USA > Pennsylvania > Allegheny County > Pittsburgh > Standard history of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania > Part 15
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In 1828 the committee of the House on internal improvement submitted a bill which proposed a vast extension of the canal system of the State. It was designed to extend the canal from Lewistown to Frankstown; from Northumber- land to Bald Eagle; from Northumberland to the New York State line; from Blairsville to Johnstown; the present line to Easton and from Pittsburg by the Beaver route to Erie on the lake. A railway was also proposed from Philadel- phia via Lancaster to Columbia, and later to be extended to York. "The loca- tion of a railway across the Allegheny on the Juniata route and a contract for the necessary materials are also one of the objects of the bill" (j).
The laying of the foundation stone of Washington Lock No. I, Pennsylvania Canal, May 3, 1828, was attended with great ceremony. It was the western ter- mination of the canal. Masonic Lodges Nos. 45, 113, 165 and 173 conducted the proceedings, under the leadership of Magnus M. Murray, P. D. G. M. The local militia companies turned out and a large concourse of citizens assembled under a beautiful sky. Hon. James Ross delivered the oration of the day, an eloquent tribute to the historic men who had brought the grand enterprise to its (then) present state of completion.
"The Canal .- Yesterday morning the water had reached within six miles of Alleghenytown" (k).
By act of April 23, 1829, the Legislature authorized the acting commissioner of the western division of the canal to pay to James McAvey & Co., contractors for building the tunnel and canal through the city of Pittsburg, the full amount
(i) Gazette, May, 1827. (j) Mercury, May, 1828. (k) Gazette, May 22, 1829.
I2I
HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.
for labor already done; and in case the work should be abandoned by the con- tractors, to turn the completion of the same over to the authorities of Pittsburg "agreeably to the principles contained in the guarantee given to the Board of Canal Commissioners by said city." The guaranty of the city was that the canal through the city should not cost more than $65,567.35; but by April, 1833, it had cost $109,473.98. The State demanded the difference, which was refused, whereupon, by act of April 9, 1833, suit was ordered to be brought within three months if the sum was not paid sooner.
"The Canal .- The water has at length arrived within the bounds of Alleghe- nytown" (1).
The canal packet, General Lacock, under Captain Leonard, made its first trip, and the first made on the western division of the canal, late in June, 1829, the starting point being opposite Herr's Island (m).
"Chesapeake and Ohio Canal .- Major Roberts, the engineer, has just com- pleted the location of the western section of this great improvement. It termi- nates at the eastern extremity of this city, at a point which permits its connection with the Pennsylvania Canal above the Monongahela locks and on a level with the tunnel and aqueduct" (n).
"The packet-boat General Lacock and the Pittsburg and Blairsville packet passed through the river locks-the former descending and the latter ascending- on the 9th. Yesterday the navigation of the canal may be said to have formally commenced, though some parts of it have been in profitable use for a considerable time past. A canal-boat laden with 130 barrels of salt arrived yesterday from the Kiskeminetas works" (o).
Three canal-boats arrived on September 14th, and five left the same day; one arrived the 15th and two the 16th; four departed the 15th, two the 16th and three the 17th (p).
"The 3Ist day of October, A. D. 1829 .- This day forms an interesting epoch in the history of internal navigation in Pennsylvania. On that day the canal- boat, General Marchand, Captain Trout master, arrived at Pittsburg laden with blooms and with one ton and ten hundredweight of merchandise for Messrs. M. & F. Tiernan, of this city; B. Thompson, of Wooster, and R. W. McCoy, of Columbus, Ohio. This is the first arrival of merchandise from Philadelphia by the western section of the Pennsylvania Canal" (q).
In March, 1829, the contractor to build the canal tunnel under Grant's Hill having failed to complete the work, proposals were called for from contractors to finish that task. No sooner was the canal ready for operation than transpor- tation companies put on their boats and began to ply between Pittsburg and Blairsville. In 1830 David Leech owned and conducted a line of canal-boats between Pittsburg and Blairsville, charging 20 cents per hundredweight for freight and 2 cents a mile for passengers.
In February, 1830, an important canal meeting was held here, from 500 to . 700 men taking part in the proceedings. It was admitted that New York cap- ital had built the Ohio and Erie Canal, and it was then argued that if the Pitts- burg and Erie Canal should be built and the two then connected by the Mahoning Canal, Pennsylvania would get a large part of the Ohio and Kentucky trade. Strong resolutions in favor of the Beaver and Shenango Canal were adopted. Among the speakers were William Wilkins, Charles Shaler, W. W. Fetterman, J. B. Butler, Benjamin Bakewell and Joseph Patterson (r).
(1) Gazette, June 23, 1829. (m) Mercury, September, 1829.
(n) Gazette, July 24, 1829.
(o) Gazette, August II, 1829.
(p) Manufacturer, September, 1829.
(r) Gazette, February, 1830.
(q) Gazette, November 3, 1829.
122
HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.
"The great benefits of our canal are now beginning to be realized. With the exception of a comparatively small portion of land carriage, goods have been brought from Philadelphia to this city by water; 7,927 pounds of merchandise, consigned to Birmingham and Carlisle, arrived in this city from Philadelphia on Saturday last, having been but fifteen days on their passage. The freight was but $2.25 per hundred, being $1.25 lower than formerly" (s).
Opinions differed whether it was wiser to build a canal or a railroad from Pittsburg to Erie, from Pittsburg to some point on the Ohio and Erie Canal, or from Baltimore to Pittsburg; but all favored improvement for slackwater navi- gation on the Monongahela, if not on the Allegheny. The facility with which wheat and other Ohio products were shipped over the Ohio Canal to Lake Erie, thence to Buffalo and thence via the Erie Canal to market, did at this juncture of affairs cut off the Ohio trade from Pennsylvania. In 1830 wheat sold for more at Massillon, Ohio, than at the salt works fifty or sixty miles east of Pitts- burg. As a fact, the connection of the Erie Canal with the lake system proved far more valuable than the connection of the Pennsylvania Canal with the Ohio River.
The construction of the Crosscut Canal was the most popular subject of the early '3os to Pittsburgers. Careful surveys were made and two routes were pro- posed: I. By the Big Beaver and Mahoning rivers to the portage summit at Akron, 150 miles; and, 2, by the Little Beaver and Sandy rivers to the Ohio and Erie Canal at Bolivar, Ohio, 120 miles. The Ohio and Erie Canal was fin- ished to Chillicothe in September, 1831; it did an enormous business from the start.
At first the Pennsylvania Canal seemed to languish, no doubt owing to the hard times of 1830-2. During the entire season of 1832 the tolls collected at Alle- gheny by William B. Foster, collector, amounted to only about $884.32. The next year, however, business greatly improved; during the month of October, 1833, they amounted to $802.74. The freight rates from Blairsville to Pittsburg were $2.75 per ton, and salt per barrel from the Kiskeminetas 25 to 3I cents.
"Boats have passed the subterranean passage through Grant's Hill and safely debouched into the Monongahela River. The canal is also generally nav- igable and an inland trade is brisk. Some skeptical gentlemen have affected not to understand this underground project, but they may now not only see through it, but go through it in a canal-boat" (t).
In 1833 the canal convention took important action by appointing commit- tees to report upon the feasibility of the western canal project. The committee of the canal convention, having made their investigations by personal visits to all points along the proposed routes, reported in November, 1833, that a railroad built from Pittsburg westward would have to depend wholly upon private sub- scriptions, and was, therefore, a hopeless project; that a canal built merely to connect the Ohio Canal with the Pennsylvania Canal presented the serious objec- tion of two reshipments, one at each end; that putting the proposed railway out of consideration as impracticable, the committee had come to the unanimous decision that a canal built via the Ravenna summit should be recommended by them; that it should terminate at Akron; that an unbroken chain of canals would be preferable to a broken chain of canals and railways; that the canal proposed to pass via Sandy and Little Beaver creeks could not be adequately supplied with water. On this committee this city and county were represented by Richard Biddle, George Miltenberger, George Cochran, William Robinson, Jr., Charles Avery, Alba Fisk and William Leckey.
(s) Mercury, May, 1831. (t) Statesman, August, 1832.
123
HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.
The amount of tonnage and tolls taken on the Pennsylvania Canal at Pitts- burg for articles going East from November 1, 1832, to November 1, 1833:
Months.
Tonnage.
Passengers, Miles Traveled.
Value.
November (1832)
470,320
6,152
$330.72
December
401,020
18,246
228.05
January (1833)
215,593
645
60.10
February
closed
March
388,966
605
203.94
April
1,187,670
990
548.30
May
712,578
8,326
581.10
June
1,512,809
136
576.95
July
943,000
1,102
498.28
August
820,440
1,593
486.87
September
814,669
1,257
597.02
October
939,578
1,228
802.74
Totals
8,406,643
40,280
$4,914.07
In 1833 the Legislature appointed commissioners to survey the damage done to private property by building the canal through Grant's Hill and report the probable expense of filling up the deep cut thereon.
Previous to the winter of 1833-4 during only one month of the year was the canal closed; the Erie Canal was closed from four to five months. This difference was widely advertised by Pittsburg in order to benefit local trade.
A Pittsburg manufacturer in September, 1833, after investigation, announced that if this city was connected by canal with either Erie or Cleveland the follow- ing articles could be furnished to the lake country from here cheaper than from New York over the Erie Canal: Iron, common steel, shovels, picks, hoes, mill screws, flint and common glassware, anchors, nails, chains, spades, mattocks, axes, window-glass, bottles, steam engines, chain cables, vises and screws (u).
A large meeting was held here in August, 1833, in the interests of the Chesa- peake and Ohio Canal, on which occasion a memorial to Congress to assist the western division of this canal was first prepared. At this date the canal was finished as far west as Harper's Ferry.
The Pennsylvania Canal was not yet finished throughout its entire length; it was necessary to unload goods and carry them over the portage and then reship them. Portable canal-boats were finally used and iron canal-boats were talked of in 1833.
In 1830 the interruption by ice to navigation on the rivers was about thirty days; in 1831, sixty-two days, 1832 twelve days, 1833 five days, 1834 three days. Interruptions by low water in 1830 were 130 days, 1831 forty-four days, in 1832 109 days, in 1833 sixty-four days, in 1834 seventy-six days.
The great increase in business on the canal of 1834 over 1833 is seen from the following table of tolls collected (v):
Months.
1833.
1834.
March
$203.94
$907.05
April
548.30
1,324.77
May
581.10
1,855.92
June
576.95
2,539-47
July
498.28
2,720.60
Totals
$2,408.57
$9.347.81
(u) Gazette, October 1, 1833. (v) Gazette, August 8, 1834.
124
HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.
The Rochester and Olean Canal was strongly talked of in 1834. In July, 1834, $10,000 worth of stock was conditionally subscribed here for the Sandy and Beaver Canal. The directors of the Sandy and Beaver Canal, in July, 1834, were Benjamin Hanna, Henry Loffler, Elderkin Potter, James Robertson, John Brown, James Hamilton and Benjamin Bakewell. This canal was rapidly com- pleted. Late in the year the steamer Beaver formed a union with the canal packet-boat Alpha to carry freight and passengers from Pittsburg to Newcastle, whence stages branched in all directions. The distance of fifty-six miles was covered in twelve hours; fare, $1.62}; freight, 20 cents per hundred.
On March 24, 1834, the first canal-boat to cross the mountains and reach Pittsburg arrived with goods from Philadelphia, thirteen days out. Goods usu- ally arrived from Philadelphia under the previous conveyance in twelve days. The business over the canal so vastly increased in the spring of 1834, that the cars at the portage were inadequate to hold or convey the goods.
In 1834 the most important consideration before the citizens here was to build the canal from Pittsburg to Beaver and thus form a continuous system. The distance was a little more than twenty-five miles. The stock of the Penn- sylvania and Ohio Canal and the Sandy and Beaver Canal was really subscribed before the doors for securing subscription under the act had been thrown open. This priority of subscription was made to prevent New York from buying up a majority of the stock and then stopping work on the Pennsylvania canals, in order that the Erie Canal might reap the benefit. The joining of the Penn- sylvania and Sandy and Beaver canals was steadfastly pressed forward. At this time Philadelphia, for almost the first time in its history, had a violent attack of enthusiasm. That city actually seriously considered at this time the practicability and utility of a railroad from that point to Pittsburg, and discussed the question of building a branch from the Pennsylvania Canal to Erie. Balti- more, also, grew enthusiastic over a canal, or railroad, or both, to Pittsburg. The latter city greatly enjoyed this commotion.
"A new era is about opening on Pittsburg. Her high destiny is now more distinctly visible than before and cannot be defeated" (w).
When the stock of the Crosscut Canal, after ten years of hard work on the part of Pittsburg, was put on the market in Philadelphia in April, 1835, the rush of all classes to subscribe was something tremendous. All stock was sold at an advance of about $4 per share. It was proposed at this time to extend the Philadelphia and Harrisburg Railroad to Pittsburg and was believed that the stock could all be sold immediately (x). No doubt this could have been done, had such a project been in readiness, and would have given Pittsburg its big railway ten years earlier.
In June, 1835, there were two daily canal packet lines and four daily lines of stages for the East in operation here. There were also four daily lines of stages and one daily steamboat packet line in operation for the North and West. The four big hotels and the innumerable small ones were crowded to their utmost capacity. There was sent East over the canal from April I to October 1, 1836 (y) :
Bacon
3,619,068 pounds.
Lard
210,455 66
Feathers
49,875
Deer skins.
85,472 66
Tobacco
4,144,255
66
Wool
816,177
66
Flour
39,578 barrels.
(w) Gazette, May 4. 1835. (x) Gazette, May I, 1835.
(y) Manufacturer, November 23, 1836.
Afrin Souris
I27
HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.
From November 1, 1836, to November 1, 1837, there were shipped East over the canal 50,068,010 pounds, and tolls to the amount of $48,807.97 were col- lected.
Going East on canals. 1835.
1837.
At Buffalo, tons
32,426
44,157
At Pittsburg, tons.
16,950
20,687
Excess at Buffalo
15,476
23,470
The canal season of 1837 extended from March 25th to December 16th; boats cleared, 2,416; pounds handled, 55,633,766; tolls collected, $52,043.39. Thomas Fairman was collector at this time.
By October, 1837, there had been spent on the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal (Crosscut) about $250,000. The eastern division was about half com- pleted. It was a little over forty-four miles long, while the whole line was about ninety miles long. The panic of 1837 hampered and delayed the com- pletion of this canal. Owing to the fact that commission merchants refused to receive goods and pay freight on the same soon after the panic struck the city, the canal transportation companies resolved in a body to suspend freighting because they received no money with which to pay tolls (z).
In 1838 a new express line of boats over the canal was established with many improved facilities and equipments to complete the journey between Pittsburg and Philadelphia in three and one-half days. Little & Linford were the proprietors. Portable canal-boats, brought into service in 1839, began to improve vastly the transportation eastward. In March, 1839, O'Connor & Co. of Baltimore put in operation their portable car body line of transportation be- tween that city and Pittsburg via Susquehanna Railroad and the Pennsylvania canals, the time of transportation being twelve days. In April the trip was made in less than nine days (a).
The iron canal-boat Kentucky arrived here March 30, 1839, having come through from Philadelphia, deducting delays, in five days and six hours. She brought eighteen and one-half tons of goods for the merchants. She was a portable boat, built in three sections, which were detached at the foot of the Alleghany Mountains and passed over on cars constructed for that purpose. On the other side they were again attached and set afloat, and thus no tranship- ping of goods was required.
The following were the principal canal transportation lines here in 1840: D. Leech & Co. of the Western Line, H. & P. Graff of the Union Line, Taaffe & O'Connor of the Portable Car Body Line, John McFadden & Co. of the Portable Iron Boat Line, William Bingham of Bingham's Line, J. C. Reynolds of the Despatch Line, McDowell & Co. of the Pennsylvania and Ohio Line.
In the spring of 1838 the Pittsburg and Beaver Canal was surveyed and its cost estimated. It was put under contract soon afterward, was rapidly pushed forward, and in April, 1840, was open for business. The total cost of the western division of the Pennsylvania Canal up to this time was $2,964,882.67. Up to 1841 the revenue was $887,013.65 and the expenditures $889,834.46, so that it did not pay expenses to say nothing of interest on the cost. On the contrary, the profits of the Erie Canal kindled astonishment here as elsewhere. Why this difference should exist was not known, because the trade on the Pennsylvania Canal was certainly large. By 1843 the western division of the canal had cost a total of $3,949,617 for its 1073 miles.
In 1843 the canal aqueduct became impassable, whereupon the Legislature was asked to make the necessary repairs. This it failed to do, though the city
(z) Harris' Intelligencer, May 20, 1837. (a) Baltimore American, April, 1839.
134
HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.
"Pittsburg and Cumberland .- The whistle of locomotives among the mountains within 100 miles of Pittsburg makes the wealthy burghers prick up their ears, and already the subject of a railroad from Pittsburg to Cumberland is exciting no little interest. Build the road, Mr. Pittsburgers, and then we will see what can be done between Cleveland and the Iron City" (1).
"We are going to build it, Mr. Herald, and that quick, too, and we trust if our life is spared but a very few years, to take a locomotive trip to Cleveland on our way to Niagara Falls, Green Bay, or to some other summer resort on the Great Lakes. We will give you a call, then, Mr. Herald" (m).
On June 9, 1846, books were opened here for subscriptions to the stock of the Pittsburg and Connellsville Railroad. In two days 6,325 shares were sold (n). This seems to have been an extremely popular enterprise at that time. It is claimed that Pittsburg, angered at the apathy of Philadelphia in withholding its consent to the construction of the Central Railroad year after year, turned eagerly to any railroad that would give it an outlet through Balti- more or otherwise than through Philadelphia to the Atlantic. This claim will account for the following notice:
"Central Railroad .- The books were opened yesterday at the St. Charles Hotel. We understood that not a dollar of stock had been subscribed when the books were closed" (o).
The act to permit the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to cross into this State and extend its line to Pittsburg was passed in 1843 and reaffirmed early in 1846. About this time, also, Philadelphia, at last perceiving that Pittsburg was de- termined to have an outlet by rail with the Atlantic Coast, began to stir herself and affect to take great interest in the commercial prosperity of this city. However, the citizens continued to work hard for the Pittsburg and Connells- ville Railroad, believing that in the end such action would result in an outlet over the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to Baltimore and the Atlantic. In fact, the Pittsburg and Connellsville Railroad, while ostensibly an independent project, was regarded as a continuation to Pittsburg of the northern branch of the Balti- more and Ohio Railroad, and was, therefore, warmly favored by the citizens of this vicinity.
An early railway project was the construction of the Hempfield Railroad, as it was called, which was designed to cross the State from east to west and thus parallel the Central Railroad from thirty to forty miles south of the latter. Its design was to avoid Pittsburg and strike the Ohio River at Wheeling, and occasionally, when it seemed likely to succeed, the inhabitants here were fright- ened into spasms.
"We are sure they are in earnest now, and we rejoice that it is so, for the interests of Philadelphia and Pittsburg are so blended that Philadelphia cannot suffer a decline without injury to Pittsburg, and she must suffer unless soon connected with the Ohio River by railroad" (p).
At the legislative session of 1845-6 the representatives from this vicinity, smarting like their constituents over what they considered the neglect of the Commonwealth to give them speedy railway connection with Eastern markets, started again the old project of connecting Pittsburg with Philadelphia by a continuous railroad, and were successful in securing a charter, conditional upon going into operation within a certain time, providing the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad failed to continue its line to Pittsburg. It was estimated that $10,000,000 would be required to construct the line, though the law provided for the sale of only 150,000 shares of $50 each. This action was thought by
(1) Cleveland Herald, March, 1843.
(n) Commercial Journal, June 10, 1846.
(p) Commercial Journal, January 1, 1846.
(m) Pittsburg American, April, 1843.
(o) Commercial Journal, July 9, 1846.
elcha Harput
I37
HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.
many here at the time to have been taken by Philadelphians to defeat the desired connection of Pittsburg with the Baltimore market. Much complaint resulted and the charter of the Pittsburg and Connellsville Railroad, which had lain dormant and dusty for two or three years, was brought out, heralded and made to apply to the proposed connection with Baltimore. Many enthusiastic meet- ings were held in which it was manifest that Pittsburg did not intend to relinquish its Eastern commercial privileges wholly to Philadelphia (q). In January of this year the citizens memorialized the Legislature to reenact the law of 1828 concerning the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and to repeal such portions of the law of 1839 as conflicted therewith.
This state of affairs resulted in a clash of interests at Pittsburg, because in 1846 the Legislature duly incorporated the Central Railroad, preparatory to its completion to this city. Philadelphia soon openly opposed the extension of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to Pittsburg on the ground that it would carry the Western trade to Baltimore. The charter of the Pittsburg and Con- nellsville Railroad had been obtained only by hard work and its friends deter- mined it should not be relinquished so easily. Strong efforts were made by the friends of the Central Railroad to divert the interest of the supporters of the Pittsburg and Connellsville Railroad to the Pennsylvania and Ohio (or Cleveland and Pittsburg) Railroad. This led to violent public opposition here. William Robinson, Jr., favored the Western Railroad; William Larimer, Jr., clung to the old Pittsburg and Connellsville Road. Both gentlemen were pow- erful in railway circles at that time. On December 6, 1847, the two factions of which these men were the leaders held public meetings and vehemently debated the question. A split occurred in the ranks of the adherents of the Pittsburg and Connellsville wing. Their meeting resolved by a vote of 3,947 yeas to 73 nays to accept the report of a special committee to transfer the stock of the old Pittsburg and Connellsville Railroad to the new Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad. The majority, having carried its point by such a handsome vote, elected its direc- tors, as follows : William Robinson, Jr., William Ebbs, N. B. Craig, Thomas Bake- well, J. Bissell, J. K. Morehead, James Wood, Harmar Denny, W. M. Lyon, Joseph Pennock, Jesse Carothers and Frederick Lorenz. The majority claimed to be acting for the old Pittsburg and Connellsville Road; but this was vigor- ously disputed by the minority, which claimed to be the true representatives of the old company. The minority met and elected the following directors: Thomas Bakewell, E. D. Gazzam, Walter Bryant, W. J. Totten, John C. Plum- mer, G. G. Ashman, John Gebhart, William Larimer, Jr., George Hogg, John Fuller, Joseph Markle and Alexander M. Hill. The contentions resulted in the temporary relinquishment of the desire to unite the old road with the Baltimore and Ohio and in accepting a union with the Pennsylvania and Olio Road under the supplemental act of the Legislature of 1847, whereby the corporate name was changed and the funds were directed to be transferred. The friends of the old road, however, still continued to fight for its construc- tion and soon were stronger than ever, and many of them lived to see the cars running to Pittsburg over this line. On February 9, 1848, the directors of the Pittsburg and Connellsville Railroad met here and passed resolutions con- firming all contracts for the construction of parts of the road and repealing its former action of transferring the charter to the Ohio and Pennsylvania Railroad. It was decided at this time to continue the line into Maryland as soon as permission to do so could be obtained from that State. The design was to connect the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad with slackwater navigation on the Monongaliela at Connellsville and thus furnish Pittsburg with an outlet
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