USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > Bridgeport > Hart's history and directory of the three towns, Brownsville, Bridgeport, West Brownsville also abridged history of Fayette county & western Pennsylvania > Part 8
USA > Pennsylvania > Washington County > West Brownsville > Hart's history and directory of the three towns, Brownsville, Bridgeport, West Brownsville also abridged history of Fayette county & western Pennsylvania > Part 8
USA > Pennsylvania > Fayette County > Brownsville > Hart's history and directory of the three towns, Brownsville, Bridgeport, West Brownsville also abridged history of Fayette county & western Pennsylvania > Part 8
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45
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Slack -Water Navigation
THE BALTIMORE & OHIO, THE NATIONAL PIKE AND THE MONONGAHELA RIVER, THREE LINKS IN PIONEER COMMERCE-SLACK-WATER NAVIGA- TION FIRST TAKEN UP BY CONGRESS IN 1782-AGAIN IN 1817-CAPITAL STOCK OF FIRST COMPANY -- THE STATE TAKES A HAND IN 1882- SECOND MONONGAHELA NAVIGATION COMPANY-COMMISSIONERS AP- POINTED TO TAKE SUBSCRIPTIONS-$258,000 SUBSCRIBED BUT MUCH NEVER PAID-THE COMPANY COMES TO GRIEF-CAPITALISTS BUY UP THE STOCK AND COMPLETE THE WORK-COST OF THE WORK AND COST OF TOLLS- EIGHT YEARS OF GREAT PROSPERITY.
When the Baltimore and Ohio reached Cumberland in 1844 the traffic on the National Pike, owing to the facilities for eastern traffic reaching that point, sprang to the zenith of its glory and it was then that the slack-water navigation of the Monongahela river was also at its zenith. Travelers and freight left the Baltimore & Ohio at Cumberland and were whirled over the seventy-five miles of smooth National Pike to Brownsville, where almost everything was transferred to the Monongahela river and taken by boat to Pittsburg and on down the river, into Ohio and Kentucky. It was this in part that gave rise to the boat-building industry at Brownsville of which more is said under the head of the Three Towns.
SLACK-WATER NAVIGATION AGITATED IN 1782.
Many years prior to this, however, the question of improving the Monon- gahela river by building dams and locks, was taken up by Congress. By an act of assembly dated April 15, 1782, both the Allegheny and the Youghiogheny rivers were made highways, and by another act of assembly passed and approved March 28, 1814 the Governor of Pennsylvania was empowered and in manner instructed to appoint three competent and disinterested persons who were citizens of the Commonwealth and one of whom was to be a competent surveyor, to view and examine the Monongahela river from the junction of said river with the Allegheny river to the point where said river crosses the southern line of the state, taking notes of its various meanderings, the ripples and dams, distance between cach, the fall from one to another, and the distance of each bend or turn in the river and its direction, with a view to building a series of dams and locks for the purpose of improving navigation. They were also to furnish in their report of this survey an estimate of the cost of the work of erecting such dams and locks as they thought it necessary to build in order to insure continued navigation
76
"The Old Monongahela Still "
"THE OLD MONONGAHELA STILL."
BY W. H. BRIGHT.
In the dim, receding ages, when the Indian's bark canoe Glided o'er Monongahela, while the twilight shed its dew, And the stars stole out above him, each a tiny sparkling sphere, He was lord of all creation, there was not a "Paleface" here.
W.H. Bright.
On its banks he built his wigwam, in the forests killed his game, And he watched the days of Autumn as they set the hills aflame; Then he wooed the dusky maiden when the Indian Summer days Draped the river, hills and valleys with a strange, seductive haze.
And his council fires he lighted, in the valleys, on the hills, While his children played in safety by old Fayette's many rills; But the restless "Paleface" wandered on toward the setting sun, And the days of Nemacolin and of Logan soon were done.
77
"The Old Monongahela Still "
And the giants of the forest that once stood upon the height, And the dense, umbrageous branches that once held the shades of night; All have vanished with the Indians-all gone out upon the tide, While the children of the forest now are scattered far and wide.
Rees Cadwallader is sleeping with the forest's dusky sons, Redstone Old Fort long is silent, long divested of its guns; On the hill the Browns are lying, not a stone to mark their graves, Indian Peter, too, is sleeping with the other Indian braves.
And the Three Towns form a city on the land they once possessed, That has wakened into action after half a century's rest, And has taken her position on Monongahela's banks, With the proudest of her cities in the front commercial ranks.
On Monongahela's waters stately steamers ply today, And the trail of Nemacolin, is a beaten, broad highway; While the mansion of the "Paleface" rears its walls upon the shore And the children of the Red Man play upon its banks no more.
Indian war-whoops long are silenced but the locomotive's blast That re-echoes from the hillsides, tells that olden days are passed, And the rails of steel that glitter 'neath the torrid summer's sun, Tell the tale of generations and the work that they have done.
Other tribes with other customs are upon the scene today, And the tomahawk and arrow both were long since laid away; But the river, still majestic, flows between its banks of green, And the moonlight falls upon it, as upon a silver sheen.
But, the fleets that now are bearing tons of wealth from Fayette's stores, To the busy marts below us, that have risen on its shores, Bear no trace nor faint resemblance to the Indian's frail canoe, Though the moon and stars still glimmer in their upper depths of blue.
Where the Indian warrior hunted, fertile fields appear today, For the Indian barque and teepee with the Indian passed away; While the pioneer has followed in the wake of vanished braves And our footsteps lead us onward in the path toward their graves.
Others soon will take our places, as we've taken theirs today, And the pride of our achievements will be sadly laid away; For the world is rushing onward, as a corps to fife and drum, And our wonders will seem simple in the light of years to come.
But, the Old Monongahela still will keep her vigils here While the restless generations vanish from their chosen sphere; And her gently flowing waters, fed by many rippling rills, Will remain to note the ages, with the everlasting hills.
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Again Taken Up in 1817-Name of the Company
of the river the year round. Nothing was done under this act, however, and the next year it was revived and extended for a period of three years. Under this second provision the survey was made but nothing more was done.
AGAIN TAKEN UP IN 1817-THE NAME OF THE COMPANY.
In 1817 another act was passed and approved the 24th of March of that year, authorizing the incorporation of a company to make a lock navigation on the Monongahela river. This company was to bear the name and style of "The President, Managers, and Company of the Monongahela Navigation Company." The following gentlemen were appointed to serve on this committee:
Andrew Linn, Esq., and Hugh Ford of Freeport; James Tomlinson, Elisha Hunt, George Dawson, William Hogg, Jacob Bowman, Basil Brashear, Joseph Thornton, and Israel Miller of Brownsville; James W. Nichols, and Thomas Williams, Esq., of New Geneva (all of the above from Fayette County) ; Charles Bollman, Joel Butler, and Jas. P. Stewart of Williamsport (now Monongahela City); Henry P. Pearson and Joseph Alexander of Frederick- town in the county of Washington, with seven others from Allegheny County and two from Greene.
CAPITAL STOCK, $78,000.
The capital stock of the company was to be seventy-eight thousand dollars, in two thousand six hundred shares of sixty dollars each. As soon as five hundred shares should be subscribed the Governor was directed to issue the charter of the company, and it was enacted "that as soon as the company shall have been incorporated by the Governor to make a lock navigation on the Monongahela river, he is hereby authorized and required to subscribe in behalf of this Commonwealth for one thousand shares of the stock of said company at thirty dollars for each share, to be paid upon warrants drawn by the Governor of the State Treasurer in favor of the President and Managers of said company.
By the terms of the act of incorporation, the company was required in making their improvements on the river, " to erect at Bogg's ripple a dam at the height of three feet six inches; at Braddock's lower ripple, a dam of the height of three feet six inches; at Braddock's upper ripple, a dam of the height of three feet six inches; at Peter's Creek ripple, a dam at the height of four feet three inches; at Frye's ripple, a dam of the height of three feet ten inches at Forsyth's ripple, a dam of the height of three feet eight inches; at Browns- ville ripple, a dam of the height of four feet six inches; at Smith's ripple, a dam of the height of four feet eight and one-half inches; at Heaton's ripple, a dam of the height of four feet five inches; at Muddy Creek ripple, a dam of the height of four fect five inches; at Gilmore's ripple, a dam of the height of three feet ten inches; at Little Whitley ripple, a dam of the height of four feet four inches; at Geneva ripple, a dam of the height of three feet four inches;
79
The State Takes Up the Work in 1822.
at Dunkard ripple, a dam of the height of three feet six inches, and at Cheat river ripple, a dam of the height of three feet three inches," with the privilege of raising any or all the dams not to exceed six inches above the specified height, if it should be found necessary to do so. The company were em- powered " to form, make, erect and set up any dams, locks or any other device whatsoever which they shall think most fit and convenient to make a com- plete slack-water navigation between the points aforesaid (Pittsburg and the State line) so as to admit the safe and easy passage for loaded barges, boats, and other crafts up, as well as down, said river," and to use the water power created by their dams for the propulsion of machinery, or to sell or lease such water power, but not so as to injure, impede, or interrupt navigation on the river. It was provided by the act "that as soon as the eight first-named dams and locks shall be erected and completed," and the Governor should have proper evidence that they had been so completed in a workmanlike manner, he should thereupon issue his license or permit to the company to collect tolls from boats passing that part of the river. Owners of dams which had been erected at certain points on the river for mill purposes prior to the passage of the act were required to raise such dams to the specified height (if they were not already up to it), and to keep them in repair; and for so doing they were empowered to collect tolls from boats and other crafts passing them.
THE STATE TAKES UP THE WORK IN 1822.
It appears, however that this company did not comply with the require- ments provided in the act except to open a set of books and secure sufficient subscriptions to get the state appropriations. Accordingly we find that in the spring of 1822 a few days after the expiration of five years from the pas- sage of the act authorizing the Monongahela Navigation Company, an act was passed by the Assembly (approved April 2d of the year named) taking the improvement of the Monongahela into the hands of the State, and pro- viding "That Solomon Krepps and Joseph Enochs of Fayette County and William Leckey, of Pittsburg, be and they are hereby appointed commis- sioners, who shall have power, and it shall be their duty, to cause to be re- moved all obstructions which impede or injure the navigation of said river Monongahela, by making a slope or inclined navigation from the Virginia State line to its junction with the Allegheny river, and said improvement to commence at the mouth of Dunlap's Creek, in Fayette County, and for that purpose to employ suitable persons to perform said work;" and "That ten thousand dollars of the stock subscribed by the Governor on behalf of this Commonwealth in the stock of the Monongahela Navigation Company be and is hereby appropriated to defray the expenses of removing the said obstructions."
By another section of the act it was provided and declared "That this act shall not go into operation until the Monongahela Navigation Company have first settled all accounts of said company, and have paid into the treasury of Fayette County all the unexpended balance of money in their hands, if any be due, for the purpose of being applied agreeably to the pro- visions of this act, * and until then the Monongahela Navigation
80
Second Monongahela Navigation Company
Company shall also have relinquished their shares in the stock of said company, as well those held by individuals as those held by companies. which relinquishment shall have been certified and transmitted under the hand and seal of the president and managers of said company, or a majority of them, to the Governor, stating that they relinquish all the rights, powers and privileges in and to the river Monongahela vested in them by an act passed the 24th of March, 1817, entitled, 'An act to authorize the governor to incorporate a company to make a lock navigation on the Monongahela river,' and from thenceforth said company shall cease and determine as if the said act had not been passed."
SECOND MONONGAHELA NAVIGATION COMPANY.
This company as the one before it, accomplished nothing of any conse- quence and it was not till 1836 that any material progress was made. March 31, 1836, under an act of assembly, the Monongahela Navigation Company (the second of the same name and style), was authorized and accordingly incorporated. A capital of $300,000 was authorized in 6,000 shares each of $50, with power to increase the number of shares to whatever extent was necessary to complete the work.
COMMISSIONERS TO RECEIVE SUBSCRIPTIONS APPOINTED.
The persons appointed as commissioners to receive subscriptions to the stock were Thomas H. Baird, Aaron Kerr, Ephraim L. Blaine, William Briant, Sheshbazzer Bentley, Andrew Gregg, John Bowers, William Vankirk, Samuel Beatty, William Hopkins, and James Gordon, of Washington County, George Dawson, Benedict Kimber, George Hogg, James L. Bowman, Israel Miller, David Gilmore, E. P. Oliphant, Jermiah Davison, Thomas Wilson, Tazwell P. Martin, George Cramer, Yates S. Conwell, Thomas Beatty, Aaron Bucher, John Harshe, Andrew Stewart, Isaac Crow, George Vance, James C. Etingon, Robert Brown, James C. Ramsey, David B. Rhodes, William Everhart, Westley Frost, and Samuel J. Krepps, of Fayette County; and a number of gentlemen from Greene and Allegheny Counties. When two thousand shares were subscribed the company was entitled to a charter, and might organize in not less than twenty days. Upon organization the company was empowered "to form and make, erect and set up any dams, locks or any other device whatsoever which they shall think most fit and convenient to make a complete slack-water navigation between the points herewith mentioned, to wit: the city of Pittsburg and the Virginia State line; and that the dams that they shall so construct for the purpose of slack-water naviga- tion shall not exceed in height four feet six inches: and that the locks for the purpose of passing steamboats, barges and other crafts up and down the river shall be of sufficient width and length to admit the safe and easy passage for steamboats, barges, and other crafts up as well as down said river." This act, like that which was passed for the creation of the old company in 1817, authorized the company to use, lease or sell the water power from the dams
81
The Company Comes to Grief and Work is Suspended
previously built (if by them raised to the required height) the right to collect toll from boats passing down or up the river. By the terms of the act the company was required to commence work within five years, and to complete the improvements to the Virginia line within twelve years from its passage, under penalty of forfeiture of charter.
During the year 1836 sufficient stock was subscribed to authorize the issue of a charter early in 1837. and on the 10th of Pebruary in that year the com- pany was organized by the election of officers, as follows: President, James Clarke: Treasurer. John D. Davis; Secretary, Jesse H. Duncan: Managers, Thomas Bakewell, James L. Bowman, John H. Ewing, John Freeman, Cephas Gregg, George Hogg, John Lyon, John Tassey, William Wade, Samuel Walker.
$258,100 SUBSCRIBED BUT MANY SUBSCRIPTIONS WERE NOT PAID).
The United States Bank was chartered in 1836 and a section of the act stipulated that this banking institution should subscribe $50,000 to the navi- gation company at the opening of its books and $50,000 more when $100.000 of stock from other sources should have been expended on the work. The State, by act of assembly in 1838 subscribed $25,000 and by authority of another act in 1840, subscribed $100,000 more. Altogether there was raised $258,100 or that much was subscribed but the company did not realize on many of the subscriptions.
THE COMPANY COMES TO GRIEF AND WORK IS SUSPENDED.
The preliminary work was at once commenced and prosecuted till 1841 when it was suspended for want of funds. The year 1842 brought the com- pany still more discouragements as the United States Bank broke and was unable to pay its second $50,000. It was also compelled to accept a large share of the $100,000 the State subscribed in 1810, in State bonds which it was forced to sell at 50c on the dollar. Many of the individual subscribers refused to pay and others were unable to do so. The company then sought to borrow more money from the State but could not because the State did not have it. An effort to interest capitalists was also made but was un- successful. AAdded to this, in 1843 high water made a breach in dam No. 1 a hundred feet wide which before it was finally stopped in 1844, was forty feet deep. The company owed $40,000 and had not a dollar with which to pay. Accordingly everything seizable was taken and sold on execution. In May, 18441, the State had given the company power to mortgage its works and tolls, and this was supplemented with additional powers in 1842, but the company's credit was gone and these powers were of no avail as it could borrow no money.
CAPITALISTS BUY UP STOCK AND COMPLETE WORK IN 1844.
For two years the work stood still or rather went to ruin and decay. Just
82
Cost of River Tolls
as it was about to give up in despair, the misfortune of the State proved the salvation of the slack-water navigation company. The State became so hard pressed for money that it passed an act authorizing the sale of all its corporation stock, among the rest the $125,000 stock of this company. Being able to secure this stock at a low figure, a number of capitalists who had faith in the feasibility of the project, took hold and pushed the work to completion. These men were, James K. Moorhead, Morgan Robertson, George Schnable, Charles Avery, Thomas M. Howe, John Graham, Thomas Bakewell, J. B. Moorhead, and John Freeman. They did the work chiefly under sub-contractors and under the name of Moorhead, Robertson & Co. It was July, 1844 before they got to work but so rapidly did they push the work that by November 15, 1844 the work was completed and slack-water navigation was opened as far as Brownsville and Bridgeport. At the time of the opening of navigation, there had been expended on the work, exclusive of engineering and officers' salaries, $18,000.
COST OF RIVER TOLLS.
The toll on coal over the entire route of slack-water navigation, was $2.91 per 1,000 bushels which it is said, was less than one-fourth of the rate charged over the sanie distance on the Schuylkill navigation which had been made the standard for this company by the act of 1836. This rate gave great dissatisfaction, however, and many of the coal shippers contended that this was an outrage and that the river should be free The rate was re- duced to $2.463 in March 1849. The work on the dams and locks above Brownsville and Bridgeport, were completed and put in operation in the year 1904.
EIGHT YEARS OF GREAT PROSPERITY.
From the opening of slack-water navigation between Brownsville and Bridgeport, and Pittsburg, in 1844, till the Pennsylvania Railroad reached Pittsburg in 1852, a period of eight years, the Monongahela Navigation Company did an enormous business, as well as did the section of the National Pike between the Three Towns and Cumberland, Md.
The number of through passengers carricd in those years between the termini of the navigation, Brownsville and Pittsburg, was for each year as follows:
1845 22,727
1846
34,984
1847.
45,826
1848.
47,619
1849
35,158
1850.
38,988
1851
32,115
1852
25,613
Total
283,030
83
B. & O. and Slack-Water Navigation Benefit the Pike
In addition to this the company carried during the eight years, over 462,000 way passengers. The total passenger tolls for this period was over $126,000.
B. & O. AND SLACK-WATER NAVIGATION BENEFIT THE PIKE.
It can easily be seen what impetus would be lent to the business of trans- portation over the seventy-five miles of National Pike lying between Cumberland and Brownsville, as well as to the towns, the country and to the taverns along the line with the B. & O. completed to Cumberland and slack-water navigation established from Pittsburg to Brownsville. The number of through passengers carried in 1848 was 47,619. It can also be readily realized that this was the cause for the industry of boat building that flourished from the carliest opening of the primitive roads till the railroads caused it to wane.
As early as 1836, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company applied to Pennsylvania for authority to build their road through this State towards or to the Ohio. The State granted the right and the proposition met with the general approval of the people. So much so in fact that rousing railroad meetings were held, one for instance, in Brownsville as early as 1835 when the preliminary surveys were being made prior to the legislative enactment authorizing the building of the road. It was proposed by the company to build a line from Cumberland to Brownsville and then on to Pittsburg. At the meeting at Brownsvill. it was stated that the chief engineer of the Baltimore & Ohio company had made an examination of this section of the country and had made his report to the effect that a railroad could be constructed between the two places named "without the use of any inclined plane." The chairman of the meeting above referred to was George Hogg; vice chairmen, David Binns and Michael Lewis; secretaries, G. H. Bowman and John L. Dawson; committee to draft resolutions, James L. Bowman, George Dawson, Robert Clarke, Jonathan Binns, Jr., and John Snowdon, Jr. At this meeting it was resolved to hold a railroad meeting on the 25th of the same month (November, 1835). There is no record of this meeting and the probability is that it was never held. It is certain that the proposed railroad was never built.
REJECTED THE B. & O.
The principal reason that the road was never built is because in the meantime the Pennsylvania Railroad was being pushed westward across the Alleghenics with a view of making Pittsburg its western terminus, and the people of Pittsburg who preferred the main line of the Pennsylvania to a branch of the B. & O., now opposed the latter, and strange as it may seem, the people who earlier favored the road along its proposed line, now opposed it bitterly. One of the chief grounds on which they opposed it was that it would ruin the National Pike and as a result, also ruin the country. Among the most active to oppose the B. & O. was Henry W. Becson of Uniontown. Just how a man of his acumen could take such a position, is hard to tell, for in all else
84
Rejected the B. & O.
he was quick to see the advantages of improvement and progression. In a speech he made at one of the meetings in opposition to the B. & O, he fur- nished an estimate of the number of horseshoes the blacksmiths had to make and the number of nails it took to fasten them onto the feet of the horses, besides many other, to him and it seems, to his hearers, plausible reasons why the National Road was better calculated to promote the welfare of the country than a railroad.
The result of all this opposition was that the B. & O. finally had to abandon its proposed line through Pennsylvania and built its line to Wheeling through Virginia, (now West Virginia). In time, however, as all are well aware, the B. & O also reached Pittsburg. As was foreseen, the railroads killed the traffic on the National Pike but they made the country what it is today.
Old Taverns Along the National Pike
UNIONTOWN IN THE DAYS OF THE PIKE-MANY PROMINENT CHARACTERS PASSED OVER THE LINE-THE BLACK HORSE, THE OLD WORKMAN HOUSE, THE BRASHEAR HOUSE AND OTHERS IN BROWNSVILLE-THE BARR AND OLD KIMBER HOUSE IN BRIDGEPORT AND A FEW OLD-TIMERS IN WEST BROWNSVILLE-REMINISCENCES OF JENNY LIND, LA FAYETTE, JACKSON, JEFFERSON, CLAY AND OTHERS.
Here it may be most appropriate to make brief mention of the many taverns that catered to the wants of the seemingly never-ending throng that passed over the National Pike, or at least those located in Uniontown, Brownsville, Bridgeport and West Brownsville, and along the road between Uniontown and the Three Towns. Of course in this brief sketch we can only name the most prominent, so far as we have been able to learn of them through Ellis' History of Fayette County, Vecches' Monongahela of Old, Searight's The Old Pike, and from the few old settlers who are still with us.
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