History of Charleston and Kanawha County, West Virginia and representative citizens, Part 25

Author: Laidley, William Sydney, 1839-1917. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago, Ill., Richmond-Arnold publishing co
Number of Pages: 1066

USA > West Virginia > Kanawha County > Charleston > History of Charleston and Kanawha County, West Virginia and representative citizens > Part 25

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).

Savings deposits

51,072.00 273,339.64

Certified checks

III.25

Total

$500.719.96

THE GLENWOOD BANK

The Glenwood Bank of Charleston which is located in West Charleston, was organized un- der the laws of West Virginia and has a cap- ital stock of $50,000. It is a state depository. The bank was opened for business May 2, 1908. It has a fine home, the building in which it is located being three stories high. The first floor is used for banking purposes and for several

fine store rooms and the second and third floors are used for flats and offices. The bank has had a gradual but steady growth since its or- ganization. The present officers and directors are among Charleston's most able and repre- sentative business men. They are as follows: Peter Silman, president; J. J. Melton, vice- president ; Emmet Silman, cashier. Directors : J. J. Melton, R. N. Moulton, Grant P. Hall, R. G. Quarrier, Peter Silman, F. H. Staats, S. A. Gregg, Ira H. Mottesheard, O. J. Cox.

THE PEOPLES EXCHANGE BANK.

The Peoples Exchange Bank, of Charles- ton, W. Va. This bank, a state institution, was organized November 12, 1909 with a cap- ital, stock of $30,000. Its resources and lia- bilities amount to $89,514.80. As an institu- tion the bank is comparatively young, but it has enjoyed a healthy growth since its organi- zation. It is located on Summers Street oppo- site the post office. The officers are: H. Lewis Wehrle, president; Herbert Frankenberger, vice-president; A. S. Guthrie, vice-president ; and C. A. Young, cashier. The directors are : D. M. Young, A. S. Guthrie, Herbert Frank- enberger, E. M. Burdette, John A. Thayer, Grover Kauffman and Joseph Schwabb. This bank is a state depository.

Mention of banks outside of Charleston may be found in the chapter on Districts ond Towns.

CHAPTER XII

TRANSPORTATION

Water Transportation-The Indian's Canoe-The Flat Boat-Salt Boats-Conveniences of Early River Boats-The First Steamboats and Steamboat Inventors-The Pittsburg & Cincinnati Packet Line-The Wheeling & Louisville Line-Decline of the Boat Business on the Upper Ohio-Steamboat Disasters-Barges and Rafts-Disappearance of Trees along the Ohio-Description of the Kanawha- The Kanawha Boatmen-Salt Boat Pilots- Steam Navigation-Some Famous Steamboats-Kanawha River Improvement-Locks and Dams-Advantages of Slack Water-Gen. William P. Craighill-Coal River Railroad- Col. Michael P. O'Hern-Kanawha & Michigan Railway Co .- Coal & Coke Railroad- Charleston Traction Co.

WATER "TRANSPORTATION."

The Indian had a very light bark canoe, so that when he came to an obstruction, he could pick up his boat and carry it around and then resume his way.

The white man was not satisfied with this frail Indian craft, so he cuts down a poplar tree, takes off the bark, digs out the inside, leaving only a shell, and he calls that a canoe. When the tree was large and long, and made a correspondingly long boat, he called it a pirogue, and this was made for large loads, for it would carry a great deal and ride waves that the small ones might founder in. When the white man came to the Kanawha Valley, from the Falls down, this canoe was greatly in need. Above the falls, on either the Gauley or New river, was no place for water craft; but below, as there were no roads, and no bridges across the small streams, it was no place for wagons, so the choice for the pioneer was a canoe or a horse. The canoe, though not large, would carry all that he had to ship and it would beat walking, especially going down stream. But the traveller going to Kentucky or the West, with his family or his party, needed something bet- ter than a canoe or a pirogue; he wanted a flat boat, with a roof, and with more inside room.

He did not intend to go up stream with his boat and all he asked was that it would float, keep dry and furnish plenty of room, and this was the boat that he called for. This boat building began at the mouth of Kelly's Creek but was not confined absolutely to Kelly's Creek, for at the mouth of Paint Creek, at Maj. John Handsford's, boats were built as well, and later at other places, for after the salt business was enlarged, the transportation of salt to the lower Ohio towns, was done principally by salt boats. These boats were from 60 to 100 feet long, more or less, and 15 to 25 feet wide, the sides 5 to 7 feet high, built on gunwales with heavy stout plank for the bottom and sides, and with a roof and oars. This aquatic convey- ance, could be made with rooms, and be made very comfortable, while the cabin for salt boats was decidedly limited.

After the steamboats began to run, passen- gers abandoned flat boat transportation, but the salt boat was used as long as the salt makers made salt, in any quantity.

In 1793, in a Cincinnati newspaper, called the "Centinel of the Northwest Territory," there was an advertisement to this effect : "That there will run regularly two boats from Cincinnati to Pittsburg and they will make the trip in four weeks," and it also announced that

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shortly there would be two other boats to enter the same trade and one would leave Cincinnati every Saturday morning; that the boats would have the accommodations as agreeable as they could be made, and that no danger need be ap- prehended from the enemy, as every one on board, would be under cover, made proof againts rifle or musket ball; that everything would be made convenient for firing out of the port holes, and each boat would be armed with six pieces, each carrying a pound ball, and a number of muskets, with a supply of ammuni- tion manned with good choice hands and a master.

There would be "a separate cabin for ladies, well supplied with provisions and liquors of all kinds, of the first quality and at the most rea- sonable rates possible."

These boats were not steamboats, for the first steamboat on the Ohio was the one built by Fulton, at Pittsburg in 1811; which was called the "New Orleans," and which went to that city but never returned. "The Comet" was the next, built in 1812-13; the "Enterprise" was built at Brownsville in 1814 and she was the' first that ever returned, which she did in 1815 and made the trip from New Orleans to Pitts- burg in 35 days. Then there was the General Washington, the General Pike, The Ohio. These steamboats all had brick chimneys, until about 1820, when the change was made. The Robert Thompson, it is said, was built in 1819, and in that year, the first steam vessel crossed the ocean.

James Rumsey, of Berkley County, Virginia, on the Potomac, at Shepperdstown, was the in- ventor of the steamboat,-Fitch got his ideas from Rumsey, but these men died before they perfected their boats. Fulton became ac- quainted with Rumsey in London and after Rumsey's death, brought the invention into practical operation on the Hudson and on the Ohio.

Washington saw Rumsey's steam-boat on the Potomac and pronounced it a success, but it was evidently not satisfactory to Rumsey him- self. The sketch of Jas. Rumsey and his in- vention is discussed in July, 1903, West Vir- ginia Historical Magazine.

We have stated on the authority of Dr. Hale

that the "Robert Thompson" was built in 1819, but evidently it was in 1821. We are in- formed that she was built at or near Steuben- ville, and that her first trip was to Pittsburg March 17, 1821, that she was 65 feet keel, 17 feet beam, three feet hold with side wheels, that she was built for the Cincinnati and Louisville trade and with her, steam navigation began to be a practical thing.

Before the Civil War, steamboats on the Ohio and Mississippi had grown to immense proportions, yet the railroad competition had done much to lessen it. Between 1857 and 1875 there was built on the upper Ohio and Monongahela, 649 steamboats with an aggre- gate value of $22,000,000. "The Great Re- public" built in 1867 cost $375,000 was said to be the best and finest steamboat that ever left the wharf at Pittsburg. She was 300 feet long, 30 feet wide and 18 feet high.

There were two lines of packets, one from Pittsburg to Cincinnati, and one from Wheel- ing to Louisville, which furnished two large fine boats up and two down each day, not count- ing the local packets, the St. Louis boats and tow-boats, etc. In fact they kept the Ohio river in commotion all the time. A steamboat race on the Mississippi river became a national affair and they have not yet been forgotten.

The Pittsburg and Cincinnati packets were, the Crystal Palace, Cincinnati, Buckeye State, Hibernia, Allegheny, Pittsburg and Messen- ger. The Buckeye State was regarded the fast- est of this line. The Wheeling & Louisville packets were : Alvin Adams, David White, City of Wheeling, Baltimore, Thomas Swann, For- est City and Virginia.

Charles Dickens traveled on the "Messen- ger" from Pittsburg to Cincinnati in 1842. He said it seemed strange that a vessel should have no mast, cordage, tackle, rigging, etc .- but turn to his "American Notes" and read for yourself. The same steamboat "Messenger" had for a passenger from Cincinnati to Pitts- burg, in later years, the great singer, "Jenny Lind."

The boat business on the upper Ohio in later years declined so that there was no more of these fine boats; they were transferred to the lower Mississippi river. . Later there were

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smaller boats and stern-wheel boats took the place of the former boats, to wit: the Stock- dale, Buckeye, Hudson, Granite State, Scotia, Andes, and the side wheeler, St. Lawrence."

In all these years there were, at times, some serious disasters and sometimes they were brought about by negligence, in consequence of races between the boats, but the rules of the U. S. government have done much for the pro- tection of passengers. In 1910 the Pittsburg packet, "Virginia," was going down the Ohio river, just below Ravenswood; the river was high, and the wind was blowing and she under- took to make a landing on the West Virginia side, and it was said that the water was run- ning over the bank into a field, and the wind blowing in the same direction and the boat by the current and the wind was sent into this cornfield, where she stuck on a sand bank and before she could be straightened up, and brought out, the wind ceased and the current was left to go on down the river, so that there was not water left enough to float the steamer out, and she stuck fast in the cornfield. It was an odd sight to see her there, and there she remained some time, but she was afterwards replaced in the river and went into business without being much injured. Towboats with barges became able to transport larger quanti- ties of coal than that which required a train of cars two and one-half miles in length. These figures we shall not verify.

On the Ohio at one time, a pine raft trans- ported an immense amount of pine lumber and shingles, without the aid of any steamboat or other craft. These pine rafts covered acres in area, with cabins erected thereon. There was no danger of sinking, nor of any explosion, and with oars, they managed to keep them in the river, and off the bars and banks. The boats had to take care of themselves, if they could find room to pass.

When there was plenty of water and no ice, the amount of transportation thus made was almost without limit, especially as it was to be made down stream. The Ohio river was orig- inally called the "beautiful river" and perhaps it was before it lost its trees on the banks, but that it is such yet, depends upon one's ideas of beauty. Whether the destruction of the

river banks was caused by the waves of the boats or not we know not but trees grew along the banks until the steamboats came and they did not last long afterwards.

But when we come to the consideration of the Kanawha river we must be more consider- ate, and not so general.

This river from the Falls of the Kanawha to the Ohio river is about one hundred miles and not all of this, as yet, has sufficient water at all times to maintain a steamboat. It has been said that there have been times when a boat was able to go above the Falls and did so.

One man (or woman) was heard to bewail the fate of the Confederacy, because he or she, said "that never before was a boat known to do such a thing and here a large government boat had been able to do so with ease and bringing stores, etc., above the falls, which fact was re- garded as sufficient proof that 'the God of Battles' was on the Yankee side."

This river could always be called a beautiful stream and the banks yet maintain their trees and hence their beauty. It was never noted for its quantity of water, but the flood would some times come and when the New, the Gau- ley and the Elk, would all at the same time, get on a "high" together, then watch out below, especially if the Ohio was up. But the Kana- wha does its duty generally in short order, it comes up in a hurry and goes down quicker. Then again it used to have a way of going al- most dry in the summer and old Capt. Farley had "to jack up the bow of his boat and jump her over the bars;" but this could hardly be called water transportation.

The white man had not been long in this valley when boats were found convenient and a plat of Charleston made by a surveyor, dis- closed that there were boats on the stream at the very earliest days known. When Gen. Lewis's Army went down this river in 1774, they made use of boats after reaching the Elk, perhaps they were not large ones-but were used to transport commissary stores.

It was said that a good light canoe could go up Elk, on a heavy dew, but there were some who had doubts, and took a horse and saddle. This Kanawha river is unlike any other; for instance a rise in the Ohio at Pittsburg of four

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feet would not afford more than two and a half feet at Point Pleasant, while a rise at Hinton of two feet would amount to ten times as much at Charleston. It runs down the hill so fast from Hinton, that it cannot get out of the way below the Falls, and so it has to pile up and makes a large stream.

There is another peculiarity of the Kanawha, for the boatmen have said, and they know, and what they know and told was bound to be cor- rect, that if the wind blew down the river, thus coming from the South, the river would rise, whether it rained never a drop. or did rain all the time, at Charleston.

KANAWHA BOATMEN

These same boatmen were a noted set of men, and became a class such as never were known elsewhere. A boat was ladened with salt in barrels, the pilot was the Captain, and he se- lected his crew and was given control and his only instructions were to take his boat to a cer- tain town on the lower river, and deliver it to a certain person. He did the rest, if it could be done. Sometimes he lost the whole boat and load, but he never lost his credit and he was given another boat, all the same, because it was known that all was done that mortal man could have done. And this confidence was never misplaced. These Kanawha Salt boatmen were reliable; they knew their business, and were careful; and this was all that could be expected from any one.

There was one good thing about the Kana- wha-these pilots could go in the summer and make a personal examination of the river and know all about it-both where the water was, and where the bars, rocks and snags were ; and so they learned it, from the Licks to the Ohio, and they never forgot it.

The pilots on the steamboats had to know even more, for the pilot of the salt boat did not land till he reached his port, while the steam- boat pilot was landing his boat every half mile, and the location of the river bed and banks had to be known all the way, on both sides. Going down on the "Kanawha Belle," there was a hail received from the shore and as the location seemed a bad one to make a landing, the boat was stopped and held up while the

mate was sent in her yawl to investigate whether it could be safely made, and his re- port was "Yes, but you must run in like hell and back out equally as quick." Which, being interpreted, meant, you could get in, but if al- lowed to float down stream, the boat would be- come involved among some snags, hence there must be no time lost. Everybody on the shore knew everybody on the boats, no matter how many boats there may be and every farmer had his own landing, and no one failed to hail his boat for any purpose he might desire. "That's what she was for." There was more accom- modation on the Kanawha River than else- where, it was a sort of a private little river owned by the people along its banks. There was a lawyer, who was also a farmer, living between Mason and Putnam Court Houses, and he went to each by steamer and whenever he went aboard, he went to the pilot house and took the wheel and guided the boat until his journey was ended; this was James H. Couch, Esq.

KANAWHA SALT BOAT PILOTS.

There was a lot of men that should ever be re- membered by the people of Kanawha because of their ever reliable and skilled work, and they were the pilots of the salt boats. Salt was placed in barrels, and then in the flat boats, and then handed over to a pilot, who selected his men, and the directions were given to this pilot to take this boat, or sometimes two boats lashed together, to a certain salt agent at a certain town on the Ohio river, most anywhere between home and the mouth of the Ohio river. If there was not plenty of water, it was a single boat, with an oar at each side and at each end of the boat, and a cook, making five men to the boat and if there was plenty of water, there were nine men-eight at the oars and one cook.

This pilot had control of the boat and men and he decided all questions that might arise. When they reached the Falls at Louisville, they secured a Falls pilot to put them below the Falls. If they went below Cairo, they took a Mississippi river pilot.

As soon as they delivered the salt to the agent they started back home and reported as soon as they reached home. If a boat was lost,

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it was so reported, but there was no losing of places, for it was known that all had been done that could have been done, and another boat was given to the same pilot, hoping for better luck next time.

We have been furnished with a list of pilots but not all of them. There were Peter Simp- son, Job Stanley, Herod Huffman, Ben Lowen, Morris Gillaspie, Billy Patchell, John Roberts, Garner Stinson, Annias Means, Brad Acres, Ben Horger, Jim McMullin, Bluford Burks and Jack Hardin and others. Their occupation has gone, and so have they -- all gone.

STEAM NAVIGATION ON THE KANAWHA.

The complete success attending the experi- ments in steam navigation on the Hudson and adjacent waters, previous to the year 1809, turned the attention of the principal projectors to the idea of its application on the western waters. In the month of April of that year, Mr. Rosevelt, a distinguished civil engineer of New York, pursuant to an agreement with Chancellor Livingston and Robert Fulton, vis- ited those rivers for the purpose of ascertain- ing whether they admitted of steam navigation. At this time but two steamboats were afloat, viz: the "North River" and the "Clermont," both running on the Hudson. Mr. Rosevelt surveyed the river from Pittsburg to New Or- leans, and reported to his employers the feasi- bility of the project. It was therefore decided to build a boat at the former town. This was done under the supervision of Mr. Rosevelt, and in the year 1811, the first steamboat was launched upon the waters of the Ohio. It was called the "New Orleans," and in October, left Pittsburg on an experimental voyage. Late at night on the fourth day after leaving Pitts- burg, she rounded in at Louisville, having been but seventy hours descending upwards of seven hundred miles. The novel appearance of the vessel, and the fearful rapidity with which it made its passage over the broad reaches of the river, excited a mixture of surprise and ter- ror among many of the settlers on the bank, whom the rumor of such an invention had never reached. It is related that on the unexpected arrival of the vessel before Louisville, in the course of a fine still moonlight night the extra-

ordinary sound which filled the air as the pent- up steam escaped from the valves on sounding in, produced a general alarm, and multitudes arose from their beds to ascertain the cause. The problem was solved; steam navigation on the western rivers was demonstrated; theory reduced to practice and steamboat building rap- idly developed into one of the most active in- dustries of the age. But in order to make those rivers the theatre of the most extensive in- land commerce in the world, it became neces- sary to make many improvements upon the rivers themselves, and this at once engaged the attention of the general government, and of the State legislatures also. In the year 1819, a steamboat called the "Robert Thomson" as- cended the Kanawha river for the purpose of ascertaining whether it was navigable to Charleston. She ascended to Red House, where she spent two days in trying to get through the shoals, but failing to do so, she re- turned to the Ohio. The officers reported the result of the voyage to the legislature of Vir- ginia, and that body passed in the year 1820 a bill providing for the improvement of the Great Kanawha river. The contract was let out to one John Bosser, and the work was im- mediately commenced at the mouth of Elk, Johnsons, Gylers and Red House shoals, and continued for two years, when the funds were exhausted and nothing more was done for four years. The legislature then made another appropriation, and the completion of the work was undertaken by a number of Pittsburg gen- tlemen who completed the contract in 1828.

The second steamboat on the Kanawha was the Eliza, which succeeded in reaching Charles- ton in 1823. She was built at Wheeling for Messrs. Andrew Donnally and Isaac Noyes, at a cost of $35,000. She was built expressly for the Kanawha and Wheeling trade and took in a cargo of salt at the Salines for the latter place, but upon returning to the mouth of the Kanawha it was found that she could not stem the current in the Ohio, and Captain White, who had brought her out from Wheeling, de- termined to discharge her cargo in the then em- bryo Queen City of the West. She arrived safe in Cincinnati where she was remodeled and named the Virginia. She never afterwards

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returned to the Kanawha. It will be remem- bered that at the time the Eliza reached Charleston there were neither coal nor wood- yards upon the river, and she depended upon purchasing dry fence rails from the farmers along the river for fuel.

The first Charleston and Cincinnati packet was the Fairy Queen, which was built at Cin- cinnati for Messrs. Andrew Donnally and A. M. Henderson. She entered the trade in 1824 and continued to ply therein for several years.

The second boat in the same trade was the Paul Pry, built and owned by Messrs. Joel Shrewsbury and Captain John Rodgers. She entered the trade in the year 1826, and contin- ued to make regular trips for two years, when she exploded her boilers at Guyandotte, at which time the engineer, Thomas Phillips, of the Kanawha Salines, and Lewis Handley, of Teays valley, were killed.

In the year 1830 the Enterprise, the first towboat on the river, reached Charleston. She was built at Pittsburg and commanded by Cap- tain James A. Payne, then quite a young man, but one whose name was afterward to become familiar not only along the Kanawha river, but to the utmost boundaries and most distant parts of western and southern inland naviga- tion-one, whose active industry and enter- prise have perhaps done more to develop this most important industry of our country than any other whose name appears in the early an- nals of western navigation.

The "Enterprise" continued to transport salt to the western and southern markets for sev- eral years, when the machinery was removed from her and placed upon a new boat called the Hope, which was built at Point Pleasant by Captain Payne and John Hall. Esq. An ex- perienced commander was placed upon the roof and Captain Payne repaired to Red House shoals where he built and launched another steamer which he christened the Lelia. She was the first boat that broke the solitude of the hills and mountains of the Kanawha Valley with the shrill scream of the steam whistle ; and the writer is informed by the oldest boatman on the river that she was the first steamer that ever reached the Falls of Kanawha. Captain Payne sold her to Messrs. Jesse Walton and

Alexander McMullin, who continued to run her in the Cincinnati and Charleston trade, and he built another boat at the Red House shoals, which he named the Jim, upon which the ma- chinery taken from the "Hope" was placed. She went to Cincinnati, and from there Captain Alfred Brown ran her to Mobile, where he ex- changed her for another boat called the "Ca- tawba," a side-wheel steamer. She made one trip up the Kanawha as far as Red House shoals, where she was sold and taken to the Tennessee river.

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History of Charleston and Kanawha County, West Virginia and representative citizens, Part 25

Author: Laidley, William Sydney, 1839-1917. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1911 Publisher: Chicago, Ill., Richmond-Arnold publishing co Number of Pages: 1066

Author: Laidley, William Sydney, 1839-1917. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago, Ill., Richmond-Arnold publishing co
Number of Pages: 1066