USA > Ohio > History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I > Part 9
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THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE FALLS,
so as to facilitate their navigation, has also some- what engaged public attention. When Mr. Cas- seday wrote his little History, about 1852, it was proposed to introduce a system of slackwater navigation by dams and locks; also, to blast out the rocks in and near the channel, so as to turn all the water at low stages of the river into one
channel, which it was calculated would be suffi- cient for the passage of vessels. Neither project was consummated, however; but, about five years afterwards, during low-water in the season of 1857, the Falls pilots took the matter of improve- ment of the channel into their own hands, and deepened and widened it in part by their own labors and in part at their own pecuniary ex- pense. It has since, and very lately, been greatly improved, at the expense of the General Gov- ernment.
The famous improvement at the Falls, how- ever, now, and perhaps for all time to come, is and must be
THE SHIP CANAL.
We have seen that, at a very early period, the attention of dwellers at the Falls was attracted to the necessity of an artificial water-way around this formidable obstruction, and that, so early as 1806, a line had been marked out for it. Even two years before this, in 1804, a company was incorporated to excavate a canal around the Falls; but nothing came of this, except, as be- fore mentioned, some surveys. In 1809 or 1810 a bill was passed by Congress authorizing a subscription from the National Treasury of $150,000 to the capital stock of the Ohio Canal company, conditioned that the company should previously have a sum funded equal to half the total amount required, complete its arrangements for cutting the canal, and report the situation, with all necessary explanation, to the President of the United States.
On the 20th of December, 1815, a resolution passed the Kentucky Legislature, requesting the co-operation of the several States interested in the proposed improvement. The State was authorized to subscribe for one thousand shares ($50,000) and to reserve a subscription of one thousand more for future disposition. To the Governor was delegated the right to vote in the meetings of the company, on behalf of the State, according to the amount of the public shares. No part of this subscription was to be paid until three hundred shares were otherwise taken, and in any case only $10,000 a year was to be paid out on this account, unless by consent of the Assembly. The same Legislature duly incor- porated the Ohio Canal company to operate on the south side of the Falls, and about the same time an "Indiana Canal company" was granted
47
HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
a charter by its own Legislature on the other side. Congress was asked in behalf of one or both these companies, to grant "a pre-emption of land enabling them to divide their rights into several parts, and that before all the best lands were sold, with the remittance of part, either principal or interest, and on larger than usual credit."
THE INDIANA CANAL.
A ship canal on the north side had been pro- posed as early as 1805, and it was thought that special advantages in the lie of the land, particu- larly in the situation and trend of certain ravines, attended this project and promised it certain success. General B. Hovey wrote to the com- pany about this time:
When I first viewed the Rapids of the Ohio, it was my ob- ject to have opened a canal on the side of Louisville, but on examination I discovered such advantages on the opposite side that I at once decided in favor of it.
He rested his judgment decisively upon the two deep ravines, "one above the Rapids, and the other below the steepest fall."
The Legislature incorporated his company on the most liberal scale, and the subscription books filled rapidly. About $120,000 were actually sub- scribed, the names of some of the first men in the country appearing on the books. Josiah Espy, from whose " Memorandums " we have al- ready quoted, writing here in 1805, expressed his confidence of the success of the enterprise, and said :
If these expectations should be realized, there remains but little doubt the Falls of the Ohio will become the centre of the wealth of the Western World.
And yet the scheme came to utter and abso- lute failure.
In 1819, when the founders of Jeffersonville, largely Cincinnati men, were actively engaged in pushing their projects, this particular scheme was revived with a great deal of energy, and a begin- ning of work made upon it. The maps of the town-site, made at this period, have the line of the intended canal distinctly marked upon them, and traces of the work actually done upon it yet remain in certain spots. The canal here was to begin a few rods east of the original plat of Jeffer- sonville, at the mouth of the ravine, thence run by the shortest route through the back lots of the town, and terminate at the eddy at the foot of the Rapids by Clarksville. It was to be two and
one-half miles long, with a width at the top of one hundred feet and at the bottom of fifty, and an average depth of forty-five feet. Except about one-fourth of it in the upper end, rock to the depth of ten or twelve feet would have to be blasted out. The twenty-three feet fall given by it, it was expected, would furnish excellent mill- seats and power to drive machinery for very ex- tensive manufacturing establishments.
For the building of this the Jeffersonville Ohio Canal company was incorporated by the Indiana Legislature in January, 1818, with a capital of $1,000,000, and permission to raise $100,000 by a lottery. The charter was to run until 1899, but the canal, in order to the continued life of the company, must be completed by the end of the year 1824.
By May, 1819, the line had been surveyed and located, some contracts had been let, and exca- vating commenced. A writer soon after this said the work "continues to be prosecuted with spirit, and the faint prospect of success." There was prospect enough, though, to prompt Dr. Mc- Murtrie, writing the same year, to devote a num- ber of the most vigorous pages of his Sketches of Louisville to writing down the scheme and put- ting it in the very worst light. As all the world now knows, money in sufficiency could not be raised for it, even under the inducements of a lottery, and the project presently fell at once and forever.
THE KENTUCKY SIDE AGAIN.
Meanwhile the friends of the Louisville plan were not idle. In 1816 Mr. L. Baldwin, a Gov- ernment engineer, was sent out by the Federal authorities to make surveys and borings along the Kentucky shore near the Falls, and report as to the practicability of a ship-canal on that line. He made his investigations with due care, and concluded that, by digging about twenty feet be- low the surface (three and one-half through lime- stone rock), a sufficient canal for the passage of a four-hundred-ton vessel might be had. January 30, 1818, another company was chartered to ex- cavate the canal; and still nothing of account was done. Finally, seven years afterward, the coming men appeared, and the unmistakably hopeful beginning was made.
THE COMPANY THAT BUILT IT.
The construction of the canal around the
48
HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
Falls of the Ohio, on the Kentucky side, was authorized, and a company for that purpose in- corporated, by act of the General Assembly of the State, approved January 12, 1825. The company chartered was composed mainly of gentlemen residing in Philadelphia, and pos- sessed of the requisite means, intelligence, and energy for the prosecution of such an enterprise. The names prominently associated with it in its early day were James McGilly Cuddy, president ; Simeon S. Goodwin, secretary ; James Ronald- son, John C. Buckland, William Fitch, and Mr. Goodwin, directors. Thomas Hulme was also a prominent member. The charter fixed the amount of the capital stock at $600,000, to be held in shares of $100 each, and prescribed the time of completion of the canal as not to ex- ceed three years-a time which was subse- quently, by a legislative act December 20, 1825, extended to three years from that date, and further extensions were subsequently granted by acts of February 6th and December 11, 1828.
Contracts were let in December, 1825, or January, of the next year, for the construction of the canal by October, 1827, for the total sum of $370,000. The work was begun in March, 1826, but dragged along till the last of 1828 without completion, when the contractors failed, and new contracts had to be made at higher rates. The work of excavating the canal was begun as soon as practicable, but, as a part of it had to be cut through solid rock, its progress was at times necessarily slow.
UNCLE SAMUEL INVESTS.
Almost upon the inception of the work, the Federal Government became a shareholder in the enterprise. By an act of Congress, approved May 13, 1826, the Secretary of the Treasury was authorized to subscribe one thousand shares to the capital stock of the company, and by another act, of date March 2, 1829, a further subscrip- tion was authorized, not to exceed 1,350 shares. Under these acts the officers of the United States subscribed or bought for the Government, 2,335 shares at the full par value of $100 per share, and subsequently, by the conversion of interest and tolls into stock, it became the owner of 567 additional shares, making 2,902 in all, or 552 more than it was authorized to acquire by direct subscription. Down to 1842, it may here be re-
marked, the General Government received, as earnings of their stock, in cash dividends, the total sum of $257,778-$24,278 more than its entire stock had cost in actual money payments -a vastly better return than is usual in the in- vestments of public authorities. The company's capital stock was increased by the State Legisla- ture, by act of December 12, 1829, to $700,000; and by an act approved just two years from that date, it was raised to whatever amount might be necessary for the payment of all costs and ex- penses of constructing the canal, and interest to the time it was opened for navigation. By this time (December 12, 1831), and, indeed, before the passage of the former act, the work has been so far completed that a steamer had passed its channel and locks. This vessel was the Vesta, (some say the Uncas), said to have been the first in the long line of steamboats constructed since the year 1816 at Cincinnati. It made its transit through the canal December 21, 1829.
The great work had been sufficiently com- pleted for this purpose within little more than three years. Nothing was done upon it in 1825; but the next year $66,223.56 were expended up- on the requisitions of the contractors, and $10,- 946.24 for the land required for the canal. In 1827 the expenditures upon the contract were $111,430.51; in 1828, $194,280; 1829, $151,- 796.03; in 1830, on the order of the engineer in charge, for labor and materials, $168,302.05; and in 1831, for completion of contracts and ad- ditional work, $3,444.90, besides $4,960 for ex- penses of repairs and alterations. For some time the work was in the hands of but a single contractor, without competition; but so small an amount of labor was done during the year (1829) that the work was next divided into several con- venient sections, each of which was let only to contractors who could give it their personal su- pervision, and so the construction proceeded more rapidly. By the middle of March, 1830, as many as seven companies of contractors were thus engaged at prices somewhat lower than those which prevailed the previous year. On the first of December, says the official report for the year, "the water, which had been rising for several days, had attained to near the top of the temporary dam at the head of the canal, and the whole line of canal, from the basin to the grand lock, being completely excavated and cleared
.
49
HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
out, it was deemed advisable to remove the dam and fill the canal, which was done on that day." There were then seven feet of water in it, from the basin to the head of the lock, being four feet more than there were upon the Falls.
It was now announced that the canal was com- pleted, and opened for navigation. Mr. Casse- day, in his History of Louisville, gives the fol- lowing description of it:
When completed, it cost about $750,000. It is about two miles in length and is intended to overcome a fall of twenty- four feet, occasioned by an irregular ledge of limestone and rock, through which the entire bed of the canal is excavated, a part to the depth of 12 feet, overlaid with earth. There is one guard and three lift locks combined, all of which have their foundation on the rock. One bridge of stone 240 feet long, with an elevation of 68 feet to the top of the parapet wall, and three arches, the center one of which is semi-ellip- tical, with a transverse diameter of 66, and a semi-conjugate diameter of 22 feet. The two arches are segments of 40 feet span. The guard lock is 190 feet long in the clear, with semi-circular heads of 26 feet in diameter, 50 feet wide, and 42 feet high, and contains 21,775 perches of mason work. The solid contents of this lock are equal to 15 common locks, such as are built on the Ohio and New York canals. The lift locks are of the same width with the guard lock, 20 feet high and 183 feet long in the clear, and contain 12,300 perches of mason work. The entire length of the walls from the head of the guard lock to the end of the outlet lock is 921 feet. In addition to the amount of mason work above, there are three culverts to drain off the water from the adja- cent lands, the mason work of which, when added to the locks and bridge, gives the whole amount of mason work 41,989 perches, equal to about 30 common canal locks. The cross section of the canal is 200 feet at top of banks, 50 feet at bottom, and 42 feet high, having a capacity equal to that of 25 common canals; and if we keep in view the unequal quantity of mason work, compared to the length of the canal, the great difficulties of excavating earth and rock from so great a depth and width, together with the contingencies attending its construction from the fluctuations of the Ohio river, it may not be considered as extravagant in drawing the comparison between the work in this, and in that of 70 or 75 miles of common canaling.
In the upper sections of the canal, the alluvial earth to the average depth of 20 feet being removed, trunks of trees were found, more or less decayed, and so imbedded as to indicate a powerful current towards the present shore, some of which were cedar, which is not now found in this region. Several fire-places of a rude construction, with partially burnt wood, were discovered near the rock, as well as the bones of a variety of small animals, and several human skeletons; rude implements formed of bone and stone were also frequently seen, as also several well-wrought specimens of hematite of iron, in the shape of plummets or sinkers, displaying a knowledge in the arts far in advance of the present race of Indians.
The first stratum of rock was light, friable slate in close contact with the limestone, and difficult to disengage from it ; this slate did not, however, extend over the whole surface of the rock, and was of various thicknesses from three inches to four feet.
The stratum next to the slate was a close compact lime- 7
stone, in which petrified sea shells and an infinite variety of coraline formations were embedded, and frequent cavities of crystaline encrustations were seen, many of which still con- tained petroleum of a highly fetid smell, which gives the name to this description of limestone. This description of rock is on an average of five feet, covering a substratum of a species of cias limestone of a bluish color, embedding nodules of hornstone and organic remains. The fracture of this stone has in all instances been found to be irregularly conchoidal, and on exposure to the atmosphere and subjection to fire it crumbled to pieces. When burnt and ground, and mixed with a due proportion of silicious sand, it has been found to make a most superior kind of hydraulic cement or water-lime.
The discovery of this valuable limestone has enabled the canal company to construct their masonry more solidly than any other known in the United States.
A manufactory of this hydraulic cement or water-lime is now established on the bank of the canal, on a scale capable of supplying the United States with this much valued mate- rial for all works in contact with water or exposed to moist- ure ; the nature of this cement being to harden in the water, the grout used on the locks of the canal is already harder than the stone used in their construction.
After passing through the stratum which was commonly called the water-lime, about ten feet in thickness, the work- men came to a more compact mass of primitive grey lime- stone, which however was not penetrated to any great depth. In many parts of the excavation, masses of bluish white flint and hornstone were found enclosed in or encrusting the fetid limestone. And from the large quantities of arrow- heads and other rude formations of this flint-stone, it is evi- dent that it was made much use of by the Indians in forming their weapons of war and hunting ; in one place a magazine of arrow heads was discovered, containing many hundreds of those rude implements, carefully packed together, and buried below the surface of the ground.
The existence of iron ore in considerable quantities was exhibited in the progress of excavation of the canal by numerous highly charged chalybeate springs, that gushed out and continued to flow during the time that the rock was ex- posed, chiefly in the upper strata of limestone .* The canal when built was intended for the largest class of boats, but the facilities for navigation have so far improved and the size of vessels increased so far beyond the expectations of the pro- jectors of this enterprise that it is now found much too small to answer the demands of navigation. The consequence is that the canal is looked upon as, equally with the Falls, a barrier to navigation. The larger lower-river boats refuse to sign bills of lading compelling them to deliver their goods above the Falls, and as this class of boats is increasing, it promises soon to be as difficult to pass this point as before this immense work was completed. As previous to the under- taking of this canal, so there are now numerous plans pro- posed for overcoming the impediment; and these do not differ materially from those suggested and noticed in 1804. The only ground upon which all parties agree is, that what- ever is done should be effected by the General Government, and not left to be completed by individual enterprise.
The Government, as has before been said, owns a very large part of the stock in this canal, say three-fifths, and it is strongly urged by a part of the community that nothing would better serve the interests of Western navigation than a movement on the part of the United States, making it free.
* This is extracted from Mr. Mann Butler's account of the canal.
50
HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
The question of internal improvement is not within the province of this history to discuss; but certainly a deaf ear should not be turned by the General Government to the united voice of so many of its children, all alike demanding to be relieved from their embarrassments, and the more particular- ly so, as it has already heard and answered the supplications of a part of its numerous family. Any semblance of favor- itism in a government is a sure means of alienating the trust and affection of a part of its dependents. Whatever means may be most advisable to effect the removal of the impedi- ments to navigation here should at once be adopted. And if the opening of the canal freely to all could tend to effect this object, the Government has already had from its revenue suf- ficent to warrant it in taking off the tax from navigation.
During the first year of operation, much diffi- culty was experienced from the accumulation of mud in and in front of the lower lock, brought in by repeated freshets; from the falling into the canal of some of the piles of stone from the ex- cavation which had been allowed temporary place upon the berme bank of the canal; and the large quantities of drift wood which at one time blocked up the entrance. Relief from all these hindrances was eventually had; but large loss was suffered by reason of them. During the en- tire thirteen months from the opening of the canal December 1, 1830, to the close of 1831, there were but one hundred and four days dur- ing which vessels drawing more than four feet of water could pass into or out of the lower lock; and it was estimated that but for the obstruction caused by mud here, three times as many boats would have passed the canal. There were but one hundred and eighty-three days, indeed, when any boats, however light their draft, could pass it. The entire transit of the year, however, amounted to eight hundred and twenty-seven vessels, with an aggregate tonnage of seventy six thousand three hundred and twenty-three tons. It is interesting to note, by the aid of this report, the relative proportions of the several river-craft upon this part of the Ohio half a century ago. These eight hundred and twenty-seven boats in- cluded less than half that number of steamers (four hundred and six), with three hundred and fifty-seven flat-boats, forty-eight keel-boats, six- teen rafts. The broadhorn age on the Western waters had yet by no means passed away.
In the winter of 1831-32, and the spring of 1832, the river was closed by ice for an unusual length of time, and its break-up was followed by great floods, which swept over the banks of the canal and brought into it immense quantities of mud, drift-wood, and even houses carried off by
the raging waters. After the flood had subsided, the water was shut off from the whole length of the canal, and it was thoroughly cleared and re- paired, and much new machinery added. The upper and northern embankment was extended in the form of a heavy wall, to facilitate the passage of boats and form a barrier to the en- trance of drift-wood. The receipts from tolls for the year were only $25,756.12, and it became necessary to raise over two-thirds as much more to meet the large expenditure.
In 1833 a draw-bridge was constructed over the guard-lock, to connect the villages of Port- land and Shippingport. A dredging machine was also built, and used effectually in clearing the mud collected at both ends of the canal. On the 23d of January, of this year, an attempt was made by enemies of the improvement to disable it by blowing up the locks with gun- powder. The blast did not take effect, probably on account of a heavy rain then falling; but still considerable injury was done, and it was thought necessary to institute a nightly watch upon the canal, and furnish its line with lamps. Prepara- tions were also made by the perpetrators of the former outrage to blow up the stone bridge, and boats loaded with coal were actually sunk pur- posely at the mouth of the canal ; but all to no use, so far as any permanent obstruction was concerned. The Legislature promptly passed an act making such deeds felony.
In 1836 the great expenses of the canal, in making repairs and removing obstructions, made necessary the raising of tolls to sixty cents per ton for steamers, and three cents per square foot of area for keel- and flat-boats. The tolls before that had been forty and two cents, respectively. The next year the total reached the high figure of $145,424.69, which was $57,081.46 more than the year before. In 1838 the tolls were $180,- 364.01, the largest in the history of the canal; and dividends amounting to seventeen per cent. were declared.
The following description of the work is given in the Louisville Directory for 1838-39:
The first public work worthy of regard for its architecture, is the Louisville and Portland canal. A beautiful bridge of stone is thrown over it, about midway with one principal and two smaller arches; the former semi-elliptical of sixty feet space and sixty-eight feet to the top of the principat wall, the side-arches and segments of forty feet space. There is one guard and three lift-locks, the former one hundred and ninety feet long, in the clear, with semi-circular heads of
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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
twenty-six feet diameter, fifly feet wide, and forty-two feet high, containing 21,775 perches of stone-work. The lift- locks are of the same width with the guard-locks, twenty feet high and one hundred and eighty-three feet long in the clear, and contain 12,300 perches of masonry. The entire length of the wall is nine hundred and twenty-one feet. There are also three culverts, making the whole masonry of the canal 41,689 perches.
In 1839-40 enough additional shares were sold to raise the capital stock to $1,000,000, to which amount it was resolved to limit the stock. In February, 1842, an act was passed by the Gener- al Assembly authorizing the stockholders to ap- propriate the net income of the company to the purchase of shares held by individuals, to the in- tent that, when the said shares should all be bought up, the canal might be made tree of tolls, under the direction and supervision of the United States, which would then be the sole re- maining stockholder; or, if the trust were de- clined by the General Government, that it might be offered the city of Louisville or the State of Kentucky. The maximum price to be paid per share was fixed by this act at $150, which indi- cates a large appreciation of the stock since the original subscriptions were made.
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