USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Cincinnati, the Queen City, 1788-1912, Volume II > Part 14
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One of the most notorious features of steamboat life for many years was gambling. Professional gamblers swarmed on the packets from Pittsburgh to New Orleans. Victims of the card sharpers were to be counted by thousands, and traditions of murders and all manner of crimes still linger in regard to those days.
A gambler has given this account of one of his experiences: "Coming up on the Sultana, one night, there were about twenty-five of the toughest set of men as cabin passengers I believe I ever met. They were on their way to Napoleon, Arkansas, which at that time was a great town and known as the jumping-off place. In those days these Napoleon fellows were looked upon as cutthroats and robbers, and thought nothing of murdering a fellow simply to make them appear big men with their gang. I had for a partner a man named Canada Bill, as game a party as ever strode the deck of a steamboat, and one of the shrewdest gamblers I ever encountered. As soon as supper was over this gang of Arkansas toughs got in the cabin and of course wanted to play cards. Bill had opened up business in the main hall, and a great crowd had gathered about him. I saw that most of these devils had been drinking, and gave Bill the nod, which he of course understood. He only played a short while and left the game, pretending to be broke. Then we fixed it up that I should do the playing and he would watch out for any trouble. Well, the result was I got about everything the twenty-five men had, including their watches, and beat some seven or eight other passengers. The men all took it apparently good natured at the time, but as the night wore on and they kept drinking from their private flasks I made a sneak to my room and changed my clothes. By the back stairs I skipped down into the kitchen and sent a man after my partner. I had blackened my face and looked like one of the negro rousters. I only had time to warn him when a terrible rumpus upstairs told me the jig was up, and with their whiskey to aid them they were searching for me, and if they caught me it would be good day for me. I paid the cooks to keep mum, and Bill made himself scarce. They had their guns out and were kicking in the stateroom doors hunting for me. Some of them came down on deck, and were walking back and forth by me, cursing and threatening vengeance. I heard one of them ask a roustabout if he had noticed a well dressed man down on the deck lately. He of course had not, as Bill had gone back up the kitchen stairs, and with these devils was raising Cain, looking for me, and my disguise had not been discovered under the darkness of the night. The boat was plowing her way along up the
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coast. The stevedores were shouting to the darkies, hurrying them along with the freight for a landing soon to be reached. The boat's whistle blew, and soon she was heading in for the shore. A crowd of these fellows were waiting for me, as they suspected I would try and get off. They were looking, mind you, for a well-dressed man. As soon as the boat landed, about ten of them, guns in hand, ran out over the stage to shore and closely scanned the face of every person that came off. There was a stock of plows to be discharged from the boat's cargo, and noting the fact, I shouldered one and with it followed the long line of 'coons' amid the curses of the mates, and fairly flew past these men who were hunting me. I kept on up the high bank and over the levee and when I threw my plow in the pile with the others made off for the cotton fields and laid flat on my back until the boat got again under way, and the burning pine in the torches on deck had been extinguished. It was a close call, I can assure you. Bill met me at Vicksburg the next day and brought the boodle, which we divided. He said the crowd took lights and searched the boat's hold for me after we left the landing. Bill must have played his part well, as he told me afterward that they never suspicioned him. Yes, I could tell many of my ex- ploits. The river was for the greater portion of my gambling career my strongest hold. But it's all over now. Even should a man strike a big winning, there are always too many smart Alecks about, and you would have to whack up with so many that there would be little left for the winner."
The rivalry in speed and the racing of steamboats was another notorious feature of some years ago. The stories go that frequently the passengers incited the officers of the boats to race, paid for extra fuel and became wildly excited over the result. Stories go that sometimes, when other fuel failed, hams were cast into the furnace as a last resort to create more steam.
James Hall, in "Statistics of the West," 1836, quotes William C. Redfield, steam navigation agent, as saying: "The contests for speed, or practice of rac- ing, between rival steamboats, has been the cause, and perhaps justly, of con- siderable alarm in the community. It is remarkable, however, that as far as the information of the writer extends, there has no accident occurred to any boiler which can be charged to a contest of this sort. The close and uniform attention which is necessarily given to the action and state of the boilers and engines, in such contests, may have had a tendency to prevent disaster. But this hazard as well as the general danger of generating an excess of steam, is greatly lessened by the known fact that in most steamboats the furnaces and boilers are not competent to furnish a greater supply of steam than can be used with safety, with an ordinary degree of attention on the part of the engineers.
"The magnitude and extent of the danger to which passengers in steamboats are exposed, though sufficiently appalling, is comparatively much less than in other modes of transit with which the public have been long familiar ; the acci- dents of which, if not so astounding. are almost of every day occurrence. It . will be understood that I allude to the dangers of ordinary navigation, and land conveyance by animal power on wheel carriages."
The beginning of work to improve the Ohio river was in 1825. At that period the river in its whole length was obstructed by sand bars, snags, rocks and gravel. Much has since been done by the government to better the condi-
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tions on the river and its tributaries. Lighthouses have also been placed. Ice harbors have been formed at a number of points as refuges for boats in time of peril from ice.
The amount of money invested in boats is about ten millions, while the ex- penditure for improvements in the river have not been more than three per cent of the value of the freight carried in one year.
The series of movable dams now in progress constitute the greatest effort ever made to make the Ohio navigable. The Davis dam, near Pittsburgh, was opened in 1885. The series of dams is to be in time extended to the mouth of the river.
The Fernbank dam near Cincinnati was opened in August, 191I.
The present condition of government work in the improvement of the West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky tributaries of the Ohio river is detailed in the annual report sent to Washington July, 1911, by Major John C. Oakes of the United States engineer's office. The rivers are the Big Sandy, Muskingum, Kentucky and Guyandot, forming what is known as the Second Cincinnati district.
The Kentucky river, with its stretch of navigable waters reaching back into the state for 240 miles from its mouth at Carrollton, is now the biggest and most important of them all. Its freight traffic for the past year reached the aggre- gate of $1,921,581.28, and by the completion of Dam 13 the slack water of the river is at last brought to the coal fields, which were the great objective point all along.
The government improvements of the Kentucky are now at the beginning of the finish. The contract for the building of Dam 14, to be located at Heidelberg, has been let to Gahren, Dodge & Maltby, and is to be completed by December 31, 1913. It is the last of the locks and dams on the Kentucky. Contractor W. F. Garretson of Cincinnati, is to finish building the lock at Dam 13 by September I, 1912. All the other locks are in regular operation. There are nineteen steamers plying on the river, and they carried 9,842 passengers in the year, while 2,003 rafts of logs were also floated down its waters to the Ohio.
Timber was the chief article of commerce on the Kentucky, the amount of this being nearly six million cubic feet, valued at $510,056.75. It was brought down the river distances of 155 miles. Great quantities of lumber and staves were also carried. Next import of the Kentucky products was tobacco, the value of it being $341,460. Iron and steel and oil also figure in the river's freight, and the coal brought down was $209,810. Whiskey is among the unim- portant items of the traffic, the boats carrying but forty-two barrels of it during the whole year; its value was $3,150.
The operating expense for the year was $130,860.04.
The Muskingum river, with its system of eleven locks and dams, cost $49,- 521.45 for operating expenses. The craft on this river include 16 steamers, 25 gasoline boats, 132 launches and others, all of them together carrying 35,153 passengers during the year. The total traffic is valued at $2,644,150. There were 63,250 tons and the hauls varied from four to fifty-five miles. Merchandise was the chief item, its value being $1,938,700. Great quantities of eggs were also in the freight, their value being represented by $138,000. Horses and mules, live stock and poultry are also in the showing.
FERN BANK LOCK AND DAM GIVING CINCINNATI NINE FEET OF WATER IN THE OHIO RIVER FOR A DISTANCE OF TWENTY MILES
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FERN BANK DAM COMPLETED IN 1911
REPLICA OF THE NEW ORLEANS, WHICH WAS THE FIRST STEAMBOAT ON THE OHIO
The original steamed down the river in October, 1811, and in celebration of the event this boat began the same journey at Pittsburg in the fall of 1911, covering the same trip and landing at Cincinnati on her journey.
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All the regular construction work has been finished for this river and only repairs and maintenance are now called for. The expenditures for this were $49,521.49.
Navigation was much hindered on the Big Sandy in the past, there being 151 days in which it stood suspended owing to low water or dangerous currents. Ties were the chief article of traffic, there being $175,175 worth of them shipped down the river. Twenty boats ply on the main stream and its two forks, carry- ing manufactured iron, timber and other merchandise. The operating expenses for the year were $19,608.30.
Plans for the improvements during 1912 are not yet announced.
The completion of the Fernbank dam, officially Dam 37, is the big and signifi- cant particular in the annual report of the past year's work on Ohio river improvements sent to Washington by Major H. Jervey, now in charge of the Cincinnati division. The work on this dam was begun in May, 1905, so that it has been six years in building. Some of the hardest of the hard work here was that encountered in getting ready for operating the dam after all the rest had been done.
Mud, rubbish and debris enough to build a hill had to be removed from the foundations where it had collected. The chief trouble came in getting the lock gates to move. This kept engineers and workers busy for several months past, but all the usual means failed and it was not until the regular engines were aided by others with the tremendous force of 150 tons extra power that the gates were finally made to move as they should. The difficulty, Major Jervey stated, was due to the axles of the gate bearings getting corroded in the water in which they have been standing the past two and one-half years. At present the gates can be moved by their own engines without other help.
Work has begun on the newest of the important dams ,dam No. 29. The location for the buildings includes 13.22 acres on the Kentucky side of the river. The Bates & Rogers Construction company have the contract.
The total appropriations made by the United States government to date for improving the Ohio river since 1827, when it was first begun, to date, amount only to $8,201,439.72. Considering the long period of eighty-four years and the importance of the Ohio as a trade artery it is small.
The great event of opening the Fernbank dam took place July 22, 1911. The Commercial Tribune of that date said: "The nine-foot stage of water for the Ohio river, talked of for years, today becomes a reality. Beginning at 5 o'clock this morning the new Fernbank dam will go into operation by the raising of its wall of wickets, now ready for their task of holding back the water of the river until all that part above Fernbank and reaching along the city's entire water front and for some distance beyond Coney Island, reaches a depth of nine feet.
"The stretch of slack water will extend for a distance of twenty-six miles, from Fernbank to a point one-fourth of a mile from the head of Eight Mile dyke.
"When this pool is full to the depth required the river at the foot of Broad- way will show a stage of II.3 feet. At the head of the lower Four Mile bar there will be a raise of 6.3 feet above the present low water stage; at Gander bar a raise of 3.8 feet ; at Five Mile bar 2.1 feet raise, and at the quarter mile above the head of Eight Mile the slack ends altogether.
Vol. II .- 8.
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"All day the filling up of the pool will be going on. It is proposed to make it very slow work, so that the temporary fall of water in the river below Fern- bank will not give trouble to the boats plying there. Some alarm had started yesterday already on this subject among boatmen, who were led to think that the fall in that part of the river would be enough to stop navigation entirely for some time at least.
"Their fears about this were communicated to the managers of the dam and they were assured there would be no trouble, the intention being to have the raising of the wickets effected so gradually that the fall in the river below the dam would be very slight. It is likely the work will not be finished before Sun- day morning, depending on circumstances.
"The river stage for this city yesterday was 5.7 feet at the foot of Broadway, and not till this is brought to 11.3 feet will the filling up be completed.
"Boats passing the dam will have to enter the lock on the Ohio shore after exchanging signals as follows:
"Signals-Boats approaching from either direction and desiring to pass through the lock will notify the lock-tender by four short whistles. The signals from the lock for boats or other craft to enter will be three short whistles; the signal for leaving the lock will be one long whistle.
"Lights-When the dam is up signal lights will be displayed after dark as follows :
"At the head of the river wall of the lock three red lights in a vertical line.
"At the foot of the river wall of the lock two red lights in a vertical line."
On the next day the Commercial Tribune said: "All yesterday and last night the work of harnessing the Ohio went forward without hitch or halt at Fern- bank, and by noon today there will be seen the realization of the nine-foot river stage for the whole Cincinnati harbor and for miles of its approaches above and below the city.
"The operation was a slow one, because that was necessary. The need to keep the river below the dam supplied with water sufficient for the boats plying there required that the raising of the wickets should be very gradual and that they should be brought into place one at a time. It was not till after midnight that the last one of them was raised, and then the wall of sheet steel was com- plete from the Kentucky to the Ohio shore, holding back the waters above.
"Crowds from the city and surrounding towns were on the scene all day. Hundreds of spectators crowded the tractions to the place, and as many more took in the sights from the excursion boats that made the trip down from the city. Launches without number kept coming and going with gay outing parties bent on being among those to claim having seen the big dam's opening day.
"Very fitly the distinction of being the first of the boats to pass through the lock fell to the pleasure craft Romona, in command of Albert Bettinger, the strenuous and devoted advocate and leader in the cause of the river's improve- ments.
"The Romona had made the passage of that section of the Ohio many times before, and a shade of sadness was added to the feelings of those aboard by the
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void in their ranks made by the death of George Guckenberger, president of the Atlas National bank, missing now for the first time in the party, to which he contributed life and pleasure.
"The Romona had laid up the evening previous just below the dam, and before retiring for the night its crew held brief memorial services for Mr. Guckenberger. In the morning Captain Bettinger headed the boat for the lock, and in response to his signal its gate opened and the craft, with flags flying, made its way through to the upper course. All the machinery of the lock worked to perfection. The Romona was duly credited on the records as the first boat to pass. Those in the party with Mr. Bettinger were George A. Dieterle, Louis J. Hauck, George F. Dieterle, Charles Albrecht, Charles Wiedemann and George and Herman Guckenberger.
"Half an hour later the steamer Douglas Hall, coming up the river to the city, arrived at the dam and signaled.
"It had been its captain's intention to be the first to make the passage through the lock, and although the regular channel was still open and the way clear, the captain insisted on having second honors for the Douglas Hall, and the lock was operated a second time to let that boat through.
"The raising of the wickets was begun at 6 o'clock in the morning, starting at the Kentucky shore abutment. It went on at intervals. Each time a wicket was raised the water passage of the river between the Ohio and Kentucky shores was shortened by three feet, that being the width of the wickets, of which there are 225 in all.
"The need for letting enough water pass to the river below the dam obliged the men to go very slowly in extending the steel wicket wall. It was not until the afternoon that wickets adjacent to the Ohio shore began to be raised, and all day a central passage was left open for boats to pass up or down without having to go through the lock. The steamer Indiana of the Louisville and Cin- cinnati Packet company went through this passage on its way to the Falls city last evening, there being some doubt as to whether the water stage at the lock would be sufficient for a boat of the Indiana's draught.
"The Romona and the Douglas Hall were the only boats making the lock passage during the day. With the stage that will be effective today the lock will be able to accommodate all comers. It has a length of 600 feet and a width of IIO feet.
"The working of the upper gate of the lock was interrupted for a few hours in the afternoon by the breaking of a cross-head in the driving engine. This added some of the necessary delay in raising the wickets.
"Assistant Chief Engineer R. R. Jones of the United States engineer corps, was personally in charge of the arrangements for the starting of the dam. These were carried out with entire success at all points. Major Jervey of the engineer corps, in charge of the Ohio river, was among those present to witness the workings.
"When the filling up of the Cincinnati pool is completed today the river stage at the foot of Broadway will stand at 11.3 feet, and from that will gradually decline to 9 feet at a short distance above Coney Island, and the Eight Mile bar."
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Cincinnati looks forward eagerly to the completion of the nine-foot stage to Cairo, and then to the opening of the Panama canal and to the vast increase of business these two events are bound to give to the Queen City.
In the autumn of 1911, Cincinnati expects to take part in the celebration of the hundredth anniversary of steam navigation on the Ohio.
The hull of the steamer New Orleans, a replica of the first steamboat that navigated the Monongahela, Ohio and Mississippi rivers, from Pittsburgh to New Orleans, was launched Thursday, August 30, 19II, at the Elizabeth Marine Ways company, Pittsburgh, in the presence of several members of the Historical society of western Pennsylvania, under whose auspices the vessel is being built. The boat will be finished by the middle of October and will take part in the river pageant, repeating the first voyage to the port of New Orleans.
The vessel will be christened October 31, when Mrs. Nicholas Longworth will break a bottle of champagne over the bow of the boat. Mrs. Longworth is a grand-niece of Nicholas J. Roosevelt, who built the original New Orleans. The boat is 138 feet long and 261/2 feet beam, eight-foot depth of hold and of about 400 tons .burden and every way a duplicate of the original steamer.
CHAPTER X.
THE POSTOFFICE.
THE PRIMITIVE POSTOFFICE A VERY RUDIMENTARY AFFAIR-ABNER N. DUNN KEPT THE FIRST POSTOFFICE IN HIS LOG CABIN ON SECOND STREET-FIRST MAILS CAR- RIED BY A POST RIDER-POSTAGE ON LETTERS TWENTY-FIVE CENTS IN COIN- POSTMASTERS AND POSTOFICE BUILDINGS.
The colonial postoffice, as well as that of the early days after the independ- ence of the country, was a very rudimentary affair. Perhaps the earliest official notice of it is seen in the following paragraph from the records of the general courts of Massachusetts in 1639. "It is ordered that notice be given that Richard Fairbanks, his house in Boston, is the place appointed for all letters which are brought from beyond the seas, or are to be sent thither to be left with him; and he is to take care that they are to be delivered or sent according to the direc- tions; and he is allowed for every letter a penny, and must answer all miscar- riages through his own neglect in this kind."
That court in 1667 was petitioned to make better postal arrangements, the petitioners alleging the frequent "loss of letters whereby merchants, especially with their friends and employers in foreign parts are greatly damnified many times the letters are imputed (?) and thrown upon the exchange, so that those who will may take them up, no person without some satisfaction, being willing to trouble their houses therewith."
In Virginia the postal system was yet more primitive. The colonial law of 1657 required every planter to provide a messenger to convey the dispatches as they arrived to the next plantation, and so on, on pain of forfeiting a hogshead of to- bacco in default. The Government of New York in 1672 established "a post to goe monthly from New York to Boston," advertising "those that bee disposed to send letters, to bring them to the secretary's office, where, in a lockt box, they shall be preserved till the messenger calls for them, all persons paying the post before the bagg be sealed up." Thirty years later this monthly post had become a fortnightly one, as we see by the following paragraph in the Boston News-Letter. "By order of the postmaster general of North America. These are to give notice, That on Monday night, the 6th of December, the Western post between Boston and New York sets out once a fortnight, the three winter months of December, January and February, and to go alternately from Boston to Saybrook and Hart- ford, to exchange the mayle of letters with the New York Ryder; the first turn for Saybrook to meet the New York Ryder on Saturday night the IIth currant ; and the second turn he sets out at Boston on Monday night the 20th currant, to meet the New York Ryder at Hartford, on Saturday night the 25th currant, to
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exchange mayles; and all persons that sends letters from Boston to Connecticut from and after the 13th inst. are hereby notified first to pay the postage on the same." This office of postmaster-general for America had been created in 1602.
In the American colonies postal improvements may be dated from the ad- ministration of Franklin, who was virtually the last colonial postmaster-general, as well as unquestionably the best. In one shape or another he had forty years' experience of postal work, having been appointed postmaster at Philadelphia as early as October, 1737. When he became postmaster-general in 1753 he be- stirred himself for the improvement of his department in that practical pains- taking way with which he was wont to guide any plough he had once put his hand to, whatever the ground it had to work in. He visited all the chief post- offices throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and New England, looking at everything with his own eyes. His administration cannot be better summed up than we find it to be in a sentence or two which he wrote after his dismissal. Up to the date of his appointment, he says, "the American postoffice had never paid anything to that of Britain. We (himself and his assistant) were to have six hundred pounds ($2,916) a year between us, if we could make that sum out of the office. . In the first four years the office became above nine hundred pounds ($4,374) in debt to us. But it soon began to repay us; and before I was displaced by a freak of the minister's, we had brought it to yield three times as much clear revenue to the crown as the postoffice of Ireland. Since that imprudent transaction they have received from it-not one penny."
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