USA > Pennsylvania > Allegheny County > Pittsburgh > Standard history of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania > Part 21
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The following table shows the quantity of wool, in pounds, sent East on the canal previous to June 15 of each year, the price varying from 18 to 22 cents per pound :
1840 143,205 1843 180,620
1845 .327,232
184I 78,325
1842 90,923
1844
407,029
1846 :327,464
"The importance of the Allegheny River trade is now strikingly evident. From the Hand Street bridge to the Point, the whole wharf on that river is covered with pig-metal, railroad iron, lumber, staves, other productions of wood in the rough, hay, etc., all of which has lately arrived from up the river. The steamboats which arrive and depart daily are loaded on their upward trips with merchandise and Pittsburg manufactures, and crowded with passen- gers" (r).
A large public meeting was held November 12, 1846, to organize a Mer- chants' Exchange, the old one having died several years before. J. H. Shoen- berger was chosen chairman of the meeting, and J. McFadden and W. R. Murphy secretaries. Thomas Bakewell, Joshua Hanna, William Larimer, Jr., Morgan Robertson and Jesse Carothers were appointed a committee on resolu- tions. It was resolved that the wants of the community demanded the construc- tion of a building for a mercantile exchange, that a joint stock company should
(s) Commercial Journal, May 5, 1846.
(q) Gazette, February 2, 1846.
(r) Gazette, April 3, 1846.
183
HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.
be formed; and a committee of two to each ward was appointed to solicit sub- scriptions.
During 1847 there were measured in the city 21,192,252 feet of lumber. The Allegheny wharfage amounted to $2,320.16, and the Monongahela wharfage to $15,527.85. There were gauged 11,681 barrels of molasses, 6,929 barrels of whisky and 1,765 barrels of oil.
There passed through Pittsburg, in August, 1847, wool to the amount of 500 tons, in one lot, consigned to Bingham & Co. of Philadelphia. It was the largest single lot ever received in the Quaker City up to that date.
"Since the Ist of August, 614 coalboats have left Pittsburg, averaging 600 bushels of coal each-in all 3,684,000 bushels, worth at our wharf $110,- 520" (t).
During 1847 there arrived at the Monongahela wharf 171 flats and flat- boats, 593 keel and canal boats, 1,019 full priced steamers and 2,159 fractional priced steamers that arrived oftener than once a week.
In March, 1848, the Orinoco Steam Navigation Company of South America ordered in Pittsburg two steamers, the largest of 400 tons burden.
Up to 1816 pig-iron sold in Pittsburg at $60 per ton, wheat $1.50 per bushel, and labor was worth $20 per month. In 1820-21 pig-iron sold at $20, wheat 25 cents, and labor was worth $6 per month. In 1836 pig-iron was $55 to $60, but in 1842 fell to $17.50 to $18. Wheat fell from $1.50 to 40 cents a bushel, and labor fell from high rates at cash to little or nothing. From 1842 to 1846 seventy-five new furnaces were erected in Western Pennsylvania, but from 1846 to 1849 only three new furnaces were built. From 1845 to 1847 pig-iron sold here at $32 to $37, and in August, 1849, was only $20 (u).
In January, 1848, the Board of Trade had a total membership of 217, a gain of 64 over the previous year. The receipts for 1847 were $1,018.75; balance on hand, $755. Thomas Bakewell was reelected president. At this time the board was stronger than ever before, and a building for its exclusive use was talked of.
The Allegheny River wharfage for 1849 was $2,746.02. The amount of lumber received was 15,916,839 feet; the amount of iron, etc., 10,213 tons; shingles and lath, 6,031,000 feet; staves and hoop-poles, 230,000 feet; steam- boats cleared, 154; common flats, 1,300; flatboats, 477; keel and canal boats, 226.
"The past season has been the most trying and severe upon all classes of our business men that has ever been known. The panic of 1832-33, and the commercial revulsions of 1836-37 and 1841-42, although greatly more fruitful of disaster in the crushing of business establishments and business men, were infinitely less injurious to our mercantile and manufacturing interests than the quieter but searching and exhausting difficulties of the period embracing the past spring, summer and the first month of autumn. The wonder is that there has been so little breaking up of large houses-indeed, there has been none, and that circumstance is highly honorable to the punctuality and integrity of our business men, as it is creditable to their reputation as substantial, stable and responsible dealers. First, while our rivers were in fine navigable condition, our large packet steamers plying and our transient boats running everywhere, they were overtaken by the influence of the cholera panic-the pestilence raging then at the Southwest, at St. Louis and Cincinnati with fearful violence. The alarm flew, and, almost as if by magic, travel was banished from the rivers, and our boats, from absolute want of employment, one by one dropped in home and were laid up. The river trade was then suspended out of season, and the great source of demand for our manufactures was shut off. Then, designing
(t) Commercial Journal, December 8, 1847.
(u) Commercial Journal, 1849.
184
HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.
demagogues having excited false fears about our city and county scrip, which was our chief circulating medium, filling the channels of business; and having denounced it as worthless, illegal and likely to be repudiated, down it went; and the sudden discredit which overtook it left our business men minus the great part of their active cash capital, and business got another stunning blow in the want of circulation. This was distress upon distress. There appeared to be no money at all. But did the mischief stop there? The cry then arose that cholera was in our midst, and it soon appeared that we had sporadic cases of the pestilence, yet enough to create a panic. If business were at a standstill before, this made the prostration complete. So wore on the summer. When cholera disappeared and men were disposed to engage in active pursuits and push their business enterprises to returns of profit, we found ourselves shut in, cut off from market. The Ohio River, lower than it had been for twenty years, was shut up- cutting us off from the West. The Pennsylvania Canal, too low for freight boats, cut us off from the East. Produce that should have paid our merchants' and manufacturers' debts already due was excluded from our market. Manufac- tures and stocks of goods on hand here, representing heavy investments of cash, were locked up without buyers. So passed July, August and September, and a part of October. Such a state of things-such a combination of disasters- never happened, we dare say, to any community in so brief a space of time. The loss has been monstrous. Millions would be required to replace the aggre- gate losses to the various business and industrial interests of this city. Yet, to the honor of our business men, we repeat, not a considerable failure occurred. And now they breathe free; the rivers are up, all the avenues of trade are open and pouring in their tribute to the common prosperity. We have learned how utterly, and, as the case may be, how disastrously dependent we are on the Ohio River and the canal for our importance and prosperity in manufactures and trade. We have learned that we may lose more money in a single season than would complete our Pennsylvania Railroad to Beaver, securing us 'Iron Rivers,' East and West, open and navigable at all seasons. The million of dollars the people of Pittsburg lost this year by low water and the prostration of business would make the railroad to Beaver and pay all the subscriptions to the Central Railroad asked for by that company" (v).
In April, 1850, there were shipped eastward over the canal 12,538,300 pounds of bacon, 2,481,300 pounds of tobacco, 1,525,400 pounds of lard and lard oil, 1,224,400 pounds of coal; and there were brought here over the canal 5,312,- 200 pounds of dry goods, 2,518,500 pounds of hardware and cutlery, 1,609,900 pounds of groceries, 1,384,000 pounds of coffee, 3,322,700 pounds of pig-iron, 2,726,900 pounds of blooms.
James O'Connor & Co., in about thirty days in March and April, 1851, received and cleared 115 cargoes of produce and merchandise, paying in tolls therefor about $17,000 (w).
PENNSYLVANIA CANAL.
"1847. From opening to June I.
Tonnage. 75,555,386
1848. From opening to June I.
63,661,278
1849. From opening to June I. 68,429,52I
1850. From opening to June I. .69,094,143
92,302,833
Toll. $52,572.40 50,974.46 50,736.74 66,654.62 65,230.62
1851. From opening to June I. "Respectfully yours, ALEX. SCOTT, "Ass't Collector" (x).
(v) Commercial Journal, November 2, 1849. (w) Commercial Journal, April 17, 1851. (x) Tonnage which cleared from Pittsburg and tolls collected on the canal. Commer- cial Journal, June 4, 1851.
187
HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.
In November, 1851, large quantities of lumber came down the Allegheny River and sold for $9 for common and $18 for clear, "a higher price than we have ever heard of before in the Pittsburg market." At this time the hotels and taverns were crowded (y). On Friday night and during all of Saturday, Novem- ber 21 and 22, 1851, one hundred rafts of lumber arrived here from up the Alle- gheny; large quantities of pig-metal came down also. The following is a state- ment of leading articles received at Pittsburg from the East by canal for the two years, 1850 and 1851, from the opening to November Ist, together with articles sent from Pittsburg eastward during the same period (z):
IMPORTS.
Articles.
1850.
1851.
Agricultural products, pounds
737,250
441,117
Leather.
120,564
524,500
Chinaware.
2,446,093
4,121,200
Coffee
9,382,595
11,374,315
Drugs and medicines
865,300
1,436,600
Dry goods.
27,270,543
32,918,35I
Groceries. . ..
9,162,336
II,830,62I
Hardware and cutlery
13,506,835
II,935,335
Liquors, foreign, gallons.
30,525
2,70I
Paints, pounds.
387,964
293,703
Hats and shoes
3,948,850
4,693,345
Iron, in pigs.
21,136,768
14,960,212
Iron castings
154,600
865,163
Bar and sheet iron
1,147,176
1,693,000
Nails and spikes
1,126,747
I37,600
Steel
85,600
626,700
Tin.
708,600
884,800
Fish, barrels.
17,352
21,302
Slate for roofing, pounds
652,600
833,000
Tobacco, manufactured.
2,439,289
1,609,600
Tobacco, leaf
129,800
257,900
Blooms, etc.
12,463,300
12,403,535
Marble .
641,300
I,026,060
Oils, except lard, gallons
18,940
386,578
Tar and rosin, pounds.
. . . .
1,014,900
2,342,700
EXPORTS.
Articles.
1850.
1851.
Hemp. . .
755,728
1,357,644
Tobacco, unmanufactured.
15,204,194
18,191,932
Feathers.
481,83I
424,745
Wool
4,108,432
3,268,088
Hogs' hair.
636,400
607,792
Seeds, bushels.
874
904
Chinaware, pounds.
II,800
1,750
Earthenware.
278,232
355,280
Glassware.
1,193,908
1,068,6II
Groceries.
2,411,617
1,478,628
Whisky, gallons
384,887
446,275
Coal, tons.
15,604
7,6II
.
(y) Commercial Journal, November, 1851.
(z) Commercial Journal, November 6, 1851.
188
HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.
Articles.
1850.
1851. 806,914
Iron castings, pounds.
574,992
Bar and sheet iron.
4,031,450
4,437,913
Nails and spikes
2,269,000
1,853,412
Bacon.
38,495,265
32,520,000
Beef and pork.
5,600
6,949
Butter.
619,600
387,898
Cheese.
1,501,185
156,383
Flour, barrels
72,072
200,538
Lard and lard oil, pounds
4,641,362
6,506,83I
Cotton.
1,084,600
703,080
Dressed hides
98,130
201,282
Leather.
440,587
715,938
Furs and peltries
183,137
274,289
German clay
87,400
416,000
Dry goods.
265,839
532,158
Rags. .
628,307
677,066
Number of boats cleared.
3,643
4,384
Tolls .
$102,308.20
$112,528.92
In March, 1852, a branch of the mercantile agency of B. Douglass & Co. of New York was established here, but at first met with considerable opposition, business men not fully understanding its purpose.
"We had a Board of Trade with a Merchants' Exchange in Pittsburg, and it dragged out a feeble and precarious existence for a good many years, and died a miserable death. The cause is very obvious. Our merchants have no just appreciation of the necessity of cooperation and united action to sustain their common interests and secure their trade against competition from with- out" (a).
"The grass is not growing in our streets, although the New York Mer- chants' Club of thirty-five directed all their goods and the most of their influence around to Baltimore and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad; nor are our wharves silent although the same remorseless band pitted Wheeling against Pittsburg, and John Randolph did say our river was dry one-half of the year and frozen the other. Such another spectacle of the crowding of trade, bustle, activity and business as the wharves at Pittsburg present is not to be met with anywhere, we venture to say, out of New York City itself. The fact differs so widely from the prediction of our enemies, and the fear of our friends, that we lack gall to discuss aright the New York conspiracy. There has been lying on our table since Monday a detailed statement of the imports of provisions, produce, flour, etc., by the river during the preceding thirty-six hours, which we designed pub- lishing at large. We must now restrict our exhibit to a few leading items of this import, but that will abundantly show that our local and transit trade have not suffered from our New York assailants. Received by river during thirty-six hours preceding Monday evening: Bacon and bulk pork, casks 1,491, tierces 864, barrels 1,834, boxes 2,974, pieces 23,904; lard, barrels 1,576, kegs 1,071, tierces 276; flour, 8,106 barrels; grain, sacks, 1,671 in all; sugar, hogsheads, 510. Cotton, whisky, hides, hops, dry fruits, candles, glass, lead, paper and cattle fill out the list to an aggregate that in earlier days would have been con- sidered a monstrous week's business. But the canal lines and the Pennsyl- vania Railroad have been able to carry off these freights without causing delay at Pittsburg. This branch of our trade certainly has been augmented beyond calculation; and, indeed, we doubt if ever Pittsburg afforded such indications
(a) Commercial Journal, March 22, 1854.
-
189
HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.
of general prosperity as are present now, let observation take what direction it may" (b).
In 1853 there were slaughtered in Pittsburg and vicinity, in round num- bers, 11,500 hogs, and in 1854 14,000. The number slaughtered in Wheeling in 1854 was 22,763.
In February, 1854, an organization of business men was effected, a con- stitution and by-laws adopted and officers were elected, under the charter of the old Board of Trade. As a branch of this the Merchants' Exchange elected John Shipton president; W. S. Haven secretary, and John D. Scully treasurer.
During five days in March, 1854, there left here on barges towed by steamers 2,772,000 bushels of coal, the greatest quantity in that length of time ever taken from the city up to that date (c).
In 1854 the whole amount of wool and woolen yarn received from Pitts- burg in Philadelphia, by railroad, said the Ledger, was 3,975,469 pounds. The quantity received from January I to August 8, 1855, showed an aggregate of 9,758,674 pounds, or an increase of 5,783,205 pounds, or 2,891 tons.
"The report of the Board of Trade, setting forth the exports of this city for the year 1854, gives a very flattering view of its manufacturing and commer- cial importance. We know of no city in the Union that has suffered more severely during the past year than this. The long continued drouth rendered the river unnavigable for five or six months, making it impossible to get into the market the greater part of our heavy fabrics. Later in the season the vast amount of freight that accumulated in the storehouses of our railroads almost precluded the possibility of sending even those articles that would pay for this method of transportation to market. Then, in the midst of the best season-in September-the pestilence came into our midst and in a few weeks carried off a thousand of our population, and for a time put a complete quarantine upon us, so that for nearly a month business of all kinds was almost entirely sus- pended. What with the failure of the crops, the state of the river, the cholera, the stringency of the money market and the contraction of busness from all these causes, there has been much less activity in every department than in a year of average prosperity. The Board of Trade of this city was established about a year since, and their report, of which we gave an abstract yesterday morning, being their first, we have no means of knowing the amount of exports, the value of steamboat property, etc., of preceding years. Owing, however, to the causes above enumerated, it must have been comparatively greater than during the year 1854. And yet it is no small item for that year, in spite of opposing circum- stances. Of the article coal alone, there has been shipped from this port 23,738,- 906 bushels, worth three millions of dollars; iron and nails to the amount of $7,500,000; glass and glassware, $2,050,000. The aggregate value of the various aricles manufactured in this city for the past year is $20,970,338. Our popula- tion in 1850 is set down at 46,600. It is now not far from 55,000. This, together with the population of Allegheny City and Birmingham, will amount .to 100,000. There are but few drones in this hive. The atmosphere is not favor- able to white kids, nor the street to patent leathers. Carpet knights have always been at a discount in Pittsburg. The major part of our exportations must have been done during the former and latter portion of the year, for during the heat of summer the river was almost dry. Here are the fabrics of our looms and rolling mills, the products of our mines and our farms, waiting and waiting for six or eight months in the year, while ruin stares our merchants in the face, and even penury and want stand knocking at the door of many a dwelling; some- times they go in" (d).
(b) Commercial Journal, March, 1854.
(c) Commercial Journal, January, 1855. (c) Commercial Journal, December 5, 1855.
190
HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.
The great drouth of 1854 led the Board of Trade, in January, 1855, to memorialize the Legislature to improve the navigation of the Ohio River by a system of locks similar to those in use on the Monongahela River, and published the following statistics to sustain their request:
Steamers arriving and departing annually, first class. 1,712
Steamers arriving and departing annually, second class. 3,634
Keels, barges and flats, do 3,230
Total. 8,576
Merchandise trade on rivers, estimated tons 740,460
Lumber, tons. 50,000
Other products departing, tons. .847,400
Total . 1,637,860
Coal shipped, bushels. $23,738,906
Lumber in rafts, departing
1,225,000
Iron and nails shipped. 7,500,000
Castings 700,000
Stoves
300,000
Springs and axles.
566,000
Shovels, forks, picks, axes, etc.
390,000
Locks, latches, scales, etc.
350,000
Iron safes. 60,000
Steam engines for cane mills, etc.
500,000
White and red lead, litharge
¿640,000
Cotton yarns and sheeting.
949,000
Glass, flint.
650,000
Glass, window
800,000
Wagons, carts, carriages, etc.
350,000
Plows and other farming implements.
75,000
Furniture.
100,000
Salt in barrels. . 80,000
Soda ash, 2,000 tons.
130,000
Ale, beer, porter, malt, etc.
780,000
In the spring of 1855 over one hundred rafts of timber on the Allegheny broke from their anchorage opposite Herr's Island, swept down against the canal aqueduct piers, were torn apart, forming an immense gorge, and were gradually carried down the river. Thousands of logs were lost. An immense crowd turned out to witness the thrilling sight.
During October, November and December, 1854, and January and Febru- are, 1855-five months-the following shipments occurred:
Flour imported, barrels. 87,888
Flour exported, barrels 60,690
Wheat imported, bushels. · 344,844
Wheat exported, bushels. 14,125
Corn imported, bushels. 174,874
Corn exported, bushels 7,080
Oats imported, bushels. 169,892
Oats exported, bushels
1,522
Glass bottles 600,000
191.
HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.
For the week ending with Saturday, December 1, 1855, there were trans- ported eastward per Pennsylvania Railroad:
Flour, barrels. 26,444
Wheat, bushels. 69,754
Rye, bushels.
11,154
Barley, bushels
3,509
Total.
II0,86I
From September I to December 1, 1855, there were shipped eastward by the same conveyance the following produce:
Flour, barrels.
. 243,187
Wheat, bushels. 625,248
Rye, bushels.
. 141,012
Barley, bushels
24,533
Total 1,033,980 (e)
The question of investing in railroad stock was involved in doubt, dis- trust and much serious opposition here. One class opposed the building of rail- roads eastward in order to prevent thereby merchants of the West from going there to trade. Another opposed railroads westward, as they could bring to Pittsburg, it was claimed, no new customers. Both classes urged that railroads would reduce Pittsburg to a wooding or watering station. In 1855 one mer- chant who opposed all railroads was enjoying double his former trade, owing to the construction through this point of such highways. The wholesale dry goods and hardware dealers lost during the first year or two of the railway era a considerable trade, which went East; but within a very short time, instead of going there purchasers stopped and bought in Pittsburg. The trade of every merchant here was much increased by the building of the railways. The greatest benefit was general, affecting all departments of trade and swell- ing the annual business done to an enormous degree. In the early '50s Fifth Street was transformed from a row of small shops to a large and commodious line of stores, filled with all the products of the industry of man. The trade of the jobbers by the autumn of 1856 had swelled past all moderate expectations. Their business done in the spring of 1856 surpassed that of any other previous year. It was the boast here that the local heavy houses duplicated New York invoices, adding no more than railroad freights. At the same time house rents, store rents and clerk hire were lower here than in Cincinnati, St. Louis, Philadelphia or New York. The jobbers carried immense supplies and steadily fought their way for commercial supremacy with the other large cities. The manufacture of bonnets, cloaks and mantillas had increased here to an enormous extent by September, 1856. Mason & Co., on Fifth Street, made large quantities of these goods, including silks, shawls, etc. The cotton and woolen jobbers on Wood Street were afraid of no competition-were able to undersell the same line in other cities. Motive power and the necessities of life, two very important industrial elements, were lower here than in any other American city of the same size. That much of this wonderful prosperity was due to the railroads was not doubted then, nor can it be controverted in history (f).
"Notwithstanding the searching prostration of business and the vast aggre- gate of bills of exchange returned protested on our manufacturers and mer-
(f) Commercial Journal, September 30, 1856.
192
HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.
chants, which they have been compelled to take up, scarcely a failure has occurred. We have heard of but four instances of suspension of payment announced, and three of these, at least, are of houses whose assets far exceed their liabilities. Not two actual failures have occurred in Pittsburg since the revulsion commenced in September, and there were none before that we can recall within a year. What city can say as much?" (g).
This table shows the whole amount of coal taken out for export and home consumption :
Years.
Bushels.
Years.
Bushels.
1845
4,850,780
1852
14,560,000
1846
7,975,000
1853
. 15,950,875
1847
9,555,780
1854
17,955,960
1848
9,820,560
1855
. 22,875,450
1849
9,950,000
1856
(h)
10,000,000
.
1850
12,500,200
1857
28,973,596
1851
12,750,000
1858
26,500,000
The following table shows the amounts shipped below by river during the same years :
Years.
Bushels.
Years.
Bushels.
1845
2,660,340
1852
9,960,950
1846
5,236,500
1853
11,590,730
1847
7,200,450
1854
14,635,580
1848
7,150,350
1855
18,560,158
1849
7,145,150
1856
8,165,196
1850
8,560,180
1857
· 25,684,550
1851
8,250,120
1858
. 24,696,669
In 1845 the cash receipts for coal shipped to New Orleans and ports between it and Louisville, at 20 cents per bushel, were $254,712. In 1857, between the same ports, and at the same price, the cash receipts for coal amounted to $1,712,302.60, showing a tremendous increase. Between Pittsburg and Louis- ville the net receipts in 1845 for coal sold were $17,123.37. In the coal trade the number of miners at work in and around Pittsburg was estimated at 2,000; outside men and on the river, 500; men employed in the coalboating trade, 500; the amount of wages paid these men amounted yearly to over $1,800,000; the capital invested in the Pittsburg coal trade was over $2,000,000. The estimated cost of one towboat and necessary barges was $44,000. The amount of capital invested in the coal business in 1859 stood second only to the iron business, which embraced more than any other in Pittsburg. The capital absorbed in the iron business of Pittsburg amounted to $3,280,000. In 1857 this interest employed 4,623 hands, whose yearly wages amounted to $2,000,000. In the glass business, in 1857, there were thirty-four glasshouses, which employed I,982 hands, whose wages were, for the year, $910,116. The coal trade was, therefore, second in position to the greatest interest-the iron industry. As to the steamboat business, its immense increase from its first commencement, 181I, to 1859 was evident (i).
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