburg
cofferdam. and Steubenville railroad
bridge.
67-1/2 Sunken barge. Left side above Steubenville;
dangerous.
68 Sunken barge. Opposite Steubenville landing,
center of river.
70-3/4 Snags.* Several in the vicinity of the
Virginia and Ohio cross
creeks.
73-1/4 Sunken boats.* Two, right side, above
Wellsburg, Va.
76 Sunken boats.* Left, below block-house run.
76-1/2 Snag. Right side, below last;
should come out.
78-3/4 Wreck. Old, opposite brick house,
close on left shore.
81-1/2 Snags. Two, right of channel, above
Warren.
81-3/4 Snag.* Old, right side, near
white frame house.
83 Ice breaker. Head of Pike island, at coal
shaft.
84 Sunken Edge of bar, not dangerous,
barge.* opposite brick house.
87 Logs, Left and center, bottom of
etc. river, one mile below
Burlington.
88 Sunken boat. Sunken ferry-boat, close in
right side, Martinsville.
89-1/4 Sunken At ship-yard, Wheeling,
barge.* dangerous.[75]
Captain Sanders, in the forties, had estimated that it cost about
fifteen dollars to remove each ordinary snag from the Ohio. In the
Mississippi the roots of snags could be thrown into the deep pools where
they would soon become buried in mud; but on the Ohio such pools were
not frequent and it was usually necessary to carry the roots ashore and
destroy them with gunpowder. Sanders reported that up to September 1837
there had been three thousand three hundred and three obstructions
removed from the Ohio. In 1839 there had been about ten thousand
removed; at which time the work ceased. Some of the snags were six feet
in diameter at the butt and over one hundred feet in length. In a report
in 1835, on Mississippi improvement, Lieutenant Bowman stated: "It is a
well-established fact that snags do not move far from where they first
fall in, the weight of the earth attached to their roots serving as an
anchor. It is also well established that trees which once float seldom
form snags. Admitting this, it is sufficiently evident that if the banks
are once cleared, there can be no subsequent formation of snags."
Second only to such obstructions was the "Falls of the Ohio," the one
spot in all its course of nearly a thousand miles where steamboat
navigation was impossible until the construction of a canal, which
followed the route of the ancient portage path two and one-half miles in
length between the present sites of Louisville and Shipping-port,
Kentucky. In this distance the Ohio makes a fall of about twenty-five
feet caused by a ledge of rocks extending across the river. Steamboating
is impracticable here save only when the river is at flood-tide.
A company was incorporated by the legislature of Kentucky to cut a canal
around the falls in 1804, but nothing was done until January 12, 1825,
when the Louisville and Portland Canal Company was organized, with a
capital of $600,000. The stock was taken by about seventy persons,
residing in Kentucky, Ohio, Missouri, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New
York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, the United States holding 2,335
shares, and 1,665 issued to private individuals. Many difficulties
attended the construction of the work, which was not completed until
December 5, 1830. During the year 1831 406 steamboats, 46 keel-boats,
and 357 flat-boats, measuring 76,323 tons, passed through the locks.[76]
The venture was highly successful from a financial point of view thanks
to outrageous tolls that were charged. A twenty-four thousand dollar
boat of three hundred tons running between Cincinnati and St. Louis
expended in tolls in the Louisville and Portland Canal in five years a
sum equal to her entire cost. "A boat of one hundred and ninety tons,
owned at Cincinnati, has been in the habit of making her trips from this
city to St. Louis and back, in two weeks, and has passed the canal
_four_ times in one month. Her toll, each trip, at $60 per ton, was
$114, and her toll for one month was $456, or at the rate of $5,472 per
year, which is nearly half the value of such a boat."[77]
From 1831 to 1843, 13,756 steamboats passed through the Canal, and 4,701
keeland flat-boats, with a total tonnage of two and a half million
tons, netting a toll of $1,227,625.20.[78] On the stock owned by the
United States a cash dividend (to 1843) of $258,378 was earned--$23,378
more than the Government's original investment. Other stockholders fared
equally well from this systematic highway robbery. Such a drain on the
public purse as was the Louisville-Portland Canal in the "good old days"
would not be countenanced a moment today. The canal was rebuilt and
enlarged in 1872, and in 1874 it passed into the control of the United
States by the authority of Congress.
Following is a synopsis of the expenditures on account of the canal
previous to June 11, 1874, the date when the United States assumed
complete control and management:
"Expended by the canal company on original canal. $1,019,277.09
Expended by the canal company on subsequent
improvements and construction 120,000.00
Expended by the canal company for enlargement of
canal 1,825,403.00
Expended by the United States for enlargement of
canal, from appropriations 1,463,200.00
Expended by the United States from funds derived
from toll collections 150,000.00
--------------
Total cost $4,577,880.09
_Cost of the canal to the United States._
Original stock $ 233,500
Total appropriations for enlargement 1,463,200
Canal bonds paid 1,172,000
-------------
Gross cost $2,868,700
Amount of dividends paid by the canal company to the
United States 257,778
-------------
Net cost $2,610,922"[79]
The following table shows the traffic, in tons, of the canal since 1886:
_Articles._ _1886 to 1901_ _Fiscal year_ _Total for 16_
_inclusive._ _1902._ _years._
Coal 22,365,240-3/4 1,019,947-1/2 23,385,188-1/4
Salt 124,363-3/4 5,760-1/4 130,124
Oil 60,944-1/4 1,211-1/2 62,155-3/4
Whiskey 21,442-1/4 1,117 22,559-1/4
Tobacco 90,270-1/2 1,705 91,975-1/2
Cotton 140,213 2,299-1/2 142,512-1/2
Lumber 3,401,021 85,305-1/2 3,486,326-1/2
Corn and wheat 151,621 5,933-1/2 157,554-1/2
Iron: ore and
manufactured 518,642-1/2 34,634-1/2 553,277
Steel rails 685,182 183,016 868,198
Produce 84,396-1/2 4,864 89,260-1/2
Hay and straw 198,523-1/2 6,224-1/4 204,747-3/4
Flour 19,830-1/2 510-1/2 20,341
Stock 98,954 4,233-3/4 103,187-3/4
Sugar and molasses 125,746-3/4 11,022-1/2 136,769-1/4
Staves and shingles 475,310-3/4 34,405-1/2 509,716-1/4
Cement 40,568-3/4 835-3/4 41,404-1/2
Miscellaneous 1,319,552 69,518-1/2 1,389,070-1/2
-------------- ------------- --------------
Total 29,921,823-3/4 1,472,545 31,394,368-3/4[80]
Since 1825, when the first step toward improving the Ohio was taken, the
general plan has been to secure additional low-water depths at islands
and bars by the construction of low dams across chutes, by building
dikes where the river was wide and shallow, by dredging and by the
removal of rocks and snags. Various plans of improvement were seriously
mooted. Among these Charles Ellet's plan of supplying the Ohio with a
regular flow of water by means of reservoirs was strongly urged upon the
Government about 1857.[81] Near the same time Herman Haupt proposed a
plan of improvement by means of a system of longitudinal mounds and
cross dams so arranged as to make a canal on one side of the river some
two hundred feet wide, or a greater width, and reducing the grade to
nearly an average of six inches per mile between Pittsburg and
Louisville.[82] A few years later Alonzo Livermore secured a patent for
a combination of dams and peculiar open chutes through the dams,
arranged so as to retard the flow and lessen the velocity of the water
from higher to lower pools without interfering with the free passage of
the boats through the chutes; chutes were substituted for locks.
In 1866 the condition of the river improvements and the great change in
the river trade--which loudly called for improved methods--is tersely
summed up by Engineer W. Milnor Roberts as follows:
"For the purpose intended, namely, the making of an improved low-water
navigation, looking to a depth not exceeding two and one-half feet, the
general plan designed, and in part executed, under the superintendence
of Captain Sanders, was judicious; and if all the proposed dams had been
finished in accordance with his plans there would have been a better
navigation, especially for low-water craft, than there has been during
the twenty-two years which have elapsed since the works were left, many
of them, in a partly finished condition. Some of these wing dams, as
might reasonably have been anticipated, have, in the course of years,
been gradually injured by the action of floods, and in some cases
portions of the stone have been removed by persons without authority,
for their own private purposes. It is important to note the change which
has taken place in the coal trade, not only on account of its great and
increasing magnitude, but on account of the altered system upon which it
is conducted. Formerly, and at the time when the riprap dams were
constructed, the coal business was carried on by means of floating coal
barges, drawing at most four feet water, which were not assisted in
their descending navigation by steamers, and which never returned, but
were sold as lumber at their point of destination. The increasing demand
down the river for the Pittsburg coal, the increase in the value of
lumber, and the general systematizing of the trade, all combine to
revolutionize the mode of transportation. It is now [1866] carried on by
means of large barges, each containing ten to twelve, some as high as
sixteen thousand bushels of coal, which are arranged in fleets,
generally of ten or twelve barges, towed by powerful steamers built and
employed for that special purpose. Enough of these barges are owned by
the coal operators to enable them to leave the loaded barges at their
various points of coal delivery, down the Ohio, or on the Mississippi
and other rivers, while they return to Pittsburg with a corresponding
fleet of empty barges, to be again loaded, ready for the next coal-boat
freshet. As these barges, when loaded draw from six feet to eight feet
of water, it is obvious that they can only descend when there is what is
now called a 'coal-boat rise' in the river--that is, a flood giving not
less than eight feet water in the channels.
"This coal shipment from Pittsburg, which in 1844 only amounted to about
2,500,000 bushels per annum, now amounts to about 40,000,000 bushels per
annum. I have, in the special report mentioned, referred to the
construction of railroads as having affected the business which was
formerly carried on the Ohio river during the comparatively low water.
The lower the water, the higher the rates of freight and passenger
travel, when there was no railroad competition; but now, when the prices
on the river during very low water approach the railroad prices, the
freight, whenever it can, will of course take the railroad, on account
of the saving of time and greater certainty of delivery; and thousands
of passengers always prefer the railroad to the river. But in this
connection it is proper to note that since 1844 a large local business
between various points on the Ohio, both freight and passenger, has
gradually sprung up and become important, which scarcely had existence
at that time. The population along the river and in the counties in the
several States bordering upon it, and tributary to the river business,
has wonderfully increased. So that although a portion of the river
business has been attracted to the railroad, the business of steamboats,
as a whole, independently of the coal trade, has become much greater
than it was in 1844. Meanwhile the coal business has more than kept pace
with the increase of population and wealth along the Ohio, in
consequence of a steadily augmenting demand for the Pittsburg coal on
the Mississippi and other western rivers."[83]
The method of inland navigation by means of slackwater formed by dams
passable by locks was early proposed for the Ohio River after the first
experiment made of this method on the Green River, Kentucky, in 1834-36
by Chief Engineer Roberts. The successful operation of this system on
the Monongahela and Muskingum Rivers exerted a powerful influence in its
favor, and for many years its adoption on the Ohio was urged patiently
though unsuccessfully. At last the important matter was advocated with
success, and in 1885 the first of a series of locks and movable dams was
erected at Davis Island, four and one-half miles below Pittsburg. The
work now is rapidly being completed, the plan being to give a minimum
depth of six feet of water in the Ohio by means of thirty-eight dams and
locks between Pittsburg and the mouth of the Great Miami, below
Cincinnati. This form of improvement will of course be extended in time
to the mouth of the Ohio.
From past experience with dams in the river, the cost of locks is
estimated as follows:
For an average lock of six hundred feet length and one hundred and ten
feet width, with navigable pass of six hundred feet length, and with
weirs of two hundred and forty feet available openings, all arranged to
provide six feet navigable depth in the shoalest parts of the improved
channels of the pools, with an average lift at each dam of seven and
two-tenths feet:
Lock, including cofferdam, excavations, foundations,
masonry, timber, and ironwork of fixed and movable
parts, power plant, machinery, and accessories $350,000
Navigable pass; same items as above 150,000
Weirs, piers, abutments; same items as above 170,000
Miscellaneous, including local surveys, purchase of
sites, embanking, retaining, riprapping, and paving
of banks, lock employees' houses, storehouses,
other buildings, dredging of approaches to locks
and passes, dredging of shoals and removal of
obstructions in pools, engineering work of
location, construction, and inspection, office
work of engineering and disbursements, and other
contingencies 200,000
--------
Total $870,000
But the extra width and height of lock esplanade filling, extra length
of weirs, and extra channel dredging, incident to the individual
locations of the dams, increase the above estimates to final totals of
from nine hundred and fifty thousand dollars to one million, one hundred
thousand dollars at the individual dams.
The expenditures of the Government on the Ohio River from 1827 to 1902
are as follows:
_Act of Congress._ _Appropriation._ _Remarks._
----------------------------------------------------------------------
March 3, 1827, $30,000.00
March 3, 1835, 50,000.00
July 2, 1836, 20,000.00
March 3, 1837, 60,000.00
July 7, 1838, 50,000.00
June 11, 1844, 100,000.00
March 3, 1847, 6,479.25
August 30, 1852, 90,000.00
June 23, 1866, 172,000.00 Allotment of money already
appropriated, for improving
Mississippi, Missouri,
Arkansas, and Ohio Rivers.
June 23, 1866, 80,000.00 Allotment for snag boats and
apparatus for improving
western rivers.
March 2, 1867, 100,000.00
July 25, 1868, 85,000.00 Allotment for repair,
preservation, extension,
and completion of
river and harbor works.
July 11, 1870, 50,000.00
March 3, 1871, 50,000.00
June 10, 1872, 200,000.00
March 3, 1873, 200,000.00
June 23, 1874, 150,000.00
March 3, 1875, 300,000.00
August 14, 1876, 175,000.00
June 18, 1878, 300,000.00
June 18, 1878, 50,000.00 Harbor of refuge at or near
Cincinnati.
March 3, 1879, 250,000.00
June 14, 1880, 250,000.00
March 3, 1881, 350,000.00
March 21, 1882, 100,000.00 Continuing work on Davis
Island dam.
August 2, 1882, 350,000.00
August 2, 1882, 16,000.00 Harbor of refuge near
Cincinnati, Ohio.
July 5, 1884, 600,000.00
July 5, 1884, 17,000.00 Same.
August 5, 1886, 375,000.00
August 11, 1888, 380,000.00
September 19, 1890, 300,000.00
January 19, 1891, 2,128.87 Relief of Stubbs & Lackey.
Treasury settlement No. 2593.
July 13, 1892, 360,000.00
August 18, 1894, 250,000.00
June 3, 1896, 250,000.00
July 1, 1898, 15,000.00 Allotment for restoring levee
and banks of Ohio River at
or near Shawneetown, Ill.
March 3, 1899, 375,000.00
June 13, 1902, 359,000.00 Amount appropriated, $400,000;
$41,000 being for Falls of
Ohio River, at Louisville, Ky.
-------------
Total, $6,565,608.12
Total of appropriations, 1827-1902, $6,565,608.12
Total of allotments, 1827-1898, 352,000.00
Received from sales, 1866-1893, 7,790.50
----------- $6,925,398.62
Appropriations not drawn, 1827, 1852, 5,023.47
Allotments not drawn, 1866, 1868, 43,134.60
Returned by Treasury settlements, 30.07
Amounts transferred to other works, 125,168.44
-------------- 173,356.58
-------------
Total, $6,752,042.04[84]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] _Transactions American Philosophical Society_ (new series), vol. iv,
pp. 369-370.
[2] Bonnécamps's journal was accompanied by a MS. map drawn by himself
upon which were marked all the places mentioned in his journal of this
expedition (1749). This map was preserved in the archives of the
Department of the Marine with his journal but disappeared between 1892
and 1894 and its location today is unknown.
[3] Warren, Pennsylvania; O. H. Marshall's "Céloron's Expedition,"
_Magazine of American History_, vol. 2, no. 3, (March 1878).
[4] _Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents_, vol. lxix, p. 165.
[5] _Historic Highways of America_, vol. iii, pp. 71-72.
[6] Brokenstraw Creek.
[7] Céloron's Journal in Darlington's _Fort Pitt_, p. 17.
[8] Céloron's Journal in Darlington's _Fort Pitt_, pp. 18-19.
[9] _Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents_, vol. lxix, p. 165.
[10] Céloron's Journal in Darlington's _Fort Pitt_, p. 21.
[11] _Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents_, vol. lxix, p. 167.
[12] For a sketch of Indian occupation of the Allegheny Valley see
_Historic Highways of America_, vol. iii, pp. 59-62.
[13] Franklin, Pennsylvania.
[14] Céloron's Journal in Darlington's _Fort Pitt_, p. 24.
[15] _Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents_, vol. lxix, p. 169.
[16] Céloron's Journal in Darlington's _Fort Pitt_, p. 25.
[17] _Id._, p. 25. Parkman places Attiqué on the site of Kittanning,
Pennsylvania (See Parkman's _Montcalm and Wolfe_, vol. i, p. 45). This
view is supported by Lambing (_Catholic Historical Researches_, January
1886, pp. 105-107, note 6).
[18] Céloron's Journal in Darlington's _Fort Pitt_, p. 26.
[19] This letter, dated August 6, with two others, all bearing the
signature of Céloron, has been preserved in the archives of the State of
Pennsylvania. For copy of translation see Rupp's _Early History of
Western Pennsylvania_, p. 36.
[20] Queen Alliquippa.
[21] Céloron's Journal in Darlington's _Fort Pitt_, p. 27.
[22] Toner's _Journal of Colonel George Washington, 1754_, pp. 157-158.
In this article it was demanded that the English should not return
across the Alleghenies _for one year_.
[23] Shenango, in English accounts.
[24] O. H. Marshall's 14 Céloron's Expedition,' _Magazine of American
History_, vol. 2, no. 3, (March 1878).
[25] Céloron's Journal in Darlington's _Fort Pitt_, p. 39.
[26] The location of the burial places of Céloron's leaden plates as
given in Darlington's _Fort Pitt_, which would naturally be considered
authoritative, are inexplicably contradictory.
[27] Céloron's Journal in Darlington's _Fort Pitt_, p. 40.
[28] _Id._, p. 40.
[29] _Id._, pp. 40, 41.
[30] St. Yotoc was probably a corruption of Scioto. Father Bonnécamps
calls it Sinhioto. It was near the present site of Alexandria, Ohio, at
the mouth of the Scioto River.
[31] Rivière Blanche was a name given by the French to several streams
which contained unusually clear waters. From distances mentioned this
was probably the Little Miami. Dunn (_History of Indiana_, p. 65, note
1) thinks it was the present White Oak Creek.
[32] Rivière à la Roche (Rocky River) was the present Great Miami. It
was called the "Rocky River" because of its numerous rapids.
[33] _Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents_, vol. lxix, p. 183.
[34] Céloron's Journal in Darlington's _Fort Pitt_, p. 52.
[35] _Historic Highways of America_, vol. vi, ch. i.
[36] _The St. Clair Papers_, vol. ii, p. 1.
[37] _Id._, p. 3, note 1.
[38] _Id._, vol. ii, p. 4, note.
[39] _Id._, p. 5, note.
[40] _Id._, p. 5, note. Legally John Emerson had no rights northwest of
the Ohio River; but as an exponent of the American idea he had a sort of
justification; see Professor Frederick J. Turner's studies, _American
Historical Review_, vol. 1, pp. 70-87, 251-268.
[41] _The MS. Harmar Papers_; _St. Clair Papers_, vol. ii, p. 7, note 1.
[42] The rights to certain lands on the upper Muskingum Valley, where
David Zeisberger had located the Moravian towns in 1773, were vested in
the Moravian Church. Gnadenhutten, Ohio, was, technically, the first
white settlement in Ohio after the French locations along the Lakes.
King's _Ohio_, p. 119.
[43] Hinsdale's _Old Northwest_ (1888), pp. 290-292.
[44] _Historic Highways of America_, vol. viii.
[45] _The Navigator_ (fifth edition), Pittsburg, 1806.
[46] "Planters are large bodies of trees firmly fixed by their roots in
the bottom of the river, in a perpendicular manner, and appearing no
more than about a foot above the surface of the water in its middling
state. So firmly are they rooted, that the largest boat running against
them, will not move them, but they frequently injure the boat.
"Sawyers, are likewise bodies of trees fixed less perpendicularly in the
river, and rather of a less size, yielding to the pressure of the
current, disappearing and appearing by turns above water, similar to the
motion of a saw-mill saw, from which they have taken their name.
"Wooden-Islands, are places where by some cause or other, large
quantities of drift wood, has through time, been arrested and matted
together in different parts of the river."
[47] Harris's _Tour_ (1805), p. 38.
[48] Harris's _Pittsburgh Business Directory for the year 1837_, pp.
178, 287.
[49] _Id._, p. 277.
[50] _The American Pioneer_, vol. ii, p. 271.
[51] _Historic Highways of America_, vol. i, p. 57.
[52] See note 55.
[53] Cassedy's _History of Louisville_, pp. 64-67.
[54] _American Pioneer_, vol. ii, p. 63.
[55] _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, vol. iv, p. 183; xii, p. 400;
vii, p. 371.
[56] An itinerary of the route from New Orleans northward is given in
_The Navigator_ (1817), p. 306. For a description of the journey see
_American Pioneer_, March, 1842.
[57] _American Pioneer_, vol. ii, pp. 163-164.
[58] Harris: _Tour_, pp. 30-31; cf. p. 139 where the author states the
historical succession of river craft as: canoe, pirogue, keel-boat,
barge, and ark.
[59] Interview with William DeForest published in the Cincinnati
_Commercial Gazette_, May, 1883.
[60] Dr. S. P. Hildreth's _Pioneer History_, p. 205.
[61] Collins's _History of Kentucky_, vol. ii, pp. 113-114.
[62] Burner's _Notes_, p. 400.
[63] Cassedy's _History of Louisville_, p. 64.
[64] Butler's Journal for October 9, 1785, _The Olden Time_, vol. ii, p.
442. Cf. _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, vol. xi, p. 13, note.
[65] Harris's _Pittsburgh Business Directory (1837)_, pp. 276-277.
[66] Harris: _Tour_, p. 43.
[67] _Id._, pp. 52-53.
[68] _Id._, pp. 140-141.
[69] _The Navigator_ (1811), p. 69.
[70] _The Navigator_, (1811), pp. 31-33.
[71] The authority for these and many of the following facts is derived
from a _Memorial of the Citizens of Cincinnati to the Congress of the
United States Relative to the Navigation of the Ohio and Mississippi
Rivers_, Cincinnati, 1844.
[72] Cassedy's _History of Louisville_, pp. 62-63.
[73] Cassedy's _History of Louisville_, pp. 78-79.
[74] Collins's _History of Kentucky_, vol. ii. p. 147.
[75] _Id._, p. 251.
[76] _House Reports_ 39th Congress, Second Session, Ex. Doc. 56, part 2,
p. 323.
[77] _Memorial of the Citizens of Cincinnati to the Congress of the
United States_, 1844, p. 39.
[78] _Id._, p. 38.
[79] _Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers, U. S. Army_, 1902,
Appendix H. H., p. 1978.
[80] _Id._, p. 1980.
[81] _House Records_, 41st Congress, Third Session, Ex. Doc. no. 72, p.
4.
[82] _Id._, p. 5.
[83] House Reports 39th Congress, Second Session, Ex. Doc. 56. Part II,
p. 262.
[84] _Report of the Chief of Engineers U. S. Army_, 1902, Appendix D.
D., p. 1846.
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes:
1. Passages in italics are surrounded by _underscores_.
2. Obvious errors in spelling and punctuation have been corrected.
3. Footnotes have been moved to the end of the main text body.
4. Images have been moved from the middle of a paragraph to the closest
paragraph break.
5. Certain words use an oe ligature in the original.
6. For longtitude and latitude, the minutes and seconds are placed as
single quotes within brackets. For example: 38° 47['] 20[''].