USA > Virginia > City of Richmond > City of Richmond > Virginia, especially Richmond, in by-gone days; with a glance at the present: being reminiscences and last words of an old citizen > Part 16
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While on the subject of currency, it may not be amiss to notice a species of paper money issued on State authority soon after the Revolutionary war, of which, that issued by North Carolina survived all other, and was current to some extent in Peters- burg and Southern Virginia, until absorbed some thirty or forty years ago by the Bank of North Carolina. This money was called proc. ( ¿. e., pro- clamation money,) and was issued on bits of thick paper, about the size of a playing card, and for various sums, from sixpence up to forty shil- lings. It was receivable for taxes, and circulated currently in North Carolina and on her borders, at the rate of ten shillings to the dollar ; and at that rate the State redeemed all that appeared-a rare instance.
As to the old continental paper money and other
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paper representatives, it was no uncommon thing to find a box or drawer full of it in the garret, or some other obscure part of an old store-house, and utterly worthless.
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CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE FLUSH TIMES IN RICHMOND.
AFTER the war of 1812-14 with Great Britain, when specie payments were suspended, or rather some time after peace was restored, but before specie payments were resumed, when bank credits were as unlimited as was the issue of irredeemable bank notes, the spirit of speculation, like the great comet that preceded it, shed its influence over the land.
I will borrow from Washington Irving his description of the speculative mania a century before :
"Every body trusts every body. A bad debt is a thing un- heard of. The way to certain and sudden wealth lies, plain and open, and men are tempted to dash forward boldly from the facility of borrowing. Negotiable notes interchanged between
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scheming individuals are liberally discounted by the banks, which become so many mints to coin promises into cash, and as the supply of promises is inexhaustible, it may readily be sup- posed what a vast amount of promissory capital is now in circulation.
"Every one talks in thousands ; nothing is heard but gigantic operations in trade, great purchases and sales of real estate, and increased prices at every transfer. All, to be sure, as yet exists in promise, but the believer in promises calculates the aggregate as solid capital and is amazed at the amount of public wealth and the unexampled state of public prosperity.
"Now is the time for speculative and dreaming or designing men. They relate their dreams and projects to the ignorant and credulous, dazzle them with golden visions and set them crazed after shadows. The example of one stimulates another; speculation rises on speculation-bubble rises on bubble-every one helps with his breath to swell the windy superstructure, and admires and wonders at the magnitude of the inflation he has contributed to produce."
This is a true picture of the state of things in Richmond about the years 1816-17. Real estate in and around the city, soon to rival New York, rose in value (or price) from day to day. Steep hills and profound gullies were leveled or graded- on plats of surveys-and some work was com- menced in reality, as scarified hill-sides attest at the present day-their green slopes changed to bare and inaccessible precipices ; the debris washed by rains from the unprotected surface, serving to increase the bars and diminish the depth of water in the river.
The limits of Richmond were too contracted for
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the imaginary population which was soon to over- flow the city, and new towns or extensions of the old were tacked on in every direction. Corn- fields, slashes and piney thickets were laid out into streets and squares.
City lots proper advanced in price, two, three, five, aye, ten fold, and those in the suburban towns, displayed on a highly colored plot-but not so highly colored as the descriptions of those who plotted to catch purchasers-instead of being sold by the acre at ten to fifty dollars, were re- tailed by the foot at ten to fifty times their former value.
There were not days enough in the week, nor hours enough in the day, for the rival auction sales of real estate-so called. Red flags waved in every street, or where a street was in embryo. They flaunted in many a corn-field, where they served as scare-crows, aided by the ringing of the vendue bells, which resounded throughout the land, and attracted crowds, as the dinging on a tin-pan collects a hive of bees; but there was a larger proportion of drones among the bipeds than among the insects.
As buyers and sellers had not time to go to their meals, cold meats, mint juleps, toddy and punch were plentifully provided at the place of sale, and these attractions drew a crowd of idlers as well as bidders ; and the former could not do
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less in return for the viands, than to act as puffers : as stool-pigeons minister to faro-banks, where they enjoy canvas-backs, oysters and champagne gratis, with the victims they entice to partake. The concourse of bidders, puffers and lookers-on formed quite an animated scene. The auctioneer in the blandest tones, assured the bidders in words the most persuasive, and with a countenance the very picture of candor, that the purchasers would double their money before they would be called on to pay more than the first or second instalment. Long credits were usually given, dividing the pay- ments into four, five or six instalments-the last extending, perhaps, to two or three years.
It may be presumed that there were by-bidders to set the ball in motion, or to give it an impulse when retarded. The excitement of bidding was also aided by the stimulating influence of the viands, and it did sometimes happen that he who drank the most liquor became the most spirited bidder. But the auctioneer kept a sharp look out for the main chance, and would knock down a bargain to a substantial bidder, rather than hazard obtaining a higher bid from an unsubstantial one.
Not one buyer in twenty purchased with the intention of building, or even of holding longer than till the second or third instalment should fall due, when, according to the auctioneer's assurance, he would double his money.
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This excitement continued for many months. Sales and re-sales were made, each at an advance on the last. New enterprises were commenced by some of the most active among the speculators and whose credit was strongest. A fine hotel and a number of large stores and dwellings were erected in a part of the city that had fallen into decay- its former trade having sought another locality. Extensive glass-works were put in operation in the rear of the proprietor's large mansion, now occu- pied as a hospital, on the ascent of Church Hill ; a sugar-house was erected on that hill; the India House* was built; a shot-tower, of which I have elsewhere spoken, raised its column near the river ; the dock was projected, and the river was to be deepened, &c., &c.
But alas ! the banks were required to prepare for the resumption of specie payments, and the speculators in lots were required to prepare for the payment of second or third instalments .- Presto ! change! The city and suburb lots were again on the market, but the prospects had changed as much as had the aspect of the corn- fields-from waving blades and ears tipped with
* The India House, after being a long time in obscurity, is now (1860) one of the prominent houses on Main street. It contains a bank, insurance offices without number, lawyers, doctors, barbers, baths, &c., at high rents.
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silken tassels, to dry stalks and refuse shucks. Sales were advertised, but where was the demand that was to double the cost ? Alas ! all were sel- lers or the only buyers were the original owners, who re-purchased at half-price, or less, and never got the other half; or the cool lookers-on during the excitement, who now stepped in and bought on their own terms.
The glass-works burnt out, the sugar-house melted away, the shot-tower fell, the hotel was con- verted into an infirmary, the ware-houses were untenanted, and the walls of the grandest are unroofed .* The banks resumed specie payments, and nine-tenths of the speculators ceased payments of any sort. The corn-fields, the slashes and pine saplings retained their sylvan aspects until within the last few years, when a real population began to appear, instead of the imaginary one antici- pated nearly two generations ago, and the pro- phetic visions of the departed auctioneer begin to be slightly verified at the end of nearly forty years, instead of half as many months.
To obtain access to the remote regions of Leigh street, even on foot, without doubling the cape of a deep ravine, a bridge some hundred feet long and about forty feet high, was erected on the line of
* The walls (in rear of the Union hotel) are now leveled (1860.)
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Ninth from the corner on Clay street; but the bridge decayed before the remote regions were inhabited by a sufficient number of persons to pay for keeping it in repair. After thirty or more years of non-intercourse by that route, it has just been re-established by the construction of a cause- way, wide enough for carriages. One of the new public grounds reached by this road, if placed under a skillful landscape gardener, is susceptible of great improvement ; nature having diversified the surface, and given to it the command of a fine view. Soon after our naval heroes had conferred great glory on the nation, the taking name of Navy Hill was given to a suburb still further north. Another deep ravine, beyond that which obstructed the access to Leigh street, intervened between that street and Navy Hill, and another bridge was proposed or commenced to reach that Ultima Thule, by an extension of Sixth street ; but the bubble burst before the bridge was built, and the ground has been usefully applied to the culture of vegetables and fruit, until very recently, when another effort is about to be made for a sub- division of territory, and a connection with the in- habited regions is suggested by the construction of a causeway.
One of the most eligible suitors for an union with Richmond, or coquetting to encourage a rival to her, was Marion Hill-not flesh and blood, but
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field and forest. This beautiful hill, near Powha- tan's old residence, was laid out as a town. A large building for an Academy was erected on its summit, and several handsome residences around, and it bade fair to reward its projectors, but the academy was destroyed by fire. At a convenient distance, and on the river below Rocketts, another town was projected, called Port Mayo, and a large warehouse was built there, as an example for others to follow. This was to be the commercial place, for which its situation is well adapted, and Marion Hill was to be the residence of the anticipated merchants. "Who knows what may happen a hundred years hence ?"
I can call to mind an instance of the rapid depreciation of some suburban property. A bold speculator bought ten acres, about a mile beyond the city limits, west, for $10,000; one-tenth in cash, and nine-tenths in nine annual instalments of $1,000 each. He inclosed it with a substantial fence at a cost of several hundred dollars, and made it a good clover-field. When the first instal- ment fell due, the land was advertised to be sold at auction, or so much of it as would meet the pay- ment of $1,000, and behold ! the smallest portion that the best bidder would agree to take, was nine- tenths, or nine acres, including the fence on three sides !
A worthy old gentleman told me a few years
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ago, that he had just sold a large piece of land which cost him $22,000 in the flush times, and after thirty-seven years, although the value of property, had again advanced, he could obtain for it only one-sixth of the cost, not including the interest and taxes. A stronger case occurred in the pur- chase of a piece of land adjoining the city at $ 1,000 per acre and the sale of it forty years after at $80.
The Governor's garden, on Council Chamber hill, 293 feet on Ross street, with a depth of 120 feet, was sold by the State for $51,000. At the expiration of thirty years, the purchaser of one-third, and the most valuable part, sold it for $5,000-and this is the only portion yet improved.
The rage of speculation was not entirely confined to real, (query, unreal ?) estate. It attached to such objects as flour and tobacco. The price of flour, which during the war had been as low as three or four dollars, ascended at one time to fif- teen or sixteen, and tobacco, from being in mer- cantile parlance, "a drug," at two to five dollars, attained to fifteen and twenty-five, and even thirty dollars per 100 pounds. The speculators imagined that they had a good basis for their operations, but it proved like the real estate mania "the base- less fabric of a vision," leaving many a wreck behind.
After all these golden, or rather paper visions
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were dissipated, when each five dollar note was supplanted by one silver dollar, those who retained any of either, resumed the old jog-trot of trade, attended to their regular business, were satisfied with moderate profits and a gradual increase of capital at the year's end.
Prosperity followed in the wake of prudence and industry. Manufactures which could not thrive under the hot-bed system, gradually grew up, but slowly against the competition of Eastern rival- ship-more economical and skillful, but afar off. The city increased slowly and gradually in popula- tion and capital, and in the course of time acquired a high character for thrift and punctuality. May she long retain it! She has perhaps in her corpo- rate capacity, launched imprudently and beyond her means, in enterprises, which although useful, should have been left to individuals or to communi- ties who were to derive the greatest portion of advantage from them. The distant farmers and land-owners who are most benefited, are generally the smallest contributors to the promotion of their own interests. They are like the waggoner who called on Hercules ; they do not put their own shoulders to the wheel.
I am unable to specify the dates at which the various suburbs of Richmond were founded, but will endeavor to record the names, (some of them not very euphonious) of those which retain also " a
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local habitation." Others, depicted on paper in the flush times, have passed too far into oblivion to be rescued, unless some curious antiquary has retained copies of the highly colored plots and advertisements in which they were sketched and puffed.
Those now extant, embrace Sydney, a thriving colony, not like that in New Holland a penal one, except to purchasers in the flush times.
Union Hill has also a thriving aspect, and both are handsomely situated and respectably inhabited.
Bacon Quarter, an old suburb, owes its name to the great rebel who encamped there one hundred and eighty years ago, and it has had many unruly subjects in later times.
Shed Town is also an ancient settlement, and derives its name, as some say, from the style of its architecture, adapted to the original and gradually increasing means and requirements of its inhabi- tants-a prudent race. But this derivation is contested by some historical investigators, who say the true name is Shad Town, from the piscatory occupation of its founders, at a time when our shad fishery was much more abundant than of late years.
Butcher Town requires no explanation as to its origin. Its juvenile citizens accustomed to the sight of blood and slaughter, are a belligerent race, and if they see any young mountaineers (Hill-Cats
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as they call them) descending towards their valley, they immediately raise the war-cry and a battle is apt to ensue, in which stones are hurled by the combatants, until one or the other party retreats with its wounded; or the civil authority (like Austria & Co.) puts an end to the war.
Screamersville owes its musical name to the sonorous voices of its inhabitants, although it must be confessed there is a lack of harmony among them, and once upon a time it might have been described as a place
" Where hungry dogs from hungry children steal, And pigs and chickens quarrel for a meal."
It is now, no doubt, much more refined and daily improving.
Oregon Hill was so called, probably, from its remote and inaccessible, though beautiful situation, and is inhabited chiefly by a hardy and industrious and fiery race, disciples of Vulcan.
Darby Town was founded by the Enroughtys, and the two names being most strangely synony- mous, they chose the shortest, though least im- pressive. For the etymology and affinity of these names I must refer to some curious investigator, and my excellent friend, the Rev. T. V. M-, is better qualified than any other person this side of the Herald's College to solve the question. I will not Trench on his privilege by attempting it. I
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can only state the premises, that all who bear the name of Enroughty, are called by and answer to the name of Darby, even if the sheriff calls, and I leave to my friend to draw the conclusions.
Scuffle Town I was well . nigh forgetting- whether it owes its active and sounding name to the industrious or to the belligerent habits of its founder ; whether they scuffled with each other, or scuffled for a livelihood, or both, some more pro- found historian must decide .*
The Irish blood of the Mayos of Powhatan was reinforced in one branch of the family by the marriage of a daughter to Mr. Fulton, a fine speci- men of his race and a man of industry and energy. He obtained a portion of the extensive tract of land attached to Powhatan, the residence of his father-in-law and of his royal predecessor, and on a beautiful elevation, in the midst of a fine grove of native oaks, &c., he fixed his seat and called it Mount Erin. The Town of Fulton is rising at the foot of this hill, and I therefore have a right
* Since writing the above, the "Profound Historian" has appeared. An antiquarian friend has traced this name to a different and very plausible origin. The original settler kept a tavern there, with the anciently used sign of a globe, the head of the proprietor protruding at the north and his feet at the south pole, with the legend, "Help a scuffler through the world." Thus the poor fellow became immortalized by his martyrdom in the bowels of the carth.
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to introduce its founder in this out-of-the-way place.
Mechanicsville must not be omitted in recording this cluster of towns, for it retains a respectable place on the map, which cannot be said of West- hampton and Bankstown, as they are almost terra incognita to the present generation,
In distant connection with the flush times, and a lineal descendant of them, the Morus Multicaulis mania deserves to be recorded, and may be com- pared to the tulip mania in Holland, except that the adventurers looked to a permanently beneficial result, from the introduction of silk culture.
This species of mulberry was said to be the favorite and most productive food of the silk-worm, the rearing of which could be effected by the then unemployed labor of women and children. The papers teemed with essays on the subject. Some plants of the morus multicaulis were obtained by favored individuals ; these were cut into slips of a few inches long, each retaining a bud, from which a twig was produced in a few months. The demand for them was immense, and twigs were sold at three, four, five or six cents per bud. In the next season whole plantations were set out, many persons paying five hundred or a thousand dollars for cuttings. Some were offered many thousand dollars for the produce of one acre. A few cocooneries were formed, but not skillfully
.
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managed. No regular market was at hand for the cocoons that were produced, but the trial went on. I saw on one occasion a wagon load of multi- caulis plants brought all the way from Tennessee and never removed from the store where they were unladen, unless to kindle fires. The wise ones began to sell out very soon, and realized large profits. Many more sold at a later period, but the high price and great decline broke the purchasers. At last the plants were worth no- thing ; they could not be given away ; caterpillars and other insects would not prey on them ; they would not grow up into trees, and they could not be rooted out, for they sprouted tenfold when cut down; and now after a lapse of twenty years, one of the plants may be occasionally seen in a hedge- row, and regarded as a weed.
P. S. Since the first edition of this book was published, the author has obtained re-possession of a manuscript written by him forty years ago, which contains the following curious narrative, entitled
. THE SECRET INQUISITION AT WESTOVER.
" You already know that the city of Richmond and the land extending some distance above it, was laid off in lots by Col Byrd, and that subsequently a lottery scheme was formed in which the lots constituted the prizes. A large portion of the tickets were sold-many of them to persons who set no value on the prizes, but who partook of the Colonel's hospitality, and therefore purchased tickets. But many tickets remained un-
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sold. The lottery was drawn, and the possession of a prize ticket was prima facie evidence of a title to the corresponding lot. The greater number of those who drew prizes took pos- session of their lots, but many tickets were never produced, and were supposed to be lost-the owners of them unknown. The lots which fell prizes to such tickets lay many years neg- lected, until some persons finding the property valuable, inclosed the derelict lots and paid the annual taxes on them. Years passed, and no owners appeared, except occasionally, when the resurrection of a prize ticket which had been buried among musty papers claimed the corresponding lot. But of late years, real estate in Richmond has attained to an immense value, and the heirs of Byrd have been advised to claim all that portion for which no prize ticket has been produced. Many very valuable lots are thus situated. Now for the robbery.
"Some months since (Sept., 1816), when the mansion at Westover, on James river, the seat of the Byrd Family, was without a solitary occupant, nor any white person on the estate, the house was entered in the night, through a window, every book-case, drawer and chest was opened and every bundle of papers examined. But so far as is known or believed, not an article, except it may be an instrument of writing, was stolen. Not the least trace has been found of these inquisitorial visitors, except of footsteps, which imprinted the shape of neatly made boots.
" In the morning the servants found bundles of papers spread open on the tables and chairs, and immediately sent for Mr. Harrison, of Brandon, who married a Miss Byrd. He had previously, when suits were brought for the lots, placed with an agent in Richmond the important papers relative thereto ; and now with apprehension lest he should be assaulted on the highway, he carried the remaining papers with him. Whether any were stolen is not known. The whole is a singular mystery, and rumor may have exaggerated it."
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CHAPTER XXIX.
THE JAMES RIVER CANAL.
The progress of Richmond and of the James River Canal were so intimately connected that it is due to the one to notice the other. This was the first canal commenced in the United States. It was projected by the first man in the State, in the Union, in the Universe-by WASHINGTON- the object of whose visit to Richmond in November, 1784, when the Legislature was in session, was chiefly to promote a junction between the East and West, by connecting the waters of the James and of the Potomac rivers with those of the Ohio. On the 5th January, 1785, acts were passed for clear- ing and improving the navigation of the James and Potomac,* and subsequently in the session (too late for a refusal to be received,) for vesting in General Washington an interest in each company, 100 shares or $20,000 in the one, and 100 shares or £5000 sterling in the other, as donations from the State, in token of respect for his services, not only
* On the 5th March, 1802, the Potomac Canal was opened, and two boats laden with flour passed through the locks at the Great and Little Falls.
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in suggesting these works, but also for those to his whole country." Washington, like himself and no other, respectfully declined the donations for his own emolument, but offered to hold them in trust for such public institutions as he might designate and the Legislature approve. The result was that he bequeathed the $20,000 to Liberty Hall Acad- emy, now Washington College, in Lexington, and the £5000 towards the endowment of a College in the District of Columbia. Wherever WASHING- TON'S hand was placed it conferred a blessing ! O, my countrymen ! base on his precepts your po- litical faith, and require your representatives to make his example the guide to their conduct : Let Washington be their standard of rectitude and patriotism !
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