USA > Connecticut > The Connecticut River and the valley of the Connecticut, three hundred and fifty miles from mountain to sea; historical and descriptive > Part 25
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had devoted much time to experiments on light and heat, and in studies connected with mechanics. His aim now was to improve the steam-engine, particularly for applica- tion to propelling boats by means of paddle-wheels. The result of his efforts was an engine and machinery of his own construction set in a tiny boat large enough only for himself and a single companion. When all was completed the trial trip was made up and down the River between Orford and Fairlee. This took place on a summer Sunday in 1792 or 1793, while the people were at meeting, to avoid notice. The boat was run for some miles up the River against the current to a point near the present bridge between the two towns, and down again to lower Orford, working successfully in all its parts. After some improvements in the machinery, and several more satis- factory trips over the same course, astonishing to the peo- ple, the invention was considered sufficiently matured for exhibition to the outside world.
Accordingly Captain Morey took the model to New York and there built a new boat to demonstrate his prin- ciple. During three successive summers he tried many experiments in modifying the engine, and in propelling. He had frequent interviews with Livingston and Fulton, and freely explained his mechanism, in which they became much interested. Called back to his home by domestic affairs, the boat was brought to Hartford, as a more con- venient place for working, and here he ran her on the River in the presence of many persons. Having at Orford made sundry improvements in his engine, he returned to New York and applied the power to a wheel in the stern. By this means the boat was propelled at the rate of about five miles an hour. A trip was made to Green- wich, on the Sound, and back, with the brothers Livingston
The River between Fairlee and Orford. Scene of the trials of Morey's first steamboat, 1792-93.
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and others then interested in steamboating as passengers, all of whom expressed " very great satisfaction at her per- formance and with the engine." But greater speed was desired, and under the encouragement of Chancellor Liv- ingston, and the promise of a considerable sum, provided he should succeed in making a boat run eight miles an hour, -the speed attained by Fitch's boat in 1790- Morey continued his exertions through the following sum- mer. Going to Bordentown on the Delaware in June, 1797, he there devised the plan of propelling by means of two wheels, one on either side, and accomplished his object. This plan comprised the shaft running across the boat with a crank in the middle worked from the beam of the engine with a "shackle bar," -the same mode in principle as that afterward used in the large boats put on the Hudson. Morey's boat thus equipped was "openly exhibited in Philadelphia." "From that time," to quote directly from a statement of Morey's made in 1818, of which the foregoing is a summary, "I considered every obstacle removed, and no difficulty remaining or impediment existing to the construction of steamboats on a large scale, and I took out patents for my improvements. The notoriety of these successful experiments enabled me to make very advan- tageous arrangements with Dr. Allison [the Rev. Burgess Allison, one of the chaplains of the lower house of Con- gress] and others, to carry steamboats into effectual opera- tion ; but a series of misfortunes to him and others concerned soon after deprived them of the means of prosecuting the design, defeated their purpose, and disappointed my expec- tations. But I did not wholly relinquish the pursuit, from time to time devising improvements in the engine."
Morey felt keenly the loss of the honor and the emolu- ments of his invention, and believed to the end of his life
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that he had been unjustly deprived of them. He never had any doubt but that he had a right to take out a patent for the application of two wheels to a steamboat (which antedated Fulton's patent by several years). At " much labor and expense and the employment of years devoted to the pursuit," he wrote, he had "actually succeeded, so that nothing was wanting to carry this mode of navigation into effect but pecuniary means "; and it seemed to him " pecu- liarly hard " that "the originator of these improvements by which Messrs. Livingston and Fulton were enabled principally to succeed, should have had his right over- looked and himself excluded from the very waters [New York] where many of his experiments were made."
Happily, however, these slights of fortune did not embitter Morey's latter years. He continued the genial philosopher and practical student of useful arts. Sketches by reminiscent contemporaries present him a fine figure of a man. " He was a size larger than Daniel Webster," says one. " He loved sports and was ahead of all, whether in hunting, ball-playing, or any of the sports of the day." He could shoot a deer on the full run, and hawks on the wing. He was philanthropic, generous, just-minded, “ ten- der-hearted and humane." "His frown would frighten any man, but his smile was peace." A pleasing picture, is it not, of old-time stalwart manhood, full rounded ? But the long Valley abounded in such characters. Morey's father, Colonel, later General Israel Morey, a founder of Orford, and a leader in the College Party in the "Play for a State," as has been seen, was of the same type.
Captain Morey spent the last seven years of his life in Fairlee, and died there in 1843. It has long been a tradi- tion in the village that his original boat was sunk in Fairlee Pond (now Morey Lake and a favorite little sum-
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Middle Haddam Landing.
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mer resort) ; but all efforts have failed to discover any trace of it. The most systematic search was made some years ago by a committee of the New Hampshire Anti- quarian Society. The conclusion expressed by an Orford friend of Morey, - Dr. Willard Hosford, his physician, - that the original boat was "worked up for firewood," and that the traditions concerning it have clustered about a later boat built by him which is known to have been filled with stones and sunk in this pond, was apparently accepted by this committee.
The first steamboats in regular service were put on the lower River, in or about 1824, to ply between Hartford and New York, with various landings below Hartford. These were the " Oliver Ellsworth," named for the cele- brated Connecticut jurist, born in Windsor, and the "Mac- donough," for Captain Thomas Macdonough, the " hero of Champlain " in the War of 1812, who, after winning his laurels, had lived in Middletown. Both were commodious boats for that time, with berths (staterooms were a luxury of a later day) for sixty passengers. For navigation above tide-water the first steamer made her debut in 1826. She was the "Barnet," so called felicitously, as her sponsors felt, in their confidence that she would success- fully reach the ultima thule of the River's commerce at Barnet, Vermont.
The story of the "Barnet's" efforts and of the gallant dashes for the unattainable of those which came after her, in which the mettle of the Valley men of action was per- sistently exhibited against most untoward conditions, con- stitutes another animated and picturesque chapter in the closed history of up-river navigation.
The " Barnet " was a venture of the Connecticut River
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Company primarily to demonstrate the feasibility of steam navigation in the upper waters, and so influence legislation that the company were seeking. She was hastily built, at New York, and equipped only sufficiently for her special purpose. She was of the "wheelbarrow " pattern, with an extreme length of seventy-five feet, and a width of fourteen and a half feet ; and her draft in the water was less than two feet. The "Macdonough " towed her from New York through the Sound, and she reached Hartford at the close of November. A week later, undeterred by the lateness of the season, she was started on her up-river voyage for distant Barnet, with a " barge " in tow con- taining officers of the company and their guests.
Great was the interest of the people who gathered on the banks to witness her departure. As she gallantly steamed toward Warehouse Point fusillades of musketry greeted her from both sides of the River. The noise of the exhaust steam from her engine was heard a great dis- tance off. All went well till the Enfield rapids were struck. Here wind and tide, and a heavily laden flatboat coming down stream, presented a combination of obstacles which she could not overcome, and she was brought to a standstill. So she returned with her company ingloriously to Hartford.
A day or two after, however, when her machinery had been strengthened, a second start was made with the same company. This time the falls were successfully passed, thirty fallsmen assisting, poling from scows lashed on each side of the steamer. Then she moved on to Longmeadow and Springfield at "a good rate." At Springfield she was welcomed with " true neighborly kindness." The populace thronged to the landing, leaving the streets deserted. In the court of common pleas a lawyer was arguing a cause
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Rock Landing
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before well filled chairs when word came of her arrival. Instantly the court-room cleared of all save judge, jury, speaker, and opposing counsel. Salutes were fired, the town bells were rung, and the "Barnet's" party were entertained over night with joyous hospitality. The next morning the voyage was resumed, and the boat ascended the River with increased speed. At Willimansett Falls the enthusiastic people drew her over these rapids. The next day she passed easily through the South Hadley canal. At Northampton a "thousand persons," "many of whom had never before seen a steamboat," were assem- bled on the then new bridge and the adjoining banks. As she steamed up to the town a flag was hoisted on the bridge, salutes were fired, and the people wildly huzzahed. That night she remained at Northampton, while her company were given a public supper at the tavern, and congratu- latory speech was exchanged. At the close of the follow- ing day the mouth of the Deerfield was reached, and here a turn was made into that river for a run up to "Cheap- side," in Deerfield. At the turn the citizens of Montague, assembled on the Connecticut's bank near the bridge, fired a salute, which the "Barnet " returned. As she neared Cheapside landing the people of Deerfield gave her thirteen guns, to which she responded with double the number. Sunday was spent at Cheapside. On Monday the voyage was continued. Greenfield was passed, and Northfield and Brattleborough, with demonstrations at each place. At length Bellows Falls was reached amid more cannon- firing and peal of bells. It was recorded with pride that from Northampton up to this point the advance, against a strong northwest wind, had been at the rate of five miles an hour, except when passing the rapids! After exhibit- ing her powers in the eddy at the foot of the rapids, to the
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admiration of the assembled people on either shore, sh ran gaily into the lower lock of the canal. Here a com mittee of the villagers formally received her company wit) warm speech of welcome, to which as fervid response wa made. Then company and hosts marched up to the Mar sion House, a fine country inn, and there, joined by othe choice men of the village and neighboring towns, “sa down to an elegant dinner." Toasts followed the repast the announcement of each accompanied by the roar c cannon. The crowning toast was to " The town of Barnet May she speedily be gratified by the sight of her first born."
But this felicity never was hers. For the triumpha voyage ended at Bellows Falls, the little craft being to wide to pass through the locks here. The return trip wa made in a leisurely way, and back at Hartford the con pletion of the cruise was celebrated with a grand suppe at John Morgan's Coffee House and more toasts an speeches. Then the " Barnet " was laid up for the winte:, And so ended her brief active life. She sailed no more and at length was broken to pieces.
The " Blanchard " and the " Vermont " were the " Ba: net's " successors. These were stauncher craft, and hig hopes were entertained of their performances. Both wer built on the River, - at Springfield ; and their builde: Thomas Blanchard, was an ingenious Springfield me chanic, then employed in the United States arsenal. Th " Blanchard " was launched in the summer of 1828; th " Vermont " in May the following year. The " Blanchard was a side-wheeler, and could carry sixty or more passer gers. Although she could run the Enfield rapids unde favorable conditions, she was practically little better tha the " Barnet " to overcome them. She did not venture fa
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East Haddam, Upper Landing.
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up river. The "Vermont " was constructed on a different plan. She was seventy-five feet long, fifteen wide, and drew only one foot of water; while her wheel was astern far enough to work in the dead water. After displaying her powers in several trips between Springfield and Hart- ford, she set out with a hundred passengers for the up-river goal.
The voyage occupied the season between August and October. Like the "Barnet " her progress was marked by enthusiastic demonstrations on shore, the discharge of cannon, the ringing of bells, with joyous receptions at the various stopping-places. She passed the limit of the "Barnet's " voyage easily in October, going comfortably through the Bellows Falls locks. Thence she steamed up to Windsor, and later on to the locks of Water-Queeche. But farther she could not go. The same insurmountable obstacles here confronted her that the "Barnet." had met below. These locks were too narrow for her. So this second attempt failed of full success. The " Vermont " returned to Windsor, and in November made the voyage down stream, arriving below in season to participate in the cele- bration of the completed Enfield canal. For a brief season she was run between Bellows Falls and Windsor. Subse- quently she was put into regular service on a Springfield and Hartford line, in company with the "Blanchard." Then arose a lively competition between these steamboats and the stage lines running on each side of the River.
Another little Springfield-built steamer, constructed for the purpose, made the third attempt to reach Barnet from Hartford. This was the "Ledyard," named for John Ledyard, the famous Connecticut-born traveller, who in 1770, when a student at Dartmouth, astonished the Valley with his voyage from Hanover to Hartford in a canoe
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which he had fashioned from a great tree. The "Led- yard " venture was made in the summer following that of the " Vermont." Under the skilful handling of her cap- tain, Samuel Nutt, a successful boat-builder of White River Junction, she advanced as far as Wells River village. Thus she was the next to cover the course of Captain Morey's pioneer steamer between Orford and Fairlee forty years before. This victorious passage beyond the bounds of her predecessors inspired a song of triumph from a local poet, culminating in these choice lines :
" 'Tis gone, 'tis gone, the day is past And night's dark shade is o'er us cast; And further, further, further still The steamboat 's winding through the vale, The cannon roar o'er hill, through dale. Hail to the day when Captain Nutt Sailed up the fair Connecticut !"
But here, within ten miles of the goal, the " Ledyard " came to grief. She stranded on a bar just above the mouth of the Ammonoosuc. A long rope was hitched to her, and a line of lusty river-men and others, wading in the stream, tugged hard to haul her over. But to no pur- pose. So this adventure ended. The "Ledyard " returned to Springfield and became employed in the less ambitious service of tugging freight boats in the Massachusetts Reach.
The scheme of relays of steamboats to cover the dis- tance from Hartford to Wells River in sections between the canals, as advised by the Windsor convention of 1830, now matured. " The Connecticut River Valley Steam Boat Company " put on a fleet of light-draft boats, each built in the section which it was to cover. Three were assigned to the sections below Turner's Falls. The " Wil-
Deep River Landing.
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liam Holmes " was built at Bellows Falls for the run between Turner's Falls and that point ; the "David Porter," at Hartland, Vermont, to ply between Bellows Falls and the Sumner's Falls locks ; and the " Adam Duncan " at White River Junction, to cover the upper section. They were simple affairs, costing to build and equip less than five thousand dollars each. The scheme proved disastrous after a single season of operation. The first year closed with a balance against the company, and assessment on the shares. The following year the company failed. The " William Holmes " was operated for a year or two longer between Bellows Falls and Charlestown, with occasional excursions farther north, but without profit. At length she was stripped of her machinery and her hull cast on the River's bank. There it lay rotting for a number of years, and finally disappeared, carried away by a freshet. The " Adam Duncan" met her fate on her second trip. This was a Fourth-of-July excursion to Hanover. During the passage the connecting pipe between the boilers burst, causing the steam and water to escape. One of the pas- sengers jumped overboard and was drowned. The boat was hauled ashore, stripped of her machinery, and abandoned.
With the melancholy failure of this enterprise, up-river steamboating came to an end. Thereafter the service, except for freight boats, was confined to the Massachusetts Reach, till it was superseded by the railway: then to below the head of tide-water. The line between Spring- field and Hartford and intermediary points flourished till the opening of the railroad between these two cities in 1844, when its career ended. During its period of greatest activity several steamers were added to its " fleet," in pat- tern superior to the original "Blanchard " and " Vermont." There were the " Massachusetts," with her deck-cabin and
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double engine, the most complete steamboat that had yet been seen on the River above Hartford; and the "James Dwight," the " Agawam," the " Phoenix," the "Franklin," all in high favor for one excellence or another.
But crude and primitive they yet were, and so they appeared to the travelled eye. It was the " Massachusetts" that Dickens, making the passage in February, 1842, drolly describes in those American Notes which vibrated so harshly on the then sensitive national nerves :
"I omitted to ask the question, but I should think it must have been of about half a pony power. Mr. Paap, the celebrated Dwarf, might have lived and died happily in the cabin, which was fitted with common sash-windows like an ordinary dwelling-house. These windows had bright-red curtains, too, hung on a slack string across the lower panes ; so that it looked like the parlour of a Lilliputian public-house, which had got afloat in a flood or some other water accident, and was drifting nobody knew where. But even in this chamber there was a rocking-chair. It would be impossible to get on anywhere in America without a rocking-chair. I am afraid to tell how many feet short this vessel was, or how many feet narrow; to apply the words length and width to such measurements would be a contradiction in terms. But I may say that we all kept the middle of the deck lest the boat should unexpectedly tip over ; and that the machinery by some surprising process of condensation, worked between it and the keel : the whole forming a warm sandwich, about three feet thick."
Slight as was their draught, these little steamers often encountered difficulties in their runs. It was not uncom- mon to resort to extraneous aid in shoal places. "I have often seen Captain Peck, of the 'Agawam,'" says one narrator of reminiscences, " when the water was exceed- ingly low, step over into the River at Scantic bar, and with a lever lift up the boat and carry her over the sand into deeper water beyond."
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Modern Steamboating on the River-" The Hartford Line."
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When the Springfield and Hartford service was aban- doned this "fleet" had become reduced to four steamers. One of them was sold and taken to Philadelphia, the others went to Maine and were put on the Kennebec. The " Blanchard " had become a freight towing boat some time before. The "Massachusetts " had been burned in 1843 at her wharf in Hartford. The freight towing business continued to thrive for some years longer, with regular daily service between Hartford and Springfield, Northampton, South Hadley, and Greenfield; and up- river, as freight offered, to Brattleborough and Windsor, Vermont.
Below, from Hartford, steam propellers remained longer in service. These craft first appeared on the River in 1844. They superseded the earlier packets fitted for both passengers and freight, which sailed between the same ports, notably New York and Boston. The packets were generally fine vessels. Those of the Hartford and Boston line, established after the close of the War of 1812, con- sisting of topsail schooners, with cabins handsomely fin- ished, are described as especially fine. Gradually the propellers were superseded or transformed into tugs for towing freight-barges, sometimes in strings.
The head of all navigation is now Holyoke, the work of United States engineers in improving the channel making it possible for boats drawing four or five feet to pass above Springfield. But the steamboat service ends at Hartford, and is confined to the " Hartford Line," evolved from the pioneer establishment of 1824, plying down-river to the Sound and New York.
III 1 TOPOGRAPHY OF RIVER AND VALLEY
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"The Beautiful River"
Winding down its Luxurious Valley 360 Miles to the Sea - Almost a Continuous Succession of Delightful Scenery - The River's Highland Fountains- The four Upper Connecticut Lakes -Topography of the Valley - The bound- ing Summits -The River's Tributaries - Historic Streams entering from Each Side -The Terrace System - Charming Intervals with deep-spreading Meadows -The Panorama in Detail from the Headwaters to Long Island Sound - Fossil Footprints of the Lower Valley.
T THIS stream may perhaps with more propriety than any other in the world be named the Beautiful River. From Stuart to the Sound it uniformly maintains this character. The purity, salubrity, and sweetness of its waters ; the frequency and elegance of its meanders ; its absolute freedom from all aquatic vegetables ; the un- common and universal beauty of its banks, here a smooth and winding beach, there covered with rich verdure, now fringed with bushes, now covered with lofty trees, and now formed by the intruding hill, the rude bluff, and the shaggy mountain, - are objects which no traveller can thoroughly describe, and no reader can adequately imag- ine." "Beauty of landscape is an eminent characteristic " of the great Valley through which the River flows. "I am persuaded that no other tract within the United States of the same extent can be compared to it with respect to those objects which arrest the eye of the painter and the poet. There are indeed dull, uninteresting spots in consid- erable numbers. These, however, are little more than the discords which are generally regarded as necessary to per- fect the harmony. The beauty and grandeur are here more
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varied than elsewhere. They return oftener; they are longer continued."
So wrote Timothy Dwight in his Travels in New England," of the Connecticut River, the greatest of New England streams, a century ago. His picture with mod- ern touches delineates "The Beautiful River " to-day.
Springing from a mountain pool and highland rivulets on the ridge of the great Appalachian chain which sepa- rates the waters of New England and Canada, the Connec- ticut winds and curves and bows its gracious way, with here a dashing fall and there a sweep of rapids, down its long, luxurious Valley, through four states, three hundred and sixty miles to the sea. River and Valley in their great sweep from the headwaters to Long Island Sound, though changed in aspect through the building up of towns and cities along the way, and the intrusion of other practical but not always æsthetic works of man, constitute " almost a continuous succession of delightful scenery" now as in President Dwight's time. The predominating beauty of the River is sweet and winsome, rather than proud and majestic. It has its grand moods, but these are brilliant flashes which serve to enhance the exquisiteness of its gentler mien. The Valley's charm is found in the fre- quency and magnitude of the fertile meadows or intervals, - intervales of common speech, - off-spreading from the River's sides ; the procession of splendid terraces rising be- tween intervening glens; and the continuous mountain frame, comprised in the irregular outline of trap and sand- stone ranges on either side, interrupted only by the entrance of tributary streams.
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