History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 27

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1358

USA > Missouri > St Louis County > St Louis City > History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men > Part 27

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The first steamboat that ascended the upper Mis-

sissippi was the " Virginia," which arrived at Fort Snelling in May, 1823. The Missouri and upper Mississippi had now been opened to regular naviga- tion, and the steamboat traffic of the great river and its tributaries developed rapidly. On the 27th of August, 1825, the Republican announced that there were two steamboats, the " Brown" and " Magnet," now lying here for the purpose of repairing, and added, " We believe this is the first instance of a steamboat's remaining here through the season of low water." The expansion of the steamboat busi- ness continued without interruption, and in its issue of April 19, 1827, the Republican commented upon it as follows :

" During the past week our wharf has exhibited a greater show of business than we recollect to have ever before seen, and the number of steam and other boats arriving and depart- ing has been unprecedented. The immense trade which has opened between this place and Fevre River at the present employs, besides a number of keels, six steamboats, to wit : the 'Indiana,' 'Shamrock,' 'Hamilton,' 'Muskingum,' ' Mexico' and ' Mechanic.' The 'Indiana' and 'Shamrock' on their return trips have been decply freighted with lead, and several keel-boats likewise have arrived with the same article. Judging from the thousands of people who have gone this spring to make their fortunes at the lead-mines, we should suppose that the quantity of lead produced this year will be tenfold greater than heretofore."

Again, on the 12th of July, the same paper re- marked that it must be gratifying to every citizen of St. Louis to witness the steady advancement of the town, " the number of steamboats that have arrived and departed during the spring" being cited as " the best evidence of the increase of business." During 1832 there were eighty arrivals of steamboats at St. Louis, whose aggregate tonnage amounted to 9520 tons. In 1834 the number of steamboats on the Mississippi and its tributaries was 230, their ton- nage aggregating 39,000 tons. There were also 1,426,000 fcet of plank, joists and scantling, 1,628,- 000 shingles, 15,000 rails, 1700 cedar logs, 8946 cords of wood, and 95,250 bushels of coal landed from the boats, together with 12,195 barrels and sixty half-barrels of flour, 463 barrels and twenty half-barrels of pork, and 233 barrels and fifty half- barrels of beef.

In 1836 the " Champion," Capt. Mix, performed the trip from Vicksburg to Pittsburgh, and thence to St. Louis, in seven days' running time ; and between St. Louis and Louisville in fifty hours, " passing the ' Paul Jones' and several other boats with ease." She was beaten, however, in June of that year by the " Paul Jones." In announcing this fact the Re- publican stated that the captain of the " Champion" (which was an Eastern-built boat) " acknowledges

J. c. fwow

LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS.

1103

NAVIGATION ON THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.

his inability to go ahead of our Western boats," and that he would shortly start with his boat for the At- lantic cities via New Orleans.

During the same month seventy-six different steamboats arrived at St. Louis, the aggregate ton- nage of which was 10,774, the number of entries being 146, and the wharfage $930. The same ac- tivity continued in 1837, and the Republican notes the presence of thirty-three steamboats receiving and discharging cargo on one day in April, 1837.

The steamboat " North St. Louis" was launched on the 29th of March, 1837, from the yard of Messrs. Thomas & Green. This boat was said to have been a "splendid specimen of the enterprise, the genius, and the art of our Western citizens," and was regarded as " the finest boat which has ever floated upon the Mississippi." 1

On the 10th of October, 1838, the subject of es- tablishing a steamship line from St. Louis to Eastern cities was considered at a meeting of merchants at the Merchants' Exchange. John Smith was ap- pointed chairman, and A. G. Farwell secretary.

The object of the meeting having been stated by the chair, it was on motion ordered that a committee of five persons be appointed to prepare resolutions for the action of the meeting. The chair appointed Messrs. D. L. Holbrook, N. E. Janney, A. B. Cham- bers, A. G. Farwell, and R. M. Strother as this com- mittee.

After a short absence the committee returned and reported the following :

" Resolved, That the establishment of a line of steamships from some Eastern port or ports to this city is a subject of deep interest to the citizens of St. Louis, and that in the opinion of this meeting it is expedient.

" Resolved, That a committee of persons be appointed to correspond with such individuals in the Eastern cities, and with such other persons as they may deem proper upon the subject, and that they be requested to put themselves in possession of as many facts connected with the proposed enterprise as pos- sible, and that they report at as early an adjourned meeting as practicable.

" Resolred, That a committee of persons be appointed to collect facts and statistics relating to the import and export trade of St. Louis, and the necessity of opening a direct trade with the Eastern ports, its profits and utility, and report at an adjourned meeting."

The question being upon the adoption of the first resolution, Messrs. N. Ranney, A. B. Chambers, R. M. Strother, N. E. Janney, John F. Hunt, and the chairman severally addressed the meeting, after which the resolutions were unanimously adopted.

On motion it was ordered that the blank in the

second resolution be filled with "five," and that in third resolution be filled with " fifteen," whereupon the chair appointed Messrs. A. G. Farwell, A. B. Chambers, Hezekiah King, J. B. Camden, and E. Bredell the committee under the second resolution, and Messrs. Adam B. Chambers, N. E. Janney, D. L. Holbrook, Reuben M. Strother, William Glasgow, H. Von Phul, E. H. Beebe, John F. Hunt, N. Ranney, Edward Walsh, G. K. McGunnegle, J. O. Agnew, B. Clapp, E. Tracy, and O. Rhodes the committee under the third resolution.

On motion of Capt. N. Ranney, John Smith was added to the first committee as chairman.

The steamboat and lumber register for 1838 shows the number of steamers which entered the port of St. Louis during the year to have been 154, and the ag- gregate tonnage 22,752 ; the number of entries, 1014 ; and the wharfage collected, $7279.84.

The steamboat " Ottawa" was the first boat built on the Illinois. She was constructed in part at Ot- tawa, added to at Peru, and finished at St. Louis. She was of the very lightest draught, seventeen inches light, and had a powerful engine, the design being to take two keels in tow in low water, the steamer her- self being light; so that whenever there were seven- teen inches of water on the bars, she would- be able to reach St. Louis with one hundred tons of freight weekly. Her length was one hundred fect, breadth twenty, and the cabin was laid off entirely in state- rooms. The owners resided in Ottawa.

In 1840 the number of steaniboats on the Mississippi and its tributaries was two hundred and eighty-five, with an aggregate tonnage of forty-nine thousand eight hundred tons.

The steamboat " Missouri," then the longest boat on Western waters, visited St. Louis about the 1st of April, 1841. Her length was two hundred and thirty- three feet, the width of her hull was thirty feet, and her entire breadth, guards included, fifty-nine feet. The depth of her hold was eight and a half feet, and this was the quantity of water she drew when fully loaded. Her light draught was five fect four inches. The diameter of her wheels was thirty-two feet, and the length of buckets twelve feet. Her cylinders were twenty-six inches in diameter, with a twelve-foot stroke. She had two engines and seven forty-two-inch boilers. She was steered by chains, and was well fur- nished with hose and other apparatus for the extin- guishment of fires.

The " Missouri" carried six hundred tons, and was built at Pittsburgh for and under the direction of Capt. J. C. Swon, of St. Louis, at a cost of forty-five thousand dollars.

1 The death of Joseph Bates, captain of the steamboat " Boon- ville," occurred on the 5th of April, 1837.

1104

HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.

She was intended as a regular trader between St. Louis and New Orleans, but, as heretofore stated, was burned at St. Louis in August, 1841.

In 1842 two boat-yards for the construction of steamboats and other river-craft were in existence in St. Louis, and during this year the number of steamboats on the Mississippi and its tributaries was four hundred and fifty, with an aggregate tonnage of about ninety thousand tons.1

In 1843 the number was six hundred and seventy- two, with an aggregate tonnage of one hundred and thirty-four thousand four hundred, and in addition to the steamers there were about four thousand flats and keels. For the year 1844 the enrolled and licensed tonnage of Western rivers amounted to one hundred and forty-four thousand one hundred and fifty tons. Messrs. Harvey, Premeau & Co., under the style of the St. Louis Fur Company, chartered the steamer " Clermont, No. 2," D. G. Taylor commander, in Jnne, 1846, and the boat sailed for the head-waters of the Missouri on the 7th to trade with Sioux and Blackfeet Indians. The improvements in the con- struction of steamboats had been such that the time consumed in the voyage from New Orleans to St. Louis, which in early days had occupied weeks, had in 1844 been reduced to a few days. On the 9th of May, 1844, the Republican made the following an- nouncement :

" What has heretofore been merely the speculation of enthu- siasts has been realized. New Orleans has been brought within less than four days' travel of St. Louis,-in immediate neighhor- hood propinquity. The steamboat 'J. M. White' has heen the first to accomplish this extraordinary trip.

"The ' J. M. White' left this port on Monday, April 29th, at three o'clock P.M., with six hundred tons of freight, and arrived at New Orleans on Friday evening, the 3d inst., heing three days and sixteen hours on her downward trip. She departed for St. Louis on Saturday, May 4, 1844, at forty minutes after five o'clock P.M., and arrived on the 8th, having made the trip up in three days and twenty-three hours, and having heen hut nine days on the voyage out and home, including all detention.

" The following are the runs up from wharf to wharf, the best time ever made by any steamboat on the Western waters. "From New Orleans to Natchez, 300 miles, 20 h. 40 m. 66 Vickshurg, 410 miles, 29 h. 55 m.

Montgomery's, 625 miles, 1 day 13 h. 8 m.

Memphis, 775 miles, 2 days 12 h. 8 m.

Cairo, 1000 miles, 3 days 6 h. 44 m.

66 St. Louis, 1200 miles, 3 days 23 h. 9 m."

One of the leading. steamboat men of St. Louis about this time was Capt. W. W. Greene. William Wallace Greene was born in Marietta, Ohio, in 1798. His father, Charles Greene, was of the Rhode Island

family of Greenes which furnished the country one of its most successful Revolutionary generals. He was a merchant in Marietta from '1796 to 1812, and also engaged in the building of ships on a large scale for those days, constructing three ships, two or three brigs, and several schooners, which he owned in con- nection with R. J. Meigs, Col. Lord, and Benjamin Ives Gilman, prominent men of that period. Charles Greene's wife was Elizabeth Wallace, of Philadelphia. From these parents William Wallace Greene inher- ited sterling qualities of heart and mind and elevated religious principles. Reverses in the large shipping interests of his father threw him early in life upon his own resources, and with no capital save energy, a good character, sound common sense, and a fair education, he left home for busicr and more promising fields. He first went to Dayton, Ohio, where for seven years he was employed in the general merchandise estab- lishment of his cousins, Steele & Pierce. He then removed to Louisville, Ky., and New Albany, Ind., continuing in the mercantile business until 1820, when he engaged as clerk on the steamboat " Ohio," running in the New Orleans trade, and for two years was employed on the river. In 1822 he again em- barked in mercantile pursuits at Hamilton, Ohio.

In the following year he removed to Cincinnati and commenced business as a commission and forwarding merchant. Soon after, in connection with his brother Robert, he built the low-pressure steamer "De Witt Clinton," the fastest boat of her day on the Western waters. When finished he took command of her, but soon resigned her to his uncle, Maj. Robert Wallace, of Louisville, Ky. The Greene brothers then built the low-pressure steamers " Native" and " Fairy," and followed in quick succession with others, until they owned a large flotilla of very fine and fast boats, some engaged in the Cincinnati and Louisville trade, others in the Cincinnati trade, and still others in the Ar- kansas, Missouri, and Illinois Rivers. Capt. W. W. Greene commanded several of these vessels, and was as well and favorably known as any officer who navi- gated the great rivers of the West. In 1832-33 he commanded the high-pressure steamer "Superior," employed in the Cincinnati and New Orleans trade.

In 1834, Capt. Greene, in connection with his bro- ther-in-law, Capt. Joseph Conn, built the " Cygnet," with vibrating cylinders ; and while running this boat they removed to St. Louis and made that city their residence and base of operations. Greene was captain, and Conn was clerk ; and so officered, the " Cygnet" for several years did a prosperous business on the Mississippi, Arkansas, and Illinois Rivers.

In 1837, Capts. Greene and Conn sold the " Cygnet,"

1 Elliot R. Hopkins, collector of the port, died on the 18th of September, 1842.

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LIBRARY Ot THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS.

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NAVIGATION ON THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.

and, in connection with James R. Sprigg, engaged in the auction and commission business under the firm- name of Conn, Sprigg & Greene (a partnership easily recalled by many of the older citizens and one of the leading houses of that period). The firm was also at times interested as part owner in the steamers " Cas- pian," " Vandalia," " Oregon," and " Osage," all em- ployed in the St. Louis and New Orleans trade.

Capt. Greene enjoyed in a marked degree the con- fidence of the community. In 1842 (Bernard Pratte being mayor) he was appointed harbor-master ; in 1845, local agent of the Post-Office Department ; and in 1849 surveyor and collector of the port of St. Louis, which office he resigned in 1853 to accept the presidency of the Globe Mutual Insurance Company, to which he was annually elected for many years. All who knew him will remember with what unfailing urbanity and fidelity he discharged these important public trusts.

In 1827, Capt. Greene was married to Sarah A. Conn, daughter of an old and well-known citizen of Cincinnati. He died April 16, 1873, leaving two daughters.

Capt. Greene was an honored, consistent, and use- ful member of the Presbyterian Church. For many years he was a ruling elder, and brought to the duties of that office the zeal and fidelity which he always exhibited in his secular employments. In all the relations of life, in fact, Capt. Greene was a man of the strictest rectitude, untiring energy, and ready gen- erosity. His death was that of the resigned and hope- ful Christian, weary, however, under the accumulated burdens of years.

The following résumé of steamboating at St. Louis is from the Republican of Jan. 5, 1847 :

" During the year 1845 there werc 213 steamboats engaged in the trade of St. Louis, with an aggregate tonnage of 42,922 tons, and 2050 steamboat arrivals, with an aggregate tonnage of 358,045 tons, to which may be added 346 keel- and flat-boats. During the year 1846 there wero 251 steamboats, having an aggregate tonnage of 53,867 tons, engaged in the St. Louis com- inerce. These boats made 2411 trips to our port, making an aggregate tonnage of 407,824 tons. In the same year there were 881 keel- and flat-boat arrivals.

" To exhibit the time of their arrival, and their tonnage, and to show at what period the heaviest portion of our commerce is carried on, we subjoin a statement of the arrivals for each month :

Arrived.

Steamers.

Tonnage.

Flats and Keels.

January ...

8,917

February

152

26,111

March,

158

31,580

April.

195

49,334

May.

372

78,124

June

295

60,043

July

193

46,554

August

211

37,553

September

171

28,331

October

237

37,538

162

November.

185

31,346

171

December

190

32,393

120

" The trade in St. Louis in 1846 employed, as we have stated, 251 boats, of an aggregate tonnage of 53,867 tons. If we esti- mate the cost of these boats at $50 per tou, which is below the true average, we have an investment in the shipping of this city of $2,693,350; and if we allow an average of 25 persons, in- cluding all those employed directly upon the boat, to each vessel, we have a total of 6275 persons engaged in their navigation. Add to these the owners, workmen, builders, agents, shippers, and all those connected or interested in this commerce, from the time the timber is taken from the forest or the ore from the mine, and the list will be swelled to many thousands."

The number of enrolled and licensed steamboats on Western rivers in 1845 was 789, with an aggregate tonnage of 159,713 tons.

The steamers running on the upper Mississippi from 1823 to 1844 were used mainly to transport supplies for the Indian traders and the troops stationed at Fort Snelling. Previous to the arrival of the " Virginia" at Fort Snelling in May, 1823, keel-boats were used for this trade, and sixty days from St. Louis to Fort Snelling was considered a good trip.

The report of the Secretary of the Treasury for 1846 makes the following exhibit of enrolled and licensed tonnage of the West : New Orleans, 180,504.81 ; St. Louis, 22,425.92 ; Pittsburgh, 17,162.94; Cincinnati, 15,312.86 ; Louisville, 8172.26 ; Nashville, 2809.23 ; Wheeling, 2666.76; total, 249,054.77 tons. Apply- ing to this volume of tonnage the average of 210 tons to a steamboat, there were 1190 employed on Western rivers, which at $65 per ton cost $16,188,561. Supposing these boats to run 220 days in a year at a cost of $125 per day, their annual expense amounted to $32,725,000, and they employed 41,650 persons. The cost of the river transportation in 1846 was esti- mated at $41,154,194.1

The rapid increase of the steamboating interest of St. Louis is thus set forth in the Republican of the 27th of January, 1848 :

"In no department of business has the rapid growth of St. Louis as a commercial port been made so undeniably manifest as in her shipping by means of steamboats. The first steam- boat arrival at St. Louis was in 1817. At that time the whole commerce of New Orleans was carried on by about twenty barges of one hundred tons each, and one hundred and sixty keel- and flat-boats of about thirty tons each, making a total tonnage of from six thousand to seven thousand tons. In 1834 the whole number of steamboats on the Mississippi and its tributaries was two hundred and thirty, with a total tonnage of thirty-nine thousand tons. In 1840 the number was two hundred and eighty-five, with a tonnage of forty-nine thousand eight hun- dred. In 1842 the number was four hundred and fifty, with a tonnage of about ninety thousand tons. In 1843 the number rose to six hundred and seventy-two, with a tonnage of one hundred and thirty-four thousand four hundred. In 1846, by reference to the report of the Secretary of the Treasury of the

1 The Commerce and Navigation of the Valley of the Missis- sippi, p. 7.

1106

HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.

lieensed and enrolled steamboat tonnage, the number is stated at eleven hundred and ninety, with a tonnage of two hundred and forty-nine thousand and fifty-four tons.

" In 1839 there were one thousand four hundred and seventy- six steamboat arrivals at this port, with a total tonnage of two hundred and thirteen thousand one hundred and ninety- three tons. In 1840 there were seventeen hundred and twenty- one arrivals; tonnage, two hundred and forty-four thousand one hundred and eighty-six. In 1844 there were two thou- sand one hundred and five arrivals; tonnage, four hundred and sixty-seven thousand eight hundred and twenty-four. In eight years, from 1839 to the end of 1847, the number of steam- boat arrivals and the aggregate tonnage have more than doubled. The arrivals in 1847 exeeed those of 1839 by four hundred and eighty-nine, and the tonnage by three hundred and seventy-one thousand four hundred and forty-six tons."1

In 1851 three steamboats went up the Minnesota River, and in 1852 one boat ran regularly up that river during the season. In 1853 the business re- quired an average of one boat per day. In 1854 the trade had largely increased, and in 1855 the arrivals of steamers from the Minnesota numbered 119.

In 1852 the novel application of the steamboat to the purposes of a circus was made by Capt. Jack, well known to thousands of the "old-timers" in the Mississippi valley from his long connection with the show business. In that year he was engaged in build- ing at Cincinnati the great " Floating Palace" for Spalding & Rogers' circus, among the oldest and most successful managers in that line in the United States. Capt. Jack purchased an interest in the floating palace, and began his eareer as a showman at Pittsburgh. The boat earried an amphitheatre, in which the eques- trian performances took place, which was capable of seating one thousand persons. From Pittsburgh they deseended the Ohio and Mississippi to New Or- leans, giving exhibitions at all places along the banks. From New Orleans they steamed across the gulf to Mobile, and from Mobile the palace aseended the Alabama River to the head of navigation at Wetunka, and, returning, went up the Black Warrior to Colum- bia. Returning to Mobile and New Orleans, they started on the spring campaign up the Mississippi, and, arriving at St. Louis, exhibited at the foot of Poplar Street to an audience of twenty five hundred people , for three days. The erowd was so immense that they charged one dollar " permission," instead of admission tickets, to those who were unable to get in, for the privilege of looking in at the windows. G. R. Spalding was the manager of the concern, and Mr. Van Norton the general agent. The palace continued

to exhibit successfully along the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio Rivers until 1860, when the boat was beached in New Orleans. Capt. Jack then engaged on the " Banjo" with a French Zouave troupe, which exhibited on all the principal tributaries of the lower Mississippi, up the Red River, the Caehe, La Fourche, and Atehafalaya, and on the Mississippi at Fort Adams. On the 19th of July, 1862, they entered the boundaries of the Southern Confederacy, and at New Iberia and Franklin, La., gave shows for the benefit of the soldiers of the Confederate States. In 1862, Spalding & Rogers organized their outfit for South America. Mr. Spalding offered Capt. Jack an interest in the venture, advising him at the same time that it was hazardous. " You," said Mr. Spald- ing, " are now well fixed, and may lose all, but if we lose all we can stand it." Capt. Jack went into busi- ness for himself, and lost largely in Confederate cur- reney, but came out finally very successful. He was from Ohio, and arrived in St. Louis in 1849 with but one dollar in his pocket. Spalding & Rogers returned from their South American venture in 1866, having made money. They returned with all their company except one lady, who died on the trip. Capt. Jack owed his suceess in life to his former employé, G. R. Spalding, who died in New Orleans in February, 1880. Mrs. Spalding died six months afterwards, leaving Charles Spalding, of St. Louis, who was their only living son, as their heir.

During the season of 1856 trade upon the Missis- sippi was very prosperous, and the arrivals at St. Paul exhibited an inerease over any previous year, notwith- standing the season of navigation was much shorter than that of the year before.2

In the year 18703 the most remarkable cvent which

2 In July, 1857, the steamer " Louisiana," commanded by Capt. J. Harry Johnson, with S. D. Bradley, elerk, and Capt. D. R. Asbury, pilot ; Joseph Brennan, engineer ; and Hugh Maney, mate, fired her gun from a point between the shot- tower and water-works at eight minutes after four o'eloek A.M., and arrived at Keokuk, a distance of two hundred and forty miles, making the run all the way against a swift eurrent, by eight o'eloek and sixteen minutes p.M., in sixteen hours and eight minutes. On her memorable run the " Louisiana" landed at Hannibal, and lost some twenty-four minutes. She beat the fastest time ever before made, that of the " Hannibal City," forty-one minutes.

$ The " Jennie Bonnie," a little yacht commanded by Capt. Carpenter, arrived at St. Louis June 14, 1870, from New Orleans, in tow of the " Mary Alice." Capt. Carpenter had started over a year previously from the coast of Maiue, and had made a voyage of over twenty-six thousand miles, ineluding the survey of harbors and inlets, terminated by his arrival at St. Lonis. The erew consisted only of the captain and a eom- panion. The vessel took a most eireuitous route, up and down all the bays and inlets of the Atlantic coast, until her arrival

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History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 27

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898 Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts Number of Pages: 1358

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1358