Standard history of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Part 13

Author: Wilson, Erasmus, 1842-1922; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926. cn
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: Chicago : H.R. Cornell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1192

USA > Pennsylvania > Allegheny County > Pittsburgh > Standard history of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania > Part 13

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Late in 1840 the Board of Trade, owing to the great falling off in traffic over the Pennsylvania public works, took action to secure a reduction in the cost of transportation, by appointing a committee for that purpose. By July 15, 1840, there had been built in the Pittsburg district in four years 170 steam- boats with a total tonnage of 24,106. On September 7, 1840, eighteen steam- boats were being built, and on the Monongahela, on the Allegheny and down the Ohio to Beaver, thirteen steamboats plied.

"During the first three days of this week nearly 700 boxes and bales of merchandise from Boston and 300 from Philadelphia have been forwarded hence to Louisville and other towns in the West by the New York Canal" (p).

"Every citizen of Pittsburg at all conversant with our Western business must be aware that we are gradually but rapidly losing the transit trade of the great West, and yet we rest satisfied (apparently) with the small and decreas- ing business left to us, while our neighbors are reaping a rich harvest from our apathy. Here we see that in three days only we have lost the transporta-

(1) Gazette, April, 1839.

(m) Pittsburg Correspondence in Niles National Register, December 12, 1840.

(n) Harris' Intelligencer, February, 1840.

(o) Niles National Register, March, 1840.

(p) New York Express, August 27, 1841.

103

HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.

tion of more than 200 tons of goods; the tolls, which would amount to $2,500, are totally lost to our State, and more than $5,000 is lost to our citizens in the form of freights on the canal and river. We see that in three days 300 pack- ages of goods have been shipped from Philadelphia over a line of canal and lake navigation more than 400 miles longer than our own. . ... The causes are obvious: The high rate of freight on our State works and the uncertainty in regard to the navigation of the Ohio River from June to November, com- prising two-thirds of the business year. Our citizens are well aware that we have a reliable navigation in the Ohio for steamboats carrying freights at low prices but four months in the year, and yet the practicability of rendering it safe and good for ten months is demonstrated in the reports of Captain Dutton. Many of the facts might be given to show that these two causes alone are operating to the certain destruction of the best interests of our city. For instance, our manufacturers must sustain great loss and inconvenience by being deprived of a home market for their articles. The Western merchants, having no business here, will not visit us merely to buy their small stocks of glass, iron, nails, cotton yarns, etc. They will buy in the larger Western towns" (q).

Early in August, 1841, although the river was at its lowest stage-thirteen inches of water-the steamer Glide, drawing but ten inches of water, left with a full complement of passengers.

On January 3, 1846, experiments on the telegraph line between Pittsburg and Norristown were made. The line was then finished from Harrisburg to Lancaster, and was nearly finished to this place.

"They are putting up the poles for the magnetic telegraph along Fourth Street to Odeon.

The line will be ready for occupation during next week" (r). "The wires were all ready for communication with Philadelphia from this city last Saturday. Several experiments were tried on Saturday night, and vesterday the first communication was transmitted to the Ledger newspaper. We are now capable of conversing with the people of Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Boston and New York" (s).

By July, 1848, telegraph poles had been erected from Pittsburg to Marietta, Ohio-part of the line to New Orleans from this city via Wheeling, Maysville, Lexington, etc. Soon afterward the line was opened. In November, 1849, the Lake Erie Telegraph Line opened an office at Beaver, thus putting Pittsburg in telegraphic communication with the Great Lakes.

The first President's message received here by telegraph was taken from the wires of the Atlantic and Ohio Telegraph Company on December 9, 1847, the Commercial Journal paying $100 for the privilege, the other newspapers- Chronicle, Telegraph, American, Gazette, Dispatch and Post-receiving it from the foriner paper. It consisted of about 19,000 words. This was justly con- sidered a great event. Henry O'Reilly was the agent in charge here.

The dispute between Pittsburg and Wheeling in early times over the navi- gation of the Ohio between the two cities was often both severe and amusing, and did not die out with the lapse of time, nor has it yet altogether ended. In 1846 there were plying on the Ohio to and from Pittsburg nearly 100 steam- boats varying from 100 to 300 tons burden, and a few of lighter draft for special service in periods of unusual drouth. Some of the latter drew no more than twenty inches and could always be used below Wheeling, but not always above it and below Pittsburg. In fact, in the summer of 1845 there were sixty-six days during which no steamboat of any draft ran above Wheeling, but those

(q) Advocate and Emporium, September 1, 1841.

(r) Commercial Journal, December 24, 1846.

(s) Commercial Journal, December 28, 1846.

104

HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.

of lighter draft did run below that city. During the winter of 1845-6 on one occasion only was the river blocked by ice below Wheeling, while between Wheeling and Pittsburg it was closed about half of the time. As late as March, 1846, for ten days at a stretch, the river was closed above Wheeling to all boats. These facts were used by the Pittsburg papers to argue the importance of river improvement between the two cities (t). From June 14, 1831, to July 13, 1846, there were built here 612 steamboats. Those having the greatest tonnage were the Emperor, with 535, built in 1837, and the Mohawk, with 501, built in 1832 (u).

"For many years two great lines of coaches were run between Philadelphia and Pittsburg. Starting daily, the three hundred and fifty odd miles between the two cities were passed over in about three days; that is, if the roads were in good condition, but more time was usually required. Every twelve miles a change of horses was made and quickly. No time was lost and no rest was given the traveler. . . . . Tollgates were passed every six or twelve miles. There was plenty of drink along the way and it was both good and cheap. Ministers, lawyers, statesmen, and all, while the horses were being changed at the relay stations, rushed out of the stage coaches to the taverns and com- forted themselves with something cheering. A through pass ticket from Pitts- burg to Philadelphia was all the way from $14 to $20. .... For twenty-five years emigrant travel formed a big portion of the business along the turnpike. It was mostly from Baltimore, where thousands of emigrants landed" (v).

The iron sea steamer Hunter, which had been built here on Lieutenant Hunt- er's plan, was sent down the river through the ice early in 1846. Its completion marked an important epoch in boat building.

The total cost of building the Greensburg and Pittsburg Turnpike was $180,336.82; amount of stock, $145,350; tolls collected in 1845, $16,361.

The following is an annual aggregate of the arrivals of steamboats and other vessels at the port of Pittsburg, together with the amount of tonnage for the years named (w) :

1843-steamboats

1,707

165,317

1843-keels and flats

582

13,675

1844-steamboats

1,966

216,236

1844-keels and flats

621 14,180

1845-steamboats

2,169

227,994

1845-keels and flats

62'I

14,180

1846-steamboats

2,585

276,572

1846-keels and flats

634

15,965

1847-steamboats.

3,17I

372,465

1847-keels and flats

764

20,730

1848-steamboats

2,885

361,009

1848-keels and flats

705

20,570

Previous to the construction of the dams on the Monongahela the largest amount of coal to come down that river any one year was, in round numbers, 3,000,000 bushels. In 1853 the amount was over 15,000,000 and the price here per bushel was greatly reduced. At this date three more dams-Nos. 5, 6 and 7-were in view. In May, 1854, the fine suspension bridge over the Ohio River at Wheeling was blown down. The year 1855 was the first in forty that navigation was maintained uninterrupted throughout the summer by steam- ers on the Ohio River (x).

Prior to 1850 coal was sent down the Ohio from Pittsburg in big flat-

(t) Niles National Register, March 21, 1846.

(v) Post, 1846.

(x) Commercial Journal, December 14, 1855.

(u) Commercial Journal, 1846.

(w) Gazette, April, 1849.

Charles Lockhart

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HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.

bottomed boats, 125x18x8 feet, carrying about 15,000 bushels of coal each. They were lashed in pairs and floated down in charge of enough men to care for them in times of high water. After about 1850 the coal was loaded in large flats and towed down by steanı. Pittsburg engineers devised the towboat which draws but two or three feet of water, carries no load itself, but pulls enormous burdens down the river. This is the cheapest transportation in the world. Necessity forced the engineers to devise this course to retain their trade which the railroads were fast securing (y).

During the late '40s and the '50s was the era here of plank road building and many were projected. The Allegheny and Perryville Plank Road was estab- lished early in 1849, and extended from Federal Street, in Allegheny, over the Franklin and Harmony Road to a point one mile north of Perryville, and had a total length of seven miles. The Allegheny and Butler Plank Road was incorporated in 1849 and opened in 1850-51, and the Allegheny and Perry- ville Plank Road was put in operation about this date.

On January 22, 1850, the Pittsburg and Braddock's Field Plank Road Company was incorporated and stock to the amount of 1,600 shares was soon offered to subscribers by Thomas M. Howe, William Eichbaum, E. D. Gazzam, James Ross and others, commissioners, and the road was opened in 1851.

In 1849 the Temperanceville and Noblesville Plank Road Company was incorporated and authorized to issue 800 shares of $25 each. The Allegheny and Manchester Plank Road was incorporated in May, 1850, and authorized to issue 600 shares. Others incorporated about this time or soon afterward were the Allegheny and New Brighton Plank Road, the East Liberty and Penn Township Plank Road, the East Liberty, North Washington and Apollo Plank Road, the Lawrenceville and Sharpsville Plank Road, the Pittsburg and Cumberland Plank Road, and others. These roads served their purpose and a few of them were in use only a short time ago.

No doubt the difficulty of up-river transportation was the spur which led inventors to use steam for water navigation. Fulton, Livingston and Roose- velt built here the first steamboat on the Western waters in 18II. She was 138 feet keel and named New Orleans. Mr. Roosevelt constructed her at a cost of $40,000. The boat was launched in March, 1811, passed down the river to New Orleans, later was run regularly between that city and Natchez, was regarded as a wonderful invention, and was the admiration of all beholders. She ran down stream at the rate of about nine miles an hour. "She passes floating wood on the rivers as you pass objects on land when on a smart trotting horse" (z). In 1814 she was lost on a snag near Baton Rouge. This was the commencement of the wonderful steamboat era.

In 1810 the editor of the Navigator said: "From the canoe we now (1810) see ships of two or three hundred tons burden, masted and rigged, descending the same Ohio, laden with the products of the country, bound to New Orleans, thence to any part of the world." The same writer said in 1812: "Shipbuilding is superseded by steamboat navigation on our Western rivers." As yet the editor of the Navigator did not see the approach of the iron horse, but specu- lated on the wonderful state of things likely to result from the use of steamboat.s. "To see a huge boat working her way up the windings of the Ohio, without the appearance of sail, oar, pole, or manual labor about her, moving within the secrets of her own wonderful mechanism and propelled by power undis- coverable. This plan, if it succeeds, must open to man flattering prospects to an immense country, an interior of not less than 2,000 miles of as fine a soil

(y) Post, 1846. (z) Navigator, 1813.

108

HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.

and climate as the world can produce. . ... The immensity of country we have yet to settle, the vast riches of the bowels of the earth, the unexampled advantages of our water courses, which wind without interruption for thousands of miles, the numerous sources of trade and wealth opening to the enterprising and industrious citizens, are reflections that must rouse the most dull and stupid. Indeed, the very appearance of the placid and unbroken surface of the Ohio invite trade and enterprise" (a).

Congress carly declared Pittsburg a port of clearance, "and at one time shipbuilding was carried on with considerable spirit; whether this has been relaxed in consequence of the war, or from its having been shown by experience not to be profitable, is not well known" (b).

On April 22, 1814, the Vesuvius, a steamboat intended as a regular trader between New Orleans and the falls of the Ohio, left Pittsburg. She had been launched November 29, 1813, from the Fulton and Livingston yard, and was commanded by Captain F. Ogden. At this time another, intended to run on the Ohio above the falls, was on the stocks here, both under the control of Fulton, Livingston, Latrobe and others, organized as a company. "The depar- ture of the Vesuvius is a very important event, not only for this place, but for the whole western part of the Union, and its influence will be felt over the whole of the United States" (c). The Vesuvius was 480 tons burthen, twenty-eight and a half feet beam and when loaded drew from five to six feet of water. An elegant cabin with twenty-eight double berths on each side was,built upon her deck. Previous to her departure her speed was tried on the Monongahela and Ohio, going both up and down stream. On the Ohio below town she moved up stream at the rate of four miles an hour. Upon her departure she steamed to Middletown, down the Ohio a distance of twelve miles, in one hour and a half. The completion of this steamboat was correctly considered an event of vast importance to the Western country.

"The Cincinnati Spy says that the steamboat Vesuvius arrived at that place on the 26th of April in forty hours from Pittsburg" (d).

"The steamboat Vesuvius went from Pittsburg to Louisville, 767 miles, in sixty-seven hours and twenty-five minutes, equal to ten and a half miles per hour" (e).

"Astonishing Passage .- The steamboat Vesuvius made the following pas- sage from Pittsburg to New Orleans: From Pittsburg to Shippingport, 67} hours; from Shippingport to Natchez, 1252 hours; from Natchez to New Orleans, 33 hours; total, 227 hours, or nine days and eleven hours" (f).

"The steamboat Enterprise, built at Bridgeport, on the Monongahela, arrived at Pittsburg on the 8th ult., designed as a packet between that place and the falls of the Ohio. Her power was highly approved. She was tried against the current of the Monongahela, unusually high and rapid for the season, and made three miles and a half an hour. She returned with the stream that distance in ten minutes" (g).

The boat was elegantly finished and arranged for the passenger trade and was made in accordance with the French patent. Mr. French had placed the wheel behind the boat, but this was claimed to be an infringement on the Fulton & Livingston patent (h).

Thus it will be seen that the New Orleans was built in 1811, and then in rapid succession followed the Comet, the Vesuvius by Fulton, Enterprise by French, Etna (390 tons) by Fulton, Dispatch by French, Buffalo (300' tons)

(a) Navigator, 1817.

(e) Niles Register, June 4, 1814.

(g) Niles Register, July 9, 1814.

(b) Navigator, 1813.

(d) Mercury, May II, 1814.

(f) Niles Register, July 9, 1814.

(h) Mercury, August 10, 1814.

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HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.

by Latrobe, James Monroe by Latrobe, Franklin by Shiras & Cromwell, Oliver Evans by George Evans, Harriet (40 tons), New Orleans (300 tons) by Fulton, James Madison and the General Jackson by Whiting, James Ross by Whiting & Stackpole, Frankfort and Tamerlane by the Pittsburg Steam Engine Company.

"The beautiful steamboat James Ross is riding at anchor before our city, ready to take the tide at its height. This vessel presents an interesting and beautiful object for the eye of taste; she looms large and rests on the bosom of the water like a duck. She seems to be intended to afford every kind of accommoda- tion for the passenger and freighter, and her handsome paneled doors and frequent windows gave hier the appearance of a floating hotel. The owners, Messrs. Whiting & Stackpole, have another nearly ready to be launched a few miles above town and there are two more on the stocks in the city" (i).

In the autumn of 1818 water was very low in the rivers here and no relief had come by November 14. Lying idle on the Monongahela were thirty large keel-boats, besides many flat-bottoms, loaded with goods, waiting for rain. Western merchants had been here, purchased their goods, loaded the same on the boats, and had gone on, the most of them, expecting that a rise in the rivers would soon bring them their merchandise. The merchants suffered, the proprietors of the boats suffered, as the hands must be retained, and all prayed for rain. This waiting was one of the most expensive and vexatious occurrences in the early history of Pittsburg.

· In December, 1818, the Pittsburg Steam Engine Company launched from its yard on the Monongahela the Tamerlane and the Frankfort, two elegant steamers of 320 tons burdens each, and at this date had two more on the stocks, ail elaborately and richly built for that day, as fine, in fact, as the James Ross.

On January 1, 1819, it was said (j) that there were thirty-one steamboats running on the Western rivers, and thirty more nearly completed, and the keels of many more nearly laid; that the present (then) tonnage was 3,300, now building 3,710, total tonnage 7,010.

The United States steamboat Western Engineer was launched from the arsenal near Pittsburg, March 26, 1819. She was destined under Major Long to explore the waters of the Mississippi. Her draft was only nineteen inches.

The Monongahela and Ohio Steamboat Company owned the steamboats Enterprise and Dispatch. They were constructed on the plan of Mr. French, the engineer, and both were built at Bridgeport.

In June, 1819, when the steamboat James Ross arrived in Louisville in fourteen days from New Orleans, "What an immense prospect do not these strides in enterprise and improvement open to the speculative mind! It is only a few years since it required some weeks to descend from the Ohio to New Orleans" (k).

By an important decision of the District Court of the United States for the Western District of Pennsylvania in 1819, it was affirmed that the admiralty jurisdiction of the United States courts extended to the fresh waters and navi- gable streams of the interior, and that the wages of boatmen came under the denomination of seaman's wages. This was the case of Shecker et al. vs. the Geneva Boxer.

It was estimated in the fall of 1819 that a steamboat tonnage of 10,000 was in process of construction along the three rivers-Ohio, Allegheny and Monongahela. Early in 1819 the Pittsburg Navigation and Insurance Com- pany was formed for the purpose of trading between Pittsburg and other parts of the Western country. It was a stock company and was vigorously attacked

(i) Mercury, October, 1818. (j) New Orleans Gazette. (k) Gazette, June II, 1819.

IIO

HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.

and opposed by the "old freighters." The capital was fixed at $100,000 and the directors stated that until sufficient capital should have been paid in, the business would be confined to freightage and not insurance. The directors were Thomas Cromwell (president), Anthony Beelen, William Robinson, Jr., George Bowen, George Grant, Robert Patterson and Isaac Bean. It was claimed by the "old freighters" that this company actually began business with only $5,000 paid in, and the public was asked whether it was wise to trust them instead of the companies which had made the business successful. It was also said that this amount had been paid in in common circulating paper which was at twenty per cent. discount. The "old freighters" were S. & A. Hart, Mccullough & Young, Isaac Scott & Co., James Ferguson & Stedum, Knox, Holderman & Co., and Strodes & Johnson, "boat owners of the City of Phila- delphia."

"As we have at length established a navigation company in this place, it is to be hoped that the attention of our Legislature will be a little more directed to the internal improvement of the West than has hitherto been the case. When we speak of internal improvement we wish it understood that we mean exclusively the Pennsylvania Turnpike and removing the impediment to the navigation from Pittsburg to Wheeling" (1).

Public notice was given in September, 1819, that pursuant to legislative enactment proposals would be received for improving the navigation of the Ohio River from Pittsburg to the State line, the improvements to consist in re- moving large stones from the bed of the river and in cutting an artificial channel of a certain depth and width through the shoals and ripples. The call was signed by Matthew B. Lowrie, Charles Shaler, Alexander Johnston, Jr., John Linton, -James Adams, Isaiah Doane and William Wilkins. Nearly all boats which met disaster in this portion of the Ohio River did so on rocks at the head of Montour's Island, in Horse Tail Ripple, the second Lowry Ripple, or nearly opposite the foot of Montour's Island. It was thought that $100 would remove these impediments. The river was so extremely low in September, 1819, that it was proposed to raise a body of citizens to go down and remove them (m).

In 1822 it was reported that 400 boats plied upon the Erie Canal between Rochester and Little Falls, among which were several lines of excellent packets. At this time the great Union Canal in Pennsylvania was progressing rapidly.

"No less than seven steamboats are prepared or preparing to start from Pittsburg early in the spring to ply between that place and St. Louis, Nash- ville, New Orleans, etc., regularly. They are amply fitted for the transportation of passengers and merchandise on goods of all sorts, and will depart and arrive in succession, so as to afford the greatest possible facility to transportation wherever the river will admit of it. The land carriage to Pittsburg is now very moderate" (n).

"Pittsburg .- The shipping list for the port for one week ending April 15, 1823, notices the arrival of four steamboats and as many keel-boats, and the departure of two steamboats and four large flat-bottomed boats" (o).

"If a railway can be constructed in any country where a canal could be made and in many situations where canals are impracticable through want of water; if loaded boats and wagons have been raised and let down 220 feet on some of them; if they can be completed and kept in repair for far less expense than canals and do not occupy one-fourth part of the room; if they cause no bilious or intermittent fever in the country through which they pass; and if five or six wagons each loaded with twenty hundredweight can be

(1) Gazette. February 23, 1819. (m) Gazette, September 24, 1819.

(n) Niles Register, January 18, 1823.

(o) Niles Register, April 26, 1823.

HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.

impelled with a velocity of ten or twelve miles per hour by means of one of Perkins' steam engines, expending two or three bushels of coal, from Pitts- burg to Baltimore; if these things be so and they can all be demonstrated, is it not time to abandon impossibilities and think seriously on a subject of the greatest importance?" (p)

"Pittsburg .- Within the last two years no less than ten steamboats have been built at this place and there is now one on the stocks. Their tonnage was as follows: 240, 230, 120, five of 100 each, 80 and 60" (q).

In the years 1823-25 there were built at Pittsburg and vicinity twenty-one steamboats having a total tonnage of 3,720, and others were on the stocks. At the close of 1824 the State of Pennsylvania owned $1,789,067.20 in turnpike stock, which yielded during that year the small revenue of $1,187.50. It also held bridge stock to the amount of $554,750, which yielded $10,640. It owned " also $30,000 in Union Canal stock, $50,000 stock in the Schuylkill Navigation Company, and would own within a year more $100,000 stock in the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal; total, $2,523,817.20, yielding a revenue of $12,827.50.

In September, 1826, the price of freight in keel-boats from Pittsburg per 100 pounds was as follows: To St. Louis, $1.623; to Nashville, $1.50; to Louis- ville, 75 cents; to Cincinnati, 622 cents; to Marietta, 40 cents; to Wheeling, 185 cents; to Philadelphia, $1 to $1.12}. From Philadelphia to Pittsburg the freight was $3. In 1826 seven steamboats were lying with their sides to the wharf and had ample room.

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Standard history of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Part 13

Author: Wilson, Erasmus, 1842-1922; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926. cn Publication date: 1898 Publisher: Chicago : H.R. Cornell & Co. Number of Pages: 1192

Author: Wilson, Erasmus, 1842-1922; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926. cn
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: Chicago : H.R. Cornell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1192