It was a delightful autumnal morning, and we had called upon a friend
(who, like ourself, is a lover of nature), and proposed that we should
spend a day in the woods; whereupon he whistled for his handsome
greyhound, and with our sketch-books in hand, we departed. We turned our
faces towards _Rock Creek_, which rises in the central portion of
Montgomery county, Maryland, and after running a distance of some
fifteen miles, finally empties into the Potomac, between Washington and
Georgetown. And now, before going one step further, we wish to inform
the reader that it is not our intention to give a complete description
of this charming stream: to accomplish that task faithfully it would be
necessary for us to write a thousand poems and paint at least a thousand
pictures, every one of which should be a gem. We purpose only to record
the more prominent impressions which have been left upon our mind by the
excursions to which we allude.
We struck the creek just without the limits of the city, and the first
object that attracted our attention was “Decatur’s tomb.” This memorial
of a departed naval hero occupies the summit of a picturesque hill, and
is shaded from the sun by a brotherhood of handsome oak trees. It is
built of bricks (which are painted white), and resembles in shape a
small Grecian temple without its columns, and is without any
inscription. The remains of the commodore were originally deposited
here, but his ashes have subsequently been removed to Philadelphia and
deposited in his family vault. The land upon which this tomb is located
is called Kalorama, and belongs to an estate originally owned by Joel
Barlow, which fact is alone sufficient to give it a reputation; but it
is somewhat more interesting to know that it was upon this spot of earth
that Robert Fulton first tried his experiments while studying out the
science of steam navigation. This was at the time when Barlow and Fulton
were on the most intimate terms of friendship, and Kalorama was Fulton’s
principal home. A gentleman residing in Georgetown informs us that he
can remember the time when an old wooden shed was standing in the
vicinity of Rock Creek, where Fulton tried many of his experiments; and
we are also informed that the parlor walls of Kalorama were once
ornamented with fresco paintings executed by Fulton at the request of
his friend Barlow. Subsequently to that period and while yet a member of
Barlow’s family, Fulton kept an account-book, in which he recorded all
his business transactions, and that curious and valuable relic of the
departed engineer is now in the possession of a citizen of Washington,
by whose politeness we are privileged to gratify our antiquarian readers
with a brief description of the account-book in question. It is of the
size of an ordinary mercantile cash-book, and although only half filled
with writing, it contains a record of business transactions occurring
during the years 1809,-’10,-’11,-’12,-’13, and ’14. It seems to have
been kept with little regard to method, but nevertheless contains a
great variety of items which are quite valuable in a historical point of
view. On a fly leaf, for example, we have the following record:—
“1813. The dry-dock finished at the steamboat works in Jersey City on
the 14th October. On that day, at 1 o’clock, the original North River
steamboat entered for the first time, and I believe is the first
vessel that has been in a dry-dock in the United States.”:—
With regard to the name of the “original North River steamboat,” I am
not certain; but on the same leaf with the above, I find the following
memorandum:—
“_Car of Neptune_—length of her bottom 157 feet; do. on deck 171 feet
6 inches; extreme width of the bottom 22 feet; do. on deck 26 feet.”
With a view of showing the profitableness of the steam-boating business
in the olden times, I append the following:—
“Total number of passengers in the Raritan for 1809:
202 to Elizabethtown Point, at 4s. each 101 00
1,480 to Amboy, at 8 do 1,480 50
692 to Brunswick, at 12 do 1,038 75
90 way 55 20
Total receipts 2,675 45
“Of this sum one-sixth, equal 445 90, to patentees.”
Of the various persons with whom Fulton seems to have had extensive
dealings, the principal one was Robert R. Livingston, from whom large
sums of money were frequently received. The principal items under the
head of 1813 (which seems to have been a very busy year), give one an
idea of the extent of Fulton’s business, and is as follows:—
“Steamboats building and engaged:
2 from New Orleans to Louisville and St Louis, Mississippi $60,000
1 “ Pittsburg to Louisville, Ohio 25,000
1 “ Richmond to Norfolk, James River 35,000
1 “ Washington to Malbourg, Potomac 20,000
1 on Long Island Sound, from New York to Hartford 40,000
1 “ East River ferry boat to Brooklyn 20,000
1, Petersburg 25,000
1, Elizabeth 30,000
1, Robert Fulton 25,000
1, Charleston 30,000
1, Cape Fear 22,000
Total $332,000”