History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 61

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 61

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In compliance with the act of Jan. 25, 1854, the company promptly put Nos. 5 and 6 under contract, No. 5, just above Watkins' Bar, two miles above Brownsville, to Burns & Ross; and No. 6, at Rice's Landing, ten miles farther up, to Messrs. Dull. They were constructed at a cost (including the raising of dam No. 4 and some dredging) of about $200,000, and were completed and ready for use in November, 1856, thus opening the slack-water navigation to Geneva.

The dams are constructed of logs, squaring at least a foot, built up perpendicularly from the bed of the river to near the water-level, when they begin to slope on both sides to the comb, after the manner of an old- time log cabin. They are tied together by cross-tim- bers parallel with the line of the river, bolted to the longitudinal timbers so as to form a net-work, with interstices of seven by nine feet filled with stone. Their breadth at the base is about sixty-five feet ; their depth below the slopes as originally built is from three to six feet, though by reason of breaches they are now much deeper in places,1 Dams 1 and 2 run straight across the river. No. 3 is in three straight lines of unequal length (the middle one two hundred and eighty feet, the other two aggregating about four hundred and twenty feet), the middle one being at right angles with the channel, the other sloping from it down wards to the shores, about twenty-two feet from the line of the middle part. Dam No. 4 is a segment of a circle, about six hundred and five feet in length, curves up stream, having a versed sine of fifteen feet. Dams 5 and 6 are also segments of a circle, with the convex sides upwards, and are each about six hun- dred feet long. These, by reason of their increased

height,-thirteen and a half and fourteen feet,-have the longest slopes on the lower sides. The others slope about equally above and below, from three to four feet of slope to one foot of rise. They are sheathed above with double courses of oak plank closely laid, five inches thick, spiked to the timbers and covered with gravel. The sheathing below is of heavy oak timbers or spars flattened to eight inches and spiked to the erib timbers. The dams are further secured at their ends by high strong cribs filled with stone, and above by double courses of heavy sheet piles, driven vertically into the bed of the river to such depth as to be secure anchorage to the entire structure. In some cases, since their original construction, piles have been driven in below vertically and above slopingly. Dam No. 7 will be on rock, and will be otherwise fastened.

All the original locks are one hundred and ninety by fifty feet in the chambers between the points or mitres of the gates and the side-walls. The entire length of the walls is two hundred and fifty-two feet, and their height about twenty-five feet. They are ten and twelve feet thick, built of heavy blocks of dressed stone, laid in hydraulic cement and securely clamped. Except those at Nos. 1 and 6, which have rock bases, they are built upon heavy oak tim- ber deeply laid and covered with heavy oak plank. Each of the old locks contains over five thousand three hundred perches of stone. The new ones (put in in addition to the original ones in locks Nos. 1 and 2) are larger and contain proportionately more. These are two hundred and fifty by fifty-six feet in the cham- bers, but built in other respects as were the old ones. To show the facility with which boats are passed through these locks, the following quotation is given from the report of the board of managers to the stock- holders, presented January 12th of the present year (1882), viz .: "In twenty hours between midnight of the 17th December last and the same hour of the en- suing night there were passed through lock No. 1 forty-two coal-boats, forty-six barges, ten flats, and two fuel-boats, containing together an aggregate of 1,661,000 bushels, or about 63,118 tons of coal. A correspondingly increased amount could have been passed during the twenty-four hours had not the pas- xage of boats been suspended during four hours of that day by the refusal of the pilots of some tow-boats to pass down below out of the way of the boats seek- ing to leave the lock."

" The coal business on the Monongahela," says the above-quoted report, " has increased so largely in re- cent years that the pressure for the passage of coal- boats in time of a rise of the river has become very great at dam No. 3, where there is only a single lock. As the necessity arose, a similar difficulty at locks Nos. 1 and 2 was relieved by the construction of a second and enlarged lock at each of those points. The company has, therefore, in order to meet promptly the demands of the coal trade and afford every facil- ity for rapid navigation, ordered a new lock, of larger

1 It required more stone (14,297 cubic yards) and timber to repair the great breach of May, 1868, in dam No. 2, than were used in its original construction, by reason of the washing out of the bed of the river, which is generally au incompact conglomerate of sand and rounded gravel, The breach of 1843 in No. 1 required to fill it, in the language of Mr. Lothrop, the engineer, "an immense mass of timber and stone that no power can remove." Aud generally, if not uniformly, such repairs have never had to be repeated.

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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

dimensions than any heretofore constructed on their improvement, to be built alongside of the present lock No. 3. This work will be put under contract and completed as speedily as possible; and they have it also in contemplation to duplicate the lock at No. 4, also on an enlarged scale. These improvements will fully accommodate, for many years to come, the still rapidly increasing coal trade out of pools Nos. 3 and 4, especially when the formation of a pool below dam No. 1 shall have been effected.

" The United States government, having completed lock and dam No. 9, at Hoard's Rock, in West Vir- ginia, are now proceeding with the construction of lock and dam No. 8, near Dunkard's Creek. If this work were completed it would only require the erec- tion of lock and dam No. 7 by this company to fur- nish a slack-water navigation between Pittsburgh and Morgantown, in West Virginia, a total distance of one hundred and two miles.

"This company has accordingly entered into a con- tract with Messrs. Harrold & MeDonald for the im- mediate erection of lock and dam No. 7, which, unless the season should prove so unfavorable as to prevent it, will be completed during the present year. We are able, therefore, to congratulate our stockholders and the public on the near prospect of the comple- tion of this important work, which will prove of great value to the inhabitants of the Monongahela Valley, and will, we doubt not, open a market for the iron ores, coal, and lumber of that region of country, and afford an avenue of trade and commerce of incaleu- lable importance. It will, moreover, remove the ob- struction to the navigation of the upper Monongahela which has existed ever since the erection of lock and dam No. 9 by the government.

"The erection of lock and dam No. 7, which, as before stated, is expected to be completed during the present year, by connecting with the government work now partly in process of construction and partly com- pleted, will fulfill the obligation of the company under its charter, and furnish a complete slack-water navi- gation not only up to but beyond the limit of the Virginia State line. This work, when completed, will furnish on the Monongahela River the longest reach of slack-water steamboat navigation in the United States, if not in the world.

" It is estimated that the cost of the proposed new work, lock and dam No. 7, together with the new locks at dams Nos. 3 and 4, will require an expenditure of over four hundred thousand dollars, which must be provided for, either by an increase of the bonded debt or of the capital stock of the company. .

"The amount heretofore charged on the books of the company to the account of con- struction is . $1,120,100.20

While the total capital stock is only . 1,004,650.00

Leaving the sum of $115,450.20 which is not represented by stock.

"The receipts of the company from tolls during the past year [1881] is as follows :

From coal and slack .

. $148,952.82

coke .

5,212.57

¥ steamboats, freight, etc. . 60,366.26

passengers

2,406.45

$216,938.10"

Following is a statement of the number of bushels of coal and slack shipped from the several pools of the Monongahela slack-water during each month of the year 1881, viz. :

Pool

Months.

No. 1.

Pool No. 2.

Pool No. 3.

No. 4.

Total.

January

611,000

2.426,500

395,800

233,600

3,666,900

February.

214,500

3,429,000 650,000

708.200

5,001,700

March ....

73,200

7,319,500

2,123,700

2,922,500

12,438,900

April ..

1,656,000

6,211,500

2,490,900

2,511,900 1,048,000

7,447,000

June.

1,828,460

7,072,500

1,429,000

1,708,400

12,038,360

July

430,000

4,045,000

972,000

1,075,900

6,522,900 1,738,300

Angust

16,000

766,500

396,800

559,000

September.

126,000

77,100

57,900

October.

13.000

201,000

305,100

28,400

November

1,077.000 5,073,000

December.

1,714,600

6,449,000

2,214,600 2,599,200

2,068,800 2,525,500

261,000 547,500 10,433,400 13,288,400

Total

8,713,260 47,944,500 14,148,800 15,448,100

86,254,660

The coke shipments by the slack-water in 1881 have been as follows :

Bushels-from Pool No. 1 ...

" 2.

3,330,000

87,200

# 6.

229,000

Total number bushels coke.

3,780,700

This gives a total of ninety million thirty-five thousand three hundred and sixty bushels of coal, coke, and slack shipped from the several pools of the Monongahela Navigation Company in the year 1881, which is a total increase of a little more than six hun- dred and fifty thousand bushels over the business of 1880. The passenger business of 1881 was but little more than one-third that of the preceding year, this being due to the opening of the railroad from West Brownsville to Pittsburgh in the spring of 1881. The decrease will of course continue, and grow more marked as the railroads now in process of construction pen- etrate southward to West Virginia. But the passen- ger trade is an item of small and ever-lessening con- parative importance to the navigation of the river. The natural resources of the country furnish its main business, and this will be the case in the future even more than it is at present.

The works of the Navigation Company, when com- pleted to the State line, will extend upon less than half of the improvable length of the Monongahela River. It rises in the western slopes of that high cluster of mountains which now form the border lands of Virginia and West Virginia, and in which the James, the Kanawha, the Shenandoah, and the Cheat have their sources. Its longest branch is the Tygart's Valley River, which rises in Randolph County, on which are Beverly, Philippi, and Graf- ton, and an important affluent of which is the Buck- hannon River, which rises in Upshur County, and on

12,870.300

May

1,079,500

4,825,000 494,500

Pool

. 134,500

269

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

which is the thriving town of Buckhanonn, which as- pired to be the capital of the new State. Its other chief branch, and that which is considered the Mo- nougahela proper, is the West Fork, which rises also in Upshur County, and on which are Weston, in Lewis County, and Clarksburg, in IIarrison County. These two great branches unite near Fairmount, in Marion County, some thirty miles above Morgantown. At present the effort in West Virginia is to carry the improvements to that place, where it will intersect the Wheeling branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail- road. Ultimately it may be extended to Clarksburg, some ninety miles from the State line, and even to Weston, some forty or fifty miles farther. All of these branches drain a fertile but hilly country, and are without any great falls to break the continuity of their navigation. Their borders are rich in ores and minerals, and in forests of some of the finest tim- ber in the nation.

The mineral treasures lying hidden beneath the everlasting hills of the Monongahela, and as yet hardly beginning to be developed, will sustain and swell the navigation of the river, and bring surpass- ing prosperity to its valley. The Monongahela im- provement, which, as its opponents forty years ago prophesied, was to render the coal lands of the upper river worthless, has, instead, been largely, if not prin- cipally, instrumental in making them accessible, en- hancing their value far beyond the wildest dreams of that day, and making their owners wealthy. While accomplishing this, after years of disaster and dis- couragement, the Navigation Company has also achieved success for itself, and its present prosperity is certainly well merited.

in the presidency of the company were James Clarke, elected at the organization, in February, 1837, and held till October, 1840; Thomas Bakewell, pro tem- pore, from October, 1840, to January, 1841, then elec- ted and held till the following October ; William Eich- baum, pro tempore, from October, 1841, to January, 1842, then elected and held till January, 1844; Sam- uel R. Johnston, January, 1844, to January, 1845; John B. Butler, Jannary, 1845, to July, 1846, when he entered the army as paymaster in the Mexican war. Mr. Moorhead succeeded him as president pro tempore, holding till January, 1847, when he was elec- ted, and has held the office of president of the com- pany from that time continuously for more than thirty-five years. The present officers of the Monon- gahela Navigation Company are:

President, J. K. Moorhead.

Secretary and Treasurer, Wm. Bakewell.

Managers, John Harper, Felix R. Brunot, M. K. Moorhead, N. B. Hogg, Wm. Morrison, J. B. Mur- doch, Alexander Bradley, J. B. Sweitzer, Joseph Al- bree, A. C. Bakewell.

Steamboat navigation on the Monongahela was commenced in the year 1814, when the "Enterprise," which had been built at Bridgeport by Daniel French and others, left that place under command of Henry M. Shreve, and passed down the Monongahela, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans, being the first boat that ever made the trip from Pittsburgh to that city and return. The "Dispatch" was also built at Bridgeport by the same parties, and went down the Monongahela and Ohio not long after the "Enter- prise." During the thirty years that succeeded the

This gratifying result is due in a very great degree building of these two boats, before the opening of the to the energy, vigilance, and wise management of the slack-water from Pittsburgh to Brownsville, the Mo- nongahela was navigated in the times of high water by a multitude of steamboats, of which it is imprac- ticable to give the names, or any connected account. president of the company, the Hon. James K. Moor- head. "It is no detraction," says Judge Veech, "from the fortitude and faith of his departed predecessors, who led it through the perils of its early history, to The first regular line boat that ran upon the Mo- nongahela slack-water after its completion between Brownsville and Pittsburgh, was the side-wheeler "Louis McLane," so named for the first president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. With her, on al- ternate days, ran the "Consul," also a side-wheeler. Both these boats were regarded as fast, the " McLane" being the more so of the two. After about four years' service she was dismantled at Brownsville, and parts of her used in the building of the Pittsburgh and Wheeling packet " Diurnal." say that he had much to do in the inauguration of the plan which extricated it from those perils. Inti- mately and practically acquainted with the construc- tion, preservation, and management of its works from the beginning, it is not enough to say of him that his large interests in it have been the motive of his care, for he has ever shown a generous regard for the inter- ests of all who have rights in its uses and revenues. Is a defect in its laws to be remedied, or a wrong to be redressed requiring legislation ? He procures it to he done. Is a repair needed ? He goes right to it, lead- The two line boats above mentioned were succeeded by the "Atlantic" and "Baltic," which were both very fast boats. They came out in 1849. After three or four years' service the " Baltic" was dismantled at Bridgeport, and the other was put in use as a tow- boat. After a time she too was demolished, and her ma- terial used in building the stern-wheeler " Hercules." The " Baltic" and " Atlantic" were succeeded in the line by the "Luzerne" and "Jefferson." While the ing his efficient corps of subordinates, into whom he transfuses his spirit. Are tolls to be modified and in- creased facilities for the safe and steady use of the navigation to be made ? He invokes the counsel and co-operation of the managers, and they are made ac- cordingly. Indeed, so completely has he become identified with the 'slack-water' that it has given to him his most familiar sobriquet." His predecessors

270

HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

former was building, in 1852, the flood carried the hull off the ways and over the dams. It was caught at Mckeesport, and towed into the Youghiogheny, where it was completed. The " Jefferson" was built at Mckeesport, and after her tour of duty on the slack-water was dismantled at Brownsville. The "Luzerne" was taken to the Mississippi, where she ran between Rock Island and Galena, Ill., and was finally snagged near the lowa shore, above Lyons. About 1854 the "Redstone" was built by John S. Pringle, now of West Brownsville. She was put on the line, but ran only a few months, when she was sold to go in the lower Ohio River trade; but her career was ended soon afterwards by the explosion of her boilers near Carrollton, Ky.

The "Telegraph," built at California by MeFall, ran on the line for about twelve years, and was ac- counted a "lucky" boat. After her long career on the slack-water she was dismantled at Brownsville. Some of her machinery was put in the "Scotia," re- cently built for the Ohio. The "Geneva," stern- wheeler, ran on the line for a short time about 1855. The " Dunbar" was built by John S. Pringle about 1859 for the Monongahela trade, but being a little too large to pass the locks conveniently, was sold to run on the lower Ohio and Tennessee Rivers. At the commencement of the war of 1861-65 she fell into the hands of the Confederates. Atter the fall of Fort Henry she with several other boats was chased up the Tennessee by the United States gun- boats "Lexington," "Conestoga," and "Tyler." She passed Pittsburg Landing and Eastport, and a short distance above the latter, escaped her pursuers by run- ning up a creek which was too shoal for the Federal gunboats to follow. But she left her bones there, for the water falling she was unable to get back to the river, and was dismantled by the Confederates, who took her machinery overland to the Chattahoochie River, where it was used in another boat.

ice, and crushed at dam No. 4. The "Chieftain" met the same fate at the same time. This last-named boat and the " Elector" were not put on the river to run in the regular Geneva line, but in the " People's Line," an opposition which was put on about 1867. This line was discontinued by their boats being pur- chased by the other company and run as boats of the regular line.

The " Pittsburgh, Brownsville and Geneva Packet Company" was incorporated under an act of Assem- bly passed Feb. 21, 1868, with a capital of 8150,000, and authority to increase to $300,000. The corpora- tors named in the act were " Benjamin Coursin, John J. House, Mark Boreland, William Britten, Clark Breading, Samuel H. Smith, Joseph G. Ritchie, and their associates," the object for which the company was incorporated being to run steamers for the carry- ing of passengers and freight on the Monongahela River, which, however, they had been doing for years before the incorporation, this being the legalization, but not the commencement, of the enterprise. The first president of the company was J. K. Moorhead, who was succeeded by George W. Cass, and he by Adam Jacobs. Nearly all the steamers already men- tioned as having run on the Monongahela were of this line. The present boats of the company making daily trips each way between Pittsburgh and New Geneva are the "John Snowdon," "Geneva," and "Ger- mania." The "Snowdon," an old boat, is soon to be displaced by the new and splendid steamer "James G. Blaine," recently built by Capt. Adam Jacobs, whose boat-yard and residence is on his estate of " East Riverside," in Luzerne township, Fayette County.

The present (1881) officers of the packet company are : Managers, Adamı Jacobs, president; Isaac C. Woodward, Charles E. Spear, Benjamin F. Coursin, H. B. Coek, William Parkhill, George E. Hogg ; Sec- retary and Treasurer, H. W. Robinson.

For the Youghiogheny River during the past half- century, various projects of improvement have been conceived, and some attempts made to put them in

Among the later boats running on the line between Pittsburgh and New Geneva there have been the "Franklin," the "Gallatin," the "Fayette," the " Elisha Bennett," "Chieftain," "Elector," and the execution, with partial though temporary success as present boats of the Geneva line,-the "John Snow- to the lower end of the river, but with no results of actual improvement within the county of Fayette. The schemes of Youghiogheny improvement were started in the times when people knew little or noth- ing of the advantages of railroad communication, and believed, or tried to believe, that every mill-stream in the country could be made a navigable water-way to bring wealth to the inhabitants, and importance to the towns in its valley. don," "Geneva," and "Germania." The "Franklin" and "Gallatin" ran together on the line for a few years, after which service the "Gallatin" was sold to run as a ferry-boat between Memphis, Tenn., and the Arkansas shore of the Mississippi, and the "Frank- lin" was taken to pieces at Brownsville, her machinery being placed in the "Geneva," which is still on the line. The "Fayette," which was built at Browns- ville, was one of the finest boats ever running on the That the idea of making the Youghiogheny a navi- gable stream was entertained at least as early as 1816 is shown by the fact that in that year an act of Assembly was passed incorporating "The Youghiogheny Navi- gation Company." It afterwards appeared that the promoters of this company had no intention of making improvements on the river, but merely used the name Monongahela, as well as one of the most successful. She was sold to go in the lower Ohio River trade, between Cairo, Ill., and Evansville, Ind. The career of the "Elisha Bennett" was disastrous, ending in her total loss in 1878. She was carried away from her wharf at Brownsville, in the night, by flood and

271

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

to secure a charter (which could not otherwise have formally opened to West Newton by a celebration on been obtained) in which was skillfully incorporated a the 7th of November, 1850. The result, however, showed that the engineer had miscalculated the mighty power of the floods and ice in that river, or that the dams were too high or defectively constructed. They lasted only a little over fourteen years, with long intervals of uselessness for lack of repair, and the great ice flood of January, 1865, put an end to them. They are now in ruin, and the charter of the company extinct. section giving them power and authority to carry on a banking business in Connellsville. The fact that the name of " Navigation Company" was used for the pur- pose shows the idea of river improvement was popu- lar among the people at that time. In 1821 " an act for the improvement of the State" was passed (ap- proved March 26th), by a section of which the sum of $5000 was appropriated, to be expended, under the direction of William L. Miller, Samuel Rankin, and Alexander Plummer, for the improvement of the Youghiogheny. This sum was expended by the commissioners for the purposes indicated, and work was done as far up the river as Connellsville, but with little benefit to the navigation of the stream.

In 1841 the Connellsville and West Newton Navi- gation Company was incorporated under an act ap- proved April 30th of that year, which provided and declared.that "the said company shall have power to make and complete a lock navigation from the town of West Newton, in the county of Westmoreland, to the west end of Main or Spring Street, in the borough of Connellsville, in the county of Fayette, and on the Youghiogheny River." The capital stock was placed at six hundred shares of fifty dollars each, with power to increase to four thousand shares. The commis- sioners appointed to receive subscriptions to the stock were Thomas R. Davidson, George J. Ashman, John McBurney, William R. Turner, John Smilie, Robert Bleakley, Daniel Kaine, Noble C. McCormick, and James Francis, of Fayette County ; John C. Plum- mer, J. B. Oliver, Joseph Budd, Bela Smith, Elias Porter, Daniel Hoge, John Boyd, John Frick, and Shellenberger, of Westmoreland, and William L. Miller, of Allegheny County. The company was required to commence the work within two years and complete it within five years from the passage of the act.

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History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 61

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