USA > Kentucky > History of Kentucky, Volume II > Part 55
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90
20 Annual Report of the City Departments of the City of Cincinnati for the Year Ending February 28, 1871, 85.
21 Cincinnati Commercial, Jan. 24, 1870.
22 While the Queen City was entertaining the convention, according to a news item, "Louisville was busily engaged manipulating the Kentucky Legislature" to the detriment of Cincinnati's interests. Cincinnati Commercial, Sept. 28, 1870; Sept. 30, 1870.
23 Ibid., Sept. 29, 1870.
942
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
at their disposal. Before the visitors were allowed to leave, they were significantly requested to register, giving name, address, and business.24
But good relations with the regions with which Cincinnati hoped to trade were not the most important considerations. The methods and facilities for reaching them always claimed first attention. During the early period of railroad building, the city had lent her aid to the con- struction of connecting links in her commerce north of the Ohio River.25 By 1852 she had connected herself with the principal cities of the Atlantic seaboard.26 Her railroad facilities toward the south were insignificant. As the Ohio River was still at that time the great artery to the South, she was not greatly concerned in southern railways. The Kentucky Cen- tral, running south from Covington to Lexington, having been completed in 1854, brought Central Kentucky directly south of Cincinnati under her commercial supremacy.27
After the Civil war, Cincinnati like the other commercial cities sought to secure and extend her trade by establishing railway connections. In the great consolidations and extensions of railways north of the Ohio River, Cincinnati played a smaller part than her position demanded. Boston, New York, and Philadelphia began to establish the great trunk lines into the West, with Cincinnati too far south to profit from them. Dayton, Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis, and other cities to the north and west, thus aided, began to encroach upon Cincinnati's actual and prospective trade in that region.28 Cincinnati's policy had not been as liberal to railways wishing to enter the city as many had wished, so now she was being left out as the railways ran around her.29
As was summed up by the Cincinnati Commercial, "She is flanked on the east, north and west by hostile interests, and her only hope and safety lie toward the South. She must stretch her iron arms in that direction and draw the trade of the South to her doors, or the decline of her prosperity is as certain as any event in the future." 30 The South alive to her own interests was by no means passive in her attitude toward obtaining railway connections with the North. There were few projects so wild as not to be displayed before some northern city for aid. A rail- road from Cincinnati directly to Norfolk engaged the attention of the Queen City at intervals. This road would give her an excellent through connection with the seaboard, eighty-three miles shorter than the Balti- more and Ohio Railroad. Norfolk sent representatives for help. Cin- cinnati appointed the usual investigating committee and in the words of one of the men of action in that city, "So dieth the proposition. Let us hope that the last resolution, commending a projected work, has been passed, and that no stranger will ever be so rash as to again attempt to enlist the attention of Cincinnatians in public enterprise." 31
24 Ibid., Sept. 30, Oct. I, 1870.
25 She had aided railroads in the following amounts: Little Miami, $100,000; Hillsboro, $100,000; Covington and Lexington (Kentucky Central), $100,000; Eaton, $150,000; Marietta, $150,000; and the Mississippi, $600,000. By an act of the Ohio legislature, March 20, 1850, she was allowed to lend her credit to railroads not exceeding $1,000,000. The Railroad Speech delivered at the Merchants' Exchange, by W. M. Corry, 11, 12. Cincinnati Commercial, Dec. 20, 1867.
26 Joseph Nimmo, Jr., First Annual Report on the Internal Commerce of the United States, 1876, 85.
27 \\'m. F. Switzler, Report on the Internal Commerce of the United States, 1886, 607; Congressional Globe and Appendix, Part 2, 1871, 42 Cong., 1 Sess., 8; Cincinnati Daily Gazette, Oct. 24, 1867.
"> Cincinnati Commercial, Oct. 24, 1867.
29 Jacob H. Hollander, "The Cincinnati Southern Railway," in Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science, 19; Cincinnati Commercial, Nov. 24, 1868. Cincinnati was often made the butt of jokes on account of her commercial lethargy. Chicago in holding a street pageant showing the extent of her commerce addressed a pine coffin to "Cincinnati-died 1869."
30 Cincinnati Commercial, Sept. 16, 1868.
31 Cincinnati Commercial, Oct. 18, 24, 1867; Dec. 10, 1868.
943
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
At this time Cincinnati's only practicable route to the South was through Louisville over the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. From Louisville southward she had all the facilities in theory enjoyed by the Falls City. But her route to Louisville was round-about and irregular. She was still using the Ohio River very extensively. She also had railway connections running north of the river ; but as long as there was no bridge across the river at Louisville, she enjoyed few advantages in this road. There was also a rail route south of the river by a circuitous route through Lexington and Frankfort. But the lack of a bridge at Cincin- nati took much of the practical value of this road away.32
One of the solutions to this difficulty was the construction of a road running south of the river directly to Louisville with a bridge across the river at Covington. The distance by the river was 132 miles; the dis- tance by a railroad as finally surveyed was 110 miles.33 Although Cincinnati was not building the road, she was urging it forward with everything except money. By means of this road she not only hoped to extend her trade in Kentucky, but also to secure better connections with the whole South.34 She believed it would make her the beginning of the southern rail-system and rob Louisville of her enviable position.35 But the latter with much complacency saw the work on the road go for- ward. As long as the railroad must pass through her limits, she con- sidered herself able to take care of her own interests as against Cincinnati. One of the main reasons why she evinced no hostility to the road was the fear that a road might be built to the southward which would run around her.36 She also hoped through this road to get better connec- tions with that part of the state lying south of Cincinnati. The Louisville Journal claimed that this movement would "divert to Louisville an im- mense trade that formerly went to Cincinnati by the river. In fine, the opening of this important railroad will enhance the commercial interests of our city more than will any of our numerous railroad connections, except the great head-center of them all, the Louisville and Nashville."37 The road was completed on April 18, 1869, and came to be familiarly known as the "Cincinnati Short Line." 38
The completion of this road was made an important occasion by both cities. The Louisville Courier-Journal tauntingly remarked, "It is idle for Cincinnati to hope to compete with us, and the best her business men can do is to take stock in Louisville prior to a final and fixed resi- dence in our midst." 39 The Cincinnati Semi-Weekly Gazette retorted by calling Louisville one of Cincinnati's "flourishing suburban cities." It continued : "Friday the South Side Railroad connecting Cincinnati with Louisville and reducing the time from a whole day to four hours com- menced business. This brings Louisville almost to our doors, and in proportions it shortens the time between this city and Nashville and the entire South. People can now leave Louisville in the morning,
32 The Louisville bridge was not completed until 1870, and the Newport bridge across to Cincinnati was not opened to traffic until 1872. Joseph Nimmo, Jr., First Annual Report on the Internal Commerce of the United States, 1876, 90, 91. 33 Ibid., 75.
34 Cincinnati Daily Gazette, April 6, 12, 1866.
35 Speaking of Louisville, the Cincinnati Commercial, Jan. 13, 1868, says, "All freight must break bulk, and all passengers take a fresh start." With the com- pletion of this road Cincinnati expected the trip from Nashville could be made from seven in the morning to nine in the evening without changing cars. 36 Affairs of Southern Railroads, 644.
37 Quoted in Cincinnati Commercial, Oct. 28, 1867.
38 American Annual Cyclopaedia, and Register of Important Events, 1869, 379; Collins, History of Kentucky, Vol. I, 196; Cincinnati Commercial, April 19, 1869. This road was absorbed by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad in 1881. 1851- Fiftieth Anniversary of the Services of James Geddes, 31, 32.
39 Quoted in Cincinnati Semi-Weekly Gazette, Nov. 5, 1869.
944
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
transact a day's business in this city, and returning, get back in time for supper. In addition to the large wholesale trade that this imrovement will bring to our city, a large proportion of the ladies of Louisville will do their shopping here." 40
As a fitting celebration of the occasion the Louisville City Council travelled over the new line to Cincinnati. A banquet and reception were given them by the Queen City, at which the generous rivalry of the two cities stood out in every conversation.41 The city spent $1,600 in enter- taining them.42 On their return trip the Louisville visitors were ban- queted by Covington.43 And now for a time the social activities of the cities became of chief importance. The Covington and Newport city councils immediately returned the Louisville visit. They took occasion to tell the Louisville Council that they had no spirit of rivalry against "the chief metropolis of Kentucky." 44 Cincinnati soon began prepara- tions for visiting Louisville. The United States Mail Company invited While the city council to make the trip on one of their finest steamers.
the council was discussing the advisability and propriety of celebrating the opening of a railroad by taking the trip on a river steamer, a council- man suddenly discovered that Louisville had not invited them. They solved the dilemma by indefinitely postponing the trip.45 A few weeks later, upon the receipt of Louisville's invitation, the Cincinnati council- men made the trip, going over the "Short Line." Louisville received her visitors with her accustomed hospitality. Mayor Bruce, being at that time too sick to receive the councilmen, sent his greetings, closing with the reminder that he was "satisfied that you will ever find in us hon- orable rivals in trade, and that you have seen enough to assure you that Louisville is a city within itself, and suburban to no other." 46
But Cincinnati's rejoicing ended when the "Short Line" attempted to lay its track into the limits of Louisville. The managers of the road had expected to enter that city and connect directly with the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, and thus afford a continuous all-rail route from Covington, opposite Cincinnati, to New Orleans.47 But Louisville was not ready yet to grant so great an advantage to Cincinnati's commerce with the South. And furthermore a considerable amount of business in the city consisted in transferring freight. An observer waxed absurd in describing the situation: "They are the great American bulk-breakers here. They revel in fracturing bulk; they smash it to atoms, and grind it to piece-meal." 48 For a year and more the question of letting the road enter the city was discussed. It was pretty definitely known to the "Short Line" company that they would be permitted to enter, provided they changed the gauge to 4 feet 81/2 inches. This would prevent the transfer of cars from one road to the other, as the Louisville and Nash-
40 Issue of June 29, 1869.
41 Cincinnati Commercial, June 30, 1869. Mayor Torrence responded to a toast to the City of Louisville by extolling Cincinnati without even mentioning the recipi- ent of the toast. He closed by asking the Louisville councilmen to look Cincinnati over and learn how to build a city.
42 Annual Report of the City Departments of the City of Cincinnati for the Year Ending February 28, 1870, 76. During this year Cincinnati also entertained the Philadelphia council spending $681.95; the Columbus Council, $161.70; and the Toledo Council, $81.50.
43 Among the toasts offered was this one: "Louisville, the eldest daughter of Kentucky, may she continue to enhance her beauty and loveliness until she becomes like her women-second to none in the Union." Cincinnati Com- mercial, July 2, 1869.
44 Ibid., July 2, 1869.
45 Ibid., July 7.
46 Cincinnati Semi-Weekly Gazette, July 30, 1869; Cincinnati Commercial, July 28, 1869.
47 Cincinnati Commercial, July 15, 1869.
48 Ibid., March 16, 1871.
945
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
ville gauge was five feet at this time.49 While the subject of the gauge was being agitated there also came up for discussion the right-of-way to be granted through the city. The route finally allowed by the city was not acceptable, and so the matter remained for many months un- settled.50
The whole situation was very distasteful to the "Short Line" com- pany. The prosperity and success of their road was being largely inter- fered with by the hostility of Louisville. In 1870 there came up in the Kentucky Legislature a bill to charter the Louisville Steam Transfer Company, which with a five-foot gauge would connect the two railroads. But Louisville saw the ruse and promptly had the bill killed.51 The Short Line then threatened to survey a road around the city and not enter at all, which greatly pleased Cincinnati. The Cincinnati Commercial with a feeling of revenge said that Louisville might defeat other projects of Cincinnati, "but she can't stop that cut-off between the Short Line and Nashville roads, which will leave the Falls City completely out of the way." 52 The City Council of Louisville finally started on the road to a settlement when it passed an ordinance in October, 1870, providing for a bond issue of $125,000 to pay three-fifths of the cost of entering the city with the changed gauge.53 Fearing still that some part of the con- tract might be interpreted to the commercial disadvantage of the city, the mayor in his annual message of January, 1871, sounds the warning that "the railroad connection through our city that has been granted, as it approaches consummation, will require us to observe that no deviation from the intentions of the grant be permitted to militate against the city's interests." 54
Louisville also held the destiny of Cincinnati's trade in other ways. As before stated, Cincinnati's only road to the South lay through Louis- ville, whether by rail or by water. An irate Cincinnatian expressed the salient elements of the make-up of Louisville thus: "It is situated in Ken- tucky-not the State of Kentucky but the Commonwealth of Kentucky- and is composed of a railroad, a hotel, a bridge, a canal, and several news- papers." 55 It was the railroad, the bridge and the canal that Cincinnati was concerned with most. The Louisville and Portland Canal had been completed around the falls in the Ohio in the early '30s. Although built by a private company and largely paid for by private capital, the United States Government later gave aid and came into possession of almost all of the stock. In 1860 the Federal Government gave all of its stock to the directors on the condition that the Government be asked for no more aid.56 This canal in many ways left Cincinnati in a greatly inferior position as compared with Louisville. The canal could not accommo- date boats of a greater capacity than 800 or 900 tons. Louisville, able to use wharfs below the falls, could employ larger steamers in her down-
49 Ibid., May 23, July 10, 1869.
60 The "Short Line" rejected the route proposed by the city in the follow- ing resolution: "Resolved, That the route north of Main street, which has been suggested, could not be accepted, because of its excessive cost, because of the delay it would involve in the transfer of freight and passengers, and because of the unnecessary cost it would impose on such transfer." Cincin- nati Commercial, Oct. 6, 1869; Ibid., Aug. 20, 1869; Cincinnati Semi-Weekly Gazette, Nov. 30, 1869; Jan. 14, 1870.
51 Cincinnati Commercial, March 17, 1870.
52 Ibid., Feb. 22, 24, 1870.
53 Louisville Municipal Reports for the Fiscal Year Ending December 31st, 1870, 89, 90.
54 Cincinnati Commercial, March 10, 1871; Louisville Municipal Reports for the Fiscal Year Ending December 31st, 1870, 22.
55 Cincinnati Commercial, March 16, 1871. The hotel referred to was the famous Galt House, later destroyed by fire. The Louisville newspapers kept the rivalry at white heat.
56 Ibid., Nov. 22, 1870.
946
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
river traffic.57 There was also an excessive charge on tonnage passing through the canal. Up to 1874 the fee was 50 cents the ton.58 Cincinnati summed up her grievances against the canal as follows: "Canal too narrow for boats to pass, too shallow to get through often in less than two or three days; badly located, so as to endanger crafts trying to get into and out of it. Tolls so high that a Cincinnati and St. Louis boat paying the lawful 50 cents a ton passage would pay sixteen per cent on total cost of boat; and if six years old, toll equals cost !" 59 Further- more, Cincinnati believed that Louisville capitalists largely owned the canal, and purposely gave Cincinnati commerce as little consideration as possible.60 The Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce complained to Con- gress "That the present management of the Canal make unjust dis- crimination between all freighting between the upper and lower rivers." 61 It would have the United States Government enlarge the canal and thus permit Cincinnati to use larger steamers in her down-river traffic. At this time she owned steamers in the commerce below the falls too large to get through the canal and which were thus never able to reach their home port.62
Another grievance against Louisville was the erection of a railroad bridge across the Ohio River there. This appeared to Cincinnati to be the final act of Louisville in sealing the passage southward. When the river was swollen, the canal became useless, but the falls were made navigable. But with this bridge, the falls became at all times virtually impossible for the larger steamers, "and the canal flooded as it is by every considerable rise, Louisville will be the head of navigation on the Ohio and hopes, perhaps, by this reckless structure to attain a commer- cial supremacy which it has hitherto failed to secure by business tact, liberality or enterprise." The same writer admonishes Cincinnati and all up-river towns to "take action before their great pathway to the Mississippi is bisected by a wall of iron and stone;" and "to protest, and protest with emphasis, against this stealthy blockade of a noble and im- portant river." 63 Despite the resolution of the Louisville Board of
57 Ibid., April 22.
58 Joseph Nimmo, Jr., First Annual Report on the Internal Commerce of the United States, 1876, 80.
59 The Railroad Speech Delivered at the Merchants' Exchange M. Corry, 6.
*, by W.
60 W. M. Corry, of Cincinnati, imagines a case in which the canal is in need of repair, and Louisville is intrusted with the work. He sees the work almost com- pleted, and then by a chance stroke of the pick, the whole repair collapses, and the job remains to be done over again. "I see no excuse," he continues, "from that reshipments of freights, and the porterage to two miles and a half, which costs from a quarter to a dollar a load, according to draymen and circumstances. All that might become vexations; in fact, very much so, if Mr. Guthrie should in- exorably and simultaneously adhere to the established etiquette of the Louisville and Nashville railroad about precedence among shippers." The Railroad Speech Delivered at the Merchants' Exchange *
* *, by W. M. Corry, 7.
61 Memorial from the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce relative to Louisville and Portland Canal, H. R. Misc. Doc., No. 122, 40th Cong., 2 Sess.
62 Cincinnati Commercial, Nov. 16, 1870. Of Cincinnati's efforts at Washing- ton, the correspondent of the Chicago Tribune facetiously says, "We experienced a treat the other day in seeing a genuine delegation of staid Cincinnatians, who had come here, with long faces, to ask [the] Government to protect them from Louis- ville." He pictured them saying, "And now the question recurs with awful signifi- cance, how are we going to get past Louisville? There are no balloons that we know of. There is no money in Kentucky that we ever heard of. If we don't finish that canal in some way, we may as well return to wheelbarrows." Quoted in Cincinnati Commercial, May 7, 1870. When the United States Government finally understood the enlargement of the canal, Cincinnati found herself completely cut off from the South by river. She made arrangements for transferring her river freight to steamers below the falls, while the canal remained closed. Cincin- nati Semi-Weekly Gazette, July 7, 1871.
63 Cincinnati Commercial, Jan. 16, 1868.
947
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
Trade "that in their opinion the span of 400 feet over the channel on the Indiana side is sufficient for all purposes of navigation over the falls," some of the best river pilots lost their boats and lives against the bridge piers in trying to run the rapids.64 The Cincinnati Commercial saw the city in a complete dilemma: "Between the unfinished canal and the com- pleted bridge, and the break in the gauge of the railroad, with artful arrangement to prevent freight from this city having fair play, Louisville has us blockaded." 65
But Louisville still had other weapons which she used with equal effectiveness. The Louisville and Nashville Railroad, being the only route to the South, was, of course, taxed to its utmost in handling the freight offered. As a result the road was often forced to declare em- bargoes against the further receipt of freight. As stated by the Cin- cinnati Commercial, "Between this city and Nashville there is almost every fortnight a freight blockade, more frequent since the canal at Louisville has been closed for repairs. *
* * To say nothing of its habits and usages toward Cincinnati freight and shippers, it is a plain business fact that its capacity is not equal to the demands on it for freight." 66 "The Nashville road is crammed with freight" is a typical news item from Louisville.67 It was only natural from Louisville's standpoint that her own freight should receive first consideration. The inevitable result was that Cincinnati's freight was held up weeks at a time waiting for transportation southward, often great quantities remaining outside the city limits.68 In order to facilitate the transfer, Cincinnati kept agents in Louisville permanently.69 The Falls City retaliated by placing a tax of $20 a year upon all "commercial shipping agents" sta- tioned within her limits to handle or negotiate freight for consignor or consignee.70 But with all of her efforts in trying to get through Louis- ville, Cincinnati was never able to get her freight to the South within a reasonable time. A Chattanooga merchant was forced to wait one month and sixteen days for freight he had ordered from Cincinnati.71 A merchant in the same city ordered goods from Boston and Cincin- nati at the same time; he received the freight from the first place within ten days-for the latter consignment he waited sixty days. The Cincin- nati Commercial bitterly remarked: "This shows the facilities we have for Southern trade through the Louisville connections." 72 It was only
64 Ibid., July 9, Nov. 10, 1868. This bridge was largely owned by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. Annual Report of the President and Directors of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company commencing on the First of July, 1869, and ending on the 30th of June 1870, 9.
65 June 14, 1870. Of this hlockade, the mayor in his annual message of May, 1870, says, "Our neighbors at Louisville are pursuing a policy, which, if not check- mated, will result in almost totally obstructing navigation at this point." Annual Reports of the City Departments of the City of Cincinnati for the Year Ending February 28, 1870, 4.
66 Nov. 30, 1870. In the parade before the Southern Commercial Congress in Louisville in 1869, the Jeffersonville Car Works exhibited a large railway car with the inscription : "If you patronize us we will raise the freight blockade." Cincin- nati Commercial, Oct. 15, 1869.
67 Ibid., Sept. 28, 1867. Nov. 27, 1869; Cincinnati Semi-Weekly Gasette, Oct. 21, 1870.
68 Cincinnati Semi-Weekly Gazette, Sept. 23, 1870.
69 The Cincinnati Southern Railway, A History, edited by Chas. G. Hall, 31 ; J. H. Hollander, "The Cincinnati Southern Railway," in Johns Hopkins University Studies in History and Political Science, Vol. 12, 17.
70 Louisville Municipal Reports for the Fiscal Ycar Ending December 31st, 1870, 62.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.