History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Vol. I, Part 28

Author: L.H. Everts & Co
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Philadelphia : Louis H. Everts
Number of Pages: 700

USA > Massachusetts > History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Vol. I > Part 28

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"' Having completed the work at considerable expense of time and study, and with the help of his brother, Maj. Israel Morey, who aided in making the machinery, he repaired to New York, expecting the same cordiality which he had before experienced. But, to his surprise, he was treated with great

coldness and neglect, and no further intereourse with him was desired. The secret of his invention had been fully acquired, and from subsequent developments it appeared that Fulton, in the interval of Morey's absence, had planned and formed a boat according to the model shown him, and he now desired no further communication with the originator. He even went to Orford, during the period in which the alteration was being made, to examine its progress and the prospect of success.

"' In 1798, several years after Morey's boat had ascended the Connecticut River, the Legislature of New York passed an act investing Mr. Livingston with the exclusive right and privilege of navigating all kinds of boats which might be propelled by the force of tire or steam on all the waters within the territory or jurisdiction of the State of New York.

"'Subsequently, Mr. Livingston entered into a contract with Fulton, by which, among other things, it was agreed that a patent should be taken in the United States in Fulton's name. In 1802 or 1803, Fulton came forward with an "experimental boat," for which he obtained a patent with the usual exclusive privileges. Thus it appears that there was ample time after his interviews with Morey for him to complete his schemes previous to their consummation. He now claimed to be the inventor of the steamboat. The patent could not be obtained without Mr. Fulton's taking an oath that the improvement was wholly his.

"'Does not this look like great unfairness toward Mr. Morey ? Does it not almost irresistibly convey the idea that the patentee surreptitiously seized npon the invention and turned it to his own account, taking advantage of the quiet disposition and retired position of the real inventor ? In this light Morey ever after, to the day of his death, viewed the whole transaction. Living witnesses testify that he repeatedly complained of Fulton for superseding him in obtaining a patent and stealing the honor and emolument of the inven- tion. A gentleman of unimpeachable veracity, who was with Morey some of the last years and days of his life, asserts that he most bitterly criminated Fulton for his ill-treatment in secretly depriving him of his sacred rights and privileges. Why should the dying man have done this, and persisted in it amidst the solemnities of his situation and the approaching realities of eternity, unless he knew that the truth was on his side ? He was a man of veracity, in whom his friends and acquaintances had entire confidence.'

" Very much of interesting detail of the early navigation of our river has passed out of remembrance of those living at the present time. Had such a society as this been formed one hun- dred or fifty years ago, we should doubtless have secured this detail, perfectly familiar to the men of that day, but now be- yond our reach. Hence I regard the present work of this so- ciety, in resuscitating whatever incidents we can of our early history, by interviewing the aged who are yet left to us, and by examination of records and memoranda wherever they may be found, as worthy the special attention of us all.

" Boating on the Connecticut Forty Years ago .- The 'Con- neeticut River Valley Steamboat Company' was in full opera- tion in 1833, when I first became acquainted with the freight- ing husiness on this river. They owned a line of boats called 'luggers,' running from Hartford to the head of navigation at Wells River, Vt., and also several stern-wheel steamboats used for towing the same. As the steamers were too large to pass through the locks and canals, the first steamer would take them, sometimes four and even six at a time, as far as Wil- limansett. They were then drawn over ' Willimansett' (Fuse the river parlance) by a strong team of oxen led by a span of horses, operated through the South Hadley locks and canal, and were taken by the next steamer above to Montague Canal ; then by the next from Miller's River to the foot of Swift Water, at Hinsdale, N. H., and, I believe, in a good pitch of water, as far as Bellows Falls; and so on. Other boating companies were engaged at the same time, and carrying large amounts

HISTORY OF THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY.

of goods of almost every description used in country stores from Hartford to all the principal towns in the valley, freight- ing down with wood, brooms, hops, staves, shingles, wooden- ware, and sometimes fine lumber. These companies used more convenient and serviceable boats, well rigged, with main and topsails, running-boards and cabin, with rudder and helm in- stead of the steering-oar.

" Commencing at the lower section, there were the 'John Cooley Company,' consisting of Edmund Palmer, Roderick Ashley, Sylvester Day, J. B. M. and ' Kit' Stebbins; and the 'Parker-Douglass Company,' of Stoddard Parker, George Douglass and brother, Albert Gowdy, and Horace Harmon. These two companies did the freighting for the merchants of Hampden County, each owning and running a steamer for towing their boats, and sometimes the boats of other com- panies, and having their headquarters at Springfield. Next above was Bardwell, Ely & Co., consisting of Josiah Bardwell, Hiram Smith, Peletiah and Joseph Ely, Broughton Alvord, Whiting Street, and David Strong; they carried for South Hadley, Northampton, and adjoining towns. Capt. Nash, who ran one boat only, for the business of Hadley and Amherst, was a veteran in the business when I commenced, and con- tinued until boats and boating were superseded by the rail-car. On the Greenfield reach were Stockbridge, Culver & Co.,- David Stockbridge, David Culver, J. D. Crawford, and T. M. Dewey. This company struck hands with the 'Greenfield Boating Company' in 1837, and took the name of Stockbridge, Allen, Root & Co., Messrs. Allen and Root taking the place of Gen. Culver. They owned the steamer . Ariel Cooley,' which took their boats from the head of South Hadley Canal, and winding around the smiling Hockanum and Old Hadley bends, and through the sinuosities of School-Meadow flats, landed them at the foot of Montague Canal. This run (forty miles) was generally made in twelve hours, with four boats in tow, and through the night as well as daytime, unless it was very cloudy. The steamer was a ' stern-wheeler,' ninety feet long and eighteen feet wide, with two high-pressure engines of twenty-horse power each. She was overhauled in 1830, her name changed to ' Greenfield,' and in the spring of 1840, just above Smith's Ferry, she burst her boiler, killing Capt. Craw- ford, Mr. Lancy, of this city, the maker of her machinery, and Mr. Wood, the engineer.

" Above Turner's Falls, after the collapse of the Connecti- cut River Valley Steamboat Company, all steamboating was given up,-the freight-boats, smaller than those at the lower sections of the river, relying on the south wind and the ' white- ash breeze.' J. G. Capron and Alexander ran one or two boats in connection with their store at Winchester, N. H .; Hall & Townsley, of Brattleboro', ran two or more, and sup- plied the merchants of that place and vicinity, and Wentworth & Bingham those of Bellows Falls. Other individuals and companies, whose names I cannot recall, were engaged in this enterprise, and the merry boatmen's song was heard far up the valley. Some of the ups and downs incidental to this laborious work may interest the reader.

" No department of the business of this country offered so wide scope of incident, and called into action so great a num- ber of jolly, bard-working, determined, and unselfish men, as that of Connecticut River boating in its palmniest days. They were the stontest, heartiest, and merriest in all the valley, and there were few towns from Hartford, Conn., to Northumber- land, N. H., unrepresented. If there arose any disturbance in city or town, it was a common thing to send for a few Con- necticut River boatmen, and it was soon quelled. 1 was en- gaged to teach a common district school of seventy scholars in one of the river-towns, in the winter of 1834, where the previous winter the ' big boys' had turned out four teachers, -some out of the door and some out of the window ; and as soon as it was known that the committee had hired a boatman to teach their school, the ' boys,' like Captain Martin Scott's

coon, decided that I 'needn't fire,'-they'd come down. I had no trouble with the school. One of the young men we used to call Lee, who rejoiced in the height of six feet seven inches in his stockings, made the boys believe I had killed several 'ugly boys' up in Upper Cohoes ! These river-men might indeed be called ' sons of Anak,' as they were of prodig- ious strength. The names of Sam Granger, Tim Richardson, Charles Thomas, Bart Douglass, Mart Coy, Sol Caswell, Cole Smith, and, last and stoutest of them all, Bill Cummins, would strike terror to all loafers, beats, or bruisers in the city of Hartford, or wherever they were known. Cummins would lift a barrel of salt with one hand by putting two fingers in the bung-hole, and set it from the bottom timbers on top of the mast-board : I have seen him do it. While in Hartford and belonging to one of the Wells River boats, he was told that a gang of twenty Irishmen had laid a plan to meet on the next night and give him a 'mauling.' ITe found Cole Smith and told him to look on, and if he thought it necessary he might lend a hand. When the gang made their appearance near Knox's Slip, Cummins went for them, and in twenty minutes there wasn't an Irishman in sight except five or six who were lying around loose on the ground with bloody noses and broken ribs. Smith's services were not needed, but he never liked it in ' Bill' because he did all the pounding him- self.

. " Very few persons of the present day know anything about the method of propelling a boat of from thirty to sixty tons up the river by means of the white-ash breeze aforesaid, and it may be worth an explanation. In our river vernacular the term given to this kind of propulsion is 'poling a boat.' The poles used are made of the best white-ash timber, and are from twelve to twenty feet in length, according to the depth of water, and two inches or more in diameter, with a soeket- spike in the lower end, and a head on the upper end for the shoulder. The bowsman seleets the pole he needs,-this is, if he is an inside bowsman, a short pole, if an outside a longer one,-sets it firmly over the side near the bow of the boat, and, placing the head of the pole against his shoulder, straightens himself out along the wale of the boat, with his feet on the bow-piece, and walks along down on the timbers to the mast- board, shoving the boat ahead. If there are two or more men on each side, No. 2 takes a 'set' in the same way, the first one lifting his pole over No. 2, and walking back to the bow to take another 'set,' and so on. Sometimes, in hard water or over bars, there are five or six men on each side. This is probably the hardest work ever known to men. Men have sometimes been obliged to pole a boat from Hartford to Wells River without any aid from wind or steam, and for several days before they got toughened their bloody shoulders bore testimony to the severity of their labor. The water from Hartford to Windsor locks is what is called ' hard water,' as well as many other places farther up; and rest assured that a south wind or a steamboat was welcome to a boat's crew bound up-river.

"One Sabbath morning, in the spring of 1837 or 1838, the boat of one of our oldest river-men, whose destination was Old Hadley, lay at the foot of Ferry Street, Hartford, loaded and ready for starting. The men were variously employed. Some were smoking, some washing their clothing, and some reading ; but all of them were trying to ' woo the southern breeze,' which gave signs of immediate action. At this point the old captain came down to the river, eyeing the mare-tails in the southern sky, and told his men not to start if the wind did blow, as he was opposed to Sabbath work entirely. But as he was leaving he called ' Moses' aside and handed him fifty dollars, saying, ' You may want it for toll and other ex- . penses.' Probably Moses knew what that meant when trans- lated into Connecticut River English. The captain then returned to Bartlett's Hotel, took a glass of ' pep'mint,' called for his horse and carriage, and drove twelve miles to Windsor

HISTORY OF THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY.

locks, where he found his boat and men trying to persuade Mr. Wood, the toll-gatherer, to let them through. The men were not dismissed for disobeying orders, for they had 'a glorious south wind.'

" Now go with me from Hartford up the river on one of our best cabin-boats, in a good south wind or by steam. First get under Hartford bridge; then up mast, hoist sail, and we leave Pumpkin Harbor gushingly. On Windsor flats and Scantic we stir up the sand, but the wind increases and away we go. Steady there! Windsor locks! Let off that brace; round with 'em ; down sail. 'Jo, run along and get a horse ready while we operate through the locks.' And so we pass through Enfield Canal, six miles, by horse-power; operate through the guard-lock ; up sail again, and, leaving behind the roar of the falls, and the still louder roar of 'Old Country' Allen, our boat goes through ' Longmeadow Reach' kiting with a 'bone in her mouth.' We pass Springfield on a close-haul, and soon reach the foot of Willimansett. Here Capt. Ingraham hitches on his big team of six oxen and two horses, with a chain one hundred feet long, and draws us through the swift canal, called ' drawing over Willimansett.' We then cross over to the foot of South Iladley Canal (now no longer a canal), operate through the locks, after paying toll to 'Uncle Si,' then through the canal, two miles, and, if the wind is strong enough, sail ' out at the head,' and on up the winding river.

"The operation of 'getting out at the head' should be described. On account of the rocky shore, the canal was begun a half-mile below the commencement of quiek-water. Of course the current is swift, and in high water it sometimes used to require from fifteen to twenty men to get a boat out. This was done mainly by ' tracking.' A number of men go ashore with a long track-line hitched to the mast, and, with yokes or collars over the shoulders, trudge and clamber along, and ' haul her over,' with inside polesmen to aid. These extra men were put on at the expense of the canal corporation. In later years this hand work was avoided. A machine was in- vented by Harry Robinson, one of our first-class pilots, for drawing boats 'out at the head' of this canal, which did the work successfully. The boatmen called it a 'fandango.' Upon a good staunch boat were placed two upright timbers, firmly braced fore and aft, one on each side of the boat. Across these rolled the axle, with a drum for the rigging to wind upon, with floats and buckets at each end and outside of the boat. By means of timbers reaching from this axle to the stern these floats could be lowered into or raised ont of the water. An inch-and-a-quarter rigging was made fast at the head of this shute, and, reaching to the fandango (some two thousand feet), was attached to the drum. Now cast off and let the floats down into the water, and the current will carry them around, winding the rigging around the drum. So away goes the majestic fandango up the stream, taking along a boat made fast to its stern, and the faster the water runs the faster will go the flotilla against it.

" But while I have been describing this machine our boat has sailed on around Hockanum, and, with a little aid from ' white ash,' around ' Old Hadley turn,' and now, after run- ning the gauntlet of School Meadow flats, which would puzzle an cel to do, has made the foot of Montagne Canal. And so on through the canal and through Miller's upper locks, and thence plain sailing to the 'foot of swift water' at Hinsdale. Here, if the wind is not very strong, we take in a few ' swift- water-men' for twelve miles, then on to Bellows Falls, and the same over and over to Queechee and White River locks up to Wells River. This is a good week's work, but it has been done in less time. A day's work with the poles, however, would be from Hartford to Windsor locks,-with a good south wind, from Hartford to Montagne Canal. Between the last- named places but little poling has been done in the latter years of boating, as steam or wind was more available.

" The down trips of these boats were a different thing. A

boat loaded with wood, brooms, wooden-ware, hops, and other bulky articles was not an easy thing to handle in a wind. Pilots were necessary over the falls at Enfield and Williman- sett. At the latter place Harry Robinson held this responsible position many years, and Joseph Ely was his successor. At Enfield the signal strain of ' Pilot ahoy !' was heard at short intervals through each boating season, either for boats or rafts. This call brought out Jack Burbank, Alv Allen, 'Old Country' Allen, and Capt. Burbank, Sr., who would come aboard and draw cuts for the chance. The boat was then put into trim for 'going over,' oars and poles all handy, rigging properly coiled, and every man ready for any emergency. The channel is as difficult to run as that in the St. Lawrence from Montreal to Laprairie, but the aforementioned pilots seldom touched a rock. This run of six miles was quickly made, when the pilot would sometimes get a chance to ride, but generally walked or ran back for the next boat. His fee was one dollar and a half each trip, and his was a laborious life. But they have all gone 'over the river' for the last time, except Adna Allen, formerly for twenty-one years pilot of the passenger-boats running between this city and Hartford, and who now resides in this city.

" It was a custom to ' break in' the raw hand on the passage of the freight-hoats over Enfield Falls by showing him the silver mine at 'Mad Tom.' The initiate must get down close on the bow-piece to look for the silver, and when the boat pitched into ' Mad Tom,' and the water rushed over him a foot deep, he would generally retire aft and say he'd ' seen enough,' and it would require quite a number of gin-cocktails at Hartford to dry him !

"Some of the pleasantest days of my life were spent at the helm of the old steamer 'Ariel Cooley' in passing up and down between South Hadley and Greenfield,-sometimes with four or six boats in tow, sometimes with only two, the down trip being usually made without any,-as we wound around the placid Ilockanum of former days, before the impatient river, like many a would-be reformer of the present day, con- cluded to straighten things, and so ent a channel through its narrow neck,-that is, cut its throat,-with Mount Holyoke on our right, looking majestically down upon our boys who were quietly enjoying the scene, as if saying to them, 'Come up higher,' while the carpeted meadows of Northampton seemed as urgently to invite their attention to their own realm of beauty.

" This towing process was of great benefit to the men, as it gave them the leisure they so much needed to wash, to mend, and to refresh themselves, and prepare for the hard work to come, when the steamer had taken them through. In this, as in other vocations, some will be remembered by their eccen- tricities, some by their retieence, and others by their loquacity. I have listened till ' beyont the twal' to the anecdotes of Ed- mund Palmer and Bob Abbe. I have known John Sanborn to go the whole round trip from White River, Vt., without speaking, and Dick Thorpe would talk enough to make it upl Other notables were Capt. Peck, who presided with so much dignity over the passenger-steamers from this city to Hartford, and who was said to have been arrested for smuggling ! This was a line of small steamers first put on by James Blanchard, then of this city. The first was the 'Springfield,' a side- wheel steamer; then the ' Vermont,' a stern-wheeler, built by Blanchard, the 'Massachusetts,' the ' Agawam,' and the ' Phoenix.' The ' Massachusetts' only could come up over Enfield Falls, and many of this day can remember the sturdy form of the faithful pilot, Ad Allen, who so long guided these boats through storm and shine. Capt. Increase Mosely, too, commanded one of these boats awhile,-the best singer on Connecticut River ; Capt. David Hoyt another, -the complete story-teller.

"C'apt. Jonathan Kentfield was also one of the early workers on this river, and ran a line of boats on his own ac-

HISTORY OF THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY.

count for a number of years. ITis distinguishing character- istie was pomposity, but he was a considered a trusty and competent boatman. While he was in his best days, the body of a deceased member of Congress from Vermont was sent forward from Washington, and came from New York to Hartford by steamboat, directed to his friends in Vermont, to go by first boat up the Connecticut River. None of the up- river companies were willing to take it. Finally, one who knew the captain's weak spot (he was called 'Capt. Don't') told him that the remains of a Vermont member of Congress had been forwarded to his special care to go up by his boat. Very well,' said Capt. Don't. 'Boys, do you hear that ? Drop down the boat to the steamboat, and take the body aboard ! How the people of the city of Washington knew that I was an old and experienced boatman, God only knows. I don't !' The boatmen took it aboard, taking a frequent sniff of something warm the while, and when fairly under way by the side of the up-river steamboat, Capt. Don't called his men and said to them, ' Come aft, men, come aft, and take some- thing to drink ; dead bodies ahoard,-ten or fifteen, p'haps, one sartain,-and who knows but what they died of some d-n spontaneous disease ? Drink behind that hogshead, and don't, for God's sake, let Gen. Culver see you !'

" Mr. Blanchard sold out his interest in these boats, after running them two or three years, to Sargent & Chapin, who used them in connection with their line of stages. It was a very pleasant mode of travel unless the water was low, but many a time have the passengers been obliged to jump into the water and lift the ' Phoenix' and ' Agawam' over 'Scantic.' In the new scheme for improving Connecticut River naviga- tion, Gen. Ellis, the government engineer, is confident of se- curing a channel of three or three and a half feet of water over these sand-flats, by means of wing-dams running diag- onally from each side of the river, bringing the water into a narrow channel, which is expected in this way to keep itself clear by forcing the continually moving sand down through this channel. I find, however, that most of the old experienced boatmen now living have little faith in it. The rest of the enterprise looks feasible, and no doubt will succeed if Congress will make the needed appropriation.

" Before closing these reminiscences I should also speak of Messrs. Abbe and Ensign, who boated so many years to Ware- house Point; King Hiram Smith, of South Hadley ; Capt. Sam Nutt, of White River; Tom Dunham, of Bellows Falls ; and Rufus Robinson, the most consummate waterman of the Connecticut River Valley, who performed the feat of sailing a boat loaded with a valuable cargo through to Wells River, Vt., the first time he ever went up the river beyond Turner's Falls. He also ran the 'Adam Duncan,' minus her machinery, over South Hadley Falls, and came safe ashore below. Yet, with all his skill, his life was closed by his being carried over Holyoke dam, a few years since. Capt. Granger, who had no superior on the river, recently died at the age of sixty-five. His old comrades will hold him in affectionate remembrance. We have now left among us, of the men who formerly took part in the scenes I have described, Roderick Ashley, Stod- dard Parker, Albert Gowdy, Adna Allen, and Sylvester Day, who, with others I have named, are and were good and sub- stantial men.

" Rafting on the Connecticut a Generation Ago .- The late rush of logs down the 'dark rolling Connecticut' calls to mind the various attempts, in years long gone by, to transfer lumber from the forests of Northern New Hampshire and Vermont to Hartford and Middletown, Conn. Many a law- snit during the old boating-times has grown out of this river-driving business. Like the case of 'Bullum versus Boatum,' the lumberman would sue the farmer for stopping his logs, and the farmer would sue the lumberman for damage done to his meadows by the said logs. So they wrangled and strove, and the courts were well patronized. But this river-

driving, or running logs loose, was found to be a losing busi- ness, and the most available method of transporting lumber down the Connecticut-logs, boards, clap-boards, and shin- gles-was by rafting, an account of which may be of interest. The rafting terms used on this river are, division, raft, box, steerage, beams, snubbers, flyers, ties, cars, lock-downs, catch- pins, cross-ties, and scull-boards. The box, being the unit, is a collection of masts or logs, made thirteen feet wide and sixty or seventy feet long. If it is made up of long timber, the box is the length of the timber, more or less, provided it is not too long to go through the locks. If of short timber, it is made by piecing out, so as to be of the requisite length. These logs are fastened by oak or ash pins, driven through the steerage-beam at each end of the box, and in case of short logs they are held by cross-ties, using lock-downs or catch- pins. Two inch-and-a-half or two-inch holes are bored in the middle of each steerage-beam and through into the logs, for oar-pins ; then some smart flexible sticks or flyers are bent in to raise the oar to a proper position, and we have a ' box' of round timber. Six of these boxes, fastened together-three in width and two in length-by ties, make a division. Any number of boxes, or divisions even, fastened together in run- ning order, is a raft. Fifty years ago this river was full of rafts during the spring run, as well as of salmon and shad. A lumber company would generally run six or eight divisions at one trip, having shanties built on some of them, wherein to cook, eat, and sleep. In my boyhood I used to listen with delight to the creak of the ponderons oar, as it swung back for its oft-recurring dip, and echoed through the quiet valley. It was the welcome precursor of a coming jubilee for the boys, who were ever ready to rush to the river-bank to see the stal- wart men and hear their jolly songs; and the girls too, and men, women, and children, would watch with pleasure the grand flotilla of rafts, as, emerging into view around the bend of Sawyer's Mountain, they came along down one after another in all the grandeur of an army corps.

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History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Vol. I, Part 28

Author: L.H. Everts & Co Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Philadelphia : Louis H. Everts Number of Pages: 700

Author: L.H. Everts & Co
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Philadelphia : Louis H. Everts
Number of Pages: 700