USA > Tennessee > Davidson County > Nashville > History of Nashville, Tenn. > Part 33
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*According to "Fifty Years on the Mississippi," a book written by E. W. Gould, the "Gen- eral Jackson " was the twenty-second steam-boat to descend the Mississippi River. This boat was of 150 tons burden, arrived at New Orleans on her first trip April 1, ISIS, and was com- manded by B. Hopkins.
20
306
HISTORY OF NASHVILLE.
19 another installment of $200 was called for to be paid on September 4. Still another installment of $200 was called for to be paid on October 16.
On June 9, 1819, the announcement was made that the steam-boat " General Jackson" had arrived at Eddyville from New Orleans, making the trip in fourteen days. The cargo was barged from Eddyville to Nashville on account of the low stage of the water at that season of the year. The prospect was considered very bright for this city then, the country along the Cumberland being so extensive and so fertile. The demonstration had now been made that the obstacles to the navigation of the Cumberland, which had been thought by some to be insurmount- able, were a mere nothing, and that the round trip from Nashville to New Orleans could be made in about thirty days. The commerce of the place was steadily growing, the arrival of barges and keel-boats being now a common occurrence.
Another improvement also under way at that time was the building of a bridge across the Cumberland at this place. The Nashville Bridge Company was organized on August 19, 1819, and an installment of $5 per share was required to be paid on August 31. The architects and builders of the bridge came from Pennsylvania, the announcement being made in January, 1819, that Mr. Stacker, one of the contractors for building the bridge, left Pittsburg December 8, 1819, with thirty mechan- ics. The fifth installment of $5 on each share of the stock of this com- pany was called for September 9, 1820, and the seventh on the Ioth of January, 1821. Other installments were called for as needed.
Stockholders in this company appear to have been somewhat slow in paying up their subscriptions, for on April 30, 1823, an ordinance was passed by the company, of which Robert Weakley was President, and R. Farquharson, Secretary, according to which all who had subscribed to the stock and who had not paid had the privilege of paying at any time before May 20 following: otherwise all that had been paid would be for- feited. Whether this ordinance had the desired effect is not known, but the bridge itself was completed about the Ist of July, 1823, and rented of the company by Mr. A. Morrison. This was a splendid bridge, built upon the same principles as the bridges at Shoffhausen and Wittengen, Switzerland. It was the work of Messrs. Stacker & Johnson, of Pitts- burg, was five hundred and sixty feet long, forty feet wide, and seventy- five feet above the water at its lowest stage, and cost $75,000. The superstructure consisted of three arches, each one hundred and eighty- seven feet long, abutting against each other, resting in one continued chord, and supported by the abutments and piers. The versed sine from the chord to the apex was six feet. The chord formed by the arch was
307
TRANSPORTATION.
not, however, that of the segment of one great circle, but of segments of circles of unequal radii; those of the longest radii being nearest the abutments, and the shortest ones at the apex. The superstructure at the abutments was twenty-eight feet wide, and at the apex of the center arch twenty-five and one-half feet wide, thus forming a catenarian arch on the outside of the bridge, and preventing lateral motion. The bridge be- longed to a company which was incorporated by the Legislature, who rented it to Mr. Andrew Morrison for $5,300 per annum. It contained twenty thousand feet of timber and twenty-six tons of iron, five tons of which were cast.
The Nashville Steam-boat Company, like the Nashville Bridge Com- pany, had some little difficulty in collecting the subscriptions from its stockholders. On the 2d of December, 1819, it was resolved by the Di- rectors that unless the call for $200 on each share, made on November IO, were punctually responded to the articles of association relating to forfeiture of what had already been paid would be rigidly enforced, and the Treasurer was expressly ordered not to receive any portion of said installment after the date fixed.
The steam-boat " Rifleman" arrived at Nashville on Monday, May 15, 1820. S. M. Barnes was captain of this boat. The steam-boat " Gen- eral Robertson" arrived in October, 1820. Joseph Smith was captain. This was described as an elegant vessel, and had just been put in com- plete repair at the mouth of the Cumberland. She was built at Jeffer- sonville, Ind., in 1819, and was of 250 tons burden. The steam-boat " General Jackson" arrived about December 15, this year, and also four or five keel-boats. On April 16, 1821, a serious accident occurred to the " General Robertson" eight miles below Eddyville, in the explosion of one of her boilers. One side of the upper works of the boat was carried away. The following-named persons were killed: Mrs. John Stevens, Mrs. Sally McConnell, Mrs. William Davis, a Mr. McGuire, and a negro girl belonging to one of the passengers. Mr. Dawson, Mr. Whitsett, and M. Crenshaw were, it was believed, thrown overboard and drowned, as they could not be found. A Mr. Bailey, of Pittsburg, was badly scalded.
The steam-boat " General Jackson" also met with an accident soon afterward by running on a snag in the Harpeth Shoals about forty miles below Nashville, but most of the cargo was saved. The steam-boats "James Ross," "Fayette," and "Feliciana" arrived at Nashville on June 21, 1821. The steam-boat "Cumberland," Captain Barnes, left Nashville, January 15, 1823, for New Orleans. The "General Greene" left January 25; the " Rifleman," Captain Gilbert, left February 1; and
308
HISTORY OF NASHVILLE.
the " Nashville" arrived from New Orleans on the 28th of January, fourteen and a half days from that port. The "Cumberland" arrived on February 22, 1823, twenty-three days from New Orleans, but had been detained on the way up about eight days at different ports. The "Nashville" made the trip down to New Orleans about this time in seven and a half days. A paragraph now began to be devoted in the newspa -* pers each week to steam-boat news, showing that the arrival and depart- ure of steam-boats had become a regular event of the life of the city. The steam-boat "General Robertson" ran upon a snag February 17, 1823, about twelve miles below New Madrid, and sunk, though most of the cargo, except the sugar, was saved. The passengers and a portion of the cargo were brought up to Nashville by the "Cumberland." A short time afterward Samuel Seay advertised for sale, as received from the wreck of the "General Robertson," ten barrels of Malaga wine, three barrels of Teneriffe wine, one barrel of rice, thirty kegs of good nails, fifteen thousand bottle corks, and ten barrels of molasses.
J. & R. Woods & T. Yeatman built in the latter part of the year 1823 a new and elegant steam-boat named the "General Jackson." In point. of model and proportions she was said to be equal, if not superior, to any on the Western waters. She was one hundred and twenty-five feet keel, one hundred and forty feet on deck, twenty-six feet beam, and eight and a half feet depth of hold. Her tonnage was two hundred and eighty; she had thirty berths in her general cabin and ten in the ladies' cabin. She had six boilers, nineteen feet long by thirty-eight inches in diameter, and a twenty-six inch cylinder of eighty-four horse-power. Sterling M. Barnes, mentioned above as captain of the "Rifleman," was after- ward Captain of the "Tennessee " and of the "Ellen Kirkman," owned by Colonel A. W. Johnson and John K. Rayburn. The " Ellen Kirk- man" was built in 1838 for the Nashville and New Orleans trade, and was a famous boat in her day. She was built at New Albany, and was of 850 tons burden. In October, 1828, the construction of a wharf at the upper landing was felt to be a necessity, and the City Council adopt- ed a series of resolutions to the effect that a committee be appointed to superintend the work, and that they should employ a force of twenty hands at not more than $10 per month to work on the wharf, the super- intendent himself to receive not more than $500 per year. The wharf was to be constructed on the plan of an inclined plane beginning at Water Street and running gradually down to the river, and when prop- erly graded to be turnpiked or paved with rock in a permanent manner. It was to commence at the upper extremity of Broad Street and proceed down the river.
309
TRANSPORTATION.
In 1829 the practicability of railroads began to attract general attention. In April of that year the engineers of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company were in England making investigations as to the practicability of constructing a railroad from Baltimore to the Ohio River. They had decided in favor of the locomotive steam-engine as a motive power. In 1828 they had seen a locomotive descend a railway the grade of which was ten feet to the mile with a load of seventy tons at a rate of fifteen miles per hour. The engine was then reversed, and ascended the same grade with the same load at the rate of ten miles per hour. A magnifi- cent railway project was mentioned in the papers in May, 1829, being the plan of building a railway from the Hudson River near New York to the Mississippi River, immediately above the Rock Island Rapids, the cost of which it was estimated would not much exceed the cost of the New York and Erie Canal. While this was all several years before a railroad was built to this city, yet it is interesting as showing the rapidity with which the progress of railroad building was pushed through in this country, when taken in connection with the date of the railroad's reach- ing Nashville, which is given later in this chapter.
In October, 1829, Nichol & Hill advertised the " new and substantial steam-boat "Nashville" as nearly ready to commence running between Nashville and New Orleans, only waiting for sufficient water in the Cum- berland; and in order to facilitate operations they were building a light- draught steam-boat called the "Tally-Ho," to serve as a lighter for the " Nashville," and to run exclusively on the Cumberland. Similarly Wood & Crutcher were part owners of the steam-boat " Pacific " and of the " Talma," the latter being of light draught and used as a lighter for the " Pacific," a large boat for the lower river trade. A short time after these announcements there was some rapid work done at the wharf in this place. The river was at a critical stage and falling. The steam-boat " Nashville " arrived on Saturday, December 19, 1829, and commenced unloading at 4 P.M. a cargo of four hundred and twenty tons. Four- teen hundred bales of cotton were put on board, and the boat left at 12 o'clock on Sunday night.
In the absence of railroads, stage lines, of course, continued to be a ne- cessity. R. Jetton, J. Walker & Co. were the proprietors of one of these stage lines in 1830, running from Nashville to Memphis via Charlotte, Reynoldsburg, Huntingdon, Jackson, Bolivar, Somerville, and Raleigh. This line commenced running on the first Monday (4th) of January, 1830, making the distance to Memphis in three days and a half.
Toward the latter part of the year 1830 the question of river improve- ment in Tennessee began to be earnestly discussed. On November 14
310
HISTORY OF NASHVILLE.
Governor William Carroll wrote to S. D. Jacobs, Esq., of Knoxville, that he had made the acquaintance of a Mr. McIlvaine, a civil engineer, who was then engaged to survey a railroad from Lexington, Ky., to the Ohio River, and that it was hoped he would be able to examine several of the rivers in Tennessee that year ; but the work on the railroad from Lex- ington consumed more time than was anticipated, and hence the exami- nation of the rivers had to be postponed until the spring of 1831, when it was hoped Mr. McIlvaine would be present. The next spring, however, the health of Mr. McIlvaine was such that he was compelled to abandon all work, and Governor Carroll wrote to the gentlemen composing the steam-boat company-viz., J. G. M. Ramsey, James King, William Swan, and W. B. A. Ramsey-that he would write to Florence, Louis- ville, and Cincinnati, and see what could be done toward securing the services of a competent engineer. It may be said in this connection that the first stone of the Lexington and Ohio railroad was laid in Lexington on Saturday, October 22, 1831.
Early in November, 1831, a bill introduced into the Legislature to in- corporate the Franklin and Nashville Railroad Company became a law. During the same month Mr. Polk introduced a bill to incorporate the Columbia Railroad Company to build a railroad from Columbia to the Tennessee River, and Mr. Dunlap introduced a bill to incorporate the Clarksville and Russellville Railroad Company.
On the 3Ist of December, 1831, two steam-boats built at Nashville were launched on the Cumberland. One of them, the "Memphis," was of 400 tons burden, and the other was small, for shallow water. Jona- than Parsons was the builder. The Nashville Republican said that now all should be convinced that it was not necessary to send the cash of Nashville capitalists north of the Ohio for steam-boats. Early in 1833 the steam-boat " Dover" was built at the Cumberland Rolling Mill, and was owned by Yeatman, Woods & Co. The entire boat, including en- gine and machinery, was constructed at the mill. The anchor and chain cables were, however, made outside of Tennessee. The "Dover" was something over 200 tons burden. On the 5th of February, the steam- boat "Randolph," owned by James Woods & Co., arrived in Nashville for the first time; and in November, 1837, the fast-running steam-boat " William L. Robison," 500 tons burden, made her first trip to this point.
It is worthy of remark that the very important enterprise of steam-boat navigation on the Cumberland and other Western rivers had its rise, reign, and decline within the space of about one generation. Newspaper files of the third decade of the present century give accounts of the navi-
311
TRANSPORTATION.
gation of the Cumberland at that period with steam-boats, as the forego- ing pages show. The boats of that time were comparatively clumsily constructed, slow of motion, of small capacity and inferior accommoda- tions, and they were propelled by a single engine. The trade increased with great rapidity, but no boats of much pretensions plied the Cumber- land until about the middle of the thirties. Then boats of increased size and improved style began to appear on these waters. Such boats as the famous "Ellen Kirkman," "John Randolph," and others began to ply with more or less regularity between Nashville and New Orleans. . Early in the forties what were then called "magnificent floating palaces," such as the "Nashville," the "Talleyrand," the " Old Hickory," the "Red Rover," and others put in an appearance. This class of steam-boats made the round trip from Nashville to New Orleans in about three weeks. They carried the produce of the rich Cumberland Valley, consisting of cotton, tobacco, corn, cattle, horses, fowls, etc., and a large list of pas- sengers, and afforded them very comfortable accommodations for that day. These steamers made frequent tests of speed upstream-that is, from New Orleans to Nashville, a distance of about twelve hundred miles. When the "Talleyrand" made her famous record she came to the wharf at Nashville with flags flying, cannon firing, and the colored deck hands singing songs. A large white banner was displayed bearing the legend, in the largest and blackest of letters: "FIVE DAYS AND TWENTY-THREE HOURS FROM PORT TO PORT." The rival packets, each and all, had hosts of admiring friends, and but few con- tests of modern times aroused more enthusiasm than did these races. The friends of the "Talleyrand," after her great feat, ran wild with joy and triumph over the friends of other rivals, though the victorious steam- er acknowledged but one rival worthy of her steel. That was the superb "Nashville," commanded by Captain Joseph Miller; and the triumph of the "Talleyrand " was of short duration, for on the next trip the " Nash- ville" covered the same course in five days, eighteen hours, and some minutes. This record was probably never beaten, though there were some finer and faster boats a few years later. About the year 1845 a still better class of boats was built, such as the "Tennessee," the " Gov- ernor Jones," "Harry Hill," and others. Still later the superb "Amer- ica," and after her-nothing! She was one of the finest boats on the Western waters, and there were but few of her contemporaries, or any that came afterward, that were superior to her in speed, in accommoda- tions for her passengers, or in capacity for freight. She was command- ed by Captain Jesse Johnson, and piloted by his brother, Bailey Johnson, both of whom owned an interest in her. In those days it was the fash-
312
HISTORY OF NASHVILLE.
ionable thing, in the winter season, for large companies of Nashville's best people to make the round trip on one of these packets from Nash- ville to New Orleans. The excursion allowed them a stay in New Or- leans of four or five days, where they enjoyed the great hotels, the operas, the beautiful shopping-places, and many other pleasures incident to the then most genial and delightful city in the United States. In the fifties there was a tri-weekly packet line between Nashville and Mem- phis, Nashville and St. Louis, and weekly packets to Cincinnati. In ad- dition there was quite a fleet of stern-wheelers, which plied the Cumber- land River for four hundred miles above Nashville, and others which plied regularly between Nashville and Smithland, at the mouth of the Cumberland.
Of the captains who commanded the large New Orleans packets many citizens can recall Joseph Miller, James Miller, Bell Snyder, Jake Hunter, of the "Talleyrand," M. D. F. Brooks, William S. Yeatman, James Lee, Thomas Newell, and Merritt S. Pilcher who commanded the "Red Rover" from 1839 to 1844, Colonel H. L. Claiborne being his clerk. Like the other captains mentioned, he was well known from Nashville to New Orleans, and was in many respects a most remarkable man. His judgment was excellent, his integrity was unquestioned, and he was universally esteemed. After leaving the river he engaged in the whole- sale grocery business with John Porterfield, son of Francis Porterfield, one of Nashville's leading early merchants, and afterward was agent for the Kanawha Salt Company. These men were of no small importance. They were known and admired by everybody on the rivers, up and down, for a distance of twelve hundred miles. They were men of power, coura- geous, shrewd, and faithful to their responsibilities. Their authority on their boats was supreme. Some of them were men of good education, notably the veteran Captain James Miller, who died a year or two since at the advanced age of eighty-two years. He was a man of letters, knew something of Latin and Greek. After the war he and his sons re- moved to Memphis, where they acquired large fortunes, owning several lines of boats, which are now operated by his sons. Some of the others that have been mentioned, strange to say, were so deficient in education as to be unable to read, or to write their own names, but it has been joc- ularly said of them that while they could not sign their names yet they could make their mark. They were accommodating and popular, and their social position as good as anybody's.
Toward the close of the fifth decade of the century railroad whistles began to sound in the valley of the Cumberland. That sound was rec- ognized as the death-knell of steam-boating. Then came the war, when
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TRANSPORTATION.
the last of the Cumberland River "greyhounds" were converted into gun-boats, and when Nashville was captured they were burned at the wharf. When the war closed there was no necessity for rebuilding them.
The navigation of the Cumberland is now confined to some half-dozen light-draft steam-boats, stern-wheelers, which seem sufficient to bring down all the produce from the upper rivers that the railroads cannot handle. But few of the sturdy men who walked the decks of the steam- ers thirty or forty years ago are now alive, and the few who do survive look back with melancholy regret to the time when they were as proud of their position and authority as was any aristocratic admiral in the En- glish navy. But rapid movements in passengers and freights, as well as rapid communication with distant parts of the country and the world, is now the order of the day. These rapid movements are furnished by the railroads; but before presenting the history of the railroads centering in Nashville it is proper to look briefly at the capacity of the Cumberland River for transportation, in competition even with railroads, and the im- provements contemplated in its transportation facilities.
The following facts relative to the navigability of the Cumberland River, and the amount of trade carried on by means of it in its present condition, are of particular interest in this connection, as showing what the river is now capable of, and as furnishing a basis for comparison between its present capacity and that of the future, when its navigation shall have been made as perfect as possible through the efforts of the Cumberland River Improvement Association, an account of the organization of which is given in connection with the sketch of the Cumberland River Conven- tion, held in Nashville November 20 and 21, 1889.
Below Nashville the river is navigable to its mouth, a distance of one hundred and ninety-two miles, for all steam-boats plying upon it six months in each year, and for boats drawing not more than three feet of water from six to eight months, and for boats drawing about sixteen inches of water the entire year. Above Nashville the river is navigable to Point Burnside, Ky., a distance of three hundred and twenty-seven miles, for steam-boats drawing not more than three feet of water from four to six months of each year, and for boats of larger draught from two to three months. From Nashville to Carthage, Tenn., at the mouth of Caney Fork, a distance of one hundred and eighteen miles, it is navi- gable for steam-boats of two and one-half feet draught for eight months, and for larger boats for four or five months.
The commerce of the river consists mainly of grain, tobacco, lumber, coal, iron, general merchandise, and passengers. According to Colonel
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HISTORY OF NASHVILLE.
Barlow's annual report for 1888, the following steam-boats were that year plying on the Cumberland below Nashville :
NAME.
Length.
Breadth. | Draught.
Tonnage.
J. P. Drouillard
165
31
5
467
B. S. Rhea
162
32
4.05
203
T. Shiver ..
I30
28
4
I27
Julian Gracy
100
22
3
SI
J. H. Hillman
149
29
4
281
E. H. Ragon
165
31
5
400
James R. Skiles
100
22
3
4I
E. T. Holman
100
22
3
SI
The following steam-boats were plying on the Cumberland above Nash- ville :
NAME.
Length.
Breadth.
Draught.
Tonnage.
Sam P. Jones
I49
30
4
359
John Fowler.
I49
30
4
237
Matt F. Allen.
149
28
4
245
H. K. Bedford
I49
27
4
I39
Crusader
146
22
3
186
J. D. Carter
85
20
3
45
Pearl
140
22
3
31
William Porter
149
30
4
I68
The following steam-boats were plying on the Cumberland between Point Burnside and Burkesville :
NAME.
Length.
Breadth.
Draught. | Tonnage.
City of Nashville.
128
26
4
194
Crescent ..
So
IO
3
70
D. A. Goodwin
70
I4
3
60
The business done at Nashville by means of the Cumberland River during the year ending June 30, 1889, was as follows:
Below Nashville: Flour, 4,000 barrels; grain, 200,000 bushels; hay, 200 tons ; live stock, 4,000 head ; passengers, 6,000; salt, 7,000 barrels ; tobacco, 7,000 tons; wood, 100,000 cords; lumber, 2,000,000 feet ; logs, 7,000,000 feet; sand, 10,000 cubic yards; merchandise, 8,000 tons.
Above Nashville: Flour, 30,000 barrels; grain, 500,000 bushels; hay, 501 tons; iron, 5,000 tons; live stock, 3,000 head; lumber, 5,000,000 feet ; logs, 25,000,000 feet; passengers, 15,000; sand, 50,000 cubic yards; salt, 30,000 barrels; tobacco, 5,000 tons; wood, 100,000 cords; merchandise, 7,000 tons.
The following statistics show the amount of business done during the same period between Burnside and Burkesville :
Coal, 318 tons; flour, 740 barrels; grain, 11,548 bushels; live stock,. . 1,989 head.
The year ending June 30, 1889, was a phenomenal one so far as the favorable condition of the water for navigation was concerned, and the:
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TRANSPORTATION.
commerce carried on on the Cumberland was greater in amount than it had been for many years.
The following tables, compiled by Sergeant Marbury, of the United States Signal Corps, giving the dates of the highest and lowest water on the Cumberland River, at Nashville, and the annual range for the years 1872 to 1889 inclusive, are full of interest to steam-boat men and mer- chants :
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