Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II, Part 67

Author: Dunbar Rowland
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Madison, Wis. : S.A. Brant
Number of Pages: 1020

USA > Mississippi > Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II > Part 67

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Among the heroes of the days of the barge and keel-boat stands Mike Fink, who has thus described himself: "I can out-run, out- hop, out-jump, throw down, drag out and lick any man in the country. I'm a Salt-river roarer; I love the wimming and I'm chock full of fight." He was a typical leader of his class and many marvelous stories are told of this man.

Mention has already been made about the feeling of the old- time rivermen concerning the introduction of steam navigation. River life at once underwent a great change with the gradual su- premacy of the steamboat in the carrying trade. The "sounding whistle" blew away from the valleys much that was picturesque, and well developed muscles no longer commanded the same pre- mium. The flat-boat did not pass away, but the old-time river- men, as a type, have disappeared. The preceding generation of rivermen were accustomed to obey the orders of superiors, and they were sharply divided into two classes, the serving and the served. Mike Fink was "captain" of his boat and the master of his men. On the steamboat this division is reduplicated, and there are found four general classes, the proprietors, navigators, operators, and deckhands.

River Transportation. The story of river transportation, in connection with the history of Mississippi, can be best told by tracing the evolution of river craft and commerce on the Missis- sippi river. Along the entire western border of the State the great stream pursues its turbid, impetuous course, and the earliest white settlements were in the neighborhood of its banks, or ad- jacent to tributary streams which gave ready access to its waters. The same craft, broadly speaking, which plied the waters of the Mississippi, traversed the inland waters of the State. True, the barges, keels, flats and steamboats, on the Big Black, Yazoo, Pearl, Tallahatchie, Pascagoula and Tombigbee, were identical in all save size, with the craft on the larger stream. Space is wanting, were it possible, to detail the story of inland transportation in Mis-

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sissippi, and we shall only attempt an outline of the broader as- pects of the subject.

To reach the isolated settlements of the Natchez District in southwestern Mississippi, before the opening up and improvement of the well known overland routes through the Territory, the long and dangerous sea voyage from the Atlantic Coast States, via the foreign port of New Orleans, and the lower reaches of the Mis- sissippi river, was often undertaken. Another route of travel was by way of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Navigable waters were easily reached in the latter part of the eighteenth century by im- portant roads which converged at Pittsburg and neighboring towns on the Youghiogheny and Monongahela. The Ohio and the Mississippi were long the great liquid highways to the west and southwest. Before the days of steam navigation, the bulk of traffic was ever downstream, and the Ohio and Mississippi flowed in the RIGHT DIRECTION. Down these mighty streams at the dawning of the nineteeth century poured an ever increasing vol- ume of immigration and commerce.

Compared with the evolution of methods 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, witnessed a change in river craft which ran the whole gamut from the primitive canoe and pirogue, through the later barge, keel-boat, flat-boat and sailing vessel, to the palatial river steamers of the '40's. Each marked some change in the social order of things, some development, unnoticed at the time perhaps, in the development 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 of river craft was in exclusive use. The canoe continued in use long after it had subserved its original purposes of a cheap, light and quickly 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 the keels and barges had their beginnings as far back as 1742, and overlap the era of steam ; while the heavy, lum- bering, downstream flat-boats, were in use by the thousands on the Mississippi, long after the steamboats plied its rapid and treacherous currents, and, indeed, are in common use today in their modified forms.

It is nevertheless true that prior to the close of the Revolution- ary War, the canoe, pirogue and batteau types of river craft reigned supreme on the inland waters. The customary freight of the canoe was wampum and Indian goods and presents, packs and peltries. Nor should its carrying capacity be underestimated. Though frail, and commonly built from the bark of trees, it could be made long, and freighted with a score of men and their sup- plies for an extended voyage.

The words pirogue and canoe were often used interchangeably, but were technically distinct. Both were quickly made, but while

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the canoe was paddled and easily glided up stream, the pirogue was pushed by oars or setting-poles, ran easily with the current, and only ascended the stream by the expenditure of much effort. Both were boats of a primitive and undeveloped period.

The batteau was a downstream craft and commonly known on the Mississippi as a barge. It differed, however, from the barge in being wider at the middle and tapering at each end like the modern "canal boat."

The carly Mississippi barge was a square box of any length, width and depth, and rarely ascended the river with a load. The barge and batteau were essentially craft of burden and could be loaded according to the prevailing stage of water. Furs, peltries, Indian supplies, and the armament and stores for the early west- ern forts were floated down stream in their clumsy hulks.

As population poured into the upper Mississippi and Ohio val- leys, and prosperous settlements arose such as St. Louis, Pitts- burg, Cincinnati, and other towns, the surplus products of these regions increased vastly in amount, and were shipped south in constantly increasing bulk. They found a ready market among the rich planters of the lower Mississippi, in New Orleans and Mobile, and many ship loads were sent to the eastern seaboard, to the West Indies and to European ports. At the same time new and better markets were created for the staples of the South, such as sugar, molasses, fruits, etc. The era from 1780-1817 was essen- tially that of the barge, the keel-boat and the flat-boat-all crafts of burden. The famous keel-boat was the first upstream boat of burden to ply the southern and western waters. Its functions were two-fold: first, the upstream trade, second, to touch and connect interior settlements and do the carrying trade of the numerous portages. The keel-boat heralded a new era in the internal devel- opment of the Mississippi and Ohio valleys. (Historic Highways, vol. 9, p. 113.) "It was a long narrow craft, averaging twelve to fifteen feet by fifty, and pointed at both prow and stern. On either side were provided what were known as "running Boards", ex- tending 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 twenty to forty tons of freight well protected from the weather; it required from six to ten men, in addition to the captain, who was usually the steersman, to propel it upstream. Each man was provided with a pole to which was affixed a heavy socket. The crew, being divided equally 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-re- turning quickly, at the command of the captain, to the head for a new 'set'. In ascending rapids, 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 rocky. The slightest error in push- ing or steering the boat exposed her to be thrown across the cur-

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rent, 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 required 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 barges of this period were great, pointed, covered hulks carrying forty or fifty tons of freight (the very largest carried 60 to 80), and manned by almost as many men. (There were, of course, numerous small barges in use as well, that could go wher- ever a keel-boat went, and used on certain portage and path trades on the smaller streams. The small barge was practically a keel- boat, varying only in shape and the absence of running-boards.) The great freight barges of the Mississippi went down stream 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, and sometimes, coffee, dry goods and hardware, and they came down stream laden with the products of the west such as peltry, skins, flour, lead, tobacco, hemp, bacon, pork, beef, apples, whiskey, 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 draught and size. The regular trip to New Orleans and back to Louisville or Cincinnati required two months for the down- ward and four for the upward voyage, or six months altogether, and only two trips a year could be made by the same boat. Never- theless, the line of inter-communication was maintained by a suc- cession of boats owned by enterprising men. It is probable that the number of barges and keels engaged in the up and down stream commerce on the Mississippi to New Orleans never exceeded 40 in any one year. Between the peace of 1783 and the surrender of Louisiana in 1803, the Spanish maintained a regular trade and intercourse between New Orleans and upper Louisiana. Spanish barges were common on the upper as well as upon the lower Mis- sissippi; and extensive commercial houses at St. Louis, St. Charles, Kaskaskia and other towns upon the river conducted the trade. (Navigation and Commerce, Monette.)

The commerce of the Ohio region passed beyond the limits of the United States and entered the Spanish port of New Orleans, by virtue of commercial treaties with that nation. Monette writes that the exports from the United States by this route agreeably to the Custom-house register, at Loftus' Heights, from January 1 until June 30 of 1801, were conveyed in four hundred and fifty flat-boats, twenty-six keels, two schooners, one brig and seven pirogues.

The flat-boat was the important craft of the era of immigra- 36-11

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tion, the friend of the pioneer. It was the boat that never came back, a downstream craft solely. The flat-boat of average size was a roofed craft about forty feet long, twelve feet wide and eight feet deep. It was square and flat-bottomed and was man- aged by six oars; two of these, about thirty feet long, on each side, were known as "sweeps" and were manned by two men each; one at the stern, forty or fifty feet long including its big blade, was called the "steering oar"; a small oar was located at the prow, known as the "gouger," which assisted in guiding the boat through swift water. One man only was required at the steering oar and at the gouger. These flat-boats were of two types, the "Kentucky" and "New Orleans," and Kentucky and New Orleans were the destinations of the great majority. The nominal differ- ence between a Kentucky and New Orleans boat was that the former was only half roofed over, while the latter was stronger and entirely covered with a roof.

The Navigator, published by Zadok Cramer in Pittsburg, in its edition of 1811, and calling itself "the trader's useful guide in navigating the Monongahela, Allegheny, Ohio and Mississippi Rivers" was a guide book for emigrants. How to buy or build a flat-boat was the first query of the pioneer father as 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 congregation of men, women, children, and do- mestic animals, surrounded by the few crude, housekeeping uten- sils which had been brought over the mountains or purchased at the port of embarkation. To such emigrants as contemplated a trip down the Mississippi the Navigator had this to say: "The boats intended for the Mississippi must be much stronger in their timbers, and more firmly built than those for the Ohio only. They ought also to be caulked better, and much higher all around, better roofed, and have a longer and stronger cable; and it would be well. if proprietors can afford it, instead of taking alongside a canoe, to procure a kind of long boat, that would carry, in case of a ship- wreck, a leak, or other accident, 20 or 30 barrels of flour or whis- key. This provision might be sometimes perhaps the means of saving a part of a cargo, and the boat would sell at Orleans, if well and neatly made, for as much as it might cost at Pittsburgh, or any other place where they could be purchased."

Collins, in his History of Kentucky states that Captain Jacob Yoder took the first flat-boat down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans in 1782. From this time on they were used in increasing numbers. Both in early and more recent times, they were always used or sold at their destination for lumber, and their owners and crews, except for the few who preferred to work their passage north on the barges and keels, returned to their homes on foot and on horseback by way of the overland trails through Mississippi, Kentucky and Tennessee, a long, wearisome journey of 1,000 miles or more. The boatmen, returning home on foot after selling out their flatboats and cargo, in New Orleans and

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Natchez, often made wagers to beat the post to Nashville, and generally won. The celebrated "Walking" Johnson, the greatest pedestrian of his day, beat the mail three times, on a wager, be- tween Natchez and Nashville.

The Kentucky "broadhorns" or "broadhorn flat-boats," as they were also called, were provided with a tin horn by means of which some one on board would announce the arrival of the boat, or make its presence known in case of fog. This "weird music, re- verberating from hill to hill, was heard far and wide, and was welcomed by the country people." (Hulbert.) The History of the flat-boat comes down within the present generation, and the beginning of the War of 1861-65 saw numerous flat-boats on the Mississippi. Once the sign of the emigrant, these boats in the '50's had assumed the distinctive role of freighters, and bore their cargoes to the southern ports or retailed them along the Missis- sippi river plantations. A man of enterprise would build a "flat", buy up the agricultural produce of his neighborhood, load his un- wieldy craft and await the "fall rise." The boats were loaded through a trapdoor over the bow and the cargo stored away in the hold. Apples and potatoes were the staples for through freight; but the boats intended to "coast" (peddle the cargo to the planta- tions) also included in their cargoes cider, cheese, pork, bacon, and often cabbage. Apple and peach brandy were profitable in- vestments; the peach brandy being often little more than apple brandy, with a few peaches in it, and palmed off. on the thirsty negroes as the genuine article. The preparations for the three thousand mile journey were soon made by the owner of a flat-boat. He would ship a few farm hands for a crew, and all would live in the stern of the boat separated from the cargo by a partition. Lit- tle work was required of the crew, except to keep the craft in the current. If the boat was intended for the coasting trade, business began at the first large plantations. The plantation overseers lib- erally patronized the "coasters", and paid for their purchases in drafts on New Orleans. The negroes sometimes were allowed to make their own purchases, and would often exchange molasses for brandy even, gallon for gallon. Arrived at his destination, the owner sold the balance of his stock and his boat, bought sugar and molasses with the proceeds, embarked with his freight on a packet for home, and thus cleared two profits.

After the War 1861-65, the flat-boat men found a sad and im- poverished South. The negroes were "free", the overseers gone and the coasting trade was ruined. Since 1865 through freights were found the only profitable ones.

A few words will suffice to explain the other familiar types of early river craft, such as the "ark", the galley, the brig and the schooner. Harris thus describes the ark, which was the primi- tive type of house-boat : "These boats are generally called 'Arks'; and are said to have been invented by Mr. Krudger, on the Juan- ita, about ten years ago (1795). They are square, and flat-bot- tomed; about forty feet by fifteen, with sides six feet deep;

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covered with a roof of thin boards; and accommodated with a fire place. They require but four hands to navigate them, carry no sail, and are wafted down by the current." The same author de- clares the historical succession of river craft as: canoe, pirogue, keel-boat, barge and ark.

The galley had a covered deck and was propelled by oarsmen. It was a boat of this pattern that Gen. George Rogers Clark armed as a gunboat on the Lower Ohio and used as a patrolling gunboat during the War of the Revolution. Another familiar type of this boat was the celebrated "Adventure Galley" of the New England pilgrims to Marietta. It was forty-five feet long and twelve feet wide and of about fifty tons burden. Her bows were "raking" or curved, strongly built with heavy timbers and covered with a deck roof. Many of the mail boats of the western rivers in the early days were of this pattern.

Sails were quite generally used on all the river craft previously described. These sails were of every conceivable shape and ma- terial and were resorted to when the winds were favorable. None, however, were distinctively a sailing vessel. The business of building sailing vessels, brigs and schooners, began in the Ohio Basin at the beginning of the last century. The designers in- tended them to drop down the Ohio and Mississippi and then engage in the ocean trade. They were never intended to return, but were the first export carriers, just as the keel-boats were the first important carriers in the commerce between the States. The firm of Tarascon, Berthoud & Co. of Pittsburg, who built the first keel-boats on the Ohio were pioneers in the business of building sailing vessels. They 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 and the ship "Louis- iana" of 350 tons. The brig was sent direct to Marseilles and the ship was sent out ballasted with "stone coal", which was sold at Philadelphia, for 37 and 16 cents per bushel. The following year they built the "Western Trader" of 400 tons. In 1803 Thaddeus Harris found several of these ships on the stocks at Pittsburg; three had been launched before April, "from 160 to 275 tons bur- den." (Harris: Tour, p. 43.) Writing from Marietta on May 4, 1803, he says: "the schooner 'Dorcas and Sally', of 70 tons, built at Wheeling and rigged at Marietta, dropped down the river. The following day there passed down the schooner 'Amity', of 103 tons, from Pittsburg, and the ship 'Pittsburg', of 275 ton burden, from the same place, laden with seventeen hundred barrels of flour, with the rest of her cargo in flat-bottomed boats. In the evening the brig 'Mary Avery', of 130 tons, built at Marietta, set sail.

The building and lading of SHIPS is now considered as an enter- prise of the greatest importance in this part of the country. The last (1802) there were launched from the ship-yard of Captain Devol, (Captain Jonathan Devon), on the Muskingum river, five miles above its mouth, the ship 'Muskingum', of 204 tons, owned by Benjamin Ives Gilman, Esq., and the brigantine Eliza Greene,

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of 115 tons, owned by Charles Greene, Esq., merchants at Mari- etta. At the spring-flood of the present year, the schooner 'In- diana,' of 100 tons, the brig 'Marietta', of 130 tons, and another of 150 tons, also built here, were launched and descended the river for New Orleans and the trade to the West Indies. . . This part of the country owes much to those gentlemen, who, in new and experimental lines, have set this example of enterprise and perseverance." One ship from Marietta is said to have had the existence of her port of clearance questioned in Italy.

After the port of New Orleans had passed into American hands and the commerce on the Mississippi and Ohio was relieved of the vexatious exactions of Spain in 1803, the Mississippi river was covered with hundreds of Kentucky flats, loaded with rich cargoes of western produce. The articles of trade that were floated down the Mississippi were as various as the needs of a new and fertile country. Monette writes that "the amount of western trade an- nually 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. The year 1811 saw not less than 500 flat-boats, and forty keels, all well freighted, descend the Mississippi from the Ohio Valley. The trade from the Missouri and the upper Mississippi, began as early as the year 1720, and consisted chiefly of lead, furs and peltries. For the years 1790-1805 this trade amounted to about $78,000 annually and it increased gradually up to the time of the War of 1812.

Despite the enormous volume of trade down the Mississippi the upstream commerce from New Orleans remained comparatively small, on account of the difficulties of the upward 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.

The rich planters of Mississippi, and the prosperous agricultural communities of the Ohio and upper Mississippi region had a wealth of surplus products they were ready to exchange for the manu- factures of the Atlantic States and of Europe, and the cost and difficulties involved in supplying their growing wants on account of the impetuous current of the Mississippi grew more and more unbearable. The times were ripe for another power which would turn the tide of commerce up the river, and the dawning of the new era of steam and navigation brought about by the genius of Fulton. The era of the steamboat on the rivers of Mississippi, up to the time it was robbed of its business and pride by the railroads will be found sketched in a separate articles.

Roach, a post-hamlet of Simpson county, 12 miles southeast of Mendenhall. Population in 1900, 23.

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Roads. The building of adequate roads is essential to the proper development of any region. During the period of more than a century covered by the French, British, Spanish and early Ameri- can occupancy of the so-called Natchez District, the ocean, rivers and streams afforded the chief and, indeed, almost the only means of reaching its isolated settlements. One of the first concerns of Mississippi territorial authorities was to open up overland routes of travel to the older settled regions of the United States in the East, and to New Orleans on the South. This policy was regarded as an urgent military necessity in those troublous times, as well as a commercial and economic good, and an important means of attracting new settlers.

Natchez Trace. The earliest and the most famous of the public highways which traversed the present State of Mississippi was the so called Natchez Trace. Its origin is interesting. As soon as the Spaniards finally evacuated the Natchez District, and imme- diately after the organization of the Territorial government of Mississippi, the Federal authorities empowered General Wilkin- son, then in command of the United States troops at Natchez and Fort Adams, to enter into certain negotiations with the Indian tribes south of Tennessee. One of the principal objects of the negotiations with the Indians was to obtain their consent to the opening of public roads and mail routes, from the settlements of the Natchez District, to the frontier settlements of Tennessee and Georgia, thereby facilitating intercourse and trade and promot- ing emigration to the new Mississippi Territory. All the vast region extending north and east of the Natchez District for nearly 500 miles to the distant white settlements on the Cumberland River, Tenn., and to those on the Oconee, in Georgia, was undis- puted Indian territory, with the single exception of the limited area on the Tombigbee and Mobile rivers, to which the Indian title had been extinguished by France and England in former years. The Natchez District was remote and difficult of access. Intercourse with the United States was by the laborious ascent of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to the Kentucky and Tennessee settlements, or else over the lonely Indian trace which led for five hundred miles through the lands of the Choctaws and Chicka- saws, to the Cumberland river. In pursuance of these plans, the Treaty of Chickasaw Bluffs was concluded Oct. 24, 1801, whereby the Chickasaws conceded to the United States the right "to lay out, open, and make, a convenient wagon road through their land, between the settlements of Mero district in the State of Tennessee. and those of Natchez in the Mississippi Territory and the same shall be a highway for the citizens of the United States. and the Chickasaws." Also the Treaty of Fort Adams, concluded Dec. 17, 1801, with the Choctaws, whereby that nation consented "that a convenient and durable wagon way may be explored. marked, opened, and made through their lands; to commence at the northern extremity of the settlements of the Mississippi Ter- ritory, and to be extended from thence. until it shall strike the

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Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II, Part 67

Author: Dunbar Rowland Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Madison, Wis. : S.A. Brant Number of Pages: 1020

Author: Dunbar Rowland
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Madison, Wis. : S.A. Brant
Number of Pages: 1020