History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 8

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co.
Number of Pages: 814

USA > Ohio > History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I > Part 8

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was by nature a Shakespeare in his way, and as he was the savior of Kentucky, and aided much in keeping the Indians and British from our mother, Virginia, I say honor to whom honor is due.

General Clark, as is elsewhere related more fully, was the founder of Clarksville, on the In- diana shore, in which his later years were chiefly spent. He died at the residence of his sister and brother-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Croghan, at Locust Grove, just above Louisville, February 13, 1818, and was buried upon the place. He was never married, but left somewhat numerous rela- tives in and about Louisville.

CHAPTER V.

THE FALLS, THE CANAL, AND THE BRIDGES.

"La Belle Riviere"-The Falls of the Ohio-Captain Hutch- ins's Account of Them-Imlay's Narrative -- Espy's Obser- vations-Utilization of the Water-power-Jared Brooks's Map-Modern Proposals and Movements-Improvement of the Falls-The Ship Canal-Early Plans-The Indiana Schemes-The Kentucky Side again-The Company That Built the Work-The Federal Government Takes a Hand -Completed -- Mr. Casseday's Description - Subsequent History of the Canal-Notices of Judge Hall and Others- Its Transfer to the United States-Enlargement-The Railway Bridges.

"LA BELLE RIVIERE."

The superb Ohio was well called by the French explorers and geographers the Beautiful river. It flows with gentle, majestic current and broad stream, for nearly a thousand miles, through some of the finest river scenery in the world. Its numerous tributaries drain, for hun- dreds of miles to the north and to the south, one of the grandest, richest, most fertile valleys on the globe. Its value in the development of the Northwest has been incalculable. Fortunate in- deed are the cities and towns that are located by its shores ; and doubly fortunate is the county of Jefferson, with a frontage of nearly forty miles upon its amber waters. Without the Ohio, Louis- ville would hardly have been. Never has the sagacious, unconsciously humorous remark been better illustrated, that Providence always causes the large rivers to flow by the large cities.

HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

THE FALLS OF THE OHIO.

Scarcely a break or ripple occurs in the tran- quil flow of the great river, until Louisville Is reached. Here an outcrop of limestone from the hidden depths-the same foundation which underlies the Falls cities and the surrounding country on both sides of the river-throws itself boldly across the entire stream, producing, not so much a fall as a rapid, descending for about three miles in the central line of the river, before resuming the usual moderate pace and smooth- ness of the current. Careful observations have been made of the difference in the stand or height of water at the head and that at the foot of the Falls, at different stages of the river, with the following result :

Rise in feet at head|Corresponding rise|Aggregate ascent of of the Falls. at foot of the Falls. the Falls.

25%

01234567890 3 4 5 8

2414 to 2514

231

334

231/2

" 24 12

434

221/

" 23 1/2

834

2012 " 22

'' 20

1334 " 1714

" 171/2

1914 " 2234

912 " 13

24 1 " 27 14

28 " 2934

412

3034 " 3134

312

321/2 " 3314

312

" 3434

216

35% " 36

to 20

31/2

407%

I 16

41*

* Extreme high flood of r832.

It is thus seen that the greatest fall, as reck- oned between the extreme head and extreme foot of the Falls, is twenty-five feet and three inches, and that the fall steadily diminishes as the river rises, until, long before the unwonted height of the flood of 1832 is reached, the as- cent, as compared with the ordinary ascent of the river in the same distance, has become no longer an obstruction to navigation.

It is estimated that three hundred mills and factories might be fully supplied with water-power by the Falls.

Some further account of this remarkable physical feature in the stream will be found in the subjoined descriptions.

CAPTAIN HUTCHINS'S NARRATIVE.

Captain Thomas Hutchins, of Her Majesty's Sixtieth Regiment of Foot, afterwards Geographer of the United States, made careful examinations of the valley of the Ohio, and much of the in- terior country, about the year 1766, and pub-

lished some years afterward, in London, an in- valuable though brief Topographical Description of the regions visited. It contains probably the first plan of the Rapids of the Ohio ever made by a competent hand. From this it may be observed that the map shows no vestige of white settlement on either side as yet. This plan was made, the Captain says, "on the spot in the year 1766." In the text of his book he says :

The Rapids, in a dry season, are difficult to descend with loaded boats or barges, without a good Pilot ; it would be advisable therefore for the Bargemen, in such season, rather than run any risk in passing them, to unload part of their cargoes, and reship it when the barges have got through the Rapids. It may, however, be proper to observe that loaded boats in freshes have been easily rowed against the stream (up the Rapids), and that others, by means only of a long sail, have ascended them.

In a dry season the descent of the rapids, in the distance of a mile, is about twelve or fifteen feet, and the passage down would not be difficult except, perhaps, for the following rea- sons: Two miles above them the River is deep and three- quarters of a mile broad ; but the channel is much contracted and does not exceed two hundred and fifty yards in breadth (near three-quarters of the bed of the river, on the southeast- ern side of it, being filled with a flat Limestone rock, so that in a dry season there is seldom more than six or eight inches' . water), it is upon the northern side of the River, and being confined, as above mentioned, the descending waters tumble over the Rapids with a considerable degree of celerity and orce. The channel is of different depths, but nowhere, I think, less than five feet. It is clear, and upon each side of it are large broken rocks, a few inches under water.

The rapids are nearly in Latitude 38° 8'; and the only In- dian village (in 1760) on the banks of the Ohio river, between there and Fort Pitt was on the northwest side, seventy-five miles below Pittsburgh, called the Mingo town. It contained sixty families.

IMLAY'S ACCOUNT.

Captain Imlay's Topographical Description of the Western Territory of North America, pub- lished in various editions about 1793, comprises a brief notice of the Falls and their surround- ings, which, as it has some unique remarks in it, seems well worth copying:

The Rapids of the Ohio lie almost seven hundred miles below Pittsburg and about four hundred above its confluence with the Mississippi. They are occasioned by a ledge of rocks which stretch across the bed of the river from one side to the other, in some places projecting so much that they are visible when the water is not high, and in most places when the river is extremely low. The fall is not more than between four and five feet in the distance of a mile; so that boats of any burthen may pass with safety when there is a flood, but boats coming up the river must unload, which inconvenience may very easily be removed by cutting a canal from the mouth of Beargrass, the upper side of the Rapids, to below the lower reef of rocks, which is not quite two miles, and the country a gentic declivity the whole way.

1314

HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

The situation of the Rapids is truly delightful. The river is full a mile wide, and the fall of water, which is an eternal cas- ade, appears as if Nature had designed it to show how inim- itable and stupendous are her works. Its breadth contributes to its sublimity, and the continual rumbling noise tends to exhilarate the spirits and gives a cheerfulness even to slug- gards. The view up the river is terminated, at the distance of four leagues, by an island in its centre, which is contrasted by the plain on the opposite shore, that extends a long way into the country; but the eye receding finds new beauties and ample subject for admiration in the rising hills of Silver creek, which, stretching obliquely to the northwest, proudly rise higher and higher as they extend, until their summits are lost in air. Clarksville on the opposite shore completes the prospect, and from its neighborhood and from the settle- ments forming upon the officers' land, a few years must afford us a cultivated country to blend appropriate beauty with the charms of the imagination. Therc lies a small island in the river, about two hundred yards from the eastern shore, be- tween which and the main is a quarry of excellent stone for building, and which in great part is dry the latter part of summer. The banks of the river are never overflowed here, they being fifty feet higher than the bed of the river. There is no doubt but it will soon become a flourishing town; there are already upwards of two hundred good houses built. This town is called Louisville.

JOSIAH ESPY'S OBSERVATIONS.

A graphic and highly interesting description of the Falls, as seen in 1805 by the intelligent travel- er, Josiah Espy, then on his tour through Ohio, Kentucky, and the Indiana Territory, is con- tained in his book of Memorandums, from which we extraet as follows:

2nd October, I took a view of the magnificent Falls of the Ohio. The rapids appear to be about a mile long. On the Indiana side, where the great body of the river runs at low water, 1 could not discover any perpendicular falls. It was not so in the middle and southeast channels, in both of which the extent of the rapids were in a great degree contracted in- to two nearly perpendicular shoots of about seven feet each, over rocks on which the water has but little effect. At some anterior period the channel on the northwest side, 1 ain in- duced to believe, was nearly similar; but the great body of water that has been for ages pouring down has gradually worn away the rocks above, thereby increasing the length of the rapid on that side, and diminishing their perpendicular fall. I have no doubt but that the first break of the water here is now much higher up the river than it was originally.

The beach and whole bed of the river for two or three miles here is one continued body of limestone and petrifac- tions. The infinite variety of the latter are equally elegant and astonishing. All kinds of roots, flowers, shells, bones, buffalo horns, buffalo dung, yellow-jacket's nests, etc., are promiscuously seen in every direction on the extensive beach at low water, in perfect form .* 1 discovered and brought to my lodgings a completely formed petrified wasp's nest, with

the young in it, as natural as when alive. The entire comb is preserved.

Nearly every traveler who subsequently visited this region had his observations to make con- cerning the Falls; but we have presented the main points of interest in the three examples given. Some notes of the writers, however, will be found in the annals of Louisville hereafter. One of them, an English traveler named Asle, actually averred that he could hear the roaring of the Falls when still fifteen miles distant!

THE UTILIZATION

of the splendid water-power which for ages had been expending itself unused at the Falls very soon engaged the attention of the settlers, and was often in discussion. So early as 1806, Mr. Jared Brooks, the same surveyor who made the first authentic and recorded survey of the town- site, went thoroughly over the ground on both sides of the river with his instruments, and over the water with his eye and his calculations, and embodied the results in his published chart, en- titled, "A Map of the Rapids of the Ohio river, and of the countries on each side thereof, so far as to include the routes contemplated for Canal navigation. Respectfully inscribed to His Excel- lency Christopher Greenup, Governor of Ken- tucky, by his very obedient servant, J. Brooks. Engraved and printed by John Goodman, Frank- fort, Kentucky, 1806." Copies of this map have been preserved to recent times, and are much praised by those who have seen them. The Rev. Richard H. Deering, author of a pamphlet printed in 1859, on Louisville. Her Commercial, Manufacturing, and Social Advantages, had a copy of it before him, and makes the following intelligent remarks upon it and its plan of secur- ing water-power and a canal:

A section of this map gives an enlarged "plan of the work below L (upper lock), including all the locks and aqueducts for the supply of 'water- works,' and situations marked from 1 to 12 (mill- sites), which may be extended to any required distance." In the "Notes," the author says:

The rapids are caused by a vast body of rock which crosses the course of the Ohio at this place, and obstructs the current until it swells over its top, and thence searches a passage down an irregular declivity to the lower end of Rock island. The draught of the falls reaches to the line before mentioned, crossing obliquely above the rapids, from whence the velocity of the current increases to the great break of the current at C; from thence to D, the current rates ten miles and 1,066 yards an hour ; from D to E, thirteen and a half

* Foot-note of editor of Espy's narrative: "It needs but little imagination on the part of one not versed in palæon- tology to convert the beautiful corals and other fossils found so abundantly at the falls into the objects named by Mr. Espy."

HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

miles an hour; in all, according to the course of the chan- nel, 3.366 yards in ten minutes and thirty-five seconds. . It is calculated that the canal will be sufficiently capacious for a ship of four hundred tons. [No steamboat had as yet been seen on the Ohio]. The water will be carried plane with the surface above the rapids to the bank of the river below the whole falls, and then disposed of agreeable to the enlarged plan of the work below the letter L (upper lock); so that any required number of water-works may be erected, and each benehted by a perpendicular fall of water equal to the whole fall of the rapids. viz: twenty-four feet. The water-works will stand upon a high and permanent bank, close under which is the main and only channel of that part of the Ohio, which seems to have been carved out of the rock for that purpose. Boats and vessels of any burthen that can descend the river, may lie alongside of the mills and store-houses, and lade and un- lade with the greatest convenience imaginable. The land in the vicinity of the rapids, on both sides of the river, is gen- erally of the first quality, and is so shaped as to afford beauty with convenience. That part situated within view of the rapids, is beyond description delightful.

This map of the Falls, by far the most accur- ate and complete we have ever seen, exhibiting every prominent rock, current, and eddy, and the forests on either side of the river as they stood at that early day, shows how feasible the development of the water-power of the Falls was then considered.

In the absence of the map in this work, we will explain to the reader that Mr. Brooks's plan for "water-works" consisted of a couple of races taken out, one on either side of the main canal, just above the upper lock, and running parallel with the river bank, upward and downward, from which races short side-cuts were to be made at convenient distances for mills, and the water dis- charged into the river after it left the wheels. The race was to be extended down the river to any distance that might be required, thus furnish- ing room and power for an indefinite number of mills.

That this was, and is, all perfectly practicable, no one at all familiar with the subject can doubt; and had it been carried into execution, simul- taneously with the canal, Louisville would have been at this day one of the greatest manufactur- ing cities in this country. A portion of the peo- ple of Louisville then opposed the construction of the canal, because it would destroy the busi- ness of transporting passengers and freight around the Falls, and a large commission and forwarding business, by which a vast number gained a livelihood. To meet their objections, the friends of the enterprise urged the fact that the canal, when completed, would make Louis-

ville one of the greatest manufacturing cities in America; thus, besides giving better employ- ment to the persons concerned, it would be the means of drawing infinitely more people and more business to the place than could ever be realized without the canal. It was urged that a city, possessing all other advantages in the high- est degree known to any in our country, and adding this unequaled water-power above every other, could not fail to advance to the rank of the most populous and important of Western cities. Nor does it appear that any one looked upon the canal in those days as simply and solely to facilitate navigation. Water power was in the mouths of all its advocates, whether in the halls of legislation, on the stump, or in the street. It was to serve the double purpose of navigation and manufacturing. How strange, then, that we should be told, at this day, that the canal can not spare the necessary water for manufacturing! With the whole Ohio river to feed it, men are afraid a number of mill-wheels will drain it dry! "The canal cannot spare the water without re- ducing the depth so as to interrupt navigation." Yet not a canal can be found in America, if it has any fall, that is not used for manufacturing- no, not even the least of them, even where the "feeders" are miles distant from the point where the power is required, while on our canal we have an immense volume of water constantly pushing with great power, thus preventing any material decrease in the depth. This objection is simply childish and ridiculous.

Had our fathers been told that but half the original plan would be carricd to completion by the year 1859, and that their sons would at this day not only be neglecting this boundless source of wealth and prosperity, but actually arguing themselves into the belief that the thing is im. practicable, they would have denounced us as un- worthy of our ongin.

The thing is and always has been practicable, and of such easy development that we are amazed when we consider it. That a basin command- ing the whole power of the Ohio river should stand there within a few yards of the river-bank for a period of twenty-nine years, at an elevation of twenty-four feet above the current passing be- neath it, and not be let into a mill-wheel, is strange indeed.

To show more clearly still the feasibility of the

HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

water-power here, we will state that the plan as drawn by Mr. Brooks, and as the canal is now constructed, brings the water on the plane or level of the river above the Falls to the upper lock, which is only a few rods from the river bank below the Falls. The river bank at this point is composed of a very adhesive clay, or chiefly of this material, down to the black De- vonian slate, which at this point forms the floor of the canal, and in which the locks are con- structed. The land slopes down gradually from the upper lock toward the river, the main and only channel of which at low water is immediate- ly under this bank. The water in the canal basin above the upper lock stands at an elevation of twenty-four feet above the level of the water in the river just alluded to. By taking out the two races as drawn by Mr. Brooks, one extending up the river for a distance of half a mile or more, and the other down the river to any distance that may be desirable, water can be drawn from them on to mill-wheels, by means of side-cuts for a vast number of mills. To do this in the cheapest way let the races be extended only as demanded by new mills. A few yards of race and one mill will develop the principle, and this can be done at less cost than would be required to start an ordinary country mill, where a dam had to be constructed. This arrangement, it will be seen, will place the manufacturing estab- lishments two miles distant from the business part of the city. To obviate this difficulty, and also to place the mills entirely beyond the reach of high water, we will suggest another plan, which we long since determined in our own mind was feasible, and in some respects preferable to the one just given.

Just south of the canal, from fitty to one hun- dred yards, or perhaps more, there is a beauti- ful elevation forming the terminus toward the river of the vast plain or table land on which the city stands. This elevation or bluff, as it is usually called, forms a most beautiful feature of this unrivaled landscape, and runs parallel with the canal from its head to near its foot, the bluff bending to the south with the river when oppo- site the locks, and the canal bending a little to the north at that point to enter the river. Imme- diately on the brow of this bluff runs a fine, wide street, two miles in length and well bouldered, called High strect. The travel on it is immense,

it being one of the great thoroughfares between this city and New Albany, on the opposite side of the river, below the Falls. Between the bluff and the canal there is a beautiful valley, which is generally a little lower between the bluff and the canal than where the canal runs through it. Standing on this bluff near the upper end of the canal, and looking down the valley westward, one will almost declare that Nature made the valley for a race to run just at the foot of the bluff parallel with the canal from end to end, to re- ceive the water drawn by hundreds of cross-cuts from the canal after it shall have turned as many wheels, and convey it off into the river at the west end of the valley. This beautiful bluff evidently seems to have been formed for hun- dreds of manufacturing establishments to stand upon, fronting on one of the prettiest streets in the world, while the elevated plane south gives room for tens of thousands of artisans and labor- ers to build their homes.

Such a race, it is believed, can be made at a small cost as compared with the present canal. First, because it need not be more than half or one-third as large; and next, because it seems very probable it will miss the rock through which the canal is excavated. Several wells have been sunk on the south side of the canal, which re- veal the fact that the rock dips south very sud- denly. Du Pont's great artesian well is but a few rods south of it, and there it is seventy-six feet to the rock, which must be many feet below the bot- tom of the canal. If the race were commenced at the lower end, and a mill constructed there, so as to develop the practicability of the plan, the expense as in the other plan would be but small. Then it could be extended as required until the upper end of the line of mills would be quite in the business part of the city as the business is now located. The whole of the mills would then be on a high and beautiful plane, entirely out of the way of floods, ice, and drift. Thus far Mr. Deering.

Nevertheless, to this day the great power here running to waste, apparently, is but little utilized in the movement of machinery, and steam re- mains the preferred motor. It is understood that the frequent floods in the river, occasionally very great and troublesome, constitute an im- portant factor in the problem, and that the diffi- culties they present have not yet been satisfac-

HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

torily overcome. Four plans for utilization of the Falls are still considered, however. They are thus given by Mr. Collins, in his History of Kentucky: 1. Enlarge the present Louisville and Portland canal, and increase the height of water therein by building a dam clear across the river; 2. Build a new canal, parallel with the Portland canal, only for the location of factories and mills; 3. Tap the Portland canal east of its lower locks, and build a new canal through Port- land-gaining an enormous water-power and very convenient sites for factories and mills; 4. Tap the Portland canal east of its lower locks, and cut a canal across Shippingport.

A determined effort was made at a meeting of citizens held April 26, 1876, to secure measures for utilizing the superb water-power of the Falls. A resolution was unanimously adopted request- ing the General Council of the city to procure a report from hydraulic engineers and competent experts on the utilization of the power, and an- other for the appointment of a committee to as- certain by correspondence with steamboat owners and masters, and others interested in the naviga- tion of the Ohio, whether navigation would be impeded by such use. The services of Mr. John Zellmyer, a civil engineer, were secured, and in due time he made an elaborate report fixing the cost of the necessary machinery, gearing ropes, timber work, masonry, and stations for three thousand teet of transmission, at $60,000, with- out definite estimate for head- and tail-races and other improvements. A calculation was made by Mr. Zellmyer upon the basis of the use of steam-power during sixty days of high water, when it would not be practicable to use the water- power, showing that the combined cost of power from steam and water for three hundred and sixty days would be $46 per horse-power, against $72 per horse-power for steam alone. Nothing more tangible, however, has yet come of his inves- tigations or the Centennial effort of the citizens.

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History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 8

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co. Number of Pages: 814

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co.
Number of Pages: 814