USA > Indiana > Morgan County > The pioneers of Morgan County : memoirs of Noah J. Major > Part 13
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True it was, in 1824, a little stern-wheel steamboat, firing with fence rails and driftwood, penetrated the wilderness by the meandering of the river as far as Indianapolis, but she had to "crawfish" back as far as main White river before she could "about face." This settled the question of steamboat navigation, and left it all one way with the "flats," and that was down stream. Thus we could export by the "flats," but we had to import by wagons over the dirt roads from the Ohio river. From 1840 to 1853 was the golden era of flatboats. During that period Morgan county stood third in the State for the production of corn and hogs. Farming was then pre-eminently the business of this county. No succeeding epoch ever proved more satis- factory to our enterprising farmers than this one.
The hog cholera, afterward so destructive to this branch of our industries, had not yet made its appearance. The hog, like King George's colonies, "grew by neglect." Never was there a time when there was so small a loss by death among hogs. The price fluctuated somewhat and at times was extremely low, owing principally to money panics and not to over-production. The annual market for fat hogs was between the 25th of November and the last half of
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January. There were no summer packing houses then, and consequently no summer market. But there were always buyers for stock hogs throughout the year. Farmers with plenty of corn stocked up by breeding and buying all the year round, and hence it was no uncommon thing to find a large farmer on the river bottom fattening from two hundred to four hundred hogs. Smaller farmers and rent- ers would feed anywhere from one to one hundred.
The time for fattening began about the first of Septem- ber, by fencing off and turning on the corn in the field, at the rate of one hundred hogs to every five acres. Some men with large numbers of hogs fed them on the fields all the way through, while others finished up by gathering the corn and feeding near the "water-gap," enclosing the hogs in a small lot. Small porkhouses were located in various places, but the best equipped establishments were at Mar- tinsville. Some winters as many as three or four thousand hogs were packed, the packers having made preparations in summer and fall months.
Large quantities of salt had to be wagoned from Madison. The cooperware was made in the cooper-shops near by. Lard and pork barrels cost about one dollar each, and lard kegs, fifty cents. They were made by hand from start to finish and were two-thirds bound in hickory and oak hoops. The cooper worked all summer at "blocking" the barrels, and last of all, hooping them in time for use. They were air-tight.
Flatboating-that is, running the boats on the waters- became a trade, or, more properly speaking, a profession. Although based on scientific principles, it was largely a matter of practice. Nowhere did the adage that "practice makes perfect" apply better than to a steersman, who, time and again, ran around the bars and bends and through the cut-offs of the several rivers leading from Waverly to the
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Crescent City. A man might have studied flatboat naviga- tion and "river navigators" until his hair turned gray, he might have been able to name and describe every island, cut-off, and shoot laid down in the books for pilots, and yet, without boat practice, he would have been as helpless as a sea captain without rudder or compass. There were steersmen in those days who made so many trips that they knew the way to the gulf as well as the average man knows the way to Indianapolis. Nothing but dense fog bewildered them and in that case one man knew as much about naviga- tion as another, for often when the fog cleared they found the boat going stern foremost. A fog was a real element of danger, not only that boats were liable to drift ashore against falling-in banks, or run ashore on sand bars, but they were in danger of colliding with steamboats, which would send them to the bottom suddenly and unexpectedly. The ordinary headlight, used to warn steamers, availed little or nothing in a thick fog. A good tide was one receding after overflowing the banks. A boat ran much better on a falling than a rising current. When the waters were high and running swiftly into the bayous she wanted to "smell the banks" too much. Boats starting in February were some- times frozen up before reaching the large rivers, and the crews would have to wait for a thaw-out. This condition of things was very annoying to the crew who had expected to return home early enough to engage in the spring work.
The magnitude of flatboating will be better understood by the following estimates which, I think, are within the bounds of reason. Counting an average of fifteen boats per annum from 1829 to 1853, we have a total of 345 for the twenty-three years.
There were not less than 4,500,000 feet of lumber used in constructing these boats, three-fourths of which were of the finest poplar trees that grew near White river. This
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lumber was worth at least $10 per thousand feet, or $45,000 ; 345 boats at a cost of $240 per boat, $82,800. The cargoes, estimated at $4,000 each, $1,380,000.
It required at least sixty men per annum to run these boats to New Orleans, at a cost of $2,700 per year, total $62,000. The total amount of freight shipped was not less than 27,000 tons. If we take the cost of the boats and of the hands from the gross receipts, we will have left $1,325,- 000, to which may be added the sales of the boats at the city at an average of $40 per boat, $13,000, making in round numbers, a grand total of $1,248,000 brought into the county during this time through this system of transporta- tion. This was, perhaps, a greater sum of money than came in from all other sources. A large per cent. of the returns was brought back in gold and silver. New Orleans bank paper, while perfectly good at home, was not current so far north as Indiana in that early day. Some men pur- chased drafts on Louisville or Cincinnati, while others went to the exchange office and bought gold and silver at the rate of three-eighths of one per cent. Large quantities of Mexican dollars found their way to our county through this channel of trade.
A novel way of bringing back hard money was by secret- ing it in the bottom of old lumber barrels, filling in on top of it with the trumpery which belonged to the flatboat, such as pots, pans, and tools, cables and checkropes. Each deck passenger on a steamer was allowed one barrel as baggage. Most returning boatmen came on deck, the fare being from $2 to $2.50 without meals, while the charges for cabin pas- sengers were from $15 to $20. The accommodations in the cabins of first-class steamboats were equal to the best hotels; but a "bow hand" who received only $35 for the round trip could not afford to pay cabin passage, hence he came on "boiler deck." He cooked his own meals, or
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bought them as he saw fit. The steamer furnished a few old cooking stoves for the use of deck passengers, who employed these by turns in making coffee and frying meat. this being about all the use made of them.
Passage on deck of a New Orleans steamer fifty-four years ago showed the dark side of humanity in the most brilliant light we ever saw it. The trained gambler, the sneak thief and robber, the moderate drinker and the drunk- ard, the lecher and the "scarlet" woman, the "soiled dove" and the blackguard, were coming on board and getting off at every town and city where the boat landed. Gambling never ceased day nor night ; and the roar of profanity was almost as regular as the rattle of the machinery. The towns and cities literally swarmed with saloons and dancehouses. Natchez "under the hill," exceeded them all, until a tor- nado blew the houses into fragments. It was at this place, an old boatman told me, a dead man was dragged out of a dance house one night and laid on the sidewalk, while the revelry went on at white heat as though nothing unusual had occurred. In truth, it was no strange thing to see dead men. Many, of course, died from natural causes while others were cut to pieces with bowie knives.
The spring and early summer of 1833 was a fearful time to visit the South, and particularly so for our boatmen. The cholera had reached New Orleans in the summer of 1832 and, though held in check for a time by the mild frost of a southern winter, broke out in the spring of 1833 with seemingly renewed energy. Men died like flies. Steam- boats landed on the shores of the "Father of Waters" every three or four hours to bury the dead, whose shroud was the everyday clothing and whose coffin was a pine box. Quick and shallow they dug the graves and short was the funeral service. They who buried the dead to-day were, themselves, buried to-morrow. It was a time to try men's
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nerves. Doubtless many invited the "angel of death" through fear alone. Our boatmen went through this fiery ordeal with comparatively small loss. Silas Drury, whose father's fam- ily lived near what is now known as Centerton, was stricken with cholera near Bloomington on his return home. The symptoms were present when he got off the steamer at Leavenworth. The whole town was in a panic. A runner was sent to tell his parents, who arrived at Drury's late in the evening. The mother insisted on going, although the journey had to be made on horseback. Her riding horse was hurriedly saddled and, in company with one or two of the family, she started a little before sundown and rode the twenty-eight miles in the night and in about five hours. She found her son at the very gate of death, but her coming seemed to be the turning point for him. She stayed by his bedside until all danger was passed and then returned home rejoicing although very much fatigued by the excitement and constant watching, as well as the hard riding. In due time young Drury came home. No spread of the disease followed this case, and the citizens of Bloom- ington were greatly rejoiced at their escape from the im- pending danger.
The following is a list of the names of those engaged in boating, either as owners and shippers, or as builders, steers- men, and bow hands. As we write entirely from memory we may have forgotten some names, and others there may have been from near Waverly and Gosport with whom we were not acquainted. The names are given in the order of the dates, if we had them, and somewhat in proportion to the business done. First, was Jacob Cutler, who sent two or three boats and then moved away. Dr. John Sims, of Martinsville, who from 1830 to 1843, the time of his death, was extensively engaged in farming and merchan- dising, sent many boats, sometimes going himself and at
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other times sending a supercargo, or, as we would now say, a superintendent. William H. Craig, also a merchant, was for many years engaged in this business, sometimes alone and again as senior partner of the firms of Craig & Major, Craig & Hunt, and Craig & Sparks. James Cunningham, father of the late N. T. Cunningham, was engaged in ship- ping for a time. Jonathan Williams sent one boat about the year 1845; also a Mr. Greer, who died at Vicksburg. But the most extensive and successful owners and shippers from this county were the firms of J. M. & S. M. Mitchell and Parks & Hite. It has been estimated that these two firms sent as many as thirty-two boats to New Orleans be- tween the years 1843 and 1853. At first their porkhouses were built in Martinsville, and when the tide and time came for loading the boats the product had to be hauled about a mile to the river, sometimes through mud half hub deep. To obviate this cost and delay, each of the firms built a porkhouse on the bank of the river, where they continued the business until the railroads were built and summer pack- ing introduced, after which it was no longer profitable to ship on flatboats.
Samuel Moore, the founder and first merchant of Moores- ville, was at one time extensively engaged in pork packing and flatboating. His boats were usually built at Waverly. Mr. Free, the Waverly miller, and John W. Cox, of the mills at High Rock, sent loads of flour and lumber to the Sunny South. Many more men were, probably, thus en- gaged in an early day, but their names have been forgotten. Following are the names of the pioneers who ran the first broadhorns from here to the "Gulf City": John Scott, George W. Olds, Samuel Scott, David B. Scott, Calvin Matthews, Alfred Matthews, James Matthews, George ("Doc") Matthews, Simeon Ely, John Rudicell, Paul Cox, Mile Drury, and Alfred Lyons. Most of the above named
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were steersmen. John Scott was regarded as the most skillful steersman, and Andrew Wampler among the best on the big rivers. The following went as bow hands, some- times as steersmen: Silas Drury, B. F. Stipp, Jonathan Lyons, John Cox, David Ely, Philip Gooch, William Gooch, John Gooch, Jesse Gooch, Dabney Gooch, Moses T. Lang, Tobias Peak, Kester Jones, William Jones, Gabe Paul, James Kitchen, Andrew Stafford, William Wall, Samuel Ray, and Thomas Ray. Most of the above named belonged to Clay township, many of them living in what is now known as the Centerton neighborhood. This was a great locality for boatmen. Jackson Record, at a later date, made many trips from this place, both as a boy and steersman.
Jacob Lee, the Cutlers, James Clark, Frank Dobson, Wil- liam Fair, Dow Cunningham, Garret Cunningham, Moses Taylor, Lewis Coffey, Richard Nutter, J. Mason Worth- ington, and Gideon Lewis were the old-time boatmen in the vicinity of Martinsville, and most of them became steersmen. Later on the following names were added to the "marine" service: John Nutter, Clem Nutter, Thomas Nutter, Henry Sims, Samuel Graham, John Moffit, Thomp- son Hendricks, William Cox (our late marshal), James Cox, Relsey Wilson, John Eakin, Robert B. Major, John Bowser, William B. Taylor, Joseph Taylor, Andrew J. Wampler, Franklin Teague, Solomon Teague, Charles Parker, Ephraim Haase, James Coffey, Joseph Fry, Green Nutter, Robert Lanphere, William Tackett, Robert Berge, Joseph Elder, George W. Warner, Colonel Jeff K. Scott, and John Vincent. We think Allen Watkins and, also, the Crawford brothers, made a trip or two. We remember but a few who came from Waverly other than Jacob Pey- ton and Richard Lee. The latter was crushed to death while hewing a set of "gunnels" (gunwales) in 1854.
William and Robert Worthington, brothers-in-law of
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Samuel Moore, made several trips. John Housan, of Mooresville, died on the return trip in 1844; so also did Lewis Coffey and John Martin. Later on Joseph Fry and Robert Lanphere died ; one before reaching home, the other soon after.
Almost all of the above mentioned were men of large families, for in those halcyon days maids and bachelors were in the minority. On the eve of the departure of a boat the wives and children of the crew assembled on the bank for the farewell word; and when the good-bye kiss was given, the tears started in the eye of many a husband and father only to be suppressed by a strong will power.
Not so with the wives and children, who often gave full vent to their emotions and cried piteously as the cable was being cut and the bow of the boat was turned for the Crescent City, while their ears were greeted by the sound of the bugle horn as it reverberated over forest and field, playing the sad, sweet notes of "Old Quebec." And still they stood, listening to the rattling feet, the creaking oars and the shouts of the steersmen to "ease on the left, double on the right," until all was out of sight and hearing but not out of mind. Slowly they turned their faces toward their cabin homes, and again took up the day's work that ever returns to the good wife and mother and to which would now be added the husband's share until his return, which would be in about six weeks-Providence willing-when again there would be the joyous greetings and love and happiness unfeigned would reign in the log cabin homes, now past and gone forever.
Perhaps we have dwelt longer on boats and boatmen than is consistent with these sketches, but it seemed desirable in some way to perpetuate the names of these industrious, brave, and self-sacrificing men, who, sixty years ago, readily laid hold of the best means for transportation of the staple
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productions of this county and literally began the work of making "the wilderness blossom as the rose."
But "Othello's occupation is gone." Steam and elec- tricity have been tamed and most successfully harnessed to the chariot wheels of transportation, and the ox-cart and sled, lizard and flatboat have gone with the sickle and flail -all hidden away in the dim recollections of the past, while new men and new women, with new inventions, new ideas of life, new wants, a new literature, new politics, and some- times a new religion or no religion at all, have come upon life's stage to play and be played until they too, fill their page in the world's history and pass away.
ยง22. THE OLD CANAL.
Each succeeding generation of men, barring war, pesti- lence, and famine, has about the same amount of the ups and downs of life, for "there's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip."
Sixty years ago the people of Morgan county were greatly elated over the seemingly certain construction of a canal along the valley of White river, on the east side, which would be a thorough outlet for the surplus products of the country, both north and south. Their expectations went up like a Roman candle and came down like an avalanche. So certain were some men of the ultimate success of all kinds of business upon the completion of the canal, that as soon as the survey was made they were ready to buy everything in sight, particularly real estate. They bought largely on credit, made good by what they were thought to be worth. They ultimately found to their sorrow that a man can load himself with more debts in one year than he can unload in thirty years.
The internal improvement system which was then being
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developed in some of the Eastern States, particularly New York, began to buzz in the minds of our Indiana statesmen ; and it is probably known by this time (if we read the papers) that about all the knowledge of political economy worth having belongs to these classes [statesmen] and their greatest desire is to serve (?) the common herd of man- kind with the cream of their latest discoveries. In those days there were annual sessions of the Legislature, and we elected our representatives once a year. The stumps swarmed with orators, especially along the proposed lines of improvement. The more famous orators-and there were scores of them-honored many stumps in the early summer of 1835, dispensing knowledge to the farmers and workaday people, telling them of the prodigious quantities of butter and cream, poultry and eggs, that would be con- sumed by the men employed on these public improvements, and that money would creep into their pockets like flies into a sugar bowl. Some of the more sanguine said: "It is only necessary for the farmers' wives to raise an additional hen and chickens in order to pay the interest on the bonds, until the railroads and canals are completed and in opera- tion, when the rents and profits will more than meet the demands." Ever and anon there was an old "hayseed" who mixed a deal of common sense with delightful non- sense and who shook his head as he said: "No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you." But the more wise and hopeful ones looked at him with a strange commingling of pity and disgust. It seemed so strange that any one could be found to oppose "the development of our resources." These wonderful words are always used to padlock the mouths of the opposition. So "hay- seed" shut up like an oyster shell and abided his time, which came in 1839. The members of the Legislature of 1835 felt warranted, by the trend of public opinion, to proceed
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and lay out the proposed improvements, which they did in a way that was generally acceptable to the different sections of the State.
They proposed three railroads and three canals as fol- lows: A railroad from Richmond to Terre Haute via Indianapolis, one from Madison to Indianapolis, and one from New Albany to Michigan City; a canal from Con- nersville down the White river to connect with the Miami Canal; the Wabash and Evansville Canal, and the Indiana Central Canal .* The whole length of the thoroughfares was something near 750 miles. If the State could have completed the work according to the original plan it would have been a grand success. As it turned out, it was a mis- erable failure. We say miserable because it added greatly to the panic through which the people were driven in 1840, and besides saddled a debt of ten million dollars upon the State which virtually made her a repudiator for thirty years.
The cause of this financial disaster is easily shown from the fact that the State had no money of her own, but had plenty of undeveloped resources which would induce cap- italists to loan their money; but when they saw about ten millions of their funds expended and not a single railroad or canal finished or earning a dollar, and also saw the storm cloud of a panic hovering nearby, they began to "hedge" and would not buy another bond. So all was lost excepting what the State got back after a time by dickering with private corporations, who took up the work where the State left off. Two of the roads, the Terre Haute and Richmond, and the Madison and Indianapolis, were finished in a short time, and for several years were the best paying railroads ever in the State. The canals were never fully completed and about everything invested in them was lost.
*The writer is not accurate here. See the law itself, in Laws of Indiana, 1835, ch. 2; Internal Improvements in Early Indiana, in Ind. Hist. Soc. Pub., Vol. V, No. 1.
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The history of this gigantic movement, based as it was altogether on paper, though quite an interesting study for borrowers and lenders of money, has nothing much to do with this sketch, further than to show our connection with the Indiana Central Canal, the southern division of which began at Indianapolis and was to have extended down White river to Newberry, in Green county, where it would have been connected with the Wabash and Evansville Canal.
Early in the spring of 1837 an engineering party started from Indianapolis to locate this division of the State's great enterprise. This work was intrusted to a couple of young men from York State by the names of Bonham and Wheeler. They were college graduates and fully equipped for work, having served under experienced engineers in the East, where the canal system was at its best. They had the requisite number of men, such as flagmen, bushwhackers, stake drivers, chain carriers, a tent keeper and cook, and a master of the commissary department. In short, they had whatever they wanted and paid good prices for pro- visions. They ate much more cream and butter, eggs and fried chicken than did the Irishmen who followed them with pick and shovel. They also attended the frolics and play parties along the line, greatly to the disgust of the "rural roosters" whose sweethearts' heads, if not their hearts, were turned topsy-turvy at the sight of their well- fitting store clothes, rings, and watch chains.
But the young men were rather prudent and never held out any inducements beyond the evening's entertainments. Other amusements there were, such as fishing and hunting, for there was yet quite a supply of wild game of the larger variety, which to the average young man was very enticing. The crack of the rifle and the rap of the paddle against the sides of the canoe were often heard in those days, on Sunday, for if there was a law against Sabbath desecration
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there were no police to enforce it. As yet "the sound of the church-going bell these valleys and rocks never heard," but there were men who did "smile when the Sabbath ap- peared," and spent it in chasing deer and spearing fish.
The surveying party dragged its slow length along the valley, through weeds and woods plentifully interspersed with copperhead and rattlesnakes, nettles and mosquitoes. Whether or not the whole line was finished [surveyed] we do not know. We never saw anything more of the engi- neers after they passed beyond Martinsville.
Meanwhile times began to be lively at Port Royal, or The Bluffs, as it was sometimes called, which was the ban- ner town of the county. It contained a tavern, blacksmith, wagon, shoemaker, and hatter shops, also a store and "dog- gery" [saloon]. There were about 150 inhabitants, some of whom wore "store clothes" and talked politics. The lawyers, legislators, and judges stopped off to stay all night or take a drink while going to and fro on business at the State capital. But after work began on the canal and feeder dam, and Waverly was lined up, everything leaned toward that center of gravity and left the Port to starve and dry up and go the way of Babylon and Nineveh.
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