USA > Louisiana > Louisiana; comprising sketches of counties, towns, events, institutions, and persons, Volume I > Part 45
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
370
LOUISIANA
goods and slaves. They took in exchange whatever their custom- ers had to spare, and extended to them a most liberal credit. Be- sides, they had very large warehouses at Manchac, Baton Rouge and Natchez, and a number of vessels constantly moored a short distance above New Orleans, opposite to the spot now known as the city of Lafayette. To these places the inhabitants of Louisiana used to resort." ( Martin and Gayarre.) There were also 2 vessels fitted up as stores, with shelves and counters, which went up and down the river, bringing the conveniences of the city to every planter's door. In this way, the English made the province of Louisiana of little worth to Spain, except as a military frontier.
Upon the transfer of Unzaga to Caracas, Galvez became pro- visional governor on Feb. 1, 1777, and within a few days two French commissioners arrived, to carry out an agreement of the home gov- ernments that Louisiana should be permitted to trade with the French West Indies. Consequently, under Galvez the English trade supremacy was dethroned and the French became the com- mercial masters. In April, 1777, the commissioners reported that Galvez had seized 11 English vessels, richly laden, which were trad- ing with the planters on the river. To help the situation, the king of Spain offered to buy $800,000 worth of tobacco annually, or more if a larger crop should be raised ; at the same time all restrictions were removed from the importation of negroes. In July, 1778, the British flag had not been seen on the Mississippi river for three months, except at the masthead of the frigate on guard at Manchac.
Spain declared war against Great Britain in May, 1779, and after a brilliant campaign most flattering to Spanish arms, Galvez drove the British from Manchac, Baton Rouge and Natchez on the river, and later captured Mobile and Pensacola. The French native troops of Louisiana rendered the greatest service throughout the campaign. Now followed a period of great prosperity to the col- ony, and both commerce and population increased rapidly. Ken- tucky and Tennessee began slowly filling up with settlers, and many hundreds of thousands worth of produce came down the river every year from those regions. As a result of the campaign of Galvez, Spain now claimed that having made a conquest of the country east of the Mississippi river she was entitled to hold it as well as the exclusive control of the river. In other words Spain was now in complete possession of the mouth of the Mississippi, and even aimed to dominate the whole upper valley of the river as France had previously done. Herein she clashed with the welfare and future development of the new republic of the United States which had just won its independence from Great Britain. The years which followed the close of the Revolution down to 1795 were filled with intrigue and negotiations between the United States and Spain. covering relations with the Indian tribes, the question of boundaries, and the navigation of the Mississippi river. The United States was especially concerned in securing greater facilities for its citizens in the Mississippi valley in the shipment of their surplus erops. Nearly one-half the United States was now
-
371
LOUISIANA
comprised of the region embraced in the basins of the Ohio and Mississippi, and was dependent on the Mississippi to reach sea- board. The nation's prosperity demanded that the river be neu- tralized, and that its settlers be absolved from any obligation to pay toll to Spain because she happened to own the mouth of the river. With the great increase of settlement in Kentucky in 1784- 86. the shipment of flour, whiskey and other products to New Orleans from as far up as Pittsburg, on flatboats and barges, began. Indeed, this was the only commercial outlet that promised profit- able returns to the producer, as the cost of transportation by wagons over the mountains east was enormous. The settlers on the upper Tennessee and Cumberland also depended on river com- munication altogether. It will thus be seen that the control of the river early became a vital question of policy to the United States. Unfortunately, the treaties of peace which marked the close of the Revolution had not settled the question of the control of the river. The treaty between the British and Americans in 1782 pro- vided that "the navigation of the Mississippi from its source to the ocean, shall forever remain free and open to the subjects of Great Britain and the citizens of the United States." Hence, if Spain yielded to the wishes of the United States she thereby made a concession to England, Spain's greatest commercial rival.
In the year 1787, despite the many restrictions and annoyances imposed by Spain, large quantities of goods from the American possessions on the upper Mississippi and Ohio came down the river to New Orleans for export, being shipped on flatboats and barges. The total export and import duties at the port of New Orleans reached the sum of $72,000 in this year. In 1788, Col. James Wil- kinson, who had settled in Kentucky in 1786, received through his agent in New Orleans, via the Mississippi, a cargo of dry goods and other articles for the Kentucky market, which is believed to have been the first boatload of manufactured articles that ever went up the river to the Ohio.
The long negotiation between Spain and the United States was concluded in 1795 when the treaty of San Lorenzo el Real formally declared the Mississippi from source to mouth free to the people of the United States, and further permitted "the citizens of the United States for the space of three years from this time. to de- posit their merchandise and effects in the port of New Orleans, and to export them from thence without paying any other duty than a fair price for the hire of the stores." As might be expected, this gave an added impetus to the river trade, which now reached a very large figure for those days. The exports from New Orleans were about $1.500,000 in 1795, one-third of which consisted of western produce (flour, tobacco, etc., from Kentucky and Ohio). By 1798 the receipts of western produce had reached $975,000, and were increasing at the rate of $300,000 annually as the new popula- tion poured into the upper Mississippi and Ohio valleys. The suspension of the right of deposit by Morales in 1799 aroused great indignation throughout the west, to which the government re-
372
LOUISIANA
sponded. From this time on the purchase of Louisiana was an important subject of discussion in Congress, and American states- men at home and abroad worked and intrigued zealously to prevent the Mississippi from falling into the strong hands of England or France. By the transfer of Louisiana to the American commis- sioners, Claiborne and Wilkinson, on Dec. 20, 1803, the United States secured the exclusive control of the Mississippi for all time.
During the last 3 years of European control of the month of the Mississippi, the commerce of the Lower Mississippi Valley, em- bracing the shipments down the Mississippi toward New Orleans, reached a total of $3,649.322 for 1801, $4,475,364 for 1802, and $4,720,015 for 1803. There are no records of shipments up the river, but these were small as compared with the down trade, except for the country immediately above New Orleans. The imports at New Orleans about equalled the exports from the Span- ish possessions, and embraced such manufactured articles as were not produced in the colony. These were brought from Spain and France and distributed among the towns and plantations by barges, pirogues and plantation boats. Less than 10 per cent found their way above Red river. The chief articles of export from New Orleans were cotton, sugar, molasses, rum or tafia, indigo, lumber and boxes, peltries and skins, rice and provisions. Produce came down to New Orleans all the way from Pennsylvania and even from Western New York. The pioneer of that early era loaded his flatboat with the products of the season, and then made his long way down the Ohio and Mississippi. He must needs travel for nine-tenths of the distance through a wild Indian country, pass the dreaded Ohio Falls during the high water stage, then if he escaped the treacherous currents and snags of the Mississippi and reached his haven, he would sell his cargo for some $2,000 or $3,000 at New Orleans. At first he made the return trip by sea, usually landing at Baltimore or Philadelphia, where he would buy calico and other manufactured goods, reaching home after an absence of 6 months in time to make another crop. At a later period, the return trip was made by land from New Orleans, the trader crossing Lake Pontchartrain, and then proceeding north via the famous Natchez trace to Nashville.
The vessels employed in the river trade changed much during this period of development. Compared with the evolution of meth- ods of travel by land. the evolution of river craft was rapid and spectacular. A half century witnessed little change in wagons and stages, and the "freighter" or "Conestoga" of 1790 differed but little from that of 1840. The same period approximately saw a change in river craft which ran the whole gamut from the primi- tive canoe and pirogue, through the later barge, keel-boat, flatboat and sailing vessel, to the palatial river steamer of the '40's. Each marked some change in the social order of things, some develop- ment. unnoticed at the time perhaps, in the progress of western ' civilization. Many types of early river craft were in use at the same time, and no stated periods can be named in which one style
.
373
LOUISIANA
of vessel was in exclusive use. The canoe was employed long after it 'had subserved its original purpose of a cheap, light and easily made craft, especially adapted to the wants of the aborigines, and the early explorers and traders. The crude up-stream crafts of burden, such as keels and barges, had their beginnings as far back as 1742, and overlap the era of steam ; while the lumbering, down- stream flatboats were in use by the thousands on the Mississippi, long after the steamboats began to ply its muddy waters, and, indeed, are in common use today in modified form. It is never- theless true that certain types of river craft are especially asso- ciated with certain periods. The canoe, pirogue and bateau have already been discussed, as belonging primarily to the French period, or at any rate to the period antedating the close of the American revolution.
The era from 1780 to 1817 was essentially that of the barge, the keelboat and the flatboat-all crafts of burden. The early Missis- sippi barge was a square box of any length, width and depth, and rarely ascended the river with a cargo. The barges of this period were great, pointed, covered hulks carrying 40 or 50 tons of freight (the largest carried 60 to 80), and were manned by almost as many men. The great freight barges of the Mississippi went downstream with the current and ascended by means of oars, poles, sails and cordelles. The important up-river cargoes on the Orleans barges were sugar and molasses-sometimes, coffee, dry goods and hardware-and they came down stream laden with the products of the west such as peltries, flour, lead, tobacco, hemp, bacon, pork, beef, apples, whisky, peach brandy, cider, beer, iron, lard, cotton, butter, millstones, etc. Like' the keel-boats they plied regularly up and down stream, but were unable to ascend the smaller rivers or reach portages of the large streams by reason of their draft and size. The regular trip to New Orleans and back to Louisville or Cincinnati required 2 months for the downward and 4 for the upward, or 6 months approximately, and only two trips a year could be made by the same boat. It is probable that the number of barges and keels engaged in the commerce on the Mis- sissippi never exceeded 40 in any one year. Between the peace of 1783 and the surrender of Louisiana in 1803, the Spanish main- tained a regular trade and intercourse between New Orleans and Upper Louisiana. Spanish barges were common on the upper as well as upon the lower Mississippi, and extensive commercial houses at St. Louis, St. Charles, Kaskaskia and other towns along the river conducted the trade. (Navigation and Commerce, Mon- ette.)
When the commerce from the American possessions passed beyond the limits of the United States and entered the Spanish port of New Orleans, it did so by virtue of commercial arrange- ments. between the two nations. Monette writes that the exports from the United States by this route agreeably to the custom- house register at. Loftus Heights, from Jan. 1 to June 30, of 1801,
·
314
LOUISIANA
were conveyed in 450 flatboats, 26 keels, 2 schooners, 1 brig and 7 pirogues.
The famous keel-boat was of long, slender and elegant form, and was the first up-stream boat of burden to ply the southern and western waters. Its functions were two-fold: first, the up-stream trade, to touch and connect interior settlements and do the carry- ing trade of the numerous portages. The keel-boat heralded a new era in the internal development of the Missisippi and Ohio valleys. "It was a long, narrow craft, averaging 12 to 15 feet by 50, and pointed at both bow and stern. On either side were provided what were known as 'running boards,' extending from end to end. The space between, the body of the boat, was enclosed and roofed over with boards and shingles. A keel-boat would carry from 20 to 40 tons of freight well protected from the weather, and required from 5 to 10 men, in addition to the captain, who was usually the steers- man, to propel it up stream. Each man was provided with a pole to which was affixed a heavy socket. The crew, being equally divided on each side of the boat, 'set' their poles at the head of the boat : then bringing the end of the pole to the shoulder, with bodies bent, they walked slowly along the running boards to the stern-returning quickly, at the command of the captain, to the head for a new 'set.' In ascending the greatest effort of the whole crew was required, so that only one man at a time could 'shift' his pole. This ascending of rapids was attended with great danger, especially if the channel was too rocky. The slightest error in pushing or steering the boat exposed her to be thrown across the current, and to be brought sideways in contact with rocks, which would mean her destruction. Or, if she escaped injury, a crew who had let their boat swing in the rapids would have lost caste. A boatman who could not boast that he had never swung or backed in a chute was regarded with contempt, and never trusted with the head pole, the place of honor among keel-boat men. It re- quired much practice to become a first rate boatman, and none would be taken, even on trial, who did not possess great muscular power." (The American Pioneer, vol. II, p. 271.)
The flatboat was the important craft of the era of emigration, the friend of the pioneer. Unlike the keel it never came back, and was solely a downstream craft. Collins, in his History of Kentucky, states that Capt. Jacob Yoder took the first flatboat down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans in 1782. From this time on, at any rate, they were used in increasing numbers. The flatboat of average size was a roofed craft about 40 feet long, 12 feet wide and 8 feet deep. It was square, flat-bottomed, and was managed by 6 oars. Two of these, about 30 feet long, on each side, were known as "sweeps," and were manned by 2 men each ; one 40 or 50 feet long including its big blade, at the stern, was called the steering oar; a small oar, known as the "gouger" oar, was located at the prow, and assisted in guiding the boat through swift water. One man only was required at the steering oar and at the gouger. These flatboats were of two types, the "Kentucky"
375
LOUISIANA
and "New Orleans." The nominal difference between a Kentucky and a New Orleans boat was that the former was only half roofed over, while the latter was stronger and entirely covered with a root. How to build or buy a flatboat was the first query of the pioneer father when he finally arrived at one of the ports on the upper Ohio. Often several families joined their fortunes and came down the river on one "flat." a motley collection of men, women, children and domestic animals, surrounded by a few crude, house- keeping utensils, which had been brought over the mountains or purchased at the point of embarkation. Both in early and in more recent times, these flatboats were sold at their destination for lumber, their owners and crews, except for the few who preferred to work their way north from New Orleans on the barges and keels, returning to their homes on foot or on horseback by way of the overland trails to Tennessee and Kentucky. Sometimes the boatmen, returning on foot to Nashville, made wagers to beat the post to that point and frequently won.
The complete history of the flatboat comes down within the present generation. The Kentucky "broadhorns" or "broadhorn flatboats," as they were also called, belonged to the emigrant period, but the beginning of the Civil war saw many flatboats still on the Mississippi, where they had then assumed the distinctive role of freigliters and bore their cargoes to the southern ports or retailed them along the Mississippi river plantations. After the war, the flatboat men found a sad and impoverished South. The negroes were "free," the overseers gone, and the coasting trade was ruined. Since then through freights have been found to be the only profitable ones.
A few words will suffice to explain the other common types of boats engaged in the early river commerce, such as the "ark," the galley, the brig, and the schooner. Harris has thus described the ark, which was the primitive type of house-boat: "These boats are generally called arks, and are said to have been invented by Mr. Krudger, on the Juanita, about 10 years ago (1795). They are square, and flat-bottomed: about 40 feet by 15, with sides 6 feet deep : covered with a roof of thin boards, and accommodated with a fire place. They require but 4 hands to navigate them, carry no sail, and are wafted down by the current." The same authority states that the historical succession of river craft is canoe, pirogue, keel-boat, barge and ark. The galley had a covered deck and was propelled by oarsmen. It was a vessel of this pattern that Gen. George Rogers Clark armed as a gunboat, with which he patrolled the Lower Ohio during the War of the Revolution. This style of boat was again exemplified in the celebrated "Adventure Galley." of the New England pilgrims to Marietta. It was 45 feet long, 12 feet wide, of 50 tons burden, strongly built with heavy timbers. and covered with a deck roof. Many of the mail boats on the western rivers in the early days were of the same type.
While sails were quite commonly used on most of the river craft thus far described, none of them was distinctively a sailing
· 376
LOUISIANA
vessel. Indeed, sails, masts and rigging were mere adjuncts, to be resorted to when the winds were favorable. The actual sailing vessels, brigs and schooners, began to come into use at the begin- ning of the 19th century. The pioneer in the construction of this type of river craft was the firm of Tarascon, Berthoud & Co., of Pittsburg, who built the first keel-boats on the Ohio. The vessels were designed to drop down the Ohio and Mississippi and then engage in the ocean trade. They were never intended to make the return trip, but were built as the first export carriers, just as the keel-boats were the first important carriers in the commerce between the states. Tarascon, Berthoud & Co., first built the schooner "Amity," of 120 tons, and the ship "Pittsburg," of 250 tons, in 1801. The second summer they built the brig "Nanina," of 200 tons, and the ship "Louisiana," of 350. The brig was sent direct to Marseilles, while the ship was sent out ballasted with "stone coal," which was sold at Philadelphia for 371/2 cents a bushel. The following year the same firm built the "Western Trader," of 400 tons. In 1803 Thaddeus Harris found several of these ships on the stocks at Pittsburg and three had been launched before April, "from 160 to 275 tons burden." (Harris; Tour, p. 43.)
When the port of New Orleans passed into American hands in 1803, and the river commerce was relieved from all artificial re- straints, hundreds of Kentucky flatboats, loaded with rich cargoes of western produce, began to descend. Monette writes that "the amount of western trade annually increased and soon became almost incredible for quantity and variety. This surplus product of the west was not only such as supplied the demands of New Orleans and the rich settlements of the lower Mississippi, but it furnished hundreds of ship-loads to the ports of the West Indies and - Europe." This commerce continued to swell in volume until the War of 1812. In 1811 some 500 flatboats and 40 keel-boats. all well freighted, descended the Mississippi from the Ohio valley. There was also considerable downstream trade from the Missouri and the Upper Mississippi, which began as early as the year 1720 and consisted chiefly of lead, furs and peltries.
Less than 10 per cent of the river tonnage went up-stream, on account of the many difficulties of river navigation. The cost of transporting cheap, heavy freight was enormous. The first cost at New Orleans of such articles as dry goods, hardware, and queensware, was sometimes doubled before the goods reached their destination in the interior. The rich planters along the lower Mississippi and the prosperous agricultural communities of the Ohio and upper Mississippi produced a wealth of surplus products, which they were ready to exchange for the manufactures of the Atlantic states and of Europe : but the cost and difficulties involved in supplying the wants of these inland settlers, by reason of the impetuous current of the Mississippi, grew more and more unbear- able. The times were ripe for another power which would turn . the tide of commerce up the river, and for the dawning of that
377
LOUISIANA
wonderful era of steam navigation brought about by the genius of Fulton. (See Steamboats.)
East Baton Rouge Parish .- When this parish was settled, or who the first settlers were, is not definitely known. Le Page du Pratz, writes about the settlement as far back as 1725, in a letter to his government, in which he gives the population as a mere score of inhabitants, who were nearly all Frenchmen, with a few Canadians, and some Indian women, wives of the settlers. In 1699, Iberville, on his first exploring expedition up the Mississippi river, wrote: "There are on the bank many cabins covered with palmetto leaves, and a May pole without branches, reddened with several heads of fish and beasts attached as a sacrifice." This red pole (baton rouge) is said to have given its name to the present capital of Louisiana. As the Mississippi river was the main highway of the French from Louisiana to the Illinois country and Canada, such settlements as Baton Rouge were important factors in the colony. The usual French policy in a new country was merely to govern the subject race, but in Louisiana a new policy was adopted and the govern- ment tried to make permanent colonization. In order to encourage emigration of industrious, useful men to this great western empire, who would take up land and establish a permanent agricultural settlement in the fertile valley of the Mississippi, the government of France made large grants to influential Frenchmen of enter- prise, who were expected to colonize their concessions with emi- grants from France. A grant of this kind was made to d'Arta- guette, at Baton Rouge. Immigrants from France settled at Baton Rouge, and de la Harpe states that "on the 16th of Septem- ber the ship Profound, * * with a transport, arrived at Ship
island These ships also brought over supplies for the concession of d'Artaguette." By the Treaty of Paris (Sce Treaties) of 1763, Great Britain received all the territory from St. Augustine to Lake Borgne, and the only frontier in the south was along Bayou Manchac. At first the only change the English made was in the matter of trade, as the majority of the inhabitants remained French. In 1765 and 1766 some adventurers came from the Caro- linas and settled at Baton Rouge, who took up land and became a part of the permanent English population. The English settlers were not allowed to buy land direct from the Indians but settled on the east bank of the Mississippi, from Bayou Manchac as far as the Yazoo river. One of the largest of these grants was one of 10,000 acres, made by the government to George Johnstone at Baton Rouge.
When Spain declared war against England in 1779, Don Bernardo de Galvez, the Spanish governor, fitted out an expedition and started on a mission of conquest against the English settlements in the south. The fort at Baton Rouge "had high walls, protected by a moat 18 feet wide and 9 feet deep, filled with water from the Mississippi." Galvez compelled the British to surrender on Sept. 21. 1779, and promoted Carlos de Grandpré to the governorship of the conquered territory, among which was the district of Baton Rouge.
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.