USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Cincinnati, the Queen City, 1788-1912, Volume II > Part 13
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"When they arrived about five miles above the Yellow Banks, they moored the boat opposite to the first vein of coal, which was on the Indiana side, and had been purchased in the interim of the State government. They found a large quantity already quarried to their hand and conveyed to the shore by depredators, who had not found means to carry it off ; and with this they commenced loading the boat. While thus engaged, our voyagers were accosted in great alarm by the squatters of the neighborhood, who inquired if they had not heard strange noises on the river and in the woods in the course of the preceding day, and perceived the shores shake, insisting that they had repeatedly felt the earth tremble.
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"Hitherto nothing extraordinary had been perceived. The following day they pursued their monotonous voyage in those vast solitudes. The weather was observed to be oppressively hot ; the air misty, still and dull; and though the sun was visible, like a glowing ball of copper, his rays hardly shed more than a mournful twilight on the surface of the water. Evening drew nigh, and with it some indication of what was passing around them became evident. And as they sat on the deck, they ever and anon heard a rushing sound and violent splash, and saw large portions of the shore tearing away from the land and falling into the river. 'It was,' as my informant said, 'an awful day; so still that you could have heard a pin drop on the deck. They spoke little, for everyone on board appeared thunderstruck.' The comet had disappeared about this time, which circumstance was noticed with awe by the crew.
"The second day after their leaving the Yellow Banks, the sun rose over the forest the same ball of fire, and the air was thick, dull and oppressive as before. The portentous signs of this terrible natural convulsion continued and increased. The pilot, alarmed and confused, affirmed that he was lost, as he found the channel everywhere altered; and where he had hitherto known deep water, there lay numberless trees with their roots upwards. The trees were seen waving and nodding on the bank, without a wind; but the adventurers had no choice but to continue their route. Towards evening they found themselves at a loss for a place of shelter. They had usually brought to under the shore, but every- where they saw the high banks disappearing, overwhelming many a flatboat and raft, from which the owners had landed and made their escape. A large island in mid channel, which was selected by the pilot as the better alternative, was sought for in vain, having disappeared entirely. Thus, in doubt and terror, they proceeded hour after hour till dark, when they found a small island, and rounded to, mooring themselves to the foot of it. Here they lay, keeping watch on deck during the long autumnal night, listening to the sound of the waters which roared and gurgled horribly around them, and hearing from time to time the rushing earth slide from the shore, and the commotion as the falling mass of earth and trees was swallowed up by the river. The mother of the party, a delicate female, who had just been confined on board as they lay off Louisville, was frequently awakened from her restless slumbers by the jar given the furni- ture and loose articles in the cabin, as several times in the course of the night the shock of the passing earthquake was communicated from the island to the bows of the vessel. It was a long night, but morning dawned and showed them that they were near the mouth of the Ohio. The shores and the channel were now equally unrecognizable ; everything seemed changed. About noon that day they reached the small town of New Madrid, on the right bank of the Mississippi. Here they found the inhabitants in the greatest distress and consternation ; part of the population had fled in terror to the higher grounds ; others prayed to be taken on board, as the earth was opening in fissures on every side, and their houses hourly falling around them.
"Proceeding thence, they found the Mississippi, at all times a fearful stream, row unusually swollen, turbid and full of trees; and after many days of great danger, though they felt and perceived no more of the earthquakes, they reached their destination at Natchez, at the close of the first week in January, 1812, to
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the great astonishment of all, the escape of the boat having been considered an impossibility. At that time you floated for three or four hundred miles on the rivers, without seeing a human habitation. Such was the voyage of the first steamer."
This steamer ran regularly between Natchez and New Orleans up to July 14, 1814, when it sank at Baton Rouge. In 1818, its engine and a new boiler were placed in a new boat also called the New Orleans.
The second steamboat on the Ohio was the Comet, also built at Pittsburgh, sometime previous to the summer of 1813. It was of one hundred and forty-five tons burden, and had a novel stern wheel.
The third steamer on these waters was the Vesuvius, which was constructed at Pittsburgh by Robert Fulton, and launched in November, 1813. The first effort made by a steamer to come up the Ohio past the falls at Louisville was made by this boat, but the attempt was a failure, as she grounded on a bar seven hundred miles above New Orleans. After remaining five months on this bar and then being floated off by rising water, this boat was employed on the lower Mississippi.
In 1814 the "Enterprise," forty-five tons, was built at Brownsville. The Aetna, of three hundred and forty tons, came next; while the Despatch, the Buffalo, the James Monroe, the Washington, and others, came in due time.
The Enterprise was the first steamer to successfully make the trip up the Ohio and past the falls at Louisville. A local newspaper of that time announced the event: "The Steam Boat Enterprise .- This is the first steam boat that has ascended the Ohio. She arrived at Louisville on the first inst., sailed thence on the 10th, and came to this port on the evening of the 13th, having made her passage from New Orleans, a distance of one thousand, eight hundred miles, in twenty-eight running days (by the aid of her machinery alone, which acts on a single wheel placed in the stern), against the rapid currents of the Mississippi and the Ohio. This is one of the most important facts in the history of this country, and will serve as data of its future commercial great- ness. A range of steamboats from Pittsburgh to New Orleans-connecting Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, Cincinnati and Louisville, Louisville and Smith- land, at the mouth of the Cumberland, or some eligible place on the Mississippi, below the mouth of the Ohio, thence to Natchez, and from Natchez to New Orleans-will render the transportation of men and merchandise as easy, as cheap and expeditious on these waters as it is by means of sea vessels on the ocean, and certainly far safer. And we are happy to congratulate our readers on the prospect that is presented of such an establishment. Two steamboats, considerably larger than the Enterprise, and yet not too large for the purpose, are already built at Pittsburgh, and will no doubt commence running in the fall. Others will follow. The success of the Enterprise must give a spring to this business that will in a very few years carry it into complete and successful operation."
It is said that the first steamboat built in Cincinnati was the Eagle, of seventy tons. It was made in 1818 for the firm of James Berthoud & Son, of Shippingport, Kentucky, for the Louisville, later the Natchez, trade. About the same time there was built the Hecla, of seventy tons, for Honorie & Bar-
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barox, of Louisville. The Henderson, eighty-five tons, was constructed for the Messrs. Bowers, to run between Henderson and Louisville. The "Cin- cinnati," one hundred and twenty tons, was partly owned by men in this city, and was the first steamboat in which Cincinnatians held any shares. This boat was built for Pennywitt & Burns of Cincinnati, and Paxson & Co., of New Albany ; it was to ply in the Louisville trade.
The first steamboat wholly owned in Cincinnati was the Experiment, of forty tons and built in 1818. Mr. Cist observes, "it seems that thirty-two boats had to be built before we could furnish capital and enterprise to own one."
In spite of the increasing numbers of the steamboats the old style of boats continued their business for a considerable period longer. Dr. Drake notes that in 1815, though two kinds of steamers were plying on the Ohio, naviga- tion was conducted by flatboats, keelboats and barges only.
It still required a hundred days for the round trip to New Orleans.
Though Cincinnati had been made a port of entry in 1808, since ship- building had ceased on the Ohio, no vessel was cleared here until 1815.
The Cincinnati Gazette of July 15, 1815, announced: "Arrived on Thurs- day, the sixth instant, at this port, the elegant barge Cincinnati, Captain Jona- than Horton from New Orleans; passage eighty-seven days. Cargo: sugars, molasses, rum, lignum vitae, Spanish hides, etc., to Jacob Baymiller."
The traveler Burnet states that in 1817 numerous arks, bearing emigrants on their way to the West were to be seen frequently near the landing.
At the same time Burnet noted seven Kentucky boats with coal, iron and dry goods from Pittsburgh. He saw four barges or keelboats, one of one hundred and fifty tons and two masts, which ran up and down the rivers between Pittsburgh and New Orleans. He noted four flats of scows laden with building stones and salt from the Kenhawa salt works.
He saw six arks with emigrants and their possessions; these people on their way down the river commonly tarried here to lay in provisions.
But Cincinnati soon afterward awoke to the importance of the shipbuilding industry, and between 1817 and 1819, about one-fourth of the vessels con- structed on western waters were built here.
Niles Weekly Register, Jan. 4, 1823, said: "Steamboats on the Mississippi, etc. From the Louisiana Advertiser of the 25th November. The first steam- boat employed in trade on the Mississippi, was called the New Orleans, of New Orleans. Built at Pittsburgh in 1812, and enrolled and licensed for the coast trade, at the port of New Orleans, in 1813, nine years ago, since which period, up to the present time, there has been eighty-one different boats en- rolled at the port of New Orleans.
"Of this number, several have been built at New Orleans, but they have been principally built on the waters of the Ohio, being, in the aggregate, a tonnage exceeding 18,000 tons.
"This first boat was lost in 1814, and up to the present time there have been 23 other boats lost, either being sunk or destroyed by fire, decayed or laid up, and out of use, forming in the aggregate, about 4,000 tons-and leaving a balance, say in round numbers, 14,000 tons of this description of vessels now
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employed or which may be employed in trade on the Mississippi and its tribu- tary waters, with the port to New Orleans.
"This 14,000 tons does not probably employ more than 1,000 hands, and can do more in a given time than 50,000 tons could have done in barges, keel- boats, or any other kind of vessels employed ten years ago, with 20,000 hands. The rapid increase of steamboats head very soon the natural tendency of re- ducing freights, and although the owners suffered severely from this cause and the consequent diminution in the value of the vessels, yet the country at large has been greatly benefited by their introduction; and it is to be hoped the number in existence can now be beneficially employed."
Niles Weekly Register, Balt., Jan. 18, 1823, states: "The Western Waters. -No less than seven steamboats are prepared, or preparing, to start from Pittsburgh early in the spring, to ply between that place and St. Louis, Nash- ville, New Orleans, etc., regularly. They are amply fitted for the transportation of passengers and merchandise or goods of all sorts, and will depart and arrive in succession, so as to afford the greatest possible facilities to transportation, whenever the river will admit of it. The land carriage to Pittsburgh is now very moderate."
From about 1817 the steamboat traffic began to come into its own. Naviga- tion changed from the broadhorn to the steamer.
In 1818, the first steamboat, the Eagle, that was built here, as before stated, was put into commission. Immediately succeeding that date the business of steamer building went forward rapidly. There was in the building of steam- ers on the Ohio the great advantage of cheapness compared with those con- structed in eastern cities. Cincinnati appears to have led in this industry. In 1824-1826, Cincinnati rivalled any other city in the world in this business. The black locust of this vicinity proved better for ship building than any wood avail- able elsewhere.
It is astonishing to contemplate the growth of steamer building in this region. By 1826, two hundred and thirty-three steamboats had been launched. 181I saw one built ; 1814 another; 1816 three; in 1817 there were seven built. In 1818, twenty-five steamboats were constructed on these waters. In the intervening years until 1826, one hundred and seventy-six more steamers were built. Forty eight of the total were constructed at Cincinnati.
About 1826, the old styles of crafts had almost vanished from the river traffic. By that time the industry of steamboat making had risen to be among the chief businesses of Cincinnati.
The annual products, however, of this kind varied greatly from year to year. In 1856, thirty-three steamers were built; in 1857, thirty-four; 1858, fourteen; 1859, eleven; 1860, twenty-eight; 1861, eleven; 1862, four; 1863, forty-three ; 1864, sixty-two; 1866, thirty-three; 1867, eighteen; 1868, eleven; 1869, eleven; 1870, fifty-two; 1871, forty-four ; 1872, fifty-two; 1873, forty-eight ; 1874, twenty- nine ; 1875, sixteen ; 1876, nineteen ; 1877, twenty-one; 1878, thirty ; 1879, twenty- four.
In 1880, the report of the committee on river navigation said : "A good num- ber of boats have been built here the past year-the number of all crafts being twenty, with tonnage six thousand, six hundred and eighty-three, against twenty-
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four last year, and tonnage ten thousand, six hundred and forty-one. In the future we must not look for a greater number of boats, but expect a heavy in- crease in tonnage; this is more applicable to stern wheel boats, which in former years were of small size and used mostly in making short trips. There are those that have attained the carrying capacity of three thousand tons. Now, however, boats, whether of a side or stern wheel, for short packet trade or for more dis- tant ports, are of large size ; indeed it seems a question to what point the size of boats may reach. This change in building larger boats for the Upper Ohio, with more speed, is only following the prediction of those who advocated the lengthening and widening of the Louisville and Portland canal and lessening the rates of its tolls."
In 1880, the report of the Chamber of Commerce stated: "The arrivals for the year aggregated three thousand, one hundred and sixty-three boats, com- pared with two thousand, seven hundred and twenty-five in the year immediately preceding, and the departures three thousand, one hundred and sixty-seven, in comparison with two thousand, seven hundred and thirty. The whole number of steamboats and barges which plied between Cincinnati and other ports in the past year was three hundred and twenty-two, with an aggregate tonnage of eighty-three thousand, five hundred and sixty-nine. In this connection it must be kept in mind that in the past year vessels have run with great regularity and frequency, and that, in consequence, an equal number of vessels represents a larger business, because each vessel in the latter category is counted but once, no difference how frequent may have been the visitations. Again, it is true that the same number of arrivals and departures also represented an increased business, inasmuch as it comprised generally vessels which from the regularity of arrival and departure, and the general exemption of transient boats, had. uniformly good cargoes. It is worthy of note that the number of arrivals and departures for each leading point has increased over the preceding year. Thus, the arrivals from New Orleans aggregated, in the past year, one hundred and three vessels, compared with eighty-five in the preceding year and the departures one hundred and sixteen in comparison with ninety seven. From Pittsburgh the arrivals were one hundred and eighty two, compared with one hundred and sixty-three, and the departure one hundred and seventy-seven, in comparison with one hundred and sixty-two. From St. Louis the arrivals aggregate ninety-three, compared with sixty-four, and the departures ninety-four, in comparison with seventy-five. From all other points the arrivals aggregated two thousand, seven hundred and eighty-five, compared with two thousand, four hundred and thirteen, and the de- partures two thousand, seven hundred and eighty, in comparison with two thou- sand, three hundred and ninety-six. A study of the figures through a series of years reveals the fact that the increase the past year was not solely over 1878-79, which was a year that was seriously interfered with by cold weather that di- minished the number of arrivals and departures for the year, but exhibits a gen- eral increase extending through a series of years. Thus, the entire number of arrivals and departures exceeds any preceding year in a period of fourteen years, and has but three times been exceeded in the history of the city, which was in 1857-58, when the excess was very small, and in 1864-65 and in 1865-66, the years that closed and immediately succeeded the war, which was a time
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that, for a period of normal conditions, would not be a fair measure." The whole number of steamers in the freight and passenger traffic between Cincinnati and other ports, and total tonnage, compared for ten years, between 1893 and 1902, was as follows: 1893, steamers 36, tonnage 22,569; 1894, 34 and 20,527 ; 1895, 30 and 18,587; 1896, 25 and 15,032; 1897, 27 and 15,881; 1898, 25 and 14,677 ; 1899, 29 and 16,311 ; 1900, 28 and 15,618; 1901, 29 and 15,130; 1902, 30 and 15,483.
The first ocean going vessel to load at Cincinnati for Europe was the Musk- ingum, in 1844. This boat was built at Marietta, and was of three hundred and fifty tons burden. In the autumn of 1844 she took on her cargo at Cincinnati and started for Liverpool. The Times of Liverpool, January 30, 1845, stated : "Ar- rival direct from Cincinnati .- We have received a file of Cincinnati papers brought by the first vessel that ever cleared out of that city for Europe. The building of a vessel of 350 tons, on a river seventeen hundred miles from the sea, is itself a very remarkable circumstance, both as a proof of the magnificence of the American rivers and the spirit of the American people. The navigating of such a vessel down the Ohio and the Mississippi, and then across the Atlantic, would, a few years ago, have been thought impossible. She brings a cargo of provisions ; and we trust that the success of this first adventure will be such as to encourage its frequent repetition. The name of the vessel is the Muskingum."
The Gazette of Cincinnati spoke editorially of this event: "If one had stood upon the eastern hill top which overhangs our city, in the early gray of the morning on Saturday, and looked out upon the river he might have thought a phantom ship was floating upon it. The quick puffing of the steamer was heard, and out beyond it seemingly a full rigged ship, its masts towering up and all spars set, was evidently looming on and making direct for the landing of the city. Early risers were startled. Even those who knew that enterprising men of Marietta were building a sea vessel were astonished when it unexpectedly hove in sight. But when it approached nearer and nearer, and bodied itself forth plainly to the naked vision, the cry went up, 'a ship, a ship,' with a thrill akin, at least, to that which men and women feel on the ocean shore, when welcoming back the long-absent 'sea homes' of relative and friend."
Previous to 1850, John Swasey and Company of Cincinnati, built three ships of two to three hundred and fifty tons. One of these was the Louisa, a full- rigged brig. The others were barks, one named the John Swasey and the other the Salem. These were towed by steamers to New Orleans. At that place they set out for sea.
A ship of eight hundred and fifty tons, called the Minnesota, was constructed in Cincinnati at the same period by other builders for a New Orleans man.
About 1826, one hundred flatboats were annually brought down the Big Miami. There were thirty came down each year out of the Little Miami. These carried thirty-three thousand five hundred barrels of flour, worth about one hundred thousand dollars.
The time had been reduced by the steamboats between Cincinnati and New Orleans to twelve or fourteen days.
Heavy merchandise, groceries, queensware and so on, still came by way of New Orleans. Dry goods and lighter materials were brought from eastern cities
OHIO RIVER FROM EDEN PARK
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FURNITURE, CARPETS 14
RIVER FRONT, CINCINNATI. 1905
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to Pittsburgh and Wheeling and came to Cincinnati by the river. Iron came from Pittsburgh and from the Licking and Sandy rivers. From the vicinity of Paint creek and Brush creek, in Ohio, came most of the castings. Pittsburgh fur- nished nails. Missouri supplied lead; salt was brought from Conemaugh, Penn- sylvania and the Kanawha, Virginia. Lumber came in rafts from the head wa- ters of the Allegheny.
Cincinnati sent its exports chiefly to the West Indies and South America. Whiskey and pork went to the eastern cities. The Mississippi region bought a large part of the Miami products.
In 1832 the commerce of Cincinnati figured $4,000,000. In 1835 it exceeded $6,000,000.
In 1835 the steamer arrivals were two thousand, two hundred and thirty.
In that year there were imported ninety thousand barrels of flour and fifty- five thousand barrels of whiskey.
Five million, two hundred thousand dollars were in 1840 invested in foreign trade and commerce.
There were $12,877,000 in retail dry goods business, hardware, groceries and the like.
There was an investment of $133,000 in the lumber trade, which occupied twenty-three yards, with seventy-three employes. The lumber sales in 1840 were $342,500.
In 1841 there were eighty-eight steamboats owned in the Cincinnati region. The tonnage was eleven thousand, seven hundred and thirteen.
In 1850 trade and commerce had grown greatly. At that time a single house in Cincinnati was doing $1,200,000 of commercial business. More than half its shipments were sent to Great Britain.
In 1851 the city's commerce was rated at thirty-six millions.
Coal had now come to be a great import to this city. In 1851 there were seven millions, seven hundred and eighty-five thousand bushels used here. In 1859 there were sixty-eight coal yards here and there were fifteen million bushels used.
In 1858, the increase of coffee imports was eleven per cent; sugar thirty per cent and molasses sixty per cent. Wool import increased one hundred and fifty-five per cent; import of potatoes two hundred and sixty-nine per cent ; manufactured tobacco ninety-six per cent.
The exports of horses increased one hundred and forty-one per cent. Those of furniture eighty-nine per cent; molasses sixty-one per cent.
The river traffic of Cincinnati in 1869 was one hundred and sixty-nine mil- lion, five hundred thousand dollars.
At that time Cincinnati manufacturers began to send crackers to China and candies to Greece.
A vast amount of provisions was sent to the Eastern cities. Still, the chief markets for exports were in the South.
The West and the Southwest received most of Cincinnati's manufactures.
In 1873 the local commerce of Cincinnati amounted to five hundred and forty millions.
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The coming of the steamboat wrought in due time a change in the personnel of the rivermen. The new mode of boat propulsion met, of course, bitter opposi- tion from the old time men whose industry was threatened. Heretofore sheer muscular strength had counted in river traffic, but steam introduced need of better intelligence as well as the learning of new modes. Flatboat, barge and steamboat continued to do business side by side, but the old boatmen found themselves outstripped and outclassed. The steamboat necessarily ran a sharper division between the management and employes than ever before. Captains and other officers were separated as by a gulf from deck hands. The captains were usually of a fine type of men. The "hands" were generally much inferior to the old time, independent bargemen.
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