USA > West Virginia > Encyclopedia of contemporary biography of West Virginia. Including reference articles on the industrial resources of the state, etc., etc. > Part 51
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51
1
287
APPENDIX.
ended, which has for so many weeks suspended navigation and brought enforced idleness on the river men and the employees of many of the coal companies of the Kanawha Valley," the writer continues, in explanation of the work which shall change all this by the United States Government, through its engineers, in bringing the coal operators of the Kanawha River close to a continual market:
" The system contemplated for the Kanawha River comprises eleven locks and dams, of which Numbers Two, Three, Four, Five and Six have been completed and Numbers Seven and Eight are now under construction and will probably be completed next year. While the entire system will be required to give an uninterrupted outlet to the coal of the Kanawha, the completion of Seven and Eight will very materially lessen the time in each year when idleness is enforced. With their completion, coal may be dropped at any time to the head of Red House Shoals, from which place on a short rise all the coal can be taken out to deep water before the river falls. Backwater from the Ohio also reaches that point frequently when there is no rise in the Kanawha, and enables the boats to get out with their tows. It is also thought that the artificial production of rivers may be carried farther yet, and after the coal is all dropped out of the pools, it may be taken on out by a system of flooding from the pools above.
"The advantage the improvements on the Kanawha have been and will be can hardly be told. The first lock and dam was completed in the Summer of 1880, and since that time the shipments of coal by river have increased about 300 per cent. With the system yet far from complete and coal shipments delayed for months each year, such has been the increase. What will it be when the completion of the system gives means of shipping coal all the year?
" Through the courtesy of Mr. Addison M. Scott, United States Resident Engineer, in charge of the work on the Great Kanawha Improvement, a Gazette representative was a few days ago shown over the work now in progress at Lock Seven, a short distance below the mouth of Coal River, and a most interesting sight it is. Far below the water's level, on the bed of the river, protected from the water by an immense coffer dam of timbers and clay, the men are at work making the foundation for the dam.
"The lock is already about complete. The coffer dam has been removed and the water now passes through the open lock. The walls are complete except for the coping and a little work at one end where the anchorage for the gate is secured. This is another difficult piece of engineering, which Thomas E. Jeffries, the Assistant Engineer in charge, has accom- plished. The work has all been done under his supervision and represents the result of the highest engineering skill. The lock walls are 41 1 feet in length, the lock including the guard cribs is 496 feet, while the length of the lock between the gates is 342 feet. The width of the lock in the clear is 55 feet, while the width of the foundation for the lock is 98 feet. The foundation is from 13 to 16 feet below low-water mark and the top of the walls is from 29 to 32 feet above bed-rock. To build this a coffer dam was required 570 feet long, 160 feet wide, 23 feet high and covering over an acre and a half.
"There was required for the lock 10, 093 cubic yards of cement-mortared masonry; 3, 312 cubic yards of concrete; 6,700 cubic yards of paving, rip-rap and stone filling, or a total of over 20,000 cubic yards of stone work. There are 20,500 pounds of iron and steel in the gate and miter sill anchorages, etc., and 60, 150 feet of timber in the permanent guard cribs. This does not include the timber and iron in the gates, all of which is yet to be procured and the gates built.
"In the dam there will be about 3, 600 cubic yards of cement masonry; 2,500 yards of concrete; 1, 300 yards of dry stone work, rip-rap, etc., a total of 7,400 cubic yards of stone
288
APPENDIX.
work. There will be required 125,000 feet of oak timber. For the anchorages and fixed part of the dam there will be required 230,000 pounds of iron, while the wickets and service bridge, not yet contracted for, will require 249,000 pounds more, a total of 479,000 pounds of iron in the dam alone.
" The entire cost of the lock and dam will be about $340, 000."
The following is from the official report of Colonel Craighill: "The Great Kanawha River empties into the Ohio 262 miles below Pittsburg and 205 miles above Cincinnati. It is a continuation of New River, which rises at the base of Grandfather Mountain, between the Blue Ridge and Smoky Ranges, in Watauga County, N. C. The length of the New and Great Kanawha together is about 425 miles.
"The Great Kanawha is generally spoken of as being formed by the New and Gauley, the latter joining the main stream 2 miles above Kanawha Falls, but the Kanawha is com- monly regarded as beginning at the Falls. The distance from the foot of the Falls to the mouth of the river, measuring the surveyed line along the shore, is 95.25 miles.
"The average width of the river at low water is 600 feet.
"The Great Kanawha, as a rule, is but little obstructed by ice. In the last nineteen years navigation has been suspended by it, wholly or in part, an aggregate of one hundred and forty-six days, an average of less than eight days per year. The longest suspension was in the winter of 1876-77, when navigation was stopped above Charleston by ice gorges thirty-nine days. Aside from an occasional exceptionally cold winter, accompanied with low stages of water, the river seldom freezes over and the moving ice is rarely more than a couple of inches thick. In the winter of 1878-79 it was covered nearly everywhere, except on shoals, with stout ice from 10 to 12 inches thick. This ice was carried out by a rise from the head waters of New River; it made remarkable gorges in the Kanawha, and did a good deal of damage to steamboats, barges, coal tipples, etc.
"The shoals were such marked obstructions to an otherwise good river during nearly the whole year for boats of light draft that work on them was begun at an early day. A very interesting account of this early work, navigation, and commerce on the river is given by Dr. J. P. Hale in the 'History of the Great Kanawha Valley.'
"The shipment of salt, the first and for a long time the most important article of com- merce, was first in canoes and next in flatboats. The beginning with the latter was about * 1808, when the first regular salt furnace was built. These flatboats increased in size until they 'got up to over 300 tons, carrying 2,000 to 2, 200 barrels of salt.' These boats were seldom pushed back, but were sold in the Lower Ohio, the early up-stream freighting being done in ribbed, keel-bottom boats, called bateaux.
Beginning of Work by Virginia.
"The following extract by Dr. Hale is from the history referred to: 'The first steam- boat to attempt the navigation of this river was the Robert Thompson, in 1819. She ascended as far as Red House Shoal, but lacking power to stem the swift current at that place, aban- doned the effort and returned. In December, 1820, the Andrew Donnally, a steamer built for Messrs. Andrew Donnally and Isaac Noyes, salt-makers of this neighborhood, made the first successful run to Charleston, and others soon followed, thus inaugurating the era of steam navigation on the river. Prior to 1820 there had been no formal or organized effort made to improve the navigation of the river, . . . but the failure of the Thompson and the success of the Donnally were so significant and were considered of so much importance by the legis- lature of Virginia that at their session in 1820-21 they passed an order directing the Jamcs
289
APPENDIX.
River and Kanawha Company, in which the State held large stock, to so improve the navi- gation of the Kanawha River as to secure not less than 3 feet of water for navigation all the year round from the mouth to the falls. Little did they then appreciate the magnitude of the problem they had attempted to solve.'"
In West Virginia the tributaries of the Great Kanawha are Coal River, the Piney and Bluestone from the South, and the Pocotaligo, Elk, Gauley and Greenbrier from the North.
A pamphlet entitled "Coal, Commerce and Development in the Great Kanawha Val- ley," which was compiled by the Resident Engineer, Mr. Addison M. Scott, contains a com- plete digest on the whole subject and affords interesting and valuable statistics for reference. The following selections are included herewith as permanent record relating to inland transportation, and particularly by the Kanawha River route.
The year ending June 30, 1886, the total shipments of coal below Kanawha Falls, amounted to 714,465 tons by river and 558,150 by railroad. For 1892, the figures are 1,071,5II tons by river and 1, 233, 764 by railroad, making a total of 57,631,888 bushels. In 1891, 25, 761, 346 bushels went by river and 28,668, 025 by railroad, or a total for that year of 54,429, 371 bushels.
The total tonnage of the river for the year ending June 30, 1892, is as follows: Coal, number of bushels, 26,787,788-1,071,511 tons. Timber, 39, 585, 000 feet B. M .- 65,975 tons. Oak staves, 755,000-2, 265 tons. Tan bark, 590 cords-same number of tons. Rail- road ties, 924, 650-138,897 tons. Hoop poles, 980, 000 -- 2,450 tons. Shingles, 2, 750, 000 -- 4, 125 tons. Bricks, 150,000-337 tons. Merchandise and produce by steamboats, 74,800 tons, making a total tonnage of 1, 360, 700. The Resident Engineer says:
"While the lumber products, general merchandise, produce, etc., carried on the river are very considerable as shown, and are increasing rapidly each year in amount and value, coal will no doubt continue to be the most important item of the Great Kanawha commerce. The rapid development of the coal business, both by river and rail, since 1881, is shown above, the output having increased in the 11 years from about 1614 millions to over 57 mil- lion bushels.
" It appears from the table that 5 of the locks and dams are finished and that two more (Nos. 7 and 8) are now under construction. Three additional locks and dams, as shown . (Nos. 9, 10 and 11), are required to complete the improvement to the mouth of the river. The money now appropriated is nearly, if not quite, sufficient to complete Nos. 7 and 8, and it is expected that both of these works will be put in operation next year. This will carry the improvement over 54 miles of river, or from within 3534 miles of the mouth of the river up to within 5 miles of Kanawha Falls.
"The works are planned to make an available depth of 61/2 feet, or full shipping water for coal, at all seasons. The chambers of the locks below Charleston are 342 feet long be- tween quoins, and 55 feet wide (those above Charleston are 300 feet by 50), sufficient to admit four large-size coal barges.
"The first ' movable ' dams in America in connection with slack-water improvement were built on the Great Kanawha; Nos. 4 and 5, as stated above, being completed and put in operation in 1880. The usefulness and adaptability of movable dams are thoroughly established, and all on the river below No. 3, as shown by the table, are to be of this type.
" Movable dams are kept up during low stages and down in high water. Their advan- tages over the ordinary fixed dams for a commerce and river like the Great Kanawha are de- cided, furnishing the benefits of the usual slack-water without its most serious inconven- iences and drawbacks. With fixed dams everything must pass through the locks. With
290
APPENDIX.
them navigation is entirely suspended, too, when the river is near or above the top of the lock walls. The difference between the fixed and movable dams in the scour and wash of the banks about the works is also greatly in favor of the modern type.
"With movable dams the locks are used only when the water in the river is so low as to make them necessary. At all other times the dams are down flat, practically on the river bottom, out of the way, affording unobstructed, open navigation. This is a great advantage to all classes of commerce and is particularly so with coal, transported as it is (and empty barges returned) in 'fleets' of large barges. More barges can of course be taken by a tow- boat and much better time made in 'open river,' where there is water enough for such navigation, than when the stage or discharge of the river compels the use of the locks.
"The gauge record of the Great Kanawha, kept at the U. S. Engineer Office at Charles- ton, for the last 16 years, shows there is on an average 196 days in the year when there is 5 feet or more of water for 'open navigation' from Charleston down; the average for 16 years shows 142 days of 6 feet or more. From this it appears that coal can be shipped by open river on about 6 months of the year, during which time the movable dams will be down. The rest of the time, or in other words, when the river falls below a coal-boat stage, the dams will be kept up, and make an available slack-water depth of 6 feet.
" The manner pursued in shipping coal on the Great Kanawha and Ohio Rivers is gener- ally understood and need not be particularly described. It makes remarkably cheap trans- portation, probably without exception, particularly when length of routes is compared, the lowest inland freight rates in the world.
" The coal barges themselves, considering their capacity and service, are cheap carriers; they cost from $800 to $1, 200 and last about ten years. The barges are generally 130 feet long, 25 feet wide and 712 deep. A barge carries from 10,000 to 14,000 bushels, or from 400 to 560 tons; 480 tons, or 12, 000 bushels per barge, is a fair average, equal, it will be re- membered, to a train of 24 cars of 20 tons each.
" A small tow of 4 barges, easily handled by a small tug or tow boat, and passed through the locks when the dams are up at one lockage, will have nearly or quite 50,000 bushels or 2,000 tons, enough to fill 100 freight cars of 20 tons each.
" In open navigation a tow-boat handles from 4 to 14 loaded barges in the Kanawha, depending on the stage of the river and the size of the tow-boat. In the Ohio River, or from Point Pleasant down, the Great Kanawha tow-boats take from 14 to 34 barges. A fleet of 30 barges has about 375, 000 bushels or 15, 000 tons; this amount of coal loaded into 20-ton cars would make 30 trains of 25 cars each, or a continuous line of cars nearly five and a half miles long.
" The general rate at present from the Charleston pool to Cincinnati is one cent per bushel, or 25 cents per ton. Operators who hire barges pay half a cent a bushel barge rent, making the cost to Cincinnati to operators who hire both barges and towing, 172 cents per bushel or 37 7/2 cents per ton. This includes the return of the empty barge to the mine. This rate to Cincinnati (distance from Charleston 263 miles) is 1-4% mills (or about one-seventh of a cent) per ton per mile. For longer distances, or to points on the Ohio and Missis- sippi below Cincinnati, the rates per mile are much less. The usual rates from Cincinnati to the mouth of the Kentucky River, Louisville and points between, amount to about 1072 cents per ton, making the cost from the Charleston pool to Louisville, including towing and rent and return of barge, 48 cents per ton. The distance from Charleston to Louisville being 394 miles, makes the rate 1-21, mills per ton-mile.
" The above rates it will be noticed are both for comparatively short distances.
291
APPENDIX.
" A considerable quantity of the Great Kanawha coal is towed to different points on the lower Mississippi, as far down as New Orleans.
" The greater part of the coal for the Mississippi market is carried in larger and cheaper- built craft than the ordinary barge, designated 'boats.' They are usually about 170 by 27 feet and from 712 to 81/2 feet draught, and carry from 20,000 to 25,000 bushels, or from 800 to 1,000 tons. These 'boats' are generally owned by the party that does the towing and they are usually sold in these lower markets with the coal in them. Many of them are never brought back.
"The rate for these long distances is exceedingly low. Take it to New Orleans, for instance: the cost to the Kanawha operator anywhere below Lock 3, who hires both barge and towing, is 5 cents per bushel or $1.25 per ton. The distance from Charleston to New Orleans, 1, 776 miles, makes the rate - mill, or about one-fourteenth of a cent per ton per mile."
Referring to the water-gauge record at Point Pleasant, Mr. Scott says:
"This shows that there are on the average considerable over 100 more days during the year when coal can be shipped down the Ohio from Point Pleasant, by open navigation, than from the Great Kanawha. It also shows the shipping season to be much more uniform on this part of the Ohio than on the Kanawha.
"The completed slack-water improvement will practically put the Kanawha coal field much nearer market.
"On corresponding stages of water in the Ohio and Great Kanawha, the same tow-boat takes nearly or quite three times as many barges in a fleet in the Ohio from the mouth of the Great Kanawha as she can handle safely in the latter stream. This is owing mainly to the difference in the width of the two rivers.
X
"Consequently it always takes a tow-boat at least three days in the Kanawha, after a rise begins to get enough barges to the mouth of the river to make a full fleet 'or tow ' for the Ohio. It often happens, too, that the Kanawha rise will 'run out' before the tow is made up.
"It is well known that when a coal-boat rise occurs at Pittsburg and on the Great Kana- wha at the same time, the Pittsburg tows pass Point Pleasant before the Kanawha tows are ready to start from there.
"This 'doubling ' in Kanawha to get a fleet ready to start from the mouth represents, in both time and expense, fully 300 miles in distance, with full tows, in the Ohio.
" After the slack-water improvement is completed the great part of the coal mined for river shipment during low stages (i.e., when the movable dams are up), will be locked down to the mouth about as fast as the barges are loaded, with smaller tow-boats too, and less expense than now, and held there ready to go down the Ohio as the water in that stream admits.
"The slack-water will be of great advantage, too, in affording reliable navigation for the return of empty barges. There is much trouble now about this in low stages of the Kana- wha, and it is a frequent cause of suspension at the mines.
"In short, the continuation of the locks and dams to the mouth of the river will not only nearly or quite double the time for shipping coal, but will, in effect, put the Great Kanawha coal fields about 300 miles nearer to the markets of the Lower Ohio and Mississippi Valleys."
During 1892, Elk River transportation consisted of the following, for the year ending June 30: Saw logs and lumber, number of feet-board measure-44,460,000; oak railroad
292
APPENDIX.
ties, 380,000; oak tan bark, 240 cords; making a total tonnage of timber products of 139, 800 tons; general merchandise and products, 10,000, and a total for the year of 149, 800 tons.
The Wheeling Register of June 6, 1892, contains interviews with all the judges of the Supreme Court of Appeals upon the subject of West Virginia's resources. In speaking of his section and referring to this highly favored valley of the Kanawha, Judge Holt said: "The valley of the Kanawha is rich in iron and mineral deposits and extensive forests abound. Capitalists are beginning to see prospects of good returns upon investments in that section, and railroads are being constructed along every creek tributary to the Kanawha River. Some of these roads are only eight or ten miles in length, but they reach coal fields and lumber regions which have hitherto had no outlet. Along the Norfolk and Western and Chesapeake and Ohio the development is wonderful. The Kanawha and Michigan, now under construction, will open up a big coal territory on the north side of Gauley, and the C. and O. also has a branch under construction which crosses New River about a mile above the mouth of Gauley. The Norfolk and Western tunnel in Logan County is completed. There is talk of building a road up Coal River, about ten or fifteen miles below Charleston. These are but a few of the railroads now in course of construction in the counties in the southeastern part of the State, all of which are rich in coal and timber. There are also deposits of iron ore in Monroe and Greenbrier-more than people suppose. A charter has been granted for a road in Potts' Valley to reach the iron deposits there. More roads are building along the Kanawha than in any other portion of the State.
"The Kanawha River is being improved along its entire course. Congress granted ap- propriations for the work, and this will give the operators down there a big advantage over the Pittsburg people, in that they are much nearer the Western market."
"Is the population increasing rapidly?" asked the reporter.
"Very rapidly. There is a great stir in that section, and as new mines are opened peo- ple are coming in daily, many of them from Virginia. In McDowell County coke ovens are being built and coal mines opened, and I venture the prediction that in five years it will have a population of 50,000. The same may be said of Logan and Mercer Counties, while Kanawha, in point of population, is now the largest county in the State. There are decid- edly more new enterprises along the C. and O. and N. and W. Railroads than in any other section of the State, and of course that indicates a healthy increase in population."
A comparative illustration of West Virginia's coal output is obtained from a recent editorial on the resources of the Southern States in the New York Mail and Express :
"The coal-producing States of the South are Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. These nine States produced in 1892 about 23, 000, 000, tons of coal, all of which was of the bituminous variety, and there was very little falling off from these figures in 1893. Alabama, with an estimated coal- bearing area of 8,660 square miles, produced 5,529, 312 tons; Arkansas, 535,558 tons from an area of 1, 620 square miles; Georgia, which has a much smaller coal area, produced 215,- 498 tons; Kentucky, with 15,680 square miles of coal area, is credited with 3, 025, 513 tons; North Carolina produced 6,679 tons, operating only one mine during the year; Tennessee, whose coal area covers 6,400 square miles, produced 2, 092, 064 tons; Texas produced 345, 690 tons from 2, 700 square miles of coal land; Virginia, with coal territory of 7, 200 square miles, produced 675, 205 tons, and West Virginia, whose coal area covers 18,570 square miles, is credited with the remarkable output for the year of 9,738, 755 tons."
The foregoing proves the great need and the paramount importance of all-the-year-round
293
APPENDIX.
navigation in order that a low cost of transportation be permanently established by the Great Kanawha waterway.
"There has been built, under Government direction, in 1887, fixed lock and dam No 2, located one mile below Cannelton and 8414 miles from the mouth of the river; 1882 saw the completion of fixed lock and dam No. 3, one mile below Paint Creek and 7914 miles from the mouth; in 1880 movable lock No. 4, 11/2 miles below Coalburg was finished; in the same year lock 5, 9 miles above Charleston, was completed. Lock 6, 472 miles below Charles- ton, was completed in 1886. Locks 7 and 8 were completed during the present year (1893). Lock 7 is 114 miles below St. Albans, and Lock 8 21/2 miles below Raymond City. Then locks 9, 10 and II, which complete the chain of artificial assistants to navigation from the highest practicable point at present, are now under contract and an expenditure sufficient to complete them has been authorized by Congress. These last three locks are located as fol- lows: Lock 9, 334 miles above Buffalo; lock 10, 234 below Buffalo, and lock II at the foot of Three Mile Bar, or nearly at the mouth of the river, thus completing as perfect a chain of locks and dams and rendering constant navigation for commercial purposes as nearly perfect as competent, faithful and intelligent engineering can make it possible.
"The United States improvement of the great waterways began in 1873. The perma- nent slack-water improvement was commenced in 1875, and the first two locks and dams were completed and put in operation in the Summer of 1880.
" The improvement of the Kanawha has made it possible for West Virginia to become the leading coal-producing State of the Nation; has been a potent factor in the dethrone- ment of hard-hearted coal barons of other sister States, who reigned supreme; has gladdened the hearts of millions of people below its mouth who have been blessed by its cheap coal and cheaper transportation; has called a halt upon over-exacting railroad companies who had heretofore a clear field; and better than all else, has been the prime and potent factor in the development of Kanawha County and the Capital City, and giving to its growth an impetus that will not stop short of its becoming the metropolis of West Virginia. These are some of the results of the goodness of the National Government toward our little State. *
"If the improvements thus far completed, and which do not complete the chain of locks which are expected to render navigation well-nigh perpetual, have aided us so materi- ally, it is indeed difficult to calculate the extent of the benefits which we are to derive from the system when entirely perfected, which is expected within the next three years.
"The first appropriation for the permanent improvement of the Kanawha River was made by Congress on March 3, 1875, and was for $300,000. The securing of this appropria- tion was attended with many difficulties. Congress at that time was frigid, they had been retrenching and endeavoring to lop off expenditures in order to be able to apply more of the revenue of the Government upon the public debt, and hence there had to be merit to an ap- peal for the appropriation of money for any purpose. The Kanawha River had merit, and the ice was broken. In August, 1876, an amount of $270,000 was received; on June 18, 1878, $222,000 was voted; then followed appropriations in the following order: March 3, 1879, $150,000; June 14, 1880, $200, 000; March 3, 1881, $200, 000; August 2, 1882, $200, 000; July 5, 1884, $200,000; August 5, 1886, $187,500; August 11, 1888, $350,000; September
19, 1890, $300,000. On July 13, 1892, Congress authorized that additional work be put under contract, and for which $500,000 was appropriated, thus making, with an additional appropriation of an act of July 13, 1892, of $225,000, a grand total thus far by the Govern- ment of $3,885, 200."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.