TRANSPORTATION AND BRANDYWINE INDUSTRIES 1800-1840

Ralph D. Gray

Hagley Museum

June, 1957 PREFACE

There is no lack of monographs upon the subject of transportation.

It is a topic so wide in its compass, and so varied in its application,

that countless approaches to the subject are possible* Many of these

have been general and romantic, and deal primarily with the various types of transportation and their evolution, A few studies undertake

an examination of the administration, cost, and swiftness of the movement of men and goods. The purpose of this paper is to study a

small but industrially important area in order to examine its trans­ portation story in the light of national developments. Particular attention will be given to the arteries of transportation, the commercial and industrial use of these arteries, and how they changed and developed.

Less time will be devoted to a study of the transportation vehicles themselves.

This study represents the preliminary research on an important aspect of industrial history done for the Eleutherian Mills-Hagley

Foundation, to which the author is deeply indebted. Much of the primary material has been gleaned from the archival and manuscript collections of the Foundation, Other valuable repositories for primary material are the Eistorical Society of Delaware, Wilmington, and the

Delaware State Archives, Dover, The staffs at both institutions have

ii been most helpful and courteous. I would also like to acknowledge the assistance, in the form of notes, suggestions, and criticisms, given me by Mr. Arlan K. Gilbert and Mr. Carroll W. Pursell, Eleutherian Mills-

Hagley Foundation Fellows. Finally, Mr. Peter C. Welsh, Fellowship

Coordinator of the Foundation, under whose direction this paper has been written, deserves and is heartily offered my sincere appreciation for his invaluable counsel and encouragement.

iii SUMMARY

The eighteenth century story of transportation in Delaware is

largely one of water transportation. Roads were poor and remained so,

probably neglected because the Delaware river and the numerous tide­ water streams which indent the eastern coast of Delaware provided

adequate facilities. The obvious importance of transportation to trade,

travel, and manufacturing led to a drive for improved arteries of

communications in the early nineteenth century.

The Brandywine valley actively participated in this national

phenomenon, embodying in miniature most of the transportation improve­ ments made throughout the young nation. Canals were projected and

steamboats operating in the area before 1800. Turnpikes, with their

focal point at Wilmington, crisscrossed the valley early in the century;

a railroad was constructed when the idea was still new in America.

European wars and our own War of 1812 delayed some ten years the

so-called era of internal improvements. Most of the improvements ef­

fected in Delaware saw completion after 1815. Nine turnpike companies were incorporated within seven years, 1808-1815, although none was

completed prior to the latter date. Two canals, the Brandywine and the

Chesapeake and Delaware, were planned in the eighteenth century, although final action concerning them came during the 1820!s: the former was abandoned in 1826 as inexpedient; the latter was at last completed in

1829. Regular, reliable steamboat service, which gradually improved with more and better vessels, first came to the lower Delaware river in

vi 1812. That year the Vesta commenced scheduled runs between Wilmington

and Philadelphia. Delaware's pioneer railroad, horse-operated at first, was constructed between New Castle and Frenchtown, Maryland, in

1831. The Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore railroad began oper­ ations in 1838.

There is little evidence that the numerous Brandywine industries , I utilized the steamboat or the railroad as industrial carriers prior to *

18!|0. Using these faster but more expensive transportation facilities primarily for passenger service, the merchant and manufacturer continued to rely on sailing packets, such as those operated by Bush or Warner, to move bulk goods. The du Pont gunpowder manufactory in particular had to use the older transportation methods somewhat longer. Storage dif­ ficulties, prejudices or fears by shipper and passenger, and expense prevented the shipment of powder by steamboat or railway at first.

Canals, however, frequently carried kegs of the explosive to distant cities.

The transportation improvements effected in the Brandywine valley, of themselves, did nothing but enhance the value of the area as a manufacturing site. These same improvements elsewhere, however, per­ mitted areas less fortunate in natural advantages to lose that limitation of prohibitive transportation costs and to begin competition with the older manufacturing localities. Steam power made the

Brandywine1 s unfailing water power less important. The railroad com­ pleted the steps freeing industrial growth from many of the natural limitations.

vii CHAPTER I

TRANSPORTATION AMD INDUSTRY

Mien the Indian trail gets widened, graded, and bridged to a good road, there is a benefactor, there is a missionary, a pacificator, a wealth bringer, a maker of markets, a vent for industry,1 Ralph Waldo Emerson

There are at least four primary considerations that an aspiring industrialist must make in determining the type, feasibility, and location of his establishment. He must have access to the necessary raw materials, a ready source of power, and a nearby market. In addition, of equal if not greater importance, he must have efficient, adequate, and economic transportation facilities. This is necessary in order to obtain the raw materials at the lowest possible costs, and in order to be able to pay the transport charges on the goods to market and still sell at a price which is competitive with other similar' goods. Only a relatively few articles could stand long overland trans­ port charges in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Most

American processed or manufactured materials without access to in­ land or coastal waterways were excluded from the local markets by the prohibitive overland transportation charges. Goods could be shipped

3000 miles from England at less expense than similar goods could be 2 wagoned fifty miles over the roads of America in loOO,

The importance of transportation to industry, agriculture, and commerce caused the problem to be vigorously attacked in the early -2-

nineteenth century. The great distances of America had exercised a profound influence over its industrial advance, American colonists were isolated locally and internationally, American markets were so scattered that "they were commercially about as remote from the centers of colonial industry as from the ports of Great Britain,"-^ In the early decades of the nineteenth century, when transportation facilities were limited to rivers, the sea, turnpikes, and an occasional canal, the factory was limited in markets and in the area from which to get its raw aerials.11

Access to navigable waters still determined the location of mills and factories. Manufactories distant from navigable waters were purely local in nature, using local raw materials and selling in local markets.

Overland communications, until the advent of the railroad, had little positive effect upon the growth and organization of manufactures. The turnpikes established by private companies failed to constitute a lengthy system of communications. The main highways paralleled water routes; none permitted economical freighting over long distances.

Besides industrial ramifications, transportation or the lack of it manifested itself in administrative lines:

Of all the t'/iings that stood in the way of a realization of the dreams of those who had made the Constitution none was more formidable than the difficulties of transportation which then beset the conveyor of men^ goods, information, or adminis­ trative orders,-

In 1789 four million people were scattered along 1,200 miles of coast­ line and 1,000 miles inland, A thousand miles from north to south or -3-

from east to west are formidable even today; in 1789 they were almost insuperable to the carrying on of any effective, centralized federal

control.^

The romantic aspects of nineteenth century transportation must not divert attention from the more substantial achievements of the period:

"The improvement of transportation within the nation and the development 7 of internal commerce." These changes were fundamental to the growth and unity of the United States as a governmental entity as well as to the development of industry. Kirkland believes that by 1800 the United

States was well on its way towards being divided into two contrasting areas—the Atlantic seaboard and the inland regions—and that only a revolution in transportation could prevent this. Had not improved roads and canals, the steamboat, the railroad, and the telegraph come when they did, it is debatable whether the Union would have long continued. It is well to ponder upon this before "condemning Patrick

Henry or Samuel Adams for their opposition to the establishment of a national government, or Washington for his dismal forebodings as to o his ability to carry on the work."''

Where the task was too great for local entities, governmental undertakings or assistance was enlisted. The resulting transportation revolution was the one example par excellence of public enterprise, 10 according to Kirkland.

The early importance of water and water transportation to the

American colonists can hardly be overestimated. Besides providing the highway to the new world, waterways continued to be the main artery of transportation for the colonists. Their first homes were built along the water. As could be expected, shipbuilding was an early colonial industry. Small watercraft were constructed as early as l6ll but no crafts that could be described as ships were made that early. It was in 1631 that the Blessing of the Bay was launched in New England. This first ship, a thirty-ton sloop built for Governor John Winthrop, was the masterpiece of a group of six shipwrights who came to Salem in 1629.

Other ships followed in rapid succession. By 1700, over 1000 ships had been built in the New England colonies alone.

Shipbuilding began in Pennsylvania with the establishment of the colony. By 1780, "Philadelphia had become a major shipbuilding city and almost half of the ships registered in the colonies were built 12 there." English shipbuilders were alarmed by the colonial competition as early as 1720, with good reason. Besides prolific production, the colonists added a new model in 1713« It was largely the work of Andrew

Robinson, and was called the "schooner." This vessel rode the surface of the water with the speed and maneuverability later to characterize the clipper ships.^

A second vessel, credited to the inventiveness of the Americans, was launched about 175>0. Jacob Yoder built an awkward box-like craft which drew only a few feet of water. He called it a "flatboat," and this became the principal cargo vessel on western rivers prior to the steamboat.

Other early developments in transportation included those ma.de in land vehicles. The fact is that in colonial America carriages were not conveyances of comfort, although the claim was frequently made that

American colonial overland travel facilities were superior to those in -5-

England. Travel by horseback was often the quickest, safest, and most

comfortable way to make a journey. Sleds were used in the winter; the

smooth hard surface of snow and ice was preferable to the poor, often

impassable roads. Two-wheeled carts were the simplest conveyances. At

first the wheels were solid wood, very large and wide so as not to sink

in mud. Frequently the tires were rimmed with iron.

The remaining vehicles could be classified into two basic groups—

those used in settled areas, and those used on the frontier. All through

the eighteenth century, modifications of both types were being made.

The freight wagons included the Jersey wagon, also known as a Dearborn

or Carry-all, used for light hauling. The major type of freight wagon was the Conestoga, so-called because it originated in the Conestoga Valley

of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Probably inspired by the English

covered wagon, the Conestoga was an improvement over the older flat­

top design. More goods could be carried with safety, for the curved bed prevented the freight shifting on the hills and other sharp de­

clivities."^ The Conestoga, painted red and blue with white cloth tops, usually travelled in groups on long trips. Frequently stretched out for miles along the road, they presented a colorful view to onlookers. "

More refined vehicles, used for passengers, were the American sedan-

chair and the gig. The chair was a two-wheeled, two-passenger affair, often with a third seat for the driver placed over the shafts. The

chaise was a chair with a covered top. The gig was a light, one-seated, open cart, pulled by a single horse. Its basic form is retained today in the racing sulky. -6-

Besides these and similar vehicles, there were public conveyances 17 —the stagecoach and the mail stagecoach. These were so-called because

the journey was made in successive stages, after each of which the horses were changed; perhaps the coach would be changed also. The capacity of the stagecoach was usually nine persons, with the mail stage carrying l8 fewer passengers. These public vehicles were built for utility, with few refinements. Usually the seats were leather-padded, and wrought

iron or leather suspension springs were used. While this produced an

oscillatory motion, it was much easier than the heavy jolting one re­

ceived if the body of the coach rested on the axles. Tallow was used 19 to lubricate the wood-on-wood axles.

The eighteenth century transportation story is largely one of water transport. Pack horses, freight lines, and stage lines were known

in the eighteenth century but the poorness or absence of roads, the high costs, and the interminable time spent in land transportation gave

a decided superiority to water transportation. Despite its attendant hazards and handicaps, water communications were used as much as pos­

sible. Schooners, sloops, and shallops plied along the coast or up and down the sounds, bays, and rivers to an extent that is undreamed of today. Southern Congressmen came to New York and Philadelphia by water; practically all travel and commerce up and down the river valleys,

such as the Hudson or the Delaware, was by the "safe, fast, and com- 20 modious river sloops." As long as twenty-ton sailing vessels were deep-water craft, the coastline extended to the head of river navi­

gation in a sense no longer true with steam navigation. -7-

To make more concrete the economic advantage of water over land transportation, a comparative study of the cost of goods from the interior to Philadelphia and New York may be cited*, New York was a river settle­ ment, where

it was estimated that three days labor would put the produce of any farm in the colony at a boat- landing, whence two or three men could navigate to New York a cargo that could be brought to Philadelphia, . from the Pennsylvania back country, only by UO wagons, 160 horses, and 180 men. The average cost of carrying a bushel of wheat 100 miles was estimated in New York at 2 pence and in Philadelphia at 1 shilling.21

New York agricultural profits were better than in Pennsylvania by about thirty per cent. Partly for this reason, Pennsylvania became a seat of diversified industries and home manufacture, and New York remained a commercial and agricultural colony until the end of the colonial period. In other words, "the destinies of two American

States were determined at this early date, and were governed then, as 22 they were later, chiefly by transportation influences."

In this early period, commerce, like industry, was decentralized and unorganized in character. Its mechanism operated in small units, and "its service capacity was as limited as the productive activities 23 to which it catered." Charges were not uniform; they varied with the varying conditions of the route, the dangers of attack, the re­ currence of spring freshets, and the weather. As a business, trans­ portation was haphazard and discontinuous. It was not until mid- nineteenth century that the purely local concept of transportation was -8-

overcome. Even the first railroads were short, local concerns designed

to serve one city, and were built to prevent transfers with one another

Improvements in transportation, recognized as needs very early, were

not rapid in oeing effected, nor extensive in scope. Waterway improve­

ments, 1775 to 1800, were confined to short lock canals around the falls

and rapids in otherwise navigable rivers. Interior settlements were

exclusively riparian. The only long land routes were the migratory trails

from coastal to inland river systems. Although gradually improved, they 25 did not serve the freight business of the country for years.

The problem of transportation, having been clearly recognized if

not forcibly impressed upon the many travellers, commercial or in­

dustrial men, and governmental leaders, was undertaken seriously at

the beginning of the nineteenth century. There were two major cir­

cumstances, however, which checked the application of private capital

to large scale improvements: a lack of capital available for investment

in internal improvements, and secondly, vast territorial expansion by 26 relatively few people. Concerning the exact amount of capital

available, the authorities disagree, but it is generally accepted that

great amounts were not at hand for investments in internal improvements. 27

Investors were unwilling to risk money on doubtful or distant profits.

For example, hopes and subscriptions were high when the Chesapeake and

Delaware Canal project began, but when it was realized that digging the

canal required years of toil and attention to repay those engaged in

it, and that it "bore an unfavorable comparison with the banks, moneyed

institutions, and private commerce, which gave immediate and. large re- -9-

turns," the ardor of the subscribers cooled perceptibly. State and national aid was eventually required to carry the project to a successful completion.

Despite a reluctance of individuals to invest in internal improve­ ments, most of the turnpikes, or improved toll roads, were built by private corporations with funds raised locally. Canals were usually state works or heavily subsidized by the state. In addition, some foreign capital was invested in canals.^ Railroads were financed in similar ways to the canals. Since the railroad was looked upon as a competitor by both canal and turnpike interests, more than the normal trouble was encountered by railroad companies in getting funds. The state governments were frequent shareholders.

Many states were unable to do some of the customary tilings for the general welfare of their people because of the rapid expansion and vast areas covered. In well-populated areas of the country, the people 30 "seemed disposed to remedy the evils themselves." At the beginning of the nineteenth century, it appeared that internal improvements would be vigorously undertaken locally. The funding of the federal debt, the assumption of the state debts, and the restoration of public credit called out of hiding thousands of dollars: "investments were sought in every direction.Bridges, improved roads, canals, and banks were supported. With the resumption of the European war, however, this money diverted to the profitable carrying trade. Shipping and trading investments caused internal improvements to be temporarily neglected.

But the need for better transportation continued. States followed

Pennsylvania's example of providing money for roads and bridges in -10-

sparsely settled areas; of granting liberal charters and tolls to companies 32 in populous areas to encourage similar improvements there. The Gallatin report of 1808 on roads and canals encouraged state 33 and national aid to internal improvements. v Secretary of the Treasury

Gallatin submitted his report on the general state of internal improve­ ments, with recommendations, in response to a Senate request. The report, made April 6, 1808, embraced local schemes being urged or con­ ducted at the time and combined these independent projects into a national system. This report has often been overestimated, according to McMaster, by those unfamiliar with it or with the history of the 3U times in which it was made: in it "was little that was new."

There were four heads to the proposals made by Gallatin: (1) great canals along the Atlantic seaboard, uniting New England with the South,

(2) communications between the Atlantic and western waters, (3) com­ munications between the Atlantic, the St. Lawrence, and the Great Lakes, 35 (k) interior canals and roads. Concerning the first group, Gallatin espoused the cause of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. He pointed out that there were four necks of land interrupting inland navigation between the East and South, in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Delaware, and

Virginia. Canals were suggested at these four points. They had al­ ready been projected, though basically on the local scale. Advocates of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and of the Delaware and Raritan

Canal, however, were aware of the influence and mutual aid of their canal on the other. Under the other three heads of his proposals,

Gallatin suggested other canals and improved roads, in general sup- -11-

porting existing projects and recognizing the interests of the dif­

ferent sections of the country. Extensive replies to questionnaires

sent out by Gallatin were appended to his report and gave many additional

details.

The estimated cost of the proposals was twenty million dollars,

but the Treasury had ample surpluses at that time, Gallatin recommended

that two million a year be set aside for ten years to finance his

program. He felt that the government could do the work alone, but that

it should all be done. He pointed out that the benefits from one

project of course were dependent on the completion of the others.

Although the Senate reception of the report was favorable, the

time it was presented was unpropitious. Jefferson's embargo had been

in effect for three months; trade and commerce were at a virtual stand­

still. In addition, the frontier was in turmoil. About the only thing

done concerning the report was the printing and distribution of 1200

copies. This occasioned numerous petitions to Congress by groups

anxious to receive national aid for their favorite project, but none

of them were^ successful. The Senate approved them, but none survived 36 in the House of Representatives. The era of internal improvements was delayed until after 1815.

At that time, with the return of peace, many old schemes on in­ land communications were revived. The resulting improvements "did far more to cement the Union and join the East and West inseparably 37 than did the Constitution and the laws."^ Inland transportation, according to Clark, was transformed in three ways: (l) costs were cheapened, time was shortened to carry freight inland, (2) formerly -12-

isolated transportation systems were connected, (3) previously unavailable land was opened to settlement. A contemporary opinion was that "no equal number of people ever existed in the world, who made so many im­ provements in such an extent of country, and in so short a space of 39 time as the people of the United States," This same writer stated that in 1822 New England and the Middle Atlantic states were "intersected, in all directions, with excellent turnpike roads," and that public waters were extensive.

Aid from the states preceded that from the national government; the investigations, committee reports, and subservience to special interest groups delayed congressional action. A letter written to

E. I. du Pont of Wilmington, Delaware, by a surveyor selected to serve on an explorative expedition is illuminating: We begin our journey to ascertain whether it is possible to connect the waters of the Potomac and Pittsburgh; the Ohio and the lakes. Congress has appropriated $30,000 for this purpose. The Cora- mission chosen for this service and called The Board of Internal Improvements consists of General Bernard, Colonel Totten and Mr. Sullivan, of Boston; I go ... to help in its work. ... We are to study all the conditions of the country in the vicinity of the dividing of the waters or the summit level. ... We expect to see Mr, Gallatin when we go down the Youghagauny, • • . A Pennsylvania Commission . , • wishes to learn whether it is possible to connect the Ohio with the Susquehanna by way of the Juniata, and the Riskemaneta.

Congress wishes to have at its next session the report of the Commission on the possibility of con­ necting the waters of the West with those of the East; it seems that is the pivot on which turns the answer to the great question whether the General Government shall undertake the construction of roads and canals; -13-

so pray that we may find water on the summit level if you wish the Government to help you to construct . your Grand Canal from the Delaware to the Chesapeake."^

Pennsylvania is recognized as a leader in internal improvements.

Much of the recognition arises from their great pioneering enterprise, the Philadelphia to Lancaster turnpike. This was just the beginning, however, of extensive improvements in roadways and waterways essential to the prosperity and growth of the state. By 1822 the state of

Pennsylvania had invested $1,861,5U2 in turnpikes, compared to $l;,l58,3U7 U2 _/ invested by individuals. Over 2500 miles of turnpike roads were chartered, with 1800 miles being complete at that time. Most of the turnpikes radiated from Philadelphia, and "several great lines of roads extend east and west from Philadelphia to Pittsburg."^ The same ap­ proximate ratio between state and private capital invested in turn­ pikes held true in other inland communication projects in Pennsylvania.

The results were impressive. In 1835, it was stated that the internal improvements of Pennsylvania had tended greatly "to increase the wealth and importance of Philadelphia; while those which are still in con­ templation, in order to afford an immediate market for the inexhaustible wealth of our flourishing state, leave the mind at a loss how to estimate the extent of the result."^4" CHAPTER II

TRANSPORTATION IN 1800

The young Republic in 1790 desperately needed roads. ... Natural resources would become goods only when men could get at them, use them, take them to other men. Distances, which in human terms meant time and effort, were the curse of the country.

John Allen Krout and Dixon Ryan Fox

No one has accused the United States of having good roads in 1800.

Little attention had been given the roads despite the common realization

that they were disgraceful—even dangerous. Water transportation had

been used first and continued to be utilized throughout the eighteenth

century to the neglect of other types of transportation. Even when

the water route doubled or tripled the distance it was generally pre­

ferred to a costly, hazardous—though shorter—land journey. The

preference water transportation held over land transportation was

particularly decided in Delaware and the Brandywine Valley because

of the number and usefulness of the streams in that area. Consequently,

roads were even more shameful in Delaware than in most other Atlantic

seaboard states.

Roadbuilding—not making—had a late beginning in Delaware.

Neither the Dutch nor the Swedes were roadbuilders, using the water­ ways almost exclusively. The first practical movement to provide ac­

cess to different places via overland routes came in 1671, at the in- -In­

stigation of a Maryland landholder. An agreement between "those of

New Castle" and Augustine Herman, of Bohemia Manor, stipulated that each 2 party was to clear half of the cart road between the two places. The first public action occurred in l675> when the Duke of York's governor 3 ordered that a "way bee made passable betweene Towne and Towne." . h

Nothing was done, however, and the order was reissued in 1679. There is little mention of roads during the next century, which probably in­ dicates their degree of importance to the comraunity. Shipping absorbed the interest and energy of those engaged in transportation. Hundreds of vessels plied the rivers and streams of Delaware. These were owned by the merchants, transportation companies, or individuals of Wilmington,

New Castle, Smyrna, Dover, Milford, Lewes, and smaller villages. Even an extensive foreign trade had developed. Roads were neglected, at least officially, until 176l when an act of the Assembly provided for the "better regulation of the King's roads within the counties of Kent and Sussex."^ The following year the Assembly acted to change the 6 roads in New Castle County.

A road from the Chester County line to the Brandywine Creek over

Naaman's Creek existed at that time. From the Brandywine it became two roads, one crossing at the Christiana Ferry and running to Duck

Creek (Salisbury) via New Castle. The other road led to Wilmington,

Newport, and Christiana Bridge. The latter place was also connected with New Castle by a public road. The act of 1761 provided for a pub­ lic road from Duck Creek to Lewes through Milford, Milton, and Millsboro.

Therefore Delaware at last had a road continuing from its northern to its southern boundary. -16-

Prior to the time of turnpikes or improved roads, freighting by

wagon was limited to settled areas. Pack horses were used for long over­

land freighting although it involved great cost. The trip west, for

example, over the Alleghenies was slow and tedious by pack horse, as

well as expensive. In 1781; the cost per ton to transport goods by horses 7 from Philadelphia to Lake Erie was |2ii9.00. The need for roads became

more and more evident. In that year Pennsylvania began state aid to

roadbuilding, and three state highways were authorized by 1799. The

first wagonlbad of goods was hauled over the Alleghenies in 1789. The

llj.0 mile round trip required one month. In 179U, the cost to move one

ton from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh was $10. Pack horse trains were

never again to have such an important role in transportation. Their

zenith had been reached about 1790, but then roads and wagon trans- 9 portation replaced them "to the burning indignation of the packers."

Intense rivalry existed between packers and driver, just as the driver

later resented and opposed canals and railroads. There were few bridges

in America prior to 1800, so the wagoners relied upon ferries for cross­

ing the larger streams. These ferries often were operated at exorbitant

rates and were hazardous when the rivers were "fresh" or iey#

The increased use of wagons in Delaware as in Pennsylvania created -

a demand for better roads.Many Delaware towns located on creeks or rivers served as ports of departure for goods from rural areas of the

state and nearby Pennsylvania. The goods would be conveyed to the ports, such as Christiana Bridge, Newport, New Castle, or Wilmington, and thence shipped to Philadelphia. There was also reason to desire -17-

good land communications with Philadelphia, Citizens of Wilmington, in

the eighteenth century, petitioned the governor and council of Pennsylvania

and the three lower counties for an improved road to Philadelphia,

Stating that the present road crossed fifteen "steep and stony" hills

which caused great inconvenience to travellers, especially those with 12 carriages, the petitioners recommended straighter and leveler roads.

The major cause prompting the appeal was the fact that "your Petitioners

/have/ frequent occasions to travel from their respective Dwellings to

the said City in their constant Intercourse of Trade and Dealings with 13 the Merchants there," The forty-four signers of the petition included

such Wilmington merchants and industrialists as Ziba and David Ferris,

Vincent Gilpin, Jonathan Rumford, Sr. and Jr,, William Shipley, J. Shallcroj

N, Robinson, W, Hemphill, Joseph Tatnall, James and John Lea, and

Benjamin Canby.

Roads in Delaware continued to be poor and evidently merited the

unfavorable comments travellers showered upon them* Schoepf in 17BU lh

called the road from Christiana Bridge to Philadelphia "hilly and rocky";

Isaac Weld was more sweeping in his condemnation some twelve years later: The road from Philadelphia to Baltimore exhibits for the greater part of the way an aspect of savage desolation. Chasms to the depth of six, eight, or ten feet occur at numerous intervals, • • Coaches are over­ turned, passengers killed and horses destroyed. • • . In Winter sometimes no stages set out for two weeks . • « the driver had frequently to call to the passengers to lean out of the carriage first on one side then on the other, to prevent it from over-turning in the deep ruts.1-5 La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt similarly castigated Delaware roads. He

said Delaware was "distinguished by the bad state of the roads," but -18-

added that the rocks which cover the country could easily "be broken 16 into pieces, which would render the roads excellent and durable."

It was several years before this suggestion was carried out in Delaware.

The system of road building and repairing was wanting during the eighteenth century, and this added to the troubles. The roads in 1800 were generally conceded to be deplorable, but the system of compulsory road labor had broken down in many of the American colonies prior to the Revolution and the subsequent tax plan proved little more effective 17 in keeping the roads repaired. There was a scarcity of labor, an inadequacy of revenue, and a lack of skilled overseers—indeed, road 18 engineering techniques were almost nonexistent. Work was directed by a superintendent not necessarily technically qualified. For several years in the early nineteenth century, Robert Armstrong was road com­ missioner for Christiana Hundred roads. He kept an account book recording the work and pay of various persons. The wages varied according to the number of animals supplied by the workers: a man would receive 75>0 a day; if he had a horse and cart, yl.3'0 per day; if two horses and a cart, $2.00 per day. Work was not continuous, repairs being made when the need was imperative. Among the tasks listed in Armstrong's account book were "Drawing and laying Stones," "Clearing trees out of Road," , , 1! "To one day Blowing Stoane," and simply "Days Attendance" or "Days Work." A report on the roads of New Castle County in 1796, recorded in the Senate Journal of Delaware, was not specific as to the conditions of the roads then, but recommendations were made as to how to raise funds to improve them. It was suggested that "all roads and bridges -19-

supported by the Hundreds be supported by a general county tax," and 20 that the Christiana ferry be public. It was left to the legislature to decide whether a moderate tax be laid on stages, carriages, and other

"carriages of burthen" that use the roads but do not belong to residents 21 paying the tax. This "moderate tax" was permitted in the sense that turnpike companies chartered in the early nineteenth century collected tolls. An attempt to charter a turnpike company in 1796, however, did 22 not succeed.

Petitions and memorials continued to come before the Delaware legislature asking for improved, less circuitous routes, or for new roads. In 1800 Thomas Duff of Newport, who had previously unsuccessfully petitioned for a road to New Castle to avoid "Travelling Ten Miles insteac of four" on trips there, asked reimbursement for keeping in repair a 23 road he himself had made.1"^ Three years later citizens of New Castle protested that the circuitous road to Frenchtcwn made "Transporting of

Passengers and the Produce of the country ... tedious," and asked, in view of the line of water and land stages between Philadelphia and

Baltimore using the road, that-a new direct road be laid out.^

Haphazard work and irregular petitioning did not accomplish much toward improving the roads. Even after turnpikes were widespread, roads continued rough and dangerous, almost impassable after rain.

The stagecoaches, which regularly plied the country with an ever- increasing range and rapidity, caused much suffering to their enduring passengers because of poor roads and uncomfortable accommodations as well as long hours. Although the following account is mid-eighteenth -20-

century, similar schedules and happenings were observed after 1800,

A 17f>8 journey by stage from Burlington, New Jersey, to New York was described as follows: u¥e rose . . , at four o'clock dressed ourselves by moonlight breakfasted and set out in the stage wagon, , . , Saw the wrecks of two stages occasioned by ^Tntoxicated/ drivers and passengers 27 This hazard of drunken stage drivers seems to have been fairly common; their addiction to racing was equally ravenous and often had similarly 28 disastrous consequences. Stage travel in 1826 seemed little improved, according to Josiah Quincy, In his diary, he wrote: At three o'clock this morning • . • I left Philadelphia by the Lancaster stage, otherwise a vast, illimitable wagon, with seats without backs, capable of holding some sixteen passengers with decent com­ fort to themselves, and actually encumbered with some dozen more. After riding until eight o'clock we reached the breakfast house, , • • The roads seemed actually lined with Conestoga wagons each drawn by six stalwart horses and laden with farm produce, '

Wagoning had its perils also, particularly for the freighters who crossed the Alleghenies in great numbers, Europeans never ceased to be amazed at the feat, considering the state of the roads, William

Cobbett wrote in 1818 that he

saw a great many Pennsylvania wagons ^which were/ loaded with barrels full of fine flour, at three or four hundred miles westward of Philadelphia, It carries from three to four ton weight. It comes over rocks and along roads upon which an Englishman would not believe it possible for an empty wagon to go,30 -21-

Wagons could travel the 2U0 miles between Baltimore and Pittsburgh in

sixteen days, going between twelve and twenty miles a day. Fordham

wrote that "they avoid, as much as possible, the turnpike roads, &

scramble over hills and mountains, where English waggons would be dashed

to pieces."^ A vivid illustration of the state of the road was given

in a letter by General James Wilkinson in 1804:

Yesterday was a Day of suffering & Peril to us—you left us on the Mountain Road, which jolted us almost to Death, descending a damned ugly craggy stumpy part of it • • • turning about, I beheld the carriage without a driver & the Horses darting after me at half speed • • • /~\_7 jumpt from my seat met the Horses immediately opposite the pole . • • & stopt them, my lowlived-"- Irishman (curse all such) was soon up, & then I had to give chace ... to my little Sorrel who had proceeded on at a gentle jog. . . .

I drop you this line ... with a view to caution you & hours against the Mountain Road.

*He had I believe fallen asleep, fell from his Seat, & the hind wheel ran over him without damage.

Roads continued in a poor state throughout the period covered.

Turnpikes were an improvement but they too often became rough, rutted,

and in disrepair. The heavy traffic, especially the numerous Conestoga wagons, and the unnecessarily steep slope of the turnpikes caused most

of the damage.^ E. I. du Pont spoke of the poor roads between

Philadelphia and Wilmington in 182U: "My horse could not make it in

an afternoon—the roads are too bad."^ The following month he wrote

his wife that "we arrived ... without having broken Sandran's

cabriolet in spite of the bad roads."^ Similarly, in 1840 a Pennsylvanian -22-

wrote that she would "pay rayvisi t to Wilmington this Christmas if the roads will permit • • • off the Turnpike the roads are dreadful,"-^

In spite of the wretchedness of the lines of communication internally overland transportation became a special business. Stage lines carried passengers and mail; freight lines carried raw materials, manufactured goods, and farm produce. As Baron Klinkowstrom observed in 1820, "farmers do not need to take men and horses away from their work, for 'they may 37 engage business agencies in the city for a moderate price."

The growth of post offices and post roads provides a good means of noting the expansion of transportation and communication facilities.

Nationally, there were seventy-five post offices in 1789; 8,0£0 in 1829«

The post roads increased from 1,875 miles in 1789 to llU,780 miles forty years later—an increase of 6,021 per cent. Mail was carried over these roads in stagecoaches, in general use since 1785* or stage boats. At the extremities of the main road (Massachusetts, South Carolina), riders were used. Riders also were used on all "crossposts."^

The expansion of the post roads in Delaware did not keep pace with the national developments. Paullin's Atlas has maps showing post roads and stage routes in 1774, the last full year the British govern­ ment controlled the post roads; in 1804, the year of Bradley's post-

road map; and in 18349 when mail began to be carried by railroads.^

The main post road between New York and Washington, via Philadelphia and Baltimore, passed through Delaware in 1774. By 1804, when a good internal network had reached the Appalachians, Delaware had added one post road. It ran through the center of the state from Wilmington to -23

the tip of the Delmarva peninsula. There was but one minor change in

Delaware's post roads by 183U, although nationally the network reached the Mississippi River.^" Once again, the presence of convenient water transportation lessened Delaware's need for extensive roadways. Congress was disposed to use the means of transportation at hand to convey the mails. As early as 1813 the Postmaster General "was authorized to con­ tract for mail service by steamboat if the same could be provided regu­ larly throughout the year and not more expensively than service by road."^

A problem still remained, however, for it was discovered that steamboat captains, like packet masters and stage drivers before them, were fond of carrying letters outside the mails. In 1823 all waters regularly used by steamboats were declared post roads, thereby extending the monopoly of the post office to them and effectively stopping the abuse.^

Stage travel was concentrated between New York and Philadelphia, the two chief cities, in the early nineteenth century. Around 1815 four stages started from either city for the other every day but Sunday. The fare was about $10$ travel time was fourteen to sixteen hours. Seven passengers per stage was normal.^ Some of the main roads were good in the summertime; the cross roads were continually bad, and all the roads were bad part of the time.^

Philadelphia was also a terminus for travellers from the south, parti­ cularly Baltimore and Wilmington. The travellers from Delaware had their choice of rides between stage and boat. Travellers from Baltimore and other points south had to travel at least part of the way by stage unless they added 4OO miles to their trip by talcing the all-water route around the pen­

insula. Most people preferred a twenty-mile stage ride across Delaware to

the alternative although the choice must have been a difficult one. This

description of the journey from Baltimore to Philadelphia, including the

stage trip from Frenchtown, Maryland, to New Castle, Delaware is revealing;

We left Baltimore about sun-down, and arrived in Phila­ delphia about sun-rise next morning, the distance between ninety and an hundred miles; fare $lu This journey is per­ formed partly by steam-boats and partly by stage. You leave Baltimore in a steam-boat, land at Frenchtown, to take the stage to Newcastle, Delaware; then the steam-boat again, sailing up the Delaware to Philadelphia.

About midnight we came to shore at Frenchtown, and here was pulling, hauling, settling bills and fare. A hundred people were in motion. ... They overset me several times. Nothing could equal the uproar and confusion which now took placefi®

Only one lantern provided illumination, but finally everyone was seated and

the calvacade set forth "without one lamp amongst seven or eight, perhaps ten ) 7 stages, whilst we prayed for an opposition line."

New Castle to Frenchtown stages had their beginning at least by 1775, when Joseph Tutlow and Thomas Henderson announced a stage line was established

to carry on a business between Philadelphia and Baltimore. To meet the jointly- financed stages, Tutlow operated packet boats between New Castle and Philadelphia, while Henderson did the same between Frenchtown and Baltimore. Later the Janvier brothers, John and Thomas, began to operate a stage across the state to connect with steamboats from Baltimore and Philadelphia. These stages operated until

succeeded by the railroad, horse-drawn at first. The Janviers had a share in

the railroad company. -25-

Fuller information on the transportation facilities between New Castle and the Elk River is found in Joshua Gilpin's letter to Albert Gallatin in

1808,^ He spoke of the two establishments of stages, the old line and the new line. Each employed three packets on both the Delaware and the Chesapeake,

The schedule had "one packet arriving and departing each day for six days in every week, except when prevented by ice, and both passengers and goods are conveyed directly across by land, the one in land stages, and the other in waggons,"^ They operated between 200 and 250 days a year, thus making at least 800 passages a year. The total amount received by the two lines for the complete trips was estimated by Gilpin at $50,000 a year, the land car­ riage comprising half the total. He pointed out that an average of six "wag­ gons" a day, carrying two tons each way, would carry 9,600 tons in a year and bring in $19,200, figuring the charge at $2,00 per ton. ^

Besides the combined water and land routes between Philadelphia and

Baltimore, there were continuous stage lines between the two cities.

In 1788 the journey took two days, and cost fl.5s.0d. for fare alone,

A line known as the "Philadelphia, Baltimore and Eastern Shore Line 51 of Post-Coach Carriages" then operated. In 1799 the government began 52 its own line of stages between Philadelphia and Baltimore, Philadelphia to Lancaster stages required three days each way in 178lw In 1738 only two days were needed each way, and after 1794, using the turnpike, the time was cut to one "day" each way. The "day" began at 2 A.M. and lasted 53 until 8 P.M. Another milestone was reached when the first through-line of coaches from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh opened in August, 1804, The 5U fare was $20,,the time seven days. -26-

Wilmington as a port, stage terminus, and focal point of almost all roads in New Castle County, virtually describes in miniature national devel­ opments in transportation along the eastern seaboard. From its abundance of packet boat operators to the numerous turnpikes radiating from the city,

Wilmington led the way in new developments. One of the early regular steam­ boat routes ran from Philadelphia to Wilmington. There also was interest in canals and railroads from an early date, though plans for the same were un­ successful until later in the history of their national developments: the

Chesapeake and Delaware Canal was completed in 1829; the Philadelphia, Wil­ mington, and Baltimore Railroad in 1838.

Other nearby towns also had commercial relations with Wilmington or

Philadelphia. The Christiana River was used to an extent unrealized today.

In 1797 La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt wrote about Elkton's trade with Philadelphia, via Christiana Bridge:

Elk-Town has a pretty good trade in corn with Philadelphia, which is brought particularly from the eastern part of i-aryland. From Elk-Town it is sent by land to Christiana-bridge, a village at the distance of twelve miles; and from thence conveyed on the Christiana to Brandywine and Philadelphia. It is asserted that 300,000 bushels are sent annually from Elk-Town by this route. The price of carriage to Brandywine is nine pence per bushel, and to Philadelphia eleven pence half-penny,55

Newport had a commerce similar to that of Christiana Bridge, but to a lesser degree, since it merely served that part of Delaware nearer to Newport than Christiana Bridge.-' Other villages located along the Christiana had a small carrying trade. Lancaster and Chester County products en route to

Philadelphia were sent by the Christiana River Wharves, a shorter route.^ -27-

Levi, Henry, and Jacob Hollingsworth were among those who built wharves and established a line of boats to rim between Christiana and Philadelphia.

This type of trade was at its height around 1825. Statistics concern­ ing the quantity of goods shipped in one year have been compiled by C. A.

Weslager: in 1808, 20,000 barrels of flour, 250,000 bushels of wheat, 1,000 hogsheads of meal, 2,000 hogsheads of tobacco, and 150 tons of iron passed over Christiana wharves to markets in the north.

New Castle, by 1800 had fallen from its eminent position as a Delaware

River port. Its proximity to Philadelphia usually is given as the reason go for New Castle's decline, especially in the realm of foreign trade.Only a small coasting trade with Philadelphia remained. By 1800, however, New

Castle was on the main passenger line between Philadelphia and Baltimore.

This reversed New Castle's fortune. La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt noted this change in 1797 when he wrote that New Castle was rising "from the state of f)C) decay into which it had sunk." Throughout it all, New Castle remained the true point of departure for foreign ports. Philadelphia ships would drop down with their pilots to New Castle, take in poultry and vegetables, and await their captains, who had stayed to settle their accounts at the customs house, by land. When ready, they would sail from New Castle with 6l the first fair wind. Water communications with Philadelphia as a business may be said to have begun before the Revolution with Samuel Bush, who established a weekly packet line between Wilmington and Philadelphia in his thirty-ton sloop

Ann in 1774, In 1750, according to Scharf, Thomas Willing had constructed -28-

the first sloop to run between the two cities, but this service was irregular.

Bush's packet operation was disrupted during the Revolution, the Ann being

scuttle to prevent capture. After the war, however, regular service was resumed by Bush and some competitors. Lancaster and Chester County millers and distillers began using the cheaper means of marketing their products. ^

Wilmington had served as a port for foreign commerce much earlier. The first ocean vessel, appropriately named the Wilmington, was launched there in 17UO, soon to engage in the West Indies trade. Other ships were launched there soon afterwards. By l8lU, with the Christiana deepened and offering accommo­ dations to ocean craft drawing up to fourteen feet of water, numerous ships were engaged in the European and Tiest Indian trade.^ La Rochefoucauld-

Liancourt had commented earlier on Wilmington as a port and shipbuilding city, saying in 1797 that three or four vessels were built there every year

"either for sale or trade that is carried on there, which employs twelve or thirteen ships of various sizes. ... Several sloops are constantly employed in the coasting trade carried on with Philadelphia." 0

Wilmington also served as a port for the whaling ships operated by the

Wilmington Whaling Company, organized in 1833* This marked a movement south­ ward of this occupation from its main center in New England. 3To inconsider­ able undertaking, the company was capitalized at $>100,000. The company did not have a long history, but its operation was vigorously prosecuted. In

1336 the port of Wilmington was improved by means of a congressional appro­ priation in response to an appeal by whaling company.^

The facility of transportation at Wilmington arising from the natural -29-

advantages of the Brandywine, the Christiana, and the Delaware was the criti­ cal factor in Wilmington's industrial growth. Raw materials or farm produce conveyed to Wilmington could be processed and shipped to market with an ease impossible without water transportation. The letters of Philadelphia mer­ chants Summerl and Brown to James Brobson, a Wilmington merchant, epitomize the trade relations between the two Delaware River ports. Both merchant houses had ships and cooperated in disposing of their cargoes: Summerl and

Brown would be in charge of the cargo on Brobson's ship at Philadelphia;

Brobson would look after the sale of Summerl and Brown's cargo in Wilmington,

In addition, demands on one market could be supplied from the other. On

May 5, 1796, Summerl and Brown wrote Brobson that they had "purchased you —/ — 67 /some/ coffee which will go tomorrow by Bush." Another letter stated, "By Levy Adams Sholloop you will receive /J$$ barrels of flour/ which we 68 have orders to send to you for the Brig Active."

Land transportation between Wilmington and Philadelphia and other points was necessary, too. Water transportation was especially subject to weather conditions and completely stopped during the winter. Stagecoach travel was a competitor of water-borne travel for many years. The first stage line from Philadelphia to Delaware, established in 1796, went to New Castle before continuing to Baltimore, A year later the first direct line between Philadelphia and Wilmington was begun. By 1802, a stage line from Philadelphia to Dover, via Wilmington, was operating. On the corner of Fourth and Market streets were located several inns and the main stage coach stop. The Indian King -30-

Tavern, managed by David Brinton from 1805 to 1821, served as the office for the Wilmington and Philadelphia stage line. With the advent of the steam­ boat Vesta, which began regular runs between Philadelphia and Wilmington in 1812, a fast line of stages was begun in opposition. The trip was short­ ened to four hours, from 7 A.M. to 11 A.M. The same stage would leave

Philadelphia at 3 P.M. and be in Wilmington by 7 P.M. The fare was fifty 69 cents. 7

By 1815, Wilmington had good transportation facilities by both land and water for passengers and freight. The Vesta was making regular runs, although it was soon to be replaced by the Aetna, a boat using Oliver Evans1 high pressure steam engine. The Aetna made the trip to Philadelphia daily in three hours and fifteen minutes. The steamboat connected with stages which went to Elkton, from where steamboats went on to Baltimore. Three packets belonging to Wilmington traded with Philadelphia. New Castle had 70 one steamboat and two packets operating between there and Philadelphia.

Land transportation included two stages a day running between Philadelphia and Baltimore which passed through 'Wilmington. In addition, four stages left town, six days a week, for Philadelphia. Stages also ran to Lancaster. Three turnpikes leading from Wilmington in northern, western, and northwestern direc- 71 tions were used by these and other vehicles.-

Transportation services continued to be improved. In 1827 the Western

Transportation Line was established between Philadelphia and Baltimore, via 72

Wilmington and Elkton.1 In 1829 steamboats between Wilmington and the Jersey shore, for the accommodation of market people, were put into operation by the New Jersey Steamboat Company. By the l830Ts, the need for a board of -31-

trade was recognized. First organized in 1837 with the objective of better organization and regulation of trade and business in Wilmington, the Wilmington board of trade concerned itself with improving navigation in the Christiana, 73 improving the wharves, and extending the city limits.

The main development in transportation in the l830's for Delaware was railroading. Inaugurated between New Castle and Frenchtown with horse- drawn cars in 1831, the railroad soon adopted steam locomotives. In 1838,

Wilmington was on the main line of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore

Railroad. By I8I4.O, the terminal date of this study, Wilmington had stage, rail, and steamboat connections with Philadelphia and Baltimore, and stage connections with Dover.^ A railroad to jan d through Dover was projected, however, as well as one to Downingtown. 75

Wilmington's coasting trade was extensive in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Prior to the War of 1812, "beef, pork, flour, grain and cheese were exported in large quantities." In 1820 the princi­ pal exports were "flour, lumber, and manufactured articles. . . . The ,77 number of persons employed in commerce, in 1820, was 333." Several of these persons, active in the foreign and coasting trade, were employed by various wharf owners who usually operated one or more vessels. Wharf owners in Wilmington included the following: Rumford, later McComb;

Robinson, then (17°U) John and William Warner; Clark and Witsel; Bush,

Brown, and Shallcross; Foundray and Staveley; Isaac Harvey, then Thomas 78

Mendenhall; and J. Shallcross, later William-Hemphill. These names in­ clude the leaders in the transportation business, some of whom started -32-

companies which lasted several generations. In addition, various millers 79 such as Tatnall, Canby, Lea, or Young had their own vessels.''' CHAPTER III

NINETEENTH CENTURY DEVELOPMENTS IN TRANSPORTATION

The wealth and prosperity of a nation may be said to depend, almost entirely, upon the facility and cheapness with which transportation is effected internally#1 John Stevens

. A. IMPROVED ROADS

One of the first evidences of Delaware's (or Wilmington's) interest in internal improvements came with the turnpike roads. Schemes for canals had been considered and interest was high before the end of the eighteenth century but many years passed before the successful conclusion of a canal program, whereas turnpikes became a reality soon after a specific project was desginated. There had been one attempt to construct a turnpike in

1796, but it had proved abortive. The plan was to connect Wilmington with the famous Philadelphia and Lancaster turnpike, recently completed, at a point near Gap, Pennsylvania. All the shares of the Wilmington Turnpike

Company were subscribed, but work did not progress beyond the surveying p stage.

The Lancaster turnpike, which was the model for most subsequent turn- piking efforts in the new nation, had been advocated by a Pennsylvania

"Society for promoting the Improvement of Roads." Governor Mifflin favored their project and appointed a special commission to study the situation.

After the commission reported such a road should have a "prosperous future," a joint stock company was incorporated April 2, 1792, to construct the road.3 -3U-

Capitalized at ^300,000, one thousand shares were to sell at $300 each.

Over 2,000 people appeared in Philadelphia to subscribe to the stock on the day the books were opened. Only six hundred shares were to be sold in Philadelphia, so lots had to be drawn to determine which six hundred would get them. The sale of the remaining four hundred shares was nearly as rapid in Lancaster.

Despite some opposition from landholders unwilling to give up their property, and from farmers near Philadelphia who feared the competition of the western farmers, the sixty-five mile road was sufficiently com­ plete to be used in 1794, although finishing touches were made until 1796.

The total cost of the road was $1*63,000. Toll income was good—for example,

$25,000 in 1803—but dividends did not average two per cent.^

This road was the first important toll road in America, and its example was widely followed. Recognition of its advantages was immediate, but imme­ diate action was not always possible. Delaware's attempt to connect that road to Wilmington by a similar improved road in 1796 failed, and a corres­ ponding project was not carried through until 1808. In 1796, the group of

Wilmington merchants prefaced their subscription book with the following reasons and statements concerning their attempt to establish the turnpike:

The utility of a Turnpike road leading from the Borough of Wilmington towards the Borough of Lancaster, and uniting with the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike road, at or near the place known by the name of the Gap, must be acknowledged by every one who has the least regard to the prosperity of this growing Country. Our sister State of Pennsylvania is now experiencing the advantages arising from the Turn­ pike road already established, and is willing to communicate and extend those advantages by a branch Turn-pike road from the present one towards the waters of Christiana, for which purpose a bill is now pending before the Legislature of that State.

We the subscribers, in order to make a compleat Turnpike road from the Borough of Wilmington to the line of this State, to meet the road expected to be laid out by the State of Pennsylvania, do agree to raise the sum of Fifty one Thousand dollars, divided into seventeen hundred shares of Thirty dol­ lars each, and to pay into the hands of the Treasurer here­ after to be appointed for the number of shares affixed to our respective names on the terms and conditions which shall be establishedrby the State of Pennsylvania for that part of the road lying within that State; and we further agree, that we will petition the Legislature of the State of Delaware, for the purpose of carrying the said design into compleat execution. And, in order to create a Fund for surveying and laying out the said road, and for other incidental expenses, antecedent to the principal work, we agree to deposit in the hands of the Cashier of the Bank of Delaware, at the time of subscribing, the sum of one dollar for each and every share so subscribed.

In Witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Wilmington the Z^\27 °* cr /.P^S/Cn e Thou­ sand and seven Hundred and Ninety six.-5

The first subscriber to the stock was Jacob Broom, a prominent

Wilmington merchant and a leader in the turnpike effort. The first day,

February 15, 1796, he and fifty-two others subscribed to 106 shares, two

shares per person being the limit. The following day llj-3 shares were taken.

The third day, with subscriptions evidently running below estimates, Broom

and others made down payments on additional shares. Within a week, all of

the shares were subscribed. Broom had a total of fifty-eight, and Samuel

Bollingsworth had fifty. ^ Despite the interest shown and a working capital

of $1700, nothing resulted from the efforts. There were no second payments

on the shares, so work did not progress beyond the surveying stage. A meet- -36-

ing of subscribers held September 3, 1796, on "Business of importance" made 7

no lasting achievements.

The pioneer Delaware turnpike which was eventually successful was the

Gap and Newport road. It was over ten years in construction, and was aban­

doned before it had operated twenty-five years. Pennsylvania took the lead

in establishing this road by chartering the Newport Turnpike Company on

April 7, 1'307, which charter to be in effect when the Delaware Legislature

authorized a turnpike from the state line to either the Delaware River or o

Newport on the Christiana.0 This being done in 1808, subscription books

were opened. It was subscribed to the amount of $lr5,000 by individuals;

$5,000 by the State of Pennsylvania.

Specifications about the road stated that the roadway was not to be

over one hundred feet wide, with twenty feet being "an artificial road. • .

bedded with wood, stone., gravel, clay or other proper and convenient mater­

ials, well compacted together, a sufficient depth, to secure solid founda­

tions for the same; and . • • faced with clay, gravel or stone ... in

such manner, as to secure a. firm, and ... even surface, rising towards 9 the middle by a gradual arch."' Work began immediately and with vigor but by 1809 financial trouble hit the company. In a petition to the Delaware legislature in 1809, the

company president pointed out that, with thirteen miles to go, the further

sura of ^70,000 would be required to complete the road. Saying that eight miles had been completed—which seems to be a slight exaggeration—and that without legislative help the money spent so far would be lost, the company -37-

requested permission to raise $30,000 by lottery. The long time taken to complete the road indicates that this permission was not received.

Three years later, August 5, 1812 j tolls began to be collected on four and one half miles of the road. Construction was delayed on the remainder of the road, but the Delaware Gazette in l8l6 carried a notice that the sub­ scribers were then ready to receive proposals and make contracts for corn­ el pleting any parts of the road. 'The Gazette also carried notices in I8l6 and 1617 directing stockholders to pay a total of $30 on each share of stock. Payments of $10 each were demanded on June 1 and July 1 of 1816, 12 and on June 1, 1817. On February 3.6, 1818, the toll road was completed.

Shortly after the Gap to Newport turnpike was authorized, the Wilmington

Turnpike Company was chartered. The road was to connect with the original

Delaware turnpike at a distance of six miles from Wilmington. The purpose was to open a communication from Wilmington to Columbia on the Susquehanna "

River. It would be "a stoned road, passable by loaded waggons at all seasons of the year, and bringing to us the heavy products of a rich and extensive 13 agricultural region."

The first president of this company was Jacob Broom, who had been con­ nected with a similar project some thirteen years earlier. He was elected to his office at the first company meeting held February 5, 1809. Other officers included J. Brian, J. Canby, James Robinson, William Hemphill,

James Brobson, and Joseph Grubb as managers, Joseph Bailey as treasurer, and Edward Gilpin as secretary.^ Proceeding cautiously, the company made their plans, surveys, contracts, and purchases with great deliberation. -38-

After the death of Broom in May of 1810, James Brobson became chairman

pro tern and then president. By that time, several landholders had agreed

to enter into contract with the company, if the turnpike went through as

proposed, to turn over their land for fee simple. Others gave the company

a little trouble by refusing or asking damages. No construction work as

yet had been undertaken, nearly three years after the chartering of the

company. Consequently, realizing the law incorporating the company would

expire at the end of the next session of the General Assembly unless some

progress were made on the road, the Board "resolved that the work be forth­ with commenced and that ten perches thereof be completed ... on the route

laid out."1^

Work was begun in earnest in March of 1811. Having been granted per­ mission by the Borough Council to begin the turnpike at Front and Market streets—if no tollgate be erected inside the city, the company paid Thomas

Maguire, contractor, $75>,ObO "for paving Front Street from Market to Shipley's " l6

Street 7 and \ perches © £10." Work progressed steadily and carefully.

Committees meticulously examined the work done by the contractors, such as reducing hills, before permitting continuation of the work. Finances were a continual problem. By November, 1811, the company had called in the sixth installment on each share of stock, and on November 25 the books were reopened for the further subscription of 200 shares. In addition, various loans were negotiated. Finally, on May 23, 1812, a committee was appointed to superin­ tend the building of a toll house and gate. In August the company advertised -39'

for a man to keep the tollgate. Mine bids, ranging from $150 to $2$Q, were

submitted; a ')200 bid, given by Matthew Crips, was accepted. Meanwhile, a

governor's committee had inspected and passed four and one-half miles of the

road. A list of tolls were published, and on the following Monday, October "1 7 12, 1812, tolls were first collected."'

Expenses still exceeded income, and on December 7, 1812, the treasurer

was instructed to require all delinquent payments by the stockholders, and 18

"to commence suits, forthwith, against such as refuse."

The company could have pushed their road to completion shortly after

the first four and one-half miles were opened, but they decided not to go

further until the Gap to Newport turnpike was more advanced. The president's

report of 1813, which reviewed their situation, was optimistic. Five and

three-quarter miles of their road were completed, with only one and one-

quarter miles to go. The work had been done as economically as possible,

and few damages were incurred. Only $1,806 of $20,000 in subscriptions was not paid in.^^

Tollgate receipts were good. From October 12, 1812, to December 31, 1313,

$1276.527f had been taken in. However, repairs were first spoken of as Qarly as lolii. Tolls up to January 1, 1818, were $593^.37. By that time, the road had been completed at a total cost of ^39,5U9.97. On December 25, 1817, the

governor's committee of three had inspected and declared satisfactory the 20 21 finished road. It operated until 1877 as a toll road. A third important turnpike corporation was the New Castle and Frenchtown -Uo-

Turnpike Company. Chartered January 2u, 1809, its capital stock was comprised of 600 shares at • 50. in 1813. an extension in time and permission to issue new stock was received, I'ive hundred shares at $25 were offered by the Hew

Castle and Frenchtown company to build only the road between Clark's Corner and the Delaware-Maryland line. A new company, the New Castle Turnpike Com­ pany, had been organized in 1811 to build between Clark's Corner and New Castle. 22

It sold 325 shares at $25. The work was done by I8l8. Frequent users of the road, with the exception of wood-haulers, could get an annual rate of

$2.00. In 1827, from Maryland, and 1829, from Delaware, the New Castle and

Frenchtown Turnpike Company and the New Castle Turnpike Company received the right to lay rails along their routes. "And Rail Road" was added to their corporate names and the capital was increased to $200,000. Finally, in 1830, the two companies were permitted to consolidate as the "New Castle and Frenchtown 23 Turnpike and Rail Road Company." f

The Kennet Turnpike Company, incorporated January 21, 1811, was petitioned for by- citizens of Christiana Hundred. A petition by the Burgesses and Borough

Council of Wilmington, representing "that this Borough experiences considerable inconvenience from the extreme badness of the road, commonly called the Kennet

Road," concurred with their fellow citizens in asking to have the road turn- piked. * After the company was formed, the borough of Wilmington held forty 2< shares of its stock. ' Other stockholders were various Brandywine industria­ lists, including Ereafne I. Dupont /slcj, his wife, Sophie, and his daughter,

Victorine; Peter Bauduy; and Rumford Dawes; each with ten shares of stock.

Perhaps coincidentally, the Kennet Turnpike Company, the only one invested -la­

in by the Du Ponts, appears to have been the only one to do business with the company. A Du Pont Company miscellaneous account book, 1811 to 1813, records that fact that on two different occasions, September 26, 1811, and January 3,

1812, .7250 was paid to the powder factory by the turnpike company. Details concerning the construction, financing, and operation of this road are not available. Its use and usefulness is attested to by the fact that it was the last Delaware turnpike to collect tolls, operating as a toll road until

April 30, 1919.27

Another company, chartered just two days later than the Kennet company, > was the "Wilmington and Great Valley Turnpike Company. The available records of this company are more voluminous than those of any other Delaware turnpike 28 concern. This company was incorporated to make an artificial road from

Wilmington, on the east side of the Brandywine, in the direction of West

Chester and the turnpikes of the great valley beyond, in the state of Pennsylvania.

The preamble to the act of incorporation gives reasons why the turnpike was desired: Whereas, it appears, that some of the public roads in New Castle County, have become almost impassable in rainy sea­ sons, by which the number of beasts of burthen have been greatly increased, to carry a scanty supply of such arti­ cles as the farmer must sell and which are indispensably necessary to mechanics and others; whereby the expenses of every citizen are much enlarged, and the spirit for improve­ ment which is so much wanted, to put the farms in a state of proper cultivation, and to promote the extension of manu­ factures is daily depressed, that the intercourse between Wilmington and the Great Valley has suffered for many years, and at present languishes so much as to become deeply injur­ ious and sensibly felt by the publie.29 The act of incorporation gives further details about the method of organizing the company; the rights and privileges of the company, which are not inconsiderable in view of the fact that they include the right of eminent domain and the collection of tolls; and specifications about the construction and operation of the road.--5 The tolls charged by this turn­ pike company were approximately the same as those charged by the other

Delaware companies.

The Wilmington and Great Valley Turnpike Company was not a money- making concern. Tolls were first collected about two and one-half years after incorporation, of the company, or on August 1)4, 1013• One year later,

August 13, I81I4., expenses totalled $13,129.09, while income amounted to only $59^.68. The company was still going deeper into debt in l8l6, when total expenses were $22,2£U*°6, and total income was $2&U>«63« By 1832, tolls had brought in $25,797.9U, but expenses neared $U0,000.-^-

It would be expected that the initial cost would not be made up for several years after the road was opened. What was not expected was the high costs of repair, which took nearly all of the available money, leav­ ing none for repaying debts, retiring bonds, or disbursing dividends.

Nevertheless, petitions for lower tolls were frequent. Wagoners avoided turnpikes if possible, preferring cheaper if somewhat slower alternative routes. Local residents, however, sometimes had no alternate road. Such people were the citizens of Brandywine Hundred who petitioned the Wilmington and Great Valley company for lowered tolls, "especially the toll on Dearborn waggons."32 There were other ways for turnpike companies to lose money. A colorful tollkeeper, William Allmond, employed by the Great Valley company, had his home entered and robbed of S060, $140,17 of which was collected tolls. Earlier the same man had been fined for "extorsively receiving Toll at a Turnpike 33

Gate.11 ^ In both cases, the company stood the loss.

Various other turnpike companies were organized in Delaware. In 1311 the legislature received a petition asking to use the revenue from the toll bridge over Naaman's Creek in turnpiking or otherwise improving the road from the state line to the Brandywine, "which is at all times extremely rough and uncomfortable to travel and at some times almost impassable for carriages."-^4 As a result, in 1813, the Wilmington and Philadelphia Turnpike

Company was incorporated. The improved road which followed greatly speeded land communications with Philadelphia. The Wilmington and Christiana Turn- pike Company, incorporated January 30, 1815, did the same for land communi­ cations with Baltimore. The nine-mile road was made free in 1852. The ^

Elk and Christiana Turnpike Company, Incorporated April 1U, 1813, completed its twelve and one-fourth mile road so that it passed inspection on March 26,

1817. This company did not prosper, and ceased activity completely after the New Castle and Frenchtown Rail Road attracted most of its business. In

I8I4I, when it was represented to the Delaware General Assembly "that the

Elk and Christiana Turnpike Company . . . have for a number of years past, abandoned the turnpike road constructed by them, and ceased to exercise their corporate rights, and that the road is very much out of repair," the charter was revoked and the road declared public and free.^0" Two other turn- pike companies were incorporated but were unsuccessful in subscribing their stock. No improved roads resulted from the Newark and Stanton Turnpike

Company, incorporated in 1816, or from the New-Castle and White-Clay Creek

Hundreds Turnpike Company, organized in 1813» The two lower counties of t-

Delaware did not partake in the turnpike rage.

The nine Delaware, or New Castle County, turnpikes totalled about sixty- five miles in length, and cost approximately $200,000. The estimated cost per mile was between $3>000and 000.-^ This was a good average nationally.

Wilmington, of course, was the focal point of most of the turnpikes. Only one road leading from Wilmington was not a turnpike during the turnpike era.

The turnpike story in Delaware corresponds surprisingly well, consider­ ing the geography of the state, with developments in other states. This is true not only in the number of turnpikes, but also in their financial exper­ iences. Usually the original cost exceeded the estimates, additional levies on the stockholders were necessary, and rarely was a turnpike a profitable 38 undertaking.J In Pennsylvania, Hazard's Register for 1828 noted that 168 companies had been incorporated since 1792 to make 3,100 miles of turnpike roads; that 102 had begun operations over 2,380 miles of road "passable at all seasons" for an expense of -:;;8,U31,05>9«50. ^ It was pointed out that while none of the state's turnpikes had yielded sufficient dividends and some had consequently been abandoned by their proprietors, they must not be regarded as altogether unprofitable: The stockholders in general were the proprietors of the land traversed, and consequently benefitted by these roads; or they were merchants interested in reducing the expense and obtaining a certainty of transportation; which objects -US-

were effected by these roads. Before their construction, regularity of transportation was impossible. During the rainy season, or on the breaking up of the frost, wagons were frequently detained on the road; sometimes for weeks. The merchandize conveyed in them was subject to injury from the roughness, and dangerous condition of these highways.

This interpretation agrees substantially with. Durrenberger's, who believed

that "turnpike stocks were exceedingly poor investments" as far as dividends were concerned.4**"

Gallatin's report of 1808 included some information about the prolifer­

ation of turnpikes in New England and the Middle Atlantic states. Connecticut

alone had incorporated fifty turnpike companies to lead the New England states.

In New York, where more money was invested in turnpikes by the state than any­ where else, sixty-seven companies were incorporated.4^ Icy aster noted that by 1810 there were twenty-six turnpikes in Vermont, twenty in New Hampshire,

180 in all of New England. By 1811, New York had chartered 137 turnpikes, with a total capital of $37,500,000. New Jersey had chartered thirty.4^

At the turn of the century, Pennsylvanians knew that their only hope of gaining the Susquehanna River Valley trade lay in roads, "since the Susquehanna flowed transversely to Pennsylvania's avenue of western expansion."44 The

Lancaster turnpike was the first of many turnpikes built for this specific purpose. Baltimore saw these turnpike successes by Pennsylvania and sought to emulate them by financing her own roads into the Susquehanna Valley.

Livingood pointed out that Baltimore roads dominated the trade of the western part of the valley, while Philadelphia routes accommodated the wagon trade of the eastern and northern sections.4^ -U6-

Contrary to the general impression, "the railroads were not usually *

responsible for the cessation of turnpike operation • • • in the majority

of cases the turnpike had given up the struggle before the appearance of

the rival* It was simply a case of not enough business to make the invest­

ment pay."1- 0 After 1832, in Pennsylvania, more miles of turnpikes were

abandoned than constructed.47 Again this paralleled the Delaware experience

with turnpikes. The enthusiasm for turnpikes everywhere was gradually

tempered by the realization, from experience, that even the best roads

afforded inadequate facilities.4^ Turnpikes, especially those subjected

to heavy use, fell into disrepair. They frequently were as rough as un­

improved roads. Moreover, they were expensive. Added to the necessarily

high costs of land transportation were the tolls. Robert Fulton dramati­

cally compared the cost of turnpike and canal transportation in 1807. He

said the cost of moving a barrel of flour (200 pounds) from Columbia to

Philadelphia by road was $1., or |10 per ton. If a canal were- built from

Columbia to Philadelphia, it could receive $$• per ton as toll, compared

to the vl. per ton turnpike toll, and still deliver the flour at §7. per

ton.^

A lack of engineering skill contributed to the low regard, high repair

costs, and eventual decline of the turnpikes. Joshua Gilpin's comment about the Lancaster turnpike in 1609 could be applied to most other improved roads:

"This turnpike is very rough the carriage upon it from the interior being very great, and little pains taken to keep it in high repair especially to coat it with gravel which is not plenty."-^ -1*7-

There were various grades of improved roads, all of them being called turnpike roads. The name came from the pole or pike across the road which was pivoted to permit men to pass after having paid the toll. One type of turnpike consisted of improvement only through reducing hills, draining swamps, and straightening the roadway. The natural soil was used for the road. The cost of improving a road in this manner was only 600 to $1000 per mile, but it was expensive to maintain.^ Tne other basic type consis­ ted of providing an artificial surface, usually of gravel, supposedly to a depth necessary to withstand the action of frost. The roads in Delaware and the Brandywine Valley were of this type. The cost of the artificial roads varied greatly, depending on the previous condition of the roadway and the availability of materials. Borne companies spent as much as $1U,000 per mile on their improved roads.

The first systematic construction of broken stone roads was begun in

France in the latter eighteenth century by M. Tresaguet, although toll roads

to were in England as early as 13l|.o.- In the early nineteenth century two systems of roadmakmg were introduced in England: Telford's and Macadam's.

In general, the term "Telford" is restricted to a particular type of rough stone foundation for broken stone roads. "Macadam" refers to a "road with S3 a foundation of small fragments. £rost saw more similarity than differ­ ence in the two methods, pointing out that both Telford and Macadam insisted upon thorough drainage of the roadbed, materials broken to gauge, and uniform cross-sections.^4

To Macadam, however, is due credit for first drawing attention to the -1*8-

proper preparation of materials, and to the possibility of forming with them a compact surface nearly impervious to water. While forming these principles,

Macadam spent $25,000 of his money by I8H4 travelling 30,000 miles in Great

Britain. He soon became recognized as an authority on roads. Macadam be­ lieved that

roads can never be rendered perfectly secure, until the following principles be fully understood, admitted, and acted upon: namely that it is the native soil which really supports the weight of traffic: that while it is preserved in a dry state, it will carry any weight without sinking, and that it does in fact carry the road and the carriage also; that this native soil must previously be made quite dry, and a covering impenetrable to rain, must then be placed over it to preserve it m that dry state; that the thickness of the road should only be regulated by the quantity of material necessary to form such imper­ vious covering and never by any reference to its own power of carrying,weight."

To accomplish this, Macadam advocated using stones less then one inch long and under six ounces in weight—i.e., stones that could be put into the mouth.

With this method, roads did not need to be exceptionally/" thick.^

Needless to say, most of the turnpikes in America did not follow Macadam's theory. Obviously the early ones, including most of Delaware's, could not because, they were begun before Macadam had proclaimed his findings. That by

1828 its use still was not yet widespread in America is seen by the following:

The system of road making is, in Pennsylvania, as in other parts of the Union, in its infancy. McAdams' plan, as it is erroneously called, has been practised only in two or three cases, but to a very'limited extent, and even for this partial introduction of it we are indebted more to circumstances than to design. The centre part of our roads is covered with stone broken to the size of two, three, and even three and a half inches in diameter—some- times mixed with stones of a much larger size. The founda­ tion of the road is composed of fragments of a larger size, weighing frequently 30 to 50 pounds; these in due season enjoy a rotation in office, and work their passage to the surface; to the no small annoyance of the traveller. The depth of road metal varies from ten to twenty inches, and on a few roads it is two feet in some places; an expenditure of materials much greater than is requisite. As materials thus arranged will not bind, earth, or gravel, is mixed with them to assist in forming a temporary smooth surface. In due season, the roads are covered with mud, and in dry weather with dust, which nuisances are generally permitted to accumulate until removed by the agency of the wind and rain.

The convexity of the surface is much greater than itfould be necessary to carry off the water, if properly prepared materials were used. The present plan but partially effects this object—carriages generally travel in the centre of the road, in order to preserve a horizontal position: hence, ruts are formed of a depth sufficient to appal the most enter­ prising traveller. These ruts of course form receptacles for water; hence, the convexity of the turnpikes produces the very defect which it was intended to prevent. Ditches, without which roads cannot be preserved, ^re in many cases unprovided: or if ma.de, they are frequently neglected, and of course soon become useless. The summer roads, as they are usually called, are parallel to the prepared roads, and are placed on each side of them. They are composed of the natural soil without any admixture of others, and they are preferred in good weather, to the rough surface of the stoned roads.

As the turnpikes are elevated above the summer roads, sometimes one or two feet, the transition from one to the other is abrupt and frequently dangerous.

These faults which we have described are common to the turnpikes of the Union generally. • • .57

These defects in the turnpikes were noted by a few men early in the nineteenth century, but wrong methods of construction were deeply in­ grained and long continued. Benjamin Latrobe, Albert Gallatin, and "0. E.,"^ a contributor to the Emporium of the Arts and Sciences, were a few of the men who spoke out about erroneous theories of turnpike construction.^^ They partic- -50-

alarly deplored poor drainage, the use of widely different sized stones, since the larger stones of the lower layer would work their way to the top, and the practice of greatly raising the road center, since the con­ vexity of the road cannot serve its purpose (drainage) because of resul-

AO tant longitudinal tracks. These tracks were caused by the additional weight thrust on the outside wheels by the tilt of the wagons travelling these overly-convex roads. -51-

B. RIVER TRANSPORTATION

Transportation by water continued to be the cheapest and easiest method to convey goods well into the nineteenth century. There were times when navigation would be stopped, and a few hazards resulting from storms, but it was safe enough and fast enough to satisfy most shippers.

The two major packet line operators in Wilmington were the Bush family and the Warner family. Samuel Bush first began regular water communications with Philadelphia in 1774- It took a full day to make the journey, either by land or water. After the Revolution, which had disrupted business, Bush resumed operations. Soon he built a sixty-ton sloop, Nancy, double the size of his first sloop, Ann. The larger vessel was fitted to carry passengers and freight. Meals were served aboard ship. Later, Bush expanded his area of operation, shipping to New York and the West Indie s.^"""

A freight book kept by Bush during the early years of his carrying business, now in the possession of the historical Society of Delaware, reveals much about this operation. Innumerable items such as rope, pork, wine, sugar, paper, snuff, corn, and molasses were hauled for various mer­ chants. Bush also delivered various products of the mills along the

Brandywine to Philadelphia. An October 1, 1789, entry, "Paper Mill to

86 Rims Paper," undoubtedly refers to the Gilpin paper mill product.

Established two years earlier, it is the only known Delaware paper mill of that date. Tobacco, "flower," and slit, bar, or sheet iron were also transported in quantity by Bush's packet boats. The iron was hauled for -52-

Russel and Dawes, who operated a slitting mill at Hagley in the late eight­ eenth century; the tobacco for Isaac Jones's snuff mill, Since most of the

Brandywine flour millers owned sloops, little or no flour was transported for them by packets. Bush carried flour for men such as Thomas and Adam

Mindinghall, in the grocery and commission business.

The Warner brothers were the other prominent Wilmington packet boat operators. Ancestors of these men had come to Wilmington soon after its founding. John Warner received some experience in business during an apprenticeship in ±79h to a merchant at Martinique in the Winward group of the West India islands.^4 Three years later, rie and his brother William announced the opening of a new wholesale grocery store in Wilmington, stat­ ing that "tneir fast stage boat, which, they had just purchased, accommodated Ac- passengers and freight to Philadelphia." ^ Captain William Kilner, who be­ came noted for carrying lots of sail and who once capsized in the Christiana because of such recklessness in a stiff breeze, sailed the Warner packets. He later captained their steamboat Vesta.^

Wnatever danger existed in travelling by packet, it was not lessened by land travel, i-oreover, packets were cheaper and infinitely smoother in good weather. In bad weather, the packets would not run; if a storm occurred while sailing, the captains would usually wait out the storm at the river bank. It was not uncommon for vessels to be damaged during storms while in port. Shipping news from the port of Philadelphia, recorded in the Mirror of the Times, related the damage done there by a gale: four schooners were damaged, two were sunk; the sloop Minerva was stove in; "the Rising Sun and -53-

Caroline, New Castle Packets, both injured so as to detain them a lew days, and many shallops sunk in the docks,

One sloop, well-named, plied the waters of the Delaware Tor over thirty years in the service of the Warner company. It was the Fame, of about sixty tons burden, which normally made rour trips weekly to Philadelphia, The Fame was on the line from lOoS until the lb'UO's when it was retired. Soon after, the Warner's discontinued passenger service altogether.

Packets were not displaced by the advent of the steamboat, canal, or railroad immediately. They continued to be reliable and economical, and no more subject to weather limitations than steamboats or canal boats. An estimate as to the length of time packet service was disrupted by the winter freeze can be gained from Bush's freight book. For the winter of 1789-90, regular entries were made until December 21;, Infrequent trips began to be made again in February and March, The following winter the final entry was

December 0, with service resuming in February.6^ . The commonplace book kept by Thomas Lea, a Quaker miller, provides a more specific record. The book, mainly a collection of observations on the weather, usually recorded the event of the first ship of the year sailing from Wilmington. Lea noted on

March 1, 1817, that the "Ice /is/ 15 to 18 Inches thick on the Creek."6?

He told of crossing the Jelaware River on the ice at Philadelphia on March

5, and said that "during the past winter they crossed the Oelaware in Slays

/sic/ at Chester and foot people crossed as low down as Grubbs Landing say

5 ; iles above the Mouth of Christiana Creek."7° Finally, on March 15, the

"first vessel sailed from Brandywine to Philada being the first suitable time this Spring," One winter the creek was frozen by December 15, but the shallopmen soon broke it so as not to stop navigation. The same winter, on January 18, 181°. "a shallop broke through the ice and com /sic/ up to the milles with a loade of corn,"72 During mild winters navigation could continue virtually without interruption. Such a thing happened in lOUl-ii2, when Lea recorded that "vessels ran entire winter with exception of a few days."

The shallop trade between Wilmington and Philadelphia was so great and so many vessels employed in it "that the Delawarean who happened to be in

Philadelphia could always stroll down to the wharves with the reasonable hope of seeing a friendly shallopman. and hearing news from home."7h jjo*t only were various packet boat operators, commission merchants, and millers involved in the trade, but individual farmers with access to a navigable stream, plentiful in Delaware, frequently owned shallops. The trip from

Wilmington to Delaware took from nine to twelve hours: departures, depend­ ing upon the wind and the tide, were signalled by a bell on the Wilmington

75 storehouses.''

It was because of the heavy traffic down the Christiana River that several of the shallopior sloop operators from Christiana wharves opposed the erection of a bridge over the stream at Wilmington. The issue became violentj all of rural New Castle County opposed it, while most Wilmington citizens were in favor of the bridge. Elections were fought, won and lost over the question. It was opposed by the river men because of the obstruc­ tion to navigation which would result. Without the bridge, shallops could -55-

reach the Delaware from most Christiana landing places in one ebb tide, ready to take the next flood to Philadelphia, The bridge, it was feared, would cause "each Craft to experience the loss of two tides in performing a trip to Market,"^^ The opponents of the bridge maintained that the ferries at

Newport and Wilmington, which cost the public :;plO,000, were sufficient for 77 all purposes at all seasons,'1

Petitions embodying these arguments were circulated and sent to the legislature. Nineteen printed copies, with hundreds of signatures, remain 78 in the Delaware State Archives; others exist,' The voluminous trade carried on by Christiana River wharves is attested to by documents quoted by C, A,

Weslager in his book about the Christiana. The first stated: Received by way of Christianna /sic7 Creek in one year 9320 Bushels of grain and sent off 2336 bushels of flour & meal and about 1000 bushels of shorts. ... Wm. Marshall & Sons, Mill Creek Hundred 7 Mo, 18th, 180679

The second stated:

I do certify that Red Clay Creek Mills, on the tide, have manufactured nine thousand Barrels of flour in one year, and White Clay Creek mills have manufactured in one year seven thousand Barrels—all of which is transported by the water Christa. Creek and that for two years past two-thirds of the Grain manufactured at said Mils, has been conveyed thereto by the waters of said Creek.

Ja. Stroud January 15, 1806°°

The proponents of the bridge at Wilmington also petitioned the legisla­ ture, though less vigorously. The first appeal was made in 1801 and repeated -56-

in 1802, claiming considerable inconvenience was caused for want of a bridge. Balked in their efforts for five years, the bridge advocates were successful in 1807 when the Wilmington Bridge Company was chartered.

Its capital stock of 15,000 sold for -,50 a share. The following

Wilmington merchants were, directors of the company: John Warner, William

Hemphill, James Lea, Jacob Broom, and William Collins. The wooden span bridge was completed April 5, I808.

A description of travel before the bridge was erected is found in

Benjamin Ferris's Early Settlements on the Delaware:

Up to 1807, the road leading to New Castle from Wilmington ... crossed the Christeen /sic/ at the old Ferry, about a half mile below the town. . . • Passengers and their carri­ ages were conveyed over the ferry in flat-bottomed boats or scows, and often in winter were subjected to much suffering, delay, and danger, by reason of the floating ice. . . • The road to /Jjew Castle/ was sometimes impassable, and the inter­ vention of a tedious ferry, always a source of delay, was of­ ten vexacious and frequently of serious disadvantage.^2

La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt had written of the ferry earlier, saying that "a very small ferry-boat ... carries over several stages every day.

The two fore-horses are taken off and placed beiiind, which fills the whole

On boat, the sides of which are not six inches high."

These hardships and dangers were ended with the bridge being built.

By 181*6 a person could "ride to New Castle now in less time than was fre­ quently spent in crossing the ferry."^4 Even the Newport citizens gave in and constructed a bridge across the Christiana in 1813. i'he structures were toll bridges, with rates set at approximately one-third the turnpike toll for five miles. Annua], rates for frequent users of the bridges were available. E. I. du Pont, for example, paid six dollars for himself and family in 1810$ that the pass issued was intended only for family members -57-

and not for employees is made clear in a letter to du Pont from Edward 85 Gilpin, treasurer of the Wilmington Bridge Company.

A type of river transportation not used in Delaware but important to interior areas and nistorically was that carried on by arks and keelboats.

These vessels were used in Pennsylvania to transport farm products, coal, iron, lumber, staves, salt, and gypsum until lo30.®6 Arks were long, narrow, relatively shallow boats. They were flat-bottomed, blunt-nosed, and heavy, useu only for one-way navigation. The 7,600 feet of two inch plank used in construction would be sold when the cargo was likewise dis- 87 posed of. Keelboats were similar to arks in construction, except that they were somewhat narrower and had pointed ends. They would be sailed or poled upstream on the return trip. Called the Conestoga of the water­ way, keelboats were usually operated by professional river men. -58-

C. STEAMBOATS ON THE DELAWARE

As would be expected of important shipping centers, Wilmington and

Philadelphia enter the steamboating story very early. John Fitch sailed his second steamboat on the Delaware in 1787, travelling forty miles at 89 four miles per hour. 7 By 1790, he had established a fairly regular freight and passenger line between Philadelphia and Bordentown, and is 90 said to have visited Wilmington on occasions.7 Oliver Evans also oper­ ated his "Orukter Amphibolos," a steam carriage and boat, on the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers prior to Fulton's successful trip. According to Dunbar,

Fulton's Clermont had at least fifteen predecessors in Europe and America.?"*"

Nevertheless, after Fulton's successful venture on the Hudson with an un­ gainly craft described as "looking precisely like a backwoods sawmill mounted 92 on a scow and set on fire,"7 steamboating had an unbroken history. In loll,

Nicholas J. Roosevelt's New Orleans proved itself on the Ohio. Walk-in-the-

Water began operating in 1818 on Lake Erie, and in 1819 the Savannah crossed 93 the ocean by steam.7-' Reliable commercial steamboating began on the Delaware when John Stevens (the Hudson being closed to him) sent his Phoenix there.

It was first used between Philadelphia and Bordentown, quickening communica­ tions between New York and Philadelphia and relieving passengers of a longer, wearisome stage ride through New Jersey.^

Stevens had barely escaped having the Phoenix confiscated by the New York courts. It was not until 182U that Thomas Gibbons' deliberate challenge to

Aaron Ogden, operating a ferry under the Livingstone-Fulton license, resulted -59-

in a Supreme Court decision giving "judicial approval ±*or the doctrine of freedom of navigation subject only to congressional regulation.n?^ Tne monopoly which existed previously had prompted Stevens to take his boat to

Philadelphia, where he built other steamboats and expanded his routes on the

Delaware. He planned to eventually operate steamboats from Philadelphia to

Baltimore, via Wilmington and Elkton. In 1813 the Philadelphia began the

Philadelphia to Trenton run.?6 His most important competitor, the famous

Union line of Philadelphia, New Castle, and Baltimore packets, was merged 97 with his own enterprises, and was incorporated as the Union line.

An advertisement of the steamboat line to New York in 1815 stated that

"Philadelphia and Raritan Steam Boats, connected by stages, form a line to

New .York. Passengers leave ... Philadelphia every Monday, Wednesday, and

Friday morning, at 7 o'clock, sleep at Brunswick; and arrive at New York the next morning at 12 o'clock,"? The stage journey was only twenty-five males, compared to fifty-six miles from Bristol to Elizabethtown or eighty-six miles by common stage. The fare was $iu£0« As competition increased, rate wars were frequent and furious. The 50 cent fare between Philadelphia and Bordentown was down to 6 cents at one time.??

The lower Delaware had regular steamboat service at an early date also.

By 1820, this portion of the river was covered down to the capes. At one time or another, ,rWilrington, Bridgeton, Milville, New Castle, Delaware City, Penns "I f)Q Grove, Chester, and the resort beacnes all had regular steamboat service."

The Vesta, owned by the Warner brothers, was "the first steamboat to operate regularly between Wilmington and Philadelphia. Launched April 23, 1812, as -60-

the Vestal from the shipyard of Joseph and Francis Grice of Kensington,

Pennsylvania, it became known as the Vesta after Captain liilner took command

in ldl5.-^ This steamboat was followed in 181U by the Delaware; in 1517 by

the Superior; then by others, such as the Wilmington, Emerald, New Cgstle, and

Telegraph,The trip to Philadelphia originally required eight hours and

the fare was $1.00*- * By 1836, the New Castle, raster than her predecessors,

was making the round trip between Wilmington and Philadelphia in less than a

day.1*

Letters were carried by steamboats from the first, sometimes within and

sometimes without the regular mail. E. I. du Pont and his powder agents fre­

quently communicated using the steamboat ms.il service. In lb21 du Pont wrote

John Vaughn acknowledging receipt of "yours of the 25th per steamboat & pr. luS

mail." Another agent, F. G. Smith, became exasperated trying to answer

letters arriving by.steamboat in time for the return trip of the boat.^6

Steamboats were used primarily by passengers at first. Some freight

was carried, but it was of secondary importance. Anything of bulk usually 107

went by sailing vessels. F. Q. Smith's letter to E. I. du Pont de Nemours

& Company indicates that little freight was being sent from Philadelphia to

Wilmington by steamboat as late as 1838. He wrote: "The Buffalo robes • . .

had best be sent by the Steamboat, but it should be well marked, for the

Wilmington freight is liable to go to Baltimore."10^ Steamboat runs to

popular resort areas, excursion trips, and ferry services were common addi­

tional activities. Particularly was the run from Philadelphia to Cape May -61-

popular.^? The Vesta was the first steamboat to run regularly to the cape.

later the Emerald ran to Gape May Point, where Captain Wilmer Whildin opened

"110

a seaside resort and built a hotel.x u A ferry running between Wilmington

and Perms Grove in 1837 reserved Thursdays for excursions."^" Steamboats on

the Delaware were singularly stubborn about surrendering to the railroads and 112 were in lively operation until about 1917•

Steamboating on the Chesapeake, begun in 1813, is of interest here because

it began in order to connect Philadelphia and Baltimore by steam. The Chesapeake

ran between Baltimore to Frenchtown, where a connection with the Delaware at

New Castle was made by stage and later railroad. Later, steamboats on the

Delaware and Chesapeake were connected by stages between Elkton and Wilmington.

Eventually the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal was used by steamboat lines, "splen­

did and commodious barges" being towed through the canal to connect with bay

steamers. In 18U3 the Ericsson line used screw propellors on vessels specially

ma.de to operate through the canal.

The steamboat companies usually were joint stock corporations. E. I. du Pont was an investor in at least two of these companies, although it appears that gun­

powder was not customarily transported by steamboats. Poorly constructed boilers made steamboat operation hazardous enough without compounding the danger. If du Font's interest was purely a business investment, it was a profitable one.

His investment of $°60 in the Philadelphia and Wilmington Steamboat Company paid $1U15*50 over the original investment within less than five years.

Du Pont was also an investor in Warner company steamboats, the Vesta and the

Superior. Apparently this investment was less profitable, although the avail­ able records are incomplete, but it gave du Pont a personal sense of ownership. -62-

L1& He wrote of the Superior as "ours" and '.'our boat" in 1821#- Two years later du Pont received a proposition from a man in New York about a steamboat for sale there which would be suitable to run between Slkton and Baltimore and

117 in conjunction with the Superior* ' -63-

D. CANALS

The canal building boom touched off by the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825' had little effect in the Brandywine Valley. Not experiencing as drastic a need for improved water transportation as other areas in the country, the Brandywine merchants and millers continued to rely on other time-proven methods of transportation. The Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, although it lay mostly in Delaware, was primarily a Pennsylvania and Maryland project.

The canal scheme which had attracted the attention of people in the Brandywine area was a Brandywine Canal projected in the 1790's. Both canals, then, which directly concerned Delaware were not results of following New York's example, for the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal had been seriously considered since

1769; actual construction had started in 1803 although funds were soon de­ pleted.

In Pennsylvania there were a few canals previous to the "canal era."

Most of these were to improve navigable rivers; all were built by private 118 enterprise. An example of a canal of this type was the one built around

Conewago Falls, on the west side of the Susquehanna 'River, in 1797* Another canal was built around the falls on the east side in 1813» ' This made it possible for boats to come as far down the Susquehanna as Columbia. The

Philadelphia and Lancaster turnpike was extended to Columbia in 1803, pro­ viding improved communications between central Pennsylvania and Philadelphia.

Columbia became "Philadelphia's port of entry on the Susquehanna. "-^0 '?he canal around the Conewago Falls was not destined to play an important role -6U-

in river navigation, however, for in 1794 a new type of boat capable of running rapids or falls appeared on the river. Devised by a German miller, it carried a cargo of flour to the mouth of the Susquehanna, including its worst section below Columbia, without mishap. Soon similar boats appeared, and even settlers 121 in the Genesee Valley turned to Baltimore as their most advantageous market.

The most ambitious canal project undertaken by Pennsylvanians was a state canal to connect Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, There was much opposition to the plan, both from conservatism and fear of competition by freighters, but historical precedent and a traditional legislative policy prevailed over 122 hesitant public opinion. The victory was not unmitigated. Members of the legislature would not vote appropriations unless local interests were answered.

Unnecessary and unproductive lateral canals dissipated funds and delayed the works. The main line was 39k miles long; by l81j.2, 93h miles were completed, 123 of which 117 miles were railroads. ^ The main line included an eighty-two mile railroad from Philadelphia to Columbia, a 172 mile canal from there along the Susquehanna and Juniata to liollidaysburg, the thirty-six mile portage rail­ road, consisting of ten inclined planes and powered by stationary engines, and a canal 10U miles long from Johnstown to Pittsburgh,"^"1'

Other canals in the Middle Atlantic states were the Schuylkill Navigation

Company Canal, 1826, opening that river to navigation for 108 miles; the

Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company Canal, 1827-38, improving eighty-four miles of the Lehigh; the Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal, 1839, making the last forty miles of the Susquehanna navigable; and the Lancaster Canal, 1629, which was 125 started in 1825 in an effort to establish trade relations with Baltimore, -65-

Unhappy with labor combinations and trade regulations in Philadelphia,

Lancaster sought a bargaining point. The canal lost much of its force in that sense when completed in 1829, for the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal was complete by that time also.-1 A Baltimore canal project had been carried out early in the century, but it was of no consequence. Tne plan had been to improve the lower Susquehanna River and get Pennsylvania to

127 extend the improvements to Columbia. In New Jersey, the Delaware and

Raritan Canal, one of the four advocated by Gallatin to -complete an inland water communication from north to south along the coast, was completed in lQ3k, A summary of navigation for the states of New Jersey, Delaware,

] aryland, Pennsylvania, and Ohio list only 3h0 miles of natural waterways,

2,393 miles of artificial navigation, and 1,078 miles of mixed' navigation.

Canals made possible bulk shipments. Calculations proved that in a day's time four horses could draw a wagonload of goods weighing a ton twelve miles over an ordinary road; over a turnpike, one and one-half tons could be drawn 129 eighteen miles; on a canal, 100 tons could be taken twenty-four miles. y

Great amounts of coal descended the Lehigh, Schuylkill, and Susquehanna

Rivers after canals opened the Pennsylvania coal regions. Iron and iron ore, farm products, and manufactured goods were other items transported on canals.

The Du Ponts shipped gunpowder west by way of Pennsylvania canals as long as they remained open; during the winter the company reverted to wagon transpor­ tation. The suitability of canals for snipping bulk products had an effect on manufacturing. Prior to the canal era, "no change in water transportation was radical enough to affect the development of manufactures." ^ As settle- -66-

ment pushed to the headwaters of navigable rivers, only new market relations were set up, When the Erie Canal linked the East and West, secondary manu­ factures could remain In the East, This tendency was further advanced by railroads,

Delawarels two projected canals appear minute compared with the gigan­ tic canals to the north, Nevertheless, had the Brandywine Canal been con­ structed, it obviously would have been extensively used and locally impor­ tant at least. The project to link the great valley of Pennsylvania with the port of Wilmington by canal was carried out later by turnpike and rail­ road. The canal was persuasively advocated in an article appearing in the

American Daily Advertiser signed "A Pennsylvania Farmer." The article was reprinted in the Delaware Gazette of January 26, 1793* First proposed in order to provide a cheap and easy conveyance for Chester County farm produce to market, the canal was also shown to be advantageous to the numerous manu­ factories located along the stream as a ready means of marketing their pro­ duct. Listing 131 mills and their annual production, the author gave detailed calculations on the economic advantages of the canal. Brought to the atten­ tion of the Delaware legislature, the canal project was favorably reported in the senate by a committee on June 13, 1793. The committee, headed by

Jacob Broom, Joseph Shallcross, and Samuel Hollingsworth, considered "the

Design practicable, and if executed with Skill . . , attended with great

Advantages to the agricultural and commercial Interests, of both States ....

The probable Expence /sic/ .. • • would not exceed Sixty Thousand Pounds."1^ -67-

When no action .was taken on the proposal after several years, the governor of Pennsylvania sent a message recommending the project to Delaware,

A second committee was appointed to study the situation. ** The next offi­ cial mention of the canal,•occurring in 1826, recommended abandonment of the plan. The committee, headed by Mr, Brobson, reported to the House of Repre­ sentatives that:

the various and valuable manufactories established within this state on the Brandywine creek, constituting a very essential source of its • prosperity and wealth, the committee deem it a -duty of the legisla­ ture to extend to them every advantage which it can do consistently with what it owes, to the other great interests of the state, and with its constitutional powers: ^especially to guard against7 the adoption of any measure which might.prove in its consequences detri­ mental to the interests of these valuable establishments. ^The committee found/ that the opening of a canal from the head of the Brandywine, to the Christiana creek, which was to derive its supply of water exclusively from the former stream, could not fail to produce the consequences that the legislature sees as its duty to prevent.

The manufactories on that stream, it is understood, require all its water for their own proper purposes; and it is further understood, that during the summer season, all the water in the stream has for some years past, furnished an inadequate supply for these purposes.-^3

The committee concluded it would be "highly inexpedient" to build the canal. -63-

E. CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE CANAL

Neither in Europe, nor in our own country do I know a line of inland navigation, which by so short a distance, and at so easy an expense, unites such extensive and pro­ ductive ranges of commercial intercourse.134 Benjamin Latrobe

One of the first men actively interested in the possibility of connect­ ing the waters of the Chesapeake and Delaware was Thomas Gilpin of Philadelphia.

Others are said to have envisaged the canal—for example, Joim Smith in 1609;

John Rising m 165U; Augustine Herman in 1680—but Gilpin was the one who

acted on his convictions. He began a private survey of possible routes for the canal.Convinced that a canal only a few miles long and passing- through lands of easy digging, was practicable, Gilpin brought the problem before the American Philosophical Society where it struck responsive chords.

The society, one of Philadelphia1s most progressive organizations, was aware of the need for internal improvements. The growing traffic to and from the interior of Pennsylvania made it impossible to keep the roads in repair.

Many people were beginning to trade with Baltimore or other Maryland centers.

Consequently, a committee of nine was appointed by the American Philosophical

Society to look into the problem of transportation and to make surveys of the routes between the Chesapeake and Delaware bays-.

The committee realized that "the river Susquehanna is the natural channel through.which the produce of tliree-fourths of this province must in time be conveyed to market for exportation, and through which a great part of the back -69-

inhabitants will be supplied with foreign commodities."±J>° They sought ways to get that produce to market in Philadelphia so that supplies for the inter­ ior would be purchased there also. Of four possible canal routes across

Delaware, the committee recommended two routes, one of them passing from Elk

Creek to Christiana Bridge. Probably more definite steps would have been taken and work begun had not the difficulties attendant to the Revolutionary

137 o n War intervened. The project was revived by 17oo when several eminent men, including Benjamin Franklin and James Madison, met in Wilmington to discuss 138 plans for a canal. •* Approval of the canal was almost unanimous; some dis­ cussion occurred over the selection of a route. According to La Rochefoucauld'

Liancourt, four possibilities existed in 1797: One of the plans for joining the Chesapeak and the Delaware, by inland navigation, is to join the Elk-River to that of the Christiana. Another has for its object to join the'Bo­ hemia to the Apbquimini. A third is to make a communication between the river Chester and Duck-River; and the fourth would join the Choptank to Jones-River. Each of these plans is favored by the inhabitants, of the part of the country which it would pass through.-^o

Liancourt also mentioned a rumor that Delaware opposed the canal because of the "great number of horses belonging to the inhabitants ... constantly and usefully employed in carrying corn from Elk-Town to Christiana Bridge," but expressed disbelief that so trifling an interest could mislead others in the state to oppose the important project."*"^

Pennsylvania took the lead in getting a company organized to begin con­ struction of the canal. The reluctance of both Delaware and Maryland to support the project had prompted Pennsylvania to attempt a canal within her -70-

own borders earlier. Enthusiasm was high but the task was too great. Forced to seek the cooperation of her neighbors, Pennsylvania's repeated overtures were finally accepted: by Maryland in 1799« by Delaware in 1801a1

Delaware's decision was influenced by a meeting in Wilmington held

January 13, 1801, by "persons desirous to promote the passing of a law for opening a canal between the Delaware and Chesapeake bays."^^ Jacob Broom occupied the chair at the meeting which ordered fifty copies of a petition

prepared for circulation.. Qn January 29, 1801, the legislature passed the desired act of incorporation. Subscription books were opened in 1802, and the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Company was organized in 1803 when enough shares were subscribed. The route finally selected was that between

Welsh Point, at the junction of Back Creek and Elk River, and Christiana.

Creek near Mendenhall's Landing. Additional subscriptions came slowly. The entire authorized sum of ^300,000 was not subscribed by I80U, and the directors felt that at least $60,000 more was necessary. Work began in 1804 but pro­ gressed slowly. Payments likewise were slow in being made, necessitating several collections made through the courts. Appeals to the states for aid were required in 1805• When it was learned that this aid was not forthcoming, work was suspended in 1806.^^

The grounds upon which appeals for state and national aid were based were the pivotal position of the canal in the coast-wise trade, and its im­ portance, both nationally and locally, in matters of defense. The canal would considerably shorten the 500 mile trip around the Delmarva peninsula from the head of Chesapeake Bay to Philadelphia. The company felt that the -71-

canal -would be particularly advantageous to Pennsylvania, for it contained

the most improvable lands, and astonishing quantities of coal, iron, limestone, copper, lead, and other mineral pro­ ductions, but being altogether an inland State all these advantages are lost for want of communications by means of which the produce of the back country can, be brought to market. 116

Remarking that Great Britain's industrial revolution was stimulated by the union of their coal and iron by means of canals, the company noted that coal and iron mines might exist within ten males of each other in the United Btates and remain valueless because of the expense of transportation.^^ Coal from

Liverpool was cheaper than Richmond coal on the Philadelphia market. The cost to ship a ton of freight from Europe equalled the cost to haul a ton nine miles over United States roads.Since the canal would also cause insurance rates to drop, lessen freight rates, aid interstate commerce, stimulate other intracoastal waterways, eliminate land trip dangers, and prevent the complete loss of the money already invested, the company committee felt justified to appeal for government aid.

Nothing was done immediately. Bills to provide assistance for the canal were defeated in 1810 and 1816. The former had arisen from Gallatin's I808 recommendations. A pamphlet published in 1821 by Joshua Gilpin related the past history of the canal and forcibly demonstrated Philadelphia's immediate need of the canal. Spurred on by New York's threat to Philadelphia's commerce with the West, the company was officially revived in 1822. Proceeding cautiously, it interviewed New York canal experts, hired a permanent engineer,, made new surveys and estimates, changed the route of the canal, and successfully secured -72-

state and federal aid. The new estimate placed the cost at $1*4 million.

Pennsylvania subscribed $100,000; Maryland, $50*000; Delaware, $25,000; the federal government, $300,000. By 1829 a total of over one million dollars had been collected. Work began on the canal that year. The new route, connecting Back Creek with deep water on the Delaware River at Newbolds

Landing, presented great construction difficulties. Swampy land, clay, quicksand, solid stone, and a high ridge lay between the proposed termin­ als. Nevertheless, the canal was officially opened October 17, 1829. It was thirteen and five-eighths miles long, emptying into the Delaware forty- six miles below Philadelphia. The ditch was sixty-six feet wide at the top, thirty-six feet at the bottom, and ten feet deep, with two locks in it. It had cost $2,201*864, sixty-two per cent more than estimated in 1823. The

$150,000 plus cost per mile does not compare favorably with, the cost per mile of turnpikes. Part of the extra cost came from the successful breach of contract lawsuit of John Randel, the original engineer of the new project.

Gilpin, in a letter to Albert Gallatin in 1808, spoke of the revenue of the canal when completed. He saw that the canal would do more than assume the land carriage trade across the peninsula because:

1. That land carriage for any distance is in itself confined to very few objects comparatively, consisting of articles of value or of little weight or bulk.

2. On all neavy or bulky articles, such as coals, iron and other mineral productions, lumber, and heavy merchandize, canals, in a great degree, create their own revenue, by conveying them where they were partially or not at all carried before. -73-

3. When canals open a passage from sea to sea for the conveyance of large vessels, they are wholly independent of any comparison with land carriage, but must be compared with the time, expense, and danger of coasting navigation.

It was in the original plan that a turnpike road be laid out along

one bank of the canal to serve what little land carriage that would remain.

The turnpike was believed to nave the following advantages:

1. It would secure the canal business when the canal was closed by ice, accidents, repairs.

2. A good level road would probably become the customary route across the peninsula, to the aid of the canal company revenue.

3. The canal would keep the road drained.

km The easy transportation of stones, gravel, and other building materials by water would keep repair costs low.^O

The turnpike did not materialize, probably because of the fact that

by the time the canal company was revived a satisfactory turnpike road

existed from New Castle to Frenchtown. Gilpin was correct in his pre­

dictions about the type and extent of the canal business, however. Be­

tween opening day, October 17, 1829 and late January, 1830, when ice forced the closing of the canal, 798 vessels passed through, paying $8,500 in 151 tolls. * Most of the traffic was eastbound, with cargoes arriving in

Philadelphia from all parts of central Pennsylvania. Lancaster, using her newly constructed canal, shipped produce to Philadelphia rather than use the turnpikes. Baltimore noticed a diminishing trade almost immediately.

The importance of the Susquehanna trade, much of which had gone to Baltimore is seen in the canal, company reports. . Three times within fifteen years a decline in revenues was attributed to poor navigational conditions on the river For the first ten complete years, tolls averaged over $56,000 annually, with wood being the most abundant article carried through.

Steamboats alone created a great demand, and the price per cord was almost two dollars less on Chesapeake Bay than Delaware Bay.Difficulties and embarrassments were encountered by the company during the first ten years.

Court verdicts against the company, low water, illegal detention of ship captains in Delaware, and poor Susquehanna River navigation continually harassed the company. The Sixteenth General Report, issued June 1, 1828, said the want of water during the previous summer

prevented for s ome months the larger class of vessels from using it. This circumstance, in addition to the difficulties and embarassments to which the trade on the Canal has been subjected by the arrest of those engaged in it, has prevented many persons from entering into it, who otherwise would have done so; and obliged many others who previously had made their voyages by way of the canal, to abandon it, and make them by sea. These various causes have dimimished the tolls below the amount received the previous year .... The tolls received since the last Annual Report amount to $U7,511.30.^54

Of the U889 vessels which passed through the canal that year, 150U of them 155 carried lumber or wood, easily the most numerous product. w

Additional revenue came in from steamboat lines which used the canal.

The People1s Line ran the paddler Kentucky to Frenchtown, where passengers rode barges to the steamer Ohio for the run to Philadelphia. The Eribsson 156

Line ran in opposition. *' Some of the canal's passenger trade and lighter freight business was assumed by the New Castle and Frenchtown Rail Road after 1832, but the bulk goods continued to use the canal. After I8I44, the canal revenue from tolls showed a marked increase. F. RAILROADS, PRE-lSUO

Railroads made their appearance in North America just prior to the terminal date of this study of transportation. The idea of the railroad was not new, however, and horse-drawn cars had travelled over miles of track laid in England in the early nineteenth century. Used primarily in mining, it was not until the steam locomotive was proven that railroads experienced their rapid growth.

Stevenson's locomotive, the Rocket, successfully made a run between Darlington and Stockton in Durham County, England, in 1825; by 1830, the locomotive was in America.

In l82l| William Strickland of Pennsylvania, an engineer formerly connected with the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Company, was sent to England by the

Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Internal Improvements to study the

British transportation system. He saw the great significance of railroads during his stay abroad; his reports helped shape the popular attitude in favor of railroads in the United States. He wrote in 1825:

In fact, the introduction of the locomotive has greatly changed the relative value of railways and canals; and where a communication is to be made between places of com­ mercial or manufacturing character, which maintain a con­ stant intercourse and where rapidity of transit becomes important, it can not be doubted that railways will receive a preference because of this very powerful auxiliary. 157

Strickland's prophesy that railways would supercede canals in time was struck out of the printed report by the more cautious society.

Another man had prophesied about the future of locomotives several years -76-

earlier. Oliver Evans, towards the end of his life, stated his belief

"that the time "will come when carriages propelled by steam will be in

general use, as well for the transportation of passengers as goods, trav­

elling at the rate of fifteen miles an hour, or 300 miles per dayv*^

But, Evans added, speaking from long experience at having new ideas slowly accepted,

it is too much to expect the monstrous leap from bad roads to rail-ways for steam carriages at once. One step in a generation is all that we can hope for. If the present shall adopt canals, the next may try the rail-ways with horses, and the third generation use the steam carriage.-^9

Evans was not far wrong in this prediction of the successive steps.

Almost simultaneous with Strickland report, John Stevens designed and built a steam locomotive which he operated on a circular track in the yard of his home. Within a year the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company was chartered; a year later construction was begun. This was not a steam rail­ road originally, but rather horses provided the motive power. A contest held later "for the best steam locomotive" provided one a few years after­ wards.^-^ The first railroad, as the term is generally understood, was a six-mile road between Charleston and Hamburg, South Carolina. In 1831, using the locomotive Best friend of Charleston, built at the West point

Foundry, the line was formally opened.

Other early horse-operated railroads were opened in Pennsylvania and

Delaware. The Philadelphia, Lancaster and Columbia Railroad, chartered

March 1, 1632, and open to Lancaster by lQ'3h, was run. by horse power until

1837. The eighty-two mile trip from Philadelphia to Columbia took nine -77-

1 £o hours, with horses being changed every twelve miles. The New Castle and

Frenchtown railroad cars were horse-drawn from 1831 until 1833 ••^^ Several other railroads, using both steam and animal power, were chartered in the

1830fs. This duality of motive force was chronologically overlapping: horses were reverted to in case of mechanical failures or bad weather.

The establishment of a railroad philosophy was a major problem in the early days of railroading. What was a railroad? Most men considered it, just as they considered canals and turnpikes, an improved thoroughfare for the use of private vehicles after a fee was paid. This confusion is shown by the fact that turnpike companies, such as the New Castle and Frenchtown company, built railroads at first. The management of a railroad by one company was finally agreed upon primarily for reasons of safety*"*" *

In spite of the bitter and determined opposition of other transportation interest, the railroad succeeded. In Delaware there was intense rivalry be­ tween the New Castle and Frenchtown Railroad and the Chesapeake and Delaware

Canal. The railroad men tried to restrict the canal by law to carrying freight the canal defenders spoke of the dangers and impracticality of the railroad.

Delaware, in addition to the railroad from New Castle to Frenchtown, was crossed by one other railroad in the I830fs. This was the Wilmington and

Susquehanna road, authorized January 18, 1832, and completed in 1837. The formal opening of the road, which connected with a railroad to Baltimore by way of a ferry over the Susquehanna,^^ was held on July 19, 1837. Connec­ tions, with Philadelphia were made by the steamboat Telegraph, Captain W. -78-

Whildin, until the railroad was completed to Philadelphia in 1838.167 The maximum rates established by law were eight cents per ten-mile on freight, four on passengers. Some idea of the popularity and confidence placed in this undertaking may be obtained from the following advertisement of an investor: "WRAI£ STOCK11 5 Shares of the old stock of the Wilmington Whaling

Company, for sale at a bargain by Z. B. Glazier. P. o. Wanted, 50 shares in the Wilmington and S. Rail Road Company. Z.B.G."-1-^?

Other railroad companies were incorporated but no tracks were laid until near mid-century. As early as 1826, the Wilmington and Downingtown railroad was authorized, with industrialists E. J. du Pont /sic_7, Caleb Kirk, Joseph

Rowland, James Canby, John Gordon, Edward Tatnall, and William Seal as commis- 170 sioners. ' Tiiirteen years later a supplement to the act of incorporation ex­ tended the time within which to build the road and appointed new commissioners. ^-7^

The Delaware Rail Road Company was incorporated in 1836, and was to run "from any point on or near the Wilmington and Susquehanna Rail Road or the New Castle and Frenchtown Rail Road; thence to the southern line of this state.con­ struction began in 1852. Another company empowered to build a railroad was the Brandywine and Christiana Manufacturing Company, a group of northern

Delaware industrialists and merchants interested in promoting manufacturing along the Brandywine.-^

Wilmington was more than a stop on the Philadelphia to Baltimore route.

A locomotive for the New Castle to Frenchtown Piailroad was built there in the early 1830's. In I836, the Betts, Puse}^ and Harlan Company built railroad cars. To deliver their cars, the company laid an improvised track in the -79-

streets. A Delaware historian wrote that "it was quite a common proceeding

to haul a train along country turnpikes upon wooden shifting tramways.

An I84O map of Maryland and Delaware with special reference to the

transportation facilities shows only two railroads in Delaware at that time,,

The Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore passed through Wilmington,

Stanton, and Newark. The other line ran from New Castle towards Frenchtown via Red Lion and Glasgow.

Until I8I4.O, the general concensus of opinion is that railroads had only

limited and local importance. At first the railroad was merely a feeder of

canal and river routes, effectively supplementing water transportation.

Railroads became trunkline carriers between the Atlantic and the Mississippi

from 1850 to i860.1?6 After I84O, the importance of the railroad cannot be denied. Previously the seacoast, the river, and later canals following river paths deterioined the direction and extent of our economic control of the con­ tinent. When steam was used for land carriage, these "coastal and fluvial 177 limitations vanished." Likewise, dependence upon good weather for trans­ portation diminished. The railroads brought swiftness, directness and con­ tinuity to transportation when it came of age.

In the years of railroading before I84O, freight transportation does not seem to be a major service of railroads. Perhaps Ferris' choice of words is significant when he spoke of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore

Railroad as "giving facilities to travellers never anticipated in olden times."1^^

Of course some freight was transported by rail in the early years of the -80-

railroad in America. Fletcher pointed out that cattle were carried on the

Philadelphia to Columbia Railroad in 1835; in the same year the Du Ponts 179 were negotiating with railroad companies about transporting powder. 7 The

Hew Castle and F'renchtown Railroad was "primarily a passenger line." Be­ fore complete railway connections between Philadelphia and Baltimore, most travellers between North and South, including presidents and congressmen, travelled on this line. Freight that was carried by rail before I6I4O—for example, on the railroad portion of the state works of Pennsylvania—was transshipped to water vessels as soon as possible. Delaware railroads did not come into their own until after 18U0. Although the date is somewhat arbitrary, the same in generally true for the nation. CHAPTER IV

BRANDYWINE INDUSTRIES AND TRANSPORTATION

The transportation of American raw materials, fuel, building materials and food for the workmen occasions a very great trade and business in boats, shallops, and coasting vessels, highly favorable to the merchants, who own them, and the transportation of American manufactures, in like manner, to the markets on our rivers, bays, and coasts, is profitable to the owner of vessels,1 Tench Coxe

The powder went on board of the Eliza Saturday after­ noon and the vessel disappointed us again, the shipping of our powder come more and more difficult.2 E. I. du Pont

The adaptation to the new means of transportation by Brandywine industries was immediate for some of them. Others, notably the gunpowder industry, were compelled to rely on the older methods somewhat longer. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, water transportation predominated.

Freight, whenever possible, was transported by the numerous shallops, sloops, barks, and other craft which filled the waterways of the young Republic.

Even a circuitous and le ngtl? all-water route was preferred to the high costs of overland transportation. Compared to the cost of water transportation, land freights were excessive at best. Bad roads and later high tolls com­ bined to keep the cost high.

Industries with either great quantities of bulky raw materials to bring in, or heavy goods to ship out, were forced to give primary consideration to -82-

transportation facilities in determining the location of their plants. All

manufactories are dependent upon transportation to some extent, just as they

are dependent upon power; in the case of iron, the point is emphasized. Wheth­

er the-nineteenth century iron works w^re furnaces, forges, rolling mills, or

a combination of them, their transportation problem ranked with that of the

problem of supplying raw materials. No iron works could be located well in­

land, pay land freights to markets, and compete with foreign iron goods in

the early nineteenth century. The fact was that the cost of wagon transpor­

tation for seventjr-five miles was more than twice the amount charged for the

carriage of similar commodities across the Atlantic. It was necessary to

locate near navigable waters in the earlier period, and near canals or rail­

roads later. The greatly increased price of pig iron in the market "compared

to the price at the furnace was due to the high cost of transportation."3

Iron carried overland forty miles, from Colebrookdale Furnace to Philadelphia

in the late eighteenth century, increased the price from twenty to forty per

cent of the value of the product. As late as I83I1, the market for the

Delaware Iron Works was "restricted to within a radius of fifty to seventy-

five miles, unless shipments were made by water from Philadelphia, thirty-

eight miles away, or from Wilmington.. . . twenty-one mi3.es away."^"

The unavoidable overland transportation concomitant with operating the various iron works in Delaware and the Brandywine Valley was done by wagon and draft animals, either horses, mules, or oxen. In 1836, when the iiary

Ann Furnace sent the iary Ann F'orge 133 tons of "Pigmetal," it was transport­ ed by ox teams belonging to the forge, mule teams owned by the furnace, and -83-

independent ox. teams*'' This was a major hauling job. Individual teams pulled wagonloads of one to two tons, depending upon the condition of the roads. All of the Brandywine Valley iron works, with one notable exception, were still using animals in 1850, By then the railroad had solved most of their transportation problems, but the task of getting the commodities to the railroad remained. There seemed to be a direct relationship between the number of animals kept by an iron manufactory and the distance of that manufactory from the railroad. The only furnace in the area, located farth­ est from, the railroad, iiad forty-five oxen, norses, or mules,^ The three o forges used ten, twelve, and eighteen animals. Of the seven rolling mills listed, the closest one to the railroad had no animals; the farthest one from it had fourteen. The other five employed between four and ten animals.

The Delaware Iron Works, located on Red Clay Creek, did not need numerous animals for hauling long distances since the "short distance of this valuable property from Wilmington and Newport affords to the occupier all the advantages of the Philadelphia marlcet at a trilling expense," If trater transportation facilities were lacking or some distance from the establishment, however, roads became items of importance. Their general wretchedness in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century compounded the difficulty. One of the first actions of the Laverty brothers after they built their Laurel Forge in the 1790fs was to petition the County for a road, stating that they labored "under great Dis­ advantages for want of Roads to and from, said Forge,"^ Two years later the appeal was repeated. It was entirely possible that this road, even after being ~8U~

approved by the county, would have been built by Laurel Forge employees.

Several companies had their men either build or repair county roads, billing 12 the county or township authorities for remuneration.

A second industry on the Brandywine of a different nature and one whose records are partially intact was a tanning venture undertaken at fiagleyfro m

I8l6 until 1827. The basic necessities for a successful tannery include an adequate supply of water, for both power and cleaning, a quantity of tan bark, and the hides or skins. Usually the latter two things had to be shipped in. and the leather products had to be sent to market. The Hagley tannery, oper­ ating under the name of A. Cardon and Company, both received and dispatched their goods by shallop or occasionally by wagon, A year after the tannery began operation, Cardon wrote to Philadelphia that "a waggoner of Wilmington who will to Philada. one day of this week and take the calfskins you have."-^

The wagoner was employed during the winter while river navigation was closed.

Normally the bark, hides, and leather were carried by water. Iluch of the bark used in the Brandywine tannery came from southern Delaware. Some difficulty was experienced in arranging transportation to and from that area "since none of the owners here and Pha. being acquainted with the Creeks in your neighbor­ hood.""^ Cardon suggested that the supplier of the bark could easily find a vessel on good terms in his locality.

Warner's sloop Fame was a frequent carrier of hides or skins and leather between Philadelphia and Wilmington. The boats operated by Samuel Bush and sons also carried articles for the tannery. The possible unpleasantness of carrying animal hides was lessened by packing them in hogsheads. This was economically feasible since "the owner of this packet /Fame7 being our particu- 85-

lar friend, he will not charge us anything to bring the empty hhds. back to 15

Philadelphia." Hides came from as far away as Baltimore and Hew York, again by water. Schooners from Hew York would carry the hides to Philadelphia, where they would be transshipped to Wilmington packets.^ Hides from the Baltimore area were brought by packets to frenchtown. or Elkton at the head of the

Chesapeake Bay. They would be hauled overland the remaining distance. The customary rate varied from three cents to five cents per hide from New York or Baltimore, although once the "exorbitant freight of 8 Cts pr hide" was charged, making it "much cheaper for us in future time to have our leather to & our Hides from Baltimore carried round by Sea."*^

The paper industry, which became extensive along the Brandywine in the nineteenth century, used similar methods of transportation. Power, raw mater­ ials, and easy transportation facilities were the major attractions of the

Brandywine for paper and other type mills. The product of Delaware's paper 18 mills "was carted to Wilmington and then shipped by boat to its destination."

The raw materials, primarily rags, were shipped to the paper mills. La

Rochefoucauld-Liancourt wrote in 1797 that rags for the now famous Gilpin mill

"are bought up by agents in the most populous towns, as far as three hundred miles distant, and are sent by water to Wilmington, from whence they are brought in carts to the mill."^ That this was no "insignificant matter is seen by the fact that 100,000 pounds of rags were used per year by the Cilpins. Their 20 annual output was 1,000 reams of paper. Some of the smaller mills carted their products to Philadelphia and sold them in the streets. There is no specific reference, either in relation to the tannery or the paper malls, that other than sailing vessels were used in the river trade. When rapidity -36-

of transit was not essential, the more economical sloops and shallops were used in preference to steamboats*

The other types of industries on the Brandywine utilized the convenient waterways of Delaware also. Receipts found in the records of DuPlanty and

KcCall's cotton mill indicate that they shipped their product to Philadelphia on the packet boats of Bush or Dixon and Mountain. Goods for New York started the same way, being put on board New York bound sloops or schooners at 21

Philadelphia.

Wilmington's largest industry and the one which made Wilmington the flour milling center of America for a time in the late eighteenth century also used water transportation. The main difference was that the flour millers frequently owned their own vessels if their mills were on the tidewater. In l8lu, the famed Brandywine millers "owned nine sloops of from forty to sixty tons, and 22 used them in shipping flour to Philadelphia and elsewhere." These mills were so located that sloops loaded with grain could sail up to the mills to be un­ loaded. Much of the grain converted in these mills was brought in. from the interior of Pennsylvania in huge Conestoga wagons. As many as thirty of these wagons at a time would be in the yards of the Lea mills waiting to discharge their cargoes. Grain from further afield was brought in by sloop. Wheat fields in Virginia, Marland, and New York supplied the Brandywine mills.

Some of the mechanics of the operation of shipping the wheat to the mills are indicated in a letter by Samuel Canby. He wrote a supplier to purchase only the best quality wheat for them, because there is "neither pleasure nor profit in the other. As Soon as 1000 to 1200 Bushels is in we will Send our vessells over." J -87-

There was another Brandywine industry whose transportation problems were similar in some respects, and yet different enough in others to make

its situation unique. This was the gunpowder industry, a new one brought

to the Brandywine in 1802 by E. !• du Pont. Poor transportation facilities kept the gunpowder industry small and localized before the transportation

improvements of the early nineteenth century. Manufactories had to locate

in places where there was a demand—prohibitive transportation costs pre­ vented the shipment of the product long distances.

Water transportation was used to ship powder to all the coast cities during the early nineteenth century. A temporary interruption of this water commerce occurred during the war of 1812, at which time freighting by wagon predominated. As improved communication systems were completed, they were utilized if possible. The Pennsylvania canal works replaced the wagon trains to Pittsburgh and other distant places of the west in the months that the canal was open. Freighting by wagon provided, winter transportation service, although the rates were exceptionally high then.

It itfas not the transportation facilities used in transporting gunpowder but rather the difficulties attendant to using these facilities which distinguished that industry. Storage of the product at wharves was a problem, for tins was prohibited in many cities. Sot only storage but even loading or landing the powder at wharves was illegal in some places. As

E. I. du Pont explained in 1823, a vessel had to stop "at the old ferry, half mile below Wilmington, in order to discharge the powder, as no vessel with powder on board is Suffered to come to the wharves in town."^ -85-

In addition to official regulations hampering the shipment of powder,

personal fears on the part of the captain, crew, or ship passengers increased

the difficulty, A New Orleans agent was told in 1839 that "owing to the fear

of lightening /sicy7 we nave not been able to find a vessel willing to take 25

powder," A second southern powder agent had to be informed of an unavoid­

able delay in receiving his powder: We had hoped to forward you bill of lading for a shipment of Gunpowder, Having engaged freight for the same by the Schooner Jonn MoClung to sail in a few days, but we nave received a letter stating, that as the passengers had pre- emptorily refused to go in her if she carried powder, the shippers could not comply with the agreement,26

In some cases duplicity was engaged in by shipowners to mislead not only the passengers but also the crew about the nature of the cargo, A letter to the Du Pont Company in 1828 from their Philadelphia agent reveals this:

I have seen Mr, Seisse who wishes the 100 Barrels of Powder for him to be delivered to Gloster Point on Satur­ day morning, I expostulated with him on the expense and difficulty of delivering it there, inasmuch as you would have to pay the mre of a shallop for two or three days or send it by land at a great expense, but all to no pur­ pose. . • •

The reasons he gave for wishing it to be put on board are, first, that he does not wish the sailors to know that the vessel is loaded with munitions of war, of which her cargo is nearly made up, as he does not mean to send them down to the vessel till the powder is all on board; secondly, that he is to receive the powder he has bought from Rogers & Lowber there and wishes to put yours with it, and can send down some flour from the City to fill up the hatchway and have it caulked down, & Thirdly that a Spanish Gentle­ man who goes out in the Brig is desirous of having this plan followed.27

In other cases the duplicity was perpetrated by the powder company. In -89-

the early years of the company's existence, Philadelphia itfas the nearest large port; its possibilities for vessels to various east coast cities was considerably greater than Wilmington's, Since Philadelphia law pro­ hibited the entry of more than six kegs of powder into the city at one time, the contents of a few early shipments had to oe disguised, A similar law existed in New York, Such letters as the following, there­ fore, were not uncommon at first: "having been obliged to send you the powder through new york for the want of a direct opportunity we have been forced to ship it in boxes under the name of drygoods and glasses please to claim them such."^ Another letter mentioned a shipment of "drygoods which are by nature so dry that if they were discovered they would cause you much embarassment and consequently would prevent us from sending you any merchandise of this nature in the same way."-^

The secrecy attempted made the transportation costs higher, because the kegs of powder had to be packed in boxes. Nevertheless, the company preferred these expenses to the "encumbrances attending the shippment of our powder at Philada."^ Some additional expense was incurred by the necessary practice of having the powder loaded away from the wharf. Cap­ tains were informed that "the powder will be in a shallop at the mouth of the Christiana creek waiting" for them.32 This expense became exorbitant if the scheduled rendezvous were delayed. Since the mails provided the ordinary means of communicating and synchronizing the departure of vessels with the shipments of powder from the nails, it is understandable that dela3rs -90-

occurred. Some were prolonged, however; one letter complained about an

agent "ordering the powder to be 12 days too soon at Newcastle," and re­

quested that "you . • • drop us a line by the mail of the moment the

vessel go positively down so we may not send before hand."-^ The addi­

tional expense resulting from the non-arrival of sailing vessels was some­

times shared by the company and the shipowner. When four wagons were de­

layed a full day, at ^u.00 per day each, the company was "very willing to

bear one half of this expense & charge only $8. for the detention of our

teams."^ The fact that the freight by the delayed schooner was "very

moderate" helped prompt this offer.-^

Getting vessels for a desired port was a recurrent problem which must

have faced all merchants before packet boats lost their purely local char­

acter. In 1805 du Pont shipped powder destined for Providence and Newport

to their agent in New York because "your opportunities for these two ports

are ten to one for us."-^ The product also was shipped to Philadelphia for

transshipment; later, however, the Philadelpiiia ships would stop at the mouth

of the Christiana to take or powder.

The weather and the state of the river increased the hazard and cost of

shipping powder. In 1806 a small "oister boat" chartered to carry powder to

Philadelphia "would have started . . • but being aground at our warf [plcj and the flood having been very low it has not been possible to start it."^7

Ice sometimes prevented delivery also. In January of 1822, a schooner from

Pniladelpnia was able to navigate the Delaware but became stuck in the ice of the Christiana. Several days were required to cut through the ice and get the -91-

vessel to port. Tne powder company sent a number of its workers to help the

captain:

They are coining up very well and we expect that by tomorrow night they will be able to reach the wharf. is not the ex­ pense of the hands cutting the ice to be charged to the in­

surance company? as they had charged \ perpcent extra for the distance from Newcastle to Wilmington.3^

On at least one occasion the sinking of a barge at the wharf delayed a ship­ ment of powder#39

The price paid for freight by the gunpowder company was sometimes higher than other freight. The shippers felt this was justified "considering the detention which carrying Powder occasions, & the risk & prejudice of people against carrying Powder."^ What was not justified was the alteration of freight rates without consent. Upon detecting this by a captain in 1821, the Du Pont company hurried to notify their agent at the destination point:

"We suppose that he will not insist on this augmentation made without our consent, but if he was we will thank you to inform him that it would be the last freight he would, get from us." ^ Payment of the freight charges at the destination assured safe delivery of the goods paid for. The company instructed their Charleston agents in paying the freight to "retain the price of one keg of powder, damaged on board the vessel as this accident happened through the carelessness of the crew of the vessel, and the captain must be responsible."^

To facilitate transportation, avoid city storage laws, and lessen costs, the Du Pont Company erected three piers on the Delaware about three miles above Wilmington in 1839. ^ The value of the piers is indicated in a letter to

F, G, Smitn;

Please engage freight by the first opportunity for 700 kegs to New York; we paid last year at the rate of 8 cents per keg, taken from the old ferry, in Christiana Creek, we will give the same, or seven cents taken from our piers. The navigation up and down the Christiana will take one day more than if the vessel stops at the piers.Wi

The transportation of powder by wagon supplemented that of water ship­ ments* Some areas were inaccessible by water, making overland hauling neces­ sary. Other uses of the wagons were to connect waterways and to do freighting when rivers and canals were frozen. Of course wagons were necessary to take the product from the mills to the wharf at all times. In 1806 the Du Pont

Company paid one wagoner '216; their four horses ate $2&k worth of hay and catsMost of the long distance hauling in the early years was done by men outside the company, however. An Elkton man, William C, Hull, carried powder for the company for years. Going as far north as Boston or as far south as Washington, Hull wrote in lSlli that "Hauling is very good here, five Horse teams are making $10 per day—& four Horse teams seven and a half Dollars, I should not.be able to go to Baltimore under two and a quarter

Dolls, per 100,"^ Apparently most teams consisted of four or five horses; no mention of six-horse teams was found for this early period. The price varied greatly with the road conditions and the seasons. In the winter, with the demand for teams high, exorbitant wagoning rates could be charged. An average cost of freight to Pittsburgh in the l830fs was $2*00 per hundred- -93-

weight, but in the winter of 1839 "it has been impossible to procure waggons even at the outrageous rate of four dollars per hundred.***;? If possible, the cost of freighting was brought down by avoiding the turnpike tolls. Only in

I o bad weather were the turnpikes considered advantageous,4 If the weather and roads grew too bad, as in times of thawing, the roads would become virtually impassable. Water transportation was used as soon as possible. The Du Pont

Company asked if the present mild weather enabled the Elk packet to run in

January of 1839: "if so it would be best to take advantage of it, for send­ ing by land is costly & moreover the roads are getting bad."^9

After the extensive state works in Pennsylvania were completed, Du Pont used, them to- transport powder to Pittsburgh and other western cities. The lower price was the determining factor. The company wrote a customer in

1839 that his order would be forwarded "on the opening of the canal. • . • waggons are scarce and carriage so high , . . that it is out of the question to send powder via Pittsburg before the opening of the Canals."^ Each year the time when the water would again be let into the canals was eagerly awaited.

Likewise, the company wanted the canals left open as late as possible each year.

On occasions shipments would be frozen in the canal. In 1838 the Du Ponts in­ quired about the steps being taken to forward their immobilized product by

SI wagon.--' In spite of the low canal rates, shipping by river and sea remained in competition. "We find that even in summer when powder is carried via canal to Pittsburg at $1.50 per hundred," wrote du Pont, "we can sent to St. Louis, via New Orleans on far better terms than by Pittsburg."52 -phe balance in favor -9U-

of the longer journey would have been increased but for magazine charges at

New Orleans of twelve and one-half cents per month per keg of twenty-five pounds.

Faster methods of transportation for the powder were tried but proved largely unsuccessful at first. The railroads offered fast and direct ser­ vice to an ever-increasing number of places in the late 1830's, out they

showed a general reluctance to carry gunpowder. Attempts to prevail upon railroad agents to accept powder by showing them "how securely the kegs will be paciced in a box"-^ generally failed. Even unlabelled boxes suspected to contain the explosive were refused. No railroad accidents caused by carrying powder are known which may have accounted for this hesitancy. Nevertheless, this type of transportation for gunpowder was used but sparingly throughout most of the nineteenth century. CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS

By l8UO the country had completed one phase of a transportation revolu­ tion and was on the eve of another. The turnpikes and canals made the inland resources of the eastern half of the United States accessible. Raw materials could be assembled economically for manufacturing. Transportation costs were down fifty per cent from what they had been twenty years earlier. Accompany­ ing this change were improvements in communications, which permitted businesses to be conducted on a larger scale.Reliance was still placed in water trans­ portation but the railroad era was about to begin. Railroads were to provide the major competition for canals rather than Lurnpikes. The inherent inade­ quacy of turnpikes was realized before they were supplanted by railroads.

The Brandywine area in miniature embodies most of the changes and improve­ ments in transportation. Its convenient water transportation played an impor­ tant role in making the Brandywine area industrially important. Improvements m water transportation were adopted there very early. Canals were projected and steamboats operating in that area even before the nineteenth century began.

Overland transportation was equally essential to the Brandywine Valley, partic­ ularly to its upper end. Developments in this type of transportation were adopted with haste. Turnpikes crisscrossed the valley early in the nineteenth century; a railroad was constructed In the area when the idea was still new in America. -96-.

The effects of these improvements on Brandywine industries are ambivalent.

Of themselves, they could do nothing but speed goods to market, cheapen costs, and enhance the area. The natural advantages of New Castle and Chester Counties were utilized more fully with improved transportation. However, other areas formerly unsuitable as manufacturing sites because of a lack of outlets to market lost that limitation. Competition from new manufacturing regions be­ gan; the use of steam, power made the Brandywinefs unfailing water power less important. The railroad and its rapid extension completed the steps freeing industrial growth from many of the natural limitations. Tnis.process had just begun in l8i|0; it is still going on. The Brandywine area, in its variety, re­ mains as a good cross-sectional area of America in which to study the process.

/ ILLUSTRATIONS -98-

PLATE I

Types of sailing vessels, from Robert Greenhalgh Albion, The Rise of New York Port (New York, 1939)* 303. -99-

PLATE II

line's usual device.

Sailing vessel, the packet Albion, from Robert Greenhalgh Albion, Square-Riggers on Scnedule (Princeton, 1938), facing 206. -100-

PLATE III

ST. ANDREW Kermit's first 1 in 1834-1835; Red Star Lint-, 1835-1831;. Wrecked near Liverpool, 1839 typical paeket of middle period.

/?V Pi tit Hi pelt, E

Sailing vessel, the packet St. Andrew, from Albion, Square-Riggers, facing 80. -101-

PLATE IV

"PACKET ROW"—SOUTH STREET FROM MAIDEN LANE, 1828 Most of the ocean and coastal packet berths and operators' counting houses were located on this stretch South Street between Maiden Lane and Wall Street. The ship in the left foreground was the Swallowtail packet Leeds, wrecked later that year. From aquatint by 'A'HI. I. Bennett,'in New York Public Library

"Packet Kow," New York, from Albion, Square-Riggers, facing 56 • -103-

PLATE VI

Old Stage Coach with mail compartment and six-horse covered wagon stopping at a typical inn of early days. From a sketch in possession of the National Museum, Washington, D. C. (Date unknown) '

Stagecoach and conestoga, from Randle Bond Truett, Trade and Travel Around the Southern Appalachians Before 1(33 > (Chapel Hill, 1935), facing 102• -10U-

PLATE VII

American Stage Wagon. From Travel* thiough the States of North America UT.J >• Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, during the Year1? 7795,. 7796 and 7797, by Isaac Wei

Early American stagecoach, from Truett, Trade and Travel, frontispiece. -105-

PLATE VIII

The Relay. From Stage Coach and Tavern Days, by Alice Morse Earle.

American stagecoach, from Truett, Trade and Travel, facing 68. -106-

PLATE IX

Ancient Roman Rnart.

Early Eighteenth Century Ro:

Late Eighteenth Century Road.

Modern Macadam Road.

P'Vom Judson'w "City Roa< Fig. 120.—Relative Thickness of Ancient and Moder

Artificial roads, from Harwood Frost, The Art of Roadmaking (New York, 1910), 167. -107'

PLATE X

"0. E.'s" plan for improving turnpikes, from Emporium of Arts and Sciences, 1, No, 3 (October, lbl3). facing 3U1. TO THE HONORABLE THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF falacious as partial, will, it is confidently affirmed, have an oppofire e feet, by turning the trade into different channels } either down the Suf- REPRESENTATIVES OF* THE STATE OF DELA­ quehannah to Baltimore, or along the Turnpike to Philadelphia, in pre­ WARE. ference to paying the encreafed expence that would be incurred by the diftant land carriage to Wilmington. THE MEMORIAL OF THE UNDERSIGNED PERSONS, CITIZENS OF NEW­ And will the Honorable Legislature, on the representation of a fear Interefted Individuals hazard the experiment of a Drawbridge, when e« CASTLE COUNTY, IN THE SAID STATE, ven to that Town, the benefit is fo remote and Speculative ; and the in­ jury to a great body of the community fo certain and immediate. The Re/petlfully nprefents, objections to this very reprehensible Mealure are greatly multiplied when it is further confidered, that individuals who have purchafed property, y THAT your Memorialing feel tbemfelvcs imperiously called on in in thofe Towns, and at the Landings, and made improvements thereon, confequence of the TelicwTcf attempts oTVertain perfons of the Borough in confidence that this Public Highway of Navigation fhould remain of Wilmington at the lad feffion of your Honorable Bodies, to obtain unobstructed, and they protected in the enjoyment of the tight of paf- an Act incorporating a Company to erect a Bridge over Chriftiana Creek, fage would fuftain a lofs in the diminution of at leaft one half the value at'flie Said Borough, and open an intermediate Road from thence to the of their Property, and a total deprivation of the means of Support by the interfection of the Redlyon Road with that leading from Newcaftle to destruction of the r trade. Christiana Bridge, to ftatc frankly and explicitly their fentimcnts relative to the Meafure, not more extenfive than it will be injurious in its ope­ And your Memorialists further rcpreienr, that another object, con­ ration. This very reprehensible Scheme will, it carried into effect, be nected with the Budge, is the Road beforementioned, propofed to be o- highly detrimental to Public, as well as Private Interefts; it will materi­ pened from thence to the interfection of the Redlyon Road as unnecef- ally obstruct the. free Navigation of the Chriftiana Creek, to which all the (ary, as burthenfome to the people, and injurious to individuals. From Towns, Landing Places, and Country adjacent, have as perfect and in- the Southern abutment of the Bridge, which muft be placed in the Hol­ defeifible a right as theyBoroogh of Wilmington. The Tide Waters of lands-Creek MarSli, the propofed road muft pals near One Mile through this Creek extending in its meanderings upwards of Eighteen Miles into that MarSh ; a great part of which is very low and fpringey, and more­ the interior of the Country, paffing Newport, the Landings on White over much fubject to inundations, having not many years fince been Clay Creek, and other Landings, rcrminatcs at Chriftiana Bridge, and is under water for a number of yeais together—Thence it will run diago­ the neareft connecting Navigable Water with the Navigable Waters at nally acrofs various Farms and the Newcaftle Common to the interSec- the Head of Cbelepeake Bay. From tbele feveral Towns and Landing tion of the Redlyon Road, with the Newcaftle and the Chriftiana Bridge Places, a large proportion of the Product of the Lands on the Sui'que- Road, about two miles from the former, and two miles and ah halt from hannah, of Lancafter, Dauphin, Cumberland, York, and Chefter Coun­ the latter of thofc Towns. This project, held out oftenfively as promo­ ties, in the State of Pcnnfylvania ; of Gecil and Hartford Counties, in tive of public, is eflentially bottomed on the illiberal Policy of advancing Maryland ; and of a confiderable part of Newcaftle County, are annu­ the Local Interefts of the Borough of Wilmington, at the expence of o- ally tranlported down the faid Creek by Shallops, to the great market at ther Towns, equally entitled to Public Attention. With relpect to this Philadelphia, and great quantities of goods and merchandize are return* road, it is important to remark, that Wilmington is at prel'ent the point : J ed thence on back freight, and diftribiued'fc"' means of thoie landings of Coinc v of the Two State Roads ; the one paffing through Cbrif- in rations directions through the interior parts of the Country. To ma­ mfla Br. ~"w*s, and Newp,~ ; and the other through Newcaftle, nifest unequivocally the extent and importance of this Carrying Trade, croffing tne lower' ferry on Chriftiana Creek, and feparated only from your Memorialists take leave to refer you to authentic and detailed State­ each other by afmall Strip of Country between them, of net more in any ments, contained in Schedules hereunto annexed of the quantities of part than five, and in many parts of much leSs than three miles in width. different Articles of Produce, Merchandize, &c. in One Year, tranlport­ And it is between thefe two Roads, interfeding this narrow ftrip of coun­ ed from and brought to Newport, the Landings on White Clay Creek, try cut up already by numerous cfofs roads that the intended road is to and Chriftiana Bridge. To chrrifh and proteft this vaft Carrying Trade, pafs. In this view, for public convenience for every purpofe generally requires the foftering hand, and vigilant attention of the Government. interrcfting, the roads that exift, and have been referred to, afford every On this fubject, partial representations fhould be difregarded, and ufeful and proper Accommodation for travellers and transportation in all no mcafures adopted implicating the Trade, without being fully directions. A further consideration that merits great weight is, that thefe informed, and profoundly investigating all its tendencies. Your Roads were laid out fo long as thirty-fix years ago, with an intention Memorialists, under thefe impreffions, fubmit, that the erection of the that they Should be permanent, and were run, in as direct a courSe, at Projected Bridge will interpofe fuchan impediment in the Navigation of the benefit intended by their paffing through all the Towns and Villages, the Creek, as greatly to prejudice, if not entirely to ruin and deftroy it, in their different directions would admit, and with an implicit reliance which the following confederations muft evince. Shallops can now ar­ on their Permanency, and their not being interfered with by any after rive at the Delaware from molt, of the Landing Places mentioned in one projects, have numerous individuals purchafed and improved as well ia ebb tide, ready to take the next flood for Philadelphia. Thefe Shallops thoie Towns, as the Country adjacent.—Added to this, it would materi­ draw from five to feven feet water, carry from three hundred to fix hun­ ally injure the Farms, and alfo the Newcaftle Common, through which dred Barrels of Flour, or other articles in proportion ; and muft at all it muft pafs, the rents and profits whereof are now appropriated to the times heave to, and there remain until flack water; at which ti«ie alone, fupport of a flourishing Seminary of Learning in the Town of Newcaftle. they can drop, or warp through the Bridge, and when through, muft a- That this road, if opened, will not be further diftanr, in its projected wait the next ebb tide, to carry them to the Delaware, at the di ft a nee of courfeat any one place, more than two and an half miles, and in many only Four Miles. The fame delays and difficulties will occur, in paff­ places not more than One Fourth of a Mile, from the Great State Roads ing up the Creek : Thus each Craft will experience a lofs of two tides in already mentioned ; all having the fame commencements and the fame pet forming a trip to Market, and this too, exclufive of the delays fre­ lamination, and thus exhibitting a Singular inftance of a facrifice of quently occafioned by bad weather, dark nights, and other caufes. And private property for a public way as injurious as oppreffive. no plan on which a Drawbridge can be constructed will relieve the in­ This meafure of moft miSchievous tendency is ftrenioufly perfevered conveniences and delays mentioned ; the unquestionable effect of which in by Some people of Wilmington, not, yoUr Memorialists believe, from muft be an impoflibility of delivering at all times Produce contracted for Public, but Local Motives, from an opinion, that it will have the di­ and deliverable at fpecified periods, which would frequently occur to the rect effect, of depwffing by diverting from the other Towns all travellers, immenfc injury of the Contractors ; and an increafed charge of twenty- and the bufinefs'of transportation to the intermediate road leading to five percent on the bufinefs of rranfportation, which will moft affuredly Wilmington, which inftead of dividing and interchanging as it now does, operate to banifh from our State a moft valuable, and to the citizens im­ reciprocal benefits with thofc Towns would appropriate them exclusively mediately concerned, an all important Carrying Trade. But paufing to its own advantage. for a moment, ler us demand, what Public Beneficial Purpofc is to be Your Memorialifts beg further to ftate, that the Public have expend­ obtained by the erecting of the Projected Bridge ? A general benefit ed upwards of Ten Thoufand Dollars, in improving and completing the cannot rcfult; for it mull appear from the previous ftatement, that the Ferrys at Wilmington and Newport, on Chriftiana Creek, both of which Mealure would be injurious to a large parr of the Community. The produce a confiderable revenue to Newcaftle County, and afford every real object of the mealure muft be to benefit Wilmington, by ob­ accommodation to travellers at all fealbos of the year ; and which structing the Navigation of the Creek obove that place, and thus forc­ would nearly, it not totally, be deftroyed by the erecVion of the Projected ing the .rade of all the other places to '.heir Market: But that policy as Bridge. Steam Boat Eagle FOR PHILADELPHIA, Via Elkton and Wilmington,

Will hereafter make four trips a week, and will

leave here as follows:

On Monday Mornings at 9 o'clock; Tuesday, Thursday, &i Evenings at S o'clock. Saturday

Good Stages and Hacks are ready on the ar­ rival of the Steam Boats at Elkton and Wil­ mington, to transport any number of passengers to and from said places.

Baltimore, 22d April, 1816. Steamboat route, Baltimore to Philadelpnia, from Society Collection (Historical Society of Delaware). Vim 1. B^ont»8 Landing

2. Quarry*ill*

3. Probable Location of Hamilton's Landing

4. Dupont'• Powder Works

5. Location of 138 Acres Bought by Alfred V. duPont from Henrietta Allmond, March 25, 1839. "Tract in Brandywine Hundred with stone dwelling, barn, and other buildings adjoining lands of Arch'd. Hamilton and John Gordon, River Delaware, Marsh •JIUrU <*fMmt# or Hay Road..."

y \f 'Puree *

ICmmtj i Mi Men •. rvUUyA *'*JBttsen

F. /ftrxeH ff MSUiel v AJ^r* # *«. • r * *\ Willi - mC£U*t MW&brtCl

S (iet-mut

Ji Lmitmtr»

CHOI OP MAP OF CASTLE COWJTY MLAWAJW ax m ft PRICE nHJiSHKT) BY / APPENDIX -113-

Turnpike Roads of the Susquehanna Valley, from J. ¥• Livingood, Philadelphia-Baltimore Trade Rivalry, 53« Letters Miles Name Patent Finished

62 Philadelphia and Lancaster 1792 1794

10 Lancaster and Susquenanna 1794 1803

60 Easton and Wilkes-Barre 1803 1815

67 3/k Downingtown, Spur at a, and Harrisburg 1803 1819 26 Lancaster, Elizabeth, and

Mlddletown l8o5 1812

ll| Susquehanna and York l308 1810

30 Susquehanna and Lehigh I80I4. 1306

50 Coshecton and Great Bend l8o£ iSll

75 Centre (Reading to Sunbury) IS08 l8lU

80 Susquenanna and Tioga 1806 l'dlk

18 York and Maryland Line 1807 1809

7 Hanover and Maryland Line 1808 1809

11 York and Conewago 1809 1812

30 Hanover and Carlisle 1812 not yet

9J Middletown and Harrisburg 1815 1818

10 Berlin and Hanover 1811 1817

Ul Berks and Dauphin 1816 not yet

1|8§ Harrisburg, Carlisle, and Chambersburg 1816 l8lc 63 Philadelphia and Great Bend 1820 . , Extracts from the act of incorporation, Wilmington and Great Valley Turnpike Company, from Laws of Delaware (Wilmington, 1816), IV, 372-390. '

SECT. 8. ftnd be it enacted, That it shall end may be lawful for the said president and managers, the superintendants, surveyors, engineers, artists and chain-bearers, to enter into and upon all and every the lands, tenements and enclosures, in, through and over which, the said intended turnpike road may be thought proper to pass, end to examine the ground the most proper for the purpose, and the quarries and beds of stone and gravel, and other materials in the vicinity, that will be necessary in making and constructing the said road; and to survey, lay down, ascertain* mark and fix, such route or track for the said road, as in the best of their judge­ ment and nld.ll, will combine shortness of distance, with the most practicable ground, in, and near or from, the borough of Wilmington aforesaid, to the line of the State of Pennsylvania, on the east side of the Brandywine creek, in Brandywine hundred, to communicate with, or near, or upon the track of the Concord road, at the line of the State of Pennsylvania, from whence the public road is now continued through Westchester, and to fix the route so far as shall be deemed equitable, to accommodate any company which may be incorporated by the State of Pennsylvania, to continue said turnpike road, to the turnpike roads already made in the Great Valley.

SECT, 9. And be it enacted, That it shall and may be lawful to' and for the said president and managers, by and with their superintendants, engineers, artists, workmen and labourers, with their tools and instruments, carts, waggons, wains, and other carriages, and beasts of burthen or draught, to enter upon the lands, in, over, contiguous, and near to which the route and track of the said intended road shall pass, first giving notice of their intention, to the owners or occupiers thereof, and doing as little damage thereto, as possible, and repairing any breaches they may make in the en­ closures thereof, and making amends for any damages that may be done to the improvements thereon, upon a reasonable agreement, if they can agree, or if they cannot agree, then upon an appraisement to be made, upon oath or affirmation, by three disinterested freeholders, any two of them agree­ ing, mutually to be chosen, or if the owners, upon due notice, shall neglect or refuse to join in the choice, then to be appointed by any justice of the peace for New Castle county, not interested therein; and upon tender of the appraised value, to cut-down, dig, take and carry away, any timber, stone, gravel, sand, earth, or other materials there, being most conveniently situ­ ated for making or repairing said road. -115-

SECT. 10, And be it enacted. That the said president, managers, and company, shall have power to erect permanent bridges over all creeks, as well as over all the waters crossed by the said route, or track whereon the same shall be found necessary; and shall cause a road to be laid out, not exceeding one hundred feet in width, from the borough of Wilmington, afore­ said, by the aforesaid route, and shall cause twenty feet thereof, in breadth, at least, to be made an artificial road; which shall be bedded with wood, stone, gravel, clay or other proper and convenient materials, well compacted together, a sufficient depth to secure a solid foundation for the same; and the said artificial road, shall be faced with clay, gravel or stone, pounded, or some other small hard substance, in such manner, as to secure a firm, and as nearly as the nature of the country, and the materials will admit, an even surface, rising towards the middle, by a gradual arch; and shall forever hereafter maintain and keep the same in perfect order and repair: Provided, That no toll be demanded or taken from any person passing repassing from one part of his or her farm to another, or to or from any place of public worship, or funerals, on days appointed for those purposes.

SECT. 11. And be it enacted, That so soon as the said president, man­ agers and company, shall have perfected the said road, in, near or from the borough of Wilmington, aforesaid, any distance, not less than two miles, and so, from time to time, any distance not less than two miles progress­ ively, towards the line of the State of Pennsylvania, in the route afore­ said, they shall give notice thereof to the govenor • of this State, who shall thereupon, forthwith, nominate and appoint three skilful and judi­ cious persons, to view and examine the same; and report to him, whether the road is so far executed, in a complete and workman-like manner, accord­ ing to the true intent and meaning of this act; and if their report shall be in the affirmative, then the govenor shall, by license, under his hand, and the great seal of this State, permit and suffer the said president, managers and company, to erect and fix such, and so mam'- gates or turnpikes upon and across the said road, as will be necessary and sufficient to collect the tolls and duties hereinafter granted to the said company, from all per­ sons travelling on the same, with horses, cattle and carriages.

SECT. 12. And be it enacted, That the said company having perfected the said road, or such part thereof, from time to time, as aforesaid, and the same being examined, approved and licensed as aforesaid, it shall and may be lawful for them to appoint such and so many toll-gatherers as they shall think proper, to collect and receive of, and from all and every per­ son and persons using the said road, the tolls and rates hereinafter men­ tioned; and to stop any person riding, leading or driving any horse, or mule, or driving any cattle, hogs, sheep, sulkey, chair or chaise, phaeton, cart, waggon, wain sleigh, sled, or other carriage of burden or pleasure, -116-

frora passing through the said gates or turnpikes, until they have respectively paid the same: that is to say, for every space of five miles in the length of the said road, the following sums of money, and sc in proportion for any greater or less distance, or for any greater or less number of hogs, sheep or cattle: to wit, for every score of sheep, four cents; for every score of hogs six cents; for every score of cattle, twelve cents; for every horse or mule, laden or unladen, with his rider or leader, three cents; for every sulkey, chair or chaise, with one horse and two wheels, six cents, and with two horses, nine cents; for every chair, coach, phaeton, chaise, stagewaggon, coachee or light-waggon, with two horses, and four wheels, twelve cents; for either of the carriages last mentioned, with four horses, twenty cents; and for every other carriage of pleasure, under whatever name it may go, the like sums, according to the number of wheels and of horses drawing the same; for every sleigh or sled, two cents for each horse drawing the same; for every cart or waggon, or other carriage of burden, the wheels of which do not in breadth exceed four inches, four cents for each horse drawing the same; for every cart or wa.ggon, the wheels of which shall exceed m breadth four inch­ es, and shall not exceed seven inches, three cents for each horse drawing the same; for every cart or waggon, the breadth of the wheels of which shall be more than seven inches, and not more than ten inches, or being of the breadth of seven inches, and shall roll more than ten inches, two cents for each horse drawing the same; for every cart or waggon, the breadth of the wheels of which shall be more than ten inches, and not exceeding twelve inches, or being of the bread of ten inches, shall roll more than fifteen inches, one and an half cent for each horse drawing the same; and for any such carriage, the breadth of the wheels of which shall be more than twelve inches, one cent for each horse drawing the same; and when any such carriage, as aforesaid, shall be drawn by oxen or mules, in whole or in part, two oxen shall be estimated as equal to one horse, in charging the aforesaid tolls.

SECT. 17. And be it enacted, That the said company shall cause posts to be erected at the intersection of every public road falling into, and leading out.of, the said turnpike road, with boards and index-hands, point­ ing to the direction of such road, on both sides whereof shall be inscribed, in legible characters, the name of the town or place to which such road leads, and the distance thereof in measured or computed miles; and shall also cause mile-stones to be placed on the side of the said road, to desig­ nate the distances to and from the principal places thereon, and also shall cause to be affixed on the gates to be erected for the information of trav­ ellers and other using the said road, a printed list of the rates of toll, which from time to time may be lawfully demanded. -117-

SECT. 1°». And be it enacted, That all waggoners, carters, and drivers of carriages of all kinds, whether of burden or pleasure, suing the said road, shall, except when overtaking and passing by a carriage of slower draught, keep their horses and and carriages on the right-hand side of the road, in the passing direction, leaving the other side of the said road free and clear, for other carriages to pass and re-passj and if any waggoner, carter or driver, shall offend against this provision, he shall forfeit and pa""' any sura not exceeding five dollars, to any persons, who shall by reason thereof, be obstructed in his or her passage, and will sue for the sere, bei'ore any justice of the peace, to be recovered with costs in like manner as aforesaid.

SECT. 2U. And be it enacted, That if any person or persons owning, riding in, or driving any carriage of ourden or pleasure, as aforesaid, or ox-min'., riding, leading, or driving any sheep, hogs, or cattle, as afore­ said, shall, with an intent to defraud the said company, or to evade the payment of the tolls or duties aforesaid, pass therewith through any pri­ vate gate or bar, or along or over any private passage-way, or along or over any other ground or land near to or adjoining any turnpike or gate, which shall be erected in pursuance of this act1 or if any person or per­ sons shall, with the intent aforesaid, take off, or cause to be taken off, any horse or other beast, or cattle of draught or burden, from any carriage of burden or pleasure, or shall practise any other fraudulent means or de­ vice, with the intent to evade or lessen the payment of any such toll or duty, all and every such person or persons offending, in manner aforesaid, shall for every such offence, respectively forfeit and pay to the president, managers and company of the Wilmington and Great Valley turnpike road, the sum of fifteen dollars, to be sued for a.nd recovered, with costs of suit, before any justice of the peace, ir> like manner, and subject to the same rules and regulations, as debts of eqtial amout are or may be by law recover­ able • TES TO CHAPTERS NOTES TO CHAPTER I

TRANSPORTATION ANT) INDUSTRY

1. Quoted in Frederic J. Wood, The Turnpikes of New England end Evolution of the Same Through New England, Virginia and j Maryland (Boston, l?19)j !•

2. Caroline E. IlacCill, et al., History of Transportation in the United States Before 1360 (Washington, 1?17), 81.

3e Victor S, Clark, Kistory of ? .anufactures in the United States (New York, 1929), I, 38.

Iu KalcoLn Heir, The Epic of Industry, V of The Pageant of America, ed. Ralph Henry Gabriel (New Haven, 1926), 5.

5. Edward Channing, A History of the United States (New York, 1907)* IV, 2,

6. Ibid., 3.

7. Edward C. Kirkland, A History of American Economic life (New York, 1951), 219.

8. Ibid.

9. Channing, History, IV, 8,

10. Kirkland, Economic Life, 219.

11. John W. Oliver, History of American Technology (New York, 1956), U9-50.

12. Ibid., 50.

13. Ibid., 5l. See Plates I to III for illustrations of sailing vessels. A vessel is classified by its rigging and, in general, its size. Sloops have a single mast, schooners two. A brig also has two masts but is square-rigged. A ship has three masts, all square-rigged. See Plate I for illustrations of these types, liu Oliver, Technology, 56-57.

15>. See Plate VT for an illustration of a Conestoga. wagon.

16. Oliver, Technology, 56-57; Randle Bond Truett, Trade and Travel Around the Southern Appalacian Before lo3Q (Chapel Hill, 1935), 13U. -120-

17. See Plates VII and VIII for examples of American stagecoaches.

18. Truett, Trade and Travel, 13k•

19. Oliver, Technology, 57.

20. Channing, History, IV, 5.

21. Clark, Manufactures, I, 88.

22. Ibid.

23. Ibid., 335.

2lw MacGill, Transportation, 351.

2$m Clark, Manufactures, 335. 26. Carter Goodrich, "National Planning of Internal Improvements," Political

Science Quarterly, LXIII (March, l?hS)9 19; John Bach iicl-laster, A History of the People of the United States (New York, 1893), III, U61.

27. Goodrich, "Internal Improvements," 23.

28. Ibid.

29. Joseph Durrenberger, Turnpikes; A Study of the Toll Road ..ovement in the Middle Atlantic States and Maryland (Valdosta, 1931), 10U.

30. He;.aster, History, III, l|.6l.

31. Ibid., U62.

32. Ibid.

33. The complete report was printed in the American State Papers, j-iiscellaneous, I, 72Uff.

3km McMaster, History, III, U73.

33. American State Papers. Miscellaneous (Washington, lQ3k)> I, 72l|-I|.l.

36. he. .aster, History, III, U73.

37. Ibid., 397.

38. Clark, Manufactures, 333. -121-

39• John iielish, A Geographical Description of the United States (Philadelphia, 1822), 109.

UO. Ibid., 109-10, See ilelish, 109-13, for a listing of some of these pro­ jects.

Ul. William Tell Poussin to E. I, du Pont, Wilmington, June k, l82u, in Life of Sleuthere Iren6e du Pont from Contemporary Correspondence, ed. Bessie G. du Pont (Newark, Delaware, 1923-1926), XI, 11U-16. k2m Melish, Geographical Description, 222.

U3* Ibid. kh» Picture of Philadelphia . . . (Philadelphia, 1835), 212. Among the internal improvements listed, with details, were the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, the Union Canal, the Susquehanna Navigation, the Lehigh Navigation, the Columbia Railroad, then "in a state of forwardness," and five turnpike roads. Ibid., 212-17. NOTES TO CHAPTER II

TRANSPORTATION IN 1800

1. John Allen Krout and Dixon Ryan Fox, The Completion of Independence, 1790-1830, V in A History of American life, eds. A, M. Schlesinger and D. R. Fox (New York, ±9kk), Ik.

2. Delaware, A Guide to the First State, Federal Writers Project (New York, rev. ed., 1955), 72.

3. Ibid.

U. Thomas J. Scharf, History of Delaware (Philadelpnia, 1888), U13«

5. Laws of Delaware (New Castle, 1797)* I* 390-9U»

6. Ibid., l;02-07« See Harvey Cochran Bounds, A Postal History of Delaware (Newark, Del., 1938), 16-18, for a discussion of the roads in Delaware during the eighteenth century.

7. Stevenson Whitcomb Fletcher, Pennsylvania Agriculture and Country Life, 16U0-1SU0 (Harrisburg, 1950),"HIT.

8. Ibid.

9. Ibid.

10. Ibid., 253.

11. Delaware, A Guide, 7U*

12. "Notes and Queries," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, XXXIII (1909), 250. Hereafter cited as PHHB.

13m Ibid. lU. Johann David Schoepf, Travels in the Confederation, trans, and ed. Alfred J. Morrison (Philadelpnia, 1911), 376.

15. Quoted in Fletcher, Pennsylvania Agriculture, 2U9-50.

16. Francois Alexandre Frederic La Due De Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, Travels Through the United States • . • (London, 1800), III, lj.87-88.

17. In 1803 the Delaware legislature passed an act to remedy an earlier act "altering the present mode of repairing the roads in the county of New- Castle ... found not only to be ineffectual, but highly oppressive to the people." Laws of Delaware, III, 301. -123-

18, Durrenberger, Turnpikes, 28-29*

19, Robert Armstrong, Accounts Concerning the Roads in New Castle County, 1791-1804 (MS Collection, Historical Society of Delaware),

20, Journal of the Senate of the State of Delaware (VJilmington, 1796), h9»

21, Ibid,

22, The subscription book of this company is in the Historical Society of Delaware,

23* Legislative Petitions, Transportation, 1800, Delaware State Archives (Dover, Delaware). Hereafter these will be cited as Leg. Pet., Transp,

21;. Ibid., 1803.

25. An advertisement in the Delaware Gazette (Wilmington), hay 10, 1797, said that the Philadelphia and Dover stage would leave Dover at three A, M. every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and reach Philadelphia by evening. The same hours were observed on the return trips every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday,

26. George Vaux, ed., "Extracts from the Diary of Hannah Callender," PMHB, XII (1888), U37.

27. James Hemphill describes his experiences with an intoxicated driver m his travel journal. See John A. Munroe, ed., "James Hemphill's Account of a Visit to Maryland in 1802," Delaware History, III, No. 2 (September, 19U8), 61-78. See also Baron Klinkowstr&Ki's America, 1818-1820, trans, and ed., Franklin D. Scott (Evanston, 1952), 21.

28. Elizabeth Montgomery wrote that stage drivers loved to race; "sad bruises, blackeyes, or broken bones" often resulted. Reminiscences of Wilmington . . . (Wilmington, 1872), 101.

29. Quoted in Seymour Dunbar, History of Travel in America . . . (New York, 1Q37), 7U6.

30. ^illiam Cobbett7, The Autobiography of William Hobbett . . . , comp. William Reitzel (London, 19U7), 158.

31. Elias Pym Fordham, Personal Narrative of Travels . . . , ed. Frederic Austin Ogg (Cleveland, 1906), 59.

32. General James Wilkinson to Richard Peters, Carlisle, September 27, 180J*, in "Selections from the Correspondence of Judge Richard Peters of Belmont," PMHB, XLIV (1920), 333-3U. -12U-

33. See Klinkowstrim's America, 20,

3U. E. I. era Pont to Sopnie du Pont, Wilmington, January 2, 182U, du Pont, Life of E. I. du Pont, XI, '97.

33. Ibid,, February 6, lb?].!.1 , in ibid., 101.

36. Deborah Logan to Dr. George Logan, Washington, December 23, 18U0. Maria Dickenson Logan Papers (Historical Society of Pennsylvania).

37. Klinkows trAm1s America, 19.

38. Bounds, Postal History, 21.

39. Wesley Everett Rich, The History of the United States Post Office to the

Hear 1829 (Cambridge, Mass., 192k)9 69.

U0. All railroads were made post roads and subject to the government monopoly on mail carrying in 1838, Bounds, Postal History, 29.

Ij.1. Charles 0. Paullin, Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States (Washington, 1932), Plate 138, maps H, J, K. k2» Rich, Post Office, 9k*

>H3. Ibid. kkm Gaillard Hunt, Life in America One Hundred Years Ago (New York, 1911i), 1|9.

U5. Ibid., 52.

1|6. Quoted in Warren Stenson TrTron, oomo. and ed., A Mirror for Americans . • • (Chicago, 1952), I, 58.

Ii7. Ibid.

U8. See Joshua Gilpin to Albert Gallatin, January ks 1808, in Letters to the Honorable Albert Gallatin (Philadelphia, 1808), 1-39. k9. Ibid., 26.

50. Ibid., 27.

51. Dunbar, Travel in America, 190.

52. Rich, Post Office, 96-7. -125-

53. Hazard's Register of Pennsylvania, XV (1838), 387.

5U• Durrenberger, Turnpikes, 27.

55. La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, Travels, III, 69I4.

56. Ibid., 711»

57. John A. Ilunroe, "The Philadelawareans: A Study in the Relations Between Philadelphia and Delaware in the Late Eighteenth Century," PHHB, LXIX (19U5), 132.

58. C. A. Weslager, Delaware's Forgotten River; The Story of the Christina (Wilmington, 19U7), 159-60.

59• See Schoepf, Travels, 376; Melish, Geographical Description, 227.

60. La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, Travels, III, 538.

61. Ibid., 539. A petition in 1800 made by New Castle County citizens re­ quested a public ferry at Newport to facilitate travel between Newport and New Castle, the latter city "having of late years considerably in­ creased and from its convenient situation on the Delaware become the best market for the sale of stock & the produce of the country (of which large quantities are regularly required for the supply of vessels

trading from thence to Foreign Ports)." Leg. Pet., Transp., 1800#

62. Scharf, Delaware, II, 751.

63. Ibid., 750.

6U. Weslager identifies fifteen of these vessels, giving names and classifi­ cations. See his Delaware's Forgotten River, 72.

65. La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, Travels, III, 517. The well-known illustra­ tion of New York's packet row (see Plate IV) must have been similar in appearance to other waterfront areas in commercial cities like Philadelphia or Wilmington.

66. Scharf, Delaware, II, 751.

67. Summerl and Brown to James Brobson, Wilmington, May 5, 1796. Brobson Papers (Historical Society of Delaware).

68. Ibid., November 17, 1796.

69. Anna T. Lincoln, Wilmington, Delaware; Three Centuries Under Four Flags, 1609-1937 (Rutland, Vt., 1937), 133- -126-

70. ^Hezekiah Niles/, "Wilmington, Delaware, and Its Vicinity," Niles' Weekly Register, IX (October, 1815), 93, 96.

71. Ibid., 92, 96; Lincoln, Wilmington, 196. ,

72. Scharf, Delaware, II, 751.

73. Ibid., 15k*

7U* H. S. Tanner, The American Traveller; or Guide Through the United States. (Philadelphia, 18U0), 139-UO.

75. Ibid., j>k.

76. Scharf, Delaware, II, 7^1.

77. Melish, Geographical Description, 227.

78. Lincoln, Wilmington, 1U7; Weslager, Delaware's Forgotten River, Qh-5; Montgomery, Reminiscences, lli7«

79« La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, Travels, III, U97. William Wallace Young Papers (Historical Society of Delaware). NOTES TO CHAPTER III

NINETEENTH CENTURY DEVELOPMENTS IN TRANSPORTATION

A. IMPROVED ROADS

1. Quoted in Archibald Douglas Turnbull, John Stevens: An American Record (New York, 1923), 2. ~

2. The subscription book of this company is in the Historical Society of Delaware. Jacob Broom was prominent in its organization, and held the most shares of stock*

3. J. W. Livingood, The Philadelphia-Baltimore Trade Rivalry, 1760-1S60 (Karrisburg, 19U7-). Ul.

k* Ibid., U1-U2,

3. Wilmington Turnpike Company Subscription Book, 1796. MS Collection (Historical Society of Delaware).

6. Ibid.

7. Delaware Gazette (Wilmington), August 30, 1796. It is possible that either one or both of the state legislatures balked at incorporating the company, thus ending the project. There was no turnpike company incorporated in Delaware in 1796.

8. "Roads," Society Collection (Chester County Historical Society); Scharf, Delaware, I, I4.I6.

9. Laws of Delaware, IV, l83-8Iu

10. Leg. Pet,, Transp., 1809.

11. Delaware Gazette, April 9, I8l6.

12. Ibid., May 2, 1816, May 17, 1817.

13. Benjamin Ferris, The History of the Early Settlements on the Delaware . . . (Wilmington, 18U6), 2U2.

111. Wilmington Turnpike Company Minutes Book, 1809-20 (Historical Society of Delaware)•

15. Ibid., December, 1810.

16. Ibid., March, 1811.

17. Ibid., October, 1812. -128-

18. Ibid., December, 1812«

19. Ibid., June, 1813*

20. Wilmington Turnpike Company Papers, Delaware State Archives. Committees were frequently used to arbitrate disputes as well as inspect roads. The papers of the Wilmington and Great Valley Turnpike Company contain the following statement, signed by three disinterested citizens of New Castle County: "December the 10-1825' We the unde liners have mete and do agree thate John Stiley shode receve the sum of three dolers for the damege that is dond from drawing the sande for the turn pick." MS Collection (Histori­ cal Society of Delaware).

21. A list of the stockholders in 1831 is in the possession of the Delaware State Archives. It reveals that the Borough of Wilmington held twenty shares, estates eighty-five, and individuals 27U. The stockholders in­ cluded Edward Tatnall, lh; William Hemphill, 10; John Torbert, 21; Samuel Bush, 5; James Brian, 15; Thomas Lea's Estate, 7; Samuel Canby, 2; James M. Broom, Philadelphia, 6; and James Canby, 123. Wilmington Turnpike Company Papers.

22. Scharf, Delaware, I, J4I7-I8.

23. Ibid.

2lu Leg. Pet., Transp., 1611.

25. Federal Writers Project Papers. Typescript (University of Delaware Memorial Library), XXII, 380.

26. Wilmington and Kennet Turnpike Company, Stockholders List, 1811. MS Collection (Historical Society of Delaware).

27. Federal Writers Papers, XXII, 335.

28. See especially the material in the vertical files at the Historical Society of Delaware relating to this company.

29. Wilmington and Great Valley Turnpike Company Papers, Act of Incorporation, 1811. Printed copy (Historical Society of Delaware).

30. Ibid. See Appendix, p. 122, for extracts from the act of incorporation, dealing with the route, rates, operation, and other details of the road.

31. Ibid.

32. Ibid.

33. Ibid. -129-

3k* Leg. Pet., Transp., 1811,

35. Elk and Christiana Turnpike Company Papers (Delaware State Archives).

36. Laws of Delaware, IX, 328-29.

37. Federal Writers Papers, XXII, 338.

38. Kirkland, Economic Life, 229. See Appendix, p. 121, for a list of the turnpikes in another river valley, that of the Susquehanna.

39. Hazard's Register, I (1828), U07.

I4O. Ibid., UU7-08.

14.1. Durrenberger, Turnpikes, 112.

14.2. American State Papers, Miscellaneous, I, 737.

U3. Mel ester, History, III, H63. kk* Livingood, Philadelpnia-Baltimore Trade Rivalry, 27.

US* Ibid.

1|6# Wood, Turnpikes, 35. hi* Fletcher, Pennsylvania Agriculture, 236. '

1|8. Krout and Fox, Completion of Independence, 22U.

U9. Quoted by Livingood, Philadelphia-Baltimore Trade Rivalry, U5, U5n.

50. Joshua Gilpin, "Journal of a Tour From Philadelpnia Through the Western Counties of Pennsylvania In The Months of September and October, 1809," PMHB, L (1926), 6L--65.

51. Wood, Turnpikes, 35-36.

52. Harwoocl Frost, The Art of Road-akmg . . . (New York, 1910), 15h.

33. Ibid.

5U. Ibid., X5U-55•

55. Quoted in William Chauncy Langdon, Everyday Things in American Life, 1776- 1876 (New York, 19U1), 31. " " " "~ ~~~ '

56. See Plate IX, which shows the relative thickness of stone roads. -130-

57. Hazard's Register, I (1328), 101.

38, This may refer to Oliver Evans, He was a subscriber and contributor to the Emporium at this time,

59« See Plate X for "0. E.'s" design to improve turnpikes. He proposed keeping the summer or unimproved road always on the higher side of the turnpike, regardless of the number of crossing required. This would prevent the water which drained from the turnpike from standing in the summer road and making it impassable. Thomas Cooper, the editor of the Emporium, also commented briefly on turnpikes. He believed that smaller carriages would be more economical to the wagoner as well as preserve the turnpikes. "No turnpike," he wrote, "can stand the wear and tear of five horse waggons, and be profitable to the stockholders." Emporium of Arts and Sciences, I, No. 3 (October, 1813), 3Ul,

60. See Emporium, III, No. 2 (August, l8lU), 2QH-97; Ibid., I, No. 3 (October, 1813), 3U0-U1; American State Papers, Miscellaneous, I, 738.

B. RIVER TRANSPORTATION

61. Weslager, Delaware's Forgotten River, 68-69. An advertisement of a Wilmington and New York packet is found in the Delaware Gazette of March 3, 1826: "The Schooner MARTHA, Capt. Watkins, is intended to ply during the ensuing season, between this port and that of New York. For freight for New-York, apply on board, at Gordon's (lower) wharf, or to D. & Geo. Bush; and in New-York, application may be made to Anthony Gerard."

62. Samuel Bush and Son, Freight Book, 1789-9U • MS Collection (Historical Society of Delaware).

63. Ibid.

6I1. G. Valetine Massey, Of Gold, Ships and Sand, the Story of the Warner Company (typescript, Hagley Museum Collection, n.d., n.p.).

65. Delaware and Eastern Shore Advertiser (WiLmington), September 7, 1797.

66. Massey, Warner Company, n.p.

67. Mirror of the Times (Wilmington), January U, 1806.

68. Bush Freight Book. -131-

69» Thorns Lea's Memorandum or Commonplace Book, 1807-U6. MS Collection (Historical Society of Delaware),

70. Ibid,

71. Ibid,

72. Ibid.

73. Ibid.

7U, John A. Munroe, Federalist Delaware (New Brunswick, 1951;), 33.

75. Munroe, "Philadelawareans," 130,

76, Leg, Pet,, Transp., I806,

77. Ibid.

78, See Plate XI for a copy of this petition.

79• Weslager, Delaware's Forgotten River, ll;9.

80. Ibid.

81. Leg. Pet., Transp., 1801, 1802.

82. Ferris, Delaware, 2U0-U1.

83. La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, Travels, III, 536.

8U« Ferris, Delaware, 2Ul. 85, Gilpin wrote: "Some uneasiness hath arisen from the use made of thy cer­ tificate to pass the Wilmington Bridge, and I wish thee when in town to call on me for a better understanding of the subject—the Board intend in that privilege nothing further than the private use thereof by thy­ self & those persons strictly in thy family—the people employed in the factory are not intended to be included—neither thy Brother or any part of his family. The Company are desirous to accommodate as far as con­ sistent with their understanding of the contract, but they wish also to attend to the interest of the Stockholders." du Pont, Life of M. I. du Pont, VIII, 265-66,

86, Fletcher, Pennsylvania Agriculture, 2l±0,

87, Ibid.

88, The dangers attendant to this type of transportation were set forth by David Scott in 1827: "A voyage across the. Atlantic does not invoke so much danger to life and property as the navigation of the Susquehanna -132-

from the New York state line to the head of the tide • • • • Property can only be floated down in time of high floods, which seldom occur except at the breaking up of the ice and the melting of the.snow in the spring season. During these floods the river is not navigated with any degree of safety or success, if at all, for more than a week or ten days. The consequence is that the whole trade of the Susquehanna descends at nearly the same time; the markets in the towns and villages along the river are overstocked and the owners are frequently obliged to sell at a ruinous sacrifice. . . • The loss occasioned by accidents incident to river navigation is estimated at five per cent a year," Quoted in Fletcher, Pennsylvania Agriculture, 2U0,

C. STEAMBOATS ON THE DELAWARE

89, Bernard Jaffe, Men of Science in America (New York, I9I+I1), lOO,

90, Fred Erving Dayton, Steamboat Days (New York, 1925), 288,

91, Dunbar, Travel in America, 3U8.

92, Quoted in Jaffe, Men of Science, 3.8l,

93• Baron Klinkowstrtfm was in New York at the time this ship was being pre­ pared for the voyage. He was acquainted with the captain, Moses Rodgers, "who kindly helped me , , , in my investigations." Klinkowstrflm's America, 8-9. Rodgers was the captain who took the Phoenix from New York to Delaware, the first time a steamboat ventured ocean waters. The Savannah was an almost fully rigged sailing ship, with steam power added, using collapsible paddle wheels. See Plate V for an illustration of the Savannah and its paddle wheel.

9k • Carl D. Lane, American Paddle Steamboats (New York, I9k3)$ 25.

95. Krout and Fox, Completion of Independence, 232.

96. William Miller, ed., Men in Business, Assays in tho History of Entrepreneur- ship (Cambridge, Mass., 1952), Ikh,

97* Ibid»3 Dayton, Steamboat Days, 291*

98. "Notes and Queries," PMHB, XII (1888), 500.

99• Lane, Paddle Steamboats, 26. Rate wars were common between rival stage lines also. Between Providence and Boston the regular rate nad been 3,00, but when a new stage line started, prices began going down. When the old line announced it would carry passengers free, the new line -133-

countered by saying it would carry all passengers Tree, and furnish a dinner at the end of the .journey. The offer was duplicated by the old line, with the addition of a bottle of wine. Such a condition could go on but a short time. Eventually an agreement was made to charge &2.0U a trip. MacGill, Transportation, YU.

1U0, Lane, Paddle Steamboats, 26,

101. Lassey, Warner Company, n.p.; Scharf, Delaware, II, 752.

102. Scharf, Delaware, II, 753; Dayton, Steamboat Days, ?99.

103. Scharf, ibid.

10lu Weslager, Delaware's Forgotten River, 7U»

105. E. I. du Pont to John Vaughn, Philadelphia, August 27, 1821. Du Pont Company Letter Books, Old Stone Office Collection (Hagley Museum). Hereafter these will be cited as L. B.

106. Smith wrote in 1826: "If I should forget to mention air/thing you must blame the confounded short time the boat gives to answer letters. • . . P. S. I open my letter to say that in all my haste I was not in time for the Boat. She was not more than one-fourth of an hour at the wharf." F. G. Smith to E. I. du Pont, October 7, 1826. Old Stone Office Collec­ tion (Hagley Museum).

107. Kirkland, Economic Life, 223.

108. November i, 1838, Old Stone Office Collection (Hagley Museum).

109. Delaware State Journal (Wilmington), August 9* 1831.

110. Scharf, Delaware, II, 753.

111. Delaware State Journal (Wilmington), August 9, 1831,

112. Lane, Paddle Steamboats, 27,

113. See Plate XII for an advertisement Of this trip,

11U. Dayton, Steamboat Days, 310. See Plate XIII for a later panoramic map issued by this company.

115. E, I, du Pont Papers, MS Collection (Longwood Foundation Library).

116. E. I. du Pont to Sophie du Pont, July 2k, 1821, du Pont, Life of F. I. du Pont, XI, U2. " -13h-

117• A. T. Pell to Mess, Dupont De Nemours & Company, Wilmington, August 27,

1823. E, I. du Pont Papers, MS Collection (Longwood Foundation Library),

D. CANALS

118. Fletcher, Pennsylvania Agriculture, 26k* 119. Ibid. 120. Livingood, Philadelphia-Baltimore Trade Rivalry, 32. 121. Ibid., 33.

122. J. Lee Hartmann, "Pennsylvania's Grand Plan of Post-Revolutionary Internal Improvements," PMHB, LXV (19U1), U57.

123. Fletcher, Pennsylvania Agriculture, 266.

12k* Ibid., 266-67. A full description of a round trip journey of this amazing system made by Philip H. Nicklin is given in Tryon, Mirror for Americans, I, 1U8-58.

125. Fletcher, Pennsylvania Agriculture, 26)4; Livingood, Philadelphia-Baltimore Trade Rivalry, 63.

126. Livingood, Philadelphia-Baltimore Trade Rivalry, 63.

127. Ibid., 35.

128. ^George Armroyd7 , A Connected View of the Whole Internal Navigation of the United States, .rtural and Artificial; Present and Prospective (Philadelphia, 1826), 106.

129. Kirkland, Economic Life, 231.

130. Clark, Manufactures, I, 338.

131. Journal of the. Senate of the State of Delaware. (Wilmington, 1793), 2k*

132. Journal of the House of the State of .Delaware (Dover, 1826), 72-73.

133. Ibid.

E. CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE CANAL

13U. Benjamin Latrobe to Albert Gallatin, 1808, in Letters to Gallatin, U6. -135-

135. "Memoir of Thomas Gilpin," PMHB, XLIX (1925), 297-98; Weslager, Delaware|s Forgotten River, 127. Joan Rising, the last governor of New Sweden, wrote in 165U.that "it would be well worth while to settle Christiana Kill, in order that one might be the more secure against Virginia, and besides.to carry on trade with them, making a passage from their river /£lk7 into the said kill, by which we could bring the Virginian goods here and store them, and our ships with them for a return cargo," Quoted in A. C. Meyers, ed., Narratives of Early Pennsylvania, West New Jersey, and Delaware (New York,' 1912), 139-iiO.

136. Quoted in Livingood, Philadelphia-Baltimore Trade Rivalry, 5-6.

137. "Memoir of Gilpin," 299-300".

138. Weslager, Delaware!s Forgotten River, 128.

139. La Rochefourcauld-Liancourt, Travels, III, 695.

lliO. Ibid.

llfL. MacGill, Transportation, 218,

1U2. Lincoln, Wilmington, 225,

lU3. One petition, signed by lOU people including several Brandywine millers, Peter Bauduy, and Hezekiah Miles, stated that "we conceive the object to of considerable importance to the good People of this State, and . • • in a national point of view we believe the same to be of great consequence." Leg, Pet., Transp., 16*00.

Ihh, Benjamin Latrobe, engineer in charge of the canal after I80I4. and a stock­ holder in the company, wrote in 1806 that the cause of the suspension of internal improvements "is the absorption of all our active capital by the neutral trade. The turnpike roads which have been opened near Philadelphia, as well as the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal were children of the peace of Amiens." Quoted in Talbot Hamlin, Benjamin Henry Latrobe (New York, 1955), 211-12. llj.5. From "Memorial to the State of Pennsylvania," quoted by MacGill, Transportation, 218.

1U6, Ibid., 219.

1U7. Livingood, Philadelphia-Baltimore Trade Rivalry, 88.

1U8, See Weslager, Delaware's Forgotten River, 131-133, for further details, lk9* Joshua Gilpin to Albert Gallatin, January U, 1808, in Letters to Gallatin, 2U-25, -136-

150. Ibid.

151• Livingood, Philadelphia-Baltimore Trade Rivalry, 93.

152. Ibid., 9U. The years were 1632, 1833, and I81f3.

153. Ibid., 91.

15U. Hazard's Register, XV (1835), 386.

155. Ibid.

156. Lane| Paddle Steamboats, 29.

F. RAILROADS, PRE-18U0

157. Quoted in MacGill, Transportation, 312. 158. Emporium, II (February, l&lk)$ 25. Evans drove his steam-powered Qrulcter Amphibolos through the streets of Philadelpnia. Calculating that its weight was equal to at least 200 barrels of flour, Evans was pleased that "this small engine moved so great a burden, with a gentle motion . • • , we concluded from the experiment that the engine was able to rise any ascent allowed by law on turnpike roads." Oliver Evans, The Abortion of the Young Steam Engineer's Guide (Philadelpnia, 1805), 50. He clearly foresaw the steam railway, though not all of its great possibilities. 159. Emporium, ibid.

160. Steward H. Holbrook, The Story of American Railroads (New York, 19U7), 22.

161. Ibid., 23.

162. Fletcher, Pennsylvania Agriculture, 269.

163. An advertisement in an 1833 edition of the Delaware Gazette announced tne innovation: "Passengers for Baltimore and those wishing a pleasant and novel excursion are respectfully informed that a train of cars drawn by Locomotive Engines leaves New Castle immediately on the arrival'of the Steam Boat from Philadelpnia, about half past eight A. M. for Frenchtown where passengers take steam boats and are landed at an early hour at Baltimore. Return train arrives at New Castle about one o'clock P. M." Quoted in Weslager, Delaware's Forgotten River, 133.

16U. Folbrook, American Railroads, 26.

163. An early advertisement of the philadelpnia to Columbia Railroad stated the locomotive "will depart daily when the weather is fair, with a train of passenger cars. On rainy days, horses will be attached." Quoted in MacGill, Transportation, 311. -137-

166. The steamboat was a "moving bridge." The train of "six passenger cars . . . were run upon her deck from the railroad wharf at the Susquehanna and carried to the other side, where they were landed and sped on their way to Baltimore." Delaware State Journal, July 18, 1837. This was not to be standard procedure: normally passengers and baggage cars only would be carried across by the steamboat, where they would be met by another train.

167. Delaware State Journal, July 21, 1837.

168. Laws of Delaware, VIII, 107-115•

169. Delaware State Journal, July 21, 1837.

170. Laws of Delaware, VIII, 62-72.

171. Ibid., IX, 251-52.

172. Ibid., 21.

173. The leaders of the company included Edward Tatnall, Alfred du Pont, John Gordon, Jamas Price, Thomas Robinson, and Charles I. du Pont. The railroad was to be located from an intersection with the Wilmington and Susquehanna Railroad inside the limits of Wilmington, provided the Wilmington company consented, and to run along the Brandywine to the estate owned by the Brandywine and Christiana "Manufacturing Company, and possibly extend to the state line. No land could be crossed with- . out permission from the owners. This railroad was not constructed. Laws of Delaware, IX, UU.

17U. Lincoln, Wilmington, 251u

175. K. S. Tanner, A New Map of Maryland and Delaware, With Their Canals, Roads, and Distances (Philadelphia, I8I1J4.).

176. Clark, Manufactures, I, 336. ' •

177. Ibid., 361.

178. Ferris, Delaware, 250. The italics are mine. On the following page Ferris spoke of steamboats "employed in the transportation of passengers and merchandise." Vfy italics.

179. F. G. Smith to E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, March 6, 1835. Old Stone Office Collection (Hagley Museum).

180. Weslager, Delaware's Forgotten River, 13U. NOTES TO CHAPTER IV

BRANDYWINE INDUSTRIES AND TRANSPORTATION

1. Tench Coxe, A Statement of the Arts and Manufactures of the United- States of America . . . , Book II of the Third Census (Philadelphia,. 181U), 20.

2. E. I. du Pont to Archibald McCall, Philadelphia, September 8, 1806, L. B.

3. Arthur Cecil Bining, Pennsylvania Iron Manufacture in the Eighteenth Century (Harrisburg, 1938), 177.

lu Robert W. Wolcott, A Woman in Steel: Rebecca Lukens (New York, 19U8), 17.

5. Mary Ann Furnace, Blast Book, Pig Book, 1836-37. MS Collection (.Historical Society of Pennsylvania).

6. Documents Relating to the Manufacture of Iron in Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1830), Tables IV, V, and VI.

7. Ibid., Table IV.

8. Ibid., Table V.

9. Ibid., Table VI. 10. Delaware Free Press (Wilmington), December 3, 1831.. The McLane Report of 1832 records that this iron works employed seven horses,' and that almost all of the product was sent to Philadelphia to be sold. Documents Relative to Manufactures in the United States, McLane Report on manufactures (Washington, 1833), II, 813. : :

11. Original Road Petitions, XXIII, 1793-93 (Chester County Court House).

12. Examples of this may be found in the Rolling Mill Waste Book, 1833. MS Collections (Historical Society of Delaware).

13. A. Cardon to George Flomerfelt, Philadelphia, February 26, 1817, in A. Cardon and Company, Letter Book, 1816-27. Old Stone Office Collection (Hagley Museum). liu Ibid., to Isaac Robertson, Georgetown, May U, 1818.

15. Ibid., to George Flomerfelt, Philadelphia, March 10, 1817.

16. Ibid., to William Warner and Son, Philadelphia, January 7, 1821, -139-

17o Ibid., to Bradford and Cooch, Baltimore, December 29, 181?.

18. Harold B. Hancock, Delaware's Paperraakers and Papermaking, 1787-18UO. Typescript, research report (Hagley Museum, 1955).

19. La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, Travels, III, 507.

20. Ibid.

21. James Parks, of the Despatch Line, acknowledged the receipt at "Philadelphia, June 2l;th 1817 in good order, on board the Sloop Rover Parks Master Two Boxes Marked A. Y. Girard Esqr New York which I promise to deliver, (the dangers of the Seas,

22. Scharf, Delaware, II, 751.

23. Samuel Canby to V. English, April 30, 1816, in Samuel Canby and Son, Letter Book, 1816-17. MS Collection (Historical Society of Delaware).

2hm E. I. du Pont to E. Copeland, Jr., Boston, September 7, 1823, L. B.

25. E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company to George P. Bowers, New Orleans, July 1U, • 1839, L. B.

26. Ibid., to G. W. Ward, Matagorda, Texas, November 1, I838.

27. P. G. Smith to E. I. du Pont, Wilmington, November 26, 1828. Old Stone Office Collection (Hagley Museum).

28. E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company to Gregory Burr and Company, Columbus, July 17, 1839, L. B.

29. E. I. du Pont to Messrs. Jonn L. Sullivan, Boston, December 27, 1805, I. B.

30. Ibid., to Anthony Girard, New York, December 20, 1805.

31. Ibid., to T. J. P. Dowes, Albany, July 2, 1806.

32. Ibid., to Moody, Wyman, and Company, Philadelphia, August 16, 1821.

33. Ibid., to Archibald McCall, Philadelphia, May 17, 1806.

3k» E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company to F. G. Smith, Philadelohia, October 13, 1838, L. B.

35. Ibid. -iko-

36. E. I. du Pont to Anthony Girard, New York, December 20, 1805, L. B.

37. Ibid., to Capt. Irwin, Superintendent of the Military Store, Philadelphia, April 10, 1806. .

38. Ibid., to John Vaughn, Philadelphia, January 8, 1822.

39. E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company to William Kemble, New York, September 29• 1838, L„ B. U0. George Bird to E. I. du Pont, Wilmington, April 10, 1821, Old Stone Office Collection (Hagley Museum).

Ul, E. I. du Pont to Charles H. West, Charleston, October 16, 1821, L. B.

1|2. E, I. du Pont de Nemours & Company to Petray, Viel, and Company, Charleston, June 20, 1839, L. B. il3. Ibid., to David S. Brown, Philadelpnia, February 3, l8i|0. Contemplated also was the erection of warehouses and the extension of the harbor to make an all-weather, convenient port on the Delaware. Rail connections with Philadelpnia and Wilmington existed. See Plate XIV for a map showing the Wilmington area and the Du Pont landing.

!|i|. Ibid., to F. G. Smith, Philadelpnia, April 5, 18U0.

U5. "Statement of Expenditures of the Manufacture," du Pont, Life of E. I. du Pont, VII, 281. ' ~ i|6. W. C. Hull to E. I. du Pont, Wilmington, October 20, 181U. Old Stone Office Collection (Hagley Museum).

Il7. E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company to L. Mosby, Cincinnati, March 12, 1839, L. B. i|8. E. I. du Pont to Thomas Harper, Philadelphia, April 2,,1822, L. B.

U9. E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company to Z. H. Cooch, Baltimore, January 1U, 1839, L. B.

50. Ibid., to P. E. Blow, St, Louis, February 25, 1839.

51. Ibid., to F. G, Smith, Philadelpnia, December 2U, 1838,

52. Ibid., to William Kemble, New York, October 26, 1839.

53. Ibid.

5U. Ibid., to Capn. G. D. Ramsay, Frankford, October 19, 1838. NOTES TO CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS

1. Clark, Manufactures, I, J51.

\ -1U2-

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