In the study of waterways of westward expansion, the Ohio River--the
"Gateway of the West"--occupies such a commanding position that it must
be considered most important and most typical. Such is its situation
in our geography and history that it is entitled to a prominent place
among Historic Highways of America which greatly influenced the early
westward extension of the borders and the people of the United States.
* * * * *
The Ohio River was the highway upon which all the great early
continental routes focused. Washington's Road, Braddock's Road, Forbes'
Road, and Boone's Road--like the Indian and buffalo trails they
followed--had their goal on the glories of this strategic waterway. The
westward movement was by river valleys.
* * * * *
The dawning of the era of steam navigation cannot be better introduced
than by quoting a paragraph from _The Navigator_ of 1811.
"There is now on foot a new mode of navigating our western waters,
particularly the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. This is with boats
propelled by the power of steam. This plan has been carried into
successful operation on the Hudson River at New York and on the
Delaware between New Castle and Burlington. It has been stated that
the one on the Hudson goes at the rate of four miles an hour against
wind and tide on her route between New York and Albany, and frequently
with 500 passengers on board. From these successful experiments there
can be little doubt of the plan succeeding on our western waters, and
proving of immense advantage to the commerce of our country."
These words came true in a miraculously short space of time. In 1811
the first steamboat was constructed at Brownsville, Pennsylvania, on
the Monongahela. Several others were built soon after, but it was
probably fifteen years before steamboats came into such general use as
to cause any diminution in the flat and keel-boat navigation.
By 1832 it was calculated that the whole number of persons deriving
subsistence on the Ohio including the crews of steam-and flatboats,
mechanics and laborers employed in building and repairing boats,
woodcutters and persons employed in furnishing, supplying, loading and
unloading these boats, was ninety thousand. At this time, 1832, the
boats numbered four hundred and fifty and their burden ninety thousand
tons. In 1843 the whole number of steamboats constructed at Cincinnati
alone was forty-five; the aggregate amount of their tonnage was twelve
thousand and thirty tons and their cost $705,000. This gives an average
of about two hundred and sixty-seven tons for each boat and about
$16,000 for the cost of each.
In 1844 the number of steamboats employed in navigating the Mississippi
and its tributaries was two hundred and fifty. The average burden of
these boats was 200 tons each and their aggregate value, at $80 per
ton, was $7,200,000. Many of these were fine vessels, affording most
comfortable accommodations for passengers, and compared favorably in
all particulars with the best packets in any part of the world. The
number of persons employed in navigating the steamboats at this time
varied from twenty-five to fifty for each boat, a total of 15,750
persons employed.
[Illustration: Early steamboating on a western river.]
If, in 1834, the number of steamboats on western waters was two
hundred and thirty, the expense of running them could be estimated at
$4,645,000 annually. In 1844 the calculation was $9,036,000.... It
appears that the steamboat tonnage of the Mississippi valley at this
time exceeded, by forty thousand tons, the entire steamboat tonnage
of Great Britain in 1834. In other words, the steamboat tonnage of
Great Britain was only two-thirds that of the Mississippi Valley. The
magnitude of this fact will be best appreciated by considering that the
_entire_ tonnage of the United States was but two-thirds that of Great
Britain, showing that this proportion is exactly reversed in western
steamboat trade.
* * * * *
The history of the Ohio Basin river-men, from those who paddled a canoe
and pushed a keel-boat to those who labor to-day on our steamboats, has
never been written. The lights and shades of this life have never been
pictured by any novelist and perhaps they never can be.
The first generation of river men, excluding, of course, the Indians,
would cover the years from 1750 to 1780 and would include those whose
principal acquaintance with the Ohio and its tributaries was made
through the canoe and pirogue. The second generation would stretch from
1780 or 1790 to 1810, and would include those who lived in the heydey
of the keel-and flatboat. The third generation would carry us forward
from 1810 to about 1850 and in this we would count the thousands who
knew these valleys before the railway had robbed the steamboat of so
much of its business and pride.
* * * * *
River life underwent a great change with the gradual supremacy of
the steamboat in the carrying trade of the Ohio and its tributaries.
The sounding whistle blew away from the valleys much that was
picturesque--those strenuous days when a well-developed muscle was the
best capital with which to begin business. Of course the flatboat did
not pass from the waters, but as a type of old-time river-men their
lusty crews have disappeared.
In connection with the first generation of river-men social equality
was a general rule. There were no distinctions; every man was his own
master and his own servant. In the days of keel-boats and flatboats
conditions changed and there was a "captain" of his boat, and the
second generation of river-men were accustomed to obey orders of
superiors. Society was divided into two classes, the serving and
the served. With the supremacy of the steamboat this division is
reduplicated over and again; here are four general classes, the
proprietors, navigators, operators and deck-hands.
The upper ranks of the steam-packet business have furnished the West
with some of its strongest types of aggressive manhood. Keen-eyed,
physically strong, acquainted with men and equal to any emergency,
the typical captain of the first half-century of steamboating in the
West, was a man any one was glad to number among his friends and
acquaintances.