History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 60

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1314

USA > Pennsylvania > Fayette County > History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 60

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The company was required, under penalty of a for- feiture of their charter, to " proceed to carry on the said work" within five years from the date of the act, and to complete the slack-water navigation of the

By another section of the act it was provided and declared " That this act shall not go into operation until the Monongahela Navigation Company shall 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 provisions of this aet, .. . and until the Mo- nongahela Navigation Company shall also have re- linquished their shares in the stock of said company, as well those held by individuals as those held by companies, which relinquishment shall have been cer- tified 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

263

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

relinquish all the rights, powers, and privileges in and to the navigation of the river Monongahela vested in them by an act passed the 24th of March, 1817, entitled, ' An act to authorize the Governor to incor- porate a company to make a lock navigation on the river Monongahela,' and from thenceforth said com- pany shall cease and determine as if the said aet had not been passed."

The persons appointed as viewers and commis- sioners to examine the work done on the river by the first-named commissioners, and to report to the Governor whether or not, in their opinion, the money granted by the State had been judiciously expended, were Henry Heaton, of Fayette, John Brownlee, of Washington, and John Walker, of Al- legheny County. Nothing has been found show- ing the nature and extent of the improvements made by the commissioners under this act, or how much the navigation of the Monongahela was bene- fited by them, but it is evident that the expenditure of the small sum of ten thousand dollars on more than ninety miles of river channel could not have produced any very great results.

A supplement to the act of April 2, 1822, for the improvement of the Monongahela by the State, was passed and approved March 29, 1823. One of the sections of this supplementary act provided that all persons owning dams and locks on the Monongahela, which were built or begun to be built, or raised to the required height, in pursuance of the provisions (before mentioned) of the act of 1817, authorizing the incor- poration of the Navigation Company, might petition the Governor, setting forth the facts, whereupon the Governor was required to appoint three commissioners to view such locks and dams, and upon their report to the Governor that the improvements had been constructed agreeably to the terms of the act, he was required to grant to the owners of such improvements authority to collect tolls from all boats passing such locks and dams.

In 1828 a report was made to the Assembly of Penn- sylvania, giving the result of a survey of the river by E. F. Gay, and favoring its improvement by the State, but nothing was done. In 1832 the late Hon. An- drew Stewart, of Fayette County, made an effort in the Congress of the United States to have the work done by the National government, as an extension, under the act of 1824, of the improvement of the nav- igation of the Ohio to the National road at Browns- ville. Congress provided for a survey of the river to Brownsville, which was made in 1833 by Dr. William Howard, United States civil engineer. His plan was to build locks and low dams, eight in number, of four and a half feet lift, except that No. I would be six feet, the object being to use them only when the river was low. Congress having declined to authorize the work, a public meeting held at Waynesburg, Greene Co., Nov. 18, 1835, recommended and urged the im- provement by the State. The movement was at once

seconded by the citizens of Pittsburgh, Brownsville, and intermediate places, and legislation was sought and obtained.

The actual improvement of the Monongahela by the formation of a practicable slack-water navigation was finally accomplished by the Monongahela Navi- gation Company (second of that name and style), which was incorporated under an act of Assembly approved March 31, 1836, with an authorized capital of $300,000, in six thousand shares of $50 each, with power "to increase the number of shares to such ex- tent as shall be deemed sufficient to accomplish the work."

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. Oli- phant, Jeremiah Davison, Thomas Wilson, Tazewell P. Martin, George Cramer, Yates S. Conwell, Thomas Beatty, Aaron Bucher, John Harshe, Andrew Stew- art, Samuel Evans, Isaac Crow, George Vanee, James C. Etington, Robert Brown, James C. Ramsey, David B. Rhoads, William Everhart, Westley Frost, and Samuel J. Krepps, of Fayette County ; and a number of gentlemen of Greene and Allegheny Counties. When two thousand shares were subscribed the com- pany 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 what- soever which they shall think most fit and conveni- ent to make a complete slack-water navigation be- tween the points herein mentioned, to wit: the city of Pittsburgh and the Virginia State line; and that the dams which they shall so construct for the pur- pose of slack-water navigation shall not exceed in height four feet six inches ; and that the locks for the purposes of passing steamboats, barges, and other craft up and down said river shall be of sufficient width and length to admit a safe and easy passage for steamboats, barges, and other craft, 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, and conferred on the in- dividual owners of dams 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 com- mence work within five years, and to complete the improvement to the Virginia line within twelve years from its passage, under penalty of forfeiture of charter.

During the year 1836 sufficient stock was subscribed

264

HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

to authorize the issue of a charter early in 1837, and | approved June 24, 1839, authorized the company to on the 10th of February in that year the company I construet the dams eight feet in height from pool to pool. 1 was organized by the election of officers, as follows :

President, James Clarke.

Treasurer, John D. Davis.

Secretary, Jesse H. Duncan.

Managers.

Thomas Bakewell.

George Hogg.

James L. Bowman.

John Lyon.

John H. Ewing.

John Tassey.

John Freeman.

William Wade.

Cephas Gregg.

Samuel Walker.

By the sixth section of the State aet of Feb. 18, 1836, chartering the United States Bank, it was required, among other burdens imposed, to subscribe to the stock of this company, then in prospeet, 850,000 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 aet of April 14, 1838, subscribed $25,000 in stock, and by aet of June 11, 1840, $100,- 000 more.

The company started in 1837, upon the following subscriptions of stock :

Shares.

Citizens of Allegheny County.

948

$47,400

Fayette

508

25,400

Washington

1,000

other counties

4,300

Monongahela Bank of Brownsville.

100

5,000

Bank of the United States

1000

50,000

2662

$133,100

To which the State added, in 1838,

500

25,000

in 1840

2000

100,000

5162

$258,100

This, until after the completion of the improve- ment to Brownsville, was the company's entire eapi- tal basis, and much of this was never realized.

In the summer of 1838 a careful survey of the river was made by an engineer corps, at the head of which was W. Milnor Roberts (afterwards engineer of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and now or recently en- gaged in the service of the Brazilian government), with Nathan McDowell and Robert W. Clarke, assist- ants.

From Pittsburgh to Brownsville was found to be about 553 miles, and the ascent a little over 333 feet ; from Brownsville to the Virginia line, a little over 35 miles, ascent 41 feet ; totals, 90 miles, and 744 feet. This would have required seventeen dams of four and one-half feet lift,-one on an average for every five . miles,-thereby causing delays and tolls which would have been unendurably vexatious, and an expenditure in construction and attendance which would have made the work wholly unremunerative. Besides, on some of the ripples the fall was three and four feet, and one, at the mouth of Cheat River, six feet. It was soon seen that this plan must be abandoned. Accordingly the Legislature, by a supplemental act,

At first it was thought that ten dams of eight feet in height would be required to carry the work to the State line (five below and five above the mouth of Dunlap's Creek), but by an authorized increase of dam No. 4 to ten feet, and those above Brownsville (three in number) to whatever height the banks would allow, it was found that seven would be sufficient.

Dam and lock No. 1, a mile above Smithfield Street bridge, Pittsburgh, was let by contraet, Dee. 17, 1838, to J. K. and J. B. Moorhead. No. 2, at Braddock's Upper ripple, was contracted (re-let), May 17, 1839, to Coreys and Adams. Both these dams were put in use Oct. 18, 1841, though neither was entirely com- pleted at the time.

On the 15th of July, 1840, lock and dam No. 3, at Watson's Run, two miles above Elizabeth, was let to Bills & Foreman ; and No. 4, at Frey's Shoals, fifteen and a half miles below Brownsville, to Fenlon & Patton (changed in construction to Fenton & Loner- gan). The work was under the general direction of Chief Engineer Roberts. The construction of Nos. 3 and 4, from the commencement of work until May, 1841, was under the personal supervision of George W. Cass. In the contract for No. 4, the company, to provide against a (not improbable) lack of funds, re- served the right to stop the work at any time, paying for what had been done. In May, 1841, for the cause which had been foreseen, they were obliged to avail themselves of this right, and for the same reason work on No. 3 was suspended at the same time.

The year 1842 brought great discouragement to the company. The United States Bank broke, and failed to subscribe and pay its second 850,000. Of the see- ond ($100,000) subscription of the State, the company was compelled to receive a large portion in State bonds, and having received them were compelled to sell them at a loss of fifty per cent. Many of the iu- dividual subscribers for stoek resisted payment, while some were unable to pay. The company owed 840,000, and had no money to pay with. Everything seizable was taken and sold on execution. In 1841 an effort was made to secure further aid from the State, but this was unsuccessful, for the condition of the State

} The fourth section of the act is as follows: The enid company shall lw permitted to erect such dams as may be necessary for the construc. tion of the said navigation below Brown-ville, tu n he ght not exceeding right feet from pool to pool. In selecting persons to assess damages oc. casioned by the construction of said navigation, no person shall be chosen who is a resident of any county through which the said improvement shall pass Provided, That all the locks below the town of Elizabeth, ir Allegheny County, on said river be made one hundred and ninety feel long and fifty feet wide, and that all the locks below the town of Browns ville shall be of like dimensions." The supplemental act also repealed that section of the original act which gave to individual owners of dami on the river the right to collect tolls from boats, in consideration of con structing or raising their dame to the required height and keeping then in repair, the adoption of the later plan of higher lifts rendering these dais useless to the navigation.

265

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

treasury would not permit the investment. In 1842 salaries of officers) the sum of $418,000, viz .: con- struction of dams and locks Nos. 1 and 2, $160,500; repairing of damages on same, $35,000; construction of Nos. 3 and 4, $222,500. Of the sum thus far ex- pended, less than one-half had been paid out of the stock. a very strong effort was made to interest certain Bal- timore capitalists and persuade them to replenish the company's treasury, so as to complete the slack-water improvement to Brownsville, and thereby make it a feeder to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which about that time was nearing Cumberland, where it Before the work was opened to Brownsville in 1844, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad had been completed to Cumberland. The route of travel and traffic from that place to Brownsville was over seventy-five miles of the hard, smooth National road, which then more than ever before was crowded with stage-coaches laden to the full with passengers to and from the railroad ter- minus at Cumberland, and the greater part of these pas- sengers were now delivered to or received from the Mo- nongahela River steamboats at Brownsville, and this continued during the navigation season in each year until the opening of the Pennsylvania Railroad to Pittsburgh in 1852. Here were eight years of a rich harvest for the slack-water and the eastern division of was thought it would be obliged to make a long halt. But the Marylanders were too intent on pushing their great work to the Ohio to engage in any side enter- prise, especially one which they could not control. To all these reverses was added, in July, 1843, a breach of one hundred feet in dam No. 1, which be- fore it could be stopped, in 1844, washed a hole forty feet deep. On May 4, 1841, the Legislature had given the company power to borrow and mortgage its works and tolls, and more extended power to the same effect was given by act of April 5, 1842. But the com- pany's credit was gone, and these powers were of no avail. For two years the work made no progress, ex- cept to decay. The whole project became a " mortifi- | the National road. During that time the Navigation cation to its friends and projectors, and a nuisance to carried between Brownsville and Pittsburgh more than two hundred and eighty thousand through passengers,2 a large proportion of whom passed by stage over the great road. In the same time more than four hundred and sixty-two thousand way passengers were carried between the same points ; and the total passenger tolls for that period amounted to $126,100.23. the navigation." Its friends were almost ready to abandon it to the mercies of the floods and of an in- dignant public, when aid came from an unexpected source. The State's financial condition had become so depressed that the Legislature, by act of July 27, 1842, and again by act of April 8, 1843, directed sales of all its corporation stocks, among them its $125,000 From 1845 to 1847 the revenues had almost doubled, thereby enabling the company in 1847 to nearly ex- tinguish its old floating debt, keep down the interest, and pay $13,500 of the principal of the $231,500 of bonds which had been issued to Moorhead, Robert- son & Co. In the report of Sylvanus Lothrop, the company's engineer, made to the president and man- agers in January of that year, he said, in reference to the slack-water improvement, " Although but two years old, and just beginning to struggle into notoriety as an avenue for the trade and travel between the East and the West, it has already yielded a revenue which, after paying expenses, ordinary repairs, and interest upon its large debt, exhibits a surplus equiv- alent to about eight per cent. upon its whole capital stock. This, I am inclined to think, is without an example in the history of our public works, and may, perhaps, be mentioned without offense as a most strik- ing commentary upon the supineness and indifference and apparent want of sagacity which, a few years ago, while running after chimeras, would, but for the en- in this company. This induced a number of men of capital, enterprise, and of unfaltering faith in the ultimate success of the improvement to buy this stock,-of course at a low figure,-and thereupon to engage to repair and complete the work to Browns- ville, upon ten-year coupon bonds, secured by a mort- gage of the improvement and its revenues, to be applied first to old debts, second to interest, and then to reimburse to themselves the principal of their act- ual expenditure. These men were James K. Moor- head, Morgan Robertson, George Schnable, Charles Avery, Thomas M. Howe, John Graham, Thomas Bakewell, J. B. Moorhead, and John Freeman. They did the work, chiefly through sub-contractors,1 under the name of Moorhead, Robertson & Co. Their con- tract with the company was made Nov. 9, 1843. It was July, 1844, before they could get effectively at work, but they went at it with such energy and skill, with Sylvanus Lothrop for engineer, and J. B. Moor- head for superintendent, that on the 13th of Novem- ber, 1844,-dams Nos. 3 and + being completed, and the breach in No. 1 thoroughly repaired,-the lower " The number of through passengers carried in those years between the termini of the Navigation, Brownsville and Pittsburgh, was for each year as follows: division of the Monongahela improvement was for- mally opened from Pittsburgh to Brownsville and Bridgeport. 1845 22,727

At the time of the opening there had been expended on the improvement (exclusive of engineering and

1 The lock at No. 3 was built by Alston & Hannay, and the dam by John Lindsay. Lock and dam No. 4 were built by Lockhart & Thomas.

1846

34,984

1847

45,826

1848

47,619

1849

35,158

1850

38 988

1851

32.115

1852

25,613

Total

283,030

206

HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

terprise of a few public-spirited individuals, have suffered this great work, the most important to this city which has ever been constructed [ Pittsburgh had no railroad then], to perish for the want of a few thou- sand dollars. It is a remarkable fact that with so many unanswerable arguments to recommend it to and enforce it upon the public attention, no work in the country has ever encountered greater obstacles than this. Instead of being, as it ought to have been, fostered by our citizens and hailed by the inhabitants of the Monongahela Valley as a blessing to them- selves, it met with nothing but the most chilling re- gards from the one, and with either the most violent prejudiees or the most determined hostility from the other. And yet it has already lived to snbdne and triumph over both. . . . It is now, I am happy to say, among the most popular of all our publie im- provements. Its present advantages are already uni- versally felt, while its future is rapidly unfolding in prospects as flattering to the Jandholder of the Mo- nongahela as to the owners of the improvement themselves."

The toll on coal over the entire length of the slack- water navigation was 82.91 per thousand bushels, which is said to have been less than one-fourth part of the rates charged for the same distance over the Schuylkill Navigation, which had been made the standard for this company by the act of 1836. Yet the rate produced much dissatisfaction among coal shippers on the upper pools ( Nos. 3 and 4), who con- tended that the river ought to be free ; that the State had no power to authorize dams and locks and the collection of tolls; or if that was to be done, there should at least be a sufficient number of dams to allow them to be made low enough to be "jumped" at high water. These arguments were urged in articles written for the newspapers, and at town-meetings held for the purpose of expressing indignation at the "legalized obstruction of the river." They demanded that the dams be cut down to four and a half feet, as required by the act of 1836, and they bitterly denounced the company and the Legislature of 1839, which passed the supplemental act authorizing the raising of the dams to eight feet. It was foretold, with a great deal of gravity and apparent wisdom, that "if the high dams are suffered to remain as they are, the coal lands up the river will always be worthless !" Candidates for office vehemently urged these arguments on the stump for the purpose of securing votes and popularity. The Legislature of 1849 was appealed to in printed pamphlets for redress. The result was that the Navi- gation Company consented, in consideration that no further reduction of tolls should be asked for until its existing debts were paid, nor so as to disable divi- dends of eight per cent. per annum from being made to the stockholders, to reduce the tolls upon the pools Nos. 3 and 4 on coal in flat-boats intended to go down the Ohio, so that such lading could pass from Browns- ville to Pittsburgh for $2.463 per thousand bushels,

instead of $2.91 as before, and the Assembly so en- aeted by act of March 21, 1849.

The agitation failed to accomplish the lowering of the dams, but a calm succeeded the lowering of the tolls on pools 3 and 4, and the people were satisfied. The relations between the company and the coal- owners became harmonious, and have ever since re- mained so. The latter found that their predictions of the utter worthlessness of coal lands in case the high dams were allowed to remain were baseless, but that, on the contrary, those lands were rising rapidly in value from year to year. This appreciation has been continual and rapid, especially in the later years, until the present time, when coal lands along every part of the slack-water navigation are eagerly sought for, as a certain source of wealth.

Notwithstanding that the tolls from freights and passengers continued about the same for many years, such was the rapid increase of the coal trade that at the end of 1853 the entire indebtedness to Moorhead, Robertson & Co. was paid ; and, but for new debts in- curred in 1850 for some additional rights ($2000), and a second lock at dam No. 1 (856,800), and in 1853 -54 another lock at dam No. 2, costing about $50,000,1 rendered necessary to accommodate the increased coal trade, and the extension above Brownsville, the company would have been free of debt. The contrac- tors for the lock at No. 1 took bonds for their work, and by a new issue of mortgage bonds in 1853 (§125,- 000) the company was enabled to pay for the loek at No. 2, carry on the extension, and thus to pay out of the earnings its first cash dividend of four per cent. in July, 1853.

The extension of the work above Brownsville had been postponed from time to time on account of the low condition of the company's finances. In 1848 it was thought that the interests of Greene County and the upper part of Fayette demanded the extension, and on the 9th of February in that year the Legisla- ture passed an act authorizing a new opening of books in the five counties bordering on the river for sub- scriptions to the stock to the amount of 8200,000, to be expended on the erection of locks and dams above Brownsville. The books were accordingly opened but no subscriptions secured. By the same act the opening of books in Pittsburgh was authorized for subscriptions to the stock to pay the debt incurred on the work below Brownsville, in excess of what pre- existing stoek had paid ; and in the event of failure to seenre such subscriptions, the company was author- ized to double the existing stock and credit to eaeb share its proportion of earnings used and to be used ir paying that indebtedness. Accordingly, the books having been opened in Pittsburgh without results. the stock was doubled in 1848, bringing the whole amount up to $521,000. This, however, gave no actua.

1 Alstons & Hannay were the contractors for the new lock at No. 1 Ersman & llardy for that at No. 2.

267

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

increase to the company's available means. In the fall of 1853 a renewed effort to obtain stock in Fay- ette and Greene to extend the work was determined upon, and some additional stock was subscribed in Pittsburgh. The effort was earnestly pressed, but with no better success than before.

Notwithstanding these failures, the Legislature, by act of Jan. 25, 1854, made it imperative upon the company to put locks and dams Nos. 5 and 6 under contract, and have them completed, No. 5 before June 1, 1855, and No. 6 before Dec. 1, 1855. The improvement to the State line was required to be completed before Dec. 1, 1857, but this requirement was relaxed by act of April 8, 1857, so as not to re- quire No. 7 to be begun until locks and dams to carry the work from the State line to Morgantown should be put under contract, and with the completion of which No. 7 was to be contemporaneous.

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History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 60

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885 Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 1314

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1314