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 33
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" Clearances .- Before the departuro of any vessel navigating tho Mississippi or other rivers, destined to a foreign port or place beyond the northern limits of the Confederate States of America, the master or person having charge thereof shall de- liver to the collector or chief officer of the customs at the port from which such vessel is about to depart a manifest of the cargo on board the same, in the form and verified in the man- ner now provided by law for vessels to a foreign port, and obtain from said collector a clearance as follows :
Confederate States of America.
District of
Port of 18
These are to certify to all whom it doth concern, that
master or commander of the
of
bound for
hath entered and cleared his said vessel according to law. Given under my hand and seal at
the custom-house of
this day of 18
Collector.
" It shall be permitted to vessels engaged in the navigation and commerce provided for by these regulations, after clearance, to take on board at the port of original departure, or any other place within the limits of the Confederacy, any goods, wares, or merchandise, and to proceed therewith to a destination beyond
tho Confederato limits, on delivering to the collector or chief revenue officer at the port of Norfolk, on the Mississippi, or at the port nearest the frontier of the Confederacy on any other river, a schedule describing all the goods on board, the quantity, value, and destination, not declared in the manifest delivered at the time of clearance at tho custom-house of the original port of departure. The schedule thus received is to be for- warded to the port from which the vessel may have originally cleared.
" Lastly, it is made the duty of the collector at the port of Norfolk, or at the other frontier ports at which masters of out- ward-bound vessels are required to deliver schedules, to board all vessels bound for places beyond the Confederate limits in the same manner and at the hours as hereinbefore provided for in- ward-bound vessels."
As long as there were no railroads to compete with the trade and commerce of the river, the subject of improving the navigation of Western waters was dis- cussed. Commercial opinion seemed to have settled down to the conviction that impediments to naviga- tion, such as snags, sand-bars, sunken boats, and the rapids of the upper river, were inevitable and had to be submitted to. But when railroads began to divert tlre trade, and threatened loss and injury to the vast amount of capital already invested in steamboats and barges, as well as to the multitude of laborers who found employment in river navigation, the political power of the Mississippi valley was invoked to protect the great river from the loss that was threatened, as well as to employ its natural advantages to better effect in aid of the consumer and producer. The initiatory . steps looking to the improvement of the navigation of Western rivers by the general government were taken at a convention held in St. Louis in February, 1867, which resulted in annual appropriations for the removal of snags, sand-bars, and the improvements at the rapids at Rock Island.
The practical operation of the St. Louis grain elevator, the charter for which was granted in 1863, demonstrated the fact that grain could be handled in bulk advantageously, and that with proper facilities for shipping to New Orleans and transferring at that point in bulk, grain could be delivered at the Eastern cities and foreign ports cheaper ria the Mississippi River than by any other route. The cost of trans- porting a bushel of wheat from St. Paul to New York via St. Louis and New Orleans, with the proper facil- ities for transferring at those cities, was ascertained to be at least twenty cents per bushel less than by any northern route, and it was also discovered that the cost of transportation could be further reduced ten cents with a proper canal around the rapids at Rock Island. The Mississippi Valley Transportation Com- pany was this year (1863) handling grain in bulk, and a transfer elevator was built by St. Louis parties
1131
RIVER COMMERCE OF SAINT LOUIS.
for use in New Orleans at the opening of navigation. Further elevator facilities, chiefly at East St. Louis, were undertaken in 1866, and the energy and enter- prise of St. Louis were fully awakened to the prae- ticability of making the Mississippi the great high- way for the products of the Northwest to foreign markets. At the same time the trade with Montana and the gold regions of the upper Missouri was in- creasing, and had extended beyond the most sanguine estimates. Fifty-one boats left St. Louis during the year for the upper Missouri, carrying twenty-two million seven hundred and seventy thousand pounds of freight and many passengers.
The opening of the year 1866 found the Missis- sippi at St. Louis firmly closed by ice, which broke up on the night of January 12th, destroying an im- mense quantity of shipping.
The following statement shows the quantity of grain received and disbursed by the St. Louis Ele- vator Company from Oct. 24, 1865, to Jan. 1, 1867 :1
Receipts from Oc- tober, 1865, to January, 1867. Bushels.
Disbursed from Oc- Balance in tober, 1865, to January, 1867. Bushels.
Elevator Jan- uary, 1867. Bushels.
Wheat.
1,342,750.43
1,148,344.22
194,406.21
Corn ...
228,495.05
221,105.22
7,389.39
Oats ....
127,944.07
126,306.02
1,638.05
Barley.
252,901.40
243,199.43
9,701.45
Rye ....
...
Malt
...
........
1,364.04
Total ....
1,972,609
1,758,109
214,500
Receipts for 1866.
Bushels.
Wheat.
1,087,090.50
Corn ..
210,230.55
Oats
54,867.12
Barley.
11,072.42
Rye .... Malt ...
1,364.04
Total.
1,376,705
The tonnage of St. Louis, comprising steamers plying between that and other ports, July 1, 1866, was as follows :
Rivers.
Steam- Barges. Total. Tonnage.
Value.
Lower Mississippi.
55
30
85
74,800
Arkansas ...
16
...
16
5,925
$3,970,000 378,000
Cumberland and Ten- nessee.
18
...
18
5,925
282,000
Upper Mississippi
44
67
111
30,685
1,625.000
Illinois
16
25
41
10,355
488,000
Ohio.
45
...
45
19,800
1,088,000
Missouri.
71
...
71
38,525
2,545,000
Total
265
122
387
186,015
$10,376,000
The effect of railroads upon the trade of the Mississippi and other rivers becomes very apparent
by an examination of the commercial statistics for 1866. For example, of the total receipts of flour, amounting to 2,107,026 barrels, only 424,627 were received by river; of 4,550,305 bushels of wheat, 3,245,995 bushels ; of 7,233,671 bushels of corn, 4,815,860 bushels; of 3,667,253 bushels of oats, 2,648,612 bushels ; of 375,417 bushels of rye, 356,078 bushels ; and of 548,796 bushels of barley, 425,969 bushels. In the export of grain the same influence is visible. Of 2,107,026 barrels of flour, the rivers carried 1,149,868 bushels; of 4,550,304 bushels of wheat, 408,742 bushels; of 7,233,671 bushels of corn, 6,713,027 bushels ; of 3,667,253 bushels of oats, 2,581,492 bushels; of 375,417 bushels of rye, 184,963 bushels; of 548,796 bushels of barley, 53,655 bushels. The total re- ceipts of grain amounted to 22,079,072 bushels, and the total exports to 18,835,969 bushels.
The year 1866 was an unprofitable one in many respects. The cost of the necessities of life was greatly increased, political dissensions were bitter and · violent, and the financial policy of Congress and in- different crops produced doubt and uncertainty as to the future, and greatly depressed trade and business. The receipts of flour and grain at St. Louis fell off in 1867 4,210,317 bushels from 1866, and the ex- ports diminished proportionately. With the excep- tion of the hog product, there was a corresponding decrease in every article of commerce. Previous to the civil war the great market of St. Louis had been in the Southern States, where the energies of the planting interest were wholly devoted to the growing of cotton and sugar, necessitating the importation of breadstuffs. The abolition of slavery produced an entire change in tlic labor system, and the destitution that followed the war interfered even as late as 1867 with the production of the great staples of the South, and for this reason, and because it compelled the raising of food-supplies at home, made the Southern people small buyers in the market of St. Louis. The prospect of so great a change in the agricultural productions of the Southern States obliged St. Louis to seek other markets for the produce which came to her from the North and West, and to open up other avenues of trade. With this in view the attention of her merchants were directed to South America and Europe. The city of New Orleans, with interests identical with those of St. Louis, set on foot a movement to establish a regular line of steamers with Liverpool, and to construct a large elevator to receive and disburse grain in the most economical manner. The contest between the river and the railroad for the great prize
1 " Up to 1871 the elevator had no souree of supply save the river, connections with the various railroads not having been made in 1866."-St. Louis, the Commercial Metropolis of the Mis- sissippi Valley, by L. U. Reavis, p. 189.
...
...
...
19,152.46
19,152.46
1,364.04
12,079.14
ers.
1132
HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.
of transporting the produce of the West was fairly under way at this time. The cheapness of transpor- tation was to determine the supremacy, and in order that the grain of the West might reach an exporting point at less cost via the Mississippi River than via the lakes required improved and increased facilities. The Des Moines and Rock Island rapids were in a fair way of removal, the work having been under- taken and regularly appropriated for by the general government. That obstruction removed, the elevators of St. Louis were ready to receive or transfer the
grain, and the barge company provided barges for transportation to New Orleans, where the Higby elevator transferred the grain to ocean vessels. Under the impetus thus given several cargoes of grain were shipped to New York and Europe, estab- lishing fully the practicability of the route. St. Louis added other facilities for handling grain by extending the North Missouri and Iron Mountain Railroads to the elevators.
The arrivals and departures of vessels at St. Louis during 1867 and 1868 were :
Rivers.
Lower
Mississippi.
Upper
Mississippi.
Missouri.
Illinois.
White.
Cum-
berland.
Arkansas.
Tennessee.
Ohio.
Osage.
Yazoo.
Total
Steamers.
Canal-Boats
and Barges.
Total.
Tonnage.
Arrival, 1867 ...
691
886
311
350
17
5
38
45 46
130
1868 ...
596
969
35G
291
1
1
12 49 15
41
154 105 228
N: N:
5 2 4 :729
2478 338
947 1133
3425
1,086,320 1,655,795
Departure, 1867 1868
579
1013
361
332
..
......
ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES FOR FOUR YEARS.
ARRIVALS.
DEPARTURES.
YEAR.
Boats.
Barges.
Tonnage.
No. of boats.
1868
2338
1133
1,055,795
2579
1867.
2478
947
1,086,320
2585
1866.
2972
1124
1,227,078
3066
1865
2768
1114
1,229,826
2953
During the year 1870 the general government established gauges at different points on the Western rivers, where the daily rise and fall of the water are taken and furnished by telegraph each day to the different cities, also the height of water as compared with a well-known high- or low-water mark, which gives a more perfect indication of the depth of the channel.
The system of railroads which in 1870 had spread out from St. Louis in every direction had the effect of contracting the limits of freightage by water. When not only freight but passengers were carried by water, the steamboats of the Mississippi found a remunerative trade. But the time had arrived when the steamboat had become too slow a means of transportation for an enterprising and progressive people. The passenger travel having deserted the steamboats, they were compelled to look to their freight-list almost entirely for their profits. The question of how to preserve to the river marine the traffic with the South that was, and would be for several years, dependent upon the river was discussed
with a view to the use of iron in the construction of hulls both for steamers and barges.
During the year 1870 the agitation of the question of materially reducing the taxes and dues paid by steam- boatmen for the purpose of maintaining wharves and improving the levees and harbors of river towns and cities was kept up almost uninterruptedly through the entire season.
The following is a condensed statement of all the wharfage collected at St. Louis from April, 1846, to December, 1870, a period of twenty-four years :
From April, 1846, to April, 1847.
1847,
06
1848
31,231.05
1848,
1849
35,886.16
66
1849,
1850
33,701.72
66
66
1850,
1851
46,912.26
55,506.69 5S,402.37
66
1854,
1855
60,069.99 62,613.46
66
1856,
66
1857
74,061.68
72,345.72
66
66
1859,
1S60
66
1860,
1861
66
1861,
1862
69,615.72 67,544.66 28,635.85 43,997.36
66
1862,
66
1863
66
1864
54,152.90 72,290.97
66
1864,
1865,
1866
S4,384.60 77,135.20
1867, to January, 1868.
66,293.45
66 January, 1868, to April, 1869,
95,584.4S
April, 1869, to April 12, 1870.
S7,706.92
12, 1870, to December, 1870, inclusive.
66,626.60
Total
.$1,480,043.36
The following are the expenditures from April, 1848, to December, 1870, inclusive :
1852
47,064.35
1852,
66
1853
1854
66
1855,
1856
1857,
1858,
1859
64,808.18
1866,
1867
2585
741
915
318
396
11 3
5
44
2577
...... ......
3471
......
$23,371.02
1851,
1853,
1858
1863,
IS65
1133
RIVER COMMERCE OF SAINT LOUIS.
From April, 1848, to April, 1849
$16,252.24
45,590.42
66
1850,
66
1851
68,967.38
66
1851,
66
1852
31,959.08
64,160.74
66
1853,
1854,
1855
92,965.51
YEARS.
Boats.
Barges.
Tons of
Received.
Registered
Tonnage.
Boats.
Tons of
Freight
Shipped.
1882
2537
1310
802,080
1882
2487
769,905
1881
2426
1525
852,410
1881
2340
884,025
44,202.93 1880 ..
2871
1821
893,860
1880
2866
1,038,350
1879
2360
1471
688,970
1879
2392
676,445
1878.
2322
1291
714,700
1878
2348
614,675 597,676
1876 ..
2122
683
688,755
1876
2118
600,225
1875
2201
743
663,525
1875
2223
639,095
1874.
2332
951
732,765
1874
2364
707,325
1873
2316
1020
810,055
1873
2303
783,256
1872
2346
14-5
863,919
1872
2322
805,282
1871.
2574
1165
883,401
1871
2604
770,498
1870.
2796
1195
1,166,889
1870.
2782
1869
2789
1240
1,225,443
1869
2786
1868
2338
1133
1,055,795
1868
2579
1867.
2478
947
1,086,340
1867
2588
1866
2972
1142
1,227,078
1866
3096
1865
2767
1141
1,229,826
1865
2953
The value of barges belonging to St. Louis in 1872 was :
Northern Line Paeket Company ... 31 barges. $89,100
St. Louis Land Company ..
7
8,000
Grafton Stone and Tow Company .. 18
9,600
Conrad Line ..
6
9,000
Bridge Company .
19
100,000
Northwestern Union Packet Com-
42
60,700
Mississippi Valley Transportation
35
« 432,000
Peoria Packet Company ...
6
9,000
Miscellaneous
Total value. $727,400
Value of Barges on the Ohio.
Cineinnati
$408,500
Pomeroy.
122,500
Wheeling
27,000
Louisville
200,000
Evansville.
162,000
Gallipolis.
74,000
Kanawha
120,000
Pittsburgh (exelusive of coal-boats)
800,000
Paducah
12,000
Miscellaneous
1,000,000
1 Paid for removing wreeks, included in the above amounts, viz. :
In 1862-63
$300.00
1866-67
64,952.77
1867-68
50,575.00
1868-69
30,775.00
Total
.$146,602.77
2 In the report of the Union Merchants' Exchango for 1866 it is stated that "the barge system is fast finding favor with our merchants, and will, nt no distant day, be the provailing mode of transporting heavy freights, whilo the fine packets which now grace our western waters will be run on time for pas- sengers and light freight. The Mississippi Valley Transporta- tion Company has, during the past summer, demonstrated tho fact that this is the cheapest mode of moving produeo and heavy freights, having sinee May 1st carried from this port over ono hundred and ten thousand tons. And when the plan of moving grain in bulk is established the tow-boats and barges will add to tho commeree of our eity by giving cheap freights and saving an immense amount of expense in the shape of hand- ling, tarpaulins, and dunnage."
ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES FOR EIGHTEEN YEARS.
ARRIVALS.
DEPARTURES.
102,559.25
63,266.98
66
1858,
66
1859,
66
1860
58,902.88
66
1860,
1861,
66
1862,
66
1863 1
10,347.98
66
1863,
66
1864
7,498.28
=
1864,
1865
25,421.23
66
1866,
18671
1867, to October, 1868 1
66
October, 1868, to October, 1869 1.
123,974.02
66
1869, to April 11, 1870.
59,584.34
April 12, 1870, to December, 1870, inelusive.
90,859.20
Total
$1,629,499:24
As the railroads grew in importance and developed their power to successfully compete with the steam- boats in the transportation of merchandise and heavy freights, the steamboat interest, finding the trade gradually leaving it, began the employment of barges. In 1848 the total number employed at St. Louis was sixty-eight, with a tonnage of four thou- sand six hundred and forty-one tons. There were
also in that year engaged in the trade a large number of keel-, flat-, and eanal-boats, the arrivals of which for the year 1848 aggregated three hundred and forty-nine in number, and thirteen thousand nine hundred and sixty in tons. In 1849 the barges numbered seventy, with a combined tonnage of four thousand four hundred and ninety-seven tons. This branch of transportation continued to develop, as will appear from the following table :2
$3,769,400
" Gray's Iron Line," organized in 1863, had, in 1872, barges aggregating 29,900 tonnage plying be- tween Cincinnati and St. Louis.
The number of steamboats and barges owned by the packet companies in 1870 was 117 steamers and 176 barges, with a tonnage capacity of 176,615, and valued then at $5,219,700.
The year 1871 was not a successful year in river navigation, business showing a considerable falling off, both in the number of trips and to the extent of ten thousand tons in tonnage, the season being unusually short and the stage of the water unsatisfactory. The average depth of water in the Western rivers was less " in 1871 than during any season in the past twenty-five years."3 Notwithstanding these draw- backs, substantial progress was made towards replacing
$ Republican, Jan. 1, 1872.
66
1852,
1855,
1856
74,038.69
1857
56,107.61
1858
1859
38,662.63
1877.
2150
660
644,495
1877
2156
1865,
1866
59,904.06
183,232.60
193,205.82
1861
1862
12,835.37
1856,
1857,
1853
1854
66
1849.
1850
10,000
pany
Company.
Freight
YEARS.
1134
HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.
the river eommeree on a firmer basis. Gradually but surely the methods of operating on the Mississippi and its tributaries were changing. The demand for cheap freight was eausing shippers to turn their atten- tion to water routes, and to meet the general demand in this direction, steamboatmen were making every effort to discover the method by which river naviga- tion might be cheapened and improved. A spirit of enterprise, of genuine and healthy progress, was alive among the river men. The steamers of the Western rivers up to 1871 had generally been built to aeeommo- date both freight and passengers. On all of them were erceted eostly and weighty eabins, and of course the carrying capacity of the boat was reduced by as much as the weight of the eabin. In addition to this draw- back, the owner was compelled to maintain a large and expensive cabin crew, and when passenger travel was dull freights had to be taxed to make up the deficit in a losing passenger trip. Experiments had been made with boats built with large carrying capacity, but furnished with no cabins for the accommodation of passengers. This elass of boats proved suceessful. In 1871, on the Ohio, lower Mississippi, Illinois, and upper Mississippi large quantities of freight were trans- ported in barges, and the number of tow-boats and barges was being inereased every year.
During the same year a sueeessful trip was made from St. Louis to Galveston, Texas, by a light stern-whecl steamboat, the "Beardstown," demonstrating the practieability of establishing direct communication between St. Louis, through the bayous and coast channel, and the coast eities of Texas. The enlarge- ment of the Illinois and Michigan Canal opencd to St. Louis, through the Illinois River and that eanal, di- rect water communication with Chicago, Milwaukee, Duluth, Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, and Buffalo. An iron propeller called the " Two Brothers," built and equipped at Buffalo, N. Y., completed a voyage from that port via the Miami Canal, Muskingum, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers to the mouth of the Red River, and thenee through that stream into the Atchafalaya, the Sabine, and thenee to Galveston. The Michigan and Illinois Canal having been opened, three lake sehooners at the beginning of winter sailed from Chi- cago, passed through the eanal, and entered Peoria Lake. It was the intention of the owners of these. vessels to pass down the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers to the gulf, where they could opcrate during the winter. Their design was frustrated by the closing of the river and lake by iec. These incidents seemed to promise that at no very distant period loaded barges would be towed from ports on the lakes to New Orleans direet.
The legislation by Congress in February, 1871, rc- pealed the then existing steamboat laws, and enacted a law of more stringent and restrictive character. Under its provisions a board of officers was ereated with almost autoeratie control over the whole steam- boat interests. No sooner did the obnoxious pro- visions of this law receive the attention of the steamboatmen than a storm of opposition to its enforcement swept over the entire country. Associ- ations of steamboatmen and vessel-owners' associations were formed at all the river-, lake-, and sea-ports in the United States. For the first time in the history of the country the owners of steamboats and ships were united. A call for a convention of vessel-owners to meet in Louisville, Ky., on the 15th of November, was responded to from about twenty States, who sent delegates. The convention, composed of men repre- senting about one billion six hundred million dollars invested in steam-vessels, met at the appointed time, and after a harmonious but earnest discussion of the grievances under which they labored, extending through a three days' session, the convention adjourned after ap- pointing certain general committees. The executive committee labored earnestly to prepare a bill to be introduced into Congress which would be just to their interests and still fair toward the general government. The passage of the law in question awakened an in- terest in the subjcet of steam navigation, and provoked a unanimity of feeling among those most deeply in- terested. A national convention of vessel-owners was ealled to meet in Washington City on tlie 22d of De- eember, 1872, to consider what further could be done to reawaken an interest in water transportation lines.1
The steamboat tonnage of Western rivers in 1871 was :
Pittsburgh. 162,523.91
Brownsville
18,250.00
Wheeling
6,254.00
Parkersburg.
4,180.00
Kanawha River trade.
2,185.00
Gallipolis
1,652.00
Cincinnati
41,318.08
Pomeroy
2,310.08
Madison
1,740.26
Zanesville.
620.00
Louisville.
18,820.97
Paducah
3,021.00
Evansville
10,652.05
Nashville
4,500.00
Cairo.
4,207.00
Memphis
20,402.12
New Orleans.
285,825.18
Galena (Dis.)
10,307.18
St. Louis (carrying capacity ).
96,926.26
St. Louis (barges' carrying capacity) ..
45,741.00
Cincinnati (barges) ..
26,638.17
Barges at other ports.
35,782.19
Total tonnage (capacity).
803,844.45
1 The law of the 2Sth of February, 1871, has not been materially changed, and will be found in the Revised Statutes of the United States, Title LII, Regulation of Steam Vessels.
1135
RIVER COMMERCE OF SAINT LOUIS.
The aggregate value of steamboat property on Western rivers in 1871 was as follows :
Pittsburgh, Pa ..
$3,690,000
Wheeling, W. Va. (estimated).
385,000
Gallipolis, Ohio.
40,000
Cineinnati, Ohio.
3,065,500
Louisville, Ky.
1,097,500
Evansville, Ind
463,100
Nashville, Tenn
148,000
Memphis, Tenn
685,000
Galena (Dis.).
820,000
New Orleans (river steamers)
6,842,600
Total.
$17,214,700
To which add steamboats at St. Louis
5,428,800
Grand total
$22,643,500
Value of barges on Western rivers ...
3,769,400
Total value of boats and barges .....
$26,412,900
The above statement does not include the coal-boats of Pittsburgh, nor the stone-boats employed at various quarries on the Ohio, Green, Cumberland, and Ten- nessee Rivers, the boats of the upper Tennessee River, the canal-boats employed in the navigation of the Miami, Wabash, and Illinois Canals, nor does it in- elude the barges employed at New Orleans and other ports on the Southern waters, which would add con- siderably to the aggregate value.
In July, 1872, an invitation signed by many of the best citizens of St. Louis was sent to the com- missioner of emigration for Missouri in London, in- viting representative Englishmen to visit the great fair at St. Louis in the following October; and the London Times of August 30th, in a leading editorial, urged upon its readers the importance of a more direct trade with the Mississippi valley, and particularly with St. Louis. The invitation was favorably received in England, and although only a few Englishmen were able, in consequence of the lateness of the scason when it reached them, to attend the fair, it resulted in the formation of the " Mississippi Valley Society of London and St. Louis," having for its " general objcets," first, the removal of " all obstruetions to the direct interchange of products between Europe and the great Western and Southern States of North America ;" and, secondly, " to facilitate the introdue- tion of foreign capital into those States, for the pur- pose of developing their resources and increasing their commerce."
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