ohio river navigation, 1783-1824 21 chapter. ii : ohio...

OHIO RIVER NAVIGATION, 1783-1824

CHAPTER . II : OHIO RIVER NAVIGATION, 1783-1824

No history of the activities of the Corpsof Engineers in the Ohio River Valleycould be complete without a review of thehistoric development of waterways navi-

gation and waterborne commerce in thevalley, for the major continuing mission ofthe Louisville Engineer District and its

predecessors has been the improvementof waterways as a benefit to navigation .Congress first assigned the improvementof inland rivers to the Corps in 1824, butofficers of the Corps, during the perfor-mance of their military missions in theOhio Valley, often reported the conditionof the unimproved waterways and de-scribed the character of the waterbornecommerce prior to 1824 . And one of them,Major Stephen H. Long, made significantcontributions to the design of the westerninland river steamboat . Before recountingthe history of the improvement of theOhio River for navigation, a review of thedevelopment of navigation on the OhioRiver prior to 1824 is in order .

Condition of the Ohio River Prior toImprovement

Early descriptions of the Ohio Riveremphasized its navigability, often statingthat no serious problems were met intraveling the river except at the Falls . Itwas, however, not quite as simple as de-scribed, for early navigators used light-draft canoes, dugouts, skiffs, and bateauxand did not consider grounding on a bar aserious mishap . Navigators of a laterperiod, who used deeper-draft vessels,were to continually complain of shallowchannels, shifting bars, hazardous rocksand snags, and similar obstructions . As theOhio Valley was settled and extensive useof the rivers for marketing agriculturalproduce and manufactured goods de-

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veloped, obstructions to navigation, be-cause of resultant delays and losses ofboats and their cargoes, became more ob-jectionable .

The navigability of Ohio Valley water-ways, before 1824 the principal outlet tomarket, was a matter of great personalconcern to the early settlers . In its naturalcondition, the Ohio River had aconstantly changing channel . Annualfloods shifted the location of sand and

gravel bars, created and destroyed islands,cut new channels and filled old, under-mined banks and toppled entire trees intothe stream. The river was alternately calmand tumultuous, wildly fluctuating fromone foot deep at extreme low water up toeighty feet at record flood stages. In 1838the entire flow of the river just belowPittsburgh was measured at 1400 cubicfeet per second (cfs); at the crest of the1937 flood about 900,000 cfs poured pastCincinnati into Louisville . From its headat Pittsburgh to its mouth at Cairo, theOhio ran down a slope with a total fall of429.4 feet, but the fall was not uniformlydistributed. Long pools with a negligiblefall alternated with "riffles," or rapids,where the gradient was steep ; more thantwenty feet at the worst place - the Fallsof the Ohio. The natural condition of thetributaries of the Ohio River was generallyno better, if not worse, for navigation thanthat of the Ohio, and traffic originating ontributary streams ordinarily used a portionof the Ohio on its way to port cities andmarkets .'Though a water stage of a mere three

feet was considered navigable by earlyrivermen, this depth was not available onthe Ohio for several months each year .Low-water stages usually prevailed in theOhio Basin from July through October;

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during that season only the shallowest-draft vessels operated, and they oftenwere delayed by teams and wagons ford-ing the river at many points . Until rail-roads crisscrossed the region in the mid-nineteenth century, business practicallycame to a halt during low-water seasons,manufacturers laid off their employees,and a mini-recession set in, lasting untilthe river rose. Rivermen and shipperscame to rely on two rises : the fall risewhich occurred in late October orNovember, and, after an interval of severeweather and ice conditions, the spring risein February, March, or April . During suchstages, the Ohio Valley waterways teemedwith vessels transporting commodities todown-river markets, and, later, to up-riverports via keelboat and steamboat .2

Agricultural enterprise has always beenseasonal ; its success intimately connectedwith the amount and timing of precipita-tion. As long as Ohio Valley mercantileand manufacturing concerns relied chieflyupon the unimproved waterways fortransportation of raw materials and salableproducts, their success was also depen-dent upon the amount and timing of pre-cipitation . If the fall rise was delayed, ordid not occur at all as happened in 1819, atransportation crisis developed andeconomic consequences were serious .The unpredictable Ohio River continuallydisrupted business affairs and communitylife as long as alternate commercial routeswere unavailable ; however, transportationcosts via the unimproved waterways ascompared with the existing overlandfacilities were so much lower that the un-reliable channels of the Ohio River and itstributaries were used almost exclusivelyby commerce until about 1850 . 3

Flatboats and the Great ImmigrationThe Ohio River flatboat, originally

THE FALLS CITY ENGINEERS

merely a large sturdily-constructedwooden box, has been well described asthe "ark of empire ." Major Jonathan Wil-liams, Corps of Engineers, traveled inthem down the Ohio in 1801 and de-scribed them as resembling a "floatinghouse ." In 1802 another traveler de-scribed them more fully :

They are of a square form, some longer thanothers ; their sides are raised four feet and a halfabove water; their length is from fifteen to fiftyfeet; the two extremities are square, upon one ofwhich is a kind of awning, under which the pas-sengers shelter themselves when it rains . 4

The flatboat was first used on the OhioRiver before the end of the Revolution,and during the decade after the Revolu-tion it became the favorite vessel of theimmigrants . Pioneers crossed the moun-tains to the Upper Ohio Valley and pur-chased or built flatboats to continue thejourney to their new homesteads . Thewatercraft used by the Indians were toounstable and limited in capacity to trans-port a family and their possessions ; theribbed and planked bateau of the Frenchwas relatively complex of construction ;hence, the flatboat was evolved to meetthe need for a large, stable vessel of sim-ple construction . In addition 'to economictransportation, flatboats . were also usefulat the end of the voyage, for their lumbercould be used in constructing new homes .The business of constructing these vesselsfor sale to the tide of immigrants reachedmajor proportions in the Upper Ohio Val-ley in the late eighteenth century . Two tothree hundred families annually em-barked on the Monongahela atBrownsville for the down river trip, andthere is record of 1200 immigrants board-ing flatboats at Olean, New York, after theice broke in 1815 to descend the Al-legheny and Ohio rivers to new homes inthe Lower Ohio Basin . In 1788, the peak


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year of the great immigration, at least 308flatboats, transporting over 6,000 immi-grants, about 3,000 head of livestock, and150 wagons passed down the Ohio on thespring rise .5

Flatboats depended on the current formotive power, and there was no turningback once embarked, for upstream naviga-tion in such unwieldy craft required ef-forts which almost exceeded human capa-bility. They were steered with long oars,or sweeps, but keeping in the unim-proved, constantly changing river channelwas quite a challenge . Boats oftengrounded on bars, wrecked on projectingrocks, or were pierced by snags, and in theearly days of the traffic the threat of Indianattack was always present . Captain Wil-liam Tell Poussin, a Frenchman who be-came an officer in the United States Top-ographical Engineers, traveled the OhioRiver in flatboats on various missions be-fore 1825 . He later recalled :

In descending the Ohio and the Mississippi . . .it was customary to purchase and freight a flatboat. Embarking on this, it was necessary to trustto the strength of the current to convey you to yourdestination. This was certainly not a very ex-peditious method of traveling, especially whenyour only resource besides the current was theoccasional use of the oar or the sail . From sixty toseventy days were consumed in this part of thejourney; and it was not without exposure to dif-ficulties and perils of no ordinary kind that so pro-tracted a journey could be performed in the midstof the numerous Indians who, allured by the hopeof booty, at that time frequented the shores ofthese rivers .

We arrived at New Orleans (from Pittsburgh in1817), after this manner, in about eighty-four days,at an expense of from one hundred and twenty toone hundred and forty dollars ; and the travelerwho reached his destination with no other incon-veniences than that inseparable from so hazardousan undertaking was considered exceedinglyfortunate . 6

Flatboats and CommerceThe exportation of commodities from


the Ohio Valley to New Orleans via thewaterways began before the Revolution .As early as 1763, eighty thousand dollarsworth of animal skins and tallow valued atfour thousand dollars arrived at New Or-leans from up river, and part doubtlesscame from the Ohio Valley where Frenchand Spanish hunters were operating . Itwill be recalled that Baynton, Wharton,and Morgan of Philadelphia entered theIndian trade and am y supply business onthe Ohio in 1765; other similar mercantilefirms were also active at about the sametime. During the course of the Revolutionthere was also some limited traffic, bothup and down the Ohio, in munitions andmilitary supplies for the forces com-manded by George Rogers Clark andother military units in the Ohio Valley .'

Jacob Yoder of Pennsylvania, and laterSpencer County, Kentucky, has beencredited with performing the first flatboattrip down the Ohio and MIssissippi to sellagricultural produce at New Orleans inMay, 1782 . This may be true, but thereexists fuller evidence for the trip of theTardiveau brothers . At the encouragementof Benjamin Franklin and perhapsJonathan Williams, Barthelemi and PierreTardiveau moved from France toPhiladelphia in 1777 to establish a mer-cantile firm in partnership with JeanHolker, the first French Consul to the Un-ited States . In 1781 Tardiveau and Holkerfurnished supplies in the Ohio Valley forGeorge Rogers Clark and the Virginia re-giments, and in 1782 the firm sent a fleetof boats laden with flour and other mer-chandise from Fort Pitt to New Orleans ;but they lost their investment when "pi-rates," a band of Loyalists and Indians ledby James Colbert, seized the boats beforethey reached New Orleans ."

In 1783, Barthelemi Tardiveau con-ducted what might be called the first "in-


dustrial survey" of the Ohio Valley to ex-plore the possibilities of establishing aregular trade from Kentucky to New Or-leans . He addressed a questionnaire aboutbusiness prospects to several leaders ofthe Kentucky settlements . Walker Daniel,the first Attorney General for the Districtof Kentucky, responded that a profitabletrade could probably be had by construct-ing boats which could be sold along withtheir cargoes at New Orleans . CaptainJohn May, the frontiersman for whomMaysville, Kentucky, is named, repliedthat Kentucky "hitherto had no commer-cial intercourse with any country what-ever" and was in great need of merchantsand trading facilities . 9Captain May believed that when hos-

tilities with the Indians ended, the com-merce of Kentucky would be great ; salablecommodities would include tobacco, flax,meat and animal products, grain, flour,and hemp . He listed a number of mineralswhich might be mined and manufactured,and mentioned that he had discovered aspring from which a substance resemblingtar (petroleum) emanated . Captain Mayrecognized the waterways route to NewOrleans was longer than other possibletrading routes, but explained : "it is not thedistance, but the having water carriagethat makes the expence of transportationlight." The frontiersman also expressed aninteresting opinion about the future ofLouisville :

As the Falls of Ohio is the place where all ves-sels both coming up, and going down the river,must call to unload, when it is not very high ; andas this place has a large extent of fertile country tosupport it; larger and richer than any other place inthe united states [sic], I am of opinion it will beone of the greatest trading towns in America :Loaded boats can at all times pass up and downthe river both above and below the Falls, but as itis only at certain periods that they can passthrough, I am inclined to think that the vessels

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intended for the navigation of the river above thatplace will be kept above altogether; that they willunload there, take in other cargoes, and return tothe places from whence they sailed, without goingbelow, and that other vessels will bring our goodsto the Falls.10

Captain May's opinion about the futureof the Falls of the Ohio area may have hadsome influence on the firm of Tardiveauand Holker, for it purchased large quan-tities of land on the Indiana bank of theFalls from soldiers of the Clark expedi-tion. The firm also invested in lands (inpresent Gallatin County, Illinois) on theSaline River, a tributary of the Ohio, andestablished a salt-producing business."

A major obstacle to the trade with NewOrleans was the possession of the port bySpain, which made the Ohio-Mississippitrade dependent upon the diplomatic rela-tions between Spain and the UnitedStates . Trade with New Orleans wasclosed for a time in the mid-1780s, andwas reopened by James Wilkinson, later aGeneral of the United States Army andalways a controversial figure on theAmerican frontier. Wilkinson took a cargoof Kentucky produce to New Orleans in1787 and negotiated the privilege of mak-ing further sales at that market . In 1788 hedispatched a fleet of twenty-five boatsloaded chiefly with tobacco and flour fromKentucky to New Orleans . 12

Spanish authorities opened the trade toother individuals ; and after 1795 the flat-boat trade reached major proportions . In1798 goods valued at near a million dollarsarrived at the "Crescent City" from theOhio Valley . After the Louisiana Purchaseof 1803, which secured American controlof the port, the trade greatly expanded andin 1807 about 2,000 boats arrived at NewOrleans from up river, bearing com-modities valued at more than five milliondollars . The variety of the articles sent

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south from the Ohio Valley was indicatedby the lading of 197 flatboats and 14 othervessels which descended the Falls of theOhio in a two month period in the winterof 1810-18 .11 . They carried pork, flour,whiskey, apples, cider, wines, brandies,vegetables, beef, cheese, rope and bag-ging, chickens, horses, lumber, slaves,pottery, iron manufactures, cabinetwork,and leather goods .13

Effect of Flatboat Trade at LouisvilleAs Captain John May predicted in 1783,

the necessity for boats to land and hire apilot or portage freight around the Falls ofthe Ohio made Louisville a mercantilecenter at an early date . The settlement atthe Falls of the Ohio was founded duringthe Revolution by George Rogers Clark, adetachment of troops, and a handful offamilies, who descended the Ohio in flat-boats. At the present site of Louisville andon an island at the Falls, Clark establisheda settlement and constructed a fort ; theforerunners, it has been said, of Jefferson-ville Quartermaster Depot and Fort Knox .Clark and his troops then proceeded downthe Ohio to complete one of the most suc-cessful military expeditions in Americanhistory, capturing British posts in the OldNorthwest in spite of floods, supply shor-tages, and the numerical superiority of theenemy's forces.14

The Falls of the Ohio and the naturalharbor formed y the juncture of Bear-grass Creek with the Ohio just above theFalls made Louisville a natural mercantilecity. Scores of teamsters operated drays tomove cargoes around the Falls, and anumber of pilots made their livelihood byguiding boats across the Falls . TheDominion of Virginia established a cus-toms collection station at Louisville in1784 ; and one of the first acts of Congresswas to make Louisville a port of entry for


the collections of customs duties in 1789 .Other ports of entry established in thelower Ohio River Basin before 1800 in-cluded Palmyra, Tennessee, on the Cum-berland River in 1797, and Cincinnati,Ohio, and Fort Massac, Illinois, in 1799 . 15Waterways commerce was the single mostimportant factor in the economic de-velopment of Louisville until about 1820when manufacturing began its extensivedevelopment in the area ; waterbornecommerce was to remain an importantelement of the Falls City's economicstructure throughout the nineteenth andtwentieth centuries .

ShipbuildingPorts of entry for the collection of duties

on foreign trade were required in the OhioValley because New Orleans was in thepossession of foreign nations until 1803 .In addition, a number of full-rigged, sea-going sailing vessels were constructed atOhio River ports in the last decade of theeighteenth century, freighted with OhioValley produce, and sent down the riversto enter trade with the West Indies,Europe, and even to ports on the Mediter-ranean. Sailing ships were constructed atPittsburgh, Marietta, Cincinnati, Louis-ville, and other inland ports in surprisingnumbers . 16

One of the leading shipbuilding firmswas founded at Pittsburgh in 1801 byLouis and John Tarascon and JamesBerthold . The Tarascons immigratedfrom France to the United States in 1794and entered the importing and mercan-tile business at Philadelphia . In 1799,two clerks employed by the Tarascons,Charles Brugiere and James Berthold,navigated the Ohio and Mississippi riversto survey the commercial prospects. Afterthey made favorable report, the firm ofJohn A. Tarascon, Brothers, James Berth-

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old & Company was established atPittsburgh and constructed a wholesaleand retail store and warehouse, a ship-yard, a rigging and sail loft, an anchor-smith shop, and all facilities necessary tobuild and equip sailing vessels . Thecompany built and dispatched at leastfive brigs, schooners, and ships down theOhio and Mississippi between 1802 and1804. After entering the Gulf of Mexico,the vessels usually made Philadelphiatheir home port and entered foreign tradeto ports as far away as Trieste, Italy .17

The company met with serious difficul-ties in getting its large vessels past theFalls of Ohio, and about 1806 relocatedthe business just below the Falls at Ship-pingport. But not long thereafter theshipping business was disrupted by theEmbargo Act and the War of 1812; doubt-less the advent of the steamboat on theOhio in 1811 also made the enterpriseless financially attractive . Shipbuildingwas revived on the Ohio, however, in the1840s, notably at Marietta, Ohio, and aslate as 1865, a sea-going vessel, the MaryBelle Roberts, passed the Falls of Ohioon its way to foreign ports . Like the flat-boat trade, ships constructed on the Ohiowent down river and did not attempt thereturn. It appears that most did not raisetheir sails until the end of the voyage onthe inland rivers . 18

Keelboat CommerceThe problem of exporting Ohio Valley

produce to market was solved by the flat-boat, but importing goods was a morecomplex problem. Because transportinggoods over the mountains from Atlanticports by pack horse and wagon was quiteexpensive, the settlers of the Ohio Valleylooked to the waterways as an economicalalternative . Canoes, dugouts, and bateauxwere used extensively for upstream

navigation in the earliest days of settle-ment, but they had limitations of cargocapacity which precluded their profitableutilization for long distances . Effortswere made to place flatboats in the up-stream trade, but their box-like construc-tion made the process so difficult andtime-consuming that the cost was pro-hibitive . The first pioneer solution to theproblem were the more maneuverableand greater capacity keelboats andbarges. 19

Keelboats and barges evolved from im-provements in the construction of thebateau. The "keel" was the rigid lon-gitudinal timber which bore the brunt ofcollisions, and the hull, shaped much likethat of a sailing ship, was constructed ofribs covered with planking . The dimen-sions of keelboats varied from thirty toseventy-five feet in length and from fiveto ten feet wide, with a cargo capacity offrom fifteen to forty tons - barges couldbe much larger. One keelboat navigatordescribed the superstructure as "a co-vered way, a kind of cabin occupying theentire hold of the boat, excepting spacesfor small decks at each end, and a strip oneach side the whole length of the boat,about fifteen inches wide, called the`run,' on which the men walked when`poling' the boat upstream .' '20

Keelboats carried masts and sails andused them when possible, but the boatswere commonly propelled by a crew ofmen with long, iron-tipped poles . Stand-ing at the prow of the boat, the crewrammed the poles into the streambed,braced them against their shoulders, andwalked the boat upstream under their feet .At the stern, they picked up the poles andreturned to the prow to repeat the pro-cess . Keelboats ordinarily ran close to abank to avoid swift currents, and thisoften provided opportunity for "bush-

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whacking," or pulling the branches ofoverhanging trees to drag the boat upriver. Where the current was swiftest,keelboatmen resorted to "cordelling"and "warping." The former consisted ofputting the crew ashore to pull a rope at-tached to the bow or mast, and the latterinvolved tying the rope to an upstreamtree and pulling from the deck of theboat.21

Like many early developments in OhioRiver navigation, the date of the first useof the keelboat is in doubt . GeneralJames Wilkinson claimed in 1805 that hehad accomplished the first voyage fromNew Orleans to Kentucky in 1789, but itis not clear that he used a keelboat. Hedescribed the vessel only as a "boat offifteen tons burthen ." Wilkinson ob-served that :

The existing impediments are sufficient tofrighten cursory observers, and to condemn theidea of a familiar, convenient and profitablecommunication from New-Orleans to Louisvilleby water. A voyage of two thousand miles, withthe same boat: and crew, against a heavy current,appears sufficient to exhaust the strongest physi-cal force, and to appal the most ardent enterprise ;delays and extraordinary expences are insepara-ble . . . 22

Regular use of keelboats began in the1790s, and by the time the first steamboatappeared on the Ohio in 1811 over threehundred keelboats were plying the Ohioand its tributaries and they had sup-planted much of the over-mountain tradefrom the East. A keelboat owner reportedin 1817 that the cost of operating a boat ofthirty-six tons capacity from New Orleansto Louisville was $1750, including $75salary to each member of a fourteen-mancrew, subsistence for the crew forseventy-five days at $525, pay for thesteersman - $75, and boat depreciation- $100. He grossed $3240 at ,a rate of $90per ton, which, minus his expenses,

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equaled a profit of $1490 for each trip .His capital investment was $2,000 orless .23

The Rugged RivermenNavigating the inland rivers in flats and

keels was an extremely rough anddangerous business . In addition to thehazards of normal navigation on unim-proved rivers, there were, in the earliestdays, numerous Indian attacks on passingboats ; later, there were the notorious pi-rates at Cave-in-Rock and the infamousboatwreckers at Fort Massac . Robbersvictimized rivermen at all port cities andrenegades infested the Natchez Trace,the overland return route to the Ohio Val-ley from New Orleans . 24

The rough life and manners of pioneerboatmen brought them a reputation, ap-parently well-deserved, for violence andprofanity. Travelers were advised thatrivermen were "incorrigible scoundrels,"and that it would be wise to wear a dag-ger and a brace of pistols . A traveler onthe Ohio in 1817 commented :

There are about two thousand people regularlyemployed as boatmen on the Ohio, and they areproverbially ferocious and abandoned in theirhabits, though with many exceptions . . . Peoplewho settle along the line of this grand navigationgenerally possess or acquire similar habits ; andthus profligacy of manners seems inseparablefrom the population on the banks of these greatrivers . It is remarked, indeed, everywhere, thatinland navigators are worse than sailors . 25

Profanity was their native language ; vio-lence was a way of life . But pushing andpulling a boat up the Mississippi and Ohiorivers for $75 a trip was the sort of lifewhich encouraged gentility? The physicalexertions required to push loaded boatsup such snag-studded streams as the SaltRiver, which joins the Ohio a few milesbelow Louisville, were enormous, but itwas done. Mike Fink, the Bunyanesque

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hero of the keelboatmen, often boastedthat he was a "Salt River roarer," and thedifficulties encountered in navigating theSalt were imbedded in the English lan-guage in the imperishable phrase : "UpSalt Creek with a paddle ." But navigatingthe rivers in the natural condition had itscompensations, for those who had thetime to appreciate them . John James Au-dubon, the naturalist, alluded to one ofthem in his description of a voyage fromLouisville to Henderson, Kentucky :

It was in the month of October . The autumnalteints already decorated the shores of that queenof rivers, the Ohio . Every tree was hung withlong and flowing festoons of different species ofvines, many loaded with clustered fruits of variedbrilliancy, their rich bronzed carmine minglingbeautifully with the yellow foliage, which nowpredominated over the yet green leaves reflect-ing more lively teints from the clear stream thanever landscape painter portrayed or poetimagined .26

Keelboat and flatboat pilots and crewsdid not lose their employment after thedevelopment of the western steamboat ;indeed, the business increased for flat-boat navigators because they no longerhad to walk back to their homes . Keel-boats lost the passenger traffic to thesteamboats and could no longer competeon the long distance routes, but theyfound employment on tributary streamsabove the head of steamboat navigationuntil roads and railroads facilitated over-land travel in those regions . Flatboat traf-fic did not reach its peak until fiscal year1846-1847. In that year 2,792 flatboats ar-rived at New Orleans, and more than2,200 were from the Ohio Valley . Use ofthe flatboat dwindled on the Ohio Riverafter the Civil War, but some flatboat traf-fic continued until the early twentiethcentury.27


Early Steamboat Navigation on the OhioFrom 1811, when the first steamboat on

the Ohio frightened Louisvillians, until1935, when the last commercially-operated sidewheel packet passedLouisville for the final time, residents ofthe Falls of Ohio area were participantsand witnesses in the greatest develop-ment of steam navigation in history. Thesteamboat was the chief technologicalinnovation in the United States in theearly nineteenth century, and it launcheda revolution in transportation whichtransformed the Ohio Valley from an iso-lated frontier region into a commerciallydeveloped and integrated section of theUnited States . Where keelboats took upto four months to push from New Orleansto Louisville, the first steamboat whichmade the trip cut the time to less than amonth, and steamboats eventually madethe run in five days . In addition to con-tributing to the commercial and indus-trial development of the Ohio Valley as awhole, the steamboat also was a majorfactor in the realignment of trade routeswithin the valley. For example . Louis-ville at its strategic location at the Falls ofOhio surpassed inland Lexington in popu-lation and as a trading center not long afterthe advent of the steamboat.28

Like most technological advances, thedevelopment of the complex mechanismof the steamboat engine, the steamboatpropulsion system, and the sophisticateddesign of the steamboat hull was alengthy process in which many inventorsand engineers participated . ThoughRobert Fulton has often been creditedwith the construction and operation ofthe first successful steamboat in the Un-ited States, that claim has been disputedon behalf of a number of other earlymarine engineers . Three men who re-sided in Kentucky for at least a portion of

their lives -- John Fitch, James Rumsey,and Edward. West - invented and con-structed steam-powered, mechanicallyoperated vessels, and each has had sup-porters in the dispute over who inventedthe steamboat . 29Two Army Engineers, George

Washington and Thomas Hutchins, earlyrecognized the potential value of steam-boats for river navigation and were in-terested in the work of John Fitch andJames Rumsey. Thomas Hutchins intro-duced Fitch to the French Consul andbrought Fitch's steamboat to the atten-tion of Congress in efforts to obtain finan-cial support for the further developmentof the invention . George Washington ob-served the operation of a model of theboat invented by James Rumsey, andwrote in 1784 that Rumsey "has disco-vered the Art of working boats byMechanism and small manual assistanceagainst rapid current ; that the discoveryis of vast importance, may be of thegreatest usefulness in our inland naviga-tion . . . ."30

Edward West, who invented a machinefor nail production and who has been ac-claimed as the "father of the nail indus-try," demonstrated a model of his steam-boat at Lexington, Kentucky, in 1793 ; butthe first full-size steamboat which actu-ally operated in the Ohio Valley was theNew Orleans . It was constructed atPittsburgh by Nicholas Roosevelt, whorepresented the Fulton interests .Roosevelt navigated from Pittsburgh toNew Orleans in 1809 to study the rivers,collect commercial information, and ar-range fuel supplies . He returned toPittsburgh, constructed the steamboatNew Orleans, and departed for New Or-leans in October, 1811 . The vesselreached Louisville near midnight on Oc-tober 28, and the roar of escaping steam


brought crowds of Louisvillians to theriverside. Some thought a comet had fal-len into the Ohio . But the Falls of Ohiowere impassable at the time, andRoosevelt took the New Orleans back toCincinnati where it waited until the endof November when the fall rise began . Itreturned to Louisville, crossed the Fallssuccessfully, and steamed down river toenter the New Orleans-Natchez trade .31

Robert Fulton and his associates plan-ned to operate three separate steamboatroutes : New Orleans to Natchez ; Natchezto Louisville ; and Louisville toPittsburgh . They also hoped to acquire amonopoly on the steamboat business inthe West by acquiring exclusive chartersfrom state governments . Fulton boatswere placed in operation on each of thethree routes, but the efforts of the com-pany to secure exclusive rights to steamnavigation were frustrated by competingfirms who constructed their own boats,made free navigation an issue in thecourts, and won a decision to the effectthat states did not control navigablestreams and could not grant exclusiveprivileges .32

Captain Shreve and Early SteamboatingOne of the rivermen who had a part in

breaking the Fulton monopoly and whoplayed a major role in the development ofsteamboat navigation on the Ohio andother inland rivers was Captain HenryMiller Shreve . Captain Shreve, whosehome was Shippingport just below theFalls of the Ohio, began his career as akeelboatman; from 1813 to 1826 he wasthe foremost steamboat captain on the in-land rivers, and from 1826 to 1841 heserved as Superintendent of WesternRiver Improvements for the Corps of En-gineers . Henry McMurtrie, an early his-

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torian of Louisville, wrote of Shreve in1819 : "It is to his exertions, his example,and let me add, to his integrity and patrio-tic purity of principle, that it [Louisville]is indebted for the present flourishingstate of its navigation ."33

In 1814 Captain Shreve piloted thesteamboat Enterprize, with a cargo ofmunitions, from Pittsburgh to New Or-leans, arriving in time to participate in theBattle of New Orleans. He brought theEnterprize back to Louisville in 1815 -the first ever to make the upstream trip .The Fulton interests brought suit againstthe Enterprize and its owners for violatingthe exclusive privilege granted to the Ful-ton company by Louisiana, and it was re-ported that Captain Shreve was offered aninterest in the Fulton company if hewould deliberately lose the case butShreve preemptorily refused the offer. In1816 Shreve and his associates con-structed the steamboat Washington, withan engine and machinery modified byCaptain Shreve to reflect the results of hisexperience . The cylinder of the Shreveengine was nearly horizontal and wasconnected with the paddlewheel by apitman. With few exceptions, the systemused on the Washington was the basic de-sign for western steamboats thereafter .34

The maiden voyage of the Washingtonwas not auspicious, however . It blew acylinder head, or perhaps a boiler, nearMaysville, Kentucky, killing thirteen ofthe crew. After repairs, the boat continuedits voyage only to lodge on a bar aboveLouisville and spend the entire summer of1816 waiting for a rise . Captain Shrevepersevered, completed the trip to New Or-leans, and subsequently made severalhighly profitable voyages in theWashington which engendered great in-terest in the potential of steamboatnavigation .35


Major Long and the Western Engineer

Further advances in steamboat con-struction were engineered by MajorStephen H . Long, Topographical En-gineers, in 1819 . Major Long, a Dartmouthgraduate who had joined the Corps duringthe War of 1812, traveled the Ohio Riverin a skiff in 1816 . In 1818 he was directedby Secretary of War John C . Calhoun tolead a combined military reconnaissanceand scientific expedition, in conjunctionwith troops ordered to the frontier, downthe Ohio and up the Mississippi and Mis-souri rivers . Of the four steamboats con-structed for the expedition, three werebuilt on the Kentucky River by JamesJohnson, an army contractor, and thefourth by Major Long at Pittsburgh .36Major Long made several novel

modifications in the design of the steam-boat, which he named the WesternEngineer. He invented and applied thecam cutoff, a device which permitted amore economical utilization of availablesteam. Because he expected to navigatenarrow and shallow rivers, he designedthe hull and distributed the machinery insuch a manner that draft of the boat wasnineteen inches . The Western Engineerwas seventy-five feet long and thirteen-feet abeam; the narrow width made possi-ble by locating the paddlewheel at thestern of the boat, rather than at the usualposition amidship. These modificationswere significant contributions to the de-velopment of the western river steam-boat.37

There were a number of other unusualfeatures in the design of the WesternEngineer and its equipment. Major Longexpected to encounter hostile Indiantribes during the expedition, and the boatwas well armed to meet such a contin-gency ; in addition, the vessel was de-

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signed to win the awe and friendship ofthe natives . It flew a flag painted by TitianRamsey Peale, a noted artist who accom-panied the expedition, which representeda white man and an Indian shaking hands,bordered by a peace calumet and a sword .The engine and propulsion apparatuswere completely concealed, and a steam-escape pipe was installed to emit smokeand steam through the head of a serpent,with a red, forked tongue, which projectedfrom the bow. Thus, the Western Engineermight give the appearance to a native of amonstrous, black, fire-breathing serpent,which lashed the water to a foam with itstail .38

Major Long launched the Western En-gineer at Pittsburgh in the spring of 1819 .It had a six-man crew, and nine enlistedmen of the Corps of Artillery were alsoaboard to service the guns if necessary .Because it was a scientific mission, MajorLong recruited several outstanding scien-tists and naturalists, including Dr . EdwinJames, Titian Ramsey Peale, and ThomasSay, and he had two military assistants -Captain John R. Bell, Corps of Artillery,and Lieutenant William H . Swift, Topo-graphical Engineers . The Western En-gineer embarked from Pittsburgh, in com-pany with ten keelboats carrying the SixthUnited States Infantry, and arrived atLouisville on May 19, successfully cros-sing the Falls on May 20 . At Shaw-neetown, near the mouth of the Wabash,Major Long made further modifications inthe vessel, then proceeded to St . Louisand up the Missouri River .39

Accounts of the Long expedition of 1819usually emphasize its consequences in theopening of the West to settlement and itscontributions to topographic and scientificknowledge about the Missouri Valleyfrontier, for the Western Engineer wasonly the second steamboat to navigate the


Missouri and it went much farther upriver than had the first . But, though theOhio Valley was already settled, the Longexpedition conducted scientific studies offossil remains, minerals and vegetation,agricultural and timber resources, andwaterways navigation during the voyagedown the Ohio. Major Long personallyreported on the navigation problems ofthe Ohio. He wrote :

The obstructions to its navigation are sand-bars,some few rafts, snags and rapids, to which the in-tricasy [sic] of its channel in several places, may beadded. During a middle and high stage of waterthe obstructions entirely disappear, and an accel-erated current is the only difficulty to be encoun-tered. The average velocity of the current in amoderate stage of water may be estimated at 2 1/2miles, and in a high stage at 3 miles per hour . Theseason in which the navigation of the Ohio can berelied on commences between the middle of Feb-ruary and the first of March, and continues to thelatter part of June . A Fall freshet usually takesplace in October or November and the river isagain navigable for a few weeks .

During the rest of the year boats of inconsider-able burden meet with numerous obstructions, intheir progress, from the lowness of the water, andin many places no channel can be found of suffi-cient depth to admit their passage . At the distanceof about 17 miles from its mouth, is the first seriousobstruction to its navigation, consisting of a lime-stone bar extending across the river, denominatedthe Big [Grand] Chain. Three miles above it isanother bar of similar description [Little Chain]

The falls of the Ohio at Louisville areimpassable for boats of burthen, except in thehigher stages of the water. Le Tarts Falls andnumerous other rapids denominated Ripples, arealso impassable for boats of any considerableburthen, when the river is at its lowest stages . Inthis state the river is fordable in numerousplaces .4°

On his return from the exploration to theRocky Mountains, Major Long planned tonavigate up the Ohio River in the WesternEngineer, but he found the Ohio too lowfor even a boat of nineteen-inches draft .During late 1819 and early 1820, there

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was no fall or winter rise and the OhioRiver was at its lowest water stage for alonger period than at any other time priorto the Civil War .41 This lengthy low-waterseason had such drastic effects on com-munity and economic life in the Ohio Val-ley that state governments and Congressinitiated a program to improve navigationon the Ohio . The report Major Long madeon the navigation problems of the Ohio in1819 doubtless influenced his selectionby the Chief of Engineers in 1824 tosupervise experiments with methods ofimproving navigation .

Louisville and the Steamboat BoomSteamboats reduced transportation costs

by as much as eighty percent on the OhioRiver, and at those low rates their opera-tion was still profitable . Keelboat ratesfrom New Orleans to Louisville before1820 were commonly $5 per hundredpounds ; in 1820 steamboats on the samerun were transporting freight for $1 perhundred pounds. Steamboat navigation upthe Falls of Ohio was usually impossiblefor ten or more months of the year; boatslanded at Shippingport and their cargowas hauled to a point above the Falls andreshipped. Steamboat freight from theupper Ohio Valley was also hauled aroundthe Falls, except at the higher waterstages ; thus, the Falls severed Ohio Rivernavigation in twain and made Louisville amajor river terminal .42

In 1806 six keelboats and two bargescarried the entire trade of Louisville, butby 1819 there were, in addition to keel-boats, about twenty-five steamboats withan aggregate cargo capacity of 6,500 tonsrunning to and from Louisville . A ministerwho floated down the Ohio in a flatboat in1816 and returned on a steamboat in 1826commented, during the latter voyage :


I had remarked, as soon as we began to pass thehighlands on the Ohio, the wonderful change,which ten years had wrought in that region . Thelog-houses were gone, and replaced by houses ofbrick. The orchards, which were just plantedwhen I descended the Ohio, had become thriftytrees of considerable size, and were now whitewith blossoms. Passing steam-boats, thriving vil-lages, bustle and business had taken the place ofthe solitude and stillness of the same places at theformer period. Louisville had grown to be a finetown. The ware-houses, the stores, the smell at thelanding even, the ship-yards, all indicated themercantile character, the great and growing impor-tance of the place .43

Steamboat construction and supply be-came a major industry at the Falls of theOhio . An iron foundry and steam enginefactory located at Louisville in 1817, andproduced its first ten steam engines in1818. Between 1820 and 1880 almost6,000 steamboats were constructed in theOhio and Mississippi valleys ; 32 percentwere constructed near Pittsburgh ; 26 per-cent at Cincinnati ; and 23 percent in theLouisville area. Other steamboat construc-tion centers on the Lower Ohio includedMadison, Jeffersonville, New Albany, andEvansville, Indiana, and Smithland andPaducah, Kentucky . Other industries alsolocated in the Ohio Valley to take advan-tage of low transportation costs ; for exam-ple, the Hope Distillery Company relo-cated in 1816 from New England toLouisville, where it could draw the graintrade of the Ohio, Kentucky, Scioto, andMiami river basins .44The unique splendor and power of the

western river steamboat somehow rep-resented the aggressive Western spirit .Perhaps Captain William Tell Poussin,Topographical Engineers, best describedthis relationship :

Nothing exhibits in so significant a manner theextent to which steam navigation is identified withthe active genius of the people of the West, as thedaily motion of the floating ark, known as the

I


steamboat of the West, which is three-decked andnot infrequently carries twelve hundredpassengers

The traveler, strarting from Louisville, Ken-tucky, can arrive at New Orleans, a distance ofnearly seventeen hundred miles, in three days .The ascending trip can be performed in from fiveto seven days. The rapidity of this traveling issomewhat startling . This is especially the casewhen two steamboats, coming in opposite direc-tions, are seen to pass each other . A stranger can-not witness this scene without feeling of ap-prehension. But the cool and tranquil American,confiding in the skill of the helmsman, contem-plates with interest and a species of vanity thesetwo smoking points, which are scarcely in sightbefore they are far away in contrary directions .They indicate his genius and his power!as

SummaryFrom canoes and dugouts to gaudy

steamboat palaces, navigation on thewaterways of the Ohio Valley underwent amajor metamorphosis between 1783 and1824. The serviceable Indian watercraftwere used on the frontier, but their lack ofcapacity and. stability precluded their ef-fective use for the transportation of thepioneers and their produce down thewaterways. The flatboat admirably metthe needs of the pioneers for economicaltransportation and its use continued untilthe twentieth century . But the flatboat wastoo cumbersome for efficient use in up-stream navigation, so pioneer rivermendeveloped and adopted the keelboat foruse in the import trade . The low-cost

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transportation provided by the steamboatwas revolutionary in effect: the volume ofwaterborne commerce on Ohio Valleywaterways rapidly increased ; transporta-tion became a specialized business sepa-rate from agricultural and retailing pur-suits ; and the frontier subsistenceeconomy of the Ohio Valley was trans-formed into a thriving, commercial struc-ture .

The contributions of Army Engineers tothese developments in navigation werenot major ; neither were they insignificant .The numerous guides printed for the useof immigrants and rivermen were basedon maps originally prepared by Army En-gineers . Officers and men of the ArmyEngineers were on the frontiers exploring,mapping, studying resources, reporting onnavigation, constructing fortifications, andjoining in the fight to protect the pioneersfrom Indian and foreign threats . Steam-boat engineering benefited immenselyfrom the work of Captain Henry Shreveand Major Stephen Long; the experienceof these men in river navigation prior to1824 was later called upon by the Corps ofEngineers as part of its program to im-prove waterways navigation . By 1824, theamount of waterborne commerce on theOhio and Mississippi rivers was so great,the population it served so large, and theneed for navigation improvement so ap-parent, that federal action was initiated .

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ohio river navigation, 1783-1824 21 chapter. ii : ohio...

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