"LI B R.AR.Y OF the: U N I VERS ITY or ILLl NOIS tlUI^OIS LIBl(Ai!y i~ I fi Z7 - A History of Transportation in the Ohio Valley A History of Transportation in the Ohio Valley with special reference to its waterways, trade, and commerce from the earliest period to the present time by CHARLES HENRY AMBLER Professor of History, West Virginia University The Arthur H. Clark Company Glendale, California, U.S.A. 1932 copyright, 193i, by The Arthur H. Clark Company All rights reserved including the right to reproduce this volume or parts thereof in any form 1 Contents Preface 13 The Ohio River 17 The Boatmen AXD THEIR Craft 31 The Boatmen as Nation Builders .... 59 Shipbuilding on the Inland Waters . 81 The First Steamboats west of the Alleghanies . 107 The Day of Canals AND Turnpikes . 133 The Heyday of the Passenger Packet . 161 Railroad versus River 185 Intermunicipal Rivalries 211 The Ciml War Period 239 Post-bellum Days to 1900 265 The Coal Trade 295 Life and Customs 319 Commercial Decadence 347 Floods and Disasters 369 Internal Improvements 393 Recent Years on the Rivers 423 Index 45 Illustrations River parade of Pittsburgh towboats of BYGONE DAYS Frontispiece The Flatboat 39 The Keelboat facing 42 Mike Fink, Hero of the Keelboatmen, and companions 55 William Mason's Map of Pittsburgh, 1805 . 95 The First Steamboat on the Ohio river* . -117 The Stage-coach 135 The Conestoga or covered wagon, the "Vehicle of Empire" 135 A Portage boat* 145 * Viaduct and Towpath on the Pennsylvania canal . 145 The "Washington," built 1820, at Cincinnati . -175 From an early woodcut in the possession of Frederick Way, Jr. The "Messenger," favorite of the first Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet line 175 From a contemporary print. Courtesy of Henry Holt and Company. Map showing railroads IN THE United States, 1850-1860 187 The Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad packet, "Fleetwood" 281 Steamer "Kate Adams," the "Lovin Kate," built AT Jeffersonville, Ind., 1899 281 Map showing boat-landings along the Ohio, ABOUT 1900 289 Typical Rousters of the lower Ohio and Mississippi 339 Courtesy of Ifaterivays Journal. ILLUSTRATIONS The "City of Cincinnati" 383 Wrecked by the ice gorge of January, 1918, at Cincinnati. * Da1\I number I, MONONGAHELA RIVER, BUILT IN 184O . 419 The now obsolete comb type of timber construction. Locks and fixed dam, Emsworth, Pa 419 The "Iowa" of 2000 horse-power* 431 With three barges containing 6000 tons of iron pipe at Lock number 2, Ohio river. The "Sam Craig," April i6, 1930* 435 With a tow of 10,000 tons of steel. Map showing important Waterways and Highw.ays IN the United States about 1836 .... 449 'Reproduced by courtesy of National H'ateriiays. Preface The purpose of this book is to give an historical ac- count of transportation in the Ohio valley w^ith special reference to its waterways, trade, and commerce. The early phases of this subject are somewhat hackneyed, and its later phases, except the spectacular, have been almost completely neglected. It is the hope of the au- thor that these may be given their historical settings and their proper relations to other events and condi- tions. It is his belief that those who have helped in the more recent decades and generations in making our country what it is today are deserving of some attention along with the "pioneers." As will be seen, however, the fields of transportation were never without their pioneers, the transportation facilities of any age of American history being inadequate to its needs and thus serving as a constant stimulus to initiative and inven- tion. The sources used comprise practically all the avail- able public documents bearing upon the subject of transportation in the Ohio valley, but chief reliance, particularly for local color and intimate accounts, was upon newspapers. Of these, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati papers proved most helpful, but newspaper files found in both Charleston and Wheeling, West Virginia, were storehouses of information for the decades before the Civil war. For the more recent decades extensive use was made of the Waterways Journal, published in St. Louis. Information gathered through interviews with 14 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY scores of former rivernien, most of whom have passed on within the last ten years, at ages well in the eighties and the nineties, aided the author in the interpretation of data gathered otherwise, as well as in his efforts to lend life and color to his narrative. It is hoped that a liberal use of footnotes will make unnecessary an ex- tended and critical bibliography. For the most part, the subject matter of this book is presented more or less chronologically, but for the pur- pose of economizing space, some chapters, such as those on the coal trade, internal improvements, life and cus- toms, and floods and disasters, are presented as separate topics. In this arrangement some duplication was un- avoidable, but it is hoped that it will be helpful rather than confusing. For many kindnesses and courtesies of librarians and for assistance from friends, given in the twelve years this work was in progress, the author makes grateful and general acknowledgments. Special mention is due Dr. L. D. Arnett, librarian of the West Virginia Uni- versity, whose resourcefulness was a constant aid ; to my wife who read each and every chapter and offered helpful suggestions; to my colleagues and associates in the faculty of the West Virginia University, Professor David Dale Johnson of the department of English, who read the entire manuscript and made constructive criti- cisms, and Professor J. M. Callahan of the department of history, who read most of the chapters and rendered like aid; to Assistant Professor Louis K. Koontz of the University of California at Los Angeles, Associate Professor Fred A. Shannon of Kansas State Agricul- tural College, Manhattan, Kansas, and Professor Carl Wittke of Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, each of whom read the entire manuscript and contributed PREFACE 15 to its form and substance; to the late Captain Edward P. Chancellor of Parkersburg, West Virginia, who aided in collecting and evaluating materials; to Cap- tain Thomas M. Rees of James Rees and Sons Com- pany, Pittsburgh, who made corrections contributing to a greater degree of accuracy; and to John W. Black, editor of National Waterways, Pittsburgh, for permission to use illustrative material, as well as help- ful assistance in selecting it. To the score or more stu- dents in the West Virginia University, who aided him in so many ways, the author can extend only a general acknowledgment. For possible errors in statements of fact and in interpretations, as well as for important omissions, he alone assumes entire responsibility. Charles Henry Ambler West Virginia University Morgantown, West Virginia December 12, 1930 The Ohio River There is a lingering glory about many of the streams of inland America, that is not easily forgotten. Some of them have unique and unsurpassed beauty; others are rich in association and tradition. It is doubtful whether any rivers of the world have a more romantic history than those that led Marquette and La Salle into the heart of an unexplored continent and those by which American pioneers crossed the Alleghanies into the Ohio valley to build homes and rear families. To the initiated the impressions and memories of these rivers are not unlike those that come from watching the flights and habits of native birds, from watching the sun and planets in their course and the flowers and grains in season. They are the essence of patriotism. Of all these rivers the Ohio, known to French ex- plorers as the "Beautiful River," is the most beautiful, as well as the most important. There are grander and more majestic streams, even in America, but there are few anywhere of such graceful loveliness. On a broad scale its banks suggest the soft and pastoral landscapes of the German Neckar and the Main, with their con- stant successions of curves and gently rounded hills, according in their natural state, with as true a harmony as that of music. More important still, the Ohio is the main thoroughfare between the Atlantic coast and the Mississippi valley. By way of its waters, more than any other route, a whole continent was peopled. Some persons develop interest in and love for the 1 8 TRANSPORTATION IN THE OHIO VALLEY Ohio; others inherit them. One boy, born and reared near its banks in the last quarter of the nineteenth cen- tury, discovered them. It was a mid-summer afternoon, and he was on his way to a blacksmith's shop for the repair of a part belonging to a mowing machine. As he hastened along a winding dirt road, impelled by an urgent paternal request for haste and by the warning rays of the declining sun, he came up close behind a supposed tramp leisurely moving before him. At that time, possibly more than now, tramps were a bane to the life and happiness of country boys, and the thought of passing this one on the public highway struck terror into the heart of his unwilling follower, but there seemed to be no other alternative. Accordingly he pressed forward hoping that some favorable turn of fortune, such as comes to country boys, would save him from the frightful possibilities of the situation. Thus sustained he came within speaking distance of the for- bidding stranger, whose gentle voice and kindly manner soon arrested his haste and quieted his suspicions. A short conversation disclosed the fact that the supposed tramp was in reality a professor in a noted German university and that he was then on a tour of America, having already seen much of Europe and Asia.