[299] Flint, J., Letters, Early W. Travels, IX., 164.
[300] Ibid., IX., 286.
[301] Hall, J., The West, 133.
[302] James, E., Account, Early W. Travels, XIV., 76.
[303] Ibid., XIV., 92.
[304] Ibid., XVII., 174.
[305] Fordham, E, P., Travels, 81-82.
[306] Hall, J., The West, 60.
[307] Niles, Weekly Register, XXIX., 127. Contains some account of
this work. October 22, 1825.
[308] Burnet, J., Notes, 491.
[309] Hall, J., The West, 77-78.
[310] Flint, T., History and Geography, I., 355.
Niles, Weekly Register, XXIX., 322. January 21, 1826. Contains
account of the awarding of the contract.
[311] Flint, T., History and Geography, I., 355.
[312] Hall, J., The West, 78-79.
[313] Hall, J/, The West, 79-81.
_CHAPTER II._
_OTHER CRAFT OF THE PERIOD._
The primitive forms of craft continued in use, upon the Ohio River,
long after the introduction of the steamboat. The business of the
country was small, and a few boats served the purpose. It was only
after the steamboats had become very common, growing in numbers
with the country, that they absorbed the great part of the carrying
trade.
The lumber from the upper river was all rafted, and in the spring
and early summer, when the water was high, the rafts were a leading
feature of the river life. They were made up through the winter
on the small branches of the Allegheny, and floated out on the
first spring freshet.[314] Sometimes several rafts would be joined
together, till they would cover an acre of space, or even more. On
these were built shanties for the men, and vast heaps of shingles,
and lath in bundles occupied a part of the space. As the region of
Pennsylvania and New York, drained by the Allegheny, was a pretty
good place to emigrate from, families were constantly leaving for
the countries down the river, and made these rafts available as the
means of moving. Indeed, for the purpose, nothing could be more
convenient, for the movers could build themselves a comfortable
shanty of the loose lumber, a shed for their horses and cows, if
they wished to take them along, and be quite at home during a
journey, that would often occupy three or four weeks.[315]
Howell says, "Often I have seen the shanties of two or three
families, with wagons, horses, cows, and even poultry, all snuggly
situated, with room for the children to play outside. I have seen
the women washing, and a clothes-line hung with the linen."[316] Hall
also gives us a pleasing account of this mode of travel. "Today we
passed 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 80 or 90 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 a farm yard, the ploughs,
wagons, pigs, children, and poultry, carelessly distributed, gave
to the whole more the appearance of a permanent residence, than
of a caravan of adventurere seeking a home. In this manner these
people travel at slight expense."[317]
The smaller forms of boats, the skiffs, and the pirogue were still
in use on the Ohio. The total expense of two people, for a voyage
of seven hundred miles in a skiff, down the Ohio, was but seven
dollars each.[318] Birkbeck speaks of forming two pirogues, out of
large poplars, lashing them together, and placing large planks
across both, thus creating a roomy deck and good covered stowage,
making it possible to take a bulky as well as a heavy cargo.[319]
Arks, which Schultz says were not much used on the Ohio in
1807 were at this period often used by emigrating families to
transport themselves down the river.[320] They were long floating
rooms, built on a flat bottom, with rough boards, and arranged
within for sleeping. Boatmen were hired, provisions were laid
in, and when the end of the voyage was reached the boat was
sold.[321] They were sometimes called flat bottoms, and described
as being "planked up at the sides, and covered at the top."
Emigrants generally procured them at Pittsburg and Wheeling, and
after reaching their destination sold them to persons wishing to
take produce to market.[322] This was a pleasant and cheap method
of traveling.[323] About 1817-1818 hundreds of these boats were
to be seen on the river, great numbers of them being built at
Pittsburg.[324] Tranchepain describes a boat which must have been a
form of ark. He says, "During our voyage we passed a great many
flat-bottomed boats. Some of them were small, and merely contained
an emigrant's family and its furniture. Some of the emigrants who
were better off, were going to the Missouri and the Illinois, and
their boats, besides their family, contained also a small wagon,
and two or three horses. These boats are built in the shape of a
parallelogram, whose sides are in the ratio of three, four, or
even five to one. They are planked up on each side and behind,
and are protected by a slightly curved roof made of thin boards,
their height being in the interior about that of a tall man. The
upper part of the front, and a few feet on each side of the front
are left open like a sort of balcony. From this opening project
two long oars which serve to steer the boat, and, in case of
necessity, to move it out of the way either of a sand bank, or
of a mass of drift wood. Each boat is often divided into two
or more apartments, one of which has a fireplace and chimney; so
that each of these strange habitations might not inappropriately
be termed a floating cottage."[325] Flint describes the flat boats
used by emigrants as being from forty to one hundred feet in
length, fifteen feet wide, and carrying from twenty to seventy
tons. They were very large and roomy, and had separate apartments,
fitted up with chairs, beds, tables, and stoves. He says, "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 recoll-ection the cargo of the ancient ark, all
embarked and floating down on the same bottom; and on the roof the
looms, ploughs, spinning wheels, and domestic implements of the
family."[326] Family boats cost from $30 to $50 in Pittsburg.[327]
These boats were sometimes tied end to end, two boats carrying as
many as forty people.[328] In 1818-1820 "family boats are almost
continually in sight," on the Ohio, near Louisville.[329]
The larger sort, called Kentucky Arks, and of about 150 tons
burthen, were used for purposes of trade. They contained a vast
assortment of articles, such as horses, pigs, poultry, apples,
flour, corn, peach brandy, cider, whiskey, bar iron and castings,
tin, copper wares, glass, cabinet work, chairs, millstones,
grindstones, and nails. These boats passed down the Ohio, selling
what they could at the river towns.[330] When the crew reached
New Orleans they sold the boat, and returned overland or by
steamboat.[331] Latrobe describes the ark as "a broad flat-boat
with a deck of two or three feet elevation above the water. They
have generally a small window fore and aft, and a door in the
middle, a peep into which will show you a goodly store of pots,
pans, or flour barrels. A narrow ledge runs round them for the
convenience of poling. A small chimney rises above; racoon and deer
skins, the produce of the hours spent ashore, are nailed on the
sides to dry. The larger are propelled by four oars, and I have
occasionally seen them surmounted by a crooked mast or top mast.
Here you will meet one fitted up as a floating tinshop, gleaning
many a bright dollar from the settlers. Others again are of a more
simple construction, and have merely a temporary deck supported
upon rails, through which the sheep and other live stock may be
descried. Hay for their consumption will be piled above, and
cabbages stowed away in a compartment behind."[332]
The flat-boat belonged to the same class as the ark. Their
construction was temporary and they were broken up at New Orleans
as not being sufficiently strong to be freighted up the the
river.[333] These flat boats or Orleans boats as they were sometimes
called, were from twelve to twenty-five feet wide, and from thirty
to ninety feet long, and carried about seven hundred barrels of
flour.[334] Farmers built these boats and sent their produce to New
Orleans in them.[335] Freight on board a flat boat in 1817 was 50
cents per cwt.[336] In 1818, one traveler on a steamboat counted as
many as 643 flat boats descending the Ohio and Mississippi.[337]
In one month, in the early part of the year 1831, it was estimated
that one thousand flat boats entered the Ohio from the Wabash,
with cargoes estimated at $2000 each.[338] Five hundred of these
boats passed Vincennes.[339] In 1827, Bullock says that there were
from 1200 to 1500 flat boats, averaging from 40 to 60 tons, at New
Orleans.[340] Basil Hall in 1827-1828 counted about 100 arks at New
Orleans.[341] The margin of the shore at New Orleans was lined in
the early part of the year 1831, with these flat boats from all
parts of the upper country.[342] The descent of a flat boat to New
Orleans, if in autumn, usually occupied fifty days.[343]
Retail trading boats continued in use on the Ohio. Every
considerable landing place on the Ohio and Mississippi, had in the
spring, a number of stationary and inhabited boats, lying by at the
shore. They were often dram shops.[344] Flint says, "While I was at
New Madrid, a large tinner's establishment floated there in a boat.
In it all the different articles of tinware were manufactured,
and sold by wholesale and retail.[345] A still more extraordinary
manufactory, we were told, was floating down the Ohio, and shortly
expected at New Madrid. Aboard this were manufactured axes,
scythes, and all other iron tools of this description, and in it
horses were shod. In short it was a complete blacksmith's shop of
a higher order. I have frequently seen in this region, a dry goods
shop in a boat, with its articles very handsomely arranged on
shelves."[346]
Keel boats were still used on the Mississippi and Ohio in low
stages of water, and on the boatable streams where steamboats did
not run. Before the introduction of the steamboat, there were six
times as many of these boats used as afterward.[347] These boats were
used to carry merchandise down the river, eight or ten boatmen
being required for a journey down stream,[348] and from twelve to
twenty-four to pole the boat up stream.[349] Emigrants sometimes
took passage down the Ohio in keel boats.[350] As early as 1817 the
steamboats were beginning to supersede them.[351]
Barges, varying from 40[352] to 170[353] tons burthen, were
used in the transportation of merchandise. About twenty[354] or
twenty-five[355] hands were required to work an ordinary barge
upstream, the boatmen being able to make about six or seven miles
per day against the current.[356] During the years 1812-1818
these barges were used to carry large cargoes both to and from
New Orleans.[357] These boats often were equipped with sails,
masts, and rigging. From ninety to one hundred days was a tolerable
passage from New Orleans to Cincinnati. In this way the intercourse
between Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Louisville, Nashville, and St.
Louis, for the more important purposes of commerce, was kept up
with New Orleans.[358] A rather interesting article appeared in
the Louisiana Gasette of October 24, 1815, which was as follows:
"The steamboats now in use cannot carry one twentieth part of
the goods that might be in demand from this city (N. O.)--the
common barges, always slow and expensive in their operations are
in a great measure paralyzed by the few steamboats in use, the
bargemen know that steamboats will always have the preference,
hence they are prevented from preparing barges, the expense being
great, and the barge owners generally men of very limited means,
so that the public will be worse served than if steam were not
in operation unless a spirit is immediately diffused that will
bring the steam navigation into use commensurate to the demand
of transportation."[359] As time went on the barges fell into
disuse,and about the year 1830, few were to be seen.[360]
In 1818, two thousand people were regularly employed as boatmen on
the Ohio, and they were proverbially ferocious and abandoned in
their habits, though possibly with many exceptions.[361] The shores
of the Monongahela in 1819, were lined with barges, keels, and arks
or flats, waiting for the rise of the Ohio.[362] During 1821-1823
flat bottoms, keels, and barges[363] found constant employment in the
carrying trade to and from New Orleans.[364] As late as 1828 or
1830, flats, arks, and barges were to be seen at New Orleans.[365]
The flats seem to have continued in the greatest numbers after the
introduction of the steamboat.
There were on the Ohio many other forms of craft which I shall
briefly mention. The Allegheny or Mackinaw skiff was a covered boat
carrying from six to ten tons.[366] "Dugouts," named from the manner
of making them, and canoes hollowed from trees were to be seen
in great numbers. These boats and skiffs were used to cross the
rivers, and a select company of travelers often descended the river
in them to New Orleans.[367] Flat boats, worked by a wheel, driven
by the cattle that they were conveying to New Orleans, were to be
seen; also horse boats of various construction, used for the most
part as ferry boats, but sometimes as boats of ascent.[368] Boats
moved rapidly up stream by wheels, after the steam construction,
propelled by a man turning a crank.[369] Flint says, "in this land
of freedom and invention, with a little aid perhaps, from the
influence of the moon, there are monstrous anomalies, reducible to
no specific class of boats, and only illustrating the whimsical
archetypes of things that have previously existed in the brain of
inventive men, who reject the slavery of being obliged to build
in any received form. You can scarcely imagine an abstract form
in which a boat can be built, that in some part of the Ohio or
Mississippi, you will not see, actually in motion."[370]
As the steamboat was perfected, and increased in numbers and
importance, many of these strange craft were destined to disappear,
and prior even to the year 1830, many of them began to be
superseded by the larger and more swiftly moved steamboats.
FOOTNOTES:
[314] Hall, J., Notes, 142-143.
[315] Howells, W. C., Recollections, 84-85.
[316] Howells, W. C., Recollections, 84-85.
[317] Hall, J., Letters, 87-88.
[318] Hulme, T., Journal, Early W. Travels, X., 39.
[319] Birkbeck, M., Letters, 119.
[320] Faux, W., Memorable Days, Early W. Travels, XI., 171.
[321] Birkbeck, M., Notes, 38.
[322] Ogden, G. W., Letters, Early W. Travels, XIX., 41.
[323] Hulme, T., Journal, Early W. Travels, X., 42.
[324] Flint, J., Letters, Early W. Travels, IX., 86.
[325] Tranchepain, Travels, 100-101.
[326] Flint, T., Recollections, 13-14.
[327] Flint, J., Letters, Early W. Travels, IX., 97.
[328] Ibid., IX., 147.
[329] Ibid., IX., 163.
[330] Tranchepain, Travels, 101-102.
Hall, Basil, Travels, III, 21-22
[331] Tranchepain, Travels, 101-102.
Hall, B., Travels, III., 322.
[332] Latrobe, C. J., The Rambler in North America, I., 112.
[333] Fearon, H. B., Journey, 267.
[334] Fordham, E. P., Travels, 79.
[335] Flint, T., History and Geography, I., 140, 152.
[336] Fordham, E. P., Travels, 79.
[337] Niles, Weekly Register, XIV., 344.
[338] Ibid., XL., 183.
Peck, Emigrant's Guide, 324.
[339] Peck, Emigrants Guide, 324.
[340] Bullock, Wm., Journey, Early W. Travels, XIX., 125-126.
[341] Hall, B., Travels, III., 321-322.
[342] Peck, Emigrant's Guide, 60.
[343] Flint, T., History and Geography, I., 140.
[344] Ibid., I., 156.
[345] Ibid. I., 155.
[346] Flint, T. Recollections, 105
[347] Flint, T., History and Geography, I., 151.
[348] Hall, J., Letters, 47.
[349] Fordham, E. P., Travels, 79.
[350] Howells, W. C., Recollections, 12.
[351] Fordham, E. P., Travels, 106.
[352] Niles, Weekly Register, IX., 420.
[353] Ibid., VIII., 119-120.
[354] Latrobe, C. J., The Rambler in North America, I., 112-113.
[355] Flint, T., Recollections, 13.
[356] Latrobe, C. J., The Rambler in North America, I., 112-113.
[357] Niles, Weekly Register, VIII., 119-120.
Ibid., IX., 420.
Ibid., XII., 70.
Ibid., XIII., 377.
Ibid., VI., 360.
Ibid., VIII., 152.
Ibid., X., 372.
Louisiana Gasette, April 17, 1812.
Ibid., April 11, 1812.
Ibid., March 25, 1813.
Ibid., August 11, 1814, p 3, col 1.
Fordham, E. p., Travels, 192.
[358] Flint, T., History and Geography, I., 151.
[359] Louisiana Gasette, October 24, 1815.
[360] Flint, T., Recollections, 13.
Latrobe, C. J., The Rambler in North America, I., 112-113.
[361] Birkbeck, M., Notes, 77.
[362] Nuttall, T., Travels, Early W. Travels, XIII., 45.
[363] Ogden, G. W., Letters, Early W. Travels, XIX., 41.
[364] Ogden, G. W., Letters, Early W. Travels, XIX., 41.
[365] Latrobe, C. J., The Rambler in North America. D., 331-332.
[366] Flint, T., History and Geography, I., 151-152.
[367] Ibid.
[368] Ibid., I., 152.
[369] Ibid.
[370] Flint, T., Recollections, 14.
_CHAPTER III._
_ARTICLES OF TRAFFIC, AND PLACES WITH WHICH TRADE WAS CARRIED ON._
As the population of the country rapidly increased, and the means
of communication by water were improved, the resources of the
country were developed, manufactures sprang up, and the commerce of
the Ohio Valley experienced a remarkable growth. Many of the small
river villages became large and thriving cities, and many parts of
the country which had worn the face of a wilderness now became the
center of a vast and increasing trade.
During the year 1811, merchants of New Orleans advertised for sale
the following articles: Kentucky, flour,[371] horses,[372] pork,
whiskey,[373] lard,[374] oats,[375], Monongahela and Kentucky
flour,[376] tobacco,[377] hemp,[378] hempen yarn,[379] and packing
cloth.[380] From October 5, 1810 to May 5, 1811 there passed the
Falls of the Ohio the following number of boats and articles:
Boats--Number 743.
Flour--bbls. 129,483
Bacon--lbs. 604,810
Whiskey--bbls. 9,477
Cider--bbls. 2,513
Pork--bbls. 13,562
Apples--bbls. 2,513
Oats--bu. 4,020
Corn--bu. 47,795
Merdhandise $355,624
Cheese--bbls. 5,141
Beans--bbls. 606
Plank--feet 1,483,130
Butter--lbs. 24,691
Live hogs 708
Cider, Royal--bbls. 1,350
Lard--lbs. 465,412
Onions--bbls. 218
Potatoes--bu. 1,811
Hemp--cwt. 630,562
Dry fruit--bbls. 263
Yarn }
Cordage}--lbs. 113,015
Fowls--number 1,207,338
Shoe thread--lbs 2,592
Country linen--yds 8,140
Horses--number 292
Beer--bbls. 227
Tobacco--hhds. 2,311.
"and a number of articles too tedious to be calculated. A Mr.
Bowman, a pilot at Jeffersonville, took 106 boats over the Falls of
the Ohio, during the aforesaid period of whose cargoes no notice is
taken in the above. The foregoing is a return made by the regular
pilots, who all agree in stating that during the high water at
least one-third as many more passed without their assistance. This
estimate, therefore gives the whole probable number of boats, that
passed the Falls, at nearly 1200, wafting the rich produce of the
western parts of Pennsylvania, and Virginia, with those of the
State of Ohio, and a part of Kentucky, to the markets on the sea
board."[381]
In 1812 New Orleans received from the "upper country", cider
royal of Kentucky,[382] Monongahela flour,[383] Kentucky flour,[384]
tobacco,[385] hemp,[386] whiskey,[387] hempen yarn,[388] flour from
Pittsburg,[389] Kentucky bagging,[390] and white rope.[391] The flour
received at New Orleans for a time must not have been sufficient
to supply the demand as is shown by the following article, "We
are happy to state that several boats with fresh flour have
arrived--that from the enormously high price of $20 per bbl. it
has been offered at $16--much more is expected very soon--So that
we may fairly calculate in a few days or weeks to have our loaves
increasing to their usual size."[392]
Goods were occasionally sent from eastern ports by way of Pittsburg
to New Orleans and from thence to Mexico, as shown by the following
article, "During the week ending the last year (1812) a Mr.
Wells of this town (Boston), has received at the custom house
certificates of the legal importation of goods to the amount of
$30,000 which have been sent to Mexico by the following route:
from Baltimore to Providence in wagons, thence by water through
the Sound to Amboy, thence in wagons and by water to Philadelphia,
thence by wagons to Pittsburg, thence down the Ohio and Mississippi
to New Orleans, and from thence by land and in boats to Mexico.
But what is most astonishing, the expense from this to New Orleans
is only 4½ per cent on the cost of goods at Boston, while the
insurance alone on such as are sent by the way of the ocean is 30,
and not less than 25 per cent."[393]
During the year 1812, 100 loaded boats left Chilicothe for Natchez,
New Orleans, and other ports. In the same year a vessel of 400
tons was built at the mouth of the Scioto (owned in Chilicothe)
and sent off loaded for a foreign port.[394] The flour, whiskey,
tobacco, bacon, hemp, and coarse linens that Kentucky was capable
of exporting in 1814 was immense.[395] Much coarse linen and yarn was
exported from Ohio at this time.[396]
From New Orleans barges were sent to Louisville with freight in the
years 1812-1814, the Louisville 'Western Courier' in the latter
year noticing the arrival, in three months, of twelve barges, and
seven keel boats.[397] Illinois, in 1812 received her freight from
New Orleans in barges.[398] In 1814, sugar and coffee were shipped
to Cincinnati;[399] cotton and sugar to Louisville;[400] and sugar,
cotton, and indigo to Pittsburg.[401] In September or October of the
preceding year a Pittsburg merchant advertised 99,385 lbs. of New
Orleans sugar for sale; and considerable quantitites were received
by others, with supplies of cotton, and other articles[402] Many tons
of red lead were received during the year from St. Louis. In 1813,
350 boat loads containing 3750 tons of salt petre, salt, lead,
peltry, sugar and other articles, 1250 tons of hemp, and 3750 tons
of hempen yarn were received at Pittsburg.[403]
New Orleans, in 1815, received shipments of Kentucky and Tennessee
flour. Cincinnati also carried on quite an extensive trade with
this city, having sent to New Orleans, in this year, one large
barge of 170 tons carrying 1600 barrels of flour, weighing 342,400
pounds, besides sundry other articles;[404] and receiving in return,
sugar, cotton, and coffee.[405] New Orleans, in 1816, exported to
Cincinnati, sugar, molasses, copperas, shad, mackerel, codfish,
queensware, logwood, and Swedish iron;[406] receiving flour and
pork from Cincinnati.[407] Orleans cotton was selling in Pittsburg
from 33 to 34 cents, and sugar at 25 cents wholesale prices.[408] A
writer in the "Register" says, "I venture to say, that when the
official papers shall be published, the fact will appear, that a
much greater value of goods will be exported from New Orleans in
the first year after the proclamation of peace, than from all the
"Nation of New England...." meaning of native products. 112 vessels
were at one time working up the river."[409]
The following is an estimate of the products received at New
Orleans, independent of what was furnished by Louisiana. The amount
given was carried in 594 flat bottomed boats and 300 barges from
the Western States and Territories.