Ohio River Navigation, 1783-1824 21

OHIO RIVER NAVIGATION, 1783-1824 21 CHAPTER . II : OHIO RIVER NAVIGATION, 1783-1824 No history of the activities of the Corps veloped, obstructions to navigation, be- of Engineers in the Ohio River Valley cause of resultant delays and losses of could be complete without a review of the boats and their cargoes, became more ob- historic development of waterways navi- jectionable. gation and waterborne commerce in the The navigability of Ohio Valley water- valley, for the major continuing mission of ways, before 1824 the principal outlet to the Louisville Engineer District and its market, was a matter of great personal predecessors has been the improvement concern to the early settlers . In its natural of waterways as a benefit to navigation . condition, the Ohio River had a Congress first assigned the improvement constantly changing channel . Annual of inland rivers to the Corps in 1824, but floods shifted the location of sand and officers of the Corps, during the perfor- gravel bars, created and destroyed islands, mance of their military missions in the cut new channels and filled old, under- Ohio Valley, often reported the condition mined banks and toppled entire trees into of the unimproved waterways and de- the stream. The river was alternately calm scribed the character of the waterborne and tumultuous, wildly fluctuating from commerce prior to 1824 . And one of them, one foot deep at extreme low water up to Major Stephen H . Long, made significant eighty feet at record flood stages . In 1838 contributions to the design of the western the entire flow of the river just below inland river steamboat . Before recounting Pittsburgh was measured at 1400 cubic the history of the improvement of the feet per second (cfs); at the crest of the Ohio River for navigation, a review of the 1937 flood about 900,000 cfs poured past development of navigation on the Ohio Cincinnati into Louisville . From its head River prior to 1824 is in order . at Pittsburgh to its mouth at Cairo, the Ohio ran down a slope with a total fall of Condition of the Ohio River Prior to 429.4 feet, but the fall was not uniformly Improvement distributed . Long pools with a negligible Early descriptions of the Ohio River fall alternated with "riffles," or rapids, emphasized its navigability, often stating where the gradient was steep ; more than that no serious problems were met in twenty feet at the worst place - the Falls traveling the river except at the Falls . It of the Ohio . The natural condition of the was, however, not quite as simple as de- tributaries of the Ohio River was generally scribed, for early navigators used light- no better, if not worse, for navigation than draft canoes, dugouts, skiffs, and bateaux that of the Ohio, and traffic originating on and did not consider grounding on a bar a tributary streams ordinarily used a portion serious mishap . Navigators of a later of the Ohio on its way to port cities and period, who used deeper-draft vessels, markets .' were to continually complain of shallow Though a water stage of a mere three channels, shifting bars, hazardous rocks feet was considered navigable by early and snags, and similar obstructions . As the rivermen, this depth was not available on Ohio Valley was settled and extensive use the Ohio for several months each year . of the rivers for marketing agricultural Low-water stages usually prevailed in the produce and manufactured goods de- Ohio Basin from July through October; 22 THE FALLS CITY ENGINEERS during that season only the shallowest- merely a large sturdily-constructed draft vessels operated, and they often wooden box, has been well described as were delayed by teams and wagons ford- the "ark of empire ." Major Jonathan Wil- ing the river at many points. Until rail- liams, Corps of Engineers, traveled in roads crisscrossed the region in the mid- them down the Ohio in 1801 and de- nineteenth century, business practically scribed them as resembling a "floating came to a halt during low-water seasons, house ." In 1802 another traveler de- manufacturers laid off their employees, scribed them more fully : and a mini-recession set in, lasting until They are of a square form, some longer than the river rose. Rivermen and shippers others ; their sides are raised four feet and a half came to rely on two rises : the fall rise above water; their length is from fifteen to fifty which occurred in late October or feet; the two extremities are square, upon one of which is a kind of awning, under which the pas- November, and, after an interval of severe sengers shelter themselves when it rains .4 weather and ice conditions, the spring rise in February, March, or April . During such The flatboat was first used on the Ohio stages, the Ohio Valley waterways teemed River before the end of the Revolution, with vessels transporting commodities to and during the decade after the Revolu- down-river markets, and, later, to up-river tion it became the favorite vessel of the ports via keelboat and steamboat .2 immigrants . Pioneers crossed the moun- Agricultural enterprise has always been tains to the Upper Ohio Valley and pur- seasonal ; its success intimately connected chased or built flatboats to continue the with the amount and timing of precipita- journey to their new homesteads . The tion. As long as Ohio Valley mercantile watercraft used by the Indians were too and manufacturing concerns relied chiefly unstable and limited in capacity to trans- upon the unimproved waterways for port a family and their possessions; the transportation of raw materials and salable ribbed and planked bateau of the French products, their success was also depen- was relatively complex of construction ; dent upon the amount and timing of pre- hence, the flatboat was evolved to meet cipitation . If the fall rise was delayed, or the need for a large, stable vessel of sim- did not occur at all as happened in 1819, a ple construction . In addition 'to economic transportation crisis developed and transportation, flatboats . were also useful economic consequences were serious . at the end of the voyage, for their lumber The unpredictable Ohio River continually could be used in constructing new homes . disrupted business affairs and community The business of constructing these vessels life as long as alternate commercial routes for sale to the tide of immigrants reached were unavailable; however, transportation major proportions in the Upper Ohio Val- costs via the unimproved waterways as ley in the late eighteenth century . Two to compared with the existing overland three hundred families annually em- facilities were so much lower that the un- barked on the Monongahela at reliable channels of the Ohio River and its Brownsville for the down river trip, and tributaries were used almost exclusively there is record of 1200 immigrants board- by commerce until about 1850 .3 ing flatboats at Olean, New York, after the ice broke in 1815 to descend the Al- Flatboats and the Great Immigration legheny and Ohio rivers to new homes in The Ohio River flatboat, originally the Lower Ohio Basin . In 1788, the peak OHIO RIVER NAVIGATION, 1783-1824 23 I-a 24 THE FALLS CITY ENGINEERS year of the great immigration, at least 308 the Ohio Valley to New Orleans via the flatboats, transporting over 6,000 immi- waterways began before the Revolution . grants, about 3,000 head of livestock, and As early as 1763, eighty thousand dollars 150 wagons passed down the Ohio on the worth of animal skins and tallow valued at spring rise .5 four thousand dollars arrived at New Or- Flatboats depended on the current for leans from up river, and part doubtless motive power, and there was no turning came from the Ohio Valley where French back once embarked, for upstream naviga- and Spanish hunters were operating . It tion in such unwieldy craft required ef- will be recalled that Baynton, Wharton, forts which almost exceeded human capa- and Morgan of Philadelphia entered the bility. They were steered with long oars, Indian trade and am y supply business on or sweeps, but keeping in the unim- the Ohio in 1765; other similar mercantile proved, constantly changing river channel firms were also active at about the same was quite a challenge . Boats often time. During the course of the Revolution grounded on bars, wrecked on projecting there was also some limited traffic, both rocks, or were pierced by snags, and in the up and down the Ohio, in munitions and early days of the traffic the threat of Indian military supplies for the forces com- attack was always present . Captain Wil- manded by George Rogers Clark and liam Tell Poussin, a Frenchman who be- other military units in the Ohio Valley .' came an officer in the United States Top- Jacob Yoder of Pennsylvania, and later ographical Engineers, traveled the Ohio Spencer County, Kentucky, has been River in flatboats on various missions be- credited with performing the first flatboat fore 1825 . He later recalled : trip down the Ohio and MIssissippi to sell In descending the Ohio and the Mississippi . agricultural produce at New Orleans in it was customary to purchase and freight a flat May, 1782 . This may be true, but there boat. Embarking on this, it was necessary to trust exists fuller evidence for the trip of the to the strength of the current to convey you to your destination. This was certainly not a very ex- Tardiveau brothers . At the encouragement peditious method of traveling, especially when of Benjamin Franklin and perhaps your only resource besides the current was the Jonathan Williams, Barthelemi and Pierre occasional use of the oar or the sail .

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